Recipe: Fresh Almond Milk

This recipe is an all-season staple, but I especially look forward to making it in the colder months when warm beverages are a necessary indulgence. Save and refrigerate the almond pulp to make Almond Pulp Cookies. Homemade almond milk pairs well with Clean Nature's Granola.

FRESH ALMOND MILK

1/2 cup almonds, soaked, with skins peeled (optional)

2 cups water

1 date, pitted (sub 1 tbsp maple syrup or coconut sugar)

Pinch of pink Himalayan salt (optional)

METHOD

Soak almonds overnight in room temperature water. If you're pressed for time, soak almonds in hot water for 2-4 hours. Strain and discard water, then rinse the almonds. For an added bonus, remove the almond skins by hand. The skins are known to have phytates which are nutrient blockers. This is an opportunity to practice a moving meditation and patience. From a culinary perspective, removing the almond skins yields a creamier texture with snow white color.

Blend almonds, water and date for 1-2 minutes. Add pinch of pink Himalayan salt.

Strain liquid through a cheesecloth, chinois or strainer. Save the pulp to make Almond Pulp Bliss Balls (see recipe here). Remaining liquid is your almond milk. Refrigerate for 1-3 days.

NOTES

• For a creamier texture, change the almond to liquid ratio to 2:1 (2 cups water to 1/2 cup almonds).

• Substitute almonds for cashews, pistachios, or nut of choice for other alternative milk.

Makes 2 cups

Takes 5 minutes + soaking time

Copyright 2022, A. Chavez, Original Recipe.

What is Ayurveda? How Does it Relate to Nutrition?

Origin and Background

Ayurveda is the art and science of positive living and healing. It is a complete holistic medical system that addresses the mind, body and spirit in relation to its environment, nature, and the cosmos. It recognizes that the microcosm reflects the macrocosm, meaning that we are not separate from nature. Ayurveda is comprised of 6 different but complementing philosophies that unite to form a life science that focuses on prevention and quality of life, thus emphasizing that health is not merely absence of disease. Its two main goals are to preserve health and maintain balance amongst healthy individuals, and to restore balance to those suffering from imbalances in the mind and body. “Ayur-” translates to ‘life,’ and “veda” translates to ‘true knowledge’.

Simply put, Ayurveda is the Science of Life, or the Science of Wisdom and Longevity.

Ayurveda is the oldest documented health care system, originating in ancient India over 5,000 years ago and still practiced today. It is commonly described as the sister science to yoga; yoga working to purify the mind, and Ayurveda working to purify the body. Its healing mechanisms include dietary and lifestyle guidelines, yoga, breathwork, and meditation, herbal supplements, daily exercise regimens, and natural detoxes and rejuvenations. It addresses the energy behind the natural changes of physical material by peeling back the structural layers to get to the functional layers, eventually reaching the soul level, a place where harmony, health, and longevity exist - our true nature.

Ayurveda and Nutrition

Ayurveda uses diet, lifestyle, and herbs as ongoing maintenance in our daily lives. By aligning with the natural intelligence of the body, we have the opportunity to tap into our greater wisdom. It is an applied, common sense science, both intuitive and practical, emphasizing realistic application versus conceptual knowledge. There is no one size fits all approach, nor any blanket statement to serve all, rather it is completely individualized and tailored to meet each person where they are at. Ayurveda does not treat symptoms, it illuminates the root causes of illnesses or imbalances. Because Ayurveda is functionally oriented, it is said,

“You are not what you eat. You are what you digest.”

Ayurveda looks at the qualities of foods and how they digest and metabolize in our bodies. Our digestive capacities are so revered in Ayurveda because it is what transforms food into absorbable, usable material that we can then call nutrients. The ability to digest and absorb enhances the body’s vitality. Ayurvedic nutrition goes far beyond a life of calculated eating and restrictions. It encourages us to hop off the ever swinging pendulum of polarity to find the middle path, a road of balanced diet and lifestyle practices. Selecting quality ingredients, cooking for ourselves, incorporating lots of spices and herbs, being mindful of portion control, listening to hunger cues, eating consistent meals at consistent times each day, and eating slowly and with presence are a few food habits that Ayurveda promotes.

Ayurveda is again specific, personalized, and unique to each person. Its wise science facilitates the body and mind so that it can transform, grow, and evolve with practiced awareness, presence, and mindfulness. Because the mind has the ability to be transformed, so do our bodies and how we relate to them, ourselves, environments, and the rest of the world. Ayurveda suggests simple and realistic goals that can be sustained for life and used as tools in the future to apply when needed. Ayurveda is a very complex, grand medical system. If one argues they could intellectually understand it in a lifetime, I’d argue back that it would take many lifetimes to understand it in the heart.

Reclaim Your Health: What Does It Mean To Be Healthy?

Reclaim Your Health: What Does It Mean To Be Healthy? Is Healthy Food Always the Healthiest For You?

What does health mean to you? Some would say that health is the absence of disease, others arguably disagreeing, their definition aligning more with quality of life and longevity. What about eating and living healthy? What comes to mind? One mainstream thought portrays “healthy eating” as consuming light, detoxifying foods, emphasizing low sodium, sugar-free, raw vegan and gluten-free diets; a dysutopian world where green salads are deemed healthier than a balanced plate of an animal protein, grain, fat, and cooked veg. This is when we need to get to the nitty gritty of what it actually means to eat healthy. To empower you on your health journey in reclaiming your health, consider asking the following questions around food and eating:

1. Where are the ingredients sourced from? Are they organic or sprayed with pesticides?

2. Is this a whole food? Can I imagine it once growing, or was it packaged and processed into a new shape looking nothing like its original components / source?

3. How was this food prepared?

4. How am I feeling before consuming? What does my body actually want to eat? What does my body need?

5. How do I feel as I digest the food?

6. Why am I eating this?

Being hands on with our food gives us the power to transform our relationships with our health.

By using our senses of sight, smell, sound, and touch, we can intuitively pick out quality foods at the market. The process of preparing meals with our own hands grounds us in our bodies and creates an alchemical experience in the kitchen, watching art and chemistry fuse to create something that nourishes us. By slowing down and being present when we eat, we increase our ability to optimally digest the food, making it available as nourishment in the body. Digestion first begins in our minds.

Paying attention to the energetics or qualities of food opens a deeper realm of understanding and connection. This is when salads aren’t necessarily always the healthiest option. Imagine someone whose primary diet is raw sprouted and leafy green salads. Observe their tendencies. You notice they tend to be on the spacier side, maybe a little ungrounded in their body. They are buzzing off vital plant energy, subtle and dynamic. Raw sprouts and leafy green vegetables are light, cold, bitter, and astringent by nature. When digested, these qualities have specific effects on our mind bodies.

According to Ayurveda, someone is truly healthy when the governing functions of the body are balanced (tridosha), digestion, metabolism and tissues are properly nourished, waste elimination is balanced, and the sense organs as well as mind-body-soul are calm, clear and pleasant. Check out my blog on Ayurveda to learn a little more.

In the Ayurveda world, health is....

"A disease-free body,

Quiver-free breath,

Stress-free mind,

Inhibition-free memory,

Ego that includes all,

And Soul which is free from sorrow is the birthright of every human being."

-Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Eating the same thing repeatedly, no matter what the food is, offers less nourishment and nutrient diversity than eating a little bit from all the food groups. When the body grows accustomed to the same thing, it is more likely to plateau; what once was a medicine becomes a poison. When cooking and preparing meals, it is vital to create complex, balanced meals versus only eating a food in its isolated form. Different bodily tissues require different nutrition- food required for the fat tissue differs from what the muscle tissue demands.

A sample whole-foods based balanced plate for meat eaters is:

Coriander Lime Seared Sirloin Strips

Cumin Barley Pilaf

Grilled Lemon Fennel Bulb

Kale, Apple and Raisin Saute

A sample whole-foods based balanced plate for vegetarians is:

Moroccon Cauliflower-Carrot Tagine

Fennel Basmati Rice

Red Lentil Hummus

Arugula Mint Salad, Lemon Honey Vinaigrette

The media highlights different diet trends like paleo and keto as healthy solutions. We count calories, restrict calories, demonize and highlight certain foods and food groups. Most health-seekers encounter this model first, introduced to a world where cleansing is the focus, and detoxing is favored over nourishing. It’s so easy nowadays to either be swayed by the popular health scheme or to swing in the opposite direction by resenting "healthy lifestyles" entirely.

Anticlimactically, without proper nutrition and understanding of what health and being healthy really means, “healthy food” can hinder our health, leading to binging, extreme eating, mood swings, negative body image, guilt, and disordered eating. We move so far away from our center to chase this idea of health, often resulting in skewed perceptions and the inability to discern which foods are actually good for us. In time, we stop listening to our internal hunger cues because we distrust the sensations our bodies tell us. We adopt a very general yet convoluted prescription of health by losing our ability to make decisions that could actually serve us better.

From a holistic lens, health is made up of our physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual states of being. Within this framework, we can experience the undeniable connection to nature that lives within us all. Whether seeking health for extrinsic or intrinsic purposes, the drive is always positive- its rooted desires coming from a place of seeking inner harmony. Someone expressing the want to “get healthy,” is another way of recognizing an imbalance within the body. Health and harmony are inseparable, and so are our natural states of being. Health and longevity are achieved by walking the middle path of balance, and going to no extremes.

That is Whole. This is Whole. Wholeness emerges from Wholeness. Wholeness within Wholeness and that Whole remains. Peace in my heart, peace in my hands, peace in the cosmos.