Culturing Veggies & Your Colon Health
Many Blessings to you! Don & I hope you’re feeling great, and that your digestive tract is functioning optimally. If not, this newsletter may help, as we’ll review the many advantages of making your own cultured veggies, as well as the importance of colon cleansing. We’ve listed the July schedule of our foundational CookWell classes in the beautiful demonstration kitchen at New Frontiers, SLO, as well as our June specialty class schedule. And, at the end of this newsletter, we’ve included our recipe for making ghee, for those who’ve made the transition to a mostly whole foods diet.
Whether you want to have both Don & I, or just me - Courtney, 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 in Los Osos, we look forward to meeting you and helping you incorporate the whole foods diet & lifestyle that works best for you.
We’ve been enjoying adding lots of info to our CookWell blog lately, with past newsletter content, recipes, and links to great articles.
Don’s website for life path counseling is: www.gingerbuddha.com (click on “sustenance training” to see our collaborative course outline). And my website for solo teaching in whole foods cooking is: www.cookwell.org.
Schedule of Foundational CookWell Classes at New Frontiers, SLO
Please RSVP with Dusty: marketing@newfrontiersslo.com or 785-0106 x125
CookWell Session #1: Whole Foods Cooking as Preventative Medicine
Tuesday, July 5, 6-8PM
cost: $30 per person
We’ll discuss: your goals in incorporating wholefoods, the basics of macrobiotic theory, neutralizing phytic acid in grains by sprouting or culturing, the nightshade veggies, oxalic acid & sulfur veggies, food-based vitamin/mineral supplements, better digestibility of beans, the CookWell list of wholefoods preparation staples for your kitchen and the best cooking oils, the importance of drinking enough re-mineralized water daily, and blood type diet & lifestyle basics
You’ll get 4 handouts for reference:
list of whole foods preparation staples
recommended reading list
blood type basics
fantastic recipes #1
We’ll demonstrate making:
beautiful pot of adzuki beans with cayenne, sage and rosemary
sprouted then simmered whole grain millet & amaranth to incorporate with the beans
ghee to use as a stable cooking oil
dark leafy greens & seasonal veggie stir-steam
CookWell Session #2: Individualizing Your Diet & The Wonders Of Kvaas
Tuesday, July 19, 6-8PM
cost $30 per person
We’ll discuss: practicing mindfulness as it relates to preparing healing food, the Ayurvedic body types and beneficial foods for each, maintaining proper body alkalinity through diet, protein/fat/carb ratios for different metabolic types, the pros and cons of soy, the importance of incorporating cultured foods such as amazing beet kvaas into your diet, and knife skills for safety and achieving various textures and flavors
You’ll get 4 handouts for reference:
Ayurvedic body types and beneficial foods for each
general principals re: Ayurvedic diet & lifestyle
list of tasty herb/spice combinations for seasoning
fantastic recipes #2
We’ll demonstrate making:
kichadi (very tasty East Indian mung bean & seasonal veggie stew)
red quinoa arugula tabouli (aka: tabougula)
beet kvaas drink (probiotic, mineral supplement, digestive aid, and liver/gallbladder tonic)
June Specialty Classes
We hope you can make it to our home in Los Osos sometime, to eat some healing food & learn lots of new information. Our CookWell specialty classes will cover current health concerns/topics, and will include a discussion (bring notebook & pen if you’d like to take notes), a cooking demonstration, and then dinner. Our goal is that you have a great time & that all of your questions around the slated topics are answered. We look forward to getting to know you better, and you’re welcome to bring your own wine or beer.
Please RSVP with me for directions: 528-8837 or courtney@cookwell.org
TEA PARTY CLASS!
Thursday, June 23, 6-8PM
cost: $30 per person
We’ll discuss: the importance of and how to grind fresh & culture whole grains such as millet, oat groats and amaranth for baked recipes, and strategies for getting lower glycemic in your diet as preventative medicine
We’ll serve: blended herbal teas with Kirsten Sherritt of The Secret Garden alongside our gluten & sugar free desserts!
ginger-orange-carrot cake made with fresh ground & cultured amaranth, millet & oat groats, minced carrot & ginger, orange zest, virgin coconut oil & vanilla stevia
almond-amaranth cookies made with fresh ground & cultured amaranth, virgin coconut oil, brazil nuts, almonds, coriander, nutmeg & stevia
lavender-lemon-poppy loaf made with fresh ground & cultured amaranth & millet, virgin coconut oil, lavender essential oil, lemon zest, coriander & poppy seeds
Specialty Class: How To Make Sauerkraut and Cleansing The Colon
Thursday, June 30, 6-8PM
cost: $30 per person (PLEASE RSVP to: courtney@cookwell.org OR 528-8837)
We’ll demonstrate making sauerkraut and we’ll discuss: the many benefits of making your own raw sauerkraut on digestion, assimilation, immunity, skin, blood pressure, metabolism, and genetic expression. We'll share our personal stories around colon cleansing, our step by step guidelines for an effective colon cleanse, and how we can support you in your cleansing process.
We’ll serve: black eyed pea stew with seasonal veggies/greens & sauerkraut!
Probiotic-Rich, Cultured Veggies
Culturing (aka: fermenting) vegetables has long been a tradition originally meant to extend the shelf-life of fresh produce throughout the winter months. In the modern world, we don’t experience this particular dilemma much, but we are burdened by stress, a toxic environment, vitamin/mineral deficient food, and many other health degrading factors. Making your own cultured veggies like sauerkraut, kimchee, or beet kvaas, is a great, inexpensive way to get a healthy internal population established of the wonderful little vitality-givers we call probiotics.
Probiotics are friendly bacteria that help our bodies to thrive on multiple levels. Aside from helping our bodies to better digest and assimilate nutrients through our food, they act as the foundation of our immune systems, they help lower blood pressure, they keep bad bacteria and yeasts in our bodies in check, they contribute significantly to healthy skin, they work to help normalize our weight, and they produce both vitamin B12 and K2 in our intestines. Wow, right?
There are even more amazing new findings on how probiotics influence our continued genetic expression, which Dr. Joseph Mercola has highlighted in a recent article. He says, “One of the most cutting-edge fields of medicine is epigenetics, which has shown that your lifestyle plays a significant role in how your genes are expressed. Probiotics influence the activity of hundreds of your genes, helping them to express in a positive, disease-fighting manner. The widely accepted dogma that your genes control your health destiny is now being completely uprooted, as your genetic code is not set in stone. Rather it is constantly changing based on factors like your diet and stress levels. To put it simply, the more dietary and lifestyle habits you engage in that positively influence your genetic expression, the more protection you’ll naturally receive against a host of chronic illnesses. For instance, eating broccoli and other cruciferous vegetables, garlic and onions helps to activate tumor suppressor genes that fight cancer. Likewise, researchers revealed that eating probiotic-rich foods influenced the activity of hundreds of human genes in a positive manner.”
We can start to take advantage of epigenetics by incorporating probiotic-rich foods into our diets such as raw sauerkraut, kimchee, beet kvaas, miso, kefir, yogurt, kombucha, etc. Cultured foods should always be raw or unpasteurized, refrigerated, and never cooked or heated to boiling, so the good bacteria are kept alive. I prefer making my own cultured veggies than buying a probiotic supplement. This is because a good probiotic supplement (in which most of the probiotics actually survive the stomach acid into the intestines where they’re needed) is usually pretty expensive. If you’d rather spend the money than make your own cultured foods, I recommend these brands: Primal Defense, Pure Encapsulations Probiotic 5, and BioK. And, just as a side note, kombucha tends to exacerbate candida conditions, so I don’t recommend using it as probiotic supplementation for those with yeast issues.
Making your own sauerkraut can be tricky, but it’s very satisfying. The first time I made a good batch, I felt triumphant. The weeks of waiting had finally proven worthwhile. And, I realized I was connecting to my ancestors by going through the motions they had so many times. Also, the sour the sour flavor satisfies the third taste according to both Ayurveda and Macrobiotics. If a meal contains all 5 tastes (sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and pungent), we’ll feel more satisfied and have less of a tendency to overeat.
Your Colon Health
For those coming off the standard American diet, colon cleansing is one of the most important first steps on the road to vitality. The colon works with the liver and lymphatic system to keep our entire bodies free from toxic accumulations. It’s the first organ you’ll want to cleanse, so that there is a clear pathway out of the body when you decide to do a liver or gallbladder cleanse, etc. You see, every time we’ve eaten mucos-forming food (pasteurized dairy products - especially melted cheese, refined flour products, meat, and any food heavy in fats /oils), another layer of sticky matter adheres to the walls of the colon. Over time, the layers build up and the passageway through the colon gets smaller and smaller, and the layers get harder and dryer, as the colon is constantly working to dry out the feces to make them solid. This blocks the cleansing action of the colon, liver and lymph, and we can experience lethargy, headaches, distended abdomens, irregular bowel movements, acne, and a whole host of other symptoms. The layers can get so thick, there has been a 40lb colon removed from a man!
Intense colon cleansing is usually most needed when initially getting off years of the standard American diet. A whole foods diet is gently cleansing over time, so, those who have been off of refined/processed/fast foods at least 90% of the time for several years won’t need intense colon cleansing. A whole foods diet, by the way, looks like this: seasonal & regional vegetables (some raw, some cooked) as the base of the diet, either soaked or cultured low-glycemic whole grains, grass fed / organic animal proteins when needed for warmth & building strength (during pregnancy, for people who work hard physically, or according to ancestry - type O blood), getting 60 - 100 oz per day of re-mineralized water, and using only unrefined (extra virgin) oils, whole sea salts & small amounts of unrefined sweeteners like grade B maple syrup, molasses, & raw honey.
Colon cleansing can take from 1 week to 4 weeks depending on the severity of the blockage. It’s not a fasting cleanse, but you don’t want to eat any mucos-forming food while cleansing your colon, because the herbs you’ll be taking need to be able to reach the walls of your colon (instead of getting caught up in mucos-forming foods) to break up and help you pass the old, dry matter out. “But where do I get my protein during the cleanse?” you may ask. From 1-2 Tbsp spirulina powder per day. You see, spirulina (a type of blue-green algae) has everything your body needs. That’s why they call it a superfood - you can live on it exclusively. It will give you enough protein and other good fats & nutrients you need daily while on your cleanse, and the chlorophyl in it is very cleansing. Midway through your colon cleanse, when you start getting the old, dry matter out and you’re feeling lighter, more energized, and your belly is flatter than ever, you’ll get excited and want to keep doing it for whatever length of time feels right to you. Your body will tell you when it’s time to quit the cleanse.
Don & I have done lots of various cleanses, and we believe in the revitalizing and re-balancing powers of cleansing wholeheartedly. We’ve come up with step by step recommendations & guidelines for this first and most important cleanse, the colon cleanse. If your intuition is saying you need to do it, we hope you’ll join us Thursday evening, June 30th, to hear our personal stories and experiences with colon cleansing, to see our demonstration on making probiotic-rich sauerkraut, and to receive our support and guidance on your path toward reaching your highest health potential.
June Recipe
Ghee (clarified butter) as high temp stable cooking oil, digestive aid & hormone balancing fat for those on an at least 90% whole foods diet
Ghee has about 80% the cholesterol that butter has, so you don’t want to use lots of ghee or other saturated fats if 1) you’re still eating packaged foods, restaurant foods, or using refined vegetable oils like canola, and 2) if you are spiking your blood sugar throughout the day with a more than medium glycemic diet, as both contribute to high cholesterol & atherosclerosis. Feel free to call or email me with any questions about this. I’d love to explain the “why” of it to you.
How to make Ghee: simmer on extra low heat 3 - 4 sticks unsalted organic butter for 15 - 20 minutes uncovered, without stirring. You'll hear boiling oil sounds, and after 10 minutes or so the foamy milk solids on top will become crusty and golden brown. Turn off the heat & skim off that crust on the top. Then pour just the clear, golden ghee into a wide mouth jar for scooping as cooking oil or in place of butter. Pouring it slowly through a fine mesh strainer helps separate it from the milk solids if you can’t quite skim all of them off the top. As you pour just the clear golden butter fat into a jar, be sure not to let any of the possibly left behind whey (cloudy, whitish liquid on bottom) and crusty milk solids which have sunk to the bottom if there are any, slip into the jar - it'll sour on the bottom of the jar. If you’re established in your 90% whole foods diet & you’ve used organic butter, feel free to use those crispy, rich milk solids into other dishes (beans, stews, casseroles, etc.) for added body & flavor. Let the ghee cool uncovered so all steam/condensation can evaporate. Then cover.
Ghee keeps for up to 3 weeks on the counter at room temp. In the fridge it'll keep for months, but becomes like hard ice cream - hard to dig into. I usually put 1/2 on the counter for use for the next few weeks, and ½ in the fridge for use later.
Questions? 528-8837 or courtney@cookwell.org.
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 to share lots of learning, laughter and incredible food.
Namaste ~
Courtney & Don
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