Archive for Food Additives

Tom Brady calls Cocoa Cola and Frosted Flakes “Poison”, and he’s right!

Did you hear about the Tom Brady dust up recently?  Finally!  We have a prominent professional athlete speaking out against the Giants of Big Food instead of promoting them for money.  This is awesome!  Here’s a couple quotes,

“I think we’ve been lied to by a lot of food companies over the years, by a lot of beverage companies over the years. But we still [believe] it… We believe that Frosted Flakes is a food…”

Great point.  Food is food.  Frosted flakes, ( and Captain Crunch and Froot Loops and Raisin Bran etc etc etc) are processed pieces of flour, sugar, artificial color/flavors/scents, additives, and preservatives.

Read the ingredient list for Frosted Flakes:

Milled Corn, Sugar, Malt Flavoring, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Salt, Sodium Ascorbate, Ascorbic Acid, Niacinamide, Reduced Iron, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Riboflavin, Thiamine Hydrochloride, Vitamin A Palmitate, Folic Acid, BHT, Vitamin B12 and Vitamin D

That’s not food.  That’s crap.  In Tom Brady’s words, “And the fact that they can sell that to kids? I mean, that’s poison…”

Did you notice that Coke now sells their product in cans and bottles that have names on them??  Oh yeah.  They researched the 250 most popular TEEN names, and stuck them on their containers.  Wow.  So much for their promise not to market to kids.

Here’s the ingredient list for Coca Cola:

Carbonated water, high fructose corn syrup, caramel color, phosphoric acid, natural flavors, and caffeine.

I’ve become used to people telling me I’m either crazy/way too out there/or over-reacting.  That our government wouldn’t ever let our food supply become saturated with ingredients that absolutely cause cancer, heart disease, diabetes, mood disorders, auto-immune, and every single other disease out there.

Well, I’m happily wearing the crazy hat, because I believe that’s exactly what’s happened.  Want proof?

Recent studies show:

– 70% of all the calories Americans consume now come from processed foods ( breads, crackers, pasta, cereals, pizza, etc)

Multiple studies confirm that processed food is just as addictive as heroin and cocaine.  Moms, this means that your skinny, active kids actually shouldn’t get a pass to eat processed foods; their life long eating patterns are being created – by you, right now.  Bad patterns will eventually come back to bite them in the butt.

Multiple studies link artificial colors, flavors, preservatives, and additives to cancer, heart disease, diabetes, allergies, hyperactivity, Alzheimers, and literally every disease out there.  Not convinced?  Read here.

Let’s look at a few common ingredients.

BHA and BHT are synthetic preservatives that keep fat from going rancid. Look on cereals, breads, meats, microwave dinners, vegetables oils, margarine’s, chewing gum, any and all chips, cookies, cakes, skin lotions, face make-up,… the list is endless. Literally. If you buy and consume processed, refined foods (and lots of restaurants use processed refined foods), you’re consuming these chemicals.

Let’s follow the chem trail. In the 1970’s, the FDA reviewed BHA and BHT and gave then a “GRAS (generally recognized as safe) status, but acknowledged additional review was needed.

In 1986, they just repeated that dictum. No further review – by the FDA – has happened.

However, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Agency for Cancer Research, and The National Toxicology Program, have all declared BHA and BHT as Carcinogenic. There’s also very strong links between these products and hyperactivity in children; it’s highly suspected they cause liver damage; and it takes the average male adult TEN days to eliminate BHA from the system.

Our food system is loaded with cases like this!  Let’s look at pizza, which is pretty much a giant chemical, unless you’re making it at home (another recipe here).

The average American eats 46 slices of pizza a year. 25% of all boys ages 6 to 19 eat pizza every single day.  Our government has actually declared pizza a vegetable for school lunches, hospitals, jails, and social programs. (??)

Food Babe (an incredibly determined Activist) did a thorough investigation of the ingredient list in several pizzas, and the results were horrible. Did you know you can say “100% Real”, legally, and have it be loaded with crap??

Among the many chemicals is MSG, in all it’s FDA approved monikers. Think a little MSG can’t hurt? Oh my gosh, please think again. MSG, under ALL it’s names (yeast extract, autolyzed yeast extract,… there’s more than 40 approved names for it) is an EXCITO-TOXIN. It literally excites brain cells to death; MSG’s links to cancer and other disease states are profound. Unfortunately, like so much poison, it makes food taste good, and it has the effect of stimulating areas of the brain that make us want more. MSG is a Food Manufacturers Dream.

Take a look at some pizza ingredients that contain MSG:

dominos

YUCK!  Not. Real. Food. In Tom Brady’s words: Poison.  We have to wake-up, and unhook ourselves from the siren call of processed foods, because it’s killing us.  Slowly and quietly, but it’s killing us.

The answer?  Real Whole Foods.  Cooking at home.  Making food and meals and nutrition a priority for our health, and our kids health.  Letting go of the idea that skinny=healthy, because it doesn’t.  Healthy=Healthy.  I know lots of skinny people with cancer, heart disease, auto-immune conditions, neurological conditions, etc.

It’s the food.  Moms and dads, don’t push this advice away just because you’re overwhelmed and busy. Our kid’s futures depend on this.  We can make Real Whole Foods our norm, honest.

Want a great place to start? Read the links included in this Post.  The more you know about our food system, the easier it becomes to avoid processed foods through fear and disgust.

Don’t know how to cook/shop/prep/pack?  Get in touch with me.  It’s not hard, it’s just a skill to master; and a way of thinking.

Finally, I want to link to a great book I finished recently: French Kids Eat Everything.  This book is wonderful, and I wish I’d read it 25 years ago.  It details the differences in American and French food beliefs/culture/norms, and why and how French kids eat everything.  It’s a positive approach to food that we just don’t have here.  For example, we have “kid foods” galore in the US:  chicken nuggets, pasta, cereal, etc.  Kid foods in France are pureed vegetables and small bites of organ meats. They don’t snack, and they use utensils at 2. They really do eat everything over there, and consequently, France has the second lowest rate of heart disease in the industrial world, and no weight issues.

I hope you get 2 take-aways from today’s Post. (1) we’re literally creating and training our children for life long eating patterns and food preferences every single day we have them.  (2) We are what we eat.  We eat crap, we create a crap body.  We eat Real Whole Foods, and we give our body the nutrients it needs to rebuild, repair, and thrive.

Get in touch with me for help and changes.  We have so much potential!

Supplements for Cold and Flu Season

This Post really is about supps for colds and flu, but first, read this excerpt from an October 12, 2015, Medscape newsletter on the upcoming Gastro Conference:

“A prominent theme of the meeting — the way food affects health — will be reflected in a lecture on food allergies, sensitivities, and food-related illnesses by William Chey, MD, professor of gastroenterology at University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and coeditor-in-chief of the American Journal of Gastroenterology.

The association between food and gastrointestinal ailments has received renewed attention in the past 5 years; however, little credible research has supported specific dietary interventions for gut disorders, Dr Chey told Medscape Medical News.”

Wow, the Gastroenterologists are going to be considering that “food affects health and the gut”,  even though “little credible research supports dietary interventions for gut disorders”.

And this folks, is why we need to quit putting our full trust in the medical establishment, who think we’re sick from a lack of pharmaceuticals, and become very responsible for our own health.

We are, literally, made out of the food we eat ( sleep, movement, and stress management play a big role too.)  Everything we put in our mouth has an effect on us, good or bad.  Everything.

Which brings me back to Supplements:)  I got a cold about 10 days ago, darnit. My goal:  support my immune system so it’s able to overcome the virus that got me.  Here’s the routine I used to get well.

20151022_072817Fire Cider!  This is Powerful!  I’ve used a homemade version of this the past 2 winters, but since I didn’t get sick, I just used it preventively: 20151022_072834 a couple teaspoons in a big jar of water everyday, or sometimes on my salads.  This particular cold caught me off guard.  No homemade hooch so I had to buy it at my favorite health food store, Natural Market in Warrenton.  If you’re not from my area, and you don’t want to DIY, you can find the Fire Cider here.

This year, I just poured the Cider in a shot glass and downed it – WHEW.  It has a kick, and it’s effective. If you’re a wuss when it comes to food, and will only eat things that taste like pie, this could be tough.  That’s a weakness to over come though because a lot of healthy foods are bitter, sour, or hot. If I can develop my taste buds, you can you, I promise.

Next, I used oregano essential oil ( Plant Guru ), and DoTerra On Guard, which is a blend.  I also used a ton of eucalyptus oil, both Plant Guru and Arbor Oil.  I kept one in my car, and carried the other with me.  Eucalyptus is wonderful because you can rub it directly on your nose and in your nose; it opens up sinus passages fast.

Speaking of sinus passages, the Neti Pot is awesome.  Gross, but awesome.

About essential oils:  some can be rubbed directly on your skin or in your cheek, and some will burn the heck out of you if you don’t dilute them with a carrier oil like coconut oil.

I accidentally got cinnamon oil on my raw nose skin and that really stung!  There was nothing I could do, it just had to kind of “burn out”:(  I’ve also had a few minor disasters with oregano oil, and geranium oil, (I use geranium oil on my face, and I’ve learned to always put my carrier oils on first, heavily.)

I actually tried some oregano oil in my Neti Pot.  It was horrible!  I did it 4 times anyway, dumped it out, and switched back to salt water.  Much more pleasant.

I went through a whole lot of Elderberry Syrup, garlic and Manuka honey, and liquid zinc ( zinc is huge for good immune function.)  I took Biotics products “Bio-immunozyme” every morning and every night, along with A.D.P.

To sleep, I used a tonic with Valarian, Hops, Passionflower, and Skullcap, along with a Biotics Melatonin w/ B6 and Magnesium.  I slept mostly great, which is totally necessary since we repair best when we’re asleep.

I made sure to eat a huge variety of vegetables, herbs, and spices; I had liver more than normal, more lemon than usual, and more turmeric and ginger. ( I put turmeric in every single morning coffee, a habit I’m going to keep.)

20151022_082312And last, I got an ear infection, which I thought was just for kids.  I used Mullein Garlic oil: eardrum soothed, and infection gone.  Did you know that the American Academy of Pediatrics has changed their position on ear infections to “watch and wait”?  Most ear infections are viral, and most clear up – untreated – in a week.

I did a pretty good job staying away from sugar(which seriously and immediately suppresses immune function), except for a dive into Trickling Springs ice cream on Saturday night.  I was weak.  And made sure I got outside every day to move in the sunshine.  Vitamin D and fresh air – remedies for everything!

Here’s what I didn’t do:  use conventional cold meds.  Why?  One, suppressing symptoms while ruining my liver and other organs scares me now.  Besides, I used that stuff for years, and it never seemed to suppress the symptoms well anyway.

Sneezing, dripping/runny nose, watery eyes:  that’s our immune system expelling germs from the body.  Why would I get in the way of that?

Two:  take a look at these ingredient lists.

Vicks Dayquil:

Inactive Ingredients: Citric acid, FD&C yellow 6, flavor, glycerin, polyethylene glycol (aka PEG, I wrote about this in the Miralax post), propylene glycol, purified water, saccharin sodium, sodium citrate, sucrose.

Active Ingredients: Acetaminophen ( #1 cause of Liver Failure in the U.S.),Dextromethorphan HBr, and Pseudoephedrine HCl ( banned from store shelves since 2006).

Vicks Nyquil:

Inactive Ingredients: Acesulfame potassium, alcohol, citric acid, D&C Yellow No 10, FD&C Green No 3, FD&C Yellow No 6, flavor, high fructose corn syrup, polyethylene glycol, propylene glycol, saccharin sodium, sodium citrate.

Active Ingredients: 650 mgs Acetaminophenm Dextromethorphen Hbr, and Doxylamine succinate.

No wonder we’re such a sick society!

It’s the end of October, start stocking up for your family now.  Colds, flus, sore throats, ear aches,… tis the season.  Make sure you and your family are covered.

Remember, no one “gets” us sick.  We come into contact with germs every day, all the time, every where.  Our immune system is either strong or weak, and our life style determines that.  Our choices determine that.  Let’s choose to be strong, and do what’s best for our body.

Poop’s on Beards, Computers, Desks, CounterTops..Better Build a Healthy MicroBiome!

family

Family get together last night:)  That’s my dad, my mom, and my Uncle Fred, my 3 sisters, 2 of my daughters, and a few nieces and nephews.

Recently, Consumer Reports came out with data that had many people scared to eat meat.  The Report found that beef does indeed contain bacteria that can become pathogenic, like e coli and salmonella.  The report also found pretty big differences in the amount of bacteria, and anti-biotic resistant bacteria, in CAFO cattle (cattle raised in feed lots), compared to cattle raised on grass;  grass fed steers had less bacteria in the finished product.

Comments at the end of articles and on social media had people claiming that this would be the end of their meat eating as obviously, meat was just crawling with germs.

Hold on.

Meat accounts for about 20% of all food borne illness;  fruit, vegetables, and nuts accounts for almost 50%.

More bad news:  beards are loaded with poop.  Actually, germs are literally everywhere: our kitchens, our phones, our toothbrushes, toys, sponges, towels..From Philip Tierno, a microbiologist at NYU, and author of The Secret Life of Germs:  “To focus on beards is to miss the point. We, as a society, are literally bathed in feces,” Tierno said. “Wherever a man touches, there are feces and fecal organisms present.” Even to focus on toilets is to sort of miss the point: One study compared surfaces in the bathrooms and kitchens of 15 homes and found that the toilet was among the least bacteria-laden places tested.

Here’s the bottom line, bacteria are EVERYWHERE.  We have a few pounds of it on ourselves, and in ourselves.  It’s time to quit being scared of germs, and instead make sure our MicroBiome is healthy and cared for.  Apparently, our personal ecosystem is like a garden, and we either feed and water it correctly and give it plenty of sunshine (yep!), so it works for us; or we ruin it with a diet of sugar, processed food chemicals, and a bad lifestyle (no sleep, no exercise, no sun) and get sick, sad, and fat.

(Scientists say our inner bacteria play a role not just in our immune system, but our personality, temperament, and mood. )

Hopefully, you’ve been convinced that we don’t need to starve ourselves in order to avoid bad bugs.

We also shouldn’t be using hand sanitizers (plain soap and water suffice), or keeping our homes too clean.

So, what can we do to strengthen our immune system?  Lots!

1) Don’t eat Sugar or Processed Foods.  Sugar suppresses white blood cell function, destroys bacterial balance in our gut and feeds both bad bugs and cancer cells.   Emulsifiers in processed foods, such as Polysorbate 80 and Carrageenan, also cause damage to our eco-system.

2) Open the windows in your home.  We’ve got bad stuff floating around, don’t keep it trapped.  Have you ever heard of the book, Slow Death By Rubber Ducky?  Scarier than than beef, I promise you.

3) Eat more plants, not just for their vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients, but because they feed our good bacteria, they make them strong!

4) Eat your probiotics: kim chi, saurkraut (fermented, not vinegar), kombucha, keifer, good yogurts, fermented veggies…  these foods are loaded with beneficial bacteria.

5) Avoid antibiotics unless absolutely necessary, they wipe out everything, the good and the bad.

*******Use your common sense here.  If you have an obvious bacteria infection, they’re probably necessary.******   Overuse is famously common.

6) Consciously develop a lifestyle that’s Immune Strengthening, instead of Immune Weakening.   Get to bed at a decent time, don’t over-do alcohol, get sunshine, exercise, pray, meditate, develop and nurture relationships.

7) Eat plenty of garlic, onions, ginger, and other foods that are, literally, powerful medicine.    Real Whole Food is our life’s blood.

Want to learn more?  Read this, and this.

Back to the beef:  the boogy-man is us.  Really.  For the most part, we either make ourselves strong, and help our children develop habits and patterns that make them strong, or we make ourselves weak.  The choice is ours.

Can You Eat Potatoes ( or other starchy Real Whole Foods) ? Test Your Blood Sugar!

4 girls after walking cere

( I love this pic of my girls! Raise healthy kids!  They’re depending on us!)

Potatoes, corn, carrots, plantains, bananas, beans,…wow, they sure do cause confusion.  Years ago, Dr. Atkins came out with his first book and completely demonized these foods by lumping them in with grains and sugars.

It was a great book, and he had a TON of research behind his initial recommendations, which were that if you’re overweight and want to lose, cut waaay down on the carbs, and consume lots of protein and fat.  He’s right.  Crappy carbs will not only put weight on us – and our kids – but they’re the perfect vehicle for:  inflammation, cancer, heart disease, diabetes, neurological conditions, ADD, ADHD, skin issues, and just about every disease out there.  Crappy carbs cause an Inflammatory Environment in our body – and our kids bodies.

Crappy Carbs are Evil.

But are those Real Whole Foods I listed above “Crappy Carbs”?  No. But that doesn’t mean you get to eat them.  Sorry.  The real answer is, “It depends.”  What do they do to your blood sugar after you eat them?  There’s an easy way to find out:  buy a blood sugar kit, aka, a Glucometer.

IT’S SO FUN – honest!  You might think Glucometers are just for diabetics, but they’re not.  Anyone can buy a kit in any drugstore or Walmart, or off Amazon, anywhere.

If you’re a weight loss client of mine, you probably already own one.  If you’re not a client, but a blog reader, buy one today.  Here’s why.

When blood sugar rises above “normal”, (normal is between 80 – 100, but some labs have lowered that value to 70 – 90), the pancreas releases the hormone INSULIN.  Insulin is an anabolic, building hormone.  Insulin takes the excess blood sugar, the amount that sends the value over “normal”, and stuffs a little in our muscle cells (the empty ones), a little in the liver-glycogen storage (if it’s low) and then…….turns all the rest of the excess into FAT/triglycerides, and stores them in the fat cells.

How does Blood Sugar get above normal?  EASY.  Every single carbohydrate we eat becomes blood sugar in our gut.  EVERY. SINGLE. CARB. Whether it’s from a grain, pure sugar, fruit, veggies, beans, nuts, whatever.  The carbohydrate in those foods is reduced to Glucose.  That’s the gut’s job:  break food down to chemical molecules so our cells can use it.  All carbs become glucose and fructose, 2 tiny, simple sugars that fit in cells easily.  (Today, we’re just talking about glucose; fructose is evil too! More on that later.)

How much blood sugar is too much?  If we weight 150 pounds, we have about 4.7 liters of blood.  “Normal” blood sugar – a measurement of 85 on the glucometer – equals 4 grams of sugar in the whole body.  4 Grams.  4 Grams. That’s 16 calories of carb (1 gram = 4 calories).  More than that, and the conversion of sugar/glucose to fat/triglycerides happen.

A medium French Fry has 47 g of sugar (all carbs break down to sugar).

A can of coke has 39 g of sugar.

Krave Jerky Lime Chile has 39 g of sugar per package.

1 cup of pasta has 43 g of sugar/carbs.

1 cup of orange juice 27 g of sugar.

Those are all obvious Crappy Carbs; the starches become sugar/glucose very very quickly and go from gut to blood stream fast.  But the real reason they’re Crappy is because they’re highly, highly processed and have no nutritional value at all.  None.  They’re so anti-good for us they’re poison!

Conventional wisdom tries to tell us that pasta has B vitamins, or french fries from McDonalds are vegetables.  Bull Crap. Those B vitamins – added/fortified – back into the pasta, were made in a factory in China from synthetic materials.   And those Mc D’s french fries?  19 ingredients!!  Gross! That’s not real!  Read their ingredient list, and several others, here.  Please, read it.  Our kids eat this stuff, and our kids are getting sicker and fatter and sadder than ever.

It’s. The. Food.

So what about YOU, and ME, and potatoes, or corn, or plantains, or all these other starchy fruits and veggies?  How does that affect our blood sugar since we know they’re carbohydrates?

I don’t know how they affect you; I know how they affect me because I’ve pricked my finger and tested a million times in the past 5 years.  Buy the glucometer and test yourself.  They’re cheap and they’re easy to use. Prick your finger 90 minutes after a meal (peak blood sugar), and look at the number.  See how your oatmeal or your pasta or your crackers affected you.

And see how a meal of corn or potatoes or bananas or beans, or any high carb fruit or veggie, affects you.

Five years ago, I had pretty fluctuating blood sugar.  I considered myself “low carb” because I ate a lot of “low carb” foods:  Kashi Go Lean, Low Carb Tortillas, Low Carb Bread, Low Carb Ice Cream, Low Carb Cookies…..  then I bought the glucometer.  Wow.  Did I get a wake up call.  My blood sugars were way too high, and it scared me into action.

No more Low Carb Crap, just Real Whole Foods.  Of course, I worried about the high carb fruits and veggies, and the glucometer showed that yes, they did raise my blood sugar too much.  So I cut way back on them.

In the past 5 years I’ve changed and refined my diet – a lot.   I eat more herbs and spices than ever – every day.  I use essential oils.  I’ve added more fat than I ever thought possible.  I’ve managed to completely delete “cheat days” from my life (thank you God), I’ve become scared of processed foods to the degree that I’m literally afraid of them.  I’ve joined several food co-ops, I go to a couple different farmers markets.

Last summer I went totally ketogenic for a few months.

In other words, I’ve taken several actions, consistently, for several years now, and guess what?  Now when I take my blood sugar ( which I still do all the time – and I take my kids and Mark’s often also), it’s always good.

A few mornings a week I throw a banana into my smoothie – blood sugar stays low.

I eat potatoes or plantains for dinner at least 4 or 5 nights a week.  The other night I measured before dinner, I was 78.  After a dinner of roasted potatoes coated w butter, squash coated with olive oil and parm, a steak, and a piece of dark chocolate, I was 98.

I’VE BECOME SO DARN NORMAL.  It’s awesome!

I believe you can become normal too, with persistence and consistence.

What’s normal?  Normal is when you eat a real whole food, in normal amounts, in a normal diet full of nutrient dense foods loaded with good fats, some protein, and a ton of vegetables, and your body processes it just fine.

Your muscle and liver cells are open to the carbs and the fat both, you sleep well, you don’t feel sick, bloated or brain foggy – ever, and your energy and immune system hum.

By the way, as good as they look, 6 pack abs aren’t totally normal, especially for most women. Having some body fat – is normal.  Being ripped, lean, and shredded, goes against most body types, and the actions needed to get there usually lower thyroid function, lower body fat to unhealthy levels, and mess up our sex and adrenal hormones.

Not normal.

How can you become normal?  There’s only one way: change how your brain things about about your body and food.  No more diet and weight loss focus, it doesn’t work. Focus on your health instead.  Pledge that at least a few times a week you’re going to read something from Dr. Mercola or Suzy Cohen or Dr. Davis/Wheat Belly or if you’re interested in the science behind the Ketogenic Diet (because I really do believe it heals cells and the liver and reverses insulin resistance) check out Dr. Nally here.

Here’s my Cigarette Analogy:  would you ever pick up a cigarette butt off the sidewalk and put it in your mouth? No! That would be disgusting, and there’d be no effort at all in resisting that urge.  I want you to look at a slurpee or a box of cookies or a fast food burger and think:  “I’d never put that in my mouth, that’s disgusting!”.

Here’s something that’s not disgusting, and it’s delicious!  2 Recipes, each I’ve had on here before, but they’re worth repeating.   The first is my Sweet Potato Pizza – Oh My Gosh is it delicious!!

Chipotle Sweet Potato-Zucchini Pizza

20150627_145925

1 large sweet potato
1 large green zuc, ring out water by 20150627_172301twisting in a towel
1 heaping tbsp chipotle powder
3 eggs, beaten
5 tbsp coconut flour
1 tsp salt
Mix all ingredients in a bowl, and pat onto a pizza pan. Bake at 425 for 40 minutes. Top with tomato sauce and cheese ( and whatever else you want, I’ve done corn, cilantro, and peppers). Bake at 425 for 10-15 minutes.

Roasted Potatoes – kids love this and it’s so much better than french fries-

roasted potatoesScrub and dice potatoes
Pour a couple tbsp of melted KerryGold butter and coat them w it
Salt & Pepper
Bake at 425  50-55 minutes, flip w a spatula half way through.

By the way, these things freeze and reheat beautifully, they’re a great Power Cooking food.

Success Story: Pain Gone and Weight Off

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI love it!  Another client who’s lost weight, eliminated pain, and – this isn’t in her story – got rid of daily bloat and IBS.

Its. The. Food.

But it’s not “diet food” that you need, as a matter of fact, Chrissy lived on a diet.  A typical low fat, healthy whole grain diet.

That doesn’t work, not for weight loss, and not for inflammation; no matter how intuitive it might sound that to lose fat, you shouldn’t eat fat, it’s the exact opposite of the truth.

Chrissy didn’t see me for weight loss, she already looked great.  Her weight loss was just a bonus side-effect of eating for health.  She came to me because of the daily pain she experienced, which wasn’t getting resolved despite multiple attempts with doctors-tests-drugs.

Her back pain, and her bloat-IBS, were just symptoms of inflammatory chemicals in the foods she was eating.  “Healthy” foods by normal standards, but foods I believe are causing terrible health, pain, and weight gain in most people.

Grains and sugars and chemicals aren’t good for any of us, that goes for our children who often recover quickly from any acute damage they cause.  No one can recover forever though.  Eventually, the side-effects of grains/sugars/chemicals will present themselves, every day.  

If you have issues you’re dealing with, from PCOS, to headaches, to sore joints, poor immune system, issues other than just weight, you’re not deficient in medicines, you’re nutrient deficient and damaged.  You can fix that!  

Read Chrissy’s story, and then get in touch with me.

“I’ve been dealing with terrible back pain since September 2013. I’ve had every medical test you can get – sonograms, X-rays, CT scans, MRI, back injections, physical therapy, blood work and finally a colonoscopy. I was tested for celiac. No one could give me an answer as to why the pain would come and go and vary in intensity. Meanwhile, I was LOSING days every single month because I couldn’t get out of bed due to the extreme pain. I was becoming very depressed and starting to lose hope I’d ever be out of pain. Until a follow-up with the gastro doc in January – 16 months after the pain started. They said all this pain could be food related. Rather than go on the diet they wanted me to go on, I got in touch with Debbie Brockett Abbott -a Nutritional Therapy Practitioner – and she has absolutely changed my life! Within 5 days of going grain and gluten free, 95% of the pain was GONE. ALL the pain was gone within 1 week of the diet change. Very quickly I realized that I have a terrible reaction to corn and that corn is in everything! I’m back in pain if I get even the tiniest bit of corn – corn starch, dextrose from corn, corn syrup, etc. It’s crazy. Yes, this way of eating takes time in the kitchen cooking and it took hours just to de-grain my kitchen. But my family has been incredibly supportive because they finally have a happy and FUNCTIONING wife/mom back in the house! And I’ve lost 6 pounds in the almost 2 months of eating this way and have a ton of energy – total BONUS for me! If you are dealing with any sort of pain, do some research. Look at food labels. See if eliminating certain foods could be an answer for you. We’ve all heard we are what we eat – I was eating way too many processed foods and cooking with things that had hidden ingredients I wasn’t even aware of. And if you are local, meet with Debbie!! She’s truly awesome. I’m learning so much about food and nutrition and am finally PAIN FREE! Whoo, hoo!!

DIY Lotion, Carrot Soup, Elderberry Syrup; Homemade is Worth the Effort, Here’s Why

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAAttitude is everything, and my attitude is that I’m Smart, Organized, Energetic, and Able. Believing this about myself makes a busy day much easier mentally, because thoughts affect words and actions.

You are also Smart, Organized, Energetic, and Able.  God didn’t make duds.

In light of those statements, here’s a few recipes. Please don’t move on after reading the word “recipes”.  Homemade is so worth the time and effort, for many reasons; WEIGHT LOSS IS ONE OF THEM.

Our world is a Toxic World.  We literally breath in chemicals, sleep on chemicals, rub on chemicals, and ingest thousands of chemicals every single day.  84,000 chemicals are legal in the US; many are untested, many are unregulated, and many are deemed potentially or definitely dangerous and still allowed in our food, water, and body care products.

These chemicals, which make things smell good, taste good, look good, or feel good, have consequences.  Many of them are hormone/endocrine disruptors, mimicking estrogen.  This has led to men and women and children having higher estrogen levels than what’s healthy, resulting in a long list of problems, from low sperm counts to cancer. Other chemicals cause disease, behavior problems, headaches, and I could go on and on.  You get it.

Remember in my last post I said that Food is Medicine or Food is Poison, and EVERY SINGLE POST IS ABOUT WEIGHT LOSS?  The weight tie-in here is that estrogenic chemicals, along with the sheer volume of total chemicals we ingest/breath/absorb, stress our liver to the point where being a normal healthy weight, or weight loss, isn’t possible.

Our liver has to break down and get rid of every chemical that comes into our body, whether by mouth or skin.  Our liver is responsible for breaking down old hormones. Our liver metabolizes fats and proteins.  Our liver compromises the largest portion of our daily calorie burn ( the brain and heart come in next, and then our muscles ); if our liver is tired, toxic, and over-burdened, happy weight is practically impossible, so is good health.

Read the labels of EVERYTHING; look up some words you see on EWG.org, learn what these chemicals do and you’ll become increasingly motivated to Do It Yourself, I promise. 

I’ve got 3 recipes here that I promise are easy, and wonderful.  Compare the store bought ingredients with the DIY ingredients.

This is Elderberry Syrup, aka, Sambucal, it’s used as either a preventative tonic, or a cold medicine.  Here’s the ingredients:         20150109_060142⅔ cup black elderberries

3.5 cups of water
2 T fresh or dried ginger root
2 tsp cinnamon powder
½ tsp cloves or clove powder
1 cup raw honey (we get from our farmer’s market)

Compare that to the ingredients in Tylenol Cold and Flu:

Acetaminiphen, Dextromethorphan HBr, Guaifenesin,Phenylephrine HCl, and finally,carnauba wax, croscarmellose sodium, D&C yellow no. 10 aluminum lake, flavor, hydroxypropyl cellulose, hypromellose, magnesium stearate, microcrystalline cellulose, polyethylene glycol, pregelatinized starch, sucralose, titanium dioxide.  O.  M.   Gosh.  Why would we put this in our bodies, or our children’s bodies?

Here’s Carrot Soup,  DELICIOUS! (and easy)

20150108_171941

The ingredients were:                        20150108_165456

5 cups of homemade chicken broth
1 can of coconut milk
a Vitamix full of cooked carrots
1 cooked onion,4 garlic cloves
1 TBSP garam marsala; cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, salt&pepper

Compare that to Campbells Vegetable Soup Ingredients:

TOMATO PUREE (WATER, TOMATO PASTE), POTATOES, CARROTS, WATER, PEAS, CORN, DICED TOMATOES IN TOMATO JUICE, GREEN BEANS, ENRICHED MACARONI PRODUCT (WHEAT FLOUR, EGG WHITES, NIACIN, FERROUS SULFATE, THIAMINE MONONITRATE, RIBOFLAVIN, FOLIC ACID), SUGAR , CONTAINS LESS THAN 2% OF: MODIFIED FOOD STARCH, CELERY, ONIONS, POTASSIUM CHLORIDE, SALT, FLAVORING, YEAST EXTRACT, LOWER SODIUM NATURAL SEA SALT, SPICE, ASCORBIC ACID, DISODIUM GUANYLATE, DISODIUM INOSINATE, PAPRIKA EXTRACT.

Last, Homemade Lotion I made yesterday morning for Macy before she went back to school, it took 10 minutes:

The Ingredients are:                  20150109_055505

coconut oil
shea butter
cocoa butter
almond oil
Wild Orange essential oil

Compare that to Clinique Dramatically Different Moisturizer:

Water, Mineral Oil, Sesame Oil, Propylene Glycol, TEA Stearate, Glyceryl Stearate, Lanolin Alcohol, Petrolatum, Methylparaben, Propylparaben, Yellow #5, Yellow #6, Red #33.

The old advertisement:  Better Living Through Chemicals…… it’s not true.  We have way too many chemicals in our life; DIY ( unless you can hire someone to Do It For You ) is important!  Not convinced?  Learn more through the links below:

http://www.liverdoctor.com/liver/the-liver-and-detoxification/

http://foodbabe.com/2013/02/26/are-over-the-counter-medicines-making-you-sick/

https://ispub.com/IJU/2/1/7519

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2726844/

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/03/opinion/kristof-how-chemicals-change-us.html?_r=1

Immune Tonic Recipes Everyone Should Have In Their Home

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI’ve been on an Immune System kick for my last several posts.  With Halloween around the corner and Sugar Season  the Holiday Season about to start, I want to load you up with ideas that will allow you to make it though the holidays, and then winter, strong and well.

Immune Tonics are AMAZING.  Two years ago, my oldest daughter, Megan, gave me Fire Cider for Christmas.  It’s a blend of herbs and spices that are both immune boosting and germ killing.  I made my own last year, and have just bought the ingredients to make another batch this weekend.  It has to sit and brew for a few weeks, and I want it to be ready for when all my kids are home from mid-December to mid-January.

Why not use an OTC cold/fever/flu medication?  Have you seen their ingredients? The artificial dyes, the artificial flavors, the petroleum products and artificial sugars.. disease in a bottle masquerading as medicine.

Here’s the ingredient list for Vicks Dayquil:

Inactive Ingredients: Citric acid, FD&C yellow 6, flavor, glycerin, polyethylene glycol (aka PEG, I wrote about this in the Miralax post), propylene glycol, purified water, saccharin sodium, sodium citrate, sucrose.

Active Ingredients: Acetaminophen ( #1 cause of Liver Failure in the U.S.),Dextromethorphan HBr, and Pseudoephedrine HCl ( banned from store shelves since 2006).

It’s time to get rid of the false notion that fevers, coughs, runny nose, and watery eyes are either Virus or Bacteria getting the best of us.

Fevers, Coughs, Runny Noses, and Watery Eyes are OUR IMMUNE SYSTEM COOKING, KILLING, AND EXPELLING BUGS.  We actually WANT those “symptoms”, they’re signs of a strong immune response.  Even fatigue is good for us when we’re sick; the less energy we exert on activities, and the more we lie around or sleep, the harder our immune system can work to Kill the Bugs.  

Instead of Vicks, next time you or one of your kids gets sick,  (or even better, BEFORE you get sick as part of your supplement routine) reach for one of these tonics:

Elderberry Syrup.  Why?  In addition to Elderberry’s long history of medicinal use, numerous studies have verified it’s efficacy against cold and flu.  Elderberry has very high levels of Vitamins A, B, and C, which are great for our immune system.  You can buy Elderberry Syrup in any health food store, or you can make it, which is honestly super easy, and potent!  My local health food store sells Elderberries ( cheap ), but you can also buy them on line.

Parents:  This is delicious, your kids will actually WANT to take this.

Here’s the Recipe for Elderberry Syrup from the Wellness Mama site:

⅔ cup black elderberries
3.5 cups of water
2 T fresh or dried ginger root
1 tsp cinnamon powder
½ tsp cloves or clove powder
1 cup raw honey (we get from our farmer’s market)

Instructions
Pour water into medium saucepan and add elderberries, ginger, cinnamon and cloves (do not add honey!)
Bring to a boil and then cover and reduce to a simmer for about 45 minutes to an hour until the liquid has reduced by almost half. At that point, remove from heat and let cool enough to be handled. Pour through a strainer into a glass jar or bowl.
Discard the elderberries (or compost them!) and let the liquid cool to lukewarm. When it is no longer hot, add 1 cup of honey and stir well. ( you don’t want to kill honey’s live nutrients )
When honey is well mixed into the elderberry mixture, pour the syrup into a pint sized mason jar or 16 ounce glass bottle of some kind.
Ta Da! You just made homemade elderberry syrup! Store in the fridge and take daily for its immune boosting properties. Some sources recommend taking only during the week and not on the weekends to boost immunity.
Standard dose is ½ tsp to 1 tsp for kids and ½ Tbsp to 1 Tbsp for adults. If the flu does strike, take the normal dose every 2-3 hours instead of once a day until symptoms disappear. 

Here’s the recipe for Fire Cider, which is DELICIOUS served over vegetables or salads.  Or you could just be tough and drink a tablespoon mixed in water.  Again, this is Immune Boosting and Germ Killing, which is far, far smarter than just suppressing symptoms.  (Recipe from Mountain Rose Herbs.) 

1/2 cup fresh grated organic ginger root

1/2 cup fresh grated organic horseradish root

1 medium organic onion, chopped

10 cloves of organic garlic, crushed or chopped

2 organic jalapeno peppers, chopped

Zest and juice from 1 organic lemon

Several sprigs of fresh organic rosemary or 2 tbsp of dried rosemary leaves

1 tbsp organic turmeric powder

1/4 tsp organic cayenne powder

organic apple cider vinegar

raw local honey to taste

Directions

Prepare all of your roots, fruits, and herbs and place them in a quart sized jar. If you’ve never grated fresh horseradish, be prepared for a powerful sinus opening experience! Use a piece of natural parchment paper under the lid to keep the vinegar from touching the metal, or a plastic lid if you have one. Shake well! Store in a dark, cool place for one month and remember to shake daily.

After one month, use cheesecloth to strain out the pulp, pouring the vinegar into a clean jar. Be sure to squeeze as much of the liquid goodness as you can from the pulp while straining. Next, comes the honey! Add 1/4 cup of honey and stir until incorporated. Taste your cider and add another 1/4 cup until you reach the desired sweetness.

Make this year’s cold and flu season the least annoying/invasive/troublesome ever.  Focus on giving your immune system what it wants and needs to fight the millions of germs we come into contact with every single day.  Real Whole Foods.

Want To Gain Weight? Go On A Diet, It’s a Sure Bet.

mark tmNOTHING guarantees weight gain better than Diets. Nothing. The studies show that if you go on a diet, there’s a 95 – 99% chance you’ll gain back all the weight you lost, and for many, a few pounds extra.  Unfortunately, the belief that dieting can make you skinny is so engrained in the psyche, that it’s a hard concept to set aside. Low calorie, low fat foods just sound like they should make us thin, right?  Wrong, wrong wrong wrong.

( PS – that pic on the left – that’s my husband Mark, who’s 50, after he finished a Tough Mudder two days ago.  Here’s a link to his Man Post. )

Interesting facts:

1) Small portions and diet sized meals leave you hungry; hunger always leads to overeating. We’re NOT designed to enjoy or tolerate hunger, it goes against our normal survival instinct and our brain won’t allow it. Unfortunately, since the Diet Industry was born, and people dove right into mini meals of processed diet food with maybe a boring side of steamed broccoli, people can’t quit eating. A whole slew of hormones and chemicals that drive us to literally seek out food are coursing through our bodies.

2) Wheat is an Opiate;  there’s a protein in wheat called GLIADIN; gliadin binds to the opiate receptors of the brain, but it doesn’t make us high. It makes us hungry.  Has wheat always had this effect?  No.  Just since the 1970s when geneticists created modern Semi-Dwarf, high yield wheat. Now, it’s the only wheat available.  So those low calorie, low fat crackers/pretzels/tortillas that are touted as a safe snack because they’re low in fat and calories??  They just send your blood sugar and insulin way up (inflammation and belly fat), and trigger addiction in the brain. They don’t make you thin.

2) Gluten-Free food products are made with High Glycemic flours from GRAINS which convert to blood sugar and send your insulin skyrocketing.  Excess blood sugar is EASILY and quickly converted to Body Fat (triglycerides).  Drop the idea the “Gluten-Free” products = healthy and skinny.  They don’t.

4) People who eat Low Fat Dairy weigh more and are sicker than people who eat Full Fat Dairy.  This has been proven in study after study after study.  The reasons are profuse; but know that there are crucial fatty acids in dairy that inhibit cancer, insulin resistance, weight gain and more.  Quit feeding the skim to your kids, and don’t delude yourself into thinking diet ice cream or low fat cheese will take off the pounds.  Read this link for more information.

5) There’s actually Crucial Nutrients in ALL Real Whole Food that our cells use to be healthy and functioning and normal.  Diet foods loaded with carbs, artificial sugars, chemicals and bad fats RUIN OUR CELLS.  The cells don’t form correctly, they don’t function correctly, they don’t communicate correctly when they don’t have their necessary nutrients.

There’s been so much bad information in the past 50 years and all we have to do is look around and use common sense to see that Main Stream Diet Dogma is a complete failure.  The Diet Industry is a Business; it’s out to make money by promising us Magic that will help us lose weight.  The reality is that dieting has made us bigger than ever, and very sick:

Heart Disease, Cancer, and Diabetes numbers are out of control;  livers have become fatty and dysfunctional due to constant high blood sugars and chemicals; thyroid function has decreased from yo-yo diets; sex hormones are totally askew thanks to chemicals and sugar that create an Estrogen Dominant environment in both men and women; muscle tissue is regularly consumed for energy slowing down metabolism even more; neurotransmitter balance in our gut and brain is totally out out of whack; and we have more people burning predominantly SUGAR for fuel as opposed to FAT for fuel than ever.  (That’s why so many people work out for HOURS and can’t lose weight, they never tap into their fat stores!)

What’s the Solution?

Real Whole Foods.  Too simple?  It is. Sleep, movement, and stress management are just as important.  But we’re talking about food here.

For our body to hum, we need NORMAL cells, that have NORMAL function and NORMAL communication.  We’re a Chemistry Set, not a Math Equation.   Food is medicine, or food is poison, honest.  Sugar, grains, and chemicals are toxic for our body, even when they’re packaged in “diet food”.

Good fats (from CLEAN animal sources, butter, coconut oil, olive oil, pastured dairy, avocado oil) are GOOD for us:  every cell in our body incorporates fats and cholesterol into it’s membrane so that it’s function and communication can be NORMAL.  Fats comprise our sex hormones, and anti-inflammatory hormones; cholesterol is an anti-oxidant and healing molecule.  Our brain is 60-70% fat and cholesterol!!

One of the best things about fat, other than it tastes delicious and keeps us full, is that there NO INSULIN RESPONSE. None.

Insulin drives disease and inflammation, we need a tiny bit released from the pancreas to be healthy, but American’s ( and now much of the world) don’t have a tiny bit coursing through their body;  they have way too much.  Inflammatory conditions are RAMPANT, even in our children.

Good fats, clean proteins, and TONS of vegetables need to be the bulk of our diet.  Some fruit, some nuts and seeds, and some good whole fat dairy if you tolerate that.  Eat 3 meals a day and quit snacking.  Snacking is horrible for blood sugar, which drives insulin, which drives inflammation.

This is the Magic Formula, honest.

After saying all this, I want to acknowledge how difficult it is to rid the mind of deeply entrenched beliefs ( low fat/ low cal foods are good for me ) that have now led to physical addictions   (grains, sugars, and chemicals are absolutely addictive).

This is why you have to work on your Mind if you want to change you Body.  The Mind has to come first, because you’re controlled by your subconscious thoughts.   What to do?

(1) Fill your mind with current science:

Post:http://www.wheatbellyblog.com/2014/06/grains-endocrine-disrupters/

Post:http://authoritynutrition.com/12-graphs-that-show-why-people-get-fat/

Podcast: http://www.thelivinlowcarbshow.com/shownotes/10794/864-dr-william-davis-keto-clarity-expert-interview/

Podcast: http://www.thelivinlowcarbshow.com/shownotes/10827/865-nora-gedgaudas-keto-clarity-expert-interview/

Podcast:http://www.thelivinlowcarbshow.com/shownotes/10863/867-dr-david-perlmutter-keto-clarity-expert-interview/

2) Focus on implanting New Thoughts, which are productive and positive, into your brain.  Most of us run on Auto-Pilot, ….Stop!  Auto-Pilot’s a terrible way to go through life;  look at the results you’ve been getting from your habits and patterns and beliefs so far.  Evaluate.  There’s ALWAYS room for improvement and change, we’re never finished ( til we’re actually “finished”).

Read my last two  Posts;  there’s links to books and You Tubes on creating new thoughts and patterns.  And remember my new favorite phrase:  You can’t have a “10” body without a “10” mind. 

 

 

Angel Food Cake! What I’m Eating To Be Ketogenic, Pictures, and Recipes

angelfood cakeHere’s something that for a long time I considered “Healthy”, but it isn’t:  Angel Food Cake.  I remember my mom making it when I was a kid because my dad was told he had High Cholesterol, and Angel Food Cake had zero cholesterol, which meant healthy (in the old days!).  Then she’d make a fat free pudding with skim milk, and Viola!:  Healthy Dessert!

Here’s the Ingredient list for Betty Crocker Angel Food Cake mix:

Sugar, Wheat Flour Bleached, Egg White, Corn Starch, Leavening (Baking Soda, Citric Acid), Calcium Chloride, Modified Soy Protein, Salt, Cellulose Gum, Artificial Flavor, Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (A Whipping Aid), Nonfat Milk. Freshness Preserved By BHT And Sodium Ascorbate.

If you cut the cake into 12 pieces, there’s 32 grams of sugar per piece, along side a giant dose of Cancer Causing, Liver Damaging, CHEMICALS.

Here’s the Ingredient list for Jello-O Instant Fat Free Vanilla Pudding:

Modified Food Starch, Maltodextrin, Tetrasodium Pyrophosphate And Disodium Phosphate (For Thickening), Contains Less Than 2% Of Nonfat Milk, Natural And Artificial Flavor, Salt, Calcium Sulfate, Xanthan Gum, Mono- And Diglycerides (Prevent Foaming), Aspartame And Acesulfame Potassium (Sweetener), Tetrasodium Pyrophosphate, Dipotassium Phosphate, Yellow 5, Yellow 6, Artificial Color.

Thanks to a big dose of Aspartame, this pudding only has 8 grams of Sugar per serving, mostly, this pudding is a Giant Chemical.  The food dyes alone make it Poison, but the rest of those ingredients are just as bad.

Don’t do it!! Don’t be fooled by pretty desserts that promise no Fat and low Calories.  Our body NEEDS fat, and nutrients!  All those chemicals aren’t just potentially cancer causing, they’re bad for our LIVER ( the BIGGEST source of our Calorie Burn), our Heart ( oxidized cholesterol), our WEIGHT ( all that simple sugar will raise Blood Glucose right out of the normal range), and our Brain ( some of those chemicals are “excito-toxins”, and literally stimulate brain neurons to death!)

At the bottom of this post I’m attaching a recipe for an AMAZING Angel Food Cake from Maria’s Mind Body Health blog;  Shelby says it’s the best thing I’ve ever made, and Shelby’s a tough critic 🙂

I keep getting questions about What I’m Eating to put myself into Ketosis.  It’s been 19 days on the Keto Diet, and I’ve been updating my What I Eat page pretty frequently.

Monday, my Ketones finally hit the “Medium” range, ( took a while!), my weight’s been incredibly stable at 129/130, my energy and sleep are great, and I’m finding this really do-able. That’s probably because I was already Real Whole Food/Paleo for the past few years, and said goodbye to grains and sugars a long time ago.

That said, on August 1st, I’m going back to my Real Whole Foods diet, with my occasional Potatoes, Bananas, and any vegetable I want! I’m glad I dove into the Keto Diet to figure out the nuances, because I think it’s incredibly Therapeutic and Beneficial for a number of health conditions, including:  Insulin Resistance, Cancer, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Thyroid disorders,  and Diabetes, to name a few.  Oh, and for those who are having a difficult time losing weight:  It’s fantastic!  

Before I show some food pics, and post the Angel Food cake recipe, here’s a little info on my upcoming weekend.

I have the DCAC Fitness Convention Thursday night through Sunday; I’m packing my breakfasts and lunches, but I’ll eat out each night.  I’ll be sure to update food and workouts though out the weekend.  I LOVE the DCAC!!

Here’s some of my Keto Meals from the past several days:

chicken:cauliflower

 

This was bone-in/skin on Chicken that I cooked on foil ( less pans to wash), and in the skillet: 6 tbsp butter, 1/4 c water, a whole head of cabbage, cauliflower, onion, and chives.  Topped with Cheese:)

 

sausage:onion:cauli

 

 

To the right, that’s crumbled sausage, zucchini, cauliflower, chives, and garlic cooked in butter and you can’t tell, but there’s a whole skin from one of those chickens cut up and cooked in the pan too.  Topped with cheese of course!

And here’s the Angel Food Cake recipe, my notes are in BOLD throughout the recipe:

“HEALTHIFIED” ANGEL FOOD CAKE
12 egg whites
2 tsp cream of tartar
1 pinch salt
1 cup Jay Robb strawberry protein powder (or EGG WHITE powder if Dairy Free) ***I USED VANILLA, NOT STRAWBERRY BC I DON’T HAVE IT**
1 cup Swerve confectioners’ sweetener (or powdered erythritol) (I USED REGULAR SWERVE, NOT CONFECTIONERS – WORKED FINE)
1 tsp strawberry extract (or other extract) ( I USED LEMON EXTRACT BC I DON’T HAVE STRAWBERRY)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Sift whey protein and confectioners erythritol together and set aside. In a large clean bowl, whip egg whites with a pinch of salt until foamy (save the yolks for “healthified” creme brule, “healthified” coconut custard, OR “healthified” ice cream). Add cream of tartar and continue to beat until very stiff (you will be able to put bowl upside down and the whites won’t fall out). Add your favorite extract flavor. Quickly fold in whey mixture. Pour into a greased 10 inch tube pan. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 45 minutes. Makes 14 servings.

 

*****MY OVEN WAS TOO HOT – LAST NIGHT I BAKED AT 325 FOR 38 MINUTES******

“HEALTHIFIED” CUSTARD

12 large egg yolks
1 cup unsweetened almond milk *****I USED COCONUT MILK FROM CAN – WORKED PERFECT
3/4 cup Swerve (or erythritol and 1/4 tsp stevia glycerite) I USED HALF SWERVE, HALF STEVIA
1/2 cup butter or coconut oil, melted – **I USED HALF OF EACH**

Whisk egg yolks, almond milk, and sweetener in medium metal bowl to blend. Slowly mix in the melted butter so the eggs don’t cook unevenly. Set bowl over saucepan of simmering water. Whisk mixture constantly and vigorously until thickened and instant-read thermometer inserted into mixture registers 140°F for 3 minutes, about 5 minutes total (or coats the back of a spoon). Remove mixture from over water. Serve warm or chilled. (If serving chilled, it can be prepared 1-3 days ahead and refrigerated. Re-whisk before serving.) Makes 4 servings.

Looks Healthy But Isn’t!

We leave tomorrow morning for our Low Carb Cruise, and we’re totally ready for our Partner Detox!  I’ve got the detox kits, the lemons/knife, detox teas, my supplements, protein and greens powder, and Jay Robb bars.  I’ll be sure to post our routine each day, plus pictures.  If you’re not friends with me on Facebook, friend me!

Let me leave you with a few “looks healthy but isn’t” to think about. barbaras high fiberThe first one is Barbara’s High Fiber Cereal.  People still believe they need this kind of stuff to poop.  Not True, ( Big Food’s done a great job convincing us otherwise).  The amount of SUGAR in ONE HALF CUP is 43 grams.  This will raise your blood glucose which raises your insulin which causes most of this to be remade into FAT (triglycerides) and deposited in the belly.  If you look at the Nutrition Label, you might think I’m wrong because it says, “sugar..8 grams”.   That’s MISLEADING; it’s just referring to added sugar, not naturally occurring sugar.  ALL CARBS ARE REDUCED TO SUGAR IN THE GUT.  The total carbohydrate count is what you need to look at.

kirkland baby wipesNext, look at the ingredients in these “natural, aloe vera based” baby wipes.  Ugh.  We rub kirklandthese toxic chemicals all over our little babies delicate skin, they absorb immediately, and are in the bloodstream in seconds.  MOMS:  SWITCH TO PAPER TOWELS AND WATER.   No, they’re not as “biodegradable” as these wipes, but rubbing cancer causing chemicals on your babies skin is worse I swear.    Want a great breakdown of these chemicals?  Read this.

Last, please quit using “coffee creamer”; even the So Delicious Coconut based creamer in the healthy aisle has chemicals: Organic coconut milk (organic coconut cream, water, guar gum), organic dried cane so deliciousjuice, colored with titanium dioxide, dipotassium phosphate, carrageenan.   Coffee mate’s even worse: COFFEE-MATE, FAT FREE LIQUID NON DAIRY CREAMER INGREDIENTS: Water, Corn Syrup Solids, Partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, and/or Cottonseed Oil, (Adds a Trivial Amount of Fat), and Less Than 2% of Sugar, Modified Cornstarch, Dipotassium Phosphate, Sodium Caseinate, (Milk Derivative), Not a Source of Lactose Color Added, Artificial Flavor, Mono And Diglycerides, Polysorbate 60, Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate, Carrageenan, Salt, Betacarotene. Color.

If you want cream, buy Organic Cream and use that.  Even better, find a source of Raw Cream. Real Cream is loaded with vitamins A and D, minerals, phytonutrients, and even anti-cancer fatty acids, like CLA.  Plug into www.localharvest.org to find a list of farms in your area.

What we put in our mouth – and on our body – matters!!  Our food doesn’t just affect our weight,  it affects our Hormones, our Brain, our Energy, our Mood, our Immune System, and everything else about us.    JUST BECAUSE IT LOOKS REAL AND TASTES GOOD DOESN’T MEAN WE SHOULD EAT IT.   Processed food, no matter how it looks or tastes or smells, isn’t Real Whole Food, not by a long shot.  Read your labels,… plan, shop, cook, and pack.  Take control of your life and your health;  be a Real Whole Foodie.