After The Holidays: Choose Foods Wisely!


People look differently at food after big holidays like Thanksgiving.

That is because you EAT differently on Thanksgiving.




We expect it, we want it, and most of all, we want the whole traditional experience now that we all are not sitting at the kids table any more.
 
So now that we are grown up, are we eating grown up food or are we slipping back into yesteryear and eating kid food at the grown up table? After all, isn't the traditional foods from our past and childhood really comfort food?



Considering most people eat 229 gms of FAT at  the Thanksgiving meal along with lots of sugar, sauces, sweets and drinks we may not normally eat, the body needs balancing. Let's face it, drinking a 20 oz Coke has 16 teaspoons of sugar in it alone. Add on the pies, cakes, cookies, candied potatoes, ice cream and the other hidden sweets..........YIKES!

Did you eat too much?

What to do?

After the pancreas and liver get over the shock of the day, it wants to relax along with the intestines. You know, kick back like you are on vacation. That is what we call balance.

However, most people feel tired, lethargic and lack energy after big meals like Thanksgiving.

Is this how you feel?

What the body really needs is a jump start and not from caffeinated beverages like coffee, sodas, or energy drinks. Part of the reason the body feels sluggish is because of the rebounding of the sugar jolt the pancreas has to deal with and the craving for more when the cycle starts to repeat itself. The body also has to deal with excess toxins, additives, artificial dyes, added hormones, hidden animal antibiotics,and possible leaky gut symptoms from our habits of eating. Leaky gut happens when there is a leak of bacteria, toxins, undigested food particles in between the intestinal wall cells and it then gets absorbed into the bloodstream.  This can cause autoimmune issues as well as fatigue.

You can feel tired and lethargic just from being dehydrated! The first sign of dehydration is fatigue.

Luckily, there are foods that you can eat after these kinds of big meals to help point you back in the right direction. It would require you to eat at the grown up table and think like a grown up while you are there.

Here are some foods to help the body recover from holiday eating and it's all plant based...now that aught to tell you something!

Garlic: besides the antibiotic like quality,  garlic is an excellent antioxidant and one of the best foods to flush heavy metals out of the body. It also activates liver enzymes to filter toxins. Raw garlic helps to stimulate the production of glutathione needed for liver detoxification. Helps to eliminate microrganisms.

Broccoli: The phytochemical Sulforaphane, helps enzymes in the body detoxify carcinogens before cell damage occurs.

Lemon: Helps convert toxins into a water-soluble form to be flushed out of the body. Aids especially with the flushing out liver toxins. Stimulates bile production. Cleanses the kidneys.

Water: hydrates and flushes out toxins.

Cabbage: activates enzymes to detoxify the body and aids in liver function. A powerful anti-inflammatory food.

Daikon: Helps with fat metabolism.  

Leafy Green Vegetables: chlorophyll helps the body neutralize toxins. Supports the liver to rid the body of toxins. Helps to maintain an alkaline presence in the body which is needed for a "healthy state". Most people do not eat enough alkaline foods.  Arugula and watercress have a light diuretic effect and works with the liver to flush out toxins. 

Eggplant: Helps cleanse and soothe the kidneys and bladder.

Ginger: Helps to break down proteins, and a potent detoxer. Has antibacterial and anti-fungal properties. Helps to lower blood pressure by stimulating circulation.

Whole Grains: (in it's unprocessed form: Brown rice barley, quinoa) high in nutrients and fiber, whole grains gathers and cleans up toxins. Insoluble fiber is considered "nature's broom" to make nutrients more efficiently absorbed in the body, spending less time in the intestines. They also strengthen digestion further aiding in detoxifying the body.

Artichoke: helps the body stimulation the production of bile from the liver and gallbladder for better digestion.

Raw beets: Encourages bile to flow and supports liver function.

Seaweed: Helps to alkalize the blood and strengthens the digestive tract. They contain alginates which helps with environmental pollution and aids in the secretion of heavy metals out of the body.


Lastly, don't forget to exercise, to get the blood circulating, aiding in the clean out and circulating oxygen and nutrients!

To your health!

Donna Marie Laino

Clean 15  (2014 list)

Each year the Environmental Working Group (EWG) puts out a Dirty Dozen list and it's opposite, Clean 15 list.

Here are this year's WINNERS!

According to the EWG, approximately 60% of thousands of produce was found to be contaminated with pesticides. As the EPA is not providing accurate and thorough information when it started to publish information in 1999. So in 2007, it stopped altogether providing any information.

Check each year for an updated list.

The  Clean Fifteen™ can provide you with safer foods to consume with not as much contamination from toxins and pesticides. If you cannot buy organic, these foods are the foods to consume with not as high of a risk to your health than the other produce with higher contaminants.

Relatively few pesticides were detected on these foods, and tests found low total concentrations of pesticides.


EWG's notable findings:

• Avocados were the cleanest: only 1 percent of avocado samples showed any detectable pesticides.
• Some 89 percent of pineapples, 82 percent of kiwi, 80 percent of papayas, 88 percent of mango and 61 percent of cantaloupe had no residues.
• No single fruit sample from the Clean Fifteen™ tested positive for more than 4 types of pesticides.
• Detecting multiple pesticide residues is extremely rare on Clean Fifteen™ vegetables. Only 5.5 percent of Clean Fifteen samples had two or more pesticides.

http://www.ewg.org/foodnews/summary.php

 A new study to be published on Tuesday, July 15, 2014 in British Journal of Nutrition, will highlight research from Newcastle University on benefits of consuming organic foods.

This comprehensive mega-analysis looked at 343 studies and found that organic produce were significantly lower in toxic heavy metals, as well as higher in antioxidants.

Also addressed in the research were differences in the farming systems, which up until now, have raised some question as to outcomes between organic and non-organic foods.
 
 “Higher antioxidant concentrations and less cadmium and pesticide residues in organically-grown crops: a systematic literature review and meta-analyses.” Baranski, M. et al. –  published in the British Journal of Nutrition  15th July 2014.

2014 Results of Produce with Pesticide Residue

The Environmental Working Group (EWG) analyzed pesticide residue testing data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Food and Drug Administration to come up with rankings for these popular fresh produce items. 

All 48 foods are listed below from worst to best (lower numbers = more pesticides).   

http://www.ewg.org  

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Note: EWG analyzed pesticide tests of 48 popular produce items. Domestic and imported versions of three items - nectarines, blueberries and snap peas- showed sharply different results, so we have ranked those domestic and imported items separately. As a result, the full list of foods ranked by the Shopper's Guide displays 51 entries.

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Apples

1

Strawberries

2

Grapes

3

Celery

4

Peaches

5

Spinach

6

Sweet Bell Peppers

7

Nectarines - Imported

8

Cucumbers

9

Cherry Tomatoes

10

The Dirty Dozen

Did you know that pesticides were exceptionally toxic to the Nervous System?  

Imagine trying to pick up a cup, blink an eye, catch a ball or pull your hand away from a hot doorknob and not feel it or not be able to move at all. This would be a compromise of the nervous system, a network of over 100 billion neurons.

It’s the peripheral nerves that have the task transporting information back and forth from your brain to your spinal cord. This pathway not only connects to our brain but to our organs as well.


Innately, people tend to protect our body and preserve function.

 So why aren’t we buying food to do the same?

The Environmental Protection Agency has banned the use of certain pesticides however, there are some of these toxic chemicals still detected on foods. Harmful organochlorine pesticides were found on fields that had phased them out in the 1970’s and 1980’s.

Testing done in 2008 found these organochlorine toxins on soil growing domestic zucchini, summer squash and crookneck squash. 

The Environmental Working Group (EWG) is a non-profit organization that advocates policy to protect individual and global health. They have developed "Shoppers' Guide to Pesticides in Produce", an annual list to help guide us in buying safer produce.

In the United States, a chemical called diphenylamine, DPA for short, is applied after harvest to most apples and some pears. It is used to prevent skin discoloration during the months of cold storage.

DPA is banned in European countries as well as neonicotinoids. Neonicotinoids are believed to change human brain development and it is thought that this may be a reason that honeybees and other beneficial insects are being killed.

Unlike our European counterparts, the U.S. has not moved toward safer agricultural measures. The Environmental Working Group continues to bring the dangers of our system to our attention.


 According to EWG:

• Every sample of imported nectarines and 99 percent of apple samples tested positive for at least one pesticide residue.
• The average potato had more pesticides by weight than any other food.
• A single grape sample contained 15 pesticides. Single samples of celery, cherry tomatoes, imported snap peas and strawberries showed 13 different pesticides a piece.

Use Caution when buying these foods: 2014 Dirty Dozen

These foods are best bought organic to avoid the pesticide contamination. Notice the similarities of the lists: 2014 vs 2013.

2013 Dirty Dozen List

 



  

Dirty Dozen PLUS™

For the third year, the Dirty Dozen list has included an extra "plus" category. This is due to the fact that they contain trace levels of highly hazardous pesticides. One caveat in the study revealed that hot peppers were frequently contaminated with insecticides toxic to the human nervous system. And the vegetables that are carried over from last year Plus list are Leafy Greens: collard greens and kale.


It is recommended by the EWG, that people who eat a lot of these foods buy organic instead.




They have also added a “plus” category of leafy greens and hot pepper this year.  

Greens such as kale and collards, have shown to frequently been contaminated with neuro-toxic pesticides.

You Are What You Eat

Health. Come on. You know you want it.

You know you want to eat healthier, become fit, trim your waistline, be able to wear sexier clothes or just the size you used to be. Doctors have been telling us for years what are good health practices and what are not healthy choices. 

 So why do we reach for the coffee, that drive through donut, the Caramel Flan Frappuccino, the pop-tart, cereal boxes with high sugar and artificial dye content? That Frappuccino has 45% of daily Saturated Fat and contains 60 gms of Sugar in one drink!

Is it comfort food, habit, lack of motivation, inconvenience, ignorance, financial constraints, conformity, emotional state, or pressure that drives us to such mastication madness?

We are addicted to fats, sugars and salt. We crave it. 

The food industry knows this and it acts like the Genie floating out of the lamp, to grant our every wish. Americans spend  more than $1 trillion on food every year, and more than 90 % of it is on processed food.

An astounding 40% of American children are now overweight and more than 1/3 of the adults are obese.The estimated annual medical cost of obesity in the U.S. in 2008 was $147 billion. The medical costs for people who are obese were $1,429 higher than those of normal weight.

Obesity related conditions include Stroke, Type 2 Diabetes, Heart Disease and certain types of Cancer, which are some of the leading causes of preventable death.

Not only are there fat facts, but there is growing concern of chemicals and heavy metals in our bodies, starting in-utero.

Scientific studies like The China Study (Nutrition link to disease) and The Body Burden (The Pollution in Newborns) have shockingly described the chemical load our bodies have been exposed to and are carrying. Direct links to degenerative and life threatening diseases have been described linking them to animal products, soil contamination, pesticides, to name a few.

These truths cannot be denied especially after studies of reversed heart disease by Dr. T. Colin Campbell from nutrition changes alone paves the way to healthier living.

When chemicals are found in our bodies and umbilical cord blood it has a negative affect on our bodies causing illness and eventually leading to our death. The more toxic food we eat, the greater this problem will be. These toxins are in the food sources, additives, processed foods, contaminated soil, air, and water, vehicle emissions, storage containers and more.

It all boils down to what you can control and what you cannot.

Here are the things that you cannot control:

1. genetic makeup
2. soil depletion
3. soil contaminants
4. weather conditions
5. water contamination
6. industrial monopoly
7. genetically modified foods
8. off gassing and chemical emissions

Things you can control:

1. food you buy
2. where you shop
3. food preparation
4. quality ingredients
5. your intake of food
6. organic vs non-organic
7. how much food you eat
8. knowledge of animal abuse
9. knowledge of agriculture policies

The choices we make directly influence our health. Sadly, many laws control good sense and good health negatively granting mega industrial profit gains while the end product is actually harming and destructive in our bodies. The animal products contain hormones and antibiotics. The meat from feedlot-raised cattle has a higher fat content than meat from grass fed cattle.  Additives such as pink slime and genetic modifications to our corn, and a myriad of chemicals affects the response in our bodies to balance and threatens our immune system. Many foods are acidifying in nature vs alkaline foods which would strengthen and support the body balance.

Eat more Alkalizing Foods 75% of Daily  Intake

As we make the daily choices and plan our menus, consider what exactly you are putting into your mouth. Chances are, what you are reaching for will determine not only the kind of day you will be having, but the kind of life you will be living. 

Chose wisely!