The Inside Press

Magazines serving the communities of Northern Westchester

health

CSA: A Great Way to Eat Fresh, and Healthy, Meals

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Roxbury Farm
Roxbury Farm

By Liz Susman Karp

With the current spotlight on farm-to-table eating and eating local, spring presents an opportune time to sign up for a share in Community Supported Agriculture (CSA).

A CSA is a weekly allotment of farm-grown vegetables, usually enough to feed two to four people. Fruit, eggs, meat and poultry additions are often optional. Splitting shares is common. Some farms are certified organic, others follow organic practices (high certification cost) or have taken the NOFA (National Organic Farmers Association) pledge to farming, marketing and farm management in accordance with sound ecological and economic principles.

Participating in a CSA enables shareholders to obtain fresh, natural food; it’s a statement of commitment to the land, and lends support and security to farmers. That’s got to make food taste better!

There’s something grounding (no pun intended) about eating seasonally, when food reaches its natural peak. It’s reminiscent of a simpler time, yet is thoroughly modern. A plant-heavy diet with few or no processed foods has proven more nourishing. Fertile soil fights the effects of global warming. Improved access to better food offers choice in a food system which promotes unhealthy foods.

Harvest Moon Farm & Orchard
Harvest Moon Farm & Orchard

Each week’s share is different. “The quantity of types of produce varies week-to-week depending on what is available–we include all produce we grow here on our farm,” says Christine Tartaglia of Harvest Moon Farm & Orchard. “But, for example, the cucumber crop might be fruiting like crazy one week and, say, peppers are not, so you might get more cukes in that box and no peppers. But that being said, we know that no one wants an overload of one type of veggie, so we do our best to offer a broad range of staples and new/different items each week.” Visit harvestmoonfarmandorchard.com

CSAs provide a weekly newsletter with information and recipes. Jenn Hentel, a member of Roxbury Farm’s CSA, says, “Most veggies you have heard of, but the rarer ones make it fun. My theory is: If you don’t know what to do with it, then roast it!”

A sampling of local options:

Members of Roxbury Farm’s CSA bring their own bags to pick-up sites, which include B’nai Yisrael, Armonk, and Pace University, Pleasantville. Known for innovative practices, the Kinderhook, NY farm’s CSA is in its 26th year. It runs for 23 weeks beginning June 8, with seven to 12 varieties weekly. Options include meat and chicken shares and an 18-week fruit share. Shareholders are asked to contribute time neatening their site or delivering extras to a food pantry. www.roxburyfarm.com

The CSA of Harvest Moon Farm and Orchard in North Salem is in its fifth year. Half or full bushel shares are offered for 13 or 18 weeks beginning July 7. Prices start at $325. A milk share from Ronnybrook Farm is available. Members may receive grass fed beef, apple cider or eggs as occasional bonus items. Visit www.harvestmoonfarmandorchard.com.

The Stone Barns Center CSA, available to members of Stone Barns, “is so much about sharing not just in the crops from our farm, but in the work of the Center to change the way America eats and farms,” says SBC Content Manager Adriana Stimola. Beginning June 1 for 22 weeks, it includes seasonal vegetable varieties not found anywhere else, often trial varieties from collaborative seed-breeding partnerships. Some will be grown exclusively for CSA members. Cost is $800; pick up at Stone Barns, Pocantico Hills. Options are chicken, eggs and flower bouquets. Visit stonebarnscenter.org

Harvest Moon Farm & Orchard
Colorful produce from Simpaug Farms is enticing to the eye and the palate.

Simpaug Farms in Suffield, Conn., will distribute its CSA in Ridgefield at Bailey’s Backyard and the Ridgefield Farmers Market from June 6 to Sept. 19. Each weekly or bi-weekly share includes five to 12 vegetable varieties with herbs, berries and occasional preserved items from the farm kitchen. Meat, eggs and other products may be purchased through the farm website. Members are encouraged to share their experiences, photos, and recipes on Simpaug’s social media pages. 300 shares are available; cost is $35/week. Visit www.simpaugfarms.com.

Pound Ridge Organics
Pound Ridge Organics

Pound Ridge Organics, a local organic food hub, offers a CSA featuring all clean, locally-grown products year-round without upfront cost. Members receive a weekly order form for organic/biodynamic produce, certified organic, animal welfare-approved meat and poultry, dairy, artisanal breads and other natural products, including kosher, vegan and gluten free options. New this spring is a heritage egg and poultry option. No limit to spots or minimum/maximum order, but organizer Donna Simons, who founded PRO five years ago after doing a research project on factory farming, prefers people order on a regular basis. Pick up at hr carriage house in Pound Ridge. For more info, write to: poundridgeorganics@icloud.com.

CSAs provide appealing alternatives for food choice. Dara Mirsky joined Roxbury Farms so her young sons could see her and her husband enjoying vegetables. “I like getting vegetables that are still a little dirty…just pulled from the earth,” she says. “And on the whole everything tastes a lot better than the supermarket.”

farm

Liz Susman Karp is a freelance writer and public relations practitioner. She, her husband and two teenage sons live in Briarcliff Manor near the site of Briarcliff Lodge where they used to explore the ruins when the boys were young.   

Centered on Good Health: Dina Khader’s Innovative Guidance

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khaderBy Deborah Raider Notis

In 2010, Dina Khader opened the Khader Center in Mount Kisco for health and wellness. Khader, a practicing dietitian and nutrition consultant for more than 26 years, is dedicated to developing personalized regimens to help her clients become increasingly stronger and healthier.

Khader, originally from Jordan, lived all over the world throughout her childhood and she eventually settled in New York. She experienced and learned from many different cultures–witnessing malnutrition first hand in many poor countries. With an incentive to study nutrition to help fight hunger, she pursued becoming a registered dietitian and integrative nutrition consultant.

“I had a serious reaction to the polio vaccine when I was 15 months old,” says Khader, who faced a variety of health issues at an early age. “Originally, no one thought that I would be able to walk, and when I did walk, I walked with a limp.”

When she was 13 years old and living in Abu Dhabi, Khader attended a yoga class during which the instructor told her that eating red meat could be harmful to her joints. Khader did her research and decided to change her diet and exercise routine to strengthen her body and immune system. Realizing the incredible impact that a regulated diet and lifestyle routine could provide, Khader dedicated her life to studying nutrition.

Khader leverages her strong clinical background as a dietitian and nutritionist, her unique knowledge of the effects that specific medicines have on the body, and her healing techniques to help her clients. A graduate of New York Medical College with an MS in Nutrition, she worked in several hospitals and started the nutrition program for the Saw Mill Club in Mount Kisco before opening the Khader Center.

“I do practice what I preach,” says Khader, who is committed to “eating really, really well,” and exercising a lot. After developing her own, personalized health and nutrition plan, Khader started building targeted nutrition strategies for her clients. She works with clients with a variety of objectives, from those focused on weight loss to clients looking for anti-aging techniques to people suffering from cancer or those struggling with hormonal issues. “I incorporate a number of cutting-edge, integrative strategies, individually tailored to the needs of each client.”

Khader’s cutting-edge techniques include a computer software program that helps to determine which organs in a client’s body are most stressed. She also employs epigenetics, a method of genetic testing designed to identify and alter a client’s overall health. Additionally, Khader’s mud-packing technique helps people to heal after injuries or surgical scars. “We address the trauma through a targeted application of specially mixed volcanic clay that is designed to restore the body’s natural electrical circuit. The results have been life-changing as the clay is very effective at addressing toxicity,” notes Khader.

“I can help clients achieve dramatic health improvements without relying on extreme diets or potentially dangerous drugs,” states Khader. Ultimately, her goal is to change lives for the better. And, in the end, isn’t that what we all want?

Deborah Raider Notis is a writer and co-owner of gamechanger, LLC (gamechangernow.com), a free referral service connecting Westchester families to highly qualified, competitively priced academic, athletic, music, and art instructors. In addition to contributing to the Inside Press, Deborah’s writing can be found on suburbanmisfitmom.com.

Dr. Maria Briones: Transforming Lives One Pound at a Time

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By Miriam Longobardi

Anyone who has ever struggled to lose weight knows how difficult and frustrating it can be, both losing the weight and keeping it off. Those who have significant weight to lose –beyond a few extra pounds after a vacation–face a greater challenge. Enter Dr. Maria Briones, owner of Dr. Briones Medical Weight Loss Center located in Mt. Kisco.

Photo by Carolyn Simpson/Doublevision Photographers
Photo by Carolyn Simpson/Doublevision Photographers

Dr. Briones began her career as an internist in New York City in 1994 and in addition to her weight loss clinic works at Burke Rehabilitation Center in White Plains. During her career she has always been concerned about obesity and its related diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, heart disease and stroke as well as some cancers. At Burke she also noted that some of her patients who had undergone hip and knee replacements needed the surgery as a result of obesity. “I want to help people before obesity takes a toll on their health and body and possibly avoid surgery and some of the diseases connected to obesity.”

At her weight loss center, Dr. Briones assists patients far beyond helping them develop healthier eating habits to lose weight. Her approach is very personal and addresses the many psychological effects of obesity. “In addition to the effects on the body, being obese changes how people feel about themselves. The most common are loss of self-esteem and depression. As I help them lose weight I didn’t have to use any medication.”

All patients must undergo a health evaluation and obtain medical clearance to participate in the diet plan. After that, patients come for weekly visits to be weighed and spend time being counseled by Dr. Briones. “They need to change the relationship they have with food.” She helps them develop a plan which they must be disciplined enough to follow. Part of her plan involves using Optifast, a meal replacement program that must be medically supervised. “With Optifast patients can see results similar to surgery sometimes in as little as six months,” Briones reports. Depending on the amount of weight to be lost, patients begin with the Optifast meal replacements very strictly for approximately four to six months. “It’s like people that want to quit smoking –they have to really be ready for it and commit to following the program.”

Elysa Belessakos, a patient and one of Dr. Briones’s many success stories, says that working with Dr. Briones changed her life. “The woman is brilliant,” said Belessakos. “She completely devotes herself to her patients and gives us one-on-one personal attention.” While some people relate to group support such as Weight Watchers, Belessakos feels the emotional support she receives from Dr. Briones helped her sort through emotional eating issues that in the past always caused her to gain back weight she had lost. “A lot of people dealing with obesity don’t want to sit in front of a group and talk about their weight loss struggles,” says Belessakos. Through a combination of the Optifast meal replacements, Lipo-Light, which is a machine that burns fat cells in targeted areas of the body, and Dr. Briones teaching her about nutrition and talking her through strategies to avoid emotional eating, Belessakos is down 40 pounds. “I get so many compliments!” she enthusiastically reports.

After sticking closely to the Optifast plan, which also offers nutrition bars and soups in addition to the meal replacement shakes, transitioning back to mainstream food can be challenging. Dr. Briones is considering adding a nutritionist to her staff but Briones helps her patients with meal planning, food shopping and menus to help them keep the weight off and follow up with her for maintenance.

Belessakos says that it is the level of devotion she and the other patients receive from Dr. Briones that gives them the support and encouragement they need to maintain their weight loss. “It’s her personality that sets her apart from other doctors. So much of weight loss is psychological and you get one-hundred percent of her attention. She listens, gives you feedback and is so warm and encouraging that nobody wants to stop seeing her.”

A wife and mother of three children, Dr. Briones continues to learn and explore new medical breakthroughs through professional associations and by attending conferences regularly. She recently added anti-aging and skin care products at her center. Belessakos adds, “She absolutely loves what she does and genuinely cares about each of her patients with compassion.”

Dr. Briones feels that in addition to being healthier physically, one of the greatest accomplishments she sees in her patients is their attitude toward life. “Not only are they active and have more energy but their social and intimate lives improve. It’s amazing the effect weight loss can have on a person’s life.”

For more information, visit http://www.brionesweightloss.com/.

Miriam Longobardi is a freelance writer, fourth grade teacher and single mother of two daughters living in Westchester. A breast cancer survivor, she volunteers for the American Cancer Society, has completed four marathons and travels the world. Follow her on Twitter @writerMimiLong.

The Health-Creativity Connection

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By Lynda Cohen Loigman

Lynda Cohen Loigman
Lynda Cohen Loigman

Throughout my life, I’ve done a lot of different things in an effort to be “healthy.” I’ve tried multiple diet and exercise regimens. I’m diligent about yearly mammograms and I go to my doctor when something doesn’t feel right. I’ve made an effort to reduce stress. I am mindful of mindfulness. It’s true I haven’t always succeeded, but since entering adulthood I have tried my best to pay attention to all of the factors that can shape a person’s physical and mental well-being.

Except for one.

For the longest time, I didn’t understand how important that one thing was to my overall happiness. For years and years, I ignored it, until I was practically ill from its absence.

As a child, I drew all of my older brother’s book report covers and made all of his shoebox dioramas. My parents didn’t know how to stop me. It wasn’t just the art projects–I tried to do his written work too. But by the time he got to seventh grade, I was banned from helping, and was told to find other ways to express myself. I made dolls out of walnut shells and tiny aquariums out of empty tic-tac boxes. I wrote stories and poems. I sewed and colored, and while I did those things I belted out every song I could remember from the annual television airings of West Side Story and The Sound of Music. My parents begged me not to spill glue on the floor. They asked me to stop singing so loudly in the kitchen. They told their friends I was “creative,” but it didn’t really feel like a compliment.

As I got older, it was hard to find time for craft projects, but I held on to a few creative pursuits. I wrote poems (bad ones) and I acted in my high school’s musicals. In college I was in an a cappella group. But once I was in law school, my creative life came to a screeching halt.

Don’t get me wrong–a lot of wonderful things happened to me during law school and throughout my legal career. I met my husband, we got married and had our first child. After eight years of practice, I quit my job and we moved to Chappaqua. A few years later, we welcomed our son and our family was complete.

When our youngest was in preschool, I had several hours to myself each morning. But the more free time I accumulated, the worse I felt. Despite the beautiful town we live in, the wonderful friends, and the daily satisfaction of helping to raise our family, I was discouraged. I went back to work part-time–but the sense of purpose I craved didn’t materialize. I was unhappy, and I was pretty sure I knew why.

The word creative is defined as follows: “relating to or involving the imagination or original ideas, especially in the production of an artistic work.” Was making paper dolls with my daughter creative? Making up silly rhymes for my son? Singing with my children, dancing, reading them stories? Of course it was. All of those moments were creative, important and incredibly precious. But there is a difference between creative play with children and personal creativity.

I have friends who are miserable unless they exercise vigorously every day. I have friends who have given up meat or dairy because it makes them feel better. I have friends who take medication to lower cholesterol or blood pressure or to curb painful anxiety and depression. So why couldn’t I recognize that I needed a creative outlet to feel healthy? Perhaps I knew already, but I wasn’t able to admit it. After all, isn’t that common when it comes to our own health and wellness? We put off exercise, we promise to start our diet tomorrow, we refuse medication that might help us because we see it as an admission of weakness.

I’m happy to report that I finally made my creative health a priority. It took turning 40 to give me the push that I needed, but I enrolled in a writing class, and after six years, I finished my novel. Now, writing is my medicine. The process, and all that comes with it, is as important for my personal health as any diet or exercise.

We all have things we need to do to stay healthy. Maybe your doctor has told you to stay out of the sun. Maybe you’re on Prilosec or Lipitor or Ambien. No one is going to give you a prescription for creative fulfillment, but that doesn’t mean you don’t need one. If you need a strong dose of it, chances are you already know. Hopefully you won’t wait as long as I did before you add it to your life.

Lynda Cohen Loigman, whose Chappaqua Library’s presentation is featured on the opposite page, grew up in Longmeadow, MA. She received a B.A. in English and American Literature from Harvard College and a J.D. from Columbia Law School. She is now a student of the Writing Institute at Sarah Lawrence College, and lives with her husband and two children in Chappaqua. She is a failure at enforcing reasonable bedtimes. Her first novel, The Two-Family House, was published recently by St. Martin’s Press.

Just Between Us – Reflecting on Hillary & to your GOOD HEALTH!

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new grace pixIn the midst of closing editions and approaching the New York primary–and with Chappaqua being understandably a place of such keen interest–I was interviewed by two very inquisitive reporters; the opportunity allowed me to reflect a bit on why I support Hillary Clinton so much. The fact is: The presence of Secretary Hillary Clinton in Chappaqua, New York, in New Castle, has made publishing in her hometown both joy and challenge; at times, I take a deep breath to retain my courage in doing so. Not everyone is for Hillary here after all. But I only want to tell them this: Hillary Clinton has had a profound impact on my life and I want others to benefit from the magic that is Hillary too.

I was thrilled to first get a more intimate sense of her in 2006 in a gracious sit down interview at Lange’s Deli, and over the years have observed her style and manner at so many local events; they are of the kind any one of us would do well to emulate. And then there was that precious, extraordinary 10-day trip to Africa. I watched her engage in diplomacy and exhibit a warm, mutual respect with leaders facing many challenges. It was stunning to see a lone woman leader at any number of conference tables and inside palace suites seated with mostly men tackling global issues. Not in the middle. At the helm. In charge. The spotlight was naturally hers. So comfortable in her own skin. So confident.

Secretary Hillary Clinton in conference in Kenya during a 2012 State Department mission.
Secretary Hillary Clinton in conference in Kenya during a 2012 State Department mission. Photo by Grace Bennett

I am hardly alone in my awe of this world leader! Hundreds of Hillary’s neighbors and most ardent area supporters inlcuding moi recently attended a wonderfully successful fundraiser on her behalf in the Mount Kisco home of Tracy Stein and Marco Masotti. We sat, or stood, inside a heated tent on the chilly morning of April 11, listening to Hillary Clinton share details of her platform; most notably, she seemed to place a particular emphasis on her commitment to gun violence prevention. Congresswoman Nita Lowey, who has spent a good portion of her political career fighting the gun lobby, was there too.

Tracy Stein with Hillary Clinton
Tracy Stein with Hillary Clinton

Our May print edition, arriving in homes soon, has 34 other pages with a comprehensive spotlight on 100 years of care at Northern Westchester Hospital. In the last couple months, I attended grand opening ceremonies there, one as a general celebration of 100 years and another to announce the opening of a spanking new, state of the art Surgical Suite. I asked Janine Crowley Haynes to report about 100 years of care and in her article, I was glad to read that the experience was so meaningful for her. This edition also spotlights four other extraordinary women for their genuine expertise.

We are also proud to soon share wonderful essays for your reading pleasure. I know you’ll enjoy our “Women and Good Health” theme throughout.