What Makes Food Sensuous?

Every time I watch a foreign French film portraying the heroine as a chef, I feel as if I've  been watching a love affair.  A love affair with food. The affair is not only expressed by the care and passion in the preparation of the dishes (that would be a one sided affair) but also with the actual experience of tasting and eating in a truly present way with great appreciation and pleasure.

After raptly watching the passion, love, and appreciation being exchanged between the chef and her patrons, I always feel inspired to make incredibly complex dishes, with the best ingredients for all those I care about. Unfortunately, this inspiration lasts about 48 hours max. After I've spent copious amounts of time finding the perfect ingredients, cleaned boat loads of pots and pans and have made a complete mess of my kitchen and I'm exhausted,  I realize that while I love making wonderful food, I am really best at the appreciation aspect of the love affair.

 I do love to create.  I do receive great satisfaction serving food that looks beautiful, tastes wonderful and will nourish the body, but I do not come close to the real chefs who seek the best ingredients and will spend hours in the kitchen to perfect a sauce or a dish.

 Even though I do think of food as medicine and such an important aspect to feeling good and keeping our bodies whole, I find myself spending less and less time in my kitchen!  I'm there less, mainly because I'm putting more time into what I'm even more passionate about, learning as much as I can about how the body heals itself given the right tools and then teaching it to you and helping the people who come to me truly heal.  With my time being spent here, I'm finding that I'm having to leave recipe development up to others.  

One site that I love to check out often, not only because this young lady is a wonderful writer, but because she also knows her flavors, and textures and has a love affair with food is www.sproutedkitchen.com. Her husband has a love affair with his camera so there are delicious photos to compliment the recipes.  Sara Forte is a new mama, so her postings are not as frequent as they used to be, but there is a plenty of content already there to make it very inspiring.  

On August 20th, I will be presenting a cooking class for a little summer romance: making a 
Summer Squash Pasta with Green Goddess Dressing, Coconut Yogurt, Raw Chocolate
 Macaroons, a Whole Food Protein Shake and more.  Click below to find out more.
 http://alivingbalance.blogspot.com/2014/08/a-special-summer-cooking-class.html

What makes food sensuous is attention to detail, a love to create and an immense appreciation of wonderful flavors, textures, and a touch of fat.  Yes, I said fat-good fat which includes fresh butter, coconut oil and olive oil.  Bon Appetit!

Cancer Protective Cocktail w/Energy Boosting Power

Spices...ancient treasure

Those innocent spice jars sitting in your cupboard don’t do much to reveal their incredible history. Did you know that nutmeg was once worth more by weight than gold? That in the 16th century, London dockworkers were paid their bonuses in cloves? That in 410 AD, when the Visigoths captured Rome, they demanded 3,000 pounds of peppercorns as ransom?

Spices, which today are inexpensive and widely available, were once very tightly guarded and generated immense wealth for those who controlled them.  They still have the ability to generate immense wealth in terms of buying health and well being.  There is treasure in your cupboards and one that holds immense healing power, is turmeric. Turmeric is what gives curry its vibrant color and is part of the curcumin family.  

I consider turmeric, 'Head to Toe' protection, with its anti-inflammatory properties. It has been shown to reduce joint swelling and free radical damage to joints.  This ability to reduce free radicals also plays an important role in reducing many types of cancers, including prostate, colon, breast, skin and lung.  It also helps to turn on our own body's powerful cancer fighting agent and anti-oxidant, called glutathione. All of this also points to brain protection resulting in less dementia, Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's.  The wonderful little morning cocktail that is listed below has turmeric along with four other ingredients that will give you a jump start as well as protection from head to toe.

                                                                                       

Cancer Protective Cocktail Recipe

This wonderful cleansing and protective drink, is best first thing in the morning.  Use it to wake up the adrenal glands for energy and to start the natural daily cleansing process.  It's surprisingly tasty, almost like drinking a broth.  ( If you miss getting it in the AM, then make it a part of your mid afternoon)

1 Whole Lemon

8 oz Warm Filtered Water

 Bee Pollen*

1 tsp Coconut Oil

1/8 tsp Turmeric

pinch of Real Salt

Fresh Lemon: Helps the elimination and cleansing process, soothes the digestive system, helps to reduce nausea and neutralizes heartburn.

  Bee Pollen

 Bee Pollen: is full of amino acids, B vitamins, enzymes and minerals.  It's great for our skin, digestive system, and energy.  The proper amount to take will vary per person. It's best to start out with a pinch and then work up to 2 tsp.

Coconut oil: is a wonderful source of a fat that soothes and heal the digestive tract. It has antibacterial properties, loves your skin and can greatly increase the absorption of the turmeric which is fat soluble.

Real Salt: This is actually a brand name for a great salt that is not bleached and is chock full of minerals.  The salt, especially first thing in the morning, will give your adrenals a nudge to get going.

Your Fork is a Powerful Tool

Perhaps The Most Powerful Tool You Have…

The most powerful tool you have to transform your health or to keep your health is your fork! Use it well and you will thrive. Use it poorly and you will more than likely suffer.  In my practice, I find that the less a person uses their fork, the more likely they are consuming foods that are high in bad fats, sugar, high fructose corn syrup, additives and preservatives, all of which are found in abundance in fast foods, chips, sodas, baked goods, and prepared and processed foods.  What your fork needs to find are foods that are “whole” and real and living.

Whole, Living foods not only taste better, they make us feel better and are part of preventing disease. When we give our body Living, real food, it has the raw materials that it needs to heal and protect itself.  Mounds of scientific evidence points to the power of food as medicine. These “medicinal” foods are simple and are what our bodies need to make us sparkle and feel alive!  

 We can treat and prevent most chronic illnesses with a whole, organic, real, unprocessed diet of fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, beans, nuts, seeds, avocados, olive oil, coconut oil, small omega-3 containing fish like sardines and herring, and lean grass fed animal protein. These are basically,foods that our ancestors gathered and hunted.  We have not evolved much over the past years and our bodies basically need the same nutrient rich food for fuel and optimal health. Whole, real, living foods are our first line of defense against disease, including autoimmune disease, cancers, depression, ADD, heart disease, diabetes and the myriad of other chronic diseases that we suffer from because we do not feed our bodies what they need.

So, how can you easily tell if a food is a Living food?  It's actually very simple.  It will spoil or change at room temperature in 7-10 days. (the exception is a dehydrated food) The fact that the food is changing means that it is still living and full of enzymes that our body needs to operate at a peak level.  An example of this: Tortillas and breads should become moldy in about 7 days at room temperature.  If they don't, they are no longer a living food but have been made inert with added preservatives, chemicals and/or heat.  Dead foods do not help to keep our bodies energized and disease free and they "dumb" us down.

Foods to Avoid Forever:There are certain foods that should be avoided forever.  They are not meant for human consumption.  These are Frankenfoods that have been created by food scientists that benefit the food industry's pocket book, not you!  They can be found in abundance in your friendly big grocery store chains, and in the myriad of fast food establishments.

Go into your kitchen: Look through your cabinets and throw away anything that contains ingredients on the list below. And when you go to the grocery store, make sure to read the ingredient labels of all foods you purchase to avoid reintroducing these substances into your home and diet.

1. High-fructose corn syrup (and corn syrup) This is a manufactured byproduct of corn (which 90% of is genetically modified in the US) and is a marker of poor-quality food, and has more harmful effects on your health than regular sugar. This sweetener is metabolized differently than sugar, through the liver and can actually cause a fatty liver and liver damage, in much the same way that alcohol can.  Take a look at your Wheat Thins, Breakfast bars, cereals, ketchup, BBQ sauce, even your peppers in a jar to see if this sweetener has been added.
2. Trans Fats.(aka as hydrogenated or partially-hydrogenated oil)  Do not be fooled by packaging that states there are zero trans fats or the nutrition label that says zero trans fats.  You must read the ingredient label to see if there is hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils in the product.  These fats are used to extend the shelf life and add creaminess and texture of baked goods, peanut butters, etc but these fats have been proven to cause heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. New York City has banned trans fats, and I hope you will too.  (Read your Skippy and Jiff peanut butter ingredients.  Take a look at your Mission Flour Tortillas.)
3. Food additives, preservatives, and artificial sweeteners:  The average person consumes pounds of these compounds every year. Aside from being harmful themselves, they bring with them many other poor quality ingredients. Stay away from the following:
4. Artificial Sweeteners:Aspartame (NutraSweet, Equal), saccharin (Sweet n’Low), sucralose (Splenda), acesulfame-K (Sunette, Sweet-n-Safe, Sweet One) What can you do instead?  How about using a little bit of Stevia which is a natural herb or even a little bit of Inulin which is a mildly sweet powder that the beneficial bacteria in your gut gets nourishment from and grows.  A couple of other sweetening ideas include, sucanat, and raw local honey.

• Any food additives:Potassium bromate, propyl gallate, sodium nitrite, sodium nitrate, monosodium glutamate, maltodextrin (you will be surprised at how many products have this little sweetener and interestingly enough, it is not counted as a sugar).

I always encourage eating as much organic and grass fed as your budget can bear, but even if you do nothing else, simply by eliminating foods with any of the above ingredients in them, you will go a long ways toward improving your health and the health of your loved ones, as well.

It really is simple.  Just start eating whole real, fresh, organic (when you can), unprocessed food and watch how you look and feel so incredibly much better!