Tag Archives: weight loss

2013, The Obesity Epidemic and Plant-Based Nutrition

“This is another fine mess that you’ve gotten us into, Stanley.”

In case you were culturally deprived when you were young, that quote is a rather famous accusation voiced frequently by Ollie in the Laurel and Hardy comedies. About the only thing that I never heard Oliver Hardy blame Stan Laurel for in those movies was his weight. Obesity was not viewed as a national health crisis in the twenties thirties and forties, hunger was closer to home for a lot of our population.

The weighty have always been among us. They have never been as dominant in numbers as they are today. Along with the new fat epidemic comes symptoms of ill health that worry us (a lot) when we exhibit them. Added to that are diseases like cancer, heart disease and diabetes; all common problems related to the obesity. (more…)

by Genene Cote Posted on January 16, 2013
Posted in additive-free food, diabetes, excitotoxins, Food Additives, plant based diet, processed food, weigh loss, Whole Food Plant-Based nutrition | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Diet Dropout’s Guide to Natural Weight Loss by Stan Spencer

Reading recipe books and diet and advice books are part of my job these days. Thankfully, I get a lot of advance reader copies for review. Most of them I read or at least skim through, sigh and toss aside. Every now and then I actually find one I am wildly enthusiastic about. This is one.

At the end of last year when I received this very thin volume entitled The Diet Dropout’s Guide to Natural Weight Loss.  I rolled my eyes and tossed it aside. I mean really!  Who isn’t a diet dropout?!  And why the cutsie title? (more…)

by Genene Cote Posted on January 7, 2013
Posted in book review, Stan Spencer, weigh loss, Whole Food Plant-Based Diet Experts, Whole Food Plant-Based nutrition | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Luxury Problems

weightlossI have a big-time luxury problem! You see instead of “spring cleaning”, we do “fall cleaning”. Most of the spring is devoted to getting the garden in shape. If the house suffers, it’s not like we spend much time inside between March and October. We are, however indoor, a lot, between November and February. So it is either clean up or sit and look at clutter all winter. I, personally, hate clutter!

One of my life “rules” is about changing closets with the season. Each spring and fall I sort and discard clothes:  if I haven’t worn it, it goes! This year I added the caveat that if it didn’t fit it had to go as well. Recently, David and I spend a lot of time looking like we are wearing someone else’s clothes. They are way big and don’t come close to fitting. A lot of them were marginal last year but this year they are just flat out ridiculous! So out with all the XL and a lot of the L size clothes. (more…)

by Genene Cote Posted on October 25, 2012
Posted in additive-free food, Cote Home Grown Fare, diary-free food, Food Additives, gluten-free food, plant based diet, processed food, vegan, vegetarian | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Dean Ornish: Eating for Health Not Weight

Last Saturday, I was incredibly please to read Dr. Dean Ornish’s opinion piece in the New Your Times entitled Eating for Health, Not Weight

In this piece, Ornish talks about one of the biggest dieting myths today:  it doesn’t matter what you eat as along as you lose pounds. Many of us equate thin and healthy; but it ain’t necessarily so! The food you eat matters. (more…)

by Genene Cote Posted on September 25, 2012
Posted in Dean Ornish, plant based diet, vegan, vegetarian, weigh loss | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Do You Know about Excitotoxins?

Four years ago David developed a gluten allergy. That began a series of radical changes in our diet. But there were more to come!

Two years ago he started having a series of “weird” problems.  He was not diabetic or even pre-diabetic but he clearly had a blood sugar problem!  On any given day his blood sugar spiked and dropped for no apparent reason.  He was alternatively shaky and moody. And eating seemed to make the problem worse.

We were at our wits end!  So in an effort to figure out what was going on we started tracking the symptoms and what he ate. The place to start was in the grocery store; reading labels. (more…)

by Genene Cote Posted on June 8, 2012
Posted in additive-free food, excitotoxins, Food Additives, gluten-free food, weigh loss | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment