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Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers;
A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked.
If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,
Where’s the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?
Well, I didn’t pick a peck of peppers, but I did pickle them. I have six quart jars full of jalapenos, lots of garlic, some onion, and some mustard seeds. I have never done this before, so I hope they turn out good. As you can see some of them have turned red. I love the color they add to the jars. I followed my basic sour pickle recipe, with the changes noted above. I also ran out of celtic sea salt and had to use some of my kosher salt for the brine.
Since I won’t be canning (heat processing) these peppers, they will remain alive. They will be full of life-giving probiotics. If you want to learn more about that, check out the book I recommended recently.
Look for my garden update coming soon.
If you haven’t noticed already, I highly recommend Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon, with Mary Enig. This book is available at my local library, it just might be available at yours.
This book opened my eyes to a lot of things. But I must say that the first time I checked it out, I was overwhelmed and didn’t even read it. It is so thick. Then I learned that it is mostly recipes. The portion on nutrition is only the first little bit, maybe 60 pages. That was doable to me. I have read that portion, now, over and over, each time gleaning new information.
The authors cover everything you need to know on the subject of fats, carbs, protein, vitamins, minerals, and enzymes, and more.
This is a general resource that everyone should check out, whether you’re just starting to eat healthy, or you grind your own wheat and make your own bread. 
I grew these pickling cucumbers this year specifically to make homemade pickles. I’ve been making them for a couple years now, but I always bought cucumbers from Conrad’s in the past. These are so easy to make and SO good for you. Looking for more ways to get probiotics in your diet? These are for you.
These are naturally fermented pickles. They will not be canned. Canning is a way to preserve your garden bounty, but the process of heating will kill all the beneficial enzymes, vitamins, and friendly bacteria.
If you’re new to naturally fermented foods, you may be thinking, “Ewww, I don’t want to eat something fermented!” But lots of food you already enjoy is fermented–vinegar, sauerkraut, kimchi, wine, beer, cheese, yogurt, miso–to name a few. Even more food was fermented back in the days before canning. It is a natural way to preserve food. This is how people back in Bible times kept food from spoiling without refrigerators. Fermenting actually increases the vitamin content of food. Eating some fermented food every day aids digestion.
I like to use a cross between a recipe from Wild Fermentation and Nourishing Traditions.
You will need:
-filtered water
-sea salt (If Celtic, make sure to sterilize, like I mentioned here.)
-dill seeds or fresh dill heads
-mustard seeds (optional)
-few garlic cloves
-cucumbers, either whole, sliced, or cut in spears
-whey (optional)
-glass jars or crock
-something to weigh down and keep the cukes submerged (see photo)
I mix 6 tablespoons of Celtic Sea Salt with 8 cups of filtered water, stir to dissolve.
Place a couple cloves peeled garlic in each jar, add seasonings, dill and mustard, if using. Add cucumbers to the jar. If you are using whey (this just gives them a little kick-start on fermenting, it’s not essential), add a couple tablespoons to each jar. Then cover with brine. If you need to mix up more brine, do so with the above ratio. You will need enough brine to cover the cucumbers and you will want to leave about an inch of head room.
Now for the important part–you need to weigh your cucumbers down so that they stay submerged. Any part of the cucumber that is above the brine level will rot and have to be thrown out. If you’re using a big crock, you can use a plate to weigh them down. I use mason jars (see above picture), so I use little plastic containers filled with dry beans as my weights.
You will now leave these cucumbers out at room temperature to ferment. I do mine for 5 days. The bigger your cucumbers the longer the ferment. If you leave your cucumbers whole, it will take longer. I always slice mine, like you see in the picture.
You will see the liquid turn cloudy (that is good!) and the cucumbers turn from bright green to the darker pickle color. Cover your container with a cloth to keep flies away. After they are done fermenting, store in the fridge (with lids on the jars).
Now at this point, your germaphobia may be telling you that you can’t leave cucumbers out on the counter for 5 days! But this is wrong. Bacteria and mold cannot survive in certain conditions, salt and acid are two of those conditions. The brine you made is very salty, nothing bad can live in it, that’s why we have to keep the cucumbers in that brine. If they poke above the liquid, they aren’t protected and will mold and rot. In the process of fermentation the sugars are turning to acids and that keeps baddies from growing, too. Good bacteria are multiplying and keeping bad stuff at bay as well. If you want to learn more, click here.
Oddly enough, even though the brine starts out very salty, it changes during fermentation. These pickles are not too salty. If your’s taste too salty, let them ferment longer.
You will need to check on your pickles every day and skim any mold that is growing on the surface. It’s not essential to get all of it, just do your best. Again, I know this sounds weird, but don’t worry, the pickles in the brine are safe. This is how true kosher pickles are made. This is how pickles were made in barrels for hundreds of years. Unfortunately all pickles sold in regular grocery stores are only vinegar-soaked, not truly fermented, and so they don’t have the same health qualities. In addition, store pickles are then pasteurized/heat sealed, which kills them. These pickles are a living food and will last for months in your fridge.
If you are concerned with how these will taste, you can buy Bubbie’s at Whole Foods (sold in the refrigerator section, next to the cheese and yogurt). They are made the same way I have detailed. Bubbie’s are spicier, though.
Also, an added bonus–you will have pickled garlic–a wonderful, natural antibiotic. The garlic takes longer to pickle than the cucumbers. Typically the garlic is ready when the pickles are all gone. If the garlic taste like a pickle, you know it’s done. If it still tastes strong, like garlic, then you know it’s not done and you can just leave it in the jar, in the fridge. I beat colds and flu with garlic, but it’s much, much easier to eat when it’s pickled! My kids will eat it, too, and love it! Occasionally, I will drink some of the pickle brine, too, since it has lots of good stuff, good acids, good bacteria (probiotics), probably some essence of the garlic, etc.
These are easy (probably takes me 30 minutes or less), but they require a little patience (you don’t get to eat them for a few days), but it is SO worth it! Hope you enjoy!
I’m excited about Cheeseslave’s giveaway today. Click here for details. She is giving away 3 starter cultures, sourdough, yogurt, kombucha, and more! The drawing will be done on June 29th. Plus there is a chance of being entered up to 11 times! So, go check it out!
I am making homemade buttermilk this week from my raw milk. I let my starter go, so I’m starting over from scratch. I like to keep buttermilk on hand for pancakes, biscuits, etc. Plus it’s a great way to keep from wasting my raw milk. Once it’s cultured, it lasts a long time in the fridge.
You can use store-bought buttermilk as a starter, but I found that it only works well for a handful of times. When I start it from scratch myself, it lasts longer (the culture, that is).
Click on this link to see just how easy it is to make buttermilk at home.
If you need more information, check out this link.
Also, you can use this same method to make sour cream. Once you have a starter, either store-bought or homemade, use it to culture your raw cream. If you want it ultra-thick, you can strain some of the whey out (I use a coffee filter, basket-style).
The benefit of both these products, is that they are live foods, without any added junk. They contain necessary probiotics, and even if you are using the buttermilk to bake with, there is evidence that dead probiotics still benefit us (the heat will kill the probiotics)!
Other articles on live foods that you may enjoy:
In the last installment, I posted a link that answered the question of why I drink raw milk. I should add that the number one reason is because of my motto–if God created it, it is healthy; if man has adulterated it, it is unhealthy. Pasteurized milk is one of our most processed/adulterated foods (that everyone thinks is healthy). Now on to this week’s topic.
Celtic Sea Salt
You may have noticed that I call for this in most of my recipes. Specifically, my Curried Sweet Potato Soup and my Molasses Sourdough Bread.
Why?
Let’s go back to the beginning.
I first heard of Celtic Sea Salt when reading Nourishing Traditions. Sally Fallon calls for it in all her recipes. So I bought some so I could try making homemade sauerkraut. It was quite expensive, I think I paid about $6.00 for a one-pound package.
So I made some sauerkraut and then left the salt up in the cupboard and didn’t dare use it for anything else, since it cost so much!
Well, one day I was talking to a friend and she told me that she had started using Celtic Sea Salt and it tasted so much better than regular salt in her food. My package had been in the cupboard for quite a while at this point. I figured I should start using it.
So I tried it out and she was right–it tasted great. But another very interesting thing happened. An issue I had been dealing with cleared up. Around the time I had my daughter (she’s 3 and a half now), I started having dizzy spells. They weren’t like anything I had ever experienced before. It wasn’t lightheadedness, like low blood sugar–I knew what that felt like. It wasn’t full vertigo, the room didn’t actually spin, but it was just a very weird feeling. My legs would feel weird and my stomach would feel weird and I would just close my eyes until the feeling passed–it usually lasted a few seconds. Well, these episodes started happening more frequently and were becoming longer in duration. I am the type of person that only goes to the doctor in emergencies, but this was starting to concern me.
When I started using Celtic Sea Salt on my food the dizzy spells stopped! I was thrilled! This told me that it must be some sort of mineral deficiency causing them.
I used up the bag of salt that I had and didn’t rush back out to buy more since it was so expensive. After a bit, the dizzy spells returned, so I ran right back to the health food store to buy more salt. I didn’t care how much it cost now, this was medicine to me! As long as I keep using the Celtic Sea Salt, the dizzy spells seem to stay away. And interestingly, the RLS I had for many, many years is almost non-existent!
Celtic Sea Salt is an unrefined salt. Therefore it has a range of minerals that are not present in regular table salt or even other sea salts. You will notice that it is gray, that is because of all the minerals.
It comes in coarse or fine. I have found that the fine salt is more expensive. I just buy the coarse and grind it in my food processor.
You will notice that it is moist when you buy it. Dr. Hulda Clark recommends sterilizing it in the oven (400F) on a plate for 5 minutes, to kill mold. I did not know this for a while, but a batch of my ferments molded, so now I am taking this precaution.
I do keep Hain Sea Salt on hand for certain things, to keep in the salt shaker, but I use Celtic Sea Salt in all of my cooking.
So why use Celtic Sea Salt? It will help supply your body with needed minerals, it is unrefined (therefore in line with my motto), and it tastes great!
This week I am making…
Beet Kvass,
Beet Kvass
Kombucha,
Kombucha
Yogurt & Buttermilk,
Yogurt
Pickled Green Tomatoes,
Pickled Green Tomatoes
and
Sauerkraut.
Sauerkraut
Why, you ask? 1 – it’s fun and easy. 2 – they’re yummy. And…3 – they’re chock full of goodness!
Beet Kvass, according to Nourishing Traditions, page 610, is, “loaded with nutrients, an excellent blood tonic, promotes regularity, aids digestion, alkalizes the blood, cleanses the liver and is a good treatment for kidney stones and other ailments. May also be used in place of vinegar in salad dressings and as an addition to soups.”
Kombucha I wrote about earlier, see here.
Yogurt is full of probiotics and protein. I make buttermilk to have on hand as a starter culture for sour cream and for recipes that call for it, such as biscuits, pancakes and such.
The pickled green tomato recipe I got here. It’s a variation of the pickled cucumber recipe from Nourishing Traditions. I varied a bit from the recipe listed. I sliced my tomatoes and used dill seed instead of weed. I have never made these before; I really hope they turn out. I tried a garden this year, well, really just one container. I grew tomatoes and basil and was really happy with the turnout. I picked all my green tomatoes on Sunday to save them from the frost.
Sauerkraut picture 1 is shredded cabbage. Picture 2 is the cabbage that has been salted and has wilted, plus some caraway seeds were added. Picture 3 is the kraut in jars. This recipe is from Nourishing Traditions, page 92. Sauerkraut has been known as a health wonder for millennia. Roman historian Pliny wrote of it around 50BC. Captain Cook could not have discovered Hawaii, Alaska, New Zealand and the eastern coast of Australia had it not been for sauerkraut. He brought barrels of it on his voyage and ordered his men to eat it, punishing those that tried to refuse. Sauerkraut was the wonder food that protected the crew from scurvy. We now know that it is high in vitamin C.
All of these naturally fermented items contain enzymes, probiotics, and loads of vitamins.
When I first picked up Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon (as I mentioned in My Food Journey) I just read through the nutrition information, I didn’t really pay much attention to the recipes. Quite frankly, a lot of them looked odd to me, leaving things out on the counter for days to ferment and such. Kombucha was one of those things—this weird drink that you could only make if you had a special “mushroom”.
Well, as I also mentioned in My Food Journey, I grew a lot while I was a member of the discussingNT Yahoo Group. A support group really is a great thing! People there were talking about kombucha all the time. One day someone mentioned they were giving away the mushrooms, really called SCOBYs. So, about a year ago, I sent this kind lady some postage and she sent me a starter. I have been making the drink ever since.
I don’t drink soda (maybe once a year at a restaurant), almost never drink coffee, and rarely drink hot tea. I enjoy my raw milk daily, but mostly drink water. Kombucha is a nice alternative drink I can enjoy that is healthy at the same time. To me, the drink tastes appley and tangy. Sometimes it has some carbonation. (You can actually work on increasing the carbonation, but I don’t bother.) Some say it tastes like apple cider vinegar, I would say it is reminiscent, yet not quite so sour. Others say it has a wine taste. You have the ability to make it as sweet or sour as you like, but the longer you let it ferment, the less sugar/carbs it has in it.
What is kombucha? (I say kom BOOK a, but there is debate on the pronunciation.) It is sweetened tea that has been allowed to ferment. This is where it is going to sound weird, we know sugar isn’t good for us, BUT the SCOBY (Symbiotic Colony of Bacteria and Yeast) feed on the sugar and the caffeine in the tea and produce glucuronic acid. (The end product tastes nothing like sweet tea.) I use a mixture of black tea and green tea to make mine. (Only organic to avoid fluoride and other toxins.) The acid lightens the tannins of the tea, also, so it is a lighter color. Besides the glucuronic acid, Kombucha contains B vitamins, protein, and probiotics.
Your liver normally produces this glucuronic acid to neutralize toxins, but in today’s world we are overloaded with toxins so drinking Kombucha can boost our liver’s detox ability. Because this drink is clearing your system of toxins you need to start out with a small amount each day and slowly increase. When I started drinking it I would feel a very slight headache in the forehead and a slight neck ache and aches in my kidney area (it flushes through the kidneys). (I have a theory that it was flushing the lymph system also, since I had neck muscle aches.) These side effects never lasted very long and they weren’t at all severe, just slight. They did last for a couple months, though. I almost thought that maybe the drink wasn’t agreeing with me and was about to stop, but then the side effects stopped, the sign that the toxins were gone. Some don’t have any side effects whatsoever, though. Perhaps I was quite toxic!
You can read about the wonders of Kombucha on the Internet or in books. I checked out a couple at my local library. One in particular makes it sound like a cure-all. Perhaps if you are in severely poor health you will find that Kombucha does wonders. For me I wouldn’t say it’s a cure-all, but then, I wasn’t in severely poor health, either. I feel more energy when I drink it (maybe the B vitamins) and I feel it releases a bit of water retention. When I eat carbs I hold water, but the Kombucha seems to balance that out for me. Some believe that by eating certain foods our bodies become too acidic, but others don’t. The people that do go along with this theory tell us that animal protein makes us acidic, but veggies alkalinize us, carbs (like bread, pasta, cereal) make us too acidic, but acidic foods like citrus fruit, vinegar, pickles, sauerkraut, and plain yogurt will alkalinize us. Kombucha fits into this category of foods that are acidic, but in our bodies they bring us back into balance. I don’t know if this theory is right or not, but I do know that I feel better when I drink Kombucha. On a side note, when I watched King Corn I learned that the modern treatment of cattle is very poor—they are kept in small quarters, not allowed to graze on their natural diet of grass, but are fed corn/soy feed. The result is that these cows die early from acidosis. Hmmm—cows eating refined carbs, rather than grass (our version of veggies), and their systems become too acidic? Perhaps the acid/alkaline theory is correct. Whether it is or whether it isn’t, guess what? The foods that keep us in balance are whole foods that aren’t processed! If God created it….
I will add that I believe you can have too much of a good thing. There are some that say there are no limits with Kombucha, there are others that say the limit should be 8 ounces a day. I worked myself up to quite a bit a day, around 20 to 24 ounces. I have been dealing with, what I feel is, a mineral deficiency ever since I gave birth to my 3 year old and I noticed the symptoms return when I was consuming this high amount of Kombucha. I have backed off to an average of 8 ounces a day and am fine. I really hope this won’t scare anyone off. I had these same symptoms if I drank too much water daily, too. I feel that too many years of whole grains (not properly prepared), sugar, and distilled water stripped my system of minerals.
If you would like to learn more about this unusual drink, click on these links.
Gunther Frank – lots of info here
(You don’t have to make quite as large batches as him, though.)
If you would like to try making your own, let me know and I will get you a free starter. (If you’re out of state, I will ask that you cover postage.)
Any questions, just let me know.
If you are just now joining this blog, you will want to read Part 1 and Part 2 of My Food Journey.
Here I pick up with what I learned from my research into lowcarb dieting. I learned many things. I learned about how our body releases insulin and about the insulin rollercoaster. I learned more about how important protein is. I learned about the glycemic index and how we can lower the glycemic index of the carbs that we eat by including fat and/or fiber. But the thing that was most enlightening was that fat is not evil!!! This thrilled me, to say the least—I do love my butter! I learned that there are good fats and bad fats and I learned what trans fats are.
This information made me feel great that I was raised on the good fats, butter, cream, and red meat, so I wanted to know more. I picked up a book called, Know Your Fats, by Dr. Mary Enig. This is the definitive guide to fat. I learned about Omega-3s, Omega-6s, saturated, polyunsaturated, and monounsaturated oils; and much more. Everything you wanted to know about fatty acids can be found in this book. Dr. Enig was pushing the FDA to include trans fats on food labels YEARS before they actually did. She is a champion of healthy fats. It was all starting to make sense to me. As a child I was told that hydrogenated oils were bad, but now I was learning why.
This started an obsession for me. I kept reading and researching and learning, I couldn’t get enough! This is the point that I started to make changes to my diet. I threw out all the margarine, Smart Select butter, shortening, trans fat peanut butter (Skippy, Jif, Peter Pan), and starting scrutinizing labels. At this point trans fats were not labeled on food labels. I checked out the book, The Trans Fat Solution by Kim Severson and Cindy Burke. This is a really short informative book that tells you why trans fats are bad, but also how to tell if food contains it. With this knowledge, now I know the REAL way to tell if an item has trans fats in it and guess what? It’s not by looking at the gram listings.
Some time after this I found the book, Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon. This book is really big, most of it being recipes. The first time I checked it out from my library I just read the nutrition information, it was really eye opening. I kept checking it out from our library and kept reading new things in it. After borrowing it from the library about ten times I decided it was time to buy it. This book opened my eyes to phytates, the substance that is in grains that leaches minerals from our bodies. I then started playing around with whole-wheat sourdough. I learned all about raw dairy in this book and then quit buying pasteurized dairy products and started making my own yogurt. From this book I learned how important animal protein is so I started making my son eat meat at dinnertime. He never liked meat very much and I convinced myself he was healthy if he had peanut butter and eggs. Not so after reading Sally Fallon’s book. (He enjoys most meat now.) J
About a year ago I joined the Yahoo group discussingnt; these are all folks that have read Nourishing Traditions. This really helped me along in my changes. I started making a lot more changes when I joined that group. There is something to be said for support, whether that is a friend, or an Internet discussion board, or even a private journal (this at least helps with accountability). Anyway, I saw that there are so many real foods that we’re missing out on because of mass marketing. According to FDA safety guidelines, food must be sealed in order to be shipped and sold on a mass scale. This is good because it prevents rotten food from being sold, but the bad news is that this process kills the nutrients in those items. (Moral: We should be getting our food locally.) So I started making my own naturally fermented sauerkraut, dill pickles, ginger carrots, and beet kvass. When these items are let to naturally ferment and then stored in the refrigerator instead of heat-sealed through traditional canning methods they are alive and full of nutrients and beneficial bacteria. Also while I was a part of that discussion group I started making Kombucha and still drink it practically every day.
Other changes I have made include less cooking with olive oil, I do use it on salad, on pasta, and to dip bread in. It is a very healthy oil when it is cold, but it will get damaged when heated. I do most of my cooking with butter and some with coconut oil. When I switched to lowcarb eating I learned to like a lot more veggies, since veggies have a lower glycemic index than breads and pastas. Thankfully when my husband went on his diet we cleared the cupboards of the snack cakes and boxed macaroni and cheese. He had quit drinking soda and Kool-Aid many years before. He switched to Baked Lays in his diet days and I have since got him to switch to plain corn chips (Baked Lays are about as processed as you can get). I have since got him off the granola bars; I now make him muffins to take to work for breakfast. I now make our own lunchmeat from boneless, skinless chicken breasts, rather than buying processed lunchmeat. He lost his weight by really watching his portion intake and cutting most fat out. Since I learned all about healthy fat, I now feed him lots of fat in his meals and he hasn’t gained any of the weight back. He still watches his sugar intake. I take coconut oil daily now. I started taking cod liver oil last fall. I occasionally take a probiotic supplement, but I feel I am getting a lot of beneficial bacteria from my homemade yogurt, Kombucha, and naturally fermented veggies. I started making my own sour cream and buttermilk (more beneficial bacteria). I have switched to aluminum-free baking powder (Rumford). About a year ago I stopped using commercial shampoo, conditioner, bar soaps, shower gels, lotions, and facial cleansing products (I’ll give more details in a later post) because of the chemical content. I switched from drinking distilled water to filtered water (spring is best, we’re just not there yet). And I use plastics a lot less now, I’m not completely away from them, but I am taking my babysteps.
Now keep in mind that all these babysteps I took were over a period of years, this really all started about 6 years ago. I’m just hoping that my list will inspire you and encourage you in your changes.
Looking back over my food journey shows me 1) I ate pretty good as a child, but there was a high level of phytates, which I think accounts for my dealings with mineral deficiencies now and 2) it is SO important to teach your kids about healthy eating and why you choose to eat what you eat. I wasn’t taught and had to educate myself as an adult after eating poorly for about 10 years. It may look like I have come full circle and now eat the way I did as a kid, but there are a few differences. I watch my carb intake; I don’t eat a lot of breads and pastas. Even if you’re choosing all whole-grain bread products you can still go overboard, remember, balance is key. We ate a LOT of grains in our family; my blood sugar just can’t handle that now. I feed my kids more carbs than I eat, but I do make sure they are getting animal protein every day.
The journey doesn’t end here—it goes on and on. We all should never stop growing, never stop learning, and never stop changing!
Update: I forgot to mention that I have started soaking some grains, we eat soaked old fashioned oatmeal once a week and soaked multi-grain pancakes on occasion.
I love books! Here is a list of my favorite books and movies on the subjects of cooking and health and a few I want to read/watch. These are some great last minute gift ideas or just more things for you to check out from your local library.
Books on Cooking
The Joy of Cooking – a great basic cookbookI recommend this for new and experienced cooks. It covers every category and every food type. I like to pull this off the shelf and just read it sometimes. It has more than just recipes, but explanations and techniques.
How to Cook without a Book by Pam Anderson
Learn techniques, not just recipes. This is a great cookbook for the new cook or the cook that wants to get away from packaged food. Watch out for a couple of packaged food ingredients, but overall it’s real food.
The Perfect Recipe by Pam Anderson
I love all Pam Anderson’s books. She used to work for Cook’s Illustrated magazine (another favorite of mine). She will test every possible way to prepare an item and then present you with the best version and also explain why.
How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman
This is another great basic cookbook, for new and experienced cooks. It’s not as expansive as The Joy of Cooking, but covers a lot of ground. In this book are recipes for popcorn, hot cocoa, and much more. Mark Bittman shows how easy it is to prepare food from scratch; there are no packaged items in his recipes.
Magazines on Cooking
These are my favorite magazines. I LOVE that they don’t include advertisements (Fine Cooking includes a few, but nothing like Bon Appetit!), and they show you how to cook real food! Gourmets insist on fresh, real ingredients, like butter and cream so these recipes are going to be healthier than packaged food.
Fine Cooking
Cook’s Illustrated
Cuisine
Books on Health
The Maker’s Diet by Jordan Rubin
Ignore the word “diet” here. This is a book about healing. Jordan Rubin has an awesome testimony of healing through whole foods.
Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon and Dr. Mary Enig
An excellent source of nutrition information from an unbiased source including lots of recipes for foods prepared in traditional ways, the way our ancestors prepared their food. At last, a successful challenge to politically correct nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats!
Eat Fat, Lose Fat by Sally Fallon and Dr. Mary Enig
A very well written book about how wrong we have been to avoid fatty foods, with concise information about why we need fat. Includes lots of whole-food recipes. Great for someone needing healing or needing to lose some weight.
The Untold Story of Milk by Dr. Ron Schmid
Fabulous information about the dangers of pasteurization and the wonders of raw milk.
Wild Fermentation by Sandor Katz
Recipes for everything fermented, from sourdough bread to beer to pickles. These items are fermented naturally so they retain their enzyme and vitamin content. I made his pickles and they were awesome!
Living the Low Carb Life by Jonny Bowden
This is the book that started it all for me. When I quit nursing my first baby I started gaining weight. That nursing really uses up the calories for me. The weight kept creeping up so I tried to eat as little as I could and cut out as much fat as I could. I not only kept gaining weight, but I was STARVING all the time! My blood sugar would drop and I would reach for something lowfat to bring it back up (like a granola bar) and then an hour or two later it would drop again. I felt miserable and I craved food all the time. So I turned to lowcarb eating. The pounds starting coming off and I was feeling good, but my thoughts were, “all this fat can’t be healthy.” So I started my research. I read lots of books, Atkins, The Zone, Suzanne Somer’s food combining book, and more. I stumbled upon Living the Low Carb Life at my library. This book compared all the low-carb diets out there and gave great information about how fats, sugars, and protein react in our bodies. I recommend this to anyone that wants to learn!
Clean House, Clean Planet by Karen Logan
This book is great if you want to cut down on those toxic household-cleaning products. Karen Logan gives many different recipes for natural inexpensive cleansers you can make at home. She also talks about how we kill those germs without toxins. This was the selling point for me, germaphobe that I am.
Movie on Health
Super Size Me – Morgan Spurlock decided to document himself as he ate McDonald’s for every meal for a month. He visits a dietician, and various medical personnel during the month and they chart how badly his health declines. Even though I knew McDonald’s was unhealthy I was shocked by his results. The only downside I saw was the movie’s emphasis on both the fat and sugar as the culprits. I would really like to see the same study done just isolating sugar. Sugar is our real enemy, folks. The fat at McDonald’s is the wrong kind, but too often all kinds of fat gets lumped together as the bad guy. If you want to watch this with your kids, please check it out at www.kids-in-mind.com first.
Wish List
These are books I really want to read and movies I want to watch, when I find the time.
The Cholesterol Myths by Uffe Ravnskov
Traditional Foods Are Your Best Medicine by Dr. Ron Schmid
Life Without Bread by Christian B. Allan and Wolfgang Lutz
Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes
Whole Food Facts by Evelyn Roehl
These are documentaries. Please not that I have NOT watched them yet, so I have no idea as to the quality of the content.
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