Healthy Child; Healthy World

I found this graphic via pinterest and decided to put it on because the website is fantastic!
They are trying to help people take little steps to be healthier (food, less-toxic homes, etc.)
So click on their website and find ways to improve your health and home in numerous ways!
http://healthychild.org/healthy-living/

New Food Adventures: Apple Cider Vinegar

Apple Cider Vinegar is used for all sorts of things. I got a great book at the library that said all the uses for vinegar (and one for baking soda too). But what makes ACV better than distilled white vinegar? Well, ACV has the "mother culture"--good bacteria in it that's not refined and taken out of the process. (Make sure you buy the organic Braggs brand). We don't even use distilled vinegar for recipes anymore (unless for cleaning recipes, like laundry and all-purpose cleaner, etc.) Buy a large gallon container of it, since it's the best vinegar to have on hand.

Try it for salad dressings or marinades. I also do canned salsa with my garden veggies and use half ACV and half lemon juice, instead of distilled. Or get other ideas from this cool graphic below.

How to use ACV to help heal ailments:

• For chronic conditions such as arthritis, allergies, asthma, heartburn, diabetes, high blood pressure, etc., to help in weight loss, or to boost general health: Mix 2 teaspoons of ACV in 8 ounces of water. Drink a glass of this mixture three times a day, every day.
• For acute conditions like colds, other viruses, headaches, or infections (including yeast infections, bladder infections, diarrhea, constipation, food poisoning, hemorrhoids, etc.,) : Mix 2 tablespoons of ACV in about 8 ounces of water. Drink three glasses of this mixture per day until your condition clears.
• For sore throats or bad breath: Mix ACV in equal parts water and gargle with the mixture, (if your throat is sore, let it coat the throat). You may spit it out, or, for maximum effectiveness, swallow the mixture.
• For acne, rashes, body odor, or other skin conditions (including irritation from yeast infections, jock itch, hemorrhoids and other such conditions): Dilute ACV in equal parts water and apply topically with a cotton ball. For rashes, leave on for 10-15 minutes and then rinse with water Repeat three times a day. For body odor or acne, ACV can be left on the skin without rinsing
• from http://freckleberryfinds.com/2011/09/apple-cider-vinegar-the-mother-of-all-home-remedies/

Top Healthy Substitutions

New Food Adventures: Coconut Oil

If you haven't tried one of the world's healthiest cooking oils--coconut oil--now is the time to try it. We love it and it lasts forever. It is solid at room temperature and lasts forever. We keep three large bottles of it on hand in our food storage. We buy the large Nutiva Organic, unrefined, cold-pressed extra-virgin oil at Costco for $22--that's a steal!

How we use coconut oil:

• In homemade hygiene products: deodorant, lotion (and sunscreen), toothpaste (or oil pulling)
• for popcorn (in place of butter)
• sautee vegetables (greenbeans with almonds are main/favorite option)
• degreaser (for pans of baked goods or for skillet when cooking eggs)
• melted and put into brownies in place of other oils
• use half butter and half coconut oil in homemade granola

Protein List

Corresponding Foods with the Body

I attended the 2013 LDS Holistic Living Conference this last weekend as a room host--volunteer. I loved the experience! I was able to be a host for a few speakers. One of which was Don Tolman. He goes all over the world teaching about how to live healthy, without medications, but with whole foods and wisdom. He believes in Self-care and self-education...not listening to government-given standards and rules, but listening to your body (spirit and God) and practicing judgment. He talked a lot about the variety of fruits and vegetables and how ancients use to use them to help with ailments in the parts of the body that the fruit resembled. So...here is a list of some of them. (with some notes he mentioned he's used to help people with problems associated with those areas)

 

Kidney Beans actually heal and help maintain kidney function—and they look exactly like human kidneys

A Walnut looks like a little brain, a left and right hemisphere, upper cerebrums and lower cerebellums. Even the wrinkles or folds on the nut are just like the neo-cortex. We now know walnuts help develop brain function

The cross section of a Carrot looks like the human eye. The pupil, iris and radiating lines look just like the human eye. And science now shows carrots greatly enhance blood flow to the eyes and aid in the general function of the eyes

 

Celerylooks just like bones. Celery specifically target bone strength. Bones are 23 percent sodium and these foods are 23 percent sodium. If you don’t have enough sodium in your diet, the body pulls it from the bones, thus making them weak. Foods like celery replenish the skeletal needs of the body

 

Avocadoestarget the health and function of the womb and cervix of the female—they look just like these organs. Avocadoes help women balance hormones, shed unwanted birth weight, and deter cervical cancers. It takes exactly nine months to grow an avocado from blossom to ripened fruit

 

Figs are full of seeds and hang in twos when they grow. Figs increase the mobility of male sperm and increase the numbers of Sperm as well to overcome male sterility

 

Slice a Mushroom in half and it resembles a human ear. Mushrooms have been found to improve hearing, as mushrooms are one of the few foods that contain vitamin D. This particular vitamin is important for healthy bones, even the tiny ones in the ear that transmit sound to the brain

 

Our lungs are made up of branches of ever-smaller airways that finish up with tiny bunches of tissue called alveoli. These structures, which resemble bunches of Grapes, allow oxygen to pass from the lungs to the blood stream. A diet high in fresh fruit, such as grapes, has been shown to reduce the risk of lung cancer and emphysema. Grape seeds also contain a chemical called proanthocyanidin, which appears to reduce the severity of asthma triggered by allergy

 

Ginger, commonly sold in supermarkets, often looks just like the stomach. So its interesting that one of its biggest benefits is aiding digestion. The Chinese have been using it for over 2,000 years to calm the stomach and cure nausea, while it is also a popular remedy for motion sickness

 

Sweet Potatoes look like the pancreas and actually balance the glycemic index of diabetics. He said he's healed people of diabeties merely by eating sweet potatoes and fruit and walking every day for two weeks (I think that was the time frame).

 

Olives assist the health and function of the ovaries

 

Tomatoes (and red pepper) have four chambers, like the heart, so they aid heart problems.

 

Oranges help the mammary glands within the breasts and help fight breast cancer.

 

Onions (and garlic) resemble skin cells and contain quercetin. Studies have shown when treated with a combination of quercetin and ultrasound at 20 kHz for 1-minute duration, skin and prostate cancers show a 90% mortality within 48 hours with no visible mortality of normal cells.

Apples and Blueberries deal with the whole body (imagine the head and outstretched arms and legs making the star shape). They help with protecting and healing all the organs and functions.

And so on and so on....those are just my notes on some of those he highlighted.

And Here's a chart for foods by Color

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Grain Challenge -June: Sorghum

**Info from Whole Grains Council

June's Grain of the Month is Sorghum. Ask a hundred people if they've ever eaten sorghum and chances are, they'll have no idea what you’re talking about. However, sorghum, a cereal grain, is the fifth most important cereal crop in the world, largely because of its natural drought tolerance and versatility as food, feed and fuel. In Africa and parts of Asia, sorghum is primarily a human food product, while in the United States it is used mainly for livestock feed and in a growing number of ethanol plants. However, the United States also has seen food usage on the rise, thanks to the gluten-free benefits of sorghum for those with celiac disease.

OUT OF AFRICA

Sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] is known under a great many names: milo, guinea corn in West Africa, kafir corn in South Africa, dura in Sudan, mtama in eastern Africa, jowar in India and kaoliang in China. It is an ancient cereal grain and was collected 8000 years ago in Southern Egypt. But today different varieties of sorghum are grown all over the world. The kernels vary in color from white and pale yellow to deep reds, purples and browns; white, bronze, and brown kernels are most common. 

	White Sorghum Grains This is white sorghum, the kind most commonly consumed in Western countries.
	Dark Sorghum Grains Sorghum comes in many varieties, ranging in color from ivory to bronze to reddish-black. Darker colored sorghums generally have a more pronounced flavor.
	A Variety of Sorghums Sorghum kernels grow in seed heads like those shown here.
	Sorghum Growing in a Field You may actually have seen sorghum growing in a field, but assumed it was corn because of the close resemblance (to the unknowing eye!).
	Popped Sorghum Just as with popcorn, the moisture in sorghum kernels can swell when heated, making the kernel pop into a tasty snack.
	Sorghum Flour Just like all the other grains we've featured here on the WGC site, sorghum flour just looks like plain old flour. Perhaps that will encourage you to try substituting some for the "normal" flour in your favorite recipes.

Increased prevalence and diagnosis of celiac disease have led to strong growth in the gluten-free market, of which sorghum is a key component. While 40,000 to 60,000 Americans have been diagnosed as celiac, the federal government estimates there could be as many as 3 million undiagnosed. A gluten-free diet incorporating sorghum also has been adopted by many with autism, ADHD and irritable bowel syndrome, although research in this area is limited.

But being gluten-free isn’t sorghum’s only bragging right. It’s also a whole grain that provides many other nutritional benefits. Sorghum, which doesn't have an inedible hull like some other grains, is commonly eaten with all its outer layers, thereby retaining the majority of its nutrients.  Sorghum also is grown from traditional hybrid seeds and does not contain traits gained through biotechnology, making it nontransgenic (non-GMO).

Some specialty sorghums are high in antioxidants, which are believed to help lower the risk of cancer, diabetes, heart disease and some neurological diseases. In addition, the wax surrounding the sorghum grain contains compounds called policosanols, that may have an impact on human cardiac health. Some researchers, in fact, believe that policosanols have cholesterol-lowering potency comparable to that of statins.

SO EASY TO USE

Sorghum can be substituted for wheat flour in a variety of baked goods. Its neutral, sometimes sweet, flavor and light color make it easily adaptable to a variety of dishes. Sorghum improves the texture of recipes and digests more slowly with a lower glycemic index, so it sticks with you a bit longer than other flours or flour substitutes.

A wide variety of recipes using sorghum can be found online and in cookbooks, particularly those catering to a gluten-free diet. These recipes include muffins, breads, pizzas, pastas, casseroles, cookies, cakes, pies and more.To get you started, here are links to some sorghum recipes on the Whole Grains Council website:

Molasses Sorghum Cookies
Sorghum Egg Noodles
Gluten-Free Apple Crisp
Sorghum Pie Crust
Milo Salad with Oregano, Feta and Cucumbers
Sorghum Pancakes
Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies
Sorghum Bread

You can also substitute sorghum in your existing recipes. Start with recipes that use relatively small amounts of wheat flour, such as brownies or pancakes. Substituting sorghum takes some experimenting and patience, but the results can be very delicious. Because sorghum flour does not contain gluten, bakers often incorporate a binder such as xanthan gum or cornstarch to add “stretch.” 

For instance, you could add 1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum per cup of sorghum flour for cookies and cakes, and 1 teaspoon per cup for breads.

While it's easy to make familiar Western dishes with sorghum, like those above, it's also interesting to know how sorghum fits into food traditions in other parts of the world. In the Mideast, sorghum is made into cous-cous and flatbread; in Bangladesh it's boiled like rice, to produce kichuri; and in Honduras, sorghum tortillas are common.

Throughout Africa, you'll find sorghum porridge or gruel in almost every country, and sorghum flatbreads such as injera , the Ethiopian flatbread (which is made from sorghum or teff or a combination of both). Both alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages are also made from sorghum. Most of these products start with fermented or sprouted sorghum, as these two processes make sorghum's nutrients more available, while increasing shelf life for greater food safety.