Summer Fun: Cave in to your Cravings!

Summer Fun: Cave in to your Cravings!

Picture a beautiful, very warm summer day, and you sitting down for lunch with a nice steaming hot bowl of soup. What is wrong with that picture??? It’s just not natural. I don’t often have salad for lunch, but it definitely sounds better in the summer than in the winter.

Did you ever notice how your cravings shift from time to time? One day you can’t get enough avocado, and another you just can’t get enough of those fresh peaches and strawberries. Since we now get so much of our produce year round, it’s getting harder to stay connected to those seasonal cravings. And with so many conflicting messages out there about the foods you have to avoid to manage your weight, we have leaned away from listening to our bodies because the experts must know what is best. Our body still knows, and it communicates through cravings. The word ‘cravings’ is not a bad word, or at least it doesn’t have to be. Being in tune with what our body needs, and acting based upon our natural instincts, is key to a healthy lifestyle.

To help you fill those summer cravings, try this super Easy Zucchini salad.

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What's the Deal with Farmers Markets

What's the Deal with Farmers Markets

Looking for something fun to do? Need a little variety in your meals? Want to find some foods that actually taste great and are good for you? Looking for a unique breakfast or lunch option? If any of these are true for you, make a trip to a local farmers market on the weekend. (For you Austinites, try the Austin Farmers Market on Saturday morning at 4th and Guadalupe.)

So why is it healthy to buy food from a local farmers market? Here are MY top five reasons:

5. Tastes great! Produce and meats from local sustainable farms and ranches have more flavor than their more conventional alternatives. If it's from a small local farm, chances are very high that it is going to be organic, whether certified or not. Some are what I call ‘beyond organic as the farmers' standards are usually higher than the US Government's definition of organic.

4. Seasonality - Throughout the year our food cravings change for many reasons, one of which is the season. Since we can get almost everything we want year round, it takes a little effort to get back to the seasonal eating our bodies were engineered for. Walking through a farmers market is a great way to reconnect, to your community as well as your body.

3. More nutrients - Buying produce from small sustainable farms is going to give you the biggest bang for the buck in nutrients. That leaves larger organic farms coming in second and conventionally grown alternatives third.

2. Less pesticides, hormones, antibiotics and no GMO - We are continually exposed to toxins every day, from our food, as well as water, lotions, soaps, etc. It all adds up and keeps our body working overtime, not to mention keeping us in a state of dis-ease. Buying produce and meat from the farmers market is one way to lessen the load.

1. Whole foods - what you find at the farmers market is more of the foods that our bodies recognize as food, and therefore can easily digest and give our bodies a healthy dose of vitamins and minerals. Taking a break from the artificial ingredients and highly processed foods we have grown to love because of their convenience is a healthy habit to incorporate into our routine.

Just can’t get there no matter how hard you try? There are many CSA and delivery options. Email me and I’ll help you find the one that is right for you. dianaoconnell@yahoo.com

My top 5, being a short summary, touches on some much larger topics, and barely even eludes to food politics. Any thoughts on what was left out?

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Sweet Potatoes Are Your Friend

Sweet Potatoes Are Your Friend

Eating sweet potatoes seems to go hand in hand with the holidays, but don't stop there. There are many reasons to keep them in the line up throughout the year. To start with, cravings for sweets can be greatly reduced by adding sweet vegetables, such as sweet potatoes, yams, parsnips, beets, squash, turnips and rutabagas to your daily diet. Sweet potatoes in particular offer a creamy consistency that is satisfying and soothing, while elevating blood sugar gently rather than with the jolt delivered by simple refined carbohydrates, so there's no energy crash after you eat them. With a glycemic load of 17 (lower the better, on a scale of 1-100), it is half that of russet potatoes.

The list of health benefits of sweet potatoes is quite impressive for a sweet, grounding food that is readily available all year long. Packed with nutrients and antioxidants, and being a good source of fiber, sweet potatoes help to remove toxins from the body and sooth the impact of stress, play a role in the prevention of heart disease and cancer, lower the risk of diabetes and obesity, are anti-inflammatory and among the top 3 food sources of potassium. The fiber in sweet potatoes provides a feeling of fullness and satiety, which helps you to eat less. All great reasons to include sweet potatoes as a staple on your weekly shopping list year round. The more you have, the less room there is for unhealthy alternatives.

If you're going to eat them more often, you may need some fresh ideas. Besides the Sweet Potatoe Lasgne recipe included on my blog, which is one of my favorites, you can also: pack a baked sweet potato for lunch topped with plain yogurt or cinnamon-flavored applesauce, add peeled chunks to your favorite stew, bake some sweet potato fries.

Other ideas? I would love to hear 'em!

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Oils and Fats: a positive light

Oils and Fats: a positive light

Getting enough healthy fats and oils is an important part of our diet. Sounds funny I know, but somewhere along the way the message was a little over simplified or got lost in translation. The key is to cut down on 'unhealthy' sources of fat and understand which sources are the healthy ones.

We need healthy fats in our diet to:

• Protect our organs, keep us warm and help our bodies absorb and move nutrients around
• Increase our metabolism, burn fat more quickly, improve insulin resistance
• Make us feel satisfied longer after a meal and reduce our need for snacking

When we eat out it's hard to know what we are getting, but at home we have quite a bit more control. Here is a quick list of healthy oils and fats to have around. The more of these you have, the less room there is for unhealthy options.

Breakfast: Add almond slivers, crushed walnuts, flax seeds or flax oil, to your cereal. Have eggs a couple of times a week. Eggs are packed healthy nutrients and are easier on the digestive system than meat.

Lunch and dinner: Include wild caught salmon in your weekly routine, toss a few canned beans on your salads as well as drizzling olive and walnut oil on salads and cooked veggie dishes.

When sautéing use the following oils to cook:

Low to medium heat - Olive oil

Medium to high heat - Coconut oil

High heat - Grape seed oil

Have the following around for snack time: hummus made with olive oil, avocado or guacamole, and nuts.

This is a very quick summary of a big topic. If you have questions ask in a post, or send me an email. dianaoconnell@yahoo.com

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Making Beans Easier to Digest

Making Beans Easier to Digest

Why is it that some people have such a hard time eating beans? Well, to cut to the chase, the gassiness from beans is caused by high amounts of fiber and oligosaccharides (short chains of sugar molecules) which aren't fully digested in the stomach or small intestine, pass to the large intestine, and are then essentially fermented by the bacteria that live in our colon. I know, more information than you really wanted, but it lays the groundwork for where I’m going. btw, this is a healthy process that we are not trying to avoid, I will just point out ways to minimize the undesirable after effects. The way to solve the problem, and be able to include this delicious, nutritious and wholitious source of protein in your diet regularly, is quite simply to start small, reduce the oligosaccharides, and help your body out a little.

Start Small - If you’ve avoided eating beans, let your body get used to it by starting with just 2 - 3 servings per week.

Choose wisely - One way to reduce the oligosaccharides is to choose legumes that have less to begin with. Best choices for less gas are adzuki and mung beans, lentils, and black eyed and split peas. Beans to work up to would be lima, pinto, navy and whole soy beans.

With any dry beans it is recommended that they be soaked. So… Prep 'em - Basic, simple, instructions on effective soaking of dried beans: in a large pot, bring 10 cups water and 1 lb. beans to boiling, boil 2- 3 minutes, turn off, cover, let stand for 1-4 hours or overnight (best option.) Pour off water, rinse well, add clean water and cook.

Add any of the following to the pot to reduce effects further: bay leaves, cumin, kombu (highly recommend this one,) epazote (mexican), papaya-based meat tenderizers.

(Canned beans are a great option, but you will have more control over the process and gassy effects if you cook your own… Oh yah, you can also make them taste much better if you cook them.)

Now, to help your body out, two key points. First, you need to focus on chewing…. Every bite that goes into your mouth should be chewed fully before swallowing. The more you chew, the more the beans will be exposed to the digestive enzymes in your saliva (a good thing by the way.) Try it out, see what happens in your mouth if you slow down, sit down, appreciate your food before you start eating, and chew each bite 20 times. Let me know what you discover.

The second point to help your body out is related to another topic that may be more information than you really want, so I will spare you the details and jump straight to the solution. (Contact me if you want to know more) There are many types of probiotics, but the one to take to reduce the gassy effects of beans is Lacotbacillus casei, or L. casei.

Ready to give it a try?

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Proteins, You Have Options

Proteins, You Have Options

Whether you're reading national health experts like Andrew Weil, M.D. and Mark Hyman, M.D., or Jorge Chavarro MD, ScD and Walter Willett, MD, DrPH, or just watching Dr. Oz, it's clear that at least half of the protein in our diet should be coming from plant sources, with the balance coming mostly from fish, eggs and poultry. Consider meat and dairy a treat. The benefits range from reducing your risk of heart disease, cancer and Type 2 diabetes all the way to simply losing weight by nudging out less healthful options.

The next logical question then is how much protein should you be eating? Well, on a daily or weekly basis, you can have up to 25% of your calories come from protein, as long as more than half are from plants. As proteins are the raw materials for many tissues and essential functions in the body, target a minimum of 7 grams of protein per 20 lbs. of weight, per day. (that would be 49 grams of protein if you weigh 140 lbs.)

If you're trying to lose weight, plant based proteins that are REPLACING fast burning carb snacks and animal proteins, are a great way to go. Proteins in general use more energy to digest and keep you feeling full longer.

Though many grains and veggies have protein as well as carbs, the best plant sources of protein are beans and nuts.

Did you know that 1 oz. of peanuts, almonds, walnuts or pistachios have as much protein as a glass of whole milk? Grab 10-12 as a mid-afternoon snack, sprinkle on salads and cereals, spread on whole grain toast, or add soaked almonds or almond butter to a morning smoothie. These are great ways to help your body send the ‘I’m full’ signal to the brain so that you don’t feel like eating more.

Do you have trouble digesting beans? Don’t give up hope. Go to Making Beans Easier to Digest for some great tips that will help.

Have you heard that plant proteins may not be a complete set of what our body needs? Proteins are broken down by our body into amino acids. There are some amino acids our body can produce on it’s own (non-essential) and some we must get from foods (essential.) While animal proteins are a complete set of all amino acids, eating a variety of plant proteins will cover the full set as well. All the amino acids needed don’t have to be eaten at each meal, it can be over the whole day. But to cover the bases some common complete protein pairings you may have heard of are rice and beans, peanut butter on whole grain bread, tofu and brown rice.

A healthy habit to incorporate into your weekly routine is skipping the meat at lunch or dinner every couple of days. You will be amazed at how easy it can be and how good it feels. A serving of Sautéed Kale w/ Chickpeas and Pine Nuts, along with some brown rice on the side, makes for a great, easy to prepare meal, and works great as leftovers. Try hummus instead of turkey in a wrap or sandwich. Make a Tuscan Bean dish for dinner and put it on top of a salad the next day. Make a bean based chili for dinner, and put it in a wrap with leftover brown rice, sunflower seeds and shredded cabbage the next day for lunch.

Give it a try! Your body will love it! Let me know how it goes.

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