Dear Friends,

We are so glad that you enjoyed our previous post with information about the outstanding benefits of pomegranates. Many of you asked exactly how to juice these miraculous fruits. Here is how we do it in my family. You may use any electric citrus juicer. We especially like the CitriStar we bought from Tribest.com because of its powerful motor. Since juicing pomegranates is a bit more complicated than juicing oranges, Valya and I made these photographs for you.

Good tip #1: Choose smaller, dark red ripe pomegranates that yield slightly to the touch.  Cut pomegranate in half.

Good tip #2: Place a plate under the pomegranate to avoid staining your cutting board red forever and to save some extra juice.

When cut correctly, you will be greeted with a beautiful red star.

Begin to juice just like you would juice an orange.

When you get to the seeds hidden in the folds as shown in this picture, tilt the pomegranate so that the ream of the juicer is pointed towards each pocket of seeds.

You will see that is very easy to juice most of the seeds.

To collect every bit of the precious juice, you may grab the seeds and the pulp and squeeze them with your hand.

Freshly squeezed pomegranate juice is often tart in taste. In my family we like to juice an orange or two on top of the pomegranate.

This picture shows a juice made of two pomegranates and three oranges. I like to drink this cocktail every morning during the short pomegranate season

Enjoy!

Love, Victoria

Dear Friends, 

Since August of this year I have been working hard on a surprise project that today, has finally been completed. Apple has just approved my Green Smoothie iPhone Application. If you have an iPhone, you can have instant access to countless green smoothie recipes. What makes my program unique, is the nutrition data that accompanies every ingredient and each recipe. Along with nutritional data, I have included the nutritional highlights of what foods are beneficial for particular health condition. For example, raspberries are associated with colon cancer protective properties, parsley have been shown to inhibit tumor formation in the lungs, and lemons are useful in conditions like colds, flu's, and recurrent ear infections.

It took me five months to compile the scientific information to create this application, and format it in an easily comprehensible manner. All of my nutritional highlights come form the best most trusted sources one of which is http://nutritiondata.self.com/

To make this program esthetically beautiful, and to make the ingredients easy to recognize, I purchased all of the ingredients of each smoothie and hired my good friend and brilliant photographer Robert Petetit to capture artistic images of the produce.

This applications is available for $1.99. This could be a great last minute gift for friends and relatives who have iPhones. To purchase the App go to the iPhone App Store or you can use this link.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/green-smoothies/id409966779?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4

For those of you who do not have an iPhone, I have some good news: We in the process of making this application into a website.

Love, Victoria

I apologize for the typo in the link I provided yesterday.

The correct website is http://nutritiondata.self.com

Enjoy the true facts!

Love, Victoria

Dear Friends,

 I was greatly surprised by e-mails that I received after my birch juice joke. People told me that the birch tree is now beginning to sell in America and the world as another super miracle food and is quite expensive. On one hand it could be flattering for me to learn that so many average, everyday Russian foods are now marketed as super foods. On the other hand when I visit Russia they seem to not care about their kombucha on the window sill, the birch tree juice in the fridge, the sea buckhorn syrup, and sweets made with goji berries. Russians pay top money for mangos, avocados and cherry tomatoes which are promoted on Russian television as an absolute must for being healthy.  

I invite you to be more aware of possibilities of exaggeration from marketers. When I hear about a new super food I check what nutrient it claims to be high in and then I see what local food contains that same nutrient. My favorite website for this search is www.nutritiandata.com   This is how I discovered that grape leaves have 200 times more resveratrol than grape seeds; red cabbage is comparable to acai berries in phytonutrient antioxidants, and that pomegranates are comparable to v’i’a’g’r’a.

 Researchers report that long-term consumption of pomegranate juice may help combat erectile dysfunction. Studies show that there is a possibility that pomegranate compounds might prevent prostate cancer or slow its growth. (1)

 In addition, pomegranates have very high content of punicalagins, a potent anti-oxidant component found to be responsible for its superior health benefits. The level of antioxidants in pomegranates is even higher than blueberries, cranberries and oranges.  This was attributed to the very high polyphenol content in the fruit.

They are also a good source of vitamin B (riboflavin, thiamin and niacin), vitamin C, calcium and phosphorus.  These combination and other minerals in pomegranates cause a powerful synergy that prevents and reverses many diseases.

Pomegranate may reduce the risk of having a heart disease, heart attacks, and strokes. They possess high levels of antioxidants and thus help support the body's normal defense in the prevention of certain cancers. Pomegranates are rumored to help reduce the possibility of having premature babies and Alzheimer’s disease.

 Pomegranate are rich in antioxidants that can keep bad LDL cholesterol from oxidizing This degradation of LDL may lead to the development of atherosclerosis. In addition, pomegranate juice, like aspirin, can help keep blood platelets from clumping together to form unwanted clots.

 This is the beginning of pomegranate season in the northern hemisphere, so share the benefits of pomegranates with your loved ones!

 Love, Victoria

Dear Friends,

I wanted to tell you a very funny joke that I have to first translate into English.

My sister Marina who is a raw food teacher in Moscow has just sent it to me. Traditionally for centuries Russian people have been collecting birch tree juice every spring by placing buckets under small holes on the tree trunks, similar to collecting maple sap in North America and Canada. When you enter a Russian juice bar there is always birch juice available, it’s almost clear, sweet and nutritious.

Here is the joke.

A raw foodist brought her broken juicer to the appliance repair man. The mechanic looked at the juicer and became horrified, “What in the world did you do to it?”
She shrugged her shoulders and said, “Well, I was just trying to make birch juice”

The next time you go to Russia, treat yourself to a cup of birch juice properly made.

Love,

Victoria