Blueberry Cranberry Protein Shake

A health sensation, packed with the goodness of blueberries and cranberries.

Ingredients: 
2 scoops French Vanilla Formula 1 Nutritional Shake Mix
2 tablespoons Personalized Protein Powder (or more)
1/3 cup nonfat dry milk
1/2 cup low-calorie cranberry juice
1/2 cup frozen blueberries
A few drops orange extract
4 ice cubes

Directions:
Place all ingredients in the blender and mix thoroughly until the ice cubes are completely crushed. Ice cubes are optional.

Nutritional Analysis (with nonfat milk):
Calories: 340
Protein: 30 grams
Fat: 1 gram
Carbohydrates: 44 grams

Banana Bread Protein Shake

Don't slice this dessert treat, slurp it.

Ingredients: 2 scoops French Vanilla Formula 1 Nutritional Shake Mix
2 tablespoons Personalized Protein Powder (or more)
1 cup plain soy milk or nonfat milk
1/2 very ripe banana
1/8 teaspoon black-walnut flavoring
A few drops vanilla extract
1 dash cinnamon
4 ice cubes

Directions:
Place all ingredients in the blender and mix thoroughly until the ice cubes are completely crushed. Ice cubes are optional.

Nutritional Analysis (with nonfat milk):
Calories: 270
Protein: 30 grams
Fat: 1 gram
Carbohydrates: 26 grams

Cancer Update from Johns Hopkins:

Johns Hopkins Update 
This is an extremely good article.

Everyone should read it.

AFTER YEARS OF TELLING PEOPLE CHEMOTHERAPY IS THE ONLY WAY TO TRY ('TRY', BEING THE KEY WORD) TO ELIMINATE CANCER, JOHNS HOPKINS IS FINALLY STARTING TO TELL YOU THERE IS AN ALTERNATIVE WAY .

Cancer Update from Johns Hopkins: 

1. Every person has cancer cells in the body. These cancer
cells do not show up in the standard tests until they have
multiplied to a few billion. When doctors tell cancer patients
that there are no more cancer cells in their bodies after
treatment, it just means the tests are unable to detect the
cancer cells because they have not reached the detectable
size. 

2. Cancer cells occur between 6 to more than 10 times in a
person's lifetime. 

3. When the person's immune system is strong the cancer
cells will be destroyed and prevented from multiplying and
forming tumors. 

4. When a person has cancer it indicates the person has
nutritional deficiencies. These could be due to genetic,
but also to environmental, food and lifestyle factors. 

5. To overcome the multiple nutritional deficiencies, changing
diet to eat more adequately and healthy, 4-5 times/day 
and by including supplements will strengthen the immune system. 

6. Chemotherapy involves poisoning the rapidly-growing
cancer cells and also destroys rapidly-growing healthy cells
in the bone marrow, gastrointestinal tract etc., and can
cause organ damage, like liver, kidneys, heart, lungs etc. 

7. Radiation while destroying cancer cells also burns, scars
and damages healthy cells, tissues and organs. 

8. Initial treatment with chemotherapy and radiation will often
reduce tumor size.
However, prolonged use of chemotherapy and radiation do not result in more tumor destruction. 

9. When the body has too much toxic burden from
chemotherapy and radiation the immune system is either
compromised or destroyed, hence the person can succumb
to various kinds of infections and complications. 

10. Chemotherapy and radiation can cause cancer cells to
mutate and become resistant and difficult to destroy.
Surgery can also cause cancer cells to spread to other sites.

11. An effective way to battle cancer is to starve the cancer
cells by not feeding it with the foods it needs to multiply. 

*CANCER CELLS FEED ON:

a. Sugar substitutes like NutraSweet, Equal, Spoonful, etc. are made
with Aspartame and it is harmful.  A better natural substitute
would be Manuka honey or molasses, but only in very small
amounts. Table salt has a chemical added to make it white in
color Better alternative is Bragg's aminos or sea salt. 

b. Milk causes the body to produce mucus, especially in the
gastro-intestinal tract. Cancer feeds on mucus. By cutting off milk and substituting with unsweetened soy milk cancer cells are being starved. 

c. Cancer cells thrive in an acid environment. A meat-based
diet is acidic and it is best to eat fish, and a little other meat, 
like chicken.  Meat also contains livestock antibiotics, growth hormones and parasites, which are all harmful, especially to people with cancer. 

d. A diet made of 80% fresh vegetables and juice, whole
grains, seeds, nuts and a little fruits help put the body into
an alkaline environment. About 20% can be from cooked
food including beans. Fresh vegetable juices provide live
enzymes that are easily absorbed and reach down to
cellular levels within 15 minutes to nourish and enhance
growth of healthy cells. To obtain live enzymes for building
healthy cells try and drink fresh vegetable juice (most
vegetables including bean sprouts) and eat some raw
vegetables 2 or 3 times a day.  Enzymes are destroyed at
temperatures of 104 degrees F (40 degrees C).. 

e. Avoid coffee, tea, and chocolate, which have high
caffeine Green tea is a better alternative and has cancer
fighting properties. Water-best to drink purified water, or
filtered, to avoid known toxins and heavy metals in tap
water. Distilled water is acidic, avoid it.

12. Meat protein is difficult to digest and requires a lot of
digestive enzymes. Undigested meat remaining in the
intestines becomes putrefied and leads to more toxic buildup. 

13. Cancer cell walls have a tough protein covering.  By
refraining from or eating less meat it frees more enzymes
to attack the protein walls of cancer cells and allows the
body's killer cells to destroy the cancer cells. 

14. Some supplements build up the immune system
(IP6, Flor-ssence, Essiac, anti-oxidants, vitamins, minerals,
EFAs etc.) to enable the bodies own killer cells to destroy
cancer cells.  Other supplements like vitamin E are known
to cause apoptosis, or programmed cell death, the body's
normal method of disposing of damaged, unwanted, or
unneeded cells. 

15. Cancer is a disease of the mind, body, and spirit.

A proactive and positive spirit will help the cancer warrior
be a survivor. Anger, un-forgiveness and bitterness put
the body into a stressful and acidic environment. Learn to
have a loving and forgiving spirit.  Learn to relax and enjoy life.

16. Cancer cells cannot thrive in an oxygenated
environment.  Exercising daily, and deep breathing help to
get more oxygen down to the cellular level. Oxygen therapy is another means employed to destroy cancer cells. 

1. No plastic containers in micro. 

2. No water bottles in freezer. 

3. No plastic wrap in microwave.. 

Johns Hopkins has recently sent this out in its newsletters. This information is being circulated at Walter Reed Army Medical Center as well. Dioxin chemicals cause cancer, especially breast cancer.  Dioxins are highly poisonous to the cells of our bodies. Don't freeze your plastic bottles with water in them as this releases dioxins from the plastic. Recently, Dr Edward Fujimoto, Wellness Program Manager at Castle Hospital , was on a TV program to explain this health hazard. He talked about dioxins and how bad they are for us. He said that we should not be heating our food in the microwave using plastic containers. This especially applies to foods that contain fat. He said that the combination of fat, high heat, and plastics releases dioxin into the food and ultimately into the cells of the body. Instead, he recommends using glass, such as Corning Ware, Pyrex or ceramic containers for heating food. You get the same results, only without the dioxin. So such things as TV dinners, instant ramen and soups, etc., should be removed from the container and heated in something else. Paper isn't bad but you don't know what is in the paper. It's just safer to use tempered glass, Corning Ware, etc. He reminded us that a while ago some of the fast food restaurants moved away from the foam containers to paper. The dioxin problem is one of the reasons.

Please share this with your whole email list . . .
Also, he pointed out that plastic wrap, such as Saran, is just as dangerous when placed over foods to be cooked in the microwave. As the food is nuked, the high heat causes poisonous toxins to actually melt out of the plastic wrap and drip into the food. Cover food with a paper towel instead.

This is an article that should be sent to anyone important in your life . . . now you know. 

Drinking Water with Meals Could Mean Healthier Food Choices

What you drink could affect what foods you choose to eat.

We tend to pay a lot more attention to what we eat than what we drink – we usually decide on a beverage after we’ve decided what we’re going to eat.

But there are times when the beverage calls the shots.  Pour yourself a glass of cold milk, and you’re suddenly craving a chocolate chip cookie.  A steaming mug of coffee brings on the urge for a sugary donut on the side.  And is there anyone who hasn’t noticed that beer pairs really well with salty, fatty foods – like pizza, hot dogs and peanuts?  Okay – so if certain beverages can steer you to eat the wrong foods, is it possible that other beverages could help you make better choices?  Researchers at the University of Oregon and Michigan State University think so.

Findings from a study published last week in the journal Appetite¹suggest that having water as a beverage might improve our food choices at meals.  The researchers performed two very simple experiments, designed to figure out if certain food-beverage combinations are preferences that we develop early on.

First, the researchers surveyed 60 young adults to get their thoughts on various food and drink combos.   And the findings were clear – soda goes great with pizza and French fries, but it’s a lousy drink when you’re chowing down on raw or steamed veggies.  Those foods, they said, call for water.

In the second study, 75 preschoolers were offered a snack of raw carrots and bell peppers – which were served on two separate occasions with either water or fruit punch.  Not surprisingly, the kids drank more punch than plain water – it’s sweet, after all – but the interesting thing was that the kids ate more vegetables when they were served water than they did when they were served punch.

The findings suggest that kids may learn very early on to pair certain beverages with certain foods – soda goes with fatty, salty foods, not with vegetables – and carry those preferences with them as they grow up.   It means that if you expose kids to the soda-salt-fat combo over and over throughout childhood, then every time they drink a sugary drink, the palate gets primed for the burger, fries and pizza that’s sure to follow.

And so, the authors said, if the beverage choice determines whether we do (or don’t) eat our vegetables, then maybe it’s time to think about the beverage first – since the right one could steer us to make better choices at mealtime.

It’ll surely take more than a one-two punch of veggies and water to knock out the childhood obesity epidemic. But if kids learn early on to associate healthy beverages with healthy foods, it might just encourage them to eat more vegetables – and that’s a great place to start.

Snack attack – should you eat snacks and are they really bad for you?

  3 meals a day or 6 meals a day – does it matter?

Everybody eats.  Which is why people are so willing to throw in their two cents when it comes to any nutrition debate. One thorny issue has to do with meal frequency and weight control.  There are those who ‘just say no’ to snacking – the ones who restrict themselves to three meals a day, period.  In their view, snacking is simply a bad habit that can pile on the pounds.  In the opposite corner are those who say that small, frequent meals will help control hunger, so it’s better to eat five or six times a day.

Is one strategy better than the other?  Research has yet to give us a definitive answer, leading one¹ to conclude that whether you eat three times a day or six, “the question of whether there is a health benefit … will ultimately depend on how much energy is consumed, as opposed to how often or how regularly one eats” (italics mine).  In other words, if it’s weight loss you’re after, the bottom line is keeping your calorie intake in check.  Snacking in and of itself isn’t bad, unless it’s pushing your calorie intake past the tipping point.

If you look at what many people consider ‘snack foods’ – greasy, salty, sugary packaged snacks like chips, cookies and candy – it’s easy to see why they’d adopt the ‘no snacking’ approach to weight management.   If snacking = junk food, then yes, processed goodies can dump a lot of calories into your system in no time.  Some people avoid snacking because they find it hard enough to just to curb their calories at mealtimes.  If they find it hard to control what they eat at breakfast, lunch or dinner, they figure snacks will just add insult to injury.

Of course, there are plenty of healthy foods to snack on, too – which is just one reason that I side with the small, frequent meal approach.  It’s a practical issue – the more often you eat, the more opportunities you have to meet your nutritional needs.

Let’s say you’re trying to get 7 to 10 fruit and vegetable servings a day, a couple of servings of dairy, and you have protein needs to meet, too.  That might be hard to do if you try to distribute all that food over just three meals.  But if you use snacks as an opportunity to work in more healthy fruits and vegetables, or maybe some calcium-rich yogurt, or an additional  portion of protein, it’s a lot easier to hit your daily nutritional targets.

Here’s another thing: people who eat less frequently can convince themselves that they’ve ‘hardly eaten all day’ – giving themselves license to do pretty much whatever they want when mealtimes roll around.  Or, they assume that eating huge – but less frequent – meals will ‘hold them’ longer.  That rarely happens. They usually end up snacking anyway.

Frequent feedings can really help with portion control.  if you know you’ll be eating more often, you can teach yourself to be satisfied with less every time you eat, since you know you’ll be eating again in a few hours.

That’s the beauty of eating healthfully.  High fiber fruits, veggies and whole grains have relatively few calories per bite, and low-fat protein foods help to satisfy hunger.  That means you can eat every few hours, and still have quantity and quality – without spending huge amounts of calories.

Roasting Vegetables: Making the Most of the Fall Harvest

 The change of seasons brings with it a new group of fruits and vegetables you can enjoy. Apples. root vegetables – like carrots and sweet potatoes – and all the cabbage family foods, like broccoli and cauliflower, are at their peak now.  And they’re all great candidates for roasting – one of my favorite fall cooking methods.

With the grilling season over, I start giving a lot more foods the roasting treatment.  The oven’s dry heat caramelizes the natural sugars in foods and brings a depth of flavor to fruits and vegetables that summer grilling can’t touch.

If you’ve never roasted root vegetables, you should give them a try.  Roasted carrots are particularly delicious.    Toss them with a little olive oil and balsamic vinegar, sprinkle with salt and pepper, then spread out on a cookie sheet and roast at 425 degrees for about a half hour until they’re tender.  The vinegar turns into a sticky, syrupy glaze that coats them irresistibly.  You can give the same treatment to sweet potatoes or beets – tossing them with something tart before roasting like lemon or lime juice, vinegar, or even pomegranate juice contrasts with their natural sweetness.

Roasted veggies make a great side dish, but on the off chance there are any leftovers, they’re great added to soups and stews, or you can slice them up cold and dress with vinaigrette, or add to mixed greens to give some fall flavor to your tossed salad.

I was never much of a cauliflower lover until I started roasting it; now it’s become a fall staple at my house.  Roasting softens the strong flavor – the cauliflower gets sweeter, and the texture becomes almost meaty.  I coat the florets and a sliced onion with a dash of olive oil, sprinkle with salt, pepper, and curry powder, and then roast.  Broccoli and Brussels sprouts – other veggies that are often a hard sell – are also delicious roasted with some oil and garlic.

You can roast fruits, too – and fall apples are fantastic when they’re prepared this way.  Pretty much any variety will do, and you don’t need to peel them – just cut in halves or quarters, remove the core and spread them in a single layer on a cookie sheet sprayed with nonstick spray and roast like you would the veggies.  You can toss them with a little lemon juice, apple juice or spices first if you want, but if you start with tasty fresh apples, they’re really good on their own.

Enjoying All Of The Health Benefits Of Carrot Juice

Did you know that eight ounces of carrot juice can contain as much as 800% of your daily recommended dosage of vitamin A. Vitamin A is essential and necessary for tissue growth, especially within the bones. Vitamin A is also very important in maintaining good vision. The old myth that eating carrots will help you see better is true, as vitamin A deficiencies can lead to vision problems such as night blindness. Spinach is also a very rich source of Vitamin A. A little spinach juiced with a few carrots will deliver a vitamin A mega beverage. Vitamin A is also very crucial for expectant mothers and the unborn fetus. Although vitamin A is very important for your body, it is also important to maintain moderate levels of vitamin A intake, as too much can lead to liver toxicity, and other health problems.

Carrot juice is also an excellent source of vitamin C. An eight ounce glass of pure carrot juice can provide your body with up to 35% of your daily recommended dosage of vitamin C. Vitamin C has a wide variety of uses throughout our entire body, such as collagen production of the mucous membranes, skin, bones, and teeth. Vitamin C is also a very crucial antioxidant. A few carrots juiced with blackcurrant berries, oranges, lemons, or kiwi, can easily provide you with your whole daily vitamin C dosage, without the need to take synthetic vitamins supplements.

Carrot juice is an excellent drinkable source of potassium. Potassium is very important in helping to maintain a healthy electrolyte balance and fluid level in the cells of your body. It's also necessary in muscle movement, such as contraction, as well as neurotransmission. Potassium deficiencies are very bad for your body, with such effects as Hypokalemia, acne, muscle spasms, dry skin, and elevated cholesterol levels. Carrots juiced with celery or turnips can provide your body with a large intake level of potassium. An eight ounce glass of pure carrot juice will usually provide up to 10% of the daily recommended intake level of potassium. It should be known that individuals who suffer from kidney disease, should avoid taking in large amounts of potassium, as it can be very harmful on the organs.

Pure carrot juice is a very low calorie juice drink. Eight fluid ounces of the beverage yields usually no more then 80 calories. Carrot juice is an excellent nutritional supplement for dieters, providing you with a rich supply of essential vitamins and minerals, without being accompanied by all of the calories that a health shake might give you. For athletes and weightlifters, the calorie level of carrot juice can be upped by blending it with fruit yogurt, milk, ice cream, or a protein powder supplement. I have even heard of people blending the juice with rolled oats, cereal, or boiled rice to dramatically increase the calorie and nutritional levels.

Pure carrot juice in an eight ounce serving can provide up to 6% percent of your daily recommended intake level of calcium. It is very important to receive a healthy level of calcium in your daily diet. Bones and teeth are dependent on calcium for growth and formation, especially the skeletal structure and development of children. Calcium absorption should also be accompanied by vitamin D, which helps aid your body's intake of the mineral. Like potassium, calcium is important for neurotransmission, and muscle movement and contraction. Carrots juiced with broccoli can provide an excellent vegetable calcium drink. For a calcium shake, you may also choose to juice your carrots and then blend it with yogurt for a carrot juice smoothie, which makes for a healthy breakfast shake, or evening dessert.