I Love You. Now *You* Love You, Too. (a.k.a. Everyone Okay Out There?)

Hey everyone,

Today’s post is a slight departure from my usual offerings. It’s not about insulin, or cancer, stubborn fat loss, or junkfood masquerading as health food. Oh, no. It’s much, much more important than any of that. It has a little something to do with diet, nutrients, supplements, and other stuff you (maybe) come to my blog for. But it’s mostly about something else, and that’s totally cool, because it’s my blog, and that means I get to write about whatever I want. I do like to keep my readers happy, but I also have to follow my heart and write and share what speaks to me. And right now, something is telling me to write this. (Actually, no. Telling? More like compelling.) Something powerful that I don’t want to ignore, even though part of me is saying this is stupid and humiliating and I shouldn’t bother. I have one thing to say to that demon inside my brain: SHUT UP! I’M PUTTING THIS OUT THERE WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT!

Also, there’s that saying, “You don’t regret the things you do; you regret the things you don’t do.” So with that in mind, I don’t want this to become a regret because I didn’t post it.

Before we proceed, though, I must direct you more emphatically than ever to an excerpt from the disclaimer that appears at the bottom of my posts: Amy Berger, MS, CNS, NTP, is not a physician and Tuit Nutrition, LLC, is not a medical practice. The information contained on this site is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any medical condition and is not to be used as a substitute for the care and guidance of a physician.

Okay. Now that you can’t sue me, here goes.

The Virtues of Vinegar

(We'll return to the cancer series in a few days.)



I am going to list several popular condiments:

Ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, salsa, Worcestershire sauce, steak sauce, BBQ sauce, pickle relish, hot sauce, and The Oatmeal’s beloved Sriracha.

All of these items, with their diverse flavors and wide range of foundational ingredients, have one thing in common.

Tomatoes?  No.

Oil?  No.

Chili peppers?  Nope.

Hint: It’s VINEGAR!! (Okay, so that was more than a hint.)

It’s true: I challenge you to go to the supermarket and take a good look at the condiments. You will see vinegar listed in the ingredients in almost all of them, and that’s not even taking into account using various forms of vinegar, itself, as a condiment or critical component of salad dressing: apple cider vinegar, balsamic, red wine, champagne, sherry vinegar, and, of course, no proper fish & chips meal would be complete without a generous splash of malt vinegar to go with the newspaper-wrapped, deep-fried deliciousness.

Apart from these modern condiments, which we use on everything from hot dogs at the ballpark, to corn chips on Super Bowl Sunday, to brats at Oktoberfest (not to mention a snazzy new Sriracha beer!), vinegar has been part of traditional ethnic cuisines around the world for centuries. Of course, we can’t assume that an ingredient or culinary technique is beneficial merely because it’s been employed by many disparate groups for a very long time, but we ought to at least give that possibility some consideration. Some traditions deserve to be mothballed to history (footbinding, anyone?), but when it comes to culinary and gastronomic approaches that persist, there’s probably some good reasons lurking behind them. Perhaps the cooks of yesteryear knew something we don’t?

For a while now, I have been promising (threatening?) to write a post about my newfound love for vinegar, so here goes. And instead of writing shorter blog posts, like I have also been promising, it seems I've gone in the opposite direction with this one. It's long. But that's okay. Take your time and read it in stages if need be. It'll still be here when you get back. If you're a bored-to-death cubicle dweller and I've given you a way to kill ten minutes, you're welcome. (*Insert smiley face.*)

Better than 80/20 - Supplements

Hello again!

Welcome to the first of three posts wherein I detail what I’ve been doing differently that has me feeling better than I have in years. As promised last time, today’s installment: supplements.

I call myself a nutritionist. So why am I starting off talking about pills, and not food? Well, things started getting a little better when I cleaned up my diet, but what has really made a difference—a huge one—is my new supplement regimen. (And yes, the word we want for this is regimen. Not regiment, which is a military unit, and not regime, which is a political entity [usually a dictatorship], as in, “the Pinochet regime.” [Okay, actually, that last one can be used in the same context, but it’s weird. Don’t do it.] Regimen. Regimen. But none of my intelligent readers is saying “regiment” or “regime” in comments and on forums like the great grammatically unwashed, right? Right. The same way you never talk about how “your” not “loosing” weight.)

I am eating a bit differently than I was back when I posted about 80/20 being a step up from where I was, but in my somewhat educated opinion, I think the supplements are having the biggest impact. Well, no, not exactly. I think the changes to my diet and movement are having a big impact on my body, while the supplements are working their magic in my head.

So back to the pills: Sure, real, whole, unprocessed foods are generally the way we want to go, but when you’re already doing pretty well in that area and you feel like things are still a little off, it’s entirely possible that your healthy diet is falling short somewhere. This is especially true in 2014 America, where we’re chronically stressed, chronically worried, chronically sleep-deficient, and chronically joy-deficient. Sometimes our bodies—and even more so, our minds—need a little somethin’-somethin’ that even the best diet either isn’t providing at all, or isn’t providing enough of.  

When this is the case, there is no shame in supplementation. No shame. Better to admit that you need a little help than to resign yourself to feeling less-than-optimal because you think your sauerkraut, bone broth, and cod liver oil “should” be getting you all the way there. News flash: sometimes they don’t.

Being that the way I’ve been feeling for a few weeks now is like night and day from where I was a while back, clearly my body—and mind!—are now getting something—probably multiple somethings—that they were desperate for.