Kickstart Your Health in 21 Days Group Cleanse – New: October Dates!

Some of you may know that I’ve been facilitating Kickstart Your Health group cleanses for the past couple of years.  These groups have been a great success, with people feeling healthier in a wide variety of ways including: weight-loss, increased energy, better sleep, improved digestion, elimination of food allergies, decreased joint and body inflammation and pain and much, much more!  Joining the group is a great way to motivate yourself to ‘Just Do It!’  Here are the details:

Next Group Cleanse Dates:

Wed Oct 3, 10, 17, 24, 31  from 7:30-8:30pm

Location: My office at 548 Woolwich Street in Guelph, Ontario (I also offer on-site Group Cleanses for businesses in the Guelph area)

CLEANSE BASICS

3 weeks of avoiding:

– All animal products (including fish, eggs, dairy)
– All gluten grains
– Refined sugars
– Caffeine
– Alcohol

Included in the group cleanse:

-5 weekly one hour meetings with health professional Robyn Fraser, BSc, ND, M.OMSc.

-Handouts of over a week’s worth of breakfast, lunch, dinner and snack recipes.

-Information and handouts discussing researched based nutrition.

-Information and handouts on books, websites and other valuable resources.

-5 weeks of professional support and key health information to help you succeed in the cleanse and optimize your well-being in all areas of your life.

-On top of the 5 weekly meetings, Robyn will be available to answer your cleanse-based questions via phone or email for the duration of the cleanse.

-The support of others in the group who are also participating in the cleanse.

-Increased energy, health and vitality!

Five-Week Outline: (It’s okay if you can’t make each week)

Week One: Introduction to cleanse. Research-based information on why this way of eating can help you decrease your risk for various diseases. You have a week to shop and prepare.

Week Two: THE CLEANSE STARTS TODAY! Ask questions, receive further health-promoting tips and nutritional information/advice including why too much calcium isn’t a good thing and why dairy is not your best source!

Week Three: Into the second week of the diet. Share recipes, ideas with the group. Robyn will share further health-promoting tips and discuss omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids: how to get them in the right ratios as well as reviewing what foods to eat to maximize your nutrient density.

Week Four: Into week three of the cleanse. Discuss stress-reduction techniques including relaxation exercises and more.

Week Five: Congratulations! You have completed the 21-day Kickstart Your Health Cleanse! Check in to see how everyone is feeling and discuss where to go from here.

Cost: $110 + hst for the entire 5 weeks.

I hope some of you can join in! Please check out my website for my contact info if you’d like to sign up.   These groups are fun, motivating, educational and will help you to feel great!

Soy and Breast Cancer – Eat It if you want to Beat It

Soy, such as tofu, soy milk, tempeh and miso have been getting a lot of bad press over the past several years due to some animal studies suggesting that the phytoestrogens in soy may stimulate breast cancer cell activity. However, many other studies have shown the beneficial effects of soy in the diet. Though I do think that it is possible to get a little carried away with soy-consumption, especially in vegetarians and vegans, I hope that the following recent study will ease the minds of the many who have been shunning the mighty bean due to unwarranted fears.

A recent study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition studied over 9500 women with a diagnosis of breast cancer and, over a period of 7+ years, recorded their soy isoflavone intake. They then identified the number of deaths over this period, including deaths related to breast cancer, as well as the number of breast cancer recurrences.
Results:
It was found that women with soy food consumption of over 10mg isoflavones per day had a significantly reduced risk of breast cancer recurrence compared to women with little soy intake.  They also had a non-significantly reduced rate of death from either breast cancer or other reasons.

The bottom line: If you do or have had breast cancer, eating moderate amounts of soy foods a day is a good idea if you want to decrease your risk of recurrence.  And, although not studied in the above research, I would also suggest that, if you don’t have breast cancer, regular soy consumption may help prevent it.

One caveat: I recommend avoiding soy-extracts, such as isoflavones or soy protein isolates found in supplements and ‘fake-meat’ products as these, like other processed, refined foods, can be detrimental to your health.  Stick to tofu, tempeh, miso and soymilk (go for organic as most conventional soy is GMO).  Of course, if you are allergic to soy, (it is a common allergen) you should avoid it.  And don’t forget the wide variety of other legumes out there!  Mix it up!

Check out Veganpalooza – A Free Online Conference

This is just a quick post to pass on the word about a free upcoming event that looks to be really interesting:  Veganpalooza: the Biggest & Best Online Vegetarian Conference on the Planet.

A lot of well-known vegan doctors and health-advocates will be participating, including Neal Barnard, T. Colin Campbell, Brian Clement, Gabriel Cousens, Kathy Freston and many more.  You can check it out by clicking here to get to the website.

 

Book Review: Eat To Live by Joel Fuhrman, M.D. (Spoiler: It’s a *Must Read!*)

I have mentioned Dr. Fuhrman’s work in a previous blog post on nutrient-dense foods.  At that time, however, I had only very recently heard of the doctor and hadn’t yet read or studied any of his work.  Several months ago I did purchase what I believe is his best-selling book: Eat To Live.   It was first published in 2003, but was revised in 2011.

You can check out some of the details he discusses in his book in that post I just mentioned, but let me say that Eat To Live is the whole-food, plant-based nutrition book that I feel makes the most sense for gaining optimal health.  The book includes much research-based information on why eating certain foods, such as animal protein, salt and refined oils are not good for our health.  Far from being a boring read, I have loaned the book out to many patients and many others I know have purchased it themselves, and all have found it  most valuable and engaging.  I strongly recommend you get your own copy of the book and read it yourself (you can check your local library too), but here is the gist of the kind of diet Dr. Fuhrman promotes:

– Ideally avoid or at least minimize (to under 10% of your calories): all animal products (this includes fish, eggs, dairy).

– Avoid added salts (this is an area that I really hadn’t concerned myself with until recently and it is amazing to examine how much salt is in almost anything remotely processed)

– Limit grains to one cup a day

– Eat at least a cup (or more) of beans/legumes a day

– Avoid refined sugars and processed foods of any sort

– Eat 50-60% of your calories from a combination of raw and lightly cooked non-starchy vegetables, with an emphasis on leafy greens

– Eat several whole fruits a day

– Avoid all refined oils (yes, this includes flax and olive oil, for example) and acquire your fats through whole foods such as small amounts of nuts and seeds and avocados. 

The book also contains many interesting personal cases where individuals had been drastically overweight and/or sick and once adopting this way of eating, have had dramatic improvements in their health, such as weight loss of up to hundreds of pounds, reversal of type 2 diabetes, elimination of sarcoidosis, cessation of chest pain in cardiac patient and normalization of blood work.  It also contains a decent amount of recipes and a menu plan that you could follow.

Is there anything I don’t agree with in this book?

– Included in the whole grains, he ‘allows’ wheat/gluten grains.  Although some people will be fine with these foods, in my practice, I have found that many are not. The Dr. doesn’t discuss this.  It is worth experimenting with a 3-week strict avoidance of all gluten, then reintroducing and evaluating how you feel at that time.

How does Dr. Fuhrman’s diet compare to say, the diets promoted by the Forks Over Knives docs, such as Dr. Neal Barnard, Dr. John McDougall and Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn?

Dr. Fuhrman limits intake of whole grains to one cup per day, whereas the FoK docs seem to advocate much higher amounts of whole grains (also including wheat/gluten grains).  I prefer Dr. Fuhrman’s take on grain consumption for a few reasons including:  A higher intake of grains means more calories spent on them rather than on vegetables and leafy greens; Grains tend to have an omega 6:3 ratio skewed vastly in favor of the ‘6s’, which can lead to the production of inflammatory chemicals in the body.

Fuhrman is also a little more lenient with nuts and seeds, allowing 1-2 ounces a day, whereas the other Drs are, from what I understand, hard-core abstainers with perhaps the exception of 1-2 tsps of ground flax seeds a day for omega 3s.

You may want to check out Dr. Fuhrman’s website, where he also offers an online program.  I don’t know very much about this, so can’t comment further.

Bottom line: Eat To Live is an excellent book that, if you want to optimize your health, you need to read!  Highly recommended.

Getting to the Heart of the Matter: A Must Watch “Meat Should be off the Menu” Debate

I just came across the following from a debate hosted by Australia’s St James Ethics and Wheeler Centre from May 2012.  The topic was “Meat Should Be Off the Menu”.  Philip Wollen, a former VP of Citibank and an Australian philanthropist, is the speaker that seems to have particularly stood out in this three-on-three debate and it is his 10 minute defense that is making the rounds on Facebook etc.  I think it is an extremely worthwhile watch for veg and non-veg people alike.  Very compelling.  Here is the link to Wollen’s speech:

As I write this, I am also listening to the full 1hr 51minute debate.  Here is the link to that:

If you do watch either/both, I’d love to read your comments on the topic.

 

Book Review: Veganist by Kathy Freston

In the past few years, Kathy Freston has really made a name for herself as a successful wellness/vegan author.  I first became aware of this vegan advocate via her book Quantum Wellness, which was followed by Quantum Wellness Cleanse (on which I have based my successful group cleanses that I run several times a year).  Veganist was released in Feb 2011.  The Lean is her most recent book, released March 27, 2012.  Since I just recently picked up and read a copy of Veganist, that is the one I will review here (hardcovers are cheap right now…check it out on Amazon or Chapters).

Kathy breaks her book into 10 “Promises” which include (I’m paraphrasing here): Find and keep your ideal body weight; Lower risks for (and possibly even reverse) cancer, heart disease and diabetes; Live longer; Avoid nasty food-borne infections; Save money; Reduce carbon footprint and help the environment; Help the global poor; Reduce animal suffering; Follow the wisdom of great spiritual traditions; Evolve.

Each of the Promise chapters are laid out in a very accessible way, easy for those who are knew to veganism, vegetarianism and the related issues (ie: the Promises) to understand.  Although I have many years of reading, watching, teaching and – though I try not to – preaching about this way of eating/living, I still found information that was new to me and that will serve as a good resource for any future talks and workshops I may give.  For me, it is especially nice to have the environmental factors related to factory-farming/animal use, all neatly placed into one chapter.  As you may have read, I did a blog post on that topic a couple of months ago and found it more difficult than I had expected to collect all the information that I know exists.  I wish I’d had read Veganist before writing that post!

Freston brings in quotes and conducts interviews with the well-known plant-based diet docs such as Neal Barnard, Caldwell Esselstyn, Michael Greger, T. Colin Campbell and Dean Ornish.  While I didn’t read much that was new to me within the information they gave, it would be a great introduction for someone less versed.

After the 10 Promises, which can be read out of order, or some even skipped if desired (For example, I chose not to read the Animal Suffering section because I’ve read/watched enough of that by this time and now will revisit it only when I feel it’s time for a reminder), Freston includes the following: Ideas on how to gradually shift into this new way of eating; Frequently asked questions, answered by Dr. Neal Barnard; A three-week meal plan (but be aware that there are NO recipes in this book); A shopping list and a resource list.

All in all, Kathy Freston’s Veganist is a worthwhile addition to a vegan/vegetarian’s bookshelf and could make an excellent gift for someone who is thinking about making positive changes toward a more plant-based diet, but isn’t too well versed in it.  It’s not super-new stuff, but is a nice amalgamation of the chief ideas, questions and concepts of being or becoming “Veganist”

Recommended.

Is Organic Produce Essential?

In one of my latest posts, someone asked about how to find all the nutrient-dense food I had discussed in organic form.  I thought it would make a great topic, so here we go.

As we know, buying organic is good for a number of reasons.  We are not being exposed to the levels of herbicides/pesticides that come with conventional (non-organic) plant-matter. Buying organic means buying non-GMO (genetically modified organisms). As well, if you buy from a small-scale organic farmer, you will likely be supporting someone who cares about the health of the soil they are using, which in turn may lead to a better nutritional profile of the organic veggie.  I’m not certain this can be said of the “big” organic farms.  For example, while I’m happy to buy my President’s Choice organic carrots, trusting that pesticides have not been used, it is hard for me to imagine that farms selling at such a large scale are necessarily going to be that concerned about the soil or rotating crops, etc.  If anyone reading this knows more about the matter, please post in the comments – I’d love to learn about it.

On the down side, organic is often, though not always, more expensive than conventional fruit, vegetables, grains, nuts, seeds and legumes.  For many people it is just not possible to buy 100% organic, or maybe even 5% organic.  So, I think it’s important to stress that if you have already “gone vegan”, then you are already reducing your intake of pesticides greatly, even if you buy all convential produce.  How is that?  It’s the BIOACCUMULATION FACTOR that exists as we eat higher up the “food chain”.  When you are vegan, you are avoiding this.

Bioaccumulation:

What do I mean by bioaccumulation?  This term relates to the process of chemicals, which may be found in small amounts on plants, in soil, air, water, or lower-food-chain-animals, being ingested by another animal.  For example, if a cow who is to be later killed for her meat eats hundreds of pounds of chemically-laden grains over her life-time, then some of this is going to remain in her fat and other tissues.  Then someone kills this creature, chops her up, ships her body parts off to a supermarket where a human buys and eats them for dinner (or it goes bad and is thrown out…but that’s another topic).  The human who eats this flesh-meat is getting a concentrated amount of chemicals.  Then they eat more animal foods for breakfast, lunch and so on.  Concentrated toxins in the animals that we eat means we are taking those toxins into our own bodies and much of it won’t be excreted.  Instead, it will accumulate and may contribute to a variety of health issues over time.

Now, compare someone who is not eating animals, but is eating only conventionally grown plants.  Yes, you are getting some toxins entering your body, but it in a much less concentrated form, thus you are decreasing your risk of the health issues that come with these chemicals.

Here is an excerpt from an online article I found which gives a few research stats on the subject:

Vegetarians claim other reasons for adopting a meat-free diet. One major concern is the amount of pesticides and synthetic additives such as hormones that show up in meat products. Chemicals tend to accumulate in the tissue of animals that are higher in the food chain, a process called bioaccumulation. Vegetarians, by not eating meat, can avoid the exposure to these accumulated toxins, many of which are known to influence the development of cancer. One study showed that DDT, a cancer-causing pesticide, was present in significant levels in mother’s milk for 99% of American women, but only 8% of vegetarian women had significant levels of the pesticide. Women who eat meat had 35 times higher levels of particular pesticides than vegetarian women. The synthetic hormones and antibiotics added to American cattle has led some European countries to ban American beef altogether. The widespread use of antibiotics in livestock has made many infectious agents more resistant to them, making some diseases harder to treat. (source)

So, now that you know you can rest more easily if you are unable to afford or find organic food, here is a list of plants that were determined by the Environmental Working Group to have the greatest and least amounts of pesticide residues found on/in them when tested.  They have been dubbed “The Dirty Dozen” and “The Clean Fifteen”. You can use this list as a guide to make the most of your money if you want to buy organic.

The Dirty Dozen

• Apples.
• Celery.
• Strawberries.
• Peaches.
• Spinach.
• Nectarines (imported).
• Grapes (imported).
• Sweet bell pepper.
• Potatoes.
• Blueberries (domestic).
• Lettuce.
• Kale/collard greens.

The Clean Fifteen

• Onions
• Sweet corn
• Pineapple
• Avacado
• Asparagus
• Sweet peas
• Mangoes
• Eggplant
• Cantaloupe – domestic
• Kiwi
• Cabbage
• Watermelon
• Sweet potatoes
• Cabbage
• Watermelon

Other Great Ways to Go Organic:

– Grow Your Own Garden!.  Then you control what goes on and doesn’t get into your food.

–Join a CSA (Community Shared/Supported Agriculture).  This is where you pay a local, usually organic, farmer money for a share of his/her crop before the start of the season.  Then, as the crops begin to grow, you and your fellow CSAer’s share in the abundance on a weekly basis.  CSAs are great because they guarantee an income for the farmer, and the members get to know where their food is coming from (and even visit, if desired).  If it is a poor growing season for certain crops, you may not get much of that/those foods, but you will likely get more of other crops that prefer those conditions.  My experience with the CSA I am a member of (Cedar Down Farm…but they are sold out for this summer) has been amazing, and I’ve always had a true abundance of food!

Of course, these options are seasonal, and when you live in southern Ontario, like I do, you do have to rely on grocery stores in the winter months.  But we can only do the best we can do and..well…that’s it.  So don’t sweat it.  Eat in the best way you are able to and make certain to enjoy every morsel of food that enters your mouth.  Being appreciative and at peace when you eat goes a LONG way toward getting the best nutrition out your meals.

Eating Vegan for the Earth

I know this post is a few days late for Earth Day, but really, shouldn’t every day be such?  I’m always wishing I had the environmental facts related to animal agriculture and environmental destruction on the tip of my tongue, but seem to have only so much room in my memory banks.  So, the following is a list of facts I’ve found on the subject.  At least now I’ll have one place to refer to when I’m looking for the info.

From Eating Animals, by Jonathan Safran Foer (pg 58):

“According to the UN, the livestock sector is responsible for 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, around 40 percent more than the entire transport sector – cars, trucks, planes, trains, and ships – combined. Animal agriculture is responsible for 37 percent of anthropogenic methane, which offers twenty-three times the global warming potential (GWP) of CO2, as well as 65 percent of anthropogenic nitrous oxide, which provides a staggering 296 times the GWP of CO2. The most current data even quantifies the role of diet: omnivores contribute seven times the volume of greenhouse gases that vegans do.”

The following several points (in italics) are from Ecoholic by Adria Vasil (pg 84-86)

1. Meat production requires 10 to 20 times more energy per edible ton than grain production

2. One-fifth of the planet’s land surface is used for grazing animals, double what goes to growing crops

3. An area larger than New York state is estimated to be destroyed every year for grazing land

4. Over three-quarters of the world’s fish stocks are on the verge of collapse

-  Land area needed to feed the average omnivorous North American: 1.4 hectares
 - Land area needed to feed a vegetarian: 0.2 hectares

Fish and the Oceans:

“According to a report in Nature journal, only 10% of large, open-ocean fish are left in the sea. The Marine Sustainability Council says 52% of the world’s stocks are being fished at maximum capacity, 24% are over-exploited, depleted or recovering and another 21% are “moderately exploited”. Environmental Defence says overfishing, habitat damage and pollution mean that 78% of fish stocks are on the verge of collapse.

…we basically vacuum the ocean floor by laying down massive weighted nets that scrape up everything in their path, including 1,000-year-old coral and vast quantities of unwanted fish. The undersized, unmarketable or simply accidental bycatch (including dolphins, seals, whales and sea turtles) is tossed overboard, often dead.”

Fish Farming: According to the Coastal Alliance for Aquaculture Reforms’ report “Farmed and Dangerous,” it takes 3 kilograms of wild fish to grow 1 kilogram of farmed salmon. Overcrowded ocean pens are essentially polluting feces factories and harbouring grounds for diseases such as sea lice. So not only are caged fish pumped full of antibiotics, but 95% of young wild salmon that swim past infected farms while migrating out to sea die, according to a recent University of Alberta study.”

And please click on the upcoming link to read an excellent summary article of a 2010 United Nations report which gives all the numbers and details as to why, if we are to save this planet of ours – the one we and future generations require in order to survive – we need to adopt a vegan diet:  “UN Urges Global Move to Meat and Dairy-free Diet”

In summary, while vegans shouldn’t be complacent or superior about the contributions we are already making to minimizing the environmental destruction of our planet (we may still need to walk instead of drive, use less water, turn those lights off, for example), it is good to know that not only can we be healthy, guilt-free (as far as animal-abuse in factory farming is concerned), but we can also feel a sense of peace in the fact that our dietary choices are having a positive (and direly needed) environmental impact.

If you, dear reader, have any other animal agriculture factoids related to food consumption (and have a valid reference for them), please post in the comments section – I and others will be very interested to read them!

Vegan vs Whole-food Plant-based Diet

 

 

 

As the name of my blog clearly states, I am a vegan naturopath.  It would actually be more correct if I changed the name to “The whole-food, plant-based naturopath” as that is really the type of diet I strive to eat  and promote.  But for the sake of brevity, “vegan naturopath” works best.  “What is the difference?”, you may be asking.  Well, it’s potentially quite a big difference, or it could be no difference at all, so here’s how I explain it:

First, let’s check out a dictionary definition of the term “vegan”:

Vegan: a strict vegetarian who consumes no animal food or dairy products; also : one who abstains from using animal products (as leather)

And that’s it.  It makes no mention of the type of food that is consumed, nor does it mention the reasons one might decide to be vegan.  My thought is that people who define themselves as vegan (of which I am one), generally do so for ethical reasons.  I would hazard to state that the #1 reason people ‘go vegan’ is because they do not want to be willing participants in the misery and death of billions of animals (cows, chickens, pigs, ducks, sheep, fish, etc) each and every year.  That was certainly my reason many moons ago and indeed, the knowledge of animal suffering is what keeps me on the straight-and-narrow vegan path more than anything else.

Another reason one might become vegan is for environmental reasons.  Probably most people reading this know that the farming and subsequent consumption of animals comes at a huge cost to our environment–the air, the soil, the waters–and that, as our world population continues to grow and more and more of the ‘poorer’ countries that have typically eaten a plant-based diet are increasing their demand for animal products, the demand for land resources, the production of gasses and use of toxic chemicals is also increasing exponentially.  World health leaders are telling us clearly that in order to have any hope of saving our environment, we all need to move toward a veggie diet.

The third reason one may become vegan, and the area where the two terms in the title of this post come into question, is for the improvement of health.  But is a vegan diet healthy?  Is it healthier than the diet of an omnivore?  The answer to both questions is maybe yes, maybe no.

You see, I could be vegan and eat the following foods over the course of the day:

Breakfast: 1 white bagel with margarine, Kraft peanut butter 
and jam.  Coffee.

Snack: 2 Oreo cookies

Lunch: Sandwich: white bread, vegan mayo, no-meat turkey 
slices, dairy-free cheese.  Soy yogurt.

Snack: Cup of juice or maybe another coffee.

Dinner: Harvey's veggie burger and fries.

Snack: potato chips or corn chips with salsa.

The question I put to you (and I do hope you get the right answer) is:  Is the above a healthy diet?

And the answer I must give you is a resounding NO!  (If you didn’t get the right answer, please make an appointment with a local vegan naturopath or nutritionist at once!)

So, someone eliminating animal products from their diet may choose, rather than terming their dietary choice as ‘vegan’, to term it ‘whole-food, plant-based’.  And here is an example of what a whole-food, plant-based menu might look like:

Breakfast: Chocolate Bliss Smoothie (Raw cacao powder, 
banana, blueberries, water, almond milk, spirulina)

Snack: Omega-3 nut balls (ground flax seeds, hemp seeds, 
walnuts, raw cacao powder, dates, shredded coconuts)

Lunch: large (as in a large mixing-bowl size) green salad 
(mixed leafy greens, cilantro, tomato, cucumber, radish, 
shredded carrot,avocado, kidney beans, 
oil-free or flax-oil/vinegar dressing) 

Snack: Green smoothie (Kale, apple, pear, water)

Dinner: Cooked quinoa, chickpeas, steamed veggies 
(carrots, broccoli,cauliflower, leafy greens, etc)

Do you see the difference?  The first menu plan is full of processed foods, with an alarming deficiency in nutritionally dense foods.  The second menu plan is all about eating plant-food in its whole (not processed) form.  It is by far the superior diet and one that should promote the best of health, energy and vitality in whoever eats this way on a regular basis.  Not that I’m saying it has to be entirely one or the other.  I’ll admit to occasionally eating potato chips and fries, but this is becoming less and less frequent as I let go of old habits and my body and mind embrace how great it feels to eat top-notch food.  What I am saying is to strive to include more and more of the good stuff into your diet and eventually there won’t be room for the bad.

So is it wrong to call yourself vegan and eat a crappy diet, all because of the desire to help decrease the suffering of animals?  Not at all.  I applaud everyone who has recognized the insanity that is factory farming and has chosen to shun it.  But why stop there?  Why not be the best, healthiest example of vegan that you can be? Then, when you meet people and tell them you’re vegan, when they leave, they’ll think about how healthy and vibrant you appear.  And maybe that will inspire them to try that vegan diet too!  But instead of just saying “I’m vegan”  maybe say, “I’m a whole-food, plant-based vegan, and I have never felt better!”

What do you think?  Do vegans have more of a responsibility than the average person to eat healthy in order to justify their diets?  Do you personally feel this way?  Or is eating ‘Menu One’ style vegan ‘good-enough’ if saving animals is your goal?  Would you like to eat ‘Menu Two’ style, but have restrictions, eg: not enough knowledge or money? I’d love to read your comments, so please post away!

Kickstart Your Health in 21 Days Group Cleanse – April Dates!

Some of you may know that I’ve been facilitating Kickstart Your Health group cleanses for the last year and a half or so.  These groups have been a great success, with people feeling healthier in a wide variety of ways including: weight-loss, increased energy, better sleep, improved digestion, elimination of food allergies, decreased joint and body inflammation and pain and much, much more!  Joining the group is a great way to motivate yourself to ‘Just Do It!’  Here are the details:

Next Group Cleanse Dates:

Wed April 11th, 18th, 25th, May 2nd, 9th, from 7:30-8:30pm

Location: My office at 548 Woolwich Street in Guelph, Ontario (I also offer on-site Group Cleanses for businesses in the Guelph area)

CLEANSE BASICS

3 weeks of avoiding:

– All animal products (including fish, eggs, dairy)
– All gluten grains
– Refined sugars
– Caffeine
– Alcohol

Included in the group cleanse:

-5 weekly one hour meetings with health professional Robyn Fraser, BSc, ND, M.OMSc.

-Handouts of over a week’s worth of breakfast, lunch, dinner and snack recipes.

-Information and handouts discussing researched based nutrition.

-Information and handouts on books, websites and other valuable resources.

-5 weeks of professional support and key health information to help you succeed in the cleanse and optimize your well-being in all areas of your life.

-On top of the 5 weekly meetings, Robyn will be available to answer your cleanse-based questions via phone or email for the duration of the cleanse.

-The support of others in the group who are also participating in the cleanse.

-Increased energy, health and vitality!

Five-Week Outline: (It’s okay if you can’t make each week)

Week One: Introduction to cleanse. Research-based information on why this way of eating can help you decrease your risk for various diseases. You have a week to shop and prepare.

Week Two: THE CLEANSE STARTS TODAY! Ask questions, receive further health-promoting tips and nutritional information/advice including why too much calcium isn’t a good thing and why dairy is not your best source!

Week Three: Into the second week of the diet. Share recipes, ideas with the group. Robyn will share further health-promoting tips and discuss omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids: how to get them in the right ratios as well as reviewing what foods to eat to maximize your nutrient density.

Week Four: Into week three of the cleanse. Discuss stress-reduction techniques including relaxation exercises and more.

Week Five: Congratulations! You have completed the 21-day Kickstart Your Health Cleanse! Check in to see how everyone is feeling and discuss where to go from here.

Cost: $100 + hst for the entire 5 weeks.

I hope some of you can join in! Please check out my website for my contact info if you’d like to sign up.   These groups are fun, motivating, educational and will help you to feel great!