Fast Track Your Family to Healthy Eating and Active Living.

Congratulations, you have taken the next step towards a healthier you! Drawing from their extensive background, Cheryl Christian and Laura Kalina have come together to share their innovative, real-life-tested and family-approved formulas to ease you into a healthy lifestyle.

Introduction

Excerps from the "Meals in Minutes’ Foreword" by Ray D. Strand, M.D. The most important aspect of our health is determined by the foods we choose to eat. It is becoming more and more obvious that the highly processed foods we are consuming today are one of the main reasons we are facing the obesity and diabetes epidemics. Learning to prepare and serve meals that contain good, low-glycemic carbohydrates along with good fats and proteins, is key to your health and the health of your family. When you combine a healthy diet with a modest exercise program and high quality nutritional supplements, you give yourself the absolute best chance of protecting your health and maintaining a healthy weight.

Studies have revealed that 85 to 90 percent of the carbohydrates that adults and children are eating today in the U.S. and Canada are highly processed and high-glycemic. This has led us to repeatedly spike our blood sugar and eventually become much less sensitive to our own insulin. The insulin resistance that has developed because of our poor diet and lack of physical activity is the primary reason we are in the midst of not only an obesity epidemic, it is the major reason so many of us are becoming diabetic. It has now been shown that nearly 25 percent of the adult population has fullblown insulin resistance and another 25 percent are well on their way of developing it. This leads to a constellation of health problems that has been defined by the medical community as the "metabolic syndrome." These individuals develop high blood pressure, abnormal lipids, increased blood clotting, significant weight gain, and are at high risk of developing heart disease and diabetes. When this occurs, you not only begin aging much faster than you should, but you also gain an unusual amount of weight around your middle that you just can’t lose. You begin to hold on to fat like a sponge holds on to water. This is all the result of an underlying resistance to your own insulin.

Meals in Minutes provides you and your family with the guidance necessary to begin eating healthy low-glycemic carbohydrates like whole, fresh fruits and vegetables along with whole grains. The Phase 1 recipes allow you to not only break the damaging cycle of spiking blood sugar, but also allow you to have victory over your cravings and emotional eating. Over time, when you combine healthy, low-glycemic carbohydrates with good fats and proteins, you allow your body the best opportunity to become more sensitive to your own insulin. This is especially true when you combine this healthy diet with a modest exercise program and high quality nutritional supplementation. Once you have successfully reached your weight and health goals, you are able to move on to Phase 2 of the Healthy for Life Program, which reintroduces healthy grains, potatoes, and cereals.

It is important to point out the fact that some of you are now gaining a fear of consuming
carbohydrates because of the low- or no-carbohydrate diets that are permeating the book shelves. You must realize that our bodies need and desire good carbohydrates, which also contain all of those great vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants that our bodies need and require. Simply eating 8 to 12 servings daily of fruits and vegetables will decrease your risk of heart disease, stroke, diabetes, cancer, and Alzheimer’s disease by two- to three-fold.

Laura and Cheryl make these recommendations so easy and obtainable. You now have a great resource of easy-to-prepare, healthy recipes that provide those good carbohydrates, good fats, and good protein. The food we consume is one of the greatest drugs we put into our body. Take the time to learn how to prepare these healthy, delicious recipes that will help reverse any carbohydrate cravings you may have and at the same time protect your health.

I think you will find that these innovative recipes not only taste great, they are also easy to prepare. Your family will enjoy the pleasure of sharing these meals together as everyone’s health improves. Diets simply do not work. We need to learn how to prepare and eat healthy delicious food all over again. Meals in Minutes will make your task so much easier and so much more fun.

Ray D. Strand, M.D.