What I Ate Today

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Today my wife and I cooked all three meals. We like to do this on the weekends when we can, to strengthen our health, and save money.

Breakfast:

  • Brown Rice W/ Wheat Berries
  • Sautéed Collards & Cauliflower
  • Pickle

Lunch:

  • Salmon Salad In Whole Wheat Pita
  • Kinpira (long sautéed burdock, carrots, lotus root)
  • Potato Chips

Snacks:

  • Blueberry Muffin
  • Sweet Vegetable Drink
  • Cashews
  • A few sips of Beer
  • Frozen yogurt

Dinner:

  • Miso Soup With Black Noodles
  • Aduki Beans w/ Squash & Kombu
  • Homemade Wontons w/ Veggie Filling In Soy Sauce
  • Steamed Radish Greens
  • Umeboshi Plum

I ate a LOT today, but also got a lot of physical activity, including raking and hauling leaves, riding a bike, playing ball and doing my morning do-in routine.

 

 

 

My Semi-Annual Rant

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I spent most of the day today enjoying the breezy warm weather, beautiful leaves and water, and unforgettable sky, while I toiled to bring in enough money to keep my household going. I have a lot to be grateful for.

But a few things have troubled me today. Here they are, in no particular order:

  1. Nobody uses their turn signal anymore. It’s dangerous, annoying, and perplexing. Something so easy, thoughtful, and free. Why not do it?
  2. On the bottom of one of today’s Globe sports pages was an advertisement for two Jaguar automobiles at Herb Chamber’s Jaguar in Sudbury. The cars were priced at $62,000, and $132,000 respectively. Are there really people in my area who would consider buying such a car, when more than a quarter of us are not sure we’ll have Christmas presents for our family, never mind enough oil to heat our homes this winter
  3. I saw a young woman today, probably 25 or 28, taking a cigarette break from her work, just outside of the Newton Wellesley Hospital today. She was also drinking a diet coke, and sporting a tattoo. I thought to myself, “how could this person be risking her health more than she currently is.” Of course, when she gets cancer or lupus, she’ll waste countless thousands of dollars of the insurance pool on treatments that only cover the symptoms. Great.
  4. Finally, will somebody please stop NStar from taking down every tree in the Town of Framingham? Do they not realize that trees beautify, absorb C02, and give off precious oxygen for us to breathe?

Thanks for letting me get these things off my chest. Please note I have nothing to complain about in regards to my two teenagers. A banner day.

New Russian Food Store In Newton/Needham Area

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Not sure how long these folks have been here, possibly a couple of years.

Baza Boston Food Market

Very good prices on produce, excellent imported meats, cheeses, fish, canned goods and a great hot bar.

The seaweed salad is excellent, the halvah not the best. But I’m excited to try lots of other things. Last night I also tried their smoked butterfish. Pieces were not trimmed, but the price was right. Saving some for bagels and cream cheese this weekend.

Russians eat a lot of very salty foods. The key is moderation, and having some sweet veggie drink and low sodium foods the rest of the day.

Enjoy!

Teaching Kids To Breathe

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This is probably not an issue in India, as yoga is the national past-time, and lives are more natural, but here in America it certainly is.

I’m talking about stress, and fear of the day in school, etc. exhibited by our teenage kids. They are too nervous to eat a proper breakfast, worried about their social interactions, about the academics, and about their bodies changing so rapidly.

This is not easy, but we’ve sat our kids down individually, in happier moments, and helped them experience deep breathing and relaxation, and then encouraged them to develop a daily practice so they can deal with their problems and let things go, enough to get through the difficult days.

What are you doing with your kids that is helping them with their stress?

Hearty Vegetarian Cooking For Autumn

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Here’s the deal:

  1. We eat too much meat, salt and baked foods, and we are under too much pressure.
  2. That causes us to gravitate to sugar and drugs to relieve pressure.
  3. The cure is to switch to a seasonal, plant-based diet, and be careful of chemicals, and how we prepare our foods.

For instance, now that it’s autumn, it’s time to stop eating raw salads, raw fruit, fruit juice and alcohol. When you do this, your cold will gradually subside.

Instead, enjoy foods such as long sautees, boiled greens, braised root vegetables, boiled grains and well-cooked beans, along with soups, sea vegetables, etc.

Stay tuned for more…

Do you have a cold? Dry skin? Indigestion? Cook this!

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Winter is coming, and although Panera, Chipotle, Legal Seafoods and Town Pizza serve the same “foods” throughout the year, we need to make adjustments to feel good and keep our health strong.

First eat fewer raw salads. If you must have salad this time of year, please blanch or press more hearty vegetables, and/or use a hot dressing. This will keep your nose clear.

Similarly, eat less dairy, less fruit juice, less iced beverages and desserts.

Extremely important is to eat boiled grains every single day, and to chew them well.

My family usually has two per day, brown rice, and the other could be millet, quinoa, oats, barley, oats, spelt, etc. In between, you can have noodles or bread if you are healthy, but make sure they are whole grain, and do not have preservatives, too much sodium, or yeast, which cause all kinds of problems.

Eat plenty of well-cooked land and sea vegetables, plus legumes, and fermented foods including miso and pickles.

Need instruction or sources for these ingredients? Email me anytime at david@kagan.co

Enjoy!

 

How Screwed Are We?

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In a word, “very.”

Our country is deep in debt, unpredictable weather is coming, much of the world hates us, or air, land and waterways are polluted, and our health and bank accounts have never been lower.

If you don’t see this, quickly click off this site. Ignorance is bliss. But if you do see it, please know that it makes no difference if you vote for Obama or Romney (although I don’t see how anyone could actually vote for Romney).

The important changes we need, in my estimation, are:

  1. End support of meat, dairy, sugar, chemical companies and banks
  2. Revoke personhood status by corporations
  3. End lobbying
  4. End the war on drugs
  5. Sell the U.S. Postal Service
  6. Outlaw nuclear power, strip mining and drag net fishing, as well as assault weapons
  7. Make it illegal to sell iodized or table salt, and high fructose corn syrup, and MSG as food
  8. Change the presidency to one six-year term
  9. Take ethanol out of gasoline
  10. Make it illegal to radiate, add hormones, pesticides and antibiotics to food products
For more good news, please go to http://www.collapsenet.com

 

Better Digestion & Better Health This Autumn

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It’s time for another top 10 list!

Top 10 Ideas For Healthy Autumn Eating

  1. Well chewed pressure-cooked brown rice daily, plus boiled millet, barley, quinoa etc. weekly
  2. Plenty of well-cooked organic vegetables, including carrots, daikon, parsnips, burdock and lotus root
  3. Ease up on the raw salads, fruit, tropical foods, sweets and milks, even soy/rice/almond milk
  4. Eat lots of beans, especially azuki, black soy, kidney, black beans and garbanzo beans
  5. Eat miso soup daily, as well as pickles after meals
  6. Enjoy mushrooms, sea vegetables, seeds, nuts (not nut butters) mustard, horseradish & ginger
  7. Avoid animal foods as they are acidic for the body, contain pesticides & hormones, and cause suffering
  8. Use steaming for greens and root vegetables this time of year
  9. Avoid baked wheat flour, and all flour products that are not whole grain
  10. Avoid chemicals, including MSG, colors, flavors, and caffeine
Also remember to eat regular meals, don’t overeat, and don’t eat after 7:30pm

 

 

 

Do You Believe These Headlines?

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Today’s Boston Globe reports that “Organic food may not be much healthier,” according to Stanford University doctors who reviewed past studies on organic versus conventional foods.

But, as with contracts, it’s important to read the fine print. The article also goes on to say:

  1. Organic produce had a 30% lower risk of containing detectable pesticide levels
  2. Germs in non-organic meas had a 33% higher risk of being resistant to multiple antibiotics
  3. Organic foods may be better for the environment and look and taste better

It is true that organic foods are often 1.5 to 3x the price of conventional foods, but with soaring cancer rates, as well as loss of many species and degradation of soil, water and air quality, it may be a price worth paying.

What’s your policy on organic foods?