The Truth About Your Food

While I'm on the topic of the Ecopolitan, I should mention there are some excellent resources on the website that you can access to learn more about health and nutrition.

#1. Dr. T in 3 videos. These are videos on various topics related to health and nutrition covered by Dr. Tel-Oren in 3 minutes. They are a great intro-- especially if you have little time to spare.

http://www.ecopolitan.com/dr-t-3

#2. "Should We Cook Our Food?" lecture. Self explanatory.

http://www.ecopolitan.com/healthyfood/the-restaurant/125-should-we-cook-our-food

#3. "The Truth About Your Food " lecture series. Six 2-hour lectures on these topics: Processed Food, Protein, Fat, Sugar, The Foods You Should Eat, and Supplements. These are EXCELLENT. They definitely warrant listening to a second, third, or fourth time. Some of the information given may surprise, shaken, or shock you!

http://www.ecopolitan.com/truth-about-your-food-lectures or

http://www.thetruthaboutyourfood.com/

Happy learning!

The Ecopolitan + Green Smoothie Recipe

Hi everyone! Just thought I'd let you know what's occupying my time lately. Since I got back from foraging, I have been staying at the Ecopolitan restaurant in the Twin Cities, where I am receiving treatment from the doctor who owns it, Dr. Adiel Tel-Oren. He is an M.D., a retired chiropractor, a nutritionist, and a professor at the University of Natural Medicine in Santa Fe, New Mexico, with a number of other degrees and certifications. If you're wondering about his name... it is Israeli. He also has clinics in Israel, Italy, and California-- He gets around!

So, while I have been here, I have been receiving various therapies and eating 3 meals a day at the Ecopolitan organic, vegan, raw food restaurant. You can read more about it here: http://www.ecopolitan.com/healthyfood/the-restaurant/129-healthy-restaurant-gold-standards Since I'm in the recovery process, my choices are limited to green smoothies and salads, but they are incredibly good! Since I also have discovered I have a number of food sensitivities (46, in fact), I can't really order straight off the menu. So, I get to do the "Custom Salad" and "Custom Smoothie." My smoothies are always Green Smoothies.

What is a Green Smoothie, you ask? Well, basicly, it's just a fruit smoothie with a handful or two of leafy greens. Options include kale, arugula, spinach, lettuce, parsley, cilantro, mustard greens... really whatever you have. Freshly foraged greens are even better! Frozen fruit helps make the smoothie cool and refreshing-- a good reason for picking berries in the summer and freezing them for fresh tasting smoothies through the winter months ahead. Here's an especially delicious smoothie I had the other day:

Frosty Kiwi-Pear-Cilantro Green Smoothie:

2 frozen pears

2 fresh kiwis

1 handful (or 2 if you're brave!) fresh cilantro

Blend, add water to thin if necessary, and enjoy!

Back from Foraging!

... And look what we found!

What a weekend it was! We drove the Eco-Van (see last post) from the Twin Cities to the place where we went foraging-- just outside Menomenee, WI. We started out by meeting our fellow foragers who drove separately... up in a tree house! We went on several "Herb Walks" through the course of the weekend, and learned about wild greens, flowers, fruits, and berries that we could nibble on throughout our stay. We even learned to identify wild catnip, which could be used to keep mosquitoes away! Some of the fruits we found are pictured above: wild plums, wild grapes, even wild apples which were fairly sweet. We also found and ate chokecherries, elderberries, red clover, mallow, lamb's quarter, stinging nettles, and a number of other greens and flowers. Getting some sun was part of our experience, and "therapy," as vitamin D is going to be more and more difficult to get as the next few weeks pass. Each day ended with a campfire and some time in the infrared sauna. It was a very educational and rejeuvenating weekend. :) Would you like to see some more pictures??

Foraging Adventure

This afternoon, I will be headed out on a whirlwind Eco-Foraging weekend in River Falls, Wisconsin!

It's been quite a while since I've been out camping in the woods, so this is a welcome opportunity. Spending time out in nature is truly therapeutic-- fresh air, music of the song birds, and wild, truly organic, edible greens and berries... and who knows what else? I'm really excited to learn more about what there is to eat in the great outdoors~ really, in God's great garden!

This adventure is one of the events offered through the Ecopolitan Restaurant, in Minneapolis, MN. They are a 100% organic, vegan, raw food, gourmet restaurant. The Ecopolitan building also offers services such as health consultations and treatment (nutritional, functional, and environmental medicine), lectures on health and nutrition, infrared sauna, oxygen therapy, et cetera. You can check out their website here: http://www.ecopolitan.com/

So, I will be traveling via an "Eco-Van" with a group of fellow foragers to hike, camp, forage for wild edibles, learn about herbs from an herbalist, and maybe even go tubing down a river!

I'll let you know how it goes!



Picture courtesy of www.ecopolitan.com/blog