“Have been to different doctors but Dr. Burgoon shows concern. I have been to 5 different doctors on elbows but no one could help. Within 2 weeks of Dr. Burgoon, pain stopped. I am very pleased with Dr. Burgoon and how he helps with exercise.”~67 year-old male
Female Problems
“I came to Monica seeking nutritional help for female problems. I also decided to go ahead with Dr. Burgoon as I had been thinking about going to a chiropractor but not sure which one. With eating as often as Monica suggested I could feel more “pick up and go”. I have less problems with low blood sugar. With adjustments I can breathe better, and could move better. The neck roll and lower back roll have been a great help to me. My neck exercises helped hold my neck adjustments. Up to this point my cycle has regulated.”~29 year-old female
Chemical Sensitivities
“Monica’s help with my chemical sensitivities was great! She had good ideas and did some clever research and really engaged with my problem. Now I’m healthier and happier.”~54 year old female
Holy Basil Tea
You can make herb tea without heating by soaking the herbs in water overnight or placing in a sunny spot outside all day in the summer. Not all herb teas extract well this way so try it and compare to see if the taste is as good or as strong as you would like. The reason we use this method is because more nutrients may be preserved without exposing the herbs to boiling water plus it is easier. In this recipe the oranges and lemons are raw too; the nutrient levels remain higher for many foods when not heated. This recipe features holy basil tea which supports the immune system and passion flower which is calming and anti-anxiety. It is not high in sugar since stevia is used to sweeten and the natural fruit sugar in the orange juice is diluted by the tea. This drink provides a refreshingly low-sugar way to enjoy the health benefits of these herbs. One other benefit—being a fluid it contributes to your 8 or so cups of recommended fluids a day so it helps with good hydration.
Holy Basil Tea
3 juicing oranges
1 lemon
1/2 cup dried holy basil (or 8 teabags of Tulsi tea from a health food store)
¼ cup dried passionflower leaf (available from herb supply stores or health food store that can special order—we get it from www.frontiercoop.com)
stevia extract to taste
3 qts. pure water
Place the herbs in a ½ gallon glass canning jar. Add the water and cap and leave overnight. An alternative is to place the jar in a sunny location outside in the summer for a full day. Next, strain the tea. Juice the oranges and lemon and add the juice to the tea. Add stevia to taste. Keep refrigerated.
Vegetable Juices
VEGETABLE JUICING
THE NUTRITION BOOST MOST AMERICANS NEED!
There is nothing as rejuvenating and as easily digested as freshly made juice. We recommend juicing primarily vegetables: carrots, celery, swiss chard, lettuce, and cucumber. We usually add an apple or two to each pound of vegetables and sometimes some fresh herbs such as parsley or mint. Some favorite combinations are carrot/apple, lettuce/chard/apple, carrot/celery/apple, carrot/celery/apple/parsley, carrot/chard/lettuce/apple, carrot/celery/apple/fresh mint, and celery/cucumber/apple. Only use organic produce otherwise you are consuming concentrated pesticides, etc.
For those people who have diabetes or low blood sugar or yeast/fungal infections, apple and carrot may need to be reduced or eliminated and the amount of juice limited to ½ to 1 cup per serving. Trial and error by watching your body’s response—especially your blood glucose levels– is very important for these folks.
We do not recommend juicing the cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, cabbage, kale, collards, etc.) because of their strong flavor and their potential to suppress thyroid function. Also, citrus fruits should not be juiced by a vegetable juicer—use an electric citrus juicer for these and limit your consumption to a half cup per serving (and dilute with water and sweeten to taste with stevia), because of the sugar (fructose) content. As for other fruits, they are better eaten fresh and not juiced because most people do not need the high amounts of fructose they contain.
One other point is that you need to eat just as many vegetables (both fresh in salads and lightly cooked in other dishes) when you juice. Juicing does not reduce this requirement and you do need the fiber they provide. Juicing adds lots of readily-available vitamins, minerals, enzymes and fluid that no other food provides. There may be times, such as when you can not chew (from oral surgery) or when you are on a liquid diet, then juicing proves invaluable because it provides fresh vegetables that you would not otherwise be able to eat. For this reason, we recommend everyone try to acquire a good juicer.
As for juicers, we recommend the grinding/pressing type, namely, the Champion, the Green Power, or the Norwalk. We have access to a distributor providing discounted pricing so please ask us for more details. Do not use a centrifugal juicer.
Carrot/Celery/Apple/Parsley Juice
8 large organic carrots, cut in half lengthwise to ease pushing through juicer
2-3 organic tart apples (not delicious or soft-type apples), quartered to fit into juicer
4 stalks of celery, cut in 6 inch lengths
1 bunch of parsley
Wash and chop vegetables that are too large to fit or too large to easily push through the juicer, and quarter the apples. Press produce through the juicer in an alternating fashion—1 carrot, then 1 celery, then 1 piece of apple, etc. Catch juice into a large glass pyrex measuring cup or glass bowl. Drink immediately as nutrients oxidize within minutes. Wash juicer parts as soon as possible.
Nettle Rosehip Tea
Make your beverages as nutritious as your food by using herb teas. If you are one of those people who has trouble drinking enough liquids (especially once sodas, sweet beverages, and pasteurized fruit juices are mostly a thing of the past), having drinks such as this in your refrigerator or at work may help. Many herbs though safe to use as teas are bitter or strong tasting–this mixture is not. It’s easy to get children to drink it if you add 1 Tbsp. of honey and then sweeten to taste with the stevia.
Nettles are full of minerals and have a calming effect. Rose hips have powerful anti-oxidants. For added zip, add the ginger which has anti-inflammatory properties. The Roanoke Natural Foods Co-op is the best place to get bulk dried herbs and spices that have not been irradiated. They have the nettles, dried cut rose hips, and fresh ginger root plus the stevia liquid extract. For a larger selection and online or phone orders, visit Frontier Herb Coop . Get a 4-inch diameter metal screen strainer to make straining herbs easy.
Nettle Rose Hip Tea
Use 2 pyrex measuring cups or glass mason jars for the teas. Place 2 Tbsp.dried nettle leaves in one jar and pour in 1 cup of boiling water. In the other jar put 1 heaping Tbsp. of rose hips, 1 tsp. of grated fresh ginger root (optional) and 1 cup of boiling water. Let them steep for 20 minutes.
Strain the nettle tea into a quart jar. Dispose of the herbs. Blend the rose hip-ginger tea mixture (don’t strain it yet) in a blender. Now strain this into the nettle tea. As you do this, press the pulp against the strainer with a spoon to get out the soft pulp and scrap it off the bottom of the strainer with a spoon or spatula and into the quart jar. Dispose of what’s left in the strainer—the skins and seeds. Add the juice of 1 lemon or 1 lime and stevia extract to sweeten to taste if desired. Add enough water to the tea to make a full quart. Serve warm or cold. Keep refrigerated.
Drink Half Your Weight in Ounces Daily
Stay hydrated to feel good and function well!
Good digestion and bowel elimination depend on good hydration–so does clear thinking! We often loose the sense of thirst as we age and many people mistake thirst for hunger and then eat instead of drink. Therefore, it is important to form the habit of drinking enough fluids whether thirsty or not. The rule of thumb is to drink daily half your weight in ounces. If you weigh 160 pounds that would be 80 ounces or about 10 cups. Make it a rule to drink 2 cups of water or herb tea first thing in the morning before eating. That way you have already had a quarter of the approximate recommendation of 8 cups of fluids a day before you start eating. If you have problems with constipation, add the juice of a half lemon to 2 cups of warm water and have that instead of tea or plain water first thing in the morning.
Making delicious drinks is a healthy way for you to want to drink–the bonus is a daily supply of minerals and antioxidants! If you have a juicer, freshly made vegetable juice on a daily basis is an excellent nutritious beverage. Herb teas are another good choice. Obviously, the quality of the water is very important. Ask us for more information about how to improve the quality of your water. Generally, stevia is used as a safe, no-calorie sweetener–most people need to avoid drinking calories (drinks with added sugars such as high fructose corn syrup, sugar, honey, agave).
Lentil Burgers
Sprouted Lentil Burgers
Legumes that are sprouted before being cooked are much easier to digest and the cooking time is greatly reduced. The two legumes that sprout the most readily are lentils and garbanzo beans. To sprout, soak 1 cup of beans in a quart jar by filling with water and leaving for 12 hours. Drain and rinse well and drain again. Turn jar on its side and do not put a lid on it. Being on its side prevents the beans from getting dried out but they can still “breathe” without a lid. There are plastic lids that fit on wide-mouthed mason jars that you can buy in health food stores that have holes for easy straining/rinsing. Leave them by the sink and rinse and drain them in the morning and evening. When the sprouts (the little white shoots that grow out of the beans) are about 1/8 to 1/4 inch long the beans are ready to use.
1 cup of dry lentils, soaked and sprouted as described above—this will be about 2 cups of sprouts.
1 medium onion, chopped
extra-virgin olive oil
1/3 cup walnuts (may substitute sunflower seeds)
2 tsp. cumin powder
2 tsp. prepared mustard
1 Tbsp. nutritional yeast flakes, optional
¾ tsp. sea salt
black pepper or cayenne pepper (optional)
Saute chopped onion in 2 Tbsp. olive oil until soft, stirring often and adding cumin powder once onions are soft. In a food processor place the lentil sprouts, sautéed onions, and the rest of the ingredients. Process until mixture is well ground and homogenous. In a frying pan, brown on both sides in 1-2 Tbsp. olive oil. Serve warm with mustard or ketchup.
Dairy Products Make Some Folks Sick
Our experience helping adults and children with constant congestion, post nasal drip, tonsilitis, ear infections, bronchitis, and irritable bowel leads us to believe that cow milk products are often implicated in these health problems. Large commercial dairy farms use hormones, antibiotics, and the cows suffer from a lack of green pasture; so there is a quality issue involved with most dairy products. Here is a dramatic case that illustrates the problem some people have with dairy.
Having “no energy, strength or desire to go on”, a lady came to our office to see what nutrition therapy could do for her. She had a chronic cough (literally every 30 seconds!) though she never smoked. She was told she had asthma. After a few weeks of following the diet and supplement recommendations that were based on comprehensive lab testing, she was off her asthma medications. Her coughing stopped when she discontinued eating all dairy products. After four months she reported that her “energy was greatly improved” and she is back to exercising every day. An added plus is that she lost 21 pounds.
Other foods can contribute to congeston as well. Our nutrition consult includes taking a diet history which is the first step in detecting problem foods in a patient’s diet.
Neck Pain/Headaches
“Neck pain/headaches. Lower back pain. .. Wonderful. Neck progressing great. Lower back pain gone.”~40 year-old male
