On request: a bean based tiger cake

I am experimenting big time in the kitchen now. Wonder why? Well because I decided to take on the challenge of making another dream come true and went to the local "arbis" (community evening school, where you can take a class on anything remotely interesting) and offered my expertise. Knocked on the principals door and said: 'I'd like to give a class on how to bake without sugar, wheat and milk, how do I do that?' Ten minutes later we had set up the course with the head of cooking classes and it was all set for this fall. I will become a hands-on teacher. Then I returned to my abstract world of research literature. Absurd!

Now I need to get the recipes straight. No more experimenting with the family and friends.  Now I have to get it right. So I am practicing. And may I add that the family actually has not been too upset about me taking on an extra job beside my already very time consuming researcher job. They love the side effects!

I already posted this following recipe on the other blog, but my one (and only?) fan on this blog insisted I'd translate. Apparently Google didn't do such a great job. So here it comes, may I present the....

TIGER CAKE (adapted with modifications from www.spunkycoconut.com)

Lighter batch:

3,5 cooked white beans

6 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

50-100 grams of soaked dates

Mix until smooth and then add: 

0,5 dl coconut oil

0,5 coconut meal (or less)

0,5 tsp sea salt or other quality salt

1 tsp bicarbonate

1,5 tsp baking powder

Mix well.

For the darker batch, do the same but instead of coconut meal use 0,75 dl (raw) cacao powder.

Grease the baking form with coconut oil. Add the two batches in layers. Bake in oven for 40 minutes in 200 degrees. Let cool before you take the cake out of the baking form.

Enjoy!

When tides turn

It is my experience from studying newspaper coverage of conflict situation that once the business/economics pages start writing about "the other side", that is when the tides turn. Might be that the marginalized part of the conflict get visibility through letters to the editor, through newspaper day-today reporting, but that is still not enough. It doesn't matter how much sensational news is writing about the stuff, but once the economics pages are in, we're talking business. Things get serious and we can talk about a real shift in the perception of what is considered legitimate and what not. Or at least we can see a serious debate getting started on the two different side, which means that the once marginalized now have a real voice to make an influence.

This is happening now in Sweden, at least partly. After having read Ann Fernholm's book "A Sweeter blood", I was convinced this book is serious stuff. Scientific evidence is killed with other scientific evidence. She is talking the language of the experts. I also saw an interview with her on telly, really convincing stuff. Sugar is bad, in so many ways that you can't even imagine, and she makes the case clear, as said, in expert language.

The problem? It was "only" a book (only those who are really interested tend to read it without widespread reviews) and the tv outlet was a marginal channel. Thus, the effects might also be  marginal.

But what happened? Just today I read a column in the Swedish weekly business magazine magazine "Veckans Affärer" where the book is brought forward by a columnist stating: 

"The fact is that the high bloodsugar levels have negative impacts also on healthy organisms. For example, tests have shown that sugar stimulate growth in the cancer cells, which could explain the increased amounts of cancer... A number of studies on diabetics shows clear results: diabetes can be fought with the right diet. Goodbye insulin shots." (Emanuel Sidea, my translation). 

Well well, if my observations of what happens when news focus shifts from being something trivial, everyday to being of economic importance, then my friends, we are in for the big one soon! Soon we can start taking the harms of sugar seriously, also outside the health fanatics personal blog pages!

But it still needs to make it out of the "opinion" pages into the real business news. I am still waiting for articles on how much society could save by doctors making good dietary recommendations. How much we could save in tax payers money if the children at day care were fed real food. How much less ADHD medication society would need, if the food we feed our children would be less triggering... These are the stories I am waiting to see. Not hearing on the radio like today that ADHD medication has doubled in the past 5 years, and that this has brought on problems with people faking ADHD because the med includes amfetamin-like substances. I just... doooh! What is happening in society?!?! Why are we drugging kids with amfetamin-like substances when they are already high on sugar? What about first have the kids detox from sugar and other triggering foods and then see how much of the problems are left...

We need more coverage of books like "A sweeter blood". This was a first step. More certainly ahead. Particularly when it is about saving taxpayers $$$!

Interesting indeed!

You can follow Ann's webpage here in Swedish: http://ettsotareblod.se/ and I wrote a blog about the book earlier here: Hell hour.

Doing some serious thinking...

I'll try to make this short and quick, since what I am actually doing right now is writing a paragraph on "testimonies" as a research method, an major breakthrough in my own research, and I should not use my braincells to ponder about healthy food right now. By the way, I think testimonies would be an excellent research method for anyone who would like to study how the low-fat paradigm came to be challenged through personal testimonials on blogs and other social media outlets...

But about what I wanted to tell you now, I have to let off the lid a little bit. Because I wanted to let you know that I am changing my perspective from being an extremist that supports most of the paleo-preaching towards a more moderate food advocate. Why? Because I am starting to think that there might actually be some nasty side effects also to an extreme paleo diet that is being silenced in the fierce debate on who is right and who is wrong regarding what people are meant to eat. And because I have started to think that maybe some of my own problems lately are not only due to stress, but actually one of the main reasons I feel stressed in the first place. Could it be that I am stressing my body by being too harsh on it through what I eat? Could it be that when bloggers talk about magnesium deficiencies and problems to fall asleep, what they are actually telling us is that there are wide spread side effects to a very strict low carb diet? Dr Cate does talk about the risks of converting to a low carb diet too fast in that it can cause thyroid problems (read here).

So I have started to embrace some of the things Cheeseslave is talking about (here and here). However, I am still very aware that gluten might be dangerous particularly if celiac desease is the root of the problem. And by the way, when I say that my body is stressed because of food, I recognize that I might not be getting enough carbs (although I have been eating rise and potatoes for quite some time) but endulging in sugar and sweets are by no means the way back to a more balanced diet...although I am considering using cane sugar this fall to make jams and juices of the berry harvest...

I have been thinking a lot about what is the root problem of so many people having serious digestive problems these days. It is hard for me to swallow that grains are the evils on this planet. Afterall, they are (or at least used to be) a natural source for energy,  particularly for us living on these altitudes in need of foods that can be stored over the winter. Instead, in my mind (when I am not thinking of my research project that is) I am coming up with two hypotheses, or actually three, hypotheses that needs further exploration. 1) the increased digestive problems among the Western population is due to the increased amount of pesticides and industrially processed ingredients in our food system. 2) the problems are related to our dependency on chemical medication such as antibiotics and pain killers, which has lasted for more than two generations already, 3) stress is causing major problems in our body.

These hypotheses above have completely wrecked havoc on our microbacterial flora in our gut making us more susceptible to allergies and food intolerance. These allergies and food intolerances appear gradually, almost so we do not notice them, but the foods that become first problematic are those that are the hardest for our digestive system to handle. This would be why many now react to dairy (milk protein casein is difficult to digest) and grains (gluten is not easy either). And if we do not clean up our system and the food we eat (read: start eating less pesticides and get rid of the processed foods completely) our body will react by making us allergic to an ever growing amount of foods (nuts, nightshades, fish, egg, etc). So what to do? Eliminate all healthy foods and live on air and water? No, absolutely not - fortify the good bacteria and clean up the kitchen mess, get rid off bad habits of popping ibuprofen every time a headache hits and start relaxing to give ourselves a stress free life. I think that is the way to go! For me, it is that last part that is the hardest: to relax!  Just need to get the hang of it, that's all!


While I was writing this, an interesting text written by Michael Pollan appeared in my Facebook feed. He seems to be supporting similar hypotheses as I do regarding out food system! Look Processed food killing friendly bacteria-gut - Can eating home pickles fight infections?


Oh, and by the way - all the thoughts above are HIGHLY hypothetical. I do not have ANYTHING to support my claims! Just thinking out loud. That is all!

From dreaming to action!

I used to dream of a better world. Now I have my hands in the dirt, literally. May today be a proof of my road towards real action:

Set one big bag of potatoes in the ground. With the help of my uncle and his old potato setting machines (borrowing land from him as well, important acknowledgement). I hope the potatoes will make it and once we get them out of the ground, some two months from now, they will also last at least until Christmas. Storage? Well, we have a never used potato cellar in our house now. Let's see if it can keep up with the task!

I also picked nettles, a big bunch. And these were just lightly boiled. I'll get them through the food processor and then into the freezer for the winter. Replacing our use of frozen spinach (which is on the list of the dirty dozen, btw). And I saved the boiled water, it is supposed to be good fertilizer for the plants...

The other thing I picked was dandelions. A whole bunch of them. So now I am also trying out this recipe: Sunshine syrup, which I found through this excellent blog: Lev mer på mindre. She also gives this great link for what to do with dandelions: What to do with dandelions. I'll try to explore a bit more still, but time is running out with the dandelion season...

We had some really good polenta fried fish to lunch. Now the salmon is the oven. I usually do not make this much fish, but we had a fish market last Saturday in town, and I kind of overdid my shopping there...

Soon I am off to a cooking course on how to make use of the fresh and wild produce of the season! Kind of right up my alley.

Feels good to be alive and not only dreaming for a while.

Tomorrow I continue my day (dream) job. Have a lot of text lined up in my head that needs to get structured and sent out for review!

Enjoy the sun everyone!

Got Milk?

I am in a process of grief. From denial to grief... and maybe back to denial again. When we returned from Chile to Finland and I suddenly had a skin rash appearing next to my nose I swore it was the rye bread. I was so sure about it. I hadn't had rye bread for a very long time and suddenly I just had to eat it. Well, the skin rashes started just about there. However, I was not able to see that the butter that I was putting on the bread, the full fat Greek yogurt that I had not enjoyed for many months either, or all that cheese could have something to do with the rash. Although I do not drink milk, there are so many milk products here in Finland that are so good that there was no way I was about to give it up. Not even although I was struggling to keep one of my children free from milk products for optimal health. Total denial. I made kefir yogurt, I made real yogurt. I used raw milk from special ecological cows. And the rash just got worse...

Until a doctor told me: get off the milk. See what happens and try to reintroduce it. I have now been milk free for three weeks. The rash is almost gone. You can still see the contures of the former rash. But it is nothing like it was a month ago. I still have hopes to be able to eat milk products now and then. But I am also painfully aware of that that might not be possible.

I am also more and more open for the message that milk is maybe not so beneficial as the formal verdict wants to portray it to be. Instead of strengthening bones, it might actually do the opposite. And a lot more. But I am still decolonizing my mind. Milk (and particularly cheese) is way to yummy to give up just like that. I need some time to digest my milk free lifestyle.

If you want to know more you can watch this youtube clip by the (paleo-inspired) medical doctor Mark Hyman. He gives a lot of insight to the subject:

Btw, I actually think that milk might be ok for most people, but that casein is problematic for those who have a digestive system out of balance (due to stress or other reasons). This is my personal speculation though.

Müsli

Inspired by Paleoparent's recipe in their book Eat like a Dinousaur, I made some of my own. It isn't exactly like theirs because I used ingredients that I know works for us. And it is not strictly paleo since I am using glutenfree oats. If you want to go paleo all the way you just eliminate the oats and add more of the other stuff, particularly the coconut flakes, almonds and walnuts. t.

3 dl glutenfree oatmeal
1 dl sunflower seeds
1 dl coconut flakes
1 dl semi-crushed almonds
1 dl semi-crushed walnuts
0,5 dl falxseeds
1,5 dl dates
1 apple, I threw it in the food processer to get good sized bites
4-5 tblsp cold pressed coconut oil
1 tblsp cinnamon

If you are allergic to nuts, just replace with more seeds and add pumpkin seeds to the mix. Also more coconut flakes should do the trick.

Mix everything in a bowl. Add to baking tray (cover with baking paper if you do not want fuzz with dishes afterwards...).

Bake in 130 celcius (270 F), 60 minutes. Stir every 15 minutes to bake crips and even müsli. Once ready let cool on the tray. Keep in air tight glas jar. According to Paleoparents, their müsli is ok in room temperature for several months. Well ours will not last that long, for sure... But if you want to be on the safe side, store in fridge.


Enjoy!

On the way into the oven Check the hand...always there! :-)

Done!