I had the privilege of previewing Gayle Hilgendorff’s book Live More Work Better before it was published and I wanted to share some insights and thoughts about Gayle and the book.

So what does the World Cup have to do with improving the health of your family?

In my house, everything! When you have 5 boys in your home, we don’t talk about dolls, dresses and tea parties. To really connect with my boys, I need to connect at their level. It usually means talk of some sporting activity. This evening, table time conversation quickly arose to soccer and some fun facts around sports trivia.

My boys shared with me that the read an article that following the Germany and Brazil game on Tuesday that ESPN did a calcuated comparison to other sports for what the 7 goals Germany scored meant. Here’s what ESPN figured out:

NHL is the equivalent of 14 Goals MLB is equivalent of 22 Runs NFL is equivalent of 236 Points NBA is equivalent if 438 Points

Now most of these numbers have never been scored in one of these games, but regardless, it turned into some interesting fun times.

So in order to get ready for the FINAL world cup game, here is a fun recipe for making Pão de Queijo (Brazilian Cheese Bread)

Ingredients

• 1 cup whole milk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups (10 ounces) tapioca flour or sour cassava flour
• 2 eggs 1 –
• 1 1/2 cups Parmesan cheese

Instructions Preheat the oven to 450°F. Line a baking pan with parchment and set aside.

1. Boil the Milk and Oil: Combine the milk, oil, and salt in the saucepan, and whisking occasionally, bring it to a gentle boil over medium heat. Remove from heat as soon as you see big bubbles coming through the milk.
2. Add the Tapioca Flour: Add all of the tapioca flour to the saucepan and stir until you see no more dry tapioca flour. The dough will be grainy and gelatinous at this point.
3. Cool the Dough: Transfer the dough to the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. (Alternatively, you can do the next few steps by hand. Be prepared for a work-out.) Beat the dough for a few minutes at medium speed until it smooths out and has cooled enough that you can hold your finger against the dough for several seconds.
4. Beat in the Eggs: Whisk the eggs together in a small bowl. With the mixer on medium, beat the eggs into the dough in two additions. Wait until the first addition has been fully incorporated into the dough before adding the second. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.
5. Beat in the Cheese: With the mixer on medium, beat in the cheese until fully incorporated. The resulting dough will be very sticky, stretchy, and soft with a consistency between cake batter and cookie dough.
6. Portion the Puffs: Using an ice cream scoop, a tablespoon measure, or a dinner spoon, scoop rounded portions of the dough into mounds on the parchment-lined baking sheet. Space the mounds an inch or two apart. Dip your scoop in water to prevent sticking.
7. Bake the Puffs: Transfer the sheet with the puffs to the oven and immediately turn down the heat to 350°F. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until the puffs have puffed, the outsides are dry, and they are just starting to color. Cool briefly and eat. Leftover puffs can be kept in an airtight container for up to a week and re-crisped in a warm oven or toaster oven.

1. http://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-po-de-queijo-brazilian-cheese-bread-cooking-lessons-from-the-kitchn-176118

So what is the buzz with gluten-free?  Are too many people looking at gluten-free as the next fad diet?  While there is an increasing number of people with celiac disease are too many people going gluten free for the wrong reasons?  A friend of mine forwarded this article to me and asked for my perspective.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/next/body/unless-you-have-celiac-disease-gluten-sensitivity-is-probably-just-in-your-head/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=pbsofficial&utm_campaign=nova_next

I am not a medical doctor, so I can’t tell you what is right for your body, but I can share what I have learned in my studies along with facts from other practitioners around the topic.

In today’s world, we are comsuming WAY TOO MUCH processed food.  Many of which come in the form of flour, sugar and salt.  Any excess amount of these products is harmful to the body and inhibits its natural flow.  For people with Celiac or a gluten intolerance, gluten is the culpret underlying inflammatory damage to the intestinal tract.  However, some people are questioning if removing gluten is really helping an individuals health.

Many people are using gluten free diets as a weight loss tool, due to the benefits of managing blood sugar levels.  In most cases, if you are reducing or removing gluten from your diet, you are also most likey introducing more REAL foods into your diet.  It’s a combination of removing excess carbs, balancing blood sugars, managing appetite and also the adding in of REAL foods into your body that gives your body the nourishment it needs.

Many people who choose to eat gluten free are making much better healthier choices. They are staying away from cookies, crackers, pastas, pastries and processed foods and replacing with more nourishing foods.  It’s like switiching from regular soda to water, instead of regular soda to diet soda. It is a much healthier choice. Individuals are re-training their body to learn how to eat REAL foods and reduce or eliminate less healthier choices.

Dr. William David says, “The amazing thing about wheat elimination is that removing this food that triggers appetite and addictive behavior forges a brand new relationship with food.  You eat food because you need it to supply your physiological needs, not because you have some odd food ingredient pushing your appetite and the impulse to eat more.”  Wheat has been known as an appetite stimulant and has been found to make you want to eat more and yield drug-like neurological effects.  So if you eliminate the wheat you are also reducing your chances of appetite triggers and addictive behaviors.

While going “gluten free” has proven health benefits for many, it is important to note that there is a DIFFERENCE in eating a gluten free lifestyle and eating “Gluten-Free” foods.  The book Wheat Belly shares that many gluten-free products are made by replacing wheat flour with cornstarch, rice starch, potato starch, or tapioca starch.  While these foods don’t trigger an immune or neurological response of wheat gluten they still trigger the glucose insulin response that causes an individual to gain weight.  These “Gluten Free” starch products increase blood sugar levels MORE than wheat products.

Dr. William David, says “Don’t replace wheat calories with rapidly absorsbed carbs that trigger insulin and visceral fast deposition”.  If you really want to improve your health it’s more than eating foods labeled “gluten-free”.  A gluten free lifestyle is the elimination of foods containing gluten and replacing with nourishing whole foods that make a big difference, not just swtiching out products labeled “Gluten-Free”.

If you want to learn more about the health impacts of gluten, check out a previous blog which is a “cliff note” version of the book Wheat Belly.

With baseball season beginning I need to ensure that my kids are well hydrated before, during and after games.  We try to stay away from Gatorade and Vitamin waters because they have added sugars and artificials colors which the kids don’t need.  Sometimes instead of giving the kids plain water in a squirt bottle, we make up a big batch of lemon water.  It’s still cool, refreshing and gives their drink a little extra flavor that goes a long way.

Lemons have amazing benefits that many of us might not realize.  Lemons are good for hydration and have phytochemicals (nutrition) that our body craves.  As you begin drinking it you will find your body begins to crave it. Unlike other citrus fruits, lemon and lime do NOT contain sugar, so while lemons are pre-digestively acidic, they are post digestively alkaline, which will help with your pH balance. It also appears to soften the some of “the gunk” that builds up in your organs and allows it to flush through.  Most of our American diets are TOO acidic and we need to bring our PH balance back to normal by adding alkaline foods. (I’ll explain acid vs. alkaline diets in a future blog) A few other interesting facts…

• We are supposed to receive minerals from our food and our water. Today our water is so degraded there has been a decline in the nutrition of water.
• When we drink water our body should hold onto the water, break down the molecular structure as it absorbs the nutrition. If our body is too acidic or not performing as it should water will go straight through, meaning we drink it and less than an hour goes by and we urinate.
• When we add lemon or lime to our water, our body has phytochemical nutrition. During the process of holding onto the water to absorb this nutrition, our body has MORE TIME to break down the molecular structure and hydrate our cells
• We have 20 different cell sizes, if we don’t breakdown our water small enough, our cells cannot hydrate, thus urination right after drinking.
• Dehydration is one of the major reasons of overacidification. (Deficits in hydration, nutrition, and too much incoming acid.)

Lemons Fun Facts

One of the most effectice cold remedies known is made from lemon:  Start with a pint of raw honey over very low heat.  Chop a whole lemon into a bit of water in a separate pan, warming for two to three minutes.  Add that to the honey, warming for about an hour then strain out the lemon bits and seeds.  Cool the mixture, seal in a jar with a lid and refrigerate for up to two months.

To soothe a cough: give 1/2 tsp. for a 25 lb. child, 1 tsp. for a 50 lb. child, or 1 Tbsp. for adults, about 4 times a day or as often as needed.

If you are one of those people who are trying to cut the regular or diet soda habit, try switching out one of your normal daily drinks with a glass of water with real lemon. You might just find out how much your body thrives on the nutrition it will be receiving.

Other Sources:

• http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2007/12/22/is-honey-more-effective-than-cough-medicine.aspx

When it comes to eating better many of us are focusing on making healthier choices by adding in more REAL non-processed foods and starting to eliminate the toxins, by removing sugars, dyes, partially hydrogentated oils, GMO’s etc… but how many of you focus on how much fiber you are consuming?

Fiber is an integral part of our daily diet and studies have shown that most people are not consuming the daily recommended amounts of fiber. The average dietary fiber intake among kids is much lower than the recommendations. Many kids (let alone adults) get less then 50% of their daily recommended fiber per day.

Here are some stats from (www.superkidsnutrition.com)

• Children 1-3 years: 19 grams of fiber per day
• Children 4-8 years: 25 grams of fiber per day
• Boys 9-13 years: 31 grams of fiber per day
• Girls 9-13 years: 26 grams of fiber per day
• Boys 14-19: 38 grams of fiber per day
• Girls 14-19: 26 grams of fiber per day

Here is a comparison of the amount of foods you would need to eat in order to consume approximately 12 grams of fiber in a day. If our kids are not getting enough fruits, veggies and whole grains, they are not getting enough fiber which have many benefits, one being to assist in elimination of the toxins in their bodies.

• 1 Avacado
• 1 1/2 c Oatmeal
• 2 Tbsp Chia Seed
• 3 Apples
• 7 Slices of Whole wheat bread
• 18 Prunes
• 5 Cups Broccoli
• 18 Cups Spinach
• 40 Baby Carrots
• 79 Almonds

I encourage you to pay closer attention and become more aware of whether or not your family is getting enough fiber in their diet. Lack of fiber could be a factor in some of the health issues your family may be facing.

The facts are overwhelming that, the average consumer does not realize the real health impacts the “bad stuff” has on our bodies. Let’s face it, our bodies are overfed and undernourished. I didn’t know this until I started reading labels to find out what really is in the foods we eat. In today’s day and age, it is very easy to focus on what is most convenient & least expensive.  As consumers, we expect that the government wouldn’t allow “bad stuff” to be added to our food products if they knew it wasn’t good for us. As a parent, we wouldn’t buy things or allow our families to use products that we knew negatively impacted their health. Sadly enough in our society today, there are many things in our everyday foods that are slowly over time impacting our health. Learn more.

More and more people in the world are healing themselves and their families, by paying attention to the foods they are consuming. They are adding in more of the “good stuff’ and taking out more of the “bad stuff”.  I’m so glad that my family is now part of that group. I’d love to help your family join us.

I attended a webinar recently presented by Denise SanFilippo, a Gluten-Free Chef & Industry Consultant who supports the SHAPE organization. (Supporting Health as Partners in Education).  During the call someone suggested that Wheat Belly was a great book.  I mentioned that I have what I like to call a “Cliff Note” version of the book and wanted to share with my subscribers.

A local professor in town Dr. William Davis had one of his students write a review of the book.  This 2 page overview really gives the hightlights of the book and how wheat has been found to be a culprit in many of the health issues that we face as a society today.  If you haven’t already heard the details, you will be surprised to find that the wheat grown in our country is NOT the same wheat that our grandparents were fed.

The book gives loads of examples and stories of people who have come forth and said that their ailments were cured after removing wheat from their diets.  People with diabetes, MS, neurological issues, heart disease, acne, and many others.  If you need to see more facts for yourself, I suggest reading the entire book, but if you are just intrigued by learning a bit more about the buzz around this book check out this book review.  If you are seriously thinking about reducing or eliminating wheat from you diet, and are looking for some additional advice or support, feel free to reach out.  I have been focusing on reducing and eliminating wheat from my diet for the past couple of years.