Intro Don, new classes & recipes
It’s finally here! The monthly CookWell newsletter you’ve been waiting for! I’m Courtney Coleman, and I’ve got an exciting announcement to share with you, as well as some important new information about both water and exactly why refined sugars are so detrimental to long term health. I’ve included an amazing cultured carrot cake recipe that’s sugar & gluten free, and listed our February specialty class schedule, for the specialty classes & dinners that Don & I will be offering on Thursday nights in our home in Los Osos.
So... that’s the exciting news! My husband Don and I have been tandemly giving talks, cooking demos and classes in kitchens all over SLO County for the past six months! And, we’ve been getting some terrific reviews (aren’t we cute?) because together we present a very well-rounded picture of whole foods diet, cooking & lifestyle. Don is a teacher, chef, knifemaker and Zen kitchen enthusiast. He offers life path counseling, sustenance training, deep listening, and meditation coaching. In cooking well, Don takes people gently by the hand, helping them identify their emotional attachments to particular foods & habits, and shows them how to embody joy and mindfulness in cooking and in practicing a whole foods lifestyle. His website’s are: www.gingerbuddha.com (click on "sustenance training" to see our collaborative course outline), and www.californiacustomknives.com
Whether you want to have just me or both Don & I come to your kitchen for a private or small group CookWell session, or if you just want to show up to one of our specialty classes or dinners at our home on Sunny Hill, we look forward to meeting you and helping you incorporate the whole foods diet & lifestyle that works best for you.
Thursday Night Dinners & Specialty Classes We hope you can make it to our home one of these Thursday nights. Our classes will include a discussion (bring notebook & pen if you’d like to take notes), a cooking demonstration, and then dinner around 7:15. Our goal is that all your questions are answered.
Thursday night dinners are served around 6:30 and offer our community a warm, informal setting around great food & great conversation. We look forward to getting to know you better, and you’re welcome to bring your own wine or beer to both classes and dinners. Please RSVP to pre-pay and for directions to The Sunny Hill Residence. 528-8837 or courtney@cookwell.org
CLASS: Getting refined sugar out of the diet - strategies, personal stories & support Thursday, Feb 17, 6-8PM
cost for 1 hr class and dinner: $40 per person
serving: yam & portabella mushroom bake
seasonal vegetable stir-steam
green salad
gluten & sugar free ginger-orange-carrot spice cake
DINNER: Thursday night Dinner at Courtney & Don’s Thursday, Feb 24, 6-8PM
cost: $20 per person
serving: black eyed pea, shitake & seasonal vegetable stew
perfect brown rice
green salad with home-made lemon-tahini dressing
carob coconut cloud dessert
CLASS: Getting lower glycemic in your diet - strategies, personal stories & support Thursday, Mar 3, 6-8PM
cost: $40 per person
serving: curried lentils with millet & seasonal vegetables
bacon-wrapped jalepeno-sausage boats
green salad with home-made balsamic vinaigrette
stevia-sweetened almond & nutmeg amaranth cookies
Feb Newsletter topic:
The first two steps For most people, the first two steps in beginning the path to healing & vitality with a whole foods diet & lifestyle are: 1) getting enough re-mineralized water daily, and 2) getting refined sugar out of the diet.
First, let’s take a look at some important ideas about water - some things I’ve been talking about for years, along with some startling new information I’ve come across. More and more doctors are recommending drinking more water, as doing so lowers cholesterol levels dramatically, reduces many allergy reactions by as much as 50%, and has many more benefits. Over time in our dehydrated culture, our internal organs begin to shrivel, literally. Most standard beverages in our modern world contain sugar or caffeine (or both!), or alcohol, all of which are dehydrating to the body. This, coupled with the fact that the packaged foods of most modern diets (breads, cookies, crackers, chips, fast food, etc.) contain little or no water compared to the whole foods diets (brown rice, beans, seasonal vegetables, etc.) of people living close to the earth. Most of us in the modern world are extremely dehydrated, and we don’t even know it because our thirst mechanism has been stunted since childhood. Here’s a tip that’s helped me: if it’s been a couple of hours since my last meal and my stomach gurgles (normal digestion), instead of asking myself if I am hungry for a snack, I ask myself if I’m thirsty. And, I find that the lemon-water going down my throat is exactly what my body was really asking for. My goal is to help you gently turn your sensitivity to thirst back up so you can live a longer, healthier life.
So, how much water should we be drinking daily? I believe that each of us should hydrate with ½ our ideal body weight in ounces per day - a little less in the wintertime and a little more in the summertime. Some people think we should only drink when thirsty, but most modern people’s thirst mechanism has been stunted. When I started getting my 70 ounces of re-mineralized water daily (I weigh 140lb.), I began to feel SO MUCH BETTER! I had more energy & stamina, I craved fewer carbohydrates, my bowels became unconstipated, my headaches & acne reduced significantly, and I lost weight. By the way, all these things happened to an even further degree along with even more signs of increased vitality, a few years later when I decided to cut refined sugars out of my diet.
It’s ideal to drink at times other than when we eat, so as not to inhibit digestion. Drinking more than 4 oz with a meal dilutes valuable stomach acids & enzymes. So ideally, you’ll want to hydrate with at least 16 - 24 oz of re-mineralized water, 4 times a day, between meals. Start out drinking less if that much at one time is difficult for you. As you begin to consciously re-hydrate yourself regularly, you’ll feel thirsty more often and be able to drink more at one time. Eventually you’ll be getting the right number of ounces for your body daily.
And what do I mean by re-mineralizing? I mean adding trace minerals (aka: electrolytes) to your water because straight H2O doesn’t hydrate very efficiently. In fact, straight H2O can actually pull minerals from your body as it passes through. Think about it; water comes to us in nature in wells & streams where minerals are present. When water is void of minerals, your body can’t utilize it efficiently. By re-mineralizing your water, it’s like you’re making your own GatorAid - without the sugar!
Here’s several things you can add to your 16 oz glass of water to re-mineralize it: 1/16 tsp (pinch) of whole sea salt (Celtic, Himalayan, Portuguese, & Real Salt brand)
the juice from a lemon, lime, orange or grapefruit
1-2 tsp of raw apple cider vinegar
an ounce or so of any 100% fruit juice
2 - 3 oz. water leftover from soaking sea vegetables for cooking
All of these contain trace minerals. I like lemon juice, as it takes my thirst away immediately and is gently cleansing to every organ. Raw apple cider vinegar is more strongly cleansing, alkalizing to the pH, aids digestion, helps prevent arthritis crystals from forming when taken regularly, and has many other benefits - those with weakened or sensitive kidneys use it sparingly. Whole sea salt is great to replace bodily electrolytes in the summer or when working out/sweating lots. 100% fruit juice is tasty, but may be too sugary for those with candida issues.
Water Sources: Get your water from a good reverse osmosis filter, purifier, distiller, micro-filter, or from a good water store. Water vending machines outside grocery stores are okay, but less thorough at providing pure water, in my opinion. Always use glass, stainless steel, or ceramic bottles to store & carry it. By the way, I’ve found that most stainless steel water bottles for on the go eventually give the water a slight metallic taste, especially if you’re adding sea salt to re-mineralize it. I like 32 oz glass mason jars and 32 oz apple cider vinegar bottles best.
If you have to use polycarbonate bottles, get the new ones labled BPA-free. And NEVER buy or drink water sold in convenient, low-grade plastic bottles (labeled on bottlom as #7 or lower) because they leach toxic plasticides (toxic chemicals such as BPA and even synthetic estrogens) into the water - especially if the bottles get warm sitting around. I recently watched the movie "Tapped" and learned more about this, along with the corporate agenda behind bottling & selling water to us - something that is our basic human right to have freely. And FYI, in case you didn’t know, tap water is swimming with both chlorine and flouride, both of which are very bad for nearly every system in the body, and toxic for infants and very young children.
Refined sugars Okay, now for my soapbox talk about refined sugars. Most people want to know why refined sugars and spiking our blood sugar is so bad for us. That’s when I say, "don’t get me started!" Refined sugars are considered toxins by most alternative health practitioners today. Once in our bodies, they rob us of valuable vitamins and minerals. Also, our hormones, body chemistry and brain chemistry are all directly affected by blood sugar. When we are spiking our blood sugar throughout the day, our hormones and body chemistry are jumping around to extreme ends of their spectrums too. Over time, this is disastrous for our health. No wonder so many of us are out of whack! We’re raised on processed foods and don’t even want to get off the roller coaster of spiking our blood sugar because it’s extremely addicting, and because we become only satisfied with the extreme flavors of refined sugars and MSG, etc.
There are different levels of food’s capacity to spike our blood sugar. Refined sugars push it the highest - way too high for good health. Studies of people who live close to the earth (indigenous people) have found that these people have far fewer diseases than modern Americans. They don’t eat processed foods which spike the blood sugar. They eat regionally, with whole grains, beans and vegetables as the basis of their diets. They use animal products when needed medicinally, for building strength and warmth. And, they soak & sprout or ferment their grains (more on these practices and why they benefit the body in future newsletters). The whole foods diets of indigenous people also means their bodies aren’t getting assaulted by the many other detrimental factors of processed foods like; rancid & refined vegetable oils, refined salt, the stripping away of the natural vitamin and fiber-rich bran of grains, the adding of nutrient void fillers, chemical preservatives, anti-caking agents, antibiotics, hormones, etc. Processed foods are a major road to sickness, it’s just a matter of how fast, as different people have different constitutions (more on this in future newsletters).
The various names for refined sugars which spike the blood sugar dangerously high are: white sugar, cane sugar, organic cane sugar, evaporated cane juice, high-fructose corn syrup, fructose, white grape or fruit juice concentrate, and commercial honey. Honey is refined by bees and spikes the blood sugar just as much as refined sugar, just not quite as fast. Pasturized honey which is sold at mainstream grocery stores is bad for the body, whereas raw honey (preferably from a local source) is beneficial for the body and easier to digest because of the minerals and live enzymes in it. But any honey is still very high-glycemic, so try to use no more than 1 teaspoon at a time. Agave syrup or agave nectar is now being found to be nearly as high-glycemic as refined sugar, and in many cases, has been found to be nothing more than corn syrup with a little bit of real agave for flavoring.
Okay. Here’s the list of unrefined (unprocessed) sugars which haven’t been stripped of natural minerals - minerals which slow the sugar’s absorption into the bloodstream and are lower on the glycemic index. "Sucanat" or "Rapidura" are granular (looks like sand) and can be used for baking. I’ve heard great things about Yacon powder & syrup, but haven’t tried it yet. The other unrefined sugars are barley malt syrup, brown rice syrup, small amounts of raw honey, grade B maple syrup and organic molasses. For those on candida diets (no kind of sugar whatsoever) stevia leaf extract is a natural, no-sugar, no-calorie sweetener (the best I’ve found with no bitter aftertaste is Nu Naturals brand liquid vanilla flavored stevia). Xylitol and Maltitol are made from sugar alcohol and are sugar substitutes which act like sugar in baking recipes, but which have a low-medium reading on the glycemic index - often used in "sugar-free" products like chocolate, etc.
Now for a cultured carrot cake recipe that’s sugar & gluten free! You thought it wasn’t possible, right? Wrong! This one has been a favorite of both Don and I lately on our low-glycemic path because it’s moist, rich and sweet, and it’s spiced just right. It’s an especially perfect follow-up to warm winter meal.
Gluten & Sugar Free Ginger-Orange-Carrot Spice Cake: combine 2 cups fresh ground millet, 1 cup fresh ground amaranth, and 1 cup fresh ground oat groats (a coffee grinder works great for this) with 1 cup plain, cultured yogurt and 1 cup water (or, 1tsp acidophilus powder or any live probiotics mixed with 2 cups water). Mix until just blended and let sit covered at room temperature for 24 hrs. You see, the yogurt cultures (probiotic bacteria) neutralize the phytic acid in the whole grain flour (so it can't bind with minerals in your intestines & inhibit their absorption) and they break down the complex carbohydrates which makes the grain's nutrients more assimilatable and much more digestible. Okay, the next day, in a saucepan combine 1 cup melted coconut oil or butter or ghee, 2 eggs, 2 tsp vanilla extract, 1.5 tsp Nu Naturals liquid vanilla stevia, 2 tsp baking powder, 1.5 tsp sea salt, 1 tsp each allspice & pumpkin pie spice. Mix well and stir into cultured flour mixture. Next add 1 cup chopped fresh ginger root, ½ cup orange zest, 2 cups grated carrots, and 1 cup fresh walnuts if desired. Pour into a buttered pan or loaf size baking dish and bake at 375 degrees for 40 -50 minutes until done in the middle. Adding a cup of dark chocolate chips (malt-sweetened chocolate chips available at Co Op in SLO) to this recipe will knock your socks off, but then it isn’t technically sugar free anymore, is it? Whatever you choose, you will not have to work hard to enjoy this one!
As always, Don and I welcome any questions you may have via phone or email. For more information on the ancient whole foods philosophies we teach about, see the "about the food" page of my website www.cookwell.org.
We hope to see you sometime soon. Maybe on a Thursday night to share lots of learning, laughter and incredible food.
Namaste ~
Courtney & Don
mailto:courtney@cookwell.org
