BeanDiet

I am excited to announce some upcoming seminars in Sacramento, please come and join the fun!

** Sunday, October 4th at 2pm I will be giving a free seminar at Whole Foods on "How to Prevent and Reverse Diabetes and Lose Weight in the Process". I know space in Whole Foods is limited, so please pre-register if you plan on coming. I will be selling and signing my books there.

** Monday, October 5th at 6:30pm Healthy U (in Natomas) is having a speaker come out from Washington D.C. He is the associate director of one of my favorite organizations (Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine), and he will be discussing one of my all-time favorite subjects - that's right - the colon. Dr. Mills' seminar is actually titled "Put Your Colon to Work for You: How it Improves Physiology and Protects Your Health". So true Dr. Mills, thank you for being willing to speak on this subject!

Since Healthy U seminars all include delicious vegan dinners served beforehand, and since it costs $10, space is limited, so please call Charleen at 482-8123 to reserve your space.

** Wednesday, October 7th at 6:30pm I will be giving another free seminar at the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op on "How to Prevent and Reverse Diabetes and Lose Weight in the Process". Of course my books will be sold there, and of course I will sign them! Please register online for the class online at their website (www.sacfoodcoop.com).

So I hope some to see some of you in the near future. Or perhaps better yet, you have a friend or family member who could benefit from this information!

Of course, you may still buy my book Free to Eat at my website: www.fiber-girl.com. All copies will be signed by yours truly.

Last week I had an informed reader ask me about naturally occurring substances in vegetables, whole grains and legumes commonly referred to as "anti-nutrients". This reader wanted to know if soaking and/or sprouting grains and legumes was helpful in decreasing said substances. (Common anti-nutrients include tannins, phytates or phytic acid, and oxalates or oxalic acid - although many more exist.) The name "anti-nutrient" is given because these compounds bind with minerals in food - particularly iron, zinc, copper, calcium and magnesium - and thereby lower mineral absorption to some degree.

So I did my research (did I ever!) and here's what I've found. While vegetables, whole grains and legumes do contain these compounds that can lower mineral absorption, they also have powerful antioxidant properties that have proven to lower blood glucose levels in diabetics, lower cholesterol and triglyceride levels, and perhaps most surprisingly: have been found to play a powerful role in preventing cancer cell proliferation. To read a review of studies on that last point, read more here.

Not only that, but when foods containing such "anti-nutrients" are consumed regularly, mineral deficiencies are extremely rare. Case in point: black tea contains high amounts of tannins, yet myriad studies show post-menopausal women who drink tea regularly are less likely to lose bone density than those who do not drink tea. Since zinc, copper, calcium and magnesium are especially play an especially important role in bone density, the results are surprising. (see Am J Clin Nutr 2000 Apr;71(4):1003-7.)

Foods made with soy have received ridiculous amounts of bad press (from bad sources) in regards to anti-nutrients - yet people who consume the most soy, from fermented sources or not, are the least likely to develop mineral deficiencies, as well as chronic disease such as diabetes, heart disease and cancer.

Due to all their benefits, many researchers are starting to call "anti-nutrients" just plain "nutrients". I agree. So keep eating your vegetables, whole grains and legumes. If you choose to lower anti-nutrients (like phytic acid) through soaking, sprouting and fermenting your legumes and grains, that's fine, since you can't entirely eliminate all the anti-nutrients anyway. But if you don't take measures to reduce these compounds, you will derive great benefits too.

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By the way, thank you everyone who has bought my book these past two weeks! I've heard some great feedback already! This week will be the last week to purchase it without shipping and tax charges. And of course, I will sign each one. Read it and buy it at http://www.fiber-girl.com!

I went to the farmers market today and bought myself five avocados for $7.00. I recommend you do the same. Besides the fact that avocados are delicious and satiating (read: filling), they are also GOOD for you.

So here are just a handful of reasons why you should go nuts on avocados:

1) Antioxidants. Avo's are loaded with antioxidants like vitamin E, folic acid and glutathione. All these are known to prevent cancer & heart disease while boosting the immune system.

2) Potassium. Forget bananas, avo's have way more potassium which is known to lower blood pressure. (Yes, you can have your bananas too.)

3) Fiber. One avocado contains between 6-8 grams of fiber - without the peel or pit.

4) Diabetes. Because of their high fiber & healthy fat content, avocados are ridiculously low on the glycemic index, or GI. The GI measures how slowly a food causes blood sugar to rise and therefore, its potential contribution to diabetes.

5) Lowering cholesterol. Fatty plant foods like avo's and nuts contain high amounts of what are known as plant, or "phyto" sterols. Plant sterols block cell receptor sites from absorbing real cholesterol, thus lowering LDL (bad) and total cholesterol levels significantly.

6) Preventing cancer and macular degeneration. Ohio State University researchers found that the beneficial fats in avocados increase the absorption of carotenoid nutrients by up to 15 times (Journal of Nutrition, 2005). Study participants who consumed avocados with their salad absorbed more lycopene (known to help prevent prostate cancer), beta and alpha carotene (known to prevent many types of cancer, including oral), as well as lutein. The nutrient lutein is especially known for preventing macular degeneration in the elderly, which is the most common form of blindness in the U.S.

7) Appetite control. That's right, avocados - like nuts - are often believed to cause weight gain but actually do the opposite. The fat in avo's is not only good for you but keeps you fuller for longer periods. Think about it, how many avo's can you eat at once? Just try.

8) Omega-3 fatty acids. We hear so much about Omega-3's being found in fish, but avo's have just as much and there's no mercury to worry about. Omega-3's are renown for lowering high blood pressure, preventing blood clots leading to stroke and heart disease, as well as improving brain function and the immune system.

So add avo's to your salads, sandwiches, burritos, or just eat them plain or spread on bread. Finally, an easy way to improve your health.

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By the way, if you haven't bought my brand new book Free to Eat yet, I will forgo tax and shipping costs for another week as part of the promotion. Oh yeah, and I will sign them for free too! Free to Eat includes all the material on this blog plus 50 recipes and a 30-day meal plan. Buy it at http://www.fiber-girl.com!

Thank you so much everyone for your wonderful encouragement and feedback on my new book Free to Eat! It is so sweet when someone asks me a nutrition question now, I get to simply say, "It's in my book"! Everything I've written on my blog -- is in my book!

The other half of the book is RECIPES and a 30-day meal plan. I've been asked to do this for so long. It's one thing for me to tell you how to eat, but so much better to hold your hand as you make real changes.

All the recipes come from (soon to be) world-famous meal planner Jennifer Brewer. These days, all I cook comes from one of her creations. They are out of this world delicious, and of course, incredibly healthy. You can subscribe to her meal plan for $9.95/month, and you receive a weekly email with a PDF file of recipes (and shopping list) for that week. The recipes are always new, so my husband never gets tired of "the same ol' thing".

Finally, can I just tell you that you can try a month of Jennifer's services for FREE? Just go to http://www.nourishingnutrition.com/ and sign up!