Kale Party

January has me excited! It always does. I love a new year and all that it represents. Personally, I spend most of December eating everything I shouldn’t and drinking an extra glass of eggnog (or two). I do this knowing that come January 1, it’ll all be over. Waiting for a specific day to be healthy is not only silly but, when combined with the binges of December, can be dangerous. Luckily for me (and maybe you, too), January is here to offer me a clean slate and time to ensure that come next December I won’t behave this way again.

If you do nothing else this month, make sure to read our feature article, “The Rise of Functional Medicine”. It makes me excited for the future of medicine and, in turn, the future of my health and yours. Functional medicine is the paradigm shift the world has been waiting for. Recently, functional medicine gained validation when century-old academic medical center the Cleveland Clinic opened its own center for functional medicine. So, while we the readers of Natural Awakenings of Long Island may have always known there was something better than traditional Western medicine, the opening of this center validates our knowledge. (I love feeling validated!)

Functional medicine is a whole-body approach to wellness that seeks the underlying causes of disease. What does this mean for me (and you)? Well, it can mean preventing disease and understanding how a body burns and stores fat (seems sometimes mine doesn’t burn, just stores). It looks at the patient’s whole picture—stresses, tragedies, genetics, exposures—and utilizes this information to prevent and heal disease.

This month’s Wise Words section features an interview with Bruce Lipton, Ph.D., who believes that epigenetics is the foundation for health and is working to rid us of the myth that we have a destiny toward disease and/or obesity that we cannot stop. Epigenetics tells us we have the power to change our genetic predetermination with lifestyle changes. Okay, for a science geek like me (in my last life, I worked in both marketing and research for a biotech company), this is all so exciting I could throw a “kale party.” But perhaps this is all a bit too science tech for you, so let me give it to you straight.

A new year is upon us and it’s going to be an enlightened one, especially for the readers of Natural Awakenings of Long Island. We are going to get healthy—we are going to use the articles we read each month to help us understand our genetic destiny and then to overcome that destiny with healthy lifestyle choices, like eating healthfully, getting enough exercise, making time to laugh and play, and reducing stress and chaos.

Are you with me? Don’t wait for a diagnosis of diabetes or an autoimmune disease to be the catalyst for good decisions; make those good decisions now. To spur you on, I have included my own amazing recipe for kale soup on page 41, which offers a lot more sustenance than this glass of eggnog that I am currently nursing … can’t wait for January 1!