Oh Boy!

Hello Everyone!

I am so excited to announce the birth of my second son, Peyton Grant Mowry. Born July 23, 2009 at 12:39pm, 7 pounds and 14 ounces, 20 inches long. I now am a proud mamma of two beautiful boys. My first son, Aiden is now 18 months old and he is the best big brother! There is nothing better than enjoying family time like we have in the last several weeks. As a new mom for the second time, I feel wonderful and energetic. This is an amazing time in my life and I couldn't be happier!

Some of you may have noticed I have slowed down a bit on my postings toward the end of my pregnancy and in the last couple of weeks... now you know why!

So, here are the latest photos of my two sons. Enjoy!

Dr. M

Go Raw, feel the difference!

Many people may come to the raw way of eating because it is an effective way to lose weight.  But that's not the only benefit of adopting this healthy lifestyle; the raw foods diet has been linked to more energy, healthier skin, a reduced risk of heart disease and better digestion. In addition, raw foods provide the following benefits:

• Raw foods are easy to digest
• Raw foods provide the maximum amount of energy with minimal bodily effort
• Raw foods have healing powers that can alleviate many illnesses from low energy, allergies, digestive disorders, weak immune system, high cholesterol, candida, to obesity & weight problems (weight normalization), etc.

Research and real life experiences have also shown that a person can prevent a body's healthy cells from turning into malignant cancerous cells by consuming mostly a raw food diet & whole organic foods. Phytonutrients (plant nutrients) are found in fresh, uncooked plant foods.  These nutrients include antioxidants and are important for prevention of disease, especially cancers.  When food is cooked (above 130 degrees Fahrenheit) many of the nutrients are destroyed and no longer available for use by your body (enzymes start dieing at 106 degrees Fahrenheit).

It is easy to get complete protein while eating a plant based diet, which includes 8 amino acids.  Plant proteins are easier to digest and don’t clog our arteries like animal proteins do.  That said, even if you still choose to consume some animal products, you will benefit from adding raw foods into your daily diet. 

What is Wrong with Cooked Foods?

Heat changes the makeup of food. Foods that have been heated have lost all of their life force, and their beneficial enzymes are destroyed. The digestive system has to work harder and longer to process cooked foods to get nutrition & energy from it. Once cooked, a food can lose up to 85 percent of its nutritional value. Raw foodists call that "dead food." Since we are essentially what we eat, consuming the dead energy of dead foods make our bodies feel heavy and stagnant.

So start today, incorporate some foods that are still living in your diet. Go to the produce stand and get yourself some good plants that you can munch on all well. Take small steps to incorporate Raw Food into your diet.

Some of my favorite products come from www.goraw.com

My favorite book is Ani's Raw Kitchen and Raw Food Real World.

Gazpacho is my favorite raw soup for the summer.

I will leave you with my top ten on why raw foods are good for you...

1.) Raw foods are better quality; therefore, you eat less to satisfy your nutritional needs. The heat of cooking depletes vitamins, damages proteins and fats, and destroys enzymes that benefit digestion. As your percentage of raw foods increases, you feel satisfied and have more energy on smaller meals because raw food has the best balance of water, nutrients, and fiber to meet your body's needs.

2.) Raw foods have more flavor than cooked foods, so there is no need to add salt, sugar, spices, or other condiments that can irritate your digestive system or over stimulate other organs.

3.) Raw foods take very little preparation, so you spend less time in the kitchen. Even a child of 5 or 6 can prepare most items for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. This gives children a sense of self-esteem and independence, not to mention the break it gives Mom or Dad.

4.) When you are eating raw, there's little chance of burns, unless you're in the middle of a forest fire or out in the sun too long. Just think! No burns to tongues, the roof of your mouth, or fingers, and many fewer house fires.

5.) Cleaning up after a raw meal is a snap. No baked-on oils or crusty messes. And any inedible parts go directly to the compost pile.

6.) Eating a diet of raw foods can reverse or stop the advance of many chronic diseases, including heart disease and cancer. Remember, cooking creates free radicals, which are the major cause of cancer. When you lower the number of free radicals your cells are bombarded with, you lower your risk of cancer.

7.) A raw food diet can protect you from acute diseases such as colds, flu, measles, etc. Raw foods maintain a healthy body, and a healthy body will not become diseased.

8.) As long as you combine raw food properly according to the rules of Natural Hygiene, you will soon reach a level where you no longer suffer from heartburn, gas, indigestion or constipation.

9.) It is environmentally sound. With humanity on a diet of raw foods, the food industry would close up shop and take up organic gardening. This would save us enormous amounts of natural resources used to produce power for these industries. Nuclear power would be clearly unnecessary. And think of how many trees and oil reserves could be saved without the need for the paper and plastics used in packaging our processed foods.There would also be less carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere when all the cooking stopped. More oxygen would be produced from all the new orchards and gardens, thus helping to reverse the Greenhouse Effect.

10.) Eating raw saves you money on food, vitamins, pots and pans, appliances, doctor bills, drugs, and health insurance. So don't waste your food, yourself, and our planet by cooking what you eat. Fruits, nuts, and vegetables which are whole, fresh and raw are brimming with life and have the ability to transmit their life force directly to you.

Be well,

Dr. M

Why Grass-Fed?

Hello Everyone!

Your grill is probably getting fired up for this summer... and I want to help you out. This is a topic I could go on about forever, but to keep it short and sweet -- make sure you eat organic meat.

Remember that if you eat beef, chicken, or fish that was given antibiotics and steroids (an industry standard!) while being raised... you too are eating steroids and antibiotics! You are what you eat, and whatever your meat consumed while alive is exactly what's going in your body.

Why are girls getting their menstrual cycles at such young ages? Why do men have breasts? Why is menopause so hard? In short, the hormones in your meat!

Organic Grass fed beef is the best...and Organic Free Range Chickens are primo as well. Make sure that animal you are eating roamed the pasture and was happy prior to your consumption. Here's why:

Five Reasons Why You Should Switch to Organic Grass Fed Beef

1. Grass Fed Beef is healthier for you and your family.
If you are already worried about the effects of meat on you or your family's health, you can stop worrying! Pasture raised beef is lower in total fat than regular beef and is rich in Omega 3 Fatty Acids!

2. There is a difference in taste between grain and pasture raised beef.
You'll probably be able to taste a difference with the first bite of a Texas grass fed beef hamburger. What you can taste is clean meat. You aren't consuming antibiotics and hormones.

3. Switching to grass fed beef can help to keep our environment clean.
All cattle eat a lot, and all cattle make a lot of waste. Did you know there are over 90 million head of cattle in the United States? The vast majority of these live in huge feed lots, and the waste has no where to go but down. It seeps into the groundwater, finds its way into the river, and pollutes the water. In fact, animal waste has already polluted many of our waterways. In addition, the corn and grains that is used to feed grain fed beef, has been sprayed with pesticides that not only get into the animal, but harm our environment.

4. American grass fed beef is more humane to the cattle.
Time is money to the average cattle rancher. Their goals are to get the cattle big and fat as fast as possible, and to make as much money as possible. How do typical ranchers speed up the process? They use grain, hormones, AND antibiotics liberally to push Mother Nature along. 

5. Raising beef cattle on the pasture is safer meat.
Why? Because they are eating a diet that was suited for their bodies.

The best book on this topic, that also comes on a narrated CD is "The Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan. 

If you live in the MD area, get your grass fed beef from Lew at Cedar Run Farms. His website can be accessed by clicking here.

Be well,

Dr. M

Probiotics and you...

It's the season for sinus infections and allergies and one recommendation that I give to my patients is to take more probiotics than they usually do. This is to help keep the body balanced and the immune system strong. My patients report significant relief from sinus pain and headaches and overall energy levels when taking a probiotic supplement daily. So, I decided to post on this topic to help you understand probiotics better.

What Are Probiotics?

Probiotics are the natural cultures or flora necessary to keep the digestive tract and immune system functioning properly. Since a healthy digestive tract contains hundreds of different cultures, multi-strain probiotic supplements more closely match the natural ecology of the digestive system than probiotics with only one strain.

Every day, the good, natural flora in the body is killed off by stress, poor diet, caffeine, alcohol, antibiotics, antacids, over-the-counter and prescription medications, chlorinated water, and a toxic environment. Taking a multi-strain probiotic daily supports a healthy digestive tract and immune system by supporting the natural flora that is often destroyed by daily living.

Health Benefits of Probiotics

• Support normal digestion and absorption of nutrients
• Support healthy immune function
• May help relieve occasional diarrhea, constipation, gas and bloating
• Maintain a normal level of yeast/candida
• Help maintain a healthy intestinal lining
• Promote regularity of bowel function
• Support healthy urinary tract function, especially in women
• Maintain strong mucosal immune barrier
• Support healthy, clear skin

Common Questions about Probiotics

What are probiotics? 
Probiotics are the beneficial bacteria or natural cultures found in the digestive tract that promote balance, health and proper functioning of the digestive system.

Why take probiotic supplements? 
Stress, poor diet, medication, and chlorinated water, are all factors in daily life that disturb the balance of the digestive tract. Probiotic supplements repopulate the digestive tract with the healthy cultures needed to maintain proper digestive and immune health.

What are the benefits of taking a multi-strain probiotic? 
A healthy digestive tract contains many strains of probiotic cultures. That’s why it’s beneficial to take a multi-strain probiotic supplement instead of a probiotic supplement with just one strain. 

Are probiotic supplements safe for infants and children? Yes. Probiotics are naturally found in the human body and are safe and effective for even the youngest children.

Be Well,

Dr. M

Celebrate Earth Day!

Happy Earth Day Everyone!!

Here are some simple resolutions for you as you celebrate earth day today.

Evaluate Your Imprint

You'll be pleased to know that an annual eco-friendliness checkup is much easier and more comfortable than your annual physical. In fact, it won't take more than about half an hour and is likely to result in you not only learning some interesting facts about the environment and your habits, but also ways to change them that will be more economical. Since it's easy to forget what you've committed to doing about environmental issues or to assume your impact is smaller than it is, a yearly (or, better yet, several times a year) checkup on the different effects you're having on the environment is a great way to stay aware of your actions and keep yourself on track to green goals.

 

To get a good estimate of your various impacts, try some of the environmentally-focused online calculators---even though they're not a perfect science and usually based on national or regional averages and statistics that may not always be true in your exact case. To start with, you can measure your carbon footprint on the Inconvenient Truth carbon calculator (and then offset it at a sister site). Check your wattage at WattzOn.com, a site that estimates the amount of watts you use, compares it to other people in your area and suggests easy ways to reduce the number. Don't forget your water footprint, either---although it's an easy one to overlook, our changing environmental state and excessive consumption could mean we one day join the more than one billion people who currently lack a reliable drinking water supply. You can utilize the Water Calculator at H20 Conserve to estimate your water usage, but don't be surprised if the number is higher than you'd expect; seeing the figures, while scary, may give you more perspective on the issue.

 

Once you've assessed your impact, you can think about how to act. The biggest critique of Earth Day is that it's just one day, when the only solution for environmental problems like global warming is to change our ways for every day to come. So take advantage of the information you gather on Earth Day (and the fun offers), but don't let it be an ineffectual holiday, make it last.

 

Put Down The Water Bottle

We've said it before and we'll keep saying it until we see even more people carrying Siggs and other reusable water bottles. At this point, it's widely recognized that bottled water is bad for the environment (making all the disposable water bottles for the U.S. requires enough oil to fuel 100,000 cars), but convenience can keep you from fully switching to a reusable water bottle. Maybe you like the cold, pre-filled bottles ready to be grabbed out of the fridge or don't think you'll dig carrying a stainless steel or aluminum water bottle around all day. The reasons are legitimate, but when you consider that the equivalent oil that is used to create and transport your bottled water could fill it to a quarter of the bottle, it does start to seem like a wasteful and unnecessary habit-especially when it may not even be as safe as filtered tap water.

 

Buy For Keeps

The average American creates up to 56 tons of trash per year and often it's from items that don't need to be disposable. If we can get past the sometimes cheaper prices and temporary conveniences of disposable items, we'll also prevent products from sitting for several lifetimes in landfills. This Earth Day, commit to getting conscious about what you throw away and whether you can find a way to avoid the waste. Whether it's reusable containers for packaging leftovers and lunches or reusable shopping bags for trips to the grocery store, start to assess your trash and then give it an overhaul. When you're buying products, look for little to no packaging and packaging that is biodegradable or recyclable.

 

Unscrew Your Incandescents

Yep, it's time to get rid of those classic bulbs you've always bought and move to compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs or LED light bulbs. Light bulbs, like water bottles, may seem like such small things that you wonder what good it'll really do to change, but traditional incandescent bulbs are big energy drainers in comparison to new alternatives and even have higher lifetime costs than CFLs and LEDs. Switching out light bulbs is pretty much a perfect Earth Day-motivated change: You can switch out the bulbs on Earth Day and you'll be reducing carbon emissions---while saving money on your electrical bill---for the rest of the year. It's minimal effort with maximum results.

 

Other Simple Efforts include: Recycle, Buy Organic Cotton, Use Non-Toxic Household Products and Personal Care Products, Plant a Garden (see my previous post), plant a tree, and get yourself a composter!

Live Green,

Dr. M

Synthetic Ingredients to ALWAYS Avoid…

Read your labels, and not just on your food. It’s important to be aware of the ingredients in your body care (soaps, lotions, sunscreens, etc.) because these ingredients have been shown to irritate the respiratory, immune, and digestive systems… and some even have been linked to cancers!

Here is my list of ingredients to always avoid:

CLEANSERS

Sodium Lauryl Sulfate

Sodium Laureth Sulfate

Sodium Myreth Sulfate

 

PETROCHEMICALS

Petrolatum

Mineral Oil

Paraffin

 

PRESERVATIVES

Parabens (all of them) (methylparaben, propylparaben, etc)

DMDM Hydantoin

 

CHEMICAL SUNSCREENS

Oxybenzone

Avobenzone

Octinoxate

 

MOISTURIZERS

Propylene Glycol

Butylene Glycol

Polyisobutene

My solution to trying to avoid synthetic ingredients and afford the brands that are free of toxins? Frontier Co-op. Go to www.frontiercoop.com and get a catalog or look online. They sell everything that Whole Foods sells for body care (lotions, sunscreens, soap, shampoo, essential oils, everything!) for SO much less... almost 50% less. If you order with one of your friends, and your total is $250+ you get free shipping. And right now they are offering 20% off your whole order!

Brands like California Baby and Burts Bees are my favorites. Stay tuned for a post on what products I am loving right now.

Be well,

Dr. M

Plant a garden...

Well, if I can do it you can. I have wanted to have my own garden since I have owned a home, but I never made time to do so. This spring, I went to a lovely place called an Eastridge Garden and I was inspired.

My husband Chris and my son Aiden each did their part to help my garden come true. Chris was a human tiller, and Aiden helped me shake packs of seeds. Here's what's in my garden...

• Broccoli
• Romaine Lettuce
• Bell Peppers: red, orange, and yellow
• Asparagus
• Cherry Tomatoes
• Green Beans
• Sweet Peas
• Lima Beans
• Cilantro
• Parsley
• Rosemary
• Strawberries
• A fig tree
• A blueberry bush
• A raspberry bush
• And coming in a few weeks when the weather is warmer... summer squash, basil, and tomatoes!

This may seem like it's a lot, but really, it was unbelievably easy and therapeutic. I cannot wait to eat food that I have grown. My romaine lettuce has already tripled in size.

If you need help getting started, just let me know, or go to an Eastridge Garden. Don't put it off, get out and enjoy this beautiful weather and grow your own!

Namaste,

Dr. M