How Eating Less Sugar can Change Your Life

According to experts, Americans consume 22 teaspoons of carbohydrates in sugar daily. A number of individuals are falling prey to heart diseases, diabetes, and other disorders. Scientists have agreed that increased intake of sugar increases the liver’s production of triglycerides and cholesterol, both of which increase the chance of suffering from various cardiac diseases.  

One of the benefits of consuming less sugar carbohydrates is that it can cut the risk of developing heart disease and other related diseases in half. Eliminating carbohydrates in the form of sugar from your diet is essential to lower the body fat percentage and to reduce diabetes. 

 Here are some additional benefits of eating less sugar:

1. Increase in energy levels and productivity: Avoiding intake of sugared carbohydrates actually increases energy, allowing you to do more productive things. Although sugar is highly essential for the body, processed sugar is harmful to the body’s digestive system because it forces the body to spend most of its energy digesting it. The energy gained by eating sugar is short lived. Eating large amounts of sugar can cause our body to become used to it, which increases our insulin levels. This can be quite dangerous, as the body gets used to excess sugar and is not able to survive on lower levels of sugar. Excess sugar consumption can also lead to conditions such as diabetes.
 

2. Weight loss: Reducing your sugar intake generally leads to weight loss due to the decrease in overall calorie consumption. Since sugar is mostly carbohydrates, the decrease in carbohydrates can ensure that you burn off excess calories. However, to effectively burn calories, you need to do physical exercise.
 

3. Lowers risk of heart disease: Replacing the sugar in your diet with other alternatives can actually reduce the risk of heart disease by as much as 25%. It also lowers the triglyceride level by as much as 50% and increases the level of artery-clearing HDL cholesterol.
 

4. Prevents yeast infection: One of the most common types of yeast infections is Candida. This infection is common in people who are taking antibiotics. Candida feeds on sugar and carbohydrates. Reducing sugar intake decreases your risk of developing this infection.
 

5. Better Dental Care: The first sign of excess sugar intake, especially among children, is deteriorating dental hygiene. Increased intake of sugar causes a lot of problems, especially related to the teeth and gums, and may lead to easy infection by tartar.
 

Eating lesser sugars has benefited people in different ways and can be an important step towards leading a healthier life. Nutrition and medical experts agree that Americans eat too much sugar, and the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend cutting back on the sweet stuff. If you reduce the amount of sugar you eat, you may have more energy, lose weight or stay at a healthy weight more easily, see your triglycerides drop, have fewer dental cavities and even look younger.

Fewer "Crashes"

Reactive hypoglycemia is the “crash” -- sleepiness, hunger, anxiety and other symptoms -- that some people experience one to three hours after eating a meal. Avoiding sugary foods, especially on an empty stomach, can help stave off these dips in blood sugar, according to the Mayo Clinic. So can eating smaller, more frequent meals, and eating more protein and high-fiber foods instead of simple sugars.

Healthier Weight

Sugar contributes to weight gain in one obvious way -- sugar-laden treats tend to be high in calories and often high in fat, and low in fiber and other nutrients. But evolving research also supports the idea that sugars and refined carbs may independently contribute to obesity and metabolic syndrome, a precursor to diabetes, regardless of how many calories you eat, says "The New York Times" science writer Gary Taubes. Unlike glucose, fructose is processed mostly by the liver. Animal studies have shown that the liver will turn an overabundance of fructose into fat. The two sweeteners most commonly added to foods, table sugar and high-fructose corn syrup, are roughly half fructose and half glucose.

Lower Trigylcerides

Eating too much sugar can raise the level of triglycerides, or fats, in your blood, according to the Mayo Clinic. Higher triglyceride levels may boost your risk of heart disease.

Fewer Cavities

It’s well known that sugar is bad for your teeth. When you eat sugar, a sticky combo of carbohydrates and protein forms on your teeth and traps bacteria. The bacteria use fructose to create lactic acid, which wears away tooth enamel. Besides brushing and flossing regularly, eating less sugar, especially between meals, can help prevent cavities.

Youthful Looks

Dermatologist Dr. Fredric Brandt, author of “10 Minutes/10 Years,” claims that sugar contributes to the breakdown of two skin proteins, elastin and collagen, and that simply cutting out the sweets can make you look younger. He recommends cutting out all kinds of sugar, as well as wheat and other grains with gluten, yeast, most fruit and foods high on the glycemic index, a scale that measures how quickly a food raises your blood sugar.

A low-sugar diet isn't just about a great smile anymore; according to studies found in some of America's leading medical publications, including the Journal of the American Medical Association, switching to a low-sugar diet is one of the best things you can do for heart, your appetite, and even your mind.

Better Cholesterol Numbers

A low-sugar diet is associated with higher levels of HDL, or "good" cholesterol, according to an April 2010 news release by the "Journal of the American Medical Association." The key finding of the study, as reported by Jean Welsh and colleagues at Emory University was that sugar consumption has a strong association with HDL cholesterol levels. People who consumed higher levels of added sugar in their diet tended to have lower levels of HDL.

Weight Control

According to Richard J Johnson, MD, chief of the Division of Renal Diseases and Hypertension at the University of Colorado in Denver, fructose adversely alters the balance of two hormones, leptin and ghrelin, which control human appetite and satiety. Fructose, especially high fructose corn syrup, is the type of sugar most commonly used in the production of processed foods and sugar-sweetened beverages. Mayo Clinic nutritionist Katherine Zeratsky recommends reducing fructose consumption by limiting consumption of processed foods and choosing whole fruits instead of soda or sweetened juices.

Possible Protection Against Memory Problems

In a study published in 2007 by the "Journal of Biological Chemistry," Dongfeng Cao and colleagues describe tests done with two groups of mice. One group was given low-fat rodent food and water; the other was given low-fat rodent food and free access to a liquid sweetened with the same types of sugar usually used in soda. The relative sugar concentration of the liquid--about 11 percent--was the same as that of soda.

The study found that after six months, the mice in the water group did significantly better on memory tests than the mice in the sugar group. Also, the sugar group had developed beta-amyloid protein plaques in their brains, which in humans are associated with Alzheimer's disease. Although findings from animal research don't necessarily transfer to humans, this is nevertheless an interesting finding.

Read more: http://www.livestrong.com/article/195483-what-are-the-benefits-of-a-low-sugar-diet/#ixzz2WRuFAxLU

http://www.newsmax.com/FastFeatures/carbohydrates-diabetes-calorie-sugar/2010/11/24/id/378085

http://healthyeating.sfgate.com/benefits-lowering-sugar-intake-4563.html

Sheila's Success Story

"Gaining weight was never a goal, it just happened. I got really lazy and didn't pay attention to what I was eating, nor did I exercise as much as I should have. I never pushed myself to change my lifestyle. My health was not a priority, and it showed by the weight I gained over the years. It was definitely a low point to have weighed as much as I did at that point in my life. I gained the weight consistently over a three year period.

  

My motivation to get healthy came when I was offered a new job. My job required that I be confident (speaking to others, testifying, forming relationships), and I found that I just was not confident in the way I looked, and that translated into how I felt. I knew I needed to change this, and exactly three weeks after starting my new job, I was able to find True Fitness Bootcamp. 

  

The exercise program that True Fitness Boot Camp maintains is focused on the body, and the mind. When I first started with True Fitness Boot Camp, I never thought I'd be able to do various things, like planks, burpees, or a lot of push-ups. I guess I was always afraid to try as I didn't know what I was doing. With True Fitness Boot Camp, the fear just went away. I quickly realized that with the proper mindset, and with a great support group, I figured there was no harm in trying. Months later, I now know I can push my body and achieve the results I want without a machine or with the use of weights.  Apart from losing weight, inches, and building muscle, the biggest goals I achieved were increasing my self confidence, and running a 100 miles in one month. It was a lofty goal but I did it. I was able to run 6 days a week, increase my speed, and finish my goal of running 100 miles in one month. A year ago, I never thought I would be able to do such a thing. But with the motivation of my peers in True Fitness Boot Camp, I did it!" 

Brittany's Success Story

 "As an overweight teenager though my 20's, I have struggled to find ways to lose and maintain a "goal weight". At my heaviest I weighed close to 180 lbs and wore a size 15-16. I managed to accomplish some weight loss on my own; but skipping meals and routinely moving from one machine to another at the gym was not enough to keep me interested or challenged and I never stuck to a plan. I needed someone to make me accountable for my decision of a healthier me.

Since beginning my adventure with True Fitness Boot Camp, I have lost 6.5 inches, my body fat percentage has dropped to a lean 17.8% and I gain about an average 2 lbs of muscle each month. The improvement I have in my health shows up at work, at home with family and whenever I look in the mirror. The workouts aren't easy, but each completed workout is a positive affirmation of my decision to take better care of myself. I'm so grateful to have accomplished my goal!" 

Deciding what to eat before or after a workout? Here are a few tips to follow that may help with your pre and post workout nutrition to maximize your workout. You will also find below some energy-packed pre-workout snack ideas! 

What to Eat Before and After a Workout

 

Here are five rules of thumb to keep in mind: 

BEFORE 

1. Keep your tummy happy 

Choose pre-workout meals or snacks that are easy to digest and won’t cause bloating or irritate your stomach. In other words, a spicy bean burrito isn’t the best choice. If your food’s not digested before or during your workout, the fuel will be trapped in your stomach and won’t be available to your muscles, and providing fuel is the main goal of a pre-exercise meal. Also, undigested food can feel like a brick sitting in your stomach, leading to cramps and sluggishness. 

2. Keep it simple 

The best pre-activity foods are those relatively low in protein, fat, and fiber. These three substances delay the emptying of the stomach and keep you fuller longer. That’s great if you’ll be sitting at a desk for the next several hours, but not so great if you’ll be in high activity mode. So, a good pre-workout snack might be something like a bowl of low fiber whole grain cereal (like puffed brown rice or unsweetened organic corn flakes) with organic skim and a mini banana about an hour before. 

3. Hydrate 

It’s important to drink fluids before, during, and after your workout. If you’re sweating heavily or exercising for more than 60 minutes drink plenty of H2O. Keeping yourself well hydrated should keep your body from being drained or overheated. 

AFTER 

4. Time it right 

After a really tough workout, you should try to eat a “recovery” meal within 30 minutes if possible. Training uses a lot of energy, muscles, and bones, and your body “uses up” nutrients during exercise; so this meal is all about putting back what you’ve lost and providing the raw materials needed for repair and healing. 

5. Balance is key 

A post-workout meal isn’t just about protein. It should include a lean protein source (for muscle repair) along with a whole grain (to replete glycogen, the carbohydrate stored in muscle tissue, which serves as a primary fuel source during exercise), plenty of produce (to replenish nutrients), and a healthy fat source (for healing and circulation), and of course more fluid (to rehydrate). A great example of a post-workout meal is stir-fry made with chicken, shrimp or edamame, whole grain rice, and a variety of colorful veggies topped with sliced almonds. For a simple stir-fry sauce packed with antioxidants whisk together two tablespoons brown rice vinegar with a splash of 100% orange juice and a dash each of fresh grated ginger and crushed red pepper. 

Reference: http://www.shape.com/blogs/weight-loss-coach/what-eat-after-workout 

Some Energy-packed Pre-Workout Snack  

Fruit - A simple sugar that’s digested easily will help kick start  your workout. Athlete favourites: oranges, bananas & apples. 

A smoothie made w/ fruit, almond milk and ice.
Yogurt Parfait – Combine natural (unsweetened) yogurt, blueberries, strawberries and granola. (This is especially good for breakfast as you have fruit to get your engine going plus protein and granola to keep you satisfied for a couple of hours.)

Celery w/ peanut butter – About 8-12 3 iinch sticks of celery w/ 1 tbsp natural peanut butter.

A bit of cheese with fruit - A bit of protein and fruity goodness in a quick-to-make snack.

Oatmeal- the real stuff that you cook on your stove, not the sugar-packed microwavable pouches. Cook 3/4C-1C of oats and sweeten with honey and berries.

Hard boiled eggs w/ yolks replaced with humus (extra yummy with a dusting of paprika). Best if followed by a complex carb like a slice of whole wheat bread.

Buckwheat or Brown Rice with your favorite lean meat & steamed veggies.

9 Ways to Naturally Improve Male Testosterone

By Dr. Mercola

1.   Lose Weight

If you're overweight, shedding the excess pounds may increase your testosterone levels, according to research presented at the Endocrine Society's 2012 meeting. Overweight men are more likely to have low testosterone levels to begin with, so this is an important trick to increase your body's testosterone production when you need it most.

If you are serious about losing weight, you have got to strictly limit the amount of processed sugar in your diet, as evidence is mounting that excess sugar, and fructose in particular, is the primary driving factor in the obesity epidemic. So cutting soda from your diet is essential, as is limiting fructose found in processed foods, fruit juice, excessive fruit and so-called "healthy" sweeteners like agave.
Ideally you should keep your total fructose consumption below 25 grams per day and this includes fruits. This is especially true if you have insulin resistance and are overweight, have high blood pressure, diabetes or high cholesterol.
In addition to eliminating or severely limiting fructose, it will be vital to eliminate all grains and milk (even raw) in your diet. Milk has a sugar called lactose, which has been shown to increase insulin resistance so it will be wise to avoid it if you are seeking to lose weight.

Refined carbohydrates like breakfast cereals, bagels, waffles, pretzels, and most other processed foods also quickly break down to sugar, increase your insulin levels, and cause insulin resistance, which is the number one underlying factor of nearly every chronic disease and condition known to man, including weight gain.
As you cut these dietary troublemakers from your meals, you need to replace them with healthy substitutes like vegetables and healthy fats (including natural saturated fats!). Your body prefers the carbohydrates in micronutrient-dense vegetables rather than grains and sugars because it slows the conversion to simple sugars like glucose, and decreases your insulin level. When you cut grains and sugar from your meals, you typically will need to radically increase the amount of vegetables you eat, as well as make sure you are also consuming protein and healthy fats regularly.

I've detailed a step-by-step guide to this type of healthy eating program in my comprehensive nutrition plan, and I urge you to consult this guide if you are trying to lose weight.

The foods you choose to eat will be the driving force behind successfully achieving your weight loss goals -- high-intensity, short-burst-type exercises, such as my Peak Fitness Program, two to three times per week, combined with a comprehensive fitness plan, is important too, and has an additional benefit as well (see below)!

2.   High-Intensity Exercise like Peak Fitness (Especially Combined with Intermittent Fasting)

Both intermittent fasting and short intense exercise have been shown to boost testosterone. Short intense exercise has a proven positive effect on increasing testosterone levels and preventing its decline. That's unlike aerobics or prolonged moderate exercise, which have shown to have negative or no effect on testosterone levels.

Intermittent fasting boosts testosterone by increasing the expression of satiety hormones including insulin, leptin, adiponectin, glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), colecystokinin (CKK) and melanocortins, all of which are known to potentiate healthy testosterone actions, increase libido and prevent age-related testosterone decline.

Having a whey protein meal after exercise can further enhance the satiety/testosterone-boosting impact (hunger hormones cause the opposite effect on your testosterone and libido). Here's a summary of what a typical high-intensity Peak Fitness routine might look like:

• Warm up for three minutes
• Exercise as hard and fast as you can for 30 seconds. You should feel like you couldn't possibly go on another few seconds
• Recover at a slow to moderate pace for 90 seconds
• Repeat the high intensity exercise and recovery 7 more times

As you can see, the entire workout is only 20 minutes. Twenty minutes! That really is a beautiful thing. And within those 20 minutes, 75 percent of that time is warming up, recovering or cooling down. You're really only working out intensely for four minutes. It's hard to believe if you have never done this that you can actually get that much benefit from four minutes of exercise. That's all it is.
Keep in mind that you can use virtually any type of equipment you want for this – an elliptical machine, a treadmill, swimming, even sprinting outdoors (although you will need to do this very carefully to avoid injury) -- as long as you're pushing yourself as hard as you can for 30 seconds. But do be sure to stretch properly and start slowly to avoid injury. Start with two or three repetitions and work your way up, don't expect to do all eight repetitions the first time you try this, especially if you are out of shape.

You can find more information about this in an article previously written on intermittent fasting.

3.   Consume Plenty of Zinc

The mineral zinc is important for testosterone production, and supplementing your diet for as little as six weeks has been shown to cause a marked improvement in testosterone among men with low levels.¹ Likewise, research has shown that restricting dietary sources of zinc leads to a significant decrease in testosterone, while zinc supplementation increases it² -- and even protects men from exercised-induced reductions in testosterone levels.³

It's estimated that up to 45 percent of adults over the age of 60 may have lower than recommended zinc intakes; even when dietary supplements were added in, an estimated 20-25 percent of older adults still had inadequate zinc intakes, according to a National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.⁴

Your diet is the best source of zinc; along with protein-rich foods like meats and fish, other good dietary sources of zinc include raw milk, raw cheese, beans, and yogurt or kefir made from raw milk. It can be difficult to obtain enough dietary zinc if you’re a vegetarian, and also for meat-eaters as well, largely because of conventional farming methods that rely heavily on chemical fertilizers and pesticides. These chemicals deplete the soil of nutrients ... nutrients like zinc that must be absorbed by plants in order to be passed on to you.

In many cases, you may further deplete the nutrients in your food by the way you prepare it. For most food, cooking it will drastically reduce its levels of nutrients like zinc … particularly over-cooking, which many people do.

If you decide to use a zinc supplement, stick to a dosage of less than 40 mg a day, as this is the recommended adult upper limit. Taking too much zinc can interfere with your body's ability to absorb other minerals, especially copper, and may cause nausea as a side effect.

4.   Strength Training

In addition to Peak Fitness, strength training is also known to boost testosterone levels, provided you are doing so intensely enough. When strength training to boost testosterone, you’ll want to increase the weight and lower your number of reps, and then focus on exercises that work a large number of muscles, such as dead lifts or squats.

You can “turbo-charge” your weight training by going slower. By slowing down your movement, you’re actually turning it into a high-intensity exercise. Super Slow movement allows your muscle, at the microscopic level, to access the maximum number of cross-bridges between the protein filaments that produce movement in the muscle.

5.   Optimize Your Vitamin D Levels

Vitamin D, a steroid hormone, is essential for the healthy development of the nucleus of the sperm cell, and helps maintain semen quality and sperm count. Vitamin D also increases levels of testosterone, which may boost libido. In one study, overweight men who were given vitamin D supplements had a significant increase in testosterone levels after one year.⁵

Vitamin D deficiency is currently at epidemic proportions in the United States and many other regions around the world, largely because people do not spend enough time in the sun to facilitate this important process of vitamin D production.
So the first step to ensuring you are receiving all the benefits of vitamin D is to find out what your levels are using a 25(OH)D test, also called 25-hydroxyvitamin D.
A few years back, the recommended level was between 40 to 60 nanograms per milliliter (ng/ml), but more recently the optimal vitamin D level has been raised to 50-70 ng/ml.

To get your levels into the healthy range, sun exposure is the BEST way to optimize your vitamin D levels; exposing a large amount of your skin until it turns the lightest shade of pink, as near to solar noon as possible, is typically necessary to achieve adequate vitamin D production. If sun exposure is not an option, a safe tanning bed (with electronic ballasts rather than magnetic ballasts, to avoid unnecessary exposure to EMF fields) can be used.

As a last resort, a vitamin D3 supplement can be taken orally, but research suggests the average adult needs to take 8,000 IU's of vitamin D per day in order to elevate their levels above 40 ng/ml, which is the absolute minimum for disease prevention.

6.   Reduce Stress

When you’re under a lot of stress, your body releases high levels of the stress hormone cortisol. This hormone actually blocks the effects of testosterone,⁶ presumably because, from a biological standpoint, testosterone-associated behaviors (mating, competing, aggression) may have lowered your chances of survival in an emergency (hence, the “fight or flight” response is dominant, courtesy of cortisol).

In the modern world, chronic stress, and subsequently elevated levels of cortisol, could mean that testosterone’s effects are blocked in the long term, which is what you want to avoid.

My favorite overall tool to manage stress is EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique), which is like acupuncture without the needles. It's a handy, free tool for unloading emotional baggage quickly and painlessly, and so easy that even children can learn it. Other common stress-reduction tools with a high success rate include prayer, meditation, laughter and yoga, for example. Learning relaxation skills, such as deep breathing and positive visualization, which is the "language" of the subconscious.

When you create a visual image of how you'd like to feel, your subconscious will understand and begin to help you by making the needed biochemical and neurological changes.

7.   Limit or Eliminate Sugar from Your Diet

Testosterone levels decrease after you eat sugar, which is likely because the sugar leads to a high insulin level, another factor leading to low testosterone.⁷
Based on USDA estimates, the average American consumes 12 teaspoons of sugar a day, which equates to about TWO TONS of sugar during a lifetime. Why we eat this much sugar is not difficult to understand -- it tastes good, and it gives us pleasure by triggering an innate process in your brain via dopamine and opioid signals.

What it is doing to us on both a physical and emotional level is another story entirely, and most people stand to reap major improvements in their health by cutting back on, or eliminating, sugar altogether from their diets. Remember foods that contain added sugar and fructose, as well as grains like bread and pasta, should all be limited.

If you're struggling with sugar addiction and having trouble dealing with cravings, I highly recommend trying an energy psychology technique called Turbo Tapping, which has helped many "soda addicts" kick their sweet habit, and it should work for any type of sweet craving you may have.

8.   Eat Healthy Fats

By healthy, this means not only mon- and polyunsaturated fats, like that found in avocadoes and nuts, but also saturated, as these are essential for building testosterone. Research shows that a diet with less than 40 percent of energy as fat (and that mainly from animal sources, i.e. saturated) lead to a decrease in testosterone levels.⁸

My personal diet is about 60-70 percent healthy fat, and other experts agree that the ideal diet includes somewhere between 50-70 percent fat.

It's important to understand that your body requires saturated fats from animal and vegetable sources (such as meat, dairy, certain oils, and tropical plants like coconut) for optimal functioning, and if you neglect this important food group in favor of sugar, grains and other starchy carbs, your health and weight are almost guaranteed to suffer. Examples of healthy fats you can eat more of to give your testosterone levels a boost include:

Olives and Olive oil	Coconuts and coconut oil	Butter made from raw grass-fed organic milk
Raw nuts, such as, almonds or pecans	Organic pastured egg yolks	Avocados
Grass-fed meats	Palm oil	Unheated organic nut oils

9.   Boost Your Intake of Branch Chain Amino Acids (BCAA) from Foods Like Whey Protein

Research suggests that BCAAs result in higher testosterone levels, particularly when taken along with resistance training.⁹ While BCAAs are available in supplement form, you'll find the highest concentrations of BCAAs like leucine in dairy products – especially quality cheeses and whey protein

Even when getting leucine from your natural food supply, it's often wasted or used as a building block instead of an anabolic agent. So to create the correct anabolic environment, you need to boost leucine consumption way beyond mere maintenance levels.

That said, keep in mind that using leucine as a free form amino acid can be highly counterproductive as when free form amino acids are artificially administrated, they rapidly enter your circulation while disrupting insulin function, and impairing your body's glycemic control. Food-based leucine is really the ideal form that can benefit your muscles without side effects.

Reference:

     http://fitness.mercola.com/sites/fitness/archive/2012/07/27/increase-testosterone-levels.aspx

True Herbal Blends

Organic Men's Prostate Health Tea on Etsy!

Best Plant Protein Shake 

Vegetarian and Vegan Approved Protein Shake-Non GMO, Soy Free, Dairy Free, Gluten Free!

 

Healthy Cooking Choices

For all of you great cooks out there that wish to cook healthier and improve on your nutritional choices, we have comprised a list of some of the most nutritiously dense foods to get your started.

Bon appetit!

Vegetables Asparagus Avocados Beets Bell peppers Broccoli Brussels sprouts Cabbage Carrots Cauliflower Celery Collard greens Cucumbers Eggplant Fennel Garlic Green beans Green peas Kale Leeks Mushrooms, crimini Mushrooms, shiitake Mustard greens Olives Onions Potatoes Romaine lettuce Sea vegetables Spinach Squash, summer Squash, winter Sweet potatoes Swiss chard Tomatoes Turnip greens Yams Spices & Herbs Basil Black pepper Cayenne pepper Chili pepper, dried Cilantro/Coriander seeds Cinnamon, ground Cloves Cumin seeds Dill Ginger Mustard seeds Oregano Parsley Peppermint Rosemary Sage Thyme Turmeric

Seafood Cod Halibut Salmon Sardines Scallops Shrimp Tuna Eggs & Low-Fat Dairy Cheese, low-fat Eggs Milk, 2%, cow's Milk, goat Yogurt Beans & Legumes Black beans Dried peas Garbanzo beans (chickpeas) Kidney beans Lentils Lima beans Miso Navy beans Pinto beans Soybeans Tofu and Tempeh Grains Barley Brown rice Buckwheat Corn Millet Oats Quinoa Rye Spelt Whole wheat Natural Sweeteners Blackstrap molasses Honey Maple syrup

Fruits Apples Apricots Bananas Blueberries Cantaloupe Cranberries Figs Grapefruit Grapes Kiwifruit Lemon/Limes Oranges Papaya Pears Pineapple Plums Prunes Raisins Raspberries Strawberries Watermelon Poultry & Lean Meats Beef, lean organic Chicken Lamb Turkey Venison Nuts, Seeds & Oils Almonds Cashews Flaxseeds Olive oil, extra virgin Peanuts Pumpkin seeds Sesame seeds Sunflower seeds Walnuts

Source: http://www.whfoods.com/index.php

Roasting a Turkey (Brine Method)

 

 Why Brine?

Brining makes it moist. Why are brined turkeys so juicy? Salt causes the meat tissues to absorb water and flavorings. It also breaks down the proteins, resulting in a tender-seeming turkey. This means that--despite the moisture loss during roasting and the long cooking time--you end up with a juicy bird.

How to Brine a Turkey:

The real trick with brining is finding a container that's large enough to submerge the turkey, yet small enough to fit in your refrigerator. Try a stock pot, a bucket, or a roasting pan; if you use a shallow roasting pan, you will need to turn the bird periodically so that each side rests in the brine. Place the container on the lowest shelf of the refrigerator (so spills won't reach foods below).
The basic ratio for turkey brine is 1.5 cups of kosher salt to 1.5 gallons of water.

• Dissolve salt in two cups of hot water. Stir and dissolve salt in cold or ice water 
• Remove giblets and neck from turkey. Thoroughly rinse turkey inside out. 
• Immerse turkey in brine and refrigerate for at least twelve hours but no longer than 24 hours

Cooking the turkey:
When you're ready to roast, rinse off the brine thoroughly with cool tap water, and pat dry with paper towels.

Tuck the wing tips behind the back and place the bird, breast-side up, on a roasting rack or a pan.

Instructions:
Stuff the turkey with one apple cut in halves, and one lemon cut in halves. Add one fresh garlic clove, 1/2 onion, celery, and carrots to the inside of the turkey. Add 2 chopped apples, carrots, celery, onions and garlic to the outside of the turkey in the pan. No salt should be added to compound butters or spice rubs.

Detach the skin from the breast meat of the turkey without removing it. Make sure to add butter underneath the skin of the turkey (breast), and include rosemary, thyme, garlic seasoning and cayenne pepper for a little spice underneath the skin. Apply olive oil over the outside of the turkey then add these same seasonings to the out side of the turkey.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Place foil or plastic bag covering over the turkey, and insert it into the oven. The turkey should take approximately 4 hours to cook. The turkey should read 170 degrees inside the thickest part (using a thermometer) before removing it from the oven. After the turkey has reached 170 degrees, then it is ready and should be removed from the oven.