Getting Caught Up at Home and a Book Review

Wednesday:

I try to spend time with Dan when he isn't working and that means I was extremely behind on everything at home. I spent most of the day trying to get caught up but still remaining behind schedule which makes me nervous. I am not the type that likes to be behind. ;-) Thankfully I did make a dent in the my to-do list but I have a ton more to do today.

As usual we went to the gym early in the morning before Dan had to leave for work. The weather yesterday was frightful. It started out very warm (64) at 6 am but rainy and windy. While we were at the gym the power went out. All I can say is the gym is dark at 6:40 during a rain storm when the power goes out. Fortunately we were on the track when this happened and not on a machine or in the pool. We did a few more laps and headed out since it was close to time to leave anyway.  The emergency lights really weren't enough though they did keep us from running into things.

When we got home from the gym we heard that there were wind, severe thunderstorm and tornado warnings. There was a strong cold front moving through bringing this unpleasant weather just in front of it. Not two hours later the temperature had dropped to 44.  Brrrr.

Breakfast was a big bowl of oatmeal with wild blueberries, walnuts, ground flaxseeds, cinnamon and ginger. We have been switching between green smoothies and the wild blueberry oats in the morning for variety.

I have completely forgotten what I had for lunch, and I didn’t photograph it to remind myself. Darn it is rough getting old, LOL.   Clearly it was something I grabbed quickly from the refrigerator.

Dan had a bit of headache yesterday and ended up coming home about two hours earlier than usual (at 5:45). Needless to say I hadn’t even started dinner yet. Thankfully I had some eggplant “meatballs” in the freezer which I reheated in simple southern Italian sauce with thinly sliced carrot. I served this over baked sweet potatoes. I had intended to put this recipe on the blog until I realized this morning that I never put the eggplant meatballs on the blog. I thought for sure they were on here but I can’t find them so they must not be. Looks like I need to get my hands on some eggplant so I can make another batch for the freezer and share the recipe with you.  Sorry about that. 

Tomatoes and Prostate Cancer:

While the notion of eating more tomatoes reduces men’s probability of prostate cancer isn’t new but this $400,000 grant from NIH is. The bottom line is that the NIH wants to know what in tomatoes is the effective ingredient against prostate cancer.

Personally all this said to me is don’t forget to get more tomatoes into your man. I think this article about the grant was a good reminder to do just that. ;-)  Good thing we Italian Americans like our red sauce.  Don't forget that lycopene is fat soluble and needs to be eaten with a little fat to be absorbed. I add a few sliced almonds to our dish last night for healthy fat.

Book Review: Cucina Ebraica by Joyce Goldstein

This is the book I was reading during the morning at jury duty on Tuesday. It isn’t vegan but it is a fabulous cookbook. The book is part history lesson and part recipe book. I enjoyed reading about the history of Judaism in Italy. I picked up this book because the Jewish Ghetto has some of the best food in Rome. I was anxious to see the recipes in this book.

I read each recipe and can’t wait to make most of them. By the time I had finished the book it was on my Amazon list and you know I am trying not to buy too many books now. From looking at the chapter titles you can tell I will be veganizing a lot of recipes but that is so simple I don’t mind. What I like about books like this is that the recipes are the same old thing over and over again. How many recipes for hummus, baba ganoush or enchiladas do any of us really need?

The book is subdivided as follows:

• Introduction regarding Judaism in Italy and Kosher laws
• Antipasti (appetizers)
• Minestre (soups)
• Pasta e Riso (pasta and rice)
• Verdure (vegetables)
• Pesce (fish)
• Pollame (poultry)
• Carne (meat)
• Salsa (sauces)
• Dolci (desserts)

Some of the recipes that I will be veganizing and making healthy include:

Antipasti:

• chopped liver with egg Italian style  (I like a challenge)
• double crusted vegetable pie
• ricotta pizza with potato crust

Soup:

• pasta squares in broth with spinach
• broth with broccoli rabe and rice
• cream of artichoke soup
• Venetian white bean soup with pasta and beef sausage

Pasta and Rice:

• pumpkin filled ravioli with mostarda, raisins, sage and hazelnuts
• whole wheat bigoli (think fat spaghetti) with anchovies and garlic
• deep dish pasta pie with mushrooms and peas

Verdure:

• braised carrots with pine nuts and raisins
• spinach pudding
• spinach croquettes
• stuffed lettuce
• baked stuffed onions

I stopped listing recipes because the list was getting out of control. But I hope this gives you an idea of what is in the book. If you love Italian food like I do, and are comfortable veganizing recipes I highly recommend this book. I was very surprised to learn that many of my favorite Italian dishes have their roots in Jewish cooking.  If you aren't comfortable veganizing recipes you can always wait for me to do it and post them here.

Television:  "Celebrity Life Coach":

Did any of you see that crazy show “Celebrity Life Coach” on Bio at 10pm last night that followed a life coach trying to help actress Sean Young get over her “stuff”? I should have been in bed since we are getting up at 5:30 for the gym these days. However the show was so interesting I could not turn it off. I hope they rerun it because I missed part of it. Not that many of us have the same problems but the life coach had an interesting way of looking at things that I found refreshing. When Sean would complain about someone else her favorite phrase seemed to be “maybe it’s you”.  The part of the show I saw was refreshing and worth watching, IMO.  :-)

Happy Thoughts:

I love Thursday because it means Friday is almost here. As you all know weekends are my favorite time. Here are my happy thoughts today.

• We had a good workout his morning at the gym and got the December schedule so we can plan our workouts this month. ;-)  This is a bit of of a story I will explain soon.

• Dan may be taking Friday off. You know what that means. Shopping! We are talking about hitting an outlet mall to see what bargains we can find.  

• I was texting with a friend this morning who was watching the Foodnetwork and commented on something they were seeing. I had to change the channel and see what she was talking about. Now I am thankful that we don’t eat that way. I had the network on for about 3 hours and didn’t see anything that I would even consider veganizing. *bleh* :-p

• The rain has finally stopped and we have blue skies. Even though it is cold outside I prefer the light filled blue skies to the warm rain and wind.

Signing out:

As always I need to run and get some things accomplished around here. My plan is to try to get caught up on my to-do list so that I can go shopping tomorrow with a reasonably "clean" conscious. Wish me luck; I am going to need it.

I hope you are having a happy and healthy Thursday. Talk to you again soon, most likely tomorrow morning before we head out to shop.

Weekend update and a book review

Sorry I missed posting on Sunday. It was a busy weekend here and is going to be a busy week.  I am going to try to post everyday this week though. Wish me luck.

Saturday dinner:

As expected we weren’t terribly hungry when dinner time came around so we had the end of the country miso soup from Friday. I was feeling lazy and didn’t take a picture but it looked exactly like yesterday. ;-)

Sunday:

It was another cold and dark morning when we left for the farmers’ market. Yes it really was that dark when we left. Only crazy people would leave for the farmers’ market before the sun comes up, LOL.

Rudy was about half set up when we got there so Dan jumped into the truck and I helped carry the containers to the table. We shared an article about the cancer and vitamin D with Rudy and chatted about that for a while. Thank you for sending the article Courtney, Rudy also said thank you very much! ;-)

We brought home a ridiculous haul of local organic produce from the market this morning, between Rudy and Pam we had: 5 bunches of kale, 1 bunch each regular and Chioggia (aka candy stripe) beets, 9 cucumbers, 2 celery roots (with the tops), ½ pound fresh ginger, 2 eggplant, 1 butternut squash, 2 bags tatsoi (an Asian lettuce in the cruciferous family), 1 big rutabaga, 1 quart of white potatoes, 1 quart of sweet potatoes, 2 big daikon radishes (with the greens), 6 yellow zucchini, and 1 quart of green beans. There was probably other stuff but that is what I remember.

My refrigerator is jammed full like normal. Since I always mention how full my refrigerator is I thought I would show you. This is how it looked Monday morning after I had made a little room in it from eating four meals. There is a second refrigerator in the basement for the overflow but this gives you a good idea of how much produce we eat in a week. I was not kidding when I said it looks like a couple of rabbits live here. ;-)

I got these adorable little decorative gourds from Rudy. How cute are they? And they are organic which means when the cats lick them, which they will, I won’t need to panic. :-p For those of you that are wondering yes the gourds are in a Murano glass bowl. Any one will tell you my house has Italy sprinkled throughout every room. ;-)

Breakfast:

Since we had green smoothies yesterday Dan wanted oatmeal this morning. He had his favorite fruit and nut oats with mixed frozen berries (raspberries, wild blueberries, and Marion berries), ground flaxseeds, cinnamon, ginger, walnuts and bit of stevia. Dan has a sweet tooth so I have to add just a bit of sweetness to his oats. *rolls eyes* I am still working on him with this but I won’t give up.

For my breakfast I had my new favorite addiction … savory oatmeal. This time I used: ½ cup oats, 1 cup water, 1 ½ cups broccoli, 3 Roma tomatoes diced, 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast, freshly ground black pepper, 1 tablespoon ground flaxseed, 2 tablespoons salsa, ½ tablespoon raw sunflower seeds and a sprinkle of dehydrated leeks. I could eat this stuff breakfast, lunch and dinner. Thank you again Courtney for sharing this. I LOVE IT! ;-)

Lunch:

I opted to take the easy route today for lunch. I made a huge pot of caponata for lunch today and to have in the refrigerator to top salads. If you haven’t tried cold caponata on salad I highly recommend it. I think I like it almost as much as salsa and hummus which was my prior favorite salad topping. It is more work than hummus but I love it so that is fine with me.

The second dish I made included a quick basil, walnut and lemon pesto. This as simple as it sounds, fresh basil, a handful of walnuts, the zest and juice of one lemon blended in the food processer. Add water until you like the consistency and season (pepper, fresh garlic and salt if you must) as desired. I tossed lightly steamed green beans and fresh cucumber cut like green beans in the pesto and refrigerated. The flavor of these is best at room temp but cold works too.

The last dish I made for lunch was a saffron brown rice pilaf with dried fruit, fresh cilantro and sliced almonds. Cook the rice like normal but add a good pinch of saffron threads. When the rice is finished fluff with a fork, add diced dried fruit of your choice, fresh minced cilantro and sliced almonds. I like this best room temp but hot, or cold also work.

The best part of this meal is that it was quick, no fuss and I have leftovers for Dan’s lunch bag tomorrow. I do love my planned leftovers. ;-)

Dinner/snack:

Dan got hungry about 6:30 this evening and thought a bowl of the split pea soup from yesterday would make a great snack.

I wasn’t initially hungry until I smelled his soup. I decided I would have a little of the okara “cheeze” experiment I am working on, some caponata and cucumber slices. I also grabbed a handful of walnuts and a banana that I didn’t photograph.

Dessert:

It will come as no surprise that Dan decided he “needed” strawberry banana soft serve tonight for dessert. Like normal I had a few spoons of the frozen dessert but Dan had the vast majority of it. In case you hadn’t noticed it is his single favorite thing I make. I have tried to show him how to do it but he claims it wouldn’t taste the same if he made it. Translation, he really doesn’t want to know how to do it himself.

Breakfast:

Dan was very sweet this morning and let me sleep in because I was tossing and turning all night. This was mostly due to rambunctious felines knocking things over and chasing each other across the bed while we were trying to sleep. While it was very nice that he let me sleep in but it started my day on a rushed note. This meant no fresh juice in Dan’s lunch this morning. I was not awake enough to be using a sharp knife without harming myself. ;-)

Since I had my intentional leftovers in the refrigerator packing his lunch wasn’t a problem and came together very quickly. For breakfast he decided that he wanted to have a green smoothie of: 4 kale leaves/stems, 2 frozen bananas, 1 handful walnuts (love those omega 3 fatty acids they contain in addition to the richness they add), 1 tablespoon ground flaxseeds (more omega 3 fatty acids), ¼ teaspoon cinnamon, ¼ teaspoon powdered ginger (both spices added for flavor and antioxidants). Since this was for Dan I added a pinch of stevia. I love that I can make a healthy breakfast in a just a few minutes. What would I do without my Vitamix? I hope I don’t have to find out.

My breakfast was a bit unorthodox which by now is no surprise I am sure. I opted for two collard wraps with the okara cheeze experiment from late last week and caponata from yesterday. Collard wraps are one of my favorite things. I like knowing I am eating raw cruciferous veggies since they are most nutritious raw of lightly cooked and of course I like having a sandwich without bread. I also like to make this same wrap using hummus or almond feta.

Book Review: The Kind Diet by Alicia Siverstone

This book is written for someone that isn’t a vegan but is considering the idea. The book points out the nutritional and environmental problems associated with consuming meat and dairy. Additionally it addresses some of the common questions new vegans have like, where will I get my protein, calcium, etc.

I like that the author discusses eating local organic food. The fact that she emphasizes the concept of reduce, reuse and recycle is also very positive. This is something I believe in as well though I don’t discuss it on the blog.

There is some questionable nutritional advice in the book. The idea that you should use herbs and spice sparingly is one example, but there are many others. Herbs and spices are a rich source of antioxidants which is why I use them liberally. Not to mention that bland food isn’t exactly appealing, IMO.  Additionally those of you that are vegan may be put off by her comment of having bites of friend's sushi with fish when she is out which really surprised me.

The author separates the book between flirting with veganism and being a superhero. I would describe this as degrees of healthiness which includes different levels of commercial food consumption (including those with soy protein isolates) which you all know by now I don’t eat for health reasons.

The book is categorized as follows:

Part I: Kind versus Nasty

1. What’s So Kind about Dieting?
2. Nasty Food #1: Meat
3. Nasty Food #2: Dairy
4. More Nasty Stuff: White Sugar and Processed Foods
5. Kind Foods
6. Nutritional FAQs

Part II: Living the Kind Life

7. Flirting
8. Going Vegan
9. Becoming a Superhero
10. The Kind Kitchen
11. Kind Away from Home
12. Getting Fit, Inside and Out
13. We Are All Activists

Part III: The Recipes

14. Vegan Recipes
15. Superhero Recipes

This is a book I expected to like and that I wanted to like.  That being said I am glad that I got this from the library. The recipes are okay, they aren’t as healthy as mine. Overall I suggest you check this one out from the library before buying.

Signing out:

That is going to be it for me this morning. I have a busy week in front of me and today is no exception. I hope to be back later today with another post but time may get away from me. I am off to be productive. Talk to again as soon as I can.

Book Review: Nutrition in Clinical Practice

Sorry for the delay in writing this review. As you may have guessed I tend to be reading 5 or 6 books at one time almost always. I like to switch between authors to keep myself from getting bored. It is also useful to go between them so I can see where they agree and disagree. Enough about me here is my review.

This book (mine is the 2nd edition) was written by David L. Katz MD from Yale. His is probably a name you are familiar with if you follow nutrition. He developed the NuVal system and turns up on television periodically. The intended audience for this book was clinicians to be used when interacting with patients.

The book is divided as follows:

Section One: Clinically relevant nutrient metabolism

1. Carbohydrate metabolism
2. Fat metabolism
3. Protein metabolism
4. Micronutrient metabolism

Section Two: Nutritional management in clinical practice: diet, in sickness and in health

5. Diet weight regulation and obesity
6. Diet diabetes mellitus, and insulin resistance
7. Diet atherosclerosis, and ischemic heart disease
8. Diet and hypertension
9. Diet and hemostatis
10. Diet and cerebrovascular and peripheral vascular disease
11. Diet and immunity
12. Diet and cancer
13. Diet and hematopoiesis: nutritional anemias
14. Diet, Bone metabolism and osteoporosis
15. Diet and respiratory diseases
16. Diet and renal disease
17. Diet and hepatobiliary disease
18. Diet and common gastrointestinal disorders
19. Diet, dyspepsia and peptic ulcer disease
20. Diet and rheumatologic disease
21. Diet and neurologic disorders
22. Diet and dermatoses
23. Diet and wound healing
24. Food allergies and intolerance
25. Eating disorders
26. Malnutrition and cachexia

Section Three: Special topics in clinical nutrition

27. Diet pregnancy and lactation
28. Diet and menstrual cycle
29. Diet and early development: pediatric nutrition
30. Diet and adolescence
31. Diet and senescence
32. Ergogenic effects of food and nutrients: diet and athletic performance
33. Endocrine effects of diet: phytoestrogens
34. Diet, sleep-wake cycles and mood
35. Diet and cognitive function
36. Diet and vision
37. Diet and dentition
38. Hunger, appetite, taste and satiety
39. Health effects of chocolate
40. Health effects of ethanol
41. Health effects of coffee
42. Macronutrient food substitutes
43. Vegetarianism, veganism and macrobiotic diets

Section Four: Diet and health promotion: establishing the theme of prudent nutrition

44. Culture, evolutionary biology and the determinants of dietary preference
45. Dietary recommendations for health promotion and disease prevention

Section Five: Principles of effective dietary counseling

46. Models of behavior modification for diet and activity patterns and weight management
47. Dietary counseling in clinical practice

I need to start this review by telling you that I worked in health care for almost two decades as a hospital controller so I understand more medical terminology than most people. Had it not been for my lengthy exposure to medical terminology the book would have been a tough read to me. It was written by a doctor for doctors and uses that language. I found the book to very well researched. Those you that know me know how much I love my end notes. I always find that I want to read many of the studies that are reference. I suppose that is the sign of a true nutrition geek.  ;-)

The doctor did a great job of distilling a mountain of research into a cohesive book. I have been enjoying the suggested reading list he also includes by chapter. I like that he comes the conclusion at the end of the book that the same basic dietary pattern “is appropriate for the prevention of most disease”. I think the science on that is very clear. He appears to be an omnivore but promotes a diet that “shifts from animal and other saturated fats to unsaturated plant oils”. He also promotes the consumption of beans, lentil and other plant sources of protein. I always appreciate when clinicians are open to the science and don’t assume that patients won’t make the tough changes. Normally I don’t make it a point to get nutrition advice from doctors since that is not their field. However I do make an exception for a few docs that have gone out of their way to actually learn and understand nutrition and Dr. Katz is one of those.

Overall I would say this is a very good book and I can see myself referring to often in the future. I clearly don’t think it was written for the general audience. However if you have a keen interest in nutrition, which I assume you do since you read my blog, I say get a copy of the book and Stedman’s medical dictionary to help you translate some of the medical terminology.  I am quite sure you will learn a few things, I know I did.

If any of the chapter titles bring a quick question to mind let me know. I will see if it is covered in the book.

Unrelated note:

The flax cracker experience is in the dehydrator and I think I am getting closer to the texture of Mary’s crackers. My prior attempts have been too thick so I didn’t share them with you. This time they may be too thin, but that will be good information. I can tell that I am getting closer to the “secret”. Since I love those crackers and wt to know how to make them on my own I am going to keep experimenting until I get them right. ;-)

Today I was cleaning out my pantry and came across a bag of Dixie Diner Club's Not Chicken Strips. Even though the ingredient list only indicates soy flour I have a suspicion this is another product that is actually soy protein isolate. I have asked my nutritionist friend her opinion. As soon as she gets back to me I will let you all know. For now I am not using the Not Chicken Strips and suspect these are also destined for the trash like the TVP was a week or so ago.

Dinner tonight will be another salad and fruit bowl. Dan is working on getting another project off his desk so his late night mean a light dinner at our place later this evening.

Have a great evening and I will talk to you all tomorrow.

Dinner Update and New Weights

I will start with the food since this is a food blog. But honestly I want to start with the weights, LOL. Can you tell I am really a big kid? I love my new toys!

Dinner:

Last night for dinner we had a big salad (shocked right). This one was shredded romaine, curried sesame dressing, avocado, dehydrated leeks, sun-dried tomatoes (we were out of fresh), peas, and red lentil and millet balls. It was a tasty dinner.

If you had told me a few years ago that we would be eating salad twice a day I would have thought you were crazy. However slowly over time we have added more and more salad to our meals. Now I find that a meal without raw veggies doesn’t seem right to me. Also I used to think salad was greens with dressing and probably tomato and cucumber. Our salads now may include anything and everything. I always try to incorporate some type of fat either avocado, nuts or seeds and sometimes both like last night. If you change the ingredients to add to your salad they don’t get boring. Well that works for us anyway.

Of course Dan thought he “needed” banana and strawberry soft serve after the salad. He was convinced that he hadn’t had enough calories yesterday. Seriously I know he just wanted dessert but if he wants to play the calorie game I can go along with him. ;-)

New Adjustable Dumbbells (Bowflex Select Tech 552):

Now, let's talk about the weights, LOL. If it is possible to be in love with dumbbells I think I am. Bowflex did a great job with the design of these babies. You spin the dial on each end of the dumbbell to the same weight and it somehow changes what you pick up. The dials are very easy to spin and you can feel them click into place. I don’t pretend to know how it works but it does work. It takes a few seconds to change the dial and the weight is different. Wow! I love it when things work they way they are designed.

The weights we bought go from 5 pounds to 52.5 pounds. Bowflex does make an adjustable set which goes to 90 pounds if anyone is interested. I don’t think we will outgrow these for a while, LOL.

Unrelated Note:

Happy TGIF! Don’t you just love Fridays? This is my favorite day of the week. Yay Friday! Since it is Friday I have my usual errands to take care of. It is also Fun Facts Friday so I will be posting those questions again today.

Review: 2010 Latest in Clinical Nutrition DVD from Dr. Michael Greger

Last year we purchased the first three DVDs from Dr. Greger after they were recommended. I was very pleased with the videos and ordered the 2010 as soon as it was available. I have watched this video three times and I think it the best of his series so far.  The thing I like the most about the information that is presented is that it is all backed up by scientific studies and the DVD shows you the paper so you can read the study if you desire.

I learned quite a few new things from the latest DVD which always make me happy. I would highly recommend these DVDs to anyone that is interested in nutrition, vegan or omni. So that you can see the breadth of topics that are covered I am going to list the chapter titles and then highlight a few things that I found particularly interesting. Here is the chapter titles covered in the 3 hour DVD presentation:

1. Latest on alfalfa sprouts
2. Latest on aspartame
3. Latest on chlorella
4. Latest on coffee
5. Latest on gluten
6. Latest on gum Arabic
7. Latest on Herbalife
8. Latest on Juice Plus
9. Latest on MSG
10. Latest on Spirulina
11. Stevia: Harmless?
12. Latest on vitamin E
13. Latest on yerba mate
14. The healthiest herbal tea
15. The healthiest lentil
16. The healthiest apple
17. Best fruits for cancer prevention
18. The EPIC study
19. Improving memory through diet
20. Best cooking method
21. Latest on raw food diets
22. Deep fried toxins
23. Benzene in carrot juice?
24. Zinc gel for olds?
25. Dietary osteoarthritis treatment
26. Diet and rheumatoid arthritis
27. Diet and lichen planus
28. Apthous ulcer mystery solved
29. Homeopathy: useless?
30. Migrating fish bones
31. Cholesterol gallstones
32. New target cholesterol
33. New cholesterol fighters
34. Low fat or whole food?
35. Statin muscle toxicity
36. Can cholesterol be too low?
37. Largest study ever
38. Meat and multiple myeloma
39. Wart cancer viruses in food
40. Hepatitis E virus in pork
41. Greasy orange rectal leakage
42. Bristol stool scale
43. Fecal bacteria survey
44. Chicken out of UTIs
45. Toxic megacolo superbug (C.diff)
46. Drug residues in meat
47. Mad fish disease
48. Dietary theory of Alzheimer’s
49. Reversing cognitive decline
50. Exercise and breast cancer
51. Soy and breast cancer serviva
52. Comparing chocolate sources
53. Soy milk blocks tea benefits?
54. Asian paradox
55. Cold Steeping green tea
56. Matcha: harmful?
57. Tea: how much is too much?
58. Overdosing on greens
59. Caffeine during pregnancy
60. Iron during pregnancy
61. Folic acid supplements: harmful?
62. Crop nutrient decline: fiction?
63. Obesity-causing chicken virus
64. Eating obesity causes obesity?
65. Gut bacteria and obesity
66. Sex hormone binding proteins
67. Dairy and sexual precocity
68. Acne and cancer connection
69. Anabolic steroids in meat
70. What’s in a burger
71. Protein and puberty
72. Moms overestimate dietary quality
73. Allergic fish worms
74. Prozac residues in fish
75. Dioxins in the food supply
76. Fish intake biomarkers
77. Hair testing for mercury
78. Distilled fish oil: harmless?
79. Obesity-causing pollutants in food
80. Industrial pollutants in vegans
81. Inverted rabbit sign
82. Vegan protein status
83. Is protein bad to the bone?
84. Diet and marijuana receptors
85. Plant-based diets and mood
86. Chili peppers: harmful?
87. Dates: harmless?
88. Dragon fruit: harmful?
89. Kimchi: helpful?
90. Kombucha tea: harmless?
91. Goji berries: harmful?
92. Licorice: helpful?
93. Peanut butter: harmless?
94. Petroleum jelly: harmful?
95. Vinegar: helpful?
96. Vitamin D pills vs. tanning beds
97. Melatonin and breast cancer
98. Mitochondrial theory of aging
99. Convergence theory of evidence

Summary Highlights:

To give you a flavor of some of the information on the DVD I wanted to highlight a few bits of information that I found fascinating.

Tea cold versus hot brewed:

The information on the antioxidant activity on hot versus cold steeped tea was fascinating.  As you know we drink green tea all day long for the health benefits Since I now know that cold steeping results in more antioxidants we have changed to cold brewing our green tea. It not only increases the antioxidant level but also reduces the bitterness. The theory as to why cold steeped tea has more antioxidants is that the hot water destroys some of the catechins reducing the nutrition of the hot brewed tea.

Influence of cooking methods on antioxidants:

Scientists studied 20 veggies, 6 cooking methods using 3 different measures of antioxidant activity. The worst cooking method was boiling, followed by pressure cooking in terms of antioxidant loss. The best cooking method was microwaving. A few foods were unaffected by cooking (in terms of antioxidants) these were artichokes, beets and onions. Two foods had more antioxidants no matter how they were cooked, carrots and celery. Green beans also had more antioxidants when cooked unless they were boiled or pressure cooked.

MRSA, C.diff, Salmonella, Campylobacter, and E. coli at the supermarket:

I have thought for some time that meat was toxic, but now I know I was more correct than I realized. If someone in your life still eats meat the contamination chapters alone are worth the price of the DVD. I had no idea that vast majority of meat had E.coli but needless to say that completely grossed me out. *shivers*

Summary:

As you can tell I was quite pleased with the DVD. It contains a ton of useful information, is reasonably priced and the proceeds go to a good cause (the Humane Society). I will be buying the updates every year. I hope you check out the DVD.  As always I purchased this DVD it was not sent to me to review.

Unrelated note:

Dan is off to Indianapolis today, boo. This means I have a ton of free time today. I am probably going to stick to veggie and fruit juice most of the day today. Maybe a little spiralized zucchini if I feel like I need to chew something. If I come up with any new juice combinations I will be back with an update.

I want to get caught up on my nutrition reading. I will chat with you later. ;-)  I hope everyone is having a great Tuesday.

Book Review: An Evidence Based Approach to Dietary Phytochemicals

This is the first book I read from the group that arrived on Friday. I did not want to put this one down. Now I am going to say this book is not for everyone but if you are a nutrition geek, like I am, this book is great! If I had been by myself this book would have been finished in one sitting. The chapters are as follows:

1. Fruit and Vegetables
2. Cruciferous Vegetables
3. Legumes
4. Nuts
5. Whole Grains
6. Coffee
7. Tea
8. Carotenoids
9. Chlorophyll and Chlorophyllin
10. Curcumin
11. Essential Fatty Acids (omega-3 and omega 6)
12. Fiber
13. Flavonoids
14. Soy Isoflavones
15. Isothiocyanates
16. Indole-3-Carbinol
17. Lignans
18. Organosulfur Components from Garlic
19. Phytosterols
20. Resveratrol

The chapters are organized very similarly. The phytochemical chapters (8-20) discuss: bioavailability and metabolism, biological activities, disease prevention, disease treatment, sources, safety, recommended intake and references. Each chapter is well laid out and clearly written. While some of the science is “over my head” I found that I was able to understand each section after a careful reading.

If reading the chapter headings brings any question to mind post a comment or send me an email. I will be happy to let you know the answer if the question you have is covered by the book. This book answered questions I didn’t know I needed an answer to, which is the sign of great reference book to me.

If you have a serious interest in nutrition I think you will really enjoy this book. I found it to be full of interesting bits of information. As an example of the types of information the book contained I want to share what I learned about coffee. Coffee contains cafestol and kahweol which have been found to raise both total cholesterol and LDL. But these compounds are largely removed by paper filters. Meaning my beloved espresso, Turkish coffee and French press coffees are the ones to avoid if you have high cholesterol or LDL. According to the meta-analysis (statistical summary of studies) those consuming unfiltered coffee experienced an average increase of 23 mg/dL in total cholesterol and a 14mg/dL increase in LDL. Additionally the polyphenols in coffee can bind to nonheme iron (plant sources) and inhibit its intestinal absorption making coffee a bigger problem for vegans than omnivores. Knowing this will make it easier for me to stay away from espresso. Darn it!

The book is full of facts like this. If you are information junkie I highly recommend this book. I know it will be a great reference that I will turn to often. As usual this is something I purchased, it was not sent to me for review.

Unrelated note:

The weather today has been absolutely glorious. The temperatures didn’t get out of the 70’s and there has a been a gentle breeze all day. It was so nice to open the windows! I was quite tired of having the air conditioning on. I spent some time outside today and thoroughly enjoyed myself.

Later I spent quite a long time chatting electronically with my buddy Alexandra who is in Lima, Peru. She just got back from Machu Picchu and wanted to check in so I knew she was safely back to her hotel. I can’t wait to hear her stories in person and see the pictures she took. She thoroughly enjoyed herself and there were no incidents which I happy to hear. Something tells me Dan will be happier than I was to hear this. ;-) Other than a little food poisoning from some street food her trip has been good thus far.

Because I spent so much time goofing off today there won’t be any recipe to speak of to post. For dinner we had quinoa, raw julienned collards, and salsa with spiralized zucchini and raw cheese sauce and more salsa on the side. For nights when I don’t have things planned I make things like this often. Quinoa is quick cooking and salsa adds flavor to meals without fat. I added julienned collards because they are part of the cruciferous vegetable family and are therefore healthier when consumed raw. Spiralized zucchini with sauce is another easy food to prepare. I love the texture of the spiralized veggies so this is a summer staple for us.

Talk to you all tomorrow. I am off to spend a little time with Dan.

Product Review: Simply Raw and Raw for Life

As many of you know I am not nor will I probably ever be a raw foodist. But I do like raw food, particularly in the summer. Since we have been eating more raw food I thought it might be nice to pick up a couple of DVDs on eating raw. I ordered “Simple Raw” and “Raw for Life” about a month ago. I was so busy with the Cornell certificate program that I didn’t finish watching both of them until this week. So I wanted to let you know what we thought of the DVDs.  As usual I purchased these they were not sent to me for free to review.

"Simply Raw" is about 6 people (2 type 1 and 4 type 2 diabetics) who go to the Tree of Life (in Arizona I think) to see if they can cure their diabetes by eating a raw diet. While neither Dan nor I have high blood sugar I found the results of this 30 day experiment to be nothing short of amazing. If you know anyone with diabetes I would recommend they see this video. One type 1 diabetic was cured which I found absolutely miraculous. Curing the type 2 diabetics wasn’t that much of a big deal, in my opinion. If food is what gets you into trouble it only seems logical that it can be resolved by changing what you eat. But that is just my opinion.

"Raw for Life" was more about the general health benefits of being raw. Some of the “experts” that are on the DVD are” Dr. Joel Fuhrman, Dr. Gabriel Cousens, Dr. Julian Whitaker, Tony Robbins, David Wolfe, Brendan Brazier, and Brian Clement PhD (Hippocrates Institute) to name a few. A few of the topics covered are:

• starting out on a raw diet

• weight reduction

• detox and cleansing

• nutrition

• optimal athletic performance

This DVD also contains about a dozen raw recipes which are demonstrated by chefs. I think that section alone is worth buying the DVD if you are new to raw food. There is a crazy cracker recipe that is very different from mine that I will be trying this weekend (with my own spin of course). I will let you all know how that turns out.

Overall I am glad we bought both DVDs but unless you have diabetes or know someone who does I would stick with "Raw For Life" alone. It also has a section on diabetes which I thought contained all the information I needed on the subject.

Unrelated note:

Last night Dan came home from work early so I unplugged (no computer no smart phone) and we watched a couple of movies on Netflix streaming. Now my Wii is more than just an exercise device, LOL.

We watched both “The Gerson Miracle” and “The Beautiful Truth”, both movies about Max Gerson. They moved a little slowly but were full of interesting stories and information. Dan and I both came away thinking we need to make and drink more fresh juice. The movies did have the effect of making us both think we are doing the right thing with our diet. The basics of the Gerson therapy are: vegan diet, fresh pressed juice, organic produce, no salt, and coffee enemas. Let’s just say that last item had us both go “what ……?” I don’t see that happening at our house anytime soon. Even we have our limits, LOL. But overall it was quite interesting and the coffee portion was downplayed, thankfully.  I would recommend both movies to anyone that is open to something new and facing cancer.

Dinner last night was nothing special, bulgur dressed with lemon juice and cumin and lots of fresh finely minced veggies plus fresh vegetable and fruit juice. Nothing exciting enough for dinner last night to write about, you didn’t miss anything. ;-)

The weather today is cool, mid 70s and a little overcast. It is a good day to get some yard work done, which is on our agenda. I will check back in with you all later tonight or tomorrow. I hope you are all having a great start to the weekend.

Product Review: Naked Juice Green Machine

As usual I bought this product it was not sent to me. This is something I grabbed at Costco because I went shopping and didn’t take a snack with me. Now I have been eating healthy long enough to know that finding food while I am out is nearly impossible (unless I am going to the health food store). But did I pack a few nuts or a piece of fruit? No! Bad Alicia, bad! I don’t need to tell you what happened. I got hungry; no I was famished, while I was out.

There sitting on the shelf was green juice with 2600mg of spirulina in a comforting army green color. So I grabbed it and tossed it in the cart. After all the ingredients didn’t sound too bad: Apple Juice, Mango Puree, Pineapple Juice, Banana Puree, Kiwi Puree, Spirulina, Natural Flavors, Chlorella, Broccoli, Spinach, Barley Grass, Wheat Grass, Parsley, Ginger Root, Blue Green Algae, Odorless Garlic. Only the “natural flavors” had me worried.  But overall, it sounds fine and in the cart it went.

Here are the nutrition stats from the package on 8 ounces of this beverage:

Calories - 140
Calories from fat – 0

total fat – 0g
sat fat – 0 g
trans fat – 0g
cholesterol – 0g
sodium – 15g
potassium – 400mg
total carbohydrates – 33g
fiber – 0g
sugars – 28g
protein – 2g

A little high in natural sugar but I was hungry so I went for it.

The verdict:

Both Dan and I expected to like this since we drink fresh green juice all the time. However, maybe we shouldn't make assumptions based on appearance. If you are addicted to sugar this is for you. This stuff is deadly sweet. I can only drink ¼ cup of it straight. The amount that is gone from this bottle has taken us over a week to drink and only contains 4 servings, if that tells you something. Even Mr. Sweet tooth (Dan) thinks it is too sweet. There is a good chance the second bottle will go in the trash unopened. It does not taste bad, it is just sickening sweet and I do not find that pleasant. Sorry Naked Juice this way too sweet for our tastes. Now if you like sweet food and juices this may be for you. As I said the flavor is good it is just too sweet for us.

Unrelated note:

Now you may be asking why I bought it. I was asking myself the exact same thing once I had a taste. This is what happens when you go out unprepared. I normally have a little trail mix and/or a piece of fruit in my purse. After all what are purses for if it isn’t to carry your wallet, sunglasses, keys and a snack. I am only mentioning this because I think a lot of us (myself included obviously) get in trouble when we are out of the house. From now on I am taking a snack with me even if I am only planning to be gone two or three hours. Or … next time I will rip open a bag a fresh fruit I just bought and eat it uncleaned. That would have been a better choice. *sigh*

Today has been a good one at my place. I had lots of time for exercise and knocked that out early. There was no rain, not a drop. Yay! But the temperature is in the 90’s so I had to turn the air conditioning on about an hour ago to keep my fur covered babies from wilting. They get so lethargic in the heat we have to run the A/C. Thankfully the weather is only supposed to stay warm for two or three days and then we are back to windows open. I really do prefer fresh air in the house. I just think it is healthier than being closed up.  But I make an exception when it is hot and/or humid.

I am working on the grain and potato chart after viewing the talk from Dr. Walter Willett yesterday. I have to say I learned a few things. I am still trying to find stats on cooked sorghum for Naina. Once I find those I will get that posted.

I hope everyone is having a great Wednesday. We are over half way to Friday and a long weekend. Anybody doing anything fun this weekend?

Talk to you all later.

Product Review: The RAVE diet and Healing Cancer From the Inside Out and an Update

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I had ordered both books: "The RAVE diet" and "Healing Cancer From the Inside Out" with their accompanying videos. Just so that everyone is clear. I purchased these items and have received nothing from the author or publisher. The views expressed below are mine.

The concept behind each book is actually very simple. By feeding your body abundant amounts of healthy food you will reach your ideal weight and prevent and/or reverse disease. Both books advocate a whole foods plant based diet without oil. RAVE stands for the items you will be eliminating from your diet. These are as follows:

R = No refined food

A = No animal products

V = No vegetable oils

E = No excuses and exercise

Since I have given you the basics of the plan why should you buy the book? I find that completely understanding the reasons why things are harmful and unhealthy makes it easier to stick to such a restrictive plan. Make no mistake this is a restrictive plan and is not for everyone. These books do a nice job of explaining the science, in layman’s terms. Additionally the author cites his sources so you can follow the information trail if you desire. Even as much as I read about nutrition I learned a few things reading the books.

Honestly cancer is the only reason we made these dramatic changes almost overnight. If it were a matter of weight rather than life or death I can’t honestly say that I would have been able to commit to something this dramatic. However I do believe something like this is necessary to get control of addictions to unhealthy foods. In my case my favorite foods were pasta, olive oil and cheese. Those foods made daily appearances at my house. I used to joke that it was in my Italian DNA. But once I understood why they were harmful it was much easier to avoid them. I now believe that these foods are truly harmful for many reasons. In my case by seeing foods as toxic/harmful I am better able to control my desires for them.

I read the Healing Cancer book first and finished the Rave Diet this morning. Since both books are very similar and in some cases identical I will review them as one. Here are my thoughts on the books, good and bad:

Pros:

1. The author writes in a clear and friendly style that is easy to read. His style makes you feel as though you are listening to a friend talk. It also makes both books a quick read.

2. His diet is no doubt uber healthy (there is little variation between the two books). I would say it is a combination of the programs espoused by Dr’s Esselstyn, Fuhrman, McDougall and Ornish. There is no doubt in my mind that if you follow this diet you will get both healthier and slimmer.

3. The Rave Diet book contains a short list of tips to accelerate weight loss on this plan. While they seem obvious sometimes you need a little nudge in the right direction. I thought they were a good reminder and something I will turn too if my weight goes in the wrong direction.

4. He generally cites scholarly sources, which I appreciate. Each chapter on average has 100 footnotes. I will soon be in research heaven following the trail back to many of the studies. Although, there were some references to MSNBC and similar sources which made me cringe.

5. Each book contains enough recipes to get you started on this program. I particularly liked this advice on quick meals. The quick meals suggestions will get used often at this house.

6. If you know someone that is concerned about cancer that book is very inspirational in terms of the people that have been able to make an impact on their health by changing their lifestyle. The parts of the book on conventional cancer treatments were a little disturbing. Being a part of the healthcare community for a long time I can identify with some of his arguments. However some of them seem like conspiracy theories to me. I tend to rail against all such theories. Not that the author isn't right; but this is a hot button for me.

7. Each book and DVD combo is very reasonably priced and shipped very promptly.

Cons:

1. There is a lot of overlap between the two books. Since I read Healing Cancer first I felt as though the RAVE diet was an almost unnecessary read. I would suggest you buy one book or the other depending on your concern.

2. The diet will be too strict for most people. I think the idea of eliminating tofu and nut milks may lose quite a few people. Not that I don’t think both items are best used sparingly. However, I think it is odd that he seems less concerned with whole wheat flour products than tofu or nut milk. Overall our current diet is very close to the one he is advocating if that gives you insight into the book.

Overall:

I think the author did a great job coalescing dietary advice and studies from many different sources into one resource. The amount of research that went into developing this book is very apparent. If you are looking for dramatic change either in terms of weight or health either of these books are worth reading. Either of these books is worth buying for the citations alone. I can see myself using these as a resource often.

The DVDs that I purchased with the books are good to have. I was able to get my husband to watch the “Eating” DVD and he enjoyed most of it. The last 20 minutes is devoted to environmentalism and animal rights which was unexpected to both of us. People that are looking to change their diets for health reasons may lose interest during that portion of the DVD. There are also a number of animal images that I would have preferred not to see. For that reason I would not recommend that you allow children to watch the “Eating” video. Some images were disturbing and horrific. That aside, the videos contained a lot of good information. I can see playing these for friends that are interested in making lifestyle changes.

Update:

Dan’s throat is still sore and irritated. I am hoping by tonight we will have some visible improvement. For breakfast this morning we had oatmeal with mixed berries, cinnamon and well ground flaxseed. Lunch today is probably going to mashed potatoes topped with something soft so that it is easy for him to eat. Dinner is completely up in the air. If he thinks tomatoes won’t be too acidic I may make gazpacho this evening.

Last night we had a very simple dinner of cooked millet that I topped with julienned spinach, fresh cherry tomatoes, avocado, chickpeas and black sesame seeds. I thought it would be soft enough for Dan to eat but he still found it difficult to swallow. For dessert we had strawberry soft serve which was also difficult for him. Feeding someone with a raw irritated throat is difficult. But I am determined to keep his food healthy. There will be no dairy milk shakes in this house. If anyone has any ideas on soft bland food I would love suggestions. This not how I normally cook, so it is a bit of struggle for me to come up with recipe ideas given all the limitations. But we do what we have to so I am sure I will come up with some good things.

Given Dan’s potential strep my parents will not be coming for dinner this weekend. With their age they don’t need to be exposed to this either. So far I don’t have any signs of catching this. Finger crossed that it stays that way.

For now I am going to run and get back to cleaning and disinfecting the house. I want to get ahead of this as quickly as we can. I hope you are all having the same gorgeous weather that we are enjoying. We have all the windows open and the little felines are soaking up the sun and breezes. Talk to you all again soon.

Quick Lunch and Yacon Update

A veggie stuffed whole wheat wrap is the type of thing I make when I need to eat quickly. I got off a few shots before Nicco (affectionately known as Binky) decided he wanted my sandwich. In spite of my holding it in the air to try to take a few more pics Binky was determined to get into the sandwich. Can you say spoiled rotten feline? This is the sort of thing that happens here all the time. When one of the felines wants something they are very determined to get what they want. I had to take my sandwich to a room with a door so I could eat it undisturbed because he was relentless.

The sandwich was a quick one. I smeared a little walnut cheeze on a whole wheat wrap and topped with 4 cups of baby spinach and little grated carrot. The fat in the nut spread will keep my satisfied for at least 3 or 4 hours. The walnut spread worked well on the sandwich from a flavor perspective.

I wanted to get back to you on the yacon powder in tea. I added a teaspoon to a 16 ounce mug of tea and I couldn’t taste a thing, no sweetness, nothing. According to what I read here, yacon is high in inulin making it a probiotic. The link also indicates it helps with the absorption of calcium, magnesium and B vitamins. I am going to do more research to confirm this is accurate. That may be enough for me to continue to consume it. So far the taste is so mild that it wouldn’t be enough by itself for me to keep purchasing it. As I use it in other things I will let you know how it works or doesn’t work.

While looking for information on yacon I came across the Navitas Naturals website. They have a nice bunch of recipes using their products (including maca). You might want to check it out.

For now I am going back to my project.

SoyQuick Milk Maker 930P - Product Review

Since I have been using fresh okara recently I decided to write a formal review of my soymilk maker. I was very confused about what to buy before I purchased this machine. When you haven’t made soymilk you have no idea what the process is like or what features you need.

We decided to buy this when we realized we were buying a case or more of soymilk a month. Now that was when we were drinking coffee, and since then our soymilk intake has slowed to a crawl. But I am glad that I have this machine when I make soymilk. This was something that my husband thought I needed to make life easier. I wasn’t certain it was a necessity but it does make the soymilk while I do other things. Here are the positives and negatives of the machine:

Pros:

• No measuring, there is a fill line for water. This is handy if you make a lot of soymilk

• One button and you walk away until the machine beeps. I particularly like this feature because I don’t like to baby sit machines. When the cycle has finished (between 16 and 19 minutes) the machine stops processing and sounds a beep so you know to begin straining.

• Easy to clean. The manufacturer recommends that you clean the machine while it is still warm and that does make it very easy to clean. Additionally there is no internal filter which makes all the moving parts easy to access.

• Fairly quiet. While the machine is running, you can hear the grinding mechanism but that doesn’t last the entire time and is not as loud as I imagined.

• Comes with a pitcher and fine wire sieve which allows you to start making soy milk right away.

• Cheaper than buying soymilk. Depending on how much non-dairy milk you make it won’t take long to recoup the purchase price of the machine in savings.

• Flexibility. I have been using Bryanna’s soy milk recipe that adds 3 tablespoons of oatmeal to the machine. It makes a rich creamy soymilk. Adding a date to the milk also makes lightly sweet milk without processed sugar. By making your own soymilk you can eliminate both the salt and sweetener if you choose. The machine also comes with a recipe book that gives you many options for non-dairy milks.

• 7 year warranty. A longer warranty than I would have expected for a small appliance.

• Okara. Okay so this may not seem like a benefit now but I love finding uses for the stuff. My Japanese friend told me her mom added okara to soup when she was a kid. If you haven’t tried this you should. I was very pleasantly surprised by the richness fresh okara adds to miso soup.

• Makes great tasting milk. According to my Japanese friend from Tokyo this machine makes soymilk as good as she can get at home. I can’t think of higher praise than that.

Cons:

• Storage. The machine is not big but it is another appliance that needs to be stored. On the positive side it is smaller than a case of soymilk. So I suppose this isn’t a big negative.

• Straining takes forever. I like making my own soy milk but the straining process is a serious pain. It can take an hour to drain the okara from the soymilk. This is fine if you have plenty of time, but it can be annoying.

Overall:

I have used this machine to make soymilk, mung bean milk and almond milk. It works great with all the types of non-dairy milk I have tried. Having an automatic soymilk maker does make the entire process quite simplistic.

Would I purchase this again? Yes. Even though we don’t make soymilk as often as we used to it is handy to have and I like the versatility of making different versions of soymilk that you can’t purchase.

The Steps Required to Make Soymilk With this Machine:

If you haven’t made soymilk before I will outline the entire process so that you know what to expect.

• Soak 1 cup of soy beans in plenty of filtered water for 8 hours or overnight.

• Place the soaked soy beans in a large container (that your hands will fit into) and fill with warm water. Use your hands to rub the soybeans together to loosen the outer skin of the beans. You can skip this step but your soymilk will taste more “beanie” if you don’t remove the hulls. This step takes about 5 minutes, but I don’t obsess about removing every hull only the majority of them. As you rub the beans together the skins will rise about the beans. The soy bean hulls are mostly clear but you will be able to see them to remove them.

• Place the soaked and dehulled soybeans in the soymilk maker.

• Add water to the line on the interior of the machine.

• Place the head (white part where the heater and grinder are located) on top of the machine and plug it in.

• Press the button for soymilk and come back when the machine peeps (somewhere between 16 and 19 minutes).

• Remove the machine head and place in the sink.

• Place the wire sieve on top of the provided jug and begin straining the milk. This will need to be done in batches and takes about an hour. You will need to empty the sieve once or twice during the straining process.

• While the milk is straining clean the machine head. Use the provided green abrasive pad to clean the metal parts of the machine. This tastes about a minute.

If you have any questions about this machine that I didn’t cover please let me know.

Omega 8006 Juicer – A Review

Sorry I didn’t come back last night after the cookie post. Things came up that I had to attend to, as usual. Nothing bad, just time consuming.

This morning we had the same breakfast as yesterday with the oatmeal and green juice. We are both really enjoying the green juice. It has such a nice flavor and oddly seems to give me a burst of energy like I used to get from my morning shot of espresso. The increase in energy isn’t as dramatic as the espresso but it is noticeable. I had read about the energy from green drinks on other blogs and thought it was in their heads. Much to my surprise fresh juice does give me energy too.

Speaking of juicing, I never expected to become a juice person. I was one of those people that thought juicing was a little silly since you were throwing away the pulp. However, now that I have found the pulp has so many uses, juicing makes sense to me. By obliterating the food you are destroying the cells walls and extracting all the potential nutrition from the food so you can consume a lot of vegetables and fruit quickly.

Since I have been using the juicer quite a bit lately I wanted to share the research I did before buying it and why I choose the model that I did. I also wanted to let you know what we like and don’t like about the juicer. To be clear, this is something that we purchased. It was not given to me to review.

There are two basic types of juicers, centrifugal and masticating. My first juicer (about 10 years ago) was centrifugal. I found it to be very cumbersome to clean and much larger and more difficult to store. Additionally centrifugal juicers are generally not recommended for wheat grass. Since I thought we might get into that soon centrifugal juicers were out for us.

This left masticating juicers which I had no experience with. I had no idea where to start researching. Thankfully Jordan at explorave pointed me in the right direction. Thanks again Jordan! According to my research masticating juicers are better than centrifugal for two reasons, higher juicer extraction (drier pulp) and they heat the juice less retaining more nutrition.

For those of you that are considering a juicer here is what I like and don’t like about the juicer we purchased.

Pros:

• Extremely easy to use, right out of the box. The machine is very intuitive. Not being very mechanical I appreciate this aspect.

• Quiet. Unlike my dehydrator, this machine is much quieter than I expected.

• Easy to take apart and clean. My original centrifugal juicer was a pain to clean. It was so cumbersome it was the primary reason it didn’t get used often. The machine is exactly the opposite. It comes about in under a minute and is 95% clean from a quick trip to the sink.

• Dry pulp. When the pulp comes out of the machine it is very dry. This makes me feel as though we are getting most of the vitamins and minerals from the food.

• Cold juice. I have been processing cold vegetables and fruit and the juice the machine produces is still cold. This is a positive and should result in less nutrient loss.

• Compact size. This is an easy machine to store since it has both a compare size and built in handle. It also doesn’t take up much room on the counter for those of you with a small kitchen, like me.

• Doesn’t require much strength to use. While this may not seem important but some of the other reviews I read complained that the juicers required more strength than the person had. Since none of us are getting any younger, I am happy this juicer does most of the work thus not requiring much strength.

• Can handle wheat grass juice which is on my short list of things to do.

• Makes a great banana soft serve without straining the machine. Banana soft serve has become our new favorite desserts of choice.

• Pasta extrusion attachments. If you don’t have the pasta plate for your Kitchen Aid mixer, this machine will extrude pasta. I have not tried this functionality yet, but it comes with the accessories standard.

• Flour Grinder. I have not tried this yet since I use my Vitamix to make flour, but the paperwork says it will grind flour. This is something I will try the next time I need flour.

• 15 year warranty. Nice long warranty, as high as or higher than most I saw when researching machines. Given the work it has to do I was happy to have a long warranty period.

Cons:

• Body is chrome covered plastic. It looks pretty now, but I am a little worried about how this it hold up. Only time will tell. I would have paid more to get a chrome or stainless body.

• Placement of the on/off switch. I am not crazy about the switch being in the back of the machine where you can’t easily see it. This morning I reached for the button and accidently reversed the direction. It was an easy mistake to see since the juice wasn’t coming out. But if the button were located in a place where you could see it more easily I think that would be an improvement.

• Little pricey. I think it is worth the price, but wish it were a more accessible price point.

Overall:

Both my hubby and I are enjoying juicing much more than we expected to. I can definitely say we will be continuing to drink fresh juice with our breakfast and dinner. The machine is very easy to use and clean and that makes juicing something you can do without much prep.

There is another machine that we considered by Green Star, but it is almost twice the price. I think this juicer is more than enough for us.

If anyone has any specific questions that I didn’t cover please feel free to ask. We purchased this from coolshinystuff.com (the same place we bought the dehydrator). The on-line vendor shipped the product very quickly. We would purchase from them again.

Unrelated notes:

My hubby has gone downtown to work today. Bummer. However, this gives me a little time to cross some things off my to-do list.  Although I would rather be spending time with my hubby.

I should be back later tonight with a dinner recipe. At this moment, I have no idea what I am making, but I will come up with something. Dan has requested tofu chocolate mousse for dessert tonight. There are many variations of this on the blog if you are interested. Some with less sugar and one with a peanut mousse component that is particularly tasty.

I hope you are all having a great day. The sun is out here and the snow is gradually melting. With a little luck we will be able to see the grass in another week or so. ;)

Nutrition DVDs from Dr. Greger – A review

For the last two days I have been watching these DVDs about recent studies regarding nutrition. I ordered these after one of you asked me if I had heard of Dr. Greger. Since I had not, I wanted to find out what I was missing and purchased the DVDs.

The doctor summarizes the relevant nutritional studies from the prior 12 months and presents them in a quiz show type of format. I have found the DVDs to be fascinating and thought a review was in order so you could decide if you want to purchase them as well. I will list my pros and cons in bullet order.

Positives:

• Information is presented in a format that makes it easy to absorb regardless of your current knowledge on the subject of nutrition (even my husband, the one that only wants nutrition cliff notes, found the DVDs to be both useful and interesting).

• The doctor does a nice job of summarizing the most recent studies and shows the cover page of those studies so that you can find the specific paper if you want more detail.

• DVD length appears to be based on the relevant science from that year. The 2009 DVD had 114 chapters while the 2008 was only 52 chapters. The first two DVDs were 90 minutes long the most recent was 3 hours in length.

• Content is not targeted to one disease; he covers heart disease, cancer, diabetes, fertility, dementia, etc.

• He also covers supplements, vitamins, specific foods, and nutritional deficiencies.

• The DVDs are packed with information. So much information in fact that I plan to watch them again this week to take notes and make certain that I didn’t miss anything. I also need to compile a list of articles I want to read in detail.

• Very reasonably priced and the purchase price goes to the Human Society.

Negatives:

• Those that like detail will feel that the information does go deep enough.

• I would have loved to get a list of the studies referenced by chapter to make them easier to find so that I can read the entire article.

Overall:

These DVDs were very well done. Much of the information they contain I have read before, but not in this format. Both my husband and I enjoyed the DVDs and found them to be useful. I am the information junkie in our house that reads this type of thing all the time. When my husband also found the DVDs interesting I knew they were well made. It isn’t easy to put something together that everyone will like, and I think the doctor has achieved that. If you are interested in nutrition, disease prevention, or vitamin supplementation these DVDs will contain something that you find interesting. I will be buying the future DVDs when they are available. They are a wonderful summary of the science from the prior 12 months.

If any of you have any specific questions about the DVDs please feel free to send me an email or comment here and I will be happy to respond.

Unrelated Note:

Regarding the almond milk yogurt experiment, the taste is quite nice. However, the texture is not like yogurt. I had hoped that it would get thicker in the refrigerator (like dairy yogurt), but it is still too thin. Since the flavor is good I think I can overcome the texture issue. I am going to work on that today. I have some ideas of how to correct the texture that will hopefully not change the taste. I will keep you all posted. With some luck the recipe will be ready to post tonight or tomorrow.

For now I am off to exercise. I will be back later today. I hope you are all having a great day. Where I am there is actually sun and little blue sky today. It may be a good day to get outside for some fresh air.

Excalibur Dehydrator Model 3900 – Review

I want to start this review by stating that this is not something that was sent to me to review. We purchased this dehydrator. I decided to post this review because I received a few emails asking me what we bought and if we would recommend it or not. I have good and bad things to say about this machine, but overall I am happy with the purchase. I will try to make it easy to see the pros and cons by making two separate lists with bullets.

Positives:

• The machine has a variable temperature control that so far it true to the setting. I have tested it using my laser temperature gun and the actual temperatures have been within 2 degrees of the setting. Pretty good I thought.
• Nine trays give the machine a higher capacity than this family of two has needed yet. However in the summer when tomatoes are plentiful I imagine I will be giving this baby a work out.
• Good warranty. We bought the model that had a 10 year warranty which is much longer than most small appliances.
• Exterior remains reasonably cool so I am not worried about it catching anything near it on fire.
• The teflex sheets are very easy to clean.
• It is easy to remove a tray if you need to make something that is taller than the space between the racks.
• All the trays are removable. This is nice so that you can remove one of two trays from the bottom and place a shallow container in the base of the unit and warm a sauce. I did this with the sun –dried marinara for pizza and it worked great.
• BPA free plastic.  Always a good idea.

Negatives:

• Price. This unit is not inexpensive. By the time we bought it and the teflex sheets it was over $250. A little more than I thought it should cost, but everything is getting more expensive these days, so maybe I am too frugal.
• Much more noisy than I expected it to be. You constantly hear a very noticeable motor noise when it is on. This does tend to ruin my Zen mood on occasion. I have gotten used to it, but it did take a while. There is a constant hum when it is on.
• Big. This unit takes up a lot of counter space. I don’t have that much room so I didn’t set mine up the kitchen. The nice thing is that you can set it up anywhere since it doesn’t produce heat or cooking grease like a stove. I intentionally photographed it next to my big coffee maker so that you can see how big it is. I couldn’t find a ruler but I am guessing it is 16 by 16 at the base and about a foot tall.
• The Teflex sheets are coated with Teflon. I wasn’t too crazy about this, but without the sheets the machine isn’t that useful. Thankfully the sheets are cheap so if they begin to deteriorate they can be replaced at a low cost.

General Thoughts About the Machine:

I have learned that the machine is less noisy when you aren’t using the teflex sheets. But so far I have needed them for most of the things I have made.

While I haven’t used all the trays at one time yet, I have used 5 and had to remove two, for height reasons. I think having 9 trays is a good plan. I am happy I didn’t get one of the smaller dehydrators. I think I would have outgrown it quickly, and there are only two of us.

So far I have made raw burgers, bread, pizza, dehydrated onions, flax crackers and spiced nuts. I have just begun to scratch the surface of raw food preparation. With all the snow we have now I have not been too inspired to cook a lot of raw food recently. But we are trying to eat more raw food for nutrition so here is hoping the weather turns soon. I think this will be great to have come the heat of summer when I don’t feel like turning on the oven.

We did purchase this from the linked provider above. We also bought our juicer from the same place. Both items shipped quickly and were received in good condition. I would buy from coolshinystuff.com again.

If anyone has any questions on either the machine or the seller please feel free to ask, either by comment or email. I would be happy to answer any questions you may have.

I would recommend this unit but you should know both the pros and the cons. I was not prepared for the level of noise it makes and I considered returning it for that reason. I have gotten used to the noise, but it would have been nice to be prepared for it.

Ani’s Raw Food Kitchen – A Review

In the past I haven’t written many formal cookbooks reviews because I think choosing a book is a very personal thing. However this book has inspired me so I wanted to share my thoughts.

Ani’s book has a look of things going for it that most other raw cookbooks lack. Primarily I love that it is accessible. Many of her recipes can be made with a nothing more than few things almost everyone owns, a cutting board, knife and food processor. I love that the recipes are all fairly quick (by raw food standards). Additionally Ani doesn’t rely on crazy ingredients that are only available in major metropolitan areas or through mail order. You could live in a small town in the Midwest and find most of the ingredients you need for these recipes (at least I think you could I haven’t lived in a small town in many years). This book succeeds in making raw food something this is possible for the average American. Way to go Ani!

Those of you that have been reading for a while know that I am trying to incorporate more raw food into our diet (per the recommendation of Dr. Joel Fuhrman). Generally that has amounted to fresh fruit and vegetable salads. Not exactly the type of food you can get too excited about over the long haul. I have purchased about a half dozen raw food books before I got this one. The other books are beautiful and tend to be more gourmet in regard to presentation. While I love that sort of thing I don’t want to spend two days making dinner. That just isn’t realistic for me on most days.

On Saturday I made my own version of Ani’s nut cheeze. Both the hubby and I loved the cheeze. I intentionally made it thick so that it would make a great veggie dip that would stick to the veggies. We have eaten the entire batch and I will be making another version later tonight. Not only is the cheese delicious but it was ready in 5 minutes. No need to soak the nuts in this recipe to get a nice cheesy texture. How happy was I? Very! You can expect to see more variations of this recipe in the future as I play around with it. The funny thing about this is when I was looking at the book to write this review I found that Ani recommends soaking nuts in another part of the book. Well, I didn’t and the recipe worked anyway. I will try the recipe again with soaked nuts when I have time, but for now I know it works with unsoaked nuts. That is what I get for only reading the recipes and not the narrative interspersed throughout the book. Oops!

I wanted to wait to review this book until I had a made a couple additional recipes from the book. Today we had the Sun Burgers on Sesame Sunflower Bread (pictured above). I followed the directions (mostly) so I won’t be posting the recipes. But, I was impressed with the results. The burgers contained 6 ingredients (plus salt and water) and the bread contained 5 ingredients (plus salt and water). I made the burgers and bread at the same time in the dehydrator. Both “cooked” for 4 hours. The hubby and I were pleased with the results. This is my first attempt at raw vegan “junk food” and it was a success. The burger was a little “granola” tasting but we liked it. My favorite part is that I could start these after lunch and they were finished by dinner. Most raw food books take much longer to make a meal. We had the burgers and were full before we could have our spinach salad. I am going to be playing around with this recipe now that I have a good foundation on which to build other burger variations.

The book is segmented as follows:

• Beverages
• Breakfast
• Salads and Dressings
• Soups and Sauces
• Accompaniments and Sides
• Cheezes and Pates
• Main Dishes
• Desserts
• Dog Food

As with all cookbooks I read all the recipes before deciding what to make. There were so many recipes that caught my eye I didn’t really know where to start. Since Ani has been batting 1000 with me I am going to be using this book a lot more this week. Some recipes from this book that are now on my short list include:

• Buckwheat Crispies – Raw Rice Crispy Substitute
• Ginger Cashew Mayo
• Lemon Fennel Soup
• Sun-Dried Tomato Marinara
• Almond Yogurt
• Brazil Nut and Broccoli Mash
• Indian Spiced Cashews
• Sun-Dried Tomato Hummus (Bean-Free)
• Save the Tuna Pate
• Pad Thai Noodles with Almond Kaffir Sauce
• Polenta with Mushroom Ragout – one of my favorite cooked dishes
• Blueberry Soup with Cashew Kream

As you can see from this list the recipes are varied and unique.

Not to sound like an infomercial for the book there is something that doesn’t work with the way I cook. Some of the recipes include a “generous” amount of oil. I don’t mind fat from nuts but I am working to eliminate oil form the diet (except when using turmeric). Oil is included in some, but definitely not the majority of the recipes. I think they should work fine for our taste buds without the oil. If not, there are plenty of recipes that don’t contain oil that we will still have plenty to choose from.

Overall, this is a great raw “cookbook”. If you are new to preparing raw food, as I am. This is great book to start with. The recipes are easy and quick enough to get you started down the raw road.

Before anyone asks, I purchased this book, it was not a review copy given to me.  I am very glad I purchased this raw book.