Raw Foods Diet & Raw Food Weight Loss Blog

Who’s been making small changes and feeling a bit brighter lately, since we’ve been talking about brain health? Today, let’s continue focusing on some things we can actively do to minimize our chances of developing memory problems like Dementia or Alzheimer’s in the future.

Yesterday we focused on heart-healthy tips to increase brain function (since heart disease seems to be linked with Alzheimer’s) and I shared a heart-healthy recipe with you. Today, we’ll focus on inflammation.

While research isn’t clear yet on the causes of brain function deterioration, inflammation is almost always found in the bodies and brains of those suffering from memory loss. Studies haven’t concluded whether the inflammation is secondary to the disease, or a direct cause of it. Regardless, inflammation can exacerbate problems in the body (whether in the brain, or otherwise). So, it’s best to control inflammation in the body as best as we can.

There have been some preliminary studies showing that anti-inflammatory foods, such as the turmeric spice, have been effective in preventing brain damage. Inflammation, which is always found in those with early stage memory loss, is something that can be easily controlled through diet. By avoiding certain foods and incorporating a steady supply of others, it can be relatively easy to eliminate inflammation in the body.

It’s important to note that inflammation is almost always a result of some other issue. In many cases, when we look at diet, consuming certain foods can produce an inflammatory response. In those instances, it’s best to avoid those specific foods. In other cases, there are underlying problems in the body and an inflammatory response is sometimes triggered.

With inflammation there is heat, swelling, and pain (just think about what happens after accidentally smashing a finger or toe). In isolated incidences like a smashed toe or finger, the inflammation is going to eventually fade and that body part will return to health. However, when the inflammation is wide-spread through the body, and chronic in nature, it’s a sign that something major is going on. Finding the root of the problem is vitally important, of course.

Many individuals who suffer with ongoing inflammation find relief when they change their diets. It’s proven that certain foods definitely contain either pro- or anti-inflammatory properties. Avoiding the former and incorporating more of the latter in one’s diet can bring about tremendous benefits (both overall in the body, but also in the brain if there is any inflammation present there, as well).

Here’s a list of some foods that cause inflammation and others that eliminate it.

CAUSE INFLAMMATION

• Processed foods (which include saturated fats, sugar, artificial ingredients)
• Organ meatsHydrogenated oil (and any products made with it)
• Fried foods
• Processed meats
• Fast foods
• Saturated fats (meat, dairy, eggs)
• High fructose corn syrup and soft drinks
• Most polyunsaturated vegetable oils (safflower, sunflower, corn, peanut and soy)
• Common allergens (casein and gluten)

ELIMINATE INFLAMMATION

• Olive oil
• Omega-3 foods (walnuts, flax seeds, pumpkin seeds)
• Avocados
• Nuts
• Tart cherries
• Onions and garlic
• Pineapple
• Spinach
• Turmeric and ginger
• Orange-colored vegetables and fruits

The more whole and natural the food, the less likely it is to cause an inflammatory response in the body.The opposite is true, too, of course: the more processed and unnatural the foods you eat, the greater chances of triggering an inflammatory response in the body.

To minimize the chances of developing memory problems, eliminate as many inflammation-causing foods and incorporate as many anti-inflammatory foods as possible. The following recipe not only reduces inflammation, it is also delicious and super easy to prepare!

Pineapple Smoothie

• 1 ripe pinapple
• Few handfulls fresh spinach
• Few pieces if ice (optional)

Directions:
Remove outer skin of pineapple. If you have a Vitamix, or similar high-powered blender, you can simply chop the pineapple into large chunks and drop into the Vitamix container. Use the tamper to force the chunks down into the blades as it blends into a smoothie.
If you are using a standard blender, you’ll need to remove the core of the pineapple (since it won’t blend well), and also cut the pineapple into small chunks (and you’ll need to slowly add the pinapple pieces to your blender, so they can process). You may need to add some water to the container, as well, if it’s not blending for you.
Blend the pineapple chunks and then add a few handfuls of spinach to the mix and blend a bit longer. You can also add a little bit of ice, if desired, to create a colder smoothie. This is so easy and so delicious!

Remember, the less inflammation you have in your body, the better your chance of less inflammation in your brain (which has been found in those with Dementia and Alzheimer’s). Continually work on extinguishing inflammation before it causes a problem in your body.

______________
Photo by olgucz on Flickr (Creative Commons).

Continuing with our week of ways to keep a sharp mind, let’s focus on the one widely accepted indicator for dementia or alzheimer’s: heart disease. If one wants to dramatically reduce the chances of brain degredation, the first step to take is keeping the heart healthy.

The key advice most health specialists agree on when it comes to a healthy heart is the reduction (ideally eliminatain) of unhealthy fats in the diet. The unhealthy fats are usually seen as solid fats, like butter, margerine, and shortening. However, it’s important to not overlook the fats that are also found in meats. By substituting unhealthy fats with something healthier for your heart (like extra virgin, cold-pressed olive oil), as well as transitioning to leaner meats if you are a meat eater, you will be taking some important steps in keeping your heart healthy, as well as your mind.

While eliminating the unhealthy fats from your body, it’s also equally important to include more fresh vegetables, nuts, and fruits which can help heal the body. Although studies haven’t been conclusive, there is strong evidence that individuals who regularly consume fresh, water-rich vegetables and fruits tend to have a lower incidence of memory loss.

Today’s recipe is not only free from unhealthy fats, it also contains a good amount of magnesium and potassium (found in the broccoli and the walnuts), both which have been found to lower blood pressure and reduce heart palpitations.

Walnut Pesto Broccoli

• 2 heads broccoli, chopped into small bite-sized pieces
• 2 cups, firmly packed basil
• 1 1/2 cups walnuts
• 1/2 to 1 cup olive oil (depending on desired consistency)
• 1-2 Tabelspoons lemon juice (to taste)
• 1 tiny clove fresh garlic
• 2 teaspoons quality salt (or more, to taste)

Directions:
Remove the tough outer peel from the broccoli stalks. Chop broccoli into small, bite-sized pieces. Put aside in a large bowl.
In a food processor, place basil, walnuts, olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, and salt. Process until you create a nice pesto sauce, adding more oil to achieve the consistency you prefer.
Massage pesto sauce into broccoli pieces and set aside for a while, allowing the broccoli to soften a bit.
Enjoy!

Remember, the stronger your heart is, the sharper your mind is going to be! So, be sure to limit unhealthy fats and meats while also increasing fresh vegetables, nuts, and fruits  (particularly those loaded with magnesium and potassium) in your diet. Also, remember to come back tomorrow for more tips and a new recipe to help keep you fresh and mentally focused.

_______________

Photo by Ross Castrow on Flickr (Creative Commons).

One reason I keep going on and on lately about raw desserts and raw ice creams is best conveyed with an example.  Here are the ingredients in Cool Whip, a commonly available whipped topping:

• water
• hydrogenated vegetable oil (coconut and palm kernel oils)
• high fructose corn syrup
• corn syrup
• skim milk
• light cream
• less than 2% of:
• sodium caseinate
• natural and artificial flavors
• xanthan and guar gums
• polysorbate 60
• sorbitan monostearate
• beta carotene (color)

Wow, I had a chemistry set in 5th grade that had a lot of things that sounded like some of those items. It’s actually mind-boggling to envision the industrial processes necessary to produce everything on that list — not that it’s entirely possible to do so. After all, among the list of ingredients are “natural and artificial flavors.” Ever wonder what, exactly, those are?

Well, finding out is easy, really. Just pop over to the Code of Federal Regulations (here) and read the definition:

The term natural flavor or natural flavoring means the essential oil, oleoresin, essence or extractive, protein hydrolysate, distillate, or any product of roasting, heating or enzymolysis, which contains the flavoring constituents derived from a spice, fruit or fruit juice, vegetable or vegetable juice, edible yeast, herb, bark, bud, root, leaf or similar plant material, meat, seafood, poultry, eggs, dairy products, or fermentation products thereof, whose significant function in food is flavoring rather than nutritional.

So, not only may natural flavors be non-raw (which may or may not be important to many), but they may in fact not even be vegetarian (which is likely important to quite a lot of people).

The term “artificial flavors,” by the way, refers to:

any substance, the function of which is to impart flavor, which is not derived from a spice, fruit or fruit juice, vegetable or vegetable juice, edible yeast, herb, bark, bud, root, leaf or similar plant material, meat, fish, poultry, eggs, dairy products, or fermentation products thereof.

So, those really could be derived from just about anything imaginable (with the exception of actual food!).

Okay, so let’s compare that with my own recipe for whipped cream. Yes, I realize that I said the other day that I didn’t have a good recipe for it, but then I realized that I really do — and it relates back to our recent post on parfaits. You see, I’d been in such a hurry to consume these delicious parfaits that I failed to do what I recommend in the recipe, which is to refrigerate the cream.  If you actually do this step, you’re going to basically get whipped cream that tastes 10x better than any store-bought chemistry set, and is also perfectly healthy!

Raw Whipped Cream

Into your Vitamix, add:

• a large handful of nuts (cashews, or maybe macadamias)
• just enough water so that the nuts will blend
• a bit of vanilla extract
• a pinch of salt
• optionally, a few strawberries or other berry for color and subtle flavor
• optionally, a bit of agave or other sweetener

I would highly recommend, prior to making this, a thorough study of our Raw Parfaits post last week, as it gives extra hints about adding thickness and so forth. I’d highly encourage experimentation with this basic formula!  Blend your mixture thoroughly. When you think you’re done blending, blend it even longer. Seriously, it’ll be better.  Then, the trick is to cool the cream. Spatula the whole mess into a bowl and toss it into the fridge for several hours, taking it out just prior to serving.  This will render a whipped cream topping to live for.

_______________
Photo by jonathangaskin on Flickr (Creative Commons).

While I was growing up in the Midwest, I had a rich uncle who lived out East in Philadelphia. I didn’t know him very well at the time, but would often glean stories via the family grape vines of his business successes. After high school, I attended college in Northeastern Pennsylvania — Wilkes University — where, incidentally, I first met Wendi!

Being out there, I got to visit my uncle from time to time, and dine with him and his family.  Among other things, he was quite the gourmand. I’m not so sure what he’d have thought of raw foods, although I suspect he’d have appreciated the many gourmet efforts.

His wife, my aunt, was from Ireland. She and her elderly mother lived there in Philadelphia, too — all at the palatial estate.  Usually, for dessert, they liked to have a pie of some sort. But, quite to my surprise as a young student, they served it topped not with ice cream or whipped cream, but with liquid cream. It seemed strange to me, but I came to appreciate that perhaps not everyone in the world does things that we do in America — and vice versa. So, to date, I’m aware of at least three major ways in which pie is topped (ice cream, whipped cream, and liquid cream). We’ll cover two of those today!

Both of the following recipes are imitations of things that are dairy — and so both will demonstrate how dairy-like you can get using various ingredients.

Pie Topping #1:  Raw Ice Cream

This will be the lower-fat option, as it uses only fruit! Making super-tasty raw ice cream is SO easy; all you need to do to achieve a basic ice cream is freeze a few bananas, and then run them through a masticating juicer such as a Champion brand one (which is what we have). Doing this makes a delicious, creamy ice cream — and you can also add other frozen fruits in to flavor the ice cream.  If you do not own a masticating juicer, you can achieve some nice, thick ice-cream-like concoctions by experimenting with your high-speed blender. Just toss in frozen bananas, and some liquid of your choice (and, likely, some sweetener). This won’t be quite as thick or ice-cream-like as it would be from a masticating juicer, but it’ll surely taste pretty good.

Pie Topping #2:  Raw Cream

The following recipe is one of thousands of possible cream recipes. It’s directly from our free Raw Recipes book that we give away to all who sign up on our web site. This one is called “lemony cream”:

• 1/2 cup cashews (soaked for two hours)
• 1/2 cup water
• 3 Tablespoons lemon juice
• 3 Tablespoons agave nectar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons shredded coconut
• few dashes of salt

Blend until very creamy, and then spoon onto your raw pie!! SO delicious!

Sadly, I don’t have an excellent raw whipped cream recipe to share at the moment, but I’ll look into it for you — and I’d encourage you to do the same. (Looking in the All Raw Directory is a great start, of course.)

So, there you have it —  a universal pie recipe yesterday, and starting points for some delicious toppings, above.

Over the weekend, we visited the spectacular Oregon Country Fair in Eugene and, once again, experienced a joyful and overwhelming sense of recognition that we’re living in a place where people are much more accustomed to just being themselves.

Personal expression and nonconformity are so valued here that one becomes quickly enamored of the whole ambiance, which could well explain why more people come to Oregon than leave. The region seems to represent, to many, a chance to finally discover and explore an identity perhaps not completely free from outside influence, but at least free from the undesirable influences that society elsewhere seems to insist upon. Or maybe I’m misreading it all and providing just one of many interpretations.

In either case, I can think of perhaps no greater form of self-expression and nonconformity than the creation of a raw fruit pie. Think of it not as a dessert, but as a symbol of your own limitless, blazing, dazzling, unique, fiery spirit. Here’s what a slice of a Patti’s Raw Fruit Pie looks like:

But, your raw fruit pie might well look and taste quite different.  I thought I’d share today some elements of any raw fruit pie, just as we shared a more universal take on parfaits last week.

With a pie, you basically have only two requisite components: (1) a crust, and (2) a filling. I think, in order to classify something as a “pie,” you’d need to at least include some semblance of those two things — although “requiring” anything at all within an article themed upon nonconformity, I’ll admit, is humorously ironic.  Of course, pie is also quite often topped with something (usually ice cream), so we’ll include “(3) a topping” as an optional, yet desirable, component.

To those unfamiliar with raw foods, seeing a raw pie is almost always exciting. I, too, remember the joy of learning that one could enjoy pie made of natural, and healthy raw ingredients rather than the Crisco-laden heart-clogging flakiness that we all love and hate simultaneously. Once we discovered this, we began doing things that would have been considered insane by conventional society — things like having pie for dinner! So, let’s get to it…

Part One:  The Crust. Okay, so all pies need a crust.  Since this is not meant as a specific pie recipe, I’m just going to list the things you’ll want to play around with.  First, you’re almost always going to want to have access to a food processor. I’m sure you could somehow achieve a crust without one, but it’s probably going to be significantly easier with one. So, into your food processor, toss:

• A Cup or two of Nuts. We commonly use almonds, although you could experiment with any single nut, or mixture of nuts. Other common ones would include walnuts and pecans. Cashews are also nice. But, again, see what you can come up with. Like the parfait recipes we shared last week, it’ll be tough to make any real mistakes here.
• Spices. Depending on the pie, you may want to add some spices to the crust, as well.  We would always recommend adding some salt, for flavor enhancement. But don’t feel limited by your spice selection — here or in the filling. Be as creative as you like.
• Something sticky to hold it all together. Quite commonly, people use dates here (pitted, of course).  But, you might also add in something like some agave nectar, some honey, or perhaps some maple syrup (which isn’t raw, but does contain a lot of nutrients for a “cooked” food — esp. if you get Grade B).

Process your mixture adding in the sticky part slowly, until you’ve achieved something rather thick and, likely, very messy and sticky.

From there, you’ll want to press this into your pie tin (or, really, any kind of dish). We’ve found that if you “pre-powder” your dish with a coating of something (we use powdered raw carob), the slices will be easier to dish out later. Also, you can pop these pie crusts into the freezer for later use, as the cold will help them set up more.

Also, as you can see in the above picture, the pie shown has some crust on top as well. This is optional, of course. And, remember, it can be more of the same crust you used on the bottom, or something entirely different. Furthermore, it could be something raw, or not. (See last Friday’s post for a brief discussion of raw and not-so-raw options in the “crunchiness” department, as much of that applies here.)

Part Two:  The Filling. Again, this is going to be really tough to mess up, as all fruit is naturally sweet and delicious.  The goal here, in general (or, at least, what I like to do) is to come up with something that has a bit of a sauce and also a lot of whole pieces of fruit. So, I often like to make a base mixture of briefly blended fruits (e.g., using some bananas, strawberries, berries, etc.), and then stir this up with some chopped fruits. Again, there is no right or wrong way to make a filling. Use any fruits (or anything else) you like, either singly or in combination with other things.

Don’t forget that you can spice the mixture up with any spices you like! For whatever kind of pie you’re making, try using the same spices that you’d use for that pie’s “cooked equivalent.” Also, you may or may not want to sweeten the mix a bit with a sweetener of your choice. Personally, I find the fruit is usually sweet enough on its own. But, it’s quite common for raw foodies to sweeten a pie filling a little bit.

Of course, once you get your filling made, simply pour it into your crust and you’ve got a raw pie!  We generally like to refrigerate, or even freeze, ours prior to serving.

Part Three: The a la mode part.  Again, you’ve got options here — from (1) not using a topping, to (2) using a liquid cream-style topping (such as is traditional in parts of Europe), to (3) using an ice-cream topping (traditional in the U.S.).  No worries… all are easily achievable with raw foods. In fact… this post is getting a little long-winded … let’s cover creams and raw ice cream tomorrow.