May 2, 2013 Dr. Oz finally had Joe Cross of the food, health, and wellness documentary, Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead, on the show. I was surprised it took so long for Joe Cross to be on the show since Joe’s documentary and personal story has been a weight loss inspiration to so many and has sparked a juicing revolution. If you have not seen the documentary and want some encouragement to lose weight or eat better, this might be the documentary for you. You can go here to see Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead on the Dr. Oz website for free, but it does have Hulu advertisements every so often. We like the movie so much we bought it over a year ago after our friends shared it with us. If you are a local friend of mine, I would love to loan the documentary to you, too. Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead, is worth the 97 minutes.
In a nutshell Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead chronicles the journey of two men toward whole foods by juicing, and talks about how juicing vegetables and fruits is an efficient way to get many of the body’s needed nutrients. Micro-nutrients are basically your vitamins and minerals, and they help to build muscle, and help with the immune function. Micro-nutrients come from plant foods and are found in vegetables, fruits, beans, nuts, and seeds. Macronutrients are everything else.
According to Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead, the calories of the Standard American Diet are:
- 60% processed/refined foods
- 30% animal products
- 5% potatoes and whole grains
- 5% fruits and vegetables
And 61% of the American Diet is processed foods. The processed food doesn’t even have 1/10th of the nutrients that the original food had before the processing occurred.
Does that seem low to you? It sure seems low to me that only 61% (which is still a big percentage-I know) of the Standard American Diet is processed. It seems way more to me thinking about the way I grew up.
According to Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead, if the body can get filled up with nutrient dense food, you won’t crave other processed foods. 400 calories of whole foods is much more filling than 400 calories of fast food.
This may surprise some, but I have never juiced. We make smoothies here, and we haven’t bought a juicer yet. It is on our someday list, but not now. In fact, I took almost a week off of smoothies last week. Most of it was that I hadn’t been to Costco to get our spinach or greens, so I just stopped making them. Now we’ve had two or three smoothies in the last two or three days, so we are getting back on the wagon. Sometimes it’s nice to take a break from something, and then you realize how beneficial it is or how much you missed it. I knew I needed more greens, so it’s been great to get back into them again.
Meal Ideas for the Next 2 Weeks:
BREAKFAST:
- Sourdough Waffles
- Scrambled Eggs
- Sourdough Doughnuts
- Granola Cereal
- Steel Cut Oats
- Smoothies or Sorbets
- Crock-pot Breakfast Cobbler try some more and modify
LUNCH:
- Fruit
- Vegetables with Dairy-Free Homemade Ranch Dressing
- Crock-pot Yogurt
- Scrambled Eggs with lots of Sauteed Veggies
- Tuna Lettuce Wraps
- Quesadillas with Sautéed Kale, Garlic, and Raw Milk Cheese
- Nacho Salad, No-cheese Cheese or Raw Milk Cheese, with Salsa (still my first go-to lunch if we don’t have leftovers)
- Leftovers from dinner like Soups
DINNER:
I made all of my meals in my self-challenge of 10 crock-pot freezer meals.
My 5 Crock-pot Dinners in my self-challenge (I made two of each meal):
- Crock-pot Chicken w/Thai Peanut Sauce
- Crock-pot Sweet & Sour Chicken
- Crock-Pot Chicken Taco Salad
- Crock-pot Barbecue Chicken
- Crock-pot Orange Ginger Chicken
So far we have had the 1. Crock-pot Chicken w/Thai Peanut Sauce and the 2. Crock-pot Sweet & Sour Chicken. I do have to say that I love the ease of thawing and throwing in the freezer meals in the crock-pot. I plan on trying the other three recipes in the next two weeks to see how they thaw and reheat.
Other Dinner Ideas:
- Spicy Ginger Sauce Recipe with Veggies: Had it for dinner tonight with leftover sauce for tomorrow!
- Crock-Pot Double Bean Burrito Recipe
- “Baked” Potatoes in the Crock-Pot
- Thai Cashew Shrimp Recipe
- Crock-pot or Not Caprese Pizza Recipe: Jonathan wants to start having pizza every Friday. Sounds good to me!
- Here are some Memorial Day Crock-pot Ideas (although it says 4th of July, but they still work!)
- Homemade $0.61 Sourdough Bread with herbs and garlic!
- Salad
SNACKS & DESSERT:
- No Bake Cookie Bars, Dairy-Free: Our new addiction! I’ll be sharing these soon.
- Apples with Nut Butter
- 4 ingredients peanut butter granola bars and 4 ingredient almond butter granola bars
- Bananas with Nut Butter and Chocolate Chips
- Double Chocolate Energy Bars–like a Lara Bar
- Blueberry Muffins: I made two batches and froze one, so we’ll be enjoying the second batch as an after church snack tomorrow!
Do you menu plan? What are you planning to make in the next couple of weeks? I’d love to hear!! See other menu plans here.
Do you need some other culinary inspiration? Go here for the complete list of recipes.
I saw the movie on Netflix and loved it. Juicing is very different than making smoothies. It’s doesn’t need digestion, and it goes right into the system. You get almost immediate energy. I love juicing, but rarely make smoothies.
Hi Judee, The body absorbs the nutrients more readily when juicing, so we have to get on it. Thanks for sharing and visiting!
It is rare, but some people can have reactions to raw vegetables. Or it could be one ingredient, like my husband Jesse. We used to always put beets in our daily juice, until we realized that is what made his lips, face, and throat swell! We still juice, and as long as we stay away from beets we’re fine.
Hi Piper, That’s good to know, especially for when we start juicing! Interesting. Thanks for sharing, and hope you have a blessed week!!
This movie is also on Netflix if anyone has that. I watched it. I use to juice until raw veggies started making my mouth itch. So I am now mainly steaming and eating them. As far as fruit cant figure that out yet.
Hi Cynthia, I have never heard of that reaction before. I wonder what that is. Hope you have a great week!