Category Archives for "Food"

The ACRES USA Conference this year was mind blowing. If you haven’t heard of ACRES USA and what they do, here is a brief description. They are one of the oldest publishing organizations on all things eco-agriculture. They educate farmers on how to produce the highest quality food in the most sustainable, ecological, and economical way for the health of people and the planet. They also hold this awesome conference every year where they bring together farmers and consultants to learn from each other about all things eco-farming.

This year was my first ACRES experience and I am so grateful for all the sharing and inspiration that happened in those few days between the lectures, trade show mingling, and insightful conversations. It was literally impossible to be at every lecture, film, consultation, or workshop. I did, however, go with specific interests in mind: to learn as much about the connection between soil and human health, and what we can do to improve both. So, this is how the course of lectures to attend was chosen.

The first night I listened to the keynote address by Steven Druker on his book, Altered Genes, Twisted Truth. He essentially debunked many claims regarding GMO safety and the corruption that has allowed the continued use of them, as well as the deception of the public that prevents massive uproar and change from becoming widespread.

The next day I started off with a small group discussion with Dr. Richard Olree, a mineral nutrition consultant, chiropractor, and co-author of the book Minerals for the Genetic Code, about minerals in agriculture and human health. My brain is still assimilating the knowledge from this session. He went deep on the importance of certain minerals, how they interact, and which ones are harming us. It is about balance and the dangerous exposure to bromine, fluoride, and aluminum pair with deficiencies of iodine, boron, selenium, magnesium, and trace minerals causes unhealthy conditions in the body – aka disease.

Pumped up from that, I then went to a lecture by Klaas Martens, a long-time large scale organic farmer, on how to build a better farming system. His answer was simple, ask the right questions and make observations. We need to have discussions with other people in current situations, because a second pair of eyes is always helpful and people are going to ask different questions, make different observations, and try different things. Soil health is the most pressing factor in the ability to feed the world, and the crop varieties or productivity. There is a difference in being productive and being secure. The current system of agriculture is brittle and relies on a few outside inputs to get yields. These inputs are destroying the health of the soil. His push is to restore the soil and listen to what it is telling us. His answer is to add diversity through cover crops and rotations and to see what the soil is growing as a message of what it needs.

I was excited about listening to Glen Rabenberg, farmer and consultant for growing nutrient-dense crops, as he connected the dots of life between plants animals and humans. His main call is to balance the nutrition in the soil to balance the nutrition for humans. The soil is a living organism and its health can be tested similar to that of humans. He likes to do this by checking the sugar content of the plant, or the Brix reading, as well as the conductivity of the soil, or electricity of the soil. These readings reflect the health of the soil and the plant, as well as its resistance to disease and nutritional value for those consuming it. Our fundamental needs directly correlate to the needs of the soil/plants.

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This trend continued throughout the day, as well as the next. There were many more lectures on the many ways to improve our soil and health as well, but the last highlight I want to mention was Dan Kittredge (Founder/Executive Director of the Bionutrient Food Association) and his lecture on principles of biological systems and their implications for eco-farmers. His approach to remineralizing the soil, and thus improving human health, is the application of rock dusts and seawater. Besides that, keep the soil covered with organic matter, well hydrated, and equipped with the soil life necessary to aerate the soil and make the nutrients available to the plants. The high quality of the plants from this ecologically abundant system will result in an enhanced flavor in the food. Taste and smell are evolutionarily important, as it correlates with nutrition. Except in the case of big food companies that have figured out how to hack your taste buds in a way to get you to eat more and buy more of their products. For the sake of this post though, you know the difference in taste between a farm fresh tomato and one from the store that was picked before it was ripe and shipped across the country. So, we need to grow nutrient dense foods so that we can have food that tastes good, the way nature intended.

When you grow healthy plants, they are naturally more productive because there is a well functioning ecosystem. This is the reason supporting ecological farming is important, because fighting is not the strategy to save the world, creating the solution will, and I feel that most common agricultures today are based on fighting with nature, rather than understanding it. We are not machines designed to just replace moving parts, we are living systems designed to continuously rebuild and regenerate. In order to rebuild, we need the building blocks from food, we are degenerating because our food is, because our soil is. Labels are not an accurate determination of nutrition, “organic” does not equal quality, it just means there were no synthetics used. Organic is a good start, but we must keep improving and mimicking nature. The ideal is to know where your food comes from and that it was produced in a regenerative and ecologically minded way in mineral-rich, living soil. This is where a new era of human health begins, in the soil.

*This article was originally written for Rebel Health Tribe at https://rebelhealthtribe.com/acres-usa-2015/.​ They are an incredible resource for everything you need to know about health!

Setting at the dinner table and watching the joy on my grandpa’s face as he opened the butter platter full of glowing gold, I was clueless as to the war being waged over butter and margarine. 

Now, I must take a stand on this topic and defend this special food item cherished by our ancestors, and with good reason. Butter is better.

I am not saying that butter/dairy is good for everyone, as we are all bio-individuals with different needs, but for those who wish to include it in their diet, make sure you get the good stuff.

So, what is the best butter? The best butter is unpasteurized, cultured, and from cows grazed on chemical free pastures and are well cared for without synthetic hormones or continuous antibiotics. The natural gold color indicates its quality.

This type of butter is packed dense with nutrition, here is a brief list of the specifics:

Vitamins:

• Butter contains vitamin A in its easily absorbed form, which is needed to maintain good vision and endocrine health.

• Butter also contains vitamins D, E, and K2, which are all fat-soluble vitamins lacking in the modern diet.

Minerals:

• Butter has trace minerals such as manganese, chromium, zinc, copper, and selenium found in abundance.

• It is also a good source of iodine.

Fatty Acids:

• The short and medium chain fatty acids found in butter boost metabolism, support immune function, and fight pathogens in the intestines.

• Butter contains omega 3 & 6 in perfect balance, which is important for skin health, prostaglandin balance, and brain function.

CLA:

• The conjugated linoleic acid in butter helps protect against cancer and helps the body build muscle rather than store fat.

Glycospingolipids:

• These fatty acids help protect against gastrointestinal infections, especially in the vulnerable.

Cholesterol:

• That is right, cholesterol for health. Healthy cholesterol is necessary for intestinal, brain, and nervous system health.

Wulzen Factor:

• This substance is similar to hormones and prevents arthritis and joint stiffness. It does this by making sure that the calcium in the body is put into the bones rather than the joints or other tissues. This factor is only present in raw butter and cream and is destroyed by pasteurization.

**If you are unsure how to get this amazingly nutrient dense food, check out http://www.realmilk.com/real-milk-finder/.**

Now I will cover the reasons that margarine is waging war on your health. First off, anything that used to come as a mass of grey with artificial yellow dye is not appetizing in the least. People know innately that the rich yellow color of butter indicates quality and that is why the margarine industry copied it. Margarine was made as a cheap alternative to butter, and you get what you pay for. But aside from margarine bashing based on history, appearance, and marketing, let’s get down to the nutrition and health details.

Everyone knows that trans fats are not good for you. They are unnatural and form during the process of partial hydrogenation. This is what turns the vegetable oil into a solid. These trans fats contribute greatly to heart disease, cancer, bone issues, hormonal imbalance, skin diseases, infertility, and learning disabilities, among many other forms of health degradation. These types of fats are unsafe at any level and when you look at the amount contained in processed foods, it adds up fast.

In addition to trans fats, margarine also contains free radicals as a by product of the high temperature industrial processing of these vegetable oils. These free radicals are associated with both heart disease and cancer.

In an effort to add any nutrients to margarine, synthetic vitamins are added, such as synthetic vitamin A. These usually have unfavorable effects on the body in comparison to the real nutrients contained in butter.

There are other offenders added to margarine, like preservatives and emulsifiers. The safety of these additives is questionable, especially BHT.

In order to extract the oils, hexane or other solvents are used. These industrial chemicals have toxic effects on the body.

As mentioned before, the margarine is grey in color, so they bleach it and then add coloring. This does not sound like a process that should be used in something we consume! In addition to the unappetizing color, the taste is also unpleasant, so they add artificial flavorings to mask it.

There are other “spreads” out there which tout to have “lower” amounts of trans fats. These contain the trans fats monoglycerides and diglycerides, which are not required to be listed on the label. In order to give these spreads body, highly processed soy protein isolate is added. This actually contributes to thyroid dysfunction, digestive disorders, and many other health concerns.

Manufacturers often add sterols, which are estrogen compounds, that lower cholesterol levels. These cause endocrine disorders and have been shown to cause sexual inversion in animals.

Please, go ahead and eat the good stuff that our ancestors enjoyed and prized for generations upon generations, real and unpasteurized butter.

For those of you who are not lactose intolerant and maybe even some who are, dairy can be a beneficial part of a healthy diet. Unfortunately, there are many unhealthy and misleading products out there. I would like to demystify the selection process of healthy dairy.

Let’s start with where the milk comes from. This article will refer to dairy from cattle specifically, but is applicable to all types of dairy/milk (cow, goat, sheep, yak, camel, reindeer, water buffalo, etc).

Most milk on the supermarket shelf today is from large scale dairy farms. So, I will start with the background of that which is most common.

The day in a life of this particular dairy cow is spent in a tiny stall, on a hard cement floor, and in an overcrowded building. The cows are hooked to milking machines for the majority of the year. This does not remotely resemble any natural way of life for any livestock.

Due to the concentration of animals in such a compact space, there is an enormous amount of waste that must be dealt with. Most of this waste ends up being forced unnaturally into the environment, polluting waterways and devastating ecosystems. In pasture based systems, the manure is integrated back into the earth to enrich the soil and improve the land in a much more sustainable way.

Due to the nature of these confined operations, the cattle do not have access to fresh grass and are fed a diet of grain. The majority of this grain consists of corn and soy (not a natural diet for cattle), which receive extremely heavy applications of herbicides and pesticides. These toxins ultimately end up in the milk. In addition to this grain based diet, it is legal to feed rendered animal products to the cattle. I would prefer not to get into this aspect, but you can read more here.

The confinement of these animals, as well as the unhealthy living environment, leads to sick animals that require constant ingestion of antibiotics, which are also added into their feed. This is to ensure that the animal is kept alive and producing. As a result, the antibiotics are transferred into the milk in which you drink.

Sounds pretty miserable, right? Well it is obvious in comparing the average lifespan of a factory farmed, confined operation dairy cow, which is 42 months, to the average lifespan of a smaller scale pasture raised dairy cow, which is 12-15 years!

As with other production based businesses, the concept of more is better has driven the development of synthetic hormones to make the cattle produce more and more milk. In the early days, dairy cows produced about 1 ½ gallons of milk daily. Then farmers began selectively breeding cows that produced about 4 ½ gallons of milk per day. Now, with the addition of synthetic hormones, the average dairy cow produces over 6 gallons of milk per day. That is about 50 pounds of milk per day, per cow. The side effects of these synthetic hormones which plague the cattle are reproductive issues, deformities, the increased occurrence of mastitis, the increased need for antibiotics, foot issues, and digestive problems to name a few. Due to the increase in sickness and infection, the milk is lower in quality and contains fluids other than milk such as pus, unhealthy bacteria, and blood.

To deal with all of these issues, the process of pasteurization was introduced to the dairy industry in order to clean the dirty milk. This heat treatment, to kill bacteria, does not remove the herbicides, pesticides, antibiotics, or hormones from the milk. In essence, pasteurization is a means to cover up dirty milk. In order to convince the public to buy pasteurized milk, the big milk producers claimed it to be superior and healthier than raw milk. They began blaming raw milk for numerous diseases until the public bought into it. These claims were not based on unpasteurized milk from clean facilities and pasture based systems.

In reality, there are more risks in drinking pasteurized milk than clean raw milk, due to the protective nature of beneficial bacteria. On the microscopic level, it is all about competition. When the milk is pasteurized, all life is wiped out, “good” and “bad”. This increases the likelihood of contamination. Pasteurized milk goes rancid as opposed to raw, living milk, which becomes cultured. The healthy microbes eat up all the sugars in the milk and produce a soured product with beneficial properties. With modern day milking equipment and transportation, it is more than possible to get clean and healthy raw milk to store shelves.

Pasteurization also decreases the nutrient value of the milk. This includes the loss of over half the vitamin A, D, E, and C. Vitamin B6 and B12 are actually completely destroyed during this process.​ Pasteurization decreases the digestibility of milk because it destroys enzymes that aid in digestion, such as lipase that helps break down fat and metabolize the fat soluble vitamins A and D. This is why the dairy industry has to fortify the milk with less than optimal sources of vitamins. Raw milk is a better source of calcium than pasteurized milk because this process also destroys phosphatase, which is essential for the absorption of calcium.

You will even see dairy products in the store that are “ultra-pasteurized”. Big dairy producers propose this higher temperature and longer treatment time as a response to certain microbes that they claim have become heat tolerant to the original pasteurization. There are other, less appealing to the consumer, reasons for ultra-pasteurization such as a longer shelf life. This means your milk can be 3-4 weeks less fresh when you get it. Another drawback is that it tastes burnt, and is now an ultra dead food. Most major brands use this process now, even certain organic brands.

Another common process dairy is put through is homogenization, which makes a more “uniform” product by breaking up the fat globules and dispersing them evenly throughout the milk to prevent the cream from rising. This eliminates the need to shake it up first. A large portion of the population is also fat-phobic and seeing the cream on top may be deterring for some. This breaking up of the fat globules increases the surface area of the fat exposing it to more air and oxidation. This makes spoilage more likely to occur. It has even been shown that consuming homogenized products contributes to heart disease and atherosclerosis.

Considering all of this, it is no wonder that there are so many allergies and conditions associated with milk consumption and improve with its removal. This is why it is important to choose milk in the wholesome, unadulterated, living form. Selecting dairy products from farmers who practice sustainable, regenerative, and ethical production methods will contribute to the well being of the animals, the environment, as well as those who consume the products. So choose real, unprocessed, full-fat, milk and dairy products from pasture-raised and happy cows.

Real, unprocessed, full-fat, and pasture-raised milk contains many important nutrients such as vitamin A and D, calcium, vitamin B6 and B12, CLA (conjugated linoleic acid - reduces body fat), complete protein, and plenty of necessary enzymes. It also contains beneficial bacteria for the health of your gut and intestinal flora. Culturing the milk takes these beneficial properties up a notch. Cultured milk products contain increased amounts of probiotics and enzymes that have a therapeutic effect on your health.

In some states, unpasteurized milk is legal. In most states it is not legal to buy at stores, but is okay to buy direct from the farmers. There are some awesome buying clubs out there to make this nourishing food more accessible. Check out The Real Milk Campaign to find a nutritious source near you! If you would like to dig in more to the history and topic of unheated, unprocessed milk, this site is loaded with incredibly detailed information.

For those who want to know more about the many healthy forms of raw dairy and how to select them, keep an eye out for my future musings!

Ingredients:
1/2 cup raw cacao butter

1/2 cup cold pressed extra virgin coconut oil and/or coconut butter

1/4 cup unpasteurized ​cultured butter or organic ghee (see my post here on selecting dairy products) 

1/2 cup raw cacao powder

1 scoop raw grass fed whey protein concentrate and/or 1-2 Tbsp pure gelatin (buy it here!)​

1/4-1/2 cup grade B real maple syrup (or sweetener of choice, I use 1-2 tsp green stevia leaf powder)

pinch of Celtic Sea Salt

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Directions:
Find a heat safe glass bowl that fits nicely in a pot without touching the bottom. Or if you have a double boiler, that is great too.

Pour about an inch of water into the pot. Place it on the stove over medium to medium high heat until it begin to just boil. Then turn it down to medium low and place the glass bowl over it (without the bottom touching the water).

Grate the cacao butter and measure it out while heating the water. Place the grated cacao butter into the glass bowl and let it start melting over the heat while you measure out the coconut oil.

Add the coconut oil and butter and whisk until well blended.

Then add the cacao powder, protein powder, and salt. Whisk again. When all melted, turn off the heat.

At this point, add the sweetener. Then whisk until completely smooth.

Once smooth, add any extras you like and stir well.

I find it best to use silicone molds. If you don't have any, you can use cup cake papers placed in a cupcake pan.

Pour the chocolate into container of choice and place in the freezer for 10-20 minutes, until it solidifies.

Once solid, you can store it in the refrigerator and delight yourself in the yumminess!

Guess what chocolate creations these will be! 🙂

• 3-4 pounds bones (beef marrow and knuckle bones, chicken bones, feet, and heads, fish heads and carcasses, pork bones)
• 2 pounds meaty bones (such as short ribs)
• ½ cup raw apple cider vinegar
• 4 quarts filtered water
• 3 celery stalks, halved
• 3 carrots, halved
• 3 onions, quartered
• Handful of fresh parsley or other herb of choice (rosemary and thyme are really good with chicken!)
• Sea salt (optional)

1. Place bones in a pressure cooker (at least 6 quart capacity!), add apple cider vinegar and water, and let the mixture sit for 1 hour so the vinegar can leach the mineral out of the bones.

2. Add more water if needed to cover the bones.

3. Add the vegetables and lock the lid of the pressure cooker and heat until it reaches high pressure. Cook on HIGH pressure for 1 to 2 hours, then release the pressure naturally, 10 to 15 minutes. For beef bones, this may require a second round of 1-2 hours of pressure cooking. If you are using a stove top pressure cooker, I have found great success with beef bones by cooking at high pressure for one hour, turn to low to medium pressure for one hour, and then turn off the heat and let it cool overnight (I usually start the bone broth when I am making dinner).  In the morning, I warm it up just enough to melt the fat and then strain and jar it.

4. Let the broth cool and strain it. Make sure all marrow is knocked out of the marrow bones and into a container to add to later dishes. Add sea salt to taste if desired.

5. Cool the broth to room temperature, and then refrigerate. Depending on the kind and quantity of bones used in your broth, the chilled broth may become solid and jelly-like once chilled. That's fine! The broth will melt and become liquid again once warmed.

1. If you are using raw bones, especially beef bones, it improves flavor to roast them in the oven first. I place them in a roasting pan and roast for 30 minutes at 350F.
2. Save the meaty bits! You can save the big pieces of meat from making the stock and use them for other recipes, like stir-fries. Shred the meat into pieces and keep it refrigerated for up to 5 days, or frozen for up to 3 months.
3. As the broth chills, the fat will rise to the top and solidify. Once solid, you can scrape it off and use it for cooking or leave it.
4. Store the broth: The broth will keep refrigerated for up to 5 days, or frozen for up to 3 months.
5. Reheating bone broth: Pour out as much broth as you'd like and reheat it gently on the stove top or add to soups.
6. Bones for bone broth: You can use any mix of beef, pork, or chicken bones for making bone broth. Adding some meaty bones, like short ribs or ham bones, will make a richer-tasting broth; you can also use the meat from the bones in other dishes.
7. Just as a tip: I love to save all my vegetable and leafy green trimmings each time I make a meal and put them into a zip lock bag in the freezer. I keep adding until it is time to make the broth! After straining, these can then be dumped into the compost pile.
8. As a warm beverage, use broth in place of water to simmer fresh ginger root tea. This is a great way to start your day!

Look for high quality bones from grass fed cattle or bison, pastured poultry, or wild caught fish. Since you’ll be extracting the minerals and drinking them in concentrated form, you want to make sure that the animal was as healthy as possible.

• Save leftovers from when you roast a chicken, duck, turkey, or goose (pastured)
• From a local butcher, especially one who butchers the whole animal
• From local farmers who raise grass fed animals (ask around at your local Farmer’s Market)
• From local buying clubs