Posts Tagged ‘alkalinity’

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New Additions To My Kitchen

August 28th, 2010

H2O aka Water

HPIM1628I finally purchased a water filtration system a few weekends ago.

One of the reasons I held off buying this was price. The model online I was looking at was very expensive, but this was something I didn’t want to compromise on since I would have it for a long time and would be using it everyday. Thankfully I found a reasonably priced one at a local health food store. It has everything I was looking for. It:

  • Filters unwanted chemicals like chlorine
  • Mineralises the water
  • Alkalizes the water
  • Is a countertop model
  • Requires simple maintenance

I really wanted to purchase some litmus paper and test the PH blanace of the filtered water compared to my tap water and show you guys in the photo, but do you think I could find any? Alas, it was not meant to be, so for now I’m just going to have to trust the claim that it alkalizes my water.

The second reason I delayed this purchase was that my tap water tastes good. Taste wise, I don’t notice any difference between the two. I know in the larger cities the tap water tastes awful, and I can’t even stand to brush my teeth with it, but where I live it tastes clean. But because I know it still has bad things like chlorine in it (even if I don’t notice) I bought the filtration system, and if nothing else, it makes me feel better.

Juicing

HPIM1625Another purchase I recently made was a food emulsifier. I liked it because I could make both smoothies and juices without any waste. Well, my first attempt at making a juice was a disaster, and I’ve discovered there is a definite learning curve to using this thing.

The emulsifier works differently than a juicer in that you put the whole vegetable in and it pulverizes it into a liquid. Following Yuri’s recipe for Green Revolution, the result was a thick goopy mess, so I added some water to thin it out. Then I added more water and ran it for several minutes. It worked, except the friction from the blade heated the juice! Trust me, warm green juice isn’t the greatest. So I put it in the fridge (the entire jug full) and let it cool.

The end result: I still didn’t like it (Sorry, Yuri.) I did drink most of it because I committed so much food to its making and I knew it was good for me, but never again. My emulsifier also sat unused for a week.

The next weekend I tried something simpler: kale, spinach and an apple. I also added water right from the start and didn’t run it as long. This time, I like what I got – a green juice that tastes like apple. I haven’t used it again, but I hope to utilize it more in the future and make yummy smoothies and juices to drink.

I bought some frozen berries to make some “ice-cream” instead of using frozen bananas. I’m looking forward to it.

Nichole

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Posted in Client Journeys

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Eating for Energy Recipe of the Week: Alkalizing Cucumber Soup

May 26th, 2010

Hello beautiful people! This week’s Eating for Energy recipe of the week is Alkalizing Cucumber Soup. I decided to start with a soup recipe because I’ve never tried a raw soup before. I’ve always suspected that I wouldn’t like them, and I finally had a reason to test that theory. Plus, I had all the ingredients on hand, and it looked pretty easy.

Ingredients:

  • Avocado
  • Cucumber, peeled and chopped
  • Chopped fresh dill
  • Lemon juice
  • Dulse flakes

(For recommended amounts see Eating for Energy page 234. Sorry, but I can’t divulge all of Yuri’s secrets!)

Makes two servings.

The directions say to throw everything into a blender and blend until smooth and creamy. I had my doubts about how well avocado would do in my blender, but I figured I’d just follow the directions to start with and adjust if needed. So, I threw everything into the blender and turned it on low. Sure enough, the blades created a vertical tunnel. All the ingredients got pushed to the sides and just sat there.

So, I transferred everything to my mini food processor. This worked better, but not great. It took longer than expected and left the cucumbers chunky.

Using the amounts of ingredients recommended in the book, I ended up with a goo closer to the consistency of a dip than a soup, so I added more lemon juice, altogether about twice as much lemon juice as recommended.

The end result was a delightful minty green colored soup with dark purple flecks. Very pretty. (I would have taken a picture, but that’s not my forte, and it probably would have done more harm than good.)

Taste Test

Now, comes the most important part: the taste test!

In a word: pleasant.

I didn’t have very high hopes for this recipe after it took so much longer to make than I expected. I thought it would take about 10 minutes to just throw it all into a blender and blend it up, but it took more like 50 minutes. I originally thought it would be not great but good enough to make when I needed something quick, and since it wasn’t so quick …

However, I was pleasantly surprised. It has a very light, refreshing taste and goes down easy. I thought the dill would overpower the cucumber, but no. My daughter Ali liked it even more than I did, which is surprising since she doesn’t like cucumbers. The aftertaste is the best part. After I got done with it, I didn’t drink any water for quite some time because I didn’t want to wash the lingering taste away.

My 8-year-old son Michael said, “Yuck! … but it goes away quickly.” Meaning, he didn’t like it, but that was easy to deal with because it didn’t stick around in his mouth for a long time.

Lessons Learned

Changes I will make next time:

  • Use a mini food processor, not a blender.
  • Mash avocado up by hand.
  • Process cucumber by itself first. Then, add all other ingredients.
  • Use more dulse flakes to make it a little saltier.
  • Maybe add a bit of water to thin it out just a little more.

Conclusions

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

I will definitely make this again, and with these changes, I expect it will take only 10 minutes to make.

Next week, Blueberry Morning. See you next week!

– Terri

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Posted in Client Journeys, Raw Food Recipes

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9 Reasons Your Body Needs to Be Alkaline

November 30th, 2009

RBCsThe reasons for which being alkaline is so important are numerous. But let’s summarize them by establishing the importance of a healthy acid-alkaline (or pH) balance in your body’s most important tissue – the blood.

First, a definition of pH and the pH scale is needed.

The pH (potential of hydrogen) is a measure of acid and alkalinity and is measured on a scale of 0 – 14, where 7 is neutral. A pH of 0 is very acidic and a pH of 14 is the most alkaline. Your blood needs to be at a pH of between 7.35 – 7.45 for you to live.

This is absolutely critical for normal enzyme function, oxygen transport, and pretty much every other process that involves the blood. One of the most critical reasons for needing to maintain this acid-alkaline level is that failing to do so can severely compromise the integrity and function of your red blood cells!

Under normal alkaline conditions, each of your red blood cells (which circulate in your blood and carry oxygen to your cells) is surrounded by a negative charge. It is this negative charge that prevents your red blood cells (RBC) from sticking together – since ‘like’ charges repel one another.

However, if your blood becomes slightly acidic, those negative charges can be diminished or stripped. Too much acid in your blood strips away the negative charge around the RBC and as a result these oxygen carrying cells lose their ability to repel one another. So, they coagulate (or stick together) and your blood becomes thick, lethargic, and slow moving. Your body then becomes a reflection of this situation. You feel tired, lethargic, and sluggish.

If oxygen and nutrients are not being properly delivered to your cells how can you be healthy and be expected to operate at your best? As these compromised RBC continue circulating in this acidic blood stream, they begin to lose their membrane integrity and leak their contents into the bloodstream – spilling toxins, bacteria, and debris.

So, this “spillage” caused by the hemolysis (RBC destruction) further adds toxins and acidity to the blood; which in turn exacerbates the problem. This is just one reason why being alkaline is so important.

Without going into excessive detail please bear in mind that an acidic body is correlated with greater incidence of pretty much all disease. Being acidic means that your body is slowly but surely decaying and rotting! Cells, tissues, and vital organs eventually succumb and your body’s health becomes severely compromised.

Here are few more reasons why being alkaline is a must.

Consequences of an Acidic Body

1. If you are overweight, you don’t have a fat problem, you have an acid problem! An
overly acidic body is forced to pump out more insulin, which tells your cells to store
sugar and fat. Second, in order to protect the vital organs and blood vessels, your
body will store acid in the fat cells.

2. Too much acid impairs the ability of your red blood cells to carry oxygen to your
cells. When oxygen is unable to reach your cells, all bodily functions are
compromised.

3. Free radical damage of cell walls is accelerated in an acidic environment. Free
radical damage is the beginning of all degeneration in the body including aging,
eyesight and memory problems, wrinkles, age spots, and much more!

4. Acid in the blood acts as a chemical irritant that slowly attacks and erodes the
smooth muscle of the inner walls of arteries and veins. This is a contributing
factor to heart and cardiovascular diseases.

5. Acidosis disrupts “normal” lipid and fatty acid metabolism, which can lead to
poor cellular integrity, compromised immune function, and neurological and
hormonal imbalances.

6. Acid greatly increases the likelihood of cellular mutations. Several Nobel Prize
winning scientists including Dr. Otto Warburg and Dr. Harry Goldblatt have
confirmed this observation. Cancer is characterized by the uncontrollable
proliferation of abnormal or mutated cells!

7. An overly acidic body impairs proper electrolyte activity. This can lead to impaired
nerve and muscle function, and compromised functioning of the kidneys.

8. The body has decreased access to energy reserves due to the disruption of
efficient cellular and body metabolism.

9. An acidic body allows the binding of cholesterol to heavy metals and other cellular
debris, increasing the rate at which plaque builds up in the blood vessels.

Are you ready to get more alkaline. If so, grab your copy of Eating for Energy today!

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3 Easy Ways to Boost Your Immunity

November 4th, 2009

Since  beginning our soccer season just 4 months ago, I’ve been amazed at how many of our players have been sick. Now I’m not talking about H1N1 (at least I don’t that’s what’s going on) but instead the common cold and even flu.

One of the reasons these kinds of sicknesses can spread so easily within a sports team is that the guys spend a lot of time together, they shake hands and don’t follow proper hand washing protocols, possibly share water bottles, and don’t necessarily eat the healthiest of diets.

After all, they are university students.

So if you find yourself in a similar situation or know someone who is, then the following 3 tips to boosting your immunity will help.

Before we get into the specifics, I want you to consider your overall diet. If you eat a whole foods diet (preferably raw) then you are already providing tremendous immune support – via good nutrition.

However, the poorer your diet, the weaker your immune system and the more susceptible you will be to getting sick.

Look at it this way…

Food can be a form of physical stress to your body. Eat the wrong foods and you increase the stress load, which in turn taxes your immune system even more.

But eat the right foods and you provide the nutrients and stress-free environment for your immune system to focus on more important issues.

Alright, so now let’s look these 3 easy ways to boost your immunity so you can prevent getting sick or get over a cold if you already have one.

1. Alkalize and Oxygenate Your Body

When you think alkalinity, think oxygenation. Alkalinity brings more oxygen into your body. The reason it is important to alkalize and oxygenate your body is that “unfriendly” micro-organisms do not flourish in oxygen-rich environments.

For instance, cancer has been shown to flourish in acidic, oxygen-deprivated tissues, yet will literally die off when exposed to high oxygen environments inside the body. That’s why one of the most important things you can do to prevent (and treat) cancer is drink (and eat) lots of greens – which are the highest source of alkalinity on the planet. It’s actually too bad that the medical establishment doesn’t even know about the power of greens for improving the vitality of the human body.

Some of my favourite strategies for alkalizing my body (and those of my clients) are the following:

- green juices (my favourite contains kale, celery, cucumber, parsley, lemon, ginger, and apple)
- green smoothies (one of my favourites has spinach, spirulina, apple, banana, and lime juice)
- wheat grass shots (just 1 oz has the nutritional value of 2 lbs of vegetables)
- barley grass powder added to water (very similar properties as wheat grass)
- lemon water throughout the day

All of these nutritional strategies will add tremendous alkalinity (ie. alkalizing minerals such calcium, potassium, magnesium) to your body and create an internal physiology that strengthens your immune system and prevents bacteria, viruses, and other nasty critters from spreading!

2. Avoid Refined Sugar

This is an important one. Entire books have been written on the body-decaying effects that sugar brings about. From an immune system perspective, it has been shown that as little as 1 tablespoon of refined sugar can depress your immune system for up to 6 hrs! Moreover, sugar curtails the action of the immune system’s lymphocytes and other “foreign invader-killing” cells.

If you want to avoid getting sick and want to skyrocket your health, minimizing or avoiding refined sugars may be one of the most important things you do.

3. Fortify Your Defenses with Natural Immune Boosters

I’m not a fan of antibiotics – not by a long shot. They actually create more sickness (or business) for the health care system to deal with.

In order to avoid having to use them, you need to eat a clean whole foods diet (preferably a raw diet) and you can further boost your defenses with the following natural weapons:

Garlic – it’s active ingredient – allicin – is an incredible natural “anti-everything” will fend off bacteria, viruses, fungi, and much more.

Oregano oil – wow! If there’s one thing you need in your medicine cabinet it’s this powerful essential oil. Anytime you feel any kind of cold coming on, just drink 1-2 drops of oregano oil with 1 oz of water a few times a day and you’ll be feeling in no time. Oregano oil also kills off the unwanted yeast – candida albicans!

Probiotics – Having good bacteria to balance out the 400 different types of mico-organisms in your colon will definitely support your immune system. Your best source will come from supplementation but naturally fermented foods and drinks like miso, sauerkraut, and kombucha are also good food-based sources.

Not only are these tips great for builing your immune system but they will obviously create a strong foundation for great health.

Considering the spread of H1N1 and how many unhealthy people there are, you need to fortify your defenses – naturally!

To give you some more helpful tips, you can watch this video I put together on natural cold remedies about a year ago. Enjoy!

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Eating for Energy on TV

September 15th, 2009

In case you haven’t already seen me and my book, Eating for Energy, on Breakfast Television, then you now is your chance.

Here is the video interview where I give the viewers greater insight into Eating for Energy and discuss the importance of alkalinity, raw foods, and other fundamental nutrition principles.

Enjoy…

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Posted in Raw Foods

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