Some time this week my son stopped eating bananas.  It has happened before.  Luckily the past boycotts haven’t lasted more than a week or two.  However, in the short term, I have been collecting the peeled and barely eaten pieces of fruit and turning them into simple smoothies.  Today’s recipe:

• H2O :  6 oz
• Hemp seeds :  2 Tbs
• Banana :  1
• Kale :  1 leaf
• Raw Honey :  1 Tbs
• Vanilla :  Splash

Blend in high-powered blender and serve.  If using regular blender, strain before serving.  Even though my son is 19 months old, I use a bottle for smoothies(just cut the nipple hole bigger).  It’s easier and less of mess than him trying to drink from a regular cup and I don’t have to ruin his sippy cups by making the holes big.

Kale is such a nutritional superstar that it has an ANDI score of 1000, meaning that it contains the highest nutrient content per calorie of any food (along with other leafy greens like collards, mustard greens, and watercress).  In addition, it is an excellent source of the often overlooked Vitamin K, which is poised to become the next nutrient media darling, (move over Vitamin D).

Kale is truly a superfood, but it’s a cruciferous vegetable and should be cooked.  Like soy, raw cruciferous vegetables contain goitrogens that disrupt thyroid function.  While consumption of goitrogens by those with robust thyroids might not pose any harm, a large number of individuals have compromised, undiagnosed, or subclinical thyroid issues.  The simple act of cooking lessens the presence of goitrogens, increases the bioavailability of some nutrients, and helps break down the insoluble fiber for easier digestion.  This last point is especially helpful if you (like me) have difficulty breaking down roughage.  It is also important to remember to consume good quality fats along with vegetables to ensure the absorption of fat soluble vitamins (A, D, E, and K).

Creamy Kale

My husband and toddler likes this mixed in with quinoa.  I like it thinned out as a base for soup.  The possibilities are endless!

*I often use fancy dehydrated mushroom mixes and add them in with fresh mushrooms.  Just rehydrate the mushrooms first to use in this recipe.  To rehydrate, place mushrooms in a boil and cover with hot water.  Let mushrooms sit for a couple hours before use.  Alternatively you can cover with room temperature water and let sit overnight in the fridge.  I’ve found that they often need a long soak time or they will be a bit rubbery.

Samantha at Color Wheel Meals is putting together an ebook full of fun and healthy recipe ideas for kids.  I finally was able to send my recipe submissions to her recently.  I realized it was a great excuse to actually write down some of my favorite dishes instead of always just mixing, baking, and cooking on intuition.  I am very guilty of eye-balling and not following formalized directions!  This creative outlet is undoubtedly what I love most about food.  Making something delicious that is at the same time nourishing is such a great feeling of accomplishment!

And what better place to exercise unrestrained creativity than smoothie-making?

So here is one of my toddler son’s favorites.  Blend all ingredients together and enjoy:

This time I decided to write down one of my favorite variations… it makes a very satisfying, fragrant and chunky snack.  Dainty starchy sweets just don’t do it for me… which is why giving up oats was such a hardship.  After having a bad reaction to GF oats a few years ago, I hadn’t tried them again until recently when standing in the Gluten-Free aisle at New Seasons, I picked up the GF Oats and read and saw that they were ELISA Tested.  This convinced me to give them another shot.  I’ve been really craving something something chewy and hearty lately… the perfect fiber-rich topping for coconut milk yogurt!

Recipe:

Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl with a big spoon:

• 6 Cups GF Oats (like Bob’s Red Mill or Gifts of Nature)
• 1 1/2 Cups Raw Buckwheat Groats
• 1 C Raw Walnut Halves, broken by hand into large pieces
• 1 C Coconut Flakes (I like the large flat flakes best)
• 1/2 C Raw Sunflower Seeds
• 1/2 C Raw, Unhulled Sesame Seeds
• 6 Tbs Chia Seeds
• 3 Tbs Cinamon
• 2 tps Ground Celtic Sea Salt

Whisk wet ingredients into a small sauce pan on low heat until well combined:

• 3/4 C Raw Local Honey (if you don’t eat honey you can sub Agave Nectar)
• 3/4 C Real Maple Syrup Grade B
• 1/2 C Virgin Coconut Oil*
• 1/4 C Expeller Pressed Oil (Canola, Sunflower, Grapeseed, Safflower)
• 1/4 C Almond milk (coconut or rice work too)

Pour the warmed wet-ingredient mixture over the dry ingredients and mix well with a big spoon.  Spread batch evenly between two ungreased 9×13 cookie sheets.  I use the silicone mats on my cookie sheets, but it isn’t necessary at all. Bake sheets at 325 F for 25 minutes.  Remove from oven and stir granola to provide even browning.  Place trays back in oven with bottom tray now on the top.  Bake again at 225 for 12 minutes.  If you want to add any dried fruit, add now.  Bake another 10-12 minutes at 225 F.  Turn off oven, open door and let sit for 30 minutes to an hour.  This will make the granola harden enough to be chunky.  When ready, break into chunks and put in storage containers. YUM!!

*If you are like my husband Ian and don’t like coconut, leave out the coconut flakes and substitute in Soy-Free Earthbalance for the Coconut Oil.  If you do this, you probably won’t need to add the salt.

Actually what made the difference was all the chocolate research and tasting that I did for my cookie recipes.  I became obsessed with chocolate production, with cocoa mass content, with the purity of the ingredients and with the absence of soy lecithin…. something that I very much contribute (along with low quality milk solids) to the waxiness of my childhood Halloween candies.

It’s no secret that cacao is a superfood.  The bean is high in antioxidants and a delicious source of minerals… including IRON.  Next time you are shopping for dark chocolate, look at the nutrition label and check the iron count.  The brands vary, but all the bars that have a high cocoa content should supply a really decent amount of iron!  It by far my favorite iron-rich foods… pumpkin seeds are second!

So, I thought I would share some of my favorite eating and baking chocolates…. (a note of disclaimer: the darker the better for me!) And although there are some lovely raw chocolates, they don’t have the complexity of flavor that I find from some of these amazing chocolate gurus.  Here are my faves in order for least intense to most hard-hitting.

1) Sweet Earth Baking Chocolate- 65% Big Baking Chips

Small chocolate producer in the Bay area.  These are the big chips I used in the Sift Bakery Double Chocolate cookies.  They are organic and Fair Trade Certified, vegan and soy free!  They have a number of other quality items too.  These were my snack during long days at the bakery!

2) Vivani’s 85% Bar

Just the right amount of bitter bite and smooooth.  When this goes on sale at New Seasons, I buy a case full.  This bar is truly astounding. Organic with just three ingredients: cocoa mass, cocoa butter, raw cane sugar.  They have an Allergy note on the website, saying that the machines are cleaned to a very high standard.  I have never had a problem with these and I am very sensitive.  There are many other chocolate bars that I’ve tried and won’t eat again because of reactions, but these feel very clean to my system.  Chock it up to German fastidiousness.

3) Theo Chocolate’s Venezuela 91% Bar

This company is from Seattle and it rocks.  The Origin Bars all have distinct flavors, like fine wines or coffees where you feel you are tasting the nuances in the soils from different regions of the world.  hmmm.  And 91% is just hardcore, but not bitter.  I love it.  The higher the cocoa content, the less I feel like I need to satisfy the jones.  No soy, no dairy, it’s beautiful!

4) Michel Cluizel’s Noir Infini 99% Bar

OK, I admit that 99% cocoa content sounds extreme, and maybe it is… but this bar is sweeter than expected.  The first time I bought a tiny square of it at Portland’s chocolate boutique (HEAVEN) Cacao, I was expecting it to taste like chomping on a square of baker’s chocolate.  Was I wrong!  The Noir Infini is an intense experience and not for the mainstream snicker’s addict… but it is a cocao-lover’s dream.  In addition to a tiny amount of sugar, it contains bourbon vanilla, a hint of orange and undisclosed spices.  Lucky for me I can’t taste the orange, I just taste intensity.

Here’s my cocoa recipe again:

1-2 TBS Raw Cocoa (I love Nativas Naturals)

pinch celtic sea salt

2 packets stevia (I love NuNaturals)

6-8 oz Hot H2O

2 oz Coconut Milk (like SoDelicious- I use the unsweetened)

optional: sprinkle of cayenne or cinnamon or both!

Both the pro and anti oral contraception crowds have some data to backup their claims. It’s easy to find female athletes across the spectrum: from those who are able to perform fine on the pill; to those who recognized that they couldn’t achieve their athletic potential while taking the hormones; to women who simply couldn’t function on any form of oral contraception.

The truth is that the studies are extremely limited, and the ones using actual athletes are even more so. Like many issues in women’s health, the lack of data is extremely frustrating.

Though some distance runners begin taking the pill for other reasons – such as acne, birth control, ovarian cysts, etc. – many are urged to start taking it because they are amenorrheic, meaning their menstrual cycles have stopped. There is documented evidence that women who are amenorrheic in young adulthood fail to build the optimal amount of bone and may suffer from low bone density later in life. There is even some data to suggest that a certain extent of this loss may be irreversible.

While the link between estrogen and bone density seems to be established, the logic that birth control pills will protect bone density has not been thoroughly tested. This approach to amenorrhea in young women is actually based on the treatment of post-menopausal women with low bone density using hormone replacement therapy.

There are many reasons that a woman can experience amenorrhea, and by extension thought to be low estrogen. My theory is that our bodies can only handle so much stress and that they need a certain level of homeostasis to function properly. Our stress levels are affected by our diet, activity level, emotional health, and environmental pollutants. Any combination of these assaults can contribute to a stress load that is too much for our system to function normally. When this happens the body goes into crisis mode and decides to stop menstruating.

The reality is that there are a number of highly trained, extremely lean competitive athletes who have normal menstrual cycles. There are also many non-athletic, average weight young women who are amenhorreic. Body-fat and training-level don’t necessarily tell the whole story.

One of the side effects of oral contraceptives that I find very troubling is the increased incidence of depression and mood disorders. The altered brain activity is largely contributed to interference of serotonin uptake and absorption of B-vitamins. This can be extremely detrimental for athletes and anyone suffering from disordered eating. In addition to helping the body handle and process stress, B-vitamins also play an important role in carbohydrate metabolism.

Another consideration is that the hormones in birth control pills, estrogen and progesterone, help feed the overgrowth of yeasts in the female body. Systemic yeast imbalance can result in a variety of very serious conditions including many digestive problems, food sensitivities, allergies, yeast infections, UTIs, skin conditions like acne and eczema, infertility problems, weight gain, and various other ailments.

The latest study about birth control pills reducing a women’s chance of gaining lean muscle mass is really disturbing for athletes. Running, especially, is all about strength to weight ratio.

Again, there isn’t an easy answer to the question of whether birth control pills are good for female distance runners (or athletes in general). There are a number of reasons why I think they aren’t a good idea for everyone. I don’t agree with the blanket prescription policy that is currently in place in most health institutions. Obviously birth control pills can be appropriate for some individuals, but that doesn’t mean that they should be prescribed out so quickly as the solution to every female problem.

I am not a medical doctor, but in my experience, health and athletic performance are best fostered when we look at the whole person. I also feel that a discussion of oral contraceptives in female distance runners or other athletes is incomplete without a further discussion of eating disorders, but I’ll reserve that for another post.

If you are wondering whether you should be taking the birth control pill, I urge you to weigh the positives and negatives and research the subject for yourself. Most doctors see a variety of patients, don’t specialize in treating athletes, and don’t necessarily keep up on the latest research. You have to be your own advocate. If you are you only taking the pill for birth control and are a serious athlete, it might really be worth taking the time to evaluate the trade-offs.

More later…

*A side note about Ortho Tricyclen…. My theory is that this company gives a lot free samples and kickbacks to Doctor’s offices because they always prescribe patients on this pill first. According to doctors, they start women on a tri-phasal pill (meaning three different levels of hormones) because it mimics the normal phases of the female’s cycle. The flaw in this logic, as far as I’m concerned, is that when you’re talking about girls who are amenorehic, they don’t have a cycle… so this artificial phasing is very difficult on their systems.

Link to the article about birth control pills interfering with lean muscle mass
Link to article about birth control pills and distance runners

After the fracture, a doctor convinced me that it occurred because my bone density was low. He said my bones were suffering because I didn’t have periods. This was the case because the absence of menses meant that my body didn’t have enough estrogen… and estrogen was the key to calcium being absorbed by my bones. He told me that my estrogen was low because I ran so much. And he said all this could be corrected by taking the birth control pill because it would supply my body with artificial estrogen that would keep my bones strong.

The Female Athlete Triad- of disordered eating, amenorrhea, and osteoporosis- was a relatively new buzzword ten years ago and doctors, trainers, and coaches were quick to jump to the conclusion that the birth control pill was the easiest, quickest-fix band-aid solution to the most bothersome part of it. I wish that I could say that as a community, sports medicine has made tremendous progress – that doctors, coaches, and trainers know a great deal more about how to address these situations with their athletes, but I don’t really believe it’s much better. Birth control pills are more than ever being prescribed to young athletes (and non-athletes alike) as a quick-fix solution to problems that require a much deeper and more comprehensive look at the whole system.

When I look back at my own situation, I realize that the Doctor made a lot of assumptions in his hypothesis. First, he assumed that my stress fracture was due to having low bone density, though he never measured the density of my bones. In reality it was my training that changed significantly – I had gone from running maybe 40 miles per week on dirt roads in high school in Colorado to running 70+ miles per week in college mostly on pavement.

The other reality about my situation was that running or body fat percentage wasn’t the cause of my amenorrhea. I was always a very active teenager and a “late bloomer.” I played 3-4 varsity level sports during high school. I only had a couple “regular periods” when I was 15 years old and they ceased when I left to be an exchange student in southern Brazil. In Brazil I wasn’t allowed outside of the house alone. It was, by far, the most sedentary I have ever been at any time in my life. And like all exchange students, I gained a few pounds. And yet this is the time in my life when my periods stopped. When I returned from Brazil, I embarked on a 30-day wilderness education course backpacking across Colorado’s San Juan Range. But still my cycle didn’t return.

Over the years I stopped taking birth control twice for several months at time to see if my period would return on its own. Each time I noticed a marked improvement in my mood and digestion, but each time a friend or doctor encouraged me to go back on the pill because I needed it for my bones. I remained on a mono-phasal birth control pill until the age of 25. At that point, my digestive problems and allergies were so bad that I wanted to try anything to alleviate the situation. I read as much as I could find on the subject, scheduled a bone density scan that came back on the low side of normal, and quit the pill for good. It was a liberating feeling!

Eventually, about 7 months later, my cycle returned naturally for the first time in over 10 years. For the first year or two it was not consistent- some months it wouldn’t come, some months it would only last a day. However, the overall trend was one of progress.

Acupuncture has been the single most helpful tool for me in finding hormonal balance and regulating my periods. I highly recommend it!

Birth control pills have always been a subject of much debate for female athletes. It seems like it is the modern-day doctor’s answer to any irregularity in the menstrual cycle. They want you to go on the pill for everything, you bleed too much, your cycle is too short, too long, non-existent… or hey, you have acne? No problem… take this pill. It only gives you a constant supply of synthetic hormones. (!)

Popping a pill is a much easier solution than trying to look into the root cause of the hormonal problem in the first place. What really upsets me is the lack of studies that have been done on the long term side effects of being on the pill and the real lack of studies actually done on athletes.

This latest study finds that women on the pill are “less likely to build muscle” than those not taking it. “You can still gain muscle on the pill, you just have to work harder.” The reason for this is because the pill drops levels of circulating testosterone. For the collegiate athlete, or the competitive athlete this is a serious issue.

My favorite part is at the end of the video:

Q: Should you reconsider taking the pill in light of this study?
A: Probably not unless you are a competitive athlete or body builder.

An aside: Erythritol & xylitol, are natural sugar alcohols so they are digested differently than regular sugar and don’t produce the pronounced blood-sugar spike and insulin response… too much of which is linked with diabetes and weight gain. Erythritol is known for having less gastric side effects than other sugar alcohols because it is absorbed in the small intestine while xylitol is absorbed in the large intestine and larger quanities often lead to gas, bloating and a laxative effect. Erythritol, has 5% of the calories of table sugar (.2calories per gram vs. 4 calories per gram) and 70% of the sweetness. So it is almost calorie-free

But back to the sweet stevia leaf…. after reading this article I want to figure out how it affect fertility in women, not just men. ugh. I really don’t want to give up my little white packets. They make cocoa & tea so much more delightful.

READ THE FULL STORY ON VEG NEWS.COM
Does this sugar stand-in stymie hopes for fertility in the future? VN’s resident nutritionist studies the sweet substitute.
By Ilyse Simon

Confused about whether or not switching from sugar to stevia might hurt your chances at parenthood? Your nutritional debate is understandable. Though the Food and Drug Administration approved stevia in December, there’s still some question about how much is really safe, especially if you’re trying to conceive. The short answer is that adding stevia to a cup of tea or coffee each day won’t compromise your health. However, stevia is worth scrutinizing if you plan to use it often or in large quantities.

Stevia is a shrub native to South America with leaves sweeter than white sugar. It’s calorie-free and one of just a few alternative sweeteners for people with diabetes, and the FDA has designated stevia Generally Recognized as Safe. (This is controversial because there are many products deemed “safe” by the FDA that I would never consider consuming, and the FDA has a history of protecting big agribusiness over human health—but there’s an element of truth to this one.) Stevia has been used in other countries for centuries without ill effects. Used to sweeten yerba mate in Paraguay and in Japan to sweeten pickles since the 1970s, stevia—in small quantities—has not been proven harmful. The main concern is that if we mass-market this plant extract as we have with soy, stevia could become a ubiquitous ingredient in everyday packaged foods. If your energy bar, smoothie, tea, and dairy-free ice cream are all sweetened with stevia, that might be more than is considered healthy.

North Americans, in general, still think more equals better, and tend to go to extremes when we find something we like. Again, it’s similar to the soy story: Asian cultures eat moderate amounts of soy daily in whole-food forms without negative consequences; Western cultures have processed and refined soy into isolated protein components, added it to highly processed energy bars, and continue scarfing them down like health foods. This is where the problems lie. The specifics on stevia show that high amounts affect male reproductive health with reduced sperm counts and possible infertility. In some laboratory studies, stevia acts on a cell’s DNA to cause unwanted mutations and may promote cancer. In other studies, large amounts of stevia interfere with normal carbohydrate metabolism. Recently, the Center for Science in the Public Interest lists stevia as an additive that people should “try to avoid,” but maintains that small amounts are probably safe.

The bottom line is that a little is probably fine, but a lot is not. That’s advice for almost any situation. One or two cups of coffee with stevia is not raising concern amongst researchers. It’s the scenario where stevia sweetens diet soda, fruited waters, and every piece of chewing gum stuck to your shoe that is of concern. Keep your diet clean, eat lots of fruits and veggies, go ahead and ditch the tighty-whiteys, and your fertility will likely be fine.