Heart

There are many things that will catch your eye, but only a few will catch your heart...pursue those.
-- Michael Nolan

I see hearts popping up everywhere like early spring flowers. I get to thinking about them. Hearts. Healthy hearts, happy hearts, broken hearts. Heart-to-heart, heart's desire, heart attack. And I got thinking also about the importance – both literally and figuratively – of my heart.

Data from the Canadian Health Measure Survey (CHMS) indicate that nearly one-fifth (19%) of Canadians aged 20 to 79, roughly 4.6 million people, had hypertension. Another 20% had readings in the pre-hypertension range, and 61% had normal blood pressure (Statistics Canada, The Daily, Wednesday, February 17, 2010, Canadian Health Measures Survey: Blood pressure in adults, www.statcan.gc.ca). Heart disease, one of the two leading causes of death for Canadians, accounted for 22% of deaths in 2007. (Statistics Canada, The Daily, Tuesday, November 30, 2010, Leading causes of death, www.statcan.gc.ca ). How dismal!

But I also read the summary of the report The Changing Face of Heart Disease and Stroke in Canada, by the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, October 1999, that stated, "The impact of heart disease and stroke in Canada can be reduced through reduction of risk factors and their predisposing and facilitating conditions; the promotion of health; and effective use of interventions and health services." How hopeful!

Here at the Centre, we hope that we are making the kind of difference in people's lives that is moving them, one step at a time, to having a healthier quality of life. We have quite a few offerings this month to celebrate the whole month of Love in February -- and to strengthen your heart!  Improve your diet (and your love life) by taking Purna's Raw Food Desserts For Romance & Love (think chocolate!) class. Let Libby guide you through her insightful, two-day workshop in Relationships & Loving: Making More Loving & Authentic Relationships. Kit's class, Learning To Love Myself, helps you keep the focus on the most special person in your life. Have creative fun in Sheryl's Art From The Heart Funshop: If Your Heart Could Speak, What Would It Say? Make A Clay Heart To Wear On Your Sleeve.  Need some serious relaxation? Sheryl or Nancy can offer you a reflexology session or an aromatherapy massage that will melt your stress away. And these are just a few of the fabulous offerings that you can participate in this month. Yoga! Meditation! All guaranteed to make your heart lighter!

Have a Scent-Sational Month!
Sheryl Beller-Kenner, nd, EdD, CH, CAHP, RCRT
Director & Naturopath

OUR HERBAL ALLIES
TEA & CHOCOLATE
Sheryl Beller-Kenner, Chocaholic

I can't think of a thing that chocolate doesn't go well with. The aphrodisiac aroma! The smoothness in the mouth! The exquisite flavor! A simple meal can be elevated to greatness if it's finished with a cup of tea and a chocolate-y dessert. After multiple sessions of exploring my relationship with food and hearing how important natural, whole and vegetarian foods are, I knew that I had to do something about my choices of desserts. So, it came to me one day to combine the two.

I'd read somewhere that drinking tea while eating chocolate gives you all the nourishment you need to start your day, so I did a little research...

Nutrition facts:
1 ounce of dark chocolate = 164 calories, 2 g fiber, 11 g fat (6 g sat fat), 18% DV copper, 10% DV iron;
1 tbs cocoa = 12 calories, 2 g fiber, 1 g fat (0 g sat fat), 10% DV copper, 4% DV iron

Health benefits: The cocoa bean is rich in phytonutrients called flavanols, which provide chocolate's health benefits. Flavonoids are natural compounds with antioxidant properties that are also found in other flavonoid-rich foods such as bran, red wine, grapefruit, strawberries, berries, red wine and green tea. The more the chocolate is processed, the fewer the flavonoids. For the most benefits, choose a bar with 70 per cent or more of cocoa (the higher the percent, the more bitter the flavor and the lower the sugar content). Dark chocolate has the most flavonoids, almost four times as many as milk chocolate, and white chocolate has none. Natural cocoa powder that is non-alkalized is higher in flavanols than alkalized or Dutch cocoa powder. Make sure to get the highest concentration of flavonoids by reading the list of ingredients to choose bars that list cocoa solids or cocoa mass first.

Heart & Blood Pressure Benefits: Flavonoids have been found in research to promote blood vessel dilation, lower blood pressure, reduce platelet clumping and clotting, and decrease inflammation (which can destroy healthy tissue and cells). Research published in 2006 in the Archive of Internal Medicine, which found men who consumed high amounts of cocoa products (2.3 grams or more per day) had a 50 per cent lower risk of developing cardiovascular disease, compared with men with the lowest consumption. A study published in the March 2007 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that of more than 34,000 post-menopausal women who consumed the most flavonoid-rich food, 22 per cent had a lower risk of developing coronary heart disease. In a July 4, 2007, study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers found that it only took about six grams of dark chocolate to lower the blood pressure of people with untreated high blood pressure. One study at Penn State University found that even when participants ate a very large amount of chocolate each day (10 oz. every day), their cholesterol levels did not go up (The primary saturated fat in chocolate is stearic acid, which, unlike other types of saturated fats, has a neutral effect on cholesterol. In fact, researchers, in a 2005 study published in Hypertension also found that levels of low density lipoprotein (or "bad") cholesterol dropped by 10 per cent for subjects with high blood pressure who received 100 grams a day of flavonoid-rich dark chocolate.

Psychological well-being: Heart health isn’t the only thing with a link to chocolate. A 2007 study published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that men who preferred chocolate also experienced more feelings of happiness and better psychological well-being.

• I'm convinced! But there's still no getting around the fact that dark chocolate is still a source of calories, fat and sugar, which can cancel any potential health benefits. What to do?
• Switch to dark chocolate. Go as dark as you can.
• Buy really good chocolate, like Belgian or Swiss. Eat a smaller amount less often a week.
• Buy in single serving size -- and eat only 1 serving that day.
• Eat your few bites of chocolate while you slowly sip a cup of tea. Take a bit before you start drinking, finish the tea, and then finish the chocolate. In this way, the tea will help you so that smaller amount of chocolate will seem more filling.

What's MY favorite way to have chocolate and not worry about calories? Chocolate tea! There are many companies that mix fine teas with cocoa bits or natural chocolate flavor (made in a way that is similar to the way vanilla is made). Because tea contains a variety of antioxidant polyphenols, which have been found to promote heart health, you are actually doubling the benefits to your heart! A cup of tea has about 2 calories, the small amount of chocolate adds a few more, depending on the type and amount. What an easy way not to have to give up chocolate! Enjoy!

We now supply some of the best chocolate teas I have ever tasted: Peppermint Chocolate Rooiboos, Chocolate Black Tea, Chocolate Chai, White Chocolate Black Tea, Chocolate Orange Green Tea, and more. 10% off all chocolate teas and teas selected by Cupid (Come in to see special selection). All our flavored teas are naturally flavored with no sweeteners, no carbs, no guilt.

MINDFUL MOVEMENT
Love
Kit Racette, Alexander Teacher
& Body-Centred Psychotherapist

As soon as Christmas is over, the stores seem to fill with Valentines – chocolates, cards, flowers, hearts and lots of other things RED. Then, come February 15th, we celebrate Valentine’s Day and are encouraged to declare our love for one special person in our life...

When I think of “love”, I hear my grandson Ethan, who is 4, saying to me “I love you Nana and I miss you”, and my entire body melts and softens. I can feel him with me because my body has that memory.

Do you feel love?

Do you feel loved?

Is there a difference between feeling love and feeling loved?

We can only feel love or feel loved if we are willing to be open to feel it – are you open to feeling love?

If you aren’t, what is getting in the way?

If love is the tendency to be open, to welcome expansion, light, life, joy, then what blocks love must be the tendency to oppose those things. We oppose those things with being closed, stuck, hard, inert, passive or distant.

How do we open to love?

The feeling cannot be achieved directly. It can be a goal, to feel love, but rather it is by letting it in, by creating an intention and allowing ourselves to be open to the feeling of love.

Being closed to feeling love is a habit so, by becoming aware of how one opposes it, we can choose to change. For instance, we can recognise the times when we think “I am aware that I am unhappy” and welcome instead “I know that happiness and love are possible”. “I am blocking love” can change to “I am allowing love to flow through me”. Letting go with the thought of love in our fantasies gives us the opportunity to tap into how that feels in our bodies and welcome the flow and ease – “I am allowing myself to feel love and I am open to experiencing love”.

Love can begin with allowing in the feeling of loving our pets, a beautiful day, a chocolate – it is in the intent to letting in that love can enter our lives. Happy Month of Love! May it be the beginning of the rest of your life in love.

[See sidebar for Kit's current offerings.]

RAW COOKIN'
Aphrodisiacs And Food Go Hand in Hand –
And Straight To The Heart!
Purna Bhattacharya

What is rich in magnesium, can relax your muscles (essential before and during a woman’s menstrual cycle), is a favorite food for most of us, AND is a healthy aphrodisiac? Yes, that’s right – cacao, particularly raw cacao.

If you’re like me, you probably enjoy staying healthy, but love to indulge in luscious, mind-blowing desserts every once in awhile. With the day of love around the corner, what better way to please your taste buds, eat to your health and of course, get some cozy one-on-one time with your partner (or someone you secretly want to seduce through his/her stomach)? I promise you, this is one EPIC dessert (or breakfast) you cannot miss out on!

As a Raw Vegan and Wellness Coach, and a Raw Culinary Instructor, I prefer using raw ingredients. To make things easier for anyone who isn’t a raw foodist, I have listed alternative options that will make this recipe just as delicious and still retain its health benefits. Keep in mind that Amazing Grass is not a raw product to begin with, but it contains tons of excellent green superfoods as well as antioxidants, which are highly beneficial to prevent and fight colds and flus. This ingredient isn’t crucial for this recipe, but it’s what makes this smoothie “green” and adds a unique chocolate taste.

Banana Chocolate Green Smoothie
(photo above)

Ingredients:

Garnishes (all are optional):

• 1 TB cacoa nibs (or, smashed 70% standard dairy-free chocolate square, such as Lindt)
• 2 thin slices banana
• 4 goji berries
• 2 mint leaves

Directions:

1. Blend all the smoothie ingredients in a small blender. Don’t worry, any blender will do!
2. Pour the smoothie into your glass.
3. Garnish with cacao nibs, banana slices, goji berries and/or fresh mint leaves. Just so you know, the cacao nibs and goji berries taste absolutely EPIC when they are eaten together along with a sip of the smoothie. Enjoy your morning, pre-cardio time, or snuggling time with your partner, and thank me later. ; )

Did you know that ginger and cinnamon are aphrodisiacs too? Yup, that’s right! Why not add a pinch of each in this smoothie to give it a non-traditional twist to your taste buds while reaping the sensual benefits? Lastly, this recipe is one of several scrumptious raw desserts that will be published in my upcoming recipe book. More info on that to come.

Want more scrumptious chocolate and other aphrodisiac-based desserts? No problem! Drop by BelArôme on Thursday, February 9th from 7:00 to 9:00pm for a special workshop I’ll be giving on just this. Bring your partner to learn fast, fun and easy recipes you can make together on Valentine’s Day – or come with a friend and surprise your partner instead! Come and help me make the raw vegan libido-raising desserts, and of course, the most exciting part – eat them! The class is open to everyone, whether you are a raw foodist or not, if you simply love desserts, or, if you want to use nothing but aphrodisiac ingredients for dessert and lure your partner over! (Class fee: only $23).

FROM THE GEMSTONE JAR
Rose Quartz: Love Stone
Kate Rotondo

February is known as the month of love as much as rose quartz is known as the stone of love and healing. It embodies compassion and forgiveness, self love and inner peace. Rose quartz is mostly found in America and Europe but is mostly mined from Brazil these days. Crystal formations of rose quartz are extremely rare; it is usually found in giant translucent masses. It is said that its color is attributed to traces of titanium, while its milky appearance may be due to inclusions of rutile. These rutile inclusions can sometimes create a beautiful star in the stone. Whatever its attributes are, it always feels lovely to hold a piece of rose quartz in one`s hands.

Hello BelArôme Readers! I was fortunate enough to come across this lovely little boutique recently and even more fortunate to become a part of it. As of this month, I will have a variety of handmade jewelry and accessories available at BelArôme, made with the beautiful gemstones and fossils from our earth. Each piece is one of kind, forever yours and yours alone. I would be more than happy to create custom pieces for those interested, and I can easily shorten or elongate your existing pieces.