Nutritionist Nancy Guberti is the guest on DDP Radio April 2

Posted on April 2, 2014



THIS WEEK ON DDP RADIO

NUTRITIONIST NANCY GUBERTI

ANSWERS YOUR QUESTIONS ON HOW TO DO A PROPER (AND HEALTHY) CLEANSE FOR SPRING

9 P.M. Wednesday, April 2

(347) 994-1216

DDPRadio.com

Nutritionist Nancy Guberti

Nutritionist Nancy Guberti

Nancy Guberti, M.S., C.N., is the special guest on DDP Radio this week. Guberti is a metabolic and functional medicine specialist, certified nutritionist, Defeat Autism Now Practitioner, Gluten-Free Casein-Free (GFCF) diet counselor and healthy lifestyle coach. Wednesday’s show is a great opportunity to get some top-notch nutritional advice as well as call in with questions on gluten-sensitivity, the unhealthy aspects of cheese and casein, and why sugar is a highly addictive substance.

Because the seasonal change of longer days and warmer weather signals changes in our bodies, Guberti says now is the perfect time to undergo a detoxifying cleanse, and that there are many ways to go about it. On Wednesday, she’ll be discussing techniques ranging from juicing and cleaner food choices to beverages and supplements which have a detoxifying effect on the body. Since many of the Team DDPYOGA members are gluten and cow-dairy-free, Guberti will be addressing topics such as which gluten and dairy-free products on the market she uses and recommends to clients, and what her new favorite plant-based milk is.

Also on Wednesday’s show, Guberti will talk strategy regarding mindful eating, a healthy approach to clean eating, reading labels, and overall food-awareness: all necessary tools for navigating the chemically laden jungle that is most modern supermarkets.

Guberti operates a practice in Connecticut but counsels clients long-distance across the country and as far away as Japan. A mother of two teenaged sons with food allergies, Guberti has been eating gluten, casein, soy, and corn-free for 15 years and knows first-hand how clean eating can change your body and life for the better. “I’ll be discussing the science behind a gluten- and cassein-free diet,” said Guberti. “There are so many people out there who live with intolerances to these two substances but are unaware of it. Symptoms can include bloating, fatigue, mental fogginess, skin rashes, and joint inflammation.” she said. “If your body is being taxed by these conditions you can’t live an optimal life…and the symptoms will worsen over time. The Wall Street Journal had a recent article that said virtually everyone will develop a gluten intolerance in their lifetime, so what better time than right now to form the habit of eating clean?”

This is your chance to ask a question of one of the top nutritionists in the country! You can even post questions in advance of the show on the blog section at Team DDP Yoga (if you’re already a member), by e-mailing Stacey at StaceyMorris345@yahoo.com , or during the show in the chat room at DDP Radio. Time doesn’t always allow for all questions to be answered, but we do our best.

For more fantastically useful information on and from Nancy, check out out her website at NancyGuberti.com or through all of your favorite social media sites.

Twitter: http://twitter.com/nancyguberti

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/nancyguberti

Pinterest:http://pinterest.com/nancyguberti

For more information on DDP Yoga, visit www.ddpyoga.com. To listen to past shows, check out the archive at DDP Radio. To listen to the show, visit DDP Radio or call (347) 994-1216

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Hustle and Flow: How to Work the System

Posted on March 27, 2014

…and by system, I mean the diabolical food corporations who have foisted things like super-saturated buckets of fried chicken, bags of squishy sliced bread, and boxes of diabetes-inducing cereal on us since I was a kid. Not exactly the Mother’s Milk of healthy eating habits.

But they got me early. I was lured in via cutey-pie cartoon characters and kind-looking, grandfatherly figures deftly used in the ad campaigns. And once I got my first hit, it was all over. I wanted more. And more. And more. Legal crack. It took a lifetime to detangle myself from the physical and psychological cravings associated with the big industry foods that line our supermarket shelves (in greater proliferation) today. The colors are brighter, the ingredients more atrocious, and the actual nourishment content still at a flat-line level.

And even though I’ve turned a corner, rehabbed my body and my palate, I still find myself craving the cereals I grew up with. Granted, it’s more like twice a year, but it still happens. And since I’ve spent generous amounts of time, energy, and money on maintaining my health and balance, I’d rather not throw in the towel and give in. And there was a time when I’d reward myself with the occasional deviation into sugared-cereal-land. But no more. The cleaner I got and the better I felt, I no longer viewed the sugary stuff in the same light. The list of ingredients began to offend me and I found myself musing one day that I wouldn’t eat a bowl of my childhood crack for all the tea in China.

Instead, I decided to work the system and write my own rules when I want a bowl of sweet cereal. Why the heck not? Cereal’s not illegal! Only the food colors, obscene amounts of sugar and other undesirables are.

Somewhere along the line, I realized if you want to eat for pleasure and be healthy, you’ve gotta tap your inner hustler. Do what you must to survive and get that discreet little kick from enjoying food that we all are entitled to. Wrecking your health need not be a necessary companion. There are choices. Options. Other roads to take. And with a well-stocked pantry, it’s a breeze!

Take today’s breakfast, for example. I assembled a box of corn-based cereal, raw cacao, unsweetened almond milk, chia seeds, and stevia drops for a little fun. Was it an exact flavor replica of the stuff I’ve grown up with? Heck no! Nor should it have been.

The New Deal: Health AND Flavor

The New Deal: Health AND Flavor

Look, I could not have dropped 185 lbs. if I’d kept my former eating repertoire in place. There were shifts that needed to take place. Some things, like gluten and cow dairy, needed the boot. And good riddance. I look and feel better at age 50 than I did in my 20’s. Sure, the bowl of cereal I ate this morning wasn’t nearly as sweet as the bowl of cereal I chowed down on during my lost ‘eating years.’ But you know what’s a WHOLE lot sweeter? My Life.



Formula for a Semi-Sweet But Wholly-Healthy Cereal

A cup or two of your favorite unsweetened corn cereal

1 1/2 cups unsweetened almond milk

2 Tbs. Chia Seeds

2-3 TBS. Raw Cacao Powder or Baking Cocoa

10 drops Stevia or 1 Tbs. or so of Agave or Coconut Palm Sugar

Place milk, chia seeds, cacao, and sweetener in blender and blend well. Set aside for at least 15 minutes to allow chia seeds to plumpen. Pour over cereal and enjoy. I’m betting you have a much more productive morning without the sugar hangover!

Proof Positive: There Can Be Chocolate Without Going Cuckoo!

Proof Positive: There Can Be Chocolate Without Going Cuckoo!

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Apricot Breakfast Bread

Posted on March 17, 2014

Top o’ the maar-nin’ to ya!

The following recipe is actually British in origin, but it’s a great way to begin or end the day. Makes a delicious accompaniment to a.m. coffee or as a dessert companion to a cup of softly scented herbal tea. And of course, there’s mid-afternoon if you really want to pay homage to the UK.

This GF breakfast bread (some may deem it moist and sweet enough to be called cake) was adapted from a Feb. 19 New York Times recipe by Melissa Clark. The fact that it looked appealing and Chef Bill has been craving pound cake prompted me to make a version of it, substituting my own blend of GF flours for the wheat. I also used sugar-free apricot jam instead of orange marmalade because that’s what I had in the cupboard.

The apricot cake turned a gorgeous pale caramel color, the result of a confluence of gold-colored ingredients: eggs, the jam, coconut palm sugar, and orange juice. The recipe called for the loaf to bake at 350 for 50-55 minutes. I pulled mine at 40 and it was perfect.

Chef Bill’s verdict: He loves it!



Apricot Breakfast Bread

1 cup of apricot preserves (peach and orange also work)

12 Tbs. unsalted butter, room temperature

1/2 cup coconut palm sugar

1 tsp. lemon zest

1 tsp. orange zest

3 large eggs, at room temperature

3 tablespoons orange juice

1/2 cup coconut flour

3/4 cup chick pea flour

1/4 cup tapioca starch *

1/4 tsp. xantham gum

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 tsp. sea salt

1 Tbs. coconut oil

* GF all-purpose baking mix may be substituted for the flours. If you do this, skip the xantham gum and baking soda.

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat together softened butter, sugar, lime zest and orange zest until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Beat in eggs, one at a time, until incorporated. Beat in 1/2 cup marmalade and the orange juice.

In a separate bowl, whisk together flours, baking powder and salt. Fold dry ingredients into wet until just combined.

Scrape batter into prepared pan. Bake until surface of cake is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center emerges clean, 40-50 minutes, depending on your oven. Remove from oven and transfer pan to a wire rack. Cool 10 minutes; turn cake out of pan and place on rack right-side up. Place a rimmed baking sheet under rack to catch the glaze.

Heat remaining 1/2 cup apricot jam in a small pot over low heat until just warm (not bubbling); whisk in coconut oil until smooth. Slather warm glaze over top of cake, allowing some to drizzle down the sides. Cool completely before slicing. Oh, who am I kidding? Chef Bill’s not one to wait for just-out-of-the-oven baked goods…it slices just fine when warm.

Optional: Serve with clotted coconut cream 😉

Happy Monday!

Golden Goodness

Golden Goodness

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A True Friend: Calorie-Free Nourishment for the Soul

Posted on March 14, 2014

I get mail all the time from people wanting to know how I dropped nearly 200 pounds and kept it off. Understandably, they want answers so they can apply the same techniques to their own lives. Most of them expect a prescription that involves me telling them what to eat. They want details on calorie ranges, protein-carb ratios, daily fat gram allotments, and the list goes on.

Instead, and in the interest of being true to my story and how I did it, I begin by telling them what NOT to eat. And it has nothing to do with food. My healing began in earnest when I decided one day, circa the year I turned 40, that I would no longer be the willing recipient of crap. That’s right: no more eating it. As a fat kid turned obese adult with a crippling desire to be accepted, I’d been on a steady diet of it for decades and I’d had enough.

It was the ingestion of cutting remarks, judgmental glances, and outright insults that were really responsible for the weight. The potato chip binges were just a means to quelling my rage and salving my hurt feelings. What was really responsible for the pounds piling on was me accepting mistreatment from others and pretending to be OK with it.

Sure it hurt when a stranger was mean to me, simply because they didn’t approve of the way I looked. But what injured me to the core is when the vitriol came from members of my inner circle, or as some of them liked to call themselves…’my friends.’

I qualify with quotations because I finally broke through the wall of denial and woke up to the fact that anyone who claimed to love me and care for me would not deliberately insult or hurt me. I can hear some of you gearing up your battle cry for the ‘what about the health issues???’ argument, but let’s get real. If health were a valid concern, you’d also be badgering your friends who smoke, drink immoderately, or go on spending binges, and I never saw that happen. I only heard these sanctimonious types recite grave would-be statistics, like me being at risk for high-blood pressure, diabetes, and an early grave if I didn’t do something about my weight NOW…and by the way, how’s your latest diet going?

I’m not denying health risks can be a factor, but I also had to go with my gut every time a lecture or chilly remark came my way, because they were delivered with an unmistakable cloud of antipathy, and not empathy. It became my normal, and because it started so early I didn’t question it when it happened.

School years were the genesis, with mean girls who lacked emotional maturity laughing and shouting names at me. Sometimes, when my close friends were in a random mood to lash out, who was the easiest target? If you guessed the fat girl, you’d be absolutely correct!

Anyone else out there familiar with The Fat Girl Drill? You’re part of a demographic that’s universally looked down on, so run for cover. Compounding the emotional Molotov Cocktail is the perception that the fat girl deserves the crap-storm because it’s her fault she’s fat in the first place. Just stop overeating and go on a diet…any idiot can figure that one out. Actually that’s largely untrue. If a diet were what I needed, the first one would have worked and I wouldn’t be writing this blog. The true healing of an emotional eater takes years. No one wants to hear that, but it’s the truth. And when I realized I could diet no more forever, I started to heal the things that really mattered. Like friendships. Since you don’t have to be Freud to figure out that the quality of your relationships sing volumes about who you are and how you view yourself, I got to work.

Out went the phony friends whose primary reason for being in my proximity was to look down on me. Yes Virginia, there are quite a few emotionally stunted people out there who enjoy the company of those in compromised situations in order to feel unblemished and superior. I fired those friends, one by one. Some evacuated of their own accord when it became clear I’d no longer be dining on their well-meaning crap casseroles they delivered in such a pseudo-caring manner to my door. Others straightened up and decided to fly right, and they were allowed to stay. And the newfound confidence meant an influx of wonderful new friends, who didn’t give two sh*ts if I was 330 or 130 lbs.

As I was digging through old photos the other day I came across one of me and my friend Stan. I met him during my 300 lbs. + days, and he loved and accepted me exactly where I was. Stan saw and embraced all of my qualities: I’m a great listener with a fabulous sense of humor, I’m a passionate writer, am sensitive, impatient, intelligent, and fat. And that’s a problem because…? If you cross someone off your list of potential friends because of their weight, please get into therapy, or return to it. You’ve got some work to do.

With Stan, I never felt apologetic or shameful of who I was. And I NEEDED this. My soul needed it, and so did the broken and betrayed heart of the little girl who just wanted to feel accepted. I needed a friend like Stan far more than I needed to count calories and fat grams. It was a phase that was absolutely crucial to my healing and emotional evolution. And of course, it had to precede any physical healing.

Take a look at the photo of the two of us and how he’s looking at me. At that moment in time, what would you say I needed more: a boot camp DVD complete with 7-day food plan, or the simple resonant feeling of being loved?

Acceptance: The Best Nourishment of All

Acceptance: The Best Nourishment of All

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The Striking of a Sugar Craving: A Solution

Posted on March 7, 2014

It doesn’t happen often, only every now and again. But sometimes I miss sugar so much it hurts. Yesterday I was having a semi-annual episode, exacerbated by a low-grade headache and high-grade frustration that there were not enough waking hours to accomplish even part of my to-do list.

It’s days like that where I find myself longing for sheetcakes. I don’t get panicked or berate myself when this happens. I simply take it as the signal that it is: I’m stressed out and need some relief. Now of course, food doesn’t solve everything, so I did what I could to alleviate both the headache and the frustration: downed some hot herbal tea, had a healthy carb prior to my workout, did 50 minutes of cardio, pecked away at a few items on my to-do list. And when I arrived back home, made a snack.

Since I was craving cake, here’s what I did: take a ripe avocado and transform it into Nutella. Well, my version of it. Some of you already know about my adoration of the avocado. I seldom make guacamole out of it. Instead, I adore alchemizing it into wine goblets full of chocolate mousse or frosting for lentil-based cakes. The wheels began turning yesterday after seeing a Nutella ad….yes, I’ve found another use for the mighty avocado. So here goes the recipe. I’ll be up front and say this didn’t taste all that much like Nutella, even with the real hazelnuts and hazelnut extract. Which makes me wonder what kind of artificial flavorings the stuff might be pumped with . If you’re not a sugar avoider like me, go right ahead and use the real thing, or agave.

I frosted a piece of peanut butter cake (made of garbanzo beans) with my “Avocado-tella,” then ate the rest with a spoon. Nutrition…satisfaction….and no being knocked off the balance beam.

Avocado-tella

1/4 cup hazelnuts (also called filberts)

1 ripe haas avocado

1/2 tsp. hazelnut extract

15 drops stevia or 2 Tbs. coconut palm sugar or agave

2 Tbs. raw cacao

1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk

Place nuts in a food processor and process for 3 minutes, until they’re ground to a sandy texture. Stop about every 30 seconds and stir if unevenly grinding.

Place the remaining ingredients in the food processor and blend until smooth. May be used as a pudding or a frosting.

How many frostings can say they're nutritious...huh?

How many frostings can say they’re nutritious…huh?

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