I’ll be doing an interview on a new Blog Talk Radio show Let’s Get Real with Beth Wiles. She’s just starting up her radio show and has some great guests lined up this month. I’ll be sharing my story and chatting with her about real food. She has also done the GAPS diet (you can read about that here on her blog) and is trying to promote the idea of real food for health through her show.

Click here to listen at 11:30 EST (8:30 PST) Wednesday, January 4. This will be archived so you can listen after as well.

I’ve said some of this before, but in the wake of recent raw milk legal events in Canada I wanted to post about it again. Yesterday, Michael Schmidt was found guilty of a number of charges brought against him for selling raw milk from his farm. Up until now the legality of raw milk hasn’t really affected me but this may change very soon. This summer I have been hearing from a lot of farmers that depending on the outcome of this ruling they may decide not to distribute their raw milk anymore.

Here’s a summary of my thoughts on the topic (hint, I think it’s ridiculous we can’t buy raw milk):

1. Milk is the only food we cannot buy raw. Why?

   There are so many things you can do with raw milk, like making your own cheeses and sour cream. I once left jars of raw cream out on the counter and they went sour. I turned some into a delicious butter and the rest was thick tangy sour cream. You can’t do that with pasteurized milk. Leave it out on the counter and it goes bad pretty fast with mold or clumps of rotting mess. So why shouldn’t I have the right to buy a raw ingredient I want to make other things with? I also use my raw milk for yogurt and kefir, and prefer starting from the raw ingredient.

2. We’re not asking for it to be sold in stores, just allow farmers to sell it.

   Drinking raw milk is not illegal, just selling and distributing it is. Why? Farmers can produce it and drink it themselves, but unless you live on that farm you can’t have any. Something doesn’t seem right.

3. Plenty of dairy farmers drink their milk raw.

   Every dairy farmer I’ve talked to has no worries about drinking raw milk. Even dairy farmers who then sell their milk as pasteurized. They aren’t getting sick on this stuff.

4. Pasteurized milk is not necessarily safe.

   Believing pasteurization removes any risk from food boorne illness is incorrect. Even if pasteurization killed all bacteria, the bottling and handling stages of milk processing can still cause contamination. Ultra High Temperature (UHT) pasteurization is supposed to kill even more pathogens. Many people have noticed however that this dead milk can’t be used for making yogurt or kefir properly. I don’t think any of us want to be eating a food that can’t support life. UHT pasteurized milk is about on the same level as margarine for health.

5. Pasteurized milk makes me sick.

   It does, I’ve tried it more than once. I get the snotty-nosed reaction first, bloating and sometimes stomach cramps. Anyone who thinks milk is a ‘mucous-producing food’ probably haven’t tried raw milk or ferments made from raw milk.

6. Plenty of other foods can make you sick.

   Spinach, tomatoes, cold cuts, ground beef, peanut butter, cookie dough and pretty much any packaged food are probably more recognized by the general public as being dangerous foods than milk.
   

7. Why don’t we have the freedom to choose what we eat?

   IT’s JUST FOOD! I’d rather our government be spending money on actual crimes and not harassing farmers who are selling a food that people want and should have every right to buy.

8. The raw milk law discriminates against non-farmers

   It’s legal to drink raw milk in Canada. It’s not legal to sell or distribute it. This means that unless you live on a farm you cannot drink raw milk. So really, only farmers can drink raw milk legally in Canada.

The best place I’ve found to keep up to date on all raw milk news is http://thebovine.wordpress.com

There’s an interesting article with a poll on it (as of Setp 29, 2011) at http://www.cbc.ca/news/yourcommunity/2011/09/should-raw-milk-be-sold-in-canada.html which may be a little biased getting lots of support from raw milk drinkers. However, it does go to show that the raw milk issue among non-supporters is really not that important.

I’m a bit late to this but wanted to make sure everyone has heard about the Reversing Food Allergies online course held by Cheeseslave. If you’re trying a diet like GAPS or SCD to heal your gut, this will be a great learning opportunity. The course provides lots of information about food allergies, healing and detoxing, how to prepare many different foods to heal the gut and recipes for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks and desserts.

This is being offered at a great time which happens to coincide with a few people doing the GAPS intro together. Baden from the GAPS Guide wrote about it in detail here: http://gapsguide.com/2011/03/16/intro-april-11th/. This is a perfect opportunity to do the intro diet with the support and motivation of others, while learning all the tools you’ll need to carry forward and fully heal with a diet like this.

Here is a sample video from the class, demonstrating how to make beef stock

Click here to see the class outline and watch a sneak peak video of the online course.

Reid Kimball, fellow SCDer, is making a documentary about alternative health methods for healing Crohn’s disease. This is the first documentary I know of that will talk about SCD, other diets, supplements etc for managing and recovering from digestive diseases.

Please support the making of this documentary by donating to this project! So far he has raised over $7,000 dollars but is still a few thousand away from the goal. There’s only 4 days left to donate so please do it today.

Click here to donate at Kickstarter.com

For more information about the project see the main website at http://crohnsend.com/. Also be sure to follow his blog on there too!

As part of the Happy & Healthy Holidays cooking course, Jenny has included a free Thanksgiving lesson.

Click here to sign up for the free class!

The lesson includes:

• A video on how to split, seed and roast a pumpkin
• A menu for a full Thanksgiving supper
• 8 grain-free recipes (dairy and sugar-free with substitutions)

The apple-nut crisp dessert is completely SCD/GAPS legal and is so simple to make. And if you haven’t roasted a pumpkin to get pumpkin puree for making desserts with, then the video will definitely motivate you to try it. On SCD, pumpkin puree in a can is not to be used, so making your own is a must. I have been enjoying pumpkin pudding and pie filling the past couple months that pumpkins have been in season.

If you’re interested in signing up for the full cooking course, or for other individual classes, I have a coupon code NK20 that will get you 20% off the cost of the course. Just make sure to enter NK20 on the checkout page.

Click here to sign up for the full course!

There is a wonderful new online cooking class available dedicated to holiday foods, and almost all of the recipes are suited to SCD, GAPS and Primal diets. I’m really enjoying taking online cooking courses. The fact that this course offers SCD/GAPS/Primal cooking lessons is great! I have done cooking classes in my hometown before, but none are suited to my diet. I know my first Thanksgiving I only ate about 3 dishes because I couldn’t have the rest of the stuff I prepared. Having a bit more guidance on how to prepare a whole holiday feast would have been helpful.

The course material is available for lifetime, so for holiday dinners to come you’ll always have some refresher videos to watch and your favorite recipes stored or printed out. There’s also access to an online forum with all the course participants. This is invaluable as everyone can exchange ideas, help each other out with learning and get questions answered from the course teacher, Jenny from Nourished Kitchen. I had the chance to meet her at the Wise Traditions Conference and she is so amazing!

Check out this video introduction for the course:

I will be signing up for the course too and I’m excited to get some new ideas. My family celebrates Christmas with a nice turkey dinner and we usually have a New Years feast with extended family featuring a roast ham. This on top of Thanksgiving makes for 3 feasts, so I can always use more recipes and techniques to help expand my culinary skills. If you’re on SCD or GAPS and worried about any of the recipes, I’ll be doing them too so we can compare notes in the forums.

Click here to sign up now!

The last day to sign up is November 30, 2010. Classes start December 1st, so make sure to sign up in time.

There are 9 full classes and an extra bonus class. For a full look at the details for each class, click here.

This course is a bargain at $89, less than $10 per class.

Also note, you can sign up for individual classes so if there’s any classes particular that look most interesting to you, you can sign up for them on their own.

Some things you’ll learn how to do in the course:

• Brine and slow-roast a turkey
• Make a fantastic pie crust – without refined flour
• Roast and puree a pumpkin
• Make your own mayonnaise, ketchup and mustard
• Make healthy gifts for friends and family
• Ditch white flour and white sugar in your cookies & sweets
• Make gluten-/grain-/dairy-free versions of your best holiday treats
• Convert your favorite recipes to healthier versions
• Entertain friends and family with over 30 menus and 175 included recipes

You’ll have access to multimedia online lessons, video tutorials, over 30 holiday menus, over 175 holiday recipes, downloadable print materials, and sample shopping lists.

Hope to see some SCD, GAPS and Primal eaters take these courses with me!

I did a little interview with Jordan from SCD Lifestyle answering some common questions about the diet. Check it out here!

Also make sure to read the spotlight posts with other SCDers. One of the things I found very helpful early on in SCD was to follow other people’s blogs and connect with those who had been on the diet for a long time.

Check out:
Arden Eats
Matt from Digestive Healing
Mrs Ed from Mrs Eds Research and Recipes
Christina from Organically Autoimmune
Susan from The SCD Girl and her Kid
Jan the Food Lady

They also have a weekly SCD podcast. I love this idea, since most of us are spending a lot of time in the kitchen and might not have the chance to read all these blogs, you can listen instead.

Earlier this week I took the time to complete the first lesson of the Surf & Turf class. Lots of great information about why we need more protein, how traditional diets always included sources of animal protein, best choices of protein and why fats are good for us. I realized since cutting out yogurt I’m not getting enough protein with my breakfast. Two eggs is not very much, so I will be looking at getting more protein in the morning.

One of the activities in the course involved taking an online questionnaire http://www.moodcure.com/Questionnaire.html. I remember doing this questionnaire a while ago and scored high in each section, meaning I was low in all the neurotransmitters listed. This time I took it and the only one that I scored high in was Type 3. Over Stressed, Low in GABA. According to Julia Ross, Author of The Mood Cure, if you’re low in any of them then taking an amino acid supplement can help with symptoms.

I think for something like the Over Stressed type that I scored high in, it’s good to reevaluate what changes I can make to address this before supplementing. One thing is obviously reducing sources of stress, which I seem to have accumulated all summer. Yesterday I came home from work and had a 15 minute nap on the couch. It’s the first time I allowed myself to rest like that on a work day all summer. Yes dinner was late, after 8pm, but I felt good. Coming home from work and powering through the evening trying to get everything done is stressful. Taking a quick break allowed me to physically calm down and approach the evening with less anxiety. Thing is, even doing this doesn’t seem to get rid of the physical anxiety feeling. I’m not sure how to describe it, but it’s been a feeling I have had off and on for years.

I did a quick search for natural sources of GABA and found a nice article about it here http://holistic-nutrition.suite101.com/article.cfm/gaba_foods_the_natural_antianxiety_diet. Green tea, L-Theanine amino acids, and complex carbohydrates are all supposed to help and there’s a list of good foods to stimulate GABA production. Since I like using food first, I will be picking and choosing from this list a bit more often. I love how beef liver shows up on there. No matter what I search for it seems like it all comes back to beef liver! I have been doing well with sweet potatoes, potatoes, and more root vegetables in my diet lately. My blood sugar seems more stable now and I can tolerate carbs from these sources as well as fruit. It’s interesting that complex carbs can help with anxiety and stress too.

It has been over 5 years that I’ve turned to the Internet and alternative health sources to learn more about nutrition and search for answers to my health problems. I feel like there’s still so much to discover.

In the past few weeks one of the biggest news stories was about yet another food recall, this time eggs. People in the US were getting sick with salmonella from contaminated eggs. What shocked me was the number of eggs being recalled, half a billion as of August 23, 2010.

I’ve mentioned before that I get pastured eggs and sometimes whole chickens from a local farmer. While this doesn’t protect me from ever getting sick from food, it certainly does help. Chickens are less likely to get sick when they have more room, access to outdoors, proper diet (including bugs!) and no stress. These chickens are also not given antibiotics in their feed, and so are not contributing to breeding super-salmonella resistant to treatment.

I wanted to share in pictures what this farm looks like. It’s a pretty small farm, with just about 20 chickens, some ducks, a few cats and a dog. I visited a few weeks ago to pick up some eggs and snap some photos. It was like visiting a little piece of heaven!

Here’s the chicken coop.

It used to be a barn for horses. In one of the stalls is the chicken feed.

They made some nesting boxes out of wood for the hens to lay in. One hen was in there while I visited. She moved aside for them to take the egg and then she hopped down to get a snack.

In behind the barn is a fenced-in secure area. The chicks they raised for meat stayed in this area mostly, but the hens can run around in there too.

The hens are also free to run around the property. This is not fenced in at all, the chickens just know to come back to the barn at night for safety and food. When the farmer cuts the lawn, the chickens run along behind him eating all the bugs that come up with the turned grass.

The chickens are given a natural feed but in the summer they tend to eat less of it, since they’re scratching around outside eating bugs.

If you stand around long enough, all the animals come close for a visit.

The ducks have a little kiddy pool to float around in too. I couldn’t get a picture of them in there without another animal popping into view! It’s so cute how they all hang out.

This farm just seemed so peaceful.

And here’s what I came home with, a dozen dozen fresh eggs.

I know not everyone can find an egg farmer as perfect as this one, but it’s worth trying to find one that uses good farming practices. I found this farmer by posting a wanted ad on an online classifieds site. I had been getting pastured eggs from a vendor at the farmer’s market in the summer, but found that they couldn’t supply me with enough and I would resort to buying expensive eggs from the store. So I just posted up an ad and within a couple days I had three local egg farmers to choose from. Since then I’ve found other food sources through online classifieds sites. It makes sense that there are a lot of farmers on these sites, as they are often looking to buy or share equipment and animals. I highly suggest using these kinds of resources to find good local food.

These eggs cost me $3.50 a dozen and have gorgeous deep orange yolks full of flavor. It’s over $6.00 a dozen for organic cage-free eggs from the store, but anytime I have to buy those we end up complaining about the lack of taste. Nothing compares to fresh pastured eggs from a small farm where the chickens can roam around and eat whatever they want.

Wow, when I asked people to share their current diet and why they wanted to do this course, I didn’t anticipate such inspiring comments! So many of you are following restricted diets and sticking to it even though it’s hard work. I wish all of you could win.

This cooking course just looks amazing. In my own experience, preparing meat is the hardest part of cooking. It’s pretty easy to throw together a salad or stir-fry some vegetables, but cooking different cuts of meat from scratch can be pretty daunting. I really hope everyone can join me in this course so we can all learn some mad skills in the kitchen!

If you didn’t win, I suggest you still sign up right away. As far as I know, the course will not be offered again any time soon. And if you take the course all the materials will be available to you forever. So even if you don’t have time now, you can make sure not to miss out on this great opportunity.

For everyone who participated in the giveaway, I have a coupon code to share with you for $20 off making the cost of the 13-week course just $100! That’s less than $8 per class.

To get your coupon code, just email me at kat.garson @ gmail.com. I’ll send you the coupon.

Click here to sign up now!

Make sure you sign up before the deadline of Saturday, August 14.

Now for the lucky winner…

Kathleen from the GAPSHelp boards!

Congratulations to you Kathleen! I will email you and we’ll get you signed up for the course. I hope it helps you enjoy the GAPS diet even more and use up all those nutritious organ meats.

I hope to see everyone in the class!