Your Heart
Hi Friends,
I hope this email finds you energized about the start of 2020 now that we are a full month in. In February, I can’t help but wish for a snow day that would allow for any excuse to stay inside, start making soup and and put a movie on (of course, any snow day is actually a good opportunity to clean my house and get organized… but I digress!). Snow days when my kids were younger always involved baking either chocolate chip or oatmeal raisin cookies, which the winter always makes me nostalgic for.
What I will say is that snow day aside, I love the winter months for the opportunity to cook or bake wholesome, nourishing, and warming food. In my own practice as an acupuncturist and in my own life, we cannot deny the power of nutrition and the role that it plays in our longevity and health. Part of my practice with my patients, as you know, involves asking - how’s your diet? Is it supporting you as we put you on this path to healing?
After all, food is medicine.
With this month being February and Valentine’s Day on the horizon, I’m excited to share that I’m only going to talk to you about chocolate - or dark chocolate specifically. This isn’t the chocolate that you’ll find in pink and red M&M’s or Kisses in the CVS aisles, unfortunately.
I’m talking about cacao, which actually supports your heart health. Our hearts support blood pumping through our body, a healthy heart means we live longer, and beyond the physical and moving to the energetic level: care for our hearts means that we are open to giving and receiving love.
So, what’s love got to do with it? With more antioxidants than blueberries, as well as iron, calcium, and magnesium, cacao has many health benefits. But because of its naturally occurring flavanoids, which are known to have beneficial effects on your cardiovascular health, and theobromine, a bitter alkaloid (like caffeine) that’s been shown to boost mood and energy, dark chocolate is the choice for your Valentine’s Day box of chocolates.
So, is (a longer) life like a box of chocolates? Well, yes, but only if you know what you’re going to get :) Make sure you go for chocolate that’s above 70% cacao content, to ensure you’re not overdoing it on sugar. Raw cacao can be added to smoothies, and dark chocolate chips are a great substitute for your milk chocolate chip cookies.
In other news: I’m excited to announce that I’ve completed a course in plant-based nutrition through Cornell University under the instruction of T. Colin Campbell, PhD. (Why? you ask). Over the course of my 19 years of practice, so many of my patients have come to me with questions of diet, or simply have very little starting knowledge of the role that diet plays in overall health. Most of my patients have found great success in managing chronic diseases, acne, food allergies, asthma and sinus issues as well as mood imbalances (just to name a few symptoms) through eliminating dairy from their diets and incorporating more whole foods and plants into their diet. Each body is unique, and each body works differently, but if you’re curious about some of what I’ve learned or want to discuss how your food choices can assist increasing your energy and supporting the healing work of acupuncture and homeopathy, feel free to ask during your next appointment.
Happy Valentine's Day and Happy February!
-Megan Stewart
