Category: This Month’s Articles

CLINICAL RESEARCH  HEALTH & WELLNESS   CLEANSE
RECIPES   MENUS   VIDEOS   ENTREES
 BBQ  DRINKS   SOUP & SALAD   SNACKS & APPETIZERS

Chef V’s Guacamole w/Pomegranate and Mango

Chef V

I like to make this guacamole for the holidays – so pretty and festive!

Chef V tip: save the pit and keep it in the mixture to keep the guacamole from turning brown.

creamy green smoothie

Ingredients

2 large ripe avocados
2 tsp. fresh lime juice
1/2 tsp Fine sea salt
1/4 small white onion, finely diced
3 fresh cilantro sprigs with stems, chopped
2 Tbs. diced mango
2 Tbs. pomegranate seeds
1 tsp. Chopped jalapeno (optional)

Directions

For guacamole: Cut the avocados in half and remove the pits. Scoop the flesh into a bowl. Using a fork or a potato masher, mash the avocado with the lime juice and 1/2 tsp. salt until the guacamole is smooth but still has a little texture and some chunks. Stir in the onion, mango, cilantro and jalapeño (optional). Top with pomegranate seeds. Taste and adjust the seasoning for dipping. Serves 4.

Do You Have a Parasite in Your Gut? How to Kill it

Chef V

gut parasites

How To Kill Parasites In Your Gut The Natural Way

Got a freeloader living in your gut? If you have been diagnosed with parasites, is it possible to kill them off with natural ingredients? Keep reading to find out…

It’s got to be one of the most embarrassing and self-deflating situations: You’re shopping in the supermarket when all of a sudden a stranger asks, “How far along are you?” 

The problem is that you’re not pregnant. But your belly looks like you could be two or three months along in the prenatal journey. 

For some of the 60 million people(!) in the U.S. that, according to the CDC, are living with toxoplasmosis, a parasitic infection, a chronically-bloated belly isn’t the only concern. 

gut parasite

Top Signs You May Have a Parasite

Parasites can also cause brain fog, skin problems, constant fatigue, muscle pain, an itchy anus, frequent hunger and a long laundry list of digestive issues. 

Another nearly 4 million people, says the CDC, have a sexually transmitted disease (STD) caused by another parasitic infection called trichomoniasis, or trich for short. And here’s another scary stat from the CDC: More than 14 percent of people in the U.S. are exposed to the roundworm parasite that lives in the intestines of dogs that causes toxocariasis.

Sorry, Coconut (my 4-year old four-legged furry pet child): I just don’t know if I can look at you the same way for the next couple days after learning that. But thank God for heartworm pills!

gut health - Coconut and roundworm

Parasites: Not Just A Problem in Poorer Countries

I admit that I thought parasites were mostly something people picked up by visiting a developing nation in the tropics, where hot, damp and humid conditions are rife for all kinds of creepy microorganisms. 

But clearly, there are many among us right here in the good ol’ USA who are walking buffets for parasites. Now, I’m not intentionally trying to scare you; lord knows we have enough things right now to worry about. The good news is that if you have a healthy immune system, your body will be able to prevent parasites from taking up residence in your intestines and stealing your vital nutrients. 

However, thousands of people each year succumb to parasites, mainly by eating or drinking contaminated food and beverages. 

And if that’s you, natural ingredients may help…

natural remedies dried herbs

Treat Parasites Without Medication?

Unfortunately, many symptoms of parasitic infection mirror those of digestive disorders. The only way to know for sure if you have a parasite is by getting your stool tested. Another bummer when it comes to parasitic infections is that stool samples don’t always detect parasites, even when there is one. Far and away, the best stool sample analysis for detecting parasites, says the CDC is the ‘Wheatley method trichrome staining technique.’

If you have a parasitic infection confirmed, your doctor will likely recommend taking a prescription medication for the specific parasite.

Taking medication probably is the quickest way to eradicate the infection. But they don’t always work. Parasites are notoriously difficult to completely wipe out. And if your immune system is compromised and your gut microbiome doesn’t have enough friendly bacteria, there’s a good chance the parasite could re-emerge bigger and badder than before.

Some people would rather go about treating parasites (and candida, which is an overgrowth of a yeast fungus; technically it’s not a parasite) with natural remedies. If that’s you, the best ingredients that are backed by at least some decent research include:

  • Grapefruit Seed Extract (GSE)
  • Aged garlic extract
  • Oregano oil
  • Black walnut
  • Clove oil

gut parasites remedies- grapefruit and garlic oils

There’s one more natural antiparasitic ingredient I’d like to mention. And that’s Pau D’Arco, which is the Portugese name for ‘lapacho,’ the bark from a tree found in South America, including the Amazonian rainforest. Pau D’Arco is actually a natural anti-bacterial.

If you have a parasite, your doctor may want you to also take an antibiotic just in case you also have a bacterial infection. But antibiotic medications wipe out all the good bugs in your gut. This weakens your immune system, making conditions more likely for the parasite to grow.

Pau D' Arco tree

Eat This, Not That … For Parasites

So what are the best foods to eat for killing parasites? Well, let’s start with the worst thing to consume if you have a parasitic infection: sugar. And I’m not just talking about the added grams that come from soda, snacks and the like. You also should avoid starchy foods that easily convert into sugar like white rice, white flour, wheat flour and high starch carbs like mashed potatoes.

According to Mount Sinai of New York, raw garlic, pumpkin seeds, pomegranates, beets, carrots and a mixture of honey and papaya seeds may be beneficial for killing parasites. And don’t forget to use herbal remedies such as wormwood, barberry, goldenseal, oregon grape, anise and garlic. Mount Sinai adds that homeopathic remedies may also help.

Make sure you also support your liver’s detoxification pathways. One great way to do that is with Chef V’s Cleanse or 21 Day Detox.

Conclusion

Well, I hope a parasite isn’t to blame for what’s bugging you. But if a lab test reveals that you indeed have one, don’t despair. You can kill it and come out the other side stronger than ever.

Chef V’s Halloween Trick: Transforming Treats Into Healthier Alternatives

Chef V

fruit halloween treats

It’s one thing to wish someone a happy, healthy New Year. But a happy, healthy Halloween? Not with all the added sugars that cause tooth decay and promote metabolic diseases. Not to mention the artificial food colorings that contribute to hyperactivity disorders. But if you’ve got kids—or if you’re a big kid trapped in an adult’s body—thankfully, Veronica the “V” in Chef V has got some tips for celebrating a Halloween, complete with SCARY fruit.

If you’ve been reading my blog over the years, you know I abide by this golden rule of nutrition: eat healthy (meaning whole, unprocessed food) at least 80% of the time. Personally, I’m not perfect when it comes to eating like a saint. Thanks to occasional overpowering cravings for french fries, I do confess to being a food sinner maybe 5-10% of the time.

funny halloween fruit

So I understand that on Halloween, it can be tempting to let your hair down and indulge. What’s the harm in a few mini-size candy bars? The problem is, where does it end? Can you really limit yourself to just one or two bite-size treats?

If so, then get your trick-or-treat on. But maybe you’re somebody who needs to have not only their Halloween cake so to speak but their cake pops, bat-shaped and witch-finger cookies and spiced apple cider. (Depending on the brand or how it’s made, spiced apple cider can have more sugar than soda!)

If that’s you, I have some healthy Halloween suggestions…

pumpkin seed nutritional facts

Balance It Out

So if you are planning on going to a Halloween party and indulging a little bit, do what I do. Anytime I know that I’ll be faced with a food kryptonite, powerless to just say no, I make sure that I feast on healthy things earlier in the day. For example, let’s say that I’m going to a holiday party at night, then for lunch I’ll have a huge salad and maybe an extra serving of Green Drink before I leave.

Eating more veggies (and drinking them) will help alkalize your system, which will help neutralize the effects of the highly-processed food.

pumpkin popsicles

Healthier Snacks

If you do a Google search for healthy Halloween snacks, you could get tricked. Excuse the pun. You see, what I mean by that is that something that always comes up is little boxes of raisins. Are raisins healthier than candy bars? For sure they are. But just one small box contains 25 grams of sugar.

So what are better alternatives?

Get creative and make your own healthy treats. Like these haunted bananas and pumpkin-lookalike tangerines.

Or how about carving spooky apple slices?

apple carving

You can also bake gluten-free, stevia-sweetened pumpkin muffins or offer cinnamon sticks, wild honey sticks and baked pumpkin seeds.

But if you don’t have the time or skills to make these healthy treats, then just fill your jack-o-lantern with whole foods that most kids love, including:

  • Cuties
  • 100% fruit roll ups
  • Low-sugar juice boxes (Honest brand)

Make Pumpkins Healthy Again

One of the healthiest treats you can give or eat is the symbolic image of Halloween: pumpkins. One of the healthiest fruits (yes, pumpkins are technically a fruit), pumpkins have an extremely low glycemic load (3), meaning that it will hardly raise your blood sugar levels.

Plus, pumpkins are packed with carotenoids, which is a type of antioxidant. Carotenoids are one of the most important anti-aging phytonutrients. You’ve probably heard of some specific carotenoids that pumpkin contains, including beta-carotene. There’s also the vision- and eye-health supporting carotenoids lutein and zeaxanthin.

Speaking of beta-carotene, it’s the precursor of Vitamin A and get this, one cup of canned pumpkin contains nearly 800% of the daily recommended value of vitamin A. In addition, pumpkin is rich in vitamin K, vitamin C, vitamin E, iron, and several other vitamins and minerals. And one more fun fact about pumpkins is that they are super high in fiber, which helps things move along if you have constipation.

So consider making a pureed (canned; with BPA-free lining) pumpkin treat for Halloween. To sweeten it without sugar, consider using monk fruit extract or stevia.

And finally, don’t forget to indulge in pumpkin seeds (pepitas), which are also super healthy.

Have a happy, healthy Halloween!

Chef V

Coconut Sugar: Is It Healthier Sweet Stuff?

Chef V

Coconut Sugar

Coconut Sugar?  What do you get when you cross my 7-year-old, four-legged furry kid with sweetener? 

You get my very own sweet sugar baby – my dog Coconut!

Sorry for being corny—again. 

But in all seriousness, one of the most common questions I get asked as a certified nutritional therapist and creator of The Chef V Organic Cleanse is this: Is coconut sugar healthier than regular sugar?

Let’s dive in and find out what the research says…

Coconut Sugar: Is It Healthier Sweet Stuff?

What Is It?

Actually, before we follow the science on coconut sugar, let’s cover some basic facts on the natural alternative sweetener. 

It does not come from the meaty white flesh of the nuts. It’s also not produced from the husky shell. And it’s not made from the liquid within the nut (coconut water). 

So what is it made from? It’s made by dehydrating the sap contained in the flower bud of the stem of coconut palm trees. You could say that the sap is the circulating life force or the blood of the tree. And just like the blood circulating through your veins contains minerals and trace minerals that are vital for energy, coconut sap is rich in minerals. But we’ll get to that in a bit…

Coconut blossom sugar, is all-natural. Although it comes from the coconut palm tree, do not confuse it with palm sugar. Regular palm sugar is sourced from a different type of tree than coconut sugar. 

True coconut sugar resembles granulated raw brown sugar. And if you’re an animal lover or vegan, there’s one big plus about using it instead of regular table sugar. 

According to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), table sugar is sometimes whitened with bone char. What’s bone char, you ask? It’s charred cattle bones. Think about that next time you sweeten your coffee at your favorite diner. And according to PETA, brown sugar can also be processed with bone char. Brown sugar, which is not healthier than table sugar (it’s just as refined) is colored with molasses, so don’t get fooled by regular brown sugar. 

But coconut sweetener is a healthier brown sugar that is not refined and therefore does not get processed with bone char.

coconut plant

Benefits

I found an interesting study published in Food Science & Nutrition, co-authored by researchers from Malaysia, a country thought to be the first to commercialize it for the U.S. market. 

The researchers concluded “Coconut sap could be served as a potential healthier sugar source compared with sugar palm and sugarcane as it carries more minerals, antioxidants, and vitamins.”

Another reason the researchers think it is a healthier alternative to refined sugar is that it has a lower glycemic index. The GI ranks the rise in blood glucose after the consumption of carbohydrates on a scale from 0–100.  A food with low GI raises blood glucose less than that of the food with high GI. 

Coconut sugar’s GI ranks about 35, which is only 10 points higher than fructose from whole fruits. In comparison, refined sugar has a GI that’s almost twice as high as coconut sugar. 

For this reason, the researchers suggest that coconut palm nectar (another way to say coconut sugar) can be part of the solution in curtailing the diabetes and obesity epidemic. 

Vitamins & Minerals

The researchers detected vitamin C, B1, B3, B4, B2, and B10 in samples. Of those, vitamin C, B3, B4, B2, and B10 in coconut nectar were significantly higher than in table sugar. In addition, coconut sugar contained higher levels of three important electrolytes: potassium, sodium and magnesium. Many Americans are deficient in magnesium, a mineral that’s important for helping to relax muscles. 

By the way, you can also get the benefits of these minerals from coconut water, which is why I use both coconut sugar and coconut water in several of my recipes. 

And in comparison to regular sugar, coconut nectar is relatively high in other minerals such as zinc, calcium and iron. 

Coconut Water

For Gut Health?

Another reason to swap regular table sugar for coconut is that it contains a type of fiber called inulin. This special fiber acts like fertilizer for a type of friendly bacteria in your gut called bifidobacteria, which is a common live culture added to yogurt. 

Inulin is considered a post-biotic fiber. Postbiotics are the healthy short-chain fatty acids released by probiotics. Probiotics are essential for a healthy gut and immune system, but it’s actually the postbiotics that make the magic happen!

Is It Healthier: Chef V’s Verdict

Now don’t get me wrong … even though I think it is healthier than regular table sugar, I don’t rely on it to get my daily dose of essential minerals and trace minerals. The dark leafy greens in Organic Green Drink provide me with an excellent low-sugar source of minerals without spiking my blood sugar. 

If you have type 2 diabetes, don’t get fooled into thinking that it is a miracle sweetener. It may have a lower glycemic index than regular sugar but that doesn’t mean it gives you a free pass to go crazy with it. 

So don’t use it as a multivitamin, antioxidant supplement or probiotic. Instead, just like all other sweeteners, use it sparingly. But when I do use the sweet stuff, I reach for COCONUT and a little coconut sugar. 

Veronica and Coconut

Don’t Be Scared Of Pumpkin—Put ’em On Your Face & Eat ‘Em!

Jean Yates

Chef V bat-mask-pumpkin

When you think of pumpkin and autumn the first thing that probably comes to mind is jack o’ lanterns. But Chef V suggests using this “gourdeous” fruit in other ways this time of year. 

Fall is finally here and for many people that means one thing: it’s pumpkin spice latte season! Oh yeah, Halloween will soon be upon us. But there’s far more to Cucurbita Pepo (pumpkins) than carved decorative gourds and coffee drinks that instantly turn you into a pre-diabetic with an insulin-spiking rush of 50 grams of sugar. 

Raw pumpkin fruit (canned), seeds and seed oils are superfoods in my book. This time around, I want to cover some more interesting uses about pumpkins and their health benefits….

pumpkin skin mask

Pumpkins: Face Masks: For Beauty, Not Trick Or Treat

Having a pumpkin on your head makes sense if you’re celebrating Halloween. But it also can help your skin look more beautiful. Of course I’m talking about face masks. Pumpkin face masks aren’t going to be the hottest beauty trend of 2021. They’ve already been a trend for a few years but not everybody has heard of applying it to the skin. 

Now before you rush out to your closest supermarket to buy canned pumpkin and apply it to your skin, that’s not the type used in beauty face masks. 

Many beauty brands claim that pumpkin extract helps rejuvenate the skin. And there’s some evidence to back up the claim. 

In a research study from last year, the scientists concluded that the extract could have potential in treating contact dermatitis (CD) because of its antioxidant activity. 

A more recent study from earlier this year noted that depression is often associated with CD because the skin disease is caused by chronic stress. The researchers found that pumpkin extract, when applied orally and topically can lessen the severity of both CD and depression. 

Pumpkins have a high amount of oleic acid, an Omega-9 fatty acid, that is believed to possess antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and antidepressant activities. 

Advertisements I’ve seen claim that pumpkin face masks clean pores, hydrates, cleanses, plumps the skin, stimulates collagen production, remove dead and dull skin cells and more. Who needs a dermatologist when you can just use a pumpkin face mask!

pumpkin seed nutritional facts

Pumpkins For Pooping!

One thing I forgot to mention in my article about nutrition facts is that it’s an excellent source of fiber. In fact, in just one serving of canned pumpkin (buy organic), there are seven grams of fiber. Fiber helps keep you regular, satisfies your appetite, removes excess cholesterol from the body, and controls blood sugar spikes. So when you’re craving a regular punkin' spice latte, just add some canned pumpkin to it. Just kidding, don’t do that. But do eat canned for the fiber content. 

Pumpkins – Seed Oil For Prostate Health

Another thing I didn’t mention in my original ode to pumpkins benefits is that for men, it could be a life saver. Roughly 1 in 8 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during their lifetime. Although prostate cancer is thankfully a highly survivable disease these days, the American Cancer Society estimates that over 34,000 men in the U.S. will die from prostate cancer in 2021. 

The oil from pumpkin seeds have been shown in many research studies to prevent the growth of the prostate gland, which may be a contributing factor in developing prostate cancer. 

Many men as they age develop a non-cancerous growth in their prostate called Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia or BPH. BPH can make it painful and difficult for older men to urinate. 

(Hubby, Brandon: Are you reading this? I’m buying you pumpkin seed oil for your birthday!) 

pumpkin seeds

Pass On The Pumpkin Pie

This time of year, besides pumpkin spice lattes and halloween decorations, most people associate the with pie. 

Yes, I’m a certified nutritional therapist and innovator behind nationwide delivery of organic Green Drink, but I’m not going to be the food police and tell you never to eat pumpkin pie again. But if you are going to eat it, do so sparingly because too many added sugars can weaken your immune system. And you don’t need me to remind you why that’s a problem these days. 

If you’re going to indulge in pie use a zero-calorie sweetener like stevia. It may not taste as good as the real thing but it will allow you to celebrate the season without the guilt. 

Have a happy, healthy autumn!

Chef V

CRP: The One Blood Test You Should Beg Your Doctor To Take

Chef V

CRP: The One Blood Test You Should Beg Your Doctor To Take

CRP is the one blood test you should beg your Doctor to take. Virtually every disease is caused by inflammation. Inflammation manifests in many different ways, from auto-immune disorders to cancer and diabetes, and even weight gain. But how do you know if your body has inflammation? After all, sometimes, inflammation has no symptoms–until a heart attack or stroke strikes.

Thankfully, there’s a simple blood test you can get from your doctor. It’s called the “C-Reactive Protein” (CRP) blood test. Next time you go for your checkup, ask your doctor to test your CRP levels. If you are diagnosed with high levels of CRP, then you can make some lifestyle changes before serious symptoms or disease occurs….

What is C-Reactive Protein?

So what do my Organic Green Drinks and Cleanses have to do with a protein called CRP that’s created by the liver when the body’s inflammatory response kicks in?

They have everything to do with C-Reactive Protein, that’s what. You see, one of the best ways to stay healthy and avoid disease is to have as little CRP as possible. CRP isn’t inherently bad. You actually need some of it to fight infections. But when levels of this protein are high, it’s an indication that there’s too much inflammation in the body. This is why its important to know what can raise your CRP levels, and how to reduce CRP levels.

CRP and inflammation

As I mention above, all disease is triggered by inflammation. Even diseases that are passed down by your ancestors are at greater risk for being expressed if you have more inflammation in your body. In other words, if you eat healthy, just because you may inherit a disease potential does not mean the genes for that disease will express. However, if you eat a diet that’s full of refined carbs like bread and baked goods and lots of added sugar, you’re at more risk for those genetic switches being turned on.

That’s where my Green Drinks, Detox Soups and Vegan Protein Shakes come into play. The antioxidants and other nutrients are a great way how to reduce RP levels, which means your body will have less inflammation.

Whether your goal is to stay healthy and prevent disease or to lose weight (or both), the 7-certified organic green leafy veggies in my Organic Green Drinks can play a big part in preventing inflammation.

But how do you know how much CRP you have?

CRP Blood test

Take a C-Reactive Protein (CRP) Blood Test 

Recently, I wrote about a new health trend you’ll be hearing much more about in the near future: DNA testing for weight loss.

Basically, I said that until the science catches up, getting your DNA tested to find out the best form of exercise and supplements to take is probably a waste of money.

But there is one test I’m all in favor of you getting: the C-Reactive Protein Blood Test, or CRP Blood Test. It’s easy to do and your health insurance plan (if you have one) likely covers it in a normal panel blood test (along with A1C blood sugar and cholesterol markers).

Your body has dozens of inflammatory markers. CRP is the easiest one to test and it seems to provide good insight into your inflammation levels. (Don’t get a test done while your sick, especially if you’re fighting an infection because your body’s CRP levels will be inflated and won’t give an accurate reading of the levels when you’re healthy.)

Why is CRP so important? Because it’s a good predictor of heart attacks and strokes. It can also reveal if you’re at risk for developing diabetes and arthritis. In fact, according to WebMD, a Harvard Women’s Health Study revealed that in healthy postmenopausal women, those with the highest CRP levels were more than four times as likely to have died from heart disease or suffer a non-fatal attack or stroke, compared with those with the lowest levels.

See why CRP is so important?

CRP test and inflammation

How to Reduce CRP Levels

Look, I realize that CRP might not be a super sexy health topic. It’s not as celeb-gossip worthy as Intermittent Fasting or Keto. But as a certified nutritional therapist, I feel it’s my duty (and honor) to share with you simple yet important wellness advice. It’s easy to fall prey to food, drinks and other lifestyle choices that can cause serious inflammation in your body.

But it’s just as easy to avoid it.

Start off each morning by lowering your CRP levels with 16 ounces of my Organic Green Drink.

CRP and green drink

If you have time before you go to work, do a little yoga routine at home or go take a class (or do yoga any other time of day). Think I’m biased because I love yoga myself? Well, I do love yoga. But I bet you didn’t know that yoga is clinically proven to reduce CRP levels. Don’t believe me? Check out this research. And as you might expect, mindfulness, meditation, breathing exercises, and moving meditation exercises such as Tai Chi, can also reduce CRP levels. (So, too, can sex! Again, don’t take my word for it; look at the research.)

A few more simple ways to keep your inflammation level down is by taking a quality fish oil supplement and probiotic and getting 7 or more hours of restful sleep every night. And remember to keep your added sugar intake to a minimum and exercise almost every day.

Eating the right foods makes a difference in your CRP levels. Try healthy wild salmon, real olive oil, cruciferous veggies, and nuts and seeds.

If you’re feeling great and doing most of these things already, then no worries. But if you are concerned about the level of inflammation in your body, it’s really easy to get a CRP blood test (unless you’re like me and deathly afraid of needles; sorry can’t help you with that phobia!

To your health (and low levels of CRP),

Veronica “Chef V” Kress

Chef V

Raw Cucumber + Avocado Gazpacho

Chef V

Cool and creamy, soups are a great way to start a meal, but are also awesome as a main course. You can easily double or triple my recipe and have delicious leftovers. The beauty of my veggie-rich recipe is that its high water and fiber content slows how fast you eat and fills you up quicker.

raw cucumber + avocado gazpacho

SERVES 2-4

Ingredients

  • 1 ripe avocado
  • 1 cucumber
  • 1/2 cup fresh cilantro leaves
  • 1 clove garlic
  • 2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives
  • 2 cups filtered ice water
  • 1 1/4 teaspoons sea salt
  • 1 lime, juice only
  • OPTIONAL TOPPINGS
  • Chopped tomatoes
  • Fresh chopped chives
  • Cucumber slices

Directions

Refrigerate all the ingredients overnight. Peel and seed the avocado and peel the cucumber and garlic.

Place all the cold ingredients in a Vitamix and process until smooth.

The colder the ingredients are, the less foam there will be. Serve cold and top with chopped tomatoes for a bright pop of flavor.

Creamy Green Smoothie

Chef V

My creamy green smoothie has it all: a rich creamy flavor from avocado, plus dark leafy greens, a natural sweetener from dates, and fiber from chia seeds. A pinch of cinnamon and a squeeze of lemon add spice and acid. Health alert: potassium is an important mineral that most people don’t get enough of. But instead of reaching for a banana, eat an avocado – it contains more potassium and way less sugar. 

Chef V’s Food Fact: Avocados are a nutritionist’s dream food – packed with nearly 20 essential nutrients, including fiber, potassium, vitamin E, B vitamins, and folic acid. Have one in a creamy green smoothie!

creamy green smoothie

Ingredients

  • 1 small ripe avocado
  • 2 large leaves green kale
  • 1 cup spinach
  • 2 medjool dates, pitted
  • 1 lemon, juice only
  • Pinch of cinnamon
  • 1 tablespoon chia seeds
  • 1 1/2 cups filtered water
  • 1 cup ice

Directions

Combine all ingredients in a blender. Blend 1-2 minutes until smooth. Will keep for up to 3 days refrigerated.

Bon Appétit!

Soy: Does It Bring A New Mom Joy Or Is It Best To Avoid?

Chef V

sleep and weight loss

ChefV.com founder, Veronica Wheat, recently gave birth. She avoided soy before and after giving birth. Here, she explains why:

When it comes to soy, I’m not talking about the lab-grown kind that’s in Impossible Burgers. Been there, covered that. I’m also not talking about soy protein powder (here). Now that I’ve got a baby belly for real, I’m curious how regular soy, the kind that’s used to make blocks of tofu, for instance, impacts prenatal health. 

Spoiler alert: it’s not something I’ll be feeding my developing baby. For some people, this news might be surprising because soy is supposed to be a healthy plant-based source of protein. And for women going through menopause, soy is supposed to help balance estrogen levels. 

The thing is that soy, despite its seemingly innocuous squishy nature, has a dark side…

tofu block

Problem With Soy #1: GMOs

Almost all the soy that’s grown in the U.S. is genetically modified. But don’t just take my word for it. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s own stats, over 90 percent of soybeans are produced using genetically-engineered varieties. I’ll be stoked if my kid becomes an engineer but there’s no way I want my baby eating GMO foods. 

Think I’m just being paranoid about GMO soy? Then check out the conclusion of this study from Environmental Sciences Europe:

“Serious adverse events of GM consumption include mortality, tumor or cancer, significant low fertility, decreased learning and reaction abilities, and some organ abnormalities.”

Case closed. 


soy plant

Problem With Soy #2: Pesticides

Is the simple answer to buy organic, non-GMO soy? (FYI: Organic foods are not genetically engineered, so saying organic non-GMO is redundant.) 

This is a bit of a tricky question. On one hand, soy is one of the most heavily-sprayed crops. I previously talked about the potential dangers of the world’s most widely used weedkiller: glyphosate (used in the Monsanto brand, Roundup). 

Organic soy is not sprayed with glyphosate. But that doesn’t mean it won’t contain traces of it. If an organic farm is located close to a non-organic farm that uses glyphosate, the spray can drift to the organic farm. 

Again, it may sound like I’m being a bit kooky worrying about glyphosate drift. But studies have shown that people who live near large farms where herbicides and pesticides are used are at risk. 

And that’s not a risk I’m willing to expose my kid to. In fact, according to a study in Diabetes Care, exposure to glyphosate in the first trimester is linked to a higher risk of gestational diabetes, says pregnancy nutrition expert, Lily Nichols, RDN. 

spraying fields

Problem With Soy #3: Environmental Impact

The next problem with soy is how it affects the environment that my child will walk on, in just a few short months!

It turns out that soy has a huge negative impact on the Earth. According to the World Wide Fund for Nature, soy production has more than doubled over the last two decades. While we need more crop yields to feed a growing population, the production of soy is mostly unsustainable and contributes to rising levels of greenhouse gas emissions. Forests and grasslands are cleared to cultivate soy. The result is that not only are natural habitats destroyed, so are the traditional cultures that rely on them. 

What’s more is that soy isn’t just grown for human consumption. In fact, approximately 80% is used as feed for livestock. And even if you think the environmental impact of cow farts are greatly exaggerated, there’s no denying that soy usurps a huge amount of resources. It requires immense amounts of water and chemicals to cultivate soy. In addition, the clear-cutting of forests to make room for soy changes the natural composition of the soil. 

woman holding sign save our planet

Soy Brings No Joy – Reason #4: Heavy Metals

When soy is cultivated in unhealthy/unnatural soil, the soil becomes eroded and often contains heavy metals like aluminum. If you have an excess amount of aluminum in your body, it creates oxidative stress in the brain, liver and kidney, says a 2022 study in Emerging Medicine International. 

Conventional soy is often processed in aluminum containers or boxes instead of the traditional Japanese wooden boxes. The aluminum can leach out of the box into the tofu. And if that’s not bad enough, conventional soy can interfere with the absorption of the good minerals you want in your gut like calcium, zinc and magnesium. 

The ultimate reason I’m not going to avoid soy over the next several months? I’ll let the aforementioned Lily Nichols explain. Nichols quotes a study on her website from Pharmacology Biochemistry and Behavior which concludes:

“Aluminum exposure during pregnancy has potential neurotoxic hazards to the in utero developing fetus brain.”

aluminum sheet, crumpled

Conclusion: Soy Isn’t Totally Evil

There’s no way I’m chugging gallons of soy milk while I’m pregnant or while I’ll be breastfeeding. However, I’m not suggesting that all soy is bad all of the time. I think with soy, the key is moderation and the type. I’m in favor of fermented soy that’s produced via traditional methods.

Miso soup, tempeh and natto are examples of fermented soy that are healthy sources of plant-based protein. Whole organic soybeans can also be your best friend if you’re looking to manage hot flashes and other menopausal symptoms, not something I’m not looking forward to.

For now, I’ll enjoy being a new mom, soy-free. 

Chef V, Coco and kale

Super Antioxidant Smoothie

Chef V

Antioxidants are substances that may prevent cell damage. Berries, kale, and beets are great natural sources of antioxidants. Enjoy ihis super antioxidant smoothie in the morning after your 16 oz. of Organic Green Drink.

super smoothie

TOTAL 10 minutes

Prep Time: 8 minutes

Serving Size: 1 Person

Ingredients

  • ½ cup organic blueberries (fresh or frozen)
  • ½ cup organic raspberries (fresh or frozen)
  • ¼ cup pomegranate seeds
  • ¼ cup diced organic red beet, raw
  • 2 pieces of organic green kale
  • ½ cup ice
  • ½ cup coconut water
  • 1 serving of Chef V Ultra Shake protein powder or Powder of your choice

Directions

Combine all ingredients in a blender. Blend 1-2 minutes until smooth. Add ¼ cup filtered water if necessary. Bon Appétit!

Cilantro Lime Vinaigrette Dressing

Jean Yates

Chef V’s Tip: Most of my salads are delicious with my Cilantro Lime Vinaigrette or Creamy Avocado Dressing. Use these on any salads unless otherwise specified. Dressings serve 4-6. – Veronica

creamy avocado dressing

TOTAL TIME: 10 min

SERVES 4-6

Ingredients

  • 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
  • 1 tablespoon white vinegar
  • 1/8 teaspoon sea salt
  • 1 clove garlic, minced or pressed
  • 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
  • 2 tablespoons cold-pressed olive oil
  • 2 tablespoons cold filtered water

Directions

For Cilantro Lime Vinaigrette, process all ingredients in a Vitamix until smooth and well combined. Will keep refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 1 week. Shake well before each use.

Fastest Way to Get into Ketosis – Chef V Cleanse

Jean Yates

Cleansing for ketosis

Following a ketogenic (“Keto”) diet puts your body in a state of ketosis. That means your body is burning its stored body fat instead of blood sugar for energy. But getting into ketosis can take up to several weeks if you’re not doing it right. One of the easiest ways to get into ketosis is by doing a Chef V Cleanse. It’s so easy, you won’t have to count carbs…

So you’ve flirted with keto for the last few years. You’re thinking about it but haven’t pulled the low-carb trigger. I get it. Ditching grains and even some of your favorite veggies and fruits is tough. For many people, it takes an extraordinary amount of willpower to eat an ultra low carb diet. 

How low should you go if you’re going Keto, you may ask? 

Well, everybody is unique. Some people may go into ketosis after consistently keeping net carbs to roughly grams per day. But for other people, it may require being even more stingy with the carbs to the tune of 25 net grams per day. 

(Net carbs equals total grams of carbs minus fiber and/or sugar alcohol. Example: one cup of cooked pasta contains 42 grams of carbs and 2 grams of fiber. So that’s 40 net grams of carbs — definitely way too much to get into or stay in ketosis!)

Maybe every year around the holidays or after a vacation, where you’ve put on a few pounds, you tell yourself this is going to be the year that you conquer Keto. 

But you don’t. 

Don’t blame yourself. Carbs not only taste great. They are literally addictive. In fact, according to Dr. William Davis, author of the best-selling book, “Wheat Belly” which was instrumental in launching gluten-free and Keto diets, “Wheat is addictive in the sense that, if you don’t have any for several hours, you start to get nervous, foggy, tremulous, and start desperately seeking out another ‘hit’ of crackers, bagels, or bread.”

So it’s not you, it’s the molecules.

keto

Easing Into Keto 

I’m not going to lie. Following the keto diet is really challenging at first. There’s the so-called dreaded “Keto flu.” 

That’s when your body basically has withdrawal symptoms and has to get used to burning fatty acids (ketone bodies) for its primary source of energy instead of all that circulating glucose. 

This phase can last a few days — just like a real flu virus.

It’s always a good idea to gradually phase into ketosis rather than quitting carbs cold turkey like smoking. Try to lower your net carb intake over a two-week period. This will help reduce Keto flu symptoms. 

Then, there's getting used to carb counting. But actually, with all the keto apps (not appetizers) these days, it’s easy to get used to. After a short while, you’ll learn the net carb counts of the foods you most often eat. 

Now, to be sure, even if you ditch gluten and everything else with tons of carbs, you can’t know if you’re in ketosis unless you test yourself. 

Many people use urine strips. But they’re not the most reliable. They are a good bellwether for people with diabetes. However, if you don’t have a blood sugar disorder, urine strips aren’t the best way to test. That’s because urine strips only measure excess ketones—not the level of fatty acids your body is using for fuel. 

Urine strips are cheap so it might not be a bad idea to start out with them. But the longer you stay in ketosis, the more your body will adapt. So you’ll need a more reliable way to test. Blood meters are the most accurate. They’re the most expensive way to test, but you get what you pay for. 

cleanse success

CHEF V’s CLEANSE: The Easy Way To Get Your Body Ready For Ketosis

A big reason why some people fail with Keto is they just don’t know how to get started. It’s too overwhelming. 

The easiest solution for taking all the guess work out is by doing one of my cleanses. The Chef V Cleanse home delivery program offers 1, 3 and 5 day options.  

On each day of the CLEANSE, you get:

  • 4 servings of Organic Green Drink
    7 Leafy Greens with only 5 net grams of carbs each
  • 2 Vegan Ultra Protein Shakes
    One Chocolate, One Vanilla; 2 grams net carbs each
  • Detox Soup
    1 high fiber soup for dinner; 2 flavors: Ginger Carrot (days 1, 3, 5) & Sweet Potato Curry (days 2 & 4)

Now, it would be misleading for me to say that the CHEF V CLEANSE is keto friendly. For some people, the net grams of carbs from the carrots or sweet potato in the DETOX SOUP, even though they are nutrient dense, would prevent ketosis. 

However, if you really want to try Keto, the CLEANSE is the best way to transition to a ketogenic diet. That’s because your net grams of carbs will still be under 100. Consider that the average American diet consists of over 300 grams of carbs per day. 

And you don’t have to be a certified nutritional therapist like myself to know that most Americans aren’t getting enough fiber. 

So let CHEF V do all the work for you. I’ll ship the cleanse right to your door and you won’t have to worry about counting carbs or figuring out what you should eat in order to transition into ketosis. 

LEARN MORE

a green drink a day can support your mood

Tropitaya Smoothie

Chef V

One of the most popular smoothies (and one of my favorites) at our stores in New Jersey and San Diego, the Tropitaya Smoothie is so refreshing after a yoga class or to cool off on a hot day.

super smoothie

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup frozen pitaya
  • 1/4 cup pineapple
  • 1/4 cup mango
  • 1 large piece of kale or other nutritious green
  • 1 cup ice
  • 1/2 cup coconut water
  • 1/3 cup water
  • 1 tbsp pea protein

For a healthy variation, add 1 tbsp fresh ginger and 1 tsp fresh turmeric

Directions

Combine all ingredients in a blender. Blend 1-2 minutes until smooth. Add ¼ cup filtered water if necessary. Bon Appétit!

Protein Powder: What you Need to Know before you Cleanse

Chef V

two Chef V protein powders held by a girl

When you think of a juice cleanse or detox diet, does protein come to mind? If not, it should. But not just any protein. In fact, many protein powders can be toxic to your health. Learn why you need protein if you’re cleansing and what kind is best for your body. Here’s what you need to know.

new protein shake

Doing a Cleanse? Why Protein Powder is important

All animals must eat protein every day to survive. Us wild human animals included. Now I’m not saying you need to eat a 72-ounce T-bone steak every day for health. I’d feel very sorry for your colon if you did that.

You don’t even need a small bite of filet mignon every day. In fact, there’s no proof that you need animal protein for optimal health. Any natural vegan protein will do, including nuts and seeds.

Here’s a fun nutrition fact to chew on: the human body can’t live more than 70 days without eating any protein. Give or take a day. I haven’t personally tested this theory. And I don’t recommend you try either.

But if you’re reading this because you’re researching the best juice cleanse, there’s a very good chance you’re going to kill yourself just a little bit. And thanks to me, I’m going to save you from that. I’ll explain how in just a sec….

You see, if you go ultra low carb like the keto diet, no problem. Some of that dietary fat you’re feasting on will be converted into glucose (sugar) for your brain to feed on. Even protein can be converted into glucose. If you eat that 72-ounce steak, there’s a good possibility some of the cow meat will turn into sugar and get stored as fat.

But your body can’t store excess protein. It also can’t make protein from carbs or fats or anything else. That’s why you need to eat protein everyday for optimal health.

Your lean muscle tissue, hair, skin, and nails all need adequate protein to look healthy.

So if you’re checking out some different cleanse or detox diet options out there, here’s the big problem with them….

Most cleanse programs contain zero protein. Instead, all juice detoxes are is a slick marketing trick for selling you fruit juice with loads of sugar. That’s the opposite of cleansing! (Compare my cleanse program to popular juice cleanses here.)

Think how brittle your hair and nails will look after going several days without protein.

Some people think that it’s not good to have protein during a cleanse. Why? They assume it’s bad for the digestive system. Well, in a way, that’s true. But only if it’s processed meat or unhealthy protein powder.

I’m here to steer you in a healthy direction and recommend a protein powder to take while doing a cleanse.

protein burger

Vegan Protein Powder For Cleansing

Multi-colored, attractive bottles of juice may be effective for marketing. But they’re not good for health. You see, many commercial juice cleanse programs include about a half dozen different kinds of juice, each a different color of the rainbow. But each containing 20 grams or more of sugar and zero protein.

As far as I’m concerned (as a certified nutritional therapist), you need just one color of juice: green. Green-leafy vegetables are the most nutrient-dense foods and play a critical part in the body’s detoxification process. But even my cold-blended Organic Green Drinks don’t have any protein.

That’s why several years ago, I brainstormed on a protein powder that would be healthy for everybody, including people doing a cleanse. The result is my Organic Vegan Protein Shake. With 17 grams of high-absorbance pea protein per packet, brittle nails don’t stand a chance.

You’ll have to trust me (or the 5-star reviews on Yelp) that the shake tastes great. How does it taste good without adding gobs of sugar? My recipe uses organic vanilla powder, stevia, and monk fruit extract. Stevia and monk fruit are natural, calorie-free sweeteners.

Pea protein has become more popular. When I decided to use pea protein a few years ago, I never thought it would be just as effective for the weightlifting community. But check it out. This study shows that it produces the same increase in muscle thickness as whey protein.

There are a couple reasons I don’t use whey in my Protein Shake for my cleanse programs. First, many whey protein powders are contaminated with heavy metals. (Says this Harvard research report.) And also, whey protein is not good for people with lactose intolerance. True, I could have used whey protein isolate, which contains close to zero lactose, but I just don’t trust how whey is manufactured. And I don’t think it’s good for cleansing overall.

What About Soy Protein Powder For Cleansing?

Some people are concerned about soy protein’s effect on women. This is because soy is a phytoestrogen, and if the body has too much estrogen absorbed, it could produce a hormonal cancer such as breast cancer.

Thus far, there are no studies linking soy protein powder to breast cancer. However, I do believe that processed soy is not good for health. Also, I think there is something to the too much estrogen theory. After all, it’s not just the food supply from soybeans that causes estrogen dominance, it’s all the plastics and everyday cleaners that can mimic the effects of estrogen.

50% off Chef V Cleanse

Muscle Heads

You don’t need to buy one of those huge tubs of protein powders that huge weightlifters buy for bulging biceps.

If you’re not doing a cleanse, I really don’t think you need any protein powder at all. But if you are going to do a cleanse, you absolutely do need some protein if you don’t want your muscles to waste away and your immune system to get weak.

Dietary protein plays a major role in virtually every thing that happens in your cells. And not only that, protein helps you feel full. If you go even a few days without it, just having juice will make your blood sugars go up and down. You’ll get tired and cranky.

Look, even if you don’t choose one of my cleanses, I do highly encourage you to consume a little high-quality vegan-protein every day (hemp and brown rice are also good choices).

A little protein every day goes a long way for health.

Best wishes and to your health,

Chef V

Chef V and kale

The Power of Pea Protein: Why You Will Cleanse So Hap-pea-ly

Chef V

peas for protein

Pea protein is one of the most popular vegan proteins with no signs of slowing down, and for good reason. It’s super easy to digest, contains all 9 essential amino acids and doesn’t cause nasty belly bloating. That’s why Chef V is excited to introduce Vanilla Ultra Shake with pea protein for cleanse customers. 

peas in pod

Puny plant-powered peas? Hardly! Here’s Why Pea Protein Rocks…

It wasn’t that long ago that if you would have told someone at the gym that you use pea protein, they would have likely responded, oooo, gross! 

After all, peas were something that only babies eat. And maybe grown-ups who ate the occasional split pea soup. But pea protein powder? That was something relatively unheard of a generation ago, much less 5-10 years ago. Peas have proven to shatter the myth of the puny vegan. 

No longer is it far left field for bodybuilders to heal the microscopic muscle-fiber tears after a lifting session with pea protein. In fact, some of the most accomplished bodybuilders are vegan and support their lean muscle tissue with plant-powered protein powders, especially pea.  

The total value of the worldwide pea protein market was worth about $380 million in 2017. By 2027, guess what the market is forecast to be worth…?

Over $1 billion. 

That’s a lot of “pass the peas, please!” 

Pea protein powder is not a fly-by-night fad. Thanks to the growing consciousness of the health benefits of eating a natural plant-based diet, plant-powered protein powders are becoming the norm, not the exception. (I say “natural plant-based” because you can be a vegan and still be unhealthy, eating lots of processed junk.)

But if you’re thinking about doing a juice cleanse, do you really need pea protein? 

Spoiler alert: YES!

And here’s why…


pea protein

The #1 Mistake With Doing a Juice Cleanse: Not Enough Protein

After doing a juice cleanse for a couple days, you might feel elated. Especially if prior to doing the cleanse you were not eating a clean diet, consisting mostly of organic produce and unrefined grains. 

But with most juice cleanses, by day 3, if not before, many people start feeling like complete $h!*. 

That’s because most cleanses on the market do not contain enough protein. In fact, most of them contain only the trace amounts of protein that are naturally occurring in fruit and vegetables. 

Speaking of fruit, that’s another problem with doing a cleanse. If you’re just drinking juice that’s primarily fruit-based, the lack of fiber and protein may cause dramatic blood-sugar fluctuations. 

You’ll become moody, irritable and you’ll eventually be so hungry, you’ll be dreaming and salivating about eating a bacon cheeseburger. Oh, and the not-so-sweet cherry on top of most cleanses is that the lack of fiber and protein will make you miserably constipated. 

So keep in mind that even if you’re doing a juice cleanse, you need to consume an adequate amount of protein, much more than one or two grams you would get per day from fruits and vegetables. 

doing a cleanse

Why Is Pea Protein Necessary When Doing A Cleanse? 

When most people think of protein powder, workout recovery and meal replacement are probably the two top things that come to mind. 

But if you want to reboot your metabolism to unclog your congested liver, then “cleansing” should be front and center of your mind when it comes to protein powder. 

And hands-down, pea protein powder is the best for a cleanse. That’s because pea protein powder is:

  • Hypoallergenic (it won’t trigger food allergies; with rare exceptions)
  • Highly-absorbable 
  • Easy to digest (won’t cause gas or bloating)
  • A complete protein (contains all 9 essential amino acids; no food combining necessary)
  • Non-inflammatory
  • High in iron 
  • Good for the cardiovascular system
  • Supports healthy skin, hair and nails

I want to briefly talk about this last benefit. I’ve been in this business for a very long time, first as a certified nutritional therapist and personal chef and now as the curator of the nation’s best home delivery Green Drink plan and Cleanse/Detox program. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen first-hand the brittle nails, pale skin and dull hair caused by an unhealthy cleanse program. 

When you go 7, 14 or 21 days or longer doing a juice fast and don’t get enough protein, you are literally starving your lean muscle tissue. Isn’t the whole point of doing a cleanse to feel better and sexier—no matter what your body type is? 

Well, I can personally guarantee you that if you don’t get enough protein while you’re cleansing, you will not look and feel your best. 


Chef V's cleanse

Just Say No To Animal Protein While Cleansing?

If protein is so important while doing a cleanse, why not eat a tiny bit of grass-fed beef or supplement with egg white protein powder? 

The reason why is because if you need to cleanse because of a sluggish metabolism, animal protein is extremely difficult to process. 

That’s because your liver produces bile, the greenish, detergent-like liquid that metabolizes dietary fat. 

If your liver is underperforming, you need to temporarily minimize your intake of dietary fat; I recommend completely avoiding animal fat while you’re cleansing and in the immediate days after your cleanse is done. 


Chef V vanilla ultra shake

New To Chef V’s Cleanse: Vanilla Ultra Shake With Pea Protein

The number one concern most people have about doing a cleanse is, “Will I starve?” The good news is that with a Chef V Cleanse, not only will you not starve, your belly will be hap-pea-ly nourished thanks to 4 Green Juices per day, 2 Vanilla Ultra Protein Shakes with pea protein per day, and 1 delicious DETOX SOUP for dinner. 

You can choose between a 5 Day, 3 Day or 1 Day Cleanse. 

Learn more here. 

Here’s to feeling “hap-pea” on your cleanse!

Love,  Chef V

Chef V, Coco and kale

Go With Your Gut: 3 Ways to keep your microbiome healthy

admin

your microbiome

Scientists say that the state of our gut is vital to good health and influences our ability to lose weight. Each of us have a “microbiome” in our belly – our own set of bacteria. Staying mindful of the impact of what we eat on our gut and following a healthy diet  has a huge impact on how we feel. The good news is that most of the bugs in your gut are friendly. But when the bad ones start multiplying, that's when your skin and digestion can suffer. Here's 3 things you need to know about your microbiome.

It's kind of creepy when you think about the fact that there are about 100 trillion bugs (bacteria) in the human gut.

Imagine looking under a microscope and seeing all those critters swimming around in your belly, enjoying a buffet of the food that's in your gastrointestinal tract.

If you think you're human, think again. We're actually more bacteria than we are human. In fact, your body has at least 10 times more living organisms in your gut alone than your whole body has human cells.

your microbiome - bacteria

1. Your Gut controls your health – understand it.

Think about that. All the cells that make you, well, you, including skin cells, bone cells, and muscle cells, all over your body is tiny in comparison to the number of bacteria that's living inside of you. Scientists consider your gut so important that they call it your “second brain”.

The good news is that the majority of the bacteria in your gut is friendly. Friendly microbes play an important part of your immune system.

But because of several factors including genetics, antibiotic use and lifestyle choices (poor diet), you may have too many unfriendly bacteria.

Researchers just a relative blink of an eye ago have discovered that the bugs in your gut more than anything else including diet and exercise determine your health.

For example, we now know that obesity isn't just linked to eating too many calories and junk food. It's also a consequence of lacking certain beneficial bacteria. (Want to read more on this topic? Here's a good article.)

weight and your microbiome

image courtesy Custom Probiotics Inc

The Gut Health Overall Health Connection

In addition to the examples of the overall connection between bacteria in the gut and overall health, here's another one: joint pain.

It used to be assumed that joint pain was a result of simple wear and tear. But now, researchers believe that the bacteria in your gut can determine whether or not you develop osteoporosis and other joint disorders.

The bugs in your gut can also determine how healthy your blood vessels are and whether or not you'll develop hardening in your arteries.

Moreover, all kinds of inflammatory disorders such as autoimmune disease and cancers of the GI tract may be caused by poor gut health.

Your mood can also be directly related to your gut bacteria. Anxiety and depression may not only be the result of circumstantial, external factors, but also because of your internal environment.

As you can see, having a diverse amount of good bacteria is perhaps the biggest influencer of  overall health. Gut health can even determine skin health.

If you spend a lot of time and money on skin care products, perhaps you need to rethink your skin care regimen entirely. That's because poor skin, from excessive dryness to acne and other skin conditions can be traced to what's inside your gut.

skin health and your microbiome

2. Feed Your Gut Good Stuff – Probiotics & Green Drink

But if genetics is a major determining factor in your bacteria portfolio, is there anything that can be done to change what's inside your gut?

The good news is there are a few simple things you can do to boost the number of beneficial bacteria.

For starters, if you're not taking a probiotic supplement, buy one today and start taking it every day. It should contain at least 10 billion colony forming units (CFUs) per serving (usually one or two capsules).

Like any other supplement, not all probiotics are created equal. If you buy a cheap one from Rite Aid it might not be effective. Do some research before you buy.

Another easy thing you can do to improve your gut health is having 16 oz of my Green Drink every morning. Good bacteria love to feast on the seven certified organic green leafy veggies in my Green Drink. The veggies contain prebiotic fibers. You can think of prebiotics as food for probiotics (good bacteria).

You can take the most expensive probiotic supplement in the world, but if you're not feeding the good bacteria with prebiotics, they're not going to flourish and multiply and colonize your gut.

Which is why if you haven't been eating healthy lately, I also recommend doing a Chef V Cleanse. With a Chef V Cleanse, you get four Green Drinks per day plus a detox soup for dinner and two vegan protein shakes in between. The soup and shakes also are loaded with prebiotic fuel to stimulate beneficial bacteria in your gut.

probiotic

3. You can reset your Gut Health with a Detox

Diet is crucial for gut health. Even if you eat a large salad with organic veggies every day, if you're also drinking beer and eating bread and other foods that are rich in either white or wheat flour, your good bacteria won't flourish.

That's because drinking beer and eating baked goods causes yeast overgrowth in the gut. Too much yeast results in the good bacteria not being able to do its job effective of protecting your immune system and fighting inflammation.

Bloated belly, foggy brain, chronic congestion and indigestion … all these are symptoms of poor gut health. And yeast overgrowth (especially from the species, candida albicans) is often the culprit.

If you need a longer digestive system overhaul that will keep the yeast at bay, I recommend trying my 21 day detox challenge. It's easy to follow. I provide all the coaching and instruction you'll need to easily finish it through, and give your gut the fuel it needs to populate good bacteria.

After your 21 day detox is over, you won't be tempted by eating yeasty, sugary foods again. And I'll teach you what to eat after the detox is over to ensure that your success will carry over and your good gut bacteria will thrive.

In the meantime, to boost the friendly bacteria in the gut, you can also eat foods that are rich in probiotics. Drinking kombucha is an easy way to get some probiotics. So, too, is eating fermented foods  like kimchi (Korean cabbage), tempeh and sauerkraut. If you happen to live in a town with good farmers markets, look for stands that sell fermented foods and drinks.

Here's to your (gut) health….

Love,

Chef V

21 day detox from Chef V

Piña Kale’oda Smoothie

Chef V

A new recipe at our San Diego store and an instant favorite. Pineapple, coconut, kale and oat milk make a smoothie that is a refreshing, healthy, and delicious “taste of the tropics”.

super smoothie

Ingredients

  • 3/4 cup Chef V’s oat milk
  • 1/2 cup organic pineapple juice
  • 1/2 cup frozen pineapple
  • 1 large piece green kale
  • 1 tbsp. Unsweetened Coconut shreds
  • 1 tbsp. Vanilla pea protein
  • 1 cup ice

Directions

Combine all ingredients in a blender. Blend for 2 minutes until it’s completely mixed and smoothie consistency. Enjoy!

Celery Juice Cleanse Experiment – What Happened

Chef V

celery on side saying I drank celery juice for 3 weeks and here's what happened

I’m all about trying new things that can potentially contribute to health, even if celery stalks are my competition.

So for 3 weeks, I gave celery juice a try. In order to better notice any possible effects from drinking 16 oz. of celery juice, I didn’t have any Green Drink during the entire 21 days.

(Not familiar with my famous Green Drink? It’s a certified organic cold-blend of the following 7 leafy green veggies: Black Kale, Green Kale, Collard Greens, Green Leaf Lettuce, Curly Parsley, Green Chard, Dandelion Greens, sweetened with a little apple and apple juice.)

woman wearing Chef V t-shirt holding stomach

Sample Code

The Results

The results? Before I reveal how juicing celery stalks made me feel, let me say that if I had noticed great results, I would be recommending it whole-heartedly. I’d even consider adding it in my Green Drink recipe.

However, after 3 weeks the celery juice experiment, I only felt a couple key differences, neither of them good. First of all, immediately after drinking it, I had to pee. Truth be told, that’s also the case with my Green Drink. So that’s not a bad side effect; it means that there’s a detoxifying process.

Here’s what I didn’t like about my experimentation with juicing a small forest’s-worth of celery stalks…

One of the celery juice side effects I experienced was severe bloating the entire time. I also had a lot of gas. If I continued for another week, my husband, Brandon, would have made me sleep on the couch.

Within two days after stopping this celery juicing madness, I’ve already lost all the bloat and gas. Brandon couldn’t be happier.

The happiest part of my experiment being over was the dreadful cleaning of my juicer each morning. I really wanted the celery juice to do something magical, but for me it just didn’t have a noticeable positive effect. So back to my daily Green Drink—No shopping, washing, juicing, and worst of all cleaning up the damn juicer!

Get 50% off Chef V's Green Drink Today!

many bunches of celery stalks

Green Drink vs Celery Juice

If your diet consists of lots of processed foods and sugar, I have no doubt that drinking celery juice will make you profoundly healthier. (Although keep reading because one expert, whose book I just finished, thinks drinking lots of celery juice is toxic.)

Here’s the nutritional data for a 16 oz. serving of celery juice, according to MyFitnessPal:

  • Carbs: 18 grams
  • Sugar: 11 g
  • Sodium: 430 mg
  • Vitamin A: 54%
  • Vitamin C: 20%

Now let’s see how just an 8-ounce serving of Chef V’s Green Drink compares. (For optimal health, I recommend consuming 16 oz a day.)

  • Carbs: 6 grams
  • Sugar: 3 g
  • Sodium: 24 mg
  • Vitamin A: 76%
  • Vitamin C: 44%

As you can see, Chef V Green Drink is much lower in sugar and sodium and higher in vitamins A & C. Plus, my Green Drink also contains an incredible 263% daily recommended value of vitamin K.

If MyFitnessPal’s info is correct, to be honest, celery juice does have a decent amount of calcium, iron and fiber. But my Green Drink naturally contains these nutrients as well.

I agree with William, aka The Medical Medium, that there probably are micronutrients that have yet to be discovered. And even the ones that have been identified, we’re really not entirely sure how they contribute to health.

But if you’re comparing apples to oranges, the 7 leafy greens in my Green Drink are collectively more nutrient dense than celery stalks.

Plus, there’s no concern about toxicity with Green Drink, as there is with celery.

Speaking of which, let’s take a look at some of the unknown dangers of celery…

The Risk of Drinking Celery Juice

It goes without saying that there are a lot of people who think the Medical Medium is a quack. I’m not judging William. If juicing celery has helped improve the lives and health of his followers, all the better.

But there’s at least one person who has done the research on the potential dangers and side effects  of celery juice cleanses.

Asa Hershoff is a naturopathic doctor (ND) and expert herbalist, who founded the Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine in 1978. In the world of natural healing, Hershoff has been around the block several times.

At the same time I ordered William’s book, “Celery Juice,” I also came across Hershoff’s book, “The Dangers of Celery: The Toxicity & Risks of Excess Celery Juice Consumption,” and ordered it as well.

In the preface of Hershoff’s book, he claims that he has studied the plant family that celery is in (Umbelliferae) extensively; he didn’t just start researching celery recently because it’s hip.

Here are some warnings Hershoff lists about excess celery consumption:

  • It’s more of a medicine than a food. “It has powerful biological effects and using it in large doses as if it were a harmless everyday food is simply following bad advice.”
  • It can potentially cause headaches, insomnia, fetal abnormalities, seizures, miscarriage, allergies, heavy metal poisoning, and increased cancer risk.
  • In terms of nutrient density, it’s in the bottom tier of over 700 vegetables; green leafy veggies, such as those in Green Drink are 500 times more nutrient rich.
  • Contains small amounts of neurotoxins.
  • One of the world’s most allergenic plants and may cause deadly anaphylactic shock.
  • May cause premature aging of the skin, including wrinkles and loss of skin elasticity.

Hershoff goes on to list more dangers. Perhaps Hershoff’s clarion call to avoid juicing celery in large amounts sounds just as exaggerated as William’s claim that the pale green liquid can cure virtually anything that ails you. (Can you really die from drinking copious amounts of celery juice?)

But Hershoff’s warnings seem to be a necessary, balancing counterpoint to the Medical Medium’s gospel that celery juice can cure all.

With millions of people blindly following the advice of untrained medical professionals, it’s only natural that an expert on herbal medicine would seek to discredit William’s work.

Conclusion

I wake up every morning stoked that Chef V has made a positive difference in people’s lives. If a  celery juice cleanse has helped even just one person with their health, then hallelujah.

But hands down, getting a delivery of health-supporting nutrients in my Green Drink is way easier and more nutritious in comparison to the medicically-dubious and messy enterprise that is the celery juicing fad.

What do you think of celery juice? Shoot me an email at chefv@chefv.com.

Veronica Wheat, Chef V in urban street holding green drink


Shop for Green Drink button


Lemon Juice & Water Daily Detox

Chef V

Lemon Juice & Water Daily Detox: The Absolute Easiest, Cheapest Way

When life hands you lemons, detox that bitterness away with … no, not lemonade — that’s got way too much sugar — lemon juice and water. It’s so simple, but it’s the easiest way to support your body’s natural detoxification process. Learn about the research-backed health benefits of lemon juice and the other best and easiest thing you can do to become a highly-efficient fat-burning machine….

I get the meaning of the maxim, “When life hands you lemons, make lemonade.”

Lemons are associated with being sour, bitter, and pessimistic in the common expression.

Kind of like bitter beer face – But I love lemons, bitterness and all.

And every morning, first thing after I wake up, I squeeze a little bit of lemon juice in a cup of warm or hot water. It doesn’t just make the water taste better. I do it because it’s the easiest way to kick-start cleansing and detoxing.

Don’t just take my work for it. Research proves that lemon juice assists in the body’s detoxification process….

lemons

Health Benefits of Lemon Juice

This study in Nutrition Research suggests that lemon juice can help you lose both weight and body fat.

Most studies involving natural, plant-based ingredients use animals as test subjects. But in this study, the participants were 84 women. The ladies were  given a drink containing lemon juice and organic syrups (maple and palm) for 7 days.

I’m not a fan of ultra low-protein, no-food diets lasting longer than one or two days. (Which is why in my Cleanse programs, you get high-protein vegan-friendly shakes.)

Nonetheless, the lemon-sipping ladies in the study also experienced lower blood sugar levels. Another benefit of drinking lemon juice, according to the study, is lower levels of leptin.

Leptin is a hunger hormone. In people who are overweight or have obesity, leptin levels are very high. As a consequence, the brain doesn’t receive the signal to stop eating.

The cherry on top from the study was that the women’s immune systems were stronger and they had lower levels of inflammation.

CRP Blood test

Feeling Backed Up? Drink Lemon Juice!

There are lots of studies proving that lemon juice helps the body shed fat. But all I can say is that if you start drinking water with some lemon juice every morning, you’ll notice some cool things happen.

If you drink a cup of water with lemon juice and wait about 20-30 minutes and then have my Organic Green Drink (7 of the planet’s best leafy green veggies for detoxing), you’re going to experience:

  • Healthier looking skin
  • Better digestion and elimination (less constipation)
  • More energy
  • Less hunger
  • Sharper concentration and focus

But make sure you don’t eat right away after having the lemon juice and water. In fact, for optimal fat-burning and detoxing, drink 16 oz. of Green Drink after the lemon water, and don’t eat your first meal of the day until 11 a.m. or later. This is one of the easiest tips for successful cleansing.

lemon juice & water

Got High Blood Sugar? Drink Lemon Juice

Green leafy veggies, like the 7 different kinds in my Green Drink, are the absolute best thing for supporting the body’s detoxification process.

But in my opinion, the next best thing is drinking water with lemon juice every day. It’s so easy to do.

And for the almost 90 million people with prediabetes and additional 30 million people with type 2 diabetes, drinking lemon juice is an easy way to manage blood sugar levels.

In fact, the American Diabetes Association includes lemons on its list of beneficial foods for diabetes.  The vitamin C in lemons can help improve your fasting blood sugar levels as well as the amount of fats circulating in your blood (triglycerides).

Studies on vitamin C also link the antioxidant to lower insulin resistance. When your body is more resistant to insulin, your body needs to produce more of it to lower your blood sugar levels. That’s not good. Over time, your body may not be able to produce insulin and type 2 diabetes develops.

lemon juice and diabetes

Lemon Juice & Green Drinks: The Easiest Way To Detox The Body

Don’t waste your money on expensive detox supplements.

As a certified nutritional therapist, I have done the research on pretty much every detox product on the market.

I have yet to encounter a more powerful and cost-effective one-two punch than lemon juice and green-leafy veggies for detoxifying the body.

And the easiest way to get your daily dose of green, leafy veggies is by letting Chef V deliver fresh, organic Green Drinks right to your door. The veggies in my green drinks are sourced from local farmer’s markets.

Go ahead and drink lemon juice water and Green Drink every day for a week. I guarantee that you’ll feel so much better adopting this easy routine in your life.

To your health,

Chef V

Chef V

Peaches & Cream Smoothie

Jean Yates

June 21st is National Smoothie Day and National Peaches and Cream day so you know we had to make up a healthy Peaches and Cream Smoothie.

peaches & cream smoothie

Ingredients

Serves 2

  • 1 cup filtered water
  • 1/4 cup organic cashews
  • 1 cup frozen peaches
  • 1 tsp honey
  • 1 tbsp. vanilla pea protein
  • 1 dash of cinnamon (trust me!)
  • 1 cup ice

Directions

Blend the cashews with the water for one minute. Then add peaches and the rest of ingredients and blend for 1 minute.

Pour and enjoy. This recipe is perfect anytime this summer.

Nightshades: A No/No for Cleansing

Chef V

deadly nightshades

Nightshades: Why These Everyday Veggies Are Toxic For Your Body

The nightshade veggies—tomatoes, potatoes, peppers and eggplant—are a no-no on my cleanse and detox list. Why are these on my blacklist if you want to reboot your digestive system? Read on to find out… 

I know next to nothing about football. But if there’s one thing about the sport I know, it’s something that my hubby, Brandon, jealously thinks I know far too much about: Tom Brady. 

Actually, I could care less about all those Super Bowl rings he’s won. (Those rings are so gaudy anyway.) But there are three things that really intrigue me about him. 

Obviously, number one on the list is his handsome looks. Second is his marriage to Giselle (she’s so fab, she doesn’t even need her last name mentioned). And like everyday else, I’m also amazed at the fact that the dude is in his mid-40s, getting chased by 350-pound monsters half his age and slingin’ that pigskin like, well, somebody half his age. 

TB is still playing at an amazingly high level (or so Brandon tells me). One reason for his amazing longevity is his diet. Tom Terrific eats a very low inflammatory diet. And one group of food Tom avoids is nightshades. 

tobacco

What Are Nightshades? 

If you smoke cigarettes, you’re not avoiding nightshades. Tobacco is a member of the nightshade family. Do I really need to say that smoking tobacco isn’t good for your health? The nightshades that get all the attention are tomatoes, potatoes, peppers and eggplants. 

Nightshades—these plants grow in the shade and they tend to bloom at night—contain seeds and relatively thick skin. 

So what’s so bad about nightshades that TB avoids them like a blitzing linebacker (Brandon: aren’t you impressed with that analogy?) And what’s the big deal about seeds and skin? Why not just be thick-skinned about eating nightshades? 

It’s because nightshades contain substances that interfere with nutrient absorption in the body. Among these substances are lectins. Lectins are proteins that bind to carbohydrates. Every single plant contains lectins. But nightshades along with raw legumes contain the highest amount of lectins. 

arthritis

Why Are Lectins Bad?

Like most things in life, lectins aren’t all black and white. There’s the good, bad and ugly when it comes to lectins. These proteins serve an important function in nature. They protect plants from being consumed by fungi or voracious insects. So what does that have to do with why Tom Brady avoids nightshades? 

Lectins are a natural bio-weapon for protecting plants from getting digested. The theory goes that those same characteristics prevent nutrients from getting absorbed in the gut. 

Some people blame nightshades for arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis and general joint problems and inflammation. 

But Tom Brady doesn’t have arthritis. If he did, he would have retired years ago. Well, Tom (we’re on a first name basis now) doesn’t want to take any chances. 

And if you’re looking to CLEANSE your digestive system, I don’t want you to take any chances either. 

If you do have a digestive system that seems backed up, sluggish or stressed out, experiment with a nightshade-free diet for a week or two. See if it makes a difference. 

Some health authorities don’t think eating nightshades is that big of a deal. In fact, Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health suggests that the catalyst for the lectin-free diet is for people to write best-selling books and that the human body has digestive enzymes that can break down lectins with no problem. 

But in this instance, I’m going to trust the 7-time Super Bowl winner. (I had to Google that.) 

sore stomach

How To Make Nightshades Healthier

If you’re doing a Chef V Cleanse or 21 Day Detox, I still want you to try to go nightshade-free. But can you imagine if all of Italy suddenly decided to go nightshade-free? No tomato sauce? The country would go crazy. However, the traditional way of making pasta sauce involves removing the skin and seeds from the tomatoes. 

Another way to lower the lectin count in nightshades is to simply use a pressure cooker. The heat seems to lower the anti-nutrient proteins. 

But that being said, I’d like to offer some final advice on nightshades. Do you struggle with leaky gut symptoms like joint problems, acne, eczema, brain fog and bloating? If so, I think it’s a good idea to eliminate all potential foods that can trigger symptoms. 

So say nighty-night to nightshades. If a nightshade-free-diet can help Tom, it may help you stay in the ballgame of life, too.

Lost Your Mojo, Dude? Best Ways To Boost Male Libido

Chef V

Veronica and Brandon in bed

Is your man having an affair? Or does he just need to get his mojo back? Chef V shares some tips on the best ways to boost libido in men. 

Is your man feeling less manly lately? Tell him not to worry. Considering the stressful times of the last 18 months he’s certainly not alone. As I mentioned in the intro to my recent post, “Best Foods for Great S-E-X” lots of couples were getting it on more than normal in the first weeks of the pandemic because of the lockdown. 

But gradually over the last several months, many a manly man’s libido has plummeted. And it’s no fault of their own. And just like any normal year, there’s a one-word answer to blame for the loss of mojo: STRESS. 

Throw in a pandemic and many men may be tempted to solve the loss of desire by taking the little blue pill. But taking a little blue pill is the equivalent of going into battle without ammunition. Erectile dysfunction (ED) pills help raise the roof but don’t solve the problem of wanting to raise it in the first place. 

Now, before I reveal what I believe are the best tips for boosting your guy’s desire, let’s explore the main reasons why he doesn’t feel like getting it on in the first place. Remember, it’s not his fault and he needs to know that. 

men's libido and stress

Root Causes of Low Libido In Men

And it’s not just COVID anxiety that’s to blame for stress and a decrease in male libido. Other lifestyle factors such as drinking too much alcohol, taking recreational drugs, not getting enough antioxidants and Omega-3 fatty acids in the diet … these can all contribute to a loss of desire. 

—> Not getting enough antioxidants in your diet but don’t have time to cook healthy or don’t like the taste of leafy green veggies? Drink ‘em up. 

If we’re to believe the TV commercials, however, low libido in men is caused by the simple root cause of “low testosterone” or low T. 

But having low T is merely a symptom of chronic stress. And when your body is frequently in fight or flight mode the normal hormonal pathways are interrupted. You can think of hormonal pathways as a superhighway matrix. But if there’s an accident, on this superhighway, things get backed up and testosterone production plummets.

If your guy is frequently suffering from low libido, I recommend that he get a sex hormone panel test. A healthy level of testosterone is at least 300 ng/dl. 

Supposing that testosterone levels are indeed low, your guy’s doctor probably won’t educate him about how chronic stress zaps the body of a hormone that’s a precursor to testosterone. This hormone is called pregnenolone. When pregnenolone is “shifted” from its usual metabolic highway, less testosterone is produced. 

Chef V mens libido good

Reversing Chronic Stress To Increase Libido

Hey, no news flash here but it’s important to go over the fact that stress management techniques are a must for normalizing hormones and increasing male libido. Spending at least 45 minutes a day walking in a beautiful natural setting like the beach or the woods. Power off your phone while you’re out in nature. 

Yoga, meditation, tai-chi and qigong are also excellent ways to activate the parasympathetic nervous system, which is the opposite of your body’s overstimulated ‘fight or flight’ sympathetic nervous system.  

Added sugars also cause stress to the body. And when it comes to sexy time, the extra sweet stuff can impair blood flow to the sexual organs. If your guy likes to have a few beers, it’s important he knows that alcohol, at least in my book, is the same as added sugar. 

Eating a clean, low-sugar, low-simple-carb diet, getting daily exercise and practicing stress-management techniques is a great way to kick start male libido. 

ginseng twigs

Best Supplements For Male Sexual Desire & Performance

But sometimes we all need a helping hand. And who better to turn to for help in the bedroom than Mother Nature herself? She’s held the wisdom and secrets of great love making throughout the ages…

Here, then, are some of the best research-backed botanicals and nutrients for supporting male libido:

  • Yohimbe bark: From the bark of the African yohimbe tree, this botanical is legendary for supporting virility. It stimulates the nervous system without raising heartbeat rate or blood pressure.
  • Tongkat Ali root: Research shows it leads to free-testosterone concentrations in men.
  • Tribulus: Known as a longevity herb in Chinese medicine.
  • Zinc: It’s not just for immune support. Turns out this mineral, to quote Healthline, “has a positive effect on arousal and maintaining an erection.” SHWING!
  • Vitamin B12: Supports energy levels and stamina. As men (and women) age, vitamin B12 levels tend to decline.
  • Fenugreek seed: “Researchers found that men taking fenugreek can boost their sex drive by at least a quarter,” says an article in WashingtonPost.com.
  • Rhodiola root: An adaptogenic herb, this stress-neutralizing plant influences mood-regulating neurotransmitters, dopamine, noradrenaline, and serotonin, all of which are key to sexual function and libido.
  • Other adaptogens: Adaptogenic herbs are known as adaptogens because they help the body adapt to stress and normalize bodily functions. This includes restoring balance to sex hormones. Other examples include ginseng, maca and astragalus. 

mens libido high

Conclusion: Give Him Time To Get It On

Before you rush out to your local pharmacy or shop online for these herbs and nutrients for your man, keep in mind that you don’t have to purchase every single one. Taking one or two at a time can yield impressive, noticeable results. But because these are not pharmaceutical drugs, these results may take much longer than a little blue pill to take effect. 

But all good things come to those who wait!

Chef V, Veronica Wheat and husband Brandon Kress

3 Easy Ways To Stay Healthy in Flu Season – and Beyond!

Chef V

Nobody likes getting sick. And with winter winding down to spring, it’s the time of year that will most likely challenge your immune system. So Veronica “V” Wheat, aka Chef V, has some tips to increase your chances of staying healthy this spring…

cherry blossoms

You shouldn’t succumb to the fear-mongering that the media is hyping over this year’s flu season. Sure, it’s true that more people will get the flu this year in comparison to the last couple of years now that most people have gone back to resuming a normal life. Still, there are some relatively simple ways you can support your immune system this time of year.

Zero Added Sugar Diet

If you’re a Chef V follower, the advice to minimize or, better yet, completely ditch added sugars probably sounds like a broken record. But when we talk about the negative effects of sugar, it usually pertains to how it expands our waistline and spikes our blood sugar levels and leads to energy crashes and moodiness.

But when it comes to the cold and flu season, one of the biggest influencers on your immune system is your sugar intake.

Now, it’s one thing if you’re eating ice cream and other sweet treats in the summer. Of course, you can get sick in the summer, too. But most people can offset the increase in sugar consumption because they are getting outside more often for exercise. And even just spending time outside without breaking a sweat has positive effects on the immune system, research shows.

But in the colder months, we don’t get outside nearly as much and we’re breathing stale air. So we’re spending more time indoors. Add to that the temptation of sweet treats at holiday parties and it’s easy to see why many people’s immune systems get overwhelmed this time of year.

That’s why it’s so important to snack on healthy, zero-added-sugar treats this time of year. Because as a recent research study shows, “a high amount of glucose [sugar] may lead to impaired function of the immune system and pathological conditions.”

Researchers explain that when you eat a lot of sugar, your body produces excessive amounts of proteins (cytokines) that trigger inflammation. More inflammation in the body increases your chances of getting sick.

This is why it’s super important to keep your added sugars to as close to zero as possible. So instead of sweetening your tea or coffee with any kind of sugar (even if it’s organic cane sugar, it’s still sugar), use stevia or monk fruit extract. And if you love baking this time of year, you can also use sugar alcohols like xylitol. They may cause bloating in some people with sensitive GI systems.

electrolytes

Vitamin D & Vitamin K

This time of year, the sun’s ultraviolet rays are too weak for your skin to make vitamin D3. (Not to mention that when it’s cold out, you don’t expose that much skin.) This is one thing I don’t have to worry about as much because I live in San Diego, which is far south enough for vitamin D synthesis.

Yet, just to be on the safe side, I take a vitamin D3 supplement. After all, it can get chilly in San Diego this time of year. And it’s super important to mention that not just any vitamin D supplement will do. The one I take also has vitamin K, which helps vitamin D absorption and helps guide calcium into the bones instead of where it doesn’t belong like the arteries.

It is important to get outside, – you get a double positive. Getting outside is both a natural source of Vitamin D and a way to keep up a healthy exercise routine. Walking, skiing, or even pushups in the snow – there's an exercise for everyone.

pushups in the snow

Nutrient-Rich Diet

This tip applies to anytime during the year, but it’s never more vital than right now. In order to satisfy your appetite and get vital nutrients to support your immune system, start eating more stews and soups. Now’s also the time to start eating lots of antioxidant-rich veggies like winter squash, sweet potatoes, carrots, and roasted beets.

And there’s no easier way to get your daily dose of immune-supporting green, leafy veggies than with a Chef V Organic Green Drink plan.

Finally, don’t forget to get plenty of sleep, stay active and keep your alcohol consumption to a minimum at holiday parties.

Stay healthy, friend!

V


Chef V

Inflammation Fighters Your Doctor Won’t Tell You

Jean Yates

inflammation

When you hear the word, “inflammation” what comes to mind? You probably think it’s something bad. Well, I’m here to tell you inflammation is great! Wait … what? That’s right, you see, you need a little inflammation in your body.

The inflammation process helps get rid of nasty germs. It also heals injuries. Any time you burn your skin or have some other physical trauma, inflammation comes to the rescue. Your white blood cells, which kick in to fight infections are part of the inflammation process. So, you see, inflammation ain’t so bad….

When you’re healthy, inflammation does a delicate dance. It stays in control, out of sight and mind.

But if you party like a rock star, don’t exercise and eat like crap, here’s what happens….

Certain substances that are in the cells of your immune system and are involved in the inflammation process go crazy. That, of course, isn’t the official scientific explanation. But essentially what happens is, as with the case in autoimmune disease, the inflammation response becomes excessive.  And that’s where my two powerful inflammation fighters come into play: a 21 day Detox, and the use of CBD oil – and CBD oil is getting easier to find across the USA.

CBD oil by mouth

Symptoms of Inflammation

So how do you know if you have inflammation? And what can you do about it? Well, let’s answer the first question.

Beyond the obvious signs of inflammation such as swollen joints or red skin from an injury, here are some signs you may have excessive inflammation:

  • Constantly tired
  • Getting sick often
  • Gaining weight easily and having trouble losing it
  • Digestive issues
  • Skin breakouts
  • Trouble concentrating (brain fog)
  • Headaches

Can you relate to any of these issues? Let’s say you get headaches and acne breakouts from time to time. Sure, you could pop an over-the-counter pain-reliever and use an acne remedy. Problem solved, right? Well, for now, maybe. But putting a “band-aid” on inflammation (no pun intended) does not solve the root cause of inflammation.

But I’m about to share with you 2 things that will greatly reduce it and put your body back in balance….

Chef V 21 day detox contents

21 Day Detox

If you’ve legitimately eating healthy (by that I mean eating minimally-processed-at-most organic plant-based food 90% of the time), and you exercise, and don’t use harsh chemical cleaners at home yet you still have some signs of inflammation, I recommend seeing a functional medicine doctor.

But for most people, it is caused by lifestyle factors. Needless to say, diet is a big one.

And sometimes, it’s not just enough to say to people, “eat a healthy diet.”

Sometimes, you just need somebody to hold your hand.

That’s where I come in.

With a background as a certified nutritional therapist, I created the recipe for my Organic Green Drink. Since then, I’ve created recipes for a plant-based Protein Shake and Detox Soups. These 3 items form the core of my Cleanse and Detox programs.

Now, I’m not just trying to sell you on stuff I sell. My intention is to reset your body and provide you with the lifestyle education you need to keep eating healthy long after you’re done with my cleanse and detox program.

So if you’re ready to dramatically lower your body’s inflammation response, I suggest trying my 21 Day Detox.

The 21 Day Detox combines my 3 Day Cleanse and Healthy Eating recommendations. There’s 3 different plans to choose from: Starter, Classic, Obsessive. The Starter Detox features one 3-Day Cleanse. The Classic has two different stretches of doing the 3 Day Cleanse and the Obsessive has three. For each day during the 3 Day Cleanse phase, here’s what you’ll get in these powerful fighters:

  • Four 16-oz servings of Organic Green Drink
  • 2 packets of Chocolate Vegan Protein Shake
  • 1 container of Detox Soup (either Sweet Potato Curry or Ginger Carrot Zing)

For the rest of the time you’re doing the 21 day detox, you’ll get a 16oz Green Drink and Protein Shake each day. I recommend having those two for breakfast. Then, you have lunch and dinner. I provide you with a meal planner, as well as a Healthy Eating Guide, which includes a “Eat This, Not That” easy-to-follow chart, and a Healthy Portions chart.

We deliver the Green Drinks, Protein Shakes and Detox Soups right to your front door. And you’ll get my healthy eating advice emailed as soon as you order.

If you’re suffering from excessive inflammation, doing a 21 Day Detox could finally provide the relief you’re looking for.

And not only that, it will educate and inspire you to stick with healthy eating habits long after the 3 weeks are over.

Chef V 21 day detox

Chef V

5 Easy Ways To Stay Positive & Healthy

Chef V

Veronica, Brandon, Coco on beach

During the Long Dark Winter…

If you feel like eating tons of comfort food and hibernating this time of year, I don’t blame you. But it’s so important to stay active and healthy this time of year and I’ve got some easy, fun tips to do it!  Get ready for spring – it is almost here!

It’s 5:30 p.m. It’s pitch black outside and freezing. All you feel like doing is plopping down on the couch and vegging out for a few hours. If that’s what you’re feeling, should you give in? After all, aren’t you supposed to listen to your body? And if your body is telling you that you should grab the cashmere comforter, a few of your favorite snacks, a glass of wine and the remote … well … what's wrong with that?

There’s certainly nothing wrong with chillaxing—from time to time. But if that’s how you’re gonna roll from late fall until early- or mid-spring when the weather finally warms up and the days are longer, that’s not going to be good for your mental or physical health. 

So next time you’re feeling the winter blues, follow these tips to get ready for spring:

woman meditating

Stay Positive & Healthy This Tip #1: Meditate In Bed

This may not come as a shock but it’s important to state: In general, people who meditate on a regular basis are happier, calmer, and better able to attract what they want in life. There’s lots of research to support this—at least the part about people who meditate being more positive and calmer. 

The problem with meditation is that for people who have never tried it, it seems intimidating. But learning anything new is challenging. Beyond that, though, another problem with meditation is that many people assume that you have to sit completely still in the lotus position like a Buddhist monk, with your legs twisted into a pretzel. But that’s not the case at all…

I recommend starting each day meditating before you get out of bed, lying flat on your back. So how do you meditate? It’s simple. Listen to a meditation app. Try a guided meditation, which will tell you exactly when to breathe in and breathe out. Or, if you’d rather just listen to soothing meditative music, with Tibetan singing bowls or other ethereal sonic blissed out sounds, there’s no shortage of YouTube videos or smartphone apps for that. 

Start each morning with a 10-minute meditation before you get out of bed. It will really set the stage for an awesome rest of your day. 

woman performing yoga pose

Tip #2: 5 Minute Yoga Routine

After you’re done with your meditation routine (and your potty routine), despite how tired you are, force yourself to do a 5-minute yoga routine. 

Until the weather warms up and spring arrives, If you live in an apartment without central heating, before you start your meditation practice in bed, turn on your space heater in the living room where you do yoga. Get the room nice and toasty. If you’re not sure which 5-minute yoga routine to do or how to do yoga at all, there’s a ton of intro yoga videos, many of them free. 

I recommend doing a flow that keeps your body moving, from cat/cow to downward/upward dog or sun salutations. After just 5 minutes of a continuous flow yoga practice, you’ll feel like a new person, totally energized, in good spirits and ready to take on the day’s challenges. Try my easy yoga pose routine to stress less, feel better.

healthy snacks on a tray with flowers

Tip #3: Seasonal Snacking

Let’s fast forward to the evening hours when there’s no kids around, all your work and errands are done and it’s tempting to get your Netflix on and snack away. This is the most challenging part of the day. Because even if you were successful at incorporating meditation and a mini yoga session or two (or other activity), succumbing to late-night snacking can sabotage all your healthy habits from earlier in the day. 

And just like meditation is associated with a more positive attitude, snacking is more associated with depression. 

So what can you do when it’s 9:00 at night and it’s time to watch a few episodes of your favorite show? Personally, I try to stop eating and drinking anything with calories by 8:00—unless I’m going out to dinner. Studies on the health impacts of late-night eating are conflicting. 

If you have type I diabetes, it may be essential to have a late-night snack to prevent dangerous blood-sugar drops. If you want to manage blood sugar levels and don’t have type I diabetes, however, eating late at night has been shown to contribute to metabolic diseases like obesity and type 2 diabetes. 

But other studies suggest that having a small meal before bed does not appear to be harmful—especially if you exercise on a regular basis. 

I realize that not everybody can resist the temptation to eat something. So if you are going to eat while watching TV on the couch late at night, eat a healthy, delicious mini-meal. 

My favorite healthy mini-meals are seasonal roasted veggies with some healthy fats and spices. 

    • Sweet potato with a tbsp of grass-fed butter and a dash of cinnamon
    • Brussel sprouts with avocado oil and sea salt and pepper
    • Carrots with hummus and 'Everything But the Bagel' spice (Trader Joe’s) or Zhatar
    • High-fiber toast (100% rye) with canned pumpkin and a dash of local raw honey
    • Almond flour crackers with cucumbers and lemon and pepper seasoning

I’m not going to demonize late-night snacking. The temptation is much too great. But do try your best to avoid all snacks with white flour and wheat flour (even 100% wheat). These common flours get metabolized too quickly. That means they turn into sugar and get stored by the liver as extra body fat. 

But the healthy mini-meal snacks above metabolize slowly and may even help to keep blood sugar levels within a normal, healthy range. 

Veronica reading in bed with Brandon

Tip #4: Read

When’s the last time you read a good book? Many people go all day and all night staring at screens, hardly, if ever looking at printed pages, with the exception maybe of a restaurant menu. 

Reading actual books keeps your mind sharp. And when you get in bed, opening a book gets your mind and body ready for restful sleep. Sorry, reading on a tablet isn’t the same. In fact, studies show that the blue light emanating from tablets at night lowers sleep quality. 

“The use of commercially-available tablets may have consequences in terms of alertness, circadian physiology, and sleep,” the researchers concluded. Reading books has several health benefits, including keeping your mind sharp, reducing depressive symptoms, lowering blood pressure and heart rate. 

So crack open a book and get reading. If you fall asleep after reading just one page, so be it. Let reading be your best sleeping pill.

Tip #5: Eat Before You Party

When I’m invited to a party, I never know what kind of food will be served. Will it be pigs in a blanket, deli finger sandwiches and chips and dip? Most of the time, you get what you pay for, and if the food is free, it’s going to be low quality. So what I do is I have a little Organic Green Drink and then a little later, about an hour or two before the holiday party starts, I’ll eat a full healthy meal. That way, I won’t fill my belly with empty carbs and veggies that have likely been sprayed with pesticides. 

I’ll still indulge a little bit because I’m only human and when in Rome, ya know…

Hopefully, following these tips will keep you more positive and healthier this winter. 

Cheers,  Chef V

5 Easy Ways To Stay Positive & Healthy in a Hot Summer

Chef V

Veronica urban, gd

During the Heat of Summer…

If you feel like holing up in an air conditioned house and having a summer hibernation, I don’t blame you. But it’s so important to stay active and healthy and I’ve got some easy, fun tips to do it!  Stay fit and happy with my 5 easy tips.

It’s 5:30 p.m. It’s 104 degrees. All you feel like doing is plopping down on the couch and vegging out in front of a fan for a few hours. If that’s what you’re feeling, should you give in? After all, aren’t you supposed to listen to your body? And if your body is telling you that you should turn up the AC, grab a few of your favorite snacks, a glass of wine and the remote … well … what's wrong with that?

There’s certainly nothing wrong with chillaxing—from time to time. But if that’s how you’re gonna roll all summer that’s not going to be good for your mental or physical health. 

So next time you’re feeling the heat, follow these tips to stay healthy and reduce stress:

woman meditating

Stay Positive & Healthy This Tip #1: Meditate In Bed

This may not come as a shock but it’s important to state: In general, people who meditate on a regular basis are happier, calmer, and better able to attract what they want in life. There’s lots of research to support this—at least the part about people who meditate being more positive and calmer. 

The problem with meditation is that for people who have never tried it, it seems intimidating. But learning anything new is challenging. Beyond that, though, another problem with meditation is that many people assume that you have to sit completely still in the lotus position like a Buddhist monk, with your legs twisted into a pretzel. But that’s not the case at all…

I recommend starting each day meditating before you get out of bed, lying flat on your back. So how do you meditate? It’s simple. Listen to a meditation app. Try a guided meditation, which will tell you exactly when to breathe in and breathe out. Or, if you’d rather just listen to soothing meditative music, with Tibetan singing bowls or other ethereal sonic blissed out sounds, there’s no shortage of YouTube videos or smartphone apps for that. 

Start each morning with a 10-minute meditation before you get out of bed. It will really set the stage for an awesome rest of your day. 

woman performing yoga pose

Tip #2: 5 Minute Yoga Routine

After you’re done with your meditation routine (and your potty routine), despite how tired you are, force yourself to do a 5-minute yoga routine. 

During the heat of summer, the hours between dawn and breakfast are your best time for activity. Before you start your meditation practice in bed, open up the house and let in the cool early morning air. If it's cool enough, try getting outside. If not, the room where you do yoga should be at its coolest this time of day. If you’re not sure which 5-minute yoga routine to do or how to do yoga at all, there’s a ton of intro yoga videos, many of them free. 

I recommend doing a flow that keeps your body moving, from cat/cow to downward/upward dog or sun salutations. After just 5 minutes of a continuous flow yoga practice, you’ll feel like a new person, totally energized, in good spirits and ready to take on the day’s challenges. Try my easy yoga pose routine to stress less, feel better.

healthy snacks on a tray with flowers

Tip #3: Seasonal Snacking

Let’s fast forward to the evening hours when there’s no kids around, all your work and errands are done and it’s tempting to get your Netflix on and snack away. This is the most challenging part of the day. Because even if you were successful at incorporating meditation and a mini yoga session or two (or other activity), succumbing to late-night snacking can sabotage all your healthy habits from earlier in the day. 

And just like meditation is associated with a more positive attitude, snacking is more associated with depression. 

So what can you do when it’s 9:00 at night and it’s time to watch a few episodes of your favorite show? Personally, I try to stop eating and drinking anything with calories by 8:00—unless I’m going out to dinner. Studies on the health impacts of late-night eating are conflicting. 

If you have type I diabetes, it may be essential to have a late-night snack to prevent dangerous blood-sugar drops. If you want to manage blood sugar levels and don’t have type I diabetes, however, eating late at night has been shown to contribute to metabolic diseases like obesity and type 2 diabetes. 

But other studies suggest that having a small meal before bed does not appear to be harmful—especially if you exercise on a regular basis. 

I realize that not everybody can resist the temptation to eat something. So if you are going to eat while watching TV on the couch late at night, eat a healthy, delicious mini-meal. 

My favorite healthy mini-meals are seasonal with some healthy fats and spices. 

    • My guacamole recipe with mango and pomegranate
    • Popsicles made with fruit – blueberries and strawberries are a favorite
    • Carrots with hummus and 'Everything But the Bagel' spice (Trader Joe’s) or Zhatar
    • Blueberries and non-fat yogurt
    • Almond flour crackers with cucumbers and lemon and pepper seasoning

I’m not going to demonize late-night snacking. The temptation is much too great. But do try your best to avoid all snacks with white flour and wheat flour (even 100% wheat). These common flours get metabolized too quickly. That means they turn into sugar and get stored by the liver as extra body fat. 

But the healthy mini-meal snacks above metabolize slowly and may even help to keep blood sugar levels within a normal, healthy range. 

Veronica reading in bed with Brandon

Tip #4: Read

When’s the last time you read a good book? Many people go all day and all night staring at screens, hardly, if ever looking at printed pages, with the exception maybe of a restaurant menu. 

Reading actual books keeps your mind sharp. And when you get in bed, opening a book gets your mind and body ready for restful sleep. Sorry, reading on a tablet isn’t the same. In fact, studies show that the blue light emanating from tablets at night lowers sleep quality. 

“The use of commercially-available tablets may have consequences in terms of alertness, circadian physiology, and sleep,” the researchers concluded. Reading books has several health benefits, including keeping your mind sharp, reducing depressive symptoms, lowering blood pressure and heart rate. 

So crack open a book and get reading. If you fall asleep after reading just one page, so be it. Let reading be your best sleeping pill.

Tip #5: Eat Before You Party

When I’m invited to a party, I never know what kind of food will be served. Will it be pigs in a blanket, deli finger sandwiches and chips and dip? Most of the time, you get what you pay for, and if the food is free, it’s going to be low quality. So what I do is I have a little Organic Green Drink and then a little later, about an hour or two before the holiday party starts, I’ll eat a full healthy meal. That way, I won’t fill my belly with empty carbs and veggies that have likely been sprayed with pesticides. 

I’ll still indulge a little bit because I’m only human and when in Rome, ya know…

Hopefully, following these tips will keep you more positive and healthier this summer. 

Cheers,  Chef V

Warm Cinnamon Quinoa

Chef V
Warm Cinnamon Quinoa is an IBS friendly recipe.
Chef V’s Tip: My fool-proof way to cook quinoa is to use a rice cooker. Place 1 cup uncooked quinoa and 2 cups liquid (either 2 cups filtered water or 1 cup filtered water and 1 cup unsweetened almond or coconut milk) in the cooker and set it on the white rice setting.
If you don’t have a rice cooker, place the quinoa and 2 cups of liquid in a medium-sized pot. Bring it to a boil, reduce the heat to medium, and cover with a tight-fitting lid. Simmer, covered, for about 15-20 minutes, or until all the water is absorbed. remove the pan from the heat, fluff the quinoa with a  fork and keep it covered until ready to use.
IBS Version of this Recipe
Only change to the recipe is to limit pecans to maximum 10 pecan halves.

vegan eggnog

Ingredients

    • 1 cup uncooked quinoa, rinsed and drained
    • 1 cup Chef V’s Raw Nut Milk (see recipe) or coconut milk
    • 1 cup filtered water
    • 1 tablespoon raw coconut nectar (I like Coconut Secret)
    • 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
    • Optional Toppings
    • 2 cups fresh blackberries
    • 1/3 cup raw pecans, chopped

Directions

Cook the quinoa in a rice cooker or if cooking on a stovetop, follow the directions in the tip above, except simmer for 15 minutes, or until most of the liquid is absorbed. Turn off the heat and let the quinoa stand, covered, for 5 minutes. Stir in the coconut nectar and cinnamon.

To serve, spoon into bowls and top with blackberries and pecans.

Best Foods For Great S-E-X

Jean Yates

Best Foods For Great S-E-X

Best foods for great S-E-X – Ladies: don’t feel like getting it on lately? Got no mojo, gentlemen? Here’s how certain foods and holistic health can improve your sex life.

A curious thing happened in the initial weeks of the pandemic. Couples who for the most part functioned as roommates prior to the pandemic suddenly rediscovered their intimate side. 

Despite the stress and fear in the early days of the pandemic, stay-at-home orders led to an initial increase in sex. After all, what else is there to do besides watch TV when you’re stuck at home all day and night? 

However, as stay-at-home orders eased (at least in the U.S.) and life’s other chronic stressors returned to the fold, our collective libido plummeted to pre-pandemic levels.

So if your libido is shot because of Covid-anxiety and life’s general grinding assault, I’ve got some tips for you about foods for great S-E-X…

Root Causes Of Low Libido

But before I share my tips for restoring your libido, including the best foods for great S-E-X, let’s explore some of the factors responsible for lowering sex drive.

Obviously, stress is a huge factor. But how exactly does stress affect libido? Chronic stress places a huge demand on two glands that rest on top of the kidneys called the suprarenal glands. You probably know these glands by their more familiar name, the adrenal glands.  

Your adrenal glands produce stress hormones such as cortisol. Cortisol plays several critical roles in the body, including normalizing inflammation levels; regulating blood pressure, and increasing blood sugar in order to deal with an emergency situation. 

The problem with chronic stress is that your body acts as if it’s always an emergency situation. And after a while, elevated or insufficient cortisol levels cause an imbalance of sex hormones. 

Imbalanced sex hormones can make sex torturous for women. For example, poor sex hormone balance can lead to vaginal dryness. 

Women who suffer from vaginal dryness often experience anxiety before intimacy because of the dilemma caused by the lack of enjoyment and the desire to please their partner. This pre-intimacy anxiety leads to a vicious cycle of more stress. And it’s not just women going through menopause that experience this. 

For men, excess cortisol results in poor sexual performance or a lack of desire to engage in sexual activity. 

Ancient Secrets To Enjoying Sex

Ancient Secrets To Enjoying Sex

No, I’m not going to rehash steamy scenes from the Kama Sutra here. But what I do want to share is the simple yet profound logic of traditional Chinese medicine that rules all aspects of life including getting it on between the sheets. 

You’ve probably heard of Yin and Yang. But can you define them? No, it’s not as simple as opposites. Rather, Yin and Yang are two halves of the same whole, constantly transforming but always striving to maintain harmony. 

In Traditional Chinese Medicine, every organ system strives for Yin/Yang balance, or as we would say in the West, homeostasis. 

When homeostasis is achieved, that is every single bodily system is running efficiently, a healthy libido will naturally arise (no pun intended). 

When your body is mostly humming perfectly along with Yin-Yang balance, blood vessels widen, circulation improves, the synapses that activate sensory organs fire more effectively and sex organs and sensual areas of the body receive enhanced blood flow. 

Ladies: don’t feel like getting it on lately? Got no mojo, gentlemen? Here’s how certain foods and holistic health can improve your sex life. A curious thing happened in the initial weeks of the pandemic. Couples who for the most part functioned as roommates prior to the pandemic suddenly rediscovered their intimate side. Despite the stress and fear in the early days of the pandemic, stay-at-home orders led to an initial increase in sex. After all, what else is there to do besides watch TV when you’re stuck at home all day and night? However, as stay-at-home orders eased (at least in the U.S.) and life’s other chronic stressors returned to the fold, our collective libido plummeted to pre-pandemic levels. So if your libido is shot because of Covid-anxiety and life’s general grinding assault, I’ve got some tips for you… Root Causes Of Low Libido But before I share my tips for restoring your libido, including the best foods to eat for a healthy sex life, let’s explore some of the factors responsible for lowering sex drive. Obviously, stress is a huge factor. But how exactly does stress affect libido? Chronic stress places a huge demand on two glands that rest on top of the kidneys called the suprarenal glands. You probably know these glands by their more familiar name, the adrenal glands. Your adrenal glands produce stress hormones such as cortisol. Cortisol plays several critical roles in the body, including normalizing inflammation levels; regulating blood pressure, and increasing blood sugar in order to deal with an emergency situation. The problem with chronic stress is that your body acts as if it’s always an emergency situation. And after a while, elevated or insufficient cortisol levels cause an imbalance of sex hormones. Imbalanced sex hormones can make sex torturous for women. For example, poor sex hormone balance can lead to vaginal dryness. Women who suffer from vaginal dryness often experience anxiety before intimacy because of the dilemma caused by the lack of enjoyment and the desire to please their partner. This pre-intimacy anxiety leads to a vicious cycle of more stress. And it’s not just women going through menopause that experience this. For men, excess cortisol results in poor sexual performance or a lack of desire to engage in sexual activity. Air Fryer Ancient Secrets To Enjoying Sex No, I’m not going to rehash steamy scenes from the Kama Sutra here. But what I do want to share is the simple yet profound logic of traditional Chinese medicine that rules all aspects of life including getting it on between the sheets. You’ve probably heard of Yin and Yang. But can you define them? No, it’s not as simple as opposites. Rather, Yin and Yang are two halves of the same whole, constantly transforming but always striving to maintain harmony. In Traditional Chinese Medicine, every organ system strives for Yin/Yang balance, or as we would say in the West, homeostasis. When homeostasis is achieved, that is every single bodily system is running efficiently, a healthy libido will naturally arise (no pun intended). When your body is mostly humming perfectly along with Yin-Yang balance, blood vessels widen, circulation improves, the synapses that activate sensory organs fire more effectively and sex organs and sensual areas of the body receive enhanced blood flow. air fryer and avocado oil How To Achieve Yin-Yang Balance For Great Sex

How To Achieve Yin-Yang Balance For Great Sex

The question then becomes, if you clearly lack Yin/Yang balance, how can you achieve it?

Well, diet of course is a huge factor and I’ll share my top foods for a great sex life below as well as a few supplements. But diet is only one piece of the holistic puzzle. Another critical lifestyle habit that will help you achieve homeostasis, and thus, a healthy sexual appetite is stress management.

If you’re waking up checking your news or social media feed and doing the same right before bed, you need a lifestyle change, stat! Replace staring at a screen in the morning and late at night with a healthy stress management technique such as yoga, meditation, a walk in the woods or neighborhood, etc.

Instead of confirming your biases or satisfying your gossipy nature, focus on getting your body back to a state of balance—if you want to have great sex!

Getting enough exercise is also important but some people actually deplete their adrenal glands even more by exercising too much. If you ask me, lowering your stress levels via meditation or going for a long walk is more important than doing high-intensity exercise. And of course, eating the best foods for great S-E-X.

Best Foods For Healthy Libido

Best foods for great S-E-X

As I mentioned, eating specific foods can help bring your body back into balance. Physiologically, certain nutrients are known to be effective vasodilators. This means that they open the blood vessels, which can help reignite libido. 

Here are my favorite foods to eat to support a healthy sex life: 

  • Dark leafy greens, like the seven different kinds in Organic Green Drink
  • Dark chocolate (minimum 70% cocoa)
  • Beets
  • Pumpkin seeds
  • Citrus 
  • Cayenne pepper
  • Chickpeas/hummus
  • Avocados

These foods are great for a healthy libido because they contain nutrients that stimulate nitric oxide. Not to be confused with laughing gas (nitrous oxide), nitric oxide, or NO, relaxes the blood vessels. Every single cell in your body produces NO. But if you eat lots of processed food, your cells will do a poor job manufacturing NO. No NO means no sexy time!

As a vasodilator, NO increases blood flow by widening blood vessels and lowering blood pressure. While these benefits may be associated mainly with just men, the libido-stimulating effects apply to women as well. When women have increased levels of NO, it’s as if the nitric oxide itself acts as a signaling molecule to become sexually aroused, this study from Stanford University explains. 

Best Supplements For Sexual Arousal

In addition to eating plenty of foods on my best-for-sex list above, you may also benefit from taking a nutritional supplement. One that’s discussed in the Stanford study is L-arginine, an essential amino acid that increases NO in the cells. 

Zinc and B vitamins are also important nutrients that are often missing from the Standard American Diet. It’s best to get these nutrients from a whole-food plant-based diet. However, if your libido is running on empty, you may want to give your body the extra supplementation it needs to rediscover that magic spark. 

Here’s to your healthy sex life,

Chef V

Chef V

Pumpkin Smoothie

Chef V

This smoothie tastes rich and decadent – but it is vegan and gluten free as well. I use raw cashews and my own Pumpkin Pie Spice Blend to make this a healthy, delicious treat that won’t make you bloated. – Veronica

pumpkin pie smoothie

Ingredients

Directions

Combine all ingredients in a Vitamix or blender. Blend on high speed until smooth. Serve in glasses with a straw or a spoon. – Veronica

Alli-Yums? Should You Pass On Garlic & Onions?

Chef V

shallots on board

For most people, cooking a meal at home just isn’t whole without garlic or onions. Harsh breath aside, garlic and onions (allium vegetables) possess potent health-building properties. But for a few people with poor digestion, alliums are just no fun. Chef V explains why garlic and onions can lead to indigestion. 

Here’s a little health tip that you can try at home. Just make sure you have some mouthwash handy: eating raw garlic and onion may be two of the best things to eat for your gut. 

That’s because they both contain prebiotic fiber. You’ve heard of probiotics (friendly bacteria in your gut) but in case you don’t know what prebiotic fiber is, it’s basically the preferred source of food for your beneficial gut bacteria. 

If you feed your gut prebiotic fiber, the good bacteria will feast on the undigested fiber in your colon and produce short-chain fatty acids. Pretty much every single health benefit you can think of, from emotional well-being to your immune system depends on short-chain fatty acids. 

So does this mean you should be eating garlic and onions by the handful? 

onions

The Health Benefits of Alliums

Garlic and onions are members of the allium family of plants. Leeks, chives, and scallions (green onions) are also alliums. 

Besides being used to flavor dishes, there are some very good reasons to eat a lot of alliums. They are rich in vitamins and minerals and contain compounds that are believed to fight disease. 

For instance, a 2017 study in Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine says that alliums are rich in organosulfur compounds, quercetin, and flavonoids, among others. These compounds, says the research, have the following properties: 

● Protect against cancer

● Cardiovascular disease prevention

● Anti-inflammation 

● Prevents obesity

● Fights diabetes

● Contains antioxidants

● Kills germs

● Protects the brain and immune system

Moreover, several studies, says a research article in the Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention, have shown that a higher intake of allium products is associated with reduced risk of several types of cancers.  

Besides bad breath, is there any reason not to eat these most common alliums by the bulb-full? Maybe there’s a good reason why Mediterranean cultures eat a ton of garlic and seem to have less chronic disease than Americans? Garlic is thought to be one of the most powerful foods for keeping the arteries clear of plaque buildup. 

As for onions, it’s an excellent non-citrus source of vitamin C. Both garlic and onions are excellent for people trying to manage their blood sugar levels. 

garlic

The Downside Of Alliums

But before you go eating bulb after bulb of garlic and onions, keep in mind that not everybody can tolerate alliums very well. It’s hard to say how many people have a true allium allergy. 

  Unlike Celiac Disease, which we know affects roughly 2 million people in the U.S, there’s no reliable data on garlic and onion allergies. Relatively few people are probably truly allergic to alliums but there are many people who are intolerant of them. 

So what’s in garlic and onions that cause bloating, gas and other digestive upset? The reason why is that alliums are high in FODMAPs. FODMAP stands for fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides and polyols. Basically, these carbohydrates are very hard for some to digest.

For people that have to eat a low FODMAP diet, eating alliums can cause the small intestine to poorly absorb the sugars in the onion and garlic. The sugars then ferment in the colon (large intestine), causing gas or other symptoms. But only a few people – who need to eat a very low FOD map diet – cannot tolerate alliums. For 99% of people, they are fine.


allium flowers

Fructans in Garlic and Onions

The main offending carbohydrate in alliums is called fructan, which is a chain of fruit sugar (fructose) molecules. Fructans represent the ‘oligosaccharides’ in FODMAPs. Garlic is especially problematic because it contains one of the highest levels of fructans in the plant world. 

Unfortunately, there’s no magic pill you can take to break down fructans like you can a lactase enzyme for dairy. That means if you eat at a meal with lots of garlic and onions, you may experience abdominal pain, acid reflux or constipation. 

In general, it’s a great idea to get more prebiotic fiber in your diet. More prebiotic fiber means better gut health. But not everybody tolerates prebiotic fiber (fructans and inulin, which is a polysaccharide). 

Elimination Diet

If you have trouble digesting alliums, I suggest giving them up for a few weeks along with every other type of food that may be triggering food sensitivities. That means no gluten (wheat), soy, and the most common other food sensitivity triggers: artificial sweeteners, caffeine, MSG, dairy, tree nuts, shellfish, peanuts and eggs. 

That bit of advice may seem overwhelming because what’s left to eat? But if you have serious digestive issues, I highly recommend working with a nutritionist who can help you discover the root causes of your digestive issues. 

The good news is that after a few weeks, you can start reintroducing some of these foods back into your diet, one at a time. 

And if you love garlic but it doesn’t love you back, here’s another piece of advice. Buy garlic-infused olive oil. It’s low in FODMAPS so it won’t trigger any food sensitivities. 

Just don’t forget to brush and use a strong mouthwash. 

read

What Is Leaky Gut & Do You Have It?

Chef V

leaky gut

Leaky anything never sounds good: Pipes. Faucet. Radiator. Can you think of a situation where leaking is a good thing? I can’t think of one. The worst leak of all, one that affects millions of people’s health and happiness is leaky gut. 

How Do You Fix Leaky Gut?

Fixing a leaky gut isn’t easy and it takes time. Unlike calling a plumber, you can’t call a GI handyman to fix it fast. This is especially true if you’ve been experiencing the above symptoms for many years. 

The first step in conquering leaky gut is to stop it from leaking more. And to do that, you need to stop eating and drinking things that will continue to weaken it. For this, I recommend two options. The more accurate but more expensive way is to get a food sensitivity blood test. That takes the guesswork out. If you want to go the cheaper but longer route, follow an elimination diet. That’s where you avoid all potential allergenic foods like gluten for at least 4 weeks and then reintroduce them one by one to see if you have any allergy symptoms. 

There are certain foods like bone broth and collagen protein that may actually help repair the gut lining. But you can’t just sip a cup of bone broth and continue eating allergenic foods expecting miracles. 

As a certified nutrition therapist, I wish I could work one on one with you to help repair your gut. But one recommendation I have for you—besides replacing the typical American breakfast every day with my Organic Green Drink—is working with a functional medicine doctor or naturopathic doctor. Through diagnostic testing and supplement recommendations, these natural health experts can help you overcome leaky gut and get you living your best life. It’ll cost a pretty penny but isn’t looking and feeling your best worth it?

Gut: Not The Same As Belly

You’ve probably heard of leaky gut but aren’t quite sure what it means. In order to understand what leaky gut is, it’s important to first understand what the gut refers to. 

Many people think the gut is the stomach or abdomen. But your belly is just a small part of your gut. Your gut, or gastrointestinal (GI) tract actually begins in your mouth. Digestion begins even before you take the first bite of food. When you so much as look at or even smell what you’re about to eat or drink, saliva starts forming, ready to soften food for transit down the digestive tract. Eventually, what you eat is eliminated through your backside, which is where the gut ends. 

So now that you have a clear definition of what the gut is, let’s focus on a specific area of the gut that heavily influences your immune system, mood and overall health… 

Your intestines are home to trillions of bacteria. It’s also here that 80% of your immune cells reside. Some people believe that in order to have strong digestion, you need a strong stomach. But actually, the part of your body that has the most influence on your health is called the intestinal mucosal barrier. 

stomach mucosa - leaky gut

The Mucosal Barrier & Gut Health

Years ago, when I first heard the term mucosal barrier, I was kind of grossed out. When you hear the word mucus what do you think of? Disgusting runny noses, right? But it turns out that mucus is one of your best friends. Your intestines are lined with a mucosal barrier. This barrier protects you from potentially-disease-causing pathogens like harmful bacteria, viruses, fungus, etc. In addition, the barrier interacts with immune cells, absorb nutrients and is also responsible for directing waste out of the body. 

Your mucosal barrier is lined by epithelial cells. A healthy mucosal barrier has tight junctions between the cells. 

Leaky Gut Explained

So here’s where we get to leaky gut. Because of several reasons I’ll mention in just a sec, the tight junction can weaken over time. And when this thin intestinal mucosal wall leaks now you have a leaky gut. What exactly is leaked? Undigested food particles, toxins and microorganisms (bacteria, etc.). 

leaky gut

What Happens When You Have Leaky Gut?

Bad things. Autoimmune disorders can arise. A weak gut lining can cause rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, fibromyalgia, Crohn’s Disease, Ulcerative Colitis, Irritable Bowel Syndrome and other imbalances in which the body attacks itself. 

Why does the body attack itself? It’s because when these undigested food particles, toxins and bacteria flow unimpeded through the bloodstream, the immune system mounts a defense and tries to destroy them. This creates a high inflammation response in the body, leading to painful joints, skin and digestion problems and more…

Why Hasn’t My Doctor Told Me About Leaky Gut?

Because leaky gut isn’t an officially recognized medical disorder. The closest thing to it is “intestinal permeability.” But in order to get diagnosed with that, you need to undergo a biopsy, in which a slice of your intestinal tissue is removed. 

There is a bit of a chicken and egg scenario with leaky gut. Did the weakening of the mucosal barrier cause an autoimmune disease or is it the other way around? 

I’m convinced that because of various factors, leaky gut causes inflammatory conditions, not the other way around. 

probiotics

Symptoms of Leaky Gut

You don’t have to have an autoimmune disorder to have a leaky gut. Other signs that your intestinal wall has gotten weaker include:

  • Brain fog
  • Constipation
  • Insomnia
  • Fatigue
  • Feeling cold
  • Bloating
  • Gas
  • Acne, eczema and rashes
  • Anxiety and depression

Causes Of Leaky Gut

If you have any of the above symptoms do you relate to any of the following causes? 

  • Frequent antibiotic use
  • Gut dysbiosis (not having enough friendly bacteria, having too many harmful bacteria)
  • Chronic stress 
  • Exposure to harmful chemicals like glyphosate
  • Excess alcohol
  • Consuming too much sugar
  • Eating foods to which you are allergic or sensitive, e.g. gluten, dairy. (This is also a chicken or egg question: are you allergic because of leaky gut or did leaky gut cause the allergy? Hmmm.)

There are other causes of leaky gut but these are by far the most common. 


Chef V Green Drink Plan

Gut Health Survival Guide: Chef V’s 5 Tips For Success

Chef V

veronica eating soup

Good gut health – maybe you feel powerless on vacation and special occasions. With people getting out again and traveling,  you may run the risk of overwhelming your digestive system. So follow these 5 tips for a healthy gut.

Gut Health Survival Guide Tip #1: Eat one big meal a day

If you love to pig out during special occasions, I have great news for you. Feasting like a Roman gladiator is totally doable, if you know how to do it right. And here’s how. 

Step #1: When you wake up in the morning, don’t eat anything. Instead, first drink a tall glass of water. If you have electrolyte drops, add them to your water or sprinkle a teaspoon of sea salt and stir. The minerals in the salt or drops will help give your cells a zero-calorie energy boost. Add a squeeze of fresh lemon to give your liver a little helping hand in the detoxification process. 

Step #2: Roughly 30 minutes after you chug some water, break your fast with a low-calorie, low-sugar Organic Green Drink. If you’re not getting enough green leafy veggies in your diet, this is the easiest way to get ‘er done. There’s no excuse not to consume enough veggies when you get them delivered to your front door in cold-blended juice form!

Step #3: Eat a light meal or have a plant-based protein drink about an hour or so after Green Drink. 

Step #4: Eat one huge late lunch. At around 2 or 3 in the afternoon, eat whatever you want and as much as you want. Just make sure to avoid high-sugar junk. For dessert, treat yourself to some berries and a piece of dark chocolate. 

Step #5: You can have a very light snack no later than 7 p.m. A small portion of nuts, a piece of fruit or yogurt. Then don’t eat anything or drink anything with calories until 11 a.m. or later the following day. The beauty of combining one main meal a day and intermittent fasting is that you can eat as much turkey and stuffing as you want. Your digestive system will have plenty of time to work. For even better results, exercise in the morning before breaking your fast. 

digestive bacteria

Tip #2: Don’t Take An Antacid

If you have acid reflux because you ate way too much, taking an antacid may offer immediate relief, but it comes at a price. If you’re going to take an antacid once or twice a year, most likely that’s fine. 

But frequent use of antacid creates chronically-low stomach acid. If you don’t have enough stomach acid, you’ll have indigestion all the time; the very problem that antacids are supposed to eliminate. (And don’t get me started about Zantac, the most popular antacid of all time. It was pulled off the market because it contained a cancer-causing chemical.)

Tip #3: Take Digestive Enzymes

Instead of taking an antacid to help eliminate symptoms of indigestion, solve the root cause of indigestion. And what’s the root cause? You can blame it on sluggish digestive enzymes. 

Your body contains several kinds of digestive enzymes, starting with amylase. Before your food even enters your stomach, your eyes and nose spring digestive enzymes into action. Your sense of smell and sight sparks your salivary glands into action. Spit (saliva sounds so much nicer) contains amylase, an enzyme that breaks down carbohydrates. 

There’s also lipase to break down dietary fat and pepsin for protein and several others. But if your digestion is sluggish, your digestive enzymes need outside help. Enter digestive enzyme supplements. Now, I’m not in the supplement business so I’m not going to recommend one brand. But I encourage you to do your research (read product reviews) and start taking digestive enzymes with every meal—especially the massive holiday ones. 

Chef v walking

Tip #4: Walk It Out

Been there, done that. Before I became a certified nutritional therapist, I would celebrate by overindulging. But then I read research studies that said walking right after a meal was a great way to control blood sugar and lose weight. 

It’s so easy not to do anything after a big meal. The furthest people want to walk after a big meal is from the dining room to the living room where the couch and TV are. 

But if you can just force yourself to go for a walk immediately after a meal, it’s really the simplest thing to do to prevent excess blood sugar from getting stored in the liver and eventually as body fat. See if you can get someone to join you. If not, listen to some good tunes or a podcast to make the time go by quicker. Even just 10 minutes will do your body and your gut some good. 

probiotics

Tip #5: Make Perfect Poop With These Helpers

In this article I wrote about preventing food poisoning while travelling, I mentioned a probiotic yeast that’s the best for preventing diarrhea. It’s called Saccharomyces Boulardii. Buy it and take it before you eat a huge meal. It’s always good to have on hand. 

This probiotic is the only one that’s a fungus. (Yeast is a fungus.) That may sound gross to take a fungus. But remember that edible mushrooms are the fruiting body of fungus and they are one of the best things to consume for immune support. Anyway, S. Boulardii is the best probiotic if your poops could use an image makeover. 

Tip #6: Have A Great Healthy life!

That about says it all!

Vegan Peppermint Hot Chocolate

Chef V

What are some of the best memories around the holidays? Festive food and drinks are definitely mine!

Hot chocolate is a holiday treat but most of the time the ingredients are big NO-NO’s! Most hot chocolates you buy are instant powders pumped with chemicals or fake sweeteners. Most have dairy, cream or powdered milk (even worse!). Even if you go to a place serving hot chocolate, it’s rarely made in house with real ingredients. I created this delicious Vegan Peppermint Hot Chocolate recipe using peppermint tea, my home-made almond milk, raw cacao and coconut nectar to sweeten it slightly. It is so delicious and it is actually healthy for you.

In this process I heat the almond milk and steep the tea in the milk to infuse the natural peppermint flavor. GOODBYE artificial flavorings!!!

vegan hot chocolate

Ingredients

Directions

Heat almond milk over stove and steep tea while you bring the milk to a boil. Reduce heat to low, add cacao and stir well. Add coconut nectar and stir well. Pour hot chocolate into a coffee mug or cup of choice. You can top with my Coconut Whipped Cream. You can also add cacao nibs or crushed peppermint candies if entertaining or not cleansing.

Serves 2

Chef V’s Spin On Energy Drinks and Protein Bars

Chef V

Another afternoon workday, another energy crash. It’s 3 PM and you finished lunch a couple hours ago but you’re hungry and tired and there’s a ton of work to finish before you call it a day. If you don’t want to rely on coffee for an energy boost, should you reach for a bar or energy drink? Here’s Chef V’s take…

energy drink

If you’re training for an Ironman/Ironwoman, go for it, have an energy bar because you’re going to need it. But for most people, relying on energy bars, meal replacement bars, protein bars and energy drinks are false friends.

I’ll explain what I mean by that. After you eat a bar or have an energy drink, you might feel like you can power through for the rest of the day. But as soon as the effects of the sugar wear off—and most bars have tons of sugar—what goes up must come down. In other words, you end up having an energy crash.

So how much sugar is in the typical energy bar, even those that make consumers believe they’re healthy because they’re labeled as “organic” “all-natural” or “preservative-free” and “gluten-free.”

According to the Atlanta Journal Constitution, 23 top-selling energy bars have more sugar than a regular-sized Snickers! And get this … all 23 bars contain over 20 grams of sugar. Moreover, some bars contain 100 percent or close to 100 percent of the suggested maximum daily amount of sugar, which is:

  • 24 grams for women
  • 36 grams for men

As for relying on energy/sports drinks to rely on a pick-me-up so you have the energy to go to the gym after work, well, it’s no different. In fact, according to SF Gate, an eight-ounce serving of the average sports drink contains between 24 and 29 grams of sugar. That’s over 2 rounded tablespoons of sugar per serving. To make matters worse, many people don’t just drink an 8-ounce serving. They have an entire 16-ounce or 32-ounce serving.

And it doesn’t take a certified nutritional therapist like yours truly to tell you that all that sugar is bad for you. Bad for your waistline. Bad for your pancreas. Bad for your teeth. Bad for mood stability, blood sugar levels and everything else.

Healthy Alternatives To Bars and Energy Drinks

Instead of bars and energy drinks, what can you have to power through those last few hours of the workday before you gotta go home and cook dinner, take care of the kids and everything else?

Here’s some options:

Eat a bigger lunch

Many people make the mistake of not eating enough at lunch. I’m sorry, but a sandwich might be quick and tasty but 2 slices of bread with a turkey slice, a small tomato and iceberg lettuce is not a balanced meal.

Instead, eat a European-style lunch. In Europe, lunch is typically the biggest meal of the day. Fill your plate up with a healthy grain like wild rice, quinoa, whole-wheat couscous with some lean protein (fish or chicken) and some avocado to get those healthy fats. If you’re eating a salad for lunch, make sure there’s enough protein and healthy fats to fill you up until dinner.

After lunch, take a 5-10 minute walk to stabilize your blood sugar levels.

Extra Serving of Green Drink

My secret to having a kick-ass morning is drinking a tall glass of lemon water first thing, followed 30 minutes later by an 8-ounce serving of Green Drink.

If you follow this ritual every day and eat a substantial lunch, you should have steady energy in the afternoon. But if not, try having an extra serving of Green Drink and a healthy snack like berries and nuts. You won’t feel a jolt of energy like you would from drinking Jolt cola, but you should feel energetically stable.

Chef V’s Low-Sugar Electrolyte Drink

If you’re addicted to energy and sports drinks, I can wean you off with a healthier alternative. In case you missed this recipe in my article about electrolytes,
here’s how you can easily and quickly make a drink that’ll give you some pep in your step:

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup coconut water
  • 1 cup cold water
  • 1/2 cup  fresh squeezed orange or mandarin
  • 1 tbsp lemon juice
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 tbsp coconut sugar

Method:

Blend in a blender. Serve cold. Keep for up to 2 days in the fridge.


Chef V

Yerba Mate and other natural energy drinks

Finally, if you can’t quit caffeine altogether, you can drink Yerba Mate, which contains about half the amount of caffeine as coffee but is all-natural and rich in nutrients.

You can learn more about Yerba Mate and a few other alternatives to sports-and-energy drinks here.

Here’s to fueling your day the healthy way!

Until next time,

Veronica “V” Wheat,
Founder, ChefV.com


Chef V

Chef V’s Protein Balls

Chef V

When I need a quick energy boost and want something chewy and yummy, I grab one of my homemade protein balls. Keep these in the fridge and you’ll have an easy way to satisfy a craving for a sweet.

protein balls

Ingredients

  • 1 2/3 cup gf oat flour (or any gf flour)
  • 3 tbsp date syrup or coconut nectar
  • 3 tbsp melted coconut oil
  • 1 1/2 tsp organic vanilla extract
  • 1 tbsp Chef V vanilla protein powder  (or other vegan protein)
  • 1/4 cup vegan choc chips

Directions

Mix all ingredients together and form small balls. Will keep for a a couple days covered in fridge or a couple weeks in the freezer.

How To Effortlessly Boost Collagen Levels For Beautiful Skin


Jean Yates

You’ve heard of collagen and know that it’s good for your skin. But let’s take a deeper dive with Veronica Wheat, the “V” in Chef V and find out exactly what collagen is and how to boost levels of it in your body so that your skin looks more youthful. And let’s improve our skin in healthy ways.

Have you ever seen a skyscraper under construction? Ever wonder how they build these monstrosities? With scaffolding just like this:

scaffolding

What does scaffolding and skyscrapers have to do with your skin?

Well, in order to understand collagen, you first have to imagine that your skin and bones also have a matrix (obviously on a much smaller scale, like invisible small).

Collagen Basics For Skin

The stretchy connective tissue that makes up your skin requires a strong, structural framework, just like skyscraper scaffolding. The framework that prevents your skin from completely sagging to the floor is called the extracellular matrix.

And there’s something that needs to provide structural integrity to this extracellular matrix. And that something is collagen—the most important protein in connective tissue (skin), not to mention your bones.

Out of thousands of proteins in the human body, collagen is by far the most abundant. Roughly 30% of all protein in the human body is one type of collagen or another.

There are 28 different collagen types, but when it comes to youthful-looking skin, we’re only concerned with collagen type I & III.

How Aging Affects Collagen

The aging process can be cruel to the skin. And what’s going on under the hood of our skin, so to speak, is that by the time you’re 25, your collagen levels in your body are already on the decline.

In fact, starting around age 30, 2% of our collagen stores will be depleted. By age 40, we have lost roughly 15% of the collagen we had when we were born. (But don’t let that depress you if you’re celebrating your 40th soon!). Then, once we turn 60, say goodbye to roughly 50% of your original collagen.

Going through menopause is especially a collagen killer. That’s because when you go through menopause, your estrogen levels plummet. Estrogen is vital for collagen production.

“Estrogen appears to aid in the prevention of skin aging in several ways. [It] prevents a decrease in skin collagen in postmenopausal women; topical and systemic estrogen therapy can increase the skin collagen content and therefore maintain skin thickness.” —The American Journal of Dermatology


How To Defy The Aging Process & Support Collagen Through Food

So there’s good news and bad news with collagen. I’ll start with the bad. While our bodies can make new collagen, as we age, we lose more of it than our body can rebuild and repair. And not only that, the collagen protein fibers that we do have start getting weaker. That’s why wrinkles develop.

The good news is that there are simple nutritional interventions that can help our collagen build back better.

Chicken Bone Broth



I’m not a strict vegetarian but I rarely promote meat. One rare exception is bone broth because it contains collagen. Bone broth contains collagen protein because the process of slow cooking bones for many hours releases collagen from the bones. So by consuming the collagen from animal bones, you’re helping revitalize your own body’s collagen.
In addition, bone broth contains other nutrients that help with collagen growth and repair such as:

Hyaluronic acid



According to the Cleveland Clinic, it helps skin stretch and flex and reduces skin wrinkles and lines; also reduces visible scars.

Chondroitin



This compound plays a major role in connective tissue and is essential for normal skin health and regeneration.

Glycosaminoglycans

Known as GAGs, these complex sugars—not the unhealthy kind you might think of in junk food—hold nearly 1,000 times their own weight. Translation: a moisturizing weapon for your skin you’ve never heard of. GAGs also support collagen and elastin, another important skin structural protein.

In addition, bone broth contains a great balance of minerals that support collagen production. But what if you’re a vegetarian? Thankfully, there are non-meat, collagen-building foods…

Green Leafy Veggies

Nearly everybody knows that green leafy veggies are among the healthiest foods on Earth. (Can’t stand eating them? Then drink them!)

But what you may not know is that green leafy veggies are a great source of a vitamin that hardly gets any attention: vitamin K. And it turns out that vitamin K is really effective at building that skin-and-bone scaffolding matrix I was talking about earlier, research shows.

Citrus Fruits & Berries

Citrus and berries contain good amounts of vitamin C. And vitamin C is a precursor (building block) of collagen. So make sure you’re getting both citrus and berries in your diet everyday.

Collagen Powder

Very few people like sipping on a piping hot mug of bone broth in the summer. And many people don’t like the meaty, savory taste of bone broth everyday. But you can get the benefits of collagen without broth simply by adding a scoop of collagen powder to a smoothie (or even your Green Drink!).

More and more non-meat-sourced collagen powders have become available, including marine collagen powder (derived from fish) and even plant-based collagen powders.

Botox For Collagen

And finally, no article about more youthful skin would be complete without mentioning botox. OK, so you can’t eat botox. That would be bad, and it’s the reason why babies can’t eat honey for the first year of life. (Both botox and honey have a toxin called botulinum.)

Obviously, people can go overboard with the botox treatments. But if you’re in need of major wrinkle reduction, there’s no doubt that Botox helps the skin build collagen. But don’t think that by getting a Botox injection, it gives you a free pass to eat like crap! You need to eat a high antioxidant diet every day otherwise the effects of Botox may be short-lived.

Bottom line, there aren’t enough long term studies on the effects of botox injections. We recommend getting as much collagen as you can in your diet, limiting your exposure to botox and trying a more natural route.


Chef V

Thanksgiving Food Coma? 5 Natural Drinks to Snap Out of It

Chef V

Thanksgiving food coma

These 5 Natural Energy Drinks Will Snap You Out Of A Thanksgiving Food Coma

Did you overdo it on the turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce and stuffing? If the huge holiday meal made you feel like a hibernating bear, use one of these best, natural energy drinks. Sorry, coffee’s not on the list. 

I was curious exactly how much eating a typical Thanksgiving meal can spike blood sugar levels. So I turned to the foremost expert on that kind of info: Dr. Google. 

But Dr. Google disappointed. You see, I was looking for a specific number expressed in mg/dL or mmol/L, the same measurements displayed in an electric glucose meter. But I couldn’t find a specific number like after eating a Thanksgiving meal, your blood sugar spikes from 90 to 170 mg/dl two hours after feasting. 

On page 1 of my search query, though, I clicked an article that had some glaring Thanksgiving meal disinformation. Referring to eating turkey, the article said, “Naturally high in protein and when paired with carbohydrates and sugar, [turkey] will help prevent spikes in blood sugar and keep you feeling satiated.”

I call BS on that. And the reason why is that eating a large amount of protein in one sitting can also spike your blood sugar. That’s definitely one reason people fall into food comas after the holiday meal. So it got me thinking… 

What’s the best natural drink to feel more energetic after having a large meal? I came up with my top 5. Would you like to hear them? 

Here goes…

Veronica with GD and TGD

#1 Green Veggie Juice

Of course my Organic Green Drink or Tropical Green Drink top this list—and not just for the sake of a shameless promotional plug. Now, I wouldn’t necessarily have a Green Drink right after a heavy meal. But if you’re still dragging hours later or the next morning, there’s nothing better. 

The 7 leafy green vegetables in Organic Green Drink—2 types of kale, collard greens, dandelion, green leaf lettuce, parsley, chard, and a tiny bit of apple—almost instantly flood your cells with nutrients. Your cells get charged up and bam! … you feel alert and back to balance. 

When you eat a huge meal, your digestive system has to expend a lot of energy in order to break food down. Your digestive enzymes, which are specialized proteins that break food into amino acids, get overworked and that’s why food sits like a brick in your stomach. 

But when you have a serving of Green Drink, the cold-blending process used to make the juice essentially predigests the veggies for you. In this way, your digestive system uptakes the nutrients without working very hard. 

My “cure” for a Thanksgiving/holiday food coma is to wake up the next day and drink a tall glass of water with fresh squeezed lemon. Wait 30 minutes and then have an 8 oz. serving of Organic Green Drink to flood your cells and feel like you’re back to Earth and ready to conquer the day. Try to eat light the rest of the day. 

yerba mate

#2 Yerba Mate

A couple drinks on this list are caffeinated but they don’t contain nearly as much caffeine as coffee does. Plus, they’re alkaline on the pH scale, not acidic like coffee. 

Yerba Mate is an herbal drink that’s super popular in Argentina, Uruguay and some parts of Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Bolivia. Related to the holly tree, yerba mate drinking is somewhat of a religious experience for South Americans. In the rest of the world, people have their ritual of drinking a cup of coffee. 

But in South America, yerba mate is an all-day affair. And you don’t just drink yerba mate out of a coffee or tea mug. In South America, you drink it out of a silver straw called a bombilla, which is placed in a gourd, which is the namesake mate. 

Yerba mate is high in antioxidants, vitamins, minerals and amino acids. Containing 85 mg of caffeine—less than half of a typical American serving of coffee—it may give you a buzz but you likely won’t feel anxious or jittery. 

matcha tea

#3 Matcha Tea

Another lightly caffeinated healthy beverage on my list, matcha tea differs from regular tea that comes in loose-leaf bags. Matcha is powdered whole-leaf tea and it’s much more concentrated than tea bags. And because it contains mostly every part of the tea leaf, matcha has more antioxidants than regular green tea bags. 

One teaspoon serving of matcha powder contains about 70 mg of caffeine. Like yerba mate, that’s much lower than a cup of coffee. 

Another benefit of matcha is that it contains the polyphenol antioxidant EGCG. This super nutrient benefits your gut health and immune system and helps prevent premature aging. Plus, it will give you an energy boost if you can’t get off the couch after Thanksgiving dinner. 

guarana

#4 Guarana 

Known as the cocoa of Brazil, guarana is the key ingredient in the name-brand unhealthy energy drinks you know so well. Is guarana a synthetic energy booster, a legal speed if you will? On the contrary, guarana is a fruit from South America but it packs an energetic punch especially when paired with the added caffeine in convenience-store energy drinks. 

In fact, ounce for ounce, guarana contains more caffeine than coffee. However, the health advantage to it is that the tannins in them cause the caffeine to be released more slowly than coffee. 

If you’re sensitive to guarana, don’t drink it at night. And make sure you choose a natural drink that doesn’t contain added sugars or added caffeine. 

dandelion root

#5 Dandelion Root Tea

This one’s a paradox. That’s because on one hand, dandelion root tea is the perfect substitute for coffee. But on the other hand, it is caffeine-free. So why should you consider drinking it if you’re hungover from the Thanksgiving meal? And for the longer term, if you’re thinking about eliminating coffee, why should you drink it if it won’t get you buzzed? 

The simple reason is that dandelion tea is chock-full of B vitamins. B vitamins directly impact our energy levels. But more than that, the taste of dandelion root tea resembles regular coffee. So for those people who enjoy the ritual of tasting freshly-brewed coffee in the morning, dandelion tea replicates the experience. 

Well, I hope I’ve given you some inspo to drink healthier energy drinks. And if you struggle to get enough leafy veggies in your diet, let me help you drink them down. Chef V delivers Organic Green Drinks throughout most of the USA. Learn more…

Boost your Immune System: Eating Healthy

Jean Yates

Veronica working from home

Flu season might be severe this year, according to the medical community. So how to avoid getting it?

There’s no cure right now for the flu and the best way to fight it off is to increase your resistance. And that means eating healthy to boost your immunity.

I’ve built my little Green Drink and Cleanse/Detox empire over the last decade in part by telling people what to eat. A big reason why I created my Making Cleansing Easier Cookbook along with all the other Healthy Eating Resources you get when you’re on a Green Drink Plan is because when I first started Chef V, I was asked the question so many times, “Hey Veronica, what should I eat?”

More than anything, you need to keep eating healthy. When you’re stuck at home and bored, you start eating more.

Don’t buy what you don’t normally eat. Don’t stock up on cookies and chips and snacks but stick to healthy choices. If you don’t eat junk food normally you shouldn’t be eating it now.

Time to clean your body

While some people are going the snack route, a surprising number of people are saying – some of my friends have the flu – “this is the time to do a 21 day detox – its getting colder, I don’t want to eat a bunch of crap, so why don’t I have Chef V deliver a 21 Day Challenge to me for 3 weeks and make a huge change in my health.”

I think that’s sort of genius, and we’ve not advertised it, but so many people have been ordering a Detox or Cleanse from us.

Right now is a great time to cleanse – people are cleansing their houses, cleaning their surroundings, and it all fits together – cleansing to nourish your body and boost immunity. Plus you get everything you need for a 3 week Detox delivered to your door.

#1: Give Intermittent Fasting A Try

One of the reasons my hubby, Brandon, and I have kept the weight off is that we are doubling down on intermittent fasting. Intermittent fasting not only works for weight loss, it makes your mind sharper and may even support your immune system and prevent infection as this study suggests. 

I’m not saying that if you do intermittent fasting, you won’t get the flu. But it’s interesting that some immunologists are exploring its protective effects. How intermittent fasting supports the immune system is the same way it can help you prevent weight gain while working from home. 

You see, when you don’t eat anything for 16 hours—the best way to do intermittent fasting is to limit your calorie-intake window to 8 hours a day, i.e. 12 noon to 8 p.m.; Brandon and I shoot for a 17-hour fast most of the time—your body starts repairing itself. Digestion takes a ton of energy. By giving your digestive system a rest, your body can focus on fixing itself. This process is known as autophagy. 

Technically, autophagy does not directly contribute to weight loss. But by making your metabolism more efficient, fasting can lead to weight loss. And the great thing about intermittent fasting is that if you feel like snacking while working from home, you don’t have to feel guilty about it. As long as you’re eating during your 8-hour window, snack away. 

For info on how to do intermittent fasting and its benefits, read this. 

green drink

#2: Lose Weight Working At Home By Eating More!

If you work a normal 8 or 9 to 5 day, your first main meal will be at around noon. Actually, before your first meal of the day, I recommend drinking some water with trace minerals to keep your energy up first thing in the morning. You can also have green tea or unsweetened black coffee if you must have your caffeine fix. Then, between 11:30 to noon, break your fast with Organic Green Drink. 

By having 8 to 16 oz of Green Drink, you’ll gently awaken your digestive system and flood your cells with high-nutrient-density leafy greens. 

After having your Green Drink, wait about 15-30 minutes, then go to town. Have at it. Eat all you want until your belly is full but not too stuffed. By eating a large meal, you’ll eliminate the temptation for frequent snacking. Like I said, snacking during your 8-hour eating window isn’t a nutrition faux-pas. But in general, it’s good to give your insulin-secreting pancreas a rest in between meals as well as your other digestive organs. 

If you eat your first main meal at noon, I recommend having your second large meal early in the evening like at 5 or 6. Your last meal can then be a light but satisfying one like yogurt with nuts and berries. 

Many people make the mistake of not eating enough at their main meals. This is what leads to over snacking in between meals and late-night snacking, which is terrible for your metabolism. Eating too often prevents your gut bacteria from being able to be swept down from the small intestine into the large intestine (colon). See my article on SIBO for more on this subject.

blueberries

#3: Are You Hungry Or Just Bored? 

True hunger is when you’ve gone 16 hours or longer without food. If your stomach is sending signals to your brain while you’re working that you’re hungry, don’t listen to the message right away. 

Your brain—and belly—could be the victim of a false signal. This is especially true if it’s only been two or three hours since you last ate. If your last meal was large enough and contained the correct ratio of macronutrients (a little bit of healthy fats like avocado, and sufficient protein and low-starch carbs like quinoa and veggies), then you shouldn’t need to eat more food. 

You can satisfy your sweet tooth after a meal by having a large handful of berries and a tiny piece of dark chocolate. This is why I emphasized eating a big meal above. 

But if you’re accustomed to snacking every couple hours, it’s probably not true hunger you’re experiencing. What’s likely happening is that the yeast in your gut loves feasting on the sugars in your small intestine, from the crackers and other carb-heavy snacks. And after the yeast digests your yummy snack, it will tell your brain to feed it some more. After all, your brain and gut operate in a continuous feedback loop (no pun intended). 

If you feed your gut low-sugar, low-starch foods, the yeast in your gut won’t proliferate; it will be kept in check by your friendly bacteria. And that means your belly—when properly nourished—won’t send your brain a signal to snack yet again. 

#4: Sleep, Exercise, and Stress

One of the most powerful weapons in your immune-boosting arsenal has to be one of the easiest – sleep! Not getting enough sleep can ruin your immune system. (If you have difficulty sleeping, a blended juice cleanse might be just what you need!)

Exercise, even in small amounts, is also great for keeping your immune system ready to go. Not only will exercise support a stronger immune system, but it can help you keep your weight low – and as we mentioned, high weight is an immune system risk.

One of the most important things is, of course, to simply not stress out too much about it. It might seem counterintuitive, but worrying too much about your immune system can… weaken your immune system. The mind and body are connected, so stress on one will affect the other. It sounds crazy, but stress is never good for your health in any way.

Veronica and Coco

Chef V’s Cranberry Sauce

Chef V

So how do I make cranberry sauce healthy?  To sweeten the organic cranberries, I use coconut sugar. Coconut sugar is much better for your health because it doesn’t spike your blood sugar levels.

Take a look. Doesn’t it look just like the real thing? And in my opinion, my cranberry sauce tastes better than traditional Thanksgiving.

– Veronica

pumpkin pie

Ingredients

  • 1½ cups fresh or frozen organic cranberries
  • ½ cup raw coconut sugar
  • 1 tsp. organic lemon zest
  • 2 tbsp. filtered water
  • 1 tsp. organic sea salt

Directions

Add one cup of cranberries to a medium sized saucepan. Reserve ½ cup for later. Add the coconut sugar, water and lemon zest to the pan and cook over low heat for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Increase the heat to medium-high and cook until the cranberries burst, about 10 more minutes. Reduce the heat and stir in the remaining cranberries for texture. Stir occasionally for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and add sea salt. Refrigerate for 3 hours or overnight.

Bon Appétit!

Organic Pumpkin Purée

Jean Yates

It’s so easy to make your own pumpkin purée. Just cut the top off any pumpkin, cut into 4 quarters and remove all the seeds and guts. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Place the pumpkin skin side down on the baking sheet. Place in the oven for 45 minutes at 350 F (do not use oil). Remove from the oven, rest for 5-10 minutes and peel off the pumpkin skin.

Place your pumpkin in Vitamix or blender and puree. Use this purée for my recipes or any recipe that calls for canned pumpkin puree. The difference is AMAZING! You can store in the refrigerator for up to 5 days or freezer for later use.

Use this recipe in my Creamy Pumpkin Curry Soup.

pumpkin puree

Ingredients

  • 1 pie pumpkin

Directions

It’s so easy to make your own pumpkin purée. Just cut the top off any pumpkin, cut into 4 quarters and remove all the seeds and guts. Place in the oven for 45 minutes at 350 F (do not use oil). Remove from the oven and peel off the pumpkin skin.

Place your pumpkin in Vitamix or blender and puree. Use this purée for my recipes or any recipe that calls for canned pumpkin puree. The difference is AMAZING! You can store in the refrigerator or freezer for later use.

Chef V’s Chai Latte Recipe

Chef V

Chai is a tea that has become very popular throughout the world. One of many hot beverages that originated from India, my version uses healthy nut milk instead of the traditional high sugar condensed milk. By adding milk you make Chai a Chai Latte.

chai latte

Ingredients

  • 1 bag organic chai tea to brew in 8oz water
  • 1/4 cup raw milk (or sub my homemade almond milk for dairy free)
  • 1 dash cinnamon
  • 1 tsp raw local honey
  • 1/2 tsp organic vanilla 

Directions

1. Brew 4 cups of chai tea (2 teabags)

2. Once brewed, add 2 tbsp coconut nectar (may sub raw organic honey)

3. Add cinnamon, ginger, clove

4. Mix Well

5. Keeps for a week in fridge.

Heat as needed or use cold with 1 cup chai + 1/2 cup Chef V’s Nut Milk

For hot: steam milk of choice or shake vigorously in a cup with a lid and heat in microwave 30 seconds or stove for 1 minute.

Makes 4 servings

Calorie Counting vs. Intermittent Fasting: Which One Is Better For Weight Loss?

admin

Let’s say your best friend’s wedding is coming up and you’re the maid of honor. How best to lose those stubborn 5-10 pounds so you can squeeze into that sexy, new dress? Should you drastically cut down on calories? Or should you just eat whatever you want as long as you’re doing intermittent fasting for 10-14 hours per day? Which method does science say is better for weight loss? Keep reading to find out….

Calorie Restriction Vs Intermittent Fasting: The Latest Weight Loss Science Weighs In

Back in 1991, a group of 8 people embarked on an experiment of living in a self-contained artificial ecological environment near Tucson, Arizona. Think high-tech commune, but instead of hippies, the group consisted of a physician, as well as other doctors and researchers. They embarked on what was to be a two-year self-sustaining attempt at growing their own food. The domed facility they lived in was called Biosphere 2. The goal of the researchers was to assess the feasibility for future space colonists to grow their own food.

While the food-growing effort wasn’t as challenging as that of Matt Damon’s in the hit film, “The Martian,” in which Damon’s character survives by fertilizing the Martian soil with his own poop, nonetheless, the 8 researchers quickly realized that they wouldn’t be able to grow enough food in the domed environment to sustain them.

In just so happened that one of the researchers was a devotee of calorie-restricted diets and author of a book about the subject. What better opportunity to conduct on experiment on calorie restricted diets. The 8 people living in Biosphere 2 (4 men, 4 women) reduced their calorie intake 30%.

Although calorie restriction (CR) has been studied for over 100 years, the Biosphere group is believed to be one of the first (if not the first) experiments on CR on humans.

If you want me to cut to the chase and say if calorie restriction is good for quick weight loss, I have some good news and bad news. I’ll give you the bad news first…. There are no studies on calorie restriction conducted over a short period of time such as a week or two. However, long-term studies conducted on primates reveal that calorie-restriction diets prolong life span. In fact, in one experiment, rhesus monkeys who live in captivity and fed a regular diet typically live about 26 years, whereas those who live in captivity and fed a CR-diet, can live up to 40.

In addition, besides weight loss, humans on CR diets have also reported lower blood pressure, lower cholesterol, and improved blood sugar levels. So clearly, CR is the way to go if you want to lose weight, right?

Well, hold on…not so fast.

(the photo below is a before after photo of a Biosphere experimenter who used calorie restriction while living in the biosphere.)

The Dark Side of Calorie Restriction

Although the scientists living in Biosphere 2, by the end of the two-years, had better health markers than before the experiment started, there was one huge downside to their calorie-restriction experiment: they looked like skeletons. One of the researchers had his weight drop to 119 pounds from 150.

More recent experiments on calorie restriction also show some potential pitfalls. For example, a 2008 study, involving 143 people on a CR diet revealed that some of the dieters experienced trouble sleeping, and had low libido and lower overall energy during the two-year trial. And here’s one more downside the experiment group faced: they were hungry most of the time.

Going two years feeling hungry most of the day is an awfully long time. In fact, some of the researchers who participated in the Biosphere experiment said they obsessed about food, mentally, for much of the two years. The takeaway is that while CR diets may improve some important health markers, not everybody will be able to stick to it for life; it’s simply unsustainable.

Even if you’re trying to lose weight for just a short time, there’s a better way than strictly slashing your caloric intake….Intermittent Fasting: Science Says Superior For Weight Loss

Although fasting has been practiced by humans since prehistoric times, studies on how fasting affects the body has only been conducted since the 1940s. As of late, intermittent fasting has become a popular way to lose weight, increase energy and focus and other health benefits.

My husband, Brandon, and I have been doing intermittent fasting for a while and we both love it. I even recently launched an Intermittent Fasting Cleanse, which combines the 16-hour fasting window with my Organic Green Drink, Protein Shake, Detox Tea and Detox Soup.

Intermittent fasting is a much easier and more liberating way to get leaner and stay lean than CR Diets. In fact, with intermittent fasting you don’t have to count a single calorie. But after you go 16 hours without eating anything, your tummy will shrink and you’ll get full much faster. So in the end, you’ll likely eat less calories anyway with Intermittent Fasting but you’re not starving or depriving yourself.

I still recommend breaking your 16-hour fast with Green Drink and then waiting a half hour or s

Although studies on 16-hour fasting are few, owing to the recent popularity of this diet (actually, I consider it more of a lifestyle than a diet), the research on it is encouraging. Studies show that a 16-hour fast does in fact lead to consuming fewer calories. But it also shows that it can boost metabolism, lower insulin levels and blood sugar, and yes, lead to weight loss.

So next time you need to drop some weight for a special occasion, or just because, don’t starve yourself. Eat whatever you want (within reason) until your belly is content. Just make sure you’re going at least 14 hours from the end of your dinner until your next meal (no snacking). Ideally, shoot for 16 hours before you break your fast. And for even better results, break your fast with Green Drink and try not to snack in between meals.

Going 16 hours without eating will force your body to burn its own stored body fat for energy instead of stored sugar. In comparison, even if you eat 30% less calories on a CR diet, if you’re eating throughout the day, you might not burn as much body fat. Plus, you run the risk of being malnourished.

The verdict is in: intermittent fasting is much better for you weight loss and overall health than drastic calorie restriction.

Easy Cereal with Chef V’s Nut Milk

Chef V
Chef V’s Tip: My Raw Nut Milk is easy to make and so versatile; I use it throughout my cookbook. Or, an ice-cold glass of it is refreshing on a hot summer day.

vegan eggnog

Ingredients

CHEF V’S RAW NUT MILK

  • 3 cups raw almonds, cashews, hazelnuts, or macadamia nuts
  • 3 cups filtered water

CEREAL

  • 1/2 cup Chef V’s Raw Nut Milk or coconut milk
  • 1/4 cup crushed raw almonds
  • 1/4 cup crushed raw walnuts
  • 1/4 cup fresh blueberries
  • 1 tablespoon unsweetened shredded coconut

Directions

To make the nut milk, process 3 cups of raw nuts and 3 cups of filtered water in a Vitamix until liquified. Strain through a cheesecloth into a mason jar and seal. Will keep for up to 3-5 days refrigerated.

To make the cereal, combine all the ingredients in a bowl and serve.

Creamy Berry Parfait

Chef V

Chef V’s Tips: Many raw food recipes call for soaking nuts. Why? Soaking nuts (from 2 hours to overnight) improves the flavor and  nutritional value of the nuts by releasing dust, residue and tannin into the water, leaving the nuts with a softer, buttery texture and increasing their digestibility. Never use the soak water – always discard it.

creamy berry parfait

Serving Size: 2-4 people

Ingredients

Nut Mix

1/2 cup raw almonds
1/2 cup raw walnuts
1/4 cup raw pumpkin seeds
1/4 raw sunflower seeds
1/4 raw flaxseeds

Raw Cashew Vanilla Cream

1 cup raw cashews, soaked and drained
1/4 to 1/2 filtered water
1 tablespoon raw coconut
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Pinch sea salt

Berries

1 cup fresh blueberries
1 cup fresh raspberries

Directions

Combine all the nut mix ingredients in a bowl. Next, process the Raw Cashew Vanilla Cream ingredients in a Vitamix until smooth and creamy.
To serve, assemble the parfait in a mason jar or clear glass:
Step 1 : Place 1/2 of nuts on the bottom;
Step 2: Sprinkle 1/2 of the berries over the nuts;
Step 3: Spoon the cashew cream over the top;
Step 4: Sprinkle the remaining nuts over the cream;
Step 5: Garnish with remaining berries.
For easy breakfast planning, my Raw Cashew Vanilla Cream recipe can easily be doubled and will keep for up to a week refrigerated.

Chia Seeds: Tiny in Stature, Humongous For Health

Chef V

Chia Seeds: Tiny in Stature, Humongous For Health

Chia seeds are the less popular sibling of flax seeds. These days, you can’t go down a grocery aisle without seeing flax seed muffins, flax seed waffles, etc. But chia? Try to name one product with chia. Bet you can’t! But here’s why you should consider eating more chia. And, Chef V’s got a killer recipe for chia pudding to share. Yum!

Now I may be dating myself here, but do you remember chia pets? If not, Chia Pets are plants that come in terracotta pots in the shape of figurines like puppies. You simply soak the pet and the chia seeds in water. Within a few days, your new puppy sports a rich coat of chia seed sprouts.

If you’re intrigued, chia seeds isn’t a fly-by-night silly fad like, say, pet rocks. You can still buy them at big box stores.

Before I became a certified nutritional therapist, the only thing I knew about chia was that’s what Chia Pets are made from. Now, as part of my mission to make cleansing easier, I incorporate chia both into my own diet and encourage my followers to do the same.

In a little bit, I’ll share with you an easy recipe for chia pudding, which makes for a healthy dessert. It also makes for a great way to break a fast, (30 minutes after having a Green Drink) if you’re doing intermittent fasting.

Chia: tiny superfood packs a powerful nutritional punch

Chia seeds are tiny superfood heroes. They come in either white or dark brown/black and pack a huge nutritional punch. Rich in calcium, manganese and phosphorus, chia seeds are also high in fiber, protein and healthy omega fatty acids. Because they are neutral-tasting, they are very versatile. So you can add them to nearly any kind of recipe.

But first, let me share with you why chia seeds are the mighty mouse of nutritional heroes.

Chia seeds are high in protein. In fact, up to 25% of chia’ nutritional profile is protein. They are also high in healthy fats. Approximately one-third of chia is dietary fat. Moreover, chia seeds are high in fiber and antioxidants.

You’re probably aware of the fact that omega-3 fatty acids are good for you. Especially if it’s from sources like wild salmon. It turns out that a majority of the fat content comes from omega-3 fatty acid. Because chia seeds are from a plant, the type of omega-3 in them is called “alpha-linolenic acid” or ALA for short. Plant omega-3, or ALA, is not as potent as an anti-inflammatory compound as EPA and DHA. EPA and DHA are the types of omega-3 fatty acids found in salmon and other cold-water oily fish.

Still, it’s important to eat a mostly plant-based diet. And some of the ALA you do eat from chia seeds converts into EPA/DHA. Moreover, according to Tufts University milled chia seeds (as opposed to whole chia) converts better into EPA.

Chia Seeds

Chia: More Health Benefits

In addition, chia seeds contain another type of fatty acid, omega-6s. On one hand, omega-6 fatty acids are to blame for the high rates of metabolic and inflammatory disease in western society. But this has more to do with the fact that seed oils are used in processed foods and spoil easily when they are cooked. But when you add chia to recipes like the one for my pudding I’m about to share with you, the omega-6s can actually benefit your health.

According to this study, the omega-6’s in chia may actually protect against inflammation. Also, they may also protect against blood clots. Chia seeds, which are naturally gluten-free helps lower fatty deposits in your blood. It also normalizes cholesterol. Consequently, chia lowers blood pressure and reduces the risk of heart disease. These little superfoods that are barely than the period at the end of this sentence protects the liver. And, according to research, they may also protect against diabetes, arthritis, autoimmune disease and cancer. (Unfortunately, few human studies exist proving the health benefits of chia.)

Chia also contains healing compounds. Research proves these compounds act as potent antioxidants. Quercetin is one of them. It has anti-inflammatory abilities. It may also help protect against cancer and blood clotting. Other antioxidants in chia include caffeic acid (coffee is another example of this polyphenol), as well as kaempferol and myricetin. The latter possesses  anti-oxidant, anti-cancer, anti-diabetic and anti-inflammatory properties, according to this study.

chia seeds cooking

Chia: Better Than Flax?

Chia seeds seem not to enjoy the same commercial success as flax. Products with flax seeds seem to be everywhere in the supermarket. But should chia be stealing more of the spotlight?

Maybe so.

The Tufts article says eggs from hens fed with chia have higher omega-3 content than eggs fed from flax seed (or the seed used to make Canola oil).

Another benefit of chia may be that chia seeds don’t quickly go rancid, like flax seeds are prone to do, says the Tufts University article. (Which is why it’s good practice to refrigerate your flax seeds.)

Speaking of eggs, if you’re vegan, Tufts University says that chia make for a great alternative to eggs in cooking. That’s because their sticky, gel-like coating when soaked in water acts like a bonding agent. Use one tablespoon of chia powder dissolved in a quarter-cup of water as a substitute for one egg, says Tufts.

chia seed pudding

Chef V’s Chia Pudding

Alright, alright, it’s recipe time. Enjoy. I love feedback. Tell me what you think!

Ingredients

  • 1 cup chia seeds
  • 2½ cups Chef V’s Raw Almond Milk
  • 1 tablespoon raw coconut nectar (I like Coconut Secret®)
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • Optional: pinch of sea salt
  • OPTIONAL TOPPINGS: Fresh fruit, dried fruit, shredded unsweetened coconut, raw nuts

Directions

Place all of the ingredients except for toppings in a bowl and stir until well combined. Let the mixture sit for 5 minutes, then stir with a fork. Repeat this process every 5 minutes for about 30 minutes, or until the chia seeds have soaked up all the liquid. Chill pudding for 2 hours before serving. Top with your favorite garnish and dig in.

Chef V

Glycemic Index and Glycemic Load: Know the Facts!

Jean Yates

Glycemic Index and Glycemic Load: Know the Facts!

Glycemic index and Glycemic load: Know the Facts.  Understanding will help you choose the healthiest foods and avoid  the traps of false advertising. Chef V explains. Vital information for people with diabetes and those who want to avoid getting it.

image with permission diabetesmealplans.com

Just the facts/bottom line:
Pick foods with a Glycemic index under 60
and a Glycemic Load under 15.
Look for lower numbers.

I feel sorry for carrots. Watermelon, too. You see, these two healthy foods are often vilified by health extremists for supposedly having too much sugar. They argue that carrots and watermelon rank very high on the glycemic index.

Before I come to the defense of carrots and watermelon, let me explain what the glycemic index is….

What is it and can it help manage diabetes

Put simply, the glycemic index is a ranking of foods (and drinks) with carbs. A score of 70 or greater is high. And a score of 56-69 is medium on the glycemic index (GI). A low score is 55 or less. The higher the number, the more quickly the carbs in foods converts into sugar in your blood. Veggies like broccoli have a score of 0. Watermelon ranks 72. And raw carrots is almost at the top of the charts: 93. Considering that a croissant ranks 95, does that mean having a carrot is almost as bad as indulging in a French pastry?

No, it doesn’t. While the GI can be a useful tool for managing diabetes, it does have some shortcomings.

top 5 ways to use Green Drink #1

But it has Limitations

The Glycemic Index measures the potential effects of carbs on your blood sugar within a two-hour window after eating. What’s the problem with this? Well, if you have diabetes, eating carb-rich foods can affect your blood sugar levels for up to four hours.

Second, the GI often does not take into account the precise amount of carbs eaten at one time. When the GI was established in the early 1980s, the researchers created it to analyze the effect of carbs on blood sugar (glucose) like a bell curve. In other words, it’s not scientifically very accurate. And not just because it’s only a two-hour window. But also, because it measures the food following a 12-hour fast. Moreover, the amount of carbs that it tests to rank it on the GI scale is approximately 50 grams. Thus, depending on the food, even though it might rank high on the GI, it doesn’t mean it’s going to spike your blood sugar.

A more accurate measure to use is the glycemic load. The glycemic load takes into account how much carbohydrate is eaten in one sitting. That’s the biggest and most important difference between glycemic index and glycemic load.

Glycemic Index and Glycemic Load Values for Selected Foods

Food GI
(Glucose=100)		 Serving Size Carbohydrate* per Serving (g) GL per Serving
Russet potato, baked
111
1 medium
30
33
Potato, white, boiled (average)
82
1 medium
30
25
Puffed rice cakes
82
3 cakes
21
17
Cornflakes
79
1 cup
26
20
Jelly beans
78
1 oz
28
22
Doughnut
76
1 medium
23
17
Watermelon
76
1 cup
11
8
Soda crackers
74
4 crackers
17
12
Bread, white-wheat flour
71
1 large slice
14
10
Pancake
67
6″ diameter
58
39
Rice, white, boiled
66
1 cup
53
35
Table sugar (sucrose)
63
2 tsp
10
6
Dates, dried
62
2 oz
40
25
Spaghetti, white, boiled (20 min)
58
1 cup
44
25
Honey, pure
58
1 Tbsp
17
10
Pineapple, raw
58
½ cup
19
11
Banana, raw
55
1 cup
24
13
Maple syrup, Canadian
54
1 Tbsp
14
7
Parsnips, peeled, boiled
52
½ cup
10
5
Rice, brown, boiled
50
1 cup
42
20
Spaghetti, white, boiled (average)
46
1 cup
44
20
Whole-grain pumpernickel bread
46
1 large slice
12
5
All-Bran™ cereal
45
1 cup
21
10
Spaghetti, whole-meal, boiled
32
1 cup
37
14
Orange, raw
42
1 medium
11
5
Apple, raw
39
1 medium
15
6
Pear, raw
38
1 medium
11
4
Skim milk
33
8 fl oz
13
4
Carrots, boiled
33
½ cup
4
1
Lentils, dried, boiled
29
1 cup
24
7
Kidney beans, dried, boiled
28
1 cup
29
8
Pearled barley, boiled
28
1 cup
38
11
Cashews
25
1 oz
9
2
Peanuts
18
1 oz
6
1
*Amount of available carbohydrates in a food serving that excludes indigestible carbohydrates, i.e., dietary fiber.

Why the glycemic load is more accurate

You can consider the glycemic load as the glycemic index 2.0. And the three tiers of the glycemic load (GL) you should be familiar with are 0-10, which is low; 11-19, medium; and 20 and above which is high.

Unlike the glycemic index, If a certain food ranks high on the glycemic load scale, it’s safe to assume it’s not good for diabetes management. The GL is figured out by taking the amount of grams of carbs in a food and multiplying that by the food’s glycemic index score. Then, you take that number and divide by 100.

But you know what, don’t worry about potentially confusing diet math right now. What’s more important is understanding this biggest difference between glycemic index vs load. And let’s use as an example the one veggie and fruit that often get a bum rap. I’m referring of course to carrots and watermelon.

Remember, watermelon ranks high on the GI at 72. But it’s glycemic load is low, only 7. And carrots, despite having a potentially blood-sugar spiking score in the 90s only has a GL score of 1. Yes, that’s not a typo. In other words, according to the glycemic load score, carrots have little risk of converting into blood sugar.

How can this disparity exist? Isn’t it really confusing if you’re trying to manage your diabetes? The answer to the second question: yes, totally. I feel your pain. When I was studying for my certified nutrition therapy coursework, I was confused by the difference between the glycemic index vs load. But, again, the simple difference between the two is that the glycemic index does not take into account serving sizes. That means if you only eat one large raw carrot, that carrot may have a negligible effect on your blood sugar.

Carrots: Glycemic Index VS Load: Why the glycemic load is more accurate

More reasons why the index isn’t the holy grail of diabetes management

The reason why the glycemic load of watermelon and carrots is so low is that both of them contain no fat and protein. Foods that contain fat and protein have a lower glycemic index. Because theoretically, protein and especially dietary fat can reduce the effect of carbs converting into sugar. This is why peanut butter M&Ms have a relatively-low score on the GI: 33. Does that mean you should eat more peanut butter M&Ms and less watermelon and carrots? Of course not. This exemplifies how the glycemic index isn’t always a great tool for managing diabetes.

In addition, the glycemic index as well as the glycemic load do not take into account the cooking methods of a particular food. For example, did you know that al dente pasta has a lower glycemic load than soft, mushy noodles? That’s because your digestive system has to work harder to break down al dente pasta. Also, the indexes don’t account for how ripe or raw a food is. Take bananas, for example. Green-tipped bananas (eaten with nothing else) will cause less of an insulin response than a really ripe banana.

That’s why yet another index, the insulin index, might be an even better determinant of the effect of a food on your blood sugar level. According to the insulin index, pasta really isn’t that bad for you. That’s not to say if you have diabetes and you’re doing your best to reverse it, you should eat it. But one small serving of it, especially if you drizzle it with olive oil and have a lean, small portion of meat on the side, is relatively low on the insulin index. How can this be? Well, it takes longer than white bread and other starchy carbs for pasta to break down into sugar.

Insulin Index of Common Foods

Index VS Load: conclusion

As always, the emphasis on eating should focus on foods rich in fiber (which also slows down the conversion of carbs into glucose), especially leafy green and cruciferous veggies (such as those in Certified Organic Green Drinks). And if you’re trying to normalize your blood sugar levels, your meals should satisfy you enough so that you can go several hours in between meals without feeling hungry. That means you need enough dietary fat and protein to balance out the carbs.

And this is a topic for another blog post about diabetes management, but in general, you can safely eat a moderate amount of fruit without worrying about it skyrocketing your blood sugar. Try to eat a handful of nuts along with the fruit. The protein and fat in the nuts will further slow down any potential for the fruit sugar converting to sugar in your blood.

But also keep in mind that if you eat a huge portion of meat, some of that protein can be converted into blood sugar. This is another limitation of the glycemic index. According to the index, meat ranks 0. That’s because meat doesn’t have any carbs.

Another reason the glycemic index isn’t a panacea for weight loss and diabetes management is two completely different foods can rank the same on the GI. But one of those foods can produce an insulin response that skyrockets your blood sugar level whereas the other food can have a much lesser insulin response.

Poached Pear with Gluten-Free Crumble & Vegan Ice Cream

Chef V

Although alcohol is not recommended for cleansing, this recipe cooks out any of the alcohol and makes this a decadent dessert. You can always omit the champagne and use any liquid, even water, for this recipe.

poached pear

TOTAL 80 minutes

Serving Size: 6 people

Ingredients

  • 1 cup champagne or other liquid
  • 3 pears (d Anjou, Bartlett, Asian) halved and scooped with melon ball 
  • 1 tbsp honey 
  • 1/2 cup gluten-free flour 
  • 3/4 cup gluten-free oats 
  • 1/4 cup coconut sugar 
  • Pinch sea salt 
  • 2 tsp vanilla 
  • 3 tbsp vegan butter 
  • Vegan ice cream to serve 

poached pears in oven

Directions

Preheat oven 375 F. Mix honey and champagne together.

In a shallow baking pan lined with foil, lay the scooped pears on the pan, skin side down. Pour champagne mix to cover. Cover with foil and bake 10 minutes. Add another 10 minutes if pears are not ripe.

While pears bake, mix flour, oats, sugar, salt, butter and vanilla.

Remove pears and foil. Top evenly with crumble. Continue to bake, uncovered, for 20 minutes or until the crumble is golden brown. Remove pears.

Serve on a plate with scooped vegan ice cream. Enjoy this delicious and healthy dessert! 

It’s RAWGUST! Summer is the Best Time for Raw Food

Jean Yates

raw food for summer

Thinking about doing a cleanse? Going raw vegan in summer is easy and can help detoxify your body before, during and after the cleanse.

There’s a misconception about me….

Some people describe me as a vegan chef.

Maybe it’s because another Chef Veronica out there. But she’s a low fat vegan chef. Personally, as a certified nutritional therapist, I don’t think low fat diets are very healthy.

Or, maybe because my first job, at age 15, was working at a vegetarian restaurant.

But I’m not vegan nor 100% vegetarian. 

However, I do love and advocate the vegan diet.

Going raw and vegan in summer (or anytime of year, really) is like pouring fuel cleaner into your car.

Meat, especially non-organic meat, gunks up your transmission; it’s much harder on your digestive system. Consequently, when you eat lots of meat, it can slow down your liver’s natural detoxification abilities.

So you can use my recipes for giving your system a cleanse while feeling like your indulging.

Especially now because as I write this, it’s the heart of summer: the best time to do a cleanse.

One of the keys to successfully doing a cleanse—anytime of the year—is to not feel like you’re missing out.

raw veggies

Going Raw Vegan in Summer

And when you learn to make raw vegan recipes that taste just as good as their non-vegan cooked alternatives, you definitely won’t feel like you’re punishing yourself doing a cleanse.

Eating raw makes you feel lighter. Which helps if you’ve fallen off the wagon as of late, like I did during my three-week trip to Europe eating decadent meals.

Here’s another plus of going raw in summer: cutting down on electric bills. The last thing you want to do when it’s really hot outside is turning on the oven to 425 degrees to bake, say, a salmon fillet.

Sure, you might have air conditioning. But where I live, in San Diego, many people don’t have it. Especially those people who live near the coast. Even if you do have A/C, though, you’ll save money by not using your oven.


vegetarian food prep

What is Raw Food?

Technically, raw food is prepared at a temperature that won’t destroy naturally-occurring compounds and enzymes. There’s some debate as to what that magic number is.

But most raw foodists consider 104 degrees (fahrenheit) to be the maximum cooking temperature.

Therefore, if you like broccoli but not when it’s completely raw, you can lightly cook it.

You can also buy a food dehydrator to make raw food snacks such as dried fruit. However, here’s where the raw food temperature debate comes into play.

Dehydrated raw food still qualifies as raw by some people even though the dehydration temperature is usually between 105 and 115.

And don’t get me started about raw almonds. That’s for a whole other blog topic.

(Raw almonds really aren’t raw; they are pasteurized.)

Don’t get caught up in the technicality of what is and isn’t raw food.

If it’s something that comes directly from the ground or a tree, and is, at worst, very minimally processed, then I consider it a raw food.

In other words, if it’s a fruit or vegetable or nut or seed, it’s raw. Or, if it’s a byproduct of any of these, cooked at an ultra low temperature, it’s also raw to me.

raw vegan greens

Going Raw Vegan in Summer: Isn’t Going Raw Enough?

Most raw food is very easy for your belly to digest, with maybe the exception of nightshade veggies like peppers, tomatoes and eggplant.

That’s why introducing plenty of raw vegan foods into your diet when you are cleansing is smart.

But isn’t going raw enough? Why also vegan? Can’t I eat raw cheese during a cleanse?

Great questions! Glad you asked 🙂

Yes, raw dairy is an option. But like raw almonds, raw dairy really isn’t raw, according to raw foodie purists.

The more important point is that dairy, even if it’s raw is not ideal for cleansing. In fact, I suggest you completely avoid dairy for at least 3-7 days before you start a cleanse.

Dairy gums up the works. If your liver is sluggish, eating cheese certainly isn’t going to help it release toxins faster.


Chef V's cleanse

Going Raw Vegan in Summer: Here’s What I’m Eating Now

Hardly anybody wants to eat hot soup in summer. Or drink scalding bone broth.

But a light yet satisfying cold soup is just what Mother Nature calls for this time of year.

That’s why I love gazpacho in summer.

And here’s one of my favorites: Raw Cucumber Cilantro Avocado Gazpacho. I know, sounds like a mouthful, right? Well, it’s got a huge taste.

For a main course, how about some pasta. Pasta … That’s not raw, is it? And it’s not vegan if it’s got ricotta in it.

But my Raw Pesto Lasagna with Macadamia Ricotta contains zoodles, not noodles. Check out the recipe to see how I make a raw vegan ricotta!

Finally, it’s time for dessert. I’m a sucker for cheesecake. But obviously, regular cheesecake is a no-no when you’re cleansing.

To get my healthy dessert on, I’m making this Raw Caramel Cheesecake.

Yes, it’s possible to enjoy a decadent-tasting dessert while doing your own cleanse?

Now, I feel I have to clarify something important here. If you’re doing one of my 3, 5 or 7 day cleanses, you’re sticking to Organic Green Drinks, Vegan Protein Shakes and Detox Soups.

But before and after the official cleanse is over, treat yourself with one of these delicious raw vegan desserts.

Follow these recipes to a T, or, pardon the corny pun, to a V, and you’ll have no problem going raw vegan in summer!

Chef V, Coco and kale

Celery Juice Part 1 – Miracle, Hype, or Both?

Chef V

Chef V, Veronica Wheat

Quirky fads come. Quirky fads go. Remember shake weights? You see anybody doing that lately?

How about snail facials?

Yes, believe it or not, some people are willing to pay 250 bucks or so to have live snails applied to their face for younger-looking skin. Um, no thanks. I’ll stick with my chemical-free sunscreen and eating lots of green leafy veggies like the 7 different ones in my Organic Green Drink.

One health trend that doesn’t seem as outlandish as snail facials but nonetheless had me very intrigued to try is drinking celery juice.

In this article, I’ll tell you how the seemingly bland celery plant, has transformed from an underdog ants-on-a-log snack (celery, peanut butter and raisins) and soup and salad garnish, into one of the biggest health trends, praised by several celebrities.

In part 2 of this article, I shared with you my personal results after drinking celery juice every day for 3 weeks, and how it compares nutritiously to my Green Drink. In addition, I’ll tell you what one influential naturopathic doctor thinks about the drinking celery juice fad.

Lemon juice detox

What's Behind the Celery Juice Trend?

Suppose you have one or more health concerns, be it cosmetic such as acne, or a life-threatening condition such as cancer.

Would you seek advice and treatment from a doctor or other health professional?

Or, would you take advice from someone with absolutely no medical training at all, someone who charges $500 for a 30-minute phone consultation and who recommends across the board, regardless of symptoms, drinking 16 oz. of celery juice every morning on an empty stomach?

Although it sounds crazy, for thousands of people, the choice is the latter, thanks to Anthony William, aka “The Medical Medium,” and the person single-handedly responsible for the celery juice craze.

Who is the Medical Medium?

If you’ve never heard of William, here’s a brief bio on him. William claims to have innate healing intuition.  On his website, William says that when he was 4 years old, he announced to his family that his symptom-free grandmother had lung cancer, which medical tests later confirmed (or so he claims).

In William’s book, “Celery Juice: The Most Powerful Medicine Of Our Time, Healing Millions Worldwide,” he says, “The first time that God led me to recommend celery juice was in 1975, to bring down the inflammation of a family member’s back injury after she fell down a staircase.”

William says he also distinctly remembers in 1977 recommending celery juice it to a family friend who had a severe case of acid reflux. Later, when he was a teenager, working as a stock boy in the local supermarket, he persuaded his boss to buy a juicer and give people samples of celery juice. “By the time customers left the store, some of them would already feel relief from their various ailments,” William claims.

By the late 1990s, William says in his book that celery juice had helped thousands of people. “There wasn’t a symptom. Condition, illness, disorder, or disease that I didn’t see benefit from celery juice. It never disappointed.”

(Interestingly, if you Google, “How old is The Medical Medium,” Google answers that William is 29 years old, born in 1990, well after William claims to have first recommended celery juice as a panacea.)

What Conditions Does Celery Juice Help With?

It would be easier to list things it doesn’t help with, according to William, who to reiterate, has no medical training whatsoever and seems proud of this fact.

From acid reflux to Alzheimer’s and anxiety, to vertigo and vitiligo, the Medical Medium has convinced a significant number of people—he has over 1 million Instagram followers—that celery juice is an “unparalleled healing weapon.”

And he has an army of celebrities to back his claim. Just a sample of the A-listers that have glowingly endorsed William’s healing intuitive powers include: Robert De Niro; Sylvester Stallone; Liv Tyler; Novak Djokovic (the #1-ranked male tennis player in the world); Rashida Jones; Naomi Campell; Courtney Cox; and Gwyneth Paltrow.

In an age when many people take medical advice from celebrities instead of trained professionals, these endorsements are perhaps more influential than one from your own family doctor.

How Does Celery Juice Work?

At least in this regard, William admits, “there is not yet enough research about what consuming celery regularly can do for us to reveal all of its benefits…” William continues, “The world is still waiting for a rigorous, peer-reviewed study on the effects of drinking 16 ounces of fresh celery juice daily on an empty stomach.”

Until then, here’s the magic behind celery juice, according to William. Celery juice, he says, contain something called sodium cluster salts. Unlike regular table salt or even healthier salts like Celtic sea salt, the salt in celery juice removes crystallized toxic salts “that have been in your organs for years.”

Celery juice also contains “undiscovered” trace minerals that “help restore a dimension of hydrochloric acid [digestive acid in your stomach] that medical research and science haven’t yet realized is lacking.”

William says that acid in your gut that helps you digest food is actually a complex seven-acid blend. Celery juice, he says, helps bring acids back when they’ve diminished, doing so via micro trace minerals that rejuvenate stomach gland tissue.

Leptin function

How Many Stalks of Celery to Make 16 OZ of Juice?

William explains in more detail in his book how celery juice works. But enough with that. I’m ready to compare apples to oranges, or more accurately celery juice vs. Chef V Organic Green Drink.

If you want to give celery juice a try, don’t let me dissuade you. However, keep in mind that in order to drink 16 ounces of it, you’ll need to juice about 10-12 stalks.

As I learned over the course of 3 weeks giving it a try, it’s a giant pain in the behind to clean your juicer every morning.

So if you’re keeping score at home, with the ease of having nutrient-dense Green Drink delivered to your home, no messy clean-up required, so far it’s Chef V 1, Celery Juice 0.

In Part 2 – Chef V tries Celery Juice for 3 weeks

Easiest Way To Be Eco Friendly: Power Yourself by Plants!

Chef V

vegtable protein sources

Even if you drive a gas-guzzling car, crank up the A/C in the summer and heat in the winter, you can still do your part to tread more lightly on the Earth. Learn how easy it is to be more eco friendly….

Power Yourself with Plants: Plant Powered Proteins

The easiest thing you can do to tread more lightly on the Earth is eat less meat.

Did you know that over 30% of the Earth’s landmass is being used livestock (meat- and dairy-producing animals.) Nothing wrong with enjoying a piece of meat every now and then if it’s grass-fed, organic and humanely-raised.

However, for me, that’s a rare treat. Especially knowing that almost 10 percent of the carbon dioxide (CO2) released into the atmosphere is because of feeding and caring for livestock.

Ten percent might not sound high, but here’s the problem: Livestock accounts for a shockingly-high amount of harmful greenhouse gases. Greenhouse gases are chiefly responsible for global warming. Feeding and taking care of domesticated animals that eventually turn up on our dinner plate generates about 65 percent of nitrous oxide (N20). What’s the difference between N20 and CO2?

cattle in stockyard

Nitrous oxide has the potential to warm up the planet 300 more times than CO2.

Also, all those animals grazing and pooping uses a lot of water and takes up land that could otherwise be used for public open spaces.

My intention isn’t to freak you out about global warming nor is it to convert you to vegetarianism.

Rather, my intention is to let you know how easy it is to be more eco friendly simply by eating less meat. Do you eat meat three times a day? Cut down to twice a day. If you eat meat three times a week, see how you do eating it just once or twice a week.

protein burger

And now that there are so many delicious plant-based meat alternatives it’s really easy to have less of a carbon footprint. In fact, if you’re already vegetarian or vegan, let your friends and family know about the delicious brands of plant protein burgers. Bring a package of Beyond Meat’s “Beyond Burger” to the next barbecue you go to.

While it’s true that Beyond Burger is a little on the pricey side, it’s a fraction of the cost of what you’ll have to pay should you God-forbid develop a chronic illness.

That’s not to say that vegetarians don’t develop chronic disease, but there’s no denying the fact that eating lots of meat puts you at more risk for developing certain cancers like colorectal. (This is especially true if you’re eating lots of red, processed meat like bacon, as well as deli meats with nitrites and nitrates.)

In addition to yummy pea protein burgers, you can also boost your plant-protein intake with hemp protein, which is one of the plant-powered proteins for my Organic Protein Shake recipe, which you get when you do one of my Cleanses.

Chef V protein shake

Reduce Water and Plastic Usage

Reducing the amount of water you use is another way to be more eco friendly. Try to reduce the time you’re in the shower by one minute. Set a timer on your phone to let you know when time’s up.

Another way to cut down on the amount of water you’re using while showering is by installing a low-flow showerhead.  If you own a home, the incentive to be more eco friendly will be worth it. That’s because low-flow showerheads will result in a lower water bill.

Also, if you’re still using plastic water bottles, get with the program and use stainless steel water bottles. If you’re using plastic because the water at your home doesn’t taste good, spend the money on a good water filter for your sink. Or you can buy one of those water filter pitchers.

The overwhelming majority of plastic water bottles end up in garbage landfills. In fact, it’s estimated that 80 percent of commercial water bottles end up in landfills. Every time you toss a water bottle in the trash, keep in mind that it’ll take up to 1,000 years for it to decompose. And in the meantime, the bottle will be leaking harmful chemicals into the environment.

You can easily do your part to reduce the amount of plastic that’s discarded into landfills. Just say no to plastic water bottles. We offer a glass option for our weekly Chef V plan delivery (not available for shipping at this time), just email customer service to make the switch.

When I travel by plane, I bring my own water bottle and fill it up at the airport. They always have water stations or if not a restaurant will fill it for you.

water bottle

Ditching The Dairy Is Eco Friendly

As I mentioned above, livestock (think: cows) require an enormous amount of land, feed and water. And the methane gas from their back ends is a major contributor to greenhouse gas. In fact, methane is 85 times more powerful than carbon dioxide at trapping heat. That’s right, cow farts and poop are bad. Real bad. (And it’s worse than we thought, according to this Forbes article.)

So in addition to cutting down on meat, it’s eco friendly to ditch dairy, too. But if you can’t stand the thought of not having your milk and cookies, there’s plenty of healthy plant-based “mylks” out there. For example, try my recipe for almond milk. I add almond milk to Golden Milk, which is one of the healthiest, most delicious drinks on the planet.

I realize some people can’t do without cheese. Having a picnic in a field with some red wine and slices of delicious Manchego (a variety of sheep cheese) is heavenly. I get that. But that doesn’t mean you have to eat huge wedges of cheese every day. I’m not saying you need to give up cheese completely. Just as with meat consumption, try to reduce the amount of conventional dairy you eat. The cows are still going to be farting away in the fields. But the less demand for cheese and dairy overall, the less the livestock will need to be fed.

Brandon and Veronica

Other Easy Ways to Be More Eco Friendly

Just cutting down on the amount of meat and dairy you eat as well as the amount of water you use are impactful ways you can more eco friendly. Doing so makes a huge difference.

And other ways you can easily reduce your carbon footprint include:

  • Keeping canvas bags in your trunk to use everytime you go to the supermarket or farmer’s markets. You can also bring them into restaurants when you’re getting take-out.
  • Speaking of restaurants, buy some Pyrex containers and use them for leftovers.
  • Use organic sunscreen. Conventional sunscreen is partly responsible for killing coral reefs.
  • Don’t use paper towels. Instead, use cloth hand towels to wipe your face and hands.
  • Wash your clothes in cold water instead of hot water.
  • Replace old lightbulbs with more energy-efficient LED lights.

Pretty simple, right? You don’t have to feel pressured to make these changes all at once. Adopt one recommendation at a time if that works better for you. Even making one of these changes will make a significant difference. It might not seem like much but every bit helps.

Love,

Chef V

Chef V and kale

© 2021 Chef V, LLC.