The Most Important Foods to Eat to Improve Your Life

The Most Important Foods to Eat to Improve Your Life

I was recently asked to give a talk on nutrition to a group of retired professionals and in an e-mail correspondence with the group leader I said I wanted to talk about the importance of being a “locavore” and she complimented me on my enthusiasm and the said;
"They might like to know about the 10 Superfoods that in 10 days will help you.... live longer, lose weight, increase mental alertness, fight disease, and improve sex life!!! HA!!! HA!!! HA!!!!"
Hmmm…I laughed and forgot about it. Then an epiphany…well of course there ARE foods that help you live longer, lose weight, improve your short term memory and general brain function, boost your immune system and fight disease! And if you are that healthy and looking that good, why wouldn’t your sex life improve!?!
The chemicals involved in these processes come from phytonutrients which is just the scientific term for plant nutrients that spark the body processes that fight, or reduce the risk for some diseases, especially cardiovascular disorders, diabetes and even cancer.
Let me just say right now that I’m starting a bit of a food revolution because all of these healthy foods that are chock full of healing, healthy nutrients are carbohydrates. Our nervous systems run on carbs—that of course includes our brain. As adults only 10% of our calories should come from protein and we are Way over that in this country consuming about 30% of our calories from animal proteins alone! and that is more than even growing children should be getting which is about 25%.
Fruits are all carbs and fiber. Vegetables are carbs and some protein and some, like avocadoes, have healthy fats.
Animal proteins have no phytonutrients (remember phyto means plant) but lots of artery clogging fats. But this is not about being a vegetarian but IS about how to get foods that IMPROVE your health onto your plates and into your body.
Here we go…
Phytonutrients are broken down into things like carotenoids, flavenoids Catechins, lutein. Protease inhibitors and anthisynons. Too many icky names. Lets just talk about the foods, spices and beverages that can give us these marvelous nutrients.
The easiest thing to do is go to the farmer’s markets or food cooperatives and buy all the veggies that are bright red, orange and yellow. Green veggies are also full of these colors but the chlorophyll is masking the yellow to red colors. That having been said a red pepper is more nutritious than a green one but dark green spinach is as healthy as it gets—you don’t want yellow (or god forbid red) spinach!
Carotenoids are present in red, yellow, green and orange fruits and vegetables and are full of antioxidants that boost the immune system, limit the effects of aging, and reduce plaque accumulation as well as your risk of developing cancer.
Citrus fruits, vegetables, apples, onions, red grapes and tea keep your collagen healthy (collagen builds skin cells, cartilage and ligaments), suppress malignant changes, protect eyes and nerves from inflammation & diabetic damage and improve allergy symptoms.
With late onset diabetes taking on epidemic proportions in this country it is important to note that reducing well actually eliminating animal proteins and animal by-products and eating a vegan diet has been shown to reverse diabetes. The flavonoids in citrus fruits, vegetables, apples, onions, red grapes and tea protect against the neuropathies and other damage caused to the heart and other organs by uncontrolled diabetes.
Berries—all of them red, black and blue as well as purple and red grapes contain antioxidants that improve short-term memory and increase the metabolic burning rate of stored fat.
Finally green and black tea as well as apples Assist in weight loss and activate fat burning genes in abdominal fat cells (a Tufts University study showed a 77% increase in abdominal fat loss and doubled overall weight loss)
And now back to what was to have been the focus of the talk—those dark leafy greens that are so in season and beautiful right now. They provide calcium as well as 100s of the phytonutrients I have been talking about. But what do we need to properly absorb that calcium into our bones? Vitamin D and magnesium.
Our bodies produce vitamin D if we get out in the sun but here in the great and often overcast Northeast we may need supplements or foods fortified with Vitamin D like orange juice and cereals.
What about the magnesium? Well because our industrial farming practices have so depleted our soils, we really need to buy organically grown produce to get that magnesium. It is abundant in all vegetables grown in good soil and especially in the greens. And don’t forget about the bountiful dandelion—save money and improve your health by eating these beauties from April to the first snowfall!
So get out and visit your local farms, farmers markets and food cooperatives and plant your own gardens even if it is just a few pots on your patio with greens, peppers, a few herbs and tomatoes.
So to review:
How do we live longer?
Eat colorful citrus fruits, vegetables, apples, onions, red grapes and tea
Lose weight?
Drink green and black tea, apples, grapes and berries
Increase mental alertness?
Red and purple grapes and all kinds of berries
Fight disease and boost our immune system?
Eat more colorful fruits and vegetables and whole grains
Improve our sex life? All of the above!
The most important and basic things you can do to be healthy:
!. Eat more colorful, organic fruits and vegetables and whole grains.
2.Buy locally grown, seasonal produce that is grown/raised in a sustainable fashion (organic).
3. When fresh is not available buy frozen.
4. When using canned foods get them from companies that use cans that fo not conatain BPA

Jamie Risedorph @ http://jamiesnutritionnuggets.blogspot.com/

The Most Important Foods to Eat to Improve Your Life

I was recently asked to give a talk on nutrition to a group of retired professionals and in an e-mail correspondence with the group leader I said I wanted to talk about the importance of being a “locavore” and she complimented me on my enthusiasm and the said;
"They might like to know about the 10 Superfoods that in 10 days will help you.... live longer, lose weight, increase mental alertness, fight disease, and improve sex life!!! HA!!! HA!!! HA!!!!"
Hmmm…I laughed and forgot about it. Then an epiphany…well of course there ARE foods that help you live longer, lose weight, improve your short term memory and general brain function, boost your immune system and fight disease! And if you are that healthy and looking that good, why wouldn’t your sex life improve!?!
The chemicals involved in these processes come from phytonutrients which is just the scientific term for plant nutrients that spark the body processes that fight, or reduce the risk for some diseases, especially cardiovascular disorders, diabetes and even cancer.
Let me just say right now that I’m starting a bit of a food revolution because all of these healthy foods that are chock full of healing, healthy nutrients are carbohydrates. Our nervous systems run on carbs—that of course includes our brain. As adults only 10% of our calories should come from protein and we are Way over that in this country consuming about 30% of our calories from animal proteins alone! and that is more than even growing children should be getting which is about 25%.
Fruits are all carbs and fiber. Vegetables are carbs and some protein and some, like avocadoes, have healthy fats.
Animal proteins have no phytonutrients (remember phyto means plant) but lots of artery clogging fats. But this is not about being a vegetarian but IS about how to get foods that IMPROVE your health onto your plates and into your body.
Here we go…
Phytonutrients are broken down into things like carotenoids, flavenoids Catechins, lutein. Protease inhibitors and anthisynons. Too many icky names. Lets just talk about the foods, spices and beverages that can give us these marvelous nutrients.
The easiest thing to do is go to the farmer’s markets or food cooperatives and buy all the veggies that are bright red, orange and yellow. Green veggies are also full of these colors but the chlorophyll is masking the yellow to red colors. That having been said a red pepper is more nutritious than a green one but dark green spinach is as healthy as it gets—you don’t want yellow (or god forbid red) spinach!
Carotenoids are present in red, yellow, green and orange fruits and vegetables and are full of antioxidants that boost the immune system, limit the effects of aging, and reduce plaque accumulation as well as your risk of developing cancer.
Citrus fruits, vegetables, apples, onions, red grapes and tea keep your collagen healthy (collagen builds skin cells, cartilage and ligaments), suppress malignant changes, protect eyes and nerves from inflammation & diabetic damage and improve allergy symptoms.
With late onset diabetes taking on epidemic proportions in this country it is important to note that reducing well actually eliminating animal proteins and animal by-products and eating a vegan diet has been shown to reverse diabetes. The flavonoids in citrus fruits, vegetables, apples, onions, red grapes and tea protect against the neuropathies and other damage caused to the heart and other organs by uncontrolled diabetes.
Berries—all of them red, black and blue as well as purple and red grapes contain antioxidants that improve short-term memory and increase the metabolic burning rate of stored fat.
Finally green and black tea as well as apples Assist in weight loss and activate fat burning genes in abdominal fat cells (a Tufts University study showed a 77% increase in abdominal fat loss and doubled overall weight loss)
And now back to what was to have been the focus of the talk—those dark leafy greens that are so in season and beautiful right now. They provide calcium as well as 100s of the phytonutrients I have been talking about. But what do we need to properly absorb that calcium into our bones? Vitamin D and magnesium.
Our bodies produce vitamin D if we get out in the sun but here in the great and often overcast Northeast we may need supplements or foods fortified with Vitamin D like orange juice and cereals.
What about the magnesium? Well because our industrial farming practices have so depleted our soils, we really need to buy organically grown produce to get that magnesium. It is abundant in all vegetables grown in good soil and especially in the greens. And don’t forget about the bountiful dandelion—save money and improve your health by eating these beauties from April to the first snowfall!
So get out and visit your local farms, farmers markets and food cooperatives and plant your own gardens even if it is just a few pots on your patio with greens, peppers, a few herbs and tomatoes.
So to review:
How do we live longer?
Eat colorful citrus fruits, vegetables, apples, onions, red grapes and tea
Lose weight?
Drink green and black tea, apples, grapes and berries
Increase mental alertness?
Red and purple grapes and all kinds of berries
Fight disease and boost our immune system?
Eat more colorful fruits and vegetables and whole grains
Improve our sex life? All of the above!
The most important and basic things you can do to be healthy:
!. Eat more colorful, organic fruits and vegetables and whole grains.
2.Buy locally grown, seasonal produce that is grown/raised in a sustainable fashion (organic).
3. When fresh is not available buy frozen.
4. When using canned foods get them from companies that use cans that fo not conatain BPA

Jamie Risedorph @ http://jamiesnutritionnuggets.blogspot.com/

Smart lunchroom program changes kids’ eating habits one meal at a time | Health, Medical, and Science Updates

Smart lunchroom program changes kids’ eating habits one meal at a time | Health, Medical, and Science Updates

Women's History Month

On Saturday March 10th I had a wonderful time attending and presenting at The Elizabeth Cady Stanton Women's Symposium. This year's theme was "Renew! Revitalize! Foster Your Resiliency and had a focus on Schohairie County's recovery from Tropical Storm Lee. My presentation focused on beginning with small changes towards becoming more independent through creating a sustainable lifestyle. The small changes included growing more of our own food, composting your household waste, adding easy to build passive solar additions to your home, collecting rain water from your roof or out buildings and sharing and exchanging food with your community.

(For more about the Elizabeth Cady Stanton and the Women's Symposium please follow this link:EBS)

Without the comments and natural flow of conversation that happened that morning,  the following copy of my presentation notes that went  along with the Power Point presentation is pretty dry. I always write these notes and then don't use them because what comes to me spontaneously usually is much more "enthusiastic" as one of my attendees put it. Anyway, here it is
Fostering Resiliency in Your Own Backyard

To be truly free, we need to create a more sustainable living environment where by growing our own food, harvesting rainwater and capturing energy from the sun we become more independent of the corporate giants that take less care of our planet then we would like.

 

“Every morning I awake torn between a desire to save  the world and

an inclination to savor it.

This makes it hard to plan the day!”

(E. B. White)

 

When I was younger I was mostly concerned with saving the world but now I seem to spend a lot more time savoring the day. I’ve taken a break from the savoring to share some ideas that might help you to take more time to enjoy yourself why gaining independence and doing something good for the environment and your health.

 

nCommunity

nHealth

nEnvironment

nEconomy

Being a locavore is all about improving you and community’s health by growing and consuming local produce. This is better for our environment and our economy

1.    

Justification for Local Produce and Sustainable Living

•  Rising cost of food, fuel and water
• Food quality, safety and nutritional value declining
• Loss of variety and diversity of the food we eat
• The financial pressure on individuals

High gas prices are added to the price of our food and everything else we purchase from distant vendors. Foods grown on industrial farms are grown in nutrient poor soils and lose many more vitamins as they travel hundreds of miles to our supermarkets. Companies like Monsanto actually own certain seed crops, like corn, and fine farmers for not using them! All of these things impact our health, our pocket books and our sense of control over our lives.

Today, 58 million Americans spend approximately $30 billion every year to maintain over 23 million acres of lawn. That’s an average of over a third of an acre and $517 each. The same size plot of land could still have a small lawn for recreation, plus produce all of the vegetables needed to feed a family of six. The lawns in the United States consume around 270 billion gallons of water a week—enough to water 81 million acres of organic vegetables, all summer long. Lawns use ten times as many chemicals per acre as industrial farmland. These pesticides, fertilizers, and herbicides run off into our groundwater and evaporate into our air, causing widespread pollution and global warming, and greatly

 

Goals for Re-Energizing Your Life and Community

• nMake your Community a friendlier place by sharing your excess produce 
• Improve your Health and save money by growing your own food (or buying local) 
• Save heating Expenses by adding solar collectors to your home 
• Improve your Environment by saving roof rain water run off 

The downspout that supplies this barrel is fed by about 600 square feet of roof, so has the potential of about 300 gallons per inch of rainfall(allowing for some losses in the collection process). Rain water collection can be as complicated as you like so that you can use it for everything from drinking and cooking to bathing and watering your garden. I am just recommending baby steps to get you started and feeling independent of some rules and regulations. If you collect rainwater, you can water your garden and wash your car even during a drought.  

An example of a raised bed garden supported by cedar boards. They were 16 by1 foot and were cut into 4 foot and 12 foot lengths to make the box. This particular year my woodchucks took a little more than their share so we simply staple stock fence to the board and no more damges was done to any of the beds. Behind this bed is an uneclosed raised bed growing potatoes.  

Schematic for raised bed

 (some pictures and schematics would not load so lets load the actual picture of the built Sun Grabber designed by the Maine Solar Energy Association)

 

This is a schematic for an easy to build and install solar collector. It can be used as an area to start seeds or even as a season expanding greenhouse. Another idea in this vein is to fill black plastic barrels with water and use them to keep the temperature up in your greenhouse of enclosed porch or deck

Examples of solar add-on

And last here is a a great way to do composting as a garden from the Food Not Lawns movement in Santa Barbara, California

Follow this ink: www.foodnotlawns.com

Please feel free to e-mail me if you want any more information or would like me to address your group on any or all of these topics. jrnutrition@gmail.com

Healthy Habits to Help Reduce the Pain of Arthritis

A friend of mine is going to a conference in NYC to learn about being an Ambassador for the Arthritis Foundation and asked that people support their favorite organizations to help find a cure for this painful condition. I said I would help with some nutrition advice.

Healthy eating habits can help the body in its efforts to heal itself, and in some cases, particular foods can lessen symptoms. To address the pain and inflammation commonly associated with arthritis, try the following:

· Decrease animal proteins toward 10 percent of daily caloric intake. Replace animal protein as much as possible with plant protein (whole grains, nuts, seeds, rice, beans and tofu and other soy products).

· Eliminate milk and milk products, substituting other calcium sources (soy milk and leafy green vegetables like kale, spinach, escarole, and broccoli).

· Eliminate polyunsaturated vegetable oils, margarine, vegetable shortening, all partially hydrogenated oils, and all foods that might contain trans-fatty acids (such as deep-fried foods). Use extra-virgin olive oil as your main fat.

· Increase intake of omega-3 fatty acids (eat walnuts, wild caught salmon, mackerel, sardines and flax).

· Eat ginger and turmeric regularly, both of which are natural anti-inflammatory spices.

· Reduce your consumption of foods made with wheat flour and sugar, especially bread and most packaged snack foods (including chips and pretzels). Actually, most packaged and/or processed foods contain ingredients that can exacerbate inflammatory conditions. READ THE LABELS!

· Eat more whole grains (not whole wheat flour products), beans, winter squashes, and sweet potatoes.

· Cook pasta al dente and eat it in moderation. (Half a cup serving size)

· Avoid products made with high fructose corn syrup and MSG-style additives

Add regular exercise to these tips and you should reduce the inflammation of arthritis.

Wishing you a pain free holiday season—Jamie Risedorph

You Say Potato and I Say Yam…

Okay, a little too much poetic license was taken in the title but I have to take up this discussion about yams vs. sweet potato as it was brought up on two occasions at the co-op last week while I was present. I decided to do some research because I was not really very clear on the difference as being something like all yams are sweet potatoes but all sweet potatoes are not yams and where they grow best or don’t grow at all.

As a nutritionist I have always recommended sweet potatoes as one on the most nutrient dense and delicious yet low calorie foods you can eat. They are packed with fat-soluble vitamin A and compared to yams, sweet potatoes contain significantly higher amounts of calcium, iron, and vitamin E, and twice as much protein per serving. However the yams come out the winner in the fatty acid category. Sweet potatoes contain less omega-3 fats than yams, and have nearly twice as many omega-6 fats, which are known to inhibit the body's ability to make use of the omega-3's..

However, those of you who suffer from arthritis, gout or IBS should take note that the sweet potato wins as it is packed with anti-inflammatory compounds. Yams can actually aggravate these conditions.

Both are low on the glycemic scale (16-17) and offer benefits for diabetics.

What about the botanical differences of the yam vs. the sweet potato?

Apparently the yam encompasses a very large variety of species and the sweet potato is only distantly related and is actually a member of the morning glory family. Other botanists say they are not related at all and that the yam is from the tuber of a tropical vine, Dioscorea batatas. The yam is popular in South America, Africa and the Caribbean while the sweet potato is the North American choice and grows well throughout the United States.

So are we all happy with this explanation? Let me know!

Bittersweet October

October is a bittersweet month for gardeners. The cool crisp air and brilliant sunshine lighting the glorious colored leaves and deep blue skies are the sweet part. The freezing temperatures and frosts that result from those brilliant cloudless skies with stars popping out like living beings causes the bitter part—dying vegetation that has sustained you as you nurtured it through spring and summer and early fall.

Of course the beauty of the season is not really the only sweet part. The fall vegetables not only taste great, they are amazingly nutritious. Oddly, the vegetable that we use more as a decorative symbol of the season or for pies, the pumpkin, is one of the most nutritious in the squash family.

Pumpkin is rich in the anti-oxidant beta-carotene and this makes it a great anti-inflammatory food that boosts the immune system and slows the aging process. The zinc present in pumpkin also boosts the immune system and promotes bones density. The high levels of potassium present help lower the risk of hypertension and if that is not enough to make you want to eat pumpkin as a food instead of just in pie, pumpkin has been found to reduce the risk of macular degeneration!

Pumpkin is also rich in calcium and magnesium, two of the three vitamins and minerals needed for bone health. The third is vitamin D and we should all be taking that as a supplement this time of year.

If you need more reasons to enjoy this delicious squash, here is a complete list of the nutrients present in one cup of boiled pumpkin:

• Calcium - 37 mg
• Carbohydrate - 12 gm
• Dietary Fiber - 3 gm
• Folate - 21 mcg
• Iron - 1.4 mg
• Magnesium - 22 mg
• Niacin - 1 mg
• Potassium - 564 mg
• Protein - 2 grams
• Selenium - 0.50 mg
• Vitamin A - 2650 IU
• Vitamin C - 12 mg
• Vitamin E - 3 mg
• Zinc - 1 mg

Calories - 49