The Hemp Connection:
anti-oxidants

Thanks so much to Kerstin Wingert of Souvia Tea and Michael Keele of Central Slope for sharing their expertise about these topics!

Here is more information about the companies, products and resources mentioned in today's program.

TEA STUFF

Here is information about the personal travel tea bag Kerstin mentioned. She has many other gadgets in her tea store as well.

Culinary Tea: More Than 150 Recipes Steeped in Tradition from Around the World is the book Kerstin mentioned, containing 150 recipes with tea as an ingredient. Have a foodie on your Christmas list? Check it out!

Remember, if you are in the store, mention the radio show and receive 20% off your purchase. Or, if you shop online, use my name, Monika, as your coupon code, and receive the same discount.

Both Kerstin and Michael mentioned Absolutely Delightful Honey, another local Arizona business.

BEE STUFF

If you garden, Humble Seed, a local company (with an online store), which specializes in"providing the highest quality heirloom, non-GMO, non-hybrid, and organic seed varieties" is the company partnering with Central Slope to host the exclusive Arizona premiere of the documentary, Vanishing of the Bees.

Here is the trailer to the movie.

If you would like to attend this movie in Phoenix, it is showing at the MadCap Theater, on Saturday, November 6, at 5 pm. You can buy tickets ($15 each) at the theater, 730 S. Mill Avenue, in Tempe, or online at http://www.madcaptheaters.com/

There is also a need for sponsorships for this event. If you're interested, please contact Michael Keele at info@centralslope.com.

FREE STUFF

I promised you a recipe to try cooking with tea, and here it is. Thank you so much to Sous Chef Lisa at Green Mountain at Fox Run Resort for sharing her Sesame Peanut Sauce recipe. (Kerstin suggested a Keemun tea for this recipe, which she says is full body, very smooth with a slight smokey flavor. Can you see what I mean when I say she is to tea what many others are to wine?)
Sesame Peanut Sauce

Yields about 1 cup — perfect for noodles, chicken, tofu, etc.

Steep 1 black tea bag in 1/2 cup of room temperature water for 3 hours. (Heating the water can cause the tea to be bitter.)

Whisk the resulting tea with:

1/2 cup peanut butter (almond or cashew are lovely substitutes)
2 T honey (or agave nectar)
2 T tamari or soy sauce
1 T rice wine vinegar
1 T toasted sesame oil
2 tsp sesame seeds (optional)
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp ginger powder
pinch of cayenne or sriracha sauce to taste (optional)
Voila!

The day after the FDA warning about pistachio nuts came out, I was in a local grocery store. As I walked through the produce aisle, I noticed the produce manager and his clerk with a huge bin; they were emptying out their inventory of pistachio nuts into a huge garbage bin. They had no idea where their pistachios had come from, and they had to throw them away.

I felt sad that so much food had to be wasted.

The day that the FDA warning about pistachio nuts came out, I received a note from Whole Foods Market. They were working to source where all their pistachio nuts came from. A detailed memo was released later in the week regarding the safety of pistachios in their many stores.

Please read this blog post and make your own decisions. But do consider the value in being an informed consumer. If you are judicious about where you shop, it may be worth a little extra investment. If you make a choice to purchase locally grown products at your farmer's market, you're not only supporting a local small business, you know exactly what hands your food passed through before it fell into yours.

There will come a time when pistachios will be considered generally healthy to eat, no matter what the source. And when that comes, keep these pistachio fun facts in mind:

--a one ounce serving of pistachio nuts scores higher on the USDA's antioxidant scorecard than a cup of green tea.
--pistachio nuts can help to reduce bad cholesterol and raise good cholesterol
--pistachio nuts are high in lutein and can help prevent macular degeneration, a leading cause of blindness
--pistachio nuts are a good source of many vitamins and minerals, including: thiamin, vitamin B6, copper, manganese, potassium, dietary fiber, phosphorus and magnesium
--pistachio nuts are a good source of healthy fats, including omega-3's

My point is…I hope you don't eliminate pistachios completely from your diet because of what you've heard in the news. The pistachio recall was specifically for pistachios from Setton Farms. If you can shop at a store or farmer's market where you can be assured pistachios did not pass through this processing plant, they can be a wonderful addition to your PCOS eating plan.

Here's a recipe for white bean pistachio chili to get you started!

We seem to have this mentality that if it's an antioxidant worth our attention, that it had to come from a faraway place. If it wasn't handpicked by a silent monk, or floated miles down a rainforest river, it couldn't possibly be good, right?

I've never believed that. Mother Nature is far smarter, and it always seemed to me that she'd be sure to put antioxidant gifts in many places. I recently blogged about purple corn, which grows at altitude in Peru, where there is a need for extra protection from the sun's radiation. But closer to home, we have resveratrol in California grapes. Even here in the Southwest, we have hibiscus, also rich in anthcyanins. (For that reason, I've come to call it the Mexican blueberry!)

My theory was further strengthened at the Natural Products Expo, where I learned about a gem from the plains of Saskatchewan. Originally known as Saskatoon berries, and now being marketed as Prairie Berries, these Canadian fruits have a higher oxygen radical absorbence capacity (ORAC) score than blueberries, the fruit most often making the top ten lists of foods you should have on a regular basis.

Prairie berries have been eaten for generations by Native Americans and early settlers. They were often pounded into dried meat to make pemmican, which is similar to beef jerky.

Prairie berries are very similar to blueberries in taste. We were able to try the dried as well as thawed frozen berries. I really liked the flavor.

These berries are not widely available as I write this. The representatives we met were at the Expo to generate interest in them as a food ingredient. They do have a few products for sale on their website. I'm hoping that future Expos will be showcasing food bars, granolas, trail mixes, etc., using these North American superfruits.

Remember, an antioxidant doesn't hold its power based on how many miles it had to travel to get to you. It's about what it does to those free radicals!

Most of you know that your PCOS is an inflammatory disorder. But if someone asked you what that meant, would you be able to explain it? I've found that it's a pretty meaningless and misleading term to most people. So I like to use a visual. This visual has had such a profound impact on some of my clients that they've printed it out and they hang it on their computers or other prominent place to graphically remind them of the importance of making proactive choices.

Inflammation is a misleading term because most people, when they hear it, tend to think of swelling, as you might experience if you sprain your ankle. In the case of inflammatory disease, it's really more oxidation that we're talking about. (Hence the focus on antioxidants by the supplement industry).

But even then…what is oxidation? It is the metabolic effect of oxygen being broken down. Outside of your body, the easiest illustration I've come up with is rust. When metal reacts with oxygen, and an oxidative process occurs, rust is the result.

It's no different in your body. An inflammatory, or oxidative process, is essentially the rusting out and deterioration of your tissues. It happens when the balance between processes that oxidize outweigh those that do repair work.

One of the most important places where this oxidation has effect is in your brain and nervous system. Oxidative processes are known to destroy neurons! For example, depression, another inflammatory disorder and one which commonly co-exists with PCOS, is known to destroy neurons in the hippocampus, the brain's memory center. And as many of you know, loss of memory, concentration…brain fog…are common side effects of PCOS.

Take a look at this photo. If the balance in your own body is tipped toward inflammation, it's literally like your brain and nervous system are rusting out. Yes, this is your brain on inflammation.

Your job is to reverse that process.

And it can be reversed! Studies also show that the hippocampus rebuilds those lost neurons as an indication of resolving depression.

What to do?

1. Remember that the substance that the brain needs in order to rebuild neurons is DHA. It's not sugar, it's not flax, it's not a vitamin or mineral. It's DHA, the fish oil that is found in fish and marine algae. Dr. Artemis Simopolous, omega-3 expert, has written that treating depression with DHA requires a dose of about 1000 mg per day. That is about 4 times what is recommended on the bottles of most supplements, and eating fish a few times a week is far below that. If you really want to experience the benefits of omega-3's, you likely need to up your dose.

2. You need to remember to take your fish oil! I know, it sounds funny, that in order to improve your memory you need to remember to use the thing that improves your memory…but that's one of the biggest barriers I've seen to PCOS success…consistency. If you cannot put your fish oil next to your milk in the refrigerator, or remember to take it when brushing your teeth, program your computer or smart phone to remind you to do so. I cannot reinforce the importance of consistency.

3. Slow down the rusting out process. Anything that raises metabolism, speeds up the rusting out process. That means extra stress. Sleep deprivation. Diet excesses. Dietary deficiencies. Too much exercise.

4. Eat a variety of foods from a variety of food groups. There are so many antioxidants available to you, none of them is the be-all-end-all…you need to mix it up so you get the most opportunity to benefit from the entire palette.

My hope is that now that you've seen what inflammation is, you will understand why it is so important to take action and do the repair work, then rust-proof yourself against further damage.

Most people, by the time they find this blog, have been introduced to the idea that carbs are"bad".

I propose a new way of thinking.

Carbs, when eaten to satisfy insatiable carbohydrate cravings, are being used to feed a potentially destructive biochemical imbalance.

Carbs, when eaten as part of a balanced diet, and when chosen from unrefined foods that also provide fiber, vitamins, minerals, and anti-oxidants, can be incredibly important in overall health and recovery from PCOS.

By now this blog has quite a bit of information on what you can do to help your carbohydrate cravings. So today I wanted to talk about a carbohydrate that can be helpful to include.

Ezekiel bread gets its name from the fact that its ingredients are all mentioned in the Bible verse Ezekiel 4:9.

"But as for you, take wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet and spelt, put them in one vessel and make them into bread for yourself; you shall eat it according to the number of the days that you lie on your side, three hundred and ninety days."

The bread is supposedly nutritionally complete. I'm not so sure about that, but I do know because it contains bean flour it is much higher in protein than your average bread. And, Biblical scholar or not…it can be a great food to add to your diet so that sandwiches, a handy convenience food, don't have to be eliminated from your"things I can pack for lunch" list.

I like to call our PCOS diet an"aggressive Mediterranean" diet. And because this recipe originates from the Bible, it falls in that category.

These days, Ezekiel bread is pretty easily found in most healthy food stores. The folks at Food for Life have trademarked the name"Ezekiel 4:9", and they've ventured into other products such as pasta, that you may be interested in trying.

If you cannot find Ezekiel bread in your local store, I found the recipe online for you to make it yourself.

Turkey sandwich piled with veggies…here I come!

You may know of melatonin as a potent sleep aid. So much so, that if you took melatonin and you did not experience an enhanced ability to sleep, you stopped taking it.

Did you know, melatonin is a very powerful antioxidant as well? Some of the benefits of this compound relevant to PCOS include:

--lowered blood pressure
--improved memory
--reduced adrenal gland activity and cortisol secretion
--reduced cortisol response to stress
--reduced blood glucose, insulin levels, and insulin response to a glucose load
--reduced cholesterol and triglycerides
--reduced testosterone levels
--increased progesterone synthesis
--slows gastric emptying (which can help you to feel fuller, longer)

That's a lot of stuff! And it's not just not sleeping well that interferes with melatonin metabolism. So does fasting and starvation…which includes any kind of radical diet, including the medically supervised ones and the HCG ones. Melatonin levels in all three types of eating disorders, anorexia, bulimia, and binge eating disorder, are disrupted. Obesity suppresses normal melatonin daily rhythms. Omega-3 deficiency reduces melatonin synthesis and total tissue levels.

Vitamin deficiencies such as B12, zinc, and magnesium, can interfere with good melatonin status. When I read that, I immediately thought of the many vegetarians reading this blog, as those are common deficiencies when vegetarian eating is not proactively balanced.

Normal melatonin metabolism may be dependent on physical activity.

Medical problems associated with a melatonin imbalance include: affective disorders, Alzheimer’s disease, arthritis, asthma, autism, bipolar disorder, cervical cancer, chronic fatigue syndrome, cluster headaches, congestive heart failure, coronary artery disease, Cushing’s syndrome, depression, diabetes, duodenal ulcer, epilepsy, fibromyalgia, hypertension, idiopathic pain syndrome, lung cancer, metabolic syndrome, migraine headaches, obesity, obsessive-compulsive disorder, panic disorder, Parkinson’s disease, polycystic ovary syndrome, pre-eclampsia, premenstrual syndrome, schizophrenia, seasonal affective disorder, sleep apnea, and ulcerative colitis.

I'm well aware that many people reading this blog are looking for a magic supplement to erase the need for making healthy lifestyle choices. If you choose to supplement with melatonin, it likely will not hurt you, and it may help you to restore normal sleep patterns, but it will never replace the power of regular, adequate sleep. Just sayin'.: )

If you've never used melatonin before, and you decide to start, you may want to try it on a night when it's not essential that you be up and functioning early the next day. It can have a paradoxical reaction in some people.

And, if you happen to be a professional pilot, the FAA advises against using melatonin while on duty. It certainly wouldn't hurt on your days off, especially if you've been on some grueling red eye flights, just beware of this disclaimer while officially on duty.

I have an extensive list of references I've collected from which this blog post was derived. If you would like them you can contact me directly.

Bottom line, if you don't value sleep, your body is going to have a really, really, really hard time being healthy.

For those of you who love green tea, you may wish to expand on your experiences with matcha. This version of tea is made by covering tea bushes before harvest, which causes them to turn a darker green. The biochemistry of this change gives matcha a sweeter flavor than traditional green tea.

This form of green tea is a super power house; gram for gram, it ranks higher in antioxidants than many of the foods consistently on health writers'"top ten supefoods" lists. In fact, researchers recently reported that the ECGC content of matcha can be up to 137 times higher than commercial green tea!

These leaves are then ground into a super-fine powder, which can be used in baking and cooking. If you've ever had green tea ice cream or a green tea smoothie, it is likely matcha that provided the flavor. I think it adds a beautiful color to whatever it is used in.

Most recipes on the Internet using matcha seem to be oriented toward sweets. However, if you look, there are some really interesting options in other categories. I've posted some of the most interesting below, along with links to the websites where I found theme so that you can be inspired in your own kitchen.

If you can't find match locally, consider visiting my friend Kerstin Wingert's online store. That is where I've found it and she is very popular in Phoenix because of her attention to quality in her products.

A storage note: Once opened, matcha does oxidize quickly so be sure to have a plan for using it, or share with friends and have fun tasting each others' creations!

One of the many smoothie recipes I found

Matcha Mango Smoothies

1 1/4 cups mango chunks
1/2 cup unsweetened soymilk or low-fat milk
1/2 cup low-fat plain yogurt
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon matcha tea powder
1/2 cup ice cubes
Honey or agave syrup (optional)

Add mango, soymilk, yogurt and matcha tea powder to blender container. Cover and blend until smooth. Add ice cubes; cover and blend until smooth. Taste for sweetness. Add honey or agave syrup if needed; cover and blend to combine. Pour into 2 glasses.

Makes 2 servings (1 1/4 cups each)

Tip: Adding too much matcha tea can result in a bitter flavor. Start with a small amount of matcha and adjust according to taste.

Here is the most interesting one I found. It is on my list to try!

Green Tea Fish Stew

5 Tbls. Olive oil
1 Clove garlic; peeled
4 medium Potatoes; peeled and diced
1 lb. Flounder, cod or red snapper fillets cut in chunks
2 bottles clam juice
2 cups water
16 ozs. diced or pureed tomatoes
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 Bay leaf
1 tsp. Salt
1/8 tsp. Crushed red pepper or to taste
3 Tbls. Chopped parsley
1 tsp. Matcha green tea powder

Heat oil in Dutch oven. Add garlic; sauté until well browned. Discard garlic. Add potatoes to Dutch oven, cook, stirring constantly, until lightly browned. Add fish, stock, tomatoes, wine, Matcha, bay leaf, salt, crushed red pepper, and pepper. Bring to a boil, then immediately reduce heat and simmer for 20-25 minutes or until fish and potatoes are tender. Remove bay leaf. Serve sprinkled with parsley. Serves 4

http://www.islandteashop.com/recipes/green-tea/poultry-fish-meat.php

You could probably cut the sugar in this one. Be sure to use dark, high quality chocolate. A great holiday treat!

Matcha Almonds
1/3 cup plus 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
8 ounces unblanched almonds
2 teaspoons butter
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, broken into small pieces
1/2 teaspoon matcha (powdered green tea) or more to taste

Preparation

1.Combine the sugar and 1/3 cup water in a saucepan and slowly heat to boiling, stirring until sugar dissolves. Cook sugar syrup until it reaches 240 degrees, or to soft-ball stage. Add almonds and stir to coat. Add the butter and remove from the heat. Stir until the almonds are glazed with syrup. Cook over medium-low heat until little liquid is left in the pan.

2.Add the chocolate and heat until it melts and almonds are completely coated. Set aside to cool.

3.When almonds are cool, dust from on high with the matcha to coat evenly.

YIELD About 3/4 pound

http://events.nytimes.com/recipes/11700/2003/01/19/Matcha-Almonds/recipe.html

And just for a little fun, here is matcha martini recipe! Isn't this the most Christmasy looking beverage! The photo shows a strawberry garnish, the recipe suggests mint and cinnamon, but for this holiday in particular, garnished with a candy cane it would be so pretty!

Matcha Zentini

* 1 tsp ZenMatcha powder
* 1 ounce Godiva White Chocolate liquer
* 1 ounce vanilla vodka
* 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Shake well over ice and pour.

Garnish with a mint leaf and cinnamon (can substitute cream and clear white chocolate liquer for Godiva liqueur)

http://zenmatchatea.com/matcha/tea/recipes/matcha-martini-recipes

Weiss, David J; Anderton, Christopher R (2003-09-05). Determination of catchins in matcha green ttea by micellar electrokinetic chromatography. Journal of Chromatography 1011 (1-2): 173–180.

Here's a snack with potential benefit other than immediate gratification!

Dark chocolate covered tart cherries. Dark chocolate is a great antioxidant. So are tart cherries.

Of course, if you eat them by the bucketful the cost of the choice can begin to outweigh the benefit.

But in moderation--even a couple thrown into a smoothie--you're doing better than you might imagine.

You can even take the cue from the photo and make your own, which allows you to dip the cherries in more chocolate and less sugar than pre-prepared versions might contain.

Here's a link to an online cherry store where you can buy some, if you can't find them in your local market.

I'm still trying to figure out why my clients have trouble with healthy eating. It's so tasty when you do it well!

Treat yourself!

I was in Los Angeles over the weekend with a few free hours, so I did what I always do when that happens. I headed over to the Whole Foods Venice to see what was cookin'. That place is always packed with new foods and ideas!

I had the opportunity to try my first raw meal, a verde burrito from the restaurant 118 Degrees.* Very tasty!

And I learned about a new antioxidant from Hawaii, as well as other coffee producing regions…the coffee cherry. (Well, coffee cherries have been around for eons, actually, it's only recently that they have been processed in ways that humans can eat.)

A coffee cherry is the fruit inside of which coffee beans grow. So for a long time, the cherries were picked, the beans were extracted, and the cherries were discarded. When antioxidants became popular, it was discovered that these coffee cherries are pretty packed with antioxidants. The National Insitute of Health has actually ranked the coffee cherry higher in antioxidant content than pomegranate and green tea.

To date, coffee cherry is more of an ingredient in skin products than in food. There it has been shown to have powerful anti-cancer activity. Once food manufacturers figure out a way to process coffee cherries in a way that they can be transported outside of the tropical regions where they grow, you will likely see them used in more foods.

Unfortunately, the product I tasted it in was a soda pop, not the best all-around food choice when you're going for total nutrient density. I look forward to what else creative food manufacturers devise that would be more all-around healthful for someone who is trying to limit sugar intake as well as boost anti-oxidant consumption.

I've always liked to steer people toward red foods--pomegranates, grapes, berries, cherries, etc.--for antioxidant power. Looks like even when you head toward the equator, this rule of thumb holds true!

*My meal was tasty, and I would highly recommend it, but that comment is not meant to be a wholehearted endorsement of raw eating. I will be writing more about raw food soon.

It's the end of summer and the basil plant on my patio is huge. Time for pesto!

Pesto sauce is a great PCOS food. It's based on olive oil, the pine nuts have a healthy omega-6 to omega-3 ratio, garlic has its health benefits we have all heard of. Add some parmesan cheese for calcium and voila! You're there!

Who knew the basil was throwing in its own punch? The oils found in basil leaves have anti-inflammatory activity (remember, PCOS is an inflammatory condition). It's also high in beta-carotene, antioxidants, magnesium, iron, calcium, potassium, and vitamin C.

If you're trying to watch your glycemic index, try quinoa pasta. It's a high protein, low GI grain that is now sold in spaghetti and pasta forms. Pesto also makes a good sandwich spread, a topper for grilled meat, and you can put it on baked potatoes or portabella mushrooms if you're a veggie! I recently found some pesto turkey burgers at Trader Joe's--all they did was mix some pesto sauce in with the turkey meat before making patties…something you can easily replicate at home.

It's easy to find the ready made version in just about any store these days, but it's super easy to make at home. Here is one recipe I found online.

Phoenix Vice Mayor and District 4 Councilman Tom Simplot just sent me his responses to my questions I recently posed to our City Council members about locally produced food and organic shopping. Vice Mayor Simplot is not one to sit still! In addition to being Vice Mayor, he serves on various City Council subcommittees.

Love how he mentions the light rail! Using that to get to and from your favorite local watering hole or grocery shopping spot, not only adds a little bit of activity into the evening…it promotes a healthier environment as well!

Do you have any favorite locally owned restaurants in your council district that you'd like us to mention?
Plenty. Since the completion of the light rail, new locally owned businesses have been sprouting up along the rail line like organic mushrooms. Postino's on Central; Maizie's; and Two Hippies Taco Shop are relatively new to the district, and more are on the way. Old favorites include Harley's Bistro; Fez; and Alexi's.

Do you have a favorite Arizona-grown food?
All locally grown food is great…and don't forget Arizona wines, too.

You mentioned that you are a strong supporter of the Phoenix Downtown Market. Do you have any favorite booths?
Yes, the ones that hand out samples!
Hmmm…then I must have unknowingly bumped into you at least once at the Dr. Hummus booth!

You're in the middle of a campaign and you're a pretty busy guy with all your committees and boards, yet you make time to patronize the Downtown Market. What would you say to the person who says the idea of a local market is nice but they're just too busy to shop there?
The one of the best reasons about shopping at the Downtown Market is that you, as a consumer, have a say in what your dollar supports. You know exactly who benefits from your purchase; I like to think of it as a"political purchase."

A LITTLE MORE ON WINE!
Councilman Simplot gave me a perfect lead in to a topic I've always intended to write about but never did--wine and health. For starters, the main difference between red and white wine is that red wine incorporates the crushed skins of the grapes in processing, while white wine removes the skin and uses only the remaining pulp for the final product. Resveratrol, found in grape skins and therefore in red wine, is probably the most well-known of these compounds. However, grape pulp contains polyphenols, another kind of antioxidant, which gives white wine health benefits too. Both red and white wine have antibacterial activity. So regardless of the type of wine you enjoy, know there is some benefit to your favorite variety.

If you are currently trying to conceive, or do not drink alcohol, the same benefits can be obtained by eating fresh grapes, grape juice, and wine vinegar. Homemade vinaigrettes are quick and easy, and a perfect topper for the salad fixin's you are sure to find while working your way from that free hummous sample to the organic grapes on your next trip to the farmer's market.

I appreciate your time and comments, Councilman Simplot. From healthy, tasty food to using public transportation to thoughtful consumer spending, you summarized exactly the kind of choices what inCYST aspires to encourage in its readers.