~for my few faithful readers...taking a break until after the first of the year...Merry Christmas!!!

a yummy recipe

Here's my new favorite breakfast - a delicious protein smoothie. The recipe is very versatile, built around the following basics:

1 cup milk of choice (cow, rice, almond, etc.)
1 tbsp nut butter of choice (peanut, almond, cashew, etc.)
1/2 of a banana, frozen works best
2-3 ice cubes
1 scoop of whey protein (chocolate or vanilla flavored)

Put all ingredients into a blender and give it a whirl!

This is very yummy and can contain anywhere from 10 to 25 grams of protein (maybe even more), depending on your choices. It's a good idea to have a bit of protein at each meal and snack to keep your blood sugar balanced all day long. A good rule of thumb for calculating how much protein you need is to divide your body weight in half and use that number for your daily protein needs in grams. So, if you weigh 150 lbs, you should strive for 75 grams of protein throughout the day, spread out between meals & snacks.

Something fishy is going on...

"Eat more fish. They are high in omega3's."

"Eat less fish. It's high in mercury."

The more I delve into nutritional information, the more it contradicts itself. One area where this is especially true is with seafood. Do we or don't we eat it???

Recently, I read yet another great book - The Dinner Diaries: Raising Whole Wheat Kids in a White Bread World, by Betsy Block. Besides being a fantastically funny writer, she's a mom on a similar quest to mine who wrote a clever book about her journey through the gray areas of nutrition.

Here's the research she found on fish...

Green Light, or go ahead and eat away:
wild-caught salmon from Alaska
US farmed barramundi (NOT Nile perch, which is often mislabeled as barramundi)
sardines
anchovies, hold the pepperoni
atlantic herring
atlantic mackerel (NOT king or Spanish)
farmed oysters
arctic char
farmed bay scallops
US farmed tilapia
farmed mussels
tiny salad shrimp
US farmed crayfish
US farmed catfish
farmed clams
crab (NOT king crab from Russia)
Pacific cod (NOT Atlantic cod)
calamari/squid
wild-caught pollock from Alaska


Red light, or don't even think about eating this:
Tilapia from China and Taiwan (I've seen the water in China. I have to agree.)
Chilean seabass/toothfish
Atlantic cod
Atlantic flounder, sole, haddock, hake, halibut
Monkfish
Orange roughy
Farmed salmon (aka Atlantic salmon)
Shark
Skate
Red snapper
Grouper
Imported caviar
Swordfish
American tuna
Tilefish

Listed as the top 7 clean, omega-3-rich fish are wild-caught salmon from Alaska, barramundi, sardines, anchovies, Atlantic herring, Atlantic mackerel, and farmed oysters.

After reading this book, I stopped into a vitamin store and on my way out, the clerk handed me none other than a little credit card listing mercury levels in fish! It pretty much agreed with Ms. Block's conclusions, highlighting the ever popular canned tuna. High in mercury: tuna (ahi, yellowfin, bigeye, canned albacore). Medium level of mercury: canned chunk light tuna and skipjack tuna. No tuna of any sort is listed as low in mercury levels on either listing, sadly enough. Also, one of my favorites that didn't make Betsy's list made the "medium level" list from the vitamin shop - mahi mahi.

So what does this all mean? Well, for me, it means less canned tuna around here and more Alaskan salmon. It does not yet mean pizza with anchovies. Yuck. Also, if you take fish oil supplements, make sure they are from a reputable company and are labeled as mercury free. Again, I like Nordic Naturals.

Clean Food, by Terry Walters

Picked up a new book today at Barnes & Noble, and found a new hero in its author, Terry Walters. Subtitled "A Seasonal Guide to Eating Close to the Source," this book contains more than 200 recipes made from clean, whole foods based on what's in season. Terry Walters, a holistic health practitioner, so eloquently puts into words in her book's introduction what I constantly rant and rave about to friends and family. So, here's what she says. Wish I had said it first.

"In this country, the topic of food is charged with emotion and controversy. The whole meals of my past are now an illusion. Nothing is as it appears on the surface. Our produce departments and grocery store shelves are lined with unknowns - pesticides, herbicides, growth hormones, chemical additives, and process upon process, stripping our food of its inherent nutritional value. Behind each glass of milk or piece of meat is an agenda, a lobbyist, a Fortune 500 company, a distribution chain, a processing plant...you need to squint to see the farmer and you need binoculars to find the cow!" (Did I mention this woman is my new hero?!)

She goes on: "The further we remove ourselves from the source of our food, the less we are able to maintain physical and emotional balance. Our processed food diets are so lacking in nutrition that we require coffee to wake up, sugar to get through the day, television to calm down, alcohol to let go of our inhibitions, chocolate and ice cream to feel satisfied, pills to sleep through the night and drugs to provide us with the illusion of health. The vitamins and nutrients that were so rich in my mother's whole meals are hard to come by, and the nourishment from that mealtime is even more rare. Have we become a society that is artificially sustained?"

I cannot rave about this book enough! And I plan to spend the next year attempting all of its seasonal recipes, finding new favorites and enjoying the healthy cooking journey.

Michael Pollan's food rules

Recently, Michael Pollan (author of The Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food) held a contest, asking for his reader's to send in their food rules. This link highlights his favorite 20 rules. Very interesting!

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/10/11/magazine/20091011-foodrules.html

Asthma and it's Nutritional Connection

Asthma, a reactive inflammatory airway disorder, is becoming even more prevalent amongst our children. My own daughter suffers, and I do mean suffers, from this annoying disease, as did I when I was a kid. So when I recently picked up Bonnie Minsky's book, Our Children's Health, the chapter on asthma was my first stop.

Here's what Dr. Minsky says are three things you can do to help control asthma.

First, remove the triggers. These are different for everyone and it can be quite challenging to find yours. Some of the most common include mold, house dust, pet dander and saliva, cockroaches, dust mites, secondhand smoke, food additives, coloring agents (like red #40, etc.), sulfiting agents (often found in lunch meat amongst other foods), and food allergens/sensitivities.

Second, support the body with proper nutrition. The more nutrient-dense the food, the more health benefits your child will receive. Add foods rich in the omega-3 fatty acids to your child's diet, such as walnuts (if no nut allergies), pumpkin seeds, flax seed oil, salmon, tuna, mackerel, and cold water fish. Increase foods rich in bioflavonoids, especially high quercetin foods, because they help stop inflammation. These foods include onions, apples, kale, green beans, sweet cherries, and grape skins. Increase foods high in magnesium such as fatty fish, dark green vegetables, avocado, pumpkin seeds, and blackstrap molasses. LIMIT the consumption of red meat, dairy products, excess calcium, and bananas as all of these can increase inflammation. ELIMINATE completely foods containing MSG, sulfites, food colorings, white sugar, and artificial sweeteners.

Third, support with useful supplementation. Dr. Minsky always recommends the following to her asthmatic patients to help keep inflammation down and because asthmatics have been found to be deficient in these nutrients:
vitamin B6 (pyridoxine)
vitamin B12
vitamin C ~ the main antioxidant found in the fluid lining of the lungs
vitamin E
magnesium ~ many emergency rooms are now using magnesium IVs for acute asthma attacks
quercetin ~ has anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and antiviral properties. It should be noted that quercetin has a greater potency in pill form than from foods.

I have noticed in my own daughter's case that if she has too much sugar, her asthma will flare up. We also keep her off as much dairy as possible and offer raw fruits and veggies daily, though she usually only eats the fruit. She also takes the recommended vitamins, except for quercetin which I cannot find in kid friendly form. All this has helped her so far, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I can continue to be diligent for her.