Spirulina, The Benefits, and How to Use It

{via}

If you have not heard of spirulina (which I had not until a few weeks ago), it is a blue-green algae, or, cyanobacteria that can be taken as a health food supplement in either powder, tablet, or flake form. Spirulina is extremely high in protein, making up nearly 65% and a great source of vitamins and nutrients. In fact, the daily dose of spirulina (2,000-3,000 milligrams taken in 500 mg doses) has about 15% our daily intake of vitamin A, 45% our daily intake of potassium, 10 calories, 1 gram carbohydrates, 0.25 grams of fat, and 2 grams of protein. Spirulina is also high in beta-carotene, chlorophyll, calcium (26 times what is found in milk), gamma linolenic acid (an essential fatty acid), zinc, copper, vitamin E, vitamin B-complex, and is a complete source of protein.

Researchers from the University of Maryland Medical Center have found that spirulina has many benefits in test tube and animal studies, although no tests have been done on humans. Some of these benefits that may transfer to humans include:

• Immune Support: Spirulina increases the number of antibodies found in the immune system along with infection-fighting proteins.
• Anti-cancer Properties because of the immune support
• Detoxifies the Body: Chlorophyll helps remove toxins from our blood.
• Reduces Allergic Reactions: Spirulina stops the release of histamines that cause runny noses and eyes along with itching skin, eyes, and throat.
• A Protein Supplement
• Anti-infectious: Spirulina may aid against herpes, HIV, and the flu.
• Improve Oral Health: This is for two reasons, the first is that spirulina has high amounts of phosphorous that reduce enamel decay. The second is that it may help reduce oral cancer.
• A Probiotic: Spirulina boosts the production of probiotics in the body.

Blue-green algae, in nature, can easily bind to other metals and toxic substances. Be sure to get a good quality spirulina from a trusted source to avoid health risks. I have heard very good things about Mountain Rose Herbs.

How to Use It

Spirulina can be taken in tablet form, or, as a powder mixed into drinks. It is recommended to take 2,000-3,000 milligrams of spirulina in 500 mg doses daily. You can mix spirulina into most baked goods, oils for salads, and almost anything else. One of my favorites is in smoothies. Here are a few great smoothies that use spirulina.

1. Spirulina and Kale Smoothie
2. High Protein Spirulina Smoothie
3. Mango and Coconut Smoothie
4. Spinach and Spirulina Smoothie

Beer, Wine, or Liquor, Which is Heathiest: The Hard Stuff

{via}

Yesterday we were able to learn the difference between beer, white wine, and red and today we will be talking about hard liquors. If you have not read the previous article you can take a gander at it here. After reading both articles, the winner for lowest calories and healthiest overall drink should be pretty obvious. Honestly, it was not what I expected it to be. Hopefully, these articles can save us all some extra lb's over the next year. Especially considering that drinking a six-pack of beer once a week for a year will translate to 15-lbs. What?!! Talk about a serious beer belly!

The Hard Stuff

The hard liquors like vodka, whiskey, and scotch tend to have the lowest calorie and carbohydrate content, but still give us a bang for our buck when it comes to antioxidants. Like beer and red wine, research has found that hard alcohols can help increase levels of the good cholesterol in our bodies. Amazingly, researchers have also found that averaging two drinks a day can increase women's risk of breast cancer by 10% or more! That said, keeping moderation in our drinking is key to getting the health benefits while still maintaining optimal health.

Generally, the higher the proof, the higher the calories and mixed drinks will always have more calories (sometimes 800 calories per drink!) than the straight liquor. One ounce of an 80 proof alcohol averages:

• Calories: about 67 (cordials can have as little as 15 calories per ounce while Schnapps can be over 100)
• Carbohydrates: 0 grams
• Fat: 0 grams
• Protein: 0 grams

Low Calorie Mixes

Mixed drinks can have as few as 100 calories or as many as 800+ for those cream and dessert drinks. Mixtures that use club soda, diet soda, or tonic tend to have a lower calorie count, rounding out to about 100 calories per serving. A great example of this is gin and tonic; this drink has 103 calories per serving! Vegetable and fruit juice mixes are another great mix option when we are counting those calories. One Bloody Mary has 123 calories and about 5-grams carbs.

One of the main reasons that things like flavored vodka have gained in popularity is because we get the flavoring of something extra with no extra calories. These flavored liquors can be mixed with tea or club soda for little to calories outside the alcohol itself. These are a few great drink recipes for those watching there weight.  mudslide mojito martini whiskey sour

Mudslide: This drink breaks the mold for healthy and dessert-like cocktails. One mudslide has about 185 calories.

Martini: Martini's are a a great option as long as it is not one of those dessert options with tons of chocolate and dairy. Most martini's average 160 calories and less than 1-gram carbs.

Whiskey Sour: For those who enjoy darker liquors, the whiskey sour clocks in at a 160 calories, but be careful, they have a whopping 14-grams carbs per serving!

Mojito: Mojitos are quite low in calories at 160 calories per serving. Lower the carbs by opting out of the sugar rim for a bit healthier option.

Beer, Wine, or Liquor, Which is Healthiest: Beer and Wine

{via, via}

Does anyone else feel like the first part of the year was made for party and the second half is for business? I mean, we start of the year with New Year's where champagne is handed out like candy way before they ball drops until way after. Then, we move to Valentine's Day for the wine lovers followed up by St. Patrick's Day with it's green beer, Irish beer, and any other kind of beer available anywhere. Thankfully, we get a month off until Cinco de Mayo strikes. These holidays can leave any waist-watching human in a bit of a lurch. We all know that alcohol packs on the pounds, even for those who are only have a glass or two a week (some models swear it off months before big shows).

With St. Patrick's Day coming up, it seems like the perfect time to talk drinks- which are good, which are bad, and which we should avoid like the plague. Surprisingly, beer is not one of those that need be avoided.

When I started this article, I planned for it to be one, super informative bit with recipes, health benefits and risks, and nutritional information for beer, red wine, white wine, and liquors. But, it was going to be the longest article ever written on P+K by a long shot. Instead, we will have two segments of drinks over the next three days. Today, we will start with beer and wine and tomorrow will be the hard stuff

Beer

Beer drinkers rejoice. New research shows that beer can help lower cardiovascular disease and has more protein and B vitamins than red wine. The hops actually help reduce bad cholesterol from the polyphenols found in hops naturally. The yeast that comprises beer is also a probiotic that aids our body in digestion, much like yogurt. Even better, new research has also found beer to have the same amounts of antioxidants as red wine. As a rule of thumb, the darker the beer, the richer it is in antioxidants.

Unfortunately, the health benefits end after 12-ounces so keep your intake low to get all the benefits with fewer of the beer pitfalls known as a beer belly. Here is the nutritional info of your average beer:

• Calories: 140-270 depending on the beer. Craft beers tend to have a higher calorie content than your Michelob or Bud counterparts. Color does not make a difference for calories. Light beer has under 100 calories
• Fat: 0 grams
• Carbohydrates: 10-15 grams, depending on the beer.
• Protein: 1 gram, on average

Red Wine

It is a common known fact that red wine is better for us than white. Red wine has antioxidants that help increase the good cholesterol and fight against heart disease. This is mainly due to the antioxidant, Resveratrol. Resveratrol could also be linked to decreasing the risk of blood clotting and inflammation. Other polyphenols in red wine could also help protected the lining of our blood vessels and heart. Just like beer though, red wine's benefits are not seen after one glass.

The average red wine has among the fewest calories, fats, and carbs compare to most other alcohols. An average serving, or 5 fluid ounces of wine has:

• Calories: 125 (25 calories per ounce)
• Carbohydrates: 3-5 grams depending on the red wine
• Fat: 0 grams
• Protein: 0 grams

White Wine

White wine is among the least beneficial drinks when it comes to nutritional content, but, is better in the form of calories. On average, white wine has four calories less per ounce than red wine. Dessert wines tend to have a much greater calorie count at 45 calories per ounce. The average 5 fluid once glass of white wine contains:

• Calories: 121
• Carbohydrates: 4 grams
• Fat: 0 grams
• Protein: 0 grams

The Best Food Delivery Company- Blue Apron vs. Hello Fresh

Food delivery companies seem to be the most genius invention of a service ever. It is wonderful to have recipes and all the fresh ingredients delivered to your door once a week without having to make grocery lists or scour the internet for yummy recipes. We recently did a test run of two food delivery companies that are available in our area to see which we like more and which to keep. If you live in a place like New York, L.A., or San Francisco, you have so many more options, it is ridiculous. But, if you live in a nice, suburban town like me, the options are quite a bit more limited.

There are two food delivery companies that work in our area, Hello Fresh and blue Apron. Both deliver three meals a week with all ingredients for three selected recipes. Both also have the option between meat and vegetarian dishes. But, that is where the similarities end. For use, there was an easy winner, and, it was not the one either of us expected. Since P+K is all about simple ways to be healthier and having healthy food delivered to your door seems like the simplest way, I thought you just might want to know my findings as well. Here goes...

Hello Fresh

Hello Fresh meals average about $11 for meat options and $9 for vegetarian. The meals were pretty good, but most of the vegetarian options were pastas. Since I am not a massive pasta fan, these meals were definitely not my favorite. Although the actual Hello Fresh company is great with extreme transparency on where they get their food, a very simple and easy to understand website, and great customer service, the food and recipe were not exactly what we expected.

There were multiple times that the food in the recipe and the food sent to us were not the same (ex. wheat pasta vs. non-wheat pasta) and the directions for recipes left very much to the imagination. Ha, I can think of quite a few times that both the hubs and I would debate on what the recipe was asking us to do next only to find we definitely did it wrong when we went to eat it. Things did not taste right.

Ingredients were also pre-packaged in those mini to-go type containers and had to be measured before-hand. Usually, measuring would not bother me, but cutting open 10-packets of soy sauce to get the pre-measured amount is where I draw the line. Yes, this food is a bit healthier than Blue Apron. And yes, Hello Fresh does have a better deal for vegetarians. But, we are paying a premium to have meals sent to us; for that, I think we should be spoiled a bit. Having to double check measurements and decipher directions is not my cup of tea.

Here are a few of their recipes :)

Blue Apron

I feel a little bad for Hello Fresh just because of how much the odds were stacked against them. Everything that Hello Fresh did wrong, Blue Apron did right, and then some. The only complaint I had about Blue Apron was that you could only choose meat or vegetarian, and as of last week that was changed. Now, you can opt for chicken, beef, pork, vegetarian, and fish when choosing your weekly meals. This is wonderful for us pescetarians out there who do not fit into that either/or category or for those who do not eat pork, shellfish, or beef.

All meals are about $10 per person no matter what protein you choose. If you are a vegetarian, you will love Blue Apron. Meals mix up where vegetarians are getting their protein from and very few of them have pasta at all.

There are two things that make me want to get everyone I know Blue Apron meals; the first is the packaging and the second is the food. All ingredients come pre-packaged in the exact measurement needed, taking so much of the hassle out of cooking. Ingredients are also neatly labeled and smaller ingredients for each meal are kept together in labeled "knick-knack" bags. This is wonderful for anyone out there who is not a chef but wants to create meals like one. The directions are super easy to understand and nearly impossible to mess up.

So far, we have made Moroccan dishes, Italian dishes with ingredients only available once a year, sushi, and Vietnamese dishes. All of these are things I would never think to make for a simple weekday meal since the ingredients can be so hard to come by. And, all of these would have been waaayy more than $10 per person because of all the random spices that we would only need once but cost an arm and a leg.

Each food order also comes with a description of all the meals and reasons why they were chosen. I have seriously learned so much about food since registering with Blue Apron and also got to eat one of the worlds stinkiest cheeses. It was delicious, albeit, smelly.

For all of these reasons, we decided to go with Blue Apron. Here is their entire cookbook to peruse what meals you might enjoy :) Hehe, can you tell that we like the sushi a bit? It was the first time making sushi that the end result actually tasted like food, let alone, good sushi! Poor Chuu though, he is use to sushi have tuna. Beggar.