Yoga Witch

My son has a tree nut allergy, along with a variety of seeds including sesame and flax. So I was excited when three weeks ago he didn’t react to peanut butter. I have only used organic from Trader Joe’s. But it sounds like I need to move away from that… and since he’s only been eating it for three weeks, that shouldn’t be too hard!

So far, my husband has said no to raw milk for our son, although my husband & I both drink it. And he lets me use homemade raw cream butter on our son’s food, etc. And twice I’ve made ice cream from raw milk/cream. But he’s still not crazy about giving our son the milk. So I make kefir from pasteurized, unhomogenized milk which I use in the morning shakes.

Based on what you were saying about how your calories stack up, I have a ways to go. But it’s one step at a time…

One last question: what are good thyroid-enhancing foods? I saw something about iodine on Kimi’s blog, but I have no idea where to get that in my family’s diet. My son, as yet, won’t touch fish. But I keep offering it each week, and I trust he’ll “cave” one of these days!

Gratefully…

Now, despite my “produce dominated diet,” I’m also quick to emphasize that by calories about 55-65% of my daily intake is in the form of fats, 20-25% protein, and 15-20% carbs. That’s probably why you think I emphasize animal fats & proteins — because by total calorie intake I certainly do!

Also, although I emphasize lots of great animal fats, I wouldn’t call my diet very animal dense (at least not compared to many, if not most, Americans). My diet is definitely produce-dominated by weight & volume. A full 2/3 of my plates are piled with nothing but veggies, and only a small, palm-sized portion of my plate contains my animal protein. And fats, of course, are what you cook & serve with. It’s not like I sit down and eat a stick of butter for dinner. Also, as an Orthodox Christian, I keep a vegan dietary fast for about 40% of the year. So, I think if you look a bit more closely at how I eat, you’ll see that it’s really quite balanced.

I’m not convinced yet as to tradition being the final way to wade through competing nutritional claims, but that’s why I’m a regular reader on your site — because you come from a slightly different angle than what I’ve studied over the years. What’s neat is that so many health and nutrition folk DO agree on so much: no processed, no white flour, no pasteurized dairy or conventional meat, no refined, no soy, no chemicals, additives, no refined sugar, no caffeine, etc. Where it gets tricky is where they start to differ: spinach — raw or cooked, herbs or grandular-based supplements, “plant-heavy” or “pasteured animal foods and good fats-heavy” diet. Oh, the confusion. I have always made it a point to study natural health positions that are opposite of one another. If I read something that seems heavily animal-based, I’ll try to read some natural health vegan stuff as well (I can hear you sighing, Kristen, all the way here in Houston over my “vegan” comment — Ha! . I like to study both sides of the debate as much as possible.

Maybe I’ll become more of a traditionalist in my thinking as I begin to study things from the Weston A. Price point of view. Fascinating stuff….

One of my personal ways of wading through all of the nutritional controversies is just simply to listen to the body and see how it responds to various nutritional advice, real foods and supplements.

As always, I wade through competing nutrition claims by looking to tradition. We’ve been on this planet a LONG time, and we’ve developed intricate food cultures and rules about what foods to eat, when, how to prepare them, and in what combinations to eat them. Spinach has traditionally been cooked and only rarely eaten in salads. So, that’s what my family does. We eat spinach raw in small amounts every week or every other week, but the rest of the time we eat it cooked.

Kristen — Really? No raw baby spinach? We’ve done that for years along with lots of raw romaine. I hate spinach cooked, and love it raw! What’s the problem with it raw? I agree with the rest of your list. Just don’t understand the spinach thing. I’ve read to eat raw spinach from many other sources…. Fill me in!

It is so weird to study health from so many different positions. Everyone is fighting for the same thing, but coming up with different real food solutions and theories. Fascinating stuff, but boy, it takes some sifting through things to figure it all out!

Just about every smoothie we make has raw eggs in it. The jury is still out regarding whether or not egg whites are safe to eat raw. I, personally, do eat them raw. But there are certain people who shouldn’t. Basically, egg whites contain an anti-nutrient called avidin that binds with the biotin in the yolk. It makes the biotin (vitamin B7) unavailable. If you get plenty of biotin from other sources, there’s no need to worry. But, if it bothers you, then make the smoothies using egg YOLKS and save your whites for cooking.

Peanut butter does taste okay with coconut oil, although I’d recommend using a different nut butter most of the time. Peanuts are goitrogenic (suppress thyroid functioning) and they contain aflatoxin. They’re okay in a well-balanced diet, but you wouldn’t want them to be your only nut. (And technically, they’re not even a nut. They’re a legume!)

We eat enough eggs and bacon to fill us up when eaten with a fruit and a glass of raw milk. So, for my husband and I that’s about two eggs each and one or two slices of thick cut bacon.

Two thoughts on your starch question: 1) It’s possible that your metabolism requires a little bit more starch, or 2) (and I think this is more likely) The starches serve as a vehicle for more calories. In other words, you probably butter your toast and fry your eggs in fat. Perhaps it’s the extra fat that’s filling you up and not necessarily the starch? If I were you, I’d experiment with adding more fat to my eggs/bacon type breakfast and see how it goes.

You pretty much answered your own question. Avoid eating crucifers & greens raw (green lettuce is okay, but things like collard greens, turnip greens, beet greens, spinach, etc. aren’t). And be sure to cook foods which would otherwise be inedible (like potatoes!). Otherwise, just about any other vegetable or fruit is okay raw.

As to what I’d feed my kids, it’s far more important for them to get nourishing fats than raw vegetables. So, I’d feed them raw milk, yogurt, kefir, butter, egg yolks, and even raw meats. There are a number of tasty raw meat dishes that are “cooked” in lemon or lime juice. Don’t get me wrong, veggies are important. But generally only as a vehicle to nourishing fats. Otherwise, your body can barely make use of the vitamins and minerals they contain.

I have made my own sour cream. I put raw cream on the counter and let it sit until it’s the desired consistency. If you’re using pasteurized cream, you can stir in a tablespoon of buttermilk per cup of cream and let THAT sit on the counter until it’s the desired consistency.

I do serve the taco bowls without chips or tortillas. I gave up grains for lent earlier this year and when I reintroduced them I noticed a lot of bloating and indigestion. I still do an occasional brown rice or slice of sprouted grain bread. I also sometimes let my kids and hubby eat corn tortillas so long as they’re made from corn soaked in lime.