GFY-N! Transitions - Week 7

Greetings from Me and My House,

This is week 7 of our 7 steps to a Good for You-Naturally! lifestyle of eating. I hope you have made some healthy transitions in your diet over the past several weeks. We will finish this series today by introducing cooked whole grains.

We've already talked about raw seeds, particularly in their sprouted form, and introduced that grains are seeds. This week we will add whole grains in their cooked form.

Most people are used to eating most of their grains in the form of flour in baked goods. Although I certainly won't debate against whole grain bread being delicious and Good for You, I primarily want to encourage you to begin adding whole grains in their intact form several times a week.

Oatmeal may be the only whole grain you are used to eating. Regular rolled oats are the whole grain, but flattened. Perhaps you are used to eating some other grains refined, such as white rice. Switching to brown rice is a Good for You choice. Other whole, intact grains that are good and can be served much the same as rice are: quinoa (pronounced keen-wa), amaranth, even whole wheat. Brown rice and oatmeal are easy enough to find in your local grocery store. The others may require going to a health food store.

We use a rice steamer or pressure pan to prepare our whole grains. You can read more about them here. Quinoa can be cooked in about 20 minutes, as opposed to brown rice 60 minutes, so it is a good choice when you are in a hurry. If you are really in a hurry, brown rice takes 18 minutes in the pressure pan, and quinoa only takes 1-2 minutes!

You can serve any whole grain as a pilaf, adding chopped onion, parsley, and other seasonings if desired. Some additions may be garlic, peas, shredded carrots, Bragg's Liquid Aminos, or natural vegetable broth powder.

Begin adding cooked whole grains to your lifestyle of eating this week, in addition to the other changes you have made. I believe if you continue on this Good for You -Naturally! path you will see a change for the better in your health. God has provided us with such a great variety of great foods. Enjoy them, as He created them. And, "taste a see that the Lord is good." Psalm 34:8

For Me & My House,
At Jesus' feet,
Lisa

GFY-N! Transitions - Week 6

Greetings from Me and My House,

We are nearing the home stretch. How are you doing? Are you keeping up (unlike my posts)? Most of the time? Have you made some changes that are becoming habits - Good for You ones? Has adding all these steps begun to crowd out some of your old inferior choices? Good for You!

If you are just now joining us, go back and begin with Step 1, and add a new step each week. If any of these Steps are already habits for you, advance on to the next Step right away.
Step 2, Step 3, Step 4, Step 5

This week (and next) we are going to revisit a couple items from God's Original 4 Food Groups, in a different way. But first I want to share, just touching the surface, about why we have added the things we have in raw form. (There are other reasons that work with this also.)

We are fearfully and wonderfully made. God has given each of us about 1 trillion cells that make up our bodies, each one a highly complex energy factory. But to function properly our cells need the proper fuel, and that fuel needs to be able to reach the cells.

Do you all remember high school chemisty? I don't. But I've learned a few things since then, at least in this area. Our bodies function best at a ph between 7-8, that is slightly alkaline. Below 7, disease and accelerated aging set in. Below 5.8 cancer can develop. Have you ever wondered why cancer has become so ramped in our time? The average American is living at a ph of 5-5.5.

How did we get to this point? All deceptive foods (adulterated and non-foods), stimulants (caffeine, coffee, tea, chocolate, sugar, alcohol, tobacco, etc.), animal derived foods (meat and dairy), pollution, chemicals (food additives, food growing chemicals, personal care products, etc.), stress, meds/drugs and even cooked food are acid producing.

Only raw foods are alkaline producing. Therefore to pull our body back toward health we need to eat more alkaline producing foods - more raw foods. Just like a car functions better on higher octane fuel (and breaks down on the wrong type of fuel), our bodies function better on higher alkaline food (and break down when given the wrong kinds of fuel/food).

This week's Step, number 6, will include some cooked food choices. Typically, if about 80% of our food intake is from what you have included into your Lifestyle of Eating from Steps 1-4, we can eat about 20% of our foods (from God's Original 4 Food Groups) in cooked form. Lightly steamed fresh vegetables are still slightly on the alkaline producing side, and cooked whole grains are just slightly on the acid producing side. These will make up our Steps 6 and 7.

Beginning this week, and added to all the other Steps we have included in our transition to a Good for You-Naturally! Lifestyle of Eating, you will add lightly steamed fresh vegetables daily to either your lunch or supper meal, or both.

Steaming vegetables is a way of cooking that retains nutrients (as opposing to boiling or microwaving). Food steamers hold the vegetables above boiling water to cook them. You can use a stainless steel pan insert steamer, or an electric food steamer. See more on choosing a food steamer in our Good for You-Naturally! Resources & Recommendations.

You do not want to cook the life out of your vegetables, until they are limp and and their color faded. But lightly steam them so they are hot and still just slightly crisp (and still colorful). Broccoli, Carrots, Potatoes, Green Beans, Cauliflower, Zucchini, Mushrooms, Onions, Bell Peppers, and combinations of any of these and many more are some of our family's favorite fresh steamed vegetables. Corn and Peas are of course are among our top favorites too, but not available fresh right now.

You may also use frozen vegetables sometimes to steam, but this lowers their nutritional value further, so don't rely on this daily. Use fresh as much as possible. But a plus for frozen may be that you are able to purchase them organic when you may not be able to purchase fresh organic.

Include a wide variety of vegetables. Try for differnt ones each day. And "taste a see that the Lord is good." Psalm 34:8

For Me & My House,
At Jesus' feet,
Lisa