People are seeking happiness. And yes, Virginia, there is a path, not one simple answer. Happiness is a state of mind, a state of being. If you are not happy, consider how you can improve your state of mind through optimum health, giving and receiving love, and becoming attuned to your own spirituality.

Be Healthy

There are lots of excuses when it comes to poor health. Most of them are self-defeating nonsense. Truly healthy choices reap immediate benefits. When we eat right, we feel better. Right then. In that moment. It’s hard to be happy when you don’t feel good.

What if you adopted a healthy lifestyle? What if you felt full of energy and vitality each and every day? Wouldn’t you be happier? It’s not that hard. It’s not a sacrifice. It’s a shift; one that’s well worth the change.

Diet

You argue about your lack of time, lack of money, lack of ability. You can’t cook. You can’t afford organic food. You don’t have time to shop carefully. Set aside the B.S. for a moment and consider the facts. Choosing and preparing a truly healthy diet can be easy and fast.

• Organic – Organic foods are grown with far fewer pesticides, in healthier soil. They taste better and are better for you. It’s a no-brainer. Fill your body with poison and toxins and you are poisoning yourself.
• Raw – Raw foods are full of enzymes and nutrients. A diet consisting of 80% (or more) fresh, raw, organic produce will nurture every cell in your body.
• GMO-Free – Studies conducted by biotech companies suggest genetically modified foods are safe. Long-term studies conducted by unbiased scientists tell a different story, one of reproductive difficulties and cancerous tumors. Avoid GMO foods. Learn where hidden GMOs lurk in food. Better yet, don’t eat processed foods!
• Stop Drinking – All that hype about alcohol being good for you. Come on. You know better. If may relax you a bit, but so does meditation.
• Eliminate Caffeine – It’s just another addiction. An expensive one.
• Additive Free Foods – Avoid all of the things that result in poor health! The list is long, but basically, avoid eating chemicals. Never eat MSG, artificial sweeteners (except stevia), artificial flavors, colors, or preservatives, trans fats, refined sugar, and high fructose corn syrup.
• Gluten – Eliminate gluten if you suffer from any chronic disease, digestive disease, autoimmune issues, or allergies.
• Top of Food Chain – If you choose to eat meat, seafood, and dairy, you must consider the source. If those animals were fed antibiotics, GMO foods, and garbage, what are you putting in your body when you eat them? If diary is not organic, chances are it contains rBGH, a genetically modified growth hormone. If you eat seafood, make sure your purchase is not on the list of those with the highest levels of mercury. Don’t eat farmed fish. They are fed GMO feed and garbage. When it comes to meat, dairy and eggs, choose organic.
• Fresh – Check out your local farmer’s markets for the freshest foods.

So, let’s go back to the original pushback on healthy food – lack of time, lack of money, lack of ability…

Yes, organic food is more expensive. But when you stop eating processed foods, drinking coffee, drinking alcohol, and most of your diet consists of fresh, raw, organic produce, it’s very affordable. You will probably save money. Food prep is pretty fast and easy, too. Anybody can pick up an apple and eat it. Anybody can chop up veggies and make a salad. Anybody can throw stuff in a blender. Where you go from there is up to you; these three actions are the basics.

So why is a truly healthy diet so important? You put the nutrients in; you leave the toxins out. In addition, this kind of diet does two things: it continually detoxes the body and it builds a healthy gut.

A healthy gut is the key to a healthy body. Autoimmune diseases, allergies, and a poor immune system are all symptoms of poor gut health.

Detox and Build a Healthy Gut

Make sure your diet includes chelating foods. Eat lots of raw garlic and onions. Eat fresh cilantro and plenty of cruciferous veggies. In fact, a daily salad with 10-15 veggies is a great start. Not only will you be cleansing your gut, you will be aiding in the proliferation of healthy bacteria with a high fiber, veggie salad each day.

Fermented foods have been getting a lot of attention lately. Unfortunately, a lot of the probiotic benefit of fermented foods is neutralized by stomach acid. Yes, fermented foods help. Salads help more. So eat both! But focus on those daily salads. And skip the sugar filled yogurts.

You will never be healthy with a sick gut. It’s that simple. Learn about Candida, gluten, and leaky gut syndrome.

Exercise

Don’t have the time to go to the gym? Don’t have the money for a membership? Don’t know how to exercise on your own? Oh, come on! Walk!

Get outside and walk in the sun. A daily walk for a minimum of 15 minutes gets the body moving and provides a huge benefit – lymphatic circulation. Our lymphatic system is vitally important to our health. Lymph carries waste from the cells and is a basic part of our immune system. Lymphatic fluid has to circulate through our body to dump waste and for our immune system to find, identify, and eliminate viruses and bacteria. But the lymphatic system does not have a pump. Unlike the circulatory system that relies on the heart, the lymphatic system relies on physical movement, the contraction and relaxation of muscles in order to move through our bodies. So walk, run, dance, bounce on a trampoline. But move every day for your health.

Love

If you want to attract love into your life, give it, give it, give it. Stop focusing on what you don’t have and find a way to make the world a better place.

Whether you choose a cause or find a calling, make sure your choice involves positive change, not empty protest. You can denounce poverty or volunteer to teach literacy. You can rail against deforestation or plant trees. Find something positive and productive to do. If it is your passion, try to make it your work.

When you find a way to give to others or give to the world, you enrich your life and raise your self-esteem. You also meet like-minded people. It’s a win-win.

Spirituality

This is an area in which you need to be true to yourself. Whether you believe you should attend services every Sunday and Wednesday or believe your road to enlightenment is found through meditation, honor your beliefs.

Think Right

No one can deny the fact that we are creatures of habit. What we do and what we think are patterns of behavior. If you’re not happy, these are patterns crying out to be broken.

Vengeance and Forgiveness

Let it go. Holding on to hate or anger hurts one person – you. Well, to be perfectly honest it may hurt those around you as well. Forgiveness does not mean making yourself vulnerable. You can forgive someone and never speak to them again. But holding onto the anger and the pain hurts you.

Forgiveness can be difficult. Sometimes forgiveness is a process rather than an outcome. If someone has hurt you that deeply, violated you so horribly that forgiveness is ongoing even though you no longer have contact, it is still better to work at forgiveness that wallow in anger and pain. Let the hurt go.

Gratitude

If you are not grateful for what you have, what you have achieved, and the people in your life, how can you possibly be happy? Practice gratitude. Whether you say the words aloud each day in private, write in a journal, or share your gratitude with your friends and family around the dinner table, make the expression of gratitude a daily ritual. This one act will create the fundamental shift from a glass half empty to a glass half full mentality.

Right Your Mind

If you’ve never seen it before, watch the Bob Newhart skit called Stop It. The skit is so famous, if you google “stop it”, the video is Google’s first hit. But we’ll also give it to you here.

This is a simple, silly take on a very real phenomenon. Unhappy people tend to dwell on their failures, live in the past, and fear the future.

Stop worrying about the things you can’t change. Stop keeping a tally of everything that’s gone wrong. Shit happens. It happens all the time, to all of us. Life is full of disappointments and tragedy. Everyone faces pain and hardship, challenges that sometimes seem too huge, too overwhelming to survive. But we do.

Instead of dwelling on what has gone wrong in the past, instead of fearing the future, recognize that you control today. Plan for your future. Make goals and achieve them. But live in the now.

Last but not least, be good to yourself. When you become an adult, you become responsible for you. In other words, you become your own parent. Be kind. Be compassionate. Become your better self. How could you not be happy?

Related Reading:

• Detox Cheap and Easy Without Fasting – Recipes Included
• Detox Cheap and Easy Without Fasting – Recipes Included
• Candida, Gut Flora, Allergies, and Disease
• Candida, Gut Flora, Allergies, and Disease
• How To Be Happy
• How To Be Happy
• How Candida Leads to Depression, Anxiety, ADHD, and Other Mental Disorders
• How Candida Leads to Depression, Anxiety, ADHD, and Other Mental Disorders

However you do it, living smoke-free is worth the pain and effort. No matter the method you choose to help yourself quit, the same bottom line will always apply: you just have to do it.

A doctor once asked me how many times I had tried to quit. When I told him the embarrassingly high number that I thought proved me to be incapable of ever quitting, his response made me believe that one day I would be successful. He said, “Good job! You’ll never quit if you don’t try. Don’t quit trying to quit! You’ll get it right! The people who don’t quit are the ones who don’t try.”

I did finally get it right. I learned a few lessons along the way.

Addiction is Multi-Faceted

There is so much focus on nicotine addiction, the buzz would have you believe that nicotine, or the lack thereof, is the only reason it is so hard to quit. This belief supports sales of nicotine patches, nicotine gum, and e-cigarettes. But nicotine wasn’t my main addiction; it was gone in a matter of days. There is so much more associated with the habit of smoking that smokers find appealing and habit forming. For me this included:

• The Deep Inhale and Exhale
• The Paraphernalia
• The Camaraderie
• The Break

The Deep Inhale and Exhale

The act of sucking in and blowing out smoke is as addictive as nicotine. Add to this the whole oral fixation and hand to mouth thing and you have a behavior that is hard to replace when you quit. But there is a way to offset some of this loss. And no, I am not talking about e-cigs or vaping.

What To Do: Deep breathing as taught for yoga and meditation really helps replace the loss of the inhale and the exhale of cigarette smoke. If you need the hand to mouth connection as well, buy some short, fat, plastic straws and use them to replicate the action.

The Paraphernalia

Many of us buy things we like that are associated with our smoking habit such as special lighters, ashtrays, and cigarette cases. Sometimes we develop rituals around these items as well.

What To Do: In the weeks before your target date to quit arrives, get rid of every single one of these items.

The Camaraderie

When smokers are forced to ban together in a designated area, an easy acquaintance develops. Small talk flows freely when you have a habit in common. For those of us who are shy, this makes daily interaction in the workplace as well as interaction with total strangers out in the general public much easier.

What To Do: If you miss the companionship and camaraderie of being a smoker, you need to make the effort to talk to others without the excuse. If you find it too difficult, volunteer your time somewhere that has a mission you admire. Shared values breed camaraderie.

The Break

The break is as hard to lose as the action of smoking itself. Unless we smoke inside while we are working or involved in an activity, we have trained ourselves to take a break from whatever we are doing to have a smoke. When frustration rises, you take a break. When you can’t think of what to do next, you take a break. When you get tired or drained, you take a break. When you get angry, you take a break. When you are brain dead, you take a break.

Just the act of getting away from the task, or the desk, helps your mood and helps you redirect. But in all honesty, here is where the nicotine kicks in, in another way. The nicotine boost helps clear your head and helps you feel refreshed. It is, after all, a stimulant. It may help you figure out how to solve whatever problem was giving you grief, and it gives you a jolt of energy.

What To Do: Give yourself permission to take that break. Walk outside. Do deep breathing. If you like, replace the behavior of smoking with something else. Blow bubbles. Play an instrument. Sing a song. If you are at work, take a brisk walk. Just don’t walk by the smoking area. And don’t substitute candy. Putting yourself on a sugar roller coaster will not help your mood or your abstinence.

The Steps That Prepare You for Quitting

Denial is part of the addiction. We sublimate the negative. We ignore the smell, the mess, and the cost of the addiction. And most of all, we pretend we are not engaged in a suicidal act. Yes, it is a slow suicide – a steady march toward heart disease, emphysema, and cancer.

Set the Date

Pick a date in the near future. If you can, pick a date that begins a 3-day weekend. Give yourself a few weeks to prepare.

Reality Check

Take the time to pull your head out of the sand and face the facts. What are the risks of smoking? What do your lungs look like? What are the odds that smoking will kill you or cripple your health? What does that crippling disease look like?

Pretend you are entering a debate on “Why to never smoke” or “Stop now if you’ve started” side. Do the research. Do it like your life depends on it. After all, it does.

Pros and Cons

Complete a written pros and cons list. Dig deep and be honest.

Calculate the Cost

How much money is this habit costing you? What else could you do with that money?

Maybe It’s Not Such a Good Idea To Announce You’re Quitting

You need to decide what works for you, but that also means it’s time to be realistic and stop doing the same thing expecting different results. Many people like to announce self-improvement goals to friends and families, but some studies have shown that doing this does not correlate into greater success.

Mix It Up

In the weeks leading up to your target date, consider switching your brand. One way to go is organic. Organic cigarettes are easier to kick. The other extreme is to change the brand you smoke each and every day, buy brands you hate, or try vaporizing, but be careful not to simply switch one addiction for another (and it should be noted that vaporizing may not be the healthy alternative people thought it was).

Embrace Health

It’s damn hard to be a health enthusiast when you are a smoker. You feel like a hypocrite. When you quit smoking, that conflict is gone. And the more health conscious you are before and during the process, the better you will feel and the easier it will be to quit.

Eating right evens out your blood sugar. A dip in blood sugar can cause an almost unbearable desire to smoke.

Plan ahead and shop ahead. Fill your kitchen with fresh whole foods – organic produce. If possible, cook ahead for your first few days of abstinence and make several salads filled with lots of vegetables.

If you don’t already know what constitutes a truly healthy diet and a healthy lifestyle, now is the time to learn and to start living right. This choice to embrace health will be a major factor that helps you abstain from smoking.

Avoid Triggers

Once you quit, avoid places where you smoked. If there is a place you frequented where there is smoking (like my old karaoke bar) don’t go! Declare your home a smoke-free zone. If you have friends who smoke, let them know you are quitting and that you can’t be around them for a while. Do not put yourself in the position where you could simply ask someone to give you a cigarette. They will.

If you are watching a movie where the characters smoke, change the channel. If you walk by smokers, look away. You don’t know your triggers yet – those sights and smells that make you crave “just one.” Don’t push it. Avoid them.

Don’t Argue With “The Voice”

We’ve all got a voice in our head. Sometimes it is the voice of reason. Sometimes it is our conscience. Sometimes, especially in our younger decades, it is the voice of our mother. But when we are trying to break an addictive habit, that voice is the voice of addiction. Or maybe it is the voice of the devil himself.

• Voice: You can have just one.
• Reality: It’s true. Maybe today you can. But tomorrow one is not enough.
• Voice: You can’t quit.
• Reality: Yes, you can.
• Voice: Not today. How about tomorrow?
• Reality: You’ve been saying this for years.
• Voice: It’s too hard. Cold turkey doesn’t work.
• Reality: The only way to stop smoking is to stop smoking.

When you start arguing with this voice, you often lose. The voice is persistent – relentless, actually. So just shut it down. Don’t answer. Simply remind yourself that you can do this.

The Night Before the Chosen Day

This is it. You’re ready. Your head is in the right place because you have reminded yourself about the reality of smoking – how it is impacting your life and your health. You have chosen health. You have chosen life and a life well lived.

You have already thrown away or given away all of your smoking paraphernalia. Before you go to bed, throw out all of your cigarettes. But tossing them is not enough. Breaking them is not enough. Drown them. And do the same with your cigarette butts. If you don’t, you will dig through your trash. You don’t want to do that. It makes you feel… well… at the very least horribly addicted, which gives that voice energy when it says you can’t quit. Thoroughly wetting all cigarettes and cigarette butts makes smoking them impossible.

Get a good night’s sleep. Tomorrow will be the start of your new life.

How To Stay Quit

Okay, you’ve done it. You have woken up to the first day of the rest of your life. You have chosen to live smoke free. For the next 2-3 days, stay home! Do not put yourself closer to a place to buy or bum a cigarette. Besides, you are going to want to sleep a lot for the next few days.

You will be detoxing from nicotine and a host of other chemicals you have been inhaling. There are things you can do to help this process:

• Drink plenty of clean, pure water – distilled or spring water and cranberry lemonade.
• Eat right. You need a nutrient dense diet. The 80% raw diet is great.
• Vitamin C helps with cravings as it flushes out your system.
• Complex B vitamins help you relax and sleep. It’s “nature’s valium.”
• Sleep all you want. Relax. Read. Watch TV. Live in your PJs for a few days.

What To Expect After You Quit Smoking

As the days go by, you will think about smoking less and less. The day will come (fairly soon!) when you realize you had not thought about it all day. Don’t dwell on this thought because “the voice” will kick in. Just acknowledge it and move on.

If you do find yourself next to a smoker, one of two things will happen. You will want to breathe in that smell as if second hand smoke is heaven or the smell of smoke, even the faintest whiff, will make you nauseous. Oh yes, your sense of smell will probably improve. You’ll probably be able to smell a smoker from a distance.

On one day you will see a group of people standing outside smoking and you’ll think about how stupid they look. The very act of doing what they are doing will look wrong and you will feel grateful that you are not one of them. The next time you see a group of smokers you may have the opposite reaction. They may look like the “cool guys” and you wish you were with them.

Unexpected things will trigger you or surprise you. Acknowledge them and move on.

The less time you spend thinking about, talking about, worrying about, or even congratulating yourself about the fact you have quit, the better. You will find weeks pass. Months pass. With each passage of time the pull lessens. Instead of focusing on the issue of whether or not you smoke, focus on ways to improve your health on an ongoing basis.

What To Do If a Crisis Occurs

A horrible fight with a spouse, the death of a friend or family member, losing a job…these are the worst triggers. When something big happens, your instinct will be to reach for that crutch.

What will happen? You’ll get a headache. You’ll feel sick to your stomach. Your heart will race. You’ll have trouble sleeping. And you’ll be trying to bury your guilt and frustration with the fact that you are smoking. How is any of this going to help the situation when you and your family are in crisis?

This is a good time to practice deep breathing. Take extra B vitamins. Handling the stress in a healthy way will not only help you remain free from your addiction, you will actually handle the situation better for yourself and for your loved ones if you use healthy rather than unhealthy coping mechanisms.

What To Do If You Backslide

Stop again immediately! Do not let a little slip define you. Now is the time to review all that information you saved about the horrors of smoking and review your pros and cons list that you haven’t looked at since the day you quit. Drown the cigarettes. Throw away the lighter. Just do it again – now. Don’t wait a week, a month, or a year to start over. Just do it. If you wait too long, it might actually be a year or two before you convince yourself to have another go at it. So why waste the time?

Simple Stop Smoking Protocol

Lots of good ideas right? But maybe a bit overwhelming, so let’s put most of what’s above into a simple protocol, throw in some nutrition, and feel free to make the necessary adjustments that makes this the perfect program for you.

1. Pick a Date

Regardless of which path you take and how you do it, pick a date. Give yourself some time, but burn that date into your subconscious as the date you know that you will be smoke-free from that point on. Remember it. Believe it. Know it. No matter what else you do, no matter what else happens, you will never smoke beyond that point.

2. Learn to Breathe Properly, and Practice Constantly

When you breathe properly, your diaphragm, your stomach, and your ribcage expand, not the upper chest. Fully exhaling is important, too. Remember, you are breathing in oxygen rich air and releasing carbon dioxide and toxins.

Have you ever watched babies breathe? Their stomachs rise and their rib cages fully expand with each breath they take.  Watch and learn.

3. Switch it Up

In the weeks before your target date, try a brand that doesn’t add additives to increase addiction, roll your own, don’t smoke in the car, break up your routine, etc. When you need to smoke, give it 10 minutes no matter what, and spend that time breathing properly.

4. Do Squats

Exercise. Squats help detoxify the body and keep the organs healthy. Work up to a sweat, and breath heavily and deeply.

5. Address Other Issues

If you’re a long-term smoker, you’re likely to be dealing with some health issues like hypothyroidism, hormonal imbalances, periodontal disease, and asthma. Be sure to address them, and address them naturally.

6. Detoxify

Detoxify now, and keep doing it until you quit smoking. The focus should be on flushing out heavy metals toxins, carbon, other carcinogens, and all those other toxins that come along with smoking that increase your body’s cravings. Drink lots of cranberry lemonade and eat lots of salads. It’s also a perfect time to repair the gut and balance your flora, which will in turn heal your endocrine system and balance your hormones.

Also, take a good antioxidant, try Shillington’s Huff and Puff Formula to help detoxify the lungs, and always have B vitamins on hand. Smokers are constantly depleting their B vitamins, which leads to emotional issues and addictive behaviors. See the links above and the related reading section below for more information on breathing, healing the gut, and hormones. See the first article for our salad and cranberry lemonade recipes.

Recommended Supplements:

• CoQ10 50mg with Vitamin C – Douglas Labs (antioxidants)
• Shillington’s Herbal Snuff Formula (clear sinuses and revitalize sense of smell, but buyer beware, it’s not for the faint of heart)
• Shillington’s Blood Detox Formula (detoxify the blood of toxins, stay well while sinuses drain)
• Shillington’s Total Nutrition Formula (chelate heavy metals, lots of nutrients)
• Shillington’s Tooth Gum Formula

Related Reading:

• Detox Cheap and Easy Without Fasting – Recipes Included
• Gluten, Candida, Leaky Gut Syndrome, and Autoimmune Diseases
• Total Nutrition – Make your own Homemade Multivitamin and Mineral Formula
• Top 5 Foods that Detox Heavy Metals and Toxins – With Protocol
• How to Breathe

According to a study of the Harvard Medical School, eating more fresh vegetables, a simple improvement in your diet, can have a tangible effect on your health. Here are a few great vegetables to boost your immune system and a couple of food combos that will enhance their flavour:

Asparagus

Nutrition Facts

Asparagus has plenty of folate, dietary fibre, and iron. The greenery contains selenium, which decreases the risk of bladder, colon, breast, rectum, prostate, and lung cancer. A serving, 242 g of asparagus, provides 74% of the required daily intake of vitamin C and 25% of iron.

How To Cook It

To avoid losing flavour and the nourishing elements of the asparagus, you should not overcook it. Steam for 3 minutes or bake 10 to 15 minutes in the oven at 400 F (204 C). If you prefer, you can also cook asparagus on the barbeque and sprinkle with a few drops of balsamic vinegar.

What Works with Asparagus

The greenery goes well with steak or chicken, as well as with prosciutto, bacon, ham, mint, lemon, toasted almonds and Parmesan cheese. You can also add it to a quiche, risotto, or pasta to give the dish unique earthy undertones.

Almost Raw Asparagus Mango Salad Recipe

Spinach

Nutrition Facts

Spinach is low in saturated fat and cholesterol while it is rich in zinc. It is known for fostering the immune system and speeding up the healing processes in your body. Spinach is also a good source of protein, dietary fibre, folate, iron, and magnesium. In a single serving of 30 g, you get 56% of the required daily intake of vitamin A and 14% of vitamin C.

 

How To Cook It

You can use raw spinach in salads or steam it for a few minutes. You can also sauté the greenery for several minutes or roast it for 10 minutes. It is important to rinse it well before using it in your meals to remove dirt and grit.

What Works With Spinach

You can pair the leafy greenery with butter, cream, bacon, cheese, eggs, garlic, onions, mushrooms, red pepper flakes, anchovies, pine nuts, nutmeg, olive oil, sesame oil, salt, and soy sauce.

Raw Spinach Basil Soup Recipe

Rhubarb

Nutrition facts

Rhubarb is great for your bones and proper organ functioning because of its high vitamin C levels (10% of the daily value per 122g serving size). The vegetable is very low in saturated fat, cholesterol, and sodium. According to expert gardeners and herbalists, it can also relieve women’s hot flashes.

How To Cook It

Although you can eat it raw with a little sugar sprinkled on it, it is generally cooked with other ingredients, most often fruits to enhance their taste. Rhubarb is used for pie fillings, baked sauces, jellies, jams, muffins, cakes, and other desserts.

What Works With Rhubarb

To balance the sour flavour of this vegetable, combine it with sweet fruits such as strawberries. For savoury dishes, you can combine rhubarb with beets, garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper, or serve it as a sauce for meats and fish.

Beets

Nutrition facts

Beetroot contains a considerable amount of potassium, folate, and vitamin C can and have very few calories (around 50 per cup). However, large portion of the calories in the vegetable come from sugar.

How To Cook It

Baking and oven-roasting are wonderful ways to bring up the natural sweetness of the beets. You can use it raw in salads with some carrots, raisins and sweet dressing or add it in a stew or soup.

What Works With Beets

You can go with the classic combination of beets and goat cheese, especially if the vegetable is slightly older and flavourful. Orange or lemon juice will highlight its flavour. Other complementary herbs and foods are beef, bacon, smoked fish, apples, cheese, cream, chestnuts, honey, cinnamon, vinegar, and vinaigrette. Believe it or not, chocolate and beetroot are a match made in heaven.

Radishes

Nutrition facts

The crunchy, tasteful, and inexpensive superfood, which can be easily grown in your own garden, is full of vitamin C and almost zero calories. Ten radishes contain only 8 calories, and their sharpness will refresh your entire body in a minute.

How To Cook It

Radishes are usually included raw in meals, but they can be cooked just like other vegetables. You can toss them in the pan with some butter, chives, or other herbs that you use for your gardening project and season with pepper and salt. Radishes are great for braising, because they easily absorb the rich flavour of the braising liquid and get sweet and juicy.

What Works With Radishes

Radishes pair deliciously with creamy cheese, quinoa, faro, butter, onions, and citrus fruit. If you are looking for a lighter alternative to potatoes, try braised radishes with your meat or vegetable stew.

For more homesteading ideas and gardening techniques check the Skilful Gardeners Blog.

Editor’s Note: I eat every one of these vegetables raw in my daily salads. For my recipe, check out Detox Cheap and Easy Without Fasting – Recipes Included.

Further Reading:

• The Benefits of Root Vegetables – Recipes Included
• Almost Raw Asparagus Mango Salad Recipe
• 80% Raw Food Diet
• Spinach

Sources:

• University of Illinois
• All Recipes

Cacao growers are facing climate fluctuations along with a growing list of diseases and pests that attack their crops. While the Foundation for a Sustainable Cocoa Economy is on the case (breeding new varieties of cacao and looking for locations that will still be able to sustain cacao production, in say, twenty years), no one knows if they’ll be able to meet the world’s ever expanding demand. What’s going to happen when we run out of chocolate? Will we replace chocolate with carob?

Carob Is Sustainable

Humankind’s long, exciting history with chocolate makes carob seem like the quiet, reliable but less dangerous, less sexy option. It is, but it is also a sustainable one.

Carob is a hardy legume originating in the Mediterranean that can stand temperatures as low as 20°F. Unlike chocolate, carob doesn’t contain caffeine or theobromine. There are few pests that affect it, so it is not likely to be treated with pesticides. Though carob does need to be dried, unlike chocolate, it doesn’t need to be fermented, which further limits its contact with animals and insects.

Perhaps the most important feature of the carob plant is its drought-resistance. Cacao is a water-hungry plant that needs nearly eighty inches of rainfall a year. Regions close to the equator where cacao grows are experiencing drier conditions as climate change evolves, making cacao a less sustainable crop as water resources decline. In contrast, carob requires roughly 20 inches of rain a year, and that’s only to produce fruit. A mature tree can survive drought conditions for years. Multiple signs are pointing to water being the most precious resource in the near future. Shifting our dependence to crops that are less water-intensive is critical.

It Doesn’t Have All of Those Pesky Human Rights Issues

Carob also beats chocolate on human rights. Recent investigations into chocolate production on the Ivory Coast found evidence of continued human rights abuse with 12,000 children smuggled in and made victims of modern slavery. The average carob product is much less labor intensive and more frequently farmed in countries with better-regulated labor laws. It is always more likely to be fair-trade.

Nutrition

Sugar is energy, and we’re biologically wired to want it. But all forms of sugar are not equal, and too much of it and many of the modern forms of it combine to feed Candida and cause other damage. Carob pulp is about 50 percent sugars and while gorging yourself on it isn’t recommended, the naturally occurring sugars benefit greatly from carob’s fiber content, which slows down the absorption of said sugars. This sugar content also has the side benefit of lowering the amount of added sugar needed to make carob palatable.

Carob contains a rich array of nutrients. Like chocolate, carob has significant antioxidant activity, but carob has three times more calcium. It’s also a good source of B vitamins, vitamin A, potassium, magnesium, and trace minerals like iron and manganese. It also serves as a protein source.

In natural medicine, carob’s levels of pectin and tannin help stop serious cases of diarrhea. Its antioxidant profile has also been effective in helping lower cholesterol, and some studies suggest carob is capable of attacking cervical cancer cells.

So Why We Aren’t Clamoring for Carob?

Short Answer? It’s not chocolate.

Carob’s natural sweetness actually plays against it in the taste category, as the bitterness found in chocolate gives it a stronger and more varied flavor profile. Chocolate also contains more fat, another food stuff we find hard to resist.

While linking carob with chocolate does garner some positive press, it also creates carob’s biggest obstacle. Carob and chocolate are most often a sweet treat, they are combined with like ingredients, they are usually the same color, and they do have a similar taste.  However, anyone biting into carob expecting it to taste just like chocolate will be disappointed and forever think of it as an inadequate substitute. It doesn’t have to be that way.

Reframe the Situation

So, it’s not chocolate. If you’re able to separate carob from chocolate, carob can be a satisfying treat. It’s great in homemade energy bites, desserts, and even smoothies. Keep an open mind and try it. You just might have a new favorite sweet snack. Here’s a recipe to get you started.

Carob Coconut Rough Slice

Makes 16-20 single-serve squares

This recipe, Carob Coconut Rough Slice, from Be Good Organics, is used with permission. All of the items listed for the recipe can be purchased from their site.  Always use certified organic ingredients whenever possible.

Base Ingredients

• 1c almonds (soaked 8 hrs or overnight, rinsed and well drained)
• 1/2c raw carob powder
• 1c dates (soaked for a few hours then drained – save the water to use as sweetener in your hot drinks or in a smoothie)
• 2c desiccated coconut
• 3/4c virgin coconut oil, melted but cool
• pinch organic sea salt

Chewy Topping

• 1/2c cashews
• 1/3c raw carob powder
• 8 medjool dates, pitted
• 1/4c virgin coconut oil, melted but cool
• c = 250ml cup, tbsp = 15ml tablespoon, tsp = 5ml teaspoon

Instructions

1. Add almonds to a high-speed food processor or blender, and blend until fine.
2. Add the carob powder and salt and blend again.
3. Now add the dates one by one while the machine is running (through the hole in the top), until fully combined.
4. Remove from the processor into a bowl, then mix in the coconut.
5. Finally mix in the coconut oil until well combined.
6. Pour into a glass or metal tin lined with a square of baking paper and press down until really firmly packed – then place in the freezer to set.
7. Now for the topping, add the cashews to your food processor and blend until they become a fine powder. Add the carob powder until mixed, then one by one while the motor is running add your medjool dates.
8. Make sure your second measure of coconut oil is melted but well cooled (not warm, or it will separate). Add to the processor until the mixture becomes one big gooey ball.
9. Take the base out of the freezer, press the topping down on top of the base and smooth over. Place back in the freezer for about an hour until set, then remove, slice, and store in the freezer or fridge.

This will last a couple of weeks in the fridge. If you want it to last longer (or you have limited self-control), it will also keep in the freezer for up to 2 months.

Raw Vegan Carob Brownie

Recommended Reading:

• Cinnamon – Ceylon Vs Cassia, Health Benefits, and Other Interesting Facts
• Powerfully Healing Raspberry Cream Smoothie Recipe
• 80% Raw Food Diet

Sources:

• Carob: Better Than Chocolate – Gilead Institute
• Carob vs. Cacao – Live Strong
• Carob Health Medicine – Medical Health Guide

If you’re making nut milks for better health, there are a few rules you’ll want to adhere to. First and foremost, kudos for making your own. Homemade is always better when done right. But to do it right, skip the soy milk. It’s no good. When buying almonds, make sure they are not pasteurized. Buy raw nuts. Cashews aren’t really raw, so they’re not the healthiest choice, but I do use them sometimes.

Contents

• Soaking & Sprouting

• Nut Milk with a Blender

• Almond Milk with a Juicer

• Flax Milk

• Hemp Milk

• Coconut Milk

• Rice Milk

PRE-MILKING: Soak and Sprout Times for Nuts

Before you milk your nuts, it is best to soak them. There’s a lot of conflicting information about soak times for nuts but I personally soak nuts for 24 hours and then dehydrate them at 112°F in our dehydrator or at room temperature if the air is dry enough.

I soak raw nuts to remove enzyme inhibitors and activate enzymes. I don’t soak seeds, but some do. I don’t soak cashews because I think that nut is already dead, but as you can see from the infographics on the left, there is some disagreement.

How to Make Nut Milk with a Blender

This recipe yields 5 cups or just over a liter and takes less than ten minutes. I’ve used almonds, hazelnuts, brazil nuts, macadamia nuts, cashews, pecans, and walnuts for this standard nut milk recipe.

Ingredients

• 3-4 cups water (some nuts and some circumstances require a little more or less)
• 1 cup of raw, soaked nuts
• 1-3 pitted dates or use stevia, raw honey, or maple syrup to taste (all sweeteners are optional; you may prefer unsweetened nut milk to drink or for use in recipes)

Instructions

1. Place ingredients in a blender and secure lid.
2. Turn blender on high, but not too fast or for too long if you want raw milk.  (Too fast or too long will cook the enzymes!)
3. Blend for about 45 seconds or until desired consistency is reached.
4. If you like thinner milk (most do, but I usually keep the fiber), strain it with cheesecloth, pantyhose (unworn would be a good idea here), or muslin cloth and a fine mesh strainer, but many prefer to use a reinforced nut milk bag.
5. Store milk in refrigerator.
6. Shake well before using.

Notes:

• The less strained a nut milk is, the higher its fiber content.
• I don’t recommend straining cashew milk.
• If you use raw honey, do not use the milk for baking, cooking, coffee, hot tea, etc. if you want to retain the benefits of raw honey.
• I blend with 3 cups first, and then decide if I want some of the fourth cup.

The following are a few other nut milk and non-dairy recipes with videos. These videos are not our videos, so the recipes don’t always exactly match, but as you’ll see reading on, making nut, seed, rice, and other non-dairy milks is really just about blending together water with something fatty (like almonds) to flavor the water. The trick is how to have a finished product with the right consistency and taste balance. Play around and find your own nut milk style and groove.

Making Almond Milk with a Blender

Making Almond Milk with a Slow Juicer

Masticating verticle juicers such as the Omega VRT 350 or 400 and horizontal twin gear juicers can be used to make nut milks. In my experience, the single gear juicers like mine don’t do so well (see the video below).

The video indicates the 8004 (single gear) left behind a delicious nut cream. I tried it, and it worked well. I put the weak nut milk in a blender and added more almonds, lightly strained and had great milk.

Other Non-dairy Milk Recipes

Nut milks are rich and creamy, but there are many more to choose from, and mixing milks to find your own favorite formula is fun. I really like 40% flax, 50% almond, and 10% cashew with some cinnamon, cardamom, and a touch of nutmeg. I don’t like things very sweet, so if you do, you may prefer more dates than I do, or another sweetener entirely or no sweetener at all.

Speaking of flavor, sweeteners are not necessary (it’s up to you), and should always be done by taste. For more on sweeteners, be sure to check out Healthy Alternative Sugars. I recommend the following, in order based on both health consciousness and what I like to taste in these recipes.

Sweeteners and Spices For Non-Dairy Milks

• Stevia
• Dates
• Raw honey (only if it will not be heated)
• Blackstrap molasses
• Sugar cane juice
• Granny smith apple juice
• Maple syrup

I also like using stevia to sweeten and then just a little maple syrup or another sweetener to mask the stevia. Stevia is great for essentially amplifying the sweetness of another sweetener.

Spices for Non-Dairy Nut Milks

• Cinnamon
• Nutmeg
• Allspice
• Ginger
• Cloves
• Cardamom

Just a pinch! Depending on what you are using the milk for, use very little of these spices. The taste gets stronger after the milk sets a while. This is especially true with nutmeg. You can ruin any dish with just a little too much nutmeg.

Also, the fineness of your strainer will have a tremendous impact on the taste and consistency of your milk. The less you strain, the more potential for a chalky or slimy texture (depending on the nut, the humidity, and some other factors). On the other hand, with some nuts and seeds, or with some recipes, less of a fine strain may be in order. Plus, there are health benefits in the pulp, so the more of it you get, the better, (unless there are digestive issues to consider).

Healthy & Heavenly Flax Milk Recipe

Flaxseed doesn’t have the most diverse set of benefits, but it is heavy in beneficial omega 3 fats and contains between 75 and 800 times more lignans than other plant foods.

There’s no need to soak or sprout flax seeds.

I like the taste of dates, maple syrup, cane juice, and honey in my homemade flax milk, but I tend to just use honey because I never heat flax milk, and I often heat other milks such as almond or hazelnut for oatmeal and other treats. Heating raw honey or flax does not make for a healthy meal. I’m also careful to keep the blender from cooking the flax as well.

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup flax seeds
• 3 cups water (plus 1-1.5  more cups)
• Straining cloth or milk nut bag
• 1 tbsp raw honey
• Vanilla to taste (a tiny bit! I do about 1/4 tsp)

Instructions

1. Combine flax seeds and 3 cups water in blender
2. Blend until thick and creamy on high heat, but not too hot as to cook the flax
3. Strain
4. Blend 1-1.5 more cups water plus honey to desired consistency
5. Can be used right away or chilled for later

Notes

Brown or golden flax will work fine. I used brown, but I’ve read that golden flax results in a milder flavor.

Homemade Honey Hemp Milk

Hemp milk, like flax, is a quick and easy to make since hemp doesn’t need to be soaked overnight. Hemp seeds (hulled hemp nuts) are for omega-3 fatty acids and gamma-linolenic acid (GLA), an essential omega-6 fatty acid found in borage oil and egg yolks that is known to naturally balance hormones. Hemp also has all 10 essential amino acids, making hemp a complete source of protein on its own. Calcium, potassium, phosphorous, vitamin A, and magnesium are also prevalent in hemp and homemade hemp milk.

Ingredients

• 1 cup hemp hearts (also called seeds or shelled hemp nuts)
• 3 to 4 cups filtered or spring water (3 cups for thicker milk, and up to 4 cups for thinner)
• 1 Tbsp of coconut oil (optional)
• 2 Tbsp of raw honey and a drop of stevia (pick another sweetener if you’re gonna heat this milk)
• Vanilla to taste
• A pinch of Himalayan pink salt (or other unprocessed sea salt)

Instructions

1. In a high-speed blender, add hemp and water
2. Blend on high for about two minutes, until fully liquefied
3. Strain, put back into blender (rinse the blender first)
4. Add coconut oil (if using), honey and stevia, vanilla powder and salt. Blend briefly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGlx_ch-gvs

How to Make Your Own Coconut Milk

I find coconut milk to be an easy recipe, but if you’re picky about the texture, coconut can be a little more labor intensive. What I love about coconut milk is that I find it to be the most versatile, the most robust, and the most beneficial of all the nut milks.

Coconut milk can be cooked at moderate temperatures without affecting the health benefits, the fat is incredibly good for you.

• 1 cup dried coconut chips -or- between 2-3 whole, mature coconuts
• 2 cups water

Instructions

If you’re using whole coconut, extract the meat. You can also use coconut water to substitute for water.

Blend. Blend for a while; take your time. You can blend at high speeds as well since coconut is not very susceptible to heat damage. When the coconut meat is as liquefied as possible, transfer the contents of your blender to the cheesecloth or other strainer.

Some people repeat the process, blending more and then straining again. Other recipes call for hot water to further emulsify the coconut meat into the water.

Making Brown Rice Milk at Home

It isn’t good for you at all if you use refined rice. Always use brown rice. Brown rice is a good source of fiber, manganese, and selenium. It also has some decent levels of iron, copper, niacin, and folate.

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup cooked rice
• 3 cups filtered water

Instructions

Measure rice into a blender, add the water, and blend until smooth (approximately 1 minute). You may want to blend again for ultra smooth consistency.

Conclusion

Most nut milks are best fresh though I find the sweeter, seasoned varieties I make are better 6-10 hours later. I admit, this could just be my imagination. Homemade nut and seed milks generally last between 5 to 10 days when properly refrigerated. The smell and taste is pretty obvious when they turn, so check the 5-day-old milk before you risk ruining a bowl of cereal. With all of these milks (just like unpasteurized milk), shake before using.

As mentioned, the sweeteners are optional. I recommend as little refined sugar as possible in a diet, and I rarely make sweet nut milks for myself. When I do, I almost always use stevia to amplify another sweetener like raw honey or maple syrup. I don’t generally do a lot of cashews or almonds because they’re expensive to buy unpasteurized (cashews are cooked during the difficult opening process, and truly raw cashews are hard to find and very expensive).

If you suffer from digestive problems or any health issues, see this article. And remember, it is imperative that you soak nuts that need to be soaked. Enzyme inhibitors age us rapidly, so get rid of them.

If you’ve got any tricks or techniques for making alternative, non-dairy milks, be sure to leave us a comment below.

Recommended Reading:

• Total Nutrition – Make your own Homemade Multivitamin and Mineral Formula
• Sprouting to Remove Enzyme Inhibitors
• 35 Things You Could Do With Coconut Oil – From Body Care to Health to Household
• Homemade Vitamin C
• Homemade Calcium and Magnesium
• Three Homemade Toothpaste Recipes – Better Oral Health for Less Money

Sources:

• An Illustrated Guide: Benefits to Soaking and Sprouting Legumes, Grains and Seeds – KQED Foods
• Homemade Quinoa Milk – Simple Vegan Blog

You’re sound asleep or floating in that delicious half dreaming, half aware state of limbo. Suddenly you are jolted awake as a white-hot, searing pain rips through your calf. You scream. You cry. You try to stretch out your leg or you force yourself to stand up and limp around in circles until the pain subsides. Sanity returns as the muscle relaxes and you collapse back into bed. But what caused that muscle to twist itself into a knot?

To relieve a cramp right now, stretch the muscle. The muscle cramping needs to be elongated. A bit of unrefined sea salt under the tongue followed by eating a banana can keep them from coming back for the time being, but if you get muscle cramps regularly it’s time to put a stop to them with a holistic approach that addresses the cause.

Causes of Muscle Cramps

Dehydration, mineral deficiency, or muscle strain are common causes of a muscle spasm also known as a charley horse. Poor circulation, nerve compression, or an adverse reaction to a prescription medication may also be to blame.

How To Avoid Muscle Cramps

Too often we look at one symptom and try to resolve it with medications instead of looking at the body from a holistic viewpoint. If you move away from the conventional medical model and realize that there is one disease – cellular dysfunction with its many symptoms, you will change your approach to health. You can heal the individual cells through detox, exercise, and nutrition. In other words, give the body what it needs, remove the interfering toxins, and it will heal itself.

Dehydration

Your body needs plenty of pure, clean water each day. The rule of thumb is ½ ounce to 1 ounce per pound. If you weigh 150 lbs., that’s 75 to 150 ounces of water per day, roughly half a gallon to a gallon a day. If you weigh 200 lbs, that’s 12 .5 to 25 cups of water or ¾ gallon to a 1 ½ gallons a day. Hotter weather and more exercise puts you on the high end of the range, whereas cooler weather and a more sedentary lifestyle lowers your requirements.

Cranberry Lemonade Recipe from The One Gallon Challenge

• Glass gallon jar
• Safe, clean, spring water or distilled water
• 1 cup of unsweetened, organic cranberry juice, not from concentrate
• 3 organic fresh lemons
• A citrus juicer
• Liquid stevia
• Liquid cayenne

Fill the jar to about 85% capacity with spring water (or distilled water). Squeeze the lemons and pour the juice into the water. Add cranberry juice. Add stevia to taste and then add cayenne to taste. The amount of cayenne used is up to you, but the more the better.

Nutrition

You can easily increase nutrition through raw fruits and vegetables. Muscle spasms can be caused by low levels of magnesium, potassium, calcium, and sodium. If you eat a truly healthy diet consisting of 80% fresh, raw, organic produce, you will increase your overall health.

Foods rich in magnesium include pumpkin seeds, spinach, Swiss chard, sesame seeds, quinoa, cashews, black beans, cashews, sunflower seeds, and navy beans.

Foods rich in potassium include beet greens, Lima beans, Swiss chard, bok choy, sweet potato, potatoes, spinach, avocado, pinto beans, and lentils. Of course, bananas are a good source as well, but compare their 422.44 mg of potassium per serving to beet greens at 1,308.96 mg per serving. Greens really pack in nutrients.

Greens alkalinize the body and keep calcium levels up in the body as well. Collared greens, spinach, turnip greens, mustard greens, beet greens, and bok choy are all excellent sources of calcium. Try to eat a large salad every day with lots of greens, plenty of other colors, garlic, cilantro, ginger, and more.

 

Exercise

The body needs exercise to maintain muscle strength and limberness, bone density, lymphatic movement, and blood flow. All are vital for health. In order for the body to dispose of waste and toxins, blood and lymph must move through the tissues. Exercise and massage aid in circulation of blood and lymph.

Chiropractic and Massage

If muscle spasms are a regular occurrence, especially if you maintain a healthy diet and get good exercise, it’s a good idea to check in with your chiropractor, your masseuse, or both, to relieve any impinged nerves that may be contributing to the problem.

Stretch Properly

Lightly stretch after your muscles are warm, and take care not to injure yourself as you build up flexibility. Incorporate Dynamic stretching with your workouts. Dynamic stretching means your body is still continuously moving while you elongate, or stretch, the muscles, like with stiff-legged deadlifts and high kicks. Use static, slow-and-hold stretching to grow and maintain your flexibility after your workout when your muscles are hot, not before when the muscles are cold. Doing static stretches at the end of a workout will help reduce muscle soreness the next day and allow your muscles to heal faster due to the increase in blood flow to the muscles.

Supplementation

Shillington’s Total Nutrition Formula and Sunwarrior’s Liquid Light  are excellent for daily supplementation. It’s best not to take potassium or magnesium by themselves unless recommended by a doctor who has verified a deficiency. There are many good liquid multi-mineral formulas on the market (and a lot of bad ones), but not many great whole-food supplements like Shillington’s formula (you can also get the recipe here).

Conclusion

When you embrace a healthy lifestyle and reject processed foods, replacing them with whole healthy foods and an alkaline diet (which is very easy to do with whole foods), and you drink plenty of clean water, exercise, and get good rest, healing begins. Muscle spasms, along with other aches and pains or symptoms attributed to age or other circumstance, simply disappear. If you get cramps in your feet, look into  hypothyroidism.

Recommended Reading:

• Hypertension – How To Lower Your Blood Pressure Quickly and Naturally
• Understand Hypothyroidism – Prevention and Natural Remedies
• Joint Pain – What Causes it? How to Stop it Naturally

Recommended Supplements:

• Shillington’s Total Nutrition Formula
• Sunwarrior’s Liquid Light
• Liquid Magnesium – 8oz • Drs Advantage
• Shillington’s Body Balance+
• Magnesium Complex Liquid

Sources:

• Charley horse – Medline Plus
• Water and Your Diet: Staying Slim and Regular With H2O – Web M.D.
• Magnesium – The World’s Healthiest Foods
• Potassium – The World’s Healthiest Foods
• Calcium – The World’s Healthiest Foods

You have probably heard that carbs are bad for both your health and your figure. Most weight loss diets advocate reducing carb intake, but since carbohydrates are important for seamless functioning of the human body, their role as a primary energy source should not be overlooked even if you have a good few extra waistline inches. That is why knowing the difference between good carbs and bad carbs is essential for good health – and a sexy shape as well. Here are some major differences between the two types of carbohydrates to help you structure your diet in order to maximize the health benefits of every single bite.

Structure of Simple vs. Complex Carbs

The main difference between good and bad carbs is found in their chemical makeup. Bad carbs are also known as simple sugars, and the name itself points to their less complex molecular structure and therefore, easier and faster digestion. Unlike simple carbs, good carbohydrates consist of longer chains of sugar molecules that take more time for the human organism to digest.

Sources of Good vs. Bad Carbs

Simple carbs are usually found in processed food such as refined sugar, sodas, artificial syrups, candies, pastries, white bread, white rice, pies, cookies, cakes and other additionally sweetened foods. Complex carbs, on the other hand, have a lower glycemic load, which points to their lower but more consistent energy release.  They are normally found in natural, fiber-packed food such as brown rice, whole grain bread, oatmeal, peas, beans, lentils, fruit, seeds and nuts, soybeans, skimmed milk, and low-fat yoghurt.

Effects of Intake of Simple vs. Complex Carbs

Due to their faster molecular breakdown, simple carbs lead to quick energy boosts and improved focus, but these positive effects are short-lived and wear off within an hour or so. Not so with complex carbs. Due to their slower digestion, good carbs may not produce an instant energy spike, but they do provide lasting energy and keep you full for longer periods of time.

Vitamin and Mineral Content Makes a Difference

Unlike complex carbs, simple sugars have low or no nutritive value because they do not contain vitamins, minerals or phytochemicals necessary for normal bodily functioning. That is why simple sugars are often termed “empty calories” – they have nothing except fast energy that your body could use. Complex carbs normally go hand in hand with fiber, vitamins, minerals and other vital nutrients, so their effect is twofold: they provide energy and other aspects of nourishment that living cells need to function.

Simple Carbs Can Contribute To Development of Health Problems

Since simple sugars contain few or no nutrients other than instantly available energy, a diet high in simple carbs can play a significant role in the development of various health problems such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, weight gain, and obesity. On the other hand, complex carbs contain both energy and beneficial nutrients, which is why diets focusing on complex carbs accompanied by high fiber, minerals and vitamins are considered healthier than those that rely on refined sugar and products with added sugar.

Simple Sugars Can Be Good in Some Circumstances

Although most nutritionists swear by complex carbs, there are certain times when simple sugars can be extremely useful. For instance, foods high in simple carbs can be a great post-workout meal for professional athletes as the muscles require extra energy for repair and recovery after periods of intense physical activity.  Most runners and other endurance athletes use industrial-made snacks during matches and marathons. The body needs more easily digestible fuel to function during intervals of added physical strain, so an energy bar with high quantities of simple sugar will produce positive effects on overall performance.

Desserts Can Contain Complex Carbs, Too

Do not write off all desserts as bad for your health just because they have a sugary taste. In fact, various homemade sweets can pack good carbohydrates, too. For example, protein gingersnaps, baked oatmeal cups, and chocolate-coated desserts packed with fiber and fresh fruit are a healthier alternative to donuts, regular ice cream, and cheese cake. To maximize health benefits of your sweet snacks, prepare desserts with sweet, fiber-packed natural ingredients such as fruit, pumpkin, squash, or potato, without the use of processed sugar. Carbohydrates are a necessary part of the human diet and the body uses them to generate energy, repair, grow, and recover from periods of strain.

A diet low in carbohydrates can result in fatigue, weakness, and susceptibility to infections and viruses as well as prolonged healing and recuperation. That is why you should not write off all carbs as an enemy, rather, restrict intake of simple sugars, make sure your energy comes from raw or at least natural and not industrial sources, and enrich your diet with ingredients that pack complex carbs, fiber, vitamins, and minerals instead of monosaccharides, and you will stay healthy, slim, happy and well-nourished in the long run.

Recommended Reading:

• Detox Cheap and Easy Without Fasting – Recipes Included
• Total Nutrition – Make your own Homemade Multivitamin and Mineral Formula
• Understand Hypothyroidism – Prevention and Natural Remedies
• Heal Cavities, Gum Disease, Naturally with Organic Oral Care – Toothpaste recipes included

Sources:

• Excellent Sources of Complex Carbohydrates – Weight Loss For All
• Proper Nutrition – Carbohydrates – Body Building
• A Complete Guide to Complex Carbohydrates – Live Strong
• What Is the Role of Carbohydrates? – Healthy Eating
• The Importance of Carbohydrates: Functions & Impact of Deficiency – Study
• Good Carbs, Bad Carbs: Why Carbohydrates Matter to You – WebMD
• Your Guide to Eating Healthy Carbs – WebMD
• 8 Carbs You Should Be Eating – Huffington Post
• 10 Things You Don’t Know About Sugar (And What You Don’t Know Could Hurt You) – Huffington Post
• Carbohydrates and Blood Sugar – Harvard School of Public Health
• 20 Healthy Dessert Recipes That Won’t Blow Your Diet – Legion Athletics
• Eating too much added sugar increases the risk of dying with heart disease – Harvard Health Publications