Safe Food Storage Containers

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Addressing the concerns over plastic, what to use instead and how to use plastic correctly

Food storage containers are like socks and underwear. For most of us, there are so many more fun and exciting things we’d rather buy. The fact of the matter though is that these containers are some of the most used, most important parts of our kitchen and our everyday lives. If we don’t give them the thought they deserve, they could be causing us a lot of harm. How? Because the plastic storage containers, baggies and plastic wraps that most of us grew up with might be leaching chemicals that are proven endocrine-disruptors1 into our food if not used exactly right, and let’s face it, most of us aren’t using them exactly right.

This is a topic I don’t take lightly because I know I’m behind the curve in addressing this issue in my own kitchen. While we are transitioning to safer products, there’s still a lot of room for improvement. That’s why I turned to the mountains of research available out there and to chef, nutritionist and award-winning cookbook author Jackie Newgent, RDN, CDN for guidance for us all. As a topic that she’s well-versed in, she steers us in the right direction when it comes to safe food storage containers, and if we do use plastic, how to use it correctly.

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Healing Power of Food: A Doctor’s Journey from Disease to Health

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Things you can do to heal your body and feel your best

When Brooke Goldner, M.D. was 16 and diagnosed with Systemic Lupus Nephritis with stage four kidney disease, she never thought she would reach the age of 40. Now she’s healed, healthy and was recently featured on the cover of Vegan Health & Fitness magazine’s Fit Over 40 issue. That’s a transformation that she credits almost entirely to the way she eats. Today, as a best-selling author, the founder of VeganMedicalDoctor.com, GoodbyeLupus.com and creator of the Hyper-Nourishing Nutrition Protocol for Lupus Recovery, she’s helping others to heal themselves with food as well.

As I was interviewing Dr. Goldner for my post on Exploring a Plant-Based Diet, she shared her story with me. There was simply no way I could fit in all of the powerful information she gave me into that one post, so I decided to begin my new profile series on the Healing Power of Food with Dr. Goldner’s journey from disease to health. She reveals the not-so-secret way that she overcame her debilitating and potentially deadly disease and some things you can do to heal your body and feel your best.

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Photo by Madison Inouye from Pexels

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Exploring a Plant-Based Diet

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Tips and Resources for Getting Started with A Plant-Based Diet

Healing, satisfying, nourishing and delicious. Are those the words you would immediately think of as describing a plant-based diet? If not, you might want to think again. As the experts I went to affirmed what I’ve already learned firsthand, a plant-based diet is more than just a way of eating, it’s a way of life, a way of healing and a way of looking at the world around you. As we help you to explore different ways of eating here at Peppermint Tea & Me, a whole foods plant-based diet is something that I hope you’ll at the very least come to understand a little better, and at most, possibly embrace for yourself. If so, these tips and resources for getting started with a plant-based diet will help to make your transition easier and will help to put you on a path to lifelong wellness.

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5 Tips for Eating Healthy During Even the Busiest of Weeks

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Get Organized for Healthy Eating During This Back to School Time of Year

This back to school time of year can be exciting for everyone, but, if your family is like mine, it can also mean that things get quite a bit busier. Afterschool, evening and weekend activities; exercise; homework; meetings; and oh yes, the regular work that pays the bills. To some degree it all has to be done (or does it? Click here for more on how to prioritize), but where does that leave eating healthy foods that give us the energy to do everything we need to do? When things get busy, it’s all too easy to throw up our hands and do drive-thru yet again. It really doesn’t have to be that way though, and while my family is by no means perfect, I wanted to share my top 5 tips for getting organized so that you can eat healthy during even the busiest of weeks.

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Getting back on Track with Your Health

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10 Steps for Restoring Wellness with Nutrition and Exercise

We’ve all gotten sidetracked at one time or another when it comes to healthy eating and exercise. Life happens, we get bored or we might lose sight of why we’re doing what we’re doing in the first place. It’s not the end of the world. The most important thing is recognizing what’s going on and getting back on track. It’s not the easiest thing to do, but it’s probably easier than you might think – especially if you use these 10 steps for restoring your health and wellness to guide you along the way.

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Overcoming Food Cravings

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What They Do and Don’t Mean and How You Can Take Control

When you were a kid and had a bad day, did your mom or dad take you for ice cream? Do you do that with your own kids? Do you still do that with yourself? There’s no doubt, the intent is good and let’s face it, it works. But what are we telling ourselves and our bodies? That sugar and other exciting flavors can cure whatever ails us emotionally. Before we know it, we’re medicating ourselves with unhealthy food and craving them whenever the going gets tough.

Many people say cravings are just a natural part of life. While that may or may not be true, we definitely condition ourselves for them, and what we do with them is up to us. Wanting an unhealthy treat every now and then is one thing, and there’s nothing wrong with splurging occasionally. It’s when we constantly give in or relate certain unhealthy foods or tastes with specific emotions that we run into trouble. Many people feel defenseless against food cravings, but that doesn’t have to be the case. You can overcome them, learn what they do and don’t mean and most importantly, empower yourself to take control of your health.

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Exploring the Keto Diet

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Tips for Getting Started

If you’ve been curious about the Keto Diet and wanted to learn more, you’re in good company. This way of eating is all the rage because of its many proven health and weight loss benefits. I recently had a friend ask me what I know about it, and despite the amount of research and reading I’ve done on different theories for eating, I found myself only able to give her a partial answer. That’s when I decided to go to Dr. Will Cole, a leading functional medicine expert, so that he could offer some clarity for anyone interested in exploring this type of diet.

As you’ll see in this Q & A, Dr. Cole not only offers information that should be interesting to all of us and helpful to those interested in trying keto out, he also has some great tips for getting started. You’ll see find some additional resources at the end that I’ve added as well.

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Dr. Will Cole

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Integrated Wellness While on Vacation

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How to Keep It Relaxing, Fun and Healthy

When we go on vacation, we want it to be relaxing and fun. In most cases, the last thing we want to think about is whether we’re being healthy or not. After all, this is our time to take it easy on ourselves. While that’s definitely true, if we do everything differently than we do at home, we may end up feeling run down, tired, having digestive problems because we’re eating differently and just not ourselves before the vacation is even over.

That’s why integrated living is an important concept all of the time and not one that you can really take time off from. But that’s the whole idea. Recognizing how everything is connected shouldn’t be a burden, a hardship or create a lifestyle that isn’t enjoyable. It isn’t something that you should need a break from and is a mindset that you should want to take with you wherever you go. Yes, when you are in a different place or have a different schedule, you do have to be flexible. But you don’t have to compromise on everything and your health certainly shouldn’t suffer. That’s why we’re going to take a look at a few ways you can keep it relaxing, fun and healthy all at the same time.

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3 Tips to Jumpstart a Healthy Lifestyle

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How to Quickly Get Started

I’ve had quite a few people say to me that they want to adopt a healthier lifestyle, but they just don’t have time right now to figure out how to do it or what exactly that looks like for them. I completely get it, but if you think about it, when we’re at our busiest, craziest and stretched to the limit, that’s when we need to be our healthiest and sanest or something’s going to give. We’re simply going to fall apart. So, I get not having time, but on the flip side, can you really afford not to spend the time to at least get started?

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Meal Planning Tips and Tools for Healthy Living

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5 Best Meal Planning Tools

Does the idea of meal planning make you break out in cold sweats or cause your shoulders to tense up? If so, you’re definitely not alone. This is one of those tasks that can cause even the most seemingly together women (or men) to crumble. It doesn’t have to be that way though, and I’m talking to you about it because I strongly believe meal planning is one of the first steps to good nutrition, good health and overall wellness. Integrated living does at the very least, include a shopping list.

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