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RECIPE: Sunrise Nori Wraps

Text excerpted from EATING CLEAN, © 2016 by AMIE VALPONE. Reproduced by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. All rights reserved.  Screen Shot 2016-03-06 at 2.55.53 PM

Sunrise Nori Wraps with Spicy Tahini Drizzle   Serves 4

If you like California rolls, you’ll love these nori wraps (though personally, I think they’re so much better!). The tahini dressing is truly addictive—you’re going to want to dress everything in it—and the cabbage provides a nice crunch. If possible, use a food processor to slice the cabbage so you can get it super thin.

Also, make sure the vegetable strips are all the same width and length so that they don’t hang over the edges of the nori sheets; this will make rolling up the wraps easier. Use leftover tahini drizzle as a dressing for salads or as a dip for crudités.

Sunrise Nori Wraps 

4 nori seaweed sheets

¼ small head red cabbage, very thinly sliced

1 large carrot, peeled and julienned

1 small yellow summer squash, julienned

1 small cucumber, julienned

1 large ripe avocado, pitted, peeled, and sliced

1 recipe Spicy Tahini Drizzle

Spicy Tahini Drizzle 

2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

1 ¼ tablespoons chickpea miso paste

1 tablespoon raw tahini

2 medjool dates, pitted

1 garlic clove, minced

¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

Water, as needed to thin the drizzle

Place the nori sheets on a flat surface. Divide the cabbage, carrot, squash, cucumber, and avocado among the sheets. Top each pile of vegetables with a heaping tablespoon of the Spicy Tahini Drizzle, and then roll up the nori sheets into a tube shape.

Make the tahini: Combine all of the ingredients except the water in a blender. Blend, adding water 1 teaspoon at a time as you go, until the mixture becomes a thin sauce.

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5 Tips to Eat Mindfully During the Holidays

By Susan Blum, MD, MPH

1.  Stick to your healthy diet during the day if you know you have a holiday party at night.  It sounds logical, but it’s easy to start indulging during office parties or grabbing unhealthy snacks while you’re on-the-go. If you stick to a healthy diet all day like veggies and lean protein, you can treat yourself at night. 

2.  Never leave the house hungry.  Have a healthy snack like carrots and hummus around 4-5pm before you leave for your festivities and you’ll be less likely to fill your plate at the party. 

3.  Taste Everything!  Try bites of all the food offerings but leave the rest on your plate.  If you ate a snack and you’re not starving, you will be able leave your plate full but still enjoy indulging in the holiday fare. 

4.  Swap water in between cocktails to stay hydrated and full. 

5.  Reset on Monday!  I always tell my patients to enjoy themselves during special occasions and plan to reboot on Monday with a full day of healthy juices and foods that detoxify the body. It takes the stress and guilt off holiday eating and guarantees to soothe the digestive system and replenish the body with vital nutrients and antioxidants.  At Organic Pharmer, we offer a 1 – Day Reboot cleanse just for this purpose!  https://www.organicpharmer.com/cleanses/1-day-juice/1-day-juice-cleanse 

Wishing you happiness and health this holiday season!

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Are Your Hormones To Blame?

The holiday season is a good time to make a few simple changes that can make a big difference in how you feel.  Healthy food, fresh air, and targeted supplements balance your hormones and build up your reserves against stressors. 

Do any of these issues sound familiar?

  • difficulty losing weight
  • fatigue
  • low libido
  • thinning hair 
  • bad skin
  • anxiety and irritability
  • depressed mood
  • brain fog

Or are you just not feeling like yourself lately?

When we consider hormones and their relationship to these symptoms, we tackle the big picture.  It is never simply a low thyroid issue – nor are estrogen and testosterone levels solely to blame.  There is an entire hormone orchestra that can fall out of tune, and when this is addressed appropriately, we feel better!

The holiday season is also one of insight and peace. A great time to find your calm! 

So my first recommendation for a hormone-balancing change is to add a mindfulness practice to your routine and make space for it every day.  That can be as simple as a five-minute deep breathing exercise in the morning before your coffee or tea.  Or it can be a short walk outside in the fresh air.  Restart the meditation practice you’ve put on hold.  A yoga practice or other movement routine counts as well, as long as it’s done mindfully. And don’t forget to mix it up!  Changing your routine keeps it interesting and helps you stay on track.  These kinds of mindfulness exercises support the adrenal glands and are the first steps toward harmonizing your hormones.

Schedule an HRT consult with one of our Functional Medicine providers!   

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Why We Care About Kale

Kale is one of the most nutrient dense leafy greens you can eat. From a nutrition perspective, it’s the vegetable that will give you the most bang for your bite.

It Helps The Digestive System: Kale is loaded with fiber that aids in elimination. This process helps flush waste and toxins from the body.

Calcium & Iron: Who says you need to drink dairy to get your daily calcium? Or eat meat to get your iron? The calcium in kale will help keep your bones strong, and the iron will support energy and strength.

Vitamin Packed: Just one cup of kale contains 134% of your daily Vitamin C, 684% of Vitamin K, and 204% of Vitamin A needs!

Antioxidants: Kale contains many antioxidants including carotenoids, flavonoids, and phytonutrients called thiols. Antioxidants are the antidote to the environmental stressors and exposures of every day life.

Kale Is The Ultimate Detoxifier: All of these antioxidants and vitamins work to lower inflammation and protect the body from disease. Much of this activity happens in the liver. Kale provides these powerful nutrients to help your liver do it’s job: clear out toxins.

Celebrate National Kale Day with us on October 7th by making a simple kale salad, adding kale to your smoothie.

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End of Summer Skin Savers

Is your skin sending you an SOS this summer?

The season’s heat, humidity, sweat, and environmental stressors can clog pores and contribute to a poor complexion.  But before you run to your esthetician or invest in the latest, greatest miracle cream, we recommend that you start by changing your diet.

Here are two easy ways to get healthy, glowing skin:

1. Cut the Sweets
After eating your favorite sweet summer treat, your blood sugar rises and insulin is released into the body.  The result is inflammation, which can cause redness and breakouts.
Plus, sugar can cause the naturally occurring yeast in your pores to trigger acne and skin inflammation, too.

2. Add Antioxidants
Fight free radical damage with a daily source of antioxidants. Eat or drink a rainbow of richly-colored fruits and vegetables every day.  The darker the pigment the stronger the antioxidant power. Our top picks include berries, cherries, and veggies like peppers, beets, carrots,  and dark greens, which are an excellent source of vitamins and antioxidants that revive tired and stressed skin.

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Food As Medicine: Anti-Inflammatory Foods

Part 1- Sugar

images1Inflammation is your body’s first response to an injury or a foreign bug that causes infection, and this is good because it is meant to protect you. But, if high levels of these inflammatory chemicals are released continuously, the normal functioning of your cells can be obstructed, and healthy tissue gets damaged. Not so good – especially since more and more studies link inflammation in the body to many serious illnesses and conditions, in particular autoimmune.

Whether you’ve been diagnosed with an illness or, if you’d like to simply maintain general good health, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant-rich foods are the way to go!

Fruits and vegetablesHere are just a few of the rewards you will reap by keeping an anti-inflammatory lifestyle:

* improved immune function

* less joint pain

* fewer headaches

* relief from stomach problems

* overall sense of well-being

* fringe benefit: weight loss due to improved metabolism! 

Glycemic Index

When it comes to sugar, you always want to choose low-glycemic vs. high-glycemic foods. The glycemic index determines how quickly a particular food raises your blood sugar level. High blood sugar causes inflammation and damages your immune system, and puts you at risk for diabetes, high blood pressure, and cardiovascular disease.

Any food processed with white sugar or white flour is high-glycemic and should be eliminated. That means bagels, breads, breakfast cereals, cakes, cookies, crackers, candy, and soft drinks.  Plus, sugars can be hidden in foods like fruit yogurts and kefirs, salad dressings, pasta sauces, ketchup, just to name a few. So be label-savvy and read the ingredients!

In the meantime, here’s a quick guide to help you choose the best low-glycemic foods:

Low Glycemic – Best Choices High Glycemic – Worst Choices
Drinks Filtered water, decaffeinated or herbal teas, seltzer, mineral water Soda, fruit juices, other drinks sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup
Condiments Organic ketchup, mustard, vinegar, all spices and herbs including: salt, pepper, basil, cinnamon, cumin, dill, garlic, ginger, mustard, oregano,  parsley, rosemary, tarragon, thyme, turmeric Anything with high-fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, or added cane sugar, such as ketchup, barbecue sauce, hot sauce, teriyaki sauce
Desserts Coconut milk yogurt or ice cream, unsweetened dark chocolate, carob Dried fruit, pineapple, melon, frozen yogurt or ice cream, sorbet, cookies, cakes, candy
Snacks/Breakfast Gluten-free whole-grain crackers with hummus, almond butter, or guacamole; coconut yogurt; nuts (except peanuts); fresh or frozen fruit (all berries, cherries, apples, pears, peaches, plums) Pretzels, potato chips, corn chips, tortilla chips, popcorn, white flour crackers, white flour & white-sugar cookies, cakes, muffins, bagels

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The Blum Center for Health Team wishes you a summer filled with laughter, joy, rest, and health-promoting foods!

 

Our low-sugar, gluten-free granola cookie recipe can be found in our BlumKitchen Nutrition Guide and Cookbook.

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Dr. Blum on The Dr. Oz Show

Are You In the Gray Zone?

When it comes to thyroid health, thousands of women are in the gray zone. Meaning their TSH (Thyroid Stimulating Hormone) may not be high enough to warrant medication but is certainly borderline enough that they are experiencing uncomfortable symptoms such as unexplained weight gain, brain fog, fatigue, constipation, and low body temperature.

There’s no need to suffer!

Tune in to The Dr. Oz Show next Tuesday, October 8th and find out from Dr. Blum how to incorporate lifestyle changes that will alleviate your symptoms while simultaneously preventing your TSH from rising.

Dr. Susan Blum on the Dr. Oz ShowClick here to check local listings for time/channel and set your DVR’s!!!