coconut
Video/Recipe: Grain-Free Coconut Banana Blueberry Bars
Blueberries add flavor, texture and a slew of antioxidants to any baked product. Antioxidants consist of a group of vitamins, minerals and enzymes that help bind up harmful metabolic by-products called “free radicals” that can lead to tissue and DNA damage, cancer, heart disease, diabetes and other age-related diseases. Free radicals are highly reactive compounds that are formed from normal metabolic functions in the body and also when our cells are exposed to a variety of substances such as radiation, chemicals, pollution, smoke, drugs, alcohol, pesticides and the sun. A poor diet also contributes to the formation of free radicals. Anthocyanin (the pigment that makes blueberries blue) contains naturally occurring plant chemicals called polyphenols which have very high antioxidant characteristics. The darker, deeper blue fruits have the highest anthocyanin values, thereby supplying the most potent antioxidant sources.
The Fat Connection: Part 1
Conventional understanding about fats is based upon a mistake. A giant misconception. An error that has greatly benefited the vegetable oil and food processing industries. Before 1920, heart disease in this country was rare. However, by the 1950′s heart disease was the leading cause of death in America. It still is today. If heart disease is, in fact, related to consumption of fats, we would expect it to be lower, as for the last 30 years we have decreased consumption of saturated fats. However, during this same period, we have greatly increased consumption of polyunsaturated fats from vegetable oils, in the form of liquid oils and margarine.
Video/Recipe: Coconut Flour Bread
The challenges of a gluten-free, grain-free, starch-free diet are many. And one of the first considerations that people need in order to feel that they can actually “do” the diet is to have an acceptable bread replacement. Children and adults alike, crave bread. These are the people that most need to eliminate it from their diet. Unfortunately, our culture is heavily grain/bread/starch based. And this is what gets some people in trouble in the first place. They eat too many carbohydrates that are difficult to digest.