The Healthy Journal

root   n . 1 Part of a plant that provides support, draws water and nourishment, and stores food.  2 Source of action. 3 An essential part. Let's review what I've addressed in separate blog posts about how to achieve optimum wellness. I believe there are four essential parts to being healthy. I call them  roots . If you make healthy choices in each root area, you will achieve optimum wellness—feeling supported, watered, nourished and full of energy. The four roots of optimum wellness are  diet ,  exercise ,  sleep  and  attitude . Root One: Diet It is not a coincidence that disease is on the increase at the same time our diets consist of more artificial and sugar-ladden ingredients, meats and dairy laced with antibiotics and hormones. Cancer has now become the number one killer. And, its a big money maker for the health and pharmaceutical industries. Here's a list of things to avoid in foods: Hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils (aka trans fats) High fructose corn sy

Tip: I always make a large amount of brown rice when I make it because it takes so long to cook (55 minutes) compared to my other whole grains of choice—quinoa, millet, steel-cut oatmeal and faro (15 minutes). Then I have leftover rice to use in another recipe. Like this Brown Rice & Roasted Vegetable Salad .

Recently I attended the regional Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators (SCBWI) conference. When registering for the conference, I was able to choose vegan as my choice for lunch. Yippy! I appreciate that the conference organizers always think of the growing number of vegetarians and vegans in our community of children's writers. Usually the only choice available for me is vegetarian, which means there is cheese I remove before eating. The vegan lunch I received was a mixture of brown rice and various roasted veggies with a yummy light dressing. Delicious! I kept thinking, I must try to duplicate this and pass it on to you —my faithful readers. And so here it is... The salad I had at the conference contained green beans, zucchini, yellow squash and bell peppers. I added asparagus and carrots to my salad (shown in the pictures). You can add (and subtract) any veggies you want. Make it sing with what you love. You will not need all the dressing you make for this,

The Environmental Working Group (EWG) is the nation's most effective environmental health research and advocacy organization. They conduct original, game-changing research that inspires people to take action to protect their health and the environment. I've been getting their newsletter in my email inbox for some time now. You may have heard of their work when someone mentions the Dirty Dozen—the 12 dirtiest fruits and vegetables as far as pesticide residue. They test produce every year and deliver a report of the top 12 dirtiest and the 15 cleanest fruits and vegetables. What Should You Do with this Report? Take the EWG information seriously—the Dirty Dozen are loaded with pesticide residue. Do you want to eat bug and weed killer? I didn't think so. To avoid that poison in your system, use the Dirty Dozen  list to decide which fruits and vegetables you should buy organic that you might normally buy conventionally grown. The EWG's latest report was released in April. I