People these days, especially women and teenage girls, think that fruit is evil and to be avoided at all costs.  They quote some information they heard about sugar in fruit being the same as processed sugar you find in things like cupcakes and chocolate bars.  Which is UTTERLY RIDICULOUS!

If that were true, then raw foodists, many of whom eat tonnes of fruit every day, would be enormous and super unhealthy.  But they're not.  

If that were true, you (and I) would feel ill eating both processed sugar, and fruit.  But that's not true, is it?  I definitely feel ill when I eat processed sugar, but I feel amazing after eating fruit.  

It's the same tired argument that the diet industry has been spouting at us all for years:

They lump carbs all together, saying they're all bad.  Is lettuce the same as white processed bread?  They're both carbs.  But of course they aren't the same!!

They lump fats all together, saying they're all bad.  Is eating a block of cheese the same as eating an avocado?  They're both fats.  They're not the same either!

The thing is, the diet industry is out to make money, just like any business.  If you eliminate your client-based, then the business has no income.  So if a diet helps you lose weight, and keep it off...then it will eventually go out of business.  Does that make sense?

The diet industry doesn't want you to lose and maintain weight loss.  Nor does it want you to be healthy and happy.  It wants you to hate yourself, to feel inadequate, fat, stupid, useless, lazy.  It wants you to do anything it tells you, to "fix yourself and your life".  But it also wants you to fail at these things, and keep coming back.  Repeat customers is the basis of any profitable business.  

Sounds pretty evil, doesn't it?  So what's the answer?  Just eat real food.  Not too much.  Mostly plants. :)  It's not difficult at all.  No counting, no stressing.  Eat delicious food which makes you feel amazing, get moving, and be happy.  Period. :)

My friend Jo, made this recipe as part of her "Dish Do-Over" series on Steven and Chris.  I love mac and cheese, and am always looking for really good recipes which may be used as alternatives to the really unhealthy kind.  Yes, sometimes I want the gooey cheesy unhealthy kind, but sometimes I want something that is similar and just as comfort-foodie, which isn't as bad for me.

Enter this recipe!  It isn't exactly like the traditional mac and cheese (how could it be?) but it's REALLY GOOD and rich.  This ain't one of those healthier mac and cheese recipes with no flavour.  Don't you just hate that?  Why would anyone eat something with no flavour?!

Anyway, this is a great recipe.  When I made it, I ended before the crust/baking part, because I prefer mine without a crust.  But you may do what you wish. :)  Seriously, it's totally yummy!

Macaroni 'N Cheese

Serves 8

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups sweet potato, peeled and chopped (one medium)
3 tbsp olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
¼ cup brown rice or whole wheat flour
2 tsp mustard powder
1 370 mL can non-fat evaporated milk
1 cup low-sodium chicken or vegetable stock
2 cups grated low-fat old cheddar cheese
¾ cup fresh grated parmesan cheese, divided
¼ tsp ground nutmeg
Dash hot sauce
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
4 cups brown rice or whole wheat macaroni (454 g pkg)
1 cup Oikos non-fat Greek yogurt
1 cup gluten-free or whole wheat panko breadcrumbs (or fresh whole wheat breadcrumbs)
1 tbsp chopped flat-leaf parsley

Directions

Preheat oven to 375F.

Place sweet potato into a steamer basket over a saucepan of boiling water. Steam potato until fork tender, about 15 minutes. Mash until smooth and set aside.

Heat oil over medium heat in a medium saucepan. Add onion and garlic and cook, stirring frequently until onions are softened and translucent, about 4 minutes. Add flour and cook, stirring constantly, for about 1 minute. Stir in mustard powder and sweet potato.

Whisk in milk and chicken stock until smooth, and bring to a gentle simmer and cook, stirring frequently until thickened, about 5 minutes. Off heat, gradually stir in cheddar and ½ cup parmesan cheese until smooth. Season with nutmeg, hot sauce, salt and pepper. Whisk in Greek yogurt until mixture is smooth.

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and cook pasta according to package instructions for al dente. Drain, reserving ½ cup pasta cooking water. Return pasta to pot and stir in sauce, and reserved pasta cooking water if needed. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Transfer to a 9x13-inch baking pan misted with cooking spray.

In a small bowl combine panko, parsley and remaining parmesan cheese. Sprinkle mixture over pasta and mist with cooking spray. Bake for about 30 minutes until sauce is bubbling and topping is golden brown and crisp.

I just read this fantastic article, and I had to share it.  Being healthy is SO much more important than being a certain weight.  I've heard so many people stress and cry about how their body refuses to lose the last 5 lbs--but they were the ones who randomly chose that number, not their bodies!  It's insane what we do to ourselves now...and it has to stop.  No need to cut out food groups, or starve yourself.

Eat real food.  Be active.  Be happy!

The original post with its comments can be found here.  For your convenience I've duplicated the body of the post below.

An Open Apology to All of My Weight Loss Clients

I worked at a popular weight loss company for three years. I loved my job there. I LOVED my clients. I loved making a connection and sharing my knowledge. And I learned a lot about nutrition, about dieting and weight loss and what works and what doesn't. My job was to be a weight loss consultant, and I learned that job very well. I can design a 1,200 calorie meal plan, tell you which activities are most likely to make the number on the scale go down, and how many carbs are in a cup of rice. I can talk the diet game like it's my business... because it was. Volumize with vegetables. Don't go too long in between meals. Start with a bowl of broth-based soup. Are you drinking enough water? Did you exercise enough? Did you exercise too much? Let's look at your food journal.

This is not an anti-weight loss company post (although I could write that too). It's a letter to each and every woman that I unknowingly wronged. My heart is beating a little bit faster as I write this, and so I know this needs to be said. The words have been playing in my head for months. Sometimes it just takes time for me to get up the courage to say the right thing.

So here goes:

Dear Former Weight Loss Clients (you know who you are):

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry because I put you on a 1,200 calorie diet and told you that was healthy. I'm sorry because when you were running 5x a week, I encouraged you to switch from a 1,200 calorie diet

to a 1,500 calorie diet, instead of telling you that you should be eating a hell of a lot more than that. I'm sorry because you were breastfeeding and there's no way eating those 1,700 calories a day could have been enough for both you and your baby. I'm sorry because you were gluten intolerant and so desperate to lose weight that you didn't put that on your intake form. But you mentioned it to me later, and I had no idea the damage you were doing to your body. I'm sorry because I think I should have known. I think I should have been educated better before I began to tell all of you what was right or wrong for your body.

I'm sorry because I made you feel like a failure and so you deliberately left a message after the center had closed, telling me you were quitting. I thought you were awesome and gorgeous, and I'm sorry because I never told you that. I'm sorry because you came in telling me you liked to eat organic and weren't sure about all the chemicals in the food, and I made up some BS about how it was a "stepping stone." I'm sorry because many of you had thyroid issues and the LAST thing you should have been doing was eating a gluten-filled, chemically-laden starvation diet. I'm sorry because by the time I stopped working there, I wouldn't touch that food, yet I still sold it to you.

I'm sorry because it's only years later that I realize just how unhealthy a 1,200 calorie diet was. I stayed on a 1,200-1,500 calorie diet for years, so I have the proof in myself. Thyroid issues, mood swings, depression, headaches... oh and gluten intolerance that seemed to "kick in" after about a month of eating the pre-packaged food. Was it a coincidence? Maybe.

I'm sorry because you had body dysmorphic disorder, and it was so painful to hear the things you said about yourself. You looked like a model, and all of my other clients were intimidated by you, asked me why you were there because clearly you didn't need to lose weight. And yet you would sit in my office and cry, appalled that a man might see you naked and be disturbed by the fat that didn't actually exist. I'm sorry because you should have been seeing a therapist, not a weight loss consultant.

I'm sorry because you were young and so beautiful and only there because your mother thought you needed to lose weight. And because there were too many of you like that. Girls who knew you were fine, but whose mothers pushed that belief out of you until you thought like she did. Until you thought there was something wrong with you. And the one time I confronted your mother, you simply got switched to a different consultant. I think I should have made more of a stink, but I didn't. I'm sorry because you were in high school and an athlete, and I pray that you weren't screwed up by that 1,500 calorie diet. Seriously, world? Seriously? A teenage girl walks in with no visible body fat and lots of muscle tone, tells you she's a runner and is happy with her weight... but her mother says she's fat and has to lose weight and so we help her do just that. As an individual, as women, as a company, hell, as a nation, we don't stand up for that girl? What is wrong with us? There ain't nothing right about that. Nothing.

I'm sorry because every time you ate something you "shouldn't" or ate more than you "should," I talked about "getting back on the bandwagon." I cringe now every time someone uses that phrase. When did the way we eat become a bandwagon? When did everyone stop eating and become professional dieters? I'm sorry because I get it now. If you're trying to starve your body by eating fewer calories than it needs, of course it's going to fight back. I used to tell you that then, when you wanted to eat less than 1,200 calories a day. The problem was, I thought 1,200 was enough. I thought that was plenty to support a healthy body. Why did I believe that for so long? I'm sorry because I wasn't trying to trick you or play games to get your money. I believed the lies we were fed as much as you did.

And it wasn't just the company feeding them to me. It was the doctors and registered dietitians on the medical advisory board. It was the media and magazines confirming what I was telling my clients. A palm-sized portion of lean chicken with half a sweet potato and a salad was PLENTY. No matter that you had "cravings" afterward. Cravings are a sign of underlying emotional issues. Yeah, sure they are. I'm a hypnotherapist with a past history of binge eating disorder. I KNOW cravings are a sign of underlying emotional issues. Except when they're not. Except when they're a sign that your body needs more food and you're ignoring it. Then they're a sign that your 1,200 calorie diet is horseshit. Then they're a sign that you've been played.

And that's mostly why I'm sorry. Because I've been played for years, and so have you, and inadvertently, I fed into the lies you've been told your whole life. The lies that say that being healthy means nothing unless you are also thin. The lies that say that you are never enough, that your body is not a beautiful work of art, but rather a piece of clay to be molded by society's norms until it becomes a certain type of sculpture. And even then, it is still a work in progress.

I owe you an apology, my former client and now friend, who I helped to lose too much weight. Who I watched gain the weight back, plus some. Because that's what happens when you put someone on a 1,200 calorie diet. But I didn't know. If you're reading this, then I want you to know that you have always been beautiful. And that all these fad diets are crap meant to screw with your metabolism so that you have to keep buying into them. I think now that I was a really good weight loss consultant. Because I did exactly what the company wanted (but would never dare say). I helped you lose weight and then gain it back, so that you thought we were the solution and you were the failure. You became a repeat client and we kept you in the game. I guess I did my job really well.

And now I wonder, did I do more harm than good? When I left, you all wrote me cards and sent me flowers. I still have those cards, the ones that tell me how much I helped you, how much I cared. But I'm friends with some of you on Facebook now, and I look at your photos and you look happy. And beautiful. And not because you lost weight since I saw you last. But because I see YOU now. You. Not a client sitting in my chair, asking for my assistance in becoming what society wants. But you, a smart and lovely woman, who really doesn't need some random company telling her there's something wrong with her.

So I'm sorry because when you walked in to get your meal plan, I should have told you that you were beautiful. I should have asked you how you FELT. Were you happy? Did you feel physically fit? Were you able to play with your kids? There were so many of you who never needed to lose a pound, and some of you who could have gained some. And maybe sometimes I told you that. But not enough. Not emphatically. Because it was my job to let you believe that making the scale go down was your top priority. And I did my job well.

I am sorry because many of you walked in healthy and walked out with disordered eating, disordered body image, and the feeling that you were a "failure." None of you ever failed. Ever. I failed you. The weight loss company failed you. Our society is failing you.

Just eat food. Eat real food, be active, and live your life. Forget all the diet and weight loss nonsense. It's really just that. Nonsense.

And I can't stop it. But I can stop my part in it. I won't play the weight loss game anymore. I won't do it to my body, and I won't help you do it to yours. That's it. End game.

One of the things I’ve learned (gradually) about the Clean lifestyle, is that you have to do what works for you.  Unlike a diet, this life lends itself to customization.  To trying on different ways of doing things, until you find one that fits.

When I first started Eating Clean, I, like most, took what was said to be extremely literal, that I had to eat this and that lean meat, this vegetable but not that, always and forever, amen.

What I’ve learned is that with only a few guidelines, you can go crazy and do what works for you.  The proteins, the carbohydrates, the fats.  Make sure you get enough of them, without going overboard.  That’s it.

To newbies, that usually means something like oatmeal for breakfast with egg whites every morning, chicken or fish and vegetables and some rice for lunch, hummus or nuts and fruit + veggie sticks for snacks, and some sort of veggie/meat combo for dinner.  Then comes the boredom.

What I now know, is the variety of flavours, tastes and textures is immense.  I also now know that I don’t have to eat animal products with every meal, in order to get enough protein. 

All grains, so long as their whole, are considered clean.  All vegetables and fruits, as long as they’re just the fruit or veg and aren’t processed, are clean.  All nuts and seeds, so long as they’re raw at the time you purchase them, are clean.  Animal products, as well, can be clean, if they follow the same rule of thumb—nothing added to them before the time of purchase.

For me, the form that Clean Eating has taken, is that of a flexitarian.  I don’t eat animal products with every meal, nor do I eat them every day.  I eat as wide a variety of fruits and veggies, grains, nuts and seeds as I can, because I’m interested in getting in all the macro AND micro nutrients our bodies need, rather than worrying about getting a certain number of fat grams, protein grams, or carbohydrate grams.  Every once in a while I’ll track what I’m eating, to make sure I’m still on track, and I can tell you that even for things like protein (I know you’re wondering!), I’m getting in around 60g of protein in a day. 

My life isn’t about frantically making sure that every single tiny little morsel of food that I consume is super clean either.  I don’t want to have to think about and break down every single item, how it’s going to affect my weight, etc etc.  In short, I’m not prepared to spend my life on a diet.  I just make sure to eat the vast majority of my meals as clean meals.  That’s where the flexibility of Clean Eating comes into play. 

Sometimes, I’m participating in something which isn’t necessarily going to be all clean.  Say I’m going to a BBQ this weekend.  Do I fret about what the food might be, worry that I might be tempted by all the unclean food, count macronutrients and calories in the average BBQ menu item, and figure out how much I can (or can’t) have of each thing, then spend the next week on the scale, thinking I’m bound to have gained weight just by being in the vicinity of unhealthy food?

No.  I have a life, and I live it.  I choose to not be so focussed on these things constantly, because I’ve learned that it’s no way for me to live my life, and it drives me CRAZY to do it!  LOL

So what do I do?  I eat a wide variety of clean, healthy foods, the majority of the time.  I make sure I get exercise, sometimes in an organized workout, and also with just keeping moving.

I enjoy delicious clean food (as I type this, I’m finishing a lovely bowl of fruit salad made with pink grapefruit, cantaloupe, strawberries and raspberries, and I’m making chicken stock with the roast chicken I baked yesterday, which will make a mostly-veggie chicken and barley soup tomorrow), and if I want that birthday cake at a friend’s party, I have it. 

Finding the version of Clean Eating that works for me, has made it all so much easier.  I've collected many recipes over the years, and at the end of each week, I decide which recipes I’m going to make for meals for the week.  Then I make them. 

I eat out about once a week, and I don’t worry about it.  So long as I don’t go hog wild and eat a pound of lard or something, it’s fine.  One meal out of 35 won’t make a difference, just like on clean meal out of 35 SAD meals won’t make a difference. J

I now know that it doesn’t have to be complicated.  There’s no fear of carbohydrates, fruits, or fat.  It’s just food.  It’s delicious and wonderful, but it’s not the enemy.  Just find what works for you by experimenting with new foods, get in as much variety as possible, and ENJOY it.  Food is a huge part of every living things life.  Enjoy yourself!

***

If you’re interested, the recipes I’m making next week are as follows.  The ones with the (2) beside them are the dinner one day/lunch the following day recipes.  Planned leftovers!

Buffalos Have Balls Not Wings (2)

Banana bread

Pizza (entirely home-made, even the crust—there’s a great recipe for crust on Clean Eating Mag’s site—it’s a Chef Jo recipe) (2)

Roasted chicken and vegetable soup with barley (2)

Spicy Shrimp and Polenta Medallions (2)

South Indian Curried Veggies (2)

Breakfast Banana Splits (from cleaneatingmag.com) (however many I eat lol)

I found this amazing article about the truths and missed about eating a plant-based diet.  It's from the Tucson Citizen, and the full article can be found on their site here.

Fact and Myths about Plant Based Nutrition

by holistic-optimal-nutrition on Aug. 06, 2013,

THERE ARE MANY FACTS AND MYTHS

that circle around the internet and magazines regarding the sometimes controversial Plant

Based Diet. Over the last 10 years, the plant based diet has increased in popularity due to the health effects and extensive research that has come about. Much of this research that has been documented dates back to the 1800s. Doctors like T. Colin Campbell, and Dr. John McDougall, among many others, have brought this research to a head, while conducting their own extensive research. Studies such as The China Study that appear in Forks over Knives are rapidly gaining momentum.

Although these studies are becoming more widely spread throughout the world, there is often a stigma, and many questions that come along with giving up meat, fish and dairy. Our country, along with most western countries have been raised on mostly chicken, fish and beef as a protein source, with a small amount of vegetables and a starch. This is the way we are all brought up, myself included. I had always thought that anyone that chose to eat a plant based diet did no more then jump on a bandwagon. Regardless if you go 100% plant based as I did, it is definitely a personal choice. Although based on nutrition facts and rising disease rates, the majority of our diets should be plant based with a small percentage of animal based protein. This is to ensure you are receiving the most amount of nutrients possible, while keeping inflammation down.

BELOW ARE SOME COMMON MYTHS:

 MYTH 1: PLANT BASED DIET DOES NOT GET ENOUGH PROTEIN.

Based on the USDA, an adult woman only needs about 46 grams of protein, and an adult man only requires about 56 grams. In the United States, we typically take in about 120 grams of protein primarily from animal products. This type of protein is absorbed differently than plant based protein and comes along with added cholesterol and fat. One cup of dry beans has 16 grams of protein. Leafy greens and plant based protein supplements and brown rice also contain high amounts of protein. As long as you are truly plant based, eating a variety, your protein needs are easily met.

MYTH 2: PLANT BASED DIET HAS NO CALCIUM SOURCE.

Much research has linked meat protein and dairy to osteoporosis and bone density issues. Many have tried to find calcium in other sources. Green leafy vegetables contain calcium if eaten regularly. Most almond and soy milks have not been fortified with calcium and typically will contain more calcium then dairy milk. If this is not in the diet, then a supplement or multi vitamin is recommended. It is still required that women should be taking in 1000mg of calcium a day.

MYTH 3: ONLY ANIMAL RIGHTS ACTIVISTS TAKE ON THIS TYPE OF DIET

Many have a vision that anyone that would eat this way, is simply doing it because they love animals and are considered too earthy. Given, there is nothing wrong with this choice for that reason but over the last 20 years, more of the population that includes youths as well as adults have made the switch due to the education that they are receiving about the health benefits.

MYTH 4: VEGANS NEVER GET SICK
Eating a plant based diet rich in fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts and seeds can help boost immunity more than someone who is not on a plant based diet, but no one person is bulletproof. Plant based diet does lower your risk substantially for chronic illnesses such as heart disease, cancer and diabetes. This type of lifestyle increases your chances for a better quality of life in later years but does not keep you invincible from all of life’s ailments. If you eat an orchestra of various foods in the plant based realm, you will get an abundance of nutrients. Due to the fact that B12 is primarily in animal products, this is one supplement that is required.

MYTH 5: IT’S TOO HARD TO CUT OUT MEAT AND DAIRY

For a dedicated meat lover (as I was with fish), it seems a difficult task to make these changes, even with the best intent. There are so many wonderful options out there these days that there is a replacement for almost everything. Given, you do have to look and try new things. Some can do it overnight while others need to do it slowly. Try switching to non dairy items to start out with and cutting out red meat and pork. You do not have to give up your love for food. You just have to change your thought process.

I myself am not a vegan or vegetarian, because I occasionally enjoy meat, and consume a little bit of dairy, but I'm definitely working toward being plant-based for the rest of my diet.  

In fact, I purchased fresh PURPLE figs for the first time ever today!  I tried one when I got home (and after I looked up how to eat them! LOL  Turns out you just rinse, de-stem, and eat!  Fast food!), and OM NOM NOM!  So tasty!  You should try them too!

I found this article and found it really interesting!  I'm transitioning into a plant-based lifestyle, which for me means mostly plants, with animal products sometimes.  I didn't start out wanting to be plant-based, my body just was telling me that it can't handle meat all the time--my body just doesn't like it, and I end up feeling very heavy and tired if I eat it too much.

The benefit to this aversion of meat all the time (I still do have it a few times a week, but not enormous amounts each time) is that I'm filling in the spaces with plants, and reaping the health and monetary benefits from it.

Anyway, the article is from www.theage.com.au

The US might be the birthplace of the quadruple bypass burger (available with 20 slices of bacon), but it's also home to the Meatless Monday movement and some of the most passionate promoters of plant-based diets. There's Michael ''eat food; mostly plants'' Pollan and former president Bill Clinton whose own bypass (a real one, not a burger) was the nudge he needed to eat less fried chicken.

Now the list has another high-profile name: Mark Bittman, The New York Times food writer - and meat lover - whose new book offers a semi-vegetarian approach for anyone who is not prepared to forgo animal foods entirely but wants the health benefits of eating more vegetables and grains.

Like Clinton, Bittman's decision to overhaul his diet was prompted by bad news about his health.

Six years ago, he was 15 kilograms overweight, his cholesterol was going north and his blood-sugar levels were edging towards type 2 diabetes. While other doctors might have prescribed medication, Bittman's doctor prescribed a vegan diet - all the plant food you can eat, but no meat, fish, eggs or dairy

Knowing he couldn't sustain this way of eating full-time, Bittman came up with a compromise: he would go vegan for breakfast and lunch but include animal foods for dinner.

After a month of eating this way, he had lost six kilos; after two months, his cholesterol and blood-sugar levels had dropped to normal levels, and his sleep apnoea had disappeared. Within four months he had lost 15 kilograms.

"I would say the whole thing was far easier than I thought it would be," he says. "It was a game at first, and maybe that was a good thing - 'can I do this?' Well, yes, I could and now that it's been six years, it's obviously sustainable.''

Bittman has turned this experience into a book, Eat Vegan Before 6:00, which will be published here in August. The VB6 way of eating goes something like this: for daytime meals, eat all plants - vegetables, fruit, grains, nuts and legumes, and avoid refined carbs - but for dinner you can ease up and include meat, dairy, eggs or fish and refined carbs such as pasta and rice.

A typical breakfast might be oats or muesli with non-dairy milk and fruit; lunch could be some combination of legumes and vegetables, such as bean soup, a lentil salad or wholegrain bread sandwich. For a snack there's fruit or nuts. Although animal foods are OK at dinner, he encourages generous helpings of vegetables and no pigging out on processed food. 

Bittman believes this approach gives structure but with built-in flexibility to accommodate eating out, travel and, yes, cravings.

Part of what makes VB6 sustainable, he says, is it's flexible enough to allow for caving in from time to time.

It also means if you're at a friend's place for lunch and meat is on the menu, you just opt for plant foods at dinner instead.

"It's about doing your best to nourish yourself with real, wholesome foods most of the time and not beating yourself up when you don't," Bittman says.

He's a man who likes his pork and beef as much as anyone but recognises that diets big on meat and processed food come at a cost to human health, the environment and the welfare of animals raised in factory-farm conditions.

The solution, he says, is to reduce our demand for cheap meat and highly processed food by moving away from what he calls the ''meat-as-main-mentality'' and, instead, build meals around plants.

Will this ever become a mainstream way of eating? Definitely, says Bittman, who predicts that in 50 years' time we'll be eating very differently.

"Nothing else is sustainable," he says.

So what do you think?  Think you can include a few plant-based meals this week, as a start?  How about just 3?  That's totally do-able!

I'm learning to love kale.  I tried it as juice a few weeks ago and learned to add a little less!  At least for now...I'm sure I'll become accustomed to it.

So far I'm not a fan of raw kale salad (though every time I make it for someone else, they always LOVE it ironically).  But I LOVE kale chips!

And it's so GOOD for you!  Check it out!

5 HEALTH BENEFITS OF KALE

Written By Rhonda Hardey

Kale is a dark green leafy nutritional powerhouse! It contains vitamin A, C, E, K as well as calcium, magnesium, B6, potassium, iron, omega 3 fatty acids and many more. It truly is one of the healthiest vegetables on earth! What are the best ways to consume kale? You can make kale juice, kale chips, steam kale, sauté kale or eat it raw in salads.

Here are 5 health benefits of Kale:

1. Anti-inflammatory

Omega 3 fatty acids are essential fatty acids. Essential fatty acids are not produced in your body therefore you need to get them from your diet. Research shows that omega-3 fatty acids reduce inflammation and lower the risk of chronic diseases such as heart disease, arthritis, and autoimmune disorders.

2. Cancer Prevention

Kale contains antioxidants including carotenoids and flavonoids. Antioxidants protect our cells from unstable molecules called free radicals. Antioxidants are associated with many of the anti-cancer health benefits. Kale has been shown to ward off breast, colon, ovarian, prostate and bladder cancer.

3. Lowers Cholesterol

Kale contains dietary fiber, which has been shown to help reduce cholesterol.  Fiber reduces the absorption of the bad “LDL” cholesterol into your bloodstream.  

4. Prevents Bone Loss

One cup of kale contains more than 90 mg of calcium. Studies have shown that calcium helps prevent osteoporosis, osteomalacia, and rickets. Vitamin D is required to absorb calcium so enjoy a delicious kale salad with salmon.

5. Reduces the Risk of Macular Degeneration

Kale is rich in lutein which is a carotenoid that protects against macular degeneration. Macular degeneration is the leading cause of vision loss in people over 60.