Ecuador Food
Jul 30th, 2010 by Gary
Ecuador’s food is health food… compared to food in the US… even Ecuador’s fast food is pretty good.
See five really great Ecuador food recipes below.
Many mistakenly think that Ecuador food is something like Mexican food. Nothing could be further from the truth. I have never seen a taco or antijito in Ecuador, although they are available in the big cities in chains.
Ecuadorian food is European if anything but blended nicely with Andean traditions… so it comes out darn healthy.
While in Cotacachi last week we visited with many friends and readers who have moved to Ecuador and heard a similar refrain… “I lost 22 pounds without even trying”. One delegate who has moved to Cotacachi about six months ago reported losing 38 pounds.
We visited our well known international friends, Dan Presher and Suzan Haskins, at their new Cotacachi condo.
They were both looking so good, I asked their secret. “We just lost weight without trying” was their reply.
Plus many report that shedding stress helps as well…. along with walking in the fresh mountain air.
Ecuador food is fresh. On Ecuador’s coast, you can get seafood right from the fishing boats when they come in, like these fresh food shoppers at San Clemente .
Boats like this one just outside the hotel where we have our condos are dotted along the coast.
The fishermen handle the boats through the surf.
Then they head out to sea!
Merri and I meet the fishermen when they return with shrimp and fish and some langostinos. The shrimp are large enough that two provided a meal!
The Humboldt Current creates one of the world’s most productive nutrient-rich waters that rise along the coast. This is a perfect condition for abundant plankton which leads to an eco region that teems with huge schools of small fish like anchovies and sardines.
The cool waters of the Humboldt Current provide a constant supply of food for big fish such as Dorado (coryphaena hippurus – also called dolphinfish), barracuda (sphyraena indiastes), blue and black marlin, yellow-finned and long-finned tuna (thunnus albacares, thunnus alalunga), snook and many other species.
Here I am in San Vicente with dorado just north of Manta and adjoining San Clemente.
Four world-record Pacific bigeye tuna (similar to yellow fin tuna) catches come from Ecuador ranging in size from 236 pounds to 375-pounds.
Sea food includes Stripped Marlin, Tuna, Grouper, Wahoo and Corvina (seabass).
Trout is in the rivers and lakes of the Andes like this high country lake . 
Trout grow well in the Andean Highlands above 7,000 feet, with average water and air temperature virtually constant year-round. The trout feed on scuds, leeches, small fish and various bugs.
Even the seafood in the Andes is fresh. Here is the Ibarra fish market were they bring the fish in overnight.
Prices are really low… mostly about a dollar a pound.
Plus there is Quinoa, a full protein grain of the Andes. We make our cake and bread gluten free and packed with protein at Meson de las Flores. Here is one of our chef’s quinoa cakes with a fresh coconut pudding.
There are no high fat, fast food franchises in the area. This is as close to a fast food as you’ll get in Cotacachi.
Much better than a Big Mac!…corn roasted on a grill.
Fruit is vine picked ripe and really cheap… every type… tropical and northern… apples, blackberries, cherries, strawberries and pears.
For those interested in healthier nutrition, here are three nutritional tips sent to us by our friend Blaine Watson.
A diet high in turmeric may help reduce weight gain by suppressing the growth of new fat tissue, according to a study conducted by researchers from Tufts University and published in the Journal of Nutrition.The study was funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and a grant from the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan.
“Weight gain is the result of the growth and expansion of fat tissue, which cannot happen unless new blood vessels form, a process known as angiogenesis,” senior author Mohsen Meydani said. “Based on our data, curcumin appears to suppress angiogenic activity in the fat tissue of mice fed high fat diets.”Curcumin is an antioxidant chemical in the polyphenol family that naturally occurs in turmeric. In contrast to some phytochemicals, it is easily absorbed by the body.
Researchers fed two groups of mice identical high-fat diets, supplementing the diets of the half the mice with 500 milligrams of curcumin per kilogram of body weight per day. They found that mice in the curcumin group had significantly lower blood cholesterol and significantly less microvessel density in fat tissue than the mice in the control group, implying less blood vessel growth and thus less overall growth of fat tissue. The livers of mice in the curcumin group also contained significantly less fat than those of the mice in the control group.
“In general, angiogenesis and an accumulation of lipids in fat cells contribute to fat tissue growth,” Meydani said.The researcher also noted that “curcumin appeared to be responsible for total lower body fat in the group that received supplementation.”In a similar study conducted on cells rather than animals, the researchers also found curcumin to suppress angiogenesis. The chemical also appeared to suppress the expression of two genes linked to angiogenesis in both the mouse and cell experiments.
I wanted to remind everyone that turmeric is to be used with some degree of awareness. We never eat it raw. It must be cooked in our food. Capsules are therefore not an option. We use only organic turmeric. The regular turmeric you buy for example in an Indian store is heavily adulterated with chalk and talcum powder and food coloring.
We also use turmeric sparingly. It is highly highly effective in purifying the liver. The North American/Western diet and lifestyle is highly toxic with many many sources of impurities which are metabolized and stored in the liver. When turmeric is introduced to the diet these toxins/impurities are squeezed from the liver (this would be a contributing factor to weight loss) and this is a good thing but not if it is overwhelming to the body. Detox crisis is a real possibility.
A gentle and universal curry for western palates would be something like:
3 parts powdered coriander
3 parts powdered fennel
1-2 parts powdered cumin
1-2 parts turmeric
Sign in with Blaine Watson for his immensely wise and interesting free ezine: blainepw@gmail.com
Here is turmeric sold in the Cotacachi market.
Many products sold in the local markets are organic like this sign in Cotacachi market… “productos organicos here.”
The national drink of Ecuador is herbal tea… not espresso cafe… real infusions made from the fresh plants purchased in the market. Much healthier… even medicinal!
Here are teas being sold in Otavalo market.
Here is star anise great for making Tea-Masala.
Here is a traditional shamanic purification tea to be drunk and bathed in.
One part sweet pepper pictured here (called black cardomon in the US).
Boiled with cinnamon bark and chamomile.
Our staff serve wonderful, healthy welcome drinks… alfalfa juice with mango and …
Mango juice with blackberry.
Our coffee breaks include quinoa puddings…
Toasted corn.
This is a favorite and…
so much healthier than coffee and doughnuts!
This coffee break has fresh fruit… gooseberries and hand made chocolate dipped, coconut balls. even the coconut is fresh and hand shredded.
I have the staff make us a few extra as they do not last long!
or do Eduardo’s fresh strawberries dipped in Ecuador chocolate.
On the subject of chocolate, my favorite desert is this chocolate pancake… yet we lose weight eating here!
The qunioa welcome cake is our chef’s specialty.
The hotel’s food is fresh. Here Meson’s manager Franklin Sandoval brings in just picked veggies fresh from the market.
A typical high protein meal, quinoa, avocado and shrimp.
Here is a variation on the theme… shrimp… with quinoa and vegetables “al dente” in a carrot sauce.
Organic Swiss cheese is produced near the hotel.
This holiday soup is made with 12 grains, fish, egg and avocado.
Even our butter and…
ice cream, are hand made from fresh cream and fruit juices by the staff.
Plus the care that the staff put in the service and the food… catsup is hand made and never delivered in a bottle but in a hollowed out fruit.
Plus the staff care about giving you beauty like this…
arrangement of forks. The staff are always thinking of ways to make your food a bit more delightful.
So of health and better nutrition… you do not need to think Ecuadorian health food… just eating Ecuador food can be enough!
Gary
Combining good international investing with the greatest asset of all, the ability to earn wherever you live, brings everlasting wealth.
This is why we offer our course Tangled Web… How to Have an Internet Business.
A clear mind and healthy body are also a vital assets… plus a second language is a powerful diversification tool.
La Mirage… one of South America’s Relais & Chateaux spas shares three Ecuador epicurean recipes here.
These are Ecuador cooking recipes that blend pre-Incan nutrition with modern cooking techniques and are taught at the La Mirage cooking school.
Gastronomical education in ultimate luxury might better describe this cooking school at La Mirage Garden Hotel & Spa by La Mirage.
La Mirage’s exquisite food is one reason we fell in love with Ecuador.
La Mirage is a world class spa with lush private gardens and a restaurant to match.
Whether you are dipping into a jacuzzi or enjoying a cozy eucalyptus fire in one of the many beautifully decorated rooms, you will find fresh roses everywhere. No detail is overlooked. Guests range from Hollywood stars and US Senators to royalty. The Queen of Spain chose La Mirage during her stay in Ecuador.
However, this message looks at new culinary delights in the La Mirage kitchen that you can now know and enjoy.
We take most course delegates to visit La Mirage Garden Hotel at least once during a course and enjoy the great Ecuador cooking there. The food is incredible.
The chefs are world class, and presentation is at the top of their list. Appetizers are served in individual wooden music boxes, soup is poured hot into your bowl when served and each plate is a work of art. Here I am with delegates at La Mirage.
Here is the risotto starter up close.
The homemade, organic rose ice cream dessert is out of this world. Each tiny ball of rose ice cream hides in the center of a blossom of sugared rose petals.
Everything at La Mirage is exquisite so it was with keen interest and expectation that Merri and I ambled from our hotel to La Mirage to enjoy lunch with the proprietors and hear more about the cooking school.
La Mirage has installed a new teaching kitchen in the Garden Room, where…
we met with Jorge Espinosa and Michel Durer, the La Mirage proprietors with their…
executive chef and sous chef.
Relais & Chateaux simply means… the best. This is what we saw… the best, an exquisite meal built in front of us… just as those who join these Cotacachi cooking classes will learn and enjoy.
The menu included these three courses (the recipes for this Ecuador cooking is below).
GAZPACHO WITH A SHERBET OF CORIANDER
TIMBAL OF QUINUA TOPPED WITH GINGER OR PARMESAN CHEESE
ASIAN STYLE FRICASSE OF DUCK
Here is the start of the Gazpacho.
Then the chef added…
sherbert and Jorge poured in the gazpacho.
The quinua began with
tomatoes drizzled with two sauces.
Preparation for the quinua.
The chef adds grated freshly grated ginger on top.
Wow!
Now we had to do our work…
the eating.
After the soup and the quinua started, our main course was this duck fricasse.
What can I say? Delicious… words fail the event… a perfect meal.
You can learn more about the La Mirage cooking school here.
Here are these three Ecuador cooking recipes. Better still learn much more and attend the La Mirage Cooking School.
These recipes are provided by Jorge Espinosa.
Jorge is a proprietor of the La Mirage Garden Hotel & Spa. He was trained as a Chef at the famous Hotel Training School in Bad Reichenhall, Bavaria, Germany before honing his culinary skills cooking at several notable hotels before opening La Mirage in 1986.
At the La Mirage Cooking School, Jorge teaches a unique cooking style that blends ancient pre Incan cuisine with his decades of experience gained while working globally with some of the best chefs in the world.
GAZPACHO WITH A SHERBET OF CORIANDER
Step #1: Peel fresh tomatoes and place into a blender, adding tomato paste, chicken consommé, garlic, pearl onions, basil, olive oil, Worchester sauce,
salt & pepper. Blend and strain into a bowl and place in the fridge.
Step #2: For the sherbet mix coriander, water, sugar in a blender. Place the ingredients into a bowl and place in a freezer to harden.
Step #3: When ready to serve, cut a fresh tomato into small pieces, arrange them on a soup plate into a circle and place the sherbet in the center and pour the cold gazpacho around and garnish with basil.
TIMBAL OF QUINUA TOPPED WITH GINGER OR PARMESAN CHEESE
Step #1: The following ingredients should be sautéed: small cut pieces of chicken, red and green peppers, pearl onion, garlic, fresh dill, fine cut mushrooms, parmesan cheese, olive oil, Worchester Sauce, salt and pepper.
Step #2: Mix the above with the pre-cooked quinua and fill, if possible, into a mold set in the middle of a plate. Two kind of sauces (a rich thousand island
dressing and a Balsamic Vinegar) surround the mold which then is being slowly removed in order not to spoil the decoration. Top it of with either
long slices of Parmesan cheese or optional with caramelized strips of ginger.
ASIAN STYLE FRICASSE OF DUCK
Step#1: Cut a breast of Duck into small pieces, fry rapidly in oil, adding salt and pepper, sweet soya sauce. Add a ginger – soy infusion with
stir-fried vegetables and place on top of sesame rice-noodles.
We hope you’ll join us to share the delights of investing, business and living in Ecuador and the world.
Here is what a delegate at our last tour shared.
Dear Merri, Thank you so much for taking the time to write to me with all this information. Your husband cranks out such prolific pieces every day, sometimes two a day! The tone is always so positive, and the content so interesting and informative. Best regards to you and Gary,
There are three dates for the school and two price options.
The dates for the cooking classes are:
How about Aug. 28-29-30
Oct. 25-26-27
Nov. 30 Dec. 1-2
The fee for the three days of class and two nights at La Mirage is $854 (including tax) per person for two in a room. A single supplement is $125 a night plus 22% tax.
If you stay instead at our Inn Land of the Sun (formerly Meson de las Flores… just a few blocks from La Mirage, the price drops to $579 per person. There is no single supplement.
For enrollment details contact La Mirage owners Michel Durer Jorge Espinosa at ed@mirage.com.ec
Ecuador Food Quinoa
Quinoa is healthy, packed with protein and omega 3.
It is also delicious, prepared in many ways such as…
quinoa pancakes and quinoa strawberry shortcake. See the recipe for both below.
Let me begin though by explaining my love affair with pancakes… then why quinoa pancakes and shortcake can be add a huge improvement in the Western diet.
Some memories are never forgotten. Some of them quite odd, such as my recollection of when I fell in love with pancakes.
The place was Tillamook Oregon… a town famous for its cheddar cheese but I doubt famous for its pancakes. The time… almost 47 years ago. I must have been around 16 because I had driven with several of my teenage friend to spend the weekend in Seaside, Oregon… the place, in the 1960s, where teenagers from Portland went to hang out… for some action.
Action by the way in those days amounted to bumper cars, Ferris wheels and stuff like cotton candy. There wasn’t much in those days… though if we could have found some we would have imbibed in beer… as terrible as it tasted to a 16 year old… drinking beer was considered cool then. Of course for teenage guys… there were also teenage girls. I think there was a beach and an ocean there too!
Four or five us… high school buddies wandered on weekends…. usually camping out…. sometimes in the Cascades… other times over in the Eastern Oregon desert… shooting our .22s… fishing,.. swimming in lakes and in general just messing around.
Somehow this one memory from many weekends has me in a “mom and pop” restaurant… in Tillamook. We stopped for breakfast on a Sunday morning… headed back from Seaside to Portland. I ordered a stack of pancakes… probably a short stack since one thing I really remember was that we were almost always short of cash. Back then coffee was a dime a cup (with refills)… gas 19.9 cents a gallon and a short stack… maybe .65 cents. Camping then in state parks was free. However we were still usually broke. However with five bucks each, the four of us could do some damage. One of the friends… Mark Johnson… had a beat up, rusting 1956 Ford station wagon (we called it the Blue Goose) so if we each pitched in a dollar… there was enough for the gallons of gas (and the several quarts of oil) required to get us to the coast and back.
I recall nothing about the trip… not the beach… not the girls… not even the restaurant… except my awareness on that day of how much I loved those pancakes! The love affair stuck.
With this story as a background it will not seem odd that when Merri and I lived in London we often visited one of the most renowned pancake restaurants there called My Old Dutch, which offers authentic Pannekoek (that’s a traditional Dutch pancake). The kids loved the friendly, bubbly atmosphere and I of course loved… the pancakes offered in both sweet and savory form.
There are crazy combinations at My Old Dutch… chicken curry pancakes… chilli con carne pancakes and lamb stew pancakes. I personally preferred one of the sweet ones served with a caramel sauce. But note the common connection here… pancakes!
Now comes the rub. Pancakes are a truly unhealthy food… especially when loaded up with artificial sugary syrup. A big platter of pancakes and syrup is a fast burning carbohydrate disaster almost guaranteed to shoot your blood sugar up! This can create all forms of health complications if consumed often enough. A platter is probably even worse when no sugar syrup contaminated with artificial sweeteners is applied.
I rue the day I discovered this… like learning that your lover is really only there to kill you (perhaps for the insurance).
Alas… chocolate pancakes… with the wrong chocolate… is nutritionally even worse!
What a dilemma … being in love with something that is really bad.
However I know there is a God because… He allowed me to discover quinoa pancakes.
Quinoa is a high protein grain from the Andes that is normally eaten as a cereal. Quinoa can be ground into flour. Quinoa flour changes everything when it comes to nutrition in pancakes… the lover is reformed!
Having spent this time explaining pancakes in my epicurian heart… the story on my other food mistress chocolate, we must pass. Let’s just compare pancakes and chocolate to wine & rose… man & woman… the heavens & the stars.
First quinoa is high in protein… one of the only vegetable sources of a complete protein.
Second Quinoa has a fair amount of omega 3 essential fatty acids.
If you have not read much about Omega 3… you should because there is a growing amount of evidence that an imbalance in the Western between Omega 3 and Omega 6 is leading to all types of problems including obesity.
The excerpt below from a May 2010 Economist article “Diet and the evolution of the brain-Fish and no chips” gives us some insights on this when it says:
The wonders of docosahexaenoic acid
TO PIN one big evolutionary shift on a particular molecule is ambitious. To pin two on it is truly audacious. Yet doing so was just one of the ideas floating around at “A Celebration of DHA” in London this week. The celebration in question was a scientific meeting, rather than a festival. It was definitely, however, a love-in. It was held on May 26th and 27th at the Royal Society of Medicine to discuss the many virtues of docosahexaenoic acid, the most important of that fashionable class of dietary chemicals, the omega-3 fatty acids.
DHA is a component of brains, particularly the synaptic junctions between nerve cells, and its displacement from modern diets by the omega-6 acids in cooking oils such as soya, maize and rape is a cause of worry. Many researchers think this shift—and the change in brain chemistry that it causes—explains the growth in recent times of depression, manic-depression, memory loss, schizophrenia and attention-deficit disorder. It may also be responsible for rising levels of obesity and thus the heart disease which often accompanies being overweight.
Michael Crawford, a researcher at the Institute of Brain Chemistry and Human Nutrition in London, believes, however, that DHA is even more important than that.
He suggests that it was responsible for the existence of nervous systems in the first place, and that access to large quantities of the stuff was what permitted the evolution of big brains in mankind’s more recent ancestors.
Indeed, Dr Crawford thinks that a shortage of DHA is a long-term evolutionary theme. The molecule is most famously found in fatty fish. He suggests this might explain why, for example, dolphins have brains that weigh 1.8kg whereas zebra brains weigh only 350g, even though the two species have similar body sizes. Furthermore, he argues that the dramatic increase of the size of the brains of humanity’s ancestors that happened about 6m years ago was not because apes came out of the trees to hunt on the savannahs, but because they arrived at the coast and found a ready supply of DHA in fish.
Accept no substitute
Joseph Hibbeln, a researcher at America’s National Institutes of Health, has been looking at the supply to babies of DHA from breast milk and at genetic variation in the ability to produce this molecule from other omega-3s. In the case of those fed on formula milk low in DHA, though, children without the DHA-making ability had an average IQ 7.8 points lower than those with it.
Nor is intelligence the only thing affected by a lack of DHA. There is also a body of data linking omega-3 deficiencies to violent behaviour. Countries whose citizens eat more fish (which is rich in DHA) are less prone to depression, suicide and murder. And new research by Dr Hibbeln shows that low levels of DHA are a risk factor for suicide among American servicemen and women. Actual suicides had significantly lower levels of DHA in the most recent routine blood sample taken before they killed themselves than did comparable personnel who remained alive.
More worryingly, 95% of American troops have DHA levels that these results suggest put them at risk of suicide.
America’s department of defence has taken note. It will soon unveil a programme to supplement the diets of soldiers with omega-3s. The country’s Food and Drug Administration may change one of its policies, too. Thomas Brenna, a professor of nutrition at Cornell University, has written a letter (co-signed by many of the scientists at the meeting) urging the agency to revise its advice to pregnant and fertile women that they limit their consumption of fish.
They may, however, be swimming against the tide. The popularity of omega-6-rich foods based on cheap vegetable oils will be difficult to reverse. Indeed, if another of Dr Hibbeln’s studies proves true of people as well as rodents, it may be self-fulfilling.
In this experiment he fed rats diets that were identical except that in one case 8% of the calories came from linoleic acid (an omega-6 fatty acid) while in the other that value was 1%. These percentages reflect the shift in the proportion of omega-6s in the American diet between 1909 and the early 21st century.
In the 8% diet, levels of rat obesity doubled. It turns out that in rats (and also in humans) linoleic acid is converted into molecules called endocannabinoids that trigger appetite. Those who eat omega-6s, in other words, want to eat more food.
And since, in the human case, omega-6-rich food is much cheaper than omega-3-rich food, that is what they are likely to consume.
The way out of this vicious circle is not obvious. Eating fish is all very well, but the oceans are under enough pressure as it is.
Quinoa, a 5000 + year old grain from the Andes is full of essential amino acids, iron and vitamins. It is probably the best protein source from the plant kingdom and has a delicious delicate nutty taste ideal for pilafs and to replace high carb starches like rice and pasta. It is also great as a cereal breakfast food.
Rich in omega-3 fatty acids, quinoa offers benefits to the heart and is easy to digest as well.
Quinoa has been rated by the WHO as possessing protein of a quality similar to milk. It has been classified as a supercrop by the United Nations on account of its nutritional value and high protein content. In early times, quinoa was cooked and ground to a paste and applied on bruises. Its medicinal uses ranged from treating motion sickness and appendicitis to bone problems and nursing mothers. In fact a poultice of quinoa flour was applied on broken bones. It is a good source of dietary fiber. Quinoa is ideal for those suffering from allergies to the grass family since it is a leafy grain and is gluten-free.
Quinoa is also a source of phosphorus, magnesium, zinc, copper and manganese, Vitamins B6, Niacin and Thiamin and has high levels of lysine – an essential amino acid for creating protein. Plus it is low in fat and excellent source of complex carbohydrates.
Most Westerners need to be getting more Omega 3 and less Omega 6 and quinoa can help… plus it can be cooked in some really delicious forms.
Enter our recipe for Ecuador quinoa chocolate pancakes.
With quinoa to add protein and pure Ecuadorian chocolate without chemicals and sugar added there is a good nutrition argument… two lovers who are good for your health!
A reader recently sent this note.
Hi Gary…really enjoy your columns. Am fascinated with Quinoa. Any chance you could share the recipe for the chocolate quinoa pancakes?
What a wonderful woman… asking me to do something with one of the great loves in my life…. chocolate! So I grabbed Merri gave her a kiss and murmered in her ear… “Will you help me make some chocolate quinoa pancakes?”
Read what happened next and the recipe for quinoa chocolate pancakes here.
Below is a recipe for the quinoa strawberry shortcake that Merri made for me yesterday.
I photographed this before eating. Yum!
“Well, one of the problems that most of us have is Strawberries (yes!) but then we go a bit further and want Strawberry Shortcake. Gary always steers me near those horrible little cakes when he has just been to the market and bought luscious strawberries. So, all I do when making almost anything with flour is to simply substitute fine ground (we do it ourselves in our blender) quinoa for flour. However, this does change 1)the consistency of the batter (perhaps one needs to add more liquid) and 2)makes a firmer, stronger product no light and fluffy quinoa here! This might require a bit of change of expectations if one desires those little light airy concoctions…but think PROTEIN and low CARBS.
“Strawberry Quinoa Shortcakes:
“1 cup quinoa flour, 1/2-3/4 tbs. baking powder, a tiny bit of all natural sugar (to your taste), 7 tbs. of butter cut into pieces, 1 egg, 1/2 – 3/4 cup of rich milk (perhaps half and half). Strawberries & Cream to add on top.
“Cut butter into the dry mixture. Mix egg with rich milk and combine with dry ingredients. Bake 12 minutes or so until golden brown at 350.
“Serve with strawberries and of course cream or whipped cream!” Merri
Yes, it was wonderful…Sunday afternoon Strawberry Shortcakes with Tea.
More on Quinoa, Ecuador Food & Nutrition
Ecuador food and nutrition are often a surprise to those who visit the country for the first time. Ecuador shamanic nutritional ideas can help health, energy and longevity.
Ecuador nutrition strikes again. Last week a message at this site showed how, upon moving to Ecuador, Jim Reed lost 55 pounds in the last year… without trying.
A reader just sent this note which contains this common Ecuador weight loss refrain.
Hi Merri, Thanks again to you and Gary for your help when I was checking out Cotacachi. Things have worked out well. I am healthier than I have ever been, lost 32 pounds since arriving in Sept. Bought a house and have finished the first level. What an amazing place you have found. Thanks Phil
Ecuadorians are noted as among the longest lived people on earth. This is, in part, from Andean foods and nutritional habits that began long ago. Since ancient times Andean Yatchaks, Shamans and Curanderos have taught healthy living supported by good nutrition. They based these healthy lifestyles on three ideals; clean food, good food combinations and a correct fat, carbohydrate and protein balance.
One reason Ecuador food is so good is that it is so fresh!
Cotacachi food is really inexpensive too.
Our seafood in Cotacachi is fresh brought right from the coast.
Here we are with our chef Santiago after buying seafood from the Ibarra market.
Nutrition is a huge problem in North America.
Excerpts from an article published in USA Today entitled “20% of U.S. preschoolers are obese” by Lindsey Tanner shows that dietary problems are still growing. The excerpt says: A striking new study says almost 1 in 5 American 4-year-olds is obese, and the rate is alarmingly higher among American Indian children, with nearly a third of them obese.
Overall, more than half a million 4-year-olds are obese, the study suggests. Obesity is more common in Hispanic and black youngsters, too, but the disparity is most startling in American Indians, whose rate is almost double that of whites.
The lead author said that rate is worrisome among children so young, even in a population at higher risk for obesity because of other health problems and economic disadvantages.
“The cumulative evidence is alarming because within just a few decades, America will become a ‘minority majority’ nation,” he said. Without interventions, the next generation “will be at very high risk” for heart disease, high blood pressure, cancers, joint diseases and other problems connected with obesity, said Flores, who was not involved in the new research.
The study is an analysis of nationally representative height and weight data on 8,550 preschoolers born in 2001. Children were measured in their homes and were part of a study conducted by the government’s National Center on Educational Statistics. The results appear in Monday’s Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.
The current study looked only at obesity and a specific age group. Anderson called it the first analysis of national obesity rates in preschool kids in the five ethnic or racial groups.
This study shows that poor nutrition is a North American plague and it is embedded in every portion of the culture.
There is a lot we can learn about nutrition from Ecuador shamanic disciplines.
Our restaurant in Ecuador, the Quinoa Cafe celebrates the wisdom of the past and combines it with the unity of mankind. We continually serve fresh fruit…at coffee breaks.
Quinoa Cafe’s core bill of fare is Quinoa, often referred to as the Andean grain, a wonderful food, native to the Andes. Quinoa sustained the ancient Incas and has been grown continuously for over 5,000 years. The plant thrives in poor soil, and the high mountain terrain of South America’s Andes.
Qunioa has been described as the super grain. Actually it is the SEED of a leafy plant that’s related to spinach. What makes quinoa special is that it has a very high protein content, more than any single grain. Plus unlike grain, Quinoa has the amino acid lysine, so the protein is complete. The World Health Organization ranks quinoa protein equivalent to milk. Quinoa offers more iron than grains and contains magnesium, zinc, copper, manganese, potassium, riboflavin, thiamin, B vitamins: B6, niacin, magnesium, zinc, copper. It is also a good source of folate (folic acid).
Quinoa is delicious and can be substituted for almost any other grain.
A lot of stress comes from poor nutrition. Quinoa offers an optional, delicious purifying and the diet you will enjoy at the farm can enhance your rest and boost your energy and heath as well as reduce your weight without any feelings of giving up or not enjoying your food.
Ecuador shamanic nutritional goals provide a delicious menu that improves digestion, reduces weight, increases energy, reduces toxicity in the system and balances the hormonal system so cravings and excessive hunger disappear. This system was taught to Merri and me, when we lived with Andean Yatchaks in an indigenous community.
The cornerstones of the Andean nutritional program are:
#1: Eating a balance of fat, carbohydrates and protein.
#2: Eating combinations of food for ideal digestion.
#3: Eating clean organic food prepared and served by happy, joyful people.
#4: Eating in good spirits at the right times.
#5: Chewing in the correct way.
#6: Eating purifying and satisfying meals.
#7: Balancing nutritional with correct sleep and exercise.
Here is what we will learned.
#1: Eat a balance of fat, carbohydrates and protein.
Our diet keeps protein balance without excessive amounts of meat using quinoa, eggs, cheese and yoghurt instead. A great deal of poor health and stress is tied in to the underlying hormonal disturbance caused by the excess production of insulin. This imbalance normally comes from too much food and incorrect protein, carbohydrate, fat balances in the diet. Every time we eat, hormones in our body will change, either good or bad. Delicious food with a balance of 3 parts carbohydrates, two parts protein and one part fat has the power to orchestrate beneficial hormonal changes in our body.
#2: Eat the correct combinations of food for ideal digestion.
Andean nutritional ideals also focus on combining foods in a way that avoid fermentation in the stomach. Foods and spices are divided into three types neutral, savory and sweet. Neutral can be mixed with savory or sweet, but no savory and sweet foods are mixed. The main neutral foods are grains, cereals, nuts and seeds. Meat and most vegetables are savory. Fruits are sweet. Cereals are ground and soaked to improve their digestibility. Sweet spices include cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, ginger, mint. Savory spices include sale, pepper, chiles, oregano, corriander, bay leaf, cumin, saffron, fennel. No two fats are mixed nor are fruit types.
#3 & 4: Eat clean organic food prepared and served by happy, joyful people and eat in good spirits at the right times. Food should be beautiful as well…like this feta salad we eat at home.
Candace Pert, Ph.D., is a neuroscientist who was awarded a Nobel prize for her groundbreaking work that shows the mind is not just in the brain but in the entire body. The mind and body communicate using the chemistry of emotion. Short chains of amino acids called peptides and receptors are found in the brain, stomach, muscles, glands and all major organs. They send messages back and forth linking mind and body. When we are happy our entire body is happy and reverse and this chemistry has a dramatic impact on our food and digestion.
Andean beliefs view the body composed of three elements earth (Pacha mama), fire (Taita Inti) and air Pacha Kuti.
There are times of the day when each of these elements are most active. The digestive fires are highest at 12 noon, so a savory meal is normally eaten at this time.
A sweet breakfast accommodates a more sluggish digestive time and the evening is set aside for a purifying fruit meal so the body can use the midnight fire energy to cleanse rather than digest.
Three herbal teas are served. In the morning cinnamon tea is served. Before lunch ginger tea lights the digestive fires and before sleep chamomile tea enhances a good night’s rest.
Part of good nutrition comes from eating, sleeping and exercising at the correct times.
The yatchaks also suggest we eat only when hungry and the stomach is empty so we recommend eating only every four hours. For cravings between herbal tea is best and juices can be added if it is uncomfortable to wait for the next meal.
#5: Chewing in the correct way.
Correct chewing releases nutrient molecules so energy from food is more quickly released and assimilated. This allows the brain to recognize flavors and release the correct digestive juices for that food. Proper chewing does even more because it stimulates the bodies sphincter (or ring) muscles that surround the various orifices of the body.
Ring muscles include the muscles around the eyes, the nostrils, anus, urethra, genitals and the mouth. In a healthy body, all sphincters work together, contracting and relaxing simultaneously. They also activate the respiratory system, the gastrointestinal system, the circulatory system, the lymphatic system, the musculoskeletal system and the urogenital system. Ring muscles are ultimately responsible for putting all the other muscles and all the organs of the body to work.
Chewing correctly stimulates the ring muscles and consequently helps exercise all our muscles.
#6: Eat Purifying and satisfying meals.
Fruit types also exist and are never mixed. Citrus stands together, but is not mixed with other foods. Watery fruits (apples pears, plums and grapes) can be mixed. Bananas are eaten alone only or with dairy only. Pineapple and melons are also eaten alone.
There are three purifying meals we will learn about during the course. The first most gentle purifier is a water combination of apples and grapes. The second meal is an entire pineapple and the third, an entire watermelon.
Organic coffee, tea and cocoa are great purifiers rich in antioxidants. Coffee and some tea is avoided by those who do not want caffeine. We recommend moderation and serve only organic, fair trade coffee and tea Coffee and tea (without milk) are neutral and can be consumed before or with any meal.
Finally the shamans drink and wash in an Andean cleansing tea made from cinnamon, sweet pepper and chamomile.
#7: Balance nutrition with exercise and sleep.
Each day we do gentle but profound exercises to stimulate organs, glands and energy points. We do not have television and go to bed before the evening fire cycle begins at 10 PM for more restful sleep.
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Whatever your goal… weight loss,,, more energy….better health or a longer life, these ideas on Ecuador food and nutrition can help you whether you visit Ecuador or not.
Gary
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