Natasha Turner, N.D. is a Toronto-based naturopathic doctor. She is the founder of the Clear Medicine wellness boutique and author of the bestselling book The Hormone Diet. Each week in her column for That's Fit.ca, Dr. Turner advises readers on how to remedy common health issues and improve their overall health.

Proper diet and nutritional supplements can benefit everyone suffering from allergies by boosting immunity and optimizing health. Allergies, ranging from sinus congestion and hay fever to asthma, dermatitis and hives are all symptoms of reduced immunity. Presented here are some recommended supplements and dietary advice to keep you sniffle-free!

Multivitamin/Mineral
A full-spectrum multivitamin and mineral product in a highly absorbable form is essential to ensure the foundation of health. Vitamins and minerals are necessary for proper growth, metabolism, digestion, immune system function, muscle and nerve function and detoxification processes in the liver. Scientific studies have shown that the majority of us are deficient in many essential nutrients because of poor dietary habits and other factors which may deplete nutrient levels such as caffeine, drugs, stress or pollution.

Acidophilus/Probiotics
Studies have proven that taking acidophilus helps to reduce the frequency and severity of infections. Acidophilus is the friendly bacteria that live in our digestive tract. This bacteria balance is affected by the use of antibiotics, the birth control pill or excess sugar and carbohydrate intake. Everyone can benefit from the use of probiotics for healthy digestion and immunity. Acidophilus has also been found useful in the treatment and prevention of skin conditions, allergies and thrush. Be sure to follow any course of antibiotics with supplements of acidophilus for double the length of time you took the antibiotics.

Each week, holistic nutritionist Joy McCarthy tells us about a common health problem she's seen in her practice and how she came to a solution.

This Week's Client: Angelina, 35, marketing director and mom of two
The Problem: Chronic fatigue syndrome.

Angelina wasn't unlike many women who feel completely burnt out from life: Juggling a full-time job, being a wife and mother, balancing an active social life and her volunteer work. But lately, Angelina said, she preferred sleeping to socializing. Her recurring exhaustion had been diagnosed as chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) and she was tired of being tired.

The most common symptoms of CFS include recurrent fatigue, sore throat, low-grade fever, muscle and joint pain, depression and loss of concentration. Angelina had all those symptoms excluding muscle and joint pain. There are many causes of CFS ranging from having a lowered immune system, to depression, food allergies to stress.

As a holistic nutritionist, I will address the diet options that can help eliminate the causes and alleviate the symptoms of CFS. They benefitted Angelina immensely and also helped with her depression and boosted her immune system.

The immune system is said to have a very critical role in CFS. In fact, many people have chronic yeast infections as a result of a low immune system and Angelina was no different. My focus was to build her immune system first and foremost by cleaning up her diet.

Recommendations after the jump

I've had a few questions from readers about flaxseeds recently, so I thought I'd do another post on them. One reader wanted to know what lignans are as they are often mentioned on packaging for flaxseeds and flaxseed oil. Another wanted to know why some flaxseed brands claim to have B6 while others don't, and likewise, some manufacturers advertise iron and others don't. And finally, one reader wanted to know whether it was a better idea to consume the whole flaxseed or just the flaxseed oil. I'll get to all these questions below as well as give a little more info on these power-packed little seeds.

Flaxseeds, while originally used for little more than horse feed and birdseed, have risen to prominence in the last decade and are now often referred to as a superfood. Part of the reason for this is that new studies are continually discovering the amazing health properties of the seeds. But in large part, the popularity of flaxseeds is due to the discovery that they are extremely high in the omega-3 fat alpha linolenic acid (ALA).

Omega-3 fats, along with omega-6 fats, are essential, meaning they need to part of your diet and cannot be created from other components in the body. The reason flax has become so valued in health fields is that its high ratio of omega-3 fats to omega-6 fats makes it the perfect remedy to the North American diet, which is far too high in omega-6 (containing anywhere from 14 to 25 times more omega-6 than omega-3) due to the preponderance of sunflower oil, soybean oil and corn oil.

This imbalance leads to inflammation in the body along with a host of health problems such as heart disease, arthritis, cancer and depression. The inflammatory effect of over-consuming omega-6 also suppresses the body's immune system.

Buckwheat doesn't get enough attention and that's really a shame. First of all, while its name may have you thinking otherwise, it's completely unrelated to wheat. Buckwheat is not even technically a grain even though it's prepared and enjoyed in a similar fashion to grains; ground into flours for baked goods, boiled in water as a side dish or baked in the oven as a pilaf, for example. No, buckwheat is actually a fruit seed related to the rhubarb family and thus it's gluten-free and a great alternative to wheat flour.

In many ways, buckwheat is similar to quinoa. Both have unusual properties that make them particularly nutritious foods. Buckwheat, like quinoa, is a high protein seed (about 16 percent protein). And both are complete proteins, meaning they have all of the essential amino acids, similar to animal foods. Grains like wheat, corn and rice are not complete proteins, however, and require the addition of other plant foods, like seeds, nuts or legumes, to make them complete.

Buckwheat is also a great source of both magnesium and copper, two important minerals that may have an impact on insulin resistance and cardiovascular disease as well as having important roles in the body's enzyme systems. It also contains a good amount of manganese, a necessary trace mineral.

A few weeks ago, one of my clients invited me to join her at a Bonnie Stern cooking class. I was super excited and not just because I remember reading her cookbooks as a teenager, but also because the theme of the class was "superfoods." During the session we learned how to make several different healthy and delicious recipes, but the last one of the evening really caught my attention because it was so easy, crunchy and sweet.

Now, I did make a few modifications (shhh, don't tell her that) to make it a tad healthier because I don't use refined white sugar in my baking. I also added some seeds to increase the minerals and good fats. However, the base of this recipe was certainly inspired by the lovely, spunky, Bonnie Stern.

I used three different nuts and seeds in this recipe: sliced almonds, pumpkin and sunflower seeds. These are all health-promoting ingredients that I recommend you add to your diet.

Almonds: They are an excellent source of mono and polyunsaturated oils, in fact , there is up to 60 percent fat content in each almond. Don't let this fool you into thinking they'll make you fat. Nuts are a health food and the fats are essential. They are also loaded with nutrients including potassium, magnesium, calcium, iron, zinc and vitamin E. Almonds are often referred to as an anti-cancer food because they are a source of an important antioxidant flavanoid, called amygdalin.

Sunflower seeds: These are more than just the seed of a beautiful flower, they are a wonderful source of vitamin E, protein, magnesium, selenium, vitamins B1, B5, B6, phosphorus, copper, iron, folic acid and fibre. Deficiency in these vital nutrients is common in the North American diet and has been linked to an increased risk of heart attack and stroke. Selenium in particular, has anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory and anti-allergenic properties making sunflower seeds a bonifide superfood.

Pumpkin seeds: These contain high levels of essential fatty acids, zinc and phytosterols, which makes these seeds great for prostate health. They are also a rich source of minerals such as phosphorus, magnesium, iron, manganese and copper and vitamins including A, B1, B2 and B3, which also elevates these seeds to superfood status.

Recipe after the jump.

I'm sure you've heard of the raw foods trend, and while I'm not a fan of subscribing to any particular "diet" per se, I do believe that every eating fad has some good takeaway points. In this case, eating raw foods is an excellent way to ensure you are getting the maximum enzymes available in your food.

Enzymes are important for hundreds of processes in your body, particularly digestion. In simple terms, the very food you eat every single day can actually improve your digestion by providing the raw (pun intended) materials for your digestive juices, as long as you chew your food well. There are many proven benefits of eating a mostly raw food diet, including better bowel movements, glowing skin and -- the most common one among my clients -- improved energy and stamina.

I want to emphasize that as a nutritionist I actually do not recommend a diet of 100 percent raw foods -- there are many cookable foods that you shouldn't eat raw for both health and taste reasons. In fact, for some foods like broccoli, cooking actually brings out its health-promoting nutrients.

The inspiration for my seed cookie recipe came not only from wanting to create something raw, but also from not wanting to crank up my oven in the middle of a Toronto heat wave. I recently made these cookies for a brainstorming meeting with three other health-conscious women, and they were a hit. Everyone asked me for this recipe.

Dear Sarah,
I work out five mornings a week at my gym where I do a mix of spin classes and weights. After my workout, I often see these women in the change room drinking muddy looking protein shakes that I overheard one of them say are made from whey protein. What is Whey? Can you tell me what protein does in the body and why I would want to drink something that looks like mud after my workout?

Jane

Dear Jane,
Protein performs many functions in the body especially after exercise, but you don't have drink something that looks like mud to get it. Your body is in a constant state of renewal, your tissues (cells, organs, muscles etc.) are growing and rebuilding every second of the day and protein is required to do this essential work. In other words, protein provides the building blocks for the body.

Source

Natasha Turner, N.D. is a Toronto-based naturopathic doctor. She is the founder of the Clear Medicine wellness boutique and author of the bestselling book The Hormone Diet. Each week in her column for That's Fit.ca, Dr. Turner advises readers on how to remedy common health issues as well as improve their overall health.

It's that time of day again or maybe that time of the month, when your craving for chocolate arises and nothing else will do. But with your New Year's resolution fresh in the works - what can you do about it?

Nutritionist Elisa Zied, author of Nutrition at Your Fingertips, says that certain diseases can be prevented by consuming certain foods on a regular basis. To find out which diseases you can prevent and what to eat, keep reading.

Q: What kinds of diseases can be prevented through diet?

A: There's evidence that making dietary and lifestyle changes can play a role in the prevention of a variety of diseases, including cardiovascular disease, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, cancer, and osteoporosis.

Q: What are your top disease-fighting foods and why?

A: There's no one food that can prevent disease, but consuming a wide variety of nutrient-dense foods in the context of a healthful dietary pattern can add to the disease-fighting arsenal of the diet.

Here are four foods/classes of foods that may play a role in preventing several diet-related diseases.

Dear Healthy Foodie, Are seedless grapes genetically modified to be seedless?

Hello Jill,

The short answer is no, seedless grapes have not been genetically modified to be seedless, at least not in regards to the popular use of the term.

The creation of seedless produce, known as parthenocarpy whose literal translation means "virgin fruit", is accomplished by a few different methods, but none of the processes require the plants be affected at the DNA level where modern genetic modification happens.

The other day I was showing a friend of mine how to make my recipe for Lentil Masala Soup and I ended up with way too many lentils soaked (I always underestimate how much they'll grow). A perfect opportunity to sprout!

In Canada, winter is a great time for sprouting (not to say that sprouting isn't appropriate any time of year). Since local fresh vegetables and fruits are in short supply, why not grow something in your own home? You can't get much more local than that!