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The Pregnenolone Steal aka Low Libido

Is stress a part of your daily life? Has it become chronic……the body does not know the difference between a stressful event such as reading an email containing bad news, running late or running from the sabertooth tiger. The same response occurs: releasing of stress hormone.  Do you eat in front of a computer, thus putting your body into “fight or flight” instead of digesting in parasympathetic (calm and meditative) state? The body prioritizes survival over reproduction…….could this be why you have low libido, infertility or ED?

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Are all Supplements Created Equal?

Are all supplements created the same? The answer is no, as the attached article will outline for you. There are many companies producing quality supplements; Biotics Research is the line of supplements I know best and most often recommend to clients. The Nutritional Therapy Association has had a relationship with Biotics Research for many years; hence giving students an education on their products while in the course. As an NTP, I recommend only quality supplements and I know I’m getting that at Biotics.

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Is Inflammation in the Gut the Cause of Weight Gain?

Have you tried losing weight with the calories in, calories approach? Have you tried low calorie, low glycemic, high protein, vegan, paleo and evey other diet under the sun.......and it's still NOT working? Consider that inflammation in the gut and insulin resistance may be the cause. I offer labs from SpectraCell Labratories in order to better assess my client's inability to lose weight and keep it off. 

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Functional Medicine and Nutrient Therapy

Functional medicine addresses the underlying causes of disease and treats the systems of the body as an entire entity rather than treating an isolated set of symptoms. The foundations of good heath are the focus of nutritional therapy: nutrient dense whole food diet, digestion, blood sugar handling, fatty acids, minerals and hydration. By focusing on the foundations, functional medicine supports the unique expression of health and vitality for each individual.

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Acid Reflux

Acid reflux affects 50% of Americans. The hallmark symptom of acid reflux is heartburn. Acid reflux is not a disease caused by excessive acid production in your stomach; your stomach makes hydrochloric acid for many reasons including digestion of protein and uptake of calcium. Acid reflux frequently occurs because of low stomach acid which is why proton pump inhibitors typically just perpetuate the problem, hide the symptoms but cause a cascade of dysfunction over time.

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Do Prescription Drugs Deplete Nutrients

Do the prescriptions you take deplete your nutritional status.....the answer is almost always yes! Does your doctor inform you of this....likely no. It's important to know the cascade of dysfunction that can occur with nutritional deficiencies so they can be corrected when medication is necessary.

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Are Cancer and Alzheimers linked to Metabolic Syndrome

It's commonly thought that diseases like cancer and Alzheimers are genetic in nature. It may be that one has inherited a tendency toward these diseases, but it's not necessarily the determining factor of whether one gets it.

Studies are now showing the correlation between cancer and Alzheimers and metabolic syndrome. Did you know that 80% of those with Alzheimers also have type 2 diabetes? Managing blood sugar is imperative for optimal health. 

If cancer and Alzheimers run in your family, please contact me for a free phone consultation and learn how PREVENTION is the best insurance you can own. 

 

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Don't Forget the Bone Broth!

Bone broth may be the way to cure the ills of modern man.....crazy but possibly true. America's poor feel they cannot afford quality food, that protein sources such as meat, fish and chicken are too expensive, so why not just swing through McDonalds and feed the family for $15. In Food Inc, a "poor" family is profiled doing just this. The saddest part is the father has type 2 diabetes and takes $140 (out of pocket) of meds each month to "keep him healthy" as stated by his wife. Believe me, if you have diabetes you are not healthy, meds or no meds. 90% of type 2 diabetes is preventable by modifying the diet and making lifestyle changes. Agribusiness and the fast food industry do not want us to know this. If we stopped purchasing foods on the SAD and fast food they would be out of business, so vote with your fork 3 times a day and spread the word that bone broth is a very inexpensive and healthy way, during times of frugality or not, to bring protein into the diet. Learn to make bone broth here......

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The Cholesterol Myth

High cholesterol is NOT the cause of heart disease, rather Inflammation and oxidative stress. Cholesterol is in fact essential for good health, as it carries out essential functions within your cell membranes, and is critical for proper brain function and production of steroid hormones.
The real cause of heart disease is related to damage inflicted on the inside wall of your arteries, the primary culprit of which is sugar, which causes plaque formation and thickening of the artery wall. Two tests that are good indicators of your risk for heart disease are your HDL to total cholesterol ratio, and your triglyceride to HDL ratio.
Three additional risk factors for heart disease are your fasting insulin,  fasting blood sugar levels, and your iron level.

When people have a cholesterol panel done and the total number is over 200, they are often lead to believe that means "poor heart health." Yet half the people with elevated cholesterol have healthy hearts and half the people with heart disease have normal cholesterol......go figure?

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Ketosis

Our ancestors spent most of their time in a state of ketosis, we literally would not have survived as a species without using ketones as energy. Paleolithic man used glucose as their body’s preferred fuel when non-animal food was available, but during periods of food shortage or when animal based foods were their primary source of calories they were in a state of ketosis burning fat for fuel!

Ketosis changes your body from a sugar-burner to a fat-burner. Depending on your current diet and lifestyle choices, becoming keto-adapted can take as little as a few days or as much as several weeks or even months. So “being in ketosis” just means that you are burning fat......and yes, this is a completely NORMAL metabolic state!

Ketosis is a metabolic state that occurs when you consume a very low-carb, moderate-protein, high-fat diet that causes your body to switch from using glucose as its primary source of fuel to running on ketones. Ketones themselves are produced when the body burns fat, and they're primarily used as an alternative fuel source when glucose isn't available.

When I ask people if they've heard of a ketogenic diet, most respond no. The vast majority of doctors have little training in nutrition and their only exposure to ketosis is in dealing with diabetic patients and ketoacidosis which is NOT the same thing as nutritional ketosis. As a result, many physicians have an inherent bias against ketosis which means you will need to self-educate.

Do you have the desire for: effortless weight loss and maintenance, natural hunger and apetite control, mental clarity, sounder, more restful sleep, normalized metabolic function, stabilized blood sugar, lower inflammation levels, feelings of happiness and well-being, lowered blood pressure, increased HDL,lowered LDL, reduced triglycerides, use of stored body fat as a fuel source, endless energy, eliminated heartburn, better fertility, increased sex drive, improved immune system, slowed aging, improvement in blood chemistry, optimized cognitive function and improved memory, reduced acne breakouts and other skin conditions, faster and better exercise recovery, decreased anxiety and mood swings and the list goes on.......ketosis could be the answer!

In the past few decades, the rates of obesity, diabetes, heart disease and other chronic illnesses have gotten considerable worse. Interesteningly, this spike coincides almost perfectly with the implementation of the government's Dietary Guidelines in 1980. The government dictocrats preach a low-fat, low-salt, calorie-restracted, high-carb, plant-based diet which has been a dismal failure.

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Thyroid Issues?

Hypothyroidism or low thyroid hormone is a common condition in North America, particularly in Canada and the upper U.S. states where levels of sunlight are low for much of the year, and soil mineral depletion is common. Low thyroid function affects approximately 20-25 percent of the female population and about 10 percent of males. An additional 30 percent of persons over the age of 35 may also have sub-clinical or mild hypothyroidism whereby their thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) is within normal range, but they have many of the symptoms of low thyroid.

Hypothyroid symptoms insclude fatigue, morning headaches that wear off during the day, increasein weight, sensitivity to cold, dry brittle hair, hair that falls out easily, dry, scaly or itching skin, poor memory, low axillary temperature, muscle cramps at rest, reduced immune function, constipation, loss of outside portion of eyebrows, depression, premature grey hair, red hair and more.........TSH alone is not an accurate test as you may be considered "normal" but if 3 or more of these symptoms match you, you may be subclinical and additional tests should be run.

Free T3 and Free T4 both need to be looked at in a lab. Labs are created using sick people, so you want to be at the upper end of the range because we're looking for optimal, not just normal! For example, if the lab ranges for Free T3 is 2.0-4.0, the median is clearly 3.0 so a lab above 3.0 is a good place to start. 

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The Gut and Your Sex Drive

Ladies.....have you experienced hormone related issues? Do you deal with fatigue, cravings for sugar and starch, sleep issues, PMS or hot flashes,headaches or migraines......did you realize there is a direct correlation between a healthy gut and healthy hormones? 

The more extreme the gut problems, the more extreme the female hormone imbalance. Inflammation in the gut drives up cortisol, our adrenal stress hormone, which in turn drives down our sex hormones......the body prioritizes survival over reporduction or sex drive. Once again, balancing female hormones begins with healing the gut!

If you have low libido and gut problems, it's not a coincidence. The higher the inflammatory response in the gut, the lower the sex drive.

The primary issues with gut problems are the Standard American Diet, environmental toxicity and stress. So.... clean up the diet, clean up the home with "green" or homemade cleaners (email me for a handout), wear natural makeup and use natural skin care  and take steps to reduce stress such as yoga or walks with your lady friends (nothing beats a good yack-off!)

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Does Sugar Cause Disease

In the 1960s a British nutrition expert conducted a series of experiments on animals and people showing that high amounts of sugar in the diet led to high levels of fat and insulin in the blood.......true risk factors for heart disease and diabetes. Tragically, this message was drowned out by a chorus of others scientists blaming the rising rates of obesity and heart disease instead on cholesterol caused by too much saturated fat in the diet.

As a result of these concerns about cholesterol and saturated fat, fat now makes up a smaller portion of the American diet than it did 20 years ago. Yet the portion of the America that is obese has only grown larger. The primary reason is SUGAR and in particular fructose.

In 1900 only 5% of adults world-wide had high blood pressure. Currently 1/3 of adults world-wide have high blood pressure. In 1980, 135 million people had diabetes and now we're up to 347 million. Why are more Americans obese than ever before?.......SUGAR!

60 Minutes did a feature in 2012 titled Is Sugar Toxic that is worth watching

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Regulating Blood Sugar

I have not had a single client come to me who does not have blood sugar handling issues on some level. You cannot manage blood sugar by accident. It's almost impossible to have healthy, well-controlled blood sugar without a little effort. This means carefully choosing what you put in to your body from the moment you wake up to the moment you put your head on the pillow again.

Imagine a flat horizontal line, that's the ideal blood sugar stasis line. With mismanaged blood sugar, your glucose levels soar high above the line and then nosedive way below it-not just tonce but again and again throughout you day. You can achieve beautifully stable blood sugar levels when you consciously and conscientiously select the foods you eat at every meal, every day.

Since your entire endocrine system relies on your glucose levels hugging that stasis line as closely as possible, your body perceives mismanaged blood sugar as a stressor. This in turn sends your adrenals into overdirve and they begin to pump out a cocktain of cortisol and adrenaline......and the cascade of dysfunctional hormones begins.

When you hear about mismanaged blood sugar, you typically think of elevated glood glucose (hyperglycemia) which can lead to insulin resistance and eventually diabetes. While this is a serious problem, it ignores a huge piece of the blood sugar puzzle: hypoclycemia. Low blood sugar is just as detrimental to your body as high blood sugar.

Hypoglycemia is likely to occur throught one of two ways. First, it may happen because you're on a perma-diet and consider coffee and a bar to be a meal in the hopes that restricting calories will result in fat loss. The second begins with overindulging in carbs. Anything more than a modest serving is enough to send your blood sugar soaring. This is where find yourself extremely frustrated because after eating a Chipotle burrito and feeling full, an hour later you may find yourself munching on M&M's and berating yourself for having no willpower.

Blood sugar can be managed through a carefully planned whole food diet. Everyone's carbohydrate tolerance is different and there is no "one size fits all"  blood sugar diet; working with a practitioner to manage your blood sugar can set you on the path toward optimal health. 

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Calorie Math

Regarding traditional dieting, studies show that simply eating less fails 94% of the time LONG TERM. Long term fat loss, health and happiness should be the goal. Statistically, you have a higher percent chance of giving up smoking cold turkey (and nicotine is the 3rd most additcive substance) than you have of achieving LONG TERM health, fitness and fat loss goals by counting and restricting calories.

The U.S. Department of Health and Department of Agriculture issued the first US dietary guidelines for Americans in the 1980's. Dietary and health-care communities synchronized their message for nutrition and health: cut total and saturated fat, eat more "healthy whole grains," watch calories and increase physical activity.

We were taught calorie math: "eat less, exercise more" and you will lose weight.......yet 1980 marks an astounding turn of events for the American public: the start of an unprecedented and dramatic increase in calorie intake, weight gain, and overweight and obesity epidemics. 

Americans now have the worst epidemic of obesity and all the diseases that accompany it, such as hypertension, diabetes, degenerating joints, "high cholesterol," and other conditions, in human history. 
The conclusion: conventional wisdom is not just inaccurate, but desastatingly wrong!

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Regulating Blood Sugar

I have not had a single client come to me who does not have blood sugar handling issues on some level. You cannot manage blood sugar by accident. It's almost impossible to have healthy, well-controlled blood sugar without a little effort. This means carefully choosing what you put in to your body from the moment you wake up to the moment you put your head on the pillow again.

Imagine a flat horizontal line, that's the ideal blood sugar stasis line. With mismanaged blood sugar, your glucose levels soar high above the line and then nosedive way below it-not just tonce but again and again throughout you day. You can achieve beautifully stable blood sugar levels when you consciously and conscientiously select the foods you eat at every meal, every day.

Since your entire endocrine system relies on your glucose levels hugging that stasis line as closely as possible, your body perceives mismanaged blood sugar as a stressor. This in turn sends your adrenals into overdirve and they begin to pump out a cocktain of cortisol and adrenaline......and the cascade of dysfunctional hormones begins.

When you hear about mismanaged blood sugar, you typically think of elevated glood glucose (hyperglycemia) which can lead to insulin resistance and eventually diabetes. While this is a serious problem, it ignores a huge piece of the blood sugar puzzle: hypoclycemia. Low blood sugar is just as detrimental to your body as high blood sugar.

Hypoglycemia is likely to occur throught one of two ways. First, it may happen because you're on a perma-diet and consider coffee and a bar to be a meal in the hopes that restricting calories will result in fat loss. The second begins with overindulging in carbs. Anything more than a modest serving is enough to send your blood sugar soaring. This is where find yourself extremely frustrated because after eating a Chipotle burrito and feeling full, an hour later you may find yourself munching on M&M's and berating yourself for having no willpower.

Blood sugar can be managed through a carefully planned whole food diet. Everyone's carbohydrate tolerance is different and there is no "one size fits all"  blood sugar diet; working with a practitioner to manage your blood sugar can set you on the path toward optimal health. 

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Ketogenic Diets

Do you have the desire for: effortless weight loss and maintenance, natural hunger and apetite control, mental clarity, sounder, more restful sleep, normalized metabolic function, stabilized blood sugar, lower inflammation levels, feelings of happiness and well-being, lowered blood pressure, increased HDL,lowered LDL, reduced triglycerides, use of stored body fat as a fuel source, endless energy, eliminated heartburn, better fertility, increased sex drive, improved immune system, slowed aging, improvement in blood chemistry, optimized cognitive function and improved memory, reduced acne breakouts and other skin conditions, faster and better exercise recovery, decreased anxiety and mood swings and the list goes on.......ketosis could be the answer!

When I ask people if they're heard of a ketogenic diet, most respond no. The vast majority of doctors have little training in nutrition and their only exposure to ketosis is in dealing with diabetic patients and ketoacidosis which is NOT the same thing as nutritional ketosis. As a result, many physicians have an inherent bias against ketosis which means you will need to self-educate.

Ketosis is a metabolic state that happens when you consume a very low-carb, moderate-protein, high-fat diet that causes your body to switch from using glucose as its primary source of fuel to running on ketones. Ketones themselves are produced when the body burns fat, and they're primarily used as an alternative fuel source when glucose isn't available.

Ketosis changes your body from a sugar-burner to a fat-burner. Depending on your current diet and lifestyle choices, becoming keto-adapted can take as little as a few days or as much as several weeks or even months. So “being in ketosis” just means that you are burning fat......and yes, this is a completely NORMAL metabolic state!

Our ancestors spent most of their time in a state of ketosis, we literally would not have survived as a species without using ketones as energy. Paleolithic man used glucose as their body’s preferred fuel when non-animal food was available, but during periods of food shortage or when animal based foods were their primary source of calories they were in a state of ketosis burning fat for fuel!

I’m extremely interested in working with athletes on their nutrition and how it equates to optimal performance. I’ve started a Meetup, Cycling to Sanity, with an amateur road racer and we are addressing this topic as we work with cyclists. Dr. Ben Greenfield, an elite triathlete who uses ketosis as a means for optimizing his athletic performance, sys there are 3 primary reasons for entering a state of ketosis: the metabolic superiority of fats as a fuel; the mental enhancement that takes place with adequate ketone levels; and the greater health and longevity that come from controlling blood sugar levels naturally in the presence of higher ketones. Ketones are the preferred fuel source for heart, muscles, liver and brain.

I recently had a standard lipid panel done. Americans are led to believe our "total cholesterol" number is a marker of heart health. The better number to examine is Triglycerides as this reflects inflammation in the blood stream which is the actual cause of heart disease, not  "high cholesterol". Doctors recommend our numbers be under 150. My research tells me under 100 is respectable and under 70 is ideal. My number of 36 reflects very low inflammation which is what I want to see.

My diet is not exactly ketogenic at this point, but it's high in dietary fat including the much demonized saturated fat from animals. On a daily basis I consume a combination of saturated fats: Kerrygold butter, coconut oil, organic chicken with the bone in and skin on, wild caught fish, grass fed beef, bone broth and organ meats. My numbers do not reflect "clogging of the arteries."

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Nutrition 101

Eat real, nutrient dense whole foods as close to their natural state as possible: unprocessed, unrefined, without additives and preservatives that we don’t recognize as food. If Costco, Safeway, Winco and even Whole Foods didn’t exist, what would you eat? You would eat what you could hunt and gather and that’s what you should be eating now.

Support your local CSA’s. Eat animal products from properly sustained and fed animals as well as organic produce: eggs, seafood, vegetables, fruits and traditional foods. Drink water. Prepare super-foods for your family: fermented vegetables and beverages, homemade bone broth and organ meats.

Recognize "diets" go against conventional wisdom. Eat Real Food!

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Restricted Calorie Diets Don't Work

The Standard American Diet of process food high in sugar and carbohydrates has wreaked havoc with the health of Americans. These nutrient devoid foods are partly to blame of the state of chronic disease. Chronic disease is defined as a condition or disease that is persistent and long-lasting in its effects. Heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, asthma, cancer, auto immune diseases and obesity are examples of chronic disease.

As a Nutritional Therapy Practitioner,I work with clients to prevent or reverse chronic disease and/or dysfunction in the body; how you eat, move, sleep and supplement have a profound impact on your health.

How many of you have been on a restricted calorie diet to lose weight or know someone who has? All hands should be up. Weight loss revolves around your daily appointment with the bathroom scale and cardio machine. Most people can lose weight for short periods of time during a calorie restrictive diet, but sadly it is all too often gained back with a few extra pounds to boot!

Fat loss is not a numbers game. It’s not about calories in calories out, fat grams, scales, exercising more and it’s definitely not about willpower. The addictive foods in the Standard American Diet (SAD) will beat you down and the cravings will eventually overpower you. So what is the answer?

Let’s get back to how you eat, move, think, sleep and supplement to answer that question.

A properly prepared, nutrient dense whole food diet is the foundation of nutritional therapy. A good starting point is the 40/30/30 diet for life. Carbohydrates should comprise approximately 40% of your diet, mostly in the form of raw or lightly cooked low glycemic vegetables and 1-3 pieces of fruit per day. Protein should make up approximately 30% of your diet. Properly sourced wild caught fish, free range chicken and eggs and grass fed beef are wonderful choices. Fat is the most misunderstood macronutrient in our diet. Fat does not make you fat and is necessary for numerous functions in the body: regulating the absorption of glucose in the blood stream, absorption of fat soluble vitamins A, D, E,K, cell membrane integrity thereby allowing nutrients in and waist out and fat is needed to produce our stress and sex hormones.  In addition, fat makes food taste good and triggers our hormones of satiation and fullness! Quality fats are essential to optimal health: coconut oil, grass fed butter and ghee, extra virgin olive oil, nuts and seeds and by all means leave the skin on your chicken and enjoy this nutritious and tasty fat.

Exercising vigorously with the goal of burning off extra calories from poor food choices is not exercising smart; exercising smart means a variety of movement, some low impact such as yoga and walking in addition to more vigorous cardio a few times per week; and try to make it something you enjoy.

Adequate sleep is a foundation of good health. It is needed to fight off infection, support the metabolism of sugar to prevent diabetes, and to preform well in school and at work. Sleep affects a number of endocrine, metabolic and neurological functions. Poor sleep can lead lead to an increased risk of: heart disease, high blood pressure, obesity and diabetes.

As a nutritional therapist I’m often asked to evaluate supplements. When selecting supplements, I first turn to the research and science behind it. I recommend both “healing” supplements such as digestive enzymes as well as prophylactic supplements that support systemic, optimal health.

The foundations of good health have a direct impact on hormones, which have a direct impact on your metabolism. There are two hormones I’d like to mention, insulin and leptin. Most everyone has heard of insulin and understands that it is a fat storage hormone used to bring down blood sugar when carbohydrates are consumed.

Few people have heard of the hormone leptin, yet it plays a profound role in your metabolism.  Leptin is given the crucial role of of keeping you from starving to death by monitoring how much fat you have stored. So when you go on a calorie-restrictive diet, leptin senses that a famine is on the way and down-regulates metabolism. People wonder why reducing calories over time is ineffective, leptin is the reason why........you cannot outsmart leptin!

Consuming a properly prepared, nutrient dense whole food diet is the key to optimal health, balancing hormones, and permanent, systemic fat loss.

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Sugar and Dessert

Sugary sweets are the curse of the civilized world, wreaking havoc on the health of young and old alike. Sweets purchased at the supermarket contain not only refined sweeteners, devoid of nutrients, but also white flour and hydrogenated oils. They are worse than empty calories.

The irony of this is that it is possible to satisfy our "sweet tooth" with desserts that are loaded with nutrient dense ingredients such as: eggs, butter, cream, fruit, nuts and whole grains that have been properly soaked or fermented. Learning to cook this way may seem daunting at first, but once you give up your "frankenfood" sweets purchased on the aisles of Safeway, Raleys, Wallmart, Costco and even Whole Foods, you realize just how delicious "real" dessert is!

Natural sweeteners contain high amounts of minerals and other nutrients. Acceptable sweeteners have been concentrated through boiling or dehydration rather than stripped away, as in white and brown table sugar, corn syrup or fructose......with sugar being so inexpensive and plentiful, we have lost the tradition of dessert being a special occasion instead of a daily or multi-daily event.

Avoiding sugar and especially keeping it away from children is not easy; it is a discipline that requires planning and creative alternatives.....and trust this mother of 3, it is a never ending battle! However, once you discover how to satisfy the "sweet tooth" of your family members, they will go for it.

How about start with ice cream? It's a favorite in most homes, so why not make it healthy and satiating......here is the recipe I use:

  • 3 cups organic cream or raw cream
  • 3 egg yolks
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • 1 tablespoon arrowroot
  • 1/4 to 1/2 cup maple syrup

Blend all ingredients and place in an ice cream maker for aprox 15 minutes.........seriously good stuff!

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Contact

 

Please see specialties for more information on preconception, pregnancy and postpartum services

Kristy Corah, NTP

(916) 718-8891

kristy.corah@gmail.com

 
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