Do you take any multivitamins or dietary supplements? If so, you are among the three quarters of Americans who do and the growing number in the rest of the world. The supplement industry is estimated to be worth $40 billion in the US alone. Although so many people are routinely taking these supplements, they are not really regulated. In fact, the last major legislation regulating supplements in the US was nearly 25 years ago with the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA). This Act essentially formally defined a dietary supplement, required ingredients to be listed and for a disclaimer to be present that the FDA had not evaluated any claims of the product. Unfortunately, not all supplements and vitamins are as they seem. They could contain less (or more) than what they claim or even include harmful ingredients or contaminants. I recommend checking out Labdoor.com to find out which supplements are actually what they claim. Labdoor tests a bunch of products at a

This recipe is one of my favorites and it can be modified to add more or less spice or swap out the pasta for zoodles! Serves 4-6 ~30 min Ingredients: 1 pound linguine pasta (you can swap the pasta for zoodles - spiralized zucchinis. One zucchini equates to about one serving) 1 pound shrimp 1 pound andouille sausage sliced or similar sausage  1/2 cup chicken stock or broth 1/2 cup heavy cream 1/2 yellow onion diced 1/2 green bell pepper diced 3 Tbsp cajun seasoning - we usually have Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning on hand 2 cloves garlic minced 4 Tbsp butter red pepper flakes to taste Directions:  Boil a large pot of water and cook the linguine al dente. (*side note - have you ever tried throwing a piece of pasta at the cabinets to see if it sticks? Supposedly it's done if it sticks). If you want to use only one pot, drain the pasta and set aside. Otherwise, get another pot and begin cooking the other stuff. If you are using zoodles, cook them in a pan

I've come to love guacamole and it's an easy way for me to get healthy fats more often. I used to hate it, but it was because the kinds I had tried previously were chunky or the recipes weren't quite right. I still don't really like sliced avocado because of the texture, but love this guacamole since it's mashed up completely and mixed with other tasty things like jalapeños and cilantro! Without further ado, here's the recipe we usually stick with: 3 avocados mashed - it's much easier when you let the avocados ripen and get softer before making the guac. I use a potato masher. 2 small jalapeños seeded and diced - you can add more or less to your taste, but we like it with more of a kick. For a different kick, try 1/2 a poblano pepper instead! 1/4 cup cilantro finely chopped - again, you can add more or less to your taste but we love cilantro! 2 roma tomatoes diced 1/2 red onion 1 juiced lime 1 clove garlic minced pinch of salt Mix it all up

Popular health journal, The Lancet,  has launched a commission and lengthy report calling out obesity, undernutrition and climate change as creating a global syndemic (think pandemic, but multiple large-scale risks all occurring at the same time).  Obesity and undernutrition will be the focus of this post. It may seem odd that two seemingly opposites are such large problems. We may think that obesity is associated with developed countries and undernutrition with developing countries, but both are really affecting the whole world. Someone can be obese while also being malnourished if they are not consuming nutrient dense foods. In fact, obesity is estimated to affect over 2 billion people world wide. That's over a quarter of the entire global population. Furthermore, obesity and it's affects are the 3 out of 4 leading causes of non-communicable diseases around the world. (1) All of this is nothing new and groups and governments have tried and failed to address these issu

It's becoming more accepted that inflammation is the leading cause of many, if not all, diseases. An increasing number of drugs and therapies are being developed to block the inflammatory processes to treat or prevent many diseases including cancers, infectious diseases and auto-immune disorders. (1) What is inflammation anyways? To summarize the process, the inflammatory response starts with the delivery of blood components, plasma and leukocytes, to the site of an infection or tissue injury. These components are normally restricted to blood vessels but now are able to access the other tissues outside of those vessels at the site of infection or injury. At this point, neutrophils (another blood component) become activated and have a goal of killing the invading agents by releasing toxic contents that are contained within them. The problem here is that neutrophils can't distinguish between the infected/injured tissues and healthy host tissue so damage is done to both. A repai

Newly published research examining data from over 200 clinical trials and studies reveals how carbohydrate quality impacts human health. Previously research comparing carbohydrate quality directly with health has been limited to looking at one specific marker and few health outcomes. However, this study was much more comprehensive. The main takeaway from this research is that high dietary fiber consumption is a good thing. To explain further how we come to this conclusion, let's start with the basics. There are two main types of carbohydrates: simple sugars and complex polysaccharides. There are also two ways for us to gain and burn energy for our bodies: carbohydrates and fat. The focus of this article is carbohydrates and the main source of energy for most people (unless you're on a ketogenic diet - another post for another day) so let's keep exploring carbs further. It's pretty common knowledge at this point that sugars (sucrose) aren't the best f