5 foods with surprising nutritional value you should be eating now!

5 foods with surprising nutritional value you should be eating now!

Hmmm ok so we all know it’s best for our health, beauty, and waistlines to be adding more vegetables, fruits and healthy fats to our diets right?  But, which ones?  Well, when it comes to the above, you can’t really go wrong but you can go very, very right.  Plus, we know you’re busy!  You need quick nutrient-dense foods that pack a punch.  Well here you go! Five foods you can ADD to your day now that can have a quick and lasting impact on your entire wellbeing!

Five foods you may be surprised to learn how great they are for you!  In fact, whenever I bring foods like these up to our clients they’re usually shocked as they were always led to believe these were empty foods that were not really doing much for them when in reality it’s the complete opposite.  If you’re a fan of these foods…now’s the time to find delicious ways to add more of them to your meal plans!

First up: Watermelon!  Yes that’s right! This is one of those foods that almost everyone loves and it’s not hard to convince any of our clients to eat more of them.   They are all over the place right now at your local farmer’s market and you can find some pretty heirloom ones but even the regular watermelons found at your supermarket will do (just be sure to wash that melon before cutting into it, you don’t want dirt and germs from handling spreading from rind to knife to fruit).  Why eat more watermelons?  Lycopene!  There’s actually more of this amazing antioxidant that has been shown to help fight several cancers in watermelon than even in tomatoes! Vitamin A and Vitamin C rank high in this fruit for eye health and immunity support respectively.  There’s tons of potassium to help balance those electrolytes and B6 for brain functionality.  Plus it’s delicious and fun to eat!  What’s my fave way to eat watermelon?  Straight up!  But that doesn’t mean that you won’t often get served a salad of watermelon, olives, chiles, parsley, and pistachios (feta cheese optional)…with a drizzle of olive oil at my house!

Next up: The amazing Cucumber!  We have one client who was shocked (and thrilled) to learn that I was asking her to add more cucumbers to her diet.  They are that good for you!  Like a lot of Enlightened Moves food faves, cucumbers are good for beauty as well as your health…and not just by placing cucumber slices on your eyes (although that is a great eye relief!).  Magnesium, potassium, and silicon are all beauty inducing minerals that are found in cucumbers, great for skin, nails, and hair! The vitamins A, B, and C are all found in abundance here great for immunity and overall health.  Cucumbers are often touted as helpful in fighting cancers.  They are 96% water and therefore not only keep you hydrated, they can help flush out toxins and help relieve water retention (as does watermelon).  The sterols found in cucumbers help lower bad cholesterol.  Many people find that eating cucumbers helps with weight loss.  Cucumbers lower the uric acid levels in your body, helping the kidneys function better.  And cucumbers contain a hormone needed by the pancreas to help produce insulin, therefore making it helpful in the fight against diabetes as well.  How do I eat cucumbers?  Often I’ll add cucumbers to my water and sip on it but lately I’ve been absolutely addicted to slicing cucumbers and drizzling my favorite hot sauce on them and eating them just like that (so weird I know!).

Mushrooms:  okay, okay I’ll admit that in my studies of nutrition that I love to learn and dissect what all the celebrities are doing for their diets to get ready for roles and to maintain their beautiful skin and bodies for red-carpet events.  But even I was surprised to learn that there is a diet called the M-plan!  Now I’ve known for years how great shiitakes and certain other mushrooms are for you in building immune support and warding off cancers but apparently they are also high in protein and fiber.  Adding raw shiitakes to her diet is how Katy Perry claims to have slimmed down her butt and thighs while keeping her bust line feminine.  We at EM cannot verify this to be a valid bonus of eating mushrooms but we DO know that yes, the other things are true!  Adding mushrooms to your diet can ward off cancer as they contain a compound that’s known to slow tumor growth, they reduce inflammation and improve elasticity in skin, and eating shiitakes, specifically, will help fight tooth decay!  I love adding sautéed mushrooms to eggs and I try to add raw mushrooms to salads as often as possible!

Seeds!  Seeds are everywhere these days and for good reason; their health benefits are many and mighty.  I was tempted to avoid mentioning them here because I think we’re all starting to know they’re good for us but maybe we don’t quite understand why exactly. So I thought I’d try to sum up a few points on my faves!  Did you know sesame seeds are extremely high in calcium?  Or that chia seeds have 5 grams of fiber per tablespoon?  Hemp seeds actually contain ALL of the essential amino acids, which is uncommon for a plant source of protein.  So, if you’re vegetarian you might want to start adding these guys to your smoothies and oatmeal!  Flax seeds and pumpkin seeds are just two more types of seeds that along with the others are high in heart healthy omega 3’s and antioxidants and vitamins.  I keep raw organic seeds in my freezer to prevent rancidity and I add random mixed handfuls to my salads everyday or top my tacos with them and have recently started playing with different seeds as bases for my “pesto” type sauces!  But they’re also great on yogurt or just straight out of your hand or blended as a spread (tahini or sun butter anyone?) as a great snack!

Onions are perhaps the most surprising of all these foods.  I mean, I think we all have a love/hate relationship with these guys…so delicious but they’re hard to peel, and make our eyes water!  We use them to add flavor to our soups and roasts and sautés, sure we might top a burger with a raw slice, or enjoy them in our greek salads BUT did you know that onions are the richest food source of quercitin, which is a powerful antioxidant known to thin blood and help lower cholesterol, help fight chronic bronchitis, asthma, diabetes, and many cancers?  Or, that onions have a high amount of sulfur containing amino acids that help detoxify the body of heavy metals? Not to mention all the vitamin C, folic acid, vitamin B1, B6, K, chromium and calcium…what? What? What?  Yup!  All true!  I personally love to sauté my kale with onion AND garlic and a little drizzle of my favorite vinegar of the day, olive oil, salt and pepper of course.  But, of course, onions are so easy to add to everything!

FROM VAMPIRE'S BLOOD TO BEE VENOM

FROM VAMPIRE’S BLOOD TO BEE VENOM

Carolyn, my friend and partner in Enlightened Moves wrote me a funny email suggesting that “we have to dispel the rumors that you drink Vampire’s Blood to still look so young and that I have had butt implants to defy gravity when in reality it’s all Enlightened Moves and Enlightened Moves Lifestyle.”

It sounds so cool to say “I’m drinking vampire’s blood” but sadly I am not.  But may I begin with a little bit of history.  My maternal Grandmother was the daughter of a Head Gardener who in his lifetime worked at one or two Royal Palaces and Stately homes.  He grew exotic fruit (or at least it was in those days) and vegetables for the Aristocracy and he would bring home to his family the fruits of his labors (forgive the pun).  My Grandmother was brought up exclusively on organic produce from the land.  This Gardener’s daughter as a teenager would open the gates to let in the carriages and my soon to be Grandfather, a minor Aristocrat, spotted Grandma and her beautiful skin.  He was much older than her but he fell in love with my Grandmother and her healthy looks which probably encouraged the thought that she would bear an heir and a spare.  The rest is history and I could, of course, pad this out and sell a new TV series along the lines of Downton Abbey, but I will stop here.

It is true, what you put into your body affects your health, your longevity, your looks and how you age.  And it is never too late to start to change your nutrition if you feel you are perhaps not doing yourself any favors.  I come from several generations of fruit and vegetable eaters but I am not a food fascist.  Anyone who knows me knows I am rather fond of large gins and tonics and sticky toffee pudding with custard, in fact anything that has “sticky, gooey and pudding” in its name.  But good nutrition does not have to be a torture or a prison sentence and easy changes are possible.  As an experiment, Carolyn, the Nutritionist half of the Enlightened Moves Duet, suggested I drink a green smoothie for breakfast or, in fact, all morning if I was hungry.  This is a simple concoction to make and it is famed for detoxification and to promote a youthful skin and glow. See Recipe and a picture of the green smoothie on its way to the freezer!

Yes, I said, I will add this to my morning routine which also includes a cup of hot water with lemon, first thing – which helps flush out the liver, stimulates your digestive track, and helps the body become more alkaline.   And as I am English, I have to have two cups of Empress Grey Tea.  I began to drink the green smoothie every day and because it has fruit in it, it tastes sweet and fun.  I make a large batch and freeze it until I need it.  I noticed a difference immediately.  I was less puffy and the skin around my eyes seemed to improve, I thought.  After two weeks I happened to be taking an elderly client to Bingo as part of my Care Giving Work.  While standing in the queue to collect sheets of numbers for him to play, I found myself chatting with a number of people.  We were all trying to guess each others’ ages.  They all thought I was 32 or 34.  Yippee!!  I am 54.  I was so thrilled, I told everyone I know. 

Now I sometimes alternate the green smoothie with a hot calming, green soup - the ingredients I am told are good for joints, bones, osteoporosis, rickets, mental health nervous system and anxiety.  I like hot soup for breakfast.  I make a lot of healthy soups for my elderly Mother, and this is so delicious and very seasonal - it uses a lot of fresh mint that we have growing in abundance in the garden. These are two easy, cheap, drinkable meals to promote youthful, beautiful skin and health and I can testify that they work.  We've included the recipe for the soup and a picture below as well!

It is never too late to use nutrition as an anti-aging component for the skin and body.  I do not spend a lot of money on fashionable face creams.  I would rather eat to make my skin look good, but perhaps another time I will write about my topically applied skin care - mine does include Bee Venom! – ö-Sel (picture of me above after am exhausting 15 hour care-giving shift...not bad 'eh?)

Recipes:

Glowing Green Smoothie from Kimberly Snyder “The Beauty Detox”

Ingredients

2 cups water, ½ head organic spinach, 1 head organic romaine, juice of ½ organic lemon, 3 sticks of organic celery, 1 organic banana, 1 organic pear, 1 organic apple

Pour water into blender, add spinach and romaine…blend until smooth.  Add celery, apple, and pear blend again until smooth.  Add banana and lemon juice give one final blend…to create that smooth, creamy shake texture.  Voila!

** Carolyn’s notes: make sure to keep the skins of the apples and pears on…that’s where a lot of the vitamins and minerals are!  This recipe makes about 2 1/2 – 3 pints a serving size is at least one pint.  But drink more if you like.  It will keep for 3 days with the enzymes intact in the fridge or for 2 months in the freezer.  Just pull some out to thaw in the fridge the night before you want to drink it.  Feel free to experiment just don’t add any ‘high sugar’ fruits like orange or grapes, don’t add and grains, dairy, or protein as this is a smoothie that is meant to be digested quickly for optimum absorption of vitamins and for ‘quick exit’ ;-) (more on that later)! - Carolyn

ö-Sel’s Hot Green Soup

olive oil for cooking and drizzling

1 white onion finely chopped

1 garlic clove finely chopped

2 cups fresh or frozen peas

1 large zuchinni, chopped

1 sweet potato, peeled and diced

2 cups vegetable stock or bouillon

1 cup baby spinach

small bunch fresh mint leaves

sea salt

freshly ground pepper

Saute onion until breaking down, add sweet potato and cook until soft.  Add other vegetables and broth…cook for 30-45 minutes.  Blend in batches or with a hand held blender…add more fresh mint, s & p and a drizzle of olive oil for serving.