Harris Whole Health

09/13/2025

Today is National Celiac awareness Day 2025. I'm sharing a post from my archives on important nutrients for people with Celiac:

Posted on March 10, 2021March 10, 2021 by Cheryl HarrisNutrient Balance: Gluten-Free Newsletter It’s National Nutrition Month, so it’s a good time to touch on the cornerstones of a gluten-free diet to make sure you’re getting the nutrients needed for health. Are you getting the nutrients you n...

09/11/2025

Delighted to be joining Virginia Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics! Looking forward to seeing some of you then.
ps--if you're not a VAND member, you can register here: https://my.cheddarup.com/c/non-member-webinar-fees/items

Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: Nutrition for Ehlers Danlos. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the meeting.

09/11/2025

nice accessible summary of a paper on treatments for long COVID/ME https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfGPbay9cwg (also addresses POTS, brain fog) If you'd like access of the initial paper, DM or email me.

This newly-released paper highlights the treatments reported as most beneficial by almost 4000 ME/CFS and Long-COVID sufferers. The open-access paper is here...

09/11/2025

1000 times this....

Link in 1st comment

09/08/2025

magnesium...one of the many nutrients that I am a big fan of for people with connective tissue disorders. but it's all about balance! always.

Vitamins, supplements and depression

'A magnesium deficiency will increase the breakdown of collagen, promote inflammation and increase the risk of injury in people with healthy collagen' by C Harris , Dietitian

Read more here https://www.sedsconnective.org/post/vitamins-supplements-and-depression

09/01/2025

it has been a tricky year for peppers, but a handful finally have ripened and we got to roast them.

08/30/2025

as some of you know, I started my career running the breastfeeding programs for DC WIC State agency, and I strongly believe in WIC's mission. WIC feeds half of this country's babies, and so their programs have a big impact. If mama/baby nutrition is something you care deeply about, please consider making a comment.

⏰ TOMORROW is the last day to submit your comment on proposed changes at USDA that could cause major loss of institutional knowledge, relationships, skilled staff, and efficiency that make nutrition programs like run.

✏️ Use our template to submit your comment TODAY: https://media.nwica.org/nwa_final_%20usda%20reorganization%20plan%20template%20comment_august%202025.docx

08/29/2025

*very* excited to see pregnancy guidelines for management of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD--Crohns & Colitis)
and yes, there's even a section on diet.

pacts pregnancy rates, medication adherence, and outcomes. Limited provider knowledge leads to highly varied practices in care affected by local dogma, available resources, individual interpretation of the literature, and fear of harming the fetus. The variations in guidelines by different societies...

08/25/2025

this image really resonates with some people and may help communicate MECFS to family members, with the caveats that severity often isn't linear.

This was very popular a few months ago so I thought I would repost it
---
Thanks to Laura Scheepers who has written out the text:

The white ring, with 'healthy individual' has
- nonlimited ability to care for self and others
- nonlimited ability to attend events
- nonlimited ability to exercise and play sports
- nonlimited ability to traven
The yellowish ring with 'mild ME/cfs' say:
- limited ability to work full time
- limited abilty to be active
- limited ability to tolerate loud/stimulating environments
The orange ring, with 'moderate ME/cfs' says:
- limited ability to work (may only tolerate WFH)
- limited ability to leave house and attend social events
- limited ability to complete errands
The dark orange ring with 'moderate-severe ME/cfs'has housebound as subtitle and says:
- limited use of shower
- limited ability to prepare meals
- limited ability to move about household
The red ring with 'severe ME/cfs' says:
- limited use of restroom
- limited use of books and technology
The poopbrown ring with 'very severe ME/cfs' has bedbound as subtitle and says:
- limited tolerance of sensory input
- limited ability to move and communicate.
—-
Link in comments.

08/23/2025

it was my husband's birthday, so we did a double layer gluten-free chocolate cake, hazelnut frosting, nutella filling, and chocolate ganache. https://eatwithclarity.com/gluten-free-chocolate-cake/ Frosting https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/84429/fluffy-peanut-butter-frosting/ using hazelnut butter
Would definitely make it again!

08/22/2025

Remember the rumblings about finding some of genes linked to hEDS last year? well, the first paper (okay, preprint) is out, showing that the kallikrein gene *may* be a part of the puzzle, based on both human and rodent models.

Hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (hEDS) is a debilitating multisystem condition characterized by joint hypermobility, chronic pain, and diverse como…

08/10/2025

Great new study by The Norris Lab https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0383/14/16/5636
Just a brief overview:
for hEDS, people had an average of 24 comorbidities & 21 year delay to diagnosis. Most frequently affected systems included dysautonomia, skin, GI, dental, orthopedic, ocular, neurologic and more, with pain as the worst symptom for most.

Background: Hypermobile Ehlers–Danlos syndrome (hEDS) and hypermobility spectrum disorders (HSDs) are prevalent, complex conditions marked by chronic pain, joint instability, and multisystem involvement. Despite affecting an estimated 1 in 500 individuals, these conditions remain poorly understood...