23 Power House Foods that Dropped my Husband's "BAD" cholesterol 46 POINTS!!

Do you think you could eat super foods most of the time? Six months ago, James and I set out on a “Super food adventure!” We pledged to consume nothing but super foods for one week. Well, one week turned into two and before long, we decided to devote our eating habits to super foods.



Why did we decide to embark on such a seemingly radical adventure? For starters, I read a significant amount of research about the health benefits associated with super foods and since James is a good husband and listens to me talk endlessly, he thought: “if these foods are so great for you, why don’t we just eat them!?”

Even though Super foods are grounded in evidence based research, I never imagined that we would experience personal and drastic health benefits from eating them!




I am here to scream from the mountain tops the value of eating a diet rich with super foods! Why? Because here are the facts: our healthcare system is collapsing around us, we must eat to survive, we CHOOSE our own healthcare, why wouldn’t we want to feed our body the best medicine on earth: food, specifically nutrient-rich, power house, super foods?



Six months ago James had his cholesterol drawn, below are his results (good thing he isn’t a modest husband, here I go plastering his personal information over the internet!)

(12/2009)

Total Cholesterol: 172

HDL (healthy cholesterol, the more you have the better). 50

LDL (loser cholesterol, the less you have the better). 116

SIX MONTHS & LOADS OF SUPER FOODS LATER (06/2010)

Total Cholesterol: 145

HDL: 55

LDL: 70

James total cholesterol DROPPED 27 points, his LDL dropped 46 points, and his HDL increased 5 points!  Is that, or is that not, AMMMAZING!? We have experienced other health benefits, too: improved sleep, increased energy, increased concentration, decreased stress, improved GI, increased athletic performance, and the list goes on.... 

I included the complete list of super foods below. Each super food listed has a “partner in crime” Pratt (2009) defines these little partners as “side-kicks” meaning they have a similar nutrient profile as the defined super food. The partners in crime help to add variety to your diet.

Remember, the power of super foods exists from eating each food consistently. You cannot expect to eat a big Mac from McDonalds and wash it down with an apple and be “okay.” Super foods improve your health when you consume most of them daily. Trust me, if James and I can make this happen, you can make it happen, too!!



Original 14 Super foods & Their Partners in crime:

Beans: all dried beans, string beans, sugar snap peas, green peas

Blueberries: purple grapes, cranberries, boysenberries, raspberries, strawberries, fresh currants, blackberries, cherries, and all other fresh or frozen berries

Broccoli: Brussels sprouts, cabbage, kale, turnips, cauliflower, collards, bok choy, mustard green, Swiss chard

Oats: wheat germ, ground flaxseed, brown rice, barley, wheat, buckwheat, rye millet, bulgar wheat, amaranth, quinoa, triticale, kamut, yellow corn, wild rice, spelt, couscous

Oranges: lemons, white and pink grapefruit, kumquats, tangerines, limes

Pumpkin: Carrots, butternut squash, sweet potatoes, orange bell peppers

Salmon: Alaskan halibut, chunk light tuna, sardines, herring, trout, bass, oysters, clams

Soy: tofu, soy milk, soy nuts, edamame, tempeh, miso

Spinach: kale, collards, Swiss chard, mustard greens, turnip greens, bok-choy, romaine lettuce, orange bell peppers

Tea: green and black

Tomatoes: watermelon, pink grapefruit, Japanese persimmons, red fleshed papaya, strawberry guava

Turkey: skinless chicken breast

Walnuts: almonds, pistachios, pumpkin, sesame and sunflower seeds, macadamia nuts, pecans, hazelnuts, cashews, peanuts, pine nuts, Brazil nuts

Additional research uncovered the following additional super foods & super spices

Apples: pears

Avocado: asparagus, artichokes, extra virgin olive oil

Dark Chocolate (don’t let crazy packaging fool you, real dark chocolate doesn’t really taste that great)

Dried Super Fruits: raisins, dates, prunes, figs, apricots, blueberries, cranberries, cherries, currants

Extra virgin olive oil: canola oil

Honey (the darker the better)

Kiwi: pineapple, guava

Onions: garlic, scallions, shallots, leeks, chives

Pomegranates: plums

Super Spices:

Cinnamon

Oregano

Cumin

Garlic

Thyme

Turmeric

I included a few of our favorite super food recipies below, I will continue to post more recipies as we create, taste, and give the Strout stamp of approval!
Macoronin & Cheese

Breakfast Oats Recent additions: 1 tsp cinnamon & 1 tsp honey

Pizza

Sketti & Meatballs

Meatball Sub

Shopping for superfoods on a budget!

Amazed by NAKED pizza!

James and I budget $500 per month for food (max $125/week). Most of the time, our weekly food expense is about $100, but sometimes special occasions, guests, or food gifts cause our weekly budget to tip over! Last week, with James traveling home to Bangor, our food budget tipped in the wrong direction! To recoup the losses, we were challenged to save some $$ on food this week.

Some of our most expensive food items include: cheese, meat, and vegetables. In order to maintain our budget, we had to shave about $30 off our grocery bill this week. We didn’t want to skimp on veggies, so we decided to ditch the cheese and meat.

What did this mean? NAKED PIZZA!! This delicious whole wheat pizza topped with natural pizza sauce and four veggies: mushrooms, orange pepper, onion, and spinach is not only loaded with TONS of nutrients, and saved us $$, but I honestly was amazed that I didn’t notice the missing CHEESE! WOOT WOOT!!


"The wise man should consider that health is the greatst of human blessings.  Let food be your medicine."  Hippocrates

"Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes, and having fun!"

Mary Lou Cook

[This week’s grocery bill= $70.15, I am NOT lying!!!] YAY, WE’RE GETTING OUT OF DEBT! Plus, we are EATING HEALHTY!!! BAAAABY!!!

Would you eat 52 teaspoons of sugar today?

Do you know how much sugar you eat every day?? The average American consumes 52 TEASPOONFULS of sugar PER DAY!!

USDA.gov 2010 (http://www.usda.gov/factbook/chapter2.pdf)

A couple of weeks ago, I tracked everything I put in my mouth on: http://www.thedailyplate.com/ . After three days, I was SHOCKED! I learned, on average, I eat 137 teaspoons of sugar DAILY, and the recommended value is 41 teaspoons! WOW!

I went on a Sugar Revolution!!

Apple Renovation: I did a little apple research and discovered that granny smith apples contain 14 tsp of sugar versus 25-30tsp in other apples! I want to eat an apple every day because apples are superfoods;I switched to granny smith apples and saved 10-15tsp of sugar per day!

Yogurt Overhaul: My non-fat, plain, regular yogurt contained 20tsp of sugar! Plain, non-fat greek yogurt contains 7 tsp of sugar, and 18 GRAMS of PROTEIN! I dip my apple in my yogurt around 9am, and I am FULL until noon!

Oatmeal Refurb: I ditched the 2 tsp of brown sugar in my morning oatmeal, saving me 8grams of sugar/day. At first, I felt like I was chocking my oatmeal down, but after one week, I didn’t notice the missing sugar!

23.5MILLION Americans over 20 are diabetic (National   Institute for Health, 2007)

http://diabetes.niddk.nih.gov/DM/PUBS/statistics/#allages

3 small changes=36tsp of sugar! Tracking my food intake helped me learn my sugar intake is too high! I plan to be mindful of my sugar intake whenever possible. I am also thinking about ditching ketchup…..BUT…that’s a BIG situation. I LOOOOOVE ketchup. So I will think on that one.

What good would come to your life if you went on a sugar revolution!? Do you know how much sugar you eat per day? Are you surprised by the sugar content in prepared foods??