Check out the video version here.
Instructions for 8 servings:
Bake 3 large sweet potatoes, at 375 degrees for 1 hour and 45 minutes. Scoop out the pulp (save the skins to use for a separate dish!), and mix together. Should total at least 2 cups of pulp, or 500g by weight.
Place in a large mixing bowl once cool, or after marinating in the fridge in their own natural sweet potato sugars for a day or two (not much longer than that).
Then (per 2 cups / 500g of sweet potato) add:
- 1/2 cup of Maple Syrup (160g)
- 1/8 cup of Maple Cream (40g)
- 1/8 cup of Ground Chia Seeds (20g)
- 4 tbsp of Cinnamon, preferably Ceylon Cinnamon (20g)
- 1/8 cup of Grape-seed Oil (20g)
- 1/2 tsp of Nutmeg (2g)
- 1 tsp of Ginger (2g)
- 1 tsp of Allspice aka Jamaica Pepper (2g)
- 1/2 tsp of Cloves (2g)
- 1/2 tsp of Sea Salt (2g)
Then mix all ingredients in a bowl so the spices don't blow away with a breeze, and mix in a mixer/food processor until smooth, or about 30-60 seconds.
Next, we'll fold in our mix-in ingredients!
- 2 cups of Dried Cranberries (60g) - No added sugars or additives whenever possible!
- 1/2 cup of Pepitas/Pumpkin Seeds (60g)
Now stir by hand! Or by gentil mixer/Cuisinart. (do not use a food processor!).
Sweet Pumpking Autumn is now ready for showtime! You can either eat it right away like cookie dough, come up with a creative way to use it like pie filling, or put it in your freezer to transform into a frozen treat!
Once it's fully frozen, bring it into the fridge to thaw for 15-30 minutes. After serving, you can return it to the freezer, or let it thaw fully in the fridge and enjoy within three days.
Flavor info and nutrition facts below! Plus don't forget to check out the autumnal flavor pairing playlist!
Sweet Pumpking Autumn:
We all thought that the Pumpkin Spice Latte had mastered fall, but this new Sweet Potato challenger had other ideas. It inspired it’s underappreciated #FallThings foods family, uniting the cranberries, the maple syrup, real pumpkin seeds, and our favorite spice varieties that create the flavor of pumpkin spice: allspice, nutmeg, cloves, ginger, and cinnamon. United for a truly autumnal and aromatic flavor, Sweet Pumpking Autumn is here for good.
Ingredients:
Sweet Potatoes, Maple Syrup, Cranberries, Pumpkin Seeds, Tahini (Sesame Seeds), Chia Seeds (Omega 3 Source), Grapeseed Oil, Ceylon Cinnamon, Allspice, Cloves, Nutmeg, Ginger, Sea Salt
Nutrition:
(label includes Guar and Carob Bean Gum, which are not in this recipe, but which have no significant nutritional impact - you could add a small amount to make the consistency a little more smooth/gooey)
]]>All links to the official book page are below, with a few options for some local independent booksellers and used book stores as well; of course, check your public library and/or audio platforms too!
- "Shook One: Anxiety Playing Tricks on Me" by Charlamagne Tha God
- "The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma" by Bessel van der Kolk
- "Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers: The Acclaimed Guide to Stress, Stress-Related Diseases, and Coping" by Robert M. Sapolsky
- "Touched with Fire: Manic-Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament" by Kay Redfield Jamison
Then, check local independent booksellers; in Massachusetts, we'll highlight Black-owned Frugal Bookstore in Roxbury, and in Worcester near us, Tidepool Bookshop, Bedlam Book Cafe, and Root and Press.
Check out the options on Biblio, a marketplace of independent booksellers and libraries selling used, rare, and antique books. They share our vision for the role of a just business and to positively impact the world around them as a necessity of all operations. You could also check out some of our favorite merchants on Biblio, Better World Books, AbeBooks, and Thriftbooks directly as well!
Another great resource for new copies is Bookshop.com, where we have our list of recommened books all in one place as well. They financially support local independent booksellers and also has listings to help you get to know your local independent booksellers or buy directly with them! Bookshop.com is a Certified B-Corp in service of the public good and dedicated to strengthening a thriving and inspirational culture around books.
The Biblio and Bookstore links are affiliate links, meaning that for each book purchased through Biblio, 5% is paid out by the platform to us as a little help and thank you for sharing. With Bookstore, that's 10%, and they also match that 10% paid to the independent bookseller on top of the bookseller's price so they earn more as well through the affiliate link. The other links are not, click wherever you like, or check out the book if possible from your library!
]]>21-Day Mental Health Stigma Detox Day 16: Let’s keep moving forward! This is one of my absolute favorite topics, speaking as Founder Will H. Hansen I briefly touched on it in our company story as exercise for the purpose of proving mental health has been incredibly powerfully personally since childhood. Without intending it to at first, this benefit to mental health has also been such a common focus and the most rewarding and powerful part of seeing changes in personal training or performance clients, and group fitness students over the last 7 years. Especially when in combination with nutrition coaching, lifestyle changes, and in collaboration with a psychiatric care team when needed. Anyway, just passing along some sweet info we’re jazzed up about!
Let’s Talk Exercise and Mental Health:
“Just exercise, you’ll feel better.”
Uhhhhh, Why? How?
Most of us hear the phrase over and over, “go for a walk/to the gym/for a run, you’ll feel better…” Often, that’s the last thing we want to hear if we’re not doing well. There’s a lot of truth to it though, so let’s get into it!
A meta-analysis (a study looking at many other related studies) in the journal Depression and Anxiety analyzed 11 studies with 455 adult patients with clinical depression. They found that with an average of 45 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise performed 3x / week, over an average of 9 weeks that there was a significantly large overall anti-depressant effect. These outcomes even held when participants could do whatever form of exercise they preferred!
So aerobic exercise helps, but what about weight lifting and other resistance training? Another meta-analysis published in the journal Sports Medicine, across 16 studies with a total of 922 participants looked for answers.
Study author Brett Gordon reported that: “RET (resistance exercise training) significantly reduced anxiety in both healthy participants and those with a physical or mental illness, and the effect size [how much it helps] of these reductions is comparable to that of frontline treatments such as medication and psychotherapy[*]… RET is a low-cost behavior with minimal risk and can be an effective tool to reduce anxiety for healthy and ill alike.”
*Medication and psychotherapy are also very valid, and with stigma and cost limiting access, accessible strategies like exercise are crucial!
Many antipsychotic medications, particularly atypical antipsychotic medications, are known to lead to weight gain. As a result, those on these medications benefit especially from exercise interventions. Improvements in weight control, fitness level, ability to tolerate exercise, blood pressure, and energy levels are common.
These improvements have been seen with as little as 30 minutes of brisk walking 3x per week, and could be done all at once, or split into 10-minute increments.
But how does it work in the brain? One of the most promising links between exercise and mental health is the molecule Kynurenine. Let’s dive in…
During conditions of high inflammation, the amino acid tryptophan is broken down into kynurenine, instead of it’s normal product, serotonin. This leads to a build-up of kynurenine in the brain, which is associated with depression and schizophrenia.
Exercise stimulates more significant expression of the enzyme KAT (Kynurenine Aminotransferase), converting kynurenine into kynurenic acid (Kyna), which has neuroprotective effects. Exercise directly impacts the brain through this pathway and is an especially important intervention for stress-induced depression, which has a tight link to kynurenine build-up.
Regular exercise over time builds up resiliency to kynurenine toxicity and stress-induced depression. It improves the ability of skeletal muscle to express the enzyme KAT. One study found that those with a history of training saw greater KAT expression and it took only 3 weeks for sedentary adults to see improved KAT expression, among other benefits!
See visual version on Instagram.
References
1 - “Aerobic exercise for adult patients with major depressive disorder in mental health services: A systematic review and meta-analysis.” Morres, ID, Hatzigeorgiadis, A, Stathi, A, et al. Depression& Anxiety. 3 January 2019; 36: 39– 53. doi:10.1002/da.22842
2 - “Resistance exercise linked to reduced anxiety” Lisa Rapaport, Reuters Health, September 22, 2017
3 - “The Effects of Resistance Exercise Training on Anxiety: A Meta-Analysis and Meta-Regression Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.” Gordon, B.R., McDowell, C.P., Lyons, M. et al. Sports Med 47, 2521–2532 (2017). doi:10.1007/s40279-017-0769-0
4 - “Exercise for mental health.” Sharma, Ashish et al. Primary Care Companion to the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry vol. 8,2 (2006): 106. doi:10.4088/pcc.v08n0208a
5 - “Acute and chronic effects of exercise on the kynurenine pathway in humans - A brief review and future perspectives.” Alan J. Metcalfe, et al. Physiology & Behavior 2018 Oct 1;194:583-587. doi: 10.1016/j.physbeh.2018.07.015.
6 - “Kynurenines: Tryptophan's metabolites in exercise, inflammation, and mental health.” Cervenka I, Agudelo LZ, Ruas JL. Science Mag, AAAS 2017 Jul 28;357(6349):eaaf9794. doi: 10.1126/science.aaf9794.
7 - “Tryptophan-Kynurenine Metabolites in Exercise and Mental Health.” Valente-Silva P., Ruas J.L. (2017) in: Spiegelman B. (eds) Hormones, Metabolism and the Benefits of Exercise. Research and Perspectives in Endocrine Interactions. Springer, Cham. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-72790-5_7
8 - “Endurance exercise increases skeletal muscle kynurenine aminotransferases and plasma kynurenic acid in humans” Maja Schlittler, Michel Goiny, et al. 15 May 2016, American Journal of Physiology - Cell Physiology, Vol. 310, No. 10, doi: 10.1152/ajpcell.00053.2016
]]>Take the #StigmaFree Pledge at NAMI.org/SigmaFree and stay up to date on their resources! Mental Health Stigma: So what Is It? How does it show up, and how can beat it? Easy as: 1. Education 2. Contact 3. Advocacy. Today, we're sharing research on what’s worked as we roll through day two of our 21-Day Mental Health Stigma Detox tied to "We're All a Bit Nutty; it's what makes us so sweet!"
]]>Mental health stigma is a big topic these days. So what is it? How does it show up, and how can we beat it?
It's easy as: 1. Education 2. Contact 3. Advocacy
Today, we're sharing research on what’s worked as we roll through day two of our 21-Day Mental Health Stigma Detox tied to "We're All a Bit Nutty; it's what makes us so sweet!"
What is Stigma?
There's both public stigma and self-stigma. Each include three major elements.
1. Public Stigma:
A. Stereotype
Negative belief about a group (e.g., dangerousness, incompetence, character weakness).
B. Prejudice
Agreement with belief and/or negative emotional reaction (e.g., anger, fear).
C. Discrimination
Behavior response to prejudice (e.g., avoidance, withhold employment and housing opportunities, withhold help). (1)
2. Self-Stigma:
A. Stereotype
Negative belief about the self(e.g., character weakness, incompetence).
B. Prejudice
Agreement with belief, negative emotional reaction (e.g., low self-esteem, low self-efficacy).
C. Discrimination
Behavior response to prejudice (e.g., fails to pursue work and housing opportunities). (1)
Whew! Those definitions were pretty academic, but it’s helpful to break it down, so what can we do now to help? We have three main levers for change: education, contact, and advocacy.
1. Education
Education is successful in improving public attitudes about mental illness and mental health, especially when correcting misinformation and replacing incorrect negative attitudes and beliefs with factual positive ones. Education is most effective when combined with behavioral changes. (2)
2. Contact
“Across a wide range of stigmatizing conditions, people without the stigmatized conditions have little meaningful contact with those who have these conditions. Lack of contact fosters discomfort, distrust, and fear.” Sharing and seeing stories of success through (and because of) challenges helps overcome this divide and creates a positive connection. Even better when combined with education! (2)
3. Advocacy
“Policies that disqualify people with mental illness from receiving health insurance coverage are an example of overt structural stigma; in contrast, failure of police officials to distinguish between mental health apprehensions and suicide attempts on criminal record checks is an example of covert structural stigma or of stigma at the structural level.” Talking with lawmakers to realize structural change is key! (2)
What Can I Do Right Now?
Take the Pledge at NAMI.org/StigmaFree & stay up to date on their resources!
To view the visual version of this post on Instagram, click here.
Referenced:
(1) “Understanding the impact of stigma on people with mental illness” Patrick W. Corrigan and Amy C. Watson World psychiatry: official journal of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA), (2002) 1(1), 16–20.
(2) Committee on the Science of Changing Behavioral Health Social Norms; Board on Behavioral, Cognitive, and Sensory Sciences; Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education; National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Ending Discrimination Against People with Mental and Substance Use Disorders: The Evidence for Stigma Change. Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 2016 Aug 3. 4, Approaches to Reducing Stigma. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK384914/
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A major inspiration, Agnes B. Marshall was a legendary woman who has not received anywhere near her due appreciation in history! We, as a company, would likely not exist, along with most other frozen dessert or ice cream brands, without her fingerprint on the world. Her legacy echoes through the spoons of time with the depth and range of her work and impact, finding every opportunity to make exquisite frozen dessert-experiences accessible, all while experimenting, taking risks to break through societal expectations, and boldly using her platform to speak truth to power, all while making a positive difference in the lives of people across broad classes of society. Here is our brief highlight of her Sweet life:
Agnes B. Marshall: The Forgotten Super Entrepreneur of Frozen Desserts; The Victorian Queen of Ice Cream (August 24, 1855 - July 29, 1905)
In 1870, it became legal in England for a woman to buy property with her own money. So at age 28 in 1883, she did just that, and purchased a building in London to open a cooking school. Within a year, she grew from zero students taking her classes to full groups of 40 pupils each, teaching 5-6 days a week. After 2 years in business, she published Book of Ices, showing the Victorian middle class how to make frozen desserts and ice cream in their home.
In response to her book’s popularity, she invented a hand-cranked ice-cream maker for at-home use (which some say was more reliable and faster than modern models).
After people could make ice cream at home, she was right there again with molds to help with storage and styling of their icy treats. She managed coppersmiths & pewterers to make the operation a success, and cross-sold her molds to her readers.
She continued to innovate rapidly, going on to create and sell more accessible methods of freezing and refrigeration. This increased demand for ice imports in the UK, boosting ice-harvesting industries in Norway and the USA (such as from the former North Pond here in Worcester, MA)!
In 1886, 3 years after buying her property and opening her business, she started a weekly magazine, The Table, featuring recipes, tips for seasonal foods, and table settings, while being outspoken on a wide range of issues through the years, from decrying the rise of eating out of tin cans, to disgust at how rich people treated kitchen servants poorly, saying, “one despairs of reform in this direction, we are a foolishly patient nation.” In 1889, on Women’s Rights, “if energy can accomplish that for which, if justice were done, there would be no more need to fight, then [Marian] Farquharson may be sure of realising her hopes.” (Farquharson was an emminent suffragist in Scotland and focused on the promotion of Women’s public works)
Concurrently, she ran an employment agency to help cooks and kitchen workers find work, and also helped clients design, supply, and install complete kitchens across the UK.
With not enough going on, she started a lecturing tour in England in 1892, touring major cities to audiences of up to 600 people. She continued to write, and diversified further to baking powder, Coralline pepper, high-quality extracts, flavors, coloring, plus other equipment and ingredients, totaling more than 600 products in her catalogue. A pioneer of the ice cream cone and of wild flavors that make today’s seem blasé, plus making liquid nitrogen ice cream in 1901!
Tragically she passed before the age of 50 and through a series of unfortunate circumstances she’s been forgotten to much of the world: many of her writings were mismanaged and taken out of print for nearly a century following her death after her estate and publishing rights were sold to Ward Lock & Co. meaning that the judgement to publish Marshall’s entrepreneurial and bold work was up to the the publisher of "Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management”; after a London fire decades later at Ward Lock & Co., all of her patent archives were lost; and after her husband took over her business following her passing it eventually failed leaving little left of her once vast business empire, her “one-woman industry”.
With how prolific she was, we can only wonder where we might all be had she lived a few more decades, or had her legacy been in better hands. All the more reason to savor the today’s flavor and do what we can to lift others up and make our echos in the spoons of time be Sweet ones!
“Mrs. Marshall was a unique one-woman industry... She deserves far more credit than she has been given by history.” - Robin Weir (Biographer)
Referenced
“Ices and Ice Creams” Agnes B. Marshall, 1885,Introduction by Barbara Ketcham Wheaton, 1976 Forward by Robin Weir, 2013, Random House Limited
“Meet Agnes B. Marshall, the Victorian Queen of Ice Cream” Brigit Katz, September 5, 2019, MentalFloss.com
“The 19th-century entrepreneur who pioneered modern ice cream” Michael Waters, August 9, 2020, TheHustle.co (photo credit for portrait with ice cream backgrounds)
“Cooks & Other People; Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery, 1995” Harlan Walker, Prospect Books
“Fancy Ices: Mrs. Agnes Marshall, Queen of Ices” Pandiajara, December 16, 2020, Documentary & Oral History Studio, Loyola University New Orleans, DocStudio.org
“The Appearance of Women’s Politics in the Correspondence Pages of Aberdeen Newspapers, 1900–14,” Sarah Pedersen, Women’s History Review, Volume 11, Number 4, 2002, Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, United Kingdom
Born into slavery in 1864, he was the first Black student at Iowa State in 1891, completing a Master of Science in Agricultural Science. He was then recruited by Booker T. Washington for the Agriculture Faculty at Tuskegee University in Alabama. He sought to serve “the man farthest down.” He taught self-sufficiency and ecological conservation to children of former slaves, growing soil-enriching crops such as Sweet Potatoes, Peanuts, and Soybeans.
Welcome to the new Sweetness: The Just Book Club (It's Lit.!) where we'll be diving into and enjoying works from a variety of authors and formats to inspire joy, to challenge us to create a better world, and to learn from under-appreciated perspectives from all over the world, starting with "The Art of Eating" by M.F.K. Fisher
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Welcome to the new Sweetness: The Just Book Club (It's Lit.!) where we'll be diving into and enjoying works from a variety of authors and formats to inspire joy, to challenge us to create a better world, and to learn from under-appreciated perspectives from all over the world.
We're archiving all of our past book club selections here on our blog, starting with this one! For the most current selection, see our top-level Book Club page.
Feel free to check these titles out at your leisure, and if you'd like to join in a virtual discussion, we'll be starting with our first book, "The Art of Eating" by M.F.K. Fisher on Thursday, December 10th at 7:30pm EST (more on the book and where to get it below, followed by our next selection). The event will happen at this Zoom link here.
This book is a collection of works by Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher, a pioneer in writing about food as a way to understand the world, and a genre-creating leader in making writing and reading about food as much an experience as tasting the food itself. She was groundbreaking in her writing and it stunned readers of the era to learn that she was, in fact, a woman. Living through both World Wars and the Great Depression, her writings offer inspiration on how, to quote Les Dames d'Escoffier International, to "revere the art of eating simply but well, of taking pleasure where it is found and of loving life with all of its challenges." The Art of Eating takes us on a journey from the gastronomic history of the world starting in 3000 B.C. in Egypt and China, to savoring and stretching food during wartime and economic shortages, to reflecting on life in many aspects through the lens of food. Of course, there are countless recipes worth trying, and especially useful during the growing cold of winter and for creating joy through the holidays as we conclude this challenging year. Here's a quote from the section "The Gastronomical Me":
“People ask me: Why do you write about food? Why don't you write about the struggle for power and security, and about love, the way others do?
They ask it accusingly, as if I were somehow gross, unfaithful to the honour of my craft.
The easiest answer is to say that, like most other humans, I am hungry. But there is more than that. It seems to me that our three basic needs, for food and security and love, are so mixed and mingled and entwined that we cannot straighly think of one without the others. So it happens that when I write of hunger, I am really writing about love and the hunger for it, and warmth and the love of it and the hunger for it...and then the warmth and richness and fine reality of hunger satisfied...and it is all one.
I tell about myself and how I ate bread on a lasting hillside, or drank red wine in a room now blown to bits, and it happens without my willing it that I am telling too about the people with me then, and their other deeper needs for love and happiness.
There is food in the bowl, and more often than not, because of what honesty I have, there is nourishment in the heart, to feed the wilder, more insistent hungers. We must eat. If, in the face of that dread fact, we can find other nourishment, and tolerance and compassion for it, we'll be no less full of human dignity.
There is communion of more than our bodies when bread is broken and wine drunk. And that is my answer, when people ask me: Why do you write about hunger, and not wars or love?”
― M.F.K. Fisher, The Gastronomical Me in The Art of Eating
This was originally published in 1954, so the used book market is plentiful, and we'd recommend you start there as you can easily find quality vintage editions for well less than a pint of Sweetness! The latest reprint is also available or by order at many local independent booksellers, and may be at your local library as well.
Check out the options on Biblio, a marketplace of independent booksellers and libraries selling used, rare, and antique books. They share our vision for the role of a just business and to positively impact the world around them as a necessity of all operations. You could also check out some of our favorite merchants on Biblio, Better World Books and Thriftbooks directly as well!
Another great resource for new copies is Bookshop.com, which financially supports local independent booksellers and also has listings to help you get to know your local independent booksellers or buy directly with them! This doesn't yet include Worcester's newest one, our friends at Tidepool Bookshop we recommend you check out too! Bookshop.com is a Certified B-Corp in service of the public good and dedicated to strengthening a thriving and inspirational culture around books.
For transparency, the Biblio and Bookstore links are affiliate links, meaning that for each book purchased through Biblio, 5% is paid out by the platform from Biblio's cut to us as a little help and thank you for sharing. With Bookstore, that's 10%, and they also match that 10% commission paid to the independent bookseller on top of the bookseller's price so they earn more as well through the affiliate link. The other links are not, click wherever you like, or check out the book if possible from your library!
Previewing below our next book to start 2021 if you want a jump start or to get on a library waitlist, and this one also has a great audiobook format too!
"The Earth, The City, and The Hidden Narrative of Race" by Carl Anthony (2017)
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