WELLNESS WEDNESDAYS: Fall Comfort Foods

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"Winter is an etching, spring a watercolor, summer an oil painting, and fall a mosaic of them all." 

                                                                             --Stanley Horowitz

Freshly picked apples.  Pumpkins.  Wild rice.  Sweet potatoes.  Butternut and acorn squash.  These are some of my favorite fall comfort foods.  

Planning menus for your family is fun this time of year.  Take your kids to your local farmers market and look for locally grown squash and pumpkin.  Winter squash are great foods to include in your weekly meal plan because they are so colorful and full of beta-carotene.  They are also high in dietary fiber, satiating you which prevents overeating. 



Here is one of my favorite fall recipes which features squash, corn, and beans.  Make this simple, economical, and oh-so-healthy entree one of your favorite fall comfort foods, too!

GROWING HEALTHY KIDS:  Our Recipe Collection

Three Sisters Soup

Native Americans view squash, corn, and beans as “The Three Sisters”.  In some legends the sisters are also the daughters of the Earth Mother. 

PEEL and dice: 

• 1 large butternut squash (about 2 pounds)

STEAM squash for 20 minutes or until tender when pierced with a fork.  

HEAT in a large soup pot:

• 1 Tablespoon olive or avocado oil

ADD AND SAUTE until onion is translucent:

• 1 medium red onion, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced 

ADD AND SIMMER 20-25 minutes, covered, until all vegetables are tender:

• 1-1/2 cups water
• ½ red bell pepper, sliced into thin strips
• 1 14- to 16-ounce can diced tomatoes, with liquid
• 1 16-ounce can organic pinto beans, drained and rinsed
• 2 cups thawed frozen corn 
• 1 4-ounce can chopped mild green chilies (look for New Mexican "Hatch" chilies)
• 2 teaspoons organic cumin
• 2 teaspoons chili powder
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano

SEASON with:

• Pink Himalayan sea salt and organic black pepper

LET soup sit for 1-2 hours so flavors blend. 

HEAT soup and serve with:

• Minced fresh cilantro 
• Pumpkin seeds, lightly toasted in a pan over low heat

This fall, be inspired by the flavors of delicious seasonal foods.  Cook comfort foods with your family. Enjoy dinner together.  Take a walk in your neighborhood.  Look at the colors of the trees.  Tell your kids how much you love them every day.

With love and gratitude,
Nancy L. Heinrich, MPH

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WELLNESS WEDNESDAYS: November is American Diabetes Month

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“Sugar is celebratory.  Sugar is something we used to enjoy.  Now it basically has coated our tongues.  It’s turned into a diet staple, and it’s killing us.”  

                                                              --Robert Lustig, MD

Nancy Heinrich's typical lunch

The other day I passed by a coworker, alone in her office.  She was sitting down to eat lunch, opening up a large McDonald’s bag filled with highly processed foods.  Every one of the foods she was about to eat was engineered to be addictive with added sugars, salt, and/or fat.

It worked.  She is morbidly obese.  She is also the mother of a young toddler.  The adult can make her own choices.  Her child cannot. 

organic watermelon radish 

Food companies like McDonald’s consciously and intentionally create foods to be addictive.  It is how they keep you coming back for more. It is why McDonald’s and other fast food companies are highly profitable companies.  Who can resist the salty, savory taste of a big Mac or a sausage and egg biscuit sandwich? When you are hungry and on the road, why not just pull in to the golden arches (I call them the golden arches of solid, saturated fat and inflammatory disease) and pick up a couple of sandwiches to eat while driving to your next destination?  After all, McDonald’s are in 120 countries around the world, serving 68 million people every day.  They have made it easyand cheap for us to eat highly processed foods.  The problem is eating those foods make us sick. Just ask Morgan Spurlock, star of the 2004 documentary, Super Size Me.  

STOP!!!

What I really wanted to say when I walked past my coworker’s office was, “Please don’t eat that.  Put down that bag of processed, addictive food.  I would love to share my beautiful organic salad with you.  Do you realize that you are morbidly obese and eating foods from McDonald’s will only keep you fat?”

another typical lunch for Nancy Heinrich

November is American Diabetes Month.  A key risk factor for diabetes is obesity.  Eating highly processed, engineered foods is a path to diseases like obesity, diabetes, arthritis, and heart disease.   Many people with whom I speak know they are addicted to processed foods and want help breaking the addiction so they don’t have a heart attack or stroke.  

Changing the way you eat starts with knowing your “Why”:  

Why do you want to change what you eat? 

Why do you want to no longer be carrying around 50 or 100 extra pounds? 

Why do you want to sleep better? 

Why do you want your clothes to fit better?  

Why do you not want to be the next person in your family to develop diabetes?

Why do you not want to have a stroke?  

Why do you care about your own health?  

Why do you want to be able to breathe better?

Why do you want to feel better?

On a scale of 1 to 10, how much do you care about your own health and the quality of your one life on this planet? 

Eat real food.  Please pass the organic watermelon radishes.    

With love and gratitude,

Nancy L. Heinrich, MPH

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WELLNESS WEDNESDAYS: Protecting Children's Heart Health

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“Modern medical care has mostly evolved into a drug-distribution arm of the pharmaceutical industry, rather than being a profession primarily centered on improving people’s health.”

                   --Joel Fuhrman, M.D., The End of Heart Disease (2017)

 

New guidelines released this week by American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology call for Americans with blood pressure 130/80 or higher to be treated for hypertension.  A normal blood pressure is considered as less than 120/80.  Based on this new classification, 103 million American adults, or almost half of adults (46%), now have high blood pressure.

Risk factors for high blood pressure (hypertension) include:

• Consuming too much sodium 
• People with hypertension, all African-Americans, and anyone age 50 and older should consume less than 1,500 mg of sodium a day.
• Obesity
• Lack of exercise
• Unhealthy diet
• Consider that some animal foods, such as chicken, are injected with sodium to increase their weight before they are sold.
• Drinking too much alcohol
• Smoking and tobacco use
• Stress
• Race 
• African-Americans tend to develop high blood pressure more often, according to heart.org, than any other group in the U.S. 
• Age 
• There is a direct correlation between older age and high blood pressure.  Blood vessels lose elasticity the older we get. 
• Family history 
• If your parents have high blood pressure, you have an increased chance of developing high blood pressure.

The last time you took your child to the pediatrician, did they check your child’s blood pressure?  Did they ask how often your children eat foods high in sodium? Did they ask if your kids get an hour of exercise a day?  According to Dr. Fuhrman, "doctors need to make it crystal clear to their patients that food is the cause of, and should be the primary treatment for, heart disease."  

Consider these facts:

• McDonald’s quarter pounder with bacon and cheese contains 1,440 mg of sodium.  
• McDonald’s bacon, egg, and cheese biscuit contains 1,300 mg of sodium. 
• A large order of French fries from McDonald’s contains 290 mg of sodium.
• Burger King's double whopper with cheese has 1,440 mg of sodium.
• A Big Fish sandwich from Burger King has 1,180 mg of sodium. 
• A Wendy's Baconator has 1,810 mg of sodium.  
• One teaspoon of salt has about 2,300 mg of sodium.

Sodium is hidden in processed and fast foods, to the detriment of our children's blood pressure and heart health.  The next time your kids ask to stop at McDonald's or another fast food restaurant, check the sodium content and other nutrition facts at the company website.

Feeding kids a steady diet of fast food and highly processed foods only pushes them towards an earlier diagnosis of high blood pressure and a lifetime of addiction to Big Pharma.   

Our children deserve better.  Knowing there is a direct correlation between sodium intake and high blood pressure, I hope you will choose foods low in added sodium for your kids.  The more sodium you consume, the higher your blood pressure.  Got it?

Eat real food.  Fruits.  Vegetables.  Whole grains.  Legumes.

Please pass the organic apples.  

With love and gratitude,

Nancy L. Heinrich, MPH

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Day 360

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Day 360

Thoughts: Natural Calcium Bentonite Clay. I call it Healing Clay - a natural alternative for cleansing the skin and body :)

The Earth diet incorporates all things that the earth naturally provides. It applies for the food you eat as well as what goes on your body. And if you can't eat it don't put it on your skin. Your body absorbs everything, so if you apply moisturizers, shampoos, face washes etc that have chemicals and preservatives you are ingesting those as well.

I use clay for weekly face masks and cleansing my pores.

You can also use it for acne, cellulite, detoxification, drawing out toxins from the body, facials, body wraps, foot soaks, clay baths, chilled clay for burns, itches, insect bites, spider veins, varicose veins, Psoriasis and Eczema, allergies, hay fever, knee and muscle packs!

It removes deep stubborn impurities and dirt from pores.

1lb of clay makes 10-20 facials. You can use it once per week - for the entire family, including men! It is available on The Earth dietwebsite :)

Ingredients: Just clay! 100% Natural Calcium Bentonite Clay.

Sundried, no added chemicals, no heavy metals, no toxic ingredients, no preservatives, no artificial anythings, no fragances, no animal testing, 100% vegan. Pure clay :)

You can actually feel your face pulsate and once I take the mask off I can see the affects, tighter smoother skin :)

How the clay works

Calcium Bentonite Clay has a uniquely strong negative ionic charge. When hydrated, it attracts anything with a positive ionic charge, such as toxins, metals and parasites. This clay has the ability to both adsorb (stick to the surface) and absorb (draw inside) these undesirables. The toxins are then permanently bound to the clay and are removed when the clay is removed.

How clay reduces Cellulite

Cellulite is lumpy deposits of body fat which is actually an accumulated stagnant amount of toxins clumping together in your body. Apply clay to the cellulite areas and the clay draws out toxins which reduces cellulite. This with detoxification, exercise and a healthy lifestyle will disappear your cellulite for good!

There are many ways to use the clay. You can put two cups of clay in your bath and soak for 20 min. This helps pull toxins out of your skin.

There is also the internal detox. Placing a small amount of clay into your drink or you can apply the clay as a mask onto your problem areas.

How clay gets rid of acne:

It removes excess sebum and is an excellent exfoliant. Calcium Bentonite Clay has natural antibacterial properties as well, and will dramatically speed the healing of the pimples. Many times, when people begin using clay masks to combat acne, they notice that their acne appears to worsen before it improves. Don't panic if this happens to you! This is a good thing! It means that the clay is doing its job, and is pulling the toxins from your skin. Also, your face may show some redness when you remove the clay. This is very normal. The Calcium Bentonite Clay increases the blood circulation to the skin, which aids in the healing process.



How clay removes spider veins and varicose veins naturally 

Varicose veins, which affects 10%-20% of all adults, are abnormally swollen, twisted, blue veins that protrude from the surface of the skin in a rope like manner, usually on the legs. They are the result of a faulty valve or weak vein walls.

When dealing with varicose and spider veins, many naturopaths recommend first and foremost an internal detoxification to clean the blood, increase the strength and flexibility of the vein walls, and improve circulation. When it comes to detoxing, nothing works better than Calcium Bentonite Clay. First a thorough detoxification. That is followed with local applications of clay, which is allowed to dry for approximate 1 to 1 1/2 hours, then washed off and reapplied. He also recommends sleeping with light clay applications, and frequent clay baths to help increase circulation.

How clay gets rid of Psoriasis and Eczema

Calcium Bentonite Clay acts as a magnet and a sponge. Its highly charged negative ions attract all positive charged ions (bacteria, viruses, toxins, etc.) from your body. These substances stick to and are absorbed by the calcium bentonite clay, and are eliminated from your body with the clay. The effective action begins through the electromagnetic process of adsorbing the inflammation in the lesions, along with the deformed cells and dead scales. Pain and itching stop almost instantly following the application of the clay. The clay then assists the body in building new tissue. Smother the affected area with a thick layer of hydrated clay, and then prevent the clay from drying for several hours by wrapping the area with plastic food wrap. Glad Press and Seal works great for this purpose. After several hours, repeat the process with fresh clay and plastic wrap. During the day if the clay wrap is inconvenient just apply the hydrated clay topically in a thin application and let it dry. Re-apply whenever you experience itching.



How clay stops allergies and hay fever
Allergies and hay fever are caused by the release of histamines. The liver becomes plugged up with toxins and fatty tissue and therefore cannot produce the necessary antihistamines to neutralize the allergic reactions. The first thing to do is clean and rebuild the liver. Once that is done, the allergies and hay fever may disappear.

The good news about clay is that not only will it help stimulate the eliminatory channels, but it can effectively treat allergies and hay fever. Adsorption is a relatively quick process--almost instantaneous in certain cases. The absorptive surfaces of the clay prevent the allergic reaction by quickly neutralizing allergens before these foreign invaders can attach themselves to the blood cells.

Source: To read articles on clay visit this link.

Your next Earth Diet Challenge begins next Thursday 11th of November!

Quotes: To know you have enough is to be rich. Tao Te Ching

What I Ate Today:

Meal 1: An avocado.



Meal 2: An apple.



Meal 3: Raw Chocolate Mousse. Created with avocado, cacao, spring water, agave and fresh mint!



Meal 4: A grapefruit and orange juice.



Meal 5: Walnuts



Meal 6: Caramel Prawns (Shrimp). Created with prawns, honey, brown rice, garlic, onion, lime and olive oil.



Recipe: All recipes will be published in The Earth diet book and are available free on The Earth Diet website www.TheEarthDiet.Org

Exercise: Yoga; breathing and stretching.

5 days to go!!!

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Eating for Blood Type AB

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Brazil nuts highly recommended for blood types AB

A blood type (also called a blood group) is a classification of blood based on the presence or absence of inherited antigenicsubstances on the surface of red blood cells (RBCs). These antigens may be proteins, carbohydrates, glycoproteins, or glycolipids, depending on the blood group system.

This is just a guide based on research on blood types and how the body thrives with certain types of foods.  Highly processed foods and sweetened foods are not included on this list, as they are not recommended to anyone in general. Humans thrive best on a diet that is made up of whole foods that the earth provides naturally.

Blood Type AB individuals are modern eaters. It is said a person of AB (whether negative or positive AB) is best with a mixed diet in moderation. 

Highly Recommended Foods: 

• High protein foods, especially deep ocean fish and vegetables (kelp). 
• Meat: Rabbit and lamb (1-3 times a week). 
• Fish: Albacore Tuna, Cod, Grouper, Hake, Mackerel, Mahi Mahi, Monkfish, Ocean Perch, Pickerel, Pike, Porgy, Rainbow Trout, Red Snapper, Sailfish, Salmon, Sardine, Sea Trout, Shad and Sturgeon (3-5 times a week).
• Poultry: Turkey (0-2 times a week).  
• Oils: Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Coconut Oil (1 tablespoon 4-8 times a week) more if active. 
• Nuts and seeds: Chestnuts, Peanuts, Walnuts, Almonds, Brazil, Cashew, Hickory, Litchi, Macadamia, Pignola (Pine) and Pistachios (2-5 times a week). 
• Beans and legums: Navy, Pinto, Red, Broad, Cannellini, Copper, Green, Jicama, Northern, Snap, String, Tamarind, White; Lentils (Green, Domestic, Red) and All Peas (1 cup 2-3 times a week). 
• Cereals: Millet, Oats, Rice, Spelt, Amaranth, Barley, Wheat (Bran, Cream of, Germ, Familia, Farina, Granola, Grape Nuts, Seven-Grain and Shredded (1 cup 2-3 times a week). 
• Grains: Oats, Rice (Basmati, Brown, White, Wild Rice), Rye, Sprouted Wheat, Couscous, Barley, Bulgur Wheat, Durum Wheat, Gluten, Graham, Spelt, White, Whole Wheat (1 cup 3-4 times a week).   
• Vegetables: Alfalfa Sprouts, Beets, Beet Leaves, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Celery, Collard Greens, Cucumber, Dandelion, Eggplant, Garlic, Kale, Mustard Greens, Parsley, Parsnips, Sweet Potatoes, Tempeh (Fermented Soy Products) and all Yams. Aside from AVOID list, all other vegies are OK for your blood type. Vegatables should be from local sources within your state (preferrably within your garden.)  (2 times per day)
• Fruits: Berries (Goose, Logan), Cherries, Cranberries, Figs (Dried & Fresh), Grapes (Black, Concord, Green, Red), Grapefruit, Kiwi, Lemons, Pineapple and Plums (Dark, Green, Red). Aside from AVOID list, all other fruits are OK for your blood type. Vegatables should be from local sources within your state (preferrably within your garden.) All fruits should be from local sources within your state (preferrably within your garden.) (2 times per day)
• Juices: Cherry (Black), Cranberry, Grape, Papaya, Cabbage, Carrot, Celery, Apple, Apple Cider, Apricot, Grapefruit, Pineapple, Prune, Cucumber, Water with Lemon and all other BEST/OK fruits and vegetables listed above. Best to juice them at your house and drink them immediately (once per day). 
• Spices: Curry, Garlic, Horseradish, Miso and Parsley. All Others are OK.  
• Herbal Tea: Alfalfa, Burdock Root, Chamomile, Echinacea, Ginger, Ginseng, Green Tea, Hawthorn, Licorice Root, Rose Hips, Strawberry Leaf. All others OK, especially Dandelion 
• Beverages: Coffee, Green tea, wine and water.  
• Fermented soy (only GMF free) products like miso, tempeh, etc.
  
  Check out free RECIPES on The Earth Diet website incorporating these foods HERE: http://www.theearthdiet.org/recipes.html

 Recommended foods to AVOID: 

• Meat: Beef, pork chicken.
• Fish/Seafood: Anchovy, Barracuda, Beluga, Bluegill Bass, Eel, Flounder, Gray Sole, Haddock.
  
• Nuts and Seeds: Filberts; Seeds: Poppy, Pumpkin, Sesame or Sunflower. 
• Fats and Oils: Canola Oil, Corn Oil, Cottonseed Oil, Safflower Oil, Sesame Oil or Sunflower Oil.
• Beans and legumes: Aduke, Azuki, Black, Fava, Garbanzo, Kidney or Lima beans. Black-Eyed Peas.  
• Cereals: Buckwheat and corn. 
• Vegetables: Artichoke (Domestic, Jerusalem), Avocado, Corn, Lima Beans, Mushrooms (Abalone, Shiitake), Olives (Black), Peppers (All), Radishes or Sprouts (Mung, Radish.) 
• Fruits: Bananas, Coconuts, Guava.
• Juices: Oranges.
• Spices: Allspice, Almond Extract, Anise, Barley Malt, Capers, Cornstarch, Corn Syrup, Plain Gelatin, Pepper (Black, Cayenne, Peppercorn, Red Flakes, White), Tapioca or Vinegar (Apple Cider, Balsamic, Red Wine, White) NOTE: Use fresh squeezed lemon juice instead of vinegar. 
• Herbal tea: Aloe, Coltsfoot, Corn Silk, Fenugreek, Gentian, Hops, Linden, Mullein, Red Clover, Rhubarb, Senna, Shepherd’s Purse or Skullcap.  

Recommended exercise:

• Calming centering exercises and activities like meditation, Thai Chi and Yoga.
• Moderate physical activities like Cycling and Hiking.
  This blog thanks to Joseph D'Antona (who is a blood type AB ;)) of
  The Balance Health and Wellness Center. 
  References: The Natural Health Place and Wikipedia

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