Have You Kissed Any Pigs Lately? (Plus a recipe for juice)

The media is once again effectively spreading the "pandemic" fear.

Earlier I had done a post about the importance of vitamin D, and here is a link to one of my favorite blogs, The Heart Scan Blog, where the doctor discusses the link between immunity and Vitamin D.

Here is another link to an article written by Dr. Monica Hughes, PhD in Biology (she knows of what she speaks), about the source of this flu- horrific containment and treatment of our food-production animals. There is a link in her article about the reality of what we do to animals, and you will understand how these super- viruses mutate in these ridiculously toxic and brutal conditions.

When you are healthy, in tune with your own life, your immune system is available. If you smoke, drink alcohol daily, have unneeded anger or hate in your life, or are walking around with long standing grief or sadness, your immune system is distracted and not available to serve you.

We cannot stretch our immune system too thin.

I recommend juicing 4-5 times per week. Here is a combination of foods I juice together:

1 green apple
adds sweetness without too much sugar, vitamins and minerals, and is cooling and nurturing to the blood.
1 medium carrot
Vitamin A, supports the eyes
1 cup baby spinach
Vitamin A, Vitamin C. The leafy greens go to the liver to nourish and detoxify.
2 large leaves kale (with main stem removed)
Vitamin E, chlorophyll (builds blood), natural salty flavor enters the kidneys to detoxify. I once read a quote from a doctor where he said "Kale makes colon cancer cells commit suicide".
1/2 cucumber (skin on)
Cooling, nourishes blood and yin fluids, silicon in the skin aids in joint repair and encourages calcium absorbtion.
1/2 to 3/4 cup cilantro
Leaches out heavy metals, refreshes the liver, cools the blood.
1 large stalk celery
Drains damp (edema), silicon and natural salts repair joints, soothes arthritis, encourages calcium absorption.
1/2 inch piece fresh ginger. (organic, skin on)
Helps the stomach absorb nutrients, enhances immune system

This is a recipe that serves one. You can add some clean water if you need to thin it out a little.

Other good things to juice:
Beet (remove carrot if you add beet so as to not increase sugar content of juice), red leaf lettuce, dandelion greens (not too many, about 7-10 leaves), chard (avoid if prone to kidney stones).

Tips: Juice the kale and spinach with a piece of cucumber, as kale isn't super juicy and the cucumber helps the juicer do it's job on the kale.

You can see I do not juice fruit, except for green apple. Fruit is too high in sugar and creates an acidic environment in the body. Vegetables are alkaline, detoxifying, and soothing.

I do not encourage a totally raw diet for most people, but rather support a balance of raw and cooked foods. Always limit sugar intake, and keep grains to a minimum- always choosing whole grains and sprouted grains and legumes.

Do not forget about sodium. Salt in excess (on every meal) is a poison to the kidneys, even Himalayan salt. The natural salty flavor in foods such as kale and celery should be taken advantage of. Beware of the high sodium content in canned and prepackaged foods!

As far as juicers go, everyone has an opinion on which is "best". I have used Jack Lalanne's juicer for two years now and love it. Breville and Champion are also great. Do not go for the less expensive juicers, as they probably will break quickly. Jack Lalanne's juicer is about $100.

Green Monsters...

A fellow blogger refers to her green shakes as her "Green Monsters" and I thought it was appropriate!

I like to juice, and since receiving a VitaMix blender as a gift, I have been making shakes. I am not a fan of lots of fruit (too sugary), so I use veggies in my shakes. Here is a recipe for my main shake with a few ideas following:

1 c water
1/2 c homemade almond milk or pure coconut milk (or raw whole milk)
1/2 banana
1/4 c blueberries (frozen)
2 large Kale leaves torn, leaving out main stem
big handful baby spinach
Scoop protein powder occasionally (Jay Robb- very clean powder with Stevia. I like the chocolate)
2 ice cubes (the VitaMix warms up the shake as it blends- HOWEVER I do not believe we should ever drink icy cold beverages)

Blend on high for at least 1 full minute, adding water, coconut milk, raw milk, or almond milk as needed.

Other things to add:
Pumpkin (canned/ cooked)
Coconut butter
Cantaloupe (instead of banana)
Oil (raw avocado, raw pumpkin seed)

I drink this every day almost, usually using it as dinner if I'm not too hungry or just what to go to bed with a clean system. I also like to juice for dinner for the same reasons.

Everything you need to know to be/stay healthy!

Great 5 minute video on how/ what people need to eat. Funny, clear, and totally accurate!

Please please watch!

......

OK, now that you have watched, you may ask, "But Karen, I live in the middle of a major city! My best friend is not an organic rancher/farmer. I feel confused as to how to implement this into my life!"

Have I ever left you hanging?

First is to start simple. What is most important to you? Is it the reduction of sugar and grains in your diet? That's a good start. Start slow! Begin with sugary grains: cereal (even the "healthy" kind), no cake/ pie/ cookies for dessert, no waffles, pancakes (recipe for Primal Pancakes to follow). Set a limit for yourself at first, say you only allow yourself 2 slices of whole grain bread per day (I like this). You can then choose a piece of toast with your soft boiled eggs for breakfast, then a half sandwich with soup/salad for lunch. That means dinner will be veggies, protein, fruit dessert. (And maybe some organic chocolate... but I never said that...or a glass of wine...I never said that either...)

Maybe the first place to start is with manufactured food-type products. Raid your kitchen and get rid of boxes of things with more than 5-8 ingredients, packages that contain the direction "just add water". Canned soups (full of aluminum and sodium), foil wrapped "bars" (protein, breakfast, energy, meal replacement), pop-tarts, etc. You get the picture. How you get rid of it is up to you- donate it, toss it, have a "food-type product" funeral!

Margarine! Toss it! The last thing any of us need is more of this ambiguously named "vegetable oil". My Anatomy and Physiology instructor called margarine "tumor in a tub". Try ghee (clarified butter) or raw butter (Organic Pastures at Whole Foods).

Interested in fully grass/ pastured/ organic meat? A friend (Hi Elise!) sent me this great link, it's a guide to all grass fed animal ranches in the US. Get some friends and family together and place an order.

Revisit/ watch this 15 minute video I posted the other day.

Chant with me; "Leaf-y greens! Leaf-y greens!" Add handfuls of spinach to scrambled eggs, steam kale and serve with your favourite salad dressing (homemade preferably- dressing is crazy easy to make). A quote I read about kale, said by an MD, made me laugh out loud "Kale makes colon cancer cells commit suicide."

More to follow...stay tuned!

Free Movie!

Super Size Me is now playing on Hulu, interspersed with a few 13 second commercials. Good stuff.

The Milk Conundrum

I went vegetarian at age 15. (I am now what I call a "conscientious omnivore"- any meat I eat is organic free range grass fed- you know, all the buzzwords- and cooked by moi. I never refer to animals as "dinner", and I do not eat meat more than once a day) Somewhere in my late teen's, early 20's, I dabbled in veganism. The best thing being vegan did for me was eliminate my allergic reactions to inhaled triggers. I was allergic to cat fur for example. I was a veterinary technician, so I was living on Claritin and Benedryl. Stopping consumption of milk, butter, cheese, sour cream, etc..and my allergies were gone, and have stayed gone 10+ years later. I can now have dairy here and there without any negative side-effects!

So what I am getting at is I have been there done that in regards to the different "milks" out there. Soy milk was a staple until I learned about it's affect on hormones, and had begun to question processed foods. Plus it curdled in hot coffee. So there was rice milk. Rice milk is a problem because it contains a lot of carbohydrates and sugar (even the Original kind). Plus they all had Canola (blech) oil. Next was oat milk, which I just found disgusting. Then Hemp seed milk, but that too curdled in hot beverages, and just tasted funky...plus I think there was Canola oil or soy oil in that!

THEN it was almond milk. Argh! It curdles also, plus it has such a strong taste. I recently learned about an ingredient in almond milk called "carrageenan", which is used as a thickening agent. It is extracted form an algae called "Irish Moss". The fun part is, it causes cancer in the stomach lining and intestinal lining of lab rats. I couldn't win!

*Carrageenen is found in LOTS of things, notably also whipped cream, and non-milk milks. Read your ingredient labels, people!

But I did win! For my graduation my wonderful parents gave me a VitaMix blender. I looked at my toxic box of crappy almond milk and gleefully poured it down the sink. Liberation! I had come to a radical notion (please note sarcastic tone): I will make my OWN almond milk! Bwahahaha!

And I did and it is great! The flavour is mild, it doesn't curdle, it has no unwanted junk, and best of all, you don't need a VitaMix to do it! Just a good strong blender.

Homemade Almond Milk

Boil a pot of water, about 2 inches full.
Drop 1 cup of almonds into the water until they start floating, or about 1 minute.
Drain, lay on towel and pat to dry a bit.
Grasp almond between your fingers and squeeze. The almond will pop right out of it's skin! This is called "Blanching" an almond to de-skin it. Aim down when you do this, as the almond will slip out with some velocity and sail across your kitchen!

Dump this cup of naked almonds into your blender, add 3 to 3.5 cups of water and about 1/2 tsp vanilla extract. Blend on high for 60-90 seconds, depending on the strength of your blender.

Line a wire strainer with a layer of damp cotton cloth (just get it wet under the tap and wring out), such as a piece of your significant others Hanes t-shirt. *Make sure it is big enough to drape over the edge of the strainer, as you will be gathering this up to make a pouch to squeeze the liquid out.*

Hold cloth lined strainer over a large bowl, pour in some of the liquified almond mixture. Carefully gather up the cloth and squeeze gently from the top of the liquid down, like squeesing icing out of a piping tube. It will take a minute, and when it is all squeezed out, you will have a sort of crumbly paste. Rinse out cloth and repeat process until you have emptied the blender.

Refrigerate and use within about 5 days. Use it just like milk; cereal, coffee, tea, baking, drinking straight, whatever!

And "Go you!", for making something you usually get in a carton, on your own! And it's completely good for you!

Red Meat = Death?

I just read this article on Yahoo news stating that "older people" who ate "large amounts" of red meat and processed meat have a higher death rate from basically everything. The study showed that women who ate more red meat had a higher rate of death from cancer. The article is here.

I have copied the article, and will interject my thoughts in a contrasting color:

CHICAGO - The largest study of its kind finds that older Americans who eat large amounts of red meat and processed meats face a greater risk of death from heart disease and cancer. The federal study of more than half a million men and women bolsters prior evidence of the health risks of diets laden with red meat like hamburger and processed meats like hot dogs, bacon and cold cuts.

From what I can gather, this wasn't a study based on the servings of meat being "pure"- the meat servings were either processed or in hamburger form, which if you read my Do Not Eat Fast Food post, you would know that there is a ton of junk in just the bun of a fast food hamburger, besides the cheap grain-feed beef. (assuming that at least a marked amount of hamburgers the participants were eating were fast food...likely as these were Americans and there were 545,000+ people in the study). There are also ridiculous amounts of sodium, preservatives, and nitrates in processed meats.

Calling the increased risk modest, lead author Rashmi Sinha of the National Cancer Institute said the findings support the advice of several health groups to limit red and processed meat intake to decrease cancer risk.

I agree about limiting or eradicating intake of processed meat, and about limiting or eradicating intake of grain raised non-organic red meat. (Actually, any meat that is non-organic).

Speaking of decreasing cancer risk, there are many, many more things to do than decrease red meat and processed meat (I agree with the elimination of processed meat). Eat huge amounts of delicious vegetables, exercise, do not smoke, have love in your life, take vacations, do not use toxic products like chemical-laden body lotions, shampoos and soaps. Use natural household cleaners, get a shower filter.

The findings appear in Monday's Archives of Internal Medicine.

Over 10 years, eating the equivalent of a quarter-pound hamburger daily gave men in the study a 22 percent higher risk of dying of cancer and a 27 percent higher risk of dying of heart disease. That's compared to those who ate the least red meat, just 5 ounces per week.

In the context of the medicine I practice, meat is considered a tonifying or building food, especially red meat or lamb. As a rule, tonifying foods for people in developed countries need to be limited/ monitored, as most people consume too much food without enough quality energy expenditure.

Women who ate large amounts of red meat had a 20 percent higher risk of dying of cancer and a 50 percent higher risk of dying of heart disease than women who ate less.

Again, remember this study is basing it's findings on people who were not eating quality, non-processed organic meats.

For processed meats, the increased risks for large quantities were slightly lower overall than for red meat. The researchers compared deaths in the people with the highest intakes to deaths in people with the lowest to calculate the increased risk.

People whose diets contained more white meat like chicken and fish had lower risks of death.

In my medicine, while still tonifying/ strengthening, white meats are less so tonifying than red meat. Physiologically, this has to do with the leanness of these meats (leanness= fat content).

The researchers surveyed more than 545,000 people, ages 50 to 71 years old, on their eating habits, then followed them for 10 years. There were more than 70,000 deaths during that time.

Study subjects were recruited from AARP members, a group that's healthier than other similarly aged Americans. (this is an organization for seniors who are concerned with living the good life- travel, community, longevity, etc..) That means the findings may not apply to all groups, Sinha said. The study relied on people's memory of what they ate, which can be faulty.

In the analysis, the researchers took into account other risk factors such as smoking, family history of cancer and high body mass index.

In an accompanying editorial, Barry Popkin, director of the Interdisciplinary Obesity Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, wrote that reducing meat intake would have benefits beyond improved health.

Livestock increase greenhouse gas emissions, contributing to global warming, he wrote, and nations should reevaluate farm subsidies that distort prices and encourage meat-based diets.

"We've promoted a diet that has added excessively to global warming," Popkin said in an interview.

While I absolutely believe that our exorbitent slaughterhouse ranches contribute significantly to local pollution due to waste runoff seeping into groundwater, lakes, streams, and homes, there doesn't seem to be a way to accurately calculate methane contribution to "global warming" from cattle alone. Yes, methane is toxic. In a recent article discussing vegetarianisms contribution to saving the world, the author postulates that we currently have 100 milloin head of cattle in America awaiting slaughter or for dairy, yet in the time of pre-colonization Native American Indian-ness, there were easily 100 million head of bison roaming. Okay, but what there wasn't were 6.5 billion+ people, cars, planes, chemical plants etc. Our diet has promoted excessively to global pollution not only from our meat obsession, but also from our obsession of having whatever we want whenever we want regardless of native plant population or season, thereby necessitating excessive use of freight shipping, trucking, and importing- all of which pollute.

Successfully shifting away from red meat can be as easy as increasing fruits and vegetables in the diet, said Elisabetta Politi of the Duke Diet and Fitness Center in Durham, N.C.

"I'm not saying everybody should turn into vegetarians," Politi said. "Meat should be a supporting actor on the plate, not the main character."

I totally agree with this statement, especially for average Americans who do not weight train, bodybuild, or do Crossfit religiously. I also agree it should be done especially by increasing intake of vegetables, not breads, pastas and grains, all of which raise glycemic indexes and are being found to contribute to inflammation. (Hence eating grass fed beef, as we end up eating what the animal eats by eating the animal)

The National Pork Board and National Cattlemen's Beef Association questioned the findings.

No, really?!?! I'm shocked!

Dietitian Ceci Snyder said in a statement for the pork board that the study "attempts to indict all red meat consumption by looking at extremes in meat consumption, as opposed to what most Americans eat."

No, I would venture to say that what most Americans eat are the extremes in meat consumption...meat at all three meals, meat as a snack (jerky), processed meat, fast food meat...

Lean meat as part of a balanced diet can prevent chronic disease, along with exercise and avoiding smoking, said Shalene McNeill, dietitian for the beef group.

Umm...way to state the obvious.

So, what was the point of breaking down that article for you? One thing I would love to teach people to is to read articles like this objectively. It was also an opportunity to integrate my positions and viewpoints in contrast to published mainstream material.

Another thing that I hope people will learn to do is to read every label of every pre-packaged product they buy. In just the last month alone I have found (not in my own home or grocery store, of course) two mainstream food-type products to contain Sucralose (Splenda) without it being indicated on the front of the package. One was in Act II microwave popcorn Kettlecorn flavour, the other were Mission tortillas. The tortillas were marketed as being "Carb-balancing"- whatever that means- so I had to check it out. Listen, tortillas should contain 3 ingredients: Flour or corn, water, salt. These contained at least 10 ingredients, including hydrogenated oil and Poison- oops, I mean Splenda (labeled as sucralose). Needless to say I was stymied and angry.

Please please please read your packaged food labels! You are your only true defendant of your health! Make it a habit to be your own diligent advocate!

How To Have A Healthy Heart

As I am not a Medical Doctor, I link to a Medical Doctor.

I am linking to a great post written by a cardiologist, Dr. William Davis, about the new trend of adding sterols to edible products. (I am no longer going to refer to these things as food. They are now to be referred to as food-type products.)

The gist of the article is this:

"The FDA approved a cholesterol-reducing indication for sterols , the American Heart Association recommends 200 mg per day as part of its Therapeutic Lifestyle Change diet, and WebMD gushes about the LDL-reducing benefits of sterols added to foods."

"The food industry has vigorously pursued the sterol-as-heart-healthy strategy, based on studies conclusively demonstrating LDL-reducing effects. But do sterols that gain entry into the blood increase atherosclerosis regardless of LDL reduction? That's the huge unanswered question."

Again and again, the advent of the microscope shows itself as a blessing and a curse. Technology is yet again taking one minuscule component (sterols) of a perfect whole (walnuts, lentils, brown rice) and marketing it as a nutritional be-all and end-all miracle.

In nature, the quantity of sterols and stanols found as a micronutrient in the food source are minimal. A person would have to eat 50 pounds of produce daily to get the FDA (excuse my smirk) recommended .8 grams of plant sterols. No human I know would or could eat that much produce in a day. Doesn't that tell us something? They are not meant to be consumed in large, isolated quantities.

The minute we start isolating nutrients (sterols) to treat one thing (LDL), we run into trouble (The case against sterols, studies documenting its coronary disease- and valve disease-promoting effects, is building).

As stated in the last paragraph of his post:
"In my view, sterols should not have been approved without more extensive safety data. Just as Vioxx's potential for increasing heart attack did not become apparent until after FDA approval and widespread use, I fear the same may be ahead for sterols: dissemination throughout the processed food supply, people using large, unnatural quantities from multiple products, eventually . . . increased heart attacks, strokes, aortic valve disease."

Please take a minute to read the post by Dr. Davis, if you have not already done so.

I have said it before...we are all unwitting participants in medical experiments on a daily basis. Become analytical and take personal responsibility for your own health. Do not become complacent and gullible in the face of MARKETING! There are no quick fixes, and our body is a complete unit, NEVER to be reduced to individual parts and pieces!

Want to keep your heart healthy? Follow this list:

• Eat whole, unprocessed, home- cooked food. Eat vegetables, people! Eat dark green leafy things with abandon! If you have trouble digesting plants, steam them lightly, take high quality probiotics twice daily at a dose of 50 billion bacteria for two months. Experiment with pancreazyme or digestive enzymes. There are mixed opinions about the efficacy of digestive enzymes, but I have seen them work for people.
  
• Do not use a microwave. Microwaves heat by force, stimulating the water molecules inside the cells first, whereas ambient heat from a stove warms gently from the outside to the inside. Would you rather get warm from someone boiling water within your cells or by laying in a warm beam of sunlight?
  
• Exercise daily doing something you like! Get out there and play!
  
• Have healthy relationships. If you aren't, deal with it. Seek spiritual support and guidance.
• LOVE. Give and receive love every day. MANAGE YOUR EMOTIONS!
  
• Do not eat poison. Margarine, synthetic sugar, alcohol, cigarette smoke are DONT'S. If you are dealing with addictions, deal with them. I speak from experience, having been a smoker for 7 years. Haven't smoked for 8 years now, and never will again (except when second hand is forced upon me).
• Drink water. I am not talking "8 cups a day" here. Yes, there is water in tea and coffee. What I am talking about is to give your body, your blood, clean and pure water everyday. Just because we can live in an environment with constant white-noise, does that mean we should never escape to the mountains every so often to give ourselves some peace and quiet?
  

Heart health has three components, and we as a society only focus on the two that can be qualified, quantified, licensed, and certified: Exercise and Diet. The third component affecting Heart Health are EMOTIONS, most specifically Love. Anger, hate, resentment, criticism, jealousy, impropriety, rage, stubbornness, selfishness...all these emotions damage the integrity and well- being of the heart.

The Heart Trifecta:

1. Love/ Emotions
2. Diet/ Nutrition
3. Exercise/ Play

We must overcome this aversion we have to work, discomfort, and growth.

Yes, but could I make this myself...

This is a video clip from the movie Fat Head (which I haven't seen)

The way we live, work and eat now has never before been experienced. Technology, chemistry, cars, Big Macs, cell phones, x-ray, chemical "medicine"...I feel like a walking science experiment. I am living in a science experiment I did not sign up for. For years I have been aware that evolution takes thousands of years, and I know I have not suddenly evolved to be at- one with concentrated radiation, chemical preservatives, cigarette smoke with hundreds of chemicals, antibiotics, artificial lighting, etc..For years I have looked around wondering, "Is this OK?"

I have been doing a lot of thinking over the past few years about stuff. Basically, if that weren't here for me to use, how would I do this thing I am doing? Could I do this thing I am doing? These thoughts quickly turn to food. For example: Fake soy meat. If chemistry and heavy machinery were not available, I would not have this thing in my hand to eat. The chemistry and machinery have not been around for much time at all, so therefore my body is probably not recognizing this as food (it isn't food, actually). So my next question is, what would I eat if said things weren't around?

I am exploring these concepts now. One concept I am currently exploring the world of "paleo" or "primarian" diets (read: way to eat). Very interesting stuff. In a nutshell:

In plain language, base your diet on garden vegetables, especially greens, lean meats, nuts and seeds, little starch, and no sugar. That's about as simple as we can get. Many have observed that keeping your grocery cart to the perimeter of the grocery store while avoiding the aisles is a great way to protect your health. Food is perishable. The stuff with long shelf life is all suspect. If you follow these simple guidelines you will benefit from nearly all that can be achieved through nutrition. (courtesy of Crossfit.com)

Our bodies are amazing. Adaptable, rational, huge frontal lobes, thumbs, voice boxes, self conscious reality...couple that with surgical advancements and emergency medicine, and we are really an incredible species! But I ask this, just because we can, does that mean we should? Just because we can eat junk and drink alcohol and smoke and then roll ourselves into the hospital and let our surgeons and pharmacists patch us up and medicate us (at the expense and sanity of our loved ones), does that mean we should?

There are so many opinions out there regarding which diet is king. The diet that is king is the one that works for you on all levels; not just weight loss or gain but also hair and skin health and muscle tone maintenance. Soon, I will start incorporating the unique thing about food that The Zone, Paleo, McDougalling, Blood Type diet, etc. do not mention. This thing is the energetic quality within food. Food is not just something that should be broken down under a microscope and found to be only carbs, fats, proteins, Vit C, or the newest rage, Vit K2MK4.

The medicine I have spent years studying talks about nourishing aspects of food that cannot be seen in a lab. Rather, these aspects are regarded as a higher power available in food to promote longevity. Food as medicine. Some examples are using asparagus the help eliminate water accumulation in the body through the kidneys. Modern science tells us that this is due to the diuretic nutrient "asparagine". However, Chinese medicine practitioners knew the effects of asparagus many years before the technology was around to "prove" it. Celery is used in my medicine to treat something called "wind-damp" which roughly translates clinically as arthritis. We now know that celery is high in natural silicon which helps renew joints, bones, arteries, and connective tissue. My father swears by celery seed capsules for his arthritis!

I intend to write more about the food energetics found in the recipes I post.

Bonus: excellent article on soy written by Sally Fallon and Mary Enig, Ph.D.

Organic Hard and Fasts...

I am going to list foods that if you eat nothing else organic, these are the ones to choose:

1. Peanut butter- Peanuts, cotton, and soybean are crop rotated, highly genetically modified, highly pesticided. Not to mention this creates an Aflatoxin bonanza for the peanuts, which leads to liver damage and severe allergic reactions in humans)
2. All nut butters
3. Fats. Inc: Butter, eggs, oils (never eat Canola oil, it was genetically modified in 1974, an unsaturated, unstable fat prone to fragmentation-> free radicals. Look at your bottle of Canola oil. It says vegetable oil. Are your vegetables oily and fatty? Hhhmmm...Also think about the insane amount of Canola oil the average person ingests in their diet if they do not prepare their own food. Restraunts almost only use Canola 'cause it is CHEAP)
4. Dairy
5. Meat (at least hormone and antibiotic free)

Of course, I advocate eating at least 70% organic, but if you cannot, these are key players.

I will update list if I think of more!

Update:
6. Soy products- heavily pesticided and commonly genetically modified, hence, also make sure it says GMO- free
7. Corn- same as soy, needs to be organic and GMO free. You will find this difficult, as corn is in a ridiculous amount of foods. Michael Pollan in his book Omnivores Dilemma posits that our nutritional demise all starts with corn...

Hard and Fasts...

Rules, people. Rules.

I am going to create a series of posts about DO NOT's. Let's just say I have a few. These are rules for people who want to be genuinely healthy, inside and out. For people who really understand food is not just this thing we do, but rather is who and what we are. You know that old adage "You are what you eat"? It's true.

What ever you ingest, your body has to deal with it. If you eat an orange, your body is happy. It says "Fiber, you go over here. Vitamin C, you are very important, you go here, here, aaaaannnnnd here. Ooohh, look at all that potassium!".

Now think about what your body would say about a Big Mac: "Yay lunch! My owner takes such good care of me! Okay, what have we got here? Alright, I can make out some protein and fat. Here's the bread! I see Enriched bleached wheat flour. Well, can't do much with that. Yuck, synthetic vitamins! I'll just tuck those away over here and deal with those later. High fructose corn syrup, Okay, I can pull some fructose calories and use those for energy. Whats that? We're already dealing with over 1000 calories in the whole meal? Start packing all this away as fat, people! Our owner won't need all this today! Okay, micronutrients, what have we got? Ammonium chloride. Diacetyl tartaric acid esters of mono- and diglycerides. Sodium steryol 2 lactylate. Artificial color. partially hydrogenated soybean, corn, canola, and/or cottonseed oils. Fungal enzymes?!? Calcium disodium EDTA. I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed! Oh jeez, here comes the soda! Why does my owner keeps doing this to me? I just want to keep my owner happy. What's that? He just got a call from his doctor saying he is hypertensive and pre diabetic? Oh no, now he is mad at me and thinks he can't trust me and that I am this uncontrollable thing!"

(Don't believe me? Just go here. Have some fun looking at Big Mac Buns. While you are at it, check out the fat free vinaigrette dressing. It has propylene glycol alginate. Just Google some of those words, and then guess if any of that is found in a carrot, an avocado, lettuce, or Rudys Organic Whole Wheat Buns...)

So can we guess what today's DO NOT is?

DO NOT EAT FAST FOOD.

Forget it exists. Drive by these joints and be glad you have chosen to respect your vehicle (your body, not the car, silly!). IT ISN'T FOOD!

It is chemically laden intentionally addictive JUNK. Go home and spend 15 minutes making your own burger if you really want one.

I am living proof that you can live with out fast food. In 10 years, I have had bites of a Subway veggie sub 3 times. It has been at least 14 years since I have had Mc Donalds (Mc Death as I like to call it), Burger King (Booger Fling), Carls Jr, Taco Bell (Toxic Hell), Wendys, Arbys, the list goes on and on...wait! 7 years ago I had a Bean burrito from El Pollo Loco. At least they admit their chicken meat is crazy!

Listen, it's just a choice. A choice to see clearly and choose yourself. And if you make the choice to not eat fast food, in three years, when you are on that road trip with your kid to their new collage, and you drive longer than you thought, and are crazy hungry, you can pull into an El Pollo Loco and order the bean burrito, or go to Arby's and get the least offensive thing, and eat it. Because your body CAN deal with the occasional surprise.

Simple, delish fish recipe

This recipe caught my eye over at the website for Tao of Wellness. This is the website of the Drs. Maoshing and Daoshing Ni, owners and founders of Yo San University, my Alma mater. This recipe in particular comes from Dr. Mao, under the intention "Heart Health", and originally uses salmon. Since wild caught salmon is so over fished now, hubby and I opted for wild caught cod. It was a wonderful substitute.

Basically what I am giving you is a sauce and cooking instructions, both of which are from the Mao's recipe. His recipe gives you more stuff to do with it, like eating as a salad, with the sauce as a dressing, and cooking leeks with it. We tried cooking the leeks with it, but I think they were too big, as they didn't cook all the way through.

So with no further ado, here is an extremely simple and delicious fish dish!

14 oz Cod filet (serves two)
sliced fresh ginger

1/2 c. Rice vinegar
2 T. white miso
1/2 to 1 tsp. powdered ginger

Heat oven to 375.

In a saucepan, warm the vinegar. When warm, add in miso and ginger powder, stirring to combine.

Lay the cod on a sheet of aluminum foil, gathering up the edges to make a bowl shape. Lay the slices of fresh ginger over the fish. Spoon the sauce over the filets.

Roll the edges of the aluminum foil together to make a tent.

Bake for 30 minutes.

Options:
Leeks- slice in half lengthwise, then slice the halves into thirds lengthwise. Place over filet, over the ginger, and pour sauce over the whole thing. Tent and bake.

We had this tonight with the Celeriac and Parsley soup. Yum!

Celery Root and Parsley Bliss; An amazing, simple soup...

This soup makes you feel the way you felt the first time you laid eyes upon your high school crush- hopeful, slightly breathless, and kind of peacefully exuberant! However, unlike the highly unpredictable outcome of said high school crush, the end result of this soup recipe will turn out brilliantly!

Celery Root (Celeriac) and Parsley Soup

**First a word to the wise. Peeling celery root is a workout. Just use a sturdy vegetable peeler, but have a knife handy if you really need to slice something off. I got through one and a half roots before needing to bring in hubby reinforcement!

Coconut oil (Olive is fine also)

½ yellow onion, sliced into half-moons

2-3 voluptuous cloves garlic

2 large celery roots, totaling about 2-2 ½ lbs, sliced into ¼ inch thick slices

8 cups broth, or enough to cover celery root (I used one carton Imagine Organic reduced sodium chicken broth, and one container Imagine Organic no- chicken Chicken broth. They make a lovely combination)

1 fluffy bunch flat leaf parsley (rinse well, chop roughly)

Optional to add at end;

Lemon juice

Salt

Black pepper

In a large pot, sauté onion in about 1 tbsp coconut oil until slightly translucent. Add minced garlic, sauté 1 minute more. Pour in broth and add celery root. Bring to a boil, reduce to simmer and cover. Cook for about 40 minutes. When celery root is fork-tender (think mashed potato texture), turn off heat. Let cool for a bit, say 15 minutes.

Ladle out extra broth into a separate bowl. You will add this into the blender shortly.

Add the bunch of parsley to the main pot, try to use mostly leaves, some stems are OK, mix in well. Scoop out 2-3 cups of the soup into the blender. Blend until smooth, adding some of the broth back in for desired consistency (I used it all throughout the 3 batches I blended). As you blend each batch, pour it out into another pot.

*If you run out of broth to add, use water, just not more than ¾ cup max, so as not to dilute flavour (yes, I tend to add in extra U's- it's the old English romantic in me I suppose).

TASTE. Then decide if you want to add any of the optional ingredients. Personally, I didn’t.

Not one of the three people I gave this soup to had ever tried celeriac, let alone eat parsley, and they all LOVED it.

Excellent for dinner or an early light breakfast with a soft boiled egg on the side!