New Address

I will start blogging on my website:  www.peaceofhealth.com

Please enjoy and please let me know if there is something you would like to read about.  

Thanks!

McDonald's New Fruit & Maple Oatmeal

How many of you have seen the commercial advertising McDonald's new Fruit and Maple Oatmeal? If you haven't seen it, you can check out the latest addition to the menu at McDonalds or check out a clip of the commercial on YouTube.

Most of you are probably amazed that McDonald's would offer such a healthy option on their menu. You might also be thinking they are playing it smart by offering this new breakfast during the "New Year Resolution" season.  All the same, I wanted to see what this breakfast was all about. 

Here is what I found....


McDonald's Fruit and Maple Oatmeal Ingredients

Oatmeal:
Whole grain rolled oats, brown sugar, food starch-modified, salt, natural maple flavor with other natural flavor (plant source), barley malt extract, caramel color.

Diced Apples:
Apples, calcium ascorbate (a blend of calcium and vitamin C to maintain freshness and color).

Cranberry Raisin Blend:
Dried sweetened cranberries (sugar, cranberries), California raisins, golden raisins, sunflower oil, sulfur dioxide (preservative).

Light Cream:
Milk, cream, sodium phosphate, datem, sodium stearoyl lactylate, sodium citrate, carrageenan.
CONTAINS: MILK.


Okay, so some of you are saying to yourself, "So what."  Well, let's look at the ingredient list if I made the same dish at home.

Homemade Fruit and Maple Oatmeal Ingredients:

Oatmeal:
Whole grain rolled oats, pure maple syrup

Diced Apples:
Apples

Raisin Blend:
California raisins, golden raisins

Milk:
Milk

Do you see the difference?  No preservatives, no artificial flavors, no artificial colors.  Just REAL food.  One of my favorite sayings is: "If you don't know what you are eating, your body probably doesn't know what you are eating."  And if your body doesn't know what you are eating it doesn't know what to do with it, so it will just store it somewhere - probably as fat.

Notice the homemade version does not have to have sugar.  Did you know, refined white sugar is over 99.9% sucrose and for all practical purposes contains no nutritional elements such as vitamins, minerals, proteins or fibers. This accounts for expressions such as "empty calories" and "junk food."

But what about the pure maple syrup?  Isn't that the same as sugar?  Well, not exactly.  Pure maple syrup is composed of balanced sugars, minerals, vitamins and amino acids.  The majority of the minerals making up pure maple syrup are potassium, calcium, magnesium, and manganese.  The vitamins present in pure maple syrup are PP (Niacin), B5 (Pantothenic Acid), B2 (Riboflavin), Folic Acid, B6 (Pyridoxine), Biotin, and Vitamin A.  I would much rather have pure maple syrup than refined white sugar.... and whatever the natural maple flavor and other natural flavors are!  And just to clarify, I am talking about 100% pure maple syrup, not the imitations you usually find at the supermarket loaded with artificial colors, preservatives, and high fructose corn syrup. 


Side note:  The Vermont Agency of Agriculture noticed the ingredients of McDonald's Fruit and Maple Oatmeal.  They requested McDonald's to change the ingredients to include honest to goodness real maple syrup.  According to the state law, if they don't add maple syrup, they will have to change the name of their new breakfast oatmeal by taking out the word "maple."

Now don't get me wrong, if you find yourself at McDonald's needing to make a "healthy" choice, this is probably the way to go.  However, I just want people to realize what they are eating.  You could make a much healthier version of this breakfast at home in the time you would wait in line at the drive-thru.

At our house, we eat oatmeal 6 days a week for breakfast.  I put water in the tea kettle and put it on the stove.  By the time I finish measuring out oatmeal in our individual bowls, the tea kettle is whistling at me.  Just add the hot water to the oatmeal and Wha-laa! Oatmeal for everyone in no time at all!  And everyone can add their favorite toppings.  Mine is two scoops of applesauce and cinnamon.  My husband likes to add honey and milk. ;)

What are your favorite toppings? 


Source:
McDonald's
USDA
WCAX

An Organic Treat for Santa

I made some awesome peanut butter cookies last night and I wanted to share the recipe. I was hesitant in making cookies this year, but it just wouldn't be Christmas Eve without leaving Santa some cookies and milk. I was playing around with the idea of making peanut butter cookies with 100% whole wheat flour, but that sounds more like a chore to eat instead of a treat.

While I was at Whole Foods picking up items for our Christmas celebration (we are doing it early this year due to travel plans), I came across organic 100% whole wheat pastry flour. Hmmmm. They had a small bag, so I decided to try it. Oh my goodness - BETTER than white flour! These cookies came out perfect - they practically melt in your mouth. I know our Snowman Cookie Jar is happy this year! I can't wait to try the pastry flour on other items. I know my husband can't wait either!

So here is the recipe. Please enjoy - I know Santa will!

1/2 cup organic butter
1 cup organic brown sugar
1/3 cup organic sugar
1 cup organic unsweetened peanut butter
1 egg (organic, pasture raised)
3 tablespoons organic whole milk
1 tablespoon organic vanilla extract
1 3/4 cup organic 100% whole wheat pastry flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon sea salt

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

2. In a bowl, cream together butter, brown sugar, sugar, and peanut butter until smooth. Stir in egg, milk, and vanilla. Combine flour, baking soda, and salt; stir into peanut butter mixture until well blended. Drop by rounded spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.

3. Bake for 10-15 minutes. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

4. Serve with organic whole milk! ;)

Season for Cinnamon

I love the holiday season.  I love the aroma of cinnamon filling the home while homemade cookies are baking in the oven.  But even more, I love to eat cinnamon cookies!  Cinnamon is my favorite spice - which adds to my enjoyment of the holidays.  And even better... cinnamon is considered a powerful food.

Cinnamon is known to have five times as many antioxidants as 1/2 cup of blueberries or a cup of pomegranate juice.  Only one other herb or spice has more antioxidants - the clove.  But let's face it, do you want clove cookies, clove flavored breakfast rolls, or even clove tea?  I didn't think so.  We all know that antioxidants are good for you, but do you know why?  I didn't really understand what an antioxidant was until recently.  Let me try and explain to you in a way that isn't so scientific.

Have you ever cut up an apple or banana or avocado and let it sit on the counter for a few hours?   When you came back, it was starting to turn brown, right?  That is what happens when air (oxygen) comes in contact with the fruit.  We all know that putting lemon juice on the fruit will prevent it from turning brown.  The lemon juice is protecting the fruit from oxygen.  This is the same thing that happens with our cells.  Oxygen can damage our cells, so we need something to protect them and this is where antioxidants from different foods come in.  Thank you cinnamon!  

Cinnamon is also known to help control blood sugar levels.  It will help slow down the rise of blood sugar after meals which helps reduce the severe sugar low afterwards.  So add some cinnamon to your favorite holiday dishes like: butternut squash, pumpkin pie, or even meat.  (I tried cinnamon on ground beef, and LOVED it... so did my family!)

As little as 1/2  teaspoon of cinnamon a day may help lower high blood pressure and LDL cholesterol. 
It also has anti-clotting and anti-inflammatory properties, which help prevent unwanted clumping of blood platelets.

So enjoy your holiday season filled with lots of yummy cinnamon dishes and treats!

My favorite foods to add cinnamon:
butternut squash
hot tea
oatmeal
some meats
applesauce
cookies and doughnuts
pumpkin pie


Share your favorites! 

Nightshade Vegetables

So what are nightshade vegetables? Nightshade vegetables consists of roughly 2800 different foods, herbs, and shrubs in the Solanaceae family that grow in the shade of night. Among the most well-known are: tomato, potato, eggplant, peppers of all kinds, tomatillos, tamarios, pimentos, paprika, cayenne, Tabasco sauce, and tobacco. (Included is a longer list at the end of this blog.)

What I found interesting was the effects eating these foods CAN have on your body. Nightshade vegetables contain different types of alkaloids that MAY effect your body in certain ways. One type of alkaloid is the steroid alkaloid that can effect your nervous system and/or joint health (inflammation and altered mineral status). In fact, two of the major problems attributed to nightshades are arthritis and osteoporosis. Another type of alkaloid is nicotine. Yup, you read that right - nicotine! Okay, that makes sense to me since the tobacco plant is part of the nightshades. We all know the effects of nicotine.

Dr Norman Childers, a professor of botany at the University of Florida at Gainesville, has shown that nightshade consumption contributes to osteoarthritis because the alkaloids disturb the calcium metabolism and tend to remove calcium from the bones, causing aches, pains, even deformations. If you consume a lot of dairy products, you probably eat a lot of nightshades to counterbalance the extra calcium. If your dairy intake is minimal, you may feel the effects of the nightshades more than most.

Two of the most popular nightshades are potatoes and tomatoes, so that is were I will focus in this blog.



While learning about nightshades, I became curious about tomatoes after reading they were once thought of as "The Cancer Apple." Come to find out, tomatoes are actually considered "toxic plants"; the vines and leaves are known to be poisonous. Because tomatoes looked a lot like deadly nightshades, early Americans grew tomatoes only as ornamental plants, and didn't start eating them until the 1800s.

Potato plants are also considered toxic. Most people think just the sprouts are poisonous, but there is poison in a potato itself. Have you ever cut into a potato and found some green spots? The green color is due to a high concentration of glycoalkaloid (alkaloids + sugars) poison. The Lenape potato was withdrawn from commercial growing in Canada and the USA as it contained unacceptably high levels of glycoalkaloids. Yet potatoes, as well as other nightshades, are considered healthy choices by the USDA.



Potato Trivia:
Sir Walter Raleigh, a British explorer, first brought the potato to Ireland. Legend has it that he gave the potato plant to Queen Elizabeth I as a gift. The local gentry were invited to a royal banquet featuring the potato in every course. Unfortunately, the cooks had never seen a potato before and threw out the tubers and brought to the royal table boiled potato stems and leaves, which made everyone deathly ill. Potatoes were banned from court for years.


Okay, so you may think that you don't eat many nightshades and not really worried about it, but let's think about the average American diet for a second:

-Pizza (tomatoes)
-French fries and ketchup (potatoes and tomatoes)
-Tex-Mex Dishes (all the spices, peppers, tomatoes)
-Chips and Salsa (potatoes and tomatoes)
-"Americanized" Italian Dishes (tomatoes and eggplants)
-soups (potatoes and tomatoes)
-sauces (peppers, tomatoes)
...you can see where this list is going..


Of course, some individuals are more sensitive to nightshade vegetables than others. Even though some say there is not enough research on the effects of these foods, it is interesting to read testimonials from people that have "cured" health problems like joint pain, back pain, arthritis, eczema, seizures, and asthma by eliminating these foods.

Check out The Arthritis Nightshade Research Foundation

If you are into spirituality, balance, natural and organic food, I highly recommend looking into the Macrobiotics Diet. One of the guidelines to the Macrobiotics way of eating is to eliminate nightshades from your diet due to the toxic effects they can have on your body.

I am not trying to convince everyone that they need to stop eating tomatoes, potatoes, and peppers. I just want people to become aware of what they are putting in their bodies. Some of you will think it is worth eliminating these foods from your diet for a month or two to see if your joints and back feel better, you sleep better, and/or you can concentrate better. If you do, please share your results.

Here is a more complete list of culinary nightshades. Please make note that Sweet Potatoes are NOT nightshades.


List of Nightshades

Culinary Vegetables:
Bell pepper (sweet pepper)

Italian pepper

Chile Pepper

Examples of varieties:

fresh
Anaheim
Fresno
Jalapeño
Pimiento / pimento
Poblano
Serrano

dried
Ancho
Cascabel
Chipotle
Guajillo
Habañero
Pasada
Pasilla

Eggplant
Potato
Tomato
Tomatillo

Spices:
Cayenne
Chili powder (some ingredients of)
Curry (some ingredients of)
Paprika

Sauces:
Ketchup
Tabasco

Culinary Fruit:
Cape gooseberry
Goji berry
Pepino
Tamarillo

Other:
Tobacco

Hello Blog

Hello to the world of Blogging!

I have decided to start a blog to share my thoughts and knowledge about nutrition, lifestyle, and personal care.

I can't wait to start sharing with the world!

Check out my website: Peace of Health