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Congratulations to all who spent countless hours on this very important (and ground breaking!) information - especially our Medical Director, Jim Loomis, MD

Sometimes we, in the wellness community, become so ingrained in our careers, we tend to forget how we got where we are, and how to help others begin their journey. I’m calling myself out here, so we’re going to drill way down to the beginning. You’ve got kids pulling you in every direction. You’re caring for you parents. You’ve got a spouse who rolls their eyes every time you mention a new diet/lifestyle for the family, and your friends- well, they too, have their own ideas. However, we can all agree that more plants on plates is probably a good idea. I think we’ve all seen the solid research though a simple Google search and thanks to the American College of Lifestyle Medicine leading the charge in solidifying Lifestyle Medicine as a boarded specialty (that’s right, healthcare providers must take their boards to become a LM provider, just like any other specialty, like, endocrinology, oncology, internal medicine, etc.) the hunt is on even more to find a practitioner who can help round out attention to our wellness by addressing all six pillars of lifestyle medicine.

Good friend of the shop, producer of the coming soon, The Doc and Chef YouTube Series, and host of the uber successful PCRM The Exam Room Podcast, Chuck Carroll did a pop up podcast at the Center for Plant-based Living earlier this month. He will be taking the podcast to Los Angeles and New York soon (get your tickets!), and we felt honored that he started his trek here in the shop!

Kirkwood City Lifestyle Magazine is kicking off the new year by sharing some of our plant-based recipes to jump start your efforts to add more plants to your plate! Many thanks to Renee Moore for helping us share the good word about plants!

Forks Over Knives approached me to be the face of their 2023 Forks Meal Planner ReSet Campaign. It was an honor to walk members through the platform, meal prep and cook their amazing recipes, and come back to answer their questions.

You’re doing it wrong. At some point we were all doing it wrong. A new year with not so new goals. You want to lose XX weight (hey, Spring Break is right around the corner!), you want to get off your high BP meds now, you want to increase your insulin sensitivity, you want to fix your gut health immediately. I get it. Ok, so do it - but don’t do it without one step, and this is creating a foundation to BUILD ON and you do this by instilling simple and attainable micro-goals along the way. These micro-goals are really just check boxes along your journey to your main goal. They should be very attainable and easy to achieve. Meeting these small goals, one by one, builds confidence and knowledge to move forward and check off the next box. That’s how you will lose the weight, get off you meds, etc. This is the formula I use when coaching people to do just that. We are focusing on FIBER this month to help you reach that goal. FIBER: in the form of whole and mostly unprocessed plant foods and not added powders or supplements. In this new year, or whenever you find yourself reading it, our end goal is to be eating at least 40 grams of fiber every day. Straight out of the gate that can sound scary and if you are not used to seeing mostly plants on your plate, well, it is scary. Do not count calories. Do not count fat grams. Do not count carbohydrate grams. The FIBER FORMULA is the key to better health and we are doing this inside of one month. We will plan it out week by week (it’s so simple!) and by the end of the month, you will be at 40 and feeling great!

Whoever thought that such a beautiful plant could smell so badly, yet do a darn good job of supporting good health? In fact, this garlic plant is a member of the genus Allium in the lilly family. Garlic, as are onions, shallots, chives and leeks, are all members of this family and because of their, um, fragrance, are dubbed as stinking lilies. Allicin is one of the active chemicals found in plants of the Allium family. Garlic is by far the most concentrated source of this valuable nutrient, with lesser quantities found in onions, leeks, chives, and shallots. Here is how Allicin is formed: Alliin is an amino acid that is the precursor to allicin and other sulfur-containing compounds formed in garlic. Alliinase is an enzyme, or a protein that speeds up a chemical reaction. Alliinase aids in the transformation of alliin to allicin. Alliinase is inactive when exposed to heat or acid, so it will not develop after cooking or entering an acidic environment such as the stomach or being sprinkled with vinegar.