Walking on thin Ice

A little girl on Long Island in New York was walking on thin ice chasing a little puppy who got away. It became too thin to support her weight and only her screams heard by someone in a home nearby saved her life. A brave NYC cop named Matthew crawled on his stomach to get her, and a fireman scooped up the errant puppy. (1) So what does this have to do with carrots, and cabbage and such? You might say that many of us are walking on thin ice in regards to our fruit and vegetable consumption. You might feel safe enough, but what is holding you up, or what is keeping the health you now enjoy from being compromised in the future? The “ice” beneath your feet may be thinner than you realize. Are you chasing puppies and not paying attention?

*THREE-FOURTHS MISS THE MARK*
“A recent report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says two-thirds of Americans don’t get the recommended two servings of fruit a day; three-quarters miss the target for vegetables.” (2)

So maybe you don’t like vegetables and you feel just fine not eating them.

*CHRONIC DISEASES*
The USDA claims that eating more fruits and vegetables “reduces risk of chronic diseases, including stroke and perhaps other cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes, and cancers in certain sites (oral cavity and pharynx, larynx, lung, esophagus, stomach, and colon-rectum). Diets rich in foods containing fiber, such as fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, may reduce the risk of coronary heart disease.” (2)

You can’t decide not to worry about this issue without being similar to the little girl chasing a puppy on thin ice. Table Leg #3 for Orange Tree Lane is Fruit and Vegetables because of the huge difference most of us need to make in how many we consume. We need to eat dark green and orange vegetables as well as beans and starchy vegetables every week in the amount of 2 ½ cups a day IN ADDITION to 2 full cups of fruit each day. (3) How are you doing?

*AMAZING WEIGHT LOSS STORY*
As chance would dish it out, a new documentary was just released called “Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead”, and its focus is the dramatic 100 lb. weight loss of Aussie business man Joe Cross, a man who was also taking numerous medications for an unfixable autoimmune disease which kept miserable, red itchy patches of skin inflamed all over his body. Under the care of a doctor he started a 60 day juicing fast to cleanse his body and start a new way of eating with, you guessed it, more Fruits and Vegetables in his diet for the rest of his life. It is fascinating to see him emerge from behind the fat right in front of your eyes while he chronicles his cross country while tour drinking only fresh fruit and vegetable juice The story takes a dramatic turn at the end when he gets a call from a morbidly obese truck driver whom he met along the way asking him for help. The man seems to go from death to life right before your eyes. You will be dusting off your juicer I promise. I was able to get it from Netflix and here is a trailer you can watch.

I doubled this delicious and simple* Minestrone Soupthis week and it stretched into two dinners and a few lunches. *Super Kale and Greens Salad will show you how to enjoy this nutrition powerhouse without losing any nutrients to heat. *Spicy Korean Beef, Cauliflower and Sweet Potatoes got a rare !0 score from the whole family. I doubled the cauliflower just to heap more on the plates.

I hope you love the recipes as much as we did, and don’t forget to watch the video with Spicy Korean Beef to help you get the job done faster.

Here’s to more fruits and vegetables this week, and always,