Holiday Indulgence Without the Guilt
Whenever I break out of my sheltered world of health conscious people who eat organic whole foods and use natural products to clean their clothes, homes and bodies, I am reminded of just how much work is left to do to educate the masses about the importance of diet and environment on our health. As a nation we’re obese, sick and for the most part unconscious. We’re fueled by sugar, caffeine and artificially flavored and colored manufactured consumables that don’t deserve to be labeled food. In spite of a seemingly raised awareness of the role of our daily choices on the state of our health, there are still huge segments of the population that hasn’t a clue.
As a part of some seminars I’ve been investing in to improve my ability to more fully service my tribe of health seekers, I was asked to identify my mission in life. My mission was described as the far reaching and BIG impact that I yearn to have on the world. I was told that it needs to be big enough that it is unlikely to be reached in my lifetime, yet throughout my life, my day to day actions contribute to the its fruition.
I spent a lot of contemplative time exploring my inner crevices to determine what my mission is. After some deep soul searching, here’s what I came up with.
“My mission is to end needless pain and suffering from lifestyle related diseases. These include “The BIG Three”, cancer, heart disease and diabetes” as well as so many others.”
As the flight attendant came around and asked if I wanted to purchase a meal and described the choices, I realized that another mission, a step if you will on the path to the big mission, is to facilitate the creation of a world where whole, fresh organic food is the ONLY choice on airplanes, fast food restaurants, private homes and all other places where food is available.
Imagine a world where EVERYONE returned to eating only real whole food. Imagine no temptations, no pressure to eat processed food from well meaning yet misguided friends and family members. In such a world, there would be vibrant health, compassion, joy and true peace.
As we head into the holiday season, I’d like to offer a suggestion to you IF you’d like to enjoy vibrant health, powerful energy and joyful interactions throughout this season of celebration. Do this exercise only if you’d like to wake up on January 1 in a body that you love – a comfortable, energetic body that is at or on the way to your ideal body weight.
Sit down in a comfortable place with pencil and paper and make a list of all the foods that you associate with your enjoyment of the holidays. Rate each on a scale of -5 to +5. Foods that are negative have a negative impact on your health, positively numbered foods have a positive impact on your health. The larger the number the more positive,. The more negative the number the more harmful the food. An example of a -5 food is anything containing hydrogenated o heated oil, such as margarine or many commercial pie crusts and snack foods. Foods that qualify as +5 are foods that are very nutrient dense, like green juice and sprouts. Make a commitment to yourself to only eat foods with positive numbers.
It’s quite possible that you can find or make variations of your favorite negatively rated foods that would rate as positive.
We’ve created a class called “Healthy Holiday Feasts: Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Living Foods versions of Traditional Holiday Favorites” to provide you with the tools you need to create delicious and satisfying versions of traditional holiday favorite that you can enjoy without guilt and with the assurance that this year you’ll sail through the holidays with your waistline in tact and wake up on New Year’s Day feeling energetic, strona anf on your way to a phenomenal year, without the need for soon to be broken New Year’s resolutions.
We’re excited to offer the class as a webcast as well as a live and in person one, and to make the high quality videos available afterward. These videos will nicely round out your holiday recipe collection.
In a few short hours, you could be learning recipes like eggless egg-nog, turkeyless turkey loaf, potatoless mashed potatoes, cranberry relish, pumpkin pie and more. The pumpkin pie is a new lighter, lower fat version of the one in my book “Thanksiving Feasts” book and it tastes just as delicious.
Whether you’d like to create a complete Thanksgiving feast or simply replace some of your old favorites with healthier gluten-free, vegan living foods versions, you’ll learn lots of tips at the class. And you’ll be giving yourself the best gift of all this holiday season – the gift of health!
Learn more and sign-up at
http://www.drritamarie.com/videoclasses/holidayfeasts2010-11
On the web, in person or on video afterward, this class is a winner.
In love and gratitude,
Dr. Ritamarie
Tags: Dr. Ritamarie Loscalzo, DrRitamarie, gluten-free Thanksgiving recipes, healthy holiday food, healthy thanksgiving recipes, heart disease, Holiday Recipes, organic food, raw and living foods, raw food holiday recipes, raw food prep classes, raw food Thanksgiving, whole foods
Posted in Gluten Free Diet, Holiday Recipes, Living Foods, Raw and Living Foods, Raw Foods classes
Living Foods that Protect You from Cancer: BROCCOLI SPROUTS
There are many whole fresh foods that belong in your arsenal of cancer protection and immune support. None is more powerful that the little known, super powerful broccoli sprout.
Here’s a contributed article I thought I’d share.
BROCCOLI SPROUTS – Potent Little Cancer Fighters
by Jane Hardin, MS, RD/LD
One of the many benefits of a diet rich in fruits and vegetables is the reduced risk of cancer. Hundreds of studies are being conducted to determine exactly which components in our food are anti-carcinogenic and one of them – broccoli sprouts — is getting a lot of research attention for its phytochemical, SULFORAPHANE.
In general, cruciferous plants are rich in sulforaphane in its glucosinolate precursor form, glucoraphanin (conversion occurs in the gut). Broccoli contains unusually high levels of glucoraphanin, with the youngest plants having the most concentration. Raw is preferred, as heat appears to destroy some of the glucoraphanin. However, the evidence suggests that broccoli must be eaten in large quantities to substantially reduce the risk of cancer. Broccoli sprouts, then, become the optimal food for the following reasons:
- Glucoraphanin is concentrated in the broccoli sprouts. In fact, three day-old broccoli sprouts contain approximately 20 times the concentration of sulforaphane glucosinolate found in mature broccoli. (Other studies suggest sulforaphane glucosinatelevels anywhere from 10-100 times higher in sprouts than in fully grown plants.) A single ounce of sprouts has as much glucoraphanin as 1¼ pounds of cooked broccoli.
- There is a lot of variance in nutrient and phytochemical content from one broccoli plant to another. The sprouts seem to offer more uniform benefits.
How does it work?
There are two complementary routes to controlling cancer. The first is prevention – reducing exposure to cancer-causing chemicals and harmful diet choices.
The second, protection, bolsters the body’s own defenses by releasing detoxification (Phase 2) enzymes. These enzymes neutralize cancer-causing agents and free radicals before DNA is damaged and cancer is initiated. Dr. Paul Talalay and his colleagues at John Hopkins University School of Medicine have shown sulforaphane is a potent activator of these Phase 2 enzymes, thus enhancing the body’s natural cancer fighting instincts.
In animal studies, administration of sulforaphane blocked tumor development, thereby reducing the incidence, size, and multiplicity of carcinogen-induced tumors.
Nutritional biochemist Jed W. Fahey, M.S., Sc.D. (John Hopkins) states that protective enzymes are increased by just a just a couple ounces broccoli sprouts per day.
How do I incorporate broccoli sprouts into my diet?
Just mix them into your salads and wraps, or throw a handful into your smoothies, soups or blended salads! Broccoli sprouts have tender shoots and tiny leaves resembling alfalfa sprouts, but their taste more closely resembles radish. Its sharp flavor is the result of high concentrations of glucoraphanin, exactly what you want to stimulate protection against cancer.
Sprouting your own broccoli seed is easy and cost effective. Just soak the seeds overnight, then rinse and drain them two or three times a day, using any of the multiple sprouting systems you can purchase or make yourself. After just a few days you have sprouts! Eat immediately or store them for a few days in the refrigerator.
Broccoli sprouts are a dietary means to chemically reducing cancer risk, but the good news doesn’t end there. Studies have shown that broccoli sprouts may decrease overall cholesterol levels, while increasing HDL; reduce inflammation; optimize heart, artery and kidney function: decrease the risk of macular degeneration; protect lung cells while dealing with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; and potentially reverse the damaging effects of diabetes-induced vascular disease!
Plant phytochemicals number in the thousands; only a handful of these have been identified and their mechanisms of action determined. There is also the issue of synergy – to what degree might healthful effects be dependent upon multiple food components working together, rather than as isolated substances?
Because there are still so many unknowns about the nutrition connection with cancer, a sensible approach is to incorporate lots of whole fruits and vegetables, including those crazy broccoli sprouts!
About the Author
R.Jane Hardin, MS, RD/LD is a traditionally-trained registered dietitian with a lifelong engagement in various holistic approaches to health and nutrition. Her eclectic food interests over the years have led her to studies with experts such as Dr. Ann Wigmore and Michio Kushi.
Jane’s renewed interest in raw living foods enabled her to reverse several deteriorating, personal health conditions, including fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue. This inspired her to become a certified Raw Foods Educator. She now enjoys helping others along the pathway to nutritional wellness, regardless of starting point or destination, one bite at a time.
Tags: broccoli sprout, Cancer, cholesterol, cruciferous, detoxification, Dr. Ritamarie, gluten free, heart disease, sprouts, sulphorophane
Posted in Cancer Nutrition, Holistic Nutrition, Raw and Living Foods, Vibrant Health
Cancer, Heart Disease and Chronic Fatigue: It’s Not Worth The Risk
My 16 year old son just got his driver’s license about 2 weeks ago. It’s a right of passage I guess, and I cried, just as I did when I dropped him off at kindergarten for the first time.
Call me a sentimental fool, and I will proudly wear the title.
He and I went out for dinner the other night. It’s our best opportunity to spend time together. At home, it’s sometimes too busy for us to just sit down together and chat.
As he was driving home – and I was gripping the passenger side strap, working on my Heart Math breathing and appreciation – (I’m not the most relaxed passenger) he said words that are music to any parents ears. He said “It’s not worth the risk”.
Out of context that statement doesn’t mean very much. Yet in context, it set my mind at ease about the degree of “recklessness” I could expect from my newly on the road teenager.
The reason I loved hearing those words is because what he felt was not worth the risk was a road rule that my husband and I disagreed on and Eric was doing it the way I suggested was correct…because it wasn’t worth the risk of getting in trouble for getting into the turn lane too soon.
What that told me is that he is ultra aware of the rules of the road and does not want to break any lest he get in trouble with the police.
What excited me about his comment was that this is such a minor thing…one we experienced drivers don’t even think about. It helped me to feel confident that he was not going to risk the more dangerous driving behaviors that teen drivers often engage in.
Is it worth the risk ? is a great question to ask yourself when making lifestyle choices that affect your health.
What risks do you take on a regular basis?
Driving or being passenger without a seat belt? Riding a bicycle without a helmet? Going to bed without flossing your teeth?
Life is filled with risk / reward choices. Are you clear enough about your core values and goals that the choices are easy to make?
Here are 5 risks that most people take on a daily basis:
1.Eating heated oils. The threshold temperature is slightly different for each oil, yet the result is similar. Above the threshold, the heat causes oxidation of the fat , making it damaging to your immune system and antioxidant status. This puts you at risk for cancer, heart disease and a host of degenerative ailments. Poly-unsaturated oils like safflower, corn, sunflower and soybean are the most risky, and are generally oxidized in the bottle, before you even open them, due to exposure to light, heat and air.
2.Eating sugar. Sugar not only contributes to poor dental health, it also feeds cancer cells, and its consumption dramatically increases your cancer risk. Sugar also creates hormonal disruption, contributes to a condition called insulin resistance and its characteristic fat around the waist, and results in impaired energy metabolism and decreased immunity. As if that’s not enough, sugar contributes to focus and concentration, heart disease, and dozens of other health maladies.
3.Exposure to pesticides, herbicides and chemicals in the air and water. These tax your inborn detoxification systems, leading to toxic buildup, mental health issues and digestive disturbances.
4.Worrying. Getting yourself in a tizzy about things that may happen, could happen and would be horrible if did happen is a sure fire way of putting yourself at risk for heart disease, cancer, stroke and chronic fatigue. It puts your body into ‘fight/flight’ mode, creating a cascade of chemical reactions that impairs digestion and absorption of nutrients and can contribute to cancer.
5.Eating processed and refined cooked foods. These are deficient in nutrients and usually contain harmful preservatives, additives and flavorings, which disrupt hormone pathways, drain your body of B-vitamins and other nutrients needed for energy metabolism and leave you exhausted, toxic and undernourished
Go through the list and determine how much you’re putting yourself at risk. Then ask yourself when confronted with a food or lifestyle choice, “Is this worth the risk? Is the momentary pleasure worth long-term disconnection from what really matters?
Making choices consistent with your higher good takes some effort on your part. You’ll need to educate yourself, learn to make different foods and risk being “different” .
As one of my potluck participants said when asked about his food choices and whether he felt deprived, “Nothing tastes as good as being healthy feels.”
For more in-depth coverage of the food choice and health connection, particularly when it comes to cancer and other serious illnesses, join me and my very special guest speaker, Dr. Brian Clement, director of the world renowned Hippocrates Institute. He’ll be speaking in Austin and we’ll broadcast it over the internet.
www.drritamarie.com/cancertalk
Dr. Clement has been working with people with cancer and other serious illnesses for over 30 years, and he’s seen more than his share of miracles.
I hope you can join us. Every time I hear Dr. Clement speak, I learn something new. He’s charismatic, informative and very inspiring. And he walks his talk. He’s a living example of the power of food to heal.
We are very fortunate that he’s taking time out of his busy schedule to talk to us. He travels and speaks world-wide.
Those that show up live will receive a complementary copy of the Hippocrates Institute’s beautiful, full color glossy magazine “Healing Our World’.
Www.drritamarie.com/cancertalk
If you live in or near Austin, come on by to my house Saturday evening to share a meal and connect with some amazing health minded souls.
For information about the events, go to www.drritamarie.com/potluck and see for yourself by watching our video. To sign-up for the meet-up and get all the details you need to participate, go to www.drritamarie.com/meetup
Love, health and Joy to You!
Dr. Ritamarie
Creating Vibrant Health…One Bite at a Time.’
Tags: Cancer, chronic fatigue, diet, Dr. Brian Clement, heart disease, Hippocrates Institute, hydrogenated oils, Living Foods, raw foods diet for cancer
Posted in Adrenal Fatigue, Cancer Nutrition, Detox Program, Raw and Living Foods
