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Archive Page 2
In the midlife muffin top crushing category you wouldn’t expect to find chocolate cake. In the “excess in moderation” category it would feature prominently for some. I’m happy to say that I’ve been introduced to a product that is so darn delicious, easy to bake–it’s a mix–and versatile as a base for other desserts that I had to write about it.
Kelley Herring is a woman I’ve connected with online and whose digital product, Your Plate, Your Fate, I admire and even offer for sale in the products section on Easy Midlife Weight Loss. She’s got a beautiful, healthy food information packed blog, called Healing Gourmet, as well as a product line of no sugar, low glycemic, gluten free cakes.
I’ll admit I’m not a big dessert person–which doesn’t mean I don’t love to make them and taste them, it’s just not a meal component I’m driven to. My overeating runs towards cheese, main courses, and chicken wings. (No, I’m not making that up.)
That said I love to make special desserts. This past weekend we had friends over for dinner and I never think of making something low sugar, low fat, gluten free. So I made white chocolate raspberry tiramisu–full fat, full booze, full sugar. It was worth every bite. Even I had to have a real portion and that’s not bragging as it’s a very easy dessert to make, it’s just a really delicious combination of ingredients.
As long as I was in the kitchen, along with the above creation, I decided to bake the sample Kelley sent of her Chocolate Bliss cake. I wasn’t sure what I’d do with it but I had to try this mix. She said it was great, I trusted her. It was easy to mix–water, eggs, and coconut or other oil. Bake for 18 minutes, voila. Looked and smelled like real chocolate cake. The taste test went like this:
“Hmmm, good texture, nice crumb, moist, smells rich. WOW, this tastes just like a real, sugar laden chocolate cake. How do they do that?” How they do it is by using almond flour, organic cocoa, organic zylitol, and other whole food ingredients. I’m not kidding when I say it is delicious and right away I knew what I’d be doing with it.
I created a low sugar chocolate raspberry tiramisu. The picture below shows a cross section of the cake layered with the cream, berries macerated in port and Grand Marnier. The whole is drizzled with a dark chocolate sauce, cream and dark chocolate, no sugar added. My skeptical, full sugar loving husband was skeptical when I told him about the cake itself being a healthy alternative. Last night he got the piece you see below and had a hard time not wolfing it down. Then asked when we could have that again.
I wholeheartedly endorse this product that Kelley has created. For now you have to order it online at her other site, Wellness Bakeries. You will no doubt find gluten free and sugar free cake mixes in health food stores but I’ve yet to see a mix that combines the two and uses whole foods to create the mixes. This is truly a nutritious dessert option that isn’t just fruit. When you order the cake mix you will receive a recipe for icing that’s healthy and delicious as well. By the way, this is not an affiliate situation where I’m getting a “little something” for recommending this product. It’s just that good and I want you all to know about it.
Chocolate Bliss Cake Raspberry Tiramisu
As a professional chef I have no problem using this mix as a basis for a simple or more involved dessert.
Most of us love the idea of creating desserts. With Chocolate Bliss cake mix we’ve been given an easy way to make a healthy sweet and I’ll bet most guests would never know it wasn’t the full on unhealthy, sugar laden cakes we are used to.
When something this wonderful comes along I have to spread the word.
So many of us know women going through some form of treatment for cancer–it might even be you, the reader. A friend passed along this group called Cleaning For A Reason. It’s a not for profit that offers house cleaning (one per month for up to 4 months) for someone with cancer undergoing treatment.
How they do this is by partnering with regional cleaning services who want to give back to their community. Currently they have 661 partners in 50 states and Canada with more coming into the fold all the time.
The application process is all lined out on their website. They do say that as a non-profit the need for cleaning far outweighs the number of appointments available but they are doing what they can.
If you have a cleaning company you might want to contact them to see how to get involved. If you are a patient, why not take a look at their requirements for application. They don’t require much paperwork but the window closes quickly each day at this point to get an application in.
Perhaps someone reading this who knows someone who fits the bill can do the application for them.
After doing some research on a local company here in the Hamptons I learned that Theresa’s Family Cleaning was one of the founding members of Cleaning For A Reason. Her website explains, “Teresa’s Family Cleaning staff cleans for a reason: to improve people’s lives. After Teresa lost her own sister, Virginia, to cancer, she committed her heart and her business to blessing women who are overwhelmed with the pain and stress of cancer treatment.”
Who says the world is a cold, uncaring place? Theresa’s also has a great reputation as a cleaning company for well people too. If you are local to the Hamptons take a look at her website.
And why not spread the word about this? It only takes a second to point someone in their directions. The more success their partners have, the more help cancer patients can have.
I honor all of the women out there making a difference in other women’s lives.
One of my guilty pleasures a few times per week is to watch Oprah while I’m at the gym. Yesterday I got part of a show which I’ll assume was about prevention and reversal of diabetes. For those of you who are new here, part of my mission is to reverse the trend and rates of heart disease and diabetes in midlife women so I paid attention to what the guests–Dr. Oz, Bob Greene, (Oprah’s trainer), and Dr. Ian Smith–had to say. (Art, Oprah’s former chef made a guest appearance as proof that you can reverse diabetes. He’s lost something like 90 pounds and transformed his cooking in the process)
Bob Greene has a new book out, The Best Life Guide to Managing Diabetes and Pre-Diabetes. He is co-author along with Dr.Jack Melendrino and Janis Jilbrin MS, RD. I’ve yet to buy the book–I disagree with Bob on many aspects of his programs–but will pick it up. Whether Bob and I see eye to eye over butter vs margarine–he touts it and I say it’s plastic and dangerous–is unimportant if his program and celebrity gets the word out that people can reverse diabetes and/or prevent it. There is one thing he told a group of women, who all looked more than well fed and heading for or suffering from diabetes, and it was this:
Exercise is non negotiable!
Amen to that! Most of you reading this are already believers in the power of movement. If there are any of you who doubt that exercise is a life saving, life extending, cure-what-ails-you kind of thing, I invite you to change your thinking. Even daily walking can change your physiology and contribute to better health.
With diabetes and pre-diabetes it is even more important that you move your muscles, get your heart pumping, and blood flowing. Exercise moves blood sugar where it needs to be which gets it out of your bloodstream. While you are exercising insulin cannot be produced so you give your body a rest from the insulin storm produced by too much blood sugar. Your blood sugar levels go down naturally. If you need to, you will most likely lose weight.
This is not a plug for Bob’s book, as I said, I don’t own it yet. From the reviews I’ve read I know I’ll have other issues outside of some of the foods given the Best Life Seal. Rather, it is a plug, no, a plea, for all of the women reading this to move your parts! I don’t want to have to drag you all kicking and screaming into a long, happy life . And since that’s impractical how about I just beat this subject to a mind numbing pulp by repeating it–you’ve got to move it move it!
I also don’t want to see you too sick to kick and scream. Diabetes is not simply a sugar issue. It is a disease with debilitating and often horrible consequences. By the time a person is diagnosed with diabetes they have had the condition for years. High blood sugar and insulin resistance have been battering your heart, kidney’s, nerves in the eyes and feet. Shall I go on? Drugs come with their own set of complications and who wants to test their sugar 2 – 6 times per day?
Exercise is not the only lifestyle change that must become a regular part of your life to prevent or turn back the diagnosis of diabetes but it is an important one.
As Bob told the church ladies–many of whom were midlife–Exercise is Non-negotiable. Love you Bob, margarine and all, thanks for getting the word out.
Hormones rule, did you know that? I’m not talking just sex hormones though in teenaged boys and middle aged women they are certainly at the top of the pecking order most days.
Everything we eat has a hormonal consequence, some helpful, some down right harmful over the long term.
Insulin is a hormone and is responsible for getting blood sugar somewhere it can be used or stored. Grehlin and leptin are the push me-pull yous of the hunger and satiety dance. These three food related hormones are in direct communication with our other messengers such as glucagon–the fat-burning hormone. Called into action when food is scarce, glucagon converts stored fat into sugar and uses it for energy. These 4 hormones worked in perfect harmony before the introduction of grains and industrial food production when all hormonal hell broke loss. It’s been a steep slide towards disease and women on the verge ever since.
So what can be done? Keep an eye on this blog cause it’s one of missions to let women know about how to eat for hormonal balance, and grab this book if you want some science and some recipes.
Dr. Michael Aziz is an internist with a practice in Manhattan; Midtown Integrative Medicine. Frustrated early on in his medical career that so many young people were coming in with cancers, diabtetes, and allergies that he couldn’t heal as well as all ages of people who had weight issues, he went in search of some answers. What he found was this connection between key hormones and the foods we eat. The main culprits?
Sugar, grains, processed fake foods like margarine, and the endocrine disruptors found in the chemicals used to increase shelf life, texture, color, etc. One of his findings goes along with mine of late–low fat diets are partially at fault in the rise of diabetes, obesity, and hormonal chaos. “The results of the research is clear, eating fat does not make you fat. Rather it’s the lack of natural fats in your diet that makes you gain weight” writes Aziz. He continues, “Natural fats are essential for your cells to work properly. Fats slow down the absorption of food, stabilize blood sugar levels, decrease, cravings, and make you feel full.”
And blood sugar levels will make or break our health over the long haul. I’ve included a link to a 2.5 minute video of Dr. Aziz live, he explains his philosophy and his book a bit more. His solution is an easy, delicious way of eating, protein, fat and fresh fruits, veggies, beans and legumes pretty much.
It’s becoming harder and harder to hide from the latest message on food as medicine–eat what’s natural, eat foods you can recognize as such, don’t fear the fat, and eat organic (meats and dairy) and grass fed (meats) when you can. In case you don’t remember how delicious a dollop of half and half is in your coffee or whole egg poached or fried–it’s The Yumm Factor to the 10s. You may have to let go of some long held beliefs to take on these new ideas but if you find hormonal heaven vs a daily roller coaster from hell, wouldn’t it be worth it?
Dr. Michael Aziz
Use this link to get to his video.
