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Ann Marie's Blog
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| | Tags: | autism, body ecology diet, depression, donna gates, food, immunity, lacto-fermentation, leaky gut, natasha campbell-mcbride, nutrition, probiotics, serotonin, videos | | Subject: | Why you should feed your baby butter, raw milk, and sauerkraut ... | | Time: | 08:28 pm |
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| ... and why you need to eat them too.
This whole series (videos 1-6) is worth watching. They are talking about nutrition for autistic kids... but it is important information for all of us.
Did you know that fermenting foods increases the nutrition hundreds of times? Isn't that exciting?
Did you know that serotonin is manufactured in the gut? Isn't that amazing?
PS: The woman on the right, Natasha Campbell-McBride, reversed her son's autism through diet. | comments: Leave a comment   |
| | Tags: | allergies, baby formula, california, eczema, food, immunity, kate, milk is milk, monsanto, nutrition, organic pastures, pasteurization, politics, probiotics, raw milk | | Subject: | Help save raw milk in California! | | Time: | 09:34 am | | Current Mood: | ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/acedia/littlegent/predatory.gif) determined |
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| As it stands, there will be no more raw milk allowed in California next month. I'm really upset about this because I drink raw milk every day and use it to make Kate's homemade baby formula.
More and more dairies are going by the wayside across the country due to pressure from lobbyists from big money dairy factory farms. We can't let this happen in California, where raw milk has always been legal and available in stores.
I've posted before about Monsanto milk and their slimy "Milk is Milk" campaign. This is real, people. Freedoms are not taken away all at once. They are taken away one at a time.
Here's what happened... a couple of months ago, they slipped a few sentences into an amendment of the California food code. It was signed by Gov. Schwarzenegger -- even though he probably didn't even know what he was signing.
Here's the press release from Organic Pastures Dairy: http://www.organicpastures.com/pdfs/ab1735_press_release.pdf
Sally Fallon says, "The legislation is obviously aimed at getting rid of raw milk in California using standards that are unnecessary or impossible to meet."
If you live in California and you want the right to buy raw milk and dairy products, please read the following and do what you can to help. Even if you don't currently drink raw milk, please do what you can to fight for these organic dairy farms where the cows are allowed to be on pasture and eat grass all year long. If they get away with this, who knows what they will do next?
In fact, it was just announced that the USDA wants to start doing the same thing -- imposing ridiculous unattainable federal regulations on small growers and family farms -- for all leafy greens!!!
http://cornucopia.org/index.php/protect-fresh-leafy-greens-and-family-farms/
Pasteurization kills enzymes, folks. Enzymes are the building blocks for the absorption of nutrients. Without enzymes, we can't absorb vitamins and minerals.
Furthermore, pasteurization kills probiotics, or good bacteria. We need this bacteria in our digestive tracts in order to build immunity. Why do you think so many kids are allergic to EVERYTHING these days? They've been raised on pasteurized foods, most notably pasteurized milk.
The guy that sells us our milk at the Organic Pastures hub store said that his first-born son was sick all the time and had eczema for five years. His eczema cleared up in TWO weeks after they switched to raw milk.
Here is the page on what you can do (I am writing a letter to Nicole Parra and sending photos of our family with Kate drinking raw milk):
http://www.organicpastures.com/ab_1735_letter4.html
Write or fax letters (no emails) to Nicole Parra, Chair of the Agriculture Committee in the Assembly. Make it personal and real by including a picture of you and your family holding raw milk containers. Tell her to introduce new legislation that will let raw milk continue to flow freely in California.
Assemblymember Nicole Parra
Capitol Office
State Capitol
P.O. Box 942849
Sacramento, CA 94249-0030
(916) 319 - 2030
(916) 319 - 2130 Fax
Also write your assembly members or better yet make an appointment and plead your case directly.
Please, please do what you can to help. Write a letter today. Not just for Kate, but for the cows! And for the right to continue to buy healthy food in California.
Please forward this post via email or blog. (If you post on your blog, please send me the link so I can send it to Organic Pastures -- they will post it on their site.) | | comments: 8 comments or Leave a comment |
| | Tags: | beatrix, books, cavities, cows, food, grass fed, immunity, nutrition, organic, pastured, probiotics, raw milk, tooth decay, weston price, whole wheat | | Subject: | The Town Without a Toothache | | Time: | 08:44 pm | | Current Mood: | ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/acedia/littlegent/curious.gif) curious |
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| Dr. George Heard was a dentist in the early part of the 20th century who first practiced in Alabama, where he had a majority of patients with tooth decay that required fillings and extractions -- ultimately resulting in false teeth. He later moved to a small town in Texas where he was stunned to find very few cavities (average of 1.2 decayed spots per child between the ages of 6-18).
No, it wasn't fluoride. There were other Texas towns that had just as much or more fluoride in the water -- and their incidence of tooth decay was greater.
Dr. Heard attributed the town's excellent dental health to diet. Particularly homegrown vegetables from beds rich in minerals, whole grain bread, and plenty of raw milk. And avoidance of white flour and refined sugar.
I asked every patient who came to me: "How much milk do you drink every day. Do you drink raw milk? Do you drink buttermilk and clabber?"
For years I made inquiry of my patients as to their milk habits. Almost invariably I found that the possessor of a mouth full of sound teeth had been a consistent milk drinker from early childhood. A surprisingly large number liked either buttermilk, clabber or both.
The significant fact is that the milk those patients drank came from cows that had grazed on native grass in Deaf Smith County pastures. In winter, as a rule, the cows had grazed on green wheat.
from "Man Versus Toothache" by Dr. George W. Heard, copyright 1952
Why in the world are we drinking skim milk from GRAIN-fed cows? Not to mention cows that are fed corn, soy, dead animals, day-old pastries, etc. Skim, pasteurized milk is completely devoid of nutrition. You may as well drink water.
And cows that are forced to eat grain and other things are not healthy. Grain makes them sick. Which requires more antibiotics, etc. Which is why you don't want to drink pasteurized milk. Not only is it devoid of nutrition, it is from sick cows that are pumped to the gills with antibiotics (and hormones in many cases).
And just what are all those antibiotics doing to the delicate balance of flora in your intestinal tract, the very seat of your immunity?
Do you think the antibiotics are killed or inactivated by the pasteurization process? Does anyone know? I don't know -- I'm not a microbiologist, for godsakes.
But I do know that it can't be good to drink milk from sick cows who are pumped with antibiotics. I don't know how you can dispute that logic.
Cows are meant to eat grass in spring and summer, and hay in fall and winter. They are not meant to stand shoulder-to-shoulder in cramped factories eating grain and other abnormal things out of troughs.
Where are you getting your milk? Do you know the dairy? Do you know what they feed the cows?
If you like to drink milk (I hope you do, it's very good for you and delicious), not to mention eat cheese, ice cream, and butter, here are some good posts to read on my friend Beatrix's blog. These two posts illustrate the difference between real, healthy grass-fed-cow-produced raw milk and factory farm swill.
Please educate yourself:
The Sweet Sound of Cowbells Ringing Out in the Fields:
http://constantstateofflux.wordpress.com/2007/10/24/the-sweet-tone-of-cowbells-ringing-out-in-the-fields/
STOP DOING IT NOW:
http://constantstateofflux.wordpress.com/2007/09/21/stop-doing-it-now/
Think you can't get raw milk, pastured eggs, and grass-fed meat? Well you're probably right that you won't find it at Safeway. You might not even find it at Whole Foods (unless you live in California which does sell raw milk -- for now...).
Here are some resources to help you find good real milk and grass-fed animal food:
http://www.realmilk.com/ (click on WHERE to find sources for real raw milk)
http://www.eatwild.com/ | | comments: 2 comments or Leave a comment |
| | Tags: | alla, beatrix, broth, cholesterol, food, kate, milestones, nourishing traditions, nutrition, rapadura, saturated fat, seth, stock, sugar, tv, weston price, zucchini bread | | Subject: | Broth, sugar, and healthy people with no cavities | | Time: | 09:23 pm | | Current Mood: | ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/acedia/littlegent/mellow.gif) relaxed |
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| It was a grey day in LA. Rainy and cold and dreary. This kind of weather is so rare in LA, so when it happens, it's kind of fun. Like a snow day or a blackout.
I had soaked some oatmeal last night, so this morning I got to wake up to coffee and a bowl of comforting oatmeal with raisins and maple syrup garnished with a little raw milk.
For lunch I used some of the turkey stock (from the turkey carcass) and leftover turkey from Thanksgiving, added a few carrots, some parsley and sea salt, and made the most delicious, comforting soup for Seth and Alla and myself.
Tonight after dinner I was reading my new friend Beatrix's blog. Even though she lives in the French Alps, I found her online because she and I are into all the same stuff health- and food-wise. Weston Price, raw milk, etc.
Anyway, it was so cool to read that she was feeding her family bone broth today too.
http://quatrepattes.wordpress.com/2007/11/30/comfort-for-a-little-one/
Kate LOVES broth. Absolutely loves it. I feed it to her with a little liver pate mixed in. She likes squash, but she LOVES broth. She can't lap it up fast enough.
This afternoon I made zucchini bread from the "Nourishing Traditions" cookbook. It came out great. Very moist. Maybe a tiny bit too sweet (I added extra maple syrup and uncalled for Rapadura). Next time I'll make it a little less sweet. I might make some other adjustments as well.
I have to say though... I think my taste buds are changing. I don't want sweets as much anymore. I used to eat 2-3 chocolate chip cookies almost every night. I used to crave chocolate and sweets. Now I really don't. I can go days, weeks, months even -- and I don't care about eating sweets at all. Every once in a while I will have a chocolate chip cookie before bed (I got the kind that are frozen but it's all-natural ingredients). I can only eat one. Even then, it feels like a tad too much.
Sweets just taste TOO sweet for me now. That Halloween party where I had the Bluebonnet Cafe cupcake -- it made me dizzy and kind of nauseous. And I only ate half! And I used to be able to devour those cupcakes.
I know part of it is the fact that I am not eating sugar. I don't know the last time I ate real sugar. I've only been eating stevia, maple syrup, raw honey, agave nectar (which I found out I'm not supposed to be eating) and Rapadura.
I think part of it might also have to do with the amount of fat I am eating now. Good fats. Butter, coconut oil, whole milk, eggs. I am satiated. I don't crave anything. I wonder if part of the reason people crave sweets is because they need more fat.
I'm struck by that statistic I read today -- that breast milk is over 50% fat and loaded with cholesterol. If fat and cholesterol are bad for you, then why is breast milk -- the epitome of health food for humans -- loaded with it?
And then you read Weston Price's book (I'm halfway through) and all these people from around the world are eating diets of 50% or more of saturated fat. And they are the healthiest people on the planet. No degenerative diseases. No cancer. No heart disease. No diabetes or arthritis. No obesity. Very, very few cavities. They had no need for doctors or dentists.
What did they eat? Different things, depending on where they lived. The Eskimos ate differently than the people living in the Swiss Alps or African tribes. But overall they all ate a very similar diet -- a lot of saturated fat, some vegetables, lots of meat, fish and/or dairy, and occasionally whole grains. Zero refined flour or sugar.
The people in the Swiss Alps for example, lived on raw milk, cheese, butter, whole grain rye bread, some vegetables, and, once a week they had meat. These people had almost no cavities. And no degenerative diseases. Am I repeating myself? I can't help it. It's just astounding to me! Can you imagine never having to see a doctor or dentist?
So interesting... I read that book about babies and sleep ("Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" by Dr. Weissbluth) and it says that sleep begets sleep. In other words, the more you help your baby get his or her rest, the better and more he will sleep. Likewise, it's eat fat to lose fat. Eat more fat and you will want to eat less and you will lose fat. Counter-intuitive, eh?
I'm watching "What Not to Wear". They're making over a Rastafarian hippie with dreadlocks that look like really long turds. When I was in the hospital with Kate, I watched this a few times while I was nursing her. It reminds me of that special time. It was so wonderful being in the hospital with our perfect baby, so in awe of and in love with her.
I can't believe how big she's gotten over the past several months. She's so alert and curious and she's crawling and babbling and she even did her first sign the other day. Monkey. You make the sign by scratching under your arms like a monkey.
She also waves now -- hi and goodbye. Not consistently -- but when she does it, it is clear that she knows what she is doing.
It's so fun cuddling with her and nuzzling and kissing those cheeks, that belly, those toes. She's such a delectable baby. And it's fun learning about who she is. She has a strong personality. Independent, unflappable, curious, determined. And she definitely has a good sense of humor. That's obvious already. Very bright, too. It's interesting to me that their personalities emerge so early.
Time for some milk and then bed. | | comments: 2 comments or Leave a comment |
| | Tags: | ancel keys, butter, documentaries, fat head, food, health, julia child, movies, nutrition, saturated fat, science, super size me, videos | | Subject: | How saturated fat got its bad name | | Time: | 08:48 pm | | Current Mood: | ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/acedia/littlegent/chipper.gif) chipper |
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| Everything good for you is bad for you. Everything bad for you is good for you.
Butter is good.
Butter is BAD!
Margarine is good!
Margarine is BAD!
Butter is good again!
Milk is good.
Milk is BAD!
Soy milk is good!
Soy milk is BAD!
Milk is good again! (raw milk, that is)
Why is this happening? Why do the medical/nutrition/food industries keep changing their minds about what we should be eating?
Could it be... money? Prestige? Corruption?
Sigh. Same old story. That story is called Money Makes the World Go 'Round.
Ask yourself this question: What's cheaper to produce than butter?
How about "vegetable oil" and "margarine" (made from cheap industrial corn and soy)?
Cheaper and "healthier" (???).
Healthier only because certain scientists did research that showed that it was healthier. If you watch the video below, you'll see that the research was flawed.
The good news is -- you can eat butter again. (Make it raw butter if you can. It's better for you.)
And if you're still scared to eat butter, remember -- Julia Child was a big advocate of saturated fat... butter, heavy cream, foie gras. She ate that kind of stuff all the time.
In fact, my favorite quote from Julia Child was from an episode of one of her TV shows. She said (paraphrase), "If you're worried that there's too much butter in this recipe, you don't have to use this much butter -- you can substitute with cream."
And how did she die? Heart disease? Diabetes? Stroke?
None of the above.
She died in her sleep, aged 91.
This is an clip from a new movie coming out, a documentary called Fat Head that is a response to Morgan Spurlock's "Super Size Me". I'm looking forward to seeing it!
I'll leave you with this... did you know that breast milk is over 50% fat, much of it cholesterol? It has the highest percentage of cholesterol of any food (according to Dr. Mary Enig http://www.westonaprice.org/knowyourfats/skinny.html).
If breast milk is so good for you, and it's chock full of cholesterol and saturated fat, how can those things be bad? | | comments: 2 comments or Leave a comment |
| | Tags: | cloth diapers, creative visualization, food, gratitude, happiness, kate, nutrition, organic, raw food, rawesome, seth, sunsets | | Subject: | Sunrise, sunset | | Time: | 09:04 pm | | Current Mood: | ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/acedia/littlegent/happy.gif) happy |
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| I had to go to the dentist this afternoon (they are putting in a crown on the crownless root canal tooth I had worked on before Kate was born). Driving home from downtown around 4:30 pm, I got to see the most spectacular sunset.
OK not the most spectacular, because every sunset is spectacular. In its own way. Like every snowflake is spectacular. Like every dog. Every cat. Every human being.
Anyway, it was gorgeous and beautiful and breathtaking. I kept trying to focus on driving but all I really wanted to do was breathe in this incredible sunset.
Suddenly it struck me that the majority (like 90%) of the cars were coming in the opposite direction. The majority of people on the road WERE MISSING THIS SUNSET. It then occurred to me that all these people make this commute every day and they all miss the sunset. Not only that, but they miss the sunrise too.
All these people, working so hard, swimming upstream. And a few of us lucky (I don't really believe in luck) bastards get to swim downstream... happily driving west, toward the ocean, marveling at the splendor of the divine.
And to think it was going to the dentist that allowed me to witness this. Clouds with silver linings.
I too miss the sunrise and sunset most days -- not because I'm stuck in a car going the wrong way -- but because our house doesn't have a view.
I decided right then that our next house will have a view of at least sunrise and/or sunset. Heck, why not both? Maybe we'll have sunrise in one room or on one patio -- with our morning coffee -- and sunset on a deck or in a den. Ahh, doesn't that sound fantastic?
Yes, yes it does. And I have experienced enough times in my life the reality of visualization creating manifestations. I have done it so many times. I know it works. So I'm going to create our next house. It's going to be huge and rambling and modern and elegant. With alternative energy and a gourmet kitchen and filtered water and showers and unbelievable gardens and a salt water swimming pool.
Fun to think about. Happy where I am and eager for more, as Abe says.
Tonight I made the most delicious salad -- the "High Enzyme Salad" from the Nourishing Traditions cookbook. Sprouted sunflower seeds, grated carrots and raw cheddar cheese, chopped cucumber, red bell pepper and zucchini (I added that last one) on a bed of greens with a vinaigrette dressing. I forgot the avocado and green onion -- oh well.
We had that and shrimp sauteed in lemon butter sauce along with some ceviche I got from Rawesome. Along with some Gewurtztraminer from Roshambo that didn't taste peppery and spicy like most Gewurtzes -- it was like honey. Nice with this meal.
Went and checked on the baby. Nothing sweeter than a little chubs all tucked in and sleeping soundly. I held her hand and she grunted and tossed.
I can hear Seth snoring now in the bedroom. Life is good.
I enjoy my life so much these days. Washing and drying cloth diapers, folding them and putting them away next to the changing table. Making the homemade formula in the blender, filling glass bottles and lining them up in the fridge. Making chicken stock and baby food puree, storing it in ice trays -- butternut squash, zucchini, carrots, apple sauce, papaya, cantaloupe, and chicken liver pate. Lots to do but it is all enjoyable.
Funny, I was at Rawesome today, doing my shopping. James, the owner, greeted me with an enthusiastic, "Hello!" I was thinking about him as I shopped, thinking about how happy he always seems. He's passionate (just ask him about the politics around raw milk or raw almonds in California and you'll see how passionate he is). But it's not an angry passion. It's a joyful vitality. Something so many people are missing. There is nothing about him that seems depressed or repressed. He is real. He is vital.
And I was thinking about him and how much he must love his job. He gets to bring good, raw, organic food to the people. Food you can't find at Ralph's. You seriously can't. I can't get pastured eggs at Ralph's or Trader Joe's or even Whole Food's. Rawesome is it.
And he is supporting farmers. It's got to feel good to know that the chicken lady has customers for her pastured eggs. She's making money, and people are getting good food.
Anyway, that is how I feel about being a mom. I don't mind washing cloth diapers. I don't mind spending hours researching nutrition and scouting out the healthiest foods and taking the time to prepare them the old-fashioned ways -- instead of just throwing something in the microwave. Like James at Rawesome, I feel like what I am doing is important. I am needed. And I am passionate about this. It makes me want to get out of bed in the morning.
And there's something so comforting and warm about a home with a big basket full of fresh organic fruits on the kitchen counter, a stockpot of chicken or beef stock simmering, a fridge full of fresh raw milk and pastured eggs. I know that I am helping my family become healthier.
I know, the results aren't in yet. We've only been doing this for a few months. We did cure Kate's cradle cap and Seth lost a few pounds... but I predict we will see bigger results in the long term.
In the meantime, I'm just happy.
Happy where I am and eager for more.
Isn't that how little kids look at life? Maybe that's why they spend so much time laughing and tickling each other and rolling in grass and making mud pies and snorting milk out of their noses.
Maybe we should all do more of that. All of that. And watch more sunsets.
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| I read Jenny McCarthy's book, "Louder Than Words" last night.
It totally blew me away.
So moving and absolutely gripping. What I love about Jenny McCarthy is how forthright and honest she is. She calls it like she sees it. And she's not afraid to be herself. I really love and admire that in a person.
What she went through with her son's autism was so horrendous -- and it makes you so sad to realize that one out every 150 people in America are going through the same thing. I can't even imagine how hard it would be.
And yet it is becoming commonplace in America. How can this be? How can something so horrendous become commonplace?
We think we've got it so good here in America. We're nothing like the poor slobs living in Beirut, sleeping to the sound of bombs going off. We're so lucky to live in America.
Meanwhile one out of every 150 parents is going through a living hell. Seizures, (SIDS? -- there is speculation), tantrums and screaming all night long, loss of language and socialization, total inability to function.
I, like Jenny McCarthy, am absolutely convinced that this hell is avoidable and reversible. Not for everybody -- some kids can't recover. But I think most or at least many can. They may not be able to cure it completely but they can reverse it. And I think most or many people absolutely can avoid this nightmare.
The thing I loved the best about her book was her sentence (I'm paraphrasing), "This is not a book about autism. This is a book about faith."
Faith is believing when you have no evidence. Seeing in the dark. Faith is something I have worked on building in myself over the years. I am now an extremely faith-full person. Full of faith. I have total knowing (not just belief -- but knowing) that the Universe is conspiring in my favor. Pulling out all the stops for my good. I always know things will work out. And guess what, they always do. It's not always instant (in fact it rarely is), but it is always consistent.
And how cool is it that Jenny McCarthy (a very faith-full person herself) ended up with a guy like Jim Carrey? He strikes me as a pretty spiritual guy. Yes, they are celebrities and what do we really know, but I do know that he wrote a song called "Heaven Down Here" which was recorded by Tuck & Patti. It goes like this:
"Let's bring Heaven down here
I don't want to wait for the angels
Let's bring Heaven down here"
Yes, he really wrote that. I heard Patti say so herself on a local San Francisco talk show. (http://www.tuckandpatti.com/song_lear.html)
The other really cool thing about the book is how much diet and nutrition impacted Jenny's boy. The story she tells is nothing short of staggering.
Within TWO WEEKS of starting her son on a gluten-free, casein-free (wheat/dairy) diet, he said his first sentence. He had been able to say single words before the seizures happened at around the age of two. Words like "juice" and "milk" and "mama". And after doing some testing, they realized that he didn't even know what those words meant; he was just repeating his mother. Like she would say, "You want some juice?" and he would say, "Juice."
Then he had the MMR shot and had constant seizures. After the vaccine and subsequent seizures, he lost all language (this is a common pattern).
After just two weeks of being on the diet, he came up to his mom, tugged on her leg and said, "Want to go swimming".
Aside: Another diet story was in the introduction -- a doctor with an autistic son said that two weeks after giving him a daily supplement of cod liver oil, he regained eye contact and language.
After she got her son on the GFCF diet, Jenny learned about candida (an overgrowth of yeast in the gut, the same thing BTW that caused my arthritis and allergies when I was in my mid-twenties) which is common among autistic kids. She started him on Difulcan, which is a drug that kills the yeast. After that he went on massive doses of probiotics (they also kill off the yeast).
Jenny believes that her son was born with a weakened immune system, and the vaccines weakened it even more. Because his immune system was so weak (they found a doctor who had it tested and it was weaker than that of an AIDS patient), he continually got sick and had to take antibiotics, which killed off the good bacteria in his gut. The good bacteria is what kills off the yeast. When you don't have enough good bacteria, you get a yeast overgrowth. Which she believes is what causes the autism in many kids. (I agree with her.)
Anyhow, TWO WEEKS after he started on the Difulcan and was excreting massive amounts of yeast, they were watching a show on TV and he laughed at a joke. He had never done this before. Autistic kids don't "get" jokes.
Then he laughed again. This was the moment she knew she had saved her child. This was the first time, she said, that she had ever seen the real him.
Heartbreaking but joyous. I cried. Because she saved him. She loved him more than anything -- and most of all she believed. She had faith. She saw, even in the darkness.
What an amazing woman she is. I think she is going to help many, many people with this book. I think every parent and every aspiring parent should read this book. Everyone who is close to someone with an autistic child should read this book.
Anyone going through a tough time and needs a shot of faith should read this book.
Hurrah, Jenny McCarthy! I'm glad you are alive on this planet with us and I'm glad you are brave enough to be you. You are a wonderful spirit. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| This is a great post about egg packaging:
http://www.homegrownrevolution.org/2007/10/open-letter-to-trader-joes.html
I agree! That is very fraudulent packaging. I used to feel so good buying my "free range" eggs at TJ's. Felt like I was doing something good. Little did I know I was being had.
I think it would be cool to make a t-shirt with both of the packages. Maybe I'll do that via Cafe Press.
I used to spend all my grocery money at TJ's but no longer. They don't sell pastured eggs so now I go to Rawesome. While there, I end up buying all my wild-caught fish and grass-fed beef. MUCH better than the mystery fish, grain-, corn-, and soy-fed beef, and "cage free" eggs Trader Joe's offers. (This is a lot of money, BTW, that is now not going to TJ's).
Trader Joe's also don't sell raw milk, raw butter, or raw cheese so now I get my dairy at Whole Foods and the Organic Pastures hub store. Although I will occasionally pick up a stick of KerryGold (pasteurized but cultured) at Trader Joe's in a pinch.
They have a lot of organic produce, it's true, but most of it comes from far away. And they don't list the names of farms. I'm not interested in produce that is trucked for hundreds and thousands of miles. I want local produce because it is fresher. I want to support local farms. So of course, now we are getting most of our produce from JR Organics, a farm in Escondido that offers CSA subscriptions. Anything I don't get in my box I pick up at Whole Foods, Rawesome, or at the farmer's market.
There is just no need to go to Trader Joe's anymore. I used to love Trader Joe's. Now not so much. They need to beef up their labeling practices and find better sources of food.
How I'd love to have my own chickens! One day... | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
| | Tags: | allergies, baby food, biodiesel, fats, food, gm foods, immunity, infant formula, kate, nutrition, soy, vaccines | | Subject: | Post-Thanksgiving exhaustion, vaccines, and soy oil | | Time: | 08:31 pm | | Current Mood: | ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/acedia/littlegent/exhausted.gif) tired |
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| Kate is down for the night. I'm soaking raw pumpkin seeds (from the pumpkins I used for pumpkin pie) and simmering the turkey carcass to make stock.
I'm so exhausted. The past week has been a whirlwind of shopping, menu planning, roasting, basting, measuring, mixing, baking and cleaning. I feel like I need a vacation now.
Which of course I'm not getting. I went to bed after 11:30 pm last night (trying to wind down after such a long day) and got up at 6:30 to tend to Kate. And I tended to her all day -- picking her up and kissing her when she bonked her head on the metal coffee table, feeding her ground turkey with chicken liver pate and butternut squash with butter, doing dishes, doing laundry, heating up bottles and changing poopy diapers. She went down at 5 pm, as usual. A 10 and a half hour day -- not so bad. Mothers don't get a day off.
My single friends spent the day at the movies. Last night at dinner, they talked about all the movies they'd seen lately. I couldn't really add anything to the conversation. And for much of it, I had no idea what they were talking about. Being a new parent, I haven't seen a movie in the theater since I tried to go see "Oceans 13" when Kate was a couple of months old and she pooped halfway up her backside and we had to leave the theater.
Ah, memories...
Anyway, I'm not complaining. I have seen enough movies for a lifetime. Okay, not for a lifetime, but I can skip seeing movies for a while is all I'm saying. And Seth gets those "FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION" movies so I guess I could be watching movies if I really wanted to. We just got "Into the Wild" in the mail for example.
But instead I am relaxing with a glass of wine, reading about vaccines. The more I read, the more I am convinced that waiting on vaccines -- or refusing them altogether -- is the right thing to do.
Read this:
Because of the dramatic increase in the number of injuries from childhood vaccines over the past decades, Congress enacted the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986, setting up a fund to compensate parents for injured or dead children (as if a parent could ever be "compensated" for the loss of their child due to vaccination). Application to this fund is the first step parents must take when their child has been harmed; thus, the fund serves to shield the pharmaceutical company from all initial liability. To date, the fund has paid out over $1.2 billion to parents with over 12,000 reports made every year. This is a staggering number considering how many reactions occur that medical authorities refuse to attribute to the vaccine. And if David Kessler is correct and 90-99 percent of all injuries are not even reported, the true number of children injured or killed by vaccines would be 1.2 million or more per year.
http://www.westonaprice.org/children/vaccinations.html
Doesn't that scare you? It scares me. And that's just a taste of what I'm reading. I'm not just reading the crackpot left-wing fringe websites either. I told that pediatrician I would research it and I am. I'm reading everything.
Read this, from the CBS News site (not exactly a crackpot left-wing fringe website):
http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2007/06/15/couricandco/entry2934107.shtml
Come on, people. One in 160 kids with autism. That is CRAZY. If vaccines are not to blame, something else is. Something is not right.
Here's another heinous thing I read -- about the Hepatitis B shot, which is now administered at birth:
A flagrant example of the poor science behind vaccination development, the FDA approved the vaccine for use after only 1636 doses of Recombivax HB were administered to only 653 children who were subsequently monitored for only 5 days after each dose.6 Since the vaccine is recommended for the first day of life, Merck was asked for safety data on newborns. They replied, "We have none. Our studies were done on 5- and 10-year-olds."7 Further, Merck admitted in 1996 that no data is "available for the simultaneous administration of Recombivax HB with other vaccines" even though children are routinely given other vaccines along with Recombivax HB vaccine.
http://www.westonaprice.org/children/vaccinations.html
Good Lord! They test cough medicine more than that.
Oh, wait. Maybe not: http://www.newstarget.com/022209.html
Do I really want my child to be a guinea pig for the likes of Merck? And Hepatitis B is only transmitted through sex and dirty needles. Hmm -- yeah, I guess Kate was high risk, seeing how there's so much casual sex and intravenous drug usage in the maternity ward. Oh, yes, a mother can infect her baby during birth -- but couldn't they just administer a simple blood test to the mothers instead of giving our newborns a shot?
Oh, right, a blood test COSTS them money. The Hep B shot MAKES them money.
Anyway, I'll keep reading. I'll keep researching. As I said, when and if I find enough evidence to convince me that vaccines are safe and beneficial, we'll get them for Kate.
I have also been thinking a lot about baby food. Since lately Kate is eating 2 (soon to be 3) squares a day.
The recommendation from pediatricians is to start babies on rice cereal.
Have you read the label on a box of Gerber rice cereal lately? I had bought some for Kate -- it was sitting in the cupboard. Needless to say, after reading the ingredients, I promptly dumped it in the trash.
Rice Flour , Soy Oil-Lecithin , Tri- and Dicalcium Phosphate , Tocopherols Vitamin E , Electrolytic Iron , Zinc Sulfate , Niacinamide a B Vitamin , Riboflavin Vitamin B-2 , Pyridoxine Hydrochloride Vitamin B-6 , Thiamin Vitamin B-1 , Folic Acid a B Vitamin , Vitamin B-12 Cyanocobalamin
Number 2 ingredient: Soy oil-lecithin.
Do you know what that is?
First of all, it's a genetically modified food. (http://www.safe-food.org/-consumer/shop.html)
Do you know what that means? No? Neither do I exactly. So WHY are we feeding it to our babies? Genetically modified foods are... well, just google it and look:
http://www.seedsofdeception.com/Public/AboutGeneticallyModifiedFoods/index.cfm
http://www.organicconsumers.org/gelink.cfm
http://www.netlink.de/gen/fagan.html
Need I go on? No, I need not. Suffice it to say that CLEARLY it would be better to give a 7-month old baby REAL food instead of "Franken-food" that has zillions of websites chronicling its dangers.
OK so we've established that GM foods are sketchy and possibly dangerous and at the very least, should be avoided due to the fact that (a) most people don't know what they are and (b) most people don't know what they do to you.
Let's get back to the issue at hand. Soy oil-lecithin.
Soybean lecithin comes from sludge left after crude soy oil goes through a "degumming" process. It is a waste product containing solvents and pesticides and has a consistency ranging from a gummy fluid to a plastic solid.
Historian William Shurtleff reports that the expansion of the soybean crushing and soy oil refining industries in Europe after 1908 led to a problem disposing the increasing amounts of fermenting, foul-smelling sludge. German companies then decided to vacuum dry the sludge, patent the process and sell it as "soybean lecithin." Scientists hired to find some use for the substance cooked up more than a thousand new uses by 1939.8
Today lecithin is ubiquitous in the processed food supply. It is most commonly used as an emulsifier to keep water and fats from separating in foods such as margarine, peanut butter, chocolate candies, ice cream, coffee creamers and infant formulas.
http://www.westonaprice.org/soy/lecithin.html
But the fact that soy oil-lecithin is a highly refined genetically modified waste food product is not the only concern at hand...
There are a number of potential problems with eating soy:
http://www.soyonlineservice.co.nz/03summary.htm
Endocrine disrupter. Reduction of vitamin assimilation. Potentially leads to thyroid cancer. MSG. Aluminum.
Aaaagggghhhhh. Great. Let's mess with Kate's endocrine system, reduce her vitamin absorption, and make her susceptible to obesity, diabetes, infertility and cancer.
WHY is this the number 2 ingredient in Gerber rice cereal? Why is soy oil-lecithin an ingredient in rice cereal at all? Why is THIS promoted as baby's first food?
Why don't they just make rice cereal out of rice? Maybe add a little butter.
Oh, right, then it wouldn't have the shelf life it does (nearly indefinite).
Why is soy oil the third ingredient listed in Enfamil infant formula? (http://www.epinions.com/content_237968723588)
The fifth ingredient in Similac? (http://www.walgreens.com/store/product.jsp?CATID=100367&navAction=jump&navCount=0&id=prod3061)
The third ingredient in Nestle Good Start? (http://www.amazon.com/Nestle-Essentials-Infant-Formula-Powder/dp/B000GCL5HO)
Doesn't that make you go HMMM?
It's in everything -- including baby food -- because it is a cheap industrial-grade product. Soy is cheap to grow and produce.
Makes you wonder if this has anything to do with children's declining immunity, allergies to peanuts, increased diabetes, early-onset puberty, etc.
A better use for soy oil?
Biodiesel!
http://www.dangerouslaboratories.org/biodiesel.html
It can make cars run -- just like gasoline. Is that what we should be putting in our babies' bodies?
I leave you with this (a good article on soy):
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/08/13/CMGJKK1BP31.DTL
Note the last quotation from Marion Nestle: "People don't have to eat soy if they don't want to!" Nestle says. Uh, okay, I guess not -- but what if it's in everything we buy? | | comments: Leave a comment |
| | Tags: | allergies, autism, cancer, health, immunity, lacto-fermentation, medicine, nutrition, probiotics, raw foods, raw milk, vaccines | | Subject: | Termites don't eat healthy trees | | Time: | 11:18 am | | Current Mood: | curious |
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| This is one of the most fascinating blog posts I have ever read:
http://yoursacredself.blogspot.com/2007/10/termites-dont-eat-healthy-trees.html
"The inner ecosystem of the body is the prime determinant in disease risk."
This makes a lot of sense, doesn't it?
I love the part about his trip to the Himalayas -- how the more sickly people were bitten by leeches and the healthier, sturdier people were not.
I also really like his explanation of cancer. The toxins and waste matter in the body have nowhere else to go. So they try to localize -- into tumors. Gosh, doesn't that make sense to you? It does to me.
Allopathic (Western medicine) has never made sense to me. OK, sure, having a C-section was helpful when my baby was breech. I do appreciate Western medicine during those times when surgery is required.
It's just that the standard protocol of suppressing and covering up symptoms instead of treating the cause DOES NOT WORK.
Which leads one to ask the question -- logically, how would injecting vaccines into nutritionally depleted, sickly kids with weak immune systems and very few helpful bacteria in their guts help make their immune systems stronger? It doesn't make any sense.
Many parents with autistic kids have been speaking out about the lack of good bacteria in their kids' digestive tracts. These kids tend to be allergic to dairy and wheat (casein and gluten). Uh, for the most part that's pasteurized dairy and refined flour, by the way. I have read the testimony of some parents who say their autistic children tolerate raw milk just fine.
I wonder it all of this relates to the phenomenon of all these kids being allergic to peanuts. I wonder if they had more good bacteria in their gut, they might not be allergic to everything. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| I know, I know, I gotta go to bed. 6 am wake up call, yes, yes, I know.
But I just have to tell you that the stock I made is absolutely unbelievable. SO rich and gorgeous. It smells amazing and it tastes so luxurious and big -- just one step down from foie gras. It is going to make the BEST gravy and stuffing.
And the lard looks excellent too! Not that I really know what lard should look like. But it seemed OK to me.
Both were strained and cooled enough to pour into glass, and are now in containers chilling in the fridge. Whew!
Finally, good night! | | comments: Leave a comment |
| | Tags: | cod liver oil, fluoride, food, kate, nutrition, raw milk, remineralization, seth, teeth, tooth soap, weight loss | | Time: | 06:23 pm | | Current Mood: | happy |
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| This diet we are on is working.
Seth weighed himself this morning -- first time in a month or two (which is how long we've been on the diet). He lost 7 pounds! He hasn't been working out or anything.
And we haven't actually been following the diet plan in "Eat Fat, Lose Fat". I kept saying we would get around to following it strictly, but then I kept being busy with lots of other things so I couldn't put a meal plan together.
Here's what we have been consuming a lot of:
Raw milk
Raw butter
Raw milk cheese
Pastured eggs
Whole grain sprouted bread (Eziekel brand, available at Trader Joe's and Whole Foods)
Whole grain rye bread (Mestemacher German bread)
Whole grain crackers (Wasa and Finn Crisp)
Organic free-range chicken and turkey
Organic grass-fed beef and bison
Organic nitrate-free pork sausage and bacon
Wild-caught fish (mostly salmon, mahi mahi and tuna -- you want wild, not farm-raised)
Lots of organic fruits and vegetables (we have a salad nearly every evening)
Brown or white rice
Oatmeal (unprocessed rolled oats, soaked to improve digestion)
Coconut oil and butter for cooking
Olive oil and apple cider vinegar for salad dressing
Kombucha
Kefir
Chicken stock (homemade, organic)
Some nuts and popcorn (popped in coconut oil and served with melted butter and sea salt)
Sea salt
Organic coffee
Coconut milk in smoothies and sauces and curries
Coconut juice
Filtered water
Sparkling water
The only sweeteners we use are stevia, rapadura, and raw honey
Wine -- I try to get organic (Seth still drinks a cocktail in the evening -- usually Scotch or Bourbon)
What we have been avoiding:
Processed foods
Fast foods
Restaurant foods (very little compared to what we used to eat)
White sugar or anything made with it
White flour or anything made with it
Vegetable oil, canola, shortening, etc.
Industrial corn
Soy
Aspartame or other laboratory sweeteners
Sodas
Juices (unless I squeeze it fresh)
Tap water
Things with MSG or other "mystery" ingredients
I don't buy anything in a box or package unless it has VERY FEW ingredients (under ten) and I can pronounce them all and know what they are
I don't buy anything that is advertised on television
We have not been perfect. We had In & Out one night because we were too tired to cook. Seth eats out more than I do. But he is still losing weight.
A typical day goes like this:
Breakfast is coffee AND strawberry smoothie (raw milk or kefir, organic bananas, organic strawberries, egg yolks, stevia) OR eggs/bacon/toast OR oatmeal with raisins OR toast and homemade cream cheese
Lunch is usually an apple and some cheese and crackers/bread OR a salad OR grilled cheese sandwich OR the like. If we are in meetings, we eat out.
Dinner is wine (or Seth's cocktail) AND a big salad AND either fish or chicken or beef AND vegetables (butternut squash, artichoke, zucchini, what-have-you) AND/OR rice (usually only a couple of times a week)
I'll expand to other grains like amaranth and quinoa and whatnot eventually. Tonight we are eating bratwurst (hormone- and antibiotic-free shipped from Sweet Briar Farms) and homemade sauerkraut and maybe some potoates.
I have not lost any weight but I don't expect to. I think that as long as I'm nursing, I'll carry this extra 20 pounds. I've heard that happens to lots of women. I'm sure the weight will come off when Kate starts walking and I'm constantly running after her.
My teeth are really clean, too, now that I'm using this Tooth Soap. Seriously, when I'm done brushing (and I'm not spending any extra time -- just doing it like I normally do), it feels like I just went to the dentist and had a professional cleaning. My teeth are SQUEAKY clean. They have never felt this way using toothpaste.
They are also not sensitive like they used to be. I used to have a dull pain most of time. It's gone. After only two weeks! I think the diet is helping this too. Especially the raw milk and cod liver oil. I seriously think something good is happening with my teeth.
I read that you can use Dr. Bronner's too. I read that Dr. Bronner's has a very small amount of glycerin (like 2-3%) so it should not inhibit remineralization of the teeth. Just squirt it on your toothbrush and use it in lieu of toothpaste.
Anyway, I like the way the Tooth Soap tastes so I'm going to keep using it. They are having a 25% off sale right now, too. (http://www.perfect-prescription.com/special.htm) Time to stock up!
Meanwhile I'm researching ways to filter our water to remove the fluoride. The more I read, the more I am convinced that fluoride CAUSES cavities. It's an aluminum waste product that they needed to get rid of. Why not put it in the drinking water and say it's good for you? They used to say cigarettes were good for you, too. And margarine. And vegetable oil.
OK I have to go now and get dinner and render the leaf lard which I keep saying every day that I am going to do and I still haven't done it. I have to make the pies on Tuesday!
Oops that is tomorrow. It MUST be done tonight! No more foolin' around. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| The NY Times reports:
THE Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture has decided that consumers are too dim to make their own shopping decisions. Agriculture officials in Ohio are contemplating a similar decision.
As of Jan. 1, Pennsylvania is banning labels on milk and dairy products that say it comes from cows that haven’t been treated with artificial bovine growth hormone, which is sometimes known as rBGH or rBST. State officials say the labels are confusing and impossible to verify.
Farmers use artificial bovine growth hormone to increase a cow’s milk production by a gallon or more a day. The federal government maintains that it is perfectly safe, but it remains illegal in many other countries and critics continue to question its safety. Regardless, many American consumers buy rBGH-free milk because they are uncomfortable with the idea of milk that comes from cows that have been shot full of artificial hormones and because it’s cheaper than organic milk, which, of course, doesn’t allow use of the artificial hormones.
But the backlash against rBGH has unsettled its manufacturer, Monsanto, and the dairy farmers who have come to rely on it to raise production. They have spent more than a decade trying to persuade federal and state authorities to ban or restrict non-rBGH labels on the grounds that there is no difference in milk from cows that are treated with the hormone and those that are not.
Leslie Zuck, executive director of Pennsylvania Certified Organic, said she, too, was disappointed with the ruling. But she offers a sensible compromise. Instead of banning the labels, why couldn’t dairy farmers who use the artificial growth hormone use their own labels?
Ms. Zuck suggests this: “We use rBGH and it’s great stuff!”
Read the whole article here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/11/business/11feed.html?_r=3&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=login
Hahaha! I love it! The PA government is banning the "No rBGH" labels because farmers who use rBGH are complaining, saying that it is impossible to verify that the dairy products from dairy farmers not using rBGH absolutely do not have rBGH.
Sheesh! Are you confused? You should be. That is what labeling is designed to do -- hide the truth and confuse you.
I think Leslie Zuck is right -- the complaining farmers who use rBGH *should* have to put the label on their milk.
What's in the milk you are drinking? The cheese you are eating? The butter you put on your toast? You don't want to know. And they're going to make sure you don't find out.
The good thing is -- stuff like this is exactly what is driving consumers away from food processed by factory farms. We are sick and tired of faux food, toxic food, carcinogenic food. We want real food that is healthy and natural. And we are willing to pay more for it. There is a demand -- and it is creating a supply. Which is exactly what is scaring these factory farmers. So they want to deceive their customers -- keep them from finding out the truth. Because if you knew the truth, you wouldn't buy their products.
Think you're safe because you're drinking "organic milk"? I used to think that. I paid almost double for "organic milk" for years. Did you know that Horizon Organics -- one of the brands I used to buy -- is just a big factory farm?
I think it's very clear that it is not safe to drink milk unless you KNOW THE DAIRY.
Here's a dairy score card: http://cornucopia.org/dairysurvey/index.html
Here's the full report on organic milk from the Cornucopia Institute: http://cornucopia.org/dairysurvey/OrganicDairyReport/cornucopia_milkintregrity.pdf | | comments: Leave a comment |
| There is nothing more nourishing and comforting than a bowl of good homemade chicken soup.
I made my first batch of chicken stock a couple of months ago (it is amazing that it took me this long to do it -- I'm almost 40!).
Anyway, it was not very difficult and it was delicious. Here is the link to the recipe: http://ammichaels.livejournal.com/233245.html
I froze the stock into cubes using a few ice trays. The next day, I popped the cubes out and threw them into a Ziploc freezer bag -- for easy access so I can add homemade stock to various stews and soups and sauces.
Tonight I didn't feel like cooking. However, I am tired (sleep deficit from Kate's growth spurt -- she's been getting up between 4:30 and 6:30 am). Plus I just found out Alla (our nanny) is sick with the flu. I want to make sure I don't get sick (and transmit to Kate). I need to eat well, rest and reserve my strength to fight off any germs.
So I decided to make some "weeknight" chicken soup. I couldn't believe how easy it was.
1. I put a saucepan on the stove, set it on medium heat.
2. I rinsed and sliced one carrot and one stick of celery. I didn't feel like chopping garlic or onion (too lazy) so I didn't (but I could have added 1/2 onion and 1 clove garlic, had I had the energy and inclination).
3. I tossed a pat of raw cultured butter (which I got from Rawesome yesterday -- Seth had one taste of the cultured raw butter and now insists upon it) into the saucepan, followed by the carrot and celery.
4. While I let those soften (5 minutes or so), I cubed a couple of boneless chicken thighs. You could also use boneless chicken breasts. Threw the cubes into a cast iron skillet on medium heat with another pat of butter. Cover and cook through.
5. While the chicken was cooking, I tossed 10 frozen chicken broth cubes into the saucepan with the celery and carrots -- and covered. Brought to a boil then turned down the heat to simmer.
6. Went outside to get some parsley. Rinse and chop. (Oh, right, you have to grow your own parsley. But you should! If you don't have parsley growing, it's OK -- you can skip it.)
7. Take chicken off heat, drain on paper towel, add to soup.
8. Add sea salt and chopped parsley (just a smidge of each) to soup.
So delicious. And so comforting on a cool fall night. Not to mention incredibly nutritious.
And easy enough to do on a Thursday. I ate mine plain with a glass of rose but you could add noodles or eat with some sourdough bread and butter.
Of course there are a million variations on chicken soup from many cultures around the world (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_soup).
Isn't it nice to know that it's so easy to do on a weeknight? Or at a moment's notice when someone you know is sick?
I'm going to make some for Alla for lunch on Monday
Now I'm going to have just a tad more wine then a nice glass of milk and go to bed. My goal is to start going to bed no later than 9 pm. If I'm going to be up at the crack of dawn with This Lady, I need to get my rest! | | comments: Leave a comment |
| I'm exhausted! I just had an 11 1/2 hour day. Kate woke up at 5:30. I tried to put her back down but she didn't want to go back to bed so I just stayed up with her.
Which was, of course, very fun. Kate is very very fun. She plays in her exersaucer or with her toys on the floor, and squeals with delight and laughs uproariously while watching her signing DVD. You really can't do much of anything else when you're with her except enjoy her. Which is not such a bad thing. I'm a pretty lucky lady.
That is what Alla always calls Kate: "This Lady". As in, "What are we going to do with this lady?" Say that with a thick Russian accent and you have our Alla. The other expressions she uses are equally adorable: "OK babies!" and "Mamma Mia!" (said with the requisite amount of Russian angst). And she calls a bottle a "sippy cup".
I can't tell you how much we appreciate and love her. It goes very deep.
Anyway, by 5 pm, when I got her down for the night (I know, early -- that's what time she likes to retire), I was wiped. I did the dishes and the laundry and cleaned up the kitchen and put all the groceries away. And sat down to rest and have a glass of wine and some raw goat cheese and whole wheat crackers and get on the internet. Finally. It's been out all day. Something is wrong with our AirPort.
I'm making some rice now in the rice cooker. Picked up some tuna at Whole Foods for dinner. I am going to marinate it in some rice wine vinegar and scallions and soy sauce and grated ginger, roll it in sesame seeds, then sear it in a cast iron skillet. With steamed kale and edamame.
In addition to Whole Foods, Kate ("This Lady") and I went to Rawesome today. Rawesome is a "private buying club" in Venice. It's $25/year to join and they make you sign something that says you basically disagree with the government and it's rules about food (I guess about pasteurizing everything).
Anyway, it's kind of funny. I feel like I keep taking This Lady to all these back alley places to buy food. Organic Pastures Dairy with their truck pulled up into a parking lot, Rawesome with their railroad car next to the organic coffee shop in Venice -- just several blocks from the beach.
Rawesome has all kinds of great stuff -- tons of raw, organic produce (including fresh coconuts and pineapples) as well as organic pastured eggs, raw honey, ceviche, raw milk, cream, butter, yogurt, cheese, and a wide selection of organic pastured beef (bison and cow) and a fantastic array of wild-caught fish. It's very hard to find wild-caught fish even in Whole Foods -- most of it is farm-raised.
Which, incidentally, you do NOT want -- I heard they are now feeding CORN to farm-raised salmon. Yes, CORN! Can you imagine? Of course it is genetically modified industrial grade corn -- ugh! At least Whole Foods tells you it is farm-raised -- unlike most stores, where you typically have no idea where the fish came from.
There was this guy there at Rawesome, shirtless with long hippie hair, delivering food. I forget what he was delivering -- something he raised or grew or made. Anyway, when he was done unloading his merchandise, he took out a coconut, stabbed it with an implement (some kind of large pointy steel thing), and poured the juice over a strainer into a mason jar. Then he stirred in some organic barley grass powder, and sat down to drink it.
He was super tan and in perfect health. He looked like he lived on an island.
This was in the middle of Los Angeles. On a warm Indian summer afternoon.
I love it. I love the diversity. Love that people feel free enough to be who they want to be.
I guess I am a bit of a hippie at heart. I did usher for the Grateful Dead at one point. And I lived in a clothing-optional vegetarian co-op in college.
I'm not a Deadhead anymore, nor am I a vegetarian. Nor am I a hippie. But I still appreciate people who strive to be better, closer to the earth, connected to community.
Like Alla. She could be back in Russia, but she chose to come here -- seeking a better life. And of course she is totally into natural health, always lecturing me about opening the windows for fresh air and organic foods and exercise.
And I suppose if you added up all my various things -- kombucha, beet kvass, organic vegetables, raw milk, homemade earth-friendly cleaning products, tooth soap (I haven't even told you about that yet!!!), cloth diapers, Crocs (which, except for the plastic, are basically Birkenstocks), -- you very well could call me a hippie.
Eh. In the words of Albert Brooks, "Call me a hippie, send me to Hell."
On the way home from Rawesome (where I picked up two dozen pastured eggs*, cultured raw butter, raw goat cheese, and some fresh ginger), I drove past Venice High School, also known as Rydell High (it's the set they used for Grease). There were all these kids in the front of the school -- and all these seagulls flying around. It was an amazing sight. That, coupled with the coconut hippie guy -- it just made me grateful to live such a different kind of life. I could be stuck in the suburbs somewhere.
Maybe one day I'll have my cow and some chicken and even a vineyard. For now, this is pretty fun.
* why you need pastured eggs instead of just "free range": http://www.hbmag.com/story_eggs.html | | comments: 2 comments or Leave a comment |
| Long day of meetings -- but it was very interesting and fun.
I still managed to make a good dinner:
Chicken sausage cooked in coconut oil (in a seasoned cast iron pan)
Homemade sauerkraut!
Fresh spinach salad with heirloom tomato, grated carrot, hard-boiled egg and gorgonzola with vinaigrette
Organic rose wine
Everything was organic -- even the coconut and olive oil. I seasoned with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.
The sauerkraut was really good. Although I think it needs to ferment a bit longer. I let it sit for just over a week. It was good -- but I think another week will make it even better.
I'm also in the process of lacto-fermenting some dill pickles and orange marmalade. Lacto-fermentation involves using whey. I'll let you know how those turn out. The pickles probably won't be ready till December -- I have heard that they take about a month. Not sure about the marmalade.
Oh and by the way, lacto-fermentation is really really good for you -- due to the probiotics. Pretty much everything you buy in the store is pasteurized -- which means all the good enzymes and probiotics have been destroyed.
OK, it's time for bed now. Glass of milk and then bed. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| I made a good dinner tonight:
Organic artichokes (from the farmer's market) with melted Kerry Gold butter and lemon (Kerry Gold is an Irish butter which is extremely nutritious -- made from grass-fed cows -- http://www.kerrygold.com/index.jsp?1nID=93&pID=98&nID=104)
Organic heirloom tomatoes (from the farmer's market) raw, sliced, sprinkled with sea salt
Organic broccoli (from my CSA subscription), steamed and sprinkled with sea salt and fresh lemon juice
Organic free-range chicken cooked in coconut oil and served with coconut peanut butter sauce (coconut milk, all-natural peanut butter from the health food store, cilantro, garlic, and some other stuff I can't remember)
Organic rose wine (from Whole Foods -- really good and only $10/bottle -- it's called Domaine des Coccinelles and it has a ladybug on the label)
It's incredible how GOOD food comes alive on your plate. It's no comparison to the crap you normally eat. We didn't eat anything processed and had no grains tonight -- and yet we feel full and satiated and the food was really good. Maybe I'm speaking for Seth but he said several times how much he loved it.
The weird thing is, now that I've been eating this way, I don't crave bad stuff. I just don't.
You may think I'm crazy for becoming so health-oriented. I suppose a large part of it is the fact that I am nursing Kate. I want to make my milk as good as it can possibly be! I didn't care so much before -- when it was just me. But when you are responsible for another human being, you want to do the best you can.
I was listening to Kevin Trudeau's audio book today, "Natural Cures They Don't Want You to Know About". He is so funny. Especially the part where he talks about food labeling. He gets so worked up about high fructose corn syrup and all these things he can't pronounce. It's funny to listen to. He gets all fired up. And I totally agree with him.
He may be off the mark on some things (he says Scientology is good) but a lot of his information is right on the money. He basically says that you should not eat anything you cannot pronounce. I agree with that.
I'm going to have a big glass of milk now and go to bed. (It's amazing how much milk I drink now that we buy raw milk. It's just so good!) | | comments: 7 comments or Leave a comment |
| Here's a radio broadcast of an interview with Mark McAfee of Organic Pastures and Ron Garthwaite of Claravale Dairy Farm -- the only two dairy farmers in California selling raw milk, talking about the future of raw milk, seeing how a bill was just signed to make it illegal to sell raw milk in California as of January 2008.
Listen here:
http://www.metrofarm.com/assets/podcasts/2007-11-11_564draw.mp3
Show #564: A REAL RAW DEAL? - 11-11-2007 (8.95 MB) Download Listen Now
Guests: Mark McAfee, Founder, Organic Pastures Dairy; California Department of Food and Agriculture declined to appear, saying “We're reluctant to participate in a debate.”
Subject: Along the food chain there are good bacteria and bad bacteria. But California AB 1735 suggests only dead bacteria should be allowed in dairy products. This leads us to ask, “Is raw milk toast?”. Topics include why some people prefer raw foods to sterilized foods; how AB 1735 may eliminate the production of raw dairy products; and what future, if any, will be left for those who wish to consume raw dairy foods.
Here's more info about the anti-raw milk bill that was just passed -- and what you can do to take action to save raw milk in the state of California (yes, it involves writing a letter to the "Governator", Arnold Shwarzenegger -- I'm gonna do it too! And PS it is NOT his fault -- they tried to slip it past him -- he is actually pretty good in terms of issues like this.):
http://www.organicpastures.com/ab1735_landing.html | | comments: Leave a comment |
| This is fascinating...
http://www.mothering.com/discussions/showthread.php?t=399989
These mothers are talking about curing cavities with nutrition -- how eating the WAPF (Weston A Price Foundation -- http://www.westonaprice.org) diet has actually remineralized their teeth. In other words, it can reverse and heal cavities.
One of the really interesting things you will see if you read the thread is that two of the moms whose children had really bad tooth decay at a very young age (under 3) were both vegetarians.
This makes sense -- since you can't get vitamin D from plant foods. And calcium is what builds bone -- but you can't absorb and use calcium unless you are getting enough vitamin D.
The other thing that is really interesting is that one of them cites a case where cavities were halted/prevented when the only thing that was changed in the diet was that raw milk was added (a case from a London orphanage).
Amazing!
I've always had a lot of cavities. I'll be interested to see how much better my teeth are by say a year or so -- now that I'm eating this way. | | comments: 5 comments or Leave a comment |
| I'm excited to announce that I have gotten Sweet Pea off the commercial formula totally. I'm still breastfeeding -- but I had been feeding her the Enfamil formula. I just could not produce enough breast milk each day so I was supplementing.
I just didn't have a good feeling about commercial formula. How can I trust the same companies who are producing products laden with high fructose corn syrup and hydrogenated oils to create a decent infant formula? The truth is, you can't. Based on my research, none of them are really any good.
Which explains why Kate got cradle cap after we started using commercial formula. I couldn't say for sure that it came from the Enfamil -- until we stopped using it and started supplementing with homemade raw milk formula (from the recipe on the Weston A. Price Foundation website -- http://www.westonaprice.org/children/recipes.html).
It's been about a week and a half now that she has been on breast milk and homemade formula -- with NO commercial formula -- and guess what? Yep, you guessed it, the cradle cap is GONE. So is her excess mucus -- which she is also had since she started on the Enfamil three months ago.
We were putting natural aloe on it (from a plant I have in the kitchen), and we put dandruff shampoo on a few times like the doctor said to do. But it really cleared up within a week or so after I stopped giving her the Enfamil. I am convinced that that was what did it. She never had cradle cap before the Enfamil -- and once we eliminated it, the cradle cap disappeared.
And I'm eating a lot better now, so I can make my breast milk better. I'm eating almost NO processed foods and no unhealthy oils (vegetable, soy, canola, etc.). I'm eating lots of grass fed organic beef and chicken and turkey, organic pastured eggs, raw milk, cheese and butter, organic fruit smoothies with colostrum kefir, whole grain crackers and cereal (oatmeal and kashi), whole grain sprouted bread, spring water, kombucha, and lots and lots of organic fruits and vegetables. I'm eating 1-2 salads a day now! With organic cider vinegar, high quality organic olive oil, and natural sea salt.
I still have a couple of cups of coffee in the morning but it is organic and I'm using spring water instead of tap -- and I'm doctoring it with stevia and raw milk. I have a glass or two of (usually organic) wine in the evening. I think all of that is fine.
Oh and I'm taking 2 teaspoons of cod liver oil daily and 4 organic liver tablets. Plus I am cooking with organic coconut oil and raw butter.
Here's what's weird -- now that I am eating this way, I really don't get cravings. I mean, not at all. Don't crave alcohol or sugar or carbs. And I have a lot more energy. I'm feeling so much happier, too. It's like something happened and my seratonin got boosted.
Anyway. I'm happy that doing this is making my breast milk that much better and helping Kate build strong bones and all of that. I'm starting her on semi-cooked egg yolks and next week I'll be adding organic homemade chicken liver pate, and the week after that grated raw liver (frozen for two weeks to destroy any pathogens). Also going to start giving her mashed bananas, avocado, melon, and cooked apple. One at a time, like they say, just to be safe. She LOVED the watermelon I let her taste the other day.
I'm going to bed now. | | comments: Leave a comment |
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