minerals

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Smooth

May 26, 2010 in Recipes, Seasonal Eating by bursty | 2 comments

buds2

So last night I came up with another great “humidity food” — and as we were sipping them, we realized just how much nutrition you can pack into one of these babies — SMOOTHIES!  We were blessed with a kickass blender as a wedding gift which makes ALL the difference.  Last night we went the banana / blueberry route, added a little Rice Dream, berry juice, and green kale.  It was so tasty!  And, with all of those goodies, it was packed with calcium, B-12, vitamin C, iron, folate, potassium, fiber, and antioxidants.  I promptly declared 2010 the “summer of smoothies”.  What are some of your favorite smoothie combinations!?

How to get your Zinc without killing animals

February 12, 2010 in News, Personal Health by bursty | 1 comment

Today’s topic:  Yet another reason to eat your sea veggies!

seaweedsaladTurns out, zinc is important.  Zinc deficiency affects many, many people the world over, leading to such tragic things as:  growth retardation in children, delayed sexual maturation, infection susceptilibity, impotence, immune suppression, and diarrhea.  As it also turns out, zinc is easiest to get in the form of animal protein. 

The zinc content of plant-based foods depends on how rich the soil it was grown in was with zinc, and zinc deficiency in soil is an ever-increasing problem as the world struggles to diversify the crops planted in a given plot of soil from year to year.  The RDA recommends 8 mg of zinc per day for women and 11 mg per day for men.  This can be difficult to get, as zinc absorption is also difficult, with only 15-40% of the zinc you take in through food actually getting absorbed.  The zinc in animal meat form is 4 times more available than that in plant-based forms.  Phytic acid, naturally occuring in the body and also present in some fortified products, prevents the absorption of zinc into the body by binding to it.  Dietary fiber (abundant in the macro diet) also prevents absorption. 

With all that said, some of the best vegan sources of zinc include:  peanuts, beans, whole grain cereals (fortified), brown rice, and whole wheat bread (fortified).   Pumpkin seeds provide one of the most concentrated sources of zinc in the vegan diet!  Other good sources are:  chickpeas (2.8 mg per cup), baked beans (1.6 mg per cup), vegeburger (1.6 mg), muesli (1.3 mg per 1/4 cup), tahini (1.1 mg per oz), sesame seeds, and dried yeast (0.8 mg per 1/3 oz.).  Read the rest of this entry »

Ode to Lentils

January 21, 2009 in Reviews by bursty | 1 comment

lentils

Surprisingly enough, the above-written-title of this post, when entered into a google search, returns several results! Where did I get it from, you ask? Well — my wonderful husband and I were at a used bookstore in lovely Saint Paul, Minnesota, this past Monday (yay for federal holidays!), and I came across a collection of Pablo Neruda’s ‘Odes to Common Things’. A beautifully illustrated, lovely collection of poetry written by one of my favorite poets, about his love of everyday things: chairs, desks, flowers, socks, soap… I didn’t buy it, but reading it and smiling in the simplicity of the subject matter made me think of lentils. mmm… So, I thought about writing my own Neruda-style-Ode-to-lentil; but instead I decided to spare you and write prose…

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Pumping Iron the Macrobiotic Way, Part 2

November 22, 2008 in Reviews by Nicole Gurgel, B.A. | 2 comments

 

The second in a two-part, Saturday series exploring the hows and whys of iron intake, macrobiotically.

For the past week I have been scouring articles, internet posts and entire web sites devoted to the absorption of iron. This two-part series is by no means the definitive account of Iron in the Macrobiotic Lifestyle, but a step towards being a bit more concscious about this vital mineral.

As I mentioned last week, pre-menopausal women need more iron than men their age, requiring just under 15 milligrams per day, to the 9 suggested for the average adult male. This is because menstraution results in blood loss (obviously) and 80% of our body’s iron is stored in red blood cells. Depending on the heaviness of your cycle, you could lose anywhere between 4-100 mg of iron during the course of your period.

Okay. So we know iron is important. We know women generally need more of it than men. And in the last post we learned that Vitamin C can help the body increase absorption of iron. What we need to talk about now are – cue the foreboding music – the several factors that inhibit iron absorption.
The two main culprits here are phytates and tannins, which through a process called chelation, bind to the minerals like iron making them difficult to absorb. Let’s break it down. Read the rest of this entry »

Pumping Iron the Macrobiotic Way, Part 1

November 15, 2008 in Reviews by Nicole Gurgel, B.A. | 6 comments

 

The first in a two-part, Saturday series exploring the hows and whys of iron intake, macrobiotically.

On a whim, I signed up to run a half marathon in February. As the race approaches and my runs stretch longer and longer, I feel my body changing ever so slightly. I’m a little bit leaner, a little bit yanger and a whole lot hungrier. I haven’t been able to find much information about macrobiotics and endurance running, but one thing I do know is that runners – especially female, pre-menopausal runners – need to stay on top of their daily iron intake.

Iron is essential to the production of hemoglobin. Hemoglobin lives in the red blood cells and binds to oxygen, transporting this all-important molecule from our lungs to every single cell in our body. And since we need a big supply of oxygen for basically all cellular functions, when we are running low on hemoglobin (and subsequently not getting enough oxygen) we start to feel fatigued.

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