Vegetables Are Good for the Brain

A new study shows that eating vegetables protects brain function in aging adults. As part of the Chicago Health and Aging Project (CHAP), researchers at Rush University Medical Center examined the association between rates of cognitive change and dietary consumption of fruits and vegetables among 3,718 participants, aged 65 years and older. Those who consumed greater than 2.8 servings of vegetables per day had significantly slower rates of mental decline than those who ate fewer servings. Green leafy vegetables, in particular, were most strongly associated with a decreased rate of mental decline. Fruit consumption was not associated with cognitive change.

(from Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine)

Maid Service! (Slow Cooker Recipe)

I just had to get to my computer to post another recipe. I get so excited when we try something new and we all LOVE it! And when the recipe is easy and inexpensive, it’s even better. And, just when I didn’t think a recipe could be any more desirable – I cooked it in the crock-pot while I was gone all day. When I came home, it was like coming home to maid service! We just added a nice loaf of fresh bread (thanks to my wonderful bread machine) and some sliced fruit to fill out our meal. I hope you enjoy the soup as much as we did.

Split-Pea and Parsnip Soup

Ingredients:

1 small onion, diced
2 parsnips, peeled and sliced into half moons
1 T olive oil
1 1-lb bag of dried split peas, rinsed and drained
6 C vegetable broth
1 tspn dried, ground thyme
1 bay leaf

Preparation:

In a small skillet, sauté the onion and parsnips in olive oil until the onion is soft – about 5 minutes.
Place all ingredients in a slow cooker and cook on low for 8 hours.
Remove bay leaf before serving.

Our personal preference was to serve this with pumpernickel bread and fresh apples. It is such a nice time of year to eat apples and we are enjoying the bountiful varieties! I never knew an apple was actually juicy until we visited an orchard this autumn! What a difference it makes to eat them fresh off of the tree!

Canoeing - A Life-Affirming Journey!

We had a wonderful time this weekend - laughing harder than I had in a LONG time! What were we doing? We went canoeing, my husband and I and two small children, along with my sister and her husband and two nephews. Normally canoeing doesn't lend itself to episodes of hilarity - but this one did! We found ourselves on a 7 mile run, called Rock Springs Run, part of the Wekiwa State Park. Normally a very placid endeavor, except on Saturday, we had to portage our canoes over 5 fallen trees and barely skim over the surface of hundreds of tree limbs along the way. A normal 3 hour canoe run stretched into 6 hours. As my brother-in-law stated, it was more like bumper cars than canoeing. We had many episodes of balancing on fallen logs, straddling branches, ducking under debris, avoiding a cotton mouth snake (yes, they are very poisonous), brushing against the remains of a dead wild animal, as well as viewing a wide variety of birds, turtles, butterflies, fish and a deer. What was so funny? Besides propelling a nephew into the river while trying to help push a canoe across a downed tree and watching that same nephew rebound out of the water faster than the speed of sound at the mention of "here comes the cotton mouth" and enjoying our children swimming in the crystal clear waters collecting mussel shells and other items and creating a family memory for all of us which will long outlive ourselves....the joy came from the life affirming ability to do what we never thought we could. It was wonderful to have the physical ability and agility to perform the task and fully enjoy the moment without concern over being able to finish, safely and easily. That's part of why I do what I do and eat they way I eat. I love knowing that at almost a half-a-century old (and a husband who is half-a-century old) I am stronger and healthier than I've ever been. It's what keeps me getting up in the morning every day to exercise and keeps me in the kitchen preparing wonderful healthy foods which build-up my body! Life's too short to not to be able to live it fully! (My only regret is that we didn't have a video of the adventure - and if I were the proprietors of the fine canoeing outpost, I would go mount remote video cameras at each of the portage sites - the extra money that could be made from America's Funniest Videos might help them keep their canoes from leaking so much!)

Toys are fun...doctors are not!

We found this article over the weekend and it seems to sum up very nicely, the epidemic we are all facing. Personally, I want to stay fit until the day I die (hopefully in my sleep of just plain wearing out). I want to be able to continue what we did this weekend (see my entry on canoeing) for as long as I can. And quite frankly, I'd rather spend my hard-earned, uninsured money on things other than medical bills. Toys are fun....doctors are not!

Reprinted from Yahoo news:

BOSTON, Massachusetts (AFP) - Obesity -- which affects one in every three Americans -- and the illnesses associated with it cost the United States some 90.7 billion dollars a year in health care costs, a University of Pennsylvania researcher said. Among developed countries, the United States has the most obese and overweight people, representing 66 percent of its overall population. Costs tied to excess pounds account for 5.04 percent of all US health care costs. The calculations by Professor Adam Gilden Tsai of the University of Pennsylvania, presented at a conference on obesity here Saturday, are based on a comparison of 30 previous studies on the cost of obesity for the US health care system.
An obese person racks up an additional 1,034 dollars (or 40 percent) in health care costs for doctors' visits, medications and medical procedures compared with a person of average weight. For someone who is overweight but not yet obese, the medical bills amount to 273 dollars more a year, or 9.3 percent more than those of an average-weight person. And obese patients over the age of 65 pay an additional 2,511 dollars in medical bills. Obesity often leads to other conditions, such as arthritis, asthma, breast cancer, colon cancer, diabetes and heart disease.

Pasta Fagioli Soup (Pasta & Bean Soup)

This is a great, easy recipe that makes enough for leftovers or to freeze for another meal. My kids love it! My daughter the other day had this for breakfast, lunch and dinner! It's even faster and easier with a pressure cooker. (You know, one of those "old-fashioned" cookers you hear stories about! Like the time your great Aunt Ruth nearly blew up her kitchen when she forgot the pressure cooker was on and left it for an hour! Ah, but that's a subject for another blog!)

Pasta e Fagioli
Ingredients

1 small onion, chopped
1 clove of garlic, minced
1 plum tomato, peeled, seeded and finely chopped
1 small carrot, peeled and diced
1 stalk celery, diced
2 fresh sage leaves, minced or ¼ tspn dried
3 c vegetable broth
1 16 oz can of white kidney beans, drained and rinsed
2 c ditali or small shell pasta, cooked

Preparation

Braise the onion and garlic, in small amount of water until tender.
Add tomato, carrot, celery and sage. Sautee an additional 2 minutes, stirring frequently.
Add broth and beans and heat thoroughly.
Add the pasta, immediately before serving.
Sprinkle with soy, parmesan (optional).

ENJOY!

To Meat or Not to Meat!?!

One of the hot topics of the day is whether meat (beef, pork, chicken, fish) should be part of a healthy diet or not. Evidence continues to stack up that the more animal products that we can remove from our diet, the better our overall health will become. But weren’t animals put on this earth to feed us? Perhaps, but perhaps not in the form that we eat them today. Howard Lyman, 4th generation cattle rancher from Montana, author of the book “Mad Cowboy”, describes how the feeding and care of livestock has adulterated our food supply. He describes (in great detail) in his book, how the parts of the animal that you would never think of as “food” are processed and fed BACK to the livestock. This includes their entrails, horns, brains, straw bedding, as well as animals that were put down as sick or diseased. Don’t forget all the antibiotics and growth hormones that they pump into animals now too.

Gives new meaning to, “You are what you eat”.

I think I’d rather be a carrot!

Great fall recipe!

Here is a great recipe that is always a crowd pleaser! It is one of our favorites and with fresh rosemary growing in the backyard its even better. Rosemary is a plant that I just haven't been able to kill yet! All my other herb plants either die or set seed so fast, I lose them before I can use them. Not my little rosemary bush though! We love to use this recipe when the days are cooler so that the heat of the oven doesn't overpower our air conditioner or send our electric bills through the roof. And, sweet potatoes always seem to taste better this time of year. Serve these roasted potatoes with side dishes of fresh Brussels sprouts and butter beans for a real fall treat! ENJOY! (For more recipes and menus click here www.veg4health.com )

Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Rosemary
Ingredients
3 or 4 sweet potatoes
2 T Earth Balance or Smart Balance
Bunch of fresh rosemary, stems removed and chopped
Preparation
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. While oven is preheating, place margarine in 13x9x2 pan in the oven, allowing the margarine to fully melt.
2. Peel and cut sweet potatoes into 1 inch cubes.
3. Place potatoes in the preheated pan with the margarine. Toss to coast sweet potatoes.
4. Sprinkle chopped rosemary over the sweet potatoes. Place in oven and roast for approximately 35 to 45 minutes, until potatoes are tender

Margin!

As I was just in the kitchen making fresh banana bread for my children - one of whom is napping on the sofa - jut getting over the flu - I couldn't stop thinking about margin! Especially about margin versus bondage! What is margin? Well, for me, its just another reason that I do what I do! Margin to me is being flexible - it's about knowing that the vast majority of food that I serve my family, or eat myself, is so healthy that I don't mind - and in fact enjoy - being able to slip in a little less healthy food now and then! Margin is also about knowing how to cook almost anything from scratch, and having the basic ingredients on hand, that I can prepare almost anything we want without a special trip to the store. This allows us to entertain on a moments notice - or just be spontaneous! Margin is the opposite of bondage! Bondage is feeling trapped in having to eat a certain way all the time. Bondage is being forced, mostly from an internal enemy, to stick to a menu or prepared/packaged food all the time. Bondage is having to run to the grocery story all the time for special ingredients or packaged items. Bondage is being imprisoned in a disease-ravaged body - wishing that you had made different choices along your way. I love being able to please my tastebuds, my family, my health and my lifestyle. Excuse me, I hear the candy corn in the living room calling my name! Two little pieces won't hurt! I have margin in my life!

Great First Recipe!

Ready to give something easy a try? I started with replacing one meal a week with something healthier. And, the more it tasted like "comfort food", the better it was. So, here is a great place to start!

Fajitas
Ingredients

• 2 colored bell peppers (your choice) - thinly sliced
• 1 medium onion - thinly sliced
• 2 Portabello mushrooms, thinly sliced
• 1 Tblspn canola oil
• Salt, pepper, chili powder to taste
• Whole wheat tortillas

Preparation

1. Heat oil in a large cast iron skillet
2. Add onions and peppers to hot skillet. Stir-fry for approximately 5 minutes.
3. Add mushrooms and stir until mushrooms begin to give off their water.
4. Add spices and stir.
5. Serve immediately with warm tortillas.

We love to add homemade guacamole to our fajitas. Not to brag, but people beg me for my guacamole recipe and/or to bring a big bowl of it whenever we can to get-togethers. For my recipe click here http://www.veg4health.com/guacamole.html

No Looking Back!

Once we started making drastic changes in our diet, everything in our diets became negotiable. I read the book, The China Project by T. Colin Campbell, PhD and Christine Cox - and what an eye-opener that was. There is never a point where the health gains are not worth the change in removing animal products from our diet. Let me re-state...There is never a point of diminishing return when it comes to switching from animal products and processed foods to whole, plant-based foods. We were hooked. I started experimenting with new fruits, vegetables and meat alternatives. My goal is not to convince anyone that non-processed, plant based foods are better for health than animal products, processed foods and the traditional American diet. (There are enough books and information on this. For recommendations click here http://www.veg4health.com/books.html ) My goal is to help those who are motivated to make changes be successful in implementing them - and have fun along the way. Eating healthy shouldn't be stressful, ill-tasting or boring.

Hurdle or stepping stone?

When my daughter was 1 year old, and I was just pregnant with our second child, she was diagnosed as being allergic to dairy. If we had any hope of having her outgrow her allergy, we had to remove ALL dairy from our diet. NO Dairy!?! NONE!?! I thought we would die of starvation without any dairy. Cheese was an entire food group to me! What was I going to do? I was battling early pregnancy nausea and could not even begin to imagine giving up my cheese fries and nachos. But I knew I had to. It wasn't a noble venture to be healthier which got me started, but a desire to protect and care for my child. So, we started researching - an activity we were becoming increasingly familiar with after nearly losing our daughter to complications from her two month vaccinations. What we soon discovered was that food tasted good not smothered in cream of mushroom soup and piles of melted cheese. The biggest hurdle I had to cross was my inability to use processed foods of almost any kind. When I started REALLY reading ingredient lists, searching carefully for every way in which milk protein can be disguised, I discovered how horrible most packaged and processed food really is. And, since most processed foods contain dairy, I started cooking most things from scratch. That is when we really rediscovered how wonderful food tastes and how dead and lifeless most processed foods are. Little did we know that this was the beginning of our journey to improved health and fitness. What we thought was a major hurdle became a stepping stone to vitality and life. (For a great summary of all of the names milk hides under in our foods and a list of wonderful substitutes, click here http://www.veg4health.com/Articles/Hiddendairy.html .)

Why did I make a change?

I've always known, somewhere in the back of my mind, that eating more fruits and vegetables, and fewer processed foods was a GREAT idea. But somehow, taking that ethereal knowledge and putting it into practice was incredibly difficult for me. Perhaps it was a lack of experience selecting and preparing fresh fruits and vegetables or perhaps it was a lack of motivation which kept me locked into the standard American diet where my only vegetable for most days were potato chips and french fries and my only fruit was either lemonade or orange juice. I had even managed to lose weight without improving my eating habits - I just changed the quantities of junk food. I looked good on the outside, but probably not on the inside. Then I had children! Besides permanently ruining my waistline, I discovered that I had the motivation I needed to get healthy and stay that way. It only took once trying to explain to my little girl what a grandparent was to get me moving. You see, both my parents had died early from heart disease and diabetes and all of its horrible complications. My children will never know what it is like to have Grandpa teach them how to fish or throw or football or curl up on Grandma's lap for bedtime stories. I wanted better for them and their children! If the generational curses of diabetes, heart disease, obesity and cancer were going to be broken, it was up to me! I had to do something!

Start Slowly - Finish Strong!

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." This old Chinese proverb is my motto for change. When I look back at what I was eating 10 years ago, compared to what I am now eating, it's been more than a thousand mile trip - but never more than a step at a time. I was always the career woman who was totally incapable and over-challenged in the kitchen. My idea of great food was a basket of cheese fries followed by a chocolate shake. Now, I actually CRAVE collards, salads and creamed kale. Looking back, the journey was easy and wonderfully delicious….but I never would have believed it then. The best advice I have for people who truly want to improve their health through changing their eating habits, is to take it one step at a time. Don't even try going from take-out every night to raw/live foods every day of the week. Too big of a change is a recipe for disaster. My step-by-step plan for healthier eating can be read at www.veg4health.com. It's a great place to START! And starting the journey of a thousand miles is almost important as finishing it!

Welcome to Veg4Health

People always ask me, "If you don't eat any eggs, meat or dairy…..just WHAT do you eat?" I always respond the same, "There is more wonderful, healthy and most importantly delicious food to eat than I would ever have time to fix." My goal is to help you get from wherever you are in your eating habits, to wherever you want to go…painlessly and deliciously! No, I am not an animal rights advocate, and no, I am not a "granola". I am an orphan who lost both parents too early to diabetes and heart disease, and have decided to do what I can to make sure I am around a long time and in great health for as long as I am here. I owe that to my children and their future children. So, let's have fun and let's get our taste buds geared up for some of the easiest and best tasting food there is. Your body will love you for it!