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All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered;
the point is to discover them. - Galileo
Hi !
This time of year, many people seek new discoveries about being healthier. If you're one of them, make sure your resources are trustworthy. So many of us rely on television commercials and food-label advertizing for our health "education". There are a lot of passive health "facts" trumpeted to us every day from all sorts of media. Unfortunately, this information is often misleading or even deceptive in the name of increased company profits.
Our future really is built on what we eat today. So consider using your downtime indoors this winter to start educating yourself about the building blocks of your future. I think the easiest way is to start reading the list of ingredients in the foods you eat. I often say the front of a food container is just a commercial; however, the back is as close as we can come to the truth. There is often a disparity between the sales pitch on the box and the reality of what's inside. Plus, federal regulations allow food manufacturers to disguise questionable ingredients with deceptively generic or garbled technical terms. For example, did you know that MSG is often described with the deceptively innocuous name "natural flavor"? (Read more about the dangers of MSG in this issue too.)
To help you get sharp and smart about food ingredients, I am starting a monthly contest called Reading on Purpose. Each month, I will publish an ingredient list from a popular American food product. If you're the first person to send me an email correctly identifying the product, you will win an assortment of healthy and delicious snack foods. I'll publish the winner's name and correct answer along with an autopsy of the ingredient list: what's healthful and what's harmful. Check out the first challenge below!
Be savvy. Be well,
Tracy |
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- Food Ingredient Labels
- New Monthly Contest:
Reading On Purpose
- Sea Vegetables
- Cozy Miso Soup
- More Thin Ice: MSG
- Upcoming Purpose
Events
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Eating on Purpose: Seaweed
I know. You might be thinking, "Seaweed? Yuck!" Well, hear me out on this one! As this planet's singularly most nutritious food, sea vegetables contain all of the minerals needed for health. Due to high-volume factory farming practices, commercial land vegetables offer fewer and fewer minerals. Seaweed, however, offers new hope for nutrition. With 10 to 20 times the minerals of land plants (plus the added punch of a range of vitamins), adding sea vegetables to your diet will help meet your nutritional needs, leave you feeling more grounded, and will beautify your skin, hair, and nails. This family of vegetables ranges from microscopic plankton to massive kelp plants more than 1,500 feet long, and is one of the most underutilized foods, even though it is one of the world's most abundant! What may surprise you is that most seaweed is very mild in flavor (just slightly salty) and is both quick and easy to prepare.
 Eating too many processed foods or foods grown in mineral-depleted soil can result in a lack of minerals in the body, leading to cravings for salty or sugary foods. Adding sea vegetables to your diet can help balance your energy levels and alleviate cravings. In traditional Chinese healing, sea vegetables are used prominently in the winter, especially to support the kidneys, adrenal glands, bladder and reproductive organs. The minerals prominent in sea vegetables (or seaweeds) include calcium, iron and iodine which can help balance hormone - particularly thyroid - levels in the body. Willing to give it a try? If you ever eat sushi, you might already be familiar with a popular sea vegetable; the dark green wrap around maki (sushi rolls) is a seaweed called nori which is loaded with both Vitamin A and protein. Try this month's recipe to experience wakame, a mild and delicious seaweed easy to include in soups, stews, and salads. Find seaweed (typically dehydrated in small bags) at your grocery store in the Asian food section. Enjoy! |
Upcoming Cooking on Purpose Demos
Relaxed, informal events in my own kitchen that can bring more wisdom and fun to your healthy eating. These cooking demonstrations are hands-on sessions where you will learn about nutrition and cooking techniques, sample delicious foods, and take all the recipes home.
Healthy - and Delicious - Vegetarian Eating
Wednesday, February 18th, 6:30pm
This event is perfect both for vegetarians and for meat-eaters who simply want more alternatives and variety in their diet beyond the typical American fare. Vegetarian dishes really can be hearty, delicious, and satisfying. Don't believe me? Come and see for yourself! Learn how you can build a balanced single meal - or a lifestyle - using food from the earth.
Eating for A Healthy Thyroid
Friday, March 20th, 6:30pm
Over 30 million women and 15 million men have a chronic medical problem that is both under-diagnosed and under-treated: hypothyroidism. Many Americans struggle with weight gain, low energy, muscle fatigue, sluggish mornings, and other ailments due to poor thyroid function. Do you? Medications may provide relief, but they don't address the underlying nutrients your body is missing that may prevent your thyroid from being at its best. You will leave understanding how to nourish your thyroid naturally - with what's on your plate! We'll also talk about everyday American foods to avoid as they may inhibit thyroid function. Join us for a fun evening learning simple ways to nourish your thyroid naturally with foods - foods you'll love to eat and that are surprisingly easy to prepare!
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MSG: Misleading Health Menace
Monosodium glutamate (MSG) is one of the most common food additives and flavorings in American processed foods. It's ubiquitous in asian food restaurants. Even if you request "no MSG" when you order your meal, you are almost always still going to get a dose from the component ingredients used in the kitchen. MSG today is found in the majority of mainstream soups, broths, salad dressings, sauce mixes, frozen entrees, grocery store prepared foods, and restaurant foods you encounter.
Why should you care? Unfortunately MSG is one of several glutamate-based "excitotoxins" in our food supply (the artificial sweetener aspartame is another one, by the way!). MSG is used to make food intensely and unnaturally flavorful, and it simultaneously stimulates your brain to provide a surge of dopamine, a feel-good neurotransmitter in the brain. Consumers can become quickly addicted to foods containing MSG (again, this is not good for health but great for corporate profits!). Over time, it can cause behavioral problems such as those seen in ADD/ADHD and kill brain cells through constant overstimulation. Many people have allergies to and can experience severe headaches and nausea from even tiny amounts of MSG.
As if all that weren't a good enough reason to avoid MSG (read labels!), studies now show that MSG also promotes obesity. This apparently happens not only through the resulting food addictions mentioned above. MSG also suppresses a hormone in the brain called leptin which regulates our sense of satiety from food and prompts us to stop eating when we've had enough. The resulting leptin resistance is also being increasingly tied to the current epidemic of Type 2 Diabetes in the US. Buyer beware! Food manufacturers try to hide MSG on ingredient labels using a long list of seemingly benign names, even the phrase "natural flavors". If you want to know more, check out this great article from Natural News, an on-line resource for uncovering health myths. |
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Reading on Purpose:
January Challenge
Do you regularly read product food labels? Are you a nutrition super sleuth? Well, now's your chance to win some free, delicious snacks for strutting your stuff.
Check out the ingredient list below. What are you perhaps eating on a daily basis? The first person to identify the product correctly and email me with the right answer will be this month's winner! Rest assured it's a very common American food product.
Ingredients: Corn syrup solids, partially hydrogenated coconut or palm kernel oil, hydrogenated soybean oil, sodium caseinate, dipotassium phosphate, mono- and diglycerides, sodium aluminosilicate, artificial flavor, annatto color. |
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Quick, healthy, and delicious, this mainstay of Japanese food is warm and cozy on a cold day. Mix it up and try several of the variations below this winter.
Ingredients:
* 4-5 cups spring water
* 2 inch strip of wakame, rinsed and soaked 5 min. in 1 cup of water until soft
* 1-2 cups thinly sliced vegetables
* 2-3 tsp. barley miso paste
* 2 scallions, finely chopped
Directions:
Chop soaked wakame. Discard soaking water or use on houseplants for a boost of minerals. Place water and wakame in a soup pot and bring to a boil. Add any root and ground vegetables first and simmer gently for 5 min. or until tender. Add leafy vegetables and simmer for 2-3 min.. Remove about 1/2 cup of liquid from pot and dissolve miso into it. Return it to the pot. Reduce heat to very low; do not boil or simmer miso broth. Allow soup to cook 2-3 minutes. Garnish with scallions and serve.
Variations:
Just about any combination of 2 or 3 vegetables works well in miso soup. Try onion, daikon, carrot, shiitake mushrooms, cabbage, or winter squash. If you like a heartier soup, add 1 Tbsp of uncooked quinoa, millet or barley at the beginning and let it cook with the vegetables for 20 min.. For extra protein, try adding some cubed tofu for the last minute of cooking. |
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Eat on purpose.
Live on purpose. | |
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