Gluten Free

For the past two months I have avoided eating simple, processed carbohydrates (crackers, breads pastas, etc).  My intention was to try to improve my blood glucose levels by avoiding foods that caused short-term spikes.  The good news is without these simple carbohydrates, my blood sugar levels have been in a very narrow range, and I have felt great. 

Grilled Bratwurst and Squash in Tomato Feta Sauce

Like most of you, I have a recipe for what I consider a go-to meal.  This is a meal I can put together for our family or for company on short notice with confidence it will be well received.  My go-to meal is “Grilled Bratwurst and Squash in Tomato Feta Sauce.”

Garden Planning Already?

This week we officially entered the winter season; however my mind has already moved ahead to spring, or at least to my plans for a spring garden.  Some of you may also be thinking about starting a garden.  For me, the trigger is the arrival of all of the colorful vegetable seed catalogs; the ones that make you lust for the first juicy tomato of the season or a freshly dug new potato.    Flipping through the catalogs in front of the fire on a cold day is my tonic for winter-time blues.

Are You Vitamin D Deficient?

I was.

How many of you are supplementing with vitamin D?  Are you taking cod liver oil?  Have you ever tested your blood serum levels of vitamin D? 

More than likely, if you aren’t getting vitamin D from the sun or from supplementation, you are deficient.

To illustrate the point, here are the results of my two vitamin D tests during the past year.  In December 2009, I tested after consuming a daily dose of 2000 IU of vitamin D from cod liver oil (CLO).  Any residual benefit from the summer sunshine had already worn off.  My level was a woeful 22 ng/mL, which put me at borderline deficient, but actually higher than most Americans.  Without a doubt, I have spent most of my life below the 22 ng/mL level, except during the summer.    

My second measurement was taken four months later (April 2010) after adding a daily dose of 5000 IU to the 2000 IU I was getting from CLO.  My test results indicated that I had brought up my level to 46 ng/mL, a much more appropriate result.

Keeping a Family Cow

In late 2009 we made a major addition to our family.  We purchased Penny, a young Jersey heifer that had been bred a few months earlier.  A heifer is a female bovine that has yet to give birth to a baby calf.  Our choice of a Jersey was based on their reputation for providing milk rich in butterfat and for their gentle disposition.   

What’s For Dinner: Pork Rillettes

Tonight we are having pork rillettes:  chunks of pork, slow cooked in lard, seasoned, and shredded.  They are divine!

The recipe I am using is an adaptation of one found in my favorite cookbook, The River Cottage Meat Book by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.   In Hugh’s recipe, he uses 1lb of pork shoulder and 1lb of pork belly; however I am using a 3 pound pork shoulder and no belly. 

My So-Called Healthy Diet – Part Three

It has been interesting to read the stories of other vegetarians that have returned to eating meat and animal products.  The Vegetarian Myth by Lierre Keith is one such story, as is this one by Chris Masterjohn.   Like these people, our family is seeking a diet that is consistent with thousands of years of human experience, experience that is intertwined with all living things, plant and animal.

Without a doubt, the health of my family has improved since we embraced the principles suggested by the research of Dr. Price.  Key elements of our diet are as follows:

My So-Called Healthy Diet – Part Two

My opinions about a healthy diet have been influenced by family, friends, school, television, and things I have read.    However,  much of the basis for that influence has been provided by large, bureaucratic institutions and agencies like the American Medical Association, the American Heart Association, the Food and Drug Administration, and the US Department of Agriculture to name a few.  

In spite of our reverence for the institutions listed above, it would serve us well to remember the following:  These are the same institutions that once said hydrogenated, trans-fats are safe, that second-hand cigarette smoke poses no health risks, and that high fructose corn syrup is no more harmful than cane sugar.

Is it possible that nutritional public policy has more to do with finding uses for the crops we grow versus what historically has provided for a healthy diet?  Is it possible that the pharmaceutical industry bases drug research on opportunities that have the highest profit potential versus what may improve human health?  Is it possible that we have been led astray? 

Below is a collection of the conventional wisdom (CW) of our nutritional experts contrasted with the long history of human eating as suggested by Nourishing Traditions:

My So-Called Healthy Diet – Part One

Over my lifetime, I have changed my eating habits fairly dramatically on two occasions.  From my childhood until my early thirties, I ate what would likely be described as the Standard American Diet (SAD).  I often ate fast food, drank lots of sugary sodas, and snacked on supermarket junk food.  However, I was always the skinny kid.  When I reached my current height of 6’2” at age 16, I weighed 129 lbs.  It wasn’t until after college that I gained any meaningful amount of weight.  Even as an adult, the heaviest I have ever weighed was 186 lbs.

Chicken or the Egg

For the last four years, we have owned a flock of chickens:  a good thing as our family eats about three or four dozen eggs each week.  Occasionally we will raise a few chickens for meat; however, most are kept to provide eggs. 

Our chickens are not pets, but they do have a pretty good life.  The chickens live on grass and are sheltered in a moveable coop every night.

In addition to the eggs, the chickens provide our garden with free fertilizer and they eat bugs and stray weed seeds.  At some point, I will post about how the chickens are managed, but today I want to focus on the eggs.