Live Long Naturally ©2012

What’s the expiration date on the food in your fridge or on your shelf? Are the ingredients actual food? Chances are one or more ingredients are difficult to pronounce and far from natural. From the MSG (monosodium glutamate) added to make poor quality food taste better to flavorings, food colorings, additives, and I mustn’t forget the lighter fluid substance used in Chicken McNuggets.

If the food you are buying is not fresh and local, chances are it is laden with chemical after chemical. Fast and processed foods may save you time and money now, but it comes with a hefty price tag of your money and life later.

“Over half of all the bankruptcies in this decade can be tied to personal health emergencies.” President Bill Clinton (while campaigning on behalf of Hillary)

Going “cold turkey” off processed, canned, and fast foods doesn’t have to cause confusion or cost a fortune. You can begin reading labels, look to replace them with a healthier version, or better yet learn to cook from scratch. It’s easy and very affordable. As you begin to read labels you’ll see just how many foods have chemicals in them. MSG alone is known to cause weight gain, lead to insulin resistance and further complication such as Diabetes. Medical problems do not stop at food additives or artificial sweeteners. The list is long and the problems are many. The solution however is simple – read labels, shop the outer walls of your grocery store, buy at Farmers’ Markets, Co-Ops, CSA’s or grow what you can where you can. You’ll be happier, healthier and a tad bit wealthier for it.

May you live long and prosper!

Vegansexual – a group of people who lead a cruelty-free lifestyle and prefer to be exclusively intimate with like-minded individuals.” Dr. Annie Potts, Co-Director for New Zealand Centre for Human-Animal Studies

Ever kiss anyone that smells like an ash tray? I can’t say I have or care to. I have however kissed someone who tasted/smelled like meat and/or chicken… UGH! Eating fowl (chicken) gives me foul breath. At least that’s what it did over a decade ago when I was still trying to eat it.

Many people walk around chewing gum and wearing deodorant day in and day in – neither one of these are healthy! Most chewing gum has artificial sweetener that wreaks havoc on your health, and deodorants… why block the precious lymph nodes with poison?

When we eat healthy,  breath and body odor are not a problem. I have found the older I get and cleaner inside I get, the harder it is for me to date a meat eater. I have been a vegetarian since the late 60′s… a lacto/ovo/pesca-vegetarian, but still a vegetarian. I also go days as a vegan. I dislike the taste and smell of meat in front of me, on my breath and on the breath of others. Not every meat eater has bad breath, however… odors and the exchange of bodily fluids do not stop at the mouth.

As my former employer would say, vegetarians not only smell better, they taste better. Your partner will appreciate this.

Isn’t it time you make morning breath a thing of the past?

I love coconut, especially the young white ones. Whenever it’s sweet potato and yam season I stock up. I then steam, mash, add real butter and toss on some shredded coconut. Well… lucky for me, they were out of my usual brand of coconut shreds, so I picked up a bag of Coconut Flakes. Not just any coconut flakes! The brand is “LET’S DO ORGANIC.” The ingredients? Organic Coconut (sliced and dehydrated), nada mas! No sweetener, no pasteurization, nothing!

Unless we make foods ourselves, it’s not easy to find a packaged food with one ingredient listed. I am thoroughly impressed, my taste buds are delighted, and my sweet potatoes… I actually forgot to grab some. I was so excited to find organic flakes with nothing else added. The upside to forgetting my yams or sweet potatoes is that I got to eating the flakes alone – I’m hooked!

Young white coconuts are great to eat and drink by themselves, however… one of my favorite smoothies is to blend frozen coconut meat, a peeled orange, and choice of milk. A Tropical Delight!! Raw coconuts are a great snack/small meal in and of themselves.

In Sanskrit, the coconut palm is called kalpa vriksha: “the tree that supplies all that is needed to live.” Brigitte Mars, RAWESOME!

Preparation is key for success in most endeavors, so are deadlines. Today is the day before week 3 of my 52 week resolution. Rainy weather here in Southern California already has me craving some hot comfort food. However, there’s an easy solution – broth!

Simply get water boiling (or a healthy broth) and add whatever vegetables you have handy. Once all is tender, blend and drink. I call this liquid vitamins. And… because I drink it while fasting my body happily soaks it up like a sponge. I’ve given it to non-fasters, they not only love it, they feel great after drinking it!

Vegetable ideas to put in “soup.” Broccoli, onion, garlic, cabbage, potatoes (or quinoa), beets, carrots, etc. Anything goes really! I flavor mine with liquid aminos, or kosher salt or himalayan salt, then spice it up with a dash of cayenne, which by the way… is great for circulation and ridding the body of mucus.

A few other cold weather ideas to prepare for a fast… herbal teas, hot water with lemon, room temperature water, master cleanse drink, and/or blended miso soup. These liquid elixirs can be consumed anytime – cold weather, colds or flu are especially good times.

This is the salad I spoke about in my last post – it is also my first of three raised bed gardens.  A fellow volunteer acquaintance of mine lent me his Square Foot Gardening book (author, Mel Bartholomew) to get me started. It has been a delight to learn how to grow more in less space. I have plenty of yard, however the sunlight isn’t the best in many areas.  As the tomatoes grow a little more, I am going to have some netting put up via some poles so the tomatoes can grow up and not out. Done correctly, even pumpkins can be grown vertically. 

The idea behind square foot gardening is to plant so many of each plant per square foot. Example… 1 broccoli plant is allowed to grow per square foot, spinach and beets can have 9 plants per square foot, while carrots, onions and radishes can each have 16 plants per square. Another benefit to growing this way is you use a lot less seeds. 

The benefits to growing your own garden are endless! A huge benefit to growing raised bed and/or square foot is you need less starting soil, so… it is possible to have your garden be organic from the start! No waiting years for yard soil to become healthy enough to be labeled “organic.”

Go green, get clean and stay lean for 2010!