Weekend Edition Hot off the Press #10: Salt: It's What's for Dinner

Next time you go to eat, check those nutrition facts. Salt is in many of the packaged foods available out there. Even something as simple as a home-prepared sandwich can send your sodium levels soaring.

We've previously reported on salt; it's used for food preservation, taste, and nutrition. However, the USDA recently released new dietary guidelines that now recommend a lower salt intake for certain "at-risk" groups. These groups include African Americans, people over the age of 51, and people with diabetes, high blood pressure, or chronic kidney disease. People in these groups tend to have blood pressure levels that are more sensitive to sodium. It's recommended that they only consume 1,500 mg a day compared to the 2,300 mg advised for the general population.

Why the change? According to the USDA, a growing body of research suggests that your blood pressure decreases as you eat less sodium. The recommended sodium levels are based on a study called "Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH)-Sodium trial" conducted by the National Institutes of Health. The study found that aiming for a sodium intake of 2,300 mg reduced the average blood pressure of the participants. Blood pressure was lowered even further when participants tried to eat just 1,200 mg of sodium a day.

High blood pressure is a big concern when putting together these recommendations because it's a large, contributing factor in cardiovascular disease, congestive heart failure, and kidney disease. Despite the USDA's maintained recommendation of 2,300 mg of sodium a day for the general population, health groups like the American Heart Association still recommend that you eat no more than 1,500 mg of salt each day, even if you are not in one of the mentioned "at-risk" groups.

So how can you lower the amount of sodium you're ingesting each day? Of course, be conscious of labels and nutrition facts on packaged foods. However, high-sodium foods are not always to blame. Remember that a sprinkle of salt here and there in your own home-cooked meals can add up over the day. Just ¼ tsp. of salt is 500 mg of sodium. That's a third of your total daily intake! The USDA notes that frequently eating foods that are low in sodium can still contribute to excess ingestion. About 7% of the sodium in the U.S. diet is from yeast-breads and 5% is from pasta. Did you expect that?

Overall, these new recommendations are emphasizing the impact that excess sodium can have on the human body. Whether you have high blood pressure now or not, monitoring your salt intake is now just as important as eating the correct amount of calories or staying on top of how much fat you consume.

By Julia L.  

Weekend Special Edition: Detox/Cleansing Diet (Part 2/3)

Today’s special edition post is a follow-up to our previous post regarding the “Detox Workshop” offered by Anne Angelone (M.S., LaC) which I (RS) participated in.

I must say… WOW! In just a short period of one hour we learned a wealth of practical and relevant strategies to better understand what our body is trying to tell us. Anne provided each participant with a “Metabolic Assessment Form” in which you answer on a scale of 1-3 whether you experience particular symptoms (ex: Get lightheaded if meals are missed, unexplained itchy skin, etc.). There are about 150 different items to rate which are broken down into 17 categories. High scores in each category reveal evidence of particular conditions (ex: Hypoglycemia, Hyperacidity, adrenal conditions, etc.).

We even learned the basics of eastern medicine’s “tongue reading” and each had a chance to learn what our tongues were trying to tell us. The tongue serves as a diagnostic map which, at least in my particular case, was in-line with what other doctors and lab tests have been saying thus far.

A very interesting fact which I personally took away from the class is that the existence of a food allergy could have all along been the reason why I constantly felt like I was over-heating and always had extreme difficulty in hot weather. During the workshop, the light-bulb went off that ever since I have been gluten-free, I have actually begun to feel cold just like everyone else.

Following this class, I embarked on my “10-Day Detox” diet and am currently on it. The idea behind the 10-day diet is to eliminate as many known types of allergens as possible. Even if you don’t think you are allergic to them, you eliminate them during the ten days. This should, in theory, give the gut a break from inflammation/irritation and thus give it a chance to begin healing. So for these ten days, not only will I be gluten free, but here are some examples of what else I will be avoiding:

-       Soy

-       Corn

-       White rice

-       Diary / eggs

-       Peanut

-       Tofu

-       Refined sugars

-       Artificial coloring, flavoring, sweeteners

-       Caffeine

-       Certain fruit: grapefruit, oranges, banana, pineapple, watermelon

-       “Nightshade vegetables” (tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant, bell peppers)

-       Any non-organic chicken or beef (which by the way must be grass-fed, not corn fed)

So there go all my current gluten-free alternatives! Back to the drawing board we go. She did provide some wonderful recipes that I look forward to trying. Organic meats, quinoa, and brown rice will be my new best friends for these 10 days.

Sounds disconcerting, but she is giving us a lot of resources so we can still maintain a healthy balanced diet and get all the nutrients we need. She is even giving us restaurant and café recommendations that can accommodate our diet!

I welcome the change in eating routine and I really hope to see some of the results some of her previous patients have seen:

-       Better digestion and elimination

-       Fewer symptoms of Chronic Illness

-       Improved Concentration, Mental Focus and Clarity

-       Improved Mood

-       Increased Energy

-       Less congestion and fewer allergic symptoms

-       Less joint pain

-       Increased sense of relaxation

-       Enhanced sleep

As I mentioned, I will be posting the results of my 10-day Detox diet in part 3 of the “Detox/Cleansing Diet” posts. In the meantime, if you’d like to find out more about what Anne does, you can visit her website at http://www.expandingqi.com/. She not only does in-person consultations, but also does phone, email, and Skype sessions with her patients

If the 10-day diet proves to be a success for me, we are going to see if we can work with her to offer this same workshop via Skype so that our interested readers from around the globe can take advantage of the opportunity.

Stay tuned till next time where I will share my experiences through the 10-Day Detox Diet.

Weekend Special Edition: Detox/Cleansing Diet (Part 1/3)

Hello readers! This is RS bringing you our first special edition health post…”Detox Diet”.  About 5 months ago, I discovered, through endless research and exploration of my chronic symptoms, that I am gluten intolerant. It was not through the endless doctors that I visited in hopes of obtaining at least a hint as to what was going on with me, but instead was through my wife’s nursing school classmate whose description of her prior symptoms resonated with my own. She was gluten intolerant, and changing her diet made all the difference in her life. I set sail on my gluten-free journey and it is with the support of our team over here that I have found a wealth of products that make it possible.

I know there are many out there who’ve had similar experiences in which after endless doctor visits and consultation with specialists they feel no closer to determining the cause of their ailment. This was the case for me and boy do I wish I had met Anne Angelone (M.S, LaC) earlier! As you may recall, Anne was a guest at our studio back in December and she brought us the “Kaia Foods Sea Salt and Vinegar Kale Chips” for us to review. Not only has Anne proven to be an excellent resource for products to try, but her practice here in San Francisco deals with the very nature of our community’s health challenge… food sensitivities!

In our commitment to support our local vendors and healthcare practitioners, I have begun a treatment program with Anne and in the process of reviewing my experiences with her, I hope to provide you, our readers, with what I have found to be inspiration and hope for restoring balance in my health.

Anne’s acupuncture practice is no ordinary practice. She actually focuses on allergens and the foods that cause inflammation and the domino effect which follows… what I think of as a holistic approach. In addition to her regular practice (which I have now started and am absolutely inspired by!), Anne also offers monthly “Detox” workshops.

In these workshops, Anne takes people through the Chinese medicine philosophies and a structured analysis, through a series of health-related questions, to connect physical/mental manifestations with the underlying cause. Here is an excerpt from Anne’s workshop posting:

10 Day Detox with Real Food:
Learn tools to master:•    Better digestion and elimination
•    Fewer symptoms of Chronic Illness
•    Improved Concentration, Mental Focus and Clarity
•    Improved Mood
•    Increased Energy
•    Less congestion and fewer allergic symptoms
•    Less joint pain
•    Increased sense of relaxation
•    Great sleep

Sounds great to me!! I experience each of the items above so I am really excited about something which could potentially help. So I’ve signed up for this weekend’s workshop. But I’ve heard of these types of diet programs before and usually sound great but are unrealistic. However, what I like about this one is the fact that it is only 10 days, a reasonable $25, and you continue to eat REAL food… sounds like something I might actually be able to stick with and make it through! We will see…

Next weekend, I will post a recap and review of the workshop in which I will describe what I have learned and what my journey through the 10-day program will involve. The weekend following that, I will post how I feel after the 10-day program and whether I was able to complete it as she describes.

Weekend Edition Hot Off the Press #2: Sprouting Ideas

Mung beans are a common ingredient in Asian cooking.  Is it because it is readily available, is it the taste, is it the cost, or is it the health benefits.  It’s probably a combination of all of the above.  Yesterday we had a review for mung bean thread, which is noodle made with mung beans, broad beans and water.  It was affordable, it was tasty, and apparently it is good for you. 

So what are mung beans?  Mung beans have several different names.  They are known as green beans, mung, and moog among many other names.  When they sprout, they are bean sprouts.  Yes, the same bean sprouts that are probably in half of the dishes you order at your local Chinese restaurant.  So you have most likely encountered them.  You probably just didn’t know what they were.    Especially in Asian cooking, you will find different variations of the mung beans.  You know one form, which is the bean sprout, the other surprising places you might find the mung bean is in your noodles and your dessert.  The starch from the mung beans is extracted and used as an ingredient to make noodles and jellies. 

What are the advantages of eating mung beans?  Mung beans are very nutritious.  They are a good source for Vitamin A, B, C and E, as well as Calcium, iron, potassium and fiber.    Mung beans are recommended in diets because they help lower cholesterol, and help digestion because of their high fiber content.  What does this all mean?  Bottom line, they are good for you.

If you have access to Asian food stores, mung bean can also be a very affordable alternative.  Take for example our mung bean noodles from yesterday’s review, that package was only $0.99!  If you can save money while also maintaining a good diet, wouldn’t you try it?  Stir fry some mung bean noodles with some vegetables and maybe some meat and you have a nice balanced meal and you don’t have to break the bank.