Food And Recipe

Heartburn and indigestion make millions of people miserable. Continuous digestive problems can be a symptom of overeating, bad food choices or something more serious.  Thankfully simple changes in the foods you eat can provide relief.

A number of foods can trigger heartburn or indigestion by relaxing the band of muscles at the end of your esophagus so it can’t keep out stomach acid. By avoiding spicy foods with black pepper or chili powder, garlic and raw onions, citrus foods like tomatoes, oranges, and grapefruit, fried or fatty foods, alcohol or anything with caffeine such as coffee, tea, soft drinks, heartburn and indigestion can be greatly lessened or avoided.

For overall healthy digestion and to minimize acid reflux, make sure you get plenty of fiber from a variety of vegetables, non-citrus fruits, and whole grains. Drink enough fluids to help your body absorb important nutrients and lubricate food waste, and use low-fat methods when cooking. Try drinking herbal chamomile tea after dinner or before bedtime, as it’s believed to have a calming effect on the stomach.  Smaller but more frequent meals can also help decrease heartburn and indigestion episodes.   Be sure to eat your meals and snacks in a calm, relaxed atmosphere where there’s little if any noise or distractions. Wear properly fitting clothing that isn’t tight in the waist and abdominal area, and don’t lie down immediately after eating a meal.

Make your morning meal oatmeal. It’s high in fiber, low in saturated fat and cholesterol and when combined with skim milk, gives you a calcium-charged boost to your day. By adding blueberries or raisins you’ll be adding some extra iron and potassium into the mix for a well-balanced meal. Read the rest of this entry →

Since moving to a raw food diet I have been asked by friends and family whether you can cook food on a raw food diet. What they mean of course is do you allow yourself any cooked food or is everything you eat completely raw. Going round for dinner could be a nightmare explaining what I can and cannot eat. It wouldn’t take long to become “Mr Weird Foodie” with no friends. While some people do eat completely raw food as raw foodists I will eat cooked food. In fact I still enjoy cooked food although I do limit this type of food for the reasons I explain below.

Behind this question is a serious point about cooking temperatures and enzymes which I will try to explain. Raw foods, when cooked, start to change and breakdown. When they break down the enzymes change their structure and make it much harder for you to digest the food. Your digestive organs will have to work harder to overcome the lack of enzymes in the cooked food. Eventually your organs will wear themselves out with all the work of trying to compensate for the change in the foods structure.

The cooking temperature that all this change happens to food is 118 degrees Fahrenheit. The only way to get around this change in the foods structure is to quickly blanch food or steam it. It requires a good thermometer and some skill to cook the food and keep it below this temperature. Read the rest of this entry →