Robyn's Blog

Researchers at University College London published findings that eating processed, fatty food increases the risk of depression.

One group in the study of 3,486 people ate whole foods (mostly fresh vegetables, fruits, and fish) and the other ate fried food, processed meat, dairy, and desserts. Researchers controlled for factors like exercise and smoking, and even so, they found those with a processed diet had a 58 percent higher rate of depression.

Findings were published in the British Journal of Psychiatry.

Why? The study doesn’t know, so this is me making educated guesses. A clogged digestive tract (eating a low-fiber diet) leads to lower energy, which leads to an inability to complete tasks and discouragement.

Sugar and other processed food taxes and burns out the adrenals needed for stable mood.

Lack of micronutrients starves cells all the way to organs (brain, blood, bone, and more).

As blood pressure, constipation, energy depletion, enzyme depletion, weight creep, and hundreds of other issues compound, depression seems an almost inevitable result.

Here’s a fun email I got this week from a mom at my son’s charter school:

Hi Robyn,

Love your program and everything in it. I wish that I had known about this sooner. I always saw GreenSmoothieGirl.com on the back of your car, but never paid that much attention to it. im glad to be on the right track. I am reading the China Study book and have the next book to read Eat to Live. I just can’t get enough of the information.

Keep doing the awesome work that you’re doing. I am telling everyone about the green smoothies hoping that they will listen.

I’ve just been on the green smoothies and raw whole foods diet and water for 3 days. I can’t tell you how much better I feel. It’s amazing when you treat your body right, it works like it’s supposed to.

I keep my CD changer in the car full with your 12 Steps audios while I do errands or carpools. I absolutely love it.

Also, you’ll find this kinda funny. Sydney was having a hard time drinking her first green smoothie. So she said, “I bet the dog won’t even eat it.” I said, Well lets pour her a bowl of green smoothie and see if she likes it. Well, as you can imagine, the dog ate every morsel of the green smoothie. So since the dog ate the green smoothie and liked it, it must be good. She hasn’t complained since then.

Have a great day!

Kris

Here’s Utah Valley Magazine’s 50 Most Fabulous, the Mar./Apr. edition just out:

http://blog.uvmag.com/marchapril10/fab50.html

(And the way you can flip pages in this program is so cool.)

Anyway, I don’t know if I really qualify as fabulous, but it is fun to be in that magazine. Also check out my friend Kathy Headlee Miner, who founded Mothers Without Borders and my former Brigham Young University student, Ryan Di Lello, a So You Think You Can Dance finalist, both of whom made this list.

I’m teaching a class organized by Leslie Smoot, in two days, Friday, March 5. It’s 9:30 – 11:00 at Schneitter’s Restaurant in the Zermatt Resort in Midway, Utah.

I’m covering Steps 2 and 3 of 12 Steps to Whole Foods, and we’ll have some teasers from two other chapters too! Lots of tasting–come hungry for lunch!

Call Leslie (801) 550-1881 to pre-register for $12, or pay $15 at the door.

Directions from Salt Lake City: Take I-80 east through Parley’s canyon and up to the Park City area. Take Hwy 40 (Heber exit) to the right. Follow Hwy 40 past Jordenelle Reservoir and take a right onto River Road. (There is a stop light). Continue to Burgi lane to the round about and take the second right. When you come to a stop sign make a left onto Homestead Drive. Zermatt is located a half mile on the right.

From Provo, take University Avenue North about 6.9 miles (it changes into Provo Canyon Road ). Take Provo Canyon Road (it changes into US-189) about 16 miles. Turn left onto Charleston Road (Highway 113) and go 4 miles to Midway. Turn West or left onto Main Street turn right at the stop sign onto 200 West .2 miles follow the green directional signs for approximately 1.1 miles. The road will turn into Homestead Drive at the top of the hill continue to follow for approximately 1 mile to the Zermatt entrance (on the left).

My friends, the past month has been one of the most stressful periods in memory. Not “too-much-work” stress (the kind you can dig your way out of) but just “life-circumstances” stress (the kind you can’t usually solve–you just have to slog through it).

You know what I’m talking about. You’ve been through stuff too, huh.

So the very worst thing you can do is eat SUGAR. You burn out your adrenal glands quickly that way. (The vast majority of us have stressed, overworked, even partially destroyed adrenal glands. And you really need those puppies to keep your mood stable through trials.)

So guess what we want when we’re stressed? Comfort. Sugar.

Vicious cycle.

This winter, the “liquid coconut macaroon” has been such a godsend. I discovered this healthy hot cocoa that is so nutritious, at the beginning of the winter. My kids loved it so much, and I loved it AND its superfood ingredients so much, that I put it here in the store:

Healthy Hot Cocoa

All I knew when I first ordered it was that it had no refined sugar (just low-glycemic unrefined coconut palm sugar) and non-dutched cocoa. I was ecstatic, though, when I got it, that it also contains four different types of mushrooms that are used as superfood medicine in China for immune system repair, cancer treatment/prevention, and much more.

If I feel the need for a treat, I make a mug of cocoa. The coconut milk powder is low in calories, delicious, and high in lauric acid and other compounds that are anti-microbial, anti-fungal, anti-viral, and anti-bacterial. The cocoa contains the mushrooms and chocolate. The whole mug is about 100 calories.

I seriously love this stuff and just went to make myself a mug, writing this–it’s been my treat almost every day. Not just because it’s yummy and healthy, and not only because it’s chocolate (which has chemical properties women sometimes downright NEED), but also because there’s something very comforting about a mug of something hot.

I am blessed to report that through some difficult times this winter, I have still never gotten sick. There was one day I felt about 50% and didn’t go to the gym, but otherwise, that’s it.

Stress we cannot always control. But what do you do to remedy it? Yoga is another way I’ve gotten through the past 18 months–also prayer, time with good friends, and “me” time doing things I love (tennis, skiing). Melatonin before bed so my racing brain doesn’t keep me awake. Essential oils like peppermint. (The DoTerra people will probably pipe up making recommendations–the first one to read this, go ahead and I’ll approve it!)

Tell us your ideas. What natural things do you do, when you’re stressed? Let’s avoid “solutions” like Zoloft and Xanax that just cause other problems.

This is an email I got from a GSG reader. Dr. Larsen is a dentist who studies nutrition to help his patients and practices what he preaches. His observations at the obesity conference he recently attended parallel my own, as documented sometimes on this blog. What do you think?

Robyn,

I attended a seminar in Salt Lake a couple of weeks ago titled, “Obesity: A Scientific Update.” It was presented by Beverly White, PhD, RD and it was very interesting, thought you might be interested in what was said.

I will attach my notes, some of which may not make any sense, but the following are my overall impressions after the seminar.

First of all, the room was mostly full of nurses and dieticians, and I would say at least half of the group were either over weight or obese. These are the dieticians who are teaching Americans how to eat and be healthy.

The success rates for Americans who attempt fad diets is about 5-10% after 1 year. The success rates of the prescription medications is less, and ALL of them have serious side effects, and some physicians are leaving patients on them indefinitely because they know if they take them off, the weight will return, although none of the drugs have been approved for long term use. Bariatric surgeries are super expensive, and have complications and side effects as well, and not a great success rate. Dieticians working with clients may have a slightly higher success rate than the 5-10%, but when they stop seeing the nutritionist, the bad habits return and the weight comes back on. I got a very weird feeling about the whole obesity epidemic, kind of like there is nothing we can really do about it, even though we are the ones trained to help people eat healthy. Beverly cautioned the dieticians to not try to make too radical of a change to anyone’s diet, or they will rebel and not follow through.

I asked Beverly one-on-one between one of the breaks if she had read Colin Campbell, Joel Furhman, Mike Anderson, or had studied anything about plant-based diets in her PhD program. She was not familiar with any of the people I mentioned, had never heard of the China Study, for example, and they did not study plant-based diets.

At one point in the program, she asked how many eat 3-5 servings of fruits or vegetables/day (could be from a can, frozen, etc.) and about 30% of the group raised their hand. She asked if anyone eats 6-9 servings/day and I raised my hand along with I think one other person. After the class, one of the RD’s came running up to me and asked me how in the world I eat that many servings a day. I said it’s easy. I told her about green smoothies, she had never heard of them. I told her about plant-based diets, she had never heard of them.

They have done research that shows that children who are taught good nutrition at a young age can follow that for many years to come, and may be more likely to eat healthy than adults. Too bad what we’re teaching children isn’t always the best information, when it comes from government food pyramid.

Anyways, thought this might be interesting to you. It was kind of an eye-opener to me. I really feel like the MD’s and the RD’s and the nurses who are in our health care system don’t really believe in nutrition themselves.

Sincerely,

Garon Larsen

I was at a family party last night. My youngest brother and his wife (I have six brothers) just built a new home and hosted a game night. (Actually we mostly just watched the Olympics where Apolo Anton Ohno got juked out of a medal by a bad DQ call. According to Ohno, by a Canadian judge favoring a Canadian skater.)

As we were sitting around, my brother-in-law Matt said to me, “Hey Robyn. You’ll be so proud. I’ve been drinking a green smoothie every morning.”

I gushed a little. About how proud I am (and props to my baby sis–she’s making them, I ask, right? Right.). And do you feel more energy, have better digestion? I wonder. Oh yes! he said. And my sister, looking very pinched, like someone who is trying reaaallllly hard to hold back, finally said,

“Sha. And he eats NOTHING else that’s healthy the entire day. Just crap. He figures that if he drinks a green smoothie, he’s golden.”

Do YOU? Think you’re golden, I mean?

Could your green smoothie habit possibly be holding you back in some ways, because you’re so self-congratulatory after slugging down a pint, that you figure it earns you a double portion of DoubleStuf Oreos after that?

(That was for you, Matt, just on the off chance you read this–since Oreos are your favorite cookie.)

If so, I’ve got some work to do.

‘Fess up.

[continued from yesterday, Dr. Punger's foreword to my 12 Steps to Whole Foods course]

The mystery of making tasty, healthy meals out of whole foods was unraveled. I needed all the information she posts on the web, but the organized, sequential course is essential. I wish I had it when I first found out I was food sensitive. In fact I wish I had this information before I began dealing with my sensitivities. Now, I grow my own herbs and sprouts. I use my dehydrator. I even make fermented vegetables. And it’s easy!

I finally lost weight without deprivation or hunger (and so did my two pre-teens!). In fact, I rarely feel hungry eating whole foods, now, when starting my day with a green smoothie. My skin is clear. Ankle swelling, which I tolerated (had no idea was food related) because I attributed it to aging, now disappeared. Headaches, which I thought were stress related, are rare. I focus on whole, plant-based foods as the 12 Steps course teaches, and that naturally pushes the refined sugars and flours and preservatives and chemicals out of my diet. I am not a slave to my food intolerances.

I have made virtually all the recipes from the videos. I use my BlendTec Total Blender several times a day for smoothies, puddings, sauces and dressings, and desserts. I can’t imagine being without it, as Robyn predicted would be the case.

In a broader sense, after years of medical school where nutrition is barely addressed, nutrition finally made sense to me! I don’t depend on food labels anymore. In fact, packaged foods are a minimal part of my diet now, and I feel better than ever.

I am excited about Robyn expanding the original 12 Steps course to include a journal, audio support, and video demos, and printed steps and recipes, because this will help me help my patients. I already refer my patients to GreenSmoothieGirl.com via my blog and handouts I give in my office, but now I can provide a comprehensive and practical tool to refer my patients to.

GreenSmoothieGirl is the nutrition plan I am recommending to my pregnant and breastfeeding mothers. The program incorporates or supersedes any other previous nutrition recommendations I was making.

I find myself recommending green smoothies to many of my other patients to help control glucose and cholesterol levels, and to improve antioxidant levels, which decreases risk of cardiovascular disease and cancers. Anyone with digestive problems, I immediately teach them about nutrition so they see the relationship between what goes in their mouth, and their symptoms of ill health.

Since many of my patients are facing surgery and other procedures, incorporating green smoothies and whole foods into the pre-op plans optimizes nutrition to give them the highest probability of a smooth and easy procedure. I am recommending green smoothie plan to most anyone who is motivated and self responsible. My patients appreciate a nutritional approach first, before drugs or surgeries.

Many of my patients have started on the first step, which is to incorporate green smoothies into their diet. I am impressed by how the GSG nutrition program has influenced my practice. Many times the focus of my patients’ office visits are on staying well, rather than searching for disease. Through nutrition I can help prevent illness and often control burdensome symptoms.

GSG nutrition is compatible with both staying well and preventing disease. My young moms love green smoothies and whole foods through their pregnancies and breastfeeding years. And my own family has been tremendously blessed by my newfound education in nutrition. We are all enjoying the benefits of a much healthier diet!

Denise Punger, MD FAAFP IBCLC

Dr. Punger is a Family Physician and International Board Certified Lactation Consultant. In private practice with her husband, John, Coquelet, in South Florida, she emphasizes prevention and wellness through breastfeeding and nutrition. She strives to set an example to her patients by following a high-raw, plant-based GreenSmoothieGirl diet.

She is the author of Permission to Mother: Going Beyond the Standard of Care to Nurture Our Children inspired by her three sons and extraordinary patients, to show all mothers that they have choices when it comes to their young children. She offers her blog as an extension of her services to further communicate with patients and readers nationwide: http://permissiontomother.com

Robyn,

What is your take on cod liver oil?

Just want to share the foreword in the just-published printed manual for 12 Steps to Whole Foods, and I’d like to thank Dr. Denise Punger for writing it!

Foreword
by family physician Denise Punger, M.D.

Robyn Openshaw’s 12 Steps to Whole Foods is like having a personal nutrition coach in the kitchen with me, guiding me towards better health.

Prior to finding GreenSmoothieGirl.com, my own eating habits were not a main concern. My mind was on a busy medical practice. My husband, also a family physician, took on the responsibility of picking up our groceries and take-out food. Before marriage, I was in school many years, depending on dormitory meal plans and hospital cafeterias.

Holidays were a time for home cooked meals by our families, who were glad to contribute something to our insanely busy medical-school lifestyle. Meals were always provided for me and very welcomed. Besides my reckless eating patterns, preparing meals in the kitchen as I became a young mother was intimidating. I didn’t know where to start. I never had to do it before. Good nutrition was barely a thought, let alone a priority. Like most people, for me, it was all about taste and convenience.

In the months leading up to my wake-up call to feed my body right, I was always hungry, despite always eating. I couldn’t figure out why I never felt satiated. I was 40 pounds heavier than I am now, and my skin often broke out. I had an irritating cough that disrupted work and time with patients. I often had headaches. I didn’t represent the preventative health message that I wanted to give.

Like most Americans, I read labels and believed the “heart healthy” and “low fat” claims often made on them, yet I was also confused by the labels. Finally, through blood testing, like a wake-up call, I found out I had some food sensitivities.

After a few months of feeling deprived coping with my intolerances, I found GreenSmoothieGirl.com. GSG changed my approach radically. As I became engrossed in Robyn’s blog and videos, I became excited about all the new meal possibilities. “Good nutrition” once seemed like a tasteless curse but was now looking like an exciting adventure.

I had once wondered if I would live the rest of my life on the defensive side of food. With all the new recipes ideas and diverse ingredients to experiment with, I became empowered.

Once I found it, I read and re-read Robyn’s blog and website to glean everything from it I could. I love making green smoothies. When my ordinary blender burned out, I ordered the Blendtec Total Blender Robyn recommends through GreenSmoothieGirl.com and finally received her 12 Steps to Whole Foods program free when I purchased the blender.

The title of the course grabbed my attention. I initially assumed that “12 steps” was a spin-off of anonymous recovery type programs. That spoke to me, because I was and am a food addict.

Really, “12 Steps” refers to making small nutritional changes through the year, introducing a new idea each month. Green smoothies were just the beginning. I was totally mesmerized as I read through this guide. It was like having Robyn in the kitchen guiding me, step by step. Remember, I’d never spent time in the kitchen!

[I'll post the rest tomorrow]