Green Options » oatmeal

Alkaline Eating for Better Body Chemistry, PH Levels, and Overall Health

Lucille Chi — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 18:43:11 +0000

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…

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Oatmeal Kids (Of All Ages) Will Love

Scott Cooney — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 17:11:36 +0000

Oatmeal has gotten a bad rap. Kids (and adults) may view it as a health food with all the flavor of drywall. There are a lot of ways to get kids of all ages to wake up and WANT oatmeal for their breakfast of choice.

Of course, the health benefits are clear. I’m 34, and while I don’t worry about this kind of stuff, my family history of very high cholesterol had me wondering about the claim Wilford Brimley made about Quaker oats removing cholesterol from your bloodstream. So I decided to run a little self-experiment. In one year, my cholesterol dropped from over 300 down to 164. Call me a believer.

But what about that drywall?

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The Handmade Spa, Part Two : DIY Sea Salt Scrubs, Cucumber Rose Masks & Tea Spritzers

Lucille Chi — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 05:45:35 +0000

Recently we shared some favorite handmade spa beauty highlights here on Crafting a Green World, and here is another spotlight on ways to create your own summer spa soothers from your own kitchen cupboard.

Below are some easy DIY tips to make your own homemade spa products such as refreshing sea salt scrubs, rose and cucumber facials, white and green tea spritzers and more. All of these ingredients are best organic and very easy to find.

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skinnyskinny is for “Seriously Organic” Bathing Beauties

Lucille Chi — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 08:21:57 +0000

I am simply smitten with my new organic skinnyskinny soaps and beauty items!

skinnyskinny features bath, beauty and eco-home items, all created with sustainability in mind. They offer so many wonderful organic handmade soaps to choose from, so if you can’t decide, try their affordable sample set of eight.

My favorite aspect of the company is that their packaging for the gift boxes is intentionally un-branded (there is no company logo or name anywhere on the box making them simple and fun to re-use. This made them the winners of the Best Green Packaging HBA award because:

all soaps are wrapped in 100% recycled and reclaimed materials.
the box is made from sustainable wild-grass and with fair labor.
skinnyskinny is 100% carbon-neutral (wind-power & carbon credits).
all printing is soy ink on 100% PCW recycled paper.

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Eating for Energy - 5 Helpful Foods

Amy Bell — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 21:28:23 +0000

The foods we eat have a direct impact on our overall energy.

Think about how you feel after having certain foods.

A greasy fast food meal more than likely leaves you tired, sluggish, and possibly feeling guilty, while a meal full of complex carbohydrates, healthy protein and fats, and fresh fruits and vegetables leaves a person feeling satisfied and energized.

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Simple Dessert: Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cake

Derek Markham — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 18:27:18 +0000

If your family is anything like mine, your kids will be begging for dessert every night.

The problem with desserts is that they can fill kid’s bellies with tons of sugar right before bed, and the high cost of the ingredients can break your budget.

Having a recipe for a simple, healthy dessert made from ingredients you have on hand will help meet everyone’s needs. Full of fiber and sweetened with honey, this cake recipe is nutritious, filling, and cheap to make. Kudos to my wife for creating this knock-out dessert that satisfies the sweet tooth and fits our budget.

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Oat Groats: Cheap, Tasty, Healthy Breakfast

Valerie Taylor — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 19:14:54 +0000

I’m eating a lot of oat groats these days. I found a source for locally-grown oat groats, but the minimum order was 25 pounds. Oat groats are the least processed of all edible forms of oats, so they store a very long time (some sources are giving them 30 years under the right conditions.) So even though I’d never tasted them before, I decided to give them a try. I figured any minimally-processed food was a good addition to our diet, and even if it took us years to use them up, it’d be okay. And in the meantime if the apocalypse arrived, there’d be something to eat. Win-win-win.

Oh. My. God. This is what oats taste like. I like good old-fashioned oatmeal just fine — I’ve eaten it for years, still happy to eat it if that’s what’s on the table. When I discovered pinhead oats and stone ground oatmeal, though, I realized just how much regular oatmeal had lost in the process of being…well, processed. (Don’t speak to me of instant oatmeal. That’s not a food.) So it comes as no surprise that getting closer to the whole grain results in an even more interesting taste and texture.

Even so, oat groats were a revelation.

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Buying from the Bulk Bin Saves More Than Just Money

Beth Bader — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 17:28:44 +0000

For every food dollar, the farmer or grower generally makes only about nineteen cents. The majority of our food dollars, 81 cents, goes to processing, packaging, advertising and transport (USDA Economic Research Service). You can save on some of these costs as well as help reduce the EPA-estimated annual amount of 80 million tons of packaging waste by buying from the bulk bins.

Bulk aisles usually offer a wide variety of beans, legumes, nuts, flours, grains, herbs and spices, nut butters, oils, pastas, dried fruits and even snack foods. Without the added costs of advertising and packaging, these staples can be purchased at a much more affordable cost — important as we all see our grocery bills increase lately.

(Recipe for Real Oatmeal and tips on bulk buying after the jump.)

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Ask VJD: Does Eating Oats Lower Cholesterol?

Vital Juice Daily — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 18:30:00 +0000

Editor’s note: Eating your Cheerios? According to our friends at email tip provider Vital Juice Daily, oats, and other foods, are good for helping to reduce cholesterol.

I’ve heard through ads that Cheerios helps reduce cholesterol. Are there any other foods that may help reduce cholesterol counts?

- Cindy

Dear Cindy,

There are foods that can help reduce your cholesterol counts! Here’s a roadmap on how to work these smart foods into your diet:

Start your day with oatmeal. The soluble fiber in oatmeal reduces your LDL (aka “bad” cholesterol) because it inhibits the absorption of cholesterol in your stomach. Five to 10 grams of soluble fiber a day can decrease your LDL cholesterol by 5%. So check the label on your oatmeal and make sure its high in soluble fiber. Cold cereals made with oat bran can also help reduce your cholesterol, but make sure they have 5g or more of soluble fiber per serving. While Cheerios are made with whole grain oats you need at least 2 cups daily to meet your requirements. There are other cold cereals out there higher in soluble fiber.