Aren’t eggs supposed to be super healthy? Yes and no. Eggs are a food group that can be problematic depending on one's medical history - and no, it's not about cholesterol. The cholesterol debate - and what causes elevated levels in the body - was misleading and has long since been dismantled, but there are other aspects that make eggs less suitable for daily intake for everyone.
Read MoreNo, lemon water is not a "health gimmick"
I’ve been drinking lemon or grapefruit juice diluted into water the first thing every morning for decades, literally. Yes decades, without going further into dating myself here.
While I too get real tired of wild claims about this or that diet, mainly because there is never good science behind, I do not tire of the potential of understanding foods therapeutic impact on the body. Having worked with nutrition for 20 years, I have seen so many diets come and go, it drives me nuts, that we have to make something so simple, so very complicated.
It is actually quite simple: stop eating extremes, stop eating restrictive, figure out why your health is not good and treat the underlying cause of that.
Read MoreWhy I use grapefruit seed extract oil in nose oil for my clients
A majority of clients show decreased drainage of the sinuses when they come in for a thermography scan. Not only does poor nose breathing affect brain functioning, it also impairs fat metabolism and can even negatively affect our facial features!
Many of us women will spend endless amounts of money on vanity stuff like fillers, botox, face lifting, serums and all sorts of stuff that promise to keep us young, yet the secrets to growing older gracefully and looking youthful is a reflection of our inner health. Something to many of us simply scoff at til we are desperately sick. Rarely, do we link our health to our skin elasticity, cellulite and darkness under our eyes - yet we should, because when we show signs of premature aging and early onset of graying hair this is a reflection of biochemical imbalances and nutrient deficiencies. Things that in the long run cannot simply be fixed with hair color in a bottle or a magical serum or filler.
Nose breathing (or rather lack thereof) being a prime example of something few os uf think would affect both our waistline and facial features. Yet it does.
I’ve been custom-blending nose oil mixtures for all my clients showing impaired nasal breathing containing custom blends of essential oil with grapefruit seed extract in order to combat biofilm, mold spores and research has shown that it also is helpful against viral issues incl. covid. And this makes sense since the primary rout of exposure is through our respiratory organs. Click on to read the study.
Read MoreBad science: Grains and beans are not "bad foods"
Recently I read yet another post from one of the more famous health and nutrition influencers claiming that bread and beans are “inflammatory” and should be avoided by all who wants health. This is one of the most stubborn health myths around, as everyone and their grandma has gone glutenfree these days. And unfortunately many self-claimed health gurus keep pushing this bad science. The majority of the people pushing this have zero education in nutrition, and it shows. They may be great medical doctors, good chiropractors or just savvy businessmen, who now make a living off selling health gadgets after their own history of burn-out. However, this does not make their insight into nutritional biochemistry great - just like I shouldn’t go around offering surgery on everyone and sundry just cause I saw a youtube video about it. That would be pretty crazy, frankly. And I also think it is pretty crazy for everyone to wake up and write books and blogs about nutrition with zero educational background or in-clinic training. There are a lot of issues with this type of bad science being promoted.
Read MoreI am featured in Voyage LA (article link)
I am interviewed for an article in Voyage LA about how I got into nutrition and my views on risk-taking in business and personal life. Read the article here: https://shoutoutla.com/meet-christina-santini-clinical-nutritionist-specializing-in-biological-medicine/ and feel free to share it.
Read MoreThe 6 Next Big Things in health...
Right now we have access to a host of testing that is able to give us insight into why we suffer from various chronic diseases. And that is of course really amazing. I am talking about testing stuff related to toxic load i.e. pesticides, chemicals, heavy metals, mycotoxins, bacteria imbalances, microbiome, genes and so forth. However, the question is always WHAT are we not testing for today (and thus largely going undetected, undiagnosed and untreated). Following are the parameters I foresee will play a big impact in the near future once wee begin to figure out ways to measure how a person is impacted by them. This is especially true when it comes to figuring out causes of adrenal/chronic fatigue, stress, insomnia and stubborn issues still left unresolved by today’s methods.
Read MoreWhy you get fatter when you sleep later
The no. 1 thing that has personally affected my weight the most in my life has not been my eating or exercise habits, but times when sleep has been sketchy - I could literally feel myself gaining weight from week to week during poor sleeping periods. We can’t eat or exercise our way out of lack of sleep. The only cure for lack of sleep is sleep. Here is a study exploring the connection between weight issues and poor sleep: “Late bedtimes and late wake up times are associated with an unfavorable activity and weight status profile, independent of age, sex, household income, geographical remoteness, and sleep duration.” Read the full study in: Sleep. 2011 Oct 1; 34(10): 1299–1307. Published online 2011 Oct 1. Sleep Duration or Bedtime? Exploring the Relationship between Sleep Habits and Weight Status and Activity Patterns Tim S. Olds And so the next question is how do we reset our circadian rhythm?
Read MoreWhy timing matters (when you eat vs. what you eat)
Going back to Ayurveda we know how important proper meal timing is. Here another new study emphasizing the importance of eating to support circadian rhythm:
"Translated into human behavior, these studies suggest that dieting will only be effective if calories are consumed during the daytime when we are awake and active. They further suggest that eating at the wrong time at night will not lead to weight loss even when dieting," said Dr. Joseph S. Takahashi, Chairman of Neuroscience at UT Southwestern's Peter O'Donnell Jr. Brain Institute and Investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
Read MoreThe science of Ayurveda: Study reveals science to ancient body-type classification system
In Ayurveda they use the classification system of the “doshas” to type people. This is a simple yet scientifically based method to be able to quickly determine which biochemistry type a person is, and thus the basic dietary strategies that match that. Now obviously this is just a starting point in regards to the basic stuff like “should this person be eating more protein? or “is a plant-based diet better for this type?”. After typing a person in Ayurveda, you still want to combine this with clinical labs to understand biochemical imbalances of the individual, toxic load, nutrient levels, mitochondrial functioning, digestive capacity, hormones etc. I began understanding the scientific value of this classification system after reading Dr. Eric Braverman’s book “The Edge Effect”, prior to me working for him in New York several years ago now. And this system is not merely some “alternative weird stuff”. More and more medical doctors are beginning to connect the dots of Western clinical science with the time-tested science of ancient Eastern medicine such as Ayurveda. Here are just a few of the studies which support the use of Ayurveda as a science-based method:
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