How Sweet It Isn’t: What happened to me when I gave up sugar – Part 2

….continued from August 25/2014

donutsWhen my girls were about four and six, I went alone one day to do my weekly grocery shop. The last thing I added to my basket was six Bismarcks.

A Bismarck is a jelly doughnut. The Co-op bakery made the best Bismarcks. The dough is light and fluffy. They are fried a deep golden-brown. They are injected with real raspberry jam and finished with a light coat of fine, not powdered sugar.

These are still warm and their aroma teases my nose as I start my car. I decide to have one before I leave the parking lot.

One must bite into a Bismarck strategically or risk wearing the filling. If you bite it at the “injection site”, you are rewarded with a burst of flavour in your first bite and you reduce the risk of it volcano-ing down your shirt.

I quickly inhale the first Bismarck.

I reason I can have another since there is no sense taking five doughnuts home for a family of four.

Number Two disappears equally fast, practically melting in my mouth.

I pull away from the parking lot but I still want more. So I reason that I can eat “my donut”. After all, of the four left, one is mine!

It too is gone in a few bites, as though made of air.

Then I think, “I can’t take home three donuts for a family of four!”

So I gobble down the last three!

I’m not quite sure what I did with the bag before I got home. Maybe I ate it too!

I don’t even remember eating those last three Bismarcks. I was likely suffering from a sugar-rush, near a diabetic coma. I do remember the overwhelming feelings of guilt, shame and failure.

What kind of mother gobbles up her own children’s treats?

Why can’t I control myself?

What am I doing to my health?

No wonder I can’t control my weight!

Typical negative talk that I now know feeds those cravings for empty calories.

Over the years I have consumed theater-size bags of Twizzlers, Nibs or other chewy candy, easily in one sitting, sometimes, before the movie started. I have inhaled a whole layer of Turtles chocolates in one ten-minute session and likely dipped into the bottom layer! I have torn through a $50 box of premium chocolates in a couple days, only because polishing it off in one sitting would be embarrassing!

I have known for at least three decades that sugar is evil, yet extricating myself from its grasp was something I didn’t consider and if I did I was certain I would never succeed. How could I possibly give up sugar? Sugar is love!

My path towards health has progressed since my peaches epiphany 35 years ago. In 2005 I discover I have gluten intolerance. Eliminating wheat results in significant weight-loss and the clearing up of the acne that plagued me from my teens to my mid-forties. I used to joke that it was insulting to have zits sprouting out of my wrinkles.

I actively seek ways to increase my health. I study health issues and learn about food. Each year I choose to do something specific to improve my health. I give up the small bit of alcohol I consumed. I feel better. One year I resolve to eat more vegetables by ensuring they occupy at least half of the real estate of my plate. I feel better. The next year it is to eat more raw foods. I notice that my wrinkles appeared to fade, (or maybe that’s just the wishful thinking of a middle-aged woman.) But I feel better!

One year I decide to eliminate dairy. I hadn’t been a huge dairy consumer as milk always tasted sour and it upset my stomach. But I did love butter, cheese, cream, and ice-cream. When I stop eating dairy I realize an unexpected benefit: I stop snoring completely. My husband had been complaining about it so it is a very happy benefit for both.

Last January, as I polish off the last of the Christmas chocolate, I decide to see what will happen if I eliminate sugar.

A fellow Toastmaster who spoke about sugar a month previous influences this change. He reveals that in 1800, the average person consumed about four pounds of sugar each year; that in 1900 it was about 45 pounds and by 2010 it was over 160 pounds per year!

Over the years I learned that sugar feeds cancer, it causes inflammation and it robs the body of nutrients. I believe that the skyrocketing rates of cancer, diabetes, and heart disease are diet related, specifically our society’s high consumption of sugar.

Yet I continued to eat it, like smokers who know lung cancer is in their future but puff away.

I eat my last sugar January 5, 2013. I do little except to be ultra aware of what I ingest. I resolve to consume no processed sugar (including any hidden in processed foods) and no dried fruit (which is high in sugar). I allow myself very small amounts of maple syrup and honey but I avoid these entirely for the first couple months.

The first thing that happens to me is a headache, not a throbber, but a dull ache, like when I don’t get enough sleep. That lasts about three days. I find it bearable if I drink lots of water.

Within 14 days I lose 14 pounds. That is amazing! But not surprising. Sugar causes inflammation, which causes water retention. I suspect the first 14 pounds were simply water, flushing away the toxins my body had sequestered.

Within three weeks I notice something else: I had had a root canal five years before that always bothered me. No dentist could figure out the problem. I had resolved to live with it, chew on the other side of my mouth. After three weeks of no sugar, my root canal tooth no longer bothers me and I can chew on that side. Over a year later, I am still chewing without pain.

After two months, I am down 22 pounds. My clothes are hanging off me. I have to buy a new wardrobe. That was fun! It sure felt good to explain to the sales clerks that my shopping spree was because I had gone from size 12 to size 6! All because I stopped eating sugar.

I think it was at about two months that I stop using toothpaste. I can’t stand the taste of the sugar in it. (Yes, toothpaste has sugar in it!) I begin using baking soda and essential oils (peppermint, spearmint, or wintergreen) and my teeth are whiter than they’ve been for years. I’m not sure if that’s because of my no sugar diet or no toothpaste but I’m happy not to have spent hundreds on teeth whitening.

I also save money on teeth cleaning. A recent visit to the dentist reveals no cavities and no tartar or plaque so no need for cleaning.

….continued next week

Green Beans

grrenbean1
photo belongs to www.ShelleyGoldbeck.com

The lowly green bean, as a rule, is not a vegetable that inspires poetry. But it has many virtues that are virtually unknown or certainly unsung.

You can buy green beans but there is nothing compares to them just-picked from the garden! Green beans are easy to grow. After the last frost in the spring, simply sow them ½ inch deep and one to two inches apart. With water and warmth tiny plants appear within days. Magpies like just-sprouted bean seedlings so beware.

Within six weeks the plants are covered with tiny blossoms and bean pods appear a week or so later. The pods hide easily in the foliage so hunt carefully!

Green beans are best eaten when they are not too big, when the seeds are still small and the pod is tender. They are good raw, something I learned from my Grandtoys.

I like them steamed until tender and green, not too soft or cooked until they’re brown. They are best served with a tiny bit of oil: butter, olive oil, coconut oil or any nut oils are good choices. Many of the vitamins in green beans are fat-soluble. By eating them with healthy fats, you make it easier for your body to utilize those nutrients.

A friend of mine told me recently that they are really delicious roasted in a bit of oil and salted. I imagine them to be like edamame, only you can eat the pods! I will try them.

Green beans are also easily pickled. Choose long, mature pods. Stand them up in the jars, pour your pickling solution over them and process. In a few weeks you have crispy pickled beans.

I became attracted to green beans as a young adult riding the diet roller coaster. Calorie counting was an integral part of my early efforts to manage my weight. As it happens, green beans are very low in calories, with just 31 calories per 100 grams or about 44 per cup.

grrenbean2
photo belongs to www.ShelleyGoldbeck.com

Green beans contain substantial amounts of Vitamins A, B-6, C and K and minerals, including calcium, iron, potassium, silicon, and magnesium. They are a good source of fibre and contain healthy plant-based protein. Recent studies highlight the antioxidant capacity of green beans.

Eating green beans, preferably fresh, but as an alternative, frozen, can enhance your cardiovascular health, help keep your weight down, and help you manage blood sugar.

To me, they taste like summer.

 

 

If you want to learn more about all the nutrients found in green beans check out this site:

http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=134

Seasonal Eating

summereating
Photo owned by www.shelleygoldbeck.com

A healthy way to live is to eat “in season”.

That means eating foods that are at their peak of flavour and nutrients. This often happens only once per year, for a very short time, especially if eating locally is the goal.

Eating in season is also economical. Whatever is in season is usually cheaper than it will be any other time of the year.

In my opinion, food eaten in season tastes better. It’s usually fresher and more nutritious.

The best season of our food year is imminent. It starts with spring baby lettuce, baby spinach leaves, green onions and crisp, tangy radishes. All these are easy to grow at home. They like cool weather and can be seeded in Calgary anytime after mid-April.

If you’re really lucky, you have an asparagus patch. Their tender shoots magically appear overnight. Raw, they remind me of fresh raw peas. Lightly steamed until al dente and brushed with a teaspoon of butter or olive oil, they have their own unique flavour. Very yummy!

I get really excited about spring fruits. Early rhubarb always reminds me of my grandma, who made rhubarb “pudding”, a yellow cake batter poured over a pan of chopped rhubarb, baked and served warm with ice-cream.

Strawberries in June embody the spirit of summer! A touch of honey. A bit of cream. Fit for a queen!

The first cherries arrive in June. When their skins are crunchy and their flesh, sweet and juicy, I can eat them for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and I often do!

Picking berries was an integral part of my childhood summers. My siblings and I would mount our bikes or horses with our ice-cream pails and larger buckets. We headed home when the buckets were full. It could take all day: we spent more than half our time cramming berries into our mouths!

When the first peas are ready, I am at peace in the garden, splitting the warm pods to discover the sweet treasures inside. The best carrots are the true babies, (not the peeled to shape varieties) pulled, wiped on my pants, and crunched, soil granules and all, right there in the garden.

And potatoes! New potatoes stolen from the periphery of the plant are creamy and sweet. If I never ate another mature potato I wouldn’t care but new potatoes are a completely different animal!

In the old neighbourhood where I live many yards have raspberry patches. Kids love to stick a berry on each of their ten little fingers, wiggle them around, and then devour them one by one.

As summer wanes plums and peaches come into season. More feasting on fruit. And what to do with all that zucchini? (I like them baby so I don’t have that problem).

Alas! Our season is short! By fall, some vegetables are just coming into their prime. The brassicas like cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, all like cool weather. Turnips and parsnips are sweeter if they’ve experienced frost.

Eating in season will bolster the total nutrients you take in, reduce your carbon footprint since it’s easier to eat locally, and likely give your pocketbook a break. I highly recommend it.

The Last Soup Recipe You’ll Ever Need

 

soupLearning to make homemade soups is one of the best investments in your healthy eating strategy. Soup making is more of an art than a science: there is no one right way to make a good soup. Yet many people are afraid to even try to make it.

 

Soup is comfort food. Chicken noodle soup alone is famous for its ability to soothe the sick.

 

Soup is filling. In fact, soup can be an effective weight loss tool as long as it’s made with whole real ingredients and not popping out of a can.

 

Soup starts with broth. Broth should be homemade because of the unnecessary chemicals and lack of real nutrients in packaged or canned broth.

 

Broth is easy to make. Simply submerge bones (beef, lamb, chicken, turkey, (I’ve even used ham bone)) in water, add sea salt, two TBSP vinegar (to leach the calcium from the bones into the broth) and boil for several hours.

 

You can add vegetable scraps and water from cooking vegetables. (Caution: Cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower and Brussels sprouts contain sulphur, which can make your broth bitter. But if I’m making cauliflower soup or broccoli soup, I use them). Leftover gravy goes into the broth pot and I usually add a couple bay leaves. I have also tossed in leftover mashed potatoes.

 

I freeze my broth in two-cup containers so I am always ready to make a soup. Sometimes I boil the bones again, especially a big turkey carcass. The second batch is not as strong but still tasty.

 

A good friend told me the one ingredient required for good soup is butter. I agree butter is nice but with dairy-free individuals in my family, I’ve had to try other oils. I have found equal success with coconut oil and olive oil.

 

Now for the recipe: Sautee a small chopped onion, two stalks chopped celery, a chopped carrot and a clove of minced garlic in your oil until the onion is translucent and the celery begins to soften. Add salt and pepper.

 

Now comes the fun part. With your broth and this soup starter you can make almost any flavour of soup you want.

 

The other day I had some leftover carrots, turnips and sweet potatoes along with some beef gravy. I began with my soup starter, heated the veggies, then pureed it with my stick blender. Then back into the pot to warm up. Served with popcorn (as crackers), my Root Soup was a hit with my granddaughters.

 

I love to make squash soup with fresh dill or basil, especially if I have turkey broth, my favourite. Sometimes I throw in green beans for colour, crunch and variety.

 

In the fall I make borscht by adding beets, cabbage, potatoes and dill to my basic beef broth soup recipe.

 

I like to make chicken/turkey noodle/vegetable soup, loaded with stuff so it eats like a meal. One day I made oxtail and butternut squash soup. Very yummy.

 

Mushroom soup is easy to make by adding a couple cups of various chopped mushrooms and sautéing before adding broth. Puree, a few spices and finished with cream: gourmet all the way!

 

My favourite soup is one I make by first taking a trip through the garden with my bowl. Baby carrots, fresh zucchini, green beans or summer peas lightly steeped in my soup starter make a lovely summer supper.

 

I make seafood chowder by adding bacon, potatoes, clams, shrimp, and other fish to the pot. Top it off with some red peppers, frozen peas, and cream (or coconut milk) moments before serving and we’ve got a hearty meal.

 

I pour hot leftover soup into jars and refrigerate. They keep for a long time (if they are sealed hot) and make lovely quick lunches and gifts to the sick and shut-in, all without BPA, table salt, and other harmful chemicals. To keep longer, freeze soup. It’s best if used within three months.

 

Warning: once you begin making your own soups you will never again be able to eat soup from a can or eat it in a restaurant. You will be able to smell the chemicals; it will taste too salty yet seem tasteless.

 

Making your own soup means you are in charge of the ingredients. You control the salt and sugar. (Sugar in soup? The canned stuff has it!) You control the kind and amount of fat. You control how long the vegetables cook. (Ideally they are not overcooked).

 

Most importantly, homemade soups have nutrients that canned and packaged soups simply don’t have. We eat to provide our bodies with nourishment so why would we eat soup from a can?

 

If you’re on a budget (and who isn’t?) homemade soup can be a very economical way to feed yourself and your family.

 

I hope you’ll try to make some soup. If you do, be sure to tell me about it.

 

As always I urge you to eat The Food. The Whole Food.  And Nothing but the Food.

 

Pantry Basics: Real Ingredients for cooking success

pantryIf diets don’t work, what ARE we supposed to eat?

The answer is simple.

Whole. Real. Food.

Prepared with human hands.

With the intent to nourish.

If you’re accustomed to eating out of a box, preparing food can be daunting. I suggest cooking classes, tutoring from a chef or a good cook you know or even watching people cook on TV or You Tube.

Cooking isn’t even the best description of the process. Ideally half your diet comes from raw foods. I generally begin my day with fruit. I picked that up from the Diamonds, authors of Fit for Life. It works for me.

Fruit is simple to prepare. It often comes with its own package/protection so it’s easy to carry. Most fruit can be eaten out of hand, with no cutting. Even though some fruit requires cutting, that’s usually the end of the preparation.

Vegetables are also an important part of your raw food intake. That’s easy too. Salads are easy to make. Wash veggies; chop veggies; toss veggies.  To save time and effort tossing, you can make platters of veggies for dipping. Making fresh dips is easy. Throw stuff in blender; blend; dip veggies in dip. All easy.

If you decide you want cooked veggies, there is another step: put in pot; steam. None of this is hard.

Of course you can juice all these fruits and veggies, but I’m pretty lazy about cleaning the juicer so I just eat the whole fruit and the whole vegetables. Also easy.

To eat healthy, it helps to start with a pantry of essentials. Over the years my pantry has changed considerably. I gradually shed the processed unfoods and replaced them with real ingredients that show themselves useful in many recipes.

Here are some of my pantry essentials and what I do with them:

  1. Lemons: I drink lemon water in the mornings to prime my digestive system. Lemon is an ingredient in my favourite salad dressings and veggie dips: hummus, babaganouj, and guacamole. Lemon complements lamb and fish.
  2. Garlic: in salad dressings, soups, stews, main dishes, spaghetti sauce; roasted with crackers and veggies; raw, sliced as medicine for warding off colds or poultice for healing wounds.
  3. Onions: in some form in almost all salads and main dishes. Green, red, white and yellow onions. Easy to grow.
  4. Olive oil, extra virgin: for salad dressings, dips, sautéing (at low temps). Buy from reputable company as olive oil is often diluted with cheaper oils. It should harden when refrigerated.
  5. Coconut oil, extra virgin: use for frying, baking oven fries, in place of butter or shortening in any recipe. Also use it for skin/hair, and teeth (oil pulling).
  6. Greens and Herbs, variety: spinach, arugula, mesclun (mixed greens), kale, baby lettuces, red leaf, green leaf, butter and romaine lettuces, fresh parsley, basil, oregano, mint. They all add crunch, enzymes and vital nutrients to any dish.
  7. Other fresh veggies: mushrooms, celery, carrots, with garlic and onion form the base of many soups, stews and main dishes. Broccoli, turnip, tomato, cauliflower, asparagus, cabbage are other favourites. I especially seek out local seasonal vegetables.
  8. Fruit, variety. Bananas are the perfect fast food. “An apple a day…” is proven to be more than just a nice quote. Organic berries are some of the world’s most nutritious foods and can be incorporated into any meal in any course.
  9. Avocado: great source of healthy fat. I use in guacamole, salads and desserts like “chocomole” See link.
  10.  Nuts and nut milk. Use raw cashews to thicken salad dressings, desserts and non-  dairy sauces. Nuts transform gluten-free desserts. Nut milk is a great dairy substitute that serves well in most recipes that call for milk.

By no means is this list exhaustive but most of these ingredients are valuable in my kitchen because they serve many purposes. I don’t have room in my small kitchen for too many one trick ponies.

I also must have in my kitchen at least one Aloe Vera plant, vital for treating burns. I must have baking soda, which I use to clean pots and pans and sinks, to prevent boiling eggs from cracking, and to brush my teeth. Vinegar is another multi purpose item in my pantry, mostly for cleaning inexpensively and safely.

Banishing all packaged food from your pantry might be too big a step for you. I certainly didn’t purge my pantry overnight. After decades of conscious purging, there are still a few items that are yet to be banished.

I suggest working on one thing at a time. When you run out of something, replace it with something from this list. For example when your cooking oil runs out, replace it with olive and/or coconut oil. When your salad dressings are gone, start making your own.

By taking these small steps eventually your pantry will serve your goal of eating for optimum health.

Change Your Oil Revised July 2013

oilchangeMany people think “healthy fats” is an oxymoron largely because fat was demonized in the eighties by many health professionals. Food manufacturers were quick to recognize opportunities to make huge profits and “low-fat” foods were created. The vilification of dietary fat is now suspected of contributing to the obesity epidemic partially because food manufacturers replaced fat with sugar, which comes with its own issues.

Furthermore, saturated fats were once believed to cause heart disease, thanks to a faulty study by Dr. Ancel Keyes, which was adopted by most health professionals as the word of dietary law.  This motivated health conscious people to switch to vegetable oils. Now there is evidence that switching from saturated fats to polyunsaturated fats, common in processed vegetable oils, has contributed to higher rates of cancer.

 

One reason is that polyunsaturated oils are highly unstable and vulnerable to oxidation and turning rancid.  Oxidation causes cancer. Oils that are rancid are highly toxic to humans (and pets. Sadly, most pet food is made using rancid fats).

 

To add to the danger, conventionally produced vegetable oils are processed using toxic chemicals like hexane, heptane, caustic soda, and other chemicals, the safety of which is unproven, to mask the rancid smell of processed oils.

In addition to the dangers of oxidation and rancidity, there are also concerns about the omega-6 content of polyunsaturated oils. A recent San Francisco study demonstrated that under laboratory conditions, omega-6 fatty acids could accelerate the growth of prostate tumor cells.  They are also suspected of contributing to breast cancer in post-menopausal women.

 

Other studies show that improving the omega-3 to omega-6 ratio can lower the risk of certain cancers. Specific recommendations vary, but most experts suggest a ratio of between 1:1 and 1:4 at most. The average modern diet has an omega-3 to omega-6 ratio of 1:20 or more!

 

The rapid increase of vegetable oils in our diets during the past century is largely responsible for this imbalance. While some vegetable oils do contain small amounts of omega-3 fatty acids, for the most part, they consist of omega-6. Some experts recommend increasing omega-3 consumption, but it is more effective to reduce omega-6 intake, by eliminating or drastically decreasing polyunsaturated oil consumption, including canola, soy, corn, and sunflower oils.

 

Further compounding the unhealthy fat issue is the hydrogenation of vegetable oils.  Hydrogenated oils and any foods made with them are the leading cause of heart disease and a major contributor to neurological disorders. Simply put, hydrogenated oils (or trans fats) are poison in the human body. They accelerate the buildup of plaque in the arteries and are suspected of causing cancer.

Food producers create hydrogenated oils for the convenience of food producers, primarily so that those foods taste good and can sit on the shelf for months without going bad. Therefore they significantly contribute to profits.

High-fat, low-fat, saturated fat, hydrogenated fats, polyunsaturated fats, omega 3, omega 6; it’s all very confusing. So what are we supposed to do?

 

First we need to recognize that healthy fats are an integral part of a complete diet. Avoiding fats actually causes chronic disease. Your brain is made of fat and it needs saturated fat. Even brain-friendly omega-3 fatty acids can’t be utilized without ample saturated fat. In addition, saturated fat facilitates nerve signals and hormone production. All of these systems rely on saturated fat to function, and to keep you healthy and ultimately, alive.

 

A diet rich in saturated fats protects your heart. Saturated fat reduces Lp(a), which is associated with increased risk for heart disease, and contributes to higher levels of HDL (good) cholesterol, which keep your heart healthy. In traditional cultures saturated fat was revered and even coveted as a source of vital energy.

Many nutrients are fat-soluble and failure to include healthy fats in meals results in many of the nutrients consumed not being absorbed by the body. Beta carotene, Vitamin D, and Vitamin E are three nutrients that require fat in order to be absorbed and used by the human body.  We need saturated fat to transport calcium to our bones, which is why dairy products naturally contain both calcium and saturated fat. Calcium supplements don’t do much good if saturated fat is lacking in our diet. By consuming fats with nutritional supplements, the effectiveness of the phytonutrients in supplements multiplies.

It doesn’t take much fat to aid the absorption of important vitamins and nutrients. Eating just five or ten nuts, or one-fourth of an avocado, provides plenty of dietary fat for transporting nutrients and aiding their absorption.

Saturated fats also boost our immune systems because they contain specialized fatty acids, which are naturally antifungal, antimicrobial and antiviral. These important fatty acids include lauric acid, myristic acid and caprylic acid. A diet rich in these beneficial fats provides the body with essential building blocks to fight pathogenic substances.

 

It is vitally important to choose the right kind of fats for your diet and the right amount because fats are high in calories. Healthy fats include real butter, (ideally from grass-fed cows), virgin (meaning cold-pressed) coconut oil, extra-virgin olive oil, flax seed oil, hemp-seed oil and other fats from plant sources such as nuts, seeds, and avocados. These healthy fats should be consumed with every meal. Oils from fatty fish like wild salmon are also beneficial. Even the fat in beef can be called healthy if eaten in moderation and if those animals were grass-fed, not grain-fed.

It is advisable to give up cheap fats such as low-cost vegetable oils. To do so requires the abandonment of most processed foods as they are almost always made with cheap, usually hydrogenated, vegetable oils. Say good-bye to crackers, deep-fried foods, baked goods, indeed, the entire snack aisle of your local grocery store.

Healthy fats are more expensive than unhealthy fats but this is one case where spending extra money significantly protects your health.

Finally, use oils appropriately. For example, extra-virgin olive oil is ideal for salad dressings and dishes that will simmer because it has a low flash point (or temperature at which it begins to burn). Flax oil should never be heated. Butter, coconut oil and peanut oil can stand higher temperatures and are more appropriate for cooking at high temperatures. Ideally, it is best to give up fried foods, because all fried fats contain trans fatty acids.

Sadly most people are more careful about the condition of the oil in the engines of their cars than about the oils they consume to fuel their bodies.  Changing your oil is an integral part of maintaining good health.

Sources for this article include: www.NaturalNews.com, www.Wikipedia.com, www.totalhealthbreakthroughs.com, www.alive.com

Got Milk? Just Say No

milkWhy Avoiding Dairy Might Be a Good Option

Food issues are complicated.

I recently ranted about butter vs margarine (see article here). I came out in favour of butter.

Now I have a confession.

I stopped ingesting dairy in January 2012.

Every year I try to make a change to improve my health. I decided to try eliminating all dairy products.

I was surprised at the outcome. I immediately stopped snoring, a condition of great concern to my light-sleeping husband. I also ceased to require deodorant (unless I have cheese. Then I stink the next day!)

Truthfully, dairy hasn’t agreed with me since I was a child. My grandparents had mixed farms, including a few dairy cows. We drank warm milk, fresh from the separator (a machine for separating cream (milk fat) from milk).

I never liked warm milk with the fresh froth on top. It tasted like cow.

In fact milk has always tasted off to me. (When my kids were little and drank milk I could never discern whether the milk in the carton was sour).

But buying into the “dairy is essential to good health” mantra, I sought palatable forms. I liked cottage cheese and other soft and hard cheeses, sour cream and ice cream. Cream didn’t bother me and I would pour it on my cereal instead of milk. I drank chocolate milk and added milk to soups in an effort to consume dairy.

One day about 20 years ago, I had a Dairy Queen strawberry milkshake, my favourite rare treat. Within an hour my intestines were twisting. I felt like I had a couple of sumo wrestlers in there. It lasted for several hours, tempting me to go to Emergency more than once.

I noticed discomfort with other ice cream so I eliminated it from my diet for five years. When I reintroduced it, it was occasional and only high-quality varieties.

By the time I gave up dairy, I was eating cheese once per week, cream on berries occasionally, ice cream twice a month. I would add a tsp of butter to steamed veggies or to fry a free-range egg. A pound of butter would last a month or two.

Post snore, I find coconut oil is a suitable butter substitute. Now that I’ve tasted ice cream made with coconut milk I will never go back to dairy: no cow taste and no mucous! Almond milk is another product that I use. I find it works in most places milk is required.

I am conflicted. Butter is natural.

But is it really?

Modern dairy operations are CAFO’s (Confined Animal Feeding Operations).  Milk from grass-fed, hormone-free, pesticide-free cattle is nutritionally superior to milk from CAFO animals. It has more vitamins and more healthy fats.

Animals in CAFO’s are sick. They need antibiotics to survive like junkies need heroine. They live and produce for only a fraction of their natural life expectancy due to inferior feed and the stress of CAFO life.

I was taught that we don’t eat sick animals or their products. CAFO milk is sick. Therefore so is its milk fat (butter).

Modern dairy processing further renders milk indigestible and void of most of its celebrated benefits. Pasteurization and homogenization threaten enzymes, kill beneficial bacteria and change the structure of the milk and, some claim, affect our bodies’ ability to assimilate it.

Pasteurization is unavoidable for big dairy operations but small farmers can safely distribute unpasteurized products. The pro-biotic benefits of raw milk are real. Unfortunately, raw milk farmers are often persecuted in North America so it’s tough to find suppliers.

Some experts claim adult humans are not designed to eat dairy. After age four, the majority of us lose our ability to digest lactose. Asian and African populations have particular difficulty digesting dairy.

One researcher suggests one’s blood type may affect the ability to digest dairy, with B and AB tolerating better than A and O types. If that were true, I would be able to tolerate dairy. But just because it’s not true for me, doesn’t mean it’s not true for another.

When they learn I avoid dairy, people are alarmed. Where do you get your calcium? What about osteoporosis? I get my calcium from greens and nuts. Dairy isn’t the only food with calcium. Osteoporosis is higher in countries with high dairy consumption. The fact is milk causes acidosis and the body leeches calcium from the bones to neutralize the acid, causing bone thinning.

Calcium from cow’s milk is not very bio-available. The official recommended intake for calcium is high because the body can only use a small portion of calcium from dairy.  Incidentally, my latest bone scan indicated I have bones of a 20 year old. The technician raved that I must be a milk drinker. He was dismayed when I revealed the truth.

If you do consume dairy, seek products that are from grass-fed cows, unpasteurized, and organic, (no hormones, antibiotics, pesticides and no unnatural feeds like ground up carcasses). Ideally you know and support your local farmer.

Consider goat milk, which is more easily digestible than cows’ milk, having a molecular structure closer to human milk. Goats are not generally subjected to CAFO life and appear to leave a smaller “footprint” on the earth.

When I was in Arizona I drove by a dairy farm that was miles and miles of Holstein cows standing in their own feces, forlornly searching for food and stimulation, a black and white wall of despair.

There are many good reasons to avoid dairy but the most important is I feel better. I sleep better.

If you have mysterious illnesses for which you’ve found no solution, consider giving up dairy for a short while. You might find solutions to heath issues you don’t even know you have.

Many people I know have transformed their health by just saying “no” to, “Got milk?”

http://organicconnectmag.com/got-proof-the-myth-of-milks-benefits/#.UkzYnBzoOgg

Butter vs. Margarine

butterpicRevised July 2013

Margarine is the generic term used for butter substitutes. Its history goes back almost 200 years to the discovery of margaric acid from whence margarine derives its name. Over the years various ingredients have been used to concoct a less expensive spread than butter including beef tallow, whale, seal, and fish oils, vegetable oils and sometimes even a little butter.

Both butter and margarine are water-in-oil emulsions; they have similar calories, depending on the amount of water in the margarine or “spread”. Sadly, most people erroneously think they are interchangeable.

Margarine consumption surpassed that of butter in the late 1950’s when some scientists proposed a correlation between the consumption of saturated fats and blood-serum cholesterol levels with heart disease. Doctors began advising their patients to use margarine instead of butter.

Many people still believe in this supposed cause and effect but the explosion of heart disease in our society would suggest otherwise. Food manufacturers seized the opportunity to increase profits by using cheaper inferior ingredients while proclaiming the health benefits of their products.

Margarine is a manufactured “food”, generally accomplished by passing hydrogen through (often) inferior quality oil in the presence of a nickel, cadmium, or palladium (all toxic heavy metals) catalyst. The addition of hydrogen to the unsaturated bonds results in saturated bonds, effectively increasing the melting point of the oil and thus hardening it.

This process creates trans fats, which the body does not recognize as food and ironically are now known to contribute to heart disease and other diseases like cancer. Furthermore, the oil is extracted at high temperature, which damages the oil and destroys the vitamin E in it. The advertisements and the packaging for margarine are usually deceptive lies, stating it contains ‘polyunsaturated oil’, when the processing saturates or partially saturates the oil.

Butter has many nutritional benefits, where margarine has few. Butter contains antioxidants, which help offset free-radical damage to cells. It is a source of vitamin A, D, E, and K, calcium, selenium, and conjugated linoleic acid, which helps maintain lean body mass, prevents weight gain and may reduce certain cancers. Butter fat helps the absorption of certain vitamins and minerals. And it tastes better.

Although many people are sensitive to cow’s milk dairy products, often butter is well-tolerated because butter is almost a pure fat, and does not contain many of the allergens found in other milk products.

 

One issue is the treatment of dairy cows. They are often pumped full of antibiotics and hormones which naturally land in the milk.

 

The argument that margarine helps control cholesterol is a myth as most cholesterol is manufactured within the body; a maximum of about 4% of all cholesterol comes from the diet.  Cholesterol is the raw material for the adrenal stress hormones and the sex hormones. The body often reacts to stress by producing more cholesterol allowing the body to make more stress-fighting hormones. Therefore it is quite likely that the consumption of trans fats stresses the body to produce more cholesterol.

 

The human body is not designed to consume manufactured food but thrives on a diet of whole, real food. Butter is a natural food and one of the best sources of important fat-soluble vitamins. You will pay more for butter, but nutritionally, for its purity, and its taste it is well worth it. Just remember, all things in moderation; the body is not served by eating any fat, including butter, by the pound.

 

 

Sources for this article include:

http://www.naturodoc.com/library/nutrition/margbutt.htm

Aviva:

http://www.healthcastle.com/butter-or-margarine.shtml

http://www.homemakers.com/health-and-nutrition/nutrition-and-diet/margarine-vs-butter-the-debate-continues/a/27133

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/002114.htm

This site is sponsored by margarine producers who proclaim the “debate is over”.  It is included in this list in the interest of balance:

http://www.choosemargarine.com/latestSpread_marg_vs_butter.html

http://www.drlwilson.com/Articles/butter.htm

http://www.chatham-kent.ca/community+services/Public+Health/keeping+you+healthy/healthy+eating/Butter+or+Margarine.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margarine