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Tex Mex dining on a gluten free diet?

March 29th, 2010 No comments

When folks think of strictly adhering to a gluten free diet, they usually wouldn’t think of Tex Mex included in that nutritional plan. The good news is, if you like Tex Mex, you can arrange to have that and still be gluten free.

One of the best things about being gluten free is that we are challenged to be so in today’s society! As few as ten to fifteen years ago, there was much less information and many fewer resources to help the gluten free or celiac family.

Today with access to the Internet and a willingness to search for a few minutes, you can find amazing recipes and fabulous tips on the gluten free lifestyle that can help make much of the work easier.

Recipes to help you prepare the foods you love –and to do so while adhering to gluten free guidelines– are available with just a few key strokes. And there are blogs and commercial (as well as private) sites out there that will give you clear and detailed instructions on how to cook gluten free – and even casein free. Cooking and eating well in the gluten free lifestyle is now limited only by your imagination. Okay, maybe also by your access to the Internet.

One of my favorite food groups is the Tex Mex group. There are a lot of items in that group that start, continue and end with flour and flour tortillas. So knowing how to navigate nutritionally through the gluten free twists and turns of Tex Mex eating was important to me. Fortunately I found a recipe for gluten free tortillas which also turned out to be casein free. That makes these tortillas safe and accessible for a large number of folks with food sensitivities.

Don’t give up the food you love. Just learn to substitute and adapt. You’ll find Tex Mex to be very do-able, and still just as good as ever.

Foods That Lower Blood Pressure

February 21st, 2010 No comments

When it comes to lowering blood pressure and preventing heart disease our diet plays an essential role. The foods that we eat can actually raise or lower blood pressure naturally. So it is important to be informed of the foods we should seriously cut back on or even eliminate completely, and also which foods we should be eating a lot more of.

Foods high in saturated fat such as red meats, some sauces and dairy products need to be cut down to a minimum. Red meat should be consumed no more than once or twice a month and dairy products should be the low fat or non-fat options.

Some margarines and other processed foods contain hydrogenated (chemically altered) fats and should be avoided at all costs. These are extremely bad to our health, especially our heart health. Hydrogented fats have actually been band in N.Y city!

Too much sodium(salt) in the diet is the most well known cause of high blood pressure. This is another reason to cut back on salty red meats and of course to limit the amount of added sodium to meals. Black pepper and a variety of other herbs and spices can provide variation in taste and are great substitutes for sodium.

Red grape juice is an ‘A list celebrity’ when it comes to heart health and lowering blood pressure. The skin of red grapes contain a powerful antioxidant called resveratrol that has recently been proven to be a key factor in the heart health benefits of red grapes and its juices and wines. Resveratrol has been found to greatly increase the elasticity of our arteries and therefore lower blood pressure. Homemade red grape fruit juice recipes are a great way to get lots of resveratrol into our diet. Commercial juices are lower in resveratrol due to processing methods.

Garlic is another food that is very effective at lowering blood pressure. Although it is good to use plenty of it in your cooking, high dose supplements are the most effective way of reaping garlic’s heart health benefits. Garlic helps to keep the blood thin by inhibiting blood platelet aggregation and also stimulates nitric oxide production in the body. Nitric oxide promotes relaxation in blood vessels which in turn lowers blood pressure.

Eating foods high in omega-3 fatty acids is very beneficial for overall heart health. Oily fish, cod liver oil and dark green leafy vegetables are great sources of omega-3 fatty acids and great foods that lower blood pressure, prevent the development of arteriosclerosis and lower cholesterol levels.

Spinach is a great source of two nutrients that are needed to help lower blood pressure – folate and magnesium. These nutrients help regulate several functions that keep the blood vessels working properly. Another important nutrient is potassium. Potassium is needed to keep the heart muscle pumping with regularity. A daily banana will help provide most of your daily needs of potassium.

Juicing with Vegetables for Benefits

February 17th, 2010 No comments

Juicing has many benefits and the main benefit that is easiest to understand is that it provides a way for our bodies to receive the important vitamins, minerals, micro nutrients and enzymes that is required for healthy living. There are many healthy juicer recipes out there that will really help anyone looking to get started. Juicing can be an exciting journey because it allows the person to really get into expanding their horizon when it comes to new and exotic fruits and vegetables. The deliciousness of these juices is the attraction and the improvements to health that they offer are just additional benefits.

The key to really juicing in a healthy way is to always consume as wide a variety of ingredients as possible. This is true of any diet in general because being selective in what foods you eat can not only be bad for your health but it can easily turn dangerous to your overall well being. A healthy balanced diet is what the doctor prescribed ever since you could remember, remember? With that said, a very important aspect to healthy juicer recipes is to always incorporate vegetables both as solids in your regular meals as well as in your juices.

Vegetables do wonders for your overall health including but definitely not limited to stabilizing blood sugar levels and improving blood circulation. In the later alone there are countless benefits since the blood is what really moves things around in your body keeping chemicals balanced and removing waste from the body while bringing nutrients to feed the other cells throughout. Consuming a healthily high dosage of leafy green vegetables in particular is a great way for those with dietary restrictions and concerns to maintain a stable blood sugar level. There is a reason why we were taught to eat vegetables as children and yet it seems so easy for some people to forget as they get older.