Clean and Green!

Clean and Green!!

It’s been about 2 months since we began our spring cleaning. We have increased our intake of water, healthy teas and greens. Our bowels are flowing smoothly and our toxins are moving out of our body through our clear skin and invigorating breath. Do you feel the difference??

Now it’s time to eliminate further—unhealthy foods from your pantry and your diet! You know it would come to this. So let’s do it!

Just say NO to HFCS

If you have been reading my newsletters, you know I am adamant about a couple things, and the first is to avoid high fructose corn syrup like it is the deadly sin it truly is. Now be aware that the corn industry is going to great lengths to prove the safety of HFCS, but don’t fall for this propaganda and stay away. There is nothing natural about a test tube byproduct added ubiquitously to our food supply. JUST SAY NO. If you need more information on why you need to avoid these chemicals, please read this article.

Learn to Read—–Labels

Marion Nestle, PhD, says that you shouldn’t eat food products with more than 5 ingredients. Notice that I said “food products”. Excluding things such as canned beans and fish and packaged hummus and salsa, many things that come in packages are not foods but “food products”. This is particularly evident as the list of ingredients gets longer than 5 items.

Ideally, most of our diet should consist of real foods that don’t require labels such as fruits, vegetables, beans, seeds, nuts, and whole grains like rice, oatmeal, barley etc. The rest of our diet should include foods that are minimally processed and with several things missing: avoid these:

·         Artificial flavors and colors—ALL of them.

·         Preservatives unless derived from natural ingredients (and these would be labeled as such)

·         Anything you can’t pronounce

·         Anything that has the word HYDROGENATED in it

If you can remember to avoid just 2 simple items (that happen to be in the worst of the food products you can eat), you will be well on your way to improving your health and minimizing your intake of harmful food products. These products are high-fructose corn syrup and hydrogenated fats. Check your breads, baked goods, snacks and don’t even consider fast foods. If it has either of the above mentioned additives, it is poorly made, of no nutritional value and probably cheap as well. Welcome, my friends, to the reasons behind the obesity epidemic.

On a Lighter Note…

It is almost June: the winter weight gain should be mainly a thing of the past, right? The days are longer and there is no reason not to get outside and get your bodies moving. There is yard work aplenty, and the bicycle needs air in the tires. Walk the dogs, please! They are the most inexpensive personal trainers around!

Plan your meals around healthy ingredients. Whip up a batch of guacamole, salsa or hummus in the Vitamix and pack it up in small containers for work You can even buy cut up raw veggies if you don’t have the time to cut them yourself!

Stock up on freezer fruit. Blend this up with some protein powder or other supplement blend and you have a quick meal-to-go or an afternoon pick-me-up. I really like the product by Nature’s Way called Alive! which comes in a soy or pea protein base and includes a plethora of wholesome ingredients. My husband and I drink daily shakes with Alive!, fresh kale, berries and a banana. Great energy drink!

Even kids love them!!