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Podcast Episode 19 – Eat More Fiber

Oatmeal and Fiber

We need at least 40 grams of fiber. The more the better. But 97% of Americans do not even eat 40 grams. In today’s podcast, we dive more in-depth into how and why we should be eating more fiber. We also list 10 high-fiber foods that can easily be incorporated into our diets. This episode is a spin-off of the Video, “3 Major Reasons to Add More Fiber | Improve Your Health This New Year!” (The video link is listed below in the show notes.)

We want to come alongside you, as well, as we all continue moving toward a positive direction to support our healthy lifestyles. If there are any specific ways that we can be of assistance, please contact us through our contact form or send a verbal message through Speakpipe.

OTHER WAYS TO SUBSCRIBE AND LISTEN:
iTunes Logo Breaker Logo Google Podcasts Logo OverCast Podcasts Logo Pocket Casts Logo Radio Public Podcasts Logo Spotify Logo RSS Feed Logo Anchor

We invite you to listen and share your perspectives with us too. Send us a recorded message through Speakpipe. We may use your message in an upcoming episode, therefore, please leave your name if you would like it to be noted during the podcast. Leave an email address if you would like a personal response or feel free to use the contact form.

EAT MORE FIBER (Show Notes)

  1. Some content for this podcast was compiled from Shonda’s “take-aways” of this online interview by PCRM: https://youtu.be/qIY1TQIH0jc?t=1060
  2. Dr. Will Bulsiewicz | The Gut Health MD
  3. “Results from a meta-analysis of 13 case–control studies have suggested that increased dietary fiber intake is associated with decreased risk of colorectal cancer” https://academic.oup.com/jnci/article/93/7/525/2906521
  4. 3 Major Reasons to Add More Fiber | Improve Your Health This New Year! (YouTube Video)

Recipes Loaded with Fiber:

Spinach and Artichoke Dip

Oatmeal Options

Oatmeal Bars with Berries and Seeds

Black Bean Stuffed Sweet Potato

Chickpea Salad Spread

Chickpea Tortillas (Make gluten-free tortillas using chickpeas)

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

US Dietary Guidelines
https://www.dietaryguidelines.gov/sites/default/files/2020-12/Dietary_Guidelines_for_Americans_2020-2025.pdf

Fight COVID-19 with Food Tuesday, Jan. 19 – Tuesday, March 9, 2021, 4-5 p.m. ET (1-2 p.m. PT) Weekly on Tuesdays with class recordings available on-demand for registrants https://www.pcrm.org/nutritionclass

Links to the G-Bombs series (which also includes some recipe videos):

[00:00:00] Shonda: Hey today, we're talking about fiber. Back in December, well, on December 31st, or just about, I released a video. It was titled three reasons why you should add fiber to your diet and make it your new year's resolution. I thought that adding fiber was the most important thing that you could do to help your health. So that's why I chose that as a new year's resolution to give you some good ideas. Because 97% of Americans do not get enough fiber.
[00:00:39] (Music & Introduction)
[00:01:37] Shonda: 97% of Americans do not get enough fiber.
[00:01:41] Patryce: That's unbelievable.
[00:01:42] Shonda: Yeah, that is. And we're supposed to get at least 40 grams of fiber per day. And it's really not difficult to do, especially if we're eating lots of plant foods.
[00:01:56] Patryce: That's true.
[00:01:57] Shonda: Yeah. So there's a lot reasons to do so, but I'm gonna repeat the same ones that I discussed in the video that you can refer to, but hopefully we can get a little bit, even more in depth here in our discussion.
[00:02:15] So one reason. That I gave for increasing fiber is to increase longevity . Well, okay. I eat more fiber. I live longer, but why? But the reason is because we know that the top diseases that result in death are cancer, especially colon cancer, heart attack, stroke, and diabetes. They are very high causes of death here in America where we live.
[00:02:52] But still further, you know, avoiding cancer, how ? And so I looked into that a little bit further and, it's by improving the intestinal transit of food and waste. So fiber cleans up our intestines.
[00:03:07] It grabs toxins. So it's helping grab those toxins and get them out of our body. So it's not just staying there in our blood system . We want to have fresh new blood and chemistry to work with.
[00:03:20] So fiber helps your body by eliminating carcinogens because carcinogens are toxins or toxins are carcinogens. So that's how we can avoid cancer by eating more fiber.
[00:03:36] I saw this post and it said that a meta analysis published in the journal of the national cancer Institute examined 13 studies and found that the risk of colorectal cancer decreased as fiber intake increased.
[00:03:52] Patryce: Mm. So, Good information.
[00:03:56] Right? Yeah. We're hearing more and more about colon cancer. Yes. In light of the recent passing of the actor Chadwick Boseman.
[00:04:07]Yes. That's really been highlighting what we need to know, some of the risk factors. As well as some signs, but that is one of those diseases that you often don't find out you have it in until it's more far gone.
[00:04:22] Right? So this is important to know that fiber can be part of our preventative medicine.
[00:04:30] Shonda: And you're going to talk later about the foods, but I'm just thinking and fiber tastes so good. You know, I just enjoy eating plants and fiber .
[00:04:38] So another that I mentioned earlier was diabetes.
[00:04:41]So in cases of diabetes, fiber helps by keeping blood sugar levels steady. And helping you keep a healthy weight that may even prevent diabetes altogether.
[00:04:59] Patryce: That's important. Yes. As that is another thing, not only in America are more people having diabetes, but worldwide.
[00:05:09] Yeah, I know in Asia it's become something very much on their radar as a country in Singapore. And they're taking steps to help the public not take in as much sugar through their consumption of fast foods. Yeah.
[00:05:24] Shonda: Fast foods is definitely the culprit with a high sugar, fat, but low fiber fiber. Right.
[00:05:35] Okay, so I'm going to go ahead and move on to reason number two that I talked about in the video . High fiber foods feed the healthy bacteria that improve immune function, reduce inflammation and chronic disease and even help elevate mood. And that is important because certain fibers are prebiotic foods that help us produce healthy gut bacteria. And that too sort of explains how we're getting rid of the toxins and things like that.
[00:06:07] But we're getting more specific. It's the prebiotics, which produce the probiotics . It's just like building upon itself, you know . It's removing toxins while the prebiotic fiber is producing probiotics that we know that we hear about all the time. You know, take your probiotics, take your probiotics.
[00:06:27] Well, The Gut Health MD always talks about get your prebiotics and you're feeding your probiotic bacteria by filling up on the prebiotics.
[00:06:42]Patryce: What about those probiotics that you see marketed all the time? The pills and some of them are refrigerated. Some not. You're saying focus more on, on getting your prebiotics?
[00:06:51] Shonda: You should focus more on getting your prebiotic foods.
[00:06:55]So that's why it's important to get all the prebiotic foods and Patryce is going to be discussing what those prebiotic foods are in just a bit.
[00:07:07]So the third reason I mentioned in the video, just getting more specific, is that eating high fiber produces these short chain fatty acids.
[00:07:20] And I think they are just like, the winners , the key or the prize that you get from eating your fiber. Okay. This is what helped to convince me to eat fiber. Although I was dealing with IBS. And, you know, with IBS, certain fibers just really put your stomach in like a crazy state, you know, the bloating and the pain and all these things because your body is not accustomed to all this fiber.
[00:07:54] So my body had to relearn how to adjust to fiber is really what was happening.
[00:08:01] Patryce: Interesting. Interesting.
[00:08:04] Shonda: And so when I learned about short chain, fatty acids, specifically butyrate, which is a short chain fatty acid. That was one that I was like, okay, science says this. I am going to give it a try. You know, I was always my own Guinea pig.
[00:08:23]Short chain, fatty acids help with inflammatory bowel disease, IBS , acid reflux and several other gut disorders. Okay. So that's why this helped me. And it really does help guys. Listen to this. If you have any of these issues, just take it really slowly. And eventually you will reap the benefits of doing this . Because this specific one , butyrate, it repairs leaky gut it. So it helps with the integrity of your gut lining. I mean, I even heard about leaky gut 10 years ago when I was diagnosed with it, you know, you have leaky gut and this and this and that, and they were trying to give me all these supplements and these different things, but, you know, I mean, all I had to do was boost up my fiber and let my body heal. And so that's what we're all talking about is we're talking about supporting our health with real food and letting real food and the nutrition that we get from it help our bodies heal.
[00:09:31]The only other thing I wanted to add on when we have leaky gut, there's a disruption in the gut brain barrier. When I had leaky gut I experienced a lot of brain fog. And that's like all these toxins transferring over into your blood and you know, your blood's going through your brain. The gut disruption in the gut brain barrier is linked to Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, and many auto-immune diseases and including ADHD.
[00:10:04] Oh, so that's what studies are showing now. I mean, it's been proven, it's been studied. Leaky gut, or disruption in the gut brain barrier leads to these diseases. So that was my takeaway from when I found out about fiber. And that's why I wanted to share it with everyone.
[00:10:26] It's such an amazing thing. It's such a beautiful thing. And that's the thing that I hope to spread to everyone within our hearing. That they will hear this and believe this and be empowered to do this.
[00:10:39]Patryce: How encouraging.
[00:10:40] That's very encouraging that our body can heal with the foods that we choose to eat.
[00:10:45] So glad that we are sharing this. Like you said, people take it to heart and it doesn't hurt to give this a try. Eat more fiber.
[00:10:57] And with that said, we have some foods to share with you to meet that goal of eating more fiber.
[00:11:05] Shonda: Okay, good. I'm excited to hear about those. See if there's anything else I need to add.
[00:11:10] Patryce: Well, I will say all the foods I was familiar with, but there were one or two where I didn't realize that they had so much fiber. And so of the 10 that I'm mentioning today. Begin with raspberries. Okay. Berries have a lot of fiber, but raspberries seemed to have the most fiber of all the berries.
[00:11:33] So raspberries, for example, have nine grams of fiber per cup.
[00:11:39] Wow. Okay. Oh, and yeah. And our goal is 40. Okay. So that's almost a fourth there already.
[00:11:49] Yeah, that's exciting. And, and of course, you know what, the berries, you also get the vitamin C, but not to say that the strawberries, blueberries and all those others aren't excellent berries.
[00:12:00]Then we move on to black beans. Black beans have eight, about eight grams for about one third cup.
[00:12:12] Shonda: Wow. Okay. You said eight, for a third. Yes. So anyone eating a cup of beans is already halfway there.
[00:12:22] Patryce: Exciting.
[00:12:23] And with that, I do want to mention, you're also getting in your protein because we know black beans or beans are just high in protein.
[00:12:31] And I don't want to forget to mention, we've talked about, and you can go look at our past podcasts about the GBOMBS. Because GBOMBS include what?
[00:12:45] Shonda: Include beans? Yes.
[00:12:48] Patryce: And then number three, I just didn't realize avocados had so much in the way of fiber and they do, they have about seven grams of fiber for a whole avocado. That's pretty exciting because we know we can eat them sliced, diced, and put them on top of foods, salads or potato, or we can eat them in our smoothies. I know we've done a lot of smoothies with mango, avocado, spinach... whatever the combination. Smoothies are made even creamier with an avocado added.
[00:13:22] Shonda: Yeah, that sounds good. Okay. What else you got?
[00:13:27] Patryce: I have number four...artichokes now that's the one I didn't realize had as much fiber.
[00:13:34]Maybe because I just don't eat them as much. I love them, but I don't really eat them as much as I probably will going forward because they have about six grams of fiber per cup.
[00:13:46]Shonda: Per cup. Okay. And artichokes also are prebiotic . Ah, yeah. And, and for those interested, there is a link to an artichoke spinach recipe. And also we have a video available, so be sure to check those out.
[00:14:07] Patryce: That's exciting. Yeah, that's exciting because I used to love that dip, the old dip, but I'm not into dairy anymore. So I'm looking forward to trying out your recipe and then also realizing that artichokes have a lot of potassium as well.
[00:14:23] I didn't realize that. I just wanted to add that. So you're getting fiber and potassium with your artichokes.
[00:14:29] And then we have coming in fifth, lentils. And of course at eight grams per half a cup, gosh, you can get 16 grams of fiber with just one cup of lentils.
[00:14:43] And I can eat that in a day. Eating lentil soup or stew, what have you. It's exciting stuff.
[00:14:50] Shonda: Right? Right. Let's just think about what we've talked about already. You talked about some berries, artichokes and two different kinds of beans, really so far. But if we eat those in a serving size, we're almost at 40 grams. We are already.
[00:15:09]We're about halfway there.
[00:15:11]Patryce: So we're halfway through the list and almost halfway there.
[00:15:14] And I'm sure when you hear the other half of this list, folks will see that it's very easy to get in the recommended 40 grams because the next item listed are sweet potatoes. Yes. At five grams of fiber per a medium-sized sweet potato, apparently. Yeah. And then right after the sweet potatoes. You have whole wheat pasta for those who really liked our pastas and maybe you're putting some beans and other things with the pasta. But the pasta alone, for a half a cup serving, you're getting about seven grams of fiber.
[00:15:54] Shonda: And we know everyone eats more than half a cup of pasta.
[00:15:57] Patryce: Well, yeah, you're right about that. So you can really pack it in with the pasta. You're right. Probably easily a cup of pasta. So you're at 14 grams with just your pasta and then you have chickpeas and another bean six grams of fiber for half a cup there. Yeah.
[00:16:17] And what was interesting? The next item is oatmeal. Now, before I did this research, I just assume oatmeal would have been like one of the top. Okay. Oh no, it's still great. You get five grams for a half a cup, but I realized now I can go to some of these other foods and get just as much if not more fiber.
[00:16:38] Shonda: Yeah. Okay.
[00:16:41] Patryce: And the last thing on the list of the 10 were green peas with about two-thirds cup of green peas you're getting about six grams of fiber.
[00:16:53] Shonda: How many cups?
[00:16:54] Patryce: Just two-thirds cup.
[00:16:56] Shonda: And we know a lot of people like green peas. That's one of the first foods that we have when we're toddlers, right?
[00:17:04] Patryce: Yes, you're right. That's one of the first ones to be introduced the little ones too.
[00:17:08] But you know what, it's just funny. Many of us, if not, all of us have heard of the saying "an Apple a day keeps the doctor away." The truth is that is healthy because apples have fiber too. They weren't on my list.
[00:17:22] Shonda: Yeah, all these other foods, right, had more fiber than the apple.
[00:17:27] Patryce: True. True. So that's exciting that after hearing about the benefits of adding more fiber to your diet, we see how easily it can be done.
[00:17:38] Shonda: Yeah. It can really be. An easy thing to do.
[00:17:41]I thought maybe when you were talking about oatmeal, did you have more to say about oatmeal? Because I remember someone who had high cholesterol told me that he put oatmeal daily in his diet and his cholesterol went way down or maybe even down to normal.
[00:18:01] So
[00:18:03] Patryce: I, I don't have anything about that. But now that you shared that I've heard similar stories over and over again, over the years, about people who have chronic diseases or cholesterol and just other issues. And they find incorporating oatmeal daily has been awesome. So there must be something to that oatmeal.
[00:18:28]Shonda: Yeah. You know, I push oatmeal for breakfast. It's just the easiest thing. I eat it every day. I mean, I rarely go away from oatmeal during the week.
[00:18:39] Yeah. you can add your raspberries to the oatmeal, you know, other fruits and just, yeah. Nuts and seeds and yeah. So oatmeal is just a wonderful thing. But I hope you all are, are being encouraged that you can easily, so easily increase your fiber intake by eating more fruits. ,vegetables and beans. Yeah. I think they're like the top of the list. Fruits, vegetables, and beans. Well, yeah, fruits and beans, maybe, maybe really at the top.
[00:19:18] Patryce: Definitely fruits and beans are at the top. You're right about that.
[00:19:22] You know what? Part of being a human being is elimination. Okay. Whatever you want to call it. And I have been surprised, well, more and more people I've discovered over the years. Somehow it comes up about constipation.
[00:19:37] Shonda: Yeah. Well, we can't get rid of our toxins and our carcinogens and the fiber is helping that.
[00:19:44] I mean, it's not just grabbing it and going nowhere. We have to eliminate it. Right. We have to get it out. So we cannot be constipated. We need the fiber to help us. Eliminate the toxins yeah. So it, it, I mean, it, it all works together. You know, it works out. We eat the fiber, it grabs the toxins and then it brings it out of our body.
[00:20:09] Patryce: Well, I just want to throw that in there because I want to promote that this is a natural way, instead of so many of the go-to over the counter recommendations... why not just increase your fiber intake first?
[00:20:25] Shonda: Yeah, exactly. Very agreeable.
[00:20:30]Oh, so we did not talk about one last thing we want to add to that is about how fiber fills us up.
[00:20:39] Patryce: Yeah. I thought we talked about that, but yeah. And when you spoke about the oatmeal, which I know you love, it definitely fills you up.
[00:20:48] So for, for anyone trying to not overeat, that is a great way to start your day. Start your day with your own way of doing oatmeal, like customize it. Like Shonda has said so many times you can do what ever with your oatmeal. You can add berries, and nuts and seeds, and other fruits too. Yeah. So when you're trying to maintain a healthy weight, and feel satisfied, without eating a lot of food start off with oatmeal. And maybe , maybe you already gone through the day and you're just very hungry and it's closer to dinner time. I'm one of those people where I don't have to eat certain foods certain times of the day.
[00:21:33] So I think it's fine to have oatmeal for your evening .
[00:21:37]Shonda: It sure is. Yeah. So, yeah.
[00:21:42]Patryce: Wow. This is all good. So I hope that more people will eat more fiber and tell more people to eat more fiber.
[00:21:54]Anything else to share about fiber, Shonda?
[00:21:56] Shonda: No, I think that's it, but we can just summarize it by saying the goal is 40 grams of fiber per day. And there are a lot of apps that will allow you to track that. Track your fiber intake to actually see how much you're getting. To make sure you are meeting those 40 grams per day. ' And if you're not, that means that you're not eating enough plant foods.
[00:22:23] Patryce: Great. Well, that's a great suggestion . And again, as Shonda said, there's a wonderful challenge to start this year, eating more fiber.
[00:22:34] Shonda: Yeah, that was definitely I guess, a challenge. And I'll also put a lot of other links of recipes and YouTube videos that can help increase your plant-based foods.
[00:22:49]All right. So until next week eat more fiber. Yes. And we'll check in on you.

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Podcast Episode 18 – Health Concerns About Dairy

Almond Milk

Wondering what health concerns there are surrounding dairy? If so, then the facts that we discuss regarding dairy are sure to interest you. We share some of our personal experiences while discussing a fact sheet that was released by The Physician’s Committee for Responsible Medicine. (See below for the link to download this document.)

We hope to share helpful and healthful information, especially during these times of COVID. Let’s make sure that we have a robust immune system and then share that knowledge with others.

We want to come alongside you, as well, as we all continue moving toward a positive direction to support our healthy lifestyles. If there are any specific ways that we can be of assistance, please contact us through our contact form or send a verbal message through Speakpipe.

OTHER WAYS TO SUBSCRIBE AND LISTEN:
iTunes Logo Breaker Logo Google Podcasts Logo OverCast Podcasts Logo Pocket Casts Logo Radio Public Podcasts Logo Spotify Logo RSS Feed Logo Anchor

We invite you to listen and share your perspectives with us too. Send us a recorded message through Speakpipe. We may use your message in an upcoming episode, therefore, please leave your name if you would like it to be noted during the podcast. Leave an email address if you would like a personal response or feel free to use the contact form.

If you haven’t done so already, download the Delicious “No-Fail” Salads Guide – another great way to eat those GREENS!

The Factsheet – Health Concerns About Dairy https://p.widencdn.net/mwhzyu/Health-Concerns-About-Dairy-Fact-Sheet

US Dietary Guidelines
https://www.dietaryguidelines.gov/sites/default/files/2020-12/Dietary_Guidelines_for_Americans_2020-2025.pdf

Fight COVID-19 with Food Tuesday, Jan. 19 – Tuesday, March 9, 2021, 4-5 p.m. ET (1-2 p.m. PT) Weekly on Tuesdays with class recordings available on-demand for registrants https://www.pcrm.org/nutritionclass

Links to the G-Bombs series (which also includes some recipe videos):

audio_only
Shonda: Hi, Patryce.
[00:00:02] Patryce: Hi, Shonda.
[00:00:04] Shonda: I know that, you know, dairy's been on our mind a while, right, to talk about? And we both pretty much given up. I've totally given up that dairy. And you're just about there, there, or
[00:00:17] Patryce: 99.5.
[00:00:19]Shonda: Okay. And so there's a reason for that. Right? We recognize that it was caused an issues in us.
[00:00:25] We recognized how it made us feel, you know, not that we had really began to have any of these Issues or conditions that it can also produce, but, you know, we just recognized it right from the beginning. So I'll just say my recognition was I had seasonal allergies, mostly in the fall. I could not be around any kind of dry grass at all.
[00:00:52] And it was really horrible. I mean, You know, a 15- minute exposure and I couldn't see out of my eyes, you know, they were so watery and I was coughing and congested. I mean, I would just have a real reaction, you know, and not just going out, sitting on a haystack, I just couldn't walk outside.
[00:01:11]You know, what I began to hear a lot of is that , your body isn't in optimal condition or like Dr. Baxter Montgomery says is you have a low functioning immune system. So that's why you can't go outdoors.
[00:01:25] I mean, people have been going outdoors for as long as we've been on this earth. Right. Now, all of these things are getting worse and worse. The pollen has been there, but you know, we're calling it out like, oh, that bad pollen, you know, the pollen, isn't the issue.
[00:01:40] The pollen has a job to do, you know, in nature. Right? So it has to happen, but , we have to make sure that our internal body systems are functioning so that we can continue to enjoy nature as Go d planned it for us . So that was the one that was my first thing. I was like, no, there's something wrong with me.
[00:02:03] You know, it's not nature, there's something wrong with me. So what do I need to do? How can I improve my immune system? I knew I already had problems with wheat because I would almost have immediate reactions with it. And I was just hearing wheat and dairy, they kind of go together, you know, you kind of want to get rid of both of these things.
[00:02:21] And so I had already let the wheat go, you know, years before that. And then, so I was like, okay, this dairy thing. Cause I grew up eating and drinking a lot of milk and cheeses and things like that. Yeah, you too, right?
[00:02:35] So really what happened was one spring, I was having issues with the pollen. I had never had issues with pollen before. And I was like, Oh no, I can't do this. Spring is my favorite time of the year. Fall, you know, it's cold I'll stay inside no problem. Spring I want to get outdoors. And that was the first time I ever had problems.
[00:02:56] And I was like, no. And so I stopped the dairy and I don't know if it was immediate or what, but I know that by that next fall, I did not have any issues. I had had this all my life.
[00:03:09] Patryce: Wow. That's awesome.
[00:03:11] Shonda: You know, this is a problem that I can remember having, and it was just getting worse and worse.
[00:03:18] That's, that's why I've given up on dairy and reading over this fact sheet. Did we say what fact sheet it was yet that we're going to discuss? .
[00:03:28] Patryce: No we sure didn't, but it's the health concerns about dairy by the physicians committee for responsible medicine. Excellent information.
[00:03:39] Shonda: Okay. Yeah. So we found this and we both looked over it and we just want to go through the points here and hopefully that you will take a look too.
[00:03:48] We're going to link it in the show notes. I didn't realize all these other benefits that were things that I could be avoiding by giving up dairy. So I've done enough talking right now.
[00:04:01]Patryce: Hey, I have to say, I, I understand and relate to so much of what you said, and, and it's great that we're talking about this. I just want to say I understand or recognize everything you're talking about because in America, a lot of people consume a lot of dairy products and like you, I grew up eating and enjoying ice cream, milk and cheese.
[00:04:28] I mean, that's like the American way it seems. But this article, really help cement for me why I have given up dairy as well.
[00:04:36]I just wanted to start with the MythBuster. That the only way we can get our calcium is through dairy. That's not true. And we do need calcium and oftentimes the dairy products are advertised as being where you can find your calcium.
[00:04:55] Because calcium is an important mineral, but there are other ways to get our calcium. And I think that's what we're going to end up talking about, but just to begin with calcium is a mineral and it helps to keep bones strong. That's one thing we hear all the time and that is true. It is essential to bone health.
[00:05:17] And one thing that the article pointed out pretty early on, is that even if you're consuming calcium, you have a diminished return on how much calcium you consume. Meaning for example, you might consume a thousand milligrams of calcium, but really the body only needs 600 milligrams of calcium per day.
[00:05:41] And so we can achieve that amount of calcium in our diets without any dairy products. Or supplements if we are intentional about the other foods that we eat. And I think we'll talk a little more about foods. Well, I can talk about right now. One of the main foods are greens and we've talked a little about that or a lot about that in other podcasts about the different greens. Kale, broccoli, and other greens that are high in vitamin K as well as calcium.
[00:06:13] Shonda: Okay. So that is a great MythBuster.
[00:06:17]Yeah. Okay. So another thing it did talk about also under bone health was vitamin D.
[00:06:26] Okay. So I've found it interesting. I highlighted in 2005 review published in the journal of pediatrics shows that drinking milk does not improve bone strength in children. And also in a more recent study researchers track the diets, exercise and stress fractures rates of young girls for seven years and concluded that dairy products and calcium do not prevent stress fractures in adolescent girls. So, yeah, there's proof. I mean, they did prove that it didn't have an effect on that. So, okay. Let's go ahead and talk about vitamin D. Okay. So yeah. Vitamin D we know is necessary for bone health, and let's not forget to talk about it's also healthy for building your immune system.
[00:07:23] Patryce: It is.
[00:07:24]Shonda: In fighting against COVID-19 or certain seasons as we are in.
[00:07:29] But I found here that it says milk does not naturally contain vitamin D. And you know, I think we grow up thinking. Right.
[00:07:41] Patryce: I did, I did vitamin D I've gotta drink, my milk to get my vitamin D. That's how I used to think. It's just
[00:07:50] Shonda: It's just an added thing. And it's artificial pretty much.
[00:07:55] I mean because we're supposed to naturally get vitamin D from the sunlight.
[00:08:01] Patryce: Yeah. And did you realize, I mean, the article highlighted that too, that it's only five to 15 minutes of midday, sun exposure that we really need to meet our vitamin D needs.
[00:08:12] Shonda: Yeah. Yeah. That's why I'm committed even though it's cold here. You know, it was probably not as cold as we're some are. I do not like the cold, but I am committed to every day that there is sun. I am going on a 20 minute walk.
[00:08:27] Patryce: That's a great, that's a great goal.
[00:08:29] Shonda: Yeah. So it doesn't take much five to 15 minutes a day. And. Just get out there and get it. And it feels so good. Right?
[00:08:39] Patryce: It does it feels invigorating and it just makes you feel alive. Yeah. That's sunlight. Yep.
[00:08:48]Quickly, it did also mention right before the vitamin D that.
[00:08:53] Healthy bones need more than just calcium. For example, they also need vitamin K, which is also important to bone health, but most dairy products contain very little of this vitamin K, but guess what does contain vitamin K? Greens! Very much so. Yes. The greens like kale and broccoli are very beneficial to your bones because they have both calcium and vitamin K
[00:09:21]Shonda: Okay. So other ways to protect your bones. They talked about eating less salt. There's a reference here and we didn't go to the reference, but it is here and everyone can read it.
[00:09:34]Eating more fruits and vegetables and ensuring adequate calcium intake from plant foods. Again, such as kale, broccoli, and other leafy greens, vegetables and beans. And beans. Yeah. I know beans have a high amount of calcium also. What else was there? Oh, exercise. Well, I just kind of mentioned that, so that 20 minute walk is not only getting sun exposure, but also help being to strengthen my bones as I walk.
[00:10:01] Patryce: That's a very good point to make. And not only we as the adults, but let's make sure we get our children out there as well as, especially these days. So many of the kids, and I understand they're on electronics and oftentimes it's a requirement almost now with schoolwork, but they too need to be out for the vitamin D.
[00:10:23]From the sunlight, but also for their bones, just being out there and exercising.
[00:10:29] Shonda: Yeah. Let them turn some cartwheels. They'll get their arms in the action too. True. And so, yeah, , I'm thinking about like what we used to do when we were kids. I know it's really different now, but we just need to instill some of those things, like you say, back into our children these days.
[00:10:46] Patryce: For sure.
[00:10:47] Shonda: Yeah. Okay, so let's move on.
[00:10:49] Let's talk about the fat content and heart disease.
[00:10:53] Patryce: Wow. This was one of the reasons why I was deciding not to do dairy among other things. I really liked ice cream and the more indulgent, the Ben and Jerry's, the more flavor, the more nuts and stuff in it, the better tasting, but it wasn't better for me.
[00:11:11] But yeah, I did not realize not just the fat. Which there was a lot of it, but there's a lot of sugar in it, too, where I'm going a little off course here, but definitely a lot of fat and not just in the ice cream I liked, but like they listed in the article cheese, milk, butter, and a lot of these yogurts, they have fat, you can get some low fat ones, but those again, have a lot of the sugar in there.
[00:11:35] Yeah, definitely. And let's not forget that when they're animal based it contains cholesterol, which is you know, and these things can increase the risk of heart disease and stroke. So that's something to consider,
[00:11:50]That is so true. And then on the flip side, the low fat plant-based diet, which eliminates dairy products in combination with exercise smoking and not smoking and managing our stress can help prevent heart disease and may even reverse it.
[00:12:09]Shonda: Yeah. And so, but we're not asking you to give up, you know, desserts there's plant-based desserts that of course you can buy if you're just starting in here and I like to make a banana ice cream and just put a frozen banana in a blender with, you know, even some little sweetener or a date or something and you have a nice treat, just like ice cream.
[00:12:36] Patryce: That's a great idea. And you're, you're right about those dates. I just I was sharing with my cousin. She's only nine years old, but I was seeing this grain-free granola made with dates and nuts and it has some chocolate and I said, Oh, you want to try it? She said, sure. And she kept asking for more. Can I have more chocolate?
[00:12:55] Never told her it was dates in there.
[00:12:58] Shonda: Well, that's good.
[00:12:59] Patryce: Yeah. Really enjoyed it.
[00:13:01] Shonda: Yeah. That's great. Okay. So you want to move on to next section?
[00:13:07]Patryce: Yeah, cancer. It said that the consumption of dairy products has also been linked to higher risk for various cancers, especially those cancers related to the reproductive system.
[00:13:19] So that's another reason to just take it off your list. Just don't eat it.
[00:13:25] Shonda: And we were talking about prostate cancer, which we know is rising even more and then there's breast cancer, ovarian cancer. You know, these are all the reproductive system cancers and dairy is contributing to that.
[00:13:41]You know, I saw how some of the yogurts have like the Susan Komen thing on there.
[00:13:48] Patryce: That that's almost misleading.
[00:13:51] Right. Yeah. A lot of it is, but, you know
[00:13:55] But is it any more misleading than growing up thinking that the only way I can get my vitamin D for my strong bones is to drink some milk. It's just the same kind of irresponsibility.
[00:14:09] Shonda: Yeah, I agree. Okay. So, was there anything else we wanted to mention about the cancers?
[00:14:18] Patryce: Oh yeah. About the studies. Remember the studies, there was one with over 1800 ladies. 1,893. Women were diagnosed with early stage breast cancer and it revealed that they had been eating more high fat dairy products. And that's a very telling fact there. Yeah. Wow. And then a second large study of 1,941 women found that women who consumed the highest amounts of cheddar,.
[00:14:47] American and cream cheeses had a 53% higher risk for breast cancer. That blew me away. Yeah. That's I know so many women like myself before I did away with dairy. I ate cheddar cheese all the time and I liked cream cheese. What do you call it? That dessert? Cheese cake. Oh, wow. I really enjoyed myself some cheesecake, but yeah, reading this I'm like, wow, that was not good.
[00:15:18] And then the grilled cheese sandwiches too, I was just all about the cheddar, all about the cheese and all about the dairy.
[00:15:25] Shonda: Oh well, but it's a good thing that you've learned now, what you've learned, you know, and. So I'm proud of you because, you know, I mean, I know you told me you had a little bit of like, maybe some mucus formation sometimes when you would eat dairy, but you know, it wasn't obvious and you really had to make the decision that I'm going to stop this because I'm learning these things and I want to better my health. So.
[00:15:53] Patryce: That is so true. And I have to put in that plug or just for women out there the dairy products, if you're having monthly cramps that seem especially uncomfortable, you may want to experiment with no dairy, at least that time of the month.
[00:16:11] I've noticed a great reduction in menstrual cramps.
[00:16:15]Shonda: Well, it talks about how it promotes, you know, things going wrong and possibly cancer with the reproductive system. So that's definitely a factor. Okay. So yeah, reminder, we will link this document. It's about a four page document, I believe, and five with the extra notes or so.
[00:16:37]But for now, we'll just carry on and talk about what else is in there. So let's move on to lactose intolerance.
[00:16:44] Patryce: Yeah. A lot of people are lactose intolerant, aren't they? Yeah. They broke it down according to ethnicities 95% of the Asian American 74% of the native Americans and 70% of African-Americans 53% of of Mexican-Americans and 15% of Caucasians are lactose intolerant.
[00:17:06] I found this very interesting having lived in Asia for just a little while, but until recent times, I mean, back in even the nineties, you were hard pressed to find pizza places and ice cream places. They just didn't have a lot of dairy in their diet.
[00:17:22] Shonda: Yes. Yeah. I think, you know, that's something to talk about here is that most cultures did not have a lot of dairy, you know, or were more plant-based than we are, you know, animal-based these days. And it's just because we're producing them too much. And, you know, just because everyone wants it. But naturally you know, naturally no one ate this much of animal-based products and naturally is just not sustainable.
[00:17:57]Okay. So, yeah, but I mean, that is very interesting lactose intolerance. But you know, the part that gets me upset and I have to say it really does get me upset is that the dairy industry said, well, Hey. you have lactose intolerance? We'll just remove the lactose. You can still drink your milk without any problems. So you don't have that trigger that's saying, Oh, I have an upset stomach. I can't drink the milk, but it's just kind of going down more smoothly because they added a lactase enzyme in order to help digest it . And so, yeah, I'm angry about that because that's just so misleading. It's like, well, let's just take away this little part that everyone notices and they'll just continue to drink the milk. That's deceiving.
[00:18:46]Patryce: It's like masking the symptoms and not getting to the root cause that dairy in itself is just not what we're made to really take a lot of in, if any. I think we may be the only mammals that persist on having milk after the weaning period.
[00:19:04] Shonda: Yeah. And it says that children, nursing children make the enzymes to break down the lactose, but as we grow up, we lose it. I mean, it's only meant for that purpose because you cannot eat solid foods. So let's replace it with the solid food, right?
[00:19:21] Patryce: Yeah. That's a good point. I do think that what you just brought up about the, the advertising again, that's a very big issue throughout the food industry. False or misleading advertising.
[00:19:35]Shonda: So next, it talks about all the other additional contaminants in milk that most people don't even know about because, you know, I think some people, if they do take the time to read the label and it's not listed on there, they believe it doesn't exist. I've never seen antibiotics listed on the milk, but undeniably it is in the milk.
[00:20:01] Patryce: I haven't seen it listed either, but I'm sure it is because they are given to the cows that the milk is taken from.
[00:20:08] Shonda: Yeah. So that is passed into their body fluids and it's comes right out into the milk. Right. So antibiotics is something that we want to avoid consuming through our food.
[00:20:26]So antibiotics is a reason to avoid milk.
[00:20:31]Patryce: About the hormones. Did we already mention that?
[00:20:34] Shonda: No, we haven't. There's a lot in the, in the contaminant section.
[00:20:37] Patryce: Oh, yes. The hormones that they give to the animals, then get transferred to the milk that we eventually start drinking. And especially for the kids drinking it.I have known for years now about children going into adolescence at a much earlier rate. And at first I only learned from our friends and relatives about the young ladies, you know, now starting their cycles as young as nine . 10 being very common .
[00:21:07] Shonda: We know that's not natural.
[00:21:10] Patryce: Yeah, but even the young men, even the boys, I had a friend whose son, he was just some of these signs and she was just trying to figure out what's going on. He was only nine or 10, a young young boy, and it turned out the doctor said it was puberty coming on early. And I do recall that from that day on, she started getting the organic milk because if you're persisting on drinking milk, at least you're getting milk that should not have these hormones included.
[00:21:39] Shonda: Yeah. That growth hormone
[00:21:41]Patryce: I think that's a real issue though.
[00:21:43] Shonda: That is so true. And , you know, even if you take a vaccine, there's a little warning that comes along with that. I think there should be a little warning that comes along with milk drinking too. I've never thought about it like that Shonda. But I think that could be a good point.
[00:21:59] Patryce: And, and I don't know how far reaching I'm going with the hormones, but there are a lot of people Getting pregnant is a challenge in fertility or just fertility issues. And now I'm thinking, could this have played into it to a certain degree too? I just don't know what all these hormones can do.
[00:22:16] Shonda: I would think so, but it's not just hormones. Look, look further. There's pesticides. And, and the PCBs, you know, the things from the plastics, the things that the milk is stored in, there are just so many contaminants which are really toxins that build up in our body over time.
[00:22:35] Patryce: And it can't be good.
[00:22:36] Shonda: Yeah, and it does say here eventually this can harm immune, reproductive and nervous systems.
[00:22:43] Patryce: Wow I missed that part, but not just the reproductive and immune, but the nervous systems. And I'm not a doctor at all, but this leads me to wonder if it could even be related to some of our mental health.
[00:22:55] Shonda: Oh, for sure. Because, you know, cholesterol and fat blocks our arteries and that's known now to be a big factor in mental health. But yeah, toxins, brain fog, messing with your brain, you know. And that's why we want to bring this to our audiences attention is this there's just so much out there. And we want to make sure that we eat as clean of foods as we can. And even if we cannot buy organic, we can avoid a lot of things by avoiding certain foods that are more likely to have toxins and things in them.
[00:23:34]Patryce: So true is Shonda. And should we not? shouldn't we mentioned. There are a lot of alternatives. We understand that you may miss your milk and I did too. And definitely for making smoothies, I use milk substitutes and I know you did too Shonda, like almond milk or quinoa milk. There are so many. Now I use pea milk made from pea protein.
[00:23:56]But there are so many different alternatives I'd say to your cows milk. These are I would say healthier choices to make, to drink instead of the cows milk. And even with the cheese, I know we still like to eat our nachos. And I have found more and more plant-based nachos.
[00:24:15] I think I had some made from fava beans recently, which was good. And then you have a wonderful recipe. For . Oat, cheese. And then there's also the cashew cheese that I remember your daughter really likes every time I would make that one. She liked that one too. So I really, I need her to taste it, this other one and do a comparison test and let me know which one she likes or prefers.
[00:24:39] I'm sure she'd be glad to do that one day.
[00:24:41]Shonda: So the last thing I wanted to talk about were , there are actually two things here. But, one, it talks about milk proteins and diabetes.
[00:24:51] Patryce: Oh, I missed that.
[00:24:52] Shonda: Yeah. So there's not much here, but it does say that in 2001, there was a Finnish study of nearly 3000 infants with genetically increased risk for developing diabetes showed that early introduction of cow's milk, increased susceptibility to type one diabetes. Wow. And though recently, for the first time they have recommendations that children under one should not drink cow's milk. I'll make sure to list it below.
[00:25:30]Patryce: That's a good thing. That's a good thing.
[00:25:33] Shonda: So are y'all hearing that out there? Hey, if you're not any longer breastfeeding time to introduce some fresh juices and smoothies, and get a real punch of nutrition.
[00:25:44]Patryce: Wouldn't that be amazing to introduce your young child to fresh green juice?
[00:25:49]Shonda: Oh, that would be so great. I wish I could do it all over again.
[00:25:54]Patryce: Oh, I can't believe they've actually done something good.
[00:25:57]Shonda: So. But this is in relation to babies it says that colic is an additional concern with milk consumption. So it says pediatricians learned long ago that cows milk was often the reason.
[00:26:12]Patryce: For colic?
[00:26:14] Yes. That's what this document says. And it has some references here, right?
[00:26:20]Shonda: So even cow's milk proteins can pass through the mother's bloodstream into her breast milk and into the baby causing symptoms and some infants. And I'm sure that was my children's problem right there, because they had a really hard time. So there we go.
[00:26:39]The conclusions are: Milk and dairy products are not necessary in the diet . It's best to consume a healthful diet of whole grains, fruits, vegetables, beans, peas, and lentils, and replace cows milk with non-dairy milks, like almond, soy, or cashew milk. These nutrient dense foods can help you meet your nutritional requirements with ease and without the health risks associated with dairy products.
[00:27:06]Patryce: I'm glad we've taken this opportunity to talk about dairy, because I know in previous podcasts we probably have said here and there, we don't do dairy. Or we've said things that may sound like we're villainized, we're demonizing dairy, or what have you, but this is our opportunity to take time and share why.
[00:27:25] Shonda: Yeah. And, you know, there was another reason that I forgot to mention that dairy products have carrageenan in it and it causes issues for some people and my daughter would have lots of respiratory issues.
[00:27:41] But when she would have the dairy without the carrageenan it wasn't a problem. It was so bad. She was on a nebulizer, from about age two to four.
[00:27:52] Patryce: Wow. That's something else. But also a lot of children have like rashes. I don't know if it's eczema or skin challenges or conditions. And I think sometimes when they've removed them from dairy,
[00:28:06] Shonda: Right. I'm surprised is that it's not listed here, but I'm sure that there's just so many things that it contributes to, that they just couldn't go over everything.
[00:28:16] Patryce: But that was one reason why I went dairy free too, is I just felt like my skin was more congested whenever I had dairy
[00:28:23] Shonda: So, yeah. Well, when we took milk out Leslie and Janelle, had eczema and it went away.
[00:28:30]Patryce: Oh, wow. That's a good, that's a big plug though, because there are a lot of people with eczema and yes, I think there are some natural creams and so forth, but so often when you go to the doctor, the first thing, even for children, they want to prescribe are steroids, which is definitely not natural.
[00:28:48] So if you could just take away the dairy so that there is not the eczema to treat to start with. Yay.
[00:28:55] Shonda: Yes, we need to learn these things so that we can help our children grow healthy, happy, and strong, and not have to deal with all these things like allergies and eczema and, and things.
[00:29:09] So we just invite you all to learn more and you know, continue to meet us back here on This podcast. And we definitely try to put as much notes as we can in the show notes for you. To help you get through all of this information that you may feel that's coming at you
[00:29:30] Patryce: and we're also here. Anytime you have any questions or, or anything you'd like to share, please contact us.

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Podcast Episode 17 – It’s Time to Heal – A Message from Patryce

Healing Nature Image

Perhaps you have realized that it’s time to heal. Have you thought about really taking the time to get to know yourself in 2021? When we reflect on who we are we can begin to make the changes necessary to become who we want to be. Taking care of our body and mind are important steps in this process and finding a community to support you along the way is an integral part also.

Patryce shares some important thoughts on these matters with the hopes of inspiring and encouraging you along the way in this new year. Happy New Year to each and every one of you!

In light of COVID, let’s make sure that we have a robust immune system and then share that knowledge with others.

We want to come alongside you, as well, as we all continue moving toward a positive direction to support our healthy lifestyles. If there are any specific ways that we can be of assistance, please contact us through our contact form or send a verbal message through Speakpipe.

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The Barnard Medical Center (The Barnard Medical Center is now offering telemedicine appointments, allowing patients to consult with caregivers online through their computers or phones. Available to residents of California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, Washington, and Washington, D.C.)

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Fight COVID-19 with Food

Links to the G-Bombs series (which also includes some recipe videos):

Episode 17 - It's time to heal message from Patryce_2

Patryce: There are so many things that are not within our control, but the foods that we choose to eat are more in our control.

[00:00:18] Hi,

[00:00:19] Shonda: and hello. Welcome to the Real Food and Drinks Lifestyle Podcast. We're building a community to talk about nutrition, lifestyle choices, and just feeling better. This is Shonda

[00:00:33] Patryce: and this is Patryce. Let's just be real.

[00:00:45] Shonda: Here's our disclaimer. We do not officially practice in any of the various subjects that we discuss. We are only sharing our personal experiences with you to a healthier lifestyle. Please do your own research before taking part in any of these practices.

[00:01:03] Patryce: Hello, this is Patryce. Happy New Year, everyone.

[00:01:08] And I just wanted to begin with talking about how important it is to get to know our bodies more, to get to know. What foods agree or disagree with us to get to know our emotions better just to get to know ourselves. So I hope that you're encouraged in this new year to do things, to be more in tune with who you are.

[00:01:33] And when you discover, there are things that you don't like or want to improve, then make steps to do that. And so with that said, I'd like to talk specifically like Shonda about the healing that we should promote within our own bodies and within our own communities. And especially with COVID still very much around.

[00:01:55] The reality is the best defense is a robust immune system. So what can we do to improve our immune systems? Well, I think one is focusing on preventative care, be our own advocate. That means with regards to our health, being our number one advocate for ourselves, and that begins with what can I do to prevent from getting ill or having chronic illnesses appear?

[00:02:29] So with the word preventative, I'm talking about of course food. There's so many things that are not within our control, but the foods that we choose to eat are more in our control. So why not focus on foods that we eat, because that is more in our control than other things. So I am ...I I'm hoping that in 2021, we are encouraged to try to do better.

[00:02:59] And with that said, I'm reminded of a podcast. We did not so long ago on G-BOMBS. And I was encouraged by that podcast myself and ever since then, I've noticed each day I'm incorporating more and more of those foods that fall into the G-BOMBS categories. And I have found it folks so easy, for example, to have a salad where I have greens, spinach, kale, arugala, and then I actually put some black beans on there.

[00:03:34] And then sometimes, often I put some seeds on there and maybe some nuts and lately even mushrooms. So I have most of the G-BOMBS just in one meal. So be encouraged that. We can do so many things in the way of preventative care, starting with how we eat and how we think. I think more and more, we need to pay attention to our thought life because depression is real.

[00:04:03] There are many people stressed out and. Uh, for so many reasons, there are so many things going on in our world, but it's how are we dealing with these emotions? And along with food, we need to consider our emotional health because that going unchecked and just going South can actually affect or impact negatively our physical health.

[00:04:29] So we have to be mindful of our emotional health too. So to help prevent the deterioration or onset of chronic diseases, we also want to keep in mind working towards a strong and healthy, emotional wellbeing. And sometimes we need help with that. So don't be afraid to reach out, reach out to loved ones, reach out, to help lines, reach out to your community, reach out to your family, your friends, your church.

[00:04:59] Whoever you can, if you feel that you need help with your emotions. So we talked about preventative. I wanted to talk about empowerment. By deciding to change habits or creating good habits we are empowering ourselves to live our best life. Another way to empower ourselves is to avail ourselves to all the different information out there.

[00:05:28] For instance, there are many, many documentaries in the way of, of different foods and how our different foods are processed are made available to us in America? There are documentaries on plant-based eating on the pros and cons to dairy. Um, there's just a lot of documentaries out there. I'm not telling you exactly which ones to watch, but I will say that's part of what catapulted my journey was watching some documentaries and then taking to heart what I learned in these documentaries. Knowledge is power. And so part of empowering ourselves is to read up, obtain knowledge. Be open to hearing different things and finding out what works for us. And when we do find new knowledge that is beneficial, share it, share it with someone else, share it with your communities.

[00:06:24] And then lastly, I did want to talk about what are some tangible, practical, next steps. So it's 2021. It's a new year. And so often we hear people talk about resolutions, nothing's wrong with that, or making big changes, but what, what does that look like? So I just want to speak a moment about how might you identify next steps with regards to a healthier lifestyle overall?

[00:06:50] And I would say. Do a self evaluation start a journal. And if you're not big writer, that's okay. Do a video journal or do an audio journal. I know a lot of our phones have it where you can just record your voice. So just do whatever it takes to...But do something to start reflecting on your life and what's working and not working.

[00:07:14] And then when, as you identify these things, then you can make adjustments. So the first thing is to do a reality check, be real with yourself, ask yourself, you know, what am I doing right now? How am I feeling right now? Where am I excelling? And where am I falling a little short? And after doing that real evaluation and specifically speaking with what you're eating right now, then the next step is how do I start changing?

[00:07:44] And maybe it is just one change at a time. For example, maybe it's trying to do the G-BOMBS as much as you can each day, certainly more than once a week. Making sure you have, if not everything, part of the G-BOMBS, just some of those G-BOMBS in the beginning, and then identifying any bad habits and one by one, changing from those. Getting rid of those.

[00:08:09] So those are just a couple suggestions on tangible next steps and be encouraged. There's this community. And many other podcasts, YouTube communities. I know myself and Shonda. We listened to Dr. Baxter. Montgomery's YouTube each Monday night, 7:00 PM central standard time. And he, uh, a cardiologist here in the Houston area, along with several other doctors are just sharing about different subjects each week with anyone who's willing to listen. So I would encourage between documentaries, different podcasts, different you tubes to reach out and listen and grow from learning from different communities. They're here to encourage you such as ours.

[00:08:59] I hope that you've heard our hearts to just help you to realize that this can be a time of healing. Let's focus on how do we get better and in light of COVID, how do we make sure that we have a robust immune system and then share that knowledge with others? So I was looking and was reminded of the word of God, because at the end of the day, I seek God's wisdom and try to abide in his truths and his word for peace.

[00:09:37] Because at the end of the day, I think we all want peace, but hopefully it's not just the peace of this world you're looking for, because that is so fleeting. But in Christ Jesus we have eternal peace, real peace, but I just wanted to leave you with one scripture that came to mind from the book of Proverbs in the Bible. In Proverbs 17 that's chapter 17 in the 22nd verse.

[00:10:04] It just reads a joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones. And all I want to bring that up for is I think it would be easier to have a joyful spirit if we have a well taken care of or better taken care of body and mind. So with that said, I hope you're encouraged to know that day by day, step by step, we can grow.

[00:10:34] We can improve. We can create good habits. Separate or depart from our bad habits. Be encouraged and share that encouragement with someone else to build a stronger, healthier community. Thank you. I hope that you found something in this podcast helpful, and that you will share with your friends and family, this podcast, and our past ones. Be encouraged.

[00:11:01] This is Patryce for Real Food and Drinks.

[00:11:07] Shonda: Thanks for listening. We hope you enjoy today's podcast. Remember you can catch show notes and additional details at RealFoodAndDrinks.com under the podcast menu. Also subscribe to our podcast. If you aren't already a member of our community. And if listening through Anchor, please send us a message of topics you would like to hear us have conversations about.

[00:11:34] Until next time... let's just be real. .

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Podcast Episode 16 – It’s Time to Heal – A Message from Shonda

Horizon Image

It’s Time to Heal especially due to COVID-19. For this reason, we must try to be our healthiest and strengthen our immune systems.

I didn’t want to ignore that it’s a new year and that many are looking to make health improvements. It is really a great time to do so because it will be more likely that you can find someone else to join you while you help encourage one another on the journey.

We want to come alongside you, as well, as we all continue moving toward a positive direction to support our healthy lifestyles. If there are any specific ways that we can be of assistance, please contact us through our contact form or send a verbal message through Speakpipe.

OTHER WAYS TO SUBSCRIBE AND LISTEN:
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We invite you to listen and share your perspectives with us too. Send us a recorded message through Speakpipe. We may use your message in an upcoming episode, therefore, please leave your name if you would like it to be noted during the podcast. Leave an email address if you would like a personal response or feel free to use the contact form.

If you haven’t done so already, download the Delicious “No-Fail” Salads Guide – another great way to eat those GREENS!

Physician’s Committee for Responsible Health
YouTube Channel – https://www.youtube.com/c/PhysiciansCommittee/featured
Website – https://www.pcrm.org/

The Barnard Medical Center (The Barnard Medical Center is now offering telemedicine appointments, allowing patients to consult with caregivers online through their computers or phones. Available to residents of California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, Washington, and Washington, D.C.)

Fight COVID-19 with Food

Dr. Baxter Montgomery’s Montgomery Heart & Wellness Program
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOEQWbsZyc3ygIlRB5HQmqw
Website:

Links to the G-Bombs series

Shonda (00:00): Hey everyone. This is Shonda here, and I just wanted to take this time to bring you a happy new year message and the message is it's time to heal.

Shonda (00:24): Hi and hello. Welcome to the real food and drinks lifestyle podcast. We're building a community to talk about nutrition, lifestyle choices, and just feeling better. This is Shonda and this is Patryce. Let's just be real. [inaudible] Here's our disclaimer. We do not professionally practice in any of the various subjects that we discuss. We are only sharing our personal experiences with you to a healthier lifestyle. Please do your own research before taking part in any of these practices.

Shonda (01:09): We've had a pretty rough and tough 2020, and it has flown by due to COVID still causing many issues and problems in our life. I just thought that it would be a very good time to focus on our health. Very often, that is a new year's resolution. And I think it's a really great one, especially due to the circumstances that we find ourselves in. Now is the time to heal because it's time to take our health seriously, you know, especially those that are knowingly dealing with a chronic disease. It's time that we do the research that we need, that we seek others to see what they've done to solve the problems. There are solutions and whatever it takes, we need to convince ourselves that it's possible for us and that we can do it just like others have done. We can also do the same and heal our bodies.

Shonda (02:09): Okay. The COVID-19 virus has revealed that many are not in a healthy state. So yes, in addition to those who are knowingly fighting against a chronic disease, there are still some who are not in a healthy state and maybe don't quite know it yet. And here are some things to consider if you're not quite sure, do you have digestive issues? Maybe these digestive issues aren't enough to have you going to the doctor, but they're troublesome. Perhaps you have seasonal allergies. Perhaps you have rashes that are showing on your skin, but you're just dealing with all these things. And it's no big deal. Well, hey, these many times are big deals and they're just the precursor to other chronic diseases. This is just the first step, a hint that lets us know that something is going wrong. What about an additional step that can help us deal with the chronic disease so that we're not in as much trouble if we have to face COVID-19,

Shonda (03:17): The medications are dealing with the symptoms, they are not solving the problem. The problem is still happening. You can't see it and you can't feel it, but it's still there because as soon as you stop taking those medications, it's very evident. Okay? So from my point of view, there is a lack of quality health care. Doctors are prescribing meds to take care of symptoms, but ignoring the true problem, which is our diet, our Western American diet. Did you know that many cultures prior to being introduced to our Western American diet had diets that were heavily loaded with plant foods? And just a bit of animal foods scattered in there. If at all, you know, we live in a country which is for many abundant and it's abundant in meat products and cheese products, you know, milk and dairy. But that doesn't mean that we should be consuming these products in the quantities that we're consuming them.

Shonda (04:21): So my question to you is, do you really want to continue to take prescription meds to support a diet that is not serving you well? Okay. So is it that you don't believe in the power of food because the power of food can heal. The power of food can cause these illnesses or it can cause healing. Or is it just that you don't want to give up your current foods that are causing the issues? I'm asking you this in the most loving way that I know, perhaps you have never even thought about this. Perhaps you just feel stuck or like there is something that you cannot do to help yourself. That's tell our doctors, Hey, I'm about to do something to get off these medications and I'm going to need your help. And if the doctor isn't willing find another doctor.

Shonda (05:11): There's a doctor network through the physician's committee of responsible medicines. They also are accepting tele-health calls. So I just urge you. We cannot wait on a vaccine. We want to be healthy, instead. We don't want to depend on a vaccine. I'm not saying don't take the vaccine. But what I am saying is if you're going to take the vaccine, we also need to take steps toward health that can help us fight the COVID-19. Make it, make our immune system even stronger. So this is just an introduction to the new year. There's a link below. Tell us what you need. Tell us what kind of recipes you need. Tell us what kind of resources you need to find in order to make the next step, because your next step can start right now today. It can start with your next meal, by taking a daily walk, by getting more sleep, by seeking more education about COVID-19 and all your health concerns.

Shonda (06:11): There's information out there. And when you start looking for the truth, you will find the truth. So I want to urge you to take it in your own hands. Be... Be your own healthcare advocate, decide that you want to know the truth, decide that you're going to try to make a difference in your own health care. Our hope is that you will begin to research healthy alternatives. In addition to conventional medicine, as a reminder, there are links below to get you started. And also we should just that you begin to follow some of these plant-based doctors. So you don't miss their content. Be a student of theirs. Listen, to find truth within what they have to say to us. We want you to be healthy, to experience freedom from fear, to feel confident, to feel empowered. It's not that we do not respect COVID-19 yes, we must do what we can.

Shonda (07:11): We will continue to wear our mask and social distance. This is a way that we love our neighbors. We love those around us because we don't want to spread the disease, especially to someone who's going to have a difficult time fighting the disease. But we want you to also feel and know that you're doing the best that you can in order to build up your immune system. And that's all that we can do. And then we leave everything else in God's hands. So Happy New Year, and let's make this the best one ever. It's time to heal. Thank you all for joining me today. Next week, we will have part two of "A time to heal", which will be a message from Patryce.

Shonda (07:58): Thanks for listening. We hope you enjoy today's podcast. Remember you can catch show notes and additional details at realfoodanddrinks.com under the podcast menu. Also subscribe to our podcast, if you aren't already a member of our community. And if listening through Anchor, please send us a message of topics you would like to hear us have conversations about until next time. Let's just be real.

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Podcast Episode 14 – Immunity – The Second ‘B’ and the ‘S’ in G-BOMBS

Onions and Mushrooms

‘B’ is for berries and ‘S’ is for seeds/nuts in the acronym G-BOMBS. Today we wrap up the G-BOMBS Series. We talk about our favorite seeds, nuts, and berries and share ideas about how you can incorporate these foods into your diet. Stay tuned for our challenge at the very end.

G-BOMBS defined: G = Greens, B = Beans, O = Onions, M = Mushrooms, B = Berries, and S = Seeds.

OTHER WAYS TO SUBSCRIBE AND LISTEN:
iTunes Logo Breaker Logo Google Podcasts Logo OverCast Podcasts Logo Pocket Casts Logo Radio Public Podcasts Logo Spotify Logo RSS Feed Logo Anchor

We invite you to listen and share your perspectives with us too. Send us a recorded message through Speakpipe. We may use your message in an upcoming episode, therefore, please leave your name if you would like it to be noted during the podcast. Leave an email address if you would like a personal response or feel free to use the contact form.

If you haven’t done so already, download the Delicious “No-Fail” Salads Guide – another great way to eat those GREENS!

Show References & Additional Notes:

Flaxseeds are one of the richest sources of plant-based omega-3 fatty acids which means is it anti-inflammatory.

Recipes:

Oatmeal Bars with Berries and Seeds

Oatmeal Options

Chocolate Chia Mousse

Raspberry Chia Jam (A double-dose of seeds.)

Other online resources:

EWG’s (Environmental Working Group’s) Dirty Dozen Shopping Guide

G-BOMBS Nutrition Bars – Chocolate Peanut Butter

Dr. Fuhrman’s G-BOMBS Downloadable Guide

Patryce (00:00): Hi, Shonda how are you?

Shonda (00:02): Good. So, Hey, what, what are you talking about today? Oh, we're finishing up G-BOMBS today.

Patryce (00:09): Yes. Yes. B the other B. And we're going to do B and S so we're doing berries and seeds, right?

Shonda (00:18): Berries and seeds. That's right.

Shonda (00:31): Hi and hello. Welcome to the real food and drinks lifestyle podcast. We're building a community to talk about nutrition, lifestyle choices, and just feeling better. This is Shonda and this is Patryce. Let's just be real. [inaudible] Here's our disclaimer. We do not officially practice in any of the various subjects that we discuss. We are only sharing our personal experiences with you to a healthier lifestyle. Please do your own research before taking part in any of these practices.

Shonda (01:21): G-BOMBS is an acronym that you can use to remember the best anti-cancer, health-promoting foods on the planet. So check out the show notes. Learn more information. Learn more information. There will be recipes and a few videos to support what we're discussing today. Let's see berries and seeds. So berries and seeds. Seeds also includes nuts. So we'll be talking about all these things today. And I guess just like we've been doing, I mean, let's just talk about what our favorites are and you know, maybe some things we want to try out or something like that. And, um, how to incorporate berries and seeds and nuts.

Patryce (01:54): I'm a big fan of berries, but I do know my favorite. And one of them would be blueberries because they're, well, first of all, what are berries? There's small, soft round fruit. And they come in various colors like blue, red, or purple. And, um, so one of my favorites are blueberries. And as far as I know, they're just, they're blue, dark blue, purple, whatever you want to call it. But these are not only delicious and nutritious, but they're very convenient (I find them to be) to pop in your yogurt or just to eat by the handful. And some people freeze them and just have berry treats. So frozen little berries, [Right, Yeah] that'd be good. Good to... And they're a good source of fiber, vitamin C, and uh, all these I think are low in calories. Another favorite for me are raspberries. Sometimes I eat blueberries and raspberries together. Uh, generally, I get red raspberries for the family. And again, the one thing about raspberries though... I did not realize they come in black. Black, black, raspberries.

Shonda (03:02): Hm, black raspberries?

Patryce (03:05): Apparently, the only reason I bring it up, is apparently they're all good for you, but the black rasberries maybe even a more nutritious. So I'd love to try those out. So I'll be on the look out for the black raspberries and then also another favorite strawberries. And I think that is a popular one in the U. S. Period, then also cranberries And I love, I like cranberries. I like that tartness. Unlike the rest, they have more tart a tart taste and they're very, they're well-known to be beneficial to females for the urinary tract health. Blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, oh, acai berries. And I know people pronounce it different ways, but that's the way I'm going to pronounce it today.

Shonda (03:53): Now, those are usually...you usually get those dried already, right?

Patryce (03:56): Yes. Dried or nowadays we get a lot of them... Frozen packs of them to throw into the smoothie.

Shonda (04:03): Okay. And they're bitter, right? Like cranberries.

Patryce (04:06): Yes. I'm glad you brought that up because they are naturally more bitter or not as sweet, but so many things sold with acai berries have sugar added. So you have to be careful about that because acai berries are originally from the Amazon. And so we look out for the ones you purchase so that you're not getting more sugar than you expect. Um, so that's why we usually get the packs. And there's a brand that doesn't have sugar added and all of these that I've mentioned have seeds in them, uh, I don't think there's any need to not eat the seeds, but actually the seeds are healthy.

Shonda (04:45): Right. You know, I think one thing we should mention is if, if it's possible to buy, um, organic berries, because berries are sprayed with a lot of pesticides normally, because they're just a tender fruit, you know, and, and insects are attracted to them. Yeah. I mean, maybe not even every time, but sometimes treat yourself to organic berries. Fruit that 's soft that we eat the whole fruit try to go organic. And the other fruits that maybe have a peel on them, not that necessary to go organic, if you have to choose which to buy organic and which not. Hey, I just thought of one that I don't think you mentioned. Well, there are two. What about cherries? And they're naturally sweet. They can be tart and sweet at the same time. Those are some that I know that we really enjoy here along with, um, my daughter likes blackberries.

Patryce (05:49): Oh, that's right. I forgot those. Yeah. Those are yummy too.

Shonda (05:52): Other ways that we can use berries are, you know, did you mention already putting them on top of oatmeal?

Patryce (05:58): No, I didn't mention any uses. Just my favorite.

Shonda (06:01): Just drop them on oatmeal and you know, along with what we're going to talk about next, that would, that just makes a great combination for seeds and nuts and berries all on top of your oatmeal. And then, you know, um, I bought, since we just came out of, uh, Thanksgiving season, I did buy some organic cranberries and I rinsed them and I put them on a single layer and I froze them, you know, put them in a bag. And then now it doesn't take many to get the benefits from them. I can throw five in a smoothie, you know, that's kind of sweet with bananas and things and it doesn't, and it's not like I'm just trying to eat a cranberry smoothie, just throwing like four or five in there. You know, if I put that in there every day, over time, that adds up. So that's one option. That's something new that I just started knowing that I need more of the, the red antioxidant type berry in my diet.

Patryce (06:58): That's a great tip because I have a pack of cranberries in the refrigerator that we didn't use. And I'm like, what am I going to do with all these? But I can freeze them. You're saying. And I think we've mentioned already that the, I mean, of course they're healthy foods, they're high in vitamin C, they're antioxidants... They have fiber. And because of that, fiber will help make you feel more cool and they're low in calories. So those of us who are looking at our waist, trying to stay our fit selves, it's another good way to do so by having various for a treat or even for dessert fruit can be a great dessert option. And yeah, we can make our parfait with, well, I'm not as creative as you are, but with the fruit, with the yogurt. And then we're going to talk about seeds and nuts. Maybe we should move into that now because berries and seeds and nuts that they go well.. They compliment one another,.

Shonda (07:49): Right? Yeah, they do. Okay. Yeah. Let's talk about that.

Patryce (07:52): So what are your favorite seeds or nuts?

Shonda (07:55): Well, On a regular basis in the pantry, we have walnuts, almonds, pecans, sunflower seeds, and pumpkin seeds. Those are the top five that I keep and I do throw all of them in oatmeal on a regular basis. If I'm having oatmeal, I'm having a nut with it. At least a nut. I may not have a fruit, may not have a fruit, but I always have a nut or, you know, nut milk. I do sometimes make my own nut milk by just adding water and nuts and blending it up and squeezing it out in a nut bag. That's a little extra step, but it's really creamy. It's really creamy when you make it on your own, because you can make it as thick or thin as you want. Just makes for a delicious breakfast. I throw raisins in there and this morning I threw fresh cranberries in there. Those are our top five. I usually keep the pantry well-stocked with that. Uh, Leslie and I are the only two that really eat the nuts and we both put it in our oatmeal.

Patryce (09:05): We have some of the same nuts. Um, one thing, um, did you mention, yeah, you did mention pumpkin seeds. And did you mentioned flaxseed?

Shonda (09:14): Not yet. Do you use a lot of flaxseeds?

Patryce (09:20): I have begun to explore use of flaxseeds. And as I had told you over the Thanksgiving holiday I actually made that yummy, sweet potato pie, but I learned that you need to..., I had not bought the flaxseeds.

Shonda (09:34): Ground flax seed,.

Patryce (09:36): So I learned that that you can still eat them, not ground, but I''ve made since another pie with a texture that was definitely improve upon. They have a bit of a nutty smell to me...[inaudible] and then flaxseeds have a lot of health benefits. Yeah. So I'm trying to incorporate those more.

Shonda (09:56): Yeah, they do. They are, I will definitely put a link to that, but I know they have high amounts of good fatty acids. So yeah, I use a lot of flax seeds because I make like, when I make any kind of breads or pancakes or anything, I use it in place of an egg... Ground and mixed with water and it becomes a good egg replacement. So that was really how I started using flax seeds. And I also, every now and then I do remember just because I don't remember when it's already ground, I keep it in the freezer to keep it from going rancid. And I remember to put it in my smoothie, but it's in another freezer. It's not with my fruit, so maybe I should move it over to the fruit where the fruit is. And then I will remember, what do you think about chia seeds?

Patryce (10:45): It's a huge fan, but I, a friend that introduced me years ago to we just put... She just puts it every morning in some water or juice, just add a small amount and let them become a little gelatin like and drink it.

Shonda (10:58): Yeah, they do. Chia pudding is popular for those who like chia seeds. So I'll make sure and find a good recipe for that. If anyone wants to try that recipe. Um, but just like flax seeds, they both have the good fatty acids. They're both some that I had to get, get an acquired taste for.

Patryce (11:20): I can see that. I can see that.

Shonda (11:23): They're really different. So when you start, you just may want to sprinkle a little in here and there, or use it as an egg replacement and you will not really taste the flaxseed flavor that way.

Patryce (11:37): But what about the chia seeds. Do do those come grounded too or no?

Shonda (11:42): You know, I don't think I've ever seen she chia seeds grounded. Yeah. I think most chia pudding, just like an addition or whatever into a treat or smoothie or on top of oatmeal and things like that.

Patryce (11:58): And did you mention hemp seeds?

Shonda (11:59): I didn't.

Patryce (12:00): Oh, okay. Those... That's one other seed that we have in the past to throw into our smoothie. That's the only way I used them. And they're great that way. Um, maybe I should look into other ways to incorporate them into our diet, but they're actually, you know, they're, they're good for you as well. They seem to have a lot of my magnesium.

Shonda (12:19): And they do have a good flavor. You know, I don't have any, but you know, now I may want to get some to add to oatmeal because I'm always telling people they're like, I'm busy. I don't have time. You know, oatmeal is like a staple breakfast for me. I'm busy in the morning. You know, I can get more creative later or more adventurous in my food, but in the morning, I'm just ready to get to work on my projects. I mean, think about all the berries we've talked about, all the nuts and seeds. There's such a variety that we can do with oatmeal by adding different nuts or different seeds or different fresh berries or dried berries and things to have a different oatmeal everyday.

Patryce (13:04): Yeah. That's good. Especially with this weather this time of year, it's a warm, hot cereal and we overlook that. And now that I think about, I used to eat it a lot and I've just forgotten about it. But now that we're talking about seeds and berries and nuts, it's time for me to bring out the oatmeal again. And I like the steel cut

Shonda (13:24): And steel cut is very easy in the InstantPot, just a plug for InstantPot, because I love my InstantPot.

Patryce (13:32): I hear you. It's a great way to make sure you get your berries in and oatmeal itself is good too, because it's, uh, high in fiber too.

Shonda (13:42): High in fiber. Yes.

New Speaker (13:44): Because also when I've had it in the past, now that you've mentioned, I'm still full. So you tend to not overeat the rest of the day. That's just been my experience. So anyway, I think it's a great idea, especially with the holidays coming up to get creative, or just start doing the oatmeal and see how that goes.

Shonda (14:04): Yeah. That's a good idea. So I guess we just like to invite you to try to incorporate more berries and seeds in your diet. If you know that there's room for improvement in that area. There will definitely be show notes full of ideas. So there we have it, we've completed the G-BOMBS series. We just want to remind you that this is just a great acronym to incorporate healthy foods into your diet and ways that you can remember. Did I have all my G-BOMBS today? [Yes.] We hope you're entering a great holiday season...

Patryce (14:40): We hope that you found something interesting or something that you'd like to try out yourself and again, share it with others so we can all begin the journey of just incorporating healthy foods into our diet. And one way is using the G-BOMBS.

Shonda (14:51): Yeah. Remember the G-BOMBS. Let's all... I invite you all to join me on my morning oatmeal.

New Speaker (15:01): I'm going to. Count me in.

Shonda (15:03): Thanks for listening. We hope you enjoy today's podcast. Remember you can catch show notes and additional details@realfoodanddrinks.com under the podcast menu. Also subscribe to our podcast. If you aren't already a member of our community. And if listening through anchor, please send us a message of topics you would like to hear us have conversations about until next time. Let's just be real.

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Podcast Episode 13 – Immunity – The ‘O’ and ‘M’ in G-BOMBS

Onions and Mushrooms

‘O’ is for onions and ‘M’s is for mushrooms in the acronym G-BOMBS. Using onions and mushrooms in preparing our foods not only adds great flavors but are also healthy ways to support our immune system.

G-BOMBS defined: G = Greens, B = Beans, O = Onions, M = Mushrooms, B = Berries, and S = Seeds.

OTHER WAYS TO SUBSCRIBE AND LISTEN:
iTunes Logo Breaker Logo Google Podcasts Logo OverCast Podcasts Logo Pocket Casts Logo Radio Public Podcasts Logo Spotify Logo RSS Feed Logo Anchor

We invite you to listen and share your perspectives with us too. Send us a recorded message through Speakpipe. We may use your message in an upcoming episode, therefore, please leave your name if you would like it to be noted during the podcast. Leave an email address if you would like a personal response or feel free to use the contact form.

If you haven’t done so already, download the Delicious “No-Fail” Salads Guide – another great way to eat those GREENS!

Show References & Additional Notes:

Quick Pickled Onions

Mushroom Soup (Video Recipe)

Homemade Honey Cough Syrup

“Thank you” to Dawn. Dawn is my live-streaming friend I mention in this episode who introduced me to the concept of G-BOMBS.

Shonda (00:00): Start from the heart. I mean, you know, I mean, really why are we doing this? Because, you know, we, we have, uh, discovered something that we think is great, right?

Shonda (00:21): Hi and hello. Welcome to the real food and drinks lifestyle podcast. We're building a community to talk about nutrition, lifestyle choices, and just feeling better. This is Shonda and this is Patryce. Let's just be real. [inaudible] Here's our disclaimer. We do not officially practice in any of the various subjects that we discuss. We are only sharing our personal experiences with you to a healthier lifestyle. Please do your own research before taking part in any of these practices.

Shonda (01:08): I think I was on, um, one of my live streaming with some friends and just chatting through the chat and trying to get some ideas for what to talk about or what to do videos about. And one just mentioned G-BOMBS. You know, she said G-BOMBS and I had to go look it up because, you know, even though I've been eating G-BOMBS forever and for really a really good three years since I've adopted the whole food plant-based diet, I mean, that's all that it is, you know, and mushrooms make things taste good, you know? So that was always thrown in there and onions and things like that. And you know, I know greens, give me energy. What else is there? And the beans, I just love beans. I just love the taste. So, you know, everything I've been eating is the G-BOMBS.

Shonda (01:55): So I'm like, okay, well I'll present it this way. That's why we're bringing all of this to you. And we just want to share on ways that we have discovered on how to eat in a healthy way, or is it helpful way? I don't know what, but.

Patryce (02:11): I would say both, healthy and helpful. I had never heard of G-BOMBS until you mentioned that not too long ago, but that my husband had actually heard about them. And I think it's just a great way to remind people of ways we can incorporate healthy food daily by just remembering what G-BOMBS stands for and we've already covered greens and beans. And today I think we are covering mushrooms and onions. Right? [Right.] Yeah. Mushrooms I've always liked them like yourself and continue to like mushrooms. There are so many out there, but it wasn't until we started thinking about G bombs and what to talk about that I researched the mushrooms more and learned that they are very

Patryce (03:00): Very ealthy. And what, I mean, by that is that they have been associated with decreased risk of breast cancer , stomach and cancer of the colon. Wow. And there was even a Chinese study that I think Dr. Oz mentioned Joan Lunden as well as Dr. Furhman. I think all three of them cited them somewhere. They talked about this same Chinese study, a women who ate at least 10 grams of fresh mushrooms each day. That's about one mushroom per day, had a 64% decrease risk of breast cancer.

Shonda (03:42): Wow. That's a powerful little thing. Isn't it? If it's just one mushroom.

Patryce (03:48): Exactly. And I'm just like, wow, how did I not know about this?

Shonda (03:55): Yeah. And actually though I just read today though, that I think Dr. Furhman who came up with the G-BOMBS, uh, acronym, I think he recommends that they are always cooked for some reason. But, you know, I really don't. I used to study the nutrition part, you know, about all these foods. And so I'm glad you like to do that part and that you bring that for us because now I'm just like, just eat, just eat everything and just eat as much as you can and you will get the nutrition that you need, you know, so, But, um, so, you know, and, and, and when we're talking about plant-based food, I mean, it's always good to eat a mixture of raw and cooked vegetables. You know, sometimes eat them cooked the same vegetables, sometimes eat them raw. So I think that by doing that, we get the full benefit of, um, the vegetable itself. So.

Patryce (04:55): That's a really good point because when I read fresh, I didn't know, they meant fresh and steams. Fresh and sauteed? Did they mean raw. [Right. Yeah.] It wasn't a hundred percent clear. Um, and, and just from personal experience, I will eat raw mushrooms, but most, most of the time I have sauteed them, I've cooked them to some degree. Um, maybe not even a lot, but I seldom eat the raw mushrooms. I think it's fine. Like you said, to have some raw, but, um, definitely with mushrooms, I found them more palatable by stir-frying them or doing different roasting or what have you, or grilling them all different ways of eating them. Um, so I was just, again, blown away by that information about breast cancer. I really like some people out there, you know, some of us like mushrooms, but we don't go out of our way to eat them. And that that's been something that I'm going to start going out of my way to incorporate mushrooms on a more regular basis.

Shonda (06:01): Yeah. I usually I buy them every week and sometimes though it's like the end of the week and I'm like, Oh my goodness, I have these mushrooms in here. So I'm trying to cut around, you know, I'm left with them. So what I'm going to do now is just make sure that, you know, when Friday's my grocery day, when I buy those mushrooms, that's the day that I'm going to probably cook the mushrooms. And actually now we just got a food saver so I can actually seal them back up. And that was really nice for this week. This is the first week I, I resealed the mushrooms. So that's, um, um, money saving tips there, you know? Um, so yeah. Now what do you think is going to be your favorite? You know, what do you think you're going to do with mushrooms now? I know you just told me a little bit, but are there any new recipes you have in mind?

Patryce (06:53): Well, actually, I, I, I've been eating a mushroom. Maybe you can call it a casserole, uh, similar to one, but basically it's just like mushrooms. And again, there's so many, they're the portabella, they're the oyster ones. They're the, there are several types of mushrooms and maybe we can have those in show notes later, list some of those out for you, but, um, just slicing some mushrooms and adding some tofu. And then a nice little sauce, uh, more of an Asian inspired sauce. You can make one yourself, um, instead of soy-based I use that coconut amino acid, um, and some ginger, but anyway, uh, an Asian inspired sauce over the slice mushrooms with, uh, some tofu and then maybe some brown rice.

Shonda (07:49): Okay. That sounds good. Kind of like a stir fry.

Patryce (07:52): And add some greens on top of that. Some spinach or kale, and I'll have a meal right there. I've been doing that. And then adding some chick, well hummus on the side. That's been tasty. But there's so many other things actually, uh, I didn't make it, but my stuffing, I looked at a recipe. You can make a stepping with mushrooms. Also, you can make, uh, instead of your traditional stew, (instead of) a beef stew, I saw a recipe using mushrooms and it looked similar to a beef stew and I haven't made that one yet, but that's another thing I'm encouraged, I mean, I'm looking forward to making a stew with mushroom and then also there's, you can just, I often just, uh, put some vinaigrette, some salt pepper, or that Bragg's seasoning I like to use and throw them in the oven and roast them, have them at the side.

Shonda (08:47): Oh yeah. I roasted some today with some potatoes and just everything. I did that sheet pan roasting. I did that today. Um, but you know, I think about when I may have initially started on my, um, plant-based diet, I would substitute the larger portobellos for like burgers, you know, grill them cause they're so big and thick, so that's a good, nice way. You know what I think I'm going to have that this weekend. What we're going to talk about also are the onions and I've made like a, uh, uh, gravy using mushroom and onions. And I have this specific recipe that I want to share. I'll put in the share notes, uh, and it's going to be a link to a video. And, uh, I made it about a month ago and my daughter really liked it that she asked for the recipe and she and her friend were going to try and make it, I don't think they were successful because something happened. I cannot remember what happened, but, uh, anyway, she was really, they, she really liked it. So I'll definitely put that one there. Um..hmm.

Patryce (09:56): And then I'm wondering, especially for onions, are they better to eat cooked some or raw or, or is it, you know...

Shonda (10:08): I think just like with any other vegetable, we should just do both because I've heard some people complain with their raw....I guess some people who have acid reflux.

Shonda (10:20): Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, cook them if they don't do well raw, but some lighter ones that you could eat that are raw would be like green onions, the tips of green onions.

Patryce (10:32): Oh, I forgot about those. Yeah, the green onions, very tasty and very good raw,.

Shonda (10:38): You know, sometimes I use green onions in place of a regular onion when I make, um, guacamole. Yeah. [That's a good idea.] Yeah. That gives it another taste. So onions include, you know, it's not just onions a round bulb of onions, but, uh, also leeks is in that same group. Um, garlic, chives, shallots, and scallions. Um, they're all in the same family, this family, you know, the onion group has, um, beneficial effects on the cardiovascular and immune system. And of course, as well as anti-diabetic and anti-cancer effects. So I think that it just helps with ...these help mostly with like detoxifying, you know, and also I think they, I know garlics are, are great, uh, prebiotic, which feeds the good bacteria in your gut. So, you know, it promotes a good colon health, you know, good stomach and digestive system health.

Patryce (11:51): Oh, that's important.

Shonda (11:54): Yeah. Let's not forget about the onions. And I do think that, you know, when, you know, when you really slow roast onions or slowly cook them, they do become sweeter. You know, there may be someone out there that's not aware that they how sweet they become. I love cooked onions.

Patryce (12:14): I forget to do it sometimes. But, um, I definitely like them somewhat uh, what do you..you said...caramelized. Very good on sandwiches. They're just good.

Shonda (12:28): I mean, we throw, uh, we throw onions in everything, right. I mean, you know, salads, or even when we make, like, I make like the chickpea salad, you know, it's just a really good flavor enhancer. I love both, um, you know, onions and garlic. I don't use the shallots or the scallions as much. Sometimes if there's a specific recipe, I may use it, but um, not really. Oh, and you know what, let's see here. One thing also, I know many people have heard of this, um, uh, onions are high, have high concentrations of quercetin. Are you familiar with quercetin?

Patryce (13:12): Is that for pain? or...

Shonda (13:12): Sometimes, you know, a lot of people go for quercetin when they have allergies.

Patryce (13:19): Oh, the shots?

Shonda (13:20): No, they're little..they're... You can buy quercetin, a quercetin supplement and it's good for anti-inflammatory, um, you know, as good as an anti-inflammatory. And I know a lot of people that use it, I think I used to use it when I had seasonal allergies. I would go for the quercetin.

Patryce (13:41): Um, I didn't know about that.

Shonda (13:45): Yeah. So seasonal allergies?... Go eat some onions.

Patryce (13:53): Well, speaking of onions...it's a little off topic, but it's still pertaining to onions, I know I have actually sliced onions and put them on the soles of our feet. And I know... When did we start? Anyway, you mentioned earlier about being a detoxifier. And I think when you have a cold or...It seemed to really help the kids and I experimented myself, but it sounds odd, but you just put a couple rounds on the bottom of your feet with a sock. Similar to how people do that, uh, vapor...what do you call that?

Shonda (14:34): The Vicks vapor rub.

Patryce (14:37): That the onions, it seems like it really calms those colds and helps you get over it faster.

Shonda (14:45): Uh hmm, well, let me tell you that I used to make, I'm trying to think of what..., When Erin would get sick, even as a child, you know, young, you know, prior to teens, uh, and even now she will take it, but I would make..., I would do similar. It must be similar to, I'm going to put a pickled onion recipe link there, but I used to do, um, was it just onions or did I do onions and garlic? I would put onions in a, in a shallow dish and cover with honey and kind of mush it and just sit it out on the, on the countertop. Yes. And just kind of mush it and let all the juices get into the honey and feed it to her as a syrup when she had a cold or respiratory...

Patryce (15:33): That was really helpful. And then the syrup is good for your throat.

Shonda (15:40): So there we go. Anti-inflammatory right?

New Speaker (15:42): Yeah. Oh my goodness. Okay. See, we can do that instead of the cough syrup...[laughs]

Shonda (15:48): Yeah, instead of cough syrup. Actually, I have some in my fridge and, um, it's been there probably about a year. I can't remember if she had something or whatever it was right before COVID so, or may have been right before we realized COVID was there and we had something. Cause you know, um, we do think that we may have had COVID already. Not sure. Have not been checked yet. If we get checked, are you, would you ever get, are you going to get checked for, for the antibodies?

Patryce (16:22): I would like to, but some people say that after six months you don't have the antibodies anymore. I don't know.

Shonda (16:28): Yeah. That's possible. So well, it's been over six months, but anyway, we did. And, and sometimes, you know, just like I go in and have sauerkraut, the sauerkraut or kimchi have onions in them too. I've put, uh, onions in kimchi. Of course that makes it spicy. Onions and garlic. And so yeah, sometimes I just, you know, kind of try and listen to my body and say, Ooh, I may feel a little something in my throat or something like that. And then I'll just go and have a teaspoon or tablespoon of kimchi with onions, you know, or, you know, I may just pass by that syrup and have a little bit, even though that syrup is just preserved, it's just, it's just like doing, um, a fermented food and it's just in the fridge. So it's going to last forever and it's in honey. So, you know, honey is a preservative anyway, it preserves things. So, uh, it's in the fridge, I guess, ready to go.

Patryce (17:29): No, I did not. I used to give the kids a little bit of honey during that... When you get a cold, because our doctor finally said, you know, in England, they don't even prescribe cough syrup immediately. They prescribe a bit of honey. But now that you're mentioning this whole idea with the onion, that's the way to go in the future. I think you need something like that. I will definitely do that. And you, mentionedthat garlic is in the same family. I know my aunt, uh, she's now in her 60's or 70's, but way back when ... she used to roast garlic almost every other night and she would just eat cloves of roasted garlic. And she just...she seldom got sick. I wonder now if that was helpful for her all those years, back in the eighties and seventies even.

Shonda (18:21): Yeah. I've read, you know, that garlic is a natural antibiotic. So, um, yeah, I do. I like a fresh salad, especially a Tex-Mex salad. I can just take a clove and just mince it on my salad and mix it in and eat it. I like it like that too.

Patryce (18:39): Well that, you know, I've gotten used to this whole fermented black garlic and that's my garlic. It's softer and it's sweeter. Um, I hope it's just as good for you. I know it's not bad for you. But, and now I'm getting hungry.

Shonda (18:55): Yeah. I know. It's like we can almost smell it, right?

Patryce (18:58): Yeah. Yeah.

Shonda (19:02): So yeah, we just want to, um, continue to encourage everyone to add more onions and mushrooms to your diet.

Patryce (19:11): And wow! They are, they have anti-cancer properties and who doesn't want some of that in their diet?

Shonda (19:19): Yeah. These are kind of like maybe like the power, power foods of the plant-based diet, although they they're all anti-cancer because you know, they all have different properties. I just always go back to eat a variety, just continue to eat a variety, whatever you're eating, maybe you, whatever you prepare, maybe you don't readily go for the mushrooms or onions, you know, at this point, but try adding some of that to your dishes that you're making. And I'm sure many people using garlic and onions, cause that's just kind of a given isn't it? This kind of like a basis first.

Patryce (19:58): It is. But that's why I'm so excited that we did talk about mushrooms too. And that they're part of G-BOMBS because people, like I said, I love mushrooms, but it's not something I generally go out of my way. You know, when you're out and you're ordering, you're like, Oh, mushrooms can be added? You add it. But now maybe more people like myself included will be intentional about adding mushrooms. So everyone spread the word about mushrooms and onions. And just remember G-BOMBS they're worth incorporating all of these into our everyday diet.

Shonda (20:32): Yes. Every day,!

Shonda (20:33): Hey, we hope you've been enjoying the G-BOMBS series. Next week we will have our final episode regarding G-BOMBS in which we will be discussing berries and seeds.

Shonda (20:50): Thanks for listening. We hope you enjoy today's podcast. Remember you can catch show notes and additional details@realfoodanddrinks.com under the podcast menu. Also subscribe to our podcast. If you aren't already a member of our community. And if listening through anchor, please send us a message of topics you would like to hear us have conversations about until next time. Let's just be real.

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Podcast Episode 12 – Immunity – The First ‘B’ in G-BOMBS

First B of G-BOMBS

Today we discuss the first ‘B’ IN G-BOMBS which stands for BEANS! We talk about some of our favorite beans, how we prepare them, and their health benefits. Stay tuned for all the episodes. G-BOMBS defined: G = Greens, B = Beans, O = Onions, M = Mushrooms, B = Berries, and S = Seeds.

Click here to listen to the podcast about the ‘G’ in G-BOMBS if you haven’t yet.

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We invite you to listen and share your perspectives with us too. Send us a recorded message through Speakpipe. We may use your message in an upcoming episode, therefore, please leave your name if you would like it to be noted during the podcast. Leave an email address if you would like a personal response or feel free to use the contact form.

If you haven’t done so already, download the Delicious “No-Fail” Salads Guide – another great way to eat those GREENS!

Show References & Additional Notes:

Grilled Hummus and Eggplant Stack

Kathmandu Stew

“Chicken” Salad or Vegan “Tuna”

Black Bean Sweet Potato

YouTube: Gut Health and Your Microbiome (Dr. Baxter Montgomery / Houston, TX)

Article: Soy Linked to Breast Cancer Survival

Speaker 1 (00:10): Hi and hello. Welcome to the real food and drinks lifestyle podcast. We're building a community to talk about nutrition, lifestyle choices, and just feeling better. This is Shonda and this is Patryce. Let's just be real. [inaudible] Here's our disclaimer. We do not officially practice in any of the various subjects that we discuss. We are only sharing our personal experiences with you to a healthier lifestyle. Please do your own research before taking part in any of these practices.

Shonda (01:01): Today you know where we are we're since we're discussing G-BOMBS, um, we're on the first letter B in G-BOMBS, which stands for beans. So, um, we'd like to share with our guests and listeners ways that we enjoy beans, um, and how beneficial they are to us. But we're just going to do a quick little review on what, on, on what we discovered about greens.

Patryce (01:34): So yes, like Shonda said, last week, we talked about how healthy leafy green vegetables are and how they're loaded with vitamins and minerals and fiber yet they're low in calories. And some of the, the, vegetables we talked about, the greens ones were kale and microgreens, collard greens, spinach, and cabbage, and these are all different green vegetables that you can enjoy as well as, um, feel like you're eating something healthy because they are healthy and have lots of benefits. So if you need reminders of what those benefits are, you can check out the podcast, uh, from the website, real food and drinks, or, uh, any of the different podcasts providers like anchor. So yeah, that, that, that was it for the greens.

Shonda (02:29): Yeah, that was, that was fun. And, uh, you know, we talked a little bit about beet tops and some other things, so yeah, go on and head out there and, uh, give it a listen. I think you'll enjoy it.

Patryce (02:42): So what are we talking about today, Shonda?

Shonda (02:45): Well, today we're going to focus on beans and legumes. And one thing I did not focus on or intend to focus on, but just know that the, um, peanut is a legume yet. There are some issues with peanuts at times, you know, um, actually it could, it's more popular to have mold in peanuts and things like that. So we're just going to sit peanuts to the side. Okay. Because I'm sure everyone mostly have had peanut butter, you know, or maybe even know someone that's allergic to peanuts. So, um, but we're, I'm going to switch it and talk about, um, really beans, beans that you cook that require cooking to eat. And I guess this time I'll go over some of my favorites and then produce, you can add some of yours or talk about these same ones and different ways you like to, um, have them as a meal or add them to a meal.

Patryce (03:50): Sounds good.

Shonda (03:52): Okay. So first I want to talk about, I think I'll talk about tofu and tempeh first. [Okay.] Um, as we know, or you may not know, but tempeh and tofu is a processed food, but it can be processed in a healthy way. So I even, um, want to give it a try at making my own tofu because it involves taking dried, soy beans, soaking them, and, you know, there's this whole process and I'm really eager to do it, but the problem is I have not found any dried, soy beans, soy soybeans, and, you know, I'm thinking, well, could I use like maybe the ones that I get frozen, so I'm not sure about that, but it is a process food, but it can be processed in a good way. The controversy sometimes with tofu, it has a bad rap. Um, some say that, uh, it can cause cancer.

Shonda (04:58): Whereas when we look at the research and evidence out there, actually, and I'll see if I can particularly find one of those or atleast, um, link up another video where PCRM talks about this issue. Um, it's usually that the tofu is GMO. You know, it's genetically modified and not organic. So when I look for tofu, I go for organic and that takes care of the GMO part too. I like to do it in, um, add them to stir fries. And then I really don't fry my vegetables, but that's what you would think about a as the best flavor. And I'm just about to get a tofu press. That's going to help me press the water. You want to press the water out so that when you marinate it, it will soak up the juices of the marinade that you add to it. So it can be very, it can be roasted in the oven, yes along with vegetables, uh, or like I say, fried in a pan, it can be fried in a pan, but, um, it's really tasty.

Shonda (06:11): I think, um, you can make it tasty anyway. And I, I just enjoy it. It does have high amounts of calcium, actually. I think it's the way it's processed that adds the calcium though specifically, but I believe beans are high in calcium. Um, and so the other form of tofu of soy beans that I like, or that I'm learning to like is tempeh and tempeh is a fermented tofu. So after it's turned into tofu, no, it's actually the, the beans are actually fermented actually. And, um, now my problem with it, um, initially was that it was, it would upset my stomach and I guess it has something I, well, I used to suffer with IBS. And so it's not ideal while you're having IBS symptoms, but now that I've gotten rid of the IBS, I'm able to tolerate it. And it really doesn't do much of anything to me. Now I'm dealing with the bitterness of tempeh because I find that it's very bitter. I don't know. Have you tried it portray, so you think

Patryce (07:26): Actually I've tried it at a restaurant and I really liked it then went and bought some at a store and did not like that form of it when I had it at the restaurant, you know, how people eat? Uh, I think it's the BLT, a bacon, lettuce and tomatoes sandwich. This was with tempeh being the bacon and lettuce and tomato on some type of, I forget the kind of bread, but that way it was very tasty. So they prepared it like six strips of bacon almost. And it wasn't fried but big, but it was really good, but doing at home and my, what I purchased, it was not the same.

Shonda (08:04): Okay. So something that I've recently learned about tempeh is that it's best to steam it for at least 15 minutes before you start to incorporate it in your dish. Oh, this will cut down on some of the bitterness. And I tried it just a couple of days ago, and it really was a better dish. I still, I still had a hint of bitterness. So that means I probably could have just steamed it a little bit longer or marinated it. I really did not marinate it. I just kind of went for it because it was time to eat. But, um, I like, I enjoyed it better. It, you know, it has like, uh, so tofu can be a little soft and mushy. Yeah. It can be a little soft and mushy, but uh, tempeh has, um, texture that's good. It's kind of like a, kinda like a nutty kind of thing.

Shonda (09:02): And, you know, I mean, it's, it's a bean or legume or whatever it is. And, uh, so that's what it reminds me of. And I really prefer that texture in my dish. So I'm working on tempeh and when I get it perfected, I will let y'all know.

Patryce (09:19): That sounds good. That sounds good. Going back to the tofu, um, I've heard you mentioned, and I've had it once or twice, scrambled. Oh yeah, yeah, As opposed to eggs.

Shonda (09:34): Yeah, that is very tasty. And actually have I posted that on the website yet, I'm not sure. Um, there is, I have a video. I know it's ready. Cause I do, I do the tofu scrambles all the time. And I even have I got from, I think nutrition studies dot org, they have a tofu scramble, um, power seasoning or something like that. And I really like to put that one in my, uh, tofu scramble and it has like some nutritional yeast and like turmeric, you know, to make it a little yellow.

Shonda (10:07): And so I just stir fry that with, with vegetables and like I would an omelet, or, you know. It's a scramble, it's not going to fry up like an egg really. Although there is one product out there, but it has way too many ingredients for me. I have tried it, but so maybe if you're taking the little steps, you know, and you don't have any real chronic diseases issues is not your causeto do it. You could try Just Egg. But if you are doing this diet, if you're making changes to your diet and you have some issue, I would not recommend Just Eggs because it has, has too many added ingredients to it.

Patryce (10:51): Well, it sounds like just that tofu scramble is a great way to just try tofu.

Shonda (10:56): Yeah. And that product too is high in salt. Whereas when you make your own tofu scramble, you know, there's no salt.

Shonda (11:02): So I think that's it for tofu and tempeh. Um, so I'll, I'll breeze through these other ones right here. Uh, almost because, so this was this, this is going to be the next, uh, one that I really enjoy. So I probably have a lot to say about it and that is chickpeas or garbanzo beans. Now chickpeas, um, are just my favorite because I like the taste. I like the texture. They're easy to flavor because usually when I cook them, I cook them without adding any - even I don't even add salt or seasoning when I cook the chickpeas. And so let's go about ... Let me talk about briefly how I cook chickpeas. I cooked chickpeas, you know, that you can get them in cans, but for that same dollar that you buy a can of chickpeas, you know, in a rush, I can maybe keep one in my pantry, but I buy a whole pound and I dump them in my IstantPot.

Shonda (12:06): Well, you can dump it in your InstantPot, straight from the dried seed. And, um, just put, you know, some water about an inch water over it, or maybe two. And, and I think it takes about 25 minutes from the dried bean, but if, yeah, but if you soak it overnight, that's cut down to about 15 minutes. [Wow.] Yeah. And, um, you know, it takes some time for the machine to heat up and then release the pressure. Although you could always just release the pressure, but I usually just like to let the IntantPot release its own pressure. Um, but, um. Oh, pre-soaking removes the phytic acid found in beans and phytic acid can irritate the stomach or cause discomfort. So soaking is a really good idea, especially if you want to throw them from the soaked, you know, being into a soup or, you know, something that you're going to make and ...Hey, y'all I cook everything in the IntantPot.

Shonda (13:16): So, um, that, uh, is just something that I do. But so if you don't pre-soak, you should throw away the water that the beans are cooked in for the most part of any bean, except for the chick pea. Now I haven't had any issues with, with the chick pea water and I use chick pea water in a lot of different dishes too. Um, I've used it, um, for fun and making things like meringue an egg free meringue. Uh, it can whip up and get fluffy, just like an egg can. So any place that you would use an egg, you can substitute chick pea water. So that's a really good key. I really liked doing that. Um, you know, and when I'm making pancakes or something, I may use a flax seed egg, which has taken ground flax and adding it to water and let it gel.

Shonda (14:18): And then, but usually sometimes I use chick pea water to even give it an extra boost in place of plain water. So that's how I use the leftover water from chickpeas, but still, usually I remove the chickpeas from the water, rinse them. I will put them in a bag like a gallon size bag and um, let them cool a bit in the fridge. And then I just transfer them to the freezer. Now actually I do this to all the beans that I cook, except for one the other one that I'm going to talk about and that's lentils in a bit, but I do freeze all the chickpeas and they, when you remove the liquid and rinse them, they will freeze pretty much separately. Or you can just kind of bang the bag and then you will, um, you can just use as many as you need. It's like having, you know, your own canned product, but it's in the freezer and it's ready. So that's how I do all my beans.

Patryce (15:16): Wow. I had no idea that you could freeze them. That's a game changer. [Yeah. Yeah.]

Shonda (15:24): Bags, gallon bags of beans stored in my freezer. So it's ready all the time. Whether, you know, if someone came and I needed to make a soup for everyone, I mean, I'd just bring out the beans, you know, and throw some vegetables in there. And I like tomato-based soups. Those are my favorite. Um, but the other things I do with chickpeas or garbanzo beans is make hummus. I know you like hummus.

Patryce (15:48): Yes. Good stuff. [Yeah. ]

Shonda (15:51): I make hummus. Um, and I'm sure I have a recipe posted already on the website. Um, and I add them to bowls and I even like them in Italian flavor, dishes and Asian flavor dishes. Those are the two that I usually go for the garbanzo beans in are those two. Oh. And let's not forget about the chickpeas tortillas.

Patryce (16:18): Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Good stuff too. Okay. Oh, I'm sorry. What were you saying?

Shonda (16:24): No, I was just going to say, because I can't eat breads or wraps or readily buy them. I have, I searched and I searched until I found a solution and chickpea tortillas is something that I make and you can buy chick pea flour in the grocery store, but I like to use fresh chickpeas in my recipe. I put fresh chickpeas with about just about half, as much of the tapioca flour in there and, uh, some water or some more chickpea flour, um, chickpeas aquafaba and just blend it up and make it into a dough, press them out. And they're just ready to go.

Patryce (17:06): Hmm. Sounds good.

Shonda (17:10): So, um, I'll just briefly go over these next three that I have here. Um, Pinto beans. I just liked the flavor, uh, and even red beans. Um, and so I use Pinto beans and black beans. Uh, even though I think I enjoy black beans, no Pinto beans, a little bit better. Pinto beans and black beans. I love Tex-Mex dishes. And so these are the two that I go for when I'm making a Tex-Mex meal or, you know, a taco, um, or, um, a soup, you know, black bean soup. Um, I do, um, quite not, not as often as I used to because I've just started using all these other beans. So I think that was like my intro bean was the black bean at one time. And in salads, Pintos and black beans, I even sometimes get, this is probably the only place except for Jason's deli salad bar that I eat out is Chipotle. And I get the, um, black bean, like a bowl. And there's like, do you want Pintos or black beans? I'm like both.

Shonda (18:23): And I get that on top of Brown rice and their vegetables and their corn and salsa. And I bring it home, actually cut it in half, put half of it in another bowl with more greens, you know, and things like we talked about last week and that's a meal for me. So that's the way, uh, these are my top beans, except for there's one more lentils. Now I've even made some lentil tortillas, but they are not as good as the chickpeas tortilla. So as long as I can get money as on chickpeas, that's the one that I'm going to do. But I know I have a really old recipe on the website about a lentil. I think it's like called Kathmandu is that a place that's a place, right. A place I believe. Yeah. Stew. And it uses red lentils and it's kind of like a Curry or whatever.

Shonda (19:18): And it's really, Oh, I don't know if that one has coconut, but another thing that lentils. Okay. So red lentils will break up when you cook them. I mean, there's hardly no way to cook a red lentil without it breaking up. And so it, it can be used as a good thickener to soups. So I do that a lot. Sometimes I just add lentils into something that I want a thick soup with so that I don't have to over cook the other beans in the soup. Um, and it's quick and easy to cook a cook in about 20 minutes, either one of them, I think the lentils, the lentils take much less, but the green and the Brown lentils will cook in about 20 minutes on the stove top. Or it's probably about 10 minutes in the IntantPot.

Patryce (20:05): Wow. I need to get one of those.

Shonda (20:08): Yeah. Yeah. You do. You do. You really do so,

Shonda (20:14): Uh, I think I just about covered all of the different, uh, beans that I like to enjoy. I mean, I, sometimes I buy the bean mixes and just make a bean soup and, um, [Good idea.] Yeah. Do that too.

Patryce (20:29): Well. That's some great sharing, because it's a lot of great ideas and then finding out that you can freeze the garbanzo beans or chickpeas. That's a big piece of information, but also I'm just excited because we know that all these beans have a lot of protein. So a lot of times we have people who are not used to a plant-based or more vegetarian type diet, they'll be, Oh, your protein, you know, that's what you get that from your meat, but you can just remind them, Hey, all these beans have a lot of protein. And, and with that protein, uh, they don't have a lot of fat. So it's, it's a, win-win lots of protein, but not a lot of fat. So, um, I'm just excited about some of the ideas that you shared and, um, I I'm like you I'd like most of these as well.

Patryce (21:19): I have not done much with the tofu other than buying when I'm out, but I feel like that's the, I can educate myself more about, because there's different firmnesses. I did not realize that like there's a soft and a firm - all that stuff. So, uh, and it's very important to the flavor that I realized, because that's a good step when it's flavored well seasoned well, the tofu. So I want to experiment more with the tofu and I want to experiment more with like you, what you do is you make all your beans and I have to be honest, I I'm bad about buying either canned beans or, you know, you know, my, one of my favorite places is trader Joe's and they have, the humus already made up and so forth. But now was hearing you talk about how fast, the beans are in the IntantPot. I am encouraged that I can not only make them, but I can store them up. And then from that batch of frozen chickpeas that I can make a lot of stuff. I can make hummus. I can use it for a soup. So this is just encouraging. Yeah.

Shonda (22:31): Yeah. It makes really quick meals, you know, it's, it is kinda, I think about it as the meat substitute portion, uh, for, you know, the dishes that I make. I always, I usually always eat beans in something, you know. I may eat different amounts of beans, you know, depending on if I'm just adding them to a salad or whatever, but, um, yeah. Oh, and with the chickpeas, I've also made a chickpea tuna salad too.

Patryce (22:59): Oh, I wanted to try that. I saw the recipe, but I haven't made it yet. I do want to make that.

Shonda (23:04): I think they said you can make it like a chick pea, tuna, or chick pea chicken kind of thing. So, yeah, I do like those. And so I just like to, I know we probably already mentioned this, that, you know, beans have high levels of fiber. Yeah. Okay. So, um, beans have high amounts of fiber and resistant starch, which is, uh, carbohydrates that are not broken down by digestive enzymes. Okay. So when they are in, when they reached the intestines, they get gobbled up by bacteria and that's how can increase your gut microbiome. And you know that we have a, um, we're going to be watching this coming Monday. Let's see. No, it would have already happened. We're going to put a link to it. Dr. Baxter Montgomery is going to be talking about the gut microbiome on Monday. Definitely. So this has already happened. We will definitely put a link below in the show notes, but, um, yeah, intestinal bacteria and, you know, he can better explain it, but I'm just telling y'all fiber is good for your gut. It can protect colon cancer risk by 50%. So, um, you know, all these foods are high in fiber actually, you know, there are fiber foods, so that's why these are good foods and, you know, doing things like decreasing cancer, lowering cholesterol, uh, preventing food cravings.

Patryce (24:44): That's a good question. That's a good point. Fiber fills you up. So if you're looking at losing weight. That's another great way to do it. [Yeah, exactly.]

Shonda (24:54): Yeah, yeah. Oh, and, uh, anti-diabetes, because the, uh, carbs are digested more slowly than a refined carbohydrate. Yeah.

Patryce (25:06): That's very important. Considering in America, diabetes is definitely on the uptick. Wow. So this is all good information. And now that you've been talking, I just remembered another thing I've been doing recently with be because unlike you, I didn't really grow up eating a lot of beans other than I think some black items here and there. But, um, as an adult, I started discovering beans, but I love to, when I stopped doing the traditional baked potato, um, now I do mainly just sweet potatoes. And specifically we liked the Japanese ones here. Uh, they're very tasty, but you bake them just like you would, the old that the regular Idaho baked potatoes, but you bake the sweet potato. And then I load them up with, with the beans. [Right.] We are able to flavor, you know, whatever sauce, however you flavor your beans, but you can throw that on top of potato. And then some, some steamed broccoli. I have a full meal and I'm not hungry for a long time.

Shonda (26:06): Yeah. There was also a recipe out there. That's a Tex-Mex sweet potato broccoli. No, I don't know if I put broccoli in there, but it's in the recipe, but you, yeah. You can use any, any vegetables, additional vegetables that you'd like, so, yeah. And that was quite tasty. I had never done that really. Um, I put like garbanzo beans and broccoli on a baked potato, like a baked Irish potato, but this one was just the flavors, you know, I just love Tex-Mex food. I like Asian food too. But sometimes Asian food, uh, may require a little bit more sweetness, you know, a lot of the recipes. And so I like, I like, you know, I was just like Tex-Mex. I think I like spicy. I like spicy over sweet. Um, so yeah, we have a lot of recipes out there, so, uh, I'll link to some under the show notes and um, you have to try them. Yeah.

Patryce (27:07): Yes. Very good. I'm hungry now. [I know.] You know what, one of the thing I'm just thinking about cooking and food and now it's fall. In Winter chili is e a big deal, but you know, growing up, I did have a lot chili with the beef or whatever the meat was, but now, I make chili without the meat and I add sweet potatoes in my chili, with beans, lots of beans.

Shonda (27:33): Yes. And yeah. And sweet potatoes go well or potatoes go well in soups and chilis. So, you know, when you said that, do you know that when I used to buy this was like, okay, very long time ago, probably about 15 years ago, I used to buy chili in the can, but I never did like the chili in the can with the meat. It was like a hot dog uh, chili. And you know, what it was made with. And I have not tried it. It was made with beans and oats. [Oh.] That's what made the meaty texture were... what were the oldoat parts of that.

Patryce (28:13): Of the vegetarian chili?

Shonda (28:15): Yeah. Well, it wasn't advertised as vegetarian. I don't know what else was in there, but it did not have any meat. Oh, okay. Yeah. So I'm not sure, really. I need to go find that, but I am going to try that in my next chili, I'm going to try or try to find a recipe that uses. Yeah. It's, it's cold. I think it's time to try a chili with some of them.

Patryce (28:38): Yeah, I think so too. And I'm now thinking about this chili we used to make all the time, it's like a Paleo recipe, but you just can make it without the meat, but it's delicious. Flavors, flavors. And I suppose in the InstantPot you can make chili probably faster.

Shonda (28:58): Oh, you just dump it all in there and put the lid on and turn it on. And you're done.

Patryce (29:04): Wow. Not with my, no, I'm not that big, no...

Shonda (29:09): I do not have time to sit. I mean, you know, and I have a crock pot, but you know, the crock pot takes all day. And uh, I mean, that's okay if I start early enough, but usually I don't start early enough and I just dump it all in the IntantPot and walk a way from it. I don't, I can go to the grocery store, I can do anything I want. And it is there on the countertop, you know, safe. Um, if I'm leaving, I don't go that far. And usually someone's at the house. So just let them know it's on there, but can do it. You know, it's just as safe as the crock pot. Once you get it sealed, once it gets sealed, you know, and you know, you can verify that yours isn't having any issues. I use the Instapot almost every day.

Patryce (29:59): So that's good to know because we have a lot of people listening who probably have very busy lives, maybe working outside of home and children and just a lot going on. And that can be sometimes a deterrent, honestly, that was mine, you know, not enough time. And now hearing how quickly this InstantPot cooks some of the same favorite foods. I may want to cook again because honestly I think a lot of times people are just tired and they don't want to have to wait so long or spend so much time, but the way you're talking, you could have done it over the weekend or prep work and then just throw it in there and you are done.

Shonda (30:36): It's so simple. Yeah. So, okay. So, um, I think we're going to sum up beans, but of course, if you have any questions you can, uh, send us an email or there's a page, there's a link on the podcast page and it's called a SpeakPipe and you can actually send us a recorded voice message and that we can return, um, back to you.

Shonda (31:02): So that's it for beans, but stay tuned next week. We're going to be talking about the O in G-BOMBS and the O is for onions. And actually, you know, I think we're going to talk about onions. Oh yeah. We're going to talk about the Oh and the M yeah. We're going to talk about, Oh, for onions and M for mushrooms. Yum. So I know you've probably, you may have more experience with more mushrooms with your world travels.

Patryce (31:33): I just like mushrooms. I know that. So could talk about them. They're tasty. There's so many of them too.

Shonda (31:41): Right? Yeah. So stay tuned for that. That's going to be fun and we'll make sure we find some good ways to use, you know, onions, which you know, is just not onions. That's a big family of different foods. So stay tuned for that. And we will, um, be with you next time.

Speaker 1 (32:03): Thanks for listening. We hope you enjoy today's podcast. Remember you can catch show notes and additional details@realfoodanddrinks.com under the podcast menu. Also subscribe to our podcast. If you aren't already a member of our community. And if listening through anchor, please send us a message of topics you would like to hear us have conversations about. Until next time. Let's just be real.

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Podcast Episode 11 – Immunity – ‘G’ in G-BOMBS

Green Leafy Vegetables

G-BOMBS” is an acronym that you can use to remember the best anti-cancer, health-promoting foods on the planet. These are the foods that you should eat every day, making up a significant proportion of your diet. They are extremely effective at preventing chronic disease, including cancer, and promoting health and longevity. (Quoted by Dr. Joel Fuhrman)Today we discuss the ‘G’ IN G-BOMBS which stands for GREENS! We talk about some of our favorite greens, how we prepare them, and their health benefits. Stay tuned for all the episodes. G-BOMBS defined: G = Greens, B = Beans, O = Onions, M = Mushrooms, B = Berries, and S = Seeds.

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If you haven’t done so already, download the Delicious “No-Fail” Salads Guide – another great way to eat those GREENS!

Show References & Additional Notes:

Greens, Beans, Onions, and Mushrooms – G-BOMBS Part 1 (A quick meal)

Sauerkraut Recipe using cabbages

Sadhkin Cabbage – 3 Ways

Green Smoothie

Kale Chips

Shonda (00:00): G-BOMBS is an acronym that you can use to remember the best anti-cancer health promoting foods on the planet. These are the foods that you should eat every day, making up a significant proportion of your diet. They're extremely effective at preventing chronic disease, including cancer and promoting health and longevity. That's a quote from Dr. Joel Fuhrman. Today, we will be focusing on the G in G bombs, which stands for greens.

Shonda and Patryce (00:44): Hi and hello. Welcome to the real food and drinks lifestyle podcast. We're building a community to talk about nutrition, lifestyle choices, and just feeling better. This is Shonda, and this is Patryce. Let's just be real. Here's our disclaimer. We do not officially practice in any of the various subjects that we discuss. We are only sharing our personal experiences with you to a healthier lifestyle. Please do your own research before taking part in any of these practices.

Shonda (01:30): Hi Patryce. Here we are again, and we're back on our immune system series or our series of immunity. So today

Shonda (01:41): We're talking about, uh, the G part of G bombs, and I'm going to let you start Patryce telling us, um, well, just start anywhere. What, what, what, what are your favorite greens or, you know, you did any extra research to find out what's so good about them? I'll let you take it over from there.

Patryce (02:04): Excellent. Some of my favorite greens, I just started racking my brains about what I tend to gravitate to. And then I did start doing a little research to see how nutritionally packed the greens that I favor really are. And, uh, I was happy to learn that they aren't just tasty to me, but they're actually nutritious as well. And the first one, uh, that's been very, a favorite in our house is kale these days, K A L E. You can eat it raw or you can eat it sauteed. You can even make kale chips. And that was, I would think that's the top one.

Shonda (02:46): That's your top green? Okay. So yes. Do you prepare it all those different ways too?

Patryce (02:54): Yes, actually I do, but normally I, we eat it raw and to be honest, that's because it's the fastest way. And I know some people think of it as, um, a little chewier than they'd like, or what's the word, but what, what, what is important is that you also want to massage your raw kale if you don't want it so tough. And that just means putting the healthy oil of your choice and, and just basically doing just that, massaging it with your hands, your fingers. It's more tender, I suppose. But yeah, we usually eat it raw and I did learn that. Yes, it's great in all different forms, but by consuming it raw, you're getting the most, the most nutrition out of that.

Shonda (03:47): Okay. Yeah. So that sounds good. Anything else on kale? I, that, that's one of my favorites too, and it's exactly, for the same reasons

Patryce (03:56): Now that you asked anything else about ka-- if there's anything else about kale, I did find out that one cup of kale contains 684% of the, your daily value of vitamin K and then 206% of vitamin A and 134% ov Vitamin C's daily value.

Shonda (04:18): Wow, that's quite a bit,

Patryce (04:21): Okay. Another favorite would be greens and those many people may not know what those are, but they're basically immature greens produced from the seeds of vegetables and herbs. And, uh, the reason why, well, I became familiar with these going to the farmer's market. They offered some micro greens from one of the local farms, and I just liked them and you could eat them straight out of the container. And they're just a fast..., You can put them on your salads, make it, sell it from them, or just add them to your foods, which I did a lot of. And again, I looked those up and they have a lot of vitamin C, E and K.

Shonda (05:03): Okay. So where do you get your microgreens from now that you may not be visiting the, um, farmer's markets that much?

Patryce (05:11): That's a good point. Well, when I don't go to the farmer's market, uh, I have found them recently at Trader Joe's. So that's exciting. And they do say them micro greens are grown all year round, and that is actually something you might consider growing in your own kitchen or what have you. I've never done that, but I have been able to find them at Trader Joe's when I haven't made it to the farmer market. Uh, another one would be spinach, another yummy, a green leafy vegetable, and that one's high in K. Vitamin K a and manganese, That's it. Yes. Has manganese and folate and then cabbage and cabbage is really great in that... Now, you know, I grew up mainly on green cabbage, but you can also get purple and white and it's another very healthy, healthy green. And then I don't know if it's my favorite, but I did grow up on a lot of collard greens as a child. And my grandfather grew them a lot. And my mother, even now, my mother has a community garden where, uh, it's a neighborhood type garden. So she's able to get collard greens at times. And, uh, depending on how they're prepared, they can be delicious too.

Shonda (06:36): Right. Yeah. Or you can use them in as wraps cause their leaves grow so big.

Patryce (06:42): Ah, I never have. I've never done that.

Shonda (06:46): Oh yeah. That's my favorite way to eat those. You've never had to do it cause you, you could eat bread. Well, yeah, I think the important thing is to just, you know, we're, we're calling out all these different vitamins and minerals, but the key is to just eat a lot of greens and you'll get all the vitamins & minerals, you know, that, that they provide, uh, the way they are supposed to be provided in these whole foods. So that sounds good.

Patryce (07:16): I, I'm a big fan of beet and just found out recently that you can eat the, the leaf, the green Leaves of the beets. I've never done that, but apparently those are really good. So I just threw that out there as something to explore, but another very good one is bok choy. And sometimes it may be more challenging to find it because if you go to an Asian market, it's more plentiful, [right]. The bok choy, but those are quite tasty. I know stir frying them is really good.

Shonda (07:51): Yeah. Okay. So yeah, they are. I do, like, I like all of those and I have eaten beet greens. I have juiced beet greens and they are quite strong. Beet greens, um, they are very, um, green tasting, you know? No, actually they taste more like the beet. They're kind of like, um, the only thing I can think of is like a dirtier green, I don't know. But, um, you know, I would add them with a lot of different greens and not just one, you know, not just eat them alone.

Patryce (08:26): [Actually.].. I see that, that makes sense.

Shonda (08:29): Turnips and mustards are two of my favorite and, and you know, it's, it's odd that I usually only cook these in the winter months, but I think that's when they are more plentiful that when they actually grow. So, you know, it's kind of important, you know, there are some that say eat, eat in season. So right now I think most of the greens that you were talking about, or just let's say most greens are really in season in the cold months. I actually have some kale, uh, I have some growing in my garden right now and I'm telling you, these greens are really happy in the cold weather.

Patryce (09:13): Oh, good to know. [Yeah.]

Shonda (09:16): So, uh, yeah. And guess what, everyone, I started them from seed. I planted them...

Patryce (09:21): Congratulations.

Shonda (09:24): Yeah. That's been fun, so, [wow].

Shonda (09:28): Okay. So I think in the house here, um, my, uh, adult children, uh, may not be as adventurous, but they do eat romaine lettuce, you know? So that's one that, um, still has some good vitamins in it. I know it's vitamin A and K in there and you know, and they make really good crunchy parts in fresh salads, but actually speaking of crunch, did you already mentioned you did, you mentioned cabbage and I hadn't, I was unaware that there is a white cabbage. I definitely would pick it up if I ever found it, but I do use green and purple a lot in a salad, um, along with carrots. So, um, that's another good one. Now, um, or one that tastes pretty similar to the beet greens is uh Swiss Chard. Yeah. So they're another..., But they're so pretty. I mean, they're just pretty to me and that's why, that's why I buy them really.

Shonda (10:36): And, uh, I buy them cause they're pretty, you know, they're usually, you know, they can be, you know, they have the red veins and then green and then yeah. Some of it could be a little, uh, orange, you know, they're just so pretty. And so when I, when I, when I, when I'm in the store and I see them and they look really healthy and just colorful, I just, I can't help, but buy them and um, usually I do wilt those. Swiss Chard, you know, along with a grain or something, I like to wilt them or maybe cook them with a little garlic or something like that. But I think, um, yeah, all of these are good In Vitamin A and C and K and of course calcium, because we know that, you know, greens provide calcium for us.

Patryce (11:24): So True. So true. Can we go back to the cabbage? Because one other thing I remember you used to make a lot of sauerkraut and that is from cabbage.

Shonda (11:36): Exactly. Yeah. The purple kraut is everyone's favorite.

Patryce (11:40): Purple kraut. That's right. You did more of that than the green, or did you do green at all? I don't remember ...

Shonda (11:46): Green. And when I do green make the green cabbage, I like to make it, uh, and kimchi style, you know, or more spicy. And then the purple is sweet because it has pineapple added to it. And I do, I have some in my fridge and I had some, I think this morning, so yeah.

Patryce (12:08): Yeah. Well, that's another great use of cabbage because of the fermentation. That's very good for our gut health.

Shonda (12:15): Yeah. That kicks it up a notch.

Patryce (12:18): I do want to ask you, I'm sorry. I wanted to ask you about the Swiss Chard because I, now that you mention it, they do look very attractive, but for whatever reason, I not really prepared those. And I wondered is the taste very strong?

Shonda (12:34): Yeah. The taste of Swiss Chard is strong. Oh yeah, yeah. A little less, a little less bitter than a beet greens, but yeah, they are, um, they have a different texture too. When we know, I, I, like I said, I usually wilt them. So they do, they're, they're very tender, but strong at the same time. I don't know how to describe it. Yeah.

Patryce (13:04): I have to try them one day though. And I, now that I'm asking about some that I haven't tried, I'm curious for yourself or your family, have you juiced many of these because now that I think about it, the only ones I've ever used in like a smoothie or maybe a juice, but definitely smoothie are spinach and kale.

Shonda (13:25): Yeah. Those are two popular ones, but I have put just about everything in a smoothie. It's not like I do it all the time, but when I see them in there, I may just throw it in there and I don't throw it in the same quantities that I would, the spinach or the kale, just because, um, you know, spinach, it's not detectable at all kale's a little bit more tasty, but the others, you know, it may be half of a leaf or something like that when I throw it in there, uh, I have juiced beet greens and, um, uh, you don't want to do too much at a time. You want to mix it with another juice other than just the beets also. Um, I'm trying to remember what else have I juiced? I've juice cabbage. Really? Yeah. It's really good for IBS... Settling the stomach. You know, when I was talking about the colors that attract me to the, uh, Swiss Chard, um, we have to remember those colors are, what are the antioxidants? You know, those are the pigments, uh, that are, um, benefit us, you know, when we see those colors, those colors... And that's why if you've ever heard, you know, eat from the rainbow.

Patryce (14:46): Yes, I have. Yes.

Shonda (14:49): So, yeah. And so we should know that, uh, leaf leafy greens are not always green. Like you said, the cabbages white or the cabbages purple. Um,

Patryce (15:03): But you know what, maybe we can just also share that of course these are wonderful foods to eat because they are whole plant-based food, um, [natural], you know, not processed, but also realizing in addition, they're, they're just very beneficial to our health. And, and I had even learned that they can help reduce the risk of obesity and heart disease, high blood pressure, and even mental decline. Now I have to do more research about the mental decline, but that found that very interesting, um, that it could be helpful in that way.

New Speaker (15:47): Right? Yeah. That's what, that's where Dr. Fuhrman came up with, you know, putting these together. And that's a really neat way to think about it. I guess we could go ahead and tell everyone what all the GBOMBS are. You know, we were starting with greens this week and the others are, are beans, onions, mushrooms, berries, and seeds. So we're, we'll be talking about those things. And, uh, he does highlight that these are extremely effective at preventing chronic disease, including cancer and promoting health and longevity. I want to add that greens. I noticed I've even had, um, barley greens, barley greens as, um, like I did the wheat grass and also barley greens as a dry powder. I noticed that if I would add it, yeah. If I would add it to, um, my smoothies or even just drinking in water, it's just, there is something about greens that really help with detoxification. And so that your body's not having a hard time detoxifying, guess what? You're going to have more energy. Greens have always given me energy. So I know that at times when I'm feeling, you know, like lack luster, whatever, not a lot of energy, I'm like, Oh my goodness, where am I greens? You know? So, um, if energy doesn't get you to eat your greens, I don't know what will,

Patryce (17:23): Well, that's a very good point Shonda, because I was just telling my husband that I need to go back to my routine of having a salad every other day, if not every day, because it's just been a few days where I haven't had my salad. Sometimes I even have a salad for breakfast. And I just feel like it's a great way to start my day. And I... Now that you mentioned it. I do feel like it helps to keep my energy level up. But now that I've gone a few days without having my usual salad, whether it be kale or what have you, I do notice a difference. I don't feel, I feel even heavier. It's not even a matter of whether you look heavier or those scales says. It, it, it may be that reflected too in that way, but there's something about the whole energy level, um, by having those greens and maybe just, just keeping you, um, more detoxed naturally. So I'm going to experiment with that because it's been a few days that I have not had my salad on a regular basis.

Shonda (18:27): Okay. I'm going to check in with you tomorrow. So yeah, everyone look for that upcoming video on, uh, creating G bombs to be out soon. We're going to wrap it up today. Yeah. We hope you've enjoyed this and are encouraged to eat more greens. Green is my favorite color by the way.

Patryce (18:48): Oh, really? I'm not surprised.

Shonda (18:53): Thanks for listening. We hope you enjoy today's podcast. Remember you can catch show notes and additional details at RealFoodAndDrinks.com under the podcast menu. Also subscribe to our podcast if you aren't already a member of our community. And if listening through anchor, please send us a message of topics you would like to hear us have conversations about until next time. Let's just be real.

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Podcast Episode 6 – Sugar – The Holidays and Your Immune System

Episode 6 Sugar-The Holidays and Your Immune System

The discussion today is about how sugar affects your immune system. As we enter into the Holiday season, sugar seems to take center stage beginning with Halloween. The temptation to overload on sugar continues through Christmas and really doesn’t subside until Valentine’s day. Have you thought about the impact that sugar has on your immune system? This is something that everyone should consider and this year especially since our immune system will likely have to confront Covid-19. Some suggestions will be presented on how to cut back on sugar.

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RECIPES – Desserts without refined sugars:

Vegan Sweet Potato Pie, Almond Flour Cookies, Apples and Dip Party Platter, Real Food Rocky Road “Ice” Cream, Starbucks Frappuccino OR Wendy’s Frosty “Knock-Offs”, and more coming your way here and on YouTube

SODA SUBSTITUTES: (This information and other healthy eating tips are inside of the FREE copy of the Guidebook with Shopping List and Salad Template.)

Many health food stores and some grocery stores sell probiotic
drinks such as Kombucha and Kevita.

● They are an excellent substitute for sodas and (other common)
energy drinks. These drinks make a good substitute because they
are bubbly drinks (very similar to the carbonation found in sodas.)
Yet, they do not contain artificial ingredients, artificial colors, or
preservatives.
● The sugar content of Kevita’s water kefir drinks range from 0 to 5
grams of sugar and NO ARTIFICIAL SUGARS!
● Kombucha drinks are tea-based and contain caffeine.
● Kevita drinks do not contain any caffeine.
● They are other many other coconut water-based and fruit-based
probiotic drinks available also.

Show References:

https://www.thedoctorstv.com/videos/sugar-and-your-immune-system
https://www.pcrm.org/news/blog/escape-milks-horrors-halloween

More Education:

Also, you should watch “Halloween and Holiday Sweets: Can our holiday treats increase our risk for influenza, COVID-19?” (Montgomery Heart & Wellness) – For a discussion among doctors.

Shonda (00:00): I found one mini clip from the show, the doctors one guest doctor showed a graphic that demonstrated how the increase in sugary sweets at a particular time of the year. We're talking from October, actually through February ending in Valentine's day. These are the cold months, but these are also the time of year when most people over consume sugary sweets, that graphic actually demonstrated how the increase in sugary sweets and the increase in colds and flu coincide with one another year after year, I will definitely put a link to that short clip, it's about two minutes, in the show notes for today's episode.

Shonda and Patryce (00:54): Hi and hello. Welcome to the real food and drinks lifestyle podcast. We're building a community to talk about nutrition, lifestyle choices, and just feeling better. This is Shonda and this is Patryce. Let's just be real. [inaudible] Here's our disclaimer. We do not officially practice in any of the various subjects that we discuss. We are only sharing our personal experiences with you to a healthier lifestyle. Please do your own research before taking part in any of these practices.

Shonda (01:40): In today's podcast. We'll be talking about the upcoming season of festivities beginning with Halloween and Thanksgiving and Christmas. Of course, this season is where it gets colder. We know that historically more people get colds and flu during the season, but I like to talk about the possibility of why? Is it really just that it's cold. But one thing that I know for sure is that sugar wreaks have it on our immune system. Beginning with Halloween kids, especially overeat sugar, they're already eating too much sugar. And then on top of their normal sugar intake, they're eating tons more of sugar because of this special holiday. I've never been a fan of this holiday because of its spookiness. Anyway, and I just think that it's a bad thing to overload on candy. I realized that sugar had a bad effect on me personally, and that was one of the first things that I gave up... were sweets. Even though I wasn't a big sweet eater, but the few times that I would try to have something sweet, I would just feel miserable and I wanted to feel alive and well and not down and out tired and sleepy and groggy because I had eaten sugar.

Shonda (03:13): Let's talk about how sugar affects your immune system. I don't think it's any secret because we hear these reports in the news and, and even from our doctors probably, likely, but I just think many people don't consider it or they think, well, I can have a little bit of sugar. I'm talking about refined sugar. I'm talking about sugar that is not natural. Sugar that is highly processed, sugar that has no nutrients, sugar that usually coincides alongside of preservatives and colors and things that we know are not good for our bodies. Consuming sugar affects your body's ability to fight off viruses or other infections in the body. Sugar depletes, the white blood cells, uh, known as killer cells. And I'm wondering about that. And when I think about that, you know, no one really talks about how the consumption of sugar. Why is it depleting? The white blood cells?

Shonda (04:16): So white blood cells are there to fight off viruses or these white cells being damaged? One report said that white blood cells are not able to do their job and destroy bad bacteria or viruses as well as when someone does not eat sugar. Another study showed that high sugar affects infection, fighting mechanisms in diabetics. One article that I found talked about in a 1973 study done by Loma Linda University. When you eat 100 grams of sugar, about as much sugar as you find in, uh, one bottle, one liter bottle of soda, your white blood cells are 40% less effective at killing germs. So you can cripple your immune system by up to five hours after eating sugar. Okay. So I was thinking about uh 100 grams. Well, that's a lot, that's like, it's like 25 teaspoons of sugar. Can you imagine that? I mean, can you imagine just sitting there eating 25 spoonfuls of sugar, that same study talked about how sugar impacts your white blood cells by competing for space in those cells with vitamin C (taking the places where vitamin C would normally reside).

Shonda (05:36): So do we really want to be replacing vitamin C with sugar? That doesn't sound like a good alternative. So while I'm on the subject of sodas or just mentioned sodas, let's talk about some soda substitutes, because there are many things that we could enjoy other than soda. Most sodas are filled with high fructose corn syrup, which is a level above just plain cane sugar. And it will totally wreck your immune system along with all the other additives and preservatives that go along with this sugar. So I want to talk about drinks such as kombucha drinks or Kevita drinks. Um, these are probiotic drinks that are now readily available on grocery store shelves. Some are coconut water base, some are tea based, and these are fermented drinks. But guess what the best part of these fermented drinks is that they are bubbly. If it's the bubbly part, you know, that you really enjoy, you should definitely try some of these soda substitutes.

Shonda (06:46): I've heard that many of these sodas are addictive. So I'm not quite sure what to do about the addiction yet, other than you're just going to have to be determined to make this change. I think your body will thank you for it, but to get addicted to health, let's get addicted to healthy feelings. You know, let's get addicted to energy from our food. I think that's a good way to help us make a change. Let's get addicted to good things. Also, you could try just sparkling water and perhaps with a squeeze of lemon and some Stevia. Um, these are all good things that would make better substitutes to drinking soda for sure. While I'm on the subject of drinks, you know, it's always better to, I want to say, eat your sugar, but I'm wanting to remind you not to overeat your sugar. And we want to talk about eating healthy sugars.

Shonda (07:48): Okay, we're going to talk about that in a bit, but while we're talking about drinks that contain sugar, did you know that three cups of let's say even low fat milk, um, amounts to more than 37 grams of sugar and additionally 14 grams of fat. Okay. I'm going to link the article below to where I found this information, but this milk that many parents may be given to their children three times a day, you know, breakfast, lunch, and dinner, you know, we've been programmed to drink your milk. Well, this milk actually has more sugar and more fat than Halloween candies. Okay? So that's something to really consider and to think about soon, we're going to do another episode and we're going to talk about milk because we're going to talk about milk the way it's found today and how it's not natural, none of the milk that, and I'm speaking specifically about cows milk that you find on the grocery store. shelves is not natural for you to drink, so that will be coming soon.

Shonda (08:58): Another thing we got to consider is the bottle juices that we're consuming. Now, if we go for the more fresh bottled juices made with a hundred percent juice and not much more additives, it's 27 grams of sugar. And that's in one serving though. I think that's even more than in a serving of milk and a milk. I think there's about 10 grams. So this is double the amount of sugar. That's about six and a half teaspoons of sugar in a bottle juice. And when I'm talking about bottle juice, I mean, anything that you find, maybe even in the fridge, in the cold section, like bottled orange juices, unless they're naturally fresh pressed bottled orange juices, along with the pulp, orange juice has a lot of sugar and should definitely not be removed from its fiber content .

Shonda (09:54): in the cold section or on the shelves, all of these juices have been pasteurized and pasteurized kills the living enzymes that are in the natural fruit. We want to consume fruit juices, or even for that fact vegetable juices, along with their living enzymes, we do not want pasteurized juices. Okay so there's a difference. I do enjoy fresh pressed juice at home. And whether that is taking an orange and pressing it, or, you know, mostly like I say, fruits, I'd rather put in smoothies because they are sweeteners and they, you need the fiber to help with digestion and fiber actually slows down uptake of the sugar, you know, into your body. But let's talk about other juice, fresh pressed juices that we can have. I highly recommend green, fresh pressed juices. And when I say fresh pressed, either you would have to go to a juice bar to get it freshly pressed, where they grind up the pulp and then they squeeze all the juice out.

Shonda (11:05): Or at home, there are two different types of juicers. There's a centrifugal juicer. And then there is a slow masticating juicer. So those are the two most common types that you can easily find at the store and bring home and, and do. And what I normally do though, when I, I, I usually drink my juice alongside a meal, because remember I said, it contains these living enzymes. It helps with digestion. Okay. And it has so many nutrients, antioxidants and minerals in the juice that's helpful for our diet and for, for building us up and being a healthy addition to our diet. So when we drink these with our meals, we're enhancing the meals and we're getting fiber from our meals, especially if we're eating a plant-based diet. So now let's turn our attention back to sugary foods and some examples of those on Halloween, we eat candy that's full of sugar and fat, especially if we're talking about milk chocolates and all of these things, not to mention how bad this is for your teeth.

Shonda (12:25): So, um, I just wanted to put that in there. Okay. So we're talking about how these foods lower your immune system. Next comes Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is when we eat what?... Pies, cookies, more pies and pies and pies. I think pies is the big thing, but, you know, I guess, and then there's this cranberry sauce that comes out of a can. I'm definitely sure. I'm not even going to look at that right now, but I'm sure that has sugar added to it. So that's more sugar, uh, candied yams. I'm going to put a link to a sweet potato pie that I made recently. I'm working to come up with some recipes for this episode, but one in particular, I made a sweet potato pie that only used maple syrup as the sweetener, no eggs and no dairy. And the link is below. I want you to check it out.

Shonda (13:23): My daughter who's 19 and her friend both said that it was tasty and that it was good. And, you know, it's something that they could enjoy. So the filling is the most important part. That is the sugary part. This pie was made with an oatmeal crust. Uh, there are a lot of different options that we could use for the crust also, but I want you to focus that that whole sweet potato, I, it was peeled, but it contains fiber. It contains nutrients. I mean the pretty brilliant color of orange signifies that there are anti-oxidants in this food. We can make sweet potatoes into a pie to make it more enjoyable. I guess next, when Christmas gets here, there are some pies, but I think there are more cookies and more, more little finger sugary foods and, and cupcakes. And there are the candy canes. The peppermint candy canes definitely have sugar.

Shonda (14:25): The sugary drinks, the wassail has sugar, cocoa, hot cocoa. Well, at least we know to make hot cocoa using a plant-based milk, right? We can cut down on that sugar, fat and hormones in the milk, which would not be good for our immune system either. So I'll definitely find a better alternative to hot chocolate, hot cocoa. So I guess maybe your main questions are so what do I do? I'm used to eating these foods. One thing that we can do is we can make our own and we can take it to the gatherings. Now due to COVID-19, there may be less gathering. So, hey, we have more time at home to create better alternatives to sugary foods, right? I really, I wanted to get this post out there because we're, we're right at the beginning of Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. And then, you know, there's a little break to Valentine's day, but I just wanted to get this out there for you to consider cutting down on the sugary sweets. Find an alternative.

Shonda (15:32): My job will be throughout this season to post alternatives for you. Okay? If we want something sweet, we need to look to fruit and eating fruit as a whole fruit or eating the yams without added sugar. In fact, if we roast a whole sweet potato in the oven, it becomes caramelized within its own skin. No need to add any sugar at all. I will be posting recipes and videos and just encouragement on Instagram. Join our Facebook group and we can encourage one another there. We want to enjoy the remainder of the year. We don't want to lower our immune system. There are things that we can do to help ourselves. It's time that we take control. Okay, this virus is here, we need a healthy, strong immune system. We need to eat our vegetables, especially green vegetables. We need to eat whole foods, fiber, you know, nuts and seeds and healthy fats.

Shonda (16:34): And I just want you to hang in there and we're going to do this together. And if you ever have any questions, you can contact me through the website. Or also there are links to voice your question at speakpipe.com and that's a forward slash real food and drinks (speakpipe.com/realfoordanddrinks). There's a link for that on the website also. I want to hear from you. I want to hear what your thoughts are, what your struggles are, what do you need help with, and then hopefully I can present you with some options and some good alternatives. So that's all I wanted to bring you today. Remember we are at the beginning of this, you can take control now so that you can fare better through this season. Okay? Hang in there. We're going to do this. This is Shonda. Please join me next time. As we continue this discussion concerning sugar. Patryce will be joining us and sharing some pointers and tips about other foods for which we may not be aware of as to how much sugar we are actually consuming.

Shonda (17:43): Thanks for listening. We hope you enjoyed today's podcast. Remember you can catch show notes and additional details at realfoodanddrinks.com under the podcast menu. Also subscribe to our podcast if you aren't already a member of our community. And if listening through Anchor, please send us a message of topics you would like to hear us have conversations about until next time. Let's just be real.

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Drinking Tea for Health Benefits

I have to admit that I mostly drink tea when I’m looking to warm up on a cold winter’s night. So, yes, I mostly drink hot tea. Yet, tea can be enjoyed in a variety of ways and, likewise, there are so many varieties of tea. But most notably, we should be drinking tea for health reasons and its many benefits.

Black tea is what many of us are most familiar with. Some of us drink this tea when out at restaurants and some of us who make it at home using tea bags. In the South, like here in Houston, it’s know as sweet tea. Actually, though I’ve lived here my entire life, I didn’t become familiar with the term sweet tea until just a few years back. (In the community I grew up, sweet tea was replaced by Kool-aid, but that’s an aside, another topic for another day.)

Then there is green tea. Green tea originated in China. Today many westerners have adopted this tea into their diets specifically for its health benefits.  Green tea and black tea are both derived from the same plant, yet black tea is more oxidized. See article links below which explain the benefits of green and black tea and how tea is processed. 

But, today we will talk about other types of teas.

Roots, spices and plant teas for health benefits:

Roots, spices and plant leaves can be used to create tea also. Usually this is accomplished by heating/boiling water and allowing the substances to be infused into the water. The longer the infusion time, the stronger the tea. Similarly, a stronger tea can be made by using more of the root, spice or leaves.

On a recent podcast titled, “Immunity Series – Drinking Teas”, Patryce (my co-host) shared a few of her favorite teas and how they benefit our immune systems. Here are her findings.

Benefits of Drinking Teas

Burdock Root Tea

  • Heals the liver
  • Reduces inflammation
  • Improves hair health
  • Aids in healing of stomach disorders

Ginger Root Tea

  • Eases morning sicknesses
  • Eases period pains
  • Protects against cancer, heart disease and type-two diabetes

Rooibos (Red Bush)Tea

  • Rich in antioxidants
  • Aids in bone health
  • Improves digestive health

Peppermint Tea

  • Increases your energy
  • Increases brain oxygen levels
  • Enchances breathing functions
  • Relaxes muscles; even bronchial muscles
  • Eases indigestion

Hibiscus

  • Rich in antioxidants
  • Bosts good HDL levels
  • Lowers bad LDL levels
  • Protects the liver
  • Anti-bacterial properties

Important Note: Only certain hibiscus plants can be used to make hibiscus tea. The flowers of H. sabdariffa and H. acetosella are commonly used when brewing hibiscus tea. (Source)

Tea Plants – More Information

Even though our focus in this article, and during our recent podcast, was on other types of teas other than the common tea plant, I’d like to point out that there are benefits to drinking these teas also.

“Tea, a popular beverage made from leaves of the plant Camellia sinensis, has been shown to reduce body weight, alleviate metabolic syndrome, and prevent diabetes and cardiovascular diseases in animal models and humans. Such beneficial effects have generally been observed in most human studies when the level of tea consumption was 3 to 4 cups (600–900 mg tea catechins) or more per day. Green tea is more effective than black tea.” – An abstract from PMC – US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health

(More about tea processing at Wikipedia.)

Related Podcast:

Visit the  Immunity – Drinking Teas podcast by clicking on this link.