Making Kombucha

Steven and Maggie’s Smoothie

This smoothie really demonstrates raw food in the real world. My cousin’s husband is a Managing Director at one of the biggest financial groups on Wall Street. They have to wake up at 4:30 AM every single morning to start a no-break, stressful workday. Needless to say, their time is extremely limited. Usually he would grab eggs at his work buffet, and have 4 cups of coffee in the first few hours of work.

I am happy to say that they have now added the green smoothie to their lifestyle, as well as incorporated other raw dishes. And best yet, they have taken the basic green smoothie and adapted it to their taste! As Steven says, this green smoothie is for someone who doesn’t like the “veggie” taste. The amount of lime and tasty fruits in this smoothie cut right through the green taste. They make it in batches that keep for 2 days or so, so they don’t have to make it every morning. Steven sips on this green smoothie on the way to work. He has lost about 15 pounds in the last few weeks, and is down to ½ cup – 1 cup of coffee/day. His energy has skyrocketed. For more info. on the science and nutrition behind the smoothie, check out my blog on the Green Smoothie. And remember that combining fruits and green veggies (as opposed to root vegetables) constitute good food combining. So check it out, and of course feel free to adapt to your individual taste, using your favorite greens and fruits!

Blend ingredients until smooth- all organic of course - together into Vita-mix or blender, adding lighter to heavier items first (cut in ½ for smaller batch):

- 2 cups cold water
- Dinosaur kale- at least half a bunch, equal to 5-6 stems
- Arugula, leaves only, at least 2 cups
- Spinach, leaves only, at least 2 cups
- Sprouts, any variety, at least 2 cups
- Bunch of mint leaves
- Broccoli Florets only, at least 1 1/2 cups
- Juice of 2 whole limes
- 2 whole apples, any variety, cored with skin, cut into slices
- Handful of Red Seedless Grapes
- 2 whole pears, any variety; cored w/skin, cut into chunks
- 2 whole bananas-  use only 1 for thinner batch

Our E! Channel Feature with Kristen Bell

Three weeks ago, I was nonchalantly walking across Washington Square Park from the market one evening, arms laden with groceries, going home to practice yoga in my apt. I noticed a number I didn’t recognize pop up on my blackberry, and decided not to answer it and see if the caller would leave a message.

When I got home, I clicked into my voicemail and almost jumped through the ceiling!!!! I had a message informing me that my beauty company, Envision Beauty, and our flagship cream, The Solution, were going to be featured on the E! Entertainment Channel.  The Daily 10 Show was filming a segment on actress Kristen Bell’s Summer Beauty Tips and the beautiful, talented, vibrant Ms. Bell had picked The Solution as her favorite skincare product!  As I’ve recently learned, she has abandoned all her other skincare products and uses only The Solution and our Brightening Cleanser (to be released in the near future).

After launching a few months ago, the fact that The Solution is already making headway in celebrity circles and onto a feature on national television is beyond exhilarating for me.  It’s great confirmation that The Solution, with all the time and effort and care it has taken to complete its development and source its ingredients, is being recognized by others to be the amazing product I truly believe it is.

Thank you to all of you that support Envision Beauty.  Stay tuned- I will post a link here to the E! feature, which is airing very soon!

So, What Is the Real Deal with Protein?

One of the first questions people ask vegetarians and vegans is “But where do you get your protein??” It’s an interesting issue, given the prevailing mindset in our country is that we need to get lots of animal protein to bulk up our muscles, stay full so we have energy and won’t knosh on fattening carbs, and get vital amino acids. I wish that everyone that asks this question could come observe at my yoga studio, where pretty much everyone is a vegetarian (and mostly vegan, actually). All the men are jacked, with perfectly muscular, gorgeous, sinewy physiques and the women are all fit with no fat on their bodies and perfect feminine muscles. Hmm!

John Robbins asks in Diet for a New America, “Could it be that the whole issue of ‘getting enough protein’ is actually just a figment of our collective imagination, with nothing behind it except for the propaganda of the meat, dairy and egg industries?”

He then goes on to present a very thorough explanation as to how and why this seems to be the case. Most of us are getting far more protein than we need. We have been conditioned to think that our bodies need animal protein, when in fact there is more and more research proving not only that we do not need it, but furthermore, that an abundance of animal protein can be quite harmful to our health.

The USDA says that 6.5% of our daily calories should be protein. Vegetables are 20-50% protein, and sprouts, nuts, seeds, beans and grains are 10-25%. Getting enough protein and being a vegetarian is not an issue (providing you are a VEGEtarain and not a Starchatarian!).

Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins. They combine into chains and then form proteins necessary for cell, muscle, and tissue growth, repair and restoration. The human body needs to acquire 8 of these amino acids, called the “essential” amino acids, from outside sources; the other 14 are built out of the first 8. Keep in mind that it is crucial how the amino acids combine. Animal proteins are highly structured, and have to be broken down from the complex chains that make up the flesh of fish, cows, chickens, pigs, etc. and then be re-assimilated into a human body- requiring huge amounts of energy and making digestion much harder, while also producing a large amount of fermented acidic by-products. Studies have shown that consuming an abundance of animal protein has been linked to numerous diseases, and is in fact, quite aging. On the other hand, plant proteins (and especially green leafy veggies), contain free-form amino acids. Your body can digest and assimilate and build protein much easier from vegetables, adding huge volumes to your energy level, beauty, and health. Raw vegetable plant protein is an even bigger bonus, as the protein and enzymes have not been damaged by heat and are more easily assimilated by the body. So contrary to popular belief, there are plenty of high quality proteins in greens, by way of an abundance of readily available essential amino acids.

Pound for pound, the gorilla is the strongest animal on the planet, bench-pressing the equivalent of 4,000 pounds. What does he eat? Mostly all greens! Many people think vegetarians are all skinny and malnourished. However, if one is a vegetarian that eats lots of greens and veggies, instead of just bagels and pasta, then amazingly balanced and beautifully healthy humans will emerge, as I have personally witnessed in so many vegans that I know. And a green-based vegan diet combined with yoga, weightlifting, or other exercise, will naturally build beautiful muscles. Again, I truly think you’d be amazed if you saw the men from my yoga studio! In fact, maybe I should take some pictures and post them for you. ☺ I’ll leave with one closing thought:

“Nothing will benefit human health and increase the chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet.”
- Albert Einstein (a vegetarian)

Alkalinity and Beauty

The pH of our bodies can have a major effect on our vitality, health and beauty.  Ideally, the pH of our body tissue should average around 7.0 (our ideal blood pH range is 7.35-7.4, while our muscles are more acidic, around 6.8). Most people that have eaten the Standard American Diet (SAD) become unbalanced and acidic, with a pH around 6.2 or lower.

An alkaline body leads fat to dissolve, greatly promoting weight loss.   In contrast, an acid body leads to inflammation, puffiness and contraction of the tissues.  An acidic body makes it hard to lose weight, as the systems of the body cannot function at optimal efficiency.  Worse, diseases thrive in an acidic environment.

Some signs that your body is acidic are feeling sluggish and rundown, a lack of energy, a coffee habit, the desire to smoke cigarettes or marijuana, alcohol abuse and/or the desire for other stronger legal or illegal drugs to make you feel “high” for a while.

What we need is a balance between acidity and alkalinity. Generally, most people are too acid from eating a primarily acid-forming diet their whole life. It is important to balance the body’s pH by bringing a much higher percentage of alkaline foods into the diet.

Alkaline Foods: Green-leafy vegetables are the best source of alkaline minerals and are probably the most important group of foods. They also contain fiber and chlorophyll- a blood builder and one of nature’s greatest healers.  Try to make a huge salad, with sprouts and raw vegetables, the main course of at least one meal a day.  Fruits such as lemon, lime, olives, figs, papaya, pineapple, cherries, apples, raspberries, blackberries and kiwi are also helpful.

*Oddly, a typical characteristic of some alkaline fruits is that they contain a strong acidic compound, such as citric acid, that must be neutralized in order to extract and utilize the alkaline minerals.

Acidic Foods: Meat (the muscle of an animal) including fish, pork, steak, chicken, beef, hamburger, duck, lamb, rabbit, etc. Meat is built up of phosphoric compounds and is the most acidic (and toxic) food of all. Eggs are also acid-forming, as are pasteurized dairy products because they lack the enzymes necessary to digest them.

Raw Chickpea-less Hummus

Hummus is a great vegetarian snack, but most commercial hummus is made from CANNED chickpeas, which are cooked, re-cooked, denatured and completely devoid of their natural enzymes. Ugh. We need our enzymes to stay vibrant, healthy and energetic! You’ll be amazed at how yummy this raw variation is:

• 2 organic zucchinis, chopped
• ¾ cup raw tahini
• ½ cup fresh lemon juice
• ¼ olive oil
• 3-4 garlic cloves, chopped
• 2 ½ tsp. sea salt
• ½ Tbs. ground cumin

** Optional: Add a couple of Tbs. of Kal brand nutritional yeast, for added protein and a thicker, cheesier flavor.

Dip celery, red peppers, and cucumbers for a great snack or appetizer!

Cooling Cucumber Summer Smoothie

Try this for a simple, cleansing, and delicious summer smoothie. It not too sweet, and is a nice blend of vegetables, fruits and herbs.

In your blender combine:

• 2 cups cold filtered water
• 1 large organic cucumber
• 2 organic apples
• 2 or 3 sprigs of mint leaves, plucked off the stem
• ice (optional if you want it icy, I usually don’t add it)

That’s it! This is a great and easy way to get a whole cucumber into your diet. Often, people only consume two little slices of cucumber that comes on a tossed salad.

If you buy organic, it’s okay to eat the skin, which is a great source of beautifying zinc. Other skin-enhancing compounds include silica and Vitamin C. Ahh, easy on the palate and pretty for the skin. This is one you should definitely try!

The Mighty Enzyme: #1 Secret to Perfect Health

Modern science always seems to be looking for the next miracle cure for a plethora of aging diseases. However, a vastly important health component, the mighty enzyme, has already been researched and studied for some time. Enzymes carry out all the biological processes in the body, including digestion, detoxification, repairing, healing and even thinking. Take all the vitamin and mineral supplements you want, but if you lack readily available enzymes, you are going to have a much harder time fully digesting and absorbing them. As Dr. Ann Wigmore says, “Enzyme preservation is the secret to health.” Did you know that enzymes:

• Maintain weight and/or promote weight loss
• Fend off chronic degenerative diseases
• Greatly slow the aging proces

Read on! Here are a couple of interesting studies:

• Dr. Francis Pottenger studied 900 cats over 10 years. He gave half the cats raw milk and food and the other half pasteurized milk and cooked food. In the first generation, the cats on the cooked food developed a pattern of degenerative disease, and in the second and third generation the cats began to develop congenital bone deformities, hyperactivity, and sterility. The cats fed raw food were healthy from generation to generation.
• In Japan, a study showed that 82% of patients with tuberculosis had lower enzyme contents than normal, and diabetes patients had an 86% lower than normal level of amylase.
• Dr. Kollath of the Karolinska Hospital in Stockholm found when he put animals on a diet of cooked and processed foods similar to the typical Western diet, the animals began to age more quickly and began to develop chronic degenerative diseases at an earlier age. The animals raised on raw food did not suffer from those problems.
• Dr. Howell, who many consider the father of food enzyme research in the 20^th century, produced a vast amount of research and evidence that strongly suggests that foods devoid of enzymes as a result of cooking, food irradiation and microwaving causes the enlargement of the pancreas, and puts a massive strain on all the endocrine glands, including the adrenals and pituitary.

The fact is, when a large reserve of the body’s enzymes are used up in the processes of digestion, which can use up to 50% of the body’s energy, it takes away from the body’s use of enzymes towards functions such as detoxification, and repairing and maintaining the health of the skin and organs. Enzymes are also used to maintain body weight. Cooked fats lack the enzyme lipase, which interferes with fat digestion, just as cooked carbs lack the enzyme amylase, which help break down starches. Also, cooked food stimulates cravings for food because the organs are not getting the nutrients they would normally get in uncooked food. The body craves more nutrients, which may translate into a much greater appetite. Farmers have long known that if you give raw potatoes to hogs they will not gain weight, but if you give them cooked potatoes they gain a lot of weight.

The problem in modern society is that the capacity or an organism to make enzymes is exhaustible, and whenever we process or cook foods in any way, we destroy its enzyme reserve.

So:

1. Eat as much raw food as possible. This is the #1 activity that preserves enzymes and maximizes health. Follow the lead of ALL other animals on earth (besides humans and domesticated animals) who eat their food raw, and do not suffer from the chronic degenerative diseases that we do. When we eat raw food, it uses its own enzymes to digest the food and does not deplete the food enzymes from our own system to break it down.

2. Add sprouts to your diet, which is one of the highest enzyme-concentrated foods.

3. Take live, plant enzymes supplements, which you can find in any health food store. Especially if you are about to eat cooked, microwaved, or irradiated food!!

Corn: When Good Veggies Go Bad

When Midwestern cornfields and rural farm life come to mind they probably seem far removed from the politics of Capitol Hill. 

The reality is that corn is deeply entrenched in American politics. It is now the #1 crop grown in America, with almost 80 million acres planted annually.  Corn should be rotated among fields, or else grown only once in four seasons, in order to prevent depletion of the soil.  However, common commercial growing practices do not rotate corn and therefore rob the soil of nitrates and precious minerals.  The result: commercial corn requires more nitrate fertilizer and pesticide than any other crop.  Corn’s extreme hybridization further contributes to its heavy reliance on fertilizers and pesticides to grow.

So where does all this corn go?  More than half of the 10 billion bushels produced in America each year are fed to animals being farmed for slaughter, including cattle, chickens, pigs, and even farm-raised fish like salmon.  Since these animals don’t eat corn in their natural diets, they have trouble digesting it properly and frequently become sick.  Farmers respond by dousing the feed with antibiotics, steroids, hormones and drugs.  The antibiotics keep animals alive long enough to be slaughtered, while steroids make them grow large prematurely so they can be slaughtered before showing any signs of disease. For example, the lifespan of a chicken in the wild is about 17 years, but a factory-farmed chicken is slaughtered at 3 months or less.  The antibiotics and steroids fed to these animals, not to mention all the chemicals sprayed on the corn they eat, accumulate in people who eat factory-farmed meat.

Corn isn’t just an indirect health risk to meat eaters - its mass farming has terrible environmental consequences.  The sea of chemicals, nitrate fertilizers and pesticides used to grow commercial corn severely harm local water supplies and eventually run off into major water sources like the Mississippi River.  The costs are real: the Gulf of Mexico now has a 12,000 square mile zone where marine life has been virtually wiped out!

It gets worse.  Four billion barrels a year of corn are processed and refined into high fructose corn syrup.  Since the 1980’s, we’ve replaced the white sugar formerly found in many foods with this virtual poison.  A few examples include packaged food, fast food, junk food, baby food, juices, soda, sweet tea beverages, canned soup, cookies, muffins, pasteurized juice and even bread.  High fructose corn syrup is highly glycemic and promotes hyper/hypoglycemia, elevates triglyceride levels, and induces an insulin response. Guess what has occurred in almost exact parallel to the inundation of high fructose corn syrup…a shocking rise of obesity and Type II diabetes in children!

So how did corn syrup infiltrate the American diet?  Politics.  Corn costs $3 per bushel (56 pounds) to produce, but the world market is so saturated that it fetches only $2 dollars per bushel.  In June 2002 President Bush approved a $190 billion farm bill, which provides $4 billion per year in subsidies (i.e. taxpayer money) through 2012 to induce farmers to grow MORE corn. 

To be clear, helping farmers is good thing.  But the unfortunate reality is that even with this subsidy, most corn farmers are working hard and not getting rich.  Behind the farm bill is a more powerful lobby - the pharma/chemical industry that supplies all those pricey pesticides and chemicals that corn needs to grow and the antibiotics, hormones, and steroids going right into corn-based feed. 

While Americans get fatter and sicker and our environment gets more polluted, it seems that just a handful of big business are benefiting- at our great expense.

What can we do? Take a stand. Stop buying packaged food that contains high fructose corn syrup. Stop buying processed corn products for you, your family, and your pets. Stop supporting factory farming, and start supporting organic farming. You’ll feel better than ever.

Special thanks to Dr. David Jubbs for his essay, “The Cornification of America.”

Attention Summer Travelers

Ah, summertime! What a great time of the year to get out of the city, go to the beach, or fly somewhere to chill out (though probably not Europe right now with this dreadful exchange rate!).
 
As we jet set to our fun summer vacations, it is important that we realize that we can suffer not only stress and fatigue from air travel itself, but also free radical damage via high levels of radiation found in airplanes. Planes fly very close to the ionosphere, causing atmospheric radiation to constantly bombard flyers.  Unfortunately, the aluminum body of a plane offers us no protection.

This problem has been known for decades - it was first discovered in the 1960s when the air crews assigned to the first long-distance, high-altitude flights experienced unusually high fatigue.  To try and keep it simple, a flight from New York to Los Angeles is the equivalent of one chest X-ray. The number of chest X-ray exposures a person is allowed to have over any given time is usually limited and measured in three year increments. These usually number in the range of three chest X-rays per year. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration permits aircrew exposures of 1000 times the dosage that a restricted citizen is allowed, although they are usually restricted to 80 hours on duty each month. Studies of these crews have shown that they suffer from changes in blood values and sensitive bodily tissue, e.g., gonads and eyes. Unfortunately there is no one keeping track of frequent traveling citizens who seem to live on planes, especially those who often fly internationally.

In its simplest form, the free radical damage caused by air travel shows itself in the form of oxidative stress in the body and the simplest way to deal with it is the introduction of antioxidants via fruits, vegetables and berries on a daily basis. Oxidation occurs when an oxygen molecule within a cell loses one of its two electrons, becomes unstable and randomly hits everything in its path in an attempt to restore its stability and it will steal an electron from anywhere. If it hits another oxygen molecule, it will steal the first electron it comes to. If it hits fat or protein structures, then oxidative damage will occur. If fat, toxic lipid peroxide (rancid fat) occurs. If protein, then changes in the structure often occurs, joints get arthritis, muscle gets weakened and DNA gets altered while its Genes are bent by this interaction. Bent Genes often result in a cancer and if the body is able, it will clean up the mess before it gets bad. Unfortunately the body is overwhelmed easily; the traveler is subjected to sleep depravation and highly processed and unhelpful foods becoming more susceptible when the consistency of the attack plays against a weakened immune system.
 
Fortunately, a good outcome is possible.  The antioxidants found in fruits, vegetables and berries are able to donate electrons to these free radicals without themselves suffering instability. Fruit, Vegetables, Grapes and Berries are miraculous in their ability to calm the oxidation process. However, it is necessary to renew this cascade on a daily basis. In other words, when whatever supply is ingested runs out, it must be replaced with a new supply of antioxidants.

If the average person (who isn’t flying) requires 7 to 9 servings of fruits and vegetables daily (Recommendations of the US Dept. of Agriculture and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) then one who is further compromised as is a diabetic, cancer survivor, extreme athlete or frequent long distance flyer will certainly require more. Just how much more is anyone’s guess.
 
When you fly, especially the day of your trip, try to eat lots of fruits and vegetables.  Make it as simple as possible, so that your body’s energy can be used in fighting free radical damage rather than digesting something heavy. Also, you might try taking a whole food (not the store!)- vegetable, fruit, and berry supplement, which will serves as major fortification of antioxidants during strenuous travel.  It of course can also be used when you feel that you are not eating well or have been lacking greens or fruit in the diet.

A whole food supplement has been derived from whole fruits and vegetables, whereas typical synthetic supplements use extracts constructed in a lab (which your body only absorbs a percentage of).  I like the brand Juice Plus+, a convenient and highly researched supplement. They have separate vegetable, fruit, and berry capsules that literally pack pounds of fruits, and veggies.

Travel safely, stay energized and healthy, and keep your cells beautiful on the inside and out!