Milk and the freaky paleo diet....

The last chapter of "Landet Brunsås" made an impact on me (see the insert on the right: Inform yourself, "Mjölkpropaganda"). Since then I've been thinking a lot about what our anchestors actually used to eat. Well, it wasn't exactly the same as the official recommendations transmitted by the health center nurse. We Finnish moms are indoctrinated with the message coming from there: eat this and that, and a long list of what not to eat or to feed your baby - ever since the first visit confirming pregnancy. For an unexperienced mother, this information flow can be quite stressful,  believe me, I know, I've been doing double check ups because of a weight curve sailing around -15 in those early years.  What do you say to the nurse when she asked if your kid get their doze of calcium per day and when all your baby ever agreed to eat was avocado, water melon and pear...

Ironically, just some months ago, I had a friend and her son over for lunch. We were (as usual) talking about food for us adults and food for the kids, and about the changes in diet that I have gone through. She asked: so are you also into the paleo-diet? I said, h*ll no, I am not that freaky....and after some seconds I said, not yet at least...and we laughed. Because, this food business is really a journey of discovery. Once you've decided to dig, it's hard to stop. And now, thinking of human anchestor eating habits, half a litre of highly processed milk does not that easily fit the picture. Add to that the yogurt, cottage cheese, cheese, butter... Nope, I bump into major coherence problems to make the puzzle complete. Neither did they eat highly processed wheat, sugar or meat every day. What did they eat? Well nuts, grains, veggies, dried fruits and berries, fish, lots of fish if my anchestors lived anywhere close to where the persons appearing in out family tree. Well, that anchestor fish is nowadays on the health center prohibited list: too toxic. Instead we are adviced to eat industrial breeded fish (define irony...). Grains are consumed as highly processed bread (many times with added sugar). And our consumption of milk products has skyrocketed since the 1940s.

So next time I have my friend over for lunch, and she asks about the paleo diet, I might just answer yes, we are steadily heading in that direction. Ironically enough.

Where did my sense of mainstream disappear now again?

Student food and Friday treats

Hellooo?  Did I really eat this stuff every day? Finnish student food is subsidized by the state. I think it costs around 2,5 euros and that is actually a good deal; you supposedly get warm nutritious food. After having spent x numbers of years outside the university cafeteria, I had forgot what this food was like. Sometimes there is something really delicious but usually the rise is dry, the lettuce and carrots as well and the warm food is some strange looking sauce or wheat-filled dishes. Actually, the best thing at the uni-café where I sporadically eat lunch has always been their bread and their Friday Pizza (Finnish style pizza: lots of dough, lots of cheese and some ham in between). With this kind of offering, it can be a real challenge for me to make a low carb, wheat-free, high nutrious choice. I mean, there is no way to fill my tummy with bread anymore. Instead, I have to do the most crazy combinations, like yesterday pea soup in one plate and the some (dry) carrots, cabbage and salmon balls (that did contain wheat, but without those I would not have made it through the day). I actually used to think that the food at this uni-cafe was better than at many others, especially those in the buildings of University of Helsinki. Well, I gather things change in x number of years. Today I made it all the way out to the countryside campus (Viikki - expanding my boundaries), and guess what? The lunch I had there was 10 times better: falafel with a fresh variety of vegetables from the salad bar - wheat free. And this was 10 minutes to closing time. I think this is worth some more empirical studies in the weeks to come....

Tonight kids got their sugar rush, on chocolate balls and strawberry-mango smoothie. As said before, it feels good to be feeding the sweets that actually include tons of nutrients. These were the ingredients:

Chocolate balls:
- dates
- oatmeal
- coco nut flakes
- coco nut oil
- zip of cold coffee (they still fell aslepp within an hour, no caffeine rush...)
--> Mixed together and then
- rolled in cranberry and buckberry powder

Strawberry-mango smoothie:
- rice milk
- sesame seeds
- almonds
- banana
- strawberries, frozen
- mango, frozen
- organic frozen spinach
- flaxseed oil
- whey protein powder

Yammy - it all turned out delicious (and we still have some choco balls lefties for tomorrow's Saturday treats)!

Benefits of going wheat-free

Here from Wheat Belly's blog some very interesting facts on wheat. (The book has been dispatched, together with "Cinderella ate my daughter", excellent reading coming up this weekend - if I can get myself away from my other theory building books, that is.)

What is in modern wheat beyond gluten? The biggies:

1) Gliadin–Gliadin is a subfraction of gluten. Even if you are not gluten-sensitive, continued exposure to wheat means you are still exposed to the unique and plentiful gliadin proteins that have emerged from the genetics laboratories, the gliadin that is a very effective appetite stimulant. Eat wheat: get hungry, eat more. Gliadin explains why we have all-you-can-eat lunch buffets and why overweight athletes.

2) Amylopectin A–This is the highly-digestible carbohydrate that accounts for wheat’s high-glycemic index and ability to increase blood sugar higher than table sugar or candy.

3) Lectins–The wheat lectin, wheat germ agglutinin, that is resistant to digestion in the human intestinal tract, is the protein that “unlocks” the normal intestinal barriers to foreign substances. Not everything that goes in your mouth should have access to your bloodstream, so intestinal cells are designed to be selective in allowing or preventing various components in foods to be absorbed. Wheat germ agglutinin disables this selectivity, allowing all manner of foreign substances to gain entry. This is why wheat consumers have more inflammatory and autoimmune diseases like type 1 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, and inflammatory bowel disease.

Source>http://www.wheatbellyblog.com/2011/10/gluten-free-is-for-sissies/

Back to reality, chavela!

Soup on a nail

I have practically cooked soup on a nail today. Ideas and ingredients running low - add "no time" to that equation and you'll have our situation this afternoon. So dinner and bedtime meal were improvised, big time. And after some nagging (I know, I was supposed to quite that bad habit of mine), the food did serve its purpose and I even made some chocolate ice creams of the smoothie left overs. It's a bit hard to make acceptable smoothies without banans and dates in the house... and I mistakenly poored tamari into the mixer instead of flaxseed oil, did not exactly make the cocktail any more delicious. But as said, it was a success (from earlier blog I can just brief you that a successful smoothie in this house means that one glass makes it down to the tummy of A, and two glasses to G = high acceptability rate).

Another anecdote; why is it that after half an hour nagging, tricking, treating, threatening, when you finally get the kid to eat something, this kid looks at you and tells you: "Mom, you made really delicious food today". I think I will never understand how the brain of my kids work... But I guess that's just the challenge of being a mother! And I also take it that it won't get any easier in the years to come.

Three patiperros internationally on air and online

Here is the link to the radio program where the two patiperros chicos and I participated last Saturday. It's in Swedish - no google translate available for our voices, but you can listen to the normal chaos and high decibel level in our kitchen. (key word: mera = more)


Sugarfree Family Life (between 10 and 20 minutes in the program)

I am happy the program had a down-to-earth touch, we were not portrayed as sugar paranoic freaks - although many times I myself feel like such. I am convinced this is the way to go and the benefits are to many to return to old routines. But still, sometimes I feel like I am stretching my believes too far, close to becoming a religious anti-sugar fanatic freak... so when I found Renee Voltaire's book "Salig Blanding"  as a complement to my pink bible "Råsmart Familj", it was a true joy to read how her own kids have been guinea pigs in her odysseé of natural food discovery and that they nowadays take the food served at home for granted. I will start testing the new recipees in Voltaire's book soon - implementing my personal touch to make them suitable for the taste buds in this family.


I ordered the book "Wheat Belly" from Amazon yesterday. It should arrive before the weekend. Waiting, waiting...

Me, a year ago

This was me, exactly a year ago. Badly addicted to chocolate. Think it makes a wonderful combination with the title of my new blog.

Luckily, nowadays I wake up with other kind of thoughts in the middle of the night. Still annoyed that my brain doesn't let me sleep though...

Family life on air!

About food and children, with special guest stars.

Unfortunately only in Swedish, but you can listen to the voices!

By the way, this is not accesible outside Finland due to copyright issues. I'll post the podcast as soon as it is uploaded.