Pregnancy is a time for celebration, but the mountains of advice that accompany it can create confusion amidst your joy. Listen in for solid recommendations that support not only mom and baby’s wellbeing, but also the environment. Anna Getty is a green lifestyle educator, mother and founder of Pregnancy Awareness Month.
Doing a cleanse before pregnancy is a great way start this journey.
Strengthening the body with nutritious food, exercise and rest can help with a healthy pregnancy and post-partum.
Making healthy changes can benefit the mother, the baby, and the environment:
Eat fresh organic, seasonal foods.
Invest in a water filter and eliminate plastic water bottle use.
Take a high quality prenatal multivitamin.
Supplement with DHA, which has been shown to help with a baby’s brain development.
The topics pregnant women are most often confused about include:
Many women are confused about food and use pregnancy as an excuse to eat sugar and junk food. Eating well is paramount to a healthy pregnancy and baby.
Women are sometimes told not to trust themselves. We have been giving birth for 200,000 years and need to stay empowered.
Pregnancy Awareness Month (PAM) aims to empower women:
PAM is a month long educational campaign in May aimed at empowering women as they move into pregnancy.
There are four initiatives: education, exercise, nutrition & wellness, and nurturing.
Are you looking for solid guidelines for staying healthy and happy at every age? Tune in for tips on nutrition, herbs and lifestyle habits for women, as well as specifics on mood, menopause and weight management. Dr. Tori Hudson is a naturopathic physician, professor and women’s clinic medical director.
Dr. Hudson’s top suggestions for women’s health include:
Research supports at least 3.5 hours per week of aerobic exercise (as well as some strength training) to benefit bone, heart, immune, and joint health.
Vitamin D supplementation, eating whole fresh foods, drinking filtered water and minimizing exposure to environmental toxins are important.
Beyond a daily multivitamin, focus on essential fatty acids (fish oil supplements), probiotics, B vitamins, calcium, and numerous antioxidants.
Women with regular menstrual cycles may need extra iron.
For children and up though teenage years, as well as later in life (70s+) calcium is important.
There are natural ways to help with anxiety and depression:
First evaluate how to stabilize relationships, home life, career, finances, and spirituality.
Some helpful natural compounds for anxiety include the amino acid L-theanine, the nutrient GABA, and an herb called kava.
For mild to moderate depression, St. John’s Wort is still is the #1 most important plant that’s been researched. Tryptophan and SAMe can also improve serotonin levels.
Menopause symptoms can be supported through the following:
Black cohosh is the #1 most researched plant for menopause symptoms. There have been more than 100 studies over the last 25 years on an array of menopause symptoms including hot flashes.
Studies on St. John’s Wort for menopause symptoms show that a combination of black cohosh and St. John’s Wort are more helpful than just black cohosh alone.
Products carrying the Premium Body Care symbol are the most exceptional personal care products available. They meet the strictest standards for quality sourcing, environmental impact, results and safety. Enjoy this introductory video on how Premium Body Care truly allows you to be good to your whole body.
Did you know that nearly one-third of all municipal solid waste in the U.S. is packaging? Learn about the changes we’re making to our Whole Body product packaging to help reduce our environmental impact. Jim McConnell is Store Supplies and Services Specialist for the Rocky Mountain region and co-chair of the Whole Foods Market Responsible Packaging Task Force.
With our guidelines for organic personal care, Whole Foods Market is working toward ensuring that “organic” means organic in every aisle of our stores. Listen in as we share about our efforts to protect the organic standard for our shoppers, suppliers and planet. Joe Dickson is Global Quality Standards Coordinator at Whole Foods Market.
The definition of “organic” should not change substantially between the food and the non-food aisles of our stores:
When you’re in the produce aisle, “organic” means that a fruit or vegetable was grown without toxic or persistent agricultural chemicals in environmentally friendly ways, and that it was certified by a third party.
Whole Foods Market believes that this should be the definition in our Whole Body departments as well, which is why we’re raising the bar.
Our guidelines require any product making an organic claim – including products with ‘organic’ in the brand name – to be made up mostly of organic agricultural ingredients and to be certified.
Our guidelines ensure that “organic” truly means organic in every aisle at Whole Foods Market:
With food, in order to call a product “organic,” it has to contain at least 95% certified organic ingredients (and the remaining 5% is tightly controlled too) thanks to strict government regulations.
Since there’s no government oversight of organic body care, consumers have no assurance that “organic” products contain ANY organic ingredients at all.
Any product making an “organic” product claim – like “organic shampoo” or “organic bath salts” must be 95% organic and certified to the same USDA Organic standard as food.
Products with more than 70% organic ingredients can make a claim like “Made with organic essential oils and extracts” if they’re USDA certified, or “Contains organic essential oils and extracts,” if they’re certified to the NSF 305 Organic Personal Care products standard.
The NSF standard is similar to the “70%/Made With” level of the USDA standard, but allows certain ingredients and processes that are specific to personal care products.
These standards will help encourage the quality of personal care (and the industry as a whole) to improve:
As of June 1st, all organic personal care products sold in our U.S. stores will be certified organic.
Looking at the front label, anything that uses the word “organic” must be certified to one of the standards mentioned above.
Anything with “organic” in the product or name must be certified by a USDA accredited certifier or to the NSF standard – look for the certifier’s name on the label.
According to Joe Dickson, Global Quality Standards Coordinator at Whole Foods Market, this is a huge step with a positive impact for all stakeholders:
By requiring that organic products have substantial amounts of organic ingredients, we’re increasing the demand for organic ingredients and thus increasing the amount of land being farmed organically.
We’ve already seen many suppliers obtain certification and increase the organic ingredients in their products in order to comply, and this is a huge win for organic farmers, the environment, and shoppers seeking more organic products.
Supporting the health of an infant can sometimes feel like a guessing game with a limited amount of safe options. Find out why homeopathic remedies are gentle and easy to use for a variety of baby-related issues. Dr. Trevor Holly Cates is a naturopathic physician practicing in Park City, Utah, and a consultant for Hyland’s.
Naturopathic physician Dr. Trevor Holly Cates uses homeopathy to support children’s health:
Homeopathic remedies are therapeutically active micro-dose medicines mostly derived from plant and mineral sources.
These all-natural remedies provide a gentle and effective way of enhancing a person’s immune system and improving symptoms.
Homeopathy has been used for over 200 years and works as a catalyst to help our bodies act to their fullest abilities.
Homeopathic remedies are regulated and can be used in the earliest stages of life:
Most homeopathic medicines are regulated by the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) as over-the-counter drugs.
Manufacturers have to adhere to Good Manufacturing Practices and market their products with similar guidelines as all over-the-counter medicines.
Homeopathic manufacturers rely on the Homeopathic Pharmacopeia of the United States to create monographs, or guidelines, for specific active ingredient preparation and strengths.
Homeopathic products often have different instructions on the labels for children ages 2 to 12, which is usually half the adult dosage. Dr. Cates recommends less frequent dosing for children and babies than adults.
Remedies are easy to use and can be helpful for tough issues like ears, teething, colic and sleep:
The top homeopathic remedy for teething is Chamomilla. It is also a great remedy for colic when the child is irritated and seems inconsolable. Colocynthis can also be helpful when babies draw up their legs in pain and like their abdomens massaged.
For ears, Belladonna is a top choice especially when there is a sudden onset with fever and flushed face, but also consider Pulsatilla when the child has had a cold and the pain is worse at night.
For sleep, it depends on the reason. Aconitum works well when there is anxiety and restlessness, and Pulsatilla can help weepy, moody children.
Single homeopathic remedies or combination formulas are found in readily dissolvable tablets placed in the baby’s mouth or as easy-to-use liquids, and are also available in gels for teething and drops for ears.
What fats are essential for heart health and how can we ensure high-quality, adequate intake? Join us as we discuss the critical role good fats play in a heart-healthy diet. Dr. Hector Lopez is a board-certified specialist in physical medicine and rehabilitation, holds a Masters degree in Nutrition and is a member of the Nordic Naturals Advisory Board.
Experts believe hydrogenated fats increase the risk of heart disease, however there are healthy fats that support the heart:
Heart health is dependent on the balanced intake of essential fatty acids or EFAs as they are commonly referred to. These are considered “essential” as they MUST be consumed in the diet because the body cannot produce them on its own.
These fats are involved in a variety of molecular mechanisms that have a direct or indirect effect on heart health including: turning certain genes on/off that regulate fat and carbohydrate metabolism; supporting the body’s anti-inflammatory response, and even changing the actual characteristics of LDL cholesterol.
Need help developing healthier habits? Good health—and healthy weight—are about smart decision-making. Listen in and learn about success tools for creating health through optimal nutrition in this encore presentation of our podcast interview with Dr. Joel Fuhrman, board-certified family physician, author, and co-founder and chief medical officer of Eat Right America.
Let us know what steps you are taking toward healthy changes this year for a chance to win an Eat Right America bundle featuring some of their best-selling books, DVDs and assorted other special gifts: a $97 value! Simply enter a comment below by January 31st and one lucky reader will be selected at random.
The motivating reasons Dr. Fuhrman’s patients make healthy weight a priority:
• Learning about the successes of others losing weight and reversing chronic disease, when all other diet methods have previously failed, triggers the desire to recommit to health.
• Discovering the science, logic and theory behind high-nutrient eating to remove addictive overeating provides the drive to get started.
Join one of our very own Whole Body team members for an insightful interview about the positive impact of Vitamin Angels not only on children’s health, but also in the hearts of our team members, customers and supplier partners. Susan Oelker is the Southwest Regional Supplement Buyer and has worked for Whole Foods Market for 14 years, where her passion for the best supplements and body care products is matched only by her enthusiasm for supporting suppliers who give back to the global community.
Your next vitamin purchase can make a difference for under-nourished children. Find out how and tell us what you think. We’ll donate $1 to Vitamin Angels for each of the first 5,000 comments posted on one of our Vitamin Angels blog posts by November 30, 2010.
Whole Foods Market is taking a stand for a healthy tomorrow for all children, and we want you to help us! This holiday season, we are proud to partner with Share Our Strength on their No Kid Hungry fight to stamp out childhood hunger by 2015. Below we share simple ways to get involved (use your American Express card, buy a gift card online, take a pledge), but first let’s make sure we all know why this is so critically important. Billy Shore, founder and executive director of Share Our Strength, sent this message: Read the rest of this entry »
Welcome to Whole Story, the official blog of Whole Foods Market.
Don’t know us? In a nutshell, we are the world's leading natural and organic grocer and we’re passionate about healthy food and a healthy planet. Learn more about us.
We’re lucky to have a whole bunch of smart, passionate people doing incredible things in areas like organics, supporting local growers, green practices, fair trade, micro-lending and all kinds of food related stuff. We’ll use this blog to share some of the cool things going on around here.
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Doing a cleanse before pregnancy is a great way start this journey.
Research supports at least 3.5 hours per week of aerobic exercise (as well as some strength training) to benefit bone, heart, immune, and joint health.
Join one of our very own Whole Body team members for an insightful interview about the positive impact of Vitamin Angels not only on children’s health, but also in the hearts of our team members, customers and supplier partners. Susan Oelker is the Southwest Regional Supplement Buyer and has worked for Whole Foods Market for 14 years, where her passion for the best supplements and body care products is matched only by her enthusiasm for supporting suppliers who give back to the global community.
