Robyn's Blog

***Note: I apologize to all those who have sent me unanswered email questions.  I am trying to get to them all.  FYI, I prioritize what is blogged over what is emailed.  :-) 

Dear GreenSmoothieGirl: What should I put on my cereal?

Most people put fractionated (skim, 1%, or 2%) antibiotic- and steroid- and hormone-treated cow’s milk on their cereal.  Then, they figure out that dairy isn’t good for them and they switch to soy milk, another fractionated/processed, highly estrogenic and thyroid-suppressing food.  (A great man named Ezra Taft Benson who held the highest agriculture post in the U.S. said, in the 1950′s, way before research showed this more definitively, that any time we alter our food source, it will be to our detriment.)  I recommend you avoid both of these options altogether.  Even if you’re not a milk drinker, you may wonder what to put on your cereal.

Good: (1) Rice Dream (still a bit processed but made from brown rice and unsweetened) or almond milk from the health food store, or (2) raw, whole dairy milk

Better: Raw goat’s milk (an especially good option for young children)

Best: Homemade nut “mylk” (put 1 part nuts like cashews, almonds, or pumpkin seeds, soaked overnight and drained, with 4 parts water in your BlendTec and puree until smooth, optionally with a tsp. of vanilla)

Why is raw goat’s milk better for you than dairy?  First, you usually find it directly from the people milking the goats, not huge dairies using many chemicals.  It’s raw, not homogenized or pasteurized, thus retaining its enzymes.  It has a smaller fat molecule than cow’s milk, so it permeates the human semipermeable membranes rather than causing the body to produce mucous to flush it out.  And its enzyme and amino acid profile is more similar to human milk.  Babies weaned onto it do better than with dairy or soy. 

Nut mylk avoids animal proteins altogether, and if you soak the nuts overnight, they are germinated and “live,” containing an abundance of enzymes to add to your breakfast cereal, not to mention good omega 3 fatty acids and a wealth of vitamins, minerals—and insoluble fiber, if you don’t strain it (just shake before using).

I’ve been grading papers for the university classes I teach.  A student of mine is the son of an Idaho farmer, and he makes a case that organic produce is not worth the money.  This is one of his arguments (edited for length):

“Technologies developed in recent years are amazingly efficient.  For instance, a potato field requires 400 lbs. of nitrogen per acre.  Modern technologies have developed fertilizer that contains 60 percent nitrogen and 40 percent additional fertilizers in a petroleum-based liquid for easy spraying.

“Contrast that with the method of organic farming, using manure to provide nitrogen.  Manure contains only about 10 lbs. of nitrogen per ton.  This means 40 tons of manure must be applied to each acre of potatoes to supply needed nitrogen.  That equates to a layer covering the whole field five inches thick!”

He then makes the case that farming with petroleum-based sprays is more efficient.

Potatoes a la Petroleum, anyone?  Your thoughts??

We greensmoothiegirled this McD’s in Las Vegas.  That means we stopped to use the facilities but did not participate in the Weapons of Mass Destruction (Big Mac, fries, and a Coke) that comprises McDonalds Corporation.  (I know, we shouldn’t use the facilities if we’re not contributing to the company’s profitability, but I worked there when I was 16—officially the last time I ate there—so I’ve contributed, right?)  Then we ate our lunch of GS plus some peanut-butter-banana sandwiches outside in the sunshine.  The irony!

Emma felt sorry for this trash can.  “He’s going to get cancer,” she said, “since he’s fed nothing but junk all day.”  We fed some traces of vegs and fruits to him (the first he’s ever had?) on our green smoothie straws when we were done.  Hopefully we saved his life.  But his odds aren’t good.

Hey Robyn,

I just want to thank you for not focusing on what OTHER raw foods blogs tend to focus on.  They tend to bring me down with all this talk about being kind to animals.  Of COURSE we should be kind to animals…however…there’s this dark heavy vibe that a lot of people on a vegan/vegetarian diet tend to exude.  Which I think is totally COUNTER to the LIGHTNESS we are after, on a raw foods diet.  I haven’t been on it long, and yet I can sense this already. Yes, we should be kind to animals, however we should also be kind to PEOPLE..especially ourselves, which is the aim of a raw foods diet.  Hope I’m not being ‘politically incorrect’ in mentioning this; it’s just something that came to my attention today. 

Bright Blessings, Shelly

There’s a lot of pain and misery at Disneyland, especially considering it’s supposed to be the happiest place on earth.  We had a blast there.  But every year, we observe more and more people in wheelchairs, very few of them elderly.  This year we saw rides stopped while obese people struggled to get secured in the vehicle before having to climb out, humiliated and defeated.  My heart breaks for these people.

People think the obese are lazy and eat tons more food than the rest of us.  That’s not necessarily true.  Fat cells, since they do nothing, take few calories to maintain.  (When you lose weight, you shrink those cells, but they never go away and regenerate easily.)  Muscle cells, on the other hand, have work to do and consume more calories.  That’s why you see lean, fit people eating “like a horse” and getting away with it.

While obese people certainly had to overeat and under-exercise for a period of time to get in the state they’re in, they could actually be eating a pretty reasonable number of calories and staying very overweight.

This just stresses the importance of two things:

(1)   Eat tons of vegetables (a good, ambitious goal is 2 lbs. a day, which is two heads of romaine).  The more you eat, the more you lose, since the net calorie effect is negative.  My second- and third-place choices for weight loss are FRUITS and BEANS: they’re low calorie, high nutrition, high fiber, and are going to prevent rather than cause cancer and heart disease.

(2)   Do weight-bearing exercise.  It not only builds bone mass, but it also tears tiny muscle fibers, which causes you to rebuild stronger.  Muscle consumes calories and serves you in accomplishing many tasks every day.

I have more stuff to say (and photos to blog) about traveling and eating right, but by request, I interrupt:

Dear GreenSmoothieGirl, will you please continue the good, better, best discussion, specifically covering pasta, seasonings, nut butters, and fats?

Pasta: white-flour pasta doesn’t belong in the kitchen of a health-conscious cook. The more coarsely you grind your wheat, the more nutritious it is, since the blood sugar uptake is slower.

Good: whole-wheat pasta

Better: whole-spelt or –kamut pasta (ancient, unhybridized grains)

Best: homemade pasta made from ground whole grains, soaked 8-24 hours in advance (too time-consuming for me, but some like to do this)

Nut butters: grocery-store peanut butter has trans fats and sugar added.

Good: organic, natural peanut butter

Better: roasted almond butter

Best: unsalted, homemade raw almond butter made from soaked, raw, dehydrated almonds (I put them through the Champion Juicer with the blank plate on)

Fats: almost everything sold in the grocery store is refined, high-heat treated and rancid.

Good: extra-virgin olive oil, other unrefined oils (mostly found in health-food stores)

Better: virgin/organic coconut oil, refrigerated flax oil, unrefined grapeseed oil

Best: whole foods high in good fats like avocados, nuts, and seeds

Seasonings: many in the grocery store have MSG added even if you don’t see it on the label, as well as sugar and refined salt, and other chemicals. 

Good: unrefined sea salt (50+ trace minerals, still actually very slightly refined)

Better: Original Himalayan Crystal Salt (84 trace minerals), Mrs. Dash

Best: Kelp, herbs like basil, thyme, oregano, salt-free and chemical-free organic seasonings like anything by Spice Hunter at your health-food store

How do you spend your vacation dollars? This is my breakdown of vacation expenses for my family of six (not including boring stuff like gas):

Attractions: $729 Disneyland two days, $329 Universal Studios, $570 Wicked = $1,200
Bang for the buck: Lots of fun, family bonding time, and memories—PRICELESS

Souvenirs: $28 Wicked CD, $40 t-shirts = $68
Bang for the buck: Memories, fun singalongs on the way home, and something to wear

Food: Room service/hotel restaurant breakfast ($60) + 2 in-park junk-food meals daily ($120) + $4 Mickey ice cream snack per person ($24) + fast food for driving days ($120) = $936

Bang for the buck: Weight gain, regret, loss of energy, constipation, misery

Ha, fooled ya. Here’s our real food expenditures:

Food: Live, whole plant food we brought for 2 meals and snacks daily ($80 total), 3 Souplantation dinners and 2 Subway dinners ($180) = $260

Bang for the buck: Not much more than we’d spend at home anyway, lots of energy

The food cost savings of $776 don’t tell the whole story, because we also didn’t feel horrible and sleep 10 hours at night to recover from a day of trans fats, chemicals, food dyes, and sugar. Our digestive function didn’t shut down, we didn’t struggle with blood sugar lows and resulting crabbiness. All in all, we may have enjoyed our vacation much more, in addition to saving a boatload of money compared to what we saw others doing.

Tips: One, Mapquest Souplantation / Sweet Tomatoes into your driving schedule. They’re everywhere. We love that place! Two, don’t drink your calories, even with juice (still lots of sugar). Subway is cheap at $5 for a footlong right now at most locations, so just don’t add chips and a drink there or at other restaurants. You’ll save money and fill up on veggies instead of sugar.

Nobody wants to slow down to eat, so we eat in line at Universal Studios.  My DH developed a new hobby: taking photos of us eating whole plant foods, with people in the photo eating more typical amusement-park, processed food.  Our children found this new hobby MUCH less amusing than we did.  Can you see the lady with the Cheetohs behind us as we eat a big bag of cucumber slices?

Almonds are high in fiber, and I made these soaked and dehydrated, so they’re giving us live energy, too.  They’re higher in calories than many plant foods (while lower in fat than most nuts).  Can you see the cotton candy being sold behind us?

We’re eating Tonya’s For Cryin’ Out Loud Onion Bread here.  Somebody behind us is eating some kind of fried dough thing.

Apples and plums are the perfect fruit for the backpack because they don’t get banged up too easily and require no preparation or mess.  See the lady eating a push-up popsicle behind us?

We did more on vacation than just eat, believe it or not.  For instance, we also took disapproving photos in front of candy stores.

 After DH took a million photos with junk-food eating going on in the background, Kincade grumbled, “This has gone far beyond ‘research’—it’s become some kind of sick fun for you two.”  Well, I’m about to get the last laugh now.  Here’s what happened when Shaggy and Scooby Doo saw Kincade: Shaggy said, “MY TWIN! Where have you been all my life?!” and Scooby put his arm around Cade and walked away, waving goodbye to the “real” Shaggy.

This is a recipe Robyn made for traveling this week, contributed by 12 Stepper Tonya, whose husband loves to each this for lunch every day. Thanks, Tonya!

For Cryin’ Out Loud Onion Bread/Crackers

3 large yellow onions

2 handfuls spinach

3 cups flaxseeds, ground in BlendTec

3 cups raw sunflower seeds

½ cup Bragg’s Liquid Aminos

¼ cup extra-virgin cold-pressed olive oil

Soak flax and sunflower seeds overnight in 6 cups water. Peel and quarter onions and slice them in food processor with “S” blade (or shred them using the large shred blade—this will somewhat “juice” the onions). Slice/shred spinach. Add Bragg’s, olive oil, soaked seeds, and stir well. Spread mixture on teflex sheets in dehydrator (4-5 trays). Dehydrate at 100 degrees until desired consistency is achieved. Flip to dry on the other side. Unless you made them very dry crackers, store in fridge.

Tastes great with tomatoes, sprouts, raw mayo, and/or avocado!

Hi, Ben here—GreenSmoothieGirl.com’s webmaster. Robyn’s on spring break in SoCal, seeing Wicked and doing the theme parks with her family. But she left me her list of what she packed, to give you some travel ideas. She keeps her family’s energy high and digestion strong on vacation, while saving money on restaurants, by packing this stuff for breakfasts, lunches, and snacks. (Maybe telling you about this is how she writes off a Disneyland trip on her taxes, too?)

Cooler:

Bags of baby carrots, sliced cucumbers, raw sweet potatoes

½ gal. homemade yogurt

2 bags Costco spinach

1 bag Costco frozen mixed berries

pint of soaked/drained sunflower seeds (to add to granola for breakfast)

quart of alfalfa/radish/clover sprouts (to add to granola for breakfast)

Box:

BlendTec

Plastic cups, straws, bowls, spoons, and baggies

Knife and cutting board for smoothies (I use it even on hotel room tables or vanities)

Lexan mugs for smoothies

Backpack for taking food to the parks

3 loaves whole-wheat bread

organic peanut butter-honey mix

gallon bag of homemade granola

3 boxes Rice Dream

gallon bag of soaked/dehydrated teriyaki almonds

Tonya’s “For Cryin’ Out Loud Dehydrator Onion Bread” (post to follow)

bananas (for green smoothies and to add to yogurt for breakfast)

bags of washed apples, pears, plums

5-gallon jug of filtered water