|
This newsletter is about how to enjoy healthier holiday goodies.
December 5, 2012
Healthier Holiday Goodies
Hi ,
Its that time of year again - holiday goodie time. Everyone and their relatives will be waving tempting taste treats under our noses in order to ensure our good cheer. Sugar increases the intake of tryptophan into our brains which turns into the neurotransmitter serotonin - the feel good and relaxed chemical. The sugar also pumps up our insulin levels and suppresses our fight or flight sympathetic nervous system to reduce our awareness of the potentially frightening outside world.
Unfortunately sugar is killing us softly. But it is deeply linked to lots of good cheer feelings in us that make us want every bite that is offered to us. Well this is the season of good cheer, so how do we still enjoy the season's good feelings without destroying our bodies?
Our brain gives us a way to do this through the power of association. Let me give you an amazing example of this brain power. Many years ago there was a young girl with an inoperable brain cancer. There was a chemotherapy treatment that had a good success rate on adults, but the chemo was so strong that it would quickly kill the young girl before it had a chance to kill the cancer. Having no other choice the doctors decided to try an association experiment. For several days running they exposed the girl to the smell of green apples and gave her some of the chemotherapy. Then before the number of doses of chemo became toxic, they weaned her off of the chemo but continued to expose her to the green apple scent before each chemo session. Amazingly, the childs body had associated the smell of the green apples with the physiological effect the chemo produced in her body so strongly that even when they had weaned her off of the chemo completely, her body would respond to the green apple scent and produce the same chemo like response, but without the chemo. Her body killed off the cancer just by thinking it was going to get the chemo because it recognized the smell that always preceded the chemo initially. 
Our brains will respond to the sweet taste and smell of holiday goodies even if there is no or little actual sugar to cause these reactions. We can get the same good cheer feeling from healthier treats if they seem like what we are familiar with. The trick is to reproduce the taste and smell of our favorite goodies without using typical sugars, flours, and toxic oils (and in my case grains, dairy, seed oils, or carbs).
For some people it may seem easier to simply avoid any holiday treats. Good luck with that. I have done that and the social price was too strong in the long run. Friends and family will put up with your "special" diet for a few months maybe at other times of the year, but not this time of the year. It is their sacred duty to make sure that you get your holiday treats like some sort of special holiday vitamins.
I have found that in this battle for health, a good offense is better than a good defense. Strike first, and keep them off balance with a flood of holiday sweet goodness that you provide them. It keeps you safe and actually gifts the ones you love with a little better health during the holidays.
Holiday sweet breads are a good place to start. I created the Dr Dave Miracle bread flavor packets for this very purpose. With them I can turn that high protein, gluten and grain free bread substitute into chocolate bunt cake, or lemon poppy seed cake, or gingerbread. Patients have creatively turned the Dr Dave bread into pumpkin bread by adding pumpkin pie filling to it, or making cinnamon bread with cinnamon and my sugar replacement mixed into the bread along with some clarified butter and vanilla seasoning. Adding dried fruits like cranberries or blueberries is popular with the same clarified butter, vanilla, and 2X sugar replacement.
Next come the holiday cookies. Almond meal makes a great high protein replacement for flour in your recipes along with either fructose free sugar or 2x sugar replacement. Using the clarified butter removes the offending milk proteins that look like gluten to our body, or coconut oil is a good butter replacement. (Never use margarine or shortening, as they are toxic.) Some recipes can use flax flour or coconut flour as replacements for the unhealthy wheat flour. Generally extra eggs are needed to help bind the cookie or treat together, but if this makes the recipe too wet you might try using the egg white protein I have available at the office. So pull out your favorite recipes and start substituting. What about the really important element of the holidays, the chocolate goodies?
I have been experimenting for some time with making various sugar-free chocolates without using sweeteners like maltitol that cause gas. I am learning that chocolate is a complex science that is well beyond the skills and equipment of most any kitchen chef to create from the raw cocoa liquor. Kitchen chefs really have to start with already manufactured product to produce anything similar to what the average person would feel looked and tasted like what they know as chocolate.
So to make life simple, here are a couple easy ways to make a much healthier chocolate for the holidays. I start with a block of 70% cocoa chocolate (Trader Joe's is my source for 1 pound blocks). This stuff is really not sweet at all, but it can be made as sweet as you like. I heat the 1 pound block in my microwave for 2 minutes in a glass bowl. I stir the chocolate around for a minute to melt the unmelted bits then add 1 to 2 teaspoons of my Dr Dave Super Sweet Powder (mostly stevia) and mix it in. I then mix in a quarter cup of egg white powder to improve the protein levels and give more body. To this I then add a teaspoon of vanilla and possibly some other flavors (like peppermint, or chili, or orange). This forms a base chocolate to work with.
Last week I added a couple pounds of sprouted and slow roasted almonds to the chocolate base and spooned out the mixture onto silicone mats (or waxed paper) to form little drops of chocolate coated nuts. Yesterday I added a couple cups of defatted peanut flour (with some cocoa butter added to make it smooth) and poured the mixture into a 9x9 pan to cool and then cut it into little ¾ inch square candies. This creates a treat similar in taste to a peanut butter cup. This base could be used to dip dried fruit into, or bridge mix, or even to mix with walnuts and sugar free marshmallows to make rocky road. (See recipe at http://www.fairoakshealth.com/node/70)
The 70% dark chocolate does not have a lot of sugar in it to start with, and I am adding a healthy sweetener, more protein, and lots of other bulk in the form of nuts. I am ending up with a low sugar/high protein chocolate that looks and tastes like the regular high sugar unhealthy stuff.
My website has lots of great recipes for holiday treats. Just go to http://www.fairoakshealth.com/recipes
There is no reason to miss out on the joys of sweet treats at the holidays in order to stay healthy. We just have to be willing to make a few modifications to our recipes to make them healthier. And as I said before, share these with your friends. They will be so delighted that they will want to make them too - which means that when they share with you they will have healthier treats to share.
Enjoy,
David
We will be open till 1pm Christmas eve and closed Christmas day, then open Dec. 26th and closed Dec. 27th through Jan. 1st. We will reopen Jan. 2nd.
Greetings Everyone and Happy
Holiday Season
This is Massage
Practitioner Lorena Morales and as my gift to you if I
may? For this joyous season I
am giving $5 off of
any scheduled massage for the
month of December, please call me to schedule a massage or any questions
too. You will receive this $5 discount when you have your
massage. One hour is Regularly $50 and a one and a half hour is $75.
I am available for massage Mondays
and Fridays!
These are the 2 days I work at
the office. Please call for an appointment or questions ( 916 ) 521-2100
Thank you Sincerely for
your Patronage through out the year. If I
have not yet met you at the office please come and say hello on your next visit
and feel free to look into our new healing Energy room please.
Lorena Morales
Massage Practitioner Since 1996
- Fair Oaks Healing & Arts
Center
We have moved
.
Our new address is at 9725 Fair Oaks Blvd.
If you are coming from the Roseville area you could come down Sunrise Blvd, but that is a long trek. It is probably shorter timewise to come down Auburn Blvd - San Juan Ave like you have been for the Sunset
office, but instead of turning left at Sunset, keep going straight 3
more lights to Fair Oaks Blvd and turn left. Go down 2 lights to New York Ave, go through the intersection, and immediately turn into the turn lane once the center divider ends. We are on the left.
We are looking forward to seeing all of you at our new location.
And Thanks again to all the wonderful folks that came and helped us move!
Take care,
David
__________________________
Fresh Baked Goodies !
by Gypsy
Now in the office...
Low carb, fructose free. Made with almond, flax, and coconut fours, Dr Dave Fructose Free Sugar, and fresh wholesome natural ingredients. Gypsy even tells me the eggs used
are laid by her own hens in her backyard. I can't wait! Why wait till
your next appointment - come and get some today while they last!
________________________________
New Exercise Program
Patients are
reporting great results with the new back strengthening program I wrote
about in the March 18th newsletter. I highly recommend this program for
everyone as we all need stronger backs to counter the effects of too
much sitting. If you missed this information here is a link to that
newsletter.
You
are free to reprint this article in your newsletter as long as you
include the following statement in the same size type and color:
"This article appears courtesy of Fair Oaks Health News, offering natural and healthy solutions for body, mind and soul. For a complimentary subscription,
visit http://www.fairoakshealth.com"
|