Cruciferous Mini Chemistry Lesson

I was at the doctor yesterday and got a question by text about whether green smoothies were unhealthy and I was completely perplexed why anyone would think that.  Sure you can make an unhealthy green smoothie by loading it up with fruit and eliminating the kale and adding a little spinach instead. However the person who asked this question is a fan of healthy green smoothies with kale so I knew something was up.  We texted back and forth for a while and I called her and we talked about it and got everything cleared up. Once I got home the email questions started flooding in and that was when I knew I had really needed to write this post for everyone who was confused but didn’t have anyone to ask about this. So much for my day off, darn it!  *ugh*

I make my green smoothies with kale for a number of reasons but the primary one is that kale is the most nutritious raw and I think works well in smoothies from a flavor perspective.  However kale (like all cruciferous veggies) is generally more nutritious when eaten raw which I will explain so that you understand the process and aren’t confused the next time someone writes something to the contrary. When I first heard about this controversy the first thing I thought of was the comment I wrote yesterday about being careful what you read in popular books, clearly the same thing goes for what you read on blogs.

All vegetables contain protective micronutrients and cruciferous veggies are no exception.  If you were to look at the cells of kale under a microscope you would see each one contained a number of separate items included myrosinase (enzyme) and glucosinolates (organic compound) inside a vacuole (membrane). Think of myrosinase and glucosinolates like chickpeas and tahini before they are combined into hummus. When kale leaves are intact (whole) the myrosinase is physically separated from the glucosinolates. (1)  However in order for the cruciferous veggies to form indoles and isothiocyanates the myrosinase and glucosinolates need to be combined. (1) They can be combined by blending, chopping or chewing. (2)  Obviously blending does a more complete job of breaking down the cell walls releasing the maximum amount of myrosinase so it can combine with the glucosinolates.  However it is also important to know that myrosinase is inactivated by heat (cooking) (3).  If you cook whole or roughly chopped kale you are getting significantly less of the indoles and isothiocyanates (ITCs) because of the reduction in myrosinase.  The human digestive tract does have some myrosinase activity but the absorption of the ITCs is substantially lower for cooked cruciferous veggies according to numerous studies. (4)  Glucosinolates are water-soluble so boiling is not a good way to prepare cruciferous veggies. (5)  Boiling (2), steaming (3) and microwaving (6) are thought to completely inactivate myrosinase making the cruciferous vegetables far less nutritious.

Why should we care about our absorption of ITCs?  ITCs are critical for optimal human health since they not only kill cancer cells (7) but they remove carcinogens in both the phase I and II processes. (4) Additionally ITCs are anti-inflammatory (8), induce cancer cell-cycle arrest (7) and have been shown to eradicate H. pylori (9) (a major cause of stomach cancer). A better question might be why wouldn’t you want to absorb as many ITCs as you possibly could?

Why do we need indoles?  In the acidic environment of the human stomach indole-3-carbinols (I3Cs) combine to form acid condensation products (10) which include:  dimer 3,3’-diindolmethane (DIM) and cyclic trimer (CT).  The biological activity of DIM and CT differ from I3C but I3C is typically credited for the effects.  Both these (DIM and CT) form to a lesser degree when myrosinase has been inactivated by cooking. (11)  I3Cs have been found to inhibit estrogen activity and thereby are thought to decrease estrogen-sensitive cancers (think breast and prostate). (12)  Additionally I3Cs also have anti-angiogenic (13) properties (stop the growth of blood vessels to cancerous tumors) and they induce cell death (14) (apoptosis).  I3Cs have been shown to eradicate precancerous cervical lesions in some women. (15)  I don’t know about you, but I say bring on the I3Cs and as many as possible which means more raw cruciferous vegetables please.

First, I apologize for all the endnotes but when something is put out without any backup I worry that no one will have any confidence in the information that is being provided. I will not be boring you with endnotes often going forward but I thought it was necessary in this post.

Here is the bottom line for me.  Consuming cruciferous vegetables is important for our health.  Based on the science I have read blending raw kale is not only healthy but is the healthiest way to consume your kale.  As with everything else I will continue to stay current on the latest science on this topic and if anything changes I will let you know. Until I see scientific research that tells me that raw pureed kale is unhealthy I will continue to enjoy green smoothies (made with copious amounts raw kale I might add) most days of the week.  Dan and I both had green smoothies for breakfast this morning if you are curious.  ;-)

Endnotes:

1.       Holst B, Williamson G.  A critical review of the bioavailability of glucosinolates and related compounds, Nat Prod Rep 2004; 21(3):425-447

2.       Shapiro TA, Fahey JW, Wade KL, Stephenson KK, Talay P. Chemoprotective glucosinolates and isothiocyanates of broccoli sprouts:  metabolism and excretion in humans.  Cancer Epidemol Biomarkers Prev 2001;10(5):501-508

3.       Conaway CC, Getahun SM, Liebes LL, et al.  Disposition of glucosinolates and sulphoraphane  humans after ingestion of steamed and fresh broccoli.  Nutr Cancer 2000;38(2):168-178

4.        Lampe JW, Peterson S.  Brassica, biotransformation and cancer risk: genetic polymorphisms alter the preventive effects of cruciferous vegetables. J Nutr 2002; 132(10):2991-2994

5.       McNaughton SA, Marks GC. Development of a food composition database for the estimation of dietary intakes of glucosinolates, the biologically active constituents of cruciferous vegetables. Br J Nutr 2003;90(3):687-697

6.       Rouzan G, Young SA, Duncan AJ. Hydrolysis of glucosinolates to isothiocyanates after ingestion of raw or microwaved cabbage by human volunteers. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers prev 2004;13(1):125-131

7.       Zhang Y.  Cancer-preventive isothiocyanates:  measurement of human exposure and mechanism of action.  Mutat Res 2004;555(1-2):173-190

8.       Heiss E, Herhaus C, Klimo K, Bartsch H, Gerhauser C.  Nuclear factor kappa B is a molecular target for sulforaphane-mediated anti-inflammatory mechanisms. J Biol Chem 2001;276(34):32008-32015

9.       Galan MV, Kishan AA, Silverman AL.  Oral broccoli sprouts for the treatment of Helicobacter pylori infection: a preliminary report. Dig Dis Sci 2004;49(7-8):1088-1090

10.   Hertzer HG, Senft AP. The micronutrient indole-3-carbinol:  implications for disease and chemoprevention.  Drug Metabol Drug Interract 2000;17(1-4):159-188

11.   Shapiro TA, Fahey JW, Wade KL, Stephenson KK, Talalay P.  Human metabolism and excretion of cancer chemopreventive glucosinolates and isothiocyanates of cruciferous vegetables.  Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 1998;7(12):1091-1100

12.   Jordan VC, Gapstur S, Morrow M. Selective estrogen receptor modulation and reduction in risk of breast cancer, osteoporosis, and coronary heart disease. J Natl Cancer Inst 2001;93(19):1449-1457

13.   Chang X, Tou JC, Hong C, et al.  3,3’-diindolylmethane inhibits angiogenesis and the growth of transplantable human breast carcinoma in athymic mice.  Carcinogenesis 2005;26(4):771-778

14.   Chinni SR, Li Y, Upadhyay S, Koppolu PK, Sarkar FH.  Indole-3-carbinole (I3C) induced cell growth inhibition, G1 cell cycle arrest and apoptosis in prostate cancer cells. Oncogene 2001;20(23):2927-2936

15.   Stanley M, Chapter 17: Genital human papillomavirus infections-current and prospective therapies.  J Natl Cancer Inst Monogr 2003;31:117-124

How to Make a Healthy Green Smoothie:

Making a healthy green smoothie is easy and you all know what I am going to say based on what you see me prepare. First include a lot of raw kale in your smoothies.  Frozen banana added to the mix makes the smoothie creamy.   Including walnuts and flaxseeds for healthy fats assists your body to absorb the fat-soluble vitamins in the kale.  Cinnamon is also added to our green smoothies for additional antioxidants as well as flavor.  Vanilla is included because it smoothes out the sharpness of the greens allowing me to add much more of them to our smoothies.  You can also add frozen cherries and cocoa powder for flavor and antioxidants. That is how you make a delicious and healthy green smoothie.

Calories Burned Chewing:

This is just a side issue but I am mystified that anyone would believe chewing kale could result in 100 calories being burned.  *scratches head* It takes 1 mile, either running or walking to burn 100 calories and that is using the largest muscles in the human body.  Let’s think about that for a minute. If you walk a mile in 15 minutes you are using your legs and buttocks to generate movement and that burns 100 calories. The muscle mass of those muscles is what at least 100 times greater than your jaw muscles, and probably more? So that would imply that you would need to chew for at minimum of 1500 minutes (15 times 100) to burn 100 calories.  Since there are only 1440 minutes in a day I find it impossible to see how this math works.

Signing off:

I appreciate that so many of you wrote to ask me what I thought about green smoothies.  Your faith in my ability to cut through the controversy and give you the truth has really touched me.   I would prefer to give up my day off if it means that I can clarify things for you.  I wanted to include plenty of endnotes so that you could follow the science for yourself if you choose, or at least realize that this wasn’t just “my opinion on the matter” but rather there is hard science which backs up everything that I wrote.  Now I am going to try to enjoy the rest of my “day off”. 

If you ever see anything that confuses you in the future just ask me. If I don’t know the answer I will do my research and find out for all of us.

31 Days to Better Health - Day 23

Happy Monday, assuming there is such a thing as a happy Monday that is.  I hope the week has started off well at your place.  As always I wish it were still the weekend, but I am trying to make the best of it.  While it has warmed up here it has been raining and/or dreary all day.  There is nothing like a yucky grey day to keep me inside where it is warm and dry.  ;-)  On the bright side I have gotten a lot done because I wasn’t able to spend as much time outside as I would like.  As I always say there is an upside to everything in life if you just look for it.

 Don’t you just love that the days are getting longer?  *woo hoo* It will be spring and then summer before we know it.  *happy dance*  I am seriously looking forward to spending spring, summer and fall on the boat.  There is nothing more relaxing to me than hanging out on the boat.  I can feel the boat gently bobbing now.  ;-)  Come on spring!  I would rather be looking at the scenery in the picture above then at the cold, dreary rain that is outside now.

I am happy that you guys are starting to speak up a little even though most of the comments and questions are coming by email.  Thanks to everyone who wrote.  It is much easier for me to know what to write each day when I know a little about what you are interested in, what you are trying to accomplish and where you are in making healthy changes.  For those of you who are just joining us here is the recap of what we have accomplished so far to remind us all of how much we have covered during the first 22 days of January:

Day 1 – Defined Success and What is/was Holding Us Back

Day 2 – Determined our Purpose and Looked at Passion
Day 3 – Listed Our Goals for January
Day 4 – Listed the Things We Have Needed to Work on for a While
Day 5 – Looked at Optimism vs. Pessimism and Fear vs. Intuition
Day 6 – Practiced Conscious Eating
Day 7 – Hara Hachi Bu
Day 8 – Taking the Stress Out of Meal Time
Day 9 – Acknowledgments
Day 10 – No Excuses, Do it Anyway
Day 11 – Is it True?
Day 12 – Have You Really Connected With Someone Today?
Day 13 – Motivation is a Decision
Day 14 - Successfully Navigating Dinner at an Unfamiliar Restaurant
Day 15 - What Do You Want, Have You Asked?
Day 16 – Treating Others as You Wish to be Treated
Day 17 – Food as a Budget
Day 18 – Silence Your Inner Critic
Day 19 – Replace I Have to With I Want to
Day 20 – Identifying Your Rituals
Day 21 – Face Your Fears
Day 22 – Give Up the Diet Mentality

What did you think of yesterday’s post about ditching the diet mentality?  Do you think that there is any validity to my comments? Was there something in that post which you are going to try to apply to your life?  I really would like to hear your thoughts if you aren’t too shy to comment.

The Meaning and/or Purpose of Food:

It came to me this morning that what food means to any of us is the crux of what happens in terms of health.  What does food to mean to you?  Why do you eat?  What need are you trying to satisfy with food?  Sounds like simple questions right?  However I can almost guarantee that there are many answers to this question because I would have answered this differently at various stages of my life.

What do you think, what does food mean to you?  At this stage in my life food is the fuel that I use to nourish my body.  Food is what I use to provide my body with all the macro and micronutrients that it needs to be as healthy as possible given my life conditions.  I know that the food which I eat is broken down into the building blocks that become me.  Literally this means I believe that I am what I eat.  This is why I am able to decide to eat savory oatmeal, green smoothies or seaweed.  It is also why I reach for green tea instead of coffee, or fresh vegetable juice instead of a V8.  I know that my body needs as much nutrition as I can possibly cram into it to hopefully eventually offset the horrible ways I treated my body in the past.

In the past food had many different meanings, none of which were good (healthy) and I will share those now in case your see yourself in any of these examples.

Food can be seen as entertainment.  In the past Dan and I loved to get together with friends and go out to dinner.  We would order the wildest thing on the menu because we wanted the experience.  Some of the things we have eaten in the past were “way out there” to say the least.  We have had things like vanilla cotton candy wrapped smoked eel, and grilled baby octopus with bacon air.  As you can see I wasn’t kidding when I said we wanted to be entertained and experience life to the fullest.  Given that we both loved fancy restaurant food you can guess the rest I imagine. We ate too many calories and we both carried too much weight. Viewing food as entertainment is not good for anyone’s health and we were a testament to that. The funny thing is that we thought we were happy, right up the crisis that is.

Food can also be used to numb feelings.  This is something that I hear a lot when I talk to people.  They tell me that they eat when they are sad, angry or just about any other feeling.  In the past when I was sad or upset I would also reach for “comfort food” which in my case was anything made with flour like pasta, warm bread out of the oven, pizza, etc.  I equated Italian carbs with love and when I felt sad or upset I instinctively reached for those foods.  I still do this but now I recognize what is happening so that I can stop myself before I eat too much whole wheat pasta, vegan pizza or hot warm bread.  It isn’t that my cravings for these foods disappeared but rather that now I understand why I am craving them and that makes it much easier to not over do.

Food can be used to celebrate.  When I was growing up we went out to dinner to celebrate birthdays, holidays, graduations, etc. Food was the way that we communicated as a family.  I am not sure if this is an Italian thing but all festivities revolved around food. We had the feast of the seven fishes for Christmas Eve, cassata cake on New Years, panettone for Christmas and Easter, you get the idea. If there was a holiday we had a food (or more than one food) that we used to celebrate it.  Everyone got to choose where we went out to dinner to celebrate their birthday. Food was an integral part of our family life, mind you most of this food was eaten out of the house, but food was how we connected as a family.

Food can also be seen as love.  I separated this from the emotions above because I think it is a little different and I didn’t want it to get lost when you were reading. You can see food as love in two ways:  either preparing food as a way of showing love to others, or as a way to give yourself love that you don’t feel you are getting enough.  I grew up in a home where my mother did not cook. My mom still hates to cook to this day so she doesn’t do it.   We ate out a lot, my father picked up food on his way home (lots of reheated restaurant meals), and sometimes my dad would cook.  I always felt that my mom didn’t “love me enough” to cook dinner and this was probably because my grandmother was an amazing cook. I loved spending my summers with her and we would shop for food and cook together every day.  That always felt like the way the world should be to me.  When I was about 10 I started cooked at home.  My father loved having real food in the house and my mother enjoyed not having to think about food.  Cooking became the way that I showed people that I loved them.  However giving food this meaning can be healthy or not healthy depending on how you do it.  If you prepare the unhealthy foods that your family wants are you really giving them love?  I would contend that while they are happy now they won’t be later when they suffer from cancer, heart disease or diabetes.  I still equate food with love but I use healthy food to show love now.

Food can also be seen as a necessity.  This description may sound similar to food as fuel but it was different for me.  In the past when my career was my priority food during the week was required but I didn’t give much more thought to it than that. I would grab anything that satisfied my hunger, it could have been Chinese carry out (too much sodium and fat), pizza (bad on so many levels), or burgers.  Literally the only function food served during this stage of my life was to stop my stomach from growling and I didn’t think about it any further than that.  In retrospect I can’t believe that I ever thought this way about food, but I did.

I am sure there are other meanings for food; these are just the ones that it has had for me in the past.  Now I am going to ask you to think about what food means to you.  I have designed a series of questions to help you to figure it out in case you don’t know immediately.

Today’s exercises are:

1.       Do you think you know what food means to you?  If you do write it down in the journal. We will come back to this later after you have done the exercises.

2.       For today write down everything that you eat.  This includes things like coffee (even black), candy from the office candy bowl, if you consume right it down.   You don’t need to measure or weigh the food that doesn’t matter. But I want you to write down the following information:

·         What time you got out of bed

·         What were you thinking or feeling before you ate?

·         Time of day you ate

·         How hungry were you before you ate (0-neutral neither hungry nor full, 1-a little hungry, 2-very hungry, 3-starved)

·         What you ate (describe the food)

·         Who was with you when you ate (were you alone or with friends)

·         Where were you (at home, at work, at the restaurant, etc.)

·         What were you thinking as you were eating?

·         What were you thinking of feeling immediately after you finished eating?

·         How full were you after you ate (0-netural neither hungry nor full, 1-satisfied, 2-uncomfortably full,3-Thanksgiving full miserable)

·         What time did you get into bed

3.       Look at the list you complied in item two above.  Does anything stand out for you?  Did you eat immediately upon waking up or was lunch your first meal?  Do you wait until you are hungry to eat?   It is common for people to feel sad, angry, frustrated, lonely, bored, happy or tired before eating.  Does this describe you or was there another emotion that was coming up for you?  Did you eat all day long, or did you eat most of your calories at the end of the day?  Eating a lot at night often leads to not eating breakfast which then sets up the cycle to eat a lot at night the next day.  Just write down anything you notice by looking at your list.  Maybe you were frustrated at work and grabbed some chips.  People who are angry do tend to reach for crunchy food.  The benefit of keeping a log for a few days is that you will start to see the patterns around your eating. Remember we can’t change what we don’t identify!

4.       Now look at your feelings after you ate.  Did your feelings change? Did the change last or was the feeling back before the next meal. Did eating make you feel worse and not better?  In the past I felt good when I was eating but after I ate I would feel guilty because I knew that I had eaten food that I should not  have consumed.  Also how full were you after eating? If you went further than level 1 (satisfied) you should go back and reread day 7.

5.       After reflecting on what was going on for you around food today do you still agree with what your wrote in item one about what food means to you?  Maybe you still don’t know what food means to you.  That is okay because this is a tough question for a lot of people. Just continue the steps above for a few days and see if what comes up for you.  I suspect that many of you will need to do this for a while to figure it out.  If you had asked me twenty years ago what food meant to me I would have thought that was a ridiculous question and probably would have said something like “food is food.”  Yes, I was in denial for a long time. As I often say, if I can figure this stuff out for me I know you can do it because I was one tough nut to crack. ;-)

Were you able to figure out what food means to you?  Do you like your answer or do you think that you need to change your relationship with food now.  Did I explain this in a way that makes sense?  I hope that I did.  Like always if anything that I wrote is unclear or you think that it requires clarification please don’t hesitate to let me know either by commenting or sending me an email.

Progress on my goals:

1.     Newsletters – Sunday I took the day off from working on the newsletters. Sometimes we all need a little break from work.

2.     Body Bugg – I continue to wear my bugg and I have gotten back into using it the way I had intended when I purchased it.  Go me!  J

3.     Date with Dan – The hubby and I have spent a lot of time together this week.  With the weather we have stayed fairly close to home but we can have fun anywhere home or out.  ;-)

4.      Measuring calorie dense food – I am making a little progress on this but I really need to focus on it with every veggie meal to help my body absorb the fat soluble vitamins.

5.     Working on my business – Sunday I took the day off from working on the business.  The January posts are taking me many more hours to write than usual. As much as I love these posts I will be happy to see February arrive since I really need a little time back to work on other things, the business being one of them.

How are you feeling about your progress so far?  I hope you feel like you have made a few lasting changes this month.  J

Random Thoughts:

Writing this month about the emotional side of health has definitely been a labor of love me.  I believe that anyone who has ever struggled to lose weight knows that there is more to the issue than calories in and calories out.  If the weight loss equation were that simple very few people would struggle as they do to lose weight.  Additionally anyone who has ever tried to give up cheese knows that there is “something” intoxicating about it.  I also know that most men and many women don’t understand that the problem of eating healthy is more mental than anything else.  When I thought about this series I realized that there was a chance that many people would think I had lost my mind. However I also knew that I had to stay true to what I believe without regard to how people reacted.  The funny thing about this is that while I wasn’t sure about writing this series now I am very glad that I did.  It feels wonderful knowing that I stayed true to what I believe in no matter how people react to it.  J 

Do you take time to smell the roses?  Of course this is a figurative question since there are no roses in bloom now but I think you know what I mean.  ;-)  There were many years of my life that I was so busy running between my home and office that I didn’t notice much of anything that happened around me.  It wasn’t until I left healthcare that I began to actually see things.  I do this by slowing down and taking in everything that happens.  I realize now that this is the opposite of how I used to live.  The funny thing about slowing down is that you realize that there is as much joy in seeing the light spark on the ice which formed on a branch as there ever was in getting a raise or a promotion.  There are beautiful things around all of us every day.  Please slow down for at least 5 minutes each day and take time to “smell the roses”.

Acknowledgements:

Have you made any progress writing acknowledgements?  I hope you are working on this exercise. I find that it helps me stay positive and recognize the things that I do every day.  Here are my acknowledgements:

·         While the house looks empty without the Christmas stuff it was nice to get it all down and put away over the weekend. Typically I put the stuff up and Dan takes it down but we worked as a team this time and got it finished much more quickly.  Everything goes faster when you work together, a good thing for all of us to remember.

·         We have gotten into the habit of going for a walk after dinner. It reminds me of being in Italy since everyone seems to walk after dinner; in fact it is so common there is a word for it, la passeggiata.  I loved the tradition of it when we were in Italy so I have decided to try to add it to our life at home too.  For now Dan is going along with me on this.  Let’s hope he doesn’t start working too late for this to be an option.

·         Some days things just come together and this was one of those days.  The dinner I made was out of this world delicious.  I love it when I get just the right combination of ingredients.  I have been trying to encourage all of you to trust your instincts and to cook without a recipe which is why you haven’t been seeing many recipes from me lately.  Anyone can follow a recipe but when you learn to cook without a recipe then you can feed yourself no matter what you have in the house. I think this is going to be an upcoming series on the blog. What do you think of the idea?

Sunday:

Breakfast for both of us was a cocoa, cherry, banana, kale and walnut smoothie. These things really are like drinking dessert for breakfast.  Since I typically only make them for Dan I forget how much they are like candy. No wonder Mr. Sweet Tooth asks for them so often.  LOL

Between breakfast and lunch we worked on packing up the end of the Christmas decorations. Binky was a big help dismantling Christmas for anyone who is curious. That little guy gets into everything at our house.  He is a cat after all and he knows that we have to be supervised otherwise we would never get any job done correctly.  It is a good thing that we love that little fuzzy man because he can be a handful.

Lunch today was the end of the split pea soup with smoky ‘shrooms.  Since we try to eat beans each day I asked Dan what he wanted me to make next.  He almost never has an opinion but suggested something made with 16 beans.  Perfect!  French Market Bean soup will be on the menu tomorrow. I have been soaking my beans overnight with a little baking soda after Dr. Greger confirmed that this does reduce the raffinose thereby reducing the gassiness.  Thanks again for sharing the recipe Sue!

Dinner was something that I whipped together and it far exceeded my expectations. Dan told me to write it down before I forgot what I had done.  Of course I didn’t measure but I will explain the concept.  I cooked some quinoa and while that got started sliced an onion so it could stand for 10 minutes before cooking (it enhances the nutrition which you are probably tired of hearing from me).  Then I “water sautéed the onion in water, a splash of red wine vinegar and pinch of stevia).   When the onion was soft I turned it off to finish once the quinoa was resting.  While the quinoa finished I shredded a bunch of kale to add to the onion.  The kale only cooked for about two minutes, I only wanted it to soften slightly.  The entire meal was:  quinoa topped with the sweet and sour wilted kale and onions, smoky ‘shrooms, walnut sauce with sriracha and finished with sesame seeds. Darn was this good!  I can assure you that I will be making this again and measuring because yes, it was that good.   That walnut sauce with sriracha is delicious on just about anything I have decided.  LOL

I also have dried mushrooms and almonds soaking in the refrigerator.  I plan to make some flavored mushrooms for salad and some vegan mozzarella if I can find the time on Monday.  *fingers crossed*  Dan has asked me to make some of my whole wheat pizza dough since we haven’t had any in probably a year.   Since he asked so sweetly I couldn’t say no.  Now I need to buy flour and yeast so Dan can have pizza at home.

Happy thoughts:

Have you gotten into the habit of writing your happy thoughts?  I find it helpful to remind myself how often things go well and that I shouldn’t take these things for granted.   As always there are so many things to be thankful for that I almost don’t know where to start. Here are my happy thoughts:

·         We went for a nice walk Sunday evening. The sidewalks were icy but the scenery was fantastic.  I love to see the street lights shine on the ice covered bare branches. I am sorry that I haven’t been able to get any decent pictures for you.  The light was dancing on the ice and it was a bit like walking in a fairyland.  What a wonderful way to end the day.  I never get tired of going for a walk after dinner.  J

·         I had the epiphany today about the meaning of food. As soon as it popped into my head I couldn’t believe that it took me so long to look at it that way.  How any of us view food is huge in terms of what it means for our overall health.  I am so glad I finally made the connection so that I could share it with you.

·         It was great to have time to watch two episodes of the meditation DVD from The Great Courses. I have almost finished all the DVDS.  I want to watch it twice before I review it for you. But as you can probably guess I am really enjoying it.  These DVDs definitely made me think about my reaction to things and I love that.

·         We have bean soup in the refrigerator again.  *woo hoo*  I know that this wouldn’t make many people happy but I love it.  Beans are such a healthy food and I feel so much better when I eat them every day.  If you haven’t tried eating beans daily I hope you will.  They don’t agree with everyone’s gastrointestinal system but if they agree with yours you will miss them when you don’ teat them.   

Signing Out:

Life Monday returned to normal at our house.  Dan returned to work and I went back to my usual routine.  I even managed to find time to get back to the meditation DVDs from The Great Courses.  There was also a little time in the kitchen, though not as much as I had hoped for.  There really never seems to be enough time in the day to get everything accomplished.

The emails about IIN continue to come in.  I certainly had no idea so many of you had even heard about this let alone that you were interested.  If you have specific questions email at veganepicurean@gmail.com please don’t be shy I promise that I don’t mind answering any questions that you have. 

I hope your week started well and that you have some nice things to look forward to this week.  At the very least take time to enjoy the little things in life.  J  Talk with you again soon!

Anasazi Beans … Good Stuff!

Tuesday started off very slowly for both of us. Neither Dan nor I slept well Monday night which meant we were both dragging all day. For some reason we both had difficulty falling and staying asleep. I found it very odd that this happened to both of us since we have nothing new going on that should be causing this. Apparently we have become almost one person after being together so long. ;-)  Do things like this happen to any of you?

Dan’s breakfast was a green smoothie that contained 2 frozen bananas, 4 kale leaves, 2 tablespoons wheat germ, 1 tablespoon freshly ground flaxseed, ¼ teaspoon cinnamon, ¼ teaspoon powdered ginger, a handful of walnuts, 2 cups homemade soymilk and a little stevia. This makes two big glasses that I serve in frozen glasses which I store in the freezer so they are always ready.

My breakfast was also a kale smoothie but mine included 1 frozen banana, 4 kale leaves, 1 cup soymilk and 1 cup water, 2 tablespoons wheat germ, 1 tablespoon freshly ground flaxseeds, ¼ teaspoon cinnamon, and ¼ teaspoon powdered ginger. You may want to add stevia to yours I find the banana adds enough sweetness for me but Dan doesn’t think that it does.

Lunch was a big bowl of savory oatmeal. The oatmeal was flavored with nutritional yeast (to make it cheezy), cumin, paprika, and no-salt seasoning. I also added 2 tablespoons of wheat germ to the oats. I topped the oatmeal with broccoli, salsa and raw pumpkin seeds. The seeds were added because I like the texture.

I always have my two Brazil nut snack (for the selenium) with a piece of fruit (another orange) which I forgot to photograph. It looked exactly like the photograph above. How long have I been doing this? ;-)  You would think I would remember to photograph things by now but I don't always.  *rolls eyes*

I decided to make some anasazi beans today since they have been in my pantry for a while and I have continued to ignore them. Since I had never made this specific bean before I didn’t use the pressure cooker to prepare them. If any of you know how long they should be pressure cooked I would love to know. They seem to be a fairly quick cooking bean from what I saw. The texture is creamy and the flavor very mild yet pleasant. I ended up flavoring them with diced tomato, onion, garlic, cumin, oregano and cayenne. They became lunch for Wednesday. Now that I have overcome my new bean phobia I will be making these more often.

I also spent some time in the evening listening to a public webinar that was put on by Hawthorn University that I found interesting. There next webinar is April 5th but you can listen to the webinar archives. When I reviewed the topics they covered a few stood out to me. I will be listening to more of these when I have time. I wanted to mention it and provide the link since I know many of you will be interested and want to check out at least of the archived webinars.

After the webinar dinner was a huge salad (in a serving bowl). I sprinkled the mesclun greens with a little apple cider vinegar and then nutritional yeast for flavor. The salad also included artichoke quarters, grape tomatoes, yellow bell pepper and was finished with white chia seeds (for omega 3). This is one of my favorite salads. I like the cheeziness the nutritional yeast adds to the salad and the tang from the vinegar.

Happy thoughts:

The longer I write my happy thoughts the easier they become for me to appreciate in the moment. Here are my happy thoughts right now:

• I am very fortunate to be married to my best friend. How often do any of us find a person that we adore, that loves us back no matter what? Every day I am thankful to have Dan in my life. I love you sweetie!

• Thank goodness for the TRX Dan bought me for Christmas. It is getting much more use these days than I expected it too. If you have a friend with one you should see if they will demonstrate a workout for you so you can see what it is all about. I can’t wait to use mine outside which will be happening very soon with our gorgeous weather.

• There is no doubt in my mind that I have the best group of people reading my blog. You all give me a lot of motivation to continue to learn and share things with you. I am very fortunate to be in the company of somany other health and nutrition junkies. Thank you all for being there to provide me with inspiration when I am feeling less than healthy.

• I love having the time to read books, what DVDs and listen to webinars on health and nutrition. Learning is something that keeps me pumped.

• I am making a new soup today that is turning out really well and is healthy of course. I thought you might find it interesting to learn how I make up new recipes and what the process looks like. I love sharing things like that since my hope is that my blog makes eating healthy whole food seem possible.

• Who doesn’t love a glorious orange sunset? I almost missed it on Wednesday since I was in the kitchen making soup for dinner. However I came out of the kitchen just in time to see the beautiful blaze of orange and yellow in the sky.

Signing out:

Today has been another long one. I talked on the phone with two different friends, listened to another webinar (which I will tell you about tomorrow) and had things to do here. Sometimes I wonder how I manage to be this busy. Now it is time for me to unwind for the evening. I hope you had a fabulous Wednesday. Talk to you again tomorrow.

Vegan MoFo 3.1: Kale and Banana Smoothie

This morning I was watching Dr. Fuhrman (via streaming video) give the keynote speech to the World Preservation Foundation Conference in London. It was a good reminder of why I have chosen to feed my family a nutrient rich vegan diet. The bottom line is that micronutrients (vitamins and minerals) are what keep us optimally healthy and are also what most diets (vegan and omni) lack. The best way to increase your intake of micronutrients is to make most of your food intake in the form of cooked and raw vegetables with the dark green leafy variety (kale, collards, bok choy, etc.) being at the top.

With this in mind I guess you aren’t surprised we started our morning with a green smoothie. Here is what I made for myself:

Kale and Banana Smoothie
Serves 1

Ingredient:

1 very ripe frozen banana
3 kale leaves and stems shredded
1 tablespoon ground flaxseed
6 walnut halves
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon powdered ginger
water sufficient to process (somewhere between 1/2 and 1 cup)

Directions:

Place everything in your high speed blender. Add water so it comes up the sides about 2 inches and process until smooth. Taste and add stevia for sweetness if you think it is necessary. Pour into a frozen glass.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 296.9
Calories From Fat (38%) - 111.51

Total Fat - 13.15g
Saturated Fat - 1.38g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 48.85mg
Potassium - 934.1mg
Total Carbohydrates - 43.52g
Fiber - 9.29g
Sugar - 14.78g
Protein - 8.52g

Comments:

This is one of our favorite breakfasts. We drink it often in the summer but not as often when it is cold outside. The nutrition on this is fantastic. This smoothie contains: 15,500IU of vitamin A, 130mg of vitamin C, 160mg of calcium, 800mcg of vitamin K, 125mg of phosphorus, and 85mg of magnesium. This is the reason I add kale and not spinach to our smoothies.

To highlight the point I want to show you the nutrition on the same smoothie but with 1 ½ cups of spinach rather than kale. That would look like this:

Calories - 257
Calories From Fat (42%) - 107.04

Total Fat - 12.62g
Saturated Fat - 1.32g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 41.18mg
Potassium - 735.97mg
Total Carbohydrates - 35.09g
Fiber - 8.27g
Sugar - 14.97g
Protein - 6.49g

Comments:

A smoothie made with spinach rather than kale will have a lighter green flavor but more importantly much less nutrition. Did you notice the decrease in protein just from changing the greens? Additionally this smoothie contains: 4,300IU of vitamin A, 20mg of vitamin C, 70mg of calcium, 215mcg of vitamin K, 90mg of phosphorus, and 85mg of magnesium. The drop in vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium and vitamin K was tremendous. I hope this gives you are reason to try exchanging kale for spinach in your morning smoothie.

For those of you that are wondering Dan also had a green smoothie this morning for breakfast. However his contained two frozen bananas rather than one. I also added a handful of walnuts rather than 6 halves. These two changed added more calories which my husband needs.

Signing out:

I will be back later with a dinner recipe. At the moment I have no idea what that means but I am thinking about making something with tempeh. Those of you that know me realize that could change a dozen times before I finally get into the kitchen. Hopefully I will stick with the tempeh idea since I wrote it down. ;-)

I hope everyone is having a good Wednesday and that you are staying warm. Talk to you again soon.

Falafel Flavored Kale Chips

How is Monday treating everyone? My Monday has been gray but good. I got my exercise finished much earlier than usual this morning. It is amazing how much more time you have in your day when you do this. I am not a morning person but I am going to try to get back to early morning exercise. Only time will tell if this is actually possible for me. ;-)

This idea came for falafel flavored chips I sampled at our health food store about a month ago. They were quite tasty and I thought I know I can make a healthier version at home. Seeing the kale at the farmers’ market made me think kale would be a good vehicle to hold the seasonings. I used sesame seeds since tahini is so common in all Middle Eastern food. The flax was added so that the chips would get crispy. The verdict, they are the new favorite kale chip at our house. I hope you give these a try. Here is what I did:

Falafel Flavored Kale Chips
Makes 3 Man sized portions

Ingredients:

3 kale leaves (stems removed) torn into pieces approximately 2 inches by 2 inches
4 tablespoons sesame seeds (or the equivalent in tahini)
2 tablespoons flaxseeds
1 lime zested and juiced (optional you can use 1 tablespoons of water but the lime adds brightness)
7 tablespoons water
½ tablespoon cumin seeds
½ tablespoon coriander sees
½ teaspoon garlic powder
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Combine the sesame seeds, flaxseeds, lime zest and juice, water, cumin, coriander, and garlic in your blender. Process the mixture until it is completely smooth. You may need to add a little more of less water. The lime juice plus 7 tablespoons of water created a thick consistency that I thought was right for sticking to the kale leaves.

Pour the seed mixture into a bowl and add the kale and toss to coat. They are going to look like a gooey mess. Don’t worry the kale chips will get nice and crispy when dry.

Place the pieces of kale on top of the teflex sheets in a single layer. If you wish sprinkle them with sea salt and pepper and dehydrate at 105 degrees overnight. In the morning they will be crispy and crunchy and will be flavored like falafel.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 180.45
Calories From Fat (61%) - 109.34

Total Fat - 12.95g
Saturated Fat - 1.67g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 35.22mg
Potassium - 275.66mg
Total Carbohydrates - 13.25g
Fiber - 5.26g
Sugar - 0.22g
Protein - 6.41g

Comments:

If you like regular kale chips these have better texture and flavor. They crunch more like a cracker. I love the flavor and aroma of these chips. They are a little high in calorie but the servings are big, about 2 cups a piece. The fact that they contain omega 3’s makes me very happy.

Each serving contains approximately 5,180IU of vitamin A, 45mg of vitamin C, 150mg of calcium, 275mcg of folate, 180mg of phosphorus, and 40mg of magnesium. Pretty amazing for something you have with your sandwich or salad. I am really pleased with this recipe.

Unrelated notes:

As usual my day hasn’t gone as planned. My friend Deirdre has something come up at work so we needed to cancel lunch today. Given our cool gray weather it was probably best that we had to reschedule. We were both hoping to go someplace downtown on the harbor and have an al fresco lunch. Today would not have been the best for that.

My afternoon is going to entail trying to get through the last few DVDs from the 2009 Nutrition Conference. The 2010 DVDs are available for sale now and I want to finish watching the 2009 ones before I order the next set.

I have a few things to get caught up at home. I will check in with you all tonight after dinner, if not sooner.