Archive for the ‘Recipes’ Category
Detox: What Is It and Who Needs It?
Posted by admin in Lifestyle, Nutrition, Recipes, balance your body on April 9th, 2010
Just as many people spring clean their homes, spring is a natural time to detox your body.
Caveat: Over the years I have noticed that patients who are really run down and exhausted or have trouble with thyroid hormone production/uptake tend not to benefit as much (in general) as others. With these patients I usually focus on regulating thyroid hormones production/uptake or generally strengthening their system before we get to detox.
Am I a good candidate for detox right now?
To get the most out of detox it’s important that you are:
1) Eating a clean, detox friendly diet. Food and beverages such as sugar, caffeine, most dairy, alcohol, fatty meats, processed meats, fried foods and processed foods/junk will all work against your detox efforts. Lean meats, fresh fruits and veggies, legumes, whole grains and water are where’s it’s at food-wise when it comes to detox.
2) Are not currently experiencing a high level of anxiety or stress or tension. While detox can help patients feel less stressed and tense, the hormones your body pumps out in times of increased anxiety, stress and tension are viewed as toxins by your body and will usually interfere with your results.
3) Are not smoking. Cigarrette smoke is nothing if not toxic. With such a large quantity of toxins going into your system, detox will probably only make you nauseated or feel sick at best.
4) Are having daily bowel movements that are not too small. Detox can help with bowel function, but it’s also important to have some measure of a good bowel movement every day before you detox. As stool sits in your colon, toxins get reabsorbed. Some patients tell me that having bowel movements every 2-3 days is just the way their body is. Sorry, but no. As I tell them, “If you are eating every day, you need to be having bowel movements every day.”
Here are two former blog posts that explain everything else:
What is Detox??
TC
Recipe: Mexican Sweet Potato and Chicken
Posted by admin in Nutrition, Recipes, balance your body on January 12th, 2010
Wintertime is a great time of year to use sweet potatoes — they have a wonderful warmth and comfort to them.
If you are trying to lose weight or tend to gain weight easily, it’s important to remember that starchy vegetables like sweet potatoes are just that — starchy. At a meal with 1/2 to 1 sweet potato per person, you don’t need more carbohydrates such as pasta, rice or bread.
If you are used to eating pasta/rice/bread with each meal, this might sound startling. Almost every woman I see in my office who wants to lose weight is eating too many carbohydrates throughout the day. Carbs are not bad for you, but too many will definitely lead to weight gain.
Too few carbs (eg. Atkins diet) may help you lose weight quickly, but it will (a) cause other imbalances in your system and (b) be temporary because low-carb is extremely difficult, as well as unhealthy, to maintain long-term.
Here’s a simple recipe that I conjured up one day with what I had in my fridge and it turned out delicious. As always, there are no measurements. Don’t forget to cook a non-starchy vegetable on the side!
Ingredients:
Sweet potato - 1/2 to 1 per person; chopped into small cubes
Chicken breast - 3-4 oz per person; cooked without oil or with minimal oil (roasted, steamed, poached, stir-fried) and sliced
Fresh cilantro - chopped
Garlic - minced or organic garlic powder
Cherry tomatoes - halved
Extra virgin olive oil - 2 teaspoons per person.
Salt - Celtic sea salt or Himalayan salt - to taste
Organic salsa — I especially like Banditos Medium and Neal Brothers Medium. (I buy at Highland Farms.)
Instructions:
1. Steam the sweet potato cubes.
2. Mix steamed cubes with cherry tomatoes, cilantro, garlic and salt to taste.
3. Add salsa to taste and mix.
4. Top with sliced chicken breast (cooked any way you like from the above options) and drizzle with 2 teaspoons of extra virgin olive oil.
Enjoy!
TC
A Better Sweetener
Stevia is your best bet as a sweetener.
Stevia is my first choice
Stevia is a no-calorie sweetener made from a plant in South America. This plant has some bitterness to it and some companies do a better job of removing the bitterness than others.
Some people taste the bitterness more than others as well. I personally don’t taste this bitterness at all and so I love using stevia.
I have some patients who can really taste this bitterness and they absolutely hate it.
There is only one way to know — try it for yourself!
TC
Great website with tons of recipes!
Posted by admin in Nutrition, Recipes, balance your body on September 4th, 2009
I was searching the internet for a good fig chutney recipe and came across this website called Seasonal Chef. Although not all of the recipes are healthy (sugar, heavy cream, etc.) many of them are.
One Veggie, Many Ways
What I love, love, love about this website however is that for many of the foods there are multiple recipes. For example, there are 7 kale recipes! I have only ever had kale 2 ways and can’t wait to try out the others.
I know when I recommend more vegetables to many of my patients, they run out of ways to cook them — usually 1 or 2 different ways at the most. Additionally, this is a wonderful resource for eating in season because of the multiple recipes.
Use Those Fresh Herbs!
There are also a bunch of recipes for using basil and cilantro — which I love to buy and use, but never seem to finish off the bunch before it goes bad and I often end up throwing a lot of it out.
I realize that I most likely find this website more exciting than the average person, but I think most of you will find this website very useful.
TC
Rapini Recipe Amendment
Posted by admin in Recipes, balance your body on September 4th, 2009
When I wrote my rapini recipe, the rapini I was buying seemed to be larger. Now, in the middle of winter, the rapini seems to be smaller. After over cooking and burning my rapini once or twice, I have amended my recipe. I now roast at 350F for about 5 minutes. In the summer when the rapini was larger, I was roasting at 400F for 7-9 minutes.
Also, I now brush the baking sheet with coconut oil and drizzle the rapini with olive oil once it is on my plate. Look for upcoming posts about coconut oil.
I sincerely apologize if anyone ended up with over cooked or burnt rapini as per my instructions.
TC
My Nourishing Traditions Experiment - Pancake Success!
Posted by admin in Exercise, Nutrition, Recipes, Stress, Anxiety and Your Body, Thoughts and Beliefs, balance your body on September 4th, 2009
I have achieved pancake success with the soaked flour!
After 4 attempts at making pancakes with the soaked flour I described in My Nourishing Traditions Experiment I have finally made delicious pancakes, quite similar to my regular spelt pancakes – healthier too! For full recipe instructions, see the Recipes section of this blog.
Here’s what I did:
I soaked whole spelt overnight (12 - 24 hours is ideal, but I only managed to get in about 11 hours; 7 hours is the bare minimum) in slightly less water than called flour, with lemon juice. Then, this morning, I carefully added cinnamon powder, ginger powder, the baking soda (I wanted to make sure to sprinkle it evenly so there would be no bad-tasting baking soda clumps in my pancakes) and chopped pear. I folded together, being careful not to over mix, but also mindful of the fact that I had to make sure the baking soda was well distributed. And that’s it. Because the soaked flour seems to make a moister pancake, I left out the oil and egg that the recipe called for. The oil and egg, incidentally, also add richness, but don’t worry — I put some richness back in later.
I cooked them on a skillet brushed with coconut oil (I will be posting about this soon - coconut is one of the best oils to cook with — much better for any kind of heating than olive oil and far, far better than safflower or canola). Once on the plate, I spread on some coconut oil, a touch of Himalayan salt (to make a salted butter-like taste) and a bit of agave syrup. Agave syrup is low-glycemic and one of the best choices for any type of sugar-containing sweetener (much better for you than honey or maple syrup). They were delicious! I think this would be a wonderful weekend treat for kids as well. And on a regular basis, they would be great with some berries, my Easy Applesauce, low-fat organic yogurt or even just with some coconut oil and a touch of salt.
And, since the flour has been soaked, they are much, much more digestible than pancakes made with flour that has not been soaked.
TC
(Originally posted on Wednesday, January 30, 2008 on tinachristie.squarespace.com)
Wheat-Free and Gluten-Free: What is the Difference?
Posted by admin in Exercise, Nutrition, Recipes, balance your body on September 4th, 2009
Wheat-free and gluten-free are often confused with each other, but are definitely different. With all the options available to us today, wheat-free is not too difficult; gluten-free can be more of a challenge.
Wheat-Free
Wheat-free simply means, no wheat.
Wheat is also known as: flour, white flour, whole wheat flour, pastry flour, all-purpose flour or any other mention of “flour” where no type is specified.
In terms of cooking and baking, I find spelt flour to be the simplest to use. (see my post on baking with spelt flour).
There are also many recipes with kamut flour, oat flour, rye flour, buckwheat flour and many more. Make sure to read the ingredients list on anything you buy in a package.
Gluten-Free
Gluten-free, on the other hand, means no gluten.
Gluten is a protein found in many different flours, wheat being one of the biggest.
Other flours that contain gluten are: kamut, spelt, barley, rye, oats, semolina and triticale.
Some of the more common grains WITHOUT gluten are: quinoa, millet, buckwheat (see my recipe for wheat-free pancakes that uses either buckwheat flour or spelt flour), chickpea flour, nut flours, corn flour, amaranth, rice flour.
Gluten-Free Can Be Tricky
Some type of gluten-free flours are easier to cook with than others.
I once tried making cookies with amaranth flour and they fell apart (I wasn’t using a recipe; just experimenting) but there is a crepe place here in Toronto that makes great amaranth crepes.
Buckwheat pancakes on the other hand, turn out great.
Watch Out For Hidden Wheat Flour
Another point to be aware of is that many commercial products (eg. bread, crackers, cereals and so on) that are made with non-wheat flours, are actually made of flour combinations that contain wheat flour.
Read Labels
For example, rye bread. Many rye bread, especially ones from a bakery, tend to be made with rye AND wheat, but the product is simply called “Rye bread”.
This is why it is always important to read the label of whatever it is you are buying.
And from experience I have found that the general staff members of many stores don’t know what is in the food products they sell.
Either read the label for yourself (or ask someone else to read it to you) or personally speak to the person who actually measured out the flour.
If someone who answers one of your questions doesn’t sound like they know what they are talking about or if they say “Wheat flour? As opposed to what?” or “I’m sorry, what kind of flour is it that you are looking for?”, then trust me: they are not familiar with what you are looking for and chances are very high that you will get an incorrect answer.
I have had more than one patient go to a health food store and ask for wheat-free bread; the staff member proceeds to tell them what they are actually looking for is gluten-free. Now you know for yourself which is which!
TC
Wheat-Free Pancakes Made Even Easier
Posted by admin in Recipes, Stress, Anxiety and Your Body, Thoughts and Beliefs, balance your body on September 4th, 2009
See my posting for spelt pancakes in the recipe section.
Easy Pancakes Made Even Easier
To make them even easier, combine all the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, baking powder) and store in a tupperware container.
This is basically pancake mix; same as if you bought a pancake mix in the store.
Each time you’d like to make a batch of pancakes, measure out 1 cup plus 2 teaspoons of the mixture and add the wet ingredients (1 cup of milk/almond milk/rice milk, natural vanilla extract, 2 tsp oil, any fruit you like) and fold together.
And presto! you have delicious wheat-free pancakes.
TC
Menstrual Problems
Posted by admin in Recipes, The Relaxation Response, balance your body, master your mind on September 4th, 2009
Naturopathic Medicine Can Help Menstrual Problems
I see many women in my practice you have gone on the birth control pill to regulate their periods or who have had a hysterectomy because their periods were very heavy and it was causing problems.
For many women, naturopathic medicine can regulate a women’s menstrual cycle and the flow as well.
Pain and Heaviness Are Not Necessary
I also have seen many women who have come to me with painful or heavy menstrual cycles before they tried medication or surgery and they were able to avoid taking these measures. We balanced out their cycles and strengthened their systems and they now understand the way diet and lifestyle affects them.
How to treat these conditions is too complicated to get into on a blog, but the take home message is: see a naturopath before resorting to medication or surgery.
TC
Link between Alzheimer’s and flu shots
Posted by admin in Exercise, Nutrition, Recipes, Thoughts and Beliefs, balance your body on September 4th, 2009
I got this information from a naturopathic forum for Naturopathic Doctors; NDs from all over the US and Canada write in and ask questions and give answers based on education, experience and so forth.
Some of the best naturopaths in North America are on this forum.
The ND who sent this information in got it from “ND email News” from Rick Brinkman ND and Nan Dunne-Boggs ND.
Hugh Fudenberg, MD, is the world’s leading immunogeneticist and has published approximately 850 papers in peer-reviewed journals.
Five Flu Shot in a Row Increases Alzheimer’s Risk
The following information is from Dr. Fudenberg’s speech at the NVIC International Vaccine Conference in Arlington, VA in September 1997.
According to Dr. Fudenberg: if an individual has had five consecutive flu shots between 1970 and 1980 (the years he studied), his/her chances of getting Alzheimer’s Disease is ten times higher than if they had one, two or no shots.
Mercury and Aluminum
When Dr.Fudenberg was asked why this was so he said it was due to the mercury and aluminum that is in every flu shot (and most childhood shots).
The gradual mercury and aluminum buildup in the brain causes cognitive dysfunction.
TC