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It’s that wonderful day – a chance to show those we love just how special they are to us! What better way to do it than with chocolate, something almost all of us adore. This year, why not make a dessert that’s loaded with chocolatey flavor and yet provides some nutrition?
Chocolate Fondue: It’s simple…melt 1 cup of semi-sweet chocolate with 1/4 cup of coconut oil (a terrific source of fuel, great for immune and thyroid function) – you can adjust the ratio if you like it thicker or thinner – and serve it with orange/banana/apple/pear slices. Yum!
To take the great flavors of chocolate and coconut on the go, try mixing this up in your food processor, it makes a wonderful tasting and healthy snacks for young and old:
Tahini Candy
1/2 cup honey
2/3 cup tahini
1.5 cup grated unsweetened coconut
1 cup ground nuts (or sunflower or pumkin seeds if allergies are an issue)
3 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
Heat the honey to make it flow, then combine all ingredients in a food processor. You may need to add more coconut to make it firm enough to form balls or small log shapes. You can also add other ingredients to taste (dried fruits, whey powder…the sky’s the limit!). Guten Appetit!
Rolling into the 2nd month of winter…it’s been a long time since anything more than our faces have been touched by the sun’s rays…what does that mean? No D! It is well documented that vitamin D levels steadily decline as we get further into winter. Low skin exposure (and if you’re recreating on the snow, chances are you’ve lathered on some sunscreen) and decreased UV intensity mean we are not producing the vitamin D our bodies need – to help our immune system fight off the nasty viruses floating around, for one thing. Most people, including children, need to supplement for at least part of the year. A guideline offered by a vitamin D research group, at www.vitamindcouncil.org, states that kids over 1 year old should take 1,000 IU per 25 lb of body weight, up to the 5,000 IU recommended for adults. This website also offers a link to order a vitamin D test to determine your current level (a good idea for anyone interested in supplementing long term as too high levels of vitamin D begin to become detrimental). I’ll close with a quote from a prominent physician: ” We estimate that vitamin D deficiency is the most common medical condition in the world.” ~ Dr. Michael F. Holick, Vitamin D expert.
It does get tiresome, how each January diet aids are touted in every store and on many websites. What a down way to start the year – commit to a diet regimen that just doesn’t feel good, and isn’t sustainable. How about a new approach? It’s actually very simple, and not in any way faddish or dangerous…eat more raw food! Raw means food that hasn’t been taken above 118 degrees. That seems to be the magical temperature above which the enzymes in food, the energy it provides, become inactive. When food is taken in in its whole, uncooked, unprocessed state, it gives us the anti-oxidants to combat disease and nutrients for energy. Incorporating raw foods into ones diet can increase immune function, boost energy, and lead to weight loss – the kind that lasts. The more raw foods we add, the less of the processed, empty foods we crave. Here is a website to get your wheels turning: http://www.rawfoodlife.com/Easy_Weight_Loss/easy_weight_loss.htm . An easily attainable goal is to eat something raw with every meal… whether fruit, vegetable, nuts, it doesn’t matter, just don’t cook everything you eat!!!
During festive times, many Americans are reaching for their packages of Rolaids, Tums, Prilosec, or similar OTC medications. Before you follow this course, let’s think about what these medications actually do. They reduce stomach acidity, assuming that many of us are for some reason churning out excess amounts of it. The truth is, the production of stomach acid is more often decreased, by factors such as stress, nutrient deficiency, and age. What happens when we produce too little acid? Food is delayed in the stomach as it takes longer to break down in a less acidic environment. When food is in the stomach for longer than usual, it creates fullness and pushes an acidic mixture back up the esophagus, resulting in heartburn. So we take antacids to reduce the acidity, which in actuality compounds the problem.
Most people need a little boost in acid production, something easily accomplished by taking a Betaine Hydrochloride supplement to boost acidity. We can do a safe test, called the Hydrochloride Challenge, to find out whether one is truly overproducing stomach acid or one is deficient.
Deficiency in stomach acidity not only results in heartburn, but also to an inability to digest protein properly, which affects everything from muscle function to neurotransmitter (such as serotonin, the entity boosted artificially by drugs such as Prozac and Zoloft) production.
Before you reach for any antacid, give us a call to discuss whether your problem may be better treated by a digestive aid.
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