Fruity Smoothie (with lots of benefits!)

I don't go by recipes for much, especially when making a smoothie. It is usually made from whatever I happen to have on hand. Today's smoothie came out great, I must say. This one could have doubled as a dessert, so if you don't like too sweet, leave out the Agave.

Ingredients: 

1/2 cup Raspberry Amasai (or yogurt, or kefir)
1 banana
1 kiwi (ends cut off)
1/2 cup strawberries (I used frozen)
1/2 cup blueberries (I used frozen)
splash of milk
1 Tbsp. agave syrup
2 Tbsp. ground flaxseeds

Blend until desired consistency is achieved, adding a splash of milk extra if needed.

Be Good to Your Gut!

Green Fed A2 type cows, grazing on thousands of organic pastures in southern Missouri produce this unique, extremely beneficial product, new to the market place. Can be delivered to your door!

Beyond Organic's GreenFed Raw Cheddar Cheese contains healthy probiotics

I have been told time and time again that my health starts with my digestive system. This makes a lot of sense to me since the average person has almost 30 feet of guts. Its the place where food enters and it's nutrients are supposed to be absorbed into the system. For those who suffer "IBS" symptoms (and let me preface by saying that I believe IBS is just a generalized dump-bucket term that some doctors choose to lean on), more than likely they will also have a "leaky gut" which is the lead culprit to the IBS symptoms. Leaky gut syndrome damage occurs to the lining of one's intestinal wall from repeated ingestion of foods containing gluten, certain medications, excessive alcohol, certain antibiotics, and other triggers. This damage leads to a permeability in the intestinal walls where toxins literally flow through the intestines into the blood stream rather than being moved along and voided. Having this condition causes many symptoms such as abdominal bloating, excessive gas and cramps, fatigue, food sensitivities, joint pain, skin rashes, and autoimmunity. 

Beyond Organic's dark organic chocolate contains toasted flax seed for Omega 3s, fiber, with probiotics and antioxidants. Who wants some chocolate?!

So, how to heal the gut from damage already done (or keep your gut running optimally and healthy)? PROBIOTICS! It is a simple way to help heal one's gut, keep things moving along, and put healthy flora (or healthy bugs/bacteria) back into the digestive system. Probiotics are a NECESSITY if one has ever been on antibiotics. Antibiotics kill ALL the bugs, good and bad. Probiotics must be taken after the last round of antibiotics have been taken in order to give the gut a chance to restore its normal flora. However, it is truly necessary to take probiotics at all times, and just up the intake after a round of antibiotics, sickness, or disease.


How probiotics benefit and help to heal the gut:


1. Boost your immunities and help fight against anything trying to "get" you
2. Increase bowel movement
3. Discourages overgrowth of "bad" bacteria
4. Reduces intestinal allergies
5. Helps alleviate "IBS", gluten intolerance symptoms
6. Produces nutrients in the lining of the gut 
7. Lessens occurrence of yeast

With our daughter suffering from gluten intolerance, our favorite way to get probiotics into our diet is by drinking Amasai, a living whole food. Here are the highlights of Amasai:

• GreenFed - cattle intensely graze on organic grasses and greens - no grains
• Cultured - with over 30 types of probiotics, making it an easy-to-digest, smoothie-like beverage
• True Whole Milk - never skimmed, always teeming with protein, healthy fats and fat-soluble vitamins

For more information on how to have Amasai delivered to your door click here: organicformylife.com

Just say "No" to BPA

This is a picture of the bottle I used for 3 years, religiously. Turns out it wasn't so great for me.

The very bottle that some water comes or is stored in can leach chemicals that are harmful to our bodies. It was only a few years ago, living in Canada, when working so hard to lose all my weight, that I had a big, plastic Nalgene bottle. I carried this bottle with me, full of water, everywhere. I thought I had bought the same bottle, that all health enthusiasts recommended and serious athletes used. I thought I had bought the best water bottle, ever. A couple years after having bought my first Nalgene  bottle, the reports started circulating about the bisphenol A (BPA). There are always opposing sides to every issue. Here is what the pro-BPA side has to say: Facts about BPA (published by the Polycarbonate/BPA Global Group of the American Chemistry Council) and myths according to them: http://factsaboutbpa.org/what-are-the-bpa-mythshttp://factsaboutbpa.org/what-are-the-bpa-myths.  Wow, that was the perfect example of don't believe everything you read. (You don't even have to believe what I write, but just know that I have mine and my family's best interests at stake and I am not a huge corporation based on millions of dollars.) They claim on their website that "Based on several studies on human volunteers, the very small amount of BPA that may be ingested by a person during normal daily activities is efficiently converted to biologically inactive metabolites, which are eliminated from the human body within 24 hours." They lead us to believe that there is absolutely nothing wrong with BPA. At the time of my writing this blog entry, the site actually had a photo of a woman, smiling ear to ear, as she holds a BPA-lined can of soup while grocery shopping. It reminded me of the same feeling I got when I saw this old ad:

This ad is a hoax, but I almost believed it was for real!