Enjoy this article from my friend and colleague, Dianne Gregg:

The most common allergies people suffer are Milk, Eggs, Peanuts, Soy, Tree Nuts, Fish,

Shellfish, and Wheat. Proteins in these eight major foods are estimated to cause 90 percent of the allergic reactions in the United States. Of all of these, Soy is one of the most under diagnosed.

Do you have an allergy to soy? Below is a list of seven symptoms of soy intolerance provided by Food Allergy Network:

1.  Vomiting, nausea, bloating, cramps, diarrhea,.

2.   Difficulty breathing, speaking or a drop in blood pressure. (Dianne blood pressure does not seem to go with the other two here)

3.  Heart palpitations, loss of consciousness.

4.   Anxiety, faintness, distress.

5.   Hives or a rash, red and itchy skin, flushed face,.

6.  Swelling of the eyes, face, lips, throat, and tongue.

7.  Weakness, paleness, or sense of doom. (sense of doom does not seem to go here and I think makes you look like a crackpot J

Unfortunately for me, I had most of the symptoms of soy allergy. Mine was so serious that I eventually went into anaphylactic shock. Because doctors thought my symptoms were related to menopause, it took eight years to develop a full-blown attack and to diagnose the problem. 

For a detailed list of foods containing hidden soy go to: http://hiddensoy.com/yahoogroups.com

Dianne Gregg, author of “The Hidden Dangers of Soy” decided to write this book after developing a severe allergy to soy and nearly dying. She has done extensive research on this subject and wants to share this crucial information with others.

To claim your free chapter of The Hidden Dangers of Soy (including) soy free recipes. http://www.hiddensoy.com/soy-health-risks.php

Listen to Dianne on the radio Tuesdays, 4pm – 5pm EST interviewing experts in the health and wellness industry.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Health-Watch-Radio

Here’s what I’ve been craving lately: Raw cacao (ka-kow, rhymes with “cow”. Yes, raw cacao brownies, truffles and fudge! Cacao is unadulterated, unprocessed “original” chocolate. The fruit of the cacao tree is bean-like, a pod that’s ground into nibs and powder au naturel, no heat or alkaline processing. Look for great recipes for raw cacao on line or pick up David Wolf’s book, “Naked Chocolate.” Raw cacao enthusiasts believe in “Life By Chocolate,” raw cacao that is, as opposed to the American version of “Death By Chocolate.” Raw cacao and high quality conventional dark chocolate are excellent sources for magnesium and anti-oxidants. Isn’t that great news?Many of us don’t often prepare our own desserts, so here’s what I’ve been doing lately:  ordering raw truffles and brownies from www.ulimana.com and I’ve been enjoying raw cacao fudge at Alchemy Juice Bar & Café in Hartford, CT.  

Explore the world of raw cacao. Try preparing a smoothie using raw cacao, coconut milk and agave nectar for sweetener. Prepare this wonderful “food of the gods” for a celebration of health and a great pick-me-up. Eat more chocolate….in the form of raw cacao. You’ll feel perkier, clear-minded, and just plain better. Here are a couple of recipes to try.

 Raw Chocolate Mousse 

3-4 dates, pitted

1/3 cup agave nectar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

2 avocados, mashed

1/3 cup raw cacao powder

(Optional:  add 1-2 tbsp raw cacao nibs for texture)

1/4 – 1/3 cup water

 Place dates, agave and vanilla in food processor and process until smooth. Add the avocado and cacao powder and process until creamy. Add water and process briefly.

Raw Chocolate Candy 

12 tbsp raw cacao powder

6 tbsp agave nectar

6 tbsp coconut oil

2 tbsp coconut milk (optional)

3 tbsp shredded coconut

2 tbsp shredded coconut to sprinkle on top of candies (optional)

My husband and I enjoyed a movie date last weekend, taking in “Food, Inc.” Considering I had been reading David Kessler’s “The End of Overeating, Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite,” this was an interesting pairing. 

Be wary of what you put in your mouth. It really is scary out there because “food” has changed so much in the last 30 years. I hesitate to label it “food” because what’s presented as food is really manufactured product considered edible. It’s manufactured like any other factory product and designed to influence you to want more. 

The so-called edible food products featured in the Standard American Diet (SAD) all rely on two to three factors which make them “craveable:” sugar, salt, and poor quality fats. Combinations of processed sugar, salt and fat dominate the American food culture of the last few decades, making it nearly impossible to maintain health. If you eat the Standard American Diet, then you will likely be overweight. If you revert to it after a period of healthy eating, then you’ll easily gain weight again. Your body stores all the excess sugar, fat and salt and still you’re hungry! Of course you’re hungry when your body is starving for nutrition. 

Everyday, I’m grateful I found my way out of that food culture. Interestingly, I did it by listening to my own body. When I tuned out my mind’s desires and focused on my body’s needs, it changed the foundation of my life. 

It is possible to transform yourself into a naturally thin person. I am living proof.  There’s a lot of education involved, I assure you, and it’s not available from stylish diet books or trendy diet franchise systems. 

Removing yourself from the industrialized food system is a tough challenge. Its delivered to you from every angle and you have to educate yourself if you want to escape alive! If you understand that life doesn’t thrive when you eat synthetic, dead food-like product, you will be way ahead of most people who live in the U.S. When you put that understanding into practice, your quality of life will improve. 

July is a time to celebrate liberation. This month, I urge you to liberate yourself from processed foods and even most restaurant food! Enjoying great health is real freedom. Liberating yourself from things that damage you includes replacing unreal “edible product” with real, vibrant food. 

I believe little has changed in the human body since that first Independence Day in 1776. Foods the body needed then to be healthy are still needed today. Bodies have not evolved to find nourishment or good health from chemicals or genetically modified produce, GMO grains, or from altered, inappropriately fed animals.

Claim your independence from “industrial foods” even if it means giving up readily available convenience foods. Taking care of yourself includes taking good care of your food choices. Take time to prepare your own food at home and carry it with you. You’ll be so much better off.

If you want to study up on what’s going on with readily available “food,” pick up a copy of David Kessler’s “The End of Overeating, Taking Control of The Insatiable American Appetite.” I’ve been devouring every disgusting bite of this book!  What the food industry does to food (and people) makes me mad, sad and very afraid. In the last 30 years, food has become another factory product, nearly as plastic as the toys you find at a department store. The more the giant processed food industry gets a share of your stomach, the smaller your wallet is and the fatter your body!

Read Dr. Kessler’s research on “conditioned hyper-eating” and see how he changed his own life as a result of what he learned about popular foods. This is a more scientific documentation of my own instinctual understanding of food and eating. 

Kessler is a former FDA commissioner who led the fight against Big Tobacco. Now he tackles “Big Food.” Make no mistake, your appetite is being exploited by the food industry. And be clear that you can choose your way out of this terrible and unhealthy epidemic.

July is a great time for revolution. There’s more fresh food available than any other time of year. Acquaint yourself with local farm stands. Drink fresh cold water with squirts of lemon or lime. Embrace real food and enjoy!

Here’s what I’ve been craving lately: salads, inventive green salads.

I’ve been creating all sorts of mixed greens with temple orange slices, prunes and olives. Earlier this week, I used peaches and nectarines on my salad. I made up a dressing using extra-virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar and Greek spice mixture ordered from Symeon’s (www.symeons.com) in Utica, NY, where I lived for nearly a decade.

For one lunch last week, I had a bed of fresh spinach topped with grilled shrimp and mushrooms, drizzled olive oil, pepper and sea salt. I’ll definitely be doing that again soon.

I’ve been sensing my body’s desire for fish lately, especially haddock and Orange Ruffy. While I love flavorful food, I usually prepare things in a simple manner.  Baked haddock or Orange Ruffy makes me very happy. I saute yellow and red organic peppers, purple onion, a bit of garlic along with summer squash or zucchini to accompany the white fish selection.

Summer is the perfect time for rejuvenation. It’s a great time to refuel with great food and quality time off. Think of yourself and the life you lead like a muscle. Whenever you build a muscle up by using and exercising it, it needs time to recover. Otherwise, the muscle can easily tear and get weaker. Notice how shoulder surgery is popular lately? I wonder what’s going on. I wonder if that could be a metaphor for the way people are living!

“Listen to your body” is my message. I write that a lot. If you’re feeling stressed out and overwhelmed, this is the perfect time to take some time off. Taking time away from normal routine gives you the opportunity to re-think what you do and even how you do it. It’s the opportunity to reframe what you’re doing.

I recently made changes that will re-dire ct my time. I found myself overwhelmed with commitments and still trying to figure out how to make it all work while more and more stuff kept coming at me. I finally had to say STOP!  It was up to me to reframe the picture, shift my own thinking and redirect my energy.

Change is hard, I know. It’s hard to change relationships, jobs, schedules and commitments. And it’s hard to change habits. I ground myself in the biggest change I ever made. Looking back at how I’ve changed my eating style over the years, I realize I can change if I just stop working against Nature and myself.

It’s natural to rest and rejuvenate. I urge you to take time this month to actually schedule your own rejuvenation time. Plan what you’d like to do, schedule it and then do it! Declare your own time to take care of yourself. Little things count so don’t worry that you have to plan a big vacation to accomplish the rejuvenation you need.

Here are a few of the things I’ve planned and scheduled that don’t involve J-O-B type work or massive vacation plans:

• Pick strawberries at a local farm. It’s a perfect mental break plus I get to snack on ripe berries along the way.
• Repeat above when blueberry season starts.
• Get my butt on my bike after dinner on a weekday.
• Spend several days in Gloucester, MA exploring the coast with my husband.
• Eat more local organic summer foods as they arrive at our area farm stands.
• Meet a group of friends at a new State Park to explore the trails.
• Enjoy more time with my 93 year-old father.

Make your own list of rejuvenating activities or even non-activities (like napping in the backyard) and then implement it. See how your mood and attitude improve as you go along.

June is beginning to deliver warmth to Connecticut and my body is craving more and more sun. I’ve spent some time catching rays in the backyard on weekends kind enough to hold rain off until evening. I’m starting to feel my “summer body” re-emerge as I walk more and spend lots of time outdoors.

I planted the annuals in all the big pots and gave my indoor plants some spiffy haircuts and good feedings while treating myself to the same. I find myself relaxing more in the warm weather and realize I don’t do enough of that. This rela xation lesson is probably one we all need to hear more often. I know it’s tough to even think about it when we focus on so much “production.” I always have lists of things to do, things I didn’t get done last week and now have to cram into this week, and always another project comes up to get in the way of what’s already on the list!

This whole concept of having “too much to do” has been sneaking into my consciousness lately. I’ve been making an effort to balance the work off with some fun activities and it’s well worth it. Last weekend, I went bike riding for a few hours and took in a couple of yard sales along the way.& nbsp;I had a ball spending the ten dollars I had with me!

Yesterday, I took in the Wethersfield Historical Society’s 2009 House Tour. The Silas Robbins House, built in 1873, brought tears to my eyes because I remember the 1996 fire that nearly consumed it. It took six years to restore this amazing space to its grandeur as the Silas W. Robbins Bed & Breakfast. Only across town, it seems like another world. Michael and I plan to spend a weekend there soon so we can get away without going far. < /span>

I had so much fun touring the homes and gardens yesterday, I’m inspired to put my own home on the next tour. That gives me four years to prepare and I may need all of it!

If your head is hungry, feed it. If your heart is hungry, feed it. If your soul is hungry, feed it. When your body is physically hungry, feed it. And stop when your body is physically satisfied. It’s tricky but well worth practicing.

When your body rebels against all the previous restrictions, I believe it’s trying to save you from what it feels to be famine. Nature and our bodies don’t understand “diet.” The body understands the experience to be a famine. And it will try to save you by sending up messages to EAT! Feed me, save me, love me, take care of me. And then we do eat, & we just can’t stop because we’re so, so hungry after all the deprivation.

Deprivation is the problem. The truth is, if you stop depriving yourself, you will stop eating at some point. I know it doesn’t feel that way at first, but you will stop eating if you stop depriving yourself.

That was a big “aha” moment: I can stop eating because I can eat whenever I’m hungry. Food will always be there. No one is ever going to take it away from me again. Of course, I was the only one who ever took food away from me. I never went on another diet again. It has been 19 years!

I want to be famous for STOPPING dieting!

A friend of mine expressed utter and complete fear of allowing herself to eat without self-imposed food restrictions. She’s afraid she would eat the entire State of New York if left to her own devices.  I remember that feeling. The funny thing is that it’s not true.  It’s just an irrational fear.  It didn’t happen.  Sure, I tried for a little while but it didn’t work that way.  You can’t eat as much as you think you can. The fear of eating too much is a weird counter-balance to the No Fear of restricting food.  We really do a number on ourselves when we restrict and diet.  It saddles us with crazy, irrational fears of eating.  So unnatural.

My “soy expert” friend, Dianne Gregg, was discussing the possible (and probable) effects if eating soy products: jitters, anxiety, low-thyroid.  I couldn’t believe it.  Those are the same effects as ingesting too much caffeine!  So the deck is stacked on the wrong side if you indulge in caffeine and soy.  Please skip the Red Bull, the coffee, soy milk and soy burgers. Your health will be much better.