Find my first three healthy living goals here.
4. Reduce/Eliminate Refined Sugar
This is one of the hardest challenges for me, as I have a major sweet tooth. I want to avoid refined sugars, and replace them with raw honey or fruit, as a natural sweetener.
2. Maintain/Increase Green Smoothie Consumption
I have been drinking green smoothies, almost daily, for a few years. I usually drink a quart of smoothie a day, and would like to increase that to two smoothies, daily. I am convinced that there is no better way to drink to your health than to drink green smoothies. Using a high powered blender, like the Vita Mix, breaks open the tough cell walls of plants. These cell walls aren't usually opened by merely chewing alone. Blending opens these cell walls, unleashing all of the nutrients within the cell. A few benefits of leafy greens include:
*helps prevent cancer *provides iron to organs *makes the body more alkaline *purifies the liver *helps unclog arteries naturally *relieves sore throat *cleans and deoderizes bowel tissues *improves vision *improves varicose veins *helps sores heal faster *and much more.
It has been estimated that 70% of cancers are attributed to nutritional deficiencies/overload of toxins. Green leafies supply the revitalizing nutrients and expel the toxins that are stored in our bodies. One American dies from cancer every minute. If even some cancer cases can be prevented through nutrition, it would be well worth it. Here are some of my tips regarding how to make green smoothies more palatable for beginners/children.
3. Milk
Pasteurized, homogenized milk has been linked to some adverse health affects. According to the book, Cancer Step Outside the Box, pasteurized milk is incapable of building bones, since the enzyme phosphatase, which is required in order to absorb calcium is destroyed in the heating process. Raw milk is illegal to purchase in my state. (It is so important that if you are in a state where it is legal to buy raw milk, that you make sure that you get it from a very clean, reliable source.) I use almond milk as a substitute for cow's milk. I would love to make my own, but have had trouble finding an affordable source of almonds. (Note: I do buy a half gallon of cow's milk, on occasion, for cooking purposes.) I have also read that goat/Jersey cow milk confers more health benefits than Holstein cow milk. I would love to own a milking goat, one day. I highly recommend doing your own research about milk. This is a great place to start. A natural, alternative source of calcium is broccoli or green leafies.
I would love to hear what your health goals are! Blessings!
This post is linked to Women Living Well and Day2Day Joys.
12 Comments:
I'm totally with you on the sugar! Did I already recommend "Get The Sugar Out" to you? Great book, if not. Very practical, which is what I need.
And the milk! I don't ever drink milk, but I try to have the kids drink raw milk at times as part of our WAP rec's for remineralizing teeth. But I totally want to have my own milk goat in the future. We have MIL's milk cows (Jersey's) but I like the benefits of goats milk better.
Oh sugar, I do love sugar. I know it's not much better than plain ol' white but we do use evaporated cane juice crystals. We're true southerners and we do like our sweet tea. : ) The girls aren't too much on sweets, like cakes, pies, etc. They "think" they are but they rarely it when they get it, including birthdays. Now fruit, heavens they could live on that.
We enjoyed smoothies while we were at Laura's but we haven't been doing them here at home. I imagine I should probably reincorporate them again. Everyone likes them but Maggie.
Milk, we did raw milk for about 2 years (and just in the last 2 months quit) but I'm not convinced that it's safe for pregnant woman (listeria) and even though I trust the lady we get it from you just never know. It wasn't worth the risk. None of my children stomachs tolerate any type of cows milk very well. Jeremy likes milk but the kids and I rarely if ever drink it.
Brynna~
That sounds like a great book ; I definitely need to get it.
I wish we could get raw milk here. Have your tried goat's milk? I haven't tried it yet, but I hope I will love it because there are so many health benefits.
Hi Emily~
I adore sweet tea. I tried making an iced herbal tea sweetened only with raw honey, yesterday, and it was pitiful. I do love my iced tea very sweet. (so I try not to make it too often) It is definitely one of my favorite drinks to get as a special treat!
Did you personally have any problems drinking raw milk during pregnancy? Listeria concerns me too. I can understand why milk is pasteurized when it is going to sit on the grocery store shelf for a while.That is why I would just rather do without. I wish milk was delivered daily, like it was about 60 years ago, so it would contain the health benefits, and would also be fresh.
Have you done any research on almond milk? I read a comment on someone's blog that it wasn't "real" food, but I didn't investigate that remark. I had been considering switching to almond milk as I am having a hard time feeling okay with regular store milk. Any reason you chose almond over the organic milks in the store? Pasteurization and homogenization?
And about those green smoothies, I bet you have answered this question before...but do you cook any of the greens before you put them in your smoothies?
I was going to comment on your part one post about the acid/alkaline foods...isn't it interesting that some of the acidic foods are ones that are highly recommended by Nourishing Traditions, such as meat and eggs?
There is so much conflicting information out there it is hard to know what to eat and what not to! What do you think?
Hi Jess~
I personally choose almond milk rather than organic cow's milk because organic cow's milk is ultra-pasteurized (and homogenized) for the long shelf life. It is completely dead. My ideal is not store bought almond milk, but I do believe that it is better than ultra-pasteurized and homogenized cow's milk. (the unsweetened variety.)As I mentioned in the post, I would prefer to soak my own almonds and make almond milk in my Vita Mix. Then, it would contain the complete nutrients.
I do not cook the greens in the green smoothies we drink. Cooking destroys the enzymes in the raw food, which helps with digestion. So many people have such a lack of enzymes because of eating too many cooked foods.
There is a lot of diverse health information out there! I try to sift through the variety of points of view, and listen to what makes the most sense to me.
I am tring to get us off of sugar and milk. It's hard when you are so used to it your whole life. It is such a lie that drinking the gross milk we buy in the store, makes our bones strong and is good for us! I also wanted to ask, would buying a brita filter be ok untill we have the money to buy something like the berky? Does it filter the water as good?
Hi Jessi~
I used a Brita Filter, for years, until I was able to afford a Berkey. Brita doesn't take out fluoride (I checked their website), but the Berkey's arsenic and fluoride reduction filters do remove it.I highly recommend getting those filters when/if you get a Berkey. The Brita filter does remove some pathogens and some chlorine, so it is definitely much better than just drinking from the tap. Most tap water has as much water as a swimming pool, which is a very scary prospect to me. Blessings!
Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions! Hopefuly I can get a Berky soon!
My hubbys co worker gave up sugar for Lent and lost 10 lbs. He said it was very difficult because sugar is in everything everywhere. I will have to get that book! Thank you all for giving this great advice. We drink smoothies but I need to check the yogurt vs. sugar content because we often add yogurt to fruit smoothies. We have a Jack LaLanne juicer and a Montel Williams Living Well. Both are great just process the stuff you toss in differently. LaLanne lived to be 96 so....he must have had some health benefits that kept him youthful into old age. Williams has MS and has controlled it for many years. His juicer processes all the fruit or veggie so you need to learn to add adequate amounts of water to balance it out! Hugs for all the great info today!
I love this post! I feel like I'm always telling people that broccoli is huge for calcium, haha! My kids love it, and they're not really into milk, so it's awesome that there are alternatives.
P.S. That banana ice cream is divine. I seriously think that I like it better than regular!
Great goals Christine! I believe this was your first post you linked up to Healthy 2day Wednesdays, or you could have the week before last but we were very busy and didn't get around to reading those posts, although usually I read every entry.
Anyhow, sugar is so addictive! There's also a Christian book called made to crave! Hope to see you add a post this week!
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