Day 37:

Juice: Grapefruit Blues

Grapefruit Blues:
2 Grapefruits
1 Large Handful of Blueberries

Okay. So, a lot of the fruits featured in these juices currently are out of season right now. I know people will claim that nothing is out of season anymore, but that's just not true. Even though the berries you get from the store may look like blueberries - we all know they don't taste like summer fresh blueberries. They also don't have the same nutritional content as those berries in the summer.
[I covered blueberries and berries in general in Entry 15 & Entry 16]

Eating seasonally is important for many reasons, but especially if you want good nutritional value. Now, summer is a cake walk. All the good stuff is around in the summer, right? Fall is pretty good too, but suddenly we get to winter and all there really is are root vegetables. I'm sorry, what?! And Spring isn't much better, maybe even worse with the fresh fruits and vegetables we all know and love. How can you do this? Well, I started by doing some research.

When people (nutritionist, ecologists and Cosmo magazine - yeah, I read an article once) tell you to eat seasonally, they are doing this because not only is good for the environment it is good for you.  The most sited evidence for this is a study done in London in 1997 by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. The study found significant differences in the nutrient content of pasteurized milk in summer versus winter. "The Ministry discovered that these differences in milk composition were primarily due to differences in the diets of the cows." (Source) It was also found by researchers in Japan that the differences in the vitamin C content of spinach harvested in summer versus winter was three-fold.

Think about it.

Seasonally was the only way to eat for most of the human existence. Raw and unfettered fruits and vegetables. Now, sure the average lifespan was much shorter, but they didn't have the same amount of chronic disease or autoimmune disease (it was around, just not as prolific). Now we have modern technology - which I love. Don't get me wrong here, modern medicine can do a lot and I am truly thankful for that! But, wouldn't it be wonderful if we (our society) didn't have to ever use it.
Just because we can doesn't mean we should, right? This is great advice for HBO. So, eating with the seasons demands you diversify your food and your nutritional intake, which has been proven everywhere, to improve your health. Variety is the spice of life.

World's Healthiest Foods (one of my favorite websites) provides a seasonal guide:

• Spring: 
• Focus on tender, leafy vegetables that represent the fresh new growth of this season. The greening that occurs in springtime should be represented by greens on your plate, including Swiss chard, spinach, Romaine lettuce, fresh parsley, and basil.
• Summer:
•  Stick with light, cooling foods in the tradition of traditional Chinese medicine. These foods include fruits like strawberries, apple, pear, and plum; vegetables like summer squash, broccoli, cauliflower, and corn; and spices and seasonings like peppermint and cilantro.
• Fall: 
• Turn toward the more warming, autumn harvest foods, including carrot, sweet potato, onions, and garlic. Also emphasize the more warming spices and seasonings including ginger, peppercorns, and mustard seeds.
• Winter: 
• Turn even more exclusively toward warming foods. Remember the principle that foods taking longer to grow are generally more warming than foods that grow quickly. All of the animal foods fall into the warming category including fish, chicken, beef, lamb, and venison. So do most of the root vegetables, including carrot, potato, onions and garlic. Eggs also fit in here, as do corn and nuts. 

 

Emotional Lifestyle: 

It is on. I am gonna do a juice fast and I think it's gonna be a long one (21-30 days). I know! So, I am researching, getting prepared, but it is happening in March. Get ready, because all of you will be privy to real time updates on this blog...stay tuned. 

Day 30:

Juice: Bellyful

Bellyful:
3 Apples
1/4 White Cabbage
1/4 Small Fennel Bulb
1 Small Bunch of Mint

This is a warm, yet crisp and very refreshing. This is a great mid-morning snack. Sweet enough that it still feel like breakfast, but substantial enough that it can pass for lunch. 

Fennel, my dear friends fennel or foeniculum vulgare. A vegetable I really had never eaten until recently. Fennel is a hardy perennial (a plant which grows back every year) and a member of the  Apiaceae family (formerly the Umbelliferae) - meaning it is related to carrots, parsley, dill and more - like over 3,000 more species. Needless to say it is a large family.

Fennel looks kinda like a cleaner, nicer version of celery root. It is a white or pale green blub with stalks protruding from it, which are topped with feathery green leaves. In season during, both fall and spring, but fennel can be found all year long in most stores around the US. However, you may find the taste is the best during the spring and fall.

Fennel is crunchy in texture and slightly sweet and has an anise-like taste. Often fennel and anise are listed as the same plant by people (mainly on the internet), however they are not the same plant. They are related - both members of the Apiaceae Family (I told you it was a large family), but they are different plants. The confusion stems from the fact that "the whole plant (bulb, stalks, fronds) of fennel is consumed while it is usually just the seeds from the anise plant that are eaten..." (Source)

Fennel Seeds

Fennel is an amazing vegetable resource to have in your fridge. Full of vitamin C, potassium, manganese, folate (also called Folic Acid is a B-complex vitamin) and a variety of other phytonutrients, fennel has a wide variety of health benefits. The essential oils in fennel - the oils that give fennel its anise smell - "stimulate secretion of digestive and gastric juices, reduce inflammation of stomach and intestines and facilitates proper absorption of nutrients from the food" (Source), aiding any symptoms of indigestion, constipation, flatulence, diarrhea. In fact, chewing fennel seeds after a meal is a common practice in India.  Hence the name of this wonderful juice. Fennel has also been shown to help with colic, respiratory disorders, menstrual disorders, eye care, bad breath, hair loss and more, so it is not just for the intestinal track.

Emotional Lifestyle:

Recently, I watched a very interesting and disturbing documentary called Farmageddon (2011). It is about small farms being unlawfully forced to shut down by the USDA for unexplained reasons (most of the time). It is a little long an repetitive, but the information is sound. It is an interesting look at the government attempting to control what people eat, by controlling one's access to it.

If you are from New York, this has been a big topic here, as Mayor Bloomberg has been trying to put in laws about soda and junk food. However, this documentary is looking at small farms all around the country who are providing healthy, organic food for (mainly) their local communities and are being shutdown. Even when a farm has the right paperwork and their animals tested, the government has been threatening, harassing and killing livestock on these farms...for what reason?...it is often unexplained by anyone. It is interesting (though a little long), but definitely worth the time.