The Body’s pH Balancing Act

The human body needs to maintain a pH level of 7.3 to 7.5.  It does this without us having to think or really work at maintaining that level.  Did you know that if our bodies don’t keep this precise level, we’ll end up at the ER real fast!  Not maintaining the correct acid-alkaline balance can even be fatal.  Our bodies depend on this delicate balance in order to perform various cellular functions.  So, to keep us alive, our bodies use minerals from our extracellular fluid—this is the fluid that is outside of the cells…kind of like a river and the cells are the rafts floating in the river—to maintain the pH balance.  When the fluid doesn’t have the right amount of minerals, specifically calcium, magnesium, and potassium; it turns to the stores of these and other minerals in our bones.  This weakens the bones.

Drinking one 12-ounce can of soda, causes such an acidic condition in the body that the kidneys are not able to handle the acidic level of the urine.  In order for the urine to be at an appropriate pH level, the body must draw on the alkalizing minerals in the extracellular fluid and possibly from the bones.

Stress is another factor that causes acidic conditions in the body.  Again, to maintain the delicate pH balance, the body must draw upon its stored minerals.  Decreasing stress and learning to manage stress is important to each person’s health even beyond acid-alkaline balancing.

Eat foods rich in calcium, potassium, and magnesium so that your extracellular fluid is rich in these minerals and build up stores in your body.  Some suggested foods are cabbage, Brussels sprouts, mushrooms, bell peppers, garlic, broccoli, ginger, citrus*, and, avocado.  Take a deep breath, thoroughly chew each bite of food, and eat plenty of fruits and vegetables several times a day to step in the right direction toward better health.

*Although citrus is acidic, within our bodies, they create a more alkaline environment.

Lipski, Elizabeth. 2012. Digestive Wellness, 4ed. United States: McGraw-Hill.

A New Broth

I made a vegetable broth, specifically named Magic Mineral Broth, for the first time the other night.  I’ve made chicken bone broth in the past, but don’t do it too often because of the unappealing smell created while it simmers.  This vegetable broth was different.  It actually smelled warm, homey, and delicious!  It made me excited to try the broth.  Unlike the many, many hours of simmering time that the chicken bone broth takes, this vegetable broth was done in just 3 hours.  The hands-on time was about 5 minutes.  Magic Mineral Broth is rich in minerals and nutrients.   It’s easy on the tummy too.  It’s perfect for an easy go to for a nourishing drink on the go, a soup base, or a healing drink when you aren’t feeling very well.

The kombu that the recipe calls for seems expensive but there’s so much in the package that you’ll be able to make several batches of broth before buying more.

Ready to simmer!

 I laughed when I took this picture when I realized what the jar says.  The broth really is golden!

Let’s Talk About Whole Foods…Food, Not the Store

Okay, a short mention about the store, when naming the store, Whole Foods, chose an incredibly smart name because of the nutritious picture it conjures up in one’s mind.  They do carry plenty of whole foods, but so do other grocery stores and farmers’ markets.

Whole plant foods are foods that have not been changed from the time they are harvested to when they are purchased (or picked from your own garden).   Whole foods are often found on the perimeter of the grocery store and usually do not require any labels with the exception of the organic label that can be found on organic produce. (Look for 5 digit numbers that begin with a 9 to code for organic.)

Animal foods such as meat, poultry, and fish are also whole foods so long as they have not been altered or refined from their natural state.  A whole chicken is a whole food while a chicken nugget is a processed (and often refined) food.

Often people think that whole foods are unprocessed foods.  However, some foods need to be processed in order to be edible.  These foods are still whole foods though.  When sold in the store they might or might not be processed.  Beans and rice can be purchased both processed and unprocessed but to be eaten, they need to be processed—cooked.  The preferred way to purchase beans and rice is in their unprocessed state to avoid chemicals and excessive processing.  Animal foods are processed—slaughtered, defeathered, skinned, etc.—and then sold.

Check out The World’s Healthiest Foods book by George Mateljan or go to his site (http://www.whfoods.com) for hundreds of ideas on how to prepare whole foods in simple tasty ways.

Whole foods are for the most part perimeter foods, unrefined, unpackaged, help to build and maintain health, nutritious, and have no additions in the way chemicals, flavor enhancers, or preservatives.  A concise definition of a whole food is given by Evelyn Roehl in her book Whole Food Facts as a food that is “as close to its whole, natural state as possible.”

Checking In with Some Info to Check Out

If you are in need of some decadence, this cake will hit the spot!

Listening to your body and making improvements to your health, take it a step at a time.

Having dairy free kiddos, this milk alternatives information isn’t new to me, but I’m so glad to see it all in one place now!

 

Have a Great Week…And Breakfast!

Trying a new breakfast can be exciting and even encouraging to get out of bed.

This information is encouraging to me…change can and will happen!

Spring is here! Embrace the fickleness of the weather by making a hot soup with fresh vegetables.  A quick and easy favorite is chicken broth, green onions, baby bok choy, sweet peppers, ginger, coconut aminos (gluten free soy sauce), Sriracha sauce, snap peas, mushrooms, and rice noodles. Just chop the veggies, bring broth to a boil and add the coconut aminos and Siracha sauce , toss in vegetables and noodles, simmer for a few minutes.  Enjoy!

Working on a pancake…it’s delicious and gluten and dairy free too…just look at it. Yum!

And, here they are served up

Trying A Come Back

My blogging has been foiled once again by life 🙂  I’ll try to do better and post more.  I’ve taken many pictures of some recipes and often think to myself, “that’s be a great blog post!”  Now, just to follow through on it!  Some friends and I have formed a group of health and allergy conscious moms and have been meeting regularly to plan and share.  I am very excited to keep up with this group and share more about our discussions.  Until next time, go give this fast and easy cookie a try.  It works great as cookie dough and as a baked cookie!  It truly is a fast one…I just whipped it up about 15 minutes ago amidst the post school starving crazies!  All 4 of my kids and I loved every bite we took both as dough and baked.

Quick Chocolate Treat

I admit, I have a HUGE sweet tooth…probably sweet teeth!  However, I also know that eating sugar is not healthy.  There’s been plenty of information lately about sugar and its ties to obesity–too many calories in and not enough out leads to excess energy in storage which equals fat.  But, sometimes a little treat is worth some extra exercise. (Here’s an article about different types of sugar cravings.  Which one or more do you get?)

Customizable Chocolate Treat

Melted coconut oil

Cocoa (unsweetened highest quality you can get)

Grade B Maple syrup or raw honey

Mix-Ins such as dried fruit, chopped soaked and dried nuts and/or seeds, nut/seed butters, ginger, cinnamon, get creative

Stir the melted coconut oil, cocoa, and maple syrup together. (I know there are no measurements here.  You can start small by doing a couple tablespoons of coconut oil, cocoa to taste, and a couple of teaspoons of sweetener.  You want a liquidy and pourable consistency.)

Give it a quick taste and adjust if necessary.

If you want just chocolate, skip the mix ins and go to the next step.  Stir in your desired mix ins.  (Today, Penelope and I used dried cranberries and some walnuts.)

Pour the mixture (or enjoy now)  on to some wax paper laid on a plate or small cookie sheet.

Place the chocolate in to the freezer for 20-30 minutes to harden.

Remove from freezer and break in to pieces.

Enjoy!

Other combinations that taste great are apricots and almonds, cinnamon and cherries, cherries and pistachios, walnuts and finely diced ginger.

Nutrition from the Beginning

This semester has started so I thought it appropriate to start at the beginning of nutrition.  Hippocrates was the first to realize the important role diet plays in our bodies and how diet affects health.  Since this knowledge discovered in 400BC, the study of nutrition has become one of the “most talked about scientific disciplines.”*  A person’s body works best when the proper amounts of nutrients are consumed.  Nutrients are in food and are carbohydrates, fat, protein, vitamins, minerals, and water.  The body can create some of the nutrients it needs, for example Vitamin D, but there are 40 essential nutrients that the body can not make and therefore they must be eaten in order for the body to have them.  Are you beginning to realize the importance of a well-balanced and healthy diet?

I recently challenged you to increase your daily steps.  How are you doing with that?  I know that several areas of the country are freezing right now with the coldest temps in 2-3 years, but we all need to get moving–it’ll help you warm up! 🙂

*Boyle, Marie A., Personal Nutrition 8th edition. 2010.

Paradigm Shift

Today I have for you 2 quick reads that will hopefully shift your paradigm.  The first states that sitting is the new smoking.  Smoking used to be the cool thing, the thing that nearly everyone did, the thing that leads to cancer, heart disease, strokes, and more.  Guess what…sitting, especially the way we Americans are so sedentary, leads us down the same exact path as smoking.  Check out the article.  It is pretty interesting and is a fairly quick read.  It also gives an idea for walking meetings.  Thank you to my husband for passing the article along to me.

The second read–shorter than the first one, but still quite important and paradigm shifting–is about 13 ingredients found in American foods that have been banned in other countries.  The article is short, but has links throughout it leading you to more information.  Some of the ingredients are food colorings, potassium bromate (this one is a tricky one because when we read the labels we think potassium is healthy for us!), and arsenic.  Though arsenic is not printed on food labels, it is in there.

The Flu and Maintaining Health

There’s quite a bit of talk about how bad the flu is this year.  Everywhere you go you hear people talking about the flu and the flu vaccine.  I urge you to make sure you make an informed decision prior to getting the flu vaccine.  Getting sick is no fun, but getting sick usually is not the end either.  Here are some pretty informative sites regarding the flu vaccine: Food Babe, Real Food Forager, and this one about Tamiflu, and here’s an older article, but it has some good information.

Edited to add this timely article by Kelly the Kitchen Kop.

If staying healthy and trying to prevent the flu either with or without the vaccine is high on your priority list, I suggest trying a few things.  First is apple cider vinegar tea.  I first saw this recipe posted by Catherine Slezinger, but have since seen it in many different places.  To make this tea you need 4 ingredients: Unpasteurized, raw apple cider vinegar (I like Bragg brand, it’s available in many stores), raw honey, cinnamon, and hot water.  This is a tea that you can customize to your liking, within reason–don’t add too much honey.  We like about 1 teaspoon of apple cider vinegar, a half to 1 teaspoon raw honey, and a couple dashes of cinnamon all added in to a steaming hot mug of water.  Stir it up and enjoy daily.  Apple cider vinegar has many health benefits such as promoting a healthy immune system and boosting digestion.  Second, I recommend eating coconut oil.  Coconut oil is antiviral and antibacterial (and has a tremendous amount of other health benefits).  Coconut oil can be used in baking and cooking like butter.  One quick, easy, and delicious way to start eating more coconut oil is to melt some oil along with some cocoa, vanilla, dried fruit of choice, some chopped nuts, and either some maple syrup (invest in the real syrup, not Aunt Jemima!) or raw honey. Mix it all up, then spread it on some wax paper and chill it in the freezer.  You just made yourself a candy bar! 🙂  Another simple way to eat coconut oil is to use it to scramble your eggs or saute vegetables.  Lastly, increase the amount of organic vegetables and fruits you eat.  Have a smoothie, eat a salad, quickly saute some spinach or kale with some onion then serve along side an egg, enjoy kale chips.  There are many quick ways to eat more vegetables and fruit.  Fruits and vegetables have many nutrients that the body needs to maintain and regain health as well as fight inflammation.  A delicious smoothie that we’ve been enjoying lately is this Kick the Cough smoothie.  It is sweet with a bit of a kick.  The smoothie is made with pineapple (I buy it fresh, cut it up, and freeze it), orange juice, lemon juice, fresh ginger (buy a large ginger root and keep it in the freezer, just cut off what you need when you need it), apple cider vinegar, raw honey, and a dash or 2 of cayenne pepper.

Also, did you know that when you exercise in your target heart rate (getting that heart rate elevated while working out) for 30-60 minutes your immune system gets a 3 hour natural boost?  Pretty awesome!