Fruit & Vegetable Wash Recipe
This also translates to 1tsp per 2 cups.
This week’s “recipe” is drawn from pure stubbornness in refusing to admit defeat against busy schedules, while holding a promise to keep it to two posts and one recipe a week.
The brevity of this post is brought to you by 2020 and life in general. :-)
Looking for an effective and simple way to wash pesticides off your fruit and vegetables? (<—Also key for any of y’all apple pickers.)
Grab ye some baking soda and enjoy the super breezy recipe above. We hadn’t heard of this ‘til this summer, but Cooks illustrated and Consumer Reports also have handy articles explaining the mechanisms in play via this method: “Submerging apples in a baking soda solution for two minutes removed more pesticides than a two-minute soak in the bleach solution, or two minutes of rinsing in running tap water. That’s because carbamate and organophosphate pesticides tend to break down in alkaline solutions.”
Actual recipes in the hopper: a rainbow colored spread of peppers awaiting to be made into hot sauces, and a cupboard stuffed with squash.
Continue for: a recap of the Dietitian James Marin’s brilliant podcast interview where we first heard about baking-soda-soaks (it also has a spot-on mechanistic description of how your body develops Type 2 diabetes and how to prevent it); examples of plant-based whole-food feasting; examples of how we keep active in this Lifestyle Medicine Household; some of Q’s best artwork yet.
Live Kindly, Feast Kindly, Grow Forward.
To be sauce soon. :-)
If you want to understand why we’re so energetic and purpose-driven over here, you need to give a listen to these evidence-based health-focused podcasts I post. They’ll light your brain and heart up with forward movement.
This interview with Dietitian James Marin is a must-listen.
This podcast goes over:
Diabetes: what is going on at the cellular level as one develops Type 2, how fats are actually what cause it (not sugar), how “pre diabetes” is still diabetes (just early onset) and how you can reverse that damage if you switch to Plant-Based Whole Foods and avoid the fats causing it. (There’s a mind-blowing part about neuropathy and how before it shows up in the feet of diabetics, it is shows up in the GI tract because your gut (enteric system) has over a 100 million nerves that are affected before you notice it in your feet!)
How your gut works, how important gut-health is to your whole health, and how it is harmed (animal products, sugar, environmental toxins), and how to heal it and live your healthiest life.
How to raise kiddos on plant-based whole-foods, and why these foods prevent cardiovascular damage, diabetes, and even the chronic gallbladder issues (also explained) within our society. (<—I know at least 3 people who have had theirs removed.)
How environmental toxins get into your food: what to purchase for best health, how to clean fruits/vegetables to remove toxins.
Is a low-carb diet the best option for Type II diabetics? Hear why James Marin believes treatment needs to go beyond limiting symptoms, plus the hidden dangers of a long term keto diet
Are all sugars bad? The big difference between processed sugar and sugar you find in whole foods
James’s plant-based food pyramid that makes it even easier to eat healthfully
The three layers of health and why we can’t ignore the effects the environment has on our gut health
The secret to washing your fruits and vegetables if you want to avoid dangerous chemicals
Breast milk as a medium to transfer data: What we’re putting into our bodies when we drink cows’ milk that has bioaccumulated PCBs and PBDEs
The major difference between selective breeding and genetic modification — and why the latter is so dangerous
You can be part of the solution: What you can do to advocate for a healthier future
Dietitian Dahlia Marin (married to James) also has a brilliant Switch4Good podcast interview, that I previously wrote about in this resource post. It’s titled “Understanding Your Gut and Raising Healthy Children” and it is one of my all-time favorite interviews too.
A kid who is now thriving, every-meal excited about what he’s eating, and full-enough to cruise through the day without the old “I’m hunnnngry” wails of yesteryears.
Plant-Based Whole-Food Breakfast: whole-grain bread, peanut butter, cashew cream, and an apple.
Plant-Based Whole-Food Breakfast: overnight oats, berry sauce, almond butter, cashew cream,
Plant-Based Whole-Food Lunch: Q took this picture of his Tuesday taco (<— taco-style lentils, queso, greens, hot sauce, easy avocado, olives, and kraut.)
Plant-Based Whole-Food Lunch: Tostadas with taco-style lentils, queso, greens, hot sauce, easy avocado, olives, kraut, and ten-minute tomatillo sauce.
Plant-Based Whole-Food Lunch (our simplest, make-quick lunch): black rice noodles, sugar-free version of the peanut sauce, steamed broccoli, olives, and kraut. (<—Q can’t get enough of the latter 2 these days)
Plant-Based Whole-Food Dinner: fresh whole-grain bread, a black-bean soup (made with leftover —and hidden— eggplant, summer squash, and zucchini), and balsamic greens and tomato.
Plant-Based Whole-Food Dinner: same soup (this was amazing and I’ll try to sort how how to do it again) with roasted brussel sprouts, mizuna greens, and Cappello Cornbread.
Plant-Based Whole-Food Dessert: Chocolate Mint Nice Cream with Chocolate Sauce
Eating well is easy, accessible, delicious, and environmentally imperative.
Keeping active is also a key pillar to health, and here’s some ways we’ve done so over the last few days.
Playing tag
Running laps
Gardening.
Unpictured: a lot of dancing. :-)
Remote Learning has continued to not be a good match for this soul. In-person is out of the question (neither we or he want him in-class right now), the remote sessions are driving him up a wall, and the solution paired with the broader explanation will have to come on Sunday as this day is slipping away from me.
Showing Wicket to Cal.
Sunday, Q had a yard visit from his best girlfriend Aria and they ran around in such pure joy the only photo I caught of them was this glimpse of them running away together.
Card he sent Aria the next day. <3 (<—Aria loves Wicket, so that’s who the cat is supposed to be.)
And Q’s also been working really hard at honing his tablet drawing skills.
Fremen catching and riding a shai-hulud.
Tuesday, he took my phone, put Tool’s “Schism” on repeat and worked away at this masterpiece for an hour.
I’m not sure what made my heart flutter more: the earnestness of him saying “Can we please listen to that song that says, '‘I know the pieces fit, because I saw them fall away mildewed and smoldering’, please?”; the sound of his little voice singing along on repeat for so long (<—totally respect and love the urge to repeat listen to a song); or finally seeing the amazing heart and detail he’d throw into his work.
Dune fan? Shai-hulud fan? Boy Howdy does Q want to share an earful of similar love with you.
What’s the most impactful thing you can do as an individual to help your kin, community, millions of species, and planet? Transition as plant-based as possible.🌎♥️
Why? Plant-Based foods are environmentally imperative 🌎. They also promote ideal health💪 (which takes stress off our overburdened health care system), are inexpensive🙌, delicious🤤, & compassionate. 💕
Why imperative, though? 🤔We’re approaching (& have crossed) climate tipping points that will doom our kin & millions of other species. 😱📣Reducing/eliminating animal products is the *most impactful thing an individual can do* to prevent worse. 🌎🔥
Why? Animal Agriculture creates more emissions than the entire transportation sector combined, it’s tied to water waste/loss/pollution (<-- freshwater is our most precious resource💧), land loss/deforestation (<-- exacerbates climate change by reducing our ability to sequester carbon🔥🌎), ocean acidification (<-- FYI 50-85% of earth’s oxygen originates from oceanic plankton🌊) & vast species loss/extinction/suffering💔📣🌎
Plus, consuming animal products is tied to increased risk of cardiovascular disease❤️🩹, diabetes👎, cancer👎, and chronic disease👎; whereas Plant-Based feasting is linked to preventing/reversing some of our most common diseases (<— like cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancer); plus it promotes ideal health & robust strength (ie Olympians, Weightlifters, Endurance Athletes are thriving via PBWFs too). 🎉🙌♥️
What organizations are promoting plant-based diets for best health and environmental stability? National Institutes of Health, Mayo Clinic, Yale, the United Nations, Harvard School of Health, American Heart Association, American College of Cardiology, American Cancer Society, American Diabetes Association, The American Academy of Pediatrics, National Kidney Foundation, even the Parkinson’s Foundation.
We’re all overwhelmed in one way or another, but for the sake of our kin (and the millions of species we share this planet with) we need to start pivoting forward. As someone who once rarely ate green things & used to eat animal products at every meal, I can assure you that is possible, affordable, enjoyable, & purposeful to pivot Plant-Based. In fact, our whole family is now healthier/stronger than ever. 🙌♥️
Anecdotally, our son had failure-to-thrive, was also plagued with perpetual ear-infections/sinus-infections, and had an omnipresent runny nose. What was he eating? Grass-fed milk, organic/antibiotic-free/grass-fed/local meats, eggs from organic-fed/well-loved chickens from a neighbor, every meal came with vegetables, and we limited junkfood. He was healed via a plant-based diet: he’s launched out of that diagnosis and the last time he had a sinus-infection (or was sick at all) was in 2019 when he had some cheese at a school Christmas party. Before shifting to PBWF’s he was sick every month, and how he’s a robust, vital, thriving kiddo. 🙌🎉♥️
If you think any of the above sounds over-reached/absurd/impossible, please go read the links above. I understand the inclination to hackle-raise (<—because I was once totally there) but the science is clear: any step we make forward is imperative (<—and again “STEPS” is the focus. Don’t leap, just start making steps!). It’s as simple as starting with one meal a week and growing from there.💕
We have the ability (deliciously, healthfully, kindly, inexpensively) to *preserve/protect* the planet we share with millions of species & our kin. How are we going to use that power today?✌️🤟🖖
