Yogurt can be great for your body if it isn’t loaded with sugar, artificial sweeteners and a host of other non-food ingredients. I typically choose a Greek Yogurt, organic if possible and raw would be even better. So now that you have this plain, unsweetened yogurt, what do you do with it to make it appealing?
Breakfast and Snack Ideas:
I choose to sweeten it with honey because honey is alkalizing. I add chopped almonds, pumpkin seeds, or sunflower seeds for texture along with my choice of fruits. Alkalizing fruits include: raisins, dried dates, strawberries, raspberries, peaches, pomegranate, apricots, blackberries and bananas. There are many other healthy choices but they aren’t all alkalizing. Walnuts are an acidifying power house of great nutrients and can be added as well, just remember to try to make 80% of your food choices from the alkalizing category.
Main Dish Ideas:
Use plain yogurt in place of gravy or rich sauces and top your potatoes (with the peel) or other veggies (hot or cold) including your salad. You can also add the following to your yogurt:
- Dill Weed
- Caraway Seed
- Celery Seed
- Cilantro
- Cucumber, seeded
- Garlic
- Lemon or Lime juice
- Parsley
- Chili Pepper
- Miso
- Sea Salt
- Any herb of your choice – they’re all alkalizing
For a fuller bodied topping, you can add oil to the yogurt. Alkalizing choices include olive, avocado, almond, coconut, sesame and safflower. Flax seed oil is another exceptional choice, it just happens to be acidifying.
We make a Greek tasting dip using yogurt, seeded cucumber, dill weed, garlic and sea salt. Pulse together in your food processor and use as a dip or dressing. I like to add loads of fresh veggies to it and make it into a main dish on hot days. No measuring necessary – let your taste buds determine your recipe.
Dessert Idea:
Slice a banana and top with yogurt which has been laced with honey, cinnamon, and chopped almonds. You’ve got an alkalizing bone building fruit, sweetener, spice and nut.
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In building better bones and a better body, you want to incorporate as many ALKALIZING food sources of calcium as well as magnesium, zinc, boron, copper, silicon, manganese, Vitamin D, K, C, B complex as well as Omega 3′s and COQ10.
Today, let’s focus on some of the highest alkalizing food sources of calcium:
- Yogurt, plain
- Cabbage
- Broccoli
- Spinach
- Lima beans
- Collard greens
- Kale
- Mustard greens
- Sesame seeds
- Flax seeds
- Almonds
This certainly isn’t an exhaustive of list of foods that meet the criteria of being an alkalizing source of calcium, but they are the highest food source of such, making them ideal for part of your foundational foods.
To make things even better, many of these foods provide nutrients that are healing for a number of other conditions providing the body with what it needs to combat illness, disease and premature aging.
Look for recipes to follow to make incorporating these foods into your diet quick and easy. And remember, as often as possible, opt for organic whenever available and affordable.
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So just what is kale good for? It would be easier to list what Kale isn’t good for: illness and disease.
A nutrient dense food, with alkalizing benefits, it’s got the building blocks for building better bones, has been touted as having anti-cancer, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, is high in minerals, low in calories, great for the circulatory system, will help your skin and cartilage aiding in flexibility and can help you to detox and build at the same time.
It gets even better. Kale is great for your brain, containing plant based Omega 3’s (alpha-linolenic acid) which has been linked to lowering the risk of depression. Your brain has specialized fats called sphingolipids that create the structure of our brain cells. Guess what? Kale has an abundance of the co-factors needed in its nutritional profile to help with this as well.
Need protein? No problem; kale has that too, along with iron, folate and B6 which are all needed to make serotonin and dopamine.
The bigger question then becomes, “What on earth do I do with it?” Just about anything you want. Saute’ it, dehydrate it, add it to soups, stews, salads, and even scrambled eggs. Recipes ideas to follow.
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Pasteurization? It’s good for us, right?
Here’s what pasteurization really does whether you’re talking about dairy, vinegars, eggs, kombucha or many other raw fermented foods :
- Diminishes all nutrients which are heat sensitive
- It does not destroy all harmful micro organisms
- It does destroy beneficial bacteria’s (probiotics)
- Destroys the active enzymes
- Denatures fragile milk proteins
- It denatures the food changing it from a live healthy food to a dead food
It seems odd that something so simple could actually be affecting your bone density and overall health. Consider just the vinegar for a moment. Distilled vinegar leaves an acid residue whereas the raw vinegar leaves an alkaline residue. Your body will try to maintain a certain pH and if you are too acidic, it will leach alkalizing minerals from your bones to achieve a pH balance. Your goal is to consume 80% alkalizing foods and just 20% acid forming foods on a daily basis.
To give yourself every advantage for building better bones and better over-all health a couple of options include:
If you are going to consume dairy products, purchase raw products made from organic, grass fed cows. Grass fed is desired over silage fed cows, providing a much higher content of essential fatty acids which also aids in building muscle mass, losing fat, stimulating your immune system and may help to fight against illness and disease. In many states it is illegal to sell raw milk , therefore requiring you to purchase cow shares making you part owner of a cow.
*Switch to Almond Milk. It’s much higher in calcium than cow’s milk and it’s alkalizing rather than acidifying.
* In many recipes where milk is called for, all you really need is something wet. Consider using water or almond milk.
*Purchase Raw Apple Cider Vinegar as opposed to distilled vinegars. Again, you are choosing an alkalizing food.
*Make your own kombucha. It’s easy, tasty, economical and great for your health.