An Easy Way to Improve Your Health - Meatless Monday!

As much as I love a sizzling steak now and then, I do try to be conscious of how much meat that we eat and make efforts to add more meatless options to our menu. At first I had difficulty with finding meals that were satisfying and filling, but over time I have accumulated a rather extensive collection of recipes that have become new favorites.

Meatless Monday is a great public health campaign that has been gaining momentum for years. The premise of Meatless Monday is to reduce your meat consumption by not eating meats on Mondays. By participating weekly you reduce your meat intake by 15% which has huge effects on your personal health and the health of the planet.

Below are a few health benefits of going meatless once a week as suggested on the Meatless Monday website:

- Limit Cancer Risk: Diets rich in fruits and vegetables have been found to reduce cancer risks. Diets high in meats has been found to be associated with some cancers.
- Reduce Heart Disease: Replacing saturated fat-rich foods (meat and high dairy fat) with foods that are rich in polyunsaturated fats (veggie oils, seeds, and nuts) can reduce heart disease risk by 19%.
- Fight Diabetes: High consumption of red and processed meats can potentially increase the risk of Type 2 Diabetes.
- Curb Obesity: Studies have shown that people with low meat intake or vegans have lower body mass indices and lower body weight.
- Live Longer: Red and processed meat consumption is linked to higher mortality rates, cardiovascular disease and cancer mortality.
- Improve Your Diet: Consuming more beans results in a higher intake of fiber, protein and other nutrients. Increase in vegetable and fruit consumption ("eat the rainbow") will also add more nutrients and have lower calorie per density than meats.

Source: Mom Favorites

Meat has the largest impact on the environment that any other food that we eat. Livestock consume a large amount of food and water, while also using immense amounts of land and energy to raise and transport.

Below is what goes into just one quarter pound of ground beef:

Source: NPR.org 

For even more information check out this infographic (click to see larger):

Do you participate in Meatless Mondays? 

My plan for the next few months is to photo and post some of my favorites meatless meals to share. Hopefully some of you will find them helpful. I'd love to hear about some of your favorite meatless meals too so please share your favorites! 

Mango allergy: The fruit that destroyed my face (pics)

Several weeks ago I broke out in this terrible rash.  It progressively got worse so eventually I made my way to the Urgent Care to only be told that they thought it was cold sores. The thought that kept going through my mind was, “where in the world did I get this?!” and disappointment that I had somehow acquired this lifetime virus that just keeps on giving. Despite the fact that the doctor “thought” that it was cold sores (he wasn’t 100% confident in his diagnosis), part of me just didn’t believe it. It wasn’t the characteristic sores and wasn’t responding to treatment at all (antiviral tabs and creams) and it continued to spread. Also I started breaking out in hives in several other areas of my body (chest, wrist, cheeks, neck, leg, etc.).

After many painful and embarrassing days I finally figured out what was causing this horrendous itchy, painful, swollen blisters all over my lips, chin and even nose….MANGOES!

Taken from the Discovery Channel website:
Mango and poison ivy are both in the cashew family, and both contain a substance called urushiol (yu-roosh’-ee-all). It’s the poison in poison ivy, the cause of the blisters and itching. The mango contains much, much less of the irritant than poison ivy, but despite that, some very sensitive people can get a rash just from handling mango peel and being exposed to its sap. Luckily, more often than not, even sensitive people can enjoy the delectable fruit of the mango, provided someone else peels it for them.


After reading this it makes so much more sense.  The day before and day that I started getting these sores I had eaten mango and continued to eat it for days into the allergic reaction (I thought the vitamin C would help my immune system – silly me!?).  It wasn’t until weeks that after I had them again did it click that mangoes were what was causing the reactions. The good news? Lots of Benadryl and prescription strength hydrocortisone cream really halted the reaction that last time and knocked it out of my system very quickly.

The following are pictures of my reaction, and yes, they are gross and kind of embarrassing to show (work sucked with these – people gave dirty looks and it hurt so much to talk). I’m posting them because seeing and hearing other’s experience really helped me feel better about everything and I really think that it’s important that people learn about this potential reaction.
 

I just wanted to pass this information on because I had absolutely no clue that this existed. I’m severely allergic to poison ivy so it’s no surprise that I had such an intense reaction (the last time I swelled up much quicker and had my lips, mouth and throat swell a bit). I’m definitely thinking that a allergy test may be in order because they are chances of cross-sensitivity (cashews, pistachios, papaya, latex). Better safe than sorry. I’m sad I can’t eat one of my new favorite foods anymore (I’m leery about even eating the fruit after this last allergic reaction), but it’s just not worth it.

Anyone else out there have crazy allergies or reactions? How about to mango? Did you even know that this allergy existed?

All happiness depends on a leisurely breakfast.

Weeks ago, Julie, at Peanut Butter Fingers, posted about her trip to a Pom Wonderful Factory.  Pom Wonderful is one of the leading pomegranate companies that grow, harvest and process pomegranates.  Seeing all these bright, tasty looking fruit piqued my interests and inspired me to pick a few up the next time I was at the grocery store.  Let me tell you....they are amazing.  Biting into the arils (the little covering of the seeds) produces a little pop and then a whole lot of juicy flavor.  It is a bit of work to get to the arils, but its well worth it.

There are several ways to open a pom, but this explains it pretty well and seems to be the easiest way to do it.  I do recommend wearing some gloves because these stain your hands pretty badly.  I always throw on a apron too so I don't stain my clothes.

YUM! 

This morning I decided that since I had some of the arils and mango (frozen) on hand I'd add it to my oatmeal.  I was never really an oatmeal person until I started adding lots of fruit goodies to it.  Made such a difference and is now one of my favorite morning go-to's.  

So great! Easy way to add some fruit to your diet and get yourself moving in the morning.

I'd love some more ideas on what to make with the pomegranate and any awesome oatmeal add-in's you might have.  I love the arils on their own, but would love a tried and true recipe to give a try.