Update: Giveaway is over, but you can still sign up for the e-course! Click here to sign up.

I’m so excited about the e-course and happy to tell you that Ann Marie of Cheeseslave has given me one course to give away for free! That means one person who enters here will get the full 13 week e-course membership for free ($120 value). If you’re interested in learning to cook meat & seafood or just want some inspiration and ideas, then check out this e-course!

I will be taking the course starting August 18 and would love for other people following SCD, GAPS or Primal diets to join me. There have been a number of e-courses in the real food world lately by wonderful bloggers who are doing an awesome job helping people learn how to cook. This is the first course I have seen that is SCD-legal, GAPS-legal, and Primal friendly. This opportunity will not come up too often so don’t hesitate on this one! Make sure you sign up before August 14th.

What if I don’t have time?

If you think you don’t have time to take this course, then make sure you read at the bottom of the e-course page “Don’t Have Time to Take a Class?”.

How To Enter

First check out the e-course site, watch the video, and have a look at the course plan by clicking here: Surf & Turf e-Course.

Then come back here and leave a comment telling me what kind of diet you follow and why you want to take this e-course. Your comment is your entry into the giveaway. I know, I know, you’re all looking forward to eating the liver right???

The giveaway will only be open for this week until Thursday, August 6 at 11:59PM EST. I will announce the winner the next morning (Friday, August 7) AND I will be sharing a discount coupon code for those who don’t win so be sure to check back then. The winner will have 48 hours to contact me with full name, address, and phone number. You don’t need to purchase anything to enter.

Contest is open to anyone in the world.

Don’t forget to leave me a comment here and good luck!

I am super excited about an upcoming e-course! Ann Marie of Cheeseslave has a cooking course entirely devoted to meat and seafood. She will cover how to cook a bunch of different cuts including bones, organs, tough cuts and various seafood. This course is great for anyone on  SCD, GAPS or Primal diets. There will be 13 classes (one each week) starting August 18, 2010 for $120.

Check out the syllabus:

1. Overview – how much protein we need, how protein builds neurotransmitters for healthy moods, etc.
2. Stocking Up – how to buy grass-fed meats and store in freezer, how to shop for fish
3. Grilling - how to set up a BBQ (gas or grill) and grilling steaks and chops
4. Raw fish – ceviche & sushi, shucking oysters
5. Cooked fish – fast & easy family-friendly recipes like moules frites and broiled salmon
6. Bone broths – meat, fish and chicken
7. Soups & stews – How to incorporate bone broth and healthy fats into yummy soups – Thai coconut soup, Honduran tapado
8. Roasts, reduction sauces & gravies – Roast duck with cherry reduction sauce, pot roast with simple gravy
9. Frying – pan-frying and deep-frying – Grass-fed flank steak w/ chimichurri sauce, healthy chicken nuggets
10. Sandwiches & salads – Using leftover meat to make sandwiches – Coconut flour bread, chicken salad, Southwestern Cobb salad
11. Organ meats 1 – How to grind organs, beef heart chili, beef tongue, roasted bone marrow
12. Organ meats 2 – Chicken liver pate, chopped liver, liver & onions, homemade liverwurst
13. Appetizers, side dishes & snacks – deviled eggs w/ salmon roe, bacon wrapped scallops & dates, beef jerky, homemade clam dip

The course is gluten- and grain-free, and there are substitutes like coconut milk and coconut oil in place of dairy so it’s both SCD & GAPS legal.

The following video introduction gives a great overview of the course and what you can expect to get out of it.

I am pretty excited about taking the e-course. After following Cheeseslave’s blog for many years and seeing all the nutritious foods she has prepared, I always wanted to learn techniques to help me do that at home. I have figured out through YouTube videos and a whole lot of trial and error how to handle some cuts of meat. To participate in an online course would be a fun experience. Not only will we be learning from the master, but it serves as a great way to bring everyone together to help each other learn. I personally can’t wait for the organ meat weeks! I’m always encouraging people to eat liver and eat it often myself, but I can’t wait to learn proper techniques and recipes.

If you’re interested in learning how to cook meat and seafood, then click here to check out the Surf & Turf e-course.

Many people interested in health and diet have heard of The China Study by T. Colin Campbell. Published in 2005, the book details the food eaten by people in different areas of China and the correlation to health problems. The basic conclusion from this study was that animal foods cause cancer and heart disease, while a plant based vegan diet is the healthiest. It is one of the most often quoted sources I’ve seen in the past few years when claiming a vegan or vegetarian diet is best for human health. If you’re like me following an SCD, GAPS or Primal type diet, you will have people questioning you about eating so much meat and fat, and you will at some point hear someone referring to this study as their ultimate “Ha! You’re wrong!” argument. I’ve even heard people following the SCDiet successfully and overcoming digestive problems turn around and ask “but will I get cancer since I’m eating so much meat?”.

I have read rebuttals against the China Study before but this past week read through a most interesting and thorough discussion of not just the China Study book, but of the actual raw data the study was based on. Denise from Raw Food SOS took the time to sort through all the data and what she found was quite interesting. Many of the claims made by Campbell were simply false. Read her full post here: http://rawfoodsos.com/2010/07/07/the-china-study-fact-or-fallac/.

Of particular interest was the correlation between wheat and cancer and heart disease. Most people are aware that wheat can impact the digestive system and is the main cause of Celiac Disease, but here it is shown to have an effect on other health issues that are usually attributed to red meat and saturated fat. (Note, +’s are bad here, -’s are good, bold emphasis is mine)

“Why does Campbell indict animal foods in cardiovascular disease (correlation of +1 for animal protein and -11 for fish protein), yet fail to mention that wheat flour has a correlation of +67 with heart attacks and coronary heart disease, and plant protein correlates at +25 with these conditions?

Speaking of wheat, why doesn’t Campbell also note the astronomical correlations wheat flour has with various diseases: +46 with cervix cancer, +54 with hypertensive heart disease, +47 with stroke, +41 with diseases of the blood and blood-forming organs, and the aforementioned +67 with myocardial infarction and coronary heart disease? (None of these correlations appear to be tangled with any risk-heightening variables, either.)”

This led me to find a number of other people who have questioned wheat’s role in heart disease including Brad Marshall who wrote about it shortly after The China Study came out. You can read his take here:
http://bradmarshall.blogspot.com/2005/12/is-wheat-killing-us-introduction-maybe.html.

Denise also points out that Campbell had completely removed data of one group of people from the study. These people ate a lot of dairy and animal protein, almost to an extreme compared to the other groups, some of which ate a mostly plant-based diet. How can we believe a study that purposely omits data, especially data that clearly shows the opposite of what is being claimed is true?

“Why does Campbell overlook the unique Tuoli peoples documented in the China Study, who eat twice as much animal protein as the average American (including two pounds of casein-filled dairy per day)—yet don’t exhibit higher rates of any diseases Campbell ascribes to animal foods?“

If you want to see other blogger’s reactions to Denise’s work, check out The China Study Smackdown Roundup for a list of links, over at Free The Animal: http://freetheanimal.com/2010/07/the-china-study-smackdown-roundup.html.

Make sure to check out Chris Masterjohn’s work: http://westonaprice.org/blogs/the-curious-case-of-campbells-rats-does-protein-deficiency-prevent-cancer.html.

And finally I just want to add a bit of advice. Cut out the junk food, sugar, juices, pasteurized skim milk, rancid vegetable oils, and poorly processed grains. Then you can start playing around with ratios of meat, vegetables, fruit etc. Eat real food!

Picture courtesy of a random Ebay ad. Kinda wish we had kept this item from my childhood.

I’ve been seeing a lot of talk lately about learning to cook. It seemed to start with Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution I saw a couple months ago. I was surprised how many people had never cooked before. Then I started noticing people around me, how many would eat out for dinner or order in most days of the week.  Then friends started asking me how I prepare certain things, like how I make chicken soup. Chicken soup! Everyone should know how to make it. I guess I could help by putting up a recipe for that. I saw an article just a couple weeks ago about 20 and 30 year olds finally learning how to cook. Most said they never had to before because either their parents cooked for them, they ate at restaurants or got take-out. All of a sudden, cooking for yourself was becoming trendy (I hope!). Then this week gluten-free girl put out a call for posts on what the first food you can remember cooking was. I realize some people would clearly remember the first time they cooked in their teen or adult years. I had a hard time pinning down my first cooking experience.

I tried to think back to how I learned to cook. Not necessarily learning how to cook SCD foods, but just in general how to prepare food for myself. I did a bit of cooking in my teens, mostly pasta dishes from packages or chicken with prepared sauces. As a kid I loved melting cheese on bread. Actually I just loved cheese and I used to make Kraft Dinner for myself and my brother. We switched from the Kraft kind to the President’s Choice Gourmet double white cheddar variety and I remember it being so delicious. I was the designated Pillsbury cookie baker in my house, everyone else seemed to burn them or have them turn out just a bit off. We usually had soup mixes that I would make and toss a few extra ingredients into. Once I got comfortable with a stove and fry pan, I started coming up with my own dishes, usually involving tomatoes and pasta of some kind.

Looking back even further, my first memories of cooking all started with my Easy Bake Oven. The fully working kids oven came with these little packets of cake or cookie mix, icing, and a few little baking pans. They were so delicious. All you had to do was mix water, put it in the pan and put it in the oven. Being the boring kid I was, my favorite was probably the vanilla cake with vanilla icing. I remember not liking the gingerbread cookies too much, so I would give them to my dad. He did like gingerbread cookies, but I’m not sure these were all that tasty. I guess I took a liking to baking because I can remember using up all the mixes. Really I just liked any excuse to eat icing. Now when I found out icing could be made quite easily from icing sugar… Can you tell I was addicted to sugar and wheat?

Note: None of the food mentioned in this post is SCD-legal. Do not buy an Easy Bake Oven for your kid on SCD. I’m just reminiscing

I am very new to gardening but have been enjoying it so much this year. Last year I bought a hot pepper plant from the farmer’s market, planted it in the garden and never did anything to it. I got at least 100 peppers out of it. It was so easy! I have been keeping herbs in planters for a couple years as well, and again I don’t do anything (no watering no fertilizers etc) and have fresh herbs all summer. That was enough to convince me that I should try real gardening, even if I might have to learn a few things. So far I find herbs were the easiest to grow and they come back each year too.

This year I wanted to do tomatoes so that I could make my homemade salsa, tomato puree and tomato sauces. I also wanted to plant more pepper plants, some onions, and cilantro to go in the salsa. A booth at the farmers market had a ‘salsa mix’ of pepper plants, with 2 hot, 2 medium and 2 sweet plants. So, I planted 6 pepper plants, 3 in planters and 3 in the garden. I then planted 8 tomato plants since the girl at the farmer’s market was selling them in plots of 8. I have no idea how many I will end up with, but I figured if I kill one or two plants at least I’ll get something! I’ll probably be hating myself in a few weeks for this…

One thing I noticed was how different plants grow in containers vs garden. Above is a photo of a tomato plant (behind) and pepper plant (front) in the garden. Below is a photo of the same plants, but in containers. The tomato plant is at least a few inches taller. The pepper plant in the pot is at least twice the size of the one in the garden. I think from now on I’ll be planting more in containers.

I planted some onion and carrot seeds in rows between the plants in the garden. Some of it has been dug up already by birds eating the seeds, but I think I should get some growing soon. I had put down cabbage and carrot seeds last year and only got one giant carrot and one tiny carrot out of it. I think I do better with plants that are already started.

We also made the discovery this week that the tree in our backyard is a cherry tree. The previous owners said it was a pear tree, but the neighbour kept saying it was a cherry tree. It was infested with bugs last year and had less than half the normal amount of leaves. We thought it might even die. It bloomed earlier this spring for the first time in its life.

I have a feeling the reason it was so sick last year was because of 2 wild rose bushes the previous owners had planted in the garden. The bushes were enormous and I think they attracted bugs to the yard. We removed the bushes last year (using a saw, ax and a lot of muscle) and weeded everything. This year the tree and garden seemed a lot healthier. This week it was full of nice, ripe, juicy cherries.

We had a bit of a hard time figuring out how to pick them since most were at the top. We borrowed a ladder and pole from our neighbour, and attached a garden tool to the end as a hook to pull branches closer to us.

Hong climbed up on the fence and his mom was on the ladder. I climbed in the tree but couldn’t reach most of them because they weren’t anywhere close to the middle.

In the end we got a LOT of cherries and I was very happy!

I made some delicious cherry clafoutis with a recipe from Nourishing Gourmet. The recipe uses coconut flour which I prefer over almond flour. It’s such a simple dish, just cherries in a pie plate, covered with a batter made from coconut flour, eggs, honey, salt, baking soda (in place of powder) and butter (in place of coconut oil). Yum!

I came to the SCD diet through figuring out that grains were causing me digestive problems (yeah it took a few years to come to that conclusion). I found the diet literally by doing a Google search for “rice causing stomach upset”. Somehow in the dozens of hits returned that preached the BRAT diet (bananas, rice, applesauce, toast) there was a blog or message board post about SCD. I clicked on that and finally felt like I was reading something that would actually help. My naturopath at the time agreed it was the best thing for me to try, but that’s it’s a hard diet to follow. It certainly was a change from the current diet I was on, which was mostly grains, some vegetables and fruit, lean meats only (chicken breast & fish) and very low fat. I don’t think I found the transition as hard as most people and that might be because of the support I found on the Internet. The Yahoo groups for SCD are wonderful and people are literally right there to answer your questions within a couple hours. With all the blogs around, I felt like at least I wasn’t alone.

And then I found the Primal/Paleo blogs (first one I found happened to be the best, Mark’s Daily Apple) and couldn’t believe my eyes. People were following this diet (well, very similar diet), not because of pain, stomach upset, digestive diseases, autism, or other autoimmune illnesses. People were actually choosing to do this diet because it’s the right diet to have. It helped them lose weight. It helped them get stronger. And for that they stayed on it. I found it easy to have motivation considering eating a bowl of rice would leave me curled up in a ball in pain all evening. Here was a group of people who liked feeling better, losing weight, and being generally healthier and that was enough motivation for them to eat this way. At first most blogs I found seemed to be of healthy people who didn’t need to ‘diet’ and as I found more of these blogs, I realized some people were in fact coming from backgrounds of dealing with some difficult illnesses. You wouldn’t even believe it upon first sight because they all look so healthy.

For those who aren’t familiar with the terms, Primal and Paleolithic diets refer to eating the way humans did for millions of years, before the neolithic agricultural revolution some 11,000 years ago. The fact is, humans evolved on a diet of mostly foods they could find including meat, fish, tubers, vegetables, berries, fruits, some nuts, and a bit of honey infrequently. Sound familiar? It’s pretty much SCD minus the yogurt and cheese. The idea is that we have only been eating grains and sugar a very short period of time in our very long history as modern humans. We may have adapted to live on grain-based diets but in terms of evolution I don’t think our biological make-up has caught up yet. Some people seem to do ok with grains, but are they really part of the ideal diet for humans? I know I have answered that for myself and don’t need a scientific study to prove it to me. I do like the fact that logically this all makes sense.

I have been following these Primal blogs for a while now (there’s a lot, will post a list soon), enjoying the recipe ideas and stories of achieving health goals. It has formed me a bit in my ways of thinking about how we should be living our lives, how we should be playing, and what we should be eating. While everyone starting SCD or GAPS is already asking when they can ‘go off the diet’ I have been considering the possibility of never. I’m even at a point now where I am adding food back into my diet (and I have done a couple) but I’m hesitant. Why? Because deep down inside I know this is the right way to live. It certainly doesn’t feel like I’m trapped in a diet, when I can eat bacon and eggs for breakfast and feel great. Who would trade that for a ‘biscuit’? I realize some people just read that and said to themselves “mmm a biscuit” I guess they would be the ones to want to go off this diet! I honestly won’t judge anyone for going back to what they consider normal foods. At least they could fall back on SCD if (when?) they need to. I don’t understand people who would want that, but I’m not about to think any less of them. I just hope everyone realizes they can be on this type of diet forever if they want to. I certainly don’t feel like I’m missing out on much considering every meal I eat tastes wonderful.

I will continue adding new foods and playing around with tolerances. I’m mostly excited about potatoes just because it makes it a lot easier to eat at friends and parent’s houses. That being said, I think I’ve had sweet potato a grand total of 3 times in the past 4 months. Maybe I’ll eat more since I’m still hoping to gain more weight, so adding in some starchy stuff might help. Part of me wants to try each and every food just to see what I react to. I’m just about the most sensitive person I know to dietary changes, so it would be a fun experiment (even cooking in vegetable oils instead of saturated fats seems to cause problems). It would be nice to be able to eat at a friend’s house or a restaurant and not get sick. I haven’t eaten a salad since starting SCD. Hmm I realize maybe only the UCer and Crohnies would understand that one. Might be a good thing to try salads so I can eat everything my parents serve for dinner at their house. Meat, potatoes and multiple salads oh my. My mom does make the best salad dressing ever!

I’m probably going to be more focused on other aspects of my life too. Fitness is something I have been interested in since University but has been on the back-burner while I have been healing. I do enjoy walking, yoga, and playing volleyball and tennis as well so I want to do more of that this summer. Notice how I’m not mentioning gym? I do have one at work that I go to for walking and stretching when the weather’s bad. But reading all these Primal blogs about more natural ways of working out (think run, jump, swim, play, carry and throw heavy things) has made me change how I think about being fit. I’m planning to start out slowly since I don’t want to overdo it, just ease into it. These are lifelong changes, no need to rush!

I will be sharing recipes, I still have a bunch in my head somewhere that I’ve never written down. I’m continuing to try and sort through advice I would have for people following the SCD or GAPS diets. Snacks, traveling, feeding kids, eliminating/introducing foods, cooking on a budget, these are all common questions people really need answers to. If I plan on sticking very close to SCD long-term, I think I’ll have to figure all that out one way or another.

Ottawa/Gatineau Area
Over the past couple of years I have come across many sources of real good food. Below is a list of sources I personally buy from regularly and trust. I have met the farmers and discussed their farming practices with them. These are all sources of organic produce and pastured meats/dairy/eggs. All of them are very accommodating for delivery or pick-up of orders. Don’t hesitate to contact them with questions!

Dobson’s Beef
www.dobsonfarm.com
Farmer Bob Dobson sells pastured beef usually by the quarter, half or whole. He can also accommodate purchases of individual cuts at a slightly higher price. Recently he has been selling sausages as well. He can arrange for delivery or you can find him at the Carp Farmers Market in the summer.

Totally Natural Beef
http://totallynaturalbeef.ca
Farmer L.J. Helferty sells pastured beef by the cut, packages of around 20 lbs, quarter, half, or whole cow. This is my original and favorite source for beef but they have been out of stock lately. I’m really hoping by next year they get more inventory. I have ordered a few times from them, usually 20lb packages of stew, roasts, and ground. The mature ground beef they sell is a bargain and tastes great.

Canreg Station Farm & Pasture Dairy
www.pasturedairy.com
Farmer Josef Regli sells pastured lamb by the cut, 1/2 lamb or whole. I usually order 1/2 lamb at a time. I have tried other sources but this is by far the best tasting and best price. You can ask to have it wrapped in paper or plastic, I choose freezer paper (cheaper and better for the environment).
They also sell delicious sheep milk cheeses and have a few varieties that are aged hard cheeses appropriate for the SCDiet. They can be found at the Byward Market in the winter and at the Farmers Markets at Main Street and Landsdowne in the summer.

Bootstrap Farms
http://www.bootstrapfarms.ca
Nico van Stralen and his family sell pastured pork by the cut, 1/2 or whole pig. I ordered a 20lb “traditional cuts” package along with some organ meats. Delicious!
They also have chickens, beef, and eggs by order but I haven’t had a chance to try them out yet. They sell at the Byward Market in the winter and at the Farmers Market at Landsdowne in the summer.

Bearbrook Farms
http://bearbrookfarm.com
My absolute favorite source for all things animal. They carry different types of eggs such as bantam chicken, regular chicken, duck, and even sometimes emu eggs. They have all sorts of meats available (even exotic stuff like rattlesnake and ostrich) and make delicious sausages free of preservatives, chemicals, gluten etc. They also make meals, meat pies, and pates. All stock is from natural, organic, pasture-raised animals. They always have a cart at each Farmers Market in Ottawa during the summer months.

The Whalesbone Oyster House
http://www.thewhalesbone.com/
The only “Ocean Wise” retailer in Ottawa offering ethically sourced oysters and seafood. They have both a restaurant and retail shop. I have been to the retail shop several times to buy fish, scallops and oysters. Selection varies by time of year but you can check their website for current availability. They offer a brown-bag lunch that is quite popular. The wild salmon I have gotten from here is absolutely amazing.

Ottawa Organics and Natural Foods
http://ottawaorganics.com
Matt runs a great service that delivers organic vegetable, fruit, and dairy baskets on a one-time, weekly, or bi-weekly schedule. Everything you get in these baskets is so fresh and perfect, it’s almost hard to buy from the grocery store if you need something specific. It has certainly changed my style of cooking for “what do I want to cook” to “what can I make with these vegetables”. You see ahead of time what you will get, and you can even add individual items to your basket if you need more. For anyone suffering from illness, it’s nice to have the delivery service and guarantee that everything is organic. They do try to source locally when possible but offer a wide selection of produce all year round from reliable sources outside of the region.

Rainbow Foods
www.rainbowfoods.net
A vegetarian source only. They carry a large selection of organic produce which is clearly labeled as local or the country of origin. They have fresh organic peanut butter and almond butter ground right when you get it. Also a source of local honey in bulk. Organic nuts, dried fruit, coconut products, and spices. Full line of organic dairy including whole organic cow and goat milk, and organic raw cheeses. They carry tomato paste and coconut oil in glass jars.

Natural Food Pantry
http://naturalfoodpantry.com
They carry organic meats and wild-caught seafood. I tend to shop here in between bulk orders from local farmers. Hallelujah Organics is their main source of meat and I trust that their animals are raised properly without hormones or antibiotics. This store is great for buying by the cut for chicken, beef, pork and sometimes lamb. They also carry whole chickens that aren’t too big, a good size for one meal for a family of 4. They also carry organic fruits and vegetables, local honey in bulk, nuts and dried fruits, Larabars, and organic frozen vegetables and fruits.

Mother Earth Natural
www.motherearthnaturalhealth.ca
They are the only retailer in Ottawa I have found to carry the Weston Price recommended brand of Cod Liver Oil. Bulk organic spices and nuts. Also lots of green products such as cleaning products, feminine sanitary products, and lots of books.

www.realrawfood.com
Organic Nuts, dried fruit and coconut products. Even with delivery it’s cheaper than buying in stores, and is a good service for all of Canada. I’m not sure what shipping costs would be to the US but simply email them and they’ll let you know. They were very quick to respond to questions and very helpful. I use this as my source for buying nuts in bulk. Great quality products.

Along with SCD comes the term “fanatical adherence”. Most veterans on the diet agree – don’t bother doing the diet if you can’t do it 100%.

I think this is a wrong statement, even though the people who say it mean well. I have seen this attitude with just about every diet, supplement plan, and exercise regime I’ve followed. The people who are there to offer advice are the ones who are most adamant that this is the right (and only) way. Before being on SCD I was on a completely opposite diet, lots of white rice, white bread, sugar and very little meat. People on that diet assured me that if I followed it 100% I would not suffer. Boy did I suffer. Now on SCD I see the same thing. If it’s not working for you, it’s because you’re not trying hard enough. If you’ve had a setback on SCD, it’s the mysterious “x-month relapse” or “die-off”. Only 100% compliance will allow you to recover.

(Side note: I’m not quite sure how this 100% fanatical adherence came from Elaine’s work. For people who can’t gain weight, she even says they may need to temporarily return to a ‘normal diet’ to gain weight before continuing with SCD. She recognized that there are cases where the diet can’t be followed 100%. She did however push for people to follow the legal/illegal list faithfully.)

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m glad these people are there to help us, on message boards, list-serves, and blogs. I take their word as I would an expert’s, not only that but an expert who has personally experienced what they are talking about. I am always forever grateful to have the chance to get advice from people more knowledgeable than me on these subjects. However my own journey has taught me that no matter how much something works for someone else, I have to figure out for myself what to do, what diet to follow, what supplements to take. A lot of it is research and asking what others have done, but at least 50% of it is trial and error.

Many people on SCD don’t talk about exercise, they encourage you to reduce the number of supplements you’re taking (or the opposite, take more, try this one! or that one!), and don’t talk about psychological aspects like stress. I had noticed immediate good changes when I started SCD, but I have come a long way from simply relying on diet to ‘cure’ me. And this is where I have come to a cross roads with the 100% fanatical adherence.

In the beginning I was eating so plain. No ketchup because my efforts to produce a homemade ketchup that I liked were useless. No mayonnaise because I don’t have the patience to drip oil while stirring. No canned vegetables that make life so much easier, because that is illegal. No soy sauce, that’s illegal.

And so here are my confessions:
I eat store-bought ketchup from the natural food store. It’s unsweetened and I add honey to it.
I eat store-bought mayonnaise from the natural food store. It has no sugar in it, it lists honey. The spices are listed individually and seem legal.
I get canned artichoke hearts to make my favorite recipe, chicken with artichokes (lemon, honey, garlic sauce).
I use naturally brewed tamari sauce I get from the natural food store. No wheat added, but still illegal because it’s made from soy beans.

There you have it. I ‘cheat’. If I have any symptoms, you bet people would be almost yelling at me “But you’re eating illegals!!! What do you expect!”
Thing is, these small little cheats (the first two which may not even contain illegals) give me loads of stress relief and some degree of satiety and happiness with my food. To me, that’s worth enough the chance that the food may cause a tiny amount of harm. I feel now that if I balance my diet and my psychological stress, I will feel better. And it has worked.

I don’t encourage anyone to stray from the diet and use illegals. I highly encourage everyone to make everything themselves at home with ingredients they know. I am hopeful that soon enough I will figure out how to make a ketchup and mayonnaise that I like. In fact I really want to make a mayonnaise that uses olive and coconut oils. For now I’m happy doing what I’m doing.

I hope people don’t think I’m being disrespectful to those who follow the diet 100%. I have admiration for those who manage it and make it such a big priority.

I hope people don’t see me as lazy. I have been working harder than anyone I know for the last 7 years to make myself better. It’s not about laziness – it’s about figuring out how to make myself better in all ways. With a couple little ‘cheats’, I have just a bit more happiness, and a bit more time for yoga, reading, and spending time laughing with friends.

I went out and bought a juicer today. I know, I have like 5 bagillion small kitchen appliances (2 blenders, 2 yogurt makers, food scale, 2 crockpots, food processor, meat grinder, etc etc, mostly hand-me-downs from grandparents) but I just had to get a juicer. I’ve always read about health benefits of juicing and decided to buy into the hype. Any bets on how long this fad will last? I always go through little stages of having one thing I make a lot of. For the past few months it’s the yogurt. Now I’m making yogurt with half n half which is super thick and ends up making more (and more calorie dense) yogurt, so I only make it once a week instead of 2-3. Before that it was anything in the crockpot (which in all fairness I still use twice a week). Before SCD I was baking to the extreme with random alternative flours.

The juicer I got is a stainless steel Waring Pro Juice Extractor. I bought it second hand from a local classified ad. It seems to work pretty well, getting a lot of juice out of the vegetables. So far I have made just a bit of carrot juice with garlic. It’s not any noisier than my blender, but it is a pain to clean up.

I will mostly start with the carrot juice and garlic. I’ve heard this helps Candida and is gentle enough on an iffy digestive system. I’m hoping to add celery and cucumber soon. The juicing should help me get some extra vitamins in my diet. I was taking a multivitamin for about 1 week but have gone off it.

Lesson #48923 on SCD: DON’T take multivitamins with iron, just don’t.

I have always been the person who reacts to anything in supplements. My naturopath has tried me on many different multivitamins, minerals, herbal formulas etc. I always get the one side effect that ‘rarely occurs’. Sigh. I guess it’s back to basics and letting nature help me get better. I have changed from taking folic acid + B12 to a full B-complex (Freeda SCD legal B-complex with C and Zinc) and will stick to that, along with a multi mineral that I have found I tolerate well. I’m hoping the juicing will help me get more vitamins A, C, E, K etc which I’m not getting from any supplements. My diet does include some veggies and fruit, but with the heavy cooking I’m pretty sure nowhere near enough vitamins are left in them.

My parents went over to my grandparents for a visit the other day. Upon leaving, my grandparents decided to get rid of some old stuff they had lying around. They said my brother and I should look through it for when we move out (soon). Oh my goodness they had some treasures in there!

We got about a dozen items from them:
-old blender
-2 food processors
-weight watchers food scale
-decorative punch bowl wrapped in 1981 newspapers
-citrus juicer
-a yogurt maker! Braun, with 8 6-oz glass jars
-crockpot (about 3-4 quarts)
-mini crockette, a single setting crockpot
-a food chopper
-bread slicer
-meat grinder

So far everything seems to work. Now I can make 3 liters of yogurt at a time! Plus the little crockette fits exactly the amount of applesauce I usually make. Filling the crockette gives me enough applesauce to fill a large commercial applesauce jar.

What I ate today:
Breakfast: dripped SCD goat yogurt with honey & Welch’s grape juice, applesauce, 2 poached eggs with chicken broth
Lunch: broiled chicken legs (including skin) with lemon, honey, and artichokes
Dinner: large burger patty with SCD ketchup-type sauce
Snacks: almond milk, goat cheddar cheese, coconut oil & honey, tiny bit of chopper liver with SCD ketchup

This sounds to me like a lot of food. Somehow I’m still not gaining weight. According to fitday.com I’m still only getting around 1800 cals/day. How much do I have to eat! I’m stuffing myself with all this food. Some days I try and do 4 meals but even then I’m barely getting 2000. Sigh..