My boon of elderberry enabled me to, in addition to making tons of elderberry syrup, make elderberry ginger cider – a variation of fire cider. For this one, I relied on ginger and honey as a base and kept it simple yet strong. It’s delicious and I’ll use it the way you would fire cider – take a shot during cold and flu season to warm up and keep the creeping crud away.
Want to explore Elderberry and Elderberry Flower Essence? Immerse yourself in the transformative powers of elderberry, boost your immunity, savor culinary delights, and embark on a spiritual journey. Learn through my blog post Elderberry and Elderberry Flower Essence: Heal with Nature’s Wisdom.
My elderberry ginger cider is a variation on fire cider. Use it the way you would fire cider – take a shot during cold and flu season to warm up and keep the creeping crud away.
Course Drinks
Keyword Elderberry, Elderberry Ginger Cide
Prep Time 10 minutesminutes
Cook Time 20 minutesminutes
Equipment
Medium Saucepan
Ingredients
4cupsfresh elderberriesclean and free of stems
2slivers of fresh peeled gingerabout 1 Tsp
1/2onionchopped
3garlic cloves
1cupapple cider vinegar
2Tbsplocal honey
Instructions
Warm elderberries in a medium saucepan for 15-20 minutes over medium-low heat. Let cool.
Place ingredients in a clean bottle.
Place top on the bottle, and mix by inverting the bottle several times. Make sure the liquid covers the berries
Leave in a cool dry place for six weeks, inverting the bottle to mix every 3 or 4 days.
Remove elderberries from the cider.
Notes
The cider is the elixir, but you might use the elderberries in a pickle also.
The science is in – it’s the diet you stick with, and the one that honors energy balance.
I’m reviewing the evidence on weight and yoga for the 3rd edition of my CE program, and I came across this info from the NIH Obesity Review Panel…interesting.
A variety of dietary approaches can produce weight loss. It’s all about which one you follow over time while not overeating. Do you like meat? Zone and the like works. Rather focus on plant-based proteins? Absolutely. Whatever path you choose to a healthy weight (I personally lean toward Mediterranean – people can stick with it, it’s nutrient-dense, and it’s a delicious way to eat) you’re going to have to come to terms with reducing your – I’ve gotta say it – calories.
That’s where tools like mindfulness and meditation come in – they can help us to find our way to change a little more easily. These practices help us disconnect from the immediate urge to inhale delicious foods when our body doesn’t really need them, and to relax, pause, and make a more skillful choice. Really. It can happen. It’s a practice for sure, but it can happen.
The panel found that the following dietary approaches (listed in alphabetical order below) are associated with weight loss when a reduced dietary energy intake is achieved:
A diet from the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) guidelines, which focuses on targeting food groups rather than formal, prescribed energy restriction while still achieving an energy deficit;
Higher protein diet (25 percent of total calories from protein, 30 percent of total calories from fat, 45 percent of total calories from carbohydrate) with provision of foods that realized energy deficit;
Higher protein Zone®-type diet (5 meals/day, each with 40 percent of total calories from carbohydrate, 30 percent of total calories from protein, 30 percent of total calories from fat) without a formal prescribed energy restriction diet but with realized energy deficit;
Lacto-ovo vegetarian-style diet with prescribed energy restriction
Low-calorie diet with prescribed energy restriction;
Low-carbohydrate diet (initially less than 20 g/day carbohydrate) without formal prescribed energy restriction but with a realized energy deficit;
Low-fat, vegan-style diet (10 to 25 percent of total calories from fat) without prescribed energy restriction but with realized energy deficit;
Low-fat diet (20 percent of total calories from fat) without formal prescribed energy restriction but with realized energy deficit;
Low-glycemic load diet either with formal prescribed energy restriction or without formal prescribed energy restriction but with realized energy deficit;
Lower fat (≤30 percent fat), high-dairy (4 servings/day) diets with or without increased fiber and/or low-glycemic index/load foods (low-glycemic load) with prescribed energy restriction;
Macronutrient-targeted diets (15 percent or 25 percent of total calories from protein; 20 percent or 40 percent of total calories from fat; 35 percent, 45 percent, 55 percent, or 65 percent of total calories from carbohydrate) with prescribed energy restriction;
Mediterranean-style diet with prescribed energy restriction;
Moderate-protein diet (12 percent of total calories from protein, 58 percent of total calories from carbohydrate, 30 percent of total calories from fat) with provision of foods that realized energy deficit;
Diet of high-glycemic load or low-glycemic load meals with prescribed energy restriction; and
The AHA Step 1 diet (with prescribed energy restriction of 1,500 to 1,800 kcal/day, <30 percent of total calories from fat, <10 percent of total calories from saturated fat). Strength of evidence: High
All these different approaches to weight management can work, if you pay attention energy balance. Everyone is different – something different works for each of us. I would say if you are looking of shift your diet and find a healthier weight, ponder the above list. What feels most satisfying to you?
Combine the approach above that is most satisfying with the emotional work of yoga & mindfulness and poof! That’s how we do it. We learn to eat a bit less, enjoy a bit more, and move, and manage stress.
When someone says theirs is the only way to weight loss, they are wrong. There are many paths to healthy weight. If you’re having trouble finding yours, stay connected with this blog and my work. I have lots of tools, resources and support to help you find your way.
You might work individually with me.
You might attend a workshop.
If you haven’t signed up for my newsletter yet, that’s a great place to start.
Be well and enjoy the holiday season.
Roasting vegetables – baking them with a drizzle of olive oil until they have a toasty color and flavor – is a mainstay of my fall and winter kitchen. I give my tomatoes and onions a light roast before pureeing them into soups and sauces and love the sweet roast flavor.
Is roasting vegetables a healthy way to eat them? There has been some attention to the downsides of charring meats and vegetables on the grill – is roasting in that category?
It depends. My favorite nutrition answer!
If you roast your vegetables to a deep crispy crunch, then well yes, you’re roasting the nutrients out and possibly creating some less-than-healthful new things that your liver will need to contend with. Too, if you are roasting over high heat – at 425F, for example, you will want to be aware of the type of oil you use. Unrefined oils, like some olive oils and certainly things like flax oil, have low smoke points, meaning that the oil begins to break down quickly at a fairly low temperature. Here are a few tips for nutritious roasting:
Choose a higher smoke point oil. Oils like grapeseed, lighter olive oils and refined oils have higher smoke points and won’t burn as easily. Coconut oil and ghee tend to be on the higher smoke-point end too.
Consider lower-temp roasting. I find that roasting vegetables at 325F for 25-40 minutes gives as much roasting flavor as I ever desire. Then I can use my flavorful olive oils, there isn’t oil breakdown (you can sometimes tell by the smokiness – if you are using a low smoke point oil and use a higher roasting temp, that billow of smoke tells you that you are learning this lesson).
Use your nose and common sense. Burned oils lose their nutritional benefits. If you enjoy roasting, go for it, but wean yourself off crispy charred vegetables, and enjoy the light toasting instead. Heat does destroy some nutrients. Some nutrients, however, are actually more available once they’ve been heated.
Eat your vegetables prepared a variety of ways – steamed (greens), sautéed (onions and greens), roasted (tomatoes, root vegetables) and not cooked at all (avocados, carrots). That way you’ll enjoy a full range of flavor and the nutrition advantages of each method.
In the end, chef knows thyself. If you (like I) am one who knows two stovetop burner settings – high and off – then get to know this idea of the smoke point. If you put the pan on the stove, turn it to high, pour in the oil and wait until it smokes – get yourself a bottle of high-temp grapeseed oil. Spectrum oil used to have a great chart of smoke points, but I see they no longer have it on their site. Here is one to take a look at, and here is another. For my roasted tomato sauce, I roasted piles of tomatoes (rinsed, sliced and cored when woody), an onion and a head of garlic, all drizzled with olive oil, at 325F for 25 minutes. Then I squeezed the garlic cloves out of their husks and blended everything. I had the most delicious soupy sauce – with seeds! – that we will enjoy all winter!
If you have high cholesterol and don’t want to go on medication, beans are your friends. Studies have shown that eating beans a few times weekly can help lower LDL (the blood cholesterol most closely associated with heart disease). Actually, if you want to control your weight and not eat a lot of meat, beans are your friends.
I’ve been experimenting with spice blends over the last few seasons and if you are a fan of flavor but don’t want to purchase lots of expensive spices to mix and experiment with, this might be your flavor hack (shortcut). If you want to try lentils for their health benefits but haven’t liked them so far, this might be your recipe. It’s a snap. Tasty.
I’ve been using Mountain Rose Herb’s spice blends – I particularly like 5 Spice (which gives a Chinese flavor) and West Indies blends. They have nice clean fresh spices (not to mention lots of other goodies if you are herbal-inclined). Warning – their website is an herbal and culinary wonder-emporium…you may spend more time there than you intend.
We are in the era of the nutritionist. There is so much confusion around food and nutrition, and so much wacky advice flying around. This while Americans are just not able to make it to the basics of healthful eating. Nutrition-related chronic diseases continue to be the primary health issues, and each of us has our own variation of health and disease.
Because we are in a time when so much that sounds like nutrition is actually marketing and bluster, and so many who call themselves experts are so far from it, confusion reigns. Enter RDNs (Registered Dietitian Nutritionists) and MNT (Medical Nutrition Therapy). If you know me, you know that I am a mind-body therapist – I use things like meditation and gentle yoga practice as tools to help us cultivate the best of ourselves, and soothe us as we gather our courage and strength to sing our song, to sing our note.
What is MNT?
There is a large body of evidence that tells us how to manage a range of health and medical conditions with food and nutrition. MNT, or medical nutrition therapy, uses that evidence and through a qualified therapist, translates that evidence into healing. While there is a range of nutritionists operating today, with various levels of education and experience, and I honestly believe there is room for everyone, I am partial to those who have a 4-year science degree and access to the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics Knowledge Center for working with people with a medical condition. I am biased for sure, being one who sweated through all that nutritional biochemistry and worked in an ICU (intensive care unit of a hospital) writing TPN (total parenteral nutrition) orders to keep people alive until they could eat. Then I taught at Kripalu for nearly a decade, watching how mind-body used skillfully helped people with the will and knowledge transform. The combination of clinical skills and experiential practice are, in my opinion, the sweet spot when it comes to healing nutrition-related issues.
What conditions are we talking about?
There are guidelines for a range of medical conditions. Those I am well-versed in include:
Weight gain – from adolescents to adults, and family-based, for any reason
Eating Disorders, emotional eating and disordered eating
Unexpected weight loss due to cancer, HIV/AIDS or other chronic condition
Pre-diabetes and diabetes
Cancer – prevention, management and prevention of recurrence
Heart Disease – prevention, management
High Blood Pressure
High Cholesterol
Digestive approaches to auto-immune conditions (Fibromyalgia, Rheumatoid Arthritis, and others)
Digestive distress due to:
Irritable Bowel
Crohn’s Disease
Colitis
Constipation
Reflux/Heartburn
Food Intolerance (lactose-intolerance, gluten, and others), and Allergies
I use an individualized approach. That includes an initial assessment of nutrition-related symptoms and medical history, review of nutrition-related labs and reports, and development of a custom way of eating that you enjoy and that adheres to evidence-based practice.
We then co-create a plan to get there – your way. There is no such thing as failure, no such thing as relapse in this world – but there is learning, through loving self-compassion, how to navigate your life in its fullness. It’s a dance of mindful skillful effort, and surrender (that’s yoga!).
Within that list, do you specialize?
While I can help address any of these conditions, and they all have relating threads, I particularly like to work with weight, women in midlife, and digestive issues. I have also had a personal experience with cancer, so helping people with that interests me.
How much does it cost?
Depends. I am a licensed nutritionist in the state of Massachusetts. If you have a medical condition and live in the great state of Massachusetts, or another state that does not have state licensure, it is worth it to give your insurance company a call to see if our work together can be reimbursed. For this, you will likely need a referral from your primary care doctor.
If you are not insured, in another state with licensure or your insurance doesn’t cover, then you are what clinicians call private pay. It’s likely that our work together could be included in your health spending account if you have one.
Bottom line, if you value your energy level and lifestyle, it’s worth it to have a skilled coach to help you move forward.
My rates are $150/hr, and most people I work with do an initial assessment, then a half-hour twice monthly for 2 months, then monthly for 4 months.
Tell me about telehealth
I’ve partnered with a practice-management group called Healthie. They provide an interface for us to work through, including journaling, billing and video conferencing. So, we can meet face to face in the comfort of your own home! I think telehealth is part of the future of medicine, and I am excited to be part of it.
Ready to make the change? Let’s do it – Make an appointment now .
Questions? I’m all ears.
Be well,
Annie
Potato head? Me too. Will work for mashed potatoes. While I think white potatoes have been much maligned in the era of glycemic (the degree to which foods act like sugar) awareness, many of us will overdo them left to our own devices. Enter cauliflower, that healthy brassica with the dubious distinction of, when well cooked and mashed, filling in for its starchier cousin the white potato. This is a bit of a have-your-cake-and-eat-it-too recipe. Here is a simple recipe using both spring red potatoes and plenty of cauliflower, along with water-carmelized onions. If you have some fresh green herbs, like chives, rosemary, or sage, that would make a lovely addition.
Ingredients
1 pound spring red potatoes – 1-2″ diameter, washed and sliced
1/2 yellow (Spanish) onion, chopped and skin removed
1 medium head cauliflower, washed, flowers separated or sliced
Black pepper and sea salt (less is more of any type of salt) to taste
Directions
Water-brown onions. Place chopped onions in a heavy skillet (cast iron is great), with 2-3 Tbsp water, at med-high heat. As the water dissipates, add another couple Tbsp, tossing so as to slowly brown the onions without burning them. When they are light golden brown (please don’t brown too much- browning is for taste, not health), remove from heat and put aside.
Boil spuds. Place sliced potatoes in a med pot with water to cover and bring to a boil, then lower heat to simmer. Once potatoes are soft when pierced with a fork, remove, drain (potato water is a great soup-stock, if you’re organized enough to take advantage of that), and set aside.
Water-saute cauliflower. Place cauliflower in the skillet you’ve cleaned after browning your onions, along with a few Tbsp water. Water saute over medium heat until soft.
Mash with olive oil. Place cooked potatoes, browned onions, and cooked cauliflower in a large bowl. Drizzle olive oil, and mash with a strong fork, potato masher, or pastry blender (a handy little kitchen tool).
Serve. Top with a dollop of grass-fed yogurt, and salt and pepper as needed. Sprinkle with fresh herbs if you have them. This is a great replacement for regular mashed potatoes.
