Juicing with a DASH

I will admit to feeling a bit hypocritical: I am a nutrition student and am overweight.  I can admit this – if not, then how can I ever ask a client to?  I could make excuses about quitting smoking (which is a REALLY good thing), changes in my hormones, and my long hours of sitting/computer time that have caused me to get where I am weight-wise.  The reality is, however, that I needed to decide to take the steps towards healthy eating.  There is no doubt that I know what they are.  Not so different from smoking cessation, I have to be ready for change. 

So, where does my path to change start? I have decided to mix a bit of alternative with a mainstream-eating plan: I will do a 3-day juice detox and then move into the DASH diet that will include juicing.

I really enjoy juicing, and I believe in the benefits of a detox.  Whether or not we want to believe that the natural filtering process of our bodies needs the additional detox-boost of a juice fast, we cannot deny that fresh vegetable juices provide us a concentrated source of phytochemicals, vitamins and minerals.  If nothing else, a juice detox can give us a really good jump-start on healthy eating plan for the New Year.

When we juice and detox, we are essentially giving our bodies a break from the processed foods, alcohol, and/or high-fat richness of the holidays.  We become immediately more aware of what we are consuming. When we move out of a detox it is a great time to identify how our bodies react to foods, we can begin to identify sensitivities and reactions that we may have been overlooking or masking with a bottle of OTC medication.

The DASH diet is the mainstream diet that is often recommended to reduce high blood pressure and LDL cholesterol – while I have neither of these I have adapted it as a weight loss diet.  I will most likely be prescribing this plan to clients in the future so it seemed prudent to work through the plan myself.  I will be adding fresh juices into the plan as meals and snacks.  DASH is not that different from an exchange diet, Weight Watchers or calorie counting.

I am one to use what I have, and am a member of a winter CSA so I am getting fresh apples and veggies to incorporate into my juice plan.  I own 2 juicers: an Omega 8006 ~ a masticating juicer and a WaringPro ~ centrifugal juicer.  I will share more with you about these in the next few days.  If you are a beginner and would like to try a juice plan you could refer to Dr. Oz’s 3-day plan or you can also order a fresh juice kit: Root Juices for example.

Juice with a DASH: detox is set to begin Friday January 4^th – stay tuned.

         

Feast of the Seven Fishes, a tasting dinner

Several years ago I was looking for a change from our typical prime rib Christmas Eve dinner.  I found the idea of a Feast of the Seven Fishes intriguing.  Many Italian-American families are known to celebrate the holiday with this meal featuring delicious Italian fish specialties such as baccala, stuffed-squid, and scungilli salad.  However, I am not Italian, for that matter the dinner crowd guest are not all Christians, but we all love food and culture so we have chosen this tradition to morph into our own melting pot of ethnicities and cultures for our own special holiday celebration.

The way we do our seven fishes is something very different then what you might expect from the traditional meat-abstinence driven European feast.  Sometimes there is bacon, well…. usually there is bacon.

Our meal is a tasting menu of 7 fish courses with a wine pairing (sometimes a beer or cocktail).  We draw our inspiration from across the globe.  The offerings are always delicious, homemade, and most of all creative; we rarely repeat a dish from year to year.  I believe part of the enjoyment is searching out new recipes.

Over the years we have enjoyed Miso black cod (Nobu style), Bloody mary shrimp cocktail, Cioppino, Bouillabaisse, Lemon crab risotto, Shrimp-stuffed poblano peppers, Oyster bisque, Clam linguini, and… the list goes on and on.  All of the dishes are in tasting portions and are served by the guest who has prepared the dish.  What is very nice about this style of dining is that there is no one cook caught in the kitchen for the night – it is something like a high end of potluck.

This year we are moving the party a few houses down the block, but I expect the same amount of deliciousness.  I hear rumors of a Warm salad with baccala and potatoes, Shrimp sliders, Lobster with local winter beets, and an authentic dish from a Brazilian guest.  I will be making crab spring rolls and a dish from my upcoming cookbook “In season, a year on the North Fork” featuring Peconic bay scallops.

I think I can speak for the crowd: this is our favorite meal of the year.

Happy Christmas!

Watch my Facebook page for some delicious details on our 2012 feast.  

Note: the photo above was taken at a street market in Venice, Italy.

Immunity Booster: Yogurt

Winter is here and we can be ready for this cold and flu season by boosting our immunity with the foods we eat.  I will spend the next few weeks with some suggestions on ways to boost your immunity, helping you avoid communicable winter illnesses.

I have always been a strong believer of Foods over Supplements.  The bioavailability of the nutrients is usually greater in whole foods then in any pill or supplement form. This is the best way to find all the components of edible health benefits.

So, let’s start this series with my recommendation for you to eat yogurt regularly.

One of the best ways we can protect our heath is by avoiding inflammation; yogurt containing live cultures has an immune-function without creating an inflammatory response.  This fermented milk product contains the probiotics that assist in this protection.

Yogurt’s live cultures not only appear to be beneficial for gut immunity, but are also showing some benefits to allergic reactions and is suggested to lower incidence of upper respiratory illness, which goes right along with the winter cold and flu.

When purchasing yogurt look for the LAC seal – this is the Live Active Cultures identification from the National Yogurt Association. Frozen yogurt, and products made with yogurt, such as yogurt-covered raisins, may be delicious and have separate benefits, but not the ones we speak of here.  Furthermore, “Made with live cultures” does not mean that the cultures are still alive – which they must be for us to receive all the immunity benefits, so make sure your carton has the LAC seal.

Remember that because is not conclusively studied that you should consume a live-culture yogurt product, with all its complementary ingredients such as protein, calcium, vitamins B2, B12, and D.  It very possible that the real benefit of yogurt is in the combination of macro and micronutrients with the probiotics, so take it all in for good health.

Take home message: Eat yogurt with live active cultures at least 4-5 times each week to improve immunity and digestive health.

Nutrition Facts for 1/2 cup of plain low-fat yogurt: 96 calories, 1 g fat, 1 g sat fat, 6 g chol, 75 mg sogium, 16 g CHO, 6 g Protein.

Dietary Highlights: Recommended Daily Values: 19% of Calcium, 13% of Riboflavin (B2), and 10% of B12

Kopp-Hoolihan, L. (2001). Prophylactic and therapeutic use of probiotics: A review. American Dietetic Association.Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 101(2), 229-38

Van, d. W., Keen, C. L., & Gershwin, M. E. (1999). The influence of chronic yogurt consumption on immunity. The Journal of Nutrition, 129(7), 1492S-5S.

Meyer, A., Micksche, M., Herbacek, I.,& Elmadfa, I. (2006). Daily intake of probiotic as well as conventional yogurt has a stimulating effect on cellular immunity in young healthy women. Annals of Nutrition & Metabolism, 50(3), 282-9.

National Yogurt Association: http://www.aboutyogurt.com