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by Natasha Uspensky, CHHC

About: Natasha Uspensky, CHHC

Recent Posts by Natasha Uspensky, CHHC

Raspberry Coconut Overnight Oats

By: Monday, July 31, 2017 Healthy Eating, Recipes , , , , Permalink 1

Raspberry Coconut Overnight Oats | The Organic Beauty Blog

The warm summer months obviously don’t lend themselves too well to hot breakfasts like oatmeal, which is where overnight oats are a lifesaver.

Overnight oats take no time at all, can be eaten straight out of the fridge, and still give you all the heart-healthy, blood-sugar balancing, cravings-busting benefits of oatmeal, without the wintery vibes.

To make these overnight oats even more summery, I added shredded coconut and coconut yogurt, and of course, BERRIES!!  Any berries will do for this recipe, but I like raspberries for this particular iteration.  Check out my recent article on why berries are summer’s perfect superfood!

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Why I Switched To a Menstrual Cup and You Should Too

By: Wednesday, June 21, 2017 Holistic Health, Lifestyle, Organic Beauty, Product Reviews, Wellness , , , , Permalink 0

Why I Switched To A Menstrual Cup | The Organic Beauty Blog

I’ll be the first to admit, I was super slow and reticent to get on the menstrual cup bandwagon. After an ill-fated attempt at using one in college, I was convinced that my flow was just too heavy and my anatomy just wasn’t suited for this miraculous tool.

But alas, I was so wrong!

After years of cramps, leaks, landfill guilt, and more unsavory side effects, I was ready to give the menstrual cup another try.  And I am happy to say I am NEVER going back.

The benefits of using a menstrual cup are many and varied, but these 5 are the biggies to make the switch.

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A Week of Healthy Toddler Meals

By: Friday, May 26, 2017 Diet and Foods, Healthy Baby, Healthy Cooking, Healthy Eating, Motherhood, Nutrition, Recipes , , , , Permalink 0
SPONSORED POST: I’ve partnered with Milk & Eggs, an amazing farm direct grocery delivery service, to bring you guys some delicious, super seasonal, and always healthy recipes a few times a month.  I’m so excited to share some of my favorite dishes and health food products with you!

A Week of Healthy Toddler Meals | The Organic Beauty Blog

What to feed my kid has become much more of a focus in my life than I care to admit.  As a nutritionist, I am constantly worrying about little M eating healthy toddler meals with enough healthy fats, proteins, macronutrients and greens, but hovering over her every bite wasn’t doing either of us any favors.

To get a real sense of how well your toddler is eating, look at what they eat over a two week period, instead of just day to day.

What I’ve learned is that to really get a sense of how “well” a toddler is eating (in terms of fueling their bodies with healthy foods and building blocks for growth), you can’t look at just one day.  Toddlers’ appetites naturally ebb and flow from day to day, and on a “bad” eating day, when they may just not be as hungry as normal, it’s easy to fall into the trap of becoming a short order cook and whipping up crowd-pleasing backup meals just to get our kids to eat.

The problems with this approach are many and varied, but most notably, it sets a precedent that our kids get to call the shots (dangerous) and that it’s more important for them to eat something than something healthy (false).  When we set aside the rejected healthy meal of salmon and broccoli and run to the kitchen to make some mac and cheese that we know they’ll eat, we aren’t honoring their own sense of what their bodies need in the moment and we show them that all they have to do is push away their plate of healthy food to get mom to make them something “fun.”  This is a recipe for entrenching picky eating.

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Flourless Banana Pancakes

By: Thursday, May 25, 2017 Healthy Baby, Healthy Cooking, Healthy Eating, Recipes , , , , Permalink 0

Flourless Banana Pancakes | The Organic Beauty Blog

We’ve been these eating flourless banana pancakes for years now, but since having a baby, these delicious, protein-packed puppies have become a weekly mainstay in our house.  They take just a few minutes to make, so they’re just as perfect for busy mornings as they are for long weekend breakfasts.  With just three ingredients, these pancakes are the epitome of clean, easy cooking.  Plus, no added sugar or flour makes them paleo, gluten-free, etc. etc. etc. — pretty much great for any diet.  And they’re a great alternative to the sugary, refined carbs of traditional pancakes.

Though I used to make a more complicated version (see my Flourless Blueberry Coconut Pancakes), now, we just opt for a pared down version.  I make little silver-dollar sized pancakes for my toddler and regular sized pancakes for us.

The key to getting them to puff up is using a super hot pan — I use my trusty cast iron.

Enjoy!

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Stop the Sneezing: 5 Natural Remedies for Seasonal Allergies

By: Thursday, May 18, 2017 Healthy Eating, Holistic Health, Wellness , , , , Permalink 0

 

Natural Remedies for Seasonal Allergies | The Organic Beauty BlogThis time of year, everyone seems to be complaining about their seasonal allergies. I just got back from 5 days in Minneapolis, where the pollen count was a daily subject of conversation.

Being married to a man that takes allergy medicine year round, lest he become a sneezing menace, and occasionally having suffered from seasonal allergies myself, I know how big of a nuisance they are.  But thankfully, nature has our back here, as it usually does.  There are 5 super potent natural remedies for seasonal allergies that actually work.

Follow them to a tee, and rid yourself of all that dreaded sneezing, sniffling, and crying (the allergic kind of crying).  Do the opposite, and be a menace to those around you (and feel like crap).  The choice is clear!

The Top 5 Natural Remedies for Seasonal Allergies

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Lose winter weight and eliminate allergies this spring!

By: Monday, May 1, 2017 Diet and Foods, Healthy Cooking, Healthy Eating, Nutrition, Recipes , , , , Permalink 0
SPONSORED POST: I’ve partnered with Milk & Eggs, an amazing farm direct grocery delivery service, to bring you guys some delicious, super seasonal, and always healthy recipes a few times a month.  I’m so excited to share some of my favorite dishes and health food products with you!

Seasonal Spring Diet | The Organic Beauty

Imagine these two scenarios: in the first, you enjoy a lovely, happy spring with increased energy, a sunnier mood, and a leaner body.  You naturally shed that insulating winter weight, don’t experience so much as a sniffle, and feel like a confident goddess heading into bikini season.

In the second scenario, your seasonal allergies start acting up as soon as the weather starts to warm, and you get one (or more) of those horrible springtime colds.  You seem to always be sniffling and you just feel puffy.  Those pounds you put on over the winter don’t seem to be going anywhere, and, is it your imagination, or are you actually gaining weight? You’re tired and sluggish and dread the summer when you’ll have to pull that bathing suit out of the back of your drawer.

A pretty stark contrast, right?  Well guess what, the difference between the two isn’t a drastic juice cleanse or a crazy workout schedule.  It is simply a seasonal, springtime diet!

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Are your hands showing your age? My 4 steps to younger hands

By: Tuesday, April 18, 2017 Beauty DIYs, Healthy Beauty, Organic Beauty, Product Reviews , , , , Permalink 0

4 Steps for Younger Hands | The Organic Beauty Blog

About 6 months after we moved to LA, I started noticing sun spots appearing on my hands and arms.  Suddenly, my pale and youthful hands looked blotchy and, well, old.

I refused to settle for this unpleasant side effect of living on the sunnier coast, and set out to uncover the best natural remedies to keep my hands looking young and pretty.

These four steps protect and heal hands, as well as reverse the damage that they suffer from being exposed to the elements.  When I follow my own advice, my hands look great.  But when I slack off and neglect them (as I have been lately), the sun spots and leathery looking skin come right back.  So I’m getting right back on the bandwagon — I’ll be sure to post some new before and after photos in a few weeks!

4 Steps to Younger Hands

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Cooking with Bone Broth.. and why you should use it!

By: Thursday, March 23, 2017 Diet and Foods, Healthy Baby, Healthy Cooking, Healthy Eating, Nutrition, Recipes , , , , Permalink 0
SPONSORED POST: I’ve partnered with Milk & Eggs, an amazing farm direct grocery delivery service, to bring you guys some delicious, super seasonal, and always healthy recipes a few times a month.  I’m so excited to share some of my favorite dishes with you!

Cooking with Bone Broth | The Organic Beauty Blog

After years of maintaining a mostly vegetarian (or at most, pescatarian) diet, I struggled with the concept of incorporating bone broth into my eating.  But after tons of research, discussions with my colleagues in holistic healthcare, and seeing the benefits in my own body, I’m sold.

I started adding Brothee Organic Bone Broths, made locally here in Southern California, to my weekly Milk & Eggs grocery delivery orders a few months ago, and I’ve never looked back.  Here are just some of the many health benefits of using organic bone broth:

  • It promotes and supports strong immunity
  • It helps to treat and overcome digestive issues like leaky gut and IBS
  • It supports the body in overcoming food intolerances and allergies
  • It improves joint health and mobility
  • It supports healthy skin, hair, and nails
  • It fights inflammation in the body

Crazy, right?! So basically, this humble broth, made simply by simmering beef or chicken bones (though duck or fish bone broth is a thing too) with some vinegar and spices, is pretty much the world’s most perfect health and beauty food.

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The Best Natural Baby Care Products

By: Tuesday, March 14, 2017 Healthy Baby, Healthy Home, Motherhood, Organic Beauty, Product Reviews , , , , Permalink 0

Best-Natural-Baby-Care-Products

I am a huge stickler for natural ingredients when it comes to my skincare and beauty products (hence this blog ; ), but I admit that I’ll make the occasional teensy-weensy exception for a particularly effective or otherwise desirable product (though I never compromise on the big bad ingredients listed below).  But when it comes to my baby, I am gung-ho, 100% of the time.  I’ve never let anything chemical or toxic touch my baby’s skin, and that is no small feat.

Most of the baby care lines out there, even the self-proclaimed natural ones, are not as natural as they claim.  A quick glance at the extensive ingredient lists can reveal a whole range of chemicals and mysterious ingredients, which though not necessarily toxic per se, are definitely not natural.  Babies have the most delicate of skin, and since their organs are always growing, what we put on (and, of course, IN) our babies can literally impact the building blocks of their little beings.

Though they’re obviously not the sole cause, chemicals in baby care products have been linked to asthma, hormonal imbalance (including premature puberty), skin issues like eczema, and even cancer.  So even if you’re not totally on board with the green beauty industry, making sure the products you use on your baby are all-natural should be a really high priority!

I’ve tested several natural baby-care lines, and the ones below have come out on top.  All of these best natural baby care products are formulated without toxic chemicals, including:

  • Talc (carcinogenic)
  • Phthalates (carcinogenic, asthma)
  • Synthetic Fragrance (linked to asthma, allergies, endocrine and hormone disruption)
  • Propylene Glycol [PEG] (allergies and asthma)
  • Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (skin irritation, hormonal disruption)
  • Mineral Oil and other petroleum-derived ingredients (possible carcinogen, hormonal disruption)
  • Parabens (neurotoxin, endocrine disruption)
  • Triclosan (carcinogenic, endocrine disruption)
  • Lanolin (contaminated with pesticides)

Some of the product lines below are 100% all-natural, which I tend to favor, and others contain a few synthetic or chemical ingredients that are considered safe for babies and still receive the best ratings on EWG.  There are definitely other brands out there, and new natural baby care products are coming out all the time, so this list is by no means exhaustive.  If you’re going to try another product line, just make sure the products are free of the chemicals above, the ingredient lists are rather short, and that you recognize every ingredient listed (a great rule of thumb when selecting any product to put on or in your body!).

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