Posts Tagged ‘whole foods plant-based diet’
Saturday, September 15th, 2012
Early cave men did not look like this, and they did not eat the Paleo diet either. But good myths are hard to get rid of.
Still Another “High-Protein” Diet Threatens Your Health
The Paleo Diet can hook you with its story. This “cave man” diet promises to reunite you with your ancestors from 2.5 million years ago through the simple act of eating meat. In this complex era of busy lives and disconnected community, this is an appealing picture. Agriculture, which began 10,000 years ago, is the story’s villain, supposedly leading people away from the hunt to an unnatural diet.
Loren Cordain, PhD and professor at Colorado State, launched the Paleo Diet with his book of the same name. This restrictive eating plan forbids all grains, potatoes and legumes (peas, lentils, beans) as well as dairy and processed foods (including processed meats). You eat all you want of meat, fish, vegetables, and fruit. Bone marrow, animal organs, and meat from wild animals are all on the menu.
The book represents that you can cure just about any chronic illness, from heart disease to cancer, by eating this way because it would match the way your distant ancestors ate for over two million years. You are also supposed to (more…)
Tags: African savannah, cardiovascular disease, cave man diet, diabetes, human evolution, lose weight, nutrition facts, Paleo diet, Paleo diet dangers, Plant-based nutrition, Smithsonian, whole foods plant-based diet
Posted in Plant-based nutrition | 3 Comments »
Thursday, August 23rd, 2012
Whole grains are lovely as they grow. You can clearly see in this picture that the grains of wheat are seeds that form in a cluster on a grassy plant.
A Seed by Any Other Name is Still a Seed
Real world studies of what people eat show, over and over again, that if you consume whole grains you will be healthier and thinner. Yet outlandish statements in the popular media, and even “nutrition” books, may keep you from enjoying and benefitting from these most basic of all foods. When you know the facts, you won’t deprive yourself.
Whole grains are seeds. You might hear silly statements such as “Whole grains are not healthy, but quinoa is because it’s a seed.” If you hear anything like this, you know whoever is telling you knows zero about plants or nutrition, and you can boost your health by tuning out.
Another mundane myth is that people did not start to eat whole grains until these plants were domesticated about 10,000 years ago. Why would people have gone to all the trouble of deliberately cultivating a plant that they never ate before? Were our ancestors that misguided? The truth is that people ate wild grain seeds long before they started to plant them. In some parts of the world, wild grains still (more…)
Tags: barley, cardiovascular disease, corn, diabetes, fiber, getting healthy, lose weight, nutrition facts, oats, phytochemicals, Plant-based nutrition, quinoa, reverse chronic disease, rice, weight loss, whole foods, whole foods plant-based diet, whole grains, whole wheat
Posted in Plant-based nutrition | Comments Off on The Truth About Whole Grains
Saturday, July 28th, 2012
Wayo and Lainey proudly display one of their gorgeous, delicious plates at Casa de Luz in San Diego
Wayo Longoria Creates a Dining Room Where You Are a Family Member
When you are on a whole foods, plant-based diet, finding a restaurant for an enjoyable meal can be a challenge. Eduardo (Wayo) Longoria solves this problem for you with San Diego’s Casa de Luz, an inviting dining room that serves certified organic, plant-based, (more…)
Tags: Casa de Luz, getting healthy, healing foods, making a difference now, Plant-based nutrition, San Diego restaurant, Wayo Longoria, whole foods, whole foods plant-based diet
Posted in Plant-based nutrition | Comments Off on Healing Foods and Satisfying Taste Marry At Casa de Luz
Saturday, July 7th, 2012
An inventive presentation can make your delicious fruit even more tempting
Easy Elegance for Picnics and Get-Togethers
If you are figuring out a fast, easy dish for any gathering, from a summer picnic to an elegant dinner party, fruit salad is your solution. Colorful fruit salad is gorgeous and tempting, bringing an orchard to your kitchen.
You don’t even need a recipe for fruit salad. You can make it on a moment’s notice, assuming you keep lots of fruit in your house. Hopefully you do this anyway, since fruit is a pillar of a healthy, whole foods, plant-based diet.
Fruit salad is the ultimate in uncooking. You can even let young children help assemble it. In fact, letting kids have fun in making meals with healthy foods is one of the best ways to get them launched on lifelong wise eating choices.
Here are some hints to making your fruit salad memorable and irresistible.
Enjoy your fruit salad outdoors on a picnic blanket in a green space, at the beach, or in a sunny nook in your house. Appreciate all that nature put into the fruit – the soil, sun, pollinators. Smile at nature’s greatest bounty.
Include a range of colors for visual appeal. The fruit salad will also be more interesting (more…)
Tags: fruit salad, getting healthy, healthy desserts, Janice Stanger, picnics, Plant-based nutrition, whole foods plant-based diet
Posted in Recipes | Comments Off on How To Make Fruit Salad Everyone Will Love
Saturday, June 16th, 2012
The bees were so interested in the lavender that they did not both the human visitors. These bees were too busy with their tasks of pollination and making their own food to fly up to us.
Enrich Your Cooking With the Distinct Taste and Fragrance of Lavender
I’d never seen so many hard-working bees. As I relaxed into the rural vista, surrounded by fields of lavender in stunning purples, the hum of the bees soothed me into bliss. The fragrance of the flowers was the final calming element. Stress melted and vaporized.
I was at Keys Creek Lavender Farm in eastern San Diego County during the last weekend in May. The peak blooming season this far south (more…)
Tags: antioxidants, essential oils, getting healthy, Herbes de Provence, insomnia, Keys Creek Lavender farm, lavender, migraines, pain relief, Plant-based nutrition, stress relief, whole foods plant-based diet
Posted in Plant-based nutrition | Comments Off on Lavender: A Colorful Flavor
Monday, May 28th, 2012
The beach gets crowded on a sunny day. The most popular activity is simply taking the sun. On an overcast day, people go home quickly.
Can a Whole Foods, Plant-Based Diet Do What Sunscreen Can’t?
Life on earth evolved with the sun. Plants, the base of the food chain, harness solar power through photosynthesis in leaves. Animals live off the energy and nutrients in plants. Over billions of years, plants and animals have perfected their relationship with the sun. Living things have evolved safeguards to benefit from the sun without succumbing to its power.
Yet today, sunscreen manufacturers would have you believe that the sun is your enemy, a cancer promoter. Instead, you are supposed to trust the chemicals in sunscreen to safeguard your health. The fact that sunlight is free and sunscreen drained (more…)
Tags: cancer, environmental degradation, Environmental Working Group, fish, getting healthy, phytochemicals, Plant-based nutrition, President's Cancer Panel, summer, sunburn, sunscreen, vitamin D, whole foods plant-based diet
Posted in Health | 1 Comment »
Monday, May 14th, 2012
Judy Ki hugs a whale shark at Shark Days in Sacramento, part of the campaign to safeguard real-life sharks being killed for shark fin soup.
Judy Ki Has Retired to a Career of Advocating For Sharks, Chickens, Pigs, and Politically Courageous Candidates
The family meals of Judy Ki’s Hong Kong childhood paved the way for her current whole foods, plant-based diet. She grew up in the Chinese tradition of eating fresh veggie dishes with only small amounts of meat and fish. Judy’s mom taught her to respect animals, including the (more…)
Tags: AB 376, APRL, Asian Pacific American Ocean Harmony Alliance, California Proposition 2, Commissioner of the California Commission on Asian and Pacific Islander American Affairs, environmental degradation, Fast Food Nation, HSUS, Judy Ki, Kath Rogers, making a difference now, shark fin soup, shark finning, Vegan Outreach, whole foods plant-based diet
Posted in Environment | 1 Comment »
Thursday, May 10th, 2012
Robert Grillo with one of the friends who inspires him
Robert Grillo Is a Dedicated Advocate of a Plant-Based Lifestyle and Getting To the Core of Truth about Our Food
Robert Grillo makes time every day to report on top news and issues in plant-based eating and the reality of animals raised for food. His website Free from Harm is one of the best sources I’ve found for must-know animal stories that may not make ordinary headlines. Rather watch than read? Free from Harm hosts a collection of dozens of long and short videos on plant-based nutrition and animal issues.
When Robert is not digging through and sharing the news, he shares veganized version of classic American favorite foods on his other site, Hearty Vegan Recipes.
Robert, an independent writer and marketing consultant, has lived in Chicago all his life. I met him on LinkedIn. After marveling at the daily stream of hard hitting information he posted on vegan and vegetarian groups there, I had to contact him to get to know him better.
Robert generously took time from his packed schedule to answer my questions on his journey from (more…)
Tags: blogging, cancer, Free From Harm, making a difference now, Plant-based nutrition, Robert Grillo, whole foods plant-based diet
Posted in Animals | Comments Off on From Meat-Centered Meals to Free From Harm
Sunday, April 8th, 2012
Davie Maxwell and his mom in the seedling greenhouse of Hidden Oasis farm. Davie starts his leafy green powerhouse crops out from seeds.
Davie Maxwell Pioneers Compassionate Farming for Delicious Leafy Greens
Whole food, plant-based diets and veganic farming are natural partners. Veganic gardeners grow crops without manure, bone or blood meal, or other animal products. While plant-based nutrition is a blossoming trend, raising cruelty-free crops is evolving more slowly.
Using veganic methods, Davie Maxwell grows the world’s healthiest, tastiest leafy greens on his 5-acre Hidden Oasis farm near Vancouver, Washington, a short drive from Portland. I was deeply impressed with (more…)
Tags: Davie Maxwell, environmental degradation, getting healthy, Hidden Oasis farm, Janice Stanger, leafy green vegetables, making a difference now, Plant-based nutrition, veganic gardening, whole foods plant-based diet
Posted in Green spaces | Comments Off on How To Get Animals Out of Our Vegetables
Saturday, March 24th, 2012
Me and David at the table just before dinner. David cooked such an excellent feast that I'm still thinking about it. Yet the recipes he used are designed for easy home cooking by anyone who want to eat healthy with a minimum of time in the kitchen.
David Gabbe Makes the Veg World More Delicious
Do you ever look around your kitchen and feel uninspired? You want a simple, tasty meal but can’t quite get it together to cook something.
David Gabbe, a Portland-based vegan cookbook author, cooking instructor, and speaker, can help you out. I was fortunate, on a recent trip to Oregon, to savor an excellent dinner at David’s house with him and his wife, daughter, and son-in-law.
My spirited, friendly hosts offered such a variety of enticing food that it was hard to know what to eat first. I ended up with a plate crammed with a whole grain medley, tofu cubes, Mexican-themed casserole, corn bread, baked yams, and kale salad. Home made chocolate truffles (more…)
Tags: chocolate, cookbook, cooking, cooking classes Portland, David Gabbe, Forks Over Knives, getting healthy, Janice Stanger, Plant-based nutrition, Portland, tofu, vegetables, whole foods, whole foods plant-based diet
Posted in Recipes | Comments Off on Whole Food, Plant-Based Recipes for Everyday Feasts
