Healthy Lifestyle Talk/Salad Ideas, grrr

I'm just going to get right down to it. there is no need to preface the information I am about to give you. Just know that it is shocking and you will probably be mad. I was. Heck, I still am. Mad that I didn't know this before and also mad that I do know it now (Ignorace is bliss!) One thing to note is that the things I am talking about today when I use the word "healthy" are used in terms of wellness. Cancer free, heart disease free sort of healthy NOT just weight loss. The following is the truth:
1) Not all oatmeal is good for you
In fact you must buy the steel cut oats, irish oatmeal or the quaker kind that take absolutely forever to cook for it to be healthy. Most instant oatmeal's are so refined that it's same as eating white bread. Worse, if you buy the instant packets, the kind with the flavoring and all that there is so much sugar and bad carbs that you might as well eat chocolate cake for breakfast. No lie. Your body processes pasta and white bread and the bad oatmeal the same way it does baked goods. It turns into pure sugar and carb. I don't know about you, but if I am going to get fat I'd much rather be eating chocolate cake than oatmeal.

2) All animal protein (meat and dairy, INCLUDING FISH) is not very good for you
I know, I know, fish? It depends on where it comes from. Long Island has one of the densest breast cancer problems and they think it is becuase they eat all the fresh seafood, which is actually farmed and/or the water is polluted or something like that and in turn becomes toxic. It actually helps build up bad cells in your body that promote cancer growth. Now, I am not suggesting all fish is bad, just know where it comes from. Wild Alaska Salmon is awesome. Know your facts about your fish. Chicken and turkey are just as bad for you as red meat as far as cancer (breast, prostate, skin, stomach...etc) and heart disease are concerned. Broccoli has WAY, WAY WAY more protein than steak. Dairy makes you fat. And since they are animal based those foods, again, do nothing to help your body ward off disease and actually aid in it's breeding.

3) Every calorie you consume come from either carbohydrate, protein or fat.
your body needs carbohydrates and fat, but from a good source (avacado, corn, etc) Obvisiously you want to pack as many nutrients into every calorie consumed. that only come from eating healthily. Bad fat from refined sugar (pasta, white bread and rice included) butter and oil get stored/deposited on the body minutes after consuming them. they can actaully take a biopsy of fat from your thigh and tell you where it came from, be it oil or what. That is scary and gross.

4)We need to STUFF ourselves with health, literally
Did you know that we should be consuming 2 HUGE salads a day at least? Romaine and spinach and other leafy greeens eaten raw are the BEST protection from cancer and heart attacks. they only help significantly if we are consuming them in huge quantities. In fact, you should strive to eat a whole head of romaine accompanied with veggies and preferably beans when you eat a salad. There is no such thing as eating to many vegeatbles or fruits. Hogwash is what I say to people who clamin our bodies can only absorb a certain amount of nutrients at a time. Where are they getting this information? Many of the tests they use to back those theorys are up are medically ridiculous. Know where and how those studies were done and by whom. The american cancer association and doctors and scientists and everyone for that matter agree on a couple things. Eating mass amounts of vegetables daily (fresh or lightly cooked or frozen...not canned) and fruit of all kinds, even if you are not vegetarian or dairy free is the number one way to prevent cancer and heart disease. Eat at least 3 fruits a day (it's really not that hard) and try to eat salad as often as possible (with minimal dressing) Cancer and heart disease is 99% preventable by what we put into our bodies. It doiesn't even matter if you are predisposed or not genetically.

5) Olive oil is NOT good for you. period.
Olive oil is fat. plain and simple. in fact olive oil contains more calories per volume than butter. I know, shocker huh? 1 tablespoon of olive oil is 120 calories. (calories from pure fat!) The average american eats about 4 leaves of lettuce in a salad and dumps about 3-4 tablespoons of dressing on it. (I don't do this, sounds pretty excessive if you ask me, but this is the statistic) That's 360-480 calories from fat on your salad, with basically minimal nutrition from the salad itself. Might as well j ust ditch the greens and drink straight from the salad dressing bottle. I would still use olive oil for sauteing, but not as much as before, believe me!

6)The USDA originally was financed by the meat and dairy industry and backed by nutritional scientists on the payroll the meat and dairy industry as well. Nuff said. How many times did you mother tell you to drink a full glass of milk at dinner because it was "healthy". Not so much. Lots o' fat and sugar though, and cancer promoting for that matter. It's not their fault though. This was drilled into them over and over back in the day.

7) Lots of your predisposition to certain cancers has to do with how fast you matured as a girl.
Back in the 1800's, the average age for a girl to get her period was 18 years old. It steadily declined over time to get to the age of 12 as in modern day. Why? A woman matures faster when she is eating a diet rich in processed, fatty foods. The faster you mature, the faster your body begins to die. The healthier you eat, the slower your body matures.


Ok so enough of all of that, I could go on and if you want to learn more about these truths I reccommend you read "Eat to live" by Joel Fuhrman MD. Fascinating stuff. Fascinating but frusterating!!! I'll just tell you, last night I had a seared tuna salad with dressing on the side and today after my breakfast of steel cut oatmeal with almonds, cinnamon, strawberries a touch of brown sugar and SOY MILK instead of my beloved cream, I ordered a "vegetarian" taco salad from qdoba with extra black beans, no cheese, no sour cream, instead of my usual chicken version WITH cheese and sour cream. Damn you Dr. Fuhrman, damn you vegetarians of the world, damn you scientists and cancer and heart disease!!!!! damn, damn, damn. Why can't you just keeps your traps shut and let us believe that meat and scrambled eggs make you strong! I could go on and on becuase I am truly hot pissed. I am a foodie, dang it, not a hippie! If you know me very well, then you know what my answer to what my biggest pet peeeve is...vegetarians. I hate them but have learned to tolerate them. Vegans on the other hand make me sick. Don't they know that the best thing in the entire world worth experiencing could very well be a perfect roasted prime rib with au jus and Piave cheese as a starter with processed brioche bread pudding for dessert? As dumb as they are for missing out on that deliciousness, I have to say that now I actually, dare I say, understand them. Maybe even appreciate them. Maybe. I will never eat the same, that's for sure. Once you acquire this information, how could you? Fear not friends, I am not going to become a looney tunes veggie (sorry Kaylee, Cristina, Brittany, Luanne and Jeremy) But, I most likely will stuff myself with fresh fruit, salad and beans. I will probably make at least 2 vegetarian meals a week, skip the cream and take the soy milk with my oats and pass on the crumbles of blue cheese and or bacon on my salad. Eat more seafood (not the toxic kind, hopefully) cook more collards and spinach, eat less dessert and excersize more. I will probably have a salad night once a week where we gorge on the stuff with healthy dressing. I will also most likely develop healthier versions of the things I already love to eat. However, I will NOT compromise flavor. And, I will still enjoy chunks of my beloved piave cheese, a great ribeye, and pasta. Just not as often. This is progress for me. And progress is good. It might even give me a little side project as there are some pretty nasty healthy foods out there.

I just read about a dressing they want us to put on salads in an effort to be healthier, it consists of frozen blueberries, blended with dates and raspberry vinegar. It might be fine, but it sounds wrong. too bland...too, something. Unless of course it was being served on top of frisee with blackberries, walnuts and either goat cheese or smoked gouda, in that case it might be divine. I think for the salads I usually make though, I would prefer a mashed up avacado with tons of lemon juice and some salt, or maybe I could throw in some of a good seasons italian dressing seasoning packet; salad does need flavor. Or I could whisk up lots of lemon juice, a bit of honey, dijon mustard and lots of salt, like my Aunt Kellie does to put over a garden romaine. Or I could add a touch of oil to a basic balsamic with some s&p. I think plain lemon juice works as a dressing if you have enough of it, let it sit for at least few minutes after dressing it and you season the salad well with lots of vegetables (carrot, celery, jicama, cherry tomato, avacado, cucumber, beets and sprouts) and seasoning like fresh cilantro, sesame seeds, sea salt, pepper, dried dill, dried minced garlic and the like. Those are the types of salad I love and wouldn't mind eating HUGE gigantic, enormous amounts of for my health.