Keep on the Sunny Side

My close friend, Ted, mentioned that he was having difficulty with blood sugar level fluctuation. Mainly that often when he is deep in his work he suddenly finds himself painfully hungry, light-headed and way stressed out. I used to have the same issue - suddenly hungry and weak and stressed and no brain power to get myself fed properly. I promised Ted that I would make some suggestions for dietary changes and snacks that would effectively allay this problem.

I realized, as I sat down to write, that it is easier said than done. One can suggest, for example, that sprouting seeds and legumes is a great way to get a lot more nutrients out of those foods, but such a suggestion might well sound like Greek to someone who doesn’t have any associated context or background.

I believe this may be why so many people who want to “get healthier” find it difficult to do so. There are some fundamental shifts of habit, thought, and/or skill set that may have to be addressed. They are not so difficult as they are just so different.

This is my first draft of an offering of a super basic building block to a nutrified way of life. Because I am starting with snacks, I decided I would deal first with the germinating of seeds and legumes.

Now, now, don’t go rolling your eyes! It may sound really bland and boring, but nothing is what it seems. Even plain and bland, when I leave sprouted sunflower seeds or sprouted lentils out on the counter in the kitchen, they get nibbled by everyone in the house throughout the day. The inner nibbler will often be satisfied nibbling at whatever is easily available, so having healthy stuff around is a great first step to take.

Let’s start with sunflower seeds as a snack.
The roasted nuts and seeds widely available at the store have been processed. Without getting into a dissertation on processed food and chemically refined, heated, overheated, or possibly rancid oils in this article, let’s just say - In general, my impression is that if you want to be healthier, you want to avoid processed foods. You can get raw organic whole sunflower seeds at most markets that carry bulk items, Trader Joe’s, and health food stores. There are also good resources for ordering raw organic nuts and seeds online.

Raw nuts and seeds contain the enzyme inhibitors (my family calls them “phyto-goblins”) that make them last so long, but also make them difficult to digest. Enzyme inhibitors may also be somewhat toxic to us human folks, a situation discussed in detail in my blog article, The Importance of Soaking Nuts.

Not roasted and not raw? What do you do? Well, it is good to know that once they have germinated, seeds and legumes change a great deal. They are no longer just starchy. The amino acid content changes as they start to grow. They are much easier to digest and the nutrients are easier for your body to assimilate.

The absolute easiest things to start with are sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, and mung beans.

Recipe for Germinating seeds:
Start with a half cup of sunflower seeds (or pumpkin seeds or mung beans) and put them into a bowl that holds more than 2 cups of water.
Add 1 1/2 cups of water of water.
Let the seeds soak over night. The next morning, pour them through a strainer (I use one a little bigger than the bowl) and move the strainer under running water to rinse them off well. They are ready to eat. Make only enough for a day or so, as they get brown after a while. If you need help remembering to soak your seeds at night, I have found the easiest solution is to associate the habit with an already ingrained one, like brushing your teeth or washing your face: Clean your teeth, clean your seeds. Soak them at night, rinse them in the morning.

Uses for soaked sunflower seeds:
You can add them to salads to create a much more substantial dish. (You can probably add much more than you think. I often add a half cup of soaked seeds to a salad)
You can add them to your morning oatmeal or granola.
For a quick snack, In 5 minutes you can chop a half an avocado, half a tomato, and toss in your soaked sunflower seeds with a little lemon, salt, and your choice of spices, like thyme for a savory flair, or cayenne for a little spice.

Soaked mung beans can be used in much the same way as sunflower seeds. I have even added a handful of them to my granola. If you are beginning to eat salads because they are supposed to be healthy, try adding some mung beans to “beef up” the nutritional value.

Sometimes, if I am feeling a tad uninspired, I just transfer the sunnies to a clean bowl after rinsing them thoroughly in the morning, and I munch on them throughout the day as a snack. (Keep sunnies and pumpkin seeds in the fridge once you rinse them after the soak) It may seem odd at first, but they do the trick for hunger pangs. Baby carrots are another good thing to have around for such moments. The idea here is to calm the nerves and get you thinking clearly about how to best feed yourself when that light-headed hunger kicks in.

Now, I realize that this may not be the definitive answer to blood sugar fluctuation, but let’s take baby steps, folks.
As we progress with these baby steps, the fundamental shifts in the diet will cause changes in the overall picture.

Next time we’ll get into some chili lime snacks and other yummy stuff in the thrilling adventure: Dehydrator Basics.

Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate

The word of the day is that chocolate has anti-oxidants and good for you stuff. We also know it has some not so good for you stuff.
After doing extensive reading on the subject, I concluded that if you use your raw chocolate in moderation, it should be fine. This seems to me to be common sense:
For instance after eating one candy bar (not that I recommend it, due to the presence of sugars, processing, and possibly trans-fat) most people feel that pleasant chocolate happy feeling. After eating 10 candy bars, most people feel pretty bad.

Here is a web page with a lot of easy to read information about chocolate:
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/choco.html

You can grind your own raw cacao beans or raw cacao chocolate nibs in a spice grinder or coffee grinder, or you can purchase the finely ground powder (widely available on raw food online stores and health food stores).

Add raw chocolate to breakfast shakes, almond milk banana smoothies. I like pouring out a handful of cacao nibs onto a small plate with some raw cashew pieces or raw almonds and nibbling while I catch up on emails, check out cool videos on youtube, drink tea, read the news, etc. The bitter nibs mix well with the natural sweetness of the nuts.
If you don’t have a health food store handy, you can order from any number of online sources. Two I have used to buy raw food products are:
http://www.livingtreecommunity.com
http://www.alissacohen.com