Healthy Lifestyle Blog

Since my last post about my Vermont garden, I have cleared the garden and have been enjoying its bounty and the lessons learned from my weeds and neglect. As I had mentioned in the previous post, the most important lesson I learned was making an attitude adjustment. Rather than approaching the weeds with resistance, I made peace with them as I made room for better things.

Weeding the garden was a very meditative process. I took off my shoes and connected totally with the earth as I gradually cleared the area. For several days I went out early in the morning or late in the afternoon when it wasn’t too hot and enjoyed being present with my weeds. When there was only one small section left, I found that I didn’t want to finish it. It was like reading a great book that you can’t put it down, but not wanting to get to the end. So I left some weeds for the next day.

Some Diamonds (AKA Kale) in the Rough

I also learned that if we are open to accepting our weeds unconditionally, we might uncover some hidden purpose. Aside from the weeds providing shelter for insects, birds and a neighborhood cat, their shadows provided the necessary shade to allow my unattended Swiss chard to survive the dry summer heat. It was not until I removed the weeds surrounding the chard that I realized this. Within hours, the Swiss chard was totally wilted and so very sad looking. I immediately watered it hoping it would survive, but even the next day it still looked kind of droopy. Lesson learned – even the weeds in our life serve a purpose.

Saving the Swiss Chard

So I went off to the Co-op to get some boxes and apply what I learned about no-till gardening in a course I attended earlier this summer at the Omega Institute in NY. In this wonderful weekend course, called Grow Food Everywhere, instructors Deb Habib and Ricky Baruc of Seeds of Solidarity – http://www.seedsofsolidarity.org/index.html guided us through a process that involves covering an area with cardboard, adding several inches of compost, planting the plants, and ending with a layer of straw or hay mulch. The beauty of this method is that the cardboard, hay and compost will enrich the soil, and help break down the weeds and grass that were growing underneath.

Swiss Chard Before and After Mulching

So I carefully arranged cardboard around the wilted chard, hosed it down thoroughly, and then layered on some mulch that I had instead of the straw. I didn’t need to add the compost because I had done that last year and the soil in the garden was still quite rich.

My chard is happy now.  My garden is happy now. And I am happy now with my garden of weedin’.

Marilyn Chiarello, founder of A Taste of Light, is a certified raw veganchef,educator and health coach. She offers a variety of services including health coaching, classes, dinner parties, consultations and presentations. For more information, visit aTasteofLight.com or contact her directly – Marilyn@aTasteofLight.com or 516-671-7037.

If you would like to receive more recipes and a monthly newsletter including articles about health and the environment, event updates and more, please submit your email address by clicking on the link in the sign-up box at the top of the right sidebar. For notification of blog updates only, you may subscribe directly or via RSS. You may unsubscribe at any time.

It’s becoming fashionable to be green. More and more of us are becoming more aware of  ways to have less impact on the environment. We’re driving hybrid cars, using compact fluorescent bulbs, and recycling our garbage.

We don’t often think of the way we eat as a way of being “green,” yet our food choices can have a greater impact on the environment than any of the other actions we take. One way to green your diet is to eat greens!

Dark leafy green vegetables are among the healthiest foods on the planet, and some believe they should be designated as a separate food group because of their high concentration of nutrients. Sometimes called “nature’s scrub brush,” greens are an abundant source of insoluble fiber that acts like a sponge, gathering toxins from the colon and transporting them out of the body. Greens also alkalize the body, which helps prevent and reverse inflammation and disease.

Greens – Beyond Salad

For most of us, the only greens we eat on a regular basis are found in a tossed salad. Typically, these salads contain some kind of lettuce, baby greens and/or spinach. But there are many ways to enjoy your greens beyond salad.

One of the simplest ways of eating substantial amounts of greens is in a blended form. The benefit of blending greens is that they can be consumed raw, thus retaining all the nutrients and enzymes, and they are more digestible because the cellulose is broken down in the blending process.

My favorite way to get daily servings of greens is in a green smoothie. This is a delicious, nutritious way to start the day. Green smoothies typically consist of fruit, greens and a liquid. You may add other ingredients, but these are the basics.

When you are new to green smoothies, I suggest using small amounts of mildly flavored greens like romaine lettuce, spinach, kale, baby bok choy, mesclun mix, Swiss chard or collard greens. Try not to be put off by the color, especially if you add a red fruit, which will cause your green smoothie to turn brown! (Think about what happens when you mix red and green paint.) If you can’t get beyond the color, pour the smoothie into an opaque cup with a lid, and sip it with a straw. Actually this is a good way to introduce resistant children to this healthy alternative to sugar laden breakfast cereal.

Green Smoothie Smile
(to go with the green shirt and balloon!)

Here is one of an infinite number of ways to prepare a green smoothie.

Chef Marilyn’s Green Orange Julius

1 banana
1 orange – cut off peel, leaving some of the white pith
1/4 lemon, peel and seeds removed
1 – 2 medjool dates, pitted (optional)
1/2 – 1 cup water, depending on how thick you want your smoothie
small piece of ginger, peeled (optional)
large handful of coarsely chopped greens – if using kale or collards, strip the leaf off the stem

1. Place the ingredients in a blender.
   
2. Blend at the highest speed until smooth. You may add ice for extra thickness and to chill the smoothie.
3. Be sure to “chew” your smoothie – digestion begins in the mouth. Savor the flavor in your mouth for about 10 seconds before swallowing and allow the enzymes in your saliva to begin the digestive process.
   

This is just a basic recipe. You may vary the fruits based on what’s in season or personal preference. You may also add a tablespoon of ground flax seeds for a dose of omega 3s.

So green up your life with some greens!

MarilynChiarello, founder of A Taste of Light, is a certified raw vegan chef, educator and health coach. She offers a variety of services including health coaching, classes, dinner parties, consultations and presentations. For more information, visit aTasteofLight.com or contact her directly – Marilyn@aTasteofLight.com or 516-671-7037.

If you would like to receive more recipes and a monthly newsletter including articles about health and the environment, event updates and more, please submit your email address by clicking on the link in the sign-up box at the top of the right sidebar. For notification of blog updates only, you may subscribe directly or via RSS. You may unsubscribe at any time.

I have a house in Brattleboro, Vermont. I rent out two of the rooms to graduate students, and keep a room for myself. Last summer, my tenants and I planted a garden and had an abundant harvest throughout the summer and well into the late fall. I recall going there late in November, and finding kale and collards peeking through a foot of snow, still thriving, ready to be picked.

Weeding the garden always seemed to be my job, and whenever I was in Vermont, I’d spend several hours in the garden enjoying the bounty and, of course, weeding. Fortunately there was sufficient rainfall last summer that it didn’t matter that my attempts to hook up an irrigation system failed. The garden thrived anyway.

This year everything was different. Things got in the way. I wasn’t able to clear my cluttered calendar to spend time in Vermont at all except for couple of days during Memorial Day weekend. I purchased some seedlings at the Brattleboro Farmer’s Market and planted them among some of the tomatoes and basil my tenants had planted.

Eight weeks later I returned for a weekend. When I saw my garden for the first time in almost 2 months, I was aghast! The weeds had grown to new heights, surpassed only by a few sunflowers that emerged from seeds dispersed last year. All I could see were the weeds… unwanted, invasive, overwhelming.

My Garden One Year Later

July 22, 2010

I was paralyzed. I resisted. I couldn’t imagine how much time and effort it would take to clear the weeds. I couldn’t even recognize the beauty of nature’s life force.

After lamenting about my negligence, about the drought, and about the hardiness of the weeds in the hot dry summer, I realized that I needed an attitude adjustment. It was time to embrace the weeds.

I went back to examine my garden. Making my way through my backyard jungle, I discovered some gems in the weed clutter – lettuce, Swiss chard, tomatoes, basil, leeks, kale – that not only survived but were thriving in spite of the neglect.

So I sat down in the delicious breeze and rested my eyes on my Garden of Weedin’. It actually started to look beautiful as I released the resistance, inner conflict and guilt, and began to embrace the weeds. With this attitude adjustment, I began to see the weeds as a metaphor for my own need for finding clarity amid my internal clutter and resistance.

Sometimes all it takes to make the weeds in our lives more tolerable is acceptance. By accepting their existence and embracing their life force, we can then release the resistance and no longer feel paralyzed by their presence.

Marilyn Chiarello, founder of A Taste of Light, is a certified raw vegan chef,educator and health coach. She offers a variety of services including health coaching, classes, dinner parties, consultations and presentations. For more information, visit aTasteofLight.com or contact her directly – Marilyn@aTasteofLight.com or 516-671-7037.

If you would like to receive more recipes and a monthly newsletter including articles about health and the environment, event updates and more, please submit your email address by clicking on the link in the sign-up box at the top of the right sidebar. For notification of blog updates only, you may subscribe directly or via RSS. You may unsubscribe at any time.

I just received an email from MoveOn.org. It began like this:

“Dear Marilyn,

You can’t make this stuff up. The economy is in shambles, unemployment is at record levels and home foreclosures are soaring. Congress can’t get it together to act on these issues. But there’s growing momentum in Washington to—wait for it—slash Social Security?”

So of course I went online to sign the petition. Every chance I get, I remind my government representatives that I would like to see an end to government subsidies for an unsustainable industry that is responsible for so many of our environmental and health issues today. I don’t even mention my belief that if we stopped commodifying, enslaving and slaughtering sentient beings, we just might usher in an age of world peace. Here is what I wrote in response to this Social Security crisis:

Many of us worked hard all our lives, contributing a large percentage of our earnings to the system. Many of us work hard to make ends meet, build a pension fund, and are counting on receiving our fair share of Social Security when eligible.

How is it that the government has no problem subsidizing an industry that is the biggest contributor to climate change AND is the underlying cause of many of the health issues in our nation? I’m talking about the meat and dairy industries. And how is it that our elected officials can even CONSIDER cutting Social Security benefits when there are so many senior citizens living at the poverty level already?

My tax dollars are subsidizing the production of grain for animal feed, land grants for raising livestock and granting water rights to an industry that accounts for more than 8% of the global water use. This is absolutely unsustainable and incomprehensible. If the government needs the money, use the money allocated to subsidies and leave Social Security be. Get your priorities straight!

Allow the cost of meat and dairy to truly reflect the impact of the livestock industry on our air, water and land, as well as the health of Americans. Doing so will likely result in reduced consumption and a welcome reversal of the environmental and health problems the livestock industry causes.

If you would like to sign the petition, follow this link to the appropriate page of the MoveOn.org website.

OK. I admit it. I watch the Food Network from time to time, and am kind of hooked on the program, Chopped, a three-round elimination competition among 4 chefs who prepare 3 courses using ingredients provided in a mystery basket. I never seen a basket that had all vegan ingredients (except an occasional dessert basket). I wish there was a vegan version of this show… better yet, a RAW vegan version.

Unfortunately, most television shows about food focus  on competition between chefs, recipes for less than healthy meals, and/or food that comes from a plant (as in industrial plant, not the green kind). There was one recent exception, however. Food Revolution, which aired on prime time network TV, featured the work of Jamie Oliver, a British chef and recipient of a TED award. His project was to take on the school lunch program in Huntington, West Virginia, cited as the unhealthiest town in the US.  But the show was aired only for a few weeks, and I wonder if there will be any follow up to the work that he did.

Well, I just learned about a new 13-part documentary series that is in the making, called,  “Food Forward.” As described on the program website,

“Food Forward goes beyond celebrity chefs, cooking competitions, and recipes to reveal the compelling stories and inspired solutions envisioned by food heroes across America who are striving to create a more just, sustainable and delicious alternative to what we eat and how we produce it.”

The following video clip below is a segment from an episode on biodynamic agriculture featuring innovative chef David Kinch:

The creators of this documentary series are currently working hard to raise $125,000 to shoot their pilot episode. KQED in San Francisco has agreed to present Food Forward nationally on PBS upon successful completion of the pilot episode, which features urban agriculture in America.

Here is a trailer for the series:

For more information about this project or to donate to the completion of the pilot, please visit the Food Forward website.

Marilyn Chiarello, founder of A Taste of Light, is a certified raw vegan chef, educator and health coach. She offers a variety of services including health coaching, classes, dinner parties, consultations and presentations. For more information, visit aTasteofLight.com or contact her directly – Marilyn@aTasteofLight.com or 516-671-7037.

If you would like to receive more recipes and a monthly newsletter including articles about health and the environment, event updates and more, please submit your email address by clicking on the link in the sign-up box at the top of the right sidebar. For notification of blog updates only, you may subscribe directly or via RSS. You may unsubscribe at any time.

For me, the most difficult food to eliminate when I became vegan was cheese. Throughout many of the years I was vegetarian, I believed that dairy was OK because the cows weren’t killed for it, and that it was an excellent source of calcium. And i just LOVED cheese, and couldn’t imagine living without it. It was years later that I became aware of the suffering dairy cows endure as milk-producing commodities.

As children we are taught that contented cows graze all day and give us milk. Not really true.

• The milk they produce is taken (stolen is probably the more appropriate word) from them at a great cost to the cows.They are kept in a constant cycle of pregnancy through artificial insemination and lactation and never experience the joy of caring for their young. Imagine being constantly pregnant or lactating, and never having a chance to nurture your baby!
• Cows are typically fed a diet that is unnatural – they are meant to graze, that is, eat grass. Instead, most dairy cows are fed grain which wreaks havoc in the stomach, requiring the consistent use of antibiotics.

• Their udders are often infected and a source of much pain. The udder infection (mastitis) results in pus in the milk. The dairy industry has developed a system known as the “somatic cell count” to measure the amount of pus in the milk, and milk with a count of 200 million per liter is not considered safe for the human food supply. The national average is 332 million per liter. Got Milk?… Got Pus?
• The life expectancy of dairy cows is shortened by 80% – dairy cows are “spent” (no longer producing enough milk to be cost effective) and slaughtered after 4 years, while their natural life expectancy is 20 years or more.

But I digress… What about being addicted to cheese? All animal milk contains a protein called casein which breaks down during digestion to release a host of opiates called casomorphins. So when people say they are addicted to cheese, they actually ARE! It is believed that the opiates in milk produces a calming effect on the infant, ensuring bonding and continued nursing so the baby gets all the nutrients it needs.

So now that you realize that you’re actually addicted to cheese (or yogurt or ice cream or milk – you name it), and simply can’t give it up yet, what about just making sure that the milk is organic and comes from happy cows? OK, that’s a bit better than conventionally produced dairy, but there are four points that you should check into before believing the media produced images of contented cows raised on bucolic farms:

• Do the cows eat grass only, or are they fed organic feed (grain)? Cows are fed grain for weight gain, so they produce more milk, and/or because there isn’t enough space for grazing. Grain is unnatural and results in chronic digestive problems.
• What happens to the baby calves? Calves are usually taken from their mothers within a few days after their birth, an extremely traumatizing experience for both mother and newborn. The grief stricken mother cow calls for her calf for days. Heartbreaking. This is done so the calf doesn’t drink the milk that is its birthright.

• What is done with the male calves? Male animals don’t produce milk, so about half the calves born on dairy farms are sold to be crated and raised for veal, only to be slaughtered several months later.

• What happens when the cow’s milk production decreases? Most dairy cows are slaughtered at age 4, when production slows down. It is rare to find a diary farm that allows “spent” cows to live their life until they die naturally.

If you are still feeling OK with the unnatural consumption of a product that is meant to turn an 80-lb. calf into an 800-lb. cow (humans are the only mammals on earth that drink the milk of another species after being weaned), then consider the health implications. In The China Study, T. Colin Campbell discovered a clear correlation between the consumption of animal protein and incidences of the what he calls the “diseases of affluence” – cancer, heart disease, and diabetes. He also cites studies that show that increases in the consumption of casein result in increased tumor development.

So how do you break your addiction? I did it cold turkey. I realized that I had “arrived” when I was at an event where there was a buffet with a huge cheese platter decorated with strawberries. None of the other food on the buffet was vegan, not even the salad! so I parked myself besicde the cheese platter and ate strawberries! I actually wasn’t even tempted to have a taste of cheese. This was about 3 weeks after totally eliminating dairy from my diet.

For me it was most helpful to repeat to myself, “I don’t eat that.”  Somehow saying, “I DON”T eat ____” is much more empowering than saying “I can’t.” It indicates personal choice and has supported me every time I am bombarded with all the unhealthy choices that are found in the supermarket, deli or rest stops when traveling. Of course planning ahead helps. More about that in another post.

Marilyn Chiarello, founder of A Taste of Light, is a certified raw vegan chef,educator and health coach. She offers a variety of services including health coaching, classes, dinner parties, consultations and presentations. For more information,visit aTasteofLight.com or contact her directly – Marilyn@aTasteofLight.com or 516-671-7037.

If you would like to receive more recipes and a monthly newsletter including articles about health and the environment, event updates and more, please submit your email address in the sign-up box is at the top of the right sidebar. For notification of blog updates only, complete the second box. You may unsubscribe at any time.