Category Archives: health & nutrition

The Fab Uplift Detox Program: Register today!

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If you missed it, I wrote about this cleanse on Christmas day. I’ve since registered for the cleanse and the booklet, which arrived today, is gorgeous.

REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN.

The four day transition is how I eat most days. I’m really looking forward to this detox, with a few modifications to account for my food sensitivities (e.g. I’m sensitive to fermented products and sometimes react to vinegar so I’m likely going to cut vinegar out, even apple cider vinegar).

I also intend to hit a hot yoga class this evening. Getting my health back on track starts today. Not that my health has suffered, as far as I know, but as I said in my first article about this detox, I have no desire to eat myself into illness or disease.

Registration gets you $5 off any ebook, guide or MP3 in the store. You can only get the coupon code if you register.

UPDATE (Jan 4):
I’ve now thoroughly read the book. I like it and think that it’s perfect for people who have never detoxed before or are new to the process. Because I’ve read most of Meghan’s other ebooks (I’m only missing The Veggie Transition now and yet have three copies of Everyday Superfoods), it’s also clarified the difference between “detox” and “cleansing” for me, though the two are used interchangeably. In “detoxing”, we’re removing toxins from our diet and lifestyle. More like “un-tox”. In cleansing, we’re removing existing toxins from our body. At least, that’s the distinction that I’ve chosen.

If you want to go deeper with the detox and cleanse, buy it, take that $5 coupon code and then buy the Green Smoothie Cleanse e-book and 21 Days to Health e-book and incorporate some of what you learn from those books. The Green Smoothie Cleanse book talks about other ways to cleanse your organs such as your skin, educates about cleansing herbs and gives lifestyle cleansing tips such as meditation, exercise and yoga, dry skin brushing, infrared saunas and enemas and colonics (in my opinion, people are way too scared of their own bums). 21 Days to Health gives 1 lifestyle change suggestion, every day for 21 days. They’re as simple as “drink lemon water” and “floss your teeth”. Nothing you can’t easily add to your daily routine and maintain.

Also check out Natural Body Care, because what you put on your skin absorbs into your bloodstream transdermally so what you put on it is as important as what you put in it.
Pro tip: I use coconut oil as my all over moisturizer (face, lips, body) and lubricant. I keep little jars that I refill from a big jar in my bathroom, on my dresser, on the table next to my bed (it should be in your “tickle trunk”) and in my purse. If I wouldn’t put it in my mouth I don’t want it other places on or in my body.

(Full disclosure: I’m an affiliate with Meghan so I do get a small 8% commission when people click links from here to buy her products, but I don’t promote any product that I don’t believe in. I like Meghan and her philosophy so much that I spent my money on a week in St. Lucia with her last year.)

January = Detox time & 50% off health products today and tomorrow.

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I don’t know about you, but I’ve been gluttonous this month. I generally “pick my poisons” but I feel like there have been more poisons to pick from recently. I’ve repeatedly punched my liver (not literally) with alcohol and by my own standards I’ve been eating poorly. I’ve been eating out a lot, spending a TON of money on meals. It’s been fantastic, and unsustainable for my body and my wallet. It’s been like a vacation without leaving the city or taking time off work, one that will have to come to an end because it isn’t healthy long term. I make no apologies for occasionally eating unhealthy and I’ve been doing it because I want to. Whereas some people will choose to blame “temptation” or other people, or see it as a weakness or personality flaw, which it isn’t, I take personal responsibility for what I put into my body. It’s delicious and you only live once. However, I have no desire to eat myself into illness or disease, and I’m happy that Drunkcember comes but once a year.

Enter this:

The Fab Uplift Detox Program

Included In The Program 

  • A full 16-Day Detox Program ebook:
    • 4 day pre-cleanse coaching tips and recipes.
    • 8 Day Cleanse program including meal plan, shopping list and recipes.
    • 4-Day Post Cleanse guidelines.
    • Loads of info on why you should detox, what it means to detox, what this detox entails, and how to keep it going after the sixteen days have passed.
  • A daily email offering tips and support, progress, and bonus recipes.
  • Daily tweet coaching tips throughout the day (follow at #fabdetox)
  • Group TweetChat on Sunday, Tuesday, January 17th at 9:00pm EST
  • Email support throughout the main eight days of the detox with Meghan’s resident nutritionists
  • Extra sweet incentive:  At the end of the cleanse,  send in a before + after on how you feel or a general testimonial and you will be entered to win some of our most fave detox goodies from some of our most fave detox loving brands.

The program begins on Monday, January 9th. Registration opens on Tuesday, January 3rd and closes three days later on Friday, January 9th.

See Making Love in the Kitchen’s website for more information.

With the 3-day cleanse from Belmonte Raw that I recently won in a raffle at HoHoTO, a new location of Moksha Yoga having just opened a 10 minute walk from my apartment and a gym membership in my work building that I’ve been paying for but not using for months, I’ve got lots of tools to get back on track in January.

Add The Fab Uplift Detox Program to your toolbox.

Bonus!

For two days only, new contents for your toolbox cost 50% less than usual!

Today (December 25th) and tomorrow (December 26th) only you can get 50% off downloadable eBooks & Mp3s at meghantelpner.com! Enter coupon code “BoxingDayLove” at check out. I will definitely buy some stuff.
Sale applies to individual items only, collection sets excluded.

Meghan’s detox, e-books and MP3s make a great holiday gift for those you love and because it’s an online store you don’t have to leave the house to buy. Avoid the crowds, buy stuff that’s good for your health, 50% off (see exclusions). Seriously, this sounds like a great thing to me. Why wouldn’t you buy an item that qualifies? Then buy the (full price) detox program.

To your health.

CSA week 13: Shiitake joy

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  • Watermelon
  • salad mix
  • spinach
  • kale
  • garlic
  • Shiitake mushrooms
Fresh Lentinula edodes (shiitake) mushrooms

Image via Wikipedia

Dinner last night: Last week’s salad greens sauteed with garlic, kale and spinach. Some of this formed the base of a frittata with shiitake mushrooms.

Here’s what I’ve researched about shiitake mushrooms:

Shiitake mushrooms have been used medicinally by the Chinese for more than 6,000 years. They’re among the varieties of mushrooms that boost the immune system.

They’re a good source of essential vitamins and minerals, including pantothenic acid, potassium, zinc, copper and selenium. The iron in dried shiitake mushroom may be equally as bioavailable as supplemental iron in the form of ferrous gluconate, a commonly used low-dose iron supplement.

The proteins in shiitake mushrooms are composed of 18 types of amino acids, including 7 of the 8 essential amino acids in a ratio similar to the ‘ideal protein’ for humans. Of these amino acids, shiitake is especially rich in leucine and lysine, which are deficient in many grains. These mushrooms are an excellent source of protein for vegetarians and vegans.

Shiitake is also rich in enzymes, and researchers have found over 30 enzymes in shiitake. Two of particular note are amylase, important for proper digestion, and cellulase, which dissolves fiber. The wealth of enzymes in shiitake can help with deficiencies of these important compounds.

Shiitake contains significant quantities of the B vitamins thiamine, riboflavin, and niacin. In its sun dried form it has the highest content of vitamin D of any plant food. (Read more here and here.)

Says the American Cancer Society:

A compound called lentinan is believed to stop or slow tumor growth. Another component, activated hexose-containing compound (also known as 1,3-beta glucan), is also said to reduce tumor activity and lessen the side effects of cancer treatment. The mushrooms also contain the compound eritadenine, which is thought to lower cholesterol by blocking the way cholesterol is absorbed into the bloodstream. These claims are currently being studied.

Pick some up – though make sure you cook them first because while lentinan could be a cancer-fighter, it’s also a toxin that can cause an itchy rash. Also pick up some lobster mushrooms. I’ve been seeing them fresh at farmer’s markets along with chanterelles, and there’s a recipe that I want to try. They deserve a blog post too, especially if I cook with them.

Maybe next week I’ll focus on kale, which I enjoy steamed, sauteed, dehydrated and blended into smoothies. I could list a bunch of kale nutrition facts off the top of my head. I knew very little about mushrooms before hitting the interwebs for knowledge.

Eat well, be well.

Cantaloupe (but you should)

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Following yesterday’s post about watermelon and what I picked up in my harvest share this week, here’s information about cantaloupe that went into the first draft of the CSA newsletter before the farm informed me that their “veggie of the week” (sometimes it’s fruit) was watermelon. Most of the information came from Hazon, our CSA host organization:

Cantaloupes were named after the Italian city Cantalupo. Cantaloupes grow on vines and when perfectly ripe, the fruit has a raised netting on a grayish-beige skin. The pale orange flesh is extremely juicy and sweet. You can find cantaloupes in the Northeast during the summer months. Cantaloupe can be used in recipes, but remember that it is also delicious enjoyed plain!

Selection:

  • Choose cantaloupes that are heavy for their size, and have a sweet fruity fragrance at the blossom end.
  • Avoid cantaloupes that are shriveled, bruised, punctured, or have cracked rinds.

Storage:

  • Keep uncut cantaloupe in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. Keep away from other fruit because melons emit a gas that speeds up the ripening of other kinds of fruit.
  • When stored a halved melon, leave the seeds inside to help keep it fresh.
  • Cut cantaloupe should be wrapped in plastic and refrigerated for up to 3 days.

Servings and consuming:

  • Top cantaloupe slices with yogurt and chopped mint.
  • Slice melons in half horizontally, scoop out seeds and use each half as a basket in which to serve fruit salad.
  • Fruit skewers, ice pops, pickles.
  • Add some sparkling water or vodka to fresh squeezed cantaloupe juice or blended cantaloupe for a delightfully refreshing drink.
  • In a blender or food processor, purée cantaloupe and peeled soft peaches to make delicious cold soup. Add lemon juice and honey to taste.

(See this list of 125 recipes that use cantaloupe.)

Nutrition:
Cantaloupe is an excellent source of vitamin A on account of its concentrated beta-carotene content. Once inside the body, beta-carotene can be converted into vitamin A, so when you eat cantaloupe it’s like getting both these beneficial nutrients at once. One cup of cantaloupe is just 56 calories, but provides 103.2% of the daily value for vitamin A.

One cup of cantaloupe contains 112.5% of the daily value of vitamin C. Vitamin C stimulates white cells to fight infection, directly kills many bacteria and viruses, and regenerates Vitamin E after it has been inactivated by disarming free radicals.

Cantaloupe is a very good source of potassium and a good source of vitamin B6, dietary fiber, folate, and niacin (vitamin B3). The combination of all these B complex vitamins along with the fiber found in cantaloupe make it an exceptionally good fruit for supporting energy production through good carbohydrate metabolism and blood sugar stability.

More cantaloupe nutrition information.

I also wrote about cantaloupe two weeks ago. I’m starting to repeat myself but I don’t think I have enough regular readers for it to matter. Besides, each one is just a little bit different, and even David Lebovitz repeats blog posts. (I’ve seen him post the same recipe twice, multiple times.)

…I want to pickle cantaloupe now. I bet one of my friends has their own recipe.

CSA week 12 and why watermelons make for good summer flings

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The “veggie of the week” that was fruit was Watermelon so I had to get it. There were two varieties and I chose the Sugar Melon grown by Kawartha Organic Produce in Woodville, Ontario. I blended some up and froze it in cubes.

I also got cantaloupe from the same grower. Two melons made for a super-heavy load to carry, especially after a couple of pints of stout.

I chose 1 large zucchini (though they were 3 for 1 point), 4 ears of corn that appeared worm-free and beautiful on the outside (yeah, you can’t judge something by its outside), four peaches, a bulb of garlic for storage (I collect garlic over the summer when it’s in season) and stuffed paper bags with salad greens and gorgeous spinach.

I’ve written about watermelon nutrition in this blog before but for this week’s newsletter I went a bit deeper. I opted not to discuss citrulline there in depth, and not because it’s a nonessential amino acid and antioxidant.

The word citrulline is derived from citrullus, the Latin word for watermelon.

Our bodies use citrulline to make the amino acid arginine, which helps cells divide, wounds heal, and ammonia to be removed from the body- so we can interpret that to mean that these amino acids help detoxify the body. Citrulline has been referred to as “natural Viagra” because it relaxes and dilates blood vessels, though it’s not body-part specific. According to the Livestrong website, watermelon can improve sexual stamina (in men and women) and erectile dysfunction. Arginine can benefit erectile dysfunction, along with preclampsia, migraines, and female sexual dysfunction. So citrulline can be linked to orgasms and sexual function for both men and women? That’s convenient. Watermelon is a summer fruit, everyone’s hornier in the summer, people want summer flings… It’s as if heat, bare skin and watermelon were meant to go together! Pass the watermelon!

Conveniently and coincidentally, Joel from Well Preserved chose to post about dehydrating cantaloupe and melon today. I know what I’ll be doing with some of the melon that I cut up! Into the dehydrator sprinkled with Buster Rhinos’ habanero salt.

I’ve got a profile on cantaloupe for you but that’ll just have to wait for another day. Cantaloupe’s just not as sexy as watermelon.

Eat well, be well.

Do you know Salicornia?

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Sally-who?

When I hear the word I think it sounds like “salad-cornia”, and like the way it sounds. It’s a fun word! Perhaps you’ve seen me at Wychwood Barns farmer’s market on a Saturday, standing next to the Forbes Wild Foods booth asking friends and strangers, “Have you tried salicornia?” I don’t work there, I just drop by often and I seem to talk about them in my blog a lot! (11 results when I search “Forbes”, 4 of which are quick references to the company). Sometimes I shill at the Leslieville farmers’ market on Sunday too and giggle to myself. The guys who are paid to do the sales pitch always have samples to offer.


Salicornia, more commonly known as sea asparagus and also known as sea beans, glasswort, or marsh samphire, grows along the seashore and in salt marshes. It’s halophyte, a salt-loving plant that draws up salt from sand and soil. It thrives in heat and poor soil as long as there’s a salt source. Because of this, salicornia and other saltwater-tolerant species have been investigated as sources of food in places with inferior soil.

Salicornia comes in bushes of crisp and juicy twigs that are harvested in late spring to early summer. It has a crisp, crunchy texture and fresh salty flavor with vivid color.  Eat it cooked or raw, in a salad, out of hand, sauteed, blanched. Make it with olive oil and garlic, and/or lemon juice. On season 8 of Top Chef (All Stars) season winner (spoiler alert!) Richard Blais  paired them with corn puree and seared bone marrow and called them “glass wort” because he thought it sounded better. In previous seasons they’ve been referred to as “sea beans”.

You can also pickle salicornia or make a pesto with it. If raw salicornia is too salty for your taste, soak it over night in fresh water and discard the water before using.

Sea asparagus is packed with phytochemicals that may help to protect the liver, heart and cellular DNA. It is also rich in vitamins A, C, B2 and B15; amino acids; and minerals, such as iron, calcium and magnesium (source).

A good article about salicornia that talks about the utility of desert food crops: Letting the sea cultivate the land (LA Times.)

Forbes has been bringing salicornia to the markets for a few weeks and I also saw it at seafood store Hooked in Leslieville. While I don’t know if these stores carry their sea asparagus, the Forbes websites says that they also supply their products to Rowe Farms and Healthy Butcher stores and 4 Life Natural Foods in Kensington Market. I’ve seen sea asparagus at Fiesta Farms too, though I don’t know who their supplier is. I recommend calling the stores if you’re hoping to find sea asparagus there. Or visit Wychwood Barns on a Saturday.

Try and buy some salicornia there or at your local farmer’s market.

Eat well, be well.

Also see my recent post Serviceberries: Superfruit in your backyard.

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Water fluoridation on the City's chopping block?

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Shortly after he was elected last fall Mayor Rob Ford ordered a core services review to address a 2012 operating budget shortfall of $774 million. Subsequently, the City launched a public review of all its services and programs. The goal was to learn more about what Torontonians cared about most and what they were willing to forgo for the sake of cost-reduction and minimizing taxes. This public review was accompanied by an evaluation of the municipal government by outside consultants, KPMG, who examined how successful municipal services are and looked at the alternatives some other cities have been exploring. The results to this Core Services Review were released two weeks ago, many of which have an impact on health and the environment (which impacts health). Read a summary in the Toronto Star.

Among these recommendations: Eliminating the fluoridation of Toronto’s water supply.

Fluoride is a contentious issue. Most people accept that fluoride in the water is a necessity for dental health without question.  I’ve been reading about the issue of fluoride for years and so my reaction to the City recommendation was “good!” Then I hoped that one of my nutritionist friends who blog and have columns on health and wellness websites would write about it. It would have sort of let me (someone without professional letters beside my name) off the hook. Fluoride is a chemical toxin. Many countries actually ban fluoride. Consider the warnings on toothpaste packaging:

“Keep out of reach of children under 6 years of age.”
“If you swallow more than used for brushing, get medical help or contact a Poison Control Center right away.” No, we don’t usually swallow it, but doesn’t that bother you?

In 1997, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration mandated that fluoride-containing toothpaste must be labeled as a poison. A “pea-sized” amount of toothpaste contains at least 25 mg of fluoride. There’s enough fluoride in a tube of toothpaste to kill a small child.

Municipal water does have much lower levels than that. At the beginning of this year the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recommended that fluoride level in drinking water be lowered. (Source: Business Week) This is consistent with Health Canada’s recommendations.

According to a report by Toronto’s Medical Officer of Health from April 30, 2007 the level of fluoride in Toronto’s water was reduced from 1.2 p.p.m. to 0.8 p.p.m. in 1999 and to 0.6 p.p.m. in 2005. This reduction was implemented to comply with the revised Ministry of the Environment target fluoride concentration for water fluoridation and to address concerns that there was an increase in the number of children exhibiting the mild form of fluorosis.  Furthermore, In January 2007 Health Canada released its recommendations of the Fluoride Expert Panel Meeting. These include the maximum allowable concentration (MAC) of 1.5 mg/L for fluoride in drinking water should be reaffirmed and the level of 0.7 mg/L for fluoride in drinking water should be adopted as the optimal target (sources: Association of Local Public Health Agencies, the Ministry of the Environment’s Drinking Water Ontario portal, Government of Ontario e-laws).

This same report says,

While exposure to low levels of fluoride has beneficial effects on teeth, exposure to too much fluoride can cause adverse health effects. Various effects of fluoride on health have been studied including impacts on blood, bone, kidney, liver, lungs, and reproduction. Concern has also been expressed about the carcinogenic effect of fluoride.

Also,

Any adverse impacts from fluoride would result not only from exposure to fluoride in drinking water, but also from other sources. Therefore, Toronto Public Health used the levels of fluoride in Toronto drinking water together with estimates of the amount of fluoride from other sources such air, soil, food, toothpaste, infant formula and breast milk, to calculate the total exposure that might occur in Toronto. This assessment showed that toddlers, formula and breast fed infants, are exposed to 0.07, 0.04 and 0.01 mg/kg/day, respectively. These exposures are similar to estimates in other parts of North America with fluoridated drinking water. Thus, based on a Toronto-specific total exposure assessment for fluoride, toddlers may be exposed to a total level of fluoride that slightly exceeds the US EPA reference dose but is lower than Health Canada’s tolerable daily intake for protection from moderate dental fluorosis. It is not expected that this exposure level is associated with any adverse health impact.

Read the entire document here (PDF).

This is encouraging but how much water are you drinking? How much are you consuming? As the report itself points out, exposure comes from a variety of sources. More about that below. Is this not a reason to eliminate fluoride from drinking water entirely? In addition, one report states that fluoride is beneficial in reducing tooth decay when it’s applied topically, not taken systemically. In October 2010 residents voted to remove fluoride from tap water in Waterloo, St. Jacobs and Elmira entirely. (See Waterloo Watch.)

When I started this post I was going just list a bunch of links about the issue because I don’t feel qualified to tell you what you should think or do.  Instead I’d rather present you with information. Here is the reading material that I compiled with some highlights from some of them. It also serves as a source list for the information I’ve presented here. Apologies for the fact that many are from the same source, but he’s written extensively about the issue and I tend to look at his sources when assessing the articles:

  • Fluoridation Revisited (mercola.com, March 10 2001) – It’s long but I recommend scrolling down to the section called “Doubts Cumulate”.
  • Dentists Cause Cavities (mercola.com, September 26 2001). From this article:

Hardy Limeback, head of the Department of Preventive Dentistry, University of Toronto quoted as saying, “Here in Toronto we’ve been fluoridating for 37 years. Yet Vancouver, which has never fluoridated, has a cavity rate lower than Toronto’s,”

The article also states: “Ireland is the only country in Europe to fluoridate most of its population (73%). Yet, Ireland ranks 6th in Europe in dental decay behind 4 countries that don’t fluoridate and the 10% fluoridated UK. And non-fluoridated Norwegians, reportedly, enjoy good dental health.”

  • End Fluoridation, Say 500 Physicians, Dentists, Scientists And Environmentalists (Medical News Today, August 10, 2007)
    Of note: U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has found that fluoride is beneficial in reducing tooth decay when it’s applied topically, not taken systemically and that dental fluorosis, caused by fluoride over-exposure, impacts one third of American children. The official statement that this article says that the American Dental Association recommends not giving fluoridated water to infants for the first year.
  • Critics raise red flag over fluoride in tap water  (Globe and Mail, November 23, 2007)
  • The Fluoride Controversy (mercola.com, January 2, 2008)
  • Flouridation may not do much for cavities (Globe and Mail, April 15, 2010)
  • Warning: This Daily Habit is Damaging Your Bones, Brain, Kidneys, and Thyroid (mercola.com, July 01 2010 )
  • Get the F2 Out of My H2O! A Layman’s Look at Water Fluoridation (Lucid Streams, February 8, 2011) This is a guy doing what I’m doing, researching and posting findings in his blog.
  • This Popular Drink Can Slow Down Your Brain (mercola.com, February 23 2011) I don’t like those kinds of alarmist headlines either but check out the videos. The first video, Professional Perspectives on Fluoride,  makes a claim that the City of Toronto report that cited above made: Fluoride is present in many sources. The video asks, “How much are we ingesting?” “What’s your total body load?” I transcribed part of it:

Children are getting a lot of fluoride from a lot of different sources. We’ve had a tremendious increase of fluoride from many sources. Water is one source. When we drink that water, when it’s made into soda pop, or made into beverages, made into soups, made into other products we get fluoride from that source also.

And we also have a lot of pesticides that have come on the market that leave fluoride residues on fruits and vegetables. Fluoride is a very common component in pesticides and so if you drink a glass of grape juice that’s non organic grape juice and it’s got skins on it you’re going to get a very high level of fluoride just from the grape juice.

A journal article referenced in the video states that 43 ready-to-drink fruit juices were examined for fluoride ion concentration. It was found that 42% of the samples had more than 1ppm of fluoride. It was also determined that “pure” fruit juices, often grape, contained high levels of fluoride. Juice made from grapes separated from the skin did not contain any fluoride.

  • Fighting Over Fluoride in the ’50s, a response to KPMG’s Core Services Review recommendation. (Torontoist, July 14, 2011). Read the article and the comments.
  • Fluoride Action Network. It’s an advocacy group and thus biased, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t include the link.

For me, fluoridation of water is in part a human rights issue. In part. Those who don’t want it don’t have a choice unless they invest in a water filtration system. Where’s the right to choose? At the same time, it is a public health issue and one of the government’s roles is public health. I like to think that they act in the best interest in the public. I also believe that everyone should make their own educated decisions. I myself do drink regular tap water because I have to, but I don’t buy toothpaste with fluoride.

I maintain good oral hygiene. I see my dentist twice a year. I don’t consume foods that are known to be toxic to teeth. I consume a lot of organic food. I believe that nutrition stops tooth decay. Prevent it from the inside. I realize that not everyone is as healthy.

Finally, reading and writing about this issue reminded me of this clip from South Park (season 15, episode 3, titled Royal Pudding). Mr. Garrison’s an asshole.
(Whatever happened to Mr. Hat? Did he die? Is that why Mr. Garrison is so mean? I missed many seasons.)

One of the reasons I want to go to school for holistic nutrition is so that I can get paid for this type of research and writing. This post is the result of over 3 hours of work. Someone out there, hire me to research and write! I could use the extra $.

Eat well, be well.

Serviceberries: Superfruit in your backyard

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I was first introduced by this fruit last year by my friend Suzanne, who took me to her secret grove. In the last week I feel like I’ve been noticing them everywhere. Then a few days ago my sister emailed me with the message,

Saskatoon berry harvest is peaking right now in Toronto.
They are considered to be the #1 food source for antioxidants period!

I wasn’t surprised at all but being a nutritionist-wannabe, I needed to investigate further and bring this information to you.

The serviceberry a small tree native to North America. There are several varieties whose regional names include shadbush, shadblow, bilberry, Saskatoon, Western or Pacific serviceberry, Juneberry, Indian pear and more. You’ll most likely hear “serviceberry” or “Saskatoon berry”, though I vaguely recall a friend arguing that they’re not the same thing. Everything I find on Google says that they are. He may have been referring to varietal.

The fruit of several species are excellent to eat raw, tasting somewhat like a blueberry. Popular uses include pies and jam – though I like to pick ‘em and eat on the spot. I’ve considered dehydrating if I pick enough this year, though so far my dehydrating efforts have failed and I don’t want to lose a harvest. Forbes Wild Foods makes Saskatoon Berry Compote and I’d love to make jam. One website recommends bison with Saskatoon berry sauce and I imagine this would be delicious.

Last Saturday at The Stop’s Market Cafe at Wychwood Barns they were used in a galette made with serviceberries from an on-site tree and sour cherries from the nearby tree that I call “Suzanne’s tree” because she sort of adopted it years ago. Market Cafe chef Vishna picked the serviceberries and cherries herself.

Serviceberries can be considered a ‘Superfruit’, a marketing term which refers to a fruit which combines exceptional nutrient richness and antioxidant quality.  Antioxidants are substances that may protect your cells against the effects of free radicals, which are molecules produced when your body breaks down food, or by environmental exposures like tobacco smoke and radiation. Free radicals can damage cells, and may play a role in heart disease, cancer and other diseases. The benefits of antioxidant have contributed against cardiovascular and inflammatory diseases, and act as a protective guard to our immune systems. Some antioxidants can help exercise recovery.

The ORAC (oxygen radical absorbance capacity) value is one of the methods used to measure the total antioxidant activity in fruit. Serviceberries are naturally high in antioxidants and rank highest in both fresh fruit and in fruit pulp relative to other common fruits.

(source)

Native peoples used them in soups, stews and pemmican. They were also used in medicines for stomach and liver problems, and the juice was used as a dye.

Sources and further reading:
Ontario Trees and Shrubs
Wikipedia
Prairie Berries
Medline Plus
Wikipedia (Superfruit)
Livestrong
Saskatoon Berries: The Next Super-Fruit? – that’s fit (Added July 27, 2011)

Want to get some in Toronto but don’t want to pick your own?  Forbes Wild Foods will have them at Dufferin Grove farmers market on Thursday. The photo below was taken on Tuesday (July 5) at Trinity Bellwoods farmers market. Coincidentally, I drafted this post immediately prior to finding Forbes with their berries at TB. Forbes will probably sell out of these so don’t set your heart on seeing them at Wychwood Barns or Evergreen Brickworks on Saturday. If you want to buy some, visit Dufferin Drove.

Update, July 27, 2011: Forbes is still selling Saskatoon berries, but not like the serviceberry Saskatoon berries. The current ones look more like blueberries and are related to raspberries.  They’re just as tasty and healthy.

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Lunch, analyzed

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Ever research the nutrition profile of your lunch, just for fun? I did. My previous post was about what I ate for lunch today, with a recipe for “Almond miso kelp and zucchini noodles with wakame”.

Want to know how this meal fares nutritionally?

Kelp Noodles are a sea vegetable in the form of a raw noodle made of kelp (a sea vegetable), sodium alginate (sodium salt extracted from a brown seaweed), and water. Kelp, an algae, is a rich source of natural vitamins and minerals including essential trace minerals.
(Trace minerals are minerals that your body only needs a very small amount of, such as iron, manganese, copper, iodine, zinc, cobalt, fluoride, and selenium.)

Kelp is especially high in iodine, which must be present for proper glandular function and metabolism. Kelp contains iron, sodium, phosphorus and calcium, as well as magnesium and potassium. Kelp is a source of vitamins A, B1, B2, C, D and E, plus amino acids. Because the plant’s nutrients come in a natural form, they are easily assimilated by the body.

Wakame a good source of minerals including magnesium, iodine, calcium, and iron. It’s also high in vitamins A, C, E, and K as well as folate and riboflavin. It’s also a source of lignans which are thought to play a role in preventing certain types of cancer. A study published in Cancer Science Journal in 2005 demonstrated that wakame seaweed effectively suppressed growth of breast tumors in rats.

A study published The Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry showed an extract of wakame seaweed was capable of lowering blood pressure in rats. The wakame extract appeared to reduce blood pressure in a similar way to a common group of anti-hypertensive medications known as ACE inhibitors.

Zucchini contains useful amounts of folate, important for cell division and the healthy DNA; potassium, which helps to combat the effects of sodium and can also help to reduce blood pressure and heart rate; and vitamin A which plays an important role in vision, bone growth, reproduction, cell division, and cell differentiation. Vitamin A helps regulate the immune system and may help lymphocytes (a type of white blood cell) fight infections more effectively. It promotes healthy surface linings of the eyes and the respiratory, urinary, and intestinal tracts and helps the skin and mucous membranes function as a barrier to bacteria and viruses.

Zucchini is also a good source of antioxidants, which are important in helping to rid the body of free radicals that cause aging and other disease, and manganese. In addition zucchini contains vitamin C as well as several B vitamins, and many other essential vitamins and minerals.

Sesame seeds are exceptionally rich in iron, magnesium, manganese, copper, and calcium and contain vitamin B1 (thiamine) and vitamin E (tocopherol). They contain lignans, including unique content of sesamin, which are phytoestrogens with antioxidant and anti-cancer properties. Among edible oils from six plants, sesame oil had the highest antioxidant content. Sesame seeds also contain phytosterols associated with reduced levels of blood cholesterol.

Sesame seeds also contain a high amount of phytic acid, the principal storage form of phosphorus and anti-nutrient and sesame seeds‘s nutrients are better absorbed if they are ground or pulverized before consumption (e.g. tahini).

Miso is an excellent source of vitamin B-12 and protein and a good source of copper and manganese (read more). It’s often recommended to vegans as a B-12 source.

I have a couple of excellent miso soup recipes in my blog from late 2009. It’s possible that the white miso that I referred to in that post is the same one I’m still using, though maybe 1/8 of the container is gone. Thankfully, miso lasts forever in the fridge because of its salt content so it’s okay to use miso that’s been in the fridge for over a year.

[Something else I noticed in that post: I mentioned one of the Forbes Wild Foods boys in it. I've mentioned them multiple types in my blog recently, seemingly every time I mention the Wychwood Barns farmer's market.  They are a charming bunch.]

Ginger: One of my favourite ingredients and flavours, Ginger contains very potent anti-inflammatory compounds called gingerols, which may also inhibit the growth of human colorectal cancer cells (reference is a study from 2003) and may kill ovarian cancer cells (source). Read what Nutritionist Joy McCarthy wrote about ginger in her blog two days ago.

Almonds and almond butter contain significant amounts of protein. A 2 tablespoon serving of almond nut butter contains 4 g of protein. One ounce of almonds contains 12 percent of your daily allowance of protein. Almond butter is a source of calcium, fiber, magnesium, folic acid, potassium, vitamin E (35% of your daily allowance),  manganese, phosphorus, calcium, iron and copper. Almonds are low in saturated fat.

Almonds are a good source of plant sterols, such as beta-sitosterol, mainly known and used for its cholesterol lowering property.

And that, my friends, is the result of a rainy afternoon of research – ’cause I knew my meal was healthy but now I know that my meal was a nutritional powerhouse and why. In a post of over 800 words.

Eat well, be well.

Signs you need a cleanse, herbs for cleansing

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Welcome to day 4 of the Making Love in the Kitchen group Green Smoothie Cleanse. As I mentioned on Day 1, herbs help facilitate the detoxification process.

In reading further about herbs for cleansing and researching for this post, I came across the site Amazing Green Tea. I’m generally critical about taking “facts” from any source with something to sell because of their obvious bias, but the herbs they talk about are widely available in the myriad of detox products on the market.

An article on the site, includes a table to help you determine which of your organs needs the most cleansing, listing the top symptoms for each organ in need of detoxification. I’d have included it in my previous post had I seen it but post it here:

Which Organ Is In Need Of Cleansing?
Skin cannot sweat, skin rashes, mysterious sores or spots on the skin
Colon diarrhea or constipation, foul-smelling stools, feeling that there’s more stool in the colon after a bowel movement
Liver cannot get out of bed in the morning, not hungry in the morning, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, PMS, and worsening allergies
Kidney kidney stones, urinary tract infections, can’t keep steady stream urination going, incontinence
Blood skin rashes, fatigue that won’t go away, headaches
Lungs asthma, bronchitis, cough that persists
Immune System catches every cold going around, takes longer than 3 to 4 days to recover from cold or flu, frequent infections of any type – skin, sinus, athlete’s foot, and more

As I said in my last post, I suspect that the people who do cleanses/detox are the people who need them less.

So what herbs go with which organ? According to Amazing Green Tea:

Top Herbs and the Organs They Cleanse
Skin chickweed*, comfrey, sarsaparilla, yarrow, ginger
Colon slippery elm, senna, aloe vera, psyllium (fiber only), flax seeds (ground or whole), cascara sagrada, sangre de drago, barberry, turkey rhubarb, papaya, wormwood, fennel, peppermint
Liver milk thistle, dandelion, schizandra, barberry, kelp, Oregon grape root, yam, peppermint, yellow dock, aloe vera, cat’s claw, spearmint, and high antioxidant teas such as citrus aurantium, green tea, rose hips, rosemary, parsley, turmeric
Kidney parsley, juniper berries, uva ursi, gravel root, chanca pedra, licorice root
Blood red clover, chaparral, poke root, burdock, cayenne, ginseng and high antioxidant teas such as citrus aurantium, green tea, rosemary, parsley, turmeric, rose hips
Lungs hyssop, pleurisy root, yellow dock, hops, mullein, lobelia, comfrey, ephedra
Immune System echinacea, cat’s claw, golden seal, marshmallow root, pau d’ arco, garlic, wormwood, walnut bark or leaves, plantain

*I happen to have chickweed in my fridge. Local Bio-Dynamic/Organic farm Kind Organics was selling it at the farmer’s market recently.

A lot of those are commonly accepted, common knowledge. I don’t want to duplicate all their site content, so hop on over.

Recently I examined parasite/intestinal cleanses and saw black walnut used a lot. Dr. Hulda Clark, whose liver cleanse was recommended to me by a satisfied user, talks about parasite cleanses and recommends them as a precursor to liver cleanse. All a parasite is, is any organism that lives on, or in, the body of another organism. They can be responsible for lots of things that make us physically feel less than ideal, and for common ailments that we may ignore (see Alive magazine).

Here’s some more resources:

(Nearly half of the links are to Livestrong despite intensive Google search because I liked their sources and the fact that it’s a good website all around.)

On a nerdy level, I don’t know why so many natural health websites look like they were created by an 8 year old. I feel like more people would take the information seriously – see its validity – if the sites didn’t look like the equivalent of a professional paper written with crayon.

Personal green smoothie cleanse update:

I’ve been on and off the wagon the entire time. I figured that if I ate one solid meal per day I’d still be doing okay. Sunday, Mother’s Day, I did a typical Jewish brunch: Bagels, lox, cream cheese, rugelach, coffee – which I rarely drink. That was Day 2 of cleanse, and expected. I drank a smoothie for the rest of the day, a strawberry-collard greens smoothie that was snack and dinner with some leftover for yesterday. I was okay with it.

Then yesterday I fell hard at the end of the day. I successfully refused bake sale participation at work in the morning. I drank tons of water and smoothies instead. Rather than improvising smoothie recipes as usual I used recipes from the Green Smoothie Cleanse book. Most of those call for more water than I use (I like my smoothies dense) so the quantity was the same & great quality but less filling. I was hungry and had a headache that may or may not have been related. In the evening I went to an art opening with colleagues. I could have ordered a salad or something easily digestible. Instead, being broke and having “given myself permission” for “one solid meal”, I went with the freebies: Pizza, quesadillas, calamari. This is stuff I rarely eat anyway because it’s junk. I like to think that I can just eat it and accept myself but even I felt a bit guilty about it. Then I went to a committee meeting (our CSA opens 5 weeks today!) and there were big cookies in front of me, either home baked or bakery. I had two and a half, and a lemon square. Feeling of guilt maintained. On the upside, it gives me another reason to give my digestive system a break today, right? It’s a prime example of life presenting challenges and me making a choice, but every moment is a new moment of choice. Every day is a new day. I wouldn’t berate myself about these choices because that’s not nice. Instead I ask what I’m going to do about it, and move on.

This morning I skipped my usual yoga so that I could get a bit more sleep (meeting ran late) and prepare my smoothies. I have 3-1 liter jars at the office (still working on my “Liver Love Affair” smoothie from breakfast – see the Green Smoothie Cleanse book for recipe).

The count:

Saturday: 1 for breakfast, 1 for snack (same one), soup for lunch, 1 for late night/snack = 4.
Sunday: 1, but it lasted for 2 meals that day.
Monday: 1 for breakfast, okra soup for lunch, 1 smoothie for snack = 3.

9 in 3 days is actually consistent with the challenge but if I’m going to eat a solid meal, it’s got to be one that’s easily digested. This is my goal through Friday. 1 solid meat, easily digested.

Onward.

Eat well, be well.