Healthy Alternatives

You know what they say, prevention is better than cure. Here are some alternatives that could change anyone's life. 

1. Ditch those bottled/cartoned juices and start making your own juice!

Currently, I am drinking three tall glasses of different mixes of fruit and even vegetable juice a day. I am on my fifth haha day of having it thrice (!!!!) a day. I increased it from once to thrice a day for reason I'd rather not divulge. 

Let's face it, it would take lots of time and energy to eat a whole bunch of romaine lettuce, an apple, a pineapple, a guava, a carrot, a celery, a cucumber, beetroot, pomelo, and what have you, but with juicing you get all the nutrients from all these raw food in just one gulp. My golly, it would take a whole lifetime for me to chop, chew, and ingest all those! And if that's the case, no thank you, I honestly won't bother. Thank God there's juicing! You can infuse your body with live enzymes quite (washing, peeling, and chopping fruits and veggies, and cleaning the juicer and all utensils used is serious business, noh!) easily. We peel them and wash them properly because not many of the fruits and veggies we buy are organically grown, thus, loaded with pesticides. :( 

Remember, a juicer is different from a blender. A blender will just puree them while a juicer leaves you with pure organic water from your fruits and vegetables. It is also important to consume your juice immediately because it is highly perishable esp. veggie juice, and ma always tells us that the enzymes die if we don't drink it right away.   

Usual mixes we do at home:

- Pomelo and apple

- Lettuce and apple

- Guava (super rich in Vit C!) and apple

- cucumber, 3 carrots (carrots don't have much juice / water content), and apple

- forgot the others na, so much more combinations you can do! =) But yes, we almost always have apple in our mixes.

OH, and we usually put freshly picked malunggay / morninga, too, in our juices! Sometimes, wheatgrass too. 

If you still have no idea what I am talking about, think juices from Fruit Magic you see in malls.

"...I am firmly convinced that juicing is the final key to giving you a radiant, energetic life, and truly optimal health.

... valuable and sensitive micronutrients become damaged when you heat foods. 

Cooking and processing food destroys these micronutrients by altering their shape and chemical composition. ...

Virtually every health authority recommends that we get 6-8 servings of vegetables and fruits per day and very few of us actually get that. Juicing is an easy way to virtually guarantee that you will reach your daily target for vegetables." --directly lifted from Juicing, Your Key to Radiant Health by Dr. Mercola

For the past number of years, we use the 6-in-1 Multipurpose Juice Extractor by Matstone. They say it's "the only juicer *that can juice malunggay".
Another alternative favorite to tetra-packed juices is buko (coconut) juice... with no added sugar please!

2. Eat brown rice or red rice instead of white rice

Let me just directly quote some lines from Discover Cuenca Ecuador's blog post reg. white vs. brown: 

White rice, like white bread products contribute to many kinds of health afflictions, one being diabetes and at the very least, two being whacky blood sugar levels. ...  White rice, unlike the whole grain brown rice makes you constipated and that will make you feel and look very unhealthy overtime. 

BROWN RICE HAS:

• twice the manganese and phosphorus of white.

• 2.5 times the iron.

• 3 times the vitamin B3.

• 4 times the vitamin B1.

• 10 times the vitamin B6.

• and no blood sugar spikes like white rice

• gives you much more energy

• makes you feel and look healthier

It is a great source of manganese, essential for energy production, antioxidant activity, and sex hormone production."- White Rice and the Almuerzos (lunches) of Ecuador post

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

According to Dr. Gargi Sharma, "Brown rice and red rice are quite similar when we talk about them on the nutritional front. Both are great sources of fibre, B vitamins, calcium, zinc and iron, manganese, selenium, magnesium and other nutrients. One thing that sets the red variety apart from its brown counterpart is it being enriched with antioxidants that can help fight damaging free radicals in our body." -directly lifted from White Rice, Brown Rice Or Red Rice: Which One is the Healthiest?

Personally, I prefer red rice over brown rice. :)

3. Vegetable bouillon and Bragg's Liquid Aminos
Use these flavorings instead

Maggi cubes < Vegetable bouillon

Soy sauce < Bragg's Liquid Aminos

Bragg's Liquid Aminos is a personal favorite!! Whenever I steam vegetables (young corn, beans, beansprouts), I add it (or sea salt!) for the kick I want. =) 

4. Vegemeat!

Personal vegemeat favorite: Bopis!!! It's even better than the 'real' bopis!! Wrap it in romaine lettuce and bam!, heaven in your mouth and tummy.

You can buy vegemeat in stores, um, selling them. ;p Bodhi is one fast food chain known to serve (only) vegetarian dishes. 

Vegemeat > Animal meat

5. Soya milk!

I love soya milk and I know you do, too! So, I'm putting it here =)

So many more alternatives out there! Alternatives to junk food, skin (paraben free) products, vitamins / medicines, yada yada. Bottomline: Plant produced over animal produced, and natural over synthetic. But there's no better alternative to the wonders of (drinking) water. Cheers!

**Made use of the fancy collages from picnik.com because it will be closing on April 19, 2012. :(

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