IN THIS NEWSLETTER
What's New: The Food Tarot
July Tip: Full-Fat Dairy Vs. Low or Non-Fat Dairy
Summer Group Class Schedule
July Article: Ancient Truths About Whole Fats & Oils Vs. Refined Vegetable Oils
July Recipe: Sugar & Gluten Free Sweet Cultured Coriander Cornbread
WHAT'S NEW
I’m so excited about a fantastic tool my dear, local friend Katy Yurcheshen has created: The Food Tarot!
It’s an amazing resource book and playful card set that teaches you how
to tap into your intuition and discover a personalized approach to diet
and nutrition. Forty two different whole foods are highlighted, and
each food includes it's history, classic symbolism, nutritional
benefits, and a delicious recipe. It’s affordable, and makes a fantastic
birthday gift!
Click here to see it... JULY TIP
Full-Fat Dairy Vs. Low or Non-Fat Dairy
Calcium from milk doesn’t find it’s way into strengthening our bones unless the milk contains it’s natural fat. Calcium from non-fat dairy ends up getting stuck in the soft tissues of the body, which often leads to hard accumulations and even tumors. So if you love yogurt, milk or cheese, go for the full-fat versions. Also, you want your dairy products preferably raw, preferably organic, and preferably made from goat or sheep milk which is more like human milk and thusly easier to digest. If you’re concerned about too much saturated fat in your diet, see my article below. For more on why raw, full-fat dairy products are beneficial to the body and why pasteurized, low-fat dairy products are a burden to the body, see the Weston A. Price Foundation’s website to search articles about dairy - I highly recommend reading their basic principals of a healthy diet.
If you’re looking for dietary calcium (which is 20x more bio-available than a chelated calcium supplement), plant-sources are far superior to dairy products. Just 1/4 cup of unhulled sesame seeds equals 40% of your daily value! Other wonderful sources of food-state calcium are; almonds, cashews, brazil nuts, kale, wakame sea vegetable, carob, and bone broth. Lastly, of key importance in calcium absorption is getting enough dietary magnesium through seasonal green leafy vegetables, whole grains, beans, and seeds. Also vital to calcium uptake is enough Vitamin D via sunshine or chlorophyl-rich green foods. For tons more helpful info on calcium absorption, see the calcium chapter of Paul Pitchford’s invaluable book: Healing With Whole Foods.
SUMMER GROUP CLASS SCHEDULE
Each class is $30 per person, and includes a meal!
Please try to RSVP and pre-pay with me at least 3 days before class - THANKS! (805) 528-8837 or courtney@cookwell.org
Cooking Without Wheat & Individualizing Your Whole Foods Diet (CookWell session #2)
Sunday, July 22, 2-4PM at New Frontiers
We’ll discuss: the Ayurvedic body types and beneficial foods for each, the blood type diet guidelines, protein/fat/carb ratios for different metabolic types, basic guidelines for diet & lifestyle according to macrobiotic constitution, maintaining proper body alkalinity through diet, and practicing mindfulness as it relates to preparing healing food. You’ll get 4 handouts for reference: Ayurvedic body types and beneficial foods for each, general principals re: Ayurvedic diet & lifestyle, blood type diet basics, and a list of fantastic recipes! Then, together we’ll prepare: kichadi (tasty East Indian stew of mung beans, brown rice, & seasonal veggies), and fantastic custom cole slaw
Gentle Cleansing With Whole Foods Diet & Lifestyle
Sunday, July 29, 2-4PM at New Frontiers
I’ll show you how to prepare the foundation of a gently cleansing, healing and revitalizing whole foods diet, from which you can change and add to according to your tastes. We'll discuss several important whole foods diet & lifestyle topics on gentle cleansing such as the basics of macrobiotics, the CookWell list of whole foods preparation staples for your kitchen, the best cooking oils for various temperatures, and the importance of & how to start drinking enough re-mineralized water daily. You'll receive several informational handouts for your reference, as well as a list of fantastic recipes! Then, together we'll make ghee to use as a delicious, stable oil in your cooking, sprouted & simmered brown rice, a dark leafy greens & seasonal veggies stir-steam, and a beautiful pot of black beans. Then, of course, we’ll get to feast together!
How To Make Sauerkraut and Beet Kvaas
Sunday, August 12th, 2-4PM at New Frontiers
I’ll show you how to make 2 very body-beneficial foods: live, cultured sauerkraut AND live, cultured beet kvaas. Cultured, probiotoic foods help us better digest & assimilate nutrients, keep bad bacteria & yeasts in check, greatly enhance our immune function, produce vitamin B12, contribute to beautiful skin, and scientists continue to discover the benefits! Beet Kvaas is a mineral supplement drink and amazing vitality tonic from the Russian tradition. Not only is beet kvaas probiotic, it’s a liver / gallbladder cleanser, helps with disturbed cellular function, helps thin the bile and detox the body, keeps the bowels moving regularly, and builds healthy blood. Everyone will get a bowl of black bean & seasonal veggie stew to enjoy.
Gluten & Sugar Free TEA PARTY CLASS!
Sunday, August 26th, 1-3PM, at Courtney & Don’s home in Los Osos - This class includes teas and desserts!
We’ll discuss: how to grind fresh & culture whole grains such as millet, oat groats and amaranth for gluten & sugar free baked recipes, and strategies for getting lower glycemic in your diet as preventative medicine. We’ll serve: The Secret Garden’s blended herbal teas alongside our gluten & sugar free desserts: ginger-orange-carrot cake, almond-amaranth cookies, and heavenly lemon-lavender poppy seed cake
Whole Foods Cooking for the Optimal Woman - Calcium Uptake, Hormone Balance & Getting Off Sugar
Sunday, September 16th, 2-4PM at New Frontiers
We’ll discuss calcium-rich whole foods meals and how to maximize mineral uptake, hormone balance with whole foods diet & lifestyle, how to wean yourself off spiking blood sugar, the benefits of periodic colon cleansing, emotions as they relate to eating, and how to gently work toward the diet & lifestyle that’s best for you. We'll prepare 2 delicious, sugar & gluten free desserts: apple-raspberry spice & carob-coconut cloud, and tasty toasted sesame-wakame as a calcium supplement. You’ll get 4 handouts for reference: the CookWell calcium protocol, guidelines for hormone balance, fantastic recipes for the optimal woman, and colon cleansing guidelines
Delicious Cooking w/ Sea Vegetables For Beauty & Longevity
Sunday, September 30th, 2-4PM at New Frontiers
We’ll discuss: how to cook flavorfully with various types of sea vegetables (including those which bind and expel heavy metals and radioactive substances from the body!), how to maximize vitamin/mineral assimilation with whole foods combinations, and hormone balance guidelines with whole foods diet & lifestyle. You’ll get 4 handouts for reference: benefits of 7 different sea vegetables with recipes for each, CookWell calcium protocol, guidelines for hormone balance, and fantastic recipes #5 w/ list of tasty herb/spice combinations for seasoning. Then together we’ll prepare: black beans and seasonal veggies with wakame & hijiki sea vegetables
JULY ARTICLE
The Rant About Fats & Oils
More and more of us are becoming re-educated about the healing benefits of whole saturated fats vs. the harmful effects of refined vegetable oils. In case you or a loved one is still confused, I’ve done my best to sum up the recent findings, which are actually the ways our healthy ancestors and healthy indigenous people have used fats & oils for millennia.
There’s still a huge misconception about refined oils like canola, soybean and vegetable oil being the fats that will save everyone from heart disease. I’m frustrated about this because my studies in whole foods diet, cooking & lifestyle over the past 14 years have consistently pointed to the opposite being true! Refined (de-natured) vegetable oils are very unstable molecularly, and with any heat or pressure change into trans fatty acids. This is because they’ve been stripped of the naturally occurring lignins present in the whole seed or nut, which help stabilize the oil and keep it from changing molecularly. These refined vegetable oils (found in nearly all processed/packaged foods & restaurant foods) start turning into long-chain trans fatty acids with cooking or processing. Hydrogenated vegetable oils which are found in shortening, margarine, and many processed foods are the very worst kinds of fats for the body. The trans fats from both of these kinds of oils stick to the walls of the arteries, forming net-like matrix. Then, saturated fat from foods like butter, eggs, cheese, & coconut oil gets caught in that net/matrix. So, the combination of refined vegetable oils and saturated fat in the diet (the Standard American Diet - acronym: SAD) is what causes buildup of plaque in the arteries more than any other factor. The remaining causative factors for buildup of plaque in the arteries are; smoking, not drinking enough water daily, and lack of regular exercise.
Our ancestors and indigenous people ate saturated fats like palm & coconut oil, butter, bacon, eggs and marbled meat up the wah-zoo, and they rarely died of heart disease because they weren’t eating anything made by Frito-Lay or Taco Bell or any restaurant/company using cheap vegetable oils to turn a profit. They’ve eaten whole, saturated fats abundantly for generations and have lived long, healthy, happy lives without heart disease.
Whole, saturated fats are very important for many bodily systems such as brain & nerve function, reducing inflammation, hormone balance, healthy skin and connective tissues, and of course, and for regulating a natural & healthy blood lipid profile. “Healthy blood lipid profile with saturated fats?”, you say. “Yes”, I say. If the body doesn’t get any saturated fat in the diet, the liver will begin to over produce it because it’s so necessary for all the bodily systems I just mentioned, and more! Also, whole fats from animal sources (butter, eggs, marbled meat, etc) are a very important bio-available source of vitamin A, D and K which serve as a catalyst for mineral absorption, provide integrity to cell walls, enhance the immune system, protect the liver, and contribute to strong bones. Read more here at The Weston A. Price Foundation's website.
Aside from the types of fats consumed, the other most important contributing factor to high cholesterol and atherosclerosis is the glycemic aspect of our diets. It takes just two weeks of eating a low-glycemic diet before cholesterol levels drop dramatically. The why of this biochemistry is explained here in the case studies of Dr. Ron Rosedale. How many foods are you eating which turn to sugars quickly in the body? Foods with refined sugars like cookies, candy bars and soda are obviously high-glycemic, but it’s necessary to also take a look at the amount of wheat bread products, pasta, white rice, corn, fruits, died fruits, honey, maple syrup, etc. in the diet. Concerning alcohol (because nearly everyone asks me about alcohol), there are two types which don’t have as an extremely sugary effect on the blood as does wine, beer and other liquors. They are: real potato vodka and real cactus tequila. These types of alcohol are also better because they don’t swing the body’s pH balance so extremely over to the acidic side of the spectrum.
Slowly but steadily weaning oneself off high glycemic foods is the easiest way to go as preventative medicine for MANY modern diseases, instead of cold turkey because spiking the blood sugar is very addictive. Quitting a high glycemic diet results in headache and fatigue when done too dramatically. As a person eventually makes their way to eating a low glycemic diet, their body’s metabolism switches from burning sugars to burning fats! This process takes about 4 months on average. I lost 10 pounds without even wanting to since going low-glycemic as part of a candida cleanse. For me, not eating any sugar, fruit, or foods which quickly turn to sugar in the body wasn’t easy. Even though I’d been off refined sugars for 5 years, I had to gently wean myself off high & medium glycemic foods over a period of about six weeks, but now my body is candida free, and I’m burning fats instead of sugars! I eat a wonderfully flavorful whole foods diet with liberal amounts of ghee in my stir-fries and beans, organic butter and eggs, lots of high-quality olive oil on salads & veggies, and virgin coconut oil in my desserts. I put fresh, raw nuts or avocado on nearly everything - at least half an avocado at a time! Oh! And I love using the fat from nitrate free bacon in my beans! Delicious!
Do you feel overwhelmed with all this info because you’re still eating processed/packaged foods like crackers & chips? Are you still eating a medium-high glycemic diet, or eating out at restaurants regularly? No problem! Just use unrefined (extra virgin) olive oil or sesame oil raw on salads OR for very low heat cooking - eggs or a quick stir-steam. Use only small amounts (1 tsp) of saturated fats for high heat cooking. Choose a high-quality, extra virgin brands of olive oil like Bariani, Spectrum or Bragg's. I’m a recent fan of two exceptional local olive oils: Tiber Canyon in Arroyo Grande, and Olea Farms in Templeton. Try to keep your high-heat cooking & saturated fat intake very low while you make the transition toward incorporating more whole foods into your diet and lessen the amount of refined foods from packages & restaurants. Once you’re significantly lower glycemic in your diet and eating at least 80% whole foods (foods found on the perimeter of the grocery store or from Farmer’s Markets or from a neighbor’s road-side stand; seasonal vegetables especially the dark leafy greens, whole grains like brown rice, millet, and quinoa, whole beans of all kinds, consciously raised eggs, butter and grass fed meats, seasonal fruits, unrefined fats/oils, whole sea salts, and small amounts of unrefined sweeteners), enjoy using the deeply satisfying saturated fats more liberally.
Fats & Oils Guidelines
Below are the guidelines for cooking with the other kinds of unrefined oils for various temperatures according to Paul Pitchford’s amazing book: Healing With Whole Foods.
Use ONLY unrefined (extra virgin) oils. They should be cold pressed and organic. Store oils in airtight, opaque glass at 65 degrees F or less.
~To cook on medium-high heat: ghee, coconut, animal fat, peanut, grapeseed, and palm or palm kernel.
~To cook on low heat: olive, sesame, almond, apricot kernel, walnut, high-oleic sunflower or safflower, rice bran and avocado. Cooking w/ water helps keep oil temperature lower. These oils are almost always sold in a highly refined state, so be sure the label says unrefined - usually available at natural food stores.
JULY RECIPE
Sugar & Gluten Free Sweet Cultured Coriander Corn Bread
This recipe goes GREAT with last month’s recipe for Rosemary & Ginger Black Beans! Combine 2 cups fresh ground amaranth OR millet flour AND 2 cups organic corn meal with 1 cup plain, cultured yogurt and 1 cup water (OR, for a dairy free alternative to yogurt, mix 1.5 cups water with content of 2 capsules any live probiotic). Mix flours, water and cultures until just blended and let sit covered at room temperature for 24 hrs. You see, the probiotic bacteria neutralize the phytic acid in the whole grain flour so it can't bind with minerals in your intestines & inhibit their absorption. Another benefit is that the bacteria break down the complex carbohydrates, making the grain's nutrients more assimilatable and much easier to digest. Okay, the next day, in a separate bowl combine 1 cup melted butter, ghee or coconut oil, 2 eggs, and 2 tsp Nu Naturals brand liquid vanilla stevia OR 2 tsp Nu Naturals brand non-bitter stevia powder OR 1 tsp of each kind (best!). Then mix in 2 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp vanilla extract, 2 tsp ground coriander, 1tsp nutmeg, and 1tsp whole sea salt. Mix well and stir into cultured flour mixture. When the two are mixed until smooth, add 1 cup fresh, canned or frozen organic corn kernels and stir. Pour into 2 buttered loaf size baking pans or a buttered casserole dish and bake at 350 degrees for 20 -40 minutes (the deeper the dish/pan, the more time needed to bake - when a wooden skewer stick comes out dry, it’s done). This cornbread goes great alongside beans, and it’s so sweet & moist I almost called it "Corn Cake".
As always,
Don and I welcome any questions you may have via email: courtney@cookwell.org
For more information on the ancient whole foods philosophies we teach about, see “the food” page of my website.
Namaste ~
Courtney & Don
