The Spice of Life

Fall has arrived! The leaves are changing, kids are going back to school, and cold weather is just around the corner. While the autumn trees are beautiful, and this year, for the first time in quite a while, I can heave a sigh of relief that I did not return to school this September, the cooling whether that promises frigid winter months ahead is not appealing. The fabulous soups, stews, and chilis that accompany such weather, however, are a very different story. There is something comforting about sitting down to a hot, spicy stew on a cold, wet night. A feeling of home.

This spring I discovered a gem of a cookbook. Being a cookbook cynic, tired of buying a promising-looking tome just to discover that only one or two of the hundreds of recipes are edible, let alone tasty, all of my culinary exploration now begins at the library. I stumbled across this unremarkable, unillustrated, bright green cover while browsing the shelves and decided to give it a chance. To my amazement, each recipe it contained was better than the last. The beauty of this book? Not only are the dishes fantastic, but they are filled with vegetables, beans, grains, and all sorts of other healthy ingredients!

Whether you are a hardcore carnivore, a complete vegan, or your dietary habits fall somewhere in the middle, this book is for you. Just to give you a little taste, and with the gracious permission of this book's creator, Dreena Burton (more information about her on her blog at vivelevegan.blogspot.com), I have included one of my favourite recipes below. From Eat, Drink & Be Vegan:

Sweet Potato Lentil Chili
Serves 5-6

1 tbsp coconut oil or olive oil
1 ¾ cups onions, diced
1 cup celery, diced
2 – 2 ½ cups sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed about 1" thick
3 large cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp sea salt (or less)
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp paprika
½ tsp freshly grated nutmeg
½ tsp cumin
¼ tsp cinnamon
½ tsp crushed red pepper flakes (or to taste)
1 ¼ cups dry red lentils
2 ½ cups water
1 can (28 oz/796 mL) crushed tomatoes, salt free
1 can (14 oz/398 mL) black beans or kidney beans, rinsed and drained or 1 ¾ cups cooked
1 bay leaf
3 tbsp freshly squeezed lime juice
Lime wedges (for garnish, optional)

 In a large pot on medium heat, add oil, onions, celery, sweet potatoes, garlic, salt, pepper, chili powder, paprika, nutmeg, cumin, cinnamon, and red pepper flakes and stir to combine. Cover and cook for 6-8 minutes, stirring occasionally; reduce heat if onions are sticking to bottom of pot. Rinse lentils. Add lentils, water, tomatoes, beans, and bay leaf. Stir to combine and increase heat to bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 25 minutes or longer until sweet potatoes are softened, stirring occasionally. Stir in lime juice, season to taste with additional salt, pepper. Serve with lime wedges (optional).

Enjoy!
-Bethany

A Mad Scientist’s Diet

Rows of chemicals line the walls of a chemistry lab, all carefully labeled for safety. Biohazard. Corrosive. Poison. All that and more! Goggles, gloves, lab coats, fire blankets, fume hoods and washing stations are standard equipment, required for safety. Why? Because chemicals are dangerous. What makes them even worse is that, when combined, they can have a violent and unexpected reaction that they would not have had alone.

The irony is that those chemicals that we guard ourselves from so carefully in the lab are increasingly finding their way into our foods.

Now, I love chemistry and I'm all for experimentation, but I try not to eat my experiments! Wandering the aisles of a supermarket, though, reading food labels at random, it's evident that this is exactly what we've been doing.

Take Doritos for instance.  In a bag of Spicy Nacho Doritos you will find:

Ingredients: Whole Corn, Vegetable Oil (Contains One or More of the Following: Corn, Soybean and/or Sunflower Oil), Maltodextrin, Salt, Cheddar Chese (Milk, Cheese Cultures, Salt, Enzymes), Whey, Monosodium Glutamate, Buttermilk Solids, Romano Cheese (Cow’s Milk, Cheese Cultures, Salt, Enzymes), Corn Starch, Whey Protein Concentrate, Partially Hydrogenated Soybean and Cottonseed Oil, Lactose, Disodium Phosphate, Garlic Powder, Dextrose, Natural and Artificial Flavor, Onion Powder, Artificial Color (including Yellow 6 Lake, Red 40 Lake, Yellow 6, Yellow 5, Red 40, Blue 1), Spices, Sugar, Citric Acid, Sodium Caseinate, Lactic Acid, Disodium Inosinate, Disodium Guanylate, and Nonfat Milk Solids.


My professional opinion? Yuk! If you can decipher the seemingly endless list of ingredients, you'll notice that not too far down on the list (meaning there's a significant amount of it) is Monosodium Glutamate, or MSG. This chemical is not only highly addictive, but also linked to obesity and who knows what other health problems. Then there are artificial colours – six of them! These beauties are suspected to be both toxic and carcinogenic. Then there are the hydrogenated fats, salt and sugar, and the list goes on…
What else is in your foods?

Diacetyl, a chemical linked to an irreversible lung condition called bronchiolitis obliterans can be found in microwave popcorn.

Benzene (yes, the industrial solvent), is the byproduct of two chemicals, sodium benzoate and ascorbic acid, often found in pop.

Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), a polymer usually found in caulking, adhesives, and grease, is used in McDonald's Fish Filets as an "antifoaming agent".

Olestra (thankfully banned in Canada for its adverse effects) is still allowed in products in the USA, and, in fact, companies are pressuring the FDA to remove the phrase "may cause abdominal cramping and loose stools" phrase from products containing this chemical. It inhibits absorption of vitamins and minerals, causes abdominal cramping and loose stools, and (my favourite) anal leakage. Nice. Where can you find this? American Pringles, among other products.

Artificial Sweeteners Yes, I know there are those of you who love these for their lack of calories, and research on their effects is still ongoing. At the very least, though, they have been linked to weight gain. Recent studies, though, are showing that these guys are also risk factors for metabolic syndrome (excessive abdominal fat, high blood pressure, and high glucose), cancer, and hormonal imbalances.

Hydrogenated Fats & Trans Fats have been in the spotlight recently, as companies are finally being forced to include these on labels. These fats cause blockages in arteries, leading to heart disease. And unfortunately, heart disease doesn't have any symptoms until it becomes a major problem (often until blood vessels are 75% blocked or more!).

And finally, Butylated Hydroxyanisol (BHA), which has been used frequently in packaging (of foods, as well as plastic containers and water bottles) and as a preservative. This chemical has been recently linked to cancer.

This list is by no means inclusive, but it gives you an idea of what's out there. And what's in you.

The results of our dietary choices are toxic, hormonally imbalanced, overweight bodies that are falling victim to diseases at an alarming rate. The solution? Buy products with one ingredient. Apples. Meat. Spinach. Eggs. They may be more work to prepare, but your body will thank you in the end.

A more comprehensive summary of what chemicals to look for on labels is available at http://www.cspinet.org/templates/article_chem_chart.html

-Bethany

Sick and Tired of Being Sick and Tired?

Most of us aren't aiming to be pictured on the cover of a fitness magazine or hoping to try out for the next Olympic team. Far from seeking perfection, the average person's goal is to simply make it through the day without wheezing up a flight of stairs or disappointing our children because even the idea of leaning down to pick him or her up causes back pain. Shopping is a thing to be dreaded because that cute little dress that you really, really want doesn't look so cute over that pesky spare tire! We sit, exhausted, on the couch after a long day at work and think fondly of the day when we had energy to go out in the evening. Despite all this, we sit around the dinner table and thank God that unlike so many other people, WE still have our health.

Then we toss back the pharmaceutical cocktail that keeps us that way.

Somewhere along the way, our society forgot. We forgot what it was like to roll out of bed, pain-free and energetic. Ready to face a day filled with promise. "Health" became a state of being in which one was not hospitalized. A patient with heart disease is considered healthy as long as the daily pills they are taking keep their blood pressure down. Diabetes is a fact of life – an inevitable inconvenience. The list goes on and on: heart disease, cancer, depression, fibromyalgia, asthma, allergies… What happened???

The World Health Organization (WHO) came together in 1945 with the goal of promoting global health. Their definition of health half a century ago is worlds away from how we use the word today. "Health," they though, should be defined as "a state of complete physical, mental and spiritual well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity." It's a beautiful idea, one that most of us feel is so far from the reality we face every day, it's not only unattainable, it's inconceivable.

Being healthy seems to get more complicated every year! Walking through the supermarket, half of the foods on the shelf list a meaningless jumble of letters and numbers as their ingredients that even a chemist would be hard-pressed to dissect. And the row upon row of books lining the nutrition section of a bookstore don't help either – they preach conflicting messages that leave readers more bewildered than they were to begin with. Is it high protein or low protein? And which fats were bad, again? Is dairy good or bad? What about gluten? Sugar? Fruit? Eating has become complicated algorithm that even experts can't seem to agree on!

And that's not the only debate. Once you've finally decided what combination of food products are going into your mouth, now it's time to exercise. But where do you start? Cardio? Weights? A mystifying array of exercise contraptions stand in lines, waiting to attack unsuspecting newcomers. The choices just keep on multiplying, until it's just too hard. Being sick isn't that bad, is it?

The key is to take it just a step at a time. And you don't have to be perfect. Try these few simple steps to start, and progress from there:

1. Write down WHY you want to be healthy (not skinny, not fit, HEALTHY) and put it somewhere you can see it every day. Don't give a vague, pat answer that you've heard a million times. Make it specific, and make it personal. The more meaningful your goal is, the more likely you are to keep it.
2. Pick ONE thing you are going to change and do it. Don't plan to do it or write it in your calendar for next month, start now. Make it simple – something you know you can do, and something you'll be proud of yourself for doing. Switch to brown rice, give up pop, or eat out one less time per week. Whatever you choose to do, no matter how small the change, be proud of yourself for doing it. Tell someone so that they'll be excited for you as well! If there's no one in your life that you want to share your goal with, email me! I'd love to hear from you.
3. Take a walk. It doesn't have to be long or fast, you're not out to beat any records. Just move! Walking is one of the healthiest things you can do, and it's not even horrible!!!

That's it, three things. The rest will come later, but for now, be proud of yourself for taking a huge step in the right direction.

-Bethany