Orange Juice with a Fresh Green Twist

Do know where orange juice comes from?

Ok that’s a bit of a smart-ass question … but to make a point I thought I would ask.

Of course orange juice comes from oranges. But most of the orange juice for sale in supermarkets has been pasteurized and hot packed in plastic bottles. So you are buying an inferior product in non-degradable packaging. Sure it’s inexpensive and convenient, but at what cost to our health and our environment?

Why not make your own orange juice with your blender. (A VitaMix is ideal for this task.)

And while your at it, throw in some fresh greens and you’ve got a high fiber super drink at a fraction of the cost of purchasing powdered green super food, which by the way, is also a processed food housed in a pesky plastic tub.

OGJ is:
- Neutral Alkaline forming when made with spinach
- Medium Alkaline forming when made with Kale
- Diabetic Friendly
- Gluten Free
- High Fiber 
- Raw

OGJ is best enjoyed fresh and it will keep in fridge for up to 12 hours.

Ingredients
1 orange peeled
1-2 handfuls of any leafy greens such as spinach and kale
¼ lime peeled
¼ – ½ inch fresh ginger (optional)
2 cups water
Ice (optional)

Directions
1. Wash all ingredients under running water.
2. Place all ingredients in blender (put leafy greens in last)
3. Add 2 cups filtered water
4. Blend until all ingredients are well pulverized (30-45 seconds in a VitaMix) and the OGJ is a frothy bright green
5. Serve over ice

Recently Alberta Tourism was chastised for using an image of a beach in Northumberland, England in its multi-million dollar campaign to improve Alberta’s global image. (source CTV: Alberta tourism campaign uses English beach photo. Fri. Apr. 24 2009)

… oops …

Albertans are understandably a little upset about this because a misrepresentation has taken place. Alberta is a beautiful province and there are unending possibilities for stunning images that represent Albertan children playing in the Albertan country side.

Perhaps the people who created the campaign were under time constraints or budget constraints or lazy. Maybe it was more convenient to purchase a generic royalty free photo rather than stomping around the province doing photo shoots.

Whatever the reason, it reminds me of how every day marketers misrepresent food products, trying to make us believe that what is on the grocery shelf is the real thing. And because it is cheap, fast and convenient we allow ourselves to be deceived.

So if you are upset that a multi-million dollar campaign misrepresents what it is trying to sell, remember that its not just the tourism industry that uses these tactics.

Here’s a couple of pictures to keep things real. The first one is Real Food purchased at the Calgary Farmers Market and the second picture is Real Alberta, Chief Hector Lake at Nakoda Lodge.

real food.

Adopting a low crap diet is one of the nicest things you could ever do for yourself and our planet.

These days we are all pitching in. We’re walking more and driving less. We carry around our own coffee mug and cloth bags. We limit our purchases of bottled water. We recycle, reduce and reuse.

And those are all great things … but they are not enough.

We have to take this ‘save the earth’ thing to the next level, and I believe the next level is to become responsible with how we eat, what we eat and why we eat.

One way to take your earth saving and health saving eating habits to the next level is to consider that every time you eat, you are feeding two … and I’m not talking about those few extra pounds you put on over the winter …

Here are a couple of scenarios to get you thinking.

When I eat an orange, the earth receives the peel and eventually the original fibre and water make their way back to the earth via the toilet (ahem). And I receive a moment of freshness, rehydration from pure tropical juice, unadulterated vitamins, minerals and fibre, sticky fingers and the joy of nutritional satisfaction.

When I eat a double packaged, brightly coloured bowl of fruity sugar rings, the earth receives a cardboard box, a plastic bag AND all the denatured sustenance that my body is not able to use (food colouring, preservatives, artificial flavours and manufactured sugar). What do I get out of the deal? A feeling of fullness, a moment of sugar buzz, fuzzy teeth and a depletion of vitality as my body tries to make the most of what it has been given to use as fuel.

Kind of makes you think doesn’t it.

What’s so bad about junk (aka processed) food? We all know the answer. The bad part of junk food is excess sugar, fat, salt, and chemical preservatives – all the things that invite fat, clog arteries, interfere with metabolism, and keep us sluggish, irritable and constipated. Not to mention all that plastic, foil and cardboard packaging … but that’s a subject for another post.

So we know junk food is bad for us. We’ve heard all about it from our parents, health experts and well-meaning friends . . . blah blah blah

But do you really know why junk food is so bad?

Here’s my take on it.

Junk foods are freeloaders in the body. They are the unwelcome house guests that eat all the food and leave a mess in the bathroom. They make you feel good by promising to help pay the bills. They even promise to clean up when they are finished watching the game. But they never do, and you are left feeling frustrated, empty and tired.

You see, Nature, in her infinite wisdom, builds into each food she manufacturers the enzymes, vitamins and minerals necessary for that particular foods processing and digestion within the body. When you eat foods in their whole state, its like invited guests arriving on your door step with their own supply of food and bedding or buying a new electronic gadget with the batteries included. But as soon as whole food is processed and denatured, the enzymes, vitamins and minerals required to process and digest that un-whole food must be pulled out of the body’s stores … in other words, your guests arrive unannounced, empty handed and hungry … the batteries are not included.

Let’s take an example of one tiny little teaspoon of sugar. Did you know that it takes approximately sixteen feet of sugar cane to produce one teaspoon of refined white sugar? If you sat down and chewed on sixteen feet of sugar cane, you would be ingesting all the enzymes, vitamins and minerals your body requires to digest that teaspoon of sugar … no problem.

But when you ingest a teaspoon of refined sugar in the form of soda pop or candy, your body must remove the equivalent of the enzymes, vitamins and minerals found in 16 feet of sugar cane from storage places within the body. How many enzymes, vitamins and minerals do you think are in sixteen feet of sugar cane? I don’t know either, but I bet it’s a lot. So its no wonder that 30 minutes after consuming refined sugar, your immune system is compromised by as much as 50% as your body scrambles to deal with the freeloaders digging into your enzyme, vitamin and mineral stores.

There are thousands of specific examples like this illustrating how the ingestion of highly processed foods force the body to supply the enzymes, vitamins and minerals required just to deal with the junk, in the same way that free-loading house guests happily sit down for meals you’ve prepared, but never offer to buy the groceries or do the cleaning up.

In addition to using up the body’s supply of enzymes, vitamins and minerals, eating junk food is kind of like that freeloading houseguest throwing a party for all their belligerent friends, while refusing to invite your friends.

For example, in order to make delicate and fluffy pastries and breads, the outer portion of the wheat kernel is removed, and the leftover inner portion of the grain is refined into white flour, which in turn is processed into delicate pastries.

Whole grains contain zinc in their outer portion and cadmium in their inner kernel. During digestion zinc competes with cadmium for absorption into the cells. But if the outer portion of the grain (the part that contains the zinc) has been removed, the cadmium from the inner kernel has no competition and can freely absorb into the body. Excess absorption of this non-essential element is still being studied, but preliminary results suggest that, among other things, cadmium may be a factor in kidney disease.

And to make matters worse, by not consuming the outer portion of the wheat kernel, the body’s zinc stores are quickly depleted. Zinc is a critical requirement of over two dozen digestive and metabolic processes as well as being very important in the development of the reproductive organs and for normal functioning of the prostrate gland. Zinc also supports the immune system and protects the body from free radicals.

So the next time you are eating donuts, potato chips or candy bars, think about the enzymes, vitamins and minerals found in whole grain, whole potatoes, cocoa beans and sugar cane. And then think about where those enzymes, vitamins and minerals will be pulled from and what repair process, tissue re-growth, or bone strengthening that will not happen because your body has to deal with unwelcome, freeloading houseguests.

Here is your starting platform … 10 Low Crap Habits that most Conscious Citizens are currently implementing or at least thinking about. If these are not regular habits of yours, don’t worry, you can easily catch up. 2009 is a great year to get started because 2009 is all about change. 

1. Reusable Shopping Bags. You should have a supply of reusable cloth shopping bags and keep them handy in the car, the house, and one in your suitcase. Almost all stores now sell reusable shopping bags at minimal cost so there are no excuses. On the rare occasion when you forget your bag, use your purse, or arms, or ask for a paper bag (its easier to grow a tree then to clean the ocean of plastic; besides trees produce oxygen, plastics produce toxins.) Don’t limit reusable bags to groceries – also use them for clothes purchases, drug store purchases and other shopping excursions.

2. Reusable Coffee Mug. This is especially important if you purchase take out coffee daily. You should by now own one or more reusable mug that is kept handy and clean. Purchase mugs with closable, leak proof lids, that won’t drip the last few drops into your backpack or purse. If your reusable mugs are sitting in the back of a cupboard, dig them out and place them on the table by the door so one is always handy to grab as you run out the door. And don’t be shy; proudly hand over your personal mug with your coffee order – you may even get a discount.

3. No More Bottled Water. Bottled water is an example of a good idea gone bad, terribly bad. If you still need some incentive for getting off bottled water, watch Blue Gold World Water Wars. Tap water is safe and inexpensive. If you don’t like the taste of tap water, purchase a filter jug or a filter that attaches to your facet. Another way to deal with the taste of tap water is to squeeze a little lemon or lime into your glass. One lemon or lime costs about 50 cents and will freshen eight or more classes of water and there is no crappy plastic to deal with, only compostable rind.

4. Cut back on purchases in one-time-use packaging. By now it should be habit to purchase products with minimal or no packaging. When that is not possible choose glass, paper or cardboard packaging over plastic, foil or tin. Better yet consider making your own. Soup is a good place to start. Learn to make your own soup at home using fresh ingredients, rather than buying the tinned variety. 

5. Recycle everything: cardboard, paper, plastic, glass, tin. It has become socially unacceptable to not recycle, which means you are already recycling as much as possible … right? Ok, maybe some of you are storing recyclables in the garage because you don’t have time to take them to the bins? No worries – make that your first weekend project of the spring. Recycling isn’t the answer to all our problems (reusable is better), but it will buy us time until we can get manufacturers changed over to minimal or reusable packaging.

6. Get off the ‘Sugar-Free’ and ‘Low-Fat’ bandwagon. These ideas didn’t work, and we need to let them go. We gave them a good try for a decade or two, but we are unhealthier and more over weight than ever. So if you haven’t already, give up these food imposters. You don’t need them. They pollute your body and pollute our planet. Remember food close to its original form is better than manufactured food. Granulated sugar and honey are better choices then artificial sweeteners. As far as fat is concerned, your body knows what to do with the real thing (in moderation) such as nuts, avocados, coconuts, butter, eggs, olives and even a little organic meat fat. Your body doesn’t know what to do with hydrogenated or genetically modified vegetable oil and artificial sweeteners. If you are still eating foods sporting ‘sugar-free’ and ‘low-fat’ labels, you may as well be wearing head bands, stirrup pants and big hair.

7. Eliminate soda pop, including diet pop, from your life. Are you still drinking pop? Stop! Just do it! There is no food value in pop. It is damaging to both the body and the environment. Would you put pop in your dog’s water dish? Didn’t think so. Pop is unnecessary. It should never be considered a ‘treat’ for the kids. It is a life depleting slow poison that damages body, mind and earth. And don’t use the excuse ‘its diet pop’, because that it even more damaging than the regular kind (reread #6.) Need a low crap replacement for pop? Try sparkling water with fresh juice or fruit slices.

8. Each month learn one new, prepared from scratch, real food recipe. Most of us have one meal that we can prepare from scratch using real food. Friends and family know that dish as our ‘specialty’. But why have just one specialty? To stay enthusiastic about eating home cooked meals made from real food, commit to trying one new recipe each month. Keep the recipe in sight and the ingredients on hand. Prepare it several times until you have committed the process to memory and it becomes another one of your ‘specialties’.

9. Compost Vegetable Waste. When vegetable trimmings go into the regular garbage, and eventually the landfill, methane gas is produced (bad stuff). A much more efficient way to deal with organic waste is to compost. If you’re not already composting, contact your local garden society to learn how to get started. It’s easier than you think. Properly composted vegetable waste produces a potent fertilizer that can be used to grow more food. Not only that, but our landfills won’t fill up as fast, garbage trucks won’t have to make as many trips to the dump and you’ll purchase fewer plastic trash bags. Maybe your not a gardener. That’s ok. A pile of compost in a corner of the back yard is better than a landfill spewing methane gas. And if you don’t use it, I’ll bet you can find a neighbour who will.

10. Hug a Farmer and High-five a Trucker. You may not think that hugging and high-fiving are part of a Low Crap lifestyle. But think about this. If fresh produce and meat are not available in your community, eating a low crap diet is next to impossible. As romantic as it seems, growing food takes hard work and expertise. There are very few people around who are both able and willing to grow quality produce and meat for a living. And until we get a better system in place, it’s the trucker who moves the fresh food from the fields and barns to the local stores in a timely manner. Not many of us are willing or able to drive to a warmer climate every week to purchase our food. Of course a visit to your local Farmer’s Markets should always be your first choice for fresh from the farm food. And while your there express your gratitude with hugs and high-fives. 

So there you have it, Low Crap Habits that you need to embrace in 2009. For most conscious people these are already part of your lifestyle. If you currently practice one or two of these habits – good on ya! You are well on your way to a healthier you and a healthier planet … the low crap way!