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.

Smoothie Recipes May 19, 2008

I’ve been making a lot of smoothies lately. It’s such an easy and quick way to provide nourishment. I especially like them because they make it so easy to take coconut oil. If you’re not doing dairy, just use coconut milk. I’ve been making these for Seth and he LOVES them!

They also make a great breakfast if you’re tired of eggs — or on the run. Or you can make them for a fast and easy lunch. They are so filling — they keep you going for hours.

I hit upon a couple of really great recipes I thought I’d share. The measurements are approximate — adjust to taste.

Chocolate Banana Smoothie
1 banana
1 cup kefir, raw milk, yogurt, or coconut milk
1 TBS raw honey
2 raw egg yolks
2 TBS coconut oil
1 TBS organic cocoa powder

Peach and Cantaloupe Smoothie
1 banana
1 cup kefir, raw milk, yogurt, or coconut milk
1 TBS raw honey
2 raw egg yolks
2 TBS coconut oil
1 large peach, or 2-3 small peaches (peeled and pitted)
1 cantaloupe wedge, minus the rind (about 1/4 of a cantaloupe)

Vanilla Banana Smoothie
1 banana
1 cup kefir, raw milk, yogurt, or coconut milk
1 TBS raw honey
2 raw egg yolks
2 TBS coconut oil
1 tsp vanilla extract

I sometimes also add a few TBS of raw cream (for me, not for Seth yet), just to make them even more nutritious.

GAPS Diet: Day 14 May 10, 2008

Just got back from the farmer’s market.

Here are the meals I’m going to make this week (not in any particular order, although I know we are doing ribs tonight and brisket tomorrow night):

BBQ Pork Spare Ribs with Beet Greens sauteed in chicken fat, tomato and cucumber salad — and broth
Brisket with Sauerkraut and some vegetables (not sure what yet), and Carrot Ginger Soup
Roast Chicken, salad, broth or soup
Bratwurst with Sauerkraut and a green salad — and broth
Miso Soup, Seaweed Salad and Sashimi
Ribeye Steak, Salad, and maybe I’ll try to make Onion Soup (sans cheese and bread, of course)
Chicken Cacciatore with an arugula and fennel salad and soup

Both the brisket and the chicken will provide leftovers which I will use for lunches. I also got 5 dozen eggs. Jungleen asked me, “Do you really go through that many eggs in one week?” Yes, we really do. Seth usually eats 4 eggs for breakfast, and Kate and I split 4 eggs. That’s 8 eggs per day right there. And we eat eggs every morning so that’s 56 eggs. Plus we use eggs to make the coconut oil mayonnaise (which we eat almost every day for lunch — either chicken salad, tuna salad or egg salad — oops more eggs for the egg salad).

And I often make smoothies with 2 egg yolks for lunch. That’s actually one of my favorite lunches. Two raw egg yolks, some strawberries or blueberries, 2-3 TBS of coconut oil, 1 TBS of Frontier brand nutritional yeast, and either kefir or coconut milk, and sweetened with a TBS or two of raw honey. (I am still doing kefir. That is the only dairy I still eat. I don’t have any problems with dairy like Seth does and Dr. Cowan said if you can tolerate kefir, you can eat it from the beginning.)

I need to check the papers from Dr. Cowan to see when we can start eating beans. I’d love to have some lentil soup. Or make black beans and taco meat.

But I don’t want to start introducing anything new until I’m sure Seth’s gut pain is totally gone and he’s not having any constipation or diarrhea.

I’m also really excited to start making my own ketchup. Seth loves ketchup and eats a lot of it. It will be great to have real lacto-fermented ketchup. Same thing with salsa. I’m going to stake my tomatoes today. We should have tomatoes in another month to 6 weeks.

It’s a perfect day to garden. Nice and cool outside.

I have some potatoes we never gotten around to eating that started sprouting… Cute little purple ones. I think I’m going to throw those into a big container I have (used to have a palm in it but it died). We’ll see if they grow. We can eat potatoes right now but maybe by the time these come up we will be able to.

Oh, PS: I’ve lost somewhere between 6 and 7 pounds now. (Sometimes the scale says 148, sometimes 147.) Yes, it’s true, I may have lost weight because we are eating so low-carb. But I was on a low-carb diet for a few months starting in December and I couldn’t lose past a certain point. I really think the Iodoral is what’s helping. Anyway, we’ll see how next week goes.

I also bought a Lumiscope thermometer — the kind Dr. Rind recommends on his website — from Drugstore.com. It was only $6. He says it’s the most accurate. I’m going to start charting my temperature every few hours like he recommends.

Daily Photo: Loving the Sippy Cup! April 18, 2008

Okay, these photos are not from today — they are from Sunday (Kate’s birthday). But I had to share…

Kate LOVES her new sippy cup! She has so much fun playing with it, banging it on her tray, biting it, waving it around. She drank two whole cups of kefir the other day after lunch.

It’s the Foogo stainless steel sippy cup made by Thermos. BPA-free.

LOL! These photos make me laugh. She’s covered in goose liver pate.

Whoa — speaking of BPAs — I just read that Canada banned all BPA plastic in baby bottles. Even Wal-Mart is pulling them from the shelves. Read the story.

Happy Birthday, Kate! April 13, 2008

Here’s Kate with her “cake”. Shhh — it’s goose liver pate. She LOVED it!

After the cake, Grandpa Ed and Grandma Nancy sang Happy Birthday to her — on the webcam.

That’s her new sippy cup. She’s getting the hang of it. Drinking kefir!

Super Fast Breakfast March 28, 2008

Sometimes I’m so busy, I don’t even have time to fry eggs or make a smoothie.

Here’s an extremely fast, very healthy breakfast you can make when you are on the run:

1 cup raw milk, kefir or a combination
2 egg yolks

Just mix the egg yolks in with a fork. If it is not sweet enough for you, add 1 tsp of honey (preferably raw honey) or maple syrup.

Guatemalan Kefir and Cod Liver Oil March 7, 2008

I had a very interesting conversation this morning with our nanny, Yensi.

She told me that her husband asked why our daughter Kate is so much bigger than their daughter, Julianna. He had watched the videos of the two girls on YouTube.

Julianna is 15 months and Kate is only 10 months. Julianna is only 20 pounds. Kate is at least 24, maybe 25 pounds.

I told Yensi, “I think it’s all the liver and raw milk we feed her.”

She said, “I think you are right. We started giving Julianna the raw milk two weeks ago. We’re also giving her the chicken liver. In two weeks, she has gained two pounds.”

I gave Yensi the Weston A. Price brochure this morning. I printed off the Spanish version from the website. She was stunned when she read about “aceite de hígado de bacalao”. That’s Spanish for cod liver oil. She has been feeding Kate cod liver oil for weeks now. But she never knew what it was. When she saw the words “aceite de hígado de bacalao” she realized what it was. “My mother fed us this!” she said.

She bought a bottle of my cod liver oil — I always buy it in bulk to get a 15% discount. She is going to start giving it to Julianna.

She said her mother also fed them liver and egg yolks and they always drank raw milk. No wonder she has such perfect teeth! She has a very wide palette, perfectly straight white teeth. Never had a single cavity. Never had braces.

Her husband has a narrower palette. He snores, she said. She asked me how he could have a narrower palette when he was eating the same things she was as a child in Guatemala?

I asked her how old he was when he came to the US. She said he was only 4. She was 7 when she came. Makes sense — her jaw and palette were a lot more formed when she came.

It’s sad because now her younger brothers are having a lot of health problems. They all have cavities and crooked teeth. Yensi, too, started having chronic headaches only 5 years after she came to America. Her sister-in-law started having very bad digestion problems.

Meanwhile she and her parents and her grandparents never needed braces, never had a cavity. She said her ancestors all live to over 100 years old. It’s only the ones who have come here to this country who have started to experience health problems.

Coincidence? Or could it be nutritional deficiencies?

She also told me that the kombucha we drink tasted like the chicha they have in their country. We looked it up online and found that chicha is a name for a fermented beverage in South American countries. Then she told me that they make a drink like kefir. They call it bulgaros. It makes sense — the word bulgaros comes from Bulgaria or Bulgarian, and kefir comes Bulgaria. She said her sister-in-law had just gotten some bulgaros grains and they were using the raw milk to make the drink.

We were talking about the importance of soaking grains, nuts, beans and seeds before you eat them. In Sally Fallon’s “Nourishing Traditions” she says that eating grains, nuts, seeds or beans that are unsoaked or unfermented is not good for you. They are too hard to digest so your body can’t break them down, and hence, can’t absorb the nutrients. Furthermore, grains, nuts, seeds and beans have phytates or anti-nutrients. These phytates actually block absorption of the good nutrients!

So if you are going to eat any nuts, grains, beans or seeds, they need to be soaked in warm filtered water with either whey or kefir or yogurt. You can also use lemon juice or vinegar if you are allergic to dairy. They need to be soaked for a minimum of several hours and can be soaked up to several days. If you eat a diet rich in unsoaked/unfermented grains (what the USDA food pyramid currently recommends), all the vitamins and minerals you eat from other foods are being blocked and are not being absorbed.

I asked Yensi if they soak their grains in Guatemala. She said, “We never bought bread. We always made our own. And we always soaked it for two weeks.”

Today we’re going to bottle the kombucha. I’m going to give her some of my SCOBYs.

I will also ask Yensi if she will let me take a picture of her smile. You’ve got to see how gorgeous her teeth are!

Another Science Experiment: Kefir Soda Pop February 16, 2008

The other day, an envelope from Northern California appeared in my mailbox. It was full of dehydrated water kefir grains (sent by Claire, a WAPF member I met on the Yahoo Discussing NT mailing list — thanks, Claire!).

I put the grains in some distilled water and BOOM they tripled in size within an hour or so. Then I drained them and put them in jars with more distilled water, Rapadura (unrefined sugar), and egg shell. I guess the egg shell adds minerals.

It’s starting to ferment. I can tell because it is getting bubbly. Whee! Isn’t that exciting? (By the way, that’s regular milk kefir on the left.)

Once it’s done fermenting, I’ll strain the grains, put them in more sugar water in the fridge to store them, and then I’ll add some flavors to my fermented kefir water will make kefir soda pop.

You can make ginger ale or limeade or lemonade or root beer or cream soda. The recipes are in the book “Eat Fat, Lose Fat” by Sally Fallon and Mary Enig.

I think I’m going to start with cream soda — it’s made with vanilla and lemon. I’ll let you know how it turns out.

Weeknight Dinner February 12, 2008

Holy moley, that was a good dinner.

Carrot Ginger Soup with Raw Cream (I froze the soup I made a few weeks ago; I’ve been feeding it to Kate)
Cress, Fennel and Apple Salad with Redwood Farm California Crottin Goat Cheese, Pine Nuts and Vinaigrette
Homemade Sourdough Spelt Bread with Raw Butter
Kenwood Sauvignon Blanc

This was the second loaf of sourdough spelt bread I baked and MAN I love this stuff. Especially slathered with raw butter. YUM! I’m still perfecting my loaf but I gotta say, even though it’s not perfect, it’s REALLY GOOD! It makes storebought bread taste like ass.

I’m through with Low Carb. At least for a while. (Still gonna do High Fat — LOL!)

I just can’t stand it anymore. I want to eat bread. I want to eat rice. (And — shhh — I want to eat chocolate chip cookies every once in a while.)

So I’m going to exercise more and I will eat in moderation. I plan to do pilates twice a week and walk every day. Also swim and do weights. I’m going to eat things like bread and kefir and raw milk and kombucha. I love these foods and they are so healthy. I need to be healthy and I need to feel good. I will lose the mommy weight in time.

Or I won’t. And I will have another baby. After that baby is weaned, then I can go on a militant diet for six months.

But not now. Because I’m enjoying traditional foods so much and I don’t want to limit myself. I just discovered traditional foods after all. I want to keep learning, keep playing. I want to explore this world.

Note: I reserve the right to change my mind.

Kombucha Status January 23, 2008

Here it is, in all its glory:

This is after 7 or 8 days of fermenting. I can’t remember exactly which day I started it.

They say it’s ready when there is a layer all across the top. Looks like there is one. Our Russian nanny, Alla, is going to taste it for me and tell me what she thinks.

Apparently, she drank kombucha her whole life when she was living in Russia. I kept talking about kombucha, asking her ifs he knew what it was and she said no.

Then one day I showed her the mushroom. She said, “Oh, my god! You’re making mushroom tea!”

In Russia, they don’t call it kombucha; they call it “mushroom tea”. She also drank kefir — and they made all these things at home. Now she is just starting to make kefir and kombucha again here in America.

UPDATE: Alla tasted it and she said it is fine — ready to drink.

I don’t know why the instructions from GEM Cultures said to only make one quart. And I can’t quite decipher their instructions re: what to do next. I’m going to see what it says in Nourishing Traditions.

Hot Dogs and Fil Mjolk January 14, 2008

I’m really really really tired.

REALLY TIRED!

Our wonderful nanny, Alla, has been sick with the flu. I’ve been trying to keep up with the pace of working 20 hours a week at my job, working another 70 hours a week taking care of Kate, and not having Alla.

It’s no good. I’m exhausted.

Anyway, Alla’s going to try to come back on Wednesday. I hope she’s feeling better by then.

We miss her. And not just because I’m tired. She’s such a delight to have around.

I just wanted to report that I tasted some of my ferments tonight.

The fil mjolk and the kefir. Oh my goodness — they were so delicious! In fact, I’m going to have a glass of one of them before bed.

The fil mjolk? The kefir? I can’t decide. They are both really wonderful — and slightly different.

I’ll have one before bed and the other for breakfast.

I also made the most delicious — and TRULY EASY — dinner:

U.S. Wellness Meats hot dog on a piece of sprouted bread (Alvarado St. Bakery) with Dijon mustard and homemade sauerkraut

Mmmm! Seth loved it too. If you’re not eating gluten, you can eat it without the bread.

I don’t know any child who would not love hot dogs for dinner. And these are hot dogs that are actually good for you.

Next time I’ll make chili cheese dogs.

I’m going to bed now!

Fabulous Fermented Foods January 10, 2008

I’m really excited! Yesterday I got my delivery from GEM Cultures.

Here are the cultures I got and what they are used for:

1. Kombucha - This is a symbiotic mixture of yeasts and Bacterium xylinium (a relative of the vinegar bacterium). People all over the world (Germany, Poland, Russia, Bulgaria, Japan, Indonesia, China, and Brazil) have been using this culture for centuries to make kombucha tea, known by many other names including teeschwamm, wunderpilz, hongo, and cajnif.

Kombucha is essentially fermented black tea and white sugar. The yeast and bacteria eat the sugar and breaks down all the bad stuff and turns it into something wonderful. A light, sparkling (naturally carbonated) drink comparable to a light wine or apple cider — with virtually no alcohol and no caffeine. Not only is it delicious (and a great substitute for soda pop or iced tea), it is hailed as one of the healthiest drinks on the planet.

What makes it so healthy? It’s chock full of enzymes, probiotics, a full range of B-vitamins, and glucuronic acid which the body uses to detoxify the cells and the liver. People claim that kombucha has helped them with everything from cancer to carpal tunnel to hangovers. All this for around 50 cents a gallon!

Why spend money on tons of supplements? Just throw out that nasty chemical-laden Diet Coke in your fridge and start brewing kombucha.

2. Rye Sourdough Starter - This is a truly natural bread leaven that has been around for thousands of years (since the Egyptians). Like kombucha, it’s a symbiotic collection of yeasts and friendly bacteria that digest sugars and create acids.

The starter is used to make, you guessed it, real sourdough bread (not the “faux” kind made from commercial yeast). Not only does it taste a lot better, it’s so much healthier for you, particularly if it’s made from whole grains.

Why is naturally leavened whole grain bread better for you? It’s all about absorption of minerals.

In the process of making sourdough bread, during the rising time (called proofing), bran in the flour is broken down, releasing nutrients into the dough. In particular, the phytic acid (phytin) in grain needs to be 90% neutralized in order for the minerals, concentrated in the bran, to be absorbed by the human body. According to the experiments done in Belgium, phytin can be neutralized by natural bacterial action and to a lesser extent, by baking. In naturally leavened bread, the combination eliminates all phytin, while in yeasted bread about 90% remains.

But that’s not all! Real sourdough bread is also more digestible and has more amino acids and active enzymes.

Furthermore, with sourdough bread, complex carbohydrates are broken down into more digestible simple sugars and protein is broken down into amino acids. Enzymes develop during proofing which are not lost in baking since the center of the loaf remains at a lower temperature than the crust.

Source: Facts About Naturally Leavened Sourdough Bread

3. Kefir - Kefir is a tart and tangy cultured milk drink that originated in Eastern Europe. Again, it’s a mixture of bacteria and yeasts.

You can drink kefir straight or strain it and add herbs and garlic to make it into soft cheese. You can substitute plain kefir cheese for ricotta in recipes. It contains probiotics, B vitamins, amino acids.

Similar to yogurt, kefir has many health benefits as it greatly improves digestion. I’ve also used it on my baby’s diaper rash. It’s also one of the best baby foods!

Kefir vs. Yogurt:

While both Kefir and yogurt are cultured milk products, they contain different types of beneficial bacteria. Yogurt contains transient beneficial bacteria that keep your digestive system clean and provide food for the friendly bacteria that already are present. Kefir actually helps to colonize your intestinal tract — a feat that yogurt cannot match.

Additionally, Kefir contains several major strains of friendly bacteria not commonly found in yogurt: Lactobacillus Caucasus, Leuconostoc, Acetobacter species, and Streptococcus species. It also contains beneficial yeasts, such as Saccharomyces Kefir and Torula Kefir, which help balance the intestinal flora, including promotion of beneficial yeast in the body by penetrating the mucosal lining. They form a virtual SWAT team that housecleans and helps strengthen the intestines.

Kefir’s active yeast and bacteria may provide more nutritive value than yogurt by helping digest the foods that you eat and by keeping the colon environment clean and healthy. The curd size of Kefir is smaller than yogurt, so it’s also easier to digest, making it an ideal food for babies**, the elderly, and anyone with digestive health concerns.

Source: Mercola

4. Fil Mjolk - Fil Mjolk is a Swedish cultured milk drink. Unlike kefir, it is not tart but rather clean and mild, similar to buttermilk. In Sweden, they eat it like yogurt every morning. It has all the same health benefits of the above listed foods.

You can also make salad dressing with it, vegetable dips, and other things. If you add this culture to cream, you can make your own creme fraiche, or cultured sour cream. Again, it makes a great baby food.

It should also be noted that all of the above foods and drinks improve digestion and therefore improve immunity.

Fermented foods used to be a mainstay of our diet in every culture around the world. Now they have practically disappeared because everything is pasteurized and modernized.

Long ago, food preservation was accomplished through lacto-fermentation, a process that adds a host of beneficial micro-organisms to food. This makes them easier to digest , increasing the healthy flora in our intestinal tracts.

Because fermentation is an inconsistent process, commercial food processors developed techniques like pasteurization — a method that literally destroys dozens of precious enzymes — to help standardize more consistent yields.

Sadly, I believe that modern culture has sacrificed many of the advantages of traditionally fermented healthy foods for faster and cheaper methods of mass production. In my opinion, our immunity and digestive health have been overlooked. I believe that it’s time to return to the health-promoting foods of our past.

Source: Mercola

Oh, and you know what else is great about fermented foods? They are the gift that keeps giving. These cultures actually reproduce and create more cultures. You can keep using them over and over. Talk about economical! (Another reason the food industry wants no part of them! They can’t make money on something you buy once.)

PS: If you don’t currently have access to raw milk, fermenting pasteurized milk (from a good source, preferably from an organic and grass-fed dairy) is the next best thing.

No Poo: Day Fifteen January 3, 2008

It’s been fifteen days since I washed my hair with regular shampoo. I’ve been washing it every day with Terressentials hair wash, which contains aloe very juice and bentonite clay. I rinse with diluted lemon juice.

My hair has been a tad greasy at the end of the day but other than that it looks and feels great.

One thing that helps with the greasies is to brush my hair with a natural bristle brush (wood or boar bristle). I do it morning and evening now. I’ve never brushed my hair so much in my life.

Now I understand why our grandmothers and great-grandmothers said to brush your hair 100 strokes a day. I always thought that was hokum but there is a reason you do it — it redistributes the oils from your scalp to the rest of your hair. This eliminates the need for conditioner.

Granted this does not work if you are using conventional shampoo. Because conventional shampoo strips the hair of its natural oils. Which causes it to produce a lot of excess oil. Which makes you need to wash your hair more often. Which strips the hair. And so on and so forth.

I had a conversation with Alla, our nanny, today about hair. She is Russian, and she said that when she was in Russia she had gorgeous long hair. They used soap-based shampoo (not detergent-based) and they put kefir on their hair to condition it. You put the kefir in your hair, wrap a towel around it, and leave it on for two hours. Like a milk bath for your hair!

Maybe I will try the kefir next.

The Miracle of Kefir January 3, 2008

Someone on the LiveJournal natural living community posted this fascinating and miraculous story about kefir, the fermented dairy drink:

After my first batch of kefir, I got a period for the first time in a couple of years. I was stunned. I thought it had to be the kefir because that was the only thing that had changed.

Then about a month later, my body started feeling like it was trying very hard to have a period but couldn’t. I had headaches and fever-like symptoms coupled with what I can only describe as a very anxious, tense body for a week and a half. One night I woke up in the middle of the night after having night sweats. The feeling that woke me was that feeling you get when a fever breaks. I had started my period.

The next month, when I felt the fever-like symptoms coming on, I started drinking kefir right away. Sure enough, my period came on without a struggle soon afterward. I starting drinking the kefir every day. It kept getting easier for my body to have a period with each cycle, and now I’m cycling normally.

I later reread the section in the The Body Ecology Diet book about kefir and thought, “I’ll be damned.” It states right there in the book that some women find their periods come back when they start drinking the kefir! Strangely enough, that had gone by me the first time I read the book. (Well, there’s a lot of information in there.)

…it’s one of the reasons I’m so devoted to the principles of this diet (that and seeing my autoimmune problems back off, which was my main goal, and my hormones start to balance). Prior to getting my period back, I’d been doing the basic diet for a few months, without the probiotic foods. Prior to that was the processed foods nightmare, which went through college, when I didn’t know any better.

I was on a lot of antibiotics when I was a kid (for ear infections) and some when I was in college. I also took birth control pills for several years to regulate my periods, not knowing that would make things worse.

I’m 29 now. I had an awful bout of hives in high school that “experts” couldn’t diagnose. The hives went away on their own after a hellish year. When I was 24-25, they came back in force with my thyroid crash, when my autoimmune thyroid problem came on me strong — so bad my hair was thinning and eyes were sensitive to light. I had chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, you name it.

Long story short, I connected the hives to poor digestion and cured them with digestive enzymes. Since the hives and autoimmune thyroid had come at the same time, I began to think digestion was the root of all of it. I went to see a colon hydrotherapist who teaches Body Ecology at her clinic. I never looked back. This knowledgeable woman confirmed my suspicions, and I just knew Body Ecology would help me heal.

Amazing, eh?

It’s sad that medical doctors are constantly putting women on the birth control pill to regulate their cycles. The birth control pill is one of the things that messes up your intestinal flora!

It never made sense to me. Why should you have to take a pill to regulate something that should be a natural human function?!

Here’s an article on why you should avoid the birth control pill:

Just Say No to Birth Control Pills

Oh and by the way, the kefir available at the health food store is NOT the same as the stuff you make yourself.

If you want to make your own kefir, here is a site with good information:

How to Make Kefir

I bought my kefir grains here:

GEM Cultures

What to do when you’re sick December 5, 2007

I woke up with a sore throat this morning. A friend with a cold came over yesterday. She figured she was past being contagious but I guess not.

It could have been her, it could have been someone else I caught it from. Doesn’t matter. This is a sign though that I need to get healthier.

The thing is, I’m very susceptible to getting sick right now. My immune system is compromised — obviously more than I realized. Ever since my OB-GYN put me on the birth control pill. Which I promptly stopped taking a couple of months later when I read that the birth control pill causes candida.

You see, I had really bad candida when I was in my mid-twenties. It was from all the antibiotics I got as a child. I had recurring strep throat, and every time I got it, they gave me more antibiotics.

Candida is an overgrowth of yeast in the digestive tract and it is caused by a lack of good bacteria. The good bacteria normally fight of the yeast and other “bad” bacteria. If you don’t have enough good bacteria in your gut, the yeast grows out of control. Antibiotics kill all the bacteria in your gut — which causes candida.

I guess the birth control pill does the same thing. I stopped taking it back in September. I think I only took it for about three months. That’s long enough to cause an overgrowth of yeast. I have sores in my nose that won’t heal — same thing I had when I had candida in my twenties.

Obviously with a shortage of good bacteria, you are more susceptible to getting sick. You don’t have the good guys to help you fight off the bugs.

The ironic thing is, when people get sick, they go to the doctor and the first thing they do is give you an antibiotic!

We live in a backwards upside-down society.

And most of us are living these days with a chronic shortage of good bacteria. Jenny McCarthy (as well as Donna Gates of the Body Ecology Diet, Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride, and many others) believe that this is what causes autism. I think there are tons of diseases and disorders that can be traced to a lack of probiotics in the digestive tract.

What to do? How do you fight a cold or a flu?

Do what your grandma would have done. Chicken soup.

And I’m not talking about Campbell’s from a can. That stuff is useless. Plus it’s full of MSG.

You need real homemade bone broth. Bones from animals (poultry, beef, bison or fish) that are simmered in water for 8-24 hours. With a little sea salt and parsley for minerals.

I could try to list all the benefits of broth here but it would take too long. Just read this: http://www.westonaprice.org/foodfeatures/brothisbeautiful.html

In addition to bone broth, animal organs are one of the best things you can eat. When I had candida in my twenties, I was working with a chiropractor-nutritionist. She had me on a supplement called Congaplex, which is made from bovine (cow) thymus gland, as well as crushed up bone. The thymus gland is one of the main parts of the immune system in the body.

Anyway, even though my immune system was compromised, I still recovered from the flu in a matter of a few days. Everyone else in my office who caught it was out for WEEKS.

However, I looked up the ingredients in Congaplex and it has yucky stuff like soy lecithin (sludge waste product from industrial soybeans). Here is a better product: http://www.drrons.com/organ-delight.htm I think I will order some to help me improve my immune function. I need to get Seth on this, too.

I don’t happen to have any bovine thymus gland on hand, but I do have frozen liver. Liver is chock-full of B vitamins, which help to build and repair immune cells in the body.

The best way to eat liver is raw. You can freeze it for 14 days (this destroys any pathogens) then simply grate it into some milk or broth or put it into fresh vegetable juice.

More information on liver: http://www.westonaprice.org/foodfeatures/liver.html

Cod liver oil is another excellent way to take liver. I could go on and on about cod liver oil. It is the one supplement everyone should take. Even Dr. Oz on Oprah said so!

Remember, our grandmothers were always telling us to eat our liver and take cod liver oil.

Another thing that helps is coconut oil. It is antiviral, antibacterial and antifungal and helps to support the immune system. You can put it in a smoothie and also use it as a lotion. The pores in your skin absorb the nutrients. (http://www.mnwelldir.org/docs/nutrition/coconut.htm)

I am going to start taking a high dose of a quality probiotics supplement to battle my candida. I ordered some ThreeLac which is what Jenny McCarthy used to help her son. Regular probiotics supplements you get in the store are not effective on candida because they are only a “maintenance” dose. With candida, you have to bring in the big guns.

However, I think I’m also going to order some Bio-Kult. This is the probiotic developed by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride. She reversed her son’s autism as well. Here is their story: http://www.bio-kult.com/nicholas.html

Unfortunately I don’t have any of these yet! My ThreeLac has not come in the mail.

So today I will drink a quart of colostrum kefir (from Organic Pastures — chock full of probiotics). Colostrum is the cow’s first milk which is loaded with antibodies. Kefir is fermented milk.

I am drinking a big glass right now. I added a heaping tablespoon of some over-the-counter probiotics I got at the health food store, as well as some coconut oil. I also just took my cod liver oil.

I am also going to drink at least a quart of chicken stock and take my liver supplements. I have some frozen liver I can also grate into a glass of freshly juiced fruits and vegetables. I have some kale here, as well as tomatoes, broccoli, beets, carrots and strawberries. All high in antioxidants. I know, sounds like a nasty drink but I bet it will taste better than a V-8.

The highest ranking fruits and vegetables are prunes, raisins, berries, oranges, pink grapefruit, grapes, kiwi, spinach, kale, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, beets, red peppers, carrots and tomatoes.

(http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art29448.asp)

If I feel well enough, I may have to make a trip over to Rawesome today to get some more high-antioxidant fruits, veggies and more colostrum and kefir. I need to stock up on eggs anyway. (They are only open today and Saturday.)

Oooh! I also have my beet kvass. I should try to drink a quart of that as well. Beet kvass is a lacto-fermented beverage that is super high in antioxidants as well as probiotics. All you do is cut up 6 medium sized beets, put them in a gallon of pure filtered water with a little sea salt and some homemade whey. Then you let it sit on the counter for a few days before you move it into the fridge.

Apparently foods that are lacto-fermented have a LOT more vitamins. The fermentation helps increase the vitamins. Here is an article on kvass: http://www.westonaprice.org/foodfeatures/kvass.html

I will also drink lots of hot tea with lemon, and do a steam bath. As recommended by Alla, our nanny, who just arrived. The steam bath helps you detoxify.

And rest of course.

I’m actually glad this happened. When you get a cold, it’s just a sign that your body is fighting. And this tells me my immune system is compromised. Now I will take the steps I need to take to strengthen it.

I will let you know how I recover.