Food and Recipes

September 27, 2014 In Food, Food and Recipes, News, Spotlight By Vancouver Health Coach

Why Are Food Additives In My Food?

How much do we know about what we are eating? Ingredient lists the length of a children's short bed time story are really not uncommon in commercially prepared, boxed and fast foods. Being able to pronounce half of those ingredients at best is the norm and even if you can pronounce those ingredients- do you know what they are and where they came from? First of all, what are food additives & preservatives doing in our food anyways? As a teacher of mine once said, 'Convenience is the killer.' Food additives and preservatives are mainly in our food for the following reasons:  So food doesn't spoil...

September 26, 2014 In Food and Recipes, News, Spotlight By Rich Ralph

Agave: Too Good to be True?

We all like to indulge with a rich, sweet dessert every now and then. And most of us know that most of the sweets we buy or order are full of refined sugars to appeal to our taste buds. But all these heavily processed sugary foods haven’t always been around. Big corporations are well aware of the addictive effect sugar has on people and take full advantage of this by creating foods that have virtually no nutritional value, but keep us reaching for more. In recent years, a variety of natural and artificial sweeteners have developed in hopes of breaking...

September 26, 2014 In Food and Recipes, News By Vancouver Health Coach

Gluten-Free Sesame Oatmeal Rolls

Give your eating habits a healthy and delicious twist with our Sesame Oatmeal Rolls. Fresh, hot gluten-free rolls take less time and effort to make than their wheat containing counterparts: mix up the ingredients, scoop the dough into a cupcake pan, let them rise, and then into the oven they go. In less than an hour and half you can have the delicious comfort of a whole grain roll at your table. Ours are enriched with oatmeal, sesame seeds and omega rich flax seeds and are perfect for eating along side your favorite winter soups and stews. We also like...

September 25, 2014 In Food and Recipes, News, Product Reviews By Vancouver Health Coach

Relaxation Drinks: Beverages Intended to Calm You

A recent article published in the Globe & Mail’s Health and Fitness section espoused a series of "relaxation drinks" such as ‘Slow Cow’ and ‘iChill’. For today’s fast paced environment where lunches are engulfed within minutes while driving or during a phone conversation, it would seem that the developers behind these new drinks should be applauded for their vision. For example, one of the marketing slogans from Quebec based Slow Cow is quoted to describe its product as "acupuncture in a can", as if the benefit of acupuncture is merely for relaxation. Some of the ingredients listed in Slow Cow include...

September 25, 2014 In Eliminating Toxins, Food and Recipes, Green & Healthy Living, News, Spotlight By Vancouver Health Coach

Keeping Your Adrenal Glands Healthy with the Proper Foods

Do you suffer from fatigue or low energy? Do you eat healthfully yet wonder why you can't lose weight? In this post we will discuss adrenal health, and specific foods to eat to combat adrenal fatigue. Included is a VEGAN recipe: Slow Cooker Chickpea and Lentil Stew. If you answered yes to the questions above, you could be suffering from adrenal fatigue! Anyone can experience adrenal fatigue at some point in his or her life. Nutrient deficiencies, inadequate rest, a life crisis, or too much pressure can drain the adrenals of even the healthiest person. What are the Adrenal Glands? Adrenal glands are part...

September 24, 2014 In Food and Recipes, News, Spotlight By Vancouver Health Coach

Food Test: Are You a Part of the Collective Eating Disorder?

When was the last time you sat down to eat without worrying about carbohydrates, fats, or calories? We invite you to take our Ultimate Food test and find out if you are adding to the collective eating disorder in North America. Ultimate Food Test When was the last time you sat down to a special home–cooked meal with your family just because you wanted to? Do you believe that some of your first and strongest memories are of food? Do you believe the food you serve your family accurately represents your values? Do you eat for reasons other than to satisfy hunger? If you answered "longtime,"...

September 23, 2014 In Food and Recipes, News, Spotlight By Vancouver Health Coach

As Stocks Decline, Should We Really Be Eating Salmon?

This year once again, the Fraser River sockeye salmon fishery has been completely shut down. No sports fishing nor native fishery allowed either. We need every salmon possible to make it upstream to spawn if we want to have any salmon at all in 4 years. It was 4 years ago in 2009, when 10 million salmon failed to return to the Fraser to spawn. So it should be no huge surprise that the offspring of those that did make it would be few in number this year. I wrote this post in 2009 on possible reasons for the salmon...

September 15, 2014 In Food and Recipes, News, Spotlight By Rich Ralph

The Superfood Dilemma: Mangosteen

Pomegranate, Noni fruit, Acai Berry, and now the Mangosteen. Some days it feels like the latest superfruit trends change faster than iPhone upgrades! What is it about tropical fruit that makes us believe we can’t be truly healthy without it? I write on a regular basis about the value of the incredible local fruit and vegetables we have around us and their exceptional health benefits. I decided it was time to put one of the latest exotic food fads up against a typical local food so we can make an educated comparison for ourselves on the nutritional values. On one hand we...

September 14, 2014 In Food and Recipes, Green & Healthy Living, News, Supplements, Uncategorized By Vancouver Health Coach

Metabolic Syndrome: Are You at Risk?

Metabolic Syndrome or Syndrome X is a condition that was first reported in 1978 by Dr. Gerald B. Phillips. This syndrome is considered to be a powerful independent risk factor for mortality and morbidity associated with cardiovascular disease. A very frightening statistic puts 1 in every 4 persons in North America at risk for developing Metabolic Syndrome. The syndrome involves a cluster of symptoms that are often associated with diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular diseases. The cluster may include high blood pressure, high blood sugar, high cholesterol, increased waist to hip ratio and/or obesity, as well as a reduced sensitivity of our cells to insulin with...