CHEESESLAVE

Yes, cheeseburgers are healthy!

This is a burger made with grass-fed beef (from Organic Pastures in California), with raw milk cheese (from the Amish in PA), organic fruit-sweetened ketchup and organic mustard, and homemade lacto-fermented pickles. I cooked the burger in a little duck fat.

No bun. Kate doesn’t eat grains yet. I’m not going to give her grains for a while — probably until she’s 18 months or even 2 years old.

Babies do not have the enzymes to digest grains — not until their back molars start coming in. Makes sense, because those molars are for grinding. When she does get grains, they will always be properly soaked/fermented. I’ll even give her healthy versions of chocolate chip cookies and brownies (made with soaked or sprouted flour) and coconut oil and butter.

She thought the burger was just okay. She didn’t really know what to make of it. She’s accustomed to liver and duck and chicken and eggs. She’s had ground beef a lot — but I guess she’s just not used to the mustard and ketchup. She preferred the dill pickles, which she is used to.

She’ll get used to the burger in time. She didn’t like pickles at first, either. In fact, she reacts this way to all new foods. Even ice cream. It takes a few tries before she embraces it. (The one food she liked at first bite was tallow-fried french fries.)

What I always do is anything she doesn’t eat, I just put it back in the fridge and then I warm it again for another meal. She eats it eventually — and the more she tries it, the more she likes it!

So don’t give up on trying to give your little ones new foods (especially organ meats). Get them used to it when they are young.

Also, I think it’s important that it tastes good. If it doesn’t taste delicious to me, I can’t expect her to eat it.

Kate’s dinner tonight:

Duck liver and heart sauteed in butter
Pickled beets
Watermelon

Whenever I get a duck from the farmer’s market (usually every other week), I roast the duck for Seth and me and give Kate the organ meat.

Kate’s dinner: Leftover baked beans mixed with some organic grass-fed beef and beef liver.

I modifed the Nourishing Traditions baked beans recipe. I soaked the beans for 48 hours (just because I was busy and didn’t have time to make them sooner). I used chicken fat instead of butter and olive oil — just because that’s what I had on hand. Instead of water, I used homemade chicken stock to make the beans more nutrient dense. And I added ham hocks for extra flavor and nutrition.

She would have loved some sauerkraut with this dish — but I’m fresh out. I have a couple of quarts fermenting in the cupboard. I need to make more pickles soon, too. Kate loves pickles.

Some of you have expressed an interest in what I feed Kate — so I thought I’d document some recent meals.

1. Breakfast:

Two pastured eggs scrambled in butter, with raw organic grass-fed beef liver (frozen and grated) and sea salt. Plus organic cantaloupe and blueberries.

Since then, I’ve stopped giving her raw berries and other fruits with a lot of pectin. She always has runny stools when she eats them. I don’t think they are good for an immature digestive system.

2. Yesterday’s dinner:

Pastured, organic chicken livers sauteed in raw butter, with sea salt.

Organic peaches sauteed in raw butter (yum — tasted just like pie).

Homemade lacto-fermented sauerkraut (she absolutely loves this).

She’s waving and saying “Hi!” in this picture.

3. Dinner tonight — a “baby salad”:

Pastured chicken livers and organic strawberries and purslane.

I sauteed everything in raw butter (babies need a lot of fat!). Garnished with a little creme fraiche.

Here she is fingerpainting with her food:

Here’s what Kate ate today:

Morning Bottle: 5.5 ounces of raw milk formula

Breakfast:
1 slice of bacon
1 banana fried in bacon fat
2 eggs scrambled in raw butter

Mid-morning: Sippy cup with raw milk

Lunch:
Leftover homemade roast beef with white wine reduction sauce (made with pan drippings, beef stock and butter)
Leftover homemade butternut squash soup with raw cream
Organic cantaloupe and grapes

Afternoon:
Sippy cup with raw milk (normally I would do formula but I don’t have it together yet having just come back from our trip)

Dinner:
Homemade miso soup with homemade bonito broth
Salmon teriyaki (wild Alaskan salmon and homemade teriyaki sauce)
Steamed yellow squash and baby bok choy
Wakame seaweed
1/2 tsp cod liver oil

Bedtime:
5.5 oz raw milk formula

We all ate dinner together at 5 o’clock. It was fun! We are going to do that more often. Seth likes to eat early.

I forgot to give her her Lugol’s but she got plenty of iodine in dinner tonight. I also didn’t get around to giving her her Biokult but that’s OK. I didn’t give it to her on vacation either (which is probably why I’m out of the habit).

It’s funny — when you’re single, sitting at home on a Saturday night is the worst thing you can imagine. And then you become a mom. And you’re always doing doing doing for everyone else. And the idea of having some time to yourself is so fabulous, you don’t care what night it is.

Seth announced that he had to go out to a business thing and I got so excited that I was going to get to stay home, put my feet up, and do my own thing. I don’t even have to cook dinner! I can eat cheese and some almond bread if I get hungry.

So I got Kate down (so easy, she goes down every night and every nap with no crying, no fussing) then I did the dishes, cleaned the kitchen, and watered my seedlings. Then I poured a glass of wine, dimmed the lights, and am now happily watching Oprah and House Hunters and Martha Stewart and Iron Chef America.

I’m also making “Potato Cheese”, a fermented potato dish (for Kate — we can’t eat potatoes on GAPS). I don’t like the name. Hopefully the recipe comes out better than the name.

I really like to try to serve fermented foods to Kate at at least one meal a day. Ideally, it would be every meal… but once a day is great. If I do more than that, all the better. She really loves sauerkraut and kefir and fermented yams and homemade lacto-fermented ketchup and dill pickles. Today she had some dill pickle relish in her tunafish for lunch, and this evening she had fermented yams with liver and ground beef stew for dinner.

Anyway, I got the Potato Cheese recipe from Nourishing Traditions. Well, it’s in Nourishing Traditions, but it was originally published in 1833, in a book called The American Frugal Housewife.

You cook 4 pounds of potatoes (I baked mine), then peel them, then throw them in the food processor with 2 cups of kefir or piima milk (I’m using kefir). Let that sit out at room temperature in a bowl (covered with a dish towel) for 2 days. Then you strain it the same way you do when you strain the whey when making cheese. When done, transfer to an airtight container and put it in the fridge.

I’ll let you know how it turns out.

Chicken livers cooked in duck fat and butter, leftover Avgolemono soup, fermented yams with raw butter, egg omelet with avocado and a tiny bit of lacto-fermented salsa, cod liver oil, butter oil, Lugol’s iodine, and her Biokult probiotic.

Click on the photo to read more.

A few of you have asked for this so here you go!

This recipe is from the Fermented Taro Root (also known as Poi) recipe in “Nourishing Traditions”. I couldn’t find taro root so I used yams. This makes a very yummy and super-nutritious baby food. It’s also really good as a side dish.

2 pounds yams (or sweet potatoes)
1 TBS sea salt
4 TBS whey (homemade whey from raw milk or yogurt — recipe on page 87 of “Nourishing Tradtions”)

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Stab the yams with a fork. Stick them in the oven and bake for 2 hours or until soft. Let cool, then peel and mash with salt and whey (a sauerkraut pounder or meat tenderizer works great). Leave this mixture in a bowl and leave out at room temperature, covered with a dishtowel, for 24 hours. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

For breakfast, Kate had 2 scrambled eggs (cooked in butter) and organic blueberries with raw cream and coconut oil with a little bit of added whey (from yogurt). Oh, and one big organic strawberry and half a banana (she was still hungry so I kept feeding her).

For lunch, she had 1/2 tsp cod liver oil, one chicken liver (cooked in butter), beef broth, avocado, and mango with raw cream. And a little bit of homemade chocolate ice cream (made with raw cream, organic unsweetened cocoa powder, maple syrup, and raw egg yolks).

Dinner was light — goose liver pate and raw milk cheese with some probiotic lemonade (I fermented it with kefir grains).

In addition to meals, she gets her homemade raw milk formula. She drinks 3 or 4 6-ounce bottles per day.

Ha — yes, she’s wearing the same shirt she had on yesterday. She actually has two shirts that are exactly the same — one is 24 mos and one is 18 mos. Both pretty much fit so I let her wear both.

I went to the dentist today. And guess what? No cavities!

This is the first time I’ve had no cavities in years. And you would think that I would be more prone to dental decay — considering the stress I’ve had on my body over the past year (childbirth, breast feeding).

Here’s the interesting thing… For the past six months, I have not used toothpaste. No fluoride.

My whole life I was told that you’re supposed to brush with fluoride toothpaste to prevent cavities. Yet I only used Tooth Soap and baking soda for brushing. Of course, I ate a very nutrient dense diet — cod liver oil, pastured eggs, raw milk, butter, cream, and cheese, and organ meats. I avoided sugar and any grains/nuts/seeds/legumes that were not soaked and/or sprouted.

But isn’t fluoride supposed to prevent cavities?

When I asked my dentist, Dr. Raymond Silkman, what he thought of fluoride, he responded with one word, “Bad.”

He’s probably the only dentist in Los Angeles who gives prescriptions like this: “Drink beet kvass and freshly juiced green vegetables and carrots — daily”. And he told me to get tested for heavy metals. He thinks I may have heavy metal toxicity. (Beet kvass and freshly juiced vegetables chelate heavy metals.)

But back to the fluoride… This Crest ad says that “Crest stops soft spots from turning into cavities.” Lies! Crest doesn’t do any such thing.

Here’s another lie:

Coke’s slogan proclaims it is the opposite of what it really is — a fake. For centuries, people have been producing naturally fermented soft drinks like kombucha, naturally fermented root beer, and ginger ale. These naturally fermented soft drinks are very high in B vitamins and probiotics — they are health tonics. Conversely, Coca Cola is artificially carbonated sugar water. Not only is it devoid of nutrition, but the sugar in it actually blocks the absorption of vitamins and minerals in the body.

Of course, nowadays Coke doesn’t even have sugar — it’s made with high fructose corn syrup. Which is genetically modified corn soaked in battery acid. YUM!

Here’s an ad for sugar from the ’60s:

I love how transparent it is. Looking at it today, it’s so obvious. You can see the lies.

This is how you have to look at ads. Ads are made to convince you to buy. That is their sole purpose. They don’t care about you. And they don’t care about truth. They are often saying the very opposite of what is true.

Ads also prey on your fears and insecurities.

Here’s a Heinz baby food ad:

The message is based on the idea that real food is not safe, and only food in jars is safe for babies. See what I mean? It’s the opposite of the truth.

Of course, not all ads are bad… here’s a neutral one for iodized salt (iodized salt is not good for you — sea salt is best — but the iodine is something we need):

In the 1920s, with the depletion of the soil in America, people in the midwest started getting goiters due to iodine depletion. This prompted a campaign for iodized salt. Many Americans today are cutting down on salt — but there is a bigger problem today. Soy.

Soy is a goitrogen, which blocks the absorption of minerals, including iodine. Most Americans are deficient in iodine today — due to widespread consumption of soy foods.

Think you’re not eating soy? If you eat in restaurants, you are eating soy. If you eat processed or packaged foods, you are eating soy. Restaurants cook with soybean oil or vegetable oil — which is almost always cut with soybean oil. Most processed and packaged foods contain soybean oil and/or soy lecithin. All baby formulas (not just the soy formulas) contain soybean oil.

Here’s one I like — a French advertisement for cod liver oil:

This next one is not a real ad — it’s a spoof — but it’s great:

Too bad lard is so maligned today. It is such a healthy fat!

Lastly, here is my favorite — calling for a boycott of Kraft genetically modified foods:

Boycott Kraft Foods! Krafted: Genetically Krafted Foods

This is Yensi, our wonderful nanny, smiling her beautiful smile.

Look at those perfectly straight, white teeth! She never wore braces and has never had a cavity.

And look at her gorgeous bone structure. High cheekbones and a wide palate.

Yensi moved here from Guatemala when she was seven years old. As a child, she was fed raw milk from grass-fed cows, liver, egg yolks, bone broth, and cod liver oil. They made their own bread and tortillas and the grains and beans were always soaked. Yensi said they soaked the grains for their bread for two weeks. They also drank kefir (which they call bulgaros) and a fermented drink similar to kombucha (called chicha).

And no, it’s not just genetic. It’s the food! Her younger brothers have grown up on modern American food and have crooked teeth and lots of cavities.

Compare these two photos of Seminole Indians, taken by Weston Price (published in his book, “Nutrition and Physical Degeneration”):

The “primitive” Seminole girl (left) has a wide face with plenty of room for dental arches. The “modernized” Seminole girl (right), born to parents who had abandoned their traditional diets, has a narrowed face, crowded teeth, and a reduced immunity to disease.

Just got back from our Sunday shopping. Kate and I went to the farmer’s market then Whole Foods. Our usual routine. When we returned home, Seth and I put Kate down for her nap, unloaded the car, and then I came out back to sit in the garden to enjoy a glass of yummy zinfandel (organic, bien sur!) and a snack of raw milk cheese. Seth opted for a nap.

It is a beautiful day today. 77 degrees, sunny, clear blue skies. This is why we live in Los Angeles. There is a slight breeze which is making our whole backyard smell like jasmine.

I am so excited about what I found at the farmer’s market today. An avocado tree! There is a nice lady who sells organic plants — I also got a strawberry plant from her. Last week I bought some aloe (for Alla) as well as some chives and mint.

I’m going to put the avocado tree right next to the lemon tree. I’m thrilled that we will have avocados in our own back yard! Next I’ll get a Meyer lemon tree and a lime tree (my lady at the market said she’s going to get some in). And I must have a banana tree. One of Kate’s favorites!

And when I came home, our neighbor Otto saw my avocado tree. He was so excited — told me he just planted an apple tree yesterday. He took me in the back to show me his other trees — a kumkuat, a fig and an orange tree. Said he’s been eating 2-3 oranges every day ever since December. I told him we should trade — said I’d give him vegetables and herbs and lemons and avocados for his figs and oranges and apples.

I also bought a grape vine at Whole Foods. I want a grape vine mainly for the leaves. I want to make dolma. I also want to use the leaves to add to my homemade pickles. You add grape leaves to make them crunchy. I know right where to plant the grape vine. On the other side of the lemon tree, there’s a very sunny spot on the back wall.

I also got very fresh fish at the farmer’s market — wild salmon and sea bass and oh, I forgot what else. I’m going to make sushi for dinner tonight. I picked up some sushi rice, nori, and rice wine vinegar at Whole Foods, along with some sake and pickled ginger.

I love shopping at the farmer’s market. If I could buy everything there, I would. There is something about shopping there, buying directly from the farmer, that makes me feel so alive and so connected to my community. Kate loves being wheeled around in her stroller, sun on her face, tasting organic strawberries and apples.

A woman stopped me at Whole Foods today to compliment me on Kate. She said, “How old is she?” When I told her 10 months, she was taken aback. “My niece is 14 months and she is not this big!” I said, “Liver, egg yolks, raw milk, and cod liver oil. Every day.” She wrote it down.

I also met a very nice chicken farmer today at the farmer’s market. Bought some of his onion and garlic, as well as some of his free-range eggs (truly free-range, meaning pastured on the grass and dirt — not the faux free-range where they keep them packed in the giant rooms). And they are not fed soy.

I asked him if he ever sells chickens and he said he’s not allowed because he doesn’t have a processing plant. (Read Joel Salatin’s book, “Everything I Want to Do Is Illegal”)

I said, “What I really need is chicken feet. I can’t seem to find them anywhere, and I make a lot of broth.”

He said, “I can sell you whole chickens — but I have to bring them here alive. I can sell them to you for $8.”

He said I’d need to get there early in the morning on Sunday — 8 am. And he’d break their necks for me right there. All I’d have to do is boil and pluck. He said I could buy just one or as many as 10.

They’re not very big, he said — maybe 3 pounds. And they’re laying hens so they’re older. Not as tender but much more flavorful. Perfect for chicken stock! Plus I’d get the chicken feet and the livers and other organs which I could add to the stock.

He told me all I need to do is put them in boiling water and the feathers and claws will come right off.

So I’m going to talk to Yensi and see if she can help me process them. We could do a big batch on a Sunday. I don’t think she will have a problem with it — I’m pretty sure this is the way they do it in Guatemala.

Anyway, it’s a real bargain — only $8 for organic, free range chickens. They normally cost twice that at Rawesome — and three times that at US Wellness Meats. And those prices do not include the feet or the organs (the best parts!).

I’d better go now — Kate will be up any minute and I need to get the rice into the rice cooker. I found a sake called Otter Festival. I bought it in honor of my stepdad, John, whom we call Otter.

I mixed up a huge batch of baby food for Kate today. This is a very easy way to serve organ meats — by hiding them in ground beef.

This is a recipe for an older baby or toddler, since the texture is like ground beef, not a straight puree.

I used organic everything — and the meat was all organic and from grass-fed animals. You can use heart, kidney or other organs or glands in addition to or in place of the liver.

The garlic and onion are very nutritious, as are the herbs and spices.

2 TBS coconut oil, butter or lard
1 large yellow onion, chopped
3 or 4 garlic cloves, minced
4 ounces homemade beef stock
3 lbs grass-fed beef or bison (I used bison)
3 lbs grass-fed beef or calf liver, pureed in the food processor
1-2 tsp cumin (this helps camouflage the taste of the liver)
8 egg yolks
Spices to taste: cilantro, parsley, thyme (use fresh if you have it — mince finely)
Sea salt to taste

You need two 10-inch cast iron skillets. If you don’t have two, you can just cut the recipe in half. I like to make my baby food in bulk and then freeze it.

Put a tablespoon of coconut oil, butter, or lard in each skillet. Add garlic and onion and cook on medium until soft. Throw in 4 frozen cubes of beef stock (make ahead and freeze in ice cube trays). Add ground bison or beef and pureed liver. When cooked through, add 4 egg yolks to each skillet. Add spices and sea salt cook a few more minutes. Let cool and pack into ice cube trays. Freeze and then pop out to use a cube as needed.

You can use more or less liver to your liking. I try to use as much as possible so that Kate gets more liver. I tasted it and it was pretty darn good. Only faintly tasted of liver. It also got a thumbs up from Julianna, Yensi, and Yensi’s friend Maria who was visiting.

You can feed the ground beef mixture as is. We mixed in a little raw butter to make it taste even better (and make it more nutritious — toddlers need about 6 TBS of good fat per day).

It also makes a great base you can use for all kinds of dishes you can feed to baby (or the whole family). Each cube is about 1 ounce — a good amount for a baby or toddler.

Here are some ideas:

You could add it to a cooked (runny) egg yolk for breakfast.
You could add some coconut milk and or/cream and make it into a yummy soup.
You could add it to stew.
You could add cheese and make a cheesy casserole.
You could add stewed tomato and make a sloppy joe.
You could add it to broth or to a broth-based soup (like carrot or fennel soup, made with broth and cream).
You could stir fry with some finely chopped vegetables and coconut oil.

For older babies (over 1 year) you could mix it into rice, risotto, or other grains (just be sure to soak them for better digestion/assimilation of nutrients). You could also use this as taco meat or for enchiladas (again, soaking is necessary for any grains).

We went to the dentist this morning. It was Seth’s appointment but Kate and I went along to meet him.

He is a WAPF (Weston A. Price Foundation) dentist. His name is Dr. Silkman and he wrote this fascinating article.

He had a shelf displaying herbal toothpastes and mouthwashes and cod liver oil for sale. And there was a copy of “Nourishing Traditions” on the bookshelf in the waiting room.

Seth and I are going to have all our metal fillings and crowns replaced. Dr. Silkman is also going to fit Seth for an “adjuster” to help with his snoring. Dr. Silkman believes that a narrow palette and high arch is what causes snoring, due to the fact that you can’t get enough air. So if you wear a special “adjuster” you get the air you need and you don’t snore.

Weston Price found that native peoples who ate nutrient-dense diets (grass-fed meat and dairy, seafood, whole grains, fermented foods) had very wide palettes and properly developed skeletal structure. He found that when they started eating “modern” foods like refined white flour and sugar, their palettes and faces became more narrow. (The women also had more narrow hips, and the men had more narrow shoulders.)

Hence, the cod liver oil in Dr. Silkman’s office. Not only does cod liver oil and nutrient dense diets help prevent cavities, it also promotes healthy development of skeletal structure. Proper skeletal structure prevents all kinds of problems, including snoring, sleep apnea, deviated septums, etc.

See Dr. Silkman’s article to read more.

After the appointment, I came home and put some turkey necks in the crock pot for turkey stock, took the dandelion out of the dehydrator (going to use it to make tea), and took the baby food out of the ice cube trays in the freezer and put them in ziploc bags.

Yensi and I made baby food this weekend. We froze lots of organic fruits and some vegetables (everything was stewed or boiled except for the mango, per WAPF guidelines):

Blueberries
Raspberries
Cherries
Blackberries
Mango
Peaches
Broccoli
Peas

I still need to do two more batches:

Strawberries
Kale

I’ve been working on planning my garden. I have GOT to get this done before we go on vacation next week.

I also found out some promising information about school for Kate. I got an email from one of the moms on one of my WAPF email lists, recommending Waldorf schools. I guess a lot of the WAPF moms are in favor of Waldorf education. She was responding to another mother who had concerns about the food her child was eating at daycare (sugary snacks, fruit juice with high fructose corn syrup, etc.).

She writes:

We go to a Waldorf school and love it. No concerns about food as they provide, nutritious, organic hot snacks - like veggie soup, lentils and rice, etc. Parents provide some of the food too, but we use all organic, local food mostly. When they have treats, which is on birthdays and some holidays, it’s usually made with flour they grind in class and they use only unrefined sugars. I don’t think I’ve ever seen candy in the classroom.

Regarding the education, she says:

Both my girls are still in kindergarten and they have lots of movement all day. Most of their ‘learning’ is through rhymes, stories, circle time, and such. They also have a great outdoor program so they are out in nature about 2 hours a day, just playing, hiking and being children. They teach to the hands, heart and head so although academics is taught it is not the only aspect of education they take into account. It is based much more on developmental appropriateness.

Apparently there is a Waldorf school right here in LA!

Here’s what one of the moms on my Peachhead list (an email list for LA moms) says about the local Westside Waldorf school:

“By the time they leave the said the average student can play 2-3 instruments, understand 3 languages, know how to do wood working and sewing. All of them get their #1 or #2 high school pick as well.”

YAY! Doesn’t that sound fantastic? I like the focus on nature, I like that they learn crafts and work with their hands, I like the focus on the arts, and it sounds like they eat really well. Sounds really good to me.

I’m going to look into doing a tour. Yes, it’s true, Kate’s not old enough for school yet but in LA, you have to start very early. All the moms here say you have to start touring when they are about 9 or 10 months old. And Kate will be 10 months on Wednesday. I gotta get cracking!

Back to my garden planning…

I was just listening to Michael Pollan on the Everyday Foods show on Martha Stewart’s channel on Sirius radio.

I am really loving his book The Omnivore’s Dilemma so I was excited to hear him on the radio.

However, I completely disagreed with him!

A woman called in and asked about feeding whole milk to children and what about obesity.

He said soda is the main cause of obesity.

I agree with that, because soda contains high fructose corn syrup.

However, it is not only soda that causes obesity in children. A lot of moms are feeding their children fruit juice and white bread products and crackers. Fruit juice is often loaded with high fructose corn syrup and/or sugar. And refined flour products and sugar also cause obesity.

He also said that giving children whole milk is preferable to giving them soda.

OK, yes, agreed. (Whole milk is also preferable to fruit juice, particularly fruit juice with added sugar and/or HFCS.)

Then he said that most milk has growth hormones in it so it is not safe to drink.

Agreed.

The caller asked, “Even organic?”

He said, “Yes. Even organic.”

I agree with that. Just because it’s organic doesn’t mean it’s healthy.

However, he didn’t talk about grain-fed vs. grass fed.

Most milk comes from grain-fed cows (even the organic milk) and is not safe to drink because those cows are not healthy — because eating such an unnatural diet makes them sick. I’m not sure why he didn’t mention this fact because he writes about it at length in The Omnivore’s Dilemma.

And why didn’t he mention the dairies out there that are producing HEALTHY milk from grass-fed cows? Cows that receive no growth hormones and no antibiotics and eat only green pasture and hay?

He made it sound like all milk is bad. Which is NOT true!

He went on to say that if you are going to give your children milk, you should give them low-fat milk because, while fat is not as bad as we thought it was, lots of saturated fat is not good for you.

Huh? He lost me. What is the basis for that statement?

Mothers around the world have been feeding babies and children milk — human milk as well as milk from cows, goats, and camels — for thousands of years. We have only recently — in the past few decades — seen a huge surge of obesity and diabetes.

Sure, it might be due to hormones in milk and meat but most likely it has a lot more to do with the sharp increase in other things we are now feeding our children for the first time in history: large amounts of refined grains, flours and sugar and high fructose corn syrup.

Weston Price studied many cultures all over the world that fed their children meat or fish and dairy almost exclusively (the Eskimos, many African tribes, people living in the Swiss Alps, Scottish fishermen, etc. etc. etc.).

They had no obesity, no diabetes. No degenerative diseases whatsoever.

You can read his entire book online here and see for yourself:

Nutrition and Physical Degeneration.

Just look at the pictures and tell me those kids aren’t healthy. And what were they eating? Whole raw milk, butter, cheese. Meat, seafood. Whole grains and some vegetables and fruits. Some nuts and seeds.

These are people who got over 50% of their nutrition from fat, much of it saturated fat. And they had no degenerative disease.

Anyway, back to Pollan. He went on to say that humans are not meant to drink milk and that they can get the same nutrients from broccoli. He made some point about cows only drinking milk for 6 months — and then the go on to eat grass and get all their nutrients from grass.

Um, Michael? Did you forget something?

Humans are not cows. Cows have 6 stomachs. We have one.

They have a completely different digestive system than humans.

Here’s an interesting article about the human digestive system compared to carnivorous animals like dogs versus herbivorous animals like sheep:

Comparison Between the Digestive Tracts of a Carnivore, a Herbivore and Man

Just look at that chart on that page and tell me we should be eating mostly plants.

We are not herbivores.

And yet Michael Pollan’s advice to us is, “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”

Why? Based on WHAT?

Feeding babies broccoli instead of milk. Sheesh!

What do you say about this, Michael:

Mother’s milk provides a higher proportion of cholesterol than almost any other food. It also contains over 50% of its calories as fat, much of it saturated fat. Both cholesterol and saturated fat are essential for growth in babies and children, especially the development of the brain. Yet, the American Heart Association is now recommending a low-cholesterol, lowfat diet for children! Commercial formulas are low in saturated fats and soy formulas are devoid of cholesterol. A recent study linked lowfat diets with failure to thrive in children.

The Skinny on Fats - WAPF

Somehow I can’t imagine myself rocking my baby to sleep with a broccoli floret instead of a bottle of milk.

When we were little, we used to watch “Saturday Night Live”. My mom loved the skit Dan Ackroyd did when he impersonated Julia Child. She used to always bust up laughing at that skit, and she’d always repeat the punch line, “Save the liver!”

Julia Child was always promoting things like liver and high-fat foods. Because it was traditional in French cooking. But the reason it is traditional is because these things are very good for you!

Liver is one of the best things you can eat. What makes liver so healthy?

According to the Weston A. Price Foundation:

Quite simply, it contains more nutrients, gram for gram, than any other food. In summary, liver provides:

• An excellent source of high-quality protein
• Nature’s most concentrated source of vitamin A
• All the B vitamins in abundance, particularly vitamin B12
• One of our best sources of folic acid
• A highly usable form of iron
• Trace elements such as copper, zinc and chromium; liver is our best source of copper
• An unidentified anti-fatigue factor
• CoQ10, a nutrient that is especially important for cardio-vascular function
• A good source of purines, nitrogen-containing compounds that serve as precursors for DNA and RNA.

It’s not just the French who revere liver. People all over the world have prized liver. It is traditionally the first food native cultures feed to their children.

Our grandmothers used to serve liver once a week. It was considered a staple and a health food. How many people eat liver today? I know very few.

I have to admit, I’m not a big fan of liver and onions. I suppose if it were prepared well, I would enjoy it. I have yet to eat really good liver and onions.

So I’ve been getting my liver from supplements. Cod liver oil and dessicated calf’s liver tablets.

But two forms of liver I truly love to eat are liver pate (from ducks or chickens) and foie gras (the fatty liver from a goose or duck). I’m feeding Baby Kate liver every day — raw calf’s liver (frozen to destroy pathogens) which I grate onto her egg yolk, and chicken liver pate.

A lot of people say foie gras is inhumane. My mother and sister went to France earlier this year and they talked to a farmer who produced foie gras — they said the ducks happily lined up for the feeding.

Dr. Michael Eades just posted an interesting article about foie gras — read it here.

He also posted this Anthony Bourdain video about the making of foie gras:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABeWlY0KFv8&rel=1&border=1]

Very interesting, eh? As for me, I will continue to eat duck and goose and chicken liver frequently and foie gras on occasion.

Oh, and you know what else I love? Liverwurst. My mother used to feed us liverwurst sandwiches when I was a child and I loved them! I haven’t been able to find a good source of liverwurst. I saw some at Whole Foods but I wasn’t sure about the producer.

Well, guess what? I just googled it and I found a good source!

US Wellness Meats: Liverwurst:

Liverwurst is a mixture of grass-fed beef trim (30%),liver (30%), heart (20%) and kidney (20%). This is a rare opportunity to purchase grass-fed organ sausage.

I’m so excited! I’m going to order some today. Soon I’ll be able to eat liverwurst sandwiches again — on real homemade sourdough bread! (Ahem — once I learn how to make sourdough bread.)

Sources: Protein Power and Weston A. Price Foundation

Kate was a little under the weather today. She doesn’t have a full-on cold but she was cranky and out of sorts all day. The slightest thing would make her cry and all day long she wanted to be held and carried. Normally she is so energetic and easy-going and happy — and wanting to be crawling and exploring.

She’s in bed now but she’s woken up a few times since Daddy put her down. She wakes up and fusses for a few minutes, then goes back to sleep. I went in once and rocked her back to sleep — but I think it’s better if I can stay out. She seems to go back to sleep more quickly if I don’t go in.

It’s hard though because I want to comfort her. Poor little sweetheart. I carried her around on my hip all day, and she had 3 naps instead of her usual 2.

If she’s still fussing later, maybe she’ll sleep in our bed tonight.

I did feed her well today. As usual. I’m sure the good nutrition will help her fight whatever is ailing her.

This is what she ate:

Breakfast:
Cod liver oil
Pears
Breast milk & raw milk formula

Lunch:
Turkey stock
Zucchini with X factor butter oil and sea salt
Breast milk & raw milk formula

Snack:
Raw milk formula

Dinner:
More cod liver oil (I gave her extra today)
Turkey stock (leftover from lunch)
Zucchini with X factor butter oil and sea salt (leftover from lunch)
Soft-boiled egg yolk with grated raw liver and sea salt
Papaya (for dessert!)
Raw milk formula

Okay, so just to clarify: according to Julia, aspic is the jellied stock that contains various items such as eggs and meat and vegetables. It’s a kind of composed salad.

Gelée is the jellified stock that you make aspic with.

Here’s what Julia says (in Mastering the Art of French Cooking) about gelée, or “homemade jellied stock”:

Calf’s feet and veal knuckles contain enough natural gelatin to make a stock jell by itself; pork rind helps the process. They are added to simmer with any of the stocks on pages 107 to 100 and will provide about 3 quarts of jelly.

Use either 2 calf’s feet OR 1 pound cracked veal knuckles AND 1/4 pound fresh or salt pork rind.

What is pork rind? I don’t even know! Ah, it is the skin of a pig. Thank you, Wikipedia.

OK, she says you can also use commercial gelatin… which I think I will do to start. I don’t happen to have a good source right at the moment for veal knuckles and pig skin. However, I do happen to have a whole cannister of powdered gelatin because I use it in Kate’s homemade baby formula (gelatin helps babies digest cow’s milk).

Julia says:

One envelope of powdered American gelatin (1/4 ounce) is the equivalent of 4 sheets of French gelatin.

How to Use Powdered Gelatin:
Sprinkle 1 envelope of powdered gelatin into 1/4 to 1/2 cup of cold stock and let it soften for 3 to 4 minutes. Then blend it into the rest of the stock (use 1 envelope per 2 cups of stock) and stir over moderate heat for several minutes until the gelatin has completely dissolved and the liquid is absolutely free of granules.

How to Use Sheet Gelatin:
If you are living in France (hello, Louisa!), you will usually buy gelatin in sheets. Soak the sheets in cold water for about 10 minutes, until they are soft. Drain them, then stir them in the stock over gentle heat until the gelatin has completely dissolved.

Julia says you can add wine flavoring (port, Madeira, or cognac). We won’t be doing that since we are making baby food.

She also says it is imperative that you test your jelly:

Testing Jellies
Always test out a jelly before using it; the few minutes you spend can save you from disaster. Pour 1/2 inch of jelly into a chilled saucer and refrigerate it for about 10 minutes until it has set. Then break it up with a fork and let it sit at room temperature for 10 minutes. For aspics its broken lumps should stand alone, but not be rubbery. If the jelly is too hard, add unjellied stock and test again. If the jelly is too soft, add more gelatin and test again.

I had to go to the dentist this afternoon (they are putting in a crown on the crownless root canal tooth I had worked on before Kate was born). Driving home from downtown around 4:30 pm, I got to see the most spectacular sunset.

OK not the most spectacular, because every sunset is spectacular. In its own way. Like every snowflake is spectacular. Like every dog. Every cat. Every human being.

Anyway, it was gorgeous and beautiful and breathtaking. I kept trying to focus on driving but all I really wanted to do was breathe in this incredible sunset.

Suddenly it struck me that the majority (like 90%) of the cars were coming in the opposite direction. The majority of people on the road WERE MISSING THIS SUNSET. It then occurred to me that all these people make this commute every day and they all miss the sunset. Not only that, but they miss the sunrise too.

All these people, working so hard, swimming upstream. And a few of us lucky (I don't really believe in luck) bastards get to swim downstream… happily driving west, toward the ocean, marveling at the splendor of the divine.

And to think it was going to the dentist that allowed me to witness this. Clouds with silver linings.

I too miss the sunrise and sunset most days — not because I'm stuck in a car going the wrong way — but because our house doesn't have a view.

I decided right then that our next house will have a view of at least sunrise and/or sunset. Heck, why not both? Maybe we'll have sunrise in one room or on one patio — with our morning coffee — and sunset on a deck or in a den. Ahh, doesn't that sound fantastic?

Yes, yes it does. And I have experienced enough times in my life the reality of visualization creating manifestations. I have done it so many times. I know it works. So I'm going to create our next house. It's going to be huge and rambling and modern and elegant. With alternative energy and a gourmet kitchen and filtered water and showers and unbelievable gardens and a salt water swimming pool.

Fun to think about. Happy where I am and eager for more, as Abe says.

Tonight I made the most delicious salad — the “High Enzyme Salad” from the Nourishing Traditions cookbook. Sprouted sunflower seeds, grated carrots and raw cheddar cheese, chopped cucumber, red bell pepper and zucchini (I added that last one) on a bed of greens with a vinaigrette dressing. I forgot the avocado and green onion — oh well.

We had that and shrimp sauteed in lemon butter sauce along with some ceviche I got from Rawesome. Along with some Gewurtztraminer from Roshambo that didn't taste peppery and spicy like most Gewurtzes — it was like honey. Nice with this meal.

Went and checked on the baby. Nothing sweeter than a little chubs all tucked in and sleeping soundly. I held her hand and she grunted and tossed.

I can hear Seth snoring now in the bedroom. Life is good.

I enjoy my life so much these days. Washing and drying cloth diapers, folding them and putting them away next to the changing table. Making the homemade formula in the blender, filling glass bottles and lining them up in the fridge. Making chicken stock and baby food puree, storing it in ice trays — butternut squash, zucchini, carrots, apple sauce, papaya, cantaloupe, and chicken liver pate. Lots to do but it is all enjoyable.

Funny, I was at Rawesome today, doing my shopping. James, the owner, greeted me with an enthusiastic, “Hello!” I was thinking about him as I shopped, thinking about how happy he always seems. He's passionate (just ask him about the politics around raw milk or raw almonds in California and you'll see how passionate he is). But it's not an angry passion. It's a joyful vitality. Something so many people are missing. There is nothing about him that seems depressed or repressed. He is real. He is vital.

And I was thinking about him and how much he must love his job. He gets to bring good, raw, organic food to the people. Food you can't find at Ralph's. You seriously can't. I can't get pastured eggs at Ralph's or Trader Joe's or even Whole Food's. Rawesome is it.

And he is supporting farmers. It's got to feel good to know that the chicken lady has customers for her pastured eggs. She's making money, and people are getting good food.

Anyway, that is how I feel about being a mom. I don't mind washing cloth diapers. I don't mind spending hours researching nutrition and scouting out the healthiest foods and taking the time to prepare them the old-fashioned ways — instead of just throwing something in the microwave. Like James at Rawesome, I feel like what I am doing is important. I am needed. And I am passionate about this. It makes me want to get out of bed in the morning.

And there's something so comforting and warm about a home with a big basket full of fresh organic fruits on the kitchen counter, a stockpot of chicken or beef stock simmering, a fridge full of fresh raw milk and pastured eggs. I know that I am helping my family become healthier.

I know, the results aren't in yet. We've only been doing this for a few months. We did cure Kate's cradle cap and Seth lost a few pounds… but I predict we will see bigger results in the long term.

In the meantime, I'm just happy.

Happy where I am and eager for more.

Isn't that how little kids look at life? Maybe that's why they spend so much time laughing and tickling each other and rolling in grass and making mud pies and snorting milk out of their noses.

Maybe we should all do more of that. All of that. And watch more sunsets.

Kate is down for the night. I'm soaking raw pumpkin seeds (from the pumpkins I used for pumpkin pie) and simmering the turkey carcass to make stock.

I'm so exhausted. The past week has been a whirlwind of shopping, menu planning, roasting, basting, measuring, mixing, baking and cleaning. I feel like I need a vacation now.

Which of course I'm not getting. I went to bed after 11:30 pm last night (trying to wind down after such a long day) and got up at 6:30 to tend to Kate. And I tended to her all day — picking her up and kissing her when she bonked her head on the metal coffee table, feeding her ground turkey with chicken liver pate and butternut squash with butter, doing dishes, doing laundry, heating up bottles and changing poopy diapers. She went down at 5 pm, as usual. A 10 and a half hour day — not so bad. Mothers don't get a day off.

My single friends spent the day at the movies. Last night at dinner, they talked about all the movies they'd seen lately. I couldn't really add anything to the conversation. And for much of it, I had no idea what they were talking about. Being a new parent, I haven't seen a movie in the theater since I tried to go see “Oceans 13″ when Kate was a couple of months old and she pooped halfway up her backside and we had to leave the theater.

Ah, memories…

Anyway, I'm not complaining. I have seen enough movies for a lifetime. Okay, not for a lifetime, but I can skip seeing movies for a while is all I'm saying. And Seth gets those “FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION” movies so I guess I could be watching movies if I really wanted to. We just got “Into the Wild” in the mail for example.

But instead I am relaxing with a glass of wine, reading about vaccines. The more I read, the more I am convinced that waiting on vaccines — or refusing them altogether — is the right thing to do.

Read this:

Because of the dramatic increase in the number of injuries from childhood vaccines over the past decades, Congress enacted the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986, setting up a fund to compensate parents for injured or dead children (as if a parent could ever be “compensated” for the loss of their child due to vaccination). Application to this fund is the first step parents must take when their child has been harmed; thus, the fund serves to shield the pharmaceutical company from all initial liability. To date, the fund has paid out over $1.2 billion to parents with over 12,000 reports made every year. This is a staggering number considering how many reactions occur that medical authorities refuse to attribute to the vaccine. And if David Kessler is correct and 90-99 percent of all injuries are not even reported, the true number of children injured or killed by vaccines would be 1.2 million or more per year.

http://www.westonaprice.org/children/vaccinations.html

Doesn't that scare you? It scares me. And that's just a taste of what I'm reading. I'm not just reading the crackpot left-wing fringe websites either. I told that pediatrician I would research it and I am. I'm reading everything.

Read this, from the CBS News site (not exactly a crackpot left-wing fringe website):

http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2007/06/15/couricandco/entry2934107.shtml

Come on, people. One in 160 kids with autism. That is CRAZY. If vaccines are not to blame, something else is. Something is not right.

Here's another heinous thing I read — about the Hepatitis B shot, which is now administered at birth:

A flagrant example of the poor science behind vaccination development, the FDA approved the vaccine for use after only 1636 doses of Recombivax HB were administered to only 653 children who were subsequently monitored for only 5 days after each dose.6 Since the vaccine is recommended for the first day of life, Merck was asked for safety data on newborns. They replied, “We have none. Our studies were done on 5- and 10-year-olds.”7 Further, Merck admitted in 1996 that no data is “available for the simultaneous administration of Recombivax HB with other vaccines” even though children are routinely given other vaccines along with Recombivax HB vaccine.

http://www.westonaprice.org/children/vaccinations.html

Good Lord! They test cough medicine more than that.

Oh, wait. Maybe not: http://www.newstarget.com/022209.html

Do I really want my child to be a guinea pig for the likes of Merck? And Hepatitis B is only transmitted through sex and dirty needles. Hmm — yeah, I guess Kate was high risk, seeing how there's so much casual sex and intravenous drug usage in the maternity ward. Oh, yes, a mother can infect her baby during birth — but couldn't they just administer a simple blood test to the mothers instead of giving our newborns a shot?

Oh, right, a blood test COSTS them money. The Hep B shot MAKES them money.

Anyway, I'll keep reading. I'll keep researching. As I said, when and if I find enough evidence to convince m