ALMONDS and other NUTS

Just think about this for a minute:  Every small almond contains the dormant energy and life-force it takes to begin to sprout into a great big tree!  All it needs is a little water and moderate temperature and in a short few hours it comes to life!  Consuming soaked and/or sprouted nuts offers your body bio-available (more accessible for your body to use) nutrients and a softer nut to digest.  Because most little nuts desire to become that great big tree, they also contain enzyme inhibitors which make digestion difficult for humans.  So what's a nut lover to do?  Soaking the nuts in water for several hours leeches most of these compounds out into the water.  Removing the skins by quickly blanching the almonds (or buying blanched almonds or ground, blanched almonds (almond 'flour') is beneficial in three ways.  1.  The highest concentration of the enzyme inhibitors are contained in the skin.  2.  Almond flour rather than the meal (ground whole almonds, skin intact) is easier to bake with and tastes delicious.  3.  By not consuming the skin and adding a pinch of Vitamin C powder or Hydrogen Peroxide to you soaking water you will feel much better about a food crop that is susceptible to a dangerous fungus (Aflatoxins from the Asperigllus worm, a spore which is extremely difficult to exterminate) when it has been stored in less than optimal conditions.  Sure would be nice if we all had our own nut trees (along with a few citrus and fruit trees!)  Read my post THE DEAL WITH WHEAT in YOUR BETTER HEALTH for more information on this subject.

Also, some nuts and seeds contain oxalates (an organic acid that our bodies use to create other substances) found in many great fruits and veggies as well as some grains and legumes.  Typically, oxalates are harmless because when a food is high in oxalates healthy microflora in your intestines will metabolize them or they will usually bind with calcium and be escorted out of the body.  If there's not enough calcium or if your gut has been damaged by antibiotics, wheat, or a sugary/starchy diet that allows yeast  (which also produce oxalates0 to proliferate and permeate the intestinal walls, these oxalates can enter the bloodstream where they bind with calcium and may cause kidney stones or lodge in tissues or bones.  You can reduce the amount of oxalates in veggies that are high in them (spinach, celery, carrots and broccoli are some) by boiling them and tossing the water.  This may also work with almonds. If you think you may have a problem with eating foods that contain oxalates you may want to consider using walnuts or another non-oxalate containing nut.


COCONUT and COCONUT FLOUR

Unless you've been living under a rock for awhile you've heard about the praises of coconuts lately!  Their water, meat, oil and milk (made by blending it all together) have so many wonderful, live-giving health benefits!  It's no wonder it fell victim to the bad press of the evil soy and cottonseed industry so many years ago, keeping healthful coconut oil out of our foods and the health-destroying hydrogenated oils in for decades! Cottonseeds and soybeans are toxic in their natural state.  (Soy has been genetically modified and processed to make it edible.  Ancient cultures knew to ferment it.)

Thankfully, newer research and media coverage has let the cat out of the bag and coconut oil is being used again.  For all those years the coconut was demonized, isn't it funny how it still remained an ingredient in infant formula?  We were all just 'snowed'!

Coconuts are full of vitamins, minerals and many trace minerals.  Extremely high in fiber with potent antimicrobial and antiviral qualities, it helps strengthen our immune system.  It's approximately 60% fat, and over 90% of it is saturated, don't panic, as you will see that's good: It's main fat is a medium chain fatty acid called Lauric Acid.  Lauric Acid is quickly converted to energy by the liver, speeding our metabolism and promoting a lean body!  Cultures who relied on the coconut as a staple in their diets were lean, healthy peoples prior to World War ll.  It was shortly thereafter, our American-made, sugar laden products made with both refined and hydrogenated oils and wheat became readily available and their healthy, virtually cancer and modern disease-free existence began to change.


SWEET POTATOES and YAMS

I am in LOVE with the Sweet Potato!  I can't help it, and my husband is not jealous because he LOVES 'em too!  This beautiful, luscious, creamy fleshed, delectable member of the Morning Glory family (I know, who knew?!) is not even in the same botanical family as the potato, which means it does not contain the alkaloids associated with the 'nightshade family' (eggplants, tomatoes, peppers and white potatoes).  Alkaloids are substances that some people are sensitive to and research suggests, may aggravate arthritis.  Even though sweet potatoes taste so deliciously sweet they are high in fiber and slow to digest which means a slower release of its sugars.  It's fiber is classified as a resistant starch, which means it is not digested into your bloodstream but travels through your digestive system to your colon where it becomes a prebiotic fiber that feeds the good little probiotic bugs in your intestines, thus raising the nutrient absorption of your food!

Resistant starch has been found to promote weight loss on several levels.  Because it's not absorbed into your bloodstream it doesn't get turned into fat like other carbohydrates.  It also creates Butyrate, the same fatty acid found in butter that research indicates may block the liver's use of carbohydrates for fuel.  This means our body would need to burn fat as an alternative fuel source!  It also increases satiety producing hormones and staves off hunger because it's bulky and satisfying!  See what I mean??

While research shows that resistant starch improves blood glucose levels and decreases insulin resistance, in contrast, the starch found in wheat flour digests quickly and is sent directly into our bloodstream.  This means we're receiving a double-whammy when we're consuming all those yummy baked goods or cereals containing the combination of wheat, starch, and sugar!  This is especially true on an empty stomach, which is when we often seem to be eating that combination...early mornings, mid-afternoon, or late at night!  Add in a daily soda, processed fruit juice, a candy bar, the PBJ or deli sandwich or slice of pizza we had for lunch and we REALLY can't figure out WHY we have an epidemic of diabetes in this country!?  But surprise!  Our demure, mild-tasting, little Sweet Potatoes replace white flour, oil, and some of the sweetener in many of my recipes!  How COOL is that!?

Typically, I use the yellow Sweet Potato and sometimes the orange one known as the Yam here in America (although we often interchange the names!) because they are easily accessible.  If you come across any of the various other colors such as purple or white, by all means be brave and experiment!  In addition to all their other gret benefits, sweet potatoes are also high in antioxidant compounds and are a great source of vitamins and minerals such as C, A, B6, copper, manganese and iron!


EGGS

Eggs are nature's perfect food.  I know, if you're a vegan I'm suggesting eating little embryos and placentas and it disgusts you!  I must admit I draw the line at lamb and veal, refuse to touch either and don't particularly enjoy the thought of needing to eat the entire animal in order to be politically correct, so for this reason I will never be a hunter unless misfortune necessitates it!  I'm afraid I would quickly become a vegetarian if I had to find my own meat!  But plucking the eggs from my chicken's nests does not fill me with the same guilt as slaying Porky Pig!

Proteins are a combination of amino acids.  Nine of them are essential, which means we need to obtain them from our diet.  If we're low in, or missing just one of them our bodies cannot make the other proteins it needs.  Eggs are a rich source of amino acids.  The WHOLE egg!  All this nonsense about eating just the white is another ridiculous urban legend that's been spread with misinformation.  Fat does not make you fat.  If you don't consume enough cholesterol through your diet, your body will make cholesterol on its own.  The yolk balances out all the nutrients and your body digests and absorbs them much better when the egg is consumed as a whole.  As with all of our nutritional information, even the latest results of the last study on eggs and cholesterol are tainted with links to the statin drug business!  Because we can only believe a fraction of what we read, hear or see on TV, I must remind and encourage you to: a) Do your own in-depth research, AND/OR b) Use your brain!

The nutrition contained within and its numerous culinary uses, truly make the egg indispensable in my kitchen!  Fresh and clean I often put them in smoothies and make meringues and eggnogs, thoroughly enjoying them in their raw form.  Eggs should come from chickens that have been able to roam and enjoy feeding on plants and insects.  That's when you can enjoy their eggs containing the right balance of nutrients and Omega 3 oils rather than their poor, grain-fed counterparts whose eggs pass on a highly unbalanced ratio of Omega 6 fatty acids. High in protein, eggs are little powerhouses of nutrients!

AVOCADO OIL


COCONUT OIL

I actually don't use a whole lot of oil because many of my recipes just don't require the addition of it.  The whole foods I use often bring with them their own oils!  Even good oils are also a partial food and I like to think our bodies assimilate and digest the whole food better.  Anytime we can avoid heating oil it's best to do so, even the stable oils like coconut, palm, butter and ghee.  Heating oils to high temperatures (something often done in processing and that's why you always want to buy cold-pressed oils) breaks them down and creates those awful, rogue, free-radicals that run around our bodies aging and destroying our healthy cells.  We've heard a lot about those, and how our modern diet creates and promotes these free radicals which is why we need to boost our intake of antioxidants, which help to counteract the damage.  Better yet, just don't do the damage in the first place!  Okay, getting off-track here....

Good fats are, well, GOOD!  Thanks again to big agri-business many predominately used fats are literally toxic.  When the soybean and cottonseed industries discovered their chemically engineered trans-fats could extend the shelf-life of most processed foods, they began to push their deadly trans-fats and demonized saturated fats in order to take over the market, and that they did!  Now, 50 or so years later we are dealing with the diseased, residual affects they've had on our health.  The re-evaluation of old studies as well as new research shows no correlation between blood cholesterol obtained from natural plants and animals and atherosclerosis (hardening and clogging of our arteries)!

Coconut oil is back in favor, and in a big way!  It's not only an extremely stable oil, it tastes and smells great, and has wonderful health giving properties.


BUTTER

You'll probably be happy to know that butter, ghee and cream contain very little lactose sugar or casein protein and are usually very easily digested!  They also contain Butyrate, a fatty acid that nourishes and balances the pH in your colon.  As well, Butyrate encourages the body to burn fat for fuel!  Nice, huh?!


HEAVY CREAM  

Please read the blog THE DEAL WITH DAIRY in... YOUR BETTER HEALTH!

The Casein protein in Milk shares structural similarities to the gluten/gliaden protein in wheat.  It has opiod-like peptides that attach to our brain's receptors and give us a 'feel good' feeling, thus we enjoy drinking milk.  Research shows that these peptides bioavailability is increased by the same bacteria that renders milk void of the lactose; that is why many people (myself included) don't do well with yogurt and other cultured milk products.  (Notice I didn't say cream!  Cream contains only a small amount of Casein, Thank U God, Thank U!!!!)   Research also shows the casein protein to be most harmful when it's separated from the natural fat in the milk! Also, skim milk has 3 to 5 times more lactose than full fat milk! Why is Big Business telling us to buy lowfat everything???  We need fat!  Fat in moderation is wonderful!  Our brains need fat, so if you're ever feeling 'brain dead' ignore all those stoooopid commercials and go eat some fat!


FRUITS and VEGGIES


FREE-RANGE, GRASS-GRAZING MEAT and POULTRY and WILD FISH


CREAM CHEESE

Made with Cream, what can I say?


MOZZARELLA CHEESE

Buy (or make) FULL FAT.    Cheeses, unfortunately, usually have a high concentration of casein (they're mostly made from milk)  If you eat cheese, try to get cheese made with raw, organic milk from grass-fed animals and you'll see how much better you digest it.  Grazing animals were meant to feed on rapidly growing grasses, not on wheat, corn or soy, which is what Big Business feeds them today.  And, of course, never eat processed, fake, cheese-food...READ THOSE LABELS, they'll at least tell you SOME of what you're putting in your body.


SEED GRAINS (Amaranth, Buckwheat, Millet, Quinoa)


MASA CORN or SPROUTED CORN

These days you have to make sure any corn you buy is certified organic or you not only will be eating pesticides and chemical fertilizers but will most likely be eating genetically modified corn.  GMO Corn and other crops may actually be much more disruptive to your digestion than it's organic counterpart. 

Corn can be a wonderful addition to a well rounded diet, but should be consumed sparingly.  Because corn grows quickly, throughout history poorer areas of the world have eaten diets high in corn and low in animal protein and suffered the consequences.  Their diets became deficient in Vitamin B3 (Niacin)  causing a disease known as Pellegra, which has terrible physical and mental symptoms.  Like Scurvy (Vitamin C deficiency) or Rickets (Vitamin D deficiency) we tend to think deficiency diseases are a thing of the past.  But are they?  What important nutrients are consistently missing in our daily diets of processed foods?

Poor areas of Mexico knew to soak their corn in Lime before making tortillas. This released the Niacin and Tryptophan, which was otherwise bound in the corn, to be absorbed during digestion and kept them from being afflicted with Pellegra.  Lime is an Alkali which also adds Calcium.   The process of soaking the corn, which traditionally took over a week, is called Nixtamalization.  Hominy is what we call this soaked corn.  It can be ground into Grits or a fine 'masa' flour which we use to make Tamales and Tortillas.

As with many nuts, seeds and grains, apparently Sprouting Corn is another way to release these same bound nutrients.  You can buy Sprouted Corn Flour at OrganicSproutedFlour.net (that's just an fyi cuz we don't use any flour in this recipe, just the Hominy!)  However, certain sprouts can cause intestinal distress, so keep that in mind when you give them a try!


SPELT FLOUR (for occasional use, unless you must avoid gluten completely!)

SWEETENERS:

Last year researchers linked high blood sugar levels to an increase in colorectal cancer.  More recently they've discovered that many different types of cancer patients who consumed the most foods that produce high blood sugar had an 80% higher likelihood of dying during the 7 year study!  Remember, refined carbohydrates can turn to sugar as fast as eating a spoonful of it!   A Korean study also confirmed higher death rates from cancer patients with higher blood sugar levels.  According to Alternatives newsletter by Dr. David Williams, a recent study from Australia has shown how high blood sugar levels cause shrinking in the parts of the brain connected with memory and emotion.  Yet another example of the dangers of years of excess sugar and refined carbohydrates in our diet.  Sugar fluctuations become impossible for our bodies to control and cause age-related decline to the tune of researchers beginning to refer to Alzheimer's as type 3 diabetes! 

When there's too much sugar in your body it becomes overly acidic and prone to disease by creating an environment comfortable for pathogens.  A body in an acid state will leech minerals from your bones in order to alkalize your blood, another of the amazing ways your body is programmed to naturally maintain its balance.  Dozens of health advocates throughout history have equated the addictive properties of refined sugar to that of heroin.  Plain and simple:  too much sugar coursing through our bloodstreams causes a boatload of problems!  Double those problems when wheat is in the picture, and quadruple them with added starches and toxic oils and chemical additives!

Unfortunately the sweet tooth of Americans has skyrocketed in the past decades (a 20 oz soda has almost 1/3 C of refined sugar!) so that a perfect sweet food such as a carrot or a beet or even an apple or an orange is no longer sweet enough!  Plus, these fruits lack the 'wheat-type' texture we've all become addicted to as well.  Baking our own Whole Food goodies (go to SWEET POTATO DIARIES for my great Recipes!) allows us the opportunity to begin to adjust the sweetness level down a notch or two and learn to use some of the safe sweeteners we have available to us these days.  There are many artificial sweeteners on the market today.  Check Dr. Mercola's website mercola.com for some in-depth information on the dangers of so many of these.  While many manufacturers have begun to use the natural and safe sweetener, Stevia, they have hidden ingredients in their 'natural ingredient' list, so I still stay clear of them.  I also don't prefer their taste.

Here I offer many different sweetener options to choose from.  Ideally, you should experiment with different ones and pick a few you enjoy working with the most.  Their price, like their tastes and cooking properties vary.  All of them, unfortunately, are more expensive than table sugar, but for health benefits, it's worth the extra cost!  I've found that a combination of Erthritol and Stevia best suits my baking needs and enables me to cut out or at least way back on the amount of sugar usually used in baking.  I prefer to use them separately and not to buy products such as Truvia or ZSweet because, as I mentioned, they have hidden ingredients under 'Natural Ingredients' in order for them to be able to patent their product.  Once CocaCola applied to use Stevia in their product line, the FDA suddenly decided to approve it for more than a 'nutritional supplement'.

This article makes some interesting points on Truvia,  http://www.livestrong.com/article/477429-problems-with-truvia/

ERYTHRITOL

This is my sweetener of choice right now!  Erythritol is a sugar alcohol that is low on the glycemic index and safe for diabetics.  It's classified as an 'unavailable carbohydrate' because it's not metabolized and is excreted unchanged in urine.  Because these zero calorie carbs are not used as energy by the body they don't raise your blood sugar, and unlike sugar, yeast and bacteria in the gut do not feed on it.  Erythritol is made by breaking down food starch (usually from corn) into glucose and then fermenting it until it is broken down into this sugar alcohol.  Because it is fermented it does not cause gassiness that Xylitol or other sugar alcohols can cause.  Xylitol, and all other sugar alcohols are made through a hydrogenation process.  Xylitol has been clinically proven to fight ear infections and improve the teeth and gums in many ways.  Erythritol is showing many of those same promising effects.

Erythritol is about 70% as sweet as sugar and is very easy to cook with.  You can also powder it yourself in you coffee grinder or Vitamix.  An added benefit is that baked goods stay fresh and soft longer.  Use it alone, or combine it with sugar or another sweetener.  It doesn't have an aftertaste, but does have a cooling affect that seems to be minimized by combining it with certain other foods.  I prefer the NOW Brand for taste and smaller crystals.

LUO HAN GUO 

A vine native to China, Luo Han Guo has been used medicinally and as a sweetener in Japan for decades.  Like Stevia, it is much sweeter than sugar but again, when used in combination with say, Erythritol, it makes a delicious brown sugar tasting sweetener.  May only find online at this time.

LAKANTO

Lakanto is a product that has combined Erythritol and Luo Han Guo and has a sugar taste.  Easy to bake with, it can be used to replace sugar cup for cup.  Purchase online at bodyecology.com.

STEVIA

Also known as Rubiana, Stevia is an extremely sweet herb native to south America.  It's been used for decades in Japan and other countries but was banned from being sold in the United States as a sweetener (natural foods stores carried it under a dietary supplement label for years) because Monsanto (huge food and food poisoning conglomerate) held the patent on the artificial and dangerous sweetening, Aspartame (Equal and Nutrasweet).  for years, natural health advocates worked to bring Stevia to where it is now, finally being available on our store shelves as it should be.  The big companies are now making and promoting products like Truvia, but don't forget what may be hidden under their 'natural ingredient' list!  I'll write more on that in another post.

Stevia can have an aftertaste, and is 200-300% sweeter than sugar so it can be very hard to bake with.  It works well when it's used in combination with another sweetener.

JUST LIKE SUGAR CHICORY SWEETENER

Use 1-1 as a sugar substitute.  This zero-calorie sweetener is made from Chicory and Orange Peel and is high in a dietary fiber called inulin.  Inulin is a pre-biotic (good bugs feed on it) so it's beneficial for your digestive tract and is not digested in our body and does not raise your blood sugar.  Because this is so high in fiber it can cause gastric distress in some people depending upon how much is consumed.

XYLITOL

Like Erythritol, Xylitol is also a sugar alcohol however it has not been fermented so it can cause gastric distress and loosening of the bowels in many people, depending upon the amount you are able to tolerate.  For this reason alone, I prefer Erythritol.


COCONUT or PALM SUGAR

The juice of the coconut palm blossom is boiled into a thick syrup, dried and ground into crystals.  Nutritious, it has a similar taste to brown sugar (which is nothing more than refined sugar with a bit of molasses added back in).

DATES/DATE SUGAR

Date sugar is dehydrated and pulverized dates.  I often use whole, pitted dates in desserts or shakes, but date sugar or paste is a quick and easy substitute!  With lots of vitamins and minerals and fiber, it has the highest concentration of fruit sugars of any other fruit.  It's also the oldest known fruit and some historians suggest it was the date, rather than the apple that caused the troubles with Adam and Even, although I've also heard the pomegranate may lay claim to that!

DEHYDRATED SUGAR CANE JUICE

Rapadura is the commercial name for this sugar, which is better than table sugar because it retains its vitamin and mineral content.

SUCANAT or TAURBINADO SUGAR

Sucanat is actually a brand name for 'sugar cane natural' and is a less refined sugar than white table sugar.

AGAVE

Low on the glycemic index agave 'nectar' is derived from the Agave cactus and is delicious.  So delicious I think it's just too good to be true.  I use it very sparingly, if at all because there are so many contradictory opinions and claims I'm not sure if the juices is boiled down like Maple Syrup or if it's processed similarly to High Fructose Corn Syrup.  Truly 'raw' Agave manufacturers keep from heating the liquid above 118 degrees (the temperature at which the enzymes die) when thickening it.  I'd like to think at least this form of Agave is safe.

CONCENTRATED FRUIT JUICES

These juices such as a product called 'Fruit Sweet", are boiled down to syrup and are mostly composed of fructose so should be used sparingly.

HONEY and MAPLE SYRUP

Both are sweeter than sugar and contain lots of vitamins, minerals and amino acids.  Maple Syrup is made by boiling the sap of the Maple tree and we all know that bees make Honey which is best purchased in it's raw, unprocessed form.

YACON SYRUP

Similar to Molasses, with half the calories of sugar, this syrup is derived from the South American Yacon root.  It's considered a 'prebiotic', as it's high in fructo-oligosaccharides (FOS) which feed the good bugs in the belly.

MOLASSES

This is what is produced when sugar is refined.  It contains the vitamin and mineral content that the refined sugar lost during processing.

SORGHUM MOLASSES or SYRUP

This syrup is made from the Sweet Sorghum Grain which is similar to Millet.  Its juice is boiled as with Maple Syrup.  It's lighter in flavor than Molasses and yummy.