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
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
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
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
Saturday, June 4, 2011
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
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
Thursday, June 2, 2011
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
Thursday, March 3, 2011
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!
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!
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
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
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
Monday, February 28, 2011
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.
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.
Sunday, February 6, 2011
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
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
Monday, August 16, 2010
Feel the Force Flowing Through You
Hello Positive Eaters,
It is nice to be posting again. I just finished up what proved to be, quite literally, a weekend on the run. After a nice long day at the Boston Sports Club in Andover, I got into my Nissan Cube and drove out to my old stomping grounds in Fitchburg Massachusetts. I was to spend the evening at my teammate Jamie Aubuchon's house. His house was about halfway to Shelburne Falls, which is the site of the infamous Bridge of Flowers 10k, I was registered to compete in on Saturday morning.
Crashing at Jamie Aubuchon's to me, was the equivalent of Luke going to Obi Wan Kenobi's hideaway in A New Hope. Jamie, is the person responsible for teaching me the "force" or in other words getting speed into the legs of a gangly 19 year old Matthew Germain. Jamie to this day competes in track and field competitions, specializing in the Pentathlon and middle distance events. He can get on a track and roast anybody on any given day. His body seems to refuse to accept the ravages of age and he patiently continues to rear the talents (or lack thereof) of the young runners at Fitchburg State College.
I spent the evening with him and his son Ethan. What is remarkable is Jamie's conversational style and approach changed very little around his 10 year old son. He seemlessly brought him into our conversation and Ethan and I both enjoyed listening to his present day war stories at a recent series of track meets in Worcester. Ethan is of course the best runner on his football team, and it is probably only a matter of time until he sees the light and becomes a runner himself. Jamie of course sits patiently in the stands watching his son at every football practice. I wonder if he is waiting for the day the pads come off and his son learns that he can fly down the track with a speed and force that you are either born with or learn to develop through the mentoring of a great coach such as Jamie.
The next morning I slowly ate a bowl of Hemp Plus Granola, topped with bananas and slipped out of Obe Won's cavern. Shelburne Falls was still an hours ride and I needed to be ready for any of the twists and turns that the forgotten highways that penetrate Western Massachusetts can throw at you. This race was to be an experience. I put aside any concerns with time and place and just went out there to soak in every moment of this truly challenging event. After evenly splitting the first two miles, we were sent up Crittenden Hill Road, a portion of pavement that is legendary amongst New England running folklore. You are sent a mile up a steep and switchbacking beast of a hill. Your pace slows to almost a trot as you muster up any strength you can find to put one foot in front of the other. After this, well it is pretty much off to the races as the course sends you hurtling down hill mostly for the next 3.2 miles. I must say it was an easy ride, all that I needed to do was open my stride up and let myself go.
After the race, I was happy to see that the post race refreshment consisted of fruit, organic granola bars and veggie burgers. Thanks to the forward thinking race directors I did not need to stop for lunch on the way home. When I got home, a strong urge to go running again took hold of me. I kept pushing it aside...but it kept coming back. I finally suited up and went out for an evening five mile jaunt. The next morning I arose and headed out the door to meet up with my teammates for our typical Sunday morning long run. I showed up and noticed I was the only one in the parking lot. So off I went, just me and my running crazed self. I did my typical 12.6 mile loop and then just kept going. I ran through the trails at Winnekenni park and back out onto the streets...I kept going and going and going. I ended up running 16.6 miles and wanted even more.
I was able to get a hold of myself and head home for a well deserved lunch.
That afternoon, I went to Plum Island to soak my legs in the cold ocean water. The surf was strong and what felt like such a strong frame on the land suddenly became fragile as swell after swell lifted me and through me wherever it wished. I was even sent hurtling onto the sand from one particularly strong wave. A couple of teenagers who were bobbing up and down ever so cooly and riding wave after wave, commented on how well I "rode the wave", I laughed and assured them that the wave just had its way with me. We laughed and I dove into the water several times before returning to the land to dry myself off.
Walking along the sand, I was thinking about our perceptions of inner strength. Several beach goers swam amongst the churning surf with little or no concern about the massive force the ocean can exert on their tiny bodies. Often, people gawk and make comments like "I would be lucky to run 16 feet" when I tell them about my running exploits. When I am running I take little note or care about the forces gravity is exerting on my musco-skeletal system. Forces equal to 2-4 times by body weight repeatedly impart themselves on my joints, ligaments, bones and muscles. I fling myself throughout space and allow myself to float along with gravity as if nothing truly remarkable is going on. As if the forces that are "having their way with me" are natural and not distressing at all. It seems as if feats of strength and will require either an ignorance or a passive dismissal of the truly overpowering forces of nature.
I thought about my compulsion this weekend to keep feeling my body move through space. I realized there was a certain relief associated with every step. I believe a certain surrendering to the force cultivates a cooperation and respect that allows us to accept these forces as they come at us. We know it is impossible to fight it so we simply go with it. We even sometimes become intoxicated by it.
People I work with often see themselves as failures when they fall victim to a craving or a need to eat. The forces that push us to eat are completely natural and necessary. Our attempts to resist them only knock us over. Being human means accepting we need to satiate our hunger, whenever possible. The old model of dieting involved restrticting our meals, portion sizes and calorie counts. This process certainly will work, but I believe it involves fighting against a force rather than cooperating with it. One reason, I started this blog was to show people that eating healthy can be fun and stress free. Let's accept that we need to eat and then put all sorts of awesome stuff into us.
I started this post wondering if I was going to write about food at all. Interestingly, enough here we are. I challenge you to accept and cooperate with any of the innate natural forces in your life this week. Nature provided them to power our lives not wipe us out. Obe Won would say, "may the force be with you," Jamie would say "he wants to play football so I take him to football practice"...I might say "positively eat until you feel so nourished that your insides smile."
Stay Positive,
Matthew
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Finally Found a Chaga Mushroom!
^
Positive Eaters!
^
Above is the wild mushroom known as Chaga! I started searching for this superfood after Ryan returned from a seminar with David Wolfe at Kripalu in May. He came back with stories of this mushroom you could find growing on birch trees in the woods that possessed an ORAC rating higher than Cacao. So off I went into the woods, bushwacking and staring up and down at birch trees of every shape and size. I also started to research this magical mushroom (that does not cause you to hallucinate so don't get too excited). I also wanted to make sure I went about this safely and successfully.
^
Chaga is a parasitic fungus (I know you just read parasite and are thinking I finally went completely crazy, not to fear I did my research) that infects primarily birch trees. Accounts of this mushroom being used in traditional medicine date back to the 16th century in Russia. The mushroom gained substantially more attention when a Russian author wrote a book called Cancer Ward. In this fictional book, (that is often thought to be an autobiographical account of the author's own battle and recovery from cancer) the main character discusses the use of Chaga to help treat his case of cancer.
^
Recent studies are starting to back up these claims. Scientists in Russia, Finland and South Korea located something called betulinic acid in Chaga mushrooms. When the acid was applied to tumors in vitro they brought about anti-melanomic activity, in other words stopped the growth of tumors. Later studies showed it can also produce apoptosis, the killing of cancer cells. Human and animal trials still need to be conducted (which always makes me laugh because humans have already been using it for 400 years, they should just go study those people).
^
The anti-tumor thing is certainly exciting. However, chaga is also know to be anti-inflammatory, immune stimulating, a pain reliever and effective in the treatment of ulcers. As I stated earlier, tests for antioxidant content on Chaga specimens reach well over 1000. To give you a reference point, blueberries are often touted for there high antioxidant content...your best batch of blueberries might get you into the 200's.
^
The craziest thing about finding my first Chaga mushroom is where I found it. I searched high and low and deep into forests for these things and I end up finding it three miles from where I live. I dropped my car off at the mechanic to get some routine service done and was about to go out for a run. I walked over to a grassy spot near a housing development and looked up into this birch tree that abuts the property and lo and behold there was this burnt charcoaly mushroom. The process now will be drying it and breaking it up into a powder to make a tea. I will let you know how that goes.
^
*Disclaimer: definitely study these things well if you go searching for one...they really are unmistakable in the way they look...still I don't want anyone ending up in a hospital or going on a three day halluconegenic trip because you made a tea out of the wrong mushroom. Best resource on finding and harvesting chaga mushrooms that I found was this guy, Daniel Vitalis, check out his website and videos if you are interested in Chaga.
^
Stay Positive,
^
Matthew
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
