Pharmer Wellness

As chefs, inspiration comes directly from the landscape of the season. Autumn inspires with vivid colors, leaves and pine needles carpeting yards and rooftops, and earthy aromas punctuating the crisp morning air. We are drawn to the farmer’s market to revel in the bounty of fresh vegetables local growers pull from the healthy, organic soils just a short drive from our kitchen door.

When it comes to juicing, cold-pressed is best.  At Organic Pharmer, all of our juices are cold-pressed.  Why? Most juicers expose vegetables to a high-velocity roto-chamber of razor-sharp cutting blades. While cold-pressing is a gentle, two-step process:  slow-grind the veggies to a pulp, and then apply pressure to extract the most vital, nutritious and supremely delicious raw juice possible.

After a cool and rainy August, the run-up to the first day of fall has been welcomingly warm and sunny. While eighty degrees and clear skies may still be beach weather, fall is definitely upon us. The days are getting shorter, the kids are back in school, and pumpkin spice is everywhere.

By Dr. Susan Blum

One thing I’ve noticed when talking to patients is that, despite the prevalence of the word “organic,” many people don’t actually know what it means or are confused.  Organic produce is grown without conventional pesticides/herbicides, harsh chemicals or bioengineering while organic meat, poultry, eggs and dairy come from animals that have been allowed to graze on pastures, are fed 100% organic feed and are not given growth hormones or antibiotics. As a result, going organic helps you avoid toxins, hormones and antibiotics which can negatively impact and disrupt the body in several ways.

By Dr. Susan Blum

Celiac disease is a very specific autoimmune illness that is defined by damage to the villi of the small intestines.  The trigger for this damaging immune reaction is gluten, a protein found in wheat, barley, spelt, rye and kamut.  The conventional dogma is that if you don’t have this intestinal damage you don’t have a gluten problem.  Wrong!  It turns out that gluten can trigger other immune reactions and symptoms without any damage to the small intestine, thus you can test negative for celiac, but still be gluten intolerant.  And there is good evidence that gluten is associated with other autoimmune diseases as well, like Hashimoto’s thyroiditis and Graves disease.