Sources

How do you decide what to believe when it comes to your health?  I get this question every time I tell people I write a wellness blog because there are so many contradictory opinions and facts out there.  Since I seem find myself always going against the grain on what’s generally accepted as healthy, I have to explain my rationale a lot.  While there’s much more that plays into my beliefs, it usually comes down to this: look at the facts and the research, but focus on the sources.  So often, an assumed trustworthy medical journal is published by a pharmaceutical company or a government recommendation actually brings in quite a lot of tax revenue. Often, the source of the information really sheds some light on possible motives involved in the dissemination of that message.  For example, compare the likely credibility of a doctor who supports some drug and just happens to make lots of money from said support versus the doctor who is standing up against their institution and risking losing their job or research funding because of it.  While it may seem like a dramatic example, I find it all too common in my research.

Here are a few places I go to most for my information or at least to begin my research:

Deep Nutrition: Why Your Genes Need Traditional Food by Catherine Shanahan, MD and Luke Shanahan; you can also visit their website for more information. This book changed the way I think about food and my health and was the ultimate inspiration for this blog.

You can find hundreds of excellent articles on many subjects at Natural Society and Natural News.

For homeopathic & natural healing information, visit The Doctor Within.

Jeffrey Smith is an expert on the dangers of GMOs and you can find his books and documentaries here.

Katie at Wellness Mama has so much information on her site and I’ve yet to find a thing I disagree with her on – she has lots of resources for what she writes about.

And some other books I reference often:

The Coconut Oil Miracle – This was a fascinating read since I had absolutely no clue of all the health benefits that coconut oil could provide.  Read my summary here.

Your Body’s Many Cries for Water – Wow… if anything will convince you how important it is to drink water, it’s this book.  You’ll be surprised how many health problems are a simple result of chronic dehydration – read more in this blog post.

Why We Get Fat: And What to Do About It – A controversial read that attempts to debunk the calories-in, calories-out theory. Read my review here.

RX: Charcoal – Would you ever eat charcoal?  Read about why charcoal is now a staple in my medicine cabinet here.

Essential Oils Pocket Reference – Not really a sit-down and read kind of book, but if you have essential oils, I promise you can’t live without it.  Organized by symptom, you can figure out how to use oils to promote healing.