How to Make an Amazing Looking Salad with Only a Few Ingredients
vegan, gluten-free, soy-free, oil-free, *but NOT taste-free
It is very important for those with an autoimmune disease to eat plenty of raw fruits and vegetables. With a damaged small intestine, you are absorbing less vitamins and minerals that your body needs to fight disease and stay healthy. So it is helpful to increase the amount of nutrients that you are consuming. The best place to get our vitamins and minerals is from the plants that God packaged them in.
Vitamin supplements in a bottle mostly come from synthetic, non-plant sources that are not used well in our bodies. Vitamin supplements are often lacking the other elements that God designed them to come with because they have been isolated and created in a lab. Some vitamin supplements even come from GMO corn such as Vitamin C in the form of ascorbic acid. Vitamins can be labeled as “natural” if they contain as little as only 10% of the natural form of the vitamin. Synthetically made vitamins include Vitamin B12 as cyanocobalamin, folic acid, Vitamin C as ascorbic acid and Vitamin D2 as ergocalciferol to name a few. The “dl” form of any vitamin is synthetic.
Dark, leafy greens such as kale, collard greens, and swiss chard to name a few have the highest levels of nutrients out of all foods. They top out at 1,000 on the ANDI scale. A great way to get more greens in your diet is to start every lunch with a large salad.
When we top our salad with one of our homemade vegan "cheeses" such as the parmesan cheese or sliceable cheese, along with the fresh lemon juice and Himalayan mineral salt, I just can’t seem to get enough salad. The entree that is coming next takes a back seat as I find the salad even more enjoyable than what I thought the entree was going to taste like.
A note on why fresh lemon or lime is so good to put on your salad (and really why it is good to include in any meal.) Most people have too little hydrochloric acid production in their stomach. Very few people make too much stomach acid, only 4% of the population. The symptoms of too much HCl and too little HCl can be similar. When people have acid reflux, usually what happens is without enough stomach acid to trigger the release of the bile into the small intestine, the food sits in the stomach and ferments, causing gas. This gas expands, causing bloating, and pushes the partially digested food up the esophagus, causing the sensation of burning from the bit of stomach acid that is already mixed with the food. Lemon juice increases the acid levels in your stomach, speeding up your digestion.
My husband seems to be inclined to having a weak stomach, even as a baby having colics. Many times after even a simple, light evening meal, my husband will lay down to go to sleep several hours later only to find himself with indigestion, burping and discomfort. While most people take TUMS, a very strong antacid, he will take the juice of half of a fresh lemon or lime and he immediately feels better with no more gas and is able to quickly fall asleep.
Having enough stomach acid also improves the ability to digest proteins as the acid causes the parietal cells in the stomach to release pepsin. Pepsin is what digests proteins. With his autoimmune disease, Gabriel had a hard time gaining weight, even though he was eating plenty of calories and was strength training five days a week. Besides having a damaged small intestine, which was inhibiting his body to maximize the absorption of the carbohydrates and proteins he was eating, we realized that he may have had some damage to the parietal cells in his stomach. A good number of autoimmune sufferers also have an autoimmune response in their stomachs with their body attacking the parietal cells. This would limit the ability to digest protein as the parietal cells release pepsin and pepsin is what digests proteins. So Gabriel started taking fresh lemon or lime juice with every meal and also immediately he began to gain more muscle weight!
So considering all of the health benefits of your leafy greens, raw vegetables, and fresh lemon and lime juice, it is easy to understand why so many health professionals who are revolutionizing their field by reversing all of the “irreversible” diseases conduct their practice by the motto, “Let food be your medicine.”
Amazing Salads
vegan, gluten-free, soy-free, oil-free, *but NOT taste-free
CHOOSE A BED OF GREENS SUCH AS:
- spring mix of greens
- spinach
- Romaine lettuce
- arugula
- watercress
- red or green leaf lettuce
- kale (massaged for 30 seconds to 1 minute)
CHOOSE 3 DIFFERENT NON-GREEN TOPPINGS:
PURPLE: red cabbage, red onion, steamed beats
RED: red bell pepper, cherry tomatoes, tomato wedges, radishes
ORANGE: shredded carrots, orange bell pepper
YELLOW: yellow bell pepper, heirloom tomatoes
WHITE: white or yellow onion, sprouts, cucumber, green cabbage
Several possible combinations could be:
- steamed beets, shredded carrots, red bell pepper
- red cabbage, orange bell pepper, sprouts
- red onion, tomatoes, yellow bell pepper
CHOOSE A WHOLE-FOOD, PLANT-BASED FAT TO SPRINKLE ON TOP:
- vegan parmesan “cheese”
- vegan sliceable “cheese”
- sunflower seeds
- pumpkin seeds
- walnuts
- sliced almonds
- avocado
- olives
Dress the salad with fresh lemon or lime juice and Himalayan mineral salt.
