Go Green – Vegan Foods

Posted by 360admin | Posted on 01-03-2012

Category : Healthy Eating and Cooking

Tags: , , , , , ,

Vegan Diet and Weight Loss
Expert’s Name:  Lisa Enslow

Everyone is talking about going green these days. Whether it’s an effort to recycle, re-using grocery bags, using natural cleaners in the home, or walking instead of driving, there is an increasing awareness about the impact our lifestyle has on the planet. There are many opportunities to “go green” when it comes to food, and coincidentally they are all health promoting! Here are some ways to “go green” when shopping for your food.

Green Made Easy

Buy Organic: Organic produce is healthy for your body as it is free of the pesticides/ chemicals that conventional produce is treated with. It’s also better for the land, water, air and workers on the farms. For a list of the foods that are treated with the most pesticides (The Dirty Dozen), check out the Environmental Working Group’s website for their wallet guide (http://www.foodnews.org/walletguide.php.).

Go Local: Seek out local, seasonal food to eat healthfully and help the environment. At the supermarket, tune in to the origin of the produce you see. Many items have traveled halfway around the world to end up in your local market. In the process, they lose nutrients and freshness and also use up natural resources in transportation.   Find great local produce at farmers markets in the summer and fall. Supporting local farmers also helps your local economy! In addition, you can talk to the manager at your local supermarkets and tell him/her that you’d like to see produce from local farmers stocked at their market.

Eat with the Seasons: There was once a time when you couldn’t find grapes, strawberries and blueberries for sale in the dead of winter. While it is a sign of our global marketplace (and often really wonderful to be able to eat a pineapple in January), it is worth the effort to eat with the seasons and try to eat the produce that is grown locally.

Here is a sampling of seasonally available vegetables:

*Spring: artichokes, asparagus, beets and beet greens, Brussels sprouts, chard, garlic, green onions, leeks, spinach, and wild greens.

 

*Summer: beets and beet greens, corn, eggplant, new potatoes, peppers, zucchini and yellow squash, sugar snap peas.

 

*Fall: bell peppers, broccoli, cauliflower, celery, corn, acorn squash, butternut squash, okra, potatoes, spinach, zucchini.

 

*Winter: bok choy, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, chard, kale, hard squashes, onions, potatoes, sweet potatoes or yams.

Your Greenbacks Have Power

Remember, every time you choose to buy organic produce or request and buy local and/or seasonal produce, you are influencing the marketplace by “voting with your fork”. If the managers of your supermarkets notice people buying more of the “green” items, they will stock more of them. This will support the local farmers and encourage their growth and success.   Buying organic will also encourage the growth of organic farms, which will be good for both the health of our citizens and for the environment. And if enough people shop this way, and the market grows, the costs for these healthy foods will come down and more people will be able to afford them!

 

Share

Weight Loss Control

1

Posted by 360admin | Posted on 25-02-2012

Category : Nutritional Support

Tags: , , , , ,

Menopause Weight Gain and Liver Health
Expert’s Name:  Lisa Enslow

The Liver/Weight Control Connection

The liver has a big job as the body’s purifier. The liver is both the main detoxifying organ and the main fat burning organ in the body. In a perfect (i.e. clean and green) world, the liver is easily able to perform its functions beautifully. However, the world we live in is full of toxins, chemicals and preservatives in the air, water, our physical surroundings, the food we eat and the products we use on our bodies. This toxic burden makes our liver stagnant and unable to function normally. A sluggish liver will allow our body’s toxic load to increase and our metabolic fire gets dampened. There are some easy steps we can take, however, to help decrease the toxic burden on our liver and to strengthen the liver to do its job more efficiently.

Foods to Avoid

Some of the worst liver stressors are sugar, caffeine and Trans fats. The category of sugar also includes high-fructose corn syrup and artificial sweeteners like aspartame and Splenda. Alcohol is also a liver stressor, as are many over the counter medications (especially acetaminophen). Preservatives and food colorings add to the liver’s workload, as these unnatural ingredients need to be processed by the liver. In general, processed foods include many of the top liver stressing ingredients and should be avoided. Additionally, the pesticides, hormones and antibiotics that are widely used in our food supply are all toxic to our livers. Buying organic produce and selecting meat and dairy that are free of antibiotics and hormones is very helpful in lessening the toxic burden in your body. If you’re diet includes all of the above mentioned foods to avoid, then you are a great candidate for a detoxification program where the goal is to minimize or eliminate these foods from your diet for a period of time. Adding foods to your diet that help strengthen your liver is the next step.

Foods to Enjoy

Nature provides us with many wonderfully detoxifying foods. Garlic and onions are cleansing foods that can be incorporated easily into most recipes. Fresh vegetables that are great detoxifiers include broccoli, cauliflower, broccoli sprouts and artichokes. Leafy green vegetables have chlorophyll, which helps the liver remove environmental toxins. Cilantro has been shown to speed up the pace of excretion of heavy metals from the body, making it an amazing detoxifying agent. All fresh fruit is good for detox as they are full of vitamin C, fiber, and many antioxidants. Green tea has been shown to have Catechin, which speeds up liver activity. In general, the fresher and cleaner your diet the more effective and healthy your liver and metabolism.

Other ways to Detoxify

In addition to cleaning up your diet, you can minimize the toxins in your environment by using chemical free cleaners in your house and by using natural personal care products. Avoid dry cleaning when possible, and when you do dry clean take the plastic bag off your clothing before it comes into your house so the chemicals can be aired out of the clothes. Practicing clean and green habits in your lifestyle and your diet will help your body’s natural healing system and allow your metabolic engine to run more efficiently.

Share

Menopause Weight – What to Avoid

Posted by 360admin | Posted on 20-11-2011

Category : Healthy Eating and Cooking

Tags: , , , ,

Menopause Diet – We Got the Answers
Expert’s Name:  Susan Joyce Proctor

 

Back to Basics

Recently, I came across an article about health and immunity that really made me think. Although it vastly simplified the whole issue, I was actually quite delighted by its simplicity. Here, basically, was what it said:

Health Equals Good Stuff Minus Bad Stuff

Especially when I think about the wellness challenges that menopausal women face — and how complicated the options often seem — this is a refreshing reminder that we can simplify things and make them more manageable.

So let’s get back to basics and make nutrition really simple: eat more good stuff and less bad stuff.

Good Stuff

If this simple approach appeals to you, consider the suggestions below. You are probably familiar with many of these recommendations, but in the interest of simplification, it’s good to have them on a single list. These are foods, and types of foods, that you can think of as particularly Good Stuff for menopausal women:

-Water! (As clean and pure as possible and ideally hot or at room temperature rather than ice-cold)

-Whole, fresh unprocessed food

-Organic food

-High-fiber foods

-Vegetables (especially leafy greens and root vegetables)

-Seaweeds
-Fresh fruit (especially berries)

-Brightly colored produce (these have the most nutrients)

-Whole grains (other than wheat, and especially quinoa, oats and brown rice)

-Phytoestrogen foods

-Calcium-rich foods

-Alkaline (as opposed to acid) foods

-Richly-oiled fish

-Omega 3 fats

-Olive oil

-Herbs and spices (especially garlic, ginger, turmeric, parsley, and red clover)

-Cultured dairy products with probiotics

-Walnuts and almonds

-Flaxseeds
-Green tea

-Herbal teas

Bad Stuff

One of the reasons to avoid Bad Stuff is that much of it contributes to toxicity in the body, and that is a major drain on the immune system. Some of this Bad Stuff will be obvious, but some of it may surprise you:

-Diet soda (yes, this belongs at the top of the list)

-Artificial sweeteners (these are really toxic, much worse than sugar)

-Other food additives

-Highly processed food

-Sugar (but not as bad as artificial sweeteners)

-High fructose corn syrup (you need to read labels, it’s in most processed food)

-Omega 6 fats (many vegetable oils have these)

-Foods (especially meat and poultry) containing hormones and antibiotics

 

-MSG (a powerful neurotoxin that contributes to food addiction, and that unfortunately sneaks into food under other healthier-sounding names, like “hydrolyzed vegetable protein” and “yeast extract”).

-Fast food (i.e. anything from McDonald’s and their competitors).

-Genetically-modified foods (unfortunately, much of the soy in the US is genetically-modified).

-“Fat Free” foods (this may be a surprise, but if you read the ingredient labels on most “fat-free” foods, you may be horrified at what you see; this Bad Stuff is usually much worse than real food that happens to contain fat)

.

-Cured and preserved meats, sausages (these are full of preservatives).

-Wheat (this is Bad Stuff for people with the O blood type, and is not Good Stuff for anyone, even whole wheat; plus, it contains gluten, which many people can’t digest).

So if you’re overwhelmed by the preponderance of nutrition information out there, use the KISS method (Keep It Simple, Sister) and just focus on eating more Good Stuff and less Bad Stuff.

Share
Previous