WAPF Conference: Day Two

Another great breakfast and opportunity to meet people, then it was off to the lectures.

There is always a short talk on traditional diets and the research of Dr. Weston A. Price on Saturday morning by Sally Fallon Morrell.  It is a great reminder of the work of this great researcher.

This was followed by a speech by Dave Wetzel, CEO of Vital Choice Seafood. It was a very moving story of the ups and downs that he has experienced in the seafood industry.

One important topic he covered was the ingestion by humans of methyl mercury that is present in fish.  While there is heavy metal present in fish, high levels of selenium are also present, which protect your body from the methyl mercury.  Compared to most fish, salmon and tuna have the highest amounts of selenium.

On a side note:  The high level of mercury in the oceans and in seafood is not a new thing.  Geologists are positing that the concentrations of mercury found are not from industrial toxic runoff, but from the emissions of ancient volcanoes.  It seems to me that the massive volcanic earth changes associated with a global flood would explain this very well.

Another point that Mr. Wetzel made was that our brains seem to be “Teflon” for good news and “Velcro” for bad.  We remember bad news quite easily, but it takes hearing good news at least 5 different times for us to remember it.  We seem to remember that the omega 3 fatty acid content of salmon has gone down.  We forget that this is in farmed salmon.  Wild salmon still has a 6-3:1 ratio of omega 3 to omega 6 and Sockeye salmon having a 9:1 ratio of these fatty acids. So read this five times and remember!

The next talk was on the Acid/Alkaline Myth.  Many people seem to think that we can change our metabolism by ingesting foods that determine whether our metabolism will be acid or alkaline.  The speaker made several good points, including the role of biological buffering agents that our bodies were designed to produce by our Wonderful Creator.

One point that really hit home to me is the neoplasic cells (cancer cells) need the same environment as normal cells. In college, I made physiological phosphate buffers as an environment in which HeLa cell (cancer cells used to grown viruses) could grow. These buffers are much the same as the ones our bodies make to keep the body’s environment in balance.  If I made them too acidic or too alkaline, then the cancer cells would die.  Then I’d have to do the whole thing over again.  The point of this is that our bodies are designed by Our Creator to keep the pH balance in check. Amazing!

If you were able to change your body’s metabolic pH, you would disrupt bodily processes enough that it could result in death.  For example, if you drank too much water at one time, you could kill yourself. A little lemon juice in water is not going to change your physiological pH.  However, it can be refreshing!

After this lecture, we heard another on “The Science of Broth.” Yes, this is the broth that we all should be drinking or using in soups and cooking with very day.

Broth is high in the amino acids glycine, proline and glutamate. Amino acids are building blocks for our body. A vegetarian diet is low in all three of these amino acids.

Many other interesting and important topics were discussed, but in the interest of brevity, I’ll just say that more information can be found on the Weston A. Price Website (www.westonaprice.org) or in Kaayla Daniels,PhD and Salley Fallon Morrell's newly-published book, “Nourishing Broth.”

The last lecture (long day) was by the author of “The Vegetarian Myth.” This was another emotionally moving and hard-hitting speech. The main point of both the book and the lecture was that the production of mono-crops, such as is the case with grain, is crippling the ability of people around the world to feed themselves and a vegetarian lifestyle supports the deforestation and the destruction of topsoil on our planet.

Then we were off to rest up for the last event of the day, the Awards Banquet.

The Awards Banquet was great and the food wonderful, especially the big bowls of whipped cream from pasture-raised cows.  Several awards were given out, but one in particular was given to the keynote speaker, one of my heroines, Debra Meiger who debunked “The China Study.”  This book is a mixture of bad science that was made to look legitimate by bad statistics. Her speech was “Death by the Food Pyramid.” She traced the origins of the USDA’s Food Pyramid.  This was a fascinating speech by a great speaker.  Graft, politics, obfuscation and greed were all involved in the story.

Then it was off to bed, to be ready for another day!

WAPF Conference: Day One

I’m finally at a spot with a computer and a trusty internet connection.

The conference is over, but I’m still on vacation and I thought that I would go ahead and post about the exciting things I learned at the conference.  I do want to keep this short, but the subjects I mention are things that you can either ask me about or research further on your own.

Thursday night we attended the Farm-to-Consumer Defense Fund Dinner.  The food was wonderful and served to us in a beautiful setting.  Before our large and substantial dinner, we sampled artisan cheese, kombucha and other delicacies.

It was at this dinner that my friend Cheryl was able to chat with Sally Fallon Morrell, the food activist, speaker, farmer, cheese maker, author of three books: Nourishing Traditions, Eat Fat, Lose Fat, Nourishing Broth, and editor-in-chief of the journal “Wise Traditions.”

On Friday, the first official day of the conference, we were able to choose from a number of interesting topics.  Cheryl chose to go to the lectures by Dr. Natasha Campbell – McBride, Ph.D, M.D. on the GAPS diet, which heals the gut.  Many do not realize that, apart from God’s Care, the gut is the foundation of our health.

I chose to go to a series of lectures by Stephanie Seniff, Ph.D., who works at M.I.T. Her topics were quite varied, and covered the “Inhibition of Vitamin and Mineral Uptake and Metabolism” and “Suppression of the Excretion of Dangerous Compounds” by toxins in our food and environment.  Some of these toxins include statins, acetaminophen and glyphosate, a popular and widely-used herbicide.

We had an amazing lunch and dinner. We met lots of other real-food foodies and enjoyed hearing their experiences with real food!  We had a great time sampling traditional food items and speaking with the vendors who made them.

In the evening, we went to another lecture about the gut.  (See a pattern here?)

Then, it was off to bed!  We needed to rest up for another day of lectures and fun!

2014 Weston A Price Foundation Conference

Hey, everyone! 

After a long hiatus, I'm actually sending a blog.

I'm going to be going to the Weston A. Price Conference in Indianapolis, Indiana this year.

Someone suggested that I post Conference events or things I learned there on my blog.

I think that was a great idea.

The Conference actually starts on the 7th of November but I might start posting before that.

There will be a Farm to Consumer Defense Fund event on 11/6, that I will be attending. (If we get there on time. :-) )  I'm sure there will have some interesting highlights - if not great food!

I am excited to be going!

Soy and Growth

Not only do soy food contain substances that interfere with protein uptake but they also contain substances that interfere with growth.

Soy, Protein and Growth

The anti-nutrients present in soy and soy food inhibit the digestion of protein.  In traditionally made tofu, most of these substances are found in the liquid component of tofu. 

Wherever they are found, these compounds can lead to indigestion - mild to severe, As said before they can interfere with protein and amino acid uptake. If eaten frequently and over time these compounds have a negative effect on the pancreas and can even lead to pancreatic cancer..

Soy and soy foods also contain a substance known is a "haemagglutinin."' This substance causes red blood cells to stick together - which is not usual considered a good thing (really never a good thing).

Now both the protease inhibitors (these keep you from digesting protein) and the haemagglutinin are considered growth inhibitors. In the laboratory, rats that are feed these substances fail to grow properly.  Are you thinking about the soy meat extender used in the fast food hamburger that your child or loved one  is eating?  Or maybe the soy cheese extender used in that pizza from the place that delivers pizza with cheese in the crust? Or how about that soy milk?

Again remember that a little traditionally produced soy products will not cause irreparable harm is most people.  That said, soy products should not be considered a replacement for meat or a protein replacement but a condiment to be eaten with a rich variety of other nutrient rich foods.

Soy and Protein

Most soy products, even those that are prepared in a traditional fashion, contain enzymes that keep you from benefiting from the protein that you eat with the soy products.

Protease Inhibitors

The particular enzymes found in soy products that prevent you from benefiting from protein are known as Protease inhibitors.  This term is used for any enzyme or anti nutrient that interferes with the working of trypsin and other enzymes whose job it is to prepare the protein found in foods to be taken up in the gut.

These anti nutrients are found in raw, cooked and fermented soy products.  Cooking reduces the amount of these anti nutrients but doesn't remove them completely.  In order for cooking to remove all of the anti nutrients, the length of the cooking would denature the amino acids (proteins are made of amino acids) in the soy and converted them to other toxic substances.

Traditional fermentation of these products, achieves a greater reduction in the anti nutrients but again some are still present.

Modern production methods, especially of tofu, do little to neutralize these protease inhibitors. Yes, that is most of the tofu found on the shelves in the supermarket.

However, the improper processing of tofu, soy sauce and tempeh are small items compared to the amount of soy isolate protein, soy whey, soy lecithin, soy milk, etc., that is added to almost every processed product found in stores today.

  The soy protein is used as an "extender" because of the high cost of meat. These are present in many reshaped burger patties, processed chicken (like the breaded ones you dip in the sauces).

Fast food restaurants proud claim to use textured soy protein. A popular "Mexican" fast food restaurant in South California uses textured soy protein in its meat products. Another restaurant used to be accused of using kangaroo meat in their tacos (probably an urban legend) but that almost sounds better than textured soy protein.

None of these soy products are even prepared with any idea of reducing these toxins.

This doesn't mean that one cannot enjoy an occasional meal with traditionally prepared soy products but be moderate in eating these.  The population most at risk is the vegetarian, vegan, and so called "heart healthy" dieters that substitute meat and animal milk for modern soy products.

Highest Toxic Load

The soy bean has one of the highest toxin loads of all the edible beans. Most of these toxins will not be neutralized by cooking, or digestion.

The Use of Soy Beans

The traditional cuisines of China and Japan feature foods made from soy bean.  However most of these foods have been transformed by some type of fermentation.  Examples of these types of food are natto, traditionally made tofu, soy sauce and its Chinese equivalent - Jiangyou (which can be fermented up to three times).  Tempeh is also a traditional soy food that originated in Indonesia.

Most of those are fermented using some of my favorite things - mold!

Tofu was most often made in monasteries.  People had noticed that individuals that regularly ate tofu and some other soy products were not as likely to be "interested" in starting a family.  Enough said.

We'll talk more about soy beans and their products in other posts.

Fermentation is a great way to neutralize toxins.  Here's a tip for those of you who like to juice your greens.

 

Lacto Fermented Green Juices

Add about 1/4 cup whey to every 4 to 5 cups of juice from greens or other vegetables and stir.
Let it sit, covered with a lid, at room temperature for 12 hours. 
Then transfer to the refrigerator and chill at least 3 hours or so. 
Then use as you normally do.

Green juice preserved in this fashion can be kept for a week or so, but is really best during the first few days.

Most of toxins (nitrates, oxalates, etc.) will be neutralized by the fermentation.  The juice will not "oxidize" to form other harmful substances or make nutrients unavailable to you (which is why you should only drink fresh juiced greens or lacto-fermented green juice).

Plant Perils

Many foods, especially plants that we use for food ,have toxins in them that can inhibit our uptake of vitamins and minerals.   Ingested in excess or at length these can damage the gut.

 

Toxins, Uptake Inhibitors and Antinutrients

We hear quite a bit about what foods have certain vitamins or minerals in them that are "good for us."

We've also heard stories about how many vitamin supplements that people take go right through their gut, without being absorbed by our bodies and out into the sewage.  Sometimes still in the pill form.

What if I were to tell you that this can happen when you are eating "real" food also, not just supplements.

 Many times we forget that the determination of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, etc., is made in a laboratory. It is not usually determined from examining or comparing these values to the actual food that has been processed by the human gut.

From the moment that you place food in your food, there are many reactions that must take place for you to receive the optimum nutrition from that food.

The very structure of some foods keep us from utilizing their nutrients and can even damage the gut..  Other foods have compounds they produce that keep us from taking the nutrients into our system.

We'll discuss this phenomenon in later posts.

Fresh or Preserved Food

We should try to eat fresh food or food that has been preserved in traditional ways as often as we can.

 

Good Food that is Good for You!

We have been speaking about Nitrates.  Nitrates occur endogenously* in many foods, such as fruit and vegetables.  Nitrates are also used as food additives (purified as Sodium nitrate or unpurified as celery salt or celery juice) in certain processed meats.   

*The plant or organism made them itself, humans produce nitrates in our digestive tracts.

So even through food such as ham or hot dogs that contain nitrates, which  can be consumed safely in the presence of vitamin C; we should also discover what other things were used in making the product and their effect on our health.

 

Another important aspect of this is how healthy the animal or plant was.

 

Plants should be raised in nutrient dense soil and properly prepared. (Yes, that could mean cooking or lacto fermented that Kale!)

 

Animals should be raised humanly and given the proper food for their kind.  

 

This allows the food made from these animals and plants to have the optimum nutrients that makes the food worth eating and/or preserving.

 

We should try to eat fresh food or food that has been preserved in traditional ways as often as we can. For example, salt has traditionally been used to preserve food, long other preservatives.

 

 A good whole of thumb is to never buy anything that has more than 3 ingredients. These ingredients should be compounds that you can pronounce and are familiar with.

And the Answer is:

I left you the question of what drives the conversion of nitrates to nitrous oxide (good for you) instead of nitrosamines (bad for you)?

The reaction that converts nitrates to nitrites and ultimately to nitrous oxide is driven by the presence of vitamin C.  

Nitrates: Friend or Foe?

Nitrates have been much discussed over the last few years.  Usually the conversation centers around nitrate “cured” meat.  

Few people realize that vegetables, especially greens, produce nitrates. In fact, most fruits and vegetables contain more nitrates than say a conventional preserved “hot dog.” Collard greens and arugula produce more nitrates then almost any other vegetable.

There has been current research that shows that the human body can actually turn nitrates into nitrous oxide.  Nitrous oxide is much more than just laughing gas.  Nitrous oxide is very good for your heart and circulation.

It has been found that vitamin C actually drives the reaction to nitrous oxide instead of towards producing nitrosamines (which have been implicated in the production of tumors).

So if you are eating vegetables or preserved meat make sure you eat also something that has vitamin C in it.

This makes me feel virtuous about my habit of dousing slow, long cooked greens in lemon juice and a hefty serving of feta cheese on top.  However, only the lemon juice helps produce nitrous oxide.  The feta cheese just provides the “come neither” appeal.

Another way to add vitamin C to a meal is to eat lactofermented sauerkraut or pickles.  

If you can, you should be making it a habit to be eating a little of some kind of lacto fermented food with each meal anyhow.. Eating preserved meat with sauerkraut is actually traditional in certain cultures.

Or you could have lactofermented lemons...I could go on...

So in answer to a question on my blog...no I can’t think of any green to use in place of arugula in the Pear and Goat cheese salad.  It needs the tart, weirdness of the arugula to blend with the tanginess of the cheese, the sweetness the pear and the delicate crunchiness of the pine nuts.  Just make sure to drink some lemon kefir with it.

Nitrate Menace?

Nitrate Menace?

Nitrates are produced in many vegetables, especially greens.

When eaten by a human, nitrates will more than likely produce one of two compounds.
One is Nitrous oxide (which is good for you) and one is nitrosamines.(which are bad for you).

What circumstances or circumstance cause one or the other?

Stay tuned....

Nitrate Salad

Nitrate Salad

Arugula is not my favorite salad green.  But I know a lot of people like it. 

Interesting thing is that arugula has more nitrate per serving than bacon! Think on tat.  Don't worry, I'll write more on this.

 But in the meantime I'm sending you a salad with arugula that I do like!

Pear and Goat Cheese Salad 

Notes: Roasted or Baked pears can be substituted for fresh pears.

•           You can substitute a regular vinaigrette for the balsamic reduction sauce.
•           Roasted pine nuts are nice but any type of crispy nut would be nice.  I've
•           had this with roasted chickpea - it was very good.
•           I would recommend MORE cheese - two tablespoons is barely enough to taste!

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 2 pears, cored and sliced thinly
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 1/8 teaspoon ground pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon sea salt
• 10 cups trimmed baby arugula
• 2 tablespoons crumbled goat cheese
• 2 tablespoons toasted pine nuts

Instructions:

Balsamic Reduction Sauce:

1. Bring the vinegar to a slow boil over medium-high heat.
2. Reduce heat, and simmer for 2 minutes. The vinegar will start to resemble a syrup.
3. Remove the pan from heat, and add the honey. Set aside while you assemble the salad.

Salad

1. Drain arugula and set aside. (The drier, the better.)
2. Toss the arugula with olive oil, salt, and pepper.
3. Add the pears,, cheese, pine nuts, and balsamic reduction.
4. Serve immediately.

Kombucha

Thanks to everyone that viewed my new blog.
You'll note a box at the bottom of the page on the blog that allows you to sign up for emails with my blog content.  I know everyone gets lots of emails but consider getting just one more!

If you are not drinking Kombucha, you should try it. Kombucha made with black tea contains glucuronic acid which is a great detoxification agent.  It is especially good for the liver. 



Wikipedia contributors. "Glucuronic acid." Wikipedia,
The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia,
27 Mar. 2014. Web. 16 Apr. 2014.

 

 

New Blog!

After quite a bit of delay, I have finally decided to start using the internet as a way to inform, instruct and encourage others about nourishing food.

I am planning to send out posts as I am able.  Most of these will be little reminders of details that we often forget as we take our steps on the road to Nourishing Food.  Occasionally and (hopefully) with greater frequency, I will publish articles that will discuss differing topics that relate to Nourishing Food.

For those of you with busy schedules, as I publish articles I will continue to supply the little reminders at the head of each article.  This is so that you can be continually reminded of the little details we forget, yet also have something more in depth to read when you have time.

If you know of anyone else that would interested in "Steps to Nourishing Food," please let them know about this blog.

Also, if you have any suggestions of topics that you would like reminders for or articles written about, please leave a comment.