Ways To Increase Your Veggie Intake Without Tasting Them

With a two-year-old in the house and a husband who likes his dinners consisting of at least 60-70% vegetables, meal-planning can get somewhat difficult. Like many toddlers, my son does not enjoy anything green on his plate, so we have to get sneaky with our cooking.

Add greens to your foods.

Leafy greens, especially spinach and collard greens, have become a staple in this house for many reasons. They are one of my superfoods, because they are high in so many essential vitamins and minerals, including calcium. Since Gabriel is allergic to milk, we have to make sure he is getting enough calcium through the foods he eats.

Greens are also very easy to hide in our food. We hide them in our noodles and just about any dish we make with ground meat, like meatballs, meatloaf, tacos, spaghetti, etc. You can't really taste the greens in the food, which is why Gabe will gobble these dishes up without caring that there is something green on his plate.

Add pureed veggies to your dishes.

Another method for hiding veggies in your food is to include pureed versions in your dishes. Over the summer I bought extra produce at the Farmer's Market and made/froze homemade baby food for David, but later decided not to introduce solid foods until after he was 9 months old. By the time he was eating solids he wasn't very interested in the pureed versions and went straight to finger foods. This left me with gallons of frozen squash, apples, pumpkin and pears in my freezer.

The baby food is made by softening the veggies (I prefer to steam them to maintain more of the vitamin content) and then blending them in the food processor. Then I spoon the puree into ice cube trays and freeze them. Once they are frozen you can break the cubes apart and store them in freezer bags.



When preparing your dinner, just throw a few cubes into the dish (each cube is approximately 2 tablespoons).



They will melt down and you will barely taste them in your meal.

You may not have a picky toddler in your house, but perhaps you have a spouse that doesn't like to eat veggies. Maybe you have extra produce that will go bad soon and you don't know what to do with it. Or perhaps you are just looking for ways to increase your vegetable intake without having to eat salads at every meal. Pureeing, freezing and sneaking them into your food is a perfect solution!

As always, make sure your produce is locally grown, organic, and in-season.

-Jessica

Recipe for the meal shown above:
Brown one pound of free range turkey with baby spinach, carrots, celery, fresh parsley, 2 cloves of garlic, 5 cubes of squash, sea salt, and some pure olive oil (make sure it is regular olive oil, not virgin or extra virgin).

Natural Deodorants

A few months ago I decided to ditch my normal deodorant/antiperspirant and find a more natural alternative. My main reason for wanting to switch was because of the aluminum found in most women's anti-perspirants. Many men's brands do not have aluminum, but all of the common women's brands do.

Aluminum is a toxin that has been linked to Alzheimer's Disease, brain disorders, respiratory disorders and even cancer. Some scientists believe that the increase in breast cancer could be due to the fact that the aluminum blocks the lymph nodes near the breast, causing toxins to pool there.

There isn't enough concrete evidence at this point to directly link the chemicals in deodorant to anything for sure, but I just don't feel safe testing my luck.

I had tried to switch deodorants during my last pregnancy and found that nothing was working as well as my normal brand. But recently I decided to give all of the brands I had purchased a try again.



Here are the aluminum-free brands I tried and the results (safety scores come from the Skin-Deep Cosmetic Safety Database - the lower the score, the safer the product):

JASON Natural Cosmetics Deodorant Roll-On - Aloe Vera

Safety Rating - 4

Effectiveness - The product smells wonderful, but left me feeling wet and sticky all morning long. It never completely dried after the initial application and was pretty ineffective.

Tom's of Maine Long-Lasting Deodorant - Apricot

Safety Rating - 2 (The database did not having a rating for this specific scent, but all other deodorants by Tom's of Maine scored an average of 2)

Effectiveness - The product smelled wonderful and worked well for a few hours, but wore off quickly. Frequent reapplication would be necessary for the product to be effective.

Nature's Gate Grapefruit and Wild Ginger Deodorant

Safety Rating - 5 (The database did not having a rating for this specific scent, but all other deodorants by Nature's Gate scored an average of 5)

Effectiveness - I did not enjoy the smell of this product and it was completely ineffective, even with frequent reapplication.

now Personal Care Nature's Deodorant Stick

Safety Rating - 0 (The database did not have a rating for this specific brand, however other sticks with the same ingredients scored an average of 0)

Effectiveness - The product was very effective for several hours after the inital application. Frequent reapplication would be necessary for the product to be completely effective.

I wasn't happy enough with any of the brands to use them on a regular basis, so instead of wasting more money on other "natural" brands, I decided to make my own.

My first trial was with baking soda. I simply applied a thick coating to my underarms after I got out of the shower and let it soak in. The results were not very good - it was itchy and gave me a rash that looked like I was burned. I had the same results with an application of witch hazel and then another with vinegar (both of these wet options also made me smell even worse than I would have if I skipped them).

So, my final experiment was to just stop using a deodorant completely. I started doing this about two months ago. I'm not going to lie - during the first few weeks I smelled really bad! I had to "freshen up" multiple times throughout the day and try to mask the odor with essential oils. But, after about a month I noticed that the smell had started to get better. (I realize that one can get used to their own smells, so I made sure to check with Adam to make sure I wasn't just immune to it.)

I've also noticed that my scent changes based on the foods I eat. If I put junk into my body, especally sugar, I smell bad the next day. So long as I eat natural foods I am usually safe.

If I shower every day and freshen up on days I sweat more than I normally would, I don't notice a bad smell at all.

Everyone's body chemistry is different, and what works for one person isn't going to work for everybody, but if you're willing to experiment a little and possibly smell for a short period of time until you find the right fix, you can find a way to stop clogging your lymph nodes with toxins!

-Jessica

Are fever-reducing medications necessary?

This cold and flu season, do yourself a favor and allow your body to use it's own defense mechanisms to fight off sickness. Many times we rush to take over-the-counter medications in an effort to treat the symptoms of an illness, but what we are really doing is just prolonging the sickness and not allowing our bodies to work the way they should to recover more quickly.

What is a fever?

A fever is a sign that your body is fighting off a virus or germ. It is a defense mechanism - just as many food items are heated to kill bad bacteria, your body heats itself to kill bad bacteria.

Many viruses thrive and multiply at our body's normal temperature - 98.6 - so a fever is a sign that your body is doing it's job and attempting to kill any invading pathogens.

Is a fever dangerous?

It can be.

In an adult it usually doesn't become dangerous until it reaches 103. In small children, 101 is usually a cause for concern.

What can happen if you let a fever go untreated?

A rapid rise or fall in temperature can cause febrile seizures in children. Gabriel had this happen to him when he had roseola, which is very common, but also very scary.

But other than that, a fever generally does nothing but cause discomfort for you. It may give you the chills or make you sweat, but it isn't going to hurt you. In fact, if the fever is doing it's job, it is actually helping your body heal faster by killing off the virus.

If fevers help us, why do people take medication to lower fevers?

Generally, our society is scared of having a fever, even low-grade ones. Many people believe that if you let a fever go untreated you could cause brain damage and other problems in children. While fevers should always be monitored in children and shouldn't be allowed to get too high, it is doubtful that a fever is the cause of any damage that could happen when you are sick. Usually, the illness that causes the fever is what does the damage - the fever is just a side effect of the illness.

Many health care professionals will advise you to take something to bring down your fever, but what we forget is that doctors aim to treat symptoms, not the cause of your illness. Treating the fever makes you more comfortable and many times there is no treatment for the virus you have. But by being uncomfortable for a short period of time and not treating the fever, you can possibly reduce the length of time you are sick.

I have been told many times to alternate between acetaminophen and ibuprofen if my children were to spike a fever. This is very common advice for pediatricians to give, especially younger doctors. But this advice has led to an increase in accidental overdose in children and isn't fully supported by the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Why are you so anti-medicine?

It's not the medication that scares me, it's the inactive ingredients in them. Here is a list of the ingredients in Children's Tylenol Suspension Liquid - Cherry Blast flavor:

Anhydrous citric acid, butylparaben, FD&C Red#40, flavors, glycerin, high fructose corn syrup, microcrystalline cellulose and carboxymethyl cellulose sodium, propylene glycol, purified water, sodium benzoate, sorbitol solution, sucralose, xanthan gum.

I find many of these ingredients unnecessary and extremely unhealthy. The red dye has been known to cause many health problems. Click here for a list.

Sure there are dye-free versions of these medications available, but they still contain the high fructose corn syrup, propylene glycol, butylparaben, citric acid, and other extremely unhealthy ingredients.

When my children are sick and fighting off pathogens, I don't like polluting their immune systems with even more toxins to fight off. It seems counter-productive.

What does your family do if one of you has a fever?

We monitor the fever and only give fever-reducing medication if our temperatures rise to dangerous levels (103 for adults and 101 for children). We take temperatures often so we know exactly what is going on.

For a low-grade fever we generally do nothing at all but give lots of cuddles and hugs as needed.

We recently purchased a Vick's Forehead Thermometer, and although it was an expensive investment, it was well worth the money. We found that other cheaper digital thermometers were inaccurate and non-digital thermometers took too long/were too hard to use when holding down a squirmy baby. The forehead thermometers give an accurate reading (we compared it to the readings at the doctor's office), can be taken while a child is sleeping, and alert you when a fever is dangerous.

If a temperature lasts more than a few days and it is "showing", we know it is a sign of infection and we make sure to call the doctor. By showing, I mean that we are feeling run-down and tired with the fever. Many times you can have a fever and not even be aware of it.

We do not dose our children with medication prior to getting a vaccine like many doctors advise, because we feel it could interfere with it and could be too many toxins for their bodies to handle at once. Since I spread out vaccines and only give one per visit, my children have never needed a dose of medication due to the effects of the shots.

We treat the discomfort of the fever by giving warm baths, wearing appropriate clothing and using wet washcloths on the forehead. We also make sure to increase our fluid intake.

Stay safe this cold and flu season!! We hope that you don't get a fever anytime soon, but if it happens make sure to give your body a chance to fight it off naturally before taking any medication.

-Jessica

Source:

"Fever: Treatments and drugs - MayoClinic.com." Mayo Clinic medical information and tools for healthy living - MayoClinic.com. Web. 12 Nov. 2009. .

Movie Recommendation - Food, Inc.

Food, Inc., a new documentary exploring the American food industry, was just released on DVD yesterday. I have been anticipating the release of this movie for months and made sure we got the one and only copy at our video store yesterday.

I thought the movie was very well-made and inspiring. As with any documentary, there were a few parts that were a bit too "Michael Moore" for me - for example, making a political point as a cow is being tortured in the background - but for the most part I felt it was informative.

The documentary covers pretty much every aspect of our nation's food industry - labeling, health issues, political issues, big business, the organic sector, etc. - with the overall goal of showing you exactly how your food gets to your grocery store.

I have to warn you though, some of the footage is graphic and disturbing, especially the scenes on the chicken farms and in the slaughterhouses. I also found footage from the food processing plants where they showed how the filler that is in 70% of store-bought ground beef is bathed in ammonia to kill e-coli equally horrifying.

There was only one part of the movie that I found to be completely hypocritical and worthy of a huge eyeroll from me, and that was when they were interviewing Gary Hirshberg from Stonyfield Farms. They showed how Gary started out in the industry with the intention of creating organic, wholesome food for people, probably while living out of a Volkswagen bus. Then as Gary goes on bashing capitalism over and over again, he then shows us how his little organic company has now been bought by Dannon yogurts and is sold in WalMart stores across the nation. I'm pretty sure capitalism has been good to him.

But then they showed an organic farmer named Joel Salatin, who treats his animals with care and has the health of his customers at the top of his list of priorities. He says that when you start thinking too big and increasing the size of your food operations, you start sacrificing the integrity of your product, and the health of your customers.

For me, this information couldn't have come at a more relevant time, as yesterday our state (Ohio) just voted on and passed an issue allowing an amendment to our Constitution, creating a board of industry professionals to determine best management practices for our state. Our state will now have farmers, college professors, elected officials, and others who are in bed with these huge corporations making decisions about what is best for our health and safety when it comes to our food (although I'm sure the bottom line will be their true priority).

So the point of the documentary, and the inspiring part for me, was the statement at the very end of the film - you have the ability to vote on these issues three times a day, as you are purchasing, preparing and eating your meals. You can choose to support these huge corporate farmers, who pollute the environment, treat their animals with absolutely no respect, exploit their workers, and focus on their bottom line (instead of your health) OR you can "vote" for safe, local, fresh foods from farmers like Joel Salatin.

In Ohio yesterday, my vote may not have mattered, since an overwhelming majority of citizens decided to support corporate farmers, but I will continue to vote each and every day as I prepare healthy meals for my family and choose to only spend our hard-earned dollars supporting people who value life the same way we do.

Learn more about what happened in Ohio with Issue 2 here.

Oil Extraction Techniques

There are different extraction processes for making an oil from a fruit, vegetable, nut or seed. You may have seen the words "expeller-pressed" or "cold-pressed" on a bottle before and wondered what that meant.

The cheapest and most common method for extracting oils involves heating the seed to an extremely high temperature and crushing it, thus causing exposure to even more heat through friction. Any oils not obtained through the pressure are treated with a hexane solvent, some of which remains on the oil even after it is washed away.

The high heat from this process creates free radicals and destroys the antioxidants that normally protect us from them. And although hexane levels are generally low in the oils, hexane poisoning can cause muscular and vision problems.

Another extraction process is called expeller-expression. In this technique the seeds are drilled and exposed to lower temperatures. Some expeller-pressed oils are still treated with hexane. This is why it is important to make sure your oils are organic.

Cold-pressed oils are those that have not been exposed to high temperatures, but there is little regulation in the United States as to what defines a high temperature. Some expeller-pressed oils are not considered cold-pressed.

Why does it matter how the oils are extracted?

As I mentioned before, organic expeller-pressed oils are not treated with chemicals, additives or preservatives. But these oils are also healthier because if stored correctly they are not rancid like oils made from other extraction processes. Most oils turn sour when they are exposed to too much heat, light or oxygen. So, the bottles of oil on the grocery store shelf are usually rancid before you even open them, making them full of free radicals and bad for your intestinal health. The oils generally don't smell sour because they go through a deodorizing process.

Tip: Always remember to store your expeller-pressed oils in a dark container in the fridge so you limit their exposure to light and heat.

To see a chart of oils from best to worst for you, click here.

-Jessica

Source:

Fallon, Sally. Nourishing traditions the cookbook that challenges politically correct nutrition and the diet dictocrats. Washington, DC: NewTrends Pub., 1999.

Homemade Crackers

I am working on a series of posts comparing the ingredients of popular store-bought foods to homemade versions. Having a child with severe food allergies, it is important that I make the food we eat in my own kitchen, where I can control what is actually in it.

Knowing what is actually in the foods you eat is very important. Many times successful marketing tricks consumers into believing a food is healthier than it actually is.

Here are some examples:

Triscuit Crackers Baked Whole Grain Wheat Rosemary & Olive Oil

The words baked, whole grain, and olive oil might make them sound healthy, but here are the ingredients: WHOLE WHEAT, SOYBEAN AND/OR PALM OIL, MALTODEXTRIN, SALT, SPICES (INCLUDES ROSEMARY), MONOSODIUM GLUTAMATE (FLAVOR ENHANCER), ONION POWDER, NATURAL FLAVOR, OLIVE OIL.

Olive oil is listed as the very last ingredient. The oils actually used to make the crackers are soybean and palm oils - two of the cheaper and unhealthier oils on the market. The crackers also contain maltodextrin to make them crispy, MSG to enhance the flavor, and "natural flavors", which can mean just about anything.

Wheat Thins Crackers - Hint of Salt

Ingredients: ENRICHED FLOUR (WHEAT FLOUR, NIACIN, REDUCED IRON, THIAMINE MONONITRATE {VITAMIN B1}, RIBOFLAVIN {VITAMIN B2}, FOLIC ACID), SOYBEAN OIL, WHOLE GRAIN WHEAT FLOUR, SUGAR, DEFATTED WHEAT GERM, CORNSTARCH, MALT SYRUP (FROM BARLEY AND CORN), HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, MONOGLYCERIDES, SALT, VEGETABLE COLOR (ANNATTO EXTRACT, TURMERIC OLEORESIN), SOY LECITHIN.

The first ingredient is enriched wheat, despite the fact that the packaging makes you think they are using quality wheat. These crackers include sugar, malt syrup AND high fructose corn syrup, as well as ingredients to make them a more appealing color and emulsifiers to make it all mix better.

Throwing together a batch of homemade crackers takes less than five minutes and helps you avoid eating all of those unhealthy ingredients. Here is what you need:

1 cup organic flour (I have used whole wheat and spelt flour, but any type would work)
1/4 t. yeast
a dash of baking soda
salt (as much as you like)
1/2 cup water
1 t. butter or the oil of your choice
any spices or flavors you prefer (rosemary, garlic salt, sun-dried tomatoes, basil, pepper, seeds, etc.)

Combine the flour, yeast, baking soda, and salt. Add your spices. I like to use rosemary and/or garlic salt. Then add the water and either butter or oil. (Remember not to use extra virgin versions while baking if you are going to use olive oil. Learn why here.)

Roll the dough onto a cookie sheet and score it with a pizza cutter or knife. You can also use cookie cutters to make fun shapes for kids. Sprinkle extra salt if you like your crackers salty.

Bake for ten minutes or until crispy at 400 degrees.

















And there you have it! Organic, preservative-free crackers in less than fifteen minutes. They taste to me like a cross between the two crackers listed above - they have the flavor of the triscuits (if you use rosemary as an ingredient), with the texture of a wheat thin.

Enjoy!

- Jessica

Food Combinations For Optimal Health

Several years ago Adam and I noticed that the order in which we were eating our foods was having an effect on our digestion. At the time I was reading The Maker's Diet by Jordan Rubin, which talked a little about food combining diets. We looked into it briefly and made a few changes to our diets - mainly eating our salads and fruits first so that they didn't sit and rot in our stomachs after we were done eating. Adam noticed a change in his digestion immediately.

On the way home from work a few weeks ago, he heard a radio program by Dr. Ann Wigmore about food combinations and it reignited our interest in the topic. Many of the things we have learned during our research over the past few weeks has been very interesting.

Fun food-combining facts:

Eat Vitamin C with Green Tea because it increases the absorption of the antioxidants in the tea. For example - squeeze lemon into your tea.

Eat Vitamin-rich foods with Fats because many essential vitamins (especially A,D and E) are absorbed best by the body when eaten with fats. For example - cook your vitamin-rich veggies in an oil.

Eat Garlic with Fish because studies show the garlic helps lower the LDL-cholesterol in fish oil.

Eat Turmeric with Black Pepper because the piperine in the pepper increases the anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory, and tumor-fighting effects of the turmeric.

Eat Rosemary with Grilled Meat because the herbs antioxidants soak up the carcinogens in the meat. Eating cruciferous vegetables with grilled meat is also recommended. Read more about that here.

Eat Leafy Greens with Citrus because Vitamin C helps your body absorb plant-based iron. For example - squeeze lemon on your spinach.

Eat Oatmeal with Vitamin C because the combination of the phenols in both foods stabilizes LDL cholesterol. For example - squeeze an orange into your oatmeal.

Other Food Combination Rules:

These are based on Dr. Ann Wigmore's program.

1 - Eating one food per sitting is always best.
2 - Melons should always be eaten alone.
3 - There are three kinds of fruits - acid, subacid and sweet. Never eat acidic (orange, grapefruit, pomegranate, strawberry, pineapple, tangerine, lemon, lime, and kiwi) and sweet (banana, dates, raisins, papaya, fresh fig, grapes, persimmon and other dried fruits) together.
4 - Don't mix fruits and veggies, except for tomatoes.
5 - Don't mix starches and proteins, because starches create alkali in the stomach, while proteins create acid - they neutralize one another and make digestion difficult.
6 - Don't drink while eating because it dilutes your stomach acid and enzymes, making it harder to digest food.
7 - Eat raw foods before cooked.
8 - Only eat one type of protein per meal.
9 - Don't eat milk with meat.
10 - Don't drink wine with ale or beer.

Some of these things seem like common sense, but others go against everything our society teaches about healthy eating. We have always been told that you should eat a well-balanced meal, complete with protein, carbs, fruits, veggies and a large glass of water to keep you from overeating. This research by Dr. Wigmore shows that doing so causes serious digestive problems, which may be the reason that the average American walks around with nearly 5 pounds of undigested, rotting meat in their system.

We hear a lot about how eating small meals, or grazing, throughout the day is a great way to keep your metabolism burning, but it may also be a good way to follow these food combination rules. Eating one item at each sitting, several times throughout the day, may be the best way to keep your digestive system healthy.

I realize that there are a lot of different rules out there and it is really hard to keep them all in mind when you are planning a meal. I think that every little bit helps and if you can remember to do a few of them at a time it is better than not doing any of them at all. Eventually the rules will become easier to follow as you slowly incorporate them into your diet.

-Jessica

Sources:

"Ann Wigmore and the Hippocrates Health Program." Reasonably, Rationally, and Realistically Raw. Web. 20 Oct. 2009. .

"Healthy Food Combinations." Buzzle Web Portal: Intelligent Life on the Web. Web. 20 Oct. 2009. .

"Healthy Food Combinations: Men's Health.com." Men's Health - Men's Guide to Fitness, Health, Weight Loss, Nutrition, Sex, Style and Guy Wisdom. Web. 20 Oct. 2009. .

"Vitamin C May Boost Absorption of Green Tea's Antioxidants." Alternative Medicine - Everything You Need to Know About Alternative Medicine. Web. 20 Oct. 2009. .