The view from 3,400 miles...

Yesterday, we returned home from a multi-state road trip during which we visited family and friends and journeyed into the midwest.  Our traveling dynamics have evolved through the years as our family has grown; the days of easy vacationing are long gone.  Mama needs a vacation from the vacation, eh? LOL  


The delight of seeing friends and family far outweighed the burdens of the trip and the ensuing fatigue and mountains of laundry.  As I cogitated upon our journey, I decided I had a few posts to share about the experience.  So, in the next couple of weeks, I hope to discuss traveling while on GAPS, muse about big ag/industrial food culture (it was impossible to miss the sights and smells of it while driving the midwest), gush about my new favorite (super "scary" sharp) kitchen knife, and talk about our homestead happenings.


Until then, be well and enjoy spring!

Protecting Our Children from Fear-Based Medicine and Vaccine Damage

I have long been a skeptic of the modern medical establishment's paradigm and practices.  Because I am wired to question and contradict the status quo, it was natural for me to eject from a broken medical system.  I believe the modern allopathic system is irrevocably flawed; I do not trust drug companies or the institutions and doctors over whom they hold sway.

Before my children were born, I determined I would never vaccinate any of them.  I had studied and queried enough to know that the fear-based vaccination agenda would not be a part of our lives.  At that time, my position was somewhat unusual...much more so than now.  Because of the wealth of information being quickly disseminated in our society today, growing numbers of concerned parents have begun to question the sanity of the vaccine program. 

The vaccine debate is certainly heated, with powerful, collusive interests propagating the tale that there is nothing to fear, nothing to question, nothing to reject.  Despite continued loss of support by parents and doctors alike, despite continuing evidence that tells a different story, the vaccine industry uses its clout to proliferate the myth that vaccines are safe, efficacious and necessary.  Saying something loudly over and over and over does not make the thing true.  Forcing a paradigm and a procedure upon the public because you have the power to do so does not make that paradigm and procedure legitimate.  The popular answer is not by default the correct answer.  And making health decisions based solely upon the advice of drug manufacturers and the doctors who trust them is not informed consumerism.

I am encouraged as I see parents rightly questioning fear-based medicine...as they adopt a willingness to take personal responsibility for their children's health, to educate themselves outside the established box, to stand against medical bullying...so they can make informed decisions based on knowledge and conviction.  Freedom of choice is a key aspect to creating and preserving health and wellness.  People seem to have forgotten that the modern medical industry is a service provider offering one approach.  Too many MDs perceive and present themselves as little gods in white coats offering the best and the most appropriate treatment for all that ails us.  This premise is fundamentally false, based on faulty education and cultivated by an extraordinarily powerful and profitable technocratic, drug-based industry.

The medical industry, in collaboration with governmental regulatory agencies, has time and again exhibited its inclination to control our health choices.  Whether someone desires to participate in the modern medical system should be an act of will, not the result of coercion.  And when persons determine to seek assistance from any medical practitioner, they should remember that the power lies with the consumer.  We write the checks, they work for us!

When I exercised my freedom of choice all those years ago, determining to direct the health and development of my children outside the established medical system, I wrote a paper summarizing my decision.  Since that time, the vaccination issue has continued to expand, with new information regularly appearing on the scene.  What follows is the link to my treatise on vaccine refusal (with a bibliography of links and resources), as well as links to recently appearing vaccine news and some of my favorite vaccine information sources.  

Why We Refuse Vaccination

International Medical Council on Vaccination

Vaccines: Get the Full Story

National Vaccine Information Center

Vaccine Liberation Index

Global Vaccine Awareness League

Think Twice Global Vaccine Institute

Veira Scheibner, PhD Vaccine Truth Advocate

Neurosurgeon Russell Blaylock Speaks Out Against Vaccines


Dr. Mayer Eisenstein Vaccine Information

The Smallpox Hoax

Survey:  State of Health of Unvaccinated Children

Video:  Medical Investigator on No Scientific Basis for Vaccines

Polio Vaccine Primary Cause of Polio Paralysis

Smoke, Mirrors and the Disappearance of Polio

The Vitamin C Treatment of Whooping Cough

Vermont Senate Passes Bill Ending Vaccine Exemptions

Vaccine Exemptions Under Threat

A Mother's Response to the Vaccine Exemption Threat (highlighting the lack of scientific method in vaccine testing)

The Myth of Herd Immunity

Autism and Vaccinations

CDC Whistleblower Confesses Suppressed Link between Vaccines and Autism

Food Freedoms and Parental Rights Fall Prey to Tyranny and Greed

Yes, once again the little dictators are out of control...trampling our inalienable, fundamental, natural rights; running roughshod over our personal freedoms.  Read on for this week's "tyranny in review."

Pastured Pork Comes Under the Gun

As reported by the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund, "In a brazen power grab threatening the livelihood of hundreds of small farmers, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is using the state Invasive Species Act to expand its jurisdiction beyond hunting and fishing to farming operations. On April 1, 2012 an Invasive Species Order (ISO) that DNR issued in December 2010 prohibiting the possession of a number of different types breeds of swine will go into effect." (emphasis mine)

And from Hartke Online: "The Michigan Pork Producers Association is endorsing a radical move on the part of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR). The DNR has declared feral pigs an “invasive species.” Under its interpretation any domestic pig can be considered feral. The DNR is putting fine-dining chefs and the farmers who supply them on notice. Heritage breed pigs may soon be off the menu, and prohibited on pasture-based farms. Also affected will be the many Michigan families who choose to buy humanely raised meat for their family table." (emphasis mine)

This is nothing more than an attack on pasture-based clean food farmers.  Well, it is more...  This is also an attack on consumer choice--on your ability to purchase clean food from small, responsible, humane, healthy farms.  Once again, the dirty food industry (in this case, the pork industry) is vying for complete control of consumer choices and is using the government to accomplish its agenda.  The Michigan DNR does not even have jurisdiction over farming operations!  Naturally raised heritage-breed pigs are already a rarity in this country.  If Michigan has its way, those numbers will continue to decline.  Which other states will use this as precedent and follow suit?  First it's the natural, historical, free-range, pastured pigs.  What's next?  Jersey cows?!

Dominoes by whoaitsfrancesca

This may seem like a small issue to anyone not living in Michigan or anyone not eating pastured pork.  But little things breed big things.  It only takes one domino to topple the entire structure.  Those of us who have raised or are raising pastured, heritage breed pigs know exactly what is at risk.  Heritage breed pigs can be difficult to procure and quite expensive (certain breeding pairs, such as the Mangalitsas, can cost as high as $3,000).  Anyone who cares about Real Food freedom and consumer choice; anyone who understands the essential need to keep community, pasture-based farms in business; and anyone who desires to consume healthy lard should be very concerned about this potential threat.

Heritage breed, as defined by The American Livestock Breeds Conservatory, "typically means the traditional livestock breeds that were raised by our forefathers. These are the breeds of a bygone era, before industrial agriculture became a mainstream practice. These breeds were carefully selected and bred over time to develop traits that made them well-adapted to the local environment and they thrived under farming practices and cultural conditions that are very different from those found in modern agriculture."

Historical breeds have not been manipulated for the CAFO industry.  Heritage pigs retain their natural traits and instincts, are better mothers (unlike their unnatural CAFO-reared cousins who have a reputation for smothering to death their young), and are better adapted to living outside, foraging, and thriving on pasture.  For a pastured pig, diet includes anything growing on top of and under the ground.  Pigs are amazing plow-snouted, digging "machines" and will unearth and devour all types of roots.  As Joel Salatin points out, the natural pig is a fantastic friend to the farmer or anyone who needs to have ground turned over (even stumps removed).  This exercise, exposure to sunshine and fresh air, and vegetative diet produces healthy pork and lard, the king of fats.

Elvis, a Tamworth from Bone Dry Ridge Farm, WA

Last year, my husband decided to raise two heritage-breed Tamworth pigs on our little "homestead."  I can assure you they are neither feral nor dangerous, but they are far removed from modern industrial confinement pigs.  Tamworths, nicknamed the Irish Grazer for their propensity to thrive so well on free-range pastures, make great bacon.  Our pigs lived happily outside on pasture, rooting to their hearts' content, and were fed only organic, raw veggie and fruit scraps, and select organic (mostly sprouted) grains (no soy or corn).  The Tamworths provided our first exposure to rearing, butchering and eating our own clean pork.  It was even the first time in my life that I had prepared pork...and it has been delicious!  I rarely ate pork through the years because of my concern about the health and safety of commercial pork products; anytime I ate industrial pork through the years, I suffered terrible GI distress.  I have found the reverse to be true while consuming our pastured pork...I feel wonderfully satiated and suffer no adverse affects from eating our pigs.  Industrial pork is an unhealthy food riddled with problems of toxicity.  Pastured pork, however, fed its proper raw diet and raised outside in sunshine with earth to turn, plants to eat, and room to roam, is a fantastic food.

The best part of raising our own pigs was the opportunity to render the lard.  Pastured lard is the second richest source of vitamin D.  Clean, organic, pastured

Michigan farmer Mark Baker of Baker's Green Acres farm, who raises a rare breed of pig that he sells to fine chefs and artisan charcuterie producers, has filed a lawsuit to stop the implementation of the onerous and illegitimate ISO.  Baker's Mangalitsa hogs (yes, those $3,000 pigs), considered by many to be the consummate gourmet pork, would come under threat...as would any heritage breed pigs on any farm.  As Baker notes in his complaint, "close examination of the wording of the ISO reveals that it outlaws the entire pig species, then makes an exception for pigs involved in ‘domestic hog production."

As a result of this unjustifiable, despotic move, Michigan pasture-based clean food pig farmers could lose their entire herds.  Confused and upset farmers demanded a meeting with DNR.  The farmers, some of whom had driven more than six hours to get to the meeting, were met by armed men, one wearing a Kevlar jacket, that were sent to "monitor the proceedings."  The farmers were given a six-minute presentation, after which the DNR refused to take questions.  Wow!  Totalitarian tactics and armed men?  What kind of threat did they expect to encounter?!  What's the message here?  "Comply or be silenced?"

Is this for real?  Sadly, it's not the stuff of Orwellian story telling...it is happening right now, right in our "land of the free."  Please read the truth for yourself and please contact Michigan Governor Rick Snyder, demanding (er, I mean, encouraging) that he repeal the ridiculous and fraudulent DNR ISO that will take effect April 1.  Also, please consider joining the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund and even supporting farmer Mark Baker in his fight against the Michigan DNR.

Related links:

Michigan CAFOs Conspire with Government to Ban Outdoor Pig Farming 

Mark Baker Testifies at Michigan State Capital--Ag Committee

Michigan DNR Going Hog Wild

Insane Michigan government announces plan to destroy ranch livestock based on hair color and arrest hundreds of ranchers as felons 

Michigan Wants Small Heritage Pig Producers Gone

Newborn Kidnapped by Social Workers and Hospital Staff, Mom Tossed Out
As reported by NaturalNews, " Another shocking case of tyrannical, overzealous social workers and hospital staff has unfolded in Pennsylvania, where a mom who just gave birth in an ambulance to a healthy baby girl was threatened by a government social worker and accused of not allowing her child to receive "medical treatment." (A claim which is factually false.) In reality, the new mom, exhausting from giving birth in an ambulance, was merely asking questions and trying to determine how her newborn daughter was being treated by hospital staff."



After being bullied and threatened (and remember, the woman had just birthed her daughter) for noncompliance, Jodi Ferris was thrown out of the Hershey, PA hospital and her baby was vaccinated against her parents' wishes.  Of what crime were this baby's parents being accused?  What abuse had they perpetrated against their newborn daughter to warrant CPS and police intrusion and action?  This baby, minutes old, was seized and kept from her parents and violated by the medical establishment because her mother dared to question the system and refused consent for a vaccination.  Read it and weep!  That's a crime worthy of losing our children over now!  Absolute insanity.


Ferris is a homeschooling mother in a state known for its onerous interference and regulation.  She is a homebirthing mother (if only she had remained at home to birth her child, as originally planned...) in an age of the "one size fits all" medical system.  Independent thought and action has become an increasingly unpopular and threatening "subculture" in America.  As Ferris's story reveals, individuals pursuing an alternative path fall under the ire of the technocratic, profit-mad hospital "birth" machine.  My midwife sees clients who (for whatever reason) transport to the hospital come under fire and harassment, even threatened for noncompliance.  It is a mournful and not uncommon scenario.  These abuses of power by government workers and the unnecessary, unsafe interventions and personal violations by the medical establishment seem to be par for the course in America today.  We are a nation run by bullies, fueled by corporations and industries with limitless financial and political power.  They want absolute control and we are meant to obey.


What's the message here?  "Some woman planned to give birth to her baby without our technocratic interference? How dare she!  Some parent refuses our vaccinations...inconceivable!  We must make an example of them."  The medical elite is ready to punish you for ejecting yourself outside the system.  Personal freedom?  Not on their watch.  It's like a life-sized medical mafia version of "whack-a-mole" perpetrated against nonconformists who step outside the box.  The medical industry has set its agenda and determined what is acceptable for you and your children.  The message is clear:  Disobey at your own risk.  


I do not believe for one minute that the hospital's actions were spurred by malpractice concerns.  This is about control and conformity...the program may not be breached.  Myriad individuals regularly refuse coercive medical procedures and their desires and rights are being disregarded and encroached upon.  Would it make a difference if every nonconformist who ends up pitted against a doctor, nurse or hospital worker played a stronger hand?  "I'm the consumer...I write the checks.  You are the service provider, you work for me!  This is my body (or my baby/child) and I do not consent to your intrusions, drugs and/or procedures.  Anything short of compliance to my wishes is an assault and I will call the police and my lawyer."  That's the way it should work.  Does it?  Will it?  Could it?  One can only hope.....


Thankfully, lawyers from HSLDA (vigilant defenders of homeschooling and parental rights) are determined to fight this case on behalf of the Ferris family.  Let us all hope and pray that the case is won and sets new precedent protecting parental rights for us all.  Please consider contributing to HSLDA for this cause, as it is a donations-based organization whose lawyers do not charge client fees. 

Related links:

Hospital Workers Call Police to Seize Newborn, Throw Mom Out, Assault Baby with Vaccines

Newborn Seized in Hospital by Police, Social Worker

Mother Who Questions Vax at Hospital Has Newborn Taken Away

***
These disturbing stories strike a personal chord, as mine is a homesteading, heritage-animal raising, homeschooling, homebirthing family.  I hope you all are as outraged and concerned as I...together, we can resist and perhaps even turn the tide.

News You Should Know

As I have been unable to devote any significant time to writing this month, I wanted to share some news items that have caught my attention and are (I believe) worthy of contemplation.  (Thanks to my valued contacts for their contributions...you know who you are.)


First up, we have a heart surgeon telling the public that the fear of fat so aggressively promoted by the establishment is a big, fat lie.  (And all the WAPF acolytes say: "We could have told you that!"  Nevertheless, it's good to see this truth getting more press.)  "The injury and inflammation in our blood vessels is caused by the low fat diet recommended for years by mainstream medicine."  Read more about What Really Causes Heart Disease.



Next, we have our infamous FDA considering the release of multiple pharmaceuticals into the "over-the-counter" category.  (How considerate!...making it easier for the masses to drug themselves further into chronic toxicity and not apply true healing cures.  I mean, we certainly wouldn't want people to continue seeking natural alternatives to prescription drugs.  Snark warning...oops, too late.)


Next, take a look at the beautiful truth about vitamin C and whooping cough.


Next, a cautionary tale for any parent who is concerned about vaccination (and you should be) and believes the government and doctors do NOT have the right (and they don't) to vaccinate your children without your consent.


And while we're talking about your rights to avoid the harms caused by vaccination, here's a great essay by Dr. Russell Blaylock on mandatory vaccination.  Blaylock is an outspoken neurosurgeon who works to warn the public about the dangers of vaccination. 


Next, read about how babies are harmed by their mothers' use of antidepressants.




Finally, here's an informative graphic look at the uselessness of the TSA's cancer machines (aka "body scanners").  (One caveat:  I don't agree with the downplayed stats of the cancer risk...otherwise, I enjoyed this map of the insanity that is the TSA and its unethical, immoral and illegal "grope and pillage" tactics.)



Created by: Online Criminal Justice Degree




Well, that's it for now...I may come back later and add more as the cobwebs clear from the little grey cells.  My final thought for the day:  I don't take health advice from the government or the mainstream medical industry.  I hope you don't either.  Until next time, be well, stay informed and become your own expert!

Tracing Monsanto/Federal Collusion

In my last post, I touched on the significant danger of impotent labeling laws, allowing GMOs to be passed off as food.  Mercola's latest post on the topic, highlighting Vermont's proposed GMO labeling law, provided a valuable graphic that deserves attention.


This chart (click here to expand) reveals the former Monsanto employees who hold/held federal government positions, including heads of the USDA and the FDA, and a Supreme Court justice:

The American public needs to shed its delusion that our government is a benevolent, philanthropic entity devoted to our best interests.  I believe we are all intelligent enough to understand the implications here...so I need not belabour the point.  Consider this another tool in your "educating friends and family" arsenal.

If You Want Grandchildren, Don't Feed Your Kids Commercial Corn

And you should avoid it, too, for that matter!  If you don't choose carefully, your food could be sterilizing you.  This isn't new news, but I feel it bears rehashing, especially for those not "in the know."

In 2001, Epicyte, a CA bio-engineering company, revealed that it had created spermicidal GM corn.  So how do you know if you have consumed this fertility-destroying corn?  You don't...because products containing GM corn aren't labeled with a warning, nor is this franken-food being sold at the pharmacy as a birth control method (which would be best avoided for multitudinous reasons).  It's just another wave of GM corn in the food supply somewhere in the world.  The ultimate buyer beware sneak.



GMOs are not foods, they are weapons!  Trusting the government and the food industry is a dangerous business.  Those of us who refuse to buy Monsanto and cronies' pro-GMO whitewashing schemes already understand the health hazards of GMOs.  Outspoken GMO opponent and health freedom advocate Jeffrey Smith has long been warning the public about the hazards of these franken-foods.  Sterility has already made the list of GM "food's" deleterious effects.  So, Epicyte's spermicide corn is not the only GMO infertility route.  What makes Epicyte's corn especially malevolent is its designed purpose as a sterilizer, and its proposed use by supporters among the global population.  It begs the question:  What's next in the world of "pharma-food?"  Who else will receive USDA funding and for what nefarious scheme?  (Nearly two dozen biotech firms and universities have franken-food projects in the works, apparently with hopes of creating a food supply filled with vaccines.) 


Why sneak spermicidal corn into the global food supply?  Silly question, right?  Are not all the food and medical industry's ploys about control?  In this case, maybe population control?  Crazy?  Well, call me crazy, but when I see population control mega-advocate Bill Gates attached to a project, I start doing the math.  (In fact, GMOs aren't the only means available of involuntary infertility and population control.  Gates' other pet project plays a role in this awful drama...but that's a discussion for another day.)  I'm not surprised by Gates' behaviour, considering his population control comments in 2010, and his Monsanto investments.

Regardless of one's political or religious ideology, we should all be able to agree that forced sterilization is a violation of human rights.  If a consumer chooses to ingest spermicidal corn, that's one thing...but this isn't being presented as an open option on the food and drug market.  Consumers cannot know when they are eating GMOs because the public is not being protected by labeling laws.  Rather, fertility-diminishing GMO corn, along with its franken-food friends, is being thrust upon unwitting victims.  Will you be one of them?


For various political and health reasons, I do not consume corn, nor will I feed it to my children.  Frankly, I don't trust the corn supply...even the "Organic" variety.  But consuming habits vary, so my best advice (and this is not revelatory, I know) is to eschew industrial food...buy Real Food, beyond organic, as much as you can.  Don't buy food containing corn, soy, canola, and the other major GM players.  At some point, even purchasing "USDA Organic" food may not protect us from GMOs.  This is a dangerous game and we need to protect ourselves...no one else will do it.

GAPS is NOT a "no-carb lifestyle"

Yes, I'm piggybacking on a recent Cheeseslave post regarding GAPS myths...with no intention of being unoriginal, of course!  But AnnMarie has highlighted some important misconceptions that seem to exists about the GAPS diet, and I wanted to further vocalize some important points.  In fact, it was not until I read a few of her recent posts and the resulting comments that I fully understood that such confusion exists.  A careful reading of McBride's GAPS book, as well as the GAPS website and GAPS Guide site, will reveal the following truths, so I will be brief.



Let's examine a couple key points:


GAPS is a temporary healing protocol, not a lifestyle diet or a weight-loss diet.  The GAPS protocol is designed to heal our guts by repairing and resealing the intestinal lining, detoxifying our bodies, and repopulating our beneficial flora.  The dietary protocol is the means to achieving this healing.  Because certain foods are problematic both for leaky guts and for feeding malevolent flora, those foods must be avoided while pursuing the protocol.  In addition, the protocol involves increased consumption of healing saturated fats.  This is the cornerstone of the protocol.  The fats, gelatin, marrow, etc. repair our intestinal lining.  


[Fat is crucial, not just in the GAPS protocol, but also to achieve lifelong wellness.  Fat makes your hormones.  Fat is essential to heart health, brain health, joint health, and more.  I will be posting a detailed article on the benefits and necessity of fat in the near future.]



McBride is a vocal supporter of the WAPF lifestyle, and GAPS is a "pre-Nourishing Traditions" program for the multitude of Americans who cannot digest "troublesome" foods, such as grains and dairy.  Even organic real milk and whole grains don't play nicely in a dysbiotic system.  The hope is that post-GAPS, your healed body will tolerate and thrive on NT-style foods.


It is important to understand the "temporary" nature of GAPS...temporary is subjectively defined based upon the level of dysbiosis being healed.  Some people will heal more quickly than others.  We cannot assume our journey will mimic anyone else's, and we must allow our bodies time to heal.  McBride gives two years as a general timeframe for the GAPS program, but variation will exist.


The desired result of GAPS is healing, and the goal is a healthy digestive system that will process all real foods, including properly prepared grains.  This brings us to the second key point:

GAPS is not a no-carb diet.  (It isn't even tremendously low-carb once you're on Full GAPS.)  GAPS is grain-free, but not zero carb.  The allowed foods on the GAPS protocol include myriad healthy carbs that are chosen to provide a balanced, varied diet while also preventing the feeding of pathogens.  A cursory reading of the allowed foods list will reveal numerous carbs.  These foods...including fruits, honey, squashes, carrots, lentils, peas, navy beans, coconut, beets, etc....are to be introduced slowly and methodically during the protocol, but they are allowed and recommended during the healing process.  Some of us will be more sugar sensitive than others, and may need to avoid or delay certain carbs for a period of time on the program.  But that does not mean that these foods are to be avoided FOREVER.  Again, the goal of GAPS is permanent healing and the creation of a body that can process the entire spectrum of healthy real foods.

My family daily consumes allowed carbs on the GAPS protocol, such as butternut and acorn squashes, carrots, coconut, beets, dates, raisins, peas, honey, and more.  My most sensitive child and I struggle with more severe dysbiosis, so we cannot consume these foods at the same level as the rest of the family members.  But as we continue our healing journey, I believe our bodies will accept all these foods successfully.  And I can tell you that my favorite little "pleasure" is currently dates stuffed with butter and shredded coconut...delicious!!  And I never would have experimented with this guilt-less pleasure had we not started GAPS.  Thinking outside the food box while on a healing regimen can be fun.

And that's something we all should remember.  Food is fun.  Food is life.  Food is nourishment, it is healing.  We should eat to live, and enjoy doing so, but we should not live miserably for the sake of food religion.  Committing to clean food or being a "real foodie" is not a life of misery and drudgery!  Real food is delicous!  The pleasures we desire to tickle our palates and nourish our bodies are available in the real food realm.  We need to relearn food wisdom and apply that knowledge to the way we eat and live.  We should choose wisely, and we should know when we need to tackle a more "drastic" healing regimen so that we can live the rest of our lives enjoying the full bounty of real food.  That is how I see GAPS...it is a fully nourishing protocol designed to bring systemic healing to our compromised bodies.  When we have achieved healing, we will enjoy exploring foods that we heretofore could not consume without pain or trouble.


The enemy is not real food, it is the "scientific" manipulation, the adulteration and pollution of our once-pure food supply.  The enemy is industrial food, pharma, and environmental toxins.  The solution is simple, even if it requires time and energy to achieve the desired healing.  Grains are not evil, they just need to be understood; and we need to lay the proper foundation in our guts so we can enjoy traditional grains.  Personally, I'm looking forward to once again consuming one of my family's favorite staple foods...sweet potatoes.  Knowing that the "bad buggies," as my little ones call them, are dead--no more to wreak havoc on our guts--will have made this temporary restriction worthwhile!


A common concern/complaint we all hear is how easily (and how much) people gain weight when they begin adding carbs/grains into their diets after practicing a high-protein, no-carb lifestyle.  Without delving into the involved science on the topic, I want to highlight a few reasons for this weight gain.  The weight gain puzzle is certainly more complex than this, but the following are common possibilities:

• You have a food sensitivity (such as wheat) and are suffering from gut dysbiosis.  When we have dysbiosis, we easily put on weight because of inflammation and toxicity.  Healing the gut (a la GAPS) is an important step in properly digesting and utilizing grains without the toxic weight gain.
• Your weight gain coming off a no-carb lifestyle is due to your body's "starvation response."  During your no-carb diet, your body did not receive the correct balance of essential nutrients.  You lost weight, but your body believed you were starving.  When you commenced eating a fuller spectrum of foods once again (ie, adding grains and starchy carbs), your body immediately began to build up fat stores to prepare for another cycle of starvation. 
• You have a hormonal imbalance.  Hormones regulate every system in our bodies and are intricately linked with our weight.  Any hormone malfunction (thyroid, adrenals, sex hormones, etc) can tip the scales.  One notable culprit is high estrogen levels, because estrogen is housed in fat cells.  Excess estrogen can cause an increase in fat tissue.  Our polluted environment, with its abundance of xenoestrogens, leads to excess estrogenic imbalances in both women and men.

It is important to remember that we are unique individuals and we have varying food needs; additionally, our personal food needs will shift through the seasons of our lives.  I see validity in understanding metabolic typing, blood sugar issues, food sensitivities, etc.  We will not all thrive on the same exact diet, and that's OK.  As the old maxim tells us, one man's meat may be another's poison...  (But always and forever?  I hope not.)  I believe we all can have healed guts and should be able to process the variety of real food available to us.  But that is a theory in progress, and I certainly believe in individual food choice freedom.  Yet, if you want to enjoy the cornucopia of real food, make sure you have a strong foundation (healed gut) and that you learn traditional food preparation.  Again, there is no exact time limit on healing.  And in the end, some bodies will not process all the same foods in the same quantities to the same level of success.  "Individual results may vary."   LOL  


Well, I'm off to render some lard, so until next time, be well and enjoy real food!

Radically Natural Revolution Resolutions...

As usual, life got ahead of me and my best intentions were waylaid...interrupted by reality. So here I am, one month behind my original schedule, writing my, "Hey, I'm back...Happy New Year!" post. Life became more hectic than I expected over the "holiday season," and I took a well-needed, albeit slightly frenzied, interval to reflect on priorities, needs and purposes for my time. This period of cogitation helped me to shape my goals for the coming year, and I'd like to share with you my resolutions for Radically Natural Living.



Revolution! Yes, I'd like to start one...but I can't quit my day job. Nonetheless, I'd love to work on the front lines of the small but growing revolution of awareness awakening people to the truth about food, healing, and purposeful (natural) living. I plan to continue to add my voice to the chorus proclaiming, "Learn the truth! Seize control! Take back your lives from profit-hungry, brainwashing, tyrannical industries, regulators and "professionals." You can do it; we can do it together." It feels like our society is coming to a precipice, with a heretofore slow-growing, swelling momentum propelling us out of apathy. Let 2012 be the year we put our stake in the ground, revolt against the hundred-year lie, and liberate ourselves and our families in the name of health freedom.

Next, a resolutionary plea, to you from me: Read More! Read, read, read and keep reading...there is so much to learn and so little time. There is no better way to become your own expert (reading and apprenticing are the cornerstones). Make reading a daily part of your personal and family growth. And, on behalf of the written word, I beseech you...continue to read real books, at least include them in your cache of materials. As corny as it may sound, I believe real, physical books are good for the soul. From the beginning of mankind, people have inscribed their thoughts onto tangible matter. Physically experiencing words on the page enlists senses and activates brainwaves. I am an obsessive bibliophile, and I wish people everywhere would begin a love affair anew with real books.  In the spirit of sharing, I wanted to give you a little tour of my library by peppering pictures throughout the rest of this post. 

I am so grateful to those of you who have been reading and following this blog. I never expected, when I launched this experiment, to garner any support beyond dear friends and some polite family members, LOL. But through this platform, I have been privileged to communicate to and with new people...like-minded kindred spirits...adding a richness to my life and my experience of the important issues that are near and dear to my heart. But despite my best efforts, my blog is rather "un-bloggish" with its lack of regular, timely contributions and comment forum. I have a storehouse of articles in the works, but find time to be a diminishing commodity. I could not possibly take the time to answer comments, and I certainly would want to address each one, so I chose to avoid the temptation. 

I have realized that as much as I desire otherwise, I cannot be all things to all people. Fulfilling my obligations (homeschooling, homesteading, home healthcare, herbalism, real food cooking, studying/researching, etc.) and attempting to juggle other work (health consultations, editing, writing, more studying) was proving too much of a stretch. Because my children come first, they are the plumb line by which I measure all other activities. Ergo, the stint of self-reflection and resolution. [Self-check #1: I cannot continue to steal time from my children or my sleep to compose articles. Insomniacs Unite! heehee... Seriously, cortisol imbalances are no fun...]

I am not someone who generally makes, nor keeps, "New Year's resolutions." But it certainly cannot hurt to use the coming of a new year to re-evaluate where we are in life...to clean house mentally (even physically). So I have resolved to tone down my passions and pursuits when they conflict with my ability to do the most needful enterprises. For me, that is family and food, "health, hearth and home" responsibilities first...activism as time allows. I could never feel completely fulfilled without outreach, though, so I am attempting to schedule my writing of original content articles. I hope to publish at least once monthly. Of course, impassioned snippets and alerts will likely show up randomly ("News Flash! Madness abounds...Fight back!" you know the drill, eh? LOL), as well as unplanned inspirations and impassioned topics of personal interest. I suppose that is the beauty of the blog format.

While my presence here may be less routine, my goal and purpose is unchanged. I desire to be a source of encouragement to anyone desiring to learn more about health freedom and how to practice self-care, and to be a partnering voice to everyone currently in the real health and real food fight. As my blog's name suggests, I am a radical...I imagine my ideas and beliefs at times may seem revolutionary. I certainly do not expect everyone who encounters me to be as radical as I...we are all in different stages of our journeys. But I will continue to share my knowledge and perspectives in the hope that they may be of use to others...that they may spur consideration and even action. Even if you do not share my views completely, I am excited to participate in the dialogue regarding our rights and freedoms to pursue health and wellness naturally, sanely, legitimately, efficaciously.

Perhaps you are not ready to share my dream of putting the majority of the medical industry out of business, or to see the "big-ag" commercial food industry turned completely on its head. But you might be ready to take your family's wellness and healing into your own hands...to learn how to be your own physician and real food chef, to nourish with clean food and heal with real medicine, to be empowered through self-care and self-sufficiency. And if you are already pursuing such things, you likely find pleasure, as I do, in perusing the knowledge and experiences of others and sharing within your circle of influence. Regardless of where each of us is on this spectrum, there is joy in the journey as we support and learn from one another. And I would be dishonest if I did not reiterate my desire to see our culture adopt the revolutionary spirit that will spur society to throw off the shackles of the harmful food and medical industries.

I did somehow create for myself more balls to juggle by establishing both this blog and an information website for my herbal/health business, EveryWiseWoman Herbals. In light of my desire to keep both alive for the foreseeable future, I am planning to use the Radically Natural Living platform primarily for articles on food and medical politics, as well as recipes and highlights of our GAPS protocol. EveryWiseWoman.org will be my repository of herbal lessons, ailment treatments, general remedies, healthy living information, etc. I will continue to link to relevant EWW articles here.


Here's a sneak peek at some of the planned articles for the coming year:

• Self-care for appendicitis
• Natural cardiovascular care
• Remedies for strep throat
• Understanding the hormone cascade
• Fabulous Fat, the essential (and malevolently maligned) nutrient
• Wonderful Water, the essential (and overlooked) element
• Examining the "scientific method"
• The exceptional egg yolk
• The folly of feedlot beef
• Botanical medicine: whole herb methodology

And, in honor of making and keeping resolutions and promoting revolutionary thinking/behaviour, I am planning a series of articles aimed at denuding the fear-based medical industry, targeting my sites on the vaccine industry, the cancer industry, and the birth industry.


Lofty goals, no doubt...we shall see how fares the execution. I make no promises, but I give my heartiest effort to the task. Until next time, keep learning, keep questioning, and Happy 2012!

Free Online Screening of "Fresh," the Clean Food Documentary

Fresh, the clean food documentary by Ana Sofia Joanes (featuring real food advocates Joel Salatin, Michael Pollan, et al), can be viewed online until February 1.  Don't miss this opportunity, and please share the link with your family and friends.

Watch Fresh Online

As many years as I have under my belt on this issue...as much as I've read and seen and heard...I couldn't keep myself from cringing through the "industrial food" segments of the film.  I kept muttering, "This is madness!"  and "Complete Insanity!"  Even my son got in on the action..."That would never happen if they didn't grow all that monoculture!" he cried.  And, at one point in the film, while watching with frustration a scene of an industrial cow feedlot, we both said, "That causes deadly e coli!!"  It was one of those times I was proud that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree!  

I also wanted to share this youtube video of a TEDxAustin speaker...former food industry analyst turned real food crusader, Robyn O'Brien.  Her message dovetails nicely with the lessons in Fresh and its predecessor, Food, Inc.  O'Brien's book, The Unhealthy Truth: One Mother's Shocking Investigation into the Dangers of America's Food Supply-- and What Every Family Can Do to Protect Itself, details her journey.

Thanks to a fellow real foodie crusader for sharing this with me...sickness and life has me out of the loop a bit right now, LOL.  Check out the January issue of the Food Bits & Bites newsletter for more great clean food news and recipes.

The Ugly Facts on Medical Lobbyists

I know...I'm breaking my own hiatus...but I just couldn't help it.  The following alert from Mercola is too important for me to ignore; it's the kind of thing I feel compelled to share.  I will not elaborate on it, nor will I copy it in entirety here.  I ask you to go to the link, read the article and watch the clips for yourself.  And please share this with others.

Medical Lobbyists Stealing Your Freedom



[Once again, I want to say that I am not in exact agreement with everything Mercola says and does. But overall, I think he provides an important service to the public by way of his health information and alerts. I appreciate his zeal and his concern for sharing and warning as much as he does, so I can overlook some of his more conventional views and somewhat pushy selling strategies.]



My aversion for the conventional medical system and our political system is kindled by the information shared in Mercola's latest post.

A few highlights (quoted from Mercola's article):

"The pharmaceutical industry is the BIGGEST political lobby in the US. There should be no doubt about the power the drug industry wields in shaping the U.S. health care system, and political lobbying is one of the primary reasons why the drug companies are controlling nearly the entire the health industry. 

*** 

In just one decade, from 1998 to 2008, the pharmaceutical industry alone spent $1.5 BILLION on lobbying for legislative favors and tax breaks.

Is it any wonder that so few of our laws make sense anymore?

The pharmaceutical industry's power and influence over government, the field of conventional medicine, and your mind through massive marketing efforts, is in a class of its own. It's just that most people don't realize the staggering magnitude of their financial influence, and therefore are blinded and deceived by the manipulated perception that the industry is "helping mankind."  (emphasis mine...I could not say it better myself.)

*** 

Lobbyists often craft purposefully nebulous language to change the US code to specific ends of industry, and these amendments are then snuck into various bills, which no one read before passing.

...the revolving door between the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and various drug companies and other industries...has done untold damage to public health and health freedom. It is very common for high-ranking FDA officials to get lucrative consulting positions with the drug companies after they quit.  (emphasis mine)

The converse is also very common. Federal officials can get paid millions by the drug companies before they make the switch over to the FDA..."

Enough said...and yet, somehow, it's not enough...there is so much more in this realm that it makes one's head spin.  But for now, this is enough.  I'm going back on break to cogitate and tackle some heretofore neglected essentials.  I leave you with an appeal:  get riled and motivated to effect change in our culture.  Sowing seeds of doubt about the "powers that be" and encouraging questions regarding the status quo are a great place to begin.


EDIT:
I missed this one...my husband pointed out (with a grimace) the irony of the last few seconds of the 60 minutes video.  "Brought to you by Lipitor."  It just never ends...even the journalists (I use that term very loosely) are beholden to the drug companies.

Taking a Break...

Radically Natural Living (and Every Wise Woman) will be on hiatus while I reconsider my format and my purpose for the sites.  I thank you for your support and hope you all have a wonderful transition into winter.  Until next time, Be Well, defy the status quo, fight convention, and keep learning to become your own expert!

Support Maine Farmer Dan Brown...Fight for Sovereignty

This was too important not to share, so I'm simply going to direct you to Food Renegade's excellent post:


Maine Challenges Food Sovereignty


I'm not even going to expound...aren't you relieved, LOL?   Please, get involved as much as you can to fight this ridiculous attack on Real Food and our rights to produce, buy and eat it.  Let's stand up for farmer Dan Brown.  If Blue Hill, Maine falls to the big ag interests regulating food in this country, where do the rest of us stand?


Food Sovereignty ordinances...what an excellent idea!  Let's all put that on our calendar for the New Year as a fight worth having at the local level.


OK, enough said.  Until next time, Be Well!

The War Rages...Please Fight for Real Milk and Your Health Rights

I know I said the next few posts were going back to topics other than Real Food, but this is too important to ignore.  I am irate...and as such, will keep my vociferations as brief as possible.  I am utterly disgusted with the latest governmental raw milk witch hunt.  I apologize in advance, but this is going to be rant-like...you've been warned.


Yesterday the CA Dept. of Food and Ag. shut down Organic Pasture's raw milk operation with allegations that five children were infected by e. coli that was "suspected" to come from OP milk.  Samples of the milk that those children consumed have tested negative for e. coli.  Read more here:



Organic Pastures News Release


ABC Fresno Report


This is a war, my friends.  Our government, based on nothing more than corporate interests, wants to deny you access to raw milk.  The fear-mongering is becoming more intense, the allegations and intrusions more vigorous.  For years, these battles have been raging; the Real Food "little guys" have been fighting goliath...it isn't getting any easier, and it isn't going away.  


This is not the first time Organic Pastures has been under the gun with governmental agencies.  The grass-based raw dairy weathered the storm five years ago when falsely accused of selling milk infected with malevolent e. coli.  And in 2009, the FDA tried to get California to shut down OP permanently.  It isn't enough that our government has already banned interstate sales of real milk...the goal is to eradicate raw milk sales altogether.


The powers that be want absolute control over our lives, our choices...and they will cheat and lie to achieve that end.  The corrupt, meddling industrial food and medical interests (led by the FDA and its state agency cronies) will stop at nothing to achieve its goals.  This is an outrage, because the FDA operates as a power unto itself...untouchable...using its authority to change the rights of every American.  For these unelected "regulatory" agencies to exert such control is anathema to the very foundations of this country's originally established governmental system.  These agency actions are a violation of our rights in every way.


Why am I so upset?  Is it really such a big deal?  OP will win this skirmish, too, right?  In my mind, this is not a small affair.  It is another fissure in our already crumbling personal freedom fortress.  Certainly we have no guarantee that right will win the day...it simply does not work that way anymore in our overblown, corporate-run government.  The "agents of regulation" are not on our side.


Raw milk is not the only victim of the FDA's wrath.  The agency is currently working on another way to considerably limit public access to supplements.  Again, this particular fight is not new, just increasingly ugly.  Our freedom of choice...and the ability of the free market to operate...will be significantly diminished if the FDA enacts its proposed revised guidelines for "new dietary ingredients" (NDI).  


Currently, our access to supplements is protected primarily by the 1994 Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA).  But if the FDA has its way, bringing to market any new ingredient (since 1994) will be so onerously expensive for companies that very few could be able to do so.  Except, of course...drumroll please...pharmaceutical companies.  Ah, I didn't really expect you to be surprised.  I know it shouldn't, but the cronyism never ceases to amaze me.  If you do not already understand the depths of depravity in the pharmaceutical industry, I regret my inability to enlighten you now.  Suffice it to say that it will not be a good thing when pharmaceutical companies have unmitigated control...and they desire nothing less.


Please visit the Alliance for Natural Health to learn more about this threat to your health freedom and what actions you can take against yet another draconian FDA move.


So, I come to the end of today's fulmination.  We see raging before us the war on personal freedom, on food freedom, on health freedom.  What can we do?  I'm not sure...it seems we now have so little power and control over our own fates in this country.  Will contacting congressional members really stem the tide of these and future violations?  Considering the corruption deeply embedded in our government, I put no trust in the system.  But we must fight...raise our voices, refuse to comply...be awake, aware, contend against complacency.


I am a tiny voice...truly insignificant in this realm.  But I am contributing my voice and entreating you to care, to learn and to fight.

Salatin on the Value of Real Food

Before I became a "real food crusader" of sorts, before I was utterly sold-out and committed "all in" to real food, I was a food snob.  Ah, I can hear some groans now.  Terrible habit, some may say...hard on the pocket-book!  Not so, I say...Pay now or pay later.  Yes, I was first a health nut, then a food snob.  The lure of gourmet was simply too great.  I just love food; and I believed, before I even understood all the implications of a real food lifestyle, that food should nourish and it should taste good.  Food is more than sustenance, it is medicine...and it is one of the physical joys of the human experience.  At least, it should be.  Hence, the food snobbery.  


And now we enter the "real foodie" realm; while the labels may change and nuances of underlying motivations evolve, the desire for quality food remains.  Some people, as they shift from their S.A.D industrial food habits toward a nourishing food lifestyle, bemoan the cost of real food.  I can sympathize.  The fact is that certain categories of real food cost more.  It really isn't the fruits and veggies that cause financial pain, it is the animal foods and the premade/processed foods.  We can save money simply by creating meals at home from scratch using whole food ingredients...otherwise known as cooking.  (ie: Don't buy from the "hot food" deli at Whole Foods.)  When we reclaim the kitchen, we save in our food budgets.  But, yes, even with home-cooked meals using simple, natural ingredients, the prices for real meat, fish, poultry, milk, eggs and butter exceed those of their bastardized counterparts.



American consumers, comfortably accustomed to the typical American diet, are somewhat anesthetized to the real cost of food.  It isn't all our fault, either.  Our government, using taxpayer money, has created unrealistic consumer expectations.  Government subsidies of commodity crops and big-ag farming has artificially deflated food prices for years.  Ultimately, this is an unsustainable ruse; if current economic conditions are an indicator, the charade won't last forever.  Nevertheless, Americans are used to cheap food, and they experience sticker shock when entering the realm of real food.  Ironically, some consumers cannot seem to grasp the quality/cost analysis.  My husband likes to relay Joel Salatin's story of a farmer's market customer who scoffed at paying $3 for a dozen organic, pastured eggs while she sipped her $.75 can of bubbly corn syrup poison (my summary of the story).



Frankly, all that "cheap" food is not cheap at all...it is quite costly.  The human body cannot be sustained on junk; at some point, somehow, the physical reaping will occur.  [I define junk as any industrial/conventionally/chemically produced food and processed/adulterated foods.]  In the end, we save money by living a real food lifestyle, because we have fewer long-term health problems.  Think of all the drugs, supplements, procedures, etc. that people spend money on (not to mention the suffering caused by the ailments)...  Now, imagine how that can dissipate as people eat pure food meant to nourish and heal.  Five dollars a pound for organic, grass-fed beef doesn't seem so bad weighed against bottles of pills in the medicine cabinet.  As a society, we spend millions on health care...for ailments directly related to the way we eat...and we complain about the cost of real food?  We need to understand and accept that real food may cost more, but it is worth more.  


Aside from the legitimate value of real food, we need to become comfortable with paying real food farmers a living wage.  The people who produce the food that sustains, nourishes and heals us deserve to be paid for their labor.  As a group, farmers are woefully under-compensated.  [I can promise you, as a fledgling "homesteader," that raising real food is extremely difficult and costly work.]  One of the hidden costs of American's cheap industrial food is the financial plight of farmers.  It seems we want our food, we want it cheap, and we don't care about the consequences...to ourselves, to the environment, to the farmers...  This is an insupportable perspective.  We are far too removed from the production of our food, especially our animal foods.  I like to believe that if consumers knew the truth about how their food was raised and processed (what the animals eat, the conditions in which they live, how they are killed/processed)...everything that was done to it before it entered their mouths (sometimes including being irradiated and pumped full of ammonia)...they would never purchase industrial food.  The truth is downright scary and disgusting...don't tell your kids before bed or discuss it at dinner!  (LOL)



None of us is perfect; we all cheat once in a while...  But cheating with industrial food is far different from a lifetime of eating it.  The deleterious effects are innumerable.  And the more ugly truths we learn about industrial food, the less inclined we are to cheat.  In the end, real food doesn't cost more...it is just a matter of time, perspective and priorities.  If I were struggling to afford real food for my family, I would eliminate every possible extraneous expense...I would change any and every financial outlay before I would compromise on the health, vitality and nourishment of my family.  It's just that important.  I'm not claiming this is always an easy practice, but that we need...as a culture...to re-examine how we think about food and its true costs.


But enough of my thoughts on the matter...



A year ago (or so), I wrote to food crusader and real food farmer Joel Salatin and asked him if he would share some pearls of wisdom regarding the costs of real food.  For anyone not "in the know," Salatin is the sustainable, eco-ag, pasture-based Virginia farmer made famous by Michael Pollan's Omnivore's Dilemma.  A seasoned farmer, prolific author, speaker and real food activist, Salatin has the experience and passion to stand at the fore of our current cultural food fight.


Joel was kind enough to reply to my request, but did not have the time to write an original piece.  He did, however, give me permission to share an article he wrote on the subject, originally published by Flavor Magazine.  So without further ado, I present to you:


*****
Foodie Elitism ... Rebel with a Cause
by Joel Salatin

Because high quality local food often carries a higher price tag, the charge of elitism is often vitriolic (from the industrial foodists) and agonizingly embarrassing (from the foodies). Instead of cowering in self-guilt, let’s confront this higher sticker price head on.

First, it’s better food. It tastes better. It handles better. It’s safer. Anyone buying chemicalized, drug-infused food is engaging in risky behavior. But it’s also nutritionally superior. For those willing to see, the science of conjugated linoleic acid, vitamins, minerals, brix readings, omega 3-omega 6 ratios, and polyunsatured fat profiles are empirically superior. Better stuff is worth more.

Second, economies of scale will continue to progress as more people patronize local food. The collaborative aggregation and distribution networks fine-tuned by mega-food companies can and will be duplicated locally as volume and creativity work their magic.

Third, eating unprocessed is the best way to combat high food prices, regardless of source. You can buy a 10 pound bag of potatoes for the price of a pound of potato chips. Cultivating domestic culinary arts and actually discovering the kitchens we’ve sacrificially remodeled and gadgetized can wean all of us away from expensive processed food. A whole pound of our farm’s grass-finished ground beef costs less than a Happy Meal. Guess which one has more nutrition?

Fourth, nonscalable government regulations inordinately discriminate against smaller processing businesses (abattoirs, kitchens, canneries) because inappropriate paperwork and infrastructure requirements cannot be spread over as much volume. This creates price prejudice at the community-based scale and inhibits entrepreneurs from entering local food commerce.

Fifth, diversified farms like ours do not receive government subsidies. And our food production, processing, and marketing do not create collateral damage. What is the value of a Rhode Island-sized dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico? Who pays for the cleanup? Who pays for MRSA? Type II diabetes? Stinky rural neighborhoods?

Sixth—and this is where I wanted to head with this discussion—plenty of money exists in the system to pay for good food. Can you think of anything people buy that doesn’t have to be purchased? Tobacco, $100 designer jeans with holes already in the knees, KFC, high fructose corn syrup soft drinks, Disney vacations, TVs, baby food. I won’t belabor the list, but if you took all the unnecessary baubles and junk food people buy, it would total plenty for everyone to eat like kings. We could all be elitists.

We could create a suburb of Lake Wobegon, where all the people ate food that was above average. Almost everyone I know who owns a Community Supported Agriculture share could purchase an extra one for an impoverished family. And if you had to give up a few $4 lattes to do it, what a pity.

This winter, the Rocky Mountain Permaculture Institute invited me to come to Ft. Collins, Colorado, and do a community speech as a fundraiser. They filled a huge community theater with people that paid my travel and honorarium . . . with enough left over to buy 40 CSA shares for poor families in their community. They didn’t wait for a government program. What a wonderfully empowering local effort. Perhaps nothing would reduce elitism perceptions faster than foodies buying CSA shares for impoverished families.

At the risk of sounding uncharitable, I think we need to quit being victims and change ourselves. Don’t complain about being unable to buy high quality local food when your grocery cart is full of beer, cigarettes, and People magazine. Most people are more connected to the celebrities in People than the food that will become flesh of their flesh and bone of their bones at the next meal.

We can all do better. If we can find money for movies, ski trips, and recreational cruises, surely we can find the money to purchase integrity food. The fact is that most of us scrounge together enough pennies to fund the passion of our hearts. If we would cultivate a passion for food like we’ve cultivated it for clothes, cars, and entertainment, perhaps we would ultimately live healthier, happier lives.

The other day I saw precooked bacon in a box at the supermarket—for $30 a pound. Do we really have to buy precooked bacon? If you took the average shopping cart and tossed out all the processed food—everything with a label item you can’t pronounce or make in your kitchen, and everything that won’t rot—and substituted instead locally sourced, fresh items, you would be money ahead and immensely healthier.

To suggest that such a change makes me an elitist is to disparage positive decision making and behavior. Indeed, if that’s elitism, I want it. The victim mentality our culture encourages actually induces guilt into people making progress. That’s crazy. We should applaud positive behavior and encourage others to follow suit, not demonize and discourage it. Would it be better to applaud people who buy amalgamated, reconstituted, fumigated, irradiated, genetically modified industrial garbage?

The charge of elitism is both unfair and silly. We foodies are cultural change agents, positive innovators, integrity seekers. So hold your head high and don’t apologize for making noble decisions.

*****
More of Joel's thoughts regarding the real costs of food can be gleaned from his book, The Sheer Ecstasy of Being a Lunatic Farmer.

Radically Natural Recipe: Super Snack...Grain-Free Popcorn!

OK, It's not really popcorn without the corn, but we think it's pretty close.  I'm talking about crispy kale.  It's a fantastic snack and easy to make.  We had an abundance of kale in our summer garden and have been enjoying weekly bowls of crispy kale.



For those of us doing GAPS or living grain-free, or allergic to corn, or just avoiding corn (because, frankly, it is getting to be scary stuff), this is a great snack alternative that has crunch and flavor reminiscent to popcorn (my kids think it's better and I agree).
To make crispy kale:

• Take fresh, clean kale leaves and rip them into bits (leaving behind the stalk)
• Scatter torn leaf bits in one layer on a baking sheet
• Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper (you can mix the kale bits in a bowl with olive oil and salt/pepper before laying on baking sheet if you want all chips to be well saturated)
• Bake in oven at 350 for 30 minutes (ish...depending on your oven and the water content in your kale, the crispy kale may be finished sooner, so be aware and check it occasionally)
• When finished, the kale with be muted green/brown (not burned) and very crispy, crumbly (sorry no pic of the finished product...I turned around to get the camera, and the kale chips were gone! LOL)

Kale freshly harvested from our garden

Torn to bits...

Voila!  Not complicated, eh?  Once you get the hankering for crispy kale, you will undoubtedly want to bake multiple trays...one sheet of this super snack does not last long!

Why kale?
Kale has a good reputation for being high in calcium.  (I like to call it "cow replacer" for people who cannot access raw, organic, free-range, grass-fed milk, or for those who choose not to drink milk.)  But as a member of that glorious cruciferous family of antioxidant-rich veggies, kale also provides some powerhouse anti-cancer properties (primarily from the vegetable's isothiocyanates...derived from cruciferous sulfur-containing compounds).

Kale contains nearly 50 flavonoids, including anti-inflammatory quercitin.  Other nutrients include:

• Vitamin K (an important partner to vitamin D and calcium in bone building; cardiovascularly protective)
• Vitamin A and C
• Manganese, Copper, Tryptophan
• Fiber, Protein
• Calcium, Potassium, Magnesium, Iron, Folate
• Vitamins B1, B2, B3, B6 and Vitamin E

Kale is hard on the digestive system if consumed raw, which is not generally advised.  But juicing, steaming and baking unlock kale's nutrients, so give those methods a try!

[Read more about the health benefits of kale.]

Why not corn?
One word:  GMO.  OK, that's not a word...but you get the point.  Hmmm...this is neither the time, nor the place for a RadicallyNatural look at the dangers (physical/mental health and agricultural impacts) of genetically modified corn.  Suffice it to say that I am concerned with the possibility that it may be increasingly impossible to find untainted, "good old-fashioned" corn.

Because of our monoculture industrial agriculture model, non-GMO, organic, heirloom corn availability is seriously waning.  To make matters worse, GMO corn pollen taints non-GMO crops.  Corn has become a sticky wicket.  You should never, never, never...did I say never ever?...eat genetically modified corn (or any GMOs for that matter).  In addition to the cancer risks and other long-term health risks associated with GM crops, some strains of GM corn have been developed as a human contraceptive.  I am not kidding...sterilizing corn...non-fertility corn.  It should come as no surprise that population-control/technology magnate Bill Gates is part of the project.  Truth is stranger than fiction, don't ever forget it.  GMOs are not foods, they are weapons.

But this is a discourse for another time, perhaps.  If you want to discover some sobering and vexing facts about the food politic madness that is GMO corn, please read the linked articles in the graf above and check out the links/books following.

Links
GM Corn affects fertility
Health Risks of GM corn
Seeds of Deception List of Risks

Books
The World According to Monsanto: Pollution, Corruption, and the Control of the World's Food Supply
Seeds of Deception
Genetic Roulette: The Documented Health Risks of Genetically Engineered Foods

Sifting Information with a Critical Eye...

[This post is dedicated to a friend who once queried me regarding the elements of research. Thank you for inspiring me to share...]

Knowledge is power, we have been told...and knowledge comes from ingesting information. But how do we discern facts and draw appropriate conclusions? Facts are funny things...just look at revisionist history. Truth often is stranger than fiction (thank you, Mr. Twain). Yet how often do we suspect that the version of truth we are being told is something other than the facts? I believe this is where we need to employ those vitally important critical thinking skills.


Thinking critically and examing the information presented are paramount to our ability to determine verity. We need to become "information specialists" to deconstruct establishment "facts" that may not contain absolute truth. A favorite tactic used by the "powers that be" to sway public opinion is fear-mongering, whose primary elements include misinformation, fact manipulation, half-truths and sometimes, outright lies. The secret to fear-mongering's influence lies in a general public that lacks knowledge and discernment. The enemy of a fear-mongering campaign is the dissemination of thorough and valid information.

In the real food realm, we watch the on-going war against raw milk. As regulatory agencies and industrial interests attempt to control and eliminate our access to real milk, we see the employment of "official" doctrine that denounces this natural food and intimidates its consumers. Should we be afraid? Is raw milk a public health hazard? The FDA and CDC would like us to believe so. But what is the basis of their accusations? We need to scrutinize the warnings; read like investigators. Good journalists (no, that is not always an oxymoron, LOL) are taught to look beyond the surface, to question, to sift. Let us do so before digesting the position we are being fed. We tell our children, "you can't believe everything you read;" do we practice what we preach?

Before facing an onslaught of regulatory propaganda, we need to examine our personal presuppositions. There seems to be a general societal belief that regulatory agencies and medical institutions are authoritative, accurate and honest. I do not share that presupposition, which impacts my view of information coming from those sources. What are your presuppositions? How do they affect your study and conclusions? A cacophony of voices vie for dominance on this topic...I am not here to represent varied viewpoints. Rather, I desire to reveal holes I see in the conventional presentation of "facts;" I encourage you to sift with your critical eye.

The example I want to use for our sifting exercise comes from the CDC's cache of articles warning the public about the "dangers" of raw milk. It's downright scary stuff!

The first page of the CDC's warning against real milk, Food Safety and Raw Milk, is a good example of factual ambiguity. The article offers sweeping statements backed by little data, and no detailed case studies. The CDC's representation of pasteurization history is misleading, containing half-truths that lack full disclosure. The agency's version of history allows the reader to infer that the milk just arbitrarily became bacteria-laden (or was dangerous all along, and miraculously, we survived it for multiple milennia) and needed to be cooked to spare the public from such a dangerous food.

Additionally, notice that the article does not differentiate between proper raw milk and the other options. Healthy real milk comes from vibrant, grass-fed, free-roaming, sunshine-drenched cows. Drinking raw milk from an industrial (or even small-operation) grain-based, confinement dairy is a recipe for illness. More on this later...  The CDC does not include any exhortations regarding the folly of the dirty dairy industry, nor does the "safety advisory" enlighten the reader to the harm caused by feeding cows grains, corn and soy (not to mention eliminating the animals' opportunity to exercise, fresh air and direct sunlight).  The article neglects to inform readers that industrial dairies routinely feed cows grains as a primary calorie source.  And did the CDC mention anywhere that feeding cows corn actually contributes to e. coli infections?  No.  Am I surprised?  No.  But that is a crucial piece of information in the raw milk illness puzzle, is it not?

Moving on...  The Q&A section of the CDC's raw milk "safety" data contains a slew of misinformation, including more of the aforementioned misleading pasteurization history and additional misinformation regarding the deleterious health effects of pasteurizing milk. At every turn, the answers contain only one version of the story...the opponent's version; and its version is sorely lacking detailed data. As if you are too busy to be bothered or perhaps too unintelligent to comprehend a complete set of facts? The CDC would like you to believe that it is a bastion of truth and that its information is trustworthy. But the agency is neither presenting the full spectrum of available information, nor sharing completely accurate and honest data.

When I first began composing this post more than a month ago, the testimonial videos you now see on the main page had not been added. Watching the videos confirms my assessment of the CDC's purpose and its manipulation of the "facts." I will comment only on the first testimonial. First, please understand me...I sympathize with this mother and the pain her family suffered. I do not take that child's suffering lightly, nor would I desire to see anyone suffer in such a way. I am not criticizing this mother for her reaction. But for the sake of deconstructing the story's educational merit, I am pointing out its flaws. Again, I am not suggesting that the mother's emotions are insignificant and illegitimate.

First, observe in the video one of the still images (chosen by the CDC to "recreate events..." though "not of the actual events or people") shows a cow being milked by hand in a beautiful green pasture. This is a carefully crafted, not-too-subtle attempt at emotional manipulation that equates the raw milk being discussed in the story with all real milk, especially the family farm, free-range, pasture-based variety. It is unlikely that the majority of raw milk consumers are purchasing their milk from small backyard, pasture-based herds where farmers or cow owners are hand milking. (We hand milk two goats and I can assure you it is not easy work. I know people with only one cow who use milking machines rather than hand milk.)

Remember, it is easier to manipulate an unenlightened populace; perhaps American consumers, even though they are learning the wonderful truth about real milk, are as yet unaware of how that milk is produced. This is something we need to change to be truly informed consumers. We are too far from our food to understand it fully. Organic Pastures, the nation's leader in excellent-quality real milk, is a good resource for understanding the process and benefits of real milk. [And as much as I love to dream of the idyllic days of peaceful, pastured cows being happily hand-milked, even OP uses milking machines; I doubt any commercial operation could afford to do otherwise.]

My point, which may have been obscured by my commentary, LOL, is that the image of the hand-milked, pastured cow is designed to cause the viewing public to believe that we all are the potential victims of poison raw milk coming from small-operation, grass-based, free-range, hand-milked cows. The image is not factually linked in any way to the story being related. As a matter of fact, no details about the milk's source were shared at all.

Notice, also, the other still photo used that includes the background of green grass...the boy drinking the quart of milk. These images irritate me because of their blatant subtext. The overall purpose to the "story" is to discredit pasture-based raw dairies and cause the public to fear them. The imagery is designed to evoke subtle emotions, manipulatively creating negative responses to "pasture." I studied such techniques in my media history courses...these methodologies are routinely used in propaganda whose goal is to indoctrinate; the effect takes place on a subconscious level, and the effect can be lasting.

Getting back to the narrative details of the video, note that the source of the illness-causing raw milk was not revealed, nor were the particulars of the cows' lifestyle and the operation of the dairy. Was it a grain-based, confinement operation? How were the cows milked?  What is the sanitation routine of the milker?  These details are important aspects in the assessment of whether raw milk is safe and nourishing. We cannot understand the case fully without full disclosure of the details. Hopefully, by now most raw milk consumers know that not all raw milk is equal. It is erroneous for the CDC or anyone else to act as if and instruct as if it is.

The remainder of the video highlights the emotions of the mother regarding her child's serious bout with malevolent e. coli, and ends with her expressed opinion that raw milk should not be available to consumers because the risks outweigh any benefits. Watching a mother's agony is heart-wrenching...and the editors of the video know that. Beyond understanding that aspect of the video's design, I want people to see, as they digest the information presented in the video, that no real information was shared at all regarding the details of the source and/or handling of the allegedly contaminated milk. (I say allegedly not to suggest that it is impossible for milk to be contaminated with dangerous e. coli, but only to emphasize that the narrative never provides any proof that the milk was contaminated and therefore isolated as the only possible cause of the boy's illness.)

Finally, while I understand the emotions of the mother in the story, I absolutely disagree with her final assessment that the American public should not be able to buy and consume raw milk. Despite the FDA, CDC and other government entities' insistence to the contrary, we have a right to choose for ourselves what to eat and drink. Just because the FDA does not believe Americans have the right to health and food choice, does not make it so.  That agency is a government organization that works for us...it does not have dictatorship privileges, despite appearances to the contrary. Besides, raw milk is not the only food in existence that could possibly cause illness. Should we outlaw every offender? For there are far worse offenders than real milk!

If we impose this mother's logic (and our government's desires) on a broader scale, many lifestyle choices, foods, activities, pharmaceuticals, medical procedures, etc. should immediately be outlawed because of their danger to the public's health.  (How about cigarettes?)

We have a right, as free individuals, to exercise personal responsibility. We are not wards of a nanny state. We do not need to be saved from ourselves. (And good grief, we are talking about FOOD here! Sorry...)

If you read enough CDC, USDA, FDA et al. advisories, you will be overwhelmed with fear of everyday life. Warning!...don't eat, don't breathe, don't leave the house! According to those agencies and various players in the medical industry, your body is constantly subject to an onslaught of dangerous germs and harmful bacteria to which you are destined to fall prey. Yet, ask yourself...is this a completely accurate paradigm? It certainly isn't mine...I do not believe that a healthy system falls prey to every malevolent microbe that comes along. And on top of that, I allow my children to use the seesaw at the playground! (Whenever we can find one, since they have gone the way of the dinosaur in our accident-fearing, litigious society...sorry, I digress. LOL)

Here's a fact that you won't see our illustrious government agencies heralding. Mass producing food on an industrial scale causes harm. Your first line of defense in avoiding food-borne illness is to eschew industrial food. You also need to naturally build your body's immune system and pursue a health-promoting lifestyle.

Honest representation of all the facts involved allows consumers to make truly informed decisions. If the CDC genuinely cared about educating the public and seeing people thrive, it would provide all facets of the truth. The articles would talk about how raw milk could become contaminated with microbes that could cause illness (including the care and feeding of dairy cows, and the milking process). The advisories would educate the public regarding the hows and whys of such illness and what you can do to avoid it. Even the proponents of real milk will tell you the truth about existing potential of illness, and what consumers can do to avoid it. For example, from a recent Mercola article about raw milk:

Research by Dr. Ted Beals, MD, featured in the summer 2011 issue of Wise Traditions, the quarterly journal of the Weston A. Price Foundation, shows that you are about 35,000 times more likely to get sick from other foods than you are from raw milk! Statistically, you're also more likely to get injured driving to the farm to pick up your raw milk than becoming ill from drinking it.

Dr. Beals' research shows that between 1999 and 2010, there was an average of 42 cases of illness per year attributed to raw milk, and that includes both "confirmed" and "presumed" cases. 

"From the perspective of a national public health professional looking at an estimated total of 48 million foodborne illnesses each year [from all foods]… there is no rational justification to focus national attention on raw milk, which may be associated with an average of 42 illnesses maximum among the more than nine million people (about 0.0005 percent) who have chosen to drink milk in its fresh unprocessed form.…

Consumption of any food has some risk of illness or adverse reaction. And the consequence of basing public policy on horrific personal experiences is that all foods will ultimately be banned, and we will not be able to participate in any activity."If this isn't food for thought, I don't know what is. These statistics are the smoking gun proving that the war on raw milk cannot be based on food safety or protecting your health from an even remotely real threat…

Mercola's assessment is spot on...I won't try to say it better. (For the record, I don't agree with everything Mercola says or does, but I think his site is an excellent research resource with valuable information that is often correct.) Read the entire article to understand the differences among raw milk, and compare what you read there with the information presented by the CDC. Then, when continuing to sift through the fear-mongerish and vague information presented by the CDC, FDA, etc. on this topic, consider:

Where are the news alerts to the public warning them against conventional medical care, drugs and surgeries? If the agency is truly concerned about public welfare and safety, they should be exhorting us to be wary of the medical industry, whose iatrogenic (illness caused by medical exam or treatment) death rate is estimated to exceed 700,000 yearly. But I doubt we'll see the medical industry or any governmental agency pulling back the covers on that bit of ugliness anytime soon.

So let's just examine the perspective here...raw milk may potentially cause 42 illnesses a year, and according to the CDC has caused two deaths in 10 years. Again, I am not belittling the suffering of the victims. But just do the math. The CDC wants to outlaw real milk, wants you to fear it, and reports two deaths in ten years caused by it. But the medical industry kills THOUSANDS of people yearly... Hmmm...maybe we need to refocus the lens here?!

Considering the facts, is it really raw milk that poses a danger to the American public? Is it so dangerous that it needs to be outlawed? Should not the same logic (protecting the public from health harm) be used against the medical industry and its bosom buddy regulators? Where was our government's fire in the belly when Vioxx was killing nearly 28,000 Americans? Oh wait, I said that last time...well, perhaps it bears repeating. According to CDC and FDA doctrine, we are to vilify and fear raw milk, yet trust and admire Merck? This defies reason.

Rabbit trail warning...
Our overgrown government and its dictatorial agencies fundamentally do not believe that we have the right to choose what food we eat (in addition to other personal freedom violations). I find this ironic, considering that they have no problem ensuring grocery store shelves are stocked to the brim with unhealthy, illness-causing franken-food stuffs. But real food? Watch out, that's dangerous...you need the nanny state to protect you from that! I don't know about you, but I am not a ward of the state. I believe it is inherently wrong for the government to tell me what to eat, just as it would be wrong for the government to dictate what I believe.

If a government body is going to regulate away your ability to eat a particular food (or deny a particular freedom that is yours by Natural Right), you have a right to know why...and "it's too dangerous, we're protecting you from yourself, trust us," is not good enough. What might the outcome be if we all said no to the nanny state and refused to be infantilized? These agencies, if they were acting in the public good, would desire to educate consumers, not illegitimately scare them and regulate away their natural rights. In whose best interest are these agencies acting?

Read enough about any health and food issue, and you will begin to see the pattern...big industry and controlling government targets the underdog...seek and destroy. Time and again, it is John Doe organic farmer selling to Suzy Q. Public who receives regulatory wrath and bullying. Monsanto, Cargill, Tyson, Dean Foods, et al seem to get a free pass. Oh, I forgot...they make the rules. But I have digressed enough for today...

Back to reading critically....
I shared the CDC "raw milk warning" as an example to whet your appetite for further sifting of proclaimed truth. I believe the "information" presented in the CDC articles is intended to keep you ignorant and scared. Please don't let it. Demand details. Don't subscribe to someone else's version of reality (even, or rather, especially a government agency's) until you have studied it thoroughly (using varied sources and viewpoints) and are convinced that it is accurate.

Don't accept pat answers...demand data. For example, when scrutinizing a case of negative effects attributed to raw milk, ask what was consumed, from where, from what conditions, by whom and what exactly happened? I am not saying that people could not become ill from raw milk...neither are the champions of the cause. I am saying that we deserve full disclosure if we are to thoroughly understand the potential harms and how we can avoid them; and I am saying that despite any potential harms, outlawing raw milk is not a legitimate or fair option.  When contemplating the attacks upon raw milk and the information being presented in favor of outlawing it, consider the myriad more harmful foods, drugs and procedures not being targeted...and ask yourself why, and who benefits? Finally, if the CDC is willing to parade such slanted, vague and manipulative information as absolute fact in this realm, where else do you think it might employ such tactics?

So, to conclude my ramblings on research and information assessment, I encourage you to perform your own study...ask your own questions...examine what is being said and what is not being said...study claims and their bases...draw your own conclusions. That's freedom. Perhaps your interpretation will be different from mine...that is your individual right. What I am promoting is that you do not believe the establishment just because it tells you to. Examine carefully the information being presented and the claims being made.

The truth is not complicated; we need to stop accepting the complexification of simple things. One of society's downfalls is that we have become a people who no longer think. We trust "experts" far too much and believe what they tell us.

I would rather that we all become our own experts...but you know that already! Cheers!


For further study

Death by Medicine stats
More Death by Medicine myriad links
Raw milk pathogen facts
Mercola article about safety of raw milk
CDC "Food Safety and Raw Milk"

Organic Pastures grass-based, free-range dairy

The Untold Story of Milk by Ron Schmid

The Raw Milk Revolution: Behind America's Emerging Battle Over Food Rights by D. Gumpert

FDA Lunacy...Attacks on Real Food and Real Birth

This installment of Radically Natural Living is brought to you by the popularly overworn phrase, "Seriously?!  [Warning: the information contained within this post mingles with some sarcastic incredulousness.]


Today we are going to look at a couple examples of how our government regulatory agencies are crossing the line and continuing to erode our liberties not only as Americans, but as human beings.  For those of you who read Real Food blogs, the first item will not be news.  But I believe it important to broadly disseminate the truth about the Real Food culture war so that more Americans can be spurred to thought and action.



I have no intention of re-inventing the wheel here, so I will link to the articles that have already described the recent outrageous behaviour of our government agencies.  Please read and pass along....

"You're under arrest!"

If you were unaware, on August 3,  the FDA and CDC raided an organic raw milk buying club in southern California.  The owner was arrested, as was an organic farm owner and her employee (who also happens to be a WAPF chapter leader).  These people were charged as felons.  That's right, felons.  And the food was confiscated and/or destroyed.  OK, say it with me now...Seriously?!  


This is about food!  Real Food!  Raided...arrested...charged...confiscated...destroyed...!  Food and the people providing it!  Food made available to a public that wants to consume it!  That knowingly chooses to buy and consume it!  This is criminal activity in our country?!  Seriously?  You have got to be kidding!  This is the best use of our society's resources (time and taxpayer money)?  Arresting and prosecuting organic farmers and food sellers?  Wasting resources in a continued attempt to outlaw a simple, pure, natural food?!  How is this anything other than lunacy?


We have allowed our government, which was to be of the people, by the people, to grow into a beast that believes it has the right to control everything we do, including what we eat.  The simplest thing like choosing Real Food is now a battleground, complete with a criminal trial.  Among a long list of other offenses, the FDA and the CDC constantly bombard the public with manipulative messages that raw milk is dangerous...we must save you from yourselves...it could kill you!  (*We will look more closely at the basis of these claims in my next post.) These taxpayer-funded agencies (and others) have become dictators.  The FDA has actually said that Americans have no right to any particular food, nor the right to physical health!  Seriously?!  Don't take my word for it...read the brief for yourself.  The behaviour and policies of the FDA are egregiously offensive and fundamentally wrong.

Grass-fed organic raw milk

First of all, we do not need to be saved from ourselves...we have every right, endowed to us by our Creator and affirmed by natural law, to make our own decisions, especially regarding what food we eat.  We have become a culture so accustomed to being controlled by nanny government agencies that we have forgotten what liberty is.  And now that we are here, will we willingly remain?  Where is our American revolutionary spirit?  Our love for independence?  We need to go back and read our nation's founding documents.


Secondly, even if, through improper farming/milking practices, raw milk were to have a negative impact on a few individuals, that in no way comes close to the despicable damage, illness and death being caused by the industrial franken-foods and pharma drugs that are regularly pushed on American consumers.  Where are the raids on the processed food aisles of American grocery stores and their pharmacies?!  Why is the FDA not confiscating and destroying palettes of corn-syrup-ladened, adulterated, modified, fake food...the stuff that is causing millions of Americans to suffer with chronic illness and early death?!  Regulatory agencies certainly are not inhibiting people's freedom to stuff themselves full of soda, alcohol, twinkies, corn chips, cigarettes and psychotropics.  


If the free market were allowed to regulate itself and consumers continued to become educated about how Real Food needs to be produced (ie: don't drink raw milk from grain-fed, confined cows; and make sure you know your local farmer and insist he use sanitary milking conditions or he loses your business), we would have a plethora of safe Real Food available to all the people who desired it.  


Our government allows and encourages Americans to poison themselves regularly with "regulation-approved" foods (I use the term loosely) and drugs.  Why the blatant attempt to remove Real Food from our spectrum of choices?  Various theories have been postulated, the answer is undoubtedly multifaceted.  One factor I believe fundamental to the discussion is the potential loss of profit to the commercial dairy industry.  As more Americans become independently educated about Real Food and responsible farming practices, they will begin to expose the dirty dairy industry for what it is...and eschew its products.  The desire to keep consumers in the dark and protect their ability to irresponsibly, inhumanely and unhealthily produce food is the likeliest reason that industrial ag-friendly lawmakers have introduced bills to make it illegal to photograph farms.  


This is out of control.  The expenditure of taxpayer resources to attack Real Food and its producers/sellers...the absolute abuse of power...when there are actually real criminals at foot, perpetrating real crimes against humanity every day...it defies reason.  Where was the FDA when Vioxx was killing thousands of Americans?! 

My first birth tub (Target kiddie pool)

In another gestapo move, the FDA in late May raided an Oregon warehouse and confiscated inflatable birth pools...the kind that many of us have used to enjoy the numerous benefits of home waterbirth.  And it gets worse.  The FDA actually stated that pregnancy is an illness and that birth tubs are an illegal medical device.  Seriously?!  What's next?  Confiscating and destroying all the blow-up kiddie pools at Target?  Outlawing pregnancy altogether?  Oh, wait...that would damage the profitable medicalized birth industry.  Rather, let's just continue to erode freedom of birth choice and force-funnel all women into the technocratic factory birth system.  Make no mistake my friends, this is a war; this latest FDA lunacy is only one battle.

Second birth tub, a la waterbirth.org

[Ladies, pregnancy is NOT an illness...normal birth is NOT dangerous...you are not a broken machine requiring modern technology and regulation to save you and your baby from yourself.  The rare exceptions to normal pregnancy/birth are no reason to create an illegitimate birth climate that views this natural and beautiful process as something to be feared and medically managed.  No government agency, nor doctor has the right to tell you how to birth ... to restrict your freedom of choice in how you bring your children into this world.  Nor should we continue to allow the industry to perpetrate fraud upon women, convincing us that there is no other way but the industry's way.]


These agency actions against food and birth choices cut to the core of a civil and human liberties battle that should enrage us all.  Why, as a culture, have we chosen to acquiesce to such dictatorial treatment by governmental agencies?  These people work for us!  But this is the America in which we all now live.  And I ask again, why are we allowing this?  


Lest we believe that we need all these "protections" and that we must inherently trust these agents of control, we should remind ourselves that control is exerted more often through fear-mongering than through honest examination and revelation of fact.  (*More on this in my next post.)  


Some final food for thought (yes, yes...pun intended):  If the FDA is truly concerned for the welfare of Americans and desires to catch the bad guys, perhaps it should turn its gaze inward.


I will leave you with these cogitations for today...please, share and discuss amongst yourselves.


For further reading:
The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved: Inside America's Underground Food Movements
Everything I Want To Do Is Illegal: War Stories From the Local Food Front
The Raw Milk Revolution: Behind America's Emerging Battle Over Food Rights
The Untold Story of Milk
Born in the USA: How a Broken Maternity System Must Be Fixed to Put Women and Children First
Pushed: The Painful Truth About Childbirth and Modern Maternity Care
Web links:
Real Food Media
Organic Pastures Raw Grass-fed Dairy
Eat Wild
Real Milk
Raw Milk Facts
Waterbirth Int'l

Midwifery Today
The Unnecesarean

Radically Natural Recipe: Sublime Sauerkraut...Probiotic Superfood

Cabbage could be in medical science what bread is in nutrition; cabbage is the physician of the poor. -- Dr. Blanc, Parisian physician, 1881

Long before adopting a "nourishing traditions" lifestyle, and prior to beginning GAPS, I loved sauerkraut. I remember the biannual meals featuring sauerkraut in my family home...I longed for more, never suspecting a future regimen of fermenting awaited me.  My love for sauerkraut has only grown since I began eating the genuine stuff...no more canned, processed kraut for me.  Home-fermented kraut is culinary and wellness ambrosia.



So for anyone attempting GAPS, or newly exploring the WAPF life, or even just desiring to increase delicious nutritional healing in your daily diet, adding sauerkraut to your repertoire is a real boon.


Before sharing my simple recipe for sauerkraut, let's look at some fast facts about this fantastic superfood.  In our discussion, we are assuming a traditionally fermented (also termed "cultured") raw food that is literally alive.  Inferior versions won't supply the vast health benefits.

• Traditionally fermented raw foods like sauerkraut are teeming with friendly bacteria (hence the term "probiotic food") and live enzymes that significantly aid your body in food digestion and nutrient absorption, especially foods that are typically harder for your body to break down.
• Beneficial bacteria (such as Lactobacillus plantarum) boost your immune system by increasing antibody production.  Lactobacillus also creates omega-3 fatty acids (a nutrient crucial to cell/brain/immune function).
• Fermenting food can reduce toxins present in the food, as well as neutralize phytic acid (a compound found in grains that blocks absorption of minerals...which is why soaking grains before consumption is a good practice).
• Historically, fermentation was used as a food preservation method, and ancient cultures (such as the Chinese in 200 BC) have records of sauerkraut juice being prescribed for various ailments.
• Lactic acid is a metabolic byproduct produced by bacteria as they consume sugars.
• Lactic acid prevents decay not only in foods, but in your gut as well.  Lactic acid fermented foods increase bowel blood circulation, promote pancreatic function, help to maintain proper acid/alkaline balance and harmonize stomach acids.
• Sauerkraut is especially high in vitamin C; turning cabbage into kraut increases its B vitamin content.

To learn more about lactic acid fermentation and sauerkraut, check out the following sites:

Benefits of sauerkraut

Lactic acid fermentation benefits

Sauerkraut, original probiotic superfood


Now let's get down to business.  The following is my simple sauerkraut-making method.  I'm going to share my cabbage kraut recipe, but you really can ferment a plethora of vegetables; you can combine them, too.  I enjoy adding radishes, onions and carrots to my cabbage.  (In the photo below you may notice sliced radishes with the cabbage.)  The world of fermentation is vast and varied.  Check out the resources I've listed here and use your imagination.


Tools/Ingredients

• Gallon glass jar with lid
• Large bowl
• Two to four heads organic cabbage (green and/or red)
• Sea salt, dill seeds/weed, caraway seeds 
• Raw whey (from raw grass-fed milk made into kefir or yogurt)
• Wooden dowel for tamping (I use my tapered dowel-style rolling pin), at least 2 inches in diameter
• Gallon ziploc bag

Method

• Chop one head of cabbage, place in bowl and sprinkle with about 1 Tb. sea salt.
• Let sit for 10-20 minutes as cabbage releases liquid.
• Scoop/pour cabbage and liquid into glass jar.
• Sprinkle in some dill and caraway (caraway assists in the fermentation process and both herbs just taste so good in the kraut); about 1 tsp. each.

Draining whey from kefir

• Add 1 Tb. whey.  
• Pound (not too quickly or firmly...I did once break a jar using too much vigor) the cabbage into the jar with your dowel; you are breaking down the cabbage further and getting it to release more juices.  
• Repeat process with the rest of your cabbages (I find that four small cabbages fit into the gallon jar...just do as much or as little as you desire).

Tamping down cabbage

• You will need to leave a couple inches of head room at the top of your jar; gasses will be released during the fermentation process and head room helps to avoid leaks from built-up pressure.

Submerged cabbage and head room

• As you are pounding with your tamper, you will begin to feel a "sucking" pressure on the upstroke as the liquids release and begin to fill the jar.  You want the cabbage to be submerged in liquid.
• If your cabbage is on the dry side, it could be difficult to get it to release enough liquid to cover itself in the jar.  In this case, just add enough pure water so all the cabbage is covered.
• When your jar is full (but with three to four inches of headroom), put the ziploc bag inside the jar on top of the cabbage/liquid.  Fill the bag slowly with water until the bag is weighting down the cabbage.  Close bag.  You want to leave just enough room at top of jar to fit the bag inside and put on the jar's lid.  This bag of water is acting as a weight to keep the cabbage submerged below its liquid, and also as an air seal.

Insert empty bag...

...fill it with water, close it, and seal jar with lid

• Keeping the cabbage submerged and air out of the jar prevents any molding during the process.
• Put the jar in a place where it is relatively dark but not cold (room temperature is desired).  You may want to place a kitchen towel under the jar in case it leaks...I check my jar in the first couple days to "burp" it if necessary.
• Let the cabbage ferment for up to three weeks (time frames vary by recipe/author...I've read anywhere from three days to a month or more).
• When you are satisfied with the amount of time the kraut has fermented, open the jar, remove the water bag, make sure there is no mold inside the jar (I have never experienced mold but have read that mold or scum can sometimes form on the top of the cabbage/liquid...if this is the case, just scoop it out...the kraut underneath is supposed to be fine).  If the cabbage stayed below the juice level and your water bag acted as an air barrier and the jar lid remained on during the fermenting process, you should not experience mold.
• Put the lid back on the jar and place the jar in the fridge (this "stops" the fermenting process...or at least significantly slows it).  
• Keep the kraut refrigerated now that you've stopped fermenting and begun eating.
• Enjoy!!!

Recommendations from my bookshelf:

Making Sauerkraut and Pickled Vegetables at Home by Kaufmann and Schoneck
Wild Fermentation: The Flavor, Nutrition, and Craft of Live-Culture Foods by Sandor Katz
Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon

Recipes, Remedies and Herbs for GAPS Intro

I had hoped to write this post sooner, but have been quite busy working in the garden now that summer has arrived to our neck of the woods.  And the fact that I have been working in the garden is a fantastic segue into today's GAPS article (if you have not already, please read my GAPS summary).


For (just a tad under) the last four decades (yes, I'm almost revealing my age, LOL), I have suffered terribly from allergies, particularly pollen.  I am/have been "allergic" to nearly every green thing that grows on the face of the earth.  Except for the dead of frozen winter, I have experienced varying levels of excruciating misery being outdoors.  This is our sixth week on GAPS Intro and I am ecstatic to announce that I have been actually enjoying spending time outside.  I am certainly not yet reaction-free, but I am at least 50% better...and for me, that's phenomenal...you have no idea.  I am experiencing an amazing freedom from lifelong debilitating pollen allergies.  This defies the conventional understanding of "allergies," which, of course, makes me quite happy.  



Life is taking on a new flavor with the healing that I and my family are experiencing.  Another notable positive change is in my toddler, who since she was born has never slept through the night...no longer than two to three hours at any stretch, and usually less.  This has been the typical pattern for all my children, and I have always accepted it as a result of their allergies.  But the most wonderful change has occurred in my insomniac daughter, who for the last two weeks has been sleeping for five hours without waking.  That is tremendous for us.  


Now that I've shared more of the wonderful results we are seeing with our gut healing protocol, I'd like to share those recipes and tips that I promised previously.  


The first week on GAPS Intro was quite difficult for us...our bodies were adapting and we experienced significant die off.  Once we adjusted to the new diet (we got over the worst slump at about day 5), we noticed a roller-coaster effect in our die off...it seems to come in waves.  I understand that destroying the malevolent flora and repopulating with beneficials can continue through the first year of GAPS (maybe longer), and I imagine we will continue to experience peaks and valleys as we continue on the program.


To ameliorate die off symptoms and assist our bodies with the healing process, I made herbal teas that contain nutrient-dense plants, as well as herbs that have anti-inflammatory and cell proliferation properties.  I believe it advantageous  to nourish the body during a healing crisis, and to use botanical medicine to assist in the repair of the intestinal lining.


Our daily GAPS Intro tea (recipe for 6-8 cups...I use a large French Press)
1 Tb dried comfrey leaves
1 Tb dried peppermint leaves
1 Tb dried nettle leaves
1 Tb dried oatstraw
1 tsp. slippery elm bark powder
1 small chunk (about the size of a quarter) fresh ginger root
1 pinch (about 1/2 tsp) dried stevia leaves


Steep for 10-15 minutes.  The stevia is a slight sweetener for the tea, as it is best to avoid raw honey on Intro (although it is allowable to begin testing in small quantities in the final stages of Intro...but when beginning, the sugars will complicate your withdrawal/die off).  I admit that we erred with the raw honey early on during Intro and we paid for it...so I strongly suggest that you avoid the temptation to sweeten your tea, your food, (and your pathogens LOL) until the end of Intro or even after transitioning to Full GAPS.  At that point, your body should be better able to tolerate a bit of raw honey without creating addictions and worsening your die off.


In addition to the herbal tea, I began administering herbal/food medicines to assist in pathogen destruction.  It can be difficult with younger children if your herbs are in capsule form, and certain herbs are quite bitter tasting...so the method of having them drink the herb powder with water can be unpalatable.  In our case, I make herbal tinctures that I add to their drinking water.  When I have no tincture available, I use powdered herbs.  I was able to mix some herbs with our food and all my children tolerated them without complaint.  But I should admit here that my children since birth have been conditioned to mama's health concoctions and will take just about anything.  I found that certain remedies blended nicely into the squash soup that has become a staple of our diet (recipe to follow), and certain things were indistinguishable when added to our evening sauerkraut (also to follow).


Our daily remedy regimen

• 2 Tb. diatomaceous earth blended into soup to serve our family...if making individual servings, use 1/2 tsp. for small children and 1 tsp. for larger kids and adults.  DE (fossil shell powder) kills parasites and is high in silicon, a building block for your hair, bones, nails, teeth, collagen, etc.  DE has essentially no flavor (slightly chalky) and actually helps to thicken the soup.
• Herbal tincture (15 drops 1x/daily for small children, 2x/daily for larger children/adults) of black walnut hull, wormwood, pau d'arco, cloves and garlic (I prefer to use fresh for tincture making).  This combination of herbs is antiparasitic, antifungal, antiviral and antibacterial.  I did not start using this combination until halfway through GAPS Intro, as the herbs are potent and I felt our bodies needed time to establish some homeostasis with the initial healing crisis.  In lieu of using a tincture, take powder/capsules.  Cloves make a delicious accompaniment to the squash soup and garlic should be in all your meals, so you'll get the benefits of that miracle food as you eat.  
• Cinnamon sprinkled in the soup, baked into the bread, added to the tea, or even just chewed on as sticks.  Cinnamon is extraordinarily healing to blood sugar levels and can kill viruses (as do cloves), including strains of Staph, malevolent E coli, and Candida.  This makes cinnamon a wonderful addition to the GAPS protocol.
• Activated Charcoal = 1 tsp. powder mixed into water to drink (it's black sludge, but it doesn't taste bad at all) safe for any age.  AC is an excellent remedy for removing toxins...it is a necessary and efficient multi-purpose remedy (see my First Aid post for more info).  I have found AC to be quite helpful during GAPS Intro in alleviating die off...it adsorbs the toxic by-products of the pathogens and helps the overall detoxification process. 
• Apple Cider Vinegar = 1 Tb. 3x/daily safe for any age.  Aside from the incredible nourishment and healing powers of ACV, which is a future post in itself, ACV is particularly useful during GAPS as it combats acidic conditions.

Another important component to the detoxification process of GAPS is detox baths.  Baden at gapsguide.com describes a nice detox protocol in her book and discusses it on her site.  I designed a simple detox bath using baking soda, Pascalite, and epsom salts (and/or sea salt...we alternated).  You can also add ACV.  You can even add charcoal, though it gets messy, LOL.  I like to save the full bore detox with the aforementioned five ingredients for a foot bath, which is easier to clean.  For a full bath, use warm (not really hot) water, and 1/2 cup each of the soda, clay and salt (if you want to add ACV, I like to just "dash" it into the tub...about 1/4 cup I suppose; the charcoal would be less, under 1/4 cup).  Sit in the tub for 10 minutes and then rinse off.  Be careful not to let the clay go down the drain (it can clog your pipes).  It tends to stick around the sides of the tub anyway, so you can wipe it out when you're finished.  Foot baths can be done in a small basin (even a large Pyrex baking pan works)...just use 1/2 the amount of detox agents and soak 10-15 minutes.  When detoxing, you want to be slow and gentle...you will be drawing out toxins and that can make you feel ill.  So don't overdo.  


Finally, don't forget...water, water, water!  I know I am delinquent in my goal of writing my water article...but until it shows up, just remember that you need to drink copious amounts of pure water to flush out toxins during this process.  And be certain to consume at least 1/2 tsp of mineral-rich pure salt (I love Real Salt, Himalayan salt, and Celtic grey sea salt) for every gallon of water you drink.  Also, generously salt your food to taste...this is good for you!


OK, let us move forward to some recipes...Let me begin by emphasizing that you need to follow the food protocol outlined in the GAPS books; resources and info are available in my initial GAPS post.


Because the backbone of GAPS is nourishing bone/meat broths, you will be eating quite a lot of soup, especially on Intro.  Despite our consumption of fats and significant calories, we were still feeling hungry...I think it was more of an emotional hunger due to the restricted daily food regimen.  I found that just by blending our soup with cooked winter squash, we suddenly felt satiated.  Perhaps this is not a new Intro recipe for accomplished GAPS families.  But for us, this discovery was a great help to our initial Intro stages.


(I know it aggravates my friends that I rarely measure anything, thereby sharing obscure recipes.  And I'm going to do it again, so I hope you'll forgive me.)


First you need to make your bone broth.  For the sake of your nourishment and health, it is important to make stock from organic, properly fed animals; that's grass for cattle and sheep, browse for goats, and grass/bugs/organic grains...NO soy and NO GMO corn...for birds (I avoid corn altogether for various reasons).  We tend to not each chicken...but when doing GAPS, it became impossible to keep up our stock supply without chickens.  We purchased some from an organic pasture-based family farm near us (we also had some of our own because we had a few roosters in the freezer from our initial flock of layers).  I far prefer the flavor and nutrients of red-meat animal stock, such as beef, lamb and wild game.  You can purchase soup bones, which have some meat on, but any bone, especially joints will do.  You're after the marrow and the saturated fats.  Fatty fish is a good option as well.  We also regularly eat wild Alaskan salmon, so when we get whole fish, we save the "parts" for stock.  


So whatever bones/parts you have collected for your stock supply, it's simple to make good stock.  If you're using a chicken, just put the entire thing in a pot that can accommodate it and enough water to cover it.  If you're using soup bones or other animal bones, do the same.  Add a roughly chopped onion, a few carrots, some garlic, sea salt and peppercorns.  I also add a bay leaf when I have some.  Sometimes I add a small chunk of ginger.  Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer.  Cook for 12-24 hours.  If using a bird, remove after cooking the stock and pull the meat off the bones for separate meals or soup.  Any red meat on bones tends to fall apart during the long simmer.  You can take it out and cut it up for soup.  You can do these broths in a crock pot if it is large enough.  Lamb shoulder is wonderful this way.  OK, that's the quick version.  For more great info on stock, see cheeseslave's post on bone broths and WAPF's excellent article on broths.


When your broth is finished, make it into meat/veggie soup by adding additional veggies, like zucchini and cauliflower, more fresh garlic, and simmering long enough to soften the veggies.  This is the base for the recipe below.


Intro Squash Soup

• 1/2 of entire Cooked winter squash (we love butternut, but also use acorn, delicata, kubota; spaghetti squash is not a good option for soup in my opinion...but makes a great meal with olive oil, sea salt and fresh ground peppercorns!)
• 6 or so large ladles of prepared bone broth (including the veggies cooked in it)
• salt, pepper, dash cinnamon, pinch cloves
• couple spoonfuls ghee and coconut oil (to make ghee, simmer butter til melted and strain off milk solids and all white froth)
• spoonful coconut cream (this is SUCH a treat!)
• Blend
• Add some meat pieces
• Enjoy the delicious nourishment and the absence of children crying over yet another bowl of plain broth...LOL!  It's not that bad, I'm attempting to inject levity.

Once you achieve stage 3-4 of GAPS Intro, you will be able to bake a bit.  Because my son is severely reactive (hives, swelling, asthma) to nuts, we are unable to use the nut flours recommended by McBride.  Now, coconut flour is not protocol for GAPS Intro (because of its high fiber content), but it was our only option...so I used it as sparingly as possible.  I came up with a bread/cake that my family loves so much, it is going to become part of my baking repertoire for future, even when we are finished with GAPS.  We call this bread, but it's really like a cake...it is extremely moist and very satisfying.  We are going to set aside this bread until we move to Full GAPS because it is off Intro protocol and I'm seeing some flareups in the family that I believe are being exacerbated by the bread.  But I wanted to share the recipe for those of you who can use nut flour...try adapting the recipe and see how it turns out!  Or, wait until Full GAPS and make this delicious coconut bread!

Squash Coconut Bread (not protocol for Intro)

• 1/4 of entire cooked butternut squash
• 3/4 cup coconut flour (I imagine pecan or almond flour would be so yummy!...amount of flour would need to be adjust up for nuts, because they are not as dense/fibrous as coconut flour)
• 3 generous spoonfuls ghee
• 3 generous spoonfuls coconut oil
• 8 eggs
• Big dash cinnamon
• pinch salt
• 1 spoonful coconut cream
• Blend
• Pour into greased (with CO) large Pyrex baking dish (or equivalent)
• Bake at 375 for about 40 minutes...I'll be honest, this is an estimate because I just know when the bread is done by smelling it...but my son timed it one day and said 40 minutes, LOL.  Test the bread for doneness by sliding a butter knife into it...should come out perfectly clean.  The edges will brown and perhaps the top a tad, too.

Having a bread/cake can make GAPS Intro actually enjoyable...having some "comfort food" is emotionally and physically fulfilling, especially after the initial Intro stages.  And it helps to have a food that can travel when you need to be away from home.  I have found that the above recipe, with some tweaking, makes a nice batch of mini "souffles."  And this eliminates the Intro coconut flour dilemma.  


Intro Souffles

• 1/2 entire butternut squash
• 8 eggs
• generous dash(es) cinnamon and some cloves if desired
• 3 spoonfuls each ghee and coconut oil
• pinch sea salt
• Blend, pour into greased ramekins (or muffin tins) and bake at 375 for 30ish minutes; check for doneness with the "clean knife" test

The souffles have an amazingly light and creamy texture.  And they are firm enough to eat by hand, just a tad "slick," LOL.

Well...that took more time and space than I anticipated, so I am going to save the sauerkraut for the next post.  


I hope this has been helpful to those of you considering or beginning your GAPS journey.  For a host of recipes and meal ideas, I recommend Cara's cookbooks/meal plans at healthhomehappy.com.  You will also find recipes and meal ideas at the GAPS info/help sites and in the books I listed at the end of my GAPS Summary post.  The "official" GAPS shop sells a cookbook, Internal Bliss, which is geared towards Full GAPS.


Until next time, be well and keep researching!

Our Progress with GAPS Intro...The Benefits Abound

As promised, I'm back to talk in more detail about the GAPS Intro protocol and my family's experience thus far.  This is very exciting territory and I am eager to share.  I'm going to follow the sage advice of my favorite journalism professor (boy, does that bring up memories) and try to "Keep It Simple."


If you have not already, please read my GAPS Summary.  Now, before I dive into what GAPS Intro is and how we have implemented it, I'm going to tell you all the fantastic results we have seen to date.  Lead with the "meat," right Prof?




Because I am the worst case of gut dysbiosis and overall health in our family, I'll start with my current results.  The most significant improvement has been with my headaches.  Normally, I suffer two to three migraines a week.  Since beginning the Intro protocol, I have experienced.....drum roll, please.....three headaches altogether in four weeks.  That is AMAZING for me.  And, the headaches have been less intense and of shorter duration.  TaaDaa!  I'm pleased enough with that outcome, but wait!  There's more!  


Since my last pregnancy (with toddler who is nearly two), I have suffered nearly debilitating back pain.  For the first year after her birth, I could not get out of bed without someone pulling me out.  The low-back pain was nearly constant, but most debilitating in the morning, and anytime I tried to go up/down the stairs, take a long walk, and lift something...like a laundry basket, or my child.  I actually hobbled regularly.  Guess what?  Yup...since week two of Intro, the back pain is reduced significantly!  Estimating 85%...still get twinges once in a while, but NOTHING like it was...I can even skip down the stairs.


My chronic insomnia has not yet resolved, but has improved.  Current personal circumstances complicate my ability to sleep soundly through the night (noise of our location and my teething toddler who does not sleep through the night), but I am actually waking some mornings feeling rested, and I have not had a nightmare in three weeks.  Again, very unusual for me.  My constant tinnitus is also not resolved, but the roaring in my head has subsided...I notice an improvement.


My husband claims that my allergic responses have dampened significantly.  I am not as optimistic as he quite yet, but I can say that my allergic responses have diminished.  Normally, I cannot spend any amount of time outside without significant suffering.  But since beginning Intro, I have been outside for our daily walks and even spent a couple days outside visiting with friends, without the severe reactions that I would normally experience!  It is a notable improvement.  I did have a bit of an allergy attack yesterday, though, so I'm not out of the woods yet, LOL.


Perhaps the most significant improvement overall is my clearing brain and mood.  Brain fog, for anyone who has experienced it, can be beyond vexing and discouraging.  My brain fog has appreciably lifted and my mind feels more refreshed than it has in years.  I also find myself feeling less angry during the past weeks on Intro.  Typically, I get frustrated easily and I tend to have a short fuse for particular annoyances.  I cannot fully explain it, but somehow I just feel more calm...less tempted to ignite.  These are happy changes.


Finally, the surprise side effect that I teased in my previous post...I have lost 15 pounds!  I am back to my ideal weight, and I wasn't even trying!  I want to emphasize that the GAPS program is NOT a weight loss diet.  It is a healing protocol.  GAPS Intro certainly restricts the types of foods you eat, but not the amount.  We were consuming the same calories as before, and copious amounts of saturated animal fats...I mean A TON!  And both my husband and I have just effortlessly dropped the extra weight we've been carrying since my pregnancy (isn't he sweet to gain weight, too, just to be supportive? LOL).  It literally has melted away.  In my opinion, it's all about detoxifying.  The body stores toxins in fatty tissue.  On GAPS, we have been detoxifying rather quickly.  Ergo, body dumps toxins, body dumps excess weight.  Like taking out the trash.  And we feel great!  Body and mind feel much clearer.  I feel like I did eight years ago when I was at my optimum weight and flexibility.  Now I just need to tone up these flabby muscles, LOL, and I'll feel even better!


Now I'll share what we're seeing in the children.


The most sensitive of the three is our four-year-old.  For somewhere over a year, he has suffered night terrors, a type of seizure.  He would have an episode every night between 12 and 1 a.m.  He would scream out, talk garbley-gook, shake/tremble, and his eyes would be fluttering/rolling back.  He was not awake during these episodes...this is not a child who was awakened by a nightmare.  This was an attack of neurons misfiring in the brain.  Every night, I dreaded the time when I knew he would have the episode.  When it occurred, I would need to pick him up, take him out of the room, and gently try to wake him and then calm him so he could go back to sleep.  Some weeks before starting GAPS, I had begun to give my son doses of vitamin B6, which can be therapeutic in cases of epilepsy.  We did notice an improvement with the B6...the episodes were not as severe, nor did they last as long.  Well, after five days on GAPS Intro, the night terrors ceased.  Completely.  He hasn't had one in the past three weeks.  Perhaps of all the improvements in our family thus far, this is the biggest blessing.


My four-year-old also suffers the most significant allergies, with chronic eczema and an anaphylactic/hive reaction to tree nuts.  I am not sure if the GAPS program will be able to heal him completely of his nut allergy, but I long to see if it does.  We did have an event two weeks ago where Daddy arrived home from a business trip, during which he had eaten nuts (the poor man was trying to stick to stage 3 of Intro while traveling).  When he hugged our son, his eyes immediately began to swell up...his typical nut response.  The child is so sensitive that he even reacts to nut dust residue on clothing. I administered my treatment protocol to our son and he was fine, but it indicates that the allergy is still present.  However, his eczema is 75% better.  It is apparent that his body is healing.


Both my sons (the other is 11) routinely suffer from leg cramps.  It is something I've been working on in the past year through nutrition and herbal supplements.  Since beginning the Intro protocol, neither of them have complained of any leg cramping.  Additionally, my husband has suffered from a terrible case of nighttime restless leg syndrome for a few years.  When he takes the herbal tonic I make for him, he doesn't have an attack.  But if he would forget to take the tonic, he would pass a miserable night.  Guess what?  Right...GAPS Intro, no more restless legs.  Hubby also has shed 12 pounds and says he feels great.  


Certainly, we have not yet overcome all the ailments/dysfunctions for which we began GAPS, but these monumental improvements so far are exhilarating.  I am so thankful for the protocol.


So I presented all the upsides for our family...should we delve into the less-than-pleasant aspects of our journey with GAPS Intro?  I don't want to scare anyone away from doing the program; I'm hoping the positive outcomes I shared above will convince any seekers that the protocol is worthwhile.  But it is also difficult and I feel it necessary to be honest regarding the challenges.  Of course, the challenges will vary depending upon your current lifestyle and level of dysbiosis.


Before continuing, I want to emphasize how valuable it is to read McBride's GAPS book and Baden Lashkov's GAPS Guide, which you can purchase together at gapsdiet.com.


OK...now for the nitty-gritty...how did we adapt to the GAPS Intro?  What difficulties did we experience?  I can tell you that die off and sugar withdrawal were quite unpleasant the first couple weeks.  Children were crying, our bowels have been sketchy, people were hungry (again, cue the crying children), we were grumpy and lethargic.  But none of that is unusual considering the incredible changes the body goes through on the protocol.  And the old adage is absolutely true here..."it must get worse before it gets better."


The Intro diet consists of six building stages.  Rather than reinvent the wheel, I'm going to direct you to a great post written by Cara at healthhomehappy.com, where she describes the Intro diet's phases.  Of course, the Intro diet is outlined in detail in the GAPS books.  Aside from the incredibly nourishing and gut-healing bone broth soups and saturated fats, the lack of sugars is designed to starve the pathogens inhabiting your gut.  And believe me, it works.  As those little buggers begin to die, you experience die off to some degree, and also likely sugar cravings.  And, if you happen to have a sugar addiction going into GAPS, you will have withdrawal.  I did...


And now it's time for True Confessions...I have long had a sweet tooth...not unusual in our culture, right?  Mine is not the candy/pure sugar variety, but the baked goods variety.  And chocolate, of course.   A genuine bakery (especially of the French or Persian variety) is an exceeding temptation for me.  But because I have long been a "health nut," dessert was never part of our routine, and baked "treats" were rare occurrences rather than the norm.  And then, we moved.


Coming close to two years ago, our family relocated.  Since the move, I have been...shall we say...less than happy and more than frustrated with the circumstances.  As a result, I found myself seeking solace in food; I became an emotional eater.  And the comfort foods I chose were, of course, baked goods...primarily cookies.  Even though they were made with "healthy" ingredients, they were carb/sugar-rich delights.  Even healthy raw honey "feeds the beast." 


Needless to say, I was not prepared for sugar withdrawal my first week of GAPS Intro.  Even though somewhere in my brain I knew I had been eating way too many baked goodies, I still thought of myself as the health/nutrition guru who knew and did all the right things.  Funny how we can deceive ourselves sometimes.  GAPS Intro Stage One was a wake-up call.  I was miserable!  I said, probably multiple times every day, "I would kill for a cookie!"  And I know that's a terrible thing to say...outrageous hyperbole...of course I would never even think of k-i-l-l-i-n-g anyone, but I was genuinely going through withdrawal.  I also made the mistake of dealing with some low blood sugar moments by eating a tiny spoonful of raw honey.  Woah...that just made the cravings all the worse!  What a crazy rollercoaster!  I actually told my husband he needed to remove the jar of honey from my kitchen before I ate the entire thing on the spot.  


After two weeks on that roller coaster, the cravings subsided.  I now crave sugar a bit, but am not chomping at the bit.  I realize that part of the cravings belonged to me (from my abuse of the sugar in the past year), and part were due to the hungry organisms I was starving in my gut.  Nevertheless, I actually had newfound clarity about and compassion for people who struggle with addictions.  I experienced what I've been teaching for years...  We need to be so careful what we get "hooked on," whether it is sugar, caffeine, or pharmaceutical or "recreational" drugs.  Addictions are never a good thing.


Despite the fact that we ate as much as we wanted of the allowed foods in stage one, including lavish amounts of saturated fats, we were all hungry.  The body goes through an adjustment when you deprive it of certain food types.  Any major change in diet will cause the body to recalibrate.  This may be uncomfortable, but it is harmless, temporary, and actually part of the crucial healing process.  After the first three of four days, we began to feel satiated again.  


And I cannot tell you how wonderful fresh, raw homemade carrot juice tastes after two weeks of no raw veggies or fruits.  I am a salad fiend.  I have missed salads desperately during Intro.  But juicing really put us all in a better place physically and emotionally.  It also contributed to the detoxification and cleansing process, which is essential to the protocol.  My husband and I chuckled a bit at how ecstatic we were to be drinking carrot juice...it felt like a lascivious treat after days on end of vegetable/meat soup.  This is the part where I want to encourage you to believe that anything worth doing takes effort...it can be hard.  We view this protocol as a short-term sacrifice to reach a long-term goal.


Besides adapting to the food regimen, each member of our family experienced different degrees and forms of die off.  Remember, die off occurs as the pathogens inhabiting your gut starve and die, and as your beneficial flora begin to take control and destroy the bad guys.  Good flora repopulation occurs as you eat naturally fermented probiotic foods (whey and sauerkraut primarily) and take a potent, viable probiotic supplement.  After experimenting on myself a bit (using the "kill them as fast as possible and get it over with" approach), I must concur with McBride's recommendations and advise you to proceed slowly and steadily with the probiotics (see book for details).  Otherwise, you could end up pretty miserable.  But each system is unique and your experience will depend upon your level of dysbiosis.  


I'll not take the time to share each of my family member's die off details, but simply say that our die off picture included lethargy, crankiness, nausea and vomiting, diarrhea, exacerbated symptomatology (ie eczema flareups), highly acidic urine/stools, sleeplessness, gas/bloating, constipation, food cravings....I'm certain to forget something.  My brain fog is lifting, but not cured yet. LOL


Where are we now?  We are essentially in stage six of Intro.  Some members of the family are improving at a faster pace and seem ready to move on, others of us are not.  But we will progress one last week through the final Intro stage and then see how we do on Full GAPS.  I suspect that there may be a need to back-pedal a bit, but now that we are familiar with Intro, I am confident I can go back as needed.


I am coming to the end of my steam, and have yet to share my tips regarding detoxing, healing herbs to compliment the protocol, and recipes I created as we traveled through the stages.  So I will leave that for the next post.  But as a sneak peek, I'll mention activated charcoal; Pascalite; comfrey, nettle and peppermint; homemade sauerkraut; and butternut squash/coconut cake.  Mmmmm...