Tag: beauty detox foods

**October is breast cancer awareness month.**

I know several women who have survived and others who have lost their battle with this terrible disease. Chances are, you or someone you love has been affected. Cancer is a complex disease, so I don’t pretend to have all of the answers or solutions for how to fix or heal it.

Because this blog and my overall food philosophy focus on empowering you to nourish your body and transform your health, today’s post features a recipe that is full of beautifying, anti–cancer nutrients.

As many of you know, I strive to “upgrade” my diet and “add in” more of what is healing, nourishing and energizing…so we’re going to flip our focus today to breast cancer prevention.

All of us are aware that breast cancer exists and know that we don’t want to have it, but what have we learned about how to prevent it?

What can we do proactively to give our body the best chance to be well and protect ourselves against diseases like cancer in the first place?

I’ve learned a lot from some incredible doctors, researchers and nutritionists over the years about what we can do help our body’s chances of staying well by eating a nutrient-rich diet.

Dr. Fuhrman, whose focus on anti-cancer nutrition has influenced how I eat, outlined his top tips for breast cancer prevention here.

One of his tips is to eat more foods like the ones outlined in this recipe, especially cabbage.

Up until about a year ago, I had never bought purple cabbage and certainly hadn’t cooked with it.

I had tasted it sprinkled in to salad mixes before but never thought much about it until reading The Beauty Detox book by Kimberly Snyder and being introduced to this recipe, which Kimberly spins as a way to reduce crow’s feet.

Red cabbage is one of Dr. Fuhrman’s anti-cancer, anti-fat storage foods called GBOMBS. It contains powerful nutrients that help our body reduce inflammation and detoxify (get rid of harmful toxins that build up).

Those two processes are the SECRETS to losing weight, having clear and beautiful skin, and not getting sick. The more inflammation-fighting, detoxifying foods we eat, the better off we will be.

This recipe is also a much healthier option than most mayo-loaded slaws that we’re used to eating 🙂

And it’s really easy to prepare. Just like this paleo cole slaw I featured a few weeks ago that was a hit!

**If you’ve been reading this blog for some time, you should have all of the main ingredients below (ACV, tamari, tahini and nutritional yeast or “nooch”). If not, check out this point where I covered what they are, why they’re good for us, and where we can buy them. Stocking a healthy pantry is KEY to eating well.**

Ingredients (Organic, when possible)

3 cups purple cabbage, shredded (you can do this manually or with the single shredding blade on a food processor)
2 tablespoons raw apple cider vinegar (ACV) (for more on ACV, check out this post!)
1 teaspoon tamari
1 tablespoon tahini
1½ tablespoons nutritional yeas t (I buy it in bulk at MOMs, but you can also find it at Wegmans, Whole Foods, Roots, and most natural food stores or online at Amazon or Vitacost)

Optional Ingredients

¼ cup pumpkin seeds or sunflower seeds
½ cup finely chopped fresh parsley
A few avocado slices
¼ cup chopped pitted black olives

Click here for the full recipe from Kimberly Snyder’s website and here to read all about nutritional yeast!

Beautifying Detox Salad {Vegetarian}

By Rachel Druckenmiller

On June 30, 2014

In Anti-Inflammatory, Clean Eating, Dairy-Free, Detoxifying, Paleo, Recipes, Vegan

As the weather warms up, I’m always looking for new ideas for light, refreshing, and detoxifying dishes.

Anything from the cabbage family (like the bok choy and red cabbage in this recipe) is cleansing to the body, which is what we want after our winter hibernation! It’s also a cancer-fighting superstar (AKA a GBOMBS food).

Beautiful, crisp, detoxifying bok choy. A true beauty food!

GBOMBS are a group of the most nutrient-dense, disease-fighting, health-promoting foods in the world, foods we should eat a lot of on a daily basis. Check out this post for the full details on GBOMBS and how you can benefit from eating them!

In her book, The Beauty Detox Foods, nutritionist Kimberly Snyder points out tons of other health and beauty benefits of eating cabbage (bok choy and red cabbage both count!):

Anti-aging/great for your skin because it contains vitamins A, C and E
Helps to detoxify or purify the blood (which also contributes to clearer skin and reduced inflammation)
High in fiber so it “keeps things moving” 🙂
Good for the thyroid and other endocrine glands because of its iodine content

Click here to read about even more of the amazing healthy benefits of bok choy in particular.

Now that you’re sold on WHY eating these foods is a good idea, here’s a recipe to try that shows you HOW to use them!

Beauty Detox Bok Choy Salad

Salad Ingredients

2 heads of bok choy, chopped into ½” pieces
3 cups of thin-sliced red cabbage (we run ours through the food processor to shred it quickly and easily)
1 tablespoon sesame seeds

Dressing

6 tablespoons sesame seeds
4 cloves of garlic, minced
⅔ cup white wine vinegar (I used Bragg’s raw apple cider vinegar, since I didn’t have white wine vinegar)
1/4 cup honey (I use raw honey, but use what you have! If you’re vegan, sub in maple syrup instead)
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup tamari (Wheat-free soy sauce available in the Asian aisle of your grocery store. Use whatever soy sauce you have on hand if you don’t have tamari!)

Click here for the full recipe!

Rhubarb Ch-ch-ch-chia Jam!

By Rachel Druckenmiller

On June 4, 2014

In Clean Eating, Dairy-Free, Recipes

Rhubarb is one of those foods that most of us have heard about…but not many of us have eaten and even fewer of us have bought and cooked ourselves.

Until a few days ago, I had never bought rhubarb in my life, much less used it in any recipes.

I had no idea what it tasted like…or even whether it was a fruit or vegetable! (I learned that it’s technically a vegetable but often regarded as a fruit because of its use in sweet recipes.)

All I knew was that it looked like a magenta-colored celery stalk…and that the most common way people eat it is in strawberry rhubarb pie.

Chopped rhubarb. So pretty and colorful!

I’ve never been much of a pie person (more a fan of crisps and crumbles) and had no clue what to do with rhubarb, so to Pinterest I went in search of a recipe!

I stumbled upon a simple, whole food recipe without refined sugar that featured rhubarb and (bonus!) contained only 4 ingredients.

The jam tastes like a combination of sweet strawberries, tart cherries and tangy lemon, even though there are no strawberries or cherries in it. Rhubarb has that unique of a taste!

You can put this deliciously tart and tangy jam on toast, in oatmeal or breakfast porridge, or in plain yogurt, or use it as a dessert topping.

Chia seeds are another ingredient in this recipe and are a staple in our pantry. They can be used in so many ways, including jams, puddings and smoothies. Not only that, but they’re a super-powered beauty detox food with some pretty amazing health benefits listed below!

Ch-ch-ch-chia seeds! You can find these at any health food store or online at Amazon, Vitacost or other stores.

Swell to 10-15 times their original size when combined with liquid and form a gel, which helps to keep us feeling full for hours
Perfect before, during and after workouts since they’re super hydrating
Help balance your blood sugar and keep energy levels up since they contain lots of fiber
Their gel-like consistency promotes optimal digestion and keeps things moving in our digestive system (trust me, we want to keep things moving!)
Contain high levels of antioxidants, which fight the damage of things like stress, poor diet, smoking and other health stressors, and omega-3 fatty acids, which are important for balancing hormones and nerve functions

Tart & Tangy Rhubarb Chia Jam

The final product! Super simple chia jam 🙂

Ingredients

1 pound fresh rhubarb, leafy ends removed, stalks chopped across into ¼-inch slices
3 tablespoons honey or maple syrup (I used honey)
2 tablespoons chia seeds
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice or orange juice (I used lemon juice)

Click here for the full recipe!