On January 28, Gainey Village Health Club and Spa in Scottsdale hosted Back to the Basics: How to Be a Healthy Human. Organized by Green Living Magazine and Garden Goddess, the expo offered attendees a one-stop shop for health and wellness information through a variety of seminars and hands-on experiences.

Garden Goddess’ Suzette Smith hosted a hands-on fermentation class with a recipe from her children’s book, Sasha and Sheila, and introduced cultured condiments that showed participants how to make a probiotic ranch dressing sure to please the most discerning ranch connoisseur with just two simple ingredients. Suzette also shared the importance of incorporating fermented foods into a daily diet, and everyone went home with an easy-to-use, veggie-filled fermentation kit to make at home. 

Event goers enjoyed classes on how to make mead, along with instruction in aerial yoga, and also learned about the latest health and wellness trends from leading experts who dove into topics like the power of the microbiome, botanical wellness, and restoring balance through acupuncture.

Dr. Rick Jacoby, a leading peripheral nerve surgeon and author of Sugar Crush, shared shrewd observations on sugar as the common denominator of many chronic diseases and discussed dietary changes that can dramatically help regenerate nerves and restore their normal function.

Between seminars, attendees mingled poolside with over 25 green vendors while listening to live jazz and noshing on delectable bites from Giving Tree Café.