. . . few foods beat the beet for nutrition! Beets are a wonderful vegetable that we should all try to include frequently in our diets. High in glutamine, an amino acid that feeds and strengthens the intestinal lining, beets also contain a number of compounds that make them a tonic for both the liver and gallbladder and promote the activity of various antioxidant enzymes. The effect beets have on the liver is especially helpful to women since the liver metabolizes female hormones; many hormone problems are solved when the liver is detoxified and strengthened. Recent studies have also found beet juice boosts stamina and endurance during exercise, at least partly because it widens blood vessels (increasing blood flow and lowering blood pressure) and enables muscles to work more efficiently. In addition, beets are thought to fight cancer, help stabilize blood sugar and protect the heart. Normally, beets (both roots and greens) can be added to vegetable juice combinations, and shredd…

Perhaps you’ve been pleased with how you’ve been eating. You’re following Raymond Francis’s book, Never Be Fat Again, eating a nutrient dense diet, taking good supplements, avoiding toxins and exercising. You’ve given up counting calories and diets that made you feel deprived, stressed and irritable, and you’re quite happy losing weight slowly but steadily.  You’re feeling like you’ve finally got a handle on this thing called food. Then it happens. At the Farmers Market you’re hungrier than you anticipated. A baker there sells organic, gluten-free, whole grain muffins.  Although carbohydrates are a problem area for you, you’ve had these particular muffins before without difficulty, so you eat one, and it hits the spot. Back home you get a distressing phone call from a friend that makes you feel anxious. Making lunch, you add wild rice to your chicken-vegetable soup.  You mean to add only half a cup, but end up adding a cup and a half. After finishing the soup you’…

Beyond Health’s approach to weight loss, presented in Raymond Francis’ Never Be Fat Again, (NBFA) is based on the theory of one disease and two causes. We say there is really only one disease—malfunctioning body cells, and two reasons why cells malfunction—they are deficient in needed nutrients and/or they are being poisoned by toxins. Overweight is a type of disease, and as better health is achieved, the body will naturally lose excess weight.Intuitive eating (IE) is an anti-diet approach to weight loss which seeks to help people regain a lost or weakened ability to “hear” and respond to body cues relating to hunger and satiation. Regaining this ability, it is hoped, will lead to losing excess weight. Both IE and NBFA agree that diets don’t work. Thought they can lead to short-term weight loss, most of this weight is regained over time. They also agree that diets are usually harmful and enforce the bad habit of overriding internal body cues. Following the strategies of IE that we…