Category Archives: Putting It All Together

22

Jan. ’15

Eating For Cancer Prevention: Green Tea

teaI propose we answer two questions today: What is Green Tea? and Why do we care? The answers are: Tea and Molecular weeding.

All tea (Black, Green, Oolong, Ooshort) comes from the same plant; the way you harvest the leaves gives you different kinds of tea. Green Tea leaves get a steam bath instead of a sunburn, so they’re thought to have more cancer-fighting antioxidants, although a few researchers believe that all teas are created equal.

Green Tea is loaded with antioxidants which have been shown to help fight cancer. Antioxidants are just what they sound like if we all spoke Greek: “anti” means against and “oxidant” means oxygen, so antioxidants are against oxygen. That sounds kind of evil, doesn’t it? But oxygen can be evil if you’re a wrench in the rain.

antioxidants_benefitsWhen oxygen reacts with chemicals in the body, it creates useful chain reactions. Your body needs some of these oxygen chain reactions in order to, you know, live, but too many chain reactions lead to free radicals and cell damage.

Oxygen chain reactions are like mint plants in a garden. One mint plant is great; delicious leaves, lovely flowers. But mint plants spread aggressively by the root and can take over your garden in weeks. Antioxidants are the hands that pull extra mint plants out of the soil so you can make Mojitos, but still grow beans.

I’m not a tea drinker. I’ve tried. I have about twenty pounds of tea in my cabinet to prove how determined I was to become a tea addict. But I can’t help loving coffee, and maybe that’s not such a bad thing.

Green-TeaGreen Tea has up to 10 times the antioxidants compared to fruits and vegetables, but coffee has 3 times more antioxidants per cup than Green Tea. If I’m not thirsty enough to drink 9 cups of Green Tea per day, then 2 cups of coffee gives me more microscopic meds for my mug.

Of course, tea, coffee, fruits, and veggies all provide us with different antioxidants, so perhaps eating the full spectrum of antioxidants is wise. The best advice I found was actually in a comment on a medical website; the woman said that she consumes coffee with breakfast, tea in the afternoon, and red wine and dark chocolate after dinner. Does she have all of her oxidants covered or what?

antioxidantsGreen Tea is worth including in your diet, but if you’re not a fan of drinking it, try hiding some in foods you do enjoy. Mix Green Tea with Black Tea, add a cup to your smoothie or soup, or sprinkle the leaves into pasta sauce like you might with dried parsley flakes.

With the variety of things that can go wrong in our bodies, it makes sense to dose ourselves with a variety of antioxidants to clean up microscopically. Raise your glass of a plant-based beverage, be it bean, leaf, or grape, and let’s toast to our health!

 

“Those who trust in their riches will fall, but the righteous will thrive like a green leaf.” Proverbs 11:28

Images courtesy of fitnessandhealthadvisor.com (tea), greenteaforweightlosstips.com (tea plant), www.lookgreatnaked.com (antioxidant chart), bloomfieldbathblog.com (awesome antioxidants)

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12

Dec. ’14

Eating For Cancer Prevention (Part 3 of 5): Cruciferous Vegetables

broccoli gunHow do cruciferous vegetables fight cancer? That’s just it: they fight. They’re warriors. Cruciferous vegetables are the military of Food-dom. They kill cancer cells and defend against terrorist-toxins.

The key is getting the ammo into the guns. The ammo is sulfur containing chemicals called glucosinolates. Think about the taste of broccoli, kale, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts; there’s something in the taste of cruciferous vegetables that packs a punch. Some websites called it sulfur, others called it mustard oil; it’s the same thing that makes horseradish potent, skunks stink, and rotten eggs smell. Mmm, the thought makes one hungry, does it not?

So in one part of the plant cell is the ammo: glucosinolates. In another part of the plant cell is an enzyme called myrosinase. Sounds like a sandwich spread made of rosin and it’s mine, but we’re going to call it Gun. When you chew, juice, or chop the plant cells, the ammo and Gun are free to join. Loaded guns, as we know, are more effective weapons than empty ones. These glucosinolate and myrosinase loaded guns are cancer fighting sulfur compounds.

120403153531-largeDo sulfur compounds sound familiar? That’s the secret to garlic’s cancer effectiveness too. If you want to know more about how sulfur compounds fight cancer and kill tumor cells, read my post on Garlic for cancer prevention. I don’t want to repeat myself, but all of that applies here.

I know what you’re thinking: Tumors are like enemy countries; the body knows where they are and can focus an attack. But what about toxin terrorists that roam the body; the ones that can start a new battlefront anywhere, any time? I’m glad you asked.

The Cruciferous Military doesn’t just ride in with guns blazing; it also organizes the Let’s Incapacitate Venom Enzyme Rangers (or L.I.V.E.R.), an Anti-Toxin-Terrorism Task Force that removes carcinogens from the body. Detoxification has two phases: Phase One is a transport visa and Phase Two is handcuffs.

In Phase One, the toxin is burned with oxygen and enzymes to make it water (rather than fat) soluble. This makes it easier for the body to remove the toxin (pee is water, not fat); it’s essentially giving the toxin a travel visa.

unclesam-worldwarii-poster-6201139-oPhase Two’s handcuffs are made of enzymes and sulfur. Once a toxin is handcuffed, it can’t do any damage and can safely be shipped to the small intestine (which leads to the colon and eventually to the light of day). However, L.I.V.E.R. doesn’t have detention cells. If there aren’t enough handcuffs, the toxins remain free to circulate the body on their travel visa and are now called “free-radicals”. Free-radicals can do more damage that the original toxins. Cruciferous vegetables provide the sulfur that L.I.V.E.R. needs to make enough handcuffs to safely transport toxins out of the body.

Cruciferous vegetables also help promote healthy estrogen metabolism in the body, so there’s a link to hormonal cancers. I didn’t get that far in my research, but I thought it was worth mentioning.

Keep your Military strong by recruiting cruciferous soldiers several times per week. Brussels sprout bullets for everyone!

 

“Come, we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country.” Exodus 1:10

 

Images courtesy of me (broccoli), www.everystockphoto.com (Uncle Sam), drliesa.com (veggies).

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03

Dec. ’14

A Cruciferous Call For Help

2014 Aug 2 006We’ll talk about why cruciferous vegetables are linked to cancer prevention next week; this week I need your help. I was looking over my cruciferous vegetable recipes and noticed that all but one involve bacon. As much as I love the combination of greens and grease, if I increase my bacon consumption along with my cruciferous vegetable consumption, I’m doing more harm than good. That’s where you come in.

Do you have a good non-bacon recipe for cruciferous vegetables that you’d be willing to share? Comment below with the recipe or a link to the recipe.

Common cruciferous vegetables are: arugula, bok choy, broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, collard greens, horseradish, kale, radishes, rutabaga, turnip, watercress.

Thank you in advance!

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25

Nov. ’14

Eating For Cancer Prevention Part 2: Beans

NCI_Digestive_torso_largeSeeing as how beans are known as the “musical fruit”, it should come as no surprise that beans have a strong link to the colon, and specifically to colorectal cancer. For those of you in the decades between middle school biology and the all-too-real anatomy lesson of a required colonoscopy, your colon is another name for your large intestine.

Your small intestine absorbs nutrients from the food you eat. The large intestine sucks the water out of what’s left, leaving behind stool or poop. It’s a good system, but when things go wrong, they go very wrong: colon cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in the United States. There is hope, however: research suggests that roughly 30% of colon cancers could be prevented by a change in diet and lifestyle.

beansBack to the beans.

I’m not talking about fresh green beans, although they are delicious and I encourage you to eat them whenever possible. I’m talking about the Legume Family: lentils, kidney beans, black beans, navy beans, split peas, and so on.

The Legume Family are police officers; it’s a proud tradition dating back to Creation. These Bean Cops enforce the law, direct traffic, and even manufacture Kevlar bulletproof vests.

bean cop dnaLaw enforcement: The first Bean Cop tool of the trade is folate. Cells need folate (ie folic acid) to make and repair DNA when they divide. Folate helps the cells to follow DNA laws and divide perfectly. When folate is lacking, mistakes are made. This is why pregnant women are asked to take extra folic acid; their baby begins life as a dividing cell and the fewer mistakes, the better.

bean cop trafficTraffic: Bean Cops have access to large amounts of fiber and that fiber keeps traffic flowing in the gut. Researchers aren’t sure why increased fiber lowers the risk of colon cancer, but they suspect is has something to do with fiber’s ability to move waste and carcinogens out of the body quickly. Think back to the last time you left a concert, a festival, or a sporting event: traffic crawls and bottlenecks until that blessed whistle blowing, hand waving man in uniform arrives. How could moving waste along not be a good thing, right?

bean cop kevlarKevlar: Resistant starch is starch that resists being digested and Bean Cops are full of it. Resistant starch makes it all the way through the digestive track to the colon untouched. Once in the colon, resistant starch becomes food for the friendly bacteria that turn it into food for colon cells. This resistant-starch-fueled-bacteria-byproduct makes the colon cells stronger; it acts like a Kevlar vest to protect the colon and prevent leakage. Imagine what’s in your colon. Now imagine that leaking out of your colon and into your body cavity, even on a microscopic level. That’s why resistant starch Kevlar is so important.

In countries where the Legume Family is consumed several times each week, the morbidity rate for colon cancer is lower than in, say, the U.S. of A., where legume consumption is low. That means that if you do get colon cancer, Bean Cops can help you not die from it. (Protect and Serve is their motto, after all.) In one study, lab rats with chemical-induced colon cancer were fed beans. These rats developed 50% fewer tumors than the rats who didn’t eat beans!

I’m not suggesting that you trade in your Thanksgiving turkey for a bunch of beans, but if you’re supposed to bring a side dish to a gathering this week and you’re not sure what to prepare, try Three Bean Cop Salad.

 “Take wheat and barley, beans and lentils, millet and spelt; put them in a storage jar and use them to make bread for yourself.” Ezekiel 4:9a

 

Sources:

http://beaninstitute.com/health-benefits/dry-beans-and-human-health/#BEAN_CONSUMPTION_AND_CANCER

http://www.wholehealthsource.blogspot.com

http://www.authoritynutrition.com

Colon image: www.nlm.nih.gov

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07

Nov. ’14

Eating For Cancer Prevention (Part 1 of 5): Garlic

My mother was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 45. That felt like a distant milestone until I turned 35. Add to my family history the recent breast cancer diagnosis of a friend – who is my age and stage of life – and it’s a bit of a wake up call. If it can happen to them, it can happen to me. I wanted to know if there was anything I could do now to prevent cancer later (or kill it now, now is good too).

downloadFirst, I took stock of everything I knew about food and cancer prevention; it was summed up with the phrase “Eat berries”. Berries have lots of antioxidants that clean out the free radicals, right? Whatever those are and however that works.

I checked out four different health websites for recommended anti-cancer foods and when I compared the list, five foods stood out: garlic, dried beans, cruciferous vegetables, tea, and curcumin. Since this is a blog post, not a book, I’ll just tell you about my favorite one today. Anyone want to guess? Anyone want to smell my breath and then guess?

garlicGarlic!

Besides making everything it touches delicious, garlic has been used for medicinal purposes since ancient times. It was also used as a weapon of war; they’d just breathe on the enemy and the enemy would run. (It’s the taste of garlic we love, but not the aftertaste.)

So why is garlic a cancer fighting food?

Garlic contains sulfur. (Insert volcano reference here.) I know that sounds bad, but the sulfur combines with other stuff in the garlic to form compounds, and these sulfur compounds really clean house. Garlic’s biggest connection to cancer is its ability to slow or prevent the growth of tumors. For example, one compound makes all cells more vulnerable to the stresses of cell division; tumor cells divide more quickly than normal cells, so they have more stressors and die, whereas normal cells can handle it and live. (See why I called it a weapon?)

Garlic also has antibacterial and antifungal properties; while it fights infection, the rest of your immune system is free to work on other problems, like cancer. Garlic has anti-inflammatory properties as well and inflammation is like PMS on a cellular level; it makes every little problem in your body worse.

How does this apply to the kitchen? Two ways:

  1. garlic choppedWhen you peel, chop, mince, or crush garlic, let it sit for a few minutes before you cook it. Those beautiful sulfur compounds need time to form. If you squeeze your garlic press over a hot pan like I’ve done until now, you get the flavor, but not the compounds.
  2. Eat garlic raw whenever possible. I knew a woman once who sliced cloves into pill sized pieces and swallowed them whole. She said she hardly ever got colds. If you aren’t ready for that level of halitosic commitment, try raw garlic in pesto, guacamole, gazpacho, or mixed with butter and spread on toast.

Pesto has to be my favorite. You can find the recipe here: Fresh Pesto.

I also found a recipe for a raw garlic based tea. How did it taste? Not horrible. I know that’s not a rave review for flavor, but it’s raw garlic tea: “not horrible” is as good as it gets, and I’m a garlic lover. Garlic Tea. I’ve drunk it twice and will do so again: my body wanted more, so it must be doing something good.

I am very happy to say that my mom has been cancer free for 18 years now. She loves garlic too. No, I’m not saying that garlic cured her. I’m just saying that this happy ending smells like garlic!

“The rabble with them began to crave other food, and again the Israelites started wailing and said, ‘If only we had meat to eat!  We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost—also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic.  But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!’” Numbers 11:4-6

 

Tatas courtesy of freeinterentpictures.com.

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25

Sep. ’14

Falling Off the Wagon: What to Do After a Diet Fail

I don’t remember which weight loss blog I read this on, but I’ll never forget the quote: “When you get a flat tire, you change it and keep driving; you don’t pop the other three tires”. Fabulous, right?

We all have times when we fall off the health wagon. Why did I eat that? Why did I eat ALL of that? Why did I stay up so late? Lifting sofa cushions to find the remote counts as exercise, right?

UntitledThere are weeks when my butt is firmly seated in the health wagon and I’m buckled up and facing front. There are also weeks when I’m more like a little kid who’s hanging over the side trying to hit the wheel with a stick. I’m still in the wagon, but I’m being stupid. I reach a little too far and suddenly I’m eating dirt. (Low in calories, but not recommended. It tastes awful, even covered in chocolate… I mean broccoli.)

What do you do when you fall off the health wagon? You get back on. Make better choices starting now, but don’t beat yourself up about the ones you already made. If beating yourself up counted as exercise, I’d say “Knock yourself out!” But it’s not, and that was a great pun, wouldn’t you agree?

picking-yourself-upIn ten years it won’t matter that you fell, it’ll matter that you didn’t stay down in the dirt. Is falling off the wagon frustrating? You bet. Painful? Sometimes. Embarrassing? Sure. But you still have three good tires. Each day is a new day and each morning you wake up on the wagon. And next time that little kid won’t lean out quite so far to hit the wheel with a stick. Perfection is not realistic, so we’re not aiming for perfect here, we’re aiming for not-stupid.

“My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” Psalm 73:26

How have you handled a fall from the health wagon? What helps you get back on or stay on?

 

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04

Sep. ’14

I Didn’t Buy The Cookies (Poem)

P1010686I didn’t buy the cookies.
I didn’t buy the cake.
I didn’t buy the donuts,
And that was my mistake.

Junk is calling, I’ve got the munchies!
Body’s craving salt, sweet, crunchy.

I didn’t buy potato chips,
I didn’t buy a candy bar.
I want to eat a snack food, but
I don’t want to get in the car.

Junk is calling, I’ve got the munchies!
Body’s craving salt, sweet, crunchy.

If I want a brownie,
I’m going to have to make it.
Heat the oven, measure flour,
Mix, wait, dishes, I can’t take it!

Junk is calling, I’ve got the munchies!
Body’s craving salt, sweet, crunchy.

P1020877My cabinet holds some oatmeal.
My fridge is full of carrots.
I’ll settle for some hummus
And plants with all their merits.

Eat what’s easy, I’ve got the munchies.
Oats and carrots, sweet and crunchy.

I didn’t buy the cookies.
I didn’t buy the cake.
I only bought the vegetables,
And that was no mistake.

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31

Jul. ’14

Cook It At Home

P1010175My mom sent me a link to this cool video on the benefits of cooking the food you eat at home (as opposed to letting a corporation cook it for you). I hope you check it out HERE; it’s short and good.

Mom, you should have shown me this video when I was three and THEN cooked me homemade meals for twenty years straight; I might have grumbled less about all the vegetables.  You got it backwards, but that’s okay: I’m truly appreciating it now! 😉

For the Turkey Curry recipe shown in this picture, click here.

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05

Jul. ’14

Inside Out Victory

2014 June 170High cholesterol runs in my family. It also runs high in me.  I first got my levels checked eight years ago; the good (HDL) and the bad (LDL) cholesterol were both way high.  I wish doctors would let the good and bad cholesterol cancel each other out, but they’re sticklers for things like scientific research, so every year we’ve had the “It’s too high, we should consider drugs” conversation.

I avoided drugs for the first five years by having children, because you can’t take cholesterol lowering medication while pregnant or breastfeeding. While I did NOT have children for the sole purpose of keeping my cholesterol high, I had four babies in less than six years, so I think I maxed out on that excuse. When my youngest was weaned, I had to make a decision.

I didn’t like the idea of drugs; I wanted to have a go at lowering my cholesterol with diet and exercise.  Two years ago I started losing weight and my bad cholesterol went down about 20 points that first year.  Still way too high. “But doctor,” I said, “It went down! Give me another year.” I just got my levels checked a few weeks ago and it went down 20 points again.  I am now within ten points of “normal”!  One more year of this healthy lifestyle stuff and I will be able to sit in my doctor’s office with an smug little smile that says, “I dare you to find anything wrong with me!”

2014 June 070But here’s the coolest part. (Sort of.)

My weight hasn’t changed at all this year.  I weigh now what I weighed a year ago.  (GASP! I know, I know, I’m not exactly happy about it either, but don’t give up on me until you finish the paragraph.) While this weight plateau is a bummer, the encouraging part is that I’ve been changing for the better on the inside this past year: I have visible muscles in my arms and legs, my clothes fit better than they did last year, and my blood vessels have less lipoproteins in them. The point is that I’m making progress. If your scale numbers haven’t changed, be encouraged that every healthy thing you do for your body (sleep, exercise, good food, and lots of water) ARE making a difference, whether you see the results yet or not.

I’m already looking forward to next year’s physical: victory is mine!

“It was not by their sword that they won the land,
    nor did their arm bring them victory;
it was your right hand, your arm,
    and the light of your face, for you loved them.” Psalm 44:3

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22

May. ’14

Weight Loss On Pinterest

If you’re looking for some extra motivation or creative ideas for weight loss, take a look at Pinterest.  There are inspiring quotes, information on the benefits of vegetables, recipes for smoothies, cartoons about dieting, and work out ideas (depending on the time of day, I tend to skip those…just  reading about all those planks and lunges makes me tired).

I’ve made a Pinterest board for Sex, Soup, and Two Fisted Eating where I’m gathering some of my favorite pins.  Feel free to check it out HERE.2013 Summer 603

My favorite pin of the day is “I don’t need a personal trainer so much as I need someone to follow me around and slap unhealthy foods out of my hand.”  Hee hee, gotta love it!

“The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Matthew 26:41

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