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Pistachios are robust in many nutrients that support healthy brain function. They are a great source of Vitamin B6, which can be quite low in people who have depression. B6 plays a role in energy production and helps the body make the brain chemicals (neurotransmitters) serotonin and norepinephrine [...]
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A favorite in Mediterranean cuisine, eggplant can be baked, roasted, grilled, used as a pizza topping or in stir-fry recipes. It has a pleasantly bitter taste and spongy texture that may vary depending on the color/variety of eggplant selected. Dress your cooked eggplant with herbs, sauces, and [...]
There are so many reasons – and so many ways – to love avocado. A culinary superfood, awesome avocados provide up to 20 nutrients including vitamins K, C and E, as well as folate, magnesium, zinc, and potassium. In fact, they actually have more potassium than bananas. I wrote [...]
I’ve devoted several blogs to the Mediterranean Diet–its affect on cholesterol, on Alzheimer’s prevention, its red wine and palliation near the end of life, and its easy, rustic preparations. The mechanisms of the Mediterranean diet remain elusive: whether it is because of its [...]
With all the confusion about what to eat, and with how often nutrition experts seem to change their minds, I thought it was time to go back to basic culinary medicine and see if I could find groups of recipes and actual foods for specific chronic conditions. In other [...]
Today I had the privilege of speaking to the Pacific Egg and Poultry Association at their 92nd Annual Convention: what a great experience! I gave away rare citrus, and a golden egg, and signed lots of books. I hung easel slides with clothespins on a clothesline for the farm [...]
From Shakespeare’s reference to “pumpion” in The Merry Wives of Windsor to The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, pumpkin is woven into the fabric of history and cuisine. Native Americans roasted long strips of pumpkin over an open flame and ate them. Colonists made pumpkin pie by slicing [...]
Though I’ve written about this in the WSJ and the NY Times before, I thought I’d lay out a more succinct approach to something that millions now struggle with. The fact that the FDA has approved a second new injectable drug to lower very high cholesterol, Amgen’s Repatha, means [...]
Controlling cholesterol is a small part of preventing heart disease. Yet physicians seldom offer the most powerful, least risky weapons we have against it. Instead, we recommend statin medications, and soon can prescribe a just-FDA approved biotech medication called Praluent. For decades, [...]