From Our Heart to Yours

About the Book

The title of the book, From our Hearts to Your Hearts: 50 Great heart-Healing Recipes form West African Waterleaves speaks for itself. In consideration of the staggering numbers of persons who die prematurely because of diseases of the heart often associated with poor eating habits, the impetus for this book arose out of a need to assist everyone to eat what is good for their bodies especially their hearts and cardiovascular system by supplementing their meals with high-antioxidant, high vitamin laden, cholesterol-lowering natural fiber rich sources. One such dependable source is freshly grown West African waterleaves, a vegetable that has been used for centuries in our West African communities to enhance lives. The closest American vegetables to waterleaves is spinach; in the absence of waterleaves, spinach can be substituted in these heart-healing recipes. A second book in preparation will address simple strategies to grow common antioxidant vegetables including waterleaves and spinach no matter your living condition in terms of space or your time availability.

For the past six years, I have personally offered waterleaves that I have grown in my home garden to a number of friends who have health issues with diabetes, post-menopausal symptoms, chronic constipation, allergies, hair and nail brittleness and breakage, hail loss, excessive skin dryness die to excessive smoking, stress-related overeating and poor healing of wounds. In each one of these situations, constant use of waterleaves helped in ameliorate and improve the situation and enhance their personal health status in general.

Whether it is with lowering cholesterol, assisting in reversing the vascular problems created by long-term smoking, fighting allergies and common coughs and colds, problems if indigestion and heartburn, lowering of glucose as in persons with diabetes, promoting healing as in persons with decubiti or bed sores, providing additional vitamins for persons with allergies and respiratory disorders, providing natural source of fibers and cholesterol absorbers for persons with high blood levels of lipids and family histories of gastric carcinoma, use of waterleaves had been shown to assist in lowering those risks by optimizing the vitamin, fiber and antioxidant content of our meals. The hundreds of patients over a period of over 30 years had shown great improvement of out health status in numerous disorders over different health scenarios. The intent of this book is to make this knowledge available to everyone.

In order to make for easy reading, this book is organized into twelve different chapters; the first chapter offers an explanation and definition of terms often encountered while reading articles related to foods and health while the second chapter describes some if the key processes involved in preparing the recipes. This will enable readers to be "on the same page" so to speak with the author as different terms are applied. The third chapter describes the food and medicinal uses of everyday herbs and spices used in today's contemporary cooking, adaptations of foods that children and young people love, fish and seafood dishes, modifications of the modern Afro-Caribbean cuisine, modifications to popular Mexican dishes, meals of convenience or favorite meals that can be cooked on our modern crockpots, cholesterol-lowering tofu meals and foods known traditionally for their cleansing, repairing and healing properties. In all instances, provisions are mode for increasing the antioxidant and vitamin resources associated with these wholesome natural foods.

We are truly excited about this book for many reasons. All of the recipes were tried and tested in out kitchens in the Lord's Vineyard on Lake Barrington Drive in New Orleans, prior to our Katrina evacuation. In writing this book, several groups of people come to mind. Firstly this book is a must for persons who desire a simple and effective way to modify their diet by adopting these recipes, which can fit any budget while enhancing heart-health. Because waterleaves and spinach replenish our bodies moisture and water from the inside out, cooking with spinach and waterleaves help us achieve this hydration which ultimately helps us maintain the natural elasticity of our skin. Maintenance of skin elasticity often translated to dater wound healing and repair as well as healthy and more youthful glow to our skin, hair and nails.

Whereas these recipes are created for use here in the United States and all over the world, this book is also a great resource for persons interested in foods from the West Africa region as well as for travelers visiting this region. It is particularly useful to persons of African or Afro-American descent and others affiliated to them through marriages and friendships; either as "significant others" who desire simple recipes from the African homeland for their spouses or loved ones.

It offers a first-hand introduction into foods and recipes common to the West African sub-region of the many parts of the world where waterleaves and spinach-based vegetables abound. Whether you live here in the Unites States or have plans of visiting West Africa, this book is a must for your enjoyment of heart-healthy and heart-healing recipes from natural vegetables and easily-available food resources. Our greatest excitement about this book is that you can personally grow and garnish all of the waterleaves and spinach your family needs within a growing season form anywhere in the United States. Waterleaves are resilient and have been shown to grow in just about any environment. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that whereas every other plant or vegetable in out home garden in New Orleans had died followed the flooding due to Katrina, our waterleaves managed to survive and were growing. We have friends and contacts who have grown our waterleaves from cold as well as warm areas of the United States; form Alaska all the way to California. As fare as we know, this is probably the first book of outs kind in terms of presenting recipes created from Africa's natural foods and food resources with major emphasis on preserving heart health for all ages and in all cultures.

About the Author

Dr. Ogbuokiri is a world acclaimed author, national and international consultant, educator, clinical pharmacist, nutritionist, HIV educator/advocate and motivational speaker of many years experience, having lived and practiced in three continents of the world (USA, Africa and the Middle East, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia). Apart from being chief cook in her familyÕs canteen for many years prior to coming to the United States, Dr. Ogbuokiri taught and practiced nutrition at the Roxbury Community College in Roxbury, Massachusetts while participating in a post-doctoral mid-career fellowship in International Health and Population Studies at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston. Within her brilliant and exciting career, Dr. Ogbuokiri has given hands-on training on nutrition as it relates to diseases such as lipid disorders, disorders, high blood pressure, peripheral vascular disease following many years of heavy smoking, diabetes and other cardiovascular diseases to numerous groups of healthcare providers, individual patients and clients referred to her in clinical practice as a pharmacist and in consultation for several key disease states over many years here in the United States and all over the world. Dr. Ogbuokiri is happily married to Dr. Godwin Ogbuokiri, a general surgeon, and is mother to five great young adults and two adopted children.