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At least 70% of your immune system is rooted in your digestive system. Surprised?
Good health is based in the digestive tract. Not in the heart, not in the lungs, not in the brain: health starts in the stomach. Health is a result of what you put in your mouth and then how it is digested, absorbed and eliminated. Digestion is the foundation for how everything else in the body functions.
Colonies of beneficial bacteria help our intestines and bowels sort through what comes down the esophagus, extract what's useful (protein, carbs, vitamins, minerals and other nutrients), and send it out to the body to use. Everything else is either excreted as waste or stored as fat. It's an efficient system.
You can help or hinder this flow by what you choose to eat. Processed, synthetic and artificial foodstuffs clog up the absorption venues and reduce the efficacy of the whole system, resulting in excess weight and/or poor health.
Whole foods, on the other hand, contain everything needed for complete digestion, flushing away cleanly and leaving behind the elements of nutrition required for a healthy body.
Here's an easy fish recipe containing only whole foods.
Fish Florentine
Serves 4
Ingredients
4 packed cups spinach, fresh, or 10 oz. frozen
1-1 1/2 lb. fish fillets (see Tips below for suggestions)
1 lemon, scrubbed, sliced thinly
6-9 cloves garlic, peeled, sliced
4-6 tomatoes, cored and thickly sliced
Instructions
Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Spray inside of 3 1/2 or 4-quart cast iron Dutch oven and lid with olive oil.
Layer the bottom thickly with spinach leaves, or slices of frozen spinach. Add a blanket of fish and spray lightly with olive oil. Cover with a single layer of lemon slices and garlic. Lay down another thick layer of spinach. Fill to 7/8 full and arrange tomato slices on top. If desired, sprinkle lightly with Parmesan cheese or breadcrumbs, but it is not necessary.
Cover and bake for 45-52 minutes, or until aroma wafts from the oven and fish flakes easily with a fork. Serve with other half of lemon cut into wedges and, if desired, sprinkle with grated Parmesan.
Tips
Traditionally, this dish uses a flaky white fish such as a sole, cod or halibut, but it does wonders for a salmon fillet or even orange roughy.
Pack as much spinach as possible into the pot as it will cook down significantly. Don't be afraid to literally push down the leaves with the heel of your hand. Just be sure that the rim of the pot is clear (no leaves hanging over) and the lid sits cleanly on the base before it goes into the oven.
About the Authors: Elizabeth Yarnell is the author of Glorious One-Pot Meals: A new quick & healthy approach to Dutch oven cooking, a guide to preparing infused one-pot meals.
Visit Elizabeth online at www.GloriousOnePotMeals.com. The Glorious One-Pot Meal cooking method is unique and holds US patent 6,846,504.
Recommended Reading Glorious One-Pot Meals (Spiral-bound)
by Elizabeth Yarnell
Glorious One-Pot Meals: A new quick & healthy approach to Dutch oven cooking provides a patented cooking technique that balances both the need for quick and easy meals with the desire for healthy and tasty recipes. The Glorious One-Pot Meal method is unique in that it allows ingredients to retain their shape and integrity throughout the cooking process, unlike traditional one-pot meal methods such as crock-pot stews, casseroles, and stir-fries. Ingredients are infused with flavors and it makes no difference whether you start with fresh, frozen or canned foods as everything cooks in the same amount of time and emerges moist, tender and perfectly cooked. It’s the ultimate method for making convenient and healthy dinners.
Each Glorious One-Pot Meal contains an entrée, grains, and vegetable side dishes for a complete meal with minimal preparation or clean up. The Glorious One-Pot Meals cookbook includes more than just recipes; readers also receive grocery shopping tips and advice on stocking a pantry and freezer for convenient meal preparation. Glorious One-Pot Meals are perfect for the busy cook because each recipe requires, on average, fewer than 20 minutes to prepare and 45 minutes to bake in the oven.
While there are many reasons for teaching kids to cook -- less expensive than eating out, preserves family heritage, etc, the most important
reason is that by teaching your child to cook, you're giving him a better chance to be a healthy grown-up. Enabling your child with the ability
to appreciate freshness and to transform ingredients into tasty foods opens their eyes to making wiser choices about what to eat...
by Elizabeth Yarnell of 
About the Authors:
Recommended Reading
Let's Get Cooking!
