We practice personalized nutrition/medicine.  There is no one diet, supplement regime or immune protocol that is right for everyone.

• You are unique, your biochemistry is unique!

• We have taken markers from some of our most popular panels that relate to nutrients and immune function and layered in a more detailed look at the immune system with actual genes that have been studied relating to mechanisms in viral pathology.

• Now more than ever it is imperative that your health and immune system be working 100%. The best defense besides social distancing and washing your hands is priming your body to work the way it should *optimally*.

• Most data shows the majority of people that move from mild symptoms to a full on cytokine storm have preexisting health conditions or a genetic predisposition that weakens the immune system.

• Knowing your unique genetics, biochemistry and risks is empowering and allows you to have some control over you destiny.

In this panel we will look at the following genetics, along with your labs (if you would like an appointment) to help you navigate the best preventative immune supplements and the best ways to potentially fix/improve impaired systems:

Genes involved in immune function:

• HLA genes involved with influenza:
• Genes involved with your risk for autoimmune disease
• Pro and anti-inflammatory cytokines
• Other genes in the complement immune cascade
• Toll-like receptors and the proteins that activate them

Genes directly studied for SARS1 and genes studied that increase your risk for acute respiratory disorder syndrome (ARDS)

• SARS2 shares 80% of its genome with SARS1 so we do have quite a bit of good research on some of these mechanisms. We are keeping up with research daily and will adjust and add genes in this category as new data emerges!

Genes involved in the RAAS system: (regulates blood pressure and fluid balance)

• ACE2 is the receptor site for the SARS2 virus and is part of the renin angiotensin system (RAAS) but all the genes around this enzyme need to be looked at too. Hypertension or risk for hypertension increases your risk for negative outcomes with this virus.

Genes involved with nutrient levels:   More is not better!

• The most well studied nutrients zinc, magnesium, potassium, vitamin D, A, K and C. Niacin for lung recovery, melatonin etc. there is a gene(s) for that!

• Did you know if you have certain oxalate genes, high dose vitamin C can be contraindicated for you? You can read more about oxalates here.

• Did you know if you have a certain vitamin D receptor gene, high dose vitamin D may increase your risk for autoimmune disease if you are taking too much.

• Did you know that taking too much zinc can upset the balance of copper and iron in your body?

• Did you know that certain immune stimulators like elderberry and medicinal mushrooms are actually contraindicated for those with autoimmune disease or autoimmune risk?

Genes involved in GUT function:

• There is good research around microbial imbalance and a person’s risk for progressing into more dangerous stages of the virus. What can your genetics tell you?  A lot!

Pharmacogenetics for various drugs that may be used to treat SARS2

• Many drugs get metabolized through a CYP enzyme, we have included the ones with some research.

Because we think this is so important we are offering this panel at a reduced price of $250.  This panel includes over 65 genes and 500 variants to help you understand:

• Your risk of the virus entering your body
• How well your immune system might respond
• Are your genes more prone to mount an excessive response or a “cytokine storm”
• What changes you can implement that are right for your unique biochemistry!

Please click here to set up an account in our system.  Here you can let us know that you would like an immune genetic panel run.  You may also contact me via the contact form on this website.  The turn-around time is 1-5 days.  We can send you the completed panel with actions or also include an appointment to review the panel.  We accept MyHeritage and 23andme raw data and if you have not run your genome and need help ordering a gene kit please ask!

Also available are COVID19 antibody tests.  They are made in the US by Raybiotech.  This kit includes IgM (current) and IgG (past) antibodies and it is $100.  You will not be charged until the testing is shipped and you may be placed on a waiting list depending on the availability. Set up an account here to request a kit.

In health,

Michelle

*Disclaimer –  This information does not infer medical advice or complete risk.

The post You Don’t Want to Miss this Personalized Immune Gene Panel! appeared first on .

Do you have any of these symptoms?

• Bladder infections or UTI’s
• Interrupted urine flow
• History of kidney stones
• Painful scalp
• Joint or muscle pain
• Sore eyes
• Fibromyalgic type pain
• Brain fog
• Anxiety or depression
• Panic attacks
• Difficulty waking up
• Pelvic pain
• Disturbed sleep
• Histamine issues
• Carpal tunnel syndrome
• Vulva pain
• Osteoporosis

You may have a build-up of oxalates. What is an oxalate? Oxalates are found in many foods and are there to help the plant bind calcium so that it can grow.  In our bodies it does the same thing (binds minerals-for us this is not good!).  If you have the appropriate environment and functioning enzymes then the oxalates are broken down and eliminated.

We have a few enzymes (genes) in our body that work to breakdown the oxalates found in many of the foods we consume on a regular basis.  The top culprits being spinach, nuts (especially almonds) soy, wheat, potatoes, brown rice flour, chocolate, buckwheat, berries, celery and carrots (there are more).  Oxalates can also be a byproduct of metabolism.  Excess vitamin C gets converted to oxalates!  Sometimes we use mega doses when sick, some people take it to bowel tolerance to help with constipation.  We’ve always been told we will just pee out what we don’t use, but for some people this is not true!  You must avoid high doses of C if you have these genes (or symptoms)

Beware! If there are variations in these genes or you overload the system, the enzymes may not work as well and the oxalates will bind with calcium and other minerals in the body and turn into sharp crystals that can accumulate in the urinary tract (kidney stones) or deposit in joints, muscles, eyes and GI tract causing an overwhelming amount of symptoms.

Symptoms can present when eating high oxalate foods.  I’ve had clients who have immediate shoulder pain after eating.  Sometimes you will have flares, this is when you have a release of stored oxalates for one reason or another.  Some people do not have actual symptoms until they stop eating high oxalate foods, but they may have low minerals, be at risk for osteoporosis, have IBS type symptoms or be on their way to kidney failure etc. this is a storm brewing.  If you have variations in your oxalate genes it is important to take this seriously.

Never remove all these foods at once.  Oxalate dumping is a real thing and can be very painful.  If you have any of these symptoms and have variations in your oxalate degrading genes, you may benefit from removing some of these foods (slowly) with the help of a nutritionist.  Taking specific supplements and probiotics that help bind and break down the oxalates can also be helpful.

Oxalate dumping symptoms:

• At first none! This is the honeymoon phase, this may be the first time in years that your aches and pains disappear, your GI system feels like its working, your brain may not feel foggy.  In some studies austistic children show immediate gains in symptoms.  But beware if you did this abruptly this does not last….
• Oxalates bind to minerals so some of the symptoms of dumping will be similar to low magnesium: muscle aches, twitching, cramps.
• Since B-vitamins are readily being used up, symptoms of low B’s can abound: migraines, skin issues
• Histamine flares
• Constant sinus drainage
• Cloudy urine
• Sandy looking stools
• Black specks in your urine or stool
• GI distress like diarrhea or constipation
• Yeast overgrowth

Currently a high oxalate intake is defined as eating more than 250mg of oxalate per day.  One cup of spinach contains 656mg of oxalates! Eating spinach requires the body to work hard to process those oxalates and uses up a lot of B6 to do this.

Hyperoxaluria Type 1 is coded by the AGXT gene.  When this enzyme is not working properly glyoxylate is converted to oxalate which forms insoluble calcium salts that can accumulate in the kidneys or other organs.  If you have these variations, you are more prone to kidney stones. Hyperoxaluria Type 2 is coded by the GRHPR gene and Hyperoxaluria type 3 is coded by the HOGA1 gene.  These are usually more related to joint pain versus kidney stones.

Biggest culprits:

Source: St Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton

Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Here is a searchable data base with 750 foods and their oxalate content

https://oxalate.org

There is some discrepancy in the amount in broccoli, to be safe boiling your broccoli before you eat it and discarding the water removes a large portion of the oxalate content, you can also do this with nuts.

I especially see this as a major problem for people that are juicing regularly, on a paleo diet that includes a lot of almond flour and/or milk, people eating a lot of gluten free products or bars (almost all bars contain nuts!) and vegetarians/vegans that are eating a lot of soy products.

Remember you can still have oxalate build-up with out the genes and trialing a low-oxalate diet may be helpful, but for people that will have a life-long problem knowing your genetic predispostion is important. Magnesium and calcium citrate can be included as a supplement to help bind the oxalates as well as certain strains of probitiocs to help degrade them (calcium should not be daily if CVD risk). Our gut bacteria can also make oxalates!

Think you may have an oxalate issues?  Visit omicsdna.com to run either a mini diet panel that will tell you if you have variations in these genes or a full diet panel with testing.

The post What the Heck are Oxalates? And Why You Should Care appeared first on .

Are you interested in knowing how your genome can be influenced by your nutrition and lifestyle from the comfort of your own home? Then read on!

First lets define what the best things to look at with a direct to consumer kit are:

Genes involved with Nutrigenetics: The way the diet influences the risk of developing a disease

Genes that influence Nutrigenomics: How nutrients effect the genome AND the biochemistry we can measure related to lifestyle choices (this is key!)

From: Basic of Genetics, methylation, MTHFR and DHFR: Understanding the functional applications of nutritional genomics in practice

Snppros.com

*Direct to consumer tests do include some pathogenic (disease causing) SNP’s but not many.  If you are testing for a genetic disease please work with a doctor or genetic counselor.

Step 1: order a kit from a CLIA certified lab (want me to do this for you?  Ask me how)

What the heck does this mean?

It means the raw data that you receive back form the company is RELIABLE!

“All laboratories that perform health-related testing, including genetic testing, are subject to federal regulatory standards called the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) or even stricter state requirements. CLIA standards cover how tests are performed, the qualifications of laboratory personnel, and quality control and testing procedures for each laboratory. By controlling the quality of laboratory practices, CLIA standards are designed to ensure the analytical validity of genetic tests.” https://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/primer/testing/validtest

For direct to consumer testing the only two that I am aware of that currently have this certification are 23 and me and MyHeritage. Please comment below if you know otherwise.

If you are worried about privacy, opt out of sharing your information and do not participate in their research.  (you may have to click decline many many many times).

After you have downloaded your data have it deleted.

There are certain bits of information that will still be kept but your information will not be used for research.  To me the information you will glean from running your genetics far outweighs the risks.

From the New York Times:

“23andMe

To delete your 23andMe data, head to your account settings page and find the “Delete Your Data” option under “23andMe Data.” You can download any or all of your data before you destroy it. If you agreed to have your sample saved, it will also be physically destroyed.

However, 23andMe uses a laboratory that must follow regulations under the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments, or CLIA. This means that some data, including your DNA, sex and date of birth will be retained in order to comply with these regulations. The company will no longer use that information, though. You can read more about the company’s deletion process here.

MyHeritage

To delete data from MyHeritage, log into your account, click your name in the upper-right corner, and choose “Account Settings.” From there, scroll to the bottom of the page and click “Delete Account.” You can also choose to delete your Family Tree Builder projects or sites without deleting your entire account, but this will not necessarily delete your data. Since MyHeritage labs are CLIA-certified, they will also retain some information about you.”

One additional thing to remember:

If you plan on using another company to analyze your data (what I recommend), you DO NOT need to pay for the nutrition reports that these companies offer.  You get a complete raw data file that you can download when you order the ancestry only report and it is cheaper.

So……I’ve received my results… I’m 2% Neanderthal now what??!!

Step 2:. Decide what the heck I’m going to do with this information!

You have some options here. There is software that you can directly load your data into and try to analyze it yourself.  Some options here are Livewello and Prometheus or free software like Genetic Genie.  Do I recommend this? If you have some training, understand biochemistry and have a lot of time on your hands for research then sure.  Otherwise No.

There are a myriad of nutrition panels that you can buy on-line “How to eat for your genes,” blah blah, if this is something you are interested in (ever searched on the web) I’m sure it has popped up on your facebook feed, I’m not going to list them here.  People have brought me many of these, they are pretty reports and give some interesting information but usually when I ask my client was this helpful?  Was it actionable?  Did it improve your health? I get a blank stare….or they say I didn’t really understand it, it was contraindicated in parts, I tried the supplements it recommended and felt worse etc etc.

Most of these reports are made and researched by PhDs, RD’s, Certified nutritionists and Doctors.  They are looking at the correct genes BUT they are templates that are spitting out information and giving recommendations for food, lifestyle and supplement recommendations based ONLY on a variation in your genetic code.

A variation or SNP on a gene does not necessarily = a supplement. It doesn’t even mean that that variation is active!

IT DOES NOT WORK THAT WAY. Gene variations can turn on and off, they don’t change but the way the EXPRESS is influenced by our lifestyle.  This is called epigenetics!

Example: Just because the MTHFR enzyme (gene) makes folate does not mean that you take folate or folic acid because you have a variation!

Step 3:  Find a company or practitioner that uses these reports AND lab data to VALIDATE your genome, uses pathway analysis, symptom analysis and gives you recommendations based on all of this, not just the variation.

Your genome can be your blueprint for optimal health, it is an amazing tool when used correctly, but stressful and confusing when not.

Back in Jan of 2017 I wrote this article, some of these are still available and there are many many more companies now that are providing reporting.  I still am not wild about any of them, so I am now working for the Doctor who taught me everything I know about nutrition and how it relates to your genetics and I have helped create useable panels that are validated with labs.   Our reports are done by hand by an actual human and in most cases (unless mini panels) validated with required lab testing (your own unique biochemistry!) please visit here to see our offerings.  I’m really excited about these!

In Health,

Michelle

The post A Step by Step Guide on how to Look at your Genetic Data at Home (and what not to do!) appeared first on .

23andMe is a saliva-based direct-to-consumer personal genome test. It’s a fun way to learn about your ancestry and genetic traits that explain why you are the way you are! What is a genome? A genome is an organism’s complete set of genetic instructions. These instructions tell our body how to make proteins and molecules essential for growth, development and health.

Although the data 23andMe gives you is very interesting, you probably already knew that you have blue eyes or that your pee smells when you eat asparagus (you will find this out if you get the $199 test). Some interesting things you might not know is whether you have slow or fast twitch muscles. As a former marathon runner I guess I instinctively knew that I wasn’t really cut out for 26 miles and that all my running friends seemed to have greater success on the same running plan. It was nice to confirm that my muscles are more suited for sprinting! You can also find out if you metabolize caffeine fast or slow…don’t you hate those people that can drink coffee at 9pm and have no problem falling asleep! Or how about whether you are more likely to move in your sleep and even if you are more prone to be lactose intolerant!

There are 41 carrier status reports, which could be useful if you are planning on getting pregnant. From the website: “Carrier status tests detect genetic variants that can cause inherited conditions. These variants are often found primarily in certain ethnicities. Being a carrier means you have one variant for the condition. Carriers typically don’t have the condition but can pass the variant to their children”.

The ancestry section is pretty cool and gives you a good breakdown of your ancestry composition. If your mom and dad get the test too, you can merge your data to see how much of your ancestry composition came from each parent. I gave both of my parents the kit for Christmas and am looking forward to reviewing their results. Overall for $199 (sometimes on special for $149) it is a pretty interesting test, especially if you are a data nerd like me. If you want to just find out ancestry and still get the raw data file just pay $99!

Buy a 23andMe test here.

The Basics

DNA contains instructions for how your body works; it is made up of 23 chromosomes in pairs of two, one from each parent. It is made up of smaller units or building blocks (usually seen as A, T, C or G) when you combine these units into sequences they are called genes. One DNA sequence might tell your body how to make protein; these proteins might go on to build muscle fiber. In humans most of our DNA sequences are the same. It’s the 1-2% that makes us different. These differences are called variants or SNP’s (single nucleotide polymorphism) and this is what a DNA test shows, the differences that affect our ancestry, traits and health.

Let’s talk about limitations

The information on 23andMe is put together in neat reports, but beyond the limited data they present to you on-line, you enter more of the unknown. In 2013 the FDA shut down 23andMe because they were giving too much health/medical information. In 2015 they came back and the data they now give is useful but limited. But…you can download your raw data file with thousands of results to many websites that will interpret your data for you (you get the raw data file with the $199 and $99 test). But here’s the thing, just because you have a specific abnormal trait does not automatically mean anything is wrong with you. It may mean that there is a greater likelihood that the enzyme that gene produces won’t function as well but it is not a given. I see people bringing their genetic SNP reports they got on-line to their doctor convinced that this is what is wrong with them. I also see practitioners supplementing based just on one SNP. Take our Methylation pathway for example, the MTHFR SNP has gotten a lot of press lately as approximately 40-60% of the population (I see differing statistics everywhere) has at least one gene that contains a polymorphism. Practitioners are loading their patients with folate and B vitamins to help the pathway, which will help some people but if you don’t look at the big picture and some of the other related genes and environmental factors you may be affected negatively. It’s a new science and I believe it’s the future, but it’s newish and we need to proceed with caution. Find someone with experience and a working knowledge of metabolic pathways in the body to work with before jumping to conclusions. Having said all that, it is really fun to run these reports (for data nerds and people who can handle it.) If you are prone to being a hypochondriac proceed with caution!

How to read most reports you can run on-line:

There are two copies of each gene in your genetic profile, one copy from each parent. When both copies have a specific polymorphism it usually reads +/+ and is called homozygous (red in a lot of reports). If you have one copy from only one parent it will read +/- and is called heterozygous (yellow in a lot of reports). The + and the – specification refer to whether the gene has a change from what the report determines is the norm (and why occasionally reports/labs will vary depending on what reference database they use). If you see -/- (green in a lot of reports) then that means your DNA for that particular SNP is deemed “normal”. In some cases having a +/+ will actually increase the strength of the enzyme that gene produces and is considered abnormal but good and in some cases it decreases the efficiency of that enzyme and will be considered bad (not all reports make this designation and hence why some are hard to read unless you know what you are looking at).

Links to sites I liked and a short review

Again proceed with caution if you do this alone! Research your butt off before you draw conclusions or find someone to help you interpret, and remember it is for educational and informational purposes only unless you work with a genetic counselor, but have fun, this is some really interesting data to dig into!

https://athletigen.com – Exercise and athletic characteristics, free! Here is an article in USA today about how the Baylor Football team is using this genetic information to create individualized training programs for their players.

https://codegen.eu – Tons and tons of information, easy to use, Loads directly from 23andme, free!

http://www.compass.dna.land – easy to load file, takes awhile to process up to 24 hours, once loaded you must download a VCF and TBI file on to your computer. There is a lot of data but a little cumbersome to use, you have to know what you are looking for! Free!

https://www.dnafit.com -Nice website, you can sign up to get 14 daily emails about various genetic topics. Personalized fitness and nutrition genetic reports, cheapest report is $159. I did not buy one.

https://www.foundmyfitness.com Connects directly to 23andMe. Small amount of information but its good info. Free or you can make a donation. Report has most of the common single nucleotide polymorphisms that Dr Rhonda Patrick likes to talk about in podcasts and during presentations, a lot of relevant videos/news on the website.

https://www.gedmatch.com/ Easy to load, takes a few days to process. Data matches you to people with similar traits and/or genealogy. You can be public or private.

http://www.geneheritage.com All reports are $2. Only presents 8 genes, can compare to family members.

http://geneticgenie.org Only gives information on methylation and detox SNP’s so if you just want to know if you have the MTHFR SNP use this. Easy and free!

https://genoomy.com I like this report, they have a sample to look at. It color-codes your traits so you know if it’s good or bad and gives references. $19 for one report. (did not order)

http://www.impute.me Easy to load, decent report categories but hard to decipher what is bad and good. Free!

https://www.infino.me Easy to load, this is a project to try and understand the relationship between genetics and obesity, you can also connect a fitness tracker to join the study. The gene reports are presented in graphs. It’s a lot of info but need to know what you are looking for; association reports are presented if they exist.

https://knowyourgenetics.com One of my favorites, easy to use, supplement info on your methylation pathway. Also books and lectures available about genetics written by Dr. Amy Yusko.

https://livewello.com $19.95 for a gene variance report, paid subscription for more in depth nutrition reports. One of the more popular user-friendly sites.

https://www.nutrahacker.com Good methylation and detox plus supplemental recommendations, free. 4 other paid reports. Easy to load data.

https://opensnp.org For sharing and finding people with similar SNPs

https://promethease.com A lot of free information, report is $5. Information pulls form Snpedia. This site was recommended to me as the best by someone with genetic experience.

https://www.selfdecode.com Great reports, selfhacked.com is the founders website full of great information on genetics and health. $19.99/month but cancelable

https://seekinghealth.org/product/strategene/ The website of Dr. Ben Lynch. He does a lot of training in gene education to practitioners and the public. This report mostly focuses on a few main pathways with drawings. $45 for one report. (I did buy this $45 report)

Let me know if you have found any other sites you like. Don’t forget, you only have to run this report once your DNA will never change. The way it expresses itself though is up to you. The field of epigenetics has shown that lifestyle factors: what you eat, where you live, how much you exercise ect. can influence the way your genes are expressed. You can actually change the way your genes are expressed without actually changing the underlying DNA sequence. It is never to late to improve your health and teach your cells to read your genes in better ways. Don’t let a history of heart disease or Alzheimer’s in your family create your destiny. Find out the genes that might influence these disease states and whether yours are active and use nutrigenomics (how food and supplements effect gene expression) to optimize your nutrition based on your genotype. Genes are cool!

The post So you got a 23andMe test, now what? appeared first on .

To be honest I borrowed parts of my trip from Melissa Hartwig the creator of Whole 30.  Her trip recap can be found here.

And here’s mine!

Day 1:  We flew from LGA to Calgary airport, with a layover in Toronto.  We rented a car (you will need a car!) and drove to Canmore, which was about an hour away.  Canmore is a small mountain town about 10 minutes away from Banff and one hour away from Lake Louise.  I rented a condo at the Lodges of Canmore from Leavetown who I found through TripAdvisor.  I loved this town. It had grocery shopping, great restaurants, great walking and running trails, It’s own lake with hiking trails and beautiful mountain views at every turn!  We had dinner at Crazyweed right in Canmore.  Sooooo good.  You have to try their pickle marinated fried chicken!

Day 2: I recommend getting up early!  We tried to be on the road everyday by 6:30 or 7 (which was 8:30 East Coast time) as the popular sites get very crowded if you go in August.  The tour buses start arriving around 8:30.  But even if early is not your thing you can still see the sites especially if you hike and get away from the main area.  This day we drove 260 miles round trip on the Icefields Parkway.  We made major stops at Herbert Lake, Bow Lake and the Num Ti Jah Lodge, Peyto Lake (my favorite lake of the trip! There is a hike here I wish we had done), Mistaya Canyon, and lastly the Columbia Icefields.  There are many other stops and trails here is a good resource.  We decided to take a tour to the actual glacier and we thought it was well worth it.  There is a center right across from the glacier where you can buy tickets.  Then we drove home (2 hours and 45 minutes) but with that scenery and stops it flies!  Dinner in the room we were tired!

Day 3: We got up early and hit Morraine Lake first (This is the highest rated attraction on trip advisor!).  This is about 30 minutes from Lake Louise and is worth going too.  Climb the rocks on the side nearest to parking to get a great view.  There are trails here but we decided to head to Lake Louise, the main event!  At nine AM there was still parking and not overwhelming crowds.  We set out on our hike to the six glaciers!  This hike takes you a mile alongside Lake Louise to the trail head and is a breathtaking hike.  At the top we stopped at the Teahouse for lunch then headed back.  This is where I was a little dishonest with my daughter, I really wanted to see the other trail so we took the long way back detouring to the Lake Agnes trail (we actually did not make it to Lake Agnes, but this trail goes by Mirror Lake and gives you breathtaking views of Lake Louise from above)  Do them both!  You can do in the opposite order too, online will show you many options of connecting both trails.  There is a quite a bit of uphill but I saw people with babies on their backs doing it!  After getting to the bottom we relaxed in front of the Lake Louise Fairmount hotel a beautiful resort and then headed home.  That evening we went into the village of Banff to eat dinner at Coyotes South Western Grill.  This is another great mountain town with great shops and dining and is more popular to stay in, but I really liked Canmore better!  BTW we were at Lake Morraine very early so they lake looked a deep blue instead of aqua blue because of the light!  If you go later in the day it should look similar to Lake Louise.

Day 4: We did a shorter hike to Lake Grassi (take the trail that says more difficult) as you go by a waterfall.  This hike is right in Canmore and has beautiful views of the reservoir.  We ate at Communitea for lunch, a great restaurant right in Canmore (serves breakfast or lunch) with many vegan and gluten-free options.  Highly recommended!  Then we had a spa day right in Canmore at Rapunzel’s Day spa.  It was a great little place one minute from our condo.  We had to eat at Crazyweed again for dinner!  Had the same fried chicken but short ribs the first night and salmon the second.  Oh and get their Margarita, its to die for!

We also spent some time on the trails around Canmore, if you stay there be sure to explore!

Day 5: Ate at Communitea one last time (I had their pad thai with rice noodles and extra veggies, no tofu!) then we drove to the outlet mall by Calgary, I’m not even going to bother posting about it but I promised my daughter shopping if she hiked!  And by the way if you are in Canada do hit Roots!  They have the best sweatpants ever!  We spent a few hours there then ate dinner and spent the night in Calgary for an early morning flight.  Calgary is a nice city but its flat and once I could no longer see the Rockies in my rearview mirror I just got depressed.  So Calgary I probably was just to sad to appreciate what you had to offer.

I have been many amazing places but if you love nature and mountains and lakes that look like they are painted I can not think of a more beautiful place to experience all that nature has to offer!

p.s. bring water and snacks! (beef jerky, bananas, protein bars all good options) and fill up on a gas before you head out, stations are scant!  We did see some bear signs.  Bears do not like to attack humans and only will if threatened.  Everyone carries bear spray and is available in all the stores (to be honest I never bought it!) And if you hear people wearing bells, those are bear bells but I read they are not really helpful and wow are they irritating to hike by!

Let me know if you go!  BTW wordpress does not let me make these pictures bigger, to really see them double click for a bigger image!

Follow on Instagram to see more trip pictures!  Wellnessthroughfood

The post Food, Mountains and Hiking: A girls trip to Banff National Park appeared first on .

I recently started ordering food from a new on-line store called Thrive Market.  Healthy food can be expensive!  I am sometimes shocked that a small bag of beef jerky or a small bag of kale chips at the store is $7!  I have found that a lot of the items on Thrive that I normally buy at Whole Foods or Amazon are a lot cheaper.  Thrive does have a yearly fee like Costco but it is less than $5/month and I know for at least two of the products I buy monthly, it is $5-6 cheaper than the store or Amazon so I make my money back right there!  The Thrive website is sorted by dietary preference.  You can look at all products that are gluten-free or Paleo or Vegan, raw or organic.  Shipping is free on orders over $49.  One of the best things about Thrive is their mission of giving.  For each membership bought a free memberships is given to a low-income family through their selected charities.  You are able to try this model for 1 month with their 30 day free trial.  You can check out the website here!

Another great resource for on-line shopping is Vitacost.com here  I have found that most items compared with Thrive are more (but no membership fee) and the selection is a little larger.  I like to mix and match between the 2, Amazon and the store to stretch my dollars farther.  I am working on a post of my favorite healthy items with price comparisons so you can make the most of your money!  Oh and by the was these sites do not just include food!  They both have supplements, cleaning supplies, beauty products and baby items!

The post Healthy Food for Less appeared first on .

I truly believe that relatively small changes in what we eat and in the way in which we live our lives can have a positive impact on our overall well-being. I will blog about the benefits of eating ‘real food’, as well as eliminating things from your diet and life that serve no meaningful purpose and can actually be creating significant harm. As I am back in school to obtain a Masters in nutrition and have started to study more about the science of our bodies I realize there is a time and place for medicine. The advances we have made are phenomenal and I have complete respect and awe for the medical doctors who are performing life saving surgeries and helping people in so many ways. But along with these great strides I also believe that a preventative focus on overall well-being can eliminate many of the common ailments in our society today.   I have spent so many years of my life finding things that have worked for me, and am so excited to share my experiences.  I hope that it will also makes a meaningful difference in your life.   I will caution that our bodies are so complex, we are all different; and thus we may not all achieve the same results. Our world today is incredibly confusing and seemingly helpful attributes of our food supply (i.e. low fat, no fat, sugar fee, diet, natural, etc) are actually incredibly harmful for many of us.   The lack of knowledge and awareness in our society has been increasingly challenging given the marketing and biased studies of so many companies that influences what we put on our kitchen tables each day.   I am not into fear mongering, I look for scientific support and common sense when forming an opinion and study both sides of an issue should opposing views exist. This will be my place to share what I find, ask questions and to keep learning. I hope you will join me!

Michelle

The post Why I started the Wellness Through Food (WTF!) Blog……. appeared first on .

The post WTF? appeared first on .