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New Heights for Health Coaches: IIN Live March 2013

Hundreds of Integrative Nutrition graduates came together last weekend in New York City – and many tuned in via live stream – to enjoy a weekend of health and wellness at our latest IIN Live Conference!

From business-building exercises to coaching techniques, attendees connected about how to take their health coaching practices to the next level. We learned about some amazing things our graduates are doing, including publishing books, working in schools, and creating mobile apps. Over 100 international graduates who flew in from all over the world took the stage to represent their countries.  Those who joined us from home on the live stream followed the conversation on Twitter using #IINLive and on our IIN Live Events Facebook Page.

Throughout the weekend we heard from a list of renowned speakers on a variety of topics. Bestselling author and thought leader Gabrielle Berstein, and creator of The Desire Map and The Fire Starter Sessions Danielle LaPorte, both empowered us with inspirational talks on how to achieve the most out of life.

3 Ways to Freshen Up Your Diet and Exercise Routine This Spring

This Saturday marks Daylight Savings Time, the unofficial start of spring here in the US. It’s the time of year when the days are finally getting longer, the temperatures are warming up, and many of us start organizing and cleaning our homes. But spring cleaning is not just for your home anymore—it’s just as important for us to clean (and brighten!) up other parts of our lives.

Freshening up your diet and workout routine is a great way to supercharge your health and boost your energy. Here are three easy ways to start off this season feeling rejuvenated, happy, and healthy.

1. Clean out your pantry

The first step is to sort through your cabinets and toss out anything that’s expired. Although canned items do have a longer shelf life, if it’s been in there for over a year, it’s probably best to chuck the contents and recycle the can to make rooms for fresher foods.

Is Salt Causing Inflammation and Autoimmune Disease?

We’ve long known that too much salt in your diet is a bad thing. The overconsumption of sodium, unfortunately common in the Standard American Diet of fast food and highly processed packaged goods, has been strongly linked to high blood pressure, stroke, and cardiovascular disease.

Now there’s even more reason to ditch the canned soup and frozen meals in favor of fresh, whole foods: several new studies show that that too much salt can contribute to the development of autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis (MS), psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis, and arthritis of the spine.

According to new reports from teams at MIT, Harvard, and Yale, mice on a high-salt diet produced a type of inflammatory, infection-fighting cell that can cause the body’s defense system to go horribly awry. The mice then developed a severe form of multiple sclerosis called autoimmune encephalomyelitis. “We were all really quite surprised to see how changes in dietary salt could have such a profound effect,” said David Hafler, professor of immunobiology at Yale.

Is Intermittent Fasting the Key to Fast Weight Loss?

What’s the biggest food trend in London right now? The answer is, well, not eating.  Thousands of Brits are eating little more than 500 calories a day at the recommendation of Dr. Michael Mosley who introduced his new book, The Fast Diet this year. With a title like that, it’s not surprising that the book has consistently held the number one slot on Amazon’s UK site since January.


Before we are quick to judge this book by its cover, let's take a look at the theory behind this new diet. It started with Dr. Mosley’s BBC program “Eat, Fast, Live Longer” which documented his personal weight loss journey though intermittent fasting.  After trying extreme fasting – his first trial included one cup of low-calorie soup every 24 hours – he eventually landed on a 5:2 ration fasting diet.

Raw Food Recipe for a Healthy, Filling Lunch

With springtime just around the corner, now is an ideal time to add more raw foods to your diet. The health benefits of eating raw foods range from increased energy and hydration to a boost of vitamins and minerals, and the best part is that seasonal raw foods are delicious! 

When you think of raw food you might picture broccoli, kale, apples, and oranges. While eating food in its original form is quick and easy, there’s an abundance of unique raw food recipes incorporating raw nuts and spices for satiety and flavor. Here’s one of our favorites: 

Raw, Nutty, Not Tuna Salad 

Ingredients

  • 1 cup almonds

  • 1 cup sunflower seeds

  • 1-2 stalks celery, finely chopped

  • 1 tablespoon minced dill

  • 1/2 small red onion, finely chopped

  • 1 teaspoon kelp granules

  • Juice of 1 lemon

  • 1/2 teaspoon sea salt 

Directions
Soaking Time: 8 hours or more 

Notes from IIN’s Founder: Why it’s OK to Quit Being Vegan or Macrobiotic

One of our gifted graduates, Alex Jamieson, recently posted an article on her website about experimenting with animal protein. She had been a strong advocate for the vegan way of eating for a long time, and she still recommends it as a healing tool for many.

After many years, she started having overwhelming cravings for animal protein accompanied with feelings of guilt for having them. She started eating animal foods in secret, ashamed that she had failed to live up to the “vegan ideal.” Alex finally learned to accept herself, and has bravely come out to share her experience with the world. What’s beautiful about her story is her compassion toward her body.

It reminded me of when I first became involved with nutrition and health. For several years, I followed a vegan macrobiotic diet – eating almost no dairy, meat, honey, or eggs. I did eat fish once in a while. I became very healthy and strong, and any time I went for a checkup all my blood tests were exceptional. Gradually, though, I began to notice the downside of this way of eating.

5 Health Benefits of Eating Raw Foods

Spring is right around the corner, and if you’re looking to boost your energy after a long winter, then you may want to think about adding more raw foods into your diet.  A raw foods diet consists mainly of uncooked foods, especially fresh fruits and vegetables, nuts, seeds, and whole grains that haven’t been heated above 115 degrees Fahrenheit.

Raw foodist believe that cooking destroys enzymes that are vital to our health as well other essential vitamins and minerals. The more raw foods in our diet, the healthier we will be.  “There is some magic in raw fruits and veggies,” says specialist in nutrition medicine and visiting teacher, Joel Fuhrman, MD. He recommends consuming a mix of cooked and uncooked foods to get maximum nutritional benefits, since some nutrients in foods like tomatoes can be made more absorbable after being cooked.

A great way to start incorporating more raw foods in your diet is to make the salad the main dish during meals. Here are some of the benefits of eating raw foods:

Adrenal Fatigue vs. Thyroid Dysfunction: How to Tell

If you’re frequently tired, have the blahs, and feel like it’s difficult to keep weight off, you may be experiencing the winter blues if you’re in the Northern Hemisphere. Or it could be a more serious condition.

You might naturally assume your thyroid’s off balance if you have a family history of thyroid issues. However, adrenal exhaustion and thyroid dysfunction are closely linked and frequently mistaken. Some of the symptoms they have in common include extreme fatigue, never feeling well-rested, fuzzy thinking and memory issues, unexplained weight gain, and depression.

Adrenal fatigue and thyroid dysfunction are often confused because imbalances between the adrenals and thyroid are connected between their root origin in the pituitary gland and hypothalamus parts of the brain. These work together to increase and decrease hormones release by the adrenals and thyroid, as well as the sex organs. When one system gets thrown off balance, the other can be disrupted. This makes it more difficult to figure out if it’s adrenal or thyroid imbalance.

A Sweet and Gluten-Free Addition to Your Sunday Brunch

Nothing brings family and friends together quite like a delicious meal. Hosting Sunday brunch is a great way to gather everyone around the table to swap stories, reconnect, relax and enjoy each other’s company. It’s the perfect primary food!
 Add this gluten-free, dairy-free cinnamon sweet potato loaf cake from 2009 graduate Amie Valpone, to your next brunch menu for a sweet side dish that your brunch party will love and you’ll feel good about serving.


Cinnamon Sweet Potato Loaf

Ingredients

  • 2 cups gluten-free all purpose flour such as Bob’s Red Mill
  • 2 1/2 tsp. Simply Organic Cinnamon
  • 1 tsp. baking soda
  • 1/4 tsp. baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp. sea salt
  • 1 3/4 cups stevia for baking such as Stevia in the Raw
  • 3/4 cup oil
  • 3 large eggs
  • 2 tsp. almond extract
  • 8 large sweet potatoes, cooked, peeled and grated
  • 1 cup finely chopped pecans
  • 2 Tbsp. coconut flakes


Instructions

What is Leaky Gut? How to Heal Your Digestive System

Leaky gut syndrome is a condition of the digestive system characterized by increased permeability of the intestinal lining, allowing pieces of undigested food and other toxins to enter the bloodstream where they do not belong.

This process activates the immune system in an effort to eliminate the foreign substances from the body, and thereby causes inflammation. The result is a wide range of physical symptoms such as bloating, multiple food sensitivity, headaches, eczema, and chronic fatigue, among others.

Essentially this means that having a leaky gut can seriously impair your overall health, and you could have it without even knowing! It also doesn’t help that it goes mainly undiagnosed by many mainstream medical professionals because they tend to focus on treating the presented symptoms, not the underlying root cause.

A multi-pronged approach is often necessary in order to heal a leaky gut. A balance of a wholesome natural diet, stress-reduction, supplementation, and a generous dose of patience are all required.

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