Spring is here and that means stepping out from the dark, dusty den you holed up in over the winter and getting some fresh air. It also hopefully means being more active than you’ve been in a long while. But don’t reach for the coffee to boost your energy. Grab the green foods, especially those loaded with spirulina benefits.
Spirulina may sound like the name of a Disney princess, but it’s actually an algae. While that probably doesn't sound as glamorous as wearing ball gowns and crowns, it’s actually quite an exceptional food, worthy of royal treatment.
Per a three-gram serving, spirulina can contain 3900 percent more beta carotene than the same amount of carrots, 2300 percent more iron than spinach, 300 percent more calcium than whole milk and 375 percent more protein than tofu. All in a little green algae! No wonder it's one of the featured ingredients in our mustHave greens!
A serving of spirulina has more than 30 times the antioxidant potency of blueberries and more than 60 times the potency of spinach.
Granted, it’s not going to taste as yummy as a handful of fresh blueberries, but spirulina can actually taste pretty great. You can mix a serving of spirulina into a glass of juice, nondairy milk or even water, or blend it into your favorite smoothie recipe for a grassy, fresh taste. It’s also great in other recipes like raw brownies or energy bars.
Spirulina’s benefits and nutrient density makes it a perfect energy food without the crash of sugary or caffeinated food products.
According to Dr. Oz, spirulina boosts energy “by unlocking sugar from your cells so it does not get stored as fat.” So, not only does that make spirulina a healthy energizing food, it appears it’s also an excellent weight loss food as well! Dr. Oz recommends mixing one teaspoon of spirulina with 12 ounces fresh lime juice and freezing in ice cube trays. Then you can add the frozen energy cubes to juices, water or blend into smoothies.
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Lowe’s is giving some much-needed love and respect to the nation’s honeybees. The home improvement retail giant says it’s going to phase out products that contain the controversial class of pesticides known as neonicotinoids, or neonics, known for being a threat to honeybees and other important pollinators.
Neonics have been linked to colony collapse disorder, a mysterious deadly condition that causes honeybees to abandon their hives. Billions of bees have died from the condition in recent years and scientists are scrambling to find ways to save these important pollinators. Several theories exist about the cause of colony collapse disorder, and one of the most convincing is the damage caused by pesticides, particularly neonics.
Lowe’s made the announcement after the EPA said it will refuse to issue new permits for use of neonicotinoid pesticides. The EU has already banned several types of neonic pesticides and recently released a report calling them more harmful to the environment than previously thought.
According to NBC News, Lowe's also said that it would work with growers to "eliminate the use of neonic pesticides on bee-attractive plants we sell." Home Depot made a similar announcement last summer that it would label plants that had been treated with neonicotinoids. It has not announced a similar plan to discontinue the sale of neonic products.
“We commend Lowe’s for taking a leadership position on this critical issue,” Adam Kanzer, Managing Director and Director of Corporate Engagement at Domini Social Investments, said in a statement. “Sales of neonic-containing products may be exacerbating a critical systemic risk – alarming declines in honeybees and wild pollinators that support our food systems. As investors and as human beings, we all depend upon pollinators. We believe Lowe’s actions will help protect an irreplaceable resource.”
Honeybees pollinate important food crops—about one in three bites of food come via honeybees. Without their important role in our food system, food prices could skyrocket and some foods could even become obsolete.
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Exercise is critical to a healthy life. No one would argue that point, right? But just how much exercise we need is a point that always seems to be argued. And what’s more, the benefits of intense workouts have also been hot topics for debate recently. Well now, new research points to significant benefits to vigorous exercise.
According to the research, published in the recent issue of the journal JAMA Internal Medicine, found that people who exercised “vigorously” for 30 percent of their workout time, had a nine percent decreased risk of early death, and people who exercised vigorously more than 30 percent of the time reduced their risk by as much as 13 percent.
Researcher out of James Cook University and the University of Sydney tracked the health of more than 200,000 subjects age 45 and older over the course of nearly seven years, controlling for a number of health and lifestyle factors.
“The benefits of vigorous activity applied to men and women of all ages, and were independent of the total amount of time spent being active,” lead author Klaus Gebel told Forbes. “The results indicate that whether or not you are obese, and whether or not you have heart disease or diabetes, if you can manage some vigorous activity it could offer significant benefits for longevity.”
While most fitness guidelines say the benefits of vigorous exercise don’t vary between one and two minutes, the research indicates that may need to be reassessed. “The current physical activity guidelines from the World Health Organization, and those for the US, UK, Australia and other countries,” says Gebel, “recommend that adults should accumulate at least 150 minutes of moderate physical activity per week or 75 minutes of vigorous activity or a combination of both in which 1 minute of vigorous activity counts as much as 2 minutes of moderate activity. So these guidelines leave individuals to choose their activity patterns according to their preferences and abilities.”
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Next time you go to France, don’t expect to sip your way through the nation's restaurants. At least, not sipping on unlimited soda refills.
That’s because the City of Light is putting the kibosh on soda refills, with a recent ban on them at restaurants and fast food chains across the nation. The move comes as an effort to help improve the nation’s health. Yes, it seems even France, the epicenter for real food, has a soda problem.
“The move, which is supported by Health Minister Marisol Touraine and needs to pass through the Senate before being put into action, targets fountain machines—such as those found at fast-food spots and burger joints—everywhere, including public places such as gas stations and malls in addition to restaurants,” reports Vice.
Arnaud Richard, a Parliament member from the UDI (Union of Democrats and Independents) and the author of the amendment, explained: “It is the role of the law to fix a framework to protect the population against commercial competition which aims to make something free to entice customers and encourage them to consume unhealthy products excessively.”
France, which also boasts one of the most comprehensive universal health care systems in the world, consumes about a quarter of the amount of soda and soft drinks as Americans, about 11 gallons per person per year.
A soda tax was implemented in Berkeley, Calif. last year, but attempts to ban large soda sales from establishments in New York city including restaurants, movie theaters and mini-markets was overturned by a federal judge. The Navajo Nation, the largest native community in the U.S., recently passed a junk food tax that it hopes will help to curb its obesity epidemic, afflicting about ten percent of the Indigenous community.
As for France, time will tell if the ban will make a difference in the nation’s waistline.
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Chances are you probably think about it during your workout: a big juicy burger, greasy fries and an ice-cold Coca-Cola. You’re going to gobble them up as soon as you get off the treadmill, you tell yourself. But then, of course, you feel so totally amazing after your workout that you’re terrified to even put a carrot to your lips for fear of gaining back even a droplet of the sweat you just shed.
So here’s the ha-ha-joke’s-on-you reality: A study published in the recent issue of the Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise, found that your body may recover just as well from junk food after a workout as it would from post-workout meals like sports drinks, energy bars and smoothies.
What kind of junk food? All that stuff mentioned earlier and then some: hotcakes, hash browns, hamburgers, fries, and Coke. Now, what the researchers were testing for wasn’t overall health, but rather for blood sugar levels and glycogen recovery rates, which indicates how well a muscle has recovered from an exercise activity.
The researchers noticed no difference in the muscle recovery results between junk food and Gatorade or energy bars. Granted, we’re just talking muscle fatigue here, not the colo-rectal cancer the hamburger may cause down the line.
And the researchers explained that it’s more indicative of an issue with foods marketed as ideal for “post-workout recovery” than it is an endorsement for pulling a Clinton and jogging all the way to the nearest burger joint.
At its heart though, the study results really point to one glaring truth: there are no food shortcuts. What if the study would have compared the long-term benefits of eating fresh food, like whole grains, beans, fruits and vegetables compared with those hotcakes, hash browns and sodas?
You don’t need a science degree to unravel this one. Eat whole foods, the kind that don’t market themselves as the ideal post-workout food because they don’t come with any labels in the first place.
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You may have difficulty pronouncing it, but you should consider adding chlorella to your diet anyway. The health benefits of chlorella run the gamut from improved energy to reduced cholesterol, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. This unassuming green powder has a number of incredibly good-for-you benefits that might make your jaw drop.
First, what is chlorella?
A blue-green algae native to Japan and Taiwan, chlorella is similar to spirulina, its popular green cousing, but boasts a different nutrition profile and benefits. It comes typically in powdered or capsule form. Chlorella is a key ingredient in our mustHave greens powder, and for good reason.
In just a one-ounce serving of pure chlorella, there are 16 grams of protein (that’s like eating three eggs!), 287 percent of the RDA for vitamin A, 71 percent of B2, 33 percent of B3, 200 percent of iron, 22 percent of magnesium and 133 percent of zinc.
While the presence of those naturally occurring vitamins and minerals are enough to make the health benefits of chlorella worth noting, there’s more. Its even been shown to support hormone function, cardiovascular health, balanced cholesterol levels and boost the body’s natural detoxification abilities.
Chlorella has also been shown to assist in more intense detoxification, such as removing heavy metals from the body, and assisting in recovery from radiation and chemotherapy. Those are big claims, but there is a modest amount of science to back it up.
Chlorella can also boost the body’s natural immune response, helping to thwart off potential threats including bacteria and viruses and keep you healthier during those cold and flu seasons.
It’s also been shown to help with weight loss, mainly through hormone balancing, not suppressing appetite. As a natural source of energy, it may also keep you feeling strong and focused, without the need for a sugary pick-me-up in the middle of the day.
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The arrival of warmer weather means it’s an excellent time to hit the trails and take in some hikes or other outdoor activities. Fresh air, green trees and blue skies…is there anything better? But don’t miss all the goodness of nature because you’ve burned all your energy and now have a case of the grumps. Check out this superfood energy bar recipe with organic greens to help keep you fueled and satisfied without the excessive sugars or other questionable ingredients common in commercial energy bars.
These energy bars provide you true energy from a number of sources: fiber and protein rich nuts, coconut oil, hemp and chia seeds, dates and the green goodness of powdered organic greens.
Makes about 10 bars
Ingredients
½ cup almond or coconut flour
½ cup nuts of choice (you could even mix several)
¼ cup dates, pitted and chopped (about 5 or 6 whole dates)
2 scoops organic mustHave greens powder (or green food powder of choice)
¼ cup maple syrup
¼ cup smooth nut butter of choice (like almond)
2 tbsp coconut oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 tbsp chia seeds
½ cup unsweetened coconut flakes
½ cup hemp seeds
¼ cup raw cacao nibs (or chocolate chips)
Directions
In a blender, mix together flour, nuts, mustHave greens and dates. Mix until crumbly. Empty out of blender into bowl. Set aside.
In a small bowl, mix together coconut oil (it should be liquid at room temperature, but if not, liquefy in a pan over medium heat), maple syrup and vanilla extract. Pour into the dry mixture and combine well. Add in chia seeds, hemp seeds, shredded coconut and cacao nibs and stir until well combined and evenly distributed.
Spread the combined mixture into a greased 8x8 baking dish, cover and refrigerate overnight. Cut and serve. Enjoy!
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If you live in a city, chances are you worry about air pollution, at least some of the time. And it may even influence your decision to exercise outside. But don’t let it, says experts. Turns out the benefits of outdoor exercising far outweighs the pollution risks.
That’s the finding of a recent study reported on in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, which studied more than 52,000 people over 13 years.
According to TIME Magazine, the researchers noted “those who were more active were less likely to die during the study than those who were more sedentary, regardless of the pollutant levels where they lived.”
The researchers looked at a number of criteria including leisure activity like gardening, walking or biking (like to work), or playing sports. The physical activity was measured against the levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) near their homes. NO2, which has been linked to respiratory issues, is released when cars burn fuel.
“Previous studies found that walking along a busy London street, for example, caused a drop in lung function and that cycling or running near high traffic roadways also compromised people’s respiratory functions slightly,” reports TIME.
But in the recent study, people who participated in sports “showed a 22% lower risk of dying from any cause during the 13-year followup, while those who cycled regularly showed a 17% lower risk and people who spent time gardening showed a 16% lower risk compared to those who didn’t do either of those activities — and regardless of the pollution levels where they lived.”
“We found an even more positive message around physical activity than we even hoped for,” says the study’s lead author Zorana Andersen from the center for epidemiology and screening at the University of Copenhagen. “Physiologically it’s plausible that you inhale more particles [of pollution] when you exercise in polluted areas, and we thought maybe the accumulated lifetime effect of this would reduce the benefit of exercise. But we don’t see that.”
So in other words, physical activity trumps poor air quality. And, let’s face it, even if you’re skipping time outdoors, you’re still being exposed to the polluted air, so you might as well make the best of it.
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Who doesn’t love a brownie? (Seriously, who? We want to talk to them.) But a brownie recipe doesn’t have to be bad for you. Especially when it contains superfoods like organic greens, loaded with healthy vitamins and minerals. Yumm.
Don’t believe us? Just give this brownie recipe a try. It features our very own mustHave greens, which are loaded with healthy goodness from alfalfa and oat grass, kale, spirulina and chlorella.
While these are not your traditional flour-based baked brownies, they’re brownies through and through—make no mistake about it! The nuts stand-in for flour, giving you a healthy fat source, plus protein and fiber. The dates give the brownies a natural sweetness, no sugar needed. And hemp seeds add more healthy fat and protein, while the mustHave greens enhance the richness of the cacao powder with a good-for-you boost that will give you energy without the crash of a regular brownie.
Superfood Brownie Recipe
Makes about 12-14 pieces
4 cups soaked nuts such as pecans, walnuts or hazelnuts
½ cup pitted dates
½ cup shredded coconut
¾ cup cacao powder
2 teaspoons mustHave greens
1 tablespoon coconut oil
1 tablespoon hemp seeds
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
pinch sea salt
Directions
Oil an 8x8 baking dish or line with parchment paper.
In a food processor, add nuts and pulse until crumbly, then add in dates. Pulse until mixed with nuts and then add remaining ingredients, until evenly combined. The mixture should be sticky and smooth.
Spread into the baking dish, firmly pushing down into the corners and edges of the pan. If desired, you can sprinkle with a few more crushed nuts (you can reserve a few spoonfuls out of your mixture), a little bit of shredded coconut or save the hempseeds and sprinkle those atop the brownies.
Refrigerate for at least one hour before serving.
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The European Commission will be taking a serious look at a whopping 700 common chemicals to determine whether or not they act as endocrine disruptors, putting human health and the environment at risk for illnesses and disease.
The decision comes after more than 27,000 responses were received about the criteria being used to determine whether or not a chemical is an endocrine disruptor.
According to Food Quality News, the focus will be on analyzing existing data, “no additional tests will be done.” The researchers will look at the criteria for defining endocrine disruptors and how that broad definition relates to the chemicals in question. A second study will assess the health impacts for humans and the environments exposed to the chemicals, as well as for any implications that might be felt by agricultural industries and trade.
The Commission says it does not yet have a timeline for when the final outcome of its assessment will be rendered, but the agency is providing “interim criteria” designed to offer protection until the assessment is complete.
Endocrine disruptors have recently become a significant concern over their impact to human health, in particular, the risks for unborn fetuses, a strong connection to obesity, fertility issues and even risks of more serious issues including autism and cancer.
Bisphenol A is perhaps the best-known endocrine disruptor, which the European Union has already significantly restricted. But new research also implicates Bisphenol A alternatives (most notably Bisphenol S) as being just as risky to human health, if not more so.
Another area of concern lies in agricultural pesticides and herbicides, which the Commission will be studying as well. The World Health Organization also just recently listed glyphosate, the main active ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup weedkiller, as a “probable” carcinogen.
For more complete information on the research project, visit the European Commission’s website.
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