Gotta Get the Grains!

Wholewheat, oatmeal, barley, rice. One of these things is not like the other...
I have to confess that changing my diet has made a big difference for me, mostly in the arena of bowel health.
Yikes, did I just mention my guts?
Well, yes I did as a matter of fact. After I got pregnant with Bug, my number two son, I was getting really fed up with having weird intestines. Mostly clangorous expulsions and alternating rocks and rivers in place of normalcy. I took a look at my diet and whereas I was eating fruit and vegetables, I still was relying heavily on refined grains. Like ultra-refined grains. Herein I did some research about grains.
There is a lot of hype out there about grain, but truly the advertisements do tell the truth. Although the idea that grams of whole grain make a difference is absolutely false. But I'll get to that in a minute.
What is the difference between whole grain and other grains? Whole grains mean that the grain has all of its parts. Namely the husk. This is the difference between whole wheat flour and white flour. Brown rice has it's shell and white rice does not. This means two things:
1. Whole grains take way longer to cook
2. Whole grains provide more roughage to your diet
Why one earth would you want more roughage in your diet especially if you already have trouble with BMs? Here is the awesome part, roughage (this word makes me smirk so we are going to call it dietary fiber instead) dietary fiber, acts as a magnet for the leftovers in your intestines. It binds extra fat and digestive juices to itself and pulls them all out. That is not all it does, in your colon, the larger part of your intestines right next to the exit, the dietary fiber expands with water, making it soft, and cleaning all the bumps and grooves in your colon.
If you maintain a healthy amount of whole grain in your diet regularly (haha no pun intended) this will ensure a healthy bowel, decrease the risk of colon cancer, polyps and prevent diverticulosis and diverticulitis.

Just a word of advice, none of the previous words are fun in any way shape or form.
Another benefit of whole grains is satiability. Since whole grains expand when they are in your body you feel full faster and stay full longer. I always think of that story about why they don't throw rice at weddings anymore, something about birds and their bellies exploding? I haven't tried it so I can't tell you if it is true or not. Maybe I'll write Mythbusters...

How have I changed my diet? For breakfast I always try to make something high in whole grains. My sweet MIL gave me a wheat grinder for Christmas and I love it! I have been able to change my diet by having plenty of whole wheat flour on hand. Go here for the scoop on how to do it at home too.
For breakfast we (my kids and I) will have oatmeal, wholewheat muffins, whole wheat toast, raisin bran or wholewheat pancakes for breakfast. Sometimes I do eggs but at least four-five times a week we have whole grains solely for a meal.

The falsehood about whole grain in grams? The grams of whole grains does not matter. The grams of Dietary Fiber is what will make a difference in your bowel health. Dietary fiber is also found in vegetables and fruit, but it is not the same as fiber found in grains. All that roughage. *smirk* So when you look at food labels check for 4 grams or more per serving of dietary fiber. Its usually under carbohydrates.
Also check the first ingredient of the product. If the first ingredient is whole wheat or whole grain of some kind the primary ingredient is a whole grain. There is more of whole grain in the product than anything else.
Here is my muffin recipe that I love to eat.

My Whole Wheat Muffins
Pre heat oven to 375 degrees and grease a muffin pan. This usually makes a dozen but depending on the ingredients used you could make 18 muffins.

1 1/4 cup buttermilk (only 1 cup if you use regular milk. Buttermilk is thicker)
1 egg
1/2 cup sugar
Splash of vanilla
1/4 cup oil

Blend these together until smooth.
2 cups flour (I use 1 1/2 cup whole wheat four, and 1/2 cup white flour, but I have used 1 cup flour and 1 cup roughly chopped oatmeal)
1 tablespoon Cinnamon (or to taste)
1/4 teaspoon Baking soda, Baking powder and salt

Mix well.
Add up to 2 cups of whatever you want the flavor to be. Only 1 cup of wet ingredients however.
I usually add at least 1/2 cup applesauce and 1 cup craisins.
Other good ingredients:
Pumpkin puree
Raisins
Apricots
Pears
Leftover oatmeal (if you want to be resourceful)
Nuts

I hope you enjoyed hearing about my bowels. For the record I'm proud to say that I do have regular healthy BM's. Just in case you wondered.
Good health!

I love eggs!

For a healthy diet, I personally think that the best food is eggs! Yup plain ole chicken eggs. Although, turkey eggs might be good too, I've never had one. Quail eggs are mighty tasty too, just small. In fact someday hopefully soon, I hope to have my own backyard flock of layers! Oh, how I wish for green eggs.
Anyhow, I love to eat eggs. So does my Woogie. It is so cute to see him grab the frying pan and carry it around the house begging me to make eggs. LOL!

What makes eggs so amazing?

Well I did some research and found that eggs are full of nutrients. Tons of them! Not only do they provide a good source of protein but they also provide:
Choline, lutein&Zeaxanthin, vitamins A, D, E, B6 and B12, folate, thiamin, riboflavin, calcium (this is besides the eggs shells that may or may not end up in your cake batter), sodium, potassium, phosphorus, magnesium, iron and zinc.

Wow! that is a long list. All of these nutrients are very important to the body. I suppose that's why in serious heart problems we always check blood levels of most of those nutrients.:)

Eggs have a healthy balance of calories, fats and protein. This makes you feel full longer. Some people give fat a bad rap but fat is a very necessary component of a healthy diet. Most of the vitamins in the list above cannot be absorbed into your body with out fat. They are called fat-soluble vitamins. This means that when fat is in your gut with your food, it gets moved into your blood stream. Fat-soluble vitamins cling to the fat molecules and get carried into your blood stream with the fat. So why not eat something that makes this easier to occur? The fat is in the egg along with the nutrients, ready to help them hop into your bloodstream where your body can use them. Also fat also helps you to feel sasiated longer because it does take longer to digest than sugar or protein. Fat is a complex little molecule.
The beautiful complexity of an egg is simply awesome!
On a side note: some people believe that eating egg whites only will be healthier for themselves. Whereas this maybe true in individual cases, please realize that most of the nutrients listed above are found only in the yolks! So be careful in dividing up your eggs.
Did you know that on average the Japanese population, per person, eats 1 egg a day? I wonder why their kids are so smart...
For myself I love hard boiled and scrambled eggs. Scrambled eggs with just a bit of cheese and green peppers are hard to beat!
Another tip to make your incredible egg more amazing at mealtimes, is to skip ketchup (or catsup)and use salsa instead. Less fructose. Especially if you make homemade salsa like here.
Enjoy your eggs! I know I will be. I wish you good health!