Coram Deo

Are We Being Consistent?

Gifts From the FDA

On August 18, 2006 the FDA announced that it would begin allowing viruses to be sprayed on foods like hot dogs, sausages, chicken, sliced turkey, and lunch meats. In their ongoing quest to protect the public, they have also determined that the consumer will not be allowed to know which products have been coated with live viruses. Lest the silly consumer refuse to purchase the sprayed products to feed to their families.

The reason offered for the necessity of virus spraying is to protect against Listeria, a potentially fatal disease that afflicts primarily the elderly, very young and pregnant women. It is killed by cooking, but is a potential problem in foods that may not be cooked again after processing. Listeria is the reason it is so hard to get raw milk.

But the root of this problem is the sick, disease laden animals that they are using as our food. These animals are raised in absolutely deplorable conditions, fed waste products and other dead animals and kept alive on antibiotics. These factors combine to make a perfect petri dish for bacteria to grow and thrive.

Studies have shown that animals raised on clean grass, in the fresh air, carry virtually no Listeria. But instead of touting that fact and encouraging farmers to practice better animal husbandry and equipping consumers to make informed choices, the FDA is allowing our food supply to be further adulterated while protecting the biotech firms profit by refusing to allow the consumer to choose unsprayed products.

The viruses I am talking about are called bacteriophages, or phages. 6 different phages will be grown in a culture with Listeria, which is supposed to teach the viruses to recognize Listeria. We are assured they are completely safe for humans. You know, like Fen-Phen, Adderall, Aspertame, Mercury in shots and fillings, aluminum in many, many things, and the thousands of other "safe" things that have been, will be, or should be taken off the market.

They way it works is that if Listeria is present in the food the bacteria will ingest the viruses and replicate themselves until the virus bursts. This will result in a significant amount of endotoxins being produced. Board certified nutritionist Byron Richards has this to say about endotoxins:

Read the whole article here, it’s important.

More Food

This afternoon Hailey made this bread for lunch.  We served it as an open face sandwich with egg salad just like it was recommended and everyone agreed it was very good.  I had her make 2 loaves so that we could have one with dinner, which was Chick Pea Curry.  The good things about Chick Pea Curry are:

• Everyone Likes It
• It is really cheap
• I almost always have everything on hand
• It is filling
• It is healthy
• It is really cheap (it bears repeating)

So, I thought I would share.  This feeds the 8 of us with a couple of lunches left over.

Chick Pea Curry

Ingredients:

2 Tablespoons of coconut oil (or vegetable oil)

1 onion, chopped

4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped or crushed

2 apples, peeled and chopped (this is a very good way of using up an apple that has gone wrinkly but is not rotten)

2 green pepper, finely chopped (optional)

4-6 teaspoons of curry powder

4c dried chick peas (garbanzo beans) soaked overnight and boiled for about 45 min, or hot water soaked for 2 hours and boiled, or about 4 cans 

2  15 1/2 oz  cans of tomatoes (I just used 4 fresh)

handful of raisins (optional)

2 tablespoons of shredded coconut (optional)

2c frozen peas

salt

Fry the onion, garlic and apple in the oil for a few minutes. Add the curry powder and stir for a minute or two. Add the tomatoes (chop them if needed) and green pepper. If you like really sweet tasting curry, then add the raisins and coconut. Cook for about 15 minutes at simmering level and then add your chick peas and cook for a further 10 minutes. Shortly before the end of cooking time put the frozen peas in, Add salt to taste.

You can serve this over rice if you like. 

Ideas for toppings are chopped fresh tomato, cucumber, sliced banana (yes this does work!), sunflower seeds, avocado.  You can put all the topping options in little bowls and let everyone serve themselves.  Tonight we didn't add any toppings, or raisins or coconut and it was still very good. 

You can also substitute potatoes for the garbanzo beans. 

Hope you like it!

Frozen Strawberry Dessert

I threw this together for dessert last night and everyone loved it so much I thought I would share.  It's super quick and easy too!

4c frozen strawberries (I get the big bag at Costco)

4c plain yogurt

2c xylitol (or sucanat or...sugar)

or you can use 4c vanilla yogurt and no sweetener

Blend in blender until smooth.  Pour in 9x13" glass dish and freeze about 3 hours.  Slice it or scoop it and eat.

Refreshing and delicious!

Tex-Mex Popcorn

So good, you won't even miss the butter, honest.

Pop about 12c popcorn

add 1TBS each cumin and chili powder

Mix to coat

That's it! 

You could add some nutritional yeast if you wanted a cheesy flavor 

Yummy Tomato Recipe

We had a really good tomato salad with dinner the other night.  I thought I would share the recipe.

Marinated Tomatos

1/2 c olive oil

1/4 c red wine vinegar

1 clove minced garlic

1 tbsp. sugar (I use sucanat)

1/2 tsp salt

1/8 tsp fresh ground black pepper

1 tbsp mustard

6-8 tomatoes, thickly sliced

2-3 tbsp chopped parsley

6 chives, chopped

Combine all ingredients except tomatoes, parsley and chives. Place tomatoes in a bowl, pour marinade over tomatoes. Sprinkle with parsley and chives. Marinate in refrigerator 1-2 hours.  I added little mozzeralla balls.

This was so good.  A really great summer recipe when the tomatoes are nice and ripe!  I served it with Beef Mole Tamale Pie. 

An Apple a Day

I have been thinking about a lot of things lately.  Perhaps sometime soon I will have the time to distill some of them into a few posts.  But right now, the thing that is driving this post is an image of my grandma, sitting in front of the television, drinking cups of apple cider vinegar. 

I can't remember if she was sick with cancer,or if she was trying to keep it from coming back.  She had the right idea though.  Apple cider vinegar helps make the body alkaline. And cancer, along with a host of other immune disorders, thrive in an acidic environment.  They can't live when the body is alkaline.  But she only had a piece of the puzzle.  She was drinking regular ole' distilled vinegar from the grocery store, which is acidic.  She needed to be drinking raw, unpasturized vinegar in its natural state.

And she should have made major dietary changes.

It kills me to think of her sitting there, us rolling our eyes, guzzling the nasty stuff for nothing.  But once you're already sick things get dicey and you have to make MAJOR changes to help your body heal.  So, in the spirit of "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" I am going to share a few of the things I've learned.

An alkaline body is good.  All forms of arthritis are associated with an acidic body, body acidity dissolves teeth and bones (tooth decay, loss of bone density), it is linked to kidney and gall stones and a host of other degenerative diseases; including cancer. 

Apple cider vinegar is a powerful detoxifying and purifying agent. It breaks down fatty, mucous and phlegm deposits within the body. By breaking down these substances it improves the health and function of the vital organs of the body, such as the kidneys, bladder and liver, which in turn help rid the body of toxins. It also oxidizes and thins the blood, which is important in preventing high blood pressure.

If you read the lists of alkaline and acidic foods it isn't difficult to see why our bodies are so acidic.  But, if we make changes before we are fighting cancer or something like it, the changes won't have to be so drastic.  When Mike was tracking his bodies ph, just adding apple cider vinegar to his water made a big difference.  I prefer to take it by the tablespoon and drink my water plain.  Lemon is also alkaline and a great source of vitamin C, potassium, calcium and magnesium. 

Apple cider vinegar is said to contain 90% of the minerals our bodies need.  It helps prevent food poisoning, cures heartburn and acid rflux, drops blood pressure, helps prevent tooth decay and lots of other things. 

Cider vinegar can be taken alone or used in cooking. It can be used any time distilled vinegar is called for.  It's great in dressing.

You can read more about it here, or you can google it.  There's a lot of information out there. 

I Guess I'm Gonna Eat

Organic lemons are a no-go and no one seems to know when they will be back in. In fact, even conventional lemons aren't all that easy to come by.  So, I guess I will go ahead and break the fast.  You are supposed to do it slowly, adding orange juice the first day, orange juice and vegetable broth and 2nd day, and finally light food on the 3rd day. 

We, however are having both orange juice and vegetable soup today.  I think the longer you fast (some people do this for 40 days or longer), the more important it is to slowly re-introduce food.

I am sad to be stopping because I really don't feel done yet.  I want the pink tongue!  My tongue is still white.  Yes, you can brush your teeth (and I AM) but it stays white.  It is one of the detoxing symptoms.  When your body is more cleaned out the white goes away and your tongue turns pink.  When I am eating foods again it will go back to normal because I am not flushing toxins, so it won't stay this furry white.  Thankfully!

Mike has lost about 15 pounds and I have lost 15-16 I think.  Many people don't lose any weight.  They say if you are already at the right weight or underweight you won't lose, some people even gain weight if you can believe it.

So, I'm breaking the fast.  Reluctantly.