Welcome!
Happy Spring Everyone! Completely unrelated to finally enjoying some warmer temps, I wanted to share a product I recently found for anyone else out there who drinks plant-based alternative milk products. I started making my own almond milk back in 2014 after my kidney cancer diagnosis. I found that most commercial products had too many additives, plus it was just easy to make. Well I recently found out about a company finally making nut milks with just 2 ingredients…. water and nuts! Elmhurst apparently closed their traditional dairy company in 2016 and started a new company focused on the growning nut milk trend. It's still significantly cheaper to DIY (recipe below), but in the event you’re in the need for a commercial version without all the additives, then log on to elmhurst1925.com/pages/store-locator to see if you can locate one of their products in a store near you. Their “Milked” collection all contains just nuts and water, but they also make a “Barista” product line, that lists “Rice, Contains 2% or Less of: Cane Sugar, Dipotassium Phosphate, Salt” under the ingredients. I tried the “Milked Almonds” which was good, but I noticed had a thinner consistency versus my own homemade almond milk, but it’s good to know I now have a backup plan!
What I continue to love - My homemade almond milk! Soak 1 cup of raw almonds overnight in enough water just to cover them. I have actually skipped this step (when I forgot to soak the nuts a few times), but I find soaking the nuts gives the milk a better taste. The next morning I drain out the water, rinse the nuts with a little water, and then add the nuts to my blender with 4 cups of water. Final step is to pour the blended milk through a cheese cloth, or nut milk bag you can find on Amazon and you’ll be able to squeeze out a quart, which will keep for about 4 days in the fridge.
Cheryl Leving
Founder, Research for Wellness
My homemade 2-ingredient nut milk.
Elmhurst makes a 2-ingredient product as well.
health resources with cancer survivors looking for support to create a healthy lifestyle plan moving forward after treatment.
If you have not been impacted by a cancer diagnosis, I hope this library of health-promoting resources
– including links to research studies, articles, apps, and other digital media content –
will inspire you on your own path to reduce cancer risk and create wellness!
Upcoming Free Online Events
National Women's Health Week
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Office on Women’s Health
May 12-18
Empowering Women, Cultivating Health:
Celebrating Voices, Wellness, and Resilience
"Throughout the week, www.womenshealth.gov/nwhw to explore our daily themes and access helpful resources, including a ready-to-use toolkit complete with social media shareables, digital stickers, and fact sheets."
Sunday: Empowering Women in Their Health Journey
Monday: Safe Sexual Health
Tuesday: Shining a Light on Maternal Mental Health
Wednesday: Talk About It - Reducing Women’s Health Stigma
Thursday: Understanding Care Is There
Friday: Reproductive Health from Puberty to Menopause and Beyond
Saturday: Women and Heart Health
Anticancer Lifestyle Program
Creating a Body Cancer Doesn’t Like
Wednesday, May 22nd
4 PM PT / 7 PM ET ET
Mindfulness Instructor, Margaret Fletcher will offer insights into the benefits of mindfulness for those recovering from cancer and how it can aid in stress reduction and prevention of recurrence.
Wellness Research in the News
May 13 - Prostate Cancer Study: More Health Benefits from Plant-Based Diet - University of California San Francisco
"A study of more than 2,000 men with localized prostate cancer found that eating a primarily plant-based diet was associated with a 47% lower risk that their cancer would progress compared with those who consumed the most animal products."
May 8, 2024 - Frequent salting of food increases the risk of stomach cancer - Medical University of Vienna
Through analyzing data from more than 470,000 adults from a large-scale British cohort study, researchers found “… people who said they always or frequently added salt to their food were 39 per cent more likely to develop stomach cancer over an observation period of around 11 years than those who never or rarely added an extra pinch of salt to their food.”
May 3, 2024 - Birdwatching can help students improve mental health, reduce distress - North Carolina State University
”Researchers split the participants into three groups: a control group, a group assigned five nature walks and a group assigned five 30-minute birdwatching sessions. While all three groups had improved WHO-5 [World Health Organization-Five Well-Being Index] scores, the birdwatching group started lower and ended higher than the other two. Using STOP-D, a similar questionnaire designed to measure psychological distress, researchers also found that nature engagement performed better than the control, with participants in both birdwatching and nature walks showing declines in distress.”
May 1, 2024 - Plant-based diet associated with better quality of life in prostate cancer survivors
"This prospective study provides supportive evidence that greater consumption of healthful plant-based foods is associated with modestly higher scores in quality-of-life domains among patients with prostate cancer."
April 30, 2024 - Listening to mindfulness audios during radiation improves physical, emotional side effects - Northwestern Univ.
”Men with prostate cancer who are treated with radiation therapy experience significant side effects such as fatigue, sleep problems, anxiety and depressive symptoms. But listening to mindfulness audio recordings significantly eased those symptoms, a new Northwestern Medicine study has found.
While reclining and receiving their daily 5-to-15-minute radiation treatment, men in the study listened to short (3-to-6 minute) audio-based mindfulness recordings that asked them to focus on their breath, posture, sounds and environment.”
April 29, 2024 - Cardio-fitness cuts death and disease by nearly 20% - University of South Australia
“Specifically, we found that every 1-MET increase in CRF [Cardiorespiratory fitness], which is the amount of energy used when sitting quietly, reduced the risk of early death from any cause and heart failure by 11–17% and 18%, respectively.”
April 26, 2024 - Climb stairs to live longer - European Society of Cardiology
"Compared with not climbing stairs, stair climbing was associated with a 24% reduced risk of dying from any cause and a 39% lower likelihood of dying from cardiovascular disease. Stair climbing was also linked with a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease including heart attack, heart failure and stroke."
April 24, 2024 - Low intensity exercise linked to reduced depression - Anglia Ruskin University, UK
"The analysis, published in the journal Neuroscience and Biobehavioural Reviews, found that physical activity reduced the risk of depression by 23% and anxiety by 26%. A particularly strong association was found between low and moderate physical activity, which included activities such as gardening, golf and walking, and reduced risk of depression. However, this was not strongly observed for high intensity exercise."
Resources for Professionals & Students
Plantrician University
Plant-Based Nutrition Education Portal
For health profession students and clinicians in training.
“Plantrician University is free to confirmed health profession students around the world. It equips and empowers future physicians, nurses, nurse practitioners, registered dietitians, public health officials, and other healthcare professionals in training, with the knowledge and tools they need to become advocates and educators for the evidence-based role of plant-based nutrition to prevent and dramatically reduce rates of chronic disease, grow health equity, and improve human and global health.”
Teaching Happiness
with Dr. Laurie Santos
For High School Teachers
A free curriculum hub
Free. Adaptable. Evidence-based.
"Teaching Happiness is designed to help teachers provide their students with evidence-based strategies for increasing their well-being in high school and beyond. Plus, all the resources are free!"
LearnSkin.com
Integrative Medicine Resources
For Dermatology Professionals
How it Works - “LearnSkin provides continuing education activities with an integrative and innovative approach that you won’t find anywhere else. Our content is geared towards healthcare professionals in both Western and Eastern medicine across multiple specialties and subspecialties. Our curriculum encompasses a broad range of educational levels from basic to advanced.”
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