6 Great Kitchen Additions for the Healthy Eater

Let’s face it, technology has made many food preparation tasks so much easier. While a mandolin is a thing of beauty, I just can’t seem to get comfortable with it. I’m too sure I am about to lose a fingertip to the blades. Give me a great food processor every time.

If you eat a conventional diet, you open cans, tear open boxes, pop things into the oven or the microwave. But if you eat right, there are a few kitchen gadgets you might truly enjoy. The best possible diet consists of 80% or more raw produce. You can interpret this the simple way – grab raw veggies out of the fridge and eat them. Nothing could be more simple, right? Or the complicated way: you must become a raw chef. I choose the middle ground. I make a lot of salads. A wide variety of vegetables is the preferred eating plan. This means a little prep time. A few gadgets minimize my time in the kitchen.

Food Processor

Most kitchens contain a food processor these days. But is yours a good one? The difference between a cheap food professor and a high end one is surprising. A high end food processor (Breville Sous Chef (16-cup) or Cuisinart Elite (14 cup) are excellent machines. Both have a smaller bowl (the Cuisinart has 2) for smaller jobs and both have seals to keep in liquids, unlike cheaper models. The Breville has an adjustable slicing disk with 24 settings; the Cuisinart, 6 settings.

The large capacity, the multiple disks, the wide mouth, and the ease of cleaning make these machines worth their hefty price tags. (Both are currently listed at $299.00).

Blender

The Vitamix is definitely the top contender when it comes to blenders. It is also the most expensive. But let’s face it, the Vitamix makes nut butters and soups from cold vegetables along with incredible smoothies. It even makes flour out of grains.

Dehydrator

There is a lot you can do with a dehydrator but if your family is trying to kick the chip habit, veggies chips may be your best friend. Kale chips? Zucchini chips? If you bought the Breville food processor, you can make very thin crispy chips. Try flax seed chips, too. And of course you can make dried fruits and veggies. (Bananas? Tomatoes?) along with raw treats such as cookies, bars, and breads. Excalibur makes awesome machines.

Sprouter

Yes, you can grow sprouts in a jar. But it is a lot more fun to grow a whole bunch at one in a self watering sprouter. We park our Freshlife Sprouter on the table and grab sprouts to throw on our meals right there as they grow. You can buy an extra tier to grow twice as many at once!

Spiral Slicer

There are a few brands of spiral slicers or spiralizers out there. I have no idea why someone doesn’t make a serious one constructed out of stainless steel instead of these wimpy plastic ones. None are very expensive; they are all fun. Use spiral slicers to make long strings of veggies in the shape of noodles or ribbons. Very cool for those of us who eat a lot of veggies.

Coconut Opener

If you don’t open coconuts, you have no idea how grateful one could be for a simple kitchen gadget. Without this, opening a coconut is an exercise in both patience and precision as you try to whack the same 4 spots multiple times with a very heavy, very sharp blade. The Coco Jack is a quick, safe, and easy way to open a coconut in seconds.

 

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4 Steps to True Health

So you’ve decided it’s time to get healthy, but you’re not sure where to start. You know you need to lose weight. And maybe, just maybe, you should stop being a couch potato.

So what now? Prepackaged meals? A gym membership? Less caffeine, chocolate, and alcohol?

There are a hundred things you can do to be a little bit healthier. There are 4 things you can do if you want to become truly healthy.

  • Eat a truly healthy diet
  • Detox
  • Exercise
  • Get good sleep

The Healthiest Diet

A truly healthy diet isn’t found in a package. It doesn’t have a fancy name. It is a diet that eliminates artificial flavors, colors, preservatives, MSG, trans fats, and GMOs. Stop eating sugar. A full 80% of the diet consists of fresh, raw, organic produce – more vegetables than fruit. It does not include processed, boxed, packaged foods. It is a diverse, organic diet filled with nutrient dense foods and plenty of clean water.

Eat salads. Make big salads (at least 6 cups) with at least 10 different vegetables. Add fresh garlic, turmeric, and fresh cracked pepper.

Detox

It is not enough in this day and age to simply eat the best food. Though diet will always be the foundation of health, our toxic environment requires us to cleanse our bodies of chemicals, heavy metals, parasites, and pathogens twice a year (or more) if we are to achieve optimum health.

Although a full cleanse involves the entire body, the gut is the first and primary focus. The goal is to cleanse the intestinal tract of bad bacteria and Candida and repopulate it with good bacteria. Candida feeds on our body’s tissues as well as our nutrients as does bad bacteria. Both exude toxins. Cleaning up the gut also aids the immune system. Two of the best things you can do to aid in a detox is to drink a lot of cranberry lemonade sweetened with stevia, and eat salads with garlic.

Exercise

Exercise is crucial for a healthy body and a healthy immune system. If you are a couch potato, start slow. Walking and rebounding are gentle exercises that help the lymph circulate in the body. There is no pump for the lymphatic system.

Do bodyweight squats. It’s likely the best exercise there is. We are naturally built to squat. It does much more than just build leg muscles.

For those who cannot squat, “get ups” are a wonderful exercise that works out the whole body. Simply lie down on the floor on your back. Now roll to the left and get up. Lie back down. Roll to the right and get up. Each time be sure to use the other leg to push off the floor. Each day, do as many as you can. You will find the number rises quickly. This is a great work out for the beginner. If that’s not possible try getting in and out of a chair repeatedly. A chair that you can lower as you progress is great for this. As you get stronger, try using as little momentum as possible.

Sleep

Is coffee what gets you through he day? How many hours of sleep do you need? If you sleep more on your days off, catching up on lost sleep, you are not getting enough. How many hours do you need to sleep a night when you are on vacation? For most adults, eight hours is the absolute minimum. If possible, get off of any and all drugs, and that includes caffeine.

Recommended Supplements:

Further Reading:               

 



The Paradigm Shift

When you dip your toe in the water and consider a healthier lifestyle, any number of changes may take place. Perhaps you decide that all those reports about aspartame may be true and Diet Dr. Pepper, though it makes you look cool, is not your best friend. Or maybe caffeine is your nemesis. Or candy. Or chips.

It isn’t until you fall all the way down the rabbit hole and learn the truth about food and nutrition that things finally, truly make sense. And when they do, a paradigm shift will take place. You can’t go back.

When you fully accept that whole, unadulterated, fresh, organic produce is the basis of a healthy diet and a means to heal the body, you will realize that nearly every food from a can, box, jar, or other package is crap. And after you’ve been eating right for a while, eating wrong will lose its appeal.

But why is it rare and so hard for someone to switch from a conventional diet to a truly healthy one? Why does it so often take a major health crisis before we even entertain the thought of drastically changing what we eat?

To a large extent, we are creatures of habit. We tend to look back on our childhood as the good old days, believing that whatever was good enough for our parents is good enough for us. The foods we were raised with are often the foods we eat today.

Few people realize that the change in America’s eating, the switch to packaged and processed foods, began during WWII. Prior to this time, America’s diet was much more wholesome. The next generation, the baby boomers, were raised on Jello, Kool-Aid, McDonalds, Coca-Cola, and every prepackaged adulterated food conceived by man. And with processed food came disease. Cancer deaths have tripled since 1900.

Habit isn’t the only hurdle. Eating healthy is so contradictory to our society, a radical change will affect leisure time, friendships, and extended family. Most, if not all, of our gatherings and celebrations include food as the focal point. And not just any food; sinful food seems to be the most revered. Once you truly embrace healthy eating, sugary foods and junk foods lose their appeal along with conventional restaurant food and most of the food still eaten by your friends and family. You have three choices:

  • Be the host for every party you attend that involves food.
  • Take your own food to every party or event.
  • Make new friends.

Don’t let the logistics scare you off; you can do it. Your health and the health of your family come first. And if it gives you any comfort, know that the number of people who embrace health and healthy eating is growing.

Further Reading:


The Glymphatic System – How Insomnia Leads to a Filthy Mind

Throughout the day our blood circulates in our bodies carrying oxygen and nutrients to every cell. Waste from the cells’ metabolic processes is released into interstitial fluid (the fluid between each cell). The lymphatic system sucks up excessive fluid and the waste, incorporating it into the lymphatic fluid that flows through the lymph nodes to filter the waste and pathogens before dumping the fluid back into the circulatory system.

For hundreds of years, scientists have been trying to figure out how the brain cleanses itself since the lymphatic system does not extend to the brain and the spinal column. Last year scientists announced the discovery of the glymphatic system. No, you are not looking at a typo. The glymphatic system is the cleansing system of the brain.

Like the lymphatic system, the glymphatic system removes waste from interstitial fluid, but this system requires your full cooperation to do its job. Cleansing of the brain happens when you are asleep.

Brain cells, like all cells of the body, require food and oxygen for metabolism. And like all cells of the body, brain cell metabolism results in waste. During the day, this waste collects in the brain’s interstitial fluid. Some of this waste dissolves in the fluid, but most of it simply collects, waiting for sleep.

One of the most fascinating aspects of the brain cleansing process is the behavior of the brain cells. They actually shrink during sleep. The space between the cells increases by 60% aiding in the cleansing process. Cerebral spinal fluid quickly flows into the space, aided by the pulse of the arteries. It mixes with the interstitial fluid and washes the waste toward the veins and carries it to the liver. This process occurs during slow wave sleep, the deepest sleep.

During the night, we experience sleep cycles that average about 90 minutes. In the first half of the night we cycle through all of the stages, N1, N2, N3, and REM sleep. Slow wave sleep or delta sleep is N3. We start at N1 and go deeper into N2, then deeper into N3, the stage where brain cleansing occurs. In the second half of the night, REM sleep increases and alternates with N1 and N2 sleep, so it appears most of the cleanup is done in the first half of the night.

Scientists who discovered the glymphatic system hope that understanding this process will lead to successful treatment of Alzheimer’s, Parkinsons, and other similar brain diseases.

Quality sleep is vital to the removal of waste and toxic substances from the brain. If you have difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep, learn about Natural Remedies For Insomnia, and be sure to see Holistic Guide To Healing the Endocrine System And Balancing Our Hormones, and Candida Overgrowth Symptoms.

Recommended Supplements:
Further Reading:
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Stay Healthy After an Unhealthy Thanksgiving

So you’ve eaten your fill and then some. Maybe you had about seven too many glasses of wine or beer. Between the cranberry sauce, the sweet potato casserole, the eggnog, the pies, the cookies, the candy, the punch, and the alcohol, you’ve ingested more sugar in one day than you usually eat in a month. Did you know that eating refined sugar, even small amounts of any refined sugar (but especially conventional sugar), will cripple your immune system for 48-72 hours? In addition, bad bacteria, viruses, and Candida love sugar. It feeds them! So while you’re binging on sweets, they’re having their own little party and mass multiplying. Not only are your defenses down for the pathogens already in your body, it’s flu and cold season and you are being bombarded with pathogens every single day. Here are a few things you can do to help your immune system bounce back faster.

Repopulate Your Gut With Healthy Bacteria

The first and most important action you can take is to eat nutrient dense, prebiotic foods to aid your gut in its efforts to regain proper balance. Eat lots of whole, fresh, raw vegetables and fruits (more vegetables than fruits). The healthiest diet consists of 80% fresh, raw, organic produce each day. The fiber helps to cleanse the gut and it provides the best environment for healthy, beneficial bacteria to thrive.

You may need to be eat probiotic foods as well, fermented foods that will help repopulate the beneficial bacteria. Consider probiotic supplements, too. Supplements that kill Candida, like undecylenic acid, will be beneficial as well.

Support Your Immune System With the Right Food and Supplements

In addition to prebiotic and probiotic foods, there are several foods that will aid your immune system in fighting pathogens.

Garlic is antibacterial, antifungal, and antiviral, without harming beneficial bacteria. Add raw garlic to your salads or your salad dressing to get the most benefit.

Oranges, grapefruit, lemons, limes, kiwis, mangoes, papayas, strawberries, pineapple, red peppers, green peppers, chili peppers, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, broccoli, and kale are all great sources of vitamin C. If you would like to supplement with vitamin C, try saving your organic citrus peels! Simply dehydrate them and grind them up.

Echinacea and vitamin D also strengthen the immune system.

Get Enough Sleep, Exercise, and Water

Of course, you should always make sure to get enough sleep and exercise. Too often during the holidays we push ourselves too far, too fast, trying to please everyone, and ignoring our own needs. The one thing a four-day holiday weekend gives us is the time to relax and the time to catch up on sleep.

Go for walks, dance, tumble with the kids or grandkids, use a rebounder, or jump rope. Do something to get your lymph moving. And squat! Do bodyweight squats. They not only build total body strength; squats also benefit internal organs, and they cause the body to produce large amounts of beneficial hormones.

This is also a good time to drink lots of water. Or, even better, try the cranberry stevia lemonade recipe (see the first source link below).

Step by Step

We have a tendency to ignore our health around the holidays, putting it off good behavior for our New Year’s resolutions. If you take really good care of yourself for the next few days or the next week, you may find you like the added benefit of more energy, fewer aches and pains, and a happier digestive system. Maybe you might just roll on into the next holiday right through to New Year’s with a resolution to make this change permanent instead of temporary.

  1. Eat salads with lots of vegetables and fresh garlic
  2. Eat 80% raw fresh produce
  3. Do body-weight squats (if you can’t squat, try sitting and standing repeatedly with a chair)
  4. Kill Candida and balance your inner eco-system
  5. Bullet Proof your immune system
  6. And last but not least, drink lots of water!
Recommended Supplements:

Further Reading:



Cranberries – Health Benefits, Natural Remedies, Nutrition Info, and Recipes

Cranberries Are Good For…

Cranberries are well known for treating urinary tract infections, but they do much more – from cardiovascular protection to cancer prevention.

Contents

Nutrition Composition of Cranberries

Cranberries contain lots of fiber, vitamin C, and manganese.

Nutrition Facts For 1 Cup of Chopped Cranberries % DV
Calories: 50.6 3%
Total Fat: 0.1 g 0%
  Saturated Fat: 0.0 g
   Trans Fat: ~
Cholesterol: 0 mg 0%
Sodium: 2 mg 0%
Total Carbohydrate: 13 g 4%
  Dietary Fiber: 5 g 20%
  Sugars: 4 g
  Starch:
Protein: 0 g
Vitamins
Vitamin A 66.0 IU 1%
Vitamin C 14.6 mg 24%
Vitamin D ~ ~
Vitamin E 1.3 mg 7%
Vitamin K 5.6 mcg 7%
Thiamin 0.0 mg 1%
Riboflavin 0.0 mg 1%
Niacin 0.1 mg 1%
Vitamin B6 0.1 mg 3%
Folate 1.1 0%
Vitamin B12 0.0 mcg 0%
Pantothenic Acid 0.3 mg 3%
Choline 6.0 mg
Betaine 0.2 mg
Minerals
Calcium 8.8 mg 1%
Iron 0.3 mg 2%
Magnesium 6.6 mg 2%
Phosphorus 14.3 mg 1%
Potassium 93.5 mg 3%
Sodium 2.2 mg 0%
Zinc 0.1 mg 1%
Copper 0.1 mg 3%
Manganese 0.4 mg 20%
Selenium 0.1 mcg 0%
Fluoride ~ ~
Glycemic Load 2

 

Natural Remedies and Prevention with Cranberries

The phytonutrients in cranberries include phenolic acids, proanthocyanidins, anthocyanins, flavonoids, and triterpenoids. It has long been known that cranberries can prevent and cure urinary tract infections. The proanthocyanidins in cranberries inhibit bacteria from latching onto the lining of the urinary tract. These proanthocyanidins also prevent bacteria that cause ulcers from latching onto the stomach lining.

Cranberry extracts support the immune system and have been proven to reduced the risk of colds and flu. Cranberries help the entire digestive tract from aiding in gum health in the mouth through supporting the balance of bacteria in the gut.

Cranberries are both an anti-inflammatory and an antioxidant, especially when the berries are eaten as a whole food. The anti-inflammatory properties reduce inflammation in the stomach, the colon and the cardiovascular system. In the vascular system, these properties inhibit the formation of plaque on the vessel walls.

Studies have confirmed that cranberries help prevent cancer, specifically breast, colon, prostate, and lung cancer.

Native Americans used cranberries in a poultice to stop bleeding and for their antibiotic qualities.

Cranberry History and Culture

Cranberries were grown by Native Americans before Europeans came to the continent. Colonists exported cranberries to England in the early 1800s. Cultivation spread across the northern area of what is now the United States and Canada to Scandinavia and Great Britain. Cranberries are grown in Europe and Northern Asia as well as Chile.

Cranberry Agriculture

Cranberries grow on low-lying vines in very particular soil conditions: a bed of sand, covered with gravel, covered with peat, covered with sand. These soil conditions can be found in the northern United States wetlands where glaciers once carved the land. Cranberries are often raised in bogs and harvested while floating on water.

Are there Genetically Modified Cranberries?

Cranberries are not genetically modified; however, cranberry juices and dried cranberries are often sweetened with either high fructose corn syrup or beet sugar and 90% of corn and the sugar beet crops are genetically modified.

Organic Versus Conventional Cranberries

Proponents of conventional farming methods for cranberries state that the bogs used to raise cranberries are rife with natural pests and that the wetlands encourage fungi. The What’s On My Food? website reveals 13 pesticides found on cranberries. Of these, 3 are known or probable carcinogens, 6 are suspected hormone disruptors, 5 are neurotoxins, 1 is a developmental or reproductive toxin and 6 are honeybee toxins.

It is interesting to hear from the other side. Cranberry Hill Farm, an organic cranberry grower, had this to say about their organic production:

We are willing to accept lower yields and do not ”push” our vines into high yield production with chemical fertilizers. This keeps the soil and the insects in balance, we welcome the presence of our helpers: such as spiders, wasps, bees, birds and other residents of the bog.

In the spring we flood the bog with clean spring water to retard the development of pests and  weeds.  We put on a layer of sand to bury some insect eggs and improve the surface of the bog.  We feed the vine with fish emulsion and other organic nutrients, and weed, weed, weed by hand.

It is a lot of work and we hope that the spirits of the Native Americans who lived here before us  and appreciated the cranberry harvest, see us and approve of how we manage our bogs.”

Fair Trade Cranberries

We did not find an fair trade issues for Cranberries. The U.S. is the leading grower of cranberries in the world.

Cranberry Human Rights Issues

We found no human rights issues regarding cranberry agriculture, but there are certainly environmental issues and human repercussions to the extensive pesticide use for commercial growers.

Things You Didn’t Know About Cranberries

There are only 3 commercially cultivated fruit crops that are native to North America. Cranberries are one of the three.

Cranberry vines do not need to be replanted each year. If properly cared for, vines last for years. Many cranberry farms produce crops each year from vines 150+ years old.

How to Store Cranberries So They Last Longer

Be sure to sort, removing any damaged or shriveled berries before refrigeration. Berries can be refrigerated for up to 20 days. Frozen berries can be kept for several years. Do not thaw the berries until you are ready to use them.

How to Pick Good Cranberries

Choose firm, plump, dark red berries. They should not be bruised, broken, shriveled, tough, or sticky.

Things to Consider

There is one contraindication for adding cranberries to your diet. If you suffer from kidney stones, especially calcium-oxalate stones, cranberries may exacerbate your condition.

Remember that the benefits of cranberries can be negated with pesticide consumption, GMO consumption, or sugar consumption. Look for organic dried berries sweetened with juice, organic unsweetened juice which can be sweetened with stevia or other juices, and organic fresh or frozen whole berries.

Whole berries pack a much greater nutritional punch than juice.

Raw Cranberry Relish Recipes:

The following recipes come courtesy of Raw Chef Dan.

Raw Cranberry Relish

The following is a recipe from Raw Chef Dan for Raw Cranberry Relish.

  • 1 cup fresh cranberries
  • 4 Medjool dates
  • 2 Tbsp chopped ginger
  • ½ tsp. sea salt
  • ½ med orange
  • ½ juice of 1 lemon
  • 1/4 cup loose mint leaves
  • 1/2 red apple

Simply blend the ingredients in a food processor.

Spiced Cranberry Slaw

 

 

Further Reading:
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Why You Should Avoid Pasteurized Cow’s Milk

Got milk? Get rid of it.

In 2013, the Got Milk ad campaign celebrated its 20th anniversary. For all of these years, we’ve been told that milk makes our bones strong and healthy. But throughout this same time period, Swedish researchers have conducted a study of 61,433 women and 45,339 men and their dietary habits. Their study found a correlation between the amount of milk consumed and an increase in bone fractures, inflammation, and death! (This was not the case with fermented milk products – just cow’s milk).

rBGH and Milk

Since the 1990s the 20-30% of the American milk supply has been produced by cows who were given rBGH, a growth hormone, used to increase milk supply. Many other countries including Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and the 27 countries of the European Union have rejected the use of rBGH. Knowing this, rBGH was not a factor in Sweden’s study. One cannot help but wonder how much worse the results would be if a replication of the Swedish study was done in America.

Lactose Intolerance and Milk Allergy

Although many confuse the two, a lactose intolerance is not the same thing as a milk allergy. Lactose intolerance means that your system cannot tolerate milk because it does not have the enzyme, lactase, which is required to digest the sugar in milk (lactose). Lactose intolerance causes stomach upset, bloating, gas, and loose stools.

A milk allergy often causes the same symptoms along with inflammation and tissue damage. Often a milk allergy is present without the obvious digestion problems. Other health problems, especially frequent respiratory infections, ear infections, and sinus infection, suggest a milk allergy. Food allergies also interfere with the body’s ability to absorb nutrients.

Raw Milk

Raw milk is not pasteurized or homogenized. It still retains its full and rich heritage of vitamins, beneficial bacteria, linoleic acid, and enzymes – the very enzymes that help us to digest it (including lactase). When studies such as the Swedish study are published, we have to remember that the results were obtained from a population drinking (what we must assume is) pasteurized milk.

Conclusion

If you are going to consume milk or milk products, choose raw milk if it is available. It is a whole beneficial food if you are not lactose intolerant or allergic. Pasteurized milk is not a healthy food. It feeds Candida and other harmful microbes. If you are concerned about calcium, eat more green vegetables and avoid nutrient robbing, acidic, processed foods.

Pasteurized milk has no place in a healthy diet.

If you’re getting off pasteurized milk and other dairy products, it’s a good time to do a Candida cleanse. Also check out How Raw Milk Can be Dangerous.

Recommended Supplements:
Further Reading:

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