I’m seeing more and more cases of weird bacterial infections in my clients. I’m amazed how many rounds of antibiotics I have approved of in the last few months for bacterial infections of the digestive tract and lymphatic system, as well as the more common sinus and respiratory tracts.

Normally, we all have viruses, bacteria, various parasites and micro-organisms, even deformed cells inhabiting our bodies. Our immune system works to keep a healthy balance. It’s a complicated eco-system within our bodies, one we understand as little as we do the eco-system of the planet, but I have a few suggestions to help you keep harmony within.

Starting at the beginning, watch what you put in your mouth. Your mouth contains a lot of good bacteria working to stop invaders from getting any further, but they can only do so much. Before you touch food or anything else you will put in your mouth, make sure your hands are clean. I’m not a fan of antibacterial products because they eliminate a wide spectrum of bacteria, creating imbalance. Studies have shown that warm water and soap work just as well as antibacterial products. The key is to wash for 30 seconds—about the amount of time it takes to sing “Happy Birthday” twice. Ignore the ads showing “bad” bacteria on door handles and other places. We are surrounded by microbes. The point is not to kill them all—that would lead to a sterile unhealthy place—but instead to limit access to our sensitive areas, such as the mucus membranes and digestive system. You don’t need to wash obsessively, just if you are going to touch your face or food.

The next antimicrobe stop in your body is your stomach. The stomach is an acid environment designed to break down proteins. The acid also kills all manner of microbes that have hitched a ride in on your food. Antacids such as Tums and Prevacid reduce the amount of acidity in your stomach, making it easier for harmful microbes to pass through into the fertile breeding ground of your intestines. If you have acid reflux, call or e-mail me for healthier ways to cope with it.

Your intestines should be full of beneficial microbes. Encourage them by eating yogurt with active cultures, sauerkraut, or by taking a probiotic. (Food is always better than pills.)

Your skin is another entryway for microbes. Ideally, the skin is covered with an acid mantle that protects from external toxins. Unfortunately, our culture’s obsession with bathing strips away the acid and leaves us vulnerable to external pathogens. Soap turns your skin’s pH alkaline, and it takes a few hours to rebalance to acid again. Eating foods high in Vitamin C helps, so eat fresh fruit after your morning shower. The acid on your skin probably helps protect against skin cancer too, so don’t go out in the sun right after showering with soap.

Macrobiotic proponent Michio Kushi suggested that soap just be used on sweaty areas (under arms, feet, pubic area) and on places with visible dirt (such as after gardening). Using just water on the rest of you will clean without disturbing the acid mantle. There are body products containing Vitamin C which are probably helpful to the skin, such as those made by Jason, available at health food stores.

Finally, reduce your stress levels. You’ve noticed how when you are under the most stress is when you get sick (or just after the stress lifts, when your body collapses from the effort of coping). Your antimicrobe defenses work the same way. Do a good job of managing your response to stress, and your body’s ecosystem will be healthier.

Do this with deep breathing, positive affirmations, taking time to chew, eating real food. A recent prostate cancer study showed that men who ate more fruits and vegetables, exercised moderately, and relaxed for an hour a day actually reversed their cancer growths. I think that’s good advice for anyone, especially the relaxing part.

The following is drawn from an address I gave at the 2007 Natural Agriculture Conference at Shumei America’s National Center in Pasadena.

When we mention “organic diet,” it can sound daunting. There are many obstacles to eating natural, nourishing food. It’s easier to eat fast, processed, packaged, or frozen food, which are just calories, not real food. Organic food is grown without any chemical fertilizers or pesticides, so there are no toxins put on the land or food that you eat. Our bodies are not created to eat chemicals, preservatives, waxes, and artificial colorings that are put on or in food. Unfortunately, even organic does not necessarily mean healthy. Organic sugar is still sugar. We need to read labels, even at the health food store. Manufacturers add ingredients just to make food taste good to our palate. Human tastes have changed over the years, and manufacturing of foods has evolved, so more sugar and salt is going into food, even healthy food.

In an organic diet, we eat seasonal food in as natural a state as possible. It is nearly springtime here in California, which means it is time to eat asparagus, leafy greens, turnips, rutabagas, and beets. People who only eat food out of cans miss the variety in nature. Eating seasonally allows us to put a variety of foods into our diets. The only way I know of to keep the seasons straight here is to buy food from farmers who are growing their food locally. You can buy anything at health food stores at any time of year because it is flown in from all over the world. That does not mean it is nourishing for your body right here and now. Your body is thriving or surviving in the climate you are living in, so it is used to the temperature that is outside. It is most nourished by food that is growing in your climate. Another benefit of eating locally grown food is that there is less fossil fuel spent in transporting the food long distances.

Our bodies have not changed much in the last five thousand years as we have eaten vegetables, grains, meat, and some fish. We were not eating vitamin pills or the chemicals that came into production around World War I. Most of the chemicals used on our food are byproducts of the chemical weapons industry, later turned into chemical pesticides and fertilizers when chemical weapons were banned worldwide. Our bodies know how to eat real food, not chemicals.

Organic food is grown in soil that has more minerals in it, and those minerals come up into the food you eat. Organic produce has more minerals in it than regular produce. There was a study published in the Journal of Applied Nutrition that found organic produce has 60 percent more calcium, 73 percent more iron, 188 percent more magnesium, and 29 percent less mercury than non-organic produce. You probably never thought of your produce containing mercury, but it is in our soil because of nearly a hundred years of chemical runoff.

Minerals are important for our bones to prevent osteoporosis, and are also important for our nervous systems. Many people are stressed out, hyperactive, and do not sleep well. This is a common sign of mineral deficiency, because minerals help us sleep at night. If you are not sleeping and you are drinking coffee every morning to wake up, and then taking sleeping pills at night in order to sleep, you are probably lacking in minerals. Mineral supplements will not solve your problem, because your body will not absorb them as well as it will the minerals in your food. Put the supplements aside and eat real organic food.

One of the keys to good digestion is chewing. The enzymes in your saliva break down carbohydrates. We can digest meat with just the acid in our stomach, but carbohydrates and vegetables must be broken down by saliva enzymes. Chew food to the consistency of baby food before you swallow it.

Science is now discovering that there are many bioflavonoids and carotenoids in fruits and vegetables that are good for anti-aging and our immune system. We cannot just take one kind of bioflavonoid or one kind of antioxidant. We need to have a variety of them. The best way to get a wide variety is to eat many different foods. Thomas Jefferson grew two hundred varieties of peas on his farm at Monticello. How many varieties can you now find in a store? We are lucky to find one shelling pea, and we get only a few varieties of frozen peas in a bag.

You would think all oranges are the same, right? This morning I bought some fabulous tangerines that I juiced for breakfast. Next week my farmer will have tangelos. I know I will get different nutrients from the tangelos than I get from the tangerines because the color is different, they grow on a different tree and have a different bio-chemical make-up. The more colors you have on your plate when you eat, the healthier you will be. Orange vegetables, like sweet potatoes and yams, have phytochemicals that are called phytosterols, which are similar to cholesterol in their chemical make-up. Your body needs good cholesterol for a variety of functions. It uses the phytosterols instead of making cholesterol, so eating sweet potatoes and yams can actually lower bad cholesterol.

Inside the supermarket, around the perimeter of the walls is where you will find all the real food: the fresh vegetables, meats, breads, and dairy foods. On the inside aisles are the canned, boxed, and frozen foods, and soda pop you should not buy. If it is not possible to get to a farmers’ market, always shop around the perimeter walls of the supermarket. Processed foods, on the inner aisles, have had all time-sensitive goodness removed, and have food preservatives. I want my food to rot and break down into compost if I do not eat it. I do not want food to sit in my refrigerator for a year until I decide to eat it. If you find something in a store, and the label says it will be good for a year or more, think twice before buying it.

Commercial farms breed tomatoes specifically to make them easier to transport long distances. They pick them under-ripe and put them in huge trucks, which are pumped full of ethylene gas to ripen the tomatoes as they drive across the country. They do not have any taste because they are not ripening on the vine. I prefer to pay my grocery money to the person who grew my food at the farmers’ market. I know my money goes to the farmer who is protecting our planet by growing organically and saving agricultural land from development.

In California, our markets are certified farmers’ markets which means you are buying from the farmer or his employees. It does not, however, mean they are organic. Organic certification is different. I had a client who was drinking a tea for her lungs made from grapefruits, including the rind, but they were not organic grapefruits. They were being sprayed with something and her lungs kept getting worse. I told her, “You have to get organic grapefruits; otherwise they will have wax or chemicals on them.” Please find a farmers’ market near you and give it a try. You will find one or more organic farmers at every one. These are people who have their hands in the soil, working hard to grow your food. And it is a lot of work.

Now I want to talk about sugar. Sugar is a highly processed food. Sugar is to sugar cane what cocaine is to the coca leaf. In Central America, people will chew on a coca leaf and it gives them energy to do their farming. If you take that coca and you process it, you get cocaine, which we know is a highly addictive. Sugar is similar. If you go to a sugar plantation and suck on some sugarcane, which is fibrous and contains minerals, it will give you an energy boost. Compare that to the poisonous, addictive, processed white sugar, which gives you energy initially and then later gives you a sugar crash.

The two tastes humans really enjoy are fat and sugar. If the food industry removes one item, they add more of the other. If you read the label on “no fat” yogurt, chances are it has more sugar than regular yogurt and it will raise your cholesterol levels. A little bit of sugar is not going to hurt you unless you are diabetic, but sugar is in all the food we eat and is contributing to high cholesterol and diabetes across America. Honey, which is loaded with vitamins and minerals, and organic molasses, high in iron, are both better sweeteners.

Artificial sweeteners are even worse than sugar. There are more reports on the side effects from aspartame in NutraSweet than any other product in the history of the Food and Drug Administration. Aspartame is a toxic byproduct of the weapons industry. High fructose corn syrup is second worse and in almost every food you buy in the central part of the supermarket. We have a really effective political corn lobby from big, commercial agriculture in this country. They discovered that high fructose corn syrup is really useful in soft drinks and many fruit juices. Things that you think are natural and healthy may have high fructose corn syrup. It throws your blood sugar off, is highly addictive, has no nutritional value, and is highly processed so all the minerals from the corn are completely gone. Eliminate high fructose corn syrup from your diet and you will notice a difference.

In America we have so much genetically modified corn that we are now selling it across the border in Mexico. It is cheaper for them to buy our genetically modified, pesticide-filled corn than it is for the farmer in Mexico to grow corn as he has all his life. It is amazing when we think about farming and eating locally, how we realize that every mouthful of food we eat has an effect on the geo-politics, economy, and environment of the world. We can take steps individually and collectively towards eating with wisdom in knowing what is on our plate and appreciating why it is there.

Now let us talk about a couple of good foods. Eating two apples a day will lower your bad cholesterol. Eating healthy fish, like tuna, salmon, and sardines, which are good for your cardiovascular system, will also lower your cholesterol. Eat all of the cruciferous vegetables you can, such as turnips, rutabagas, bok choy, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, mustard greens, and kale. These create enzyme reactions in our bodies that kill cancer cells. Cruciferous vegetables are also good for women going through menopause or women having irregular periods where their estrogen levels are going up and down.

Whole soy as in soybeans, tofu, and the healthy kind of soymilk, is also good for menopausal women, and has cancer-fighting properties, in that soy causes cancer cells to self-destruct. Soy isoflavones, which are a small part of the soybean, have not been proven to have the same healthy effects. Start eating whole edamame soy beans.

Eating organically and healthily does not have to be difficult. It can be simple, but takes a little practice to get good at it. Buy fruit and vegetables at the farmers’ market, preferably organic, from the people who grow it. Find a health food store near you for your whole grains, breads, and free-range, hormone-free meats. The final key is to remember to read labels. If it has high fructose corn syrup, even organic, then leave it on the shelf. If you cannot pronounce it, do not eat it. When you are shopping for the week, buy a variety of colorful produce.

If you take something home, but you do not really know what to do with it, here is my two-step secret. If it is a root, meaning it grows in the ground, scrub it, chop it up, toss it in olive oil, and put it in a 450-degree oven and you will get delicious roasted root vegetables. If you take home a leafy vegetable, you can wash it, chop it up, put it in a pot on the stove with a little water still clinging to its leaves, and gently steam it on low heat down into cooked greens. You can add some balsamic vinegar, soy sauce, or chili oil. Sometimes I will fry a little bit of onion first and then cook the greens on top of that. You will like some, and others you will not like and you will have wasted about $1.50 on a bunch of greens. Treat it as an adventure. You will find so many things that you would never have thought of eating before.

Make sure to include healthy fats in your diet, such as: organic butter, olive oil for cooking, and flax seed oil on salads. Once you have your beautiful greens and your root vegetables cooking and put a little olive oil on them for your fat—take a moment to smell how good that smells. Take a moment to think, “Wow, look at the people who brought me this food.” Think of the farmers. Think of the earthworms. Think of the piece of the planet that your food was grown on, and take a moment to appreciate it and yourself for making this commitment to healthy eating.

Our skin is our outside—the part of us we present to the world. It is also an organ of elimination, so we dump toxins through it. This combination leads to much distress, which I’ve found needs to be addressed on many levels.

First, on the physical level, be kind to your skin. Use only products that are natural, scent-free as much as possible, and feel good on your skin. Use essential oil of lavender directly on pimples—it’s antibacterial and helps speed healing and prevent scarring. I’ve had many clients whose skin cleared up when they stopped using medicated topical creams and instead used lavender.

This could also be because lavender cleans the lymph. When we clean our other organs of elimination, the skin doesn’t have to work as hard. So I often recommend a good cleanse to people with skin problems. Ask your health care practitioner or natural food store to recommend something that cleans the liver, lymph and colon. I recommend a parasite cleanse as well.

You might want to eat cleaner food—more organic vegetables, fewer flour products, no sugar and food additives—for a few weeks. Spring is a good time to cleanse. Just remember that whatever you try has to feel good. It might feel a little unpleasant at first as the toxins start to move, but basically your body should feel like it’s going in the right direction. If you’re uncertain, talk to a practitioner, or try another cleanse.

On an energetic level, I’ve seen many skin illnesses rooted in the second chakra. Otherwise known as the sacral chakra, this is located in the lower abdominal area. It is linked to feminine power, creativity, and flowing through life. No wonder acne starts in adolescence when power, expressing who we are, and going with the flow are all huge issues in our growth!

Find an energy healer to help you with your second chakra. To start with, are you expressing who you are? Do you know who you are? These are big questions, but not ones to think about. Rather, you need to explore them in a nonverbal way. Sit down with a big piece of paper and colored pencils and draw from your lower abdomen. Tell it that you’re ready to hear what it has to say. If drawing is too intimidating, try Play-Doh—create shapes from your second chakra. The key is to approach this with a sense of excitement and interest, not criticism. This is not art. This is listening to you. Journaling with the nondominant hand is another way to access this inner creative voice.

The second chakra is also where we hold wounds of separation and rejection. You might want to work with a good therapist to look at what feelings you are still holding on to, and how you can create a place of healing and support within you so you really get that you are never alone, that you are always loved, and that you are perfect just the way you are. Start by just sitting with your hands on your lower abdomen and telling the wounded parts of yourself that you love them, that you support them, and that you will do your best to protect them in the future.

Be your own inner champion. Create a strong vessel from within which you can contain the vibrant waters of the second chakra. Because the second chakra is also about flow. Without banks, the river can’t flow easily. Create the secure space for your creativity to flow. Remind yourself of cosmic oneness, and your inner beauty.

With humans fighting around the world, the energy of fear and panic is permeating our planetary psyche. Everyone (including animals) feels it on some level because we are all one. We heal the planetary panic by healing our own.

In my experience, panic attacks occur when your energy partially leaves your body. Your body panics because it feels your spirit leaving.

Many factors can trigger this energy effect. The most common is chemical exposure. Thousands of chemicals surround us every day in beauty and cleaning products, the off-gassing of plastic objects, and more. Some people have immediate reactions to these chemicals, others have delayed ones. Try using natural products and see how they affect you.

Fluorescent lights are another trigger. The rapid flickering on and off is hard on the nervous system. Many of my clients report panic attacks in malls. Unfortunately the energy-efficient compact fluorescent bulbs have the same effect.

Food sensitivities can play a part. Try eliminating sugar and food additives. Then consider trial eliminations of corn, dairy, and wheat. A good healer can help you with these decisions.

Others find panic starts in large groups or public places. They absorb and try to process the energy of others which overwhelms them and leads to panic. For this I recommend the flower remedy of Yarrow made by Flower Essence Services (FES)—available at most health food stores. Yarrow allows others’ energy to flow through you instead of sticking to you. Another flower remedy I find useful is Star of Bethlehem, a Bach Flower Remedy that clears shock out of the body. This can be a recent shock, or the shock from something that happened years ago. I find there is often a reason people learn to leave their bodies, some old trauma (it can be as small as being scared when you were left alone for a minute in a grocery cart and you couldn’t see your mom) that needs to be released without necessarily knowing what it was.

I find people who have panic attacks tend to be ungrounded. They are not fully inhabiting their bodies, usually because of a dysfunctional base chakra. I recommend partial squats (with no weight) to energize the base chakra. Carry hematite or garnet to keep you grounded. Have a good energy healer work on your base chakra.

Since the base chakra directly affects the physical body, I recommend working with diet and exercise to keep things flowing. I also find a liver cleanse is helpful, as the liver processes the toxins which make the body uninhabitable. Remember that bodies are supposed to be fun—enjoy your body.

Meditation helps maintain centeredness—sometimes walking meditation is best. Deep breathing as a regular practice helps you stay calm when the panic starts creeping in. Remember that the best way to deal with panic attacks is to keep yourself centered and grounded so they don’t happen.

First of all, ADD is not a Ritalin deficiency. In my opinion, it is mainly a reaction to the environment.

There is too much stimulation in our modern world—from noise to electromagnetic fields to chemicals. At the same time we are becoming more passive. As we sit in front of video games or television or the computer screen, our eyes and our brains are working but our bodies are not. Bodies spend their time processing all the stimulants—over-using the immune, endocrine and nervous systems—which in turn leads to imbalance on the physical, emotional and mental levels.

Because children are smaller than adults, these chemicals and stimulants have a greater effect (this is why children take smaller doses of drugs and vitamins). Adults also suffer from the effects of the environment, but we have other names for it besides ADD.

The book Is This Your Child? by clinical ecologist Doris Rapp, explores the link between environmental factors and destructive and hyperactive behaviors. I saw a presentation in Ottawa ten years ago where Rapp showed films of children drawing peacefully until they were exposed to an allergen. Then they became aggressive and hyperactive and drew violent pictures. It was horrifying to watch the quick transformation, and yet so interesting to see the link between allergens and emotions. I have Multiple Chemical Sensitivities and my first response to a toxin tends to be an emotional one—I get cranky or bad-tempered. Now that I know what the problem is I can remove myself from the toxin before I get a worse reaction. Imagine what it is like for children who don’t have that knowledge or power.

A naturopath in the early 1930s predicted that if we continued to add chemicals and sugar to our food, in 100 years people would be killing each other in the street for no reason. Everyone thought he was crazy. Yet look what is happening in our sugar- and chemical-saturated society.

If you are concerned about hyperactivity (or any kind of ill health) in your child, why not try a clean diet—no food additives, no artificial sweeteners, no processed food. Sugar, high-fructose corn syrup and caffeine should also be avoided.

I have found a strong link between hyperactivity and red food dye—which is in many children’s medications as well as all kinds of food products. Some children also are sensitive to the salicylates in red berries.

It’s good to get your child tested by a clinical ecologist or applied kinesiologist to see what specific food sensitivities she/he might have. These will not show up in a typical prick test at the allergist’s. A way to test on your own is to check the pulse rate before eating a large amount of a potential allergen and then every five minutes afterwards for half an hour. A spike in pulse rate indicates a sensitivity.

Food is not the only link with ADD. Fluorescent lights can also be a problem because their constant flickering distracts the brain. Wearing a baseball cap (brim front) provides some protection.

Cleaning supplies can also be a culprit. Try hypoallergenic, environmentally-friendly cleaners from the health food store, especially for clothing and bedding. Find out what they use at your daughter’s school and lobby for a healthy alternative.

Remember, ADD is a form of hypersensitivity. Living simply is the best answer. Fewer chemicals. Less external stimulation. More activity. Drugs should be the last resort, not the first.

With so much conflicting information on nutrition available, it is hard to know what to believe.

I’ve been a vegetarian for years because that is what my body prefers. However, I’ve told many clients to eat red meat or fish. Each of us has different dietary needs and digestive abilities, so it’s better to eat the food which is right for us, not follow the latest fad.

I think the key to remember is that nature has already provided everything our bodies need. For thousands of years we ate real food. Then in this century we discovered chemicals and our food became processed, chemicalled, dyed, and nutritionally deficient. At the same time we are damaging our food supply with pollution and excess chemicals. We are ignoring the natural wisdom of our bodies and our earth, and we have skyrocketing rates of obesity and diabetes to show for it.

If you want to change your diet for the better, I can recommend no better place to start than by eating whole foods. Vegetables of all colours and varieties provide countless vitamins and minerals, as well as enzymes if you eat them raw and chew well. Your body doesn’t need chemical pesticides and fertilizers so eat organic whenever possible. These are grown with chemical-free agricultural practices that are good for the Earth. And I have yet to meet a body that was pesticide-deficient.

Whole grains, fruit, nuts and seeds can all be part of a healthy diet (barring allergies). So can animal products. Again, I recommend organic, because the hormones and antibiotics fed to conventionally-farmed animals aren’t even good for the animals—how can they be good for humans?

For most clients, I recommend avoiding low-fat food. Usually it has extra sugar added to make it taste good. Excessive refined sugar has been linked to all sorts of health problems from diabetes to high cholesterol. (Read Sugar Blues by William Duffy for a real eye-opener.) I’m not into deprivation, but if you read the ingredients of the non-food you buy in the store, you will see a form of sugar in almost everything. No one needs that much sugar. Enjoy a little sweetness from less refined sources like fruit, maple syrup and honey.

The idea of whole food carries over to fats. We need essential fatty acids for healthy cellular function, so don’t cut them out. Get the least refined oils possible. Most of the oils at the supermarket are hydrogenated—avoid these. Get cold-pressed oils and keep them refrigerated so they stay fresh.

The basic guidelines are simple: If it is real food, eat it. If it isn’t, don’t. (And forgive yourself when you stray from your ideal—the occasional cookie won’t hurt you. Balance is important.)

Because we are each different, and we each absorb food in different ways, it is wise to see a nutritional consultant who uses applied kinesiology (muscle testing) to determine which foods your body needs. They will also check for food sensitivities and digestive-tract disturbances that stop you from absorbing your food, and help you bring your body to a level of optimum wellness.

The most important thing to remember about a food plan is that it should make you feel good. If someone (even a nutritionist) recommends a diet to you that your body doesn’t feel good on, then it’s not right for you. Change it. A good practitioner will hear your feedback and adjust the program accordingly.

Remember also that our bodies change as we age. What fueled you through college will not necessarily nourish you in midlife. Pay attention to the signals your body gives you, and get help when you need it.

Driving home from the Hollywood Farmers Market Sunday morning, admiring the clear blue sky and smelling the strawberries in the back seat, I realized how much I value the connection with the Earth that I feel after a walk around the outdoor market, admiring the fresh-grown produce, and talking to the sun-burnished farmers with dirt ground into their fingers. I rejoice in the changing seasons as evidenced by the changing produce—from fennel to snap peas to melons—and in the true abundance of our planet. Look how plants thrive here—ready to provide us with more nutrients than we’ve yet discovered in our labs.

We’re spoiled here in L.A.: beautiful food grows year round. In Montreal, I was part of a Community Supported Agriculture Project. We paid the farmer each year and he used the money to grow his crops and gave us boxes of food every two weeks. In the winter, when snow was deep on the ground, we ate potatoes, carrots, beets and cabbage from his storeroom. The first asparagus in June was a grand event! So you can imagine the pleasure I get going to the market here in December and January! (For the record, grocery stores in Montreal carry a variety of produce year round just like they do here.)

Food has been a large part of my life since I became a vegetarian more than twenty years ago. I learned to cook healthy meals, and dabbled in whole foods and macrobiotics. Then when I developed Multiple Chemical Sensitivities (Environmental Illness), I experienced firsthand the connection between agricultural chemicals and my health. This led me to a commitment to organic food that has served me well.

One of the things I love about the farmers’ market is buying directly from the farmers who care so well for the land. I only frequent the stalls with organic produce (a certified California farmer is not necessarily an organic farmer—watch for the signs), and I feel good knowing that my food dollar is going to someone who cares for the soil. Because that is the foundation of organic gardening—keeping the soil healthy. Just like the foundation of our body’s health comes from the food we eat, so does the health of the soil come from the nourishment given to it in the form of compost and beneficial microbes and mulch. These farmers are not just growing food that keeps me healthy, they are also working to ensure that parts of our earth remain healthy for future generations. Who better to give my money to?

I am disappointed, however, when I walk into so-called natural foods markets and health-food stores (I gave up on grocery stores years ago) and find that most of what is for sale is not healthy, is not organic, in fact does not even make it into the category I call Real Food.

What is Real Food? A teacher of mine years ago said “If it doesn’t grow in the ground, don’t put it in your mouth.” You can’t get simpler than that. Now take a box of anything out of your cupboard or fridge and read the ingredients. There are probably some you can’t pronounce, including some that grew in a chemical factory not a garden. Read your package of herbal tea. Does it say “natural flavorings”? Did you know natural flavorings can be made from slaughterhouse byproducts, or MSG, or any number of chemicals made to taste or smell of something they’re not? Unless the product is clearly marked vegetarian, it might not be.

Disgusting, eh? And you thought you were eating healthy.

(By the way, while meat and fish don’t grow in the ground, they can be part of a healthy diet as long as they are grown healthily—organically raised, no hormones, etc.)

Let’s start eating Real Food—food that is less processed, has no chemicals, that is grown in a sustainable way. Summer is a great time to start—the fruit and vegetables at the farmers markets are lush and tasty and easy to eat—just wash and chew.

As the Santa Anas start to blow, many people suffer from dry, itchy eyes and sinus problems.

Fortunately, relief is at hand. Literally. There are reflexes on your hands and feet that relate to all parts of your body. It’s easy to work on your hands to relieve allergies and other problems.

Start by warming up your hands a little. Gently stretch out your fingers, rotate your wrists, loosen your shoulders.

Then press firmly into the reflexes described below below. Press so you can feel the pressure, but don’t bruise yourself. If a particular place hurts more acutely, ease the pressure, but spend a longer time massaging it. See if you can massage the pain away. I often use the tips of my fingers, and do small circular massaging motions to get deeply into the reflexes.

1. On the pad of each finger are the sinus reflexes. Press in behind the nail (on your fingerprint) firmly, three to five times each finger.
2. The fingers and thumb relate to the head. Massage gently down from the top of the fingers (near the nail) to the base, pressing extra on any sore points. This helps release the head tension that comes with allergies.
3. Between the fingers are other reflexes for the sinuses. Pinch the webbing between the fingers (this could be tender), and roll the webbing between your finger and thumb. This also releases shoulder and neck tension.
4. The adrenal reflex helps slow down the allergic reaction. This is on the palm of your hand. Feel down your thumb bone into the palm of your hand. On the finger side of that bone, about halfway between your thumb and your wrist, is the reflex you’re looking for. It will be sore. Dig into it with your finger or other thumb.