Spring Cleanse – My Key Recipe

Saturday, May 26, 2007  6:35 am

This year I hit on a quick and easy recipe that did the trick for me. Through my 2-week cleanse this spring I had at least one of these Asian slaw-salads most every day. It’s rekindled my love of cabbage – which, being in the brassica family (with broccoli and onions), is a phytochemical-packed cleansing powerhouse.

Asian Slaw-Salad

What you’ll need:

• A good chef’s knife
• A clean cutting board
• 5 minutes

Ingredients:

• ½ c Savoy cabbage sliced thin
• ½ c Red cabbage sliced thin
• 1 slice fresh ginger, diced with skin trimmed
• ¼ c diced red pepper
• 1 medium carrot, diced
• 1 Tbsp fresh cilantro if available
• 2 Tbsp Asian salad dressing or
• 2 tsp sesame oil
• 2 tsp rice wine vinegar

Putting it together:

Toss everything together and eat.

I got into the ritual of making this in a beautiful bowl that I love to eat out of. This slaw-salad has been a mainstay of my 3pm-give-me-carbs attack. It usually worked, and when I still craved something starchier, a few crackers didn’t turn into a box of crackers after having a bowl of slaw. Sometimes I double the recipe, and sometime I have two. It’s very low in calories and nutritionally dense, and has lots of fiber, the secret weapon of the weight-conscious.

Let me know how you like it.

Annie

You mean cheese won’t help me lose weight?

Sunday, May 13, 2007  5:28 pm

Kudos to the Physician’s Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), who were the driving force behind the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)’s new ban on the touting of dairy products as weight-loss foods. The FTC decision was based on the overwhelming lack of scientific evidence to support the claim. The dairy industry’s huge-budget, celebrity-starred campaign around milk and dairy for weight loss was based on a tiny study funded by the industry. Most health researchers clearly agree that most dairy products are more closely linked to weight gain than loss. Dairy fat is one of the most highly saturated fats in all the foods we eat.

Unfortunately, I think the damage is done. That was a huge campaign, and targeted nutritionists as well as women via beautiful big print and TV ads over several years. They were convincing, and I’m sure that most Americans would say that dairy products will help them lose weight.

If only we got the message that it’s the fat in dairy that’s the culprit. But unfortunately, since the dairy industry didn’t want to speak badly of the bulk of its products, we never fully got that message. In the end, I’m afraid; dieters are more confused than ever.

Can dairy fit into a healthy diet? Sure, if you look for low fat and fat free options, and are conscious of your overall caloric intake. The PCRM doesn’t agree with me on that, though – they prescribe to a vegan diet, no dairy or animal products at all. A vegan diet, featuring lots of fruits and vegetables, whole grains and vegetable proteins, is likely the healthiest one we can eat. (What other type of vegan diet is there? I know many teens that are vegans but don’t like fruit or vegetables and eat pure junk food.) A nutrition nightmare and part of the reason that teen girls have the worst diets of any age or gender group (they average something close to 30% of their needs for calcium, this during their prime bone-building years). But anyway, I personally and professionally feel that if someone is not interested or able to go vegan, that organic low fat dairy can certainly be part of a very healthy diet.

Anyway, the message is: dairy fat, found in dairy foods, is not part of a winning weight-loss (or maintenance) strategy.

Read the PCRM’s May 11^th announcement on the issue here.

Spring Cleanse, Part 1: Why Cleanse?

Tuesday, May 8, 2007  7:54 am

Spring is the season to open up the house, empty out the closets, and clear out the clutter and cobwebs. It’s also the time when those in northern climes might wince as they uncover their bodies (winter is such a great time to cover-up, burrow in and just forget about it, right?). I wish you just a momentary wince or none at all.

As a dietitian and yoga teacher, the idea of nutritional cleansing fascinates me. Each time I cleanse (I don’t fast and I only do very gentle cleanses, by the way. I think fasting and harsher cleansing can do more harm than good – more on this later) I reaffirm my everyday cleansing diet – that is, cleaning up my diet as a way of life. My spring cleanse this year was more about being strong in my own wellness than about nutritional goals per se. I have a tendency to allow stress from others’ poor lifestyle habits influence how I take care of myself. Since my fruit & vegetable cleanse with herbal support (I used Yerba Prima support products this time), I’ve worked harder to resist being swayed by well-meaning loved ones gifting me treats.

For the next couple months, I’ll tease this topic of nutritional cleansing and detox, let you what I’m thinking about it, and the resources that I have found helpful.

So first, why even do it?

Our environment has changed for the worse in the past 100 years. The EPA estimates a grand total of 4.3 billion pounds of the 650 toxic chemicals they follow were released into the environment in 2005. Other groups estimate that 1,000 newly synthesized compounds are introduced each year.

Toxic chemicals enter into our bodies through the air we breathe, the food we eat and the water we drink. While our bodies have an elegant system of removing toxic chemicals from the body (via the work of the liver, kidneys, lungs, skin and digestive system), there has been an increase of toxins in the environment, and at the same time a decrease in the nutritional quality of the average American’s diet. The deterioration of our diet (through eating large amounts of processed foods, chemicals and hormones, and not enough healthy fruits, vegetables and unadulterated whole grains and clean proteins) impairs the ability of our body to effectively detox. That’s the basic rationale for learning a little about detoxing and occasionally focusing on it as a means of maintaining overall health.

Here is the EPA’s brochure from their Toxic Release Inventory (TCI), and a more detailed report. You can find loads more information at www.epa.gov.

EPA 2005 Toxic Chemical Inventory (TCI) – overview brochure

You can find the full eReport on the EPA website.

In future postings, we’ll review the basics of nutritional cleansing, the mental aspects of cleansing, safe vs. not-so-safe cleansing, resources available to you, products I know of, and some non-nutritional cleansings.

May you be happy

May you be healthy

And may you stand in the light of your own truest self

Annie