Have you ever looked at a recipe and thought to yourself: I would like to make this, but I don't like brussels sprouts, or I can't eat wheat flour? This week I go over how we can go about substituting an ingredient, or cooking technique, or a lower fat substitution, without ruining the recipe. But first, I bring to your attention a couple of great videos on youtube. The first is a Ted talk by Ron Finley, the guy they call the guerrilla gardener. It is a great video if you looking for some general inspiration. The second Ted talk is by Jamie Oliver who encourages us not to give up on childhood obesity and the suffering that it causes to our nation's children. I also update you on the trial of Dwayne Johnson. Mr. Johnson is suing Monsanto because he was told to spray roundup on schoolyards to kill dandelions and now has non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Read the article on the trial here. As always, if you have any questions about replacing ingredients with healthier alternatives, feel free to email me on my contact page or comment in the comments section. I am always looking for new ideas for future episodes. If you want to make suggestions, feel free to email me on my contact page. I look forward to hearing from you!  

Healing Outside The Box

HOTB 267: How to make any recipe your own

I recently came across an article in the New York Times magazine that talked about the sciencey details about why we burn extra calories. So I thought I would talk about examples that would clear up any confusion about the science. That article from the New York Times can be found here. There is a broader article in the journal Science that the NYT article was based on. You can read more detailed articles noted at the end if you subscribe to the journal Science.  If you are interested in nutrition counseling or general Health and Wellness coaching, feel free to visit my Healing Outside the Box website and check out the different packages available.    

HOTB 266: The 411 on calories burned during our life cycle

It is a common belief that the obstacle keeping us from achieving our wellness goals is either a lack of time or money. But when it comes to cooking healthy meals from scratch at home, we may want to consider confidence and priority setting as possible obstacles as well.  The reality is that we can actually save money and possibly time by planning ahead. Then it is only a matter of making it a priority to cook healthy at home and, like everything else, gaining confidence by practicing and getting better. In this episode, I show you how.

HOTB 265: Delicious home cooking starts with a plan

I recently came across this article from the Journal of the American Medical Association. It basically says that if you supplement money given to food stamp (SNAP) recipients with programs like healthy cooking classes, the nutritional quality and time spent making home-cooked meals increased significantly. All the numbers improved, folks. Weight decreased, blood sugar decreased, blood pressure decreased, and even moods improved. Sounds like a magic pill to me. The link to the JAMA article can be found here. During this episode, I discuss cooking an aromatic dish called coconut chicken curry. The recipe is below: Coconut Chicken Curry For a vegetarian version of this dish, swap a 15 oz. can drained, low sodium chickpeas for the chicken. You can alternatively substitute with cashews or peanuts. You can also add ½ teaspoon of garam marsala or cumin if you desire even more aromatics. Ingredients: ½ - ¾ lb. split chicken breast, (2) 1 tsp. salt 1 onion, chopped or diced 2 Tbs. canola oil 2 cloves fresh garlic 1 cup water or organic broth 1 Tbs. curry powder 1 teaspoon turmeric 6-8 small red potatoes, cut in half 2 fresh tomatoes, chopped 2 large carrots, peeled and sliced ½ fresh green pepper, sliced into strips 5-6 fresh basil leaves 1 large or 2 small bay leaves 1 cup coconut milk Directions: • Sauté the onion in the oil for 3-5 minutes. You can brown the chicken at this step and then move to a plate. Add garlic and sauté only another 60 seconds. Add a cup of filtered water or organic broth. If your broth is not low sodium, you may want to omit or reduce the salt. • Stir in the curry powder/turmeric and cook for 1 minute. • Add the tomatoes, carrots, potatoes. Cover and simmer until carrots, pepper, potatoes are tender, to your liking, about 8-10 minutes. • Stir in coconut milk. Add the chicken to the skillet and gently simmer until the meat is cooked through, about 10 minutes. If you would like me to record your own personal video on how to make a healthy version of your favorite meal, just click the link here.  I offer cooking instructional videos as an à la carte package or as part of the gold package with eight wellness coaching sessions. As always, if you have any questions or suggestions for future episodes, feel free to email me on my contact page, at Healing Outside the Box.

HOTB 264: Cooking as a Mindfulness Exercise

It's common knowledge that fiber is good for us, but what does it do, and how does it improve our cholesterol levels? Today I will journey through our gastrointestinal tract to answer these questions. The American Heart Association, along with the NIH, published its annual report on the stats for heart attacks and strokes as relates to diet, exercise, and other lifestyle factors. Their lengthy report can be found here.   This Cleveland Clinic article gets into specifics about soluble versus insoluble fiber in the importance of both types of fiber. Fiber feeds our gut microorganisms, and this has been a frequent topic of mine. You may want to listen to episode 223  and episode 229 if you'd like to take control of your gut microorganisms. Feel free to contact me on my website contact page, which is Healing outside the box.  

HOTB 263: The 411 on fiber and cholesterol

When you see a study that claims that smoking can cause cancer, have you ever wondered how they could get laboratory rats to puff on those cigarettes? When you hear that eating a lot of carrots will turn your skin orange, have you ever wondered what sucker figured that out the hard way? Well, wonder no more because today we are talking about diet and nutrition studies. Or more specifically, what works and what doesn't. But first, last week I discussed eating tips to slow down climate change and I wanted to add a reference. There is a webcast called "menus of change" and it can be found here. There's also a great documentary called "the need to grow" that tackles this subject beautifully. As for today's topic, there is a summing-up article that does a good job describing the different factors involved in determining a valid research claim. That article can be found here. As always, if you have any questions about the episode or would like to hire yourself a nutritionist or wellness coach, feel free to get in touch with me on my website contact page, which can be found here.

HOTB 262: How reliable are nutrition studies?

An article in The Guardian got me thinking about how we might translate idealistic goals about what to eat to reduce climate change into breakfast, lunch, and dinner. So in this episode, I get into different ways we can do our part to cut down on greenhouse gases and reduce water usage. Could this be as simple as eating more from column A and less from column B? The British have started an organization called The National Food Strategy and they will be updating us soon with advice and tips. There is also a podcast episode that I found interesting on this topic. It can be found here. There are a couple of articles I mentioned on regenerative aquaculture. The first is an NIH article that gives an overview of regenerative agriculture. The second is a newsletter that describes how regenerative agriculture works. An overall review article on sustainable diets can be found here. As always, if you have any questions about this episode or would like to hire a nutritionist/health coach to help you sort all of this out, please email me on my website contact page, which is at Healing Outside the Box.  

HOTB 261: How we can reduce climate change with diet

Do endurance athletes really need a lot of extra protein, or do they just need a lot of extra calories? This week we take a look at several high-protein powders on the market to build muscle and improve performance. As always, if you have any questions or would like to hire a nutritionist, please contact me on my website contact page, which is Healing outside the box.com.

HOTB 260: what's in this thing? A look at high-protein supplements for bodybuilding

Let's all support each other to eat healthier and be well. In this podcast, we'll discuss both mainstream and unconventional ways to live a healthy lifestyle. Suggestions are welcome!

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Healing Outside The Box

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