Tapping Into Possibilities

As a Matter of Fat……

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As a matter of fact, not all fats are created equal so you should have no beef with beef.

Grass Fed Beef aka Pastured Beef (as well as pastured butter, dairy and eggs) are terrific sources of B-12, choline and inositol and Omega 3’s.

So what?

B12 – think improved alertness, mood, memory and less fatigue and stress.

Choline & Inositol – think about moving that fat and cholesterol from your liver and regulating neurotransmitters like acetylcholine and serotonin which regulate your muscles and your mood

Pastured foods have the desired ratio of Omega 6 to Omega 3 fatty acids, unlike corn or grain fed.

As you know, Omega 3’s are essential for the prevention and treatment of inflammatory diseases, cancers, heart disease, high blood pressure and achy joints. What I didn’t know is that there is also a correlation between the ratio of these two fatty acids and health issues such as asthma, dyslexia, hyperactivity and violence!

Your body can’t make essential fatty acids; you get them from the food you eat.

Omega 3’s calm the fire; too many Omega 6’s fuel the fire.

Snack foods, fried foods and margarine are all loaded with Omega 6’s and some say when they’ve been on a snack/junk food binge their joints hurt worse than usual.

It’s easy to consume too many Omega 6’s (think corn oil and soybean oil which is in everything) and harder to consume enough Omega 3’s these days. It is estimated that our ancestors ate a ratio of 1:1. These days 3:1 would be considered great but those eating the typical Standard American Diet are eating a ratio between 15:1 and 20:1. Grass fed beef is 1.53:1 vs 7.65:1 for grain fed and pastured eggs are 1.5:1 vs 20:1 for those poor caged hens! No wonder some doctors have told heart patients to cut back or eliminate eggs and beef. Too bad they don’t know enough to know the difference between REAL beef and eggs and stuff sold to most Americans. This really is SAD on so many levels.

You are what you eat. You consume what an animal consumes. Pastured animals consume greens vs. sugars. Grass fed has fewer calories and less fat. Another consideration is how the animals are treated. If you were trapped in a feedlot vs roaming the fields, don’t you think you’d produce a few stress hormones which affect both taste and tenderness.

Grass Fed Beef is a Health Food

Disclaimer: The information provided here is for educational purposes only and is not intended to substitute for medical counseling. Intentional Health and DIY Health & Wellness does not treat, prevent, cure, or diagnose any disease or ailment.

 

 

 

 

Food As Medicine

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Even though Hippocrates said, Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food, 2500 years ago, “modern” medicine has been slow to acknowledge the relationship between what you eat and what diseases you get.

Talk about ignoring one of the most basic of the universal laws: Cause & Effect.

Every cause has an effect; every effect has a cause.

Finally, after decades of research and study, the “experts” agree bad food and good food grown in bad soil (or with sin-thetic means) affect our health.

People, this is not rocket science; this is common sense.

Put sugar in your gas tank and your motor gunks up and your car doesn’t run.

Author Barry Sears, PhD. wrote, Food is far more important than just something you eat for pleasure or to appease your hunger. Rather it is a potent drug that you’ll take at least three times a day for the rest of your life. When food is broken down in to its basic components (glucose, amino acids, and fatty acids) and sent into the bloodstream, it has a more powerful impact on your body and your health than any drug your doctor could ever prescribe.

I’m not going to tell what you what to eat and what not to eat (well maybe a little bit). Use your common sense, not mine, but consider the 80/20 Rule.

Eat mostly what’s good for you and very little of what’s not.

The Pareto Principle, commonly called the 80/20 rule, was named after Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto who noted in 1906 that 80% of the land in Italy was owned by 20% of the people. It is now commonly used in business/time management (80% of work is done by 20% of the people) but it certainly applies to what you eat as well.

Most effects (diseases) have a small number of causes (bad food).

Try, 80% real/20% processed; 80% alkaline/20% acidic, etc.

We may find in the long fun that tinned food is a deadlier weapon than the machine gun. George Orwell (1903-1950)

 

Disclaimer: The information provided here is for educational purposes only and is not intended to substitute for medical counseling. Intentional Health and DIY Health & Wellness does not treat, prevent, cure, or diagnose any disease or ailment.

 

 

 

 

CHEAP & EASY MEDICINE

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No, this is not a cheap way to buy toxic, man-made pharmaceuticals that may help your symptoms, but certainly won’t cure you……

What is Medicine? It’s quite interesting when you start looking at definitions. In fact, it is a synonym for pharmaceutical and the “modern” definitions include “a drug or remedy for use in treating, preventing or alleviating the symptoms of disease”.

I am, however, partial to the older definitions including “the art and science of dealing with the maintenance of health” or “the art or science of restoring or preserving health”.

In fact, the roots of the word medicine are old French from Latin, medicina, the art of healing and mederi, to heal.

The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature cures the disease. Voltaire  (French writer, 1694-1778)

Always laugh when you can. It is cheap medicine.                                                                   Lord Byron (British poet, 1788-1824)

Breathe Right, Sleep Tight, Eat Right & Light, Meditate, Laugh Out Loud, Spend Time Outside………DIY Health & Wellness…..

Disclaimer: The information provided here is for educational purposes only and is not intended to substitute for medical counseling. Intentional Health and DIY Health & Wellness does not treat, prevent, cure, or diagnose any disease or ailment.

 

Lost Your Keys? Find Omega 3’s

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Omega 3’s are necessary no matter what your age and are critical to so many functions from mental & brain health to heart health.

These good fats, known as essential fatty acids, keep your brain younger and sharp and reduce your risk of Alzheimer’s. They’re not just good for your brain but also lower your risk for arthritis, heart disease and type II diabetes.

They are called essential fatty acids because your body can not make them. You get them from food (or supplements).

What are Omega 3’s? They are a group of poly unsaturated fats found in flax seed, algae, plants and fish.

Did you know that your brain is about 2/3 fat, most of which is the omega-3, DHA? To maintain that level of fat however, you need to consume the foods that contain them.

Omega-3’s improve that transmission of signals to, from and in the brain – a clear channel – meaning your memory is better, recall is easier.

Good fats = healthy cell membranes in the brain and throughout the body.

Studies from the University of Sheffield in England and others have shown a connection between low Omega 3 levels and depression and low levels of serotonin.

Omega 3 fats have been shown to change neurotransmitters, increasing levels of both serotonin and dopamine.

Omega 3’s are critical to brain health no matter how old you are.

Kids – emotional, visual, cognitive and nervous system development, improved reading ability and increased attention span.

Adults – attention, focus, memory, heart, joints, skin, nails, vision

Seniors – slows age related memory loss, eyes, vision, skin, heart but most importantly prevents brain shrinkage (think Alzheimer’s)

While it is always best to get your nutrition from food, it is not always that easy especially when it comes to Omega 3’s.

Prior to World War II, we ate more vegetables, wild meats and wild fish. In addition, all meats used to be abundant in Omega 3’s because they were grass fed. CAFO (concentrated animal feeding operations) beef, which is where almost ALL store bought beef comes from, is all grain fed and devoid of Omega 3’s.

If you ever needed a good reason to buy grass fed beef and pastured butter, this is an incredibly delicious way to get your Omega 3’s.

Please don’t think the farm raised salmon from your neighborhood box store will do the trick. Think wild caught ONLY.

If you are a vegetarian, vegan or don’t have access to pastured beef, you do have options including walnuts, flax seeds and an array of supplements.

More to come on this Miracle Fat.

Disclaimer: The information provided here is for educational purposes only and is not intended to substitute for medical counseling. Intentional Health and DIY Health & Wellness does not treat, prevent, cure, or diagnose any disease or ailment.

 

Baby, You Can (‘t) Drive My Car

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The average car has 30,000 parts, requires a certain kind of fuel to run efficiently and preventive maintenance (oil change, tire rotation, engine tune up, etc.) at regular intervals to avoid major breakdowns and to ensure the engine runs well as long as you want it to. Don’t like the car, want a bigger, faster model, trade it in but take good care of it, keep that engine tuned and it will serve you well  for a very long time.

You can neglect the outside but take care of the inside and your car will still get you where you want to go but if you only wash, polish and buff and neglect to do the inside work, well,  that baby will not see much action.

Your body has 300-350 bones, 640 muscles, 214 nerves (bundles comprised of 100 billion neurons), 78-100 trillion cells.

Think of those cells as little engines, also requiring the right fuel to run efficiently. Our fuel is the food we consume. You wouldn’t consider putting diesel into a car that requires premium; you’d probably kill it. You know putting regular into a car that requires premium will still let it run but it may sputter, smoke and jerk

So why do we treat our cars better than our bodies?

Why do we spend so much time on the body work and not enough, or any for that matter,  on the inner work?

Don’t make decisions from fear, make them from knowledge. You need to be part of the process; you need to do the work.

DIY Health & Wellness is the only way to get where you want to go.

Don’t give your car keys to just anyone.

Enough of the car analogies for now…….

Disclaimer: The information provided here is not intended to substitute for medical counseling. Intentional Health does not treat, prevent, cure, or diagnose any disease or ailment.

 

ODE to GREENS

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I laugh as I reread this post which I couldn’t publish on June 29th when our area had a massive, many day, power failure not to mention record heat, no rain and  even a few days of water restrictions but now that I’m back home with power, my garden continues to produce, provide and bring not just joy but awe……

As the temperatures soar to near 100◦ today, I think about last week and what Goldilocks said, “not too hot, not too cold but just right”. It was a beautiful week especially for gardens.

A week ago, my single cucumber plant had climbed about 4 feet of a 6 foot trellis and was covered in blossoms. Six days later it has climbed 3 feet above the trellis on to a tree and I picked 2 6” cucumbers to slice and sprinkle with sea salt for dinner. Delicious, and many more to come.

As I welcome the cucumbers and the beginning to ripen tomatoes, I say farewell to all the late lettuces, spinach and arugula that finally bolted in the heat.

The kale and swiss chard are still going strong and will last all summer though we eat most of it now because the leaves are sweeter. Swiss chard, especially Rainbow Chard, makes a beautiful decorative plant in a container so it does double duty.

Kale is basically the #1 rated green for nutrients -A, C, K, calcium, 45 flavonoids (think anti-oxidant/anti-inflammatory). Kale is in the cabbage family (broccoli, cauliflower, brussel spouts and another great leafy green, collard greens). My favorite is Lacinato aka Tuscan.

Swiss Chard  is also packed with A,C, K, iron, protein, folate and fiber and is anti-inflammatory. Chard is from a family of plants called Chenopods that also includes beets, spinach and, go figure, quinoa!

Even if you have little space or no green thumb these greens are so easy to grow and do well in containers. And they really are delicious. Are you getting your recommended number of servings of “dark leafy green vegetables”/the anti-cancer food?

In honor of these wonderful greens and to the first  (green) eggs from my granddaughter’s chickens, Condi, Hiliary and Merkel , click on Recipes above and try Green(s) Eggs and Mushrooms from the drop down menu. An easy, fast, vegetarian, gluten-free, delicious year round dish especially with greens and sage from your own garden.

Disclaimer: The information provided on this website is not intended to substitute for medical counseling. Intentional Health does not treat, prevent, cure, or diagnose any disease or ailment.

 

 

 

Gluten Free “Baking” – another Oxymoron?

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I love to bake so going gluten-free was definitely a challenge. I’m from German stock; we bake; I have my great grandmother’s recipes. What are the holidays with out days of baking cookies and breads?

Recipes for gluten-free zucchini bread or raspberry bars, cookies and cakes, etc. are everywhere now, not just in specialty magazines but in main stream magazines and there are numerous gluten-free cook books.

But there’s a hitch, they require a variety of “flours” and additives. Do you have room for bags of xanthum gum, white rice flour, brown rice flour, almond flour, coconut flour, garbanzo bean flour, tapioca starch, potato starch, corn starch, guar gum, and corn meal, all to replace a single bag of unbleached all-purpose flour? Not to mention many have expiration dates long before you could use it all.

Rarely did any of the recipes get more than a grade of “B” and frankly, I missed my tried and true family recipes.

So what to do?

I experimented with the pre mixed “baking flours” in my own recipes. Some were dismal flops, literally. Without gluten to make dough stick together and rise and even with the addition of xanthum gum which does help avoid crumbling, gluten-free baked goods are heavier and just not born to rise.   And I’ve come to the sad realization that some things like Granny’s Christmas cookies or Auntie’s Marble Cake will never be gluten-free.

Unfortunately, all pre mixed “baking flours” are not created equal and some are down right awful. But all is not lost for you bakers out there.

These are the 3 “flours” that I have had the most success with: Kinnikinnick All Purpose Flour Blend, Williams Sonoma’ Cup4Cup and King Arthur’s Gluten-Free Multi-Purpose Flour.

Kinnikinnick www.kinnikinnick.com is a Canadian company. I placed an order on Monday and it arrived Wednesday and you can purchase them on Amazon. Not only have I had great success with their flour but their Graham Style Crumbs and Bread Crumbs are wonderful. Kinnikinnick is also a dairy, peanut and tree nut free facility in addition to gluten and wheat free.

Yeasty breads and multi layer fluffy cakes may become a distant memory but settling for only cheesecakes and brownies and sheet cakes isn’t so bad.

 

 

My Take on Gluten-Free Products

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As usual the “market” has jumped on the gluten-free bandwagon much like they did with soy, packing the aisles with gluten free breads, crackers, cookies, pretzels, pastas and even labeling naturally gluten-free foods such as brown rice and polenta as “gluten free”.

Five years ago there were no gluten-free sections even in health food stores and most people didn’t know what gluten and gluten-free meant. Now, everyone is talking about “going gluten free” and we’re overwhelmed with gluten-free products.

While it is great to have some gluten free-alternatives and substitutes for  your pasta, crackers, cookies and breads, it is still processed.

Processed food, whether gluten free or not, is not real food.

It is also important to know is that while the products may be gluten-free, they are usually higher in carbs and calories and sugar. Think the “fat free” rage years ago.

If you suspect you might have a “gluten intolerance”  (officially know at Non-Celiac Gluten Sensitivity (NCGS) whose symptoms range from moodiness, ADD, digestive problems to fatigue) and want to experiment but just can’t bear the thought of no snacks or pasta here are some of our favorites to help get you started.

Kame Original Rice Crackers (forget the other brands they leave a yucky taste). We’ve bought this brand since long before I’d ever heard the word  gluten-free.

Bionaturae Pastas (in our house no child or guest has ever noticed the difference). Personally, most of the other brands/types on the market like the corn and quinoa and even the brown rice pasta makes me gag.

Glutino Pretzels. I’m not a fan of most of their products but these are delicious.

Trader Joe’s GF Chocolate Chip Cookies (the ginger snaps will do but have a funny texture and the meringues are great but you can easily make your own) are crunchy not chewy and really, really good.

Breads? Udi’s when toasted is definitely acceptable but “gluten free bread” is really an oxymoron (a combination of contradictory or incongruous words). Definitely the hardest thing to give up.

As Michael Pollan’s Rule #39 in Food Rules stated, Eat all the junk food you want as long as you cook it yourself or find a restaurant/bakery that has created some wonderful sweets and “breads”. The factory/processed stuff just doesn’t do it for me.

OLDIES BUT GOODIES

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Ancient Grains are now staples in my pantry.

I’m sure you’ve added Quinoa (Keen-wah) to your culinary repertoire. It is great hot or cold and kids like the nutty taste. It is a great source of protein; it’s gluten-free and readily available.

For soy free vegetarians, which between you and me we all should be, quinoa is a must have staple.

But my favorites are Millet and Amaranth and they are gluten-free as well.

Quinoa – a pseudo grain since it’s not a grass but a seed. It is a complete protein with a balanced set of amino acids. It has the highest protein content of any grain (18%). Quinoa has a natural coating of saponins which give it a soapy taste and difficult to digest (birds won’t eat it). Always rinse once before cooking but if your brand hasn’t been prewashed, make sure to soak for several hours and rinse to remove the saponins. Quinoa was a staple and sacred food of the Incas, called chisaya mama or “mother of all grains”. It was domesticated in the Andean region of Boliva and Ecuador over 3000 years ago.

Amaranth – also not a true grain, it’s an annual herb. It has been cultivated for 8000 years. It was a staple of the Aztecs and provided 80% of their caloric consumption. It was primarily cultivated in ancient Mexico, Guatemala and Peru. A very good source of protein (12-17%) but not a balanced set of amino acids, it is easily harvested and is heat and drought resistant. It is fermented in Peru to make “chichi” (beer) and is now grown in Illinois, Nebraska and Colorado. It makes a delicious hot breakfast porridge.

Millet – an important part of the prehistoric diet in India, China and Korea, millet as a primary food source dates back to 8000 B.C.. It is drought resistant and a main cereal grain today in the poor, dry areas of India, Africa, China and Russia. Millet’s protein content is only about 11% but is high in iron, B vitamins (B6 and niacin), potassium and magnesium. Millet is high in silica which helps flexibility. The bran does contain a goitrogen so millet shouldn’t be consumed in large amounts by those with thyroid issues. Millet with a little sea salt and pastured butter makes a wonderful side dish and alternative to rice.

While this is neither a cooking blog nor a recipe sharing site, I can’t help but share the occasional recipe that we have found so wonderful and that has inspired a post or vice versa.

Under the Recipes drop down above, click on Deep Dish Greens with Millet and Amaranth. This recipe is vegetarian, easy, gluten- free and delicious.

Disclaimer: The information provided on this website is not intended to substitute for medical counseling. Intentional Health does not treat, prevent, cure, or diagnose any disease or ailment.

 

GLUTEN FREE, NOT A FAD

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John Kelly’s mocking of food intolerances may make him laugh but not so to the estimated 20 million Americans with non-celiac sensitivity and 3 million with celiac disease, a genetic disorder.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/waiting-for-word-that-im-food-intolerant/2012/03/02/gIQAb9RErR_story.html

Gluten is what gives kneaded dough its elasticity. Gluten is a protein found in wheat, rye and barley and some oats due to contamination during transportation and processing. If you have Celiac disease any gluten is a problem and there is a wealth of information at www.celiac.com and other sources online.

The winter wheat used for American bread flour has a higher gluten content in order to make our soft, fluffy breads and huge bagels. American wheat is also hybridized i.e. selectively bred to have a higher gluten content unlike European wheat. The difference between heavy, dense loaves of bread and fluffy,light bread is the gluten content.

There are many surprising products and foods that contain gluten including lipsticks, play doh, beer, “natural flavors” and malt. I was very unhappy when I had to give up my favorite movie theater candy, Malted Milk Balls!

Many doctors who specialize in auto immune disorders (lupus, MS, RA) suggest their patients eliminate gluten. “Gluten often causes the body to flood with inflammatory chemicals called cytokines which send an already wound up immune system in to hyperdrive, attacking tissue”, says Naturopathic physician Brooke Kalanick, N.D..

What you need to know: A gluten sensitivity isn’t just a gut problem. The New England Journal of Medicine reports 55 diseases that can be linked to gluten ranging from osteoporosis to depression, to migraines to fatigue, to balance problems.

Dr. Mark Hyman, founder of The Ultra Wellness Center in MA and author of one of my favorite books, The UltraMind Solution, considers gluten sensitivity an auto immune disease because it causes inflammation through the body. He recommends treating the cause (gluten) rather than the disease first.

So how do you treat the cause? Simply,but not always easily, by eliminating gluten from your diet for 2-4 weeks and see how you feel. No expensive blood tests needed.

Is it worth trying? You bet. Many parents report that learning and behavioral problems, even some symptoms of autism, are reduced or disappear with a gluten free diet.

Disclaimer: The information provided on this website is not intended to substitute for medical counseling. Intentional Health does not treat, prevent, cure, or diagnose any disease or ailment.