Green Options

Greening Hollywood, Paige Donner’s column, can be found on The Huffington Post at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paige-donner. Greening Hollywood is Donner’s media platform and green consulting business.

I first found the world of raw food when researching eco-foods for The Everything Green Wedding Book. Before then I wasn’t aware there was much more to raw than juices, veggie and fruit trays and salads. Boy was I wrong. There’s a whole world out there of food that is raw. At most it is slightly steamed or heated and preferably never frozen. This keeps the nutrients intact making the food vital and healthy.

Several of the books I read made raw food sound so complicated but the Winter 2009 edition of Purely Delicious  offers easy and delicious ways to try raw.

My kids and I are crazy about green smoothies. We make them a couple times daily usually. Never before has it been so easy to get my kids to eat plenty of those all important leafy greens! Just check out my daughter’s green smoothie moustache (left).

You may be wondering what a green smoothie is exactly. Or maybe not, they seem to be getting really popular in healthier living circles everywhere lately. A green smoothie does not refer to being “green” in the eco sense of the word. Although they can be that too. The green in a green smoothie refers to what is in the smoothie and usually the color as well. Quite simply, green smoothies are blended beverages that combine fresh or frozen fruit and leafy greens like Kale, collard, spinach, or wild edibles. Veggies like carrots may make a cameo appearance in green smoothies as well. The genius of a green smoothie is that they are jam packed with nutritional goodness, usually in its raw life living form, and they taste absolutely fantastic! When was the last time your kids begged you for fresh spinach? Well, mine ask me daily for some.

I am not a big fan of pasteurized milk, even organic. It just seems like milk flavored water with much of the nutrition and all of the enzymes being killed during the pasteurization process. For several years now we have opted to buy raw milk or make homemade almond milk instead. Both are much healthier and easier on the stomach. Conventional milk is not an option for me in fact as the moment I drink I get dehibilitating stomach aches. To me this means I just shouldn’t be drinking it.

Making almond milk is incredibly easy once you get your system down and my kids think it is incredibly delicious. They will drink it straight, add it to cereal, or use it to make chocolate milk or banana milk smoothies. Since I use raw organic almonds, I get to rest easy knowing that their milk, or “mylk” as many refer to it, is healthier for their little bodies and healthier for the planet. Nuts are an essential fuel for the body too. To make it I just follow these simple steps:

This year, one of my new year’s resolutions was to eat more raw and living foods. I recently started attending a monthly raw food potluck and have been inspired by all the delicious recipes and information. I have learned that eating uncooked plant foods is healthy for several reasons: raw fruits and veggies contain lots of fiber, are packed with nutrients, and also retain many useful enzymes that cooking destroys. Having a plot in my local community garden has definitely helped me eat more raw fresh produce as well as eat more sustainably.

As I try to add more living foods to my diet, I’ve tried eating salad with just about every meal, eating raw snacks like trail mixes and fresh fruit, and making more food from scratch. One way of incorporating raw foods into my diet that has been really easy is making fresh juices and smoothies. With the help of gadgets like my Green Star juicer and Vitamix blender, I’ve made many a healthy and scrumptious snack.

One word of juicing wisdom that I’ve learned is that you don’t want to overdo it with fruit juices. Because of their high sugar content, fruit juices can raise blood sugar levels. It’s healthier to drink vegetable juices, or a blend of fruit and vegetable juices. Juices are best in moderation because they deliver many nutrients but since the pulp is removed, they don’t have much fiber. Smoothies, on the other hand, use the entire fruit or vegetable, so the fiber is included. Both juices and smoothies are a great way to get digestible nutrients and add more raw fruits and vegetables to your diet.

One weight loss diet fad is the “morning banana diet”.

Japan, a nation known for following some pretty wacky fads, is suffering a banana shortage because of it.

From ABC News:

Akihiro Takenaka, a produce manager of a Tokyo supermarket, Ozeki, said the demands for bananas are still high and the supply simply cannot catch up.

“I have been in the produce business for almost 20 years and I have never seen this kind of phenomenon,” said Takenaka. “We usually purchase 15 cases of bananas every day, but we have not been able to secure that amount for the past few months. We are lucky if we get five cases. “

Gracing the covers of over 700 magazines, posters, calendars and videos, Carol Alt has been referred to as “The Face” by Life Magazine and named “The model that started the supermodel trend” by John Casablanca, owner of Elite Models.  Ten years ago her health began to decline.  Carol explains: “Ten years ago, I was feeling bad…really bad.  I had chronic headaches, sinusitis, stomach ailments; I was tired and listless.   Eventually, I got very sick and tired… and tired of being sick and tired. I searched for a real solution…not just a band aid. That’s when I started eating raw - and it changed my life - FOREVER. Over the last decade, I’ve spent countless hours studying health and nutrition from the best doctors…on my own quest towards true, lasting health and vitality.”