Tag Archives: weight loss

Berry Healthy Beetroot Bananza!

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If you need a tasty little pick me up in the morning, look no further than the Berry Healthy Beetroot Bananza!

Quick and easy to prepare, tasty and easy to drink on the spot or to save for later. This is the perfect food for a full meal when you need excellent nutrition on the go! This combination is so full of goodness it would take a book to write it all here! This drink it quite detoxifying so be sure to drink plenty of water during the day to help flush the system of unwanted waste.

Recipe

Basic Ingredients

  • 1 cup of water or soya, rice, almond, oat or coconut milk. Preferably go diary free to give your body a rest from dairy.
  • Chlorella or Spirulina Powder – work up to your desired amount, read the label on the brand you buy. I use Yaeyama- Chlorella and use 1-2 teaspoons.
  • Half a banana
  • Mixed berries, fresh or frozen, up to one cup.
  • Cooked or lightly steamed Beet Root. As much as you enjoy.

Additional Ingredients
To give your drink extra BANG, you can use as much or as little of these as you like. Give extra flavour, texture or nutrition!

  • Avocado. About 1/4 is good, more if you like. This gives a lovely creamy texture.
  • Pear or apple. Again as much as you like.
  • Kiwi or grapes.Lemon and lime. To taste, these are also great to prevent oxidization, especially if you’re keeping some for lunch.
  • Greens like chard leaves, rocket, spinach, broccoli, lettuce, cucumber, celery. (be sure to shop finely before you add it in, otherwise your blender is going to get into a twist.

This drink is extremely flexible in what you add, the list of possibilities really is endless, you can add salad greens like rocket, cress or spinach. Things like peppers, tomatoes and so on. I also like to add seeds like sunflower and pumpkin, shelled hemp. Nut butters like almond, cashew, or even sesame seed paste, tahini.

Experiment with fresh ingredients that you enjoy. Organic is ideal but well washed veg is better than nothing at all!

Method

1. Chop any large fruit or veg into cubes, remove any large seeds. Remove the skin if you like but leave it on where possible.
1. Place all desired ingredients into tall narrow container.
2. Blend with a hand blender. You can also use a regular blender, but a hand blender is so easy to clean.
3. Pour into a glass and drink, or if quite thick, into a bowl and use a spoon! It makes a great addition to plain yoghurt, or on top of oat, quinoa or amaranth porridge. It can also be used as a dessert topping if sweet and smooth.

Enjoy!

USDA dietary guidelines are deceptive – C’mon?!? Give us a chance

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While working in Korea in the summer of 2008 I decided to do an art activity with my kids class. We learned all about the food pyramid. But I didn’t use just any food pyramid, I used the ‘healing food pyramid‘. It was a fun activity and hopefully some of the kids came away with a little more understanding of some of the healing food choices we can make. 

Today, while sifting though my email I was disturbed to read on one of my medical news subscriptions regarding the new USDA food pyramid and dietary guidelines, ‘Lawsuit says new USDA dietary guidelines are deceptive‘.  Reading though the article I let out a sign of disappointment as once again agribusiness gets a step up, while the general public have to struggle on with confusing and incorrect dietary advice. It seems that over and over again there is opportunity to really help people fight against diseases like cancer and diabetes, to name just a few, and yet we are constantly fed misinformation, making it much more difficult to make healthy food choices. 

Though I don’t usually use food pyramids in clinic, they do have their uses. Below are two pyramids that I like and here’s why! 

The Michigan University Healing Foods Pyramid


1. It begins with WATER! Often a forgotten element in the diet. Some us live on coffee, tea, fizzy drinks or juice. The body needs pure WATER. 

2. The next level is fruit and vegetables. This pyramid makes it clear that fruit and vegetables are MORE important than grains. I feel it also conveys variety and abundance. 

3. Grains are not at the bottom of the pyramid, so they are not given undue emphasis. Grains are an important part of the diet, but not THE MOST important. Unfortunately this pyramid doesn’t specify that grains should be WHOLE grains. 

3. Legumes gets their own category. These are a wonderful part of a healthy diet, rich in essential nutrients and fibre. 

4. Healthy fats are included, an essential part of the diet! Our society is fat phobic. We have to get over this. Our brain is 60% fat and every single cell in our body is housed in a little bubble of these essential fats. If we don’t eat healthy fats, the functioning of EVERY cell in the body is compromised. Oily fish, nuts, flax, avocado and so on need to be part of the diet… Healing fats are an ESSENTIAL part of a weight loss program. 

5. It lets us know that ‘an egg a day is OKAY’. 

5. Though no food pyramid is perfect, if you follow this one, you’d be doing pretty well. 

The Vegan Food Pyramid


1. Again this pyramid starts with WATER! It specifies roughly how much water is needed, and that if you’re active you need MORE! 

2. This pyramid is more suitable for those on a gluten free, vegetarian, vegan, dairy/lactose free diet in that it shows possible alternatives. 

3. It also puts emphasis on fruit and veggies over grains and conveys that there is more to fruit and veggies than apples, oranges, carrots and peas! 

4. It does mention WHOLE grains and gives a clear indication as to the wide variety of grains available. Eating a variety of grains not only gives more varied nutrition, but lessens the likelihood that we’ll become sensitive to wheat products. 

5. Though we don’t have to be vegan 100% of the time, eating vegan and vegetarian for a portion of the week, with a good awareness of how to get enough quality protein and B12, is a very healthy way to live. This pyramid will help you get started! 

When it comes to many of the important choices that we make in our life, it would be nice to be able to put our trust in those who claim to have our best interests at heart. But at the end of the day, we have to investigate for ourselves, learn the truth and then decide. 

Best of health!