Would you like to enjoy the audiobook of the Syndrome X book I coauthored on your next road trip or while enjoying a relaxing day on the beach? Syndrome X is a cluster of common heart disease risk factors that so many people have but don’t realize. Make sure to take advantage of an amazing 60% discount on the audiobook so you can listen and easily get the scoop on this condition!!!

Act quickly: The limited-time 60% off promotion to get the audiobook for just $10 starts today and will only be available until September 14, 2023!

Start 2023 on an empowering note by giving yourself motivation on how to really make food your best medicine: Listen to the 32-minute podcast in which I and homeopathic practitioner host Ambika Wauters have a lively, thought-provoking conversation about this topic.

Based on our unique clinical and professional experiences, we discuss how the body has an amazing ability to heal itself. However, the self-healing potential of the body breaks down over time when we eat disease-contributing “food imposters” like refined vegetable oils, refined carbohydrates, and genetically modified foods sprayed with pesticides – as well as common problematic food ingredients we react to, such as gluten. Your will to steer clear of health-degrading junk food and to eat in a way that helps you thrive can break down from taking prescription medications.

Ambika and I shed light on the widespread censorship and misinformation happening today that is designed to push you toward a drug path as opposed to a food path for your health and to keep you from learning how to really make food your best medicine.

If you’re interested in nutrition counseling or coaching over the phone with me, please visit my Nutrition Services page and email me through that page.

by Melissa Diane Smith

Would you like to revise your diet to use food as medicine to alleviate a chronic condition, to reverse many risk factors for heart disease, or to help you trim up so you can fit into your favorite swimsuit?

Maybe you need a pep talk to get back on track with your diet after you ate foods on your vacation that set your health back?

Or would you like to learn the tricks of the trade of how to take genetically modified foods out of what you eat? Or how to avoid gluten, grains, or sugar? Or how you can balance a few different types of therapeutic diets in the best way for you?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, now is the best time to consider hiring me for personal nutrition advice to help you meet your health goals. I love counseling with clients and providing them with personalized nutrition advice to improve their health and life, and the beginning of summer is considered a sacred time and often the perfect time to set new goals and get off to a fresh start. That’s why I thought now was the ideal time to launch a 20% discount ($140 instead of the normal price of $175) on my Get Started Combo (an Initial Phone Consultation and a Follow-Up for new clients) this summer. This is a limited-time only deal. Make sure to take advantage of it. The Summer Special will run through August 31, 2018.

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by Melissa Diane Smith

I am delighted to be a featured speaker during the Grand Opening of the new Natural Grocers natural food supermarket at 5600 E. River Road in Tucson this month.

On Tuesday, September 20, 2016, at 6 p.m., I will present “Going Against the Grain for Health: How to Make Food Your Best Medicine.” In this presentation, I’ll cover the health troubles caused by refined grains, whole grains, gluten grains, and genetically modified ingredients hidden in grain-based foods, and explain how to use this information to lose unwanted weight, reverse disease processes, and revitalize health. I’ll also give my answers to common questions I receive, such as “was wheat always not good for us, or has it become worse for our health in recent years?” and answer any other questions that you have.

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by Melissa Diane Smith

Most of us get too much of this sugar, which is found in sweeteners and fruit. This can lead to bitter health consequences

Ask the Nutritionist

Q: I have been told that fructose is a healthy sweetener and that even people with diabetes should use it. I’ve also been told that some people are dramatically limiting fructose intake to reverse disease processes and protect health. What’s the deal? —Nancy S., Wichita, Kan.

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by Melissa Diane Smith

Are you still hanging onto the notion that a low-fat diet is the ticket to weight loss? If so, it’s time for a change.

Q: I have repeatedly avoided fat in my diet to try to control my weight. Unfortunately, I am hungrier and heavier than ever, and I have also developed dry, wrinkly skin, thyroid issues, depression, constipation, and inflamed, achy joints. I am completely rethinking the low-fat strategy, but I get queasy after a fatty meal and don’t think I digest fat well. Can you give me the real scoop on the relationship between fats, weight loss, digestion, and health?  —Megan S., Sacramento

A:    You’re on the right track to be rethinking the low-fat strategy! Low-fat guidelines were recommended to all Americans in 1977, and many
nutrition organizations continue to advocate a low-fat diet. But that advice has led people astray into a heavier and sicker state than ever.

The research is not there to support a low-fat diet for long-term weight loss, and a low-fat diet appears to have little to no effect on cardiovascular disease in the long term. In fact, the sheer lack of research supporting a low-fat diet is so strong that a 2014 Time magazine cover story deemed the low-fat diet a failed experiment.

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by Melissa Diane Smith

Eat sugar comes with bitter health consequences – see my article A Reminder about The Bitter Truth About Sugar – and just this week a new study came out that estimates that sugary drinks alone kill 184,000 a year through diabetes, heart disease and cancer (see story). Even knowing the risks of sugar, many people are addicted to sugar and have a hard time eliminating it from their diet.

So, how do you kick the habit and adopt a sugar-free diet when the sweet stuff is so hard to resist? Here are three plans.

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