Weight and Temperature Update June 22, 2008

I’ve got exciting news.

I weighed myself this morning and guess what – I’ve lost a total of 9 pounds. I’m down to 145 now. This is a new low. Still 15-20 pounds over my pre-pregnancy weight, but still! I’m happy! I had been stuck at 149 for months. I’ve lost 4 pounds just in the past two weeks.

The other good news is my temperature is steadily going up. Seth’s is, too. I didn’t get to take my temperature all last week since I was out of town, but for the past four days it has been over 98. Today I had a record high: 98.3!

Seth has also lost weight — he has lost 5 pounds in the past three weeks.

I’m sure it helps that we are taking the Iodoral and our temperatures are raising (hence, our metabolism is speeding up). But I think the bigger thing is that I’ve been eating less and he’s been doing an exercise boot camp five times a week. I’m so excited now, and I have so much more energy, that I’m ready to start getting back to exercising. I just couldn’t hack it before — I had no energy. But I’m ready now!

What’s my secret for eating less? I only eat when I’m hungry. I’m eating nutrient dense foods — just less of them.

I’ve used this technique before and it is the only thing that has ever worked for me. I’m normally naturally slim and never gain weight — but twice in my life (now three times) I gained extra weight and this was the only thing that worked.

What you do is you go by a scale in your mind of 0-5. Zero is not hungry at all and five is so famished you could faint.

You are only allowed to eat when you are a 3 or 4.

If you’re a 0 or 1, you don’t eat.

If you’re a 2, you have a teaspoon or two of peanut butter or a small piece of fruit or a handful of nuts or a small piece of cheese. That satisfies the craving and keeps you going for another hour or two — until you truly are hungry.

If you’re a 3 or 4, you eat.

You don’t let yourself get to a 5 (because that’s when you binge).

The only other rule is to eat as slowly as possible and enjoy and savor your food. You are only allowed to eat when you are hungry. This means, you have to eat slowly and not let yourself get full. If you think you’re starting to get full, stop and take a break. 90% of the time, you don’t go back and take another bite.

You are allowed (even encouraged) to eat whatever you want. The idea is not to deprive yourself — so you don’t feel the need to obsess about food or binge.

It really works. And you know — I’ve noticed that I’m almost never hungry in the morning. So I’ll have a little Dandy Blend with raw milk and that keeps me going until lunchtime.

The last time I did this, it was just after my divorce. I had gained 25 extra pounds. I used this method and I dropped the weight effortlessly in about three months — with no exercise.

I think the reason I was overeating was twofold: (1) I had gotten used to eating more when I was pregnant and nursing and (2) I was trying to rebuild my nutritional stores for the next baby.

I’ve decided to just try to eat more organ meats (liver, heart, kidney, etc.), as well as butter and cream. And lots of seafood! That should help to rebuild my nutritional stores — and I don’t have to eat as much. You’re going to see a lot more recipes for offal on this blog!

I’ll keep you posted on our progress.

Metabolic Temperature Graphs June 1, 2008

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you know that Seth and I are both suffering from adrenal fatigue (and possibly low thyroid function as well). I started supplementing with 50 mg of Iodoral per day, as well as dessicated adrenal gland a couple of months ago. Seth started taking the supplements a few weeks ago.

We are also off all sugar and starches (we have been on the GAPS diet for over a month). Seth is down to one cup of coffee a day and I’ve given it up completely. (This is all necessary for adrenal recovery.) We are also trying to get more sleep and relaxation (not so easy with two businesses and a baby, but we try.)

Additionally, we are taking a couple of grams of vitamin C per day. We are starting on licorice extract this week. We are also taking extra cod liver oil (for they thyroid), and sea salt in water (for the adrenals).

Dr. Rind has a great website with lots of information on how to recover from thyroid and adrenal imbalance. This page is all about how to chart your temperature.

We have been doing this for the past few weeks. All you have to do is take your temperature 3 times a day, ideally 9 am, 12 noon, and 3 pm. Then you take the average of those 3 temperatures and plot it on the graph.

If you take your temperature 3 times that day, put a 3 on the chart (put 2 if you only take it twice, and 1 if only once). There is also a space down below to make notes of any changes — for example, if something stressful happens or if you change something such as the amount of supplements you are taking.

Here’s my temperature graph:

The temperatures are along the left — on the vertical Y axis (in Celcius and Farenheit). The X (horizontal) axis represents each day. So you can see how I charted a number (usually 3, sometimes 2) on the X axis which represents my average temperature each day.

Obviously my temperatures are pretty low. And they are not stable. This signifies low adrenal function (and possibly also low thyroid function). Low temperatures are indicative of low thyroid (or hypothyroid) function, but they can also be indicative of adrenal exhaustion. Unstable temperatures (up and down) indicate adrenal fatigue.

Here’s Seth’s temperature graph:

Seth’s temperatures are much lower than mine — and much more unstable. However, he started supplementing more recently. It also looks like his temperatures are beginning to stabilize — just in the past few days. We’ll see…

Here is what it says on Dr. Rind’s site about interpreting results:

Thermal activity reflects metabolic activity. A low temperature means low metabolism and vice versa. For example, the temperature typically found in someone who is old, frail, pale and weak is low and typically ranges from 95 to 97 degrees if no infection is present. A healthy person will have an average temperature of 98.6 degrees, but may have a 100 degree or higher temperature in a hyperthyroid state or as high as a 104 to 105 degree temperature if there is a fever present ­ these are high metabolic states.

Wide variability in daily temperatures indicates a weak adrenal function since the adrenal glands help the body maintain stability. Good adrenal function produces a stable temperature. As adrenal function improves, the temperature variability decreases and vice versa. As adrenals get stressed (either from emotional stress, excess metabolic stimulation such as excessive thyroid stimulation, or for other reasons), the variability increases.

In a hypothyroid state, the day-to-day averages are low and very stable. In a hypoadrenal state including adrenal exhaustion or adrenal stress, the temperatures are low and unstable — one day they may average 96 degrees and one to two degrees higher the next day.

It looks like Seth may be beginning to stabilize. I’m not really seeing any improvement in my chart yet — but I have been having some extremely emotionally stressful days, due to my current family emergency. So it may take me a while longer to recover. I’ll keep tracking it.

Note: It is imperative to get a good thermometer if you want to do this. Most thermometers are wildly inaccurate. Dr. Rind recommends the digital Lumiscope thermometer. I found it on Drugstore.com for $6.

Consultation with the Iodine Doctor May 21, 2008

We had our phone consultation to go over our test results with Dr. Flechas yesterday. He said that Seth and I are both iodine deficient and we should both take 50 mg of Iodoral per day — for a year. He said in one year, we’ll do the tests again and see where we are.

He said the Iodoral will help us excrete the heavy metals from our system — and he said that in a year’s time, all our heavy metal numbers should go down to zero.

He asked me if I knew how I could have gotten so much arsenic. I have no idea! He said I should look into that. Seth doesn’t have high arsenic — so it must have been something I ate or consumed before I met Seth. It’s not something that is affecting us now (i.e., not in our drinking water), otherwise Seth would have high arsenic too. But he doesn’t.

Seth has high aluminum. Not anywhere near as high as my arsenic levels (this explains the tingling in my hands). After that call, he agreed to throw away his mainstream deodorant and start using my “hippie” deodorant from Terressentials.

We are both high in uranium. Dr. Flechas said it would be a good idea to have our water tested. We have been drinking distilled water only for months now, but I am curious to know what is in the water supply. I asked Dr. Flechas if we can absorb water through the bath or shower, and he said he didn’t know.

Dr. Flechas also told us to take something called ATP Cofactors, because it helps the Iodoral “stick” better. And I asked him about giving Lugol’s to Kate. He said absolutely — 1 drop per day. He said this is really important because iodine has a lot to do with intelligence in children (iodine deficiency is associated with mental retardation and cretinism) and by age 2, her IQ will be set. So we started giving her the Lugol’s yesterday.

I forgot to ask him if it is safe to breastfeed with this much arsenic in my system if I’m taking the Iodoral and excreting it. I know it gets dumped in the breast milk. I will email the lab and ask the assistant to ask him.

I have a feeling though that I won’t be able to breastfeed for a while. It takes a while to get all of this junk out of your system. And, as wonderful as it is for Kate to drink breast milk, I don’t like the idea of her getting a bunch of arsenic. Thank goodness we have the homemade raw milk formula.

Chickens, Arsenic, and Thyroid Health May 18, 2008

I got my heavy metal urine analysis results back. I have very high levels of a number of metals, but I am highest in arsenic and uranium. So high, in fact, that it says I have reached the “tentative maximum permissible limit”.

Both arsenic and uranium are not only highly toxic and carcinogenic, but they are both endocrine disruptors.

Not sure how I got all the uranium, but the high levels of arsenic probably came from years of eating supermarket and restaurant chicken and eggs. Dr. Rind said in his lecture that he couldn’t understand why he kept seeing such high levels of arsenic in his patients. Then he found out that poultry factory farms have been adding arsenic to the chicken feed for years. They do it, he said, to kill their thyroid, so they’ll fatten up faster.

Gee, you think they might have considered what would happen to those of us eating those chickens?

It’s disgusting to me that our food supply is so toxic. It’s outrageous that the people providing us with our food are essentially feeding us poison.

The scary thing is… I have high levels of this stuff now. I haven’t eaten factory farm chicken in several months. I wonder how much more I had a couple of years ago. Which means Kate has all of these metals, too — since the heavy metals get dumped into your breast milk.

So how do I get rid of this stuff? The best way is with food. Iodoral actually helps the body chelate heavy metals. In addition to that, I’m going to start taking chlorella (Seth and Kate, too).

Dr. Merola says:

Chlorella has been demonstrated to remove heavy metals and other synthetics from the body by actually binding with them so they may be pulled from the bloodstream. However, this result can only be measured if the level of heavy metals in the bloodstream are known before and after a person starts taking chlorella.

It takes approximately 3-6 months once starting chloreela for heavy metals to begin to be removed from the blood depending on the amount of chlorella taken. If it has been determined that a person does have heavy metals in their body, they should begin by taking 15-20 grams per day depending on the level of heavy metals that are present.

Can Chlorella Be Given To Children?

Absolutely. In fact, chlorella has been shown to promote rapid growth in children, as well as build in them superior immune systems. In studies with identical twins, the one given the chlorella grew much faster, much healthier and had much fewer instances of colds, flu, etc. than the twin who was not given chlorella. Children can take one-half to one-fourth the adult dose described above.

I’m also going to start taking the epsom salt baths like Seth has been doing.

I guess the good thing is, it is being excreted through my urine. I think when your body doesn’t have enough iodine, you can’t chelate this stuff. Which explains why I started having symptoms of arsenic poisoning (tingling and pins and needles in my hands and fingers) only after pregnancy and breastfeeding. When my body was depleted of iodine, I could not adequately chelate the toxins.

Yet another reason to take Iodoral.

German Dinner and Coconut Strawberry Smoothies May 16, 2008

Tonight we ate:

Rocky Canyon Bratwurst with Dijon Mustard
Homemade Lacto-Fermented Sauerkraut
Kale Sauteed in Chicken Fat and Butter
Chicken Broth

For lunch Seth had some sliced turkey breast and avocado. He was still hungry after that (not enough fat, I told him), so I offered to make him a smoothie.

The man who said he hated coconut oil willingly and happily drank 2 tablespoons of coconut oil, plus a cup of coconut milk.

Here’s the recipe:

A couple of handfuls organic strawberries
8-10 ounces coconut milk
2 raw egg yolks (pastured, preferably)
2 TBS coconut oil
1 banana
1 TBS raw honey

Put everything in blender and mix.

The best think about the coconut oil and coconut milk — Seth said it really filled him up. He didn’t even eat all of his dinner.

Coconut is also really good for the thyroid.

I think I’m going to start giving him smoothies as often as possible. An easy way to get good fat into him.

I had the same smoothie, only I added 4 TBS of raw cream and I omitted the honey. It was sweet enough for me as is.

Charting Temperatures May 16, 2008

The day before yesterday, I started charting our temperatures using the new Lumiscope thermometer.

You take your temperature every three hours — around 9, 12 and 3. Then you take the average of those 3 numbers.

Me
Wednesday: 97.7
Thursday: 97.9

Seth
Wednesday: 96.5
Thursday: 96.7

Then you chart it on an Excel spreadsheet I downloaded from Dr. Rind’s website. He explains it all on the site.

It’s not difficult. And this is really the only way you can accurately check your metabolic/endocrine function.

Obviously Seth and I are both still chronically low (hypothyroid). No wonder we can’t lose weight! And no wonder I had trouble making enough breast milk.

I do want to restart breastfeeding but it may be a while before I am capable. From what I understand, this process takes months. I will ask Dr. Flechas about it on Tuesday.

Thyroid/Adrenal Recovery May 13, 2008

I got my new Lumiscope thermometer yesterday. It was only $6.19. (And I ordered some other things so I got free shipping.)

I’m so happy I got it. I took my temperature right away when it arrived in the mail. We had just come back from a long walk so I figured my temperature would be at least 98.6 or maybe even higher.

It was 97.5! I took it again. 97.5.

Then I took my temperature with the thermometer I had been using.

98.9!

Just to be sure, I took my temperature first thing this morning with both thermometers.

Lumiscope: 97.1
Old thermometer: 98.6

So. Now we know. You really have to get a Lumiscope if you want any kind of accuracy at all.

I also just heard back about my lab results. I am deficient in iodine. Got Seth’s too — he is also deficient; his numbers are very close to mine.

Not a big surprise — the doctor’s assistant said that 9 out of 10 people come back deficient. This is also not surprising — since we have such low levels of iodine in our soil and there are so many things in our food supply that block iodine uptake (bromide, fluoride, soy).

Dr. Flechas’ assistant said that for people who are iodine deficient, he usually tells people to take 50 mg of Iodoral per day, which is what I have been doing. She says he usually recommends this for 3-6 months, then you do another test. But most people who are iodine deficient need to take Iodoral for life.

This does not surprise me either. The Japanese get 13 mg per day just from their diet. We get very very little from our diet. One pill of Iodoral supplies your body with 12.5 mg. I’m beginning to believe that everyone should take iodine (either Lugol’s or Iodoral). I will take cod liver oil for the rest of my life — I think Iodoral is a necessary supplement too for most of us.

The thing is, you don’t see results right away. It takes months. Dr. Rind said that darker haired, darker skinned people tend to recover faster from adrenal exhaustion (and you have to have healthy adrenals for your thyroid to function properly). He said blue-eyed blondes take the longest to recover. That would be me. Oh, well!

I will get my heavy metal test results in the next few days, and I am scheduled for a phone consultation with Dr. Flechas next Tuesday.

I’m excited to download my spreadsheet from Dr. Rind’s site and start charting my progress. I’m going to take Seth’s temperature as often as I can, too. I’ll keep track for both of us, since I’m already doing it.

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.

Iodine Update May 7, 2008

I’ve been taking Iodoral for two and a half weeks now.

My resting temperature (taken first thing in the morning) used to range between 97.5 to 98.0.

Now it has stabilized at 98.6. It has been 98.6 every morning for four or five days.

And I lost 5 pounds. I was back up to 154 and am down to 149 now.

I suppose this could be the GAPS diet, too. But I think it is my thyroid. If your temperature does not get high enough, your metabolism is too slow and you can’t burn the calories.

I have a lot more energy. I can go all day now — gardening, running errands, working, whatever — instead of feeling like I need to rest on the couch.

The tingling/numbness in my hands/fingers is almost completely gone.

I am taking 50 mg of Iodoral each day (I will reduce this to 12.5 after a month or two).

I am also taking the following Standard Process products (3-4 tablets of each daily):

Catalyn (3 per day)
Cataplex F (3)
Thytrophin PMG (3)
Immunoplex (2)
Adrenal Gland (1-2)

I am taking 1 New Chapter whole food selenium tablet (to help with the iodine uptake). And 6 Solgar liver tablets. And 2 Biokult per day.

I may start taking a zinc supplement since I am reading a lot about high copper causing melasma. If my melasma doesn’t start to clear up, I will start taking zinc.

Sweating It Out April 11, 2008

I seriously feel like I am dying. HOLY MOLEY do I feel bad!

I started taking iodine drops yesterday. Not a lot. Yesterday I took about 5 grams and this morning I took about 10 grams.

The Japanese traditionally consume about 13 grams of iodine per day. They eat a lot of fish, seaweed, and fish broth.

They also have the lowest incidence of breast cancer in the world. Japan has one of the lowest worldwide rates of every type of cancer with the exception of stomach cancer. Source

Can iodine deficiency cause cancer? Well, it makes sense, doesn’t it? If iodine is responsible for chleating the body of toxins and heavy metals, and you don’t have enough iodine to do the job, then where do those carcinogens go? The do not get excreted and they get stored in your body.

Our RDA recommends only 150 micrograms — about 10 times less. As a result, most Americans are iodine deficient. The iodine docs — Brownstein, Abraham, Flechas, et al — say that it’s somewhere between 80-95% of the population.

I believe it. What with all the soy in the food supply (soybean oil in most of the cooking oils, soy lecithin in most packaged foods, soy in all the baby formula, and soy in most of our dairy and meats — due to the fact that soy is being fed to all the cows and chickens and pigs). Soy is a goitrogen and it blocks iodine absorption.

In addition to soy, there is something called bromide. Bromide is also a goitrogen.

They used to add iodine to the bread but now they are adding bromide. Many breads, bread and cereal products, and packaged foods contain bromide. Even soda pop has bromide. Mountain Dew contains brominated vegetable oil. Yuck!

Oh, and pesticides. Pesticides also have bromide.

Anyhow, one of the consequences of an iodine deficiency is the inability to chelate toxins and heavy metals from your body. I guess your body needs iodine to detoxify.

Iodine… detoxifies the body by removing mercury, fluorides, chlorides, and bromides. Source

When you start taking iodine, it’s normal to go through a detox. The iodine goes to work getting all that bad stuff out of your body. Fluoride, mercury, bromide, etc.

I have many of the symptoms of bromide poisoning:

eye lid twitching
tingling in hands or feet
leg and hip ache (feels like arthritis)
metallic taste
sinus ache
runny nose (I have post nasal drip)
headache
lethargy, fatigue
body odor or bad breath (bromos is Greek for stench)
irritability
increased salivation
kidney pain
anxiety and/or depression

Some of these symptoms I have had for a while — about a month or two now. The kidney pain, anxiety attacks, eye twitching, irritability, leg and hip ache, fatigue, and tingling in my hands and fingers.

Oh! And you know another thing that is caused by iodine deficiency? Hyper-pigmentation — or melasma. This explains why I started getting these brown spots on my face a few years ago.

It also explains why I have impaired immunity — why I get sick so easily and can’t recover very fast. Heavy metal toxicity does that to you.

The symptoms come on fast and furious when you start detoxing. Dr. Flechas says that it is common to have the symptoms for about 2 weeks when you first start on the iodine.

There are a few ways to help your body detox faster:

Sweating - Very hot salt baths or clay baths — as hot as you can stand it so you sweat
Salt Loading - Take 1/2 tsp of sea salt in a small amount of water, followed immediately by 12-16 oz of pure water
Juicing - Drinking lots of freshly juiced vegetables including cilantro, parsley, carrots, etc.
Coffee Enema - Yes, you read that right. I guess this helps the liver produce more bile. If it works, why not?

I just took a very hot bath with 1 cup of raw apple cider vinegar and 3 cups of kosher salt. I am now wrapped in towels and lying under four blankets — sweating like crazy. The taste in my mouth is horrible — metallic and really foul. That’s the heavy metals, I guess.

In a minute I’m going to get up and juice up some carrots, celery and parsley. And take vitamin C (acerola powder — it’s a food-based form of vitamin C). I’m going to do the salt loading again, too.

And I think I will pick up an enema bag on the way to the airport to pick up Seth. A girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do.

This is not easy but I am just so grateful to be getting rid of all these toxins in my body. How ridiculous is it that we live in a world where we are poisoned by our own food supply?

Oysters and Leftover Risotto April 9, 2008

I was lazy tonight and didn’t feel like cooking. Seth is still in France — so I made a super easy supper just for me: oysters on the half shell with leftover asparagus and pancetta risotto.

I went to Whole Foods today to pick up some things. My dentist told me he thinks I have heavy metal toxicity. He wants me to drink beet kvass and freshly juiced vegetables every day. Freshly squeezed veggies and beet kvass help to chelate (detox) heavy metals and toxins.

So I bought beets and celery and carrots. I also got some iodine to tide me over until I get my Iodoral in the mail (going to order it tomorrow).

I’ve been reading more about iodine and thyroid function and it’s really interesting. Apparently one of the functions of iodine is to chelate heavy metals. So if you have a deficiency of iodine, the heavy metals will accumulate in your body. Which explains why I have chronic fatigue and tingling/numbness in my fingers and hands.

I know, scary! I actually think it’s a good thing that I stopped breast feeding. When you have an iodine deficiency, heavy metals accumulate in the breast — which makes for very toxic breast milk!

It all makes sense. Pregnancy and breast feeding massively deplete the body of iodine. So I have two issues now — heavy metal toxicity and hypothyroidism. Both caused by iodine deficiency.

So anyway, I bought some fish to make fish stock. Seeing how I need more iodine. And Kate probably does too. Not to mention Seth. So I think I’m going to try to make fish stock from now on (instead of chicken or beef stock). You need the fish heads, since they have the thyroid, which is full of iodine. (In many traditional cultures, they feed pregnant and nursing women fish stock made with fish heads.)

They had some nice wild-caught Thai snapper at Whole Fooods. They were kind enough to fillet them for me — and they wrapped up the fish heads and the bones separately so I can make my stock.

I also bought some oysters (more iodine). They will shuck them for you at Whole Foods — which makes it the easiest thing to serve. You literally just put it out on the table. I was too lazy to make Mignonette sauce, so I just poured a tiny bit of red wine vinegar onto the oysters.

The leftover asparagus and pancetta risotto (which we made when my family was in town) took 5 minutes to heat up in a saucepan. Mmmm — why is it that risotto always tastes better the next day?

Paired with a nice (organic) sauvignon blanc.

I think I’m going to have a little raw milk cheddar on rice crackers to cap the meal off.

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

Coffee and Raw Honey Sweetened Lemonade March 26, 2008

I’ve been trying to cut back on coffee. No, not trying. I have been cutting back. I’m pretty proud of myself!

Sally Fallon said that cutting out coffee was the hardest thing she ever did. I’m not trying to cut it out completely (yet) but I am trying to cut back. For the sake of my adrenal gland. Drinking a lot of coffee and eating a lot of sugar is really bad for your adrenal gland. Most people have adrenal exhaustion due to constant stress, and too much coffee and sugar.

You can heal your adrenal gland. I just listened to a lecture about it from the WAPF 2007 seminar. The guy said that it can take anywhere from a few months to a few years. He said to take a multiglandular (like the ones Standard Process sells), vitamin B complex (I’m taking nutritional yeast, blackstrap molasses, and lots of fermented foods for my Bs), and a few others… I’ll have to look at the list I wrote down. He said it can take anywhere from a few months to a couple of years to heal your adrenal exhaustion — depending on how severe it is.

Adrenal exhuastion is part of the thyroid puzzle. You can’t really heal your thyroid unless you fix the adrenal too.

So anyway, I used to drink 2-3 cups per day. Now I’m drinking just 1 cup a day. With raw milk and blackstrap molasses. I have heard that blackstrap molasses helps with grey hair. (I’m starting to get some — and I’ve stopped highlighting my hair.) This was from Donna Wild of Standard Process, the nutritional supplements company (not just something I read on the internet!).

It hasn’t been that hard, cutting back on the coffee. I think, instead of cutting it out all the way, I’ll just keep cutting back to less and less. Go to half a cup a day, then a quarter cup.

It will be nice not to have to drink coffee. Drinking it here and there is one thing — but when you have to drink it that is an addiction, and that’s something I’d like not to have.

Meanwhile, Yensi has been making homemade lemonade for us. It’s delicious! And you would never know that it does not have any sugar!

Here’s her recipe for homemade lemonade:

Juice of one lemon
Raw honey to taste (she said she only uses about a tablespoon)
Pinch of sea salt
Fill pitcher with filtered water

It’s so wonderful to be able to drink homemade lemonade with nutritious raw honey — instead of Diet Coke or other soft drinks like we used to do. The lemons come from our tree in the backyard!

Thyroid Recovery March 15, 2008

I’ve been thinking about this hypothyroid situation. Seth asked me today, “Why are you having a problem with your thyroid if you’ve been eating so healthy the past few months?”

Good question. I have an answer.

It’s due to the fact that I carried a baby for 9 months, then nursed her for 9 months. That’s 18 months of intense stress on my body.

I only started eating well (traditional foods) 5 months ago. However, I didn’t eat too bad before I got into traditional foods.

Ever since I cured myself of candida almost 15 years ago, I haven’t eaten much sugar at all. And I rarely ate fast food.

And I’ve been eating sprouted bread (Alvarado St. Bakery) most of the time since I was like 20 years old. I always liked the taste better than white bread.

I’ve also never been big on the whole low-fat diet thing. I’ve always eaten real butter and lots of cheese and meat and eggs. No margarine or low-fat cheese. And I always ate the skin on my chicken and ate full-fat meats.

This is probably why I was in relatively good health when Kate was conceived. I think the people who have a harder time are the ones who either eat lots of junk food and/or low-fat and/or are vegetarians — especially vegans.

And when I was carrying Kate, I ate a lot. I didn’t know about WAPF, so I ate stuff like donuts and burritos and cheeseburgers. But I was also eating a lot of things like eggs and steak and butter and drinking a lot of whole organic milk.

I ate this way when I was nursing, too. In fact, I think I ate even better after she was born (since I wasn’t suffering from morning sickness or heartburn). Every day, I would drink lots of milk and eat ice cream and every night I’d make a big dinner consisting of chicken or beef or fish, often with brown rice and butter and a big salad with oil and vinegar.

My health was fine until after I stopped nursing — in December. That was when I stopped eating well. I wanted to lose weight so I cut out grains and ate very low-carb. Not only that, but I really cut down on calories. I have only been eating one meal a day for the past few months.

Which may be fine under normal circumstances (before I got pregnant, I used to only eat one meal a day) but I think my body is run down now. I still need to rebuild my nutritional stores. Even though I am longer breastfeeding, I still need to eat a very nutrient dense diet — to rebuild what was depleted during pregnancy and breastfeeding.

Pregnancy and nursing take a huge toll on our bodies. It’s no wonder that we are nutritionally deficient after pregnancy and childbirth and extended breastfeeding.

So… here’s what I think… in addition to the supplements I’m taking (the ones Dr. Cowan recommends, which I started on yesterday), I need to eat more, and more nutrient dense foods. I’m going to try to go back to 2-3 meals a day.

The problem is — maybe it’s the thyroid thing — but I’m just not very hungry. I will have to eat smaller meals and eat more often during the day.

Today I actually felt a lot better. I had two meals. For breakfast, we went to Dinah’s Fried Chicken. I know, restaurant food. Not optimal. But at least I was eating!

I ordered 3 eggs over easy and hash browns and I asked them to cook them in butter, not oil. With that I had 1.5 pieces of fried chicken (I know, not ideal — but it’s Dinah’s; I could not resist) and some fresh fruit. No white flour — so that was good.

I had a glass of kefir in the afternoon. For dinner, I made seared ahi tuna on a bed of steamed spinach with rice wine vinegar, with a salad of apples and pears with “crispy walnuts” dressed with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. And brown rice that I made with chicken broth instead of water.

I’ll drink a big glass (10-12 ounces) of raw milk or kefir before bed.

I’m going to start eating something every morning — either toasted sprouted bread with butter and raw honey or eggs and cheese… or oatmeal with butter and raw whole milk.

I’m not a big lunch person but I’ll try to snack during the day with kefir or cheese or eggs. I’ll try to eat at least two eggs a day.

I’ll make a nice big dinner every night. Meat lasagna or steak or fish with salad or homemade soup. And potatoes or rice.

And I’m going to drink a lot more raw milk. I think I will make some raw milk ice cream tomorrow and try to eat that every night for dessert.

And I’m going to try to incorporate broth into as many soups and sauces as possible.

I’m going to hold off on doing the GAPS diet with Seth. Right now I need to focus on getting myself healthy. I don’t want to limit dairy or other foods for now.

And I’m going to be better about taking my cod liver oil. I’ve been lax lately. And incorporate more coconut oil.

Yeah, it may take me a while to lose the baby weight. But right now I need to focus on getting healthy. I don’t think my thyroid condition is going to improve until I build up my nutritional stores. And I need to be really healthy so before can even think about trying to conceive again.

My friend Marcia said she didn’t lose the baby weight until 4 years after she gave birth. I think sometimes your body hangs on to the weight because it needs to. And trying to diet too soon is risky.

The thing is, if your thyroid is screwed up due to nutritional deficiencies, you can’t lose weight anyway, not matter how much you try.

I didn’t realize how hard it is on your body to be pregnant and carry a child. Add nursing on top of that and it’s a huge undertaking. It’s like running a marathon — for over a year!

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

Thyroid and Iodine March 13, 2008

I think I have a problem with my thyroid gland.

I’ve been reading about it and I have a lot of the symptoms of hypothyroidism. It started when I was pregnant. And I just took this quiz: http://www.thyroidbreakthrough.com/quiz.htm

My score was 59%. Not terrible but not great either.

You answered 24 items out of 41 in a way that indicates thyroid risks and symptoms.

Your score is 59%. You have enough risks and symptoms that you should have your thyroid evaluated. For more information, read Thyroid Hormone Breakthrough.

Some of the symptoms I had/have had are: terrible morning sickness, fatigue/exhaustion, memory loss, anxiety, painful menstrual cycles, and fluctuation in weight (weight loss or weight gain — or difficulty gaining or losing).

I have been listening to the mp3s I got from the Weston A. Price Foundation — they are from the 2007 conference. One of the lectures is by Donna Wild of Standard Process. Standard Process is a nutritional supplement company. Their supplements are entirely food based. I think they are some of the best supplements on the market.

Anyhow, Donna said in her lecture that iodine deficiency causes problems with the thyroid. There is an easy way to test for hypothyroidism or thyroid disfunction. You can just get some tincture of iodine at the pharmacy or drug store. You paint a little on the inside of your arm or on your abdomen. It’s bright orange when you paint it on. If it is still bright orange 24 hours later, you do not have an iodine deficiency. However, if the color fades or disappears within 24 hours, you are deficient.

I took Kate this morning and we got the tincture at a place in our neighborhood called the Apothecary. It’s a great little pharmacy (across from Whole Foods on National) that also carries the whole line of Standard Process supplements.

I just painted it on. We’ll see how I do! If I am deficient, then I’m supposed to take iodine (either Lugol’s iodine or kelp) and I can also take thyroid supplements (the thyroid gland from hogs).

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