Yummy Yogurt and Zucchini

Yogurt

Who doesn’t know that yogurt is an extremely healthy, fermented food that helps repopulate your digestive system with beneficial bacteria? Pretty much anyone you speak to knows yogurt is a healthy food.

Besides the probiotics (good bacteria) yogurt is also a very good source of protein and calcium. Some studies also showed that people who consume low fat dairy products have a reduced risk for high blood pressure. But many people, particularly older people, find it very difficult to digest dairy products. Yogurt and other fermented dairy foods like kefir eliminate that problem for almost all people.

Yogurt is easy to digest and is an excellent choice for anyone with digestive problems, and especially ulcers. A recent study looked at the effects of yogurt containing lactobacillus and bifidobacterium on people with persistent H. pylori infections. H. pylori is a bacteria that causes infections in the stomach and small intestine and greatly increase risk of developing an ulcer. The researchers found yogurt made the drug treatment usually recommended to clear this up to be more effective when the patients also consumed yogurt.

A few cautions: be sure the yogurt you choose contains active cultures. That’s where all the health benefits are. Also, avoid the fruit on the bottom and artificially sweetened varieties – in both cases the added sugar or chemical-laden artificial sweetener pretty much nullify the health benefits.

Zucchini

Zucchini is a green, summer squash that is very low calorie, contains fiber, protein, vitamins A and C, folate, magnesium, manganese, potassium and more. It’s available all year round and lends itself to many preparation methods.

It’s a wonderful weight loss vegetable – low calorie – one cup has about 36 calories, depending on how it’s prepared - high fiber and high water content – over 95% water! The folate is believed to help lower homocysteine levels, important in preventing cardiovascular disease.

Take a Step:

I learned something interesting about Greek yogurt. The reason it is so much thicker and creamier than most regular yogurts is because the excess milk is strained out leaving the whey protein solids behind. That means not only is it creamier, thicker and richer, it has nearly two times the protein content of regular yogurt. One cup of Greek yogurt has 23 grams of protein compared to 12 grams in regular yogurt. It also has fewer carbs (9 grams versus 17 in other yogurts). Just be sure to pick an unsweetened one and a wonderful, classic Greek dessert is plain Greek yogurt with a couple of sliced figs, some walnuts and a drizzle of raw honey – delicious!

Another delicious cultured dairy drink is Amasai which you can only get from Beyond Organic. This is an amazing and unique product. It's delicious and loaded with beneficial probiotics. You can even use it to make an incredibly healthy ice cream!

I use zucchini a lot and one thing I always do is grate one and include it in any ground meat recipe like burgers or meatloaf. It bumps up nutrition, adding vitamins and fiber and extends the meat. You can also add some grated zucchini to pasta sauce – it will basically melt right into it and you’ll never know it’s there.

As a side dish you can steam it or roast it which is my preferred method. If you want to learn more tricks of being a stealth cook, check out my Nutrition-Boosting Strategies e-book. In keeping with the Greek theme (since I’m Greek) you can make Greek-style zucchini. Just slice and chop them into rounds. In a pot heat a little bit of olive oil and sauté a chopped onion until it’s softened and translucent. Add your zucchini and a can of sodium free stewed or chopped tomatoes; season with a little sea salt, black pepper and granulated garlic. Cover and let this cook until the zucchini is tender. It’s delicious!

I hope you’ve been enjoying this series of articles – please take a minute and let me know. I wish you all a most blessed and joyous Christmas and a healthy new year!

Until next time I wish you vibrant health!

Ann

Ugli Fruit and Vinegar

I realize this is one you may be totally unfamiliar with, but it pays to be adventurous and try new foods!

Ugli Fruit

You’ve probably seen this one in your supermarket but being unfamiliar with it, you may be avoiding it. I want to encourage you to step out of your comfort zone and give this one a try – you won’t be sorry!

It gets its name from its odd, misshapen appearance. It looks, well, ugly! But looks can definitely be deceiving and here’s a time when you should not judge a book by it’s cover! It has an extremely sweet, citrus flavor, can be peeled very easily and is seedless. It’s believed to be a combination of the best features of grapefruit, Seville oranges and tangerines. Like other citrus fruits it’s low in calories, high in vitamin C, as well as flavonoids, folic acid and fiber. Even though it is related to the grapefruit, it doesn’t contain furanocoumarins, which are the components in grapefruit that can interfere with certain drugs. It has been proven to improve, heal and help promote gastrointestinal health and maintain bowel integrity.

Vinegar

Vinegar is a natural product that’s been around for thousands of years and has been used as a health tonic by many. In fact, Hippocrates is said to have used apple cider vinegar (my favorite!) as an antibiotic. Here are some of the more interesting health benefits of vinegar in general:

Vinegar helps the body absorb calcium. Salad greens are full of calcium.
It appears to increase insulin sensitivity in those who are insulin resistant.
Is an effective, natural produce cleaner.

I prefer cold pressed, raw, organic apple cider vinegar and this is why:

It is a completely natural product, resulting from the fermentation of apple juice to hard apple cider followed by a second fermentation to apple cider vinegar. It retains all the nutritional goodness of the apples from which it was made plus it is fortified with the extra acids and enzymes produced during the two fermentation steps.

Apple cider vinegar is rich in vitamins C, E, A, P, B1, B2 and B6 as well as minerals like manganese, iron, calcium, sodium, magnesium, sulfur, copper, phosphorus, silicon, chlorine and fluorine. Studies have shown it helps reduce blood sugar, is extremely alkalizing and those two things make it an excellent food to include if you are trying to lose weight.

Take a Step:

While Ugli fruit is not suitable for cooking, it makes it an excellent snack or add-on to salads. Pick fruits which are heavy with no drying at the ends and there should be a little give if you apply a little pressure. Don’t worry about minor dents and marks – that’s just how they look! They can be kept at room temperature for approximately 4-5 days, or in the fridge for as long as 2 weeks.

To help remove potentially harmful residues on your produce you can mix a solution of water and vinegar in a ratio of 1 to 9, for example, mix one cup of white vinegar in nine cups of water. Briefly soak your produce in the vinegar solution, then swish it around and finally, rinse it thoroughly. One caution – don’t soak very delicate fruits like berries – they can soak up too much vinegar.

Until next month – I wish you vibrant health!

Ann

Raspberries, Spinach and Tomatoes! Oh, My!

I know those three foods do NOT seem as though they go together in any way! But keep reading - you may be surprised.

Raspberries

You’ll get ellagic acid in all berries – including raspberries! It’s a powerful phytonutrient and cancer fighter. But that’s not all – they’re full of vitamins like C, B2 and B3 and minerals like magnesium, potassium, copper and manganese, which helps boost metabolism, anthocyanins, which are powerful antioxidants and they have plenty of healthy fiber to boot. Besides being a delicious fresh snack, including in your morning protein smoothie is a great idea! Speaking of snacks – you’ll find raspberries in many of the excellent raw, whole food snacks at Whole Food Farmacy.

Spinach

Popeye knew what he was doing when he made spinach his go-to food! Spinach is not only one of the most nutrient-dense foods around, but also one of the biggest nutrition values in the supermarket as well! Frozen spinach is one of those foods that gives you the most bang for your buck – nutritionally and financially!

Spinach is a low calorie, fat free, dark leafy green that is just loaded with antioxidants, vitamins and minerals! It’s one of my staples for weight maintenance as well as overall health! I put it in my omelets and my protein smoothies in the morning. Spinach also has a component that helps you metabolize protein more effectively – so it makes any protein meal (like an omelet, burger or protein smoothie) even more powerful!

Tomatoes

Several recent studies have shown that a diet rich in tomatoes and tomato products is strongly linked to a reduced risk of certain cancers. Part of the reason is that tomatoes are rich in lycopene. Here’s a tip: heat processing of tomatoes and tomato products increases lycopene bioavailability. That just means you get more of the good stuff when you cook the tomatoes and also include a little healthy fat, like olive oil! (By the way-that makes them a great addition to your omelet too!)

They are technically a fruit and a low calorie one at that. They have other carotenes and vitamin C which make them a wonderful addition, especially if you grow your own! Nothing like a beautifully ripe, fresh tomato with a tiny bit of olive or flax oil and apple cider vinegar!

Take a Step:

If you make a protein smoothie as your breakfast in the mornings – along with your raspberries (or whatever berry you use) add some frozen, chopped spinach, which has been thawed. You’ll see the flecks of green – but it honestly doesn’t make it taste like spinach! You’ll be starting out with a super-nutritious (and delicious) meal to fuel the rest of your day! If instead you make an omelet, include some spinach and top it with some salsa! You get more ideas like this in my Nutrition-Boosting Strategies e-book.

Until next month, I wish you vibrant health!

Ann

Healthy Foods from A-Z

Happy, blessed and healthy New Year to everyone! Rob has been gracious enough to invite me to contribute an article each month to his newsletter again this year. I am going to begin a series that will run through the end of the year I’m calling, “Healthy Foods from A-Z.” Each month I’ll give you some information on several healthy foods and some suggestions for how to include them in your daily meals. While I’ll only share a few foods in each category in these articles, I’ll be compiling them along with additional ones into an e-book, hopefully by the end of the year.

Much is written about “super-foods.” These are usually expensive, exotic foods you can barely pronounce from a rainforest across the globe. According to the experts they can help you improve your health and extend your lifespan. The problem is that many of those foods are not readily available to everyone.

I think ALL the fresh, natural, whole foods God created happen to be “super” foods! So, I will be talking about foods you can easily find in your grocery store that can absolutely improve your health and extend your lifespan. Let’s begin!

This month let’s do the A-B-C foods!

An apple a day keeps the doctor away! So very true! Whole apples, especially with their peels, are a good source of fiber and potassium as well as antioxidants (phenols). In fact, they have the second highest level of antioxidant activity among fruits. Studies have found numerous health benefits related to the consumption of apples:

Their soluble and insoluble fiber help regulate the movement of the bowels, which relieves constipation thus moving toxins out of the body. (A definite win-win!)
They’ve been found to lower “bad” cholesterol and raise the good one.
They reduce symptoms of metabolic syndrome including high blood pressure.
They lower blood levels of C-reactive protein, an indicator of heightened risk for heart disease and diabetes.
*Just choose organically grown apples whenever possible so you can safely eat the skin which is a major source of pectin – the soluble fiber.

Beets are nutritional powerhouses! They've been found to increase stamina during exercise by 16%, are known to break up cancers and tumors, improve digestion, and are an excellent source of betaine, which helps break down fats and protein. The cells in your liver produce betaine naturally, so supplementing with a natural source of helps keep your liver function at its best.

Celery is an amazing and under-appreciated vegetable! What can’t it do?? It is known to contain at least eight families of anti-cancer compounds; aids in increasing bile acid secretion which helps to remove cholesterol from the body; is a natural laxative that helps to relieve constipation; is an effective diuretic that helps rid the body of excess fluid; contains powerful anti-inflammatory compounds; lowers high blood pressure and is high in magnesium which can help with insomnia. As if that wasn’t enough, raw celery is a “negative calorie food.” Your body uses more calories to eat, digest and eliminate the 19 calories in one cup of raw celery! So, it’s a great weight loss food.

Take a Step:

A crunchy, delicious fresh apple is one of my absolute favorite snacks just as is or with a handful of raw nuts! In fact eating an apple slowly and mindfully 15-30 minutes before a meal will help you eat less due to the fact that they’re full of water and fiber!

Besides grating a raw, organic beet into my salad, my favorite way to prepare them as a side dish is this: peel and cut into chunks as many beets as you like; add a tablespoon of virgin coconut oil (it’s the best fat to use for cooking at higher temperatures, but if you don’t have any, olive oil is also good) and a sprinkle of sea salt. Cover and roast at 400 degrees for about an hour. You can also add a splash of balsamic vinegar if you like. They’re delicious.

Next time your children want a snack – offer ants on a log – my son, Christopher’s favorite as a child. Fill crisp, fresh stalks of celery with a high quality natural nut butter and top with raisins or dried cranberries (the ants!).

Take a minute to drop me an email and share your thoughts!

Until next time I wish you vibrant health!

Ann