Mindful Eats

Exceptional Eggs: Blue Speckled Legbar and Copper Maran

I was at the Mariano's in Chicago, and was over the moon to discover these gorgeous blue and brown heritage eggs. We love eggs at MindfulEats, and these are exceptional. It's not the hens that are exceptional, but the way the hens are treated. You can tell a high-quality, well-raised quality egg from its deep colored yolk and heavier weight. When you crack them open, the yolks "stand up" high if they are fresh. Eggs provide the highest-quality protein, and when they are from healthy hens they are actually more nutritious and delicious! Learn all about eggs and their benefits. Look at these beauties from the Happy Egg Co:

Check out this beautiful colored and striated shell of this Copper Maran egg!

And this yolk! Free-range hens that are healthy and able to move about and grub naturally will have more nutritious, orangey yolks. At MindfulEats we aren't looking for greater technology in our food -- we want natural, old ways of growing our food with plenty of time, space, nutrients, and happy animals. Yum, these eggs are delicious!

Plant milk vs Dairy milk

Almond and macadamia plant milks

"Eat less from a box and more from earth." 

Plant "milks" are all the rage - oat milk seems to have taken over coffee shops, and there are a plethora of other plant milks to choose from at the store: soy, rice, almond, cashew, macadamia, sesame, pistachio, et al. There can be a halo effect for plant milks since they are vegan, but are they really healthier than good old dairy milks? Let's investigate.

Small aside: why are they called plant milks anyway? When I liquify a plant of any type - apple, carrot, beets - to drink, I call it a juice. Isn't milk from a breast? Do they call it milk because you are only supposed to use these plant milks as a dairy milk substitute? In Taiwan there is a history of drinking soy milk but not dairy milk, so it's not called a milk or used as a substitute but as a drink of its own. Anyhow, I digress.

Like Impossible Burgers or other plant-based meats, commercial plant milks are much more processed than the original dairy milk. Let's look at some ingredients lists:

Healthy Poor People Meals - How to Eat Healthy on the Cheap

Everything you need for rice and beans - feel free to adjust according to taste and ingredients

"Much ingenuity with a little money is vastly more profitable and amusing than much money without ingenuity." ~Arnold Bennett

MarketWatch recently wrote about a 29-year old woman who lost her job recently asked for cheap healthy meals in a Reddit post. She got hundreds of great tips and ideas. You can find her post here.

How can you be mindful on the cheap? You have to buy things on the cheap and use them all (zero food waste is ideal). To do so, start with a weekly menu plan. If there is produce on sale in the grocery store, it means that it is in season. Load up. Dried and canned beans, frozen vegetables, brown rice, canned tomatoes and fish - these are the cornerstones of affordable, healthy meals. If you find them on sale, buy in bulk as these can all go straight in the pantry and last. Vegetarian meals are cheaper than meat, but be mindful of getting protein through cheap sources like beans, legumes and eggs.

When you make meals, feel free to make extra portions that you can refrigerate and eat throughout the day, or freeze them for even more longevity. Use produce that won't spoil quickly - cabbage, collard greens, kale, squash, carrots, turnips (any root vegetables).

What to do - 3 Easy Steps to Eating Cheap and Healthy

1. Get inspired and find some meals that you would like to cook. You can look at the Reddit post, review our Mindful recipes, or do your own search.
2. Create your weekly menu plan that allows you to use all your food. You will be less likely to buy expensive last minute food if you have all your meals planned out as well. This is very important!
3. Take your menu plan and do your weekly grocery shopping. Voila! You've maximized your wallet and your health. Pat yourself on the back!

 

 

What I ate: slice Ezekiel 4:9 bread +1.5 T cream cheese + avocado mash + hard boiled egg, 2T Welleco Elixir, Paleo popcorn, 2 Trader Joe dark chocolate mini peanut butter cups, 14 oz coffee + milk, slice cheese pizza, cookie, 5 grape leaves, Welleco vanilla protein drink, pear, Paleo popcorn, pistachios, raisin oatmeal cookie, Mariebelle hot chocolate, 40 oz water

Exercise: 60 min boot camp

 

 

Real vs. Organic, Non-GMO, Keto, Vegan, Plant-based Processed Foods

Beyond Meat Burger Ingredients

I went to the largest trade show for natural and organic products in the US this year - Natural Products Expo West. There are over 30,000 attendees and thousands of different food items. It's huge! There was a dazzling array of foods in packages. One of the most obvious trends this year was CBD, but the one thing that was abundantly clear was that Americans are confused about what to eat that is healthy! 

MindfulEaters, here's a secret: anything that comes out of a package is probably processed. You already know what real food looks like. Expo West was full of different kinds of food bars, plant burgers, and all kinds of convenience foods stuffed with supplements. All those things are processed foods! If there are lots of ingredients and it doesn't look like it's natural form, it's processed. It doesn't matter if it's organic, non-GMO, keto or stuffed with superfoods. A protein bar is still not a natural food item. Instead of eating the bar, have a hard boiled egg or two! You can boil lots of eggs at once, keep them in the refrigerator, then take them with you for a handy snack. Or have some chicken. You are going straight to the source for real natural protein instead of a funny bar shaped food.

You are better off eating non-processed or minimally processed unorganic real food than any kind of processed food. That's the simple truth.

Just because it's labeled organic, non-GMO, keto or vegan doesn't mean it's good for you. Organic macaroni & cheese in a box is still processed macaroni and cheese. Don't think you are eating something non-processed just because it's organic. You can eat it - just be conscious that you are consuming a processed food.

If you are eating plant "meat" to be healthier, be aware of what's in the ingredients list. A lot of things! (see above). You can grill a portobello mushroom just as easily. It's delicious and it's a real plant.

If you're snacking, remember a non-GMO quinoa chip is still a processed chip. Choose air-popped popcorn or roasted seaweed for snacks that are minimally processed. Or a banana, piece of fruit, carrot sticks or hard boiled eggs. Hummus and celery. You have so many options!

Why do you want to eat less processed foods? Because ultra-processed foods are bad for you.

What to do - Eat more fresh unprocessed food

1. Shop for real food. Organic or not, that's what is best for you and your family. Not protein bars, powdered supplements, chips or balls. Real food.
2. Create a food plan (your Mindful Battle Plan) for the week. Figure out your meals so you can take a list with you to the grocery store and spend less time making more satisfying meals!
3. Prepare most of your meals at home.The faster the better - and if you cook in large batches, you can take in lunch or have leftovers later in the week.
4. Figure out which ultra-processed foods are your weakness, and don't buy them! Do not let them in your house!! Here are some popular culprits: chips, diet soda, frozen pizza, candy, pre-packaged cakes, certain breads (do for the whole grain breads).
5. Snack well. Create a fruit bowl and keep it filled. This will be your go-to for snacks. Make a Mindful Mixfor your other snack needs.

 

What I ate today: steel cut oatmeal + strawberries + blueberries + blackberries, Prêt a Manger lobster roll, bowtie summer pasta, steamed broccoli, corn on the cob, pluot, green tea ice cream, Lesser Evil popcorn, coffee, water

Exercise: power yoga

The Benefits of Garlic - Why Garlic is Good For You

Too lazy to peel fresh? You don't deserve to eat garlic. ~Anthony Bourdain

The English royal family used to find garlic terribly foreign -- the Queen still hates it. I, on the other hand, love it and I loaded up our weeknight pasta dinner with extra garlic last night. My husband commented on its extra oomph. "It's good for you," I said. He questioned my statement, and though I know garlic is good for you, I didn't know why. So I decided to look into it.

I remember reading an article about a pair of lovely twins that were celebrating their 100+ birthday, and one of the things they attributed their longevity to was a tablespoon of raw garlic every morning. Maybe they were on to something. Garlic has been touted as medicinal since ancient times in multiple cultures, and people ascribe properties as mixed as cold-busting, anti-cancer, blood cholesterol lowering, heart-disease helping, immune strengthening and vampire-nixing to the little bulb. The latest science finds the strongest benefit to be with heart disease.  

The health benefits from garlic seems to come from its natural sulfur compounds (which you can also infamously smell), the most famous of which is allicin. Some studies suggest that garlic helps relax blood vessels and increase blood flow. It can also reduce cholesterol and blood pressure (not as much as cholesterol or blood pressure pills) and blood glucose levels.

There are compounds in garlic that are good for you, and though there is strong evidence eating it is beneficial, it doesn't mean you need to run out and take garlic supplements. Go the mindful route - everything in moderation. Discuss your usage with your doctor if you want to use it therapeutically -- too much may interfere with some heart medications or anticoagulants.

What to do - Eat More Garlic

1. Use the freshest garlic you can. Store it in a cool, dark place. If it has scapes growing out of it, you can still use it but that means its gotten pretty old.
2. Chop or crush it. Garlic is not that difficult to prepare. If you smash a clove with the side of your knife, the skin will come off easily. If you have a lot of garlic to prep (for example you are a prep chef at a restaurant or food kitchen), a silicone roller might be helpful (the green thing in the photo above). Garlic presses are not necessary.
3. Throw an extra clove in your recipe - pasta, sauté, stir-fry, marinade, etc.

Want to learn more?

• Consumer Reports, The Health Benefits of Garlic 

 

What I ate: 14 oz green juice, 1/4 pita bread, 1/2 c ratatouille, 2/3 c saffron rice, 3 Mary's crackers and cheese, 3 Whisps, 10 peach tea, 1 c pistacios, 1 orange, 1.5 c pad vegan thai, 2 vegan spring rolls, 1 almond Roca, 12 oz hot chocolate, 40 oz water

Exercise: None

Eating Seafood Responsibly

Bonaire, squid

"For whatever we lose (like a you or a me), it's always ourselves we find in the sea." ~ee cummings

There is a huge global demand for seafood. It is now a common menu item and sushi is as popular as Arby's. This wasn't always the case. When I was a kid, seafood was not popular. Catholics weren't supposed to eat meat on Fridays, so some would opt for fish. My family came from an island, so we ate a lot of seafood, which was considered weird. Then at one point, I stopped eating meat and was a pescatarian for 20 years. The seas weren't yet overfished, cod hadn't collapsed, mercury wasn't in seafood, and people weren't enslaved to feed the global appetite.

Things seemed to have come full circle. I have stopped eating most seafood, except for easily farmed items like mussels and oysters. There was a time when I would just ask a lot of questions -- where was the seafood from? How was it caught? Is it sustainable?

Then the questions just weren't enough. First, certain fish types were collapsing. Cod, blue fin tuna, swordfish... We were overfishing our seas, and these huge fish couldn't reproduce fast enough to replace what we were eating. Second, all the pollution we create was finding its way back into the ocean and bioaccumulating as mercury in the fish we eat. 10% of women of childbearing age in the US have enough mercury in their systems to cause defects. Third, I noticed that there was a lot of fraud. Many restaurants (including sushi restaurants) and stores were labeling fish as a certain type, like snapper, and it wasn't! Outrageous. And the last straw? Fourth, there is such a huge global demand for fish that PEOPLE ARE BEING ENSLAVED to work in the fishing industry! This "lucky" man escaped after 22 years. The problem is that there isn't enough accountability, so if someone tells you that no slaves were involved in the fish they are serving, they just don't know. I don't need to eat fish that badly.

Not to mention that I started scuba diving, and the fish that we eat are beautiful in their natural habitat. A shoal of squid is a graceful, beautiful sight - nothing like what you see on your plates. But that's a digression.

What to do - Eat Seafood Responsibly

1. Just avoid eating any seafood or
2. Eat only seafood that can be farmed or fished locally and responsibly. Mussels are a safe bet.
3. Don't feed pet food that contains seafood. Thailand supplies a lot of that fish, and that is where most slaves are used.
4. Use the Seafood Watch guide and app to find the most sustainable seafood. Ask your server and fishmonger questions about sourcing and sustainability.

Want to read more?

• MindfulEats on Sustainable Sushi
• MindfulEats on Sustainable Seafood
• Natural Resources Defense Council Seafood Guide

 

What I ate: 15 oz green juice, 10 oz yogurt + blueberries + chia seeds, 2 peaches, portobella mushroom + arugula + queso arepa, 6 Korean vegetable dumplings, 2 peaches, 2 ears of corn, dried mangos, 50 oz water, 4 squares of dark chocolate

Exercise: jogged 4.5 miles

Camellia Oil: Reverse Hair Loss and Gray

Purity Camellia Oil for Hair and Scalp

Everybody thinks of changing humanity and nobody thinks of changing himself. ~Leo Tolstoy

I've been working on an exciting new project - a new popcorn company called Pop Karma - so I haven't written as often as I'd like. I promise I'll provide more details on Pop Karma soon.

In the meantime, my dear cousin asked me what I used to dye my hair with since she didn't want to use something really harsh and chemically. Oh no, clearly I've gotten to the age where I should be dying my hair! But I'm not. I have some stray grays, and sometimes when I see them I'll pull them out. Sometimes I leave it in because I think it looks distinguished.

I expect the grays will start coming in quickly and then who knows what I'll think. While I haven't tried dying my hair, I have been using camellia oil for years. My friend started making it around 2004, and I started using it to support his entrepreneurial spirit. One of the properties it claims is that it has reversed graying in some people.

Camellia oil has been used as a beauty product for generations in Asia, and when I told my mother about it, she had vague memories of her grandmother using it. She remembered her as always having black hair, so she called her brother for confirmation. He remembered her having black hair too.

So what is this stuff? Let's start with the facts. Camellia oll is made from the seeds of tea trees. It is rich in Vitamins A, B, C & E and various minerals. It's composed mainly of oleic acid (80%), one of the most penetrative oils, which allows it to hydrate and clean pores and follicles without greasy residue. It allows oxygen and nutrients to penetrate. Camellia is a natural antioxidant that helps protect from UV exposure. It was used for centuries in Japan and Taiwan as a mositurizer and revitalizer. It fell out of favor with more recent generations since it was pungent and greasy.

When my friend first started the company, I told my mother about it, and she spoke to his father, Dr. Michael Liau, one of the founders. He is a retired professor of pathology that specialized in oil at Columbia University. She was impressed and started using the scalp oil. My mother said her hair and eyebrows started growing in thicker. My aunt noticed and she started using it too. I'll note that they think it has grown more hair, but they are still dying it.

I use it, and my cousin frequently observed over the years that my hair seemed fuller. I never really thought about it until recently, when she asked me about dying my hair. Maybe it's working. I thought I should do more investigative reporting so I called Dr. Liau.

Snack Review: Snackle Mouth

Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else. ~Judy Garland

A lot of artisanal small-batch granola has hit the market in the past few years, starting with Bear Naked (which is now huge and owned by Kellogg) and continuing on to newer brands like Early Bird Granola. Granola seems to fall in two camps: the kind that comes in big clusters, and the flakey unclustered kind. My earliest granola experiences were at the school breakfast buffet where we had huge rocks of granola, so my preference is for clusters. 

When the Boulder-based company Snackle Mouth offered to send me their crunchy granola, I said sure. The first thing I did when I received their package was look at the ingredients. It's a fairly clean list, with blue agave and brown rice syrup as sweeteners instead of sugar, and canola oil which I assume is a binder. There is also the mysterious ingredient, "Natural Flavors."

To me, a sweetener is a sweetener, and I don't have a problem with sugar - it's best to limit your intake of ANY sweetener. I'd rather have granola without any sweeteners.

Snackle Mouth is indeed very crunchy. It's got a nice dosage of fat per serving, about 8 grams in the Almond Berry flavor, so it is a satisfying snack with great crunch appeal. The ingredients are real, so is supplies 12% of fiber and 4 grams of protein in Almond Berry. They aren't quite as cruncy as Grape Nuts, but that is a good thing in granola.

I tried three flavors - Almond Berry, Almond Pecan Maple and Peanut Cranberry. My favorite was Peanut Cranberry since I'm partial to both peanuts, almonds (also in this flavor) and cranberries. Snackle Mouth is also good with milk as cereal.

Bottom Line: Snackle Mouth satisfies both hunger and crunch lovers with a pretty good list of real ingredients. Though if you are hungry for a crunchy snack, MindfulEats recommends an apple and a handful of nuts.

What I ate: two lattes, 1 orange, 1 grapefruit, whole wheat spaghetti, grass fed beef bolognese sauce, tea, 6 Almond Rocas, 1 green tea mochi ice cream, brown rice, brusell sprouts, tempeh  2 dark chocolate squares, hot chocolate

Exercise: jogges 4 miles, 120 situps, 6 push-ups, 50 tricep pushups, 3 backbends

 

 

Outstanding Natural Foods at Expo West

I had the pleasure of attending Expo West in Anaheim, CA last week. Expo West is a huge (as in monstrous) natural products trade show - there were over 60,000 attendees and over 2,000 exhibitors. As a first-timer, everyone told me NOT to eat too much, but I couldn't help myself. All those samples of interesting products definitely got to me! The trade show had specialty food, pet products, personal health and beauty products, supplements and ingredients.

The biggest trends this year were nons: companies using 1) non-genetically engineered or modified foods (non-GMO), and 2) being gluten-free. At MindfulEats, we're heartened by the increasing popularity of non-GMO foods and a little perplexed by the gluten-free trend. Only 1% of the US population has Celiac disease (an allergy to wheat), and 6% of the population has some kind of wheat intolerance, but the words "No Gluten" are popping up all over the place. Until I develop an allergy, I am going to keep eating spelt berries (whole wheat berries), which have recently become one of my favorite whole grains.

There was also a little chia trend, which was great to see. Which reminds me I need to do a post on this amazing super-food.

Outstanding products at Expo West were:

• Go Raw bars. I have never been able to find a granola bar that I like, but these live sprouted bars were delicious. I tried the granola bar, the apricot bar, and the banana bread flax bar. All yummy. I even gave some of a bar to my boyfriend and he liked it (before he found out it was raw).
• Sea Tangle Noodle Company. These sea kelp noodles are chewy, kinda crisp, raw and easy to prepare. They don't taste oceany at all.
• Greenoodle. These instant noodles are made with unbleached and unprocessed wheat flour, and have Morohieya (a vegetable) added to them. The result is a tasty, chewy fast instant noodle meal that's healthier. I can't wait to buy them.
• Russo's Gluten-Free Pizza. There were lots of gluten free pizza sample, but this one stood out as scrumptious. There were even lines for it. It tasted like real pizza.
• Mamma Chia. These chia drinks were delicious. Sometimes chia can be thick and slimey, but these drinks were refreshing and went down easy. And they're loaded with chia! You can see the seeds.
• New York Superfoods. These chia nut butters and snacks were yummy and loaded with chia. Another tasty "bar." This company is also a finalist for the Next Big Small Brand. I met the co-founders, Catherine and Jason, and they were both really sweet. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for them!

 

What I ate: chocolate croissant, coffee, chicken, vegetables, couscous, ground beef in tomato sauce, whole wheat pasta, pear

Exercise: 120 situps, 6 push-ups, 25 tricep pushups, 3 backbends

 

Green Feminine Hygiene Products: Organic Cotton/Menstrual Cups

It is health that is real wealth, and not pieces of gold and silver. ~Mohandas Gandhi

This post is for the women. Men, I recommend you stop reading here. Stop. Because we're going to be talking about MENSTRUAL PERIOD stuff.

{Yup, that got rid of the guys.}

So when it comes to that time of the month, how do you handle it? Pads, tampons, organic tampons? I recently found a new feminine hygiene product (hate that term) that isn't a tampon or a pad. Actually, it's not new - it's been around since the 1930's. It's more effective, more comfortable and much more environmental. What is it you ask? It's a menstrual cup, which is basically a bell-shaped cup made from medical grade silicone, polyethylene or other nonlatex materials that is worn inside the vagina to collect menstrual fluid.

I think most women find the product journey to be something like this:

1. Conventional Sanitary Pads. They are easy to use and figure out. However, there can be leaking and messiness involved, and it feels like you're sitting on a pillow so some women turn to
2. Conventional Tampons. These are so much harder to learn to use than pads, but provide so much more freedom once you get used to them. However, they still require regular purchasing and can be leaky. Wondering about the health effects of them, you might turn to
3. Unbleached Organic Tampons. If you have something in you for days, you want to make sure its as toxin- free as possible. Your vagina absorbs well, which is why medicines can be delivered through vaginal suppositories. Using nonchlorinated tampons means less chemicals for you and the environment.

I was at stage 3, and wondering if there was anything better because tampons really aren't all that great. I hate having to remember to buy them, they're drying and they can leak. They also didn't feel green - all the material and energy that went into making them and then they were disposed of. Then one day I read an article about menstrual cups. Soon after that I was at Whole Foods buying some nonchlorinated cotton tampons, and I saw some menstrual cups. 

They seemed weird, but in the name of science, I bought one. What happens to the fluid? Isn't it messy?

After three months, I love it. I can't feel it, it doesn't leak, it's not drying, there's no string hanging around, I don't need to remember to bring a tampon to the bathroom (because it's always with you), and I've saved a lot of money.  I wish I'd learned about them 10 years ago!

What's the downside? The icky factor (which isn't so icky). So here's the unvarnished scoop: