Good Fats in My Kitchen

Thankfully the skinny is out on the low-fat diet trend.  People are opening their eyes to the wisdom of healthy traditional cultures who eat great amounts of saturated fats.  

Fat is what makes food taste good.  And it's what helps stabilize your hormones and blood sugars.  Oh, and did you know if you dehydrated your brain, half of it would be ...wait for it...FAT.  Growing children need lots of good fat.  Hormonal women need fat.  Want to think clearly?  Eat fat.  Trying to loose weight?  Eat fat.

As I was making pancakes one day, it dawned on me to write a blog post about the different kind of fats I use in the kitchen. (However, putting that thought into action has taken a month...or two.)

In no particular order, here are a few pictures and reasons I use each of these fats.

Pork Lard is excellent for frying as it lends itself well to high heat.  I don't recommend lard from the grocery store, as it has been hydrogenated for a longer shelf life.  This industrialized process deems it very unhealthy.  

Buy lard from a local farmer or render some yourself, it isn't difficult. Pigs that roam outdoors absorb vitamin D from the sun and this vitamin D is passed along to me (as opposed to industrial pork that never sees the light of day).  Eat lard and don't feel guilty.  Freckle Face Farm is usually at the Hillcrest Farmers Market on Saturdays.

With lard, I like to deep fry falafel, fry pancakes on the griddle, frying potatoes, making tortillas, pie crusts and even biscuits.  Some people like to pop their popcorn in lard.  However, I prefer to pop mine in a combination of coconut oil and palm oil (below, palm oil is the reddish orange oil).  Movie popcorn originally used palm oil (thus the nice orange color of popcorn at the theater).

Coconut oil can be used in baking or frying.  Unrefined coconut oil will impart a bit of a coconut flavor, whereas lard is a neutrally flavored fat.  I have purchased gallons coconut oil from Tropical Traditions and Mountain Rose Herbs and prefer the latter.

Schmaltz is rendered chicken fat.  If you roast a chicken, or cook one in a crock pot, the fat that rises to the top of the broth is schmaltz.  It can be skimmed and used for frying and lower temperatures.  I like to sauté veggies, especially onions in schmaltz.

Butter - oh man, do we eat some butter.  In the winter it seems we eat almost twice as much as the rest of the year.  It is not uncommon for our family of 5 to eat 2 pounds a week.  We slather butter on most anything (my husband has been known to put it on bananas!)  One of the many benefits of butter is that it is already packaged in handy proportions.  You will find conventional butter (not organic) in my fridge most days because I'd break the bank buying organic butter.  The way I figure it, the majority of my family's fats are from clean, local sources so I don't feel guilty about buying conventional butter.  I buy organic butter occasionally - esp. if it is on sale.

Not pictured:

Tallow - rendered beef fat can be used similarly as pork lard.  Currently I do not have any in my kitchen but when I do, we like to fry potatoes in it.

Bacon grease -  It's like gold.  I save it in a jar in the fridge - it will keep for months.  My favorite application is to flavor sautéed kale or fry eggs (lard is good for eggs too).  I've even used bacon grease to make a maple/bacon salad dressing.  Bacon is good on everything. 

Extra Virgin Olive Oil - I buy at least a gallon a year from Chaffin Family Orchards and use it for salad dressing and mayonnaise.

For salads, we also add nuts, cheese and avocado for more satiating power.

Toasted Expeller Pressed Sesame Oil - frying Asian inspired foods at higher temps and in salad dressing.  I use it sparingly because the flavor can be quite strong.

Grapeseed Oil - this isn't a super healthy oil but it has a neutral flavor and I feel it is better for me than canola oil.  I use equal portions of grape seed and olive oil when making mayonnaise.

Fermented Cod Liver Oil and Butter Oil from Green Pasture.  These are used as supplements (aka vitamins). 

Which fats have I forgotten?  Do you have a favorite?

Eat some healthy fat at every meal,

-Julie

Why I'm a Water Snob

Vividly I can recall my first real encounter with a water snob.

We were in Phoenix, Arizona - standing in a hot church vestibule. My new friend took a drink of her bottled water.  With a crumpled face she said, "Yech!  This tastes nasty!"

I suppose my facial expression said nothing short of: you're weird.

She quickly followed up her water snobishness by saying, "I forgot that I refilled this bottle from the water fountain."

Really?  You can actually taste the difference between your plastic bottled water (which was probably bottled from tap water!), and the water fountain?  I was impressed.  Until that day, I could not taste the difference between bottled water and tap water.

That was seven years ago.  My husband and I had just moved to the Valley of the Sun.  We had not lived there long enough to realize that nobody drank the tap water.  It tasted that bad.

We had lived in Phoenix long enough for me to see the water stations, or water stores, where filtered or reverse osmosis water (RO) is sold but it had not registered why there were so many!  Soon I came to the realization that people drank filtered water in their homes, not just because it was trendy but out of necessity.  The tap water in the desert was laden with icky-tasting minerals.

Fast-forward four years when we moved back to Little Rock, and I had been drinking filtered water in Phoenix.  After moving back to Arkansas, I realized I'd become a water snob.  The tap water that I drank just four years earlier in Little Rock no longer tasted good to me.  The tap water had not changed; my taste buds had.

Source

Where to Find Clean Water
Whole Foods has a reverse osmosis machine at the front of the store, which isn't far from my home.  For a year, I hauled five gallons home every week.  My dear husband later installed a reverse osmosis (RO) filter under the sink that we purchased at Lowe's.  We now have RO water on tap!

In summary, my top three reasons to drink filtered or RO water:

1. Tastes better.

2. Not chlorinated - I work too hard to add beneficial bacteria to my gut (yogurt, kefir, kombucha, radish relish) just to have it killed by the chlorine in tap water.  By the way, Brita or other filters like the one in your fridge door do not eliminate chlorine.  Sitting a pitcher of uncovered water on the counter overnight will allow chlorine to evaporate.

3. Not fluoridated - I'm not convinced fluoride is necessary - esp. if you're eating green leafy veggies.

Now I share a kindred spirit with my water snob friend from Phoenix and even carry a water bottle with me - with RO water from my house.

-Julie
See also Erin's post on the dangers of fluoride. And if you missed my post gloating celebrating 4 years of being cavity-free despite the fact I've given up fluoride.

Liver: Ate It But Didn't Even Taste It

Talk about nutrient dense: gram for gram liver contains more nutrients than any other food.  My brain knows it is good for me, but my tongue is not in agreement...yet.

Today I decided to chop it in gummy bear sized pieces and swallow it raw.  I never tasted it.  It was awesome.

Don't think about slugs or leeches as you pop it in your mouth.

Just sayin'.
-Julie

Toddlers and Cod Liver Oil

Today I'm sharing a video of my toddler eating her fermented cod liver oil right off the spoon. It looks like chocolate but I promise it is cod liver oil. (If you're reading from email, click here to view it.)  My family takes fermented cod liver oil from Green Pasture.  I aim for 5 days a week - sometimes it is more, usually it is less.  Consistently, it is the only supplement we take.

We've shared before reasons to take cod liver oil as well as methods. Cod liver oil contains key nutrients for brain development, most specifically it has ample amounts of fat-soluable vitamins A and D that aid the body in mineral absorption.

Because cod liver oil is actually food and not a man made supplement, you body can more readily absorb the vitamins in it. {synthetic supplements - think: round peg in a square hole}  If you are taking synthetic vitamin D, may I suggest trying cod liver oil?

Ramiel Nagel wrote a book called Cure Tooth Decay: Heal and Prevent Cavities with Nutrition (which can be found in the Central Arkansas Library System).  He gives convincing arguments that along with other things, cod liver oil can stop cavities and help teeth remineralize.  Check out his website for more info.

Antidotal evidence: a friend of mine had severe tooth pain one Friday afternoon and thought with certainty that she would need an emergency root canal Monday morning.  After some internet research, she decided to take large quantities of cod liver oil, hoping for relief.   I saw her Saturday morning in immense pain; she hardly talked and held her jaw the entire time. To her amazement she did not visit a dentist at all the next week and attributes the healing to cod liver oil.

To reiterate some of the things I learned at the Weston A Price annual conference:

- Vitamins A, D, and K are the activators for minerals.  A person cannot assimilate protein or calcium without vitamin A.  {Lori's post on Brain Pow-ah is expands a bit more on this.}

- Primitive diets contained 4 times the calcium and other minerals and 10 times the fat soluable vitamins compared to modern diet.

- Green grass that pastured animals eat makes vitamins A&K.  Vitamin D comes from the sun as well as from animals who have been in the sun.  It is so important to eat animals who have been on grass.

Since we have had a few cloudy days here in central Arkansas, I am motivated to give my family their cod liver oil every day this week.

-Julie
Green Pasture did not compensate me to tell you about their cod liver oil.  I told you which brand because I thought someone would ask.

Brain Pow-ah

If you missed the last Weston A. Price Foundation meeting on "Real Brain Food," I'm here to give you a recap. Because you just might be interested in knowing that what you eat (or do not eat) really does have an impact on your brain. And your brain? Well, it pretty much controls everything about you. Behavior, emotions, attention, body function, growth, learning, immunity...yep...that's about it.


I'd venture to guess there's not a person reading this blog who hasn't at least known someone with cancer, diabetes, or asthma. Perhaps you've even experienced some of the devastation of these diseases firsthand. But let's just say you've been one of those people blessed with great health and a family with great health, and somehow you've managed to not even have a friend who has dealt with any devastating illness. I'll betcha you DO know a little something about allergy problems. Childhood behavior problems? Attention-deficit disorder? Depression? Anxiety?


Well, what if I told you that the people groups Dr. Price studied so long ago (before Western culture infiltrated them) were FREE of these problems? How did they have such robust health and (bonus!) such straight, white, and decay-free teeth? Dr. Price wondered the same thing, until he began to note the differences in their diets, as contrasted with that of the typical American in the 1930s. At this time, Americans were beginning to consume larger portions of white flour and sugar, while the diets of traditional societies all had three main things in common:


1. They consumed no processed foods. *


2. They regularly consumed animal foods of some kind.


3. The foods they ate were nutrient dense.  (In fact, their diets consisted of four times as much calcium and other minerals as our modern diet and ten times as much fat-soluble vitamins (A & D) as our own!)


How did they manage to get so many more nutrients from their food than we? Check into modern farming practices and you'll see. We have to use man-made nitrogen fertilizers because our soil is so deplete of minerals. This thanks to decades and decades of NOT rotating our crops. We kill the land and then move on to kill more somewhere else by planting the same crop year after year.


And...


We came up with ways to process everything under the sun. Flour, bread, soup, cookies, soy beans. Even eggs! And, in case you haven't figured out how processing affects PEOPLE yet, I'll just cut to the chase...






The more something is processed, the less nutritious it is.




Plain and simple.






So how do we go from eating a primarily-processed-foods diet to a "real food" one like those of traditional societies?


1. Just DON'T eat processed foods.  (If it comes in a box, bag, or package, you'd probably do well to avoid it.)


2. Animals foods should be grass-fed or wild caught. And you definitely should include bone broth in your diet.


3. Grains, legumes, and nuts should be properly prepared for digestion. (This means soaking, sprouting, or culturing.)


4. Include some lacto-fermented vegetables and fruits every day.


5. Include fats and oils like butter, lard, coconut oil, cod liver oil, and grass-fed animal fat.




Our brains really do need to be nourished in order to function properly.


Perhaps you'll find this chart to be helpful:

	vitamin a	vitamin d	choline	dha	zinc	tryptophan	cholesterol
Why do I need it?	Brain cell development, specifically learning and memory (spatial)	Affects proteins throughout brain, which have a hand in learning, memory, motor control, mood, and behavior.	People who have plenty of choline are smart and have memories that don’t fade with age. It is VITAL.	Must have for optimal brain function, learning ability, and mental development. A deficiency of DHA combined with a diet high in trans fats (found in processed foods) has been linked to hyperactivity, depression, and mood disorders.	Improves attention, reasoning, psycho-motor function, hand-eye coordination, mood stability, visual perception, and verbal memory.	Building block for serotonin, which plays a major role in memory function and SLEEP	Affects neurotransmitters in brain
Where can I get it?	ONLY found in grass-fed animal fats**	Animal fats, pastured eggs, and sunlight. However, to make Vitamin D from sunlight, the body must have enough cholesterol.	Pastured eggs	Wild-caught fish and grass-fed meat and animal products	Red meat. Because of modern farming practices, which deplete the zinc from the soil, there is not a significant amount found in produce.	Wild-caught fish and seafood, grass-fed red meat, and pastured eggs are among its highest sources.	Found in any mammalian milk and in pastured eggs

**While carotenes from vegetable sources do contain Vitamin A, it must be converted in order for our bodies to be able to use it. This conversion simply cannot happen without the presence of fat. Besides, one would have to eat an astounding amount of vegetables to get anywhere near the daily requirement. And in her book Nourishing Traditions, Sally Fallon states, "Dr. Price discovered that the diets of healthy isolated peoples contained at least ten times more vitamin A from animal sources than found in the American diet of his day."




As Julie pointed out after the workshop, it seems if there was a SINGLE thing you could do to impact your nutritional intake, eating lots of pastured eggs would be that thing. Cook them in butter made from the cream of a grass-fed cow, or have the yolks raw in a smoothie made with raw milk, and you've got a healthy helping of almost every one of the "brain food" necessities listed above!




*Now, back to those evil processed foods. Ahem...

What makes 'em so bad??


Well, for starters, they contain:


refined sugars
high fructose corn syrup
trans fats
rancid vegetable oils
white flour
additives
MSG
artificial flavors
artificial colors
protein powders
soy protein isolate
artificial sweeteners
preservatives
nitrates and nitrites


Start Googling, and after just the first couple of items on this list, I am certain you'll become fairly horrified at the damage these can cause. 


So, what things can you cut out from your diet today?? And what things can you put in to promote healthy brain functioning?? 


LORI


P.S. If you, like most Americans, were once duped into believing fats were inherently evil, you can see from the chart above, from this post, and from this post that is simply not the case. If you'd like to hear more about the whys and wherefores, be sure to register for Sharon New's "Politically Incorrect Nutrition: Debunking the Low-Fat Myth" workshop to be held this Saturday, November 12th at Quapaw Quarter United Methodist Church. You may register here.

Linking up at Real Food Wednesday.

Gelatinous Chicken Broth: Secret Ingredients

Want to know my secret ingredient for making gelatinous bone broth?


Chicken feet.

Looks gross, I know.  But hey, it is time for Halloween and I'm banking that you have seen nastier displays in the store.

Earlier this week I emailed my neighbor pictures from my kitchen when making broth and she promptly let me know that she would not be eating at my house any time soon.

While chicken feet do not look appetizing to our western eyes, several friends living around the globe have assured me that other cultures revere chicken feet.  Indeed, a hallmark of traditional food is bone broth.

If you're grossed out by the fact that chickens have been scratching around in who knows what, blanch the feet for a few minutes (alone) before adding them to the rest of your bones.  The feet that I bought through Cove Creek Acres were clean (as in, had been scalded in the processing of the chicken).  However, another farmer friend gave me some very dirty feet that I boiled for 15 minutes before using in broth making.

When I cook a chicken, part of the overall process for me is knowing I will also make chicken broth.  Making nutrient dense broth helps me justify paying more for a pastured chicken, locally grown.  Meat broth can be made as you cook a chicken in a slow cooker.  The above chicken was roasted in the oven then I pulled off the meat (below).

To the carcass I added a package of chicken feet.

They look quite gnarly, I will give you that.

Toss all your bones in a pot. (If you want to make a lot of broth, you can buy "stock parts - necks and backs.")

Cover the bones with water.  Add a splash of vinegar - a couple of tablespoons will do.  This acid helps to pull out minerals from the bones.  If you forget, forgive yourself and vow to do better next time.  The broth will still be good for you!

For added flavor, you can add some celery, carrot, onion and or garlic all in big chunks.  Usually I do not take the extra time to add the veggies.

After simmering for several hours (3-24 hours, more is better and I usually plug up my slow cooker outside, overnight) the feet will look even more disgusting than when frozen.  Keep the end in mind.  Broth is soooo good for you.  Food tastes better when prepared with broth (instead of water.)

For gelatinous broth, it is not imperative that feet are used.  However if you can muster the courage to find and use feet, the broth will result in more gelatin which is very good and healing for the body.

A common mistake when making broth is to use too much water.  If you just cover the bones with water, the more likely you are to have gelatinous broth.

-Julie
linked with Kelly the Kitchen Kop

Related:

1.  The Healthy Home Economist wrote about the wonders of gelatin and how to get more in your stock.

2.  Every Sunday Cheeseslave answers readers' questions.  In July she posted this about gelatinous broth:

Chicken feet are some of the boniest parts of the bird (chicken necks and heads are also very bony), and they produce the most gelatin.


Gelatin is essentailly collagen, which when heated becomes gelatin. It’s what helps things GELL (hence the name). This is also where the words jelly and JELL-O come from (JELL-O is made from gelatin which comes from the bones and skins of animals).


Collagen is what helps to give us strong bones as well as beautiful skin. Collagen fills in and plumps up your skin so that you don’t get wrinkles and saggy folds.  Read this post about how broth can cure cellulite.


Gelatin also helps to heal the gut lining, so for people who are suffering from intestinal disorders or food allergies, consuming lots of gelatin-rich stock is essential for recovery.

Key Nutrients for Brain Development

Lisa shared some of this at a recent Weston A. Price chapter meeting; I stumbled upon it again and thought it was worth posting for the masses.

The following list is from Nourishing Our Children specifically the section on being malnourished.  I think it is safe to say that Americans are well-fed yet malnourished.


Key nutrients for brain development:

Vitamin A - Cod liver oil; liver, butter and egg yolks from grass-fed animals
Vitamin D - Cod liver oil, shellfish; lard, butter and egg yolks from grass-fed animals
Choline - Cod liver oil; egg yolks from grass-fed animals
DHA - Cod liver oil; liver, butter, and egg yolks from grass-fed animals
Zinc - Red meat of grass-fed animals, shellfish
Tryptophan - Meat of grass-fed animals
Cholesterol - Seafood; dairy foods, eggs and meat of grass-fed animals

You might notice the repetition of cod liver oil, egg yolk from grass fed animals, as well as meat from grass-fed animals.  {I wrote a few months ago how not all eggs are created equal.}  If you're new to a real food diet, a baby step for you could be to obtain a healthy source for eggs and meat and incorporate these things into your diet.

Here in central Arkansas options abound for grass fed meats and eggs.  I order fermented cod liver oil through Green Pasture, from my research it is the highest quality cod liver oil available.

If the above list was interesting to you, Nourishing Our Children is running a special on their educational DVD package.  However, a great amount of the content is available, free.  Be sure to check out some of their free downloads, too.

-Julie
Disclaimer: I am not compensated for any of the above organizations.  My opinions have been stated freely.

Apples to Apples -or- Eggs to Eggs?

Eggs are an inexpensive source of quality protein.  However, not all eggs are created equal.

Every week, it is my goal for my family of four to eat at least two dozen eggs.  My husband enjoys eating hard boiled eggs for lunch.  Sometimes we have scrambled eggs for breakfast - or a quick dinner.  Usually I consume my portion of eggs raw (actually just the yolk) in a smoothie.  The weeks that quiche is on the menu, I buy a third dozen.
Would I consume a raw egg yolk from the grocery store?  No way.  I worked in an experimental chicken house in college and I've seen too much.  Smelled too much.  Those poor industrialized birds are cramped in horrible living conditions and cannot produce healthy eggs.  There is a reason eggs go on sale at Kroger for $1 per dozen.

Eggs from hens allowed to feed on pasture contain four times more vitamin D, three times more vitamin E and seven times more beta-carotene, compared to industrial eggs. 

- Mother Earth News, June/July 2011

Pastured eggs are an inexpensive form of quality protein.

Not all eggs are created equal. The best tasting, most nutritious egg will be the one that has an orange yolk.

"Orange?"  you say, "I thought yolks were supposed to be yellow."  Well, grocery store eggs - from chickens that eat strictly grain and are trapped in small cages with 12+ hours of artificial fluorescent light a day - those eggs will be yellow.

But a bird that lives on green pasture, where the bugs are plentiful and the sun rises and sets as God ordained it - that bird will deliver beautiful eggs with orange yolks and hard shells.  Subsequently, the orange yolks will provide more nutrition.  Which is precisely the reason I am willing to pay $5/dozen for eggs.  The shells are hard and yolks are orange.   They taste delicious.

If you are buying eggs from a farmer, or someone that has chickens in their back yard, and the yolks do not look orange, but yellow, I would venture to say that those chickens are eating more grain than bugs and grass.  Those chickens are mostly likely in a small dirt pen.

Eggs from chickens in a dirt pen are still better than eggs from the grocery store; they're just not as good as chickens that have ample room to roam.

What if I can't find a source for local eggs?

If you are hard pressed to find pastured eggs or at second best - dirt yard eggs, I would buy organic eggs from the grocery store.  The term organic means the birds have not been fed antibiotics or given grain that is genetically modified.  Most, if not all, industrial raised layers (i.e. chickens that lay eggs) are given antibiotics whether they need it or not.  These antibiotics are passed on to the consumer through the egg and is why we are seeing resistance to antibiotics when they are needed.

If you cannot find organic eggs, I would buy eggs that say "cage-free" or "free range".

This is where the labeling gets a little squishy.  These terms, "cage-free" or "free range" mean the birds are not confined to a very small pen.  The birds could be crowded together on the floor of a barn or building with concrete floors. "Free range" means the birds have access to the outdoors through a small door but most choose never to use it.  Most industrially raised hens that are "cage free" have their beaks filed so they will not peck each other to death in their close living quarters.  As you can imagine this is not humane.  Here is a website that explains all this in more detail.

The price difference to me is worth it.  I am willing to pay more per dozen for quality nutrition.  Truth be known, I've paid more than $5 for a drink that's nothing more than empty calories.

As a recap, here's the order in which I would buy eggs:

1. pastured, from a farmer I trust or a neighbor's back yard that has green grass
2. farmer or back yard that is a dirt pen
3. organic from grocery store
4. free range or cage free from grocery store
5. dirt cheap eggs from grocery store

Industrial eggs from the grocery store are still real food.  They have a shell.  There is some redeeming nutritional value to them.  And they are a cheap source of protein and nutrition.

Unless I am starving (literally), or in a very awkward social setting, I will not eat powdered eggs or eggs from a carton.

If you are in the beginning stages of your food journey, I would recommend you to think about paying more for eggs.  Look for a local source to buy eggs from chickens that have access to fresh air, sunshine and bugs that nourish the chicken to give you a healthy egg.  Living in central Arkansas, there are plenty of options for locally raised eggs.  Start with a farmers market and ask the farmer to describe the area where his chickens roam.

After all, not all eggs are created equal.
-Julie

linked with Monday Mania.

Real Food in My Kitchen

Grassfed beef brisket sandwich topped with homemade cole slaw.

Brussels sprouts tossed in coconut oil, sprinkled with Real Salt, ready for roasting.

Apples sauteed in lots of butter with Sucanat and cinnamon.

Tilapia--buttered, salted, and peppered...

...baked with this topping...

...served like this.

Five pounds of raw cheddar cheese, first shredded, then frozen. And a helper to boot! (Note the bottle of kombucha, aka "'Bucha," in the background. Mmmm...)

Fried rice made with soaked brown rice, cabbage, carrots, green onions, scrambled egg, and soy sauce.

Crockpot lasagna made with grassfed beef, zucchini, spinach, homemade sauce, and plenty of cheese.

Colorful fruits and veggies.

"Paleo" fish cakes.

Soaked muffins.

Grassfed brats with carmelized onions.

Homemade chicken stock made with (creepy) chicken feet.

Kale.

Kefir smoothies.

Organic popcorn cooked in coconut oil.
 

Homemade mayonnaise.

Fresh-picked, local, chemical-free blueberries.

Real food in YOUR kitchen? It can be done.

LORI 

Today is Fight Back Friday!

Egg Beaters: Cannot Sustain Life

A reoccurring theme on this blog is: what you eat is important. We emphasize eating real food.

Many know that breakfast is "the most important meal of the day." In this quarter's Wise Traditions, a journal published by the Weston A. Price Foundation, there's an article called Morning Nourishment: Bountiful Benefits and Creative Ideas that is worth reading.

image from WAPF website

Of particular note is a sidebar near the end of the article with the above picture.  In a study that fed rats Egg Beaters, the rats had diarrhea within one week and died within three or four weeks.  Animals and humans alike need the (good) cholesterol and fat found in egg yolks.

Just say no to Egg Beaters.  Eat the real thing.

-Julie

Reader's Question:: Why Soak Grains?

From a reader:
I've been hearing more and more about soaking grains and I've been trying to ignore it because it seems so overwhelming to me.  I scoped out some wheat berries in the bulk section of Whole Foods the other day and I thought I'd ask you for some advice.  


It's my understanding that soaking grains is important because it breaks them down and makes it easier for digestion... right?  Can't I just buy flour at the store and soak that, or do I have to grind my own wheat?  How do I grind wheat?  Have you found that making bread this way saves money?


I (Julie) agree that it can seem overwhelming to understand - let alone try to implement what you've learned.  By writing this post I am not a grain expert.  Please do more research - but this is my limited understanding.

Something we try to emphasize on this blog is baby steps.  Rome wasn't built in a day and your eating habits (or in this case grain habits) won't change in a day unless you're a pro at overcoming burnout.

After you feel like you understand the task at hand, find baby steps for soaking grains.  For a while I eliminated most wheat in my family's diet because I felt paralyzed by what I knew and just didn't want to eat it if I couldn't soak it.  Similarly, I have a friend who feels like unsoaked grains mess so much with her adrenal glands and endocrine system that she will choose white bread (gasp!) over unsoaked or sprouted grains.

Why soak grains?
Short answer: to make them more nutritious and digestible.

Longer answer:  Think about grain storage in ancient days, like in Egypt where they would store grains for years preparing for famine.  Grains are encapsulated in a natural, protective coating - a preservative if you will.  This outer shell enables grains to be stored for a long time.  So, if you eat grains as is (without soaking or sprouting) your body is not able to digest them properly and the grain can actually keep your body from absorbing minerals it needs.

Nourishing Traditions explains it this way:
Phosphorus in the bran of whole grains is tied up in a substance called phytic acid.  Phytic acid combines with iron, calcium, magnesium, copper and zinc in the intestinal tract, blocking their absorption.

Which means eating a roll made with unsoaked whole wheat with your steak dinner could be counter productive.  The iron in the red meat will be partially blocked from the phytic acid in the unsoaked wheat rolls.

If we were ruminant animals our guts would be fully prepared to digest the grains.  But I am not a cow.

{What is sprouting? It's when grains are soaked in water for a while, rinsed and allowed to sprout which begins the breakdown of the outer protective coating.  Some say that sprouting makes the grains more nutritious.  Both soaking and sprouting make grains more digestible.  Preparation and how you use them in a recipe is different for each method.}

I heard an illustration once: eating a Little Debbie Snack cake in the plastic is like eating grains not properly prepared.  Not only is the plastic (outer shell of grain) difficult for your body to digest, it prohibits your body from digesting what is encapsulated inside the plastic.

Fifty years or so ago, when my grandparents bought whole rolled oats, it used to say on the round container something to the effect of: for best results soak overnight.  My dad remembers his dad soaking oats in water overnight before going to bed.

Nourishing Traditions also points out:
Traditional societies usually soak or ferment their grains before eating them, processes that neutralize phytates and enzyme inhibitors, and in effect, predigest grains so that all their nutrient are more available.

For maximum phytic acid breakdown, oats should be soaked with an acidic medium (like a couple tablespoons of kefir, yogurt, or apple cider vinegar).  I've not yet been able to wrap my taste buds around the "cultured" flavor, so my baby step for eating oatmeal is to soak rolled oats in plain water overnight.  I cover the oats with about 1/4-1/2 inch of warm, filtered water and leave it on the stovetop for 8+ hours.  In the morning after turning on the burner, our oatmeal is ready in mere minutes.

Can I buy whole wheat flour at the store and soak it?
Most certainly!  However, once the grain has been ground it begins a process of oxidation and quickly the nutrients are depleted.  Katie at Kitchen Stewardship does a fabulous job explaining the nutrition here as well as comparing methods.  Please read her post.  She's also hosting a giveaway for a grain mill.

How to grind wheat?
To grind wheat you need a machine.  Some super-duper blenders are able to grind grain.  I've not yet purchased a grinder, so I can't speak to this topic.  I have a friend who grinds a couple of pounds for me at a time and I freeze it.  This isn't as nutritious as fresh ground wheat; it is my baby step until I get a grinder.

Does making bread save money?
Yes and no.

Everything in the kitchen (and life!) seems to be a function of time, money and energy.  Just last week I read that Sarah the Healthy Home Economist buys her bread because she does not enjoy baking, as well as it saves her time and energy for creating other high nutrient dishes that she does not want buy.

It is cheaper to make your bread than to buy quality soaked (or sprouted) bread.  But do you have the time?  The proper tools?  The energy to figure out how to do it?

Another option that I have been actively exploring in recent days is bartering.  Do you have something (talent, resource, etc.) that you can trade for bread?  Presently I'm making seven gallons of kombucha a week and using it to barter for fresh milk and babysitting.  I've also convinced my hair stylist that meals from my kitchen are worth a haircut.  :) It seems that with bartering both parties win.

-Julie

See what others are saying on Real Food Wednesday.
Related posts: soaked bread in the bread maker.
Soaked granola

Surreptitious Baking

I was making Baked Oatmeal one day last week and had a sudden twinge of laziness.

I didn't feel like peeling my good, organic Honeycrisp apples this morning for the baby and the "texture-issues" child, so......................

I secretly shredded them skin and all.

And nobody noticed a thing.

Mmmwwahahahaha!!!

Lori

School Children Served Fake Milk

The following was taken from the back of a carton of 1% chocolate lowfatmilk in a school cafeteria.


Ingredients: Lowfat Milk, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Chocolate Premix (cocoaprocessed with Alkali, Food Starch, Salt, Carrageenan,Vanillin (artificialflavor) Skim Milk Powder, Mono & Diglicerides, Polysorbate 80, PropyleneGlycol, Disodium Phosphate, Sodium Citrate, Cellulose gum, Dextrose, VitaminA, Palmitate, Vitamin D3


Need I say more?



-Lisa

"New" USDA Dietary Guidelines

Recently I participated in a complementary “health screening” being given by some very nice student nurses at the Certified Arkansas Farmers Market. My blood pressure, body mass index, and blood sugar were checked. I received perfect marks across the board.

Undaunted by the large USDA food pyramid looming in the background of the booth, I shared my “secret” of eating plenty of fat to stabilize my blood sugar. Of course, I was cautioned about the dangers of eating saturated fat to which I replied that I eat LOTS of saturated fat – cream in my whole milk, butter spread thick on my sprouted wheat bread, coconut oil, and fat from grass-fed animals. I told the nurse that my cholesterol scores are good too.

These are the scores from my last check-up (August 2009):

Total cholesterol 189
Triglycerides 49
HDL 64 (HDL over 59 is considered a negative risk factor for heart disease)
VLDL 10
LDL 115

(If you would like to watch a very informative video which explains what cholesterol scores really do and do not mean, Dr. Robert H. Lustig, MD, Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinologyat the University of California explains it well in this video presentation, "Sugar: The Bitter Truth".)

The sweet nurse I was talking with didn’t know what to say to me. She was just trying to be polite and helpful, and I admit I can be a smidgeon overbearing at times. She is just teaching what she has been taught. I left a Weston A. Price Foundation brochure with the hopes that I might make some small impact on a member of our medical system.

It saddens me that disease and obesity are running rampant in our nation, while our government continues to hold a “death grip” on a food pyramid that promotes a low fat grain-based diet. The USDA dietary guidelines are reviewed and reissued every 5 years, but unfortunately, it looks like we are in for more of the same as the USDA prepares to release “new” dietary guidelines this Fall.

Below you will find the first portion of Weston A. Price Foundation President Sally Fallon Morell’s comments regarding the USDA dietary guidelines.

SUMMARY

Current USDA dietary guidelines are based on the flawed notion that cholesterol and saturated fat are unhealthy. They are unrealistic, unworkable, unscientific and impractical; they have resulted in widespread nutrient deficiencies and contributed to a proliferation of obesity and degenerative disease, including problems with growth, behavior and learning in children. The US government is promoting a low fat, plant-based diet that ignores the vital role animal protein and fats have played in human nutrition throughout the ages.

The pyramid with its strictures against fat consumption does not recognize variations in human metabolism. Recommendations for fat restriction are predicated on the assumption that fat causes weight gain and heart disease; several recent studies have shown that that restriction of natural fats actually leads to more obesity in both children and adults, while the refined carbohydrates, polyunsaturated and trans fats that frequently replace natural saturated fats contribute to weight gain and chronic disease. Restriction of animal fats in children leads increased markers for heart disease and to deficiencies of vitamins A, D and K2, needed for growth, strong bones, immunity, neurological function, and protection from tooth decay.

RECOMMENDED NEW GUIDELINES:

The Weston A. Price Foundation strongly urges the USDA Dietary Guidelines committee to scrap the food pyramid and replace it with the following Healthy 4 Life guidelines, based on four groups of whole foods.

Every day, eat high quality, whole foods to provide an abundance of nutrients, chosen from each of the following four groups:

1. Animal foods: meat and organ meats, poultry, and eggs from pastured animals; fish and shellfish; whole raw cheese, milk and other dairy products from pastured animals; and broth made from animal bones.

2. Grains, legumes and nuts: whole-grain baked goods, breakfast porridges, whole grain rice; beans and lentils; peanuts, cashews and nuts, properly prepared to improve digestibility.

3. Fruits and Vegetables: preferably fresh or frozen, preferably locally grown, either raw, cooked or in soups and stews, and also as lacto-fermented condiments.

4. Fats and Oils: unrefined saturated and monounsaturated fats including butter, lard, tallow and other animal fats; palm oil and coconut oil; olive oil; cod liver oil for vitamins A and D.

Avoid: foods containing refined sweeteners such as candies, sodas, cookies, cakes etc.; white flour products such as pasta and white bread; processed foods; modern soy foods; polyunsaturated and partially hydrogenated vegetable oils and fried foods.

You can read Sally Fallon Morell’s full comments here.

Lisa