Kelp
Americans eat too much salt. It is found in everything we like: pizza, commercial meats, soups, breads, cakes, candies, soy sauce, cola drinks, and V8 juice–read the labels. High sodium intake increases our risk of weight-gain, high blood pressure and stroke. It’s a foolish shame we don’t eat more healthy sodium found in very ripe fruits like overripe citrus, plums, and in okra and celery. Those sources of sodium, not refined salt, increase ease of movement and calcium absorption. They help prevent bone spurs and arthritis. Celery also reduces cellulite and helps keep cholesterol in check.
Kelp, this lovely seaweed that dances in ocean water, provides not only sodium but all the other minerals we need for strong bones, teeth, muscles, and the heart. Here are other healthy sources of the salty flavor that are not salt.
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We used to say, “A family that prays together stays together,” later changed to: “A family that plays together stays together.” Now it’s: A family that gets surgery together can enjoy the same junk foods. A New Jersey researcher has found that when two people from the same family — a husband and wife, a parent and child, or two siblings, for example — both get gastric bypass surgery to “correct” obesity, they shed more pounds than someone who has to go it alone, according to a report presented Friday at the annual meeting of the American Society for Metabolic & Bariatric Surgery. This makes sense when we remember a previous study, which found that overweight people, who hang out with overweight friends, reinforce each others’ habits. That’s not to say that all bypass surgery is a come-on to support the medical industry. I know of one formerly overweight person whose bypass surgery gave him a svelte figure, a new lease on life because it normalized his diabetes, and energy to walk five miles a day. It worked great for him so far. But I have also overheard nurses discussing the down side of weight loss surgery: a lifetime of supplements, complications, and even death. It costs less to eat better. Here are a few ways to lose weight and beat diabetes without the knife.
Shilajit, a major Ayurvedic rejuvenation tonic, is refined from an exudate pressed out from layers of rock in the Himalayan mountains. Shilajit is composed of humus and organic plant material that has been compressed by layers of rock. The active principle of shilajit is fulvic acid.
Shilajit is a balanced general tonic comprising useful mineral and organic constituents that is taken to help digestion and with the assimilation of foods. Shilajit is often used in combination with other specific plant decoctions to, for example, support respiratory and genitourinary functions. Shilajit is also known as Mineral Pitch or Black Asphaltum, is a rich source of natural occurring minerals. Shilajit has been widely used in India, Tibet, China, Pakistan, middle eastern countries and Russia for common ailments to tonify the immune system.
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Curves are beautiful when supported by muscle.
Healthbeat Harvard Medical School: Muscle tissue, bone density, and strength all dwindle over the years. So, too, does muscle power. These changes open the door to accidents and injuries that can compromise your ability to lead an independent, active life. Strength training is an effective way to slow and possibly reverse much of this decline. Muscle loss affects the body in many ways. Strong muscles pluck oxygen and nutrients from the blood much more efficiently than weak ones. That means any activity requires less cardiac work and puts less strain on your heart. Strong muscles are better at sopping up sugar in the blood and helping the body stay sensitive to insulin (which helps cells remove sugar from the blood). In these ways, strong muscles can help keep blood sugar levels in check, which in turn helps prevent or control type 2 diabetes and is good for the heart. Strong muscles also enhance weight control.
Continue reading ‘The Beauty of Strong Muscles – músculos fuertes’
This evening is the last meeting of my Cooking for Health class at the NY Open Center. It adapts principles of traditional Asian medicine with fast easy recipes. Tonight we cover foods for Cranes. In Feed Your Tiger, I describe them as people who would rather work, smoke or email than eat. In other words, tonight’s class is for people who neither cook nor eat. They may seem hard-driving, spacey, or have chosen to eat a superlight diet for spiritual or other reasons. Often they require nourishing, grounding foods in order to stay on track with work, relationships and health. Traditional Chinese medicine describes their health issues in terms of the Metal Element affecting the lungs, large intestine and skin. Air, minerals, and Spirit hold them together. They may be involved with idealist work, pursuing their own perfection, or hiding out behind a smoke screen to avoid depleting contact with others. Here is a nourishing, quick dish you can make in quantity and refrigerate. It can be used as a fasting food.
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On a calm black night, you can smell the seaweed giving life and breath to earth and feel the easy flow of waves caressing the ocean floor. This is Maine near the Canadian border, the home of the seaweed man, Larch Hanson. I love getting emails and buying seaweed from him. He has devoted four decades of his life romancing the ocean. He harvests and dries seaweed and teaches the love and craft of husbanding the ocean’s gifts. He also teaches furniture making and body work. He takes apprentices and overnight guests stay free. He is as generous as the waves and open air.
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Think whole grain pasta. Add stevia and parsley not sugar to tomato sauce.
We love traditional recipes–the memories, flavors, and emotional benefits of eating recipes we have loved since childhood. Tomatoes, red wine, fish, and grapes make a Mediterranean smile. They are healthy for many people. My “cooking for health” class is different from others because I do not stress recipes as much as healthy ingredients that prevent specific illness. They include tea with hawthorn to protect the heart. Bitter cleansing greens cleanse impurities in order to avoid allergies, blemishes and acidity. Hormone-balancing, energizing maca powder is useful for men and women. Anticancer mushrooms such as shiitake, enoki, and reishi assure a long comfortable life. When cooking for health, we think prevention at every meal. Many people can use these ingredients in creative ways.
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You think you have a salt-free diet? Think again. Lots of foods have hidden salt. Some you may never suspect. For example: canned foods, processed lunch meats, corn flakes and other cold cereals, and vegetable juices.
Sodium plays an important role in maintaining the body’s fluid balance. It’s essential for muscles and nerves to function properly. Natural sodium, found in celery, okra and goat whey, play an important part in calcium absorption. Table salt is a processed food that stresses the kidneys. Most of us consume too much of it. FDA guidelines call for less than 2,400 mg of sodium per day — about 1 teaspoon of table salt. Surprisingly, most of our salt intake doesn’t come from the salt shaker; it’s hidden in many of the foods we buy at the grocery store. If you crave salt and need it along with a healthy balance of other minerals, try eating some dried or cooked seaweeds–dulse, kelp, alaria, and nori, an excellent source of protein. If the oceans are the “blood” of the earth, seaweeds provide the minerals necessary for bones, hair, skin, and all cells.
In January, studies showed that samples of the ubiquitous sweetener high fructose corn syrup contained the toxic metal mercury. Then came a popular Facebook page “The Ban of High Fructose Corn Syrup In the US.” By year-end, there were a dozen spoofs on YouTube mocking efforts by makers of high-fructose corn syrup to show that science is on their side.
The Corn Refiners Association, which represents makers of the syrup like A.D.M., Cargill and Corn Products International, has spent the last six years trying to convince Americans that high-fructose corn syrup is a natural ingredient — made from corn! — that’s really no different from sugar. High-fructose corn syrup is singled out because it is still one of the biggest sources of calories in our diet and because it is made from corn — a lavishly subsidized crop that appears, in one way or another, in so much of our food. Some schools are removing high calorie beverages for sale to students. It’s about time we started using stevia at home. You can also reduce sweet craving with an East Indian herb Gymnema, which supports digestive and blood sugar health.
