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!

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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Though some people eat too much protein, others, especially many women, eat too little. Be aware of the following signs, conditions, and stages of life that signal that you may need more protein than you’re currently eating.

You frequently crave sweet or starchy foods. Protein is a slow-burning fuel that steadies blood-sugar levels and helps keep energy levels steady, making you far less apt to crave quick-fix carbohydrates such as grain products and sweet foods and drinks.

You have cardiovascular or diabetes risk factors. High-protein diets have a stabilizing effect on blood sugar. This leads to beneficial changes in a wide range of metabolic, cardiovascular, and inflammatory markers, from insulin sensitivity to cholesterol and triglycerides to C-reactive protein.

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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

In this age of instant access to information, it’s ironic that I sometimes run into people who say they love one of my books, but aren’t aware of, or haven’t read, any of the others. It’s time to connect the dots between my four main books—Syndrome X, Going Against the Grain, Gluten Free Throughout the Year, and Going Against GMOs—and let you know how reading all of them can give you a thorough understanding of the spectrum of nutrition-related health issues that affect Americans today. I’m so confident that reading even one of my books you haven’t read before will give you knowledge that improves your health, that I’m giving you extra incentive to do just that: Click here to learn how you can get a discount on counseling or coaching with me if you buy any one of these books through February 18, 2015.

Click here to go to my Amazon Author page.

If you aren’t familiar with my main books, here’s a rundown:

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Below is a reprint from a question Melissa answered in Better Nutrition magazine.

Q: What is the most common mistake people make on the gluten-free diet?

A: For people who are just beginning the gluten-free diet as well as those who have been on the diet a long time, the biggest mistake they make is over-relying on manufactured processed foods instead of eating naturally gluten-free whole foods such as vegetables and fruits.

Highly processed “gluten-free” food products set people up for health problems in three different ways. The first way is, ironically, by those products sometimes being contaminated with unwanted gluten. Even though gluten-free grains and and flours are naturally gluten free, these foods are often processed in the same facilities – and with the same equipment – as the gluten grains wheat, rye, and barley, where they can inadvertently pick up gluten.

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