A Shoppers Guide to Pesticides

The Shopper's Guide to Pesticides is a great resource for consumers looking for healthier low pesticide diets. Since organic produce can be quite expensive,  you can use the Shopper's Guide to especially avoid those conventional fruits and vegetables found to be highest in pesticides.

Eating conventionally-grown produce is definitely better than not eating fruits and vegetables at all, but it's important to know that even small doses of pesticides and chemicals can cause lasting negative effects to human health, especially during fetal development and early childhood development. The Shopper’s Guide will help you determine which fruits and vegetables have the most pesticide residues and are the most important to buy organic. According to the Environmental Working Group, you can lower your pesticide consumption by nearly four-fifths by avoiding the 12 most contaminated fruits and vegetables and instead eating the least contaminated produce.

Rinsing your produce reduces the pesticides, but doesn't completely eliminate them. Peeling your fruits and veggies also helps, but you are loosing lots of nutrients by removing the skin. The best approach: rinse all produce and buy organic when possible.

You can find the complete list fruits and vegetables tested at www.foodnews.org.

Heart Disease Prevention

This is a funny video - it will make you laugh - but it is a serious reminder that cardiovascular disease is the #1 killer of American women.

80% of cardiac events in women could be prevented if women made the right choices for their hearts involving diet, exercise and abstinence from smoking. -American Heart Association

Fruits and veggies are the cornerstone for a heart-healthy diet. You can protect your heart and blood vessels by eating these heart-healthy foods: Salmon, tomatoes, ground flaxseed, oatmeal, almonds, walnuts, blueberries, carrots, spinach, broccoli, sweet potato, cantaloupe, papaya, red bell pepper, etc. etc.

Women (and men!) - Visit the American Heart Association to learn about the signs of a heart attack and to learn more preventative steps you can take to avoid heart disease!

Recipe: Healthy Eggnog without Eggs and Milk!

One thing I love about this time of year is eggnog, but I haven't had it in a really long time because it's so bad for you!! This is a great eggnog alternative if you love the flavor of the delicious drink, but don't love all the calories, fat and sugar!! According to the Today Show, you would have to do over 2,000 jumping jacks to burn off all the calories from an 8 oz. serving of traditional eggnog!

This alternative, all-natural eggnog is packed with nutrients! It's also dairy-free, egg-less, low-fat, and heart-healthy! You can even add a shot of rum to warm up on a cold evening!

Healthy Eggnog (1 serving)

1 cup vanilla, unsweetened almond milk (40 calories)

1 T. flax seeds, ground* (37 calories)

1/2 t. organic cinnamon (3 calories)

1/4 t. organic nutmeg (3 calories)

1/2 t. pure vanilla (6 calories)

1 scoop Vanilla Complete (110 calories)

1 t. honey (20 calories)

ice cubes

Optional Ingredients: Add a little baked sweet potato or pumpkin puree

Mix all ingredients in a blender or VitaMix and enjoy!!

*I grind my flax seeds in a coffee grinder, but if you are using a VitaMix, you don't have to grind them.

Cheers to your health!

Favorite Fall Foods

I If you haven't noticed, I love Fall themed foods...
Below are some of my favorites from this Fall. If you want a recipe, let me know!!

Cran-Apple Oatmeal Bake

Recipe adapted from Mrs. Meeker! Thanks for sharing this awesome dish! I've changed a few things and even added pears one time...very tasty!

Maple Roasted Butternut Squash

Delicious and so easy! Just toss the chopped squash with maple syrup and bake at 400 until tender.

Corn Chowder (or as Jake calls it - Fire Soup)

It took me 3 attempts at making this chowder to perfect the recipe! The first 2 times, it was extremely spicy! The first time I made it I added 2 T. cayenne pepper and the last time I made it, I only added 1/4 t. of cayenne! I usually make a pot of this on Sunday night and take it to work for my lunches all week since Jake isn't a fan of the cayenne - but he did like it the 3rd time I made it!

Homemade Applesauce

Hand-picked organic apples...so good!  Of course I tried the hot applesauce on top of vanilla ice cream with cinnamon and oats!

Quit the Fizzy Pop

Check out this picture, published by an organization that has a direct financial interest in reducing your junk food intake - an insurance company.

The checklist of long-term soda induced maladies includes: asthma, kidney disease (phosphoric acid), diabetes, obesity, heart disease, tooth decay, osteoporosis and reproductive problems.

Via: Term Life Insurance

Perhaps this is a good time to point out that a typical family of 4 can save $500 a year simply by switching from soft drinks to filtered water.

Recipe: Homemade Protein-packed Gooey Granola Bars

I'm going to be honest...I was pretty hesitant to try this recipe, but I am SO glad I did because these granola bars were super easy to make and they are delicious! This is a "clean" recipe - meaning it contains all natural ingredients (nothing artificial, no refined sugars, and no hydrogenated oils). 

This whole batch contains 288 grams of protein from plant-based nutritional sources, which is about 12 grams per serving. These bars make a great on-the-go breakfast or mid morning snack. 

What I love most about this recipe is that it contains 2 cups of Juice Plus Complete powder which is all-natural, 100% plant based, whole-food nutrition. I normally use this whole-food drink mix with almond milk or added to smoothies, but I'm starting to think outside of the box with other ways to use it because it is packed with so much nutritional value...Check out the Nutrition Facts right off of the label:

 

OK...back to the recipe:

In a large bowl, mix together dry Ingredients: 

2 cups Vanilla or Chocolate Juice Plus+ Complete powder

4 cups Nature’s Path Organic Hemp Plus Granola (from Trader Joe’s)
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup dried cranberries (optional)

Stir in wet ingredients:
2 cups organic maple syrup or agave (I used a mixture of both because I don't like a really strong maple flavor)
2 cups organic, creamy peanut butter or almond butter

I started out mixing this by hand, but it was super gooey and thick, so I quickly transferred the granola mixture to my kitchen aid!

Once it's all mixed, transfer it into a greased 9x13 and press it into the pan

Sprinkle sesame seeds or shredded coconut on top and press them into the surface.

Refrigerate!

Cut into bars when the mixture is solid. Keep the bars in the fridge between servings. 

Key To Healthy Aging

I love Dr. Sears' video on 9 steps to prime time health. When I saw this video a few years ago I had an "Ah-ha!" moment while I was watching this section on keeping your arteries clean. This video does such a great job of visually explaining how God created our bodies to heal themselves if we fuel it with the right food. Our bodies do SO much on the cellular and molecular level - it completely amazes me! 

This is a great reminder that with every bite we take, we are wither investing in our health our subsidizing our illness.

To avoid Disability, Disease, and Doctors in the future - focus on preventative health by eating more whole grains, fruits, and vegetables!

If you want to see the rest of the video (there are 8 more tips) - let me know!

Recipe: Raw Butter Fudge

Before I give the details of this recipe, let me first say that I made this last week as a healthy snack for Jake and I. You might be asking yourself, "How can a dish with the words 'butter' and 'fudge' be healthy?". Well, let me explain:

After World War II butter was villanized in the Western World because it got a lot of bad press for being linked to heart disease. Ironically,  isn't it interesting that even though butter consumption decreased in America (increased consumption of margarine and other butter substitute), the obesity rate continued to rise and the epidemic of heart disease in our country did not let up? 

Butter substitutes are very cheap for manufacturers to produce and are either loaded with factory fats (which are strongly linked to heart disease) or they are made through a very unhealthy process called "interesterification". Margarine is an unhealthy processed food, created chemically through a process called hydrogenation from refined oils. Butter substitutes also contain artificial colors and flavors.

Raw, organic butter (from grassfed animals), on the other hand, has been consumed for centuries and is an excellent source of Vitamin A, Vitamin E, and minerals like Selenium. It contains several fatty acids, like butyric acid which is a known anti-carcinogen. For more information on the health benefits of butter, check out the 20 Health Benefits of Real Butter, and The Untold Story of Butter. Obviously, too much butter is not a good thing, but it's good in moderation.

I emphasized above that your butter should be raw and grass fed. This is because pasteurization destroys nutrients. Try to find a local farm to buy your raw butter from. If you can't find a local farm I would recommend Kerrygold Irish Butter from the grocery store...the milk they use is from grassfed cows. Naturally deep yellow colored butter is the best!

One more thing about butter and then I'll share this delicious recipe...I am passionate about pregnancy health. I am NOT pregnant, but it fascinates me and I think it is soo important for women to to be educated on nutrition because everything the mom eats gets shared with the baby. I mention pregnancy health because healthy fats should be consumed during pregnancy because they are vital for the baby's developing brain, bones, and teeth. Read more about pregnancy and butter here. I share this because I think so many women get wrapped up in the idea that a healthy diet is a low fat diet. Just remember, there are good fats and bad fats. Just do your research!

P.S. - I am focusing on butter in this post, but there are several other sources of healthy fats besides butter - coconut oil, avocado, walnuts, almonds, olive oil, etc. etc.

Raw Butter Fudge

Recipe adapted from The Healthy Home Economist

1 cup softened raw, grassfed butter

1 cup raw, local honey

1/2 cup carob powder

1/2 cup fresh ground creamy peanut butter

1/4 cup fresh ground almond butter

2 tsp chocolate extract (if you have it)

1 tsp vanilla extract (if you don't use chocolate extract, than triple the vanilla...I love vanilla!)

1/2 tsp sea salt

Mix ingredients in a large bowl until smooth. Spread in a 8X8 pan or one of similar size and freeze. Cut the fudge into small squares and store them in the freezer. You can just grab a square out of the freezer when you need to satisfy a sweet tooth (and get some good fats into your body)!