Many people spend a lot of time worried about their weight. Focused on the number on the scale. While that certainly can be important, what is more important is to be healthy and to keep moving. We are more than the number of pounds we carry.
Having said that it's also important to recognize that we need to stay active in order to be fit and healthy. There's a popular image which has been making it's way around the internet, facebook, pinterest and more. It shows an overweight person walking and the caption reads, “No matter how slow you go you are still lapping everyone on the couch.” How very true. Get up, get moving, keep your body active. Weight loss It's not easy, but it is simple — eat right, stay hydrated, be well rested, and move your body.
Activity can help you lose weight but even better than that it will make sure your body stays strong, flexible, and limber. A variety of activities is best for overall fitness and health.
This month we've covered what you need to know and healthy food choices. I've shared lots of great information to help you really understand the importance of cholesterol and how changing your diet can help with heart health. Now for the best part, delicious recipes!!
After all, let's be honest, it's great to know about what to do to make healthy changes, but sometimes it can be just a little challenging to know what to do with that information. I'm taking the guesswork out of figuring it out by giving you this great roundup of recipes. I start with a few tasty recipe cards below followed by delicious shares from some of my friends to help you add new recipes for your heart-healthy diet.
Heart-healthy recipes
Garlic
This first one was submitted by Sam, a newsletter subscriber who sent it in along with a delightful story:
1 handful each of three of these herbs (fresh): Rosemary, Thyme, Sage, Marjoram
Instructions
Put in a large pot, bring to a boil
Reduce heat and simmer for 45 minutes or till the garlic is soft
Remove garlic and herbs
At this point you can freeze or eat
To eat, put back into pot on LOW heat
Add 1 small container of organic cream
Season with a dash of white pepper
Serve over homemade croutons and Gruyere cheese grated on top
The Ingredient Guru, Mira Dessy https://theingredientguru.com/
If you're shrinking at the thought of peeling an entire bulb of garlic here's a quick an easy way to get the job done.
And now for the story:
My sister's knitting group meets at the library. Last year the group had a drop-in. We were talking about fall soups. She said she once made a garlic soup but lost the recipe. I gave her this one.
Yes, she was THE Peggy! We laughed at how far her soup had traveled before she got it back.
Oat Bran
Another great recipe is oat bran muffins. Now before you run for the hills I promise, these are delicious. It is important to note that if you're not used to a lot of fiber you will need to start with ½ of a muffin and bumping up by ½ of a muffin every 3-5 days in order to allow the body time to re-regulate when adding this much fiber.
Pre-ground flaxseed meal is often de-germed for shelf stability. Flax seeds can be purchased inexpensively and ground into meal at home. This way you get all of the beneficial parts of the seed. Use a clean coffee grinder, pulse them for one minute and then use.
The Ingredient Guru, Mira Dessy https://theingredientguru.com/
Broccoli Avocado Bowl
This delicious dish is from my friend Shawn Borup. It is one packed with heart-healthy ingredients including leafy greens, avocado, beans, and seeds, so yummy!
1 ½ cups cooked white beans (soaked overnight and preferably sprouted) or 1 can, No BPA
Instructions
Mix all your dressing ingredients together in a bowl. Steam the broccoli until crisp-tender, about 8 minutes. Set aside. Toast the pumpkin and sesame seeds in a pan over medium heat until lightly golden. Chop the greens and put into a serving bowl. Add the rest of the ingredients and fold in the sauce. Serve over organic quinoa or brown rice if desired. Top with sauerkraut and cayenne pepper to taste.
By Shawn Borup
The Ingredient Guru, Mira Dessy https://theingredientguru.com/
Recipe Roundup
I reached out to a number of friends and I'm delighted to share all of these amazingly delicious recipes with you.
The goal was to create a list of fabulous new recipes for you that include healthy fats plus use ingredients like garlic, onions, high fiber, fish, olive oil, and are low sugar, no crappy ingredients. This roundup covers a wide range of ideas from dressing to dessert. Be sure to bookmark this page so you can stay up to date as it continues to grow.
Sam writes and asks, “We have a bunch of beefsteak tomatoes that my sister wants dried. We have a gas oven but no dehydrator. What is the best way to do this?”
You can dry or dehydrate foods in the oven and tomatoes do very well when preserved this way. The first thing to do is figure out if you want your oven-dried tomatoes in slices or in sections (i.e., slicing into quarters or eighths).
1. Start by washing the fruit well and discarding any that is over-ripe or bruised.
An easy way to wash it is to put the tomatoes in the sink, fill it with water and add approximately 1/2 cup of vinegar plus the juice of 1/2 lemon per gallon.
2. Drain the fruit well and core it before slicing.
3. Preheat your oven to 200 degrees F.
4. Prep your “drying tray” by placing cooling racks (fine mesh ones work best but the others will still work) on top of cookie sheets.
This will allow maximum air circulation around the tomatoes and help them to dry faster. In case you're interested this is also how I cook bacon in order to avoid bacon grease splatter all over the stovetop [20 minutes at 325].
5.Slice your tomatoes.
If you are going to dry your tomatoes in sections you'll need to pierce the skin in a few places to make sure all of the moisture can get out during the drying process. I find that when dehydrating tomatoes it goes faster and works better if I remove most of the seeds and the pulp. That's a personal choice though, some people like the seeds in it. If you're removing the seeds this is the time to do so.
6. Gently toss them with a little bit of olive oil and then arrange them on the cooling racks. Lightly sprinkle with sea salt or minced herbs if desired.
7. Bake.
This is where it gets a bit tricky. How long to cook them for. Well, that depends. On how thickly they are cut, on how juicy they are, on the ambient humidity, and how dry you want them. If you're looking for serious long-term storage it will probably take at least 8 hours. You want the tomatoes to be very reduced in size, with curled-up edges and almost leathery looking. They need to still be a bit flexible, you don't want to dehydrate them until they are brittle.
In order to use your oven-dried tomatoes, you'll need to rehydrate them for about 20-30 minutes in liquid. You can use either warm water, broth, wine, or even olive oil. These amazing veggie treasures can be used in soups, chopped for salad topping, added to meatloaf, used to create an intense flavor in sauces, the variety of uses is only limited by your palate and your imagination.
The kids have gone off to college. Some for the first time, some returning to that parent-free no nutrition guidelines environment. If you've just sent your student back to school you may be wondering what they're eating.
Unfortunately for many of them if it's not standard college fare (often run by cafeteria companies such as Aramark) it's fast food. As parents we know this isn't a great choice but now that they're off on their own it's tough to get information across to them.
Here are five fabulous tips for your college student are:
Portion Control
Dining halls make it easy to overeat. Be mindful of your portion sizes. Start small. If you're still hungry you can go back for seconds, but if you load up your plate chances are high that you will over-eat.
Don't Skip
You're in a hurry and it's tempting to skip breakfast but don't do it. Eating a balanced breakfast keeps your metabolism going and your blood sugar stable all day long.
Rethink Your Drink
Cool, they have soda at every meal, even breakfast! NOT! Those empty calories sure add up. And diet soda is high in chemicals that are not good for your health. Juice is also freely available but very high in sugar. Make sure you stay hydrated and drink more water. Consider adding lemon to flavor it a little. Get a water bottle and take it with you around campus. Or see if mom and dad will spring for one of those soda makers and make your own sparkling water right in your room.
You Are Not A Hobbit
Avoid the fourth meal. That late-nite pizza or mac-and-cheese at midnight? Not a good idea. If you're hungry have a healthy snack (such as low sugar protein bars, fresh fruit, raw nuts, fresh veggies, hot air popcorn, or yogurt) but don't eat a full meal right before bed. You won't sleep well and you'll pack on the pounds.
Get ZZZZZs
Sleep deprivation affects not only your ability to think straight, it also changes your metabolism and your hormones making it harder for you to make good food choices. Aim for seven or eight hours a night. The occasional all-nighter is going to happen, but try not to make it a habit.
and a bonus tip:
Exercise
Hitting the books means lots of sitting. This sedentary lifestyle can really contribute to weight gain. Remember to stay active. Walk to class if possible, go to the school gym (it's FREE!), or join in some sort of club that encourages physical activity. Keep moving and keep off the pounds.
Other issues which may be challenging include the fact that most, if not all, fast food is highly addictive. The more you eat it the more you want. And because it's so energy dense, meaning a lot of calories/fat/sodium/sugar, it can often lead to weight gain.
Learning how to choose nutrient dense foods, or high nutrient foods, is an important part of a healthy college lifestyle.
In part one of this series of articles for Cholesterol Awareness Month, you learned some of the important facts you need to know about cholesterol and how it can affect your health. In part two you're going to learn about some healthy foods to add to your diet which can help to reduce cholesterol and support better overall health.
Good for you food choices
Let's start by remembering that if a label says the product is low-fat or fat-free this often means it's been adulterated with chemicals that are probably not good for your health. For optimal health it's important to avoid a highly processed SAD (Standard American Diet) plan and instead eat real, whole foods which are delicious as well as nutritious.
Omega 3 fatty acids
These are excellent for heart health. Unfortunately, the modern/SAD diet tends to be very high in omega 6s and does not include nearly enough omega 3s
cold water fatty fish: salmon, tuna steak, arctic char, mackerel, cod/sablefish, haddock, herring, anchovy, and sardines.
walnuts
flax seeds and chia seeds
While you do need omega 6 fatty acids in the diet, many people are getting too much of this and not as many of the omega 3's. Plus certain omega 6s should be avoided; these are typically found in:
soybean oil
corn oil
canola oil
peanuts and peanut oil
safflower oil
sunflower oil
grapeseed oil
Fiber
Adding fiber to your diet is a great idea not only for cardiac health but also for gut health. A higher fiber diet will help to form bulk for your stools and also provides prebiotics, the food that the probiotics in your gut need to live.
Whole grains such as buckwheat, quinoa, and oatmeal (old-fashioned rolled oats, oat groats, or steel-cut, NOT instant)
Note: if you're not used to eating fiber start slow as too much can cause intestinal distress.
Olive oil
A delicious way to cook, dress salads, or create a dipping sauce, olive oil is a heart-healthy food that you want to make sure is part of your pantry. Be sure to choose extra virgin, cold-pressed olive oil as many “light” olive oils are highly processed and don't have the same benefits.
Vegetables
Sadly these days most people think that salad counts as a vegetable. But what they're really eating is nutritionally deficient iceberg lettuce with a few pieces of other vegetables, croutons, candy-coated nuts, or dried fruit, and drowned in chemically laden, high-calorie dressing.
If you're going to have some vegetables I want to encourage you to choose real vegetables packed with nutrients. Colorful, tasty, and good-for-you choices include:
brassicas – broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and Brussels sprouts(high in fiber and phytonutrients)
tomatoes (lycopene is great for reducing LDL)
sweet potatoes (high in beta-carotene and fiber)
Polyphenols
Found in a number of delicious foods this category of antioxidants is highly supportive of heart health and a very delicious way to support lowering your cholesterol.
Green tea
Red wine
Grape juice
Cocoa products (such as dark chocolate or cocoa powder) – due to caffeine and/or sugars these need to be eaten in moderation
How much to eat
The following are appropriate serving sizes for the foods referenced above. Food journaling is a good way to monitor how much and when you are eating so you can build your nutritional plan to incorporate more of these foods:
Protein – 6-8 ounces of animal protein / 12-24 ounces of vegetable protein
Leafy Greens – 3-4 cups per day
Colorful veggies – 2-3 cups per day
Complex Carbs – .5-1.5 whole grains / 2-3 medium root vegetables
Fruit – .5-1.5 cups
Booster foods – 2-4 tablespoons (seaweeds, greens powders, nutritional yeast, seeds, spices, and herbs)
Liquids – 1-3 cups per day (nourishing broth, green tea)
note: 3 tablespoons = 1 teaspoon
Don't forget to check out the other articles in this series
Chances are you've been encouraged to reduce dietary fat because you've been told that fat is bad for you. While there are certainly some fats that are not good choices, corn oil, soybean oil, and canola oil among them, it turns out that what you eat doesn't have as much of an impact on your cholesterol as previously believed.
Cholesterol is a waxy steroid. For years we have been inundated by the message that we need to avoid cholesterol. But what this message doesn't tell you is that cholesterol can actually be beneficial for your body. While you want to be aware of how what you eat affects your cholesterol, you really need to understand the numbers that truly matter.
Cholesterol is produced by the liver. It is very important for overall body health. Measured in low-density lipoprotein (LDL), high-density lipoprotein (HDL), and triglycerides, cholesterol can accumulate in the body. This is what has so many of us scared of higher levels. You've been told that HDL is good, LDL is bad, and your overall cholesterol number is critical. However, this is not the entire picture and you may have been looking at information that's not complete.
Why we need cholesterol
Cholesterol is critical for good health. It's responsible for healthy cell membranes, insulating nerve tissue, and for the production of a wide variety of hormones (sex hormones, cortisol, corticosterone, and others).
It's important to ensure that your body has enough cholesterol for what it needs. Too little is not healthy; without hormones, the body does not function well. Cholesterol is also used by the body to convert sunshine to vitamin D and it helps to metabolize fat-soluble vitamins A, E, and K. Without these fat-soluble vitamins you may experience a wide variety of health issues including bone pain, muscle weakness, fatigue, and foggy thinking.
Studies show that higher levels of cholesterol may be beneficial for women. And one study published in The American Journal of Medicine concluded, “Among older hospitalized adults, low serum cholesterol levels appear to be an independent predictor of short-term mortality.” In other words, lower cholesterol was not better. Furthermore, it appears that having higher levels of cholesterol as an older adult may be linked to a reduced risk for Alzheimer's and dementia.
Food-based sources
After years of being told to avoid low-fat foods and to not eat things like eggs, seafood, and organ meats, studies now show that whole food sources of cholesterol do not have much of an impact on blood levels. According to the Harvard School of Public Health, “Don’t worry about the percentage of calories from fat. Focus on choosing foods with healthy fats.” Furthermore, these are all very healthy nutrient-dense foods. You should be including healthy fats in your diet, not avoiding them.
It turns out that low-fat foods are the real problem. Without good sources of healthy fat, you reduce your body's ability to metabolize fat-soluble vitamins. And often low-fat foods are highly manipulated with chemicals, sugars, or simple carbohydrates to make up for the loss of the taste and mouth-feel of fat. These are non-nutritive ingredients that do nothing to help support your body.
Foods that impact cholesterol
The foods which do have a major impact on cholesterol include trans-fats (anything marked hydrogenated or partially-hydrogenated), high-fat poor quality carbohydrates such as pastries and cookies, and high levels of alcohol consumption. Obesity and smoking can also negatively affect cholesterol levels.
Reducing cholesterol
It is important to note that new studies show that simply reducing your cholesterol level is not sufficient to reduce your risk of heart disease. Indeed your overall cholesterol level may not be the indicator we've been taught to believe it is. It turns out that when it comes to cholesterol it's more important to look at inflammatory markers such as Homocysteine and C Reactive Protein as well as Lipoprotein (a).
And the risk factor for cardiovascular disease can vary greatly; even those with “healthy” cholesterol levels (i.e., under 200) can still have an elevated risk of heart disease.
While we have all heard that a cholesterol level higher than 200 is unhealthy, the truth is that just looking at your cholesterol level does not reveal the entire picture.
In the video below Drs. Stephen Sinatra and Jonny Bowden cholesterol.
Texas A&M University. “‘Bad' cholesterol not as bad as people think, study shows.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 8 May 2011.
“Ask The Expert: Healthy Fats”. The Nutrition Source, 2012, https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/2012/06/21/ask-the-expert-healthy-fats/#percent-calories.
Petursson, Halfdan et al. “Is The Use Of Cholesterol In Mortality Risk Algorithms In Clinical Guidelines Valid? Ten Years Prospective Data From The Norwegian HUNT 2 Study”. Journal Of Evaluation In Clinical Practice, vol 18, no. 1, 2011, pp. 159-168. Wiley, doi:10.1111/j.1365-2753.2011.01767.x.
Onder, Graziano et al. “Serum Cholesterol Levels And In-Hospital Mortality In The Elderly”. The American Journal Of Medicine, vol 115, no. 4, 2003, pp. 265-271. Elsevier BV, doi:10.1016/s0002-9343(03)00354-1.
Mielke, M. M. et al. “High Total Cholesterol Levels In Late Life Associated With A Reduced Risk Of Dementia”. Neurology, vol 64, no. 10, 2005, pp. 1689-1695. Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health), doi:10.1212/01.wnl.0000161870.78572.a5.
