Hot Cocoa You Can Feel Good About

It's officially fall, and that means it's time to re-vamp your hot cocoa and make it something you're proud to share.

Here's my recipe:

1. Warm milk of choice (cow's, goat's, rice, soy, or almond, always organic)
2. 2 Tbsp. Powdered chocolate / cocoa (Ghiradelli Sweet Chocolate is our favorite)
3. 1-2 drops Agave Nectar (low glycemic sweetener - a staple in a Food Prude's pantry- found near honey at almost all grocery stores)
4. Dash of Cinnamon

Food Prude Facts:

Drinking pure cocoa, rather than eating processed forms of it (i.e. chocolate candy), is the best way to reap the many benefits, like high antioxidants without the saturated fat. Cocoa also has a positive effect on blood pressure due to the flavanols that allow vascular tissue to relax. Further, cocoa aids in glucose metabolism, and reduces your risk of stroke, heart failure, cancer and diabetes by 10%.

Agave Nectar is the most beneficial and lowest glycemic sweetener on the market. Low glycemic means it won't cause a sharp rise and fall of blood sugar levels when consumed. Agave has anti-inflammatory and immune boosting properties as well as antibacterial properties. It can be effective in weight loss, reducing appetite, lowering cholesterol, reducing the risk of certain cancers, and increasing absorption of vital nutrients such as isoflavones, calcium and magnesium. Agave Nectar is a very flexible sweetener and can replace sugar in most recipes.

Cinnamon is rich in phytonutrients which act like insulin and may help regulate blood sugar levels - especially good for people with diabetes. It also lowers bad cholesterol, and can remedy medication resistant yeast infections. It's a great source of maganese, fiber, iron, and calcium, which the agave will help you absorb in this recipe!

It has also been shown that smelling cinnamon boosts cognitive function and memory - a perfect start to a busy school or work day. So next time you want a warm cup of hot cocoa, make it an advantageous cup, and have two!

Fast Food for the Prude

I know what you're thinking....it sounds contradictory, but quick healthy food doesn't have to be an oxymoron.

As a very busy, working, homeschooling, blogging, soccer mom of 3, I have come up with a few snacks and meals on the go. Regardless of what you do, or where you're at, sometimes you have to find something convenient, and quick, to eat, and that doesn't mean giving up prudence.

Below I will list few of my favorite at and around home quick, gluten free, and otherwise healthy snack and meal ideas. Please visit Food Prude Faves on my blog to view specific brand and purchasing information through Amazon, doing so helps support the person putting the time into these blogs.

Please Note: All of the below are suitable for children and adults alike, ages 3 and up:

• My children call my Sequoia, 'The Rolling Pantry', and rightfully so, because I always keep an emergency stash of raw almonds and gluten free pretzels in my center console, for when hunger strikes unexpectedly.

• I keep 3 key staples in my garage fridge at all times for those 'running out the door, really should take snacks' moments. 

1. Bottled Water
2. Greens to Go, or Acai Energy 
3. String Mozzarella Cheese, and/or TillaMoo Colby Jack Cheese Squares
4. BECAUSE: A bottle of water + Greens to Go or Acai mixed in, + Almonds + a stick of String Mozzarella Cheese = a well rounded and quick snack.

• Protein shake of your choice (my favorites are Greens Protein 8 in 1, which is hypoallergenic, gluten and dairy free, and Biochem's Greens & Whey, and Greens First) + Banana + handful of nuts and/or seeds, like hulled sunflower seeds, (unroasted, and unsalted of course).

• 2-3 slices of Deli meat (Hormel Natural Choice Rotisserie Style Chicken Breast, and Applegate Farms Organic Chicken & Turkey are my favorites) + an apple dipped in Almond butter or Nutella Hazelut spread.
 

Keep in mind that all snacks and meals should be well rounded (lean protein + carb + good fat), to maintain blood sugar levels, steady metabolism, and to ensure maximum nutrition.

Real Sugar requires more energy to absorb, HFCS loses again...

Many people are interested in 'getting healthy', or 'watching what they eat'. Which are great motives. However, one of the basics of being healthier is being conscious of what you are putting into your body, right down to the last ingredient on every label. There is a movement in the food industry, toward more natural and less processed foods, which, in my opinion, is a great way to get, and stay healthy. This movement begins and ends with people paying attention to what they are buying, and demanding better quality.

High Fructose Corn Syrup has long been controversial, but the bottom line is that it is unnatural. It's processed, and it's in everything.

A Little History: According to the American Chemical Society, high-fructose corn syrup entered the industrial market in the 1970s. Two researchers, Richard Marshall and Earl Kooi, developed the manufacturing process in 1957, discovering that they could alter glucose's molecular composition to make fructose. Later, in the mid-1960s and early 1970s, Japanese scientist Yoshiyuki Takasaki and Osamu Tanabe further developed and improved the manufacturing process. By the mid-1970s, corn syrup had begun to replace sugar as a sweetener in many products. Partly because of the federal government's corn subsidies, it became cheaper to make, and its prominence grew.

Chemical Make-Up: High-fructose corn syrup, the most prominent type of commercial corn syrup, originally comes from cornstarch. Two enzymes, alpha-amylase and gluco-amylase, break down the starch to make glucose. A third enzyme, glucose-isomerase, turns the glucose into a mixture that includes fructose. The resulting syrup has a honey like thickness and is usually 55 percent fructose and 45 percent glucose.

The very fact that this common product was created by researchers is proof that it is unnatural. There are no corn syrup farms, you cannot go out and harvest corn syrup from a corn tree as you would get pure maple syrup from a maple tree.

Psychology Professor Bart Hoebel tells News at Princeton:

It appears that in HFCS, fructose molecules are "free and unbound, ready for absorption and utilization. In contrast, every fructose molecule in sucrose that comes from cane sugar or beet sugar is bound to a corresponding glucose molecule and must go through an extra metabolic step before it can be utilized. " It may well take more energy to consume real sugar than it does to consume HFCS.

So, HFCS is more readily absorbed than plain white sugar. Our bodies have to work harder to breakdown sugar, than corn syrup. It seems that there could be a direct correlation to the overuse of HFCS in the majority of processed products to the increasing diabetes epidemic in our country, and some people are starting to catch on.

Check out this article about some major brands steering clear of corn syrup, and why:
http://industry.bnet.com/food/10001771/the-death-of-high-fructose-corn-syrup/

I challenge you to read the label of everything in your pantry, or at least a few things, and see what you've been eating, what you've been feeding your family. And to steer clear of corn syrup, in all forms, not only because it's more metabolically accessible to your body, but because it's found in a lot of products that sugar isn't, and never should be.