Delicious Calming Foods (+ Recipes!)

oatsNick Polizzi – I grew up in my mom’s New England restaurant, and the kitchen has always been my sanctuary. The ritual of making a meal, in and of itself, can bring calmness and deeper connection — but when you prepare herb-infused foods that relax the body, as well as the mind and spirit, you’ve got the perfect dish.

It’s easy to forget to eat… or to eat too much… when we’re stressed. That’s one of the #1 reasons that people experience both weight fluctuation and illness during intense times. Your body desperately needs proper fuel to process emotions, heal tired tissues, and ward off disease.

So today we’re bringing you 5 healing foods (and recipes) that have the power to help calm your entire system. Continue reading

Delicious Calming Foods

bodyNick Polizzi – I grew up in my mom’s New England restaurant, and the kitchen has always been my sanctuary. The ritual of making a meal, in and of itself, can bring calmness and deeper connection — but when you prepare herb-infused foods that relax the body, as well as the mind and spirit, you’ve got the perfect dish.

It’s easy to forget to eat… or to eat too much… when we’re stressed. That’s one of the #1 reasons that people experience both weight fluctuation and illness during intense times. Your body desperately needs proper fuel to process emotions, heal tired tissues, and ward off disease. Continue reading

Foods to Boost Your Mood

Brain FunctionAlex ‘Earthie Mama’ Du Toit – How are you feeling? Could your mental state use an uplift? What you are putting in your body could be contributing to the way you feel. I’m sure you have heard the famous quote from Hippocrates, “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.” This saying is something to live by. Before running off to the doctor, maybe ask yourself can I find something from nature that can heal me.

This goes for mental health as well. There has been a continuous rise in people having mental health issues, such as anxiety and depression. Rather then beginning at the psychiatrists, try looking at your overall diet and add foods that are good for your mood. New research suggests getting the right foods into your diet regularly can shift your mental state. This includes taming your stress, reducing anxiety and fighting off depression. There are certain foods that can help give yourself a mental uplift. Continue reading

Two Ridiculously Easy Ways to Make Homemade Yogurt

yogurtDaisy Luther – Yogurt is full of good bacteria, and it’s delicious too!  But those little six-packs touting “active cultures” are also filled with other ingredients that you probably don’t want to add to your diet if the purpose of eating yogurt is good health.

Here are the ingredients in Yoplait’s plain yogurt:

Cultured Pasteurized Grade A Nonfat Milk. Contains Less Than 2% of: Corn Starch, Kosher Gelatin, Pectin. Made With Active Yogurt Cultures Including L. Acidophilus.

Corn starch and pectin are nearly always made from GMOs, so if you are trying to avoid genetically modified food, you probably don’t want to eat this yogurt. Yoplait does not promote the fact that they use rBGH-free milk, so it’s a good bet the milk is loaded with hormones. Since there are no requirements to tell us about GMOs and hormones on the labels, we have to go with the most likely scenarios.

Flavored yogurt is even worse. Here are the ingredients in Activia yogurt:

 Cultured Grade A Non Fat Milk, Strawberries, Water,Modified Food Starch, Contains Less than 1% of Inulin, Acacia Gum,Modified Corn Starch, Kosher Gelatin, Pectin, Natural Flavor, Carmine(for Color), Sodium Citrate, Malic Acid, Sucralose, Calcium Lactate,Xanthan Gum, Acesulfame Potassium.

This particular flavored yogurt contains probable GMOs, chemical additives,  probable rBGH-tainted milk, and artificial sweeteners. Continue reading