Breathe Mediterranean Diet Edition

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Breathe magazine has out a Mediterranean Diet edition. Though it costs $14.99 I think the issue is worth getting.

For the article like Glimmers of Hope that instructs readers to cue ourselves for “glimmers” instead of focusing on triggers. Glimmers are the experiences that give us joy peace and positive feelings.

Plus the Buon Appetito! feature that shows readers how to set the table for a communal meal like Italians do. Insieme is our word for together.

Really all the articles in this Breathe issue are worth reading.

Pots of Love talks about how cooking can be a valid form of therapy. Talking about using a food journal to jot down ideas about the recipes you’re making and what you think of them and how to improvise new recipes with the ingredients.

One suggestion that I’ve taken to heart for years so far is to set the table for cheer. At the start of each season to change the tablecloth and use a different color mug to drink water from.

I’ll end here with this quote:

A tavola non s’invecchia – At the table, one does not grow old.

Homemade-ish Recipes

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Homemade-ish Book Cover

The cookbook above can be checked out of the library. I recommend buying it. From the guide I created 3 recipes two of which were for dips.

The photos below are the homemade-ish food from top to end in this order:

Spice Rack Whipped Cheeses with Hot Honey:

The food below is Creamed Mozzarella with Honey-Drenched Sun-Dried Tomatoes:

Lastly the Cloud Caprese Cups:

The Environ-Mental

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Our environment affects our mental health. Even living in an apartment that is not ideal we can improve our emotional state with a simple habit like buying fresh flowers.

I’ve taken to buying flowers on the regular to keep in a vase on the dining table. Fresh blooms give off a positive vibration. The cost to replenish a wilted bunch every week is worth it if you ask me. Often a food market will sell bunches cheaper than a florist would.

Even on a limited income I make the case for cutting down in another area to spend on flowers.

The blooms don’t have to match or go with the table decor either. Pick the flowers whose colors cheer you up that you’re drawn to. And I think it’s okay that a bouquet lasts only 4 days.

You can write down in a notebook the names of each flower and how long they stayed fresh. Should you not be able to remember this.

In the coming blog entries I will talk about the new recipes I’ve created and post photos of the food.

Georgia Ede MD Disclaimer

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Dr. Ede has reported that patients who change their diet as she instructs with the Quiet Keto have better mental health.

However buried in her guide Dr. Ede states that most of her patients who stopped their Keto diet had their psychiatric symptoms come back. Nor can everyone reduce or eliminate their psych medication on the Keto diet Dr. Ede proposes either.

The number-one thing is to control blood sugar and insulin levels which this diet should do according to Dr. Ede. This MD believes that keeping on a whole foods ketogenic diet for life or long-term should be safe. Following her Quiet Keto diet could counteract medication side effects like weight gain and high blood sugar.

The caveat the catch is that you must remain on the Quiet Keto diet and not stop it. With the Mediterranean Diet there’s no effect if you stop using this food plan.

These two diets should be examined with professional guidance for a person’s individual needs.

I reported here on these two diets to give information that might help followers. It appears everywhere I go I act as a librarian outside of my job–giving people information they can use to have a better life.

Coming up one habit I’ve adopted. Then a dive into new recipes I’ve created using a cookbook and the Eating Well special edition New Mediterranean Diet magazine.

Georgia Ede MD Nutrition Advice

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Georgia Ede MD Nutrition Advice

It’s not as simple as choosing from the food items Dr. Ramsey lists and calling it a day. With Dr.
Ede’s recommendations you need to calculate your personal macronutrient amounts. Then adhere
to eating only certain foods in certain ways.

On the Keto Diet you are allowed to have a specific amount of carbohydrates like starting at 20
grams a day. Dr. Ede recommends ketone monitoring as part of this diet.

Dr. Ede has reported that patients who change their diet this way have better mental health. It’s best to buy her book or check it out of the library. There are specific rules as to what to eat
how much and how to eat (cooked versus raw).

You start out with a Quiet Paleo diet and transfer to the Keto diet.

Customize carbohydrates:
Carbohydrates on Quiet Keto come from fruits and vegetables.

Quiet Keto Food List:
Meat, seafood, poultry, and eggs.
Non-starchy Vegetables:
Lettuces like iceberg, romaine, Bibb, Boston, green leaf, red leaf, oak leaf, Batavia, and
butterhead.

Fruits:
Avocado, olives, squashes: zucchini, yellow squash, summer squash, pumpkin, and spaghetti
squash, strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, lemons, and limes
Crucifers cooked only and limited to one serving per day as in:
Arugula, bok choy, broccoli,, broccolini, broccoli rabe, Brussels sprouts, all kinds of cabbage,
cauliflower, collard greens, kale mustard greens, radish, Swiss chard, turnip, watercress.

This ends my review of the Dueling Doctors and Their Diets.


Drew Ramsey MD Nutrition Advice

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Like I wrote before when I quoted the NYC clothing store SYMS TV commercial: “An educated consumer is our best customer.”

In keeping with this I would like to educate followers about the nutrition advice of the Dueling Doctors and their Diets. Georgia Ede MD will follow. First up Drew Ramsey MD.

Dr. Ramsey nixes loading up on super sizes of the latest super food touted. Instead eat a balanced variety of food. To wit: “Eat what you enjoy.”

Per Dr. Ramsey:

“We are trained, from an early age, to eat to be skinny instead of healthy.”

He quotes Felice Jacka, a researcher at Australia’s Food & Mood Centre: “We need to get away from this idea that nutrition is about body size.”

In his book Dr. Ramsey refers to clinical trials that verify the Mediterranean Diet improves mental health.

I say forget trying to memorize how much RDA of vitamins and nutrients we need and what food provides these. Simply eat balanced food items from the list below every day and that should cover getting enough nutritional value. That is my $100 dollar holler.

Highlights of Dr. Ramsey’s review of required foods:

Brussels sprouts (I eat them often!), oranges, leafy greens, lentils.

Pumpkin seeds, cashews (I love ’em and eat them nearly every day!), oysters, spinach.

Seafood including wild salmon, anchovies, oysters.

beans and almonds.

Fresh fruits and vegetables like broccoli, sweet potatoes.

Oatmeal, Brazil nuts, mushrooms (I have ’em every week nearly every day!).

Grass-fed beef if you’re a carnivore.

Corn, bell peppers, tomatoes, cantaloupe, carrots, broccoli.

Eggs (my favorite breakfast!), pistachios.

Clams (love ’em!), mussels (my favorite feel-good food!).

Oranges, cherries, chilies, red peppers, mustard greens.

Turkey.

Avocadoes, berries

Kombucha, kefir, yogurt, miso.

Dark chocolate.

Ironing Out Our Health

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In the YouTube video Dr. Ede talked about iron the missing helpful food in a lot of diets.

Interested in this I Googled foods with iron. The following food contains a good amount of iron:

Peas: a cup cooked with salt: 2.5 mg.

Pumpkin seeds: one cup nearly 3.7 mg.

Cashews: 2 ounces: almost 3.8 mg.

Sweet potato (a cup of boiled sweet potato without skin): 2.4 mg.

Spinach: 1/2 cup cooked: 3 mg.

Lentils: 1/2 cup cooked: 3.3 mg.

Swiss chard: one cup: 4 mg.

One large baked potato: just over 3 mg.

Tofu: 6 ounces: almost 3 mg.

On Not Liking Chocolate

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Dr. Ede the author of Change Your Diet Change Your Mind parts ways with other experts giving nutritional advice.

The Integrative Health Coach I employ told me that beans, grains, and fruits break down into sugar. Sugar can exacerbate depression and anxiety.

Dr. Lipman cut out the habit of consuming quantities of beans. Eating too much beans can cause a diabetes concern apparently.

The advice to have dark chocolate I haven’t taken to heart either. As I really don’t like eating chocolate. My Health Coach told me that in her practice they’ve turned away from recommending that people eat dark chocolate.

I have eaten dark chocolate too long ago to remember when the last time was that I ate it. In fact I stopped buying dark chocolate years ago.

The strange thing is that I don’t often do what experts who hang out a shingle tell you to do. I trust my Health Coach because of my intuition that she knows what she’s talking about.

Also: I trust what friends tell me that makes sense. Years ago a friend told me he became a vegan. It was likely for ethical reasons. His mood worsened. When he returned to eating red meat his depression lifted.

Armchair advice to be certain. Yet intriguing insight that could very well be true.

In this blog I would like then to touch on how exactly to get happy and get more energy. What specific action can we take to lift ourselves up?

I’ve begun doing these things and will report back on the effects.

Who and What to Believe

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I’ve come to take what John C. Norcross wrote in his book Changeology with a grain of salt. He said that his wife wrote down every day how many calories she consumed.

Why she did this is what I would like to find out. Separating fact from fiction isn’t easy. As in believing that the calories in versus calories burned approach is how to lose weight.

It’s the kinds of food we eat not the amount that counts. It was a Big Food Marketing Myth that it’s OK to buy those “100-Calorie Packs” as a snack.

I think a better option is to fuel yourself for afternoon energy with a 170-calorie serving of cashews. Then go outside your office building to take a 15-minute walk on your break. Anyone who works at a job should take a morning and afternoon break by the way.

One M.D. who published a book titled Hype claimed that standard nutrition advice was wrong. She said it’s not healthy to eat too much broccoli (this could be true yet who would eat too much broccoli to begin with).

In fact what I a simple blogger thinks is that if you’re having broccoli for dinner every day 5 days a week you should question that. I think you should “eat a rainbow” like the British M.D. wrote in his book How to Make Disease Disappear years ago.

The author of Hype claimed everyone (everyone not just most people) gets enough daily water in the food they eat. What if you’re on a low income and buy Lean Cuisine frozen dinners? Chomp on Frosted Flakes for breakfast. Have a Big Mac for lunch with French fries.

Ignoring the socioeconomic reality of how and what people eat reinforces the industry norm of using well-off persons as the standard when talking about eating habits.

This M.D.’s advice was shot for me when she wrote that she drinks Naked Juice nonstop every day. She was not a health coach. She was a children’s ENT doctor in a hospital. Right.

There’s a path we can follow along the lines of nutrition:

  1. Credible scientific advice.
  2. Well-meaning advice that is repeated in the health field.
  3. Industry-sponsored research that gets the result the food marketer uses to sell a product.
  4. Questionable claims about how taking a certain supplement leads to better health.
  5. Giving a food “product” a name that suggests it’s healthful like Skinny Pop or Kind bars.
  6. Quackery.

In all my adult life I haven’t consumed the total RDAs of vitamins and nutrients that were recommended. I think the reason I don’t have osteoporosis–even though I don’t drink milk and likely don’t get 1,500 milligrams of calcium per day–is because I’ve been lifting weights that is strength training for 14 years.

It comes down to common sense. Like I said in a months-ago blog entry we need to Act as Our Own Healers along with working with our treatment providers.

How to heal using adjunct approaches not just food and pills is coming up in here.

Healing the Modern Brain

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The book above was published in March of this year 2025.

The Nine Tenets are Self-Awareness, Nutrition, Movement, Sleep, Connection, Engagement, Grounding, Unburdening, and Purpose.

This has to be the best book I’ve read on the topic.

In his books Dr. Ramsey gives advice that runs counter to what Dr. Ede says. He’s a fan of kale and wrote the book Fifty Shades of Kale. She is not. He recommends and eats dark chocolate regularly. She does not.

Healing the Modern Brain is a lifestyle guide. Diet alone or pills alone likely cannot be the only factor helping a person have a better life. In terms of an organic approach where the parts of the whole come together to create a sustainable routine.

I checked out of the library years ago the Dr. Ramsey book Eat to Beat Depression and Anxiety. I recommend that book too.

The chapter on engagement in Healing the Modern Brain deserves a careful read.

“All work and no play” seems to be the tenet of American grind culture at our jobs where we spend most of our time each week. We should be having fun outside of our jobs routinely. And also find ways to have fun on our jobs if that is possible.

Engaging in something that gives you joy to wake up in the morning to do is paramount to healing.

Between Dr. Ramsey and Dr. Ede I err on the side of Dr. Ramsey. I talk about Dr. Ede’s approach because a person should have choices when all else fails. And too they might want to consider her guidelines first.

Either way it’s 2025. As of today giving up isn’t an option when it comes to recovery and having a happy healthy life. Giving up was not ever an option.