Health + Wellness

The benefits of hiking are numerous. It’s an inexpensive activity with a relatively low impact that provides exercise and enjoyment. Research shows that spending time in nature improves mental health and there many reasons why you feel so good in nature. Whether you’re an avid hiker always looking for the next great trail to hike or an occasional trekker seeking […]

There’s something faintly exotic about the pomegranate. At this time of year, there’s usually an overflowing bin of them in the grocery produce department. Yet many people pass right by legendary fruit, unfamiliar with how to eat it or all the great health benefits it provides. Photo credit: Shutterstock A native of the Middle East, […]

Grocery stores in the U.S. are brimming with plenty. Aisle after aisle in these sprawling food meccas is filled with multiple choices, often of similar or identical products—that it can be overwhelming. Maybe you enjoy food “window shopping”—browsing the alternatives and seeing what products are out there before making your picks. Or maybe you’re one […]

Sugar seems to be in every food we buy at the grocery, especially packaged, processed foods. Whether it’s sugary beverages (including some of those supposedly good-for-you sports beverages), those boxed breakfast cereals with cartoon and animated movie characters to attract kids or even in ketchup and canned vegetables, it’s hard to avoid. The snack food […]

There’s nothing better on a cold winter evening that a steaming cup of hot cocoa. It’s one of those things that could actually make you look forward to winter. It tastes wonderful, warms your belly and enhances your sense of well-being, of course. But cocoa also has some health and nutritional benefits you might not […]

[Editor’s note: This article is part two of a two-part series. Read part one.] We now know that 20-30 percent of manmade greenhouse gases in the atmosphere comes from industrial agriculture. Petrochemicals are for cars, not for the soil. By dumping ag chemicals onto our soils, we disrupt nature’s delicate balance of water, soil and air. Carbon sequestration […]

By Kris Gunnars Vitamin D is more than just a vitamin. It functions as a steroid hormone in the body. If you get little sun throughout the year, stay inside a lot or use sunscreen, then Vitamin D supplementation is something to consider. A deficiency is extremely common in western countries and may have disastrous […]

Type 2 diabetes—the type that’s often connected to unhealthy diet and lifestyle—has become an epidemic in the U.S. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that more than 29 million Americans have it, up from an estimate of 26 million in 2010. The CDC says that 86 million adults—more than one in three—have […]