If the thought of wielding a massive cleaver gives you goose bumps, but you have a hankering for some fresh coconut water take a look at Vita Coco. All the natural health goodness of fresh young coconuts without the risk of missing fingers, yikes sorry for the graphic image let’s stick to a more inviting picture – the image of good health.

• Coconut water is low in sodium and sugar and very high in potassium (even more than bananas, or sports drinks like Gatorade)
• Coconut water helps raise the metabolism, boost the immune system, and improve circulation (and in a pinch it can be used for blood transfusions since it is identical to human blood plasma – oops sorry that brings us back to the missing fingers quip I’ll try to refrain)

If you aren’t that familiar with the health benefits of coconut water do some searching and you’ll soon find out that coconut water is some amazing stuff (maybe that’s why all those commercials you see for vacations in the tropics have all those gorgeous people in them – it must be the coconut water)

But back to the Vita Coco shall we? Not only do they offer plain Jane coconut water that is scrumptious all by itself, they offer many other flavors made with natural fruit purees along with the coconut water. Give the Passion Fruit, Tangerine, Peach & Mango, Pineapple, or Acai & Pomegranate flavors a try – you’ll be dancing in tropical vacation commercials in no time.

I have not been paid by Vita Coco to butter them up and make them look good – their products speak for themselves – I am also not endorsed by meat cleaver sellers or emergency room workers for mentioning tragic accidents that might result from improper use of said cutlery – I do however receive a small commission from Amazon for any purchases made through the links on this site so tell all your friends to stop here first and practice hitting that buy button – it does a blogger good

This Post Shared on Real Food Wednesday and Fight Back Friday

My girls absolutely love kefir, a delightfully delicious cultured milk similar to yogurt. (and I admit I’m a little addicted as well) Someday we’d even like to make our own if we can find a good source of kefir grains, but until we do we like to try various store bought kefir when we find it.

We recently found a good one at a local co-op made by Nancy’s – Organic Blackberry Kefir – I’m salivating just thinking about it. Nancy’s makes four varieties of Organic kefir in 8oz and 32 oz sizes – plain, raspberry, blackberry, and blueberry.

Not only is their kefir loaded with tons (well, billions actually) of live probiotic cultures including L. Acidophilus, B Bifidum, L. Rhamnosus, and L. Casei (which besides being fun tongue twisters are actually great for digestive health and the immune system) Nancy’s organic kefir uses all organic milk, fruit and inulin (a prebiotic – probiotics best friend that enhances nutrient absorption).

In fact the organic milk comes from grass fed cows which provides a massively huge amount of good nutrients not found in “regular” milk.

The natural health geek in me has to mention a couple of points: one Nancy’s Organic Kefir uses Agave Nectar which while it is a low glycemic sweetener, has very high levels of Fructose which many even geekier natural health guru’s believe should be avoided like the plague.

Also in order for it to count as a low-fat drink it contains organic nonfat dry milk (in addition to actual organic milk) – which kinda defeats the point of all those good for you fats found in grass fed milk. There is a widespread misconception that low-fat or non-fat milk is good for you – but that is a whole post in and of itself.

That being said Nancy’s Organic Kefir is still one of the best for you kefirs I have found in stores and I’ll certainly buy it again – now if they made a full fat grass fed naturally sweetened variety I’d have to say it would be the perfect kefir.

This post shared on Fight Back Friday

Today I was blasted with a Green inspiration (just the thought of green sends warm flashes of Spring coursing through the room – I just wish some would flow outside where it is a not so springy 17 Degrees Fahrenheit). I was introduced to Victoria Boutenko and her series of books on Green Smoothie recipes thanks to a fellow natural health blogger and her recent post Drink Your Greens. She shared a video (see the video below) of Victoria talking about the wonders of green smoothies and a little taste test of a banana, mango, pear kale smoothie – a very vibrant green smoothie recipe that I look forward to trying since we just picked up some nice juicy mangoes.

After watching the video the green smoothie monster grabbed me by the hand and forced me to look up some of Victoria Boutenko’s green smoothie recipe books. The video mentions Green for Life which is her highly lauded 2005 release. I also discovered her recent 2009 book Green Smoothie Revolution: The Radical Leap Toward Natural Health which includes 72 pages of green smoothie recipes submitted from all over the world. It is rather inspiring to hear the great reviews these books get and the stories of increased health and wellness from introducing green smoothies into their diets. I immediately reserved both books at the library, but if you aren’t the waiting kind they are both for sale at Amazon.

Now I’m off to get some kale to go with that nice juicy mango… (and hey some of that Green inspiration must have spread outside after all… it’s now a balmy 24 Degrees outside)

Update: I’m still waiting on those books from the library, but in the mean time we’ve been experimenting with some green smoothie recipes of our own – and I’ve been blown away! The kids actually LOVE these! I’ll get a post up on one of our favorite recipes soon, but first I have to make our morning smoothie…

This post shared on Fight Back Friday and Real Food Wednesday

Are you looking for an easy way to get a jump on a cold winter morning? Here’s a simple to make powerful cold fighting natural remedy that helps boost metabolism, brain activity, and the immune system all in one shot – plus it has plenty of other mighty fine heath benefits.

Simply make a mug of hot lemon water and spice it up with cinnamon and fresh ginger! Kapow – instant superfood celebration.

Lemon is widely known for its high Vitamin C content and digestion aiding effects but the real powerhouse here is the cinnamon and ginger and the combination of all three.

In traditional Chinese remedies cinnamon is praised for its warming qualities (sounds pretty good on a cold winter morning) and has been used to provide relief when faced with the onset of a cold or flu, especially when mixed in a tea with some fresh ginger. Cinnamon’s scent has also been shown to boost brain activity so when you add a touch of cinnamon in your morning tea make sure you give it a big whiff to help get those cobwebs out of the brain and perhaps help you remember where you put your keys.

When consumed with high carb foods cinnamon can help lessen carbs impact on your blood sugar levels because cinnamon reduces blood sugar as well as cholesterol and triglycerides. It also has anti-microbial properties that help stop the growth of bacteria and can be effective in preventing candida overgrowth.

Ginger completes the digestive three way tag team because it is an intestinal spasmolytic (a substance which relaxes and soothes the intestinal tract). Ginger is also an excellent carminative (a substance which promotes the elimination of intestinal gas) so you don’t have to ride the toot toot train all the way to work. Ginger was shown to be far superior to Dramamine the motion sickness drug and is well known to be very useful in reducing the nausea and vomiting of pregnancy. Ginger contains very potent anti-inflammatory compounds called gingerols. Ginger extracts have been shown to have both antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-tumor effects on cells and is especially effective in inducing cell death in ovarian cancer cells.

Ginger is not only warming on a cold day with its spicy kick, but helps promote healthy sweating, which is helpful when you have a cold or the flu. So if you are doing a winter detox adding a little ginger in the morning will really help the detoxification process. A good sweat may do a lot more than simply assist detoxification as German researchers have found that sweat contains a potent germ-fighting agent called dermicidin. Dermicidin is manufactured in the body’s sweat glands, secreted into the sweat, and transported to the skin’s surface where it provides protection against invading microorganisms, bacteria and infections.

Now after all that appetizing talk of sweating and digestion why not lose yourself in a spicy sweet hot mug of lemon ginger cinnamon tea.

This Post Shared on Real Food Wednesday