Category Archives: Whole Food

Two week Sugar Elimination: Mind and Body physiological changes

Summary:  A Two week Sugar Elimination challenge results in Mind and Body Physiological  Changes that are so true, vast, deep, and amazing — why anyone would not try a two week challenge, I’m clueless on.  This post provides some insightand How-To’s for doing a two week elimination of only refined sugar.   This post also includes excerpts from HOW GIVING UP REFINED SUGAR CHANGED MY BRAIN, which shares a dieter’s experiences doing this challenge.  That article is such a great read!  I wish every one would do a two week sugar elimination diet. You’d experience a revelation in Mind and Body Physiological Changes in how you feel including energy and mental clarity that are truly impossible to ignore!   Heck, even Dr. Oz’s three day vegetable, fruit, multivitamin and VSL#3 probiotic cleanse caused massive microbiome changes and you can read about that here too!

Click here to read full article

Soybean oil, corn oil, diabetes, metabolic syndrome & P-450

Summary:  Learn the association between Soybean oil, Corn oil, Diabetes, Metabolic Syndrome & P-450 inhibition, the main liver detox enzyme, having significant effects on expression of genes that metabolize drugs & toxicants.  Now is the time to be wary of and consider eliminating polyunsaturated fatty acids soybean oil and corn oil (as well as vegetable oil —since this typically contains soybean oil) as they were found to:

  1. Link to diabetes and metabolic syndrome. In the US, metabolic syndrome is estimated to be present in 20–30% of adults and 3–10% of children [100,101]. 
  2. Significantly affect the expression of many genes that metabolize drugs and other foreign compounds that enter the body, suggesting that a soybean oil-enriched diet could affect one’s response to drugs and environmental toxicants. The single most highly represented family of dysregulated genes was that of the [key liver detox] cytochrome P450 (Cyp) genes (30 genes total).

Also worth noting: the soybean plus fructose diet had less severe metabolic effects compared to the soybean oil diet, but it did cause more negative effects in the kidney and a marked increase in prolapsed rectums, a symptom of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), which like obesity is on the rise.

Click here to read full article

4th of July Fruit Roundup & Burger Thoughts

Sharing an EASY 4th of July Fruit Roundup, and a Grassfed Burger recipe, for party & picnic ideas, although honestly, these are fun & fabulous anytime!

And the best part… absolutely NO artificial colorings, artificial flavorings, or additives!  Nature is providing all!

Tip:   Just dip banana slices in lemon juice to prevent discoloration.

Berries… please buy organic as they are on EWG’s Dirty List:

EWG 2015 Dirty and Clean List
Source: http://ecowatch.com/2015/02/26/shopper-guide-pesticides-produce/

For the pie recipe…  please don’t use canola oil… just use coconut oil!!!  You will soon see the post detailing transfat (and other) problems with canola oil — all industrial seed oils for that matter!

Burger thoughts

For mouthwatering burgers:Grassfed meat has fatty acids that differ from grainfed meats. Unique taste results and non-conventional cooking is required to bring out the tastefulness. The reference links in the Notes section are great for understanding fatty acid differences. Source: biomeonboardawareness.com

Click here to read full article

4th of July Cashew Cheesecake with Nut Crust, SCD/GAPS/PALEO

Summary:  This is a great 4th of July dessert, and it is just in time for the holiday!  But honestly, we always have this Cashew Cheesecake with Nut Crust in our freezer for snacking! Some add peanut butter into the filling, or blueberries swirled atop the cheesecakes, and others top with coconut milk whip cream. I suppose that is what makes this recipe so fun… you can dress it up but you certainly don’t need to! It is equally delicious as is!  Credit for this recipe goes to Minimalist Baker, although  I’ve modified it to include proper nut preparation as well as to proportionately increase the filling ingredients to reflect 15 full sized muffing tins instead of one dozen, since I always get 15 nut crusts!

Click here to read full article

SCD Protein Bar (similar to Cliff Bars) or Bite Sized Candy

SUMMARY: This is a favorite SCD protein bar that we actually cut into bite sized nugget pieces which are then frozen. It is perfect for snacking.  The recipe uses a food processor and no baking is required!  The ingredients are pressed into a parchment lined dish, frozen, and then cut into the desired nugget sizes.  I always double this recipe since it is a freezer stored food. 

Ingredients I Prefer to Use

The ingredients in this recipe make these bars an advanced food for those on healing diets such as SCD, GAPS, or PALEO.  For this very reason, I recommend properly preparing nut and seed ingredients  whenever possible to make such more easily digestible.  I use the following ingredients for this very reason although I am not aware of “SCD legal” letters for them.  Be cautious if you are SCD or GAPS and use these brands, but many use them without problem. You can be creative and use your favorite nuts, seeds, and nut butters, but I prefer:

Click here to read full article

Preserve & Restore Loss of Microbiome Diversity is Aggressive Preventative Medicine

SUMMARY:  Aggressive Preventative Medicine means preserving the microbiome you have and restoring any loss incurred.  See how far that thought goes with your doctor!  Diet really does work to alter the microbiome and can help to restore loss of microbiome; for example, fermented kimchi actually positively impacted metabolic syndrome factors including systolic and diastolic blood pressures, percent body fat, fasting glucose, and total cholesterol.  

⇒⇒  This post teaches how to reduce the loss of microbiome diversity and restore such – crowding out concept.

Click here to read full article

Date Nut Bread, PALEO SCD GAPS

SUMMARY:  The recipe, Date Nut Bread, PALEO SCD GAPS, UMass IBD-AID is a favorite of family and friends.  This is NOT a sweet bread per se although the dates do provide a tinge of sweetness.  Some enjoy this bread with a swirl of butter on top.  Double, if not triple, the recipe; it is that good.  No matter what diet you are targeting, this is a healing nutrient dense recipe if you tolerate nuts, and for AIP — nuts have been successfully reintroduced, and for low FODMAPs — substitute maple syrup for the dates and consume small portions due to almond restrictions. Tip:  Freeze extra mini loaves to always have this on hand.

The recipe is interesting since it uses several ingredients you may never have baked with — both almond and coconut flours, dates, and apple cider vinegar.  Just the combination sounds peculiar; but it is a winner!  The recipe also uses a food processor; I have had mine for 30 plus years — a bridal shower gift from my sister — though I honestly never really used it until beginning to eat SCD.

embellishment7Some thoughts on serving size:  One slice is actually enough even though it isn’t near the size you are use to, bread-wise.   Remember, with nutrient dense foods, you honestly eat less due to satiety.

embellishment7We have habits of eating a lot of something mainly because our body seeks nutrition, which the Standard American Diet is sorely lacking.  This recipe is nutrient dense thus you eat less to nourish your body.

Click here to read full article

What’s in a Practical Whole Foods PALEO, SCD, Gaps Healing Fridge?

SUMMARY:  Check out this healing, anti-inflammatory, nutrient dense fridge, and learn what is in a practical whole foods PALEO, SCD, GAPS Mediterranean diet type fridge, that also happens to be sustainable and family and friends friendly!  Also learn practical tips for transitioning (with recipe links) & quality food sourcing links.   Each of our microbiomes differ by over 99% and that means, there is no one right diet for all due to each of our unique physiologic and genetic (human and microbial) variability. This includes the trendy diets, like Ketogenic, PALEO, Atkins, Zone, as well as the popular, government-sponsored diets such as DASH (revised 2015) and TLC (2005, still needs updated).  The Mediterranean Diet continues to have evidence based benefit.  In fact, a diet called MIND, which combines Mediterranean, DASH, and aging brain literatureshowed for strict follow, that brains functioned as if 7 years younger AND there was a 53% reduction of Alzheimer’s risk.   Moderate follow reduced Alzheimer’s risk by 35%!  MIND is currently recruiting 600 with a family history of dementia or Alzheimer’s, and a BMI 25 or over, for clinical trial at Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health and RUSH University Medical Center!  The top diets in each category share similar attributes including balance, higher vegetable and some fruit (especially low sugar like berries, avocados), wild caught fish, fermented food (see the 2017 D. D. Rosa et al for the benefits of kefir which are also listed below), awareness of EWG toxin recommendations, along with self awareness, finding a like minded tribe of experienced healing diet eaters able to support your learning thereby establishing Blue Zones within families, to friends, to communities (Dr. David Katz, Episode 11 of Awakening From Alzheimer’s, and monitoring of what you eat through journaling.  An emphasis on frequent, structured exercise and physical activity are also common themes.  With awareness of the many tenets of healing type diets and lifestyle impact on the microbiomesmall diet and lifestyle changes result in big health improvement without the perceived rigidity of following a traditional diet plan, and these changes motivate you to your NEXT.   Eating microbiome gut supporting foods works.  Just check out my Testimonial page! 

Click here to read full article

Nice, SCD increased F. prausnitzii… hugh?!?

SUMMARY:  This post is a followup to the post, IBD CROHN’S: SCD INCREASED MICROBIOME DIVERSITY BUT LOW RESIDUAL DIET REDUCED DIVERSITY.  It discusses the significance of the finding that SCD increased F. prausnitzii within the microbiome for Crohn’s patients eating SCD.  I’d suspect however, that similar results occur even for non-Crohn’s SCD consumers, which would be a good thing. For details of the microbiome changes due to SCD (microbial diversity increased to include 134 bacteria belonging to 32 different classes (Figure 8), the bacterial families over represented in the increase included over 20 species of the non-pathogenic clostridia family and more) read the post IBD CROHN’S: SCD INCREASED MICROBIOME DIVERSITY BUT LOW RESIDUAL DIET REDUCED DIVERSITY.  Think about the 3.5 to 5 pounds of bacteria that lives on and in us: what are they, how did they get there, and what does their mix mean for our health?  Ends up, F. prausnitzii is a major player in gut health and those having more of it fare better, at least for IBD where F. prausnitzii seems to be reduced.  In summary, F. prausnitzii protects against pathogen invasion, modulates the immune system, is an acetate consumer, and is a producer of substantial quantities of butyrate as well as high amounts of antioxidant compounds.  Some call F. prausnitzii a keystone peacekeeping microbe.  

Click here to read full article

IBD CAM, LDN, probiotics, SCD… & Integrative Medicine benefits gut health

SUMMARY:   IBD CAM “Probiotics, Special Diets [SCD], and Complementary Therapies:  We Know Patients Want Them, So What Do We Tell Them? was presented at the Dec. 2014  Advances in IBD conference, by Dr. Sandra Kim, MD, who noted, “SO CERTAINLY THERE IS SOME PROMISE IN AT LEAST THINKING ABOUT THIS.”  Now that’s a first!!!  At least one conventional doctor is encouraging her peers to  seriously educate themselves about IBD CAM, LDN, probiotics, SCD… and  Integrative  Medicine and to ask their patients if they are interested in them, using them and if so, what do they use, and to actively seek funding for further study of them!  And… Dr. Kim has disclosure of conflicting interests — Speaker: Nestle NutritionAbbott Laboratories and Consultant: AbbVie Pharmaceuticals!

Click here to read full article