Showing posts with label nutrition. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nutrition. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Grow your own garden herbs in a few easy steps


You don't have to have a big garden to grow your own fresh herbs. For those who live in apartments, don't have a backyard, or only like to garden small-scale, most herbs can be grown in ceramic planters.

If that's good news, you'll like what Master Gardener and ACHS Senior Vice President Erika Yigzaw had to say Saturday, May 9, at the ACHS From Your Garden to Your Kitchen Open House.

Although each herb is different, most are fairly easy to grow and use at home. There are just a few key things to remember. 1. Unless otherwise specified, herbs like full sun. 2. Herbs potted into planters should be watered about once a day. 3. Don't over water. As a general rule, water herbs so that the soil remains moist approx. one inch from the top.

Once your herbs are potted, what can you use them for? Most easily, herbs can be used on a meal-by-meal basis and either cooked into hot foods or eaten raw in salads. You can also use fresh herbs to make your own herbal teas and infused oils for cooking and/or body care, as well as herbal medicine infusions and tinctures.

Click here to download free information about making your own herbal remedies, herbal teas, and organic gardening.

Additional tips for growing your own herbs include:
  • When planting in peet pots, break up the peet and roots before planting.
  • Do not plant above the base of the plant. Adding a top layer of soil can cause fungus.
  • To keep bugs from your plants, include a decoy plant in your garden like artichoke.
  • Before harvesting, find out the best method for that herb (for example, rosemary likes to be plucked, but peppermint can be snipped).
Click here for more information about dried herbs and herbal medicine classes.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Health: what we eat and how much matters

"Thanks to a new tool called Life Cycle Analysis, scientists can pinpoint much more precisely what foods produce those climate-warming gases, and what stage in their "life cycle" is most carbon intensive," according to an article by Leslie Cole which in the April 21 Oregonian, "Your climate-friendly kitchen." [...] "The results," the article continues, "show some clear steps all of us can take to a more climate-friendly diet."

To build a "low-carbon diet," Cole suggests:

More green, less moo.
To eat green, vegetables should be the focus of your meal. Meat and dairy products should be kept to a minimum, because "livestock products account for more than half of the food sector's contribution to greenhouse gases."

Kick the can.
Food, when thrown into landfills, releases methane gas. Instead, compost food waste and buy only what you need.

Keep it real.
Real foods--or whole foods--are better than processed foods. Eat an apple instead of apple juice, a potato instead of potato chips, because "new research shows that food production, not transportation, takes the heaviest toll on the environment."

Buy foods in season.
Eating fresh fruits and vegetables preserves energy, because "processing requires energy, which uses fossil fuel and creates emissions."

Break your bag habit.
Plastic bags are made from petroleum, so they fill our landfills, landscapes, and waterways without breaking down.


© Cole, Leslie. "Your climate-friendly kitchen," The Oregonian. 21 April 2009.

Monday, April 13, 2009

Juice therapy: spring cleaning from the inside out

Before you plant a new spring garden, you prepare the soil. You make sure the soil is healthy, full of nutrients, aerated, well hydrated, and so on. Well, just as we prepare our gardens for the optimal harvest, our bodies benefit from a little spring clean up, and clean out too.

Juice therapy—or juicing—is an all natural, easy-to-use, and affordable way to flush leftover wastes sitting sedentary in your body, dragging you down. Juice therapy helps to flush these toxins from the body, which improves major body functions, as well as overall vitality, energy, healthy skin, and heart health, to name a few benefits.

Here are some common juicing fruits and vegetables, and their potential functions.

Apple: general cleanser, fights infection, and stimulates digestion
Apricot: blood builder, constipation, and skin problems
Lemon: gout, arthritis, laxative, and sore throats (always dilute)
Cabbage: obesity, antiseptic, duodenal ulcers, and constipation
Celery: all arthritic disorders, builds blood, and diuretic

Juice is a relatively mild cleanse and can be done at home daily. One 8-oz glass would be a healthy addition to the daily diet. Why juice? First—when made into juices, fruits and vegetables have concentrated amounts of vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and antioxidants. Second—juicing increases the bioavailability of these nutrients. (Bioavailability is the rate at which a substance, in this case the health properties of the juiced fruits and vegetables, are absorbed by the body. In general, juiced fruits and veggies are absorbed by the body at a faster rate than when eaten whole or cooked.)


Juice fresh. Don’t juice, then store for later consumption. Doing this can lead to a loss of minerals, vitamins, and enzymes.
You can make juices from fruit combinations or vegetable combinations, but do not mix fruit and vegetables. The combination of fruit and vegetables impairs digestion and limit the assimilation of nutrients.

For more information about a holistic approach to nutrition, CLICK HERE.

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Growing vegetables relieves stress and financial strain

When tough economic times hit, our collective money belts cinch tighter and tighter. People stop looking for entertainment out of doors and hunker down for the at-home experience, including eating in.

Yet—there is a silver lining. Although the current economy may cause us to make the move from sidewalk cafĂ© to sideboard jockey (for a while), there is much to gain along the way. Say hello to stress relief. It may sound counterintuitive—“I’m stressed because everyone is stressed, so I should be frugal and grocery shop and stay home and cook my own dinner.”

But, cooking—and by extension, growing your own food—is an age-old holistic health practice, which promotes relaxation by shifting your focus from mental worry to physical exertion. As anxiety chills, your immune system and cardiovascular systems work better (otherwise known as, “I feel good.”)

It’s a win-win. You feel better AND your wallet feels better, because GIY (grow-it-yourself) gardening gives you fresh vegetables at a fraction of the store-bought price.

How do you get started?

Seed starting. True, you can also save money with month-old plants from your local nursery or home-supply store, but why would you? Seeds are a fraction of the price and produce more of what you want—lots’o’veggies.

One of the best ways to seed start, according to Master Gardener and ACHS Senior Vice President Erika Yigzaw, is with a seedling heat mat. These mats are portable and lightweight (which means apartment friendly), and allow you to bottom water, minimize the risk of mold.

Seed starting, Yigzaw shared at the ACHS Organic Gardening workshop March 21, has several personal and health benefits:
  • It’s fun and easy.
  • Fresh, on-hand food.
  • You know where your food comes from (if you spend a little time researching your seeds and seed starting mix, you can be sure your food is organic, free of synthetic pesticide and chemicals).
  • Saves money.
  • Lengthens the growing season.
Start gardening...

  1. Check the Farmer’s Almanac for your region to see when the last frost is scheduled to arrive.
  2. Consult a gardening encyclopedia-type reference to see what veggies will grow best in your area. (In Oregon, the Oregon State University Master Gardener program is a good resource.)
  3. Find your local, organic gardening store, where you can purchase your seeds, seedling starting mix, and seedling heat mat.
  4. Read any and all instructions that come with your products.
  5. When it is time to replant your seedlings into larger containers, re-use household materials like old plastic and/or ceramic planters, bowls, glasses, or tubs.
  6. If you plan to transplant your veggies into larger plots, consult a local expert in advance. If you plan to build a container garden, the Gardener’s A-Z Guide to Growing Organic Food is a very user-friendly resource.

Tip: Make sure the container is large enough to avoid root-bound plants. And, you will want to sterilize your containers in a 10% solution of bleach.

For questions about organic, at-home gardening, contact the OSU Master Gardeners or your local organization.

For information about personal nutrition, or holistic nutrition career training, contact the Australasian College of Health Sciences.

Monday, March 23, 2009

Obamas to Plant Vegetable Garden at White House

WASHINGTON—Michelle Obama will begin digging up a patch of the South Lawn on Friday to plant a vegetable garden, the first at the White House since Eleanor Roosevelt’s victory garden in World War II. There will be no beets— the president does not like them—but arugula will make the cut.

While the organic garden will provide food for the first family’s meals and formal dinners, its most important role, Mrs. Obama said, will be to educate children about healthful, locally grown fruit and vegetables at a time when obesity and diabetes have become a national concern.

“My hope,” the first lady said in an interview in her East Wing office, “is that through children, they will begin to educate their families and that will, in turn, begin to educate our communities.”

Twenty-three fifth graders from Bancroft Elementary School in Washington will help her dig up the soil for the 1,100-square-foot plot, in a spot visible to passers-by on E Street. (It is just below the Obama girls’ swing set.)

Students from the school, which has had a garden since 2001, will also help plant, harvest and cook the vegetables, berries and herbs. Virtually the entire Obama family, including the president, will pull weeds, “whether they like it or not,” Mrs. Obama said with a laugh. “Now Grandma, my mom, I don’t know.” Her mother, she said, will probably sit back and say: “Isn’t that lovely. You missed a spot.”

Whether there would be a White House garden had become more than a matter of landscaping. The question had taken on political and environmental symbolism, with the Obamas lobbied for months by advocates who believe that growing more food locally, and organically, can lead to more healthful eating and reduce reliance on huge industrial farms that use more oil for transportation and chemicals for fertilizer.

Then, too, promoting healthful eating has become an important part of Mrs. Obama’s own agenda.

The first lady, who said that she had never had a vegetable garden, recalled that the idea for this one came from her experiences as a working mother trying to feed her daughters, Malia and Sasha, a good diet. Eating out three times a week, ordering a pizza, having a sandwich for dinner all took their toll in added weight on the girls, whose pediatrician told Mrs. Obama that she needed to be thinking about nutrition.

“He raised a flag for us,” she said, and within months the girls had lost weight.

Dan Barber, an owner of Blue Hill at Stone Barns, an organic restaurant in Pocantico Hills, N.Y., that grows many of its own ingredients, said: “The power of Michelle Obama and the garden can create a very powerful message about eating healthy and more delicious food. I don’t think it’s a stretch to say it could translate into real change.”

While the Clintons grew some vegetables in pots on the White House roof, the Obamas’ garden will far transcend that, with 55 varieties of vegetables—from a wish list of the kitchen staff— grown from organic seedlings started at the Executive Mansion’s greenhouses.

The Obamas will feed their love of Mexican food with cilantro, tomatillos and hot peppers. Lettuces will include red romaine, green oak leaf, butterhead, red leaf and galactic. There will be spinach, chard, collards and black kale. For desserts, there will be a patch of berries. And herbs will include some more unusual varieties, like anise hyssop and Thai basil. A White House carpenter, Charlie Brandts, who is a beekeeper, will tend two hives for honey.

The total cost of seeds, mulch and so forth is $200, said Sam Kass, an assistant White House chef, who prepared healthful meals for the Obama family in Chicago and is an advocate of local food. Mr. Kass will oversee the garden.

The plots will be in raised beds fertilized with White House compost, crab meal from the Chesapeake Bay, lime and green sand. Ladybugs and praying mantises will help control harmful bugs.

Cristeta Comerford, the White House’s executive chef, said she was eager to plan menus around the garden, and Bill Yosses, the pastry chef, said he was looking forward to berry season.

The White House grounds crew and the kitchen staff will do most of the work, but other White House staff members have volunteered.

So have the fifth graders from Bancroft. “There’s nothing really cooler,” Mrs. Obama said, “than coming to the White House and harvesting some of the vegetables and being in the kitchen with Cris and Sam and Bill, and cutting and cooking and actually experiencing the joys of your work.”

For children, she said, food is all about taste, and fresh and local food tastes better.

“A real delicious heirloom tomato is one of the sweetest things that you’ll ever eat,” she said. “And my children know the difference, and that’s how I’ve been able to get them to try different things.

“I wanted to be able to bring what I learned to a broader base of people. And what better way to do it than to plant a vegetable garden in the South Lawn of the White House?”

For urban dwellers who have no backyards, the country’s one million community gardens can also play an important role, Mrs. Obama said.

But the first lady emphasized that she did not want people to feel guilty if they did not have the time for a garden: there are still many changes they can make.

“You can begin in your own cupboard,” she said, “by eliminating processed food, trying to cook a meal a little more often, trying to incorporate more fruits and vegetables.”

Click here to read the original article.

© New York Times March 18, 2009 By: Marian Burros

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