My my it has been a while!
I have been MIA from this blog for far too long and it must change. I have learned and accomplished so much and I want to share it with you. Health, fitness, cooking, traveling, organization, a bit of everything. Check back often for new posts!
I already posted a quick tips produce guide and I will be starting a new type of weekly posts explaining some of the less understood health boosters. I am staring with Chia seeds and it will be published on April 1st, after I am done with the fist half of my move. If you have a request for a food or health claim you would like me to research, leave a comment down below.
Don't forget to check in for the post on juice cleansing. My mother-in-law has asked me to help her get her health on track and we are embarking on a 10 day juice cleanse together. During that time we will be testing juice recipes, rating them and tweaking them for taste. We will be logging side the good and bad feelings emotionally and physically. We will be exercising and adjusting our juice intake to ensure we get enough nutrition to keep us from going hungry. At the end I will post tips and tricks I learned along the way and I will discuss how my body responded. It is going to be a challenge but the benefits of this decision could be monumental.
If you would like to learn about this type of lifestyle change in video form then these two movies are for you!
"Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead"
"Hungry for Change"
They are both on Netflix and they are incredibly motivating.
Good luck with your health adventures!
Monday, March 25, 2013
Hanging with the wrong crowd, when good fruit goes bad.
We have all heard the term, "One bad apple spoils the rest." but we do not often think where else that might apply. The truth is everywhere, an entire batch can very easily be destroyed by one baddie. One thing to consider is the environment it was in before you got it. if you see a lot of rotten fruit around a few bits of good, chances are the good looking fruit was shipped with the bad and is already on it's way there.
So how do you avoid this? Easy, mind where you shop. If you buy your produce from a place that obviously has good standards you may never have to worry about digging for the good stuff. So how do you tell? Watch that fruit like it's your first born! If you have fruit quickly spoiling after 1 or 2 days, chances are that fruit was rotten when you bought it. Some grocery stores keep fruit cold to make it look fresh when it is not. This may seem like an accident but in so many cases it isn't.
Ever Seen a grocer switching out fruit? If he is taking his time and checking the food, that is one of the good guys. Never trust a place where the employees let brown or mashed product be sold. A store that is willing to sell rotting produce will cut corners anywhere, it's that simple.
So how do we tell good produce from bad? Color, texture and smell, every piece of produce use these identifiers to let you know where it is in life. Many fruits do not continue to ripen after being harvested and should not be bought if they "need time to ripen".
Fruits That Don't Ripen
Cantaloupe
Cherries
Citrus (orange, lemon, lime, grapefruit)
Cucumbers
Grapes
Pineapples
Pomegranates
Soft berries (blackberries, raspberries, strawberries)
Watermelons
Fruits That Do Ripen
Apples
Apricots
Avocados
Bananas
Blueberries
Figs
Guava
Honeydew melons
Kiwis
Mangoes
Muskmelons (aka cantaloupes)
Nectarines
Papayas
Passion fruits
Peaches
Pears
Persimmons
Plantains
Plums
Quince
Tomatoes
Other variables come in to play when trying to tell if something is indeed ripe or rotten. If you pick up an avocado and it's ice cold, leave it be. It has been recently chilled and you will not be able to tell if it is is good shape or not until it is at room temp. If a cantaloupe a pineapple or a strawberry doesn't smell sweet than it was picked too soon and will never reach it's full potential for sweetness. Fruits like strawberries and grapes are best eaten day of as they begin to spoil the second they are picked. Strawberries are prone to mold because they hold and secrete moisture so freeze them or eat them within a day or two.
The moral of the story is you have to squeeze, sniff and eyeball that produce until you are satisfied. The same rules apply for both fruits and veggies. Smell, firmness and color are the keys to healthy produce and a healthy you.
So how do you avoid this? Easy, mind where you shop. If you buy your produce from a place that obviously has good standards you may never have to worry about digging for the good stuff. So how do you tell? Watch that fruit like it's your first born! If you have fruit quickly spoiling after 1 or 2 days, chances are that fruit was rotten when you bought it. Some grocery stores keep fruit cold to make it look fresh when it is not. This may seem like an accident but in so many cases it isn't.
Ever Seen a grocer switching out fruit? If he is taking his time and checking the food, that is one of the good guys. Never trust a place where the employees let brown or mashed product be sold. A store that is willing to sell rotting produce will cut corners anywhere, it's that simple.
So how do we tell good produce from bad? Color, texture and smell, every piece of produce use these identifiers to let you know where it is in life. Many fruits do not continue to ripen after being harvested and should not be bought if they "need time to ripen".
Fruits That Don't Ripen
Cantaloupe
Cherries
Citrus (orange, lemon, lime, grapefruit)
Cucumbers
Grapes
Pineapples
Pomegranates
Soft berries (blackberries, raspberries, strawberries)
Watermelons
Fruits That Do Ripen
Apples
Apricots
Avocados
Bananas
Blueberries
Figs
Guava
Honeydew melons
Kiwis
Mangoes
Muskmelons (aka cantaloupes)
Nectarines
Papayas
Passion fruits
Peaches
Pears
Persimmons
Plantains
Plums
Quince
Tomatoes
Other variables come in to play when trying to tell if something is indeed ripe or rotten. If you pick up an avocado and it's ice cold, leave it be. It has been recently chilled and you will not be able to tell if it is is good shape or not until it is at room temp. If a cantaloupe a pineapple or a strawberry doesn't smell sweet than it was picked too soon and will never reach it's full potential for sweetness. Fruits like strawberries and grapes are best eaten day of as they begin to spoil the second they are picked. Strawberries are prone to mold because they hold and secrete moisture so freeze them or eat them within a day or two.
The moral of the story is you have to squeeze, sniff and eyeball that produce until you are satisfied. The same rules apply for both fruits and veggies. Smell, firmness and color are the keys to healthy produce and a healthy you.
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