Nutrient Calculator, Beans for Heart, 10 Foods for Eye Health, Cumin for Bones, Calcium in Plant Foods

In This Issue: 

• • Handy Nutrient Calculator
  • Beans Slow Heart Rate
  • Top 10 Plant Foods for Eye Health
  • Cumin Protects Bones
  • Calcium Rich Plant Foods

You’ll Find More Fascinating Health Posts my Facebook Page –

https://www.facebook.com/HealItAll/ and lots of great recipes in my

Whole Foods Plant-Based, Gluten Free Diet & Recipes Group

Message from Bernadette Wulf

Greetings!

Our lovely mid-winter weather certainly didn’t last long. Here in Sonoma County we just got walloped with one of the biggest rainstorms in a century. Lots of flooding and a huge snow pack in the mountains. I guess we can say the drought is finally over – at least for now!

In case you are interested, I’ve been invited to be on the Greatest You Telesummit with Christine Williams on Monday, March 4th at 5pm Pacific Time. My topic is: Aligning with Your Highest Purpose – No Longer Available

This month I found a lot of great info. to share with you – a really cool website where you can keep track of your nutrients, how beans can lower your heart rate, a great article on foods that support your eyes, a fascinating benefit of cumin, and the best plant sources of calcium that everyone should include in their diet.

I would love to hear what you want to read about. Feel free to send your requests, suggestions, questions, or any sort of feedback. I always appreciate hearing from my readers – Please do not reply to this email, but use this link to contact me: Email Bernadette.

To your health and happiness!

Bernadette Wulf

HealItAll.com & Plant Based for Life

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Handy Nutrient Calculator

Do you ever wonder if you are getting enough of a particular vitamin, mineral, or amino acid? If you are a nutrition nerd like me, I’m sure you have.

I just discovered this excellent tool to help you keep track of your nutrition basics day by day. Just plug in the foods you eat in a day and the amount of each (don’t worry, it’s easy) and all your nutrient levels pop up on a handy chart.

A word of caution, though. The Macronutrient Target numbers are way off for anyone following a healthy whole plant foods diet. Anthony William, the Medical Medium, constantly recommends keeping fats low. This is very important for detoxing and healing a fatty or stagnant liver – and most of our livers do need help.

What does “low” mean? Many plant-based doctors recommend keeping fats below 15% of your calories, and at 10% for anyone with heart disease. The big question is what does 15% look like. For a fairly average person on 2000 calories a day, that would be about 32.5 grams of fat.

Here’s a chart showing 30% fat for various amounts of calories. Just cut the fat number in half and you will be in the ideal range – https://caloriecontrol.org/converting-calories-to-grams-of-fat/

Yikes!

I have to say, it was a real eye opener when I searched for fat percentages online. The Ketogenic diet fad has really taken over the internet and it is hard to find anything recommending less than 30% fats when you search for fat information. I know people love hearing good things about their bad habits (paraphrasing Dr. McDougall), but it is really scary to see how many people are buying into such a dangerous trend – fueled no doubt by meat industry propaganda.

I’ve posted several articles on the dangers of ketogenic and high fat diets in the past, so search the archives if you want to know more. Meanwhile, just ignore the alarming numbers that come up on Cronometer for recommended protein and fat levels. Divide their protein recommendation in half and the fat by three and you will be in a much healthier range. Just be sure that your Omega 3 and 6 levels are adequate and you will be fine.

Also, as you will see in the calcium article below, their calcium recommendation is a bit on the high side. Don’t worry if you don’t hit 100% every day.

I just plugged in my foods for today and my numbers came out almost perfect – a little low in Niacin, vitamin E – and Omega 6 of all things. Fun stuff. Give it a try!

Here’s the Cronometer link – https://cronometer.com/

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Beans Slow Heart Rate

What if beans could slow your heart rate as well as exercise? What do you know? They can!

From nutritionfacts.org:

So, how did beans do in the study? They produced a 3.4 beat drop in heart rate—just as much as the 250 hours on a treadmill. We’re not sure why beans are as powerful as exercise in bringing down one’s resting heart rate. “In addition to the potential direct beneficial effects of vegetable protein and fiber”—all the good stuff in legumes—“there is also the potential displacement value of vegetable protein foods in reducing animal protein foods, which are higher in saturated fat and cholesterol.”

Of course, exercise is important for other reasons, like oxygenating the blood, building muscles, and moving the lymph. But it is good to know that beans add an additional benefit, no matter how much exercise you get.

Read more about how beans slow heart rate – https://nutritionfacts.org/2019/02/14/the-best-food-to-slowing-your-resting-heart-rate/

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Top 10 Plant Foods for Eye Health

This month we have a guest post by Emily Pham exploring how a healthy diet can significantly decrease the risk of eye health problems.

A diet rich in beta-carotene, Vitamins C and E, and omega-3 fatty acids will help to protect your eyes.

Hop on over to my blog page to find out all the best foods to support your vision – http://www.healitall.com/top-10-plant-foods-for-eye-health/

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Cumin Protects Bones

Bring on the Mexican food! Did you know that cumin can help balance your hormones and protect your bone health? I didn’t. Fortunately, I love cumin. It gives Mexican and Indian dishes some of their authentic flavor. Yum!

According to this greenmedinfo.com article:

Cumin Is As Potent As Estrogen In Preserving Bone Health – Cumin, like most spices, has a wide range of potential health benefits. Thirty of these, in fact, can be viewed on our cumin research page. [] …cumin seeds were capable of inhibiting loss of bone density and strength as effectively as estrogen [ ]. Moreover, they found that the cumin seeds did not have estrogen’s weight-promoting and possibly carcinogenic side effect on the uterus.

Read on to find out more about the amazing benefits of cumin seeds – http://www.greenmedinfo.com/blog/spicing-your-hormones-without-hormone-replacement

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Calcium Rich Plant Foods

Though the U.S. FDA recommends at least 1000mg calcium per day, the National Health Service of Britain (which is not beholden to our dairy industry) recommends only 700 mg. calcium per day – which is probably plenty for most people.

Here are a few of the top calcium-rich foods from Food Revolution Network:

1- Seeds

• ½ cup sesame seeds = 350 mg calcium

2- Beans

• ½ cup black beans = 160 mg calcium

3- Lentils

• 1 cup lentils = 80 mg calcium

4- Almonds

• ½ cup raw almonds = 80 mg calcium

5- Low-Oxalate Leafy Greens

• ½ cup of collard greens = 300 mg calcium

6- Soy (Not recommended due to heavy GMO contamination)

7- Oranges

• 1 medium navel orange = 80 mg calcium

8- Broccoli Raab (Rapini)

• 1 bunch cooked broccoli raab = 515 mg calcium

9- Dried Figs

• 4 dried figs = 55 mg calciumhttps://foodrevolution.org/blog/calcium-rich-foods/

To Learn About Lots More Calcium Rich Plant Foods visit – https://foodrevolution.org/blog/calcium-rich-foods

https://foodrevolution.org/blog/calcium-rich-foods/