RSSThe Healthiest Smoothie
September 16, 2008
300 days of the year, this is lunch, with a plate of steamed green vegetables. The other 65 days are a bit of a letdown, but you can’t be near a blender with your well-stocked kitchen all the time.
Sometimes, I see the food I eat through the eyes of my white-bread-and-Cheez-Whiz husband and I realize it’s funny. It looks like a chemistry experiment.
Oh well. I learned 10 years ago that I cannot eat what my family eats and look, feel, or think the way I want to. For some, that will just sound like too much extra cooking.
But that’s not the case. Mostly, it’s just more stuff in the fridge. Like everything else you set your mind to, everyone else will get used to it. Give them, and yourself, time to learn.
Ingredients Every Day
-1 banana, not too ripe (unless you love ripeness; I find them mushy, sweet, and have a higher glycemic load)
- 1/2c berries (straw, rasp, blue, mixed) (I buy the 2kg bags of frozen mixed berries, keep them in the freezer, and scoop the amount I want each day)
- ½ scoop natural protein powder (I use unflavored whey powder ; you could use soy protein powder too ; if you like the flavored ones, try to avoid real or fake sugar just because we don’t need more of either one)
- ½ tsp cinnamon
- 1-2 Tbsp psyllium fiber
- 2 Tbsp raw wheat germ
- 1 Tbsp fresh ground flax seed
- a few scrapes of lemon zest, maybe ¼-1/2 teaspoon
- 1c O.J. Not From Concentrate Extra Pulp (want to use milk? works fine) (use less if you like it thicker)
- 1/2c Pomegranate juice (I like the POM brand)
Ingredients Even Days
- 1 c. (or what looks like 1c.) chunks raw fresh pineapple
- 125g silken or soft plain tofu
Ingredients Odd Days
- 1 small (or half a large) mango, peeled and chunked (a steak knife will slice it off right to the stone)
- 1c plain 2% organic yogurt ( I like the taste of organic yogurt; it’s less watery, tastes more like a cream cheese/sour cream blend; I’ve also read that the live bacterial cultures are preserved better)
Ingredients When I Have Them
- ¼ c. fresh or frozen cranberries (buy the bags of fresh berries at Thanksgiving or Christmas for about $1.50 each; fire them into the freezer as is; use them all year)
- 1 Tbsp. extra virgin organic coconut oil (twice a week) ( set it in a warm place to liquefy and pour it into the blender while it’s running; otherwise, you’ll have little flakes of solid oil which will be esthetically not ideal)
Technique
Toss in blender. Buzz. Thank you very much, it was nothing.
An anti-oxidant bonanza, an anti-cancer festival, an anti-aging free-for-all.
Why Psyllium?
This powdery stuff comes from the husk of a seed. It contains both soluble fiber (like oat bran and legumes) to slow the rate at which sugar leaks into the bloodstream and so stabilizing insulin levels which is important for weight control and to lower cholesterol , and insoluble fiber (like AllBran) to promote regularity.
There’s some good info about it here.
You won’t even know it’s there.
Why freshly ground flax?
The excellent and important book, Cooking With Foods That Fight Cancer ( reviewed in the articles Book Review : Foods That Fight Cancer - One Book Everyone Must Read and Book Review : Cooking With Foods That Fight Cancer) contains an entire chapter on the wonders of flax seeds. They fight the types of cancers that are influenced by too much estrogen, breast cancer being the most familiar. Because they reduce inflammation, they have a general protective activity against many other cancers too.
It has to be ground flax seed to work its magic, and ground less than 2 weeks ago, and stored airtight in the fridge. I just grind a tablespoon as I need it. It’s much easier. My fridge is full of kale and Cheez Whiz.
I grind the flax seed in a Braun coffee grinder that is used only for that purpose. It works perfectly. It’s a little loud but you could pre-grind a week’s supply and keep it in the fridge. The coffee grinder comes in black also and costs about $20. You won’t be able to taste it. It adds a little grainy texture, as does the wheat germ but it’s a minor thing.
Your body is going to be so happy.
-->300 days of the year, this is lunch, with a plate of steamed green vegetables. The other 65 days are a bit of a letdown, but you can’t be near a blender with your well-stocked kitchen all the time.
An anti-oxidant bonanza, an anti-cancer festival, an anti-aging free-for-all.
Sites To Know : ChefMD
September 15, 2008
Since finding Dr. LaPuma through Heidi Swanson’s 101 Cookbooks site (see the article Sites To Know : 101 Cookbooks), I find myself visiting ChefMD often. I get the weekly recipes in my Inbox. I’ve looked at all the video clips and searched inside his latest book, The Big Book Of Culinary Medicine.
This book is now on my Christmas list. The Table of Contents knocked my socks off. If there’s a healthy food you’ve wondered about, it’s in here. Now, learn the best way to use it to reap its fullest benefit.
Dr. John LaPuma, M.D.
Rebecca Powell Marx
Dr. John LaPuma and Rebecca Powell Marx
I place more faith in his advice because he has such impressive medical credentials. He understands the implications of your medical test results or condition in ways that someone without the M.D. training, let alone a boarded internist, just can’t.
I’m not saying that a nutritionist needs an M.D. to be effective. But, perhaps because I’m also a product of North American medical training, I don’t believe that the scope and depth of comprehension about health and disease that an M.D. provides can be replaced by any other teachings. An internist takes it many levels beyond that, with a truly staggering understanding of the human body. (In Canada or the U.K., his designation would be M.D., F.R.C.P. (Internist).)
Since he’s also a professionally trained chef, and not some guy who taught himself to cook on Sunday afternoons, he can provide recipes and cooking tips to create truly delicious dishes.
You can read about Dr. LaPuma’s medical and culinary training and accomplishments on his About page . You’ll also meet Rebecca Powell Marx, the co-founder of Chef MD. She is a writer, TV producer, and marketing executive. Together, they bring you the art and the science of foods that can heal.
Food as pharmacy
Pills certainly have their place. So do acupuncture, SOME supplements, and many other conventional and less traditional treatments. However, we look to them all too quickly and bypass the power of food as medicine in the process. For many conditions, especially common ones like joint pain and depression, your medicine cabinet begins in your refrigerator.
Just generally feeling great is hard to measure, except by comparison to when you’re feeling rotten. Immunity is hard to see; it’s not like a broken bone or a rash. It doesn’t actually hurt in the moment when it’s not working well, like cramps or headaches. So we forget how much it matters, but it’s the cornerstone to health, present and future. By being satisfied with it working at half-strength, you’re using yourself as the gambling chips.
Overboard on pills and supplements
Why don’t we exploit the capacity of food for fighting disease all the time? There are no side-effects to diet and there’ s not a pill out there that you can say that about. It’s money you’re spending anyhow and it’s not more costly to eat this way. I’ve decided the problem is four-fold :
1. Not believing how much food can actually do to improve how you feel next week. Either you don’t believe food alone can do that OR the payoff doesn’t outweigh the effort (or it’s more fun to complain). And, after all, you don’t feel that rotten.
2. Feeling you just don’t have time to learn a new way of cooking. Life is too busy as it is. And cancer in 20 years is just too far away to take seriously.
3. You might be like my husband who combines the philosophies of “Nobody’s going to tell me what I can and can’t do” and “I might die tomorrow so I plan to enjoy every minute”. He would prefer not to live with back pain, but he’s not willing to do a thing to prevent it. He’d be anti-cancer if you give him a choice, but he doesn’t really believe the choice is his to make. I tell him he’s 70% wrong but he doesn’t want to hear it.
4. You have to take a little responsibility. That implies that some of this not feeling so good is your fault. And if the diet change doesn’t work, will that be your fault too? so maybe it’s easier to not play the game at all than risk defeat? Pills and supplements… if they don’t work, can you blame the pill?
The thing is, food change works for everybody. Is it going to happen in a week? No way. Pills are what works in a week.
You can’t change your weight in a week with diet. You can’t change your cholesterol in a week either with food alone. But you CAN change it appreciably in 4 or 6 weeks. In the long run, it’s the better thing, the cheaper thing, the safer thing.
I love dessert too
Sometimes you just need sugar, right? Believe me, you’re talking to a woman who gets it. I mean, really gets it. But I don’t need it all the time. Dr. LaPuma’s is not just a world of barley casserole here.
The Ginger Snap Apple Crisp with Sweet Cinnamon and Walnuts : fabulosity.
Warm Spinach Salad with Chicken, Grapes, and Toasted Pecans : So good , and cool to make; it cooks in white grape juice!
The Food As Medicine News is my favorite. Quick bits of information I can absorb into my life. I like the “Do this , don’t do that” style. Like “Add fat to your salad to absorb way more nutrients”. Oh, OK. Avocado and olive oil. Easy.
His blog is in Video format. He’s so into it that you can’t help but get a little excited. Like “yeah, yeah, I can do that”. He CARES about food as medicine like I CARE about skin care. I love this guy.
Can you tell I’m a true believer? Instead of salt and pepper shakers on my table, there are turmeric and pepper shakers. I’m finding places for fresh oregano in just about anything. I’m doing salmon twice a week (Pacific only). We all know about my commitment to quinoa. And I believe I make the Healthiest Smoothie out there, so I’m posting the recipe tomorrow. Wait till you see it! It’s not for everyone, but ChefMD’s recipes are.
In every recipe, as you browse the list, he’ll tell you what is special about the ingredients chosen from a health perspective. The same is true of the weekly recipes that can be delivered to you by email. The Health Tip and Cooking Technique Tip are included.
Some of the recipes are a little too fancy to feed the army of 4 that I have to fill up every day. The techniques are simple but the tastes are a little sophisticated. I have had kids for dinner that squeegee the sauce off each individual spaghetti noodle. So, adapt it. Triple the amounts to last the week and leave out the arugula, or substitute it for another food from that family.
The key is always about gaining knowledge to make better decisions in your daily life. It’s what you do every day that adds up to create the biggest impact. The 30 minute workout you get everyday counts; the hour every 3 weeks barely does. The flossing you do each day makes a big difference. Will the hour at the dentist once a year reverse the 340 days you didn’t floss?
All lasting change begins with learning. It is consummated in baby steps and the awareness that you never have to be perfect.
Make EVERY day count. Time is passing.
-->Since finding Dr. LaPuma through Heidi Swanson’s 101 Cookbooks site (see the article Sites To Know : 101 Cookbooks), I find myself visiting ChefMDoften. I get the weekly recipes in my Inbox. I’ve looked at all the video clips and searched inside his latest book, The Big Book Of Culinary Medicine.The Table of Contents knocked my socks off. If there’s a healthy food you’ve wondered about, it’s in here. Now, learn the best way to use it to reap its fullest benefit.
Read moreSITE TO KNOW : COOLIBAR
April 28, 2008
There is a previous article on sun protection in the Archives, entitled The 28 Sun Facts . It provides some background on sun protection. This is an area that evolves quickly because consumers, the skin care industry, the FDA, and the medical community all care about it.
The Coolibar objective
A private company based in Minneapolis, Coolibar’s mission is to develop superior sun protective clothing to allow people to safely enjoy life in the sun. They have researched and assembled an impressive inventory of effective and affordable clothing and sun-related products for the whole family.
Read moreDO NOT ASSUME SUPPLEMENTS ARE SAFE : 9 REASONS
November 25, 2007
Now here is a touchy subject! People seem to be strongly positioned on one side of this fence or the other. From my article on Foods That Fight Cancer, you know that I am in the ‘against’ camp.
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BOOK REVIEW : FOODS THAT FIGHT CANCER - ONE BOOK EVERYONE MUST READ
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Run screaming from the miracle drugs
Finding food advice that is reliable and founded on great research and common sense is as hard to find as makeup advice with the same attributes. Research has not discovered everything there is to know, not even close, but it’s not as far behind as people think.
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MATCHA TEA
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I wish I liked Green Tea
Does anyone out there really like Green Tea? I know I’m supposed to like it. I’ve had lots of different ones. Some are less bitter, some are just undrinkable, but none are great. White tea is awarded the same comments.
I force them down and try not to think about the [...]
I LOVE CHOCOLATE
October 12, 2007
Chocolate is not really a food for me. It’s a drug experience. It’s a chemical holiday. Thai food falls into the same category. When I eat it, I feel as though I’ve gone to another place. Nothing else in the food realm has this effect on me
Try the High Test!
I’m a dark chocolate fan. I [...]
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A Greener Tea
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