As of yesterday, I hit the 37 week mark of pregnancy, which means the baby is safely ready to be born into this world.  That does scare me a bit.  I’m not too impressed with this world right now, and part of me feels a little guilty for bringing a new person into the mess.  A person that will have to deal with the consequences of what humanity is doing right now to our earth, to civilization.  We live in a world where most of us don’t think too much about the consequences of our every day minor actions…  an extra long shower, plastic grocery bags (we won’t re-use or recycle), chemicals in our products, in our food.  When things don’t seem to affect us directly or instantaneously, it’s easy to fall into the “ignorance is bliss” category.  But our world is rapidly changing.  Human health is rapidly changing.  And it’s because of a culmination of all of our seemingly insignificant actions that add up to gargantuan changes- to our bodies and to the planet.  A chain reaction of events is taking place right now changing eco-systems, habitats, the livelihoods of billions of people…  Most people know this somewhere inside, but are too busy with their every day lives to have it really matter to them.  But it matters to me.  Because now I’m going to have a child that will live in this world and possibly, if not probably, see it fall into further disarray than I will in my life.  My child’s very own health might be affected.  Endocrine systems are changing, chronic diseases are on the rise, children’s allergies are worse than they’ve ever been. It’s not a positive outlook.

I know there are many people who look at us “green” folks as somewhat silly, or outright hippies.  But being green isn’t just about hugging a tree and saving a polar bear.  It’s about the world our kids and grand-kids will live in years down the line.  It’s about understanding the toxins in everything we touch, and how they really affect us and our environment.  It’s about caring about our own health enough so that we actually FEEL healthy, which means feeling happy and energetic and free of any issues we deem more of a nuisance than an actual problem.  We “deal with” so many things without actually dealing with them!  We’re considered healthy as long as we lack a diagnosis for anything in medical literature.  And even when we get a diagnosis, most of us deal with the symptoms instead of the cause.  This happens to our planet, too.  This happens in agriculture, in politics, in capitalism, in the environment.  We’re a world that keeps replacing bandages over a severed limb, expecting that to help it re-grow.

So I hope this baby I’m about to bring into this bleak picture becomes part of a new generation.  A generation that cares, and seeks answers, and actively participates in making the world a better place.  I know it’s an uphill battle, but being green at least no longer solely references a Kermit the Frog song…  There is a small movement, and small battles being fought, some even looking optimistic for a win.  I hope positive changes happen in our generation, and I urge you all to make small changes where you can and when you can.  You may not get the instant gratification you seek from eating an organic apple or purchasing an eco-friendly cleanser, but believe me – it IS making a difference to you and to the world, one baby step at a time.

And that’s the most important thing we can do right now, is take green baby steps…for our babies’ sake.

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So when people get sticker shock over the cost of real food, or quality supplements, you have to think of it in terms of spending now or spending way more later in money AND quality of life, happiness, security.  Taking Omega-3′s every day, drinking water over sweetened drinks, and eating as much organic food as possible now will drastically lower your odds of having to take medications, or worse, down the line.  We’ll scrunch our noses and pass up a bottle of super-food nutritional supplement because it costs $40 (or about $1 per serving), and then spend $4 a day on a coffee at Starbucks.  People who WANT to be healthy, and who are genuinely interested in feeling better do this.  The reality is, we’ve become a culture who’s only interested in the here and now.  We’re not interested in gradual changes, and we think we’re immune to degeneration from our current daily habits because most of us don’t notice the subtle decline in health until it gets to a point of obvious disease and malfunctioning.

People, we have to stop living for instant gratification.  Instant gratification is killing us.  And it’s costing you and the nation serious money.

It may seem like staying healthy comes at a cost, and in a way… it does.  My grocery bills would probably be less if I didn’t include supplements or much of the organic produce I buy in them.  However, I do not buy juice, or soda, or frozen meals, or bags of chips and pretzels to keep around the house.  There is no steady supply of ice cream in the freezer, or 6 boxes of Honey This, Cocoa That cereals in the pantry.  The foods we have in the house are for the most part, simple staples that can be jazzed up with varying healthy condiments when we want a little something extra out of them.  So, does it wind up balancing out for me?  Would I spend what I spend now if I included the Standard American Diet staples into my grocery cart without my vitamins and organic apples and celery?  I’m not entirely sure, but I can tell you this: it’s worth every penny extra if it still costs me $5 more per grocery bag than the typical American might spend.  It’s worth not having the horrible allergies I had as an adolescent.  It’s worth not having the eczema that tried to consume me in my mid twenties.  It’s worth having a healthy self esteem about my body when it seems like everyone around you is unhappy with the way they look.  It’s worth it to know that the choices I make today can help encourage others to go down the same path I’ve explored the past 7 years and lead them to a better place.

So, yes it may seem expensive to be healthy, but put things in perspective and assess your priorities.  Don’t wait until it’s too late and you have to spend everything you would have spent on vegetables on life-saving procedures or risky medications with 47 possible side effects.

THAT is not worth it.

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So this week, I have a mission for you – do something that makes you feel 1.) happy and 2.) healthy.  I’d like the first week of my new year to be both of those, so I’m going to the grocery store to get some healthy nibbles before the sun that’s out now turns into a predicted thunderstorm later this afternoon.  Blue skies make me happy, and if I can get a few more fresh veggie juices in this week and completely eliminate processed sugar for the next 5 days, I know I’ll feel a good sense of pride and genuine happiness too.  Processed sugar is a leading cause of getting the blues, so now that my house is free of it, my birthday is over (I even had cheesecake over the weekend, gasp!) and I have no excuses to indulge, I’m on a mission to finish out this pregnancy with a big gush of health.  I haven’t had any crazy pregnancy cravings, but I have noticed my taste preferences have swerved to the lightly sweet and carby side, which does bother me a bit, since I used to actually crave hearty veggie packed salads.  In an effort to make sure I don’t eat pancakes for breakfast every day, I’ve been relying on banana protein smoothies with almond milk and a scoop of super-greens veggie powder to get me that indulgent sweetness that satisfies me just so, with at least some green power and baby-building protein in there.  This week, however, I am on a mission to actually eat my greens with a fork, so I’ll be on the hunt for some dandelions and watercress in the store today so I can make the salads I talked about in my last blog entry.

Finally, I’d like to do a little more working out this week, which I have to admit, has been very hard for me the past couple weeks.  I get winded so easily these days, with baby pressing up into my lungs, that just walking up the steps in my house can leave me breathless for a minute.  I also get struck by the sudden urge to nap much more easily, which doesn’t help.  But I’ve gotta get these legs toned up for D Day, so some squats and lunges are in order this week.  Hold me accountable to it!  And do a few rounds for yourself while you’re at it

OK, don’t want to wait any longer while this sun is out.  Hi-ho-hi-ho, it’s off to Whole Foods, I go!  (Or maybe the East End food co-op!)

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It is spring, though, which means our livers are in spring cleaning mode. Help it out some by loading your plate with healthy green leaves, the more bitter the better. Dandelion greens are some of my favorite. To help counter-act the bitter flavor, my favorite preparation of them is to make a salad with chopped dried fruit (I like prunes or dates myself), a sprinkling of your favorite nuts or seeds, and a dressing made of lemon juice, maple syrup (the 100% real kind, not the high fructose corn syrup maple flavored kind!), and olive oil. The sweet and sourness of the dressing and the fruit really helps balance out the bitter from the greens. This tactic can also be employed in my other favorite green this season: watercress. Watercress is more peppery than bitter, but boy is it a super-hero of the veggie world. Antioxidants abound, liver cleansing properties, and it’s super high in calcium to boot. I like preparing watercress in a salad with a few other baby greens and halved red grapes.

There are obviously other great greens out there to try this season… these just happen to be two of my favorites. You can’t not feel healthier after eating them! Hit the store,  and pick up a different green every few days. Arugula, escarole, kale, spinach… If you have a variety of these greens during the week, especially paired with a reduction of sugar and starches in your diet, you WILL feel a difference! It just takes a little self-motivation to do it.  Seeing as how last week was a sugar-laden week for myself actually, (if anyone else lets me see chocolate right now, I WILL slap you), I think I need to seriously start taking my own advice!

I’ve got kale in the fridge right now. I’m planning a date with my juicer this afternoon!

In other life updates, I am approaching my 34th week of pregnancy, which means anywhere from 3 to 8 weeks from now, I could have a baby in my arms.  This is getting very real, very fast!  I have been feeling pretty good, but I admit, last week’s chocolate melt-down has been making me feel noticeably moodier.  I could say it’s from pregnancy hormones, and maybe there’s a little of that going on, but an increase in sugar consumption always makes me feel down, so I’m sure it’s definitely not helping.  Physically however, I’m just feeling like I have no more room left to spare in my midsection!  I’m grateful that I have none of the other major bummer symptoms of pregnancy right now (swollen feet and fingers, calf cramps, chipmunk cheeks, etc.)  We’ll see what the next few weeks bring about, though.  The biggest annoyance I’m dealing with is difficulty breathing, as I feel like I can never take in a full breath, and I get easily winded.  I’ve put on almost 18 pounds so far, which may seem like a small amount for pregnancy up to this point, but keeping in mind that I am barely 5 feet tall, and was less than 100 lbs to begin with, so my body is certainly not used to having to keep up with a weight gain like this!  All in all, it is definitely an interesting experience, especially for a person who’s job it is to study and understand the inner workings of the human body!  Stay tuned as the time draws near for D-Day!  And please, send me good vibes for Baby Kapoor’s easy and healthy arrival!!

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A society in which people are walking around, with no concept of how or why they are living. All of our brains have been programmed to believe corporate messages, and it doesn’t occur to us to question an alternative. Nobody wants to explore the universe inside their skin, they just want it to get them from place A to B as fast as possible, while looking aesthetically pleasing to those around them. When a part seems to be on the fritz, we rely on outside human mechanics to fix us, and hope it doesn’t cost too much.

Why does no one care about their bodies these days? It is so frustrating to see so many talented, intelligent people completely oblivious to the ONE thing you can’t replace in this life. Your own body. Everyone deprives themselves of vitamins, minerals, sleep, exercise, and happiness for what? For a paycheck. Paychecks are important, yes. But don’t you need a well functioning body to earn the best paycheck possible? Yes. So why do people not care to learn how their body actually works? It’s a miracle people. Scientists know less about the human brain than they do outer space. What does that mean to you? It means we have untold abilities within ourselves and we don’t even want to ponder it. Do you know the sequence of events that takes place when you are exposed to a germ? Or when you quickly jump out of the way of a speeding vehicle? It is absolutely amazing the things our body is programmed to do without our conscious brain conducting it…or a doctor…or a politician… or a CEO… But in today’s society, our bodies are the last thing we think about and we believe everyone else over any intuition we may have once had. This puts us in an incredibly vulnerable spot. Especially in today’s heated political-corporate world. Any information filtered down through us through professionals comes from an incredibly dense population of lobbyists and corporate interests. They fund political campaigns, schools, hospitals, even churches. They can decide which information can be made readily available to us common folk, by sponsoring TV stations and programs, newspapers, magazines and if it looks like they’re going to be painted in a negative light…the threat of taking money away always has a way of influencing people. Look at what is happening to Rush Limbaugh right now after his incredibly evil remarks on his program regarding birth control. Advertisers pulled out (pun intended.) Anyone who has a voice and a platform to reach a huge audience is still a dog on a leash to their advertisers and sponsors. Everyone is so afraid of losing funding, they’ll agree to word things in any way the source of that money deems fit. It may sound like conspiracy theory stuff….but sadly, it’s not. Two Fox news reporters were eventually let go from their jobs after presenting their research on recombinant bovine growth hormones in dairy products. What they found out is critical information consumers need to know about, but their report had to appease all the dairy companies who advertised during commercial breaks, and after rounds and rounds of edits, their story was finally scrapped. When the journalists fought back about getting this information out there…they were fired. Is this the society you want to live in? Don’t you want to know what is happening when you open your mouth and ingest something? Don’t you want to know that your body is capable of handling more than you’ve been taught you can handle? Don’t you want to know what it’s NOT capable of handling in this modern, mechanized world? I certainly do. Don’t you wish you could trust your intuition and believe it to be the truth about your body, instead of allowing yourself to be convinced by an outside source that your intuition is plain old silly and unfounded?

Sigh, I know this is a really big wish, and there are definitely some positive signs that people are starting to think a little deeper about what they’ve been told about their bodies, but I fear the vast majority of the population is still at high risk. And they have power. Scarier still…our corporate climate loves these people. People who are brainwashed easily to keep buying the products that are slowly killing them, then convinced a series of prescription medications and over the counter remedies are their only way back to “health”. People who question the system and fight for their own biological rights are villain-ized and a threat to society. It’s much much better for us humans to just fall in line, believe what we’re told, and forget we even have our own bodies or brains or emotions.

Well, I for one…will certainly never be that kind of robot. Take a stand, people. Ask questions. Seek answers. Have faith that you were given a body designed to accomplish things all by itself, and most importantly…CARE about yourself! It doesn’t make you selfish, I promise.

(seem ridiculous?  let’s hope it doesn’t take another 70 years for us to realize how ridiculous today’s marketing campaigns are)

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Obviously, this is a big year for the Grater/Kapoor family.  One thing we know to expect in our future is a baby.  Everything else we’ll have to play by ear!  Since moving to Pittsburgh in December the ball has also been rolling for me professionally, as I’ve met some incredible people here all working in different aspects of the wellness spectrum- relationships and friendships that will definitely all roll up into some fun and engaging opportunities in the months ahead.  I’m very excited by it all and so grateful to those special people I’ve met recently!

So a funny thing happens when I get this kind of optimistic buzz from life-  I want to be healthier!  Funny how that works out, huh?  There is a cycle of health and happiness that happens that spins us off in the right direction.  Many people may be more familiar with the cycle working in the opposite direction- feeling down about life can park us on the couch with a pizza and Ben n Jerry chaser.  But that same system is at work in a positive way when life feels positive, so I encourage you to get out and smell the roses, meet new people, network for a new job opportunity, sign up for yoga classes, SOMETHING that gets you feeling like you’re taking control of your life in a way that will make you happy.  Trust me…you’ll thank me later!

To celebrate me feeling good about life, I was motivated to make a super yummy healthy meal for me and the hubby tonight. It started with a trip to the food co-op, which I am super duper thrilled I found out about.  When I saw the fresh, bright green watercress, and felt the warmth in the air, I knew I had to do something with it.  Cilantro, too.  Heck…I wanted to clear out their whole produce section.

So this afternoon began with the inspiration to make a cilantro pesto.  Didn’t know where I’d go from there…but before I could ponder it in my head, my body was taking over and putting the cilantro and a handful of walnuts into the food processor.  A little apple cider vinegar, salt and olive oil rounded it out.

I needed to ponder how I’d incorporate it into dinner later, so after my prenatal yoga class, I came home ready to mix and match.  I took the peppery fresh watercress, chopped it up, and threw it in a bright yellow bowl.  Food always looks yummier when presented well.  Into the mix went a half of an avocado and some crumbled goat cheese.  Hmmm…”I think a sliced pear would compliment this well” I said to myself.  Meanwhile, I had cooked up some sweet onion, garlic and a package of boneless, skinless chicken thighs (organic, free-range obviously) in my cast iron skillet with some salt, pepper, and lemon zest.  Enter cilantro pesto.  It was very thick, almost paste-like, so I squeezed half a lemon into a small bowl, took about a tablespoon of the pesto, and whisked them together with some extra olive oil.  Drizzle that over the pretty salad in the pretty yellow bowl, place a few chicken thighs on top, and voila!  We had ourselves what felt like a perfect spring time meal.  Lots of protein, healthy fats, super-food goodness that was satisfying, yet still felt light and fresh.  My favorite kind of meal!

So here’s to you, Spring.  Thank you for always putting some spring in my step.  To all you couch potatoes now…it feels good to get up and move around and discover a new vegetable, so try it out!!

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It is GREAT that people are asking these kinds of questions, because health improvement has to start with a curiosity about healthy food.  However, it can actually be quite difficult to give an accurate answer to these basic kinds of questions.  There are many factors that may play into slightly different answers for different people (see previous blog post with my one-size-fits-all rules).

I would like to help ease some of the confusion though for people wondering just how to tackle their interest in getting healthier.  First, check to make sure you’re following my 5 simple rules.  If you can’t start there, you won’t be able to jump into more challenging dietary changes.  Second, pay attention to how you feel after you eat.  For example, to answer the question “What’s the best thing to eat for breakfast?”  I would say, “something that keeps you feeling full and satisfied for at least 2.5 to 4 hours.”  A bowl of slow-cooked oats, mixed with a tablespoon of nut butter, or a handful of nuts and berries, with a boiled egg on the side might work wonders for you.  Two over-easy eggs, on top of some left over beans and rice and a glass of “green drink” (a staple in my house) could also be a big ticket winner.  Even left over dinner of salmon, spinach, and a few bites of boiled potato would be excellent if you can get over the preconceived notions of what breakfast foods have to look like.  If you’re eating a 3 egg-white omelette with tomatoes and a cup of coffee with Splenda and thinking you’re being healthy, but find yourself dying for a chocolate chip cookie an hour later is a big clue you aren’t getting what you need.

The key is experimentation.  Many nutritionists insist that 6 small meals a day is the ideal way to eat for optimum metabolism.  I both agree and disagree.  If you can’t wrap your head around the fact that each of those meals isn’t much bigger than a snack, and you’re eating 6 sandwiches a day with a side dish and a sweetened drink, it’s not going to work for you.  For me, I feel the best when I eat 3 solid meals a day, with a couple of healthy snacks in between.  I know for me, I run the risk of over-eating if I don’t feel a sense of hunger before I eat and a sense of complete satisfaction with the meal afterwards.  So I fill my plate with healthy fats, proteins, and quality carbs so I leave no nutritional need left to chance.  This is what works for me.

So before you ask someone else to tell you what to do…you have to start by asking yourself: “do I feel good in my own skin?”; “does a meal make me feel satisfied, healthy and, yes – happy after I eat it?”  ”Why might I be binging on sweet/salty snacks?”  ”Do I sleep well?”  ”Does my skin/hair/nails look healthy?”  These are all major clues to evaluate.  If you aren’t eating what your body needs, you will continue to crave “bad” food, feel unsatisfied, unhealthy, and unhappy.

When you get to a point where you feel like you’re making the right choices, but you still feel something is amiss…come back to me and we’ll take a deeper look  There’s always another level to graduate to once you conquer the basics.

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She looks fabulous, and I was so proud of her response to the question my mother-in-law asked her yesterday….”Are you still on your diet?”  As I had my bowl of gluten-free granola and almond milk, and everyone else ate a Belgian waffle the size of a dinner plate, she chose to just have half a waffle (a totally appropriate portion size.)  My sister’s response?  Momentary confusion, followed by “no, this is just how I eat now.  You should try it.”  I wanted to high five her in that moment.

My mother-in-law, bless her heart, just doesn’t seem to understand the concept of healthy eating, or even making healthier choices (half vs. whole waffle).  It’s not totally her fault.  Most of it is a cultural conditioning.  However, I’ve noticed that no matter what nationality you are, there is a common culture around over-eating.  Especially in America.  Most people have stories to tell about their grandparents, and the overfeeding that occurs during childhood.  For me, it was an Italian upbringing, with no one getting out of my grand-parents’ house without either rigatoni or a ham sandwich (or both.)  No matter the time of day, or if we’d already eaten lunch before visiting them.  I see this type of treatment in my in-law’s house too.  And it can be really difficult to stick to your guns and not give in to the pressure to eat, when you know your body doesn’t need it.

“Are you still on a diet?”  Depending on the person to whom this question is directed, it can have huge ramifications on the success of that person’s health.  There are many levels of meaning in such a simple question.  It can mean judgment: “What is the point of changing your healthy habits? There’s nothing wrong with a few extra pounds.”  It can mean justification for unhealthy choices: “Oh, come on, we’re all eating whole waffles, you can too.”  That one is particularly dangerous, because I feel that most people are seeking just that kind of justification.  There is a safety-net feeling when you know you aren’t the only one indulging in what one doesn’t need.  It can also mean innocent ignorance: “You lost weight and look good.  Why are you still being so careful now?”   This meaning, innocuous and innocent in its intent, might be the most dangerous to our society today.  It means that people understand it’s healthy to lose a few pounds, but they don’t really know why.  It also says they are completely clueless as to what the word “diet” really means.  And this is HUGELY important.

Most of you reading this inherently know that if you think the word “diet” means a temporary change to your eating habits to lose weight, you will also only temporarily lose the weight.  Sadly, it doesn’t seem like the vast majority of this country understands that simple concept.  The word diet actually refers to the general, daily and lifelong food sources of a species.  One might say birds live off of a diet of seeds, worms, and foraged berries.  It doesn’t mean a chunky bird looked in a mirror and said, “Yikes, I’m giving up earth worms for the next three weeks.”  A diet is a way of life, a way you conduct yourself, a positive image you give to those around you.  Particularly those that might be the most influenced by your choices (your kids, for instance.)  It’s not a specified period of time you have to fit into a new dress for a friend’s wedding.

So if you, as a healthy person, are ever faced with the opportunity to educate a person as to what the word diet really means, please…take it.  Explain that it’s not about wanting to look thin.  Being overweight is just as dangerous to your health as speeding without a seat-belt on.  Explain that losing weight (and keeping it off by adopting the habits you learned from your “diet” into your life-long daily routine) is about not getting diseases.  It’s about feeling more confident and better about yourself.  It’s about setting a healthy example for your loved ones.

It’s about your happiness and well-being. Not for the next month. Forever.

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Now, how would you make chicken nuggets at home?  Maybe you’d chop up some white breast meat, dust it in flour, dip it in some egg, then some more flour and fry it in vegetable oil, right?  Or if you’re slightly more health conscious, maybe you’d go for bread crumbs and bake instead.  How far from this recipe could fast food and processed food companies be?  Since advertising and marketing and misleading nutrition advice out there would have us believing that there can’t be that much wrong with a chicken nugget (protein and carbs, we need that, right?), let’s take a deeper look.

Cut and pasted directly from Mickey D’s site for anyone who’s curious to find out is this list of their chicken nugget ingredients:

Chicken McNuggets® (6 piece):
White boneless chicken, water, food starch-modified, salt, seasoning [autolyzed yeast extract, salt, wheat starch, natural flavoring (botanical source), safflower oil, dextrose, citric acid], sodium phosphates, natural flavor (botanical source). Battered and breaded with: water, enriched flour (bleached wheat flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), yellow corn flour, bleached wheat flour, food starch-modified, salt, leavening (baking soda, sodium acid pyrophosphate, sodium aluminum phosphate, monocalcium phosphate, calcium lactate), spices, wheat starch, dextrose, corn starch.

CONTAINS: WHEAT.
Prepared in vegetable oil (Canola oil, corn oil, soybean oil, hydrogenated soybean oil with TBHQ and citric acid added to preserve freshness). Dimethylpolysiloxane added as an antifoaming agent.

So what does this really mean?  Well, one thing is that I’ve seen that a chicken nugget only contains anywhere from 44 to 70% actual meat.  The rest is all those food starch and chemical fillers.  And just what ARE those confusing ingredients that you don’t keep in your own baking supplies?

Let’s take a look.

Well, for one, “food starch- modified” essentially means corn starch.  It is corn starch that has been chemically altered, or modified, to increase bulk, so they can use less meat, more corn (definitely genetically modified.)  It also means that the “meat” you’re eating is roughly half meat, half chemicalized, genetically modified corn powder.

“Autolyzed yeast extract” ??  You’ve heard me talk about this before.  This is just another way of creating MSG, an excito-toxin that fires up your nerves to a creepy and not presumed safe level, and also creates a flavor sensation that is incredibly addictive.

“Dextrose” is sugar.

“Sodium Phosphate” is used as an emulsifier to keep the ingredients well blended and a pleasing texture.  It also happens to be used in most laxative and medical colon procedures.  I think it’s interesting this needs to be added, (in addition for it’s likely salty flavor) since the body probably wouldn’t have a clue how to eliminate this confusing jumble of chemicals and altered food ingredients without it.

Continuing on the list, I shouldn’t have to explain “bleached white flour”.  Flour with bleach.  Yes, THAT bleach.  Tasty!

“Sodium aluminum phosphate”.  I always hate when I run out of this, it’s so hard to find in grocery stores.  Not only is this a chemical used in many pesticides, but the cumulative effects of aluminum and aluminum by-products in our diet, beauty products, and medications has been strongly correlated with Alzheimer’s disease (an active controversy, of course).  Aluminum toxicity can also impair kidney function, calcium metabolism, decreased liver function, anemia, you know, lots of fun things.

I also shouldn’t have to talk about the use of “Hydrogenated Soybean Oil” in these here nuggets.  If there’s a red-flag word to stay away from on food labels, it’s hydrogenated.  You know, trans fats that companies are racing to market their products without, after all the cardiologists finally got their point across?  Oil that’s been whipped up and altered so that it’s no longer an oil, but a nice creamy, never before seen product of this earth, much like a chemical!  And soybeans, like corn, top the list of genetically grown crops in this country.  Which means you’re getting a nice residue of the weed killer Round-Up (the monopolizing Monsanto’s weed killer sold to farmers who own Monsanto’s patented seeds) when you eat corn and soy.

On with the list!  “TBHQ”  This is a good one…err…I mean really bad one.  It’s a petroleum product and also a form of butane (yeah, like a cigarette lighter), so you know it’s great for you.  The nuggets likely get spritzed with this after coming down the production line to keep them looking like nuggets for a year after one falls behind your car seat.  Between 1 and 4 grams of this stuff can make you incredibly ill.  More than 4 grams?  RIP.  Cumulative effects of ingesting small amounts of it over the course of your lifetime from processed foods?  Theories abound, but no big corporate companies are really gonna test that.  There is some evidence that it can exacerbate ADHD symptoms, asthma and dermatitis.  Rat studies have shown increased risk of pre-cancerous stomach cells and DNA damage.  It has also been suggested to affect estrogen levels in women.

What else do we have? “Dimethylpolisiloxane”  That sounds DELICIOUS.  It is a substance they put in the frying oil to keep the cauldron from bubbling over.  It is a silicon based polymer that is heavily used in the cosmetic and medical/medical device industry, and my favorite: silly putty.  Supposedly non-toxic, but would you really be comfortable eating your make-up and feeding the putty to your kid?

If you’ve made it to the end of this blog, congratulations, it was a jam packed one.  Hopefully it inspires you to eat some fruits and veggies.  Hopefully it also inspires you to really read the ingredient labels (or search them out if not listed at your favorite chain restaurant), to fully understand what you are consuming.  McDonald’s is certainly not the only offender here in using some of these crazy chemicals.  Most chain restaurants, not just fast-food ones, do.  So if Chili’s or the Olive Garden is your typical Friday night date….do a little research on what’s in their seasonings and sauces, too.

I can’t stress enough how much of our health depends on the quality of what we eat.  Just because a nutrition label that says how much protein you’re getting and how little sugar makes you think, “oh, that’s good right?”  Think again, and skip down to the ingredient label instead.  There’s a whole different story going on there.

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Tweaking a recipe I found online, I created a spongey, sweet, and delicious banana bread that even you gluten eaters would probably appreciate!

Here’s what I used:

3 very ripe bananas, mashed
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 – 1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup Bob’s Red Mill All Purpose Gluten-Free Flour (you could use a blended cup of your own GF flours, though – brown rice, sorghum, fava, etc.)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 teaspoon of salt
appx 1/6 cup of melted coconut oil (I was cutting a recipe in half that called for 1/3 cup, which I eye-balled)

Here’s what you do:

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.

Slowly and gently melt the coconut oil (it melts at 76 degrees) in a sauce pan on very low heat.

Add the mashed banana, sugar and vanilla to the beaten eggs and blend.

Blend in flour, baking soda, salt until all incorporated.

Stir in coconut oil just until blended.

Pour in greased loaf pan and bake for 25 to 30 minutes depending on your oven. Keep an eye on it for when the top gets lightly brown, it feels spongey, or a tooth pick comes out clean.

Wait a few minutes, then remove from pan and enjoy!

*Note. The original recipe did call for a 1/2 cup of unsweetened applesauce, which would mean I needed 1/4 cup for this recipe. I did not have it, and hoped 3 bananas would be enough moisture. (Original recipe called for “4 or 5″ bananas) I think the next time though I would like to try adding a few tablespoons of applesauce to see how it changes things, so you might want to add some for yourself!

Try not to eat the whole thing in one sitting!

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