Green Options

Life flies past us so quickly, and sometimes I’m certain the sound of the wind is actually the sound of life flying by.  That’s the way it’s felt lately; a whirling blur, a constant hum, non-stop motion.  Since my last post in August, I’ve gone on a 14-state road trip, moved from the East Coast back to my beautiful California, and re-entered the corporate world after a year-long hiatus.  My husband quit his job to launch a graphic design business, we found a goat living on our new property, summer faded away into the brilliance of autumn, and I discovered almond flour.

Yes, that’s it.  I discovered almond flour. Extraordinary, delicious, versatile almond flour.

It’s not cheap — I paid about $35 for 5 pounds from my local co-op — but I’ve never enjoyed gluten-free baked goods more.  A single cup of almond flour provides the following nutrients:

• 140% of the RDA for vitamin E
• 80% of the RDA for magnesium
• 60% of the RDA for phosphorus
• 48% of the RDA for protein
• 32% of the RDA of calcium
• 16% of the RDA for folic acid

There’s more.  Almond flour also makes the best banana-nut bread/muffins ever.

Overeating on holidays like Thanksgiving is more than acceptable in our culture - it’s expected.

Why not binge on mashed potatoes, gravy, and pecan pie?  Thanksgiving only comes once a year, after all.  Sure, you might gain a few pounds over the holiday season, but you have until New Year’s to worry about those.

New research suggests that the holiday binge might have a less visible effect than the extra weight around your midsection.  Switching from a healthy diet to one high in fat and sugar - even for just a day - might allow obesity-linked microbes to dominate the communities of microorganisms found in your gut.

Hmmm…eggs. Incredible. Edible.

Many college students like eggs because they provide a cheap, fast and (If prepared correctly) tasty meal. I like eggs for all of those reasons too. Since I have been in school,  I have found them to be reliable for curing both morning and evening hunger.

I also like eggs because they pack a nutritional punch. According to the American Egg Board, one large egg provides six grams of protein; the quality of egg protein is so high that scientists frequently use eggs as the standard for measuring the protein quality of other foods. Eggs are also much lower in fat than many people think (one large egg has 4.5 grams of fat and 75 calories). In addition, eggs have recently begun to shed their rep as heart-clotters because scientists have yet to show that dietary cholesterol (the kind in eggs) significantly boosts blood cholesterol levels in everyone.

We all need a little sweetness in our lives sometimes. Every once in a while, you should be able to fully enjoy a sweet, gooey, chocolatey and delicious dessert without any feelings of guilt and remorse. With the holidays around the corner, finding vegan desserts that actually taste good and have some redeeming nutritional qualities can be difficult. Look no further! For all you vegan dessert lovers out there, bring this recipe to your next holiday gathering and even the carnivores will be licking their plates clean.

I knew little about Foreign Animal Disease (FAD) when I walked into a Wisconsin Department of Agriculture (DATCP) talk on the subject Nov. 3 at the Microbial Sciences Center on the UW-Madison campus.  Here is a description of foot-and-mouth disease, an example of FAD, from www.cattletoday:

Foot-and-Mouth Disease is a severe, highly communicable [...]

When I was a kid, my mom would serve dinner around six-thirty in the evening, seven at the latest. At this time, the sky was still burnt orange and the prime-time sitcoms were just starting to buzz in our living room. After we finished eating, my mom would clean up, and my sister and I would work on homework or play until it was time to take a bath. Most nights, I was in bed by nine.

I can’t remember the last time I ate an evening dinner. Now, my typical dinner time is nine, long after the sky has turned black and the warm sitcom characters on my TV screen have been replaced by frigid local news anchors. My bedtime has also been adjusted, and now hovers around one in the morning. Between those two times, depending how restless I am or how much work I need to finish, dinner might not be the last time I eat before sunrise—I might grab a snack, or even go full throttle and have “fourth meal” (For the record, Taco Bell did not invent the fourth meal. Coeds across America have been slinging around that term for years.).

The holiday season is a time to celebrate with family and friends. Unfortunately, for many it also becomes a time for over-eating and weight gain. According to the National Institutes of Health, holiday eating can result in an extra pound or two every year. Over a lifetime, holiday weight gain can really add up. The holidays don’t have to mean gaining weight. Focus on a healthy balance of food, smart choices, activity, and fun. By implementing a few simple tips you can stay healthy through the holiday season.

“Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants,” says Michael Pollan. While I’m pretty good at eating real, non-processed food and basing my diet on plants, I struggle with the “not too much” part.

I love food. I probably love it a little too much. Although I’m very active, I carry around 10-20 extra pounds from being such a big eater.

Part of the problem is that, as a grad student, I don’t get nearly enough sleep. Sleep deprivation can make you fatter by increasing levels of appetite regulating hormones and eroding your ability to make good decisions. I also spend an inordinate amount of time in front of my computer doing work that I don’t really want to do, so I snack to stay awake and make my work more enjoyable.

So what’s a food-loving, sleep-deprived gal supposed to do? I have enough experience training animals that I know I can’t simply tell myself to stop certain behaviors. (Ever try yelling at your dog to get it to stop barking? Usually doesn’t work, does it? Distracting your dog with a game works much better.) Instead of telling yourself that tomorrow is the day that you will stop overeating, you need to replace a bad habit with a good one to be successful.

Here are some strategies for replacing habits that lead to overeating with healthier habits:

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words but, of course, I’m not going to dedicate 1000 words or even 500 to this picture. My green friend and I spotted this billboard in a not exactly obvious place in the Soma district of San Francisco but we figured that PETA didn’t have or want to spend the big bucks on a billboard right next to the 101 [...]

Zinc is an essential mineral that carries out numerous functions in your body, including promoting a healthy immune system, protecting the liver from damage and it even helps you to heal from wounds. Find yourself deficient in this mineral and your libido will be screaming out to be fed. Zinc is vital for testosterone production, which affects sexual desire, vigor and stamina in both men and women. Zinc deficiencies in men can cause sexual performance problems, which can be embarrassing and uncomfortable for everyone involved. Zinc also helps to prevent PMS symptoms in women and plays an important role in the function of the prostate gland in men. Semen also contains zinc; not enough zinc in your diet and those little guys may be too weak to get to where they need to go. On the other hand, in Chinese Medicine it is believed that excessive ejaculation can reduce the amount of zinc in your body, leading to a loss of sexual desire. It’s a vicious cycle isn’t it? Zinc also allows acuity of smell and taste and a deficiency could lead to a loss of those senses. What a bummer it would be if you couldn’t smell and taste all the sexy food you have been working so hard on.

So how do you know if you are deficient? Some common signs of a possible major deficiency in zinc are acne, fatigue, white spots on your fingernails, hair loss, high cholesterol, prostate trouble, irregular periods, impotence and infertility. However, even a minor deficiency can affect your sexual desire and function, so taking the time to make sure you are getting enough of this mineral during the day can have a positive outcome on your romantic evenings. If you are concerned, there is an oral test that can be done at a doctors’ office, as well as a blood test to determine if you are zinc deficient. Vegetarians and vegans need about 50% more zinc in their diet then meat eaters. Since there is an array of plant-based zinc sources, there is no need to panic and since most Americans are believed to be deficient in this vital mineral, it’s time to eat up people!

Sexy Veggie Food Choices: tempeh, beans including lentil, adzuki beans, chickpeas and lima beans, pumpkin and sunflower seeds, nuts including cashews, pecans, pine nuts, almonds and Brazil nuts, honey, tahini, flax seeds, flax oil, peas, blackberries, kiwi, peas, summer squash, corn and sweet potato, oats and seaweeds including kelp and dulse.

Try this recipe for my “Just Can’t Get Enough Granola” to start boosting your zinc today.

The state of Wisconsin has long served as the national focal point of all things dairy.  However, Wisconsin is also the epicenter of another American food culture niche, and that is alcohol.

My oh my, do people in Wisconsin love to drink. I live the capitol city of Madison and, at least once every weekend, I see snapshot of that state-bred love, either through an embarrassingly sloshed University of Wisconsin undergraduate or a too-tipsy townie. When I found out the actual statistics— that Wisconsin has the highest percentage of drinkers in the population and that, person for person, the state has three times more taverns than anywhere else in the country—I hardly blinked.

Still, I’ll admit that sometimes I find Madison’s hyper-boozing culture to be intimidating. At a lot of college parties, my three-drink limit is everyone else’s warm-up drill, and I’ve met more than a few Badgers whose Thirsty Thursday extends through Wednesday night. However, I’ve never tried to keep up with the crowd. I’m sure some of my peers think it’s lame that my personal bar time is midnight, and not two a.m., but I bet I look a lot cooler the next morning when I haven’t succumbed to their same fate: the head-stinging, stomach-churning, regret-inducing experience that is the hangover.