Nutrition’s Nemesis: Sugar’s Outrageous Growth

Opening Hearts: Chapter 5 Nutrition’s Nemesis: Sugar’s Outrageous Growth If I could select one substance to decrease in our diet it would be sugar. This unhealthy substance feeds the inflammation that damages arterial walls and has a long list of other harmful health consequences including cancer. Yet the average American consumes about 150 pounds of … Read more

Opening Hearts’ Five Cardinal Rules: Keys to Healthy Living

Recently I had the great honor of being a guest on Connie Whitman’s internet radio program, Architect of Change to talk about Opening Hearts, the book I co-created with the amazing cardiovascular surgeon Lester R. Sauvage, MD (1926-2015). Connie and I discussed the advice Dr. Sauvage shared about how to nurture the body as part of living a healthy … Read more

Mercy Flows from Gratitude

Mercy and compassion flow naturally from gratitude. I’ve seen this exemplified in people who have instinctively grateful personalities. One especially inspiring, grateful-by-nature person I’ve observed was Dr. Lester Sauvage. I was lucky enough (and very grateful!) to work with him on his final book Opening Hearts, which was his treatise on everything he found important: … Read more

Lessons Learned in 2013

As December winds down, it’s time to reflect on where I’ve been and where I’m going. So what lessons learned in 2013 might guide me into 2014? The biggest one this year is that life itself is a miracle to be embraced every day with gratitude and love. It’s a lesson life has taught me before, … Read more

Novena for Peace 2013: Meditation Questions and Prayers

Every Christmas season since the tragic events of 2001, I have been praying a Novena for Peace and most years I’ve invited others to join me in the belief that a personal and communal commitment to peace will bring it about. While I have not yet seen peace break out throughout the world, I have … Read more

Holiday Feeding Frenzy: Is This What Life Is About?

The yearly feeding frenzy of holiday shoppers has begun. While post-Thanksgiving shoppers ventured forth with tasers in hand and hearts full of greed and aggression, my mood turned pensive. Is this really what life is all about? What compels someone to leave their table of blessing to find (and sometimes fight with others to get) more … Read more

7 Secrets for Living to 100

Living to 100 is only great if you’re healthy enough to enjoy it. While good genes and a healthy diet help, they’re not the best indicator of who will live well into old age. How we age depends less on our genetics and more on our cultural expectations, according to Mario Martinez, PhD, the creator … Read more

Scombroid Poisoning: When A Yummy Dinner Turns Toxic

There’s nothing as wonderful as a dinner shared with people you love and a menu of fresh-caught tuna and yellowtail broiled with herbs, spices, olive oil and butter. That is, until dinner turns toxic. Five of us shared this yummy dinner and all five of us suffered the symptoms of scombroid poisoning. If it sounds … Read more

Is Our Food Killing Us?

The Unhealthy Truth about our food supply

Is our food killing us? Asking this question is logical given what’s happened since the introduction in the mid-1990s of genetically modified seeds to increase production – some say so we can feed the world, others say so that agribusiness can reap higher profits. During this same timeframe the rate of food allergies and obesity … Read more

Illness: It’s All in Your Head – But You’re Not Crazy, You’re Normal

What if the cause of most of the illnesses were, in large measure,were a product of our minds rather than our bodies? For most of us, that idea would make us very angry because we know what ails us in definitely in our bodies. And according to John Sarno, MD, that anger might serve to … Read more