‘Medical Food’

Posted in Cancer Fighting Diet, Liquid Nutrition by Administrator
Dec 17 2009
TrackBack Address.

EnsureIf you’ve read Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food, per my recommendation or otherwise, you’ll know this about what is considered FOOD:

  1. Don’t eat anything your great grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food.
  2. Don’t eat anything incapable of rotting.
  3. Avoid "food products" that are
a.   Unfamiliar
b.   Unpronounceable
c.   Contain more than five ingredients or
d.   Contain high fructose corn syrup
 
I strongly support all of these statements by Mr. Pollan and would like to point out that many “Medical Foods” prescribed for gravely ill patients or those battling life threatening diseases don’t satisfy one of Mr. Pollan’s well researched criteria of what food is.
 
These so called Medical Foods will indeed provide calories, but these “non-foods” as Mr. Pollan would call them, are in large part responsible for our state of disease in the first place! 
 
Calories from Medical Food may keep us alive a little longer, but what is absolutely needed to heal and thrive is the complex nutrition that only WHOLE FOODS can provide.
 
If you or a loved one has been prescribed this type of liquid nutrition for medical reasons, please PLEASE, research your (whole food) options. Visit The Holistic Kitchen.com for ideas.  Send us questions. Read our post entitled Making the Most of a Smoothie.
 
Here’s to your health!
Chef Nancy

 

 

  • Share/Bookmark
2 Comments »
Tagged as: Cancer Nutrition, Healing Foods, Healing Smoothies, Healthy Drinks, Liquid Nourishment, Liquid Nutrition, Whole Foods

Making the most of a smoothie

Posted in Cancer Fighting Diet by Administrator
Oct 22 2009
TrackBack Address.

 

 The great thing about liquid nutrition is that you can blend in all sorts of crazy nourishing things and still feel like you’re drinking a fun treat! If you pack a lot of nutrition in, a little bit can be very sustaining for one whose appetite is compromised. AND it allows you to take advantage of raw foods that are easily digested and available for the body to put to work, right away.

 
The trick is in the equipment, from the blender to the glass you serve it in.
 
I love the Vita Mix blender. It will completely puree whole foods to smooth as silk, without having to remove the skin or fibrous parts. You get everything nature intended using a Vita Mix blender.
 
For example, place a cup of water and 1/4 cup of almonds in a Vita Mix and in about a minute, you have your own homemade almond milk. Now add one half of a washed, organic apple (remove stem and quarter it first, but definitely use the core). Blend it up! Let’s get some green protein in there – how about a generous handful of organic, washed baby spinach.  Toss in a teaspoon of bee pollen or royal jelly for a protein boost that offers B-12 too.
 
“But wait, that’s not all!” Don’t forget a heaping scoop of your favorite Micro Algae blend (I like the Green Vibrance powder from Vibrant Health – it is loaded with micro algae, probiotics, and enzymes, to name a few, and all from whole foods).
 
And then, some Omega 3 fatty acids: 1 tablespoon of whole flax seeds. Need to add some weight to your skeleton? Add ½ an avocado and/or a tablespoon of organic coconut butter or cold pressed virgin coconut oil. A note about these last three alternatives: The avocado will add creaminess and may increase the thickness of the drink, so you may need to add more water. The coconut butter or oil may harden if chilled from ice cubes or frozen fruit, but the Vita Mix action will warm it.)
 
Okay, so now we have to make it TASTE GOOD and get some colorful items for a balance of nutrients and antioxidants. I happen to prefer raspberries, myself, but you can put your favorite colorful berries in – fresh or frozen (just be sure they are organic). The berries will add some sweetness, but you may want more. You can try a 1-2 drops of liquid Stevia (a tiny bit goes a loooong way!) or a squirt of organic raw Agave nectar.
 
Once you have perfected your blend, transfer it to a beautiful glass and viola! A frothy treat that is meal in a glass.
 
Have fun experimenting with the fruits and vegetables you use. Mix them up (ha!) so you are getting a wide array of all the vitamins, minerals and other essential nutrients. Think of trying to achieve a rainbow of nutrition throughout your day.
 
Happy blending!
Chef Nancy

 

 

  • Share/Bookmark
No Comments yet »
Tagged as: Cancer Diet, Cancer Fighting Foods, Cancer Nutrition, Healing Smoothies, Healthy Drinks, Liquid Nourishment, Liquid Nutrition, Whole Foods

Cancer Diet and Fruit

Posted in Cancer Fighting Diet by Administrator
Sep 29 2009
TrackBack Address.

Often times, cancer patients are told by their physicians to be careful how much fruit they consume, due to its sugar content and potential to spike the glucose, resulting in higher levels of insulin growth factor hormones.

According to Jennifer Murray, "Eating a low GL-diet does not mean giving up good-for-you foods such as fruits and vegetables".

Murray further reports:

"Even though many fruits have a moderate to high GL count due to their high sugar content, it’s unlikely that one would eat enough to spike blood sugar levels the way even small amounts of processed carbs will. There are many fruits that are very low in GL and have little impact on blood sugar."

"A low-GL value is considered 10 or less, and one 4-ounce serving of the following fruits all have a GL value of less than 10":

  • Fresh apricots
  • Avocado
  • Blackberries
  • Cantaloupe
  • Fresh cherries
  • Grapefruit
  • Grapes
  • Honeydew
  • Kiwi
  • Lemon
  • Mandarins
  • Nectarines
  • Oranges
  • Raspberries
  • Fresh watermelon

 

  • Share/Bookmark
1 Comment »
Tagged as: Cancer Diet, Cancer Fighting Foods, Cancer Nutrition, Whole Foods

Press Release

Posted in News by Administrator
Sep 14 2009
TrackBack Address.

 

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
 
Contact: Nancy Banner
480-215-8864
 
The Holistic Kitchen Launches Expanded Services
 
Mesa, Arizona. September 14, 2009. The Holistic Kitchen, a personal chef service offering healthy meals for cancer patients in the East Valley, is expanding to help meet the needs of people with special dietary concerns.
 
Founded in 2008 by Nancy Banner, The Holistic Kitchen’s goal was to help individuals understand the relationship between a diet of wholesome nourishment and physical and emotional well-being. Chef Banner focused on teaching patients undergoing or recovering from cancer treatment how to nourish themselves and use food to rebuild strength and immunity.
 
The Holistic Kitchen currently offers training and meal service for cancer patients across the Valley as well as others who are adapting to or living with special or restrictive diets. Customized menus can be prepared for those with a wide range of needs, including gluten-free, dairy-free and/or sugar-free diets, multiple food allergies, candida/fibromyalgia and vegan/vegetarian/living food diets.
 
“I am passionate about helping the critically ill find comfort and healthy nourishment in food due to the staggering numbers that lose their battle to malnutrition, not their disease! We are expanding to include other types of special diets because trying to change one’s eating habits can be an overwhelming process. Our service manages the details, makes the appropriate nutrition taste good and gives the individual an opportunity to develop their palate to a new way of eating.”
 
A detailed questionnaire is used to tailor meals to each client’s unique needs. A chef from The Holistic Kitchen the custom designs a menu, does the grocery shopping, prepares meals in the client’s kitchen, packages them with heating instructions and cleans up. Weekly, monthly and “as needed” plans are available.
 
Chef Banner is a 1995 graduate of the Scottsdale Culinary Institute. She has devoted most of her life to the study of nutrition and how it can be used to promote optimal health. She is formalizing her studies in Nutritional Counseling with the Global College of Natural Medicine. 
 
Chef Banner is assisted by Sandy Liberman, a recent graduate of the Arizona Culinary Institute, whose focus was nutrition and special diets.
 
To learn more about The Holistic Kitchen, or to schedule a cook date, call 480.215.8864, email info@theholistickitchen.com or visit www.theholistickitchen.com.

 

 

  • Share/Bookmark
No Comments yet »
Tagged as: Cancer Fighting Foods, Cancer Nutrition, Customized Meal Service

Whole Foods v. Convenience

Posted in Whole Foods by Administrator
Jul 30 2009
TrackBack Address.

I believe that the state of health in this great country boils down to one word and one word only:

CONVENIENCE.

We are a nation that has embraced convenience in our food supply at an ever increasing rate since WWII. In every way, this has had a negative impact on our health. From the way food is grown and packaged to the way we are treated when we’re sick, it’s all for the sake of speed – growing faster, spending less time in the kitchen and getting over the symptoms of illness as quickly as possible.

As a result, our convenient food is loaded with chemicals to preserve it, speed growth, inhibit natural selection, and make sure it looks healthy on the shelf. Then, as if that isn’t bad enough, much of it comes packaged in plastic that has been in the freezer and is tossed in the microwave. Frequently, the types of plastic used in convenience food packaging is not a high grade plastic and in great likelihood may be leaching Bisphenol A (BPA) into our foods both during freezing and heating. The effects of this compound in our food and bodies has been linked to hormonal cancers and insulin resistance, just for starters.

So what’s the answer?

Get back to basics. Slow down. Make time to prepare foods from scratch, using fresh, whole foods. Make it a family activity – quality time together creating foods to enjoy over the next week, stored in glass containers. Make the shopping trip an event too – teaching your kids what to look for in the store and on food labels is an irreplaceable life lesson. The time you spend will pay off in lower healthcare costs!

Don’t know your way around the kitchen? There are plenty of options available today to learn. Get your girlfriends together for a day, batch cook together under the instruction of the one who knows how to cook, divvy it all up and viola! A fun day and meals for the week!

OR you could hire a Personal Chef to do it all for you, for the same cost as dining out in a quality restaurant, without ever leaving home.

The bottom line is that we can help ourselves avoid disease by avoiding convenience! Yes, of course there are tradeoffs. But if you are already ill, your remaining quality of life and chances of survival will be much greater if you go back to an unprocessed, whole foods diet.

Stay tuned – The Holistic Kitchen website is designed to help you learn how.

With healthy regards,

Chef Nancy

  • Share/Bookmark
1 Comment »
Tagged as: Cancer Diet, Cancer Fighting Foods, Cancer Nutrition, Whole Foods

 Subscribe in a reader