Radically Natural Recipe: Winter Spice Oatmeal Breakfast Cookies (plus Soaked Steel Cut Oats)

We usually end up with leftover cooked oats on the mornings we eat breakfast porridge.  This recipe (borrowed and tweaked from lifebyjeanie.com) combines leftover cooked oats with gluten free flours and warm wintery spices.  We eat them for breakfast, smeared in butter, but you can eat them as cookies anytime.  They are soft and filling.  Enjoy!

[Fun fact...when made with sunflower butter, your cookies will turn green.  This has happened to me, and I just learned that the odd hue is caused by the sunflowers' chlorophyll reacting with the baking soda.  Check this out.]

Winter Spice Breakfast Cookies

1 cup coconut oil OR 1/2 cup coconut oil and 1/2 cut butter OR 1 cup nut butter
3/4 cup raw coconut sugar OR 1/2 cup raw honey
2 eggs
3 tsp vanilla
2 cups gluten free flour mix (check out the video below)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp sea salt
1 Tb cinnamon
1/2 tsp. each ginger, nutmeg, cloves (more to taste as desired)
1 cup raisins
1/2 cup raw cacao nibs
2 cups cooked soaked oatmeal (recipe below)
4 Tb raw milk OR yogurt

Combine the wet ingredients (not the oats or milk yet) and mix well.  Incorporate the dry ingredients (minus raisins and nibs), then add the milk and the cooked oatmeal.  Finally add the raisins and the cacao nibs.  Mix until well combined.  Spoon onto greased or lined (silpat, parchment) cookie sheets.  Bake at 375º for 12 to 15 minutes.  The cookies will not spread and they will be golden and soft when finished (though thoroughly cooked inside...should not be gummy).

Here is a helpful video tutorial on making your own gluten free flour mix (thanks for the link, Amy!).

Soaked Steel Cut Oats (with cooking shortcut)

I have seen varying NT-style methods for preparing oats.  Here is my method.  If you don't already know why you should soak your oats and other grains (in an acidic medium) before consumption, please read Nourishing Traditions and/or the many available articles on the topic (I'll post a few links below).

Because oats are nearly devoid of phytase, the enzyme activated by soaking that helps to break down phytic acid, it is important to add a small amount of a grain that does contain phytase during your oat soak.  I use buckwheat because it is a gluten-free grain (as are oats when not contaminated).  The ratio is 1 Tb. buckwheat groats to 1 cup oats.  I usually cook steel cut oats for improved nutrient and taste profile.

My current method of "quicker" steel cut oats for breakfast is as follows.  On any given morning, I begin the soaking process by putting my oats and buckwheat into my pot with a small amount (about 1/4 cup) of kefir or a few generous dashes of ACV.  I then fill the pot with nontoxic water, basically in a 2-1 water to grain ratio.  (The oats will expand.)  I allow the oats to soak all day (minimum 12 hours).  Before bed, I rinse the oats with fresh water (some people do, some people don't...), then return them to the pot and cover the oats with water to about one inch above the oats' level.  I turn on the stovetop to medium and bring the oats to a gentle boil.  At that point, I turn off the heat, cover the pot with its lid, and go to bed.  In the morning, the oats will be cooked, having slowly absorbed the liquid overnight, and will only need to be heated before consumption.  I serve with generous amounts of butter, cinnamon, some raisins and raw milk.  Leftover oats are baked into breakfast cookies.

[Some suggest that oats should be soaked for 24 hours.  This is not bad advice.  The longer the soak, the more nutrients become available.  To soak for 24 hours with my method, just start the soaking on Evening A, and rinse and "cook" on Evening B.]

The "Why" of Soaking Grains

Living with Phytic Acid

Soak Grains for Optimal Nutrition

Proper Preparation of Grains

What? No Bread with That Butter?

People who know me well know me as a butter pusher.  Fat (wonderful fat, nourishing fat, necessary fat, delicious fat, good fat) is the most essential human nutrient, and my favorite fat is pastured butter...homemade from raw grass-fed milk preferably, but hey, that's hard to keep up with 365 days a year...I buy butter, too!  Good butter is so beloved in my household that my younger son likes to give pounds of butter away to special people as gifts...you know he really thinks highly of you when he wants to send you home with some butter.

As my husband and I share with people how important good butter is in the diet and how essential it is to eat lots of it daily, we inevitably hear this question:  How do you eat butter when you don't eat bread?  Granted, we are beginning to eat some homemade sourdough breads of late, but it isn't a regular occurrence; and we were grain-free for two years on the GAPS healing regimen.  So the question remains...how do you eat lots of butter when you don't eat lots of grain-based foods?

I thought I'd enlist my kids to help spread the butter love and share how we eat our butter, hopefully inspiring others to eat more butter without thinking it has to be on bread.  The response I got was funny...my oldest son looked at me, head cocked, eyebrows raised and asked, "What do you mean, people don't know how to eat butter?  You just put it on everything."  I love it!  He is properly butter indoctrinated.

Basically, we just put butter on all our food.  Whatever the meal is that I've prepared, we just top it with butter.  Eggs for breakfast?  Butter them...and the pastured bacon that goes with them.  Steak?  Finish it with a pat of butter.  The accompanying roasted root veggies get buttered, too.  Salmon with carmelized onions and asparagus?  Butter, please!  Roast duck with butternut squash and pureed cauliflower?  How could you not drench with butter?!  We even put butter in our soups...it melts, and it's delicious.

We all know it's important to eat healthy vegetables with our main meals, so if you aren't doing a raw salad, try veggie sautes.  It's a regular standby here, and so easy, nutritious and delicious...just saute onions, garlic, carrots, fennel, summer or winter squash, kale or chard, whatever you have on hand!  When you plate the meal, just add butter!  Steamed veggies?  Of course they love butter.  Oh, how scrumptious veggies are with butter!  If you are eating any form of cooked vegetables, you have a butter vehicle just waiting to be adorned.

I make a lot of one-pot meals with meats (lamb, pork, beef) and veggies...I like fewer pots to clean.  So whether it's Shepherd's Pie or No-Noodle Lasagna or just plain old beef and veggie stir fry, top it off with a spoonful of butter!  Many cultures drizzle all their dishes with olive oil.  We do that, too.  And we also dollop with butter...same concept.

Baked winter squash, baked sweet potatoes, baked all-other-kind-of potatoes, absolutely beg for butter.  And pureed cauliflower spiked with lots of butter (aka GAPS mashed potatoes) is a surefire crowd pleaser.

My kids butter their cheese sometimes.  And when I bake cookies (gluten free at this point), we butter those, too.  My husband likes to eat pick-me-up spoonfuls of butter drizzled with raw honey.  The kids love "chocolate treats," basically butter/cacao mousse.

If you eat grains, all the better to add more butter...rice, quinoa, millet, morning oats...whether plain or pilaf, accompanying grains are always better topped with butter.  Tortillas?  Top with butter, cheese, avocado, salsa, what have you.  Crackers?  Butter them.  Organic popcorn?  Come on, that's an easy one!

So, how do we eat our butter?  Well, I think the better question is how do we not?  (We have yet to dip cold raw veggies in plain butter...though celery sticks with butter and raisins are good.)  The key in my mind is that we are creating meals with Real Food from scratch...and good food begs to be accompanied by good butter.  And olive oil, too...I certainly don't mean to discriminate.  My passion for butter doesn't blind me to the other good fats, we use them all...coconut, lard, duck fat...they all have their place in the kitchen, some for prep, some for finishing.  

But around here, butter reigns supreme.  So grab some grass-fed butter and drip, dollop, scoop, smother...you'll wonder how your meals ever made it to your stomach without butter.

Recipe: GAPS Mashed Potatoes...Pureed Cauliflower

(Super easy, super delicious.  After 6 months on the GAPS protocol, you can barely tell the difference in flavor between this and mashed potatoes...well, we couldn't.  And we took this recipe with us after GAPS, along with many others, because it is just so delicious and nutritious!  It's not really a "GAPS" recipe as much as it's just another way to eat great food.) 

Steam a head or two (depending on size) of cauliflower in water.  When fork tender, put the cauliflower and 1/2 cup of the cooking water into your blender.  Add 1/2 cup butter and some real salt to taste.  Blend until smooth.  You can adjust the amount of liquid to suit the consistency to your taste.

For post-GAPS folks, blend the cauliflower with raw grass-fed milk rather than the cooking liquid, and don't forget lots of butter!...this version is even creamier.  Yum!

Radically Natural POV: Avoiding GMOs Isn't Enough

I've noticed a little trend of late, at our local farmer's market and natural food store.  I'm hearing inklings of a new twist on the search for clean food.  "As long as it's non-GMO, you're OK...just avoid the GMOs."  I have been told that customers are less willing to pay for organic...they only care that the choices are non-GMO...a less expensive option.  It seems like in the careful consumer's search for "affordable" food, GMO avoidance has taken the spotlight and the chemical soup that we have been so ardent to avoid for so long has begun to fade from our fears.

Image from Wikipedia...Gives new meaning to "food safety," eh?

The GMO scare has become such a prominent focus in the Real Food realm that I wonder if we have lost sight of the bigger picture.  Of course we should avoid GMOs, of course they are not safe, of course they are not Real Food.  But the dangers of GMOs are only one part of the picture.  We can't let the GMO spectre overshadow the reality of toxic chemicals in our soil and our food supply.  The use of pesticides (insecticides, herbicides and fungicides) and synthetic fertilizers is the cornerstone of industrial farming.  These are the dangerous chemicals that health advocates warned us about so fervently in the past decades (how can we forget Silent Spring?), and we should not lessen our resolve to avoid them now.  Research continues to show that exposure to these chemicals can have serious and lasting health consequences for generations (with an emphasis on negative endocrine effects...ie infertility).

We used to have chickens and ducks.  We currently have goats and pigs.  We know firsthand the costs of organic inputs.  My husband's recent search to find local, less expensive, clean grains to feed the animals we raise for our food has been disheartening.  Most of the growers in our area are using the toxic Agent Orange component, 2,4-D, a carcinogenic and endocrine disrupting herbicide.  One farmer my husband spoke with was quick to claim that his grains were non-GMO, but he admitted he did use 2,4-D...the dangers of which he side-stepped with a bit of spin that sounded like a page out of the county extension agent's handbook.

The move to 2,4-D does not bode well for the future of food.  That herbicide is gaining popularity because it works when Roundup does not.  Yes, you heard me correctly.  We know how toxic Roundup is...but 2,4-D is apparently worse.  (And sold for "home" use as well...let us not forget the toxic lawns that American children play on regularly...2,4-D is one of the most popular lawn herbicides used.)  In fact, Dow and Monsanto have already been seeking governmental approval for their next wave of chemical brews to combat the ever-growing "weed" and pest resistance.  As they all do, this widely used herbicide will contribute to the proliferation of "super weeds," which will herald Big Ag's cry for even stronger poisons.  Where does it end?!

Image from heartlandbeat.com...BigAg food prep.

Perhaps I have an overactive imagination, but I can't help feeling that while the heretofore chemically cautious consumers are being distracted by the evil that is GMOs, the chemical companies are laughing all the way to the bank (as they continue to spread their ever-worsening poisons across America).  Of course, big chem and big biotech go hand in hand, as the increasing use of stronger chemicals is being touted by said industries as necessary for their GM crops.

We need to be wary of losing our original zeal for clean, organic, Real Food.  And because commercial (certified) Organic growers are allowed to use some pesticides (yes, even the synthetic kind), we need to be avid about finding clean food sources or growing our own.  If we become lulled into a false sense of security by focusing solely on GMOs, we will return ourselves to the days of eating poison and paying the piper with our physical demise and our children's compromised health future.  The costs of complacency are too high.  

Yes, truly organic food is more expensive, but what is your health worth?  Your children's health...their brain function, immune function, future fertility?  Why are we fooling ourselves into accepting the industry's chemical brews?  Perhaps we need a reminding nudge about what we are turning a blind eye to...maybe a "light read" of the many legal chemical pesticides available to food producers.  (Lists are published state by state...check out this one for New York).  We need to remind our friends, our families, our neighbors, ourselves that the chemical toxins in the food supply have serious and lasting deleterious health affects.  

Nontoxic food costs more to produce; it costs more to purchase.  But...Pay now or pay later.  Such is the reality of dealing with poisons in our food.

Revival of Highly Toxic Herbicide
Pesticide Action Network: Pesticides on Food
2,4-D Fact Sheet
Farmer Speaks Out Against 2,4-D
Big Ag Doesn't Want You to Care about Pesticides
Pesticide Exposure Linked to Adverse Affects Three Generations Later
Beyond Pesticides (Consumer Safety Organization)

Radically Natural Recipe: How to Butter a Biscuit

I made biscuits the other night for dinner, to accompany beef broccoli soup.  Our middle son, affectionately known as the butter fiend, demonstrated for us the proper way to apply butter to bread.  (Pardon the deficient photo, but I can assure you that all sides and the innards were coated.)  Note the tooth marks.  Dear Weston would be proud, I dare say? 

Soaked Sprouted Biscuits

3 1/2 cups sprouted grain (I used spelt)
2 cups raw kefir
4 T. melted butter/coconut oil/lard (I used coconut oil and butter)
1 1/2 tsp. sea salt
2 tsp. baking soda

• Mix flour with kefir, add remaining ingredients and blend into smooth dough.
• Allow to sit for a few hours if possible.
• Roll out on floured surface, cut out with biscuit cutter or a glass.
• Alternately take pieces of dough, roll balls in palm of hand and flatten on baking tray (these are less attractive, but get the job done).
• Bake on buttered baking sheet or use liner (silpat or parchment paper), 350º for about 40 minutes.

Lather with butter and enjoy!

This was one of our "leaving GAPS" grain trials.  No one reacted badly to the biscuits except for me...but when the kids can tolerate a food, I cry success!  I am testing about three grain foods a week, making sure they are soaked and/or sprouted.  

Radically Natural POV: A GAPS Testimony

My family's GAPS journey has been very educational, quite beneficial and certainly enlightening. We are currently phasing out of GAPS and testing appropriately prepared grains (a la the NT methods). I will write soon about those experiences.

Until then, I want to share the personal testimony of a good friend (kind of like a daughter to me) who decided last summer to pursue the GAPS protocol...for both she and her husband. The following is her story (yes, I'm the pushy wife she mentions, LOL):


I was raised on genetically modified food (GMOs), industrial food, and pesticide-laden "food," including but not limited to: box cereal, skim milk, Kid Cuisine frozen dinners, Easy Mac, hot dogs, nachos, McDonald's Happy Meals, and Pepsi and Dr Pepper. Growing up with a single mom, I was often left with no other choice, as she could not afford any other food...granted, she didn't KNOW there were other options.

In contrast, how many of us know of the dangers around us, disguising itself as "food," yet choose to turn our head the other way? What have we come to?

I would like to think ignorance is bliss, but unfortunately, I am becoming more convinced that we are willingly killing ourselves slowly in the name of "convenience." What is the message our culture believes? That there is nothing more convenient than driving your car up to a window and ordering packaged meals to feed the whole family for less than $20. We've convinced ourselves that we don't have time to actually prepare and cook food these days. Most people don't do it, so most people don't know how much time it takes to prepare a home-cooked, nutritious, Real Food meal. I would venture to say it is twice, if not three times, as long to prepare one meal compared with a drive-thru window.

But why would we willingly put something into our mouths...and worse, feed it to our children...if we are completely blind as to what the ingredients are? Do we trust our government and the food industry so much that we are willing to let them dictate what we can and cannot place inside our bodies? Apparently so, myself included.

This is my story. I already spoke of what I was raised eating, so fast forward to college. Broke college students can't afford Real Food, right? Right. The stereotypical "ramen noodle" college student didn't apply to me, but pasteurized cheese, Saltines, sandwich meat, white bread, pasteurized cottage cheese, corn chips and salsa, and box cereal/oatmeal did. Fried chicken and fries when going out to eat with friends, or gallons of coffee for pulling all-nighters. Birth control pills, NSAIDs, Sonic Happy Hour every day (medium cherry vanilla Dr Pepper!), and NyQuil. Stress and class deadlines. Those were my typical inputs.

And the effects on my body? Sore throats, mucus drainage every morning, flu every year, and tonsillitis. I simply believed it was the "norm" for a college student to never get enough sleep, to always be sick, and to drink coffee. Little did I know, I was killing myself slowly (trying not be TOO dramatic). Sure, I'm still alive, but not in optimum health and am diligently working to undo all of the damage I have done the last 25 years of my life - some self-inflicted, some not. Sure, I would exercise, and try to pay attention to how much food I was eating, but fundamentally, I was malnourished. I was trying to compensate for my malnourishment by exercise, while paying little attention to WHAT I put into my body. I was focused on the "how much," not the "what."

Fast forward to marriage as my husband and I were confused about nutrition and eating habits, but also wanted to save money. We ate lots and lots of tofu, and ate out a lot when it was cheap (99 cent tacos and burritos!). Four months into our marriage, a positive pregnancy test ended in a "late period" four days later. This would be our first miscarriage, but we had no thought of what we might be able to do to change anything. Two months later, we met a couple who was serious about the GAPS protocol and suggested that if we did GAPS, it could help my fertility problems.

We kept that in the back of our minds, and learned and read about it, but we were so addicted to our sugar, our convenience, and our industrial food dependence that it took us nine more months before we committed to GAPS. We slowly started weaning ourselves off soda first of all, by replacing it with Kombucha. We then stopped eating out, and I started learning to cook at home. Within a whirlwind of Nourishing Traditions, GAPS, this couple pushing us to wean ourselves from our dependence of detrimental substances, and developing a relationship with the wife who would ultimately push us off of the cliff into GAPS land, we jumped in.

We started GAPS Intro for the first time 7 months ago. I experienced die off, suffering terrible dry mouth and bouts of brain fog. My mucus production decreased significantly, and my husband's eczema flared up and cleared (in a continuous flare up pattern). For the first time in my life, I was aware of my body and what I was placing into my mouth.

I recently heard this saying: "Everything you put in your body is helping you fight disease or giving you disease." In all my 25 years of life, I had never once given thought to that concept. Now I do. I now think, what will this do to my body if I eat it? Is this meant to be inside of me? Will this nourish me? Will this make me sick?

Two weeks into GAPS Intro, a positive pregnancy test led to another miscarriage eight weeks later. This would be our second miscarriage in almost 2 years of marriage. But it was my first pregnancy in more than a year, and I take that as a positive sign.

I do not tell you about my two miscarriages for sympathy, but to explain that my carelessness in what I have fed myself (and what I was fed growing up) led me to these fertility difficulties. I have suffered two miscarriages, low thyroid, mucus drainage, adrenal fatigue, infertility, highly abnormal cycles, and who knows what else...

On the bright side, I have lost 20 pounds, and my husband has now lost 60 pounds, by simply transitioning into GAPS Intro and Full GAPS en route to a traditional nourishing diet lifestyle. We feel ourselves detoxifying. And I have learned so much! I never knew that nightshades make my nose run and my husband's eczema flare up, that beans are NOT supposed to make you gassy, that you ARE supposed to have a daily bowel movement, and that it does matter what your stools look like! I never knew that gluten could cause sinus infections, or that sugar could make my tonsils swell and mucus drain. I never knew that what I was eating and drinking, all along, was actually hindering my future to bear and raise children.

I never knew that it actually mattered what you put into your body; I just thought it was how much you put in (caloric intake). I never knew macronutrients (fat, carbohydrates, protein) were not what nourishes you, but that whole Real Foods do. And that it is saturated fat (coconut oil, palm oil, nuts, olive oil, animal fats) that nourishes your hormones, cells, brain, heart, and all bodily systems.

I never knew that it wasn't normal to be sick. I never knew that God wanted me to be healthy and well. Most of all, I never knew that I was shaving time off my lifespan, simply by being ignorant (willfully or not) of what I chose to place into my mouth.

My challenge to you is this: pay attention to what you eat. Sacrifice for yourself, your family, and your home. Desire that everyone in your family be well! Think for yourself. Learn. Read. And do what is best for your body, your loved ones, and yours and their future health. You will learn and grow more than you can ever imagine.

I don't know if I will bear children in the future, but I do know that this journey I am on is not a mistake. I will diligently pursue this course until my body is healed, and I have undone all the self-inflicted damage I can.

Is Your Grass-Fed Butter Really Pastured?

As a butter lover (fiend...pusher), I cannot sing the praises loudly enough of pastured butter.   You know what I'm talking about, fellow fanatics...The golden goodness of the nutrient-rich fat that is born of sunshine, green grasses, and healthy cows.  And we also know how rare real pastured butter is...that free-ranging, grass-fed non-franken milk cows are not a dime a dozen.  I, like many of you, have had a bit of a love affair with Kerrygold butter...second only to New Zealand, I believe, Irish pastures are green nearly year-round (don't quote me on that, though).

How might you respond if you discovered that your pastured butter wasn't?  That the grass-fed milk cows producing your butter were were living in a huge barn, eating delivered grass?  That the pastures weren't receiving the benefit of nature's most natural, nutritious, free fertilizer?  Welcome to the "zero grazing" grass-fed method.  

What defines pastured?  Is a "zero grazing" grass-fed dairy operation producing pastured milk?  Will that milk be sufficiently rich in vitamin D (are barn skylights enough)?  Is this a nourishing and sustainable option?

I'm not making any accusations, any statements about any brands of butter.  I have no knowledge of which companies are purchasing whose milk.  But the following video makes me wary of the grass-fed dairy products I might be purchasing.  I don't think the grass is the only important component in Real Milk products.  I suppose this is another reason that being far from our food production means lack of accountability and real consumer-driven quality control.

Observe the feeding method of this Irish dairy.  Sure, it's clean enough ... the cows aren't knee-deep in feces like typical feedlots or commercial dairy operations.  But is this really pastured dairy?  (And note the breed...the highly manipulated Holstein, bred for unnaturally massive milk production rates, and carriers of the troublesome mutated A1 protein.)

Contrast with this video of my friend's property, where they raise a few Guernseys (an "old world" heritage breed that naturally produces A2 milk, more easily digestible and less problematic for humans).  Are the differences between the "zero grazing" grass-fed model and the genuine pastured model significant?  You decide.

Radically Natural Book Giveaway: Liver and Gallbladder Miracle Cleanse

I wish you all a healthy, happy New Year and I hope you will consider dedicating this year to healing your body.  Starting with the liver flush protocol is a gift to yourself and your family.  In fact, have your entire family do the cleanse, and enjoy the fruits of detoxifying.  My gift to one of you is the The Liver and Gallbladder Miracle Cleanse book by Andreas Moritz, which I have referenced in my previous posts.  Thanks for entering the giveaway and supporting my work!  Please share this with your friends.  This post is linked at Real Food Wednesday, check out the other great posts shared there this week.  Happy healing!


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Radically Natural Remedies: Flush Your Liver for Systemic Detox

As discussed in my previous post, a liver cleanse is one of the most important steps in establishing or regaining health.  Flushing your liver and gallbladder of stones will reverse numerous maladies and aid systemic healing, including autoimmune and hormonal disorders.  It is true that health begins in the gut, which is why the GAPS protocol is so important.  But health is maintained by the liver.  To be truly well, we must address both.  The GAPS program, combined with a liver flushing program, is an effective therapy for "cleaning house," detoxifying, revitalizing immunity, repairing brain chemistry imbalances, and more.  And what better time to begin your journey of healing than the coming New Year?  I'm not one for "resolutions," but tackling important projects and turning new corners seems apropos at this time.

Whether or not you think you need GAPS (and it is highly likely that you do), a liver flush is an essential key to wellness.  If you are already on the GAPS protocol, adding a round of liver flushes will speed your healing and ensure benefits that GAPS alone cannot provide.  If you have not yet begun GAPS, but plan to do so, this is the perfect time to introduce the liver flush program.  The best news is that a liver flush is neither difficult, nor expensive.  First I will describe the flush, then I will propose a GAPS/Flush schedule.

The Liver Flush

The entire cleanse will take many months.  You do one flush at a time, but you must do enough flushes to remove all the stones currently housed in your liver.  DO NOT begin the cleanse unless you are willing to do it properly and to follow through with the entire program.  You can suffer different and worse symptoms if you do not perform the cleanse properly.  Please read Moritz's book to understand better the why and how of the cleanse.  Most adults need an average of eight flushes to remove all the stones.  

One flush requires six days, five of those being preparation days.  Plan for your sixth day (and the following seventh day) to fall on days where you can relax and be undisturbed for an evening of sleep and a morning of bathroom visits.  For example, day one would be Sunday, so that the evening of the "real flush work" lands on Friday, and Saturday morning you flush your results.  But the protocol couldn't be simpler.

*Please read Moritz's book before attempting this liver cleanse.  He reminds readers numerous times that it is imperative to do the protocol exactly as he describes, so you suffer none of the adverse affects that can occur otherwise. 

Days One through Five

• If you cannot tolerate or do not want to drink apple juice (it made me nauseated and gave me the shakes...my body could not tolerate the sugar), use 1 teaspoon natural malic acid powder dissolved into 32 ounces water.  The L-Malic Acid is the natural, not synthetic, form.  (It is the malic acid in the juice that softens the stones, preparing them to pass.)
• Other alternatives to the apple juice or malic acid include the herb Gold Coin Grass, cranberry juice, and apple cider vinegar.  See below for dosing.  I have not tried these methods.
• Eat "lightly" throughout the week.  Soup is an excellent option.  And do try to cut back on fats.  That helps the olive oil drink on Day Six to be more effective.  (A large ingestion of fats prompts the gallbladder to release stones...but without the proper protocol, such as softening stones with malic acid and opening ducts with epsom salts, you can get stones stuck rather than passed, which can cause discomfort and various symptoms.)
• During this week, it is essential that you clear out the bowels.  Even if you have regular movements, you can have impacted fecal matter lining your intestines.  You want to use this flush as an opportunity to clean your bowels, and you need to have a clear passageway for flushing out the stones.  A daily colonic (multiple enemas) is optimal.  Additionally you can use a product called Colosan (a concentrated form of magnesium combined with oxygen that acts by drawing water into the bowels...get the powder, not the capsules), or large doses of magnesium citrate (like Natural Calm...take it until you get runny bowels).  Colosan is the better choice.  But you must be sure you are having regular very soft to runny stools every day.  Doing enemas until your bowel runs clear (you have passed all dark brown and foul smelling matter) is an essential way to ensure that you are clearing your bowels.

Day Six

• Drink 32 ounces of the apple juice or malic acid solution in the morning before eating anything.
• Eat lightly until 1:30 pm, after which you will fast.  Drink water generously.  
• Important:  The fasting, combined with the enemas, ensures that you do not create feces and that when you flush you will be passing only water, bile and stones.  If you have feces in your intestines, this can impede the passing of stones; stones can become lodged in your tract and can cause pain (perhaps even pancreatitis) in the next days or weeks.  Make sure you have flushed your colon...home or professional colonic therapy is essential to this cleanse.

At 6 p.m.

• Dissolve 4 tablespoons of epsom salts (magnesium sulfate) in 24 ounces water.  You are making four 6 oz. servings.  (The epsom salts dilate the bile ducts, making the stones easier to pass.)
• Drink your first serving (6 oz.) now.
• Do not drink fresh water for 20 minutes before or after consuming the epsom salts.
• You may add a squeeze of fresh lemon to the salt water to make it more palatable, and drinking with a straw helps to bypass taste buds.  You may rinse your mouth with fresh water after drinking.

At 8 p.m., drink your second serving (6 oz.) of epsom salts.

At 9:30 p.m., do an enema (or two or three or four...) to clean out the bowels.

At 9:45 p.m.

• Juice three or more room temperature grapefruits.  You need 3/4 cup grapefruit juice.  (Alternatively, you may combine orange and lemon juice.)
• Combine this with 1/2 cup cold pressed extra virgin olive oil.  
• Add to a pint or quart jar and shake vigorously to mix, about 20 times, or until mixture is watery. (The oil in this mixture prompts the liver to release the stones, the grapefruit juice increases the production of bile secretions.)

At 10 p.m.

• Stand by your bed and drink the entirety of the concoction without stopping (consume within five minutes).  After an afternoon of fasting, I found this juice mixture to be delicious.  Anyone used to a high fat diet will have no trouble...my son and I agreed that the mixture was like a delicious citrus smoothie.
• Immediately lie down in bed, propping your head up on pillows so that your head is higher than your abdomen.  (You may also lie down on your right side with knees pulled up to abdomen.)
• Lie still for the first 20 minutes, no talking, no moving, just resting.  Think happy thoughts about how many stones will leave your body.
• Go to sleep.  (Don't worry if in your sleep you don't keep your head propped up.)
• Additionally, you may use a castor oil pack over the liver area to help reduce congestion.  Wet a flannel cloth with a few spoonfuls of castor oil and lay it over your liver (located under your right lower ribs), cover it with a towel.  Have this ready to go by your bed before you drink your grapefruit oil.

Be prepared

to feel nauseated, perhaps even to vomit.  You have begun releasing toxins from your liver and it could make you feel ill.  Be prepared to begin passing watery stools in the evening, though most people do not pass anything until the morning.

In the morning

Between 6 to 6:30 a.m.

(not before 6 a.m.)

• Drink the third portion (6 oz.) of your epsom salt water.  If you feel very thirsty, drink a glass of tepid water before drinking the epsom salts.
• Go back to bed, but try to stay propped up; alternately, stay up and read but be restful!

Between 8 to 8:30 a.m. drink your final glass (6 oz.) of epsom salts.

At 10 a.m. you may drink freshly pressed juice (fruits, carrot).

At 10:30 a.m. you may eat a couple pieces fresh fruit.

At 11 a.m. you may eat light food.  Continue to eat lightly throughout the day, as you did the week in preparation for the cleanse.  Be sure to hydrate well.

During the morning

(most likely beginning after the final round of epsom salts) and perhaps into the afternoon, you will pass numerous watery bowel movements.  These may contain "chaff" or "foam," which is undigested bile, along with stones.  Some of your stones may be calcified; these tan or whitish stones will sink.  Some will float...these are the pea-green or greenish-black cholesterol/bile stones.  Stones may be tiny, they may be larger.  Expect anything from smaller than pea-sized to as large as an inch.  Light-colored stones are newer, the dark stones are older.  You may pass dozens, or even hundreds of stones.  (Most of mine were pea sized and blackish; I passed about 200 stones my first flush.)  Expect your stones to smell foul.  Feel free to spoon out some stones and examine them...it's a fascinating science experiment.

For three days following your cleanse, continue with the Colosan or enemas (preferably multiple enemas) to ensure bowel flushing.  You don't want gallstones to remain in your colon, causing irritation.

It is important to leave a two-week break (from the day you flush to your next "day one" of drinking the malic acid) between liver flushes, to allow the gallbladder and liver to recover.  Passing these stones is like mini surgery (without the horrifying side effects) and we want the body to recuperate.  But remember, you must continue to flush until you have passed all your stones.  You will know you have succeeded when you do two cleanses and you have passed no stones.

In the hours following your cleanse, you will likely feel better, rejuvenated, and experience reduction in your ailments' symptoms.  But in a few days, symptoms will return as more stones travel from the back of the liver forward toward the hepatic ducts.  So plan to keep cleaning your liver until you find no more stones.

A note on children

Andreas Moritz, author of The Liver and Gallbladder Miracle Cleanse, recommends that children ages 10 to 16 can do the flush, but should be given a half dose of everything and that the flush should start an hour or two earlier on Day Six.  I am comfortable having my younger children do the flush.  This protocol is noninvasive, gentle, safe and effective.  It is important to reduce the dosages for children, and not require that young children fast completely on the afternoon and evening of Day Six if they are unable to do so.  Have them eat lightly and expect that the stones will not release easily on their own on the seventh morning, because they can be caught in feces in the colon.  In this case, an enema before ingesting the grapefruit oil and again in the morning after the second dose of epsom salts should remedy the situation.

So for children, the doses would be:

• 1/2 tsp. malic acid in 16 to 32 oz. water for days one through six (alternatively 16 oz. apple juice)
• 2 Tb. epsom salts in 24 oz. water on evening six (start at 4 p.m., rather than 6)
• 1/2 cup grapefruit juice mixed with 1/4 cup olive oil

[Children can have stones who have not been fed a toxic diet or given antibiotics and vaccines.  My children are not in that category and my children flushed dozens of stones in their first cleanses.  Various factors can contribute to stones, including environmental toxins, stress, propensity to autoimmune disorders (in our case, allergies), gut dysbiosis, and consumption of foods to which one is allergic or sensitive.  But past consumption of less-than-stellar foods could have contributed to the formation of stones.  Even once you switched to a nourishing diet, the stones are likely still housed in the liver and need to be removed.]

My 4-yr-old's stones

My four-year-old daughter passed the largest, but newest, stones of our family. (The photo doesn't show the color accurately...her stones were lighter and brighter green, not the dark brownish green that I, my husband, and my sons had.)  I did need to administer an enema the morning of her stone release (the morning after Day 6), because she did not fast on Day 6.  I don't expect young children to be able to fast.  The body will produce feces from that afternoon and evening meal, so the stones can get "caught" in the feces.  She did not easily pass the water and bile with stones that the rest of us did.  But I administered a water enema, and her stones came right out with the feces from the previous evening's meal.  So if you feed your young children the afternoon of Day 6, be prepared to administer an enema the next morning to help release the stones, as well as follow-up enemas after the flush.

I want to emphasize that my daughter was exclusively breastfed for her first year, after which she never ate processed foods, nor refined sugars.  As with all my children, she has never been vaccinated, and she has never received any drugs (even OTC).  She is the healthiest of my children, but still had some food sensitivities.  Her stones smelled of petroleum, as did all of ours.  I share this to emphasize that even young, healthy children raised on a WAPF diet are subject to environmental toxins that can affect their organs.

Alternatives to apple juice/malic acid powder

• Gold Coin Grass tincture:  1 tablespoon on an empty stomach 30 minutes before breakfast.  This method must be used for eight days before the day of the actual flush.
• Cranberry juice:  4 ounces of juice + 4 ounces of water, four times a day for six days.
• Apple Cider Vinegar:  2 tablespoons in a glass of water, four times a day for six days.

The GAPS/Flush Schedule

The first schedule is for those of you who have not yet begun the GAPS protocol.  You will be gearing up to begin Intro, hopefully by using the excellent preparation schedule laid out by Baden Lashkov in the GAPS Guide.  (See below for purchase options.  As with the other links on this page, if you purchase through one of these links, I could accumulate a small commission.  Thank you!)

[Yes, technically citrus fruits are GAPS illegal during Intro.  So test yourself on a bit of grapefruit juice before doing the cleanse.  A mixture of orange and lemon juices can be substituted for the grapefruit juice.  If you are highly reactive to these fruits, don't use this protocol until you move to Full GAPS and can tolerate them.]

• Before beginning Intro, do one round of the liver cleanse.
• Begin Intro.
• When you have reached Stage Five of Intro, do a liver cleanse using the L-Malic Acid powder.
• Continue finishing Intro.
• When you have begun to merge onto Full GAPS (or three weeks after your previous cleanse), do another flush.
• Continue the flush protocol every two to three weeks until you no longer pass stones.
• Finish GAPS.
• Enjoy greater success and renewed health!
• Do a liver flush every six months for the next few years, then move to once a year.
• Go back and do the liver flush protocol from start to finish if you experience major illness or "flubs" in your diet and your health becomes impaired.  Also go back to GAPS Intro for a few weeks in this case.

If you are already on the GAPS protocol, doing Intro, just begin your liver flush program once you reach Stage Five.

If you are already on the GAPS protocol, doing Full GAPS, begin your flush program now and follow it to completion.

In a future post I will address herbs and nutrients that help to regain and maintain liver health, which you can add to this protocol.  For now, keep it simple and just begin to flush out those stones.

For More Information

Liver Flush Q&A with Andreas Moritz

 GAPS Guide 2nd ed. paperback

 GAPS Guide 2nd ed. epub file (most versatile file type) 

 GAPS Guide 2nd ed. mobi file (Kindle)

You Must Flush Your Liver...GAPS Alone Isn't Enough

After years of experimenting and working through various healing protocols, I have found that certain approaches are more efficacious than others.  But I have also learned that we need to combine important aspects of varying approaches.  In my struggles to heal myself and my children from significant allergies, gut dysbiosis and hormonal disruptions, I have discovered what I believe to be effective healing strategies.  As I have shared regularly on this blog, GAPS is an integral part of recovering health.  Numerous ways to modify and enhance GAPS exist, and the program will help you to achieve gut healing.  But to be truly well, most of us need more.  GAPS alone isn't enough, so I have designed what I call GAPS Plus.


GAPS tackles one of the most deleterious health scourges that modern Americans face:  gut dysbiosis.  Health begins in the gut, where 80% of our immune system is housed.  When we suffer from leaky gut and an overgrowth of pathogenic flora, we cannot maintain good health.  We fall prey to numerous auto-immune disorders and brain chemistry imbalances.  GAPS can help you heal your gut, repopulate your body with necessary beneficial flora, and detoxify your system.

But in my opinion, GAPS is missing a key element.  To overcome toxicity and heal liver stagnation and malfunction, we must flush the liver of "stones."  The liver is a crucial organ, second only to the brain in its mechanics of regulating life systems.  Your liver controls the growth and function of every cell in your body.  Additionally, the liver is the largest gland in your body, part of the endocrine system that regulates hormonal functions.

Blockages and obstructions in the body restrict nutrient and oxygen flow to cells, beginning the cascade toward disease, such as autoimmune disorders, even cancer.  Waste matter can accumulate and build up in the organs and ducts of our body.  We see this affecting our health negatively throughout bodily systems, as in constipation (a build up of fecal matter in the intestines) or kidney stones (calcifications obstructing the flow of the kidneys), even "glue ear" or ear infections (sticky mucus combined with toxins and bacteria builds up in eustachian tubes).  The liver can suffer restricted performance through similar obstructions, particularly gallstones in the liver and gallbladder.

These stones...the result of hardened bile salts combining with trapped substances, like undigested cholesterol and toxins...can congest the gallbladder, the liver, and their ducts.  This congestion interferes with crucial health functions like digestion, blood detoxification and elimination of waste, not to mention cellular function and communication within the nervous and endocrine systems.

While about 20% of stones in the gallbladder consist of minerals (bile and calcium salts), the majority of the gallstones that become trapped in the liver are not calcified, and will not show up with imaging technology.  Only when an excessive amount of cholesterol-based stones are housed in the liver, will they appear in an ultrasound...prompting the diagnosis of fatty liver.  When the liver accumulates thousands of these stones (up to 20,000), it can suffocate and cease to function.

Just as modern Americans suffer from gut dysbiosis due to lifestyle and dietary factors, we suffer from these liver and gallbladder stones.  The most common causes of stones are the result of diet (lowfat diets, overeating, industrial foods, commercial salt, dehydration), pharmaceutical use (particularly hormone therapy and birth control pills, cholesterol-lowering drugs), fluoride ingestion, sleep disruptions (ignoring natural sleep/wake cycles) and emotional stress.  

Chronic illnesses and autoimmune disorders are directly related to liver function.  And liver function is impaired by hundreds or thousands of stones that you didn't even know you had, that developed over many years...likely starting in childhood.  When the gallbladder fills with stones, surgical removal is often recommended.  How could it not be better to avoid such procedures?!  And gallstones may not house in your gallbladder, but rather move into the liver and accumulate.


This is where a liver and gallbladder flush comes into play, and my tweaking of the GAPS protocol.  As much as I, Herbalistmama, hate to admit it, herbs are not enough.  Juicing isn't enough.  Dietary protocols and nourishing real foods are not enough.  You must move out the stones.  This can be done through a noninvasive, relatively simple process at home.

Conventional medicine is behind the curve yet again in its refusal to acknowledge the simple approach to ridding the liver of these troublesome stones.  In fact, liver stones are not even widely acknowledged in the conventional approach.  While Johns Hopkins at least acknowledges the reality of "intrahepatic gallstones," the myopic approach to their widespread existence and ease of eradication points us once again to self care.

Symptoms of liver stones include:

• Every symptom of any ailment that you suffer

LOL!  Seriously, the list is rather long, as to be expected.  Remember, stones inhibit the work of the liver.  A malfunctioning liver does cause myriad ailments, minor and major, acute and chronic.  The stones can be the root cause of diseases of the mouth, stomach, pancreas, liver, gallbladder and bile ducts, intestines, circulatory system, respiratory system, urinary system, nervous system, reproductive system, bones, joints, skin.  Much crossover exists between ailments caused by gut dysbiosis and liver congestion; disease-producing culprits in both cases include toxicity, intestinal disturbances, inefficient nutrient absorption, and impaired metabolism and brain chemistry.  Additionally, gallstones impair bile production, causing a host of digestive issues.

Stone-related disorders include eczema, acne, psoriasis, poor lymphatic drainage leading to numerous reproductive ailments and inflammation, thyroid disorders, other hormonal imbalances, lymphatic obstruction and its varying effects, arthritis, hemorrhagic disease, stroke, multiple sclerosis, osteoporosis, rickets, tumors, back pain, hypertension, edema, kidney infection, allergies, respiratory ailments, "high" cholesterol, all gastrointestinal disorders, impaired saliva production leading to tooth and gum disease, chronic headaches, and more.  If you suffer from any such ailments, consider flushing your liver.  If you do not feel vibrant, thriving and robust, consider flushing your liver.  If you are currently breathing, consider flushing your liver.  (LOL...but I am serious...I can't imagine anyone who would not benefit from a liver flush.)

Here is a quick self test for liver congestion:  Stand up and relax, breathe deeply a few times.  Place the fingers of your right hand along your lowest right rib and try to insert your fingers up under the ribs.  (This is where your liver lives.)  You should be able to have enough wiggle room to get your fingers in upwards to the second knuckle.  If you cannot, or if you feel pain upon moving your fingers up under your rib, you are probably congested.  Although, being able to get your fingers up under your ribs doesn't guarantee lack of stones, so assess your physical and health symptoms for your overall picture. 

According to Andreas Moritz, naturopathic physician and author of The Liver and Gallbladder Miracle Cleanse, additional physical signs of gallstones in the liver and gallbladder include:

• Brown patches on skin ("liver" spots)
• Pimples or hair growth between eyebrows
• Oily forehead, excess perspiration on forehead
• Yellow tinge to facial skin
• Premature graying hair, hair loss in center of the head
• Yellowish or dark circles under the eyes ("allergy shiners"), puffy bags under eyes
• Redness in whites of eyes, eyes appear "dull"
• Red nose, indentation in tip of nose
• White- or yellow-coated tongue, pimples or cracks on tongue
• Bad breath, frequent burping, mucus discharge into throat and mouth
• Crust formations at corners of mouth, ulcers in mouth
• Swollen or bleeding gums
• Tonsillitis
• Yellowish teeth, especially canines
• Vertical ridges on fingernails, white spots on nails
• Yellow color of feet
• Dry, hard stools
• Sharp, sour odor of stools
• Pale colored stools, floating stools
• Difficulty digesting fats (feeling nauseated after a high-fat meal)

I first learned about liver flushing many moons ago when I read Hulda Clark's The Cure for All Diseases.  Since then, I have read various similar recommendations.  Somehow I kept pushing the flush to the back corners of my "to do" list, thinking that juicing and herbs would adequately clean my liver.  After struggling with my most sensitive child's plateau on the GAPS protocol, and praying for clarity on how to better heal him, I turned again to the liver flush material.  I saw that my symptoms for the last decade pointed heavily to a stone-congested liver, as did my son's.  I decided to hesitate and procrastinate no longer, and to do my first round of liver flushing.

The bad news is that we can be riddled with thousands of stones and that it can take many months to rid ourselves of these stones.  And we must be diligent to finish the course once we begin, because if we start to move toxins out of our organs and body but do not finish the job, we can feel quite icky...not to mention remain miserably in our ailments.  But the good news, the most excellent news, is that this process works and it is not expensive, time consuming, nor painful!  (OK, there is some nausea potentially involved for one evening, and some runny stools...but what is that compared to being freed from real health maladies?!)  For my first cleanse, I passed about 150 small stones, most pea-sized, some smaller, a few a bit larger.  For anyone who doesn't think this stuff is really cool (like I do), forgive the "graphic" photo showing a sample of my stones.  The most interesting part to me was the stones' odor...it was quite unpleasant and had a strong tone of tar/motor oil/burnt rubber, which I attribute to trapped environmental toxins.

I want to emphasize that I believe the GAPS protocol is still essential to regaining health.  A liver flush complements this healing.  With GAPS, you will seal your impaired intestinal lining and eliminate your malevolent pathogenic flora.  You will begin to rebuild your necessary beneficial flora and detoxify.  A liver flush cannot accomplish the necessary goals of gut repair.  But the flush will remove the stones from your gallbladder, liver, and ducts, achieving an even greater and fuller systemic healing.  The two protocols work in concert.

I will continue next post by describing the flush and my GAPS Plus protocol.  After that, I will be giving away a copy of Andreas Moritz's guide, The Liver and Gallbladder Miracle Cleanse.  In the meantime, I recommend that you read his book and become familiar with why you need to flush your liver and how to do it.  (Disclaimer:  I do not agree with Moritz's recommendation to vegetarianism/veganism.  It is not necessary to avoid gallstones, but a diet of nourishing Real Food is.  For the cleanse, however, it is important to avoid dairy and many heavy fats.  But more on that soon...)

For More Information

The Importance of Liver Flushing
Hulda Clark Information Center
Healing Your Gall Bladder

Radically Natural Recipe: (GAPS Friendly) Chocolate Mousse Super Snack

For an easy, delicious, nourishing treat, what could be more desirable than chocolate?  If you follow my blog, you undoubtedly have observed my little love affair with raw cacao and pastured butter.  My kids know what a butter pusher I am, LOL, and my middle son tells people that he values butter higher than money.  They echo my mantra, "More butter for everyone!"  And, "Butter builds brains!" Ah, how children make a mother proud!

And I lately find myself competing for the cacao stash, once the sole domain of mama.  But how can I deprive my wee ones (and big one) from the anti-oxidant-, magnesium-rich food that puts us in a good mood?  So chocolate mousse, puddings and "bites" have become a staple in our Real Food nourishing traditions.  And it's all guilt-free pleasure!

Treat yourself and your children to buttery chocolate goodness, and relax in the knowledge that you are building their bodies and feeding into their happiness!

Raw Cacao Cashew Mousse

This quick and easy "throw it together" concoction is similar to my fudge, but the ratios and temperature make it a mousse.  You can make this with any nut butter, but cashew is so creamy and mild that it makes this mousse melt-in-your-mouth amazing.  Be good to your health and spend the money on a high quality cashew butter, preferably raw (preferably sprouted, but that's really hard to find).  I use Artisana Raw Organic Nut Butters.  If you are doing GAPS, make sure you can: A) tolerate cacao (for advanced Full GAPS when regular bowels are being passed daily), and B) tolerate cashews (they are a legume, so could cause GI distress).

Mix by hand or with a hand mixer (for large batches) equal parts:

• Grass-fed butter
• Cashew butter
• Raw Organic Cacao Powder

With proportionally smaller equal parts of (I always eyeball...my general ratio is 1 to 4 herbs/spices to butter/cacao.  Add to your taste!):

• Cinnamon
• Maca Root Powder
• Vanilla Bean Powder

And raw organic honey to taste.  Start small and add more to avoid the cloyingly sweet honey flavor overpowering your chocolate.  You shouldn't taste the honey, you should taste chocolate.  (I think my ratio is 1 generous teaspoon honey to 1/4 cup cacao powder).

(Until December 1, enjoy 10% off cacao and vanilla products at LiveSuperfoods.com.    10% off cacao and vanilla category page: Use code CACAOSWEETS)

Avocado Chocolate Mousse

For a nut-free variation, use avocados and make a slightly fruity flavored mousse with an even fluffier texture.

With a hand mixer or in your blender, whip three or four very ripe avocados (not gross and moldy and stringy, but very soft with some brown spots).

Add and whip:

• 1/2 cup cacao powder
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1 teaspoon each of vanilla powder and cinnamon
• 1/3 cup honey

In either recipe you can substitute high quality coconut oil (raw, virgin, cold-pressed, never chemically extruded...the best you can afford).  It will change the flavor and the texture slightly.  Coconut oil is another excellent nourishing food, which I enjoy and use regularly...it's just not butter.  LOL

Enjoy!

For More Information

Oh, pastured butter...why do I love thee?  Let me count the ways...
The Benefits of Grass-Fed Butter
Why Butter Is Better
Vitamin K2: Grass-Fed Butter's X-Factor
X-Factor of Pastured Dairy
Fat Is Your Friend!!

Life without cacao? No thank you...  Just make it the real thing!
Cacao Nutrients
Properties of Chocolate and Raw Cacao
The Health Miracle of Cacao
Cacao: Amazing Superfood

Why stop here?  Let the nourishing chocolate flow...
Real Food Forager's Raw Cacao Bites
Radically Natural Fruity Fudge
GAPS Chocolate Pudding (we all need more gelatin!)

(If you purchase from links in this post, I may earn a small commission...and I thank you for your support!)

Radically Natural POV: Real Food Matters

[On the heels of attending the regional WAPF conference in Portland last month, I had every intention of summarizing my notes and writing about the highlights.  However, life got in the way, as usual.  So until I can concoct radically new material, I wanted to revitalize some older material, injecting my conference enthusiasm into the message.  This week I've been cogitating on how and why Real Food matters so much, for every aspect of our health...mental and physical.  I hope you consider how these truths can be practiced in your lives, or how you might share the gift of nourishing knowledge with others.]

You are what you eat. Trite? Perhaps. True? Absolutely!


What you put into your bodies determines whether you are well or ill. If you want to know why you and your children are sick, examine what you're ingesting (or breathing, or injecting). To build and preserve real health (and create healthy children), you must eat Real Food...pure, natural, unadulterated, honest-to-goodness FOOD.

What our industrialized food system has created is neither good, nor pure, nor even real food. Food cannot be industrially mass-produced without being corrupted. Modern farming practices, such as monoculture planting, hybridization, genetic engineering, animal concentration camps, unnatural animal dietary practices, synthetic fertilizers and chemical herbicides/fungicides/pesticides, etc. have raped the ground; depleted soil and plant nutrients; produced poison milk, eggs, and meat that cannot nourish; and severely damaged our food supply and our collective health.

Our grocery stores are ripe with industrially produced edible foodstuffs...frankenfoods and dead foods created by profitable and powerful corporations. Food comes out of mineral-rich, poison-free ground and the sea, not from a laboratory. Just because you can chew, swallow, and even enjoy a certain "food" item does not make that item Food. And it certainly does not make it rich with the nutrients your body desperately needs to create and maintain health. Fake foods cause malnutrition and chronic illness.

You must become an informed consumer. You must learn how to cook. Read labels and learn what they mean. Better yet, buy only real food ingredients and make your meals from scratch...like great-grandma did. Understand that Real Food costs real money...and it should. Government subsidies of non-nourishing industrial food has created a false expectation of cheap food and has robbed clean food farmers of fair wages.


Become a student of food politics. Learn why corn and soy are destructive to our land, water, and our health. Accept the horrifying truths about genetically modified foods and the agendas behind them, such as sterilizing corn. Understand why wheat and high gluten grains are not recognized by the body as food (hint: it's not because our bodies were designed wrongly, it's because the grains have been so manipulated that they are no longer digestible...they are certainly not the ancient grains humans were made to consume). Understand gut dysbiosis and how to overcome it, so you can partake of Real Food and be relieved of autoimmune disorders, brain chemistry disorders and chronic illness.


Awaken to the reality that we have been sold a "bill of goods" by the food and medical industries...that the lipid hypothesis is a debunked lie shackling millions of Americans to a low-fat, cholesterol-lowering drug lifestyle that is depriving their brains and hormones of essential nutrients and causing rampant autoimmune disorders. Cholesterol is absolutely essential to good health! Fat is your friend! Learn why a Real Food fertility diet is so essential to your future children's proper development and good health. Study the optimal nourishing diet for pregnancy and breastfeeding, and why mom's nutritional stores must be constantly supported...for her future health and that of future children. Understand the significance of "second child syndrome" and how to avoid it.  Investigate our rising infertility rates.

Study and understand the difference between truly organic Real Food and everything else (like the commercial sellout companies comprising Big Organics...when organic companies married themselves to the USDA, they began the downward slide of compromise). Eschew packaged and processed foods. Eat simply...fall in love with cooking...become familiar with traditional food preparation techniques that magnify nutrient density and improve digestibility. Embrace fat as the essential human nutrient. Buy properly cultivated fruits, vegetables, grains and animal products and learn how to prepare them for optimal nutrition and enjoyment. Eventually, you, too, as you peruse the store aisles, will routinely hear yourself saying, "That's not Real Food!" Hopefully you will learn to avoid those store aisles altogether.

In addition to providing life-giving and health-building nourishment, Real Food tastes so good! You may soon become a food snob of the highest order and be constantly gratified with the gourmet meals you can prepare and savor at home! You may become a connoisseur of ethnic foods and a student of flavor blending. Real Food is more than nourishing fuel...it is gustatory delight.

The Nourishing Traditions lifestyle is the diet we should adopt to be well, to thrive, to ensure proper physical development, and to reverse the malfunctions we suffer from eating the Standard American Diet. The best thing you can do today to begin reversing your health maladies and protecting your future health (and your children) is to never again consume fake fats (trans fats, vegetable oils), and to avoid soy (except for small amounts of traditionally fermented soy) and GMO corn (which is in almost everything if you eat processed foods).

Due in large part to the popularity of Sally Fallon's Nourishing Traditions and numerous Real Food bloggers, many people are becoming familiar with the important work of Weston Price. His vastly enlightening tome, Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, is a must-read for anyone desiring to understand why and how food creates and affects our health. The results of his research (compiled in the 1920s-1930s) are incredible! In a nutshell, Price travelled and studied native peoples’ diets worldwide. He compared their health, development and vitality on their traditional diets to that of their newly adopted “imported” diets (this was during the advent of U.S-produced processed/industrialized food).

Through years of interviews, research and examinations, Price discovered that when people consume industrialized, processed/refined foods, their health degenerates and their children’s physical development degrades. The generations reared on the traditional nourishing foods (including grass-fed animal meats and fats, including the offal, as well as whole seafoods for coastal peoples) possessed good bone structure, healthy teeth and vigorous immunity.  But the new generations being raised on imported processed foods had improperly developed facial bones, resulting in poor sinus and tooth palate development. The children had sinus malfunctions (stuffy nose syndrome, sinus infections, etc.) and their mouths couldn’t hold all their teeth, nor did the teeth develop properly. (Price was seeing the common modern dental problems we think are “normal” today). Also, the people on the “new” diet suffered from lowered immunity...another new development in their history. The children contracted illnesses they had never known before, such as tuberculosis. This is just the "tip" of the proverbial iceberg. Price's work is invaluable.

To learn more about the WAPF lifestyle, start with the following links:

A Message from Sally Fallon Morell
What's Wrong with Politically Correct Nutrition
Principles of Healthy Diets
Myths and Truths About Nutrition
Characteristics of Traditional Diets
The Weston Price Foundation Home Page

What we eat absolutely makes or breaks our health and our children’s proper development. And the quality of the plant foods, meat, eggs, and milk products that we consume is only as good as the diet given to the animal or the health of the ground. We can’t be properly nourished by animals who aren’t properly nourished or reared. Animals need to eat their natural diets and they need to live in natural environments. You won't get vitamin D from animal foods if the animals are confined inside all their lives. You won't get any vitamins or minerals or nutrients of significance if the animals don't consume them and the ground doesn't supply them. Dead soil and malnourished animals equals dead food. Supporting sustainable eco-agriculture and SOLE food (as much as possible) may seem like a tall order, but it is the only sane option in a world that offers synthetic "foods" that provide only malnourishment and disease.

To learn more about Real Food (what it is, why it is so essential, and how to prepare it), look at the reading recommendations on my Links and Library pages.  (This post is linked at Kelly's Real Food Wednesday carnival and FoodRenegade's Fight Back Friday.)

Radically Natural Recipe: GAPS Vanilla Fig Birthday Cake

The first week of October was my birthday, and my wonderful, number one son created this beautiful and delicious cake as a surprise gift.  It was scrumptious, and not just because my son baked it for me.  Here to share his recipe is my guest blogger, Caleb, 13:

The morning of my mother's birthday, I realized that I had not made a gift, gotten a card, or even baked a cake.  There was an idea!  Baking a cake was right there on the list of things I could do without help.  I got out the KitchenAid mixer, found a recipe, and started to bake.

Caleb's Gaps Vanilla Fig Cake

Preheat oven to 350º F

Melt 1/3 cup of butter.

Add 1/2 cup of raw honey to the melted butter.

Stir the melted honey and Butter well.

In the mixer, Beat 6 eggs.

Add in the honey/butter mixture.

Then add 1/4 tsp of salt and 1 Tbsp of pure vanilla extract.

Mix all ingredients well.

Add 1/2 cup of coconut flour and mix thoroughly.

Gently fold about 1 to 1 1/2 cups of chopped fresh (or dried) figs into the batter.

If the batter is too thin, add a little more coconut flour; it can't be too thin, it can't be too thick.

Pour batter into your muffin tins or cake pans.  (I use silicone muffin and cake pans. If you don't have silicone, I would suggest putting parchment paper in, or greasing with a lot of coconut oil or butter.)

Bake for 20 to 30 minutes or until a knife blade or toothpick comes out clean.

Vanilla Icing

Beat three room-temperature egg whites until foamy, or until soft peaks form.

Boil 1/2 cup of honey until it reaches the hard ball stage.

While beating the egg whites, add the boiling honey.

I really love this recipe.  I encourage you to play around with the spices.  Add some ginger, or cinnamon, or go for a spice cake with all the above and allspice and cloves!  The fun of baking never really ends.  When I was done with the cake, I cleaned up the whole kitchen so that it looked the same as before.  (I even faked some dirty dishes in the sink to make it really authentic!)  My little sister was so eager to eat the cake, she spilled the beans.  Mom was delighted nonetheless.  I love being in the kitchen, and am eager to get other kids cooking real food. 

Original recipe came from the Internal Bliss cookbook.  I added the figs.  Enjoy!

Radically Natural Recipe: Raw Cheesecake with Coconut Cacao Mousse

My family is still healing on the GAPS protocol; we each have different sensitivities, which makes baking quite a challenge.  One child does poorly with coconut, seeds and nuts, another with eggs, another with dairy.  As we have continued the protocol without cheating, however, we find issues steadily resolving.  That's real healing...slow and steady.

My challenge this week was to create a birthday cake for little princess that everyone could eat without too many flare ups.  We are all doing fairly well with small amounts of our raw goats' milk yogurt and raw cacao, so this delicacy was the winner!  (Because of our sensitivities, we do the cheesecake without crust.)

I always joke with my family about how it takes three days to make the cheesecake, but only three minutes for them to devour it.  I adapted the raw cheesecake recipe from Nourishing Traditions; the mousse is my own creation.  I often don't measure when creating in the kitchen, so bear with me.  LOL

Before making the raw cheesecake, you need to make raw cream cheese, which requires that you've previously made raw yogurt.  I make raw yogurt with our goat milk using Culture's for Health Villi yogurt culture. We love our yogurt...it is so mild and creamy.  Once you have yogurt, strain it to make cream cheese. 

I strain my yogurt in a reusable, washable nut milk bag suspended over a bowl.  In the past, I have used a cheesecloth lined strainer sitting on a bowl, and I have also used the hanging flour sack towel method.  I found both of those to be messier than the nut milk bags (particularly the towel method).  You can find the fine mesh nut milk bags on Amazon or ebay and other places online.  They are easy to use, easy to clean.  

To make your cream cheese, just pour your yogurt into the bag, secure the top with a rubber band and hang the bag (by the rubber band) on a cabinet pull.  (If using a towel, place yogurt in middle and gather ends up, securing with a couple rubber bands and hang.)  Place a bowl under the suspended bag.  The whey drips into the bowl and the yogurt becomes cream cheese.  Your straining time will vary depending upon relative humidity in your home; you want all the whey to drip from the cheese.  I find the process takes anywhere from four to eight hours, depending upon how thick or runny my yogurt is.  See photos below.

Empty yogurt into nut milk bag

Secure top of bag with rubber band and hang from cabinet

Allow whey to drip out completely

Raw Cheesecake (crust-free)

(Adapted from NT's Raw Cheesecake, page 566)

4 cups soft raw cream cheese (see above LOL)
4 pastured eggs, separated
1 cup raw milk
2 Tb. gelatin (I like Jensen's)
1/2 cup raw honey
1 Tb. raw Vanilla Powder
pinch sea salt
dash fresh organic lemon juice 

• Gently heat milk and egg yolks, stir in gelatin until dissolved, remove mixture from heat.
• In food processor (or blender), combine cream cheese with honey, vanilla, lemon.
• Add egg yolk mixture, blend until smooth.  Transfer to bowl, put in fridge.
• Beat egg whites until stiff (add pinch of salt, it helps firm up the whites), gently fold into cheese mixture.
• Pour cheesecake filling into ramekins.  Refrigerate for a few hours.
• Before serving, top with cacao mousse!

Coconut Cacao Mousse

Super easy, super delicious!  I warned you, though, I don't measure here...so I'll give you my best guess measurements based on eyeballing what I do.  Play with it, taste as you go...you can't fail with these ingredients!  When making a large batch, I use a handheld beater; smaller batches, I whisk.

In a bowl, mix together 1/2 cup each:

• Pastured butter, softened
• Coconut cream (I use Tropical Traditions), softened
• Raw Cacao Powder

With 1 heaping tablespoon each:

• Cinnamon
• Vanilla Bean Powder

And 1/4 cup raw honey (certainly measure and add honey to taste), plus a dash of sea salt to enhance the chocolate flavor.  Optionally, add a small spoonful of maca root powder, an adaptogenic herb/superfood rich in calcium, magnesium and B vitamins, that helps to balance hormones and increase energy. 

Keep the mousse at room temperature and top your cheesecake ramekins just before serving.  Enjoy!

This post is part of Kelly's Real Food Wednesday.  Check out the other wonderful treats featured at her carnival.

More about Maca Root and Adaptogenic Herbs

Maca: Adaptogenic Herb

Maca: History and Info

About Adaptogens

Adaptogenic Herb Chart

Benefits of Adaptogens

Skipping Intro Will Hamper Your Success with GAPS

If you don't do GAPS Intro, you aren't really doing GAPS...you're basically just eating paleo.  Believe me, I know Intro is a challenge.  But if you skip the "I eat, sleep, breathe, dream homemade soup from meat stock and bone broth" part of GAPS, you won't experience the complete healing that you seek.  The Intro portion of the GAPS protocol is where the lion's share of the gut healing work takes place.  The goal of the GAPS program is to heal the gut lining, destroy the malevolent pathogens living in your body, repopulate your beneficial flora, and detoxify your entire system.


GAPS Intro was designed to not only jump start the gut healing process and pinpoint food sensitivities, but to achieve particular healing actions that cannot be successfully accomplished otherwise.  McBride recommends that all GAPS participants complete Intro before moving to the "Full" portion of the protocol, but you can move through the stages of Intro at the pace you determine depending on your body's needs.  Full GAPS alone does not offer the intense detoxifying, healing processes of Intro.  

One of the cornerstones of the GAPS program is the diet of highly and easily digestible foods that will not further irritate an already compromised gut (the best of these is the mineral and collagen rich homemade stocks/broths).  Some foods allowed on the Full GAPS portion of the program are not highly digestible, such as greens, fried meats, coconut flour, dairy (even fermented), and are only appropriate for the person who has attained a good level of healing through the program.  Fibrous foods must be avoided during the initial healing stages.  Another extremely important component of GAPS Intro is the elimination of sugars (in the first few stages of Intro).  This aspect of the protocol allows your body to suffer (sorry, but anything worth doing is hard) the withdrawal necessary to begin massive pathogen die off (you're starving the nasty things) and to cleanse your body of sugar cravings/addictions.  The amazing part is how aware you will become of just how addicted to sugars you were.  

To begin the program of gut healing, we eat only the most digestible foods, which is why the Intro portion is composed of quickly and highly digestible, gentle healing foods.  Intro is an excellent elimination diet, which is essential to healing food allergies.  Intro also works to reseal the injured gut lining, repairing the leaky gut dilemma contributing to food allergies.  Intro is a highly detoxifying diet, allowing your body to shed toxins in stored fat and the liver and colon, etc., and flush them from your system.  To understand more about GAPS Intro, why you need it and what to expect, please read the summary I wrote on the topic.

Intro is incredibly healing, so much so that it is an effective treatment for cold and flu.  We've all heard by now that homemade broth and soup is potent natural medicine.  [Anytime a GAPS participant (or anyone, for that matter) suffers a physiological trauma or a nasty viral bug, etc, a return to Intro for a week will strengthen the body, bringing about systemic healing and homeostasis, returning one to wellness.]

The Intro portion of GAPS does work that cannot be achieved by simply following the Full GAPS diet or by eating paleo or "no carb."  The methodical steps of the Intro stages help your compromised body to shed toxins, to experience a great deal of pathogen die off, to begin the gut sealing process, to identify food allergens...it is an excellent colon cleanse.  Without the step-by-step process involved, your healing journey will take much longer and may not be concluded successfully.  Intro is necessary for maximum and complete healing.

As you move from Intro into Full GAPS, your body has already begun a significant amount of healing and you are avoiding the foods that you have identified to be problematic.  You have learned to be keenly body aware.  If you remain dedicated to the program as it is designed, you will continue to experience healing day by day.  Foods you may not be able to consume in the beginning of your GAPS journey should become available to you as you continue the work.  During your time in Full GAPS, you will likely still have some die off as you correctly balance your flora, and you will continue to seal your gut lining, allowing you to heal from food sensitivities.  This only happens, though, if you continue with the homemade stocks/broths/soups full of healing gelatin and minerals, and if you eat homemade fermented foods (like sauerkraut).  The soup is the lifeblood of the GAPS program, and the genuine fermented foods are crucial to re-establishing flora balance.


I know many bloggers have been talking about GAPS, explaining it, sharing experiences with the program.  I think that's wonderful; the more people sharing, the better.  But if you want to successfully heal through the GAPS program, you really should read McBride's book for yourself, and The GAPS Guide (I believe there is an updated version available on her blog).  Even on Full GAPS, you are supposed to be eating homemade soup and homemade fermented foods daily.  Otherwise, you're not doing GAPS.  

Healing sensitivities and allergies...sealing and healing the gut, obliterating malevolent pathogens, is an important process.  Healing neurological maladies caused by toxic overload and gut pathogens is an important process.  Resolving toxicity and achieving lifelong wellness is an important process.  We need to be sure we are performing the process correctly so we don't continue to drag out our healing journey or continue to suffer needlessly.  Believe me, I empathize completely with how difficult the process can be.  But the end results are so worthwhile!

To learn more:
Natasha McBride's site
GAPS Guide site
GAPS Diet site
Simple GAPS Intro Summary
GAPS Protocol Summary

Radically Natural Recipe: Indulgent, Nourishing, Healing (GAPS-friendly) Cacao Bites (aka Chocolates!)

I have the best husband in the world.  I'm sure many of you ladies would say the same (that you have the best husband in the world, not that mine is, LOL), but I need to sing the praises of my man.  I happen to be 13 weeks pregnant.  I suffered a miscarriage in September, but to my shock found myself pregnant again soon after.  I have a history of infertility (my stint with veganism didn't help), miscarriages and rather uncomfortable pregnancies.  So while we are ecstatic about this newest child, we are being cautiously optimistic at this point.  My pregnancy this time is typical of my other successful pregnancies, though, meaning I'm sick, sick, sick (9 month stomach flu, anyone?)...but on the bright side, I'm keeping most of my food down, which is an improvement over past pregnancies (thanks to GAPS).  


Anyway, lllooOOOonnnngGGgg intro here, sorry...the point is that dear hubby asked last week what he could do to help lift my spirits amongst all my tummy misery.  I jokingly told him that if he could find me some raw cacao truffles made only with pure Real Food ingredients of cacao, honey, herbs, spices and salt, he'd be my hero.  Well, he already was, but the man never fails to amaze me.  My sweetie surprised me this week with a box of nothing less than the finest, most delicious, healthy, Real Food raw cacao truffles!

If you are in the mood to splurge, please check out Zorba's raw chocolates and order some nourishing cacao goodness for yourself!  Oregon chocolatier Todd Bjornson is as passionate about the health benefits of raw cacao as he is about crafting delicious, beautiful and nutritious Real Food chocolates.  The coconut and rose truffles are amazing.  I'm sure they are all fabulous, but those are the ones I nibbled and instantly fell in love with!

But if you're like me, and you want to be able to make your own Real Food chocolates, any time of the day or night, I've got a recipe for you.  OK, these are not soft-centered flavor-nuanced truffles, but they are pretty good little chocolate bites (if I do say so myself).  Similar recipes abound on the web, and the following is my version.

Who doesn't like chocolate, right? (OK, I'm sure you're out there, but don't rain on my parade, LOL.)  This simple recipe guarantees guilt-free, healthy, even medicinal chocolate that will delight the palette of any family member.  (If you are in the advanced stages of healing on the full GAPS diet, this recipe should work for you; test a small amount on yourself and see how you respond.)

Full of good fats, nutrient-rich raw cacao, potassium-rich raw honey, gut-friendly cinnamon and the optional healing/nutrient herb or berry powders, these homemade dark chocolates are indulgent and comforting, as well as rich...a little bit goes a long way!  Hubby and I have an affinity for "Mexican chocolate," hence the cinnamon and cayenne.  But, as always, I encourage you to experiment with this recipe and its ratios...make it your own!  

Raw Cacao Bites

[I use a digital scale to measure ounce ingredients]

5 oz. organic cacao butter 
3 oz. raw cacao powder 
2 tsp. organic cinnamon powder
1 tsp. organic vanilla extract (make your own)
2 Tb. + raw honey (add more to taste...I like fairly dark chocolate)

Flavor and nutrient options (add to above):
Coarse mineral rich salt (such as Alaea or pink Himalayan)

.5 oz. herbal/berry powder*

pinch (I'm not kidding) of high heat unit organic cayenne powder
1-2 Tb. butter (this adds a creamy carmel taste/texture...melt with cacao butter)

*The addition of an herbal powder will add botanical medicine and increased nutrients to your chocolates.  You can add more than the amount I suggested, but beware that the addition of too much powder will make your chocolates grainy.  Also, some herbal powders are quite bitter, so you may need to add more honey to taste.  I like to use camu camu for its vitamin C content, or bilberry for its vascular healing properties.  The choices are endless.  Check Mountain Rose Herbs or Live Superfoods for herbal powder ideas.  (Live Superfoods also carries raw cacao powder and cacao butter.)

Technique: 
Gently melt cacao butter over very low heat in double boiler.  Add powders, vanilla and honey, and whisk smooth.  When everything is well incorporated and liquefied, pour into silicone molds (at the bottom of which you have sprinkled a bit of the coarse salt), allow to cool at room temperature or place in refrigerator.  Do not place in freezer, as you will cause undesirable bloom to develop on your chocolates.  

When heating your ingredients, stay under 118º to keep it raw and maintain optimum nutrients (you can check with an instant thermometer).  Why raw cacao?  Well check out its nutrient profile: Raw cacao is high in magnesium, anti-oxidants(!!!), and wonderfully healing hormone enhancers.

Rather than cacao butter, you can use coconut oil, but I've tried both and prefer the cacao butter for taste and texture.  I find that my coconut oil is rich in coconut flavor, sometimes overwhelming the chocolate essence, and coconut oil does melt in your hands faster than cacao butter.  Coconut oil also has a slightly greasier, and less pleasant "toothsome" texture than does cacao butter.  But you can try either fat, or mix them...your preference.  I also don't use carob powder because it is a starchy legume (GAPS illegal), lacks the true flavor of chocolate, and is deficient in those powerful raw cacao anti-oxidants.

Yes, cacao contains theobromine, an alkaloid that has stimulating properties similar to but milder than caffeine.  But theobromine has beneficial effects, such as enhancing circulation, and does not contain the adrenal-draining and addictive properties of caffeine.  In my opinion, moderate amounts of raw cacao are nourishing and medicinally beneficial.  I don't let my kids overdo it, just as I limit their intake of raw honey.  These Real Foods are nutrient-rich, but can be stimulating and should be monitored as a minimal part of the diet.  But we all need a treat, and if we're going to treat ourselves we should do it with delicious, nutritious, body beneficial Real Foods!

[Linked at Kelly's Real Food Wednesday carnival...check out the other great posts!]

Winners of Deep Nutrition Giveaway and a Disclaimer

Thanks to all of you who participated in the Radical Reading Room Deep Nutrition giveaway.  The winners, Katy and Sarah, will receive their books soon.

Someone this week rightly pointed out to me that Sally Fallon, in the Fall 2012 issue of Wise Traditions, the WAPF journal, gave a reluctant thumbs down to Shanahan's book with a lengthy critique.  I've read Fallon's critique and I do agree with some of her concerns, but not all.  When I read Deep Nutrition, I certainly didn't agree with every point or assertion Shanahan made, but I don't agree with everything Fallon says, either.  Few of us will agree with 100% of what we read, no matter the source.  That's why we need to read many books on a topic to build a body of knowledge, rather than relying on one or two sources.  Overall, I think both WAPF and Shanahan (and other traditional nutrition authors) have wonderful information to share with the public about how to nourish ourselves and be well.


I do just want to address one flaw in Shanahan's book that Fallon points out...Shanahan recommends that if you cannot get raw grass-fed milk, it's OK to drink pasteurized commercial milk.  This is absolutely bad advice.  But then, even Fallon says in Nourishing Traditions that if you can't get raw grass-fed milk that it's OK to buy pasteurized milk for culturing or whole milk yogurt.  I can't agree with that wholeheartedly. (More on that below.)  If you do not have access to raw grass-fed milk, you should not drink any milk at all.  Commercial dairy is dangerous for health and development.  More than any other food, cow's milk is highly sensitizing and leads to autoimmune and hormonal disorders.  Industrial pasteurized milk is deleterious; aside from the major problems with its calcium and protein content, commercial milk sources will be coming from drugged, grain-fed cows and is full of synthetic vitamins (like liver toxin D2) and deodorizers; the milk fat is destroyed and rendered indigestible by homogenization.  Commercial dairy cows are not fed a healthy, natural diet, nor always treated humanely.  We should not in any way support the industry.  Commercial dairy, even Organic, is bad news and should be avoided. (Remember, most Organic milk comes from grain-fed confinement operations and is ultra-pasteurized, making it ultra-dead and ultra-indigestible.)

I also agree with Fallon that Shanahan shouldn't be including soy as part of a healthy diet, and that some of her nutrient information seems contradictory or incomplete.  I think Fallon's criticism of the images used in Shanahan's book is a bit too picky.  The pictures help to illustrate the points that are being made and I feel they do it well.  Not every photo was of a celebrity, and Shanahan is a young woman appealing to a crowd familiar with pop culture, so the choices didn't seem too odd.  Also, to the criticism that Shanahan should have used Price's photos to illustrate her points and mentioned Price and his work more, I want to offer a conjecture.  As a fellow writer, and I'm really just guessing here, I can imagine that Shanahan wanted to put a unique spin on the material...to make Deep Nutrition her own fresh work.  It seems to me that she does build upon Price's foundation and others who have helped to pioneer the truth about traditional nutrition, but she doesn't speak extensively about them, nor copy them.

I do not necessarily agree with Fallon's criticism of Shanahan's genetics assertions and her message that we can re-establish good health through traditional foods.  I have experienced and witnessed many instances of correcting chronic illness and autoimmune disorders through significant lifestyle and dietary changes.  I have personally experienced a mild version "second sibling syndrome" with my second child, but through a dedicated nourishing diet and toxin-free lifestyle, the trend was reversed with our third.  

I will never claim to know how much of our genetics we can change, how many alterations we can make in our children's anatomy and physiology, and how quickly it can be done.  But I am certain that none of us understands completely the potential of powerful traditional foods and herbs on our health and our future children's health.  The human body is a wonderfully designed organism that has incredible rejuvenating powers when treated correctly.  No scientist on earth understands all there is to know about our bodies.  The more we think we understand all the "science," the more we realize we have much to learn.  

No author, no scientist, no healer is perfect.  We are always learning and growing.  Perhaps Shanahan will rework her message and her advice in future writings.  But in the end, she is a staunch supporter of the traditional foods movement, as is Fallon, and I think we can all benefit from reading and studying and sifting all these materials.  Ultimately, we're on the same team and we need to work together.

Enough said, time to close.  I will be taking some time away from the blog as I work through some personal needs.  I may write sporadically or not at all for a little while.  I hope you all enjoy a healthy and happy winter.  It would be so nice to hibernate and awake to a world where truth was valued over PR and profit, where Monsanto was outlawed and people would stop believing the rubbish that GMOs are safe and needed to "feed the world," where vaccine pushers were jailed instead of raw milk sellers, and where armed thugs (aka government agents) no longer threaten good citizens with force (like Real Food farmers) yet tell the public we don't need the right to defend ourselves against aggression.  [If you haven't done so yet, please watch Farmageddon...it's a troubling eye opener.]

Well, a girl can dream.

***
Brief discussion on pasteurized yogurt and butter.  I know that my position on milk seems hardcore, and I understand that people feel they need to compromise at times.  Because I have repeatedly seen and studied the serious health detriments caused by commercial milk, I cannot emphasize enough that the milk you choose to drink and feed your children is the most important food decision you will make.  When it comes to drinking milk, only raw grass-fed should be chosen, as discussed above (with links).  

Butter and yogurt are a slightly different discussion, and deserve their own post, but not today, LOL.  

Eating pasteurized butter is not quite as dangerous as drinking pasteurized milk, but source matters.  Butter is almost entirely fat, which negates the problem of industrial milk proteins.  But beware commercial butter made from homogenized milk (call companies and ask about the process), which greatly reduces the nutrients in the fat and its digestibility.  If you cannot buy raw grass-fed butter (California residents can mail order from Organic Pastures), just be sure to purchase pastured butter (such as Kerrygold or Organic Valley pastured).  Kerrygold butter claims that it is not homogenized and is minimally pasteurized.  Organic Valley also sells non-homogenized products.  If you are eating typical grocery store butter that is pale to nearly white, you are not consuming nutrients and are probably not consuming good fats.  

Yogurt is another potential can of worms.  Again, source and process matters.  Storebought yogurts are notorious for being bereft of live active probiotic cultures.  Most brands pasteurize after "culturing" (and even that process is questionable as to its efficacy), killing any beneficial bacteria.  We cannot rely on commercial yogurts to contain viable probiotics.  Any "benefit" you hope to achieve from cultured flora that may lessen the deleterious effects of the adulterated milk is nil.  Your best bet is to culture your own yogurt, particularly using a non-heat method.  You can purchase cultures from Cultures for Health; I recommend the Villi culture for raw yogurt.  Again, using industrial milk to make your yogurt will subject you to all the same problems that exist with that milk, so be aware of the potential downsides.  If you choose to purchase yogurt, avoid the low fat variety, and try to contact the company to get information on their probiotic culture source and their yogurt culturing process; only live active cultures will do you any good.  Even if your purchased yogurt carries that claim, call the company and do some homework.  Also, never eat yogurt (or any food) that contains added flavorings and colors...that's not food at all.

Radically Natural Reading Room: Deep Nutrition Giveaway

My readers likely understand by now that I am not fond of the conventional allopathic medical system. My years of study and experience in these realms have convinced me that the modern medical system may have useful diagnostic tools, but their hopelessly limited and sometimes fraudulent paradigm (fed by conventional medical school training) do not provide MDs with the necessary tools for understanding causality and providing cure. 

But every so often I encounter an “outside the box” enlightened unconventional doctor whose work I appreciate and recommend to others. Cate Shanahan is one such doctor. It is obvious that she refused to remain inside the limited paradigm her medical education provided. In her entertaining and easily accessible book, Deep Nutrition: Why Your Genes Need Traditional Food, Shanahan explains, in layman’s terms, the science behind a truth I have been longing for our culture to accept: You can change your DNA. You are not the fatalistic victim of “set in stone” genetics as much as you are of the choices you make about what goes into your body. Shanahan shows how you “create and preserve genetic wealth.”



I believe Deep Nutrition is a basic primer on health, wellness, disease prevention and essential nutrition. Every American family should have a dogeared copy on the shelf. Because I am so encouraged by the wisdom and honest science that Shanahan has shared, I am giving away two copies (to two different readers) of Deep Nutrition in this month’s Reading Room installment. By way of introduction to Shanahan’s perspective on the medical industry and human wellness, I share an excerpt from her epilogue:

When I interviewed with the chief of family medicine at a large medical corporation on the West Coast he explained that, since he was part of a team of people who arranged for pharmaceutical companies to issue cash grants, he was in a position to offer me a particularly enticing salary.

“What are the grants for?” I asked.

“We have a quality improvement program that tracks physician prescribing patterns. We call it ‘quality’ but it’s really about money.”

And that’s all it’s about. It works like this. In his organization, any patient with LDL cholesterol over 100 is put on a cholesterol lowering medication. Any person with a blood pressure higher than 140/90 is put on a blood pressure medication. [my note: It’s important to understand that these “diagnostic” numbers have been lowered over the years so more prescriptions could be pushed. Read Selling Sickness.] Any person with “low bone density” is put on a bone-remodeling inhibitor. And so on. The doctors who prescribe the most get big bonuses. Those who prescribe the least get fired. With a hint of incredulousness in his voice he explained, “So far, every time we’ve asked for funding for our program, the drug companies give it to us.” If this is where healthcare is headed, then these hybrid physician/executives will instinctively turn their gaze to our children and invent more creative methods to bulldoze an entire generation into the bottomless pit of chronic disease.

Merck CEO Henry Gadsen’s 30-year-old dream was to make healthy people buy drugs they didn’t really need. But he was dreaming small. What I see happening now is more sinister, more profitable, and promises to have longer-lasting repercussions than merely creating diagnoses that lead to unnecessary prescriptions. What I see is a massive campaign of nutrition-related disinformation that has reordered our relationship with food and reprogrammed our physiologies. Industry has moved past selling sickness and learned how to create it. Whether by intent or simply fortuitous coincidence, today’s definition of a healthy diet enables corporations to sell us cheap, easily stored foods that will put more money in their pockets and more people in the hospital. By denying our bodies the foods of our ancestors and severing ourselves from our culinary traditions, we are changing our genes for the worse. Just as corporations have rewritten the genetic codes of fruits and vegetables to better suit their needs, they are now in effect doing the same things to us.

But there’s one thing they’ve overlooked. Fruits and vegetables can’t fight back. We can.

Exactly! Thank you Cate, for so succinctly and convincingly sharing your testimony of the truth about the fraudulent medical and food industries. I really enjoy reading a holistic-thinking MD with integrity! I hope Shanahan’s message will get through to the fence sitters who are still content to trust the conventional system.

Deep Nutrition covers a lot of excellent territory without overwhelming the reader. Shanahan explains the science of how your genes change (epigenetics) and she exposes the truth behind why we’ve ended up with distasteful genetic soup, and what we can do to alter it. Building on the pillar of traditional nourishing foods, Shanahan shows why good fat is your body’s best friend, why sugar is its enemy, and why calorie restriction is not the key to losing weight. She discusses nutrition and physical degeneration, skin and bone formation, and why our children are being robbed of healthy anatomical and physiological development. All moms should understand and embrace these truths, and will be fascinated and admonished by the facts of second sibling syndrome and more. Shanahan echoes the work of Price in his native physical degeneration studies, but her book is far more digestible for most readers. If you have desired to read Nutrition and Physical Degeneration (a must-read) but have not been able to do so, start with Shanahan’s Deep Nutrition.

Please use the Rafflecopter widget below to enter to win a copy of Deep Nutrition. Tell your friends. If I’ve set up the widget correctly, LOL, you’ll just need to answer a simple question. I will have Rafflecopter randomly select two winners at the end of the week. 

This post is linked to Kelly the Kitchen Kop's Real Food Wednesday Carnival.  Check it out!
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If You Still Need a Visual to Understand the Factory Farm System...

I love this creative portrayal of life in a factory farm.  The video was produced for Animals Australia, a project hoping to end the factory farm system.  Maybe it's a bit "over-emotional," maybe it feeds into the vegan agenda (I absolutely agree animal cruelty is outrageous.  I believe farmers should practice honorable animal husbandry, treating animals with respect and giving them nourishing, happy lives.  But I'm convinced we need to eat animals to be fully healthy...sorry vegans, we part ways there).  


But the message is compelling and the truth is undeniable:  factory farms are NOT the place from where your food should come.  Choose SOLE food instead!  (Sustainable, organic, local, ETHICAL.)  Bravo to FSM and Animals Australia!

And if you need more convincing, consider the ugly example that most industrial pork is contaminated with pathogenic bacteria.  Don't eat it if you care about your health.  Don't eat any industrial foods... animal or otherwise...if you care about your health.  Remember, Americans have access to and eat more "edible foodstuffs" than people anywhere else in the world, yet we suffer from more malnourishment, obesity and chronic illness than any other culture.  You are what you eat.  Garbage in, garbage out.  You don't have to suffer, and neither do the animals you eat.  Support small farms that produce Real Food...sustainably, healthily, humanely.



Animals Australia - Pigs fly. And sing. With chickens. from FSM on Vimeo.

Check Out Your "Organic" Milk Production...

The pictures say it all.  For anyone still convinced that Organic commercial milk is the way to go, take a look at the photo story of one of Horizon Farm's milk facilities.

The Cornucopia Institute Visits Horizon Family Farms in Idaho

The milk is coming from primarily confined, grain-fed cows living in less-than-pristine conditions.  It's no wonder the dairy industry and the CDC is so adamant that milk be uber-pasteurized and denatured...covering up the dirty dairy industry takes a lot of manipulations.  But the Organic dairy industry is far superior, right?  I'm not convinced...and I hope you aren't either.


Check out these dairy CAFO photos and then google some more.  As others have pointed out before me, USDA Organic dairy usually comes from "big dairy" factory farms.  

As shared in a blog post from the New England Cheese Making Supply Company:

In her wonderful book, "Milk: The Surprising Story of Milk Through the Ages," Anne Mendelson makes four points about organic milk: 

1. The vast majority of organic milk comes from 3 or 4 large producers owned by vast agribusiness conglomerates.  Each one has several thousand cows.  The milk travels thousands of miles from these places to your supermarket.
2. Most of these farms depend on the same breeding and feeding methods as their conventional counterparts- the cows are fed high energy rations to increase production, they are milked 3 times/day, and they are given as little grazing time as they can get away with.  

(Until now, the regulations referred vaguely to  "access to pasture" without spelling out how much or how little.  Recently, this regulation was clarified to require that the cows spend a minimum of 120 days outside during the growing season.  There is some question about if and how it will be enforced.)

1. The milk is separated and homogenized the same way it is done in the other large companies-traveling through miles of pipes to have its fat molecules broken up into tiny pieces.
2. Worst of all, most organic milk is ultra-pasteurized so it can be transported long distances without spoiling.  By the time it arrives at the store, it may be a week old.  (Of course, this hardly matters because there is virtually no good bacteria left in it to cause it to spoil.)

[Don't forget that ultra-pastuerized means ultra-dead (no enzymes), ultra-deficient (in nutrients) and ultra-indigestible.] 

The above post was written two years ago.  Do you think the dairy industry, including USDA Organic dairy has gotten cleaner since then?  Do the cows below look like grass-fed, clean, well-cared-for cows from which you will receive nutrient-rich Real Milk?

The government tells us that raw milk isn't safe.  Well, in part, that's true.  Raw milk from the conventional dairy industry is NOT safe.  They know it, regulators know it, and we should know it, too.  No one should drink raw milk coming from unnaturally raised, grain-fed cows confined in their own feces.  But the kind of family farm raw milk we Real Foodies recommend is not dairy industry milk.  When the CDC, FDA, USDA, et al. tell the public that raw milk is dangerous and should be illegal, they are lumping together all the known dirty milk from the dairy industry with the good, Real Food grass-fed raw milk from small, responsible producers.  And that, my friends, is cheating.  Isn't it interesting that the only farm crop more legislated than raw milk is marijuana?  Milk...marijuana...milk...marijuana.  Really?!  

The only safe, nourishing, Real Milk available is raw, grass-fed whole milk (yes, drink it with the cream) from small family farms.  If you can't get it, you really shouldn't be drinking milk.  The alternative is not going to do your body good.

Photo Courtesy of CARE, Washington State.

Photo by High Country News

Photo Courtesy of CARE, Washington State.

Skim Milk Is Not a Nourishing Food

The fraudulent "lipid hypothesis" that has given our culture (good) fat phobia since the 1950s...and done wonders for the food and drug industry...has perpetuated the myth that butter is bad and that skim milk is healthy.  Au contraire!  Skim milk is not a nourishing food.  If you aren't drinking whole (raw grass-fed) milk, you aren't doing your body good.

The essential nutrients in milk is in its fat.  Cream from grass-fed cows is rich in vitamins A, D3, and K2 (industrial pasteurized milk is "fortified" with synthetic vitamin D2, known to be toxic to the liver).  Real milk's vitamins (A, D, E, K) and its CLA (conjugated linoleic acid) are fat-soluble, and are transmitted via the cream (they exist in the fat of the milk)...and they cannot be absorbed, nor utilized, without the fat.   Low-fat (commercial) milk is always supplemented with vitamins, because they are naturally missing after the milk's processing.


Saturated fat is an essential human nutrient.  It builds and strengthens multiple bodily systems, hormones and organs, including the brain and the heart.  Inefficient saturated fat intake is a major factor in the modern epidemic scourge of chronic disease and endocrine disruption in our culture.

I've had people tell me that they can't (won't) drink whole milk...they don't like "creamy" milk.  This is the ubiquitous adverse palette programming of two generations being raised on skim or reduced fat milk, the unfortunate result of the food industry's "fat is bad" mantra.  If you will not retrain your palette to consume whole milk, at least do not relegate your children to the same nutrient-deficient fate.

[In fact, one of the reasons I prefer goat's milk is its natural homogenization.  Not well suited for butter making, but excellent for drinking, goat milk is smooth, creamy, satisfying and sweet.  Yes, sweet...we've had people say our goat milk doesn't taste at all like "goat" milk.  I'm sure this factor varies depending on breed and feed, but we have found that keeping bucks away from the property helps immensely.  I've also heard you should not let your goat milk sit for more than 4 days in the fridge without consumption, as the fats will develop that "goaty" aroma.  We have not experienced that, though...we consume our milk rather quickly and make yogurt.]

So, if you want your kids to benefit from healthy brain development, strong bones, vital cardio systems, fully functioning hormones, thriving guts, well-developed collagen and cushioned joints, feed them good fats...lots of them!  Certainly, you want them to receive and absorb body-building essential vitamins and minerals.  So, Don't Skim the Milk!  (Unless you're making butter, in which case, you could pour the skim milk onto the earth in your garden for microbial benefit of the soil.)

Why Skim Milk Isn't as Healthy as You May Think

Rethinking Skim Milk

Secrets of Skim Milk