Good morning! Now that we are fully entrenched in the New Year, I would like to announce the 2015 What In The Health? 12-Month Health Challenge. Written in conjunction with my best foodie friend Michelle, at the start of each month I will unveil three different levels of health challenges: Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced. Beginner level: Eliminate soda from your diet. A Danish study found that people who drank a regular soda every day for six months saw a 132 to 142 percent increase in liver fat, a 117 to 221 percent jump in skeletal fat, and about a 30 percent increase in both triglyceride blood fats and other organ fat. Their consumption also led to an 11 percent increase in cholesterol, compared with the people who drank other beverages such as water or milk. Instead, make yourself a cup of green tea when you need a little pick-me-up. Green tea is an antioxidant powerhouse – really powerful. Green tea contains very high levels of catechins, an antioxidant that can “catch” and stabilize free-radicals. (Interesting tidbit: there are only two substances that are very high in catechins - brewed green tea comes in at over 120 milligrams per 100 grams, which is about half a cup of tea. The second is cocoa - 100 grams of dark chocolate provides about 50 milligrams of catechins). It can also help you detox while you wean yourself off of soda. And bonus!, only 3 grams of dried leaves are needed to brew 1 cup of tea. You are going to save SO much money! Bonus challenge: Download the “Non-GMO Project Shopping Guide” app onto your smart phone. Start scanning the items you are buying for hidden GMOs. Intermediate level: Eliminate all margarine, spreads and vegetable oils from your kitchen. 2015 means no rancid oils! Switch to traditional cooking fats: EVOO with a press date and bottled in dark glass or metal containers, coconut oil, pastured lard (pig)/tallow (cow)/schmaltz (chicken), or ghee. Now familiarize yourself with the smoking point of various oils. The smoke point generally refers to the temperature at which a cooking fat or oil begins to break down to glycerol and harmful free radicals, and a toxic bluish smoke. Extra Virgin Olive oil 320°F Grassfed Butter 350°F Coconut oil, unrefined 350°F Lard 370°F Schmaltz 375°F Tallow (Beef) 420°F Ghee 485°F Avocado oil 520°F (You may have noticed that the smoking point of EVOO is really low ... that is why I ALWAYS suggest using it as a finishing oil. Why cook away all of the great antioxidants anyway?) Interested in additional information about oils I didn’t include here? This website is a great resource– he also lists out the Omega 3/Omega 6 rations: jonbarron.org/diet-and-nutrition/healthiest-cooking-oil-chart-smoke-points#.VKauRCfzPjA Bonus challenge: If you haven’t already done so, download the “Non-GMO Project Shopping Guide” app onto your smart phone. Start scanning the items you are buying for hidden GMOs. Advanced level: Start sprouting your grains, beans, nuts and seeds. When a grain starts to sprout, it uses up some of the starch in the seed and makes the proteins, vitamins, and minerals in the grain, bean or seed more easily digestible (this is also called increasing the bioavailability of the nutrients.) The sprouting/soaking process also removes the antinutrient like lectins, protease inhibitors and phytic acids that interfere with the absorption of nutrients. Additionally, sprouted grains digest more like vegetables. People that have trouble digesting grains, beans, nuts and seeds tolerated sprouted versions much better. Sprouting is easy to do but it does take some prep work and menu planning. This is a great resource on how to spout your grains for use in recipes. ohmyveggies/how-to-sprout-grains/ Bonus challenge: If you haven’t already done so, download the “Non-GMO Project Shopping Guide” app onto your smart phone. Start scanning the items you are buying for hidden GMOs. If you like this challenge, please be sure to share it with your friends and family. All aboard the real food train in 2015!
Posted on: Fri, 02 Jan 2015 15:47:41 +0000
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