Covenant Natural Health Care

Health News Roundup

• The Easiest Way to Eat ALL the Veggies You Need Every Day...


• U.S. doctors steeped in financial ties - drug money from Big Pharma: Pharmaceutical firms in the United States are shelling out massive funds for doctors travel and entertainment expenses in hopes of boosting sales of new drugs. More than 160,000 doctors have received related payments in 2011 already.

•  Eat This to Reduce Muscle Soreness after Exercise: The foods with the highest amount of useful dietary dipeptides like carnosine would be animal proteins, like eggs, whey protein, poultry and beef.

• Vaccination Causes 'Mental Retardation'? Fact-Checking Michele Bachmann's Claim: Monday night's Republican primary debate saw candidate Michele Bachmann on the attack — especially against Texas Gov. Rick Perry. Bachmann slammed Perry for signing an executive order in 2007 requiring all sixth-grade girls to get vaccinated against HPV, the virus that is the leading cause of cervical cancer.

• Watercress: A garnishing green that provides bountiful health benefits: If watercress is served as a garnishment In a restaurant, don't throw it out. Eat it with the food served. It will help you digest your meal and provide many more health benefits than most know about. As a matter of fact, you'd be wise to mix it in salads or juice it with other veggies often.

• Yeast extract is hidden source of MSG in your food: Here's where its found: crafty food processing firms have found ways to disguise MSG's most active ingredient -- free glutamate. There are several ingredients and names used. And they all contain some free glutamate. Free glutamate is the active ingredient of mono-sodium glutamate, or MSG.

• Ginger is an amazing wide spectrum tonic and remedy: Ginger root is more than a zesty culinary spice. It's both a general tonic and specific medicinal herb. Ginger is actually the rhizome or horizontal "creeping root" of the Zingiber officinale plant, which belongs to the same family as turmeric and cardamom. Chinese and Ayurvedic medicine has used ginger for centuries. Now mainstream medicine uses various ginger extracts for major health problems.

Health News Roundup

Staying informed when it comes to natural health care, food, farming, and even traditional health care will help you make informed decisions for you and your family. There's a lot of good information in these articles, so grab a cup of tea of coffee and soak it in.

• Is Commercially Prepared Food Responsible for Childhood Weight Gain?: In the first study to examine the relationship between where food is prepared and increased calorie consumption, researchers report that eating commercially-made food can lead children to take in more calories than if they had eaten similar meals at home. And with most Americans taking in about a third of their daily calories from restaurants or other vendors, such trends can only contribute to climbing childhood obesity rates.

• Big Pharma looks to capitalize on success of vitamin D by turning it into a 'drug' for kidney disease: With an incredible success rate for vitamin D in treating a myriad of health conditions, it is no wonder that some drug companies are looking for new ways to capitalize on this natural, inexpensive nutrient.

• Seven startling things most people still don't know about the national debt, banking and the money supply: Most people, even smart people, know surprisingly little about the way money really works in Big Government. With the debt ceiling fiasco suddenly raising awareness of the possibility of a total global financial blowout, now seems like a good time to remind people of seven disturbing facts about money that are almost never acknowledge in the old media.

• The Case Against Drinking 6-8 Glasses of Water a Day: Dr. Margaret McCartney, a general practitioner from Scotland, says that the common health advice that you should drink six to eight cups of water each day is “thoroughly debunked nonsense”.  She argues that it is propagated by bottled water companies out to make a profit.

• What's really in the food? The A to Z of the food industry's most evil ingredients: Ever wonder what's really in the food sold at grocery stores around the world? People keep asking me, "What ingredients should I avoid?" So I put together a short list that covers all the most toxic and disease-promoting ingredients in the food supply. These are the substances causing cancer, diabetes, heart disease and leading to tens of billions of dollars in unnecessary health care costs across America (and around the world).

• MSG hidden in variety of foods and contributing to illness: Despite common perception, the toxic food additive MSG is everywhere  - not just in Chinese food! This taste enhancer is actually hidden  under dozens of ingredient names in all sorts of processed foods, restaurant foods, beverages, chewing gums, vitamins and supplements. It is added to foods in higher dosages than ever before, and more and more people are experiencing symptoms.

• Top 30 Worst Foods in America (Beware): Today’s food marketers have loaded many of their offerings with so much fat, sugar, and sodium that eating any of the foods in this article on a daily basis could destroy all your hard work and best intentions of eating healthy. Beware! This list is brought to you by Eat This Not That and Men's Health.

Find us on Facebook.

Recipe: Healthy, wholesome pumpkin soup

 I love soups that I can prep in 10 minutes, put in the oven for a couple hours and come back to a warm, hearty meal—especially on a cold fall day. And what better than fresh pumpkin soup now that pie pumpkins are in season and plentiful (about $2.50 each at Whole Foods or local farmer's market).

The key, though, to making this a really flavorful soup is using homemade chicken broth. Most store-bought brands, I have found, are watered down and contain MSG (hidden under yeast extract). You can also add other spices (see tip below to see what herbs complement pumpkin) to make your taste buds happy.

Shopping List (Serves one):
1 small pie pumpkin
3/4-1 cup homemade chicken broth
salt & pepper to taste
1 teaspoon minced garlic
olive oil
1 bay leaf

Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cut a circle into the top of the pumpkin to remove top, scoop out seeds and strings. Place pumpkin on a baking sheet. Salt and pepper the inside by rubbing into the flesh. Add 3/4-1 cup of homemade chicken broth, minced garlic and bay leaf to the inside of the pumpkin. Brush the outside of the pumpkin with olive oil. Bake for 1 1/2 hours or until inside flesh is soft.

Remove from oven and throw away the bay leaf. Carefully move pumpkin to a bowl or plate. Gently, with a spoon, scoop flesh away from the shell and stir into chicken broth—do not pierce the shell (or broth will escape). Eat straight from the pumpkin shell and enjoy! Also pairs well with homemade garlic and rosemary bread.

Want to try other herbs in this soup? These herbs are commonly found in other pumpkin dishes: coriander, cumin, parsley, rosemary, thyme.

Dissecting Labels

For lunch, yesterday, I stopped at Fresh Market, which is right down the road from where I work. They don't carry a lot in the way of organic food, are a little expensive for my budget, and they have bins of sugary candy in the front of the store. For me, Fresh Market is always a nice shopping experience, but often leaves me disappointed in product.

I didn't buy any meat product because it wasn't labeled as being hormone and antibiotic-free—two things that I definitely won't compromise on. So, that left me with few vegetarian choices. I really wanted vegetarian sushi rolls so I stood there debating whether or not to get them after reading the label.

Essentially, I didn't find anything too unhealthy about the sushi rolls themselves. I'd prefer that they not have sugar at all.

The sushi rolls were good. What I left on my plate, though, was the wasabi and the pickled ginger, which I used to LOVE—until I read what is actually in it.

• FDA food color #40, FD&C yellow #5 and FDC blue #1: Want to know more about artificial food coloring? Read this informative article. "... look for natural food coloring ingredients. There are products colored with beet juice, a much healthier way to color food; annatto, a very healthy plant source; or turmeric, a fantastic herb with anticancer, anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties."

• Sorbitol (sugar substitute): sorbitol can cause diarrhea, irritable bowel syndrome, bloating and flatulence

• Aspartame: Recent studies in Europe show that aspartame use can result in an accumulation of formaldehyde in the brain, which can damage your central nervous system and immune system and cause genetic trauma. Read more here and google aspartame for other dangerous health effects.

• Monosodium Glutamate (MSG): Check out this website on MSG truths.

• Flavors: I'm always, always concerned about this ingredient. Why hide ingredients under flavors? If they can't be listed, it's a red flag that the product may contain ingredients the manufacturer does not want you to know about.

To eat healthy and make good choices, we have to be avid label readers. The only person who will look out for your best interest is you. Download this list of ingredients that you should avoid, tuck it away in your purse or wallet and take it shopping with you.

With a little practice, vegetable sushi rolls can be a fun and easy snack when made fresh at home. Google how to make sushi rolls, and you'll find lots of information online.

Recipe: Gluten-Free Beef Pot Pie

The last couple days have been chilly and rainy, therefore perfect for cooking and preparing meals for the week. The best thing about chilly fall days and winter is that there seems to be a little bit more time to spare because it's too cold to be outside and the garden is done needing attention for the year. 

So, this time of year I spend a lot of time preparing for the winter. Freezing, canning, and cooking in large batches for easy meals during the week. The weekend was filled with testing new recipes. I love the warmth of the oven and the heavenly smell of stews and soups cooking. I'm pretty sure you'll love the way your kitchen smells while making this perfect fall dish, beef pot pie. With or without the gluten-free crust, it's nutritious and hearty.

Shopping List (Buy organic ingredients when possible):

Stew
• 1 pound hormone and antibiotic-free stew meat (I get mine at Whole Foods Market)
• Olive oil
• 1 small can of organic tomato paste
• Arrowroot flour
• 2 cups of beef or vegetable broth (I used water, which isn't as flavorful, but I didn't have any homemade beef or vegetable broth on hand. Most broths at the store contain natural flavors or yeast extract (another name for MSG)
• Fresh rosemary
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 onion, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
• 6 small red potatoes, washed and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
• 2 celery stalks, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
• 2 carrots, peeled and sliced
• 3/4 cup frozen peas
• Salt and pepper to taste

Crust
• 1 package Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free Oat Flour
• Olive oil
• Salt
• Chilled Water
Click here for the crust recipe

Directions:
1. Heat oil in a large pot and add meat.
2. Over high heat, brown the stew meat on all sides, but do not cook meat all the way through. Place meat in a glass dish and set aside.
3. In the same warm pot, make a roux by combining 2 tablespoons of tomato paste and 2 tablespoons of arrowroot flour. Stir often and for about 3-5 minutes. (This is to thicken the stew)
4. Add broth or water to the pot and stir well, getting rid of lumps.
5. Add beef, with juices, back to the pot, add a couple rosemary sprigs and garlic and let simmer on low heat for 30 minutes.
6. Add onion, potatoes, carrots, celery, salt and pepper and cook until vegetables are soft, about 30 more minutes.
7. Just before everything is finished cooking, add the frozen peas and cook until peas are warm.

At this point you can:
• Serve as a delicious stew in soup bowls or
• Put into ramekins and top with crust recipe above

If you top with the crust follow the rest of these directions:
8. After putting stew into ramekins, top with crust.
9. In a small dish, whisk 1 egg. Take a pastry brush and brush some of the egg over the top of the crust to achieve a golden-brown crust.
10. Cut two little slits in the top of the crust, place ramekins on a cookie sheet (in case they overflow), and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes or until the crust is golden-brown.

• You can easily swap out the beef and use chicken for a chicken pot pie.
• This isn't a quick meal, so it's great to cook on the weekends
• This would make a delicious, hearty Monday morning breakfast if made on Sunday afternoon