Choosing Food For Health
To my patients: if you have an experience with changing the way you eat, or a healthy recipe you'd like to share, please send me an email.
Diet Book Reviews
Deep Nutrition by Catherine and Luke Shanahan
The primary premise of this book is that we can alter the expression of our genetic code by eating well. Dr. Shanahan discusses eating whole foods - really whole. For example, you may think chicken breast is a whole food, and compared to chicken nuggets you would be right. But Dr. Shanahan advocates eating a chicken that has been cooked whole, and eating not just the breast but all parts, white meat, dark meat, fat, skin, liver, cartilage. She says, don't drink lowfat milk, drink whole milk, organic and if possible raw milk from pasture raised cows.
The top two foods she says to avoid are Sugars - all sugars including fructose - and Vegetable oils. She includes canola, grapeseed, saflower and the only oils she recomends are palm, coconut, butter, animal fat and olive oil.
More on this book soon
GAPS
Paleo Diet
Fat Flush Plan
Making Broth
There are lots of ways to make a good broth. It starts with good bones. If you are using chicken, use organic, preferably free range. If you are using Beef the priority is grass fed, with organic being secondary. You can take the bones and put them fresh or frozen right into a pot of water. This is probably the best way to get the most nutrition out of them. However, if you are worried about flavor roast some of the bones first. You don't have to roast them all to get good flavor. Pop them in an oven at about 350 until they are brown and your kitchen smells yummy. About 45 minutes. Now take your bones, raw and roasted or just raw and put them in a very large stock pot filled with water. Add 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar or a couple tomatoes. The acid helps pull vital minerals out of the bones. Bring the pot to a boil and turn down to simmer. I like to put a lid on the pot to save my broth from evaporating but if you forget, just add more water and boil for a bit longer. Chicken bones take less time than beef, probably about 4-6 hours. The beef bones can go over night. I like to put the stock on the stove after dinner and leave it till the morning however, overcooking will affect the flavor so experiment.
While your bones are boiling you can add veggies for flavor - carrots, celery, onions...
After you've cooked your bones for most of the time and have 2 hours left, add veggies. At this point you are adding veggies you won't be eating so you can put in stems, leaves, and ends. Add zucchini, kale, broccoli, chard, bok choi, carrots, onions, parsley, tomatoes, celery.... whatever you have, whatever is in season, whatever you are craving.
After a few hours turn the broth off and let it cool a bit. Then pour it through a strainer and dispose of the bones and veggies.
Let it cool in the refridgerator without a top on it. After it has cooled you can skim off the fat. Some people recomend you leave the fat in as it is nutritious.
Now your broth is ready to drink. Add sea salt to taste - I think it takes a lot to taste good. Then you can heat it up and drink it, use it to cook with, or add ingredients to it to make it a soup.
Butternut squash soup
Roast a whole butternut squash. Blend some of the squash with your broth till it is the desired thickness and heat. Garnish with pumkin seeds, or chopped pablano peppers.
Barely vegetable soup
Add barley to your broth and cook until soft ( probably 40 minutes to an hour)
chopped veggies and cook for another 15-30 minutes or until desired texture.