Author: gracefulliving365

Coconuts are a versatile food item rich in calories, vitamins, and minerals. They are a  good source of B-complex vitamins such as folates, riboflavin, niacin, thiamin, and pyridoxine.  Coconut meat and water contain a good amount of potassium. Coconut water is refreshing drink!   It is packed with sugars, electrolytes, minerals, and bioactive compounds and enzymes that aid in digestion and metabolism.  Cytokinins in coconut water have shown significant anti-ageing, anti-carcinogenic, and anti-thrombotic effects in studies.

The coconut kernel is a wonderful source of minerals like copper, calcium, iron, manganese, magnesium, and zinc.  Much of the calories come from the fats and protein. Caution if you have heart disease though, as the meat does have saturated fat.   However, the saturated fatty acid in the coconut is lauric acid, which can increase good HDL cholesterol levels in the blood.

References:

Coconut Nutrition Facts.  Nutrition and You.  Retrieved from http://www.nutrition-and-you.com/coconut.html

I am posting the lecture I did for the Vegetarian Society of Hawaii in July.  In this lecture, I speak about dietary changes we can make to prevent or reverse the metabolic syndrome.  I also touch on how some auto-immune diseases are improved with a plant-based diet.  Enjoy!

This is a fun little video I made in the ocean with friends.  The underwater world is beautiful, but at the rate we are overfishing, I am not sure that it will be the same in future generations.  We can make a difference by either not eating fish entirely, which is preferable, or at least not supporting destructive fishing practices such as these:

Bottom Trawling: A bottom trawl is a type of fishing net which is pulled along the seafloor, usually to catch shrimp and bottom-dwelling fish like halibut and sole. Unfortunately, the nets also catch a variety of ocean life that’s usually thrown back dead or dying. Dragging heavy gear across the seabed also damages the seafloor habitat.

Dredging:  Dredges are large, metal-framed baskets which are dragged across the seafloor to collect shellfish.  Metal teeth dig into the seafloor, which damages the seafloor habitat and bottom-dwelling species.  Dredging also has high levels of bycatch.

Gillnetting: This uses curtains of netting suspended by a system of floats and weights, anchored to the seafloor floating at the surface. The netting is nearly invisible, so fish swim right into it. Gill nets are used to catch sardines, salmon and cod, but accidentally entangle and kill animals, such as sharks and sea turtles.

Long lining:  A central fishing line (ranging from one to 50 miles long) is strung with smaller lines of baited hooks, dangling at evenly spaced intervals. The lines are near the surface to catch pelagic fish (like tuna and swordfish) or on the seafloor to catch deep-dwelling fish (like cod and halibut.) Many lines unfortunately hook sea turtles, sharks and seabirds that are attracted to the bait.

Purse Seining:  This uses a large wall of netting to encircle schools of fish. Fishermen pull the bottom of the netting closed, herding fish into the center. This method is used to catch schooling fish (like sardines) or species that gather to spawn (like squid). These can catch other animals, such as dolphins (tuna seines).

To make sure you are not supporting these fishing methods with a large by catch, check out:  seafoodwatch.org

References:

“Fishing and Farming Methods: Fishing Methods”  Retrieved 16 September 2016 from : http://www.seafoodwatch.org/ocean-issues/fishing-and-farming-methods.

The beauty of pineapples, is that you can eat the bottom and recycle the top by planting it to make a new pineapple!  It is a very renewable resource.  They also need little water and are more drought resistant than other tropical fruits.  The tops take about 2 years to fruit.  (That is how long my plant took to fruit).  Once it fruits, it takes about six more months to mature.  Therefore, you must be patient with your plant.  If you take better care of it, it will probably fruit sooner.  Good luck planting!

You can never have too much of a good thing, right? Unfortunately, in regards to protein, specifically animal protein, there is increasing evidence to show that too much animal protein can be harmful. This is a follow up to my last article regarding protein supplementation. Protein supplementation is often sourced from whey protein, found in dairy products. Recent fad diets, such as the Atkins or other similar low carbohydrate diets, also have placed a heavy emphasis on animal protein.

“No Poo” is short for “No Shampoo”.  I have almost been avoiding shampoo for about a year now.  It has actually been surprisingly good for my hair.  It all started when I noticed that my hair was getting very knotted and dry after using shampoo, and then I would need a lot of conditioner to pull a brush through it which would weigh down my hair.  I did some searching on the internet, and I saw that some people were using this “no poo” method to wash their hair without commercial shampoos.  I am about 90% “no poo” now.

On days I do not go to work, sometimes I just wash my hair with water.  When I do go to work, I use baking soda (1 tbsp) in water (1 cup) for my shampoo and 1 part vinegar to 3 parts water in a spray bottle for my conditioner.  I find avoiding shampoo has been really good for me.  My scalp is able to release natural oils to hydrate my hair, and it is no longer as dry as it was. My hair is much healthier appearing and has natural body.  The commercial shampoo was drying out my hair, and the conditioner was weighing it down.  There is an adjustment period where my hair was a little oily, but now my hair is much better.  It rarely ever gets tangled.

I still use shampoo after getting into a chlorine pool.  I find it is exceedingly difficult to get chlorine completely out of my hair unless I use shampoo.   I try to use shampoos with natural ingredients (and not man-made chemicals) when I can to decrease exposure to toxic ingredients found in beauty products.  In general, I wash my hair a lot less, which is good for my hair.  Plus, it saves me a lot of money on shampoo and conditioner!  People ask me if my hair smells because I don’t use shampoo.  It does not really smell like anything.  It is odorless.  There is not a bad smell.

If you find that the commercial beauty products are drying out your hair like I did, maybe give “no poo” a go!

Karmi of Hawaiian Hydroponics shows us how to start a hydroponic garden by planting seeds in rock wool in this episode!  Stay tuned for more episodes with Karmi about gardening!

You can find Karmi at:

Hawaiian Hydroponics and Garden

4224 Waialae Avenue

Honolulu, HI 96816

(808)735-8665

This week  I am posting a video swimming with dolphins!  I wanted to show how enjoyable it is to swim with dolphins in their natural environment.  I think these creatures are beautiful, and I would like to point out some things we can do as individuals to make sure the next generation can enjoy them as well:

1.  Do not buy tickets to a dolphin show or any event where you can touch the dolphins where they are kept in a small enclosure.   Some of you have probably seen the movie “THE COVE” which shows us how the slaughter of 20,000 dolphins, porpoises, and small whales occurs in Japan each year. Fishermen herd whole families of dolphins into shallow bays and mercilessly stab and drown them to death.  If you have not seen this movie, I highly recommend it.  There is a link above to the movie.
2. There are many accidental deaths caused by fishing nets, specially those deployed by tuna ships.  If you can avoid eating fish, or at least buy tuna that is “dolphin-safe”, that will help decrease this needless slaughter.
3. Speak out to your legislature against sound pollution that occurs in the seas and other environmental issues that affect marine life.
4. Decrease use of plastic which often ends up in the ocean and gets eaten by dolphins and other marine life.
5. Use phosphate free detergent and soaps.
6. Try not to use insecticides as these chemicals drain into the ocean.

Happy viewing!

References:

What can you do.  [Web post].  Retrieved from http://wilddolphin.org/you.html.

In this episode, Jorden talks about how she made her transformation from the standard american diet to a healthy plant-based diet ! This is for all those people who think that Jackie Jackson was an exception!  Jorden also lost 50 pounds on a plant-based diet.   It is common to lose a lot of weight by eating healthy food that nourishes your body.  When we eat “junk food”, it often is empty calories and does not nourish our body.  Because it leaves our bodies hungry for nourishment, we end up overeating in an effort to get the nutrients we need!

Jorden told me that she also became more active (like Jackie) after losing weight. She was able to get rid of her arthritis and clear up her skin as well!  In a study in Arthritis in 2015, participants were randomized to a whole food plant based diet and a group that continued their current diet.  The whole food plant based diet group reported a significantly greater improvement of their osteoarthritis symptoms than the group that continued their current diet.  In regards to acne, dairy products are notorious for worsening acne.  This is where the belief that (milk) chocolate consumption increases acne!  It is thought that the hormones in milk worsen acne.  In the Nurses Healthy Study II, there was a positive association of acne with total intake of milk.

I often hear from college students that they have a hard time sticking to a plant-based diet due to budget limitations and the limited food options on the campus.  Jorden shows that it is not difficult to make health a priority and she is able to get relatively inexpensive produce at the farmer’s markets, if not on campus.  I have enclosed before and after pictures that Jorden is sharing with us below.  Thank you Jorden for inspiring others!

References:

Adebamowo CA, et al. High school dietary dairy intake and teenage acne. J Am Acad Dermatol. February 2005;52:207–14.

Clinton CM, O’Brien S, Law J, Renier CM, Wendt MR. Whole-foods, plant-based diet alleviates the symptoms of osteoarthritis. Arthritis. 2015;2015:708152.

This is a follow-up to my blog post last week regarding protein requirements.  Despite the common practice of consuming greater amounts of protein in strength training athletes, there is little data suggesting there is any benefit to doing this.  The U.S. dietary supplement industry, which includes the protein supplementation industry, generates more than $30 billion annually.

Regarding protein requirements, the Estimated Average Requirement (EAR) is 4-5% total calories per day for adults. The EAR is expected to satisfy the needs of 50% of people in that age group. To figure out this threshold, scientists measured the protein consumption of different people and tracked them to see if they displayed any symptoms of protein deficiency and correlated these symptoms with the different amounts of protein people were consuming.

The U.S. Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) is calculated based on the EAR, usually 20% higher than the EAR.  The RDA meets the requirements of 97.5% of individuals in each life stage and sex group, implying that the intake level would cause a nutrient deficiency in just 2.5%. For protein, the RDA is 8-10% of calories or 0.8/mg/kg of body weight. For a 70 kg male, this would equate to 56 g/day.

To determine protein requirements for athletes, nitrogen balance studies have been used. This technique involves calculating the protein that enters the body and measuring the nitrogen excreted.   Proteins are 16% nitrogen, and the body excretes nitrogenous compounds rather than whole protein. These studies have found that low to moderate intensity recreational endurance exercise does not require dietary protein in excess of the current RDA.

Studies have even shown that more intense resistance exercise can even improve nitrogen economy.   In other words, exercising improves dietary protein retention. Unaccustomed endurance exercise may initially induce a negative nitrogen balance, but in one study, this improved within 12 days of exercise.

For the strength training athlete, a level of 1.33g/kg/day of protein is likely sufficient. Most people are already consuming enough protein to meet these needs. Dietary protein intake should generally not be a concern for athletes consuming 10-15% protein and getting adequate calories to meet the needs of their activity. According to the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (from data from 1999-2000), adults consumed an average of 15 percent of calories from protein. Since most people already get enough protein, there is no need for supplementation. From a Consumer Reports review from July 2010:

“Our Investigation, including tests at an outside laboratory of 15 protein drinks, a review of government documents, and interviews with health and fitness experts and consumers, found most people already get enough protein, and there are far better and cheaper ways to add more if it’s needed.  Some protein drinks can even pose health risks, including exposure to potentially harmful heavy metals, if consumed frequently.  All drinks in our tests had at least one sample containing one or more of the following contaminants:  arsenic, cadmium, lead, and mercury…”

References

“Alert: Protein drinks: You don’t need the extra protein or the heavy metals our tests found.” Consumer Reports Magazine, 2010.

S.M. Pasiakos, S.J. Mountain, A.J. Young, “Protein Supplementation in U.S. Military Personnel.” The Journal of Nutrition, vol. 148, no. 11, pp.18155-18195, 2013.

S.M. Phillips, “Protein requirements and supplementation in strength sports.”  Nutrition , vol. 20,  issue 7-8 ,pp. 689-695, 2004.

M. Tarnopolsky, “Protein requirements for endurance athletes.” Nutrition, vol. 20, issue 7-8, pp. 662-668, 2004.