A few of you ordered it and it is sitting in your pantry waiting to be used.  You don’t quite know how to use it.  Maybe you are a little scared.  After all, it is not like food we are commonly told to eat in the popular press.

Be brave, give it a try.

Do you make soup?  Follow the “blooming technique” in my last post and add it to any soup at all.  It enhances the flavor, makes your soup more nutrient dense (trust me, you’re looking for that), supports your immune system, and aids in digestion.

Oh and for you with skeletal bone loss, you really need to heed this post and start adding gelatin to your diet.

Do you like jello?  If you make gelatin based jello instead of making “jello from a box” you will find it easy to do, identical (or daresay even better) tasting as the box kind, and far more nutrient dense.

Anytime broth is called for in a recipe, jazz up the nutrients and flavor with gelatin.

Read about blooming in my last post.

Read this post several more times over the next week while waiting for your gelatin to arrive OR you just need to remember that you are indeed a brave kitchen warrior.

Questions?  Email me at oneworldacupuncture@verizon.net.

I think I need to start videotaping this stuff so you can see it live.  I like those great video recipes they do on Facebook.  If I can afford to use that technology, I’m going to figure it out.  Just like YOU (yes I’m shouting) are going to figure out gelatin.  And eating gelatin is much easier than making a video I bet.

Happy summering!

Gelatin

Here is my first food recommendation.  There is a load of information on gelatin.  Beef or pork gelatin is made from cows or pigs.

At this juncture in life, if you are planning to add this to your diet -which I can’t recommend enough- purchase the good kind; free of antibiotics, free of added hormones, 100% grass fed animals.  You want 100% pasture based animal gelatin (organic).  Click here  to purchase the kind I recommend.  It’s more expensive than your regular store kind but trust me, the quality is poor and you will not get the performance you so richly deserve.

It is good for bones, skin, hair, and teeth.  No, not good, it is great for you.  Some evidence says it helps with stomach problems.  It helps regenerate your body from stress. Read Sarah Wilson’s blog about all the great things gelatin can do for you.

Don’t overdo it.  Gelatin is a” yin” substance which generally means that it is a rich food;  loaded with essential nutrients but best digested in small amounts.  As a food it is best added to soups, like ever wonderful chicken soup.  Or you can make jello, a dessert favorite.

One way around buying gelatin is to make bone broths which provide the same nutrients since bone broth does the same thing; creates gelatin!!!  Some argue that nutrients can be lost in the making of powdered gelatin so making your own bone broth is a superior food.  I say do what works for you instead of worrying about doing the perfect thing.

The trick to adding gelatin to your diet is what is called “blooming.”

“Blooming gelatin is a step integral to ensuring the smooth texture of a finished product. It involves sprinkling the powdered gelatin into a liquid and letting it sit for 3 to 5 minutes. Then, when the mixture is heated, the gelatin will dissolve evenly. You can bloom gelatin in just about any liquid.” -from whatscookingamerica.net/gelatintip.htm

Therefore if you add gelatin to soup, you need to bloom it first.  I take a cup of soup broth (you can use vegetable or meat broth or water) unheated, sprinkle a tablespoon into the unheated broth as a set aside.  Once the unheated broth has bloomed the gelatin, add it back in after a few minutes so that it dissolves beautifully instead of lumpy.

If you hate soup (I can’t believe how many people do.  My son hates it.  How can that be???) , all is not lost.  You can make dessert.  Yes, many people will eat jello!  So easy to make and gelatin disguises perfectly in jello.  You will taste only the fruit.  And if you have to make a dishonest introduction to it for a family member you think needs it but won’t appreciate it in its unadulterated glory; serve jello!!!

There are many recipes on the internet so feel free to surf away.  This one was given to me by Amy, a great person and long time patient.  This is in honor of her and our great friend Barbara who passed away recently.

Fruit jello

Take 2 cups of unheated fruit juice that you think will make a great jello.  Sprinkle around 2 tablespoons of gelatin on top and let it bloom for 3-5 minutes.

While that is blooming, take 2 cups of juice and bring them to a near boil (mostly it just needs to be really hot to properly dissolve the gelatin).  Pour the heated juice into a casserole dish and immediately mix the bloomed juice/gelatin in, stirring thoroughly.  Let cool for a bit and put in the refrigerator just like you would the inferior “made from a box” kind.  Once it is completely gelled, cut it up as you like and eat.

Bone Broths

Pork, beef, chicken and duck all make delicious bone broth.  You game hunters out there, don’t forget to use the bones of venison, pheasant, turkey or whatever for bone broth. Oh, and fish makes an excellent broth.

And I can’t emphasize enough you how great it is for your body.  I am a long time maker of bone broth.  And I am a huge advocate of eating soup or stews for breakfast.  It is warming, easily digested and nutritionally rich.  Some people find great join in their diets from drinking just plain bone broth (I love vegetable broth too but it does not have the same nutritional and yes, energetic underpinning).

This is a nice video on making chicken and beef broth.  Use the same concept for pork broth (honestly it is my favorite) as you would beef broth but keep in mind the surrounding meat is more fatty so you will have to skim extra, extra.  For making turkey and duck broth, use the recipe for chicken broth.  Duck like pork, is very fatty so that will require some extra skimming as well.  It is SO delicious!

I have not watched the entire video but be aware that you can make broth from leftover dinner bones.

http://www.westonaprice.org/beginner-videos/stocks-and-soups-video-by-sarah-pope/

General articles about how acupuncture works mostly focus on pain.  What is surprising to many, is that it works on the level of mental health as well.  One of the more common issues we see here at One World Acupuncture is depression.

How does it work to help alleviate depression?  One way to explain its positive affect on the body is that it works to bring all systems in the body to their most natural state.  Depression caused by any number of factors like genetics, stress, ill health, poor dietary choices, poor life choices or the inability to make choices to name only a few causes.  Acupuncture works on the whole body through balancing energetic disharmonies.

Some folks have energetic disturbances that are so far out of balance that acupuncture can be considered one tool in an entire tool box of help.  I have noticed that with the proper medications and talk therapy, acupuncture can help manage depression.

For others suffering depression which is more situational or transient, acupuncture works very well to bring their systems into a better balance.  Once folks are in better balance, they often can “move freely about the cabin” without feeling low.

This view of depression is simplistic at best.  We who practice acupuncture use many observational tools to properly diagnose and use the correct treatment acupin approach to treating depression.  But I don’t want folks who are new to acupuncture feel like acupuncture is not successful if one does not completely understand how it works or believe that it works at all.  Patients tell me stories all the time of their pets being successfully treated by acupuncture and trust me, dogs do not believe in acupuncture.

At the time of this writing, we have given over 25,000 treatments, many of those for depression and other mental health disorders.  The hardest part about treating depression is getting folks to come in for treatment.  Sometimes people deep in depression have a hard time reaching out for help.  So I encourage you to reach out to this clinic if you live in our area.  If you don’t live within 25-30 miles of this clinic, I strongly suggest you google “community acupuncture near me” or go to the People of Community Acupuncture (POCA) website which is a national organization of acupuncture clinics who provide affordable acupuncture.

If you’ve not tried acupuncture or tried in someplace else but the price was too high to afford regular treatments, come in and give us a try.  I doubt very seriously you will be sorry.

http://mobile.the-scientist.com/…/35…/the-science-of-stretch

It has to do with how acupuncture can help relax connective tissue, a woefully understudied bodily tissue.

I have so much to say but here I have the perfect opportunity to say it and somehow I let other “action items” go to the top of the To-Do list.  But it is still January, so I still have time to make good on my blog promise.  And so I will use the opportunity to connect anxiety to acupuncture.

One thing that I notice acupuncture does with patients -whether they know it or not- is to make them be more calm.  We acupuncturists may not be able to solve all your problems, but when we help you to achieve more peace in your life, you are in such a better position to solve your own.  I can’t tell you how many people who come here say that getting acupuncture is the only time they have to themselves.

I don’t know about you but to me time to yourself is invaluable.  Acupuncture at One World Acupuncture is like meditation except that acupuncture relaxes you, you don’t have to do all the work to relax yourself.  It helps to regulate your breath, you don’t have to work so hard to get your breathing under control.  And if you do pray or meditate regularly, you may find it easier to do these activities with regular acupuncture treatments.

The other thing I’ve noticed about patient getting regular acupuncture is that they are happier.  It is not the acupuncture that makes them happier; it is they who make themselves happy using acupuncture as their guiding tool.

In life, things happen to all of us.  We get sick, our families get sick, we lose jobs, our families lose jobs, we are too busy, we are lonely, we never get to be alone, we suffer tragedies, loss of loved ones, and we fear about things that could happen.  None of us has as much control over these outcomes as we wish.  And for that, we suffer.

There are many ways to accept this loss of control in order to mitigate the suffering which can cause anxiety: therapy; engaging in hobbies; religion; spending time with friends and family; vacations; doing things we love to do; having pets; self-exploration; meditation; and prayer.  Most folks who suffer the most with anxiety want to keep busy so they don’t have to think about what is troubling them too much.

While at times, keeping busy can be highly functional, in the end it just seems to make matters worse.  Most people who are anxious don’t sleep well, they digest eating properly or “digest” what others or life is saying to them.

My job as an acupuncturist is to alleviate suffering as best I can.  In order to be successful, most patients have to give me and it (acupuncture) time to work.  And I do recommend that you just throw your hat in the ring – commit to coming at first twice a week and then once a week- and enjoy the process.   Slowly, each acupuncture session will bring you a little closer to your goal of feeling less anxious and more joyful.

Next time, I’ll blog about depression which IMHO is a little trickier than anxiety to treat.

Be well, Tess Bois

Hello,

Well I’m 3 days behind on my blog post promise I made on my e-newsletter.  But the fact that I have not completely ignored my promise to myself (by way of my promise to you) is a great achievement because for me to write regularly on a blog is quite a commitment; one that I have avoided until just now.  Hurrah for me.

The reason I want to write a blog is for the following reasons:

1.  I say stuff to patients in the clinic and folks often say to me, “you should let everyone know that.”  So this is the way I’m going to let you know.
2. There is stuff that I don’t say in the clinic that I think folks might want to know and so I’m going to let you know.
3. I am quite curious (and somewhat nervous) about how all of this public communication and feedback system works in the blogosphere.  My husband has a sometimes blog (actually it is quite neglected at this point) that he had some followers who were all over the world.  While I don’t really care if people from all over the world read this, maybe somebody from somewhere else will read this.  Hopefully though, interested parties will be from around Central Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire; a radius of about 40 miles from my office here in Leominster.
4. It is a great way for me force organize my thoughts.  And on health, acupuncture and nutrition, I have lots of thoughts.  And maybe you thoughts you would like to share as well.

But I feel that I will need to set some ground rules.  The opinions and ideas expressed in this blog are my own.  If you have some “gentle but critical feedback” I’m all ears.  If you have not gentle but seriously critical feedback, I would prefer you email me instead if you feel the need to rant.  If I get readers, they do not deserve to have to wade through all that and if you don’t see things as I do, I am plenty sure the internet is full of singers who are in your same choir.  Go sing with that choir.

With that out of the way, my first topic of health interest is about when stress goes from being a helpful tool of survival to wreaking havoc on all your bodily systems creating symptoms like insomnia, bronchitis, autoimmune system disorders and a whole host of other problems that bring you into One World Acupuncture.

So I will be breaking down into bite size pieces (AKA separate blog posts) how stress affects your body and ways we can help you create a more manageable, and hopefully, more peaceful life.  There is not one person I have met in my clinic who I do not think deserves feeling peace.  Some people are better at hiding unhappiness than others but  follow me down the path to learn more about what gets in the way of your path to peace and good health.