Todd Caldecott

Clinical Herbalist, Ayurveda Practitioner
RH(AHG), CAP(NAMA), RHT(BCHA)

18/03/2026

The carnivore diet is often promoted with the claim that fiber is unnecessary for human health. From my 30-year practice perspective, this claim does not align with anthropology, physiology, nor my clinical experience.

There are situations where temporarily reducing fiber can help, particularly in small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO). In this condition, bacteria normally confined to the colon colonize the small intestine, where fermentation of carbohydrates and fiber can produce painful gas and bloating. Reducing fermentable foods can relieve symptoms.

Some people also feel better on carnivore-style diets because they remove plant-derived antigenic compounds and anti-nutritional factors (ANFs). In individuals with compromised gut integrity or autoimmune disease, reducing these exposures can decrease immune activation. For this reason, elimination diets — including carnivore or modified Paleo approaches — can serve as useful therapeutic tools.

But a therapeutic strategy should not automatically become a permanent diet. Long-term avoidance of fiber often leads to fragile digestion and growing intolerance to plant foods. There is also substantial evidence that fiber protects against colorectal cancer, a topic I will explore in more detail in a future post.

Another observation: many strict carnivore adherents report bowel movements every two to three days or longer. Across traditional medical systems, including Ayurveda, daily elimination has long been considered a fundamental marker: not just digestive health, but many aspects of wellness, including cognitive function.

Even before modern microbiome science, mothers and grandmothers understood something simple: plants are not optional in human nutrition. So remember: eat your vegetables!

16/03/2026

A recent Pew survey asked people in 25 countries whether their fellow citizens are morally good or bad.

The U.S. was the only country where the majority (53%) said “bad.”

But in its neighbouring country, Canada?
92% said “good”.

The researchers tie this to cultural models: the American notion of the melting pot demands conformity, whereas the multiculturalism of Canada allows these difference to exist.

I’ve been thinking about how this shows up in medicine. Countries that embrace pluralism tend to be more open to traditional healing systems—Ayurveda, herbalism, Indigenous medicine—rather than insisting on one dominant framework.

Trust and openness transcends politics.

Some of you share my politics. Some of you probably don’t. But what connects us is older than party lines: honoring difference, and treating others the way we want to be treated.

That’s not idealism. It’s how trust is built. It’s how we move forward and create the kind of society that we ALL want to live in, i.e. the golden rule 💛

13/03/2026

People often assume that “holistic” spaces are inherently safer.

That a spiritual approach equals integrity, and that holistic medicine is somehow immune to the same power dynamics that appear everywhere else.

My experience — and the historical record — suggests otherwise.

Some of the most visible abuses in wellness communities have happened inside spaces that speak constantly about consciousness, healing, and awakening. The problem isn’t inherent to the traditions themselves. It’s the assumption that authority guarantees ethical behavior.

Even today, there are well-known practitioners who have perpetrated — and in some cases continue to perpetrate — ethical abuses while remaining largely unaccountable.

While we encourage those who have been harmed to come forward, it’s worth remembering that many ancient healing traditions already anticipated these risks.

Āyurveda, for example, contains the concept of sadvṛtta — right conduct of body, speech, and mind. Classical texts outline explicit expectations: restraint, ethical behavior, and respect for relational boundaries between teacher and student.

This is not merely professional etiquette.
It describes a sacred responsibility.

As a man working within these traditions, I believe it’s important to speak about these dynamics openly — not to undermine the traditions themselves, but to return our attention to their foundations:

Humility.
Respect.
Love.

The principles have always been there.

The real question is whether contemporary teachers are willing to live by them.

08/03/2026

These are the only photos I have of my time in Iran, taken around 1989 while I was travelling overland from India across West Asia. Of all the countries I visited, Iran left the deepest impression on me. I do not think I have ever encountered a people as consistently warm, generous, and welcoming as I did there.

In Shiraz I spent several weeks with a group of Sufi musicians and was even initiated into their brotherhood, an experience that remains one of the great honours of my life. That warmth, however, did not extend from the “Committee” (i.e. IRGC), that later grabbed me off the street—four men with machine guns—and threw me in the back of a pickup truck to interrogate me. That, however, is another story.

What I remember most fondly is the kindness and warmth of ordinary Iranians, a people whose history is among the oldest, reflecting a sophisticated people. The people of Iran—including its women, who have repeatedly shown extraordinary courage in standing up for their freedom in the face of repression—do not deserve to see their country reduced to rubble and their lives shattered by bombs. There were countless ways to support the people of Iran without choking their land in the dust of war and spilling the blood of innocents.

To celebrate violence against them is to abandon any claim to our shared humanity. We cannot lose site of the fact that this war is nothing more than a distraction from the true cause of our collective suffering: unrepentant and insatiable greed.

Only the question remains: what are we going to do about it?

12/02/2026

When conversations about spiritual teachers become polarized, it is easy to fixate on personalities.

In a 6th century CE classical text of Āyurveda called the Aṣṭāṅga Hṛdaya, compiled by the sage Vāgbhaṭa, the section on sadvṛtta (right conduct) describes ethical disciplines of body, speech, and mind. Under kāyakarma, or bodily misconduct, there is a category of infractions called anyathākāma, or improper desire. This includes sexual conduct that violates trust, exploits dependency, or transgresses relational boundaries.

The issue is not sexuality, as Ayurveda recognizes it as natural and even supportive to health, when governed by discernment and integrity. The problem is prajñāparādha, or “crimes against wisdom”, when desire overrides clarity and disturbs the balance of rajas, tamas, and sattva. Such conduct is said to deplete ojas, damage reputation, and undermine one’s capacity to heal or guide others.

Ayurveda does not exempt teachers from ethical conduct. It binds them to it. If we invoke the tradition of Ayurveda, as Deepak Chopra has, we are obliged to uphold its ethical architecture in full.

10/02/2026

Cashew is a botanical study in chemistry.

Native to northeastern Brazil, Anacardium occidentale belongs to the Anacardiaceae, a family that spans from mango to poison ivy. Many members produce reactive phenolic resins that can be intensely irritating. Even mango peel can trigger dermatitis in sensitive individuals.

What we call the “cashew fruit” is actually the swollen receptacle known locally as caju. The true fruit is the kidney-shaped drupe below it. Fresh caju is sweet, acidic, and slightly astringent, commonly consumed here as juice.

The kernel is energy-dense: ~45% fat, 30% carbohydrate, ~18% protein. Its fat profile is dominated by oleic acid (omega-9), with linoleic acid (omega-6) as the primary essential fatty acid. It is particularly rich in copper, with meaningful magnesium and zinc.

A close Indian relative, bhallātaka (Semecarpus anacardium), contains caustic alkyl catechols such as bhilawanols in its pericarp resin. In Ayurveda, once detoxified through repeated milk processing, it is used in conditions like āmavāta (rheumatoid arthritis) and asthma.

Cashew shells contain related phenolic lipids — anacardic acids, cardol, and cardanol — collectively known as cashew nut shell liquid. These compounds are structurally related to the irritants in poison ivy and must be neutralized before the edible seed is removed.

There is also a labor story. In Brazil and elsewhere, cashews are often shelled by poorly paid workers exposed to these caustic resins, leading to chronic burns and skin injury. Ethical sourcing matters.

For Canadian shoppers, I want to give a shout out to the folks at the NUT • HUT in Vancouver, a small business that takes care to ethically source their products. I buy all my nuts and seeds from them, and store them in my freezer to ensure good shelf life.

07/02/2026

Keep it real, friends!

05/02/2026

Avocado oil is often promoted as a “healthy high-heat cooking oil,” but this merges two very different products under one name.

Chemically, both extra virgin avocado oil and extra virgin olive oil are very similar. Both are dominated by oleic acid (typically ~60–75%); both contain chlorophylls, carotenoids, tocopherols, sterols, trace minerals, and free fatty acids; and both behave as true whole-food oils. These shared compounds provide antioxidant activity and nutritional value, but they also make both oils less stable under sustained high heat. In practical terms, extra virgin avocado oil behaves much like extra virgin olive oil: appropriate for salads, finishing, gentle sautéing, and low-to-moderate heat, not for frying.

The oil marketed for high-heat cooking is *refined* avocado oil. Through industrial processing techniques including degumming, neutralization, bleaching, and deodorization, naturally occurring pigments, antioxidants, trace nutrients, and free fatty acids are removed, leaving behind a simplified triglyceride matrix with a very high smoke point. And unfortunately, this high smoke point is achieved by stripping away the very features that make avocado oil comparable to extra virgin olive oil.

During deodorization in particular, the oil is exposed to temperatures high enough to generate altered lipid compounds and oxidation by-products that aren’t present in the fruit itself. These are the same classes of lipid derivatives associated with endothelial stress, insulin resistance, and inflammatory lipid signaling when refined vegetable oils make up a major portion of the diet.

Culturally, there is also an important clue. There is no traditional food culture where avocado or its oil is used for frying or high-heat cooking. Avocado has always been eaten fresh, mashed, or raw, reflecting its inherent heat instability as a fat.

Avocado oil can function as a whole-food oil, or as a high-heat oil, but it cannot be both at the same time. If you’re going to fry with an oil, the best options include ghee, regular olive oil, lard, tallow, or as they consume here in Brazil, red palm oil.

03/02/2026

Acerola, Malpighia emarginata, growing in my little garden here on Ilha de Boipeba.

The fruit is small, bright, and intensely sour because it is among the richest natural sources of vitamin C known in the plant kingdom. Fresh acerola can contain upwards of 5000 mg of vitamin C per 100 g of fruit, far exceeding citrus or even the much heralded amla fruit, used in Ayurveda.

While not native to Brazil it grows well here and is commonly consumed as food. The fresh juice is taken for colds and flu, fever, convalescence, and fatigue. It is used to support immune function, collagen formation, wound healing, and resilience to heat and sun exposure. Children often eat it straight from the tree despite the sour flavour.

Unlike isolated ascorbic acid, acerola delivers vitamin C together with flavonoids, anthocyanins, and carotenoids that stabilize and modulate its biological activity. This is one reason why the fresh fruit has a reputation locally as a health, and is more than just a vitamin C source.

01/02/2026

I’m here in Boipeba, a car-free island off the coast of Bahia in Brazil, our place surrounded by a tropical oasis full of plants I mostly don’t recognize. A few, however, are familiar. One became relevant after a shrimp moqueca left us with food poisoning. When he heard what happened, our very kind host Marcillio brought me a handful of fresh leaves from a plant he called “boldo,” with instructions to prepare as a simple infusion.

That caught my attention because I didn’t expect boldo (Peumus boldus) to be growing here. The herb of commerce I know as “boldo” is a tree native to Chile — a member of the Monimiaceae and related to the Lauraceae— that has tough, glossy, leathery leaves. The plant he showed me, however, was clearly something else: soft, pubescent leaves and a square stem characteristic of the mint family.

On closer inspection, I determined it to be Plectranthus barbatus (Coleus forskohlii). In India this plant is called Makandī, a lesser-known herb used in Āyurveda that I have utilized for circulatory and metabolic problems, including the treatment of glaucoma.

Here in Bahia, I learned that several different plants share the common name boldo. This one is sometimes specified as boldo brasileiro—the “Brazilian boldo.” While it has its own indications and uses in Āyurveda, it seems that locally it’s valued for digestive complaints and as a hangover remedy.

21/01/2026

Just arrived in São Paulo - on my birthday! 57 years young 😉 Had a great meal with coconut shrimp and cassava fries, and the went to “batman alley” to dance with my girlfriend and enjoy the amazing forró band ❤️ Check them out!

14/01/2026

I'm heading off to Brazil in a few days, and will be checking in here periodically for updates. I have had an affinity for Brazilian music for many years, and am looking forward to experiencing the country and culture first hand (and enjoying the sun!). I'll be there during Carnival and am being told that this is THE song of 2026. The lyrics of Ô Trampi (hey Trump!):

Pode aumentar imposto, pode espernear,
pode mandar cartinha, pode ameaçar.
Aqui tu não te cria, nós é caveira.
Laranja a gente come, fascista a gente queima.

You can raise taxes, you can throw a tantrum,
you can send letters, you can threaten.
You don't get away with anything here, we're tough.
We eat oranges, we burn fascists.

The reference to oranges is that the US doesn’t produce enough oranges for domestic consumption and thus imports from Brazil, but nonetheless put big tariffs on them and other things like coffee and bananas that the US doesn’t produce.

Also, the fact that Trump is orange-coloured.

Sharing some cross cultural love between 🇨🇦 and 🇧🇷.

Endereço

Beco Do Batman - Vila Madalena
São Paulo, SP
05436-100

Site

https://dogwoodbotanical.com/

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A little bit about me...

My name is Todd Caldecott, and welcome to my website! My training as a clinician in herbal medicine began in 1992 during my search to resolve a chronic digestive disorder I acquired while traveling on the cheap in India. In my search for relief I tried many different things including modern medicine, naturopathic medicine, homeopathy and Chinese medicine, but nothing seemed to shift my health issues until I met an Ayurveda physician named Dr T. Sukumaran. His simple and informed recommendations, which essentially taught me how to take care of myself, sparked what has now become a life-long fascination and study with Ayurveda and traditional medicine. Since this time, I went on to complete my training as a practicing medical herbalist, studied Ayurveda in India, and later becoming director of herbal college and publishing a textbook in Ayurveda. I have been in clinical practice since 1995, and have practiced all over the world, working with a variety of health issues from the common cold to cancer (for my c/v please click this link). Tradition is my inspiration. I explain this in large part because I was born without any kind of tradition. My cultural heritage is a product of being a native of the West Coast, now living in the traditional territory of the Tla’amin First Nations, on the western edge of the Western world – where East becomes West – suffused and tempered by the raw abundance and beauty of the Pacific Rim.

Tradition inspires but it is also the confluence of tradition that excites me, where connections and new insights can be made. As a practitioner with 20+ years of clinical experience, I have followed this intertwining of traditions and practices, and the more closely I have observed, the more clearly I have seen that all medicine has a common root. But at the same time, I have learned that there is no source of knowledge which is perfect, and thus the error of contradiction exists everywhere: especially in medicine. It has been my great fortune to see and learn the interconnected of all these systems, if only to account for some discrepancy, to solve a some conundrum, or to provide deeper clinical insight. I am interested in the very best option for good health and a balanced mind, and I am not hesitant in challenging beliefs and practices that run counter to these. But this doesn’t mean that I equate the value of health with anything other than the ease and happiness that it affords the user. Everyone makes personal choices, and I work with pretty much everyone. My only motivation is to get you to a place where you become more empowered. To book an appointment, please visit my clinic page at toddcaldecott.com/clinic.