“There is something evanescent, temporary and fragile about food. You make it, it goes, and what remains are memories.” –Jacques Pepin At a lecture, one of my psychology professors in college discussed the importance of creating memorable memories...

This is a guest post from Berkeley, California-based psychotherapist Ben Ringler (who also happens to be my brother): If you’ve been in a silent struggle for a long time with overeating, desperately hoping that the NEXT meal will leave you pleasantly full rather than...

I’m currently on a gut-healing protocol that restricts many foods while the healing process is doing its thing, and sugar is one of the no-nos during this time…that includes natural sweeteners, like honey, maple syrup and stevia. So I’ve been on the...

My mom used to make spinach balls as an appetizer for special occasions and gatherings, and I loved them! It was always hard to save enough for the company. This is a clean eating version that’s too good to save for parties only. Try it as a savory breakfast or...

I attended the Good Food Festival last weekend at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and discovered that many Midwesterners are hard at work, creating delicious specialty food items to make our lives easier, happier and healthier. A couple of them are likely to be...

Growing up in New York, we had high-quality seafood stores nearby. My mom would come home with amazingly fresh fish for dinner like white salmon, flavorful and hearty shrimp, and other buttery, flaky cuts of various fish that tasted super fresh. Now that I live smack...

Spring is here, the weather is getting warmer, and that means…ice cream season is arriving. I love this cold, creamy indulgence as much as the next girl, but don’t want to load up with sugar, milk, cream as often as I’d like to be able to enjoy this...

Energy bars are convenient little doses of fuel that can come in super handy when we need to eat something on the go. Unfortunately, many are packed with ingredients that I recommend avoiding, like soy protein isolate, too much sugar or artificial sugars, and other...

Did you know the average American household tosses at least $640 worth of food a year? Trim your waste and your waist, AND satisfy your taste buds with some of these tips, in honor of yesterday’s Earth Day. As you’re grocery shopping:  Don’t go to...

70% of women are unhappy with their bodies. Other surprising (or not?) statistics: 45% of women with normal BMIs (normal, healthy weight range) consider themselves to be overweight. 90% of people with anorexia and bulimia are female. Millions of dollars are spent...

When I was at FNCE (the Food & Nutrition Conference & Expo, the annual conference for dietitians) a few years ago, I went to a seminar that had volunteers from the audience (all dietitians) get up on stage and step on a scale in front of the audience. The...

If you’re active on social media and scout around for recipes, you have probably heard about the cauliflower crust craze. And if you’ve ever tried making it yourself, you know how intensive a process it is. And I don’t know about yours, but mine came...

In Atlanta, where I lived for 7 years before moving to Chicago, there was a super popular popsicle company that grew from a pop-up concept (think ice cream carts on street corners) to a large-scale pop culture phenomenon (just wanted to see how many times I could use...

In Hawaii and many tropical countries, taro is a root vegetable more popular than potatoes. Starchy and comforting, this root veggie has a plethora of health benefits, including for healthy blood pressure, glowing skin, cancer prevention, circulation, the immune...

Cherries are one of those fruits that signal summer, and the taste alone makes them worth eating during their seasonal peak. But, cherries also boast a wealth of beneficial properties, too many to list here. Some of the top ones include: Reducing inflammation Boosting...

If you feel overwhelmed by planning your meals and having to make at least 3 meals every.single.day over and over again, you’re not alone. Lately, I’ve been talking to clients about this very topic and trying to help them come up with strategies to make it...

If you’re anything like me, sometimes your fridge gets a little packed, you forget about the beautiful cherries on the middle shelf, and new produce piles on top of the old. Just like the rest of your house, over-packed spaces can add unneeded stress and...

Do you eat BLTs every day? No, I don’t mean those savory bacon-lettuce-tomato sandwiches, but something a client of mine told me she learned about in Weight Watchers: bites, licks and tastes. Think about a typical day and where these little extra bits of food...

Endocrine disruptors: Have you heard of this term? They might sound like characters in a sci fi film, but they’re very real and very hard to avoid. Endocrine or hormone disruptors are in our everyday food, cosmetic and packaging items, and affect our health in a...