Plant Foods And Phytochemicals

My love for vegetables has no limits. I eat them several times a day even for breakfast. If not leftovers from dinner the day before, I make a salad or a green drink. This has not always been the case. Just like many other children, I hated spinach, red beets and turnips. My mother always made me eat at least one bite to get the taste. It worked. Later on in life I became adventurous with all kinds of exotic greens that I ate without batting an eyelash, wrote about and sang their praises.

This is one of the times to praise again. I want people to really understand that vegetables contribute in a major way to sustained health. I am not talking about French fries and fried onion rings. Although in their natural state, these are potent providers of vitamins and antioxidants.

Vegetables are best when fresh from the garden. However, that freshness is definitely lost when bought at the super market. By that time it has traveled distances, rested on shelves and been rained upon by the store’s personal rain. Vitamins, minerals and valuable active plant chemicals went down the drain because most are water-soluble and oxygen sensitive.

Fresh, organic food can be bought on any given day at farmers’ markets around many small towns and in cities.

These are the ones I am talking about. They are powerhouses of potent, disease-preventing antioxidants. Antioxidants repair what free radicals and oxidative stress destroys. Some of the destruction is due to normal metabolic processes and effectively taken care of by the body’s internal enzymes. If we eat foods containing antioxidants, we help the body to heal, repair and restore.

Bioflavonoids are a class of plant chemicals found in citrus fruit and all vegetables. Allicin, for example, is in garlic and onions.

Allicin reduces the risk of blood clots, is good for heart related problems and lowers cholesterol.

Rutin found in buckwheat is used to strengthen blood vessels, for capillary flexibility and hemorrhoids.

Lycopene in tomatoes is strongly recommended for the prevention of prostate problems. Suggested is to cook tomatoes for lycopene to become effective.

Lutein and zeaxanthin are in eggs, kale and many fruits and vegetables. They protect the eyes, vision and prevent oxidation leading to macular degeneration.

Curcumin is the active antioxidant in the spice turmeric. It is well known now that turmeric is a very potent antioxidant as it is anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer. It is recommended to buy turmeric root fresh to get all the benefits of this spice not only the isolated active ingredient curcumin.

Anthoncyanidins are in wine and grape juice, beneficial in cardiovascular disease and to fight cancer.

Indoles and dithiolthiones are found in all cruciferous vegetables and are known as indole-3-carbinol or DIM. Indole-3-carbinol converts in the body to diindolylmethane DIM for short. Glucobrassicin is the precursor to indole-3-carbinol in cruciferous vegetables. The amount of this phytochemical depends on the way the vegetables are cooked. Steaming in a small amount of water is recommended because it leaches easily into cooking water. Drinking the cooking water in this case is an idea.

Studies have shown that indole-3-carbinol or DIM prevents the development of many cancers in particular estrogen driven breast, endometrial, and cervical as well as colorectal cancer.

Another class, isoflavones, containing genistein comes from soybeans. It was found that indole-3-carbinol works synergistically with genistein and can be used in lower concentrations together as prevention.

Phytochemicals have been studied for a long time and many pharmaceutical drugs originate from them. There are many more phytonutrients not known to us but will be revealed through future studies.

Healing medicines are in nature’s kitchen. We only have to make use of them. Eating vegetables is an obligation we owe ourselves. Starting with only one a week, you will see that after a while you cannot live without beautiful colors on your plate.

Asparagus Messenger Of Spring

It is April and asparagus is in season. Although a spring vegetable but available all year long due to technology and easy transportation, it never tastes as good as it does when in season fresh from the farms or farmer’s markets.

Who does not love asparagus even if it makes pee smell funny? If you ever wondered about this, studies as to why are inconclusive because it does not happen to everybody. It only occurs in two out of three people and the smell may only be noticed by one of the two. Strange! Some say the odor, if noticed, comes from sulfurous elements in asparagus others from asparagine, a diuretic that people who lack the gene cannot break down. As to being sulfurous, sulfur is in many vegetables and is a good thing.

Asparagus is very nutritious to say the least. High in vitamin K, B vitamins, selenium, copper, manganese, phosphorus, potassium, zinc and iron it also contains inulin, a prebiotic maintaining healthy gut bacteria. Asparagus also contains glutathione an antioxidant that has been studied for its effect as anti-cancer agent and saponins for their anti-inflammatory properties. Saponins are plant nutrients found in many plant sources as for example beans and yams.

Other phytonutrients in asparagus are the bioflavonoids quercetin and rutin. Quercetin provides relief in inflammation caused by allergies. Rutin strengthens blood vessels and capillaries. Besides this wealth of nutrients, it is high in fiber and, above all, very low in calories only 35 calories in one cup of cooked asparagus.

Asparagus root, shatavari, is used in Ayurvedic medicine to heal female disorders, to increase lactation and ease menstrual pain. It is equally preferred in Chinese medicine.

Asparagus comes in green, red and white. The white eaten mainly in Europe is grown without sunlight kept submerged in sandy soil. Even without chlorophyll it is still a nutritious vegetable.

There are male and female spears. The male is skinny, the plump female. Even vegetables prefer roundness in their females!

Homeopathy has Asparagus officinalis as a remedy in its materia medica. Although not one of the polycrest remedies, it is used for various problems like different headaches, coughs with stringy mucus and rheumatic pains in the back.

Reasons for eating this wondrous plant are plenty. If eating merely steamed does not appeal, sautéing in broth or butter with a preferred seasoning hot or cold can be the crowning to a wonderful meal.

The pictured dish contains spiced red lentils, chicken sausage and plump, steamed asparagus. A complimentary combination that filled the spot.

For more info visit : http://www.bodyiqonline.com/

MY HEART, MY BONES, MY BRAIN

These are three parts of the anatomy  that always need a lot of attention and deserve the highest quality organic food with good fats, proteins and complex carbohydrates. Heart, bones and brain can be boosted through exercise and appropriate food or even supplements to function optimally.

The heart loves a walk around the block several times a day to reduce stress, blood pressure and to dissolve anger.  Anger can strangle the heart. Turn angry thoughts into neutral or loving ones before Mondays. Most heart attacks happen on Mondays. Green drinks are good to deflate stress and to keep the heart healthy.

Bones need to get stressed and lifting weights does it. A twenty-five pound kettle bell or any weight that can be comfortably handled will be just fine..

Recently and surprisingly a healthy food for bones mentioned was prunes, Four prunes a day taken regularly can stop the demolition process and promote rebuilding through phenols, which stop erosion to cells. Prunes also contain vitamin K, important for plugging calcium into the bone.

It is recommended to eat breakfast for brain health. The brain is metabolically active through the night and needs food to replenish the loss. Appropriate foods for the brain are walnuts, sardines, anchovies, herring and Atlantic mackerel from Canada. The latter is lowest in mercury and has the best eco-rating. To keep the brain in working order throughout the day give it sustaining foods not quick sweet fixes. Nuts, seeds, fruit and yogurt are bolster foods and preferred as snacks. Learning new things, dancing, reading and, above all, good friends to communicate with will keep the brain remembering and reliable.

This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged anger bad for healthart, brain food, green drinks for the heart, herring, osteoporosis, walnuts sardines, weight-lifting for bones on November 29, 2014.
DIETING IS A NO-NO HOLISTIC NUTRITION IS THE WAY
After the holidays there is a rush on dieting. People are desperate to shed added pounds in a hurry. Unfortunately, this is done at the expense of good nutrition and necessary calories.

The first thing dieters resort to is skipping meals and the first meal to go is breakfast, the most important meal of the day! Breakfast means breaking the fast maintained through the night. During the night the body uses up nutrients to keep alive. The heart keeps on beating, kidneys keep their function and so does every organ due to a good dinner.  As a result of a busy night shift, the body is depleted in the morning.

Crash dieting with food deprivation is detrimental to health and only leads to gaining lost weight back quickly.

Not only is the body starved, the brain even more so. The brain metabolically active at night as well needs a cocktail of glucose, oxygen and well-circulating blood. A nutritionally dense breakfast with all three micronutrients and cofactors like vitamins and minerals is important to replenish what is used up.  A run around the block or a trip to the gym helps to fulfill requirements.

It’s easy to forget that the brain is part of the body and not some cerebral network balanced on top requiring no earthly nourishment. The first bite of the day eaten is literally “sucked up” by the brain. One must make certain that there is enough food to go around. Neither brain nor body should be left behind.

Crash diets are damaging to the brain. If we don’t continuously supply nourishment, there will inevitably be deterioration. This may not be permanent, but you may forget where you left your keys, names or phone numbers. A healthy diet, exercise to supply oxygen and circulation  into the brain, is really all we can do now to prevent problems later. We don’t want to be taken care of, we want to be independent in our later years..

Stress from many areas hits us daily.  The nervous system is the unfortunate recipient because stress can lead to problems like depression, obsessive-compulsive behavior, adrenal fatigue and memory loss. In order to fight stress we first have to look at high quality food eaten regularly and, again, exercise. Besides those two important generators of good health, calming modalities like meditation or mindfulness training should become part of a daily routine. A few  moments of quiet can be fitted in just like brushing teeth.

When young, we never think about old age. It will come, as sure as the seasons. It would be great at that time to sport a sharp mind, limber body and due that be in the position to enjoy what we worked for all our lives. We just have to plan ahead now.

If you have to lose holiday weight do it sensibly by eating enough real, high quality food, unrefined and organic, so your brain never falls short. Good nutritional advice fitted to your individual needs that is easily incorporated into your daily routine might be a good idea if you get stuck.

Remember, holiday eating continues throughout the year. Valentine’s Day is just around the corner then Memorial Day and so on, you get the idea. Always eat wisely.

ALTERNATIVES TO THE FLU SHOT

The flu season is back, which sets in motion the run for a flu shot and the promise of getting one free.

With so much controversy surrounding flu shots every year, we should not make quick decisions and get one as soon as the flu season starts. We may not get the flu after all, but we submitted to a vaccine that holds potential harm and its worth has not been proven.

So, what can one do? The following alternative remedies have been used for many years to support the immune system and to lessen, if not cure, colds and flu each year. We always have control over our body with food and exercise therefore it is the first item on the list.

·      Support the immune system with healthy foods and exercise.

·      Add supplements to strengthen the thymus gland. The thymus gland produces T-cell that fight bacterial and viral invaders.

·      Maitake, Reishi and Shitake mushrooms are strong immune boosters. Maitake and Shitake mushrooms are good to eat. Reishi can be taken in capsule form or as tea.

·      Oregano Oil and Grapefruit Seed extract.

·      Vitamin A, D and C. It is best to get vitamin C from natural whole food sources like Camu Camu or Acerola Cherries.

·      Echinacea, Goldenseal and Andrographis fight acute infections and help with respiratory problems.

·      Astragalus is especially important for chronic immune depletion.

·      The homeopathic remedy Influenzinum, which is prepared from current year viruses, can be taken as a preventative. There is a protocol for administering. It has helped many of my clients over the years during the flu season. It is effective and inexpensive.

·      Oscilococccinum is another homeopathic true and tried stand-by that is readily available as well.

Besides all these, there is Chinese Medicine with herbs and acupuncture to help through the season. One does not always have to resort to vaccines that have not been properly tested. Think before making your decision. Your overall health will be better and stronger for it. Trying any of the above mentioned alternative herbs and vitamins for a season will never hurt you

YOGURT A PERFECT FOOD

Yogurt is a perfect food. It supplies protein, carbohydrates and fat. Besides, it is fermented with live bacteria that are beneficial to health.

Live, good bacteria multiply in the gut populating, fighting and keeping in check bacteria that are not healthful and which could gain the upper hand if healthy conditions are not maintained. Just like your house, keep it clean or you will be overwhelmed with dirt which takes weeks to clean instead of the regular Saturday.

However, when looking at the grocery store shelves, there are so many varieties of yogurt crowding out other milk products. Which one to buy is the big question, but should not be since you only have to look for yogurt made from cows’ milk treated without hormones and antibiotics. Preferably it should be made from raw milk, but that is another issue.

Yogurt should be from organic milk and contain only live bacteria L. Acidophilus, Bifidus, L. Bulgaricus and S. Thermophilus. Always read ingredients and don’t buy anything that has added sugar, modified starches or preservatives or you are defeating the purpose of a really good food.

Add your own fresh fruit and buy full-fat varieties , not the low-fat ones. Fat is good, even butter fat if it comes from cows raised healthy and humanely. For more info visit : http://www.bodyiqonline.com/

Spicey Salmon with Maple Syrup and Hemp Hearts

I watch Food Network to get ideas how to revise their recipes to achieve better nutrition information, less of polyunsaturated fats and less sugar. This particular recipe called for sugar, but sugar is not a preferred condiment. It adds calories without value. Since there are sweeteners that have vitamins, minerals and antioxidants, maple syrup or honey for example, it is better to substitute these when sweetness should make a difference in the outcome of a dish.

I believe sugar would not be as bad if it were unrefined. Vitamins and minerals that help in metabolizing sugar would be present. The recipe from The Kitchen called for brown sugar, pepper and salt for a salmon rub.

To find out what a sweet seasoning would do to a fish, I used maple syrup together with hemp hearts.

To my surprise, maple syrup with salmon, although hard to imagine,  works unexpectedly well.

Carrots of different colors and onions complemented the salmon. The dish was sweet and spicy, a perfect combination. Salmon and carrots were cooked in coconut oil.  This oil has medium chain fatty acids that are not deposited as fat and are quickly metabolized and used for energy.

Experiment with food and travel the adventurous road to wellness, you will like it. With this dish, you are getting a double dose of omega 3 and a good amount of vitamin A.

Sauerkraut Season Juniper Berries and More

After a pervasive search for Juniper berries, I finally found them. Their piney, earthy, but also sweet flavor inspired the determination to incorporate these berries into one of my favorite foods of the season: Sauerkraut. Besides being a tasty food, Sauerkraut (fermented cabbage) is a first-class probiotic that replenishes the digestive tract with good bacteria. While our digestive system exists in symbiosis with beneficial and adverse bacteria, the beneficial flora must outnumber the adverse in order to maintain balance. Therefore, when included in the diet, fermented foods sauerkraut, yogurt, natto and kimchee create a healthy environment in the digestive tract.

Juniper berries enhance fermenting cabbage with a piney, earthy, but also sweet berry flavor. Only a few are needed to achieve this unique taste.
Juniper berries are also used as seasoning for other foods. They give a surprising flavor to a bite in salads, soups and sauces and are part of familiar pickling spices. But pairing Juniper berries with cabbage adds even more distinction to sauerkraut as well as providing more health benefits.

Besides their wonderful piney aroma, Juniper berries have medicinal value. They are excellent for stomach and digestive ailments. They are cleansing for the blood and kidneys and are diuretic. As children we were given Juniper berries to eat as a spring cleanse. Starting with chewing one berry on the first day of spring and ending with thirty berries thirty days later and then doing it backwards. We thought no sickness would befall us during the year and it hardly ever did, or so I remember.

It is worth to take a closer look at spices. Although exotic in flavor and name, with experimentation, they will become familiar in the kitchen and even the medicine cabinet.

Over the past decade, turmeric, cinnamon, oregano have been celebrated for their powerful healing properties. Turmeric for example is lauded as a go-to for brain health, to reduce inflammation, pain, joint problems, colds and viruses. Oregano as well has a long list of ailments it supposedly alleviates. Cinnamon balances blood sugar. It is often used in diabetic conditions. These and other spices with health benefits could be used daily to enhance food. It is done in India. If flavors seem too dominant, turmeric as an example can easily be hidden in food since its taste is unobtrusive.

Seasons for spices never end. During the winter holidays in western countries is when spices are used mostly; these are the pumpkin spices, cloves, nutmeg, mace and cinnamon.

Spices have medicinal essential oils, clove oil for example. It is used for toothaches, as an antiseptic, in perfumes and to improve digestion. Cloves are used to expel parasites.

Nutmeg and mace grow from the same tree. It is a fruit that when ripe opens to expose a beautiful, scarlet mace membrane that covers the brown, oily nut inside. Both spices, mace and nutmeg, are now common flavorings, but over centuries these were used in Ayurvedic and Arabian medicine and in 17th century Europe they were considered cure-alls for many ailments.

One can find these spices and many more in stores, but there are big differences in levels of quality. The best quality cinnamon for example comes from Ceylon. The flavor cannot be compared to what one finds sold as cinnamon, which is cassia bark, the outer layer of real cinnamon.

The best vanilla comes from Madagascar. The bean is more flavorful than extract. Vanilla bean steeped in bourbon makes a fine extract. Cut out and use the soft inner part before adding alcohol.

Spices, and not to forget fresh green herbs, are healing and delicious. Not to include them in our daily diet is an opportunity missed. Achieving and sustaining good health ought to be our foremost concern. Looking into the far corners of the world to find what is available to improve health issues is exciting and easy with help of the Internet. It is even easier to use spices in food instead of encapsulated supplements when it becomes necessary to take these measures due to an illness.