Tag: food

Budwig

Came across this recipe, which promises cancer-fighting properties. It was developed by Johanna Budwig, a German biochemist and pharmacist who developed a lacto-vegetarian cancer prevention diet in the 1950s.

Not gonna lie, flaxseed oil tastes pretty yucky. It literally tastes like you are eating oil paint. BUT it contains a lot of omega 3 fatty acids, which most of us are not getting enough of.

Mixing with cottage cheese somehow helps aid in the digestion of the flaxseed oil. It has a symbiotic effect.

She passed away in 2003, a few years before the discovery of resolvins and protectins:

Only recently has it been established that inflammation resolution is an active process with a distinct set of chemical mediators. Several clinical and epidemiological studies have identified beneficial effects of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) for a variety of inflammatory diseases, yet without mechanistic explanations for these beneficial effects. Resolvins and protectins are recently identified molecules that are generated from Omega-3 PUFA precursors and can orchestrate the timely resolution of inflammation in model systems.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2785519/

I do see this in relation to the seed oil info I posted earlier today. If modern man is living in an omega 3/ omega 6 imbalance, and we don’t know about it or understand the damage it is doing to us…. well, that’s a bad thing.

It’s interesting that Dr. Budwig’s daily regimen begins with sauerkraut juice…  the kombucha of 1800s Germany.

Then she blends together flax seed oil (very high in omega 3s) with a dairy product to help it be absorbed easily.

I think the science will catch up to her and what she was able to do… reportedly nurse cancer patients back to health with nutritional strategies.

The Dangers of Seed Oils

I have wanted to write about this for a while but I’m a bit out of my depth, and so I’ve put it off… but it is critically important and the little that I know has really changed my eating habits.

I recently came across this Instagram post by Dr. Mark Hyman, which sums it up nicely.

Abundance

We recently found out about a local grocery co-op that carries only healthy whole foods. Our daughter bought us a share as a Christmas gift. 🎄 🎁

I’ve been three times so far, and my husband Jimmy came along this last time. We are really happy with the foods available!

The co-op carries produce from my farmers’ market connections, including Botanical Ben’s mushrooms and veggie sprouts.

They carry a lot of bulk products and encourage folks to simply bring their own jars.

Abundance Food Co-Op

Great Resources

Stumbled across some great resources lately and I wanted to share them here. Thse were all serendipitous…

This doctor has a YouTube channel and provides very down-to-earth advice on how to stay healthy and avoid cancer. Check her out!

This doctor popped up in my Twitter feed, and I don’t know much about him, but WOW, I wish my doctor was handing out a sheet like this to his patients, including the healthy ones.

I have already incorporated a lot of these into my daily/weekly routines over the last year, and it’s great to have those ideas reinforced by a doctor.

The “seek” button on my car radio pulled up this radio show/podcast, which looks interesting. I happened upon their report of the Dirty Dozen and the Clean Fifteen:

https://loe.org/shows/segments.html?programID=25-P13-00004&segmentID=4

Food Colorings, Part 2

Christmas has come and gone, and yes, we did make cookies. Knowing that food dyes are linked to cancer, I went out in search of non-toxic alternatives.

I didn’t find any in the local stores. I did find them online, but after exhausting local options and then returning to my search bar, I found them out of stock.

Does that mean that other folks are looking for non-toxic alternatives? 🤔 I hope so!

So this year, we went without. Our cookies were the color of our non-GMO organic flour, and the frosting was transparent. And we loved them anyway (though it was hard to tell the lemon cookies from the almond ones).

This weekend, I found the colors I was searching for at the Abundance Co-op. My daughter gave me a share & membership for Christmas.

Fun Fact: The old dyes in my cupboard actually have a resale market! At least the brown glass bottles do. I found them online today priced between $10 and $25 per bottle. Huh!

Food Colorings

Yesterday, the FDA banned Red 3 from foods and medicines.

While this is technically a good thing, its more of a baby step / half measure in the move toward a healthier society…

Why?

  • Red dye 3 was banned from cosmetic products 35 years ago because of its link to cancer. 35 years!!!
  • There are thousands of other additives that are just as toxic that are still being used in many foods, medicines, and other products. Most of these are banned in other countries.
  • This particular ban gives companies TWO YEARS to reformulate the food products. A lot can happen (or be reversed or forgotten about) in two years.
  • This ban gives pharmaceutical companies THREE YEARS to comply! Are you kidding???
  • It solves 0.01% of the problem with untested food additives.

The best thing this ban can do is simply awaken the consumer to the problem and lead them to change what they buy and eat.

Salad Dressing

For 99% of my life, I’ve used either the Good Seasons spice packet or the Aldi knock-off to make my dressing with red wine vinegar, high quality olive oil, and a little bit of water.

The spice packets are both delicious and easy to mix in the Good Seasons bottle (you know what I’m talking about).

Recently, though, I scanned the Aldi and Good Seasons packet with the Yuka app. Both scored 18 out of 100… yuck!

Both of the additives flagged “may be associated with” development of breast cancer.

It’s just a spice packet, though. How hard could it be to make it from scratch?

I decided to make my own. I used a big jar and mixed up a bunch, so it’s ready whenever I need it.

Copycat Salad Dressing Spice Mix

  • 1 tablespoon garlic powder
  • 1 tablespoon onion powder
  • 1 tablespoon sugar
  • 2 tablespoons oregano
  • 1 teaspoon black pepper
  • 1 teaspoon basil
  • 0.25 teaspoon ground thyme
  • 1 tablespoon parsley
  • 0.25 teaspoon celery salt
  • 2 tablespoons salt (use less if you want)

Put it all in a jar.

When you want to make the dressing, mix:

  • 1 tablespoon of the spice mix above
  • 1/2 cup of olive oil
  • 1/4 cup vinegar
  • 3 tablespoons water

Bon appetit!

Update: Great article from the Environmental  Working Group:

https://www.ewg.org/news-insights/news/2022/09/turn-over-new-leaf-ditch-your-salads-harmful-chemicals-healthier

In Praise of Salads 🥗

Salads are so healthy, and I am lucky to have had them throughout my life as a regular part of the dinner meal, whether at my childhood home or my grandparents’ house.

It’s a tradition that my husband and I have kept going and one that I hope lives on as our kids make their own homes.

🥗

It was one of the first things I helped with as a child (one step up from setting the table). My Mom would tell me that a “true chef would never cut lettuce leaves with a knife” and would instead tear them gently. I’m not sure if that’s true, but it sounds right.

I’m sure she just didn’t want any little kids wielding a knife in her kitchen, lol.

Those salads usually included iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, and celery with a simple vinegar and oil dressing. Sometimes, we got fancy and added black olives or Spanish (manzanilla) olives.

And we always had the salad as the final course… the logic was that the roughage (fiber) and vinegar would escort all the other stuff from the night’s dinner through the system and do some clean-up work in the intestines.

Yes, we talked about this at the dinner table when I was too young to use a knife.

When we went to my grandparents’ house, the salad was similar but often included half an avocado. If half an avocado doesn’t sound like much to you, well… you must not have spent time in Florida prior to Hurricane Andrew. Those old style “Tampa avocados” were as big as a football.

If I had a time machine… that’s what I’d go get…

These days, I like to get fancy with my salads. I usually start with Romaine lettuce and tomato. Those are the basis.

To that, I add whatever we have, including fresh spinach, a shredded carrot, artichokes in vinegar, olives of any kind or a scoop of muffaletta, slices of sweet peppers, diced onion, mushrooms, cucumber, avocado, thinly sliced purple cabbage, celery, cheese (Feta or parmesagn), and any kind of sprout (broccoli, radish, alfalfa, etc.).

Sometimes, I throw in apple chunks, pear slices, or orange sections. Sometimes, we throw in sunflower seeds or crushed pistachios or cashews.

In the summer, I like to find new types of lettuce and new varieties of tomatoes at the farmers’ market.

My Nani had a trick where she would cut into a garlic clove and rub it on the inside of the bowl prior to adding any ingredients. I always seem to remember the trick too late. 😕

Lately, I’ve been moving my salad to the beginning of the meal, rather than the end. This is because of the hacks I recently learned to lower blood glucose levels.

Here’s the details on that, from the Glucose Goddess, Jessie Inchauspé who I hear just got her own TV show!!! 🙌

Peanut Butter

Recently, I bought some Justin’s brand peanut butter. It’s usually more expensive than other brands and has a great reputation for being a clean product. It’s often seen on the shelves of healthy grocery stores or in the “Greenwise” area of a mainstream grocer.

I was a bit disappointed to see that it contains palm oil.

Here’s the healthy choice from Aldi. No added oils! Lower cost, too.

This weekend, I was at my daughter’s apartment and noticed her jar of peanut butter. It was a store brand, in a family-sized giant jar… look at the difference. 😨

I’ve asked her to throw it out, and she said yes! Replacing with Aldi’s brand.

Little steps. 👣

Algorithms

I’ve been in a “low-tox-living” algorithm for over a year now, but once in a while I see my concerns in the mainstream media, too.

Is it my imagination, or is the news about ultra-processed foods, pesticides, seed oils, food colorings, and other harmful food and drink ingredients appearing more and more?

Has America woken up? 🤔