Green Options » granola

Feed Your Libido-Vegan Sources of Zinc to Boost Your Libido-Recipe Included

Rachel Venokur-Clark — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 19:40:37 +0000

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.

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Upgrading The College Diet: Breakfast On The Go

Camille Rogers — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 22:44:22 +0000

Since I’ve been in college, my morning routine has remained pretty consistent: wake up, brush my teeth, make some coffee, get dressed, make my bed, collect my school things, fill up my thermos with brew, and go. The whole she-bang takes about an hour. The last step, in which I am walking out the door, is usually when I have an oh yeah moment, and remember that I should eat something. That’s when I grab some Pop-Tarts and run to class.

Even though I eat them for breakfast regularly, I think that Pop-Tarts are a lousy meal. The pastry is bone dry, the filling is overly sweet, and the frosting resembles old, flaking nail polish. I also find Pop-Tarts to be extremely unsatisfying—even when I eat more than one, I feel like I am lightly snacking at best. To make matters worse, I am unsatisfying myself with a lot of empty calories: two tarts (one package) offers 400 calories, 10 grams of fat, and little nutritional value.

Like a lot of the foods in my diet, I’ve been eating Pop-Tarts because they are cheap and convenient. But because breakfast is such a vital part of my day, I’ve decided to start improving the quality of the meal, even if that means investing a little more of my time and money.

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Eat Better, Eat Cheaper - Enjoy Breakfast

Kay Sexton — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 11:39:43 +0000

Everybody knows that they should start the day with a nutritious breakfast because it provides energy and gives the body enough nutrients to avoid snacking on unhealthy foods later in the morning, so it can actually help us lose weight. And everybody knows that healthy cereals are usually something we should be eating more of. And many of us are looking at our food budgets and wondering where we can save money.
I discovered this recipe by accident. I always eat breakfast, but don’t like raisins or sultanas unless they are rehydrated, so most packaged cereals just didn’t appeal to me. Then I realised that if I made my own cereal I could pack it with the things I do like: nuts and seeds, and dried apples, and leave out the things I don’t. But making cereal in the oven was complicated and not cheap – it meant standing over a tray of grains, stirring them every few minutes, and even then they would sometimes scorch, and using the whole oven’s heat on low just to crisp grains seemed environmentally insane.

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Green Goes Mainstream: Celebrities show that being eco-conscious is always in style.

Gennefer Snowfield — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 14:03:46 +0000

Before being ‘green’ became fashionable, and terms like ‘eco-chic’ were coined, being environmentally conscious was synonymous with words like ‘granola’ and ‘treehugger,’ generalizing the eco-conscious crowd as a free-spirited-Birkenstock-wearing-Grateful-Dead-loving bunch of Liberal hippies chanting ‘Peace, man.’

But being green has definitely gone mainstream, and from celebs like Julia Louis-Dreyfus with her lavish, multi-million dollar solar-powered home, to Pierce Brosnan, aptly named the ‘Best Dressed Environmentalist’ by the Sustainable Style Foundation, the stereotype of the gritty, unkempt nature wanderer that once dominated the category no longer applies.

Recently, MSN posted a list of the ‘Top 14 Green Celebrities,’ which contained some long-time environmental advocates and a few surprising new additions, all echoing a commitment to championing this important cause through various initiatives like Leonardo DiCaprio’s documentary film about global warming, the 11th Hour, featuring interviews with green leaders and a companion website where everyone can sign up to take action in their local communities, and George Clooney’s Oil Change, a campaign aimed at ending America’s independence on oil.

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