What Is Daikon?

Did you know that this is one of the most popular vegetables in Japan?

Did you know that daikon literally means “big root”?

Did you know that this veggie has a sweet and tangy taste?

Did you know that you can use shredded daikon as a replacement to rice for sushi?

Wow!

You bet “WOW!” 

As a vegetarian, I am constantly in search of new and delicious vegetables.  I first discovered daikon while volunteering on vacation.  My lovely wife and I worked at an organic farm for a day and besides being great fun and fulfilling, we were rewarded with a delicious lunch made from several of the vegetables grown there.  One of those veggies was daikon.

Yeah, but how do you eat it?

Like this:

Daikon can be eaten cooked or raw.  Add it to stir-fry, boil it and mash it up, toss it on the grill and serve as a side dish, or bake it with the protein of your choice.

Eat it raw in a salad, pickled as a side dish, or shred it and use it as a great way to reduce your carbohydrate intake when enjoying sushi.  I love sushi, but the rice is loaded with carbs and difficult to digest—daikon is my savior!

Besides being a delicious root veggie, daikon also offers these benefits:

·        Low in Calories

·        High in Dietary Fiber

·        Excellent Source of Vitamin C, Potassium, and Magnesium

·        Low in Carbohydrates

·        May increase Immune System

·        Heart Healthy

·        Slow the Aging Process (count me in!)

·        Has Cancer-fighting Agents

Next time you’re cruising the produce aisle of your local grocery and see a white rooty vegetable about the size of a baseball bat, stop and grab some daikon.  You’ll be glad you did.

Until next time…

peace,

Mike

Livelife365

 

The New Silent Killer

Q: What is the most lethal silent killer facing the world today?

The first reply from most of us would probably be hypertension—as it is seldom symptomatic.  Or high cholesterol, for the same reason.  How about obesity or heart disease?  All valid guesses, but how can obesity be considered a silent killer?

What about diabetes?

I recently finished an excellent book called Sugar Nation, written by Jeff O’Connell.  In it, Jeff, a thin and seemingly healthy man who is fighting diabetes, goes into lengthy and fascinating detail about how this disease is growing at record numbers.  And is not only afflicting the obese and sugar-scrafers.  It attacks the slender and fit folks, and potentially people like me, who ingest little sugar, but have some carbohydrate food challenges.

Jeff’s father died from diabetes; I’m sure this motivated him to write Sugar Nation.  I can relate to that, as my father died in his mid-fifties from years of tobacco abuse, along with overindulging in alcohol and unhealthy food choices.  It was through his death that I became the health advocate that I am today.  And helped motivate me to create this blog and my website, livelife365.com.

I was recently asked by Jeff’s marketing team to write a review of Sugar Nation.  I offer it here for you to read and learn, and strongly urge you to buy the book.  It just may save your life.

Oh, and, of course, I also produced this video about Jeff's book for your viewing pleasure:

Is Sugar Killing Us?

One thought that continued to meander around my brain as I dove into Jeff O’Connell’s must-read book, Sugar Nation, was that I did not consider myself a sugar-eater.  All my life I have been lucky to eschew the temptations of a sweet tooth for the desire to indulge in more salty snacks.  I could literally walk past a mound of brownies and dishes filled with chocolates without batting an eye.  Yet find it quite difficult to put down a bag of potato chips without consuming most of them.  But did you know that the carbohydrates from that bag of chips turns into as much sugar, once processed and stored inside the body, as consuming spoonfuls of the sweet stuff?

Sugar Nation reads as much like a personal memoir as a convincing diatribe against the medical community for seemingly turning a blind eye toward one of the worst killers decimating the world today—diabetes.  

Jeff O’Connell, a diabetic battling the same disease that killed his father, knows of what he speaks.  A former executive writer at Men’s Health and editor at Muscle & Fitness, Jeff decided to take matters into his own hands in his fight against this growing disease.  Through a tireless energy and investigative zeal (challenging, given his constant battle with low blood sugar, spiking insulin, crashing insulin, and the countless maladies that accompany diabetes), Jeff shatters conventional (and at times very incorrect) wisdom, deciding to battle his illness with diet and exercise, rather than the all-too-often remedy: prescription drugs.

I am familiar with this type of attitude when it comes to not accepting the first (or second or third) opinion of someone in the medical profession.  A few years ago I was overweight, had high blood pressure and unhealthy cholesterol and glucose levels.  The immediate reaction from my doctors was to reach for a prescription pad.  My immediate reaction was—do I want to spend the rest of my life gobbling pills?  Or could I do something myself to change those life-threatening results?

Like Jeff, I combated my nemesis through diet, exercise, and supplements.  The results were so amazing (I dropped forty pounds in six months and lowered my blood pressure, glucose, and cholesterol down to healthy levels) that I created my self-help video website, livelife365.com.  I wanted to reach as many people as possible so I could share my successes.  Just like what Jeff is doing with Sugar Nation.

While I consider myself a guy who knows what to eat, and what not to, I learned a lot from Jeff about healthy diet—especially when it comes to carbs.  I lost most of my weight through a high-fiber, low-fat diet.  But that diet may not work best for diabetics.  More animal proteins and only carbs high in fiber are the keys to not only healthy weight loss, but assisting in the fight against diabetes.  I learned that some carbs I have been consuming daily for years (potatoes and bananas) may not be as good for me as I thought.

Sugar Nation is a wakeup call.  Not just for the billions of overweight and obese people out there who are walking time bombs for stroke, heart disease, and diabetes.  But to all those seemingly fit folks (like Jeff, a tall and thin man often misdiagnosed because of how he looked) who need to change the way they live.  It is also a very well written critique of our healthcare system, the medical profession, and the powerful pharmacological lobby that seems to affect how the former go about their business.

I really enjoyed this book and highly recommend it. 

Who knows, reading it may just save your life…or a loved ones.

Think about it.


peace,

Mike

What is Malabar?

 Good question.

Is Malabar a:

a)     castle in Ireland?

b)    Middle Eastern city?

c)     Name for a famous cartoon dog?

d)    Delicious, nutritious leafy vegetable?

Those of you who are familiar with me and my healthy lifestyle choices here at livelife365 no doubt opted for D.  Yup, Malabar is a spinach-like, leafy veggie that not only tastes delicious (and a bit like asparagus), but is loaded with vitamins and minerals that will help change your life for the better.

A member of the Basellaceae family, Malabar looks and tastes a bit like spinach, but is not—even though it is often referred to as vine spinach, given that it grows vine-like, up to dozens of feet in warm weather climes (like right here in Northern California, where I call home). 

As you may have surmised, Malabar thrives in heat, growing mostly in tropical regions of Asia, India, and Indonesia, as well as right here in some North American hot spots.

Besides being a good source of fiber and low in calories, Malabar is also high in antioxidants, vitamins C and A, iron and calcium.

Eat it raw in salads, stir fry it with your favorite Asian wok recipe, or steam or boil the leaves and stems for a tasty side dish.  No matter how you serve it up, Malabar is a wonderful addition to your summer vegetable harvest.  Just this season I discovered Malabar and love this healthy and delectable vegetable.  I think you will too.

Until next time…

peace,

Mike

What is Zucchini?

A)    An Italian opera

B)    A starting shortstop for the New York Yankees?

C)    One of Christopher Columbus’s ships?

D)   A very popular summer squash

If you picked anything other than D, then I suggest reading on.  In fact, no matter what answer you gave, understanding this tasty and versatile vegetable is well worth the effort.

Zucchini is one of the few varieties of squash that was developed in Europe, Italy to be specific.  Now popular worldwide and found in most gardens in the United States, zucchini probably migrated to America during the 1920s, brought over by Italian immigrants.  Being an Italian-American, may I be the first to say: “Grazie tanto!”

Now that we know how this delicious veggie got here, let’s take a look at how to prepare it.

I love dicing small zucchini and adding them to my salads.  Mixing with fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots and lettuce, zucchini add an additional crunch and nutritional value to a simple salad.

Another way to eat zucchini is grating them to use for breads.  My mother used to slice zucchini up, add tomatoes, onions and peppers, and simmer in a skillet, and then serve it up with fresh Parmesan cheese as a mouthwatering side dish to one of the many Italian meals she used to make.  You can even eat the zucchini blossom.

But one of my favorite ways to prepare this squash is slicing one of the larger ones in half, scooping out all of the yummy insides, and mixing that with anything from rice or quinoa, along with tomatoes, black olives, artichoke, carrots—anything you can think of—and then topping it off with mozzarella cheese and baking it.  Oh, and don’t forget to drizzle in some extra virgin olive oil—can you say: “Buon appetito!”

Zucchini is very low in calories, and therefore a good food to add to your daily diet if you are trying to lose weight—and who isn’t, right?  It also is high in antioxidants, vitamin C, and manganese.  Also a good source of beta-carotene, zinc, potassium, and dietary fiber.

Consuming this versatile and delicious vegetable may also help combat many cancers, improve prostate health, and act as an anti-inflammatory.

No matter how you slice it (pun intended); zucchini is one of the most popular squashes in the world.  Easy to grow, tasty, healthy for you, and simple to serve.  What’s not to like?

Until next time…

peace,

Mike

Start The New Year Off Right!

Happy new year, hope your holiday season was good to you and yours.  Now it’s time to get back into it, start fresh, get those resolutions and goals in order, right?

Well, one would think that this would be one of those beginning of the new year posts resolving to lose weight, eat better and smarter, be kinder, show more compassion, and vow to help those less fortunate than oneself throughout the coming year.  And while I feel all of the above are worthy notions that we all need to strive toward (me included!!), this post is about food.   Good, hearty, healthy food to start the new year off right.

But let me touch back on those resolutions and goals for a second.  I have lots, including all of the aforementioned ones I touched on previously.  I am very close to re-launching my video site, along with publishing my latest music video.  I am putting the finishing touches on my self-help book that I am going to package with a CD and DVD for distribution in the first quarter of this new year.  I also have lots of other personal and professional goals that I am constantly challenging myself with, but for now, let’s eat.

As a vegetarian and vegan-wannabe, I am always looking for tasty protein choices and this three bean chili with red quinoa is perfect - it is loaded with fiber and protein, while tasting amazing.  The quinoa not  only adds delicious flavor and texture, but important amino acids missing in most vegetarian proteins.  Enough talk, watch:

It’s easy to make, here’s how:

Sauté six chopped cloves of garlic and one chopped onion in olive oil
Mix two parts water to one part red quinoa and boil
Open and drain one 16 oz. can of low sodium organic black beans, kidney beans, and pinto beans
Add 32 ounces of no sodium organic diced tomatoes to onions and garlic

Add spices:

1 tbsp paprika
1 tbsp coriander
1 tbsp garlic powder
2 tbsp oregano
1 tbsp crushed red pepper
1 tbsp chili powder
Salt and pepper

Add the beans, bring to a boil, then simmer for 30 minutes
When all the water is removed from the quinoa, add that to the mix, simmer another 15 minutes.

Some of you may be asking, What is quinoa?  It is a seed, loaded with fiber and protein, but a more complete protein than other veggie proteins.  Watch this  for more about quinoa:

And quinoa is simple to make:

Setting goals and resolving to be a better person are good things, but don’t just focus on the start or end of each year, do it throughout the year.  Just like this delicious veggie chili; it is just the ticket to get you through a cold winter’s day, but also great to eat throughout the year.

Here’s to an incredible 2011.  May all your resolutions and dreams come true.

Until next time…

peace,

Mike

In Search of Vegetable Protein

I wasn’t always a vegetarian. Back in the day, I used to be seated right beside some of you, gnawing away on that rib bone, masticating that filet mignon, devouring a double double from my (former) favorite burger place, In-n-Out. I was an animal-eating carnivore most of my life—just like over 90% of the population. Then I had some blood work done and got a glimpse of my cholesterol levels. Yikes!

Here’s the thing: I was never what you would call a BIG meat eater. More often than not, I was just as interested in the vegetable and salad portion of my meal as the animal protein part. And once I’d done further research about the contributing factors of high cholesterol (mine, by the way, was closing in on 300) and unhealthy weight gain—namely: saturated fats—it made perfect sense to gradually cut down on the meats. Years before I became a full-time vegetarian, I often would go days without consuming any animal protein. My palette, as well as some deeper region of my subconscious, was changing, sounding an alarm: Reduce your saturated fats or die!

Okay, Mike, you can stop with the dramatics. But it was a wake-up call, and my unhealthy cholesterol and weight gain (I was up over 200 pounds—far too heavy for my barely 5’ 11’’ frame) forced me to do something else—discover healthier eating options. More to the point: I needed to reduced saturated fats, which meant limit the consumption of animal proteins. The answer:

VEGETABLE PROTEIN!

Here are some of the best sources of vegetable protein that I incorporate into my daily eating routine. Eat as much of this stuff as you can and you will not only get the necessary amount of protein into your diet, but tons of fiber (a good thing!). All without those harmful saturated fats; instead filling up with the good fats: monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats.

NUTS
I eat nuts every day—mostly almonds, but all nuts have a decent amount of vegetable protein. In addition to almonds, eat walnuts, Brazil nuts, pistachios, even peanuts. They have anywhere from 6-8 grams of protein and 3.0 grams of fiber. I also suggest trying some of the butters. Almond butter is delicious and has 8.0 gms of protein per serving.

BEANS
I love Mexican food, and eat it at least twice a week. I’ve found that you can replace just about any of the meat dishes with healthy black beans (7.0 gms protein/7.0 gms fiber) or refried beans (be sure to check if they are made with lard, in they are, opt out). There are dozens of varieties of beans (see one of my previous blog posts, You Don’t Know Beans…or Do You?); pinto, navy, garbanzo—add them to salads or eat as a side dish. Most have around 6-8 gms of protein and about the same amounts of fiber.

And don’t forget lentils. These tasty tidbits are loaded with vegetable protein—10.0 gms. And 9.0 gms of fiber.

WHOLE GRAINS
I eat a high-protein, whole grain cereal every other day. Kashi makes excellent products. Try their Go Lean. It has 13.0 gms of protein per serving, also 10.0 gms fiber. I mix mine with their Good Friends (5.0 gms protein/12.0 gms fiber) for a vegetarian protein and fiber blast (pun intended!) The days I don’t eat whole grain cereals, I have some toasted whole grain bread (4-6 gms protein; shop around and read labels, some have more protein than others. I recommend Milton's) with almond butter. You can see how the vegetable protein is adding up, huh?

Pastas, especially whole grain pastas, are another great source of vegetable protein. Most have at least 6-8 gms, while some go as high as 12-15 gms. Again, read labels, and you will be pleasantly surprised by all of the healthy vegetable protein options available to you.

I also eat oatmeal (8.0 gms protein/ 6.0 gms fiber) every day. And wild rice will get you around 5.0 gms of vegetable protein per serving.

VEGETABLES
Not all veggies are created equal. Some have more protein than others. Here are the ones you should look for when looking to increase your vegetable protein consumption:

SOY
I eat edamame, or soybeans, (11.0 gms protein/ 6.0 gms fiber) several times a week. I like to mix in another vegetable, usually broccoli (5.0 gms protein/ 4.0 gms fiber), add a little olive oil, salt, pepper. How’s that for veggie protein? Also, soy chips are a wonderful source of protein: 6.0 gms--I like Glenny's  and Gen soy. And Dr Soy makes a tasty soy bar (11 gms protein) that I devour most days.

ALSO:
Avocado: (4.0 gms protein/8.0 gms fiber)
Peas: (5.0 gms protein/ 4.0 gms fiber)
Corn: (4.5 gms protein/3.0 gms fiber)
Lima beans: (6.0 gms protein/4.0 gms fiber)
Brussels sprouts: (4.0 gms protein/3.0 gms fiber)
Artichoke hearts: (4.0 gms protein/4.0 gms fiber)
Asparagus: (4.0 gms protein/3.0 gms fiber)

This is by no means a complete list, and a lot of it is personal preference. But, as you can see, the variety of vegetable proteins available to you are endless. And the best part—they are low in saturated fats, high in good fats, loaded with fiber, vitamins, minerals, and nutrients that contribute to a longer, happier, skinnier, healthier life.

As always, you can watch me talk about all of these healthy topics at my video website, livelife365.com

peace,

Mike