Eat Right, Now! with Chef Wendell

Tea for the Holidays? Are you a tea snob?

2011-10-09T04:46:00.000-07:00

Ever observe a restaurant patron bearing their esoteric tea bags requesting a pot of hot water, “…and it better be hot, Bub!”

Tea’s my cup of Joe, diet cola, and red wine; my ‘longevi-tea.’ I am thankful for my tenderly brewed tea leaf friends, for if I am too cold, tea warms me; if I’m too heated, it cools me down; if I’m depressed, it cheers me, and when excited, it mellows my harsh. Charles Dickens wrote, “My dear, if you could give me a cup of tea to clear my muddle of a head, I should better understand your affairs.” Tea touches our souls-- a stand-up celebration of simplicity.

As a youthful food server, tea drinkers were pain in the tea bag since maintaining a civilized cup-o-tea required more responsiveness than decanting a cup of Java. Tea bags need refreshing, the pot of water kept hot and frequently refilled; “Waiter, where’s the lemon? Would you please warm the tea cup first with hot water?” Servers instantly roll their eyes at the ‘needy nerdy tea snob'. Tea gets a bad rap, despite its uber health mojo.

Japanese studies urge eight to ten cups of green tea per day to positively affect cholesterol levels and generally reduce risk for cardiovascular disease whether you smoke, drink, or are weighty. The connection; green and some black tea contain the same nutrients and antioxidants in red wine and cocoa that undo the effects of a fatty diet and smoking.

Purdue’s School of Consumer and Family Sciences say drinking more than four cups of green tea a day provide enough active compounds to speed-bump cancer cell growth; prevention in a teacup.

Our family dentist noticed our cavities frequency declined, so when I read black or green tea, hot or cold, aid digestion, are antibacterial, and contain anti-aging properties, we had our explanation. Once a day, I slush the green tea around my mouth, as I would a mouthwash, becoming a bacterial mass-murderer. The Dental Clinics of North America explain the ideal anti-plaque agents in tea can eliminate disease-causing bacteria, reduce plaque and gingivitis. Natural Health Magazine reports Green Tea (Camellia sinensis) contains Catechins which destroy bacterial bugs, yes bugs that cause bad breath. Those bugs turn sugar into a sticky colony of living bacteria, sugars, proteins, and cavity-causing acid when it comes in contact with sugary or starchy foods.

Malty, smoky, full bodied aromatic Green tea comes from the leaves of the tea tree, Camellia Sinensis. For centuries, woodsy green tea has been produced from leaves laborers handled gently and heated soon after harvesting, as opposed to black tea leaves which are vigorously rolled to make them release a particular enzyme, then left to sit for a few hours, during which time the enzymes interact with oxygen causing the leaves to develop a heartier flavor and a darker hue. Please shun tea from China.

Holidays are perfect for sipping green tea to undo the annual sugar-glazed Holiday dietary carnage. Next time you attend a holiday buffet, ceremoniously brew your favorite then savor civilization’s second most popular beverage second place to water. Join me this holiday season, and become a tea snob. Invite your ‘nerdy’ friends over to share a freshly brewed pot of tea graced with raw, local honey. As you’ve deduced, a wee bit of tea is good for thee, accompanied by a little sympathy. Preparing tea is the ceremony of pouring all one's attention into the predefined, patient method. The process isn’t about drinking tea as much as it’s aesthetics of preparing a bowl of tea from the love from one's heart.

Recipe for Blissful Holidays

1 cup unconditional love
½ cup joy
2 dollops of compassion and acceptance
2 tbs. white light
2 tsp. belly laughter
2 tears of joy
30 minutes of peaceful meditation

Remove ego and mix gently.
Serve abundantly to all you greet

Pea-nuty Asian Noodles with Coconut Milk

2011-09-28T13:17:00.000-07:00

Mouthfuls of explosive flavor wait in the highly nutritious Asian pasta dish that brims with protein and colorful fresh vegetables. Another veggie-licious way to enjoy increasing your consumption of health-restoring vegetable. You’re doing great!

Serves 4

12 oz Buckwheat Udon Noodles, or Barillo Plus spaghetti (or however much you think you need!
1/2 green/red/yellow pepper, julienned
1 carrot, shredded
1/2 cabbage (Napa or red. Depends on your preference)
1/2 onion, julienned
1/2 c organic peanut butter (Meijer carries a nice one)
1/4 c soy sauce
2 tbs. sesame oil
2tbs. ground flax or Chia seed for FIBER
2 tbs. cider vinegar
2 tbs. Raw coconut oil
¼ cup coconut milk (Shake the cans contents vigorously before opening)
1 tsp. sea salt
½ tsp. pepper flakes
2 tbs. sesame seeds (toasted if you have time)
1 scallion, chopped
2 tbs. chopped peanuts

1. Set a large pot of water on to boil Add salt followed by the spaghetti; cook al dente according to package instructions.
2. Slice (julienne) all the vegetables. (Note: you can really put in any veg you like. It all works!)
3. Whisk together the peanut butter, soy, sesame oil, and vinegar. Taste it! You might want to add more of one ingredient depending on your personal preference.
4. Heat the oil in a medium pan to medium heat. Add vegetables, then salt and hot pepper.
5. Drain the pasta, reserving one cup of the cooking liquid. Add the vegetables and sauce to the pasta. Combine all the ingredients and add some of the reserved water if the sauce is too thick.
7. Plate the dish and sprinkle with the chopped dry roasted peanuts and scallion.

www.chefwendell.com

Oatmeal with Apple Cider, Walnuts, Flax, and Berries

2011-09-28T08:27:00.000-07:00

2 Portions
The best darned Oatmeal you’ll ever eat!!!
Our friends at the FDA say Oatmeal may reduce cholesterol in the human body. By using fresh apple cider and not water, the flavor of the oatmeal is ethereal, the blueberries are powerful antioxidants and the cranberries help prevent bladder infections. Cranberries contain proanthocyanidins (PACs) that can prevent the adhesion of certain bacteria, including E. coli, associated with urinary tract infections to the urinary tract wall. The anti-adhesion properties of cranberry may also inhibit the bacteria associated with gum disease and stomach ulcers.
http://www.cranberryinstitute.org/healthresearch.htm.

Oatmeal is good for reducing cholesterol, but not the Quaker species. Quaker is too processed just like white rice. This dish with the berries and nuts supplies you with Omega 3 Essential fatty acids and powerful antioxidant protection. They slow down the aging process, reduce cavities, ulcers and the granddaddy of them all...cancer.

Ingredients:Steel cut oats—follow the package instructions (No Uncle Ben’s Please!)
Fresh apple cider not sugary apple juice instead of water or milk
1/2 cup cranberries
1/2 cup blueberries
1/2 cup walnut pieces
1 tsp. cinnamon
REAL maple syrup to sweeten
1 tsp. of wheat germ or ground flax seeds for fiber
Pinch of sea salt
1 wood spoon

In a sauté pan, place the fresh cranberries and frozen or fresh blueberries in the bottom of the pan.

• Next add about 2 tablespoons of maple syrup, cinnamon and simmer over LOW heat till you hear the first POP! of a cranberry.

• Add the oats and stir continuously with a wooden spoon until the oats absorb the delicious apple flavor and are cooked. Gravity happens and the porridge can scorch easily.

• Add a pinch of salt.

• When desired consistency is achieved, pull it off the fire and serve topped with walnut pieces. Irresistible flavor and a bonanza of nutrition.

Harvesting Garden and Soul

2011-09-23T09:55:00.000-07:00

With summer fading, the solstice passed, our warm earth begins to cool. Our days get shortened while shiny plump crows caw over painted harvests and compost-crusted gardeners and family farmers dance, sing, and reap in joyful celebration.The third sphere from the sun freely yields what grows on its bountiful surface. The ultimate recompense of human bumblebees seeding, growing and reaping food, herbs, and flowers from Earth’s gardens is to express; to create then harvest beauty and nourishment with inspiration drawn from the altruistic well of Nature’s soul.

The plant world lives not in isolation but in sacrosanct interdependence's with our shared earthly milieu. Just as skin, bone, and brain form the whole of human, carbon-based organisms, edible plants are upstanding, indispensable human compatriots; equal members connected by our commononenessThere’s no form of food consumption more quixotic, satisfying and soul-stirring than eating what’s recently harvested from a small garden plot or neighboring family farm. Not much fossil fuel gets burned when plucking and reaping zucchini or sweet cherry tomatoes few steps or blocks from the kitchen counter top. Green families feeding their clan from a sequestered vegetable plot squeeze pennies by doing so.

Diligent gardeners acquire gigantic freezers together with an eagerness to resuscitate the ancient mysteries of canning.Growing and raising food and supporting local farmers is an excellent way to obtain the freshest, most nutritious energy-packed produce, often at reasonable prices. Wisdom decrees learning to store, temperature control, and preserve perishable plant foods. The American family throws away $500 of food annually due to poor product management. Plant foods need a little help from their green friends.Like garlands of pearls, flower buds blossom, expressing joy by putting forth their delicate,aromatic petals.

When a flower is respectfully picked for aesthetic delight, the Earth has a sense of well-being, for the Earth cheerfully shares its prosperity. For example, when the corn is reaped in the autumn or when animals graze on the plant growth, fostering Earth has a sensation of well-being such as that felt by the cow when its calf suckles milk. A home filled with nature’s abundance has extraordinary energy; a delicious vibration of love and respect. Food is sacred;our supper tables are an altar of gratitude to the Great Spirit.

Late Summer Watermelon and Feta Salad

2011-09-08T06:48:00.000-07:00

Watermelon is not only delicious, but nutritious too. For example, Watermelon has lycopene, which can help reduce the risk of several cancers. The juicy orb also contains tons of potassium,vitamin A, vitamin c, protein, folate, selenium and zinc.

The combination of watermelon and feta cheese is a Greek favorite in summer. It's eaten as a snack or a light meal. This variation includes paper-thin slices of red onion, and a touch of balsamic vinegar to turn this fabulous taste combination into a late summer salad.

3/4 - 1 cup of cold watermelon, cubed

1/4 cup of feta cheese, crumbled or cubed

1/4 medium red onion, cut in paper-thin slices

1/4 teaspoon of balsamic vinegar or balsamic vinaigrette

Preparation:

· Place the watermelon in a bowl, top with most of the onions, then the feta cheese. Place remaining onions on top. Sprinkle with balsamic vinegar, and serve.

· Do not mix or it will break up and turn ugly.

· This recipe can be made in individual servings or multiplied and served in a large salad bowl.

Chilled Corn Bisque with Curry Oil

2011-07-21T14:41:00.000-07:00

On a hot day you don’t want to turn on the stove top. Instead, prepare this refreshing chilled corn soup. Keep yourself and the kitchen cool as a lake breeze with this simple-to-prepare, refreshing, cold soup.

Early settlers may have perished if the Native Americans hadn't turned them on to corn. Settlers learned to grow it by planting kernels in small holes fertilized with small fish. Wise Native Americans celebrated corn’s health mojo.

A one cup serving of sweet yellow corn contains:

· 356 IU vitamin A

· A significant source of dietary fiber

· 108 mcg of beta-carotene

· Lutein and zeaxanthin, powerful antioxidants that prevent eye diseases.

· Cooked corn contains a fraction of these vitamins.

Did you know?

· The average ear of corn has 800 kernels,

· Arranged in 16 rows

· With one piece of silk for each kernel.

· One bushel contains about 27,000 kernels.

· Each tassel releases 5 million grains of pollen.

Raw Corn Bisque with Curry Oil

Ingredients

· 3 Cups Sweet Corn kernels

· 1 Cup almond milk

· Sea salt or kosher Salt

Garnish

· ½ Cup Sweet Corn Kernels

· Julienne zucchini

· Curry Infused Olive Oil * /

· *Warm, but not boil ¾ Cups Olive Oil in saucepan and add 3 tbs. of Curry or to Taste. Whisk well.

· Shut of heat.

· Let set overnight then strain through cheese cloth or fine mesh strainer.

To Make Corn Soup:

In a high speed blender or food processor combine the corn and water and puree until smooth.

Pass through a fine mesh sieve and season to taste with salt and pepper.

If you wish, do not strain and leave in the fibrous pulp. It’s not going to kill you.

Portion then garnish with julienne zucchini, kernels of corn, and then drizzle with curry infused olive oil.

Sweet, Beautiful Corn

2011-07-08T07:55:00.000-07:00

Dad loved Sunday family drives in the country even though his rambunctious three sons whined and fidgeted in the back seat of our ’55 Pontiac. As we cruised, between cow-counting, we were mesmerized by unending fields of corn. Like windshield wipers in a downpour, in unison, our heads whipped back and forth as our young eyes, at 50 MPH, struggled to fix on each linear row.

Corn is native to the Americas; grown by Native Americans thousands of years before Columbus arrived to the New World. Current World Archeology reports new evidence the earliest domestication of corn was in Mexico 8,700 years ago. Domesticated maize reached Panama by 5,600 BC and northern South America by 4,000 BC. Over millennia, Native Americans transformed maize through special cultivation methods. Maize, developed from a wild grass (Teosinte), originally grew in southern Mexico 7,000 years ago. The ancestral kernels of Teosinte looked different from modern corn. The kernels were small and not fused together.

Early settlers may have perished if the Red Skins hadn't turned them on to corn. Settlers learned to grow it by planting kernels in small holes fertilized with small fish. Wise Native Americans celebrated corn’s health mojo. A one cup serving of sweet yellow corn contains 356 IU vitamin A and 108 mcg of beta-carotene along with lutein and zeaxanthin, powerful antioxidants to help combat harmful free radical activity and prevent various degenerative diseases.

The average ear of corn has 800 kernels, arranged in 16 rows with one piece of silk for each kernel. One bushel contains about 27,000 kernels. Each tassel on a corn plant releases as many as 5 million grains of pollen. In the 1930s, before machinery was available, a family farmer could harvest 100 bushels of corn by hand in a nine-hour day.

Corn’s an ingredient in more than 3,000 grocery products. Pick up a can of cat or dog (carnivores) food and read the first ingredient; corn, used as filler to increase corporate profits. Poor critters. The real bummer; almost all grocery corn today is GMO’s (genetically modified organisms) which has not been adequately analyzed by the USDA for future environmental and socio-health and economic impacts of grafting God’s sacred design. We are the unwitting experiment. The problem of GMO crops birthed an angry tsunami following the U.S. Supreme Court's ill-fated decision in 1980 to allow corporations to patent life. God's word cautions against adulterating seed, or defiling produce. Deuteronomy 22:9-11 asserts fields should not be sown with diverse seeds. Man in infantile false hubris shouldn’t bully the hand of our perfect Creator.

Raw and fresh, popped, grilled, or boiled, just eat it. Sorry, Corn Dogs don’t count. But first educate yourself on real foods, and then seek community sources and Farmer’s Markets close to home with a grower who has a faithful moral obedience towards our magnanimous Creator’s directives. Just Say ‘NO’ to unholy GMO’s. About 80% of grocery produce is GMO. When a German court ordered Monsanto to make public a controversial rat study in 2005, the data upheld claims by prominent scientists who said animals fed GMO corn developed extensive negative health effects in the blood, kidneys and liver and humans eating the corn might be at risk.

The Universe is the author of life and it’s all His—it’s His corn and His wine, His wool and His flax. Though we’re permitted to use them, the ownership remains His and should be used for His service, not Big Ag.

Karma is impending for GMO Jerkonians for forsaking and not obeying His word. Sermon over, so someone please offer up an Amen and pass the garlic- basil butter.

No-Mayo Summer Potato Salad

2011-07-02T07:42:00.000-07:00

From WISH TV 7-2-11

“Let’s return to the joyous act of cooking from scratch!”

Potato salad asphyxiated in mayonnaise is a red, white, and blue American tradition that causes the pounds to pile up. Plus if you’ve ever read the ingredients labels on aging grocery store pre-made potato salad, you know inside there’s a stew of harmful preservatives, otherwise it couldn’t stay fresh on the shelf for weeks till you purchase it. Your friends and family deserve better than that. Try this mayonnaise-free version and the gang will sing your praises

16 Baby Yukon gold potatoes-Don’t forget to wash your spuds! Coarse salt, for boiling water
1 large tomato chopped, save juices
1 cup chopped green onions
4 cloves of minced raw garlic-not powdered
1 cup chopped fresh basil, a couple of handfuls
1/4 cup chopped parsley, a couple of handfuls
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar, eyeball the amount
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
Sea Salt and black pepper

*Cut up potatoes to the size you want leaving on the skins.

*Boil about 6-8 minutes depending on the size--just until fork tender: keep them warm

*Add all the ingredients to the warm potatoes. Toss to allow the vinegar to absorb into the potatoes.

*Add oil and gently stir the potatoes taste, and serve.

* Adjust salt and pepper to taste

*Garnish with a sprig of basil leaves

Parents are why Kids eat so Poorty

2011-06-19T05:02:00.000-07:00

When your children become grown-ups, they will not willingly eat what they were not offered as youngsters. Studies show eight to fifteen exposures are needed to gain acceptance of new foods.
Recently I saw a 30-something Mom and her three-year-old shopping the produce section. Instinctively, the little child was attracted by artfully arranged, colorful mountains of nature’s generous nurturing harvest. Focused on quarts of blueberries, she tugged mom’s shorts, pointing in curiosity at the blue orbs.
“Mommy, I wanna see bwuberry’s” was the perfect opportunity to cultivate responsible eating habits that set the foundation for future mental and physical health. My heart sank as Mom gently pushed down her daughter’s pointing hand, discouraging her child’s inborn interest,
“Oh, honey, you wouldn’t like those, we have Pop Tarts at home.”
Another nutritionally illiterate parent projecting their silly fears of fresh produce upon impressionable minds.
Unless you live buried under a pile of ‘Poop’ Tarts, we can all agree science says eating more plant foods has seriously groovy health benefits. Reduce your family’s intake of animal foods. Eating super-sized quantities of dead animals is linked to chronic diseases colonizing your holy temple.
Add a variety of fresh taste, texture, excitement and color to your loving tribe’s food fare by encouraging everyone to experiment with new foods and new combinations. Aesthetically arranged fruit and vegetable trays, turkey breast with arugula on wheat wraps, and low-fat bean chips are several ways to add health to a celebration. Produce provides key vitamins and pleasantly surprising taste experiences.
Try fresh avocado and tomato on your turkey burger or sub, or assemble a pretty bowl of vanilla yogurt, garnish it with local fresh fruit and walnuts, then serve it over whole wheat pancakes with Maple syrup. What ever happened to popping popcorn from scratch?
Parents, you’re missing the opportunity to create a memory and share a legacy of togetherness. I remember my siblings and me standing at the stove, each excitedly taking his turn shaking the popcorn popper until the last kernel exploded before dousing the hot corn with gobs of butter and hunkering down in front of the TV to watch Ed Sullivan, with all of us nibbling out of the same wooden bowl together. Not Ed, just us. Do you remember doing things like that?
Revisit your childhood with your own children. Not only will you help them make new discoveries, but you’ll also increase their motivation by realizing that celebratory meals can be adventurous, fun, healing, and delicious. (Of course, replace the butter on the popcorn with olive oil or a non-trans fat margarine, please!)
Add power foods to the family menu such as organic PBJ sammies with organic peanut butter, grain bread. Consider no-sugar-added jams, bean dips, wraps with shredded veggies, reduced-fat cheese, sorbet, watermelon wedges, blueberries in low-fat sour cream, apples slices spread with peanut butter, white-meat turkey chili, and deviled eggs made with reduced-fat mayonnaise. Or how about hummus with whole wheat pita bread, homemade whole wheat mini-pizza, and brown rice cakes with Galaxy Soy cheese topped with salsa? Think smaller and kick the vending machine mentality. You’re smarter than that.
Instead of trying to win the family popularity contest, why not use the shopping experience and dinner table to lovingly educate and teach respect for the Great Creator’s gifts rather than reinforcing destructive behavior to themselves as well as our earth..
Tradition, thy name is stubbornness. It’s got to change someday— but it has to begin at home, where the heart is. Maybe before couples are allowed to procreate, they must first take and pass a nutritional literacy exam, be given a house plant and a dog.
If both are still thriving after 6 weeks, then they can birth children.

Farmer's Markets-God's Apothecary

2011-05-30T06:53:00.000-07:00

Senior Life- God’s Private Garden
June 2011

“And God, not Monsanto said, let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself upon earth: and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God, not bioengineers, saw that it was good.” (Genesis 1:11-12)

It’s an old fashion, newfangled concept: the freshest, seasonal local fruits and vegetables, raw honey, artisan cheese, wines, brews, breads, clean grass-fed meats, and bug-fed chickens straight from family farms to the kitchen. I adore going to farmers markets; lively social centers where I always run into smiling friends and bask in the warm glow of community. These outdoor markets keep me grounded to the earthy roots of nutrition where fresh food fare is vastly more significant to a senior’s health than the eventuality of a geriatric doctor.

Thirty years ago eating local was a radical notion, but times are a ‘changin’. Farmer’s Markets provide sanctuary from proliferating genetically modified grocery versions of Gods creations. Anyone who sees this biotech time bomb with spiritual eyes will recognize that genetically modified plants and animals are not about improving quality or providing healthful alternatives to the world. They’re playing God and polluting His creations. God’s law doesn’t sanction genetic alteration even though bioengineers proudly market altered organisms as something helpful to humans. The author of all life is God who created every species to reproduce after its own kind. Thus, there’s no reason for man to modify DNA and cross transplant genes from one entity into another. In false hubris, man creates species God never intended to exist. Such alteration of species violates God’s natural order. Do I hear amen!

Community Farmer’s Markets solve the growing problem of food access and the plight of family farmers. Farmer’s Markets remind us fresh wholesome food grown without contains maximum heavenly nutrition that sustains body and soul. As you know, to remain mentally and physically sturdy, our manufacturer expects us to eat balanced meals containing complex carbs, clean plant and animal protein, fruit and vegetables, nuts, seeds, healthy fats, and an occasional goodie as a reward for being a good steward of His creation. Nevertheless, we’ve departed from the road of nutritional righteousness, settling for what’s set before us as long as it’s effortless, looks and tastes familiar.

Our grandparents didn’t eat from the golden arches, smoked non-filter Camels, drank hard liquor, decanted clouds of heavy cream into their Folgers, ate globs of butter and bacon fat, and dinner was either chunks-o-beef, pork, chicken or fish. They did not however, use poisonous chemicals and growth hormones and sure, some of the crap they ate was gross, but our grandparents knew the importance of fresh balanced meals and taking care of themselves in a much less neurotic, self-interested way.

What’s right is often forgotten by what is convenient. In a haze of suitability, Americans have resorted to buying Del Monte and Dole plastic fruit salad cups shipped from China. Oh, the agony of inconvenience!

Happily, Americans are transcending this mind-set and increasing their intake of fresh local produce and backing off on meat and taters three times a day, and whole grains are replacing potatoes. Folks are returning to the simple preindustrial revolution lifestyle of their forefathers; foraging for fresh food from local farms. If great-grandfather wouldn’t have recognized it as food, then it’s not fit for consumption. So don’t eat anything that comes in a box, tube, or bag.

Breaking pre-industrial revolution tradition has proved catastrophic to the collective health of a great nation. The backbone of America, the Family Farm has all but been destroyed by Big Food and ‘Monsatan’. Let us all return to the ‘Farm-acy’ and dance till the music stops.

Food is Sacred

2011-05-26T07:41:00.000-07:00

With summer peaking, the solstice passed, our warm earth begins to cool, days get shortened while shiny plump crows caw over painted harvests and compost crusted gardeners and family farmers dance, sing, and reap in joyful celebration.

The third sphere from the sun freely yields what grows on its bountiful surface. The ultimate recompense of human bumblebees seeding, growing and reaping food, herbs, and flowers from Earth’s gardens is to express; to create then harvest beauty and nourishment with inspiration drawn from the altruistic well of Nature’s soul. The plant world lives not in isolation but in sacrosanct interdependence with our shared earthly milieu. Just as skin, bone, and brain form the whole of human carbon based organisms, edible plants are upstanding, indispensable human compatriots; equal members connected by our common oneness.

There's no form of food consumption more quixotic, satisfying and soul-stirring than eating what’s been recently harvested from a small garden plot or neighboring family farm. Not much fossil fuel gets burned when plucking and reaping zucchini or sweet cherry tomatoes a few steps or blocks from the kitchen counter top. Green families feeding their clan from their sequestered vegetable plot squeeze pennies doing so. Diligent gardeners are acquiring gigantic freezers together with an eagerness to resuscitate the ancient mysteries of canning.

Growing and raising food and supporting local farmer is an excellent way to obtain the freshest, most nutritious energy-packed produce, often at reasonable prices. Wisdom decrees learning to store, temperature control, and preserve perishable plant foods. The American family throws away $500 of food annually due to poor product management. Plant foods need a little help from their green friends.

Like garlands of pearls, flower buds blossom expressing joy by putting forth their delicate, aromatic petals. When a flower is respectfully picked for aesthetic delight, the Earth has a sense of well-being, for the Earth cheerfully shares its prosperity. For example, when the corn is reaped in the autumn or when animals graze on the plant growth, fostering Earth has a sensation of well-being such as that felt by the cow when its calf suckles milk.

A home filled with natures abundance has extraordinary energy; a delicious vibration of love and respect. Food is sacred; our supper tables an altar of gratitude to the Great Spirit.

Cruciferous Veggies with 'NO-Cheese" Sauce

2011-05-20T06:09:00.000-07:00

2 tbs. wheat free soy sauce
1 tbs. lemon juice
2 ½ tbs. raw cashew or sunflower butter
Dash of cayenne pepper
1/3 cup nutritional yeast flakes
2 tsp. potato starch
½ tsp. onion powder
Dash of garlic powder
1/3 cup almond milk

Combine all ingredients in a small saucepan and gently heat.
Stir frequently to avoid lumps and burning.
Add extra yeast or potato flour if too runny or almond milk if too thick.
Once the ‘sauce’ is as thick as you like, it’s ready to serve over enchiladas, pasta, vegetables, and nachos or for a cheese base for a baked casserole.
We suggest not cooking it too long, however. Heat kills!

Water: The Source of Life

2011-05-19T14:23:00.000-07:00

Under a colander of stars, moonlit waters mirror heaven, revealing the intimacy between heaven and earth. Man is privileged to live on what planetary astrobiology considers one of the Cosmo’s rare, blue water planets. Nevertheless, man knows and cares more about the moon than he does the sanctity of our planet’s waters, the life blood of Earth.
Clearly man only sees what concerns him. Thoreau wrote instead of looking to the sky, look into the placid reflecting salubrious waters for signs and promises of the morrow, referring to water as earth’s eye; looking into which the beholder measures the depth of his own nature.
When the Great Spirit christened earth, the first morning sun rose, nestled within a soft yellow and raspberry sky; the atmosphere, land, water, plants and microbes were pure. If not for H2O on earth 4.5 billion years ago, all life would simply not exist. It seems anomalous calling our beautiful planet ‘earth’, when it’s clearly an ocean star as man and earth’s surface are made up of 85 percent water.
Envisioning water as clean, humans shower, wash clothing and cars, and over-soak manicured ego lawns and gardens with fresh water, yet most earthlings rehydrate their most holy possession, the human temple, with rivers of frou-frou coffees, artificial fruit drinks, and fizzy colas. Assuredly, Earthlings wouldn’t ever shower in Diet Coke nor swim in a rippling stream of Mountain Dew. But then again, nothing surprises me anymore.
Of the thin veneer, very little of earth’s water is pristine. Earth’s water is increasingly unusable; befouled by man-made contaminants. Thoreau would be distressed, sobbing at the willy-nilly use of earth-poisoning herbicides to rid vanity lawns of highly nourishing dandelions, tiptoeing purslane, and constellations of flora and fauna.
Slow progress in protecting water’s integrity is not acceptable, as more than three million people die every year from avoidable water-related disease and more bodies of water such as the Gulf of Mexico are dying. If man rises to meet this challenge, he must altruistically foster respectful approaches that are people-centered and earth-friendly.
Complex life is uncommon in our enigmatic universe. Earth needs loving stewardship and prudent, conscious conservation for future generations to survive. Clean water should not be a luxury, but it could possibly become one. Water is constantly recycled, and we all live downstream from some power plant, manufacturing facility or industrial agriculture complex. But healthy families, communities, environments and economies rely on clean, safe water. To ensure our water resources for the future, we must protect them today. The tragedy in Fukushima illuminates society’s agony of inconvenience when potable water is scarce or tainted.
Remember we are merely guests here; caretakers. Dominion is subjective and abused.

New Food Trends 2011

2011-05-01T08:38:00.000-07:00

Re-awakened hungry Americans, motivated by a need to know more about the source of the food they feed their families are returning to their ancestral traditions. They’re hunting and foraging closer to home at community farmer’s markets and local sources for clean meats, artisan breads, mushrooms, local honey and cheeses, colorful, nurturing produce and frequenting more mom-and-pop-owned diners. Farm-friendly, organic, non-GMO, naturally occurring, scratch cooking and canning are becoming today’s dietetic mantra.
Health and convenience drive today’s food sales. People are returning to eating family dinners at home where they control the ingredients. They want less hassle, easy to prepare, ready-to-eat fresh ingredients.
Home food preservation and bulk cooking have rebirthed as earth-connected folks grow, preserve and enjoy harvesting their verdant gardens or community farmers market, not scientific laboratories. They do this to eliminate toxic sugar, salt, unnatural preservatives, MSG and food colorings. Other factors are the weak economy, frightening food recalls and an honest desire to improve health via fresh food, controlling its quality from the farm to the fork. Consumers are picking naturally healthy foods such as fruit, vegetables, salads, nuts, whole grains and pro-biotic yogurt. Fruit is now America’s second-favorite snack.
More are grazing, driving demand for healthier single-serving snacks in vending machines, nutrition and fibrous diet bars, smoothies and energy drinks. Alkaline waters such as Fiji, Smart Water, Kangen and Penta waters are “in.”
Felonious trans fats (hydrogenated) are finally “out” for their rock sold connection to acquiring heart disease. Demand for low calorie and light products will continue to grow. Also, watch for allergen-free claims on food labels. Next to low fat, whole grains were the most influential food label claim. Dairy products with cholesterol-lowering sterols and antioxidant-rich chocolate are making an appearance. As more people become aware of soy dangers, consumption is waning.
We’re all physicians who can heal the magnificent Holy Temple. Nearly two-thirds of shoppers embrace Hippocrates’s avowal, “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.” They doctor through diet to prevent and manage health disorders such as diabetes, obesity, Crohn’s, fibromyalgia, atherosclerosis, heart disease, cancer and more.
Want an occasional vegetarian meal? Mobile food applications are exploding and offer convenience beyond the name and address of a restaurant. You can score a menu, prices and a reservation. Everything you need to cook a healthy meal at home; recipe, shopping list and coupons are also at your fingertips.
Responsible chefs are entering school cafeterias not only to brighten up the menus but to entice kids to eat healthy foods. Kids and adults alike have comfort zones when it comes to food’s appearance and flavors. Breaking away from barriers and bad habits can be an exciting food adventure; one that wakes up your taste buds and improves your perception of living, nutritious foods from our creator.
These trends hold promise if the amoral food industry offers convenience without industrially trashing once healthy foods. Fads will come and go, and the government will continue to analyze health claims made by food manufacturers. The ageing of baby boomers is driving the food industry in a new direction, one that could have a significant impact on the future health of the population. And that can only be a good thing.
After all, food is about more than just nourishment, it’s also about culture, and weaving the threads that bind the tapestry of a thriving community.

Childrens Eating Rules for Good Health

2011-04-28T12:43:00.000-07:00

Chef Wendell’s Ten Commandments of Healthy Eating for Parents

1. Thou shalt not force, bribe or coerce thy child to eat.

2. Thou shalt set a good example by eating at least five fruits and vegetables, three who grain products and three low-fat dairy servings per day.

3. Thou shalt make mealtimes pleasant.

4. Thou shalt encourage thy child to help in meal planning, preparation, and clean-up.

5. Thou shalt back off when mealtime becomes a power struggle.

6. Thou shalt accept the fact thy child is an individual and thus will dislike certain foods. (and there are many)

7. Thou shalt accept food ‘binges’ as phases that will eventually pass.

8. Thou shalt not give up on introducing thy child to new foods. Thou shalt realize it sometimes takes ten tries to get a child to accept a food.

9. Thou shalt use this division of responsibility for eating: As the parent, thou art responsible for deciding when and what to serve. Thy child is responsible for deciding how much, if any, will be eaten.

10. Thou shalt give thy child a food-based multi-vitamin / mineral supplement, not Flintstones, if he or she is a picky eater.

Fruit Salad from China...sigh!

2011-04-22T11:51:00.000-07:00

     As I read the label, my eyes widened, the heart began to pound, and suddenly my brain liquefied into a slurry of bewilderment and disbelief! If there’s a microcosm of the nutritional complacency extinguishing America’s health equity, it was staring me square in the face; plastic, hermitically sealed, supposed-to-be-good-for-you ‘fresh’ opaque cups of fruit salad in the grocery produce section.
     We’ve descended onto the shadowy sea bed of laziness. Red, white and blue unhealthy Americans are either embarrassingly addicted to convenience or too lazy to lift a knife. So much that Americans are buying carb-heavy Del Monte and Dole fruit cups of fruit salad which were harvested, hopefully washed, peeled, chopped, mechanically packaged and shipped from, yep, China and Thailand who have dissimilar interpretations of sanitation and chemical usage.
     We squawked about the deadly Chinese melamine scare, their toxic pet food, tainted infant formula and fraudulent vitamins shipped to us, but in a hazy stupor of suitability Americans still robotically disregard food labels and, without caution, grab and snarf cups of pre-made fruit salad.
Fruit cheaply harvested 10,000 miles away then shipped for weeks on end aboard a boat is DOA. The idea of an alleged ‘fresh’ fruit salad being delivered from Asia should be upsetting to you. First, your temple doesn’t deserve old, dead food lacking nutrition and second, it stimulates the economy of a politically competitive country on the opposite side of God’s green earth. This cup-o-crapola has sailed the bonny seas for weeks, even months. What part of this is logical? Can’t we take time to make a fresh, colorful fruit salad brimming with the living nourishment the Universe provided or have we become comfortably numb to what is essential to steward the health of our holy temple?
     The best way to store fruit till you use it is with the heavenly wrapping left on, rinds and peelings intact. Once the protective peels or coverings of fruits are cut, the fruits begin to degrade and lose their healing energy. This nutrient loss doesn’t occur immediately because it takes up to five or six days to show any major vitamin loss as long as cut, unpeeled fruits are stowed in the refrigerator, not an undulating transport tanker. After weeks and months, it decomposes into lifeless calories and the protective vitamin C and carotenoids become useless bilge.
     To receive the most disease preventing mojo, pull out the cutting board and a chef’s knife, wash, cut, prepare and then tightly seal your beautiful fresh fruit salad the day of the purchase to insure you’re getting the truest flavors and health restoring nutrition. Savor the moment.
Once prepped, due to oxygen, nutrients begin to flee. After a day or two languishing in the fridge, they’re probably aesthetically unpleasing, especially bananas and strawberries, so prudently prep only as much as your gang eats at one sitting. Be sure you keep it stored in air-tight containers in your refrigerator overnight. If you add blueberries, and I hope you will, use them as the final garnish. As you mix the salad they break up leaving little dark blue, eye-offending bits.
      Having fresh cut fruits ready to eat in your refrigerator makes it easier to make healthy choices at snack attack time. Try a mix of oranges, strawberries, grapes, kiwi, strawberry, and pineapple. To prevent indigestion, melons should always be eaten alone.
Now really? Do you honestly want your loving family to eat fruit cups that say “Made in China or Thailand?” I didn’t think so. Then return to the joyous, blissful act of cooking from scratch and support your local community farmer’s markets and family farms.
Fruit salads from China … sigh. Gimme a break.

Bacon Worship: A bunch of bologna!

2011-04-06T11:41:00.000-07:00

Meat and potato audiences get defensive when I present them the current science declaring bacon, yes, the quintessential all-American breakfast icon and sandwich condiment, is dreadful for the conservation of the health of the human temple. Well-meaning, yet naïve friends still jeer at my revulsion to pieces of preserved pork parts. You’d thought I’d run over Smokey, the family dog.

Seriously, it’s no joke, so please don’t kill the messenger. The dangers associated with cured meats aren’t pretty. The American Institute for Cancer Research says the lung cancer risk from processed meats is comparable to smoking ciggy butts. If you regularly eat cured meats, you’ll eventually end up needing to be cured yourself. Folks joke about and fiercely defend their misguided birthright to eat it till it oozes from every pore, but is it really ‘bacon love’ or greasy self-destructive denial for a fleeting moment of oral pleasure?

When informed of the dangers of eating smoked products, an intelligent, well dressed professional gentleman told me, “Well, you gotta die from something. So quit pooping in my punch bowl.” You need to wave the white flag and give up on this one, however, and simply love them with all your heart.

Curing meat as a method of preserving dates back more than hundreds of years and was used in almost every region of the world. Long before refrigeration could be used to keep meats free from the ill effects of unhealthy bacteria, the process of smoking or curing meat sufficed.

Unfortunately, as long as there have been cured meats, there have been health problems caused by this process. Ancillary epidemiologic studies show a higher diffusion of stomach and colon cancer in persons or communities eating frequently smoked meat or fish.

It’s no bologna: there’s no safe level of consumption, says The American Institute for Cancer Research. Unless you are fond of cancer, the study recommends avoiding all processed meats like bacon, ham, sausages, salami, jerky, lunch meats, prosciutto, and smoked salmon or lox.

Caveat Emptor my friends. Our friends at The American Institute for Cancer report the nitrates in smoked meats create adverse reactions for asthma and allergy sufferers, contribute to esophageal cancer, migraines, COPD, and stomach cancer. Oh boy.

Nitrates used to preserve color, meat fillers such as gluten, and preservative agents are potential cancer-causing agents. The un-holy, man-made chemicals in smoked animal parts contain lofty levels of tyamine that can trigger migraines and react dangerously with certain medications. Got hypertension? If you don’t and desire high blood pressure, cured meats are overloaded with sodium.

To further illustrate the insane proliferation of aberrant chemicals in our food supply, my jaw dropped with a thud recently reading a grocery store pre-made Sushi label listing carbon monoxide as a color-preservative: insane on any level. If you’ll excuse the pun, after reading it I was ‘exhausted’.

How could this be allowed to happen to a loyal, trusting, patriotic citizenry of the greatest country on earth? The love of money, extended shelf-life, aesthetics, and soulless corporate Fat Cats who brand us ‘’The Little People” and who are acceptable losses in their at-all-cost pursuit of the almighty dollar.

Americans don’t deliberately eat poorly, they just do; it’s all they know. Safeguard your loving family, since there’s no doubting the scientific validity. Anyone who disagrees is either working for the meat industry, hopelessly behind the times with their nutritional IQ, or has a death wish.

Be compassionate with yourself; your body is your buddy.

Quinoa Fritters with Sweet Potato and Avocado

2011-03-12T06:17:00.000-08:00

One out of 100 unsuspecting Americans have Celiac Disease; a severe allergy to wheat gluten. Celiac disease can leave a person susceptible to many health problems. The American diet of dead, processed food contains way too much wheat gluten and corn.

This fibrous, gluten-free appetizer will please anyone with gluten & dairy allergies. No animal products are used, so our vegetarian viewers will be pleased.

• 2 cups cooked quinoa-high protein and fiber

• 1 batch gluten-free, dry pancake mix-just follow instructions and omit egg

• 3 Tbs. ground flaxseed meal to replace egg-fiber and omega 3 EFA’S

• 1 cup mashed, steamed sweet potato with skin-antioxidant

• 1 Tbs. tomato paste-Lycopene

• 1 Tbs. wheat-free soy sauce

• 1 tsp. dried basil leaf

• 1/2 tsp. dried thyme leaf

• 1/2 tsp. ground cumin seed

• 1 tsp. ground coriander seed

• 1/2 tsp. paprika

• 1/2 tsp. raw garlic-cardiovascular health

• 4 Tbs. potato starch

• Sea salt & pepper to taste

1. Cut sweet potato into cubes and steam till fork tender; mash

2. Heat a non-stick frying pan on med. low

3. Blend all ingredients in a bowl or food processor

4. If you have time, chill the mixture for an hour or so before forming into patties, for a firmer patty.

5. Divide burger mix into 8 equal portions and form into 3 inch patties

6. Fry in a little oil on medium heat, 5 - 10 minutes each side, until browned and firm

• Note: Do not fiddle and flip your fritter till it’s brown on the down side or it will stick and break apart. Be patient; just like pancakes, wait for the bubbles to appear.

Garnish with:

In a food processer blend: 1 Avocado, 1 tbs. chopped onion, a squeeze of lemon, 1 clove chopped garlic, 1 tsp. cumin, and ½ tsp. cayenne powder.

Asian Noodles with Coconut Milk and Vegetables

2011-02-28T06:32:00.000-08:00

Mouthfuls of explosive flavor wait in the highly nutritious Asian pasta dish that brims with protein and colorful fresh vegetables. Another veggie-licious way to enjoy and increase your intake of health-restoring vegetables. You’re doing great.

Serves 4

12 oz Barillo Plus spaghetti (or however much you think you need!

1/2 green/red/yellow pepper, julienned

1 carrot, shredded

1/2 cabbage (Napa or red. Depends on your preference)

1/2 onion, julienned

1/2 c organic peanut butter (Meijer carries a nice one)

1/4 c soy sauce

2 tbs. sesame oil

2tbs. Ground flax or Chia seed for FIBER

2 tbs. cider vinegar

2 tbs. Raw coconut oil

¼ cup coconut milk (Shake the cans contents vigorously before opening)

1 tsp. Sea salt

½ tsp. Pepper flakes

2 tbs. sesame seeds (toasted if you have time)

1 scallion, chopped

2 tbs. chopped peanuts

1. Set a large pot of water on to boil Add salt followed by the spaghetti; cook al dente according to package instructions.

2. Slice (julienne) all the vegetables. (Note: you can really put in any veg you like. It all works!)

3. Whisk together the peanut butter, soy, sesame oil, and vinegar. Taste it! You might want to add more of one ingredient depending on your personal preference.

4. Heat the oil in a medium pan to medium heat. Add vegetables, hot peppers, then salt and hot pepper.

5. Drain the pasta, reserving one cup of the cooking liquid. Add the vegetables and sauce to the pasta. Combine all the ingredients and add some of the reserved water or more coconut milk if the sauce is too thick.

7. Plate the dish and sprinkle with the chopped dry roasted peanuts and scallion.

Protein

2011-02-25T08:01:00.000-08:00

Patriotic American lemmings have been trained to eat the biggest, reddest, greasiest, bloodiest slab-o-meat no less than three times daily, “… if not, you’re a Commie!”

The Western Hemisphere is obsessed with protein; more is mistakenly perceived as better, macho; a symbol of prosperity, so “Don’t dis my meat, dude!” This concern is misplaced. Although protein is unquestionably essential in the way our temple functions, humans don’t innately require humongous amounts, yet they demand it. In reality, human omnivores need only small amounts. Only one calorie out of ten we take in needs to come from protein. The average American eats 50 percent more than they need. Why don’t we have more than two canine teeth?

Most Americans placidly picture happy cattle munching grass on undulating pastures, chickens pecking worms and bugs outside quaint red barns, and pigs gleefully gulping food at the trough. Unless locally grown by a true steward of God’s green earth, those days are toast. Today’s genetically altered, hormone seasoned chicken, pork, and beef come from factory farms. Factoryfarming.com is a web site everyone should visit as well as renting an enlightening movie “The Earthlings.”

Next to water, proteins are a major part of your temple. Proteins build and repair body tissues, create essential hormones, form enzymes and body chemicals, regulate body processes, provide energy, hormones, and antibodies that empower the temple to fight infection. Protein is a significant building block of muscles, bones, cartilage, blood and skin. The health mojos of protein are contingent upon its quality and authenticity. Are the proteins you supply your family high or inferior in quality; garbage in, garbage out?

There are distinctive animal proteins, each performing a unique function in the body. This broaches cleanliness, originality, purity. Where did it come from, a local gentle family farmer who fed them green grass, or a factory farm where they were fed other cows, corn, or processed with carbon monoxide and red dye, or a chicken farmer who allowed his poultry to eat delicious bugs and meandering worms as our creator planned?

Eating too much protein, as we’re constantly urged, especially with too little complex carbohydrates creates ketosis; when the temple metabolizes body fat for energy purposes instead of the usual glucose-from-carbohydrates. An Endocrinologist’s dream. This process leaves behind carbon particles called ketones which cause loss of appetite and loss of water weight. Eating too much protein with no exercise, however, will not increase strength but will definitely increase stress levels. According to Mayo when someone suffers from a high level of ketones in the blood, they’ll begin to suffer from both excessive thirst and more frequent, foul-smelling urination.

An easy way to calculate your daily protein requirement according to the USDA is to multiply 0.36 (grams) by your body weight. That translates to about 44 grams for a 120-pound woman and 54 grams for a 150-pound male. An ounce is 28.4 grams.

Need another reason to dial down your meat consumption? You may have a higher risk of cancer if you eat too much meat injected with growth hormones given to cattle to help them grow larger. These hormones remain in factory meat and upset hormone balance leading to an increased risk of breast, pancreatic, and prostate cancer. Hormone residues found in beef and milk are being blamed for bringing on early puberty in young girls. This risk can be reduced by only eating hormone-free, organic meats.

AARP studies report people who eat the largest quantities of red and processed meats are 20 percent more likely to die of cancer. Recently red meat’s been associated with increased risk of overall mortality.

Sigh…. Unholy cow! Your body’s your buddy, my dear readers. Keep reminding yourself, less is more, less is more.

Vegan Auyrvedic Kitchari

2011-02-15T08:39:00.000-08:00

Kitchari, an easy-to-digest traditional rice and bean dish, is a comfort food of India. A five-day kitchari fast, with just some chopped cilantro leaves added, will cleanse the temple and strengthen memory.

1 cup split yellow mung dal/moong dahl, or red lentils

2 cups cooked Indian basmati rice, quinoa or long grain brown rice

3 tablespoons of Organic, Unrefined, Coconut Oil

1 inch piece of fresh ginger (root), peeled, chopped up well

1 tsp caraway seeds

1 tsp fennel seed

1 tsp cumin seeds

3 cinnamon sticks

1/2 tsp turmeric

Pinch of Cayenne

1 cup washed, RAW veggies: peas, carrots, cauliflower, etc. cut into a 1/4” dice, keeping shapes uniform

Garnish with cilantro leaves

2 bu. chopped green onions

• First, wash and strain the mung dal and rice well. In sauce pan, heat 9 cups water until it boils; add in the mung dal & rice. Cover and cook for 25 minutes. Drain off any excess water.

• While that’s going, crush the three seeds (caraway, fennel & cumin). In saute pan, heat the organic, unrefined coconut oil over medium heat; add the ginger, seeds, turmeric, and cinnamon. It should smell really good by now!

• When adding the washed veggies, add them ‘RAW’ to the grain once the spices are roasted.

• Garnish with chopped cilantro and green onion; gently mix and serve.

Make Your Heart this Years Valentine

2011-02-14T13:17:00.000-08:00

Our heart; the wellspring from which our true nature is revealed is the dwelling of intuition, love, creativity, wisdom, gratitude and faith; qualities generally associated with the mind. We know deep in our heart, the ever beating orb is entwined with influencing and being influenced by everything we do, say, see and eat.

Do you love and respect your life-blood, pumping pal? Last week Dr. Gregory Martin, Indiana State Health Commissioner advised heart-clutching vegaphobic Hoosiers, “We have to take a fresh look at our comfortable habits and apply better wisdom.” Hard-headed Hoosiers are one of the unhealthy states in America, and what they eat or don’t eat is the cause, hence, avoidable.

Open your heart to new foods and love your way toward a heart-healthy diet. Give your heart the daily gift of antioxidant blueberries, potent disease-fighting foods. Delicious dark blue jewels are infatuated with fiber, vitamin C, and available fresh and frozen year long. How about wild caught Salmon? If it’s not farm raised, salmon contains clean protein packed with heart healthy omega-3 fatty acid love. The American Heart Association advises eating salmon and other omega-3 rich foods twice a week.

Popeye and his Valentine Olive Oyl knew spinach is a powerhouse. Its rich, dark color comes from the amorous phytochemicals, vitamins, folate and iron that protect against heartbreaking situations. Don’t even flirt with grocery spinach unless it’s organic. Non-organic spinach is sprayed generously with cancerous insecticides. Consistently eating a variety of fresh organic fruits and vegetables, legumes, whole grains, and grass-fed dairy products lovingly protect a hungry heart and minimizes ‘the big one”.
Limiting certain fats is important. Of the types of fat; saturated, polyunsaturated, monounsaturated and trans fat, saturated and trans fats increase risk of coronary artery disease. Major sources of inflammatory saturated fat include beef, pork, butter, cheese, milk and hydrogenated coconut and palm oils. Trans fats are banned in many major United States cities since they are worse than saturated fat because they raise LDL and lower HDL. Unlovable trans fats lurk within deep-fried fast foods, bakery products, packaged snack foods, margarine's, and crackers.

Want to break your heart; eat canola, a member of the mustard family. Canola, a hyped con-job developed in Canada, is bogus oil engineered from the rapeseed plant. It’s an excellent insect repellent according to the EPA. To their credit, the FDA has taken a stance to protect babies from the unknown risks of Canola oil and prohibits Canola from being used in infant formula. Canola is found to be poisonous for all living things, including humans. It’s also used as a lubricant, fuel and a solution to illuminate the colored pages of the magazines.

Instead, gift your heart extra virgin olive oil, walnut oil, fish oil, flax and chia oils, raw unrefined organic coconut oil, and modest quantities of sunflower, sesame, safflower, peanut, and ghee. Unlovable cotton seed oil is the filthiest. Remember; never let any oil reach the smoking point; heat destroys the love. Rarely mentioned, fat from grass fed beef actually contains omega 3 fatty acids that reduce plaque. Factory Farms feed the furry vegetarian bovines other dead cows, ugh, genetically modified organism (GMO) corn, mouth-watering growth hormones, appetite stimulants and pesticides, fertilizers, herbicides, and everyone’s favorite, aflatoxins. This aberrant grocery meat should be avoided like Ebola. Other health-appropriate Valentine options include winter squash, oatmeal, Navy beans, cinnamon-an anti-inflammatory, and apples including the peel. Be aware, chocolate is a calorie-rich, fatty food. A little is wonderful, a lot is not.

This Valentine’s Day have a dalliance with your heart. By tenderly embracing real, living
foods intended by Creation to restore, rebuild, and sustain the temple, you engrave a love note onto your heart saying, “I care.”

Eating greasy, sugary, dead bar coded food with no fresh produce or whole grains heaps contempt upon your monogamous temple. So, what’s it gonna be, Valentine?

2011-02-12T06:33:00.001-08:00

Portobello Mushroom Pizza
WISH TV Eat Right Now with Chef Wendell
Makes 1 serving

We now know cheesy Pizza, yes, our beloved friend is largely responsible for obesity, heart disease, and diabetes. Open your mouth and mind to this delightful pizza ‘redo’ the whole family will love.

If you haven’t heard, recently the USDA and the CDC announced Americans need to eat more vitamin dense fruits and vegetables in order to avoid current plagues of chronic disease. So, here’s a little help from my recipe box.

It’s a terrific way for the entire family to enjoy fresh healthy vegetables. Gather everyone together and make these tasty pizzas as a family. If you wish to use pizza sauce rather than tahini, that’s perfectly fine. Mild Tahini is sesame seeds turned into a peanut butter-like consistency. Loaded with zinc!

1 large Portobello mushroom

Juice of 1 lemon

¼ cup raw tahini paste or almond butter

½ small ripe local tomato sliced thinly

¼ ripe avocado, peeled, pitted, and thinly sliced

½ tbs. extra virgin first cold pressed olive oil

Sea salt and black pepper to taste

•Remove and discard stem of the mushroom and remove the mushroom cap ‘gills ‘with a tablespoon

•Turn cap upside down and place on a serving plate. Squeeze freshly squeezed lemon juice over it, and then pour on the tahini paste or almond butter

•Top with sliced tomatoes and avocados. Season with salt and pepper. Drizzle with the olive oil

• Have a sauté pan ready with a scant amount of antioxidant olive oil. Over medium heat, place the caps into the awaiting pan; sauté VERY briefly, remove.

•Cut into quarters

•Tastes best when eaten immediately.

Real Food for Real 'Patriotic' People

2010-12-21T06:14:00.000-08:00

God bless America, let the healing begin! Finally the first governmental admission the red, white, and blue American diet is, one bite at a time, making us chronically ill and chubby, eroding the foundation of a great nation’s health.

For decades it’s been going in one ear and out the other, but our US Army who historically marches on its stomach recently determined creating quality recruits starts at the chow line with real, honest-to-goodness, genuine food. They’re presently training soldiers to make healthier, fresher food choices, since the foods soldiers were taught to eat the last eight decades sabotaged their health preventing them from being the best they could be. This too applies to the Esprit de Corp and health of aging veterans throughout life’s tour of duty.

What’s placed into the temple affects everything significant to American society: health, happiness, employment, productivity, education, and freedom. Fueled by a fixed diet of industrial rubbish, more turn to violent crime, bullyism runs amok and good folks are defenseless to health skirmishes. Fox holed with disease rates, education failures, and morally unacceptable health care costs bankrupting families, America’s life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness plummets.

Standard, meat-heavy American food fare lacks fiber and bogs down digestion causing constipation and flatulence, impeding bowel evacuation. Food additives like gluten, dairy and corn lead to allergies and fire-fights of flatulence. Toxic compounds entering your temple through factory feedlot animal husbandry and devitalized, processed grains hinder weight loss and increase the foe of inflammation, the cause of 70% of America’s diseases. Today, supermarket corn-fed meats are treated with carbon monoxide; not your grandpa’s happy, grass-fed cattle. When the temple can’t purge toxic waste through bowel movements, it rids food toxins through stinky pits and foul breath.

Courageous US troops are saying hello to fresh produce, granola, yogurt, beans, whole grains, guacamole and salsa and saying ‘hasta la vista, baby’ to unctuous biscuits and sausage gravy, cheese burgers with fries, white bread, and sugary beverages gurgling through their veins and arteries. While these foods titillate taste buds, they are IED’s to intellectual and physical health. In America 5000 die and 350,000 citizens become hospitalized, causalities of the American diet of, well, death. A diet allied to rapid aging, cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer’s, obesity, diabetes, leaving troupes defenseless to invading disease. In the 20-year CARDIA study, researcher’s tracked habits of 5,000 healthy adults living in four American cities and found everyday fast-food consumption was directly associated with changes in body weight and insulin resistance, a warning sign for type 2 diabetes. You might feel stimulated after sugary, fat-laden fast-food breakfasts, but when your blood sugar crashes later, both your brain and your body will have trouble marching in step. American seniors suffer too many sick days wasting away in bed, an inability to focus, failure to learn, and lack creativeness. More than an inactive lifestyle, smoking, and consuming booze, processed and canned foods are un-friendly interlopers to human health.

Clearly no one deserves being attacked by the low-grade foods we’ve been trained to consume. If patriotic Americans don't speak up and demand immediate, honest, changes to Big Food’s scruples and fraudulent food propaganda, we won't survive. America will fall, brought down by the consequences of a nutritionally deficient, chronically diseased population. It’s not easy shifting hard-wired eating traditions. The University Of Minnesota School Of Public Health says the typical American repast preys on man’s primordial fondness for fats, salts, and sugar.

A friend with serious heart disease, a battle of the bulge, and no colon due to cancer, still opts to eat, “…by golly, what I dam well please. I fought in two wars so I could have free choice”. In these battle-worn cases, wave the white flag then love them with all your heart because you cannot change the mind-set of, “You gotta die from somethin’.” Or, get real and be part of the solution.

-

Rum Balls and Christmas Memories

2010-12-20T13:57:00.000-08:00

“Aw, pleeeese, just one?” we’d beg in unity.

“You kids stay out of the Christmas cookie tins till Christmas Eve”, Mom would chide, “or else, Santa won’t come”; the annual holiday admonition that falls upon deaf ears.

I remember the infinite variety of colorful holiday cookies prepared my Mom and her sisters in preparation of the joyous Holidays. Aunt Anna Faye excelled with her chocolate chip cookies, Mom, her fudge, and Aunt Bernie traditionally made Rum or Bourbon Balls, which, in particular, was an anomaly considering our teetotaler Christian fundamentalist family was taught if liquor touched thy lips, ye went straight to a blazing Hell riding the razor blade o’ eternal damnation. Odd considering Bourbon whiskey was invented in the late eighteenth century by Baptist minister Elijah Craig from Scott County, Kentucky.

Aunt Bernie’s ‘Demon’ Rum Balls were secreted in the cupboards high above the humming refrigerator. Well, we all have learned when you forbid a youngster to do a certain something; it instantly makes them desire it that much more. So, cousins and siblings teamed up, clandestinely scaled the countertops, found the tin of Rum Balls sequestered behind the cans of jellied cranberries, grinning at each other in satisfaction, we eagerly quenched our youthful curiosity by sampling three or four and proceeded to cop our first buzz; pleasantly blotto. I’ll forever remember the explosive mouth-burn of my first contact to alcohol, then feeling the liquor glide warmly down my esophagus into my belly. Whoa! I now understand why everyone took naps after their giggle-filled baking event that always ended up with the sisters robustly harmonizing upbeat, classic holiday carols. When cooking with liquor, remember the phrase, “Too many cooks spoil the broth”? Well, too much broth can spoil the cook, if you smell what I’m cooking; a little in the cookies, a snort for you.

Know what I’d like for Christmas? For everyone to keep their money, pay their bills, sit down together to enjoy a modest, wholesome meal and enjoy being part of a family. I want people to refuse manipulation by emotionally tinged commercials and midnight sales. I want people to put aside greed and status seeking, and the covetous adoration of materialism. Instead, I wish everyone would give each other hugs and be thankful for what they have.

Christmas, when the world falls in love, is about giving, so I’m sharing my recipe for Rum Balls. This no bake dessert’s alcohol content can be pretty raw and strong. If you do not want to use rum, use rum extract to taste. I learned the hard way one unfortunate Christmas not to serve Rum Balls if you have a recovering alcoholic in the house. Lesson learned.

Holiday Rum Balls

In this simple, traditional, not cook recipe, I use almond flour which is nothing more than almonds processed in your food processor or coffee grinder. It can be found at all whole foods grocers including Kroger. Kroger also carries a healthier version of Vanilla Cookies if you cannot use almond flour.

(Pssst! Don’t mention they’re healthy)

2 cups fine vanilla wafer crumbs or Almond flour (Kroger has a brand of vanilla cookies without all the sugar and trans fats)

1 ½ cups confectioners’ sugar

2 tbs. cocoa powder

½ cup walnuts, chopped fine (Omega 3 EFA’s)

3 tbs. ground flax seeds (Fiber and Omega 3’s)

¼ cup plus 1 tbs. dark rum

¼ cup Brown Rice Syrup (Low Carb)

2 tbs. organic butter, melted or Smart Balance

• In a large bowl combine the wafer crumbs or almond flour, ½ the sugar, walnuts, flax, rum, rice syrup, melted butter and knead together.

• Roll into 1 inch balls and then roll the around in the ½ cup of remaining sugar and all the cocoa powder till coated

• Arrange the balls on a baking sheet, cover well, and let set for 48 hours @ air temperature.

The Christmas Paradox-Gluttony is the Norm

2010-12-15T11:39:00.000-08:00

Christmas season kindles treasured childhood reminiscence. Oozy feelings of undiluted love as I snuggled on the couch, enveloped in Mom’s heirloom afghan, suffused in the primal, amber-red glow of crackling timber, captivated by surreal, multi-hued petite lights, silvery tensile, and the scent of pine commingling with the aroma of freshly baked holiday goodies. My body tingled anticipating the arrival of jolly friends and family strung together like treasured holiday ornaments, decorating the house with delicious affection and joy, everyone eager for the Grandma’s prayer kicking off the abundant holiday dinner.

These ephemeral visions conjure humorous post-dinner negotiation for the Barcalounger, men folk napping, snoring with one eye open while watching the Detroit Lions, and the women folk ‘wired’ on caffeine and sugar, speed-talking as their tongues smoldered and swelled. Finally, there was the belt loosening competition, and subsequent bathroom marathon. “Hey, what are you readin’in there, War and Peace?”

With each family’s arrival, the 16 foot buffet table proliferated with time-honored foods like mashed potatoes oozing with heavy cream and butter, baked ham, roasted chicken, barn animal gravy, deviled eggs, sweet ‘taters feloniously assaulted with sugar and marshmallows, broccoli casserole with dried onion rings, green beans simmered hours with pork knuckles, psychedelic gelatin salads, yeast rolls with butter, cheese balls, pecan pies, cookies, candies, and, well the list is infinite, however, fresh vegetables were uninvited. Reflecting, I can’t recall anything resembling true nourishment. Actually everything was deliciously unhealthful, however we’ve become numbly oblivious these foods, in the end, like a rock star trashing a hotel room, trash our holy temple; Jesus’ abode. Happy Birthday!

I’m not trying to plop reindeer droppings into your Egg Nog, however, knowing your Holy Temple is God's earthly dwelling place, do you maintain an irreverent, slap-dash, careless, lackadaisical, "I am too busy to consider cooking healthier” attitude? Or might you consider being a more reverential steward this joyous season? Research reveals holiday food traditions damage the Temple, but we’ve blurred the notion food has nothing to do with poor health and that disease a just part of aging; God’s will. At 40, we’re considered old and ripe for late life disease.
Food has everything to do with personal stewardship and mental acuity. While celebrating Christ’s birth, our culture considers over-eating normal. Christians nowadays have forgotten they were charged at birth with the responsibility of stewarding their temple; God’s greatest creation, the only true home you’ll ever have. I refer to Corinthians 3:16 & 17. ‘Do you not understand that you are God’s temple, and that God’s Spirit has His permanent dwelling in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy and sacred to Him; and so you, as His temple, are also holy’. Verily I sayeth that’s severeth, but it’s in the Good Book. Just like coveting and gluttony, we’ve selectively censored heavenly commands.

Behold, I bring you tidings of great joy! By replacing head hunger with the will of God ‘yule’ transfer the urge for foods that cause heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and cancer for hungering and thirsting for righteousness and nutritional literacy. His message of faith, love, and compassion will challenge us in our strength and comfort us in our human weakness for un-holy food.

Want to know what I want for Christmas; for everyone to keep their money, pay their bills, and sit down together to enjoy a modest, wholesome, home cooked meal and enjoy being part of a family. I want to see people refuse to be manipulated by emotionally tinged commercials and 2 hour only sales. I want people to put aside greed and status seeking, and the love of all things material. Instead, I wish everyone would give each other warm hugs and be thankful for what they’ve got. I’m confident personal stewardship would be the perfect birthday gift.
Merry Christmas and a healthy New Year!

The American Diet has Failed; Just Ask the US Army

2010-12-11T08:43:00.000-08:00

God bless America, let the healing begin! Finally the first governmental admission the red, white, and blue American diet is, one bite at a time, making us chronically ill and chubby, eroding the foundation of a great nation’s health.

For decades it’s been going in one ear and out the other, but our US Army who historically marches on its stomach determined creating quality recruits starts at the chow line with real, honest-to-goodness, genuine food. They’re presently training soldiers to make healthier, fresher food choices, since the foods soldiers were taught to eat the last eight decades sabotaged their health preventing them from being the best they could be. This too applies to the Esprit de Corp and health of aging veterans throughout life’s tour of duty.

What’s placed into the temple affects everything significant to American society: health, happiness, employment, productivity, education, and freedom. Fueled by a fixed diet of industrial rubbish, more turn to violent crime, bullyism runs amok and good folks are defenseless to health skirmishes. Fox holed with disease rates, education failures, and morally unacceptable health care costs bankrupting families, America’s life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness plummets.

Standard, meat-heavy American food fare lacks fiber, bogging down digestion causing constipation and flatulence, impeding bowel evacuation. Food additives like gluten, dairy and corn, lead to fire-fights of flatulence. Toxic compounds entering your temple through factory feedlot animal husbandry and devitalized, processed grains hinder weight loss and increase the enemy of inflammation, the cause of 70% of America’s diseases. Got B.O.? When the temple cannot cleanse toxic waste through bowel movements, it rids food toxins through sweat glands and breath. Today, supermarket corn-fed meats are treated with carbon monoxide; not your grandpa’s happy, grass-fed cattle.

Courageous US troops are saying hello to fresh produce, granola, yogurt, beans, whole grains, guacamole and salsa and saying ‘hasta la vista, baby’ to unctuous biscuits and sausage gravy, cheese burgers with fries, white bread, and sugary beverages gurgling through their veins and arteries. While these foods titillate taste buds, they are IED’s to intellectual and physical health. In America 5000 die and 350,000 citizens become hospitalized, causalities of the American diet of, well, death. A diet allied to rapid aging, cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer’s, obesity, diabetes, leaving troupes defenseless to invading disease. In the 20-year CARDIA study, researcher’s tracked habits of 5,000 healthy adults living in four American cities and found everyday fast-food consumption was directly associated with changes in body weight and insulin resistance, a warning sign for type 2 diabetes. You might feel stimulated after sugary, fat-laden fast-food breakfasts, but when your blood sugar crashes later, both your brain and your body will have trouble marching in step. American seniors suffer too many sick days wasting away in bed, an inability to focus, failure to learn, and lack creativeness. More than an inactive lifestyle, smoking, and consuming booze, processed and canned foods are un-friendly interlopers to human health.

Clearly no one deserves being attacked by the low-grade foods we’ve been trained to consume. If patriotic Americans don't speak up and demand immediate, honest, changes to Big Food’s scruples and fraudulent food propaganda, we won't survive. America will fall, brought down by the consequences of a nutritionally deficient, chronically diseased population. It’s not easy shifting hard-wired eating traditions. The University Of Minnesota School Of Public Health says the typical American repast preys on man’s primordial fondness for fats, salts, and sugar.

A friend with serious heart disease, a serious battle of the bulge, and no colon due to cancer, still opts to eat, “…by golly, what I dam well please. I fought in two wars so I could have free choice”. In these battle-worn cases, wave the white flag then love them with all your heart because you cannot change the mind-set of, “You gotta die from somethin’.” Or, get real and be part of the solution.

I’m Coo-Coo for Coconuts

2010-12-10T05:43:00.000-08:00

A long time ago, when wisdom ruled, coconut oil was in just about in everything you ate. What misfortune, since today, malleable Americans robotically condemn coconut oil because they were ‘told’ it was a saturated fat associated with blocked arteries. The truth is unrefined, raw coconut oil, a medium-chain fatty acid, does not negatively affect blood cholesterol, but actually protects against heart disease and a constellation of Western diseases.

What I consider most creepy is, using fear, Big Food Jerkonians intentionally urged a gullible population to embrace sinister hydrogenated vegetable oil, aka Trans fats. Other than injecting lard or tallow into your veins, hydrogenated oils are the most health-damaging, vile, dietary oils created my man’s self-serving attempts to upstage God. This illustrates how corrupt leadership and greed for the proliferation of degenerative disease and the inept health care system has taken part in trashing a patriotic nation’s entitlement of good health. We are the innocent victims of their appalling decisions fueled by the love of money. Sigh… Being American does not guarantee longer years. In fact, the United States has dropped from 24th in the world for life expectancy in 1999 to 49th in 2010. Critics say our alleged, best-in-the-world, most costly health care is the primary cause.

Virgin, unrefined coconut oil found in some groceries and all community health food stores is one of earth’s most remarkable, healing gifts. Its delicious fatty acids are rapidly converted in to energy rather than wiggly fat. Refined coconut oil, on the other hand, is unhealthy due to processing. Unlike processed grocery vegetable oils, coconut oil does not form harmful by-products when heated to normal cooking temperature.

Modern medical science has revealed veiled secrets regarding coconut oils numerous medicinal applications. Where coconut is abundance, in the South Pacific, natives enjoy remarkably good health, free from aches, pains and any degenerative disease such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes and arthritis. Health benefits of creamy coconut oil include hair and skin care. I use it as a shave cream and Sandi says my face looks like a baby’s bottom, which I trust is flattering. The diverse oil can be used for stress relief, maintaining cholesterol levels, weight loss, increase immunity, pesky toe fungus, proper digestion and metabolism, relief from kidney problems, heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, HIV and cancer, dental care, and bone strength. Phew, the list is too long. This is all attributed to its lauric acid, capric acid, and caprylic acid and its antimicrobial, antioxidant, antifungal, antibacterial mojo. The only other source of lauric acids and medium-chain fatty acids in such concentrations is in sacred Mother’s Milk. Rich and creamy coconut milk is super nutritious and brims with fiber, vitamin C, folate, selenium, minerals, and electrolytes.

Called ‘the tree of life’, one-third of the planets inhabitants depend on coconut oil and milk for food. If coconut oil is so good, why have we vilified it? It is simple; money, politics, half truths, and misunderstanding. You see, according to Bruce Fife, author of, “The Coconut Miracle,” the soy bean industry carefully orchestrated a 1980’s smear campaign against the coconut oil industry to profit from on the public’s fear of saturated fats linked with heart disease. Immature rubbish in view of The Weston Price Foundation saying ‘unfermented’ soy contributes to thyroid disorder, especially in women, promotes kidney stones, weakens the immune system, and contributes to food allergies and digestive intolerances. Estrogen-like compounds in soy foods can lower sperm count according a Harvard School of Public Health at the 63rd Annual Meeting of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine. The report by Jorge Chavarro, MD, ScD, reinforce concerns that soy negatively affects male fertility and testosterone. Bummer!

Abandoning unhealthful lifestyles and reverting to real, natural foods helps reverse many Western diseases manifesting in our bodies through the highly refined, biased diet of our modern society. You can do it.

Macho Doesn't Mean Mucho: Man up dudes!

2010-12-03T07:33:00.000-08:00

Shopping recently, I came upon a stressed and bewildered gal examining the shelves of the grocery healthy foods section as if was from another world. Looking at me with pleading eyes, she solicited, “Do you know anything about these foods?” Like a famished cat offered a bowl of milk, she eagerly accepted my help.

“Well, my fat, stubborn, macho, diabetic husband refuses to eat anything but potatoes, red meats, butter, bacon, beer, sugar, and white bread,” she carped, “He thinks corn and green beans are the only vegetables on earth. His doctor warned if he doesn’t alter his meat and potato diet, he’ll stroke out and prematurely meet his Maker! I’m genuinely frightened.”

As a motivational speaker, nutritional literacy educator, and researcher, I hear this lament far and wide. Macho Men are resistant to change within their stereotypical masculine diet. Consequentially, loving wives live uneasily with the grim prospect of losing partners and providers. Over the decades, most men have been brainwashed that meat three times a day is macho and vegetables were not..

For 16 years our catering firm fed every NBA team coming to play the Pacers. I remember early on when he was a immature rooky, Reggie Miller entering the chartered 727 with a box of Milky Way’s, Ding Dong’s, and a quart of Mountain Dew, aka, Country Cousin Champagne. Slumped, metabolizing, and sweaty, the players ridiculed our buffet of fresh veggies, real sliced turkey breast, humus, guacamole, and boiled shrimp. Rik Smits entered the plane after four grueling quarters defending the hoop, then, to restore his energy, would pick up five baby quiche, sucking them down like a hungry python in a bunny cage. Players laughed, calling it sissy food. “Hey, don’t kill the caterer!”

Sixteen years later, menus tightly controlled, these same thoroughbreds demanded fresh vegetables, fruits, lean cuts of poultry, beef tenderloin, pork loin instead of chops, grilled salmon fillets without heavy cream sauce, and gave up ordering fried foods. They put on their big-boy pants, became real men, and transcended crappy food, recognizing the more real foods and less artery-lining gelatinous goo they ate, their mental as well as physical on-court performance plus their impending trade value dramatically improved. By the 2000 playoffs with the Lakers there were three vegetarians on the Pacers. The Lakers had nine. These enlightened ‘macho’ players learned that next to procreation, breathing and sleeping, eating is the most important thing you do to sustain your Temple. They opened their minds and realized everything about their entire being was the result of their daily food choices. Without learning to intelligently select more real foods, they may have never reached mental or physical perfection as our creator generously planned for His creations.

In addition, eating more vegetables normalizes blood pressure and promotes cardiovascular health. A recent study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine reported a diet high in vegetables, fruits, nuts, and whole grains improved blood flow and prevented damage to the cells that line the arteries in a group of men with high cholesterol. Vegetables also improve blood flow, the top secret ingredient of a happy love life since a healthy vascular system is required to prevent the heartbreak of ED.

After my grocery buddy and I talked a bit you could see the lights go on and the stress drain from her pretty face. To my thinking, it takes a manly-man to embrace plant foods and a real diet rather than continuing to suck down self-destructive foods. I totally agree with Zsa Zsa Garbor, “Macho does not prove mucho.” Game on, dudes.

Healthful Breakfast Food

2010-11-08T03:21:00.000-08:00

Southsider K. L. tussles keeping her weight at a healthy level, has age-related health issues, and recognizes the Jerkonians from Big Food have scammed Americans into addiction to their quasi-edible food-like substances; aka the American diet. She e-mailed me inquiring what I normally eat for breakfast, lunch, snacks, and dinner, which will be the next several weeks’ topics.

Breakfast is indeed the most essential meal du jour. Skipping breakfast is common but not health chic. People believe they’ll lose weight skipping meals, but that’s not true; the body expects to be refueled with quality victuals a few times each day, starting with breakfast. In fact, people who eat a healthful breakfast are more likely to sustain a healthy weight

In The End of Overeating, Dr. David Kessler, retired head of the FDA, wrote how humans, much like Pavlov's dogs, have become hardwired to anticipate foods with fat, sugar, and salt that cause disease. The morally irresponsible clones from Big Food learned decades ago what human’s wanted, and are only too happy to give us what we crave. We become ensnared in an inhuman cycle of dopamine-fueled urges when we want food, and opioid releases when we eat it. Kessler says, “If dopamine and opioid sound familiar, it's because they play a major role in alcohol and drug addiction”. Kessler makes the connection between food's power over people, and the pull of alcohol and drugs.” It isn't a stretch to say, ‘I'm addicted to chocolate.’ Dr. Robert S. Harris, a professor of nutritional biochemistry at MIT, add, “Most people do not eat foods because they are good for them, but because the foods appeal to their appetite, to their emotions, to their soul."

In 1988 I weighed 300 pounds. My exercise was hoisting a beer and cancer stick repeatedly to my mouth. My favorite foods: KFC, Krispie Kremes, Poop Tarts, pan gravy, bacon, prime rib, cheeseburgers and fried anything I could outrun: pleasure my incentive. Vegetables and fruit were niggling addendums. Well, that didn’t work too well for me, so I ended up in the cardiac ICU with five masked strangers successfully performing life-support.

As Sandi and I slowly evolved, we abandoned Fruit Loops, deceptive Aunt Jemima, greasy fast food biscuits with sausage, eggs cooked in bacon fat, and instant Quaker Oats, then over time embraced even more innate, whole foods. Our breakfasts always contain fruit, protein and fiber. I mix breakfasts up since eating the same food day in and day limits availability and absorption of the 40 daily vitamins and minerals needed to heal, rebuild, and sustain the temple. We’ll eat Steele Cut Oats cooked in apple cider, cinnamon, and chopped apple one day, Kashi Go Lean cereal with walnuts, ground flax seeds, yogurt, and blueberries the next or toasted Ezekiel Bread with organic peanut butter. We also eat probiotic yogurt every other day. As a rule I don’t eat eggs, but if my temple urges me to eat one, I’ll eat one if, of course, only if it shot out of a hormone-free, local bird that ate its celestially designed diet of bugs, worms grass, and grubs. The disgusting ingredients in today’s feed are not what our creator planned.

Colon-cleaning fiber can be found in whole grains and fruits or ground up flax seed. Try a breakfast of a hardboiled egg, an orange juice and fresh cranberry blender smoothie. Sandi and I make a juice based smoothie every day to raise morning glucose levels gradually, not zoom, crash, and burn. Shun sugary, colored cereals, high fructose corn syrup, pastries, bagels, and white breads. They rapidly digest, spike insulin levels leaving you hungry and pooped in a couple of hours.

Outmaneuver Big Food terrorist by ‘breaking-the-fast’ with real, fresh, home-cooked, vittles, then only you control the ingredients. Add a teaspoon of love while you’re at it.

Thanksgiving-Romanticized Consumption

2010-11-01T09:09:00.000-07:00

As outbursts of infectious laughter glide throughout the house like potpourri and all the family gathers round the richly endowed Thanksgiving table, every tiny inch covered with hallowed serving pieces abundant with mouthwatering tradition, the “clutching my stomach-about to explode” season gets underway.

Thanksgiving Day, our beloved American opiate, is a joyous event eagerly celebrated with heaping platters of love and gravy boats of gratitude that distract us from the folly of everyday life. It’s when relatives can still be friends and every heart is true, a sacred day when a gaggle of smiling family and friends rejoice, reconnect, kiss cousins, and hug babies, thus fortifying the family circle. The quixotic day fly’s by so swiftly, it seems just as we settled down it’s time to say good-bye. To some it’s a feast of horrors spending your day off stuffing your face till your stomach bursts, and then the nausea-inducing ride home over river, rolling hills, and woods with frequent potty stops, flatulence, and then quiet, inward contemplation on whether Aunt Sandi really lacks sensible thought or surreptitiously liquor drenched. Nothing today resembles the original Thanksgiving. Nowadays it’s a competition; who can consume the most and then deal best with leftovers doomed to die in anonymity in a corner of the fridge?

If you feast beyond your temple’s needs then food is wasted. U.S. residents acclimated to abundance are wasting food like never before. More than 40 million green bean casseroles are served on Thanksgiving, but a study finds about 40 percent of all the food produced in the United States is tossed out. Concurrently, about 1 billion people worldwide don't have enough to eat, according to the World Food Program. The journal PLoS ONE, indicates while Americans feast on turkey and fixings, a new study finds food waste per person has shot up 50 percent since 1974. Some 1,400 calories worth of food is discarded per person each day which adds up to 150 trillion calories a year. ScienceNOW, a publication of the American Association for the Advancement of Science explains food waste in America accounts for more than one quarter of the total freshwater consumption and more than 300 million barrels of oil per year representing about 4 percent of the total U.S. oil consumption.

Flash back to 1621, when religious-separatist Pilgrims held a three-day expression of celebration, praise and prayer to rejoice for their generous harvest and safe ocean passage. Ergo, the nation’s first Turkey Day (TD). The celebration of gratitude which lasted for three days started out as a deeply religious happening, a time where God was lavishly thanked for plenty of harvest. The food included turkeys, geese, ducks, venison, cod, bass, corn, barley, and corn bread. There were games, demonstrations of skills, with bows and muskets, and lots of braggin’ and tall story tellin’. If our forefathers saw how we celebrate today, they’d be twirling in their savory pudding and stewed pumpkin. The first Thanksgiving was not a feast, but rather a time when Native Americans helped Pilgrims by bringing them food and helping them build off the land. Over the years TD has been corporately secularized and is celebrated today as a gluttonous competition.

Alas, gobbling too many victuals may lead to arterial ‘fowl’ play and abundant corpulence. If you’re moved with the urge to purge and wish to scrape gravy, stuffing, pie and plastic cruel Cool Whip from your hardening arteries, consider setting aside 12 1/2 hours of walking to burn off the typical 3,500 Thanksgiving calories you shoveled down, which on Thanksgiving, we can justifiably call, your Pie Hole.

Walk to, and then drop off appropriately packaged leftovers at a homeless center or church whose congregation supports the downtrodden. Be sure however, to refrigerate everything within two hours of setting it out or you’ll ruin the moment by giving everyone the unexpected gift of the Turkey Trots.

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Vegaholic's Unite!

2010-10-24T07:14:00.000-07:00

Hello, my name is Geoff and I’m a vegaholic.”

“Hi Geoff!”

“No matter how hard I try, I can’t say no to the deliciously addictive sensation I get from eating vegetables, any vegetables; my green fix. For gosh sakes, they’re virtually everywhere, easy to score at back-alley farmers’ markets, salad bars and grocery produce aisles.”

His head falls in shame. “Out of sight, behind drawn shades, I greedily eat them with reckless abandon. Life without veggies isn’t worth livin’. I’m pathetic, but it feels so darn good; really, really good. You see, I’m addicted to the taste of life. Without vegetables surging through my veins, I will surely wither, withdraw and perish. My baffled family physician mistakenly assumes I’m avoiding him since I never darken his door. I can’t help myself; vegetable side-affects arouse my immune system. My meat-munching macho friends call me a weak sissy. But you know what? I couldn’t care any less. I’ve never felt groovier.” No one forced Geoff to become a tree-hugging, grass-eating, granola-crunching vegaholic. It just happened.

Is your Holy Temple whispering in your ear to dose-down your red meat intake? Like a hungry python in a bunny cage, are you sucking down processed foods seven days a week from the local convenience store, pushers of low-grade nutrition? That small, tugging voice is your freshly altered mind ‘Jones-ing’ for the enjoyable, addictive ecstasy of vegetables. Any veggie junkie will attest that there ain’t nothin’ like the real thing, baby. Our vegaholic friend advises, “Don’t buy the bogus genetically modified organism (GMO) vegetables, man. They’ve like, been stepped-on, man, and don’t give you the groovy health buzz. Get an organic connection, dude.” Participating in an intimate, codependent in flagrante with colorful vegetables, however, may be illegal in several states, but that’s a chance you must take.

Recently, a gentleman stopped to say he heeded plant-based eating advice and capitulated to ‘vegaholism.’ He’d lost 30 gut-busting pounds, rarely gets ill and has refreshed energy-stash of mind-blowing mental clarity. He was an altered man; a vegetable-dependant junkie glowing with health and self-esteem. Vegaholics live seven years longer than carnivores and have appreciably reduced rates of obesity, coronary heart disease, hypertension, type II diabetes, diet-related cancers and diverticular disease, constipation, rheumatoid arthritis and gall stones.

Personally I didn’t get it. Instead, ‘it’ got me. After surviving terminal heart disease, I began to score more veggies. It provoked me to crave more and more varieties of vegetables, instead of the stepped-on, industrialized, GMO foods which caused me a visit to the “ICU Flop House”. Vegetables were merely a bothersome obligatory addendum to a meal. Over time, however, I too became a veggie junkie.

Anatomically we are herbivorous. Our composition and digestive system demonstrate that humans have evolved for millions of years living on fruits, nuts, grains and vegetables.

Scientists concur early humans were fruit and vegetable eaters and throughout history our anatomy has not changed, but our low-grade American diet certainly has deteriorated. Man’s structure, external and internal, compared with that of the other animals, shows that fruit and succulent vegetables constitute his natural food.

As much as some folks detest the addictive ‘green’ stuff, all plant foods have an enormous impact on your temple. Get-off on these tips:

Most veggie junkies hook up with a ‘hoe’; and grow their own.

Farmers markets are veggie junkie ‘crack houses.’ You can always count on high-quality stuff.

Score seasonal fresh fruits. It’s cheaper plus gets you-off-better on head-spinning nutrition; a natural high.

Make a plan with your closest enablers; get-off together so you won’t feel so guilty.

Open your mind, arteries and mouths to the heavenly buzz of the Universal Apothecary; plant foods. It’s not so much that we are what we eat, but what our Holy Temple absorbs from the pleasurably addictive veggies we were designed to consume by Creation.

In Fall and Winter, We Dwell Within

2010-09-28T08:45:00.000-07:00

In spring, summer and fall, mingling friends and neighbors engage in affable tete-a-tete. With its arrival, cinereal winter evokes a sacred privacy which no other season presents. Only during the chilly austerity of winter can one take pleasure in lengthy, hushed stretches to savor what’s truly significant to the soul and our shared planet. In winter there’s so little to do, you can permit yourself the luxury of fertile contemplation while percolating earthly lessons. As the garden peacefully slumbers, enumerable activities occur deep within the musky, sustaining soil. Just like humans, gardens use this time to process and stow away knowledge from previous seasonal experiences; a time for rebuilding, reinforcing root systems, and for restoring cosmic vitality.

Most Americans still believe we have no alternative to the food contrived by agribusinesses Raptors who care as little about our ecosystem and family’s health as they do about the health of the barn animals so tightly packed in pens and cages on factory farms that the floor is scarcely visible, and covered in wastes. If we are to survive, we must adapt and affect change. Every living thing was designed to cope with environmental factors like clean air, water, soil, light and temperature.

For emerging seekers yet to blossom, daily life goes on in complete disconnect from the adverse impacts their daily choices and activities have on the third star from the sun and the holy temple, our original home. Our collective minds harbor blind spots blocking our ability to see the fallout of contentedly suckling from the teats of Big Food and our dietary support of agribusiness eco-terrorists; a crisis of culture that has a gargantuan impact on all of the planet’s flora and fauna; beauty beyond human portrayal. Happily, many developing greenies are growing more conscious how their beige behavior impacts how people live to the far corners of the earth.

At the commencement of the twenty-first century, society lost touch with what may be the singular sensibility fundamental to our survival as a species; a green, reverent, sustainable culture. Might winter be the time to consider how ‘modern’ life has diminished our innate, heavenly skills and wisdom? As the temperature drops, the days get shorter, animals, bugs, and plants have gone to sleep, the sun appears so low in the sky it appears as though it will never return. In peace-filled darkness, we become more conscious of the wondrous unknowns of life, loss, death, rebirth, and the natural rhythms of life on Earth.

Stoke a warming fire, sit next to the summer plant you befriended and brought inside for the winter, then reflect on how our species threatens to consume and befoul the natural world at a rate far exceeding our planet's carrying capacity; scrutinize your life habits as you continue the voyage of greening your life and home. Before the Industrial Revolution, our lives were intimately tied to the seasons, and we developed traditions to express these transitional times in unique ways. Each season had its own customs represented in symbols created for the celebrations; spring was about the rebirth of life on earth, summer about cultivation and fruitfulness, autumn about harvest and spiritual attunement, and winter was about the return of light in the midst of darkness. Dig into the reserves you accumulated during the year; a perfect occasion to bask in the glow of your imagination. Grab grandmother’s afghan and curl up with your Kindle, drift off to your favorite tunes, or journal your reflections perchance to discover your soul overflowing with clarity, like stars painted onto the infinite, cobalt, frost-polished heavens.

Why it's so expensive to eat healthy

2010-09-27T07:00:00.000-07:00

What’s the true cost of eating the typical American diet; a witch’s brew of heartrending, wallet-busting diseases, and incapacitating obesity? No one possesses the stones however, to cop to the naked fact that we support the health care crisis with our unfocused dietary choices; pure and simple. Food illiteracy simmered with our addiction to Big Food’s twaddle is the stone we should overturn. Our nation’s health care crisis is not a shortage of quality hospitals, doctors or nurses. It is a crisis of culture – a culture where it’s deemed perfectly acceptable, almost Patriotic to spend money on dead nutrition then eat it sedentarily whilst vegetating in front of computer or TV screens, foregoing any semblance of physical exertion.

Most everyone suffers from the dreaded Italian disease, Mafundsalow and descend on cheap foods like paparazzi onto Paris Hilton. Due to disproportionate costs, poor folks and the middle class struggle mightily to eat healthy. It’s mind-bending that this can happen in the greatest country on the earth. Pure, fresh food should be freely available to everyone, not just the Fat Cats. If you only have $3, you want the most for your wrinkled dead president. We’ve seen the ad for a complete meal consisting of a artery-clogging burger, fries and coke for only 2.99. Then Meijer, Marsh, and Kroger executives pat themselves on the back because they offer diabetes and obesity causing low-grade ‘white boxed’ food on the cheap. Alas, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Eating healthy can be, but doesn’t need to cost more. The problem lies in the fact that scores of folks loathe cooking and end up buying pre-made health foods, which are costly because you paid someone to cook it, package it, and then ship it hundreds of miles to your microwave. Cooking from scratch is the joyous answer. For example, you could by 2 medium sweet potatoes for the same $1 you spend on small French fries from a burger joint. Or you could procure 2 red peppers brimming with heavenly antioxidants for the same amount you pay for sugary soda pop that causes triglycerides to soar. You could enjoy a healing bowl of Steele cut oatmeal for $2 or a chow a bag of oily chips. A large bag of oatmeal is $3.50, or 4 chocolate bars. Six chicken breasts can cost $10, or what you’d pay for a sub combo from a fast food shack. Or how about $3.50 for 18 local farm fresh eggs up against a $5 dead bovine burger. Two salmon fillets can cost $15; the same as a large pizza. Consider homemade chicken or tuna fish salad verses a $3 box of cookies. It’s all about perspective; being honest with yourself.

As empty calories get cheaper, the healthy fruits and vegetables that protect the temple are becoming more and more expensive; become luxury goods. Calorie for calorie, junk foods not only cost less than fruits and vegetables, but junk food prices are less likely to rise as a result of inflation. The Center for Public Health Nutrition found a 2,000-calorie diet would cost $3.52 a day if it consisted of junk food, compared with $36.32 a day for a diet of ‘real’ food. Of course choosing to eat dead calories over nutritious food might save money, or “fill you up”, but the true cost ends up being repaid through bad health and shorter life expectancies. So, realistically, it’s more expensive to eat lousy disease-causing food since ultimately, you pay the medical bills.

As one who has been devising and publishing healthy recipes for years, I honestly feel if we slow down and return to the joyous act of cooking, we will most certainly overcome our plagues of illness. There’s absolutely no reason why we cannot eat in a healthy fashion just as cheaply as we can consume the chemical stodge that ultimately destroy us. Life is really not that hard; we reap what we sow.

Tag: Follow Wendell Fowler on Twitter with your questions and concerns

The Amazing Curative Apple; Forbidden Fruit?

2010-09-23T07:21:00.000-07:00

How ‘bout them Forbidden Apples?

Eve had a devil of a time persuading Adam to eat forbidden fruit, however, since their ensuing expellation, the apple has reigned supreme. In ancient Greece and Rome, apples were a symbol of love and beauty. Cleopatra was rumored to have placed one in Caesar’s chariot lunch box before battle. Apples were so prized armies took cultivated apples with them into England and then proceeded to make applesauce out of the country. About 1629, both the seeds and trees were brought to America by John Endicott, an early governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Johnny Appleseed promoted apples as he carried seeds with him wherever he traveled, and planted then in thinly settled parts of the country; mostly for distilling strong-drink. In 2010 America, the apple remains sovereign.

Most Americans consider the white meat most delectable. Apples contain a gargantuan 30 thousand protective antioxidants; paradoxically, the skin contains bushels of the heavenly, healing nutrition. Orchards of studies prove a daily diet of real, not GMO (Genetically Modified Organism) contain .78 grams of pectin per 100 grams of edible fruit, ranking them fourth in pectin content among twenty-four common fruits and vegetables tested. This only applies when one leaves on the skin, which settles the debate, ‘to peel or not to peel’? So put on your big boy pants; the skin stays on. The apple’s soluble fiber reduces the amount of cholesterol produced in the liver, slows digestion, and the rise of blood sugar, making it ideal for diabetics. Adding two large apples to your daily diet is shown to decrease total cholesterol. Apple's insoluble bran-like fiber gloms on to LDL cholesterol giving it the bums rush.
Eating un-peeled, albeit washed apples reduces risk of colon, breast, prostate, and ovarian cancers, heart disease, type II diabetes, obesity, and tooth carries. A study on mice at Cornell University found that the quertecin in apples may protect brain cells from the kind of free radical damage leading to Alzheimer's disease, a.k.a., Mad Cow disease.

Apples that rust have the most curative powers. Have you observed how apple these days don’t brown? It’s because today’s commercial apples have no semblance to the apples our universe created. That’s because they are GMO (Genetically Altered Organism) ergo, missing original heavenly components. What happened to Winesap, McIntosh, and Rome apples we relished in our youth? Royal Gala, Fuji and the new generation of apples are man’s egotistical manipulation of God’s gifts to us. The National Cancer Institute reports the antioxidants in apples may reduce the risk of lung cancer by as much as 50%. A Cornell University study indicated apples inhibited colon cancer cells reproduction by 43%, and A Mayo Clinic study indicates the quertecin in apple’s skin prevents oxygen molecules from the damage that encourages growth of prostate cancer cells.

For your temple to absorb the biggest bang-for-your-buck, choose locally grown varieties which brown easily, such as puckery Granny Smiths. I gently encourage you not to substitute insipid, sugary apple juice for raw apples. Grocery store sugar-laden apple juice contains next to none of the beneficial pectin, potassium, antioxidants, quertecin and colon-cleansing fiber. Instead, forage seasonal, un-pasteurized apples from your local orchard. However, ask the grower if they wash, sanitize, and filter the nectar to prevent E. coli or salmonella. Some orchards make use of the fallen apples because they are sugary ripe and easy to harvest, but pathogens lurk. One bad apple can spoil the whole bunch, girl.

Apologetically, the true ‘forbidden’ ones, Caramel Apples don’t count. Add sliced apples briefly cooked in Smart Balance and cinnamon to your morning Steele cut oatmeal which you’ve cooked in apple cider, not water. Chuck in some walnuts, fibrous flax seed, and fruit, and your colon will return the a,..umm…favor.

Snacking Alternatives to Dead Food

2010-09-15T06:33:00.000-07:00

We spend over-busy days scurrying around in cars running numerous errands or becoming one with the computer. It is here that humans continually nibble on whatever’s within reach. There are umpteen reasons why we snack: comfort, boredom, a quick energy fix, or just because of the desperate 'I want it now or I’m gonna rip someone’s face off!' feeling.

With beguiling vending machines every 10 feet, fast food and convenience stores of bar-coded death at every stop light sucking the life right out of you, it’s easy to be brought over to the dark side of American nutrition, or the lack there of. If you intend to compete with the pink Duracell bunny, it’s very important to eat foods that supply decent fuel. A new study carried out by researchers from the University of Michigan Medical School concluded that vended, prepackaged foods and sugary, faux colored beverages may be linked to diabetes, obesity, cancer, ADHD, ADD, and coronary artery disease. OMG!

Could we be squandering a golden opportunity to endow our family health equity? One way or another, everything we place into our Holy Temple affects health. As sure as I’m never going to have hair again, you’ll not find whole, restorative, socially redeeming fresh foods at a convenience store. I’ve seen freckled bananas, wrinkled oranges, and pulpy apples at the checkout of a few of them, but their existence depends on the demands of the local culture. Remember when they used to sell just gas?

May I turn you on to my fast food connection? Whenever the munchies attack, I head for the local grocery, waltz past the prepared hot food, then make a bee-line to the produce section where I grab containers of cut up fresh fruit or vegetables. You may want to cut your own the night before to avoid the MSG used to preserve them. Ack!! Then I truck to the deli for a container of humus, tabbouleh, sushi, guacamole, marinated olives, salsa, and some whole grain chips or crackers. One day I might snag a small bag of dried fruits, bulk granola, pistachios or walnuts to keep within arm’s length at work or in the car. Read labels, however, since some granolas have nefarious added fats. "All natural” fruit juice drinks and sodas, a meaningless term, can be saturated with sugar, which is a colossal contributor to the health care disaster. I’m wondering when moral authorities are going to connect the dots between chronic disease and the foods we worship.

In short time you’ll gain confidence as you note there is vastly more variety at the grocery store plus you’re getting up off your expanding, gelatinous, glutious maximus. Find strength within yourself and waddle past the potato chip, gooey thingies, cookies, and fried bits. If you take time to read labels, you’ll discover that major grocery stores carry healthful versions of your favorite treats. You’ll acquire increased energy and mental clarity. Science has deduced that eating junky, processed foods makes us ‘stoupid’.

Besides what I’ve already mentioned, my favorite snacks are raw veggies spritzed with low-calorie salad dressing, Kashi Go Lean cereal, Boca burgers instead of dead cow burgers, almonds, soy cheese and Wheat Thins, banana bits dipped in dark chocolate then frozen on a sheet pan lined with wax paper. Zip-lock them up for a sweet treat reward because you’ve been so good. God forbid you make popcorn from scratch. After all it’s so exhausting having to shake that darned pan while the colonels pop and ping against the lid.

Obesity: Public Enemy #1

2010-09-07T11:33:00.000-07:00

Sandi and I take pleasure in entertaining out of town friends. Besides feeding them fresh, local Farmer’s Market foods, we shanghai them into the car; hold them hostage while flaunting Indy’s beauty. Straight away, they notice our conspicuous preponderance of obese men, women, and kids. “What’s with that”? I elucidate Hoosiers innate resistance to change; a mysterious reluctance to let go of macho meat and potatoes, gravy, and a god-like devotion to convenience, and rampant covetousness for deep-fried bits of meat or cheese dipped into of a vat o’ Ranch Dressing.

It’s no mystery why nearly 65 percent of Americans are corpulently porky; the American diet. The estimate, including direct medical costs only, not costs such as missed work, is higher than the annual medical bill for smoking. In other words, becoming obese is causing the same health care costs everyone’s bitching about to increase even more. Get it?

Obesity is the #2 cause of preventable death in the United States. You’d need to be buried under a pile of Little Debbie’s wrappers not to know obesity ramps-up the threat of breast cancer, coronary heart disease, low self-esteem, type II diabetes, knee-replacement, sleep apnea, gallbladder disease, osteoarthritis, colon cancer, and hypertension. So, why can’t Midwesterners wrap their taste buds around the simple concept? Is it predatory marketing and baffling labeling or do we just lack self control? America’s dollar-driven marketing gurus have mastered the concept that the human appetite is elastic: give them more and they’ll eat more; keep them fat, sick, and come back for more. In many ways we can also blame the obesity epidemic on the impressionable advertising footprints left on our brains.

Humans have a natural proclivity for full-flavored, yet highly caloric, easy to digest foods. Just as it it’s natural for gorillas to love leaves, it’s innate for human mammals to love funnel cake. Americans eat more processed dead foods than any other country. When eating machine cuisine, the temple doesn't have to work as hard to digest the food’s energy. Add the socially acceptable sedentary work habits of Americans and people will naturally store additional pounds for energy. If Hoosiers ate rawer, harder to digest, whole, unprocessed foods and added more movement to their everyday lives, they could lose the excess chunk in their proverbial trunk.

At nearly all of my lectures, someone expresses only the affluent can afford to eat healthy, which leads me to conclude poverty causes obesity. The fact that more and more American families can't afford fresh fruits and veggies or good cuts of meat could be part; another component is sloth. Short-sighted authorities have taken PE out of schools and don't send children out to play for 15 minutes in the nurturing sun, fretting they might become victims of skin cancer. No one needs reminding of the low-grade food served in the public school system; a prescription for weight gain, diabetes, and undernourished, foggy little brains

The only home you have, the holy temple, works pretty simple. There are a certain number of calories your temple requires every day for it to maintain its current weight. If your diet is made up of fewer calories than this maintenance level, you’ll lose weight. If it's made up of more calories, you’ll gain weight. It's really simple, actually.

Remove all bar-coded foods from your house and desk at work to control junk food cravings. It works for my weaknesses if the dead, caloric food is not in sight, because you’ll be less likely to craving it. Out of sight; out of mind.

Don’t beat yourself up. You’ve had some help from Big Food. Follow any "cheat" meal with at least five healthy meals and snacks. That ensures you'll be eating right more than 80 percent of the time. If you make a mistake, remember, you are above all, human; and a groovy, worthy one at that.

The 'White' Cause of Diabetes and Obesity

2010-09-06T11:51:00.000-07:00

How can anything white be wrong?

Our arduous eating journey and future health blueprint begins early in life deeply rooted in cultural dietary traditions. Americans are unknowingly eating an unbalanced diet high in snarky saturated fats and low in fresh fruits, vegetables, and grains, but plum full of icky processed high-carb white foods.

Growing up a preacher’s grandkid, life revolved around after-church dinners on filigree-topped dining room tables moaning under the mass of chicken fried in shimmering pork fat, macaroni and cheese, stuffing, au gratin potatoes, potato salad, mashed taters, warm cloverleaf rolls, iced cakes, cookies; a carbohydrate blitzkrieg. Salt, flour, sugar, gravy, lard, shortening, white bread, white rice, marshmallows, Alfredo sauce, full-fat ice cream, half and half, and high butterfat cheese like Brie, mayonnaise, and mayo-based salad dressings chip away at the crispy edges of your family health equity. You know why they call it shortening? It shortens your life. 911! 911! Thud!

If you have a death wish to see the ‘white light’, white foods exacerbate diabetes, obesity, cancer, and heart disease. My admonition doesn’t suggest avoiding these white foods, but a gargantuan family of foods derived from the nefarious white stuff. The Price is Right host Drew Carry recently lost 80 pounds and got his diabetes under control by eating nothing but lean protein and fresh vegetables; no carbs at all.

It’s more coo-coo than Coco-Puffs to believe we can totally dodge harmful ingredients lurking virtually everywhere in the food system. Big Food made sure of that. However, one excellent way to hedge these dead foods to remain healthy and energetic is to embrace edibles from nature, not a factory assembly line.

For decades, red meat’s been worshiped as a deity for its white marbling. Each year the average American gulps down more than 50 unctuous pounds of gushy fat. Less in this case, is more. Iconic Uncle Ben had good intentions when he ‘perverted’ his instant rice. Paradoxically, the bran and germ he removed are outstanding sources of minerals, fiber, and vitamins. Instant white rice lacks even the essential nutrients after “enrichment.” This doesn’t mean to completely avoid white rice. Try taking 15 minutes of your time and learn to cook Basmati rice.

Fizzy soft drink lovers may or may not be conscious that the fructose portion of refined sugar is a building-block for cholesterol, obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. Also, just 10 teaspoons, the amount of sugar in one soft drink, incapacitates your immune system by an astounding 33 percent. Thirty teaspoons shut down the immune system for a day. Abundant sugar in your temple sends out chemical signals that attract bacteria like moths to an open flame. It’s been recently discovered that high fructose corn syrup is cancer cells favorite food. Charming, eh?

Salt overkill increases the risk of high blood pressure, stroke, heart failure, kidney disease, diabetes, cataracts, brittle bones, asthma, dementia, and early death. The American Heart Association says one teaspoon a day is the maximum.

Studies explain Alloxan, the chemical that makes all purpose white flour look clean and beautiful destroys beta cells of the pancreas encouraging diabetes. White bread, an uber-refined wheat product, has been plundered of 11 known vitamins, half a dozen nutritionally significant minerals, as well as essential fatty acids. It’s a ‘wonder’ anyone buys it. Way back in 1943, the erudite editors of Nutrition Reviews were distressed at the government’s decision to proceed with enriching flour; a startlingly bad decision.

Even too many good complex-carbohydrates like brown rice, millet, grits, oats, quinoa, and barley can be a factor. Reduced-fat dairy products, probiotic yogurt, and fortified rice milk are cool in moderation. When you add beans, white-fleshed fish, skinless chicken, ‘real’ turkey breast, and fresh fruits and vegetables to the menu, you’re hitting stride.

Be unyielding and don’t give up. You can do it one step at a time. With the heartening progress I see Hoosiers making, I’m truly excited about the future.

Condiments: Illusory Foods not so Innocent

2010-08-23T03:37:00.000-07:00

How Long Should I Hold the Mayo?

Would you sacrifice quality of life to defend your right to dollop hollandaise over asparagus or to asphyxiate crisp, steamed broccoli with molten cheddar cheese sauce? Since ancient times, Chefs created sauces and condiments to display their talents. Once a savvy chef presented me with a point to ponder, “Why would anyone wish to disguise the true taste of perfectly cooked food?”

When Sandi and I converted to the green side, it required condiments on vegetables to make them appetizing. Eventually, we learned to dig the clean, fresh taste and texture of produce in its God-given state. If you’re the boss of your health destiny, then you know at home or away, condiments present a dietary challenge. Everyone’s favorite is mayonnaise composed of a fatty emulsion of oil, raw egg, vinegar, and spices. For me, switching to mustard was a huge health-plus. Commercial condiments explode with sugars, wheat gluten, phantom calories, high fructose corn syrup, MSG, and trans fats directly connected to heart disease, diabetes and obesity

Ever-present condiments are illusory foods which innocently appear as insignificant addendums to any meal, but realistically, they’re subtle delivery systems for massive amounts of calories to sneak into the temple. The word "sauce" is French meaning a relish to make food appetizing. Gravy, the grand-daddy artery-clogger of all, is generally derived from greasy pan renderings and supposedly makes foods look, smell, and taste better. Before the advent of refrigerators and preservatives, as a necessity, sauces and condiments were created to cover up the smell of rotting meat. Today we still see this practiced in grocery meat and fish counter ‘Petri dishes’ brimming with colorfully decorated, albeit aging raw fish, chicken and kebobs with alluring monikers. They take this economic risky measure to rid their inventory of ‘old’ meats.
Don’t insult a verdant salad with goopy bottled salad dressings burdened with less-than-ideal ingredients. Select vinegar or lemon juice, and EVOO. I recently praised my plump lunch companion’s choice of salad bar; however, I was astonished watching her decant a cup of blue cheese dressing onto the crisp, nurturing greens. (The ‘broccoli and cheese sauce’ syndrome). To flourish, you don’t need sauces compromising your health, such as Alfredo Sauce, sugary ketchup, BBQ sauce, mysterious sandwich spreads, chicken nugget dipping sauces, or flavored coffee creamers.

Like placing kerosene into a gas tank, you can only dupe the Temple so long. By existing on un-holy, factory foods, you put the pedal to the metal on the aging process and destabilize your birthright of good health. Give serious thought to returning to nature, and then begin to prepare your own ‘scratch’ food. If your home-made foods need condiments, perhaps you should consider a cooking class. As a family learn to enjoy the real flavor and texture of foods in their God-given state.

Tips:

• Top baked potatoes with plain low-fat yogurt, low-fat sour cream, or salsa

• How about a crowning a baked sweet potato with Smart Balance and a drizzle of real maple syrup, not Aunt Jemima which is pure HFCS.

• Hot sauce can be added to a variety of food providing big flavor.

• Honey is an excellent alternative to sugar

• Soy sauce is associated with Asian cooking but can be used in everything from Mexican fare to traditional French.

• Salsa is an excellent alternative to crappy nacho cheese.

• Hummus is a delighful veggie dip

• Avoid foods named au gratin, Alfredo, gravy, creamed, or sauced

• Make scratch salad dressings. Regular salad dressing is expensive and has about 120 calories per tablespoons.

• Use flavored mustard or yogurt-based dips for chicken strips.

• Try Meijer’s Organic Peanut butter

• Have low-fat cottage cheese with a drizzle of honey, sprinkle of ground flax or chia seeds, and cut-up seasonal fruit.

• And finally, try a Honeymoon Salad: Lettuce alone with no dressing, but I really, really, digress.

The Power of Produce

2010-08-16T12:15:00.000-07:00

In 1988 an emotionless cardiologist uttered in monotone, “Get prepared, Mr. Fowler, you’re going to die…soon”.
Two decades ago, my diet was KFC, double-cheeseburgers, and Krispie Kreme’s flushed down with beer and ciggy-butts; a 300 pound poster child for self abuse. Fruits and vegetables were interlopers necessitating gravy to make them edible. Slothful, under the influence of cozy family traditions and repetitive advertising, I’d squandered the first half of my life eating foods not intended to enter the temple.

I nearly paid the ultimate price. Using produce to sustain health was not programmed into my Midwestern mindset. Since childhood I’d been encouraged to eat specific comfort foods. Over time, like most Americans, I was shanghaied from the path of nutritional righteousness by Betty Crocker, commodity brokers, bankers, and repetitive advertising that left tiny footprints on my malleable mind. Advertising frequency exerts a mighty influence over what you choose to eat. It generates awareness, creates interest, and arouses taste buds. I’ve pondered if the mass confusion, conflicting headlines, contrary opinions and such is by design. I'm a seeker of truth not a conspiracy theorist, but, keep in mind, it’s highly profitable to keep people fat, and sick, and coming back for more.

Motivated by the proposition of death, I began eating more fruits and veggies containing essential vitamins, minerals, and fiber and less man-made nonsense. Subtly, new skills surfaced. Not feeding my temple the innate heavenly diet designed for humans had blunted my God-given skills. The American Cancer Society, the CDC, National Kidney Foundation, American Heart Association, American Diabetes Association, and scores of health authorities are screaming in unison, “American must increase the fruits and vegetables they currently eat”. Produce from the celestial apothecary contains substances called phytonutrients; defenders of human health that battle cancer, heart disease, GI inflammation, diabesity, and blood pressure.

A vast body of research fruits, vegetables and plant foods were on the original menu of foods the Universe designed for its creations. Genesis 1:29. Instead, Americans are corporately swayed to consume synthetic creations from man’s inventive mind, brewed in his laboratories, having no counterparts in nature, ergo the health care catastrophe. Fruits and vegetables are your heavenly source of sustaining energy and give the temple the nutrients needed to ‘have your health.’ Alas, only one-third of Americans eat two or more pieces of fruit per day and 25 % don’t eat vegetables at all.

Forage for foods natural to your evolutionary lineage; fresh foods most apt to promote health. Today, a nation drools when offered health destructive foods; foods that diminish your fitness and quality of life. The Five-A-Day program recommends five to nine servings of fresh fruits and vegetables per day to ward off diseases. That’s 2.5 cups, friends. One trip to the salad bar could take care of that in a jiffy; nevertheless summon the strength to resist the urge to asphyxiate the green salad in copious amounts of Ranch or Bleu Cheese Dressing. Opt for Olive oil and either wine vinegar or lemon juice.

• Support your community Farmer’s Market. Ask questions then shake the hand of the hard working family farmer

• Pre-cut vegetables into small portions then place in the refrigerator for easy access. Make vegetables as convenient as any other snack food and you’ll eat more of them

• Create a home-salad bar with healthy dips and vegetable you cut into interesting shapes. Dips include low fat salad dressing, guacamole, humus, low-fat cottage cheese, and salsa

• When serving cow burgers, Sloppy Joes, cheesy pizza or any other kid-pleasing fare, sneak in shredded carrots or broccoli. Just a small amount will blend into a red sauce and boost the nutritional value

• Grill kabobs. Cut bite-size pieces of vegetables and grill them on skewers or alternate with chunks of lean cuts of dead animal meat. Add a tasty marinade.

A nickel's worth of fresh produce beats a five dollar doctor visit on any day.

Soy Is a Con Job

2010-07-27T08:03:00.000-07:00

Recently l had occasion to study with and Ayurvedic Indian doctor. In Ayurveda, diet is the keystone of one’s mental and physical health destiny. I prepared him classic Indiana kitcheri and added Edamame to the dish. As he quietly ate, he turned his head towards me, looking into my eyes and said, “Soy is slow suicide,” while gesturing at the green orb with his fork. Truth seekers since the 50’s have been warning us regarding our excessive intake of soy isoflavones.

Soy-a-holics robotically suck down anything made from soybeans, which is not the boulevard to health, especially when soy is GMO. (Genetically Modified Organism) Big Food and Pharma terrorists have trained America to eat Morning Star faux-meat, TVP, Boca Burgers, soy nuts and cheese, Edamame, soy milk, Smart Dogs, and concentrated soy protein pills.

Warnings appeared in the Washington Post: “You have to be ‘soy’ careful: Tofu and similar foods may be beneficial, but some experts fear that too much could be unsafe.” New York Times health columnist Marian Burros published a comment on isoflavone supplements, which provide 50-100 mg isoflavones per capsule: “Against the backdrop of widespread praise, there is growing suspicion that soy, despite its undisputed benefits, may pose some health hazards. Not one of the 18 scientists interviewed for this column was willing to say taking isoflavones was risk free.” The easily swayed FDA totally disregarded studies beginning in 1953 demonstrating adverse effects of soy isoflavones. Book em, Danno!

It’s paradoxical soy protein is aggressively prescribed as treatment for diabetics, considering soy feeding in infancy is linked to diabetes. The American Academy of Pediatrics advised against the use of soy formula due to diabetes risk. Memo: according to our creator, Mom’s milk is eternally best. Unfortunately, some mothers are unable to produce milk for infants; however there are more sensible alternatives to soy. Reviewing feeding histories of 95 diabetic children, twice as many kids with diabetes received soy formula in infancy compared to children in the control group. (Fort, 1986) Again the FDA put their hands over their ears loudly sing-songing, “La-la-la. I caaaan’t hear you.” In 2006 the American Heart Association chimed in to cast their doubts on the magnitude of soy’s benefit in cholesterol busting.

It’s been argued high levels of soy isoflavones genistein and daidzein in Asian diets protect them from breast and prostate cancer in women. Straight up? Soy is linked to increased estrogen in males and increased breast cancer in women. The estrogenic effects are caused by the presence of phytoestrogens and estrogen mimicking compounds found in soy. Because of these estrogenic compounds, infants in particular can be harmfully affected from exposure to soy, including premature development in girls and underdevelopment in boys.

Soy, especially processed versions rather than fermented, promotes hyperthyroidism, thyroid cancer, and infertility. The Weston Price Foundation warns phytic acid, trypsin inhibitors, toxic lysinoalanine and highly cacogenic nitrosamines are all highly present in soy products. http://www.westonprice.org/

Search on-line for the Poisonous Plant Database of the FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. It’s in black and white: 288 studies since 1953 focused on the toxic properties of soybeans. The FDA possessed this information but chose to ignore it…again. It’s tear-jerking to think of the human suffering that could have been avoided had the FDA listened to their scientific advisors…and their hearts.

Locavor-The Next Revolution

2010-07-21T04:13:00.000-07:00

The Next Revolution?

Accepting mans’ imperfect humanness, everyone struggles letting go of deep-seated rituals. At the grocery, we instinctively reach for expedient sources of food because life’s too busy to cook. Given we’re a malleable bunch; Americans have become reliant on Big Food to prepare their meals. Consequently we’ve morphed into an aggressive species due to their deviant food-like substances.

For this opulence, there’s a somber mind / body tradeoff. Before Fat Cats created the ethically malnourished Industrial Revolution, American communities, bartered, shared, canned fresh food, constructing supportive, peaceful communities centered on local family farms bursting with sustainable sun-blessed produce, dairy farmers, bee keepers, and livestock fed the preordained celestial menu designed by the generous Universe. Eating food fare shipped from a source 2000 miles away was unthinkable.

One-hundred years ago everyone knew local farmers by their first name, shaking their calloused milking hand as they greeted. An ecologically centered community which knitted itself together with threads of peace and friendship through the sharing of home-made foods simmered with loving energy. There is a full-blown movement in NYC of diverse artisans organizing, sharing, and returning to a pre-industrial revolution mentality. It’s truly rooting here in Indiana; a total disconnect from Big Food and Factory Farms where animals are treated inhumanely, vegetarian cows are turned into cannibals, and food is genetically altered into unholy nothingness.

For millennia, man has contemplated and practiced changing his self-defeating eating patterns, yet sustainment has proved elusive. To transcend today’s food zeitgeist, we’ll need to establish new peaceful relationships with food and eating; learn intuitive eating skills for long term results; results that encourage emotional, spiritual, and physical well being; the root of earthly peace. An unconnected, malnourished mind and sickly body is not the best place to cultivate a peaceful heart. Although most Americans believe the steady diet of violence in the media is leading to a more violent world, in reality it’s the steady diet of heavy metals, food colorings, animal husbandry chemicals, and pesticides that send bullying bosses and wilding teens over the edge.

Because anxious families have discovered how the food they eat was grown, home food preservation is experiencing a genuine revival. Were the barn yard animals handled humanely? Were vegetables genetically altered by a chemist? Discouraged by proliferating dead foods, the energy crises, and a growing awareness of environmental and social impacts of industrial agriculture and the globalization of food production, home gardeners are returning to the sacred traditions of the ancestors, growing, canning and sharing their own food fare. The Industrial Revolution was a major turning point in Earth’s ecology and humans’ relationship with the earth’s environment, dramatically changing all facets of lifestyles from human development, resource wars, food purity, health, longevity, and social conveniences. Like ripples in the proverbial pond, its destructive impact would not hit the shore of the nation’s collective psyche pond until the 1960s counter culture movement.

Change in the way we eat cause changes in others. Without doubt, the sustainable seed of green, Locavorism and a peace-filled community has been re-planted. Over the coming years, Americans will transcend misguided eating behaviors and enter a new era of lucid sustainability and a nonviolent world.

Blueberry's VS. Blueberry 'Poop' Tarts

2010-07-19T13:40:00.000-07:00

At my monthly holistic health fair, a sweet gal told me her friend watches my WISH TV segment and reads Anti-Aging in the South Side Times. She claims I’m against everything, which is partially true. My heart is against watching good people, under the cloudy assumption all foods are safe, poison their Temple with processed, GMO and extruded dead food rather than health sustaining Universal Apothecary provided by Creation.

Vacationing with my grand kids in Michigan during blueberry season, a mother at a road-side market was asked by her child, “Can I have blueberries mommy? Mom replied, “No, honey, we have plenty of Blueberry Pop Tarts at home.” Considering, ‘Poop’ Tarts have the nutrition value of road kill, it‘s a heartbreaking commentary on today’s obesity crisis and your loving families health. Remember our State Board of Health’s announcement this will be the first generation of children who will be outlived by their parents? I mean, substituting the ethereal glories of the noble blue orb for a Poop Tart is, well, child abuse; like smoking carcinogenic cigarettes inside the car when kids are on board. Lazy mom and dad role models, listen up; one Blueberry Pop Tart is 212 empty calories; 62 from fat and grease. They contain one-half ounce of immune-system-blunting sugar, diabetes inducing white flour, 7 grams of fat, and one frail gram of fiber. No mortal can improve our Creators gifts, but when one arrogantly tries, the process perpetually renders the once vibrant food lifelessly devoid of the groovy vitamins our Temple requires to remain mentally and physically vigorous; hence our largely preventable pandemic of obesity, diabetes, cancer and heart disease.

Juicy, sweet blueberries are indigenous to the US of A. Native Americans used the berries, leaves and roots for medicinal purposes. Blueberries were used as a fabric dye and combined with meat into a nutritious dried jerky. Recently, Tufts University analyzed 60 fruits and vegetables for their antioxidant capability or ORAC level. Blueberries came out on top, rating highest in their capacity to destroy free radicals called anthocyanidins. Blueberries deactivate free radical that damage the collagen matrix of cells and tissues leading to cataracts, glaucoma, varicose veins, hemorrhoids, peptic ulcers, heart disease and cancer. Researchers found fresh or frozen blueberries protect the brain from oxidative stress and may reduce the effects of age-related conditions such as Alzheimer's disease or dementia. The Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry show that phenolic compounds in blueberries can inhibit colon cancer cell proliferation and programmed cell death. A Poop Tart can’t do that for your holy temple.

Blueberries were created with a tasty flavonoid called kaempferol. Research calculating flavonoid intake in 66,940 women enrolled in the Nurses’ Health Study between 1984 and 2002 revealed women whose diets provided the most kaempferol had a 40% reduction in risk of ovarian cancer, compared to women eating the least kaempferol-rich foods.

Make a morning smoothie with blueberries, real orange juice, a piece of carrot and banana. What a great way to drink, not chew your daily dose of heavenly medicine that protects your temple from disease. Remember, when you cook blueberries into a pie, jam, or pancakes, all the nutrients and energy are destroyed in the process. Eat ‘em raw by the handful. We brought back a 10 pound box, placed them on sheet pans; put them into the freezer till hard like blue marbles; bagged them in zip-locks then back into the freezer. For breakfast try Kashi Go-Lean cereal, plain yogurt, walnuts, and ground flax seed crowned with a cup of berries; the “Colon Pow!” of your digestive tract

When everything God gives us to remain healthy is right under our nose, it’s tough to grasp why the 44 % of obese Hoosiers continually and tenaciously defend self-destructive, albeit time-honored Midwestern food fare with such eagerness. Armed with nutritional literacy, love of family and steadfastness, you can do it. Your body is your buddy.

2010-07-16T07:24:00.000-07:00

Who Put the Squeeze on our Orange Juice?

Orange Juice holds position in the hallowed American pantheon of traditional breakfast foods. Each year 620 million gallons of orange ambrosial cure-all are consumed in the US.
Ads pitching today’s version of the pulpy juice tell us, wink, wink, it’s pure and natural so we blindly buy the citrus au jus for the sentiment. Nevertheless, the majority of your American tradition comes, tell-me-it-ain’t-so, from sunny Brazil and uneasy Mexico. Horney toads! That’s downright un-Patriotic.
As an OJ drinker you’ve been misinformed about what you’re actually drinking. Most folks get ‘juiced’ when they learn big brands marketing their product as “pure and simple” add flavor packs to revitalize it and make it fresh; once more. “From concentrate” and most “not from concentrate” orange juice undergo processes that strip flavor and nutrition. The largest producers of “not from concentrate” or pasteurized orange juice keep juice in million-gallon aseptic storage tanks to ensure a year round supply. Aseptic storage strips the ethereal juice of oxygen, a process known as “deaeration,” so the juice doesn’t oxidize in the “tank farms” where the aging juice sits for as long as a year.
Flavor packs are fabricated from the chemicals that make up orange essence and oil. Flavor and fragrance houses, the same ones making high-end perfume, break down orange essence oils into their constituent chemicals then ‘reassemble’ the individual chemicals in configurations resembling nothing in nature. Delicious Ethyl butyrate is one of the charming chemicals found in high concentrations in flavor packs. Flavor engineers discovered it imparts a fragrance Americans dig and associate with a fresh squeezed. A con job.
Wrong on so many levels, Tropicana reformulated their healthy heart juice adding fish oil, sardines, tilapia, and fish gelatin for the Omega 3 craze. This makes as much sense as lighting yourself on fire and running naked through a Meth Lab. Eating fatty fish, ground flax seeds and walnuts is more rational.
Orange juice is celebrated as a healthy drink but few realized it contains the same amount of sugar as cola. In the world orange juice market, the leading brand is Tropicana, owned by PepsiCo since 1998. In April 2008 the Journal Diabetes Care studied diets of 70,000 women as part of the Nurse's Health Study. They found unlike daily consumption of fresh fruit and vegetables associated with an 18 per cent reduction in the risk of diabetes, consumption of fruit juice even in small daily amounts, was associated with an overall 18 per cent increased risk for diabetes.
Vitamin C and its potent cancer protection, is the most easily destroyed vitamin there is. It is destroyed by exposure to oxygen and heat (above 70 degrees) Processed, pasteurized OJ (145 º) is a pitiable surrogate for fresh, sun-blessed orange juice, squeezed at home from cooperative whole oranges. Pasteurization obliterates most of the juices health sustaining phytonutrients, including anti-cancer nutrients. Heat alters the molecular structure of OJ, creating higher acidity during digestion. Acidity sets the Temple up for cancer and inflammation. And that's not to mention the enormous natural resources used to process, concentrate, transport and reconstitute.
If you’re the sissy who protests pithy parts, for the love of God and your caring family, get over it. You’re a responsible adult now, in charge of your health destiny. That’s where all the nutritional goodness lurks, so ‘orange up’, dudes and dudettes; fresh squeezed OJ tastes deliciously natural and supermarkets do sell it. They charge too much, however. Go back to a pre-industrial revolution mentality. Find family time to juice you own. It’s vastly cheaper and your Temple will definitely groove from the purity, hearty nutrition, and wholeness.
No bottle of self respecting vodka would even want to cozy up to this abomination of Gods gifts to us. If you can’t gather the gumption to squeeze the orange, frozen, unsweetened OJ concentrate contains a lot of vitamin C and was not heated. If half the world does, it, why can’t we?

Booze: The Elulsive 5th Food Group

2010-07-01T03:40:00.000-07:00

Booze: Satan’s drink or the elusive 5th food groupPublished June 24th, 2010
By Wendell Fowler

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“Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish, and wine unto those that be of heavy hearts. Let him drink, and forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more.” Proverbs 31: 6-7

Shhay there, you; … hiccup, stagger, did you know that ten, ‘pardon me,’ burp, ten out of four people drink booze?” Today, as a transformed alcohol over-user, I look into the mirror of my past, flinching when in public, I recognize someone’s values’ dissolving into an excessive slurry of ice cubes chilling their fourth Scotch whiskey; “I don’t care about my new shoes, urp, blurp, splat. Taxi!”
Since ancient times, ardent spirits have played roles in religion, economics, sex, politics and all aspects of society. Abe Lincoln, when told General Grant swilled whiskey while leading his troops replied, “Find out the name of the brand so I can give it to my other generals.” Presidents conspired with demon rum, a social lubricant, to procure votes and eager Federal judges interrupted proceedings to partake. G. W. Bush snorted and soused his way through college. Nixon habitually imbibed Scotch and soda, and a snockered LBJ cavorted about his Texas ranch in an open convertible whilst imbibing scotch and soda. Perhaps this is why he insensitively picked up his pet Beagles by the ears and considered it entertainment.
Nurtured by guilt-based fundamentalist religious literalism, I was brainwashed if demon alcohol met my inquisitive lips, I’d go directly to a blistering hell on a razorblade only to kersplash into a vat of stinging alcohol. As a repressed teen it was incumbent to investigate and lay hands upon the proverbial wet paint. Religious repression eternally backfires so I spent the next 20 years rebelling in a boozy stupor. Theologically ironic considering bourbon takes its name from Bourbon County, Kentucky where it was first produced by a happy Baptist minister in 1789. Ask any hotel room service attendant and they’ll attest in-room liquor sales soar when these groups hold conventions; an innocent illustration of our humanness. Protestant groups, Episcopalians, Lutherans, and Presbyterians consider moderate use tolerable but frown upon drunkenness that punches the ticket to eternal agony. Roman Catholics tend to be more accepting of a wee bit of the grape. References to alcohol in Jewish writings are to moderate wine consumption. In much of France, Germany, Scandinavia, and Italy, from childhood, wise people thought of wine as a food, so liquor was not such an enthralling curiosity.
Alcohol as medicine has been recorded throughout history and is mentioned 191 times in the Old and New Testaments. If you drink moderately, there’s ‘proof’ alcohol improves health while tranquilizing your frenetic everyday life.

Moderate drinkers tend to have enhanced health and live longer than those who are either abstainers or booze hounds.

In addition to having fewer heart attacks and strokes, moderate drinkers are less likely to suffer hypertension, high blood pressure, peripheral artery disease, Alzheimer’s disease and the common cold.
Commonsensical consumption appears beneficial in reducing or preventing diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, bone fractures and osteoporosis, kidney stones, digestive ailments, stress and depression, poor cognition and memory, Parkinson’s disease, hepatitis A, pancreatic cancer, macular degeneration, angina pectoris, duodenal ulcer, erectile dysfunction, hearing loss, gallstones, liver disease, Alzheimer’s, the common cold and poor physical condition in elderly.
A Harvard study found the risk of death from all causes to be 21 percent to 28 percent lower among men who drank alcohol moderately compared to teetotalers. Loathe hangovers? Try drinking a glass of alkaline Smart Water every two or three drinks to get fluid into the Temple before the end of the night. When you wake up with a big head and your liver quivers, consider adding Milk Thistle, a restorative liver tonic, to your daily vitamin regimen everyday for a month whilst not drinking. You’ll feel a lot better, even after drinking is resumed; in moderation, of course. Cheers!

How Alcohol Affects Overall Health

2010-06-20T14:57:00.000-07:00

"Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish, and wine unto those that be of heavy hearts. Let him drink, and forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more." Proverbs 31: 6-7

Shay there you; …hiccup, stagger, did you know that ten, pardon me, burp, ten out of four people drink booze? Today, as a transformed alcohol over-user, I look into the mirror of my past, flinching when in public, I recognize someone’s values’ dissolving into an excessive slurry of ice cubes chilling your fourth Scotch Whiskey; “I don’t care about my new shoes, urp, blurp, splat! Taxi!

Since ancient times, ardent spirits have played roles in religion, economics, sex, politics and all aspects of society. Abe Lincoln, when clued General Grant swilled whiskey while leading his troops replied, “Find out the name of the brand so I can give it to my other generals." Presidents conspired with demon rum, a social lubricant, to procure votes and eager Federal Judges interrupted proceedings to partake. G. W. Bush snorted and soused his way through college. Nixon habitually imbibed Scotch and soda, and a snockered LBJ cavorted about his Texas ranch in an open convertible whilst imbibing scotch and soda. Perhaps this is why he insensitively picked up his pet Beagles by the ears and considered it entertainment.

Nurtured by guilt-based fundamentalist religious literalism, I was brainwashed if demon alcohol met my inquisitive lips, I’d go directly to a blistering hell on a razorblade only to ‘kersplash’ into a vat of stinging alcohol. As a repressed teen it was incumbent to investigate and’ lay hands’ upon the proverbial wet paint. Religious repression eternally backfires so I spent the next 20 years rebelling in a boozy stupor. Theologically ironic considering Bourbon takes its name from Bourbon County Kentucky where it was first produced by a happy Baptist minister in 1789. Ask any hotel room service attendant and they’ll attest in-room liquor sales soar when these groups hold conventions; an innocent illustration of our humanness. Protestant groups, Episcopalians, Lutherans, and Presbyterians consider moderate use tolerable but frown upon drunkenness that punches the ticket to eternal agony. Roman Catholics tend to be more accepting of a wee bit of the grape. References to alcohol in Jewish writings are to moderate wine consumption. In much of France, Germany, Scandinavia, and Italy, from childhood, wise people thought of wine as a food, so liquor was not such an enthralling curiosity.

Alcohol as medicine has been recorded throughout history and is mentioned 191 times in the Old and New Testaments. If you drink moderately, there’s ‘proof’ alcohol improves health while tranquilizing your frenetic everyday life. Moderate drinkers tend to have enhanced health and live longer than those who are either abstainers or booze hounds. In addition to having fewer heart attacks and strokes, moderate drinkers are less likely to suffer hypertension, high blood pressure, peripheral artery disease, Alzheimer's disease and the common cold.
Commonsensical consumption appears beneficial in reducing or preventing diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, bone fractures and osteoporosis, kidney stones, digestive ailments, stress and depression, poor cognition and memory, Parkinson's disease, hepatitis A, pancreatic cancer, macular degeneration, angina pectoris, duodenal ulcer, erectile dysfunction, hearing loss, gallstones, liver disease, Alzheimer’s, the common cold and poor physical condition in elderly.
A Harvard Study found the risk of death from all causes to be 21% to 28% lower among men who drank alcohol moderately compared to teetotalers. Loathe hangovers? Try drinking a glass of alkaline Smart Water every 2 or 3 drinks to get fluid into the temple before the end of the night. When you wake up with a big head and your liver quivers, consider adding Milk Thistle, a restorative liver tonic, to your daily vitamin regimen everyday for a month whilst not drinking. You’ll feel a lot better, even after drinking is resumed; in moderating, of course. Cheers!

'Green' Tea and Sympathy

2010-06-15T05:11:00.000-07:00

Wherever I wander, friends jest on the subject of my ever-present mug-o-tea. Tea’s my morning java, diet coke fix, and cocktail; my ‘longevi-tea’. The simple, focused act of brewing tea touches our souls. Tea is a ceremony; a stand-up performance in simplicity.

After decades in the wacky food industry, I corroborate food servers consider tea drinkers pains in the tea bag because serving a proper cup of tea requires more attention than simply topping off a steamy cup-o-Joe. The bag needs refreshing, the water needs to be kept hot; topped off, and, “Would it kill you to warm the stone-cold cup with a bit of hot water first?”, I queried as the waitress ‘s eyes rolled back into her head. I accept I’ve morphed into “one of them”; the needy nerdy. Yes, I am a tea-junkie; snob sounds too severe. For if I am too cold, tea warms me up; if I’m too heated, it will cool me down; if I’m depressed, it will cheer me up, and if I’m excited, it will calm me down. After water, tea is the most consumed beverage in the world. Green tea has always been, and remains today, the most popular type of tea from China where historians and botanists believe the plant originated.
Good news! Green tea drinkers appear to have a reduced risk for a wide range of diseases, from simple bacterial or viral infections to cardiovascular disease, cancer, stroke, periodontal disease, glaucoma and osteoporosis. Might it be due to the fact one cup of green tea provides 10-40 mg of polyphenols and has antioxidant effects greater than a serving of broccoli, spinach, carrots, or strawberries?
Tea contains antioxidants that mop up the free radicals before they trash the Temple like an attention-seeking rock star. Green tea contains heavenly-gifted catechins; powerful antioxidants created to mop up free-radicals. According to the U.S. National Cancer Institute, in laboratory studies using animals, catechins scavenged oxidants before cell damage occurred, reduced the number and size of tumors, and inhibited the growth of cancer cells. White tea is said to be even more effective. Smell what’s brewing?
The Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry reports the antioxidants in green tea are absorbed into the lens, retina and other eye tissues. They speculate the antioxidant catechins in green tea protect the eye proving that eye structures can absorb significant amounts of catechins that reduce harmful oxidative stress in the eye for up to 20 hours. Hootchie Momma! Visualize your good health if you drank 5 cups a day.

If you have the propensity to clot a lot, green and black tea act like aspirin by blocking the formation of thromboxane A2, hence reducing the risk of heart attack and thrombotic stroke. If you take Coumadin, don’t fret, just be consistent and inform your phlebotomist.

Recently, the Journal of Preventive Medicine published a study revealing the correlating between tooth loss and green tea consumption. Those who one to two cups daily had 18% less risk of losing teeth, and those who drank five or more cups daily faced 23% less risk.
Regarding the glittery caffeine conundrum, a 5 ounce cup of coffee contains 80 milligrams; a 1 ounce bag of black tea 40 milligrams; Oolong, 30 milligrams and one ounce of green tea a paltry 20. The reason I say this is because some of us with heart concerns, including me, cannot let their heart become over-stimulated for we will roll into arrhythmia.
In the book, The Green Tea Book, “Despite a high percentage of smokers (75% of adult men), Japan has an astonishingly low rate of heart disease. It seems possible the polyphenols in black and especially green tea cause the same paradox that polyphenols in red wine lead to. An encouraging Japanese epidemiology study concluded drinking eight to ten cups green or black tea per day can positively affect cholesterol levels whether you smoke, drink are overweight or obese.
Armed with these nutritional nuggets, it shouldn’t be too long till you’re brewin’ Oolong.
-30-

Pure Food: A healthy investment

2010-06-01T09:23:00.000-07:00

After presenting my Eat Right Now program at a continuing education health conference in Chicago last week regarding Autism, ADD & ADHD, Celiac Disease and food allergies, I confidently proclaim my wacky passion regarding the subject of nutritional stewardship of the Temple as widely common. Yes, dear readers, it’s a disturbing thought, but there are millions of everyday folks and scientists who believe like me. The unanimous conclusion; our toxic American diet of dead food has led us into this health care ‘snafu’. So, please stop beating yourself up for being weak, chronically ill or overweight. It’s not your fault. Your taste buds and brain have been hijacked.
Deeply traditional Hoosiers can be an inflexible genus. This resistance to re-align self-destructive eating habits is displayed like an all-you-can-eat buffet by Indiana’s recent ranking as 44th unhealthiest state in the US. Hoosier risk-takers dread change; consequently, many good folks experience Alzheimer’s, ulcerated colitis, lousy cognition, exhaustion, costly hospital visits, or abridged life.
For decades I’ve encouraged faithful readers to eat fresh, pure local food and to avoid food-like substances extruded from machinery and GMO plant foods. It’s a hard-sell. Americans are deceived and programmed by fuzzy advertising, the FDA, and Big Food to eat profitable troughs of industrial-strength twaddle composed of by-products not in the least compatible with the temples cellular requirements. Do you know the ingredients of soy burgers; scrumptious residue from soy milk production and my personal favorite, hexane? Ack! Wouldn’t it be nice if over the last century food industrial Fat Cats focused on premium, celestially-endorsed human nutrition rather than profiting from dregs.
The 25 to 45 age group lived their entire lives thus far eating pre-packaged, prepared food; that’s all they’ve known. However, these parents set the stage for future illness. You may recall when I observed mother and child shopping the produce section. Mom selected pre-packaged, pre-cut veggies basted in MSG. Attracted to the display of fresh broccoli, her child pointed in curiosity. As if it were rock of meth, a dour faced Mom said, “Oh, you wouldn’t like that. I’ll give you a Pop Tart when we get home”. On the plus side, due to Food Inc and Omnivore’s Dilemma, it’s inspires hope to see the growing number of ‘green’ teens who get it.
Change is the one constant in our lives. Each week, make a change for the better that will improve metabolism, brain function, and the Temple’s ability to self-heal. Refreshing the Temple by clearing out the processed debris in the pantries, refrigerators, and medicine cabinets is a good start. Affirm to wake up each morning and eat for health by choosing fresh, seasonal, chemical-free, nutrient-rich, organic foods which replenish the reserves drained by the poor quality foods you have been living on. Unlock the dietary door to rejuvenation and glowing health. You deserve the best.

Bad News for Lung Cancer

2010-05-10T11:18:00.000-07:00

Good News for Ex-Smokers or Midnight Tokers

Sandi, my wife and best friend, successfully put her cigarettes down six months ago and never looked back. Now, she’s focusing on repairing the damage and renewing her pink lungs after 30 years of inhaling combustible microscopic particles in a nicotine-infused pottage of chemicals. Putting the coffin nails down took admirable guts. Sandi clearly illustrated to me no one will successfully succeed until they’re psychological prepared and not an instant sooner.
There’s no absolute way to totally reverse the damage smoking inflicts, save for a diet rich in leafy greens and folic acid which may offer the best protection against lung cancer in smokers and bong Jockeys. Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute evaluated participants cells to see if cancer-protective genes had been switched off; a common feature of lung cancers. Scientists saw fewer changes in veggie-chompers who took food-based multivitamins combined with lots of leafy greens, rich in vitamin C, carotenoids, lutein, folic acid, and vitamins K and A.
Experiment with new foods you’d normally turn up your nose up, like bok choy, kale, spinach, arugula, watercress, cilantro, and mustard or collard greens. By now, I hope you’re aware nutritionally bankrupt Iceberg lettuce has the nutrition of a paper towel. Such Low-grade food is one indictable reason we are so undernourished as a nation. Instead, opt for romaine, arugula, spinach, mesculin greens, bib or Boston lettuce, or purslane, the next super-food hovering on the culinary horizon.
Please don’t assume sucking down inferior grocery vitamin pills will cure your every ill. The American Institute for Cancer Research says some supplements lack vital elements found in fresh plants brimming with the cosmic life force bestowed by a generous creator; the ultimate healer, not a starry-eyed scientist from the pages of Mad Magazine.
Summon the gumption and experience instant perks:
*In 20 minutes your blood pressure will drop back down to normal
*In 8 hours toxic carbon monoxide levels in your blood stream will drop by half, and oxygen levels will return to normal
*In 48 hours your chance of having a heart attack will have decreased. All nicotine will have left your body. Your sense of taste and smell will return to a normal level
*In 72 hours your bronchial tubes will relax, and your energy levels will increase
*In 2 weeks your circulation will increase, and it will continue to improve for the next 10 weeks

A Duke University study shows health-promoting fruits and vegetables make cigarettes taste snarkey. But meat, coffee, and booze make smoking tastier. "…. cigarette addiction isn’t totally about nicotine," McClernon tells WebMD. "But we’re learning smoking addiction is also about sensory effects like taste and smell, the sensation, visual experience and the rituals of smoking." Enlist more of your current favorite garden, not canned vegetables and then keep your mind and heart open. You just might make some leafy-green acquaintances on your journey returning your Temple to its original wholeness.
The best way to reduce cancer as well as heart disease and stroke is to stop smoking entirely. Quitting after acquiring cancer is akin to putting on seatbelts after a head-on collision with a produce truck.

Baby Bok Choy Salad

½ cup virgin olive oil

¼ white vinegar
1 tbs. raw honey or maple syrup
3 tbs. Tamari (Wheat-Free Soy Sauce)
2 bunches baby bok choy, cleaned and sliced

1 bunch of green onions, chopped
1/8th cup slivered almonds, toasted
1 package of rice noodles
Directions:
Warm ¼ inch vegetable oil in a saucepan. When the oil is hot gently add a small handful of rice noodles. Exercise caution. They will instantly puff up. Immediately turn off the heat. Remove at once, drain on towel and reserve for garnish
In a lidded glass jar or Tupperware container, mix together olive oil, white vinegar, sweetener of choice, and tamari / soy sauce.
Close the lid and shake well.
Combine bok choy, green onions, almonds, and noodles in a salad bowl. Toss with dressing and serve

Vitamin C-Scurvy Anyone?

2010-05-07T11:25:00.000-07:00

How’s Your ‘C’ Levels?

As you flower on the proverbial tree of life, no other Earthly nutrient besides Vitamin C has been shown to have such awesome beneficial effects on your current state of health. Certainly by now you can clearly see today’s health care calamity is generally a result of inadequate nutrition discharged from the Western diet of industrially-altered foods of convenience.
‘C’, a powerful antioxidant feeds the immune system, offers cancer prevention and is essential for healthy bones, smooth, moist skin and strong teeth, as well as the production of collagen. C is requisite for successful internal and external wound healing.
Sweet, luscious tropical orange au jus plays an abundant roll in American culture; feeding millions, accompanying bacon, eggs, vodka and providing wages for thousands of pickers, packers and processors. As OJ’s original nutrient composition became industrially diminished over decades, America lost sight of the icons worth; with each generation accepting it diminished nutritional contents as the new norm. For example, Sunny-D is a dietary weapon of mass consumption; candy. The ersatz beverage is brimming with high fructose corn syrup, canola oil, only 2% fruit pulp, natural flavorings, cornstarch, food dye, and everyone’s favorite, sodium hexametaphosphate; an agent used in the industry of soap, detergents, water treatment, metal finishing and plating, pulp and paper manufacturing, synthesis of polymers, photographic products, textiles, scale removal and agriculture. Like drunken sailors, corporate America lost their way seeking the illusive Sea of Nutritional Righteousness.
In the late 1800’s, due to a dietary lack of C, sailors developed scurvy. Arrrrrgh Matey, for months at a time, swarthy sea dogs didn’t have access to fresh plant foods and began bleeding out of their bodies. Bless their hearts; they had no collagen production happening to prop up their weakening arterial health. Vitamin C is essential for the synthesis of collagen; the building blocks of muscles, ligaments, bones, tendons and tissue, and bone structure therefore preventing osteoporosis. Lesson learned; they began stowing bushels of limes, giving birth to the term, ‘Limey’.
The World Health Organization (WHO) insists a diet featuring carotenoids, flavonoids, folate and magnesium from citrus fruits and vegetables offer protection against heart disease, the #1 Killer of women. C’s potassium content guards against stroke, arrhythmias, and helps to control cholesterol while lowering blood pressure.
Just one juicy orange smoothie or seven strawberries supply more than 100% of your Temple’s daily vitamin C requirements. In 1989, the RDA of 60 mg for the average healthy adult was increased, however, still woefully insignificant. Certified Nutritionist, Carolyn Landon of Indianapolis, suggests starting with 500 IU’s then build up to 1000 per day. If your stool gets loose, then back off. Everyone’s threshold is different. University of Milan, Italy researchers say consuming vitamin C supplements does not, however, provide the same protective benefits as fresh produce.
Foods with C appear to reduce mouth, larynx and pharynx, and stomach and digestive cancers by 40-50%. ‘C’ from fresh Farmer’s Market produce disarms cancerous free radicals, preventing damage inside and outside your cells. Most cardiovascular disease joint disease, cancer, diseases of the eye, thyroid, joints, liver and lung require special emphasis of C intake, but not from Orange Crush. Those with acne, alcoholism, Alzheimer’s, asthma, Autism, depression, diabetes, IBS, and Parkinson’s need be especially focused on adequate C intake. You can do it.
Low C levels impair your Temple’s ability to defend against bacterial infections. A 500 mg dose will soothe inflammation and thwart gum bleeding from periodontal disease. People who frequently get colds, infections and flu typically have low C levels in their white blood cells. Health white blood cells are needed for the immune system to destroy inhaled and digested environmental free-radical toxins.
Glorious produce jam-packed with C include kiwi, cantaloupe, grapefruit, raspberries and blueberries, pineapple, Acerola cherries, lemons and limes, papaya and strawberries. Vegetable sources include any dark leafy green, broccoli, sweet potatoes, tomatoes and crunchy red bell peppers. Ironically, at this time when patriotic Americans need fresh produce more than ever to prevent costly, sometime mortal disease, our society has become Vegaphobic. Face it, only 2% of the collective American advertising budget is spent promoting fresh foods from God’s healing and sustaining celestial apothecary. Father knows best!
The Holy Temple cannot synthesize its own ‘C’ booty; therefore it must be pirated from plant-based foods, not a swarthy scientist. With community Farmer’s Markets bursting everywhere, why accept less than the real thing?

Vitamin C

2010-05-04T12:00:00.000-07:00

Tropical oranges and their au jus play a profuse, traditional role in American society; feeding millions, accompanying bacon and eggs, and providing income for thousands of orange pickers, packer and processors. Did you know just one ‘real’ juicy orange supply’s 116% of your daily vitamin C requirements?
As OJ’s composition industrially degraded over decades, humans lost sight of the icon’s significance; with each generation accepting its diminished nutritional content as the new norm; a/k/a, Sunny D; a pure, undiluted weapon of mass consumption that shouldn't’t be used for anything but low-grade candy. It’s second ingredient is high fructose corn syrup followed by a disturbing list of faux- ingredients including canola oil, 2% or less actual fruit pulp, natural flavorings, cornstarch, yellow food dye #5 and #6, and everyone’s darling, sodium hexametaphosphate; a sequestering agent used in the industry of soap, detergents, water treatment, metal finishing and plating, pulp and paper manufacture, synthesis of polymers, photographic products, textiles, scale removal and agriculture. The skulduggery practitioners who market this crap (yes I said crap) as healthy food for our kids are no better than common criminals or terrorist. God weeps at such haughtiness.
In its defence, there is vitamin C, however, in an un-absorbable synthetic form, unavailable to our cells; ergo disease and crêpe skin. So, why in Gods’ name would anyone in their right mind settle for anything less than the real thing, baby? To my gray matter, Sunny-D is a product of the supposed Antichrist; i.e., anything or anyone that causes harm to the sanctity of the Holy Temple, a gift from our creator and should be considered physical assault on your life by Big Food.
We desperately need to take in more vitamin C either from fresh plant food or Rose Hips supplement sources. Did you know vitamin C is a vital player in sustaining smooth silky skin? The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition linked consuming plenty of vitamin C-rich foods with youthful skin. “Our findings suggest that a higher intake of vitamin C from foods is connected with a lower risk of having wrinkled skin and age-related skin dryness in middle-aged women,” says Maeve Cosgrove, Ph.D., who led the research. The Journal of the American College of Nutrition evaluated 6,000 adults enrolled in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. In addition, participants with the highest blood levels of vitamin C had a 25% lower incidence of infection with Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori); the bacterium responsible for peptic ulcers which increase risk for stomach cancer. The healing properties of oranges are linked with phytonutrients citrus flavanones; sustaining Gifts from our higher source.
You’ve been ill-advised by commerce and bankers ‘playing doctor’ with your health to consider vitamin C solely comes from processed citrus fruit juices and or artificially flavored beverages. On the contrary; produce with vitamin C include kiwi, cantaloupe, grapefruit, raspberries, blueberries, pineapple, limes & lemons, papaya and strawberries. Vegetable sources include dark green leafy vegetables, broccoli, sweet potatoes, tomatoes and red peppers. Most members of God’s Apothecary are excellent sources of vitamin C. Regrettably, we’ve morphed into a Vegaphobic culture, implicated as one of the causes of the current health care crisis.
Vitamin C from un-processed plant sources disarms free radicals, preventing damage both inside and outside cells. Inside cells, free radical damage to DNA causes cancer; preventing DNA mutations prevents cancer especially in areas of the Temple where cellular turnover is especially rapid, such as the digestive system. Most forms of cardiovascular disease, joint disease, cancer, eye disease, thyroid disease, liver disease, and lung disease require special emphasis on vitamin C intake, not Sunny D or Orange Crush. Acne, Alcoholism, Alzheimer’s disease, Asthma, Autism, Depression, Diabetes, Irritable bowel disease, and Parkinson's disease are all positively affected by adequate Vitamin C intake. As you can clearly ‘C’, the process of healthy aging requires special attention to the sacred, sustaining vitamin. Ask your community vitamin store for the best supplemental source of C. Carlson brand is excellent.

Kiwi-Pineapple Colada- A Vitamin C Festival

4 peeled kiwifruit

3 cups ice

¼ cup light rum (Optional)

3 tbs. coconut milk

8 oz. fresh pineapple chopped

Fresh Strawberries for garnish-Bursting with Vitamin C

Cut peeled kiwi into quarters and place into a blender

Blend till smooth and taste.

Add Sweet Leaf brand stevia if it needs to be sweeter

Add iced and remaining ingredients and process till smooth

Garnish with a strawberry slit from the bottom almost to the top and slide it on the rim

Picnic Foods Vegetarian and Fat Free

2010-04-26T08:12:00.000-07:00

Pssssst! Don’t tell anyone, but there are such things as ‘healthy picnic food’. With warmth, I recall friends and family joining two picnic tables together under a shade-tree then covering them with red gingham table cloths and piling its length and girth with mysterious casserole dishes, macaroni salad, mountains of fried chicken, creamy potato salad, deviled eggs yeast rolls with butter, baked beans topped with bacon strips and Cole slaw. The wooden behemoths creaked and moaned from the vast accumulation of die-hard American icons.
It’s true you’d be mocked Foghorn Leghorn-style for bringing a healthy dish to, of all things, a pitch-in dinner. “Well, that’s downright un-American, boy. Picnics are for cheatin’, breaking the rules and feeling good. No one gives hoot about healthy food, son. Now, go on; shush-up and pass me another, I-say, I-say, spare rib!” the chubby face of our nation’s health care disaster; denial and a difficulty breaking from self-destructive dietary traditions. After all, misery adores company, but our higher source requires us all to be responsible stewards of His once-in-a life-time gift.
Often, our favorite feel-good foods open the oven door to uninvited diseases within the Holy Temple. No need to give them up; discreetly tweak the ingredients a tad and no one will know the difference unless you point it out; a fatal fault to the sneaky, loving plan. Most of us are quite busy these days. We mean well, but often run out of time to cook and tend to submit to compromise. All anyone needs is food literacy, a focused plan, a food processor and a sauté pan and you can commence eating better, quicker without feeling cheated out of the memorable ‘feel-good’ flavors of America’s traditional pitch-in orgies.
In the Cole Slaw redo we will use cabbage and asparagus as cancer-fighters; cilantro to removes heavy metals, and cauliflower, another groovy anti-carcinogen quells the fires of internal inflammation linked with a constellation of largely preventable diseases. I’ve omitted mayonnaise-based slaw dressing and saturated fat from pork and beans to reduce the accumulation of food stuffs that clog your arteries and screw up digestion. Please forego the pre-shredded bags of cabbage. They were processed then transferred hundreds of miles from here, many days ago and likely contain dangerous MSG to prevent spoilage, hence, nutritionally insolvent. Fresh is infinitely best for Holy Temple biochemistry considering fibrous cabbage is an awesome cancer-fighter.
Vegetarian baked beans do not contain artery-detonating swine lard and are widely available. If you add several drops of liquid smoke, the dish will still have a porky bacon flavor. Ba-ba dee, Ba-ba-dee, tha-a-at’s all you gotta do folks! If you close your mind to popular Smart Dogs, then you need to talk to my grand kids who dig them. They look, boil and taste like the real thing without cancerous nitrates and food colorings that exacerbate ADD and ADHD.
Together, let’s joyously prepare these two tasty picnic icons with a bit more health consciousness so everyone can continue enjoying them without felonious assaulting family health. I’ve added the health benefits of each ingredient to the recipes so you can clearly appreciate their health mojo. Food is indeed good medicine and Chef’s are the doctors of the future.
Quick & Easy Veggie Cole Slaw
Food processor¼ head of cabbage-ANTI CANCER

6 stalks of asparagus-ANTI-CANCER

4 cauliflower florets-ANTI-INFLAMMATORY

1 carrot-CLEANS THE LIVER

2 green onions-ANTI-CANCER

½ cup chopped cilantro-REMOVES HEAVY METALS FROM OR BODY

2 tbs. Marzetties Lite-Slaw Dressing

Juice of one fresh lime or lemon-VITAMIN C
Cut the veggies up into smaller pieces before processing
Pulse all veggies in food processor. Do not over pulse, however.
Place chopped veggies into a mixing bowl, squeeze in the lemon juice and blend. Keep chilled.

Beans and Franks
1 can vegetarian baked beans-FIBER

1 pkg. Smart Dog Soy Hot Dogs cut into bite-size pieces-CLEAN PROTEIN

2 tbs. organic Heinz Ketchup-LYCOPENE

½ diced onion-HEART HEALTH AND ANTI-CANCER

4 drops of liquid smoke to replace the ham flavor
Toss everything into a sauté pan and heat gently till all is hot. Stir often

Time to get Back to the Garden

2010-03-23T16:35:00.000-07:00

We’ve Got To Get Ourselves Back to the Garden
On countless levels a universal awakening has begun; the foreseen, eagerly anticipated age of enlightenment, peace and understanding. The slumbering beast has awakened; experiencing a burning-bush moment. Success ensues when we get out of the way. Enlightening your green food mentality simply indicates you’re learning and growing; the reason of being on this earthly plane. Americans have been undernourished for 100 years. Disease rates have grown exponentially in parallel with increased human consumption of dead machine cuisine. Post Industrial Revolution food processing practices are at the root of the health care catastrophe; not us. To apply blame to this lunacy we only need to face Capitol Hill’s good-ole-boys and their obedient Agribusiness lap-dogs. You didn’t cause disease rates to soar; they did. It was their inexpert RDA’s. Our only blunder; we trusted. Poor, substandard food, seasoned with colorfully decorated deception, raw greed and smart-bomb misinformation is enthusiastically endorsed by the deadened FDA. Plus, our ‘leaders’ pat themselves on the back, seek photo-ops and constituent approval for sending low-grade food to distressed third world countries, however, the ‘foods’ they dispatch are inferior to what ‘s ingeniously available to these downtrodden. White rice, AP flour, sugar, succulent military MRE’s, valueless canned food with BPA and canned Spam are all nutritional insolvent and exacerbate disease, providing little or no substantial nutrition, just unoccupied calories and self aggrandizement. Why not hold a gun to their heads?

Time’s ripe for ‘green’ free-thinkers to confront America’s current food Zeitgeist of industrial-strength, almost, but not quite edible food-like substances and then to return to a more preordained, lucid, wholesomely Locavore approach of eating and living designed by the great creator. The current limelight on health indicates an admission we’ve been wrong, however, no one is held culpable. Shopping with the grand kids one afternoon, they noticed one section dedicated to ‘Health Foods’. Their astute observation, “Grandpa, if this is the healthy section, does it mean all the other food is unhealthy?”
….And a child will lead them.

Corny Mc Lunacy

2010-03-21T13:55:00.000-07:00

Over time, humans have evolved in such marvelous ways; capable of crafting lyrical, joyous music, timeless literature and everlasting works of art. Any self respecting Pollyanna would expect by this point in human fruition, man might also have established a steadfast moral inner voice, an unselfish conscience like the good book teaches. We’ve gone to the moon for crying out loud, but we’ve failed at maintaining something as basic as a pure heart.

Other than prematurely dying from viral heart disease at the tender age of 40, the reason I became a vegetarian was a healthy distrust of modern food processing techniques, falsehearted agribusiness and a constellation of unholy additives dumped into the food system. Humans have difficulty placing food in the same context with disease, so you might rethink your child’s Happy Meal after discovering what Micky-D’s inflicts upon your colorfully marketed box of Mc Nastiness. MSN recently profiled Mc Nuggets and discovered numerous ingredients other than chicken, water, dextrose, sodium phosphates, wheat starch, safflower oil and autolyzed yeast extract. Many more ingredients lurk, however, in the breading and deep fryer grease.

This may anesthetized your medulla oblongata, but Chicken’s not the main ingredient. According to Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma, a Mc Nugget is made of 38 ingredients, mostly chemicals and GMO corn. The crispy critters are 56% corn; so much for truth in advertising. But 0.02% is tertiarybutylhydroquinone, a petroleum byproduct used as a preservative. The FDA allows food processors to use TBHQ sparingly, wink, wink, in our food. The antioxidant is sprayed directly onto the golden nuggets and the inside of the box to help preserve freshness. The Consumer's Dictionary of Food Additives says TBHQ is a relative of lighter fluid and can comprise no more than 0.02 percent of the oil in a single nugget, which, Pollan says is just as well, considering ingesting a single gram of TBHQ can cause "nausea, vomiting, ringing in the ears, delirium, a sense of suffocation, and collapse. Ingesting five grams of TBHQ can kill.” Who eats a single nugget in a more-is-better society? Big Food banks big bucks on your naiveté.

Read this passage from Pollan’s NY Times Best seller, "The ingredients listed suggest a lot of thought goes into a nugget, that and a lot of corn. Of the thirty-eight ingredients it takes to make a Mc Nugget, I counted thirteen derived from corn: the corn-fed chicken itself; modified cornstarch (to bind the pulverized chicken meat); mono-, tri-, and diglycerides (emulsifiers, which keep the fats and water from separating); dextrose; lecithin (another emulsifier); chicken broth (to restore some of the flavor that processing leeches out); yellow corn flour and more modified cornstarch (for the batter); cornstarch (a filler); vegetable shortening; partially hydrogenated corn oil; and citric acid as a preservative. Celiacs beware! There's some wheat in the batter, and on any given day the hydrogenated oil could come from GMO soybeans, canola, or cotton rather than corn, depending on price and availability. The 2004 documentary Super Size Me alleged Chicken Mc Nuggets composition was at one point in time, made from sick and old chickens unable to lay eggs and included, Dimethylpolysiloxane, which reduces deep fryer grease "foam up".

If you routinely consume and serve your kin some of the 4.8 billion Chicken Mc Nuggets sold annually, consider there are 48 calories per nugget; 57% from fat, 22% from empty carbs and only 21% from protein.
When religious leaders of every ilk pontificate from the pulpit we are required by the universe to be good stewards of the Holy Temple it seems a bit anomalous to dive head first into chicken Mc Nuggets after church service.

When I was a kid, it was fried chicken cooked in pork fat that clogged our collective arteries, but we didn’t know better. Now we do. It just goes to show how un-aware the general public is about what they eat and it’s affects on our most sacred gift; the temple. We can and will do better. Man is basically good, just a bit off course.

Are You Nutritionally Self-Destructive?

2010-03-08T11:54:00.000-08:00

Do You Get It: I Sincerely Hope So

With the crashing thud of incredulity, my jaw hit the floor of the Cardio Cath lab last week.
Due to an artificial heart valve, I occasionally need to be electronically jolted out of atrial fib into normal rhythm. It was successful I’m pleased to proclaim. However, there was this guy in the next bay being comforted by his wife whilst receiving his instructions prior to a stent procedure to unblock his clogged arteries. The nurse asked what prescriptions he was taking (12) and then what he desired to eat after surgery. He paused, hummed and hawed then landed on Biscuits and Gravy, bacon, hash browns and coffee with cream. “What the…”, I stammered under my breath. In 1988 after I kissed the dark scepter of death on the lips and lived to tell of it, I was abundantly motivated to educate myself and then to change my diet perceptions, but everyone is different. I quickly discovered when you change your diet; you change your life, which is what http://www.chefwendell.com/ is all about.
Then, as if that wasn’t sufficient to reboot my heart, I gazed up and witnessed an attractive elderly gal shuffling in for cardiac rehab toting a bag of burgers, fries and milk shake. Holy crap, they just don’t get it; make the connection between food and disease. My dear sweet Lord, don’t they notice they’re eating the same foods that got them into poor health? I was stunned but hardly speechless, and if you knew me, you’d appreciate the significance of that statement.
In the age of uber-information, it’s heart breaking to watch decent, good-hearted folks continue ladling into the savory stew of ill health and then grumble how much they spend on pharmaceuticals and heart surgery. Not to mention how this all elevates the cost of healthcare for everyone.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), nearly a quarter of all Americans between 20 and 75 have hypertension while roughly 70 percent of those over 75 have it. Hypertension is caused by little or no exercise, poor diet, obesity, older age but rarely genetics. Food which set us up for heart disease are butter, animal renderings, bacon, bologna, hot dogs, gravy, cream sauce, non-dairy creamers, sugar, hydrogenated margarine, shortening , cocoa butter found in chocolate, cottonseed and palm-kernel oils; all ingredients your find lurking in chain restaurants pantries. You know why they call it shortening, right? It shortens your life.
Yes, I’m an unabashed zealot, so when I’m driving down US 31 and see the endless assortment of chain restaurants brimming with gaggles of rotund folks, or when I enter a Steak and Shake for tea and watch an elderly gal with a tripod walker and oxygen tank struggle to get to a booth then orders Chili Fries, I naturally cringe in sadness and bewilderment. Either they don’t read or they’ve simply given up because they believe they cannot succeed. One would assume the proposition of death would be ample motivation, but apparently not. Science has proven these ‘bad’ foods temporarily make us feel groovy and of course, everyone wants to feel good. The question we must ask ourselves; is a moment of instant gratification worth a $60,000 ICU rendezvous or worse?
It’s up to us to fend off the temptation of harmful foods we’ve been encouraged to eat all our lives. Disease takes years to manifest itself, so making small changes now can be the best preventive measure. Is it time for you to wean yourself off particular foods scientifically reputed to cause disease and death? Are you motivated into embracing our innate, preordained diet set forth by a generous, loving creator? It would seem the tasty solution to this challenge is to get out of our own way. I know you can do it!

Bison vs. Hamburger

2010-02-22T05:50:00.000-08:00

‘Herd’ of Bison Burgers?
Flower bearing Laugh-In star Henry Gibson waxed poetic, ‘But what about the buffalo?’, and peals of canned laughter ensued. If only he knew Bison has become one of the fastest growing segments of American Agriculture, and for a very good reason.

Were you aware Bison and Buffalo are distinctly different animals? True buffalo's are native only to Africa and Asia. An estimated 30 to 75 million buffalo, or bison crossed over a land bridge that once connected the Asian and North American continents. By the time America’s earliest peoples had established villages about 20,000 years ago, the bison dominated the rolling grasslands and forested hillsides that stretched west from the Mississippi River west to the Rocky Mountains. . "The moving multitude...darkened the whole plains," wrote Lewis and Clark, who encountered a herd at South Dakota's White River in 1806, then killed them.

Ruminant, 2000 pound Bison obtain their food from grazing on grass, herbs, shrubs and twigs the way the Universe intended. They are not fed, God-awful tidbits like corn, chicken droppings or other dead cattle scraps as in Factory Farm grocery versions. Nor are they injected with questionable drugs, antibiotics or growth hormones. Genetically altered, cannibal, chicken-poop eating cows bears resemblance to a B-Horror Movie, but that’s your contemporary choices.

Our four-footed, furry friends have a clear-cut advantage in our 'heart healthy’ search for meat alternatives that do not cause heart disease. Did you know grass-fed Bison tastes like beef, has similar protein content, but is lower in fat and cholesterol? They are much healthier than other meats yet contain very high levels of protein. Bison has 35% more protein than beef so you can eat 1/3 less volume and still come away satisfied. A 3.5 ounce serving of cooked bison, my friends, contains 2.42 g. of fat, 28.44 g protein, 143 calories, 82 mg of cholesterol, 3.42 mg of iron and 2.86 mcg B-12. The same portion of choice beef contains 18.54 g. of artery obstructing saturated fats, 29 g protein, 201 calories, 86 mg of cholesterol, 2.99 mg iron, and 2.64 mcg B-12.
Now we know why Native American Indians affixed such value to the magnificent large hoofed mammal.

Other than for clothing and warmth, Bison was the main diet of the Plains Indians who never had cancer, never had heart disease or heart attacks and lived to be 85-90. It tastes similar to the best beast you ever eaten; hearty, sweet and rich with no gamey after-taste. Enlightened carnivores are also attracted to the information that Bison are raised with no growth stimulants, hormones or antibiotics. Bison has more iron as well as some of the essential fatty acids necessary for human well being. Readers' Digest magazine has even listed bison as one of the five foods women should eat because of the lofty iron content.

Because it has so little fat, bison needs to be cooked differently. Do not overcook; the meat dry out. It can be successfully used interchangeably with beef in most recipes, so enjoy all your favorite dishes made healthier - buffalo chili, buffalo lasagna, buffalo stew - the list is endless.
With ground bison, what you see raw is what you get; there’s precious little shrinkage. No matter what you call it, join the herd. Bison, Buffalo, tomato, tomaato; please don’t call the whole thing off.

Give the noble beast the green light. Your family’s health will be at home, home on the range, stove, or grill. Don’t forget to support your local, sustainable Bison growers. It may cost a bit more, but considering the $60,000 expense of a trip to ICU, open-heart surgery or worse, Bison is a wise investment into your family’s collective health equity.
Ask your grocer to start carrying it or explore Indiana’s Wild Winds Buffalo Preserve http://www.wildwindsbuffalo.com/ or Brad at Miller Bison Farms. www.millerbisonfarms@yahoo.com

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Celebration: A Nutritional Paradox

2010-02-15T07:53:00.000-08:00

“Hey, it’s Uncle Miltie’s birthday. Let’s party with a super-sized, double-cheese, pepperoni and sausage Pizza; one with gooey cheese in the crust. Oh, yeah, and on the way to KFC, (where the one thing missing is ‘U’), stop by the grocery and score a gooey, psychedelically painted sheet cake with tons of icing and a bottle of Chardonnay?” Why not plunge a corkscrew into the ole’ boys heart.
We’re a creative, kind and fun-loving species. We’re also gullible and adore taking chances like bungee jumping, driving without seat belts, smoking, texting and drive, cheating on taxes, sending money to Jim and Tammy or reclining buck-naked in one of those gen-u-ine, imitation sun-tan chambers. When we get stressed, depressed or feel the need to celebrate, we find comfort and oral entertainment from food and beverage; our best buddies.
As long as I can recall, birthdays, holidays and life’s romantic mile markers green-light human’s penchant for over-indulging in America’s beloved party foods; traditional no-so-healthy social-gathering-icons which suck health out of the temple leaving one spread eagle to chronic disease. Without thinking we devour disease-incubating dead foods that weaken immune response plus the temples glorious ability to repair, sustain, reproduce and protect. Science explains this irresistible lust is hard-wired into our DNA via a lifetime of watching TV, repetitive reinforcement through advertising, peer pressure and catastrophic federal dietary guidelines.
A gander at the miles of grocery aisles plus the American food and hospitality industry, indicates we’re encouraged to forgo our future family health equity for a moment of instant gratification. “Oh, one day of eating these yummy foods won’t kill me.” Aha! What you must know is it’s accumulative. The ‘funkified’ compounds lurking in these seductive food-like substances accumulate over time, making your inner ecology toxic, bloated, anemic, flatulent and brain dead. These succulent industrial toxins are stored in your fatty tissue. Cholesterol, over time, builds up in your hardening arteries. Balancing with 7-9 portions of fresh fibrous sun dappled produce daily goes a long way in defusing damage, but it’s best not to poke the beast. The reality is our humanness weakens resolve.
Next time add a variety of taste, texture, excitement and color by encouraging everyone to experiment with new foods and combinations; an old fashioned pitch-in. For goodness sakes return to the joyous act of cooking. Assemble an aesthetically composed veggie platter from scratch. Try a zesty bean dip rather than the predictable sour cream and onion. Prepare a pizza pie from scratch with whole wheat flour. It’s a delightful activity for the entire family. You’ll never buy store-bought again and the camaraderie is bonding. Bake a tasty batch of nachos with homemade salsa, lean ground turkey breast of soy crumbles, low-fat cheddar or Jack and creamy guacamole. Pop ‘real’ popcorn in olive oil with the kids. Make a cake from scratch where you control the ingredients, not an insincere ‘scientist’ playing chef. When baking a cake, substitute lard or shortening with Smart Balance, for example. You could add fibrous wheat germ and no one would know. Place bowls of nuts around the house. Bake white meat chicken strips dredged in taco spice or teriyaki rather than breaded and deep fried in grease. Get creative.
We live in a nerve-racking, teetering world. Everyone wants, needs and deserves to feel good, but you needn’t capitulate. Grasp the reality of your intentions. Is your intention to celebrate life’s meaningful moments by consuming bogus foods that shorten it? All it takes is a plan. Your wallet will dig it as family medical bills decline and everyone starts feeling each morning like they could conquer the world.

Nutrition when done correctly should be center plate. You can do it.

Celiac Disease

2010-02-01T05:42:00.000-08:00

If your earthly existence depended on it, could you stop eating one particular food if it just about instantly reinstated your health entitlement? Wouldn’t it blow your medulla oblongata if the guilty foodstuff, wheat of all things, was the source of your illness?
“I’m inexplicably depressed. My rumbling gastrointestinal tribulations, asthma, iron deficiency anemia, heart burn, low energy and early osteoporosis bring me down”. Unable to connect the dots, for decades, Ima suffered. The darling 65 year old, bless her heart, couldn’t understand why she was constantly bloated and cramping, flatulent and couldn’t summon the gumption to socialize. She already conceded her familial genes were responsible for her uncharacteristic early-life osteoarthritis.
After carpet bombing her innards with pharmaceutical drugs, her doctor tested for Celiac Disease (CD). Gluten intolerance appeared. One week into a wheat-free diet, she’d never felt better; human, joyful, eager to socialize by hanging with her silver-haired homeys; free. It’s startling how many seniors have undiagnosed CD because of wheat; one of the world's most important food crops. Her blessed relief lay right before her eyes.
Until the mid-1990’s people didn’t believe CD could develop in older people because it was considered a disease of childhood; ‘failing to thrive’. Foods made from wheat and certain grains contain a protein called gluten. If you have CD, every time you eat gluten an immune reaction aggressively attacks your vila destroying healthy tissues of the small intestine where nutrients are absorbed. This leads to a cascade of health tribulations. Even teeny amounts of gluten trigger the response.
In her mind she ate what she sincerely perceive as healthy cuisine; Raisin Bran with berries and walnuts for breakfast, whole wheat bread and lean turkey breast sandwich at lunch and in between some whole grain crackers and carrot sticks. At night, Ima ate brown rice, a breaded chicken breast with a dark green leafy salad with blue cheese dressing. Her absolutely favorite restaurant meal was a garden salad with croutons, Pasta Bolognese dusted with Parma and ‘more gooey garlic bread please’ washed down with a mug-o-beer. Sounds benign, however, most of these foods and beer contain various forms of gluten.
Ima Bovit, which she apparently wasn’t, is 1 in 10 Americans who needlessly suffer from the ancient malady; frightening allowing for the high death rate when undiagnosed. Mayo Clinic research teams studied data from the 45 year of follow-up of Air Force subjects showed those with undiagnosed celiac disease have a 400% higher risk of death than non-Celiacs. Two physicians I quizzed admit the medical fraternity has been sluggish to diagnose the ubiquitous disease which shortens life expectancy-- are you ready for this--- by a whopping 4.5 times. Its curious contemporary doctors can’t diagnose CD because as far back as 250 AD, Aretaeus of Cappadocia included detailed descriptions of a disease. He referred to his patients as kolliakos, meaning, ‘suffering in the bowels,’ later translated it to Celiacs.
Naturopathic PhD DR. Chuck Landon of Indianapolis shares “When CD symptoms should be the first condition that comes to mind, it’s often misdiagnosed. Modern medicine does not consider CD first because I believe they don’t have a drug for it. Celiacs get diagnosed as having irritable bowel syndrome, which in my opinion is a symptom, not a disease.”
It takes two to four weeks of a strict gluten-free diet before you start to feel groovy again, though some people get their mojo back within days. However, don't challenge your inner ecology by eating a large amount of wheat to see what happens. This is serious biz, so don’t loaf around. You could end up sicklier than before and cost you some serious bread. Gluten-free products abound at your community grocers. Not only is gluten found in grains like wheat, barley, rye, oats, malt and rye. It’s also added to countless foods. For example, some ice creams and ketchups contain gluten as a thickening agent. The simple answer: read labels to avoid wheat products and foods prepared with wheat. Be conscious and put food and disease in the same context; it may save your life. For excellent information and list of foods with gluten: http://customchoicecereal.com/blog/
Read recently published books and then turn to websites / support blogs run by Celiac organizations, noted celiac research centers and trusted Integrative Nutritionists. Dr. Landon suggests, “If you have any of the symptoms mentioned, simply eliminate all gluten bearing foods for a month. If things clear up continue on. Consult with an Integrative Physician and nutritionist who specialize in celiac disease before you embark on your quest for a return to wholeness. Sun dappled vegetables, fruits, beans, seeds and meats are gluten free foods”.
Ima thought her diet was above reproach and accepted age. Get checked for CD and free yourself.
The simple act of transcending just one pleasurable food can be life transforming.

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Stevia Not Truvia-Corporate

2010-01-18T15:59:00.000-08:00

Hail Stevia!
Savvy Americans are awakening from a slumber of blind-trust after discovering the white sugar they’ve been eating is a proven human toxin; not the least compatible with the needs of the holy temple’s biochemistry. Ergo plagues of diabetes, hypoglycemia, hypertension, elevated cholesterol and triglycerides, increased arterial plaque, immune suppression, insulin resistance, obesity, H1N1 and heart disease freely loiter about a once-healthy citizenry. Bluntly, sugar sucks.

Subsequently, enlightened Americans seek rational alternatives to sugar and trustingly reach for the omnipresent pink, blue, and yellow packages of sweet death. When shopping, strut by the Sweet and Low, made from succulent coal tar, skip the tasty neurotoxin Nutra-Sweet, then waltz past deceitful Splenda; another abomination of a loving cosmos’ creations. Jim Turner, Chairman of the Board of the Health Advocacy Group Citizens for Health describes varying degrees of gastro-intestinal problems resulting from Splenda use. "... from irritation all the way up to serious bleeding ulcers requiring surgery," says Turner. Other health professionals report cases of cardiac problems, various allergic reactions. Instead, grasp a friendly green box of Sweet Leaf Stevia. All others fall short, since they are chemically altered.

Stevia was discovered by 16th century by Spanish Conquistadors who learned about stevia from the local Guarani and Mato Grosso Indians who used stevia leaves to sweeten their medicines and teas. Unfortunately, it’s only recently become available to Americans. Think of stevia like oregano or basil; however it leaves a sweet taste. No need for processing.
Modern scientific interests in the Stevia plant dates to the early 1900’s, however sugar lobbyists fought hard to keep their addictive, Diabesity-inducing, immune-suppressing crystal crap on the shelves in a mind-numbing constellation of processed food sludge. White sugar is irrefutably addictive, wielding its insidious power over the brain similar to opiate drugs of abuse.

The average portly, diabetic and constantly-sick American eats nearly 150 pounds a year. (Visualize 15 ten-pound bags). Overindulgence; sugar be thy name.
Caveat Emptor; we won’t get fooled again! Truvia is not the real thing baby. Truvia is another monstrous contrivance from the nutritional terrorists at Cargill whose total indifference regarding the wellbeing of their fellow countrymen borders treason. ‘Truvia’, also known as rebiana, is made by taking the best leaves of the stevia plant, drying and soaking them then isolating the active compound. In a moment of false hubris, the damaged bullies at Cargill Corporation felt God-like and altered Stevia’s original molecular structure, marking its turf like a dog to own it outright; God weeps at such selfish superiority. Why can’t man leave God’s work alone? Sweet Leaf’s founder, Jim May told me Stevia is made with only two ingredients; inulin, a natural vegetable fiber and Stevia leaf extract. Inulin is beneficial to good digestive health as it stimulates the growth of good intestinal flora supporting immune function. Sugar, the pink, blue and yellow death offers no health recompense.

Unlike sugar, no health issues have been reported, that is, unless you eat 4 pounds a day and rub it all over your body then snort it. Indigenous Japanese, where Stevia’s very common, accepted sweetener, have safely used stevia for generations. Alternatively, sugar trashes our immune system. Do you smell what I’m cookin’?

With diabetes and obesity a huge financially-depleting national health problem, none of you dear readers deserve to innocently put anything into the temple that comprises health. Health is about food, not synthesized doo-doo. Yes, it’s getting creepy out there. More and more we’re reading newspaper and TV reports revealing yet another product we trusted is, alas, seasoned generously with immoral corporate greed. Knowledge is power.

2010-01-10T08:25:00.001-08:00

WISH TV-Celiac Disease Increase Baffles Doctors

(Gluten-free) Flourless Pumpkin Pancakes w/Homemade Blueberry Syrup

Over the last 50 years Celiac Disease has become much more common, affecting 1 out of 100 people. Doctors attribute this increase to changes in our environment and processed food-like substances alien to human physiology. (Mayo Clinic)
Celiac Disease is our immune system reacting to gluten in the diet by attacking villi in the small intestine where nutrients get absorbed A gluten-free diet is a must for people with celiac disease or an allergy to products containing wheat. Unfortunately, it goes largely undiagnosed.
It's not so easy being gluten free. Not only is gluten found in grains like wheat, barley, oats and rye, it's also added to many foods as a thickening agent. For example, some ice creams and even ketchup contain gluten. The simple solution: avoid wheat products and processed foods made with processed wheat.
At home Sandi and I prepare these fiberlicious, healthy and non-gluten pancakes for the family. If you’re discreet and don’t shine a floodlight on the change, no one will notice because they taste so darned good. Recently we’ve begun adding organic pumpkin puree and ground flax seed to goose up the nutrition, fiber and omega 3 essential fatty acids.
Please avoid Aunt Jamima Pancake mix as well as her Syrup. The pancake dry-mix brims with aluminum anti-caking agents, refined white flour (the villain) and the ‘syrup’ is composed of harmful High Fructose Corn Syrup and yummy artificial flavorings. Opt for the real thing. You and your loved ones deserve the best. Instead of artery detonating butter, try Smart Balance omega 3 fortified butter substitutes.
This scrumptious recipe yields many little pancakes or several biggies

Ingredients:

Gluten-Free Pancake Mix (Bob’s Red Mill & Hodgson Mills @ Grocery)

4 organic egg whites

1/3 cup of pumpkin puree

2 tbs. ground flaxseed meal (use a coffee grinder)

½ cup chopped walnuts

½ tsp of ‘real’ vanilla extract

1 tsp of cinnamon and a pinch of nutmeg
Directions:
Whisk the egg whites till lightly frothy.
Warm up the skillet or griddle to medium high heat
Per instructions, in a large bowl, mix spices and incorporate together with a wire whisk
Work in the egg whites, pumpkin puree, flax, walnuts and vanilla.
Lightly spray a griddle or pan and cook at medium heat.
Flip them only once when you see the first tiny bubbles form.
While the pancakes are browning, over low heat, gently warm the ‘real’ maple syrup.

Shut off the heat before it comes to a boil then add 1 cup of fresh or frozen blueberries.

Set aside
Serve immediately topped with your fresh, homemade blueberry syrup.

Grilled Cheese and Asparagus Recipe

2010-01-06T05:33:00.000-08:00

Everyone loves the traditional American Icon, the Grilled Cheese Sandwich and tomato soup. We grew up on them with a steaming bowl of salty canned tomato soup. Well, how’s that working out for you? If you still make them with white bread, butter and Velveeta, well, you might consider altering the ingredients a bit to render this artery clogger a pleasantly satisfying, healthful lunch.
The processed white bread spikes blood sugar levels encouraging diabetes and contains nothing of any nutritional value. The Velveeta cheese is nothing but oil and then there’s the butter - well, you know.
This new version using Smart Balance, Soy Cheese and Whole Wheat Bread fools even my toughest critics; the grandkids. Simply don’t make a big deal of the change and no one will notice. Serve the sandwich with carrot, celery, radishes or broccoli pieces and buy BOXED soups in the healthy section of your grocers. Pacific brand is lovely. Brand name sops contain astronomical amounts of salt plus the interior lining of canned foods from coast to coast have been discovered to contain BPA; a carcinogen.
Prepare the classic sandwich in the traditional manner, over medium heat. You’ll be quite pleased.
Ingredients:Smart Balance MargarineEzekiel Bread-Loaded with fiber and proteinCarrot, celery, broccoli or asparagus spears as garnishGalaxie Brand Soy cheddar Cheese SlicesOrLow fat cheddar

Eating Resolutions 2010

2009-12-22T04:56:00.000-08:00

Celebrate Life with Real Food

Teetering and sipping his sixth Eggnog, Uncle Jimmy slurred, “Isn’t life glorious? I’m so ‘bleshed’ to be alive to share this-hiccup-special day with my loving family”, as he and his Chicken Liver Rumaki ingloriously kerploped into a heap on the gift- wrap strewn floor.

Do you brawl with nutritional self-control? Who doesn’t during the holidays? We’re human. Do you have heart disease, diabetes, Crohn’s, RA, cancer or superfluous tonnage? Consider the grand-daddy of ironies; we celebrate meaningful life events by eating poor quality foods which slowly sabotage the privilege of pure health.

By now readers of this column are privy to valid scientific research signifying the most common ingredients humans worship; sugar, AP flour, animal fat, butter, kayo, cream, cheese and salt, are literally addictive. Yep, just like crack. Eating noxious, factory-refined foods stimulate the holy temple to produce the opiate Dopamine, the feel-good drug. Combine with addictive coffee, soft drinks, cigarettes, alcohol and pharmaceutical drugs, clearly we’re been molded, not by choice, into dead-food junkies. It’s not your fault, however. You simple trusted Betty Crocker and Ronald McDonald to be responsible. We can take down the ethically malnourished, out-of-touch corporate Fat Cats by ignoring their products. They don’t own you. Impractical and idealistic? Time has come today to challenge the twisted paradigm of factory produced food and to rejoice in our gift of life by returning to a more natural, preordained, non-suicidal, wholesome and sustainable way of eating and living. There are too many largely preventable chronic diseases here in America. Responsible scientists tell us these Post Industrial Revolution diseases are created by bogus, man-made food-like substances; main-stream brand name foods we consider our best buddies. Think before you eat. Carefully reflect upon your health-enhancing efforts thus far; remember eating consciously now yields handsome dividends as you age.

There are many ways to be a good steward of your temple. Avoid plastic food. In 2010, focus on foods of plant origin. Fruits, vegetables, beans, legumes, grains, nuts and seeds are not only good for you but their production requires fewer earthly resources. Selecting nutrient-rich living foods maximized healing nutrition and makes your food dollars count. Fat, sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, MSG, food colorings and salt-laden choices take up much shelf-space in today's supermarkets. Spending on whole food rather than excessive processing and packaging is smart money.

Think globally, eat locally. Every dollar spent on local foods is an investment in local agriculture and farmers. Keeping land in agriculture helps assure food security for future generations.

Reduce "food mile" intake. The mileage on your dinner plate represents fossil fuels burned and carbon dioxide emitted. Long distance food and beverage distribution means wear and tear on vehicles and infrastructure, eventually requiring dwindling natural resources to restore.
Spice up your kitchen with local products. Change the family your diet from season to season according to what’s available from local farms. Tender greens, asparagus, and new potatoes in spring provide delicious prelude to a cornucopia of summer fruits and vegetables. Fall heralds in an abundant harvest of hearty roots, apples, pears and gourds that store well.
Go old school. Buy just what you will eat and don't squander food. When cooking in larger batches, freeze half. Ninety-Eight Million pounds of good food gets tossed out into the trash each year. That represents 44 billion dollars. We can do better.

Yes, I’m besmirching decades of hallowed American eating traditions, however, there comes a time one must ask oneself, especially if you’re chronically ill, “Gee, how’s that working out for ya?”

Happy New You!

.

Slim Fast Skullduggery

2009-12-14T11:32:00.000-08:00

If you’re snug and comfy with malnutrition and tossin’ your cookies, sugary Slim-Fast, the expensive glucose-laden, nutritionally bogus milk supplement is for you. Actually, take it back to the store ASAP.

Ten million cans of Slim-Fast are currently on recall due to the presence of Bacillus cereus, a common, soil-dwelling bacteria scuba-diving inside the cans.The cause: human oversight. Bacillus cereus is the only living ingredient in Slim-Fast’s otherwise palled, dead ingredients which have been pasteurized, processed, tweaked, refined and cooked, void of any redeeming virtues. Any drink touted as a weight-loss tool made chiefly from processed, refined sugar-water and milk should be prohibited from being sold. Slim Fast’s careful not to make specific claims of weight loss, but the beverages are clearly marketed as a weight-loss tool. Apparently they deem Americans badly informed and gullible.

Big Food’s marketing behaviorists subliminally train Americans to lust for convenience, the IED-embedded path to healthiness. The Slim-Fast diet plan is mind-numbingly simple. Open a can and drink it, “…and we pray to the money gods you don’t have the awareness to decode the ingredient label.” The four main ingredients of the junk-food beverage are skim milk, sugar, fructose and cocoa. Further ingredients include various vegetable oils, emulsifiers and a worthless stew of pharmaceutical synthetic vitamins our cells don’t comprehend. Artificial vitamins, cheaply manufactured and peddled in supermarket pharmacies, lack the essential molecular structure of the absorbable cold-processed food versions (Usana is #1) and are ineffectual and unlikely to improve the body’s cells; hence the idiom “Dead Food.” Because it’s sold in a can, the vessel’s internal lining is likely loaded with plastics containing Bispheol-A (BPA). Research links BPA in canned foods to infertility, prostate and breast cancer. What a mess.

If you honestly want to lose weight properly and become more energetic, beautiful and healthy, focus on calories-in versus calories-burned. However, this means the quality of your food choices become vitally important. It’s not rocket science that most contemporary chronic disease would vanish if Americans ate preordained, healthy whole foods from the generous Cosmic Apothecary.
However, humans diminish the quality factor of calories choosing artificial flavor and instant gratification over nourishment. Staying healthy requires nutritional literacy, effort and possibly sacrificing one of your favorite dead foods for a living version.
You’ve got a potentially explosive predicament when attempting to lose extra chunk in the trunk with this depraved liquid nonsense. Eat less; focus on fresh, pure and clean foods and drinks; exercise and say farewell to short-term Snake Oil. You’re smarter than that. Evoke the “if it sounds too good to be true” rule.

The truth can be ugly and elusive. I express regret for pooping in your cereal, but there are no weight-loss miracles. With nutritional literacy you won’t need Big Food manipulating your health equity or waist-line.

Fiber: Roto Rooter of the Digestive Tract

2009-12-04T06:29:00.000-08:00

My friends take delight when Sandi and I cook holiday dinners for them. Although, more than once, I’ve received a next-day thank-you call accompanied with the observation, “Wow, dinner was great, but things came out of me this morning that I ate when I was 6.” TMI!
The point being, their diet was so deficient in fiber, when it was introduced the colon did what comes naturally: Peristalsis. Now that the holidays have arrived, human nature diverts from the road of nutritional righteousness. This season, evade disease and extra tonnage by decorating your bowls and bowels of sugar plums with more fiber. Let me explain.

Your inner ecology is a labyrinth of pipes. Like all pipes and fixtures, keeping the distance between point A and point B in good shape requires, if you’ll excuse the disturbing visual, a plumbers snake. Maintenance. To stay healthy and active, everyone needs to keep the colon rolling along like White River in the spring. The human body is truly remarkable, but it has limits. Growing up, we were taught our innards could handle whatever we fed it. I’ve learned, however, our temple simply cannot handle the types and amounts of meats and processed plastic foods we feed it without traumatizing the colon — the largest organ, which houses 80 percent of the immune system.

Due to a lack of fibrous foods containing soluble and insoluble fiber, meals take forever to exit, setting up a deadly milieu. Most fiber-less folks carry about 10 meals backed up; fermenting, stewing and releasing methane while brewing toxins inside the dark sanctity of the holy temple. The average fiber-less American has roughly 10 to 15 pounds of concentrated poo and undigested food seething in the bowel. Beginning to grasp the odoriferous implication of a fiber-less diet?

Elvis Presley died of a heart attack and a drug overdose whilst sitting upon his throne, but he still made it onto a stamp. Elvis’ fiber-less diet included mashed taters and gravy, unctuous meats, gobs of bacon, sausage gravy, fried anything-that-moved and sweet potato cream cheese pie. Macho? I think not. It takes much more courage to eat a fibrous, nutritionally dense vegetable. During his autopsy doctors made a startling discovery: The King’s colon weighed close to 60 pounds! The average human colon weighs around four pounds. Thankyouverymuch!
I hesitate haranguing your tastes in food, but the average 50 year old meat-eater has up to eight pounds of indigestible food in their bowels. This decaying food is the common cause of what many people mistakenly think of as the “price of good living” — soaring rates of colon and pancreatic cancers by the age of 50 or 60. How charming.

Humans wouldn’t require such snaking if they’d regularly include fresh fruits and vegetables, nuts, seeds, beans, ground flax seed, quinoa, steel-cut oats, wheat germ, rice bran or oat bran in their dally edibles. If you’re fraught with holiday constipation and resort to Ex-Lax, a toxin which artificially stimulates your digestive tract to release a log jam, be sure it’s not the same night you take a sleeping pill. Enough said.

Ghoulish Goulash

2009-10-27T08:17:00.000-07:00

Ghoulish Goulash
Parents, there are ghoulish dangers awaiting your children this Halloween eve; dangers like high-fructose corn syrup, sugar, refined carbohydrates, food coloring, artificial flavorings, trans fats, and triglycerides just to name a spooky few. All of these kick the “BOO” out of your immune system leaving the door ajar for H1N1.
Food colorings and artificial flavorings have been linked with worsening ADD and ADHD plus, according to several studies, they cause aggressive behavior; the bully syndrome.
All of these common ingredients in Halloween candy are linked to such conditions as childhood obesity, coronary artery disease, diabetes, yeast overgrowth syndrome and multiple-chemical sensitivity. Very frightening!!
If you find this hauntingly objectionable, serve this vegetable rich Vegetable Goulash to neutralize the damage ‘Over-Dosing’ on sugar can cause. Sugar is a drug. Too much of anything is not a good thing. The vegetables and fiber is this dish will help neutralize the damage from the annual Halloween sugar bloodbath of gore.

1 tsp. olive oil
½ medium onion, sliced thin
1 carrot, chopped
¼ cup celery
2 cloves of chopped garlic
1 cup shiitake mushrooms, sliced thin stems discarded (Stimulate the immune system)
1 green pepper, sliced thin
1 tbs. wheat germ
½ cup fake ‘meat’ crumbles
1 tsp. paprika (smoked if you can find it)
1-14 ½ oz. can whole canned tomatoes, chopped, reserve juice
1 cup of cooked beans, drained
½ cup red wine vinegar
1 tsp. oregano

~Heat the olive oil over medium heat.
~Sautee the onion, celery, peppers, carrot, garlic, paprika, crumbles and mushrooms till tender.
~Stir in the tomatoes with juice; add beans, wine, oregano and reserved tomato juice.
~Bring to a boil, but do not cook more than 5 minutes. Add wheat germ and stir.
~Serve over a bed of brown rice, whole wheat pasta or quinoa and a dark leafy green salad.

Aging with Grace

2009-10-16T13:40:00.000-07:00

Prolonging the Inevitable
Last weekend, enticed by the multi-colored splendor, azure skies and crisp air, Sandi and I drove the country back roads to visit our granddaughter attending her first semester at Indiana University.

For the first time, despite my steadfast aerobic workout routine and good health, I truly felt like the droopy old fart every 61-year-old man ultimately must acknowledge. I mean, wasn’t it last year that I cradled her in my arms as she cooed, giggled and then yanked my glasses off, while dutifully filling her diapers?

Face it; we’re all going to die. What we do between birth and death, however, factors significantly into life’s final chapters. Am I going to experience late-life morbidity or wake up dead some morning? Using the stimulus, I appraised my personal efforts to steward my temple to remain healthy until I expire. Living to 100 is no longer attractive unless I can remain in lucid mental and physical health.

After patting myself on the back for overcoming cigarette addiction, my first focus was my weight; next to not smoking, the most important thing anyone can do to live longer. Fat cells produce hormones which raise the risk of type 2 diabetes and generate cytokines which cause inflammation, stiffening of the arteries, heart and other organs. Packing surplus fat raises the risk of some cancers. Currently I’m the same weight I was when I was 18, just more wrinkly. I did, however, weigh 300 pounds in 1988.

Next, I scrutinized my vitamin regimen. Big Pharma would love for the vitamin industry to go away. Out of fear and greed, they’ve slandered and discredited vitamins and minerals for decades. Yes, there are some crappy vitamins out there, but with some homework and a friend at your community vitamin shop, anyone can deduce good from bad. I’ve taken Source of Life vitamins for 20 years. Research assures grocery store vitamins are the absolute worst. Most are synthesized by a chemist, not our Creator; therefore our cells cannot use them. Doctors at the University of California-Berkley report we all should take a quality daily, food-based multiple vitamin with minerals. They urge the age-challenged to take daily doses of 800 mg alpha-lipoic acid and 2,000 mg acetyl-l-carnitine, nutritional warriors which power our cells. Mitochondrion decay is a major factor in aging and is connected to Alzheimer’s and diabetes. Anyone over 50 should also pop a B-complex and D-3 every day. Solgar and Carlson brands are top shelf.

Do I know how to mellow out? I’ve learned the value of regularly practicing a series of deep, cleansing breaths. Life strife increases the concentration of hormones cortisol and norepinephrine, which raise blood pressure and suppress the immune system. Seek daily quiet time to meditate and center on each breath. Dr. Andrew Wiel picks deep breathing as a universal anti-stress practice. Exhale strongly, making a whoosh sound. Breathe in quietly through the nose for a four-count. Hold the breath for a seven-count; then exhale with the whoosh sound for an eight-count. Repeat the cycle three more times and feel the fresh oxygen refresh your mind, body and soul.

Do I eat enough fresh produce? Extremely necessary as we age, Antioxidants found in all fruits and vegetables are used by our body intelligence to brawl with free radical agents that damage healthy cells. Fibrous anti-aging fruits and vegetables help the digestive process along. This includes all green leafy vegetables such as lettuce, spinach, collards and kale. Carrots, cucumbers, sweet potatoes, avocado and celery are also fibrous and vigorous.
It’s wondrous how the holy temple heals and restores.

People live longer today than ever, partly due to what scientists and doctors are discovering about how the temple responds to a diet rich in anti-aging fruits and vegetables that extend our relatively short lives. Are you an adult who still doesn’t eat their anti-aging fruits and vegetables? Come on — get with it and grow up! Antioxidants in fresh produce are necessary as we age to fight free radicals agents that damage healthy cells.

Finally, do a good deed. The best way to stay healthy is to be kind and loving to others as well as yourself

Aging with Grace and Style

2009-10-15T08:34:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, enticed by the multi-colored splendor, azure skies and crisp air, Sandi and I drove the country back roads to visit our granddaughter attending her first semester at Indiana University.

For the first time, despite my steadfast aerobic work-out routine and good health, I truly felt like the droopy old fart every 61 year old man ultimately must acknowledge. (proof provided with this picture) I mean, wasn’t it last year I cradled her in my arms as she cooed, giggled, and then yanked my glasses off while dutifully filling her diapers?

Face it; we’re all going to die. What we do between birth and death, however, factors significantly into life’s final chapters. Am I going to experience late life morbidity or wake up dead some morning? Using the stimulus, I appraised my personal efforts to steward my temple to remain healthy until I expire. Living to 100 is no longer attractive unless I can remain in lucid mental and physical health.

After patting myself on the back for overcoming cigarette addiction, my first focus was my weight; next to not smoking, the most important thing anyone can do to live longer. Fat cells produce hormones which raise the risk of type 2 diabetes and generate cytokines which cause inflammation, stiffening of the arteries, heart and other organs. Packing surplus fat raises the risk of some cancers. Currently I’m the same weight I was when I was 18, just more wrinkly. I did however weigh 300 pounds in 1988.

Next, I scrutinized my vitamin regimen. Big Pharma would love for the vitamin industry to go away. Out of fear and greed, they’ve slandered and discredit vitamins and minerals for decades. Yes there are some crappy vitamins out there, but with some homework and a friend at your community vitamin shop anyone deduce good from bad. I’ve taken Source of Life vitamins for 20 years. Research assures grocery store vitamins are the absolute worst. Most are synthesized by a chemist, not our Creator; therefore our cells cannot use them.

Doctors at The University of California, Berkley report we all should take a quality daily, food-based multiple vitamin with minerals, They urge the age-challenged to take daily doses of 800 mg alpha-lipoic acid and 2000 mg acetyl-l-carnitine; nutritional warriors which power our cells. Mitochondrion decay is a major factor in aging and is connected to Alzheimer’s and diabetes. Anyone over 50 should also pop a B-Complex and D-3 every day. Solgar and Carlson brands are top shelf.

Do I know how to mellow out? I’ve learned the value of regularly practicing a series of deep, cleansing breaths. Life strife increases the concentration of hormones cortisol and norepinephrine which raise blood pressure and suppress the immune system. Seek daily quiet time to meditate / center on each breath. Dr. Andrew Weil picks deep breathing as a universal anti-stress practice. Exhale strongly, making a whoosh sound. Breathe in quietly through the nose for a 4 count. Hold the breath for a 7 count; then exhale with the whoosh sound for an 8 count. Repeat the cycle three more times and feel the fresh oxygen refresh your mind, body and soul.

Do I eat enough fresh produce? Extremely necessary as we age, Antioxidants found in all fruits and vegetables are used by our body intelligence to brawl with free radical agents that damage healthy cells. Fibrous anti-aging fruits and vegetables help the digestive process along. This includes all green leafy vegetables such as lettuce, spinach, collards and kale. Carrots, cucumbers, sweet potatoes, avocado and celery are also fibrous and vigorous.
It's wondrous how the holy temple heals and restores.

People live longer today than ever, partly due to what scientists and doctors are discovering about how the temple responds to a diet rich in anti-aging fruits and vegetables that not only extend our relatively short lives. Are you an adult who still doesn’t eat their anti-aging fruits and vegetables fruits? Come on, get with it and grow up! Antioxidants in fresh produce are necessary as we age to fight free radicals agents that damage healthy cells.

Finally, do a good deed. The best way to stay healthy is to be kind and loving to others as well as yourself.

Sweet Potatoes Redux

2009-10-12T07:09:00.000-07:00

Enjoy this tasty easy-to-prepare recipe.
http://www.wishtv.com/dpp/living/recipes/Chef_Wendell_Roasted_Sweet_Potato_Salad_20091004

Does it require smothering and incinerating these colorful, nutritional nuggets to get your clan to partake? Once reserved for the holidays, maybe you should reconsider the potent root vegetable as an important addition to your family’s diet throughout the year.
The swollen, tuber like root, a member of the morning glory family is rich in health enhancing vitamins A, C, Calcium, potassium, and fiber. The Nutrition Action Newsletter rated 58 vegetables by adding up the percentages of recommended daily allowances for Vitamin A, C, iron, calcium, fiber, complex carbohydrates and protein. In their report, the sweet potato scored an impressive 583.
Its nearest competition, a raw carrot, came in at 434, and the every-day baked potato, a scrawny 114. ‘High Energy’ Sweet potatoes also contain B6, manganese, and lutein, which had been connected with macular degeneration prevention. It would take 23 cups of broccoli to provide the same amount of antioxidant protection; clearly a super food. They are grown on the ground, so be sure to scrub your spud.
Black beans are a wonderful source of cholesterol-lowering fiber, as are most other legumes. In addition to lowering cholesterol, black beans' high fiber content prevents blood sugar levels from rising too rapidly after a
Does it require smothering and incinerating these colorful, nutritional nuggets to get your clan to partake? Once reserved for the holidays, maybe you should reconsider the potent root vegetable as an important addition to your family’s diet throughout the year.
The swollen, tuber like root, a member of the morning glory family is rich in health enhancing vitamins A, C, Calcium, potassium, and fiber. The Nutrition Action Newsletter rated 58 vegetables by adding up the percentages of recommended daily allowances for Vitamin A, C, iron, calcium, fiber, complex carbohydrates and protein. In their report, the sweet potato scored an impressive 583.
Its nearest competition, a raw carrot, came in at 434, and the every-day baked potato, a scrawny 114. ‘High Energy’ Sweet potatoes also contain B6, manganese, and lutein, which had been connected with macular degeneration prevention. It would take 23 cups of broccoli to provide the same amount of antioxidant protection; clearly a super food. They are grown on the ground, so be sure to scrub your spud.
Black beans are a wonderful source of cholesterol-lowering fiber, as are most other legumes. In addition to lowering cholesterol, black beans' high fiber content prevents blood sugar levels from rising too rapidly.

Flax Seed vs. Fish Oil

2009-09-27T08:36:00.000-07:00

What a fine mess! At the same time health authorities recommend Americans eat more fish with Omega 3 they also warn fish are jam-packed with unsafe pollutants.

Recall in the early 80s when studies showed the Inuit’s had low rates of heart disease despite their high-fat blubber diet rich in oily fish? Turns out the omega 3 fatty acids in the fish protected their hearts. After all, they had no gardens.

However, the reality echoing from the halls of the EPA and FDA states ALL of earth’s sacred rivers, lakes, streams, estuaries, mangroves, swamps and oceans are so contaminated that fish are saturated with hundreds of cancerous, innutritious, chemical substances not preordained to enter the blessed human vessel. Factory Fish Farms are the nastiest with the highest levels of antibiotics and PCB from farm run-off; not the way God planned it. Plus they’re fed questionable by-products from chemical-happy Factory Farm beef slaughterhouses. How charming.

Since farmed fish are not allowed to consume their heavenly designed diet, they’re nutritionally insolvent and even fed orange dye-pills for the fish to appear normal. As a result, omega 3 sought from fish is AWOL due to the insanely irresponsible un-holy diet man thrust upon the captive aquatic critters. Clearly, we’ve miserably failed obeying the heavenly directive to be responsible stewards of Gods creations. The laws of the universe have been tweaked for our consumerist convenience. Where then does one get clean, pure, life-saving Omega-3’s?

With increased popularity of plant-based diets and fears about mercury and PCBs in seafood, people often ask me about flax for their daily dose of Omega 3’s. Fairly significant considering Omega 3’s defend against the accumulation of a protein linked to Alzheimer's disease; decrease HDL and increase LDL cholesterol plus lower pesky triglycerides. Omegas 3’s also act as an anticoagulant preventing blood clotting. Now you know why they’re called ‘essential’.

Three thousand years ago in Babylon, flax fiber was cultivated for clothing. Then in 650 BC, Hippocrates wrote about using flax for the relief of abdominal pain. About the same era, Theophrastus recommended flax mucilage as a cough remedy. During the 8th Century, Charlemagne considered flax so important for the health of his subjects he passed laws and regulations requiring its consumption. He’d be proud our rediscovered interest in this fibrous, healing ancient grain.

Ground, not whole flax seed, provides more nutritional benefits than whole seed. Flax seeds are extremely hard and durable, making them difficult to crack even with chewing. Grind up the shiny brown seeds in small batches in a coffee grinder to unleash the ancient golden Omega oil. Upon ingestion, your digestive system cannot break them down and when excreted then planted, would grow. Once ground, the seeds quickly lose their oomph, so process and refrigerate the ground seeds in an airtight container and store un-ground seeds in the refrigerator for up to 3 months. Need more colon cleansing fiber? Add ground flax seed to literally any dish. It disappears, is not crunchy and I guarantee it will get your bowels a’ moving.

Men, more is not better. We should all avoid ingesting too much flax oil pills until more is known about excessive flax intakes potential link with prostate cancer. Too much of anything is bad, so don’t let this restrain you. Other sources of omega 3’s include green leafy vegetables, soy and tofu, almonds, walnuts, pine nuts and fortified eggs. However, eggs come with a blast of cholesterol which seems counter intuitive.

Health is all about variety, balance and a good dose of nutritional literacy. Bon appetite!
-30-

Shiitake Mushrooms

2009-09-24T13:13:00.000-07:00

The Mushrooming Popularity of Fungi
Published September 24th, 2009

For thousands of years, the shiitake has been coveted as the premium edible mushroom in Asia, and now America is becoming uber-hip to this fungal bequest of the universe.

The Japanese word shiitake means “mushrooms from the shii tree.” Consciously or unconsciously, most everyone has eaten one when plowing through steaming white cartons of Asian carry-out. Don’t call them shiitake mushroom, however, as that would be redundant. To be accurate, simply refer to the ethereal specialty as shiitake.

Pronounced “shih-TAH-kee,” the distinctive woodsy flavor and firm, meaty texture are a mouth-watering addition to any recipe. The ancient Chinese have been using shiitakes as medicine for thousands of years and believe the shiitake dispelled hunger, treated colds and nourished the circulatory system. The Egyptians considered mushrooms the sons of gods sent to earth riding thunderbolts.

For hundreds of years, Germans have used this mushroom to rev up immune function, reduce inflammation, combat allergies and help balance sugar levels and support the Holy Temple’s detoxification mechanisms.Fungi absorb their nutrients from their surrounding environment. Shiitake has no chlorophyll so they cannot make food from sunlight but must live by eating plants or animals. It is the shiitake’s medicinal possibilities that are receiving the worldwide spotlight.

Over the last two decades, scientists have isolated substances from shiitake that may play a role in the cure and prevention of heart disease, cancer, viruses, bacteria and AIDS.
Shiitakes are brimming with potassium, manganese, iron, copper, niacin and vitamins C, B1, B2, D, A and E, plus they possess essential amino acids, just as meat does. Four average size shiitakes also contain around 10.3 g carbohydrates, 1.5 g fiber, 1.12 g protein, 40 calories and a whooping 17.8 mcg of cancer-preventing selenium.
Meaty shiitakes are outstanding food. As a family, discover the earthy, ambrosial flavor and healing mojo of the ancient shiitake.
Sautéed Shiitake Serves 4 as a side of wild mushrooms or 6-8 as a delicious topping over steamed vegetables, chicken or turkey.

Greens & Pasta: Nutritional Powerhouse

2009-09-18T05:35:00.000-07:00

Pasta with Greens: A Nutritional Powerhouse
Makes 4 servings

Video included:

http://www.wishtv.com/dpp/living/recipes/Chef_Wendell_Pasta_with_Greens_20090919

It's easy being green, despite Kermit's lament.

Greens are one of the healthiest vegetables on God’s green earth. Why we don’t eat more of them is a mystery. Dark green leafy vegetables are the most concentrated source of nutrition of any food.
Clearly, if Americans would have been swayed to eat more greens as they grew up, there would be a mere fraction of the disease we experience today.
They are a rich source of iron, calcium, potassium, and magnesium and vitamins K, C, E, and many of the B vitamins. Greens provide an assortment of phytonutrients including beta-carotene, lutein, and zeaxanthin, which protect our cells from damage and our eyes from age-related problems. Dark green leaves even contain small amounts of Omega-3 fats.
Vitamin K:

Regulates blood clotting

Helps protect bones from osteoporosis

May help prevent and possibly even reduce atherosclerosis by reducing calcium in arterial plaques.H

Helps prevent diabetes

This dish is quick, easy, nutritious, deliciously, economical and works with all sorts greens. (Except Al Green)

Hint: Use the same pot of water to blanch the greens before boiling the pasta and then cooking the whole dish in the pot.

1 bunch cooking greens (chard, collard greens, turnip greens, spinach)
1 tbs. sea salt plus to taste
Black pepper to taste
1 lb. whole grain / bean spaghetti or linguini
4 cloves minced garlic
2 tbs. olive oil
1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes
1 tbs. ground flax seeds
3/4 cups freshly shredded grating cheese such as parmesan, soy or Romano

-Bring a large pot of water to a boil
-Meanwhile, trim and wash greens, leaving the leaves whole
-Add 1 Tbsp. salt to boiling water. Add greens and blanch 30 seconds until wilted
-Use tongs or a slotted spoon to remove the leaves to a colander
-In the same water, boil pasta until tender to the bite
-Drain, reserved 1/2 cup of the cooking liquid, and set aside
-Meanwhile, chop garlic and cooked greens
-Once pasta is drained, return pot to medium high heat. Add oil, garlic, pepper flakes. Cook, stirring, until garlic turns just the tiniest bit golden
-Add chopped greens and flax; stir to combine
-Add reserved liquid and bring to a boil.
-Add pasta, stir to combine and bring to a boil
-Take off heat. Stir in half of the shredded cheese
-Taste and add salt and pepper to taste
-Divide between plates or pasta bowls, garnish with remaining shredded cheese and serve.

About Apples

2009-09-14T08:01:00.000-07:00

Forbidden Fruit My Butt

Apparently Eve had a devil of a time tempting Adam to eat fruits and vegetables.
When you think about it, the first commandment was Eve telling Adam, “Eat this apple or else!”

In ancient Greek and Roman mythology, crunchy apples symbolized love and beauty. Rumor has it Cleopatra placed an apple in Caesar’s chariot lunch box before he went into battle. When ancient Romans conquered England they brought apple cultivation with them. Apple trees were grown and prized for their fruit by the people of ancient Roman and it is believed they took cultivated apples with them into England as they conquered and made applesauce out of the country.

In 1629, John Endicott, one of the early governors of Massachusetts Bay Colony, brought the seeds and trees to America. Johnny ‘Apple Seed’ Chapman encourage apple growing as he carried apple seeds with him wherever he wandered, planting trees in thinly settled parts of the country, mostly for whiskey and strong liquor.

The nineteen pounds of vitamin-rich apples each American consumes annually are 80 to 85 percent kidney-flushing water. ‘Arrrrr Matey’, if you ever get scurvy they’re a most valuable cure since apples contain vitamin C. Orchards of studies confirm a diet containing plenty of apples reduces blood cholesterol levels. Eating two or three apples a day engages complex and beneficial physiological processes in the task of reducing blood cholesterol. The curiously ‘Forbidden Fruit’ fosters healthy lungs, prevents heart disease and stroke, assists weight loss, dental health and the reduction of serum cholesterol in the arteries. French researchers indicate apples make vitamin C more available in blood and organs, helping vitamin C from another source go farther.

The National Cancer Institute reports foods containing antioxidants found in apples reduce risk of lung cancer by as much as 50%. Mayo Clinic indicates the Quercetin abundant in apples helps prevent the growth of prostate cancer cells. Phytochemicals in apple skin inhibited the reproduction of colon cancer cells by 43%. Apple hide contains about 4 milligrams of Quercetin, an antioxidant which prevents oxygen molecules from damaging individual cells, which leads to cancer.

Bob on this: If you think peeling apples will get rid of the pesticides you’re correct, but you’re peeling away heavenly nutrients. Enjoy organic and locally grown apples in their original, cosmic packaging.

Apples contain 78 grams of pectin per 100 grams of edible fruit, ranking them fourth among the twenty-four common fruits and vegetables tested. Remember, this only applies when one leaves on the skin. Pectin’s are soluble fibers present in most fruits and veggies. Pectin reduces the amount of cholesterol produced by the liver, slows digestion, and the rise of blood sugar, making it ideal for diabetics.

Choose a variety which browns easily such as a Granny Smith. Genetically modified apples will not turn brown; a bummer sign they don’t contain what we’ve just discussed. In addition, I encourage you to avoid grocery store, processed apple juice and don’t substitute apple juice for the real fruit. Sugar-laden apple juice contains none of the beneficial compounds of potassium, C, quertecin and fiber. Make sure the orchard washes, sanitizes and filters the juice to prevent food-borne illness such as E. coli or salmonella from animal residue.

For a wholesome tasty foodgasm, when you whip up the next batch of Steele cut oatmeal for breakfast; simmer the porridge in apple cider, cinnamon and top with walnuts. You can also follow Eve’s decree by making a fruit smoothie with freshly squeezed apple nectar as your liquid medium.

Antioxidants

2009-08-26T06:40:00.000-07:00

Get Fresh with Antioxidants
Chef Wendell

www.chefwendell.com

‘Hard-Wired’ meat and potato groupies struggle to cuddle with fresh produce. Clearly, over decades of smart bomb marketing, malleable Americans have became hard-wired to disdain fresh produce from God’s Apothecary. Peculiar when one reflects humans were genetically designed to eat fresh produce.

TV was invented to sell TIDE. Face it, since its invention, powerfully influential TV advertisers circumvented food products that did not come from a cold, financially lubricated assembly line. Madison Avenue avoided promoting earthly delights simply because anyone could grow the nutritious gifts in their back yard. Instead, agribusiness preferred Americans to become reliant on a cannery or frozen, bagged versions. My compliments to the scientist!
There is a rumor the 12th Commandment Moses dropped coming down the mountain top, bespoke, ‘Thou Shalt Not Alter My Creations for Earnings”.
Renewable, sustainable organic produce is profitable to the small farmer who supports the local community; an unattractive concept to the Jolly Green Giant. Instead, agribusiness, bankers and semantics buoyed American ideals to depend on diminished, albeit, lucrative versions of ‘fresh’. Today, grocer’s shelves groan from the mass of food stripped of the healing force of Gods apothecary. It’s transparent why disease is pandemic. Americans are malnourished.
Before the Industrial Revolution, Americans were hunters and gatherers. After the industrial revolution, fresh took a back seat to convenience. During this time, influential health authorities informed citizens these accumulating chronic diseases were simply a ‘natural’ progression of aging. What a mound of steaming cow pies! The universe wishes it’s creations to flourish and be healthy well into advanced age.

Fifty years ago the feds began the systematically dismantling of the family farm; the backbone of America. Over half the people living in America at that time were happily living rurally or on a farm providing local villagers with life-sustaining plant foods. It is no coincidence that incidence of heart disease, cancer, diabetes and obesity were much lower before the birth of processed foods and agribusiness.
Spanking fresh, antioxidant-redolent produce in its divine form supplies health-supportive phytochemicals needed to repair, rebuild, defend and support the temple. Antioxidants are nutrients in plant foods which prevent and slow oxidative damage to the temple. When cells use oxygen, they naturally produce free radical by-products which cause damage. Antioxidants act as "free radical scavengers" preventing and repairing their damage. Health troubles such as macular degeneration, accelerated aging, diabetes, cancer and Alzheimer’s are all worsened by oxidative damage.
A recent study by researchers from London found that 5 servings of fruits and vegetables reduce the risk of stroke by 25 percent. A serving is one-half cup. Antioxidants also enhance immune defense and therefore lower the risk of H1N1 infection. If one were to eat raw, wild blueberries they’d be eating one of the most antioxidant rich foods on the planet. Cooking them in a pie or eating them in a Pop Tart destroys their magical antioxidant mojo.
To obtain and preserve delicate, soft skin, thick, shiny hair, long, smooth fingernails, clear, bright eyes and a brilliant, gleaming smile, one needs to feed the temple from within with fresh raw, unprocessed plant foods. By eating old or genetically altered foods, Americans are missing out on antioxidants. This charter member of the phytonutrients family is the #1 defense against chronic disease.
Smell what I’m not cookin’?

Pizza for Kids-Healthy Too!

2009-08-20T08:37:00.000-07:00

WISH TV-8-22-09
Kids in the Kitchen

‘Kid Friendly' English Muffin Pizza

Chef Wendell

http://www.wishtv.com/dpp/living/recipes/Chef_Wendell_Kid_Friendly_English_Muffin_Pizza_20090828

As well as keeping them healthy and happy, homemade pizza is a delightful way to create happy memories in the kitchen with the kids.

Ingredients:
1 English muffin, whole grain, split
About 1/3 cup of shredded skim-milk mozzarella cheese (use a different cheese, or even more than one cheese at a time)
Sliced garden tomato or 2 Tbs. tomato or pizza sauce
Fake Sausage, chorizo or mock pepperoni
Toppings: lightly sautéed spinach, mushrooms, green peppers, onions or fresh pineapple chunks.
Directions:
After fork-slicing the English muffin, place the sliced tomatoes or sauce and then the mozzarella cheese on each half of the English muffin.
Apply the sauce with a spoon or add fresh tomato slices. Go edge to edge.
Now’s the time to sneak in some ground flax seeds. They’ll never know.
Next, add a meat substitute or leave them plain.
Add chopped vegetables. (Try lightly sautéing spinach then hide it under the cheese)
Top with cheese. (There are marvelous soy cheeses on the market. Give them a try)
Place your completed 'pizza' on an aluminum foil-lined baking sheet in an oven preheated to 350 degrees F or in a toaster oven.
Bake for 5 to 10 minutes, depending on how crispy your child likes his pizza, or until the cheese is a golden brown color.
Add some fresh basil, a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and enjoy.
-------------------------------------------------------
As well as keeping them healthy and happy, homemade pizza is a delightful way to create happy memories in the kitchen with the kids.
Yes, pizza is a charming national treasure. No one disputes it tastes mighty good. However, did you know ‘to-your-door’ prepared pizzas can sabotage family health? Excessive fatty cheese in the bottom and the crusty trim combined with white flour pizza dough, salt and greasy pepperoni or sausage is a formula for obesity, high blood pressure, stroke, heart disease and diabetes. One piece accompanied with a garden salad is cool, but who eats just one.
A whole grain English muffin pizza is a healthful way to get some extra fiber, calcium and veggies into your child's diet. There are many meat substitutes on the grocery shelves. Just be lovingly sneaky when making the switch. Adding more vegetables will build up the little tyke’s immune response to fight off H1N1.
One (1) slice of pepperoni pizza contains 400 calories. To put this in perspective, a majority of candy bars have 230 to 249 calories. 4-8 year olds only need 1400-1600 calories a day.
One slice contains a whopping 1000 mg of salt. Their average daily needs 2400 mg. A normal child aged 4 to 8 typically needs only 1,200 milligrams per day, but the typical child consumes at least 2,800 per day.
One slice contains:
40% daily saturated-fat quotient
8% daily cholesterol
6 grams of sugar

The refined white flour crust stresses the pancreas
But, who eats just one slice? When you do the math, you’ll see how quickly it can ad up. Finally, when you factor in the dipping sauces, there’s trouble a-brewing. Garlic dipping sauce has an additional 150 additional calories, 17g of fat and 310g salt in each 1.5 oz cup. 911-911 Thud!
Good News! All this can just go away if moms and dads adopt the tradition of preparing home-made pizza. Let kids choose their own toppings and put the muffin pizza together by themselves. As an added bonus let them bake it themselves in an Easy-Bake Oven.Yes, pizza is a charming national treasure. No one disputes it tastes mighty good. However, did you know ‘to-your-door’ prepared pizzas can sabotage family health? Excessive fatty cheese in the bottom and the crusty trim combined with white flour pizza dough, salt and greasy pepperoni or sausage is a formula for obesity, high blood pressure, stroke, heart disease and diabetes. One piece accompanied with a garden salad is cool, but who eats just one.

A whole grain English muffin pizza is a healthful way to get some extra fiber, calcium and veggies into your child's diet. There are many meat substitutes on the grocery shelves. Just be lovingly sneaky when making the switch. Adding more vegetables will build up the little tyke’s immune response to fight off H1N1.

One (1) slice of pepperoni pizza contains 400 calories.
To put this in perspective, a majority of candy bars have 230 to 249 calories.
4-8 year olds only need 1400-1600 calories a day.
One slice contains a whopping 1000 mg of salt. Their average daily needs 2400 mg.
A normal child aged 4 to 8 typically needs only 1,200 milligrams per day, but the typical child consumes at least 2,800 per day.
One slice contains:
40% daily saturated-fat quotient
8% daily cholesterol
6 grams of sugar
The refined white flour crust stresses the pancreas

But, who eats just one slice? When you do the math, you’ll see how quickly it can add up.
Finally, when you factor in the dipping sauces, there’s trouble a-brewing.
Garlic dipping sauce has an additional 150 additional calories, 17g of fat and 310g salt in each 1.5 oz cup. 911-911 Thud!

Good News!
All this can just go away if moms and dads adopt the tradition of preparing home-made pizza.
Let kids choose their own toppings and put the muffin pizza together by themselves. As an added bonus let them bake it themselves in an Easy-Bake Oven.

Food Coloring & Aggressive 'Bully' Behavior

2009-08-14T09:20:00.000-07:00

Published August 13th, 2009

By Wendell Fowler

"Pass me those freakin’ M&M’s or I’ll rip off your face!”
Sound familiar? “Every day my child kicked, spit, hit, bit and punched. He had sudden, alarming mood changes accompanied by a spacey look, dark eye circles and bags under his eyes. When I stopped feeding him artificially colored foods at home and began packing him a brown-bag school lunch, once again he became my sweet, normal child.”

Highly reliable news sources on TV and radio report increased violence and aggression in children and adults. The bully syndrome occurs from the playground to the factory floor and into corporate boardrooms. No one likes a bully.

The morally famished fat-cats operating the food industry have known for decades that shoppers gravitate towards vibrantly colored foods, such as Skittles, Fruit Loops, M&M’s, psychedelic birthday cakes, orange farm-raised salmon, packaged red meat and pre-cut tuna steaks and cheese. Chicken, eggs and salmon are often artificially tweaked to appear appetizing. Plump chicken sitting on the supermarket shelf is likely to have been fed canthaxanthin, a pigment added to chicken feed to enhance poultry’s yellow color and make it look palatable. Egg-laying hens are also given dye with their feed, making egg yolks vary from light yellow all the way to bright orange.

Shoppers perceive these deceitful products as fresh and oh-so-tasty, but at a rather high cost to health. What food scientists don’t want known is the physiological consequences these man-made compounds cause the temple. Well, I do, because of the endless buffet of science supporting ADHD can be caused and worsened by artificial food colorings.

For example, The Oregonian reported European countries had already seized dozens of tons of farmed salmon from Chile contaminated with malachite green — a fabric dye banned in the U.S. as a suspected carcinogen. Pellets of orange dye are fed to otherwise grey-fleshed farm-raised salmon. The universe weeps.Dr. Andrew Weil continues, “The danger is the chemicals used to create color are energetic molecules, many of which are capable of interacting with and damaging DNA. Anything that damages DNA can injure the immune system, accelerate aging and increase the menace of cancer. Indeed, many synthetic food dyes once considered safe have turned out to be carcinogenic.”

Sadly, children whose precious little bodies are still developing are often the most vulnerable to the “smart bomb” marketing assault of artificially enhanced snacks, beverages and desserts which are the most likely to contain artificial color. Remember green ketchup?

Many parents swear dietary changes have helped their ADD child, yet most doctors and researchers deny food allergies or sensitivities can cause the behaviors associated with ADD or ADHD. Their conclusions were supposedly based on studies. Ritalin is highly profitable and often abused.

For those of you preparing for the return of H1N1, food colorings suppress immune function. Dr. Weil explains it has to do with the inhibition of movement of white blood cells to locations in the body where they are needed to fight infections. Read labels and do your best to avoid these pernicious colorings. You know what petroleum is? Well, that’s what artificial colors are made of, in addition to acetone and oh-so-mouth-watering coal tars. Oh, yeah, these colors are approved by the FDA.

FD&C Blue #1

FD&C Blue #2

FD&C Green #3

FD&C Red #3 (Erythrosine)

FD & Red #40FD&C Yellow

#5 (Tartrazine)FD&C

Yellow #6

Children's Nutrition-Parental Role Modelling

2009-08-10T07:02:00.000-07:00

Be a Role Model When Eating with Your Children
By Chef Wendell Fowler, author of “Eat Right, Now!”

Helping precious children maintain healthy bodies and minds doesn’t need to be a dreaded topic. The perfect time to begin influencing children by example is when they’re impressionable, before outside influences become way of life.
Your negative or positive eating rituals can and will sway a child’s eating habits. Chances are, if you have a healthy diet and maintain a healthy weight, you will your offspring.

Here are a few tips to help you be the role model you want to be when it comes to your kids and eating:
Resist the temptation to use food as leverage. Withholding food as punishment or giving it as a reward sends out a confusing message. Food should be associated with fun, adventure, staying fit and fending off the flu and cold bugs.
Eat meals as a family. Flying out the door to get to work or school? Set the breakfast table the night before so everyone can look forward to breakfast. At dinner time, shut down the TV and Facebook to establish dinner-time conversation and share the day’s activities.
Let’s your kids help in the kitchen. Children are more prone to eat what they've prepared. Spending quality family time washing, chopping, cooking and serving creates loving family relationships and memories.

Here are some quick substitutions for those less-than-healthy habits that linger in your family. Parents, instead of…
· ice cream; eat probiotic yogurt, fresh fruit, nuts and dried fruit to boost immune system.
· fast food, shop at the grocery.
· pizza; bake whole grain English Muffins with pizza sauce and low-fat mozzarella.
· grilled cheese with butter on white bread; whole grain quesadillas with low-fat cheese, tomato and chicken leftovers.
· soda pop; 2% milk or water.
· bologna & hot dogs; turkey breast.
· mayonnaise; mustard.
· diet-cola, fresh water and pure juices.
· chips: carrot and celery sticks, radishes, red peppers with light dressing.
Show how much you love your kids by practicing healthful eating behaviors. They want and need boundaries, and will love you for them!

Broccoli Bigotry

2009-08-03T13:04:00.000-07:00

Broccoli: Imagine there’s No Cancer

Go ahead, admit it. You’re a broccoli bigot.

For decades, society has feloniously asphyxiated broccoli with molten cheese; baked it into oblivion; boiled it into nothingness; drowned it in butter, bespeckled it with bacon, and slandered this bewildered cruciferous vegetable into a stupor.

Broccoli, an associate of the cabbage, lettuce, radish and cauliflower clan, was cultivated in Italy and France in the 16th century. During the 1920s, broccoli was commercially cultivated in the US for the very first time in the state of New York.

The name, broccoli, comes from an Italian word meaning branch or arm, giving the appearance of reaching up, perhaps for a heapin’ helpin’ of artery-detonating Hollandaise. The historical record on broccoli is scant and leaps from the Roman Empire to 16th century France with large gaps in between.

Leave it to ex-president George H. W. Bush to co-mingle politics and produce. He was heard to say, “Just as Poland had a rebellion against totalitarianism, I am rebelling against broccoli, and I refuse to give ground. I do not like broccoli, and I haven’t liked it since I was a little kid and my mother made me eat it. And I’m president of the United States, and I’m not going to eat any more broccoli.” So there, neyaah, neyaah!

The American Institute for Cancer Research has shown cruciferous vegetables display the ability to stop the growth of cancer cells in various cells, tissue and animal models.
Especially, broccoli sprouts. So, why in heavens’ name do we vilify broccoli when it’s a life extender? Dunno?

Large human studies suggest the complex systems of enzymes in cruciferous vegetables defend our families against cancer of the lung, breast and colon, speeds estrogen removal, are antiviral, and regulate insulin and blood sugar; a miraculous gift of the universe. Broccoli abounds with plant-chemicals, bio-active chemical compounds possessing health-promoting, disease-preventing or medicinal properties.

The ‘B’; word is one of the world’s healthiest, low-calorie foods virtually exploding with vitamin K, C, folate, B vitamins, fiber, potassium, manganese, and iron.

Has a cure for cancer been in our gardens all along? Yep. If you’ve declared war on cruciferous vegetables, step back and become a peacenik for health.

Clear your mind, treat the body and fear no food. Broccoli’s your buddy. Please, support your local Farmers Market and other Locavore sources, including your own back yard. The vast majority of conventionally grown broccoli lining the grocer’s shelves is genetically modified from its original, heavenly composition. No long term studies have been performed on the effects of eating humanly altered produce, so WE are the experiment. Such madness.

Szechuan Broccoli

Delight your taste buds with this dish. Broccoli brims with anticancer sentries, safeguarding your loving family’s precious health. Stir-frying happens rapidly, so have all ingredients by your side and rock the wok.

3 tablespoons of water
1 teaspoon of cornstarch
2 tablespoons of dry sherry
3 teaspoons of low sodium soy sauce
1 tablespoon Hoisin sauce (Chinese barbecue sauce found is most major American or Asian grocery stores)

2 heads of broccoli florets, washed thoroughly!
1 tablespoon peanut oil
1 tablespoon fresh, peeled, minced ginger
3 cloves of minced garlic
Pinch of hot peppers
1 teaspoon of toasted sesame oil

In a small bowl, stir together the water, cornstarch, sherry, soy sauce, and Hoisin. Make sure the cornstarch lumps liquefy.
Using a small paring knife, cut the heads of broccoli into small, bite size florets; peel the stems and slice them into circular “coins.” Discard the woodsy, pulpy part.
In a large nonstick skillet heat the oil over high heat. Add the ginger, garlic, hot peppers, and stir with a wooden spoon for 30 seconds. Don’t walk away; keep things moving.
Pull out the ginger. Quickly add the broccoli, stirring until the broccoli is tender, yet crisp, maybe 3 minutes.
Add the sauce and stir-fry until the broccoli is coated. Put in the sesame oil, toss and serve.
-30-
2009