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Hot Apple Cider recipe

October 22, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Yummy – I just came across this delicious sounding recipe for Hot Apple Cider on on of my favorite blogs – The Kind Life.  The blog is an awesome source of information for vegetarian/vegan/macrobiotic recipes, information about being more “green”, information about Cruelty Free products, and so much more.

Here is the link to the recipe:  http://www.thekindlife.com/post/hot-apple-cider

Although it doesn’t get very cold in San Diego, it still has a mild winter, so something warm like cider sounds perfect at this time of year.

Enjoy!

To your health,

Kimberly

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Sugar – How can something so Sweet be such a Trouble Maker?

April 19, 2011 By Leave a Comment

I’ve blogged before about my feelings on sugar.  A friend sent me a link to this interesting (very long, but worth it) article written in the New York Times about sugar.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/17/magazine/mag-17Sugar-t.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&hp

The article discusses, in detail, research that shows how sugar impacts conditions such as insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome (a pre-cursor to diabetes), type II diabetes, and heart disease.

I have been reading about this very thing in my nutrition course recently, so I was really interested to read the article.

Lots of people talk about sugar as “empty calories”, as the article states, and therefore, on the premise that too many calories make you fat (which is what many people live by), sugar is a definite culprit for weight gain.

However, sugar is not just empty calories.  Sugar is much more than that.  Anything that we consume has to go through the body’s digestive system.  This starts with saliva in the mouth, dropping down the esophagus, into the stomach, pancreas and liver, with different enzymes and substances meeting in the duodenum before entering the small intestine, then large intestine, and finally coming out the “other end”.  Of course, that is a little simplified, but you get the gist.

During digestion, resources within the body are used up.  This is how the system is supposed to work, but when you eat nutrient-rich foods like vegetables, whole grains, sea vegetables, or beans, the body is not just using up resources, it is taking in new resources!  It’s a give and take situation.

When the body digests sugar (or other very refined foods), these precious minerals and enzymes in the body are also used up, but this time, NOTHING good is given back to the body.  Sugar is just a “taker” in the digestive process.   So, if you’re consuming a lot of sugar/refined foods over time, your body will eventually run out of the nutrients it needs to keep going.  Your body will become incapable of maintaining it’s natural blood pH level of 7.4, which means all other operations within the body are hindered and/or halted.  Yikes.

Besides all the serious issues it can cause to your blood health, and therefore organs, over-consumption of sugar can also contribute to hair loss, brittle nails, dry hair, pre-mature aging, and macrobiotics experts even conclude that it makes you more susceptible to skin cancer.

Now, just to clarify, when I talk about sugar, I’m not just talking about white sugar.  I’m talking about all kinds of sugar.  High-fructose corn syrup, powdered sugar, brown sugar, maltitol, brown cane sugar, and artificial sweeteners all have the same impact.

Read the article – I hope you enjoy it and learn something!  Maybe you’ll think twice next time before saying yes to that piece of chocolate cake :)

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/17/magazine/mag-17Sugar-t.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&hp

To your health,

Kimberly

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Macrobiotic recipe: Aduki beans with Squash

March 12, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Here is a delicious macrobiotic recipe.  I absolutely love aduki (or adzuki or azuki) beans and I love squash so why not put them together.  Adding the kombu (a sea vegetable) increases the mineral content enormously.  A small serving of sea vegetables everyday is part of a macrobiotic diet.

Aduki Beans with Squash and Kombu

1. Wash and soak 1/2 cup of aduki beans with a 1-inch square piece of kombu for 2 to 5 hours.

2. Place kombu in bottom of the pot and add chopped hard winter squash such as acorn, butternut, or
buttercup. When squash is not available, substitute onions, carrots, or parsnips.

3. Add azuki beans on top of squash and cover with water.

4. Cook over a low flame until the beans and squash become soft. While cooking, you may need to add
cold water for a few times.

5. When beans are 80 percent done, add a few pinches of sea salt.

6. Cover and let cook another 10 to 15 minutes or until all the water has cooked down.

7. Turn off the flame and let the pot sit for several minutes before serving.

Note: During cooking, it is best not to stir the beans.

This recipe is from www.macroamerica.com, which is the school I’m taking my counseling course with.

Enjoy!

To your health,

Kimberly

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Sickness is not an Accident

February 22, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The title of this post was something I read in my macrobiotics course, as written by Michio Kushi, one of the most well-known people in modern day macrobiotics.

The sentence, ‘Sickness is not an accident’, really struck me.  Why?

Well, I think because after reading the explanation around this statement, it made so much sense!

The material that I was reading, by Kushi, was explaining the theory around Ki (or Qi or Chi), the meridians of the body, and how it is all related and connected.  (By the way, this is all kind of new to me and I’m pretty much an analytical thinker, not a spiritualist by nature, so if you’re like me, don’t run away yet!)

Anyway, Kushi went on to discuss how the opposing forces in the world (Earth’s force, being the force coming from within earth out towards infinity (yin), and Heaven’s force, being the force coming from infinity into the center of the earth (yang)) help form all of our organs and determine how the body is supposed to operate.  When we overload our bodies with the wrong kinds of food, drinks, stimulants, medicine, and even external influences, the body gets out of balance.  This is when illnesses start to inhabit our bodies.  It may just be some tiredness, or a little cold, but even those things are signs that something is off in your body.

I’m sure I’m not explaining this as succinctly as Kushi did, but this just made so much sense to me.  Sickness is not an accident.  Western medicine can lead us to believe that sickness is ‘random’ or ‘unpreventable’ but Eastern medicine definitely doesn’t support that.

Learning about this is actually really comforting.  It makes me feel confident that my health, my longevity, my future is something that I have control over.  Now, I know s**t happens, as they say – accidents happen and genes do play a part in the constitution of each of us.  But, by understanding what strengths and weaknesses we were born with, and understanding how we can support our bodies in the best way possible, we are all capable of achieving health.  I love that!

To your health,

Kimberly

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Arame and Onion side dish recipe

December 16, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Here is another recipe from my macrobiotic cooking class.  My husband and I have made this a couple of times since then and have really enjoyed it.  We even made it for my parents and, despite the seaweed in the dish, they both loved it!

For me to promote a primarily onion based dish (I’m not the biggest onion lover, unless they’re very well cooked), it must mean it’s a good one :)

Arame with Onions & Walnuts

Ingredients

1 cup arame (a sea vegetable, you can buy it at specialty grocery stores)

3 large onions, finely sliced

2 tbsp shoyu sauce (similar to soy sauce but without the gluten)

1/2 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped

4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Apple juice concentrate, to taste

Lemon rind, ground

Preparation

- Rinse the arame, then leave to soak in water for 15 minutes

- Heat the oil in a pan.  Once hot, add onions and saute with a pinch of salt until transparent.

- Drain arame and add to the onions with 1/2 cup water.  Cover and simmer until all water is absorbed.  (about 20 mins)

- Season to taste with shoyu, apple juice concentrate and lemon ride.  Garnish with walnuts.

Serve and enjoy!  This is a great hot vegetable side dish or could even be served on top of brown rice or noodles to make a meal.

Onions are full of nutrients, so this gives you a good dose of onions for the week.  Sea vegetables, such as arame, are known for their high mineral content, so this also adds to the nutritional value of the dish. And the olive oil and walnuts have healthy fats.

This works great with a natural weight loss plan or any healthy meal plan.

To your health,

Kimberly


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Whole Grain Goodness

November 22, 2010 By 2 Comments

I am on the mailing list of www.realage.com, so I receive their daily emails which have various tips about healthy eating and tend to highlight recent studies that say that a certain herb, food, or drink does something good for your body.  This particular article they sent talks about choosing the right grains to get rid of belly fat and keep your waist trimmer.  Here is the full article.

I don’t think this is revolutionary information, but every reminder about eating naturally helps.  To me, it’s common sense that you would want to choose whole grains (i.e grains in their natural form, so no goodness has been stripped out of them.)  But, it’s easy to get out of the habit just because there are so many tempting choices of breads or crackers made from refined grains (especially in America.)

I am a firm believer in being able to lose weight naturally, without diet pills and without fancy diet systems.  I try to base most of my posts on this site around that core belief.   So, the fact that this Real Age article mentions that switching from eating refined grains to whole grains can instantly help you lose weight really fits with my attitude toward weight loss.

Look at the Ingredients

So, how do you choose something made from whole grains?  If you’re buying something like bread or crackers, you want to look at the ingredients and find first of all something with very few ingredients.  For example, the rye bread that I like has about 3 or 4 ingredients, the first one being whole rye.   You also want to look for words like ‘unrefined’ or ‘whole’ and make sure the grains are in the first couple of ingredients listed on the package.

Just in case you weren’t already aware of this, ingredients are listed in order by how much of that particular ingredient was used to make the product.  So, the first ingredient listed should be the primary item used to make the food.

Another quick check you can do is to look at how much fiber is in the product you’re buying.  If it’s less than about 3g per serving, it probably isn’t a whole grain.  When grains are processed, some of the fiber is stripped out.

Some of the most common whole grains are barley, buckwheat (which despite it’s name, is wheat and gluten free), brown rice (gluten-free), millet (gluten-free), oats, and whole wheat.

If you’re buying any of these things, you shouldn’t have to check the labels, but I would suggest doing it anyway if you’re not familiar with the particular brand you’re buying.  Whatever you buy, it should just be 100% millet, or 100% barley – essentially 100% of whatever grain you’re purchasing.  Nothing needs to be added to these.

Macrobiotics and Grains

I know some of you already know this, but I’m going to start a macrobiotic counseling course soon.  The reason I mention this is because a macrobiotic diet is based around eating whole grains and vegetables.  As I learn more about macrobiotics, I’m sure you’ll see plenty more posts about whole grains and what they do for you – just a little warning :)

You can see an earlier post I did, which gives a very quick introduction to macrobiotics.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of my American readers.  Enjoy!

To your health,

Kimberly

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Macrobiotic Cooking Class

September 13, 2010 By 1 Comment

Over the weekend, I attended a macrobiotic cooking class with a couple of friends.  It was absolutely incredible!  I didn’t know much about macrobiotics, other than I thought it was pretty much a vegan diet and based on all natural foods.

Here is what I got from it:

Macrobiotics essentially means “full life”.  It is based on the principle of eating natural foods based on the climate you live in and the seasons.  It consists of a lot of whole grains, vegetables (the usual day to day stuff), and sea vegetables. Fish is included in meals in certain seasons, but other than that it is pretty much vegetarian.  It is also dairy free and I think it should be egg free as well.  Macrobiotics also looks at yin and yang, or foods that are expansive or contracting, respectively.

Something I had never really thought about is how foods affect your body in the different seasons.  For example, in colder weather, you want to eat things that thicken the blood, like green leafy vegetables (high in vitamin K).  Then in warmer weather, you want to thin the blood.  Eating foods high in vitamin E is one way to do this.

A macrobiotic lifestyle includes macrobiotic eating and other things, including meditation, yoga, healing, and other things.  It is said to be the best way to live a disease-free life and stay youthful.  It should help people lose weight naturally, and maintain it.

I learned so much more, but those were the basics!  I’ll share a couple of the recipes with you this week.  We got to try all of the 7 things that we made, but here is one of my favorites.

Mashed Millet

1 cup millet

1 onion (diced)

1/3 medium cauliflower (cut in florettes)

1 bay leaf

pinch sea salt

1 tbsp oil

few drops shoyu sauce (like soy sauce)

fresh parsley

What to do

1. Heat a cooking pot.  Add oil and onions.  Gently saute for 10 minutes.

2. Add a few drops shoyu and the bay leaf.

3. Add 3 cups water, cauliflower, pinch of sea salt and washed and drained millet.

4. Cover and bring to a boil.  Reduce flame and simmer gently for 25-30 minutes.

5. Mash millet and vegetables to a smooth consistency.  Garnish with fresh parsley.

This is a perfect alternative to mashed potato, but healthier!  Millet is very alkalising, and as modern day diets are very acidic, this is important.  Millet is great for the spleen and stomach.  Why not try this at your next dinner party and see what people think?

To your health,

Kimberly

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