Healthy Holidays + Quick Recipe: Personal Vegan Apple Crisp

The days are getting cooler and darker, the leaves are transforming brilliantly before the trees shed this vibrant plumage to settle into their winter whites, and you may find your tastes and cravings run more toward warm and comforting foods.  And it's a great time to indulge them - but can we do that and still eat healthy?

In a word: yes!

The fall and winter seasons are dry and cold, sometimes crisp and even bitter - think of the crunch of dry leaves, a chill wind, or a fresh layer of ice on snow.  According to Ayurveda, eating foods with these similar Vata properties - dry, crisp, cool, bitter - can exacerbate symptoms of Vata imbalance, such as dry skin, crackling joints, and disarrayed thoughts.  To balance this, we turn to foods with opposing Kapha attributes - moist, warm, sweet, soft.

And not surprisingly, holiday fare is loaded with Kapha foods: yams and sweet potatoes, squash and pumpkin dishes, stuffing... and desserts.

That said, though these foods are grounding and can help balance excess Vata, it can be easy to overindulge and feel heavy, sleepy, and over-full.  Sticking to fibre-rich vegetable and legume dishes more often than starchy grains and potatoes, keeping meat portions reasonable (4 oz. is plenty), choosing a healthy fat at each meal, and watching portions overall can help minimize overeating.  Stick to your food log habits through the holidays, but don't punish yourself for "giving in" to dessert; instead, savour it slowly as a once-a-year treat.

Of course, making dessert healthier with nutritious, clean ingredients can help minimize holiday guilt, so here I'm giving you a healthier fall dessert option that you don't have to feel bad about serving to your guests - or eating all by yourself.  This is a single-serve recipe, so multiply it for however many people you want to serve.  It's an easy-to-make crowd-pleaser that always impresses when I bring it to my family's Thanksgiving feast.  Happy baking!

 Personal Vegan Apple Crisp
Ingredients:
- 1 small or ½ large organic apple (I used royal gala, but granny smith is amazing), cored and diced
- 1 Tbsp. organic coconut sugar (less if using a sweet apple)
- 1 Tbsp. organic oats
- 1 Tbsp. organic coconut oil
- ½ Tbsp. organic spelt flour
- ¼ tsp. organic cinnamon
- pinch sea salt
- 5-6 raw walnut or pecan halves, optional

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400⁰F.

Spread the diced apple in the bottom of an oven-safe ramekin or French onion soup bowl.

Mix the remaining ingredients except walnuts in a small bowl to make the topping.  The mixture should be slightly clumpy but not powdery or pasty.

Sprinkle the topping evenly over the apple.
Arrange the nut halves on top.

Bake for about 15-20 minutes until sugar melts and apple is tender.
Serve warm.

Optional indulgences: drizzle with 1 tsp. pure maple syrup or a dollop of cashew cream; or serve à la mode with a scoop of maple or vanilla coconut ice cream.  Great with a cup of rooibos chai tea.

Make it gluten-free: look for certified uncontaminated GF oats, such as Only Oats, and skip the spelt flour (try it with coconut, almond, or rice flour, or all-purpose GF baking flour, instead).

Bonus: double everything except the sugar to enjoy dessert for breakfast.  Serve topped with ¼ cup coconut or almond yogourt and raw pumpkin seeds.

Enjoy!

Edit: This recipe also appears in my holiday recipe e-book, Love Plants for Life: Plant-Based Holiday Solutions, featuring 12 of my favourite allergy-friendly holiday recipes!  Available now.

The advice in this article is not meant to replace the advice of your doctor or other health care professional.  Always consult your health care professional before undertaking any radical change in your diet.

Superfood Spotlight: Coconut Oil

For months, if not years now, my friends and fans have heard and seen me wax poetic on the many virtues of coconut oil – snow white, magically melty, does-it-all coconut oil. Well, it seems today is no different – except I’ve compiled many of these amazing traits and uses of my favourite eat-right-from-the-jar oil in one place.

First and foremost, as a nutritionist, I am in awe of its health properties and uses as a food.

Coconut oil is made up of saturated fatty acids. This means that the molecule is saturated in hydrogen atoms such that the chain makes a straight or solid line, as opposed to unsaturated fatty acids, which are missing one or more hydrogen atoms, causing the chain to bend at these junctures. This molecular structure of solid lines lends itself to the oil’s solid state at room temperature. Similarly, the bends in unsaturated fatty acid chains contribute to their liquid state at room temperature.

The solid structure of the saturated fats also means that it is generally protected from oxidation, remaining unchanged after exposure to heat and air, and making it absolutely fabulous for just about any type of cooking or baking.

My very large jar of coconut oil.

Coconut oil is solid at room temperature.

     

My favourite cooking and baking applications of coconut oil:

1. Stir fries. Depending on what kind of coconut oil you get – virgin or extra virgin – coconut oil can give your dish a subtle coconutty taste, perfect for Thai-style veggies.
2. Butter replacement. Like coconut oil, butter is a saturated fat, so it makes sense that we can use coconut oil in recipes calling for butter. Add a pinch or two of quality sea salt or Himalayan salt to up the “buttery” when using coconut oil to sauté mushrooms or greens, or when making popcorn the “old-fashioned” way on the stove or with your popcorn maker.
3. Vegetable oil replacement. I have a recipe for oatmeal muffins that I got from my mother, modified to be vegan-friendly. Over time it has diverged from the original recipe so much that I can’t honestly call them oatmeal muffins anymore. Using coconut oil instead of vegetable or olive oil as the recipe originally calls for has given this banana chocolate-chip muffin recipe a cupcake-like fluffiness. I’ve been kind and shared this recipe on my website: Banana Chai Chocolate Chip Muffins, September 2012.
4. Candy making. Coconut oil makes a great melt-in-your-mouth base for homemade chocolates, truffles, and icing, and is often used in raw desserts and snacks.

Beyond cooking and baking, coconut oil has numerous health benefits, many attributed to its content of medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs). MCTs are quickly digested, and as such provide quick energy to cells, without spiking insulin. This is good news for athletes looking for an energy boost without sugar, and diabetics and insulin-resistant individuals. There has also been recent discussion about applications for MCTs and coconut oil supplementation in managing Alzheimer’s. Because some of the insulin in the body is produced in the brain, and insulin resistance is being linked to Alzheimer’s – to such a degree that Alzheimer’s may eventually be considered type III diabetes – reducing sugars and increasing intake of MCTs may help improve energy levels and cognitive function without increasing insulin levels in the brain.

MCT oils can be purchased in health food stores, are liquid at room temperature, and sometimes packaged or marketed as salad oils. I like to put a spoonful of MCT oil in pre-workout smoothies as an energy source, and a spoonful of whole coconut oil in post-workout smoothies as an anti-inflammatory and analgesic component to aid recovery. This latter application can be useful for sufferers of arthritis as well.

Some other great uses of coconut oil:

1. Oil pulling. This practice entails taking a spoonful of oil – coconut, sesame, sunflower, or olive – in the mouth and swishing it around and over teeth and gums for up to 20 minutes without swallowing. Afterward one spits it out (preferably not in the sink), and brushes the teeth as usual. It's recommended to be done first thing upon waking, and is said to strengthen and whiten teeth, as well as pull toxins from the mouth. I like using coconut oil for this since it has a pleasant, mild taste, and I actually enjoy the way it melts in my mouth in the first minute or two.
2. Skin care. Coconut oil is naturally emollient, and is wonderful for softening and moisturizing the skin. I like to apply it to my lips and rub it into my hands, feet, and elbows in the winter instead of buying lip balms and moisturizers. Not surprisingly, many DIY beauty-care recipes call for coconut oil.
3. Healing infections and wounds. Along with its anti-inflammatory and analgesic properties, coconut oil also possesses some antiseptic, antifungal, and antiviral properties. These properties are attributed to coconut oil's main MCT lauric acid. I advise to take a spoonful or two in the morning at the onset of cold/flu symptoms in addition to oil pulling. I've applied coconut oil on broken blisters, burns, paper cuts, and cat scratches instead of harsher antibiotic ointments and seen faster wound healing. My husband also used it last summer to relieve itching and moisturize his surgical scars.

These are just some of the many uses and benefits of coconut oil. Remember to choose organic virgin or extra-virgin coconut oils, ideally cold-pressed and unrefined.

What are some of your favourite uses of coconut oil?

The Love Plants for Life Nutrition Workshop Series is running Monday evenings in July and Thursday evenings in August.

Please be advised that this article is not meant to replace the advice of your doctor or therapist.

Always consult with your medical and/or alternative healthcare professional prior to starting a new supplement to avoid contraindications with your condition or medications.

Working Through ADHD & Anxiety with Nutrition

Welcome!  This post kicks off my Love Plants for Life Nutrition Blog, and I'm so happy to finally share this with you.  We're jumping right in with a topic that hits home for me: ADHD and anxiety.

My experience with ADHD and anxiety began in university when I was studying for my Bachelor of Music degree in piano.  I’d started noticing that I had trouble focusing in my classes, was quite restless, and frequently had trouble with working on assignments to the point where I would frantically try to pull them together the night before they were due; and that going onstage for graded recitals petrified me to the point that it really affected the quality of my performances.   These last items, since if they continued to affect my grades it could result in me getting kicked out of my program, prompted me to see my campus psychiatrist, following the suggestion of a close friend who had a longstanding diagnosis of ADHD.

I’ve always been considered an introvert – “quiet”, “shy”, and “withdrawn” are all words commonly used to describe me.  My acute anxiety (stage fright) symptoms include, but are not limited to: muscle tremors (my hands would shake so much that it affected my playing), gastrointestinal disturbances (indigestion, nausea, needing to go to the bathroom often), chills and cold extremities, heart palpitations… all of these usually starting first thing in the morning on the day of a performance, regardless of when it was scheduled during the day. 

Now, when the psychiatrist diagnosed (along with ADHD) social anxiety disorder, I was given a medication – a beta-blocker, usually for high blood pressure – to take half an hour before my performance.  And it did help, but rather than feel the weight of importance on a given performance, I felt pretty much the opposite – detached, that I was phoning it in, that the quality of this performance was inconsequential.  In a way, I almost preferred the anxiety, because at least it connected me physically to the performance.  That said, I’ve since found ways to better cope with anxiety. 

It took several years, until I started studying nutrition, to learn that following an Ayurvedic approach helps with both ADHD and anxiety.  In a nutshell, Ayurveda considers body and mind constitutions in terms of doshas.  The doshas represent Air (Vata), Fire (Pitta), and Earth (Kapha).  ADHD and anxiety are both considered Vata disorders.  It’s a state of being unsettled or chaotic, full of movement – like air currents.  A way to counter this is by eating foods that are considered Kapha – grounding.  This includes roots, fats, oils, proteins, warm and warming foods and spices.  It happens that building a diet around these foods at each meal and snack provides macronutrient balance, with complex carbohydrates, lean proteins, and healthy fats, and eating this way can help keep blood sugars stable.  Blood sugar imbalance can exacerbate anxiety symptoms, contribute to excess energy or restlessness, and disrupt concentration.  Keeping cold, dry, brittle, and raw foods to a minimum, as well as stimulants like caffeine, is also helpful.  Herbal teas such as chamomile, lavender, and rooibos can be calming as well.

On top of that, using adaptogenic herbs and foods can be very helpful for keeping the stress response and physical symptoms of anxiety down.  An adaptogen helps the body adapt to stress.  Herbs like rhodiola, ashwagandha, and maca; calming herbs like lavender and chamomile; carminative herbs like ginger, for reducing nausea and GI upset; vitamins C and B5 and magnesium can also be helpful to calm anxiety.  A formula I like is AOR Ortho-Adapt Vegan, which is a combination of some of these herbs and nutrients, as well as licorice and ginseng.  There’s also a non-vegan version that contains the addition of porcine adrenal tissue and cortex.  As with any herbal supplement, I strongly caution you to read the labels for contraindications and if you’re not sure, consult with your nutritionist, naturopath, or herbalist before taking them.  Discuss duration of usage as well, since many of these supplements are not meant to be taken long-term.

Homeopathic remedies like gelsemium may be helpful as well, and are usually not contraindicated with medications.  Bach flower remedies may also be useful.

Deep breathing, including an alternate nostril exercise helps, too.  To do this, block the right nostril with your thumb and inhale through the left nostril.  Close the left nostril with your ring finger and exhale through the right.  Repeat, breathing in through the right and exhaling through the left.  Repeat the series a few times to help calm your nervous system.  Additional breathing through the left nostril only can help further calm you down.  Combining breathing exercises with a gentle exercise routine, like yoga or tai-chi, can also be helpful to bringing the stress response under control.

Additionally, something I learned as I was preparing for my final oral exam in nutrition school, reciting positive affirmations or phrases to myself consistently and often, especially in the time leading up to the event, helps to keep hold of a calm state of mind.  I was able to literally talk myself out of being anxious.  Telling myself over and over again that I am calm, confident, that I know this, really helped, and I definitely encourage this practice of mental preparation.  A book I read at the time, and that I found helpful, is Shakti Gawain's Creative Visualization.  Using these techniques regularly can also help you uncover and release the root cause of your anxiety.  

Following this approach to balancing my ADHD and anxiety symptoms has really helped me become more focused and confident in my everyday life, as well as helping me get up in front of people to produce nutrition workshops, so that I can do what I love to do – teach people about the value of taking control of their health.

The Love Plants for Life Nutrition Workshop Series is running Monday evenings in July and Thursday evenings in August.

Please be advised that this article is not meant to replace the advice of your doctor or therapist.  Always consult with your medical and/or alternative healthcare professional prior to starting a new supplement to avoid contraindications with your condition or medications.