Saturday, November 6, 2010

A new way of cooking

After much much reading from researchers who do not have an 'invested interest' other then truth and genuine good health, we are pressing forward with the changes to our diet that we began a year ago.

A few things we've already done
-removed over processed salt from cooking. It's now for playdough only! We now use Celtic Sea Salt. It has 75+ minerals versus the 2 that are left in standard salt. 'Sea salt' sold at the supermarket is just dodgy marketing and is still nutrient deficient.
-We've been drinking raw milk. Milk that has not been pasteurised. Milk from healthy cows. Organic cows. Milk that has not been homogenised. Cows that don't get injected with antibiotics etc. If the milk from the supermarket was unpasteurised you'd still never get me to drink it...do you know they strain it to remove puss that is in the milk from sick cows with mastitis? Why are the cows sick? because they're not cared for and kept healthy... they're pushed to create heaps more milk than a cow was ever meant to produce in a day. Raw milk is an entirely different product. It's the milk God intended us to drink and when you know about raw milk, 'a land flowing with milk and honey' being a good thing makes so much more sense. It helps you avoid tooth decay, it helps keep the stomach bacteria balanced. It prevents crohn's disease and can even heal it.
-Honey, we use raw honey. Honey that has not been heated - supermarket honey has been. Raw honey is healthy.... processed honey has had all the good enzymes killed off. So it's just a sugar, not a health product.
-We use rapadura, not sugar. Rapadura is still a sugar. It's just barely processed. It's dehydrated sugar cane juice and again, retains the vitamins etc that the over processing removes. If you must use sugar in something, this is the best way to go.
-We soak our porridge overnight for 12 hours before cooking it. This releases nutrients and stops nutrients being removed from our body by the eating of grains that have not been prepared properly.
-We make our own bread.... yeast, celtic sea salt, rapadura, wholemeal flour, water.
-We eat much more fat. Yep - the healthy stuff. Butter, lard, coconut oil etc. A good book on this is Eat Fat, Lose Fat - amazing info in there that you'll never hear from any vegetable oil or margarine company. Basically those foods (veg oil, marge etc) are a huge part of the cause of rising heart disease and a whole pile of other health issues. In the last year I've changed fats in the house to the REAL healthy ones and more than doubled fat intake. I've not put on weight... I've lost 2kgs.
-Bone broth added to as many meals as possible. This aids digestion and helps you absorb more nutrients.


So, what now?
Having learned that the so called 'healthy diet pyramid' is actually the 'dodgy diet pyramid' and is the cause of my excess weight, we are now making more changes.
Carbs at dinner 2 x a week... Tuesday and Friday's are carb nights... potatoes or rice is the preference, especially until I can make properly prepared home made pasta - by properly prepared, I mean from soaked grain.
Protein and fat at every meal, especially breakfast.
The majority of our diet is now meat, fat, vegetables.
I'm even being good and not touching the fresh baked bread as it comes out of the oven - so delish with melted butter - unless it's baked in the morning and can be had with a decent serve of protein as well.
We are ordering bulk organic grains and will soak, dehydrate and mill our own flour (from this I could make a healthy pasta)
Breakfast now might look like:
-small serve of soaked porridge with currants in it along with a couple of slices of roast beef retaining all the fat
-Egg, sausage and toast
-Beans on buttered toast
-Home made full fat yoghurt, egg, fried potatoes
and other combination's of that sort of thing.
Lunches are pretty similar to what they have been, I'm just making a much more conscious effort to include good sized servings of meat, cheese etc.
Dinner is interesting!
I've looked at the recipes I usually use and have modified them to increase meat and remove pasta, rice and potatoes. So Kye See Mein has no noodles or rice but increased cabbage and minced beef. Busy day casserole we tried for the first time this week with no pasta... instead I increased the meat and added in a bunch of fried diced pumpkin - very popular even with our most fussy eater.

It is sooo good to eat and feel full so much earlier, so much less food! It is great to have no desire to snack in the evenings. The extra energy is WONDERFUL!

Yes, it's more time in the kitchen for both cooking and dishes. Yes, it's a smidge more expensive.
but so what. It's health. That makes it very cheap!!

We can see the extra energy and health.... and health is a multi-generational thing... in the Western world, it's getting worse with each generation. Our babies start of with the deteriorated health we have and then it gets worse being on the western diet and then their babies start with an even more deteriorated health... and so on.
It's time to stop this.

Further reading on sugar....

  • In 1700, the average person consumed about 4 pounds of sugar per year.

  • In 1800, the average person consumed about 18 pounds of sugar per year.

  • In 1900, individual consumption had risen to 90 pounds of sugar per year. 

  • on  raw milk


  • on much of the above
    and for the easiest reading on oh so much of this... the book Nourishing Traditions is a must.... borrow one from a library for just a week and you'll want your own.

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    5 comments:

    1. Interesting Mrs B!
      I have lactose intolerance and am wondering if raw milk might be more tolerable for me...you've given me "food" for thought:) Though I'm not sure where I would be able to try it out!

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    2. Yes!! I suspect raw milk would be fine for you.... start slowly when you get a hold of some... 1/4 cup for a couple of days then 1/2 a cup and so on.
      Raw milk contains the enzyme 'lactase' (I think I have that spelling right!) which is needed to help digest the lactose that so many are now intolerant to.
      Pasteurisation destroys the lactase (among other things)
      Organic raw milk is usually sold as 'bath milk' in good health food shops... legal issues grr... don't ask them if you can drink it because they are only allowed to say that it's a beauty product.
      We get ours direct from the farmer.... he delivers to our 'raw milk co-op' as he would to a health food shop and it means we can get it much cheaper... along with about 15-20 other families.
      Interestingly raw milk will keep, sealed, 15 days from milking / 7 days from opening. Pasteurised milk doesn't last that long

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    3. oh wow, thanks for that info, will keep an eye out for that:)

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    4. High five to healthy changes!

      Only one thought/question b/c I've wondered this myself... We use raw honey also but an in-law pointed out that once I bake my bread the honey is heated and then is just the same as using organic can sugar. Have you heard that discussion?

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    5. LOL, yes ... I do think about things like that... with the honey, it is my understanding that the body still handles it better in cooking than it can a processed sugar, even an organic one.

      ReplyDelete