Category: Health and Organics


Tummy-Loving Probiotic-Infused Butternut Pumpkin Pie Shake

Have you been craving all the flavors of fall? This smoothie is the answer to your prayers if you can’t stop thinking about pumpkin pie, but also want to have healthy digestion and a vibrant glow. Yep, you can have both. 

While this smoothie tastes a whole lot like pumpkin pie, it doesn’t actually contain any pumpkin at all. The stand-in? Butternut squash. By first roasting (or baking) the squash, then freezing it, you have a base for a thick, creamy, naturally sweet pumpkin-y shake. Toss it in a blender with a young Thai coconut, vanilla, and all the right pumpkin pie spices, and wham, you have a healthy plant based, vegan shake that tastes just as good as pie. 

This recipe is naturally rich with soluble fiber to help cleanse the GI tract and promote smooth digestion, and will nourish your skin with a solid dose of antioxidants beta carotene (from the squash) and vitamin E (from rice bran solubles, also known as tocotrienols). A full dose of organic, dairy-free probiotics delivers 20 billion CFU’s of gut-loving intestinal flora, as well as plant based prebiotics straight to your tummy for a solid boost to digestion and immunity. Pure, wholesome, plant-rich deliciousness.

Tummy-Loving Probiotic-Infused Butternut Pumpkin Pie Shake

The Recipe 

Probiotic Infused Butternut Pumpkin Pie Shake

Serves 1 

Ingredients

1 cup butternut squash cubes, roasted or baked, then frozen

1/2 cup coconut meat – scraped from young Thai coconut

12 oz coconut water – from young Thai coconut

1/3 tsp Sunbiotics Vanilla Probiotics with Prebiotics Powder

1 Tbs tocotrienols (optional – enhances creaminess and adds a potent dose of antioxidant Vitamin E) 

1/2 tsp vanilla

1.5 tsp fresh ginger peeled and minced

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

Pinch salt

PA raw honey (optional if a sweeter flavor is preferred – or add more nutmeg!)

Instructions

Day before prep:

1. First things first – the day before you’ll want to bake or roast your butternut squash, then freeze it.

Slice the peel away, cut your squash into cubes, coat lightly with coconut oil, and roast at 375 for 45 minutes or until well done. After it cools place in freezer bags in the freezer overnight.

2. Crack open (carefully) your young Thai coconut, removing the meat and water. You’ll likely need all of the water from the coconut for this recipe and about 1/2 of the meat. Save any extra in the fridge for another smoothie.

3. Take your frozen butternut squash, coconut meat, minced ginger and coconut water, and blend until smooth, thick and creamy. Add remaining ingredients (vanilla, spices, probiotics, and additional sweetener if desired) and blend again briefly until completely smooth. Enjoy the tummy-loving goodness!  

Tummy-Loving Probiotic-Infused Butternut Pumpkin Pie Shake

Gut Healthy Persimmon Coconut Eggnog Shake

While indulging in our favorite seasonal goodies is part of what makes this time of year special, going in with a hefty dose of mindfulness will help ensure we’re not stressing our bodies with too much sugar. Finding recipes that are equally delicious and festive as they are healthy is also a huge key to coming out of the holiday season looking and feeling fab. This persimmon shake is just that. Full of nutrients, absolutely thick, creamy and delicious, free of refined sugar, and with that perfect hint of holiday spice.

Persimmons are a special treat you do not want to miss out on this time of year – they appear fast and go out of season faster. They’re sweet and succulent and also happen to be a powerhouse of nutrition. Just one 3.5 oz serving of persimmon offers 33% of the RDA for Vitamin A in the form of beta-carotene. This nutrient is incredible for supporting healthy skin cells and eyesight as we age. It is an antioxidant helping to repair oxidative damage and helps keep us looking youthful. Persimmons also offer a hefty dose of Vitamin C for healthy immunity, as well as the trace mineral manganese which is a cofactor for the enzyme superoxide dismutase  – one of the body’s master antioxidants. Not only that but persimmons are a gut-healthy food, offering lots of soluble fiber which helps gently sweep waste from our GI system. This tasty shake contains an added dose of probiotics which also supports gut health and will help boost immunity during cold and flu season. Not to mention, probiotics will also help combat that post-Thanksgiving dinner bloat. Can we get an amen?

Enjoy this festive recipe!

Gut Healthy Persimmon Coconut Eggnog Shake

The Recipe

Gut Healthy Persimmon Coconut “Eggnog” Shake 

Ingredients

8 oz coconut milk

1/2 packet frozen young Thai coconut meat

1/2 large Fuyu persimmon chopped and frozen (or 1 small)

1 frozen banana

1 serving of Sunbiotics Vanilla Probiotics with Prebiotics Powder

2 drops therapeutic grade nutmeg oil or 1/2 tsp organic nutmeg powder

2 dashes cinnamon

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Optional: 1/2 tsp maca powder

Instructions

1. Blend ingredients until smooth and creamy

 

windycityorganics.com
windycityorganics.com


9 Holistic Tips for Improving Dental Health Naturally

While we might not even be aware of it, the health of our teeth and gums has a huge impact on our day to day life – from our overall health and comfort to our confidence and self-esteem. Yet according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), nearly 50% of all adults aged 30 or older – roughly 65 million Americans – are currently experiencing some form of gum disease.

Oral health can be impacted by many factors: genetics, dental hygiene habits, and diet to name a few – some of which we can control, while others (ahem, genetics) can be trickier to address. Ultimately, we have to look at our tooth and gum health as holistically as possible and make sure we’re giving it the attention it deserves. Like everything related to health – preventing issues before they even happen is always better, cheaper, and way less complicated than trying to cure things after the fact. The following tips do a great job of addressing both aspects – preventing issues from happening in the first place, while also improving and supporting the body’s own inherent healing mechanisms.

1. Keep it alkaline + eat more greens

One of the surest ways of developing tooth decay is to maintain a mouth pH that is too acidic. It is said that at a pH of 5.5 the teeth begin to demineralize, leaving them vulnerable to cavities. On the contrary, when the saliva has a pH of 7.5 or above, it means teeth can become stronger and actually remineralize, meaning stronger enamel and less decay. One of the best ways to alkalinize the entire body, mouth included, is to eat plenty of mineral-rich green leafy vegetables and non-sweet green juices. By focusing on greens such as kale, collards, spinach, chard, and lettuces, we introduce a wealth of highly bioavailable trace minerals into the body which helps alkalinize the blood, strengthen our bones, and buffer acidity in the mouth. Keeping the body alkaline also has a side benefit of giving a boost to the entire immune system, as most diseases cannot thrive in an alkaline system.

2. Try oil pulling

Oil pulling, or swishing with oil, may seem like a strange way to promote oral health, but it is actually an ancient practice with some incredible benefits. This Ayurvedic dental health technique helps to draw out toxins from the gums and the body as a whole. Simply take 1 tbs of a high quality, organic, cold pressed plant oil of choice (sesame and coconut work great) and swish for up to 20 minutes, “pulling” the oil between the teeth. Aside from helping to aid in detox, oil pulling can also help brighten the teeth, and prevent plaque from building up throughout the day. Try infusing the oil with a few drops of therapeutic grade orange essential oil (brightening) or tea tree oil (cleansing and purifying) for additional tooth benefits.

3. Take ionic mineral supplements

Minerals are absolutely critical for our bone health, and while many of us forget, our teeth are a very important part of our skeletal system. While calcium is important, our bones also require a host of other trace minerals too such as magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, and silica. Since our soils are deficient in many key minerals, our food supply is as well, even mineral-rich foods such as greens don’t contain the minerals they once did. A high quality liquid ionic mineral supplement is a great way to get bioavailable minerals into the body for healthy bones and nerves and to help balance the body’s pH.

4. Avoid fluoridated water

Fluoride continues to be one of the most widely used tooth treatments in the dental community, but it doesn’t come without risk. While fluoride is technically a natural element found in the earth, it differs greatly from the fluorosilicic acid – a synthetic industrial fluoride chemical – that is typically added to drinking water. Research shows that this chemical is a dangerous neurotoxin and endocrine disruptor and can negatively impact the health of our bones and teeth, thyroid gland, pineal gland, and blood sugar levels, to name just a few of the health implications. While fluoride may have benefits for some if used topically, it certainly doesn’t need to be consumed every day in drinking water. Many household filters can effectively remove fluoride from tap water, and given the importance of clean drinking water to our health, are a worthy investment. Not sure if your city fluoridates its water supply? Check the EWG’s Tap Water Database here.

5. Brush + floss after meals

Yep, we all know we should, but it’s often easier said than done. However, if you’re serious about achieving better oral health, cleaning the teeth thoroughly after eating can do wonders. Removing any residual food particles from the teeth can prevent plaque from accumulating, harmful bacteria from multiplying, and pH from becoming too acidic. If brushing and flossing isn’t an option, thoroughly swishing with water to loosen food particles and rinse the teeth of any residual sugars or acids is better than nothing.

6. Use a tongue scraper

Have you ever looked at your tongue, and noticed a white or greyish coating? This is actually a build-up of dead cells, food particles, toxins, and bacteria. Yep, not exactly appetizing. Cleaning the tongue properly and regularly is an incredibly important part of overall oral health and hygiene, and it’s very easy (and cheap!) to do. Tongue scrapers are just as they sound: a small, slightly rounded tool, typically made from metal or plastic, that scrapes the surface of the tongue removing the daily build up. This simple step can vastly improve the freshness of ones breathe, and also eliminate bacteria that may otherwise be contributing to tooth decay and gum disease.

7. Use oral-specific probiotics

While it’s no news that probiotics play an absolutely critical role in our overall gut health and immunity, we often don’t think of the bacteria living in our mouth as part of that equation. It turns out, the two are intimately linked, which only makes sense since the mouth is, by definition, the beginning of our digestive system. Beneficial oral microbes work along with the immune system to help prevent harmful bacteria, the ones associated with tooth decay and gum disease, from becoming too dominant. They keep the bad bugs in check within our mouth, just like they do in our gut. They also help facilitate important enzymatic activity and help balance the pH of the mouth. Bacteria love to hide out in the small gaps between your teeth and gums and using a daily tooth product that features beneficial microbes can do wonders in helping keep the bad guys from proliferating.

9 Holistic Tips for Improving Dental Health Naturally

8. Whiten with charcoal, not chemicals

It may seem counter-intuitive, but using charcoal, which is blacker than night, can actually whiten and brighten the teeth. Charcoal is a highly absorbent substance and can help to absorb toxins, bacteria, and also particles that are staining the teeth. Sunbiotics Remineralizing Tooth Whitening Powder(pictured above) addresses many issues such as staining, demineralization, and healthy microbial balance with a blend of activated coconut charcoal, sodium bicarbonate (baking soda), bamboo silica, and coconut oil powder, calcium from algae, organic essential oils, and oral-specific probiotics. This is a much safer alternative to chemical-based bleaching agents which can weaken and sensitize the teeth.

9. Boost your toothpaste with essential oils

Essential oils are the highly concentrated oils found in many areas of the plant such as leaves, flowers, grasses, and roots, that contain many of the plant’s beneficial constituents. They are typically extracted via steam distillation, extraction with a solvent or CO2 gas, or resin tapping. Certain essential oils such as tea tree, wintergreen, peppermint, clove, rosemary, and thyme are excellent oils for purifying the mouth, freshening breath, and also help support healthy blood circulation in the gums and to the teeth. Citrus oils such as orange and tangerine are also brightening and can help loosen and dissolve stains. Therapeutic grade essential oils can be used in DIY toothpaste or mouthwash recipes and can be added to base oils for oil pulling, or can be added to your favorite toothpaste to further enhance its ability to perform well.