Thursday Green with Greens SBI Comment Contest

in #esteem5 years ago

Almost any healthy food list you see will tell you to eat your greens. I NEVER ate greens when I was obese and unhealthy. I never bought any, and would not know what to do with them if I did.

Once I did start eating better, greens - especially the tender herb type, became a normal part of my diet and I wished I had started eating them much earlier.

This essay shows you some information about greens and photos I took of then with my Canon ELPH160 point and shoot camera.

AND!

I am running a comment contest on this post. The best two comments I get will win an SBI share after payout.

The first photo is part of a random assortment of greens. I took it while eating at my friends' house in Bangkok Thailand. They ate raw greens with everything at all meals and I do not know what these all were.

All of the places I have been in SE Asia for the last few years feature greens in a lot of the food - often raw. I do not remember this from back in the states. Did I miss something, or are greens not served much over there? Now I would miss them if I did not have them.

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The rest of these photos are from the Farmers Market in Coronado California back in 2012. I had been shopping there for years and never even paid attention to the greens. Now all of the sudden I found out they were cheap, delicious, and easy to use.

But not that easy

First I washed them in baking soda and water and all kinds of dirt came off. I always wash produce in baking soda and sometimes vinegar. You will not believe what comes off them when you do. And all of the sudden you get the scent too. So much fun :)

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Then I pulled the greens off the big stems to chop them. Now I use scissors instead. Much easier!

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And here they are chopped fine like I like them.

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Some I dried in the oven for a few hours and then kept in a jar. I froze others, but you are not seeing that part of the deal today.

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Greens like this will also last a few days in the fridge. Wrap them in paper towels and then in a bag or container. I was really surprised that they held up so well, and you will be too.

I used part of my greens in Miso Soup, and here is some just after cooking. I baked that bread and it was very nice for croutons!

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And here are some Miso Soup details to show you what was in the soup. This used to be my breakfast and it would definitely rev my engine when I ate it.

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My son and his friends loved this soup and would always tell me it gave them energy. I did not think I or anyone else would like healthy food and then it turned out we all did!

I can give that recipe in another post. It's very yummy and nutritious.

So why should you to the effort to eat greens?

At @fitinfunfood, we are working to boost nutrition by adding the 31 essential nutrients.

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Most green herbs have 14 of essential nutrients in them:

  • Iron
  • Calcium
  • Magnesium
  • Niacin
  • Riboflavin
  • Vitamin A
  • Vitamin C
  • Phosphorus
  • Fiber
  • Zinc
  • Pantothenic acid
  • Vitamin B6 Pyridoxine
  • Copper
  • Manganese

I got that list at a health benefits of herbs site where you can go read all the details if you like. But do you really need to be convinced greens are good for you, or can you just start to eat them?

Having some greens ready to eat in the fridge, and some in the freezer, and some in a jar, means you can throw a handful into or onto anything and get some benefit.

When you ordered pizza or fast food by mistake, throw some greens on and you don't have to feel so bad.

When you are cooking a healthy meal – add some greens. Now you feel even better.

Making a smoothie? Yup. Add greens. A half a cup will give you the benefit and you will not even taste it.

This is the type of small start I recommend on your journey to better health. Taking an hour or so out of your life to get these things in the pantry and freezer will make a huge difference over time. You don't need to go crazy – you just need to start.

Please tell me your thoughts about greens. I really want to know how you feel about this idea and how it might work for you.

Your comment can win you an SBI share too. This post is a white list contest for the @contestkings initiative, where no upvote, no follow, and no resteem are required.

All I need is your interesting comment and will award a @steembasicincome share to the best two I get. I will decide right about payout time and do a second post to let you know what I find out from you and who wins.

This post is for the Color Challenge by @kalemandra. Show us your green on Thursday too!

= =

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It is that time of year when the fitness equipment is out and the diet books are being read. I lost "Half My Size" eight years ago by using natural methods, and you can too!

This is Sharon @fitinfun. I am posting:

Please follow along or contact me directly if you would like some individual help with weight loss and health. Anyone can do this if I did.

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I will always try to balance my meal with greens and meat. And I always tell my girls that we must all eat greens. Eating greens makes us grow strong and beautiful (that's what I always tell them 😄😉).

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You are telling them the right thing! I find Malaysia to have healthy food, but also I have to watch it a bit with some stuff being empty calories. At my Indian restaurant I go to often, then always expect me to get the veggies and then pile them on. I love this!

Empty calories?

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Eat real foods. Mostly plants. ~Michael Pollan

Those greens look amazing. I had not thought of washing in baking soda and vinegar, but it would be really good at releasing microscopic dirt from the surface. Will have to try it.

You will be shocked. Take photos and do a post lol. Citrus fruit is also astoundingly dirty. Thank you so much for coming by and the vote :)

I have really good luck with greens ever since I started eating them. The word superfood is a weird one, but it fits here.

I really need to add greens to my meals, I used to eat 90% home cooked meals but now that the kids are grown, I find myself eating way too much processed food just because it's easy.

Something I heard today from a guy that speaks to kids about nutrition, was along the lines of If God (or mother nature) made it? Eat it. If man made it? Leave it.

Such a simple concept but one we often forget. I'll check out that recipe too and let you know if I get around to trying it.

I'm with your guy @alphaccino.art! The chemical nightmare is so much worse than we think until we actually look. This is why I tell people to just stop eating them and don't worry about which one is better or worse than the other. God is good and he has our back!

I find myself eating way too much processed food just because it's easy.

Trust me - I know. Healthy food is cheaper but takes more effort. This is why I want people to start slow and work everything into their lives. Not go crazy and crash and burn. If you do this with a few changes each month for a few months, you will look back and be amazed. And some things I have coming ARE actually easy.

I just now posted an update to this post, showing you some ideas of how to eat greens based on my SE Asia experience. Please take a look at that and ask me any questions. I have so much material about this and want to help.

Thank you so much for chiming in :)

Yes, he certainly made sense to me and it's so simple that it just goes to show how far removed we have become to natural food. Thanks for your reply, I can't wait to try some of your recipes.

It feels weird for me @fitinfunfood but I think for many their story might be actually similar I never really liked greens you see when I was a kid nothing made me change my mind even regardless of the tricks parents would use like "if you eat carrots you will see really well in the dark" etc, now being older I love greens and honestly thought it was normal for this change in attitude but it seems so many people I know still wont eat greens. What changed my mind? It was myself really, as I got older I started to put on so much weight when I looked at older picture's I could see the difference, so I tried to change my diet and eat more greens, at first forcefully, but you know what? After a while I discovered I actually really like the taste of greens.

I so agree. If you are like that, try the ones you have never tried one by one over time. They all have slightly different benefits and taste and it will give good variety.

The reason you are stating is why I am surprised by the response to this post. In the past, greens posts have died a quick death. This is the reason I put a contest on it.

"I won't eat anything green" is a common sentence in weight loss coaching work.

Based on the success here, I posted another greens post up top on my blog. If you want to look you might get some ideas and I would love to know your tricks.

That change in taste happened for me too and now I miss them if I don't have them. We are lucky!

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Thanks for the inspiring post! This makes me want to go home and eat some greens! I did not know about washing with baking soda or vinegar, but that sounds like a good way of getting all of the pesticides and dirt off the of the produce. Might have to give that a try next time! Cheers

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I'd never heard of washing with baking soda/vinegar either @jeffjagoe but will also be trying it now, thanks for the tip @fitinfunfood

I was just talking to my Dad about this
I don't how true this is as it's just a trusted source who told me this about her family
They are from Cameron Highlands where a lot of our vegetables come from and her father has a vegetable far and she grew up helping her Dad.
So anyways, apparently the father will not eat vegetables because he knows the kind of pesticides that's used....
Really scary thought....
So now either grow my own vegetables but the only one that's growing are the mustard leaves or soak them good before eating ....
And now that you mention it, yes we do consume a lot of greens and I love my greens :D

To us it is normal to eat greens. Vegetables and herbs. I know the first time I went to Germany, the biggest part of food they ate is meat. I saw it in many dishes.
With us it is vegetables, next potatoes and after that meat.

I know by now the food habits of many are changed. Fast food restaurants or a homemade pizza (a frozen one), a lot of pasta and Chinese-Indonesian food (our Chinese restaurants are a mix out both cultures. Dutch people eat a lot of Indonesian food). Actually we eat from all kind of cultures except our own (or what is left over of it).

The government is trying to promote to eat more vegetables and fruit again and at the same time rising the tax on it.
At some schools (EU project) they have days the kids get an apple (cheapest fruit there is).

It is not that we do not like to eat vegetables and fruit, but more and more people live in poverty and it is expensive. Kind of weird since Holland is a country of fruit (apples, pears, plums, cherries) and vegetables.

Since we have very less to spend we hardly eat meat, milkproducts and our main food is vegetables, legumes (we love it) and herbs (at our food, but also in soup).
By now I only buy fruit for my children (but not daily) and once in a while yoghurt and cheese.
If you take a quick look at the shopping car you can see exactly the financial state of people. Before we ate 2 different kinds of vegetables, now we eat just one.

I could eat vegetables non stop, only my youngest does not really like it, she only ate pancakes and French fries after I stopped the breastfeeding. It is the most healthy, slim and tallest kid I have

Wow! I did not know your economy was so bad over there. Do you have farmers markets where things might be cheaper?

There are rich people and more and more poor people and the poverty is increasing by taxes and all kind of things the EU makes us paying for.
For example this year our already high powerbill will increase with about 340 euro because Belgium has a lack of it (it does not make sense to me). It already been raised in the past year with 190 euro.

About 10 years ago there was only 1 foodbank, now nearly each place has one, but they are not able to serve all people who need it. Before they got food from the supermarkets etc, but now they hardly get. The supermarkets try to sell now what is close or over the date with the price reduced. In the past 6-7 years I see more and more empty spots in the shops as well. Not because they have a delivery problem but simply to force people to buy the A brands instead.

There are more and more give away stores which means if it comes to clothes, book, small stuff for your home you can take it if it suits you. The second hand shops are so extremely expensive were I live, that you can better by it brand new.

Where I live is a very small market but prices are higher as in the shop. What you find there are not really products sold by farmers but by shops, or I should say... they do not have the building only stay at markets.
Perhaps these market were cheaper as I was still a kid?
I am a single mom and my income is minimum for a single person, not a single mom, plus I am cut because one child is an adult and lives with me. The fact the child is jobless makes it harder since it is not able to give me the amount I get less. Well we will see how this year will ends for us.

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Thank you so much for sharing this! I remember my older brother he couldn't eat a meal without vegetables, he always craves for it. I still need to be influenced to become like him haha. But thank you so much for sharing us all this information! Have a great day!

Where I come from in South Eastern Nigeria, eating greens (vegetables) is almost a compulsory thing because almost all our diets are made up of greens. We have a lot of variety of vegetables that are use to make different soups and the soups are usually named after the vegetable the were made with. For Instance we have:
Ugu soup made from Ugu leaves.
Uha Soup made from Uha leaves.
Bitterleaf Soup made from bitterleaves (it is also medicinal).
Ukazi Soup made from Ukazi leaves.
Waterleaf Soup made from water leaves.
Okro Soup made from Okro with Ugu leaves to add more swag to it.
Ugbogoro Soup made from Ugbogoro leaves.

There are just so many of them in the village that we don't see so much in the city. But I tell you, it hard to see a typical South Eastern Nigeria family go a day without eating greens.

Another thing we do is we like combining greens in soup to give it another taste so that it doesn't become boring eating a set of soup for a long time. So you can have a soup that is made with two or 3 different greens.

One more thing is this, we like adding greens to some starchy food we it like rice, yam, plantain and others, this is to help us digest it very well and also eating them alone without greens make them appear to us as not balanced.

These are some of the things our great great grand parents did and handed it to us from generation to generation and we do the same to our kids so we hope they'll do the same to their kids too.

We already start practicing these eating habits at home even before going to school and understanding what balance diet or classes of foods are all about.

Sometimes I wonder how our great great grand parents knew about the importance of greens even without the colonial masters teaching the such.

I enjoyed reading your post and responding to it has just got me feeling very hungry. Lol.

Me too! I want that soup! Thank you so much for this wonderful information.

I think our elders knew a lot and it has sadly been lost. I am glad you are passing down what you know. The people in the us have such poor habits compared to what you describe here.

I have the same thing with starchy food now - it needs the greens for me to feel it is complete.

Are you able to get back home for good food often?

I sure did and guess what? I had Plantain + Vegetable (Ugu) + Grilled Fish. My wife must have thought I needed such good meal after helping her with the shopping. Lol. Thanks for posting about Greens.

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