Food for Thought

  Boyce Thompson Arboretum Over spring break, I was looking for something fun to do with my family and came across this beautiful gem located outside of Phoenix called Boyce Thompson Arboretum  (BTA).   It is about one hour west of central Phoenix on Highway 60.  It is Arizona's first and oldest botanical garden with 20,000 species of plants, situated on 372 acres of beautiful Sonoran desert landscape.  William Boyce Thompson was a mining tycoon who founded BTA in 1923 as well as the Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research in New York in 1924.                                                                      Picket Post house where he lived with his wife I was blown away while observing the diversity of plants in the different gardens while we were hi...

  Blue Zones I have been researching healthy foods recently and came across something interesting to share with everyone.   It is called geographical blue zones and is five geographically located places known for having the naturally longest life span in the world.   These places are Okinawa, Japan; Sardinia, Italy; Nicoya, Costa Rica; Ikaria, Greece; and Loma Linda, California.                                                         Image source Of these five places, Sardinia has the highest number of people who live to be over 100, they are known as centenarians.  Many residents of these blue zones believe diet and a high-activity lifestyle are the main reasons for increased life expectancy.  Selvi Rajagopal, MD, MPH, an internal medicine and obesity ...

  My Two Favorite Parks around the Valley Hello readers, for this blog I would like to share my two favorite parks around the Phoenix area.  If you have children or just like to go for a walk on a beautiful day, this blog is for you.    My first choice is Kiwanis Park in Tempe because it has a very large play area with many options of playground equipment for kids of any size or age.  Some of our favorite playground equipment includes a giant multi story tube slide, several different climbing structures, and the zip line.   This park also has a few different water features like the splash pad that operates during the summer and into fall as well as a recreation center that has a heated wave pool.     You can also hang out by the 125-acre lake and feed the ducks or rent a paddle boat to take out on the lake.   This location has a tennis center and batting cage as well.   My second choice is DesertBreeze Park in Chandler....

  How We Think About Food                                                                   Image source For this blog I want to talk about a very important topic that many of us might not often think about, our food and where it comes from.   I recently watched a movie called Fresh that highlights some critical areas of food products such as the treatment of livestock and how our crops are grown.   The purpose of the movie is to educate the viewer about the current practices of industrialized farming and the many negative effects it has on our bodies, economy, the earth, and the horrible conditions of livestock.   It also urges the viewer to change their purchasing habits and or become active in the growing of their own produ...