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The UPS man came by the other day. Here’s what he brought me:
From VitaminShoppe.com -
KAL Nutritional Yeast Tablets – a food source of vitamin B. Bs are beneficial for lots of reasons, but for me they reduce stress, keep me from being as irritable (my kids appreciate that), and keep me upbeat. You can read more about nutritional yeast here.
Concentrace Minerals – minerals are vital to health. I add a few drops of this to each glass of water I drink. It makes my water taste so good. Click here to read a primer on minerals.
Magnesium Capsules – I started taking these after researching adrenal fatigue. I’m still taking them to be proactive. The above mineral primer includes information on Magnesium.
Garden of Life Primal Defense Ultra – fabulous probiotic! You really get what you pay for. I decided to save a little a while back and bought a cheaper brand. They did not do for me what these do. When I was still dealing with dermatitis, and after I used up all the cheap probiotics, I ordered these. After taking one pill I noticed a difference in my hand. I don’t even think we fully understand the role of probiotics in our body. They aid digestion and help with intestinal issues, but beyond that, many, many issues are rooted in intestinal health. When our gut is out of whack, the rest of our body is. Probiotics help heal your gut. Dr. McBride has discovered that autism and even dyslexia are rooted in gut health. Click here for a great article about probiotics.
Maca Capsules – I have heard great things about this herb. Click here to read more. I have heard that it is great for your adrenals and even though I have been healed, I want to be proactive and prevent future flare-ups. I have been extra tired lately and am hoping these will give me energy. I have been taking them four days now and am feeling pretty great. I don’t know if it’s a coincidence. I’ll have to see if it lasts. Click here to read one woman’s experience with maca and click here for more information.
Papaya Chewable Enzyme Tablets – I take an enzyme supplement because a few months ago I had a few episodes of intense intestinal discomfort. It happened three times and was horrible. They would last about an hour, but then I was still weak for a while afterwards. My husband discovered years ago that enzymes cured his IBS, so I figured they would help me for whatever this issue was. I bought these chewable ones for the kids. My son has had a few of those episodes like I had in his little life. So he is really the one I bought them for. (On a side note, as I write this I am thinking that I do not recall him having any stomach aches while I gave him coconut oil regularly. I haven’t been giving him any the last couple months and he has had two stomach aches. I am going to start giving it to him consistently again.) You can read about enzymes here.
From Green Pastures –
Blue Ice Cod Liver Oil – this is the best source of vitamins A and D you can get. Amazingly, this cod liver oil doesn’t taste bad and I’m not just saying that. :) Since I have been taking cod liver oil, I have noticed that I don’t ever really get sick and when I do, it’s incredibly mild and doesn’t even slow me down. Cod liver oil is a preventative measure and coconut oil is for fighting sickness when it hits (among other things). Read more about cod liver oil here.
Virgin Coconut Oil (for friends, I still have about a gallon) – You can read about my experience with coconut oil here.
Hippocrates (460BC – 377BC) said, “Let food be thy medicine, thy medicine shall be thy food.” I really try to keep in line with this. However, our modern food supply is very, very deficient, supplements are sometimes needed. The best supplements to buy are those that are from food. Not just natural, but an actual food item, like the yeast tablets and cod liver oil. These are called superfoods. They are food items that are packed with nutrition. As always, remember My Motto. This holds true for vitamins. If it is a chemical version of a vitamin, our bodies won’t absorb it. If it is a compound taken from food, it still isn’t very good, it’s missing all the other parts. The best is in it’s whole food form, with all of its cofactors and such present. There are things that scientists still haven’t even discovered about vitamins, but God knows just what your body needs.
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. 
Why do I have whey in my fridge?
And where did I get it?
What am I going to do with it?
All very good questions!
Whey is a component of milk. Milk contains fat, protein (casein and others), sugar (lactose), enzymes, vitamins, and minerals. In the process of making yogurt, the beneficial bacteria convert the lactose into lactic acid, giving the yogurt its sour flavor. I like to drain some of the whey out of my yogurt to make it thicker. Whey contains some protein, lactic acid, and I’m sure some other things. Read about making yogurt, here.
Since the whey is acidic I can use it to neutralize the phytic acid in my grains (in the bran of grain). The phytic acid, if left un-neutralized, will rob your body of important minerals. For example, I know people like to eat Cream of Wheat for its iron content, BUT you won’t be absorbing that iron because of the phytic acid! Ideally, we should be eating all whole grain foods, but only those that have been soaked or sprouted. Read more here.
If I want to cook brown rice, I will soak it in filtered water (for a few hours) with some whey added.
I have switched my family from modern oatmeal (rolled oats, quick oats) to old-fashioned oatmeal. The less something is processed, the better. Instant oatmeal is the most processed, quick oats a bit less, rolled a bit less, but THE best are whole oats! I buy whole oats (called groats) from Whole Foods.
Old-Fashioned Oatmeal
I like to use a mixture of oats, rye, and wheat. The rye gives it a flavor reminiscent of the Roman Meal hot cereal I ate as a child. The reason I started adding the wheat and rye is that oats are particularly low in phytase, the enzyme that breaks phytic acid down. Regular soaking methods don’t reduce the phytic acid very well (in oats). Amanda Rose, from Rebuild From Depression, suggests adding 10% wheat to your oats. I started doing that and thought rye would be good, too.
I place 3/4 cup whole oats, 2 tablespoons wheat berries (soft or hard), and 2 tablespoons rye berries in a blender. I grind for about 30 seconds. I then put the semi-ground grain into the pan I’m going to cook it in the next morning, or if it’s unavailable, a mason jar. I add 1/2 cup whey and about 2 1/2 cups filtered water. (Here you will have to see how much water works for you. We like really thick oatmeal. Add more or use less according to how your family likes it.)
I let this soak overnight and then in the morning I just bring it to a boil in a saucepan, with a bit of salt added. I stir constantly until the mixture boils and then turn the heat down to simmer, place the lid on the pan and let it simmer until thick. I don’t really watch the clock at this point. It could take 5 minutes, it could take 30. I usually cook this and then set it on simmer and go blow dry my hair and put on some makeup. The first step of stirring until it boils only takes a couple minutes, so overall this is an easy breakfast!
These proportions make 3 large servings. If you are accustomed to eating instant oatmeal, then this recipe would give you at least 6 servings. I have actually been doubling it lately so that we can eat oatmeal all week, but I only have to soak and cook it once. I reheat portions of it in oven-proof ramekins (covered in foil) in a 350°F oven. I think it even tastes better the next day!
We like our oatmeal with a generous pat of butter, lots and lots of cinnamon, some sucanat (unrefined brown sugar, contains the vitamins and minerals that are stripped from refined sugars), and cream. Mmm! You could add fruit to this, nuts, maple syrup–make it the way you like it. (The picture above in the bowl is oatmeal without anything added yet.)
Now, when I switched my kids over to this new oatmeal, I wasn’t sure they would be on board with me (especially my son, he’s the picky one), so I just decided to call it oat porridge instead of oatmeal. That way their wouldn’t be a comparison, this was something new! Porridge! Not oatmeal. My son didn’t take to it whole-heartedly at first, so I tried toasting it. In Nourishing Traditions, by Sally Fallon, there is a recipe for Irish Oatmeal and it calls for toasting the grains before soaking them.
Here they are spread on my pizza stone. I would bake them in a 350°F for about 10 minutes.
When I tried this, my son liked his “oat porridge” much better. I did, too. After a while, he started loving it and said it was his favorite. I eventually stopped toasting the oats, since it was an extra step and he didn’t notice the change. I think he just needed time to develop the taste for this new oatmeal. Now we even call it oatmeal, too.
I recommend starting out with just a little bit of whey (like a tablespoon) and increasing it each time you make the oatmeal, to become accustomed to the taste. Like I said, I now use 1/2 cup, I think Sally Fallon’s recipe only calls for 1/4 cup. I figure the more the better and I always have an excess of whey from my yogurt. (You can also use lemon juice instead of whey.)
I recommend reading Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon for more information on properly preparing grains. And checkout this excerpt of Amanda Rose’s book, Rebuild from Depression. This excerpt has some excellent information from studies that have been done that we aren’t hearing about in the mainstream media.
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!
Cheeseslave is hosting a Real Food Wednesday Blog Carnival. The theme this week is bone broth.
Bone broths are full of minerals that are vital for our health. Plus they add flavor to our meals. You can make soups, stews, and other things, like rice, with bone broth.
My recipe for chicken stock/broth is here.
When you have your homemade stock made, you can make these great recipes:
Be sure to visit this link to see what other recipes were entered in the carnival!
I love this soup because it is quick and easy to make, so delicious, and quite nutritious. You will get plenty of fiber from the sweet potatoes, lentils, celery, and carrots, and plenty of minerals from the homemade chicken broth and celtic sea salt.
Now if you told me you had a delicious recipe for soup that called for curry and lentils, I would say, “No thanks!”, but I saw this in a magazine and decided to try it. I have made this soup many times now because it is SO good! I encourage you to give it a try.
Curried Sweet Potato Soup
1/2 cup onion, chopped
1/4 cup carrot, diced (about 1 carrot)
1/4 cup celery, diced (about 1 celery rib)
1 Tablespoon fresh ginger, minced
1 bay leaf
2 Tablespoons fat (you could use coconut oil, I typically use the chicken fat from my homemade broth)
1 1/2 cups sweet potato, peeled, cubed (usually 1 large sweet potato)
1 teaspoon curry powder
4 cups chicken broth (my recipe here)
1 can diced tomatoes (14 oz.)
1/4 cup brown lentils
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
juice of 1/2 a lemon
salt to taste (celtic is best), probably about 1/2 teaspoon
plain yogurt or sour cream to garnish (sour cream is the tastiest!)
Heat a saucepan over medium heat, add fat and onions. While the onions saute, you can dice the carrots–add to the pan. Then dice the celery and add to the pan. Peel and dice the sweet potato and add to the pan. Peel and mince the ginger root (I suppose in a pinch you could use ginger powder. I just buy a small root, peel the entire thing and then slice and throw in the food processor. Whatever is more than 1 tablespoon, I freeze for the next time I make this soup.). Add the ginger, curry, and salt; saute 1 minute.
Add diced tomatoes, chicken broth, and lentils; bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and simmer, uncovered, until lentils and sweet potatoes are tender, 25 to 30 minutes. Optional: At this point, I mash it a bit with the potato masher to break up the pieces of sweet potato a bit and thicken the soup slightly.
Off heat, stir in 2 tablespoons cilantro and lemon juice. Taste and adjust salt, if needed. Serve with a garnish of sour cream and extra cilantro.
This recipe is part of Nourishing Soups and Stews Blog Carnival, hosted by The Nourishing Gourmet. Check out the link to find many more great soup and stew recipes!
I am going to start a series called Why? In it I will select a few things I do/supplements I take/food I eat and explain why.
While I was mulling over things to include in this series, I ran across this post on Cheeseslave – Top Ten Reasons to Drink Raw Milk. This post is wonderful! It includes all the reasons why I love raw milk. I love all the Powerpoint slides, especially the one regarding food-borne illnesses. Thank you, Ann Marie, for putting this together!
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.
The IDEAL way to eat grain of any kind is either sprouted or properly soaked to neutralize the phytic acid.
Jordan Rubin writes, in The Maker’s Diet:
“Before the advent of mass-manufacturing processes, it was common for long-lived peoples to soak their grains overnight and then allow them to dry in the open air until they were partially germinated or sprouted, or to go through an ancient leavening process. From these grains they made bread and other foods. We now know these processes effectively remove the phytates from the outer covering of the natural grains. Phytates are substances that contain phosphorus in acidic form as well as powerful enzyme inhibitors that combine with (or “grab”) minerals in the intestinal tract and block their absorption.”1
“Sprouting neutralizes phytic acid, a substance present in the bran of all seeds (grain is a seed) that inhibits the absorption of calcium, magnesium, iron, and zinc.”2
When choosing leavened bread, the IDEAL is one made WITHOUT commercial yeast.
Jacques DeLangre writes:
“When yeast (what we know as commercial yeast) was first introduced in France at the courts of Louis XIV in March 1668, scientists already knew that the use of it would imperil the people’s health, so it was strongly rejected.”3
And finally a selection from fiction that shows us how bread was made in the 1870/80s:
“But how do you make the sourdough?” Mrs. Boast asked.
“You start it,” said Ma, “by putting some flour and warm water in a jar and letting it stand till it sours.”
“Then when you use it, always leave a little,” said Laura, “and put in the scraps of biscuit dough, like this, and more warm water,” Laura put in the warm water, “and cover it”, she put the clean cloth and the plate on the jar, “and just set it in a warm place,” she set it in its place on the shelf by the stove. “And it’s always ready to use, whenever you want it.”4
So we can see that the bread we are accustomed to is very different from the bread that was eaten for thousands of years in the past. I am quite sure this is one of many reasons we have numerous ailments our ancestors didn’t.
Now that we’ve talked about IDEALS, let us remember that we here are ALL about BABYSTEPS! We must remember that EVERY little thing we change REALLY does count. Don’t be discouraged by the last article, just because we can’t balance junk food with healthy food or exercise doesn’t mean we don’t still move forward.
We need to think of food in the context of GOOD, BETTER, and BEST. A whole-wheat loaf of bread is good, one that is whole wheat and has soured is better, and one that is soured AND made without any commercial yeast is the best. Every little bit that we change in our diet counts. It’s just like the principle of saving money, every little bit adds up.
So here I present a recipe for yeast bread that uses much less commercial yeast than the typical recipe AND it is soured by a long rising time, so that the phytic acid is neutralized. So even though it’s not the IDEAL, it is BY FAR, better than the store-bought fare. Plus it tastes delicious. I toured the Great Harvest Bread Company recently and was happy that my homemade bread tastes so similar to the professional’s. J
This is a recipe for the cook who is familiar with making his or her own bread. If you have never made your own bread, a good recipe to practice on is my French Loaf. Then you can move on to this recipe.
This bread takes very little of my time, it just has to sit and sour a long time (about 40 hours from start to finish). It doesn’t taste overly sour, though. My daughter and I made some a few days ago and enjoyed a slice fresh out of the oven with butter. It is important to follow the directions and not vary.
A word on gluten – some people like to add gluten flour to their homemade wheat bread so that is doesn’t come out as a brick, but I wanted to keep this loaf as close to whole food as possible. You will see with this loaf that you won’t need that gluten flour if you just let it sit for the prescribed amount of time. But there is a breaking point I have discovered with gluten. Gluten is the protein of the grain, by the way. If it is developed properly it will give your loaf structure and allow it to rise nice and high, the strands are like 2-by-4s in your house that hold up the walls, they hold little rooms of gas. Without proper gluten development, there are no rooms of gas bubbles, it’s just like a house that is fallen, it’s a pile of rubble, or densely packed wheat that tastes like rubble. J Anyway, back to the point. I have noticed that the longer the dough sits, the better the gluten is developed, BUT if it sits too long, those nice strands of gluten break and you end up with the dense, brick loaf. L So the moral is, follow the recipe as I have set it. I have tried to vary the amount of yeast or the souring time and it has flopped.
Now for the recipe, first I make a sponge; I usually do this in the evening, as I like it to sit for 24 hours.
Sponge
1 cup warm water
1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour (I’ve been using hard white wheat, but have also had success with red)
1/8 teaspoon yeast (I’m using rapid rise)
Stir together and let sit 24 hours, stirring a couple of times during that period.
Dough
Then the next evening I will put the following ingredients in my Kitchenaid mixer:
1/2 cup warm water
1 teaspoon yeast
2 tablespoons molasses or honey (black-strap molasses is packed with minerals, especially iron; honey is good, but it’s benefits are killed at 117°F5, bread is usually around 185°F when done baking)
2 tablespoon melted butter
1 cup whole-wheat flour
1 1/2 teaspoon unrefined sea salt – I prefer Celtic Sea Salt
2 Tablespoons millet (optional, for some crunch)
I stir this by hand till mixed and then add my sponge. I let the machine mix it for me while I add another cup of flour or so till the bowl is clean. See the picture. I will then let it knead 10 minutes in the machine.
I then let it rise in a buttered bowl on counter for 90 minutes. Then put it in the fridge overnight – I want the new flour I added to have a chance to sour. The next day I’ll set it out for a bit to warm up, from about 8am to 10am. Then shape into a loaf, place in a buttered bread pan.
Let rise till it’s nice and tall (last time I made it, this took about an hour and a half since the dough is still a bit cold). Bake at 350°F for 40 minutes. Enjoy your wonderful high and soft loaf!
If you would like to try baking a true sourdough loaf without any yeast, you might try this one. I have not made it myself, but a friend has and says it’s good.
Want to learn more about phytic acid? Take this free e-course, from someone who has done more research on this subject than I.
1The Maker’s Diet by Jordan Rubin, pg. 138
2The Maker’s Diet by Jordan Rubin, pg. 152
3Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon, quote by Jacques DeLangre, pg. 491
4By the Shores of Silver Lake by Laura Ingalls Wilder
5Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon, pg. 536
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