Green Options

Fall salads are as bright and colorful as the falling leaves outside now. I hope you’ll try this easy fresh beet, apple and yam salad with cranberry dressing.

The recipe is simple. First boil and roast the beets and yams. Then let cool, slice some organic apples and the golden beets together with the yams or sweet potatoes. Cranberry vinaigrette adds a delightful tang to this side dish.

Cranberries, the cousin of blueberries, have long been valued for their ability to help prevent and treat urinary tract infections. Recent studies show that this berry may also promote gastrointestinal and oral health, prevent the formation of kidney stones, lower LDL and raise HDL (good) cholesterol, aid in recovery from stroke, and even help prevent cancer. Cranberries are a good source of vitamin C, a very good source of dietary fiber, and a great source of manganese and vitamin K. Cranberries are also a source of polyphenol antioxidants, which are being researched for their possible benefits to the cardiovascular system and immune system. Fresh cranberries are at their peak during the holiday season between October and December. When in season choose fresh, plump cranberries, deep red in color, and quite firm to the touch. Firmness is a primary indicator of quality. The deeper red their color, the more highly concentrated are cranberries’ beneficial compounds. When the season is over or if you can’t find fresh cranberries but still want all the nutritional benefits, simply look for dried or frozen cranberries at your local grocery store. The recipe included is perfect as a holiday side dish or throw over brown rice to make a complete vegan meal. Trust me, these are not your mother’s Brussels sprouts.

Going to a body and nutrition expert with my husband is one of the best things we’ve done for ourselves. What was the key take away? Warning! Turn Alkaline!

Turn Alkaline? Are we magicians? Well according to biochemists we are! You can change your body chemistry with what you eat!

Chemicals have seeped into foods, air, and water, which in turn lower our system’s ability to control the chemistry of our body fluids, increasing illness and chronic disease.

The sad fact is that most food consumption in the wealthiest nations has shifted from nutritious raw foods to low nutritional value processed foods and we need to shift it back. Now that our total biological terrain is at risk, we urgently need to do some clean up by shifting our body chemistry back to the raw, organic foods it was designed to function on as we’ve evolved.

Below I’ve listed out a quick list of the good foods (alkaline) to treat your body to often…

Here are a few known healing properties of common foods you may be tempted to enjoy at fall festivities:

Cranberries: As you may already know, cranberries are body purifiers, low in calories, have no fat and are a nice source of Vitamin C. This health blog states:

“some of the health benefits of eating cranberries:

* prevent bacteria in the bladder, kidneys and prostate
* supports optimum urinary tract health
* may prevent kidney stones
* have both antiviral and antibacterial properties

Here are some fun facts about cranberries:

* More than 85% of the weight of cranberries is water!
* Native Americans used a brewed a cranberry mixture to draw poison from arrow wounds..”

Tomatoes: Pureed, cooked, stewed, in sauce, stored as a sundried treat or marinade, lycophene rich tomatoes are super healing for the body.