Feeling bombarded? New Year, New You. Top 10 Exercises for the Perfect Body. Get Glowing! 30-Day Detox. Juicing! Cleansing! Weight Loss Challenge! Another program. Another promise, a whole list of techniques to learn, and a bunch of supplements to ingest. Blah blah blah.

Take a breath!

It’s been amazing connecting with you. I so appreciate the genuine quality of our conversation. We are all in this healthy, healing food life together! And you know how sometimes it’s even more gratifying to give than to receive? That’s how I feel about creating recipes, sharing kitchen wisdom, and writing for you. I love it! You’re the best.

You won’t be surprised to learn that I love giving food gifts any time of year and especially for the holidays. Food = abundance, nurturing, love. What a great message to send to friends and family.

Chocolate! We know how much we love it -- but, do you know how good it is for you? I joke about it: another study coming out about chocolate! As if we need a reason.

For the record -- may I share HOW good it is for you?

Don’t you love to give wonderful books for gifts?  

Let me help you with a list of my favorite cookbooks and food reads that are my go-tos, the ones I look at for inspiration, that I think are the really good ones to have in your library or to curl up with by the fire.

I always think that Thanksgiving is a time to reflect on the people who have made a difference in our lives.

For me, the older -- and hopefully wiser - I get, the more potent the reflections, and the richer the crazy quilt of my life becomes. The people that wander in and out sharing pearls of wisdom are like the threads stitching the the quilt together. Each might have appeared only for a day, a week, a month or a year. Sometimes they are just characters with walk-on parts, with two or three lines that have been game changers for me, or they have guided me in the right direction when I needed it most.

Here we go! The cascade of the holidays starts now.

On Thanksgiving we focus on the traditional feast, our special menu or dish we have GOT to have. 4 days to make, 4 minutes to eat. Whew! But November is about SO much more than that ONE big meal.

What is it about the Mediterranean diet that is SO healthy?

Study after study reveals notable benefits of the Mediterranean diet for cancer, diabetes, heart disease, Alzheimer’s  -- so many chronic diseases. This breast cancer prevention study zeroed in on olive oil. And while the olive oil is most certainly effective, I’m equally sure that it’s only part of the reason. We Americans always look for the one magic bullet to solve our problems! But the beauty of the Mediterranean “diet” is that Mediterranean cultures have orchestrated the whole health package: diet PLUS lifestyle.

If you’re a meat-eater, you may be feeling a bit anxious following the World Health Organization’s release last week of a monograph evaluating consumption of processed and red meats.

Do you like to be told what to do?
Do you like to be told what you can’t have?

This certainly applies to food, and making adjustments in your dietary world, right?

Years ago, I had a tug-of-war with a very smart nutritionist, who was ahead of the curve in her knowledge about gluten sensitivity. She reviewed my health concerns and announced that in her opinion, gluten was a problem for me. I, who studied cooking in Italy, who made my own pasta! I was not going to be told what I could eat and what I could not! I said NO THANK YOU.

Am I lucky! I have made amazing culinary friends in my life, from my adopted Italian nona to a delightful array of cooks and chefs. One of my most cherished cooking buddies is Andrew Weil, he of integrative medicine fame, who has just come out with a new cookbook, Fast Food, Good Food, that you MUST know about. (And not only because I helped!)

ep·i·ge·net·ics
noun

1. the study of changes in organisms caused by modification of gene expression rather than alteration of the genetic code itself.

I find it empowering to think that the food we eat can have an effect on our gene expression.

Hold on! You mean what I eat… can affect my genes?

Yes, indeedy! Quite an eye opener. Certainly caught my attention. In fact, I believe I am the first cookbook author ever to have a section on epigenetics, in my book The Longevity Kitchen.

Cooking and eating for health is about tilting the odds in your favor -- and I’m going to take a stand right here and say organic food makes a difference.

As a cook, I was initially drawn to organic ingredients because of the flavor! To my tastebuds, organic fruits, veggies, meats and more are always superior. But there are facts beyond flavor that convince.

Are you in fight or flight?

Recently I got an SOS call from someone whom I adore who is quite ill.  She has CLL (chronic lymphocytic leukemia) and is recovering from pneumonia. The pneumonia is not a great sign. When someone in my friend’s situation gets pneumonia it’s an indication that the CLL is rearing its ugly head. She has dropped a tremendous amount of weight and she’s starting chemotherapy at the end of the month. The SOS call was understandably...panicked.

You know how marvelous you feel when you discover something spectacularly useful? Well, if you don’t know about my Magic Mineral Broth yet, hold on to your soup ladle! And if you know and love it already, here’s some of the history and magic mystery decoded.

Some of the best cooking that I do is in community with others.

Some cookbook authors REALLY like to create and cook solo.. I need collaborators, someone to taste or weigh in. Even if it’s my puppy! Or my more seasoned 3-year old Portuguese Water Dog, Lola.

It all started with a raisin.

My challenge at a recent seminar at Stanford University Hospital was to convince a room full of scientists, oncologists, nurses, and registered dietitians of the important role food plays in helping people navigate through cancer treatment. While the science is clinically relevant, I knew that we needed to reach their taste buds.

X marks the spot: If you want to know about food, big flavor and vibrant health, you have arrived. This has been my world for 14 years, and I’ve made the momentous decision to share what I’ve learned in a delicious and digestible new blog. My mission: to help YOU connect the dots, get behind the stove and make food work to transform your health and your life.