Dandelion

I just started buying unfamiliar greens in my local produce store. It was recommended by one of the buyers and I decided to try it. Curious about what I have been juicing and putting in my body, this is what I found!

It turns out the name is Dandelion, Yes, that common yellow flower that’s a cute weed for some and a nuisance for others. I could not believe it! The leaves are very nutritious and good for you. The taste may be a little too bitter as we are so used to eating salty or sweet comfortable foods. To offset the taste, I just add some orange or grapefruit juice.




You can find a great article about the plant here: http://www.wildmanstevebrill.com/Plants.Folder/Dandelion.html  Here is an excerpt from it:
“The leaves are more nutritious than anything you can buy. They're higher in beta-carotene than carrots. The iron and calcium content is phenomenal, greater than spinach. You also get vitamins B-1, B-2, B-5, B-6, B-12, C, E, P, and D, biotin, inositol, potassium, phosphorus, magnesium, and zinc by using a tasty, free vegetable that grows on virtually every lawn. The root contains the sugar inulin, plus many medicinal substances.
Dandelion root is one of the safest and most popular herbal remedies. The specific name, officinale, means that it's used medicinally. The decoction is a traditional tonic. Itís supposed to strengthen the entire body, especially the liver and gallbladder, where it promotes the flow of bile, reduces inflammation of the bile duct, and helps get rid of gall stones. This is due to its taraxacin. Itís good for chronic hepatitis, it reduces liver swelling and jaundice, and it helps indigestion caused by insufficient bile. Don't use it with irritable stomach or bowel, or if you have an acute inflammation.”

Dandelions are also good for the bladder, spleen, pancreas, stomach and intestines. It is recommended for stressed-out, internally sluggish, and sedentary people. Anyone who's a victim of excessive fat, white flour, and concentrated sweeteners could benefit from a daily cup of dandelion tea.

Dandelion rootís inulin is a sugar that doesn't elicit the rapid production of insulin, as refined sugars do. It helps mature-onset diabetes, and is used as part of a holistic regime for hypoglycemia (low blood sugar).”

“They (dandelions) contain 7,000 units of Vitamin A per oz: lettuce contains 1,200 units and carrots contain 1,275 units so the dandelion leaves really pack a punch!. They are also an excellent source of Vitamins B, C and G.” (Source: http://www.ehow.com/how_2101599_eat-a-dandelion.html)

There are so many greens to learn about and I am in the early stages. If you know of a green that you like, please write a name of it in the comments section so all the readers can learn from our personal experience.

Dandelion Nutritional Facts:

100 edible grams of dandelion leaves, which is about 3 1/2  oz or nearly 1/4 pound, yields the following nutrients: 

300 mg. calcium,

66 mg. phosphorus,

3.1 mg. iron,

397 mg. potassium, 

14,000 I.U. vitamin A,

trace amunts of some B-complex vitamins, 

and 35 mg. vitamin C. 

It is also high in magnesium.

Fasting with Loren Lockman

We had a great speaker in town recently, Loren Lockman, 

Founder and Director of the Tanglewood Wellness Center located in Panama.

About Loren Lockman:
Loren Lockman began studying the relationship between nutrition and health while in college in 1979. He became seriously ill in 1984, ultimately diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Candidiasis, Sinusitis, and almost 60 allergies. In 1987 after three years of getting worse, he gave up on traditional medicine and sought to find his own answers. He went back to, and ultimately, beyond traditional nutritional theory, seeking to discover what was natural to the human body. By making these changes, he was well within six months. Since 1987, he hasn’t been sick a single day.
Since 1993, Loren has been supervising fasts and teaching these principles to many people throughout the world helping more then 4000 people in 32 countries. His natural approach has helped many people gain vitality, youthfulness, and overall health.

Lecture points:

* Our human body has at least 50 trillion cells and each cell performs about one hundred thousand functions constantly.

* Physiologists say that with proper nutritional care, we could live for 125-150 years. Unfortunately, the moment we are born in our society our health starts to decline. From the moment we are born, we are injected with unnatural chemicals called vaccines. We take pounds and pounds of antibiotics whether it’s in the form of a medical prescription or a meal on a plate. Our kids’ favorite meals are pizza, macaroni & cheese, and peanut butter and jelly, and when the kids’ stomachs hurt we suggest they drink soda, Ginger Ale! 70% of people in the US die from cancer, heart disease, and stroke. We live in the polluted environment and we rush to accomplish a task after task.
These are just a few reasons why our health declines as soon as we are born. Loren stressed it more than once that it’s never too late to change your lifestyle and improve your diet and that, “Your past doesn’t determine your future.” He pointed to statistics that if you just give up animal products, you can eliminate the risk of cancer, heart disease, and stroke by 80%.

* Fasting: average person has a 6–8 week reserve without food, if doing it properly.

* Dehydration: most of us are dehydrated. If you are not drinking 8 cups of water a day (preferably 16oz each) and not eating 70% of veggies on your plate – you are dehydrated. In fact, I thought I was pretty good about liquids. However, Loren measured my levels with a special machine and I was only 43.5% hydrated at that moment when the normal is around 70%. My body fat was also pretty high which made me think of the “skinny fat people” expression and feeling guilty for eating really fast not to be late for lecture and having stomach cramps because of it :(. Don't Eat Fast!

* More on dehydration: aging, dry skin and shrinking in height are all results of many years of dehydration. The body has to give up some water in skin, spine and other organs in order to maintain and keep alive main organs like heart, brain and blood. His example isn’t pleasant, but I have to describe it for the sake of better understanding. When you eat a bag of chips – they are really dry, but when those chips come out of you they are not dry at all, so the body had to suck all the waters from other body reserves.

* Fasting: every single aspect improves in your body during fasting but to really start eliminating the toxins, you have to do it for 3-3.5 days at least. Doing it for 1 day only is a “surfing” fasting that doesn’t bring any significant benefits unless you are sick. The body has a 48 hour period when it’s searching for food, realizing it’s not there, it “shuts off” the digestive system moving to a state of ketosis –metabolic process of burning primarily fat for energy and getting rid of toxins– our body can be in this state for many weeks believe it or not!

* Garlic: many cultures love garlic including my Ukrainian culture and there was a question whether it’s good or bad for you. Loren suggested that garlic is a natural antibiotic. It kills bacteria that we depend on, it will help you to eliminate symptoms and will make you feel better if you are sick, but it won’t make you healthier as it’s eliminating symptoms not the cause.

He finished with a great saying from Hippocrates:

“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food,

But to eat when you are already sick is to feed your sickness”

Papaya Growing

If you are into nutrition, you know how important it is to eat your daily fruits and veggies and this article is about how you can grow your own, from the pot.

Ever since we moved to Florida, I have been dreaming about growing my own tropical trees. The fact is that some properties in Florida have tropical trees, but as it often happens, some owners could care less about those fruits falling down uneaten. BTW, here it is a great business opportunity for you! Contact several owners and make a deal with them to collect all the fruits and offer us freshly squeezed lemonade! I will be the first customer :)

Another fact is that tropical trees/plants grow pretty well on the Floridian soil, at least in the South West. I am talking about orange, papaya, grapefruit, mango, tangerine, pineapple, avocado, rosemary, etc. I have a friend who successfully planted each of the above from a seed and now she has a beautiful garden in her yard. I had an attempt to grow a mango from a pit but for some reason it did't go well, I never saw the sprouts. Do you have any experience with the tropical tree growing? Please share.

A few days ago, I found Best of the Best description with pictures on how to grow papaya. It seems easy, check it out: http://www.all-creatures.org/pics/papaya.html. I really liked the details and the pictures and how they thoughtfully guide you through the process. The site even suggested to collect the seeds for a salad dressing. I did put the seeds in my juicer and added that juice to my salad. It tasted like a tangy black pepper, definitely brought a kick to my salad dressing, pretty cool! If you add some diluted tahini souse, olive oil, and lemon to it, it will become a gourmet raw dressing!

I planted four papaya seeds on Friday, March 19, 2010, as suggested in the website above. We will see in a week or two if I am lucky to see the papaya sprouts :) 


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Update. April, 2010
Look at these sprouts. Three of four survived and are looking pretty good! It's been a month now and I am excited to see them grow..

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Update. August 25, 2010
I am so happy to report that at least 2 of my papaya trees are growing and striving.  The third one I gave to my parents for their new house and apparently it's not doing so well. These 2 survived through our absence (our vacation away) and hopefully will keep growing. New leaves show up almost every day. I am not a gardener but this is a fun project!

Becoming Raw, Tip 3

Is Raw Boring?

or How to switch to healthy eating..

A few friends asked me, "Are you trying to stay on a raw meal only? Are you kidding?" Unfortunately, living on just veggies, fruits, nuts is not appealing to many of us in mainstream society. For many, it suggests a very boring lifestyle. What is your opinion about it? Please comment!

Here are some ideas to make it more appealing:

First, get into it and make it a goal to learn about one new raw/vegan ingredient a week. You will be amazed how many things you didn't notice before in a grocery store. For instance, I had to learn about tahini for one of the recipes I got online. Turns out it's a very tasty ingredient (sesame paste) and I knew nothing about it as we never used it in my family. These days, it's easy to get a recipe online to learn what you can do with your new ingredient.

Second, if you don't like to eat a lot of veggies, make a juice out of them and drink it. You'll have at least 5 different veggies in your cup and save time and effort since you won't have to be chewing all of those veggies. Just make sure to buy variety of greens.

I personally love juicing. Often in the morning I am thirsty for my juice. Imaging the "REJUVINATION" word, ... literally.... how it sinks into your brain, veins, and the whole body slowly and surely. This is what I feel every morning when I drink that glass of veggie juice. You can put any veggies in your juice, but don't stick with the same thing - variety is better as it gives you different vitamins and minerals, antioixidants and enzymes. Experiment with those green leaves that you saw on the shelves of your store but never bought. Drink it right after juicing as enzymes don't live long. In total, you get to eat about 5 pieces of whole veggies and you don't have to chew any of it, just drink it up an!

Finally, make it a goal whenever you put a meal in your plate to ensure 70% of it is fresh vegetables! At least make it a point to increase amount of veggies on a plate. Imaging that every time yo put those veggies on your plate, someone gives you $1000, be persistent.


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Here is a juice sample from my kitchen:
One piece of some of the following vegetables (carrot, celery, dill, asparagus, cauliflower, green leaves, pepper of any color, watermelon, wheatgrass, parsley) and a slice of beet, lime or lemon with skin. I even tried a slice of onion and garlic once and you can't even taste it in this mix. If you put a few tomatoes in there it will taste like Virgin Mary.