bogfrog Posted June 20, 2012 Not sure if this would be the right place for this topic but its about people making use of plants so i'll try. I really don't know much about nutrition, but I have heard from a few sources that vegetables start loosing their nutrients about a day after they are harvested. Therefore u want to be eating your veges straight from the garden and cooked as little as possible to get the most goodness out of them. I'm wondering if anyone knows more on this subject, as I think what we put into our bodies has an enormous effect on how we feel. My dad was really into his raw food when I was a kid, mum told me he used to always make us raw vegetable soups with extra silverbeet.. He wasn't pleased either when we turned up our noses at his "hippy food" as I used to call it. Any suggestions on wonderful and healthy food plants to grow would also be appreciated. Surely theres some vegetable gurus out there?? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
san p Posted June 20, 2012 only thing i could suggest is,if you dont already own a good juicer get one! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bogfrog Posted June 20, 2012 Yip yip! Got myself a free juicer from flybuys. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
IndianDreaming Posted June 20, 2012 I prefer blender! Chuck everyhting in - fruit n veggies whole unpeeled. Gets all the fibre and you need a spoon to eat the fresh fruvegiegak Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Goldtop Posted June 20, 2012 I do the same indian, add some orange juice and coconut water. Tastes great and its a good to get me to stop from eating shit food after work 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Halcyon Daze Posted June 20, 2012 Next time you make a sandwich, pile it high with mixed fresh leafy herbs from the garden. Squash it down (that's what I mean by pile it high), cut it in half and eat. Do this twice a day for a week and you will definitely feel "alive". Why? Because you are eating food that is alive (in my opinion). Try it and see. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
IndianDreaming Posted June 20, 2012 I have a full glass of water straight out of bed, then blended gak after a shower - every day. The glass of water is the key to health i reckon. Blend anything together, fruit and veggies- broccoli, turnip, carrot, brussel sprouts, apple, beetroot... all very cheap from the fruit/veg market. Ignore your taste buds and cravings! Just pour the good gak in every day. If you've had a really bad diet up till this point, you'll go crazy in the head for a week or so. Your mind/body thinks it's dying from the food chemical withdrawls, but push through, you feel great after a month of 'no food out of plastic packaging or a deep fryer'. *rant mode off* 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bogfrog Posted June 20, 2012 Yeah that blended vege muck sure sounds like the trick! I'll give it a go and hopefully set my mind and body free of nasty chems. Cheers fullas! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
satyr Posted June 21, 2012 Rather than preparing the MIX with veggies/herbs from the grocer, which often harbour high residues of pesticides (esp. the brassicaceae) we collect "wild" edible greens from the garden dayly...dandelion, clover, nettle, chickweed etc. add milk honey cinnamon, blend it...done. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Auxin Posted June 21, 2012 (edited) Remember, cooking increases bioavailability of lipophillic vitamins (vitamin A, lycopene, zeaxanthin, etc) so tomatoes and carrots and kale are good to cook, just dont overcook. Not, or under-cooking legumes and grains can be dangerous. After neglecting that and producing a rather bad arthritis adventure last winter I now ferment or germinate grains to be safe. Still healing from that. Not cooking is a double edged sword with the cruciferous vegetables. On the one hand the glucosinolates only really turn into the cancer preventing isothiocyanates and indole-3-carbinol, etc, if you chew them raw (thats why raw broccoli is said to prevent cancer) but too much of those is goitrogenic- blocks iodine usage enough to potentially cause problems or even death in extreme situations (like eating crucifer sprouts or the woman who died by eating 20 cups of bok choi per day). My current habbits are to cook kale and carrots and the like enough so they are 'cooked' but only that much. Some veggies I just cook long enough to sterilize them. Strong crucifers like mustard greens I'll add most near the end of cooking and just add a bit raw to the salsa-like accompaniment many of my meals have. I just barely get enough iodine most weeks so when I make a gallon of kim chee, since its just packed with goitrogens, I eat it with my morning and midnight snacks rather than my days meal which by design supplies over 90% my iodine. Hopefully those hours in between help things balance. See, its possible to way overthink these things Edited June 21, 2012 by Auxin 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
IndianDreaming Posted June 21, 2012 @Auxin - What do you eat as a high source of iodine? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
nabraxas Posted June 21, 2012 soil levels ov iodine in Australia are very low. i think it maybe impossible to get the required amount ov iodine from vegetables alone. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
IndianDreaming Posted June 21, 2012 Seems you're damned if you do and damned if you don't - Fish, high in idodine, but high in mercury... iodised salt... hmm... Seaweed seems to be the food of choice. "Concentrated food sources of iodine include sea vegetables, yogurt, cow's milk, eggs, strawberries and mozzarella cheese. Fish and shellfish can also be concentrated sources of iodine." - Internet http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=nutrient&dbid=69 Seems I may have answered my own question... @Boghog - what sort of food are you eating now? What do you want to change? I'm fairly new to 'eating healthy' and highly recommend you keep researching and get on to it, it's amazing noticing how different you feel. I didn't even realise I felt crap all the time from a deficient diet! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bogfrog Posted June 21, 2012 My diets nt too bad but I have decided I gotta put a bit more thought into what I eat. Ive been growing my own veges for a couple years nw (hit and miss) I grew up vegetarian (from age 4-12) and used to get fed lots of super foods like bee pollen and chia seeds but I have been pretty careless since I started eating meat. Just looking for recomendations on super healthy food I can grow for myself. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
IndianDreaming Posted June 21, 2012 (edited) Nice one. I only grew my first veggie patch this year! The taste difference is unbelievable... I ate all sorts of garbage, take away, grease, junk food, lollies... not good, i'm surprised I'm still alive! Just noticed bee pollen today actually. I'm gonna get some and add it to my gak. I've been adding 'vital-greens' to my morning routine too, I find that I'm not hungry all day when i do that. Actually - I eat very little at all now, its surprising how little you need to eat when the food is really good. It took me about 6 weeks or so to 'detox' - and i realised that I hadn't felt hungry in years - what I thought was hunger was really 'craving' - very different. Hunger actually feels nice, sort of empty but mild - craving feels intense and irritating. I grew: Eggplant, capsicum, 6 diff heirloom tomatoes, 2 sorts chilli, watermelon, rockmelon, zuchini, cucumber, and goji berries (haven't fruited yet). Having never done it before, i planted 4 watermelons in 4 sq ft of space - haha, what a jungle that was! I can send you a goji berry cutting if you like? Would love to hear what you (and other people) are growing food wise... Edited June 21, 2012 by IndianDreaming 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
woof woof woof Posted June 21, 2012 after having seen enough discovery programs about parasitic infestation. like for example rat snail lung disease - http://au.news.yahoo.com/sunday-night/features/article/-/11478098/a-killer-in-the-garden-/ I'd cook the food. Just not overcook. juicer,.... I need to get me one of those! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Auxin Posted June 21, 2012 All non-trivial iodine in my diet comes from two sources 1) seaweed, when the BP disaster hit the news I bought a several years supply which I've been tightly rationing since the fukushima disaster. I'm not quite ready to eat radioactive seaweed. 2) Hot sauce. I dope my hotsauce so 10 ml = 1 days supply of iodide. So I have two bottles, iodized hot sauce and 'promiscuous' hot sauce for those times I need just a fuck ton of hot In the US its a strange situation. Our government never specifies whats a recommended Minimum or a recommended Maximum for dietary components so people eat just huge amounts of salt not realizing the recommended intake is the recommended maximum which we should stay well under. It takes that much to get enough iodine from salt. Of course virtually none of the salt in factory made foods is iodized. Americans get most of their iodine from chemical waste- industrial cleaning agents used to clean milk vats are not washed out fully and thats how iodine gets in our food. And I dont drink milk. Thankfully I have a lifetime supply of sodium and potassium iodides, I can wait for the seaweed to stop glowing. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
IndianDreaming Posted June 21, 2012 Hmm... seaweed - I'll look into it. Thanks Auxin Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mira Posted June 21, 2012 In the US its a strange situation. Our government never specifies whats a recommended Minimum or a recommended Maximum for dietary components so people eat just huge amounts of salt not realizing the recommended intake is the recommended maximum which we should stay well under. They don't? http://fnic.nal.usda.gov/dietary-guidance/dietary-reference-intakes/dri-tables [doesn't load properly in Firefox for me] DV and DRI are a more complicated issue, but they do represent an upper limit we should stay well under. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Auxin Posted June 21, 2012 No they dont, not to the masses. I loaded that pdf, its not for the masses. Even so it says 1,500 mg/day for sodium. That may be true when hiking through the desert, but not for the vast majority of people, then it doesnt even mention cholesterol til page 6 where only doctors and science nuts would reach, lol. That data is not what is taught to the american public. In schools they teach that adults 'should' consume 2,300 mg of sodium every day and 300 mg of cholesterol every day. And the federally subsidized school lunch program helps quite a bit in achieving that. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
IndianDreaming Posted June 22, 2012 @Bogfrog - Have you tried goji berries? I can only eat a few, but when i do - i'm not hungry for literally 4+ hours. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bogfrog Posted June 22, 2012 Not recently but i've had a go on them before. Have you heard about their naughty properties? Meant to be like a natural viagra. Im pretty sure they have been banned in england for being too similar. I mite try grow some this spring, they shud do all right in a greenhouse eh? This year I grew silverbeet, miner's lettuce, purple carrots, yams, maori potatoes, strawberries, raspberries, herbs and ulluco. I really would like to grow more ancient food plants like ulluco that have a multiple parts that are edible or any plants that have remained relatively unchanged since ancient civilisations were growing them. Sounds like I mite have to go potato hunting in south america one day! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Auxin Posted June 23, 2012 ...Meant to be like a natural viagra. Im pretty sure they have been banned in england for being too similar.... If true the brits will have a hell of a time enforcing that law, they grow wild all over england! I never noticed any naughty properties but I'm always *ahem* naughty too begin with. I just assumed that was part of the marketing hype to make people think goji berries do everything from making your hair smooth to curing HIV. Be careful growing them, I cant control the bastards. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
IndianDreaming Posted June 23, 2012 (edited) Thats a great selection bogfrog! (iDreaming googles ulluco...) If I eat too many goji's - I get a severe stomach ache. It doesn't take many - proably only 10-15. I'm growing my own now to try them fresh - I've only had semi dried. For me they are absolutely wonderful in a small handful of nuts at satiating the 'craving' feeling and filling me up. Not sure about naughty... I'm naughty enough already... Edited June 23, 2012 by IndianDreaming Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bogfrog Posted June 24, 2012 Haha well you gotta love all natures little wonders, despite how naughty we all may be already! I never knew they were so weedy, I mite giv them a miss if so and stick to other, more well behaved plants ;-) Doe7 anyone make their own hippy flour? Thats certainly on my agenda for this summer too. I'm also gna try a trick from those ringing cedars books, (havnt read them, lost interest too quickly) where you hold the vege seeds you are planting in your mouth for half a minute before planting. Supposedly the seed *somehow* reads your health through contact with your saliva and when it grows, it is meant to tweak its nutritional content to what your body individually needs. A friend and her partner tried it with kale and apparently the two sets of plants looked and grew completely different. Who knws the reality of the situation, bt hey it cnt hurt to try it. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
