Wellness Travel Essentials

Summer travel, no matter how far or near, can pose a challenge for the healthy minded eater. Actually, travel at any time of the year can make it tricky to stay on track with healthy habits. But just like other travel plans that have to be made, like airline tickets, hotels and what to wear, you need to plan for what goes in your body, too. I call it Wellness Travel Essentials.

I recently traveled to beautiful Ireland with my mom and daughter and knew that long travel days and uncertain food choices in a foreign country could make it hard to stay nourished in a “grow in wellness” kind of way. But with a little planning, I went well stocked with essentials that travel well and helped us keep wellness a priority in a not-always-healthy environment.  Here is what got packed (each item explained below):

General Wellness – stress, interrupted sleep patterns and sharing public spaces like airplanes, bathrooms and handrails of busses and trains all contribute to compromising our immune systems.  Hand sanitizer is a must, but don't stop there. Our immune system needs a boost and here are some ways to get it. 

• Probiotics – help to balance your gut flora and help minimize digestion issues (and upset stomachs). 80% of our immune system is in our gut, so give it a little attention.  I bring non-refrigerated probiotics, like the ones from Jarrow. (not shown)
• Daily vitamin C and other minerals – My absolute favorite immune boosting travel supplement is Oxylent.  This powder, which comes in individual packets for easy transport, quickly dissolves in a glass of water and boosts your system with electrolytes, vitamins, minerals and amino acids.(By the way, this is great for the morning after you’ve had a little too much to drink, too.
• Daily Greens – if you saw my earlier post on a product I recently reviewed, you’d know that Aloha’s The Daily Good is a great way to supplement a diet missing fresh leafy greens.  I added it to a glass of orange juice several mornings and knew that no matter what the day ahead brought, I’d have started off with something good in me.
• For those times when the germs of sharing public places get to be too much and you feel that tickle in the back of your throat or your nose threatens to start running, I turn to Umcka.  This natural cold treatment has always prevented a potential cold from growing into something more.  It comes in chewable and powder form.
• And for those times when you do eat something that upsets your stomach, try Stomach Rescue.  A natural remedy for calming down a gurgling stomach. Or when things aren’t ‘moving’ as you’d like, Smooth Move tea is an effective, gentle way to relieve constipation.

Keeping the Hunger Monster Away – these snacks and food items are easy to pack and carry with you for those moments you find yourself hungry and with ‘nothing good to eat’.

•   Nearly every airport we’ve been in has fresh fruit for sale. Buy it when you see it and take it with you on the airplane to supplement what they will serve you in the sky – which is never very healthy. Once you’re at your hotel, grab a piece from the breakfast buffet to take with you for the day. Apples, bananas and oranges travel well (and the first two are great with a little almond butter on them).
• Chia shots – these little packets are awesome! Keep them with you and sprinkle them onto yogurt and salads, or add to a bottle of water (shake every few minutes until they float freely) for a dose of omegas, protein and fiber.
• Individual almond butter packets and organic, whole wheat pretzels.  These two things combined make a great snack, and if you add a piece of fruit to it, you’ve got a mini-meal.
• Snack bars such as Lara and Kind brand. There are a lot of these grab-and-go bars around, but these two brands have healthier ingredients than most.
• Homemade trail mix – choose your favorite combination of healthy raw nuts and seeds and add a bit of dark chocolate chips to the mix for a sweet treat.
• Individual protein powder packets – great meal replacement option that can easily be poured into and shaken in a water bottle.  I like Vega One for their great combination of vegan protein, vitamins and minerals and greens, not to mention delicious flavors like Vanilla Chai. One morning we had the hotel blend it with ice for us… yum!

And the most important thing to remember when traveling…

• WATER! Drink lots of water all day long! Hunger and fatigue are signs of dehydration – choose water first!  And don’t save this last tip just for traveling… make it your daily goal to drink more water than other drinks. 

Where ever your travels take you, go prepared, knowing you aren’t compromising your wellness for the sake of vacation… have a great time!

Those 'Funny Looking' Tomatoes

Summer brings us so many wonderful flavors from the gardens and fields. Peaches, plums, cantaloupe and watermelon fill the farmer’s markets and produce aisles along with tomatoes (which are technically a fruit, but are treated like a vegetable).

Most stores are piled high with your typical genetically-created, hybrid tomato that has been altered to look pretty, resist disease, have a thicker skin to survive long transport times and last longer in the store and in your kitchen.   There’s one problem with that long list of traits – flavor.  Hybrid tomatoes aren’t completely tasteless, but they leave a lot to be desired in the flavor department. Many people don’t like tomatoes and much of that has to do with the tasteless, mealy-like quality of your typical grocery store tomato (that was me, until I ‘upgraded’ my tomatoes).

Are you looking for a tomato upgrade?

Well, now’s the time to try something new.

Of all the wonderful ‘fruits’ of summer, one of the most delicious is the heirloom tomato. 

“A tomato is considered to be an heirloom when the seed has been saved and grown at least 50 years or more and has been passed down from generation to generation.” (veggiegardner.com)

You have probably seen this not-so-pretty tomato in the produce section of your grocery store in a range of colors from green to yellow to orange and red and some with stripes or color variations.  They are misshapen, and some have crevices, but as it is said, “don’t judge a book by its cover”.  Heirloom tomatoes are full of flavor and depending on the color you select, the flavor can vary, one variety even having a lemony taste and nearly all have less acid than hybrids.  (To learn more about the color-flavor connection, visit Tomato Headquarters.)

Try them on your sandwiches, in salads, on pizza or diced and tossed with pasta, basil, olive oil  and cheese. What’s my favorite way to eat heirlooms? I make a twist on the traditional Italian Caprese… I call it the “California Caprese”.  It combines the delicious flavor of an heirloom with the creamy goodness of avocado, fresh buffalo mozzarella and pesto. 

Here’s the easy recipe:

California Caprese

1 heirloom tomato, sliced

1 round of fresh buffalo mozzarella, sliced

1 avocado, peeled and sliced

pesto (homemade or premade)

Simply layer the ingredients in any way that looks good to you.  Sprinkle with a little sea salt and fresh ground pepper and it’s ready to eat.  Enjoy!

Product Review - The Daily Good

Green drinks are all the rage right now and while this trend is basically a healthy one, it’s what’s in the green drink that matters.  There are plenty of posers out there marketing their drinks as nutritious additions to your day when the reality is they aren’t much better than a soda (see my earlier post here). 

I am always on the quest for how to get more greens into my day, especially when I’m away from my kitchen and on the go.  I recently heard about a new product by Aloha called “The Daily Good”.   The Daily Good claims to be the “world’s finest dried green juice”, so I signed up on their website for a free sample to see what it was all about.   A box of five packets arrived with instructions to add the green powder to water, juice or a smoothie. The box touts the benefits of “Keeps Energy Up, Provides Powerful Antioxidants, Boosts Immune System and Detoxifies and Helps Balance Weight".  The packet lists the content’s finest qualities: fiber, vitamin D, non-GMO and no artificial colors, flavors, fillers or sweeteners. Here's what I discovered:

 What’s actually in the packet?

            Dried spirulina*, spinach*, sustainable moringa, peas*, wheatgrass juice*, wild blueberries*, raspberries*, wild harvested coconut water, lemon*, king trumpet mushrooms*, enoki mushrooms*, oyster mushrooms*, Hawaiian yellow ginger* and Hawaiian red alaea salt. (*= organic)

So, I tried it a few different ways, as per the directions:

}1.    Mixed with 10 ounces of water

2.    Blended with my morning smoothie

}3.    Mixed with 8 ounces of orange juice (photo below)

How was it? 

1.    Not awful, but not great - a little “earthy”

2.    Delicious. Barely could taste anything other than the smoothie ingredients.

3.    Really Good. A great way to drink it on the go.

 Bottom line?

            The Daily Good is made up of simple, pure ingredients. No fillers or artificial ingredients.  This product has some great applications:  supplementing a diet that does not get enough greens on daily basis, taking greens with you when you travel or for keeping a packet in your car or purse for those moments you need to infuse some green juice into a day filled with less-than-healthy choices.  At $2.5 per packet, it’s cheaper than a green juice at your local health food store. BUT, on a day to day basis, it is still best to go green with actual produce, fresh, cold-pressed juice or blended greens. As for me?  I’d take a few with me if I was traveling or in a place where I was not sure if I’d get my daily dose of green otherwise.  Nice job, Aloha… I look forward to trying some of your other products.   How about you?

* for healthy recipes and other ways to incorporate The Daily Good into your day, check out their website at https://aloha.com/recipe

Snack-Food Company Secrets

I still like to read the newspaper the old-fashioned way, printed on newsprint and delivered to my door.  Every Sunday, our newspaper runs a column, “The Wall Street Journal Sunday” in our business section.  My favorite place to land is their weekly column called “10 Things”.  Each week they list Ten Things that are the equivalent of insider secrets of companies and how we are getting duped by these businesses. Take these headlines for example, “10 things your personal trainer won’t tell you” or  “10 things all-inclusive vacations won’t tell you” – they reveal things that will make you think twice before taking action.

This week’s column had me throwing up my hands and yelling ‘hooray’ (well, not literally, but you know what I mean).  It was “10 Things… Snack Food Companies Won’t Say”.  It’s about time the deceitful world of snack-foods got some press and consumers stopped trusting that these companies put out a quality product just because of the cute packaging and clever marketing. 

Here are a few excerpts from the main article:

“Our Ingredients have a big ick factor- Some snack foods might lose their appeal if consumer knew what was in them.  For example, to create shades of red, purple and pink in fruit juice, ice cream and candy, many manufacturers use ground-up, boiled beetle carcasses, which have long been deemed safe by the Food and Drug Administration.  You won’t find the word ‘beetle’ on the label they are usually identified as carminic acid or cochineal extract. “

“Factories aren’t inspected very often – Each year more than 300,000 Americans are hospitalized and 5,000 die from contaminated foods and beverages, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  Data on FDA inspections suggest that regulators don’t consider snack-food facilities high-risk, so they are less likely than other foods plants to be inspected for sanitary violations”   

“ That energy bar is really a sugar bar.  The nutrition and snack bar market generated $5.5 billion in 2013… and many consumers have come to see energy bars as a health food. But read their ingredients, and many energy bars look like garden-variety candy bars.  ‘They are highly engineered sugar-delivery systems”, says Sean C. Lucan at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.”

and if you followed the news about Subway and its bread ingredients lately, this will  sound familiar:

“ Azodicarbonamide, or ADA, is found in roughly 500 packaged foods found in the U.S. according to researchers.  Foods like cupcakes, cookies and crackers. Food makers use the compound to improve bread’s texture, but it’s also used by plastics manufacturers in yoga mats, flip-flops and other products... Some research has linked ADA to respiratory problems and allergies; it’s legal to use in the U.S., but banned in the European Union.”

There are lots of ingredients the US allows that are banned in the EU, but that’s another post for another day.  Of the ten things mentioned in this article, there is one that is particularly important to get across to consumers: 

“’Natural’ is naturally meaningless. The FDA doesn’t regulate snack-food manufacturers use of the word…as a result, ‘natural’ basically has no meaning in food labeling. Products often include compounds produced in laboratories…” 

Hooray for the Wall Street Journal making an effort to educate consumers about the food they eat!  It’s a big start to changing consumer buying habits. It needs to continue and consumers need to start paying attention to what is in the food they buy and eat. The healthiest foods out there are the ones that don’t need a label!  There’s a reason that apples don’t have an ingredients list - because what you see is what you get – they are simple, healthy, real food.

If you want to learn more about what’s in the food we eat, there are two great books I recommend, “Salt, Sugar, Fat” and “Pandora’s Lunchbox”.  These two books give you an inside look at how the food companies manipulate the food they create and sell.  They are only seeking to get rich at the expense of your health (and your waistline).

The bottom line? Know what you are putting in your body.  Read the ingredients list, not just the front of the package. If you don’t recognize what’s on it, then you probably shouldn’t be eating it. So the next time you’re hungry and need a snack, reach for an apple instead of that processed packaged snack bar.  You’ll fill up on vitamins, fiber and nutrients without extra calories or sugar. Your body will thank you.

<Full Wall Street Journal article can be found here.>

Summer Salad, Hot or Cold

©growinwellness.com

Do you remember the days when Chinese Chicken Salad was the popular new entrée to order at almost any restaurant you went to?  Some places offered this salad in staggeringly large proportions; others served it dripping in so much dressing that the leaves were no longer crisp by the time it arrived at your table.  Either way it was served (and all those in between), most recipes were far from healthy and were packed with unneeded sugar and extra calories.

Here is a new, healthier way to enjoy an Asian flavored salad without the processed, canned mandarins, fattening fried ‘wonton sticks’ or the sugar laden, weight-gaining dressing poured over the top.

It’s my Noodle Salad with Asian Flair dressing. It uses buckwheat soba noodles (which are gluten free), fresh, crisp vegetables (including good-for-you napa cabbage) and a dressing that gives you the Asian flair without all that sugar. The base recipe can be adapted to your include your favorite veggies... just toss with the dressing.

You will notice that this dressing does not use soy sauce or rice vinegar. Instead, I’ve replaced those with healthier Bragg’s liquid aminos and apple cider vinegar to give you a nutritional boost and drop the sodium count.

NOODLE SALAD With ASIAN FLAIR DRESSING (serves 3-4)

 For the base: 

1 package of cooked buckwheat soba noodles

1 small head of Napa cabbage, sliced thin

1 cup of snow peas, sliced bite size

1 large carrot, shredded

2 green onions, sliced on the diagonal

½ cucumber, large dice

1 red pepper, sliced into thin strips

2 chicken breasts, roasted and sliced thin

---

toasted sesame seeds

 For the dressing:

1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/3 cup Bragg’s liquid aminos

1 ½ TBSP sesame oil

2 ½ TBSP Bragg’s apple cider vinegar

2 tsp fresh grated ginger root

 Mix the chopped vegetables, chicken and soba noodles in a large bowl, then add dressing and toss until well coated.  Divide onto plates and sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds.  Serve warm, room temperature or chilled.  Enjoy!

New Favorite Grocery Store Find

I’m a green smoothie (and green juice) kind of girl and I like to change the way I go ‘green’ from time to time.  Typically my smoothies get their green from spinach and kale, but from time to time I’ve been known to buy a bunch of collard greens and throw those in, too.  Then, there are days when I’m overdue for a grocery store run so there are no fresh greens on hand.  I usually improvise, but that might no longer be necessary as I’ve found a new favorite item at the grocery store.

You’ll find it in the frozen vegetable section… it’s Earthbound Farm’s Organic Collard Greens.  The bag is full of small pieces of collard greens, frozen in a way that they don’t clump up.  The re-sealable bag makes it easy to grab a handful to add to your smoothies, especially on those mornings when you realize you’re out of fresh kale or spinach. You could easily cook them up to add to hot quinoa or pasta.

Collard Greens are full of goodness! They are a cruciferous vegetable that is high in vitamins A, C, K and minerals like iron, calcium, selenium, manganese and zinc. (Because of its high vitamin K and membership in the cruciferous vegetable family, eat sparingly if you have a thyroid disorder or take blood thinners.)  Add this leafy green to your smoothies, cook and add to eggs or add chopped fresh collards to a salad. Collards help lower cholesterol, fend-off disease, aid in digestion and reduce inflammation overall.  However you enjoy it, know it’s giving you a boost of nutrition in a quick and easy way.

Here’s a quick summer smoothie recipe to get you started:

Add to blender:

 10 oz. Almond Milk

1 cup organic strawberries

½ cup organic raspberries

protein powder

2 TBSP flax seeds

1 cup frozen collard greens

3-4 ice cubes

Blend until well combined.  Enjoy!

Simple, Healthy, Money-Saving Upgrade

What is your laundry routine? Once a week with several loads? Small loads all week long? Do you use ‘big name’ detergents and softeners? Have you ever stopped to think about what you are putting into those machines along with your washables?

I love that there is a movement taking shape in our country that promotes eating whole “clean” foods, encourages shopping at farmer’s markets and eliminating processed foods from our lives.  Eating this way is going to add years to your life (and quality years at that!).  But there is one area that is still not getting as much attention as it deserves… what we put ON our bodies. 

Our skin is our largest organ and what we put on it is absorbed into our system.  Think about it: nicotine patches help smokers quit smoking, anti-itch creams stop the itching, hormone patches balance women’s hormones.  That means lotions, creams and other chemicals that touch our skin can also be absorbed by our body. 

What does that have to do with laundry? Lots. The detergents we use in our washing machines infuse our clothes and our skin is exposed as a result.  One laundry item in particular has especially toxic effects… dryer sheets.  Have you ever seen those lists that tell you all the ‘great ways you can use a dryer sheet” outside of the dryer? Those lists typically say you can use them for eliminating static, as a mosquito repellant, and for keeping household pests like ants and mice at bay. Some people even have an allergic reaction when they wear clothes dried with these softening sheets.

“When people use dryer sheets, they are coating their clothes with a thin film of artificial chemical perfumes. Just like other perfumes, a person’s sensitivity to these perfumes decreases over time to the point where they don’t even notice how potent these artificial fragrance chemicals are. None of this would be interesting if it weren’t for the fact that these fragrance chemicals are extremely toxic. They are known carcinogens. They cause liver damage and cancer in mammals.” (from an article on NaturalNews.com by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger)

So what’s a hard working, clothes washing person supposed to do to eliminate toxic exposure, but still have soft, cling free clothes? Well, some say you can add ¼ cup of vinegar to your washer, others use eco-friendly fabric softeners you add to the wash, but I have discovered and fallen in love with wool dryer balls. They are unscented, but you can add a drop of lavender oil to each to lightly scent your clothes.

Adding 4 to 6 wool dryer balls to each load that goes through the dryer will not only soften and reduce static; it will also shorten your drying time considerably.  And for those of you with electric dryers, you will really see a difference in how fast your laundry dries. Dryer balls will save you money at the store and on your utility bill.  They will save you time with clothes drying faster and they will save the environment by eliminating the waste of used dryer sheets.  And most important: they will reduce toxins being absorbed by your body improving your health… why not give them a try?

Nature's Candy

©growinwellness.com

We are smack dab in the middle of strawberry season and I couldn’t be happier.  There is nothing quite so amazing as biting into an organic, fresh, ripe strawberry.  Brightly colored, perfectly sweet and juicy enough to make your mouth water just by smelling it.  I like to think of them as nature’s candy – they can satisfy your sweet tooth and give you a nutrition boost all at the same time.

Strawberries are a powerhouse for vitamin C (one cup yields 150% of daily value of vitamin C) and only 50 calories.  They contain fiber and although they have natural sugars as part of their sweetness, they have a low glycemic load that won’t cause your blood sugar to spike and crash.

On a more in-depth level, strawberries contain trace minerals, such as manganese, folate and potassium, all which contribute to healthier bones. They contain antioxidants and they help protect your heart, lower cholesterol and lower blood pressure.  What’s not to love about this fruit that has a heart-shaped silhouette?

When you shop for strawberries, buy organic (they are on the dirty dozen list for high pesticide residue) and smell the package to see if they are ripe. It should smell sweet and fragrant.  Look for a clean, dry berry that is plump, firm, and fully red. The caps should be green and fresh looking. Avoid bruised or wrinkled berries. Strawberries do not ripen after being picked, so you will want to eat them soon after you buy them.

And what’s the best way to eat them?  At this time of year…. Simply rinse, remove the stem (here’s a great tool to do that) and pop them into your mouth.  Delicious!

Five Favorites for Spring

The signs of spring are popping up all around us.  Little green buds on the trees, colorful flowers starting to make an appearance and some of the tastiest vegetables are making their way to the farmer’s markets. Spring is about newness and color and some amazing flavors for our plates.  (And for some, ‘spring cleaning’ is on the list, too.)  I love this time of year -  the gifts of spring bring a smile to my face – and I like to bring a bit of spring inside, too. 

I want to share a few of my favorite things for spring.  Things that are bright and cheerful and can perk up your kitchen and make cooking just a little more fun. I am always a sucker for kitchen gadgets and these are not just cute, they actually work great!

Here are my 5 Favorites for Spring

   VeggiChop Chopper

I have some pretty decent knife skills, but when it comes to quickly chopping an onion, or breaking up canned tomatoes for a recipe, this little chopper can’t be beat.  Cheerful spring green color, easy to use, easy to clean… and very sharp blades! Just ask my thumb!

 Ceramic Paring Knife

Since we’re on the subject of sharp things, this paring knife is used so often at our house, it’s rarely put away.  I love the ceramic blade that stays sharp and you can’t beat all the colors the handle comes in… I have several sizes in a combination of colors. 

   Strawberry Huller

This is the best strawberry huller I have ever used.  It removes the stem without damaging or smashing the rest of the berry and does so with ease.  Strawberry season is upon us – get one of these cute red and green tools soon so you can start using it with the next basket of strawberries you buy.

  Microplane Soft Handle Graters

I know most of you probably already have a variety of graters in your kitchen, but even if that’s the case, maybe you’ll want to upgrade?  These Microplane Artisan graters come in fun colors and different grate styles. The rubber tip and handle make it secure in your grip and on your chopping board.  Pick your color… red, green, white, yellow, just like picking flowers (but these will last a lot longer).

   Silicone Lids

My new favorite! I just discovered these silicone lids by Charles Viancin at Christmastime and they were immediately on my gift-giving list.  Use on the stovetop or for covering a bowl in the fridge.  They are reusable (saves on plastic wrap and are environmentally friendly) and create an airtight seal. They come in several sizes and in designs… sunflower, hibiscus, lily pad and more.  These flowers can bloom in your kitchen all year long!

“plus one more”…

This one isn’t a gadget you can buy, but it is one of my spring favorites – asparagus!  There are lots of great recipes to cook this vegetable, but by far, my favorite is to roast them in the oven at 375F (tossed with some olive oil, sea salt and pepper) until they slightly brown on the outside. Simple and delicious! (Cooking them on the grill is just as good, too!)

How will you bring spring inside this year?

Afternoon Treat

©shutterstock.com

There are some days when I am not really quite hungry, but want a ‘little something’ to make my taste buds smile. Sometimes it is as easy as biting into a juicy, green apple and other times a handful of frozen raspberries does the trick.  But when those don’t sound appealing, I whip up this frothy concoction and it hits the spot.

I call it Almond Ice Milk and it’s really not much more complicated than it sounds.  It’s a healthy treat that is satisfying to a sweet tooth, too.  The cinnamon helps stabilize your blood sugar and, combined with the vanilla, it tastes like a dessert. Here’s how easy it is: 

12 ounces homemade or minimally processed plain almond milk

1 tsp. cinnamon

2 drops of vanilla stevia (I use Sweet Leaf brand)

3 ice cubes

Put all items in the blender and blend until you no longer hear the ice bouncing around.  Then pour into a large glass and drink slowly, savoring the flavors. 

Enjoy your afternoon treat!