Healthy Ramen Noodles
Ramen noodles always reminds me of a college dorm room, with students eating the cheapest and quickest food to eat. Ocean's Halo Organic Ramen Noodles contains 290 mg of sodium in one packet, compared to 891 mg in the instant chicken flavored ramen found in the dorm room! Ocean's Halo contains 4 packets per box. I found them in the Asian aisle in my local grocery store. I used 3 packets for this recipe, which made enough for 2 dinners and 2 lunches for the next day.
Ingredients
- 3 packets Ocean's Halo Ramen noodles
- 1-1/2 to 2 cups veggie broth
- 3 scallions, sliced
- 1 cup frozen peas
- 2 baby or 1 medium Bok choy (slice and keep the top greens separate)
- 2 carrots, shaved with peeler
- Low sodium tamari sauce
- San-J Umami with red miso (optional, but gives the dish a wonderful flavor
- Salt, pepper, paprika, turmeric spices
Instructions
Add sliced scallions to a large, hot frying pan. Stir for a few minutes, add the whites of the Bok choy, peas, and around 1/2 cup veggie broth, a few splashes of Tamari, and a drizzle of Umami. Stir and simmer for about 10 minutes. Add the greens of the Bok choy, and the carrots. Season with salt, pepper, turmeric and paprika (as much as you like) Add more veggie broth if it looks dry. Meanwhile, cook the noodles according to package directions, drain when done and add to frying pan. Add a few splashes more tamari and umami. Simmer until all vegetables are tender. Add more veggie broth if it looks dry or if you like it more "brothy". Chop sticks are optional!
The Bone Broth Craze
One of the biggest promoters is The Weston Price Foundation and its followers. The organization features a section called “Broth is Beautiful” with many unsubstantiated health claims and recipes. Health claims include that fish broth helps boys to grow into strong men; can make childbirth easier and is a cure for fatigue. The website says that Americans need healthier fast food, and suggests that “brothals” in every town would be the answer to this need. The Foundation also states that some of the best ingredients for making bone broth are hooves, feet, and heads because they are the most gelatinous parts of animals. [1]
A new book by Weston Price disciples Sally Fallon and Kayla Daniel called Nourishing Broth provides even more folklore and is advertised as including the science behind broth’s unique ingredients, and how broth can heal pain and inflammation, improve digestion, reduce allergies, cure Crohn’s disease, help people with eating disorders, and even improve outcomes for cancer patients. [2]
People have been making broth for centuries, but it seems that only recently, and at the prompting of groups like the Weston Price Foundation, that magical properties have been attributed to it. Fallon and Daniel claim that boiling animal and fish bones, skin, cartilage, tendons, and ligaments results in a gelatinous liquid that promotes the growth of collagen and builds strong bones. They also claim that bone broth is a great source of two key amino acids – proline and glycine – which are important for maintaining collagen and healthy tissues.
There are several problems with these claims, one of which is that eating collagen does not promote collagen growth. Collagen, like everything else we eat, is broken down into many things, including its constituent amino acids, and the body uses them to make many things like enzymes and hormones, as needed. Furthermore, many other nutrients are needed to make collagen, and plants are much better sources of those nutrients than bone broth. Additionally, cystine and proline are non-essential amino acids which means that they are synthesized by the body and do not need to be consumed in food.
Fallon and Daniel state that part of the value of bone broth is that it is made at home from scratch, that home-made bone broth is better than store-bought broth, and that food prepared at home is generally always better. We all agree. However, there are much safer and more nutritious things to make at home that broth from the heads of dead animals.
Safety is an issue. While the nutrient content of bone broth varies, it can be quite high in both fat and protein from animal sources. I looked at several recipes online and protein per serving was as high as 16-20 grams, and fat content was as high as 50%. Research is quite clear that diets that include copious amounts of animal protein and fat increase the risk of diseases like coronary artery disease, diabetes, and cancer.
A significantly bigger concern is the potential for lead contamination as a result of consuming bone broth. Animal bones have been shown to contain high quantities of lead, and broths made with those bones have higher concentrations of lead than the water from which the bone broth was made. [3] The deleterious effects of excess lead exposure are well-known, which provides another reason to avoid bone broth.
[1] Weston Price Library
[2] Nourishing Broth
[3] Monro J, Leon R, Puri B. “The risk of lead contamination in bone broth diets.” Med Hypothesis 2013 Apr;80(4):389-390
Do you have leftover rice?
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I love to make easy soups and stews any time of the year. Keeping your pantry stocked with broth, beans and canned tomatoes makes dinner prep fast and easy. This recipe makes around 8 servings. I added fresh chopped spinach to this recipe, only because the spinach was going expire! 
Ingredients
8 cups vegetable broth
2 cups cooked brown or white rice
1 can black beans (rinsed)
1 can ranchero beans or chili beans (don't rinse)
1 can fire roasted tomatoes
1 red onion, chopped
4-5 cloves garlic, sliced
2 carrots, sliced or diced
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon chili powder (more if you like spicy)
Dried or fresh cilantro (optional)
Fresh lime (optional)
Avocado (optional)
Instructions
Heat a large saucepan, add onion and sauté, stirring frequently so that it doesn't stick to the pan, until translucent, add garlic and continue stirring for 2-3 minutes. Add carrots, broth, beans, tomatoes and all spices. Simmer until carrots are tender. Add the rice, cilantro, and squeeze 1/2 fresh lime. Continue simmering for about 10 minutes.
Top with sliced avocado
December 2022
I encounter two kinds of people that enter the holiday season: it's the Christmas "all you can eat buffet and I will put myself into a cookie coma" or "I will stress about every bite that goes into my mouth and have obsessive conversations with all my friends and family about their food choices". (I'll confess, I was kind of the second person. Don't judge me.) The first person usually ends up disgusted by December 31, vowing to make all kinds of changes. "I will start at the first of the year". Most of us have said that without having a clear strategy on how to start.
There is a fine line between being concerned and proactive about health vs being obsessed about making good choices. Concerned and proactive is good; obsessed and spending every waking moment thinking about what you are going to eat, and other related issues is counterproductive.
If you have started your health journey with us using the Wellness Forum Health food pyramid, you have learned that it is a journey to dietary excellence, not dietary perfection! It is the totality of your dietary pattern that determines your health outcomes. A healthy eating plan, exercise, sleep, and hydration is the goal. When you know that you are on the road to dietary excellence, your mindset changes. When you are stressed and obsessed about every bite that you take, your physical response to food negatively changes, which causes overeating and weight gain. Once your optimal dietary pattern is established, eating a few cookies on the holiday is not a game changer unless it leads to binge eating. There are psychological benefits to being with your loved ones around a table of food and enjoying their company. Make family and friends your focus, not food.
Tips to navigate the holidays:
Eat a healthy and filling breakfast (oatmeal, smoothie)
Eat a salad before going to a holiday party (be mindful of hidden sugar and oil in bottled dressings)
Eat extra vegetables at meals
Don't go back for seconds
Eat fiber for gut health (fruit, veggies, potatoes, legumes)
Stay hydrated (64 oz of water daily)
Watch your alcohol consumption
Focus on enjoying people and conversation, not food
Remember that cookies are treats, not daily food
Save the date for Saturday, January 21, for our Food Over Medicine special event New Perspectives on Weight Loss. This will be free event presented by Dr. Pam Popper via live zoom. Details coming soon. You will learn:
How calorie restriction can cause weight gain
Why fitness trackers and other devices can contribute to weight gain, not weight loss
How weight loss can increase hunger
Strategies for permanent behavior change
How to have your cake and lose weight too!
Lifestyles of lean and healthy people
Have a wonderful and safe Christmas holiday!
Liz
