The Hemp Connection:
women's health

Thanks so much to Kerstin Wingert of Souvia Tea and Michael Keele of Central Slope for sharing their expertise about these topics!

Here is more information about the companies, products and resources mentioned in today's program.

TEA STUFF

Here is information about the personal travel tea bag Kerstin mentioned. She has many other gadgets in her tea store as well.

Culinary Tea: More Than 150 Recipes Steeped in Tradition from Around the World is the book Kerstin mentioned, containing 150 recipes with tea as an ingredient. Have a foodie on your Christmas list? Check it out!

Remember, if you are in the store, mention the radio show and receive 20% off your purchase. Or, if you shop online, use my name, Monika, as your coupon code, and receive the same discount.

Both Kerstin and Michael mentioned Absolutely Delightful Honey, another local Arizona business.

BEE STUFF

If you garden, Humble Seed, a local company (with an online store), which specializes in"providing the highest quality heirloom, non-GMO, non-hybrid, and organic seed varieties" is the company partnering with Central Slope to host the exclusive Arizona premiere of the documentary, Vanishing of the Bees.

Here is the trailer to the movie.

If you would like to attend this movie in Phoenix, it is showing at the MadCap Theater, on Saturday, November 6, at 5 pm. You can buy tickets ($15 each) at the theater, 730 S. Mill Avenue, in Tempe, or online at http://www.madcaptheaters.com/

There is also a need for sponsorships for this event. If you're interested, please contact Michael Keele at info@centralslope.com.

FREE STUFF

I promised you a recipe to try cooking with tea, and here it is. Thank you so much to Sous Chef Lisa at Green Mountain at Fox Run Resort for sharing her Sesame Peanut Sauce recipe. (Kerstin suggested a Keemun tea for this recipe, which she says is full body, very smooth with a slight smokey flavor. Can you see what I mean when I say she is to tea what many others are to wine?)
Sesame Peanut Sauce

Yields about 1 cup — perfect for noodles, chicken, tofu, etc.

Steep 1 black tea bag in 1/2 cup of room temperature water for 3 hours. (Heating the water can cause the tea to be bitter.)

Whisk the resulting tea with:

1/2 cup peanut butter (almond or cashew are lovely substitutes)
2 T honey (or agave nectar)
2 T tamari or soy sauce
1 T rice wine vinegar
1 T toasted sesame oil
2 tsp sesame seeds (optional)
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp ginger powder
pinch of cayenne or sriracha sauce to taste (optional)
Voila!

We get many questions about hemp, and its value as a protein and omega-3 source. Time to learn some more.

Here are the basic nutrition facts about hemp, calculated for a 1 tbsp serving.

Calories: 80
Fat: 5 grams
Carbohydrate: 3.5 grams
Protein 5.5 grams

POSITIVE: To put that into perspective, a tablespoon of hemp seed has about the same amount of fat as a teaspoon of butter or oil, plus slightly less protein than an ounce of meat. So as far as fat choices, it's going to give you more nutritional bang for your buck than a pure fat source. That protein is also a complete protein, too!

WARNING: Beware of those calories, though! Someone who commented on the Livestrong.com website where I got this information shared that he puts 3 tablespoons of hemp seeds on his cereal every morning. That is 240 calories, which if not removed from elsewhere in the diet, is the equivalent, over a year, of 25 pounds' worth of calories. If you ADD hemp to your diet, be sure you've accounted for it by REMOVING less calorically dense/nutritious food choices.

POSITIVE: With respect to fatty acid profile, the omega-6 to omega-3 ratio of hemp averages 3:1. This is favorable, as it is lower than the recommended total dietary ratio of 4:1.

WARNING: As hemp is a vegetarian source of omega-3, it provides ALA. It does not contain EPA or DHA, which are primarily found in seafood. Some of the ALA found in hemp will be converted into EPA and DHA, but not in the quantities we have found to be of therapeutic value for PCOS. If you want to use hemp in your diet, it is certainly beneficial, but it does not replace the need for the other omega-3's.

POSITIVE: Hemp contains gamma-linoleic acid (GLA), which can be helpful for some skin conditions, including atopic dermatitis.

WARNING: GLA tends to work best when it is not overwhelmed with omega-6 fatty acids. In other words, if you have a skin condition, and you want to try GLA as a remedy, you are most likely to achieve good results if you cut back on your total omega-6 fatty acid intake (safflower, sunflower, soybean, sesame, corn, and cottonseed oil).

You could say the bottom line with hemp, as with any other food, is that if it is used judiciously and respectfully and not layered onto an unhealthy diet that needs some tuning up, it can be a tool toward better hormone balance.

But it is not a miracle food that will allow you to continue with unhealthy dietary indiscretions without consequence.

For those who are concerned about the THC content of hemp: in order to ingest enough industrial hemp to get 'a buzz', you would have to consume the the equivalent of 2-3 doses of a high-fiber laxative. Thanks to the North American Industrial Hemp Council for that little tidbit!

For starters, here is a recipe for hemp pancakes. As you can see, the oil has been removed and replaced with hemp seed. That is the way hemp should be used; as a fat alternative, not as an additional fat. It could probably be used in many recipes where you are using ground flax seed, with similar results.

Here are some sample hemp food products available at amazon.com

For more information about the history, politics, and nutritional analysis of hemp, beyond the direct pertinence of hemp to PCOS, try this article on Dr. Bronner's website.

One of my litmus tests for how healthy a vegan's diet truly is, is to listen to how they describe what they eat. If they focus on telling me what they DON'T eat, and have a limited list of what they DO eat, I start to consider that what we're describing is an eating disorder, not a vegan eater.

Here's a challenge to encourage you to be more vegan and less disordered. It comes from the blog http://www.lunchboxbunch.com/., and it's a list of 100 vegan foods. I've been instructed to italicize foods I'd never try, and bold face foods I have eaten. And to encourage you to share the challenge on your own blogs.

I'm a pretty adventurous eater so there are no italics. I did better than I thought I would, actually, since I am not 100% vegan myself. I now have some great items to add to my own list!

Have fun!
1. Molasses

2. Cactus/Nopales
3. Scrambled Tofu
4. Grilled Portobella Caps
5. Fresh Ground Horseradish
6. Sweet Potato Biscuits
7. Arepa
8. Vegan Cole Slaw
9. Ginger Carrot Soup
10. Fiddlehead Ferns
11. Roasted Elephant Garlic
12. Umeboshi
13. Almond Butter Toast
14. Aloe Vera
15. H and H Bagel NYC
16. Slow Roasted Butternut Squash
17. White truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Freshly ground wasabi
20. Coconut Milk Ice Cream (not store bought)
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Orchard-fresh pressed apple cider
23. Organic California Mango (in season Sept-Oct only)
24. Quinoa
25. Papaya Smoothie
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet (habanero) pepper (just a bite!…hot!
27. Goji Berry Tea
28. Fennel
29. Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookie
30. Radishes and Vegan Buttery Spread
31. Starfruit
32. Oven fresh Sourdough bread
33. Sangria made with premium fruit and juices
34. Sauerkraut
35. Acai Smoothie
36. Blue Foot Mushrooms
37. Vegan Cupcake from Babycakes nyc
38. Sweet Potatoes and Tempeh combo
39. Falafel
40. Spelt Crust Pizza
41. Salt and Pepper Oyster Mushrooms
42. Jicama Slaw
43. Pumpkin Edamame Ginger Dumplings
44. Hemp Milk
45. Rose Champagne
46. Fuyu
47. Raw Avocado-Coconut Soup
48. Tofu Pesto Sandwich
49. Apple-Lemon-Ginger-Cayenne fresh-pressed juice…with Extra Ginger
50. Grilled Seitan
51. Prickly pear
52. Fresh Pressed Almond Milk
53. Concord Grapes off the vine
54. Ramps
55. Coconut Water fresh from a young coconut
56. Organic Arugula
57. Vidalia Onion
58. Sampler of organic produce from Diamond Organics
59. Honeycrisp Apple
60. Poi
61. Vegan Campfire-toasted Smores
62. Grape seed Oil
63. Farm fresh-picked Peach
64. Freshly-made pita bread with freshly-made hummus
65. Chestnut Snack Packs
66. Fresh Guava
67. Mint Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies
68. Raw Mallomar from One Lucky Duck, NYC
69. Fried plantains
70. Mache
71. Golden Beets
72. Barrel-Fresh Pickles
73. Liquid Smoke
74. Meyer Lemon
75. Veggie Paella
76. Vegan Lasagna (raw optional)
77. Kombucha
78. Homemade Soy Milk
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Lychee Bellini
81. Tempeh Bacon
82. Sprouted Grain Bread
83. Lemon Pepper Tempeh
84. Vanilla Bean
85. Watercress
86. Carrot you pulled out of the ground yourself
87. Vegan In-Season Fruit Pie
88. Flowers
89. Corn Chowder
90. High Quality Vegan Raw Chocolate
91. Yellow fuzz-free Kiwi
92. White Flesh Grapefruit
93. harissa
94. Coconut Oil
95. Jackfruit
96. Homemade Risotto
97. Spirulina
98. Seedless 'Pixie' Tangerine
99. Gourmet Sorbet, not store bought
100. Fresh Plucked English Peas

One of my clients sent me this recipe, which also happens to be gluten-free. I'm thinking it could make a great Thanksgiving day breakfast, giving you a great Thanksgiving taste, fueling a great morning walk or workout, and keeping your appetite in check when the big meal is served. I removed the whipped cream and the sugar from the rims which you will see in the original recipe.

Pumpkin Pie Smoothie

Pumpkin Pie Smoothie (Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Refined Sugar Free + More Free)

1 cup pumpkin puree, chilled (fresh or canned)

½ cup full-fat coconut milk, chilled

½ cup filtered water

1 sliced, frozen ripe banana

1 tbsp almond flour (optional)

1 tbsp hemp seed (optional)

A tablespoon or two of honey, to taste

½ tsp pumpkin pie spice, or more to taste

Prepare glasses by dipping rims into shallow bowl of water and then cinnamon.

Combine all ingredients in blender. Cover and blend on high until smooth, about 30 to 60 seconds.

Pour into prepared glasses or pint-sized Mason jars as I did.
Enjoy!

http://glutenfreeeasily.com/pumpkin-pie-smoothie/

One of the pieces of PCOS that I find intriguing, but which really is not well studied, is what is happening with appetite. This is such a crucial piece of the picture, because it doesn't really matter what ANY expert, medical, nutritional, whatever…tells you that you SHOULD be eating, if your appetite hormones are not supporting the advice.

In order for us to better understand what is happening, and therefore derive effective solutions for this problem, we need to toss a couple of assumptions we have about women with PCOS.

It may not be valid to assume that women with PCOS overeat simply because of emotional issues. (Note: I did NOT say there is NO emotional eating, but I suggest that it may be but one of the pieces of the puzzle.) It seems that the primary assumption on the part of many professionals is that once you lose weight, it is a sign that your appetite and intake are back in balance.

As I interview more women with PCOS, I'm learning that even lean women with PCOS struggle with appetite. A very common scenario, it seems, is to do everything right--eating, activity, sleep, stress management…and some days, despite all the effort, appetite seems to take on a life of its own.

If the experts aren't acknowledging this, some of the more strong-willed cysters may be able to learn to ignore these inappropriate hunger and fullness signals. In other words, the only tool they have to combat obesity is detached, restrictive eating. And if they own up to that with their caregiver, they may be diagnosed with an eating disorder.

Nowhere in there is there room for a physiological explanation.

Leptin, ghrelin, insulin, cholecystokinin, and endocannabinoids…all hormones affecting appetite, have been found to be out of balance with PCOS.

Given this and the stories that are accumulating in my files, it simply does not seem appropriate to advocate for an intuitive eating model as the therapy or the goal. It may be achievable over the long run, but it is not fair to recommend a paradigm that assumes that appetite mechanisms are intact, when in fact they are not.

I encourage you to share your observations with whoever is helping you. I have some work to do to collect more of the references and write about this phenomenon, so you have more science to support your advocating for yourself. It is coming.

For today, I just wanted to introduce the thought and encourage the dialogue. The more we hear from you, the more we can look for explanations and solutions.

If you're not here in Phoenix, you likely aren't aware that I have a good friend, Ken Clark, who is all about making our world here a better place. For the past year, I've worked with Ken and his hand-picked committee to create monthly events celebrating new small businesses taking a risk on downtown Phoenix. (Here we like to call it CenPho.)

Ken recently decided to take his vision one step further and create a referral network, the CenPho Charity Referral Network, in which anyone who participates, who receives a business referral through this network, will donate a percentage of that business to a charity. I was very flattered when he asked me to be part of this network, not to mention excited, because giving back and paying forward are always what inCYST has been about.

Businesses belonging to this network are listed below. If you patronize any of them, and you tell them that I referred you, they will donate to a local charity. Details for each individual's offer, as well as information on members (there are more coming on board) can be found on our new Facebook page.

Ken Clark, local REALTOR® and dog owner (really) works all over the valley, but specializes in Central Phoenix, historic properties and urban living. If you send Ken a referral for a home sale or purchase, and that transaction closes, he will make a personal donation to the charity of your choice. It is as simple as that!

Matthew Fritz of SuTRA Midtown (we interviewed his wife Rebecca about their SuTRA Mum yoga program awhile back) will make a 5% donation for referrals on yoga packages and massage therapy.

Marshall Shore, named a best of Phoenix by Phoenix New Times, takes armchair tourists on a rollicking illustrated ride through Arizona and the valley during its heyday, after the car arrived. His live presentation celebrates unique people and architecture in a theatrical blend of images and storytelling. The Arizona Centennial is rapidly approaching, and Marshall is looking forward to creating presentations for events along this theme.

Dallas Gold with the Funds Transfer Alliance will help your business with any and all credit card processing needs. Dallas will make a contribution to a referrer's favorite charity equal to 5% of the gross contract.

Jenny Poondingo of CO+HOOTS, Phoenix's biggest co-work space will make a contribution to a referrer's favorite charity equal to 5% of the gross co-work space contract. If you're not in Phoenix but happen to be here in need of workspace for the day, Janeny has a drop-in option, and is conveniently located to the major downtown business area.

Local Artist & Graphic Designer, Christine Cassano will make a contribution to a referrer's favorite charity equal to 5% of the gross contract. If you don't have a choice of charities, she will make a contribution to behalf of the person[s] / organization to Free Arts of Arizona: http://www.freeartsaz.org/ Free Arts of Arizona is a nonprofit organization that brings the healing powers of the creative arts to abused, neglected and homeless children by partnering with over 100 group homes, treatment centers and shelters in Maricopa County. (BTW, Christine shared her PCOS story with us on the radio show awhile back. Please tune in to the recording to learn more about her!)

As for my part, I'd like to combine this effort with the research foundation I mentioned last week. So here's what I'm willing to do.

From this point forward,

--5% of any sale (counseling, professional training, or restaurant menu/recipe consulting) will be donated to the inCYST research foundation.
--if a referral comes in to inCYST through the CenPho Charity Referral Network, I'll donate an additional 5% to the charity of your choice. If you don't designate a charity, I'll donate to the St. Mary's Food Bank.

Be sure to mention that you were referred by me so others may benefit from your purchase!

Organic Beet Salad Ingredients:
One large Beet or 2 small
Walnuts-handful
fresh dill-2 -3 sprigs
1 lemon
Wash beets and scrub with brush over running water
Peel the beet and chop into small evenly cut cubes. Place in a steamer and boil for 7-10 minutes. Place beets in a bowl of ice water to cool. When cool remove and place in bowl. Add chopped walnuts,chopped dill and juice of one lemon, refrigerate until cold and eat when read

Cauliflower Couscous

2 heads cauliflower, finely ground in a food processor
1/2 fresh cup lemon juice
1 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon black pepper
pinch of sea salt
1 bunch fresh parsley, stems removed
1 bunch fresh mint, stems removed
1 bunch fresh cilantro, stems removed
1 13oz jar pitted Greek olives

In a large mixing bowl, combine all of the ingredients and mix thoroughly

Marinated Bok Choy Salad

5 heads baby bok choy
1/3 cup olive oil
1/4 cup Nama Shoyu
4 cloves garlic, peeled

Starting from the bottom of the plant, chop the bok choy stalks into half-inch pieces, leaving the leaves whole. In a blender, combine the olive oil, Nama Shoyu and garlic and blend thoroughly. Add to the bok choy, mix well and serve.

Pesto Sauce

2-3 cloves garlic, peeled
1/2 fresh lemon juice
pinch sea salt
1 cup raw pine nuts
1 cup fresh basil
2 tablespoons olive oil

In a high speed blender, combine all the ingredients, and blend until smooth.
(can add 3/4 cup Thai cocunut water if desired)
We served this last night over brown rice linguini pasta and it was delicious!!

I just tried all of these and they are so easy to prepare and absolutely yummy

Cucumber Watercress Soup
3 1/2 cups cucumber juice (4-6 cucumbers)
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
1/2 bunch fresh watercress
3 cloves garlic, peeled
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tsp sea salt

Using a juicer, juice the cucumbers. In a high speed blender, combine all of the ingredients and blend until smooth
*I added some fresh dill and parsley to this recipe and chose not to use salt, you can try either way

Since the beginning, flaxseed oil has been an important part of our protocol. It provides the helpful estrogenic benefits that soy does, but without the potential problems soy creates for thyroid function. The problem is, most flaxseed oil is not easy to take and therefore it isn't used as much as it could/should be.

Shape Foods has finally solved that problem with their new line of culinary flax oils. In the first picture you see the line of smoothie-friendly flavors: banana, coconut, chocolate, and caramel. I was skeptical, but they turned out to be yummy! These products are hot off the factory line and not easy to find. Be sure to ask for the Royal Harvest flavored flax at your favorite store to be sure the buyers know there is a demand. I did manage to find the Coconut and Banana flavored varieties on amazon.com if you're interested in ordering by mail.

If you're more of a savory person, you may be interested in their Heart Shape line of cultural cuisine adaptations: Szechuan, Thai, Indian, Mexican, and Italian. Salsas, bruschettas, pad thais, etc., will never be the same again!

This product line is slated to appear on grocery shelves this summer. I have no link to provide you. (That is, yet!) Again, be sure your local buyer knows you want to buy them!

This product line was by far one of my favorite finds at Natural Products Expo West. One of the most frequent questions I've had when teaching omega-3 chemistry was about how to cook with flax oil. I always hated answering the question because it hasn't really been a kitchen-friendly oil.

Now it is, and I'm excited to try them in my own kitchen!

I learned at Natural Products West this past weekend that many popular chewing gums are made with petroleum-based ingredients. If your chewing gum ingredient label says it is made of a"gum base," it may legally contain any of the following: petroleum, lanolin, glycerin, polyethylene, polyvinyl acetate, petroleum wax, stearic acid, or latex. In essence, you might as well cut a piece of inner tube off of your bicycle tire and chew on it, because that is what has been packaged and sold to you!

Vegans beware! There are some animal-based products in that list. And for everyone, there are endocrine disruptors up there.

When I learned this I immediately thought of all the chewing gum promoted by weight loss experts and shows such as The Biggest Loser. BIG OUCH. It's a well-intended recommendation, but in this situation, it's not the calories in the product that are the problem. That is often the case with PCOS, you need to look past the obvious to get to the answer.

Old-style chewing gums are made of chicle, which comes from the rubber tree. Over time, manufacturers switched to the cheaper and more readily available ingredients listed above. I saw chicle-based gum at the Natural Products Expo, made by a company called Glee Gum. In addition to being made with chicle, it is also GMO- and gluten-free. The chicle they use is sustainably harvested and creates an incentive for rainforest preservation. So you're doing a lot of good outside of yourself when you purchase this product.

I encourage you to take the time to learn where you can purchase it locally; if you cannot find it, here is an ordering link.

Glee also has a really fun Verve Chewing Gum Kit, 6.5-Ounce Boxes (Pack of 2) kit for any of you with budding scientists in your house. Bookmark this post and put it in your Christmas shopping file!

I just returned from the Natural Products West Expo in Anaheim, California. This show is where companies providing products to health food stores, Whole Foods, etc., bring their information and samples to introduce to buyers. I came home with enough trends and food ideas to keep me blogging until next year's conference! It was really exciting to see the many possibilities for people who want to eat healthier but who do not want to sacrifice taste.

One of the trends was snacks from the sea. I wasn't fond of a lot of them, but one I really loved was the toasted seafood snacks made from nori. Nori is the seafood used to wrap sushi with. It's now becoming popular on its own, for its nutritional value, including calcium, magnesium, potassium, zinc, iron, vitamin A, vitamin E, vitamin K, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, vitamin B6, vitamin B12, folic acid, and vitamin C. There's even a little bit of DHA, the kind of omega-3 that is primarily found in fish. Those are a lot of the things you hear me writing about here. For you vegans out there, take note of the vitamin B12!

Toasted nori is very much like the kale chips many of you told me you are now enjoying. It's very light and probably not something that would cure a case of the munchies, but crumbled onto salad or into a seafood salad, into soup, or on top of a pizza, they would be a great and tasty way to add nutrition to your diet without having to take yet another supplement. I will say that the type of fat is not the one you see us recommend here, but the amount you are likely going to get in the way I envision most of you eating this, it's not going to be the food that makes or breaks your fatty acid balance.

This product is so new the website listed on their package is not even up yet. For those of you who read this down the road, you will eventually be able to learn more at http://www.jayone.com/.

For now though, these nori snacks are available at amazon.com. Here is the order link for the salted flavor., and there is a sweet flavor to try as well.

Do you have a need to chew? Fingernails? Ends of pencils? Gum? There may be a reason for that.

The trigeminal nerve innervates the jaw joint. When it is stimulated, it releases serotonin. So moving the jaw, whether it's while eating, grinding your teeth in your sleep, clenching your jaw during the day, eating CRUNCHY foods like popcorn, or chewing ice cubes or gum, may have mild antidepressant effects.

On another website, I mentioned chewing ice cubes and it quickly became one of the most popular search terms bringing web surfers in. It's clear, a lot of people do this to the point where they wonder why.

In balance, there is probably a good purpose for this. However, in excess, as in temporal mandibular joint (TMJ) syndrome, it can cause other problems.

You may want to do an experiment with yourself and see how you feel after a day of eliminating non-nourishing chewing. Do you feel irritable? Anxious? Out of sorts? Maybe you're dependent on your jaw in a way that may be best served by other outlets.

Remember…talking about how you feel, yawning, even singing…also move the same joint.

The other night I had dinner with friends at a popular Scottsdale restaurant, Cowboy Ciao. We had a wonderful waiter who, without our verbalizing it, sensed that our appetites, though healthy, were not nearly as large as the portion sizes on our menu. He helped us order in ways that did not bring excessive food to the table. We would likely not have eaten them anyway, but it was really nice to not have to spend any of our concentration on ignoring food that was sitting there suggesting it should be eaten.

He helped us figure out portion sizes of both the salad and the entree that worked for three people. In this particular restaurant it worked because they offered half portions of entrees. So we ordered one half and one whole portion but had it served in one dish so we could serve ourselves family style. Of course, depending on the situation this won't always work, but I do encourage you to be assertive and let your server know what you need and engage them in problem solving. The smart ones will recognize that there's a better tip for them if they cooperate.

I learned from a friend who travels for a living that if the ingredient shows up somewhere on the menu, even if it's not in the item you want, it's in the kitchen and you can ask for a substitution. For example, once we were eating breakfast together and he noticed asparagus on a dinner dish. He asked if it could be added to his lobster omelet and there was not an issue.

Be assertive, ask about the possibilities. Don't assume the rules are dictated by the printed menu. If you frequent a restaurant that obliges you, you may actually give them reason to consider putting your own creation on the menu. In which case you've also made it easier for those coming along behind you!

This blog post, by the way, is also an excuse for sharing Cowboy's recipe for their famous chopped salad. I posted this photo on my Facebook page and it received so many likes it was clear it should have its own fan page! If you choose to make your own aioli, be sure to use canola mayonnaise.

For the dressing:
1/4 cup basil pesto
1/2 shallot, roughly chopped
1/2 cup aioli (see note)
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/4 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
Salt and pepper, to taste

For the salad:
1/3 cup cooked Israeli couscous
2 ounces chopped arugula
1/3 cup diced roma tomatoes
1/3 cup diced smoked salmon
1 tablespoon crumbled Asiago cheese
1 tablespoon toasted pepitas
2 tablespoons dried black currants
2 tablespoons super-sweet dried corn

For the dressing, combine pesto, shallot and aioli in a food processor; blend thoroughly. With motor running, add buttermilk. Add pepper and lemon juice; blend to combine. Season with salt and pepper.

For the salad, arrange ingredients in separate rows on a large platter. Toss salad at the table, using about half of the batch of dressing. (Refrigerate remaining dressing up to three days.)

Makes 2 servings.

Note: Aioli is like garlicky mayonnaise. Look for it in gourmet food stores, or make your own by blending together 1 to 2 finely minced garlic cloves, 1/3 cup olive oil and 1/4 cup mayonnaise.

Every year when Lent comes around, I'm reminded of my years working in an eating disorder treatment center. It was the time when my patients viewed the holiday as an excuse to indulge their disease. Over night, everyone seemed to become Catholic and want the special dietary rules to apply to them!

I decided to have a rule that other than the"fish on Friday" tradition, all Lenten sacrifices would have to relate to something other than food. After all, Lent is supposed to be a practice of sacrifice, and making it easier to live in your comfort zone is not really what Lent is about.

Here are ten sacrifices to consider that may indirectly have to do with food, but in a way that may allow you to come out of Lent with a new healthy habit that benefits you long after the 40 days it felt like a sacrifice.

Any behavior change is hard. The purpose of Lent is not to punish yourself, but to pull yourself out of living with a focus on yourself and turning it toward others. The healthier you feel, the more likely it is you will want to interact with others. And social support can, over the long haul, help to balance your hormones.

The beauty of Lent as compared to a New Year's resolution is, you only have to commit to 40 days. Then you can re-evaluate. There is something about the permanency of a New Year's resolution that almost insures its being broken. Lent is a way to try a new behavior on for size and evaluate if it works for you.

1. Give up negative self-talk

2. Put away excessive weighing on the scale

3. Instead of spending money on that nail job or that new eye shadow color, buy the fish oil. And take it!

4. Go to bed at a regular, earlier, hour.

5. Get up early and get to that yoga class on time.

6. Pack your lunch.

7. Limit your social networking time (Facebook, Twitter) and attend a new meetup group once a week. A group that has absolutely nothing to do with food, exercise, fertility, or PCOS.

8. Practice a daily random act of kindness.

9. Do something daily that has no purpose and is just plain fun!

10. Spend a little bit of extra money on organic household cleaning products.

I cannot tell you how taken back (in the most wonderful of ways) I was last week to have so many of you step up and offer donations, services, and support for the research institute idea. Thanks to all of you, you've inspired me to go ahead with the idea.

Here is where we stand as of today.

For a variety of reasons, though I currently live in Phoenix, I will be launching this institute in California, with a physical headquarters in Los Angeles.

We're currently in that common dilemma many new nonprofits face, that is, how to raise funds to offset the startup costs when we are not officially started up and legally able to accept donations. We're currently working on the solution that will have us officially in existence by June 2011.

Our focus will be to fund research regarding hormone health, with a focus on nonpharmalogical and nonsurgical options to common issues such as PCOS.

We've got a lot of work ahead of us, I've been told this type of venture is no picnic, but it's definitely an adventure worth pursuing.

I'll keep you posted as we progress.

Thanks for all the support and offers…we're definitely going to need a lot behind us as we put all the pieces together!

Of all of the people involved in making this happen, I'm willing to bet I'm the most excited! We've been planning this for several months now and it's been so rewarding to see this program come together.

PCOS Diva will also be present to share her personal story with PCOS.

We'll be at St. Joseph Hospital on April 1, with a great, informative, and inspiring program for women with PCOS. Health professionals are welcome too!

Click here for the complete brochure. You will need to scroll down the page a bit to see the link to the.pdf file on the right-hand side.

Please join us!

We just received another success story. I believe that cyster-to-cyster encouragement goes a whole lot farther than anything we professionals could ever say to motivate, so here is a note from one of our fans.

I know how much you love success stories, so I'm happy to let you know of some progress that I've made in my health. Much of this is a result of implementing ideas from your blog and radio show, so I owe you a debt of gratitude:
- I just received some blood test results. My HDL is 69, my LDL is 67 (!), and my triglycerides are 44 (!!). (Thank you, fish oil!) Also, my glucose is 88, and my HbA1C is 5.2. (Thank you, metformin — hopefully someday I won't need you!)

- Since July 1, 2010, I have lost almost thirty pounds, with very few episodes of binge eating.

- I'm faithfully going to yoga every week, and I'm going to run a 5K series this spring — seven races!

- I started sleeping with a sleep mask, as unfortunately it's not feasible for me to sleep in complete darkness.

- I'm still trying to conceive, but am not without hope. My GYN is pushing me to use injectable gonadotropins, but deep down I strongly feel it's not the right path. Even if it means delaying having a baby at my advanced age (38), I'd rather continue to use natural means to try to improve my health first rather than resort to the extreme quick fix.

Each and every one of these letters is like a shot of adrenaline. Because it's not really how much information we put up here that matters, it's knowing it's being incorporated into lives and making a difference.

Thanks for keeping in touch!

(Hee hee, even though you've reinforced my reputation as the person who thinks fish oil is good for everything, it sounds like in this case it really was good for something!)

It keeps happening. I keep getting inquiries that are pretty clearly indicative of how little attention is focused on a huge issue, PCOS, and how much ground inCYST has gained in the progress of trying to change that.

--Several months ago, a noted researcher with an interest in PCOS wrote and told me he was interested in being considered to join my"board". I had to tell him I didn't have one!

--A reporter recently asked me for a photo of our"institute". I had to tell her that right now we're just virtual.

--Twice in the last week, I've been asked where someone might donate money to support PCOS research.

The second inquiry, yesterday, was my inspirational moment. It came through one of our network members, who had inspired one of her support group members enough to start exercising. This woman decided she wanted to run her first 5K race to celebrate her commitment to wellness. And she wanted to use her race running as a means to raise money to donate to PCOS research.

Only everywhere she turned and tried to give money…she was turned away. Someone actually told her the cause wasn't"sexy enough" to be worth raising money for.

I was appalled. I've spent years at this point listening to women with PCOS share their stories, their frustration, their heartache, their desire to just know what they need to do. I've seen, time after time, the benefits of simple lifestyle changes. And I've also personally witnessed the battle these women have to fight to be taken seriously. They deserve better than to be told their illness is not sexy enough for researchers to care about.

My emotional response was probably fueled by the story WVEC reporter Lucy Bustamante recently put together, in which a physician treating PCOS admitted that women don't often get the right diagnosis because the tests it would take to do so"are just too expensive."

Over the summer, someone in the reproductive medicine department of Bristol Myers Squibb spent about 7 hours of time reading 378 pages of inCYST content. I remembered that during my conversation yesterday, and thought two things.
--Apparently these women are sexy enough to keep making medications for and taking their money for.
Even though these women are too expensive to thoughtfully treat, given the fact that they comprise 10%
of the female population, they are a great revenue source to target in research projects.
--If we got that much attention from the people doing the"real" research, it seems to me that on our own
inCYST has what it takes to be a rockin' research institute.: )

I decided, the moment I heard the words"not sexy enough", that it was time to stop turning all these inquiries away and start pulling together all of those resources to do something different.

So, thanks to the small but profound and genuine gesture of the exact kind of person inCYST was created for, a woman who simply wants answers, I'm going to start the procedure for pulling together a not-for-profit arm of inCYST, devoted to research. Only our research will be different in nature. We want to encourage the kind of research that has a hard time getting funded, because it does not involve drug research. We want to balance the message that is out there and add credibility to the message we want you all to hear. And we want to be sure the supplements you all spend money on…are actually worth spending money on.

I have a lot of work to do, but I'm willing to do it if you're willing to help make it happen. My first step is the paperwork, and because that involves an attorney's work, it will cost money. I do not have an avenue for collecting donations right now, but I am posting this announcement so that anyone who might be interested in making a donation in the future might be able to write me and let me know where to find them when we're ready to take the plunge. It's not really all that much to get started, about $1000, so I think it's entirely doable.

If you are interested, please send me an email at marika@google.com.

Remember, it was a small gesture that prompted me to act. A lot of small gestures, pooled together, can make a huge difference.

Let's get this research party started!

Most of you know that your PCOS is an inflammatory disorder. But if someone asked you what that meant, would you be able to explain it? I've found that it's a pretty meaningless and misleading term to most people. So I like to use a visual. This visual has had such a profound impact on some of my clients that they've printed it out and they hang it on their computers or other prominent place to graphically remind them of the importance of making proactive choices.

Inflammation is a misleading term because most people, when they hear it, tend to think of swelling, as you might experience if you sprain your ankle. In the case of inflammatory disease, it's really more oxidation that we're talking about. (Hence the focus on antioxidants by the supplement industry).

But even then…what is oxidation? It is the metabolic effect of oxygen being broken down. Outside of your body, the easiest illustration I've come up with is rust. When metal reacts with oxygen, and an oxidative process occurs, rust is the result.

It's no different in your body. An inflammatory, or oxidative process, is essentially the rusting out and deterioration of your tissues. It happens when the balance between processes that oxidize outweigh those that do repair work.

One of the most important places where this oxidation has effect is in your brain and nervous system. Oxidative processes are known to destroy neurons! For example, depression, another inflammatory disorder and one which commonly co-exists with PCOS, is known to destroy neurons in the hippocampus, the brain's memory center. And as many of you know, loss of memory, concentration…brain fog…are common side effects of PCOS.

Take a look at this photo. If the balance in your own body is tipped toward inflammation, it's literally like your brain and nervous system are rusting out. Yes, this is your brain on inflammation.

Your job is to reverse that process.

And it can be reversed! Studies also show that the hippocampus rebuilds those lost neurons as an indication of resolving depression.

What to do?

1. Remember that the substance that the brain needs in order to rebuild neurons is DHA. It's not sugar, it's not flax, it's not a vitamin or mineral. It's DHA, the fish oil that is found in fish and marine algae. Dr. Artemis Simopolous, omega-3 expert, has written that treating depression with DHA requires a dose of about 1000 mg per day. That is about 4 times what is recommended on the bottles of most supplements, and eating fish a few times a week is far below that. If you really want to experience the benefits of omega-3's, you likely need to up your dose.

2. You need to remember to take your fish oil! I know, it sounds funny, that in order to improve your memory you need to remember to use the thing that improves your memory…but that's one of the biggest barriers I've seen to PCOS success…consistency. If you cannot put your fish oil next to your milk in the refrigerator, or remember to take it when brushing your teeth, program your computer or smart phone to remind you to do so. I cannot reinforce the importance of consistency.

3. Slow down the rusting out process. Anything that raises metabolism, speeds up the rusting out process. That means extra stress. Sleep deprivation. Diet excesses. Dietary deficiencies. Too much exercise.

4. Eat a variety of foods from a variety of food groups. There are so many antioxidants available to you, none of them is the be-all-end-all…you need to mix it up so you get the most opportunity to benefit from the entire palette.

My hope is that now that you've seen what inflammation is, you will understand why it is so important to take action and do the repair work, then rust-proof yourself against further damage.