What’s love got to do with cinnamon?

Who doesn’t love the taste of cinnamon? Nature got it right with this superfood and it has a long-standing reputation for its many health benefits.

Cinnamon is a spice made from the the inner bark of the cinnamon trees. When the bark dries, it forms into rolls widely recognized as cinnamon sticks.

There are two main types of Cinnamon:

Cylon cinnamon: “true” cinnamon, and a little more expensive
Cassia cinnamon: More commonly used as a spice and much cheaper

The unique properties of cinnamon mainly come from its essential oils and compounds, particularly cinnamaldehyde. Cinnamon is loaded with antioxidants such as polyphenols, and outranks other “superfoods” like garlic and oregano. Cinnamon can even be used as a natural food preservative.

1. Cinnamon can help lower your blood sugar

If you are insulin resistant, cinnamon can help to lower your blood sugar level by decreasing the amount of glucose in your bloodstream after you eat. Cinnamon also supports several digestive enzymes, and slows the breakdown of carbohydrates in your digestive tract. A a water-soluble polyphenol compound in cinnamon known as MHCP, actually mimics insulin. That means the glucose uptake in your cells is slower than insulin, which is a good thing.

Adding 1/2-2 TSP of cinnamon a day can help make noticeable changes in your blood sugar levels.

2. Cinnamon helps fight inflamation

The body uses inflammation to protect itself agains infection, illness and injury. However, chronic inflammation can lead to long-term damage and various diseases. There is scientific evidence that cinnamon, as well as other spices, can help fight inflammatory properties.

It’s important to note that while the powerful antioxidants in cinnamon can help as an anti-inflammatory, nothing is more powerful than eating a healthy diet, avoiding processed sugar and getting daily exercise. Check out my #sevenhealthhacks to learn how to incorporate small, manageable daily habits that will help get you on track.

3. Cinnamon May help reduce your risk of hearth disease

Bad “LDL” cholesterol, high blood pressure, and triglycerides are common factors of heart disease. A study by the American Heart Association (AHA) reported “45.4% of US deaths caused by heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) (cardiometabolic mortality) in 2012 were attributable to poor dietary habits.”

Another study conducted in 2013 found significant improvement in the levels of these factors on subjects taking cinnamon doses of 120 mg/d to 6 g/d for 4 to 18 weeks :

• Reduced the levels of glucose;

• Reduced the levels of total cholesterol, including bad “LDL” cholesterol;

• Increased good “HDC” cholesterol levels; and

• decreased triglycerides levels

4. Cinnamon may help protect against cancer

Cinnamaldehyde, the compound that gives cinnamon its distinctive flavor and smell, helps protect against exposure to the substance that causes cancer by removing it and helping to repair the cell. A study conducted on mice in 2015 concluded that adding cinnamaldehydeto their diet protected the mice against colorectal cancer.

The extensive uses of cinnamon in everyday consumption makes it an easy way to help arm your body against deadly cancer cells and possibly reduce your risk of developing the disease.

5.Cinnamon helps fight agains fungis and baceria

Cinnamon has been shown to effectively fight fungi in respiratory tract infections and slow the growth of certain bacteria such as Listeria and Salmonella. Studies have also shown that the essential oil from cinnamon can kill oral bacteria, including germs responsible for bad breath. Chewing a stick of cinnamon gum infused with the essential oil of cinnamon will help kill the microbes.

Falling for Cinnamon

Cinnamon is a spice that has been used for thousands of years and has been proven to provide a wide array of health benefits from lowering blood sugar levels to helping to fight cancer cells to keeping your breath fresh. Incorporating just 1/2-1 TSP of cinnamon to your daily diet can prove to result in amazing health benefits.

At LeJuicery we incorporate cinnamon into many of our eats and drinks daily. Check out our menu and try anyone of our amazing smoothies, juices, buddha bowls, and oatmeal dishes.

Many studies have powerful scientific evidence that an apple a day really does keep the doctor away!

Because nature created the apple with more than 10,000 different nutrients, they make the saying “An apple a day keeps the doctor away” pretty accurate. Studies from Cornell University and UCLA suggest that Apples seem particularly good at fending off various diseases, including cardiovascular disease and cancer. 

“To protect yourself against cardiovascular disease and several forms of cancer, it’s important to include at least seven servings – and preferably more – of fruits and vegetables in your diet every day, but if there’s one particular type of fruit you want to make sure you eat every day, it’s an apple,” said Dr. James Barnard, UCLA professor and researcher to Pritikin. 

Apples are extremely high in antioxidants, flavonoids, polyphenols, and fibers, which all contribute to a better overall health. They can improve your heart health because of the many soluble fibers, which help support your blood cholesterol level. Antioxidants help boost your immune system, and the fibers act like a prebiotic to help improve your gut health.

Try to eat only organically grown apples

Apples are fruits you should only eat if they are organic or organically grown because you can’t wash off the pesticides used in conventional orchards. Ingesting these pesticides, are known to cause hormone disruption and inflammation in your body.

Fresh organic apples is a great treat for the kid's lunch boxes, and as a fresh ingredient in a Fall salad. If you cut the apples, you can avoid them from turning brown by adding a little lemon juice to them.

Add almonds to offset the natural sugar in apples

As you might know, fruit contains natural sugar! I always recommend eating 5-10 almonds together with the apple. Adding this good fat to your food will help ensure your blood sugar doesn't spike. The fat in the almonds helps to slowly release the sugar from the fruit into your bloodstream

Fall in the perfect season for apples

Now is the perfect time of year to add some apples to your diet. At LeJuicery MarketHouse Express we're "fall"ing into apples with our new Fall smoothie, Apple Cobbler, and Fall juices, Butterfly Kiss (spinach, pineapple, apple, cucumber, pineapple + sage); Kaleidoscope (carrot, beet, apple, ginger + acai); and Apple Harvest Cider (apple, orange, cinnamon, clove + hint of ginger). Check out our other eats and drinks here.

Looking for some more fun facts about apples? Download this PDF from the U.S. Apple Association. 

Like adults, it's crucial for kids to get the right nutrients!

From the minute they wake up they are extremely active, so we need to feed them with the right fiber, fats, and nutrients. A rule of thumb is: Offer your kids at least 1 - 2 serving of berries/fruit each day, 2 - 4 servings of vegetables, a good quality whole grain bread, try to avoid wheat though. Use a good quality meat mostly from free-range or grass-fed animals, and eliminate or at least limit soft drinks, all kinds! Remember if you don't introduce it to your kids, they don't get the craving!  Most importantly, eat most meals together as a family.  I usually don't recommend milk, but if you have to, use grass-fed full fat. Basically, dairy milk is for calves only! Best thing is to use plant-based milk instead.

Did you know that more than 12 million children in the US are obese? That’s one out of 6! Read the article here. Junk food and lack of exercise is the typical cause. These children have an increased risk of developing all the known lifestyle diseases such as diabetes, asthma, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol. The last two are also known risk factors for heart disease.
Furthermore, obese children are more likely to be bullied, which increases the risk of depression!

Is this really what we want for our kids just because we don’t have time to buy or prepare whole food for them?

I teach something I call #SevenHealthHacks. These hacks are meant to incorporate into your daily routine, to make the road to optimal health for you and your family a lot easier. The hacks are: FOOD,  SLEEP,  WATER,  EXERCISE,  FRESH AIR,  SILENCE, and GRATITUDE

FOOD

By eating whole food, and making better choices when you eat out, you’ll get so many benefits.  Not only weight wise, but also for the whole family.  Your kids will be able to sit still in school and actually learn much more. They will be happier and more active.

SLEEP

Let your kids sleep in a dark room, no light at all. Not even from an alarm clock or TV.
If they have electrical devices, have them turn it off at least 2 hours before bedtime.

WATER

Make a check-off chart on the fridge for every family member and have them check off every time they fill their water bottle. Set a goal with everyone on how much they should drink every day.

EXERCISE

Figure out what type of exercise your kids would love to do, and support them in getting it done every day! When possible, let them bike to school or when they visit a friend.
You don’t really do them a favor by driving them all the time! But make sure you teach them traffic safety.

In Denmark, we have a day at school every year where everybody brings their bikes. The police are there all day teaching us how to behave in traffic, what hand signals to use, along with checking if our bikes are safely equipped with lights, brakes etc. It’s a fun activity! Most kids ride their bike to school in Denmark if its less than 5 miles.

FRESH AIR

Make sure your kids are outside playing at least 30 minutes every day. If it rains, put on rain gear. If it snows, snow pants, warm jacket, hat, gloves and boots, and in summer, well then you really don’t need much!

American children (as well as adults for that matter) are so used to being at 68 to 70 degrees year round, that their bodies cannot adjust to different temperatures. Furthermore, all the air-conditioning weakens your immune system too! So, turn it off, and let your body work the way it is perfectly designed to.

SILENCE

Teach them to sit down and relax for 15-20 minutes every day. Either to some soft music or just in total silence.

GRATITUDE

This one I love! Have everyone sit down before bedtime and write down at least 5 things you are grateful for today.

Prepare the week, by making batches of fruit and veggies for lunch and snack, so it's easy to grab on the go. Find a great place like LeJuicery where you can get healthy foods and drinks for takeout. That way you provide your kids with whole food instead of junk. Processed and packaged kids' meals are often high in the wrong fat, calories, sugar, and salt. Chicken kabobs are always a hit among kids, fruit kabobs are also a fun way to help them choose healthy snacks.

For breakfast, you can prepare smoothie bags for the whole week. Grab a bag, add a plant milk and blend for 1- 2 minutes, and a healthy colorful breakfast is ready. Or, you can do Oatmeal in a jar if they like that. Get more inspiration here

If you just want it easy, just call us in advance (262) 842-5337 and place your order for a healthy breakfast, we've got you. Check out the menu here.

Having a healthy eating plan will help move your kids away from wanting to eat chicken nuggets and french fries at every meal. For water intake, let the kids help flavor their own bottles with the fruit or herbs they like.

As you and your kids learn to make healthy choices and begin eating better, you will experience fewer outbursts from the kids, or yourself for that matter! The result is, everything gets a lot easier, and before you know it, making healthy choices will become your new normal.

Ginger is another one of the extremely powerful roots we have and is mostly considered as a spice. It has been used for thousands of years both for culinary and medicinal purpose.

These days, Ginger is extremely popular in all types of dishes, juices, smoothies, and single shots. You can use ginger fresh, dried or as an extract. I use a lot of fresh ginger, both for cooking but also in my smoothies. It adds a great flavor to any meat, casserole or dressing.

HERE IS A RECIPE FOR THE BASE MIX I USE IN MY OWN CHICKEN AND FISH CASSEROLES: 

Ginger Root Casserole Base

• 1-2 inch grated fresh ginger
• 3-4 cloves of garlic
• 1/2 diced red onion
• a pinch of chili flakes
• 1 tbsp of coconut oil

Heat up the coconut oil in a skillet. Add all ingredients and stir until golden. Add the meat to the skillet and cook till it’s done, or add the mix on top of the fish. Click here for the full recipe. 

HOW CAN GINGER BENEFIT MY HEALTH?

For medicinal use, you can get Ginger as tea, dried powder in capsules, or as an extract in small bottles. 

Ginger contains hundreds of compounds and metabolites, which all benefits your overall health Some of the known health benefits of Ginger is inflammation, digestion, pain, and nausea.

Talking about nausea, I usually recommend Ginger for pregnant women with morning sickness, or if have a tendency for motion sickness, where it seems to have an excellent effect. Because of the phenolic compounds in Ginger, it’s known to stimulate your saliva and bile production, suppress gastric contractions and help relieve gastrointestinal irritation (GI) Ginger also supports some of the important enzymes in your digestive system, which suggests it could help prevent constipation and Colon Cancer.

During the winter time, Ginger tea is a good way to keep the body temperature up, as it is working to warm your body from within, which also helps keep the colds away. Because it is such a powerful anti-inflammatory root, it is used by many with arthritis for pain relief.  

However, Ginger doesn’t do it all alone. You need to change other areas of your lifestyle too. By adding more and more of these very health beneficial foods to your diet, along with incorporating more water, better sleep, fresh air, exercise, silence, and gratitude to your daily routine, you’ll be able to reverse most of the lifestyle diseases we know today.

At Le Juicery you can either get the single shot or enjoy one of the many foods or drinks which includes Ginger. Making better choices while eating out is crucial in order to maintain the healthier path while you are at home.

I love to share tips about Health and Wellness, and especially how we can improve our health with seven simple health hacks.
Food is one of them. 

You have probably heard about Superfood!
Superfood is simply food with a high amount of important nutrients such as vitamins, minerals, amino acids, enzymes and Chlorophyll. And what is more inviting that the pure fresh green color of a Wheat Grass shot.

Wheat Grass is a Superfood. It's an amazing source of vitamins and minerals, especially Vitamin A,C and E. But also Magnesium, Calcium, Iron and Amino acids. There is 21 Amino Acids, where off 9 is essential to your body. In Wheat Grass you find 17 of the 21 Amino Acids, and 8 of the 9 essential. Thats very powerful. By the way; essential means your body can't produce them, so you need them from foods.

Wheat Grass It is also very alkaline, which means that it contributes to a stabilization of your pH balance. Today most people have an acidic overload in their body, which is known to cause different negative issues. However the many Alkaline minerals in Wheat Grass, helps regulating the pH balance, so oxygen gets to your tissues faster, and the enzymes stays active. That helps some of the important functions in your body, such as absorb nutrients, repair tissue, detox waist and maintain your immune system. 

Another very powerful nutrient in Wheat Grass is Chlorophyll
Chlorophyll makes the green color, and it is also the power house of the plant. As a Superfood Wheat Grass contains more Chlorophyll than any other vegetable (about 7.5 times more than Broccoli). Chlorophyll  is known to help get more oxygen to the blood as well as increase the count of red blood cells. Other benefits can be increased energy, wellbeing and vitality. 
Wheat Grass juice is also used for detox, because it supports the liver with it's extreme high content of Chlorophyll, fibers and sulphates. known to help reduce fatigue

Having a shot of Wheat Grass on a regular basis, will be highly appreciated by your entire body.
We have more than 37 trillion cells in our body, and they all require different nutrients for optimal function. Read more about these little engines here
 

If you think the traditional red beets taste earthy, you’ll love these more sweet tasting Golden beets. The nutritional value is the same as the traditional red ones. You get a high source of fiber, they are an excellent detox source, cleansers for your blood and kidneys, and they are known to decrease the risk of heart diseases.

          The Golden Empire Juice

The Golden Empire juice contains a lot of golden beets, but also turmeric, (which is probably best known for giving its yellow color to curry!) The Curcumin from Tumeric is known to be very anti-inflammatory, and have a positive influence on your digestive health as well.

Next is Carrots, which a huge source of Vitamin A, Beta Carotene, which is very good for your eyes, and they contain a lot of fiber.

The twist of black pepper can help with your digestion, by increase the hydrochloric acid secretion which helps to break down protein and other foods in your stomach.

I have come to love this Golden Empire as one of my daily detox drinks. And because it brings sunshine and great nutrients to my body! It’s a must-have in my weekly “Six Pack”

Living Healthy is NOT a diet, it’s a Lifestyle. Start changing one thing, then another and another…..Once you get a hang of it, it’s not that difficult. Click here to learn about the back to basic lifestyle.

I'm so honored and excited to be working with LeJuicery, Kenosha Wi, as their Health & Wellness expert.

On Mondays, I'll be sharing the benefits of making healthier choices, and highlight one item from the menu every week.

We all live busy and sometimes stressful lives, with so many things to do once we get out of work. Often times making healthy choices is NOT one of them. Thats why it's so important to me, to spread the word and share with you, that there is in fact places like Le Juicery, with Healthy clean eats and drinks on the menu.

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H2O melon juice

Featured this week is H2O melon juice

The main ingredient in this juice is Watermelon, and it might come as a surprise, that besides being a really good source of hydration in the summer heat, it's actually a bomb of amazing nutrients.

Lycopene is a phytonutrient and definitely on the top of the list. Besides providing the red color, Lycopene is one of the most powerful antioxidants in the world. It helps neutralize oxidative stress, and reduce the risk of some cancer types, especially prostate cancer. It is also a really good phytonutrient to help improve your heart health, eye health, bone health, and your brain. Vitamin C is another huge antioxidant you find in watermelon. Most people knows, that Vitamin C is known to strengthen our immune system, but what you probably don't know is, that it is an essential component of our connective tissue, which is vital for our wound healing. Together with Lycopene, it also fights oxidative stress, and in some countries it is used to fight cancer.

Other than these to powerful antioxidants, you also find Vitamin A, Magnesium, Vitamin B6, and Iron.
Last but not least, it a great source of fibers, which we need to keep our digestive system healthy.

Besides the powerful watermelon you'll find apple, strawberry, lime and sea salt in the H2O melon juice.