Believe it or not, eating a good sports diet can be simple. Yet too many athletes have created a complex and confusing eating program with good and bad foods, lots of rules, and plenty of guilt. Let’s get back to the basics and enjoy performance-enhancing fueling with these simple ABC’s for winning nutrition.
This showstopping dessert comes to the table with sparkling majesty. The key is to peel the pears in long straight strips, so the finished product shines like precious gems. To make an on-the-fly version, diced pears and quickly saute in wine, fruit juice and honey. Serve warm or chilled with the Vanilla Marscapone, ice cream or almond cream.
Poaching Liquid
Stir all ingredients together and bring to boil over medium heat. Reduce liquid by one quarter or until the poaching liquid thickens, slightly. Reduce heat to medium-low.
Pear Prep
While the wine is working: wash and dry four Bosc or Anjou pears. Keep stems intact. Peel with a sharp veggie peeler, removing long smooth strips of peel. Try to keep surface as smooth as possible. Cut a piece off of the bottom of the pears, so they stand up in the serving dish. Place into poaching liquid and poach 15-20 minutes, or until firm-tender. Turn pears occasionally to ensure even color. Cool at room temperature and store in liquid, in the refrigerator overnight.
Service
If serving warm, gently reheat in poaching liquid. Stand pear in serving dish and bathe with some of the liquid. Garnish with sliced Blood Oranges, Blackberries, Pomegranate seeds, and the Vanilla scented Marscapone (Italian Cream Cheese.)
Vanilla Scented Marscapone
This dessert is at the top of my heart disease eradication program. Resveratrol is a phytonutrient that plays a major role in our Ejection Fraction and keeping our heart’s vascular system strong and flexible. Resveratrol in red wine burns body fat without exercise, not that we would ever stop exercising! It’s also connected to longevity.
The spices are Mother Nature’s antibiotics and citrus zest contains Limonene, an antioxidant that affects every cell in your body, in a positive way.
The cream garnish assists in the uptake of these fat-soluble phytonutrients.
Get more great recipes from Tina Martini — her book, Delicious Medicine: The Healing Power of Food is available to purchase on Amazon. More than a cookbook, combining 20+ years of experience, along with her love of coaching, cooking and teaching, Tina offers unexpected insights into the history and healing power of clean eating, along with recipes to help reduce your risk of disease and improve overall wellness so you can enjoy life!
Affectionately referred to as The Walking Encyclopedia of Human Wellness, Fitness Coach, Strength Competitor and Powerlifting pioneer, Tina “The Medicine Chef” Martini is an internationally recognized Naturopathic Chef and star of the cooking show, Tina’s Ageless Kitchen. Tina’s cooking and lifestyle show has reached millions of food and fitness lovers all over the globe. Over the last 30 years, Tina has assisted celebrities, gold-medal athletes and over-scheduled executives naturally achieve radiant health using The Pyramid of Power: balancing Healthy Nutrition and the healing power of food, with Active Fitness and Body Alignment techniques. Working with those who have late-stage cancer, advanced diabetes, cardiovascular and other illnesses, Tina’s clients are astounded at the ease and speed with which they are able to restore their radiant health. Tina believes that maintaining balance in our diet, physical activity, and in our work and spiritual life is the key to our good health, happiness and overall well being. Visit her website, themedicinechef.com
This recipe adds an amazing fresh note to grilled meats and is an easy snack on the go. Pack a ziploc with a small container of “caviar.” Put the chips and napkin in, too. You’ve got yourself a little cowboy survival kit. I wipe the crumbs out of the bag and reuse. Clean eating and a clean planet!
I receive many requests for Monkey Bread by my breakfast lovers but it never had that “wow factor” I look for in a dish. The recipe originated in Hungary and serves as their traditional coffee cake. Dried fruit and nuts are added to the original recipes with the Americanized version tasting more like a Cinnamon roll.
Here, we capture the first signs of Fall with beautiful Gala and Granny Smith apples. No time to peel and chop apples? My time-saving tip: chunky applesauce!
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
*Butter an 8×8 glass baking dish.
*Do not use a dark baking pan as the sugar will burn.
Make your assembly line
Cut each biscuit into 4 pieces; pile on a plate. Melt butter in a small bowl and stir in vanilla and salt. Stir sugars and cinnamon together in a separate bowl. Drain apples.
Ready to assemble
Spread half of prepared apples on the bottom of baking dish. Dip a few pieces into the butter and then into the sugar/cinnamon. Place in baking dish at different angles and gently press together and down. Continue layering process until your biscuit puzzle is complete. Top with remaining apples, and a light dusting of the sugar/cinnamon mix.
Bake 22 minutes or until peaks start to get dark. Allow to cool 10 minutes and invert on serving plate. Cool another 5 minutes and pour glaze over top. Garnish with toasted or candied nuts.
Conventional refrigerator biscuit dough contains hydrogenated oils that confuse hormone receptors, clog the vascular system and have been shown to cause Gallbladder and Liver challenges. Some commercial dough softeners have been shown to cause both Kidney and Liver cancers.
Immaculate Baking Company doesn’t use these chemicals in any of their products.
Get more great recipes from Tina Martini — her book, Delicious Medicine: The Healing Power of Food is available to purchase on Amazon. More than a cookbook, combining 20+ years of experience, along with her love of coaching, cooking and teaching, Tina offers unexpected insights into the history and healing power of clean eating, along with recipes to help reduce your risk of disease and improve overall wellness so you can enjoy life!
Affectionately referred to as The Walking Encyclopedia of Human Wellness, Fitness Coach, Strength Competitor and Powerlifting pioneer, Tina “The Medicine Chef” Martini is an internationally recognized Naturopathic Chef and star of the cooking show, Tina’s Ageless Kitchen. Tina’s cooking and lifestyle show has reached millions of food and fitness lovers all over the globe. Over the last 30 years, Tina has assisted celebrities, gold-medal athletes and over-scheduled executives naturally achieve radiant health using The Pyramid of Power: balancing Healthy Nutrition and the healing power of food, with Active Fitness and Body Alignment techniques. Working with those who have late-stage cancer, advanced diabetes, cardiovascular and other illnesses, Tina’s clients are astounded at the ease and speed with which they are able to restore their radiant health. Tina believes that maintaining balance in our diet, physical activity, and in our work and spiritual life is the key to our good health, happiness and overall well being. Visit her website, themedicinechef.com
Athletes get injured. It’s part of the deal. Be it a torn ACL, Achilles tendonitis, or a pulled muscle, the questions arise: What can I eat to recover faster? Would more vitamins be helpful? What about collagen supplements? At this year’s virtual Food and Nutrition Conference and Expo (FNCE) of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (AND, the nation’s largest group of nutrition professionals), several presentations offered updates on nutrition for injuries.
Here is the new Fall Slaw with apple and fennel that I’m serving at the winery. 🍂🍁 Guests order extra to-go, every day!
Risk factors for heart disease – elevated LDL cholesterol, hypertension, elevated triglycerides, inflammation, and blood glucose – are all exacerbated by excess body fat, and overweight/obesity itself is considered a risk factor.1-3
However, there has been controversy about a potential “obesity paradox” in heart disease: the idea that some amount of excess weight either does not pose any risk or is even protective. Unfortunately, the studies that suggest there may be a protective effect of body fat are often the ones that get more news coverage; but this does a disservice to an already overweight and nutritionally misguided public, allowing them to believe that excess body fat won’t harm their health.
Many of these studies have used body mass index (BMI), however BMI, which only takes into account height and weight, is not an accurate indicator of body fatness. BMI does not distinguish between fat mass and lean mass, nor does it take into account fat distribution (visceral fat vs. subcutaneous fat). Many people whose weights are within the “normal” BMI range are still carrying excess fat.
There has been no evidence providing a convincing explanation of how excess fat could possibly provide a cardiovascular advantage. Plus, there are numerous medical conditions may cause unintentional weight loss, including depression, anxiety, autoimmune diseases, cancers, and digestive disorders. In the elderly especially, a low BMI may be an indicator of muscle loss and frailty rather than an indicator of a healthy low level of body fat. In short, people who are thinner are not necessarily healthier.
A new study is helping to clear this issue up,4 in a cohort of almost 300,000 people in the UK (age 40-69) who were followed for an average of 5 years. Their first analysis puts the optimal range of BMI for heart disease prevention at 22-23 kg/m2. It was a “J-shaped” association, meaning risk rose both above and below the 22-23 range. But the researchers went further. They used multiple measures of body fatness to get a more accurate picture: waist circumference, waist-to-hip ratio, waist-to-height ratio, and percent body fat.
Ultimately, what the researchers found was that using BMI produces different results than the other indicators. BMI was the only one that showed an increase in risk at the low end (<18.5 kg/m2). When they excluded smokers and participants with pre-existing diseases, the increase in risk associated with low BMI almost disappeared. The more accurate measures of body fatness – body fat percentage, waist circumference, waist-to-hip-ratio, and waist-to-height ratio – showed a clear trend: more body fat, greater risk.4
The researchers concluded that the obesity paradox observation mainly occurs due to confounding effects of disease and other factors on BMI, and that the “public misconception of a potential ‘protective’ effect of fat on CVD risk should be challenged.”4
As discussed above, a low BMI is often an indicator of disease, rather than an indicator of a healthy weight resulting from healthful eating. The standard American diet (SAD) is fattening. If someone is eating the SAD and is not overweight, there is likely something wrong.
The dramatic weight loss-promoting effect of the Nutritarian diet contributes to cardiovascular protection. A 2015 study published in the American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine analyzed and reported weight loss results provided by 75 obese patients who had switched to a Nutritiarian diet. The average weight loss was 55 pounds, and very importantly, they kept the weight off. None of these respondents had gained back the lost weight after three years.5
Reprinted with permission from Dr. Fuhrman.
Dr. Fuhrman is a board-certified family physician specializing in nutritional medicine. He is President of the Nutritional Research Foundation and the author of 6 NY Times bestselling books, including The End of Heart Disease. Visit him at DrFuhrman.com
References
When it comes to aging better, better nutrition is your better weapon because it gives the body the resources it needs while reducing intake of items that irritates and overwhelms. Better nutrition comes from making better not perfect choices more often. So what are those and how can you enjoy them – after all, with age we’ve earned enjoyment, right?!
Did you know that adults (~60-85) with dementia who had more frequent intake of persistent pesticides had worsening cognitive function?[1] It makes sense – both for those with dementia and those seeking to avoid it – as these pesticides irritate, overwhelm and disrupt the body from efficient and effective work, daily. Overtime, eating foods or applying products that contain these pesticides or pesticide residues impact the body’s ability to function better. Thus, there is real value in assessing your diet, supplements, and skincare to see how you do on one of the core 4 principles of better nutrition: quality.
Years ago, I became a Qualitarian and according to research, aging adults should too! Being a Qualitarian means that you focus as much on the quality of what goes in and on your body most often as you do on the other nutrient factors as well as on the source. Here are a few key tips to help you improve the quality of your intake more often.
But there is better nutrition and it comes from making better not perfect choices more often. That means that you do not need every choice to be organic, but your top foods, supplements, and skincare should ideally be organic more often.
Today there are a lot of ways to get in nutrients but not all of them deliver better nutrition. For example:
Let’s be real, we often need nutrition fast, but this doesn’t mean compromising on the nutrition quality. By assembling ingredients – like spreading almond butter on a pear, or popped corn onto which you add olive oil, a pinch of sea salt and toss in a serving of hemp seeds – rather than purchasing a ready to eat item like a fruit and nut bar or flavored pre-popped or microwave popcorn – you get better nutrient balance, can monitor quantity better, and can make your choices full of better quality nutrients from whole foods.
4. Get Enough Coq10Read about this nutrient that is critical to healthy aging, including brain health and memory.
Want help making better not perfect choices more often to support healthy aging? Join The Better Nutrition Membership and get real support (from me) and unlimited access to exclusive members only content including tools to help you assess your current nutrition, keep what’s already working, and better tools to help you act better not perfect more often.
Originally printed on ashleykoffapproved.com. Reprinted with permission.
Ashley Koff RD is your better health enabler. For decades, Koff has helped thousands get and keep better health by learning to make their better not perfect nutrition choices more often. A go-to nutrition expert for the country’s leading doctors, media, companies and non-profit organizations, Koff regularly shares her Better Nutrition message with millions on national and local television, magazines and newspapers. Visit her website at ashleykoffapproved.com.
[1] http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412014003250
Meals and snacking patterns have changed over the past 40 years. You have undoubtedly noticed that many of us are eating fewer calories from meals and more calories from snacks. As a result, I get questions from both athletes and non-athletes alike about how to best fuel their bodies…