Health Starts Here 28-Day Challenge

Hey everybody! Sorry that I haven't posted in awhile. I feel like I say that at the opening of every blog post I've written this year... I'm a bad blogger! As you know, the month of June is INSANE for everyone and there really isn't much time to just sit at your computer and write blog posts.

I'm not going to be posting recipes anymore. I have a set that I'm going to work with for my cookbook and I don't want to share them all before the book comes out. I don't have an agent or a publisher or a photographer yet, and I haven't tested the recipes to make them perfect, so it'll be awhile. However, I do plan on making videos about how to fend for yourself in the kitchen, simple cooking techniques and about my life outside of the kitchen.

If you want an update on my garden, you'll be disappointed. The weather in the Seattle area has been absolutely miserable and there's no way we could get the garden going like this. The tomato plants still aren't doing very well. We'll be lucky to get any tomatoes at all this year. Once the weather clears up, we'll plant our starters and seeds. Hopefully those will produce lots of delicious vegetables for us!

Yesterday, I started the Health Starts Here 28-Day Challenge! Health Starts Here is a program through Whole Foods Market that encourages people to eat whole foods, plant-strong diets, healthy fats and nutrient dense meals without any refined oils or sweeteners, dairy and eggs.

My goal with Health Starts Here is to teach all my teen (and adult, but mostly teen) readers that if I can go 28 days without any refined oil, sugars, refined grains, dairy or eggs, then you can eat a healthful diet with lots of vegetables and minimal amounts of oil and animal products. For most kids, immediately jumping into a Health Starts Here way of eating would be too much to handle. However, if you adjust to a diet that's halfway there, I suggest you take the 28-Day Challenge at your local Whole Foods!

I've had a lot of people ask me why eating oils, dairy, eggs and refined sugars is bad. I couldn't answer until last night at the class. The explanations are below.

Eggs: In our class, we didn't have enough time to talk about eggs. I think eggs aren't allowed because eggs cause inflammation throughout the body. Inflammation is the main cause of our pain and health issues.

Dairy: Dairy is a MAJOR inflammatory. Another reason that we shouldn't eat it is because it promotes the growth of cancerous cells. Cancerous cells are cells that multiply out of control. When a protein from dairy called casein is added to the body, it encourages the cancerous cells to grow and causes information. Studies show that there are spikes in cancerous cell growth when a cancer patient consumes dairy.

Oils: Before starting Health Starts Here, I always cooked with olive oil because I was told it was good for me. At the class, we learned that the studies that show olive oil is good are potentially misleading. Decades ago, studies were conducted about the benefits of olive oil in Greece. The people that they tested were very athletic and carried fish on their backs because that's how Greeks lived decades ago (I have no idea how they live now though), and a little bit of olive oil didn't do them any harm. But what about someone who doesn't carry a huge fish on their back all day? Olive oil is good: compared to what? Every tablespoon of olive oil is 120 calories. By omitting the oil, you've just created space for more vegetables or whole grains to nourish your body.

Refined ingredients: Refined ingredients don't give your body energy. They waste the space that could be used for healthy ingredients, take many resources to process (which in turn hurts the environment) and can cause inflammation.

Just because I started this doesn't mean I'm revising all of my recipes to be Health Starts Here friendly. I want my cookbook to be for kids who either need to start eating more healthy meals or kids who eat lots of vegetables and want to learn how to be able to cook for themselves. Taking a kid who knows nothing about cooking and throwing them into a Health Starts Here situation would not be good. I do want my next cookbook (which is hard to even think about at this point) to be mostly Health Starts Here recipes. The first book will just be a transitional book, I guess.

If you have any questions about Health Starts Here or how to get started, you can email me at tweenchef123@gmail.com and/or visit http://wholefoodsmarket.com\healthstartshere for more details and Health Starts Here recipes. Remember to follow this blog, subscribe to me on YouTube, follow me on Twitter (@MDchef_123) and tell your friends about Teens Can Cook, Too!