The Atkins and low carb. crazes have peaked and are now fading away; in the process we learned a thing or two. First that refined white flour and refined white sugar are bad, bad, bad for you. Second that when you cut calories, it’s important to make sure that your menu includes plenty of protein-packed …
When in doubt, throw out! It’s time for the honoured rituals of spring-cleaning (of home and body). Unless you’re of the “Why Clean? It Will Only Get Dirty Again” school of thought, read on. Over time, our body has accumulated toxins, often stored in fat cells. These may have come through diet, use of prescription …
Our perceptions about diet and health have undergone remarkable transformations during the past half-century. Fifty years ago, the hot topics in nutrition were protein-calorie malnutrition, deficiency diseases, and the recent discovery of the last of the thirteen vitamins. Today, while undernutrition continues to be a tragedy for one in six humans, an equal number are …
Organic eating has gone mainstream. Responding to consumer demand, supermarkets now feature centrally placed organic produce sections. Over the past decade, the organic food industry has increased at 20 percent per year. What drives this growing support for organic food? Not surprisingly, savvy consumers figure that if a whiff of pesticides can kill bugs dead, …
Fifteen years ago, Dr. Dean Ornish revolutionized our approach to heart disease when he demonstrated that individuals with serious heart disease could reverse their condition with lifestyle changes (that did not include the use of medication). His 4-point program for reversing heart disease included: 1. a very low fat vegetarian diet (less than10% calories from …
Will you share holiday meals with family and friends who range from turkey-loving carnivores through to vegetarians, vegans, or raw foods entusiasts? With such diverse tastes to satisfy, creating a festive menu presents a challenge. Here\’s a typical scenario, plus a few possible solutions. Each year, a different member of your family takes a turn …
As we move into the season of winter celebrations, we welcome warming meals shared with family and friends. Winter squash has many appealing qualities: these hearty vegetables form attractive, edible centerpieces at festive dinners; their dense texture is richly satisfying; they are rich in fibre, B vitamins such as folic acid and thiamin, and the …
As we move from summer holidays into fall, a challenge that surfaces annually is that of regularly filling our lunch bags, for school, work, autumn hikes, or other pursuits. Whether our task is to meet the appetites of a crew of ravenous teenagers, to find something tasty to get us through the afternoon, or to …
High fat? Low fat? No fat? What do we really need to know? For many of us, the message can be reduced to this simple sentence. There is just one type of fat that we need to add to our diets: the omega-3 fatty acids. There are two distinct families of polyunsaturated fats, omega-6 and …
The last two decades have been a time of maturation for many of us, and a coming of age for the vegetarian movement. In 1982, the year of Common Ground’s birth, vegetarians were typically regarded as part of the counterculture. Yet the seeds of change from the 70’s had fallen on fertile soil and taken …
