Countdown to Fitness

For more than one year, I’ve been on a quest to eat healthier and ethically (eating food that is sustainable and that helps rebuild the land, as well as eating meat that is humanely raised).  With the help of my CSA, I found Live Springs Farm of Carrollton, Illinois, which is “dedicated to promoting sustainable, local, biodynamic agriculture; helping revive rural landscapes and economies; treating the livestock humanely; and producing healthy, wholesome food.”  It’s currently producing and selling organic grain, hay, and legumes, as well as pastured pork and pastured poultry, where the animals are fed on natural diets in the pasture. (more…)

Olive Oil

Not All Fats Are Alike
As we saw in part 1 of my cancer series, low-fat diets could cause cancer.  However, the problem with saying eat fat or don’t eat fat is that some fats are bad for you while others are absolutely necessary for your health, so making a blanket statement about fats is confusing and potentially harmful.  Also, eating too much of even the fats dubbed “healthy” can be harmful.  One rule of thumb to consider is that anything man-made is potentially suspect as dangerous.

The Main Types of Fats
Fats can be saturated, unsaturated, or trans fats, depending on how the atoms are linked together.  Although saturated fat tends to be heavily maligned, both saturated and unsaturated fats are necessary for proper health.  Saturated fat is solid at room temperature and tends to be found in animal products like meat and dairy, as well as certain nuts, oils, chocolate, etc.  Unsaturated fats exist alongside saturated fats, albeit in different quantities in different foods.  Trans fats (also called hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated) are totally man-made, unsaturated fats.  They promote heart disease by raising levels of “bad” cholesterol and lowering levels of “good” cholesterol.  Avoid trans fats. (more…)

Herb Parran at www.traditionaltaiji.com

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On Saturday, the gentleman to my right asked a lot of thought-provoking questions about vegetarian and vegan diets.  Since I have not done too much to look into this area (obviously what I’m advocating is contradictory, with meat), I could not give him great answers to his questions.  I do know that just because people switch to an all-plant diet, that doesn’t mean they will be healthy.  High blood pressure, cholesterol, life-threatening nutritional deficiencies, etc. can still exist.  In fact, I know a vegan who almost died of an iron deficiency, a common problem among vegetarians and vegans. (more…)

Plants Fight Back with Toxins

Anti-Nutrients and Toxins in Seeds (Grains, Legumes, Nuts, and Others)

Grains, legumes (beans, peas, lentils, soybeans, peanuts, etc.), nuts, and other seeds have developed anti-nutritional factors and toxins for various reasons.  These substances are used, in part, to prevent animals and insects from eating them. (more…)

I want to thank Herb Parran for inviting me to his Taijiquan (Tai Chi Chuan) class to speak about nutrition today.  Tai Chi is practiced for health, stress reduction, spiritual, and/or martial aspects, so Herb wanted to provide his students with information to achieve internal health.

To his students, I want to say thank you, too, for your interest and all the great questions.

I will be posting many more of the recipes my family and I love, whether they are links or whether they are mine.  Keep checking back.

If you are looking for a great Tai Chi instructor, visit Herb’s website.