Dr. Bonnie Brock

31/01/2022

Looking for an easy non-dairy ice cream recipe that's also packed with vitamin C and beta-carotene? While some might not consider this a "health food", this papaya ice cream is so good you'll want it everyday. The flavor is a perfect mix of tropical fruits and vanilla. Recipe adapted from Good Food Baddie.
Ingredients
1/2 Large Ripe Papaya, frozen
1.5 cups Frozen Pineapple
1 cup Frozen Mango
1 13.5 oz can Coconut Cream
5 dates, soaked for 30 minutes
1 tsp pure Vanilla Extract
Instructions
Add all the ingredients to the food processor and blend. Serve immediately or transfer to metal pan.and freeze.

30/01/2022

It's Sunday, and that usually means meal prep day for me. Every week I roast at least one type of vegetable, and today it is Brussel Sprouts (cabbage if for another dish). Brussel sprouts are a cruciferous vegetable, along with cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower. bok choy and others. Fun fact: cruciferous vegetables are named from the cross-like shape of the four petals that typically grow on the underside of the plant (latin cruciferae - cross bearing). Cruciferous vegetables are rich in the compound sulforaphane that has shown anti-cancer, heart health and disease fighting properties. Roast lightly to preserve this plant chemical.
Roasting vegetables is easy. Just chop and add to a bowl or bag, add a small amount of high-heat oil, spices and seasonings and coat. Then spread out on a baking sheet, making sure each piece has room, and roast at 425 degrees until desired doneness. Keep in refrigerator all week to add to salads, use as mains or sides or snacks.

24/01/2022

Sunday meal prep included vegan stuffed peppers. I unexpectedly received a package of the Impossible ground "meat" and had been hesitant to use it. I have to say, it really worked well in this recipe. Enjoy!
Ingredients⁣
3 bell peppers 🫑⁣
0.25 pound lean ground beef or meat alternative⁣
1 small onion diced 🧅⁣
1 cloves garlic minced⁣
1 can tomato paste⁣
1 cup white rice cooked⁣
1 cup black beans, cooked⁣
2 carrots, shredded 🥕🥕⁣
1 tablespoon Italian parsley chopped⁣
0.25 cup cheddar cheese or cashew cheese⁣
Instructions⁣
Preheat oven to 350°F.⁣
Cut the tops off the peppers (reserve the tops), remove seeds and membranes and discard. Chop tops of the peppers to add to the filling.⁣
In a large skillet saute "meat", onion, pepper tops & garlic over medium high heat.⁣
Stir in the tomato paste, rice, black beans, carrots and parsley.⁣
Fill each pepper with the rice mixture.⁣
Place in pan with 1 inch water on bottom.⁣
Cover with foil and bake 35 minutes. Remove foil, top with cheddar and bake an additional 10 minutes or until cheese is melted and peppers are tender.⁣

19/01/2022

There seems to be a lot of confusion about fruit and whether it belongs in your diet. (short answer: YES!) Things I have heard said about fruit this week alone (and it's only Wed):
1. Fruit is just sugar. (No, fruit is fruit, sugar is sugar.)
2. Eating a banana is like eating a candy bar. (Um, have you had a candy bar?)
3. I take a fiber supplement so I don't need more fiber from fruit. (Huh?)
Fruit certainly does contain "sugar", in the form of mainly fructose, and some glucose and sucrose. But while fruit contains "sugar", it doesn't act exactly like what we think of as sugar (sucrose) in the body. The fiber in fruit can slow down digestion, thereby reducing glycemic load, and also provides great prebiotic material for your microbiome. Fruit can also provide some important vitamins, minerals, hydration and disease-fighting phytochemicals. And while there are many people following diets that don't include fruit (and that is always their prerogative), I hate to see an entire valuable food group "sugar shamed". With food, my beliefs include "there is a time and place for everything", "mindfulness and moderation are key" and "you do you".
Follow for more nutrition information and recipes.

14/01/2022

What do you do when you are gifted 2 cases of cucumbers?? Make pickles of course! 🥒It's really not as difficult as it may seem and pickles are a great way to add vegetables to a sandwich, spice up a salad and make ⁣ a great dipper for hummus. ⁣
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INGREDIENTS⁣
1 1/2 pounds Kirby or Persian cucumbers⁣
4 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed⁣
2 teaspoons dill seeds⁣
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes⁣
1 cup apple cider vinegar⁣
1 cup water⁣
1 1/2 tablespoons kosher salt.⁣
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INSTRUCTIONS⁣
1. Prepare the jars. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and sterilize 2 wide-mouth pint jars and their lids. ⁣
2. Prepare the cucumbers. Wash and dry the cucumbers. Trim away the blossom or stem end of the cucumber, cut them into spears, add the spices to the jars, pack the cucumbers into the jars.⁣ Bring the pickling brine to a boil and pour over the pickles, filling each jar to within 1/2-inch of the top. Gently tap the jars against the counter a few times to remove all the air bubbles. Fill again to top and tighten the lids.⁣
3. Process the pickles. Place the lidded jars in a boiling pot of water. When the water comes back to a boil, set the timer for 5 minutes and remove the jars immediately. Make sure the lids pop down; if they do not, refrigerate those pickles and eat them first.⁣
4. Cool and refrigerate. Let the jars cool to room temperature and enjoy!⁣
(adapted from Kitchn recipe)

09/01/2022

Great morning giving a Nutrition for Healthy Aging lecture and cooking class at The Martin Pear JCC in Scottsdale AZ.

08/01/2022

Welcome to my new pages, Nourished with Dr. Brock - Where Food meets Medicine. I have been working in this food/medicine space for a long time as a Dietitian, Naturopath and seasoned cook and baker. This will be a place where I can share recipes, food memories, cooking videos and nutrition education in a holistic, non-diet and body positive space. I hope you will join me!

25/08/2021

Dr Brock was a guest on a wonderful podcast this week, Blooming Transformations. Here is a link if you would like to learn about natural remedies for stress management.

Today's guest is Dr. Bonnie Brock of Acacia Natural Medicine. She is a doctor of naturopathic medicine and registered dietician. In private practice in Arizona, Dr. Brock seeks to guide patients back to health with nutrition education, accessibl...

17/05/2021

It's Sunday night and lots of people have spent the day planning to start a restrictive diet or punishing exercise program tomorrow in order to transform themselves into someone they think it will be easier for themselves and/or others to love. Maybe some of those same people are stuffing themselves with what they think will be their last chance at decadent or indulgent foods for a while; the proverbial Sunday night "last supper" with the hope that Monday morning brings new-found motivation and willpower. If you have had this kind of day today, I wish you a moment of self-love and clarity to stop. Stop it right now. Show yourself grace and put down the fork. You don't need to finish the pizza or pint tonight. It will be there tomorrow and you have permission to eat it again whenever you like. I repeated this cycle of decadence and excess followed by white-knuckled deprivation and eventual failure and shame for years. Its a horrible cage. Breaking free from that cycle and finding the self-love needed to truly nourish my body with foods that feel good was a blessing. There are no inherently good and bad foods. Of course, all foods don't work well for all people and sometimes we eat foods just good for our health and sometimes just good for our tastebuds and soul and hopefully most times we find foods good for both. And learning to move your body in an inquisitive and loving way, and not out of hatred, can be difficult when you may not like what you see in the mirror. Maybe I'm rambling, but I'm starting a new exercise program tomorrow with a new trainer, and the apprehension of working with someone who may not understand all I have overcome has got me a bit shook and thinking of all these things. Wish me luck that I find an exercise plan that celebrates all my body can do right now and challenges me just enough to bring me to new levels of fitness. I wish you luck that you either find a way or continue to love yourself radically, unapologetically and thoroughly. Its truly the only way to be. ❤❤ Art and quote credit to

21/04/2021

You guessed it...the thyroid gland!

The thyroid gland is involved with much more than just metabolism and anyone who has experienced thyroid dysfunction knows the symptoms can be varied and far-reaching. Poor thyroid function can impact blood sugar metabolism, calcium regulation, growth hormone distribution, brain function, kidney clearance and cardiovascular health to name a few.

We will be talking about everything thyroid at Acacia Natural Medicine for the next few weeks as we prepare for our May 4th Thyroid education class and our May 11 Thyroid Health cooking class. And, thyroid dysfunction is a topic that impacts me personally as I have Hashimoto's and that diagnosis changed my life.

Stay tuned, I plan to tell my Hashimoto's story in my next post...

12/04/2021

Join Dr Byrne and I tomorrow night (Tuesday 4/13) @ 6 pm at Acacia Natural Medicine in Scottsdale AZ for a free education session on fertility where we will absolutely discuss the impact of endocrine disrupting chemicals. Hope to see you there!

Did you know there are chemicals in your household cleaning products that could impact fertility?!⁣
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Yepppp. You can learn more specifics but here is a quick list of chemicals to look out for...⁣
Parabens⁣
PEGs⁣
BHT/BHA⁣
Methylisothiazolinone⁣
Phthalates⁣
Phenylenediamine⁣
Methylene chloride⁣
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What are your favorite clean brands of household products?⁣

Don't miss our FREE fertility lecture tomorrow night 6pm. Link in bio to sign up.
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