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Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Fresh the movie - bring back the dignity to farmers!!!

This inspires me - free to watch until tomorrow Feb, 1:
http://www.freshthemovie.com/watch-fresh-streaming-1-week-only/?key=22371672

And what a debater! See how she kills every traditional argument of the interviewing journalist
http://blip.tv/play/AYGFriQC.html?p=1

This was not on youtube, so I couldn't embed - darn blogspot!

Gluten sensitivity

With respect to what I wrote about yesterday, I just found a very suitable article to sooth my frustrations.

Here's the link:
 http://www.washingtonian.com/articles/people/22277.html

And curiously enough, someone else, commenting the article, has experienced the same frustration as I with regards to doctor knowledge about this intolerance:

 "Myself and my daughter were both diagnosed with Celiac Disease, but my son tested negative. He, however, had worse symptoms than my daughter, so we tried him on the GF diet as well, and it worked wonders.

The doctor’s reaction, however, was the opposite of helpful. When my daughter was diagnosed, they mentioned the GF diet but otherwise weren’t worried about any other health complication that might exist because of the disease. When I took my son off of gluten, suddenly I was endangering his health. They wanted to check his vitamin levels and recheck his height and growth, because the gluten free diet was so unnecessary and dangerous for someone who ’didn’t need it.’ If he didn’t have celiac disease, as far as they were concerned, whatever improvements we were seeing were imaginary and any actions we took were irrational.

And I think that view from doctors is greatly impacting the diagnosis of conditions like Gluten Intolerance. It’s that attitude that if a few tests won’t diagnose the problem, then it’s all in a patient’s head. It almost makes one want to go back in time, to when a patient’s symptoms were still considered a valid part of the diagnostic process rather than a piece of data that is frequently viewed as suspect."

Butternut squash soup

I've never tried butternut squash before. It´'s a new ingredient on the shelves here in Finland.  The squash had been laying in the fridge for almost 2 weeks, so today I decided to do something about that, mostly because the planned blood cooking session (more on that in a later post) had to be abandoned since I had forgot to take out the blood from the freezer. Well instead I used up the last organic chicken bone broth for this delicious dish, found at http://www.foodnetwork.com/ (great stuff if you know how to replace the grains and sugar with something else). Kids loved it, and we topped it with some smoked salmon to get some extra proteins. Definately a keeper in my search for fast and furious cooking inspiration!

Ingredients

  • 1 (2 to 3 pound) butternut squash, peeled and seeded
  • 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 1 medium onion, chopped
  • 6 cups chicken stock
  • Nutmeg
  • Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions

Cut squash into 1-inch chunks. In large pot melt butter. Add onion and cook until translucent, about 8 minutes. Add squash and stock. Bring to a simmer and cook until squash is tender, about 15 to 20 minutes. Remove squash chunks with slotted spoon and place in a blender and puree. Return blended squash to pot. Stir and season with nutmeg, salt, and pepper. Serve.

Monday, January 30, 2012

Stop blaming the parents!!!

This morning I talked to my children's municipal medical doctor over the phone. I presented my sensation that one might be allergic to milk and the other to gluten. The milk case will now be tested according to the traditional procedures. Fine, let's start with the traditional approach, although I have already tried eliminating milk products with convincing results. But those results do not count in the name of science. We need to do the tests.

The gluten case was not that clear cut. We have already done the tests with negative results. Still, this self-learned mother is convinced that there is something that is not right. I even presented my theory of the abnormal gut bacteria (Natasha Campbell-McBride). And I told the doctor that there are clear differences when gluten (and sugar) is part of the diet and when not. Doctor became a bit upset, telling me that we should not experiment by eliminating wheat from a small child's diet. It might be dangerous. I kept calm although what I really wanted to do was to challenge the whole establishment's perception of what is dangerous and what not. Please! Eliminating wheat by replacing other nutritive ingredients can impossibly be harmful. Or can it? If it wasn't because of the vast knowledge out on the internet, I would probably have bought her argument together with half a dozen of loaves of bread in a second. But, thanks to you fellow bloggers, I did not. Instead I agreed to see a nutritionist to see how we move forward with this matter.

Now, I am a bit afraid of what awaits me when seeing a nutritionist รก la old school. It is not long ago that Finnish media was filled with headlines of how parents had been threatened that their children would be placed in a foster home if they did not follow the state dietary recommendations. The explanation was that the children were not growing as they should. And this is exactly where I become fearful; the reason why I even went out looking for answers in the first place was that my kid was not growing on the state dietary recommendations. Other food than pasta and bread was seldomly let into her mouth if not accompanied by honey or ketchup! It was only by moving away from these ingredients that we saw a change in attitude towards healthy food... And now a medical doctor is telling me that this might be dangerous!

I am a person that grew up terribly mainstream, I have always considered myself a part of the establishment! Surfing alternative sources for information gives me a sense of guilt, as if I was involved in something illegal... But what else is there left to do, when the establishment is not listening?!?  I should have been working this afternoon, but I instead managed to pin down a medical doctor at a private health care center who is looking at health issues from a holistic perspective. She even mentions on her webpage the link between gut flora and health, and the detrimental effect sugar and wheat flour may have on our health. Looks promising. I think I'll give her a call before the municipal nutritionist gets involved....

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Help!

We are trying to make a week list of what to eat (and shop) with hubby. It is part of my inclusive, letting-go-of-the-kitchen-control, strategy... But figuring out good food that will work for us all is quite challanging. Suggestions?


Edited later: I think I found some inspiration: The foodie and the family: Meal planning menus

Saturday, January 28, 2012

This explains it all! Must see!

Pregnancy and diabetes

No - I am not pregnant, and certainly not planning to become pregnant either. Two kiddos are more than enough, thank you very much! Closed chapter, over and done with. Getting on with my life and hoping to finally be diaper-free within the next months! But still, pregnancy and diabetes just suddenly appeared as a topic for my blog. And this is a topic I know zip zero absolutely nothing about. Still, I will reflect on it, as I just met a friend who has recently been diagnosed with gestational diabetes.

Those of you who have followed my food journey should be aware of by now that I do not give much for the dietary recommendations coming from state authorities these days. I am in a conflicting situation on what to believe when it comes to what to feed my children, and I am trying to use common sense, as well as reliable sources to come to terms with this lack of knowledge. When I was pregnant, nobody made me drink half a liter of sweetened water to determine my insuline level. Today that is standard procedure. My kids came out normal anyhow, and the midwifes always praised my pregnancy health card for having "the best values in town". Still, considering my chocolate addiction and food indulgance, I still wonder up to this date what the real result of my insuline level would have been in such a test...

Today, I was confronted with the questions of how I would have reacted if the results would have indicated diabetes. Considering my (then) non-critical standpoint to health care recommendations, I would probably only have gone with the flow. But would that have kept me and the baby safe? Would I have been able to manage my sugar cravings as necessary based on those recommendations? I doubt it. After having done a low carbing detox finding my balance, I now know that the reliance on carbohydrates wasn't an easy-fix problem. It really required a complete makeover of how I think about food, and particularly of what I put in my mouth. A short list of what to eat and what not (without increasing saturated fat) would not have helped.

But what about if I would have been in the situation that I am in now. Knowing far too much for my own good.... what would I have done with the diagnosis and the contradicting recommendations? Answer is: "dunno". Because it is one thing mixing with your body, doing total makeovers when the only one affected by your experiments is yourself. But it is a whole other deal if another creature's life and future health depends on the composition of nutrition going through your body... But one thing is for sure, I would have started to research the web to form my own enlightened opinion and only after that decided how to act, hopefully in agreement with an enlightened medical doctor.

To see what I could find on the topic, I turned to some of my most respected blogging nutrion experts and this is what I found:

Maria Health: Crackers and Facts on Gestational Diabetes

Wellness Mama: Optimal diet and nutrition for healthy pregnancy

Mark's Daily Apple: I started to take measures into my own hands

And from a blog that I am not familiar with but which sums it up pretty well: Primal Pregnancy (and no, I am not sure if I would go completely primal/paleo, but the information is worth digesting!)

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Going Continental...

I am still up North, just a little bit less up North than normally. I am in Denmark for a few days. And here are some observations:

1. I just looooove their bicycling culture. This capital, which is probably a lot bigger than Helsinki, is quiet at rush hour!!! Few cars on the roads. But be aware of the bikes. They come in all colors and formats, and they have priority in most crossings.... I am particularly impressed with the threewheelers with the child trailer infront (detachable and replaceable with one single wheel). I also like the small children seats, they look a lot more practical than the one jumping on the back of my yellow beauty back home. May I add that all Danes on a bike look very alive, healthy and happy! Wish we wouldn't have so much snow at home and that our politicians would understand to make bikes a priority on all streets and crossings... 

2. The antichemical, low carb all natural lifestyle wave is also hitting this country hard. At least based on  literature sold in main book stores down the road.

3. Organic fruits and veggies offering is so much better and cheaper in normal grocery stores. I guess that is what they get for being geographically attached to the continent.

4. Talking about continental, there was not much of an option to the bread alternative down at the hotel continental breakfast. Tomorrow I eat my own up in my room: avocados, and serrano ham. All organic!

Nourish means...

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

My candy is healthy!

Hehe, look what I found:


Health Benefits and Uses of Ginger


We use a lot of ginger, fresh, dry, powdered, you name it. Best combination is ginger+tamari+coconut milk, this makes any food taste excellent!

I also use dry ginger (without added sugar!) on my full fat morning yogurt... if hubby hasn't got his hands on them all... you see, dry ginger is also our best snack and candy. We both love it - so a bag of dried ginger just magically disappears in our house. Kids haven't caught on to our obsession, yet... because maybe it is an aquired taste, just as the Nordic licorice frenzy, introduced at early age up here in the North.

Which reminds me... I have to remember to buy home more raw licorice powder now that I am in Denmark. When my sweet tooth hits me (seldomly these days) I usually eat a spoon of licorice powder. Licorice powder does not disappear from the cupboard as fast as ginger, you see, I am the only one with that aquired taste! Lucky I am all done with the Tukish Pepper, though, too sweet and auch how the mouth used to hurt  the day after digesting one (!) whole bag of those. Talk about hangover.

Cheers for raw ginger and raw licorice powder! Sweets for my dreams!

Sunday, January 22, 2012

1 year and...

Its been about a year ago since I read Eenfeldt's Food Revolution book. And this was when I changed my lifestyle for good. Today I had an opportunity to check my fat levels... I am still in shock. I used to be above the recommended for my age (always questioned the results in the Chilean gym, now recognize that it was probably close to the truth)... And now, 1 marriage, two pregagnancies and one h*ll of a hectic life without time for gym or excercise... I am below the median of my age and length!!! The herbalife lady that measured was horrified to hear that I've been lowcarbing to reach this result. She said many of her clients have skyrocketted in fat% when eating all that bacon...well I said I've been eating balanced, skipping sugar and wheat (and bacon, what is that? Yak!) and she calmed down. Didn't want to start a debate on carbs vs. fat, after all we were really out cross country skiing with Kidone... But personally I am shocked. Still I cannot understand that my body has done this fat reduction all by itself... Lowcarb is amazing!

Saturday, January 21, 2012

I am still learning...

The food journey is a tricky thing. Amazing things happens in the body as you travel further. And suddenly you realize you're in a beautiful balance with yourself, the mind and body are finally working together. What a revelation! You scream out of joy! But often with very chilly response. For those who've never been out of tune, ever, this sensation is hard to understand. I take it that this is also why many out there do not understand why people "go over board" when doing this lifestyle change. The diet is considered extreme and the people following it crazy preachers.

I recognize that I completely went overboard, maybe not so much while I was only working on my own lifestyle change, but when I saw what happened to the whole family, the positive change that this brought, I definately went overboard. Since then, I've learned some lessons and I continue to learn.

I just read two thoughtful blogposts on how to deal with people's reaction and curiosity (Top 9 challenges, On picking battles). I think I have banged my head into the wall on some of these points, learned the lesson, but I also acknowledge that mostly I am still learning...

This blog might sound fanatic but it is your choice if you read it or not. It is my way to have a say without intruding on anyone else's believes and choices. I haven't linked the page much to facebook and I am not spreading the word, except for when I know there is someone that is truly interested in the information I dig out and the experiences from here at home. I never ever thought I would become a blogger, but this food journey was just to potent to be left unsaid.

Anyway, whatever I share on this blog are only thoughts of mine, I do not label myself as any of the diets (lifestyles) out there (LCHF, paleo, primal etc), although they might be included on my blogroll. Fitting into a predefined diet or lifestyle is not my thingy, I am too spontaneous. The only thing I like to preach is: be informed, listen to your body, find your balance! But even that, I only tell people if they ask. Or else, I am happy with whatever diet or lifestyle anyone else chooses for themselves.

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

What's eating my Children - or am I going mad for real now?

Ok, please someone - help me out over here.

Last summer I wrote about my thoughts on day care (and school) food to the children. I had come to realize that this wheat flour, sugar dense, low fat (milk), margarine filled food wasn't maybe the optimum ingredients to bring up a healthy child. At that point I was still only guessing, being philosophical about the subject. But the further I go in my food journey, the more I am convinced that the food received at daycare is doing no good at all. In fact, after a disasterous November, and now new indications of similar outcome in January, as far as flues are concerned, I can nothing else than wheap.

Those of you who do not think about what is served at daycare and trust the city dietists for their recommendations probably find that I am overreacting. Flues and daycare go together, you might think. Well, I dont'. You also might think that I am turning into a bacteria-hysterical Michael Jackson, wanting to live in a closed steril bubble just me and my family for the rest of my life.  But actually it is just the opposite. I want us to be part of this society, kids being socially integrated at daycare, and we making no fuzz about what is served here or there. But still, I cannot, CANNOT, trust what is currently served at daycare: breakfast, lunch, and afternoon snack. Why? I'll tell you why.

1. Margarine. Margarine is an industrial product, chemically extracted from rapes seed, soy, corn or sunflower plants. To make a long industrial process short: it is heavily manipulated on the way to the butterlike substance spread on bread (including petroleum extraction, bleeching and other highly questionable processes). These oils used are rich in omega 6 fats, abundantly available in our western processed diet. The human body needs fats containing omega 3, and omega 6. If it gets more omega 6 than omega 3, there is a risk of inflammations and different sorts of cancer. Considering that our body is made out of mostly saturated and monounsaturated fat and only 3% is polyunsaturated fats (rapesseed and alike), it is not far fetched to understand that in order to keep our cells renewing themselves, we better feed them with what they are asking for. Beside, feeding the kids with this highly questionable margarine instead of real fat, does not keep the hunger away. Instead they will be craving quick carbs (sugar and wheat) and that brings me to my next concern.
Read more about this topic here: Wellness mama: Why you should never eat vegetable oil or margarine
And if worried about cholesterol, read this: Huffington Post: Cholesterol myth

2. Sugar. Sugar is linked to obesity, diabetes, behavioural disorders (ADHD, dyspraxia, autism, dyslexia), and of course cavities (a topic of its own, btw). Only that should be enough to keep it locked up far away from small children. Add to this that some kids are extremely sugar sensitive (apart from having serious mood swings when eating sugar) and will develop a taste for sweetness if sugar is present in their daily diet. Now, someone would probably argue that sugar (as in pure white refined sugar) is not part of the daily offering at daycare. I argue that these people are wrong. What is among the most common afternoon snack at daycare? Berry creams, yogurts, buns, and bread with juice. If this sugar injection was accompanied by bloodsugar-stabilizing real fat, then it wouldn't maybe be so disasterous. But it isn't. If there is bread to go with the cocktail, then its margarine that covers the bread, not real butter. Besides, bread is not doing any good either, and that is my third concern.
Read more on sugar and kids: Nancy Appelton: Sugar 'n Spice and Everything is Nice, or NY Times: Is Sugar Toxic., or 141 reasons sugar ruins your health (next time the health center nurse asks me why I eliminated sugar from the kids diet, I'll know what to say...).

3. Wheat. If sugar is bad, then wheat is even worse. Wheat (white and whole grain) raises the blood sugar faster than pure sugar. There you have it; all the deseases of sugar are then of course also linked to digestion of wheat. And, if we are to believe the bestseller Wheatbelly author William Davis, wheat is a lot nastier than this. Modern wheat contains high levels of gluten, the "sticky" ingredient, and part of this gluten is a protein called gliadin, very effective appetite stimulant (and there we say welcome obesity and all those other deseases related to obesity!).  Without knowing it, many people are sensitive to wheat (symptoms: excema, astma, headaches, mood swings, abdominal pains etc). Furthermore, just as sugar, wheat has next to no nutrition value, it is only a filler.

Wheat and sugar are also VERY bad news for those that have a gut depleated of good bacteria. And considering the amount of antibiotics given to children these days, I dare to say that healthy guts are a rarity at daycare. When the antibiotics kills all bacteria, bad and good, it gives way for other parasites to take over the gut. It destroys the gut linen, creating a leaky gut, which allows toxins enter our bloodsystem and travel up to the brain and other parts of the body (and there we say welcome to a bundle of psychology related symptoms, allergies, fatigue... ). To restore a healthy body, the gut needs a break, but the beauty of these parasites is that they will create cravings for more fast carbohydrates, because that is what they live on. For small kids this is a real disaster, they will not agree to eat real nutritious healing food but demand anything sugary to even eat at all. And many parents, being so worried that their little tots won't get enough to eat will happily feed them pasta, ketchup, bread, spinache pancakes and even sugarfilled (fatfree) yogurts just so that they open their mouth. This is wrong! If the gut is to heal, the kids should be on a strict diet avoiding all starchy foods, sugar and in some cases even milk (which I'll get back to in a second), otherwise the inflow of toxins will only get worse. How exactly is daycare helping here? The damaged gut does not show on any conventional allergy testing. And without a medical allergy certificate, the kids will not get any special diets at daycare.
For more reading:  Wellness Mama: Grains are killing you slowly or Wheatbelly Blog or Healing the gut


4. Low fat milk. The last holy cow is the milk. Milk is an institution in our society today. It is very hard to critize the consumption of milk, and even harder when it involves growing children, who assumingly need the calcium to grow. Could be. But the body will not be able to make use of the calcium if it is not accompanied by some very important ingredients; one of them being fat, which helps the body to absorb also other vitamins and minerals from the milk. Many kids are also allergic to casein, the protein in milk. And again, it is an allergy that not necessarily show up in tests instead what happens is that the child get other symptoms such as astma, reocurring ear infections (gimme the antibiotics, destroy the healthy gut bacteria and create a life long misery with all kinds of deseases!), constant runny nose, diarrhea etc.  So could you tell me exactly how low fat milk is useful in the body of my children?
For more reading:  Wellness Mama: Dairy is it healthy?, Natural News: Understand the Calcium Myth


Based on these moderate concerns that I have about what is served at daycare everyday, I really do not know how to move forward. If I turn to a medical doctor, the most likely outcome will be negative allergy tests (already tried Kidone and this was the result). This means that if we want to continue living a normal life, we have to accept all the risks above. But frankly, I am sick and tired of coughs, runny noses and ear infections. I am tired of trying to feed nutrious, health strengthening food here at home, food that very often is rejected because the sweet tooth and the (what I believe) unhealthy gut bacterias are craving something far different from this... Really I need a break! Either I quit believing in what I read or I do something about what my children eat. Since at this point I can't quit believing, the only option left is to do something to what they eat. But how? My hands are tighed! And I can't tell you how frustrating it is!

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Breakfast Ideas

Look what I found:

Dutch Baby Pancakes (added next morning: excellent recipe, Kidone liked it!)

Gotta try it.

And also this:

The Spunky Coconut

I'll have to add these to my watch list. Too sweet to miss out on!

Big Media, Big Food, Nagging (obese) and Starving Children

This is an interesting one. Especially considering the announcement today that Fox will start its first (free) tv channel in Finland. First, as you might already know, if you are not paying, it might very well be that you are the product... And how? Commercials, my friends, commercials.

This guy covers it all from media control to obesity and world hunger, in less than 10 minutes.



I try to skip channels with commercials on them, just because, as this gentleman notes, there is an awful lot of nagging after somebody here in this house gets free access to visual imagination of chocolate pudding and Disney princesses (note, Disney was among the 7 big media conglomerates - interesting, explains the spread of the princess frenzy maybe).

The issue about media is interesting. Considering that much of the stuff in the news today is reproduced from big international sources. Could this partly explain why its been so difficult to produce a balanced, and well-informed, discussion on what is healthy and what is not? I just wonder.

Then this thing about curing world starvation...and obesity. Think about it. Food Inc is spreading in acres to be able to produce more soy, corn, wheat, and sugar for the hungry people in the world. Really, hey! Is that the kind of food, often also genetically modified, that we need to feed the entire food chain of this planet, from salmons in the sea to cows and pigs in the farms? Not to forget what these acre-consuming foods do to the human body...I vote real food, no commercials needed regarded the attributes of that!

Monday, January 16, 2012

Here another important clip for women (and men)!

http://www.ihealthtube.com/aspx/viewvideo.aspx?v=05461da4077b9485


Through the GAPS book I have learned that Candida is usually only a symptom of something more serious, located in the gut. This woman is on to the same thing. She cured her MS with the right sort of food. Guess which ingredients to eliminate? Yes, sugar (and liquid sugar which is alcohol), dairy, and gluten. Sounds familiar, doesn't it. Interesting stuff. And women (and men): watch, listen, learn!

Women, stay away from that soy!

Watch this clip:
http://www.ihealthtube.com/aspx/viewvideo.aspx?v=78795ac3a879b609


You might already know about the danger of soy, especially the GMO soy... well here some additional information why you should avoid all sorts of soy;

- Thyroid dysfunction
- Infertility
- Way too many Omega 6, in soy oils (you need to stock up on omega 3 to make your body work optimally)


I am surprised there is a babyformula based on soy. Seriously? Scary.


If you want to read more on the topic, Wellness Mama just wrote a post on the topic:
Is soy healthy?

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Weekend filled with food and joy!

This weekend has been a well-deserved break. I guess the theme of the weekend was ice skating, and to go with it, some very nourshing food. Here some examples (no pics, forgot completely to document):


Breacky Pancakes
Break from the normal breakfast routines:
4 eggs
2-3 tbsp cream (yes, I gave myself the luxury of including cream in the menu this weekend)
1 tbsp maca powder (new treat I found in the eco shop the other day, "superfood")
1 tbsp fiber husk
coconut oil

These made fine thin pancakes that kidone adored, as well as myself. Kidtwo concentrated on the topping: the half-frozen blueberries. Hubby never even knew about this treat, he slept through it as we ate! :-))

New twist Muffins
I used the recipe for banana muffins but switched buckwheat flour for coconut flour, and added lingonberries and blueberries. Kids simply adooored these and there was not much left for us adults! (huh!)
Ingredients:
200 g almonds
1 dl coconut flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 eggs
1 apple
2 mashed bananas
tiny bit of honey (optional)
1 dl blueberries
1 dl lingonberries (could probably be subsituted by cranberries)

Ground almonds in the blender. Add coconut flour, baking powder, the apple (depending on your blender you might have to mash it first) and the bananas and then the eggs. Add manually the half-frozen blueberries and lingonberries. Bake in muffin molds for 20 minutes. Enjoy!


Salmon casserole
Adapted from the SOK (!) member magazine, my mother's recommendation, otherwise I would never have made it into the monthly cook book of SOK...

1 bigger sized sweet potato
0,5 leek (purjo, right?)
0,5 onion
1 sweet pepper
2 tbsp coconut oil
1 tsp curry
4-5 dl water
2 tbsp vegetable powder boullion (organic, no weird stuff added)
/or 4-5 dl fish broth (even better)
1 dl cream or coconut cream (as previously said, I indulged in some cream this weekend)
the juice of 1 lemon (not sure how lemon works with coconut cream, pls report back if you test)
400 g salmon in cubes
0,5 dl dill
salt & pepper

Fry cubes of sweet potatoe, leek, onion and sweet pepper in the coconut oil. Add curry and fry a bit more. Add the water and the boullion and boil under lid for 15 minutes. Add fish cubes, cream, and lemon and let cook on low heat for another 5 minutes. Add the spices. Ready to eat.

I was sceptical about the kids buying into this dish. Too much weird stuff for them. But actually after having them try a bit, they did like it to some extent. Kidone concentrated on the salmon and the juice, and Kidtwo on the sweetpotatoes and the juice. They usually do not accept the taste of curry but here mixed with lemon it seems to have been more child-friendly.

And since this post comes without pics and right now if my blog is linked to other sites it will turn up with baby's and marlboro, I better add another humoristic 50's add to this post:

Hubby is away on business trip... too bad he can't enjoy my cuteness!

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Miracle medicine: Bone Broth!

Ok, since I started reading on the GAPS diet I have been serving bone broth in every dinner at this house. Guess what? I see improvement in Kidone's apetite. Today she had all of her Broccoli soup (!) and reports from daycare lunch are encouraging as well. Coincidence? Maybe. But for all its worth, I think I'll continue with my witch power recipe for yet another week or two.

Next on the agenda is to get decent heavy duty probiotics (and forget the gefilus candy-like pills sold at any pharmacy these days). Wonder if anyone in this town sells the brand Biokult recommended by Campbell-McBride...

One of my very much respected bloggers (except that she uses an awfally lot of sweetners in her dessert recipes) explains some of the benefits of broth, AND give away a recipe for bone broth in the same blog post: Chicken dumplings and intestinal health.  I have made my broth just based on my previous knowledge, out of cooking lamb bones and whole chickens, each with water carrots and onion and some pepper seeds... still need to get my hands on grass-fed chicken, next time Dr. Gadget, next time!

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Getting the proportions right

The other day I read somewhere that we Finns spend 10% of our income on food, risiculously little considering food is the basis of our subsistence. I admit, in my case the food-other stuff is much hight (surpised?). The guy interviewed in the article said that he would like to see people spending at least 30% on food because that would mean that we would start paying attention to quality.

Well, I just spent 3 eur on quality clothes (2nd hand, part two jeans dress, as good as new, and a I size I could never have imagined to fit into a year ago!) and 20 eur on delicious superfoods, and organic
eggs. I think I got the proportions right this time, right?

Saturday, January 7, 2012

Low carbing on TV

There is a new program on Finnish tv (tv5, one of the b-channels you hardly even know exists) about two Finns who will be eating low carb for half a year.

I checked it out because I was curious what it will all be about. Disappointed. The program started of with the chef baking bread.... Then the two dieting persons were introduced and got a starting package od food including.... Low carb bread and low carb premade microfood...and right now the chef is preparing lunch for them, an omelett based on wheatfilled sausages. In the commercials in between, the first out is low fat actimel yogurt... And then McDonalds...


This is such a food industry cover up of what low carbing is really about! Its not about processed foods, it most certainly is not about special made breads... It is about REAL food, made from normal ingredients. If they can't get that right, then why bother making a program... As said, this is so made by industry for industry!

Friday, January 6, 2012

House remedy

I am on three cups of hot water, 1 whole garlic and a good chunk of fresh ginger tonight.
This first week of 2012 has been too much for my poor body (I know, I never learn, do as I say not as I do...). Let's see if I am able to stop the intruder at the gate. It worked before, hope for the same now.

Will report back tomorrow. Over and out.

Thursday, January 5, 2012

Times do change...

There is hope for the future! If these ads are no longer socially acceptable, it must also mean that other food habits can be changed for the better... On the other hand, drinking beer while breastfeeding somehow still sounds like a pretty darn good idea., doesn't it? Not so keen on the smoking though, not even filtered.


Wednesday, January 4, 2012

My Gut Feeling confirmed!

This is important! Very important!

http://vimeo.com/wisetraditionsuk/2010-natasha-campbell-mcbride

Anyone with children with a history of fussy eating, continuous infections (ear, breast etc), behavioural disorders (autism, ADHD, dyslexia) should see this!

The first sign is FUSSY EATING, problems to thrive!
--When solids are introduced, the baby learns that foods make them ill!
These kids will limit their diet to those foods that feed the bacteria in their gut: starchy food, sugar filled foods. You might be able to get them to eat something else as long as it is soaked in something sweet like Ketchup!

These sentences are taken from the video. I am not kidding, I could have written those two sentences based on my experience from feeding a fuzzy eater. Since long I have been saying there is something that is not normal. Still although we eat much like this diet promoted by this video, I still claim there is something wrong. We are not done yet!

And when you are done, you can also read this text on fuzzy eaters.

http://www.gaps.me/preview/?page_id=29

 I want to implement the diet with our children, but I wonder how to do it. If I was still at home with the children we could take 2 weeks off from daycare and only concentrate on eating. Now, kids go to daycare every day and we cannot implement 100% diet without disrupting our daily duties, at least not before the summer. Should we really wait until the summer to try the detox? That could be a whole half year filled with illness and battles at the kitchen table.

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Cream sold out!

Ha! First we had no butter on the grocery store shelves. Now it seems the butter demand has been met by decreasing cream production. Funny! The grocery store is filled with processed foods, those that many in this country are nowadays ditching. But soon there is no real food left. Should buy a cow, as an investment, I mean. Do you think she'd like our dusty garage? Its raining again. Soon yesterday's snow will be gone. Hey, the cow could even be pasteur fed in January! Organic milk (and cream and butter) in the middle of the winter, from our own back yard...that would be something...Will dream about my very own cow tonight!

The work out trend for 2012

Forget zumba. Ditch pilates. No need to go running. You can get fit in your home, almost effortlessly.

Just follow the advice of this ad... anno 1950s.




Thank goodness we have moved on since then...(I only clean windows once a year, so much for equality...).

Monday, January 2, 2012

Thyroid problems? Read this!!!

Maybe its gluten intolerance you have. Or maybe you do not even know that its gluten intolerance. The article below indicates that one out of three Americans (and I bet we are not much more different here in Europe) may be intolerant to gluten, but only a few have such developed gluten intolerance that it shows up in blood tests.

http://chriskresser.com/the-gluten-thyroid-connection

This just further adds to my suspicions on wheat in general. Why not cut the grains out of your diet for at least two weeks. What is two weeks of your life? Especially when it can make a world of difference in how you feel and how long you live! If there are no differences then maybe, just maybe, you can continue indulging in your baker's bread selection. But hey, it's the first two weeks that are the toughest, detoxing, after that you almost forget how good bread once tasted...