When eating a health-promoting diet, it is important to have a great variety of food in your diet. This includes both animal foods and plant foods. We are being encouraged to eat more and more plant-based foods. The challenge can be that many plant-based foods are difficult to digest. I will be doing a series on how to properly prepare foods to release the most nutrients and not challenge our digestive systems.
February is National Heart Month so I thought I would share a few tidbits to keep your heart beating strong.
Fun Heart Facts
A healthy heart pumps 2000 gallons of blood through 60,000 miles of blood vessels every day.
In America, approximately 48% live with some form of cardiovascular disease.
A woman’s heart beats faster than a man’s by about 8 beats.
Doesn’t this just sound like a fun food by its name? As I have shared in other posts, superfoods contain high levels of essential nutrients, both as food and medicinal in their properties. Let’s look at Spirulina.
Maltodextrin is a very common food additive found in many processed foods; it was introduced into our food supply between 1967 and 1973. It is made by cooking starches such as corn, rice, potato, or wheat; then adding acids or enzymes to further break it down. When processing is complete, a water soluble, neutral tasting white powder is formed. It is closely related to corn syrup solids but has less sugar content with no nutritional value.
A couple years ago I shared a post about the Weston A. Price Foundation. The 20-year-old organization focuses on wise traditions in food, farming, and the healing arts. To celebrate 20 years of providing information on diet and health, they are encouraging people to “Take the 50% Pledge!” The pledge asks people to spend at least 50% of their food dollars on direct purchases from local farmers and artisans. The balance spent on celebrating how small the world really is by the choices we have in food. By participating in this pledge, you will be supporting local farms and artisans. This can help build stronger communities for us all.