It’s the season for sweets, including pumpkin pie, but professional cook, Nancy Mehagian shares a side dish recipe for Japanese pumpkin that’s fast, healthy and delicious. Nancy has been a massage therapist and Jin Shin Jyutsu practitioner in Los Angeles for nearly 30 years. She is the author of the culinary memoir, “Siren’s Feast, an Edible Odyssey”.

The idea of switching to a vegan diet is nothing new. Unfortunately, the Western diet centers virtually every meal around meat. This can have harmful long-term consequences, including an elevated risk of heart disease, cancer, stroke, obesity, and more.

I know that stress has been scientifically proven to damage bone, but I am also realistic. I recognize that there will never be a time in my life that is completely stress-free. That’s just life! Here’s the good news. Scientific evidence clearly shows that nutrition is a powerful weapon against stress. It’s such a simple, effective, and tasty solution to this all-too-common problem! That alone helps me feel less stressed. So today, I am going to share with you six delicious Foundation Foods and will show you how they effectively reduce stress. From www.saveourbones.com

If you drink coffee, tea, or iced tea then you’re already familiar with the power of infusions to pack in flavors, caffeine or medicinal components…. What you may not know is that herbal and medicinal teas may provide much more of their active compounds when allowed to steep for several hours or overnight. On her website, www.susunweed.com, Master Herbalist Susun Weed has written extensively about the use of infusions to augment or replace drugs for a variety of complaints.

White Castle and Fat Burger now feature Impossible Burgers, Del Taco has Beyond Meat on the menu, and Burger King is about to roll out a Beyond Meat Whopper. Hard Rock Cafes in Europe carry a veggie burger now, (though you’d have to skip the cheese to make it a vegan meal), and they expect to offer it in their US locations next year. As Phil Shainmark, our columnist for The Unlikely Vegan noted recently, “It’s quite possibly the best time to be a Vegan. There are so many amazing choices and places to go.” Even if you’re not a vegan or a fast food fan, the variety of meat alternatives is great news as many grocery stores and regular restaurants have also added plant based options to meet growing customer demand. According to Market Insider, the $14 billion dollar meat alternative industry is expected to grow to $140 billion over the next decade.

What a year it’s been – or pretty close to a year. I’m not 100% sure I can nail down a solid date. But we’ll call it a year. This Vegan thing has certainly been an adjustment, but now I don’t even think twice about it. And as I go out and do more and more things, I continuously think to myself, “Gods, I’m glad I don’t eat that stuff anymore.” I’ve been to a few new (for me) Vegan restaurants in town. One was VegeNation (S. Eastern Ave. Henderson, NV). The staff were awesome and the food was excellent. I had cauliflower buffalo wings, which I always thought was ridiculous, but it was really tasty.

There has been much controversy about which fats to include in a healthy diet that would help is to avoid or reduce the chances of developing one of the chronic diseases of aging. These would include diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancers, osteoarthritic conditions, autoimmune disease, cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s disease is primarily the result of increased brain inflammation. This has been referred to as “the brain on fire.” To maintain our brain health and cognitive abilities, we need to make dietary and other lifestyle choices that will reduce inflammation and put out the fire. Maximizing healthy fats in the diet will optimize brain health.

Millet is one of the oldest foods known to humans and possibly the first cereal grain to be used for domestic purposes. It is mentioned in the Bible, and was used during those times to make bread. Millet has been used in Africa and India as a staple food for thousands of years and it was grown as early as 2700 BC in China where it was the prevalent grain before rice became the dominant staple. It is documented that the plant was also grown by the lake dwellers of Switzerland during the Stone Age.