Nutritional Excellence with Raw Veggies

This clip is called What You Ate as a Kid Can Give You Cancer, but it's really about how switching to a raw vegetable based eating-style in adulthood can protect us against cancer. Dr. Joel Fuhrman is promoting diet for disease prevention, and he's doing so convincingly. Not a bad video to share with friends and family.

Vegsource is a great resource for articles and videos about health and nutrition.

Let Your Food Be Your Medicine

A week or so ago, one of my closest friends (okay, he's my ex-husband) called. He sounded incredibly bummed out, which isn't like him. Usually, we spend the first 5 minutes of a call joking around and teasing each other, but this time he was all business. My first thought was that one of his parents wasn't well. After all, they're getting up there in years and have suffered various ailments.

I wasn't too far off. He'd called to tell us his doctor had diagnosed him with diabetes. He's 44 years old. My mother and stepdad didn't get it until they were in their fifties, but my Ex is at least 75lbs bigger than he was when we married 17 years ago. And of course, all that extra fat is concentrated in his gut, the prime spot for feeding diseases of obesity. He told me that his doctor identified him as pre-diabetic last January and gave him a diet to follow, including a list of foods to eliminate. The list included bread and rice. He's from Honduras. They have tortillas and/or rice with EVERY meal! When I made spaghetti for this guy, I had to include a plate of starchy white rice on the side.

The doctor's orders seemed unrealistic, so he chucked the list and kept on doing what he was doing. The result was a fasting blood sugar level of 351. (Normal range: under 100) He's promised to test regularly, to exercise and to start eating better. If he didn't live on the other side of the country, I'd stick my nose in and start feeding him Raw foods (not sure his wife would like that). From here, all I can do is nag and make suggestions and hope this is the only wake up call he needs.

1 in 6 Black Women Morbidly Obese

"While we're all generally getting fatter, the real burden of morbid obesity is falling disproportionately on one group of Americans: black women. According to a 2002 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), women in general are about twice as likely as men to be morbidly obese, but a sobering 1 in 6 Black women is that overweight--"
--from microtrends, the small forces beind tomorrow's big changes , by Mark J. Penn, with E. Kinney Zalesne (emphasis mine)

My sistahs deserve better. While I've always appreciated and benefited from the African-American cultural admiration of the classic coke-bottle figure, as a group we've gone way beyond that. This is no longer about a subjective standard of beauty. This is our health and happiness we're risking. We are the fattest group of people in one of the fattest countries on the planet, and we have black female celebrities telling us to embrace our obesity. Am I the only one who thinks that's crazy?

Should we embrace being out of breath from a walk around the block? Should we embrace avoiding stairs because our knees ache from carrying the extra bulk? Should we embrace a future tainted by diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease and depression?

How surprised I was to look at a BMI chart and find out I qualified as obese! At just over 5'4" and 176 lbs (that's where I stopped weighing myself, but I'm pretty sure I added a couple after that), it seems ridiculous that the discovery could come as a shock. I knew I was fat. That was obvious, but I had never applied a medical term, like "obesity" to my state. Fortunately for me, I made the necessary changes, and the term no longer fits.

Looking around at social events, or at a local mall, or a predominantly black church, I can't help but notice it. We're outpacing everyone in growing wider. The good thing is, it's preventable and reversible. If you're in shape, reach out to someone who isn't. Invite them over for a healthy meal or out for a walk. Be the one who brings a delicious but healthy dish to the next family dinner. If you're a little out of shape, decide if you're satisfied, but if you're just plain fat, be real about it. Take a serious look at your habits and address the ones that got you there. Forget the fad diets and other extreme solutions, but seek out help if you don't know where to start.

Life is too short to spend it avoiding dressing room mirrors, so we don't have to face our hips and thighs, or crashing on the couch because getting up and doing something takes too much effort. Black women, believe me, you deserve better.

Kelp Noodles

Sounds delish, huh? We recently tried Purely Pad Thai from a certified organic, vegan, raw restaurant in Los Angeles called Leaf Cuisine. I picked up the take-out meal in my local Mother's Market. Intrigued by the idea of raw noodles, I read the list of ingredients.

INGREDIENTS: kelp noodles, yellow squash, red pepper, brazil nuts, cashews, wild jungle peanuts, coconut water, sesame oil, lemon juice, apple cider vinegar, cilantro, agave, dates, and sea salt

Kelp noodles?!?! Apparently, if you strip off the green outer layer of kelp, you're left with clear, neutral tasting, noodle-like innards. I passed by the raw pad thai a few times, then decided to go back for it. At $6 and change for 1 entree, I was hesitant to experiment, but I went for it.

Bravo, Leaf Cuisine! My semi-vegetarian daughter loved it, as did I. My daring boyfriend described it as "different and interesting" and said he'd be willing to have it again. Unfortunately, my 8 year old daughter has nut allergies, so it's difficult to find prepared raw foods she can enjoy with us. All in all, it was a successful experiment. Here's the link for a picture of the meal. http://www.leafcuisine.com/