Friday Feature: Vegetarian Calcium Sources

Posted on June 22, 2012 by Rhonda J. Smith

When we eliminate something out of our lives, be it a habit, a person or a friend, we sometimes substitute what’s missing with something unhealthy. We may pick up another bad habit, a toxic friend or a harmful food. This happens with the vegetarian and the vegan when they are trying to ensure getting enough protein and calcium. To get protein and calcium, vegetarians tend to eat too many eggs for protein and too much cheese for calcium, both causing high cholesterol. And vegans, who don’t consume any meat products or byproducts, tend to lack protein and calcium and have problems with weak bones and teeth. Over the last two weeks, I shared posts giving you vegetarian sources of iodine and protein. Today I give you vegetarian sources for calcium, which mostly come from leafy green vegetables. Some of the best foods include the following:

• Collard greens
• Cabbage
• Turnip greens
• Beet greens
• Kale
• Spinach
• Broccoli (Flowers, stems and leaves; they actually come with a lot of greens if you pick them at a broccoli patch.)
• Snow peas
• Beans

Consuming calcium does your body no good if the calcium can’t get to your bones. Make sure to get other essential nutrients, such as magnesium, to help with this process.

Contemplating Sickness & Suicide

Posted on June 18, 2012 by Rhonda J. Smith

When you come to dark corners and they’re the end in your mind, do you make the end complete by bowing out of projects or consider bowing out of life? I’ve done both when the mantle of strong black womanhood was just too much, when other people’s demands let me know I had not enough to handle what was expected of me.

Erica Kennedy

I’m reflecting on that space today after I learned of the death of a sister-writer, Erica Kennedy, 42, a woman I never met, can’t say I ever read her words, but her life and now her death have impacted me. Her cause of death is not known publicly though various writings intimate suicide, brought on perhaps by depression or mental illness. I’m sad that Erica didn’t have what she needed, be it friends to talk to or medicine to take or something else, to help her cope in this life. Though another precious life is gone, I thank God that Erica’s death has sparked conversation about black women and depression and suicide. And for Christian women, we have the possibility to discuss more freely and without condemnation our struggles and that we need to go deep with Jesus so He leads us to our proper healing (which may include doctors and medicine). And we must always share our eternal hope in Jesus so others may receive salvation on this side of life and forever be with Him after death.

My One Thousand Gifts List

#621-630
The sun shining on my face
The pool of water making waves in the parking lot
Being led to join the A Holy Experience Gratitude Community
Meeting a white mom of an adopted black girl seeking me for guidance
Making great headway with laundry
Eating fruit in the bed with Nate and Justus
Justus and Nate attacking me with love
The boys loving going to the playground
Nate asking me to push him high in the swing while Josh swings himself high and Justus says “wee”
God protecting us at the name of Jesus from a car accident that seemed inevitable

Friday Feature: Vegetarian Iodine Sources

Posted on June 15, 2012 by Rhonda J. Smith

One of my friends just completed a raw food fast and another woman told me she is going to begin a raw food program next week. Experiencing myself the great results of more energy, losing weight, and being more clearheaded and spiritually attuned, I rejoiced for both of them. They both tapped into my knowledge and I was more than happy to help them begin and stay the course. So often people lung head-on into becoming a vegetarian or a vegan but are lacking essential knowledge that could be damaging to their bodies. Last week I told you a major problem for vegetarians is a lack of protein in their diet and gave you some non-soy vegetarian protein sources that I eat. A lack of protein isn’t the only issue that vegetarians tend to have. Additionally, we lack iodine (mostly obtained from meat and their products) and vegans lack calcium so many have weak bones. In an upcoming week, I’ll discuss vegetarian food options for calcium, but today I give you a list of vegetables high in iodine (I give descriptions for those that are not so common):

Kelp—a sea vegetable that tuna eat and gives tuna its distinct flavor
Dulse—a sea vegetable that is a red algae
Agar—a gel derived from red algae
Swiss chard—a leafy green vegetable
Summer Squash
Mustard Greens
Kale
Asparagus
Turnips
Spinach

God has given us everything we need for life and godliness, including to those on a largely plant-based diet (2 Peter 1:3). Check out some of these and get the iodine you need without having to add iodine enriched table salt to your food.

Eat With Divine Purpose

Posted on June 1, 2012 by Rhonda J. Smith

Sometimes we just don’t seem to have time to think about what we eat. In a rush we get a donut from the snack shop for breakfast; we didn’t have time to make our lunch so we grab fast food; and we forgot to take some meat out the freezer to unthaw to cook for dinner so we just pull together whatever we can. This has happened to most, if not all, of us at one time or another, but for some of us, this is our life. And our life shows it. We have an abundance of health problems, like high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes and irregularity, and accept them as the norm. These are not always normal and studies have shown that we can reverse, not just manage, these issues if we change the way we eat.

You know I’m a testament to changing my health from eating nutritionally. I had to get sick in order to seek good health. Some of you need to seek good health because you are sick, but others of you can prevent bad health if you are proactive now. As Christians, good health should be our goal as we seek to manifest the righteousness that God has already declared us to be in Jesus Christ. Our change comes with a renewed mind and then a renewed plan.

The plans of the diligent lead surely to plenty, (b)ut those of everyone who is hasty, surely to poverty(Proverbs 21:5-KJV).

To help you renew your mind, I urge you to meditate on that scripture. The writer tells us that if we have a plan and are diligent, we without a doubt will have what we need, in our case good health from what we eat. But when we are hasty, we will lack, in our case good health from what we eat. So as you meditate on this I want you to understand that there are areas concerning your health that you can control. Also, meditate on scriptures that charge us to be like Christ, such as “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5) and “Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth” (Colossians 3:2-NKJV). When we saturate our minds on favorable outcomes, we will automatically seek to manifest those outcomes (Luke 6:45).

After our minds have been renewed we can develop a plan that we are more likely than not able to stick with:

Have healthy eating goals in mind. We can only reach goals if we know what they are. Setting a few goals at a time prevents us from being overwhelmed, which often leads to defeat.

Create a grocery list that reflects goals. Always create a list BEFORE going to the store and stick with it. Make sure to eat before going to lessen the chance of unhealthy foods getting into your basket.

Develop a meal plan. Ideally, this is done before creating a grocery list so the list reflects the meal plan. Having a meal plan helps us not to over-shop and, thus, overspend.

Plan time to prepare meals. Just like we know how much time it takes for us to shower and get dressed, we must know how much time it takes to prepare our meals. Knowing this allows us to carve out time to prepare and cook. We can eliminate another activity, like that extra few minutes of sleep or a TV program, and use the time to fix a healthy meal.

Plot out healthy restaurants in the area. Sometimes the schedule may be too tight to prepare a healthy meal so we have to go to a restaurant. Knowing the locations near wherever we will be of restaurants that serve healthy meal options will help us not to deviate far from our goals.

With a renewed mind and a renewed plan, we are able to eat with a divine purpose in mind: to be the best we can be so we can give our best to and for the very best, our Lord Jesus Christ. Let’s eat with a divine purpose in mind so we can do our part to develop the Kingdom of God.