Archive for the ‘health tips’ Category

Summer begins on the Summer Solstice June 21. To get you prepared for the upcoming warming weather here are some great tips for cooking and what foods will keep you nice and chill. In the warmer months it makes sense to eat more cooling foods. Intuitively our bodies want water dense foods in the heat of the summer to cool us off and give us more hydration. But that doesn’t mean you should eat raw or only cooling foods all Summer. You want to have a balance of the 5 seasons and tastes in your diet each season.

1. Eat Organic, Local, Seasonal Foods
For the health of the planet and to keep your body in balance with your surrounding environment, it’s best to eat as much local, organic, seasonally grown produce as possible. In the Summer this should be easy because no matter where you live you should have access to local (within a 300 mile radius) food via your local natural food store, farmer’s market or CSA.

Foods that Support You in Summer:
Grains: Corn, maize, amaranth, quinoa, millet, soba noodles
Vegetables: Asparagus, Brussels sprouts, Bitter greens like Kale, Collards, Arugula, Mustard, Yellow Squash & Zucchini, Sprouts, Fresh Herbs, Beets, Mushrooms, Cauliflower
Beans and Pulses: red lentils, chickpeas, mung beans
Fruits: apricot, guava, strawberry and other berries, persimmon, avocado, melons

2. Use Cooling Cooking Methods for Spring/Summer
Use lighter cooking methods in warmer months like steaming, blanching, water saute, raw or chilled soups, raw salads, and even lightly grilled is good for summer. Make quick-cooking grains and legumes like the ones listed above. Having noodles or cracked-grains like couscous, polenta, and bulgur can be great for summer too. Intuitively, your body doesn’t crave baked foods, oil saute, or longer cooked meals in the Summer because those aren’t balanced for the season. Your body wants water-dense foods like cucumber, summer squash, fruits, lettuce, and greens.

3. Stay Hydrated
I know you’ve heard this before, but in the warmer months it’s even more important that you are drinking plenty of water and staying away from sugary and caffeinated beverages. Keep in mind that you can get a lot of hydration from your food, so eating high-water content food helps your cells stay hydrated as well.

4. Keep It Simple
Summer is a great time to simplify your diet. There is nothing wrong with having a simple meal of quinoa, steamed greens, and beans, eating a huge raw salad by itself. The less energy you expend making gourmet meals the more energy you will have to keep you going in the heat. Also, you won’t be working up a sweat in the kitchen!

5. Lay Off the Animal Foods
If you aren’t already totally plant-based (vegan) Summer is the best time to make the plunge! Or if you are vegetarian, now is a good time to dump the dairy. Animal foods are known for their warming effects on the body. One thing I noticed after going vegan is I don’t sweat as much and I don’t get so aggravated by the heat of the summer. Animal foods are so much work for our bodies and digestive systems to process, they literally steal your energy away.

Share on Facebook

Our tip for the day was to eat more pickles. These are not the usual pickles you get from the store that have sugar and vinegar. We are talking about traditional macrobiotic pickles that are made with sea salt, miso, or umeboshi. This recipe is a “quick” pickle that is perfect for Spring and liver cleansing. It comes from love, sanae which is available on Amazon or at seed! Enjoy!

Share on Facebook

Are your New Year’s resolutions already a thing of the past?

We Are Here To Help!

The vast majority of those that bravely gave voice to a New Year’s Resolution have already abandoned those promises by the third week of the New Year.  As we now enter the second month of 2010, Chef Eric & the kids at SEED Restaurant are at the ready with a helping hand and a sympathetic ear – a second chance to set realistic goals for your life…and, this time, to succeed.   If your goal was to lose weight, eat healthier, find love or find a new career, SEED offers a few helpful insights.  And, best of all, there’s no lectures or preaching; No attempt at converting followers to vegetarianism; No lifestyle changes that doom you to failure and fatigue.  This year, SEED offers a series of classes, daily thoughts and tips, cooking instruction, and special events to assist you in gently, and purposefully, achieving your goals.

Let the New Year begin – Again!

First, Chef Eric and his wife – holistic/macrobiotic counselor Sanae Suzuki – offer a series of complimentary classes, seminars, and cooking demonstrations.  Scheduled approximately once every two weeks, these classes might cover “Cooking with leftovers,” to “Realizing your life’s goals and dreams,” to “simple substitutions for fast food.” Class schedules are listed on the SEED website and are always posted in the restaurant for upcoming weeks.  Most classes are held at the restaurant’s communal table, although many cooking classes/book signings are scheduled for bookstores and markets throughout Los Angeles over the coming weeks.

Secondly, SEED offers tips for a better life via our blog and our FaceBook page.  These brief, insightful messages appear daily, and might include a cooking tip, an affirmation, a product recommendation, or a joke – all designed to focus the reader, if only for a couple of minutes per day, on achieving small realistic goals. The daily messages will run continuously for sixty days, after which time SEED will host in-house events for all of our followers to discuss successes and failures, and how to move forward productively and positively.

Thirdly, each week Chef Eric and Sanae will give away SEED DINNER FOR TWO’s, personalized copies of the couple’s own cookbooks, complimentary cooking classes, and complimentary counseling sessions to our followers.  Prizes will be awarded via our facebook page, the SEED blog, and via local food bloggers.

Lastly, Chef Eric and Sanae will draw one name each week, with all winners invited to attend the finale to Happy New Year (Part Deux!) – AN EVENING WITH THE CHEFS.  Offered with our compliments to celebrate OUR FIRST BIRTHDAY, guests will dine, mingle through the kitchen, watch cooking demonstrations and enjoy entertainment and readings, and meet leading cookbook authors and lifestyle experts.  And, of course, the topic of conversation will be “Making Small Changes That Matter – The New Year’s Resolutions That Lasted.”

Share on Facebook

At the most recent Vegan Macrobiotic Meetup Sanae talked about New Year’s resolutions, how to set realistic goals for yourself, and how to stick to them. We also talked about why we have not been able to achieve our goals in the past. We expect too much from ourselves. Maybe our goals were not realistic, or depended on other people for completion.

In November and December, we feel stressed, we rush around, and most people don’t take the time to sit and be peaceful or write their New Years Resolution. When January arrives, a calmness comes. This is a good time to write your resolutions or goals, for the short-term and long-term. Here’s a little note from Sanae with a remedy drink.

Holiday

A Time to Compromise and Adapt

Winter in the United States is a time to be with family and friends and often traditionally involves cooking loads of heavy, rich foods. When I first started cooking and eating macrobiotic foods, the holiday season was coming up, and I worried I would feel left out and have nothing to eat.

It’s not an easy time to heal during holiday gatherings, when the food is rich and lavish, straying from healthful habits. Shortly after I was diagnosed with cancer, I was invited to go to a friend’s house for Thanksgiving. I told my hosts that I couldn’t eat most of their food, but they still insisted that I come anyway; and so I did. I brought brown rice with me and was able to eat some of the vegetable dishes.

At first, this seemed acceptable, but soon I found myself having to answer many questions about my special “diet.” I quickly became exhausted and regretted going there at all. Thankfully, people are more accepting of alternate ways of preparing and enjoying foods nowadays, and I find that I am also more accepting of their curiosity and interest. The following recipes are proof that macrobiotic foods can be just as sumptuous and satisfying as they are healing. I have enjoyed these recipes many times during the holiday season, and I hope you will too. (© Love, Sanae vegan macrobiotic cookbook)

Kombu Tea

MAKES 4 CUPS

For the tea:

3-inch strip of kombu, cleaned with a towel
1 quart purified water

To make the tea:

1. In a large pot over a medium-high flame, combine the kombu and the water.

2. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer until the quantity of water is

reduced by half, about 15 to 20 minutes.

3. Drink while hot. You can reheat any remaining tea and drink up to 2 to 3 cups per day.

Useful information:

Traditionally, kombu is used in daily cooking. This mineral-rich sea vegetable strengthens the blood

and aids in restoring function to the nervous system. Kombu is a good source of folate, calcium, iodine, magnesium and fiber.

© Love, Sanae vegan macrobiotic cookbook

Share on Facebook

Holidays can be a rough time for our minds and bodies – dealing with family stress, traveling, eating too much or food we don’t usual eat, and financial worries brought on by our desire to buy gifts for our loved ones. It’s really important during this time of year to nourish our mind, body, and spirits and take good care of ourselves.

A note from Sanae:

The 5 Element energy right now is Metal/Autumn transitioning to Water/Winter. Autumn energy is contracting while Winter energy is more fluid. But the energy of our society that surrounds us is not natural and is man-made. Retailers are bombarding us with sales and companies feel pressure about their bottom line of the year. People are running around like crazy, traveling, and our stress levels are extremely high right now.

The natural energy right now is to go inward or gathering. You see friends and family gathering together and that is natural for this time of year. We don’t need to buy all kinds of stuff to gather with our friends and show our love and gratitude. We can make handmade gifts to give for the holidays. Or we can come together to cook a vegetarian meal to share with each other.

Many people are feeling depressed around the holidays because they feel pressure by society to consume, consume, consume. This energy is not uplifting, and it’s good to acknowledge these feelings, because we are human. There is nothing wrong with these feelings, but they aren’t you. You don’t have to be attached to the feelings. Share these feelings with your friends and family, which will help you see how much you have to be grateful for.

Good things to do this time of year is to eat simple foods, root vegetables, creamy grain porridges, miso soup, and blanched greens.

Here’s a recipe from the new book love, sanae. We hope you enjoy it and have a wonderful holiday!

Share on Facebook

There is much debate about whether the flu shot is safe or even necessary. Our bodies have a defense system that fights disease and harmful organisms naturally (i.e. the immune system). When we take a flu shot we weaken our natural defense system by driving it to work overtime to overcome the flu virus just injected in us. But the flu shot comes with a slew of other nasty things like thimerasol, antifreeze, formaldehyde, carbolic acid, Neomycin and/or streptomycin. Sounds fun right! Thimerasol, a preservative that is 50 times more toxic than mercury, has been linked to disorders like autism, MS, ADD, and other speech disorders.

So how do you combat the flu naturally? Strengthen Your Immune System!

The flu and common cold can’t live in a healthy, alkaline environment. If your immune system is strong then you won’t contract anything from the people around you. We create an environment in our bodies that will either be suitable for bacteria or not. That being said, when the weather gets cold our lungs contract and mucous comes out. This is our bodies way of discharging excess fruit and sugar that we ate during the warmer summer months. It’s normal for our bodies to go through transitions with the seasons. So if you have a few sniffles, don’t freak out and don’t run for the medicine cabinet. It’s better to let your body run it’s course and do it’s thing, than try and suppress it. If you follow these tips below you have a better chance of staying healthy and vibrant during the winter months.

Lessen fruit and sugar intake (including alcohol)
Cut out processed junk foods and switch to a whole-foods diet
Exercise regularly and drink plenty of pure water
Get restful sleep and don’t stress yourself out

Doesn’t hurt to take a immune boosting supplement – my favorite is Source Naturals Wellness Formula (Tablets not Capsules), which contain Olive Leaf Extract, Astragulas, Grape Seed Extract, and other herbs proven to build immunity.

If you still feel like you need to run out and get a flu shot, please do some research beforehand to decide if it’s really worth it.

Share on Facebook

Whether you have a business trip planned, road trip ahead, or you are spending hours at the office, these tips will keep you healthy while on the go.

Set Your Intentions and Plan Ahead

Set the intention before you leave that you will do your best to eat healthy and nurture yourself while on vacation or out about. Plan ahead for your next trip by using the information super-highway (the internet) to find where the healthy restaurants and natural food stores are located. If you have the resources, find hotels or apartments to rent that have mini-kitchens so you can cook most of your own meals with fresh, local produce.

Make snacks and stock a mini-cooler to take with you on road trips. I always keep nuts in my car even when I’m not traveling so I never get stuck having a low blood sugar crash.

Make Your Own Snacks

A few days before your trip or a busy week at work make your own snacks to take with you so you can avoid the vending machine. Stick with things that travel well like trail mix and granola. Check out the previous post for healthy snacks you can make at home.

If you don’t have time to make your own snacks for a busy week ahead, you should be able to choose healthy options. Most service stations these days carry raw nuts and head to the grocery store to stock up on healthy snacks like fruit, celery sticks and peanut butter, and whole grain crackers with hummus.

Always Have Water With You

Invest in a large stainless steel bottle and always have water nearby. When traveling or stressed we often forget to stay hydrated and tend to drink more caffeinated beverages to keep us going, which makes us thirstier. Stay clear of sodas and high sugar fruit juices, but feel free to indulge in a fresh vegetable juice. Don’t forget that you can get water from your food, too. Veggies and fruits like cucumbers, lettuce, melons, broccoli, and tomatoes have high water content and can help you stay hydrated.

Avoid Fast Food Chains

We all know that fast food is bad for us, but it can be hard to avoid on road trips where there is no other food options in sight. Search for a local family-owned restaurant where you’ll be able to get plenty of vegetable options. If fast food is the only option look for a sandwich shop where you can get a veggie sandwich on whole grain bread (with mustard not mayo) or a salad (ask for the dressing on the side). Stick with fruit and yogurt for breakfast and stay away from the burgers and fries.

Keep it Simple

You’ve heard of the KISS principle right? Keeping it simple can save you inches on your waistline and will help you choose healthy meals while on the go. If you can’t find a healthy choice on a restaurant’s menu, you can always ask the waiter if the chef can make you something special. A simple dinner of brown rice, steamed veggies, and either beans, tofu, or fish can leave you feeling satisfied and make your heart happy. And, don’t forget that most restaurant portions are enough to feed two people. If you don’t have a place to store the leftovers order an appetizer instead of an entrée.

Share on Facebook