Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Raw- Green Lemonade



This is the green lemonade drink I make every morning. I love juicing because the possibilities are endless. Some days I like to make it with more cucumber, some days I like more apple. When you first begin to make your own green juice, I recommend a few more apples than usual until you get used to the taste. There is no reason to start out with something that tastes bad . I want you to like it so you drink it! Once you get the hang of it you can use less and less fruit.

Another secret I learned along the way is when making green juice blends, you should have three flavors- sweet, spicy and tart. As long as you have these three things, your juices should come out pretty well. Experiment and have fun! I generally use this ratio of juice in my green juices although I have been cutting back on the sweet lately.

3 parts grassy greens juice (examples: romaine/spinach/celery)
4 parts sweet juice (examples: apple/pear/carrot)
2 parts zesty/sour/tart juice (examples: kiwi/lemon)
1 part spicy juice (examples: ginger/jalepeno)



Green Lemonade

Ingredients:
1/2 lemon
1/4 cup parsley,
1 rib of celery
1 handful of spinach
1/2 handful of dandelion greens
1 inch piece of ginger
1 medium cucumber
2 apples
preferred amount of ice cubes- optional (I always use LOTS of ice)

Directions:
In a juicer, put all the ingredients, pour in your favorite glass with ice. How easy is that?!
This serves 1-2 people

Depending on your type of juicer, you may or may not have to cut up your produce. I can usually put most things in without cutting.


Greens Ingredients:
Arugula - spicy, grassy
Basil - sweet, spicy
Bell Pepper - hydrating, sweet, zesty
Cabbage - mildly grassy
Celery - zesty, hydrating
Chard - grassy, sweet
Cilantro - sweet, fragrant
Collard greens - grassy
Cucumbers - hydrating, sweet/sour
Endive - bitter
Fennel - anise, zesty
Green apples - very sweet, tart
Green grapes - very sweet, tart
Green onion - zesty, spicy
Green pears - very sweet
Honeydew - sweet, hydrating
Jalapeno - spicy, zesty
Kale - grassy, dark
Kiwifruit - tart, sweet, zesty
romaine - hydrating, mild, grassy
Limes - sour, zesty
Mache - grassy, dark
Parsley - grassy, zesty
Spinach - grassy, dark, pungent
Watercress - spicy, grassy, hydrating
Wheatgrass - very grassy
Zucchini - hydrating, mildly bitter
Mint - vibrant, minty, cooling
assorted green herbs



Non Green Ingredients
Pears - very sweet
Apples - sweet/tart
Ginger - very spicy
Orange - zesty, sweet
Lemon - tart, zesty (remove seeds)
Pineapple - zesty, very sweet
Carrots - sweet, thick
Grapefruit - sweet/tart, mildly bitter
Blueberries - sweet, thick
Jicama - thin, mild, cooling
Radish - zesty
Beet - sweet, dark
Garlic - zesty, spicy
Tomato - sweet, zesty


Other Add-in's:
Black Pepper - spicy
Spirulina - seaweed/nutrients
Cayenne - spicy



More Recipes to try...

*watermelon/lemon/mint

*pineapple/mint/cucumber/arugula

*beet/leafy greens/carrot/lemon/ginger

*carrot/apple/spinach/ginger

*lemon/cucumber/apple

*kiwi/apple/celery/ginger

*celery/honeydew/parsley/lime

*beet/grapefruit/orange/spinach

*pear/ginger/celery/mint

*basil/tomato/celery/black pepper/cayenne

*bell pepper/apple/lemon

*orange/chard/apple/ginger


“Let food be your medicine and medicine be your food.” -Hippocrates

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Hearty Vegan Bean Soup


I used to make this soup with diced center cut ham, but I have adapted the recipe to a vegan recipe. I was looking for something filling and full of flavor the other night, so I came up with this. It was REALLY good! I think everything was organic except the beans. I also did not measure (I never do) so these are estimates. You can add more peas or add something totally different like carrots if you like. It has a lot of stock and a lot of water so plan on eating it for a few days or give some to your favorite neighbor.

1 package of Hurst's 15 Bean Dried Mix- trash the included "ham flavor" packet
1 can of diced tomatoes
1 can of northern beans
3/4 cup of frozen peas
5 tablespoons of fresh minced parsley
2 med-large onions- diced and carmelized
2-medium potatoes- peeled and diced
6 cups of veggie stock
12 cups of water
1 tablespoon of Vegan Bacon bits- optional (gives it that ham flavor though)
1 1/2 teaspoons of medium grind pepper- or to your taste
1 tablespoon of sea salt -I added more than this I think


1.Place beans in a large pot, cover with 2 quarts of water or enough to cover them about 2 inches above the beans. Allow beans to soak overnight, or at least 8 hours in fridge. I soaked mine for 48.

2.After soaking, drain in colander and add to large stock pot. Add veggie stock and water to beans. Bring beans to boil, add salt and reduce heat and simmer uncovered for a total of 1 ½ - 2 hours.

3.While you are waiting for your beans to boil and come down to a simmer, sauté onions  in olive oil. Add pepper after they turn translucent and then lightly caramelize.

4.Add sautéed onions and tomatoes to the beans. Also throw in vegan bacon bits if you are going to add them.

5. Add diced potatoes, canned beans, peas and parsley around the last 20 minutes of cooking. Some of the beans break down so much that I end up adding in more beans at the end of cooking.

Remember this can be adjusted to your taste.
Enjoy!

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Dairy = Osteoporosis


Good old milk, it has been used for human consumption for thousands of years now. 


But there are now new studies that are coming out about calcium supplements and pasteurized milk. Known for being among top calcium sources of the body, they are now accused of causing osteoporosis. Will we look at milk differently from now on? Can we handle the truth about milk and calcium supplements?

Osteoporosis is not a calcium deficiency disease, It's a bone disorder characterized by too little bone mass. When a person with osteoporosis gets older, their bones become brittle, causing them to break more easily. Any bone can be affected, but most often breaks occur in the wrist, hip, or spine, when a person trips and falls.

 The United States is among the countries that have the highest rates of osteoporosis in the world, yet, it is also the highest consumers of milk and dairy products. How can this be when they are one of the highest consumers of milk?

Americans are ingesting the wrong kind of calcium. They are consuming a lot of dairy pasteurized products and end up losing more calcium. They end up having a negative calcium balance. There are now 25 million Americans that are being diagnosed with osteoporosis. And that is not even counting the undiagnosed.

20% of bone mass is being replaced by the body each year, but with osteoporosis, there are more bones lost than being replaced. It is not only pasteurized milk that contributes to causing osteoporosis. Calcium leaching foods also bring damage. Calcium leaching foods like red meat, refined sugar, highly heated salt, inorganic phosphorous and caffeine. Diet low in fresh fruits and vegetables, not enough exercise also bring damage. All of these add up to bone loss, all of these factors add up to bring osteoporosis.

Red meat contain large amounts of phosphorous. Phosphorous inhibits calcium absorption.

White sugar brings too much acid formation in the body. Acid formation that needs calcium to buffer the acidification of the body. Calcium that is taken from the bones .Calcium that once taken from the bones leads to bone loss.

Soft drinks contain phosphoric acid that also contributes to osteoporosis.

Patricia Bertron, RD, Neal D Barnard, MD, and Milton Mills, MD, give examples of alternative sources of calcium, "Many green vegetables have calcium absorption rates greater then 50% compared with about 32% for milk. a 1994 study reported calcium absorption of approximately 53% for broccoli, 64% for Brussels sprouts, 58% for mustard greens, and 52% for turnip greens."


"Beans and green leafy vegetables have nutritional advantages that differentiate them from dairy products. They are excellent sources of carotenoids and other antioxidants, complex carbohydrate, fiber, and iron. They contain no animal proteins or cholesterol, little or no saturated fat, and very little sodium unless it is added during cooking."


Plant based food containing calcium:
A small sampling of vegan foods that are high in calcium:


Sesame Seeds

A quarter cup of sesame seeds has 351 mg calcium.
(Sesame seeds contain large amounts of calcium, so feel free to sprinkle them liberally over salads, noodles or entrees. In addition, try some tahini spread (sesame seed butter) on crackers or breads for a little extra bit of calcium.)

Spinach
A cup of boiled spinach has 245 mg.

Collard Greens
A cup of boiled collard greens has 266 mg.

Blackstrap Molasses
One tablespoon has about 137 mg.

Kelp
One cup of raw kelp has 136 mg.

Tahini
Two tablespoons of raw tahini (sesame seed butter) have 126 mg.

Broccoli
Two cups of boiled broccoli have 124 mg.

Swiss Chard
One cup of boiled chard has 102 mg.

Kale
One cup of boiled kale has 94 mg.

Brazil Nuts
Two ounces of Brazil nuts (12 nuts) have 90 mg.

Celery
Two cups of raw celery have 81 mg.

Almonds
One ounce of almonds (23 nuts) has 75 mg.

Papaya
One medium papaya has 73 mg.

Flax Seeds
Two tablespoons of flax seeds have 52 mg.

Oranges
One medium orange has 52 mg.

Saturday, September 11, 2010

Alkaline Your Body


Humans have a specific pH balance our bodies must maintain. We also have a specific body temperature required to properly function. Our body regulates many areas automatically to keep us alive. Did you know people have actually died from drinking too much water at one time? This is a quick damaging jolt to our body’s pH balance, but what about the slow long term damage from eating an improperly balanced diet?


Science has shown cancerous cells thrive in an acidic environment. An acidic body is a magnet for sickness, disease, cancer and aging. Cancerous cells have been shown to die when the environment changes to alkaline. Foods we eat leave an ash behind for our cells to deal with. Foods such as sweets have an acidic effect on our cells. Foods like vegetables have an alkalizing effect, as the ash is alkaline. Remember what our parents told us to eat more of during our youth? They told us to eat alkaline foods.

The best way to make your cellular pH more alkaline is to stop consuming high concentrations of acid forming foods. If our cells develop a more acidic condition, the body will protectively deposit the excess acid to other areas trying maintain a proper alkaline balance. Have you noticed a trend toward obesity in countries eating today’s Western diets? This is your body trying to protect itself, and it’s losing the battle. As this cycle continues, these changes can cause negative reactions to your health.

Heart disease, arteriosclerosis, high blood pressure, diabetes, arthritis, gout, kidney disease, asthma, allergies, psoriasis and other skin disorders, indigestion, diarrhea, nausea, obesity, tooth and gum diseases, osteoporosis, morning sickness, eye diseases, plus others have been related to fueling your body with acidic foods.

Some cells may adapt, but instead of dying, they survive our natural immune defenses and multiple with DNA errors. These abnormal cells are known as malignant cells, and tend to grow indefinitely without order. This is cancer. Studies have also shown cancerous cells are more likely grow in conjunction with animal based protein diets versus plant-based protein diets. Guess which is alkaline? Plant based foods will be your alkaline diet.

What will you do if your doctor says you have the dreaded “C” word? Alkaline Your Body does NOT recommend doing anything against your doctor’s opinion. We do NOT recommend anyone stop taking medications/treatment prescribed by your doctor. This is true especially if your cancer is in a severe or late stage. Your cells renew themselves every 3 months so don’t give up hope. What this means is it may take time for your body to respond positively to an alkaline diet. It’s doubtful the cancer occurred overnight, but over time, the body can do some amazing things to repair itself when given better fuel.

You don’t put garbage into your car’s fuel tank do you? Why treat your body worse than you treat your car? Your healthier cells just might be able to defend your body against cancerous cells given fuels like alkaline diet meals provided by Alkaline Your Body.

It's unfortunate the medical industry isn't doing more alkaline/nutrition research. Ever notice how medicines have side effect warnings? When is the last time you saw a side effect label on a carrot?
.
Definition

1. As food burns within the body, a mineral residue remains and is moved into waste. This residue is referred to as "ash," and foods are categorized as "alkaline," "acidic" or "neutral," depending on the pH of the ash left behind.

Diet
2. A diet that successfully forms alkaline ash revolves around vegetarian protocol, focusing on fruits, vegetables, legumes and nuts, while steadfastly avoiding grains, dairy and meat.

Vegetables
3. Most vegetables are high producers of alkaline ash (although corn and some others are notable exceptions).

Fruits
4. Citrus fruits are highly praised as producers of alkaline ash and various anti-oxidant benefits, and most other fruits are acceptable, except for plums, prunes, and cranberries. Typically fruits should be eaten 2 hours before or after other foods so they are digested separately.

Function
5. A diet rich in foods with a high alkaline content, as opposed to a high acid content, has been shown to increase the stability of the human body by maintaining a healthy pH.

Benefits
6. Alkaline diets have been shown to have some amazing benefits toward fighting cancer. There are many testimonials on various websites. This diet will also lessen the likelihood of degenerative and auto-immune diseases to which an acidic bodily pH could lead, like acidosis or acid reflux disease.


How to:

Reduce the amount of meat consumed in your diet. Meat is an acid-forming food that raises the acidity level of the body. If possible, cease eating all meat while making the body more alkaline.

Cut a lemon in half with a sharp knife. Place the lemon into a fruit juicer and gather all of the lemon juice. Add the lemon juice to a glass of an equal amount of water and drink twice a day. Although lemon is acidic on its own, when digested it has an alkalizing effect on the body.

Eat as much fruit as possible. Melons, berries, and other fruit are all high alkaline foods. Fresh fruit juice is equally important and should be consumed often. If you have digestive problems, concentrate on eating cooked fruit, which is gentler on the stomach, but will still make the body alkaline.

Eat more alkalizing greens. Kale, turnips, mustard greens, endive and collard greens all increase alkalinity. Consume at least two cups of alkalizing greens per day. Seaweed also makes the body more alkaline, and should be ingested daily.
Add oats, wild rice, quinoa, yams, sweet potatoes and lentils (all alkalizing foods) to your diet.

Learn more about juicing and begin adding green juices to your diet.


have listed a few links to my favorite juice enthusiasts.

http://www.youtube.com/user/TheRawalicious#p/u/7/U_-gn3ZbMHs
I love watching Dee's video's. She is super informative and so down to earth. Check out all her videos.


http://www.youtube.com/user/liferegenerator#p/u/58/Ha2m-xxjbwg
I love Dan. He is so crazy. You have to check out his friend Lou, he is 57 and doesn't look a day over 38. He has been on a living food diet for the past 37 years. Dan just celebrated his 500th video so there is a ton of information on his site.


Friday, September 10, 2010

Plant Based Lifestyle

From the Choosing Raw Website:

Plant Based Lifestyle


What is veganism?
Veganism is a lifestyle that avoids the consumption of animal products

What are raw foods?
Raw foods are foods that have not been heated above 118 degrees.

Why should I eat raw and plant based foods?
Enzymes and nutrients

You’ve all probably heard the basic claim: heating food above 118 degrees destroys the natural enzymes in the food. Enzymes are substances that contribute directly to the breakdown of food (so, they help us split fats and break down proteins, among other functions). Our bodies produce both metabolic and digestive enyzmes on their own, but there is some evidence to prove that food-sourced enzymes can also help us digest more efficiently.

Many foods lose natural vitamin and phytonutrient content in the cooking process: water-soluble vitamins (including B vitamins and vitamin C) are especially susceptible to depletion via heating . There are naturally some nutrients that are enhanced by the cooking process, too: lycopene in tomatoes, a cancer-fighting compound, released by cooking, and so is the phytonutrient content in broccoli. For this reason, I recommend that all people consume both raw AND cooked foods. But the truth of the matter is that most of us could significantly increase the nutrient density in our diets by consuming more raw foods than we do.



Alkalinity
Remember your high school chem class, when you learned about the PH scale? Well, our bodies also exist in a delicate balance between acidity and alkalinity. Or kidneys do an excellent job of maintaining that balance for us — they don’t let our blood pH waver substantively. Constant consumption of highly acidic food takes a toll on the kidneys, which need to regulate our pH for us. It’s been proven that highly acid-forming foods—and this includes meat, dairy, cheeses, and refined sugar, as well as nicotine and caffeine—stress the kidneys (this stress is sometimes measured as “PRAL”—potential renal acid load). The same foods that are acidic are known as “high-PRAL” foods—meat, dairy, flour (especially white flour), processed sugar, and cheeses. Low-PRAL foods are vegetables, sprouts, low-sugar fruits, legumes, and certain grains (spelt, quinoa, and millet in particular).

Our lungs, kidneys, and other organs work to neutralize highly acidic food and excess protein by a process called buffering; this means linking the acid to a “base” mineral. These include sodium, potassium, and calcium. There’s now substantial research to prove that high-PRAL foods (which are typically also high-protein foods) contribute directly to calcium loss. Why? Because our body is trying to neutralize blood acid by leaching calcium from bones and into the bloodstream.

The good news is that the foods in a plant based diet—leafy greens, seaweed, vegetables, fruit, and quality grains—are all highly alkalizing. So dig in!



Digestive Health
I suffered through years of near-crippling IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome). No medical treatment ever offered to me was efficient . Switching to a semi-raw, all vegan diet was.

Most raw and vegan foods (vegetables, fruits, juices, nuts, seeds, and grains) are highly digestible, passing through our system with minimal effort. Meats, cow’s milk cheeses, poultry, and processed foods, on the other hand, digest slowly and often with tremendous effort. They can, in excess, exacerbate IBS, Crohn’s disease, and other digestive complaints.



Animal vs. Plant Proteins
Few topics in health and nutrition have been more distorted than protein and our body’s need for it. We’ve all been taught that protein is the key to vigor, health, muscle mass, energy, and satiety. This is not without some truth: we do need protein in our diets, and it can help many of us to feel satisfied. But we needn’t supplement our diet with high amounts, nor do we need to mix and match foods to get “complete proteins” within each meal. We DO have to get all of our amino acids, but our bodies help us do it: they assemble, store and release amino acids as necessary. So if we get a well rounded sampling of the necessary amino acids each day, we’re going to be fine. In fact, about 1/6 of our daily protein use comes from recycling the body’s own tissues*.



The World Health Organization recommends getting 5% of our daily calories from protein. Think about it: for a 2000 calorie diet, this means only 100 calories of protein daily! Most plants supply at least 10% of calories from protein, and the amount is far higher in leafy greens.



In addition, there are dangers from eating too much animal protein (and most Americans, who consumer about 100 grams of protein daily (2), do). High consumption of animal protein has been linked directly to tumor growth (3), bone loss, cholesterol and heart disease, kidney damage, and more. As noted above, animal protein, along with caffeine, refined sugars and starches, and nicotine, has been linked directly to bone loss due to the heavy acid load it places on the body. The more you heat protein, the more acidic it becomes (4). On top of all this, most animal proteins are incredibly difficult to digest. Meat, as mentioned above, sits in the digestive tract for nearly half a day. Cow’s milk dairy, on the other hand, is highly mucous-forming, which means that it coats and slows down the digestive tract.



This is all a great reason to eat vegan!
1) Dr. Joel Fuhrman, Eat To Live
2) Ibid.
3) Brendan Brazier, The Thrive Diet
4) Dr. T Colin Campbell, The China Study


Cooked Fats vs. Raw Fats
People sometimes ask me incredulously, “aren’t you afraid to eat a whole avocado? They’re so fattening.” The answer is definitively “no.” I don’t fear fats, because I know that the fats I’m eating (avocados, nuts, and oils in reasonable amounts) are healthy for me. They’re the “good fats” we hear so much about: mono-unsaturated fats (like avocados), Omega-3 fatty acids (like flax and hemp), and polyunsaturated fats (like walnuts). The body digests these fats efficiently and seamlessly, and they will not contribute to weight gain.



Cooked fats, on the other hand, are less beneficial. Your body doesn’t recognize them, and so it doesn’t digest them as efficiently as it does avocados, cold-pressed oils, nuts, or coconuts. There have been some widely publicized studies lately on the effects of heat on oils. You might have heard that heating oil at high temperatures releases such carcinogens as benzopyrene . This is why some oils now list their “safe heating” temperature on the bottle. When we eat raw fats and oils, we avoid these fats, as well as trans fats and saturated fats. There are certainly oils and fats that withstand cooking nicely, but it’s important to be selective.



A word about 100% raw
Some raw foodists pride themselves on being 100% raw. I personally believe that some foods are more digestible in their cooked form (this includes important staples of the vegan diet, like grains and legumes) and that certain vegetables should be eaten both raw and cooked. I believe that emphasis on one’s raw “percentage” is a silly, competitive way of looking at the joy of plant based dining. And I also believe that there are many cooked foods (steamed and roasted vegetables, for example, or whole grains) that are more optimally digestible than some of the very complex, fatty, and poorly combined raw dishes out there. I emphasize a diet that features a great many raw foods–mostly raw foods, if you’re comfortable with that–but wherein the emphasis is primarily on eating vegan foods that are nourishing and whole, and on incorporating as many uncooked foods as you comfortably can.

Raw Berry Ice Cream

Lemon Balm Berry Ice Cream by Heather Pace



Last summer I tried lemon balm in a recipe for the first time. I was so impressed! This tangy refreshing ice cream is packed with the lemony tasting, soft, fuzzy green herb. Lemon balm, part of the mint family, has been used throughout the ages to reduce anxiety, stress, pain, and indigestion.



You can substitute these berries for any other berries of your choice.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups cashews

1 cup water

1 cup packed lemon balm leaves

1/2 cup blueberries

1/2 cup raspberries

1/2 cup agave

1/2 cup lemon juice

2-3 drops lemon essential oil*

Directions



Blend all but all ingredients until smooth and creamy.

Chill the mixture in the fridge for at least 4 hours.

Process the liquid through an ice cream machine according to the manufacturers instructions.

*Substitute lemon zest to taste.

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Cruelty to Animals- Become Vegan Today!

This video is not for the faint of heart. It is imperative to witness how our animals are being treated so maybe some of you will realize what horrible things are done to the animal you are eating. YOU are eating this, you are supporting this, you are saying this is OK every time you purchase meat from the market, every time you buy that McDonald's hamburger. It's sometimes hard for people to associate these disgusting actions with that juicy steak, but these are the facts. If you must buy meat, please buy cruelty free products or take it one more step and refuse to purchase meat products all together.
You must be 18 to view.


Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Southern Skillet Okra and Rice

I bought a nice basket of okra at the Dallas Farmer's Market last weekend while visiting Nana and Papa. I searched for a recipe because I am afraid if I don't eat it soon, they will go bad and they are gorgeous! I came up with this one, Southern Skillet Okra and Rice. It even sounds comforting. The recipe calls for bacon, but I am omitting that obviously. I can't wait for dinner! Okra is low in calories and high in fiber as an added bonus!


Southern Skillet Okra and Rice

•½ cup chopped onion

•1 clove minced garlic

•4 cups okra (washed, stems removed, and cut in round circles)

•1 10 oz. can tomato sauce

•2 tsp Worcestershire sauce

•1 splash hot pepper sauce (about ¼ tsp)

•2 tsp chili powder

•½ tsp black pepper

•1 tsp. salt

•3 Tsp. Olive oil



Directions:

Add onion and garlic to the olive oil and saute until onion is limp.

Wash and cut okra. The okra should be 2 to 3 inches. Larger okra is rough and stringy and gives this vegetable a bad name. So, be sure it’s young and tender okra.

Add okra to skillet.

Add all remaining ingredients and stir well.

Put lid on skillet and simmer for around a half hour at medium heat.

Ladle over hot steaming rice.