Maria Emmerich - The Art of Healthy Eating: Grain Free Low Carb Reinvented: Slow Cooker

The Art of Healthy Eating

grain free low carb reinvented

SLOW COOKER

The Art of Healthy Eating: Slow Cooker

Copyright 2013 by Maria Emmerich

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission of the author.

ISBN 978-0-9885124-5-0 (PRINT)

Published by Maria and Craig Emmerich, printed by Thomson Shore.

The Art of Healthy Eating

grain free low carb reinvented

SLOW COOKER

Maria Emmerich

Thank You

I want to dedicate this book to you, yes you. It is because of you and your support that has made this all possible. About 4 months after we adopted our baby boys, my husband, Craig, lost his job. We kept this secret for awhile... it was such a scary time for us and Craig didnt want to feel like he was failing his family. But thanks to all of you, my boys have the best stay-at-home dad EVER! It is because of all of your support with purchasing my books and pantry items from my astore that helps keep us going.

I once heard someone say, If you want to hear God laugh, tell him what you have planned! That statement couldnt have been more true for the past few years of my life. I was totally a planner, and the more I tried to control how things happened, the more frustrated I got. All of the trials I have gone through helped push me in the right direction to my nutrition business.

Thank you... thank you .... thank you.... from Maria, Craig, Micah and Kai!

Thank you Jamie for the covers of all of my books! Thank you Rebecca for all your help and friendship. Thank you Mavis and Janet for helping with editing. Also, thanks to Jera Publishing for the layout and Thomson Shore for the printing.

Contents

BEVERAGES

BREAKFAST

SIDES

SOUPS

MAIN DISHES: AMERICAN

MAIN DISHES: ITALIAN

MAIN DISHES: ASIAN

MAIN DISHES: INDIAN

MAIN DISHES: MEXICAN

MAIN DISHES: OTHER

SWEETS

Introduction

I t is Monday morning and the whole family is running late. The bus is about to pick up the kids and they havent eaten anything yet. So you pour them a glass of no-sugar added all natural grape juice and toss a Pop-Tart their way. But they made it onto the bus and no one was late, WHEW! Thank goodness for pre-packaged food.

No time for breakfast meant no time to pack their lunch either, so your children ate school lunch that day; chicken nuggets, mashed potatoes, a bun, fruit cocktail and chocolate milk. After school programs and sports keep your kids at school until 4:30, so they grab a granola bar and Gatorade from their backpack to keep their energy up. Once all of the activities are over, mom is tired from driving all over the place, picking up the kids so she throws in frozen pizza with a side of garlic bread with some skim milk. Then a bowl of Lucky Charms for a bed-time snack (they are made with Whole Grains now). Does that sound like you?

Tuesday was a better day. Everyone had time for breakfast so the kids had Honey Nut Cheerios, Skim milk and a banana sliced on top. You packed a lunch of Lunch-ables, Goldfish crackers and a juice box. The after-school snack was yogurt covered raisins and Gatorade . You had time to make dinner so you made spaghetti with a side of garlic bread, salad with fat-free French dressing and skim milk for dinneroh, and fat-free frozen yogurt for dessert! You think you did better todaybut did you? This equals about 100 teaspoons or over 2 cups of sugar in your bloodstream. Do you know what a normal blood sugar level is? 1 cup? 2 cups? NO, 1 TEASPOON of sugar is a normal blood sugar! For adults, children, teens and babies. Blood sugar increases insulin and insulin is TOXIC to our bodies and cells.

Dr. Stephen Sondike, Program Director for NEW (Nutrition, Exercise and Weight Management) Kids Program at Childrens Hospital of Wisconsin, disagrees with the assertion that low-carb diets make kids sluggish. He says the opposite is true. Kids get tired when they eat a breakfast high in carbohydrates and their blood sugar drops at around 10:00 am. Sondike says that a breakfast consisting of a bagel and a glass of orange juiceboth high-carb itemscauses a temporary spike in blood sugar for a high-energy early morning, but results in a mid-morning crash that leaves bodies listless and craving sugar. When you eat more sugar, your body makes less sugar, so you need more sugar, Sondike explains. The candy and coke makers love it when people eat high-carb breakfasts because they need that fix around 10:00 am when their sugar drops.

Insulin and its counterbalancing hormone, glucagon, are in charge of controlling metabolism. The word insulin may immediately call up an association with diabetes, and this is totally valid. Controlling blood sugar is insulins most important job. Many people with heart disease, high cholesterol, diabetes, high blood pressure in their families have inherited a tendency for their insulin sensors on the cells to malfunction from years of high sugar and starch consumption. As these sensors become tired, insulin resistance develops. Since its essential to get the sugar out of the blood and into the cells, the pancreas overcompensates by making more and more insulin to force the tired sensors to work. This starts a detrimental cycle of needing ever more insulin to keep the process going. Some people become so resistant to insulin that the amount necessary to make the sensors respond and clear the sugar from the blood is more than their pancreas can make; that is when that person becomes diabetic.

Excess insulin causes a variety of other detrimental problems; it increases the production of cholesterol in the liver; thickens the walls of the arteries, causing high blood pressure; the kidneys retain salt and fluid; and it tells our fat cells to store excess starch and sugar.

Insulins actions are countered by glucagon. Glucagon alerts the liver to slow down triglyceride and cholesterol production, the kidneys to release excess salt and fluid, the artery wall to relax and lower blood pressure, and the fat cells to release stored fat to be burned for energy. But, insulin is stronger than glucagon so when it is high, it suppress glucagons actions. After a childhood of sugar and starch consumption, metabolic syndrome and insulin resistance happens. This is why what we feed our children is so important.

What we eat controls the production of these hormones. This book will teach you how to stimulate glucagon by keeping insulin low, which will allow the metabolism to heal and the malfunctioning sensors to regain sensitivity. Once this healing occurs, the metabolic disturbances that elevated insulin will improve or disappear; cholesterol and triglycerides return to normal, blood pressure returns to normal, blood sugar stabilizes and you can achieve a normal body weight. Theres no need to spend huge amounts of money on medications to put a band-aid over these problems. I have seen it time and time again; nutrition is key to a healthy body. You can pay the doctor or you can pay the farmer.

You wouldnt put diesel in a gasoline engine and expect it to runbut that is what Americans are guilty of doing to their bodies on a daily basis. We consistently fuel our bodies with processed, pre-packaged foods that evolutionary science has proven to make our bodies stop running efficiently; I was guilty of this also.

I grew up with a passion for sports as well as food; my body shape revealed my two loves. I was athletic yet fat. Weight loss was difficult until I found the right foods and ditched the fake foods, then it became easy. Fat and frustrated, I finally decided to throw out the government recommendations of more whole grains. I included more protein; especially for breakfastskim milk in your Cheerios doesnt count as a protein! After decades of being told by marketing geniuses that fat free was the way to lose weight, eating real fat was scary for me. Once I started adding fat to my diet, I slept deeper, felt calmer and better in that first week than I ever had.