It’s never, ever too late
August 12, 2010 by Yafa Sakkejha
Filed under Anti Aging Articles, Featured
Many of us beat up on ourselves for slipping on our health plans. Or maybe letting go for the whole summer. Or maybe it’s been 5 years since you’ve had a shot of wheatgrass.
We’ve met plenty of women at the House of Verona who are in their 50s and just did their first Triathlon this summer. They have a day job, kids, a cottage, and some of them never joined a single sport growing up.
Fresh or Frozen?
July 9, 2010 by Yafa Sakkejha
Filed under Featured, Health Articles
Photo credit: Kelly West Mars
Fresh. Definitely Fresh.
Ask any food scientist – all food manufacturers must blanch produce before freezing them.
We recently sat down with Food Scientist Jinny Lok, B.Sc., MBA. She explains, “vegetables contain enzymes. If enzymes are not deactivated through blanching prior to freezing, they can cause vegetables to rot, lose colour and flavour even after the vegetables are frozen.”
“Blanching vegetables means submitting them briefly to boiling water or steam. The heat treatment destroys the enzymes, changes the texture and sets the color. For extended storage, this improves the keeping quality of the vegetables.”
In addition to the loss of nutrients due to blanching, the freezing process also degrades certain vitamins. An Italian university published a finding in the Journal of Food Science that freezing broccoli caused a decrease of 39% of vitamin C and a 29% decrease of sulforaphane (an anti-cancer compound).
The argument against eating fresh produce stems from a concern that produce loses nutrients when it travels for a week across a continent, as well as the fact that unripe fruits are more acidic than ripe ones.
If you’re able to buy locally grown produce, and eat it fresh, you are able to save a large amount of nutrition versus eating frozen vegetables.
Here are some links to farmer’s markets in Canada and the U.S. to find a market near your home:
Follow Jinny’s blog or Tweets here.
Depressed? Easy on the steak
May 6, 2010 by Yafa Sakkejha
Filed under Featured, Health Articles, Uncategorized
In March 2010, French researchers found that cooking beef lead to a significant degradation of tyrosine and tryptophan in meat.
Why should you care? Because these are two critical amino acids which help fight off depression.
Why care about tyrosine?
- Tyrosine is an amino acid which is a precursor to the neurotransmitter dopamine.
- Dopamine deficiencies have been linked with depression (and sugar cravings).
- Here’s the thing: depressed people are often told to eat more tyrosine-rich foods. However, most go-to tyrosine foods are animal proteins – steak, fish, etc.
- Of course, everyone who eats meat cooks it first – which we now know strips the food of the tyrosine that they were trying to get in the first place.
Why care about tryptophan?
- Tryptophan is an essential amino acid which functions as a biochemical precursor for the neurotransmitter serotonin.
- Serotonin deficiencies have been linked to depression.
- Serotonin is often recommended as a supplement to depressed individuals, typically in the form of animal proteins. As this research shows, it’s better to get tryptophan from raw, plant-based foods.
Eat these instead to get your tyrosine:
- Raw almonds
- Raw avocadoes
- Raw pumpkin seeds
- Raw sesame seeds
- E3 Live Blue-Green Algae
Eat these instead to get your tryptophan:
- Raw cacao
- Sprouted Oats
- Raw Sesame seeds
- Sprouted chickpeas
- Raw Sunflower seeds
- Raw Pumpkin seeds
- Spirulina
- Bananas
- Sprouted lentils
We’re currently developing an advanced retreat program at the House of Verona to help depressed individuals. If you’d like to hear more about this, click here. Thanks!
