Author Archives: OrganicEater

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About OrganicEater

organiceater.com

I’m doing this! Ahh!

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I finally sat down and wrote out my “services available” portion of the blog, entitled How I Can Help You, and I wanted you (the faithful followers) to know the page is there should you ever need it. I’m finally ready to start implementing a game plan to help others eat more real food. It will be fun, but sometimes it’s out of my comfort zone to tell people what they need to do (I’m much better at listening and writing), so this will be a challenge for me moving into the fall….

Now that summer is winding down, and the kids will be heading back to school, I have about one million OE posts in my head, just waiting to be written and shared with you! Don’t be surprised this fall if you get more than one post in a day!:) I have been reading and watching the most exciting food news ever, and can’t wait to share all the goodness with you OE readers! I will also be at the Whole Foods grand opening (our first!) in Charlotte in a few weeks, so that should be fun! And I am praying all the details work out for a trip to the Natural Foods Expo East in September!! We’ll see! I’m like a kid on Christmas Eve just THINKING about the possibility of going to that!

If you want to keep up with OE more frequently, I am on Instagram almost daily, with pictures of OE foods & recipes and kitchen tips (and sometimes just random stuff). It’s a fast and easy follow there on IG, and fun to look at picture feeds. My Instagram updates are automatically sent to my OE Twitter account and OE Facebook page, so you can find them there too.

Thanks for following my blog and for all your comments and support here! I really appreciate you, more than you will ever know!

Encouraging Health,

Organic Eater

I’ve been mentioned on the TameryStafford vlog:)

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My friend Tamery Stafford has a (gorgeous!) video blog that incorporates Biblical teachings for moms juggling all that life throws their way. She has also done extensive study in the Jewish traditions of the Old Testament, which always fascinates me.  She vlogs about the very practical day to day life skills needed to raise your family, and several of her recent posts have been about healthy eating! Yay! Those posts are called “Box to Basket”, an 8 week experiment in trying to prepare healthier food for her family. I’m so excited for her to be doing this! She was gracious enough to say some really nice things about me and Organic Eater in a recent video, so I’m sharing it with you! Enjoy! You can also visit her vlog at www.tamerystafford.com. Congrats Tamery! Keep up the good work!

If you’re making strides toward healthier eating for your familily, I’d love to hear about your story too! Please leave a comment!

Encouraging Health,

OrganicEater

Healthy Fats

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Since I refer to “healthy fats” so often, I thought it best to have a page that lists some of the information I have used in researching healthy fats. I encourage you do to the same for yourself! Like all my other posts, I make my own deductions (using critical thinking) and my personal experiences. This is what’s working for me.

Here are 4 (of many) links to why I believe in healthy fats!

My favorite is from Balanced Bites because it’s pretty (eye catching and interesting!) and has a print out if you want to post it in your kitchen

Gary Taubes, NY Times

Dr. Mercola website is filled with posts on healthy fats

Dr. Josh Axe has a video if you would rather watch a video instead

WARNING: The information above will go against everything you’ve heard for the last 30 years about saturated fats.

The main fats I use in cooking are coconut oil (virgin, unrefined, organic) and real butter (grassfed KerryGold brand or any brand of organic). I use lots of extra virgin, first cold pressed olive oil, but rarely cook with it. Grapeseed oil is another one I have used in the past because it has a high smoke point, but my latest readings indicate it’s important to use organic, since grapes are often grown with many pesticides. Organic grapeseed oil is hard to find, so I’m sticking with the other two for now. Those work well for me, and I feel confident using oils that have been used for so many years around the world, but as always, if new information becomes available I will re-evaluate at that time.

Encouraging Health,

OrganicEater

The death of ice cream. link to the Fervant Foodie.

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I’m sending this link (below) to you readers for a couple of reasons. I love supporting other food bloggers (especially a fellow Charlottean), AND I agree with her on this whole yogurt craze. Do NOT fool yourself into thinking that eating a fro-yo is healthy. It is a TREAT. It should be rarely eaten (if ever, some cannot consume dairy at all) in an amount/frequency that meets your specific life health goals. Yes, there are some good bacteria in there, which may possibly make it a little healthier than ice cream, but that’s only if you’re eating it PLAIN. If you put all that crap on top of it, you’ve essentially destroyed the reason for eating a “healthier” yogurt. And all of it (yogurt and ice cream) is pasteurized, so it’s basically dead food anyway, because it’s been heated to such high temps (again, the yogurt does have some good stuff added back in, so there’s a slight advantage there). And let’s talk about the fat. I have no problem with fat. We need fat to live. Google Dr. Pompa, Dr. Josh Axe, Dr. Mercola, or Maximized Living (and many others) websites to get all the latest info on how fat is healthy and which ones to definitely avoid (trans fats and vegetable oils! I have GOT to do a post on that subject next!) Lastly, let’s talk about the sugar. Both of these choices have plenty of it, even “plain” yogurt or vanilla ice-cream. And that’s the biggest problem I have with this whole scenario. The negative effects of the sugar (in my opinion) outweigh the benefits you may have gotten from eating the good bacteria in the frozen yogurt. For “sorbet” that’s sometimes at Fro-yo places, it may be a good option for those who can’t tolerate dairy, but it probably still has a lot of sugar. Read ingredients! “Treat yoself” with either of them, but don’t have either of them too often.

Sorry if this ruined it for you fro-yo fans! You can just un-follow the blog now if you need to…… 🙂 but I hope you won’t! Maybe you could just check out my sorbet recipe instead!

Thanks for this post, Mary, the Fervant Foodie! I am totally with you on this!! The death of ice cream.

and here’s a Dr. Oz video about the  same thing!  one small vanilla (only filled to the brim of a small cup w NO toppings) has 20g of sugar, about as much as 4 chocolate chip cookies or a cupcake with icing. On my Instagram feed I have a picture of the nutrition label/brochure on a vanilla tcby with NO toppings. One-half cup is the serving size and it has 16g of sugar in one tiny half cup. 16g of sugar is 4 teaspoons. Measure it out and you’ll see it’s a LOT for such a tiny amount of yogurt. There is also a form of propylene glycol in the ingredients. Please read labels and be aware of what you’re putting in your body and giving to your kids! I am going to read the nutritional info at Yoforia (organic yogurt used there) and see if theirs is any healthier. I will keep you posted…  Let me know what you find out by reading the fro yo ingredients!!

Encouraging Health,

OrganicEater

PS: my friend Kim just gave me a great idea on this: fill your cup with fresh fruit instead (not the sugar coated kind) and just put a lil frozen treat on top. Brilliant.

My “yum” is not your “yum”!

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I want to share an idea with the newbies-to-real-food. My “YUM” is not likely going to be your “YUM”, not yet anyway. When I tell you a recipe is “delicious”, you may not think so (yet). It takes a few weeks of earnest work to detox off sugar and processed foods. I’m a Southerner and I even gave up sweet tea!!! It wasn’t easy, but it’s so worth it now that I’m on the other side and in control of my eating-life, because all that sugar and junk doesn’t control me anymore!

My tastes in food have changed A LOT since eating this #lowcraplifestyle way. Once I got over the sugar detox hump, it’s been much easier to enjoy healthy, real, unprocessed foods. I think sugar and corn syrup and too many processed foods mess up your taste buds.  There probably IS a study of some kind, to back me up on that, I just need to take the time to research it. **UPDATE 10-3-12: HERE IS A LINK TO A BLOG POST AND A BOOK THAT WILL TELL YOU EXACTLY WHAT THOSE LABS ARE DOING TO MAKE US ADDICTED.** I thoroughly enjoy (even crave!) food that I probably would not have enjoyed before detoxing. The longer I stay away from processed junk, the less I want it. Truly. The thought of some of the foods I used to love, actually disgusts me now. For example, almond meal bread and gluten-free breads took some getting used to, now I love them and never want regular sandwich bread.  I’m not saying I never eat anything unhealthy. I treat myself almost every week, but it’s always REAL food that I treat/cheat with, and I never want the fake processed stuff anymore because my body detoxed off the craving for sugar and msg, etc. You can too. Yes you can.

All this to say, if you are making an effort to change your eating, and you try  healthy recipes and don’t like them, don’t give up. Keep trying until your taste buds have adjusted. And your taste buds adjust to the “new normal” the longer you stay away from the processed stuff and sugar. I’m not saying you’re gonna love beets. I’m just saying it may take some time to switch your taste buds on to the truly good stuff, so hang in there. Your tongue has been fooled by chemicals made in a lab for too long.  Yes, scientists actually work hard in a lab making sure your tongue is going to like what their factory is producing. Update 12-7-12: here is a link to the Bruce Bradley blog that has a video about   flavorings in food, and how “Big Food” companies try to create addictions to foods/flavors. If you eat, or if you feed anyone, (yes, this statement includes everyone in the world) YOU SHOULD WATCH THAT VIDEO AND EDUCATE YOURSELF ON STORE-BOUGHT FOOD.

Please don’t give up before you reach the other side! You were made for SO MUCH MORE than what a lab could create for you. You were made for what an amazing God could design, with all the colors and tastes and healthy nutritional goodness that are waiting on you to enjoy and be nourished by! Be patient and take baby steps, but keep going. You’ll get there.  If you fall back, don’t beat yourself up, just keep moving ahead into your New24,  and someday you too will be able to look back and encourage someone else by saying, “hang in there. It gets better” …and maybe we’ll be saying “yum” to the same things!:)

Encouraging Health,

Organic Eater

Please see my Organic Eater Code if you are struggling in this area and need some verses for encouragement!