The Household COO

We purify our water before drinking it and sometimes even our air.  Now there’s a device to purify our food before we eat it.  The Okamizu Food Detoxifier claims to be 99% effective in removing pesticides, antibiotics, carcinogens, preservations, colouring, chemicals, bacteria and other harmful substances that cling to the foods we eat on a daily basis.

They have been running demonstrations in places like Home Fix and it caught my interest because of the claim on being able to remove pesticides.  Since we started juicing our fruits with the skin on, one of my concerns has been the increased consumption of pesticides.  Although I thoroughly wash my fruits and veggies before blending them, sometimes even with fruit and veggie cleaners (it’s said that if you wash your fruits with a bit of soap, you can usually get rid of most of the pesticides on the skin), fruits like blueberries, raspberries, grapes and strawberries are a little harder to clean.  Plus, having more surface area, they probably contain a much higher level of pesticides.  Then again, the benefits of eating these fruits and vegetables are supposed to outweigh the disadvantages of these contaminants…

The Okamizu is supposed to be the solution to this dilemma.  Approved by the FDA, they claim to have several studies conducted by various laboratories, Universities and the manufacturer proving its efficacy, however, I’ve only seen one paper.  It uses ozone to clean.  All you need is the device and a bowl of water. Fruits and veggies take 15 minutes to clean, meat takes 30 minutes to clean.  After cleaning, the food is supposed to taste sweeter, fresher, crunchier, etc.  They also claim that the food shelf life is increased after cleaning.

Although it looks like an interesting device with some pretty attractive claims, I’m not sure I am convinced to part with RM1.7k to buy this device.

The firstime I ever saw a Dragon Fruit was when I was shopping in the supermarket shortly after returning to Malaysia to work.  It looked interesting so I bought some to try.  The taste was rather reminiscent to the kiwi fruit in terms of texture and the little black seeds, although without the tang.  They come in different colours - white, red and yellow, but I’ve only ever seen the red and white ones.

Here is some interesting information on this fruit that I received through email:

Also known as the Dragon Fruit, the Pitaya is a beautiful fruit with an intense colour and shape, magnificent flowers and a delicious taste. The fruit has a high water content and is rich in vitamins and minerals. With a lightly sweet taste, it is good for the liver, acts as a laxative by supplementing fiber and is a very suitable fruit for dieters.

Dragon fruit is also recommended for people with high blood pressure.  There is a belief that the regular consumption of dragon fruit can help a person reduce weight naturally with many beneficial effects upon his/her health.  Eating this fruit is also believed to reduce diabetes, making it a popular fruit especially among Asians.

Benefits of eating the Dragon Fruit:

1. Enhance the body’s metabolism (Protein)
2. Improve digestion (Fiber)
3. Reduce Fat (Fiber)
4. Improve memory (Carotene)
5. Maintain the health of the eyes (Carotene)
6. Strengthen bones and teeth development (Calcium)
7. Tissue development (Phosphorus)
8. Help to metabolise carbohydrates and produce energy (Vitamin B1)
9. Improve appetite (Vitamin B2)
10. Moisturise and smoothen skin and decrease bad cholestrol level (Vitamin B3)
11. Improves the immune system and promotes healing of cuts and bruises (Vitamin C)

USEFUL TIPS:

How to Select and Store

They should be full-colored and free of moldy spots. Dragon Fruit should be refrigerated, unwashed, for up to 5 days. Serve chilled.

Dragon Fruit Pizza Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 package of ready to use pre-made sugar cookie dough
• 8 ounces cream cheese
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 3 dragon fruit, peeled and sliced
• 3 kiwi, peeled and sliced
• 1 cup strawberries, hulled and cut in half
• 1/4 cup apricot glaze

Method:

1. Roll out cookie dough into a 12 inch round.
2. Bake 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned.
3. Allow to cool completely.
4. Meanwhile, prepare fruit by washing and slicing it into 1/4 inch slices.
5. Cream together the cream cheese, powdered sugar and lemon jucie.
6. When the crust is cool, top with the cream cheese mixture.
7. Lay fruit in a circle on top of the cream cheese mixture.
8. Spread apricot glaze over fruit.
9. Chill until ready to serve.

I used to blend my avocados with a bit of milk, a banana and some oats (and maybe a little honey).  Beyond that I never really got too adventurous with my smoothies when I was adding avocados to the mix.  So recently I decided to be a little more daring and made this:

• one montel banana
• 4 Tbsp oats
• 1 cup milk
• 4 Tbsp Ski Divine Strawberry yoghurt
• 4 strawberries
• a handful of frozen blueberries
• 1 plum
• 6 frozen cherries
• 10 red globe grapes
• 1 avocado

I’ve made this recipe before but without the avocado.  It tastes pretty much the same except you can taste the hint of avocado with an extra creaminess.  Nice!

Just a few more discoveries: 

Cold Storage in Great Eastern Mall sells the cheapest frozen blueberries at about RM18+ - surprise, surprise (I always thought Cold Storage was over-priced in everything). 

Mercato in Pavillion no longer sells frozen raspberries - dang!  Sometimes you can get pretty cheap Montel bananas (price comparable to the markets).

Jusco Supermarket recently had some really cheap and nice strawberries from NZ going at RM7.90 for a small punnet (normal price is RM8.90) - I bought 4 punnets and froze them.

Since we bought the Vita-Mix, I’ve been pretty good with incorporating whole foods into my diet on a regular basis with regular being twice a day (at breakfast and just before dinner).  The usual concoction at breakfast will be something like:

• 5 Tbsp Ski Divine Berry Haven Yoghurt
• 1 cup milk
• 1 Montel Banana
• 10 Red Globe Grapes
• A sprinkling of blueberries
• A sprinkling of raspberries
• 5 strawberries

Lately, I’ve been having and avocado oat blend consisting of:

• 1 Montel Banana
• 4 Tbsp Oats
• 1 cup milk
• 1 avocado

I want to add more to the avocado oat blend to give it more oompf but I’m not exactly sure what makes a good combination with avocado…  Any suggestions?

The pre-dinner fruit blend usually consists of:

• 1 small red apple
• 1 small green apple
• 1 small orange
• 1 large pear
• 1 Montel banana
• 20 grapes
• 1 plum
• a sprinkling of blueberries
• a sprinkling of raspberries
• 4 strawberries (depending on whether we have any)
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup ice cubes

I might omit something and add in pineapples if we have any.  I stopped adding the carrots and celery because my health-unconscious hubby complained of overdose.  Sigh.  Well, better that he drink the juice than not at all, so I’ve stopped buying celery and carrots for the time being.

The fruits alone are already pretty beneficial so at least he’s getting something out of it.  Here are the benefits of each of these fruits:

Apples are great for lowering cholesterol and risk for cancer.  They have mild antibacterial, antiviral, anti-inflammatory activity.  High in fiber (especially if you blend the whole fruit and not just juice it), they’re great for avoiding constipation and suppressing appetite.

Avocados are good for circulation and lowering cholesterol.  They contain oleic acid which acts as an antioxidant to block the negative effects of LDL cholesterol (bad cholesterol).  Great source of glutathione - a power antioxidant that blocks carcinogens and proliferation of the AIDS virus in test tube experiments.

Bananas I’ve already talked about here.

Blueberries ditto.

Carrots are a great source of beta carotene which is an anticancer, artery-protecting, immune-boosting, infection-fighting antioxidant.  One carrot a day cuts stroke rates in women by 68%.  One medium carrot cuts lung cancer risk in half, even among formerly heavy smokers (hmmm… maybe it’s time to start incorporating carrots again on the sly).  High doses of beta carotene reduces the odds of degenerative eye diseases (cataracts and macular degeneration - wow, maybe I should include them myself!) as well as chest pain.

Celery reduces blood pressure (if you take two to four stalks a day).  It also contains different anti-cancer compounds that combat carcinogens such as those found in cigarette smoke.

Cranberries (I was adding frozen cranberries at one stage) have strong antibiotic properties, especially good for helping to prevent urinary tract infections.  It also has antiviral activity.

Grapes contain antioxidants, inhibit platelet clumping and boosts HDL (good) cholesterol.  Red grapes are also antibacterial and antiviral.  It’s important to include the skins and the seeds because they contain a lot of the nutrients.

Oranges are natural cancer inhibitors - carotenoids, terpenes, flavonoids, vitamin C and beta carotene.  Helps ward off asthma attacks, bronchitis, breast cancer, stomach cancer, atherosclerosis, and gum disease.  It boosts fertility and healthy sperm in some men (hmmm… maybe time to up the dose of oranges).

Pineapples suppress inflammation, aids digestion, helps dissolve blood clots and preventing osteoporosis and bone fractures because of its high manganese content.  Antibacterial, antiviral and mildly oestrongenic.

Plums are antibacterial, antiviral and a good laxative.

Raspberry read here.

Strawberries are antiviral and provide anticancer activity.

After a few experiences of not having a reusable bag big enough for my purchases, I decided to buy another ultra compact, extra-large shopping bag from reusablebags.com.

With open dimensions of 20.5″ x 16.1″ x 9.5″, a volume of 30 litres, I think we should be able to fit most shopping purchases in here.  It has a capacity for 26 lbs, which I think is plenty since any more would mean I wouldn’t be able to carry my son and my backpack with his essential items.  Since the Reisenthel Mini Maxi Hauler folds into a pocket size of 8.3″ x 5.7″ x 0.8″, it’s small and slim enough to carry around without the inconvenience of extra bulk.

And since I was already getting the bag, I decided to buy another 12 oz Kleen Kanteen stainless steel bottle for myself so I don’t end up drinking my son’s water when we go out.  Although I’ve generally been more concerned about using toxic products on my son, I don’t usually take much notice of the products I use on myself.  With more concerns about the use of polycarbonate bottles with regards to the leaching of Bisphenol A and articles advising against its use, I figured that I ought to try to minimise my own consumption of fluids in polycarbonate containers.  Besides, my son has dropped his bottle a few times already and it has a couple of dents at the base so it doesn’t hurt to have a spare. 

I also bought a sports cap for the bottle since my son has been quite capable of drinking fluids without a sippy spout for some time now.  He doesn’t really want to use bottles with the sippy spout any more because he feels he’s a big boy capable drinking from cups and bottles that Mummy and Daddy use.

If I can’t buy DVDs online, then at least I can buy stuff from reusablebags and be kind to our planet at the same time.  And now, I get another parcel in the mail.  Yay!

I hope I’m not making a false generalisation, but when I was working, I got the impression that “sour” was a taste a lot of women were fond of (myself being an exception).  I have never liked anything sour and I avoid acrid foods like a child avoids yucky-flavoured medicine.  I was told that once I became pregnant, I would pick up the taste for sour foods because it seemed a lot of pregnant women crave sour foods.  I think it has something to do with the fact that sour flavours can help stave off the nausea from morning sickness.  Well, after being pregnant with my son, I can confirm that I still don’t like sour foods.

But I digress…  If you are at all like me and unable to stomach sour flavours, you may find this tip useful when blending whole fruits for fruit drinks.

Because of their beneficial properties (see below) I like to blend blueberries and raspberries into my juices.  Well, so far I’ve yet to taste a sweet blueberry or raspberry.  I used to add a sweetener to my fruit juices but recently I discovered that if I blend a sufficient quantity of banana or grapes with these berries, the sweetness of the banana and grapes negates the tartness of the berries.

Blueberries are beneficial because they have antibiotic, antiviral and natural aspirin-type properties.

Raspberries have anticancer, antiviral and natural aspirin-type properties. 

In addition to providing sweetness to your fruit mixture, grapes are rich in antioxidants (especially the seeds which can be pulverised in a highspeed blender); they help boost good cholesterol levels and inhibit platelet clumping (which helps prevent blood clot formation within the blood vessels that are responsible for causing blockages).  Red grapes are also have antibacterial and antiviral properties. 

Bananas has antibiotic properties and are great for stomach upsets (great for hubby who suffers from a lot of stomach problems); they also help to strengthen the stomach lining against acid and ulcers. 

So the addition of bananas and grapes are not only a great way of naturally sweetening your juice, but they also provide an additional boost of goodness.

And if you are at all like my hubby - who gets put off anything that looks too healthy, the surest way to get him to consume it is to make it taste good. 

For instance, he came into the kitchen today while I was preparing his juice and he saw the actual contents of what was going inside it and he remarked, “Is that carrot?  Please don’t put it into my juice.”  Then a suspicious look came across his face and he said, “Or have you already been sneaking it in all this time without me knowing?”

To which I replied, “Well, could you taste the carrot?”

Sheepishly he said, “No.”

“So it’s not a problem is it?” I asked.

“Good thing I never saw this before.  This concoction looks far too healthy for me,” was all he had to say after that.

I never eat raw carrots, celery or green apples, but adding them to a fruit mixture of grapes, bananas, and strawberries really does wonders to make it so much more palatable.  If you find the mixture too thick, just add 200ml of water before blending and a handful of ice cubes to chill it.

I’ve never liked celery - raw or otherwise.  About the most I’ve ever been willing to tolerate is cooking it in my soup, but I still don’t eat it.  But because celery is purportedly a “cure for gout” - something the hubby suffers from on and off (although you do need to eat about four stalks of celery a day for it to be an effective gout remedy) - I decided to incorporate it into the juice I’ve been blending for him.  To mask the flavour of the celery (although you can still smell it), I blended it with banana, apple, orange, grapes (Red Globe), and strawberries in these proportions:

• one celery stalk
• one medium Montel banana
• one small apple
• one small orange
• about 12 Red Globe grapes with seeds
• five strawberries with their stems
• 150ml of water
• 1 cup of ice cubes

The resulting juice was very palatable.  I’ve discovered that the key to blending pleasant-tasting juice without having to add sugar (because I can’t stomach sour juice) is to make sure I incorporate sufficient quantities of “sweet” fruits, like bananas and grapes to neutralise the acrid tang from an unripe orange or sour strawberries. 

I was also happy to note that based on “risk versus benefits” and “nutrient density” (i.e. vitamins, minerals, fiber and protein per 100 calories), bananas rated under the category of one of the best foods to consume.  I found that particularly interesting since a lot of weight conscious people I know hold the misconception that bananas are very fattening.  I’ve always found that notion perplexing because all fruits (except avocados) are fat free.

Okay, so one stalk of celery mixed in juice that serves four probably isn’t going to be enough to make a huge difference to the hubby’s gout attacks but perhaps it might be just enough to work as a preventative measure (so long as he watches his consumption of purine-rich foods).  Regardless, celery does have some pretty good properties which can only add to the nutrients in my juice.

I’ve also realised that adding about 150ml of water to my juice mixtures help to thin out the juice mixture sufficiently (without diluting the flavour too much) to make it more “drinkable” as the incorporation of the whole fruit (pulp, skin and all) can result in a rather thick mixture.  Blending in ice chills the juice sufficiently to make it more refreshing.

So you see, a healthier diet doesn’t necessarily mean having to eat more unpleasant foods.  There are ways of combining your food so it tastes good as well.  What good news for the hubby…

Having just started the practice of “whole foods living”, I don’t really know a whole lot about it, but the main benefit lies in the fact that you can absorb more nutrients by eating the whole food than you would if you were to cut away part of it for discard.  Well, after having written it like that, I’m sure you’re thinking, “No s**t, Sherlock!”

But seriously, I used to remove the skin of the apples I ate which contain vitamin A.  Since the bulk of vitamin C sits just below the layer of the skin, it also gets discarded if you remove the skin of your apples.  Not to mention, the skin provides about half dietary fiber in the apple which is something most of us don’t get enough of anyway. 

Likewise, with a lot of other fruits and vegetables.  Most of the time we wouldn’t eat all these extra bits but I find blending them in a cafe-strength blender makes them much more palatable. For instance, I never knew that strawberry leaves contained vitamin C as well as other flavonoids and proanthocyanidins, but you’d never see me eating the tops of the strawberries.  Now that I’m blending them into my fruit juices, I just leave them on.

If you are at all interested in nutrition and vitamins, I’m sure you would have heard of grape-seed extract, which a lot of vitamin companies are now bottling up as a dietary source of antioxidants.  If you don’t know anything about grape seed extract, then you might be interested to know that grape seeds are rich in antioxidants as well as other beneficial health properties. 

I used to swallow the grape seeds whole because I was simply too lazy to remove them, but I never chew them up because they’re bitter.  I’m not sure I would have absorbed much of the antioxidants by swallowing them whole, but blending them into my juice certainly provides a better alternative to taking a grape-seed extract supplement. 

Aside from these obvious benefits of eating whole foods, Vita-Mix has been doing some research on the ability of absorbing vitamins from foods through chewing versus foods that have been blended with a Vita-Mix.  The results are pretty interesting.  It looks like we might be able to absorb more nutrients from the foods we eat by blending them in a high-powered blender as opposed to just chewing them:

“whole foods have it all–but teeth can’t cut through food fiber to deliver all the nutrition trapped inside their cell walls, particularly the nutrient-rich skins and seeds. When whole foods are simply chewed, lots of nutrients are tossed out as inedible or they pass through the body undigested.“

Not that I need this to convince hubby, now that I already have a Vita-Mix, but it’s certainly another reason to blend more fruits and veggies for consumption on a daily basis.

After another week of using my new Multi-functional blender, I have learned:

• that blending Kiwi fruit is not a good idea unless you use it in small quantities or you enjoy having your saliva forced out of your salivary glands through the process of osmosis.  The blending of the kiwi fruit seeds makes the mixture so tangy that even as I write this, the memory of the taste of it on my tongue is already increasing my salivary flow.
• that it is a good idea to watch the video instructions on how to make bread before bumbling into the activity head first.

Other than that, it has been another enjoyable week with my new blender and I’m really digging the whole “whole foods living” concept.  It brings back memories of living with my parents when they would buy fruits from the market by the boxes and we would end up eating five serves of fruits a day.

Prior to dinner, I usually cut fruits for the family and I recall my MIL asking me once why I cut so much because we wouldn’t be able to finish it.  I remembered feeling that the quantity was a tad on the low side because back in my parents’ house, we would all eat one mango each and here we were struggling to finish one mango between four people.  Okay, okay, so I could have eaten that whole mango all on my own…

The great thing about the blender is that it makes it a lot easier to consume more fruits when you drink it and the benefit of using a blender over a juicer is that a lot of the pulp gets wasted when you juice the fruits.  Also, try juicing a banana or strawberries…

Since starting to incorporate the whole foods living concept into my diet, I’ve learned a few things with regards to fruit nutrition that I thought would be useful to mention:

• the green part of the strawberry is actually very nutritious and should be blended in with the rest of the fruit.  Ordinarily, we don’t eat it because it probably tastes funny.  When you’re blending strawberries with such a powerful blender, you really don’t notice the leavy part. 
• the white part of the orange just under the peel is also apparently very nutritious and it is recommended you include it when blending your oranges.  We normally don’t eat this part either because it’s bitter.
• the seeds in grapes are full of anti-oxidants and this is the reason why people take grape-seed extract supplements.  Ordinarily, if you were to eat the seeds, you would get no little to no nutritional value from it because you can’t digest them.  With a powerful blender, it vitamises the seeds to a digestible form.

It is always a real pleasure to read comments from readers who have found the information from my blogs useful.  Carline had the same allergic reaction as I did to Dove body wash but didn’t realise the cause until she read my blog post.  Having eliminated the use of Dove, the hive reaction she had has gone. 

Since stopping the use of Dove body wash, I haven’t experienced the hive reaction either.  I forgot to mention that I’m back on the shea butter moisturiser from the Body Shop with no allergic reactions so I guess we can safely say that it was purely the Dove products that was causing the hives. 

And while we’re on the topic of allergenic products, my MIL mentioned a recent article that advised against wearing China Made clothes because of the chemicals that were used in their production (note: the link is to an older article about unsafe levels of formaldehyde in China-made clothes - I don’t have the link to the article my MIL referenced). 

Well, if we’re planning to eliminate all clothes made in China, I think we’d better start thinking about home-made clothes because there aren’t very many clothes out there that aren’t made in China.  If I’m not mistaken, almost everything in my wardrobe would be made in China.

My hubby has always made it a habit to wash all his new clothes before wearing them.  After reading that article about unhealthy levels of formaldehyde used to protect new clothes from mildew and whatnot, it looks like hubby wasn’t being fastidious after all.  In fact, I think it’s a good practice to adopt - looks like I’ll be washing all my new clothes from now on.