Protein – How Much You Need and Why

Protein is the major structural component of every cell in the human body. The word “protein” is thought to come from the Greek word proteios which means “the first quality.” Protein is a very important dietary nutrient and many people do not eat adequate amounts of it or the most nutritious forms of it on a consistent basis. This is not such a good idea as you’ll learn shortly.

Of all the foods that contain protein, animal protein (like those pictured above) are the only sources that provide all of the essential amino acids (EAA) and in their proper ratios. This is not a debatable issue. It is a fact.

Essential Amino Acids
EAAs are used throughout the body to repair and build muscle as well as other cells and tissues. They function as enzymes, and hormones that control and regulate many of the body’s critical functions. These little powerhouses cannot be synthesized (created) by your body and therefore must be supplied in the diet.

While non-animal protein foods like beans, broccoli, etc. contain protein, they do not, as I stated before, contain all of the essential amino acids or in their proper ratios. Because of this, it is vitally important that you make sure you are getting your daily protein minimums to meet your EAA needs from animal sources. If you don’t eat enough protein, your body will eat its own muscle tissue to make up for the shortfall – the heart muscle too!

The Protein Intake Chart

WEIGHT

PROTEIN

EAA MIN

PROTIEN

GNG MAX

Ounces EAA Meat/Equiv

Ounces GNG Meat/Equiv

350-plus

125g

160g

18

23

340

123g

154g

17

22

330

120g

150g

17

21

320

117g

146g

17

21

310

114g

142g

16

20

300

111g

138g

16

20

290

108g

134g

15

19

280

105g

130g

15

19

270

102g

126g

14

18

260

99g

122g

14

18

250

96g

118g

14

17

240

93g

114g

13

16

230

90g

110g

13

15

220

87g

106g

12

15

210

84g

102g

12

14

200

81g

98g

11

14

190

78g

94g

11

13

180

75g

90g

11

13

170

72g

86g

10

12

160

69g

82g

10

12

150

66g

78g

9

11

140

63g

74g

9

10

130-less

60g

70g

9

10

Take a look at the chart above. It gives you your daily protein needs in grams and ounces to help you figure your individual minimum (EAA) and maximum (GNG) protein needs by body weight. This chart is designed specifically for those people who are over fat or obese and not exercising.

For example, if you are a 160 pound man or woman, you should aim to take in about 69 to 82 grams of protein which equates to 10 to 12 ounces from whatever choice of animal protein you prefer. If you look at the protein sources list below, you’ll see it’s pretty easy to accomplish this. Remember that animal protein sources contain all the EAA’s and in their proper ratios, so if you eat the minimum protein for your weight (EAA column) from animal based foods (meat, poultry, game, fish, eggs, cheese), you’re off to a good start.

If you perform strength training exercises (and you should be!) and especially if you want to build  a good deal of muscle,  you’ll need a bit more protein but not much more. If you have, say,  10+ more pounds of muscle than the typical person or want to build it, bump yourself up to a higher body weight level. So if you weigh 160 pounds, follow the recommended protein intake for a 170 pound person. Best thing is to shoot for one gram of protein per pound of body weight if you’re lean.

The GNG column on the chart is the maximum amount of protein you should eat if fat loss is your primary goal. GNG stands for gluconeogenesis which is the process of converting digested proteins into blood sugar (glucose). All humans require about 150 grams of glucose per day for a healthy, functioning nervous system. You can get this by eating 150 grams of carbohydrate per day or via gluconeogenesis (GNG) or a combo of the two.

On a properly formulated low carbohydrate diet (see the menu below) which is shown in numerous research papers to be a smart approach for shedding excess fat and for improving overall health, GNG supplies you with all the glucose your brain and nervous system needs. So strive to take in enough protein to meet your GNG requirements. If you exceed GNG, that’s OK. It’s certainly nothing to worry about. However, falling under your EAA needs is a whopping no-no for everybody.

Here’s a list of animal foods that will give you an idea of the choices you can make to eat to meet your protein requirements:

Beef
• Hamburger patty, 4 oz – 28 grams protein
• Steak, 6 oz – 42 grams
• Most cuts of beef – 7 grams of protein per oz

Chicken
• Chicken breast, 3.5 oz – 30 grams protein
• Chicken thigh – 10 grams (for average size)
• Drumstick – 11 grams
• Wing – 6 grams
• Chicken meat, cooked, 4 oz – 35 grams

Fish
• Most fish fillets or steaks are about 22 grams of protein for 3 ½ oz (100 grams) of cooked fish, or 6 grams per oz
• Tuna, 6 oz can – 40 grams of protein

Pork
• Pork chop, average – 22 grams protein
• Pork loin or tenderloin, 4 oz – 29 grams
• Ham, 3 oz serving – 19 grams
• Ground pork, 1 oz raw – 5 grams; 3 oz cooked – 22 grams
• Bacon, 1 slice – 3 grams

Eggs and Dairy
• Egg, large – 6 grams protein
• Cottage cheese, ½ cup – 15 grams
• Yogurt, 1 cup – usually 8-12 grams, check label
• Soft cheeses (Mozzarella, Brie, Camembert) – 6 grams per oz
• Medium cheeses (Cheddar, Swiss) – 7 or 8 grams per oz
• Hard cheeses (Parmesan) – 10 grams per oz

Below is a sample day’s menu (hat tip to the brilliant Regina Wilshire for this) for an average sized person (160 pounds). It contains ALL of the micronutrients you need and in their proper ratios. Smaller people would reduce the amount of eggs, chicken, and shrimp in the meals. Again, refer to the protein chart to determine your specific needs.

Breakfast: Florentine Omelet made with 2-3 large eggs, 1/4 cup cooked spinach, 2 slices bacon and 2 tablespoons feta cheese, cooked in butter.

Lunch: Chicken Caesar Salad made with 2 cups shredded romaine, 6 cherry tomatoes, 1/2 sliced medium cucumber, 1 cup grilled chicken breast diced, 1 tablespoon ground flax seeds, 1 ounce macadamia nuts chopped (in place of croutons for the crunch), 1/2 avocado sliced and creamy Caesar (wheat and flour free) dressing.

Dinner: Salad made with 1 cup shredded romaine, 3 cherry tomatoes, 4 sliced cucumber, 1TBS shredded carrots, 1TBS shredded red cabbage, topped with creamy dressing. Shrimp Scampi made with 6-ounces cooked shrimp, sautéed in butter, garlic and herbs (oregano, basil and parsley), with 12 sliced baby zucchini and a side dish of 3/4 cup cooked spinach. Healthy additions to salads are sea vegetables like Nori, dulse, etc.

The above menu is just a sample of course. Make substitutions to the food choices listed using the types of foods that you prefer. That said you shouldn’t substitute your lamb chops for spinach or vice versa. You must make substitutions using the same types of foods – meats for meats, veggies and fruits for veggies and fruits.

Don’t Fear Fat
And in case you’re worried about how much fat and cholesterol there is in this diet, don’t be. Cholesterol and saturated fats are actually essential to your good health. There is virtually no scientific evidence to support the idea that saturated fats and cholesterol are detrimental to your health or that when you eat fat and cholesterol they make a beeline directly into your arteries and stick there. In fact the opposite is true – we need these very important substances. All the negative information you hear about saturated fat and cholesterol spewing from the mouths of experts like Dr. Oz, Dr. Ornish and others of their misinformed ilk are largely unsubstantiated.

In fact, a 2010 meta-analysis (meaning a compilation of many studies on the subject) conducted by Ronald Krauss M.D. (one of the country’s leading nutritional researchers) and his team titled “Meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies evaluating the association of saturated fat with cardiovascular disease,” concluded the following:

“A meta-analysis of prospective epidemiologic studies showed that there is no significant evidence for concluding that dietary saturated fat is associated with an increased risk of CHD or CVD.”

Not only did the researchers not find any direct evidence, there wasn’t even an association! The idea that animal fats are unhealthy is baloney (I just had to say that). It’s hype and marketing to scare you into buying loads of fake, non-fat, low cholesterol foods – the real contributors to heart disease. Don’t buy it or buy into it.

So to sum it all up, to maximize health, fat loss and muscle and bone strength, make sure you at least meet your minimum protein requirements via animal sources and try your darnedest to take in all the protein you need.

Popeye was wrong – that should be meat coming out of that can!

Hank Greenberg and I on Bloomberg’s The Hays Advantage

Kathleen Hays

Kathleen Hays

I’m thrilled and honored to announce that my client (and friend) former CEO of AIG and CEO of Starr International Maurice “Hank” Greenberg and I will be appearing on Bloomberg Radio’s show The Hays Advantage hosted by one of top-rated financial journalists and broadcasters in the nationKathleen Hays on February 12th at 2 PM.

We’ll be discussing why and how exercise, specifically strength training, can help improve a business’s bottom line by making people healthier and more energetic. Engaging in regular strength training reduces the chance of debilitating illnesses, chronic low back and neck pain, obesity, diabetes and many other ailments that often cost companies mucho dinero each and every year.

I’ll be providing some statistics that will hopefully convince companies that investing in their employees health and strength is well worth the money spent. And it requires just 30 minutes a week of a person’s time. Heck, it can be accomplished on an employee’s break time!

There will also be discussions about AIG and other business issues related to one of the greatest CEO’s in American history. A full hour of fantastic listening will be in store for you! You’ll be able to Tweet in questions and possibly email them as well.

I hope you tune in. Please share!

Dr. McDougall a.k.a Dr. Potato Head

The purveyor of the potato/starch diet, John McDougall M.D., strikes again with more starchy gobbledy-gook nonsense about low carb/paleo diets.

There is so much to dissect and render inert in his article that it may take me three parts to accomplish the task. Perhaps I can lick it in two. But whether it takes two or twenty parts, lick it I will. I sure ain’t no Denise Minger, but I just can’t let this guy get away with such nonsense. His misinformation must not go un-blogged. (BTW, after you read this blog, DO go back and read Denise’s wonderful dissection of the China Study. Have coffee in hand.)

OK, now, I know the doctor means well. I know he wants the best for his patients. I know that deep down inside he truly feels he’s Dr. PotatoMan to the rescue. The question is, is he willing to concede and admit that the majority of the information in the article in question is in error? Can a man like Dr. McDougall take it on the chin and reverse his position stand on paleo/low carb nutrition?

I hate to say it but I seriously doubt it. He’s got too much invested in it already to say “I’ve been wrong.” And as we all know this is typical of many doctors and experts in the nutritional field like Dean Ornish, Caldwell Esselstyn, T. Colin Campbell, Joel Fuhrman, etc. who spew forth more nutritional misinformation than the wind passed at a bean festival.

But we can hope, right?

I know that a lot of people reading this will think “But Fred – who cares about Dr. McWho? He’s not even on the radar screen of most people.” But it seems to me that when you let these unknowns go unassailed, they wind up on Dr. Oz and the world follows their every syllable. Given what Dr. McDougall is uttering, that can’t be allowed to happen!

Alrighty then, let’s get to it. Dr. McDougall states the following:

Low-carbohydrate (low-carb) diets are fueling the destruction of human health and our planet Earth. “Low-carbohydrate” means a diet high in animal foods and low in plant foods. Only plants synthesize carbohydrates (sugars). The body parts of animals, including red meat, poultry, seafood, and fish, and eggs, contain no carbohydrates. Animal secretions (like mammalian milk) contain sugars synthesized by plants (the cow eats the grass that made the sugar). The original Atkins Diet is the ultimate in low-carb eating. This diet works by starving the human body of carbohydrates in order to induce a state of illness (ketosis), which can result in weight loss. People become too sick to eat too much.

Wowee. Where does one begin? And this is just the very first paragraph!

OK sportsfans, how exactly does tossing the bun off your burger or saying “No thanks” to the bread basket at your favorite restaurant equate to fueling the destruction of human health?

But of course his point is that attempting to feed every single human being on earth enough daily grams of quality animal protein per day would have us seeing cows and chickens roaming the highways and bi-ways of the earth and sleeping next to you in your bed. Of course this is nonsense. Truth is, there’s plenty of seafood in the sea (as long as we stop polluting it) as well as larva and insects for us all. A lobster is nothing but a giant sea bug right? Even the bible says (Leviticus 11:22) it’s OK to eat all kinds of bugs:

These of them you may eat: the locust in its kinds, and the devastating locust in its kinds, and the cricket in its kinds, and the grasshopper in its kinds.

Ya hear that?! And luckily, no where in the Bible does it forbid us to fry them in coconut oil and/or drizzle them with dark chocolate! And there’s plenty of these little suckers to go around – trillions of them in fact – especially come plague time.

The largest known swarm covered 513,000 km², comprising approximately 12.5 trillion insects and weighing 27.5 million tons.

And that’s just the locusts. We can eat all the crickets and beetles too.

Like idiots, we try to wipe these little high quality protein morsels out of existence in order to save crops of soy and corn – the very foods that are arguably a strong contributor to what makes us fat and diabetic. I think we have our heads screwed on backwards.

I say, let the little fiends feast on the fields. Let them land on the crops and allow them to sink their little mandibles in for a minute or two. Let them think they’re in like Flynn. Then, when they’re not looking, BAM! We gather them up and feed the world! We’d have to develop some kind of giant whale-like, baleen aircraft to scoop them all up at swarm time. Then we put all 70 trillion of them into a huge machine that mashes them all up and makes locust loaves and cricket cakes out of them.

Why, I daresay I think I just cured world hunger.

OK sure – it might seem gross to eat such things, but soy burgers and tempeh cakes are pretty gross too. Blah. Give me a katydid crisp drizzled with milk chocolate any day. And for those of you who believe that the bible is the one, true word of God, seems to me eating animal matter is pretty OK:

These are the animals you may eat: the ox, the sheep, the goat, the deer, the gazelle, the roebuck, the wild goat, the ibex, the antelope, and the mountain sheep. Every animal that parts the hoof and has the hoof cloven in two and chews the cud, among the animals, you may eat. Of all that are in the waters you may eat these: whatever has fins and scales you may eat. You may eat all clean birds.

And this is just for the Jews. Non-Jews can eat a host of other things like animals that died naturally, pigs, camels and other animals that do not cheweth the cud. So if meat was so bad for us, why would God himself screw it up?

I’m jumping around the article like a grasshopper here, but McDougall states at the end of his article:

Dr. Cordain finishes his 2011 revision of his national best-selling book The Paleo Diet by warning, “Without them (starches, like wheat, rice, corn, and potatoes), the world could probably support one-tenth or less of our present population…” (p 215) Choose 10 close friends and family members. Which nine should die so that the Paleo people can have their uncivilized way?

Uncivilized? Pshaw. Here Dr. McDougall misses the point entirely. Even if it were true that the world could not survive eating mostly animals, its overpopulation that is the problem, not an animal-based diet. Personally, I am not going to eat like a gorilla and destroy my meat-oriented digestive system and watch my muscles wither away because there are currently too many people on the planet. No thank you very much.

Take a look at this paper. It’s mostly biased drivel, but go to page 490 or the third page. Look at the difference between the human small and large intestine and the other apes. Big difference wouldn’t you say?

But Dr. McDougall thinks we should be eating like them:

I know of no large populations of primates who have been strict vegans (ate no animal foods at all). However, plants have, with very few exceptions, provided the bulk of the calories for almost all primates.

And that exception is US. Humans. Homo Sapien Sapien.

Second, a low carb diet is not, as Dr. McDougall states, low in plant food. It’s low in grain “food” tis true. But this statement shows a fundamental misunderstanding of what a paleo/low carb diet is. Not even the Atkins Diet save for the first two weeks of the induction phase limits non-starchy plant foods.

McDougall says: “only plants synthesize carbohydrates (sugars).” Hmm. This statement confused me so much it made me look up the word synthesize to make sure I wasn’t losing my mind. Synthesize means to “produce.” OK. So, what’s the point of this statement I wonder? Why does it matter? Anyone want to take a stab at it?

Dr. McDougall states the obvious when he says that the body parts of animals don’t contain carbohydrates.) Well, they do a little.) But again, so what? He seems to think that carbohydrates are necessary in the human diet when they are not. The are, in fact, the only nonessential macronutrient for humans.

He says that the Atkins diet is the ultimate low carb diet. I don’t think so. I think the traditional Inuit got Atkins beat by a mile. Nary a leaf or a fruit is found in their world.

And now for the kicker:

“This diet (referring to Atkins) works by starving the human body of carbohydrates in order to induce a state of illness (ketosis), which can result in weight loss. People become too sick to eat too much.”

Jesus, Mary, Joseph and Moses.

He means ketoacidosis. Ketoacidosis and ketosis are not the same thing. Says Dr. Peter Attia:

Ketoacidosis (DKA) is a pathologic (i.e., harmful) state that results from the complete or near absence of insulin. This occurs in the setting of type 1 diabetes or very end-stage type 2 diabetes, and often as the result of a physiologic insult (e.g., an infection) where the patient is not receiving sufficient insulin to bring glucose into their cells. A person with a normal pancreas, regardless of how long they fast (including the fellow I reference above who fasted for 382 days!) or how much they restrict carbohydrates, can not enter DKA because even a trace amount of insulin will keep B-OHB levels below about 7 or 8 mM, well below the threshold to develop the pathologic acid-base abnormalities associated with DKA. Let me reiterate, it is physiologically impossible to induce DKA in anyone that does not have T1D or very, very, very late-stage T2D with pancreatic “burnout.”

And in case you’re wondering, this is not a question of which doctor is right. It’s a question of fact. And McDougall has got his facts wrong. I love getting the chance to insert this quote:

TWAIN-AINTSO1

Here’s what’s actually so. Dr. Jeff Volek, Ph.D., R.D., has done countless amounts of research focused on physiological adaptations to low carbohydrate diets with emphasis on outcomes related to metabolic syndrome, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. Here is what he says:

When you reduce your carbohydrate intake significantly – typically to less than 50 to 75 grams per day -you enter a metabolic state known as ketosis. Ketosis is a term used to describe the NORMAL process of using ketones for energy. Ketones aren’t bad. They’re actually a fat breakdown product. That is, whenever fat is burned, ketones are created. So they’re always present in the body.

On a high carb diet, your body uses glucose, the simplest form of carbohydrates, as its primary fuel. But when glucose isn’t readily available to your body for energy your body begins burning fat at an accelerated rate, producing more ketones. These ketones are really just storage units, holding the excess energy that’s produced from the rapid breakdown of fat so that it can be used later as fuel. As ketone levels rise, your body’s reliance on glucose decreases.

In the simplest terms, ketosis is just a shift from using carbohydrates (glucose) as the body’s main energy source, to using fat (ketones). It’s NOT a dangerous condition; it’s simply your body adjusting to your diet so that it’s using the most efficient form of fuel.

Unfortunately many health professionals believe ketosis to be a dangerous metabolic condition. Why? Because over a hundred years ago, physicians discovered an overabundance of ketones in the urine of diabetics who were unable to control their disease. Naturally, the association of high levels of ketones with poorly controlled diabetes led to negative views of ketones. The high level of ketones in diabetics was given the name diabetic hyperketoacidosis (now known simply as diabetic ketoacidosis).

Diabetic ketoacidosis, which represents extremely high levels of ketones, is a life-threatening state that can occur in type-1 diabetics who aren’t treating their condition appropriately. While diabetic ketoacidosis is serious, the mere presence of ketones is not. The point here is that sometimes a lot of something causes problems, but a little can be advantageous. Sort of like your heart beating 300 times a minute might be bad, but your heart beating 60 times a minute is ideal – and certainly better than not at all. Now consider: the ketone levels in people with diabetic ketoacidosis are 8 times higher than those following a low carb diet.

Interestingly, ketones have many benefits. In fact, they may be the perfect fuel for dieters. Since ketones spare the use of carbohydrates for energy, they prevent the protein from your muscles from being broken down and converted to glucose. And that ensures that the calories you’re burning are far more likely to be fat, compared to typical diets where muscle loss almost always accompanies fat loss. Ketones also suppress your appetite. Research shows that increased levels of a compound called betahydroxybutyrate – the primary ketone in the blood -act as a satiety signal , meaning that it tells your brain that you’re full.

Of course, the other knock on ketosis is that even if it burns fat faster, it deprives your brain of glucose, reducing your mental capacity. However, your brain only requires a small amount of glucose, which can be met through gluconeo-genesis, the process of converting protein to glucose. Although not high in protein, by it’s nature a low-carb diet provides ample incoming protein. So there’s plenty available for the small amount of glucose that your brain needs, without having to breakdown muscle. In addition, encouraging new research from National Institutes of Health scientist Richard Veech MD, PhD, has found that ketones may help both your brain and heart run 25 percent more efficiently.

So as you can see, Dr. McDougall is sorely mistaken. Nutritional ketosis is not only not harmful, but a natural and beneficial state to be in. This is not a matter of one mans opinion vs. anothers. This is a matter of fact vs. fiction.

In part II we’ll tackle the other nonsense remarks about low carb/paleo diets that Dr. McDougall makes. Stay tuned and stay ketotic!

Don’t Eat Wheat

images

Here’s why.

Listen closely to what Bill Davis M.D. is saying (and try not to listen to Oz).

What isn’t said well on this Dr. Oz episode is that wheat is pervasive. It is put in foods you’d never realize like soy sauce, creamed spinach, french onion soups made with beer, french fries (to make them brown and crispy), some sushi rice, and many, many other foods that you’d never think would have it included. You have to read labels and ask your service person. So when eating out, ask and ask until you are certain.

I once asked a waitress if there was flour in a certain dressing used in a salad I wanted to order. She said “Nope, no flour.” I said “Are you certain?” She said “Yep, there’s no flour in the dressing sir.” I said “Really, looks sort of thick and rich. Are you positive there isn’t any in it?” She said “They don’t put flour in the dressing sir.” I said “That’s cool. Looks delish. Hard to believe there isn’t any in this dressing. Well, do me a favor would you – could you go back and ask the chef?” “Sure.” she said.

There was flour in it alright.

The moral: Don’t take no for an answer at first blush. Insist.

Now, just because you eat bread and cake and your head is still affixed to your shoulders doesn’t mean you are not being adversely affected. Everyone is adversely affected by, as Dr. Davis calls it “Frankenwheat.” You can’t see or feel the harmful effects of cigarette smoke, but harmful it is to everyone who lights up and puffs away.

You’ll thank Dr. Davis later. I promise you. Removing wheat and other grains completely cured my chest/facial eczema. Removing all grain cured my GERD and greatly improved my gut irritability.

It did not, however, grow my hair back, nor did it rid me of back hair. But hey – ya can’t have everything.

Consider going grain free – really grain free – for at least 30 days. Let me know how it goes.

Feed Your Children Well For Thanksgiving

One of my favorite times of the year is here again. And once again, my family Thanksgiving table will NOT have placed upon it one iota of fake, grain-ridden, fraken-foods that so many people year after year “enjoy.” Celebrating a holiday with loved ones is not the time for going face down in the foods that require a bucket of Tums to neutralize. In fact, it is my opinion that it is time for the exact opposite to happen in your family. Its a time to enjoy only the most healthful foods that money can buy.

Let me ask you all a question – if you ran out of pet food, would you ever feed your dog or cat a bowl of Quaker Oats instead? How about cereal – would you place a bowl of breakfast cereal like Wheat Chex or Captain Crunch down on the ground for your best friend to eat? Pancakes? Waffles? Pop-tarts?

So why then do you feed this stuff to your kids? (Yes my parents were guilty as charged too.)

Human behavior is really interesting. We do all sorts of things to ourselves and to our loved ones that are harmful without the slightest thought. Halloween candy? Sure! (But just not too much we warn, as if even one candy bar isn’t too much.) The irony: You get livid at your teenager for smoking a cigarette, when for the past 13 years of her life you’ve fed her foods that have harmed her health to a far greater extent than that one silly smoke.

I feel as if most of us are walking in our sleep when it comes to nutrition.

We blindly accept this Cheerios heart healthy symbol without stopping to think that the entire idea of it completely nuts. So why do we believe such nonsense? Why do we believe that whole wheat bread is healthy and white bread is evil? Are we really this dim-witted?

Of course not. So what is going on? Marketing you say? C’mon. Do you think even the largest and wealthiest companies could ever market you into believing that eating a medley of wood and metal flakes sprinkled with sugar and salt was healthful?

Think again. And again.

Make this years Thanksgiving a true giving and only put on your table foods that nourish. Make every dish a dish of love that harms not. Splurge for a free-range Turkey. Make a wonderful salad with roasted pine nuts and cranberries instead of mashed instant white potatoes. Or if you must have potatoes, mash real yams. Load it up with grass-fed butter and raw cream instead of marshmallows (that’s what my mom put on our potatoes).

“It’s tradition!” you shout. Tough noogies, say I. You’re afraid you’re going to hurt grandma’s feelings if you don’t eat her gluten-ridden gravy on top of her wheat-encrusted stuffing? You’re health is far more important than her feelings about her stuffing. And when you explain to her what you know about such foods and the reason why you just cannot eat them, she just might surprise you next year. In fact I know she will.

You could also share this recipe for gluten/wheat free stuffing.

Honesty is the best policy.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all and safe travels! I’d love to hear what you changed this year to make your turkey-day healthier!


Contact Information

NYC Location
169 West 78th Street
New York, NY 10024

212.579.9320
[email protected]

Montclair, NJ Location
25 Watchung Plaza
Montclair, NJ 07042

973.233.1013
[email protected]

As Seen On

NBC ABC CBS
700 Club CNN Fox News