Travel Smart with Healthy Snacks

Going on a trip doesn't mean you have to sacrifice your health. I'm going to Salt lake City this weekend and have gathered all my snacks for the trip so I'm prepared when hunger strikes or when I'm sleepy driving up and need something to keep me awake. There is also enough for back-up in case I get hungry while I'm there. So here it is: Jicama &carrot slices, refried beans (I was going to make humus but this was left over from dinner so it will work),sweet potato fries, nut/seed based ranch style dip, roasted brussle sprout halves(great for dipping), caulflower, sweet peas, and when that sweet tooth strikes I have lemon balls. The greens and oranges are for my breakfast smoothie which will also include some frozen strawberries. Yes, I haul my blender every where I go! Then I've got a container of water and 1/2 an avocado that I don't want to leave behind. I wont have any trouble finding a use for it!
I hope this gives you some ideas for the next time that you travel!

Kale for Calcium

Did you know that a 4 oz serving of steamed kale has just as much calcium as one cup of milk? Broccoli, bok choy, sesmae seeds, and garbanzo beans are also excellent calcium sources. These plant foods have very little artery clogging saturated fat, NO cholesterol, are loaded with fiber and thousands of micro nutrients that are critical for good health. Furthermore, the body absorbs about 50% of the calcium in greens compared to only about 32% of the calcium in milk.
I think I'll have some leafy greens with my Chic Pea Burgers tonight! See my recipe page for Chic Pea Burger recipe.

Kids Can Have Fun Eating Healthy

This is Sean. He is a lucky kid because he has a mom and grandma that are teaching him to eat healthy which includes making healthy treats. His grandma is one of my most committed cooking class attendees and has had great success transitioning her family to a plant based diet. Sean gives my Peppermint Patty nut candies 5 stars! Wow! Thanks Sean! It makes my day when I find a healthy treat that kids love.
You can find this recipe and more on my recipe page.

Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease

Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn has done great work helping his patients reverse their heart disease. He has had 100 % success with those patients who were complaint to his program.
Listen to John and Ocean Robbins interview Dr. Esselstyn about his program.
http://www.foodrevolution.org/blog/dr-esselstyn/

My husband and I heard Dr. Esselstyn speak live at the Healthy Lifestyle Expo in southern California in 2007 and it motivated my husband to put Dr. Esselstyns advise to the test.

Despite eating a 95% healthy vegan diet since we married in 1996 (only because that is the way I was cooking) my husbands cholesterol was still up around 275. After hearing Dr. Esselstyn in an on-line video, I started cutting out extracted oils from the dishes that I was preparing because I had learned from him, and others in the plant based nutrition world, that "free oils" or "extracted oils" such as olive oil, canola oil, etc. were harmful to the body and increase risk of heart disease. My husband continued to use Earth Balance Buttery Spread, Veganaise, and a few other foods that contained oils that I continued to buy. I had already rocked his world by taking away his butter, meat, and dairy products, I just couldn't bare to take away these other things that I worked so hard to get him to transition to.

After a weekend at the Healthy Lifestyle Expo listening to the best of the best plant based nutrition experts, he said to me on the way home "I want to give it a try. I don't think it will work, but I'm willing to put it to the test." He was talking about the oils. Getting rid of the oils. Yes, the Earth Balance, the Veganaise, chips, crackers, breads with oils and anything else that has even a drop of any kind of oil in it. We even decided we were not going to eat out during this 6 week trial period.

Six weeks later his cholesterol had dropped 50 points! He was totally suprised and motivated to continue! Since then it has been slow going getting his numbers to drop but Dr. Fuhrman says that if you are eating a nutritarian diet like he recommends, high in leafy green vegetables and other colorful vegetables, beans, seeds, and berries, and limiting your animal products (which are the ONLY dietary source of cholesterol) you have cut your risk of heart attack way down despite your numbers.

If you are eating a plant based diet and still have high cholesterol, I challenge you to get rid of the oils and increase your intake of dark green leafy veggies.