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Sure, Valentine’s Day can be sugary, pre-packaged, overly hyped. Still, it feels pretty darn good when your sweetie remembers to buy you flowers. So we say embrace the holiday! Not only is it a good reminder to take stock of your love life, but it’s also a great excuse to get busy in the bedroom (which, as luck would have it, is fantastic for your health). To honor cupid (and our readers’ love lives), we’ve put together a little list of our favorite natural and eco-friendly Valentine’s Day gift ideas. Enjoy! Continue reading 5 Picks for a Natural Valentine’s Day
 My dog sits on command and responds instantly to “No!” but the only way to cease my pooch from barking his furry head off at people walking past our yard is with all-powerful treats. The shake of a jar filled with puppy crack brings Gomez running into the house, falling over himself to sit and stay for a snack. Instead of offering him the equivalent of doggie junk food a few times a day, I fill the Pavlovian cookie jar with these treats that boost his health with all-natural, functional ingredients: Continue reading Treat Your Dog to Good Health
 Two things happened this month that caused me to rethink my diet, supplement regimen, and disease-prevention strategy. First, I read Michael Pollan’s latest book, Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual (Penguin, December 2009), which wasn’t so much surprising as confirming of his stance taken in his other nutritional tomes, In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto (Penguin, 2009) and The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals (Penguin, 2007). In short, Pollan believes the standard American diet is woefully deficient in vegetables–not lean proteins, not low-fat dairy products, not healthy whole grains–and thereby void of important vitamins, minerals, and other micronutrients. Our dietary shortage of vegetables and other plant-based foods is the reason why rates of “Western” diseases–cancer, Type 2 diabetes, obesity, and cardiovascular disease–are significantly higher today than they were when people ate more plants, say 100, or even 50, years ago. Continue reading In Overwhelming Support of a Plant-Based Diet
 Loveologist Wendy Strgar, Natural Solutions' sexpert and founder of Good Clean Love How long has it been since your last orgasm? If it’s been a while, you’re not alone: Orgasm eludes millions of women. Many studies, including one conducted by Pfizer that looked at 27,000 participants in 30 countries, have shown that orgasmic dysfunction is the norm, rather than the exception. Orgasmic dysfunction is often associated with sexual dysfunction, which includes not only the inability to orgasm, but also the presence of pain with sex, and lack of libido and desire. According to the Pfizer study, one-third of all women have never experienced an orgasm, while one-third rarely experience orgasm. And elusive orgasms afflict men too: Millions of men suffer from sexual health issues, such as erectile dysfunction and ejaculation disorders, which hinder the ability to experience orgasm.
Continue reading From the Sexpert: The Elusive Orgasm
 There’s a debate raging in my home. Okay, that’s an absurdly exaggerated way of saying my boyfriend and I have hashed out a few pros and cons of a particular topic while I pore over a crossword puzzle and he thumbs through the Home Depot ad. Our breakfast-table bandy? Daily newspaper delivery: Time-old tradition/harmless indulgence or planet-punishing, outdated, unnecessary routine? Continue reading Newspaper Delivery: Keep or Cancel?
 February is American Heart Health Month, an important yearly reminder to take care of your ticker. And for good reason: Cardiovascular disease (including stroke) is the country’s No. 1 killer, according to the American Heart Association. Consider this shocking statistic: Every hour, one American will die from a coronary event. To kick- start your heart-health regimen, read Natural Solutions‘ Jan/Feb cover story, Heart Matters (on newsstands now), where we outline 19 simple ways to lower your risk for heart disease—including foods to eat and ways to minimize stress in your life. For more great reads, visit the Heart Health Condition Center on our website for an archive of Natural Solutions‘ best heart-health articles organized by condition (stroke. high blood pressure, cholesterol, etc.). And there are more ways to act: Continue reading Take charge of your heart health
 Nashville author Jenni Schaefer writes about eating disorders from experience; she suffered from an eating disorder (which she calls “Ed” for short) for years before penning her first self-help book in 2003. Last week, I saw her speak on the University of Colorado campus about her newest “Ed” book, Goodbye Ed, Hello Me: Recover From Your Eating Disorder and Fall in Love With Life (McGraw-Hill, 2009). Schaefer’s theory for overcoming eating disorders is simple: If you treat your eating disorder like a relationship, not a condition, it will enable you to break up with Ed for good. Continue reading Recommended Book: Goodbye Ed, Hello Me
 If you’re looking for a way to help Haiti, consider stocking up on omega-3s. In February, Nordic Naturals will launch “Open Your Heart to Haiti,” a month-long campaign during which the company will contribute 1 percent of sales from its best-selling Ultimate Omega products to Architecture for Humanity–a nonprofit that promotes design solutions in communities facing humanitarian crises.
 Since Nintendo first debuted its video-game console designed for physical fitness in 2006, the Wii Fit has caused quite a stir as a possible tool for easy at-home exercise and weight loss. But a new study submitted by the University of Mississippi this past Christmas, when thousands of people were gifting or receiving Wiis, has found that the video game does not help families increase physical fitness or muscle strength and has little significant effect on body composition and weight loss. Am I surprised? No. But will scores of exercise-phobic, dieting-zealous friends be overwhelmingly upset? Oh, very. Continue reading Relying on Wii Fit for Weight Loss
 Just because a shampoo bottle or lotion container reads “organic,” doesn’t mean its ingredients all came from the synthetic-fertilizer-free farm. That’s what’s so scary about personal care in the US—we still lack definitive, extensive-enough regulations for what manufacturers can and cannot stir into the very products that we rub into our skin, paint onto our lips, and work between our kids’ toes. Even scarier, the Organic Consumers Association (OCA) recently examined a bunch personal care companies claiming to be “organic” or have “organic” lines—and uncovered some pretty disturbing results. Continue reading Organic Imposters in Personal Care
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