Look, Mom — No Cavities! April 8, 2008

I went to the dentist today. And guess what? No cavities!

This is the first time I’ve had no cavities in years. And you would think that I would be more prone to dental decay — considering the stress I’ve had on my body over the past year (childbirth, breast feeding).

Here’s the interesting thing… For the past six months, I have not used toothpaste. No fluoride.

My whole life I was told that you’re supposed to brush with fluoride toothpaste to prevent cavities. Yet I only used Tooth Soap and baking soda for brushing. Of course, I ate a very nutrient dense diet — cod liver oil, pastured eggs, raw milk, butter, cream, and cheese, and organ meats. I avoided sugar and any grains/nuts/seeds/legumes that were not soaked and/or sprouted.

But isn’t fluoride supposed to prevent cavities?

When I asked my dentist, Dr. Raymond Silkman, what he thought of fluoride, he responded with one word, “Bad.”

He’s probably the only dentist in Los Angeles who gives prescriptions like this: “Drink beet kvass and freshly juiced green vegetables and carrots — daily”. And he told me to get tested for heavy metals. He thinks I may have heavy metal toxicity. (Beet kvass and freshly juiced vegetables chelate heavy metals.)

But back to the fluoride… This Crest ad says that “Crest stops soft spots from turning into cavities.” Lies! Crest doesn’t do any such thing.

Here’s another lie:

Coke’s slogan proclaims it is the opposite of what it really is — a fake. For centuries, people have been producing naturally fermented soft drinks like kombucha, naturally fermented root beer, and ginger ale. These naturally fermented soft drinks are very high in B vitamins and probiotics — they are health tonics. Conversely, Coca Cola is artificially carbonated sugar water. Not only is it devoid of nutrition, but the sugar in it actually blocks the absorption of vitamins and minerals in the body.

Of course, nowadays Coke doesn’t even have sugar — it’s made with high fructose corn syrup. Which is genetically modified corn soaked in battery acid. YUM!

Here’s an ad for sugar from the ’60s:

I love how transparent it is. Looking at it today, it’s so obvious. You can see the lies.

This is how you have to look at ads. Ads are made to convince you to buy. That is their sole purpose. They don’t care about you. And they don’t care about truth. They are often saying the very opposite of what is true.

Ads also prey on your fears and insecurities.

Here’s a Heinz baby food ad:

The message is based on the idea that real food is not safe, and only food in jars is safe for babies. See what I mean? It’s the opposite of the truth.

Of course, not all ads are bad… here’s a neutral one for iodized salt (iodized salt is not good for you — sea salt is best — but the iodine is something we need):

In the 1920s, with the depletion of the soil in America, people in the midwest started getting goiters due to iodine depletion. This prompted a campaign for iodized salt. Many Americans today are cutting down on salt — but there is a bigger problem today. Soy.

Soy is a goitrogen, which blocks the absorption of minerals, including iodine. Most Americans are deficient in iodine today — due to widespread consumption of soy foods.

Think you’re not eating soy? If you eat in restaurants, you are eating soy. If you eat processed or packaged foods, you are eating soy. Restaurants cook with soybean oil or vegetable oil — which is almost always cut with soybean oil. Most processed and packaged foods contain soybean oil and/or soy lecithin. All baby formulas (not just the soy formulas) contain soybean oil.

Here’s one I like — a French advertisement for cod liver oil:

This next one is not a real ad — it’s a spoof — but it’s great:

Too bad lard is so maligned today. It is such a healthy fat!

Lastly, here is my favorite — calling for a boycott of Kraft genetically modified foods:

Boycott Kraft Foods! Krafted: Genetically Krafted Foods

I’m Hypothyroid! March 14, 2008

It appears that I have an iodine deficiency and hence hypothyroid, which means I have a low-functioning thyroid gland.

This morning I woke up and the patch on the inside of my arm had faded about 80-90%. It’s almost completely gone now!

From all the reading I’ve been doing, this is very common after pregnancy. There are many other causes including chloride and fluoride in the water, depleted iodine in the soil, and excess consumption of soy. Think you are not eating soy? If you are eating out in restaurants (any restaurants — not just fast food) or eating processed foods, you are taking in a lot of soy. This is due to all the soy oil they add to everything and cook everything with. This also explains the diabetes and obesity epidemics in this country.

I also think the mercury crown I had put in last year is also part of the cause. I’ll be having all the metal in my mouth removed in the next few months by our WAPF dentist, Dr. Raymond Silkman.

Here is what Dr. Cowan recommends for people with hypothyroidism — iodine, Standard Process Cataplex F, and Standard Process Thyrotropin:

I use organic iodine (1 tablet, two times per day) to supply extra iodine to the thyroid gland. Along with this I use Cataplex F tablets (1-2, three times per day). Cataplex F contains extracts of the 2 essential fatty acids (linolenic and linoleic acids) plus arachidonic acid and other polyunsaturated fatty acids that are often low in people with hypothyroidism. The effect of these fats is to help transport the blood calcium (and probably other blood minerals) into the tissues, where it can be used to fuel metabolic and enzymatic processes. The source of these fats are flax seed oil, beef liver lipids and testicular extract. The third medicine I use is Standard Process Thyrotrophin, the thyroid protomorphogen. I recommend 1-2 tablets, three times per day. Protomorphogens are specially prepared extracts of the nuclear material of the source gland, in this case bovine thyroid gland. Protomorphogens bind with and neutralize antibodies that can destroy our tissues and organs. In the case of hypothyroidism, often Hashimoto’s thyroiditis is involved, which is an autoimmune disorder of the thyroid gland. Neutralizing these attacking antibodies gives the gland a chance to rebuild itself by sheltering it from the attacking antibodies.

With this treatment, most patients report increased energy and, within a few months, the loss of about ten pounds. In six months your TSH should be back under 5. The treatment should be continued for two years or more.

This treatment is less effective when the TSH reading is over 8.0, in which case thyroid hormone may be required. Most doctors use the synthetic hormone Synthroid, but natural thyroid hormone is available. Such treatment must be carried out under the supervision of a licensed health care professional.

Ask the Doctor About Hypothyroidism

I’m going to call Dr. Cowan and set up a phone consultation. And today I’m going over to the Apothecary to get the supplements he recommends. They also have a couple of good books on thyroid function and thyroid disease.

I’m very relieved actually. Now I know why I’m so exhausted all the time, so moody, and why my baby weight won’t come off. And this explains my recent anxiety attacks. I have never had those before in my life!

It’s very important for me to improve my thyroid before I get ready to conceive again in the next year. I want to replenish all the vitamins and minerals my body needs to function properly so the next baby gets everything he needs.

It’s interesting because from what have been reading, most blood tests the doctors give you will not show a problem with the thyroid. My friend Sarah has many of the symptoms of hypothyroidism, but she always gets “normal” thyroid results. From what I’m learning, those tests don’t really work.

And apparently synthetic thyroid drugs are not effective either. They work for a while, but then they don’t work.

This site explains why: Stop the Thyroid Madness

Twenty Ideas for Healthy New Year’s Resolutions December 30, 2007

Christmas is over.

We are still on vacation, though, visiting family. It’s cold in Seattle, but it’s wonderful to be with our family.

I’m thinking about goals for the new year.

1. My first goal is to lose the extra 30 pounds of baby weight by her one-year birthday, April 13th.

2. I also want to get all my finances and paperwork in order (nothing short of monumental).

3. And get out of debt. This one is totally do-able. (I mean for all my credit card debt. The student loans don’t count.) And once I’m out of debt, I get to start investing in real estate, which I am really excited about.

4. Spring cleaning — I want to sell all of the accumulated junk in the garage on eBay and the like.

Those are the main things. I have lots of other smaller goals. Like expanding my vegetable and herb garden and composting and making more of my household cleaners…

Here is my question to you… Do you have any New Year’s resolutions that are related to your health and the environment? No?

Maybe you could add one or two. Here are some simple things you can do that would make healthy and/or green resolutions for 2008…

1. Stop eating high fructose syrup. It’s industrial corn soaked in battery acid. Read the labels and stop eating this.

2. Use cloth shopping bags. You can get them for a coupla bucks at Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s. I take them with me everywhere in my car these days — and I even use them at Target.

3. Stop eating soy or vegetable oil. It causes heart disease and cancer. Cook with butter, lard, coconut oil, palm oil, and/or olive oil (make sure it’s real olive oil — not the faux olive oil you buy at Costco or Trader Joe’s).

4. Start taking probiotics. Take a supplement. Drink raw milk. Make your own kombucha or kefir or kvass or sauerkraut.

5. Use cloth diapers. It’s really not so hard. I made the switch; so can you. If you don’t know how to do it, email me and I’ll post all the tricks.

6. Limit bread and refined flour. If you want bread, eat any of the following kinds:

whole grain (like Mestemacher German rye breads: http://www.germandeli.com/mebr.html)
sprouted (like Ezekiel or Alvarado St. Bakery)
REAL sourdough bread
best of all, freshly milled, soaked and sprouted homemade whole grain bread.

7. Eat grass-fed beef and dairy products. Grain-fed cows are sickly and pumped full of antibiotics. Grass-fed cows live 3-4 times longer and live happy, full lives.

8. Eat raw dairy products — NOT pasteurized! Pasteurization exists mostly to mask bad milk from unhealthy cows. Buy raw dairy products from trusted dairy farms. They are healthier and much more nutritious, since they have all the enzymes and probiotics intact.

9. Make your own cleaning products. All you need is Borax, baking soda, white vinegar, some Dr. Bronner’s, some essential oils, and some citric acid. If you don’t want to make your own, buy the healthy kind at Whole Foods.

10. Try to buy local. Is it really necessary to buy that foodstuff that comes from New Jersey when you live in San Diego? Think about all the miles traveled, all the wasted gas and energy. Buy local for the environment.

11. Join a CSA. It’s great to buy organic produce but when you join a CSA, you are actually making a pledge to the farm. Letting them know that they can count on you to support them for the next season. I believe everyone in America should be supporting a local farm through a CSA subscription. To find a CSA near you, go to http://www.localharvest.org.

12. Start taking cod liver oil. Dr. Oz called it the supplement that everyone should take. I agree. Not only does it prevent osteoporosis but it also prevents — and even reverses — cavities. I started my baby on cod liver oil when she was 5 months old. (Not all cod liver oil is the same. We buy ours here: http://www.radiantlifecatalog.com/)

13. Avoid genetically modified foods. Yes, this means most packaged and processed foods. You should give them up anyway because most of them contain soy oil and high fructose corn syrup and other toxic crap you don’t want in your body.

14. Buy non-Monsanto seeds. See my blogroll to the right for sources of seeds that are not tampered with by Monsanto.

15. Eat more organ meats. Don’t like liver and onions? Have some foie gras. Or take cod liver oil and desiccated liver tablets. But make sure you get your organs.

16. Stop eating soy. It’s an endocrine distrupter and seriously messes up your thyroid. It can make you infertile. Stop now.

17. Make bone broths. Beef broth, chicken broth, fish broth. Simmer in a big stockpot and freeze for later use. This is one of the healthiest things you can do.

18. Reuse and recycle. Don’t throw away plastic yogurt containers. Or glass mayonnaise jars. Or paper bags. Reuse them for something else. And recycle everything you can.

19. Stop brushing with toothpaste. The fluoride and glycerin are giving you cavities. Use Tooth Soap or Dr. Bronner’s — or sea salt.

20. Filter your water using a reverse-osmosis water filtering system.

Enough for now. That should give you some ideas. (The ones on this list that I have not done yet I am committed to doing in the new year.)

Sally Fallon on Fats and Why They are Essential December 21, 2007

Fascinating interview with Sally Fallon, President of the Weston A. Price Foundation on essential fatty acids and why saturated fats are critical to good health.

Also how good saturated fats like butter, lard, duck and goose fat, and coconut and palm oil were driven out of the marketplace by corporations profiting off of soybean oil:

http://www.metrofarm.com/assets/podcasts/2007-12-01_567dfat.mp3

The Future of Food December 14, 2007

I just read my friend the latest post on my friend Louisa’s blog:

http://constantstateofflux.wordpress.com/2007/12/14/the-future-of-food-life-stuff-and-eveything-else/

After I read that, “coincidentally” (not), someone else on a newsgroup posted a link to this video about the history of genetically modified food:

This is just an intro; I want to buy the whole video.

The scary thing is that pretty much everything you buy in the grocery store is now manufactured by companies like Monsanto. Everything is sprayed with pesticides and most things are now genetically modified. Anything with soy oil or vegetable oil (which is mostly soy oil). Anything with industrial corn or soybeans. It’s hard to know what’s what because the way they label it, you can’t tell.

For example, did you know that when you buy a food product at the store and it lists “spices” as an ingredient, that can contain anything? It usually (almost always) contains MSG.

It’s disgusting that Monsanto is going out and suing small farmers for saving and reusing seeds. It’s disgusting that there are only FOUR varieties of potatoes grown today. It’s disgusting the way huge corporations have driven small farms out of business.

I’m not buying seeds from catalogs anymore. Why? Because it’s all seeds from Monsanto!

“Virtually every large mail-order garden company in the United States uses a seed broker to supply them with stock.”

“The American nursery trade is a 39.6 billion dollar a year industry. With the purchase of Seminis in January of 2005, Monsanto is now estimated to control between 85 and 90 percent of the U.S. nursery market. This includes the pesticide, herbicide and fertilizer markets. By merging with or buying up the competition, dominating genetic technology, and lobbying the government to make saving seeds illegal, this monolith has positioned itself as the largest player in the gardening game.”

“Monsanto holds over eleven thousand U.S. seed patents. When Americans buy garden seed and supplies, most of the time they are buying from Monsanto, regardless of who the retailer is.”

http://thedeliberateagrarian.blogspot.com/2006/02/garden-seed-monopoly.html

I’m going to step up what I’m doing to change the future of our food. I’m going to join a seed saver organization and start growing all my vegetables and herbs from seed.

http://www.seedsavers.org/membership.asp

Here’s another place to buy seeds:
http://www.rareseeds.com/

Of course everything I grow is organic. But I want truly organic non-Monsanto seeds in my garden. I’m going to rip out everything that’s in there — it all came from Home Depot. Which means it’s all from Monsanto. UGH! It makes me sick that even people who are growing their own food are still unknowingly buying seeds genetically modified by this evil corporation.

I don’t have a lot of land but I have some and we live in sunny southern California — I can grow food all year long.

This is my first New Year’s resolution! I’m excited to start planning my garden. It’s a small step to take, but if more of us do it, it will impact the planet.

Does eating red meat cause cancer? December 12, 2007

A new study from the National Cancer Institute is proclaiming that eating red meat causes cancer.

This kind of study really bugs me. The science behind it is so profoundly flawed.

They followed a population and studied their eating habits and then concluded that the people with the highest cancer rates were the people eating the most meat.

They didn’t account for all the other possible factors. Like where the meat came from and how it is cooked.

What is most meat cooked in? What are McDonalds hamburgers cooked in?

VEGETABLE AND SOYBEAN OIL!

http://www.mcdonalds.com/app_controller.nutrition.categories.ingredients.index.html

And read this, from a web page promoting soy to ward off cancer (http://www.cancercenter.com/after-care-services/soy.cfm):

Soy Oil is the natural oil extracted from the soybean. It is the most frequently consumed oil in the United States and accounts for nearly 75 percent of our total vegetable oil intake, mostly through processed food products like mayonnaise, coffee creamers, margarines, sandwich spreads and salad dressings. Oil sold in the grocery store under the generic name “vegetable oil” is usually 100 percent soy oil.

Soy oil is in everything! From ketchup to baby formula. Most restaurants use vegetable (soy) oil for all their frying and grilling.

So how can these scientists deduce that meat was the culprit?

These scientists assumed that it was barbecuing and frying meat that causes the problem:

Grilling meat over a direct flame results in fat or meat juices dripping onto the hot fire. That creates flames that contain the harmful compounds, which can then adhere to the surface of the food. That process can happen with chicken and turkey as well as red meat.

“That’s why we recommend if you’re barbecuing, take particularly chicken, for example, you may want to microwave it halfway cooked, and then put it on barbecue,” Curran said. “You don’t want to cook it the whole duration, because that really increases the risk of these compounds forming, which are known carcinogens.”

(http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17122667)

MICROWAVE? Ugh! Has anyone studied the health risks associated with using a microwave too cook your food?

Yes, in fact, someone has. A lot of people have. Including Dr. Bernard Blanc, a Swiss scientist actually tested people’s blood after they consumed food cooked in a microwave:

Lymphocytes (white blood cells) showed a more distinct short-term decrease following the intake of microwaved food than after the intake of all the other variants.

(http://www.cancersalves.com/articles/Microwave.html)

Oh my goodness! White blood cells. I’m no cancer expert, but don’t those factor in quite a bit when it comes to cancer?

And look at this: http://www.proliberty.com/observer/20041013.htm

This guy says that if you plant a seed in two different pots, and water one with regular tap water and the other with water that has been microwaved, the one with the microwaved water will not sprout. Isn’t that interesting? I want to try it.

Isn’t it also alarming? If microwaved water makes it so a seed will not sprout, what does it do to our bodies?

Let’s think about this for a second… people have been eating red meat for how long? Um, since the caveman days. How long have we had microwaves and soybean oil and processed foods? Just the past 50 years or so. And when did cancer start ravaging the population? Um, the past 50 years or so.

Gosh, it must be the meat eating. WHAT? How can you draw a conclusion like that? It’s absurd.

Plus they admitted that the heavy meat eaters in the study were more likely to smoke cigarettes and were less likely to eat fruits and vegetables.

If the people they studied were all non-smokers and were eating raw meat and no processed foods, then there might be a case. A good study might be to compare those folks to vegetarians who also ate no processed foods and did not use the microwave. But you’d have to severely restrict and monitor what they ate.

But you can’t just look at a population, pick one thing out of all the bad stuff they consume, and say that that is what is causing disease.

Here’s the study if you are interested: http://medicine.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1371/journal.pmed.0040325

How saturated fat got its bad name November 29, 2007

Everything good for you is bad for you. Everything bad for you is good for you.

Butter is good.
Butter is BAD!
Margarine is good!
Margarine is BAD!
Butter is good again!

Milk is good.
Milk is BAD!
Soy milk is good!
Soy milk is BAD!
Milk is good again! (raw milk, that is)

Why is this happening? Why do the medical/nutrition/food industries keep changing their minds about what we should be eating?

Could it be… money? Prestige? Corruption?

Sigh. Same old story. That story is called Money Makes the World Go 'Round.

Ask yourself this question: What's cheaper to produce than butter?

How about “vegetable oil” and “margarine” (made from cheap industrial corn and soy)?

Cheaper and “healthier” (???).

Healthier only because certain scientists did research that showed that it was healthier. If you watch the video below, you'll see that the research was flawed.

The good news is — you can eat butter again. (Make it raw butter if you can. It's better for you.)

And if you're still scared to eat butter, remember — Julia Child was a big advocate of saturated fat… butter, heavy cream, foie gras. She ate that kind of stuff all the time.

In fact, my favorite quote from Julia Child was from an episode of one of her TV shows. She said (paraphrase), “If you're worried that there's too much butter in this recipe, you don't have to use this much butter — you can substitute with cream.”

And how did she die? Heart disease? Diabetes? Stroke?

None of the above.

She died in her sleep, aged 91.

This is an clip from a new movie coming out, a documentary called Fat Head that is a response to Morgan Spurlock's “Super Size Me”. I'm looking forward to seeing it!

I'll leave you with this… did you know that breast milk is over 50% fat, much of it cholesterol? It has the highest percentage of cholesterol of any food (according to Dr. Mary Enig http://www.westonaprice.org/knowyourfats/skinny.html).

If breast milk is so good for you, and it's chock full of cholesterol and saturated fat, how can those things be bad?

Post-Thanksgiving exhaustion, vaccines, and soy oil November 23, 2007

Kate is down for the night. I'm soaking raw pumpkin seeds (from the pumpkins I used for pumpkin pie) and simmering the turkey carcass to make stock.

I'm so exhausted. The past week has been a whirlwind of shopping, menu planning, roasting, basting, measuring, mixing, baking and cleaning. I feel like I need a vacation now.

Which of course I'm not getting. I went to bed after 11:30 pm last night (trying to wind down after such a long day) and got up at 6:30 to tend to Kate. And I tended to her all day — picking her up and kissing her when she bonked her head on the metal coffee table, feeding her ground turkey with chicken liver pate and butternut squash with butter, doing dishes, doing laundry, heating up bottles and changing poopy diapers. She went down at 5 pm, as usual. A 10 and a half hour day — not so bad. Mothers don't get a day off.

My single friends spent the day at the movies. Last night at dinner, they talked about all the movies they'd seen lately. I couldn't really add anything to the conversation. And for much of it, I had no idea what they were talking about. Being a new parent, I haven't seen a movie in the theater since I tried to go see “Oceans 13″ when Kate was a couple of months old and she pooped halfway up her backside and we had to leave the theater.

Ah, memories…

Anyway, I'm not complaining. I have seen enough movies for a lifetime. Okay, not for a lifetime, but I can skip seeing movies for a while is all I'm saying. And Seth gets those “FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION” movies so I guess I could be watching movies if I really wanted to. We just got “Into the Wild” in the mail for example.

But instead I am relaxing with a glass of wine, reading about vaccines. The more I read, the more I am convinced that waiting on vaccines — or refusing them altogether — is the right thing to do.

Read this:

Because of the dramatic increase in the number of injuries from childhood vaccines over the past decades, Congress enacted the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986, setting up a fund to compensate parents for injured or dead children (as if a parent could ever be “compensated” for the loss of their child due to vaccination). Application to this fund is the first step parents must take when their child has been harmed; thus, the fund serves to shield the pharmaceutical company from all initial liability. To date, the fund has paid out over $1.2 billion to parents with over 12,000 reports made every year. This is a staggering number considering how many reactions occur that medical authorities refuse to attribute to the vaccine. And if David Kessler is correct and 90-99 percent of all injuries are not even reported, the true number of children injured or killed by vaccines would be 1.2 million or more per year.

http://www.westonaprice.org/children/vaccinations.html

Doesn't that scare you? It scares me. And that's just a taste of what I'm reading. I'm not just reading the crackpot left-wing fringe websites either. I told that pediatrician I would research it and I am. I'm reading everything.

Read this, from the CBS News site (not exactly a crackpot left-wing fringe website):

http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2007/06/15/couricandco/entry2934107.shtml

Come on, people. One in 160 kids with autism. That is CRAZY. If vaccines are not to blame, something else is. Something is not right.

Here's another heinous thing I read — about the Hepatitis B shot, which is now administered at birth:

A flagrant example of the poor science behind vaccination development, the FDA approved the vaccine for use after only 1636 doses of Recombivax HB were administered to only 653 children who were subsequently monitored for only 5 days after each dose.6 Since the vaccine is recommended for the first day of life, Merck was asked for safety data on newborns. They replied, “We have none. Our studies were done on 5- and 10-year-olds.”7 Further, Merck admitted in 1996 that no data is “available for the simultaneous administration of Recombivax HB with other vaccines” even though children are routinely given other vaccines along with Recombivax HB vaccine.

http://www.westonaprice.org/children/vaccinations.html

Good Lord! They test cough medicine more than that.

Oh, wait. Maybe not: http://www.newstarget.com/022209.html

Do I really want my child to be a guinea pig for the likes of Merck? And Hepatitis B is only transmitted through sex and dirty needles. Hmm — yeah, I guess Kate was high risk, seeing how there's so much casual sex and intravenous drug usage in the maternity ward. Oh, yes, a mother can infect her baby during birth — but couldn't they just administer a simple blood test to the mothers instead of giving our newborns a shot?

Oh, right, a blood test COSTS them money. The Hep B shot MAKES them money.

Anyway, I'll keep reading. I'll keep researching. As I said, when and if I find enough evidence to convince me that vaccines are safe and beneficial, we'll get them for Kate.

I have also been thinking a lot about baby food. Since lately Kate is eating 2 (soon to be 3) squares a day.

The recommendation from pediatricians is to start babies on rice cereal.

Have you read the label on a box of Gerber rice cereal lately? I had bought some for Kate — it was sitting in the cupboard. Needless to say, after reading the ingredients, I promptly dumped it in the trash.

Rice Flour , Soy Oil-Lecithin , Tri- and Dicalcium Phosphate , Tocopherols Vitamin E , Electrolytic Iron , Zinc Sulfate , Niacinamide a B Vitamin , Riboflavin Vitamin B-2 , Pyridoxine Hydrochloride Vitamin B-6 , Thiamin Vitamin B-1 , Folic Acid a B Vitamin , Vitamin B-12 Cyanocobalamin

Number 2 ingredient: Soy oil-lecithin.

Do you know what that is?

First of all, it's a genetically modified food. (http://www.safe-food.org/-consumer/shop.html)

Do you know what that means? No? Neither do I exactly. So WHY are we feeding it to our babies? Genetically modified foods are… well, just google it and look:

http://www.seedsofdeception.com/Public/AboutGeneticallyModifiedFoods/index.cfm
http://www.organicconsumers.org/gelink.cfm
http://www.netlink.de/gen/fagan.html

Need I go on? No, I need not. Suffice it to say that CLEARLY it would be better to give a 7-month old baby REAL food instead of “Franken-food” that has zillions of websites chronicling its dangers.

OK so we've established that GM foods are sketchy and possibly dangerous and at the very least, should be avoided due to the fact that (a) most people don't know what they are and (b) most people don't know what they do to you.

Let's get back to the issue at hand. Soy oil-lecithin.

Soybean lecithin comes from sludge left after crude soy oil goes through a “degumming” process. It is a waste product containing solvents and pesticides and has a consistency ranging from a gummy fluid to a plastic solid.

Historian William Shurtleff reports that the expansion of the soybean crushing and soy oil refining industries in Europe after 1908 led to a problem disposing the increasing amounts of fermenting, foul-smelling sludge. German companies then decided to vacuum dry the sludge, patent the process and sell it as “soybean lecithin.” Scientists hired to find some use for the substance cooked up more than a thousand new uses by 1939.8

Today lecithin is ubiquitous in the processed food supply. It is most commonly used as an emulsifier to keep water and fats from separating in foods such as margarine, peanut butter, chocolate candies, ice cream, coffee creamers and infant formulas.

http://www.westonaprice.org/soy/lecithin.html

But the fact that soy oil-lecithin is a highly refined genetically modified waste food product is not the only concern at hand…

There are a number of potential problems with eating soy:

http://www.soyonlineservice.co.nz/03summary.htm

Endocrine disrupter. Reduction of vitamin assimilation. Potentially leads to thyroid cancer. MSG. Aluminum.

Aaaagggghhhhh. Great. Let's mess with Kate's endocrine system, reduce her vitamin absorption, and make her susceptible to obesity, diabetes, infertility and cancer.

WHY is this the number 2 ingredient in Gerber rice cereal? Why is soy oil-lecithin an ingredient in rice cereal at all? Why is THIS promoted as baby's first food?

Why don't they just make rice cereal out of rice? Maybe add a little butter.

Oh, right, then it wouldn't have the shelf life it does (nearly indefinite).

Why is soy oil the third ingredient listed in Enfamil infant formula? (http://www.epinions.com/content_237968723588)

The fifth ingredient in Similac? (http://www.walgreens.com/store/product.jsp?CATID=100367&navAction=jump&navCount=0&id=prod3061)

The third ingredient in Nestle Good Start? (http://www.amazon.com/Nestle-Essentials-Infant-Formula-Powder/dp/B000GCL5HO)

Doesn't that make you go HMMM?

It's in everything — including baby food — because it is a cheap industrial-grade product. Soy is cheap to grow and produce.

Makes you wonder if this has anything to do with children's declining immunity, allergies to peanuts, increased diabetes, early-onset puberty, etc.

A better use for soy oil?

Biodiesel!

http://www.dangerouslaboratories.org/biodiesel.html

It can make cars run — just like gasoline. Is that what we should be putting in our babies' bodies?

I leave you with this (a good article on soy):
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/08/13/CMGJKK1BP31.DTL

Note the last quotation from Marion Nestle: “People don't have to eat soy if they don't want to!” Nestle says. Uh, okay, I guess not — but what if it's in everything we buy?

Pastured turkey and chickens November 18, 2007

I'm so excited! I was able to get a real, 100% organic, pastured turkey that was not fed soy. Woo hoo!

I had put a turkey on order at Whole Foods — but I wasn't really happy about the decision. While it was organic, it was probably fed soy as almost all turkeys are — because it's cheap (soy dangers: http://www.westonaprice.org/soy/index.html) and while they said it was “free range”, it was not pastured. What this means is that it has *access* to the outdoors — which means it could go out once in its life.

Pastured turkeys, like pastured chickens and eggs, are SO MUCH BETTER for you.

Mother Earth News did a laboratory test of commercial eggs vs. pastured eggs. They say pastured eggs may contain:

• 1⁄3 less cholesterol
• 1⁄4 less saturated fat
• 2⁄3 more vitamin A
• 2 times more omega-3 fatty acids
• 3 times more vitamin E
• 7 times more beta carotene

http://www.motherearthnews.com/eggs.aspx

Anyway, I got the turkey yesterday at Rawesome, the private buying club in Venice. Turns out the farmer who was selling the pastured turkeys is the same one who sells the pastured eggs. I just started buying the pastured eggs last week and I cannot tell you how much better they are. The yolks are BRIGHT ORANGE. James, the owner at Rawesome, even let me talk to the farmer on the phone, and she confirmed that all her chickens and turkey are raised on grass, and she told me she doesn't feed them any soy. Who can ask for better than that?

OK I gotta run. I have to make baby formula, pick up our CSA box, swing by Whole Foods to pick up some things (and cancel my turkey order), make giblet stock, and render my leaf lard.

PS: The Grinch is at it again, slithering all over the floor. She could care less about her toys — she just wants to play with the metal/glass coffee table with all the sharp edges. And the plastic bags on the newspapers. Sigh.

Not so fast! — More on pastured poultry November 6, 2007

“Cage free” is a trick. I only learned this recently. I have been buying “cage free” eggs and poultry for years. Only to find that it's another agribusiness inside joke.

JUST LOOK at this photo:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/12/us/12eggs.html?ei=5070&en=0eb31962f04ee376&ex=1187582400&adxnnl=1&emc=eta1&adxnnlx=1194412364-x0kTs0fwTyz9IEGEzvTUwA

Truly disgusting. They can say they are cage free — but this is what it looks like.

The term “free range” is not any better.

Michael Pollan, author of “The Omnivore's Dilemma” describes it like this:

Free-range chickens — I did go visit a large organic chicken producer here in California, and if you look at their label, there’s a farmstead with a little silo and a farm house and a farmyard and chickens running around, but if you go to the farm, the chickens are grown in these huge barracks as long as a football field. They’re indoors, there are 20,000 of them in a house, and running along this barrack is what looks like a little front lawn—mowed, maybe 15 or 20 feet deep.

http://www.truthdig.com/interview/page2/20060411_michael_pollan_interview/

Here's a video from Mary's…

http://www.maryschickens.com/farmvideo.htm

I don't think it looks so bad. Of course that is a marketing video.

The advertising copy for Mary's says that the chickens have four times the amount of space as other “cage free” chickens (who have about the size of a laptop computer).

Not ideal. Not truly outdoors and “free range”. But better than those stacking cages in the conventional farms. It's a step in the right direction.

However, I have changed my mind. I'm not buying my turkey from Mary's. I just read that they feed their turkeys soy bean milk and soy bean oil. Ick! WHY? Why would a turkey eat soy? It's not natural.

Ah… here you go: http://www.soybest.com/soyoil/s

Improves production. ARGH! Not natural, not good for the turkeys. But it makes money.

I guess I'm going to be spending $100 or more on an organic, free-range, PASTURED turkey. Not sure where I'll get it from. I'll keep you posted.

You know what, though? I really don't think spending $100 on a turkey is such a bad thing. Back in the old days, people didn't eat meat every single day. They couldn't afford it. Why do we think we should be able to eat meat every day? It's just like gasoline. We think it should be dirt cheap. But it isn't. It costs money to run a car. It costs money to eat meat. In Europe, they understand this. I remember the first time I went to Europe when I was in my mid-20s, I was shocked that they were paying $5/gallon for gas. We are not even paying that now and we complain about the price.

We'd rather have cheap oil at the cost of lots of dead young soldiers — our sons and our brothers and our friends. And we'd rather have cheap meat at the cost of inhumane, despicible conditions for the animals. We just don't want to know about it.

I'm going to bed now.

UPDATE: I found out that Mary’s clips beaks.

Turkey and leaf lard November 6, 2007

I just ordered a pound of leaf lard.

Those of you who have been following my food travails are probably thinking to yourself, “LARD!? She's finally cracked.”

But for those of you who know me well, you know I am fanatical about making a good pie crust. And my extensive research and hard work has paid off. People always ask for seconds and thirds of my pies. They have even told me that the crust is actually even better than the pie filling.

For years I have used Jeffery Steingarten's rendition of Marion Cunningham's crust (see “Pies from Paradise” in the book, “The Man Who Ate Everything”). He recommends a combination of butter and lard for the fat. You can also use butter and shortening — which I have commonly done. I have also very often used just butter which is also great.

I never felt good about the shortening. And now, after doing all of this research on good vs. bad fats, it turns out that shortening is one of the very worst things you can put in your gullet.

And it turns out that lard is pretty good for you! Even the (relatively) conservative NY Times says so: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/12/opinion/12kummer.html Food & Wine touts it, too:http://www.foodandwine.com/articles/lard-the-new-health-food

And there are zillions of other articles on the internet promoting the health benefits of lard, like this one: http://www.thehealthierlife.co.uk/article/3378/trans-fatty-acids.html

Who knew?

It also just so happens that lard is also the baker's top choice for pie crust. And best of all: leaf lard. According to Wikipedia: “The highest grade of lard, known as leaf lard, is obtained from the 'flare' fat deposit surrounding the kidneys and inside the loin.”

Gourmet pastry chefs and pastry aficionados reserve their highest praise for leaf lard. Again, in the NY Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/15/dining/15crus.html?ref=dining

I wanted to use it years ago when I first read about it (in some foodie book) but I didn't know where to find it. I think the author of the book said you could only find it in Asian community butcher shops. God bless the internet.

Needless to say I am switching over to leaf lard. Just as soon as my shipment arrives!

Here's where I got my leaf lard: http://www.sweet-briar-farms.com/

Meanwhile, I'm pondering what kind of turkey to buy for Thanksgiving. Turns out it is not such an easy decision.

Read this and your head will spin with all the options: http://www.ethicurean.com/2006/11/15/gobble-gobble-a-turkey-primer-and-resource-guide/

Organic vs. free range vs. antibiotic-free vs. heritage?

Here's the skinny (scroll to the bottom of the page for the chart): http://www.thenibble.com/reviews/main/meats/turkey-talk.asp

Cook's Illustrated did a piece this month on which turkey to buy. I normally trust Cook's implicitly. They are foodies to the core, and base their findings on empirical results from taste tests. However, I should have known something was amiss when I read the title of the article: “Should You Pay Top Dollar for Turkey?” The subtitle is even more alarming: “Turkey is pretty bland, so why pay $100 for a mail-order bird when supermarket options cost less than $2 a pound?”

My first reaction: Who's the cheapskate who wrote this article? I try not to base food buying decisions on cost. I base them on taste. I'd rather eat top quality filet mignon once a week than cheap steaks every night. But OK, I'll give it a chance.

They recommended Aaron's Best first. It is kosher, which means they kill the animal more humanely. But it doesn't say anything about organic, cage-free, or antibiotic-free.

However, Aaron's was tied with Walter's Hatchery Heritage Breed. http://www.walterspoultry.com/whyheritage.html

Looks like they are pastured/free range but I can't find any information about it. They are not organic. According to a website I found, they say “organic grain is prohibitively expensive”. Prohibitively expensive and yet they sell their turkeys for $7.14 per pound plus shipping? Hmmpphh. I would not eat one of those birds because he feeds them soy. Yuck. Soy-based grain is a no no. I could go on about the dangers of soy but just go ahead and google it. Also can't find out if they give their birds antibiotics. I'm betting they do.

Cook's tested a few brands of organic, pastured turkeys — and none of them did well. They did OK, but not better than Butterball. What Cook's DOESN'T tell you is the health risks associate with eating a Butterball turkey.

Sure, I might save a few bucks buying that brand, and it may taste a bit more tender and buttery - but do you know what they do to it to make it taste like that? Do you know how those turkeys are raised?

Turkeys raised on factory farms are hatched in large incubators and never see their mothers or feel the warmth of a nest. When they are only a few weeks old, they are moved into filthy, windowless sheds with thousands of other turkeys, where they will spend the rest of their lives. To keep the birds from killing one another in such crowded conditions, parts of the turkeys’ toes and beaks are cut off, as are the males’ snoods (the flap of skin under the chin). All this is done without any pain relievers—imagine having the skin under your chin chopped off with a pair of scissors. Millions of turkeys don’t even make it past the first few weeks of life in a factory farm before succumbing to “starve-out,” a stress-induced condition that causes young birds to simply stop eating.

By far the best-selling turkeys in the U.S. are the mass-produced, factory-farmed birds—Butterball, etc.—sold in supermarkets. Almost exclusively broad-breasted whites—a breed that’s also referred to as “large white” because of the size of its breast—these birds are typically raised in factory conditions, sometimes thousands to a barn, and may be treated with growth hormones to enhance their size and antibiotics to prevent disease. The birds tend to be raised quickly, in about twelve weeks, which yields a large and inexpensive supply but doesn’t allow the birds’ flavor to develop fully. Many factory-farmed birds are injected during processing with a solution that might contain water, stock, butter, or other seasonings to make the bird plumper, and more flavorful. That process produces a large bird that cooks up moist and tender, but it can also produce off-flavors and a mushy texture. Factory-farmed birds range in size anywhere from 8 to 28 pounds (one pound per person is a good serving guideline) and tend to be inexpensive—$1.50 or so per pound. (http://www.hurryburry.com/turkey.htm)

Yuck! Antibiotics and growth hormones! I will definitely not be purchasing that variety. Who wants a sick turkey pumped full of antibiotics and hormones that cause early-onset puberty in children?

Not I, said the duck.

Not I, said the cat.

Not I, said the dog.

It has to be organic (no pesticides) and pastured (much more nutritious).

Why are pastured birds better for you?

A study sponsored by the Department of Agriculture in 1999, for example, found that pastured chickens have 21 percent less fat, 30 percent less saturated fat, 50 percent more vitamin A and 400 percent more omega-3 fatty acids than factory-raised birds. They also have 34 percent less cholesterol. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/23/opinion/23barber.html?pagewanted=all (this is a great article BTW — well worth reading)

400% more omega-3 fatty acids! Plus no antibiotics or growth hormones. Plus you can go to sleep at night knowing that you ate a turkey that lived a happy life.

Is it worth the extra few bucks? I'd say so.

I think I'm going to go with Mary's Turkeys. Free-range, antibiotic-free, organic, and heritage (if available). I regularly buy Mary's chicken from Whole Foods and it tastes GREAT.

The organic turkeys sell for $2-3 per pound (a little more expensive than Aaron's Best) and the heritage birds sell for $4-6 per pound (cheaper than Walters Hatchery).

http://www.marysturkeys.com/art.%20Business%20Week.htm

They're based in Fresno and they sell their turkeys at Whole Foods. I'm going to go see if I can reserve one in time.

http://www.marysturkeys.com/

UPDATE: I found out that Mary’s does clip beaks.