Recently, I was at the Sunday afternoon Ballard Farmer's Market enjoying all the colors of the fresh flowers and vegetables when I stumbled upon Marilyn's Nut Butters. Marilyn has a great idea. She adds spices to nut butter. They are yummy! She uses really good spices for foods cooked for folks living in cold, damp environments--like summers in Seattle!
Although I really like Marilyn's basic idea, I could not help but notice that in a couple of her nut butters, she adds sugar which throws off the carbohydrate to carbohydrate protein ratio. (Join me on July 14th at the Greenwood Senior Center for a session on how to read labels and I will explain the importance of those ratios.)
Meanwhile, check out Marilyn's website (www.marilynsnutbutters.com/) and visit her at the Ballard Farmer's Market. You may even want to experiment with your own favorite spices by adding them to a couple of tablespoons of nut butter. They taste delicious as a snack on apples, carrots or just spoons.
Monday, June 21, 2010
A USEFUL TOOL for ANXIETY
According to the National Institute of Mental Health, approximately 40 million American adults, ages 18 and older, have an anxiety disorder. For those of you who are curious, or if you may be one of those 40 million with anxiety, here is a relatively inexpensive way to begin to answer your own questions.
This audio CD, available through the PESI online bookstore, is entitled "Depression and Nutrition: Practical Tools to Treat Depression". The CD carefully lays out the connection between processed foods and depression. Most helpful are the 10 Critical Questions for individuals suffering with anxiety. This seminar on audio CD is also a helpful addition to clinic libraries of mental health professionals. Audio CD #2DK042285 for only $59.99 is available through the following PESI link:
http://www.pesi.com/bookstore/Nutrition and Anxiety Practical Techniques to
Decrease Anxiety Panic Attacks-details.aspx
This audio CD, available through the PESI online bookstore, is entitled "Depression and Nutrition: Practical Tools to Treat Depression". The CD carefully lays out the connection between processed foods and depression. Most helpful are the 10 Critical Questions for individuals suffering with anxiety. This seminar on audio CD is also a helpful addition to clinic libraries of mental health professionals. Audio CD #2DK042285 for only $59.99 is available through the following PESI link:
http://www.pesi.com/bookstore/Nutrition and Anxiety Practical Techniques to
Decrease Anxiety Panic Attacks-details.aspx
Wednesday, June 09, 2010
UPCOMING TALKS by DR. ALLOTT
Thursday, June 10th, 11:00 AM PST
PESI Teleconference:
"Depression & Nutrition: Practical Tools to Treat Depression"
For more information, please contact PESI, Depression & Nutrition Teleseminar
Wednesday, July 14th, 1:00-2:00PM PST, Greenwood Senior Center
525 North 85th Street, Seattle, WA
HANDS-ON CLASS
"LABELS: What Do They Mean?
What can we learn by reading labels correctly? What is the difference between "Total Carbohydrates" and sugar? How much protein verses carbohydrates is healthy? Is "fat-free" really free of fat? Bring labels of your favorite foods and we will get down to the finer points we can learn from labels.
THE DEBATE OVER ANTIDEPRESSANT MEDICATIONS
People often ask me as a provider of alternatives to antidepressant medications, if I am against then? My reply is "No, they save lives. They are often band-aids, however, and to remove them, the cause has to be addressed. This may include examining the emotional causes of depression by talking to a therapist or addressing the physical causes by making sure that the client is getting enough of the right nutrients to make neurotransmitters."
I also like to point out that part of the reason that antidepressants are not a very predictable medication is that the definition of depression is not a physiological definition. It is a behavioral definition. There is often some shame around using an antidepressant medication. This I feel is unfortunate. By way of comparison, there is little shame associated with taking hypertension medications. There is often more one can do to affect hypertension such as reduce salt, increase exercise and learn to meditate. All of which seem a lot easier than changing a challenging childhood.
NATION-WIDE CONVERSATION: USE of POPULAR DRUGS in the TREATMENT of DEPRESSION
On February 8, 2010, Newsweek Magazine's cover story featured an article by Sharon Begley entitled "The Depressing News About Antidepressants". Ms Begley's banner following the article title reads: "Studies suggest that the popular drugs are no more effective than a placebo. In fact, they may be worse."
Sharon Begley Factoid: "The number of Americans taking antidepressants doubled in a decade from 13.3 million in 1996 to 27 million in 2005."
Much of Begley's article is a re-cap of landmark research studies and reports. For example, early studies state that "antidepressants (tricyclics to the newer selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors--SSRIs--that target serotonin such as Zoloft, Paxil, Prozac and their generic descendants plus newer drugs that also target nor epinephrine) help about three-quarters of people with depression who take them,"
The Journal of the American Medical Association recently underscored the "Yes, but" findings: "Yes, the drugs are effective, in that they lift depression in most patients, but the benefit is hardly more than what patients get when they, unknowingly and as part of a study, take a dummy pill-a placebo." For some scientists who study depression and its treatments, the previously named antidepressants are "basically expensive Tic Tacs". Belief appears to be very good medicine.
Irving Kirsch and Guy Sapirstein, psychology researchers from the University of Connecticut, through their study did prove that patients improved by taking the drugs AND with the dummy pills. "The majority of the drugs' effect came from the fact that patients expected to be helped by them, and not from any direct chemical action on the brain, especially for anything short of very severe depression." By no means, does Kirsch advocate that patients suffering from depression who are presently taking the drugs stop. However, he does suggest that prescribing drugs is "not the best first choice in dealing with depression."
You may read the complete article at this link: http://www.newsweek.com.
I also like to point out that part of the reason that antidepressants are not a very predictable medication is that the definition of depression is not a physiological definition. It is a behavioral definition. There is often some shame around using an antidepressant medication. This I feel is unfortunate. By way of comparison, there is little shame associated with taking hypertension medications. There is often more one can do to affect hypertension such as reduce salt, increase exercise and learn to meditate. All of which seem a lot easier than changing a challenging childhood.
NATION-WIDE CONVERSATION: USE of POPULAR DRUGS in the TREATMENT of DEPRESSION
On February 8, 2010, Newsweek Magazine's cover story featured an article by Sharon Begley entitled "The Depressing News About Antidepressants". Ms Begley's banner following the article title reads: "Studies suggest that the popular drugs are no more effective than a placebo. In fact, they may be worse."
Sharon Begley Factoid: "The number of Americans taking antidepressants doubled in a decade from 13.3 million in 1996 to 27 million in 2005."
Much of Begley's article is a re-cap of landmark research studies and reports. For example, early studies state that "antidepressants (tricyclics to the newer selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors--SSRIs--that target serotonin such as Zoloft, Paxil, Prozac and their generic descendants plus newer drugs that also target nor epinephrine) help about three-quarters of people with depression who take them,"
The Journal of the American Medical Association recently underscored the "Yes, but" findings: "Yes, the drugs are effective, in that they lift depression in most patients, but the benefit is hardly more than what patients get when they, unknowingly and as part of a study, take a dummy pill-a placebo." For some scientists who study depression and its treatments, the previously named antidepressants are "basically expensive Tic Tacs". Belief appears to be very good medicine.
Irving Kirsch and Guy Sapirstein, psychology researchers from the University of Connecticut, through their study did prove that patients improved by taking the drugs AND with the dummy pills. "The majority of the drugs' effect came from the fact that patients expected to be helped by them, and not from any direct chemical action on the brain, especially for anything short of very severe depression." By no means, does Kirsch advocate that patients suffering from depression who are presently taking the drugs stop. However, he does suggest that prescribing drugs is "not the best first choice in dealing with depression."
You may read the complete article at this link: http://www.newsweek.com.
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