We've all heard that grass fed beef is healthier, but do you know why?
Let me first start by giving you an idea of how a cow's digestive system works. Cows have five stomachs, this allows them to fully process grass, food they're designed to eat. They also have a type of good bacteria in their gut that allows them to break grass down into vital nutrients. If a cow eats grains, they will not be able to assimilate it properly, therefore inhibiting their ability to produce good bacteria in the gut and to absorb vital nutrients. The bad bacteria (like e coli) in the gut then begin to take over, and because cows are not designed to eat grains they get sick. This is why conventional farmers have to pump their cows full of antibiotics. Not to mention the fact that conventional feed lot cows are not able to roam so they end up standing close together in their own poop.
Now I ask, what kind of a life is that for any living creature?
Or a better question to ask yourself, do you want to eat sick, unhappy animals?
Eating conventional meat can lead to fungal infections, parasites and yeast overgrowth in the human body. If the cow eats grains that have been exposed to mold then you are eating the moldy grains too. Eating animals with such a low vitality will make you less vital too, fungus and parasites thrive in environments like this.
There are many wonderful benefits to eating grass fed beef.
Grass fed beef provides some vital nutrients such as CLAs, omega -3 fatty acids, and other healthy fats. Vitamins A, D, K and E are fat soluble, which means that they can only be transported by fat. The healthy fat in grass fed beef provides this vehicle. Vitamins A, D and K also occur in the fat of grass fed animals, support endocrine function and protect against inflammation. Your body needs healthy saturated fats to rebuild tissue in the body and provide a high quality source of protein containing amino acids that fuel the brain. Not to mention grass fed beef tastes far better than conventional grain fed beef.
There are many sources for grass fed beef around the country and local to Georgia.
They include farms like White Oak Pastures, which supplies Whole Foods, and Yeah! Burger here in Atlanta. Riverview Farms also has grass fed beef and supplies many of the in-town Atlanta restaurants. You can also find Riverview Farms at the Morningside Farmers Market as well as many pick up sites for their CSAs. These just a few, you can find many more at www.georgiaorganics.org or www.eatwild.com.
Here's a great chili recipe from BWell to help get you started
http://www.bwell4life.com/bwell4life/B%E2%80%A2Chill_Chili.html
I always tell my clients we're so lucky to have so many organic farms around us in Georgia, you would be amazed at how many there are. Let's start supporting them.
Resources:
"The Vegetarian Myth", by Lierre Keith
www.westonaprice.org
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Mindful eating
Many of us have gotten stuck on auto pilot, just eating without being present with our food. We've lost our basic connection with food. Some of us may not even really know what real food tastes like or where it actually comes from. Our sense of taste has been lost in the process of processing food. It's been replaced by extreme sweet, salty and sour tastes that are mostly chemically created in laboratories not farms. This is how things like emotional eating, binge eating and eating junk foods can take hold of us.
Drinking your food and eating your water can be helpful in creating mindful and conscious eating. If your food is in a liquid state it tastes different, you become aware of what you're eating and how nutrient dense it is. Liquefied food also goes down fast and absorbs into your body better.
Also knowing what your intentions are before you eat helps. Slowing down and being totally present during a meal, not distracting ourselves with TV, talking, eating standing up or eating really fast. Being fully present and fully connected with our food with the intention of giving us the most nutrient value is a good start.
Neurobotics is the study of how the brain takes on new meaningful tasks, which leads to new pathways and neural change. This can be used as a doorway and tool to open up new pathways in our brain. We can do this with food at mealtimes, but it has to be a meaningful event. Try being creative in the way you eat, like eating with the opposite hand, eating with chopsticks, eating blindfolded, buying different food, eating by candlelight or eating with your hands. By doing these things, you can actually lay down more neuron connections, which can keep you're brain more youthful.
The key is to be in touch with yourself when you're eating by paying attention to how food feels in your mouth when you're eating it. Slow down and taste your food.
When we open the door to creativity, happiness and fulfillment lie ahead.
Drinking your food and eating your water can be helpful in creating mindful and conscious eating. If your food is in a liquid state it tastes different, you become aware of what you're eating and how nutrient dense it is. Liquefied food also goes down fast and absorbs into your body better.
Also knowing what your intentions are before you eat helps. Slowing down and being totally present during a meal, not distracting ourselves with TV, talking, eating standing up or eating really fast. Being fully present and fully connected with our food with the intention of giving us the most nutrient value is a good start.
Neurobotics is the study of how the brain takes on new meaningful tasks, which leads to new pathways and neural change. This can be used as a doorway and tool to open up new pathways in our brain. We can do this with food at mealtimes, but it has to be a meaningful event. Try being creative in the way you eat, like eating with the opposite hand, eating with chopsticks, eating blindfolded, buying different food, eating by candlelight or eating with your hands. By doing these things, you can actually lay down more neuron connections, which can keep you're brain more youthful.
The key is to be in touch with yourself when you're eating by paying attention to how food feels in your mouth when you're eating it. Slow down and taste your food.
When we open the door to creativity, happiness and fulfillment lie ahead.
Monday, February 15, 2010
Drink your food and eat your drinks
Drink your food and eat your drinks.
When we're eating on the run, standing up, watching TV or talking to someone during mealtime this can seriously inhibit digestion and cause all kinds of problems. One of them being inhibiting proper enzyme production which aids digestion.
If you're not producing these enzymes, you're not breaking your food and nutrients down to be absorbed and utilized in the body.
This means being totally present with your meal when you're eating it. Make every meal a sacred event. Chew you're food until it is liquefied and when drinking hold liquid in your mouth for a few seconds without gulping it down.
This enables your body to produce enzymes which aid digestion.
When we're eating on the run, standing up, watching TV or talking to someone during mealtime this can seriously inhibit digestion and cause all kinds of problems. One of them being inhibiting proper enzyme production which aids digestion.
If you're not producing these enzymes, you're not breaking your food and nutrients down to be absorbed and utilized in the body.
This means being totally present with your meal when you're eating it. Make every meal a sacred event. Chew you're food until it is liquefied and when drinking hold liquid in your mouth for a few seconds without gulping it down.
This enables your body to produce enzymes which aid digestion.
Friday, November 20, 2009
How to naturally protect yourself against the flu virus part 2
In my last blog I talked about foods which help to boost your immune system naturally. In this blog I'll be talking about specific foods which inhibit or break down your immunity. One in particular is sugar. White sugar has been proven to be a major immune suppressor, which can make you susceptible to all kinds of viruses, bacteria and disease. With the holidays approaching we'll all be tempted by many sweets. The key to staying healthy is to eat treats in moderation or not at all. I love to have a little pumpkin pie this time of year, so one thing I like to do is to make a pumpkin pie from a real pumpkin and use a gluten free crust or better yet a crust made from nuts. The point is, you want to try to make the dessert as nutrient dense as possible. If you're going to eat sugar occasionally make sure it contains the highest quality and most nutrient dense ingredients. Also consider using raw organic amber agave nectar or stevia to sweeten instead of white sugar. Agave nectar is lower glycemic than sugar and Stevia is an herbal sweetener which does not raise blood sugar levels. To find more healthy recipes for the holidays check out my friend Olga's website at www.bwell4life.com or The Weston A. Price Foundation at www.westonaprice.org
Friday, October 23, 2009
How to Naturally Protect Yourself Against The Flu Virus
The flu virus is a big topic these days. For some of us these are uncertain times. How do we protect ourselves from the flu virus? Well my suggestion is to learn how to boost your own immunity naturally, without the use of vaccines or supplements. Your own immune system is your best defense and should be utilized fully first.
Most of the beneficial bacteria are in the gut and can also be found in other other orifices, including the sinuses and nasal passages. If your intestines are in poor health, you will inevitably have issues with low immunity, less resistance to viruses and infection and inflammation. So what causes low immunity, less resistance to viruses and infection and inflammation? Stress. Stress comes in all forms and there is good and bad stress. Some of the good stress can even become negative if done too much.
Some examples of bad stress are conventional toxic food, negative toxic emotions, doing and thinking too much, chemical stress and environmental stress. Exercise can even become stressful for the body if done too excessively or not done properly. That's why we want to focus on balance.
I'll be talking about the top five steps we can take to boost our immunity naturally in my next four blogs. The first way is to stick with organic fruits, veggies and pasture fed meats at least 80% of the time. Start by cleaning out your pantry and getting rid of the processed junk foods.
If you take the junk foods out of your house you will be less tempted to eat them on a daily basis. That way if you get tempted by junk foods outside of the home, you'll end up eating less junk food overall.
Dispose of any product in your pantry that contains white flour, white sugar and white table salt. Switch these out for organic gluten free flour (brown rice flour, bean flour, potato flour or quinoa flour, millet flour, buckwheat flour), sprouted flour, organic raw amber agave nectar, 100% stevia and celtic sea salt. I personally love to cook pancakes with sprouted or organic gluten free flour, this adds variety.
Then take a trip to your market and buy all the fruits and veggies you normally buy but in the organic and/or local section. When it comes to buying meats pasture fed is the best. You want to eat animals that are eating what they are designed to eat, like grass, bugs, etc. Conventional animals eat corn and moldy grains and are injected with hormones and antibiotics. These are not happy healthy animals. When we eat sick animals this makes us sick since we make new cells in our body from the food we take in. That's why it is crucial to eat healthy, happy pasture fed animals.
In my next blog I'll be discussing why sugar is a major immunity suppressor, what you can replace your sugar with, and how to get rid of sugar cravings.
Most of the beneficial bacteria are in the gut and can also be found in other other orifices, including the sinuses and nasal passages. If your intestines are in poor health, you will inevitably have issues with low immunity, less resistance to viruses and infection and inflammation. So what causes low immunity, less resistance to viruses and infection and inflammation? Stress. Stress comes in all forms and there is good and bad stress. Some of the good stress can even become negative if done too much.
Some examples of bad stress are conventional toxic food, negative toxic emotions, doing and thinking too much, chemical stress and environmental stress. Exercise can even become stressful for the body if done too excessively or not done properly. That's why we want to focus on balance.
I'll be talking about the top five steps we can take to boost our immunity naturally in my next four blogs. The first way is to stick with organic fruits, veggies and pasture fed meats at least 80% of the time. Start by cleaning out your pantry and getting rid of the processed junk foods.
If you take the junk foods out of your house you will be less tempted to eat them on a daily basis. That way if you get tempted by junk foods outside of the home, you'll end up eating less junk food overall.
Dispose of any product in your pantry that contains white flour, white sugar and white table salt. Switch these out for organic gluten free flour (brown rice flour, bean flour, potato flour or quinoa flour, millet flour, buckwheat flour), sprouted flour, organic raw amber agave nectar, 100% stevia and celtic sea salt. I personally love to cook pancakes with sprouted or organic gluten free flour, this adds variety.
Then take a trip to your market and buy all the fruits and veggies you normally buy but in the organic and/or local section. When it comes to buying meats pasture fed is the best. You want to eat animals that are eating what they are designed to eat, like grass, bugs, etc. Conventional animals eat corn and moldy grains and are injected with hormones and antibiotics. These are not happy healthy animals. When we eat sick animals this makes us sick since we make new cells in our body from the food we take in. That's why it is crucial to eat healthy, happy pasture fed animals.
In my next blog I'll be discussing why sugar is a major immunity suppressor, what you can replace your sugar with, and how to get rid of sugar cravings.
Do we really need so much sunscreen?
I used to think I needed to heavily protect myself with sunscreen year round, because of fear of aging faster or getting skin cancer. Since then I've learned when your body is truly healthy, the sun's rays will not effect your health in the same way. It occurred to me that staying out of the sun isn't natural, my body craves the warmth and rays of the sun. Absorption of the sun's rays, if not absorbed excessively, can be a way of healing for some people. This was true for me personally and the rays of the sun helped me heal from severe adrenal fatigue one summer. The sun provides vitamin D, which many of us are highly deficient in these days. Vitamin D is a fat soluble vitamin with can only be absorbed in the body by eating high quality fat. Vitamin D deficiencies have been linked to diseases such as heart disease, cancer and chronic fatigue, to name a few.
I start my summer out by gradually building my base, so that my skin gets used to the sun and doesn't burn. Ten to twenty minutes a day is sufficient.
The best way to avoid sunburn in the summer is to significantly reduce or eliminate all together your sugar intake, toxic foods, drinks and drink lots of high quality water. Gradually build up exposure time depending on how sensitive your skin is to the sun. Use an organic sunscreen without out parabens and other harsh chemicals - http://www.ewg.org/2010sunscreen/.
If you plan to be at the beach all day or are going to be in intense sun all day, I recommend Badgers. Another great natural alternative to sunscreen, which I've tried myself, is organic unrefined coconut oil or real Shea butter. These actually act as sunscreen and protect your skin from the harmful rays of the sun. The bottom line is that we need sun exposure coupled with a healthy fat intake in order to absorb vitamin D. Consider how healthy you are from the inside out instead of the outside in.
interesting related links...
http://www.westonaprice.org/modern-diseases/cancer/577-sunlight-and-melanoma.html
http://www.second-opinions.co.uk/sunlight.html
Thursday, January 29, 2009
21 Day Detox
Hello Everyone,
I had a few ideas during my recent trip. One of them was to inspire people to try something different whether it is a new food, a new way of eating or a new exercise. I discovered that if I stop learning, I stop growing. We all need new experiences so we can continue to grow. That lead me to where I am now. For those who are willing and able to participate, I would like to offer you a 21 day detox challenge. Now this is not a traditional fasting detox like you see at the grocery store. All I ask is that you eliminate all wheat, soy, dairy and processed sugar from your diet for 21 days. This presents an opportunity to try new foods. If you totally hate to cook but still want to participate, Gourmet on the Go will put together meals without wheat, soy, dairy and processed sugar. They also offer an organic meal plan. Just mention that you are a client of mine if you choose to go with them. Their website is
www.gourmetonthegoatl.com.
I also plan to have cooking demonstrations led by me, my husband and/or any volunteering clients. We will be teaching everyone to make Kombucha, raw food, alternative grain dishes, and more. I plan to introduce a new and simple food or meal each week.
I'm also here to answer any questions during the process.
A few good books to check out if you want to learn more about this are:
Nourishing Traditions, by Sally Fallon
The Body Ecology Diet, by Donna Gates
If you choose to take the challenge please let me know by February 9th.
Thank you and I hope to hear from everyone soon.
In health and happiness,
--
Allison Pelot
404-606-5581
www.allisonpelot.com
allisonpelot@gmail.com
I had a few ideas during my recent trip. One of them was to inspire people to try something different whether it is a new food, a new way of eating or a new exercise. I discovered that if I stop learning, I stop growing. We all need new experiences so we can continue to grow. That lead me to where I am now. For those who are willing and able to participate, I would like to offer you a 21 day detox challenge. Now this is not a traditional fasting detox like you see at the grocery store. All I ask is that you eliminate all wheat, soy, dairy and processed sugar from your diet for 21 days. This presents an opportunity to try new foods. If you totally hate to cook but still want to participate, Gourmet on the Go will put together meals without wheat, soy, dairy and processed sugar. They also offer an organic meal plan. Just mention that you are a client of mine if you choose to go with them. Their website is
www.gourmetonthegoatl.com.
I also plan to have cooking demonstrations led by me, my husband and/or any volunteering clients. We will be teaching everyone to make Kombucha, raw food, alternative grain dishes, and more. I plan to introduce a new and simple food or meal each week.
I'm also here to answer any questions during the process.
A few good books to check out if you want to learn more about this are:
Nourishing Traditions, by Sally Fallon
The Body Ecology Diet, by Donna Gates
If you choose to take the challenge please let me know by February 9th.
Thank you and I hope to hear from everyone soon.
In health and happiness,
--
Allison Pelot
404-606-5581
www.allisonpelot.com
allisonpelot@gmail.com
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