A Bit Lighter!!!

So, I’ve been grabbing “bites” of this book called “Big Book of Culinary Medicine”. And it tickles my health philosophy a bit…

I’m a struggling, want-to-be health conscious mom. I REALLY want to eat and cook healthy. But boy do habits have a grip! So it has been my custom, that if I just can’t forgo the bad stuff, we’ll just add more good stuff. You know, to offset.

So here are a few things we do, and we’ve learned from this book. VERY simple, people, don’t expect ground-breaking info here. But it may be a good reminder!

1. Eat dark chocolate. Must be at the top of my list. How could I get so lucky that I absolutely adore it, AND it’s great for you?!
2. Eat as much fruit as we can. Today we picked blueberries from a neighbor who has a gazillion bushes drooping with berries! I’ve kept a bowl out all day for the kids and I to snack on. Blueberries contain high concentrations of antioxidants, protecting from cancers.
3. Squeeze lemon in the water. Believe it or not, lemon as a very high alkaline effect on the body. (Alkaline vs. Acidity is a great study in relation to diseases.)
4. Make yogurt smoothies with frozen strawberries and bananas. Sometimes we freeze them into popcicles.
5. Drink V-8 juice. Well, I do at least. I am starting to buy my kids the juice version. I bought my husband these cute little 6 oz. cans to take to work so he culd “choke” it down.
6. Buy organic coffee beans. Coffee beans are a heavily-sprayed crop, so organic is best.
7. Cook tomatoes. Tomatoes are more bio-available if they are cooked lightly in olive oil.
8. Take a whole food vitamin.
9. Drink water. We’re terrible at this. Need to do better! (I’m not thirsty.)
10. We never eat margarine…at home anyway.
11. I stopped buying canned biscuits about 5 years ago, after growing up thinking that’s all there was, and they had to be served with every meal. (My mom is an excellent cook though; it’s my Dad that has to have his canned biscuits!)

Interesting food/health facts:

• Olive oil is a fruit juice and contains oleocanthal, a compound with the same pain-relieving mechanism as ibuprofen. It also protects from breast cancer.
• Eating your watermelon at room temperature preserves the concentration of lycopene by 50% and beta-carotene by 139% as opposed to refrigerated ones.
• Eating a handful of almonds before grabbing your favorite fast food will decrease the damage done to arteries.
• Of all the nuts, pecans have the most antioxidants.

Want to know what it is I’m offsetting?

I eat Double-stuffed Oreo cookies like I won’t be able to find another box. Also, chocolate cake that my friends (you know who you are) make for our after-church fellowship? Two pieces…every time. I can’t help it.