Thar’s Change Afoot My Friends

Went to Lowe’s Friday evening to do some research about Christmas trees.  I regret to report that there was no positive news on that front.  However I did become part of a suprisingly uplifting conversation.  Once the salesperson realized my bent toward the clean and green if you will he proudly told me how his wife has him drinking organic green smoothies.  Spinach and kale work he reported but chard is just too bitter.  “I added a pear”, he said.  “Then a banana, then yet another apple”.  “Still bitter.”

I laughed andd nodded and was in the process of suggesting my secret weapon – a heaping tablespoon of  cinnamon – when another shopper who had stopped and was listening, chimed in to share Dr. Oz’s green drink recipe.

I came home, Googled “Dr. Oz green drink” and tried it today.  I halved the recipe and added extra lemon and ginger and the result was indeed delicious – refreshing and densely packed with nutrients.  Gave the old Vitamix a better work out than my traditional grees/apple/cinnamon and water smoothie.  A nice change indeed.

So thank you to Greg and the mystery shopper for turning an otherwise depressing fact finding mission into proof that the good word is spreading.

 

 

Sugar By Any Other Name Isn’t As Sweet

Howard is a brave soul. He went to a nutritionist looking for guidance about his diet in the hope of feeling better and dropping a few unwanted pounds.  

The nutritionist asked him to go home, find every packaged food with sugar, fructose etc. listed as an ingredient and get it out of his house post haste. Our intrepid eater reports that by the end of this exercise he literally had no packaged food left!  This is a shocking but telling result and one that I suspect would be repeated over and over if many of us undertook a similar mission.

What can we learn from Howard's experiment?  First and most obvious is that we need to be vigilant about reading labels.  Second is to remember that whole foods are what our bodies know and crave and that eating a whole food diet is the only way to be sure we are getting real nutrition and not some conglomerate's impersonation of same.

Howard has shifted his diet to focus more on fruits, veggies, low fat proteins like eggs, meats and fish.  He is off sugar for the time being – except for a little brown in his morning coffee – but has been promised he will be able to work in honey, maple syrup and the like in time.  He is enjoying nuts, seeds, avacado and other healthy foods that he previously considered fattening.  He has learned that that there are fats and then there are healthy fats that are actually good for the body and have the added bonus of keeping him sated so he isn't reaching for the nearest candy bar all the time.  

Seems to be working.  The sugar purge was over 3 weeks ago and he has easily lost 12 pounds since…

Savour the fruits of your labour, Howard!  You are indeed an inspiration.