We sampled 3 different types of olive oil.  Two were blended and either had no taste or were bitter, but two had a sweet spicy taste that left you wanting more.  The difference was the label on the bottles that said IGP, or DOP.  These certificates verify that the quality and origin for a product endorsed from Europe.

IGP stands for Indicazione Geografica Protetta, or the protected geographical.  IGP guarantees a product from a particular region or country whose quality and characteristics relate the region, but does not have to be produced in that region.

DOP, Denominazione d’Origine Protetta, or protected designation of origin is like IGP, but the difference is that the product must be produced in the region as well.  DOP products have extremely strict specifications that must be met in each step of production. Great link on the differences between IGP and DOP here.

For us, the taste was so superior that we decided for foods that require dipping or drizzling, the only bottle of olive oil we buy must have the  DOP label.

Most supermarkets in the US don’t carry quality olive oil, it’s better to research local Italian markets. For US based olive oil, try Bariani Olive Oil.  I found it not quite as flavorful as DOP labels, but it was a pretty good substitute and great story behind the family owned company out of California via Italy.

If you are looking for a fabulous vacation with family, or friends we recommend contacting Tutti-a-Tavola.  Also, menus may be customized to include cooking with young children! Menus are flexible and are designed by you to be as easy or as complex as requested.

A few more pix from the trip:

In utero, babies develop their sense of taste at 21 weeks. Baby learns about flavors through the amniotic fluid that flows in to nourish them and also to teach them to swallow. From day to day, the amniotic fluid differs in taste depending on what mom is eating. If mom eats a wide variety of flavors, then baby has a better chance to develop a wide palate for different foods.  Chances are you can offer your child a great head start to loving asparagus if you eat it while  you are pregnant.

But what about the sweet flavor?  This teaches us about taste development, when amniotic fluid builds up moms are injected with a sweet substance to get babies to drink more of the amniotic fluid. In truth, babies prefer sweet tastes and in some cases sweetness eases pain through a natural analgesic effect in the body.

But sugar has an addictive quality. In April, 2012, Dr. Sanjay Gupta did an interview with Dr. Robert Lustig on 60 Minutes called Is Sugar Toxic? (A must watch!)  A study out of University of California, Davis gave evidence that increased sugar in the diet showed an exponential increase in LDL and other measures for heart disease.  According to Dr. Lustig, a pediatric endo and expert on the subject, this is new evidence and alarm for concern.  The head of Beth Israel Deaconess Cancer Center and harvard professor Dr. Lewis Cantley sees the concern as well for cancer patients. Sugar increases insulin, which can be a catalyst to certain types of cancer.

The average American eats roughly 130 lbs of sugar a year, which breaks down to about 1/3 of a pound per day.  If sugar is risky to our health, then what are the AHA guidelines on sugar?  Last October, the AHA finally offered these guidelines.  Added sugar should be no more that half of your discretionary calories per day.  For the average American woman that means no more than 100 calories per day or 6 teaspoons.  For men, it’s 150 calories per day or about 9 teaspoons. These are the sugars that are added to foods, like high fructose corn syrup and other refined sugars that are not naturally occurring sugar found in the food.

How much sugar do you consume?  Every time I have a grand mocha with whip at Starbucks, my discretionary sugar intake from that drink is 40grams, or 160 calories!  (Here’s a site to help figure out grams to calories) My mocha has already given me more than my day’s allowance of discretionary sugar! Imagine those Buzz cupcakes that are half the size of your child’s head!  Probably a few days allowance of sugar, let alone the hangover your child is going to have!

Taste is an important driver to enjoying eating, but it can be tempered and expanded more than we think.  Variety is important and trying something multiple times in different recipes offers the chance to find that you really love asparagus with sautéed shallots.  Be creative and make it a fun experiment!

When I say inflammation, I don’t mean hot, itchy, red skin.  That is just a form of inflammation. What I’m taking about is an internal inflammation that effects each system of the body: circulatory(blood), digestive and/or endocrine (organ), immune, respiratory(lungs), reproductive, skeletal, urinary and nervous systems. Each one of these systems can develop inflammation and sometimes multiple systems can develop inflammation, too.

Age is not our friend!  As we get older, the ability for the body to fight against inflammation decreases significantly. Simple signs of chronic inflammation are higher blood pressure, higher cholesterol, increased joint pain, just to name a few.  People with chronic illnesses, like diabetes, have higher levels of inflammation because the body’s auto immune system is dysfunctional and constantly attacks the body’s system causing increased stress, which translates into inflammation.

In some cases, drugs like statins can help but there is a personal discomfort to using them. So what can we do to lower our inflammatory response? Add in antioxidants, particularly omega 3 fatty acid. Some people have touted olive oil as healthy, but studies show a disproportionate ratio of Omega 3 to Omega 6 and that can add fuel to the inflammatory fire.

To increase omega 3 fat, the best source is cold water fish, like salmon and sardines, but the highest level of omega 3 is found in Krill oil. But Krill is expensive and hard to find, so I switched to Nordic Naturals Fish oil.  My acupuncturist, Njemeile Jones, MS, L.Ac. FABORM shared with me that she regularly recommends fish oil for reducing inflammation and joint pain.  She explained that she sells a pharmaceutical grade fish oil, which had a higher amount of Omega 3, in addition to higher EPA and DHA.  The only way to get this pharmaceutical grade oil is through a doctor or qualified practitioner. I decided to give it a shot.

A year after I began taking fish oil, my cholesterol shifted it’s numbers.  I went from an HDL (good cholesterol) of 62 to an HDL of 106. So few people have this number that I was placed into a study for trying to figure out why my body was responding so well.

Was it fish oil alone that raised my HDL?  Probably not, but I think it was a combination of good habits, (regular exercise and very few processed foods), coupled with the right therapeutics for managing my diabetes.  My body seemed to be sending a huge thank you for my effort to figure out this inflammatory issue.  This also qualifies the effort of doctors who are getting behind integrated health practices.

It is a good practice for anyone to begin to add Salmon into their diet once a week, but if you don’t like fish, then look for a high quality fish oil to add to your diet.  It’s a good thing for any age!

A few years ago, Sara Lavan popped into my office to ask about teaching Pilates mat classes at BIBC.  From our initial meeting, I loved Sara’s knowledge of the mechanics of the body and her passion for teaching. I’ve always said that to be a great teacher, it is not about loving yoga or Pilates, it is about helping people understand their limitations, but teach them to find greater movement, or create a stronger body then they had thought possible.  Anyone who has taken a class with Sara knows she embraces this belief, too!

Sara was a gift to the center and continues to be a gift to us all, since she recently opened her own studio Local Motion Studio  for Pilates, dance, creative movement for children and a ballet barre class I’m dying to try! I’ve asked Sara to share a few thoughts with me on her new gig:

BIBC: What is your favorite thing about Local Motion Studio?

Sara:   I love the industrial look and the art work. Being a New Yorker at heart, I have always loved industrial spaces. I  wanted to create a space that was truly beautiful – one that I would want to be in everyday. Between the amazing job my contractors did and the incredible artist that have hung their work- this became a reality.

BIBC: Why is creative movement for kids important for parents to embrace?

Sara:   I think our creative movement is unique as it is concept based and caters to both boys and girls.  What we teach at Local Motion Studio are the elements of dance. Within this structure we allow children to explore dance concepts in a fun and creative way. For instance- a lesson may be on “fast and slow”. We explore this in the warm up, in large locomotor movement (walk fast, tiptoe slow) , in creative explorations (fast and slow land, where one side of the room is fast land, the other slow) , with props (move the scarf fast/ slow) etc. A whole class can be on one simple concept, but provides a rich understanding of the concept and allows children to build this into their movement vocabulary.  We believe this is important to do before tying any child down to a specific technique. They are learning the “how and why” of movement, not just mimicking a teacher. It allows for a richer understanding of movement possibilities. Allowing children to work creatively empowers children to bring their own ideas to the classroom. It fosters confidence, creativity and collaboration. Teaching movement, and getting children comfortable with the language of movement, helps children feel comfortable in their bodies as well as finding greater control of them.

BIBC: I’m old and my body is cranky can I do the ballet barre class? If you have never taken a ballet class, do people need to take a class to build up to ballet barre class?

Sara:  Yes old and cranky are welcome at the Ballet Barre class! As we have both beginner and slow intermediate- the classes are suitable for anyone. It is a true ballet barre. Traditional ballet, not the fusion core classes that have become so popular at other studios. This class is taught by a professional dance teacher. People who attend the beginner are those who always wanted to try ballet and never have, and also some who are returning after a long hiatus. The slow intermediate is appropriate for anyone who has basic ballet vocabulary.

BIBC:  Can you share what is a completely unique class to Local Motion and one that everyone should try?

Sara:  Core and Restore is unique to the studio as well as Capoeira. The core and restore classes are Pilates mat based, but have elements of yoga and dance as well as props thrown in. It is a class deeply focused on proper execution of movement while having fun! I have been told by many that it reminds them of the exercises they have had in physical therapy. Capoeira is also a unique offering. It is a brazilian Marial art. It incorporates movement, and music and truly beautiful and fun. Honestly- the ballet barre it unique too! I do not know of any studio that offers just ballet barre. Most dance studios only have the full class and other studios offer the fusion classes. We have a lot of unique offerings.

I have no doubt that Local Motion Studio will have the most unique offerings in Old Town, as Sara was never out of creative ideas when she was teaching at BIBC!  I highly recommend it.. and see you at the ballet barre class!

As athletes, we expect our bodies to do ungodly things for us in all kinds of weather.  It’s still a little chilly on the water.  It’s going to have an effect.  This month I want to talk about stretching and conditioning.  Many of you kept up your conditioning over the winter either by doing the Strokes erg program or your own workouts.  Others, like me, watched seasons 1 and 2 of Glee on Netflix and carb-loaded at Nellies, which is evident by my erg scores last week.  Man, do I feel stiff.

I think rowing and basketball might be the two most grueling full-body sports.  Very leg-centric, very cardiovascularly taxing.  I learned at an early age to avoid sports that involve things flying through the air at me, so I row..  The body WILL adapt to the forces placed on it, and if all we ask our muscles to do is contract and contract and not give them the opportunity to relax and lengthen, they will shorten and thicken over time and most of us know what it feels like to bend over and not be able to touch our toes.

If I may (and it’s my column, so I may), I’ll share a personal experience that was a big wake-up call:  last October I came back after a long absence and rowed in the Head of the Charles with less than two weeks of conditioning.  If one of my patients had told me they were going to do that I would have read them the riot act.  Not being too well conditioned, about a minute into a 20 minute race, I was done.  My abdominals had to get busy keeping me alive and breathing so my hip flexors took the brunt.  The poor coxswain had to witness it for 20 minutes (she was awesome).  Three days later I had to passively drag my leg out of bed and gently place it on the floor before I could stand.  I wore socks to bed for that reason.  I thought I had herniated a disc (kind of ironic considering my profession).  My psoas muscle, the major hip flexor, had gotten so inflamed it inflamed the nerve next to it which runs down the front of the leg.  A few torture sessions, I mean, trips, to my favorite chiropractor, however, helped immensely, and in preparation for this season I got more serious about stretching.

Stretching sucks.  It’s a pain in the butt (especially when you’re stretching the butt muscles).  It’s boring.  Many of us leave practice and sit at a desk all day.  Sitting means short hip flexors and often relaxed abs.  Many of us fall asleep before getting the chance to stretch.  Many of us don’t get enough sleep, which is when our bodies release growth hormone to repair the muscles (providing we resist the ice cream before bedtime, as the insulin rush from the ice cream will inhibit growth hormone release).  We can get away with a lot as high school and college rowers, and into our 20s and even 30s.  That doesn’t mean the effects don’t add up.  Our bodies are great at compensating and “muscling through”.  As I said, I had my wake-up call.

Following are a few basic stretches that will make us better rowers with longer strokes and faster erg times.  Remember a good stretch should be held for at least 20 seconds to reset the muscle spindles, which send the brain contraction information.  If we want our muscles to be longer (for muscles, it’s all about length and strength) those 20 seconds are necessary or it will be like we never hit the refresh button on our anatomical web browser.

“And that’s…how chirojoe…C’s it.”  (I need to top watching Glee.)

Hip Flexors: Kneel on a pillow, keep the back straight. Over the 20 seconds, see if you can go further, gently. Don’t pulse, just hold steady. Keep the (left shin in this photo) behind the foot.

Quads: over the 20 seconds, gently pull the foot back so the thigh goes backwards, as one of the 4 quads crosses the hip joint and acts as a hip flexor.

Hamstrings: Most of have short hamstrings. If you can’t bring your leg up 90 degrees, just go as far as you can with a straight knee, using a strap or belt, and hold for TWO MINUTES (I set the timer on my phone), gently nudging further. Two minutes are needed for these powerful muscles, which don’t like to let go and can get very fibrous and ropey .

Piriformis, glutes, hip external rota- tors, some low back: Ankle over the other knee, nudge the knee (right one here) down towards having shin parallel to floor. Pivoting from the hip, keeping the back straight, lean forward. Don’t rock—just hold steady and gently creep forward. To be thorough, try three positions: heel on knee, ankle on knee, lower calf on knee. 20 seconds each. Takes but a minute for each leg .

Low and mid back: After the previous stretch, grab under the “up” knee with the opposite hand (left hand here), pull up towards opposite (left) shoulder, push for- ward on the right knee with right hand, creating a twist stretch for all the big and small back muscles.Don’t pulse, just hold static and gently nudge.

Calf stretch : Gastrocnemius and Soleus muscles, two muscles difficult to stretch because the ankle only goes so far. Can be done on a step or against a wall.

In a nutshell, when we are exposed to low does of chemicals toxins, or radiation our bodies create a form of self defense called hormesis. Cells that are exposed to negative chemicals, or chemicals created by stress suddenly increase their production of cytoprotective and restorative proteins to help the body defend itself.  Some of these proteins are in the form of antioxidant enzymes among others. Hormesis is a positive affirmation that our body is doing what it is supposed to and it should be encouraged to help our immune system stay strong.

A great way to encourage hormesis is to create a little stress, but stressors that are healthy, vs ones that break us down.  Good forms of stress are exercise, a mild decrease in calories, like fasting for a day(one of my favs).  Hot and cold, think sauna/cold plunge, are positive stressors.

Boy, have I lived a life for creating hormesis! All the years of riding, running, hiking, massage therapy work and all of those at an exhaustive clip. Perhaps, this is one reason I have no diabetes complications after 43 years.

Dr. Weil gave another interesting tip on the benefits of hormesis: drink a moderate dose of alcohol.  The body sees alcohol as a toxin and boosts the antioxidant levels, thus creating a little heart healthy benefit.  On that note, I have just one thing to say “Vive a La France!”

At the beginning of this year, I pledged to regain my fitness and also regain my healthy eating habits, which had escaped me during my business pursuits for the last 4 years.  To date, I’m down 9lbs and have 7 more to go to hit my target weight and I’ve done it by simple smart choices, rather than a fasting cleanse that cost me $200+.  In fact, my choices have cut expenses related to food.

To begin, I first cut back on carbs, which include simple carbohydrates, all refined sugar and syrup.  To add substance, I chose to add snacks like almonds. Almonds are heart healthy because they help lower LDL cholesterol and they contain an antioxident vitamin E.  Almonds also help reduce post prandial(after meal) blood sugar!  I chose to eat fresh veggies and choice of meat and gave up carbs, like pasta until I felt I like I had good control of my food choices.  The longer I’n away from carbs, the less I seem to want them anyway.

After I adjusted my food choices, then I went on a week long cleanse, if you can call it that.  My cleanse consisted of homemade turkey/kale soup for dinner.  For lunch I either had a big salad, or roasted turkey breast I made at home with avocado in a wrap. For breakfast, I drank green tea or tisane in the mornings instead of coffee, had a small bowl of oatmeal with fresh fruit.  For a snack, I would fill the palm of my hand with almonds and I had lots of filtered water from a Brita filter with a lemon wedge. Lemon is great for helping the endocrine system filter out debris and neutralize the ph, plus I love the added taste to water.

I’m now 5 weeks into my health change and my choices are clearly working for me.  I have not missed the junk foods that I was hanging onto during stressful times and I am dropping weight effortlessly.  I overall feel more energetic and I’m still working on my running as I’m 3 weeks away from the Parkway Classic 10 miler.  Hope we see you out there!

One of my new social media passions is Pinterest.com.  You post pictures of things you like and if you click on them, it will take you to the site to look at the item. So when all of this hit, I posted a few pictures of lead free lipsticks and one company was a favorite among Pinterest pinners:  Bare Escentuals, which has a store over in Pentagon City. One of my favorite local haunts is Bellacara in Old Town, which offers many lead free products. I think some shopping is in order!  Some other companies who make lead free products: Zuzu Luxe, Mud Shop ~Make Up Designory and Jane Iredale Mineral Makeup.

Here’s to looking healthy, beautiful and lead free!

There were many great speakers, but one in particular inspired me to write about our health habits.  Dr. Mike Roizen, chair of Cleveland Clinic and business partner to Dr. Oz, gave a speech about the health costs of average Americans.

He started by stating “Peak quality of life hits between ages 25-35.  After 25, you loose 5% of every functional measure every 10 years. Your IQ also goes down 5% every 10 years, but about 25% don’t loose their IQ.”  What makes them different? Their overall lifestyle habits.

Dr. Roizen, and his colleagues at Cleveland Clinic, decided that as part of an evidenced based program, they would focus on four areas that effect your peak quality of life. The four areas of focus:

• tobacco
• food choices
• physical activity
• work stress

(These four areas of interest are the same areas of focus at Body in Balance Center. From practitioners to classes we offer the same ideals as Cleveland Clinic. Nice!)

For Dr. Roizen, the first change was to detox their work environment.  He said if they couldn’t take the carpet, grind it up and eat it, then it had to go. Go advice! (To watch the podcast of Dr. Roizen’s speech, click here)

Food and water are basic necessities to survival, but in an industrialized world we have excesses and prepackaged convenience foods with plenty of sugar and salt to make it palatable. This becomes the burden to our rising healthcare costs.  According to Dr. Roizen, in 1990, the US had an obesity rate no higher than 14% within each state.  By the year 2008, no state has less than 15% obesity rate.

“Behaviors are governed by emotion and in order to change those emotions, you need to make a culture change,” said Dr. Roizen.  What Cleveland Clinic did to change their health habits was to focus on minimizing 5 foods for both patients and employees:

• Saturated fat
• Trans fats
• Sugar
• Simple carbs (enriched flour)
• Syrup

For me, this is the golden key!  After 43 years of living with diabetes, I still don’t have complications and my main focus has always been to eat healthy and exercise lots!  As someone living with type1 diabetes, food choices are vitally important to managing my blood sugar, but also for weight control and keeping the rest of my body as resilient as possible. 

How well does minimizing the 5 ingredients work? Very well.  My blood work, ie cholesterol, blood pressure etc are in perfect order.  In fact, my HDL (good cholesterol) is over 100, something that very few people can say.   My view of food is that it should help build the strength of bones and muscle, but it should also help to strengthen my digestive tract and immune system and replenish my cells with plenty of energy.  I don’t eat food just because it tastes good, I eat food that tastes good and makes me feel energetic and focused hours later.

For one week, try limiting saturated fat, trans fat, sugar, simple carbs and syrup and add in whole foods and grains and see what happens!  And remember to completely change a habit it takes six weeks to leave the mind and body for good, so be patient with yourself!

The dilemma is whether this is good PR for all of us living with diabetes. I have two concerns about this situation.  My first concern is whether Paula Deen will be a responsible expert patient example for people to follow. Time will tell and I’m willing to give her that.

The second concern is that Deen is a TV personality, whose PR agent quit after Deen’s announcement.  Her publicist couldn’t agree with Deen’s business decision to do a sponsored program with Novo Nordisk called Diabetes in a New Light.  I give her publicist credit for realizing that Deen’s brand was never designed to be viewed  as healthy and that it will be very hard to sell Deen’s brand against real health sources.

If there is one message to remember, it is that we have just one body for the rest of our lives.  What we do to keep it healthy and strong is important, with and without chronic illness!

As we age, the body will begin to send all the necessary responses to help fend off illness and to maintain healthy body functions for a vibrant, energetic life. But if the system is weak from unhealthy habits, such as in the case of Paula Deen’s smoking and nutrient deficient foods, the body cannot combat the high probability of disease.

At a lecture about food, I heard a speaker say, “Your body is a temple and you need to embrace it the way you embrace going to church.” In other words, don’t chip away at the flying buttresses of Notre Dame!  Would you allow rodents to do damage to the pulpit, alters and pews?  Age and decay are expected, but how we chose to care for the building is usually to hire the most qualified person to handle the repairs and maintenance, and not let the rats in to do more damage.

The foundation of a healthy body is directly related to what we eat.  Healthy, nutrient dense foods, proper hydration are daily requirements. The second most important need for the body is exercise.  In my experience, these two things are not choices! If women want to look good, take a good look at your skin in the mirror before you get in the shower.  Does your skin have a healthy glow?  Are the pores clean and open? Is your hair shiny and lustrous?  If these things are not obvious, your health may be taking a hit and the body is rerouting nutrients that would ordinarily feed the skin to help bolster the immune system.

All of us will go through moments when the body looks less vibrant.  When I have the flu, I think of it like experiencing a hurricane.  But the day after, the sun is out and the chance to rebuild is new and open to possibilities.  You need to clean up by understanding what is lacking in your health and move to rebuild the basic good health habits one at a time, giving each change 8 weeks to settle into routine.

Good health can be a huge capital return for your body, mind and your pocketbook. Dr. Weil is a formidable example of that success!  I hope Dr. Weil and Paula Deen have a cook off!