Kombucha - Home-Made, Fermented, Probiotic, Health-Boosting Joy!

In the past I was always a bit nonplussed when it came to kombucha. I didn't think I liked the taste, and I was sceptical of the claimed health benefits. But now I've found out more about it, and discovered how easy and fun it is to make at home, I'm definitely a kombucha convert!

Kombucha is a fermented drink made from tea. It is made using a 'kombucha mother', also called a 'kombucha scoby' (or sometimes 'the tea beast'!) which is a gelatinous colony of bacteria and yeast. The mother is added to a container of sweet black tea, and over the period of a couple of days to a couple of weeks the bacteria and yeast feed off of the sugar, and produce a range of nutrients which fortify the tea.

Health Benefits

Kombucha is credited with anti-viral and anti-fungal properties. Like all ferments, it is a 'living' substance, containing healthful 'friendly bacteria', which are essential for immunity, digestion, and nutrient absorption. It also contains vitamins and amino acids. In ancient China it was called the 'tea of immortality'.

Using & Brewing Kombucha

The only difficulty to start with is getting hold of a komucha mother. You could try asking around your local health-food shops, or look on eBay where there are often some for sale.

A kombucha mother can be reused indefinitely. Each new batch is started with about a cupful of mature kombucha saved from the previous batch, and some new (cooled) sweet black tea. One or 2 teabags and a handful of sugar to a small saucepan of water seems about right, but the quantities are very variable.

The best vessel for brewing your kombucha is said to be a bowl with a large surface area, but I find it easier in a large jar. Cover with a cloth to keep out flies or dust but don't seal closed as this would cause a pressure build up.

Once it's ready, the komucha is kept in the fridge and drunk as it is. It is slightly fizzy, slightly acidic, and to my mind, has a taste not unlike cider. The taste changes day by day as the complex fermentation processes develop. Young kombucha still tastes more like tea and is slightly sweet.

Very mature kombucha is not at all sweet, with a strong vinegary taste. Kombucha connoisseurs often seem to like it quite vinegary, but I must admit I prefer it a little milder, and normally stop my kombucha before it gets too strong.

Every batch you make also produces a new 'mother', so you end up with 2. At first the existing mother that you put in sinks to the bottom. After a day or 2 you can start to see a film appearing on the surface of the kombucha. Don't be afraid - this isn't mould, but the beginnings of a new mother.

After another couple of days it will be thicker, and will resemble the original mother. Once you have finished, you can use each of your mothers to make 2 separate batches of kombucha, give one away, or compost it. A mother will also keep for a couple of weeks in the fridge in a cupful or so of mature kombucha.

You can also kombucha other liquids. I mentioned that to me komucha tastes a little like cider, so I recently tried komucha-ing some apple juice, and it was delicious! It is claimed that using liquids other than tea will eventually harm the mother, but I haven't yet found this to be the case.

As a new mother is created each time I find it best to keep one regular batch of kombucha tea on the go at the same time as an experimental brew, so that I always have one mother that I know will be ok.

So... I'm a kombucha convert, is anyone else with me?

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Switching To Plant-Based Eating Is Not As Hard As You Think

A healthy plant-based diet is not really all that different from a healthy omnivorous diet. If you are thinking about transitioning to a plant-based diet or wanting to incorporate more plant-based food into your nutrition, it's much easier than you may think.

A healthy diet, whether you eat only plants or combine plants with meat, consists of a healthy emphasis on fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, whole grains, beans and legumes. Even those who call themselves vegetarians or vegans can eat unhealthy by not choosing the best plants to eat. For example, pizza and ice cream (for those who eat dairy) are vegetarian foods, but they are not healthy choices. Structuring your nutrition properly is important, and the basis of that should be around whole natural foods.

The largest difference between an omnivorous diet (one that contains meat) and a plant-based diet is where your protein is coming from. Other than that, 80% of the diet is going to be the same (because that's what everyone should be focusing on). Many people eat meat 2-3 times per day. The best place to start is to limit your meat consumption to 2-3 times per week.

The biggest myth in eating a plant-based diet is that you do not get enough protein since you are not eating meat. There are plenty of ways to get great protein sources from plant-based foods. The one food that has the most protein you will find is tempeh (soy protein). One cup of tempeh has as much as 41 grams of protein, more than you will typically find in a steak. One cup of lentils has as much as 18 grams of protein, kidney beans have as much as 13 grams. Chick peas are another one, which have up to 12 grams in one cup. Nuts are also a great choice. A quarter cup of almonds have up to 8 grams of protein; a quarter cup of sunflower seeds has 6 grams of protein. You may be surprised to learn that even broccoli has protein in it! One cup of cooked broccoli has four grams of protein.

Protein is in almost anything that is a whole natural food. Many people only count animal protein in their protein grams, but you can actually get more protein from a plant-based diet than you can with a meat-based diet. Supplements are also available in powder form where you can add your protein to something like a smoothie. Some great ones to start off trying are brown rice protein and hemp protein.

Challenge yourself to begin this process of switching to a plant-based diet by watching where your food is coming from over the next week. 80% of your diet should come from natural sources (not processed foods). As Michael Pollan made popular in his book, "Food Rules," if it's made in a plant don't eat it, but if it is a plant you should eat it.

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Simple Homemade Natural Yogurt

You need no complicated equipment or yogurt makers.  At home with little cost you can make delicious, healthy natural yogurt for your family.

Yogurt has been a very nutritious food for centuries.  It is a great way of preserving milk a little longer.  The benefits of regular natural yogurt consumption are huge.  All the yeasts and bacteria found in natural yogurt improve our intestinal tract making us digest everything else we eat, more efficiently.  Many people (such as those with colitis) who find it hard to digest milk have no such problem with natural yogurt.  For them, yogurt is a great way to get some dairy into their diet without causing any problems.

Yogurt making at home is a fun activity.  It is a great way to supply your family with the health benefits of yogurt without the expense.  All you need to pay for is the milk and a few minutes of energy consumed by your cooker.

There is absolutely no need to buy a yogurt maker or any other expensive kitchenware!  All you need to make your own yogurt is a pan, bowl, sandwich box or similar and a blanket!  This is the traditional and simple method to make natural yogurt:

• Boil up some milk
• Allow to cool
• Mix with a 'starter' which is just a small amount of natural yogurt
• Keep warm for 8 hours (in the blanket)
• That's it - your yogurt will be ready!

The 'yogurt starter' is just a way of giving the batch of milk all the right yeasts, bacterias and enzymes to encourage it to turn itself into yogurt.  Once the yogurt is made you can refrigerate it to prevent it becoming more sour.

You can use any milk but full-fat milk will give you a more creamy yogurt.  Ultra heat treated (UHT) or 'long life' milk is perfectly fine.

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Raw Banana Avocado Ice Cream

Many health conscious people are trying to incorporate more raw foods into their diets. They do this for many different reasons, including the preservation of enzymes and important nutrients. Most health care professionals agree that people need more fruits and vegetables in their daily diets, and eating them raw is a natural choice.

I try to eat foods that will contribute to good health. However, I will not give up flavor in my quest for healthy foods. Years ago I stumbled upon a single ingredient recipe for a banana ice cream substitute. It involved simply freezing a banana and puréeing it in the food processor. The author of the recipe promised it would taste like soft serve banana ice cream. It didn't.

Photo: Divinehealthyfood.com

The resulting concoction had a watery taste that didn't mimic ice cream in any real way. It was similar to the taste of a banana popsicle, but had no creaminess to it. It wasn't bad; it just wasn't what was promised.

I began to wonder how I could keep this recipe as healthy as it was while making it taste a bit more like ice cream. I tried adding almond milk, coconut cream and a few other creamy products. Nothing gave it the right texture and taste. That is until I added an avocado. I know it sounds weird, but avocados are loaded with good monounsaturated fatty acids. These good fats combine with the banana to create a creamy, tasty treat your taste buds won't believe. Top it with chopped nuts for an even more satisfying snack.

Photo: Divinehealthyfood.com

This is what you will need for four servings:

4 very ripe bananas

1 ripe hass avocado

2 teaspoons freshly ground cinnamon or nutmeg (optional)

Directions:

Cut the bananas into one inch slices. Put into a sealable bag and freeze for at least twelve hours. Transfer the bananas to the food processor work bowl, fitted with a multi-purpose blade. Let sit at room temperature for five minutes to slightly thaw. Process until smooth. Add the avocado and spices (if desired) and continue to process till well combined. At this point it will be the consistency of soft serve ice cream and can be served as is. If you want a firmer texture, return it to the freezer for 30 minutes. Do not allow to completely freeze or it will become too hard.

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What Makes 'Organic Food' Organic And Clean?

As more and more people wanted to eat food that was free of chemicals and unnatural processes, they began growing their own crops without the use of harmful chemicals. Smaller farmers also began to revolt against factory farming and they returned to old school farming methods. Then those farmers were able to offer us the alternative to industrially grown produce.

This food began to be called organic because the term implies that everything was produced using only living matter, like plants and animals instead of chemicals.

Pretty soon the big guys could see the attraction that was growing in the market place. They began to adopt the labels and slap them onto the same stuff they were already growing. False advertising? Pretending? Just think of all the "green" products you see in the supermarket.

So the term, organic, had to be regulated somewhat. Finally, standards are set now, and farmers have to meet those standards before they can call their food "organic." The standards are exactly what you think they'd be (who knew the government could do something straight-forward?).

Organic farmers are not allowed to use bioengineered genes (GMOs), synthetic pesticides, sewage sludge-based fertilizer, or petroleum-based fertilizers. Organic livestock need to be fed organic feed and they also need to be able to go outdoors and roam in minimum space.

Fortunately, the guidelines prohibit growth hormones, antibiotics, and animal-by-products as well. Of course there are marketing cheats aiming to fool us with false claims so we need to be on our toes. If it says anything but "Organic" or "Certified Naturally Grown" they're probably hiding something.

If you're not familiar, "Certified Naturally Grown" is an alternative to organic which is controlled by a non-profit organization. They're held to the same standards as "Organic" but they're inspected by other farmers instead of the government. It is not the same as a food simply saying it's "natural" so be careful, they like to trick us.

Affects of Pesticides On Your Body

The whole reason we want organic food is to protect our health; non-organic foods can have some serious health implications. Studies have revealed that pesticides show up in our bodies from eating non-organic food, and often at levels several times higher than is "safe."

Many of these chemicals have been linked to serious health issues like birth defects, infertility, and cancer in both adults and children.

Are you pregnant, or planning to be anytime soon?

Pregnant women can be extremely vulnerable to pesticides because they increase the stress on an already over-stressed body. Even worse, the chemicals can even be transmitted from you to your child, whether still in the womb or through breast-feeding later.

Some tests of children have revealed the presence of nerve-damaging chemicals at 4 times what is officially deemed as "safe" levels. Those chemicals are deliberately designed to kill insects by targeting their nervous system.

Frankly, it seems too obvious to me that those same chemicals will damage our nervous systems exactly the same way they kill the insects. Yes, pesticides come in doses much too low to kill us, but even an only slightly unhealthy diet will catch up to you after years of maintaining it. Another part of that same study revealed significantly high amounts of organochlorine pesticides in women. You might ask, "What's so special about that?"

Well, organochlorine pesticides can be passed down to your child during pregnancy. If that happens, it causes a disruption in vital brain development - leading to learning disabilities and other neurological problems. None of us want that happening to our children. Processed foods are a danger but not the only one. Contaminated food comes out the farm gate on the way to the factory before processing, so we need to be careful where we get our "clean" foods from.

What Foods Are Best To Eat Organic

Ideally, if it was once alive, whether plant or animal, then we want it to be organic. You've probably heard of organic animals, right? That's because animals aren't spared the treatment we get; farmers feed them the same crap they feed us. They use crops in their feed filled with pesticides, but they also include growth hormones and keep the animals locked up indoors 24/7. It's cheaper.

Organic animals are pesticide and hormone-free so you don't need to worry about putting those harmful chemicals in you or your family's bodies. Organic is expensive, though. We can't always afford to spend extra on the better quality stuff, so are there some guidelines we can use to put our money in the best spot?

Yes, there's a list of the "Deadly 14? foods that should always be bought organic. The Environmental Working Group studied data from 9 years of research and told us the 14 foods which tested the highest for pesticides:

* Apples

* Grapes

* Strawberries

* Peaches

* Spinach

* Celery

* Cherry tomatoes

* Potatoes

* Imported snap peas

* Imported nectarines

* Cucumbers

* Sweet bell peppers

* Hot peppers

Do you like blueberries? A lot of us do, but did you know that if you buy domestically grown blueberries they can have organophosphate insecticides? Organophosphates are a common nerve agent used for chemical weapons. It's used to kill us humans, not just insects.

Even low levels of exposure inhibits brain development, often resulting in not only slower learning and reduced physical coordination for our children, but ADHD too. If you've got a growing family, you may want to think twice about buying non-organic blueberries...or anything else.

These organophosphates aren't unique to blueberries, everything else on that list above can also be sprayed with these deadly chemicals But, I know we don't always have the money to spend extra on organic foods, some of us have a tight budget to keep. That's why I've got another list for you.

This one has the foods that tested the lowest for chemicals:

* Onions

* Pineapple

* Corn

* Avocado

* Asparagus

* Mango

* Kiwi

* Sweet peas

* Cabbage

* Papaya

* Eggplant

* Winter squash

* Bananas

* Cauliflower

* Broccoli

* Melons

You may have noticed that most of them have a skin we peel or cut off before eating. At least, most of us normal people do. The chemicals tend to not make it all the way through the skin into the good part we eat, so we get food less tainted by chemicals. Good ol' nature protecting itself from us.

The other foods, like broccoli, are just unappetizing to pests so they're not sprayed as much. If only they'd leave our other food alone too. Although organic food is not any more nutritional than mass produced foods, it is a great fit for a clean eating diet simply because it is free of chemical pesticides. And let's face it, your body must be better off without additives that are powerful killers of insects, don't you think?

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5 Ways To Make Healthy Eating More Interesting

Eating healthy sometimes seems boring. As a culture, we've become inclined to associate good food with foods and dishes that are not always the best choices. Meals that contain oils, cheese, refined sugars and even trans fats have seeped into our daily diets. These high caloric and high sugar foods have us coming back for more but these choices are not the best for our health. 

Good news is on the way! Eating healthy doesn't have to be boring. Fresh fruits, vegetables, lean protein, healthy fats, nuts and spices are great ways to make meals interesting and tasty. Follow these easy tips to spice up your food for healthy eating that's good for you and satisfying to the taste buds.

1. Use spices. Use spices for every meal. Yes, that even means you can spice up your breakfast! For breakfast, eggs cooked in olive oil and spiced with rosemary and garlic add a whole new flavor and sophistication to an early morning meal. Lunch salads can be freshened up with lemon juice and sea salt mixed with a bit of cilantro as a low cal dressing. Fish or chicken at dinner can be marinated in fresh juices and garlic to add flavor.

2. Add color. Use as many colors in your meals as possible. This means adding vegetables and fruits of all different colors. Try to incorporate at least 4 different colors at each meal. Blueberries and strawberries, bell peppers, tomatoes, eggplant and yellow squash are just a few colorful ingredients that can help make your food tasty. In addition, the colors are eye catching which will make any dish more appealing.

3. Fatten up your food. Using healthy fats will add flavor to food. Fats such as olive oil, coconut oil, avocado and nuts add depth to the flavor of food providing a richer taste in a dish. In addition, the role of fat is to slow the absorption of sugar into the blood stream and signal the brain that you are full. So not only will you benefit from a taste enhancer, but you'll also be doing yourself a favor nutritionally.

4. Serve it sassy. Dress up your food! Use garnishes such as parsley on the side of the plate, a piece of bibb lettuce under a fresh piece of fish or fresh fruit on top of your protein as a flavor enhancer and pretty finisher. At most restaurants, your food comes out on the plate looking beautiful. There may be a subtle or sophisticated plated presentation. Making your plate pretty can help make your meal seem more enticing.

5. Try something new. We tend to get into the habit of eating the same foods over and over again. The biggest reason for this is because we know we like these foods so they are our "go to" foods. Trying new things can help keep your healthy meals new and exciting. Try a new piece of fish for dinner such as sea bass, halibut or pick the freshest piece of fish at your local grocery store that you haven't tried before. Cook your vegetables in a different way. Summer time is the perfect time to grill vegetables instead of roasting or baking them. Add in one new vegetable or fruit to mix things up. Try a new recipe to give you inspiration. Whatever the "new" component is, keeping your meals interesting will help make eating healthy fun and keep you focused on healthy choices.

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5 Tips For Creating Your Own Healthy Recipes

Most people think that all recipes come from Michelin star chefs or are handed down from some distant ancestor. Not only that but if you were to even consider making your own recipe, you would have to go through years of trial and error or training in the woods with some sort of cooking sensei.

What if I told you that with a little bit of planning and some simple diet knowledge, that you can easily create healthy meals for you and your family? Would you believe me? Read on.

Healthy Recipe Tip 1 - Planning is everything!

The thing that separates average and amazing cooking is simply planning. Taking a few minutes each week to plan meals for the following days can make a huge, and I mean HUGE difference.

Healthy Recipe Tip 2 - Steal!

There are literally thousands of recipe books, websites and blogs full of fantastic recipes. Keep all of these recipes in one place and when it comes to shopping for your next week/month, you can pick out the recipes that grab your attention and add their ingredients to your shopping list.

Healthy Recipe Tip 3 - Trim the fat!

Now it's time for you to get creative. Unless the recipes that you have sourced are super healthy, it is now your mission to take out the unhealthy ingredients, and either swap them with a healthy alternative or change the method in which they are cooked i.e. fried ingredients can be grilled etc. Even if they are already super healthy, don't be afraid to swap things you don't like for things you do!

Healthy Recipe Tip 4 - Be brave!

Now we have a healthy alternative to a recipe that you like, go wild and add any ingredients (healthy ones of course!) that you like and throw them in to the mix. The idea is that you will begin to understand really quickly what works together and what doesn't.

Experimenting with herbs and spices is a great way to start, perhaps add a few spoonful's of chilli in to your next casserole and see how it changes the flavour.

Healthy Recipe Tip 5 - Practice makes perfect!

I know that at the beginning of this article I said that you don't have to suffer years of trial and error to be able to create your recipes. It's true! However, don't expect to get it right all of the time. If you follow the tips above, you will make more winners than failures, all you have to do is stay clear on what you and the people that you will be cooking for like and the sky is the limit!

Good luck!

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Natural Sugar Substitutes Keep You Healthy

Learn about natural sweeteners which are healthier and do not involve any processing like white sugar that would cause environmental pollution.

Our daily diets always include sugar in one form or the other, which is indeed necessary for our body. Sometimes, it will be in the form of fruits, and some other time, it will be sweets, cookies, chocolates, cakes and smoothies. But, fruits, as we all know, are of fewer calories and the natural sugar contained in them is not harmful to the body, compared to sweetened products. The sweetened products available in the market are usually made out of synthetic sugar, which is hard to be processed and eliminated by the body, and it gets deposited in the body as fat.

Also, there are serious problems linked with too much consumption of sugar including obesity, imbalance in blood sugar levels, heart diseases, arthritis etc. One cannot completely exclude sugar from their diet, but can replace the synthetic sugar with natural sugar substitutes, thereby keeping the fitness of the body.

The natural sugar substitutes are healthier and do not involve any processing like white sugar that would cause environmental pollution. They are widely available in the market and are not much expensive. Some of the healthy sweeteners have been discussed below. Any of these natural sugar substitutes can be included in your diet and you can stay healthy and fit.

Agave Nectar

Agave Nectar is made out of blue agave plant seen in Southern Mexico. 90 percent of agave nectar is composed of fructose and it is sweeter than the usual table sugar and hence can be used in a lower quantity.

Stevia

Stevia is made from the stevia rebaudiana plant extract and is said that it has no carbohydrates, no calories and very safe to use. It requires only a very small amount of stevia for sweetening as it is around 300 times sweeter than regular sugar.

Brown Rice Syrup

When rice is cultured with enzymes, starch contained in the rice breaks down and results in the formation of rice syrup. As brown rice syrup is contained with soluble complex carbohydrates, it gets digested within two or three hours after intake. The evaporation of this syrup results in the formation of rice syrup powder.

Maple syrup

Maple syrup is also a natural sugar substitute and is also an antioxidant. The darker B grade maple syrup is contained with more minerals than the A grade one.

Honey

Honey is a natural sugar substitute and sweeter than sugar. It has high calories and carbohydrates compared to refined sugar. According to reports, raw honey is composed of enzymes, minerals and B-complex vitamins.

Xylitol

Xylitol is a low calorie, sugar alcohol which is a natural sugar substitute. The one advantage of xylitol is that, it is absorbed slowly and will not add in a rise in blood sugar level in the body.

ZSweet

ZSweet is an ideal sugar substitute for sugar substitutes as it does not increase glucose level in the body. It is of zero calorie and tastes like refined sugar. It is produced from erythritol which is cultured from sugar and natural plant extracts.

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Why Are Fermented Vegetables Good For You?

Fermented vegetables, also known as raw cultured vegetables, have been around since ancient times and across all cultures. The fermentation process was originally done to preserve foods as the process enabled foods to be kept for months without spoiling. Specifically, its where foods are either left whole or chopped and left to sit in their natural juices, which are drawn out then used to preserve the food.

In ancient times, fermented foods were considered quite the staple food source, thus very instrumental in getting the masses through the long winter months. Today, we know and appreciate more of the nutritional benefits of fermented foods. For starters, they promote digestive health. Their acidity kills harmful bacteria and pathogens, removes toxins and anti-nutritional compounds and produces antibiotics, which improves immunity and overall health. Moreover, the new cultures that are created from the fermentation process create folic acid, niacin, riboflavin, thiamin and biotin, which are all part of the Vitamin B complex. B Vitamins promote healthy skin, increase metabolism, reduce the risk of pancreatic cancer, help the body make hormones and enhance immunity among other things. So as you can see fermented vegetables have an abundance of benefits to us.

Now, if you're not too familiar with what fermented vegetables are exactly some well-known examples are pickles, salsa, soy sauce, sauerkraut, sour cream, sourdough bread, water kefir and more. On the other hand, if you know of yet just aren't too keen on eating fermented foods, but still want to reap the benefits there are a variety of ways to eat them. For instance, sprinkling some sauerkraut on your salad or eating some with crackers will make a tasty snack or meal. Then, if you're a bread lover you could trade white bread for some sourdough. You could even add some fermented fruit to a nice, cold smoothie. Meanwhile, there are even some healthy fermented beverages that you can enjoy such as kefir, which can be found at your local health food store.

Fermented foods are a blessing to the world. They are a rich source of nutrients and for all the nutrients they pack they are relatively inexpensive whether you buy them fermented or do it yourself. Either way you look at it, you definitely get the bang for your buck and the nutritional benefit that you get is well worth your time and indulgence. Yet, from a broader perspective, fermented foods provide a means for feeding more of the worlds poor. So just as our ancestors realized the immense benefits of this food source so might we. There is much wisdom to be gained from ancient practices such as fermentation, which should not only be honored for what they did for us in the past, but more importantly for what they can and will do for us in the future as food security and the purity of our food is being threatened more and more each day.

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Natural Food As The Best Source For Vitamins And Nutrition

The way that the body works is complex, but one thing should be understood when you are seeking to enjoy optimal nutrition - it is best to get all that you need from your food. Though the modern world seems to favor instant remedies and lots of over the counter health solutions, it is not that wise to rely on pills to give you nutrients such as vitamins and minerals.

Why not? That is something that you will want to know if you are looking to consume a high vitality diet. The body really loves balance. It has actually mastered it by being able to take foods and use everything in them to nourish the body. In fact, this mastery has gone so far as to make it best to eat certain foods because they contain complementary ingredients that actually help the body to use nutrients in the best ways possible.

As an example, you eat an orange because you know it is full of vitamin C. This is a water soluble vitamin that is not absorbed by the body until it is about to exit the small intestine. The fact that oranges are high in water content means that a lot of the vitamin is going to be absorbed easily in the best way possible by the body. It is amazing and serves as a good lesson in the need to use food sources for nutrition.

The Transports

The ways that vitamins are found are almost endless. They appear in almost every natural food you can list, and they all have different quantities. This is why you do want to consume a range of foods on a regular basis, and why you want to choose only fresh and whole foods as often as you can. These are the only guarantees of getting the highest nutrient counts.

After all, if you eat roots, leaves, fruits, flowers, stems, and nuts for your nutrients and vitamins, they are what could be called "living" food sources. They will degrade quite rapidly after being harvested (as they should), and so food that has been transported over distances and kept in storage will not have the same higher nutritional values.

This does indicate that nutrition and vitamins can usually result best when obtained through the consumption of the freshest foods possible, and this means that seasonal eating is the wisest course of action. While your entire diet may not be available as fresh foods, you can consume frozen and dried foods and mix them with the available bounty.

This ensures that you are getting the materials you need at the highest quality. Now, there is one last way to get vitamins, and that is through exposure to the sun. Vitamin D is actually synthesized (made by) the body when the skin is exposed to direct sun. Just sitting outdoors for 15 to 20 minutes each day will allow you to naturally generate your daily supply of this essential vitamin. Nature does provide what you need, just be sure you eat seasonally and rely on food sources for most of your nutrients.

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