Author avisha Categories Blog, Cancer Coaching, Food & Nutrition Posted on 0 Comments

Eating Certain Nuts may Fight Cancer

Nuts as a whole offer a good source of essential fatty acids, protein and fiber as well as vitamins and minerals. Unless allergies are a concern, they are always a component of my dietary recommendations.

Nature has provided nuts, as well as seeds and legumes, with defense mechanisms intended to allow them to grow until maturity. Enzyme inhibitors and phytic acids are 2 such mechanisms that can strain digestion and cause malabsorption of nutrients. Soaking nuts, as well as seeds and legumes allows for the breakdown of the phytic acids as well as encouraging the production of beneficial enzymes thus rendering them much more bioavailable to us.

The process is an easy one. Cover nuts with good quality water and let sit, covered for 12-24 hours. After elapsed time, rinse nuts well and they are ready to be consumed or used in recipes. You can also dehydrate them to remove the added moisture.

As a disease targeting food, specific types of nuts appear to offer nutrient profiles more beneficial for impeding cancer growth than their common counterparts. In the video  that I have posted here, courtesy of NutritionFacts.org, Michael McGregor M.D. (@nutrition_facts) provides research that indicates that the stars in the nut family for fighting cancer are walnuts and pecans.

#nuts #cancer #nutrition

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Author avisha Categories Lifestyle Posted on 0 Comments

Tips for Keeping Your Immune System Humming During the Holidays

Holiday season is in full swing.  Planning, purchasing, partying.  It’s the one time of year to forget all the rules and just enjoy.  And I am all in for that.  I really am.

So I am not going to harp on the fact that things like stress, lack of sleep, shortened daylight hours and sugar can weaken your immune system leaving you vulnerable to things like colds and flus.   I am not.  There will not be a naughty list.

What I am going to do is write a nice list.  A few easy things that can help you to stay on your healthy track and carry you seamlessly in to 2016.

So here we go.

  • Write yourself lists.  Trying to remember all that you need to do, buy, pick up, drop off is stressful!  Lists are an easy way to take this aspect of stress out of your holiday season.
  • Before your party have a snack to curb your appetite.  A little bit of fullness goes a long way to avoiding the dessert tray.
  • Pass on the mixed drink and grab a glass of red wine.  Mixed drinks are full of sugar.  Red wine is fermented!
  • Drink water under the mistletoe.  Alcohol is dehydrating.  Water is not.  The Ying to the alcohol Yang.
  • Right hand nuts, left hand cookie tray (or vice versa if you are a lefty).  Nuts contain healthy fats, fiber and protein.  Most cookies do not.
  • Grab a plate.  Fill it up.  Move away.  Don’t graze around food table.
  • Stand while you talk.  Sitting too long slows everything down.
  • After a wonderful evening out, go home, shut down all your gizmos, turn off all the lights and get some sleep.  Quantity at this time of year may be wishful thinking so we are going for quality here.
  • When a new day begins, hydrate with water and take your vitamin D.  Our shortened days at this time of year severely impede our ability to get vitamin D naturally.  Vitamin D is essential for immunity.
  • Then recharge with a healthy breakfast and look forward to another great day!

Wishing all of you a very Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and health and happiness in 2016!

Author avisha Categories Blog Posted on 0 Comments

It’s that Chestnut time of year!

Ah the smell of roasted chestnuts! It’s a tradition that awakens the Christmas senses. Chestnuts are not like most of their tree nut counterparts. Most nuts are low in carbohydrates and higher in protein and fats. These little morsel packets however are higher in complex carbohydrates then their tree nut relatives. They contain approximately 45 grams per 3-ounce serving, which equates to about 3 chestnuts.

Chestnuts contain both soluble and insoluble fiber making them a nice addition for gut health. They contain the minerals manganese, potassium, copper, phosphorus, magnesium and iron. Looking at their vitamin content, it’s mainly vitamin C, but they also contain vitamin B6, thiamin, folate, and riboflavin.

The process of roasting the chestnut is to release the sugar content thereby sweetening its flavour.

Roasted Chestnuts

  • Preheat your oven to 425F/220C.
  • Start by wiping the chestnuts off with a damp towel. Then on a cutting board, with the flat side of the nut down, cut an X in to the chestnut. This will allow the steam to escape.
  • Place the cut chestnuts in the oven on a baking tray and allow to cook for approximately 30 minutes.
  • You will be able to tell that they are done when the shell pops open and the chestnut is a nice golden brown colour.

Put a bowlful in the middle of your table allowing everyone to smack and peel their own. It’s a big part of the pleasure of eating them!

 

Keith
Author avisha Categories Reflection Posted on 0 Comments

A Labour of Love

By and large starting anything new goes hand in hand with a steep learning curve. Such has been the case for me venturing into a new business. Trying to get a grip on social media, business plans and all things entrepreneurial quickly brought me to the understanding that I desperately needed help from someone who knew what they were doing. In fact it became crystal clear after a 4-hour struggle to put together a Facebook cover page that fit in to the Facebook parameters.

My blog today is a bittersweet introduction of a very long labour of love, my website cathybiase.com.

I began this project almost one year ago with my brother-in-law. We bantered back and forth often. He pulled me in when my ideas were off the mark, taught me the ins and outs of what good websites should be, and gently pushed me to delve deeper in to my true motivations for what I really wanted to do and whom I wanted to reach. And he spent hours learning a new program because I saw a format that I liked. He was my go to.

As many of you know we lost Keith this past September 2015 to cancer. He never got to finish what he started but his influence remains throughout my site. And I think he would approve of the job Connie Tseng @ctseng86 did in producing the final project. She stepped in seamlessly and completed the vision directing the show and taking care of the layers of a website that I didn’t know existed. I am grateful to her and am blessed to have her in my corner.

So I invite you to visit my website https://www.cathybiase.com.  As well as giving you an insight of who I am and what I do, I hope it can become a launch pad for interaction and a place to meet once and a while for informative posts and passing thoughts.

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fundraising event
Author avisha Categories Media Posted on 0 Comments

Fundraising Speaking Engagement

Last night I had the privilege of speaking at a fundraiser in honour of a young man in need of a bone marrow transplant. Dhaya Cancer Wellness + Research Institute has been an important part of his journey and his family wanted all of their guests to be introduced to our clinic.

Dhaya is an integrative clinic offering adjuvant therapies to cancer protocols. Our clinic provides evidence based care and offers modalities such as acupuncture, nutrition, physiotherapy and IV vitamin C, to name a few. We are actively pursuing botanical research focusing on adjunctive oncology supportive treatments.

I felt very honoured to be amongst such wonderful people who, in one way or another, have helped this young man and although I was only a small part of the event, being there served to remind me how powerful the love of family and friends can be in achieving any of our goals.

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