Tag: live clean

Chocolate & Cacao

Today’s post is about Chocolate and Cacao.

Those people, who know me, know I like my chocolate. I have always claimed that it is good for us and it is. Specifically it’s a raw cacao chocolate has health benefits.

Cacao can refer to any of the food products derived from cacao beans – the seeds or nuts of the cacao tree. These include cacao nibs, cacao butter, cacao paste and most commonly, cacao powder.

This is my favourite chocolate recipe.

Raw Chocolate bar

for (approx.) 200gram block

* 100g Cacao butter

* 50g Cacao powder

* 33g Liquid sweetener (Rice malt, Maple, Agave syrup)

* tiny pinch of Himalayan Pink Salt

Melt butter on a bowl over a saucepan of simmering water.

(The original recipe instructs to put the melted butter into a blender or processor with the other ingredients to mix. I think this wastes too much, so I do it differently.)

Once the butter is melted, I then add syrup, cacao powder & salt to the bowl. Take the saucepan off the heat and mix. I use a stick blender to mix the ingredients together while the mix is still in the bowl, over the hot water.

Once mixed, I pour the chocolate into a lined rectangle cake tin with other ingredients such as chopped mint, nuts, dried berries or ginger.

I then put it into the freezer so it’s ready to eat in approx. 20 to 30 min.

Cacao v Cocoa, what’s the difference?

Raw cacao powder is made by cold-pressing un-roasted cacao beans. The process keeps the living enzymes in the cacao and removes the fat (cacao butter).

Cocoa looks the same but it’s not. Cocoa powder is raw cacao that has been roasted at high temperatures. Sadly, as a result, roasting changes the molecular structure of the cocoa bean. This reduces the enzyme content and lowers the overall nutritional value.

Recent studies reveal that 60% and 90% of the original antioxidants in cacao are lost through common “Dutch processing”. Dutch processing was originally developed to reduce the bitterness, darken the colour, and create a more mellow flavour to chocolate

Here are 5 reasons to enjoy Raw Cacao’s chocolatey deliciousness.

  1.  Raw Organic Cacao has over 40 times the antioxidants of blueberries.
  1.  Source of Iron

It is the highest plant-based source of iron known to man, at a whopping 7.3mg per 100g.  This compares to beef and lamb at 2.5mg, and spinach at 3.6mg. As the iron in cacao is all plant-based, research revealed that to get the maximum benefits you’ll want to combine it with some vitamin C. Think oranges or kiwifruit.

  1.  Full of Magnesium for a Healthy Heart & Brain

Cacao is among one of the highest plant-based sources of magnesium.  Magnesium is important for a healthy heart, and helps turn glucose into energy enabling your brain to work with laser-sharp clarity and focus.  The reason why you might turn to a bar of chocolate in the afternoon.

  1.  Loaded with Calcium

Raw Organic Cacao has more calcium than cow’s milk, as much as 160mg per 100g vs only 125mg per 100ml of milk.

Interestingly, research also shows that dairy inhibits the absorption of antioxidants from raw cacao.

and finally

  1.  A Natural Mood Elevator and Anti-Depressant

It is a great source of 4 scientifically proven bliss chemicals – serotonin, dopamine, anandamide and phenylethylamine.  These chemicals are associated with feelings of wellbeing, happiness, and as a result, alleviate depression.

See, it is good for you.

Till next post, 

Live Clean n Prosper.

Super Salad

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Hi,

Today I want to talk about a salad that I purchased for lunch last week.

This may seem strange, but it was a really tasty, though simple salad. It was promoted as a ‘super food’ salad. So I thought I would research why it was so ‘super’.

What was in it?

Rocket leaves,

Baby English Spinach leaves,

Finely chopped Chinese Wong Bok

(or Napa) cabbage,

Pepitas,

Lemon juice dressing.

Now for the ‘Superfood’ part.

It seems that Rocket leaves are a very nutritious salad green. Apart from providing a little ‘peppery burst’ in each mouthful, it is very good for us.

  • Salad rocket is very high in antioxidants.
  • Also it seems that Rocket is a rich source of certain phytochemicals, which may offer protection against various cancers.
  • Fresh salad rocket is one of the greens rich in folates and an excellent source of vitamin A. Studies found that vitamin A and flavonoid compounds in green leafy vegetables help keep humans protected from skin, lung and oral cavity cancers.
  • This vegetable is also an excellent source of the B-complex group of vitamins, which are essential for optimum metabolic functions.
  • and Rocket also contains healthy levels of vitamin-C.

The English spinach is another salad green with health benefits, many similar to Rocket.

  • Spinach is storehouse for many phyto-nutrients that have health promotional and disease prevention properties.
  • The dark green pigments indicate the presence of antioxidant nutrients and phytochemicals such as beta-carotene, lutein and zeaxanthin – important for healthy eyes.
  • It is also good source of omega-3 fatty acids.

The Chinese cabbage also has similar health benefits to the other leafy greens. I have chosen to highlight just 2.

  • Napa cabbage is incredibly low in calories. 100 g fresh leaves carry jus 16 calories.
  • Napa is also packed with many antioxidant plant compounds. Scientific studies suggest these compounds are known to offer protection against breast, colon and prostate cancers. They also help reduce bad cholesterol levels in the blood.

Finally, the Pepitas or Pumpkin seeds (I like mine toasted)

  • The kernels are especially rich in mono-unsaturated fatty acids that help lower bad cholesterol and increases good cholesterol in the blood.
  • Pumpkin seeds carry good-quality protein. In addition, the seeds are an excellent source of amino acid tryptophan and glutamate which helps reduce anxiety and nervous irritability.

The nutrition facts were found on http://www.nutrition-and-you.com/

So, it would seem that the very tasty salad that I bought for lunch, was in fact ‘super’.

I have purchased the same greens and replicated the salad more than once now, it is very easy to make and is still really tasty. This salad also works really well with the addition of crumbled Feta.

Enjoy the week and until the next post,

Live Clean n Prosper

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Super Smoothies

Todays post is about Smoothies.

Now that the ‘silly season’ is over we are concentrating on getting back on track with our food choices and increasing our movement.

Starting with Breakfast….

We are big fans of ‘smoothies’ for breakfast, ever since we attended a seminar on ‘gut health’ by Dr Peter Dingle. It was at that seminar that we learned about the absorption of micronutrients, the ‘microbiome’ in the gut and how it is all linked to our overall health.

A healthy gut has several important jobs, including helping to fight off infection, as well as performing all of its usual digestive and regulatory functions, like absorbing and synthesising nutrients that are essential to keeping your body running at its best.

Probiotics and a healthy microbiome in our digestive tract is now recognised as one of the most critical conditions for our health and wellbeing. While it is obvious when it comes to many digestive disorders recent research has shown it can be involved in virtually every form of chronic illness. **Dinglewellness.com

Smoothies are one of the ways to get a bunch of good micronutrients into your gut. I have shared one of our favourite smoothie recipes.

 A Super Blueberry Smoothie

 approx. ½ cup frozen blueberries

 ½ a banana

approx. 20 raw almonds

1 tsp Maca powder

1 tsp chia seeds

1 tsp super greens powder (our choice is called ‘Green Qi’ from Modere)

¾ cup Coconut milk (You could use your preferred type of milk instead)

About the Ingredients 

Blueberries are rich in polyphenols, which have an antimicrobial and antioxidative effect. **Dr. Mercola.com

Almonds are an excellent source of protein, healthy fats, and antioxidants. Almond skins even contain beneficial phenols, flavonoids. and phenolic acids. **Dr. Mercola.com

Maca contains over 55 beneficial and naturally occurring phyto-chemicals (plant chemicals). It’s also a powerful adaptogen, which means it has the ability to balance and stabilise the body’s glandular-hormonal system, nervous system, cardiovascular system and musculature.

Chia is a legitimate superfood because of its nutrient content. The seeds are full of healthful omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, they have high levels of protein, fiber, and no cholesterol. They also contain minerals in significant amounts, including calcium, phosphorous, potassium, zinc, copper, and manganese. **Healthy Smoothie.com

We choose to use Coconut cream & water instead of milk as we try to keep our dairy milk intake to a minimum.

and get moving….

We are also making an effort to get moving and go for a morning walk on our days off as well as monitoring our incidental movement throughout the day.

This has been a bit of an eye opener; it’s really surprising some days how little we move. There are also some mornings when I really don’t feel like going walking, but you know, once I have made the effort and I’m walking down the street, I’m really glad I did. It wakes me up, gives me time to think about my day; what I need to do and what I want to achieve. Of course it gets the metabolism up and running for the day. Walking increases the heart rate, burning those calories and improving lung capacity.

 Till next post,

 Live clean ‘n’ prosper.