Author: Christina Bruni

Christina Bruni is the author of the new book Working Assets: A Career Guide for Peers. She contributed a chapter "Recovery is Within Reach" to Benessere Psicologico: Contemporary Thought on Italian American Mental Health.

ItaloPunk Recipes

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ItaloPunk original Italian food recipes

The cookbook in the photo above can be checked out of a library if you’re lucky. The ethic I’m fond of is called Principessa Punk–Princess Punk.

The 145 Recipes to Shock Your Nonna I won’t be using though. As the recipes often require at least 8 ingredients.

Otherwise if you’re a regular user of multiple-ingredient recipes Fire Away!

In coming blog entries I’ll be posting health coach vetted information on how and what to eat. Designed for those of us who want to take our meals up a notch in terms of health-sustaining benefits.

Mangia!

Banana-Peanut Butter Yogurt Parfait

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Banana-Peanut Butter Yogurt Parfait

This is one of my favorite new recipes to have for breakfast or after an at-home workout session:

Banana-Peanut Butter Yogurt Parfait

1 ripe banana

1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 tablespoon natural peanut butter

1/4 cup low-fat plain Greek-style strained yogurt

1 tablespoon unsalted roasted peanuts

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Slice 1 banana. Place half the slices in a small bowl or jar.

Sprinkle with 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon. Mash with back of fork.

Top with 1 tablespoon peanut butter.

Layer on 1/4 cup yogurt on top.

Add remaining banana slices.

Sprinkle on top 1 tablespoon peanuts.

Breathe Mediterranean Diet Edition

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Breathe magazine has out a Mediterranean Diet edition. Though it costs $14.99 I think the issue is worth getting.

For the article like Glimmers of Hope that instructs readers to cue ourselves for “glimmers” instead of focusing on triggers. Glimmers are the experiences that give us joy peace and positive feelings.

Plus the Buon Appetito! feature that shows readers how to set the table for a communal meal like Italians do. Insieme is our word for together.

Really all the articles in this Breathe issue are worth reading.

Pots of Love talks about how cooking can be a valid form of therapy. Talking about using a food journal to jot down ideas about the recipes you’re making and what you think of them and how to improvise new recipes with the ingredients.

One suggestion that I’ve taken to heart for years so far is to set the table for cheer. At the start of each season to change the tablecloth and use a different color mug to drink water from.

I’ll end here with this quote:

A tavola non s’invecchia – At the table, one does not grow old.

Homemade-ish Recipes

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Homemade-ish Book Cover

The cookbook above can be checked out of the library. I recommend buying it. From the guide I created 3 recipes two of which were for dips.

The photos below are the homemade-ish food from top to end in this order:

Spice Rack Whipped Cheeses with Hot Honey:

The food below is Creamed Mozzarella with Honey-Drenched Sun-Dried Tomatoes:

Lastly the Cloud Caprese Cups:

The Environ-Mental

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Our environment affects our mental health. Even living in an apartment that is not ideal we can improve our emotional state with a simple habit like buying fresh flowers.

I’ve taken to buying flowers on the regular to keep in a vase on the dining table. Fresh blooms give off a positive vibration. The cost to replenish a wilted bunch every week is worth it if you ask me. Often a food market will sell bunches cheaper than a florist would.

Even on a limited income I make the case for cutting down in another area to spend on flowers.

The blooms don’t have to match or go with the table decor either. Pick the flowers whose colors cheer you up that you’re drawn to. And I think it’s okay that a bouquet lasts only 4 days.

You can write down in a notebook the names of each flower and how long they stayed fresh. Should you not be able to remember this.

In the coming blog entries I will talk about the new recipes I’ve created and post photos of the food.

Georgia Ede MD Disclaimer

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Dr. Ede has reported that patients who change their diet as she instructs with the Quiet Keto have better mental health.

However buried in her guide Dr. Ede states that most of her patients who stopped their Keto diet had their psychiatric symptoms come back. Nor can everyone reduce or eliminate their psych medication on the Keto diet Dr. Ede proposes either.

The number-one thing is to control blood sugar and insulin levels which this diet should do according to Dr. Ede. This MD believes that keeping on a whole foods ketogenic diet for life or long-term should be safe. Following her Quiet Keto diet could counteract medication side effects like weight gain and high blood sugar.

The caveat the catch is that you must remain on the Quiet Keto diet and not stop it. With the Mediterranean Diet there’s no effect if you stop using this food plan.

These two diets should be examined with professional guidance for a person’s individual needs.

I reported here on these two diets to give information that might help followers. It appears everywhere I go I act as a librarian outside of my job–giving people information they can use to have a better life.

Coming up one habit I’ve adopted. Then a dive into new recipes I’ve created using a cookbook and the Eating Well special edition New Mediterranean Diet magazine.

Georgia Ede MD Nutrition Advice

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Georgia Ede MD Nutrition Advice

It’s not as simple as choosing from the food items Dr. Ramsey lists and calling it a day. With Dr.
Ede’s recommendations you need to calculate your personal macronutrient amounts. Then adhere
to eating only certain foods in certain ways.

On the Keto Diet you are allowed to have a specific amount of carbohydrates like starting at 20
grams a day. Dr. Ede recommends ketone monitoring as part of this diet.

Dr. Ede has reported that patients who change their diet this way have better mental health. It’s best to buy her book or check it out of the library. There are specific rules as to what to eat
how much and how to eat (cooked versus raw).

You start out with a Quiet Paleo diet and transfer to the Keto diet.

Customize carbohydrates:
Carbohydrates on Quiet Keto come from fruits and vegetables.

Quiet Keto Food List:
Meat, seafood, poultry, and eggs.
Non-starchy Vegetables:
Lettuces like iceberg, romaine, Bibb, Boston, green leaf, red leaf, oak leaf, Batavia, and
butterhead.

Fruits:
Avocado, olives, squashes: zucchini, yellow squash, summer squash, pumpkin, and spaghetti
squash, strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, lemons, and limes
Crucifers cooked only and limited to one serving per day as in:
Arugula, bok choy, broccoli,, broccolini, broccoli rabe, Brussels sprouts, all kinds of cabbage,
cauliflower, collard greens, kale mustard greens, radish, Swiss chard, turnip, watercress.

This ends my review of the Dueling Doctors and Their Diets.


Drew Ramsey MD Nutrition Advice

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Like I wrote before when I quoted the NYC clothing store SYMS TV commercial: “An educated consumer is our best customer.”

In keeping with this I would like to educate followers about the nutrition advice of the Dueling Doctors and their Diets. Georgia Ede MD will follow. First up Drew Ramsey MD.

Dr. Ramsey nixes loading up on super sizes of the latest super food touted. Instead eat a balanced variety of food. To wit: “Eat what you enjoy.”

Per Dr. Ramsey:

“We are trained, from an early age, to eat to be skinny instead of healthy.”

He quotes Felice Jacka, a researcher at Australia’s Food & Mood Centre: “We need to get away from this idea that nutrition is about body size.”

In his book Dr. Ramsey refers to clinical trials that verify the Mediterranean Diet improves mental health.

I say forget trying to memorize how much RDA of vitamins and nutrients we need and what food provides these. Simply eat balanced food items from the list below every day and that should cover getting enough nutritional value. That is my $100 dollar holler.

Highlights of Dr. Ramsey’s review of required foods:

Brussels sprouts (I eat them often!), oranges, leafy greens, lentils.

Pumpkin seeds, cashews (I love ’em and eat them nearly every day!), oysters, spinach.

Seafood including wild salmon, anchovies, oysters.

beans and almonds.

Fresh fruits and vegetables like broccoli, sweet potatoes.

Oatmeal, Brazil nuts, mushrooms (I have ’em every week nearly every day!).

Grass-fed beef if you’re a carnivore.

Corn, bell peppers, tomatoes, cantaloupe, carrots, broccoli.

Eggs (my favorite breakfast!), pistachios.

Clams (love ’em!), mussels (my favorite feel-good food!).

Oranges, cherries, chilies, red peppers, mustard greens.

Turkey.

Avocadoes, berries

Kombucha, kefir, yogurt, miso.

Dark chocolate.

Ironing Out Our Health

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In the YouTube video Dr. Ede talked about iron the missing helpful food in a lot of diets.

Interested in this I Googled foods with iron. The following food contains a good amount of iron:

Peas: a cup cooked with salt: 2.5 mg.

Pumpkin seeds: one cup nearly 3.7 mg.

Cashews: 2 ounces: almost 3.8 mg.

Sweet potato (a cup of boiled sweet potato without skin): 2.4 mg.

Spinach: 1/2 cup cooked: 3 mg.

Lentils: 1/2 cup cooked: 3.3 mg.

Swiss chard: one cup: 4 mg.

One large baked potato: just over 3 mg.

Tofu: 6 ounces: almost 3 mg.

On Not Liking Chocolate

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Dr. Ede the author of Change Your Diet Change Your Mind parts ways with other experts giving nutritional advice.

The Integrative Health Coach I employ told me that beans, grains, and fruits break down into sugar. Sugar can exacerbate depression and anxiety.

Dr. Lipman cut out the habit of consuming quantities of beans. Eating too much beans can cause a diabetes concern apparently.

The advice to have dark chocolate I haven’t taken to heart either. As I really don’t like eating chocolate. My Health Coach told me that in her practice they’ve turned away from recommending that people eat dark chocolate.

I have eaten dark chocolate too long ago to remember when the last time was that I ate it. In fact I stopped buying dark chocolate years ago.

The strange thing is that I don’t often do what experts who hang out a shingle tell you to do. I trust my Health Coach because of my intuition that she knows what she’s talking about.

Also: I trust what friends tell me that makes sense. Years ago a friend told me he became a vegan. It was likely for ethical reasons. His mood worsened. When he returned to eating red meat his depression lifted.

Armchair advice to be certain. Yet intriguing insight that could very well be true.

In this blog I would like then to touch on how exactly to get happy and get more energy. What specific action can we take to lift ourselves up?

I’ve begun doing these things and will report back on the effects.