It's the new year and we are all feeling ambitious.  I think this is the time of year we are the most open to trying new things.  Why not try something super healthy and delicious?


Try expanding your families diet to include greens for these 3 reasons:

Here is 1 yummy recipe you can try from Dr. Weil that you can make for fast healthy meals for dinner and will be filled with nutrients and one superfood used over thousands of years in Chinese and Indian Medicine.  I will be making this dish sometime before the weekend for sure!  I will let you know how the girls like it :) Click here for the complete recipe, and enjoy!

Yesterday I posted a super yummy all natural Fresh Lemonade recipe using Honey instead of Sugar.  Some of you wondered…Why?

Here are the basics:

Refined Sugar: Also called Sucrose, table sugar, or saccharose.

Refined sugar often comes from sugar cane or sugar beet.  That’s the natural part.  It’s what happens after it’s been harvested.  It’s manufactured and processed until it has been stripped of all vitamins, minerals, and proteins; and you end up with refined sugar.  The sugar is empty, dead, naked…your body get’s absolutely nothing from it except for a spike in energy and insulin which is NOT a good thing. 

So what?  Why should you care about consuming these empty calories?  It’s the nutrients your body has to give up to metabolize it.  The sugar makes your body unstable, so your body has to give up precious minerals like potassium, magnesium, sodium, and calcium to restore balance.  Your body gives up calcium from your bones and teeth first which makes them weak and start to decay, hence tooth decay and osteoporosis.

Your liver stores refined sugar as glucose, but capacity is limited.  The glucose is released into your blood and is stored in your belly, thighs, breasts, and butt!  Once these places are full, it travels to your kidneys and heart where abnormal blood pressure begins.  Eventually your nervous, circulatory, & lymphatic systems are invaded, your white blood cells are elevated and your immune system becomes so comprimised your body has a hard time fighting off anything from a bug bite, to a serious infection.

It also causes your body to produce excess amounts of insulin.  Insulin encourages cellular growth, great for healthy cells, but not so good for abnormal and cancer cells.

The energy spike is very temporary and makes you crash which leaves you in a constatnt state of fatigue and wanting more.

It’s highly addictive!  The average American eats 2-3 pounds of sugar EVERY WEEK!

If you and your family are on a high-sugar diet, start weaning yourselves now!  You may feel ok now, but you will pay the price later.  Diseases like heart disease, cancer, obesity, diabetes don’t happen overnight…it takes YEARS for these illneses to build up.

Honey

I’m talking about raw natural honey, not the typical processed stuff you find in a cute little bear at the local grocery store.  That stuff is not much better than refined sugar.  Generally the darker the honey the more antioxidents it has do don’t be afraid to go with something darker.

Honey is superior to refined sugar in that it has nutrients your body can actually use and absorb.  It has antioxidants, enzymes, 22 amino acids, and studies show it to increase your bodies ability to effectively process glucose (the exact opposite of sugar).  Because of the anti-bacterial properties of honey it can help to improve the digestive system.

It has lots of ancient healing properties which I will not get into here, but it’s been around for thousands of years and has been used as an antiseptic, cleanser, and anti-inflammatory to name a few.

It is calorie dense, so beware of how much you are using.  You will need less honey than refined sugar as honey is sweeter. If honey is your only sugar intake (and it most likely is not) 3-5 tablespoons per day is more than enough.

Disclaimer:  Do not give honey to children less than 1 year!!!

Hearing all the nutrition jargon that’s out there can no doubt be confusing.  My mom asks me all the time, “Honey, which one is good again?”  With all the things we have to remember in our busy lives it’s hard to really take it in.  Here are some easy definitions and tips you can and must remember!  Bookmark this if you need to because as you will see it’s so important and vital to your health.

Omega 3 and Omega 6 are essential fatty acids that our body cannot make on its own so we must get them from the foods we eat.  Our bodies’ need both to achieve optimal balance.  

Omega 6 is an essential fatty acid extracted from nuts and seeds and thus found in most vegetable oils and soybean oils.  It’s abundant in sweets, fast food, crackers, and most anything processed.  You without a doubt consume this most often and while your body does need it, it’s very dangerous in the quantities we have become accustomed to.

Omega 3’s are found in olive oil and cold water fish such as salmon and herring.  Unless you are really trying, you consume this much less which contributes to poor health and disease.

Why is this?

Omega 6’s fosters inflammation in our bodies.  That just sounds bad doesn’t it?   Omega 3’s have the complete opposite effect, they fight inflammation in our bodies.

Our Western culture has made our diets ultra rich in omega 6 fatty acids and dangerously lacking omega 3’s by an average ratio of 16:1!  Your ratio of Omega 6 to Omega 3 fatty acid ratio should be about 1:1 or 1:2 for optimal health and balance.

This imbalance is not doubt contributing to chronic inflammation and diseases such as asthma, heart disease, cancers, auto immune diseases, obesity, depression, and stroke to name a few.

Looking back on my first 25 years I rarely consumed Omega 3’s.  My mom didn’t like fish so we never ate it, and all cooking was with butter or vegetable oil.  In her defense back then nutrition was not talked about like it is today. 

When I was 29 I was diagnosed with an auto immune disease that doctor’s believed I had since early childhood.  Now I’m not saying that this imbalance alone caused it, but I’m sure it was one contributing factor.  As a mother of 2 I am very aware of what I am putting into my daughters’ bodies.  I want them to have balanced nutrition for a healthy life.

Healthy eating tips: 

·         Replace your vegetable oils like corn, sunflower, safflower, soy, and cottonseed with extra virgin olive oil for cooking and making salad dressings.

·         Eat less processed and fast foods.

·         Consume more fatty fish like sardines, salmon, herring, black cod, and mackerel,

·         Consume more foods with flax seed which is naturally rich in omega 3’s

·         Buy eggs fortified with omega 3

·         Walnuts, scallops, cauliflower, cabbage, shrimp, cod, and tofu are also good sources of Omega 3’s.

·         Read labels!  You can find so many things fortified with healthy omega 3’s

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