News regarding traditional wisdom and native diets regarding nutrition.
How Diet can Help Heal Vaccine Damage
This is the third article in a series about treating vaccine related damage. It will focus on reversing vaccine damage by making changes in what we put in our mouths. The two previous articles discussed how homeopathy can treat and restore health to people who have been damaged by vaccines. This article, and the one that will follow it, will focus on the important role that diet has in treating the physical, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral consequences that result from using vaccines and eating food containing the toxic pesticide called glyphosate. As we will see in this article, it is not just the harm from vaccines that needs to be healed, but it is also the harm that results from the modern food supply.
Kraft Buys American Dietitians Approval for Processed Cheese
The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (AND) is the gift that keeps on giving. To me, they provide me with many blog posts and newsletter articles. I am not only one receiving gifts from the AND. Kraft Foods just received the first endorsement of a food product from the AND: Processed Cheese.
Creating an Active Sourdough Starter From Two Simple Ingredients
Creating and keeping a sourdough starter can seem like an intimidating task to the uninitiated. It is quite amazing how this slurry of flour and water leavens and ferments bread. Despite its mysterious abilities, this age-old souring and leavening agent is surprisingly simple to make. There are many ways to create a sourdough starter. Indeed, you can find starter recipes that include fruit juice, potatoes and their cooking water, and commercial yeast online. All of these are viable options for leavening your bread with a homemade sourdough starter. For simplicity’s sake, however, this article will focus on a sourdough starter created simply with flour and water.
How to Make Corn Tortillas: Nixtamalizing and Grinding Dried Corn
The process of nixtamalization is a simple one, one that has been practiced for generations by those whose mainstay is the corn grain. Corn masa, the dough that makes tortillas and chips and tamales, cannot be made without this process. But it wasn't done for frivolous reasons or for aesthetic purposes. Instead, those who subsisted off of corn and other local foods found it imperative to their health. Pellagra is a disease often acquired by cultures who began to utilize corn in large amounts in their diet. When corn was introduced to a new culture through travel or trade, and the historic practice of nixtamalizing the corn was ignored, people often fell ill with skin, digestive, and mental disorders. This was later diagnosed as pellagra. Those who had been subsisting on corn for generations and who were taught to soak their corn in lime, however, consumed corn as the backbone of their diet without such symptoms. Their was wisdom in the preparation. This process of soaking and cooking the corn in an alkaline solution - nixtamalization - is now known to release a B vitamin called niacin. Pellagra - and the vitamin and amino acid deficiencies related to it - can be prevented when the diet contains enough niacin. Nixtamalization, therefore, is a simple practice that transforms corn into a nourishing everyday food by releasing the niacin and making the grain more digestible.
Sifting Whole Wheat Flour and Other Tips for Making Better Whole Grain Breads
Baking bread is one of the most basic of tasks and yet, in this current day-and-age, it has been complicated by dozens of factors. To trudge through the confusion, like so many other topics, we need to get back to the basics. That starts with good quality grain and the ability to use it to create good bread. There are as many ways to make good bread as there are cultures around the world that rely on it for their daily sustenance. What follows is a simple list of tips and tricks for the home baker looking to create better loaves using wholesome ingredients. For those who like to stick with 100% whole grain breads, there are three techniques that can be used to work with the fiber and heartiness of whole grains, rather than against them.
New Dietary Guidelines Reverse Flawed Recommendations on Cholesterol
Limitations for cholesterol will likely be removed from the 2015 edition of Dietary Guidelines for Americans; over consumption of dietary cholesterol is now cited as being of no concern. A recent review of studies investigating the link between dietary fat and causes of death concluded that recommendations to reduce the amount of fat we eat every day should never have been made. When fat was removed from processed foods, sugar was added in. This has led to a massive increase in obesity, diabetes, and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, even among children
What’s Behind the Government’s Hatred of Raw Milk?
Government bans on the sale and distribution of raw milk and raw milk products are enforced in the name of public safety. But many people enjoy the health benefits of milk that has not been pasteurized, and some farms want sell it. Are the health threats from raw milk significant enough to warrant a ban on its sale? Government data and the lack of regulation of other raw foods suggest that they are not.
Dr. Brownstein: National Panel Reverses Idiotic Cholesterol Guidelines
As reported in the New York Times (2.20.15), a nutrition advisory panel that shapes U.S dietary advice eased some of the previous restrictions on fat and cholesterol, while at the same time recommending Americans lower their consumption of sugar. For many years, I have been writing and lecturing about the idiotic cholesterol and fat guidelines that the Powers-That-Be have been espousing. Over 30 years ago, we were told to eat less fat and cholesterol in order to lower our risk from dying from cardiovascular disease. During that same time we were encouraged to increase our consumption of carbohydrates in the form of grains and bakery products. We followed the Powers-That-Be’s advice and guess what? Our health has worsened. During the time we lowered our fat and cholesterol intake, we suffered with more obesity, diabetes, and heart disease.
Benefits of Long Sourdough Fermentation
In recent years we have seen a resurgence of interest in breads given a longer fermentation time via sourdough leavening. While these may seem like a lot of work due to the delay between mixing and baking the dough, they can actually be prepared quite simply with no more hands-on time than your usual loaf of bread. A little timing and planning are all that are required. The reasons for the longer fermentation are many. With digestive problems on the rise, those with compromised guts are finding breads made with a longer fermentation (rise) period to be more easily digested.
Study: Government Guidelines on Low-fat Diet Were Not Supported by Science
In 2015, the British Medical Journal published a meta-analysis looking at randomised controlled trials (RCTs) that were available to US and UK regulatory committees that adopted low-fat dietary guidelines in the 1970s and 1980s to supposedly reduce coronary heart disease (CHD). The authors of the study state that to date, no analysis of the evidence base for recommending a low-fat diet to reduce heart disease has ever been studied. So the authors conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of the RCTs that were published prior to 1983, which examined the relationship between dietary fat, serum cholesterol and the development of coronary heart disease. After analyzing multiple studies that included 2467 males, the authors found "no differences in all-cause mortality and non-significant differences in CHD mortality, resulting from the dietary interventions." They therefore concluded that: "Dietary recommendations were introduced for 220 million US and 56 million UK citizens by 1983, in the absence of supporting evidence from RCTs." How many lives have been ruined by the low-fat theory of heart disease?
Study: Probiotics Can Cure Peanut Allergy
Australian researchers have found a possible key to a cure for people with potentially fatal peanut allergies. A Melbourne-based study has already transformed the lives of many of the children who took part in the clinical trial. Researchers from the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute gave about 30 allergic children a daily dose of peanut protein together with a probiotic in an increasing amount over an 18-month period. The probiotic used in the study was Lactobacillus rhamnosus and the dose was equivalent to eating about 20kg of yoghurt each day. At the end of the trial 80% of the children could eat peanuts without any reaction.
Make your own Lacto-Fermented Ketchup
Beloved by many for its tangy, sweet, and lightly spiced flavor; tomato ketchup is possibly America’s favorite condiment. Many have turned away from the thick tomato preserve due to concerns over ingredients found in commercial ketchup. It is possible, however, to make a homemade version that is not only a healthful alternative to commercial brands, but which also has the added benefits of fermentation. And it's as simple as whisking together a few common ingredients.
Glyphosate Found in Feeding Tube Liquid Given to Sick Children in Hospitals
In the first ever testing of glyphosate herbicides in feeding tube liquid which is given to babies and children with cancer in hospitals, Moms Across America has detected high levels in 30% of Pediasure Enteral Nutritional Drink samples tested. The shocking results included samples from the same batch which tested positive at levels above 75 ppb, which is 800 to 1110 times higher than has been shown to destroy gut bacteria in chickens. An amount of only 50 ppt was shown to cause kidney, liver, and sex hormone changes in rats. Moms Across America finds it appalling that our health care providers have been led to believe this feeding tube liquid is safe. Our children and loved ones who are depending on our health institutions to support their immune system and recovery. Instead they are being fed a liquid which scientists and knowledgeable care givers now believe is doing the exact opposite.
The Benefits of Fermentation: Whole Grain Sourdough Pancakes
Light but substantial, fluffy and tangy; sourdough works wonders on pancakes. Not only do sourdough pancakes have a flavor and texture that cannot be beat, they also won’t leave you feeling bogged down after breakfast. Sourdough starter can be used not only for those fabulous loaves of tangy artisan bread, but for any baked good or grain-based treat. Muffins, quick breads, bagels, yeasted loaves, and even pancakes can all be made better through the fermentation of sourdough. Furthermore, using sourdough with freshly ground whole grains is a wonderful means of creating nourishing versions of your family’s favorite foods by improving both the healthfulness and the flavor of pancakes.
How to Eat a Coconut-Rich Breakfast
The energy and nourishment needed for a productive day starts at the breakfast table; so why not start the day off right with the many benefits of coconut? Coconut can be eaten in both sweet and savory dishes, taking the place of many of the foods you may already be eating to break the fast. The forms of coconut are many. Using them individually or in combination with one another can produce health-giving, allergen-friendly versions of some of our favorite breakfast foods.
How to Make Fermented Salad Dressings
Serving salad is a common means of adding enzymes and freshness to our meals. Surely none of us can argue with a big plate of fresh, organically grown produce! But, might we improve upon it by the addition of a salad dressing teeming with enzymes and probiotics? There are a few options for creating a salad dressing that contains live, active cultures that you can prepare in your own kitchen.
Study: Doubling Saturated Fat in Diet Does not Increase Saturated Fat in Blood
2014 will undoubtedly be remembered as the year the dietary belief that saturated fats are bad and lead to heart disease began to crumble in the mainstream media. This "news" of course is not "news" at all for those of us in the alternative media, as we have been saying this for well over a decade now. The research in the scientific literature showing the health benefits of saturated fats in the diet has been around for even longer. What should be carefully noted in the mainstream media's reporting on saturated fats, however, is that it is almost exclusively related to dietary advice, and the sale of certain groups of food high in saturated fats, such as butter. The reason for restricting the change in the saturated fat myths of the past 50 years or so to only dietary advice is most likely due to the fact that processed food companies (such as Big Dairy) can still produce products that take advantage of this shift in consumer trends, as consumers wise up to the fact that when you restrict saturated fats in the diet, you tend to replace them with refined carbohydrates, which are linked to many health problems that are historically blamed on saturated fats. Undoubtedly, the processed food industry's answer will be more highly processed saturated fatty foods now. Where the change in the saturated fat myth is still not applied in the mainstream media is in the lipid theory of heart disease related to cholesterol. This is a holy grail in the pharmaceutical industry that supports a hundred BILLION dollar drug industry to lower people's cholesterol levels. So the cholesterol myth will die a hard death. Sadly, it will live on to bring in billions of dollars in pharmaceutical profits for the foreseeable future. The latest study showing the fallacies of the saturated-fats-are-bad belief system comes from Ohio State University.
Coca-Cola Is Getting into the Milk Business
There is nothing natural about this milk. They’ve managed to increase its protein and calcium content by separating the milk into its five components (water, butterfat, protein, lactose, and vitamins and minerals), then removing the lactose altogether and recombining the rest in different proportions. More information about their process is unavailable since it falls under “proprietary” secrets. We wonder if sacrificing good fats, vitamins, and minerals are an appropriate price for increased protein and calcium content. Note that the calcium has been added without including important co-factors like vitamin K that move calcium into the bones and keep it from damaging the heart.
A Simple Homemade Kimchi
As one of the most well-known fermented vegetables, besides sauerkraut, kimchi has both a large following and a long history. One bite of the sour, spicy, crunchy condiment will reel you in for good. It’s no wonder it has been one of Korea’s most beloved foods for generations! Kimchi has been touted as one of the most healthful foods in the world. And it’s no wonder as those flavors that give kimchi its distinct flavor also pack a nutritional punch. Here's how you can make it at home.
How the Calorie Theory of Obesity and Disease has Harmed Public Health
One of the most damaging theories in human nutrition espoused by government authorities such as the USDA, is that all calories are equal, and that watching one's calorie intake has a positive effect on one's health. One look at the nation's health and rising obesity rates should give us a pretty good clue that this theory is false. A recently published article authored by Dr. Sean C Lucan from the Department of Family and Social Medicine, Albert Einstein College of Medicine/Montefiore Medical Center in New York, and Dr. James J DiNicolantonio from the Department of Preventive Cardiology, Mid America Heart Institute at Saint Luke’s Hospital in Kansas City, exposes the fallacies of such thinking and public policy, and its harm on public health.