The Hemp Connection:
salad dressing

Not long ago a woman with PCOS handed me a diet diary for analysis. She had eaten a burger without the bun and a sweetened ice tea for breakfast. Lunch didn't happen until 2 pm, and it was a brownie with ice cream. And finally, she recorded a bowl of cereal for dinner.

One of the things that jumped out at me was that there were no fruits or vegetables in her meal plan. When I asked her about it…she told me she was avoiding carbs!

Fruits have somehow gotten a bad rap because of their carbohydrate content. But they're not the culprit in an unhealthy diet. In fact, fruits are very high in antioxidants, which can help to repair the damage that life stress and the stress of having a chronic disease can create. In my opinion, you can't afford NOT to have fruit.

I chose oranges this week, because I live in Arizona and I have an orange tree off of my patio. It is the most wonderful treat to wake up, pick a few oranges, and have a glass of fresh squeezed juice. Or, when I need a break in the afternoon, to pick a fresh snack for myself. Nothing tastes better than fruit right from the source. I recently made a great salad vinaigrette using orange juice and olive oil as the base. Even with all these oranges, I'm not making a dent in my supply!

If your diet diary mimicks the one I described above, challenge yourself to try the following. Be sure to have a serving of fruit the size of a tennis ball at each meal, or the total equivalent of 3 servings that size of fruit in the course of a day. Challenge yourself to not eat any sources of refined sugar until you've met your daily quota of fruit. See if, when you focus on fruit, your appetite for other sugars diminishes. And in the process, if changing the kind of sugar you eat doesn't help stabilize your energy levels and help you to feel better.

It's spring and I'm excited about the shift in available vegetables. Making a salad the other night got me thinking about salad dressing.

A couple of years ago I was telling a neighbor about my"S and C" rule--that is, stay away from oils, except for canola, that begin with the letters"S" and"C". I say that because these oils are all predominantly from the omega-6 family, and the problem with our diet is that we get way too much omega-6 fat in proportion to omega-3 fats.

This neighbor is diabetic and was asking me for some help with his food choices. So on my next trip to the grocery store, I stopped by the salad dressing aisle to make a list of available brands that followed my rule. I found about 2.

It occurred to me that this could be a really important piece of the puzzle for people who don't really eat much fat, and who think they're eating healthy foods, but still have trouble losing weight or getting relief from inflammatory symptoms.

The key is the ratio of omega-6 to omega-3. That means the less fat you eat, the less deviation from the"S" and"C" rule it takes to push you in the wrong direction. In other words, restrict your fat all day long then have a salad with the wrong oil, and you've overdone it for the day.

You have to be really careful with labels. A few weeks ago I was pulling samples off the shelves at Whole Foods for a class, and I stopped at the salad dressing section to get some examples. I couldn't believe it--Paul Newman's olive oil dressing listed soybean oil as the primary ingredient. I have no idea how he gets away with that…but I'm guessing that most people who he's branded his products with assume that since he's doing good works with his profits, that the foods are also healthy. We tend to make huge leaps of logic like that.

A few years ago I stopped buying salad dressings altogether. I make my own vinaigrettes. They're really quite simple, you need only a few basic ingredients, and you take the power back. Google"vinaigrette recipe" and you'll find a gazillion options. Yup. A gazillion. I counted each and every one.

If you really aren't into kitchen chemistry, please do read labels. If what is in your hand is not primarily olive oil or canola based…it's not something that should go into your grocery basket, your kitchen cabinet…or YOU.