Superfood Recipe: Buttery Peanut Soup

While this one may sound a bit strange at first, if your kids are fans of peanut butter, it may quickly become a family favorite! This is also a good option for those looking to include more Omega 3s in your diet - especially if you don't like fish. Both peanuts and milk and butter from grass-fed cows contain high levels of this important fatty acid. Try this simple soup, and add some good fats back into your diet! (Be sure to use only natural peanut butter for this recipe - the kind with only peanuts and salt in it - not the fake kind full of sugar and hydrogenated oils - these are awful for your health, and they won't dissolve well in this recipe either.)

Buttery Peanut Soup
 
Ingredients:

2 Tbsp organic butter (from grass-fed cows if you can find it)
1/4 cup onion, finely diced
1/3 cup celery, finely diced
1 Tbsp flour
2 cups whole milk (from grass-fed cows; preferably organic and non-homogenized)
3/4 cup organic chicken or vegetable stock
1/2 cup natural peanut butter
1/4 tsp salt

Directions:

• In large saucepan over medium heat, add butter, onion, and celery, and cook, stirring, until vegetables soften, about 4 minutes.
• Sprinkle in flour and stir to combine.
• Slowly add milk, stirring constantly.
• Slowly add stock, stirring constantly.
• Keep stirring until mixture thickens, then remove from heat.
• Scoop about 1/2 cup of soup from saucepan and put into bowl; add peanut butter and mix until combined.
• Pour peanut butter mixture back into saucepan, stirring to combine.
• Salt to taste, adjust as needed for flavor.
• Serve warm with a sprinkling of crisp fried bacon, crunchy sprouts, or chopped peanuts.

The Omega 3 Factor – A Super Food Within Your Food

No discussion of the world’s healthiest foods would be complete without talking about Omega 3 fatty acids. Nor would any diet be complete without Omega 3 fatty acids.  These specific types of molecules play a vital role in our health and development throughout our entire life. Let’s take a closer look at these odd sounding nutrients to find out why they are so important.

Wellness Starts at the Top

First, let's try to understand a bit of brain science. The brain is made up of about sixty percent fat (which is why good quality fats are so important to your diet!). This fat is found mainly within the membranes that surround the brain's nerve cells. The composition and chemistry of these membranes has a direct effect on chemical reactions in the brain. These chemical reactions are the brain's signals. The influence that more Omega 3 in the fat has on these signals has been studied extensively. It is believed that Omega 3 fatty acids promote better and faster transfer of signals in the brain. Okay. I guess that means Omega 3 fatty acids are good for you.  Let's see how.

Walnuts - high in Omega 3s. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

When your brain signals are working well, your whole body benefits. Besides brain health itself, other health benefits related to Omega 3s include inhibiting cancer cell growth, reducing inflammation throughout the body, prohibiting excess clotting in the blood, and reducing the risk of obesity by stimulating a hormone called leptin, which helps regulate metabolism and body weight.

While there is some speculation about the true power of Omega 3s in treating or improving things like mental disorders, heart disease, and cancer, many researchers still claim there are significant benefits to consuming foods that contain these vital fats.

Looking for Omega 3s

If you live in Alaska, Taiwan, or Japan you may already be eating enough foods rich in Omega 3 fatty acids. The reason is that these populations routinely consume fish that is fatty, in a good way. Diets that contain fatty fish have been proven to show better results with respect to less inflammatory ailments and less obesity-related diseases, such as diabetes and heart disease.

omega 3 fatty acids (Photo credit: malloreigh)

But, if you don't live in one of those areas, you can still find plenty of the Omega 3s you need.  These fatty acids are most prevalent in seafoods, with salmon, tuna, scallops, sardines, and trout being particularly rich. Other sources of Omega 3s are algae, krill, shrimp, and tofu, as well as certain nuts and seeds, like walnuts and flaxseeds.

Other vegetables and spices like cloves, mustard seeds, cauliflower, collard greens, and cabbage are good sources for Omega 3s. Even certain berries, like strawberries and raspberries, provide at least some of the same healthy benefits.

Generally speaking, eating a healthy diet rich in green leafy vegetables, lean meats, seafood, as well as nuts and berries, contributes to better health. This general guide just happens to include many foods that are naturally rich in Omega 3 fatty acids. That could be one of the simplest ways to supplement your good health, and it's all right on your dinner plate!

Be sure to check back later this week for some tasty recipes full of Omega 3s...

Why I'm Not A Vegan - Part 2

Last week I shared the first reason why I don't believe a strictly vegan diet is healthy for humans. But there are other reasons besides health that I don't subscribe to the vegan philosophy. And let me clarify here - I have nothing against your choice if you choose to follow a vegan diet. That is a personal choice and it's up to you. Some people may do just fine on a completely plant-derived diet, but others may find it difficult, or may even face daunting and frightening health challenges - such as the personal story that formerly adamant vegan blogger Tasha shares on her blog. For those who have similar experiences when trying to adhere strictly to the code of veganism, I feel indignant on their behalf when I hear vegans trying to make them feel bad about going back to eating meat - and many do.

Being a vegan or vegetarian is a personal choice - and that's fine if that's what you want to do. But please don't try to make others feel as though they're committing a mortal sin by not eating the way that you do. It's not even so much the vegan diet that I have an issue with - it's more the extremist creed that I find some vegans spout and try to force on others constantly. That's why I'm writing this blog series - to shed some light on the other side, so those who may have considered going vegan or vegetarian, but felt they were "too weak" to give up animal products and consistently feel guilty about it, or those who actually were vegan but gave it up due to health problems or other issues, can see that there's more than one side to the issue, and that maybe it's not the ONLY way to true health after all, and can enjoy eating a healthy and balanced diet guilt-free, even if it includes animal products.

Which brings me to Reason #2 (directed at those adamant and proselytizing uber-vegans).

Reason #2: It's Hypocritical.

vegan cheese (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Okay, so you're a vegan. You think eating meat is bad for you, and that humans weren't designed to eat meat, and can't digest it properly. You say eating animal products makes the body acidic and promotes disease. You subscribe to the (now debunked) theory that animal fat is evil, and makes you fat and sick. You explain to everyone you meet that eating a plant-derived diet is the only way to go, and that it has "cured" you from such and such ailment (diabetes, obesity, etc.), and that you are now on the path to everlasting true health, because you're eating the diet that we were all meant to eat since time began.

So answer me one question:

Why do you drink Diet Coke????

The first time I saw a professed and staunch vegan drink a can of diet soda I just about fell over. He had been preaching for months about how unhealthy it is to eat meat or any animal-derived food (even vitamin supplements), and then he brazenly pops the top on a can of chemicals, and downs it without blinking an eye.

Not only that, but he regularly pushes people to try his favorite vegan "cheese" - made from hydrogenated oils, artificial flavorings, and various fillers/thickeners/gums, etc., "ice cream" - made from sugary soy-derived dairy substitute processed who knows how, and various other artificially flavored, colored, and preserved "foods" which are completely foreign to the human body - simply because they contain no animal products, so they're "better for you."

Up until this point, I had given the vegan idea some thought - not that I really was sold on it, but I did explore some of the research, and listened to some of the "experts" on why humans aren't meant to eat meat, etc.  But I'm kind of a health nut - and one of the most important things - if not THE main thing I've learned over the years is, if a food doesn't occur in nature (at least in some form), it's not something we should be eating. And the closer we can eat it to the form it does appear in in nature, in most cases, the better it is for us.

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

So when I saw an adamant vegan eating total junk, which our bodies certainly were never meant to ingest (tell me where in a fruit or vegetable can you find propylene glycol? how about aspartame?  Red #5?), for me that completely changed the tune, and I had to step back and go - wait a minute....  Why are these completely artificial things okay to eat, while whole, natural foods like eggs and meat are not??

Of course, not all vegans eat this way. I'm sure there are some who eat strictly organic fruits and vegetables, beans, whole grains, and minimally processed foods, and who avoid sugar, white flour, and diet soda. I just haven't met one yet....  But I'm sure they're out there.  And one day I may meet one and thoughtfully listen to their views on health.

But until then, don't tell me humans weren't meant to eat meat, but it's okay to have processed vegetable oil "cheese" flavored with chemicals to taste like cheddar on your soy veggie burger. Don't tell me whole raw milk acidifies the body, while you drink Diet Coke (one of the most acidic "foods" in existence) on a regular basis.  Don't try to convince me that eating animal fat makes you fat, while you stuff yourself with vegan bread made with white flour and sugar, which most people now know are the true reasons for this country's epidemic of obesity.

Just keep it to yourself, and I'll keep enjoying my organic, grass-fed beef (or venison), bright orange egg yolks packed with Omega 3's from pastured hens, and creamy yellow whole raw milk from cows eating what they were made to eat (grass), ALONG with my fresh organic vegetables and locally grown ripe fruits.

Feel free to post your dissenting views below. :-)  Remember to check out Part 1 if you missed it. And check back next week for Part 3 in which I will discuss the impact on the environment of raising food for a strictly plant-derived diet, without the input of animals, and wrap up with a few concluding remarks.