Veggie Kate

The mind: your central control center for so much.  It helps you move, breathe, think, feel, remember, speak.

Love your mind, take care of it, because if you ignore it – it will go away!

I am sharing a poster regarding things that harm or help your brain.  But a disclaimer: it shows a cast iron skillet for “Brain Threats.”  I don’t think it’s a great depiction, as cast iron skillets are a wonderful thing!  However, it is trying to be an illustration for “excess iron,” and so perhaps this was their final choice.

After all, these may have been their other options:

Excess Fe? Dots? Orbits?

Excess rock? Excess Adamantium? Yeah, I guess those could be bad… unless you’re Wolverine…

Hm, yeah, I could see this causing trouble, too…

And oh yeah… I’d say 3 of these may be a tad on the excessive side…

Sooooo, let’s just accept the choice of the cast-iron skillet as a lesser of evils for representing Excess Iron, even though it may still not be quite the right picture.  And do remember: excessive amounts of ANYTHING is not recommended — but that is very difficult to do if you are eating whole, fresh foods.  Usually toxicity comes from over supplementation.

With all that said – enjoy today’s inforgraphic about brain health!

Brain Power! From Dr. Mark Hyman’s Facebook page

I’d make one small change and state “Eat HEALTHY” instead of just “Eat.”  But you get the point.

Check, Check, and Check!

Now go out and Be Awesome!

I am so so SO proud, not only of my hometown, but of Dave Harding, the former director of Human Resources of my hometown — who cured his diabetes and reversed his high cholesterol by taking steps towards a more natural, plant-based diet!

What an inspirational article!  I am dreaming of the day I have time to create a full course like this to share with the people of Saipan

Inspired by Forks Over Knives, Dublin, Ohio Employees Adopt Plant-Based Diet with Success.

The City of Dublin, Ohio is serious about health. City leaders have implemented programs to educate both its 40,000 residents and 370 employees on the benefits of plant-based eating. The community-based program, Healthy Dublin, has featured speakers, including Caldwell Esselstyn, Jr., M.D., Julieanna Hever, R.D., and Chef AJ to educate citizens about a whole-food, plant-based diet. But it was a screening of Forks Over Knives that was instrumental in taking the wellness program for city employees to an advanced level.

The city already had deployed a substantial wellness program, which features one-on-one counseling for exercise and stress management, financial incentives to lower disease risk factors, and several fitness programs. Yet the city still saw its health care costs climbing faster than inflation and was willing to try something new. After receiving requests from employees who had seen Forks Over Knives, the city’s management and human resources department championed a plant-based nutrition education program just for employees. Soon the city contracted with The Wellness Forum, based in nearby Columbus, to teach such a program. The classes were taught by The Wellness Forum’s executive director, Pam Popper, N.D., who was featured in Forks Over Knives.

The program was voluntary, but all the employees attended meetings to learn about it. Twenty-nine workers signed up for the first set of classes. For eight weeks, the enrollees heard lectures, discussed what they were learning, saw recipes being prepared, and – very importantly – sampled excellent, plant-based food.

The city measured several risk factors of the enrollees before the program began and then again eight weeks later when it concluded. While usual wellness programs can take years to achieve modest results, the plant-based worksite program achieved substantial health improvements in only eight weeks. Here were some of the results:

• The percentage of hypertensive participants fell from 20% to 3.7%
• The percentage of those with high triglycerides plummeted from 40% to 11%
• The percentage of those with elevated glucose decreased from 28% to 18.5%
• The average weight loss was 10.5 pounds
• Medication use decreased, with many of the participants planning to work with their doctors to reduce or get off drugs

Employees loved their new diets and many of them even encouraged their colleagues to sign up for the next series of classes. Enrollees gave kudos to the tasty food, the knowledge they gained, and the caring attitude they experienced. Here’s a sampling of what they had to say:

• “Everything I’ve learned in the program has worked. I’m having more fun with it now than anything. I like that I can eat a lot of food and get full on the Program’s diet. I don’t have to write things down.”
• “I definitely feel a lot better. I don’t want to put nasty junk that makes me feel bad into my body. I want to be as healthy as possible for as long as possible.”
• “Changing diet is a piece of cake compared to quitting cigarettes. After the first class, I saw myself as a plant-based eater.”

The positive results pleased the City of Dublin, which is planning to continue the program so more employees can find improved health. Further, the city has enthusiastically shared the idea of worksite plant-based programs with the larger community. As health care costs consume one out of every six dollars of the U.S. Gross Domestic Product, the City of Dublin is showing governments and businesses how an innovative plant-based nutrition program can make people healthier and improve our economy.

Watch this video about Dublin’s former director of Human Resources, Dave Harding, and his transformation on a whole-food, plant-based diet:

Though the specific science of nutrition can get quite complex, the basics can be pretty simple.  And I like the simplicity of this infographic!  It doesn’t give a lot of variety regarding sources of the different vitamins and minerals, but I like that it’s a general sum-up of the reason you want to make sure you’re getting good nutrition!

If you’re interested in other natural sources of any of these items, give me a shout out and we can see what may be available to you!

Are you getting your good variety?

from healthcentral.com

For the new year, Dave finally decided enough was enough!  He was tired of his lifestyle of coffee all day to “function,” followed by a night of insomnia and heartburn, to cyclically return to a day of coffee (and now pastries to help with the heartburn) in order to have enough energy to once again “function” for the day.

This had been his cycle for far too long, and he knew it was time to do something differently.

We discussed possible eating plans and ideas, and he admitted he didn’t want to do a vegetarian diet.  He wanted more meat. (Ok, I give him credit – I haven’t prepared meat at home in 2 years, and he hasn’t complained.) He was, however, willing to give up many things: coffee, pop, sugar, white rice, white flour, and other processed toxins.  So we opted for “clean, natural” eating, together – with a temporary cut out of ALL sugar, including fruit and starchy veggies, to help tame our sugar addictions.

And this dear man has jumped on the bandwagon with excitement!  He has grabbed this new adventure by the bull horns, and started to explore the kitchen and rediscover his own thrill of playing in the kitchen.

Oh yes, I made him wear the apron!

Today is the 22nd.  Which means he has now gone for a record-breaking 22 days without sugar, pop, coffee, refined grains, or any other “off limits” food items!  We have not eaten out, and have cooked all of our own food — including making mayonnaise, salad dressings, chicken stock, coconut milk, and even ketchup all from scratch.  All from fresh, natural ingredients.

Some recipes flop, and we don’t finish them; others are tolerable but we eat them; and others have been divine!

So as we start to amass successful ventures, and learn to do more of these made-from-scratch meals, we want to share them with you!

Stay tuned!  I am trying to organize all the photos, and get it all set up.  But hopefully many more recipes will be coming soon!  And I hope you’ll try some of them out, too! (as possible, depending what foods are available in your location.)

Happy eating!

~Kate and Dave

We even get some flour-free, gluten-free, naturally sweetened desserts on birthdays!