Recently in Nutrition Category

This lovely blogging platform we use has been a little squirrely for the last week or so and I'm hoping this post will be "normal".  I lost a couple of posts late last week when the platform wigged out and I have not had the time or patience to recreate them.  So basically I'm just making a couple of announcements here while also making you aware of some other websites/blogs I have been reading lately that you need to know about.

First, we are now Amazon Associates.  I have been including a coded link for the last couple of months anytime I talk about a cookbook or a product that Amazon might possibly sell.  I had hoped to feature on the sidebar some of the cool banners Amazon provides, but for whatever reason, we can't make them work on our blog format.  So, just know that whenever I provide a link to the Amazon website, I receive a little-bitty rebate on whatever you might buy when you buy from Amazon.  It's a disclaimer or a feature, depending on how you look at it! 

This is how it works:  You should be taking fermented cod liver oil because it has naturally occuring Vitamin A and Vitamin D in a perfectly balanced form.  Here is where you can get it. See the link?

Second, the new Weston A. Price Foundation website is up and running as of today. The format is less clinical-looking but every bit as jam-packed with solid information and research on traditional foods and nutrient dense diets.  If you aren't already a member of the foundation, you can join now online and receive the quarterly journal in the mail as a key benefit of membership.

I have also volunteered to be the Chapter Leader for the Chattanooga area for 2010.  There hasn't been an active chapter here for a while, so we're gathering names and emails for a Yahoo discussion group that will plan to meet up in the new year.  Click on this link to join the Yahoo Weston A Price chapter discussion group:  no dues or fees required.

Third, my cavity post from late November was featured on Hartke is Online! yesterday (and I am just now getting around to promoting the link. Sorry!)  This is a great blog featuring lots of raw milk activism and natural healing with traditional foods.  Kimberly updates it several times per day so it's always fresh.

Fourth, (this is getting kind of long, eh?) I have to direct you to a couple of great blogs I have been reading lately.  The first is FatHead, written by Tom Naughton. He has a documentary by the same name (which I have not seen).  He's written several posts lately that made total diet and nutrition sense but his latest post, More on Alzheimer's, focuses on the horrible side effects of statin drugs (cholesterol-lowering drugs).  Please read it.

The other blog I just found today is Liberation Wellness.  There are several authors that post throughout the day, but the one piece I read today really spoke to me:  "Why don't they get it?!"  Maureen Diaz, the author, makes a compelling case for the Christian worldview and how it relates to what we eat and how we take care of ourselves.  I have tried to capture these thoughts in the past to explain why I think the Weston A Price dietary guidelines dovetail perfectly with a biblical approach to life and wellness, but Maureen does it much more effectively than I.

Lastly, (aren't you glad?!)  I wanted to give you another link to our Facebook fan page for Burns Best Farm. If you are a member of the Facebook cult community and you'd like to keep up with farm happenings, you can join our fan page for the latest info on CSA shares and other interesting things that happen out here in paradise.

Thanks for reading to the end (Mom and Dad!)  Only 5 more days to Winter Solstice and we start going positive again on minutes of daylight! 

I have spent four decades thinking that I did not like sauerkraut. I'm pretty sure my Granny made me try it when I was little and it was too sour for my taste.  Even though my palate has widened considerably in adulthood, nothing about store-bought sauerkraut could convince me to change my mind about hating that flavor.

So when I learned at the Weston A. Price conference that fermented foods are a key part of a traditional diet, I cringed.  I am on board with the lots-of-butter, raw milk, and animal fat part of the plan but I was not at all sure I could successfully add the fermented foods into the mix. 

After trying little bitty amounts of several fermented dishes on the buffet at the conference, I decided that maybe my problem was with the store-bought stuff.  The homemade vegetables I tasted were very good in small portions (which is sort of the goal.)  I decided to make it at home and give it an open-minded review.

I used the Nourishing Traditions recipe for basic sauerkraut on page 92: shredded cabbage, natural sea salt, caraway seeds and whey.  I used a head of organic green cabbage from Greenlife (our own cabbages aren't far enough along yet to cut.)  I started the recipe 8 days before Thanksgiving with that target as my goal.

You are probably ahead of me already.  All the adults had sauerkraut as part of our Thanksgiving meal and it was very tasty.  Commercial kraut is terribly mushy.  Homemade kraut still has a light green color and a nice crunch.  I really like it, quite a bit!  I am having a small serving most every day and the next batch I make will be with purple cabbage, just for kicks.  I will cut the tablespoon of caraway seeds in half in the next batch because that flavor is pretty dominant; if you like rye bread and dig caraway, the original proportions will probably suit you fine, but if that flavor is not one of your faves, consider cutting way back.  I think on the next green cabbage batch I make I'll substitute celery seed for a little twist. 

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So it is in the context of a new appreciation for fermented foods that I read today on Instapundit blog about acetic acid and its wonderfully positive impact on moderating blood sugar.  Seems that studies out of Japan and Italy show that if a small amount of white vinegar is eaten as part of a salad dressing alongside a moderately carb-heavy meal, the acetic acid in the vinegar works to slow down sugar absorption into the blood stream. Vinegar blocks the digestive enzymes that convert carbohydrates into sugar. 

I use Bragg's Organic Apple Cider Vinegar.  The flavor is very nice and not at all sharp.

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I like to know the "why" behind the traditional/sacred foods that the WAPF recommends.  It's really amazing how traditional people groups instinctively understood the importance of certain foods without any scientific knowledge of vitamins, minerals, enzymes and/or amino and fatty acids.  Nutritional research is revealing how wise these people groups were in their approach to eating for overall health and wellness, and this news on vinegar, acetic acid and fermented foods is part of that wisdom.  

Just to dovetail nicely with all the incredible information I learned at the Weston A. Price conference earlier this month, I took all three of the boys to the dentist for a big-time check-up. In fact, for our youngest son, this was his first dentist visit ever.  So I was braced for bad news, at least from one of the boys who I suspect is a casual brusher. ;)

What a wonderful surprise I received when all the x-rays and cleaning was complete:  no cavities!

About 18 months ago, the two older boys each had at least one cavity, with the casual brusher coming in with two (molars in both cases).  I was worried:  should I buy a flouride rinse since we left the fluoridated water source when we moved to the farm and started to use well water?  

I did not, in the end, get the rinse.  I did continue giving them real raw milk to drink 3 times a day with every meal, and we cut way back on all kinds of fruit juice. 

I believe that 2 years now of drinking real raw milk  has worked to fortify the enamel on their teeth, saving us loads of money on fillings and saving them the pain and anxiety of dental work. 

This little one has been on the good stuff from the beginning. It will be very interesting to see what the dentist says about her teeth once she's old enough to be checked out!  Look at these chompers:

I didn't blog ahead of time about my planned trip to the Weston A. Price Foundation conference in Schaumburg, IL.  I think I was afraid that if I let anyone know I was going, I would somehow jinx the trip.  But the plans worked out, I made the flight and met up with a friend who decided to attend at the last minute. 

I first learned about Dr. Price's research and the foundation that continues his work about four years ago.  Sally Fallon started the foundation ten years ago to teach people about the value of what she calls the "sacred foods": foods that people groups ate throughout the ages to ensure good overall health and nourish the unborn babies and expectant mothers.

I'd purchased the textbook/cookbook, Nourishing Traditions , several years ago and I'd dabbled around with some of the recipes but had never made the switch to following her nutrition advice across the board.  After attending this four-day conference, I have a new perspective on why I should radically change what I buy and how I cook it.

This first installment of my little diary on traditional foods will be short, just to get me and you in the hang of what I'm trying to accomplish.   So what has been my first big transition to the Price way of eating?

I am taking Cod Liver Oil.  And I am not a child.  There, I admitted it.

I have been giving CLO to the kids now for several months. Actually, I started them on fish oil capsules several years ago and have (mostly) kept up with that routine.  But the CLO is different:  the brand that I'm using is fermented and the method of preparation preserves the natural vitamins A and D.  Most fish oil and even regular cod liver oil is refined in an effort to remove as much of the fishy flavor as possible and in the process, the naturally-occuring vitamins are lost to heat.  Synthetic vitamins are then added back in.  I didn't want synthetic vitamins; I wanted the naturally-occurring kind that our bodies would assimiliate easily.

So that's my first step.  And it's my goal to add a new phase of this way of eating into our family meal plan each week until everything is implemented.

You don't want to miss what I'm calling, "Liver Week"!

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Amendment to the Post: I had some requests for a link to the fermented cod liver oil we're taking.  That would be a great thing to include since I'm making a product endorsement!  (I usually have a rule that I don't write blog posts after 9pm b/c the possibilty for errors and general slackness increase dramatically as the day draws to a close, but I violated my own rule last night just to get this ball rolling.)

I also added a link to the Weston A Price website that wasn't included last night either.  The foundation is rolling out a new website later this month that will greatly improve the readability of the material and add some interactive features.  Bookmark it now and then around December 1st, the switch should be complete!

Today was a very successful market sales day at the Marietta Square Farmer's Market and a big thanks to all of you who stopped by, chewed the fat, and took home a few heads of lettuce, some radishes to spice up the salad, or a dozen eggs.  Without your repeat business and the encouragement you give us when you buy our produce, this farming gig would be much less rewarding.

In case you picked up my business card today inside the egg carton and you are checking out the website for the first time, I wanted to steer you to a couple of links on other wibsites that do a much better job of explaining our pastured hens and the eggs they lay. (Actually, I can do a pretty good job of explaining it most days, just not on days when I'm up at 4am to sell at the market!)

The Food Renegade discusses the differences in pastured eggs, cage free eggs, and organic eggs.  Before you pick up another over-priced carton from the grocery store, read these descriptions and you'll be more informed about what you're really buying.

Mother Earth News does a great job in this article showing the nutritional improvements in a pastured egg when compared with any other method of raising hens.All of a sudden, eggs aren't looking like little cholesterol bombs anymore, are they? Vitamin A? Vitamin D? Don't we hear everywhere that we need to be getting more of each of those?  I thought so.....

Ok, just one gratuitous egg photo from the file, just because I love them so much:

Today is a red-letter day in my epic struggle to make a decent whole wheat loaf of bread.  Not a loaf using a bag of whole wheat flour from the store, but freshly milled wheat that I grind myself, loaded with vitamins, minerals, enzymes and fiber! 

I bought the grain mill in the summer of 2007 and since then have been tweaking recipes that came with the mill.  The doughs mixed up into a completely different consistency than any white flour bread I've ever tried (and I made white flour bread fairly often).  They were sticky, heavy, and practically impossible for me to shape.  I had pretty much abandoned any effort to make a loaf of bread and resorted to making (oddly shaped) dinner rolls.  My dreams of incorporating real whole grain bread as a daily part of our diet were beginning to fade.

Then, Meredith at entdraughts blog* posted about her bread-making epiphany.  She checked out a new cookbook from the library, Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads, and she made the master recipe. Her bread was transformed from a heavy, dense brick into a fluffy, high-rising loaf.  Since I was tired of baking concave loaves, I tried out the book. 

Reinhart calls his recipes "formulas" and I could see why: there is a lot of chemistry in the book explaining what happens to whole grains as they break down and form gluten.  Flashbacks to Nutrition 320! However, putting the formula together was both easy and quick.  Looking back on it, the dough comes together much more quickly than the recipes I was using before; there are fewer ingredients and the mixing and kneading time is cut in half.

Isn't this a nice looking rise?  I've seen this height before, but 10 minutes into the oven, the loaf would collapse and go concave.  So annoying!  Would this new formula be different?

Oh yeah, baby, as Anne Burrell on "Secrets of a Restaurant Chef " (Food Network) would say. The rise held and I even saw "oven spring", which is a fancy way of saying the bread rose even a bit more in the heat of the oven before the crust started to set.  I took a peek at the 20 minute mark and was overjoyed to see a rounded top.

I sliced into this loaf after letting it cool for an hour (recommended in the formula) and since I like the heel piece best, I snacked.  The flavor is very good; I will add a bit more salt the next time I make it (which will be on Tuesday) but the texture was remarkable: I got thin slices that held together well enough to make a sandwich, which never happened with the old recipes.  

All this from a library book!  Which means, of course, I now have to go buy the book so I can try the Pizza Crust formula and the Cinnamon Bun formula and the Power Bread formula.

If you are making a less-than-perfect whole grain loaf of bread, pick up this book and change your formula.  It is as delicious as it is beautiful as it is nutritious.  I did it all by myself and you can, too. Don't settle for anything less.

*I know Meredith in real life, so when she gave the formula her glowing testimonial, I knew I could trust it for truth.  I don't go about believing everything I read on the internet!

It seems as if the data piling up in favor of organic fruits and vegetables just got a little taller.  A 10-year study at the University of California shows that when compared to standard, conventionally grown produce, organic tomatoes have almost double the levels of antioxidants called flavenoids.  Flavenoids have been shown to prevent high blood pressure, which reduces the risk of heart disease.

The full report will be published soon in the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry.  I might be looking to pick up a copy of that one.

I often hear skeptics say that there is no difference in conventionally grown produce (chemical fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides) and organic produce, with the "possible exception" of residual pesticides on the outer skin which can be washed off.  The higher prices for organics are a total waste of money in the minds of these people. 

As this study shows, when research can stretch into several years and as organic farming techniques become more common and easier to measure, the nutritional benefits skyrocket in favor of organics.  A carrot isn't a carrot isn't a carrot any more.  It's a nutritional powerhouse. 

If a farmer takes time and skill to build soil fertility, the composition of the soil is bound to change for the better. And if the soil is better quality, then the plant and it's harvest will be more nutritious.  It's very easy for me to understand; why is it so difficult for other people to see and accept? 

After selling at the Marietta Market today and talking with loads of people who love good food grown free of the chemical haze, I am thrilled to read the summary of a study like this one.  With a growing season like the one we've had this year, we need all the encouragement we can get!