Cartoons and pumping or eating iron

Anyone else watch Popeye as a kid? His daring feats, made possible by strength-enhancing spinach (in a can, mind you) thrilled my young mind.

However, you're not going to get anything close to Popeye's results from a canned vegetable. The nutrients just aren't the same or as potent after being processed.

What you really want are some of these guys. Fresh spinach is rich with the vitamins and antioxidants that you need.

Did you know that spinach can help cure acne? Neither did I!

It also strengthens your bones and prevent cataracs. This little superfood can do a host of other things for your health as well.

I wish spinach would give me superhuman strength like Popeye, but alas, I don't live in a cartoon world. However, spinach is high in iron which is known to improve blood flow and muscle strength on a small scale.

So hey, it could make you strong after all.

Eating well in winter

The winter months are not especially conducive to healthy eating.  During summer, my cravings usually lend more towards salads and fruit smoothies.  But when it's cold out, all I want is noodle soup, baked goodies, and hot chocolate.

The problem is not that we don't know what foods are healthier than others, according to Jana Frawley of Taste.com in her July 2 article "How to get the most from winter vegetables":

The problem lies in breaking old habits. Sure, our dinner vocabulary these days is not limited to meat-and-three-veg, but when one of the kids asks "what's for dinner?", chances are the response will be chicken, lamb, steak, fish, pork or sausages... Risotto or pasta may get a look in, but it would be a rare night when you'd breezily answer cauliflower or eggplant.

A big concern, every time, is the cost of the food you buy.  Generally speaking, veggies are cheaper than meats.  If you can only afford one, the veggies are your best bet.

Despite the cold weather, there are plenty of options in most super markets.  Check to see if there are any farmer's markets open year-round near where you live. From my apartment in Northeast D.C., I have access to Eastern Market's weekend farmer's market as well as the inexpensive grocery store Aldi and therefore, I have no valid excuse to eat unhealthy.

Yanjun of NaturalNews.com said it well in a concise post, "Nine healthy winter foods to include in your diet," on November 8:

Being able to get fresh fruits and vegetables, even in the dead of winter, is a great advantage in today's world. Fresh fruits and vegetables are available year round, and these are the foods that are most likely to ensure health and wellness, as they impart vitamins, minerals and other beneficial substances to the body.

The nine foods that Yanjun thought important enough to base the post on are: Brussels sprouts, leeks, beets, kale, pomegranate, kiwifruit, persimmon, guava and pomelo.

One important addition to this list that I (and Kerri-Ann Jennings, M.S., R.D., Associate Nutrition Editor of EatingWell Magazing) would make is all things citrus:

Citrus fruits, including lemons, limes, oranges and grapefruit are at their juiciest in the wintertime and can add sunshine to the dreary winter. Citrus fruits are loaded with vitamin C--one medium orange delivers more than 100 percent of your daily dose (from the article "5 of the Healthiest Winter Foods").

This is precisely the time when your body needs as many vitamins and nutrients as it can get to fight off those inevitable bugs that spread like a winter wildfire.

Soups are a fantastic go-to in the winter.  They are warm, comforting, filling, simple enough to prepare and just perfect for those chilly days.  A variety of recipes will clear out all those unwanted or old (but not yet rotten) veggies in the bottom of your fridge.

Don't neglect good health simply because it seems so much more fitting to bake cookies.  You and I both can begin winter healthy, happy and satisfied--and sustain that through the months ahead.

Food Spotlight: Sweet Potatoes

Not the pie, baked to sugary perfection and topped with marshmallows around the Holidays.  As good as those taste, they won't do much for your health. Sweet potatoes, in and of themselves, taste fantastic and add some incredible nutrients to your body.

In a time pinch, I bake my sweet potato in the microwave for a few minutes (depending on how big it is), top it with ground cinnamon (also great for your regulating your blood sugar), and enjoy it by itself or on the side of a protein source.

Sweet potatoes are high in fiber, filling you up and giving you sustained energy through the day.  They contain magnesium to relax you, and potassium to reduce swelling.  You can get iron and many essential vitamins like B6, C and D.  On top of that, they might even prevent cancers from taking up residence in your body.  The health benefits are seemingly endless!

By no means a boring vegetable, the sweet potato can be consumed in many forms, including chips (a personal favorite).  They can be purchased at some stores, or made at home.

Juice for Your Health's Sake

He's beautiful, he has an amazing voice, and he juices. Ladies and gentlemen, it doesn't get much better than Adam Lambert.  But what you or I think about him really doesn't help us get through the ups and downs of life and its inevitable medical problems.

However, juicing does.

It's a popular fad for weight loss.  Nowadays, everyone is trying a juice detox. I was so motivated last spring that I invested in a good juicer and went on a 10 day fast.  I lost 10 lbs. in that time.  It was brutal, but my body felt wonderful.

The truth is, whole body well being is more important than shedding a few pounds for cosmetic reasons.  If you clicked on that link to the juicer I bought, you might be thinking what I was initially thinking--this thing is too expensive and I just don't have the money for that.  Besides that, fresh produce can get pretty pricey.  Understandable.  I'm a broke college student.  I had to pay off that juicer over several months.
Think of it in this way: you also can't afford medical issues that will lead to hospital bills and medications.  This is especially true if you lack adequate health insurance.

One mother told the story about her three-year-old daughter Desiree who was so plagued by her asthma that she was hospitalized regularly even while taking prescribed steroids, medications, and a rescue inhaler daily.  These medical treatments did nothing to cure this little girl--they may have even made her worse.  Natural News reported:

Fortunately, Desiree's family was able to find comfort through a lung specialist willing to listen to their story and, more importantly, who was open-minded about introducing their daughter to a raw food diet. Desiree went 100% raw and began juicing. Her mother says, "[F]rom day one, she has not had another asthma attack. She has not had another seizure.... She's had no asthma-related problems since then."

The up-front costs of juicing are comparable to purchasing health insurance which can prevent your body from developing ailments and potentially cure it of existing ailments.

My own father, who has been overweight for my whole life, lost more than 50 lbs. (from 420 lbs. to 370 lbs.) in about three months through a combination of juicing and eating healthy solid meals.  He did it because he had to--an infection in his leg, exasperated by his weight, made him nearly bedridden and racked up the bills for a week's stay in the hospital.  He couldn't afford to repeat that mistake, took his health seriously and is still losing weight and becoming healthier by the day.

Most of the nutrients for fruits and vegetables are found in its juice, so you aren't losing much by getting rid of the fibrous pulp.  Taking in the nutrients in a mostly juice form makes digestion much easier on your body and gets those cleansing agents where they need to be in half the time.  Manuel Apreku, author of a natural home remedy blog, said:

Let me remind you first that, nutrient from fresh juice is quicker to be absorbed by your body than eating fruits and vegetables. Fresh juice contains an abundance of nutrients that will help you fight disease, build your health and energize your body...vitamins, minerals, soluble fiber and carbohydrates.

Allow me to reiterate, juicing is not easy.  Most of our bodies are so addicted to sugar and fast food, that juicing for a week might feel (on a smaller scale) like detoxing from a drug addiction.  The juice cleans out all the toxins--a potentially unpleasant process.  However, that process is worth it if it also cleans out any of these ailments that you suffer from.

Sometimes a pure fruit and vegetable juice fast is more than a body can handle, said Lori Corbin, in an ABC7 article, "Juicing responsibly; Diet, cleanse with energy."

But there is a way to juice responsibly so you can perform everyday tasks like taking a test, attending social events, and yes, exercising.  For instance, try blending juice with extras.  "You need a little more than the vegetables, so put a scoop of whey protein in there, put a scoop of almond butter in there," said [Ky] Evans.

So use some discernment, don't overdo it, but definitely don't be too afraid to try it.  As a college student, it's hard to find the time and motivation to juice.  For this semester in D.C., I had to leave my precious juicer in California with my family because it wouldn't fit in my suitcase.  I can't wait to use it when I go home for Christmas break.  Experiment with recipes to fight particular ailments or for your favorite fruits and vegetables.

Happy juicing!  And happy healthy living!

Food Spotlight: Kale

If you have never eaten kale before, you are missing out on a world of nutrition!

Kale is a superfood that will pump your body full vitamins, detoxify it, boost your entire circulatory system, and so much more!  Beware that some types of kale taste sweeter than others.  Whenever it's available in supermarkets, I get lacinato (or dino) kale.

My favorite juice recipe for kale is simple:

6-8 large kale leaves
1 cucumber
4 stalks of celery
2 granny smith apples
1/2 lemon
1 ginger knob (about the size of a quarter)
Serves two!

It can also be made into some fantastic tasting (and fantastic for you) salads.  Some of those recipes can be found here.  It will be like sending a cleaning crew through your body for somewhere between $2-$4.  That can't be beat.

Control the Food Desert Weather

Growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area, I never lacked fresh fruits and vegetables.  My mom is a fantastic cook and although we struggled to make rent many times, we never went hungry or lacked a range of healthy foods.

As I transitioned into college, I figured out that what my mom had made look so seamless was actually quite hard - eating healthy on a tight budget.  It's especially difficult when there are no supermarkets nearby.  I never had to face the reality of food deserts until I came to Washington, D.C. for the semester.  From my apartment on the Hill, the nearest supermarket is 0.8 miles away, which means that I am not in a food desert.  However, residents of Wards 7 and 8 have very limited access to healthy food and many struggle with food hardship on a regular basis, according to DC Hunger Solutions:

In 2009-2010, 37.4 percent of households with children in the District of Columbia said they were unable to afford enough food. This is the worst rate in the nation. The food hardship rate for households without children drops to 14.9 percent.

Why would average people - the broke college students like me, the single moms with two jobs, the recently unemployed, etc. - take the pains to pay for and prepare healthy meals when it's so much easier to buy fast food?  When I come home exhausted from classes or work, I have no desire to walk a mile to buy lettuce and then walk a mile home to prepare a decent salad.  Half of the time I don't even have money for that.  All I want to do is grab a cheeseburger and kick back on my couch watching The Walking Dead.

What the District could really use is a convenient, close, nonprofit grocery store, like Fare & Square in Chester, Pa. - the first of its kind in the United States.

The Huffington Post reported about this:

The store is the brainchild of Bill Clark, the executive director of Philabundance, a nonprofit hunger relief organization. Chester has a 36 percent poverty rate and unemployment is 13 percent. Clark said at one time Chester had five grocery stores, but they all closed when the city fell on hard times after manufacturing virtually disappeared.
About half of the city's residents don't own a car making it difficult and costly to travel to a supermarket. As Clark put it: "To bring a gallon of milk is a hardship if you have to use two buses to get home."

As a nonprofit, Fare & Square offers lower prices for a healthy range of fruits and vegetables.  Time will tell if this model is sustainable and can be used in food deserts across the United States.

Unlike a drought, the weather doesn't control the District's access to healthy foods - we do.  I could go on a rant about how "we the people" have the power, but I'll spare you the cliche.  On top of that, the District isn't even represented in the federal government.  I don't trust the government to fix the mess that we're in anyway.  It'll take some enterprising individuals and some start up funding, but if it can happen anywhere, D.C. is the place.

Steps are already being taken to increase the increase the inner city's access to healthy foods.  One nonprofit organization is using land in Alexandria, Va. to grow food to be sold in food desert areas of Washington, D.C.  There are plans in the works to build a massive urban greenhouse in Ward 8 by 2014, as reported by The Washington Post:

And while Ward 8 is desperately in need of jobs, as the average unemployment rate in Ward 8 in 2012 was over 22 percent (one of the highest in the country), this greenhouse isn’t really about jobs, despite how the event was spun.  Yes, the 25 full-time jobs and 100 short-term construction jobs that BrightFarms is bringing is beneficial. There is no question there.
The real gift to the community, however, is the one million pounds of GMO-free produce that the greenhouse will generate – provided it actually gets into the homes of Ward 7 and Ward 8 residents living in chronic food insecurity. This is the real test.

None of these initiatives in and of themselves will cure the District's food dessert.  But combined, there's hope.  Healthier foods with competitive prices will make the people of the District healthier.  Because proper nutrition is so essential to health, the effects of this will be far reaching.  I can't predict the future, but I can imagine how much brighter our Nation's capital will shine if its people, all of its people, have the power to take care of themselves.

To see how prevalent food deserts are in the United States, check out this interactive map from the USDA Economic Research Service!