Food Stress: Does Food Make You Tired?

Tags

antioxidants, fatigue, Food Stress, Kebba Buckley Button, stress, UpBeat Living

©  2015 Kebba Buckley Button, MS, OM

Does Food Stress strike you now and then?  Do you ever think, “hey, I need a snack!” Then you grab something that seems like it will taste good, you eat it, and you feel…TIRED.  It happens too often!  The point of food, originally, was to fuel the body.  In today’s world, we are able to have flavorful food that also looks appealing.  With the influx and mixing of many cultures in this country, the array of foods and beverages available is endless.

But sometimes, our ideas about what is and isn’t good food can lead us astray.  When I worked in Tucson, there was a deli downstairs from my office that had the best cheese Danish I have ever tasted. I often had a midmorning snack of cheese Danish and coffee—Heaven! When I moved to Phoenix, I never replaced my dreamy favorite snack.  Finally, a major food company began promoting frozen cheese Danish together with other flavors of frozen pastries.  I believe they could be heated in either a microwave oven or in a toaster.  I waited and waited for the cheese Danish flavor to arrive in my local market.  Finally, it arrived!  I captured a box, went home, heated one, and ate it with relish.  Heartwarming memories of my Tucson office days filled me as I inhaled this pastry.  Then, in a few minutes, I was overtaken by a leaden fatigue.  My delicious snack had stolen my energy!  I had Food Stress.  I had eaten the calories but got no energy from the snack.  Plus, it made me tired!

So where did I get—where do any of us get—our ideas about what a good, satisfying snack would be?  I got the cheese Danish idea from the deli in Tucson.  I saw it, it appealed to my tastebuds, and a tradition was born.  We see images of foods in TV commercials and shows, in movie theater images—before and during movies—in newspapers and online.

Recently, I saw a holiday foods promotion from a major grocery chain.  Of the 30 or so food products in the newspaper’s holiday insert, all but two were guaranteed to tire the snacker.  These foods were:  frozen, extremely salty, extremely fatty, extremely sugary, or two or more of these together.  Some were loaded with dyes and artificial ingredients.  Some beverages were labeled for “energy” but laden with caffeine.

What’s wrong with these foods, if you’re eating for energy?  In Chinese medicine, these foods are all yin, or weakening.  Also, foods lose their energy, their vital life force energy, when frozen.  A lot of salt, fat, or sugar makes most people tired right away.  Too much caffeine stops providing a lift, stresses your kidneys, and makes you deeply fatigued.

What foods were great in this holiday insert?  Fresh produce, organic salad greens, black and green teas, organic coffees. All these are loaded with antioxidants, which bring oxygen into your cells quickly.  Fresh fruits and veggies also contain many absorbable vitamins and minerals the body needs, plus vital life force energy.

Want instant energy?  Eat a big green salad and a smoothie made of greens, ginger and fruits.  The ginger is yang and will balance the yin of regular diets.  Think about the foods you crave, and ask yourself where you ever got the idea that those were good to eat.  Fill your meals and snacks with colorful produce, and notice your energy soaring and your health getting stronger and younger.  You can beat Food Stress, and you are worth it!  Now that’s Upbeat Living!

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Energy – Peace – Meditation

 

 

 

 

 

 

• If you enjoy this post, please click “like” in the FB widget in the right hand column!You’ll have our undying gratitude plus a huge rise in your Good Karma! Due to a recent FB change, our “likes” look low.  Thanks for your help!
• Kebba Buckley Button is a stress management expert and award-winning author.  She also is an ordained minister and has a natural healing practice. Among her books are: Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br), and Peace Within: Your Peaceful Inner Core, Second Edition. Her newest book is Sacred Meditation: Embracing the Divine. Either Peace Withinor Sacred Meditation are available through her office.  Just call, or email SacredMeditation@kebba.com.    
• For an appointment or to ask Kebba to speak for your group: calendar@kebba.com .

Upbeat Living: Foods to Lift Your Moods!

Tags

Cathy Guisewite, chocolate, cravings, Eating right, energy foods, food, food and drink, foods and moods, glycemic index, green leafy vegetables, health food, kale, Kebba Buckley Button, stress, UpBeat Living

©2014 Kebba Buckley Button, MS, OM.  World Rights Reserved.

 

© Pamela Hodson | Dreamstime Stock Photos

When you feel stressed or depressed, do you reach for the snacks?  A lot of us do! Remember the cartoon strip, Cathy?  For over 30 years, we watched as Cathy ate an entire cake in one sitting, after her boyfriend did something puzzling or frustrating. After eating a cake, Cathy would be sprawled out on a couch, obviously sick and frazzled.  Did eating like that bring her joy and resolution?  No.  Eating an entire cake when she was stressed—just made her sick and stressed! It was not a successful strategy.  Maybe that’s the very reason award-winning cartoonist Cathy Guisewite made us laugh so much.  We understood.

 

However, there are successful ways to use foods to have the best moods.  Bear in mind that the body has about 70 trillion cells.  And your body has only what you put in your mouth—food and drink—from which to make new cells.  So does it make sense that your cells would function well on a diet of, for example, cake and diet soda?  A well-rounded diet of lean protein, dark green leafy vegetables, other non-starch vegetables, fresh fruits, and whole grains, will give you a baseline of great nutrition.  Switch to this simple list for a few days, to begin feeling strong and clear-minded.   Vegetarians can use organic beans, including garbanzos, instead of lean meats, in salads and stir-fry dishes.  Of course, coordinate with your doctor before making drastic changes.

 

 If we’re not supposed to have night-time snacks, then why is there a light in the fridge?

 ~Unknown

If you eat out a lot, order the whole grains, egg dishes, other lean proteins, and dark green salads every day.  Of course, gluten-free people, skip those grains!  Kale salad is a current fad food that is available in many restaurants and offers great nutrition.  Grilled chicken- or tuna- Caesar salad is another very nutritious, popular dish that is available at most restaurants.  These dishes will leave you feeling clear-minded and balanced.  And you will be, um, regular, which will also clear your emotions and mind.  Bean dishes contain a phenomenal amount of fiber, so if you like those, they can assist in cleansing your intestines and even help you lose weight.  In Chinese medicine, sadness or depression can be related to the energy of the large intestine.  See if your mood improves when you are eating a high-fiber, low-sugar diet.

 

The only time to eat diet food is when you’re waiting for the steak to cook.

~ Julia Child

Speaking of sugar, the more nutrition you can get for your calories, the better you will feel.  So reach for cherries, grapes, berries, a banana, or a peach.  On the run, keep packets of dried fruits with you.  There are many vitamins, minerals, and anti-oxidant compounds in fruits.  Fruit without added sugar is now widely available in your grocer’s frozen food section.  And in the canned-food section, it is easy to find fruit in its own juice.  Health food stores even have fruit-sweetened waffles and other baked goods, plus powdered fruit sweeteners.  Switch to fruit and fruit-sweetened foods, and you will be eating at a lower glycemic index.  That index is a measure of how fast a food is metabolized, compared to glucose.  Many people feel better, have a flatter abdomen, and lose weight easily on a low glycemic index diet.

 

© 2014 Kebba Buckley Button

For low-calorie snacks, veggie sticks—carrots, celery, jicama, green beans, cucumbers, Chinese pea pods—are very filling and massage your intestines from the inside out.  So, in addition to being satisfying, these leave you more relaxed.  For quick energy snacks, consider going nuts.  Yes, nuts!  Brazil nuts, pistachios, almonds, cashews, and hazelnuts are great for both giving you energy and supporting your health.  Brazil nuts are very high in protein and also contain selenium, a mineral linked to mood improvement.  Almonds are high in potassium, which is key for metabolic balance, mood and blood pressure regulation.  Almonds, cashews, and hazelnuts are all rich in magnesium, a vital mineral in converting blood sugar to muscle energy, via the Krebs Cycle process.  Low magnesium is also a cause for constipation; so nuts can help by contributing both magnesium and fiber.  When the intestines are well, you will be in a better mood.

 

 

New snack food technology is making some great new options available.  Now you can buy crunchy, flavored freeze-dried veggies in snack packs.  You can get rice-and-bean chips in the chips department. And my current favorite is crisp kale chips!  Perhaps the ultimate energy snack, chocolate covered kale chips, is now available. Just look around your health food store, or the health food section of your regular market, for some great, tasty surprises.

 

So experiment with less sugar and more taste satisfaction.  You’ll be less hungry and have fewer cravings.  Plus, your moods will even out, and your abdomen may flatten out!  Now that’s Upbeat Living!

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● Kebba Buckley Button is a stress management expert.  She is the author of the award-winning book, Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br), plus the 2013 book, Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core, Second Edition (http://tinyurl.com/mqg3uvc).  She also has a natural healing practice and is an ordained minister.

● Liked this article?  You can buy Kebba’s books:  just click the links!

• Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br). 
• Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core (Second Edition) (http://tinyurl.com/mqg3uvc)             

● Enjoyed this post?  Please click “like” in the FB widget in the right hand column!  You’ll have our undying gratitude plus a huge rise in your Good Karma.

● Please comment!

● Get these articles by email– just click the Subscribe Free option in the right column.

● Reach the writer at kebba@kebba.com .

 

UpBeat Living: Cooling Foods and Drinks for Hot Days (Not Always What You Think)

Tags

Effective living, energy, energy foods, exhausted, fatigue, Feeling energized, heat stress, stress, Stress Management, Summer stress

© 2014  Kebba Buckley Button, M.S., O.M.  World Rights Reserved.

 

Old Mission San Juan Capistrano
© 2014 Kebba Buckley Button, M.S., O.M. World Rights Reserved.

Is it blazing hot and really dry where you live?  Yet life can be beautiful in these conditions.  I want you to thrive all the time.  In the Summer heat, that can be challenging.  But you’ll be up for it if you’ve read all 3 of my summer thriving articles.  This is the third.

 

In the last 2 articles on dealing with the hottest Summer days, I covered :

• – Protecting your body and skin
• – Getting enough rest, and
• – How to strategize to have the most energy you can

 

In this article, I offer ideas on how to eat– and drink– cool to keep cool!  This is not always the cold foods you would think.  And it’s not always the sweet, icy, and alcoholic drinks you might think of, to cool you off.  Follow these three tips to switch what you swallow, to feel your best:

 

1.  Stay hydrated!  Drink filtered water, that is, water with the chlorine removed.  Do not pay for an expensive water-conversion system to alter the water molecules (which we’ll discuss in another article), without first removing the chlorine.  Chlorine is a poison to microorganisms (germs) which is the exact reason they put it in the public water supply.  Your body doesn’t need it, and it’s bad for you.

A simple table-top carbon-filter pitcher will filter out the chlorine, fluoride, and other bad-tasting elements of tap water.  You may find this water more refreshing if you keep it in the refrigerator.  You may also want to ask your local health food store about mineral drops to add to filtered water.  If your body is low on minerals, the drops added to your beverages will bring your stamina up the same day, or sooner.

Water is the most hydrating liquid you can drink.  If you hate plain water, try adding a little cherry juice concentrate, which will also give you a few carbs, potassium, and anti-inflammatory compounds.  If you’re hiking or working outside, you may enjoy half water and half organic apple juice, which again will provide a few carbs and a lot of potassium.

If you will be working or exercising outdoors a lot, do eat salty snacks!  They’ll make you thirsty and keep you from losing too much of your body’s moisture through sweat.  Check with your doctor about your ideal personal salt balance.

 

“Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.”

– Thomas A. Edison

 

 

2. Avoid sugary foods and drinks, and alcohol!  These will make you more thirsty and tired after the initial refreshing sensation.  Avoid all artificial sweeteners (which we’ll discuss in a future article), going for fruit juices and concentrates as flavors.  Anything with sugar, alcohol, or caffeine will give you a little boost, then put the squeeze on your kidneys.  Alcohol is, for some purposes, a super sugar.  So limit that, plus all refined sugars and caffeine, when you’re hot.  The decaf coffee drinks still are loaded with antioxidants, so you still will get a boost, but a healthy one.

 

3. Set your goal to get the most energy out of whatever you swallow.  Think of it this way: part of the art of eating well and healthfully in the hottest times of summer is having quick food to grab.  Because you and your family will often come home tired on blasting hot days, you’ll be grateful to yourself for keeping healthy cool foods ready to eat.  Some of these could be:  celery sticks, jicama sticks, cucumber slices, cherry tomatoes, cherries, berries, grapes, bananas, pineapple chunks, dates, peaches, nectarines, yogurts, roasted chicken (available at your grocery store), pan-broiled salmon (you made it last night and chilled it), hard-boiled eggs, boiled organic potato chunks, cans of organic beans or chick peas, and raw almonds or cashews.

You might call this collection, “the fastest slow food you can get”.  Your grocery store now has trays of veggies, trays of fruits, prepared chicken, and even heat-and-eat ribs.  There are salads ready-to-go and salad kits in bags. Green salad is your friend, and as light greens go, Romaine lettuce is the most energizing.  It’s the lettuce in every “Caesar Salad”, prepared or in a kit.  As dark greens go, kale is the star of the nutritional show. Have a large dark green salad for dinner almost every night, with pieces of potato, avocado, and chicken.  Topped with your favorite dressing, it’s a quick and restorative meal.  You’ll feel alert and clear-minded all evening, and then you’ll sleep well.

Can you have great days and wonderful relationships in the desert summer season?  Absolutely, you can.  Eat well for the weather, follow the other tips in this series, and you will sail triumphantly through the hot season!

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● Kebba Buckley Button is a stress management expert and the author of the award-winning book, Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br), plus the 2013 book, Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core, Second Edition (http://tinyurl.com/mqg3uvc).  She also has a natural healing practice and is an ordained minister.

● Liked this article?  You can buy Kebba’s books:  just click the links!

• Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br). 
• Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core (Second Edition) (http://tinyurl.com/mqg3uvc)             

● Enjoyed this post?  Please click “like” in the FB widget in the right hand column!  You’ll have our undying gratitude plus a huge rise in your Good Karma.

● Please comment!

● Get these articles by email– just click the Subscribe Free option in the right column.

● Reach the writer at kebba@kebba.com .

 

 

UpBeat Living: Tips for Hot Summer Thriving

Tags

Eating, Effective living, energy, energy foods, exhausted, fatigue, Feeling energized, heat, heat stress, heat stress tips, hot days, Kebba, stress, summer stress tips, The life you want

© 2014  Kebba Buckley Button, M.S., O.M.  World Rights Reserved.

Yikes!  It hit 110 degrees today in Phoenix!  Summer is our weather-stress season, like winter is in cooler areas.  In the Summer heat where you live, have you felt great today?  Or were you hot, tired, and fog-brained?  Maybe even a little sick?  So could you use some expert heat-stress tips?

Feeling good, being well, and being productive, can be challenging in weather like this.  But you can feel great and thrive during even our desert summers, if you take these tips to heart:

1.  Get out of the heat. Do get 15 minutes of sun on your hands and face each day, for your body to produce enough Vitamin D. But you can get that while driving to an errand. The rest of the time, get out of the sun or wear sunscreen and sleeves.  And don’t stop to think in the full sun!  Adjust that grocery list before you go out the front door!

If you love to be outside, you can now buy special sun-blocking clothes from travel companies. You can get shirts designed to provide SPF 50 or higher, plus broad-brimmed hats with mesh-side crowns for through-flow of air. More difficult to find is the safari hat with its own built-in fan, but they are great for hiking. Cooling neck scarves are now widely available. Soak them to activate the gel inside, and store them in the frij between wearings.  Water bottles, with a battery-operated personal fan attached, are amusing and do actually help you keep cooler.

If you get too much heat, you’ll generally know it. But if people tell you your face is bright red, this is not good.  If your skin is totally dry, or if you feel nauseated or are vomiting, or if you feel totally drained and confused, these are clues you have heat exhaustion or heat stroke. Get to a cool, dim place, put a cool, damp cloth on your forehead, and try to drink water (with the chlorine filtered out).  Remember:

Only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the noonday sun.

~ Rudyard Kipling

2.  Protect your skin. If you don’t want to cover it, at least wear some sunscreen. There are new generations of sunscreen in clear or opaque forms, or colored to function as makeup foundation. Many moisturizers and makeup products contain SPF 15 or higher for day use. Powdered mineral-based foundation makeups provide non-chemical SPF 15. If you’re wild to have tan skin, and you weren’t born with it, check out spray tanning or tanning moisturizers. Be aware that these do not provide sun protection, however, and skin cancer is a concern.  And remember to drink water to hydrate your skin. Support your skin by also eating foods that can help it stay moist and young-looking: fresh fruits, avocados, and dark greens like kale and baby romaine.  Get the organic versions if you can, and you’ll have more energy.

3.  Use common sense. Rest if you need to. Plan extra time to get enough sleep every day.  Nap if you need to.  And focus on thriving, throughout the month.

Next time: Keeping your energy up when it’s over 100!

________________________________________________________________

● Kebba Buckley Button is a stress management expert and the author of the award-winning book, Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br), plus the 2013 book, Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core, Second Edition (http://tinyurl.com/mqg3uvc).  She also has a natural healing practice and is an ordained minister.

● Liked this article?  You can buy Kebba’s books:  just click the links!

• Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br). 
• Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core (Second Edition) (http://tinyurl.com/mqg3uvc)             

● Enjoyed this post?  Please click “like” in the FB widget in the right hand column!  You’ll have our undying gratitude plus a huge rise in your Good Karma.

● Please comment!

● Get these articles by email– just click the Subscribe Free option in the right column.

● Reach the writer at kebba@kebba.com .

UpBeat Living: Yummy Gluten-Free Desserts, Part 1

Tags

Eating right, GF, gluten-free, stress, UpBeat Living

 © 2014 Kebba Buckley Button.  World Rights Reserved.

Cherry-Cinnamon Mini Cakes. Photo by Kebba Buckley Button

Do you love desserts?  But your body hates wheat or gluten?  Then you are actually lucky, because these days, the solutions are easy.  And generally any non-gluten-sensitive people can enjoy your GF desserts with you.  So many people have realized that gluten doesn’t work for them, that gluten-free (GF) products are now widely available.  If you know you are wheat-sensitive, but you haven’t considered gluten, you’re in luck again.  Since all wheat has gluten, you wheat-sensitive people can generally feast on GF foods.

Here are two easy desserts, which you can use as coffeecake, desert cake, or snacks.  Notice there is no oil in either recipe, and the topping is simply cinnamon sugar—light, satisfying, and very low-calorie.  The quickest version of either is made in an 8” square pyrex pan, in a toaster oven or countertop oven.  However, you can bake the recipes in muffin tins you have sprayed with GF baking spray, taking about 5 minutes off the baking time.

GF Apricot Coffee Cake

o  Drain 1 15-oz can of apricots (packed in fruit juice, if you can find it), reserving the juice, and chop the apricots.

o  In a large bowl, mix just until smooth:

1 ¼ c GF baking mix (such as Pamela’s Baking and Pancake Mix)

½ c organic sugar

1 extra large egg

½ c  juice from the apricots (there is no oil)

2 t cinnamon

¼ t coriander or nutmeg

1 ½ t hazelnut extract

o  Add the apricot pieces and stir until well-distributed.

o  Spray an 8” x 8” pyrex baking pan with GF baking spray, or butter and flour the pan.  Pour the batter in the pan, and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. [If you don’t have cinnamon sugar, fill an empty spice jar with half organic sugar and half cinnamon.  You may prefer more cinnamon.  This looks pretty when baked, and provides more flavor than calories.]

o  Bake at about 330 degrees in a toaster oven, for about 25 minutes.  It’s done when springy in the middle.  No overbaking!

GF Cherry-Cinnamon Mini Cakes

o  Spray, or butter-and-flour, one 12-cupcake pan and about 4 depressions in a second 12-cupcake pan.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and be sure one rack is in the middle of the oven.

o  In a large bowl, mix, and stir until smooth:

1 ¼ c GF baking mix (such as Pamela’s Baking and Pancake Mix)

½ c organic sugar

1 extra large egg

½ c water (there is no oil)

2 t cinnamon

1 ½ t almond extract

o  Add: 1 6-oz package of dried cherries (unsweetened, such as Mariani)

o  Stir until well-distributed.

o  Using a large spoon, fill the cupcake tin depressions halfway, until you are out of batter.

o  Bake at 350 for about 18 minutes.  Mini cakes will be springy to the touch when done.

Enjoy these light, delicious, and guilt-free GF desserts!

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● Kebba Buckley Button is the author of the 2013 book, Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core (Second Edition).   Keep this book with you constantly, to quickly recharge your Peace Within, with quotes, photos, and poems that take you directly there!  Kebba is a corporate stress management trainer, and she also has a holistic healing practice.

● Liked this blog?  Why not buy Kebba’s books?  Just click the links!

• Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core (Second Edition)( http://perfectboundmarketing.gostorego.com/authors/kebba-buckley-button.html)
• Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br). ● Enjoyed this post?  Please click “like” in the FB widget in the right hand column!  You’ll have our undying gratitude plus a huge rise in your Good Karma.

● Your comments are welcome!

● Reach the writer at kebba@kebba.com .

UpBeat Living: Mac ‘N’ Cheese Gluten Free

Tags

energy foods, Gluten, gluten-free, Stress Management, The life you want, UpBeat Living

© 2013 Kebba Buckley Button.  World Rights Reserved.

 

For many years, I have lusted for a satisfying macaroni and cheese recipe that somehow contained no wheat.  One of my earliest mac ‘n’ cheese memories was a quickie version from a box.  Slender elbow macaroni cooked quickly, and then you added a packet of powder that yielded a thin but succulent sauce, redolent of the familiar taste of classic Velveeta.  Utterly delicious.

 

GF Mac ‘N’ Cheese
(c) 2013 Kebba Buckley Button

But by college days, I had realized I felt much better without wheat.  In recent years, gluten has been identified as something many do not tolerate.  So now we have a wide variety of pasta and other foods that contain no wheat or gluten, yet are delicious and easy to work with.  Many of the new gluten free, or GF, foods, can be directly substituted in standard recipes, with delicious results for the GF eaters and for everyone else.

 

Recently, I was transfixed by a modern-looking recipe for mac ‘n’ cheese in a major home arts magazine.  Alas, when I tried it, it turned out to be incredibly complex and time-consuming.  It specified a type of elbow pasta I had never heard of before, and it claimed the recipe fitted in a 2-quart baking dish; it turned out to be 4 quarts of recipe.  It also specified grated fontina cheese, which is impossible, since fontina is too soft to even slice with ease.  I concluded the recipe was not kitchen-tested.  Bummer!

 

So here’s what I came up with, for much less work and lots of flavor.  It’s very filling and makes a great vegetarian main dish.  And remember—it’s gluten-free!

1. Spray 2 8 x 8 x 2” Pyrex-type baking dishes with favorite nonstick spray.  Preheat oven or larger toaster oven to 350 degrees.
2. Prepare an 8 oz. package of Trader Joe’s organic rice penne pasta according to directions, using 1 ½  tsp sea salt and 15 twists fresh ground pepper.  If you can’t get Trader Joe’s brand, use another, such as Tinkyada.
3. In a 5-quart wok, stir-fry ½ c chopped onions or sliced green onions with 2-3 Tbsp olive oil and 3 c cubed butternut squash (buy it already cubed, possibly frozen), and cook until tender.  [If you love mushrooms, sauté 8 oz of them in before adding the squash.] Sprinkle 2 Tbsp brown rice flour or Pamela’s GF Pancake and Baking Mix over the squash.  Now add a cup of milk and stir well.  Cook until it thickens.  You may like another ½ to 1 tsp of sea salt added to the liquid now.
4. Drain the penne pasta when tender, toss into the squash mixture, and add 8 oz shredded cheddar cheese or half swiss and half cheddar.
5. Divide this into the two baking dishes.  Garnish with extra grated cheese, paprika, sliced green onion, and possibly chopped kalamata olives.
6. Bake one or both of the dishes for about 20-25 minutes, until it bubbles.  You can also microwave it until it bubbles, which may be about 5 minutes.  Makes 8 large servings.
7. NOTE:  If you are only serving 2 people, or using it as a side dish, put plastic wrap over the second baking dish, refrigerate it, and simply heat it the next day.  Delicious for breakfast.

 

Now you can enjoy mac ‘n’ cheese, eat well, and still feel good!  If you love this recipe, tell me what other GF recipes you would enjoy.  I have a limitless collection.

 

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● Enjoyed this post?  Please click “like” in the FB widget in the right hand column!  You’ll have our undying gratitude plus a huge rise in your Good Karma.

 

● Liked this blog?  Why not buy Kebba’s books on Amazon?  Just click the links!

• Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core (http://tinyurl.com/abd47jr)
• Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br). 

 

● Please comment!

 

● Get these posts by email– just click the Subscribe Free option in the right column.

UpBeat Living: Pump Up Your Potassium for Energy

Tags

Eating, energy foods, Feeling energized, Potassium, vitality

© 2013 Kebba Buckley Button.  World Rights Reserved.

© Pamela Hodson | Dreamstime Stock Photos

One secret—and quickly cured— source of fatigue for many is a low level of potassium in the blood.    Potassium is an essential electrolyte and the third most prevalent element in the body.  It helps your brain, muscle, and heart functions, lowers blood pressure, and increases the body’s processing of carbs and protein.  The right amount of potassium can also prevent strokes.

Especially during the hot weeks of the year, a person can sweat away potassium and end up depleted, feeling strangely lousy.  Low potassium may cause vague thinking, dry skin, fatigue, less muscle control, more muscle cramps, and heart function oddities.  People who are very athletic or who have high blood pressure often have low potassium levels. Basic blood tests will tell you if your potassium is low.

So what to do?  The USDA recommends you get 4500 mg of potassium every day.  Yes, you can drink sports drinks, which will also contain other electrolytes, and sometimes large amounts of sugars or artificial sweeteners.  Sugars can fatigue you after the initial kick, encourage future diabetes, and hurt your teeth if you don’t rinse with water. Artificial sweeteners can be hard on your kidneys and favorable to cancers.

Of course, you can take supplements.  And your doctor can prescribe potassium tablets.  However, you can quickly bring up your potassium levels by eating from a list of very pleasant foods.  Good sources of potassium include bananas, orange juice, avocados, cantaloupes, tomatoes, potatoes, lima beans, fresh or cooked spinach, flounder, salmon, cod, chicken, and other meats.  Some examples:  Whole almonds have 1006 mg per cup, bananas 806, roasted cashews 774, lima beans 765, avocados 728, orange juice 496, baked potato 239, fresh spinach 167 (that’s 1 ounce of fresh spinach in the cup).  Rotisserie chicken breast has 284 mg per 100 g (almost 4 oz), and broiled salmon 384 per 100g.  Love filet mignon?  It has 357 mg potassium per 100 g.  Love your Caesar salad?  That romaine lettuce has 247 mg potassium per 100 g.

So enjoy your proteins, fresh fruits and veggies!  You’ll get lots of potassium and notice you feel better.  Your doctor will smile, and so will you.  Have an energized summer!

 

———————————————————–

● Enjoyed this post?  Please click “like” in the FB widget in the right hand column!  You’ll have our undying gratitude plus a huge rise of  Good Karma.

 

● Liked this blog?  Then why not buy Kebba’s books on Amazon?  Just click the links!

• Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core (http://tinyurl.com/abd47jr)
• Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br). 

 

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UpBeat Living: Maintain Your Alkaline Balance (pH) to Prevent Disease

Tags

Acidosis, energy foods, Health

© 2013 Kebba Buckley Button.  World Rights Reserved.

Photo by Microsoft

Many people would make one or two easy changes in their daily habits if they could feel much better as a result. Are you one of them? Here are some points to ponder regarding a condition affecting many people and causing silently deteriorating health, yet which you can easily and inexpensively control. It’s called acidosis, meaning excess acid in the body’s fluids. Relative acidity is measured on the pH, or potential hydrogen, scale that indicates hydrogen ion concentration. The pH scale goes from 1 (extremely acidic) to 14 (extremely basic, or alkaline). The body operates best when its pH is between 7.35 and 7.45, ideally at 7.4. Yet diet and stress tend to acidify the body’s fluids. Accumulation of biochemical waste in the body can also lower pH.

While the condition is simple, the symptoms are many. A person with acidosis may experience frequent fatigue, allergies, bronchitis, colds and flu, foot fungus, acne, boils, eczema, age spots, arthritis, diarrhea and/or constipation. Effects less easy for the individual to see are serious internal processes, such as the inflammation of veins, arteries, and the muscle tissue of the heart. This creates cardiac system issues that result in elevated blood pressure, which in turn increases the deterioration.

Acidosis also leads to premature aging via accelerating free-radical damage to cells. Cells are actually poisoned by inefficiently eliminated cellular waste. An acidic pH prevents the proper storage and release of cellular energy, meaning that the body cannot respond fully to stress or infection. Red blood cells clump together, which limits their oxygen-carrying capacity and leads to fatigue and weakness. Cancer cells thrive in lower-oxygen environments such as acidosis can create. Other mechanisms caused by acidosis may lead to pancreatic dysfunction, diabetes, weight gain, and osteoporosis.

The body has natural mechanisms for monitoring and controlling its acid-base balance. When plasma is too acidic, the respiratory system speeds breathing, and the kidneys can produce substances that turn the pH around. The body also uses intracellular absorption of hydrogen atoms by molecules of protein, phosphate, and carbonate in bone, thus raising the pH to less acidity.

So what can you do to help yourself beat acidosis? First, get litmus paper from your pharmacy and test your saliva. The litmus paper will turn color to indicate the acidity of your saliva. If your saliva’s pH is too low/acidic, re-assess your current stress, exercise (or lack thereof), and diet. Consider these dietary changes:

1. Stop drinking any sodas or sugared drinks, or any artificially sweetened products. Switch to juices or filtered water.
2. Stop eating sugared desserts and foods made mainly with white flour and yeast, such as pizza and bagels.
3. Eat dark-green leafy salads, other green vegetables (broccoli, cabbage, celery, parsley), and root vegetables (carrots, yams, daikon radish).
4. Eat fruits, especially fresh fruits, such as apples, apricots, bananas, cantaloupe, dates, figs, grapefruit, peaches, and grapes. For dried fruit, try raisins.
5. Eat rice and buckwheat, almonds, dairy products, and eggs.

Try changing your diet for a week, and add rhythmic breathing exercises. Check your pH again. Notice if these changes make you more relaxed, clear-minded, and vital. If so, you are making a major investment in your long-term health. Why not feel your best, starting now?

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● Kebba Buckley Button is a corporate stress management trainer and the author of the award-winning book, Discover The Secret Energized You (on Amazon.com >Books>Buckley), and the 2012 book, Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core (on Amazon.com >Books>Button).  She also has a natural healing practice and is an ordained minister.

● Your comments are welcome!

● Get these articles by email– just click the Subscribe Free option in the right column.

● Reach the writer at kebba@kebba.com .