Snack-time can be a real test of your commitment to your bone health goals. Will you munch on something unhealthy and acidifying, or will you select an alkalizing treat that will satisfy your palate and your bone-health goals?
Today you’ll get two delicious, easy-to-prepare snack recipes containing two powerfully alkalizing ingredients that can turn acidifying foods into alkalizing delights. You can enjoy these 100% alkalizing, gluten-free muffins and cookies with acidifying beverages, such as coffee or tea.
These recipes further confirm that when you know how to select bone-healthy ingredients, you can enjoy typically unhealthy foods while following a pH-balanced diet.
Quinoa: A Complete Protein In A Tiny Package
There’s only one alkalizing plant food that contains a complete protein: quinoa. Quinoa is actually a seed more closely related to beets and spinach than to cereals or grains.
Your body is fully capable of assembling complete proteins from the amino acids in different plant foods. That’s why bodybuilders can be vegan and still build so much muscle! But having a single food source of all the amino acids needed to build new muscle makes the process easier and faster.
Building strong muscles is important for Savers. The pressure that your muscles exert on your bones stimulates bone growth, as per Wolff’s Law, so the ability to grow new muscle mass equates to the ability to stimulate more bone growth.
Additionally, protein works with calcium to improve calcium retention and bone metabolism.1 Getting those perks in a single alkalizing seed makes quinoa a Foundation Food, and it’s also full of other bone-critical nutrients including:
*Foundation Supplement
Synopsis
Quinoa provides complete protein, along with a variety of other bone-smart nutrients.
Flaxseed: An Alkalizing Source Of Omega-3 Fatty Acids
The second seed on our ingredient list is flaxseed. This versatile and alkalizing plant contains a variety of bone-healthy nutrients. Most notably, it’s an excellent source of Omega-3 fatty acids.
Omega-3 is an essential fatty acid (EFA), meaning it can’t be produced by the body. You have to get it from the foods you eat. You may know it by its other name, a-linolenic acid (ALA), which is a precursor to the Omega-3s DHA and EPA.
Your dietary balance of Omega-6 to Omega-3 plays a vital role in your well-being, and ideally, you should consume them in a ratio ranging between 4:1 and 1:1. Unfortunately, Western diets tend to skew heavy on Omega-6, by as much as 17:1.2 Here are a few of the health problems caused by this sort of imbalance:2,3
- Cardiovascular disease
- Cancer
- Inflammatory disease
- Autoimmune diseases
- Neurodegenerative diseases
- Diabetes
- Arthritis
- Hypertension
- Asthma
- Osteoporosis
The relationship between dietary fatty acid imbalance and osteoporosis has to do with cytokines. Extra cytokines are released when the EFA ratio is heavy on Omega-6, and those cytokines increase the bone resorption, causing an imbalance in the bone remodeling process that results in less-dense, lower-quality bones.4
Flaxseed and other foods high in Omega-3 can restore the balance of essential fatty acids and return cytokine production to normal, preventing bone loss.5
Flaxseed is also a source of additional bone-healthy nutrients including:
- Manganese*
- Copper*
- Vitamin B1*
- Magnesium*
- Phosphorus
- Selenium
- Fiber
- Lignans
- Molybdenum
*Foundation Supplement
It’s easy to see why Savers would want to incorporate flaxseed into their diet, and the recipes below are a great way to get started.
Synopsis
Flaxseed is an alkalizing source of Omega-3 fatty acids, which must be kept in balance with Omega-6 fatty acids.
Raspberry Quinoa Muffins
16 Muffins
100% Alkalizing
Ingredients:
- 2 cups quinoa, cooked
- 1 3/4 cups almond flour
- 1/4 cup flaxseed, ground
- 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon stevia powder (adjust to taste)
- 2 teaspoons orange zest
- 1 cup plain, unsweetened yogurt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup unsweetened almond milk
- 3 tablespoons coconut oil, melted
- 1 1/2 cups raspberries
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350.
- Line a 16 muffin pan with paper liners or lightly oil it (you can also use two 12 muffin pans).
- Use a large bowl to mix the flour, baking powder, and stevia. Then add the quinoa and mix until well blended.
- Stir in the orange zest, vanilla, almond milk, yogurt, and coconut oil, and blend the mixture well.
- Fold in the raspberries.
- Spoon the mixture into the muffin pan(s).
- Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a fork inserted into the center comes out clean.
No-Bake Cherry Cookies
12 Servings
100% Alkalizing
Ingredients:
- 2 cups quinoa, cooked
- 2 tablespoons almond flour
- 2 tablespoons flaxseed, ground
- 2 tablespoons almonds, slivered
- 1/2 cup almond butter
- 1/4 teaspoon stevia powder (adjust to taste)
- 1 1/2 tablespoons coconut oil
- 1/2 cup dried cherries
- 2 tablespoons unsweetened shredded coconut
Directions:
- In a bowl, mix all ingredients and shape into balls.
- Press down to create the cookie shape.
- Freeze for 20 to 30 minutes before serving.
Eat Your Way To Better Bone Health
It might seem too good to be true that fruity cookies and muffins could be part of a bone-healthy diet, but it’s entirely possible using the sort of substitutions and creative solutions in today’s recipes.
By making small but powerful changes to the way you eat, exercise, and choose your habits, you can reverse osteoporosis and live life to its fullest.
Eat Your Way to Stronger Bones!
Discover over 200 mouth-watering bone healthy recipes for breakfast, smoothies, appetizers, soups, salads, vegetarian dishes, fish, and plenty of main courses and even desserts!
References:
1 Kerstetter JE, Kenny AM, Insogna KL. Dietary protein and skeletal health: a review of recent human research. Curr Opin Lipidol. 2011 Feb;22(1):16-20. Web: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21102327
2 A. P. Simopoulos. “The importance of the ratio of omega-6/omega-3 essential fatty acids” Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy. Volume 56, Issue 8, October 2002, Pages 365-379. Web. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0753332202002536
3 Artemis P. Simopoulos. “The omega-6/omega-3 fatty acid ratio: health implications.” OCL Volume 17, Number 5, 267 – 275. 15 September 2010. Web. https://www.ocl-journal.org/articles/ocl/full_html/2010/05/ocl2010175p267/ocl2010175p267.html
4 Weiss et al. “Rancho Bernardo Study.” Am J Clin Nutr 81: 934. 2005
5 Kruger MC. “Calcium gamma-linolenic acid and eicosapentaenoic acid supplementation in senile osteoporosis.” Aging (Milano). 1998 Oct;10(5):385-94. Web. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9932142
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All About Amaranth, A Bone-Healthy Ancient GrainComments on this article are closed.
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Most sugar-free sweeteners contain toxic ingredients, that’s why we recommend stevia. But if you don’t like stevia, you can try monk fruit extract. It’s a natural, no- calorie sweetener and studies have shown that it also provides health benefits. Hope you’ll like it!
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Hi V, I am forever grateful for what you are doing to help me, and others. You are a tremendous blessing. I wish to thank all of our friends here who add their helpful information, and for others who ask questions, I learn from you and from them also. Thank you V, and “thank you” to all our friends here.
Thank you for the recipes, and I will have to substitute items also, as I live outside of the U.S, and am limited, in that I do not get certain food items to purchase. What I would like to know V, do you have in mind to make a vegan recipe book, including a few raw food recipes? Thank you. God bless you, and all others.-
I appreciate your kind words and appreciation, Abigail! For now, we don’t have plans to publish vegan recipes, but you might be glad to know that OsteoCleanse contains an entire chapter of such recipes.
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Is there any way to make the muffins without the yogurt. I can’t have any dairy products.
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I have the same problem with dairy and gluten so usually I use coconut milk which is a little thicker and it seems to do well with most recipe … Coconut milk and almond milk(beverage) and it does the trick…
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Use kite hill almond miles yogurt
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Thanks for chiming in with good advice, Jan and Lydia!
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I also cannot have nuts, which includes coconut oil. Are there any healthy substitutes?
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Lynn, you can substitute coconut oil with any other bone-healthy oil, such as olive oil or avocado oil.
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I have purchased your densercise program to help my bones. but when I look at most of the recipes you offer, there are too many ingredients which contribute to poor health, including oil’s, eggs, and dairy products. Those are all highly inflammatory and are what helped contribute to my bone loss in the first place. All plants contain calcium, so dairy is not necessary. Can we get a revamp of some of these recipes?
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Jean, we only include fermented dairy, and healthy oils (such as olive oil). You can replace the eggs with ground flaxseed soaked in water, and you can also replace dairy yogurt with almond or coconut milk yogurt.
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Thank you for helping me learning these recipes very very much I am happy to learn this very much
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You’re very welcome!
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Your recipes always sound amazing but unfortunately for those of us with a nut allergy can’t enjoy them. Maybe some recipes without using almond flour all the time would be delightfuly. Please give this some serious consideration.
Thanks Diane Grant-
Hi, Diane. I live outside the U.S. and have to substitute ingredients all the time. Just change the almond flour for a different alkalizing flour. It works just as well!
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Great suggestion, Kimberly! Coconut flour is a good replacement, but since it absorbs more liquids, you should add a little more almond milk for this recipe (about 1/3 of a cup).
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Thank you, Ita.
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You’re welcome 🙂
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The recipes look delicious, except for the inclusion of stevia. Do you have another suggestion for a sweetener?