As we quickly move out of March, New Year’s resolutions may seem like a distant thought. Despite our best intentions, resolutions can seem impossible to stick to long-term. Why is that? One reason might be that these goals tend to focus on deprivation: no sugar, no alcohol, no gluten. But what if we decided that this year we were going to focus on what we could ADD to our lives to improve ourselves?...

We all need salt to live, but the fact is that we are overwhelmed by the amount of salt found in our food system these days. We know that most Canadians eat too much salt and the claims about excess salt leading to health problems such as high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke and kidney disease are ALL TRUE. So let’s take a closer look at salt and find out where it really makes the difference to cut it out...

Having a good relationship with food is one of the hardest parts of leading a healthy life. The most important lesson that I’ve learned over the years about nutrition and food is that I need to be aware at mealtimes. I’m trained to understand and teach others about the importance of good nutrition...

Let’s take a minute to head back to the time of our hunter-gatherer ancestors. Here there are no grocery stores, no prepackaged meals, and no meal delivery services. This is a time where people had to hunt or collect their food in order to survive. During this time, there were only a few types of food that would have given our ancestors that sweet dose of sugar that they craved: fruit and honey...

Going gluten-free has become somewhat of a social status in recent years. Gluten-free foods have become trendy and carry a healthful association, despite the lack of evidence behind the fad. It’s startling that gluten-free foods have become the latest and greatest food choice out there, and more importantly, make people feel like their food choices are supporting a healthy lifestyle...

Today I’m wrapping up the conversation about milk. Since milk is such a great source of calcium and vitamin D, we can’t talk about milk without talking about bone health. Calcium helps build and maintain strong bones, while vitamin D helps our bodies absorb calcium. Our bodies reach peak bone mass at age 30, at which point our bones start to thin as a part of normal aging...

Cultures around the world have bred cows for their milk for thousands of years. At first, humans were not always able to digest lactose past childhood because they lacked the enzyme lactase, to break it down in their digestive system. That’s why many cultures started by consuming fermented dairy products such as yogurt and kefir...