Green Beans

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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.

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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

Ritz Crackers are Not Grain: They Aren’t Even Food!

Ritz towerIn a recent news report a woman was fined $10 for not sending a grain in her child’s lunch, even though it had fresh vegetables including potatoes and carrots. The child’s lunch was supplemented with Ritz Crackers, under the pretense of providing the child with a grain.

This story appalls me on many levels.

First why was THIS child’s lunch the focus of persecution? What about the kids with fruit roll-ups, aka, sugar and food colour!?!?

What about the kids with white bread (stripped of its nutrients), slathered in margarine or mayonnaise, (hydrogenated “edible” oils, not food, but edible) and cancer-causing processed meat? That such a sandwich qualifies as food and fits nicely into the food pyramid is ghastly!

What qualifies a Ritz cracker as a grain?

Let’s examine the ingredients in a Ritz cracker.

Wheat Flour, (some labels say “enriched wheat flour”) Partially Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil (Soybean or Cottonseed), Sugar, Raising Agents (Ammonium and Sodium Bicarbonates, Disodium Diphosphate), Salt, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Soy Lecithin, Barley Malt Flour.

 

The main ingredient is wheat flour. It doesn’t say whole wheat so it means they’ve taken the whole grain, removed all

the nutritious parts and the fibre and left the starch. The law states they must replace some of the nutrients, namely niacin, iron, thiamin, riboflavin, folic acid. Sounds good until you realize that they add synthetic substances, and the body doesn’t necessarily use them in the same way as it does naturally occurring vitamins and minerals.

Grains in their whole state have fewer nutrients, pound for pound, than almost any whole food. Sure they have calories, but few of us have difficulties getting enough calories.

Our bodies need micronutrients like minerals and vitamins; we need fibre and proteins and healthy fats. Grains are not the best sources of any of these nutrients.

The next ingredient is vegetable oil (on some labels), soybean oil and cottonseed oils (on other labels). Soybean and cottonseed oils are most likely genetically modified, as 90% of North A

merican fields of these crops are GMO. GMOs have not been proven safe for human consumption and have been associated with severe environmental issues, including an increase in chemical usage, the creation of super weeds and super insects resistant to pesticides, destruction of soil ecology, and loss of biodiversity.

Ritz crackers info

In addition, the oil in a Ritz has been hydrogenated (adding hydrogen to convert liquid to solid) to give the food the right texture and mouth-feel and a significantly longer shelf life. Hydrogenation converts oil into a poison, as our bodies don’t know what to do with the resulting strange substance: trans fats.

Sugar is the next ingredient. Sugar is another poison in our food supply, contributing to over a hundred conditions and diseases. If it comes from sugar beet (as opposed to sugar cane) it is likely GMO and again, not proven safe for human consumption.

Then there’s baking powder and salt, and then more sugar, in the form of high fructose corn syrup, a sugar known to contribute to obesity and food addictions and usually GMO too. Food manufacturers often use several types of sugar so that they can list them separately and keep sugar from showing up first on all the labels. It’s a trick to keep us from realizing we are overdoing sugar.

About the only food value in a Ritz cracker is in the calories, which have been stripped of what little nutrients were in the grain and combined with unhealthy fat, sugar and salt.

What is really scary is that according to government-sponsored surveys, Ritz Crackers are the #1 perceived snack food in America.

If Ritz crackers are a staple in your diet, I suspect your body is starving. In North America we consume copious amounts of food but we are always hungry.

It’s because real food is so much more than calories or carbs, fat and protein. Real food is about the micronutrients that we can’t get from a processed food product like Ritz crackers.

After examining the evidence, what do you think?

Is a Ritz cracker a grain?

Is it even food?

Does it belong in your kid’s lunch?

My philosophy: Eat the Food, the Whole Food and Nothing but the Food.

Resources:

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/11/19/ritz-crackers-fine_n_4303073.html

http://www.snackworks.ca/en/products/Ritz.aspx

You Can’t Beat Beets

beetsDespite their relatively high sugar content (for a vegetable), many people claim to not like beets. That’s too bad because beets are considered a superfood contributing to our health in many ways.

Here are just some of the reasons beets are healthy:

Beets have recently been found to increase stamina during exercise by 16 percent.

Beets are high in fiber, potassium, magnesium, niacin, calcium, iron, and biotin. They are a high source of phytonutrients, which provide strong antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and detoxification support.

Beets help lower blood pressure, maintain blood vessel elasticity, and even help eliminate varicose veins. In fact in some studies beet juice is as effective as high blood pressure medication without the awful side effects.

Beets contain lutein and zeaxanthin, both of which help prevent or even cure macular degeneration and other age related eye issues.

Beets and their leaves are a high source of folate, which is the natural base of folic acid. Folate helps build tissue and red blood cells. Folic acid is a vital nutrient for pregnant women to ensure proper fetal development.

Beets help cleanse the blood and create more red blood cells. They are useful for treating and curing anemia. Heavy daily beet consumption has even been used to treat leukemia and other cancers. In the 1950’s, Dr. Ferenczi of Csoma, Hungary used beets exclusively to break up tumors in the body. He had considerable success, and tumors were often completely eliminated. Everyone can benefit from beets’ anti-carcinogenic properties by eating beets regularly.

Beet juice helps stimulate liver cells and cleanse and protect bile ducts. It also helps relieve the kidneys of stress to help cure gout. Beets are also useful in preventing constipation.

Beet juice is alkaline and helps stave off acidosis, a suspected factor in many diseases. Beets can also be used to help detoxify the body.

Raw beets offer the most complete nutrients. Beets can be shredded over salads or juiced. They can be boiled, roasted or barbecued. They can be sliced or diced and tossed into soup, otherwise known as borscht. The tops are similar to spinach and can be eaten raw or steamed and served with butter and lemon juice.

Beets are easy to grow in the garden, requiring little care but providing great reward.

Adding beets to your diet is a great way to beat a variety of health problems.

Borscht  – Shelley Goldbeck

1/2 lb beef stew meat

½ tsp sea salt (to taste)

pepper (to taste)

2 Tbsp oil (coconut, olive)

2 cloves minced garlic

1 cup diced onions

1 TBSP Worcestershire sauce

1 cup chopped cabbage

1 cup chopped carrots

1 cup diced potatoes

1 handful fresh dill stalks, flowers, and leaves

sour cream or yogurt

1 cup chopped canned or stewed tomatoes with juice

1&1/2 lb cooked, peeled and diced beets

 

Saute first seven ingredients in a large pot until onion is tender and meat is brown. Cover with 6 to 10 cups water. Simmer for 2 to 4 hours or until meat is falling-apart tender. Stir in cabbage, carrots and potatoes; cook 15 minutes. Add beets, dill, tomatoes and enough water to cover. Simmer for 15 to 30 minutes.

 

Remove large stalks of dill. Serve with sour cream or plain yogurt.

 

Vegan: This meal in a bowl can easily be prepared without the meat and served with a bit of coconut milk.