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Are you ready for another challenge?
This month, the challenge is to cut out hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated oils for 7 days. Check your labels, you might be surprised to learn what foods contain these oils.
Partially hydrogenated oil is the same thing as trans fat. The problem is that a lot of packages claim 0g of trans fat per serving, but it really is anywhere from 0 to .49g. The FDA allows the manufacturer to claim 0, if it is less than .5. Well, half a gram doesn’t sound bad, does it?
Let’s think about it this way, though. When was the last time you just ate 1-oz. of chips. If you have a scale, try weighing out 1 ounce. It isn’t much. Most of us eat more than one serving of most foods at a time. The manufacturer makes that serving size so small so that they can hide how much trans fat and/or sugar the item really has. So, then you are really eating possibly 1.5g of trans fat, every time you enjoy those chips. Studies show that even 2 grams of trans fat a day are dangerous.
If you normally cook with Crisco, use butter instead. Butter is a very healthy fat. It has had such a negative connotation for far too long. Click here to read about that.
Click here to learn more about hydrogenated oils.
I will check back in at the end of the 7 days and report my results. See you then!
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. 
You can make this with raw or pasteurized milk, but raw milk will give you more benefits. This makes a nice, mild yogurt, not too sour. My daughter and I eat it plain, my son prefers some all-fruit jelly added to his. You could also sweeten with raw honey. Yogurt provides us with beneficial bacteria and protein. Plus, yogurt is very low in carbs!
This recipe is really easy; I think it takes be about 40 minutes at the most. Just read through the entire recipe before starting (and check out the pictures at the end of the article). Last time I made it, I also folded a load of towels at the same time J. I do this once a week to keep us supplied. It will make almost 2 quarts.
For the starter, I use Dannon Plain whole milk yogurt. Some say you can always save some of your yogurt to start another batch, but I have heard that it will not set up as firm each consecutive time. I buy a container of Dannon yogurt and then freeze it in an ice cube tray for later batches. I use ½ cup fresh yogurt or 4 yogurt cubes as my starter.
I pour 6 cups of milk into a two-quart saucepan and heat over medium heat on the stove until it reaches 180°F. I stir frequently (or rather, I whisk) and use a meat thermometer to accurately test the temperature.
Then I turn the heat off and cool my milk down to 110°F. You will kill your starter if you add it to milk that is heated to 115°F or higher. To cool down quickly I set my pan over a plate of ice and constantly stir or whisk it. When the temp is at 110°F, I then stir in the starter (see above). This will bring the temperature down a bit. If I’m using the yogurt ice cubes I will actually add them at 120°F, since they will bring the temperature down quite a bit. You want the temperature to be 100°F when you are ready to pour into your jars. If it has dropped below this, just put it back on the stove and gently warm it, stirring constantly. If it’s a little about 100°F, don’t worry; it will cool when you put it in the jars. Now you are ready to pour into quart jars and put on the lids.
You need to keep this warm for 6 hours. Some people will put them in the oven with the light on. I don’t think my oven stays warm enough for that. Some people will put them on a heating pad and wrap them in towels. I put mine in a little cooler. Before I start the process I will fill the cooler halfway with hot water to get it warm. Then I dump the water out right when I’m ready to put the jars in. I will put the jars in and pack a few hand towels around and on top of them to insulate even more. Then I set the timer for 6 hours. When it goes off I take the yogurt out and chill it overnight before we eat it.
Homemade yogurt has more of a custard-like texture than store-bought yogurt (I am speaking of plain store-bought, not fruit flavored). This is because the manufacturer has added powdered milk to thicken it up. Store-bought plain yogurt is not a food to avoid, but it is a compromise food; homemade is ideal. Powdered milk is processed milk and you know what I say, “If God created it, it is healthy; if man has processed it, it is unhealthy.” According to Nourishing Traditions, by Sally Fallon, “commercial dehydration methods oxidize cholesterol in powdered milk, rendering it harmful to the arteries. High temperature drying also creates large quantities of cross-linked proteins and nitrate compounds, which are potent carcinogens, as well as free glutamic acid, which is toxic to the nervous system. (pg. 35)” So powdered milk is something you want to stay away from. Powdered milk is added to skim, 1%, and 2% milk to give it body, also to yogurt to thicken it, and many other packaged food items.
I like thick, creamy yogurt, so I strain some whey out of mine. Plus I need the whey anyway; I use it in my oatmeal, pickles, sauerkraut, and more. You can place some cheesecloth in a wire strainer set over a bowl and fill it with yogurt. Cover it and place it in the refrigerator for an hour or more (I usually leave overnight). I buy unbleached coffee filters (basket-style) from Whole Foods and use them instead of cheesecloth. The longer you let the yogurt strain, the easier it will be to turn it out of the cloth or filter. I strain some of the yogurt and then mix it with some that is unstrained. You will have to play with it to get the thickness you are looking for. I usually end up with a little more than half the amount I originally made. But it’s worth it, to me. It’s oh so creamy and delicious! If you want to make dip out of it, just strain more whey out of it. Some use strained yogurt in place of cream cheese, too.
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.
Last week I started detailing my background with food and what changes I have made. If you haven’t read it, click here.
Even before I got married my metabolism started slowing down. Growing up, I felt like I could eat as much of anything I wanted and never gain weight. It wasn’t too long after high school graduation, though, that this way of eating started to catch up with me. I’m sure the desk job didn’t help, either.
I let this go on for a few years. In reality, I just didn’t really notice the weight gain; I guess it just happened so slowly. I don’t think I owned scales back then, either. Then I got pregnant with my first child. This is when I learned how important protein was. I started paying attention to food labels to make sure I was getting my daily requirement of this important nutrient.
After I had my son, the pounds started melting off. Nursing really burned the calories for me and I was now more active taking care of a baby rather than sitting at a desk all day. Looking back, I also think that sitting at the desk all day was bad in another way—it was very conducive to snacking. So anyway, it was then that I realized just how much weight I had put on. I looked back at pictures and saw that I didn’t want to be that size again.
I nursed my son for 18 months and my husband told me one day, “You’re not going to be able to eat like that once you quit nursing!” And he was right! (I have always had a big appetite. J) I slowly started putting the weight back on. When my son was two years old my husband decided to lose the extra weight that he had gained in our marriage. He successfully lost 35 pounds and has kept it off for 6 years. At some point after this I decided I needed to get a handle on my weight so I decided to cut way back on my fat intake.
Right here I will backtrack a bit. Like I said in part one of this series, I grew up eating plenty of fat in the form of butter, cream, whole milk, and red meat. It wasn’t until I had moved out on my own that everyone around me told me that was bad. I would eat in the cafeteria at work with my coworkers and they always had comments for me about the evils of fat. I would pile the butter and sour cream on my baked potato higher than anyone—that always solicited comments. I ignored their comments because I was young and all my family was thin and, as I said above, I didn’t notice my weight gain. I think it’s safe to say that most young people don’t care much about their health.
So a few years later, when I wanted to lose a few pounds, all those comments about fat came back to my mind. So I tried dieting for the first time in my life. I would eat a packet of instant oatmeal for breakfast; I think the label said it had 2 grams of fat in it. Then for lunch I would grab a granola bar for 6 grams of fat. I ate normal dinners, but I tried to cut back on the portions. But it wasn’t working! I was STILL slowly gaining weight and I was STARVING all the time!!! I felt awful to say the least, so I gave up.
At some point I decided to give low-carb dieting a try. I had seen others eat low-carb and it certainly didn’t seem healthy, all that bacon and cheese! But it did seem to be working for me, so I thought I would do some research. I checked out numerous books from the library, Living the Low Carb Life by Jonny Bowden, The Zone by Dr. Barry Sears, The South Beach Diet book, and Suzanne Somer’s Somersize book. My thinking was, perhaps I could eat low-carb AND low-fat and be healthier.
I learned a lot from all that research. Want to know what I found out? Tune in next week…
Need a quick breakfast or snack? Instead of reaching for a granola bar, keep these on hand. Refer to the Epiphany article to see why you don’t want to eat granola bars. I feel like I’m always the bearer of bad news, but I have to tell you that muffin mixes in the boxes or pouches have trans fats in them and/or they call for unhealthy vegetable oils. Making muffins from scratch is just as easy; it may only take 5 extra minutes. On a side note, please know that I don’t tell everyone to make things from scratch to be like a Martha Stewart. I wasn’t raised to eat packaged, processed food, but I easily slipped into eating them all the time once I was on my own because I was not educated about why we ate whole foods at home. Now that I have educated myself I am on a mission to educate others and show how making things from scratch is easy, but also much better for you.
I make one batch of these each weekend for my husband to take for breakfast in the car on the way to work. He thinks they taste like Twinkies, I suppose that’s a compliment?! I can handle them with less sugar. If you want, you can try 3 tablespoons of each sugar. Muffin recipes (quick-breads) are really easy to tweak.Preheat oven to 400°F. Butter a muffin pan. You can make 12 small muffins, 8 med-large muffins, or 6 extra large muffins that really hang over the top (I make 8). Note: I use a stoneware muffin pan, so cook time may vary slightly.
Mix together in a large bowl:
2 Cups all-purpose flour
¼ cup white sugar
¼ cup dark brown sugar
1 Tablespoon baking powder (I prefer Rumford, it’s aluminum-free)
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon cinnamon
Melt 4 tablespoons butter, let cool and set aside.
In a smaller bowl beat 1 egg and add:
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
¼ cup milk (preferable whole)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (or almond is good, too)
Then slowly drizzle in the melted butter as you are whisking the liquid ingredients.
Then pour the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir just until combined. Spoon into the muffin pan and bake for 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
If you want to make these healthier you can replace half the flour with whole-wheat pastry flour (soft wheat), anything more and they will be dense, but feel free to experiment. If you want a more natural sweetener, I suggest Sucanat or Rapadura (one and the same). Sucanat/Rapadura is REAL sugar; click the link to see how this sugar differs from the refined product we’re used to. It is unrefined, truly a whole food product. I like to use it in muffins and especially oatmeal, mmm! It is a stronger flavor, since the molasses isn’t separated out, but it also retains its vitamins and minerals, unlike refined sugar. Take your babysteps, make these muffins, then try them with less sugar, then try them with a little whole-wheat flour and then try a natural sweetener. Don’t try to jump too far ahead, too quickly.
Part of the advantage these muffins have over granola bars is their fat content. (I even eat these with more butter spread on them.) If you haven’t read my article on fat, you simply must, it is a foundational point. Fat will give you energy for longer and will help slow the absorption of sugar and carbs into your bloodstream, thus keeping your insulin at a steady level. When your insulin spikes up, it comes back down rapidly, causing a crash and making you feel hungry, irritable, tired, lightheaded, headachy, and sometimes nauseous. (We especially don’t want our children to experience this, can you say cranky? Yet, children eat these foods all the time, perhaps they would behave better on healthier foods?) So you typically reach for another carb item to snack on and go through the whole roller coaster again. This blood sugar roller coaster is one I knew all too well and now take precaution to avoid (now that I know how). My secret weapon is fat. Fat does not make you fat and if you are eating healthy fat, like butter, it will not harm your heart or arteries, either. A few years ago I heard a nutritionist, at a meeting, say that we should NEVER eat sugar without fat. I took that message to heart and it has cured me of the blood sugar roller coaster. (Keep in mind, too, that by sugar I mean ALL carbs, because they are made up of different sugars or are broken down into sugars during digestion.) If I have a carb, even fruit, I HAVE to eat fat with it. If I eat an apple, I eat it with peanut butter or cheese, or else I will be starving in an hour (often with lightheadedness and nausea). If I eat a dessert, I choose richer desserts, like cheesecake, etc. I have found, too often, that if I eat a dessert with little or no fat it will make me feel terrible. I have also discovered that I can eat really small meals if I want (usually lunch) as long as I include a healthy portion of fat. This way I can keep on top of my weight and that’s always an added plus!
I’m wondering why we’re not always told the whole story. These are some examples that come to mind.
We are led to believe that cavities and tooth decay are caused by things that sit on our teeth, food that isn’t properly brushed and flossed away that rots, BUT Dr. Weston A. Price, DDS showed us back in the 1930s that the biggest factor in decay was what goes into our bodies, specifically processed foods. The people groups he studied all over the world had no signs of decay or crowding until the Western diet was introduced, he had the chance to study them before and after. Why isn’t this knowledge widely known? It’s not in the best interest of the packaged food industry or the toothpaste and floss industries that we know this information. Hmmm. Read more here.
We hear a lot about the benefits of tea, especially green tea, that it has anti-cancerous properties, BUT did you know that non-organic tea contains very high levels of fluoride; much higher than the government thinks is safe for our drinking water. For some reason tea leaves store up the fluoride that comes from the polluted ground, so if you want to drink tea, you are much better off with organic tea. Read more here.
We hear that we need to eat whole grains, whole wheat breads, pasta, crackers, and cereals to get our daily intake of fiber, BUT did you know that grain contains an anti-nutrient called phytic acid that actually robs your body of minerals when you ingest it? We can treat our grains and/or sprout them to eliminate the phytic acid, but we should also be getting the bulk of our fiber from vegetables and fruit. Ezekiel Bread is an example of a sprouted bread. Read more here.
We have been led to believe that saturated fat and cholesterol clogs the arteries, BUT the plaque removed from arteries contains very little cholesterol and mostly unsaturated fat, 74%, in fact. (Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon pg. 84)
We are told that Canola is a wonder oil because it provides Omega-3, BUT it contains twice as much Omega-6 which we don’t need AND the Omega-3 it contains is damaged. Don’t be conned by packages that claim their food is a good source of Omega-3, Hellman’s Mayonnaise is a prime example.
We are led to believe that skim milk helps keep us trim, BUT farmers feed skim milk to their pigs to fatten them up! (Nourishing Traditions, pg. 212, quoting The Milk Book by William Campbell Douglass, MD)
We are led to believe that we need to get our daily supply of dairy products in order to get enough calcium, BUT if you are consuming pasteurized dairy, your body can’t use the calcium it’s getting! In the pasteurization process many of the vitamins are destroyed, the enzymes are destroyed and the fat is oxidized (rancid) and then synthetic vitamins are added. Unless you get enough real vitamin D and fat, you can’t use the calcium. Milk, it does a body good? Don’t be conned by marketing campaigns! The calves should give us a clue – when they are fed pasteurized milk, they do poorly and many die before maturity. Read more here.
Merck has developed a new vaccine for young girls to help prevent the spread of cervical cancer, BUT cervical cancer is an avoidable disease, if you know how to avoid it. A virus that is sexually transmitted causes it. If these girls were just educated on how cervical cancer is contracted and what they can do to prevent getting it (abstinence), then we wouldn’t have such an epidemic. Read more here.
Many of us buy “Cage Free” eggs at the store because we feel they are healthy and we have visions of chickens roaming free on lush green fields, BUT unfortunately the US Department of Agriculture defines “free-range” as chickens that have “access to the outside”. How much time do they spend cooped up? How much time do they really go outside? Are they eating their natural diet or some cheap feed that allows the farmers to profit more? The best eggs to get are local; know how the chickens are treated and what they are eating. Read more here.
We believe that organics are healthy, BUT did you know that many organics have little or no vitamins and minerals?!? It is great that the farmers are committed to growing produce free from dangerous chemical fertilizers and pesticides, but unless they are feeding the soil, they are not producing a quality product. Plus when you pick a fruit or vegetable before it’s ripe and ship it halfway across the country, it won’t have much vitamin and mineral content. This is what most of us have access to, so-called organics that come from far away. It’s unfortunate that “organic” is a buzz word now and marketers are using that to their advantage.
So, hopefully I have given you some food for thought. I am sure there are numerous more examples of this that we can think of. It pays to do your homework, always question and expect the truth!
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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