Posts Tagged ‘almonds’

« Older Entries

Live Foods to Energize Your Life!

August 1st, 2010

When it comes to eating for energy, you may at times find yourself falling into familiar routines that become, well, dull. You might start off eating exotic and interesting fruits and vegetables until you discover your very favorite one; at which point, you begin to settle your habits around your new comfort foods, and lose the thrill of discovery in favor of convenience and habit.

But have faith, all of you who have found yourself in a dreary (but still better than cooked!) existance – there are still new foods out there for you to try. All it takes to break out of those raw food doldrums is a trip to your favorite alternative supermarket or local farmer’s market.

For instance, you might find yourself missing regular old pasta, or getting bored with the zucchini alternative, thinly slicing the fruit into long, pasta-like strands for your raw tomato sauces. But there are other options, like kelp noodles, that will give you your pasta fix and help you to discover new flavors.

Kelp noodles are made, of course, from kelp – an abundantly available plant in the oceans, sometimes called seaweed. But there is nothing weedy about this great plant, which can be reduced down to a noodle that requires no cooking before you eat it. Kelp is also low in calories, assumes the flavors of whatever sauces you partner it with, and is perfect for people with gluten allergies or those who want to avoid adding additional carbs to their diets.

Another area where raw food enthusiasts might find themselves lacking is in the sweets department. Gone are the processed sugars; in fact, some people will even avoid honey, depending on the method of it’s preparation. That doesn’t leave you with many options with which to sweeten your foods, but agave nectar can be a great solution for raw eaters. This thick liquid is often compared to maple syrup or molasses, but can be purchased raw. It comes from the agave cactus, which is also used to create tequila. It also contains many more nutrients, vitamins and minerals than sugar could ever hope to hold!

Last but not least, many raw food eaters have shied away from certain kinds of nuts, due to the way that many nuts are processed in certain countries. California, for example, uses a fast pasteurization process on all almonds, rendering them, by most standards, cooked. This kills off many of the key benefits of the almond, and leave a lot of raw food people to look elsewhere for their fiber. But if you search enough, you can find truly raw almonds. Spain, for one, does not subject their almonds to these cooking processes, so a Spanish almond should be safe for your raw diet, and beneficial to your body the way it was intended to be. The key with almonds, and indeed all nuts, is to carefully read the labels, or ask your grocer. With the proper research, you can find nuts that are truly raw, instead of simply being “not roasted”.

2 comments »

Posted in Food For Thought

Tags:

Eating for Energy Smoothie and Juice Guide

July 29th, 2010

FreshFruitSmoothieI am often asked what I eat for breakfast in order to be always be in such a great mood. Well, besides, always having energy to enjoy the day, using the 50 pages of smoothie & juice guide that Yuri gave me with my Eating  For Energy book gives me ideas and combinations to more than fill 365 days of breakfast solutions.

If you have a busy lifestyle(who doesn’t), skipping breakfast is a great mistake. I did it for years and still suffer from it today. Always being tired and “out of gas” before lunch had been a problem for years until I learned why smoothies and juice were the ideal solution:

  1. They are quick to prepare in the morning or the night before.
  2. You can use fresh fruit from the freezer, blend with your own home made nut milk(always fresh) and in less than 5 minutes you are out the door.
  3. A quick get away in the morning when you are full of energy is the only solution. Just take the smoothie or juice with you, that’s all. Simple?

Digestibility of the drink in the morning is the key to a healthy breakfast success. Having a big breakfast use to make my stomach ache in the morning going to work. I think that is a big reason why we tend to skip it. We think we are doing our stomachs a favor, and maybe we where, but our energy levels have always suffered.

  • The whole eating thing as to do with what the food does for our bodies. Highly digestible foods, that quickly gets to our blood streams to give us energy without upseting our sleeping stomachs, is the key to smoothies and juices. You drink it, it goes through your stomach within minutes, is absorbed into your system and “voila”, everyone is happy!
  • Smoothies and juice prepared from real fruits and vegetables(no store bought processed stuff for me) gives me all the vitamins and nutrition without the excess fibers and stomach discomforts.
  • Let your stomach breath and sleep easy every morning. Have a smoothie or a juice and your stomach will thank you for it. Believe me when I tell you that your energy level will jump. Try it for a week and let me know.

The variety will get your whole family involved. You will have a waiting list of everyone’s favorite. Each will have there own combinations and you will see beaming faces in the morning.(Have you ever seen Yuri not be beaming?)

You can have  a Spinach Pear Smoothie, page 310.

A Cinnamon Banana Smoothie, page 313.

A Blueberry Sunrise, page 315, incredible great stuff is written in ink next to it in my book.

Bananamania (great for the kids too) page 331.

The list goes on and on. I am trying to paint a breakfast picture for you here!

Yerry and Yammy’s Green Juice, page 336.

Apple-Pear Morning Pick ME Up, page 340.

Are you starting to get the picture? No more excuses. Get the Eating For Energy book today. You can download it before breakfast and use what you have in the refrigerator right now.

Have a great time and feel the energy Pierrette & I feel every morning.

P.S. Do you have a favorite juice or smoothie recipe to share with us?

Pierre & Pierrette Trudel: from http://www.theequest.com

Thee Quest For Perfect Health

No comments »

Posted in Client Journeys, General Nutrition

Tags:

Raw Superfoods

June 18th, 2010

You might think that all foods are alike. Everything you eat, after all, is just a form of fuel to keep your body moving, and besides differences in taste, it’s all just energy.

Well, all right, you probably don’t think that. You know that there is a world of difference between eating a fresh raw salad and, say, a double cheeseburger from the local fast food joint. You know that eating a diet high in raw and uncooked foods is an important way to keep your body healthy and strong.

But if you think the first comment is a foolish one, stop to consider how many people think about raw foods. As a group, they are lumped together in the “good for you” grouping, and for some, that’s as far as it goes. It’s all raw, it’s all good, and really, one raw food item is as good for you as the next.

But that sort of thinking is nearly as misguided as those who can’t see the difference between cooked and uncooked foods. Comparing all raw foods and calling them good is missing out on some of the greatest superfoods that the raw diet can offer.

These superfoods are so chock-full of vitamins, minerals and other goodies that comparing them to “ordinary” raw foods is like comparing apples to…

ALMONDS. You might think these are just another nut, but beneath their shells lay one of the greatest raw superfoods you could possibly find. While it certainly doesn’t hurt that they taste great, offer a satisfying crunch that can be added to any meal and are among the most easily portable of all raw foods, it is what is inside that really counts. Consumption of raw almonds has been shown to help reduce the bad cholesterol in the body; they offer a great source of natural fiber to help regulate your body’s digestive cycle; they contain huge amounts of Vitamin E, calcium and iron; and their bulk can help to fill your stomach in between meals without gorging on excessive calories. What more could you ask for from a simple nut?

ORANGES. Again, this is one of those superfoods that seem to have a secret identity. You see it everywhere, but no one acknowledges what an important role this delicious citrus fruit can play in your healthy raw lifestyle. Oranges contain a cavalcade of important vitamins, have been shown in studies to reduce the risk of such terrible conditions as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, can help to rehydrate you after an intense workout, and can lower your risk of developing heart and circulatory problems.

MACA. This one is the wild card, the raw food item you might not have heard of before, but should certainly take some time to look at. This Peruvian wonder fruit contains tons of vitamins, healthy acids and assorted minerals that are essential to good health. As an added bonus, this fruit is said to be somewhat of an aphrodisiac, and is nicknamed “Natural Viagra”. It is also known for its amazing ability to restore your blood pressure to a more natural level, no matter where you currently stand. Maca can reduce blood pressure for those who suffer from high blood pressure, and raise it for those who suffer from low blood pressure. Now that is a superfood!

No comments »

Posted in Raw Foods

Tags:

Why Raw Foods Give You More Energy

May 3rd, 2010

You have heard the term “eat for energy” as it applies to a raw food diet, and sure, it sounds wonderful. But when you stop to think about it, does it make sense to you? For most of us, “energy” foods are sometimes the least healthy options, and we pull our fuel from the caffeine, sugar and fats that we consume on the go as a quick option to get something into our stomachs.

Is that what energy has meant for you in the past? Have you felt the low, hungry craving for something sweet and filling? Have you felt the lack of energy that you thought could only be rectified by devastating a box of doughnuts?

Many of us have felt this way, and that is why the idea of a raw food diet being a high energy diet can sometimes sounds like a misdirection at best, and an outright lie at worst. But the truth is, someone who eats raw foods is going to get more energy than the rest of us.

Take, for instance, that essential “energy” food, the morning cup of coffee. Many of us swear by it, and fortunes have been made on our dependence on it. Yes, it gives you energy – the caffeine gives you a boost in attention and focus, and the sugar spikes into the bloodstream to give you the extra pep. But that caffeine kick fades fast, and the sugar jolt quickly becomes a deficit. Coffee leaves you worse for wear.

Compare that to the eating for energy alternative for a morning pick-me-up, the all-powerful and ever-popular green smoothie. There is no caffeine to be found here, and no processed sugars. Instead, you have great natural fibre to fill you up and keep you full for hours; tons of vitamins to provide your body with the elements needed to keep you running in optimal health; and enough healthy calories to give you the fuel you need to operate until lunchtime.

Another example is the energy bar. This candy-bar-in-disguise has been marketed to us as the best possible thing you could eat after a hard workout, but that is only true if you want to undo all of the hard work you just performed. Energy bars are empty calories and sweet nothings, and their “energy” comes from processed sugars and other additives. If you really want a healthy – and energizing – snack after a hard workout, nothing beats the raw rush of a handful of raw almonds and a tall glass of cold water. The water is essential to keep your body hydrated after sweating away a good deal of your fluids, while the almonds provide you with fats to feed your fatigued muscles and living food enzymes to help with the digestion of the fibre they contain.

A raw food diet may sound far-fetched to some, but rest assured, it can give you much more energy than the products you have seen in commercials that promise easy energy. Raw eating gives you more flavor, more vitamins, and more energy to live your life.

1 comment »

Posted in Food For Thought, Raw Foods

Tags:

Foods to Eat Raw

April 6th, 2010

If you are interested starting a raw food diet, you might be at a loss on just one tiny sticking point – what exactly can you eat raw?

Sure, you can eat all the fruits and veggies that you want, but is that all there is to a raw diet? Can you really just live on salads? Don’t worry, a raw food diet can include a lot more than simply spinach and strawberries.

Now, don’t fret. This isn’t just going to be a list of random ingredients with no indication on how you might use them. I mean, sure you can eat nuts and grains and sprouts, but what do you do with a sprout? Is it enough for a meal? You don’t want a shopping list here, you want to know what foods you can eat raw.

Well, how about pizza?

Yes, there are recipes galore that will allow you to eat your favorite fast food pie but in a delicious and healthy raw form. An easy variation involves blending together some buckwheat sprouts, soaked almonds, flax seeds, onion, carrot and garlic into a dough-like consistency for the crust. This crust is then spread thin on a sheet and dehydrated overnight.

Once it’s dry enough, you can cover it with a beautiful raw pizza sauce made from roma tomatoes, fresh basil and garlic. Over that, layer on the red and green peppers, mushrooms and olives.

Want more raw food help?

How about some faux pepperoni on that pizza? All you need to do is thinly slice up some eggplant, and marinade it with a mixture of cold-pressed olive oil, kosher salt, chilli pepper and cayenne pepper. Once thoroughly marinated, pop them in the dehydrator for a few hours, and presto! Peppe-RAW-ni for your pizza.

If pizza is not your thing, then perhaps you would prefer some raw nachos? Instead of oily, over-salted, processed corn chips drowning in cheesy fat, you can munch on something healthy, but still utterly delicious.

Making your own chips is easy – simply blend some flax seeds, corn, sesame seeds, soaked almonds, garlic and a bit of chilli powder, adding water as needed. Spoon the mixture out onto a tray, sprinkle on a little bit of kosher salt, and dehydrate until crispy.

Of course, you can also whip up some fresh raw salsa to go with your chips – just roughly blend some tomatoes, jalapenos and a few spices – or even some fresh guacamole. Toss on a few extra jalapeno slices and some black olives, and you have a snack that can’t be beat.

With either of these recipes, you may be saying it’s pointless without the cheese. Well, you can do one of two things – either hit the local health foods supermarket and find yourself a good (but pricey) raw cheese, or you can make your own cheese substitute. There are tons of great recipes online, usually using nuts like almonds, blended down to a soft, cheese-like texture.

The point here is, learning how to eat a raw food diet means learning that there is so much more than just fruits and vegetables. With a little creativity, they can be almost any meal you desire!

1 comment »

Posted in Raw Foods

Tags: