I am, among other things, a rabid lover of berries and my walking companions can find it a little annoying when I’m suddenly distracted by a stand of one species or another.  Of course, I am not above picking all manner of fruit when they present themselves along a lane or pathway. This particularly refers to the fig trees in the neighbourhood and the yellow plum tree on the street nearby.  However, it’s really the berries that excite me above all.  I think about how hunter’s and fisherman have to wait and wait.  Perhaps it was different in the days when fish and some species of birds and animals were abundant.  The natives of the prairies probably had jokes about the guy who couldn’t hit a buffalo in a herd. (Perhaps that’s why in this incarnation I stick to berries!) In the meantime, we berry pickers revel in abundance…at least for...

In the U.S., reports emerge periodically indicating that herbal products are not to be trusted. When products have been tested from American chain drug stores, such as CVS, they are sometimes found to contain far less, if any of the labelled ingredients. These reports tend to cast a rather cynical shadow across the industry as a whole, but this is altogether mistaken. There are many companies in the natural products sector competing for market share and industry respect.  One way this is done is by incorporating advanced technologies and methods to ensure the quality and character of their end product. Ingredients that are particularly hot in the marketplace, such as curcumin (derived from turmeric), have companies virtually tumbling over each other to create ever more absorbable forms or cutting-edge formulations. In the last few years, I’ve had the opportunity to visit two herbal/natural product research laboratories and several natural product manufacturing...

Wheat and grains generally the focus of a great deal of controversy in recent years.  Publications like Wheat Belly and Grain Brain have created the impression that the ingestion of grains, particularly wheat, is the cause of major health worries such as obesity, diabetes, autoimmune illness, etc.   Despite these anti-grain opinions, the research evidence is strong that whole grains of all types are healthful and central to a nourishing natural food diet, as they have been for thousands of years.  Whole grains such as brown rice of different varieties, millet, buckwheat (a particular favourite), quinoa - all are a regular part of my plant-based diet. Today I would like to briefly discuss the issue of gluten that in a few short years has created an earthquake in the food and restaurant industry.  Gluten is a mixture of two proteins and found in grass grains, particularly wheat.  Gluten is the major factor increasingly blamed...