Healthy Eating, the Natural Way!
Stephania Munson-Bishop

In the past few weeks, Gram has been weeding through, throwing out, organizing – probably the most hateful task of all, the
chore for which there never seemed to “be enough time.” Well,
the truth is, time is always of the essence. But limited energy
should probably have taken top billing. Admiring the neat
appearance of her closet, Gram wondered, “What gives with me?
Why the sea change?”

Then, with one glance at the gleaming new juicer sitting at the ready on the kitchen counter, it became Obvious. All the claims
about the benefits of juicing must be true!

You might have heard about Juicing, and the trendy juice bars in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and other major cities.
But for some, juicing has become a way of life. And now Gram
understands why. Energy, weight control, restful sleep, no
indigestion (not even one bout of acid reflux) – the overt
bonanza of juicing, even in the early stages. And this, during a
stressful period on the Day Job! “My, my,” thought Gram;
“Like a natural tranquilizer in a glass.”

And is it tasty! Never mind all the health benefits – terms like
natural enzymes and phytochemicals purported to fight disease/
dis-ease in the human body. Well, those, too. Who among us wouldn’t like to be healthier and feel better, less lethargic
and out of sorts?

But having a background in human services, Gram has long known that a client’s mood swings and even a teen’s unruly behavior
can be improved with a sound, nutritious diet. More people have
various food allergies than one might suspect. So it stands to
reason that what we eat or don’t eat can affect the way we feel.
If we think of our bodies as efficient machines, then we are
more likely to think of food as fuel.

Since the juicer arrived, Gram has assembled a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables at least once a day. Scrubbing produce
with a stiff vegetable brush, lining up the items to go into the
juicer, we’ve aimed for a quart of juice at each session.
Some super vegetable combinations:
cucumber, celery, spinach, green pepper, a small apple (nothing peeled, mind you – just core the apple and seed the pepper);
carrots, apples, yellow squash, celery, lemon (again, nothing peeled except for removing the lemon rind);
tomato, carrot, celery, kale. Fruit juices that are very good:
cantaloupe, apple, carrot; watermelon, lemon, celery;
blueberry, honeydew; pineapple, orange, lemon. Each juicing
experiment has resulted in another “favorite.” In the vegetable
combinations, we’ve added a tablespoon or two of wheat germ or brewer’s yeast, to add protein. Also, an assortment of sprouts – but keep reading for more about sprouting.

In the meantime, we’ll be juicing. Is there really a Fountain of
Youth? Our juicer just may be the closest thing.

All you need for a kitchen powerhouse of fresh foods and unparalleled nutrition during the winter months: a few Mason or mayonnaise jars, several 4″ x 4″ squares from old pantyhose (the top part is best), and some rubber bands. You also need a safe source of seeds and dried beans, most likely your local health or natural foods store — because whatever you use must be organic, e.g., not treated with chemicals.

It’s all about enzymes — and how freshly sprouted foods are loaded with them. It’s about vitamins and fiber, too. Here are some choices: adzuki beans, alfalfa, barley, beans of almost any kind, buckwheat, broccoli, clover, kale, chive, chickpeas (or garbanzos), chia, cress, mung beans, fenugreek, lentil (must be whole to sprout, not halves), radish, soybean, triticale, wheat.

Then you place a 1 to 2″ layer of seed or bean in a Mason jar, cover the jar with the nylon square, and secure the square over the mouth of the jar with a rubber band. Fill with water a few inches above your layer, and let soak for 2 to 8 hours or overnight (the larger beans need a lot longer than small seed such as alfalfa or clover). Drain the jar and invert at a 45 degree angle in your dish drainer (or in a large plastic margarine tub in your kitchen sink). Rinse with water and drain several times a day. When sprouted in the next few days (again, depending on the size of the bean or seed), rinse and drain, put a lid on the jar, and refrigerate. Use within 3 to 5 days.

What can you do with these dietary nuggets? Use mung beans in eggs foo yung, and certainly in stir-fries. You can toss into soup during the last few minutes, put alfalfa sprouts into an omlet, even make bread. Incorporate in meatloaf or burgers. Throw the sprouts into your juicer with either fruit or veggie blends, for a beverage so loaded with nutrients it might even add spring to your step! But the quickest, easiest way is to include them in a big green salad.

With fast food and packaged frozen dinners which comprise so much of the American diet, people simply aren’t getting enough fiber. Our foods are mostly processed. When was the last time, other than salad or an apple, you enjoyed anything raw?

There are many websites on raw food diets. Researchers say that the best course is a combination of foods, both raw and cooked. There are even some who advocate a completely raw diet, including raw fish and meat. http://www.rawpaleodiet.org/
“Say It with Sprouts” is an article devoted to mung bean sprouts:
http://chinesefood.about.com/library/weekly/aa092101a.htm
“Types of Raw Food Diets” discusses the variety of diets, at
http://www.living-foods.com/articles ypesofraw.html
The Raw Food Directory has a wealth of resources to guide you:
http://www.buildfreedom.com/rawmain.htm And don’t miss a colorful, whimsical site with over 400 pages of sprout information: http://www.sproutpeople.com

The other detail we’d like to include: sprouts are probably the all-time best nutritional value you can obtain for the negligible price. True, you can forage for wild foods, but you have to be able to identify what you’re bringing home to eat. I priced alfalfa sprouts at my local grocery: $1.99 for 4 ounces. You can sprout your own at home for a few cents, and know they are fresh and wholesome.

Dr. Ann Wigmore was one of the first raw foods proponents. She recommended Energy Soup, the base of which is sprouts. Even your children can develop a taste for sprouts. Mix a half cup of alfalfa sprouts with peanut butter for sandwiches. “Mmm! What’s this crunchy stuff?” they’ll say, as the natural vitamins are helping their bodies to grow strong. Toss sprouted garbanzo beans (chickpeas) into your next taco filling. Sprinkle clover sprouts into breakfast cereal, omlet, or pancake batter.

Up for a new/nutritious eating adventure? Try sprouts!

About the Author

Stephania is a human services professional with nearly 40 years in the field. She publishes a monthly, content-rich ezine, “Tidbits from the Pantry,” to over 10,000 subscribers.

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Healthy Eating Summed Up
Dr. Jamie Fettig

Eat food that is:
1. Fresh
2. Pure.

The benefits of junk food are not worth the hidden price you have to pay.

Remind yourself “why” you are eating healthy daily

These Myths are NOT true:
Eating Cholesterol does not increase your cholesterol levels
Salt does NOT cause High Blood Pressure
Eating Fat does NOT make you fat
All refined carbohydrates are hazardous to you
Artificial sweeteners of all kinds are not good for you
All vitamins and supplements are NOT created equal

Diet Food really does taste bad. True Healthy food is good.

Healthy food is easier in the long run.

Junk food really is bad for you

About the Author

share all of these in more detail in my free e-course. Go to http://www.HealthyEatingDiet.com to get the full e-course. Dr. Jamie wants to help give you Permanent Results with his “non-diet.” He is also giving you dozens of valuable free gifts to “ethically bribe” you into helping him make his new book, “The Ultimate Non-Diet” a #1 best seller. For details on the book go to: http://www.TheUltimateNonDiet.com/free

Tags: Artificial Sweeteners, Author, Best Seller, Cholesterol, Cholesterol Levels, diet food;, Dozens, Dr Jamie, e-course, Eating Habits, Eating Healthy, food;, Free Gifts, Healthy Diet, Healthy Eating, Healthy Food, high blood pressure;, Jamie, Junk food;, Myths, NOT cause High Blood Pressure, Refined Carbohydrates, Vitamins And Minerals, Vitamins And Supplements —

Healthy Eating Redefined
Alan H. Wayler, PhD

New Year’s resolutions aside, most of us find making and
sticking to the resolve to eat healthier a bit of a challenge,
to say the least. And that’s even though study after study shows
that people who eat healthier have a greater chance of living
longer, better lives. For example, a study published last year
of over 42,000 women suggested that women who ate closest to the
recommended number of servings of fruits, vegetables, whole
grains, low-fat dairy and lean meats and poultry definitely
lived longer.

So what’s the problem with eating healthier? Many times, it’s
all in how we define it.

Positive or Negative?

When we say the words ‘healthy
eating,’ what’s the first thing that comes to your mind? Is
it a positive thought, such as “I feel better” or “It energizes
me”? Or is it something negative, such as “boring,”
“inconvenient” or “small portions”?

If you’re like the majority of women who come to Green Mountain,
the list of negative reactions is much longer than the list of
positive reactions. While we all recognize the positive benefits
of healthy eating, it’s our negative feelings about it that end
up creating obstacles to our doing it on a regular basis. We
often feel that healthy eating
recipes don’t taste good, and we have pictures of ourselves
spending hours in the kitchen chopping vegetables.

Certainly, if that’s your vision, it’s easy to see why healthy
eating doesn’t particularly appeal. But take a moment to think
about why you choose the foods you do when you make an attempt
to eat healthy. We frequently choose foods that are lowest in
fat, sugar, salt, calories…and therefore, taste and
convenience. Why? Because we’re not seeking to eat healthy as
much as we are trying to lose weight.

Changing the Definition

The trouble is, many of us have perceptions of healthy eating
that are defined by diets. The diets that have “educated” us
about healthy eating, or our own desire to take weight off fast,
have led us to equate healthy eating with consuming the minimum
number of calories we can get by with. And that often leaves us
unsatisfied, or facing a great deal of difficulty in feeding
ourselves when we’re not in our kitchens preparing our own
meals.

The solution? Embrace the notion that he
althy eating does include higher-fat, higher-sugar,
higher-calorie foods if you like them. Within the context of an
overall eating plan that features lower-fat, lower-sugar,
lower-calorie foods the majority of the time, a few chocolate
chip cookies or small bag of potato chips can be just the thing
you need to make healthy eating work for you, for both weight
loss and good health.

So start today. Resolve to eat healthy. But remember, it doesn’t
matter how healthy a food is — if it doesn’t taste good, you’re
not likely to continue eating it. Eat balanced meals and snacks
that include your favorite foods. And think broadly about what
your favorite foods are. Many of us love carrot sticks and
chocolate chip cookies. Maybe not at the same time, but over the
course of a day, it’s easy to fit both in.

Here’s to a long, healthy life…enjoying eating in a way that
truly feels great!

For 35 years, Green Mountain at Fox Run has developed and
refined a life-changing program exclusively for women seeking
permanent strategies for healthy weight
loss and health. Based on a combination of proven science
and what works in the real world, our innovative non-diet
lifestyle program offers an integrated curriculum of practical,
liveable techniques that helps women take charge of their
eating, their bodies and their health. Our approach is not
focused on just losing weight but on how to keep it off for a
lifetime. Our participants’ long-term weight loss results are
among the highest of any program, as documented in peer-reviewed
scientific literature. Learn more about our Healthy Weight Loss
Spa – Fitness and Weight Loss Retreat.

About the author:

Alan H. Wayler, PhD is executive director of Green Mountain at
Fox Run, a women’s weight loss
program and healthy eating program since 1973. The program
provides an integrative health lifestyle approach for achieving
long-term weight and health management for women. He is also
co-author of a healthy
weight loss blog.

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Healthy Eating Myths Shattered
Dr. Jamie Fettig

Salt does Not Cause High Blood Pressure. Some things you need to know first to fully understand blood pressure, as well as helping you to understand about many other things in your body: The difference between average and normal.

Average is a mathematical statistic. Dont let that big M word scare you. All average means is that you add up all the totals you have and divide by the number of totals you added. This gives you an average of the group of numbers.

Normal is what is right for an individual, or what is common or appropriate for each particular person.

What the medical profession does is make the average normal. They measure a bunch of peoples blood pressure, divide the added totals by the number of people they measured, and come up with an average blood pressure. And then they say this is the normal blood pressure for everyone.

I will let you in on a little secret. If you had the blood pressure I have at this exact moment, you would probably pass out. If you had the same blood pressure standing as you did sitting, you would probably pass out. Your blood pressure changes all the time, all day long. Your normal blood pressure needs to be different than everyone elses. You need the right blood pressure for you at the right time. If you had the average blood pressure all the time, you probably would be dead by now.

So what do you do with this? Take all the numbers the doctors give you with “a grain of salt.” Just because their charts show that you should be in this range does not mean you actually should. You are different than everyone else. Your normal might be outside of the range of average that they go by and still be perfectly healthy for you.

So your high blood pressure might very well be normal for you. And if it is actually too high for your normal, salt really has nothing to do with it.

Again the medical profession came up with a theory and never really tested it before they released it as truth on the world. Someone said that salt attracts water, and blood has water in it. So if you get rid of some of the salt in the blood, then there will be less water in the blood as well. And if there is less volume of blood, the pressure will have to be less. That was their theory and they began telling people to eat less salt thinking it would lower peoples blood pressure. No real tests, no real studies, and yet believed to be true by many.

Here is the real proof it is garbage. Try and find one person whose blood pressure decreased because they quit eating salt. You will be very hard pressed to find one person. Because eating less salt does not lower your blood pressure. Just like a Diuretic, medications that cause you to release more water than your body wants to from your blood through your kidneys, is often prescribed to attempt to help lower blood pressure. And again, I dare you to try and find people who this has helped.

You see, the body is so much smarter than we are. Many more internal factors go into what your blood pressure is than how much water you have in your blood. Your Blood pressure is a function of your blood vessels, the stuff in your blood, the muscles in and around your blood vessels, your heart, and so much more. If you force water out of the body, your body will compensate in other ways to keep your pressure at your unique normal. Your body knows best where your blood pressure should be. And until you change one or some of the internal factors (and medications do not count) your body will do everything in its power to keep things where they are at.

Want something that is free and easy that decreases the blood pressure significantly for many people who actually do it? Drink Water. It often is as simple as that and here is a perfect example of why. Imagine some really thick ketchup and trying to suck it through a straw. Versus if you put a bunch of water in the ketchup and mix it up and suck the ketchup through the straw. Does it take more or less pressure to suck the watered down ketchup through a straw? It takes less pressure. Similar with your blood. If your blood is thick and sludgy because you are dehydrated, your body will increase your pressure to force the blood through the little itty-bitty vessels and capillaries.

Actually, your blood pressure is more than this. And drinking water does so much more than make your blood thinner so it flows through the vessels easier. Whatever the reasons, drinking water often lowers peoples blood pressure.

About the Author

Go to http://www.HealthyEatingDiet.com to get the full e-course. Dr. Jamie wants to help give you Permanent Results with his “non-diet.” He is also giving you dozens of valuable free gifts to “ethically bribe” you into helping him make his new book, “The Ultimate Non-Diet” a #1 best seller. For details on the book go to: http://www.TheUltimateNonDiet.com/free

Tags: Author, Average Blood Pressure, Blood Pressure Changes, Doctors, Dr Jamie, e-course, Eating Habits, Eating Healthy, Exact Moment, Fettig, Grain Of Salt, Healthy Diet, Healthy Eating, high blood pressure;, Jamie, Mathematical Statistic, Medical Profession, Myths, Normal Blood Pressure, NOT cause High Blood Pressure, Right Time, Truth —