Green Beans

grrenbean1
photo belongs to www.ShelleyGoldbeck.com

The lowly green bean, as a rule, is not a vegetable that inspires poetry. But it has many virtues that are virtually unknown or certainly unsung.

You can buy green beans but there is nothing compares to them just-picked from the garden! Green beans are easy to grow. After the last frost in the spring, simply sow them ½ inch deep and one to two inches apart. With water and warmth tiny plants appear within days. Magpies like just-sprouted bean seedlings so beware.

Within six weeks the plants are covered with tiny blossoms and bean pods appear a week or so later. The pods hide easily in the foliage so hunt carefully!

Green beans are best eaten when they are not too big, when the seeds are still small and the pod is tender. They are good raw, something I learned from my Grandtoys.

I like them steamed until tender and green, not too soft or cooked until they’re brown. They are best served with a tiny bit of oil: butter, olive oil, coconut oil or any nut oils are good choices. Many of the vitamins in green beans are fat-soluble. By eating them with healthy fats, you make it easier for your body to utilize those nutrients.

A friend of mine told me recently that they are really delicious roasted in a bit of oil and salted. I imagine them to be like edamame, only you can eat the pods! I will try them.

Green beans are also easily pickled. Choose long, mature pods. Stand them up in the jars, pour your pickling solution over them and process. In a few weeks you have crispy pickled beans.

I became attracted to green beans as a young adult riding the diet roller coaster. Calorie counting was an integral part of my early efforts to manage my weight. As it happens, green beans are very low in calories, with just 31 calories per 100 grams or about 44 per cup.

grrenbean2
photo belongs to www.ShelleyGoldbeck.com

Green beans contain substantial amounts of Vitamins A, B-6, C and K and minerals, including calcium, iron, potassium, silicon, and magnesium. They are a good source of fibre and contain healthy plant-based protein. Recent studies highlight the antioxidant capacity of green beans.

Eating green beans, preferably fresh, but as an alternative, frozen, can enhance your cardiovascular health, help keep your weight down, and help you manage blood sugar.

To me, they taste like summer.

 

 

If you want to learn more about all the nutrients found in green beans check out this site:

http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=134

Sumptuous Strawberries: 4 Good Reasons to Eat Strawberries.

Photo owned by www.shelleygoldbeck.com
Photo owned by www.shelleygoldbeck.com

June is strawberry month. Some strawberries even have the name “June-bearing”; others are everbearing. (Better than overbearing!) But they all start in June.

1. Strawberries1 contain numerous trace minerals and vitamins including 71% of RDA* for Vitamin C, 18% of manganese, and 6% of folate.

2. Strawberries are 90% water and therefore, low in calories with just 33 calories in 100 grams. They make a satisfying snack.

3. Strawberries are also rife with phytonutrients, microscopic substances that have anti-inflammatory or anticancer properties. Their brilliant red colour contributes to their healthiness.

4. Strawberries are high in fibre, rivaling whole grains with their yummy taste. Strawberry consumption is associated with a decreased risk of cardiovascular disease.

Sadly, strawberries are among the most heavily sprayed crops. With reportedly up to 90 chemicals, they routinely make the Environmental Working Group’s Dirty Dozen2, 3 list of the most contaminated produce. Chemical sprays harm the soil, the water, the workers in the fields and the eaters of the fruit, including my grandchildren!

Grow your own strawberries easily. When they’re not part of a huge monoculture (fields and fields of the same plant), they suffer from few diseases. Birds and other creatures like to eat strawberries so you may need to cover them with nets to get your share. They self-propagate profusely so you can share plants with others and you can constantly rotate your beds.

If you can’t grow your own strawberries, I highly recommend buying organic. They cost more but you will immediately notice that they have more taste than the sprayed strawberries. I read recently that people who think they are allergic to strawberries are often actually allergic to chemicals used specifically on strawberries.

In our area there are a number of U-Pick strawberry growers. Picking berries is a fun family activity but I suggest you inquire about spraying before you expose your kids to the fields.

Remember that strawberries don’t ripen after they’re picked so choose bold red berries. They should be washed just before eating to prevent mold. They keep just a few days in the fridge. It’s rarely a problem for me as I will eat them for breakfast, lunch, dinner and everything in between!

Strawberries are delicious eaten plain. You can add some cream or coconut milk with a bit of honey, maple syrup or coconut sugar.

Strawberries freeze well. Soft berries can be pureed into sauces for desserts, added to smoothies or even added to sparkling water for a refreshing summer beverage.

My grandtoys and I invented “Fruities”, fruit “puddings”, which are really delicious when made with strawberries. It’s a great way to use less than perfect berries. See recipe.

Summer starts with strawberries. Savour some soon!

Beware of artificial strawberry flavoured products. Personally, I’ve never cared for artificial strawberry flavour. Now that I know that it comes from the anal glands of beavers, I am even less inclined to eat fake strawberry products.

*Recommended Daily Allowance: the amount of a nutrient you need to stay alive; you need more for optimum health!

 

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strawberries

2. www.EWG.org Environmental Working Group

3. http://www.wholerealfood.com/dirty-dozen-2013-edition/

See Recipe

Salt of the Earth

saltAre you afraid of salt? Is that fear based in fact?

Sodium is key in the operation of all signals within, as well as to and from, the brain.

Salt is so essential to the body that if you drink too much water it can flush salt out of your system and cause fatal hyponatremia.

Consumption of too MUCH salt can be deadly: about 1 gram of salt per kilogram of weight will kill you. In the western world we are constantly reminded to lower our sodium intake.

Obviously salt, like anything else, can be used for good or for evil. There are variables. For example, the kind of salt you ingest really matters.

Ideally you consume unrefined sea salt. All salt came from the sea at some point. The difference is in the refining. Table salt is heavily refined where sea salt is generally sourced by evaporating water out of sea water, leaving salt.

Sea salt isn’t white. It can be grey or yellowish or pink. But never white. White is a sign of refining. Refining is a sign of reduced nutrients.

Sea salt contains as many as 84 trace minerals in addition to calcium, magnesium and potassium.

Table salt is primarily kiln-dried sodium chloride with anti-caking agents added. (18 food additives are allowed in salt!) Kiln drying involves scorching salt at high heat to remove moisture. Trace minerals, as well as calcium, magnesium and potassium are also removed creating a product that is unnatural to the body, contributing to high blood pressure, heart trouble, kidney disease and eczema, among other problems.

Besides quality, the quantity of salt ingested is a major factor. The average North American consumes two or three times the recommended daily allotment for salt, about 1500 mg. Some experts believe our health woes could be dramatically reduced (by up to 50%) if we cut our salt intake in half.

The majority of salt consumed in North America comes from processed and restaurant foods. Food manufacturers understand that salt (along with its fellow criminals, sugar and fat) is highly addictive. They have gradually added more and more salt to their products, conditioning their customers to that taste in food. They also liberally use another offensive salt, monosodium glutamate or MSG, a known neurotoxin, which excites the taste buds, providing the illusion of better taste.

If you avoid processed and restaurant foods you can better control the amount and the quality of salt in your diet and therefore control the health problems it causes or exacerbates. There are other benefits too: fewer transfats, more fibre, less sugar, etc.

Leave the shaker off the table. Or don’t cook with salt but add a little at the table, to taste, meaning taste first, then sprinkle.

Choose sea salt; it’s more expensive but you will use less of it.

Be aware of hidden salt. Soft drinks, for example, are major sources of sodium.

Many companies make salt substitutes; I prefer those made with organic herbs and spices. They are good transition products to help your taste buds return to their natural state. Be careful not to eat too little salt.

At first you may find that you miss salt but I assure you that you will quickly get used to using less. You will find that food tastes different, better and requires less seasoning in general.

Then you will find that processed and restaurant foods are often too salty to eat. I can no longer stand to eat soup in a restaurant or out of a can: too salty!

Don’t be afraid of salt. Its historical significance is no coincidence. It is vital for life.

(I first became aware of the effects of salt when I was pregnant with my first child over three decades ago. My doctor advised me of the dangers and identified some of the hidden sources of sodium. Reducing sodium gave me immediate benefit and I have been vigilant about salt ever since).

Sources:

Michael Pollen has written a number of good books including “In Defense of Food” where he discusses fat, salt, and sugar.

Mineral content of sea salt:

http://healthyeating.sfgate.com/list-minerals-sea-salt-8907.html

Hyponatremia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyponatremia

Chickpeas: Many reasons to include these little legumes in your diet

chickpeasCultivated for as many as 7500 years, chickpeas or garbanzo beans are a staple in Mediterranean diets. In the past few decades they have become widely known in North Americans’ diets, invading 17% of kitchens.

Chickpeas are prized for their high protein content, having nearly 9% protein. They are good sources of calcium, zinc, magnesium, and several B vitamins. In fact a 100 gram serving contains 43% of the RDA of folate, a precursor to folic acid, vital for many functions, including fetal development.

Chickpeas can be cooked and eaten cold in salads, ground into flour, cooked in stews, ground, formed into balls and deep fried as falafel. Chickpeas are prevalent in Indian cuisine where the leaves are also eaten as green salads.

Hummus is the Arabic word for chickpeas, which are cooked, ground and mixed with tahini (ground sesame seeds) to form hummus, the dip/spread. Chickpeas are also roasted, spiced and eaten as snacks. Some varieties can even be popped like popcorn.

Chickpeas are high in fibre, low in fat and have very little taste of their own, making them ideal for “carrying” other flavours. Their high protein content makes them ideal for vegans, vegetarians, and even omnivores.

Recent studies have shown that garbanzo bean fiber can be metabolized by bacteria in the colon to produce relatively large amounts of short chain fatty acids (SCFAs), which provide fuel to the cells that line the intestinal wall.

Chickpeas contain antioxidants and are known to support the digestive system, reduce cardiovascular risks, regulate blood sugar, (preventing diabetes), and increase satiety and reduce overeating.

In short, finding ways to incorporate chickpeas into your diet is a smart way to bolster your health.

 

Here is my recipe for Hummus

Here is a recipe for Roasted Chickpeas: http://www.steamykitchen.com/10725-crispy-roasted-chickpeas-garbanzo-beans.html

Other chickpea recipes:

http://www.canadianliving.com/recipe-directory/main_ingredient/chickpeas.php

 

Sources for this article include:

http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=58

Wikipedia

Natural News

The Real Estate of Your Plate

realestateoriginally posted October 27, 2011, Revised Oct 2013

Think about your usual dinner. Look closely at the food on your plate.

How would you describe the real estate of your plate?

Is your plate one big ghetto of factory food?

Or is it an estate of whole real food?

Food is a huge issue in our society. Billions of dollars are made manufacturing food.

Basic commodities are heavily subsidized. We all would like to think those subsidies are going towards ensuring small family farms avoid what seems inevitable: extinction.

The truth is huge corporations receive most subsidies because they run most of the farming operations in Canada and the USA. The small independent farmer is an anomaly and the few left aren’t making a living on the farm nor can they compete with the large companies.

Heavily subsidized commodities like sugar, wheat, corn, and vegetable oils cost very little so they are ideal ingredients in factory food. What little nutrition these foods have is stripped in the manufacturing process. Synthetic vitamins are added but they’re usually not as effective as vitamins from natural sources.

Machines spit out food products en masse. In the end the packaging is often the most expensive part of factory food, and truth be told, often as tasty and nutritious as what’s inside.

Then there’s the marketing. Words like “light” and “natural” and even, alarmingly, “organic”, have been rendered impotent by food companies using every trick in the book to fool their customers into believing their food is good for them and that it is good value. Sadly most people believe their hollow claims.

If people only thought about what goes into that box of cereal and what they’re getting out of it for $6 or $7 a box, they would be outraged! So many products are nothing more than a handful of different sugars with chemical flavourings and colours.  So-called “kids” cereal is almost pure garbage; you might as well feed them candy for breakfast.

Then we have the diet industry, also worth billions, that strives to convince us their products will help us not be fat. Their food makes us sick and sick leads to fat. The body, in its desperation to partition itself from all the toxins, stores those toxins in fat cells. I also think that’s why we feel so terrible when we’re losing weight. It’s part of the reason diets don’t work; it’s hard to stay on them when you feel so toxic.

Back to the plate. For me learning how to eat healthy food has been a lifelong process, requiring basic knowledge of food, what’s in it and where it comes from, how food affects the body, and how the body feels.

When I was young I was ignorant of the impact food has on the body. I scoffed when people said eating candy could make me sick. I had a stomach of steel and thankfully, a young healthy body that could recover from the abuse of a candy binge.

I remember confiding to the older ladies at my first job that I routinely had Rice Krispie squares and root beer for breakfast. I argued I was getting cereal into my body and I wondered why they were horrified. (I haven’t had root beer or Rice Krispies in my house in decades.)

As I grew older, I figured out that certain foods caused certain outcomes. My first daughter was borderline ADHD so I educated myself and found the most probable contributors were reactions to sugar and chemicals, including colours, flavours, and preservatives.

Without being too much of a food nazi I limited my children’s intake of those substances and therefore I was more conscious of my own consumption. My children grew up to shun fake food.

The real estate of my plate has evolved to a minimum footprint of three-quarters plant- derived foods including at least one raw vegetable.

I’ve found I feel better when I don’t have many grains. The grains I do eat are always whole, never white or processed. I’ve eaten brown rice for over three decades. To me, white rice is tasteless, like eating the box and about as nutritious.

The older I get the more important it is for me to ensure that my portions are smaller than they were when I was 20. The fact is if you don’t change your portions, you’ll gain a pound a year after age 30.

Paying attention to how I feel is also an important part of assessing the real estate of my plate.  I like peppers but they don’t like me. When I eat wheat I bloat like a balloon. A quarter glass of wine puts me into a coma-like state. So I avoid these foods, rather than taking drugs to handle my indigestion, as we are so often encouraged to do by drug-pushing television commercials.

I often consume meat-free meals. My plate used to always include a huge portion of meat; growing up in a meat-and-potatoes family will do that. We only need 30 to 70 grams of protein each day but most people in the western world eat far more. A hamburger patty is 115 grams; many people consume two or three in one sitting.

While there’s no question that having adequate amounts of protein is beneficial, for some reason we think more is better. It’s not. Too much protein triggers minerals to leach from bones and stresses kidneys and adrenal glands.

Animal protein is a good source of concentrated protein but it is hard for our bodies to digest, with many unfavourable “side effects” including making our body’s natural pH more acidic.  Some theorize that an acidic environment in our bodies contributes to many of our modern chronic diseases, like cancer, diabetes and heart disease. High protein diets may even increase the risk of osteoporosis and kidney disease.

Contrary to popular belief, there is protein in grain and vegetables. (All living cells are constructed of protein). They also contain fibre, vitamins and minerals, essential components of a healthy diet. Table of Protein Content in Vegan Foods

I urge you to pay close attention to the real estate of your plate. Hopefully it is dominated by a meadow of fresh raw plant food with no more than tiny enclaves of simple carbs (sugars and starches), meats and processed foods.

My observation is that unhealthy food or “Unfood” catches up with the human body eventually and that many aches, pains, diseases and conditions are preventable, treatable or manageable with improved lifestyle, including revolutionizing the real estate of your plate.

Believe me; living on an estate beats living in the slums!

 

Recommended Reading:  These are just some of the books about food I recommend.

Body for Life                              Harvey and Marilyn Diamond
Living Foods for Optimum Health            Brian R. Clement
Food Inc.                                  Karl Weber
Fast Food Nation                           Eric Schlosser
The Thrive Diet                            Brendan Brazier
The End of Overeating                     David A. Kessler MD
The Botany of Desire                       Michael Pollan
In Defense of Food                         Michael Pollan

 

Other sources:

 

http://exercise.about.com/cs/nutrition/a/protein.htm

http://www.vrg.org/nutrition/protein.htm

http://www.cornucopia.org

www.NaturalNews.com