By Dr. Shawna Darou, ND I’m writing this article because it’s a pattern I see quite regularly, where exercise or nutrition habits are taken too far, and then some type of hormone imbalance develops. This is usually more subtle than an overt eating disorder, where the imbalance of caloric intake and energy burned is more extreme. There can be too …
Introducing the Fasting Mimicking Diet
By Dr. Shawna Darou, ND I am introducing a program called the "Fasting Mimicking Diet" with some patients, and wanted to explain more about how it works. This 5 day modified fast was developed by Dr. Valter Longo, an Italian researcher who was initially studying fasting an its influence on cancer and chemotherapy. The Fasting Mimicking Diet was …
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Can you limit your sugar intake to 25 grams per day?
By Dr. Shawna Darou, ND I'm sure that the issue of high dietary sugar intake is no surprise to any of my readers, but the fact that I am treating early signs of blood sugar regulation diseases in my practice every day tells me that although the message is heard, it may not be translating in a significant enough dietary change. Recent medical …
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Phytonutrient Diversty Challenge: Can you eat 50 different plan foods in 1 week?
By Dr. Shawna Darou, ND The latest findings around the gut microbiome are showing that it is more valuable for your immune system and overall health to have diversity in the organisms. Similarly, recent research is showing that botanical diversity in our diets has a more protective role compared to larger amounts of foods with fewer …
Food is Medicine: How to eat a nutrient-dense diet
By Dr. Shawna Darou, ND One of the best ways to shift your relationship with food is to remember that food is medicine. Because we eat so often, and such a large volume of food in our lifetime, it is a significant factor in either creating disease or creating health. There are countless of examples of using a nutrition plan to reverse or …
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5 Physiological Reasons you have food cravings, and why mastering your cravings isn’t about willpower at all
By Dr. Shawna Darou, ND I’ve had several in-depth discussions with patients in the past week about their food cravings, and how powerless they feel about them. We’ve been led to believe that it’s all about willpower, and cravings are simply a sign of poor will-power. This unfortunately leads to a spiral that feels even more out of control, …
6 Surprising signs that point to insulin resistance
By Dr. Shawna Darou, ND Testing for blood sugar imbalance and specifically insulin resistance is a very frequent test I request. The reason is that we are experiencing a growing number of cases of blood sugar imbalance, and diabetes at much younger ages. It is extremely important to detect insulin resistance early, because this is the phase of …
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A Fresh Take On The Spring Cleanse
By Dr. Shawna Darou, ND It's that time of year again, when we're suddenly motivated to make positive changes in our health - eating more vegetables, exercising regularly and looking for a boost in our health to match the boost in our mood that naturally comes with the change of seasons. Spring cleanses used to be very popular, and I'm …
The impact of overtraining on your hormones
By Dr. Shawna Darou, ND Overtraining syndrome is not a condition limited only to competitive athletes, and I actually find more cases in recreational athletes who have a frequent intense workout schedule. It is absolutely critical to build in rest days, fuel your body for your workouts, and cross-train to avoid overworking the same muscle groups. …
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