Category Archives: Nutrition and Recipes

Vegan calcium rich turmeric latte

Nutrition and Recipes

Looking for foods that:

  • reduce inflammation
  • strengthen bones
  • contribute to overall health
  • are fast and easy to make?

Vegan almond milk turmeric latte is all of that! Many people avoid dairy for health, environmental or ethical reasons. This beverage is a good source of vegan calcium.

It’s my new favorite beverage for so many reasons:

  1. Turmeric, cinnamon, cayenne, ginger, cloves and black pepper are anti-inflammatory.
  2. Calcium-fortified almond milk and molasses are delicious ways to improve bone health.
  3. It literally takes me 90 seconds to make it. I drink it hot in the morning or before bed, or cool on summer afternoons. 
  4. It’s a great snack that doesn’t make me too full to go teach yoga in one hour.

Check out the video below to see how easy it is to make.

I cook “ojo de buen chillazo,” which is a Honduran way of saying “improvisational.”

Here’s my list of ingredients:

  1. Tsp molasses (you could certainly use more)
  2. Couple of turns of black pepper
  3. Couple of taps of ground  cinnamon & ginger
  4. Little bit of cayenne and ground cloves
  5. Several taps of ground turmeric
  6. 1 cup almond milk (calcium content varies, but mine has 500 mg so that’s about 1/2 of day’s calcium)
  7. 1/4 cup water
  8. If I’m drinking it warm, I sometimes add a tablespoon of organic ghee.
  9. Warm on the stove for a few minutes and enjoy! Or drink it straight from the blender cup.

I first found out about Turmeric Tea and turmeric lattes from Wellness Mama website. Here’s a link to her recipe which has more exact guidelines for those of you who like to follow the rules.

Check out more blog posts to learn...

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Leave a comment below to let me know what you think of vegan turmeric latte!

natural detox lemon water

Natural Detox with Water

Nutrition and Recipes,

Looking for a natural detox?

Whether you stayed up late for a party…

Ate too much sugar, salt, or dairy…

Or have just not been “living as clean”  as you normally do…

There’s no need for detox diets or detox pills. Cleanse your body naturally with this morning hydration routine.

The ancient yogis had lots of purification rituals, and many are still appropriate for modern life. When I eat too much restaurant food, packaged food, sugar, salt or dairy, I don’t sleep well. I wake up tired, with a bad taste in my mouth and scum on my tongue.

Here’s what I did this morning to detox after two holiday dinners this week:

  • Brushed my teeth
  • Used spoon to gently remove residue from tongue.
  • Ran 2 cups warm water with sea salt run through nose with Neti pot
  • Drank 1 cup of warm water with lemon and ginger (sometimes I use teaspoon of apple cider vinegar)
  • Drank 12 oz dandelion root tea. It’s bitter, in a yummy way. Bitter is one of the important 6 tastes, and we don’t much in typical American diet.  Americans’ most commonly consumed bitter foods are beer and coffee. I don’t drink either of those.
  • Drank 1 cup organic green tea. I use caffeine very sparingly. (It’s a drug.) I’ll make another blog post about that someday. 
  • Ate homemade food, including steamed kale and broccoli.

Most people don’t need elaborate, difficult and restrictive detox diet plans. Most of us just need to eat real, whole, homemade food. And when we get off track, we can get back on track by doing just that. 

Let me know how you feel with the morning hydration routine!


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Sustainable Shrimp Farming

Nutrition and Recipes

Ever wanted an insider peek at a shrimp farm?  I did, of course!

Val Minkowski of Urban Seas Aquaculture welcomed me for a tour of the sustainable shrimp farm right here in Greenville, South Carolina. 

Watch the interview and tour here, or scroll down to read highlights.

Find out why raising shrimp in pools is an eco-friendly alternative to open sea and coastal shrimping.

  • Open sea and coastal shrimping both have potential negative ecological impacts. Open sea shrimping can damage the sea floor and leaves behind “by catch,” which means many marine life forms are killed and discarded in the process. Coastal shrimping often has very dense populations. Nearby mangrove forests and water can be polluted by feed and excrement.
  • Urban Seas is a recirculating indoor system, which means there is no waste water leaving the farm. 
  • Shrimp in the wild are scavengers. They eat anything they can! Unfortunately they can also eat plastic or trash that ends up in their path. At Urban Seas, they eat pellet food that mimics the nutrients they would eat in the wild.
  • Request sustainably-caught or raised seafood in stores and restaurants. Know where your food comes from!

Find out more about Urban Seas Aquaculture and sign up to be notified when the shrimp are ready.

Ready to take action? Click below for sites to help you learn more and make sustainable choices.

Click here for South Carolina Aquarium’s Good Catch program and low-country fisheries and restaurants serving sustainable seafood.

Here’s the link to Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch program.

See the related blog posts about sustainable fish and seafood here:


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How to Make an Impact with Seafood (and Seaweed!) Choices

Nutrition and Recipes

Part 3 of 3 – Interview with Sun Brage of Aquaculture Stewardship Council.
Part 1 is here – Three types of seafood farms
Part 2 is here -What to look for when purchasing seafood

This video covers what we can do as conscious consumers to support sustainable fishing and aquaculture.

Highlights:

Seaweed and algae are versatile plants that can be used in a wide variety of products. ASC and MSC have developed a joint standard for responsible seaweed production. This covers both wild and farmed seaweed.

ASC and MSC are international organizations. Their standards are global.

As of June 2018, USDA does not have an “organic” standard for farmed fish or seafood. The European Union and other countries do have organic aquaculture standards. Like most things, it’s complicated! Some sources say those standards are not stringent enough. 

Conscious consumers can do three things to choose seafood that are good for health and good for the environment.

  1. Look for MSC and ASC logos.
  2. Use other benchmark organization guidelines such as Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch, World Wildlife Fund Sustainable Seafood Guides, and South Carolina Aquarium Good Catch Program.
  3. Ask questions in stores and restaurants. Request seafood from sustainable sources. Let business owners know that it is important to you.

You might also be interested in these blog posts:


Book a complimentary consultation. I’d love to help you!

What to look for when purchasing seafood

Nutrition and Recipes

This is Part 2 of 3 of an interview with Sun Brage of Aquaculture Stewardship Council.

Part 1 is right here in which Sun gave an overview of the types of fish farms.

In this video, Sun covers:

  • what to look for and ask for when purchasing seafood
  • standards that farms must meet to acquire the ASC certification, including feed standards and population densities
  • nutritional differences between wild-caught and farmed fish

 

Highlights

Look for ASC logo on farmed seafood, and MSC logo on wild-caught seafood.

If you cannot find these two, use these other benchmarking systems:

it’s important to understand what standards are used to determine rankings within each benchmarking system. Many of these take into account environmental impact, but not the feed given to the fish.

The difference between ASC and MSC and other organizations is that ASC and MSC are international, non-profit, certifying agencies. When a product bears their logos, it means that that specific fishery or farm met their standards for health of environmental impact, and community relations.

One important fact is that to meet ASC farm standards, only 50% of river water can be diverted from a natural source, and the water must be tested and treated before re-introducing it into the river.

75-80% of aquaculture feed is derived from terrestrial (land-grown) products. The industry is moving towards more terrestrial feed sources because using wild-caught fish as feed is not sustainable.

ASC is developing a new feed standard focused on sustainability and environmental impact.

Population densities are controlled in aquaculture. For example, 98% of a salmon mariculture environment must be open water.

You might also be interested in these blog posts:

Ready to make conscious, informed food choices for the long-term? Check out the self-paced program Five Star Eating.