My Favorite Things

“RAINDROPS ON ROSES AND WHISKERS ON KITTENS” – I’m sure you remember that melodic song “My Favorite Things” from the classic picture “The Sound of Music”. These days some of my favorite things seem to fall into the category of good sound healthy foods. And I would like to share some of them with you.

For instance, peanut butter, one of my all time favorite snack foods. You have to understand that not all peanut butters are created equal. Some of the more popular peanut butters, in fact the two most popular ones that our children consume, contain sugar. And not only one kind of sugar – but sometimes more than one including that completely unhealthy kind – high fructose corn syrup! These two also contain that very unhealthy hydrogenated vegetable oil. So from experience over the years, I buy Laura Scudder’s peanut butter which contains nothing but peanuts. They even offer one with no added salt! So make sure you read those labels and buy peanut butter that contains only peanuts. Makes eating peanut butter not only a delicious treat but a healthy one as well!

Take a favorite breakfast of mine - cereals. When looking at cereals, it becomes an enormous effort just to find one that doesn’t include all those ingredients that I cannot even spell. I always figure that if I cannot spell them (and I’m a world class speller, folks), then I shouldn’t eat them cause I don’t know what in the world they contain and in the process how they will affect my well being in the long run. One of my favorite cereals I have trusted for some time because of the healthy ingredients they offer are cereals made by Kashi. What makes them so appealing to me is the fact that unlike many other popular cereals, they contain none of the various sugars including the aforementioned high fructose corn syrup. Notably what else is missing is the addition of BHT which is used as a preservative…….I know it makes the shelf life longer, but I wonder what it does to your insides! Again that sinister hydrogenated vegetable oil shows up in many cereals on the market. So if cereal is included in one of your favorite things – look carefully at what you buy.

How about crackers! You’ve got to be very careful here not to buy the ones containing too much salt, the wrong fats, the sugars, etc. I buy Mary’s Gone Crackers which come in about 5 different flavors including herb and cracked pepper. Being gluten intolerant, and I suspect many people are and do not realize it, this is quite a pleasing crunchy cracker. Spread cheese & a good mustard on one of these and you’re in cracker heaven!

So if some of your favorite things fall into the category of food, make sure that your body will also consider it a favor to eat them….and enjoy them healthfully!

Keeping in The Pink

Do You Keep in the Pink?

This is a phrase that was originally used to describe the skin of a newborn baby. That newborn baby skin is pink and is considered so healthy. And no matter what our age, we all want to consider ourselves in good shape and in the pink of condition.

There are many ways to “keep in the pink” and I have described many of them in my book “Reaching for 100”. I have listed a couple for you to get started on that road to wellness and energetic living.

For instance, are you drinking enough water? Or look at it this way – what else do you drink? Do you drink soda? Do you drink a lot of juice? Do you drink a lot of coffee or those coffee drinks that contain such large amounts of calories that you wonder why you cannot lose weight? I drink at least four glasses of water daily, I have my two cups of coffee in the morning, I drink probably at least two large cups of green tea every day, I drink tomato or vegetable juice sometimes and occasionally I will have a glass of red wine with my dinner. This is one of the ways that I keep in the pink.

Fruits and vegetables – at least five servings a day. These are considered nature’s antibiotics – so you can imagine how nicely they will keep you in the pink.

How about exercise – do you get your thirty minutes of brisk walking or treadmill walking, or bike riding, or running on a daily basis. That exercise is so important for many reasons. Just to name a few – keeps your heart pumping, keeps the oxygen at optimum levels, keeps your skin healthy, keeps your brain functioning efficiently.

So consider all or at least some of the above when you contemplate just what keeps you healthy and in the pink of condition.

Do You Cherry Pick?

Actually let's not only pick the cherries, but all the other fruits and vegetables as well. Since you are reading this, you must be interested in better health, better energy, living that longer more energetic life. So let’s get with the program - let's pick and consume all of nature's antibiotics - namely, those fruits and vegetables.

I found that almost immediately (say three days) after I changed my "diet" to include not only all of the above, but the other healthy foods as well, and of course by cutting out the unhealthy items such as the foods containing all that sugar, salt, and the bad fats, that my life changed dramatically as far as energy, mood, feeling of good health and of course that brass ring we are all looking for – WEIGHT LOSS! I talk about all of this in my book "Reaching for 100".

Look at it this way – if you are consuming more fruits and vegetables, you’ll not have the room to eat the other types of foods, i.e., the unhealthy ones. You will be able to fill up more easily on the more beneficial nourishing foods your body needs.

So cherry picking is a good thing – just remember to gather up the rest!

A Spoonful of Sugar Doesn't Makes The Medicine Go Down

You remember that great song from Mary Poppins. Well we know now that a spoonful of sugar not only doesn't make the medicine go down, it's probably one of the worst things you can do for your body!

This is what happens when that refined white sugar enters your body. Because all of the nutrients have been stripped out of the sugar before it is packaged, you are ingesting empty calories. There is absolutely no nutritional value to that sugar. And unfortunely we know that sugar is found in so many foods that we eat - not only the obvious such as all those baked goods, processed foods, ice creams, etc. - but foods like peanut butter, breakfast cereals, sauces, and almost everything we eat as well.

So when that empty value sugar enters your body, in order for it to be digested, your body must rely on various stored nutrients so the digestive process can take place. These stored nutrients are there in order to boost your immune system and perform various other functions in order to keep your body in optimum health.

So think twice about that sugar you are eating. Not only will it add those extra unwanted pounds, but it could compromise your health as well!

Amazing Juice Drink - delicious & healthy!

You know I like to experiment with foods......so take a look at the ingredients in this shake. It is amazingly delicious because you can taste the cinnamon flavor & it is so good for you! Try it today! By the way I don't measure so these are all approximate amounts:

1 cup pomegranate juice (all fruit no sugar added-bought fr Farmer's Mkt)
1 tsp raw honey
1 beet (already steamed)
10 pieces cut up celery
1 scoop protein powder
small banana (thickens & sweetens the shake)
small amount of frozen red grapes
shake some cinnamon into container (about 1 tsp)

Turn on blender, magic bullet, whatever you use. If you cannot finish, take it with you since the frozen grapes will keep it cold for awhile.

ENJOY KNOWING THIS IS NOT ONLY DELICIOUS BUT HEALTHY!

Recipe of the Day

I made a wonderful shake for breakfast with the following ingredients:
Soy milk
Dash of cinnamon
small amount of honey
handful of broccoli
handful of celery
handful of mango & blueberries
small banana (gives you the potassium & magnesium we all need!)
tbsp of flaxseed oil
small amount of ground flaxseeds

Blend together & enjoy!

Soda & your health

Do you ever wonder why doctors and nutritionists are forever begging you not to drink soda. Well for openers, if you take vitamins, soda will leach many of those valuable nutients right out of your body. So save your money because if you're drinking soda, those vitamins will not completely protect you since they will be flushed right out.

Soda contains not only food coloring, but preservatives and many, many other chemicals that have proven to have extremely detrimental effects on your body. A can of soda contains 8 tsp of sugar - add that into the average 12-15 tsp of sugar that most people consume through the foods, juices, coffee drinks they consume on a daily basis, and you have such sugar overload that it 's no surprise that people walk around not feeling well!

And for those who are drinking diet sodas - you're not off the hook, since it has been shown that diet soda consumption will cause your body to have further cravings for sugar.

What do I drink? Well certainly not soda. Instead I drink those 4-6 glasses of water daily, I drink the green teas, I even have my coffee, in the morning. I occasionally have a glass of red wine with dinner. You could try some of those low sodium tomato or vegetable juices.......but do not drink soda. For your continued health and well being, it is a very poor choice.