SWIHA Blog

When we cook and enjoy eating real whole foods we have the opportunity to create a wide variety of tasty, beautiful, colorful, local, in-season dishes.

• Cook with variety. You can cook the same foods different ways – raw, steamed, roasted, blended - and enjoy very different, delicious meals.
• Eat with the Season. When we eat real whole foods, we have the opportunity to eat in tune with what’s in season, and enjoy the food that nature naturally creates for us in the geographic area where we live.
• Eat with Color. By incorporating whole foods into our life, we easily enjoy the infamous "rainbow of fruits & veggies" that we hear about so often, getting a variety of nutrients and phytonutrients (natural plant chemicals).

Eat Local. Shop at a Farmers’ Market. Buy a CSA. Enjoy a Simple Roasted Roots Recipe

In Arizona where the Southwest Institute of Healing Art (SWIHA) campus is located and where I live, many of the local farmers’ markets will be re-opening for the season after our “dry heat, hot summer”. Fortunately, we do have a few farmers whose produce is available during the summer, so I’ve been having fun shopping from a few farmers for our Whole Foods Cooking Classes at SWIHA this summer.

4 Great Reasons to Eat Local

• Locally grown produce is fresher, tastes better and lasts longer.. Most produce in conventional grocer stores is picked well before it's ready to be picked. Some of the methods used to ripen the food in warehouses and in trucks include methane gas. Food that is allowed to ripen on the vine absorbs many of the flavors and nutrients they are intended to. Local produce shortens the path traditionally traveled from farm to table and the result is better tasting more nutrient dense food.

Plus tasty recipes: Experience Nutrition™ Vegan Chocolate Avocado Pudding & Chocolate Sweet Potato Brownie

What do Sweet Potatoes, Bird Seed, Grass Seed, Dark Chocolate & Avocados have in Common? Healthy Dessert Night at Whole Foods Cooking Class!!!

Within the Whole Foods Cooking Class at the Southwest Institute of Healing Arts we really enjoyed “Healthy Dessert Night” creating delicious whole foods gluten-free and dairy-free desserts with special unique ingredients. The students passionately and creatively cooked desserts including Vegan Chocolate Avocado Pudding, Millet Cake, Chocolate Sweet Potato Brownies, Agar Agar Gelatin, Vegan Chocolate Cream Pie and a Spicy Apple Crisp.

Top 5 Ways to Create Tasty Healthy Desserts with Unique Ingredients

Plus an easy recipe: Experience Nutrition™ Roots & Greens Stir-fry

What Does a ‘Vegetarian Diet’ Look Like?

Last week we focused on the ‘Vegan Way of Eating’ a Whole Foods Diet, this week, it’s ‘Vegetarian’. Vegetarians primarily eat fresh produce, grains, legumes, and nuts and seeds. Vegetarians, for the most part, do not eat meat, fish or poultry, but however may consume dairy and eggs. They enjoy their food both cooked and raw.

33% of Americans Eat Vegetarian Meals

According to a 2011 study conducted for The Vegetarian Resource Group by Harris Interactive®, seventeen percent of Americans indicated that they “don’t eat meat, fish, seafood, fish or poultry at many of their meals (but less than half the time)” and sixteen percent don’t eat these foods at more than half their meals. Thus, one-third of Americans are eating vegetarian meals a significant amount of time.

Plus an easy recipe: Experience Nutrition™ Avocado Salsa Recipe

Let’s take a Look at the 'Vegan Way' of Whole Foods Eating

Several different dietary theories may be considered as whole foods, including vegan, vegetarian, raw and Paleo. While each of these dietary theories is different, they are all based on eating real non-processed whole foods, which are close to their natural state. Today we will take a look at the 'Vegan Way' of Eating.

What does vegan look like?

A vegan diet consists of eating only plant-derived foods. Vegans do not consume or use any animals (land or sea) or animal products, dairy, milk, eggs, or honey. Vegans eat fresh produce, grains, legumes, nuts and seeds.

2.5% of the US is vegan

A 2008 national survey conducted by The Vegetarian Resource Group found that 2.5% of the US say they never eat meat, fish, seafood, poultry, dairy or eggs which means they are vegan. And, the vegan trend is growing.

Plus an easy recipe: Bamboo Steamer Carrots with Cumin & Walnut Oil

We often hear the term whole foods or whole food cooking, yet do we really know what the terms mean?

The ‘Whole Food’ way of eating is enjoying as many “whole foods” as possible – that is, eating foods as close to their natural form as possible, with very minimal processing. This is the way people were eating a hundred years ago prior to the age of fast food restaurants, manufactured processed foods, convenience foods. It was when people actually spent time in their kitchen cooking, and less time eating out or eating on the run.

Simply, Whole Foods Cooking uses S.O.U.L. Foods: Seasonal. Organic. Unprocessed. Local.

Many health experts believe eating more whole foods improves health and helps prevent disease. Whole foods – like vegetables, fruits, whole grains, nuts, and legumes – retain their fiber and beneficial phytochemicals and nutrients that are often removed in processed foods.

Eating organic, whole foods, and shopping at farmers’ markets, CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture) and food co-ops is something many people have had to re-learn. Our intention with the Whole Food/ S.O.U.L Food Wednesday BLOG is to get you as excited about cooking and eating real whole foods as we are.