Healthy eating has always been an interest of mine. I have sought out healthy foods and enjoyed them. But it wasn't until I ran into some heath issues that I started diving into what foods are truly healthy and why. Our food industry has changed from local farms where it would feed neighborhood or towns to world wide mass food production that would feed, well, the world basically. This has led to unhealthy food disguised as healthy. So many additives and sugars are put into our food to preserve it, and its making us sick. So, I started to take charge of my own health with the goal to give my body the nutrients it needs to function properly.
I recently read a book called "Eat to Beat Disease" by William W. Li, MD. He discusses five defenses your body is equipped with to fight disease. The amazing thing is that all five defenses are influenced by the food we eat. The five natural defense systems are angiogenesis (where your body makes new blood vessels for healing), regeneration (the stem cell production to repair a broken organ), microbiome (the community of bacteria that controls the chemical reactions our body responds to), DNA protection (the make up of our body and how it works to make our body function properly), and immunity (the 3 cell types of T-cells, B-cells, and Tregg cells and how they must be balanced to function properly). In referring to these 5 defense systems, Dr. William Li says:
"There is no "silver bullet" for any one disease or for overall health and longevity. No single factor in our life is going to prevent sickness. But my research shows we have something even better. There is a way to boost our own defense systems, so the body will heal itself. These revelations tell us that we have radically underestimated our power to transform and restore our own health."
This "way" that he talks about is food. By eating a clean, balanced diet, in addition to physical exercise, reducing our stress levels, and good medical care we can help our bodies protect themselves and even heal from diseases.
In my quest to become healthier, I have searched for recipes that incorporates a plant based diet with a few good meats and of course good old fashion plain yogurt. In doing that, I have found a recipe for oatmeal apple muffins that I modified to make my own. They have amazing healthy benefits with oatmeal, apples, cloves, honey, flax and chia seeds, and coconut products. When I ate one, I was in heaven. It proves that clean food is so much more tasty, enjoyable, and satisfying than anything you can buy already made from a factory.
Don't believe me? Try it yourself.
Oatmeal Apple Muffins
Makes 6 large or 12 regular muffins3 cups oatmeal
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt (use sea salt or pink Himalayan salt for better health benefits)
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cloves
2 TBSP chia seeds
3 TBSP ground flax seed
1 cup unsweetened apple sauce
1/3 cup full fat coconut milk
1/3 cup extra virgin coconut oil
1/4 cup raw honey
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place two cups of oatmeal in a blender. Blend until it turns into a flour. Place oat flour and 1 cup oatmeal in a large bowl. Mix in baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cloves, chia and flax seeds until well blended. Add apple sauce, honey, and the coconut milk and oil then mix. Mixture will be wet. Do not over mix. In a muffin tin with either muffin cups or is greased with coconut oil, place mixture in each cup. Place in oven to bake for 25 minutes. Muffins will be done when toothpick inserted comes out clean. Remove from oven and transfer muffins to wire rack to cool.
I like to top them with a bit of honey.
