Hydrogenated Fats and Heart Disease July 24, 2008

I’m reading a fascinating book. It’s called “Beating the Food Giants” by Paul Stitt, former corporate biochemist who worked for some of the big multinational food companies.

Another dirty trick the food companies have been pulling on the American public since 1911 is hydrogenated fats.

They have been selling partially hydrogenated fats (margarine and shortening) as a healthy, kosher alternative to lard, butter and other fat.

Until the ’80s, no one tried to find out if it was any more healthful than lard or butter. No one, that is, except for a few scientists like Ralph Holman at the Hormel Institute, who intuitively knew that hydrogenated fats were inherently dangerous.

Finally, Harvard School of Public Health did a long-term study by asking people how much margarine they were eating, then sat back and waited to see what they died from. Lo and behold, they discovered that the people who ate as little as three pats a day of margarine had twice the heart-attack rate of those who ate less than a pat a day, far worse than those who ate lard or butter.

I hope that every marga­rine manufacturer in the country gets his pants sued off for grossly misleading people about how healthful margarine is.

You’ll find margarine or shortening or partially hydrogenated vegetable fat in nearly every bread, cookie and cake sold in America.

Really interesting, huh?

Even if you don’t think you’re eating margarine, if you’re eating processed foods and baked goods, you’re eating it.

Chips Ahoy
Ingredients: enriched flour (wheat flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamin mononitrate [vitamin B1], riboflavin [vitamin B2], folic acid), semisweet chocolate chips (sugar, chocolate, cocoa butter, dextrose, soy lecithin - an emulsifier), sugar, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, high fructose corn syrup, leavening (baking soda, ammonium phosphate), salt whey (from milk), natural and artificial flavor, caramel color.

Why don’t we hear about these studies that show that margarine and hydrogenated vegetable oils cause heart disease?

Because they don’t want you to know. They’re making a whole lot of money selling cookies.

Just how much money are they making?

1. Oreos: $519 million a year
2. Chips Ahoy: $347 million
3. Chips Deluxe: $160 million
4. Newtons: $137 million
5. Fudge Shoppe: $127 million

Source: Information Resources Inc.

That’s almost 1.3 billion dollars a year. Of course, those numbers are a few years old — so it’s more than that.

You think maybe those corporate executives have something to hide? You think maybe they have an incentive to blame foods like butter and cream and lard?

I agree with Paul Stitt. It’s disgusting how they are misleading the public and getting rich off of it.

I really recommend reading “Beating the Food Giants”. You can’t find the book in stores because it’s out of print. Turns out though that you can read the whole thing online.

Salmon Croquettes with Coconut Mayonnaise July 15, 2008

This is a meal I highly recommend. Seth and I both loved it.

It’s not super quick to prepare (you have to chop various things, although the food processor does help some) but it’s very nutritious and not expensive to make since you’re using canned salmon, which is cheaper than fresh or frozen salmon.

Just be sure you are using WILD salmon. Not farmed! Alaskan salmon is wild, so if it says Alaskan, you can be sure it is wild.

For the homemade NT mayonnaise, I used the flavorless expeller-pressed coconut oil from Wilderness Family Naturals — not quite as good as raw, but you can’t taste the coconut oil at all.

This recipe is modified from a recipe in the New Basics cookbook.

1 can (about 15 ounces) wild salmon
3/4 cup dried (or toasted) bread crumbs (I stuck 4 pieces of frozen sprouted bread into the toaster oven — then pulsed them in the food processor)
1/2 cup homemade mayonnaise (I used the recipe for mayonnaise in Nourishing Traditions, only I substituted coconut oil for half of the olive oil)
1/2 cup chopped onion (about 1/2 of a large yellow or white onion)
1/4 cup minced yellow bell pepper (you can use red or orange bell pepper too — it’s about 1/2 of a medium sized bell pepper — I cut it up into big pieces then pulsed it in the food processor)
1/4 cup minced celery (about 1 stalk — cut into pieces and then pulse in food processor)
1/4 cup fresh parsley (I grow this so it was easy to get — just pulse in food processor)
1 egg (I used 1 egg plus one egg yolk — I figured, why not?)
2 tsp grated lemon zest (I didn’t have enough on hand so I used 1 tsp — still came out fine)
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce (you can get an organic additive-free variety at Whole Foods — I think it’s made by Annie’s)
6 drops of Tabasco (I forgot to put this in — still came out fine)
1/4 tsp salt (sea salt)
1/4 cup macadamia oil (found this at Whole Foods)
Extra coconut mayonnaise to serve

OK, yeah, that’s a lot of ingredients. Make the mayo ahead of time. Then chop/pulse all your various things (onion, celery, pepper, etc.) and set them out mise en place. Get your breadcrumbs all ready too (I toasted mine in my toaster oven — worked great!).

1. In a mixing bowl, combine half the salmon with 1/2 cup of the bread crumbs, along with all the other ingredients (except for the macadamia oil and the mayo to serve).

2. Mix it together with your hands and then mix in the rest of the salmon. Shape into patties that fit in the palm of your hand.

3. Roll the patties in the rest of the breadcrumbs. Set on a plate.

4. Heat 1/4 cup of macadamia oil in a cast iron skillet on medium heat. Cook the patties 3-4 minutes on each side, until brown and crispy.

5. Serve with coconut mayonnaise.

I found that they were not quite salty enough so I added some sea salt.

Serves 4, according to New Basics, but I kind of screwed up and some of my patties fell apart — so this recipe only served two.

Oh, and here’s a tip — cook only 4 patties at a time. Or fewer if you are using a small skillet. Add more oil as needed.

Otherwise your patties will be too close together and what happened to me will happen to you — they’ll break into a million pieces — no fun!.

Delicious with a green salad (we had red leaf lettuce from my garden, plus purslane, some sprouted mung beans and lentils, and chopped tomatoes, with red wine vinaigrette).

Horton Hears a Who July 14, 2008

I want to share with you a wonderful comment I received from a reader, Craig, when I posted a while back on “Real French Fries” (French fries made with real grass-fed beef tallow).

Few people go back and read the comments — and I don’t blame you — life is busy! But this comment is so eloquent and so inspiring — it deserves to be read.

(Thanks, Craig!)

“I loved the taste of the “old” McDonalds fries, I think that was what they were really famous for. Never liked the vegetable oil substitute.

Sounds like you read the book “Real Food”. You have made correct assumptions about the history of saturated fats vs vegetable oils. Why change the way that people have been eating for thousands of years, to listen to a bunch of lined pockets tell us that our ancestors didn’t have a clue?

I wish there was a way to get the word out to the average joe about CAFOs, grass fed farming, raw products, the truth about organics in this country, saturated fat, processed foods, the true costs this country pays for what is sold as “groceries”, the farm bill and who really benefits (can you say Cargill etc…), the unhealthy information and practices put into place and supported by Congress and the FDA. Every citizen should be outraged at what has been forced onto the American people.

Our politicians fake their sympathy for the cost of health care, “food” and the price of gas, yet over 70% of all the costs of health care are related to industrial food sources, regulations and restrictions have forced local farmers out of business and dried up support for them in favor of industrial agricultural companies (same ones mentioned above, who now have the power and money to lobby for anything that they want), and 50% of the gasoline used in this country is used for fertilizing, growing and transporting industrial food (what’s wrong with locally grown food?). Doesn’t sound like our government has the American people’s interests in mind.

We need to have our voices heard!!!”

Thanks, Craig, for taking the time to post. It’s voices like yours we all need to hear.

The World According to Food Marketing Executives July 11, 2008

I’m reading a very interesting book called The End of Food by Paul Roberts. It’s a well-written and well-researched book about the history and future of food production.

I was fascinated by some of these facts from food marketing executives and researchers:

Food companies know exactly how much time the average household can devote to cooking — around thirty minutes a day, down from an hour in 1970 — and how quickly that number is expected to shrink: by 2030, the ideal cooking time is forecast to be between five and fifteen minutes.

Industry analysts have also tracked the decline in cooking frequency (less than half of home meals feature even one freshly made, or from-scratch item).

“Today’s average homemaker isn’t cooking a meal for five people anymore,” Steve Silk, the former General Foods executive, told me. “She’s cooking five different meals.”

And “meal” may be an over generous term; according to one recent U.S. study, sandwiches are now the most commonly served dinner entree, ahead of beef and chicken dishes.

Snacking accounts for nearly half of all eating occasions. Not surprisingly, snacks, which are among the most highly processed of foods and thus have among the highest profit margins, are increasingly the focus of product innovations.

For example, when researchers at Skippy realized that the traditional mode for peanut butter consumption — the sandwich — had become too complex for time-pressed families and kids, the company introduced single-serving tubes of peanut butter, called Squeeze Stix, that kids empty directly into their mouths.

There are so many problems with our current food production paradigm. But that last example takes the proverbial cake. Families are too busy to make a sandwich so kids have to squeeze peanut butter directly into their mouths?

How can we be that busy? What are we so busy doing? Playing video games and going to the mall? Watching American Idol?

And why are we buying this garbage? It’s all chock full of genetically modified ingredients, chemical additives and high fructose corn syrup.

We are paying a high price for convenience… and it’s not just the price of our health. The average food item travels 1500 miles from farm to fork. And that’s just transporting it. That’s not including all the energy that goes into processing the food.

Look at this flow chart of the modern food chain:

This is the reason our nation’s family farms have all but disappeared and the landscape is monocropped with corn and soybean.

We don’t even have amber waves of grain anymore. We have genetically modified RoundUp Ready inedible agri-business inventory destined to become feed for animals in CAFOs or high fructose corn syrup.

The only way out of this madness is to get back to cooking and eating real food.

Here are some ideas:

Get out of the supermarket and start shopping at the farmer’s market. Buy real milk from grass-fed cows, pastured chickens and organic potatoes — directly from the farmer. Don’t buy meat or dairy products that come from factory farms. Buy milk, meat and eggs from farmers who raise their animals on pasture.

If you can, grow your own. If you don’t have room for a chicken coop, grow vegetables. If you don’t have a lawn, do it in containers.

Buy dry beans and rice instead of frozen pizza and Lean Cuisine.

Make dinner every night. Use a crockpot if you have to. If you can’t manage every night, start doing it once a week.

Sit down and eat together – and not in front of the TV.

Learn how to make sourdough bread and cookies from scratch. Make your own pasta and pizza dough. Do it with your kids!

Give your kids chores like tending the vegetable garden or keeping the compost or doing the dishes.

Roast a chicken once a week and learn how to use the bones to make chicken stock. Once you’ve made the stock, you can use the bones to make homemade pet food. With the leftover meat, you can make sandwiches for lunch — instead of using processed luncheon meat.

Make eggs or oatmeal for breakfast instead of serving extruded processed cereal from a factory.

And, most importantly, stop buying processed foods. Or at last try to reduce the number of processed foods you buy.

Do it for the health of your family, for the good of the environment, for the future of our nation’s family farms.

Photo Credits: 1950s Housewife, High Fructose Corn Syrup and Obesity, Modern Food Chain, Boycott Krap

Summer Fruit Pies July 8, 2008

“When you die, if you get a choice between going to regular heaven or pie heaven, choose pie heaven. It might be a trick, but if it’s not, mmmmmmmm, boy.” — Jack Handy

We had a few people over for a BBQ on Saturday, to celebrate my 40th birthday. My friend Steven came over on Friday to help me make some pies and cobblers.

This is what a good pie crust should look like. See those hunks of butter? That is what ensures a flaky crust.

The trick to a good pie crust is this: You don’t want to handle your pie crust too much and overincorporate your fats. Also, start with very cold (frozen even) fat. You don’t want it to melt while you are working the dough. The more the fats stay together, the more air pockets you will create — which creates the flakiness.

This pie crust is made with 1/2 cup of lard (Steven rendered it at home and brought it over) and 1 cup of butter (KerryGold Irish butter — from grass-fed cows). The only other ingredients are unbleached white flour, cold filtered water, a little salt and a little stevia.

It is essentially the recipe from Jeffrey Steingarten’s The Man Who Ate Everything. (Except I used stevia instead of sugar.) This is the recipe I have followed for years, and it comes out perfect — I mean perfect — every time. The first time you read the recipe, it is a little intimidating. It’s like 9 pages long! But once you learn how to do it, you will never use any other method.

We also brushed a little milk and egg yolk onto the tops of the pies to give them that nice golden brown tan.

Here’s the blueberry pie before we baked it:

And here’s the apple pie prior to baking:

Here’s the apple pie:

And here’s the apple cobbler:

Cobblers originated on the American frontier — when they were in the stage coaches traveling west — they could not roll out the pie dough so they had to be creative.

We used organic blueberries and organic Pink Lady apples (I prefer tart green Granny Smiths but I could not find any).

We used rapadura instead of sugar. For the apple pie, I added a little orange-flavored Armagnac that I smuggled back from my last trip to Paris. I did not add any cinnamon or nutmeg - just a little vanilla extract.

Here’s the blueberry pie out of the oven:

The blueberry pie was quite possibly the best pie I have ever tasted. I know, I’m being immodest. But it was!

We also made a cherry cobbler. Here it is before we baked it:

We used organic cherries, and rapadura instead of sugar. Plus some corn starch, a little lemon and vanilla extract. And a pinch of salt.

I didn’t make enough dough so this one’s a little short. But people ate it anyway.

It was really good with the rapadura. Not too sweet. You could really taste the fruit and it was not overpowered by sugar.

We also made raw homemade ice cream to go with the pies — made from Organic Pastures raw cream (from grass-fed cows), egg yolks, maple syrup, and vanilla extract. Because how can you eat pie without ice cream?

Here’s Seth feeding Kate ice cream at the party:

Pickled Purslane July 1, 2008

I was looking around the web for a recipe for purslane salad. I found purslane at the farmer’s market on Saturday and we have not gotten around to eating it yet — I want to make a salad tonight before it goes bad. I’m also serving grilled salmon and artichokes with melted butter.

Anyway, I happened to come across this recipe, which I think looks really yummy!

Of course, I would not make the recipe this way — I would use whey and sea salt, just like we make Nourishing Traditions dill pickles. I think I will try it. They’ve got to be super-nutritious. I’ll post my results and modified recipe.

Pickled Purslane

(from Joy of Pickling, by Linda Ziedrich)

1/2 lb. purslane stalks, cut to fit vertically in a pint jar
1 dill head
1 small fresh or dried chile pepper, split lengthwise (optional)
10 Tbsp. white wine vinegar
10 Tbsp. water
1 1/2 tsp. pickling salt
1 garlic clove, sliced
4 black peppercorns

Pack the purslane stalks vertically in a pint jar, slipping the dill head and chile pepper down the
side. In a nonreactive saucepan, bring to a boil the vinegar, water, salt, garlic, and peppercorns,
stirring to dissolve the salt. Pour the hot liquid over the purslane. Cover the jar with a
nonreactive cap.

Store the jar in the refrigerator for 1 week before eating the purslane. It will keep, refrigerated, for several months or longer. Yields 1 pint.

Photo credit

Real French Fries June 21, 2008

We had Steak Frites tonight. Wow — was it good! I got the steaks (grass-fed) from Rocky Canyon at the farmer’s market this morning. They were melt-in-your-mouth delicious.

I served the meal with Lillet Blanc (a French apertif that tastes like orange) on ice, watered down with a little Pellegrino and a slice of orange. Yum! Exactly the perfect drink when it’s sweltering hot outside and you don’t have air conditioning.

Not to toot my own horn, but this dinner was seriously amazing. The only thing that would have made it better would have been chocolate ice cream. (Next time, for sure!)

I know, I know, potatoes are not on GAPS. But Seth has been doing so well, we figured we’d give it a try. I have a feeling he’s going to do fine with it.

Seth said the fries tasted like In & Out (I think they were better). I fried them in beef tallow (which I rendered a few weeks ago from beef fat, also from Rocky Canyon).

The trick to French fries is you have to either cut them and then soak them in water (in the fridge) for 12 hours (or overnight) — or you have to parboil them (boil for 2 minutes). I did a combination of the two — soaked in water for 8 or 9 hours (I didn’t read the recipe far enough ahead of time) and then parboiled just for be on the safe side. Soaking and/or parboiling helps to prevent soggy fries. It seemed to work — my fries came out crisp.

(I followed the recipes from The Balthazar Cookbook for both the fries and the Steak Frites. They recommend soaking in water for 12 hours. I read online that you can simply parboil — I’ll try that next time.)

I was reading about French fries this afternoon — here are some things I learned:

The taste of a french fry is largely determined by the cooking oil. For decades McDonald’s cooked its french fries in a mixture of about seven percent cottonseed oil and 93 percent beef tallow. The mixture gave the fries their unique flavor — and more saturated beef fat per ounce than a McDonald’s hamburger.

In 1990, amid a barrage of criticism over the amount of cholesterol in its fries, McDonald’s switched to pure vegetable oil. This presented the company with a challenge: how to make fries that subtly taste like beef without cooking them in beef tallow. A look at the ingredients in McDonald’s french fries suggests how the problem was solved. Toward the end of the list is a seemingly innocuous yet oddly mysterious phrase: “natural flavor.” That ingredient helps to explain not only why the fries taste so good but also why most fast food — indeed, most of the food Americans eat today — tastes the way it does.

Open your refrigerator, your freezer, your kitchen cupboards, and look at the labels on your food. You’ll find “natural flavor” or “artificial flavor” in just about every list of ingredients. The similarities between these two broad categories are far more significant than the differences. Both are man-made additives that give most processed food most of its taste. People usually buy a food item the first time because of its packaging or appearance. Taste usually determines whether they buy it again. About 90 percent of the money that Americans now spend on food goes to buy processed food. The canning, freezing, and dehydrating techniques used in processing destroy most of food’s flavor — and so a vast industry has arisen in the United States to make processed food palatable. Without this flavor industry today’s fast food would not exist. The names of the leading American fast-food chains and their best-selling menu items have become embedded in our popular culture and famous worldwide. But few people can name the companies that manufacture fast food’s taste.

That’s an excerpt from an article in Atlantic Monthly by Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation). He’s saying that when McDonald’s switched from frying their fries in beef tallow to vegetable oil, they had to start adding “natural” flavors in order to make them taste good.

Natural flavors can’t be bad, right? They must be better than artificial flavors.

But they’re not.

“A natural flavor,” says Terry Acree, a professor of food science at Cornell University, “is a flavor that’s been derived with an out-of-date technology.” Natural flavors and artificial flavors sometimes contain exactly the same chemicals, produced through different methods. Amyl acetate, for example, provides the dominant note of banana flavor. When it is distilled from bananas with a solvent, amyl acetate is a natural flavor. When it is produced by mixing vinegar with amyl alcohol and adding sulfuric acid as a catalyst, amyl acetate is an artificial flavor. Either way it smells and tastes the same.

Yuck! It’s bad enough that fast food French fries are fried in rancid vegetable oil, an oil which is not at all suitable for deep frying. But in order to make them taste good, they have to add chemicals.

Why not just use beef tallow? That’s the way people have been frying French fries for centuries.

It’s because of this ridiculous notion that saturated fats are bad for you. And yet there is no evidence to back up that claim. Ancel Keys has been disproven.

One thing I keep coming back to… if you just look back at history, and review the kinds of fats we have been eating, it makes you question how healthy these vegetable and soybean oils are. We’ve never eaten this way — ever — in the history of food. So why is everyone so sold on it? If saturated animal fats like lard and tallow and butter were working for us for centuries, why are they being denigrated now?

Fats & Oils in the Food Supply: 1890 vs. 1990
(in descending order of market share)

1890
Lard
Tallow
Chicken Fat
Butter
Olive Oil
Palm Oil
Coconut Oil
Peanut Oil
Cottonseed Oil

1990
Soybean Oil (70% partially hydrogenated)
Rapeseed Oil, or Canola Oil (usually partially hydrogenated)
Cottonseed Oil
Peanut Oil
Corn Oil
Palm Oil
Coconut Oil

(source: Mary Enig, “Know Your Fats”)

People around the world have been eating saturated animal fats for centuries. This is the first century that we are eating vegetable oils. And look at the rise in heart disease, cancer, etc.

Coincidence? I think not.

Southern Fried Chicken Livers June 20, 2008

Every time I go to Texas, I have two requirements while I’m there: (1) Good Tex Mex and (2) Dixie House.

Dixie House is a chain in Texas. They serve stuff like chicken fried steak, chicken fried chicken (my favorite — it’s just boneless Southern fried chicken), mashed potatoes and gravy, fried okra, and cornbread. It may not be the highest quality food (nothing grass fed or organic), and they probably fry in vegetable and soybean oil. But I don’t care — I still have to eat there when I’m in town. It’s just so good.

Anyway, while I was there, I spied on their menu something I’m really excited about: Southern Fried Chicken Livers. I didn’t try theirs because I figured they were definitely not organic, but it’s something I really want to try making at home.

Here’s a recipe I found that looks pretty good. The only thing I would change is obviously I would not fry in shortening. I’ll use lard. Also, I’ve read that you can soak the livers in buttermilk for ten minutes or so first, before you fry them.

I think I’ll make this one night when Seth is not here — since he can’t have flour yet. I’m eating flour and bread with no problems, however, I still won’t eat it in front of Seth. Plus, he’s not a fan of chicken livers. I’ll have to try it first and see if it’s good before I can serve it to him (and also wait until he can eat flour).

Another thing I’m excited to make is Pate de Campagne (country pate). I was just reading the recipe in Julia Child’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume Two”. It’s made with pork butt or pork loin, pork fat, veal or chicken, and pork, chicken or beef liver. I don’t know if you’ve ever eaten it before but it is really delicious — especially accompanied by some crusty bread, Dijon mustard, and cornichons.

I’m also thinking about cassoulet. I love cassoulet, and it’s totally GAPS legal (white beans are legal on GAPS). I also want to make French-style mussels in white wine. That is one of Seth’s favorite dishes ever.

I’m also dying to make some things that are not GAPS-legal… most especially, French Fries with the beef tallow I rendered a couple of weeks ago. Ooh — and fried oysters!

And salmon croquettes. My stepdad made some while I was in Dallas and they were terrific. And so inexpensive to make. He used canned wild salmon (very cheap), plus bell peppers and celery and onion. You make patties (like crab cakes) and then you fry them in peanut oil. They were fantastic, and especially good served with a brown rice black bean salad. But of course, the salmon croquettes are not GAPS legal because they are breaded.

The other thing I’m dying to make is homemade tortillas. I want to make migas and huevos rancheros and quesadillas and carnitas and carne asada.

Seth said he ate a roll last week when I was out of town — and had no adverse reaction. So we’ll see… maybe we’ll start with a little cream or milk and see how he does. Then in another week we could try potatoes. Dr. Cowan told us that he thought Seth’s gut would heal in just a couple of months — so that’s encouraging. We shall see.

Anyway, I’m very inspired these days to try lots of new things. I’ll be posting recipes soon.

Potato Cheese May 31, 2008

It’s funny — when you’re single, sitting at home on a Saturday night is the worst thing you can imagine. And then you become a mom. And you’re always doing doing doing for everyone else. And the idea of having some time to yourself is so fabulous, you don’t care what night it is.

Seth announced that he had to go out to a business thing and I got so excited that I was going to get to stay home, put my feet up, and do my own thing. I don’t even have to cook dinner! I can eat cheese and some almond bread if I get hungry.

So I got Kate down (so easy, she goes down every night and every nap with no crying, no fussing) then I did the dishes, cleaned the kitchen, and watered my seedlings. Then I poured a glass of wine, dimmed the lights, and am now happily watching Oprah and House Hunters and Martha Stewart and Iron Chef America.

I’m also making “Potato Cheese”, a fermented potato dish (for Kate — we can’t eat potatoes on GAPS). I don’t like the name. Hopefully the recipe comes out better than the name.

I really like to try to serve fermented foods to Kate at at least one meal a day. Ideally, it would be every meal… but once a day is great. If I do more than that, all the better. She really loves sauerkraut and kefir and fermented yams and homemade lacto-fermented ketchup and dill pickles. Today she had some dill pickle relish in her tunafish for lunch, and this evening she had fermented yams with liver and ground beef stew for dinner.

Anyway, I got the Potato Cheese recipe from Nourishing Traditions. Well, it’s in Nourishing Traditions, but it was originally published in 1833, in a book called The American Frugal Housewife.

You cook 4 pounds of potatoes (I baked mine), then peel them, then throw them in the food processor with 2 cups of kefir or piima milk (I’m using kefir). Let that sit out at room temperature in a bowl (covered with a dish towel) for 2 days. Then you strain it the same way you do when you strain the whey when making cheese. When done, transfer to an airtight container and put it in the fridge.

I’ll let you know how it turns out.

GAPS Almond Bread May 28, 2008

Here is the recipe for the GAPS Almond Bread from Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride’s book, “Gut and Psychology Syndrome”.

This bread is really easy to make. Tonight I’m going to make some more to go with the butternut squash soup I’m making — and serve it with butter and roasted bone marrow. Either that or homemade tomato soup with grilled cheese…

2 1/2 cups almond flour
3 eggs
1/4 cup softened butter (or coconut oil, goose fat, chicken fat, duck fat, or homemade yogurt or creme fraiche) plus a little extra to grease the pan

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
2. Grease a loaf pan or cookie sheet. Mix the almond flour, eggs, and fat in a bowl. Press the mixture into the greased loaf pan — or mold into a loaf shape on a cookie sheet.
3. Bake for about an hour. Test for doneness by inserting a clean butter knife — it will come out clean when it’s ready.
4. Let it rest for at least 10 minutes before using a butter knife to remove it from the pan.

You can also make different kinds of loaves by adding various ingredients. You could add a cheese or olives and rosemary or you could add some dates or honey to make it sweet. You can use it for pizza dough as well, and for muffins.

You can also make multiple loaves and freeze them.

Victorian Mini-Series and Classic Roast Chicken May 27, 2008

We are watching “Cranford” — a PBS documentary. This is one of the Emmy-nominated DVDs Seth gets in the mail (he gets a LOT of them) since he is an Emmy award winner. It’s one of those “for your consideration” DVDs.

“Cranford” stars Dame Judi Dench and is based on novels by Dickens and Carlyle contemporary, Elizabeth Gaskell (1810 - 1865). It’s very Jane Austen-ish.

I’m enjoying it very much. Seth is not really watching — he’s working on his laptop. I think he prefers “The Wire”, which is what we usually watch. I love “The Wire”. But sometimes it’s nice to watch something that appeals more to women. This is the kind of show I would normally watch with my best friend, Sarah.

I admit, it’s a bit sappy. It’s a miniseries after all. But it’s really interesting to watch — all the history. Plus I just love stories set in Great Britain. (Oddly enough, Sarah is “on holiday” in London right now.)

Tonight I made the roast chicken from Julia Child’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking”. I didn’t follow her recipe exactly — there’s so much basting involved (every 10 minutes) and with a baby, that’s not so easy to do. I did my best.

I deglazed the roasting pan with beef stock according to the recipe — and the gravy that resulted was absolutely wonderful. When you deglaze the pan, you reduce the stock in half — so it’s just concentrated broth with plenty of good fat (the drippings from the pan plus extra butter). Not only is it delicious, it’s very good for you. The stock is excellent for digestion.

I also made patty pan squash (which I got at the farmer’s market). I sliced it, layered it in a pan, and added dollops of butter and olive goat cheese (also procured at the farmer’s market). I don’t know if Seth liked it (he didn’t eat much) but for me, it was almost as good as potatoes au gratin. And GAPS legal! (As long as you can do dairy, that is — Seth seems to be doing fine on it.)

I Heart Texas Chili May 26, 2008

I grew up in Texas, and chili is still one of my favorite meals (nachos is number one). Here’s a Texas-style (no beans) chili recipe that is GAPS legal and incorporates organ meats — namely, heart.

It was delicious — and I swear, you can’t taste the heart.

This made just enough for 2 1/2 — a meal for Seth, me and the baby. Now that I know it’s good, next time I’ll double the recipe so we’ll have leftovers.

1 pound grass-fed beef or bison
1/2 pound beef or bison heart
3-4 TBS chicken or duck fat, beef tallow, lard, or butter (I used beef tallow, which I rendered from my beef stock)
1/2 large yellow or white onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, smashed or minced
1 tsp minced oregano (I used fresh from my garden, but you could use dried)
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 TBS good quality chile powder (I got mine at Whole Foods)
3 large tomatoes (it not in season, you can use peeled whole tomatoes in a can)
1 TBS tomato paste
2 cups homemade chicken or beef stock (I used beef stock — here’s a good recipe for beef stock.)
Sea salt to taste

1. Bring a medium saucepan full of water to a boil. Set the tomatoes in the saucepan for 20 seconds. With tongs or a slotted spoon, remove them and place them in a bowl of ice cold water (or under running cold water).

2. Peel the tomatoes, then cut in half. Squeeze each half and scoop out the seeds with your fingers. Discard seeds and chop tomatoes.

3. Cut the beef or bison heart into chunks. Blend in food processor until ground.

4. Heat the fat in the saucepan over medium heat. Add the heart, ground beef or bison, chopped onion, and garlic. Cook until lightly browned.

5. Add the rest of the ingredients except the salt and bring to a boil.

6. Lower the heat and simmer for 1-3 hours (longer if you like — this would actually be wonderful in a crockpot). The longer you simmer, the more concentrated it will become, and the better the flavors will be. If the chili gets too thick for your liking, just add more stock.

7. Season with sea salt to taste.

I served this with buttered warm almond meal bread (made with almond flour, eggs, and butter).

If you’re not on GAPS, you could add beans (black or pinto) to this recipe and it would make a lot more food (just add a little more onion, garlic and spices).

Modified from a recipe by Chef Stephan Pyles, “The New Texas Cuisine” (one of my favorite cookbooks).

Fermented Yams May 22, 2008

A few of you have asked for this so here you go!

This recipe is from the Fermented Taro Root (also known as Poi) recipe in “Nourishing Traditions”. I couldn’t find taro root so I used yams. This makes a very yummy and super-nutritious baby food. It’s also really good as a side dish.

2 pounds yams (or sweet potatoes)
1 TBS sea salt
4 TBS whey (homemade whey from raw milk or yogurt — recipe on page 87 of “Nourishing Tradtions”)

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Stab the yams with a fork. Stick them in the oven and bake for 2 hours or until soft. Let cool, then peel and mash with salt and whey (a sauerkraut pounder or meat tenderizer works great). Leave this mixture in a bowl and leave out at room temperature, covered with a dishtowel, for 24 hours. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

Chocolate Banana Coconut Milk Ice Cream May 21, 2008

This ice cream came out so delicious! Seth raved about it and actually asked for seconds.

And it’s a very healthy dessert. And GAPS legal! (I think… cocoa is legal, right?)

1 can (14 oz) coconut milk (I know, canned coconut milk is not technically legal on GAPS. If you are strict — which we are not — use coconut milk from fresh coconut)
2 TBS organic cocoa powder
2 TBS raw honey
1 very ripe banana
(I was going to add a bit of vanilla extract but I forgot)

Throw everything in a food processor or a blender and mix well. Transfer to ice cream maker and run for about 45 minutes.

This is a super delicious dessert. Very good for the thyroid, too. Maybe I’ll try adding a few egg yolks next time — and the vanilla extract.

PS: According to Bruce Fife’s book, “The Coconut Oil Miracle”, the average adult needs at least 3.5 TBS of coconut oil a day. This estimation is based on the amount of medium-chain fatty acids that are found in breast milk, and the daily amount required to nourish a baby.

Fife says that you can get the same amount of MCFAs in 7 ounces fresh coconut meat (about half a coconut), 2 3/4 cups dried, shredded coconut, or 10 ounces of coconut milk.

So, one smoothie with 2 TBS coconut oil and 4 ounces of coconut milk would be all you need for the day. Or, 2 TBS coconut oil (you can take it in a little warm water) and a bowl (6-8 ounces) of this chocolate coconut milk ice cream.

NOTE: Cocoa is not allowed on the GAPS diet (see comments). Whoops!

GAPS Diet: Day 25 May 21, 2008

Seth’s stools have normalized! I finally saw it for myself the other day. I know, I know, the things I have to do.

I had no choice. I kept asking him what his stools were like and he would always say, “I don’t know”. So the other day I made him show me. And it was a Type 4 on the Bristol Stool Chart.

Konstantin Monastyrsky, author of Fiber Menace, says that Type 5 is ideal, and Type 4 is close to ideal.

Type 6 is borderline normal. Type 7 is diarrhea. Types 1-3 are all constipation.

To read more about the Bristol Stool Chart and what constitutes a normal stool, visit the Fiber Menace website.

This is after over 2 weeks of diarrhea, which came on after we started the GAPS diet. Prior to the GAPS diet, Seth had intermittent constipation and diarrhea.

I also had diarrhea after we started GAPS, but only for a week.

It’s interesting… Konstantin Monastyrsky says that most people do not think they are constipated. But they are! He says that you should pass stools with no straining or pushing. He also says that your stool should not be larger in diameter than a quarter. Nickel- or dime-sized is best.

I never had such skinny poops in my life. Not until I started on this GAPS diet. Now they are quite slender. I poop 2-3 times a day now, and it’s a Type 5.

Kate fluctuates between Types 5 and 6. I would like to know, what is the ideal stool for a 1-year-old baby?

Of course, then last night Seth had diarrhea again. I have been giving him butter for a few days now, and he seemed to do fine with it. Same thing with kefir. I thought maybe it was the tiny bit of cheese I gave him last night.

Then he confessed to me today that he had fish tacos for lunch.

“I didn’t eat the tortillas,” he said. “But the fish was fried.”
“Fried? Like in a batter?”
“Yes.”
“That’s flour!”
“Yes.”
“That’s illegal on GAPS!”
“I know. But I didn’t know they would be fried.”

So we think maybe that was what it was — the flour in the batter. Nonetheless, just to be safe, I’m not giving him any more cheese until the diarrhea clears up for at least a few days. I will continue to give butter and kefir; he seems to handle it fine. But we’ll see…

Sorry to get graphic about all of this but these things simply must be discussed. You have to look in the toilet bowl and check out your poop (before you throw the paper in). And you have to take your temperature with an accurate thermometer.

These are the things you must do to know if you are healthy. And they are easy, inexpensive things to do. Dr. Rind said as much in his lecture at the last WAPF conference. He said we need to take responsibility for our own health.

Photo credit: Fiber Menace

Beet Greens for Lunch May 13, 2008

Kate and I just had the yummiest lunch! It’s fun now because we can eat together (she’s eating finger foods instead of purees — and she can eat pretty much everything — of course, we’re not eating any grains yet).

Anyway, I put some bacon grease in a pan, then threw in some of the leftover Chicken Cacciatore with the chicken stock and tomato sauce. I also tore up some beet greens from the garden. I thickened up the sauce with a little arrowroot, and we ate it. It was even better with the bacon grease and beet greens! Really delicious. I served it with the purple sauerkraut and goat yogurt cream cheese. We had cantaloupe for dessert.

I also just got the best call from my sister in Seattle.

Some background: She got her family on raw milk over the Christmas holidays. After she grilled me about it (”What’s this obsession you have with raw milk?”) and I gave her the summary of “The Untold Story of Milk” by Dr. Ron Schmid. (If you haven’t read that book, do so. It’s fantastic.) They now get raw milk delivered from a local farm. They also joined a local CSA for organic produce.

Then she read “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” a few weeks ago and decided that she wanted to buy half a cow. She told me she wanted to get her family off of all “CAFOs” (she pronounces it “kay-fos” — like “queso” with an F). CAFO stands for Confined Animal Feeding Operation.

Today she called and told me that she’s reading “Animal Vegetable Miracle”. She just got back from a trip to my mother’s in Dallas (related to our family emergency). She said she was so struck by how fake everything was — the tract homes and the fake food and the CAFO meat and milk everywhere. And Wal-Mart and McDonalds and malls full of clothes made by kids in sweatshops in third world countries. She said, “Everyone’s so alone and cut off.”

She said she got home from the trip and her husband had bought a new 42″ screen TV. They had discussed getting it before, and she had agreed to it. But when she stepped off the plane and saw that thing and the kids sitting in front of it eating their dinner (as they do every night), that was the last straw.

“That’s it,” she said. “No more TV with dinner. We’re doing family meals from now on.”

“Whoa,” I breathed. This from my sister who works 12-hour days and generally does not get home from work until 8 or 9 pm.

“Yep,” she said. “That’s it. We’re going to eat together every night. I can make some lentils and salmon and grow some vegetables in the garden. Actually before I left for this trip, the girls and I did all the planting — our spring vegetable garden is in.”

She then said something that really blew me away. She said that she’s decided that she wants to move her family to a farm and grow her own food. She wants to raise her kids in a way that is more aligned with nature. She doesn’t like the values her girls are growing up with. She wants a chance to give them a better “imprint” before they grow up and leave the nest.

She said (I’m paraphrasing), “I’m tired of all the fake shit. I want real food and a real life.”

This, from my sister. An executive at a major multinational corporation.

I almost squealed with delight. “Me too! Me too! Me too!” (Or as Seth, says, in a low Old Man River voice, “MEEEEEEEEEEEE TOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.”

I said, “Let’s do it together!”

She said, “Okay. I’ve been looking at properties. I just found two 10-acre parcels right next to each other.” She said her husband already told her he’d be willing to do it.

I said, “Now you know why I keep talking about wanting a farm with some chickens.”

She said, “I get it.”

Seth said he would be willing to do it, too. He doesn’t understand it — but he’s willing if it would make me happy. My sister said, “Make him read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle!”

She asked me what to do to help her kids eat healthier. I am going to order her a copy of “Nourishing Traditions” today.

She said her husband is going out of town for the weekend to go on a trip with friends. She said, “While he’s gone, I’m going through that kitchen and I’m going to get rid of all the CAFOs and processed fake food.”

It’s amazing how ideas from books and blogs and people can spread — isn’t it incredible how we impact each other so deeply? Funny thing is, it was my mom who first read “Animal Vegetable Miracle” last summer. Then I read it, now my sister.

How amazing would it be to live next to my sister and her family? How amazing would it be for the cousins to grow up as neighbors? Instead of having to fly a few times a year to see each other?

You know what I think? I think it is this family crisis that is bringing us closer together. It used to be that families — extended families — lived just down the road. You watched each other’s kids, looked out for each other when you were sick or going through a tough time. Now we are all so spread out and so cut off, like my sister said.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. Why live far apart when we don’t have to?

I love my sister so much. She is truly one of the most amazing people I know. She’s intelligent and driven. But it’s more than that. She traveled all over Europe on her own, then got a PhD, built an award-winning modern home, had kids, became a successful executive, taught herself gourmet cooking. She can figure anything out — and when she decides to do something, she just does it. I love that in a person.

And I love and admire her.

I am so happy right now. And so excited for the future.

Gotta go do some things — need to wash dishes and shower and water my seedlings and figure out what I’m going to make for dinner — before Kate wakes up from her nap!

GAPS Diet: Day 15 May 11, 2008

I have been reading through the papers Dr. Cowan gave us, and reading the GAPS book.

It says that we can eat squash. So I’m going to pick up some at the market — a good substitute for potatoes or pasta. It says that we can eat lentils and white navy beans — but not in the beginning. I think we will wait a while on that.

It says that you can move through the stages as quickly as you are able to. Seth and I have stopped having diarrhea. And Seth says he is not feeling any gut pain.

So I think we are ready to progress to the next stage.

I am going to start giving Seth kefir — a tiny bit to start and more each day. I want him to get to the point where he can drink a few glasses a day. I’m also going to give him some clarified butter this week and see how he does with that. Dr. Campbell McBride says that it is very digestible for most people.

We’ll see how that goes. I’ll give him a little Hollandaise sauce with his eggs — see if he has any reactions.

After the clarified butter, we’ll try regular butter. If he is OK with that, we’ll wait a few days and then try a little cheddar cheese and see how he reacts.

I asked him and he thinks he will do OK with butter and small amounts of cheese. He also thinks he does OK on kefir. He just can’t do milk or cream. I guess in time he will be able to drink milk and cream — but it could be a while.

We can also see how he does with some of the nut butters and ground nut flours. We can see how he reacts to peanut butter (homemade) and also bread made from homemade almond flour and coconut flour. I can also use this flour to make muffins, pies,

After we get through all of that, I want to see if he continues pain-free and has normal stools for at least a week. If so, we will move from the Introduction Diet to the Full Diet. There are no grains on the full diet, and no starches either.

But there are some recipes that look fun — pizza made with nut flour (without cheese unless it is tolerated).

Oh, and I noticed in the papers that I am supposed to be giving him liver twice a week. He hates liver. I have been giving him dessicated liver tablets… however I think we need to do more than that. So he agreed to start drinking the Pottenger Liver Cocktail in “Nourishing Traditions” twice a week (or more if I can make it more often). It’s basically tomato juice and calf’s liver. A very nutritious virgin Bloody Mary.

Eat Pray Love May 9, 2008

For the past few days, I’ve been listening to “Eat Pray Love”, read aloud by the author, Elizabeth Gilbert. I listen when I drive and when I go for walks with Kate.

I actually got it a couple of months ago but then I got sucked into listening to all the mp3s from the last WAPF conference and that took a long time to get through. I enjoyed every second.

And now I am enjoying every second of “Eat Pray Love”.

Here’s my question… can anyone out there recommend a really good book? Or two? Something along the lines of “Eat Pray Love”?

See, because “Eat Pray Love” is one of those books that when you start reading it, you try to go slow because you’re afraid it’s going to end. “Eat Pray Love” is delicious. It’s more than that, though. It reminds you how good it is to be alive, no matter how hard things are, no matter what you’re going through.

I’ve been going through some tough times lately. A couple of very challenging family emergencies. Probably the hardest time our family has every been through. No — not probably. Definitely the hardest time our family has ever been through.

I can’t say more than that. Suffice it to say, for weeks now, I’ve been waking up at 3 am, eyes wide open with worry.

I’ve been crying a lot, too. When I’m doing the dishes, in the shower. I have to process it. Repress it and it will just bite you in the ass later.

Anyway, let me know if you can recommend a good book. I’m going to need something when this one ends.

GAPS Diet: Day Five May 1, 2008

Note: You may want to skip this post if talk about poop bothers you. I’m not going to get graphic, but stools are discussed.

This is our fifth day on the GAPS diet. So far, it hasn’t been too bad. And some amazing things are happening!

I was listening to Konstantin Monastyrsky’s lecture on his book Fiber Menace (from the 2007 WAPF conference).He said an interesting thing. He said that stools should be no larger in diameter than a nickel. The width of a dime is ideal. This was shocking to me. A dime is tiny!

My first couple of days on GAPS I had diarrhea. But since yesterday, I have had small little blobs that are no wider in diameter than a nickel! I have never had this before in my life. It looks exactly like # 5 on the Bristol stool chart.

Seth is also doing great on the diet. The first few days were very rough. He was VERY VERY cranky. Depressed, anxious, irritable, sullen. Worse than I’d ever seen him. And complaining a lot about how he wanted dessert and fast food burgers, etc.

But yesterday we were out running some errands and I noticed that his whole demeanor has changed. He was easygoing, affable, cracking jokes, smiling a lot more, laughing. We hugged and kissed more than usual, laughed together, etc. This is rare for him. He is usually much more uptight, cranky, etc.

He told me this morning that he used to think he had occasional gut pain. Now he realizes that it was constant — constant chronic aching with surges of sharp pain occasionally. He never knew that before. I guess you just get used to it and consider it normal. He was able to realize this because for the first time since childhood, he is having times during the day where there is no pain in his gut.

I think he has had undiagnosed IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) for decades.

Also, the past two nights he has not had nightmares. Nor has he woken up stricken with anxiety — which is the normal state of affairs. I told him this morning, “This is what normal feels like.”

I’m really happy we are doing this!

It hasn’t been so hard, either. We drink 3 cups of chicken broth per day (8 ounces with each meal). For breakfast, we always have eggs cooked in coconut oil (we can’t have butter yet). Lunch is either tunafish salad or chicken salad or egg salad on lettuce — or meat in broth. Dinner is some kind of meat with broth and/or soup (made from broth). No grains, no sugar or sweeteners (only honey), no dairy, no seeds, legumes, or nuts.

Last night I made Sloppy Joes in lettuce wraps, with Deviled Eggs. I made the mayo with half coconut oil, half olive oil. Seth couldn’t even tell he was eating coconut oil. We’re supposed to eat a lot of coconut oil — but he does not like it. Using it in the mayo is a great way to hide it. (I take 4-5 TBS per day in addition to the mayo. I melt 1-2 TBS in a little bit of hot water or hot tea.

In the mornings and evenings, we drink 4-8 ounces of beet kvass. We also try to juice at least once a day (carrots, greens, celery, apple, strawberry, etc. — 50/50 ratio of green veggie and sweet fruit). We are taking BioKult (2 per day) and he is taking a couple of other supplements recommended by Dr. Cowan. I do let him have one up of weak coffee in the morning and he is allowed to have a little wine in the evening. It’s not so bad!

We will slowly start introducing dairy — maybe as early as next week. He can start with ghee, or clarified butter. We’ll see how he reacts.

I have not had any coffee in three days. No headaches, no irritability. This Dandy Blend stuff really works (and it tastes great, too).

Scallops, Spaghetti Squash, and Starting GAPS April 26, 2008

I’m relaxing in our “outdoor living room” in the backyard with a glass of Viognier. Seth is putting the baby down. It was hot today, but now it’s pleasantly cool. I can smell someone barbecuing in the distance.

Tonight’s dinner will be easy. I got a dozen fresh scallops at the farmer’s market today. So fresh, they are still alive! They gave them to me in bags of salt water.

I’ll probably braise them in a little butter. Then we will have some kielbasa and sauerkraut, some spaghetti squash with butter, and a green salad with sliced apple.

Tomorrow night I will make pulled pork. I’ve never made it before but Rocky Canyon had a nice pork butt at the market today. I think I’ll soak it in brine overnight, then slow cook it in the crock pot all day.

Seth had his phone consultation with Dr. Cowan on Thursday (which also happened to be his birthday — Seth’s, not Dr. Cowan’s).

Dr. Cowan recommended the GAPS diet. I knew he was going to say that, but the biggest reason we did the consultation was to convince Seth. He needed to hear it from someone other than me. Better yet, a doctor. I’ve been trying to get him to do the GAPS diet for months. Of course, he just thought it was some wacky think I read on the internet.

The good news is, he’s willing to do it now.

Let me back up — the GAPS Diet was formulated by neurologist and nutritionist, Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride. GAPS stands for “Gut and Psychology Syndrome”. The idea is that most of the psychological disorders we have are due to digestive disorders. Click here for an overview of the book.

I’m excited because Seth has suffered from anxiety and depression for years. He has also had digestive problems since he was a kid. He said he can remember being constipated when he was a small child, and said the depression started when he was 17. And I have noticed that his anxiety/depression is always worse when he has intestinal pain. Whenever he gets really cranky or anxious, he always says his guts hurt.

Dr. Cowan mentioned a book called “The Second Brain”. Here’s an excerpt from an interview with the author that may shed some light on this for you:

Ever get a gut feeling about someone, or I anxious butterflies in your stomach? That’s because you have a second brain in your bowel, according to Michael Gershon, M.D., author of The Second Brain (HarperCollins, 1999), and a neurobiologist at New York’s Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center. Gershon recently explained to Psychology Today how an independent network of over 100 billion neurons in the gut not only signals our bodies to stress but causes illness.

Q Why do we need a second brain?

A Most importantly, to control digestion. It also works with the immune system to protect us from hostile bacteria.

Q Does it use neurotransmitters?

A Actually, 95% of all serotonin in the body is in the gut, where it triggers digestion. Nerve cells in the gut also use serotonin to signal back to the brain. This information can train us not to eat certain foods by communicating pain, gas and other terrible feelings.

Q Does the brain in our heads influence the “second brain”?

A Yes. Butterflies in the stomach arise when the brain sends a message of anxiety to the gut, which sends messages back to the brain that it’s unhappy. But the gut can also work in isolation.

Q How does this brain influence irritable bowel syndrome (lBS), which many believe is a psychological problem?

A Irritable bowel syndrome, whose symptoms include abdominal pain accompanied by loose stool, affects 20% of Americans. But doctors often dismiss its severity, attributing IBS to psychoneurosis because they don’t know exactly what it is. I propose that the second brain is the cause. Antidepressants like SSRIs, when used in doses too low to treat depression, are effective immediately in IBS patients. Prozac takes weeks to kick in. This suggests that the drugs work not on the brains of people with IBS, but in the bowel. Source

Anyway… the idea is if you heal the digestive tract, you will alleviate mental/emotional disorders. Dr. Campbell McBride has had much success with this program in her practice in England where she has been reversing autism, ADD, etc. in children.

So here’s the plan:

He has to drink about a quart of bone broth a day, plus 4-8 ounces freshly juiced fruits and vegetables 3-5 times a day. I’m going to give it to him mixed with beet kvass at least twice a day.

In addition to that, he can have meats, fish, non-starchy vegetables, and fruit. No grains. No dairy. He also has to take cod liver oil and a couple of other supplements (including Dr. Campbell-McBride’s probiotic, BioKult, plus plenty of fermented foods (sauerkraut, homemade pickles, kefir soda pop, etc.).

After anywhere from a few days to a few weeks (depending on how it goes), we will start to introduce dairy foods — one at a time. Starting with ghee (clarified butter), then kefir, yogurt, etc. Not sure about the exact order — I have the list Dr. Cowan sent in my purse.

In a matter of weeks or months, we can start to introduce soaked beans, soaked grains, etc. Ultimately, Dr. Cowan says, Seth should eat a “Nourishing Traditions” diet.

Dr. Cowan says he thinks Seth can heal in a couple of months. But he said the longer he stays on the diet, the better, and that it can take up to two years.

I’m going to have to have a stock pot of broth going all the time. And I’m going to have to be juicing all the damn time too. And for any of you out there who have juiced, it is messy. You have to clean that thing every time you make juice.

But it’s okay. I’m just grateful he’s finally doing this. I just know this is going to help him!

So I guess we’re starting tomorrow…