1 cup pineapple juice
3 strawberries
1 banana
1 tbsp low-fat yogurt
1 scoop vanilla SLM protein powder
Toss all ingredients into a blender and purée until desired consistency.
Nutrients per serving: Calories: 370, Total Fats: 3 g, Saturated Fat: 2 g, Trans Fat: 0 g, Cholesterol: 35 mg, Sodium: 55 mg, Total Carbohydrates: 68 g, Dietary Fibre: 4 g, Sugars: 46 g, Protein: 20 g, Iron: 1 mg
Your skin is an outer reflection of the foods you put in your body. Some of us are prone to dry skin, and seasonal weather changes can make our skin dryer as well. There are a few things you can eat to enrich and hydrate the skin from the inside out.
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 15 ounce carton part-skim ricotta cheese
1 10 ounce package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and well drained
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 15 ounce jar Alfredo sauce
1/2 cup fat-free milk
6 whole grain lasagna noodles
2 cups shredded carrots (4 medium)
2 cups sliced fresh mushrooms
1/2 cup shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese (2 ounces)
1/4 cup finely shredded Parmesan cheese (1 ounce)
Nonstick cooking spray
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly coat a 2-quart rectangular baking dish with cooking spray.
2. In a medium bowl stir together egg, ricotta cheese, spinach, garlic, and pepper. In a separate bowl combine Alfredo sauce and milk.
3. Spread about 1/2 cup of the Alfredo sauce mixture into the bottom of the prepared baking dish. Arrange three of the uncooked noodles in a layer over the sauce. Spread half of the spinach mixture over the noodles; top with half of the carrots and half of the mushrooms. Arrange the remaining three uncooked noodles over the vegetables. Top noodles with the remaining spinach mixture. Top with the remaining carrots and the remaining mushrooms. Cover with the remaining Alfredo mixture. Sprinkle with the mozzarella cheese and Parmesan cheese.
4. Lightly coat a sheet of foil with cooking spray. Cover dish with foil, coated side down.
5. Bake for 60 to 70 minutes. Uncover. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes more or until top is lightly browned. Let stand for 20 minutes before serving.
Spinach Alfredo Lasagna
Courtesy Of Diabetic Living
Also A Vegetarian Dish
My mom and I love this dessert and I used to make it every spring and summer for her when I visited. If you enjoy a citrus twist in your dessert, I think this will be go-to recipe for you. (It could even turn into one of your “signature dishes”).
A side note about this dessert- use whatever dish you have available: A traditional pie plate is wonderful but I will use an 8×8 for key lime squares if I don’t have a pie plate on hand. An additional reason to use an 8×8 is to scoop the pie into champagne glasses for a fancy dessert at an event or elegant party.
Home Cook’s Note: there is a printable recipe at http://www.bakeperfectcookies.com
Step 1- Make the crust
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Take 12 graham crackers and put them in a large Ziploc bag. Take a rolling pin and roll over the graham crackers until they are finely crushed. *If you don’t have a rolling pin, use a drinking glass cup.
Melt 2 Tbs. butter. In a medium sized bowl pour in the graham cracker crumb s, melted butter and 2 tsp. sugar.
Mix the ingredients together until they are a crumbly, moist mix (I often use a fork to accomplish a streusel looking mix).
Dump the mixture into the pie plate or 8×8 bake dish. With your hands or the bottom of a measuring cup, press the graham cracker mixture firmly on the floor of the pie pan and up the sides about ½ inch.
Bake at 350 for 14 minutes.
Step 2- Make the filling
While the crust is baking, mix 3 egg yolks in a bowl.
Add in 1 14 oz. can of condensed milk. With a whisk, mix the egg yolks and condensed milk.
In a measuring cup, pour ½ cup of key lime juice. If key lime juice is unavailable, regular lime juice will suffice just fine. Add in half of the key lime juice (1/4 cup) to the egg yolk and milk mixture. Whisk the juice in. Then, add in the other half.
Take one lime and grate 1 tsp zest.
A quick lesson about zest: After washing the lime, grate just enough of the outside layer to get the green off. Once you see white, stop grating. It’s not unusual to grate ½ of the outside of the lime to get a tsp. of lime.
Add the zest to the mix and whisk a few times.
Your pie filling is ready!
Once the pie crust comes out of the oven, pour the pie filing into the crust and put it right back into the oven for 20 minutes.
After 20 minutes, pull out the pie and allow it to cool for 20 minutes. Then, put the pie in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours for chilling.
Step 3 Top it Off and Serve!
Take a pint of heavy whipping cream and beat it until it starts getting stiff. (Regular whipping cream will work too- you have to beat it a little bit longer).
You can tell the whipping cream is ready by doing this test. Stop the beaters. Take the end of the beater and dip it into the whip cream and quickly pull out the beater. Do little “mountain peaks” remain in place? If the whip cream doesn’t keep its form, keep beating.
When the mountain peaks appear, add in 1 tsp. vanilla and 2 heaping Tbs. powdered sugar. Mix in just until blended.
Now for the fun part; throw the whip cream onto the pie. If you have some extra zest left, sprinkle it in the middle for an aesthetically pleasing touch.
Note: If you are serving the pie individually, as I did in champagne glasses, scoop the pie into the glasses before adding the whip cream.
The first time I made this dessert I felt a little scrambled. I had never made a pie like this before and the technique of making a pie crust and filling is different than a batch of cookies. However, once I discovered how easy it was I had so much fun making it again and again.
People think you’ve slaved over this recipe! It tastes better than many key lime pies I’ve tasted in restaurants (and made quite a few dollars for).
Hope you like it. And, if you have any questions about the recipe, feel free to email me at Melissa@bakeperfectcookies.com
Three square meals a day is all well and good, but we all sometimes need a little something in between, but there is no need to buy all the 100-cal snack pack but full of ingredients we can hardly spell,
here are some real-food-snacks ideas that will boost our energy and without piling on the calories!
1. Sliced tomato with a sprinkle of feta and olive oil
2. Banana and it comes naturally prepackaged goodness you can take anywhere, with the added benefit of cramp-preventing potassium.
3. Protein-packed Edamames (measured shelled).
4. Ants on a log, Spread some peanut butter on celery and add a few raisins.
5. Hummus and Carrot/Celery Sticks, Hummus is best when you make it yourself using chickpeas.
6. Nuts: a protein nutrient filled snack.
7. Cherry Tomatoes: nature’s super-food.
8. Raspberries with 2 Tbsp Plain Yogurt and 1 tsp Honey.
9. Dark Chocolate, containing at least 70 per cent cocoa solids is a good source of antioxidants — particularly flavonoids, which are the type that are found in green tea and red wine.
10. And finally and my favorite one, a homemade smoothie, which contains the pulp of the fruit and not just the juice, and provides you with fiber plus a whole array of vitamins and minerals.
Healthy snacking improves overall health, curbs cravings, fights weight gain, regulates mood, boosts brain power and gives you the energy you need to keep going all day!!
h/t/ – Positivemed
However, Grandma’s cooking remained authentically Mexican.
I loved eating her food and I am thrilled to have some of her recipes to make.
Here is here recipe for making Great Grandma’s Spanish rice.
Ingredients:
2 cups white rice
1 onion
1 bell pepper
3-4 cloves of garlic
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
5 whole cloves
fresh tomatoes sliced
2 Tbs. oil
4 cups of water
Directions:
In a large saute pan, place the heat on medium high. Add the oil and rice. While the rice begins to sauté, chop up the onions and garlic and add them in. If the rice is looking too brown, turn down the heat to medium.
Chop up the bell pepper and add that to the saute. Follow up with the spices.
A note about tomatoes: The type of tomatoes you use doesn’t matter- it can be small cherry tomatoes, medium Roma tomatoes or the large Heirloom tomatoes. Slice them and add them to the mix. Stir up the rice mixture. (The kitchen should be smelling amazing by now!)
Once everything has sautéed for about 10 minutes, add in the water and cover the rice with a lid. turn the heat down to low!
Set the timer for 25 minutes. When the timer goes off, open the lide slightly to make sure all the water has cooked down. Remove from heat/
Leave the lid on the rice until it’s eating time.
Happy Cinco de Mayo!
Melissa AuClair loves to cook and bake. This week, it’s Mexian all week long to celebrate Cinco de Mayo! You can follow her baking adventures at www.bakeperfectcookies.com Follow her on Twitter @Melissauclair
So I took an idea of Tim Ferris’s (author of The Four Hour Workweek): simplify meals and diet by eating very similar things over and over- and ran with it.
He did it with weight loss and muscle gain as a goal. I’m doing as a way to get back more time.
As a result, I spend less time thinking about what to make, move faster through farmer’s markets and the grocery store and spend less time preparing food. Plus, I still enjoy what I eat as much as when I labored over what to make.
As an added bonus, I eat healthier because I’m not running for takeout because “there’s nothing at home to eat.”
You can do this too. It takes a bit of organization and planning. One day may be spent in more prep work (like today as I focus on a Cinco de Mayo theme) but most days of the week turn like clockwork.
If you feel overwhelmed by meal preparation, bothered by how much money is spent on take-out meals or simply want to eat healthier food, try this out and see if you can make it work for you.
If this method seems like it might get boring, it’s not..
First the premise is that you eat things you enjoy. This doesn’t mean chowing down on pizza every night.
It means eating foods that are healthy and likable.
If you are part of a large family, adding rituals around meal preparation can work very well at keeping budgets and diets in check.
Make a large pot of spaghetti sauce on Monday for Spaghetti Monday. Use half the sauce and buy frozen raviolis for a Italian Wednesday. Tuesday can be a Simple Chicken and Vegetable Stir fry with rice. Thursday is soup and salad night. Friday is homemade pizza night. And so on and so forth.
This is how my week is looking: I love salads. I could eat a salad every day. So I do.
I buy very similar ingredients (it sometimes varies depending what is the freshest looking at the farmer’s market.
Since it is Cinco de Mayo tomorrow there is a big pot of my Great-Grandma’s pinto beans simmering. I’ll add chicken and Spanish rice to the menu for tomorrow night and eat the leftovers for the rest of the week.
Breakfasts will consist of alternating between cold cereal, cottage cheese and fruit or eggs.
Lunch will be baby carrots, almonds, a slice of hearty bread I made (banana bread this week).
I’ll have a salad most days, alternating with the leftover Mexican food. If I want I can use the chicken, beans and chips to make a taco salad.
Oh, and I’m testing recipes for a cookie book so there is a solution for desserts and what to bring to social events. 🙂
If grocery shopping and meal preparation is exhausting, the bill for food keeps getting higher or you want to cut back on eating take-out food, try following your own designated menu for a few weeks.
As Thoreau said, “Our life if frittered away by detail, simplify! Simplify!”
Enough frittering with details about meals, shopping and preparation. Get on with the important things: enjoying a meal with your family, working on a startup, taking a walk; there are many excellent things to pursue.
Melissa AuClair writes about pursuing the location independent lifestyle at www.launchyourcreativelife.com. Readers can learn how to bake near-perfect cookies (and why baking is part of a happy, full life) at www.bakeperfectcookies.com
I want to share one of my absolute favorite vegetarian dishes with you. It’s fairly easy to make, but after tasting it, your friends and family will think you are a gourmet cook- it is that good.
But first, a story.
My beloved grandfather, Grandpa H, was a cook in the navy during World War 2. He cooked for an enormous amount of people day in and day out. As a little girl I loved listening to the stories about the grueling schedule, the massive quantities of food made and the different meals he made as a navy cook, like roasting 100 turkeys for Christmas dinner or making dozens of cinnamon rolls (from scratch!)
The experience in the navy combined with working in high end restaurants in San Francisco, CA gave him an edge and special knowledge of working with food for the rest of his life.
Grandpa H. could go to a restaurant, eat a meal and figure out the cook made it. He could discern what spices were used. He figured out the method and the ingredients.
Grandpa didn’t tell anyone his insight into a restaurant meal; if he liked something he went home and made it. If he didn’t like something, he would just change it. And it would taste great, better than the restaurant.
The following recipe was developed in just this manner. The restaurant serving Baked Zucchini has long since closed its doors- probably several decades ago. And to be honest, I don’t know the name of the restaurant.
So now I call this recipe, “Ed’s Baked Zucchini” in honor of my grandpa.
Ed’s Baked Zucchini
Budget Friendly: Yes, especially if the vegetables can be bought at a Farmer’s Market
Complicated: Medium, but doable for the novice home cook
Dishes Required: Medium
Time: An hour plus baked time. However, once you make it a few times, it’s a fairly easy to put together and I’m confident you can do the prep work in about 25 minutes. (my time to do it now).
First, you want to gather all your ingredients. It’s easy to forget something as the mixing, sautéing and preparing begin.
Ingredients
4 Large Zucchini (the bigger the better)
6 slices of bread (whole wheat bread works really well) cubed into small pieces
1 onion
2 heads of garlic
2 Tbs. butter or olive oil
2 eggs
¼ salt for sauté
½ Tsp. Salt
¼ Tsp. Pepper for sauté
2 Tsp. (heaping) Italian Seasoning
½ cup Monterey Jack Cheese
Parmesan cheese
Paprika
Instructions
Cut the ends of the zucchini and slice them lengthwise, like a loaf of bread. Set a large pot of water (Dutch oven size) on the stove to boil. Add the zucchini and put the lid on. Wait for the water to boil and then stick a fork into one of the spears of zucchini. It should be firm but easily pierced. (It takes about 25 minutes for this. Another way to know the zucchini are almost done – the whole kitchen will fill with the fresh aroma of zucchini, much like fresh corn when it is boiled).
While the zucchini is boiling, chop the onion and garlic until they are in very small pieces. In a small sauté pan, place 2 Tbs. of butter or olive oil and the onion and garlic. Add the salt and pepper. Allow the mixture to sauté for about 7 to 9 minutes. The onions will become light brown and quite fragrant.
Preheat the oven to 350 F.
In a large mixing bowl, add the cubed pieces of bread, the cheese, the Italian seasoning, ½ tsp of salt. Add the sautéed onions and garlic.
By this time, the zucchini should be done. Drain the water and have a 9×13 baking dish ready (you may need an additional 8×8 depending how long the zucchini are).
Take the zucchini and scoop out their soft fleshy insides and add it to the mixing bowl. The zucchini are HOT. I typically hold the hot zucchini with one hand wrapped in a hot pad (just toss the hot pad into the wash when done).
Place the shells of the zucchini in the 9×13 baking dish.
Mix together everything in the mixing bowl. Add in the eggs.
Spoon the mix into the zucchini shells. Top with crumbled parmesan cheese. (My family used Kraft Parmesan Cheese for years). Lightly sprinkle paprika on top. (optional- it is nice for color)
Bake for 25 minutes.
Enjoy!
This is one of my all-time favorite spring and summer recipes. The process sounds complicated but it is more labor intensive (chopping an mixing) than difficult in technique. To cut down on the work, grab a friend or family member for help. Between two people, the chopping, mixing and dishes will be done in no time!
And then you can get on to the best part- the eating!
Don’t let the “vegetarian” aspect of this meal fool you. It’s a fairly filling dish. All that is needed is a lovely side salad. Add a strawberry shortcake for dessert and it’s the perfect menu for a weekend meal.
Melissa AuClair works by day as a skin care and cosmetic consultant and a blogger and writer moving towards a location independent lifestyle by night. You can follow her on Twitter @melissaauclair or on her blog http://www.launchyourcreativelife.com/blog
This article will make you think twice about eating fast food, Ibrahim Lango, a 19 year old from Colchester, Essex, United Kingdom, found a piece of what they believe to be a kidney, which looked more like a human brain, in his Kentucky Fried Chicken.
It has been known for a while that KFC ingredients as long with many other fast food industries come from questionable sources.
In this case it was a little more extreme than usual, the British 19 year old, Ibrahim Lango, acquired a “Gladiator” at one of the restaurants, and when he took one of the pieces he found something different in its texture, which he later described as “a horrible foreign body crumpled.”
As if this weren’t enough the customer complained to the staff but had no answer at all, until he took a picture of the evidence and posted it on the Internet.
The company later responded to his posts, that it was probably a kidney, not a brain as he thought it was.
He affirms he will never eat in a fast food restaurant after this, and I assure you I won’t either. I hope this article shows you the real face behind the colorful advertising of these “food” industries.
h/t – Positivefoodie.com
Cambodian Fish Amok (Curried White Fish Served With Coconut Sauce.)
Ingredients:
Curry Paste
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 large shallot bulb, finely chopped
3 stalks lemongrass, ends trimmed, inner tender stalk only, finely chopped
½ -inch piece galangal, peeled and finely chopped
2 kaffir lime leaves, finely chopped
1 teaspoon tumeric powder
1 teaspoon light brown sugar, packed
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons chili paste – like Sambal Oelek
Fish Amok
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
½ teaspoon shrimp paste (optional) – substitute anchovy paste if you can’t find shrimp paste
1 cup coconut milk, well shaken
1 tablespoon white sugar
1 teaspoon salt
¾ pound firm, mild white fish – like halibut, mahi mahi, or true cod, skin removed
1 cup fresh spinach leaves, cut into ½-inch thick ribbons
1 egg
1 tablespoon fish sauce
Julianned red bell pepper
Kaffir lime leaf ribbons – thinly sliced kaffir lime leaves
Preparation:
Curry Paste:
Make this curry paste with a mortar and pestle or use a food processor. The mortar and pestle will give the curry a deeper flavor.
Place the first 5 ingredients in a mortar and pestle and pound to a paste. Alternatively, place first 5 ingredients in a food processor and process until a smooth paste forms. Add the remaining ingredients and pound or process until all spices are well incorporated.
Fish Amok:
Thinly slice the fish into ¼-inch thick bite size pieces and set aside. Heat the oil in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the curry paste and cook for 1 minute. Add the shrimp paste, coconut milk, sugar and salt, whisking to combine. Turn the heat to medium and simmer for 2 minutes, whisking occasionally. Add the fish and spinach leaves, gently folding the fish into the curry sauce with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula. Let the amok simmer for 3 to 4 minutes, or until the fish is just cooked through. Turn the heat off.
In a small bowl, whisk the egg with the fish sauce and 2 tablespoons of the curry sauce from the pan. Pour the egg mixture into the saucepan and gently fold it into the curry.
Serve the amok in a bowl with a spoonful of coconut cream (the thick cream that rises to the top of the remaining coconut milk), a few julienned red pepper pieces and a sprinkling of kaffir lime leaf ribbons.
Next stop: Denmark
Working on a new bake book, my obsession with creating the almost-perfect recipe for chocolate chip cookies probably goes a bit deeper than most people. Some people even consider it a bit odd. Nonetheless, my efforts benefit my roommates, family and friends with tried-and-true recipes and a plateful of cookies. I have been recipe testing the “ultimate home chef’s chocolate chip cookie” recipe for the past few weeks. I think I’m close to calling this one my favorite recipe.
Being a home chef is not only about creating something delicious from raw ingredients. The home cook knows there is more that happens in the kitchen. Something happens to me. Something happens to the other people who share the space and the food. The art and science of food preparation builds not only good food, but wonderful memories and relationships.
Magic happens when people come together in the kitchen and mix laughter with chopping nuts and chocolate, talking about the day with measuring flour and vanilla. How does one create the almost perfect chocolate chip cookie? Just follow this recipe: people + good recipe + working in the kitchen = the almost-perfect cookie and a near-perfect experience.
Whether you are cooking something savory or baking something sweet, I hope you take the chance to pull someone into the kitchen with you and enjoy the beauty of delicious food and nurturing relationships this weekend.
Melissa’s Ultimate Soft & Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
¾ cup white sugar
¾ cup dark brown sugar
1 cup (2 cubes) butter, softened
2 eggs at room temperature (pull out eggs about 40 minutes before putting together the batter)
2 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
2 ½ cups of flour
1 bag (12 oz.) of chocolate chips – pick your personal favorite: semi sweet; dark chocolate
Preheat the oven to 350F.
Mix the sugars and the butter together until they are creamed together. Add the eggs and vanilla and stir until blended. (You can use a beater too. It does make everything a bit faster!)
Add in the salt, baking powder and baking soda and stir. Add in the flour one cup at a time and mix until the flour is completely dissolved into the batter. Fold in ¾ of the bag of chocolate chips.
You can use a variety of things to scoop the dough onto the cookie sheets. I like my cookies to look very pretty and round so I roll the dough in my hands – about the shape of walnuts. You can use a teaspoon for a similar size.
Take some of the leftover chocolate chips and smoosh them gently into the top of the cookies. This is a completely “let’s make these cookies prettier” step. If you don’t want to do this, simply add all the chips to the batter. I like to have chips sticking up out of my cookies.
Bake the cookies for 9 to 11 minutes. If you like your chocolate chip cookies on the chewy side, take them out at 9 minutes. If a crispier cookie is your preference, leave them in for 11 minutes. Be careful if you like them crispier. It is easy to go from crispy to burnt in less than a minute!
Let the cookies sit on the cookie sheet for one minute before moving them to the cooling rack. Removing the cookies off the cookie sheet too soon will cause them to fall apart. If the cookie rack has gone MIA or is being used as a landing pad for the Lego tower, foil or paper towels work well.
Enjoy the cookies warm or keep them in an airtight container to eat over the weekend. Chocolate chip cookies freeze beautifully. The literature tells me frozen cookies retain their freshness for up to 6 weeks. I will have to take the experts at their word because cookies never last that long in my freezer.
Melissa is a freelance writer, blogger and enthusiastic home chef. You can follow her on Twitter @melissauclair or find her at http://www.launchyourcreativelife.com where she writes about working towards the location independent lifestyle.
As a foodie, I’ve heard a lot about the Paleo diet but I really didn’t know what defined it- or why its followers are so passionate about it. At a glance it sounds like Atkins.
And it doesn’t seem to include my favorite foods: chocolate and coffee.
I decided to investigate and see what the fuss is all about. If you are experienced in the Paleo diet, no need to read further (you won’t find anything new). However, as a newbie, I discovered some interesting facts, absorbed some history and got a few ideas how I could be a bit of a Paleo fan- without going all in.
First, a bit of history: Unlike many fad diets recently developed by doctors, researchers and marketers, the Paleo diet was brought to light by Dr. Loren Cordain in the 1970’s but was followed thousands of years ago by our ancestors. It’s made a lot of headlines recently as more people seek different eating styles and habits. The diet is thought to be a close replica of what people ate in the Paleolithic age. The Paleolithic age ended about 10,000 years ago.
1. There are multiple names for the Paleo Diet.
The diet is also referred to by the following names: Stone Age diet, Caveman diet and hunter-gatherer diet. Personally, I prefer Paleo. It sounds kinda classy.
2. What’s In for the Paleo diet:
Foods that the Paleo Diet include: meat, roots, herbs, vegetables, nuts, eggs and fruit.
3. What’s OUT of the Paleo plate:
Just about all other foods are out of the Paleo diet including dairy, legumes, pasta, refined sugar, potatoes and any processed foods.
4. Main Health Benefit: a diet free from “diseases of affluence.”
Dr. Cordain and the proponents of the Paleo diet state that many human diseases came about when humans started eating grains and processed foods. Their argument is that before humans began to eat these foods, humans lived healthier lives. The health benefits of following a Paleo diet include: more energy, a decreased propensity to cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancer.
5. The Cons of the Diet
The biggest cons of the diet are twofold: it takes a lot of discipline to follow and is rather limited in foods. (Eggs every morning for breakfast can get a little tiring.) In today’s time sensitive society, this diet does not lend itself to convenience. One approach would be to eat a lot of raw fruits, veggies and trail mix.
6. What does science say?
There are conflicting studies. Dr. Cordain’s site, www.thepaleodiet.com has studies (mostly his) on the problems of the Western diet and the benefits of the Paleolithic diet. It’s pretty easy to find the critics of the Paleo diet online. Google “paleo critics” and a myriad of entries are quickly found.
The Paleo diet is a highly structured diet but appeals to many people who are looking for a lifestyle approach to their health. Any lifestyle change is easier when implemented with other people. With the increased attention the Paleo diet is receiving, there are many resources to draw support from, making it easier to make a dramatic change in lifestyle.
To reflect a bit of the popularity of the Paleo Diet: as of this reading, there are four books in the Kindle Top Twenty category of Food & Cookbooks. In the Kindle Top Twenty for Health, Fitness & Dieting, there are two titles on Paleonic eating. That is healthy interest (no pun intended) in a very niche diet.
The Danger with all Trend Diets
The critics of the Paleo diet are concerned with the lack of studies done on the long term effects of the Paleo diet. Health giving foods such as legumes, low fat dairy and whole grains are eliminated in the diet- and we get many vital nutrients from these foods, like calcium and vitamin D.
The other danger with extreme diets is sustainability. Typically, when humans deprive themselves of certain foods, it lasts for a while, than the will to stay away gives out. It’s easy to binge on a massive plate of pasta or eat half a container of ice cream when it’s been months since the last indulgence.
Moderation seems to be the rule many middle-of-the-road dieticians and doctors preach when it comes to diets of any kind. Few people in the health community argue with the benefit of eliminating processed foods, refine sugar and adding more vegetables and fish to the diet. The problem lies in the rigidity of the diet.
Most of us view food as more than simply fuel for life. Food holds a special place, a way to enjoy relationships, bond with other people and celebrate special events. Food adds specialness to life. More than completely abandoning food groups, moderation is a better bet to life-long health and weight stability.
Therein lies the challenge.
Melissa AuClair is a freelance writer, author and blogger. Before she made the decision to pursue a completely location independent lifestyle, she worked for 8 years as a RN in a variety of medical-surgical hospital units. Follow Melissa on Twitter @melissauclair or http://www.launchyourcreativelife.com
