Greens are full of vitamins A, K, D, and E which are fat soluble. To absorb these vitamins make sure to add a teaspoon of dietary fat, such as butter, olive or coconut oil, nuts, cheese or salad dressing. This will make sure your body absorbs all of the vitamins in the greens. Vitamin K helps calcium and phosphorus bind onto the bone protein matrix.

  
 MIXED SUMMER GREEN SALAD  

Ingredients:
1 handful, Spinach
1 handful, Arugula
½ head, Red Leaf Lettuce
½  head, Green Leafy Lettuce
1 medium bunch of Parsley
3 Celery pieces, chopped
1 medium Cucumber, sliced in rounds
¼ cup pine nuts

Directions:
1.  Mix greens together in a bowl.
2. Top with celery, cucumber and pine nuts.
3. Serve with Mint salad dressing.

TIP:  If you are planning on this lasting for the next day, do not mix the cucumber in.  Put it in a bowl on the side and add to each serving of salad.  A mix of the basic ingredients without the cucumber will last 3 days in the fridge.

 Here is a salad dressing with greens already in it!  This is a refreshing tasty dressing with a little mint flavour.

LEMON-MINT SALAD DRESSING

Ingredients:
1 ¼ cups olive oil
¼ cup lemon juice
2 tbsp. fresh mint (or 2 tsp. dried)
Salt to taste
Few drops of stevia

Directions:
1.  Blend all ingredients.
2.  Add salt to taste and stevia to taste and re-blend.

Copyright © Diana Herrington  You are welcome to share this article with anyone who you think may benefit from this information as long as you give credit to Real Food for Life by including the link to the home page www.RealFoodforLife.com  or the direct link to this post.

One-third of Americans (and an even higher percentage of Canadians) takes vitamin and mineral supplements each day. Reasons include:

1. Our new understanding of the body's requirements for particular chemical nutrients. For example, Vitamin C helps reduce free radical damage in cells.  It's easy to take Vitamin C in capsule form and to assume that it will give you the same benefits as a glass of orange juice. 
2. Our food supply is not as nutritious today as it was in the past.  This is due to large-scale farming which focuses on quantity, shelf life and profit rather than quality and nutrition. 
3.  Our modern lifestyle makes eating a balanced diet more difficult.  Increased stress has also boosted our need for certain nutrients.
We now assume that a vitamin pill will fill in these ‘gaps’ in our nutrition.  It may seem like a simple solution, but they often don't do enough.  And sometimes they just DON'T WORK.  Why is this?

A report in the December issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association concludes that the formula for optimal health isn't in the supplement aisle of a health-food store but in the FOOD AISLE. The American Dietetic Association is the largest organization of professionals that deals directly with your diet. It also has access to the most data and research in the field. So why do they state that foods are better than supplements?

5 Reasons To Use a Food Based Approach

1. Vitamin supplements are limited to what is written on the label. If it lists 20 chemical isolates, that is all you get. In comparison, every whole food has thousands of different micro and macro nutrients. This is why the better (and the more expensive) the supplement, the more factors it has in it.  But the best supplements are whole foods.  An orange, for example, has not only vitamin C but bioflavonoids, beta-carotene, folic acid, fibre, magnesium potassium and many other valuable nutrients. 

2. Foods contain nutrients we don’t fully understand.  Nutritional science is still young. Each day it discovers new phytonutirents which have profound influences on the body. More importantly, nutritional science is only just discovering the relationships between the various nutritional factors: how one factor influences another and how different ratios of nutrients affect the body.  The ‘facts’ of nutrition may change tomorrow, so why should you depend on them today?

3.  Each person has UNIQUE nutritional requirements. These requirements will change over time and in different environments.  If you take this into account and try to prescribe isolated vitamins and minerals it becomes very complicated very quickly. The ‘gaps’ are constantly changing.  You would need expensive professional help to pinpoint the best nutrients for your body.  And they can only determine what your body needs at a single point in time while your needs will change from one day to the next. 

4.  The body absorbs foods best.  Mere decades of nutritional research cannot compete with millions of years of natural evolution. The body evolved to eat real foods. Isolates found in artificial supplements are poorly absorbed and are often eliminated by the body before they can be used.  Many isolates are not recognized by the body as food, and may even be interpreted as toxins. Although certain higher quality supplements offer superior absorption, again, they usually do so just because they are closer to real food.  Unfortunately, they still can't compare with whole foods. Why not give your body what it deserves and eat food instead of pills?

5. Foods have LIFE.  There is something about the aliveness of food that makes it instinctively attractive. Fresh food is always more attractive than leftovers.  People have recently discovered the value of raw foods. This value can be measured in terms of enzymes and specific nutrients, but also in qualities that are harder to measure like energy and vitality.  All of these qualities are important for our physical and mental well-being.  

Health with Real Foods is the Wave of the Future: 

Right now, it is easier than ever to embrace whole-food based nutrition. New knowledge is helping people along this path to health, and we are here to share it with you. Many grocery stores are stocking a greater selection of high-quality foods in their organic sections and new supplements are emerging that are based on whole foods. Some of these supplements will have higher quality and value than the dead pills of the past.  But they still imitate what nature has already perfected.

I don’t know one person whose life has been radically changed by buying a bottle of vitamins or pills.  I do know thousands whose lives have become healthier and more energetic by changing their APPROACH to food.
This approach involves eating more whole, fresh, raw and organic foods as well as eating them in the proper combinations. These are the principles we teach individuals in our various programs that help them achieve healthier lives.

To be fair, the American Dietetic Association did recommend that a few isolated groups could benefit from targeted supplementation. Pregnant women, nursing mothers, people with certain health conditions, and elderly adults may need to fill dietary gaps. But if you are in one of these groups, many of these gaps (like higher iron intake for women) can also be achieved with whole foods.  One just needs to know what to eat, and to be motivated enough to want to improve their health. 

And there’s the rub.  It's hard to know where to look and to put in the effort to make healthier choices.  It's so much easier just to take a pill—one that contends to solve all of your nutritional problems.  But it isn't that easy. Sometimes the harder road is the wiser one; it is the road to better health.  

Feel free to comment on these ideas (below) and share this information with others.

Edited by Michael Fisher

Copyright © Randy Fritz You are welcome to share this article with anyone who you think may benefit from this information as long as you give credit to Real Food for Life by including the link to the home page www.RealFoodforLife.com  or the direct link to this post.

So many of the dips that I find at parties are full of unhealthy ingredients.  These two are full of healthy ingredients, chemical free, sugar free, dairy free, gluten free….and very delicious,

What I like about this raw avocado dip is that it is full of vegetables; adding the celery makes it crunchy and not so rich…healthier.

AVOCADO VEGETABLE DIP

Ingredients:
1 ripe avocado, peeled & pitted
1 stalk of celery, finely chopped
1 – 2 tbsp. lemon juice
1 tomato, chopped
Spike Salt to taste

Directions:
1.    Mash avocado.
2.    Add celery and lemon juice and mix in well.
3.    Gently mix in chopped tomato.
4.    Season with Spike salt to taste.
5.    Place in serving bowl on a plate surround with cucumber rounds, slices of radishes and corn chips.

This is a creamy dip that is also dairy free.

BUTTER BEAN DIP

Ingredients:
1 cup Butter beans (cooked)
1 Tbsp Olive oil
2 Tbsp Lemon Juice
1/2 Onion, finely chopped
1-2 cloves Garlic, finely chopped
Salt to taste
A few sprigs of fresh Parsley chopped
Olives & Watercress or Parsley for garnish

Directions:
1.    Mash butter beans until smooth and creamy.*
2.    Add rest of ingredients.
3.    Mix together until well blended.
4.    Adjust seasoning to taste (salt, Lemon juice, olive oil, garlic)
5.    Put into a decorative bowl and garnish with olives & watercress.
6.    Serve with corn chips or whole meal crackers.
* you could use a blender, when I developed this recipe I did not have one by choice!

Copyright © Diana Herrington  You are welcome to share this article with anyone who you think may benefit from this information as long as you give credit to Real Food for Life by including the link to the home page www.RealFoodforLife.com  or the direct link to this post.

  Do you ever wonder if your diet is making a difference in your life; whether it is good enough or balanced enough? We hear all the time about a balanced diet  but much of that information is contradictory and confusing.

Are you sure if you are eating the right foods, are getting enough or too much protein, are eating enough fruits and vegetables?    

Who else wants to learn the secrets to eating properly… that will strengthen and energize your body effortlessly?

(Even if you don’t know the first thing about nutrition or health right now.)
 
In this step-by-step complete course you will learn exactly how to evaluate and change your eating habits (completely from scratch) from
two health experts who have helped thousands….

Discover your Real Food Factor…..and Then Increase It!  

Determine how you are doing right now and then apply simple time tested principles…..for Healing, Energy & Weight Loss

Join our new improved Five Week Teleconference Course

• We have updated our last course with some ‘must have’ modules. (see below)
• Included as part of the classes is a one on one half hour Nutrition session with Diana
• We are limiting the number of participants to 20 which means that every week there will be time for you to ask your questions and for us to respond. 

Overall Benefits:

1.  Be part of a supportive interactive group committed to improving their health together over 5 weeks.

2. Take control of your health progress by knowing exactly where you are and what you have to do each day in a simple and easy way.

3. Reach your full potential … by learning some simple things to do to create a vibrant you.  

During our 5 week  Course You Will Discover and Implement:

• How to simplify your orientation to nutrition so you can worry less and enjoy more.
• The 3 key elements you need to put in every meal to make them work like magic.
• When you can save money by not buying organic; when you can’t afford not to.
• The secret to keeping up with an exercise routine. (You know you should)
• How to deal with craving in a gentle yet powerful manner.

             ……and much, much more!  

We just added these bonus modules!

1. Food combining for better digestion, more energy, healing and weight loss.

2.  Figuring  out your Real Food Factor.  Know your daily score!      

Examples:  

Zero = would not be reading this (dead)                      

Three = you probably got the flu that’s going around                     

Seven = Feeling GOOD                          

Ten = WOW! You really need to be helping others. Come help teach this course.

3. Talking with Plants (yes this does sound unusual but the basis to this is AND to getting very healthy is in listening to your body in specific ways that you will learn)

4. Balanced Daily Routine for a balanced life.  

First Call is FREE: 

Date: Thursday, Oct 29

Time: 7:00 p.m. MST  

To get the Dial In Number:  We will mail out the phone number and code, to everyone on our mailing list. 

If you are not on the mailing list fill in your name and email below  for our free newsletter.  The opt in box  also in the upper right of this site.  

Registration to the course will be open to the first 20 who apply that day.  Don’t delay.

Nuts & Seeds Nutrition

We are going to start with a couple of my favorites Almonds and Pumpkin Seeds.

Almonds

Most mornings I add about 12 almonds to my breakfast and enjoy them so much. Almonds are thought to have originated in western Asia and North Africa; they have been written about in many historical texts, including the Bible.

9 Benefits of Almonds: 

• are nutrient-dense food.
• are packed with protein; almonds are 13 percent protein.
• filled with lots of minerals such as magnesium, copper.
• filled with lots of B vitamins.
• full of potassium, calcium, phosphorus and iron.
• are cholesterol free.
• one-ounce serving of almonds contains about the same amount of antioxidants as a serving of broccoli.
• one of the best food sources of vitamin E, with about one third of the daily value per ounce.
• heart-healthy with monounsaturated fat; one-quarter cup of almonds contains about 18 grams of fat, 11 grams is heart-healthy monounsaturated fats.

According to research at the University of Toronto, eating heart-healthy foods, including almonds, can help reduce LDL, or the "bad" cholesterol levels, as much as a first-line "statin" drug.

Research at Tufts University found the flavonoids in almond skins work in synergy with the vitamin E in to protect artery walls from damage reducing the risk of heart disease.

Pumpkin Seeds

I love Pumpkin seeds which I add to my meals. Pumpkins, and their seeds, were an important Native American Indian food used for their dietary and medicinal properties.

9 Benefits of Pumpkin Seeds:

• have lots of minerals: phosphorus, magnesium, manganese, zinc, iron & copper.
• are a good source of protein and vitamin K.
• contain phytosterols, compounds that that have been shown to reduce levels of LDL cholesterol.
• are good for Prostate Health! The oil in them alleviates difficult urination that happens with an enlarged prostate.
• according to studies, they prevent calcium oxalate kidney stone formation.
• contains L-tryptophan, which helps with good sleep and lowering depression
• as they are high in zinc, they are a natural protector against osteoporosis. Low intake of zinc is linked to higher rates of osteoporosis.
• reduce inflammation for arthritis without the side effects of anti-inflammatory drugs
• used in many cultures as a natural treatment for tapeworms and other parasites 

In a study of almost 400 men (age from 45-92) published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition they found a correlation between low dietary intake of zinc, low blood levels of the trace mineral, and osteoporosis at the hip and spine. 

SPROUTING NUTS & SEEDS

Raw nuts or seeds can have a bitter taste; this is due to enzyme inhibitors. Soaking or roasting the nuts and seeds remove the enzyme inhibitors which then brings out the natural sweet flavor of the nuts and seeds.

  These inhibitors can affect the digestion of the nuts and seeds.  Soaking removes the inhibitors by washing them away, and begins the digestion of the proteins and carbohydrates.  Also the soaking removes 30% of the oil content making nuts and seeds easier on the liver and digestion.  

  Directions:

1. Look over nuts and seeds; remove stones and broken seeds.

2. Rinse nuts or seeds.

3. Put each type of seed or nut in individual jars then cover with purified water, leave the lid off and soak for right amount of time; see below.

4. Drain and put lid on and store in the fridge. Use them up in two to three days.

5. When ready, rinse nuts or seeds. Store in refrigerator, in sprouting environment or in other suitable container until ready to use. If not used within 12 hours, seeds should be serviced (rinsed) every 24 hours in refrigerator. Best to eat as soon as possible, as freshness is what makes sprouts special!

Almonds: Soak 8-12 hours. Use only unblanched almonds. If refrigerated will last up to 4 days or sprouts may turn rancid. These are my favorite! Note: All US almonds have been heated so make sure the ones you buy are from Europe.

Pumpkin Seeds:  Soak 6-8 hours. Eat within 2 days. Use hulled pumpkin seeds.

Sunflower Seeds: Soak 6-9 hours. Use hulled sunflower. Skim off seed skins when rinsing as they will make your sprouts spoil quickly. Best to eat them the same day or within 2 days.

Copyright © Diana Herrington  You are welcome to share this article with anyone who you think may benefit from this information as long as you give credit to Real Food for Life by including the link to the home page www.RealFoodforLife.com  or the direct link to this post.

I’ve had an on /off  relationship with weeds recently ( see Dandelion Madness) and now I’m at it again. My attention has now gone to yet another weed This one’s not so pesky to your lawn and it tastes much better.   Actually it tastes almost exactly like spinach – particularly when cooked – and again, it has all kinds of nutritional value and …...it’s free.

I first heard it’s name locally as  Lamb’s Quarters.    I don’t particularly like  that name but you can also call it  Fat Hen, Nickel Greens, pig weed, dung weed or White Goosefoot.  Some of these names I also don’t love.

It now grows wild in North America – and probably most people unknowingly just pull it out of the garden. You can recognize the plant when young because the center of the top is feathery looking with a purple tint. The picture is of a younger plant.

If allowed to mature Lamb’s Quarters produces a head of thousands of black tiny seeds.  You can eat these seeds and they are highly nutritious.  Actually it’s species is closely related to Quinoa – a supergrain that many people are familiar with.  I haven’t tried harvesting the seeds yet since it is so scarce but in some parts of the world it is cultivated.  It has been eaten,  perhaps unknowingly,  since the iron age.

One cup of raw lamb’s quarter leaves contains:
~ 80 mg of Vitamin C

~ 11,600 IU of Vitamin A

~ 72 mg of Phosphorus

~ 309 mg of Calcium     …….as well as good amounts of Thiamin, Riboflavin, Niacin and Iron.

Like every food and plant – there is no PERFECT food that is 100%  good. There is always some small (or big) aspect that is not good for the body.  That is why it is best to eat a large variety of foods and to know how to combine and prepare foods properly so that that negative effect is reduced. Greens have such high levels of so many nutrients that it is not surprising that this particular green has its own particular problem .  This means you shouldn’t eat TOO much of it.  This is not likely considering how little people eat weeds but just so you know – it has high levels of oxalic acids in it.  Oxalic acid can bind with other minerals in the body causing mineral depletion and in its worse case – kidney stones.  Many foods contain this ingredient so if you are even relatively healthy there is not cause for concern.

A few raw cups of this thrown in your salad therefor is no problem – or even if you ate several cups cooked but if you were using it a lot over a long period of time than be aware.  If suddenly you are NOT attracted to eating it -  follow that advise from your body and take a vacation.  I personally liked it best when the plants were just big enough to have a head of green seeds. Seeds contain all the vitality of the whole plant.  When green and steamed they have a very delicate flavor. When they start to get brown they have a much stronger taste.

The season is getting along but I encourage you to find some young plants and try it out.  You may like it ……..and of course its free!

Canadian Thistle easily growing through 6 in. of grass mulch in one month. It's not friendly!

Another weed I will mention has NOTHING to do about nutrition other than to make trouble in my garden where I grow good nutrition.  No this is really just a rant against the Canadian Thistle.

This name ‘Canadian Thistle’ is even more inappropriate than the previous weed. There is NOTHING Canadian about this weed. Canadians are polite and friendly and always paying ’sorry’ and ‘eh’.   This weed doesn’t say anything even when it pricks you with its MILLIONS of prickles and overruns your garden. It can also be called the creeping thistle. I am told that you can eat the leaves and the root although I can’t imagine why anyone would try. If any of you have tried please let me know how it turns out!

I’d rather hear though, about some ingenious way to get rid of this (or make peace with it) since it is now my garden’s worse invader.  I used to think this weed was a ‘wimp’ because I could very easily weed whip it down from large patches around the farm. It has a large hollow stem so I could easily get cut away but now I am pulling up younger plants from my garden and it is the most difficult. Any suggestions?

Feel free to share this post with anyone or leave your comments below.

P.S.  If you thought “Good Weed,  Bad Weed”  had anything to do with the consumption of illegal recreation substances then your head is definitely  in the 60’s !

Healthy recipes for picnics

In the past few weeks I have been on a couple of picnics in which I brought all of the food as a thank you to a couple of my friends for all that they have done for me. It is so much fun to sit out on the grass amongst nature eating real food.

Here are a couple of the recipes from my picnics and ones that will be in my first e-book.

AVOCADO VEGETABLE DIP

Ingredients:
1 ripe avocado, peeled & pitted
1 tsp. onion, finely minced
1 stalk of celery, finely chopped
1 – 2 tbsp. lemon juice
1 tomato, chopped
Nori & Dsulse seaweed flakes to taste

Directions:
1. Mash avocado.
2. Add onion, celery and lemon juice and mix in well.
3. Gently mix in chopped tomato.
4. Serve with corn chips or slices of vegetables.

HEALTHY POTATO SALAD

Ingredients:
3 potatoes (cooked and diced)
2 stalks of celery or ½ green pepper (finely chopped)
1 carrot, chopped
Chives or chopped green onions to taste
Hand full of fresh parsley or dill weed
3/4 cup mayonnaise
3 tsp mustard
3 tsp lemon juice 

Directions:
1. Once sliced keep aside as well as some parsley.
2. Mix mayonnaise, mustard and lemon juice together to make the dressing.
3. Mix all ingredients together with dressing.
4. Decorate the top with parsley.

Have you been on any picnics lately and what kinds of healthy foods do you put in your picnic basket???

OK, so maybe I went a little overboard with my 'Dandelion Madness', ….not with last week’s article – but with eating dandelions themselves!  It happened because I was out at the farm where the plants are so much bigger and there are SO many of them.  Instead of spending 5 minutes digging up a few young plants– I can go out with a knife and in 10 seconds gather a shopping cart of mature leaves.  After throwing a large bunch into the blender, and forgetting my article advise to just make the dandelions a small addition, I drank my supercharged mixture.

No I didn’t collapse, or even throw up. In fact I finished the whole thing.  Those last few mouthfuls were getting very very strong though. I normally clean out the last few drops from the blender (Did I mention I was thrifty?) but this time I was glad to wash it down the sink.

I wanted therefore, to EMPHASIZE the part about moderation and add a few other smoothie hints and facts.  They are as follows:

1.  Keep the taste agreeable. This is not just an obvious statement that only madmen (like myself) might ignore but touches on a safely concern that some hard core raw food enthusiasts take seriously (see Below).  If your body loses its attraction for a particular food that you have been eating a lot of,  just ease off.  You don’t know specifically what your body is telling you but it’s a good thing to follow anyway.  This is one of the main principles of regeneration – to keep in touch with your body.

2.  Apples are IN, Mangoes are OUT. This could be an entirely subjective preference but again there is some logic behind this choice.  I’ve seen many people demonstrate green smoothes with mangoes and sometime bemoaned the fact that its hard to find good mangoes in Canada.  Recently the mango season was ON in Edmonton so I got a chance to try out some really good ones but they just don’t work that well with greens in my opinion; Mangos seem just too sweet.

3.  Salty Smoothie Soup. Trish Holder doesn’t like any kind of fruit so she substitutes apples with raw ONIONS  and sometimes a clove of GARLIC.  Since this is the ingredients for vegetable soup she then adds a tablespoon of salty MISO plus celery.  She also makes sure her soup is warm enough by using quite warm water.  I can’t testify to the taste of this mixture because I can’t handle raw onions or garlic but Trish is one smart lady who has helped a lot of people with her knowledge of food. 4.  Add some Zing with Ginger. At Real Food for Life we have promoted the benefits of ginger many times.  Here’s a chance to add some zing to your smoothie and beef up your digestion at the same time. Even one tablespoon of raw ginger is plenty.

When are greens TOO much?

Leafy green vegetables contain along with their abundance of minerals the possibility of traces of organic substances called alkaloids.  There are many different kinds of plant alkaloids but the famous ones are nicotine, cocaine, morphine, and caffeine. As you might notice these compounds have STRONG effects on the body and because of this they tend to give this class of compounds a bad reputation. Used properly alkaloids can have good effects but most people would rather not take chances.  Different plants produce different kinds of alkaloids. Therefore if you are eating a LOT of greens (as in ONE TO TWO POUNDS A DAY  as some raw foodists do) you are recommended to ROTATE your greens so you don’t get too much of any particular alkaloid.  Those large tubs of spinach are just one pound so you only have to concern yourself with this if you are going through at least one of those a day …which would be 4-8 smoothies.   Rather than concern yourself with all these small risk factors you can easily stay safe JUST by noticing your bodies reaction,  and as we stated above, IF you start not wanting a particular food than back off.

Share YOUR favorite smoothie!

I'm sure you have your own unique ingredients with smoothies.  Feel free to share them below in the comment section.  Also, feel free to share this article with anyone you feel might enjoy it!