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Turkish Chopped Salad Recipe

By Melissa Joulwan (@melicious11) / May 2, 2013

Flowers are blooming. Birds are chirping. I’m burrowing out of my winter hibernation. Spring has sprung! And that means one thing for my eating habits: I’m craving fresh vegetables!

This is one of those recipes that makes everyone think you’re a genius because it tastes so good (while inside you know the real secret: lots of chopping). Think of it as a secret weapon for your next potluck. Bright and crunchy, it’s ridiculously healthy — without tasting like it’s ridiculously healthy — and it’s so friendly and eager to please. Cut the recipe in half if you don’t want leftovers or double it up to share at a potluck.

Make this recipe your own! Add other raw veggies like slivered red cabbage, fennel, or a few hot peppers. Toss in green olives instead of black, or roasted red peppers instead of raw. The only requirement? Chop everything into equal-sized dice, so no one taste dominates. And if you eat dairy, you might also want to toss in some goat’s milk feta cheese cubes… just sayin’…

Turkish Chopped Salad

PREP 15 minutes (all chopping!) | SERVES 6-8

INGREDIENTS
Dressing:
1 cup fresh parsley leaves, minced (about 1/4 cup)
juice of 2 lemons (about 1/4 cup)
1 clove garlic, minced (about 1 teaspoon)
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon sumac (optional)
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
salt and black pepper, to taste

Salad:
2 medium cucumbers, peeled
2 medium green peppers, seeded
3 medium tomatoes
1/2 medium red onion
1 bunch radishes, tops removed
1 can (6 ounces) large black pitted olives

DIRECTIONS
Chop the parsley and place in a medium bowl. Add the lemon juice, garlic, cumin, paprika, oregano, and sumac. Whisk until blended, then slowly drizzle in the oil, stirring vigorously. Season with salt and pepper, taste, then adjust seasonings.

Dice all the vegetables into roughly the same size — a 1/4-inch dice is nice — and place in a large mixing bowl. Slice the olives and add to the bowl.

Pour the dressing over the salad and toss with two wooden spoons until the vegetables are coated. Taste and adjust seasonings.

Melissa Joulwan blogs at The Clothes Make The Girl and is author of Well Fed: Paleo Recipes for People Who Love to Eat.

Teas Me

By Jill Grunewald (@JGrunewaldHNC) / April 25, 2013

Tea is cool again. Walk into any modern teashop (many are cropping up around the country) and you’ll likely find an elegantly-lined wall of beautiful earth-toned tea leaves, all waiting to be steeped and savored. The image of well-to-dos sitting upright, pinkie finger curled, is a thing of the past (at least for most of us), and these hip hangouts are here to stay.

The Bud or the Bean?

When it comes to variety, these walls of tea put many a coffee shop to shame. But it’s not just the assortment of flavors and choices that is drawing many coffee lovers to experiment with “the other hot drink.” With the health benefits of tea broadcast far and wide in the recent years, it’s difficult to have missed all of the fuss it has garnered. Because of these benefits, many people have turned to tea as a nourishing alternative to coffee. Whether you’re reducing caffeine intake, or still need your morning buzz, tea is a delicious and refreshing change of routine.

Tea is grown and processed on large plantations throughout China, Japan, India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and Taiwan. According to tea expert Sebastian Beckwith, “All tea comes from one plant, Camellia sinensis. The differences in the many teas we have––whites, greens, oolongs, blacks, and pu-erhs––is in the specific varietal that was used, the local environment the tea was grown in, and the way it was processed.”

People have been drinking tea for as long as they’ve known how to heat water and recent scientific studies are proving what ancient cultures have known since before recorded history––drinking tea is really good for you. The benefits are quite remarkable:

Enhances immune function
Lowers LDL cholesterol levels
Increases HDL cholesterol levels
Reduces blood pressure
Thins the blood, reducing the risk of a heart attack
Lowers the risk of stroke
Reduces the risk of cancer
Boosts longevity
Aids digestion
Prevents dental cavities and gingivitis

Of the four types listed above, green tea has attracted the brightest spotlight due to having the richest polyphenol content, the antioxidant compounds that tackle free radicals and keep degenerative disease at bay. What many folks don’t realize is that while they’re getting this mighty dose of antioxidants (also found in other teas), what they’re drinking is also providing them with a healthy host of vitamins and minerals. Tea contains carotene, vitamin C, thiamin (vitamin B₁), riboflavin (vitamin B₂), vitamin B₆, panothenic acid, folic acid, manganese, and potassium.

Herb Friendly

Although herbal “teas,” such as mint, chamomile, lemon verbena, and jasmine often look like tea, are packaged like tea, and are steeped like tea, they are actually herbal infusions, or tisanes. These caffeine-free versions are made from other plants and flowers and derive their health-giving benefits not from the antioxidant-rich polyphenol compounds found in true tea, but in properties indigenous to the plant or flower, such as calming and relaxing effects. One newcomer to the spotlight is rooibos (roy-boss) “tea.” Rooibos means “red bush” in Afrikaans and originates from a shrub native to South Africa. Unlike herbal tea, rooibos contains antioxidants and has been shown to treat insomnia, headaches, allergies, and hypertension.

So forget Lipton; there is a whole world of teas (and “teas”) out there for you to get lost in. With more varieties than you can shake a stick at, you owe it to yourself to quiz your local teashop expert on what they have to offer.

Jill Grunewald is a Holistic Nutrition Coach and founder of Healthful Elements.

Are Your Life Choices Creating Vibrant Energy In Your Body?

By Heather and Damian Dubé (@e3EnergyEvolved) / April 23, 2013

There are more aspects to creating health energetically in the human body than just movement and nutrition.

You could be consuming an amazing nutrient-dense food profile, and still not absorbing the nutrients properly in the gut if you’re stressed, if you’re moving too much or multi-tasking while you’re eating, if you’re not masticating your food enough through chewing to break it down for absorption, for example.

So let’s touch quickly on a big energy enhancer or detractor in life: being truthful with yourself

Because in this crazy non-stop world many people rarely take time daily to reconnect internally themselves, they’re constantly looking and focused outwards.

Look inside – what are your deepest truths, desires, dreams? Are you living with integrity in your word, your work, those undeniable truths of yourself? This is a hugely under-estimated part of creating “health”. If you’re not living from a place of integrity, you’re creating emotional & spiritual imbalance in your being that leads to physical illness.

You may think you’re avoiding this, but your body always creates a counter-balance naturally in an attempt to adapt & return itself to balance as a reaction to what you’re doing to it. For every action there is an equal or greater reaction.

So you’re living the consequence right NOW, most people just aren’t connecting the dots that they’re chronic skin issues or their headaches could possibly be the fact that the life choices they’re making are dishonest or untruthful.

You cannot disconnect the mind & body.

Are you working a job you hate?
Are you being forced to do unethical things in your life?
Are you unsure who you want to show up as in this world so you’re faking it by trying to be someone else, instead of just becoming a better you?
Are you lacking integrity in your word, your commitment to yourself, or your loved ones?
Are there things you’ve always wanted to do that you keep putting off until next year?

It all matters ….stop kidding yourself that there are no consequences to “creating stress” or energetic unease by disconnection from your inner being or truth.

Live with integrity, speak your truth, share your passion and watch the wellness in your physical mind & body soar to a new level of vibrant endless energy everyday that you’ve never knew was really possible. True story.

Part Of My Naturally Healing Of My Hashimoto’s Disease & Adrenal Fatigue Had Nothing To Do With Physical, & Everything To Do With Taking An Honest Look In The Mirror At The First 35 Yrs Of My Life.

We speak from experience, having left our entire lives behind after healing my auto immune illness, Hashimoto’s disease, and adrenal fatigue naturally, and making the hard choices and doing the hard work to recreate our lives and begin our e3 Energy Evolved mission for others together.

It’s also how I’ve managed 70 + hour work weeks building e3 Energy Evolved, coaching clients, while training to prepare to compete naturally as a natural national level athlete for over a year.

Part of my healing from Hashimoto’s disease and chronic fatigue was not just nutrition, environmental or integrative health.

It was also taking a very deep honest look at my life and the choices & who I was being that was making that were draining my energy. This was a big one.

I had to face the mirror and look at Heather in her early 30′s for the first time.

I had to realize my adrenal-draining fire drill ad agency job was not healthy for MY body. Maybe someone else’s – but not how MY BODY handles stress. And the only body that mattered at that definitive moment if I wanted to heal naturally was MINE.

I had to stop trying to place the expectations on myself as a women that I could do it all, I should be able to do it all as a newly married, and I should be 200% perfect at all of it to be a “worthy wife”, no matter what I had to sacrifice of me to do it. I was worthy right now, even if my house wasn’t spotless clean all the time. We are united in our imperfections, not the illusion of perfection.

I had to realize that just living for a successful career and 401k’s was leaving some HUGE things out of the picture that weren’t resonating in my heart, that I knew deep down I was put here to serve people in coming to a greater naturally healed and balanced understanding and experience of the human body, and I had to be willing to sacrifice whatever it took, and take action to give that gift back to the world. I couldn’t go on holding the skills, experience and knowledge that Damian and I were gifted with because they weren’t ours alone to have or know. We had to speak up for the human body.

I wasn’t being fully honest or transparent with my mind or spiritual side, & my body was talking back.

Now, I’m not saying that there weren’t huge physical aspects to why I experienced this level of physical imbalance I did – there most definitely were.

What I AM saying is, the path to healing a stress or energy related illness requires we look at all the ways our mind and body are using energy, and we adjust to place our bodies health and ability to create energy #1 above all else.

Part of how Damian and I made it back naturally drug-free was changing how we lived our lives as we began to learn more about these areas of human body health & energy.

So I left a stressful, successful career behind, I started using my gifts everyday creating and educating freely, I began working to serve others for more than a paycheck & for a long time that meant letting go of ANY paycheck, I let go of what I had once believed were needs that were nothing more than possessions realizing what living this way was costing me, we completely changed our life goals and how we viewed money, we let go of our financial safety net & the security of things like insurance, savings & retirement planning for awhile to start a business in our purpose, we returned to school to further our education in our passion & teach, we starting placing what creates health daily on the TOP line item in our budget every single month, we brought back a regular spiritual practice, and I now use everyday to experience my own unique self and develop that more fully.

Ask yourself honestly right now – where are you denying your truth? …which is nothing more than denying the one thing of greatest value you’ll ever have a change at knowing & that’s who you’re meant to be in this world.

Are you feeling this way as a women? Are you pushing yourself too much, over doing, over compensating, not giving enough self-care to your own mind, body, spirit, over working, not creating breathing room? Ask yourself… who is that serving? what are you sacrificing? who else expects it other than you (no one!)? …and are you ready to let go of those choices to allow the space for health in your life?

Everything Is “Energy”, And We Are Either Creating Or Negating It. Pay Very Close Attention.

And be honest with yourself, and share your thoughts & comments below.

Here’s a huge one…. are you ASKING VERBALLY FOR THE HELP & SUPPORT YOU NEED?

Because before I became sick, I wasn’t. However, after I became very skilled at clearly communicating regularly to Damian what I needed help with for the household, what I needed in my life that created health and how he could support me to have that as a team, and he stepped to the plate.

But many women often are not saying verbally what we need. Instead we’re doing it all, not expressing our needs, expecting our spouse to understand what we need without asking, and getting stressed out and pissed off that they’re not mind readers helping, or that they don’t have the same expectations as we do.

Guess what – they never will. So stop expecting that. That’s the first step. This is part of living your truth too.

Here’s the catch: Time is not a guarantee, so you better get to figuring it out quick. But you don’t have to do it all today, have patience with yourself – however, you do have to START taking daily committed actions towards these changes. And remember, the things in life that give us the greatest joy always require the greatest sacrifice and work. This is something Damian and I started in early 2008 and we are still recreating our story and working at, it’s taken us over five years so far, but we have ZERO regrets, it’s been the hardest, yet the BEST choice we’ve made for our lives ever.

Everything is “energy“, and we are either creating or negating it. Pay very close attention.

Your health and energy will never be defined simply by movement & nutrition.

In energy for improved natural health, fat loss & fitness,

Natural Metabolic Recovery & Conditioning Specialists

Creators of the e3 Energy Evolved™ System | www.e3EnergyEvolved.com

Cooking Is a Revolutionary Act

By Mark Hyman, MD (@markhymanmd) / March 12, 2013

The cure for what ails us — both in our bodies and in our nation — can be found in the kitchen. It is a place to rebuild community and connection, strengthen bonds with family and friends, teach life-giving skills to our children, enrich and nourish our bodies and our souls. Yet, in the twenty-first century, our kitchens (and our taste buds) have been hijacked by the food industry. In 1900 only 2 percent of meals were eaten outside of the home; today that number is over 50 percent.

The food-like substances proffered by the industrial food system trick our taste buds into momentary pleasure. But our biology rejects the junk forced on our genes and on our hormonal and biochemical pathways. Your tongue can be fooled and your brain can become addicted to the slick combinations of fat, sugar, and salt pumped into factory- made foods, but your biochemistry cannot handle these foods, and the result is the disaster we have in America today — 70 percent of us are overweight, and obesity rates are expected to top 42 percent by the end of the next decade (up from only 13 percent in 1960).

Today one in two Americans has either pre-diabetes or diabetes. In less than a decade the rate of pre-diabetes or diabetes in teenagers has risen from 9 percent to 23 percent. Really? Almost one in four kids has pre-diabetes or type 2 diabetes? Yes, and, perhaps even more shocking, 37 percent of kids at a normal weight have one or more cardiovascular risk factors such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or high blood sugar, because even though factory food doesn’t necessarily make you fat, it does make you sick! The food industry taxes our health and mortgages our children’s futures. Obese children will earn less, suffer more, and die younger.

It is time to take back our kitchens and our homes. Transforming the food industry seems like a gigantic undertaking, but it is in fact an easy fix. The solution is in our shopping carts, our refrigerators, and our cupboards — and on our dining room tables. This is where the power is. It is the hundreds of small choices you make every day, choices that will topple the monolithic food industry.

We need a revolution. Cooking real food is a revolutionary act. We have lost the means to care for ourselves. We have now raised the second generation of Americans who don’t know how to cook. The average child in America doesn’t know how to identify even the most basic vegetables and fruit; our kids don’t know where their food comes from or even that it grows on a farm. Cooking means microwaving. Food comes in boxes, plastic bags, and cans. Reading labels is supremely unhelpful in identifying the source of most foods — the ingredients are mostly factory-made science projects with a remote and unrecognizable lineage to real food.

We are brainwashed into thinking that cooking real food costs too much, is too hard, and takes too long. Hence, we rely on inexpensive convenience foods. But these aren’t so convenient when we become dependent on hundreds of dollars of medication a month, when we can’t work because we are sick and fat and sluggish, or when we feel so bad we can’t enjoy life anymore. The average American spends eight hours a day in front of a screen (mostly the television) and spends more time watching cooking shows than actually cooking.

Convenience is killing us.

In fact, real food can be inexpensive. Choosing simple ingredients, cooking from scratch, shopping at discount club stores, and getting produce from community supported agriculture associations (CSAs), community gardens, or co-ops all build health and community and save money. Europeans spend nearly 20 percent of their income on food, Americans only about 9 percent. Food is the best investment in your health.

I believe in the power of collective intelligence. Within my community are hundreds, if not thousands, of unheralded chefs experimenting with food and creating extraordinary meals and recipes. Within our individual and our national communities is the cure for what ails us. We are the answer. We are the revolutionaries who will change the face of food in America and around the world. The Blood Sugar Solution Cookbook is the product of this collective intelligence. Truly, the community is the cure!

Yes, we need to change policy in order to change the food we grow and to subsidize real food instead of the walls of processed fat, sugar, flour, and trans fats that line our grocery and convenience stores. Yes, we need to end food marketing to children. We need to make schools safe zones for kids with only those products and activities that support healthy minds and bodies. There is no room for junk food or factory foods in schools. Period. Yes, we need all that and more to take back our kitchens and our health. But each of us can start at home with a kitchen makeover. Three simple actions can change everything:

Do a fridge makeover.
Do a pantry makeover.
Do a shopping cart makeover.

This book gives you advice on what to keep and what to discard from your fridge, pantry and shopping cart. It also provides recipes — gathered from our own community of health and cooking revolutionaries — to delight your palate, stimulate your senses, and nourish your body and soul. The recipes are designed to be made, shared, and enjoyed with friends and family. Think of this book as a roadmap to pleasure and health.

Once you have taken back your kitchen, then you can start something really revolutionary. Find eight (or so) people you would love to know better or spend more time with. Invite them to start a supper club — once a week or once a month. Rotate dinners at one another’s houses. Share the cooking by creating a potluck, or take turns choosing some favorite recipes from this cookbook and preparing a feast for all. At each dinner pick a topic — about food, health, or community — to discuss. Then let the juices flow. The stew of food and friendship will nourish you deeply. In this way — one by one, kitchen by kitchen, community by community — we will take back our health together!

Get started today! Get a copy of The Blood Sugar Solution Cookbook today. When you purchase this book from this link you will gain access to these exclusive bonuses:

An invitation to join Dr. Hyman on a live online webinar on March 27^th, 2013. Open to the first 500 buyers only.
In the Kitchen with Dr. Hyman – a “how to” online video series where Dr. Hyman shows you how to shift from a “factory food” diet that’s making you sick to meals that make you healthy. Featuring 90 minutes of entertaining how-to videos.
A 1-week Gluten-Free meal plan, with all new recipes.

** Pilar Gerasimo and her 101 Revolutionary Ways to be Healthy inspired the idea that cooking is a revolutionary act. To learn the other 100 revolutionary ways to be healthy, go to revolutionaryact.com or check out the app.

Mark Hyman, MD is family physician, a four-time New York Times bestselling author, and an international leader in his field.

Diet Is a Four-Letter Word

By Jill Grunewald (@JGrunewaldHNC) / February 20, 2013

Raise your hand if you’ve ever been on a diet. Most of us have, given that we live in an image-obsessed, diet-crazed society and that the quick fix weight loss business is a multibillion-dollar industry. Did dieting work for you? If so, were you able to achieve your goal and keep the weight off?

Dieting is a hard row to hoe. It’s not conducive to having a social life nor is it uncomplicated for those who prepare meals for others. When we diet, the journey is not as rewarding as the destination. It’s an experiment in deprivation that we subject ourselves to with determination and resolve to “do it this time.” But the percentage of people who achieve their goal via denial and sheer willpower and who maintain this newfound image is small.

A Broken System

Diets don’t work. If they did, diet gurus and authors touting “the way” wouldn’t tumble from their podiums and fade into obscurity. In listening to them hawk their programs and products, many think that a lifetime of thinness is a purchase away.

Assuming that diets work supports the false claim that each of us is identical, that each of us has the same ancestry, body type, activity level, metabolic type and personal preferences. These factors all shape our matchless bio-individuality and make it impossible for any diet to be all things to all people. According to Joshua Rosenthal, author of Integrative Nutrition, “Nature created us as unique human beings who, while sharing many similarities, are more remarkable for the ways we differ than for the ways we are alike.”

Dieting puts us at war with our natural selves, at war with our desires, our bodies and whatever foods we have labeled as being “bad.” This war is consuming, draining and distances us from the natural order of living. Marc David, visionary health and nutrition consultant and author of The Slow Down Diet and Nourishing Wisdom states, “Often, in our attempts to rid ourselves of negative food habits, we adopt strategies that make the conflict about having the habit more damaging that the habit itself.”

By assigning foods moral values, we set ourselves up for perpetual anxiety and struggle. In labeling ice cream bad, we invariably desire like mad, making it nearly impossible to resist. We then label ourselves bad for cheating, and the deprivation-guilt-punishment cycle perpetuates.

Hone Your Intuition

In this busy world we live in, it’s easy to eat on the run and mindlessly consume food to keep the hunger pangs at bay. Intuitive eating involves paying attention to what your body is communicating and eating only when hungry, eating slowly and attentively and stopping when full.

According to Dr. Andrew Weil, Founder and Director of the Program in Integrative Medicine at the College of Medicine, University of Arizona, “Intuitive eating is akin to the concept of mindful eating, which involves teaching the basic tenets of mindfulness meditation. Eating mindfully simply means slowing down, expressing gratitude for the food you are eating, and paying attention to feelings of fullness. Focusing on why you eat instead of what you eat may turn out to be the best route to healthy and permanent weight control.”

Forget About Quick Fixes

According to Pilar Gerasimo, “In less than two decades, more than 85% of our population will be overweight or obese. No magic diet, powder, pill, or elixir is going to solve the problems we’re wrestling with now. And forking over cash for quick fixes only lines the pockets of the quick-fix hucksters who helped get us into this mess. So instead of squandering your valuable time and money on miracle cures, invest in making healthy life changes for the long haul.”

I couldn’t agree more!

Jill Grunewald is a Holistic Nutrition Coach and founder of Healthful Elements.

Life: Less Processed

By Sarah Kay Hoffman (@sarahkayhoffman) / February 6, 2013

As of January 1, 2013, I re-committed myself to a “Life Unprocessed.” With that, I have found myself feeling better than I have in probably my whole life. I am cooking even more than before. I am truly discovering all the beauty that is created from the moment I get an idea in my head to that moment when the creation touches my lips.

Valentine’s Day is right around the corner. Pink and red are not even favorite colors, but this dish was so beautiful and absolutely delightful that I can’t help but adore what the pink and red combination brought to my life.

It is my hope that this meal is as much a Valentine’s Day table “decoration” as it is a brilliant, unprocessed meal for you and your loved ones.

Wild Salmon, Roasted Beets & Apples on a Bed of Greens with Homemade Apple-Spiced Vinaigrette

Ingredients: main meal

3 whole beets, trimmed and sliced
2 apples, cored and sliced
1 bunch kale
1 bunch swiss chard
3 heaping cups baby spinach
2 pieces wild salmon

Beets!

Ingredients: vinaigrette

apple, 1/8 c. finely chopped
olive oil, 5 tbsp.
apple cider vinegar, 1.5 tbsp.
cinnamon, 1/4 tsp.
clove, 1
sea salt, 1/8 tsp.
nutmeg, 1/4 tsp.
raw honey, 1 tbsp.

A bowl of greens, beets and apples is delicious all in its own!

Directions

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
Trim and slice beets.
Core and slice apples.
Place beets and apples in a roasting pan. Brush with a little olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt.
Bake in the oven for 20 minutes. Take out of the oven and stir. Bake for another 20 minutes. Take out of the oven and stir. Bake for a final 8 minutes.
Meanwhile, prepare the dressing by blending all ingredients together in a blender. Set in the fridge until meal is complete.
Next, chop up and place kale, swiss chard and spinach in a stir fry pan with olive oil and saute.
Once the beets and apples are done roasting, broil the salmon for 8-10 minutes on low.
Finally, layer your plate (or bowl) as such: bed of greens, topped with roasted beets and apples, topped with wild salmon and smothered with the apple-spiced vinaigrette.

Ready to Eat!

Hope you enjoy it!

Sarah Kay Hoffman is a blogger and “Chief Gutsy” at A Gutsy Girl Health Coaching.

Cultivating a Better Food System in 2013

By Danielle Nierenberg and Ellen Gustafson (@Food_Tank) / January 24, 2013

As we start 2013, many people will be thinking about plans and promises to improve their diet and health. But we think a broader collection of farmers, policy-makers, and eaters need new, bigger resolutions for fixing the food system – real changes with long-term impacts in fields, boardrooms, and on plates all over the world. These are resolutions that the world can’t afford to break with nearly one billion still hungry and more than one billion suffering from the effects of being overweight and obese. We have the tools—let’s use them in 2013!

Growing in Cities: Food production doesn’t only happen in fields or factories. Nearly one billion people worldwide produce food in cities. In Kibera, the largest slum in Africa, farmers are growing seeds of indigenous vegetables and selling them to rural farmers. At Bell Book & Candle restaurant in New York, customers are served rosemary, cherry tomatoes, romaine, and other produce grown from the restaurant’s aeroponic rooftop garden.

Creating Better Access: People’s Grocery in Oakland and Fresh Moves in Chicago bring mobile grocery stores to food deserts giving low-income consumers opportunities to make healthy food choices. Instead of chips and soda, they provide customers with affordable organic produce, not typically available in their communities.

Eaters Demanding Healthier Food: Food writer Michael Pollan advises not to eat anything that your grandparents wouldn’t recognize. Try eating more fruits, vegetables, and whole foods without preservatives and other additives.

Cooking More: Home economics classes have declined in schools in the United Kingdom and the U.S. and young people lack basic cooking skills. Top Chefs Jamie Oliver, Alice Waters, and Bill Telepan are working with schools to teach kids how to cook healthy, nutritious foods.

Creating Conviviality: According to the Hartman Group, nearly half of all adults in the U.S. eat meals alone. Sharing a meal with family and friends can foster community and conversation. Recent studies suggest that children who eat meals with their families are typically happier and more stable than those who do not.

Focus on Vegetables: Nearly two billion people suffer from micronutrient deficiencies worldwide, leading to poor development. The World Vegetable Center, however, is helping farmers grow high-value, nutrient rich vegetables in Africa and Asia, improving health and increasing incomes.

Preventing Waste: Roughly one-third of all food is wasted—in fields, during transport, in storage, and in homes. But there are easy, inexpensive ways to prevent waste. Initiatives like Love Food, Hate Waste offer consumers tips about portion control and recipes for leftovers, while farmers in Bolivia are using solar-powered driers to preserve foods.

Engaging Youth: Making farming both intellectually and economically stimulating will help make the food system an attractive career option for youth. Across sub-Saharan Africa, cell phones and the internet are connecting farmers to information about weather and markets; in the U.S., Food Corps is teaching students how to grow and cook food, preparing them for a lifetime of healthy eating.

Protecting Workers: Farm and food workers across the world are fighting for better pay and working conditions. In Zimbabwe, the General Agricultural and Plantation Workers Union of Zimbabwe (GAPWUZ), protects laborers from abuse. In the U.S., the Coalition of Immokalee Workers successfully persuaded Trader Joe’s and Chipotle to pay the premium of a penny-per-pound to Florida tomato pickers.

Acknowledging the Importance of Farmers: Farmers aren’t just farmers, they’re business-women and men, stewards of the land, and educators, sharing knowledge in their communities. Slow Food International works with farmers all over the world, helping recognize their importance to preserve biodiversity and culture.

Recognizing the Role of Governments: Nations must implement policies that give everyone access to safe, affordable, healthy food. In Ghana and Brazil, government action, including national school feeding programs and increased support for sustainable agricultural production, greatly reduced the number of hungry people.

Changing the Metrics: Governments, NGOs, and funders have focused on increasing production and improving yields, rather than improving nutrition and protecting the environment. Changing the metrics, and focusing more on quality, will improve public and environmental health, and livelihoods.

Fixing the Broken Food System: Agriculture can be the solution to some of the world’s most pressing challenges—including unemployment, obesity, and climate change. These innovations simply need more research, more investment, and ultimately more funding.

Danielle Nierenberg and Ellen Gustafson are the co-founders of Food Tank: The Food Think Tank. Danielle is based in Chicago, IL and Ellen is based in San Diego, CA.

What Eating Chocolate Taught Me About Feeling Just Right

By Sheila Viers (@sheilaviers) / December 11, 2012

Last weekend was my first real taste of the holiday spirit. We went to Seattle to visit my Dad and on Saturday we went downtown, to Pike Place Market (you know, where they throw the fish) and it was bustling with Christmas shoppers, fresh pine wreaths, and holiday music.

We did all the touristy things like visiting the Space Needle and went to Chihuly Garden and Glass (highly recommend), but then we spent some time out in nature too.

We also took a tour of the Theo Chocolate Factory. Being the chocolate lover that I am, I was in heaven. Their chocolate bars are amazing and they had samples of everything.

Going into the tour I set the intention that I wanted to feel good afterward, so I didn’t want to O.D. on chocolate. My prayers were answered.

The Proper Way to Eat Chocolate

During the tour, our tour guide showed us the proper way to eat quality chocolate. First, you place a small square of the chocolate bar in your mouth.

Then you bite it a few times. Then you let it sit on your tongue and melt. This is when all of the flavors are released.

I’ve heard this before, but having this reminder as I was eating the chocolate was so helpful! What a difference this makes.

Eating the pieces of chocolate in this way was so satisfying and the pieces last so much longer. I was much more present in what I was doing and was able to enjoy the flavors and textures of each piece of chocolate so much more.

Once the tour was over, I left feeling completely happy with the amount of chocolate that I ate. I didn’t feel sick and I didn’t feel deprived, I felt just right.

Set the Intention to Feel “Just Right”

I think this is an important thing to practice during the holiday season, whether you are eating chocolate, cookies, or mashed potatoes.

You don’t have to feel deprived, and you also don’t have to overdo it just because it’s the holidays. It’s possible to go to your holiday parties, eat, enjoy, and leave feeling just right.

Set the intention when you wake up in the morning, before you bake your holiday cookies, go to the party, or before you put the food on your plate.

You want to feel good. You want to make food choices that leave you feeling not overly full, not deprived, but just right.

What’s one holiday event that you plan to set this intention for?

Sheila Viers is an Emotional Eating Expert, Holistic Life Coach and co-founder of Live Well 360.

3 Quick Lifestyle & Nutrition Tips To Boost Glutathione Naturally

By Heather and Damian Dubé (@e3EnergyEvolved) / November 20, 2012

A primary concept of natural healing and the human body that many aren’t aware of just yet is regeneration: the human body is constantly regenerating itself at a cellular level. When we focus on learning various ways we can support our bodies to better regenerate themselves naturally, we can and often do experience positive shifts in our health.

Whether it’s movement, holistic nutrition, environment, or wellness lifestyle, there is much we can do to improve our quality of health and life naturally. To this end, in my own journey to work at naturally healing my rare neurological condition of 22 years, I’ve been learning more over the last year about the natural healing and health benefits available through the powerhouse nutrient glutathione

There are currently over 76,000 research articles that speak to glutathione as a major player in holistic human body health, disease prevention, and optimal human body function and performance.

Today, our bodies are under significantly more stress related to societal changes as our environment continues to shift. These changes make detoxification strategies much more necessary to maintain good levels of auto immune system function and immune health.

Glutathione is comprised of 3 amino acids – cysteine, glycine & glutamine– it is a powerful anti-oxidant and detoxifier.

Your body produces it naturally, but unfortunately the stressors of today’s world significantly deplete our bodies’ natural glutathione levels and immune strength by overwhelming the body with oxidative stress and toxins. Heavy metal toxins also build up in the human body organism over many years cumulatively, that further deplete natural glutathione stores.

Over time, this can weaken liver function, which correlates to glutathione deficiency. Therefore, to be effective if our health is in a state of imbalance we can consider ways to naturally restore our glutathione levels as part of our means to restore overall healthful balance and normal body function.

Glutathione is excellent for detoxification of the body naturally, as it is able to enter the blood, brain and other areas where it then attaches to and removes toxins embedded in actual cells. The power for it to do this is in the sulfur component, to which toxic compounds seem to adhere to well for easy removal. Glutathione also recycles antioxidants and aids the body to address free radicals.

When your body becomes overwhelmed with oxidative stress and toxins, numerous health imbalances may result: adrenal fatigue, chronic skin conditions, neurological dysfunction, auto immune illness, metabolic dysfunction, weight gain, poor clarity, lowered exercise recovery, etc.

Maintaining optimal glutathione levels can assist with naturally reversing. Here are three methods to boost your glutathione levels naturally.

Consume foods that contain sulfur: garlic; onions; egg yolks; coconuts; cruciferous vegetables such as kale, broccoli, & watercress. These are just a few examples of sulfur-containing foods that will assist in boosting your natural glutathione levels.
Get regular exercise: 30 minutes of cardiovascular exercise per day & 3-4 strength training sessions per week will help to elevate your glutathione levels naturally. However, consider that “over training” can also naturally deplete glutathione levels.
Supplementing with a practitioner-grade therapeutic level glutathione: this level of bioavailability in a nutraceutical is available to you through ND’s, DC’s, DO’s and some functional nutritionists. Product quality and delivery method are both critical to absorption and efficacy, so be sure to do due diligence on the practitioner as well as the product prior to purchase.

In energy for improved natural health, fat loss & fitness,

Natural Metabolic Recovery & Conditioning Specialists

Creators of the e3 Energy Evolved™ System | www.e3EnergyEvolved.com

Coconut & Palm Oils: Great Fats For Improved Recovery, Metabolism & Fat Loss

By Heather and Damian Dubé (@e3EnergyEvolved) / October 18, 2012

Contrary to the unfortunate popular belief still, a fat loss lifestyle includes fat intake, and a very quality fat macronutrient profile, that most are not yet accessing, nor in the amounts that are truly what their body needs daily. When we give the body the proper natural fat sources in the right amounts at the right times, lean body magic happens naturally at any age. We will be 39 and 40 this year and are in the best natural conditioning and health of our lives, and evolving into even better still.

Whether you’re just looking for improved natural fat loss, energy, health, fitness, or performance, you should be employing MCTs into your nutrition as a fat source.

If you’re looking for a great way to spare muscle and increase energy while on a low carb diet, incorporating some medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs), like coconut oil or palm oil is highly beneficial for numerous human body integrative health reasons.

While carbohydrate intake is restricted which is typical in a restricted diet, weight loss or athletic contest preparation situation, medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs) will provide the missing energy source your body greatly needs to help it retain truly healthy balance and satiety, also very important key for effective muscle recovery.

Also, since medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs) are quickly converted into energy (they’re absorbed like carbohydrates without affecting insulin levels), they offer an outstanding way for the body to spare theamino acids from being used as fuel, and thus these amino acids can be used for their main objective, to build muscle which leads to of course improved fat loss naturally, balanced energy and metabolic health, and improved body results.

This anti-catabolic role is crucial in preserving muscle during intense exercise, especially when that low carbohydrate diet is being followed. This is essential for intense fitness goers, or comp

etitive athletes metabolically driving their bodies at a much higher energetic demand which increases things like internal acidity, inflammation, and so on.

This is one of the fats Damian & I integrated into my functional nutrition program to prep for NPC national level competition, and it helped my physique come in extremely lean completely all natural in my athletic competition prep, while my internal systems remained in complete healthy balance, and my energy was level throughout.

Energy, mood and metabolic health are an area most competitive athletes struggle with achieving while going after a lean physique because of key functional nutrition pieces they’re often missing that naturally up-level the natural function of many internal systems of the human body naturally by using functional nutrition & metabolic health principles to engage them. The good news, you can compete, reach your natural lean potential, have great energy and health throughout the entire process and entirely avoid any metabolic dysfunction or metabolic damage whatsoever as you begin to implement some of these principles we share.

But this fat should be integrated into your fat loss lifestyle whether you’re looking for improved natural health, fitness or fat loss, because frankly most people today have some form of internal imbalance that MCT’s will lend to counter-correct with it’s excellent natural healing & functional nutrition properties.

Other benefits of medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs) are increased thermogenesis, enhancing cognition and brain activity, provide energy when on a ketogenic diet, and MCTs are also an excellent natural anti-microbial. lending towards a positive bacterial balance in the GI tract for optimal gut health also key to improved human body metabolic function.

Always select USDA organic (extra virgin) coconut oil or palm oil for efficacy purposes.

Have you tried coconut oil & palm oil in creative ways?

They’re phenomenal. Leave a reply below sharing your favorite tips for everyone!

In energy for improved natural health, fat loss & fitness,

Husband & wife “athlete, coach, practitioner, teacher, writer, natural human body freedom” team

Creators of the e3 Energy Evolved™ System
www.e3EnergyEvolved.com

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