You may all know that I’m not a fan of the carbs, but that wasn’t always the case. My mom used to call me her carbohydrate queen. I grew up in northern New Jersey with a 100% Italian mother, who happens to be an amazing cook. I’m a complete food snob when it comes to pasta, and always preferred to eat it al dente. The first thing I cooked myself was cous cous. Pasta was a college staple for me, and then when I moved out to California I figured out how easy it was to use a rice cooker. I’ve never been a big fan of eating a lot of meat, and although I did enjoy fish every so often, like the majority of us carbs made up a big portion of my diet.

I’ve since learned that carbohydrates can be very controversial and confusing. Are all carbs bad? Then, why are some carbs considered a superfood? What about beans and starchy vegetables? Are they considered carbohydrates, or is it just seeds? Why do I need to go gluten-free? The reason this information is so confusing is because the carbohydrates found in processed food are subsidized. For food companies this is important, because if the ingredients are cheap and then they sell you that product, then their profit margin is high. That means there is lots of propaganda out there and misinformation about this food.

What is a carbohydrate? Most people don’t know this word really means. Here’s wikapedia’s definition:

“A carbohydrate is an organic compound that consists only of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen…The term is most common in biochemistry, where it is a synonym of saccharide. The carbohydrates (saccharides) are divided into four chemical groupings: monosaccharides, disaccharides, oligosaccharides, and polysaccharides. In general, the monosaccharides and disaccharides, which are smaller (lower molecular weight) carbohydrates, are commonly referred to as sugars.”

“While the scientific nomenclature of carbohydrates is complex, the names of the monosaccharides and disaccharides very often end in the suffix -ose. For example, blood sugar is the monosaccharide glucose, table sugar is the disaccharide sucrose, and milk sugar is the disaccharide lactose.”

Basically, this means the majority of my diet has been sugar.

So what do I eat?

Many foods contain sugar, so just be conscious of how much sugar is in what. If you are looking for whole grain food at the grocery store, the label needs to say 100% whole grain. Otherwise, they can just had a little whole grain to the mix but the majority is still processed grain. When you are shopping for processed food (anything in a bag or box), always double check the ingredients. Sugar is often added to whole grain products, even bread. For an ingredient, look for something like 100% Quinoa flour, bulk bins are great for this stuff. Whole grains are just seeds so if it’s a whole seed, it’s a whole grain. Example: Flaxseeds, Quinoa, buckwheat groats. Also check for gluten free labels, many people have different levels of gluten intolerance, which can negatively affect your health. I try my best to stay away from sugar in general, it just spikes your blood sugar, turns into fat in your body, and feeds dangerous bacteria and yeast. Check out my post on my Favorite YouTube Lectures for more information on sugar.

Source:
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbohydrate

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Why might oysters on the half shell be a good addition to a raw food diet?

1. They are raw, which means they still have their enzymes.

2. One of the highest sources of B-12. One cup has 112 mcg and 1870 DV%. That’s more than liver.

3. You can go out to a seafood restaurant. Sometimes the raw food diet can be socially restrictive.

4.  Bivalves don’t have a central nervous system and are generally not considered sentient by traditional criteria.

5.  Leafy greens, dairy, and poultry are the top causes of food borne illness, not mollusks. Yet, we don’t hesitate to consume more spinach. These statistics likely refer industrialized food sources. Disclaimer: I don’t believe the dairy statistics can be compared to local, antibiotic & hormone free, grass-fed raw sources of milk.

6. Oysters are a sustainable source of seafood. 95% of the world’s total oyster population is farmed. They don’t rely on wild fish for food, and their filter-feeding design actually benefits the surrounding water. They are considered “Best Choice” by Seafood Watch.

7. Fifty Shades of Grey has made this food sexy, instead of gross.

Source: 
http://nutritiondata.self.com/foods-000116000000000000000.html
http://rawfoodsos.com/for-vegans/ 
http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2013/01/leafy-greens-dairy-lead-foodborne-illness-causes-at-turn-of-century/#.UVnLUhlVqGg
http://www.montereybayaquarium.org//cr/SeafoodWatch/web/sfw_factsheet.aspx?fid=82 

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Today I went on a really cool hike with my soon-to-be mother in law, Tazmin. We started at the Los Liones Canyon and took the East Topanga Fire Road Trail and saw some amazing views. You can see the ocean, the buildings downtown, and the Pacific Palisades Mountains. I highly recommend it for an inexpensive healthy way to spend the morning.

Hiking is really great, not just for your legs, but also as a way to catch up with family and friends. For me, having the support of your loved ones in pursuing a healthier lifestyle is extremely important. Yes, it is possible to do it on your own, but it will be really difficult if you live in an environment that isn’t supportive of this change. When I first started eating healthier, my fiancé started dieting too. He didn’t do exactly what I was doing, but the fact that he was on his own journey towards health, made mine feel less lonely. I feel like this support is such a beautiful way of showing someone how much you love them.

I’m slightly embarrassed to say that I do enjoy watching The Biggest Loser. I’m a sucker for any motivational story and throw in a makeover towards the end and I’m sold. On this show, the really successful people have their family exercising and dieting at home. I think when your loved ones make your priorities theirs as well, then that relationship is really solid. After all, people change all the time, but in order to keep the relationship healthy I believe changing together is key.

I found this article in the research section of Nutra-Ingredients.com: Good bacteria may wipe out antibiotic-resistant pathogens: Study that I feel deserves significant attention. Unless you have been living under a rock, you are aware of the problem with antibiotic resistance, and it’s potential effects on our ability to perform even the simplest procedures successfully. Dr. Oz recently aired an episode about this problem and The New York Times addressed this problem in an article about Antibiotics and the meat we eat. I won’t go into all the details of how dangerous the overuse of antibiotics is for our health, as you are most likely already aware of it. Instead, I want to talk about how good bacteria, particularly from food, will likely be part of the solution to our problem.

As I’ve recently started growing good bacteria in my kitchen for kefir, I’ve had first hand experience how strong these cultures can be. I’ve spent the past couple days with the worst case of detox symptoms I’ve had yet, so much so, that I was wondering if I had the flu. That’s right. I had a sore throat, running nose, cough, acne, chills and hot flashes, which might have been a fever if I had bothered to check. Since I was starting to worry … and I had gotten some Easter treats in the mail and my sugar addicted brain can’t resist it when it’s in the apartment, I decided to try an experiment and see if my symptoms would disappear. I started eating sugar again and stopped my glass of kefir a day. It worked! I felt immediate relief from my fake flu, and a couple days later it’s almost completely gone. Right now I’m taking a break from my kefir until I feel back to normal, and then I’ll build up a tolerance to the stuff until I can drink a full glass a day again without feeling horrible. I had heard about how pathogens will die during the fermentation process, and I had read about how important probiotics are for the immune system. However, until I experienced this detox, I had never truly understood how incredibly powerful they could be.

What can we do to protect ourselves?

1. Buy locally, especially animal products. A lot of these antibiotic resistant bacteria is coming out of the industrial food complex. The animals are pumped full of antibiotics because their living conditions are so disgusting that the animals would get sick and die before they could sell them. Water and soil from nearby farms may be affected as well so even vegetables can get contaminated.

2. Check Food Saftey News for recalls. They have an app for the iPhone, which makes checking easy even from the grocery store.

3. Avoid hospitals by leading a healthy lifestyle. Hospitals have tons of sick people and lots of antibacterial soaps and sanitizers, which do not necessarily kill all the the bacteria, especially the antibiotic resistant strains. If you wish to clean or sanitize make your own natural products.

4. Grow and eat your own fermented food. This food has a rich and long history of bringing health to many cultures. I bought my bacteria at GEM cultures, but if you know someone they may be happy to share. They tend to grow quickly. Plus, you don’t have to repurchase if you continue to feed it … like a pet.