King of Kale?!

(from a really cool blog called katheatsrealfood.com)

Hi Positive Eaters,

So the other day someone called me the "King of Kale." I found this a humorous coronation, because I just pictured myself wearing golden robes and with a crown made out of curly leafy protrusions of the superfood. While I may not be a king of anything....Kale certainly is the king of leafy greens.

Kale, is a cruciferous vegetable, and is loaded with more nutrients than you can imagine. This how it stacks up in just a few nutrient categories.

- Kale contains four times more Mg (magnesium) and five times more Ca (calcium) than Brussels sprouts
- 17 times more Vitamin C than carrots and four times more than spinach
- Nearly double the magnesium of spring greens
- More folate than broccoli
- Seven times more carotene than cabbage
(from discoverkale.com)

Kale often freaks people out because it is this huge stalk of green leaves coming at you. But it is actually quite easy to use. You can steam it, stir fry it, work it into dishes...like vegetable lasagna. You can even bake it and make Kale chips. Kale is also shown to have a detoxifying effect and may actually aid in recovering from cancer. Here are a few great recipes.

Sautéed Kale with Smoked Paprika Recipe (from simplyrecipes.com)

I make this all the time!

Kale tends to collect dirt in the leaf wrinkles, so rinse carefully before using. To prep, cut the leaf away from the center rib and stem of each leaf. Discard stems and center ribs.

Ingredients

1 lb fresh kale, carefully rinsed, stems and center ribs cut away and discarded, leaves coarsely chopped
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped (about 1 cup)
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika (also sold as Pimenton), sweet or hot
Pinch of dried crushed red pepper
Salt

1 Bring a large pot (4 qts) of water to a boil. Add a Tablespoon of salt to the water. Add the chopped kale. Cook until wilted, about 5 minutes. Drain and set aside.

2 Heat olive oil in a large sauté pan on medium heat. Add the chopped onion and sauté until translucent, about 5 minutes. Stir in the smoked paprika and crushed red pepper. Add the kale and sauté for several more minutes. Sprinkle on more salt and smoked paprika to taste.

Serves 4.

Kale Lasagna Diavolo (from livestrong.com)

Unbelievable!

Ingredients
1 tsp Olive Oil
8 oz Organic Green Kale
15 oz Fat-free Ricotta Cheese
4 oz Goat Cheese
2 cups Tomatoes Puree
1/2 tsp Red Pepper Flakes
6 pieces Whole Wheat Egg Lasagna Noodles
1/4 cup Parmesan Cheese


1. preheat oven to 400F. coat 8in square pan with oil.

2. cook kale in large pot of boiling salted water 2min. drain, and rinse uncer cold water until cool enough to handle. thoroughly with out kale, then chop. season with salt and pepper, if desired, and set aside.

3. mash together ricotta and chevre in bowl, and set aside.

4. heat 1 tsp oin in small saucepan over medium low heat. add garlic, and cook 15sec, or until fragrant. add tomato puree and red pepper flakes; simmer 5min, or until thickened.

5. spread 1/4 cup sauce in prepared baking pan. place 3 lasagna noodles on top of sauce. top with half of cheese mixture, half of kale, and 1/3 cup sauce. top with three more noodles, remaining cheese, and emaining kale. top with remaining lasagna noodles, and cover with remaining sauce. sprinkle with parmesan and bake 40min, or until cheese has melted and lasagna is bubbly.

Kale Chips

Everyone loves these...I am not crazy about them...but trust me I am in the minority!

Ingredients

1 Bunch of Kale
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
Seasonings of your choice

Preheat oven to about 375*

Tear the leaves off the thick stems into bite size pieces. Spread out on cookie sheets.

Drizzle with about 2 tsp of olive oil
Sprinkle with Parmesan, Asiago or your seasonings of choice. Plus a sprinkle of kosher salt.

Bake for about 15 minutes, until edges are brown and kale is crispy.

A Bus Full of Sugar!

Hey Positive Eaters,

I just started watching Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution! I know I am a little late to the party but this guy truly is a kindred spirit of mine. Remember the Sugar Challenge? Check out the demonstration he did in a local LA park.



Stay Positive,

Matthew

Big Thanks to Andover High School's IN THE SPOTLIGHT

Hey Everyone,

This week is going great! I got a chance to do an interview with Andover High School's IN THE SPOTLIGHT. I love seeing kids doing something positive and creating worthwile media. The show featured an exceptional host, Joe Kukyendall, and he asked some great questions about this blog and other prevalent health issues of the day. I believe this is airing on Andover Community Television right now! I had a really good time and would love to do it again in the future.

Green Challenge is going well. I made a couple of green juices that were really good lately. I tried one that was just greens and it wasn't as disgusting as I thought it might be. I am also holding it down everday with some fresh salad greens that I picked up the other day. That is right...fresh local greens are starting to pop up some places!

I am really happy to be getting this blog going strong again. I look at it as a platform to advocate for healthy eating as an avenue to a more fun and enjoyable life. Please let me know of ways I can improve this corner of the World Wide Web. I appreciate any feedback you can give. My goal is to get a video up this coming week. So visit back!

Stay Positive,

Matthew

Go To Green Recipe

Hey Everyone,

How is everyone doing? I promised a green recipe a few days ago and am finally getting around to posting it. I wanted it to be something outrageously simple and involving only a few ingredients. Then it hit me...why don't I just post my "go-to green recipe." This is what I make when I need to get my greens in and I don't feel like putting the chef's hat on. I think you will find that greens are not quite as scary and hard to prepare if you give this a try.

Sauteed Greens in Garlic and Olive Oil

1 Bunch of Greens (I often use Kale or Swiss Chard...but you can mix and match)
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
2 Cloves of Garlic Minced
1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice or Vinegar

Rinse and chop up Greens. Heat Olive Oil in frying pan. Add in minced Garlic. Add in Greens and saute for five minutes. Dash on Vinegar or squeezed Lemon. Don't be afraid to mess with spices too!

Stay Positive,

Matthew

Adding stuff in is way cooler

Hi guys,

Wow! I am really surprised at how difficult this challenge is. I am four days in and almost failed twice to get in a daily green. Fortunately, throwing some Kale into my morning juice and a special delivery to work one day kept me on top. I got to say adding things in is the way to go. This to me is why many "diets" fail. They are too restrictive. They follow the "eat this, not that" paradigm and that is no fun for anyone.

As soon as you are told not to do something, the human psyche wants to do it. This is just a reality that makes being a human a wacky experience. That is one of the reasons this blog focuses on all the great stuff you can eat. There is an abundance of healthy and delicous food out there. I'd rather say "eat this, and this and this, and definitely try some of that, and you can eat as much of you want of this over here, and don't forget to try some of this too." Americans were told, not to eat fat, then we became deficient in healthy fats. Then there was the "great carb scare" and people starting consuming sugar alcohols at an alarming rate. We literally became frightened to put a fork in our mouths. I believe, you do less harm and have more fun when you concern yourself with adding healthy food in, rather than cutting certain foods out.

I am pretty confident you can eat greens til you are blue in the face and not face any dire consequences...except for maybe a blue face. Leafy green vegetables is a great "add in" to get started with. I notice people tend to notice a kind "healthy feeling" inside when they first start trying them on a regular basis. Tomorrow, I will try and post up a really good green recipe!

Stay Positive,

Matthew

The Green Challenge!

Hey Everyone,

Two months have passed since Jeff and I wrapped up the Sugar Challenge. We are glad so many of you followed us and even joined us in giving up the sweet stuff for a month. We were itching for a new challenge, so I decided to throw down a new one this Memorial Day weekend. This challenge will not be about taking something out, but rather adding something in.

The number one missing food in the American diet is green leafy vegetables. For some reason, we are just freaked out by them. Which is really a shame because they pack a powerful punch of lifegiving nutrients. Just ask Popeye! They are typically very high in calcium, magnesium, iron, potassium, phosphorous, zinc, vitamins A, C, E and K. Plus their is a list of life enhancing phyto and micronutrients a mile long that are hidden within the cell walls of these dark green nutrional superfoods.

The challenge will be to eat one serving of leafy green vegetables every day for the month of June. Jeff and I started last night with some sauteed Kale before the Bruins game. No, things like lettuce and celery do not count. These got to be those dark greens that are often used to as garnish. Here are a few examples:

Broccoli
Kale
Collard Greens
Mustard Greens
Dandelion Greens
Mesclun
Spinach
Swiss Chard
Arugula
Green and Napa Cabbage
Broccoli Rabe
Watercress

That's right the real freaky ones! Don't be scared though...here are some of the health benefits to eating green vegetables.

- Alkalizes the Blood
- Cancer Fighting properties
- Increased Blood Circulation
- Strengthens Immune System
- Fills in Nutrional Gaps for Many Common Deficiencies
- Alleviates Symptoms of Depression
- Tonifies Liver, Kidneys and Lungs
- Reduces Congestion

Over the course of this month, I will go over many of these benefits and post a ton of Green recipes. We will host this challenge over at my old blog site Positive Eating. I believe this will be fun, adding something in is way more enjoyable than taking something out. It will by no means be easy, but hey it's not easy being green.

Stay Positive,

Matthew

First Video Post!

Here is what is going on over at sugarchallenge.blogpsot.com...

Hello Everyone!

This is our first video post! This is Oscar worthy stuff, so make sure you grab some popcorn and give it a watch! Just make sure you don't eat caramel popcorn, that stuff is like crack! We like to think of ourselves as Matt Damon and Ben Affleck from Good Will Hunting, except instead of being a math genius and his scrub friend, we are Nutritional Superheroes.

Enjoy!

Taking on the Sugar Challenge

Hi Positive Eaters,

We got the new blog up and running and I just posted this introduction over there. Stop by because we got some pretty cool things going on over at

sugarchallenge.blogspot.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi there...thanks for stopping by our blog. We hope you visit often and provide support, advice and humor...we are going to need all three!

Why the sugar challenge? All of us in America are drowning in a sea of sugar. We are riding a glycemic roller coaster that leads us into a constant grab for cheap energy every step of the way. This became even more apparent to me personally when after two years of cleaning up my diet substantially, I noticed I still consumed many products that contain processed sugar. When I went a day without them, I felt nervous and/or foggy. I began to notice that even my most health conscious friends still went gaga for chocolate chip cookies and ice cream.

I was discussing this with my good friend Jeff Bartlett one night and someone blurted out that we should just give it up for a month (I am thinking that someone is me since I am prone to exaggerated overtures). That's right, go Miles Davis on this thing. So here we are taking on this radical challenge for the entertainment of you all.

Sugar is in everything from baked goods to salad dressing. The question is often raised "what will you eat then." The answer is a lot simpler than you might believe. We can eat anything that is a plant or an animal. Sure fruits and many vegetables are packed with sugar but these are natural occuring fruit sugars and/or more complex carbohydrates. Refined and processed sugars are extracted from their natural source to surge into our blood stream with a take no prisoners mentality. Here is a simple example, when someone collects sap from a tree to make maple syrup they need to cook out the sugars to get that sweet gooey substances we pour all over our waffles. Tree sap alone is not very appetizing. Fruit on the other hand glistens in the sun asking us to devour it. We go through all this chewing and we break down all this fiber as a rite of passage to the energy/sugar it provides. That is how it works if the sugar comes along with the whole package we will roll with it...if it needs to be cooked/extracted/evaporated/siphoned/crystallized out we are staying away for 30 days!

We plan on allowing one glaring exception. We will allow honey to be used as a sweetener. Honey acts, looks, behaves and tastes just like sugar and techinically is processed, in a plant called hive by a workforce called honey bees. I find this one example of nature providing a refinery for us to get quick energy. Honey will also be necessary to make breads and get us by from time to time. I know it seems cheap...but there are so many positive health claims to consuming honey, it seems silly to restrict it.

We hope that this challenge raises some awareness to some pretty important issues. Sugar consumption is linked to obesity, heart disease, certain cancers and type II diabetes. If one were to graph the rise in sugar consumption in America and the rise in occurence of these health issues, you would see the march upward in lock step with one another. Reports by the Word Health Organization show type II diabetes hitting rates of 60% among North Americans in the next 30 years. Such a future would cripple the current health care system and lower life expectancy dramatically.

This blog, like Positive Eating will stay away from the doom and gloom. We are hoping to show you how living without sugar for 30 days can be a life changing and fun experience. Let us know how you feel by posting comments or visiting our facebook pages.

Alright...Let's Ride.

Matthew

No Sugar for 30 Days!

Hello Positive Eaters,

I am excited to announce a new 30 day challenge! I will be taking it on starting tomorrow. I will be going almost the entire month of March without consuming any processed sugar of any kind. This means anything made with sugar, white sugar, brown sugar, corn syrup, brown rice syrup, organic cane sugar, agave nectar, maple syrup and other such glycemic spiking substances are out for 30 days!

This challenge is going to be even more dynamic because my good friend Jeff will be joining me. Jeff, is better known as Mr. Bartlett, a middle school health teacher by day and superhero by night. He blogs regularly at Middle School Health Esteem. He is a self proclaimed sugar junkie and trying to go clean. Jeff can get me amped to do anything so his involvement is clutch. We will be co-posting at a separate blog page as well on our own respective blogs during the challenge. Here is the new blog make sure you visit it every day...because we will be posting something eye opening, inspiring and wacky every single day. That's a promise

No Sugar Added: A 30 Day Challenge

The URL is : sugarchallenge.blogspot.com

The gist of this thing goes like this. We will be avoiding all processed and refined sugars until the evening of March 30th. That evening I will bring this whole thing crashing down by consuming birthday cake (I turn 29 on March 30th). Along the way I hope to drop some knowledge on you about the sea of sugar we are all swimming in and how awesome it feels to teach your body to burn good clean carbs for fuel rather than rely on the short range jittery junkie energy that sugar provides. Most importantly we are looking to make it fun and interesting.

I will be going into a little more detail in tomorrow's post. I just wanted to get it out there...so that my boy Bartlett remembers this is for real and to make sure you all keep me on task. Here we go!

Stay Positive,

Matthew

PS
If anyone reading this works for Starbucks....do not allow me to order a Green Tea Latte with Soy from you guys for at least 30 days. Thanks a million.

The Great Health Debate

Hi Everyone,

Were the past 6 months was awesome? I hope so, it's very cool to be writing a post right now. I came close to shutting this blog down. Over the holidays, a lot of people asked me "what's up with the blog?" and "I really miss the blog". So, here I am firing it up again. The thing is, I am a pretty multi-dimensional person and was starting to feel like one of those "intense foodie people" writing about it all the time. However, I missed writing this stuff and apparently so did a few others. So, from now on I am simply going to write about anything that inspires me.

That being said, I decided to write about today's big matchup. I am not talking about the Packers and Steelers in the Super Bowl. I am talking about Gabriel Cousens and Joseph Mercola in the Great Health Debate! That is right for the next 7 days a series of debates between leading voices in the field of nutrition will be squaring off every night. This is a result of the hard work of Kevin Gianni over at RenegadeHealth.com. The greatest thing about this event is it is free to listen to! You just need to sign up and listen to the debate within a certain time frame everyday. If you like what you hear you can purchase all the debates for an incredibly reasonable cost.

I am heading over to Ryan's today for the first edition of the fight card. We are actually forgoing the Super Bowl for this. I know that makes me sound like an obsessive foodie person right there... but I am actually huge sports fan. I am still smarting from the Patriots loss and I actually think this debate carries with it the potential for even heavier hitting action than two great NFL defenses on the field tonight. If you want to sign up there is still time. The link is below.

http://www.thegreathealthdebate.com

Stay Positive,

Matthew