There has been a lot of research and disagreement lately about sugar and whether or not a person could be addicted to it. Sure, we all like to eat sweets, and sometimes we find ourselves craving and overindulging in sweet treats. But what about those people who have a real sweet tooth, the people who “can’t live without chocolate” because it ends up affecting their mood and actions. Could they actually be addicted to sugar? (more…)
Happy Monday! Here are two great salads to help you use up your seasonal produce! From A Little Green Kitchen.
Hello. I can’t say I’m sad that summer is ending. I’m sure I’ll miss is pretty soon here, but right now I’m just too excited for fall. Scarves, hot tea, quilts, pumpkin flavored things, changing leaves, boots, football… I love it all. Anyway, here are two super simple and awesome recipes for some of your fall produce.
Judi before Optimal Body Balance...
Judi 40 pounds lighter!
If we’re looking at weight loss; I’m halfway to my goal. I lost about 40 pounds working with Sheila at OBB (and 34 inches!). I have another 60 to go.But, if we’re looking at attitude shifts, I’m 100% there! I finally ‘get it’!I thought I knew how to lose weight. I’ve certainly done it enough times over the past 40 years. But I didn’t know the relationships formed between food and my body.It isn’t just eat less, move more. As a wise woman once said; our body is not a bank account where you need to spend more than you put into it, rather it’s a chemistry lab.My body reacts very differently to different nutrients. I knew little about gut dysbiosis and food sensitivities, but wanted to see what I was ‘sensitive’ to. I took a blood test for food sensitivities in April 2011.I’ve ALWAYS had sore joints, kneeling was impossible and I took MSM and chondratin daily. My food sensitivity test said to cut out cane sugar. Well guess what? My joints don’t hurt if I stay away from white sugar. It’s no big loss, I can still enjoy dates, maple syrup and honey.The test also pointed out a strong reaction to onions. I LOVE onions, truly. But now that I don’t eat them, I noticed my sinuses clear up and throat clearing is not an issue anymore. I do indulge in scallions and shallots sometimes. The final food on my sensitivity list was peanuts. I have no idea how they affected me. I still haven’t eaten them to find out.My huge take away from this program is that I’ve learned to listen to the cues and signals provided by my body. For example, I no longer need my prescription omeprazole for heartburn. If I eat too much bread, I feel the heartburn coming back. If my joints start hurting, I review my food intake for the past couple of days to see where I might have slipped up.Thank you Sheila for helping me learn how to eat to live. I don’t count calories, which was a major departure for me. In fact, for at least a month, I was stealth tracking my calories, even though Sheila said it wasn’t necessary.But now I focus on the balanced plate and continue to enjoy four meals a day. Six days a week, I have a delicious fruit smoothie for breakfast. (Sunday is a veggie omelet.) The late afternoon meal is a lifesaver to get me through to supper.I hope to reach my goal weight by next August (2012) and will reward myself with a long weekend in New York City with family and friends.-Judi
Unfortunately, in today’s supermarkets it can be hard to tell healthy from unhealthy. Many products, especially those formulated for children, are packaged and marketed to appear healthy when in reality they are very much the opposite. Researchers from the Prevention Institute recently took a closer look at a list of 58 products marketed towards kids that were deemed healthy by the Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative. They looked at the total calories from fat, total calories from sugar, total grams of fiber, and sodium content of each product to determine whether or not it really was healthy. In the end, 49 of the 58 products were actually classified as unhealthy. Of those 58 so called healthy products, 95% contained added sugars, including high fructose corn syrup, 17% contained “no whole food ingredients” and only one product contained a green vegetable. I’m not sure what the original definition of healthy was, but it definitely doesn’t fit the picture I have.
Instead of basing your healthy decisions on packaging, go with what you know is healthy – real, whole, unprocessed foods. If it’s processed, if there are items on the ingredient list you don’t know or can’t pronounce, or if your grandma wouldn’t recognize it as a food, then it’s not food. And you don’t want to feed your family fake food. Here are some real life tips from some real life mamas on how to get your kids to eat healthy. (more…)
Last night we had a cooking class at Whole Foods where we shared some yummy seasonal recipes. We decided to do this class to go along with the theme of the CSA Challenge, so we picked recipes that used ingredients many people are seeing at farmer’s markets right now or in their CSA boxes. In order to broaden your horizons, we also tried to pick ingredients that may be a little bit unusual for people. Using new or strange ingredients doesn’t have to make cooking complicated, and it shouldn’t be scary. It really helps to spice up your everyday meals while giving you needed nutritional variety. As usual our recipes reduce the most common food allergies, and the meals are balanced, beautiful, delicious and nutritious.
Give the gift of health!
