Healthy Alternatives

Natural Doxycycline: The Antibiotic That Probably Grows in Your Backyard Discover The Forgotten Power of Plants with Nicole Apelian

Love to learn about these Phytonutrients & how good they are for all of us!

5 Veggies & 5 fruits a day

Hippocrates the ancient Greek physician said "let food be the medicine and let medicine be thy food".

11 Berries to Eat and Their Health Benefits These nutrient-dense fruits are good for so much more than breakfast and snacks. Enjoy them as often as you like.

Pantry Swaps
Eating better doesn't have to happen all at once. You can make some easy swaps to get you started.

Arrow shows how you can swap a slice of white bread for a slice of whole wheat bread

Instead of: Choose:
Iceberg lettuce Spinach or mixed greens
White rice Cauliflower "rice"
Pasta Zucchini "noodles"
White bread 100% whole wheat bread
Sour cream on baked potato Salsa on baked potato
Frying in fat Sautéing with non-stick cooking spray
Fatty ground beef Ground turkey or lower-fat ground beef
When baking, you have options for less fat and more nutrition. Test a couple of these simple changes. You may be surprised by how great they taste!

Go from: To:
All-purpose flour Mix 1/2 all-purpose + 1/2 whole wheat flour
Butter Mix 1/4 butter + 3/4 heart-healthy canola oil
Butter or oil Applesauce, mashed banana, or pumpkin
1 C sugar 3/4 C sugar
1 C sugar 3/4 C honey or maple syrup (and a little less water or other fluid used in recipe)

Reference
"Healthy Baking Alternatives." Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, Feb. 2017, www.eatright.org/resource/food/planning-and-prep/cooking-tips-and-trends/healthy-baking-alternatives.

"Parent Tips: Save Money By Cooking Smarter." National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/educational/wecan/downloads/tip_saving.pdf.

"Recipe - Smart Stand-Ins for Healthy Cooking." U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, www.move.va.gov/docs/NewHandouts/Nutrition/N24_RecipeSmartStandInsForHealthyCooking.pdf.

Citation of the above sources(s) does not indicate endorsement by the author or publisher.

VA.gov | Veterans Affairs Apply for and manage the VA benefits and services you’ve earned as a Veteran, Servicemember, or family member—like health care, disability, education, and more.

Healthier Cooking
Now that you're smoke-free, keep going with those healthy changes! Learn some new ways to cook and cut out calories so you can feel your best. By adding spices and swapping items, it can taste even better than before!

Cooking Meats and Veggies

Frying adds lots of fat to meals. You can cook in other ways, and have less mess to clean up! Try these low-fat methods:

Grill. Cook your meats right on the grill. Just add a little salt and pepper.
Two chicken breasts and vegetables cooking on a grill.

Poach. Cook eggs or fish, even chicken tenders, in 2 inches of simmering liquid. A common poaching liquid is water with a dash of vinegar.
Steam. Steam veggies in a steamer basket. Just bring about 2 inches of water to a boil and add cut veggies to the basket. Cook until you can poke a fork through them.
A pot of cauliflower, broccoli, and carrots steams on the stove.

Boil. Bring water to a boil and cook veggies until tender.
Easy Ingredient Swaps

You can swap out high fat items in your recipes for lower fat options. Here are some ideas:

Use fat-free or low-fat milk instead of whole milk.
Use fat-free sour cream or low-fat yogurt instead of sour cream.
Buy ground turkey or chicken instead of sausage. Add fennel seeds and crushed red pepper for that sausage flavor. Also, chicken or turkey sausage are better for you than pork sausage.
Ground turkey sits in a pan on a kitchen prep space, surrounded by fresh vegetables, herbs, and spices.

Try low-fat or fat-free salad dressings, or make homemade dressing with oil (canola or olive), water, and vinegar (or lemon juice). This is better for you than creamy or high fat salad dressing.
Three kinds of salad dressing in glass jars.

Use canola, olive, or vegetable oil instead of butter. When baking, you can also swap 1 cup mashed ripe banana or avocado puree for 1 cup of butter or oil. That's pretty cool.
Next time you cook, take a look at the fats and oils you are adding.

Think about how you can swap them out for fat-free or lower fat options.

Make Food You Love Healthier. Smokefree.gov Web site. https://smokefree.gov/stay-smokefree-good/eat-healthy/make-food-you-love-healthier. Accessed February 15, 2023.​

Recipe - Smart Stand-Ins for Healthy Cooking. [pdf]. Department of Veterans Affairs. https://ww.move.va.gov/docs/NewHandouts/Nutrition/N24_RecipeSmartStandInsForHealthyCooking.pdf. Accessed February 15, 2023.​

​Losing Weight - Getting Started Week 1. [pdf]. NHS choices. https://assets.nhs.uk/tools/download-panels/data/weight-loss/pdf/all-weeks.pdf. Accessed February 15, 2023.

Citation of the above source(s) does not indicate endorsement by the author or publisher. Materials cited from a regulatory agency or similar public sector organization may similarly be available on that organization's website free of charge.

assets.nhs.uk

I hope you find this as interesting as I did!

3 Interesting Ways To Drink Baking Soda For Better Health Many of you may have been using baking soda around your home for years without ever even knowing what it is. We did a little digging to uncover the mystery.

Not that I needed another reason to love basil! 🌿💚

Adding fresh herbs to your meals even smoothies (yes really. Try strawberry basil smoothie) does so much more than add flavor, there’s incredible health benefits. 

Pistachios may seem like a new trend, but people have been eating them since 7000 BC!

💚 they are loaded with nutrients!
💚  are high in antioxidants
💚 promote healthy gut bacteria
💚 Low in calories at high in protein
💚 they help you sleep💤😴
💚 May lower cholesterol and blood pressure


When Frances Perkins was a little girl, she asked her parents why nice people could be poor. Her father told her not to worry about those things, and that poor people were poor because they were lazy and drank. Eventually, she went to Mount Holyoke College, and majored in physics. In her final semester, she took a class in American economic history and toured the mills along the Connecticut River to see working conditions. She was horrified. Eventually, instead of teaching until she married, she earned a masters degree in social work from Columbia University. In 1910, Perkins became Executive Secretary of the New York City Consumers League. She campaigned for sanitary regulations for bakeries, fire protection for factories, and legislation to limit the working hours for women and children in factories to 54 hours per week. She worked mainly in New York State’s capital, Albany. Here, she made friends with politicians, and learned how to lobby.
On March 25th, 1911, Frances was having tea with friends when they heard fire engines. They ran to see what was happening, and witnessed one of the worst workplace disasters in US history. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire was devastating, killing 146 people, mostly young women and girls. Frances watched as fire escapes collapsed and fireman ladders couldn’t reach the women trapped by the flames. She watched 47 workers leap to their deaths from the 8th and 9th floors.
Poignantly, just a year before these same women and girls had fought for and won the 54 hour work week and other benefits that Frances had championed. These women weren’t just tragic victims, they were heroes of the labor force. Frances at that moment resolved to make sure their deaths meant something.
A committee to study reforms in safety in factories was formed, and Perkins became the secretary. The group took on not only fire safety, but all other health issues they could think of. Perkins, by that time a respected expert witness, helped draft the most comprehensive set of laws regarding workplace health and safety in the country. Other states started copying New York’s new laws to protect workers.
Perkins continued to work in New York for decades, until she was asked by President Elect Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933 to serve as Secretary of Labor. She told him only if he agreed with her goals: 40-hour work week, minimum wage, unemployment and worker’s compensation, abolition of child labor, federal aid to the states for unemployment, Social Security, a revitalized federal employment service, and universal health insurance. He agreed. Similar to what she had worked for in New York, her successes became the New Deal, and changed the country and its workers forever.
So while you may not know her name, you certainly know her legacy.

I Love this! ❤️

This 92-year-old, petite, well-poised and proud lady, who is fully dressed each morning by eight o’clock, with her hair fashionably coiffed and makeup perfectly applied, even though she is legally blind, moved to a nursing home yesterday. Her husband of 70 years recently passed away, making the move necessary.

After many hours of waiting patiently in the lobby of the nursing home, she smiled sweetly when told her room was ready. As she maneuvered her walker to the elevator, I provided a visual description of her tiny room, including the eyelet sheets that had been hung on her window. “I love it,” she stated with the enthusiasm of an eight-year-old having just been presented with a new puppy.

“Mrs. Jones, you haven’t seen the room …. just wait.”

“That doesn’t have anything to do with it,” she replied. “Happiness is something you decide on ahead of time. Whether I like my room or not doesn’t depend on how the furniture is arranged, it’s how I arrange my mind. I already decided to love it. It’s a decision I make every morning when I wake up. I have a choice;

I can spend the day in bed recounting the difficulty I have with the parts of my body that no longer work, or get out of bed and be thankful for the ones that do. Each day is a gift, and as long as my eyes open I’ll focus on the new day and all the happy memories I’ve stored away, just for this time in my life.”

She went on to explain, “Old age is like a bank account, you withdraw from what you’ve put in. So, my advice to you would be to deposit a lot of happiness in the bank account of memories Thank you for your part in filling my Memory bank. I am still depositing.”

And with a smile, she said: “Remember the five simple rules to be happy:

1. Free your heart from hatred.
2. Free your mind from worries.
3. Live simply.
4. Give more.
5. Expect less, & enjoy every moment.

Photograph by Karsten Thormaehlen