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Fresh coconut jelly

The Humble Coconut
The western world is finally discovering the health benefits of coconuts. On a warm summer’s day in New York it is not at all uncommon to see people meandering through the streets sipping a young Thai coconut, perfectly chilled to quench the city’s heat. Street vendors who once sold just a few coconuts are now selling 10 or more cases a day. Sales of bottled coconut water across the US have more than doubled in recent years, with a market share estimated at 20 Million Dollars.

What?
Coconut Water is the liquid from young green unripe coconuts. Inside these coconuts can be anywhere from 8-16oz of water. The meat, if any, is very thin and jelly like. This soft jelly meat is an excellent ingredient in smoothies and desserts, but is equally delicious eaten straight from the shell.

As the coconut matures the water turns into a harder meat and you end up with the brown coconut shells most people are familiar with in supermarkets. These mature coconuts with a thick, hard white meat are used to make coconut milk and oil. There is very little liquid left in these mature coconuts. The real health benefits come from the young coconuts.

In many health food stores around the country you will see white coconuts with a little point on one end. These are simply young coconuts usually from Thailand with the husk removed.

Coconut water is fat free and low calorie with a naturally sweet flavor.

Why?

Opening a coconut to drink from the shell

Coconut water is a natural isotonic beverage filled with a multitude of immune system boosting vitamins, minerals and other health enhancing properties that have consequently made it a staple of islanders for millennia. This healthy electrolyte drink has potassium, calcium, and magnesium, and makes an excellent oral re-hydration beverage, replacing electrolytes lost from exercise, heat
stress and illness.

Some of the other many benefits include:

• Natural Boost to Immune System
• Improved Intestinal Health
• Increased Metabolism & Weight Loss
• Balancing of Body PH
• Detoxify anti-Virus
• Stops Fatigue
• Prevents Hypertension
• Controls Diabetes
• Aids in Circulation
• Reduces Cancer Risk
• Treats Kidney Stones
• Eases Stomach Pain & Vomiting

According to Mortin Satin, Chief of the United Nation’s Food & Agriculture
Organization, “Coconut water is the very stuff of nature, biologically pure, full of natural sugars, salts, and vitamins to ward off fatigue… and is the next wave of energy drinks BUT natural!”

It is also highly regarded as one of the best hangover cures!

How?

One of the many great things about being in Key West is that we are lucky enough to have this super food growing right in our back yards and there is nothing better than drinking a fresh coconut straight from the tree!

Take advantage of this powerful local food whether it be to rehydrate, cure your hangover or just to enjoy the refreshing taste and a myriad of health benefits. Another great reason to visit us in Key West!

Warning: Cutting open coconuts should be done with caution or left to the experts!

Help Yourself Organic Café carries fresh local coconut water or stop by the Monday Market between 11am and 5pm to drink one from the shell.

Take a look at our video where I demonstrate how we take the coconuts ‘From Tree to Table.’

Common table sugar is refined from sugar cane, beets, dates or other plant sources. Photo courtesy of Lauri Andler.

Is high fructose corn syrup bad for you? The short answer is yes. High fructose corn syrup has been linked with obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, liver damage and more. It’s not just high fructose corn syrup that’s fattening Americans and breaking down their health, though — it’s a lifestyle. A lifestyle that’s founded on cheap, convenient, readily available and nutritionally moot foods is at the core of poor health in America.

That brings us to the long answer, which, not surprisingly, is a little longer. And it necessarily includes a bit of history.

In the 1820’s a rapidly growing world shipping infrastructure put sudden, surprising pressure on American sugar plantations. Domestic sugar planters realized in a flash of panic that they couldn’t compete with Caribbean growers whose products were far cheaper and quickly becoming widely available. Caribbean plantations enjoyed a perfect climate for sugar cane cultivation, and they benefited from very cheap, very plentiful labor. American sugar planters, rather than resort to growing other crops more suitable for the land, appealed to the government for protection from economic hardship. The government’s response was twofold: they imposed wildly high tariffs on foreign sugar while subsidizing U.S. producers to ensure favorable profit margins.

The high price of sugar survived through profit motivated politicking. Politicians who advocated the twisted trade policies and rigorous import regulations that inflated sugar prices were widely backed by U.S. sugar plantation owners. Their multi-billion dollar operations easily supported political campaigns alongside ritzy charity balls and weekend soirées. The end result was that sugar prices in the United States ranged anywhere from twice to seven times that of world prices throughout the 1800’s and all the way into the 1980’s and 1990’s.

Enter high fructose corn syrup. First introduced in 1957, high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) didn’t become commercially viable until around 1965 when Dr. Y. Takasaki, a Japanese scientist, perfected a cheap method of its production. The impact of his new refining technique was explosive.

Most foods in America are sweetened with high fructose corn syrup, which is made from cheap, abundant corn.

American corn was (and still is) incredibly abundant. Heavily subsidized by the U.S. government, corn grown in the United States was flooding local and foreign markets at remarkably low prices. In the eyes of candy, baked goods and soft drink manufacturers, any technology that could turn corn into sugar was baking the equivalent of the ancient alchemist’s pie in the sky: glittering, pure gold from boring, gray lead.

Food manufacturing giants like Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Hostess and the like immediately snatched at the opportunity to sweeten their products for pennies on the dollar by using HFCS instead of true sugar. Other food industries weren’t slow to follow. By the 1980’s foods all over the U.S. from peanut butter to bread to yogurt, canned fruit, chips, sweets, drinks, canned soups and just about everything in between had hopped on the HFCS band-wagon. This trend has continued to flourish to this day. Food producers of all kinds can hardly resist the temptation to sweeten their goods on the cheap. And the result? Fructose, fructose everywhere.

What does this all mean for the American people? It means they are constantly bombarded with hastily manufactured, poor quality, unhealthy foods. The HFCS invasion in the United States has encouraged a massive flood of shockingly cheap, sweet foods into the marketplace. And it’s not just junk food: the principle of 19th century industrialism — combining cheap materials and cheap labor to drive up profits — has permeated the food market so thoroughly that genuinely whole, healthy foods have been pushed into a fringe selection of “premium” products.

The size of the role which HFCS plays in the deterioration of U.S. health is debatable, but a few disturbing correlations float to the surface with just a cursory glance at the facts.

Take, for example, the obesity epidemic which affects nearly a third of Americans. The obesity problem in the United States began its rapid ascent at about the same time HFCS made its way into everyday foods and drinks — a fact which has many researchers convinced of a causal relationship. Another disturbing reality of HFCS production is its reliance on genetically modified (GM) corn, or corn whose DNA has been engineered to improve production. GM corn, introduced about a decade after HFCS became prevalent in the marketplace, accounts for about 85% of the corn in America. The ecological, economical and human health concerns posed by GM foods warrant a post of their own. We’ll look into GM foods in more detail sometime next week.

The collapse of modern America’s health isn’t a direct result of HFCS’s effect on the body, instead it’s a product of the massive prevalence of high calorie foods on the U.S. market. Cheap, sweet, nutritionally deplete foods are packed full of empty calories that many consumers never get a chance to burn off. A lifestyle of consuming more empty calories than your body can get rid of has predictable results: poor nutrition, obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and liver disease.

Of course, high fructose corn syrup also wields a nasty trick that’s all its own: it doesn’t fill you up.

HFCS is produced by first milling corn to acquire corn starch, then processing the starch into syrup. At this stage, the corn syrup is almost entirely glucose, a simple sugar that’s found in most sweet foods. The process doesn’t end here, though. Enzymes are added to the syrup which rapidly convert more than half of the available glucose into fructose. Fructose, also a simple sugar, differs from glucose in two important respects: its taste is far sweeter than that of glucose, and it doesn’t provoke an insulin response in the body. Many researchers argue that an insulin response plays a critical role in sating the appetite. Foods that are sweetened with HFCS don’t make people feel full, which means that they keep eating and eating.

Plenty of research points to the detrimental effects of HFCS. One study performed by Ferder, Ferder and Inserra in 2010 at the Ponce School of Medicine draws attention to the failure of fructose to provoke insulin release. The study concluded that a chronic absence of satiety (feeling full or satisfied) brought on by HFCS prevalence leads to continued eating or overeating that, over time, can cause obesity.

A separate study performed by Alloca and Seimi, also in 2010, definitively linked the consumption of HFCS with the development of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). The study demonstrated that both the fructose and glucose present in HFCS elevate the blood levels of glucose, insulin and triglycerides — an effect which, if sustained, puts undue stress on the liver. Consistent consumption of HFCS leads to the accumulation of lipids in the liver which can result in an inability to prevent NAFLD. The study concluded: “The available experimental and human data strongly support the notion that fructose avoidance should be encouraged in the prevention and treatment of NAFLD.”

Another experiment performed by Princeton University found that HFCS was responsible for significant weight gain in lab rats. The researchers provided one group of rats with regular rodent feed and another with feed sweetened with HFCS. The rats that had access to HFCS gained 48% more weight after six months than the rats that didn’t.

The study was criticized by some who argued that of course rodents with access to sweeter food will eat more and gain more weight. That, however, is kind of the whole point: If there is sweet, empty calories in just about everything that you eat, you are going to gain a lot of weight. If the sweetener specifically reduces the sating or satisfying tendency of the meal, the problem is exasperated.

And so we end up where we started: Is high fructose corn syrup bad for you? Yes. Or, at very least, it’s absolutely bad for the country.

HFCS is symbolic of the industrialization of American foods. It betrays the profiteering of food manufacturing mega-corporations and proves that they are as disinterested in health as they are engrossed in their bottom line.

Avoiding HFCS is common sense. Not only is adding sugary sweet syrup to every meal clearly excessive, but the health risks associated with HFCS and a knowledge of its origin both warrant a little extra caution. Take the time to start reading labels and developing an awareness around HFCS. You’ve got nothing to lose and your health to gain!

All organic Key West catering: Hummus Platter

Catering in Key West can be hassle-free, delicious and healthy. Whether you’re looking to put together a simple, intimate get-together, host a business meeting or event, or even coordinate a conference, Help Yourself! offers diverse, great tasting and great for you catering solutions that you’ll love. Our easy to handle, ready to serve platters let you offer all-organic, enticing wraps, salads, juices and snacks that your guests are bound to enjoy.

Our Key West catering services aren’t limited to gatherings and events. Anywhere there’s a need for easy, nutritious breakfasts, lunches or dinners, Help Yourself! has a solution that can simplify your life. We’re happy to provide great food for your boat outings, weekend vacations, area tours or day-trips. Nothing makes planning your day’s healthy meals quite as easy as individually packed lunch-boxes complete with mouth watering desserts and all natural, refreshing drinks.

You can pick up your catering orders at the Help Yourself! restaurant, or we can deliver them to you anywhere in Key West. All of our regular menu items are available as packed lunches, and our separate catering menu is crammed with a wide variety of crowd pleasing platters.

How easy is working with Help Yourself! for your Key West catering needs? Real easy:

“Give me a call or send me an email,” says Christine, Help Yourself!’s manager, “and we’ll get your catering taken care of. Whether it’s salads, wraps, desserts or drinks, we’ve got you covered.”

If you’re planning a luncheon or event that you want your guests to really remember, don’t settle for less than the best all organic catering in Key West. Just get in touch a few days in advance (we need at least 24 hours) to get your order prepped and ready to go. We’re ready to work with you in any way that we can to make sure that your function’s food is a delicious success!

Rachel Black was ready to change her lifestyle. She knew she had to make some drastic changes or her health was going to deteriorate quickly. Knowing what she should do however, was very different from knowing how to do it. After all she had been living and eating a certain way for many years.  Changing everything was very overwhelming and she had no idea where to start. One day Rachel came into Help Yourself. I could sense that she wanted some help and advice so I struck up a conversation with her. That conversation led to us putting her on a 30 day meal plan. For the next 30 days Rachel will be eating meals provided by Help Yourself and working with me to help her lose weight and make a lifestyle change.

Rachel will be blogging about her experience on a daily basis with regular updates here. Please follow along and support Rachel as we journey through the next 30 days.

Blog Post 1

Are you ready to take on the challenge of cooking yourself to help yourself?!

Starting in January we will be running a 4 week series of classes designed to give you the foundation and fundamentals for preparing your own healthy, well balanced and delicious meals at home. We will introduce you to new ingredients, teach you how to prepare them and give you recipes and new ideas to take home with you.

These will be weekly classes of two and half hours each run at Help Yourself restaurant from 6.30pm – 9pm. They will be small group, hands on classes. Space is limited so book early.

Week 1- January 19th – Fundamentals of cooking

In this class you will get to practice your knife skills, review kitchen equipment, understand the various methods of cooking and food preparation as well as learn about new ingredients and the importance of reading labels.

Week 2 – January 26th – Grains and Beans

Grains and beans/legumes are a great source of nutritional support and a diet high in these whole foods has been associated with many health benefits. Learn how to easily prepare and cook some of the more common grains like rice and quinoa as well as some of the more uncommon ones like millet and amaranth. We will teach you which beans and legumes need soaking and which don’t, how to cook them and how to incorporate them into delicious meals. Beans are a useful source of vegetarian protein.

Week 3 – February 2nd – Salads and Dressings

Get out of the traditional salad rut and learn how to compose delicious and satisfying salads using different combination’s of lettuce, greens, grains, beans, fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds. No need to buy store bought dressings anymore as we will show you how to make your own healthful dressings using high quality and nutritious oils. With these basic principles you will be able to build satisfying, delicious and nutritious salad meals.

Week 4 – February 9th – Soups and Stews

Soups and stews are a fast and easy way to pack a lot of nutrition into one pot. They are great meals for busy people as they can be made ahead of time and last for days.

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In each class you will make something that you can eat for dinner and you will be given recipes to take home with you.

The cost for the four week course is $220.00. Individual classes are $60.00 though priority is given to those taking all four classes.

For more information and to book your class please call the restaurant 305 296 7766 or email Charlie (please put Cooking Class as the subject) charlie@helpyourselfcafe.com

Dates:

• Wednesday 19th January 2011
• Wednesday 26th January 2011
• Wednesday 2nd February 2011
• Wednesday 9th February 2011

Fuel Up!

Calling all Paddle Board Racers! The race is only a few days away and the most important thing you can do now is fuel your body with the right nutrition.

Remember carbohydrates are the body’s primary source of fuel. In the next two days you want to stock up on the complex carbs. These are things like brown rice, whole wheat pasta, oats, quinoa and vegetables. Complex whole-food carbs provide the most sustaining long-term energy. Refined carbohydrates are a big no if you want to give yourself the best chance; they are empty calories with minimal nutrition that spike your insulin levels. That means stay away from the white sugar, white flour and white pasta!

To assist you in your race preparations Help Yourself is offering all race participants a 10% discount at the café for the next three days (Thursday, Friday, Saturday). And because everything is organic and we don’t use any refined carbohydrates in the restaurant you can rest assured all the food will be the right fuel for the race! Check out our website for the menu – www.helpyourselfcafe.com. Just give your race registration number to receive your discount.

Race Day Breakfast – It is important to fuel up with proper nutrition several hours before the race allowing your body time to digest the food. Pre-order your race day breakfast at Help Yourself on Friday so it’s ready for an early morning pick-up on Saturday.

We recommend the Power Bowl or The Super Food Smoothie (specially designed for the race) as a great pre-race breakfast.

Super Food Smoothie – Strawberry , Banana , Oats, Hemp seed, Spirulina, Goji berries, Acai powder, Maca Powder blended with house made coconut milk- $12.00

This is a thick carbohydrate rich 16 oz smoothie with plenty of calories and packed full of nutrition. Because it is blended it is already pre-digested, therefore requires less work on our digestive system so the nutrients can be easily assimilated.

Power Bowl – Whole oat groats, Flax Seeds, Chia Seeds, Goji Berries, Hemp Seeds – $7.00

This is a warm oatmeal bowl made from whole oat groats. Oats are a complex carbohydrate, with a low glycemic index and provide a slow release of energy.

Fresh Local Coconut Water – $4.50 – Natures best energy drink packed full of minerals and electrolytes and great for staying hydrated.

On April 22^nd millions of people around the world unite to celebrate, appreciate and inspire awareness for the Earths unique place in the Universe.

Realizing that widespread environmental destruction was happening Gaylord Nelson, a United States Senator from Wisconsin, founded the Earth Day celebration hoping to demonstrate popular political support for an environmental agenda. On April 22, 1970, over 20 million people joined together to participate in the first ever Earth Day. Earth Day is now observed on April 22 each year by over a billion people in 190 countries.

That first year saw massive coast-to-coast rallies. Thousands of colleges and universities organized protests against the deterioration of the environment. Groups that had been fighting against oil spills, polluting factories and power plants, raw sewage, toxic dumps, pesticides, freeways, the loss of wilderness, and the extinction of wildlife suddenly realized they shared common values.

This year, the 40^th anniversary of Earth Day, the world is in greater peril than ever. Individuals and organizations the world over are taking environmental action to a new level. The core of this anniversary year is the Billion Acts of Green campaign. “The goal of the campaign is to aggregate the millions of environmental service commitments that individuals and organizations around the world make each year – thereby sending a powerful message that people from all walks of life are committed to solving climate change.” You can go onto their website www.earthday.org and add your act of green to be part of the change.

Earth Day reminds us we all share the same planet. Our Key West philosophy of One Human Family is crucial here. Sharing the Earth means taking responsibility for what we use and how we use it. It doesn’t take much to change something in your life that will make the earth a better place.

On Earth Day we are giving away FREE organic coffee to anyone that brings their own reusable coffee mug. We will also be donating 5% of our sales to Eco Week.

After Earth Day we will continue to reward customers that bring their own coffee mugs by giving back 15 cents from each coffee as a start to our ‘pre-cycle’ program.

We should all make a concerted effort to make Earth Day part of our every day lifestyle.

This week:

We were very sad to cancel our Friday night Valentine’s Event, but are bouncing with excitement because the Farmers’ Market on Sunday will be even better – we’re moving some of Friday’s event over to Sunday! … We have all the usual wonderful organic produce (see below for more details!), and also some wonderful Valentine’s Day tips:

• At 10:30am, Charlie will be demonstrating some good-for-you-chocolate Valentine’s Day treats that are super easy to make at home for your family or loved ones
• At 12:30pm, motivational speaker Kevin Gianni from The Renegade Health Show will be talking about Food Cravings and teach us how we can overcome them.

Your Shopping Lists:

New potatoes are in season – yippee! And we’re delighted to see so many heirloom varieties making their way to market – the beautiful colors of Carrots and Tomatoes have been a joy, and quite a talking point these past few weeks! This week the heirloom carrots are back, as is rainbow chard. We’re also very pleased to see the arrival of Spinach in amongst our more regular greens.

• Greens: Green and Heirloom Rainbow Chard, Savoy Cabbage, Lettuce, Spinach, Arugula, Asian Mix
• Veggies:  Grape Tomatoes, Green Peppers, Heirloom Carrots, Cauliflowers, White and Portabella Mushrooms, Radishes, New Potatoes, Yukon Gold Potatoes
• Herbs: Dill, Garlic Chives, Flat Italian Parsley
• Extras: Eggs … and lots of Valentine’s treats for you to buy and take home

p.s. Have you watched our Valentine’s video, yet?

See you on Sunday!

Let’s face it, it’s gotten cold again! And thunderstorms are forecast for Friday night. So we’ve taken the sad decision to cancel our Valentine’s Event.

BUT DO NOT WORRY … we’re moving it all to Sunday -Valentine’s Day! …

Check out the Farmers’ Market post for details!

We have had such a great response from our Raw Detox programs, almost 80 people that have either completed it or signed up for it, that we decided to throw a party! And with Valentine’s Day just around the corner it makes it a double celebration!

So come and join us on Friday 12th February between 6pm and 8pm at Help Yourself and “Fall in Love with Real Food”! (We even made a Valentines video for you!)

We will have our tents set up outside the restaurant where:

• Charlie will be demonstrating some healthy valentines treats that are super easy to make at home for your family or loved ones.
• Motivational speaker Kevin Gianni from The Renegade Health Show will be speaking about Food Cravings and teach us how we can overcome them.
• We will have a raw tapas bar so you can sample some of our tasty raw dishes!

And of course it will be a great way meet and catch up with other people that are passionate about healthy living and real food!

Tickets are $30.00 and can be purchased at Help Yourself, 829 Fleming Street (corner of Fleming and Margret) or call 305 296 7766 to reserve a ticket.

Hope to see you there!

We love hearing from all of you – our fabulous friends and customers.  And when we start to hear a theme from you all, we absolutely cannot ignore it!!

It seems that while we are are able to inspire you with real food from the restaurant, you seem to be looking for a little extra help and inspiration in your own kitchens, and when buying your own groceries.

So we’re planning classes to help you to help yourselves!

But which class to start with?!

Well, we looked back at the 30 Days to Help Yourself challenge to remind ourselves what had been most useful in helping kick-start Leigh into action … and we came to the conclusion that what everyone needs most is a little:

Kitchen Therapy

Real strategies for

Losing Weight, Increasing Energy & Preventing Disease

With:

Donna Shields, MS, RD, LD

Registered Dietitian, Integrative Nutritionist

&

Charlie Wilson

Whole Foods Chef, (our very own) Owner of Help Yourself Organic Restaurant!

Learn simple steps to make 2010 the

Healthiest Year of Your Life

• Detoxify Your Diet
• Straight Talk about Supplements
• The Whole Foods Pantry without Barcodes
• Intelligent Grocery Shopping
• Cooking Demos, Product Sampling & Lunch
  

Saturday, February 6^th, 11am – 1pm

$100 per person (lunch included)

Unity Church, 1011 Virginia St

Please register and pay in advance at Help Yourself

829 Fleming St (corner of Margaret & Fleming) (305) 296-7766

Space is limited for a personalized experience