The holidays bring feasts and family time. You can help yourself to seconds and be an inspiration, too. How? It’s the choices you make.

Our bodies are built to thrive and heal themselves, and do so given proper nutrition (as well as exercise, smoking cessation, stress management and community). Although mixed messages and diet-of-the-moment hype confuse us, thousands of science-based studies published each year keep proving that heart disease and other chronic illnesses are preventable and even reversible with lifestyle changes.

Author Michael Pollan’s well-known call to “eat (real) food; mostly plants; not too much” can serve as a simple guide. Nutrients in plants are designed to protect our cells and boost our immune system. While some MDs practice wellness-focused, functional medicine, the surprising fact is that most medical doctors get very little nutrition training. But you can take charge of your well being with positive adjustments. In turn, your vitality will inspire friends and family, too. 

For tools and science-based nutrition guidance, visit these leading uplifters and best-selling authors in the wellness community:

• John Robbins and his son, Ocean Robbins, offer the “Plant Powered and Thriving” online course, community forums, and much more via Food Revolution Network

• Michael Gregor, MD’s Nutrition Facts website uses humor and peer-reviewed studies to share current nutrition science, recipes and more

• Dean Ornish, MD has been at the forefront of research and programs supporting lifestyle changes. Visit Ornish Lifestyle Medicine

• Mark Hymen, M.D. directs the Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine.

• Joel Fuhruman, MD is president of the Nutritional Research Foundation

• Neal Barnard, MD, founder and president of Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, offers a Kickstart Intensive

• Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) offers a newsletter with recipes and more to help you stay on track

  — Hillary Black, Editor

Hook an opera diva up to an MRI machine and what do you get? For starters, some intriguing research results into how music and our brains work together. Superstar soprano and National Medal of Arts recipient, Renee Fleming, has shepherded and participated in Sound Health: Music and the Mind, a collaboration between the National Institutes of Health (NIH), The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and in association with the National Endowment for the Arts. 

Fleming and NIH Director Francis Collins, MD, PhD are bringing musicianship and neuroscience together in a study that looks at music, health and well-being. In an interview with Stanford’s Paul Costello, executive editor of Stanford Medicine, Fleming shared: “I went to the NIH and participated in an MRI imaging study that actually looked at my brain when I was performing. It’s an incredibly fascinating scan and it’s remarkable how much the brain is activated by music. It has a broader impact on the brain than almost any other activity.” She told Costello her goals for the initiative include bringing a wider awareness and support to music therapy as a discipline. “The second [goal] is to educate the public and enlighten people about the power of music to heal,” she said. To read the interview, go here.