The Natural Reader

While sometimes it may seem as though life in general is becoming more harried, hectic, and frenetic,  I personally find that this has actually helped me!  I am now even more consistently and consciously using many of the principles found in our courses here at Clayton College of Natural Health.  This includes things such [...]

Many people have made the decision to become vegetarian for the health benefits a vegetarian diet offers, including lower risk of cancer and heart disease. However, more and more people are choosing a vegetarian lifestyle because it’s healthier for the planet. VegetarianTimes.com (Go Veg, 2007) reports that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency states chemical and [...]

When I meet new people, I am often asked “How can I eat healther?”, and then I am expected to pack my many years of nutrition education into a nice 5 minute nutshell.  The first thing that comes to me is “Eat more fruits and vegetables!”, as these nutrient-rich miracle foods are often lacking from [...]

 While many people these days are striving towards eating healthier, there seems to be another group going in the opposite direction to what I like to call “food extremes”.  I am continually shocked with what some restaurants come up with these days.  For example, one national pizza chain came up with a pizza-calzone concoction that [...]

It’s summer, which means it’s time for farmer’s markets! While some people anticipate going to the farmer’s market all winter long, others are more hesitant — it’s out of the way, you have to wake up early, and the produce has dirt on it (just FYI: produce is grown in the ground, not a grocery [...]

I always enjoyed gardening. My earliest memory of planting was rooting an avocado. We put toothpicks in an avocado pit, and placed it in a cup of water, with the bottom third in the water. We placed it is a sunny window. When I came home from school each day, that window was always [...]

It seems these days I cannot go to the store with out seeing the claim “Trans fat free.” The first time I saw it, I smirked as if I was in on an inside joke but now I see it and think “deception.”
Let me explain.
First a little summary of the trans fat labeling law:

Trans fast [...]

I opened the newspaper a day ago to find a rave review of a new cookbook that was just released. I first want to say, I love cookbooks. Some people collect dolls, coins, cars… I collect cookbooks. However, this cookbook upset me. The ideas behind it hurt me as a mom and as a nutritionist. [...]

One of my favorite quotes is by Pasquale Carpino
“If I sing when I cook, the food will be happy.”
I would like to share why this quote speaks to me, of me.
Cooking is a passion of mine. Nutrition is a passion of mine.
As a youth, I dreamed of being a pastry chef. As an adult, I [...]

March is “National Nutrition Month®”
As a Nutritionist/ Dietitian, I cannot help but see that most of us take for granted something we do several times a day, every day… eat.
I am always drawn back to what Hippocrates stated, “Let thy food be thy medicine and thy medicine be thy food.” Long before I [...]