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Fall Smoothie and Green Juice!

SPONSORED POST: I’ve partnered with Milk & Eggs, an amazing farm direct grocery delivery service, to bring you guys some delicious, super seasonal, and always healthy recipes a few times a month.  I’m so excited to share some of my favorite dishes with you!

Seasonal Cooking with Milk & Eggs: Fall Smoothie and Juice | The Organic Beauty Blog

Fall is kind of a weird time of the year for our bodies.  From Halloween through New Year’s, we can get bombarded with all kinds of festive holiday foods that are higher in sugar and fat than we would normally eat.  Even though the weather might still be nice in the fall, this can be a shock to our systems (if we’re otherwise healthy eaters) that can lead to compromised immunity, sluggishness, and a bit of a strain on our livers and digestion (not to mention our waistlines).  Since I know the fall and impending holiday season is going to bring some “off” eating, I like to be extra on my healthy eating game in between holidays, to both give my organs a rest, and offset the effects of the holidays.  Naturally, there’s nothing like some beautiful fall smoothies and green juices to do the trick!

So this week, I changed my standing Milk & Eggs order to get the Organic Cleanse Fruit and Veggie Bag, which is loaded with beautiful, seasonal produce perfect for juices and smoothies.  In addition to the usual gorgeous greens, berries and beets that I get in my regular farm sampler bag, the Cleanse bag comes with a bunch of apples, lemons, and ginger that are amazing for seasonal cleansing.  At just $20, I can’t believe what an awesome value this Cleanse bag is! I easily pay at least twice that at my co-op or health food store for this much organic produce. And the great thing is, since the food is coming directly from local farmers, I can be sure that everything is in season, which makes it so much easier to digest and assimilate!

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L.A.: Affordable Farm-Fresh Groceries, Delivered!

Affordable Farm-Fresh Groceries Delivered | The Organic Beauty Blog

As a busy mom and business owner, grocery shopping can sometimes feel like an unnecessary hassle.  Don’t get me wrong, I love our weekend family trips to stock up on pantry items and the like, but for our weekly supply of organic produce, eggs, and seafood, it’s amazing to have high quality, affordable food come straight to our door.  Yes, health food stores like Whole Foods deliver through services like Instacart, but I can’t seem to place a single order under $200 at that place.  The food is great, but is it really necessary to drop that much cash on organic food?

Thankfully the answer is no.

Recently I discovered Milk & Eggs Farm Grocery Delivery, which connects health conscious, locavore consumers directly to local farmers (kind of like a CSA), at a 50% discount.  You can set up recurring monthly subscriptions that are completely customizable, or order one-off items.

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Nutribullet — A Healthy Kitchen Must-Have!

By: Natasha Uspensky, CHHC

I was home with a terrible virus for over a week not too long ago, which led to a lot of regrettable television choices.  As I was making the rounds of afternoon infomercials, one in particular caught my eye, and honestly, revolutionized my kitchen!  David Wolfe, raw food guru (and one of my instructors at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition) was speaking on behalf of Nutribullet — which, at first glance, seemed like a souped up MagicBullet (a tool I knew I didn’t need).  I really respect David Wolfe’s take on food, and count him among my favorite nutrition experts, so I thought I would see what he had to say.

Mechanically, the Nutribullet isn’t that different from the MagicBullet.  It’s a compact single or double serving blender that can smooth, chop, blend, or liquify pretty much anything.  But that’s the key!  It has a super powerful 600 watt motor that literally liquified fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds into an incredibly potent, concoction that is neither juice nor smoothie, but some magical hybrid.  It’s basically a mini-Vitamix — which is pretty much my dream come true.  (Though the Vitamix is a phenomenal kitchen tool, its bulk and generally unfashionable design–not to mention its hefty price tag–have been keeping me from investing in one)

Though I am an enormous fan of juicing (and base a lot of my cleanses on it), the amount of wasted food and fiber has always been a big issue for me.  Plus, a juicer doesn’t allow me to add nuts and seeds, which are key to created a superfood, detoxifying health cocktail.

Smoothies have been my standby for a long time.  I love making delicious morning creations out of fruit, greens, nuts, and almond milk, but am always annoyed when my smoothie comes out mealy, overly thick, or not completely blended.  Especially when blending fibrous greens like kale or swiss chard, having those stringy pieces still in the smoothie really makes it less palatable even for me (who LIVES for greens!).  And I never hear the end of it from some of my pickier clients, for whom eating greens is already a huge challenge.  I end up adding cups and cups of liquid to my smoothies to get them even close to smooth enough, and still, I find whole, unmilled flax seeds and food particles at the bottom of my glass.  Not ideal.

So you can imagine how pumped I was when I opened my Nutribullet, and made a delicious, super-potent, completely liquified drink, chock full of tons of greens, fruit, nuts and seeds… in under a minute.  I knew mornings would never be the same!  The benefit of a super powerful motor combined with a specialized extractor blade is that it completely breaks down the food for you, pulverizing stems, seeds, and skins of foods to maximize the amount of nutrients you can derive from it and make the whole process that much easier on your digestive system.  We definitely don’t want to liquify all our meals — making our system break down fibers is a good thing! — but being able to efficiently deliver so much nutritious goodness into our bodies for one or two meals a day is amazing.

Everyday for the past two weeks, I have started each morning with a powerful, mega-nutrient drink that leaves me feeling full (but not weighed down after I do after a thick smoothie), energized, and just plain awesome.  Since the blades are so powerful, I can throw whole fruit and veggies into my Nutribullet without having to chop anything up, which saves me tons of time, and with the super fast motor, the perfect consistency takes just a few seconds to achieve.  My favorite part is coming up with new, delicious fruit and veggie combos to try… My new favorites are watermelon/cucumber/apple/lemon/flaxseed and pineapple/kiwi/spinach/sunflower seed.  The recommended proportion is 50% fruit and 50% greens, with a good solid handful of nuts or seeds to top it all off.  Though I’ve always rocked smoothies blended with almond milk, I use spring water with my Nutribullet, which gives the concoctions a consistency more like juice, and less like a heavy smoothie.  Check out my favorite Nutribullet smoothie recipes!

This little gadget will also make doing my seasonal detox/cleanse that much easier!  I’m going to recommend it to all my cleansing clients.  Bottom line… I’m in love!

Benefits of drinking just one full size concoction made up of organic fruit and veggies a day include:

  • Decreased risk of cancer and other diseases (provided you use organic fruit and veggies!)
  • Weight loss (replace breakfast and/or dinner with an amazing Nutriblast, and you’ll reach your target weight in no time!)
  • Increased energy
  • Better skin and hair
  • Increased longevity
  • Lower blood pressure and cholesterol
  • Relief from joint and muscle pain
  • Balanced blood sugar
  • Increased immunity
  • Relief from chronic inflammation
  • Improved mood and concentration

You can get your Nutribullet from nutribullet.com for about $120, or you can purchase it from BrandsMart for $99.98, complete with all the bells and whistles!

Check out our delicious and healthy Nutribullet Superfood Smoothie recipes, and please share your favorite recipes and amazing results below!

10 Reasons to Eat Your Veggies

10 Reasons to Eat Your Veggies | The Organic Beauty BlogMy absolute favorite guru of nutrition and holistic health, John Douillard, posted last week on the importance of drastically increasing our intake of vegetables. Though I stress their importance every day in my work (just ask my clients!), I think his list is a beautiful encapsulation of what all my veggie-pushing is about:

“You know you should be eating your vegetables, but do you know why?

Did you know, for instance, that eating more vegetables can help you reduce stress, increase attentiveness, reduce cravings, and lose weight?

The truth is, while most of us know we should be eating plenty of vegetables, few of us actually eat enough. The US Food Guide Pyramid recommends that we eat 3-5 servings of veggies a day, yet studies show that only 22% of Americans do.

Here are 10 reasons you may not have known for piling on those greens. Once you read these top ten unsung reasons for eating veggies, I hope you will have all the motivation you need.

Number One: A Reason to Chew
Have you ever eaten a bowl of fresh, either lightly steamed or raw veggies? If you have, you may have noticed one simple fact – it takes time to chew.

Unlike a sandwich, which you can eat quickly, eating veggies demands more dedication to chewing.

…Here is a list of amazing benefits to be reaped from chewing:

  • Chewing stimulates the production of salivary digestive enzymes like amylase in saliva, which lubricate the esophagus and the chewed food in the digestive tract.
  • Chewing relaxes the end of the stomach – called the pylorus – allowing food to be released into the small intestine more easily.
  • Chewing stimulates taste receptors in the mouth, which in turn triggers the release of hydrochloric acid, or HCL, in the stomach. HCL is responsible for processing hard-to-digest proteins, like casein in dairy and gluten in wheat.
  • Inadequate chewing has been linked to digestive issues such as gas, bloating, and other forms of indigestion.
  • Chewing also forces us to relax and take time to eat, rather than race through every meal.

In other words: The more you chew, the better you digest. So sit down to a meal of veggies and chew your way to better digestion.

Number Two: Take it From the Gorillas

Gorillas, whose digestive system most resembles that of humans, eat more than half their body weight in ounces of vegetables a day. They literally spend all day munching on veggies. While it may be unrealistic to match their consumption, experts agree we should be eating up to one, or even two, pounds of veggies each day.

Gorillas also eat fruits, grains (in their natural unprocessed form), and a small amount of meat.

Number Three: Release those Toxins
Vegetables are loaded with fibrous cellulose, which scrubs the intestinal villi, provides bulk for the stool, and binds toxins for escort out of the body. Without enough cellulose in the digestive tract, bowel movements – and the consequent elimination of toxins – are dramatically compromised.

Cholesterol, along with other toxins, is attached to bile in the liver. Vegetable cellulose attaches to the bile and escorts it, with toxins in tow, out of the body through the stool. Without enough vegetable cellulose in the diet, up to 94% of the bile (with cholesterol and toxins attached) is re-absorbed by the liver and the blood, which raises cholesterol and increases risk of cardiovascular disease.

Number Four: Your Armor Against Heart Disease
Most Americans gets their cholesterol tested regularly to screen for heart disease, the number one killer of Americans. The cholesterol that is connected with heart disease is called low-density lipoprotein, or LDL, and is often referred to simply as, “the bad cholesterol”.

Cholesterol becomes “bad” through the process of oxidation.

Vegetables are the number one source of antioxidants in the diet, neutralizing the process of oxidation. When vegetable intake is low, antioxidant levels crash, allowing the fats in the blood to oxidize. Low vegetable consumption is directly linked to the oxidation of LDL and, ultimately, high cholesterol and heart disease.

Major protective phytonutrients found in vegetables, including flavonoids and carotenoids, have been shown to reduce heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity, and some cancers.

Number Five: The Ultimate Low-Calorie, Blood-Sugar Stabilizing Food Group
Vegetables are extremely low in calories. A cup of vegetables averages about 50 calories. By contrast, nuts and seeds can have as many as 750 calories per cup. Moreover, the body uses almost the same amount of energy to chew and digest vegetables as it receives from them, thus, they are called a “free food,” or a food with a very small caloric load.

Breaking down the cellulose fibers in vegetables takes time, which allows the carbohydrates to be released slowly. This helps keep the blood sugar stable. You can see why vegetables are the ultimate low calorie, blood-sugar stabilizing food group.

Vegetables are also low in fat and have zero cholesterol. In fact, 95% of all vegetables have less than one gram of fat per serving. Eating plenty of vegetables stimulates the breakdown of fat already stored in the body, and helps the body burn this fat for energy.

Number Six: Alkalize!
Most experts agree that the diet for optimal health should be 1/3 acidic and 2/3 alkaline. In nature, the winter harvest is a mostly acidic one, high in grains and meats. In the spring and summertime, nature’s bounty of alkalizing fruits and vegetables helps the body naturally detoxify the heavy stores of winter.

Alkalizing the body helps keep the blood healthy and the lymphatic system moving, maintaining a constant natural detox.

Challenge yourself this spring to make two-thirds of your diet alkaline – it is more challenging than you might think!

Number Seven: Balance the Six Tastes
Vegetables provide the body with the oft-overlooked tastes of bitter, astringent, and pungent. In a society largely addicted to the sweet, sour, and salty tastes, large amounts of vegetables have been replaced with a diet rich in grains and bread, meats, dairy, and eggs.

According to Ayurveda, the six tastes are to be included with each meal. This balances not only the body, but the mind and emotions as well. In Ayurveda, the word for “taste” – rasa – is the same as the word for “emotion,” echoing that food is fuel for the body, mind, and spirit.

A diet high in the sweet and salty tastes can overly-satisfy the senses and, in time, create a dependency on those sweet and salty foods. Studies show that these foods activate dopamine receptors in the brain.

Dopamine is the “I’ve gotta have it hormone,” and it plays a part in any addiction. It is a “diminishing” hormone, meaning that the more you stimulate it, the more of a substance it takes to stimulate it to the same degree. Soon, the natural sweet taste of vegetables (think of them as complex sugars wrapped in fiber) gets replaced with the more potent, quick-acting sweet taste found in breads, dairy, and sweeteners.

To balance this major cultural addiction to the sweet and salty tastes, we must significantly reduce those tastes and add generous, nearly gorilla, amounts of veggies back into the diet!

Number Eight: Spring Cleaning
In the spring, when the snow begins to melt and the ground softens, deer dig up rhizomes to eat. Rhizomes, or surface roots, are loaded with astringent and bitter constituents that scrub the intestinal villi of old and hardened mucus congestion. It is like a spring cleaning of the gut. These early spring roots also stimulate liver function and blood purification. So don’t forget the root vegetables like beets, burdock, carrots, ginger, radish, onions, garlic, dandelion, turmeric and most spices.

Number Nine: Nature’s Pro-Biotics
Green vegetables, especially the spring greens, are loaded with chlorophyll. Chlorophyll fertilizes the intestinal villi and aids in the proliferation of the good intestinal bacteria, which are essential for digestion, assimilation, detoxification, and intestinal waste removal. This is a natural way to get the pro-biotic result, without a supplement. In contrast, most pro-biotic supplements do not encourage the growth of your own flora. They work well only while you take them, but the benefits stop when you discontinue taking them.

The production of intestinal flora may be one of the most important factors linked to optimal health. When we take nature’s cue and load our diet with alkalizing veggies in the spring, we naturally restore healthy intestinal flora.

Number Ten: Vitamins and Minerals (That Your Body Doesn’t Make)

Vegetables deliver vitamins that the body does not make, including the water-soluble B-complex vitamins such as B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, B12, biotin, and choline, as well as Vitamin C. The water-soluble vitamins are not stored in the body, so they must be ingested daily. Without adequate amounts of veggies in the diet, many of these vitamins may become deficient.

Vegetables are also a rich source of the fat-soluble vitamins A and K, and some Vitamin E.

Vegetables are also the primary source of minerals in the diet. For instance, the main source of calcium for humans should not be dairy, but green leafy veggies. As far back as 1936, in a well-publicized report entitled, “Document 264 from the Department of Agriculture”, the 74th Congress stated that, “99% of the American people are deficient in minerals, and a marked deficiency in any one of the more important minerals actually results in disease.”

That same report from 1936 stated that, “virtually all soils in the United States are mineral deficient.” In 2001, The Journal of Complimentary Medicine pointed out that US and UK Government statistics showed a decline in trace minerals of up to 76% in fruit and vegetables from 1940 to 1991.

Perhaps this makes a case for mineral supplementation, but first and foremost, we must focus on getting as many veggies in our diet as we can!

* Always eat organic when possible.

Top Tip for Getting More Veggies:

Try veggies for breakfast! Start the day off right by adding steamed greens to your am fare. It might seem unusual at first, but you’ll quickly get used to how good you feel.”

Check out some delicious veggie recipes on our Healthy Recipes page!

———
Natasha Uspensky, chhc, aadp
NU Health & Wellness

What’s So Super About Super-Foods?

People today are always looking for quick fixes. Promises such as: “Look young fast!” or “Lose weight fast!” are too good to pass up. Unfortunately, these are usually just marketing ploys to get you to buy a product that either doesn’t work or has a list of unpleasant side effect, such as anal leakage for weight-loss drugs. I don’t know about you but I’m not ready for Depends Diapers.
So what can you do that’s quick, easy, delicious and really will improve your health? Eat Super-foods! There are no gimmicks here, only natural foods that you more than likely eat already. A super food simply has a high concentration of essential nutrients with clinically proven health benefits.  Incorporating these foods into your diet can improve your overall health, energy, skin, weight and even fight off cancer.  Best of all, there are never any side effects and you don’t need to visit your doctor first.
 
The following list is has examples of popular and easy super-foods, but there are many more. This list is intended to put you in the right direction to jump-start your health.What’s So Super About Super-Foods? | The Organic Beauty Blog




  • Eggs:  Eggs are having their Britney Spears comeback moment right now. They got a bad rep because they were thought to increase cholesterol, which has been dis-proven. Most blood cholesterol is made by too much dietary fat, not dietary cholesterol. You can have up to 7 yolks (unlimited whites) a week and be just fine. Eggs have the highest biological value of protein. It will keep you full, help build muscle and is packed with essential vitamins necessary to maintain a healthy weight such as biotin and B12. Aim for cage-free, vegetarian feed to get that essential Omega-3 fat, which is a great anti-inflammatory agent.
  • Almonds/Nuts:  Sigh. This is yet another super-food with a bad rep, due to their high fat content. However, eating HEALTHY fat will not make you fat! Have you ever met an obese person whose downfall was their consumption of almonds? Almonds can help you maintain a healthy weight because they keep you satisfied and make a great snack. Just go for raw, unsalted brands. All nuts are also often packed with minerals and vitamins such as Folate, Omega-3(walnuts) Niacin (peanuts), Fiber, Vitamin E, Magnesium, Folate and more. Try getting that from a bag of chips! A recent study showed that people who consumed about 24 nuts daily kept at a healthy weight than those that didn’t.

 

  • Blueberries:  Blueberries have been long known for their antioxidants properties. All berries are also high in Vitamin C, Potassium and Fiber . A serving of raspberries can actually pack more fiber than a bowl of oatmeal. Because of this, berries can help keep you fuller longer and prevent colon cancer. They can also lower your risk of heart disease and cancer, since they have anti-inflammatory agents. Inflammation is the gateway to all chronic disease, which is why you want to consume as many anti-inflammatory foods as possible. Typically darker berries contain more anti-oxidants, but all berries (strawberries, blackberries, raspberries) have been linked to reduced cancer risk, and are super lower in calories. Eat a guilt-free cup a day!
  • Flaxseed:  Flaxseed is packed with some of the benefits we’ve already spoken about suchasfiber, minerals, and essential fatty acids that help to reduce inflammation.  The key here is that it’s super easy to use. Put a tablespoon in your oatmeal, smoothies, salad or even baking (use about ¾ cup). That’s about as quick and easy as it gets!
  •  Sweet Potatoes:  When you’re debating what carbs are better for you, always go with sweet potatoes! These should be eaten often, not just on Thanksgiving! They are packed with Vitamin A, C, B6, Calcium, Potassium, Fiber, Magnesium and anti-oxidants (thanks to their orange hue). It doesn’t hurt that their delicious too! Try them roasted with cinnamon and honey.
  • Red Lentils:  These protein-rich legumes are packed with fiber – 1 cup provides about ¾ of your daily recommendation! Both protein and fiber have satiating properties that help you stay fuller, so they should be a part of any diet. Fiber is essential for colon-cancer prevention and decreased cholesterol. The only thing to keep in mind, if you are watching your weight, is that lentils are mainly a carbohydrate even though their also packed with protein. So just watch your serving size and be aware of pairing them with other carbs. Red lentils cook faster than regular lentils, but you can certainly get the benefits from lentils or other legumes such as chickpeas and black beans.
  • Tomatoes/Pink Grapefruit:  These 2 go together because they share the benefits of Lycopene, a powerful anti-oxidant. To get the Lycopene in tomatoes, they should be cooked, but grapefruit can provide it quickly and easily. Grapefruit has also long been known to help in maintaining a healthy weight and is fairly lower in calories. About ½ a medium grapefruit is considered a serving size. Have tomatoes in your omelet, along with ½ a grapefruit and you’re starting off your day great already.

  • Spinach/Leafy Greens:  The last food group we’ll focus on are some of the most powerful. Spinach became popular for its Iron after a certain sailor by the name of Popeye ate his can to be big and strong. While Popeye is great for making this veggie popular, he went about it all wrong. Firstly, please don’t ever eat vegetables out of the can. Secondly, spinach is actually not a good source of iron because it contains iron-binding properties, so your body will not absorb the iron well. But don’t discard your spinach just yet, because its real benefits lie in its high Vitamin A,C, Calcium, Folate, Magnesium and Fiber. It has been associated with decreased cancer, heart disease, stroke, osteoporosis and obesity. More so than spinach, Kale and Collard Greens are also loaded with antioxidant properties. The healthiest populations in the world have high dark green vegetable intake-so they are doing something right! Due to the high Vitamin A content, these foods are also great for the skin. Dark leafy greens also cook very quickly so it’s easy to incorporate them daily. You can also eat them raw, or saute them with garlic and onion for a real health benefit powerhouse. Broccoli Rabe has also been associated with decreased cancer risk, so there’s a real chance to mix it up and be creative.
Again, there are many more super foods but these are the easiest and most available. Try to include as many of these foods as possible into each meal and snack and you’ll be well on your way to a healthier weight, better skin and increased energy. Try to focus on eating as many colors of fruits and vegetables as possible to really get the most out of your diet. You are guaranteed to feel better when you incorporate these foods into your meals and you’ll be reducing your risk of disease and obesity. 

Organic Mania!

Organic Mania! | The Organic Beauty Blog

Obviously, we here at The Organic Beauty are super pumped about the recent data that shows a whopping 60% of Americans, across all age groups, prefer organic foods to the conventional options.  An even higher percentage of respondents 35 and under reported the same preference as well!  This is great news!!

As the consumer demand for high quality, organic produce and foods increases, the supply (and therefore the price) decreases substantially.  The primary reason that organic foods are more expensive than conventional varieties is that there are fewer farmers and food manufacturers producing the foods, and significantly fewer subsidies that support organic production.  Organics have, until only very recently, been in the realm of the luxury market; something only the privileged classes could afford (or even gain access to!).. Remember when organic food was #6 on the hilarious blog, Stuff White People Like?  Yeah…

All you faithful OB reader know by now that eating and buying organic is incredibly important for your health, the environment, and even those radiant good looks.  Let’s all keep voting with our wallets, and supporting organic farms in our supermarkets and farmer’s markets, and organic beauty products in stores and online.  The more we show that buying organic is important to us, the more amazing organic products will be available to us and our fellow Organic Beauties and Beaus across the country, who may not already have ready access to pesticide, hormone, antibiotic and carcinogen free foods and products.  Let’s make that 60% into 100% of Americans that say DON’T FEED ME CRAP!