Antioxidants

Pineapple is your magic winter fruit.  It not only feeds your Brain, Ears, Eyes, Mouth/Teeth, Nails and Nerves, it also serves as a digestive agent when eaten with other food. 

There's More! Bromelain, found in its fruit and stem, actively helps you digest protein and on an empty stomach is a potent anti-inflammatory.  It is known to loosen up and dissolve mucous.  If you or anyone you know is battling a cold or cough, turn to fresh pineapple for help. (I drank away a cold-filled head with 100% pineapple juice.)  It even helps with nausea.  The abundance of manganese supports growing healthy bones and tissue.  And, it is fat-free, low in calories and its thiamine converts is natural complex carbohydrates into energy. 

How great it is that this very sweet fresh fruit is so good for you!  (Please, stay away from canned.) Buy it whole.  When ripe, slice off the sides, cut out the stem and devour some right then and there. Later add some to salads, yogurt, fruit cup, smoothies, on pizza, pancakes, waffles, and cereal or roast it. You get a lot for your money with fresh pineapple.

… for the health of your family,
ellen

New Sweepstakes Prize!  A whole case of Organic Cinnamon Raisin Bread by Rudi's Organic Bakery. Makes the best toast.  Try grilling some with PB&J in the center.  This bread freezes well so a supply will keep until your are ready to use it.  To enter, please go to www.KidKritics.com/sweepstakes.

Everywhere I turn, someone is sick.  Loving your immune system is key to fighting bugs.  Today is Valentine’s Day – Chocolate Day for many.  May I please encourage you to celebrate with immune system defenders, dark chocolate. The higher percentage of cocoa in a chocolate, the higher it lands on the ORAC scale, your antioxidant guide.  Antioxidants fight bad “bugs”, free-radicals, living in your body.  You want an army of them defending your family and you at all times.  60% dark chocolate has about 7 times more than blueberries.  75% dark chocolate has about 11 times that of blueberries.  That’s high.  And, they are lower in sugar on which viruses and bacteria thrive.

Groom your family away from milk chocolate and start offering them 60% dark chocolate.  The Kid Kritics Approved Bissinger’s 60% Dark Chocolate 100 Calorie Bar.  I have given other kids chocolates in the 70 to 80% range and was surprised at their positive reactions.  Consequently, we will be taste testing more healthy chocolates.  Will let you know what works.  In the meantime, please set the example and turn your kids on to chocolate that loves their immune systems!

… for the health of your family,
ellen

Would you like me to call you next Monday and say, “You Won a Case of Enchilada Sauce Mix by Simply Organic”? If so, please enter this Kid Kritics Approved Food Giveaway Sweepstakes by going to www.KidKritics.com/sweepstakes.  Enter more than once to up your odds!

Performance Food for Valentine’s Day and everyday! Cocoa Powder (dark chocolate)! It’s nutrients feed your brain, heart, muscles, nerves, bones, hair, nails and skin! You can thank its concentration of minerals and omega-3 fats for this. This powder itself actually reduces your cravings for sweets. Plus it is loaded with antioxidants – 20% more than wine. And, you know it helps lift your spirits. Catch is, for these benefits, it has to be eaten as true dark chocolate. I enjoy a square or two of a 70% dark chocolate bar everyday. 85% is even better. Start your kids on 60% dark chocolate.  Most love it… and it loves them!

… for the health of your family,
ellen

Turn the package of your chocolate over and if you see Alkali listed in the ingredients, throw it out.  Better yet, don’t buy it. When the “Dutch” alkali process is used, it removes all of cocoa’s naturally beneficial nutrients.  The reason chocolate manufacturers do this is because they are using cocoa from trees grown in an acidic soil which makes it bitter.  Then, more sugar, often corn syrup or high fructose corn syrup is added to sweeten up this useless mess.

You want chocolate made from cocoa beans grown from trees rooted in alkaline soil.  Less sugar is needed due to its naturally wonderful chocolate flavor.  All those satiating up-lifting antoxidant nutrients are there for you to enjoy.  How do we know this? We interviewed Mark Ebling from Bissinger’s Handcrafted Chocolatier which began making cocoa for King Louis XIV in 1668.  Bissinger’s knows chocolate.  To learn more about chocolate from Mark  – it was fascinating… go to www.iTunes.com, Podcast, Better Food Choices.  Make sure your chocolate money is well spent enjoy!

… for the health of your family,
ellen

Thanks to Joel Furhman, MD, you can easily remember what immune building foods to feed your family. GOMBBS: Greens, Onions, Mushrooms, Berries, Beans, Seeds*. Pretty simple, right?  Daily, make sure you serve at lest three of these a week. For example, it’s simple to prepare fresh or steamed lettuce, spinach, kale – sauteed onions and mushrooms, fresh or frozen berries (smoothies!), beans (hummus counts), and some sesame or sunflower seeds in a salad or trail mix.  It seems that everywhere I turn, someone is sick.  Even my digestive system was complaining a little this morning.  So I am now totally focused on  GOMBBS.  How about you?

… for the health of your family,
ellen

Win the hearts of your family by winning  Case of Wild Blueberry Juice by Wyman’s of Maine, AND, a children’s book, A Heart Pumping Adventure from the Human Body Detectives series by Dr. Heather Manley.  Please go to www.KidKritics.com/sweepstakes.  Enter more than once to up your odds!

* Excerpt from Dr. Joel Fuhrman’s recently released book, SUPER Immunity.