Posts Tagged ‘vegetables’
Sunday, May 15th, 2011
Why Serving Sizes Undercut Health and Weight Loss
Meals limited by portion control can feel so skimpy.
Run-of-the-mill diets focus on controlling the amount you eat by limiting portions. This is an attempt to fit a manmade, arbitrary concept (“serving size”) into a natural biological system (your body). While this strategy may work for some people for a short time, the long-term outcome is often counter to health and weight goals.
The USDA’s Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2010 is typical. Some of the serving sizes this report lists include:
• Bread: one slice
• Cooked rice: half a cup
• Cut up vegetables: half a cup
• Fruit: one medium piece
• Cooked beans: half a cup
• Milk: one cup
• Cooked meat, poultry, or fish: one ounce
• Soft margarine: one teaspoon
• Sugar: one tablespoon
Here are six reasons that portion control ultimately will not succeed in getting you to a trim weight and (more…)
Tags: 2010 USDA Guidelines for Americans, getting healthy, Janice Stanger, lose weight, nutrition facts, Perfect Formula Diet, phytochemicals, Plant-based nutrition, portion control, serving size, vegetables, weight loss, whole foods, whole foods plant-based diet
Posted in weight loss | Comments Off on Six Reasons Portion Control Will Make You Overweight
Sunday, April 3rd, 2011
Whole foods are dense with calcium because plants need this mineral to survive.
Calcium Supplements May Also Make Your Body Too Alkaline
Whole plant foods contain thousands of beneficial substances, including amino acids, vitamins, minerals, essential fatty acids, complex carbohydrates, fiber, and phytochemicals, health-promoting nutrients found only in plants. These nourishing elements work together to form a vital tapestry supporting vibrant health.
Yet the media and commonplace nutritional advice focus on only a few isolated food components. Calcium is one of the most overhyped nutrients, largely because of the clout of the dairy industry. The myth is that (more…)
Tags: 2010 USDA Guidelines for Americans, acid-base balance, bone health, calcium, calcium-alkali syndrome, cardiovascular disease, getting healthy, Institute of Medicine, Janice Stanger, kidney stones, nutrition facts, Plant-based nutrition, vegetables, whole foods
Posted in Plant-based nutrition | 1 Comment »
Sunday, March 20th, 2011
For high levels of radiation, stay away. Essential workers must be suited up for protection. You can't avoid low levels of radiation. Suit up with whole foods.
Diet Helps Shield You from Radiation and Cancer
The struggle to contain radioactive releases at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has focused the world’s attention on the hazards of radiation. However, even without such incidents, you are subject to harmful radiation every day.
Low-level background radiation bathes the earth. Cosmic rays are penetrating subatomic particles. According to NASA, about 100 of these particles bombard every square meter of the planet at sea level every second – and will pass through you if you are in their path. The number of powerful cosmic rays increases rapidly with altitude.
Additional radiation originates from (more…)
Tags: cancer, Chernobyl, Fukushima Daiichi, getting healthy, Janice Stanger, medical imaging tests, phytochemicals, Plant-based nutrition, President's Cancer Panel, radiation, vegetables, weight loss, whole foods
Posted in Plant-based nutrition | Comments Off on Protection from Radiation: Five Ways Plant Foods Guard Your Health
Saturday, February 5th, 2011
The USDA should be teaching Americans that healthy food is also appetizing and delicious.
You’ll Need Bigger Clothes If You Follow the Government’s Advice
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) launched their Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010 with great fanfare. Mostly, the Guidelines are more of the same wimpy advice that has been making Americans fatter and sicker for the last several decades.
The 2010 Guidelines does have a new twist, though. The USDA makes a half-hearted effort to lay out a 100% plant-based eating plan. Appendix 9 of the Guidelines is labeled “Vegan Adaptation of the USDA Food Patterns.”
What a silly task, to “adapt” plant-based eating to a framework built on animal foods that create obesity and disease. This is like writing Shakespeare by (more…)
Tags: 2010, Dietary Guidelines for Americans, getting healthy, inflammation, Plant-based nutrition, reverse chronic disease, USDA, vegan, vegetables, weight loss, whole foods
Posted in Health | 4 Comments »
Sunday, December 5th, 2010
A Well-Known Study Gives Unexpected Insight
Colds, flu, and all manner of upper respiratory infections blossom in winter. Modern medicine has no effective cure for the patient’s misery. Some drugs can temporarily help with symptoms, but may have unwanted side effects that make things worse in the long-run.
So what is a desperate sufferer or their family member to do? Folk cures abound. Chicken soup is reputed to be useful in alleviating cold symptoms. In fact, a scientific study published in 2000 in the peer-reviewed medical journal Chest is often cited to support the idea that chicken soup has real clinical effects. The action the study authors see as most beneficial in helping with cold misery was the demonstrated (more…)
Tags: cold, flu, getting healthy, Janice Stanger, Plant-based nutrition, respiratory infection, soup, vegetables, whole foods
Posted in Plant-based nutrition | 2 Comments »
Sunday, November 7th, 2010
Spur-Of-The-Moment Cooking Can Be Healthy and Fun
You can make delicious soup with a prepared base plus your own fresh vegetables and spices
Cooking from scratch with fresh ingredients is the gold standard for healthy plant-based eating. Tips to make cooking more enjoyable simplify this process. But some nights even the most undemanding recipes are out-of-reach. You are running late at work and get home tired and distracted. Traffic was a hassle. Maybe you have less than an hour to make dinner, eat, clean up, and run out for another commitment. Even on weekends, you can be squeezed for time as you bounce from one commitment to the next.
Don’t despair. Even in these stressful situations, you can have healthy, satisfying food. You do not need to (more…)
Tags: cooking lite, fast cooking, getting healthy, Janice Stanger, Plant-based nutrition, vegetables, whole foods
Posted in Recipes | Comments Off on Not-Recipes for Not-Meals
Saturday, October 30th, 2010
Miguel Villarreal’s Passion for Gleaning Blazes the Path
Miguel Villarreal holds a box of tomatoes that will be the next day's lunch for these lucky students who helped glean the vegetables. Their classmates benefit as well from the local organic goodness.
Now in his ninth year as Food Services Director at Novato Unified School District, Miguel Villarreal muses about the kids under his watch. The students who were first graders when he started are now high school students with one big advantage over many of their peers.
These kids never had candy and soda at school. Miguel got rid of that junk food right away. He has also phased out red meat, and believes Novato Unified is the only school district in the country that does not serve it. Instead, Novato students have nourished (more…)
Tags: family, Farm to School, getting healthy, gleaning, Green spaces, Janice Stanger, making a difference now, Marin Organic, Miguel Villarreal, Novato Unified School District, organic, Plant-based nutrition, vegetables, whole foods
Posted in Plant-based nutrition | Comments Off on How To Make Kids Love Their Veggies
Saturday, October 16th, 2010
Vivid Orange Food that Is Fun to Play With
Pumpkins have a strong association with the supernatural. Yes,they are supernaturally healthful.
The traditional instruction from parents to “eat your food, don’t play with it” was not meant for pumpkins. These giant fruits, each with its own distinct form and personality, light up October with fun.
It’s hard to look at a pumpkin without smiling. These special plants give you something to smile about, because pumpkins are healthy in at least three ways.
First, pumpkins fascinate with their vivid color, intriguing forms, and range of possibilities. The idea of carving a jack-o-lantern brings out the kid in people of all ages. So pumpkins stimulate creativity.
Often the carving is a family project, an innocent way for parents, kids, siblings, and friends to work together cooperatively. The whole process ignites active engagement, fine motor skills, artistic talents, and joy. Contrast this with the passive and sedentary ways so many kids now spend much of their time. So pumpkins enhance (more…)
Tags: gardening, getting healthy, Halloween nostalgia, healthy Halloween, jack-o-lantern, Janice Stanger, nutrition facts, phytochemicals, Plant-based nutrition, pumpkins, vegetables, weight loss, whole foods
Posted in Health | Comments Off on Three Ways to Enjoy Healthy Pumpkins
Saturday, September 18th, 2010
Judi Menzel Revels in a Pain-Free Life
After 22 years of arthritis torment, Judi Menzel now enjoys her active life free of pain and medication
The excruciating pain of severe arthritis dominated Judi Menzel’s life. Her suffering began in 1985, when she was in a sedentary, mega-stress job managing millions of dollars held in trust for her clients. At first, Judi treated the emerging pain in her hips and hands with over-the-counter drugs such as ibuprofen.
The torment migrated to her lower back and her doctors began prescribing stronger and stronger drugs, until she was up to using potentially addictive oxycodone. Still, the pain refused to leave, and continued to imprison her activities. Judi notes “I couldn’t sit without pain in my hip joints. I couldn’t write without pain in my finger joints and working on the computer was the worst.”
The turning point in Judi’s health came in 2007, after 22 years of arthritis agony. Her physical therapist at her HMO suggested she stop eating dairy products, read The China Study by T. Colin Campbell, and try eating only plant foods one day a week.
Ready to try anything to mitigate the pain, Judi checked herself into a vegan holistic health center in San Diego area for two weeks of detox from (more…)
Tags: arthritis, getting healthy, Janice Stanger, Judi Menzel, lose weight, Plant-based nutrition, reverse chronic disease, vegetables, weight loss, whole foods
Posted in Plant-based nutrition | 2 Comments »
Saturday, September 11th, 2010
Where Does All That Great Organic Food Come From?
The Organically Grown warehouse was filled with thousands of pounds of gorgeous organic food
Natural food stores, co-ops, and even supermarkets and many restaurants overflow with organic produce. These extraordinary whole foods, including fruits, vegetables, potatoes, beans, whole grains, herbs, spices, nuts, and seeds, make eating a healthy pleasure. Farmers grow organic foods using the power of nature, not toxic herbicides and pesticides, petroleum-based fertilizers, genetic engineering, or chemical processes.
The abundance of organic food masks all the risk and effort necessary to bring these nourishing choices to market. Until I visited Organically Grown Company, the Pacific Northwest’s largest wholesaler of organic produce, I never wondered “where does all that great organic food come from?” Yet this is a (more…)
Tags: co-op, Eugene, food wholesaler, getting healthy, Janice Stanger, Oregon, organic food, Organically Grown, Plant-based nutrition, Tom Lively, vegetables, whole foods
Posted in Health | Comments Off on Organic Fruits and Veggies Take Over the World
