Restoring Healthy Through Nutrition

Here is a concept that is difficult for some folks to wrap their minds around - many health problems are related to our food .  One of the most dangerous additives in our food, connected to many serious health problems, is MSG.  Monosodium Glutamate has been linked to many symptoms that puzzle doctors and to many conditions that go un-diagnosed.  See if you can find yourself in this list from Debby Anglesey's website.   http://www.msgmyth.com/symptoms.html The concern about food does not end with MSG alone.  The "glutamate" part of this additive is found naturally in foods.  Once a food is processed through heat, strong acids, alkalis, enzymes or other chemical processes, the glutamic acids become free and unbound from other amino acids.  The free glutamate is a threat to various parts of the body.  We have glutamate receptors all over our body which respond to natural levels of glutamic acid.  However, the levels of free glutamate in process...

What do I mean by "sick"?  Who should eliminate fat from his or her diet? There are some studies that link oils in the diet to diseases of affluence.  To have a disease is to be sick.  To be sick is to require the help of a physician.  Physicians commonly prescribe medication to treat disease.  It is my opinion that being on medication is the marker of someone who is "sick".  To get well, one must find and eliminate the cause of disease. What you put into your mouth is just as important as what you don't put into your mouth .  Every ingredient in my vegan butter is there for a purpose.  In addition to the compliment of flavors, the ingredients provide more "touches" of food for health in our diet.     Some beneficial agents in my vegan butter: Curcumin - The dietary agent in turmeric.  This agent has been shown to assist apoptosis (cancer cell death) through multiple cellular mechanisms. Caffeic acid and phenethyl ester - Raw...

Toothpaste is easy to make at home.  No recipe required! Have you ever wondered why your toothpaste tastes sweet when it is supposed to help fight cavities?  Toothpaste has artificial sweeteners in it to appeal to the consumer.  The companies that make toothpaste know that the general public follows its tongue.  Since sweetness is our favorite taste and sugar causes tooth decay, toothpaste is sweetened with artificial sweeteners.  Can you imagine having to check the label of your toothpaste to make sure that it is sugar free?  How silly! It turns out that the ingredients in commercially produced toothpaste can be of greater consequence to our health than tooth decay.  I decided to start making my own toothpaste about a year ago.  Since then, my tooth sensitivity has disappeared (I used to buy the special paste for sensitive teeth).  My own toothpaste does a fine job of cleaning the plaque from my teeth and leaving my mouth...

Who doesn't want to sit down to a hot bowl of creamy potato soup on a chilly fall day?  In my case, I have given up the delicious flavors of whole milk and fried bacon in my potato soup in order to experience restored health.  So you can imagine my excitement when I discovered a way to enjoy potato soup again, without the animal products!  This recipe is simple, satisfying and offers food sources that provide strength, energy and cancer protective qualities.  Just be sure to resist the temptation to drain the vegetables after boiling!  Everything goes in this soup - especially the boiling water with its nutrients.  Potatoes - about 5 pounds 7-10 carrots 5-7 stalks celery 2 large sweet onions 1 head cauliflower - cook seperately! 2 cups frozen corn 1/2 cup nutritional yeast (added in 1/4 cup increments) 1 Tbsp parsley flakes salt and pepper to taste Wash and cut potatoes, with skin in tact, into 1/2 inch pieces.  Cut carrots, celery and onion into ...

Sugar becomes fat when we eat it!  Particularly the fructose part of sugar.  This is why high fructose corn syrup, HFCS, is so damaging to our bodies.  Being comprised primarily of fructose, entirely processed by the liver and turned immediately into fat for storage, HFCS makes a huge contribution to obesity and related diseases.  This prompts us to ask what foods contain HFCS.  The answer - nearly everything that is processed including, but not exclusive to, the following: bread, condiments, sweetened beverages, cookies, salad dressings, ice cream, sauces, syrups, packaged and ready to eat meals, pizza sauce, spaghetti sauce, cold cereals, granola bars, and candy.  HFCS is cheaper than sugar and provides a longer shelf life for processed foods and is therefore the sweetener of choice for the food industry. This video is a portion (episode 2) of the UCTV Prime special "The Skinny on Obesity".   Dr. Lustig gives an excellent explanation of how sugar and...

Our country has seen a group of diseases, metabolic syndrome diseases and diseases of civilization, rise to epidemic proportions in the last 30 years.  There are many reputable doctors and scientists who have been studying this upturn in disease and come up with an array of causation.  Here is a new and interesting find for my husband and me: methanol sources in foods that are heated and canned.  Methanol   (Thanks, Jen, for catching my misspell in this post!)  occurs naturally in fruits and vegetables, but the levels are lower in their raw state.  It is the heating process that brings out the potentially harmful levels of methanol in foods.  There is a recommended list in the following link of methanol sources to avoid as well as cooking techniques for tomatoes. http://www.whilesciencesleeps.com/monte-diet/ Now, I have always canned everything that I could get my hands on because of our frugal lifestyle and love of gardening.  In spite of my whol...

What an incredible salad!  Spinach, romaine, cauliflower, organic grapes and walnuts. Packing food for the day in town or for a road trip is the story of my life.  Many times, it is a burdensome task when I have not been diligent to cook large quantities of food on the weekends.  Furthermore, we have made a commitment to refrain from fast food which is a serious contributor to chronic disease in our country (see movie "Super Size Me" - I posted link to movie on YouTube below). So what should I pack?  Salads are perfect for meals away from home.  There is no reheating required.  Fresh, raw fruits and vegetables provide a full feeling, offer much needed fiber during travels and provide the needed mental clarity when on the road.  Restaurant salads are often sprayed with glutamic acid and preservatives that cause a lot of intestinal distress, so we avoid everything sold as a ready to eat item.  However, we have been known to make a gro...

Beet kvass is a fermented beverage that provides lactobacillus strains of probiotics, making it a good source of helpful intestinal flora.  Because it is made with raw beets, this beverage is said to have liver detoxifying properties.  I will show you step-by-step instructions so you can do this at home. You will need the following ingredients: 3-4 medium fresh beets 2 tsp. unrefined salt (no iodine or additives) 1/4 cup starter: finished beet kvass, whey, brine from vegetable ferment or water kefir non-chlorinated or fluoridated water 2 quart glass jar Peel and cut beets into 1/2 - 1" pieces.  Place in bottom of 2 quart jar. Add 2 teaspoons unrefined salt.       Add 1/4 cup starter: water kefir, finished beet kvass, whey, or brine from finished vegetable ferment. Fill jar with water leaving at least 1" of head space. Mark lid with the date and cover to make it air tight. Allow to sit on counter for 5-7 days.  Taste to see if it is getting tangy to det...

It is possible to have control over your health!  To rephrase, you can control what diseases you will not develop. Dr.T. Colin Campbell states in The China Study , "The authors of a major review on diet and cancer, prepared for the U.S. Congress in 1981, estimated that genetics only determines about 2-3% of the total cancer risk ."  The other 97-98% is determined by the environment - the largest contributor of environmental influence being DIET .  Another prominent report, sited in The China Study , from the University of Oxford (U.K.) submitted that the same 2-3% of all cancers are attributed to genes.  What does this mean?  You can determine, within 97-98%, whether you will have cancer in your lifetime!  In fact, your diet can determine whether you will fall prey to any of the diseases of affluence - colon cancer, lung cancer, breast cancer, leukemia, childhood brain cancer, stomach cancer, liver cancer, diabetes, and artery disease (including c...

Get ready for some cold weather with a large batch of goulash. You can keep this in the refrigerator and reheat it on a busy day.  The flavors keep improving as it waits in the refrigerator for you to enjoy again and again. Add, subtract or replace any of the vegetables in this recipe to suit your tastes or availability of foods. Vegetable Goulash 12-16 oz rotini or macaroni noodles 2 quarts or about 64oz or more of tomatoes - whole crushed, stewed or sauce 8oz tomato paste (omit if you use tomato sauce instead of whole tomatoes) 12oz mushrooms 16 oz cooked beans - yellow eye, northern or black 2 sweet onions chopped in bite sized pieces 5-8 garlic cloves - minced 2 cups fresh or frozen greens - spinach, collards, kale, chard or bok choy 5 large carrots - cut in 1/2" pieces or smaller 5 stalks celery cut in bite sized pieces 1 large green pepper in bite sized pieces 2 cups fresh or frozen green beans - chopped 1 tsp chili powder 2 T nutritional yeast flakes 1 tsp ground cumin 3 T ...