My biggest reason I never bought an avocado was because I would take it home intending to use it and when I cut it open, it would be bad inside.  And let’s face it, they are a little pricey.  But are they worth it?  Oh yeah, definitely.  Since I found the living food lifestyle, I found so much more to do with them AND how to keep them ripe and never throw away another one.

The avocado was discovered by Charles Avocad in 1762, and is botanically a fruit.   It is often treated as a vegetable and in some cuisines; this luscious green fruit/vegetable is used in desserts.  The cultivation of avocados began over 10,000 years ago.  These grew mainly in tropical areas.  Some believe even further back!  Maybe avocado trees fed the dinosaurs!  Now North and Central America lead the world in production, with California, Texas and Florida providing us with different varieties of avocado.  If you want to avoid the toxicity and cholesterol of meats, avocados are the substitute for you.  They are a great way to transition to a healthier vegetarian or raw food lifestyle.

My first months raw, I ate one avocado a day.  I ate it alone, put it in a wrap with other raw veggies, made guacamole or added to my salad.  Those three months I lost over 10 pounds.   We know enough now that cooked foods, breads, pastas, refined sugars, meats, dairy and processed foods are what is causing a high rate of obesity, not to mention lack of exercise and holding on to old emotional habits and patterns.  Avocados and other fruit and plant foods are rich in vitamins, minerals, soluble fiber, active enzymes, proteins, and easily digested fats.  They contain 74% water and have no cholesterol.

Let’s first figure out how to pick an avocado.  Take some of the fear out of shopping for expensive fruit.  If it’s large, it will perish quicker.  Bruising inside?  Hard to tell, right?  Right.  Unfortunately.  I try to buy them when they are not ripe.  Then I refrigerate the whole avocado and take out only when I need them.  Allow to ripen on the counter for 1-3 days, depending.  In the refrigerator they will not ripen, so good to store there.  Depending on the state it comes from will depend on how to choose.  Florida avocados will yield to gentle squeezing when ripe.  California avocados need one day if they yield to pressure.  But, the big thing is….once you cut that luscious fruit/vegetable, the process of ripening ends.  At that time you are stuck with it.  To store your cut avocado, wrap tightly in saran wrap or in a tight container.  Lemon juice may stop the blackening also.  Basically, eat the whole thing in one sitting and play it safe.

There are a few ways to cut open an avocado.  I like to cut it lengthwise around, twist, open and spear the pit with a knife.  If I’m making guacamole, raw chocolate pudding or a smoothie, I just squeeze each half into a bowl.  If I’m making a pretty salad or sandwich, I will peel the skin and cut in strips or use one of those handy, dandy plastic avocado cutter outers. 

And then there are the benefits of avocados.  They are filled with healthy fats, vitamins like A, B-complex, C, H, K and E, beta-carotene and alpha-carotene, plus minerals like magnesium, copper, iron, calcium, potassium and other trace elements.  They contain more protein than cow’s milk and provide you with 18 amino acids and 7 fatty acids.  When you combine the fats from avocado with nutrients in your other foods like vitamin A, D, E, K, lutien, lycopene and calcium, these vitamins are better and more easily absorbed by your body.  You don’t need a lot of avocado for this process.  They are high in fat and also give you a good amount of magnesium and fiber. 

Just took a little break to eat an avocado.  I’m back.  How about some recipes?  Ok then……

Smoothies are easy.  Use half or whole pitted avocado in your blender with about two cups of coconut, rice or almond milk.  Add raw cacao for the chocolatey smooth richness.  You can sweeten with fruit or agave if needed.  These recipes are from Kelly Serbonich and Anna Maria Clement’s Healthful Cuisine Book.

Guacamole

3 cups mashed avocado, 1/2 cup finely diced red onion, 1/2 cup finely diced red bell pepper, 1/2 cup shredded carrot, 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro, 1-2 cloves pressed garlic, teaspoon ground cumin, 2 Tbl fresh lemon juice, cayenne and Bragg Liq Amino to taste.  You can also add kelp granules or sea salt.  I like to put something like this into a portobello mushroom soaked in Bragg’s.  Yum.

Avocado Pudding

1 avocado, 12 dates(pitted and soaked), 1 cup soak water from dates or coconut water, 1 tsp cinnamon.  Blend all the ingredients until smooth and sprinkle the cinnamon on top.  You can add banana, mango or carob powder or cacao.

Have fun and experiment.  Wishing you healthy eating!

Have you asked yourself this question at any time?  I have and I used to take them at different times.  Usually when I found one on sale at the health food store or if my Mom happened to bring me a bottle from Hippocrates where she worked.  But I never felt like I needed one until recently.  More and more of us are finding benefits from nutritional and herbal supplements.  Sure, diet alone should be able to provide all the essential nutrition necessary for optimal health, but not many of us are eating a diet that could make that possible.  And most one a day multi vitamins provide less than ideal amounts of most key nutrients, not to mention you end up urinating out what your body doesn’t need. 

More and more Americans are now regularly taking vitamin or mineral supplements.  Unfortunately, most people taking a multiple vitamin or mineral supplement are still not getting what they really need.  Rueters Health states that “more than 30 percent of multivitamins tested recently by ConsumerLab.com contained significantly more or less of an ingredient than claimed, or were contaminated with lead..”

Minerals are important.  The key function of vitamins and minerals in the body revolve around their serving the role as essential components in enzymes and coenzymes.  Enzymes are chemicals that speed up the rate of reactions between substances while being consumed themselves.  They are vital to bodily functions like digestion. Enzymes are a type of protein that sometime work in tandem with non-proteins called coenzymes.  If an enzyme is lacking an essential mineral or vitamin, it can’t properly function.  We have to provide the necessary minerals through our diet to help.  These minerals or nutritional formulas help the enzyme perform its vital function.  Here’s an example:  If there is no zinc in the enzyme, the vitamin A cannot be converted to the active form.  This type of deficiency can result in night-blindness. 

How else to get enzymes in you?  A second category of enzymes is in raw foods that aid in the process of digesting those foods.  Such enzymes like proteases, implement the digestion of protein, lipases, help in digesting lipids or fats, and amylases, make it possible to digest carbs.  These enzymes set in motion the digestive process as the food is in the mouth.  They move with the food into your stomach and continue to aid in digestion.

Problems with the tolerable limits of certain multivitamins have been found in several multivitamin products.  Even one type of vitamin water, tested by ConsumerLab.com “had 15 times its stated amount of folic acid, so drinking one bottle would exceed the tolerable limit for adults…”

In my research for writing this blog, I’ve found a lot of information stating multivitamins to be more harmful than helpful.  What to do?  I agree with one doctor saying the safest way to get all the antioxidants and vitamins I need without exceeding doses, is to eat a balanced diet rich in plants, whole grains and legumes.  Fresh fruit and vegetables are far better for you than supplements.  Can you get enough into your diet?  I take a multivitamin a few times a week.  It actually makes me feel better.  In addition I eat a high raw diet and attempt to stay away from dairy and sugar.  Women and men have different nutritional needs.  For instance, men rearly need to supplement their diet with iron.  I am finding I need more iron with perimenopause. 

There’s much to be informed of when it comes to the answer to this question.  As I always say…Do your research.  There is a wealth of knowledge out there.  Find it.  It may be different for you, your spouse or your children.  Take the time to read about what you need or consult your physician.

 These statements are informational only.  Please consult your primary health care physician with questions you may have regarding supplements.

I’d like to take this opportunity to give you a fact about the flu vaccine (not swine).  As you may know, my Dad has had 30% of his heart working for the last 6 years or so.  Recently it has gone down to 13% and he will be having surgery this week.  A month ago his doctor told him to get a flu shot. He never has, but was worried about getting sick especially the way he has been feeling.  He immediately got the flu and was sick for a month from getting a flu shot.  He lost weight and had to postpone his surgery.  This is a fact.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I bet there’s more in your kitchen than you think that you can stick in the dehydrator.  What can you do with that dehydrator that’s sitting on your counter or in the cabinet and not getting used?  How about pizza dough?  A healthy alternative to the corner pizza place and you can add all the fresh veggies you have in the fridge.  It doesn’t have to be completely raw either.  Have potatoes, but no oil for frying?  Did you know you could dehydrate slices of potatoes and make your own healthier variety of potato chips?  Not only potatoes, but veggies and fruits too.  And how about pie crust that you can make and dehydrate and add your favorite fruit topping? 

Dehydrating will dry food at temperatures high enough to remove the water, but low enough to keep enzymes intact.  In the raw food world, dehydrating temps are below 112 degrees.  This allows vitamins, minerals and enzymes to be preserved.  Fresh fruit can take longer than certain grains.  Teflex sheets are liners that will let you dry watery and thinner foods without them slipping through the mesh screen.  Experiment with the times.  Flip the cookie or fruit to make drying time faster.  Eating a raw diet?  You don’t have to sacrifice the warmth of the food when you use a dehydrator. 

Save money?  Absolutely, with dehydrating.  Drying food is great for preserving food.  Dry apples, corn, tomatoes and meat to preserve and store.  Dried foods keep well because the moisture content is low.  The high cost of commercially dried foods has brought back the popularity of drying food at home.  Don’t forget nuts and seeds.  From almonds to pumpkin.  Top with your favorite spice before dehydrating.

Here are some simple recipes:

Sweet Potato Chips

Slice two sweet potatoes with a spiral slicer into thin slices and add 1/4 olive oil and 1/4 lemon juice and coat well.  Lay the chips flat on dehydrator screen and sprinkle with cayenne or pepper to your taste.  Dehydrate at 105 degrees for 8-10 hours or until crispy.

Alternatives for mixing with potatoes:  Try Bragg’s Amino, Apple cider vinegar, sea salt

A Basic Pizza Crust

2 1/2 cups buckwheat groats, soaked and sprouted. 1/3 cup olive oil and any herbs you have on hand to taste, like oregano, basil or pepper.  A little liquid amino and place all in the food processor until a dough is formed.  Dehydrate about 4 hours flipping half way through. You can even put these out in the sun to dry!  (Add other ingredients such as, ground flax, onion, parsley, garlic, red pepper)

Almond and Date Pie Crust

1 1/4 cup soaked almonds, 1 cup dates chopped, 1 tblspn water, 1/2 teaspn vanilla and some cinnamon.  Chop the nuts in your food processor and add dates until finely ground.  Add remaining ingredients.  The crust will be slightly damp.  Press the mixture and dehydrate for one hour or leave in the sun.  Top with everything from fresh fruit to pumpkin.  Yum!

And for the kids….Fruit Leathers

Puree any fruit until smooth and add lemon juice to keep fruit from darkening.  Add honey for sweetness if desired.  Spread fruit onto drying tray and dry for 6-8 hours.  Top it or fill it.  Let the kids decide!

These dishes will last in your fridge for days, and you can eat them for breakfast, lunch or dinner.  My personal favorite about raw food.  Experiment with what you have. 

Be happy and be healthy!

I’d like to see the look on my grandfather’s face if I time traveled back to 1950’s America and told him I ate a diet consisting primarily of uncooked, raw food.  He’d probably spit hot borsht at me.  A man of true serenity and balance, he did live to be 99 so, in preface to this article, I restate my overarching belief in the moderation of all things, including diet.  Neuroticism around food is unhealthier than unhealthy food.  At least that’s my opinion.

That said, I eat healthy, I pay attention to what goes into my body and I am pretty aware of its effects.  The last several years have seen a rise in popularity of what is most usually called the Raw Food diet and there’s some real compelling evidence of its benefits.  The raw food diet is a diet where at least 75% of what’s eaten is unprocessed and uncooked plant foods, such as fresh fruit and vegetables, sprouts, seeds, nuts, grains, beans, nuts, dried fruit, and seaweed.   The theory is that heating food above 116 degrees F destroys enzymes in food that can assist in the digestion and absorption process. Cooking is also thought to diminish the nutritional value and life force of the food you ingest.

The stated benefits of this way of eating are compelling.  Increased energy, improved skin appearance, better digestion, weight loss, reduced risk of common illness such as flu to more serious problems such as heart disease and cancer are just a few of the plusses.  Raw foods contain enzymes which greatly aid in their own digestion, freeing the body’s own enzymes to do the work unimpeded of regulating all the body’s many metabolic processes. Heating food degrades or destroys these enzymes in food, putting the burden on the body’s own enzyme production.  Eating food without enzymes makes digestion more difficult, leads to toxicity in the body, to excess consumption of food, and therefore to obesity and to chronic disease.  Raw foods contain bacteria and other micro-organisms that stimulate the immune system and enhance digestion by populating the digestive tract with beneficial flora and raw foods have overall higher nutrient value than foods which have been cooked.  The diet is also low in sodium and high in potassium, magnesium, folate, fiber and phytochemicals.

So what can you eat?  Basically unprocessed, organic, whole foods like fresh fruits and vegetables, nuts, seeds, beans, grains, legumes, dried fruit, seaweed, freshly juiced fruit and vegetables, purified water and young coconut milk.  There are many books written about the diet but the one describing the easiest transition is 12 Steps to Raw Foods by Victoria Boutenko.

Now although at least 75% of what you eat should not be heated over 116 degrees F there are a few cooking techniques that can make foods more digestible and add variety to the diet, like sprouting seeds, grains, and beans; juicing fruit and vegetables; soaking nuts and dried fruit; blending and dehydrating food.

Skeptical?  Try it for a month.  If you don’t feel better you can write me a nasty email.

In the meantime…

Be well

JuicyJosh