Fruitful Elements

Specializing in nutrition for people with disabilities

The Blog

Welcome to Fruitful Elements Nutrition Blog!

Here you’ll find helpful, healthful nutritional tips and recipes to help you achieve optimal health and well-being. As someone who has lived with a spinal cord injury for 25 years, I fully understand the unique challenges you face in trying to stay healthy while living a full and active life. One of the keys to this delicate balance is proper nutrition. After sustaining spinal damage your metabolism is significantly altered and this can contribute to the development of a host of other secondary health complications, which can negatively impact your independence. Incorporating whole foods into your diet is an important way to help maintain your health, improve daily functioning, reduce the secondary complications that come with living with a spinal cord injury, minimize illness, and maximize your potential.

Latest Blog Posts:

Protect Your Precious Hands

Protect Your Precious Hands

Every winter our hands take a beating. It only takes a of couple weeks of exposure to chilly temperatures and wheeling through salty, sandy slush for our hands and nails to become dry, cracked and brittle. Sometimes even the warmest, water-proof gloves/mittens and deeply intensifying moisturizers aren’t enough to protect our precious appendages from the harsh elements. To help keep your skin and nails strong from the inside make sure to include plenty of the following nutrien

SCI Super Food!

SCI Super Food!

Summer is winding down, but most of us are still trying to soak up the last bit of sunshine! Who wants to be inside cooking over a hot stove when you could be outside enjoying the beautiful weather? So if you’re looking for a quick, nutritious seasonal food grab a zucchini. Zucchini, also called courgette, may just be a SCI super food. I know what you’re thinking-at first glance it doesn’t seem that impressive but check out the nutritional facts of this wee member of the squa

Spice Up Your Life & Boost Your Immune System

Spice Up Your Life & Boost Your Immune System

The immune system is a complex collection of cells, organs and systems found throughout the body. This dynamic system is responsible for protecting your body against infection and disease. It is well documented that people with a spinal cord injury (SCI) have compromised immune systems and are at increased risk of bacterial and viral infections. Furthermore, studies show that people with quadriplegia or complete SCI’s tend to have greater immune suppression than people with p

Spread a little love

Spread a little love

Most of the clients I work with are looking for healthy, fast, and easy to prepare foods that address the secondary complications associated with their SCI. I guarantee that this black bean spread not only does all that but you’ll love it! Simple to prepare in under 5 minutes, this non-cook “Love Bean Spread” recipe will keep in the fridge for up to 5 days and can be served as a variety of meals, side dishes or snacks throughout the day. Spread it on whole grain toast for bre

Nutrition for Neuropathic Pain

Nutrition for Neuropathic Pain

Neuropathic pain is unimaginable. It effects 29-79% of people with SCI and compares to no other pain. I learned this after a car accident 25 years ago. The collective pain of breaking my back, shattering my wrists, smashing my skull, puncturing my lungs and lacerating my internal organs didn’t rival the agony of the neuropathic pain I experienced from damaging the nerves in my spinal cord. My neuropathic pain is best described as an ice pick being stabbed into my bones every

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