UPLIFT FEATURE: Nutrition for your Heart
From keeping blood moving through your veins and supplying life-giving oxygen to all of your cells, your heart is a pretty important organ. This February while you’re expressing love to others don’t forget to love your own heart.
Just when you thought you understood cholesterol— HDL is good, LDL is bad—it turns out it’s not quite that simple. Testing is now looking at the size of those particles to determine risk plus markers of inflammation since cardiovascular problems can be attributed to chronic inflammation, oxidation, sugar and stress. Cholesterol is just one piece of the heart disease puzzle. It acts as a patch to repair damaged blood vessels and becomes problematic when it’s oxidized by free radicals – the same process that rusts iron or turns an apple slice brown. Prevention includes nutrients to keep the blood vessels strong and intact, an anti-inflammatory diet high in antioxidants and healthy fats along with exercise and stress management.
Read my article in Delicious Living magazine about which Top 5 foods are best for your heart. Good news, dark chocolate is one of them!
Turmeric is another anti-inflammatory super star. Add the powdered spice to scrambled eggs, sautéed vegetables and to the water while cooking rice or quinoa. You can also make teas with powdered turmeric or slices of the root. Combine with ginger for extra heart love.
Turmeric Tea
(from Nurturing Remedies.com)
1 cup almond, flax, hemp, rice or coconut milk
1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
1 tsp chopped ginger root
Dash of cayenne pepper (optional)
Dash of black pepper
1/2 teaspoon honey (optional)
1 tsp coconut oil or butter or ghee
Optional additions: cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg,
- Warm the milk
- In your favorite mug, combine the ingredients.
- Drizzle a teaspoon of the warmed milk into the mug and mix until the liquid is smooth.
- Add the rest of the milk and mix well.
- Strain ginger pieces.
The fat in the coconut oil/ butter or ghee and the black pepper helps the turmeric absorb.
Turmeric Tea
(From thedoctor.com)
Yield: 1 cup
1 bag roasted dandelion root tea (Traditional Medicinals brand is recommended)
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
1/4 tsp minced ginger
Pinch of freshly ground black pepper
Unsweetened almond milk or coconut milk to taste
Raw honey, to taste
- Brew a large cup of roasted dandelion root tea.
- Stir in turmeric, ginger, and black pepper, and let steep 8 to 10 minutes.
- Lighten with some almond milk, and stir in honey, if desired.
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