Eat Your Spinach!; Maryland Personal Trainer

Every piece of food we eat affects our body's acid-base balance. Aside from being loaded in antioxidants and fiber, green leafy vegetables are very alkaline. On the other hand, meat and grains tend to be acidic. As a society, we eat a lot more acidic food than alkaline food, which can have significant effects on health, body composition, and performance. For more information, this article does a great job explaining the science behind the acidity (or alkalinity) of food. The rest of this post is about how to get more spinach in your diet, as it is one of the most alkaline vegetables around. Here are two quick and easy ways for increasing your spinach consumption:

Spinach Salad:

One of the easiest ways to get more spinach in your diet is to use spinach leaves as salad. For a low-carb, protein packed meal, simply fill up a large bowl with spinach, add one can of tuna fish (or other meat), and top with a dressing suitable for your diet goals. Fat-free works when dieting (be careful not to get one with too many carbohydrates if you are watching those), and light ceasar mixed with olive oil (my favorite) works when strength and size are a top priority.

Blended Shake

If you have never tried this before, try not to be too quick to judge. Spinach virtually no taste when added to a blender. Also, it works with frozen spinach (which is unusable in salad and does not taste as good when cooked). This recipe is perfect if you meet any of the following criteria:

- You hate spinach
- You need to get in a meal on the go
- You do not mind getting strange looks
- You can't afford fresh spinach or it always spoils (frozen is much cheaper!)

Blend the following ingredients in the blender:

- 4 Cups Fresh Spinach (or ~1-1.5 cups frozen)
- 1 Cup Cottage Cheese (replace with protein powder if you are lactose intolerant or are restricting fat)
- 2 tablespoons natural peanut butter
- 8 ice cubes
- 1 tablespoon of flax seed
- artifical sweetener, to taste

Tastes better than it looks!

This recipe is pretty versatile. I hate the taste of frozen spinach and cottage cheese, but with a little bit of peanut butter and splenda/stevia, anything tastes good. You would be surprised what you can sneak into a blender without it affecting the taste of the shake.

Conclusion

Popeye was right all along. Now you have no excuse for not eating your spinach!

Grass-Fed Beef; Maryland Personal Trainer

In In Defense of Food, author Michael Pollan notes that "You are what you eat eats".

I am sure by now you have heard about the wonders of fish oil, and how healthy omega-3 fats are. However, have you heard why all animal fat is not blessed with this health benefit? The difference is diet of the animal.

A supplement everyone should be taking!

As humans, we do not consider green vegetables to have a significant fat content. For cows and other grazers which eat pounds of greenery each day, these trace fats are a substantial part of their diet. Once upon a time, before corn was king, people ate animals that fed on mostly green things (or ate animals that ate animals that fed on green things). Green vegetation tends to be rich in omega-3 fats. These omega-3 fats from grass were then stored by animals like buffalo and deer as fat. When ancient man ate these animals, he too consumed high amounts of omega-3 fatty acids, which became an integral part of his composition.


Unfortunately, corn is high in omega-6 fatty acids. Animals that eat corn as their primary dietary source become rich with omega-6 fatty acids rather than omega-3 fatty acids. As a society, Americans tend to get way too many omega-6 fatty acids as it is compared to our predecessors due to the preponderance of corn in modern diet. Vegetable, corn, and soybean oils are all high in omega-6 fatty acids. As a result, omega-3 fatty acids virtually vanished from the modern human's dietary supply. Omega-3 fatty acids are needed for cell membranes and biochemical reactions in addition to making up a large amount portion of brain tissue. As a result, supplementing with omega-3 fatty acids has been linked to many positive effects such as improved insulin sensitivity and improved vascular health.

In short, grass-fed beef is healthy because it is high in omega-3 fatty acids. These omega-3s were a big part of ancient man's diet. Corn-fed beef, and other corn-fed animal fat is not considered healthy because it is high in omega-6 fatty acids, which the average person gets too much of already.

You may be thinking that if this was the case, why do we not see grass-fed beef everywhere? Well, the biggest problem with grass-fed beef is that it is expensive and typically hard to get. However, if you happen to live in Bel Air, Aberdeen, Havre de Grace, Forest Hill, Fallston, Churchville, or any other Harford County area, you are in luck! Shop Rite has grass-fed whole beef tenderloin on sale this week for 4.99$ a lb. Grass-fed beef is less fatty than normal types of beef, which makes the tender whole beef tenderloin the best grass-fed cut. When I lived in Washington, this cut was over 20$ a lb at the local grocer!

I'm no chef, but the cook in this video gives a good demonstration on how to prepare a beef tenderloin.



If you do not think you can handle a kitchen knife, Shop Rite also has grass-fed sirloin on sale as well for 4.99 a pound!