Iron, Anemia, and Pregnancy

August 9, 2012 By

All My Cast Iron
I struggled with low iron levels in both of my pregnancies, and it was particularly severe with my second. I learned more than I ever wanted to know about anemia and iron during that time, and now I am happy to share what I learned with you. Erin at The Humbled Homemaker is expecting her third little blessing any time now, and I was thrilled to help her out with a guest post as part of her Pregnancy: A Natural Phenomenon series. You can read all about my struggle and success with iron and anemia here.

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Eating Intentionally: Respect Your Fullness

May 7, 2012 By

my favorite food

You may or may not have noticed, but I derailed a little bit in April. I had some other stuff going on (namely, finishing up my e-book that is now being edited and formatted), so I took a little blogging break, and in the process, totally neglected my Eating Intentionally series.

But I’m back now. So here we go.

I’m just going to totally skip principle #4 (Challenge the Food Police) because it kind of echoes a lot of the aspects of principle #3 (Make Peace with Food), and I feel like continuing in that vein will only result in beating a dead horse.

So onward and forward to Principle #5, which is: Respect Your Fullness. Ah, now, here we get to the good stuff.

I have read in many different places about how the French people (any actual French people out there who can attest to the accuracy of this analysis, please feel free to pipe up!) eat foods that we would often consider “bad for you” or “fattening”, but they’re typically quite skinny, and fairly healthy as a society. Many people speculate that one reason is because the French eat very slowly, enjoying their food; and they rarely eat seconds.

I think this is where we as Americans struggle the most. Besides the obvious fact that the average American eats a lot of junk, one big cause of our obesity issues is that we simply eat too much. Food looks appetizing, so we indulge. And we take another helping, because wow, that was some good stuff! We go to buffets and have to sample every single option offered.

In short, we are trapped in our abundance. Even people on limited budgets, like myself, have a wide array of enticing desirable food options, and our eyes are bigger than our stomachs.

So the secret is to gain a little discipline: learn to stop eating when the stomach is full. I have seriously been concentrating on this recently. So far, I haven’t seen an improvement on the scale yet, but I have definitely learned that I don’t need to eat as much as I’m accustomed to eating.

How does this work practically? Here are a few tips:

  1. Start with small servings. Chances are, if you put it on your plate, you will eat it. This is why the oft-repeated advice to use a smaller plate is so effective.
  2. Eat slowly. Use all the tricks: put your fork down between bites, take a sip between bites, converse with your fellow diners, etc. (Note: this is where it comes in really hand to have mastered the principle of Honoring Your Hunger. If you are starving when you eat, it will be difficult to eat slowly, and you will inevitably end up over-eating.)
  3. Pay attention to the taste and texture of the food as you eat (more on this in principle #6).
  4. After eating a portion of your food, ask yourself, “Am I starting to feel full? Am I still hungry?”
  5. When you’re finished your meal, note how you feel: stuffed? comfortable? satiated? Learn to identify the feeling of satiated - no longer hungry, but not stuffed or “full” either.

For more information, please read Intuitive Eating, by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resche.

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The Importance of Fat {Especially for a Woman} and a Book Review

March 12, 2012 By

Don’t miss a single exciting post in my Women’s Wellness Series! We’re talking about all aspects of women’s health, plus I’ve got a great giveaway and some guest posts lined up for you! Follow my Women’s Wellness board on Pinterest for even more great articles and product recommendations.

I just finished reading a fascinating book called “The Good Fat Cookbook“. It’s not what you might think, especially if you subscribe to contemporary thought that designates polyunsaturated fats as good and saturated fats as evil incarnate. The back of the book will give you a clue, though, as it lists the Good and Bad fats under consideration. On the list of good fats: butter, coconut, red meat, eggs, bacon, milk, and ice cream. Surprised? How about the bad fats? Canola oil, reduced-fat anything, soy, vegetable oil, and more. Doubly surprised?

If you were even mildly surprised by that good and bad listing, you should read this book! Before diving into some delicious and awesome healthy-fat-filled recipes, author Fran McCullough takes you through the history and science regarding all the various kinds of dietary fats, and explains all the ramifications they have on our health. And even though I’ve been a full-fat enthusiast for years, I learned a lot in this book, so I can recommend it for seasoned whole foodies, too.

Here are some quotes from the book:

In 1875, Americans ate 30 pounds of butter per year. … In 2002, Americans have dropped their fat consumption by 17 percent since 1977. The obesity rate has increased by 25%. Americans now eat 5 lbs of butter, 11-12 lbs of margarine, per person a year. Since 1952, trans fat consumption has risen 2500%. We still eat the same amount of food we ate in 1900, but we eat 127% more sweeteners….

According to Dr. Ron Rosedale of the Colorado Center for Metabolic Medicine, fat is the body’s preferred fuel, not sugar (in all carbohydrates). He points out that when the body stores excess sugar, it’s stored as fat, in a good usable form. Fats not only don’t make you fat (unless you eat them to huge excess - and even then, only if you also ingest enough sugars and starches to stimulate your fat-storage system), they’re good weapons against obesity.

We know… that by and large the food we’re eating in the early twenty-first century is not making us flourish. There are exceptions, of course: the Japanese and French, who happen to be the most and the second most healthy people in the world. Both these groups eat quite a different menu from the standard American one, and both their diets are full of good fats (fatty fish and eggs for the Japanese, butter, cheese, duck fat, olive oil, and an occasional treat of foie gras for the French). Right behind these two exemplary groups of healthy populations are the Mediterraneans, whose famous diet, rich in monounsaturated fats such as olive oil, is especially tasty. … It seems that every geographical area supplies essential fats for its population in a natural, accessible form. Among the Greenland Eskimos, traditionally there were no reliable supplies of vegetables and fruits, but fatty fish and seaweed provided them a completely healthy diet, perhaps the healthiest of all. In the Pacific islands, there’s fish and coconut - that miraculous substance. In Mexico, there are avocados and fish and lard. In Russia, caviar is a traditional miracle cure, prescribed for pregnant and nursing women and anyone whose health needs a boost. Even in the Ireland of the great famine, there were fish and seaweed and wild purslane for the taking. Only in America, where we insist on having it all, do we have very little of these valuable foods, mainly because we’ve taken them out of our food supply in the misguided notion that our health will improve as a result.

The food industry and healthy food police, those talking-head health experts with their extensive media exposure, have promoted polyunsaturated fats mercilessly, which is why all of us think they’re so good for us. These fats do reduce cholesterol in the blood, but they have a disastrous downside: they increase it in the tissues, which is where it really matters. They are deposited in the vascular membranes, and because they’re unstable, cholesterol has to come and pave them over to stabilize them. That’s the way, current thinking goes, we get vascular blockage that can lead to a heart attack. but, in fact, only polyunsaturated fats oxodize cholesterol; saturated fat, from animal sources, won’t oxidize that cholesterol, which is what makes it dangerous and likely to trigger cardiovascular incidents and strokes. … And for strokes too, according to Dr. Mary Enig, polyunsaturated fats are initiators, while saturated fats are protective.

I could offer you a lot more quotes from the book, but really, you should read it yourself. Some of the topics McCullough covers:

  • how the cholesterol-heart disease connection came about, and how it is faulty
  • how the different types of fat work in your body
  • why the government and media make recommendations that have been scientifically proven to be faulty
  • good sources of good fats
  • what are the best fats for your budget
  • why polyunsaturated oils are so terrible for your body
  • free radicals, oxidation, and antioxidants
There are some things I noticed in the book that you should be aware of. For one, I find the author to be occasionally confusing, and seems to contradict herself at times. Also, while she is well-researched regarding fats in the diet, she misses the mark on some of her other recommendations (for example, she offers Splenda as a good substitute for sugars in the dessert section of the cookbook). Also, be aware that the book was written 10 years ago, so some of the information is outdated.
Over all, though, I highly recommend reading this book, whether or not you are well versed in the sad history of fat in America. You will find it fascinating and thought-provoking if nothing else. And besides, she’s got some great recipes in the back of the book, like Lemon Posset, and Cuban Roast Pork with Lime.
Since my topic is Women’s Wellness, though, I want to focus for a second on the connection between fats and hormones, which she mentions in the book. Here’s a quote:
What we have deprived ourselves of - the delicious, satisfying good fats of traditional diets all around the world - are also startlingly health-protective and offer many other desirable benefits, such as good skin, great hair, a good sex life, fertility, a vital immune system, enough vitamin E for your heart, optimum hormone production and antiaging properties. (This sounds like a headline list for a woman’s magazine! Only you won’t find these things in bottles or pills, you’ll find them in fat! ~ AS) Your hormones, which control every cell in your body, don’t work properly without adequate fat, and neither does your immune system.
Did you know that your body needs cholesterol to make hormones? Or that eating low-fat dairy products inhibits your body’s ability to ovulate? Or that essential fatty acids can ease PMS symptoms? Read about some more essential roles that fat plays in the body here.
Clearly, our bodies require fats, and not just in small amounts, either. It’s a commonly accepted fact that fat is one of the three macronutrients - foods our bodies need in large amounts in order to survive and thrive. Many people try to reduce either carbs or fats, but the simple truth is we need both.

 

While the media continues to draw the opposite conclusion, it seems to me that all the evidence points to this: fats are essential to health, especially to a woman’s reproductive health. The only kind of fat proven to be detrimental to reproductive health is trans fats, and we all already knew those were evil. But basic biology and nutrition show us clearly that we need to have an adequate amount of fat in our diet in order for all our body’s systems to run smoothly.

 

Women, in particular, struggle with this because of our body shape and image. We want to look skinny, so we follow the contemporary advice that instructs us to eat less fat so we have less fat. The problem is that this advice is flawed on so many levels. First of all, women aren’t meant to be super thin. We’ve all heard of the gymnasts and ballerinas with amenorrhea (absence of menstruation) because they don’t have enough body fat and exercise too much, but we don’t stop to consider that the same thing could be happening to us, just not on as extreme of a level. Maybe we don’t want to look like a gymnast, but we still starve ourselves or work ourselves to the bone trying to get rid of something that’s supposed to be there. (Now, of course, there’s the opposite extreme. Obesity doesn’t help your reproductive system - or any system in your body for that matter - either. I’m talking about a healthy weight here!). Secondly, fat doesn’t make you fat!

 

Which brings me back to what I started with: read the Good Fat Cookbook. Or Eat Fat, Lose Fat. Or In Defense of Food: an Eater’s Manifesto. Or The Maker’s Diet. Or Nourishing Traditions. All of these books will convince you of your need for fat in your diet, and far more eloquently (and accurately!) than I ever could.
So what fats should you eat? McCullough’s “Good” list pretty much sums it up:
  • Butter
  • Nuts
  • Coconut
  • Olive Oil
  • Fish
  • Avocado
  • Red Meat
  • Eggs
  • Bacon
  • Milk & Full-Fat Dairy
So go clean the low-fat, fat-free fake food out of your fridge, and enjoy some real, God-given fat-full food!
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Eating Intentionally: Make Peace with Food

February 29, 2012 By


This year, I’m learning to Eat Intentionally, and I’ve invited you along for the ride. In January, we focused on ditching the diet mentality, and February was learning to honor our hunger.

Eating intentionally is, in the end, about having a normal relationship with food. Food was created to nourish our bodies, and it was also created for enjoyment. So often we abuse it to the extent that it does neither, and intentional eating is about getting back to that balance of food that both delights and nourishes.

That’s why principle #3 - Make Peace with Food - is so important. In the end, that’s what it’s about. You shouldn’t be in conflict with your food. Food should not control you, but neither should you control it. It’s not a domineering relationship on one side or the other.

And it’s not the enemy either. Think of food more as your ally, not your enemy. It’s not the “thing that makes you fat” - no! It’s what nourishes you, gives you energy, keeps your body’s systems running smoothly, and yes, is enjoyable.

Just think about that for a minute: food was meant to be enjoyed. Not in a gluttonous way, but as a simple pleasure. It’s a necessary fact of life, but it’s not a drudgery! Isn’t that amazing? Truly, if we don’t eat, we die, so it’s an absolute necessity. And yet, unlike other necessities of life, it’s a pleasing occupation. It’s a pleasure to sit down to a breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon, yogurt and fruit. There’s no need to feel guilty about enjoying it, because it was given to us to enjoy.

So here’s permission to enjoy your food, especially your favorite foods. It’s not a sin to savor a piece of chocolate or laugh over a cupcake at a birthday party. Food is a way to share love, with your family, with a sick friend, or with a neighbor. Food is the centerpiece of celebration, so celebrate!

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Eating Intentionally: Eat When You’re Hungry!

February 1, 2012 By

Lilly
Join me this year as I Eat Intentionally, putting into practice the ten principles of Intuitive Eating, one at a time. In January we worked on ditching the diet mentality, learning not to count calories, or measure portion sizes, or concern ourselves with how much we’re eating in any way. Now that the foundation of a healthy mindset is in place, we’re going to build from there. Be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss a single post! Every Monday, we check in with our progress during Menu Plan Monday.

This month, your mission - should you choose to accept it - is to Honor Your Hunger.

Consider a baby: they know when they’re hungry, and they won’t rest until that hunger is satisfied. It doesn’t matter if they just ate 2 hours ago, they’re hungry now, and they want to be fed now.

Those same hunger cues don’t go away. And honestly, the time frame doesn’t change much either. From infancy to adulthood, the body needs to eat every 2-4 hours during the day to maintain adequate levels of energy. Our bodies were created to give us a signal whenever more nourishment is needed, and that signal is called “hunger”.

Unfortunately, many of us have learned to ignore that signal. When trying to lose weight, we force ourselves to eat a certain amount of calories a day, and we push ourselves through hunger so we can hold off consuming any more calories than we think we need.

This is counter-intuitive. Literally. When we ignore those hunger signals, thinking we will do our bodies a service, we actually do more harm than good. Inevitably, this is what happens:

  • The hunger increases in intensity to the point where we can’t ignore it.
  • We may feel shaky, irritable, faint, or even experience stomach pangs.
  • We become so extremely hungry, we grab whatever is closest and easiest (usually not healthy).
  • We eat rapidly in an attempt to quell the hunger pangs as quickly as possible.
  • We eat more than was necessary and end up feeling sick to our stomach.
Has that ever happened to you? It’s happened to me more than I care to admit! Clearly, ignoring those initial hunger signals sets off a domino effect of consequences…. none of them good!
The solution to avoiding this scenario is simple: eat when you’re hungry. Your body doesn’t always require a full meal, but it may need a snack at different points throughout the day. Keep healthy snacks handy, and when your body says, “Eat something!”, obey. The first time!
A few snack ideas you can bring with you when you know you’ll be out all day (so you don’t starve yourself into gorging on junk, and/or succumb to the fast food drive through):
  • granola bars
  • Larabars or other healthy all-natural snack bars/protein bars
  • nuts
  • dried fruit
  • trail mix
  • apple or banana
Have you ever been so hungry you gorged yourself? Does it happen more often then you’d care to admit? (I know it does for me!) Let’s make a pledge not to let this happen for the month of February: instead, we’ll eat when we’re hungry!
Sounds good to me. You in?
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Eating Intentionally: Entering the No-Diet Zone

January 1, 2012 By

This picture is a free graphic printable available at the adorable blog Lil Luna. Click on the picture to see more free printable cuteness! (She asks that you follow her on FB before indulging in a print.)

How many of you made a New Year’s Resolution to go on a diet? Raise your hands high - you know who you are!

I am here to help you break your resolution.

No, seriously. I don’t believe in diets.

“What?!” I hear you ask incredulously. A healthy blogger who doesn’t believe in diets?! Uh huh.

I believe in Eating Intentionally, inspired by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resche, who wrote “Intuitive Eating”, a brilliant book that I read and reviewed back last year. Their concept of “intuitive eating” really struck a chord with me, and validated my own personal thoughts regarding food consumption and healthy eating.

I’m taking the concept a step further this year and making it a part of my life, from abstract idea to internalized principle. My personal guide word for 2012 is “Intentional” (inspired in part by my friend Leigh Ann, who blogs at Intentional by Grace), and my goal is to be intentional in every area of my life, including what and how I eat.

And I invite you to join me! Each month (from January to October), I’m going to highlight one of the 10 principles behind the concept of intuitive eating, and put it to practice in my life. I’m going to encourage you to do the same! On the first Sunday of every month, I’m going to write a post explaining the principle I’m going to work on throughout that month. Then, every Monday, as part of my Menu Plan Monday post, I’m going to have an Eating Intentionally Check-In, where I’ll keep you updated with my progress. In turn, if you decide to go on this journey with me this year, you can check-in with me, too! Leave a comment in each Meal Plan Monday post telling me how you’re doing with that month’s principle. If you’re a blogger, write a post about it, and leave a link in the comments section!

And now for January’s principle: Ditch the Diet Mentality.

Your mission this month, should you choose to accept it, is this: if one of your New Year’s Resolutions was to go on a diet, then cross it off your list. Scared to? I highly recommend you read Intuitive Eating: A Revolutionary Program That Works, as the authors go into great detail about the detriments of dieting. Talk about scary! To summarize, here are my thoughts from my original review of the book:

All the research - ALL the research, and they cite quite a bit of it – proves that forbidding foods (either specific foods or limiting amounts of it) always results in an almost “hoarding” mentality, wherein you binge either before or after dieting because you feel deprived. It’s ingrained in us as part of our survival to make sure we always have food available – we need it to live! So when we anticipate (or experience) a deprivation of food, our bodies naturally kick into preservation mode and begin hoarding food, fat and calories to keep us alive. This is partly a psychological function, but it has its roots in biology, which made the biggest impression on me. I won’t go into the science of it here (because I know I’ll mess it up, science not being my strong point), but the bottom line is that there is a biological reaction that occurs in your body whenever you expect to be deprived of food, or indeed are deprived of food. And that biological reaction goes against the whole idea of dieting, because it causes your body to lose muscle mass, store fat, and eat more food. So from a biological standpoint, there is no point in dieting; it is, in fact, counter-productive.

What does “ditching the diet mentality” mean practically? How exactly do you go about doing that? It means:

  • Forget about the New Year’s diet resolution. It won’t last long anyway.
  • Don’t read any books, magazine articles, blog posts, or any other written material about dieting or diet plans or losing weight. Just don’t.
  • Don’t look at nutrition labels for calories and fat content. DON’T!!! And I mean it.
  • Don’t mentally calculate calories.
  • Don’t even worry about portion sizes.
I’m not saying that ALL of the above activities are bad in and of themselves. But each one of them lends itself to a crippling mindset that you have to cut back on what you eat, which then leads to that hoarding mentality that will totally backfire on you. Take this entire month to work yourself out of that mindset - which comes almost naturally to the average American woman - and work yourself into a much healthier frame of mind so you can then get on with the real business of eating intentionally.
So - are you ready to jump in and join me? Are you ready to ditch the diet? Are you brave enough to cross it off the list? Let me know by leaving a quick comment below. And then don’t forget to subscribe (if you don’t already) so we can all keep track of each other’s progress as we learn to eat intentionally.

Here’s to an Intentional New Year!

 

 

 

 

Linking up to Monday Mania, Motivate Me Monday, 2012 New Year’s Resolutions, Pennywise Platter and

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The Benefits of Raw Honey and How to Use it Wisely

November 17, 2011 By

Honey

photo by alsjhc

I’m sure you already know that from a nutritional standpoint, honey is a better choice for you than sugar. But did you know that raw honey is an even better choice?

Here’s the thing: honey in its natural state is full of unique elements that are difficult (or impossible) to find elsewhere in nature, and incredibly beneficial to our health. These include:

  • Bee pollen, thought to have anti-allergenic and anti-cancer properties
  • Amylase, an enzyme that helps the digestive system break down starches.
  • Propolis, something the bees use to protect their hives from unwanted organisms, and thus has anti-microbial, anti-fungal, and anti-bacterial properties
  • Antioxidants

(Read more about these properties here.) All of these, especially the amylase, can be effectively destroyed by heating. Unless it is labeled “raw”, honey has been pasteurized by heating it. Pretty much any kind of honey is healthier than regular sugar when it comes to cooking and baking, but if you want to maximize the nutritional and medicinal benefits of honey, you’ll definitely want to go for the raw.

The problem is that raw honey can be incredibly expensive, sometimes costing as much as twice the cost of regular honey. If you’re on a tight budget like me, that’s a big obstacle. What’s a girl to do?

Here’s the thing: heating honey removes some of its best qualities.

Ergo, heating honey renders the expense spent on raw honey worthless.

Ergo, don’t use raw honey in food that is going to be heated.

Did you get that? In plain English: don’t waste your raw honey on baked or cooked food. If you’re baking and cooking, go for plain old (organic if you can afford it) pasteurized honey because it’s going to be heated anyway.

So what’s the point of even buying raw honey then? Oh, there are still lots of things you can do with raw honey to reap its unique health benefits. Here are my favorite uses for raw honey:

As a Spread

Because raw honey is generally thicker than pasteurized honey, it works very nicely as a spread for bagels, toast and biscuits. Mmmmm!

As a Topping

My Certain Little Someone loves honey on his pancakes and waffles… and I have to admit, so do I! It’s better than syrup!

In Tea or Coffee

That is, if your tea or coffee isn’t too hot. Honey is still considered raw as long as it is kept under 105F.

Straight Up

Only for medicinal reasons, though (it’s still sugar, mind you!). Honey is as effective as conventional cough syrup medicines at reducing and suppressing coughs, even at night.

In Frostings

In particular, I love this cream cheese frosting that is sweetened with honey.

In Greek Yogurt

Don’t waste your money on fancy containers of Greek yogurt: make it at home from regular yogurt with raw honey and vanilla.

Preventative for Seasonal Allergies

Studies have mixed results, but the anecdotal evidence overwhelmingly indicates that consuming local raw honey on a regular basis can help reduce or even eliminate seasonal allergy symptoms. (more information)

In Dressings

Use raw honey in any vinaigrette or dressing recipe for green salads or fruit salads. Also use it in recipes for fruit dips!

In Whipped Cream

Add just a bit of raw honey to your cream when whipping it for a lightly flavored, deliciously sweetened topping!

Do you have any other suggestions for raw honey?

Want to win a jar of raw honey? Enter my giveaway (ends November 25, 2011)!

Some friends and I have collaborated to bring you an awesome little eBook just in time to help you with your Christmas baking! It’s chock full of easy, delicious cookie and candy recipes to help you celebrate the holidays in tasty style. Each recipe is built around wholesome ingredients, so you won’t even feel guilty indulging in one… or two… or even three! What’s more? We’re offering this book absolutely free - no strings attached - to each of our email subscribers! All you have to do is subscribe via email to any one of our blogs and you will receive a link for a free download of this sweet little book.

Collaborating with me are: The Purposed Heart, Intentional by Grace, and The Humbled Homemaker. Subscribe to all of these blogs just because you’ll be glad you did. Yes, they’re that good.

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Brown Rice

August 12, 2011 By

Brown rice… it sure ain’t pretty, but it’s pretty good for you! When switching over to a healthier diet for my family, one of the easiest transitions we made was from white to brown rice. There’s not much of a difference in cost, which makes it an easy monetary switch for those of you who, like me, or on a tight grocery budget. Regarding taste and texture, my personal opinion is that any difference is an improvement rather than a detraction. I find brown rice to be much more flavorful than white rice (which can be rather bland, depending on how it’s fixed), and it has more of a chewy texture with a lot more oomph to it than the typical white rice fluff.

Although there’s some disagreement on this topic in certain circles, I personally believe strongly that brown rice is definitely healthier than white rice, mostly because it retains a lot more nutrients. I found an interesting chart detailing the nutrient comparison between white and brown rice, which clearly shows that brown rice is superior in almost every way.

It’s no surprise first of all, that brown rice has much more fiber, which is actually the reason why some shy away from it. I think the vast majority of Americans, though, can benefit from additional dietary fiber, and those who would be negatively affected by it are likely very few.

In addition to the fiber, you’ll note that brown rice has significantly larger portions of every documented mineral except calcium! We’re talking two or three times as much in some cases. Perhaps if you have limited calcium in your diet (if you’re dairy-free, for example), you might consider eating white rice more frequently, but otherwise, the brown rice has a lot more to offer in terms of minerals. Brown rice is particularly rich in the following minerals:

  • Magnesium
  • Phosphorus
  • Potassium
  • Zinc
  • Manganese
  • Selenium

One note: if you look at the chart closely, you’ll see that certain kinds of rice are high in iron and folic acid. Those particular types of rice have all been enriched, meaning that those minerals are synthetic and won’t be completely absorbed by your body, and are therefore not very effective.

Brown rice has more vitamins than regular white rice, as well, especially the following:

  • Thiamin
  • Niacin
  • Vitamin B6
  • Vitamin E

Brown rice also retains all the fatty acids found in rice, and those fatty acids have been shown to help reduce bad cholesterol (LDL). In white rice, those fatty acids have been virtually demolished, and are not retained in levels high enough to affect cholesterol positively.

I have personal reasons for choosing brown rice, as well. As you know if you have followed this blog for any length of time, my DH has ulcerative colitis, which means that he is at increased risk for colon cancer. Studies suggest that the high levels of selenium in brown rice may help prevent colon cancer. Colon cancer scares me to pieces, and I’d like to keep that guy around for as long as possible, so brown rice it is!

Beyond all that, a quick glance at the culture and history of rice reveals that for centuries, it has been a staple in people’s diets all around the world. For someone like myself who tends to consider traditional diets as generally much healthier than the contemporary American diet, this is significant. Despite the fact that it is a grain and “carb”, which are getting bad raps in the health food circles these days, I believe that brown rice is a time-tested and proven element of a healthy diet.

Now here’s the question: what do you do with brown rice?

The answer is simple: the same thing you do with white rice! The only difference is that it takes much longer to cook, and needs more water. Otherwise, you can use it in all the same dishes you use white rice:

  • Rice Pudding
  • Casseroles
  • Pilaf
  • Seasoned Rice

Here are a few of my favorite rice recipes that I’ve come to rely on:

Savory Cinnamon Rice (sorry, no picture)

Springtime Chicken and Rice Casserole

Brown Rice Risotto with Acorn Squash

Brown Rice Pilaf

And if you’d like to try your hand at brown rice flour, a popular gluten-free flour, check out my super simple recipe for Gingersnaps. You’ll never be able to tell there’s no wheat flour!

Do you use white or brown rice? And what is your favorite recipe?

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Feeding Baby: Baby’s First Meats

August 3, 2011 By

Not very long ago, the common recommendation was to avoid meats until baby was 9-12 months of age. I’m sure many doctors and other experts still advise the same, however, there’s a growing number of professionals who advise that meats be among the first foods offered to baby rather than the last. The biggest reason is because at the age of 6 months or so, babies begin to require more iron and protein from their diet than they previously did.

That doesn’t mean that you need to go rush out to the store and buy every iron-fortified baby product you see (and there are a lot!). No, no. Remember, babies are small, and too much iron can be as much of a bad thing as not enough. Furthermore, supplemental (aka, fake) iron is not nearly as effective or as well absorbed as naturally occurring iron.

There are also those who suggest that maybe Baby doesn’t need as much iron now as s/he did before, hence the depleting supplies, and the truth is that I don’t know enough of the biology and development of babies to be able to say whether or not that is the case. However, my conclusion is that beyond the age of 6 months, it isn’t going to hurt Baby to introduce some naturally occurring iron into his diet, and it may be helpful at that. If baby is ready to eat solids in general, then she can probably handle some meat with the beneficial iron and protein.

The problem with meat is that it in its normal cooked state, it’s not soft enough to mash with the gums, therefore for any babies younger than 9 months and without teeth, it’s useful (although not 100% necessary, especially if you are following the Baby Led Weaning method) to puree the cooked meat first.

I just puree a little bit of whatever meat I have prepared for the family; which in this case was chicken. I used my Baby Brezza machine, but any blender or food processor will work. There’s no need to cook up a whole batch of baby-specific food, especially since he’ll eat so little of it. Honestly, I pureed about 1/2 cup or less of meat over a week ago, and he’s still working through it (I keep the extras in the freezer).

A few tips to keep in mind when feeding Baby meat:

  • Watch for reactions, as with any other food. My Certain Little Someone is allergic to beef, of all things, and there was a time we were concerned that he was allergic to turkey.
  • Meats can be difficult for Baby to digest, so there’s no harm in holding off if they cause intestinal distress for your little one. You can try re-introducing meat a little at a time by adding in tiny bits of it to foods that are well-received by Baby (like applesauce or pumpkin, for example).
  • Baby might not like plain old meat, but don’t despair. Mix it in with something she does like! Baby Boy was not at all excited about plain meat, even though it was tastefully seasoned. I mixed it in with some mashed banana - one of his favorites - and suddenly he was all over it! Since then, he’s had it in green beans, applesauce and sweet potato, and has loved it each time.
  • Puree with a bit of chicken broth for added nutrients and flavor. Breast milk is a good liquid to add as well, if you pump.

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QECH Kitchen Staple: Extra Virgin Olive Oil

March 10, 2011 By

No kitchen is complete without a bottle of Extra Virgin Olive Oil (popularized as “EVOO” by Rachael Ray). Everyone knows, of course, that it is a healthy fat and most health-conscious people choose olive oil over other oils like vegetable oil (which is mostly soybean oil) or corn oil.

Side note here: many health-conscious people prefer canola oil over other oils because it is cheaper and has been widely advertised as a heart-healthy oil. I personally do not use canola oil, because it is a genetically modified ingredient (why I also avoid any soy product that isn’t organic) and because scientists had to significantly alter the rapeseed plant and resulting oil to make it fit for human consumption. See the wikipedia entry here. I don’t generally like to eat foods that require scientific intervention to make them fit for my consumption; I like to eat foods as close as possible to the way they were created.

Olive oil isn’t that far removed from the olive tree, so that’s a healthy oil choice I can be comfortable with! It’s more expensive than vegetable oils or canola oil, to be sure, but I find that one bottle lasts me a few months, so it’s an expensive I can manage. And I have to admit I use the cheapest bottle at Trader Joe’s ($3.99 for 17oz). It may not satisfy the cultivated palates of uppity chefs - even my uncultivated palate can tell that its flavor is not as good as more expensive oils that I have tasted - but it works with my budget so it works for me!

What exactly are the health benefits of olive oil? Most people already know this, but just in case, here’s a summary:

  1. high levels of polyphenol antioxidants, which are good for your heart
  2. helps maintain a healthy balance of Omega-6 and Omega-3 fats in your body
  3. healthy monounsaturated fats

Be aware that Extra Virgin Olive Oil is the most beneficial of olive oils because it is refined the least. Virgin, Pure and Light olive oil may all be cheaper but they are not as healthy, so I always stick to the Extra Virgin.

So how do I use olive oil in my kitchen?

1. Saute-ing vegetables and meat. Some people recommend against this, claiming that the high heat alters the chemical state of the oil and reduces its nutritional value. For the former, I can’t find enough scientific evidence to support those claims, and for the latter, the truth is that high heat reduces the nutritional value of anything, including olive oil. I believe that if one is going to saute something, it might as well be with olive oil, which is healthier to start with than most other oils.

2. Drizzling over steamed veggies. There’s just nothing like broccoli drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with freshly ground black pepper. The same can be said about pretty much any vegetable, and I typically cook vegetables like this on a regular basis.

3. Making vinaigrettes and salad dressings. This is where olive oil really shines! I don’t think I’ve ever used the same recipe; mostly I just use a simple formula of 3 parts olive oil to 1 part vinegar, with added lemon juice, salt and pepper, and whatever other seasonings or herbs inspire me at the time. Sometimes I just splash a little olive oil and vinegar on my salad and top it off with some crushed black pepper.

4. Baking certain breads and pizza dough. In particular, I love using olive oil in my whole wheat pizza dough. I have also made some other whole wheat bread recipes that featured olive oil instead of butter or other fats, which makes for a delicious and healthy twist!

I’ve even made my Certain Little Someone some allergen-free cookies that featured olive oil. I wasn’t too sure how they would taste, but they ended up being delicious! Normally, though, olive oil doesn’t do well in baked goods because of its distinct taste, so I don’t bake desserts with it on a normal basis.

So how about you? What do you like to do with Extra Virgin Olive Oil?

 


 

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