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.
Monday, November 8, 2010
Monday, November 1, 2010
Thanksgiving-Romanticized Consumption
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.
.
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.
.
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Vegaholic's Unite!
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.
“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.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
In Fall and Winter, We Dwell Within
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.
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.
Monday, September 27, 2010
Why it's so expensive to eat healthy
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
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.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
The Amazing Curative Apple; Forbidden Fruit?
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.
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.
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Snacking Alternatives to Dead Food
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.
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
