80/10/10 – StyleNectar

How to eat a Dragon Fruit

Dragon Fruit makes it’s own exotic and beautiful serving boat!

Eating a wide variety of different foods is crucial in a healthy foodstyle to ensure we’re receiving all the nutrients we require, and to prevent overdoing any one particular nutrient as well. As the saying goes, “the medicine is in the dose”. One of the ways I add variety to my diet (ok, really I just do this cause I think it’s fun) is by shopping at the various specialty markets in our area. I know, I know, eating local has all sorts of great wisdom behind it, so do that too. However, it can be like taking a mini trip into another culture to step into a place that caters to a totally different region of the world. (Speaking of… do you love shopping the local markets when travelling as much as I do!?) For example, the Asian market in our area is brimming with huge piles of the most amazing tropical produce – stuff that’s totally unavailable in typical grocery stores – from the exotic Dragon Fruit featured here, to amazing selections of wild mushrooms, my fav indulgence, the creamy, custardy Durian and more. It’s a must stop at least once a month.

Plant based raw living foods are stunning to behold!

This gorgeous Dragon Fruit is harvested from a night-blooming cactus grown in tropical regions such as South America and Thailand. The unusual, colorful fruit sprouts from the arms of the cactus, and is created only if the cactus flowers are pollinated at night by nocturnal creatures such as bats and moths.

Is your mouth watering yet?

Dragonfruit is delicious and sweet, similar in flavor to kiwifruit, pears or mango. It’s full of nutritional benenefits including vitamins B1, B2, B3 and C, iron, phosphorus and magnesium in addition to being a rich source of antioxidants, fiber and essential fatty acids including omega-3.

Plant based living foods infuse us with their powerful beauty!

How to select: Avoid buying over ripe dragon fruit which you can detect if it’s got lots of blotches on it or if the fruit is overly dry and the little points around the fruit are super brittle and already crispy. You want bright and even colored fruit with firm hydrated points.

When is it ready to eat? When the little points begin to dry and become flexible the fruit is ripe. I let mine sit in the sun in my kitchen until this point.

How to prepare: Just slice it open and scoop it right out by the spoonful or get fancy and use the shell as a beautiful serving bowl filled with cubed up Dragon Fruit and a few blueberries or anything else your heart desires!

Raw Living Foods such as the Dragon Fruit are high vibrational gifts to our bodies, mind and spirit.

Enjoy!

Have you tried any new fruits or veggies lately?

Do you love perusing food markets when you travel like I do? What have been your favs?

What’s the weather like where you are? It’s quite warm here, temps reaching 80 F today!

All Love,

Juliane

Thank you for visiting!

Please Like, Comment, Subscribe & Share!

The Dirty Dozen & the Clean 15

Ideally, we'd always purchase 100% organic groceries for their higher nutritional value and decreased risk associated with GMO's and pesticides. The reality, however, is it's not always affordable and it's important that our healthy lifestyle be sustainable. The EWG's Dirty Dozen and Clean 15 list is helpful so we can put our dollars to maximum use. Studies show, by following its guidelines we may reduce our risk of pesticide exposure by 80%. Worst case scenario, no matter what, eat our fruits and vegetables, as eating even conventionally grown is better than not eating any at all.

Some additional hints to keep in mind: Fruits and vegetables such as melons with thick skins are safer than say, blueberries or celery which have no peelable skin shielding the edible portion. Regardless of whether our produce is organic, or if we plan to peel it or not, always wash/scrub it thoroughly, as unwashed produce is often contaminated with bacteria from the soil, water, preparation or handling. Washing it first removes chemicals, and prevents transfer of dirt and bacteria from the knife onto the fruit or vegetable.

Feel free to print the list, fold in half, and store in your wallet to take to the market. I find it very helpful to reference while I'm shopping.

The Dirty Dozen

Produce that should be purchased organically:

1. apples
2. celery
3. cherry tomatoes
4. cucumber
5. grapes
6. hot peppers
7. nectarines (imported)
8. peaches
9. potatoes
10. spinach
11. strawberries, blueberries & all berries
12. sweet bell peppers
…plus collards & kale
…plus summer squash & zucchini & Hawaiian Papaya (a GMO)

The Clean Fifteen

Produce that is safe to purchase conventionally:

1. asparagus
2. avocado
3. cabbage
4. cantaloupe
5. corn
6. eggplant
7. grapefruit
8. kiwi
9. mangoes
10. mushrooms
11. onions
12. papayas
13. pineapples, watermelon
14. sweet peas (frozen)
15. sweet potatoes

What is your favorite Fruit?

Do you like Fruits or Veggies better?

All Love,

Juliane

If you liked this post say thanks by sharing 🙂

Food, Health, Nutrition & Wellness

Watermelon After School Snacks

Who doesn't love watermelon! I don't think I've met a soul to date who doesn't love it's sweet, hydrating, refreshing beauty. Hand one of these three variations to your little ones (& yourself) after school and you'll all be saying goodbye to the 4:00 energy slump… happy as can be, devouring natures perfectly dreamy, living goodness.

1. Big, Juicy Watermelon Chunks satisfy sweet tooths and quench our thirst!

2. Watermelons come pre-packaged in their own perfect serving bowl ready for yummilicious scooping fun!

3. Watermelon Slushies! Always a hit. Simply blend with a bit of filtered water. Add extra cleansing power with ginger or mint into the Vitamix for a bit of zip. (Remember, for proper food combining, melons should always be eaten alone rather than paired with other fruits/veg/etc. Adding ginger or mint are ok since they're fantastic digestive aids.)

Three yummy ways to fill your beautiful children (and your beautiful self!) with a deliciouso, nutritious & mega easy snacky. I am fond of having half a watermelon as an easy-to-digest, mono-meal lunch. So (seemingly) indulgent and satisfying, keeping me energized for hours. Besides, knowing how fantastic watermelon is for my body, spirit and mind doesn't hurt either. In fact, I had to pare all the benefits I listed below, way down so as not to put everyone to sleep 🙂

Watermelon is filled with living energy for our living cells.

There is so much goodness packed into this perfect package… let's begin:

Alongside tomatoes, watermelon has moved up to the front
of the pack in recent research studies on high-lycopene foods. Lycopene is a
carotenoid phytonutrient important for our cardiovascular
health, and an increasing number of scientists now believe that lycopene is
important for bone health also.

Scientists are becoming increasingly interested in
the citrulline content of watermelon. Citrulline is an amino acid that is
commonly converted by our kidneys and other organ systems into arginine
(another amino acid). The flesh of a watermelon contains about 250 millligrams
of citrulline per cup. Arginine is crucial for healthy blood flow and other aspects of cardiovascular health. There's also some
preliminary evidence that greater conversion of citrulline into arginine may
help prevent excess accumulation of fat in fat cells due to blocked activity of
an enzyme called tissue-nonspecific alkaline phosphatase, or TNAP. Now that's bang for your buck!

When we eat living foods we feel alive! Just like our food!

Watermelon is an excellent source of immune-boosting, collagen producing, cellulite busting vitamin C. It's
also a very good source of free-radical-scavenging vitamin A (in multiple carotenoid forms, especially beta-carotene). In
addition, watermelon is a good source of heart-healthy magnesium & potassium.

Eating raw, living foods helps us recover more quickly after exercise. And its cleansing, detoxifying abilities cause cellulite to melt away!

Allow your watermelon to fully ripen (and in fact do so with all your fruit)! For example, research shows the
biggest jump in lycopene content occurs when a watermelon's flesh
turns from white-pink to pink. And when that flesh continues to ripen from pink to red, the lycopene content becomes even
more concentrated. Prior to ripening, when the flesh of a watermelon is still white in color, its beta-carotene content is near zero. Like lycopene and beta-carotene, total phenolic antioxidants in a watermelon
also increase consistently during ripening, spiking at the appearance
of fully red flesh. The bottom line: eating a fully ripe watermelon pays off not just in taste but in nutrient benefits too!

Yummy in my tummy!

Enjoy your wawa-mellies:-)

Pardon my over-the-topness today… that's the energy we get from eating a watermelon- or any living raw vegan foods for that matter. I've been busting at the seams as I write this! Energy baby. Life force!

Lots of love to you,

XOXO

Juliane

What are some of your favorite fruits?

Have you ever eaten a fruit mono-meal? I just started this summer & love.

If you liked this post say thanks by sharing

Tag Archive for: 80/10/10

Posts

The Dirty Dozen

The Clean Fifteen