How can you be sure your children are getting the nutrition they need?

Most parents would worry that if they keep their children from eating those fatty foods that they love, and only offer vegetables, that the children will starve, or have nutritional deficiencies.  These parents feel that the kids will just not eat the food.  If you think about it this way, how much nutrients are they receiving from the fatty, processed foods now? 

  If their diet consists of French fries, mashed potatoes, apple sauce, chocolate pudding, and maybe chicken fingers, how could it be worse if you only offer fruits and vegetables?  Sure, maybe they will demand to have the foods they like, and not eat.  They will eventually get hungry and if you keep offering fruits and vegetables and do not give in, you will see that they will begin to enjoy it, especially if they see everyone else in the family eating healthier.

Incorporate bean soups, such as yummy lentil soup and if that doesn’t work make your lentil soup into a “lentil burger”.  You may have to gradually change their eating styles.  Try making fresh bean and/or vegetable soups with some cheese sprinkled on it.  Make sure it is tasty, and not too spicy.  Make homemade pancakes with wheat and only sweeten it with pure raw honey.  Make fruit shakes and throw in a carrot or romaine lettuce. Make tasty salads with homemade dressings….and also make faces out of the tomatoes and cucumbers and carrots.  Make tasty salmon and have them try it. 

There are so many possibilities and recipes that you can try.  Do not give up on your child because they have shown a dislike for a vegetable or fruit.  Just eat it around them and watch them ask you for a piece.  Keep offering it to them at dinnertime and ask them to eat a couple of bites. 

If children eat plenty of fruits and green leafy vegetables, they are also getting their calcium requirements.  But you could also include some almond milk or rice milk if you want.

The focus is to keep introducing them to new foods so that they develop a taste for natural foods that we as humans were meant to eat.

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Eating organic and going raw can get expensive. Here are some tips.

When we change over to eating raw foods it can be quite expensive. The ultimate is to grow your own garden. If you have a back yard you can grow a pretty decent sized one. Otherwise, get a few planters and grow a couple of tomato plants along the patio wall, and put a couple of eggplants inside the porch door with one large circular planter. Make each vegetable plant its own design with surrounding works of art. I put a little garden here of one type of veggies and then another one on the south side of the yard. The sky is the limit what you can do.

If you can find someone who has an organic garden, offer to help them in exchange for food items. Most people need help, and the larger the garden the more help they will need. You could weed, take care of the greenhouse, monitor customers who need assistance, and prepare plants for reselling.  Very few people refuse good honest labor; I know I wouldn’t! Working in a garden all spring, summer and fall is exhausting work; someone to help us would be a blessing.

If you can find sales on organic or fresh vegetables toward the end of the summer seasons, buy them at bulk and either freeze or can your favorite dishes.  If you have a large deep freeze you can freeze quite a bit of items. Otherwise, get a dehydrator and dry your food items. These do not need special storage and can be added to soups and stews, casseroles, or just eat by the hands full in the middle of winter as it is snowing outside.

Look around and see what you have in your neighborhood or local city area. There are many, many opportunities that are waiting for your attention and skill, but they won’t come knocking on your door!

Good luck with your new raw food ways!

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No more cans! Fresh is the way to go!

Buying food items in cans lack in nutrition and are usually loaded with salt and preservatives in today’s food markets. The process of freshness goes from fresh fruits and vegetables, to frozen foods, and down to canned foods. Last on the list, these canned items are slowly becoming a thing of the past.

When the canned foods go through the cooking process, this heating process destroys about one-third to one-half of the vitamins A and C, riboflavin and thiamin. And then the sit on the shelves as they are stored, losing an additional 5% to 20% . But the remaining vitamins only decrease their values slightly.

A lot of produce when picked for harvest will begin to lose some of its nutrients. If it is handled properly and canned quickly, it can be more than or as nutritious as fresh fruit or vegetable.  This fresh produce will lose half or more of its vitamins with the first two weeks: but if not kept chilled or preserved, the fresh vegetable or fruit will lose nearly half of its vitamins within the first few days.  The average consumer is advised to eat a variety of food types each day as compared to only one type of food.

The thing to remember is everything depends on the time between the harvesting and the canning and freeing process. Generally, the vegetables are picked immediately and taken to canning or freezing divisions when their nutrient contact is at its peak. How the food is canned affects the nutrient value also. Vegetables boiled for longer than necessary and in large amounts of water lose much of their nutritional value as compared to those only lightly steamed.

When we pick fresh vegetables or fruit at the farm, they are always more nutritious than canned or frozen – this is a fact. If you cannot buy fresh, at least buy frozen. 

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Find natural Alternatives for flavor!

Alternative seasonings are becoming very familiar in the kitchens in today’s world.  Rows after rows of organic or alternative spices now line the cupboards in our kitchens as compared to the few we grew up with. We had salt and pepper, and maybe some garlic or onion salt. Slowly this changed to garlic powers or onion powders. We learned that the corn cooking oil we used was bad for us, and moved to olive oil and canola oil. We learned to educate ourselves on a daily basis.

Organic kelp granules are a wonderful salt alternative with low sodium and have iodine in it.  Low temperature dried and untoasted kelp granules spice up the kitchen dishes in a healthy way with a unique flavor. I like to boil spinach pasta and add it as a flavoring.  There is only 45 mg of sodium per ½ tsp that is very good for me also. The main ingredient is organic raw kelp.

Butters are becoming a thing of the past we have all grown up with. High fat content, it possibly contains residues of pesticides along with environmental toxics which both tend to concentrate in the fat.  When we walk down the dairy counters at the grocery store, we have many choices available to us. At one time it was a choice between butter and margarine; now neither is totally good for us. Peanut butter is now made from whole peanuts, as compared to the original peanut butter made from sugar and salt.  This healthy peanut butter avoids hydrogenated fats, which will add years to our life and our heart can maintain its low blood pressures along with normal pulses.

Red wine vinegarette dressings on salads and honey as sugar are just a few of the changes in the alternatives we have today for our kitchens.  The old fashioned meals we ate at our grandmother’s table are gone – what is available are meals with health in mind.  Even pancakes made out of wheat  is covered with pure maple syrup instead of the sweetened corn Karo syrup we grew up with. 

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The next best alternative to ice cream? Easy to make homemade sorbet. (fresh fruits)

Probably one of the best desserts you can eat yet is tremendously good for you is Sorbet. It is a frozen dessert made from iced fruit puree and any other ingredient you would like to add for a light dessert.  It is sort of a gelato that has no milk in it so is very good for lactose free individuals or milk allergies.  Some sorbets contain alcohol that lowers the freezing temperature and makes it slightly softer.  It is very dense and flavorful, matching ice cream for quality and taste.  The Villa Dolce, makers of Italian gelato, are one of the best producers of sorbet on the web.

Sorbet has a history behind it that says the Roman Emperor, Nero, invented it during the first century AD.  The story said Nero had runners along the Appian way, passing buckets of snow to the mountains to his banquet hall, where it was mixed with honey and wine.  Other countries also laid claim to the original invention, but the mixture of snow, juice and fruit pulp is delicious.  The French served it traditionally between the starter course and the main course, and is served as a non-fat and vegan alternative to ice cream.

Sorbet is made from water, and fruit puree.  It is an excellent source of Calcium and Vitamin C, and is naturally fat free and low in calories.  They make excellent fruit smoothies and are good for you in health aspects. They would be similar to fruit whips where you put ice, fruit, and some light flavoring in a blender to whip a light and airy, non dairy drink.  Very tasty, natural, and healthy.

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Why you should reconsider consuming soy milk often? Soy is the Most mucous forming food on the planet.

Most milk is mucous forming.  When a cold develops or pneumonia sets in, the last thing offered should be a milk product due to the mucous in it. Soy is still milk, even though it is called a “vegetable milk.” Children under two years of age are being advised not to drink cow’s milk due to the high protein in it. Yet soy milk is high protein also, and is seriously being promoted for children today, especially those who have had milk allergies.  The soy milk is curdled and hung in a cheese cloth, this forms a sold curd which is called tofu or soy cheese.  Processed soy products is the most mucous forming food on the planet!

It has been proven in Japan that soy has goitrogens in it, which depresses thyroid function. It also is high in phytic acid and is 99% genetically modified, plus having one of the highest percentages contaminate of pesticides there is.  Scientists are beginning to agree that grain and legume based diets high in phytates are helping spread mineral deficiencies in 3^rd world countries. 

Soy has come to us from the Orient where it is called “the meat without a bone.”  Tofu is a very natural protein based product from soy that replaces meat in the Orient. Traditionally, it was eaten by the Japanese as part of a mineral-rich fish broth.  Recent studies show vegetarians who eat tofu and bean curd as meat substitutes for dairy products and meat, are at risk for mineral deficiencies. Supplements need to be added to compensate for this deficiency.  Vegetarians who consume tofu and bean curd as a substitute for meat and dairy products risk severe mineral deficiencies.

The Chinese did not eat soybean as other legumes and lentils. They felt that the soybean contained large amounts of harmful substances.  Many reasons are cited for it, but soy products continue to grow in the United States at an alarming rate. Chocolate soy milk and vanilla soy milk are just a few products that we find in our grocery stores today. 

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Why you should only take sips of water during mealtime? Large glasses of water impedes the digestive process by diluting the gatric juices

Taking several sips of water at a mealtime as compared to drinking a couple of large glasses per meal seems to be a personal preference unless there is a medical reason or a weight loss is desired. Several sources say that at the present time there is no proof at all that water aids in the digestion process.  There is enough water in the fruits and vegetables to supply this. 

But what I noticed is that an excessive amount of water consumed at a meal dilutes stomach acid concentration. This is very necessary for food breakdown of protein and other nutrients.  I also noticed that the body couldn’t handle large amounts of water at one time because most water at a meal usually has ice in it. If water is drunk lukewarm or at room temperature, it will not interfere with the body’s temperature as much as ice water does. If a person has a medical condition like a hiatus hernia, too much water at a meal will trigger it.

Water drank between meals, not during meals, is the most important time for its consumption regarding health issues. To remove toxins and waste products from the body, water is needed for the flow of their elimination. It also is important for the circulation of our body’s fluids and temperature regulation.

In 1910, a study was done on a young man who drank 3 liters of water with his meals for five days in a row. The findings showed: an increase in body weight of two pounds in the five days; increased amount of excretion of urinary nitrogen; increased output of ammonia, due to an increased output of gastric juice; decreased excretion of feces and of fecal nitrogen; and a decrease in the quantity of bacteria excreted daily. 

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