by Dr. Talia Marcheggiani, ND | Feb 11, 2013 | Dessert, Detoxification, Digestion, Elimination Diet, Food, Food Sensitivities, Gluten Free, Nutrition, Recipes
I first heard about chia pudding, where else, but among my colleagues, fellow students of naturopathic medicine and self-professed health nuts. Chia seeds are chock full of fibre and omega-3 fatty acids. When placed in water and left for a while their fibre begins to form a gel, creating a “pudding”. I love pudding, but there are few things less naturopathic than the traditional store-bought pudding cups. Here is a great way to get your fibre, omega-3’s and to quench your cravings for soft, comforting pudding.
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by Dr. Talia Marcheggiani, ND | Feb 8, 2013 | Cooking, Detoxification, Diet, Digestion, Elimination Diet, Food, Food Sensitivities, Gluten Free, Nutrition, Paleo, Recipes
My family and I have been doing Natasha Turner’s Hormone Diet for the past few weeks. The diet mainly consists of eliminating all sources of starch (grains and root vegetables, mostly), sugar, caffeine, alcohol and processed foods, and eating a whole foods diet. While we thought it would be hard – there are a lot of rules to follow – it’s not too bad. We’ve helped each other get through it as a family, taking turns cooking and preparing meals. And as a family, we’ve become healthier: I feel lighter, more energetic and have experienced less cravings for sweets or “unhealthy foods”. I also find that my blood sugar is more stable throughout the day.
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by Dr. Talia Marcheggiani, ND | Feb 6, 2013 | Anti-aging, Beauty, Gifts, Home Remedies, Recipes, Skin health
Of all the cosmetics to make, lotions are one of the hardest. The reason is basic grade 6 science: oil and water don’t mix. This lotion recipe, however, contains no water, just fats. It goes on smoothly, leaves no greasy after-feel and keeps skin soft for days. The best part? Any botanical or skin-healthy oils can be added to it for extra nutrient-rich punch. I adapted it from this recipe, on wellnessmama.com, a great site for finding DIY beauty product recipes that can be easily made at home.
DIY Natural Nutritive Lotion
Just like the rest of our body we need to feed our skin. While good skincare starts on the inside, sometimes it’s helpful to apply nutrient-rich lotions and moisturizers to give skin a vitamin boost. Antioxidants, vitamins and minerals can help heal skin of a variety of conditions, such as acne, the signs of aging, uneven tone, wrinkles, sun damage, dryness or allergic conditions. Rather than investing in expensive creams and lotions that have limited effects, create your own lotion that will last you forever, is far more cost-effective and only contains ingredients that are good for your skin, no fillers or preservatives.
Ingredients:
1/2 cup of a light oil, such as olive oil, apricot kernel oil (which has excellent moisturizing and anti-aging properties), grapeseed oil, jojoba oil, etc. For extra skin-healing powers, I used 1/2 cup of my calendula oil infusion. Calendula is anti-inflammatory and healing for skin. To create a botanical-rich lotion you can create an oil infusion with calendula, camomille or even green tea and add it in here.
1/4 cup of beeswax pellets (to help lock in moisture)
1/4 cup of coconut oil
1/8 cup shea butter (2 tablespoons). Shea butter is packed full of skin-healthy vitamins that help moisturize skin and neutralize free radicals that can cause aging.
1 tsp vitamin E oil (an antioxidant that is very nutritive to skin)
Optional: Any skin-healthy items you want to add. I added 20 drops of sea buckthorn (a hot ingredient in natural skincare that is a potent skin antioxidant and helps nurture and heal skin cells) and 20 drops of neem oil, which is great for skin that is prone to acne or allergic conditions. Watch out, though, it can be drying.
Optional: essential oil for fragrance, if that’s your thing. Adding a few drops of vanilla extract makes this lotion smell like cookie dough. However, if you’re going to apply it as a face lotion, I’d refrain from adding fragrance.
Directions:
In a double boiler, add the shea butter, beeswax and oils together, stirring until they’ve melted.
Remove from heat and add in the rest of the ingredients. Allow the mixture to cool to room temperature while stirring frequently to keep the lotion airy and light.
Sea buckthorn gives the lotion a yellow colour. It should only be applied within a lotion, never directly to the skin, as it will turn you yellow! The lotion has a soft and creamy texture once applied and may give skin an oily sheen. It absorbs nicely, however, and keeps you moisturized for the entire day. It’s also a great base for creating a super lotion: packed full of whatever healing ingredients your skin needs.
This recipe makes 1 cup of lotion, which should last you a long time. There’s just one disclaimer: this product was tested on animals. I rubbed some on Coco’s paws!
by Dr. Talia Marcheggiani, ND | Feb 4, 2013 | Digestion, Food, Health, Therapeutic Diets
One of my favourite anti-health commercials on TV are the heartburn ones. My brother and I share a laugh while a woman is slapped by spicy spaghetti to prevent her from eating it and experiencing heartburn. The tagline asks, “Are your favourite foods fighting you? Fight back!” Why is this commercial so ridiculous? It’s the irony; if eating spicy, garbage food gives you heartburn then maybe, instead of “fighting back”… STOP EATING IT! Sometimes we take common sense for granted and, of course, using simple common sense would put Tums out of business.
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by Dr. Talia Marcheggiani, ND | Feb 1, 2013 | Cooking, Elimination Diet, Food, Food Sensitivities, Gluten Free, Holidays, Nutrition, Recipes
Pancakes for breakfast can only mean a few things: a lazy Sunday morning, the first morning of a long break (like Christmas) or vacation! All great things, it’s no wonder I love pancakes. There really is nothing like lazily flipping over a page of the thick weekend paper, sipping the forbidden juice of strongly-brewed arabica coffee beans and helping yourself to yet another delicious flapjack. Fortunately, you can have your pancakes (and eat them too) without encouraging full-body inflammation and upsetting your hormone balance. These babies are fit for any Elimination Diet and I’m pretty sure can fool your grandparents into thinking they’re the real (i.e.: wheat flour and actual whole-fat buttermilk) deal.
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by Dr. Talia Marcheggiani, ND | Jan 30, 2013 | Beauty, DIY, Health, Home Remedies, Self-care, Skin health
As I’ve shared before (to the delight of my readers, for sure) I have oily skin. Therefore I love toner. I find that a cleansing regime isn’t complete without it. At once it shrinks and cleanses pores, controls oil and evens skin tone and I find my skin looks dramatically better with it. However, most commercial toners use less-than-desirable ingredients, like isopropyl alcohol or mineral oil, which dry out the skin and clog up pores, respectively. Fortunately, it’s easy and cheap to make your own, in your kitchen (where all the best beauty ingredients are found).
Skin-Balancing Apple Cider Vinegar and Green Tea Facial Toner
You need:
An empty shampoo, pump or spray bottle.
2 bags of green tea, water and a kettle
Apple cider vinegar (preferably organic)
1/4 tsp of Vitamin E (in capsules or in a bottle)
Antibacterial, acne-fighting essential oils. I like tea tree and lavender.
Directions:
Brew a large cup of green tea and steep with 2 tea bags, to make the brew good and strong. Set aside to steep and cool. Green tea is anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial, astringent (tightens pores and controls oil) and provides the skin with nourishing anti-oxidants to decrease the signs of aging.
Add in the apple cider vinegar so that it fills 1/10 to 1/4 of your shampoo or pump bottle. Apple cider vinegar controls skin pH, unclogs pores, controls oil production, kills bacteria and even decreases dark spots and wrinkles. Use a higher percentage for oilier skin and a lower percentage for dry skin.
Fill the spray bottle up with green tea until it’s about 3/4 full and add filtered water to top it off. Next, add in 1/4 tsp of vitamin E (or cut open ~5 capsules and squeeze them in). Vitamin E acts as a preservative and is nourishing to skin.
Next, add in a few drops of the lavender and tea tree essential oils, which are anti-bacterial and calming for skin.
1-2 times a day, after washing skin with a gentle cleanser, swipe your entire face with this toner using a cotton ball or pad. Do not rinse. Apply moisturizer afterwards, if needed. After a few days of using this toner after cleansing I noticed that my skin tone looked more even, my cystic acne calmed down and my skin cleared up. I’m definitely making this a permanent part of my cleansing regime.
by Dr. Talia Marcheggiani, ND | Jan 25, 2013 | Balance, Community, Family, Finding yourself, Gratitude, Happiness, Health, Mindfulness, Philosophy, Relationships
I’ve been reading a book I recommend to all of you: The Consolations of Philosophy by Alain de Botton. This book is, in one, a Western philosophy refresher course and self-help book, outlining a guide for living as dictated to us by 6 great philosophers. One of my favourite chapters examines the life and philosophy of Greek philosopher Epicurus and distills the lessons he shared with us about finding true happiness and fulfillment in our lives, while still living modestly.
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by Dr. Talia Marcheggiani, ND | Jan 23, 2013 | Beauty, DIY, Health, Home Remedies, Recipes, Women's health
Winter time is a time for chapped lips and that means a time for lip balm. I, for one, have been addicted to the stuff ever since I started buying Bonnebell Lip Smackers (glitter and all) in packs of 10 in a variety of flavours and colours. Now that my glitter days (short as they were) are over, I’m back to basic, creamy, natural balms. Since I’ve heard shocking statistics (not sure where they’re from) that the average woman eats 5-6 pounds of lipstick in her lifetime, let’s make sure that the stuff we put on our lips everyday is natural, non-toxic and, actually edible.
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by Dr. Talia Marcheggiani, ND | Jan 21, 2013 | Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine, Finding yourself, Health, Naturopathic Philosophy, Philosophy, Stress, Student
After December finals, I had my first naturopathic preceptoring experience. At CCNM, we are required to sit in on a total of 100 patient visits with a practicing naturopathic doctor. From these visits comes the kind of learning that one can only obtain through experience. This particular session, however, served to be a pretty big eye-opener for me.
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by Dr. Talia Marcheggiani, ND | Jan 18, 2013 | Cooking, Dessert, Diet, Gluten Free, Holidays, Recipes
Wednesday was my mom’s birthday and, to celebrate, I made her a very chocolate-y gluten-free cake. Since cake and chocolate are not exactly naturopathic (although dark cocoa has been shown to modestly lower blood pressure), it’s important that, when eating and preparing dessert, we make sure we create a 10/10 on the delicious-ness scale. Making sure that birthday cakes are as chocolate-y and delicious as possible makes it worth it and justifies the extra sugar and calories. I hope this one was a 10.
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