Health/Science based podcasts

Originally Posted by sesheta

Thanks for the thyroid info - I emailed it to her, so hopefully it will help :)

You're quite welcome. And tell her that even with a bum thyroid, it's quite possible to eat fabulously. The learning curve is there for sure, but once you got it down, get busy with the spices and enjoy.

Hey, hope you're having a nice day sesheta. I've had a great one. I did yoga this morning, meditated, made a valentine card for my oldest daughter (I just love'r to bits and she needs a boost cause she has a five year old boy and a one year old daughter and they are making her nuts lately with the baby teething and the little guy bored out of his mind because the snow is keeping them indoors!!!!) and I made a nice supper. And now I'm surfing the world-wide-web. Wahoo!

Originally Posted by sesheta

A co-worker of mine has just been diagnosed with hypothyroidism, and is quite distressed over the thought of having an ailment and needing to be on medication for the rest of her life (she is only in her twenties...)
Is there anything she can do holistically or diet-wise to help this?

Actually there is.... and it's a process that we all can undertake in order to clean up what ails us, and then boost ourselves into surprisingly good health!

In the last year or so I've been obsessed with the health related info on the internet... what's becoming apparent is that we're approaching a tipping-point
where the old paradigm of what we've long thought as healthcare is fixing to spin on it's head!

Modern medicine has been lost in the woods...
"one illness, one problem, fix that problem, fix that illness..."

What's emerging from modern research is really quite different.... that much of what we've been viewing as disassociated illnesses are really just
symptoms of a body in distress. Each individual body will express this distress differently... much depends on the types of food the person eats,
the kinds of mental stresses they entertain and the environmental impacts they're subjecting themselves to.

If any one, or all, of these factors are such that the body has to absorb a great deal of discord, then differing parts of our body will suffer... the parts
that suffer may be genetically per-disposed, may be a result of the body robbing from one part in order to protect the blood/or the more critical
organs, or it could be an accelerated immune system that mistakes an actual part of our body for that of a unwelcomed guest.

Address the bodies needs, give it what it needs to righten it's health, remove as many stressers as you can, and the body will set-about to fix
itself... The body has been doing this for millions of years.. while modern medicine is still in its infancy.

The number one biggest-most failing in Modern medicine is that it doesn't address diet in relation to illness...
...while it's turning-out that nearly everything is pivoting around what we're putting in us!

There are several really cool systems worth looking into, that is formulating around this newer understanding of dietary health... and each one clearly has
it's merits. There's the Raw Food Movement, the PH approach, the Paleo diet... each are direct spin offs from the most recent research.

And yet each seem to heavily contradict each other... and yet all of them may be right in a very odd way....

A couple of days ago I ran across this doctor... Dr Natasha Campbell-McBride
I've been listening to her podcasts and I find myself startled... she's wonderfully managing to tie all these emerging disciplines together in
a highly intelligent and intuitive way!

I've been listening to a lot of podcasts recently, but in the last couple of days I've been listening to hers over and over... I really ~love~ her insight
and approach!

Here's a good summery of her overall understandings:
http://www.doctor-natasha.com/one-mans-meat-another-mans-poison.php

Here's a long interview with Dr Mercola... this one covers her overview quite nicely! She originally took this path to address her sons Autism, but
the principles she discovered are applicable to just about everything...

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/07/31/dr-natasha-campbell-mcbride-on-gaps-nutritional-program.aspx?np=true

and then this two hour discussion with Dr Mercola, where she delved into her approach in greater detail..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjJhh47Emao&feature=BFa&list=PLCAF30F79A5F 92FB8&lf=player_embedded


I wish I could give you an A=B answer... but it's clear that the problem is much deeper than that..
To address any one problem that shows up in our system presents the need and opportunity to address them all... We honestly don't have to get sick!
Through the pathway of the diet we can righten what's wrong...

...and then playfully bounce into to a uniquely-personalized, highly-vibrational, relationship with holistic health .... :^)

Thanks, Stephen :)
I agree that the food we eat (or don't eat, lol!) makes a huge difference in our overall health.
My co-worker, unfortunately, is one of those women who try every silly fad diet that comes out, or simply resorts to barely eating, to try to lose some weight :(
There are many days I go into work and ask her what she's eaten all day, and I get answers like "an apple this morning, and two cookies about an hour ago." (I work 4 pm. - midnight, so usually talk to her between 3:30 - 4 pm.)
She doesn't eat normally or balanced, at all, so I'm not surprised that her system has started to rebel....
I don't eat perfectly, either, but I try to at least be balanced. I usually eat 4-5 times throughout the day - eating smaller amounts, but keeping the metabolism going - seems to work best for me. I don't deny myself a treat if I feel like one...my only problem is that I have a bit of a kidney issue, so I am on a strict low-to-no-sodium diet - which makes me feel better overall, anyway :) I was shocked at how much of an effect salt has on our body. I always knew that too much salt was bad, but it becomes terrifyingly clear how much salt is in most food we buy at the grocery store, once you start reading the labels!!
Needless to say, I have become a huge label-reader; also, my best investments were a crock-pot, and a bread machine, so I can make my own homemade foods, with little to no salt or the other nasty things that are in grocery-store food!

Originally Posted by sesheta

Thanks, Stephen :)
I agree that the food we eat (or don't eat, lol!) makes a huge difference in our overall health.
My co-worker, unfortunately, is one of those women who try every silly fad diet that comes out, or simply resorts to barely eating, to try to lose some weight :(
There are many days I go into work and ask her what she's eaten all day, and I get answers like "an apple this morning, and two cookies about an hour ago." (I work 4 pm. - midnight, so usually talk to her between 3:30 - 4 pm.)
She doesn't eat normally or balanced, at all, so I'm not surprised that her system has started to rebel....

The folks who are eating little to no food in order to loose weight are likely to trip-off the bodies defenses... the body assumes it's in a famine... That's
why in the early stages a person will loose weight rather quickly with this starvation approach, then suddenly hit a brick wall! It seems the body decides that it
"needs" what weight it has, and firmly stops shedding the fat cells.

The Raw food folks encourage that a dieter eats as much as they want! As long as it's whole fresh fruits, veggie, nuts and seeds, preferably organic, then
the body will relax and let go of it's pounds.. This loosing weight through plant based foods could also be interpreted as the detoxing period... fat
cells have been used to trap a lot of toxins, once we start dissolving these fat cells we'll also be releasing those toxins to be cleansed. Raw eggs seem to be
a good idea during this period.... raw eggs whites are good chelators, they attach to the mercury or lead in the system and help export them out
through the bowels... A blender to make smoothies is a Wonderful addition at this point! For adding the egg, for adding kelp power, freshly ground flax
seeds and just about anything else with some chopped fruit and veggies! Love my Blender! .. it's a clearly inspired piece of equipment! :^)

There's another funny thing that can happen through all this that I first heard from Dr Natasha and which makes a lot of sense... She was saying
that folks on her diet would stop loosing weight on the scale, and even show the increase of a few pounds. And yet they're clothes were getting
looser, so they weren't gaining weight in the waist. What was happening, she told them, was that their bones were beginning to rebuild themselves!
That so many people, and at an increasingly young age, already have varying degrees of Osteoporosis! The body steals from the bone in order to fix
a lot of the messes that are occurring in relation to this horrible diet we've been throwing at it. As soon as the body is given ample nutrition, starts
finding balance in relation to it's overall self, it will quickly go back and try and repair what damage that had been done earlier to the bones. This
tends to add "good" weight... making the scale a poor judge of what's actually going on!

Originally Posted by sesheta

Needless to say, I have become a huge label-reader; also, my best investments were a crock-pot, and a bread machine, so I can make my own homemade foods, with little to no salt or the other nasty things that are in grocery-store food!

Pretty much everything in the grocery store is nasty! A rule of thumb is to shop around the outside of a supermarket... fresh fruits, veggies, and
meats... And sadly, if it has a label on it then it's likely been processed... :^(
The crock-pot is a wonderful tool!

You may however want to consider switching to almond or coconut flower instead of wheat for bread... (wheat is turning out to be really nasty stuff)
Though, we haven't tried these alternative flowers yet... we just dropped grains altogether and may someday get around to making alternative use of our
own bread making machine again from this differing angle.. :^)

Our next serious investment will likely be a dehydrator! If you use a meat slicer you can cut all sorts of fruits into nice even portions.. those then
dehydrate nicely for snack foods! There's also dehydrator cookies!

The trick with dehydrators is that you can keep the cooking temps from breaking the 107 degree F. mark, thus essentially drying them out while
keeping them raw...

Also... :^) we're just getting seriously into fermentation! I started my first Kefir attempt tonight and will see what I end up with tommorrow.. I'm using
one of Dr Mercola's probiotics as a starter culture... His probiotics are loaded with 30 billion good organisms per capsule...which ought to replicate
rather nicely within the next 24 hours... Again this is all thanks to the nudging of Dr Natasha! Her primary mission is to get us to replenish and
strengthen our Gut Flora... We're also setting-up for fermenting veggies in the next day or two... got the jars, the cabbage and carrots... now I just
need to carve-out a little time!

Dr Natasha is not really pushing a diet, as she is suggesting strongly a dynamic life change! We've been assaulting our bodies for so long with bad
food choices that she's wanting to shine a light in the direction of a far saner set of choices... a lot of her stuff is serious old-school... drawing
habits from cultures that extend way back-when. Fermenting is becoming a lost art that needs reviving... probiotics in a massive way, is what our modern
day bodies now need! :^)

Hi Stephen, I bought an Excalibur dehydrator a couple weeks ago and have used it twice so far. Because mine is big, it takes a bit of organizing to get things ready (like soaking nuts and seeds and lentils and stuff for 24 hours and then processing the mixtures to prepare for spreading onto the racks. I found one recipe for a cracker that I and my husband really like and will use it as a springboard to making up a couple more recipes. Great for snacking and no guilt attached as a result of buying munchies with mystery ingredients.

I also found a recipe for a little bun called an idli. That is a South India staple which is made of beans and rice. They are soaked for 24 hours, ground up and then fermented for about 8 hours and that results in a nice raised batter that can be kept in the fridge for a few days and you just steam the buns as needed.

The Indian folk who make them use more white rice and I think white navy beans, but I do half rice and half lentils for the most nutritional bang for your buck. The only downside is that the idli turn out kind of a 'grey' color instead of the nice white ones you'll see on videos. I usually add three or four cubes of precooked spinach which improves the color just a tad (grey to dull green). But hech, I'm eating these things not sitting and looking at them so who cares what color they are right? I was planning on trying some added pumpkin puree for variety.

You said you were fermenting vegetables. Do you mean like sauerkraut? And can you do that with other vegetables? Having a thyroid condition, I have to avoid raw cruciferous veggies. So I would be interested in hearing about 'The Further Kitchen Adventures of Stephen and His Lady' in that regard.

I have a food dehydrator, as well...I use it mainly for drying fresh herbs for the winter, but have also used it to dry pineapple and apples! I absolutely LOVE dried fruit :) I munch on dried figs at work on my breaks sometimes, and most of my co-workers think it's disgusting...sigh.....
Stephen, I will start experimenting with some different flours for bread - I love corn bread, as well!
Another quirk I have is an "emotional allergic reaction" to milk! If I drink too much milk in one day, I get very depressed and start getting weepy - crying for almost no reason at all. My mom said I was like that even when I was very small - I would be crying - they would ask me what was wrong or why I was crying, and I wouldn't even know why!! So I try to avoid too much milk, as well. I love goat's milk, which they say is a good alternative to people who can't tolerate cow's milk, but, at least in my area, the cost of goat's milk is ridiculously high :( I just bought some soy milk - I'll try that and see if I enjoy it :)

Originally Posted by sesheta

I have a food dehydrator, as well...I use it mainly for drying fresh herbs for the winter, but have also used it to dry pineapple and apples! I absolutely LOVE dried fruit :) I munch on dried figs at work on my breaks sometimes, and most of my co-workers think it's disgusting...sigh.....:)

The reason that I got the large dehydrator is because I will be having a garden and I thought that it might be good for taking care of some of the veggies. Dry them for soups and so on. I did do green onions the first time I used it but I made the mistake of drying the pecans that I'd soaked, at the same time. They tasted a little weird as a result because they picked up the onion molecules. Won't do that again.

While I'm not crazy about figs, the rest of your snack sounds wonderful. Just gotta wonder what is the matter with people who think it's disgusting. So sad that so many only think snacks come in foil bags and such. Poor, poor people.

You should try making some crackers for nibbling. I'll give you this recipe in case you want to try it.

• 1 cup sunflower seed , soaked in water 4 hours
• 1 cup pecans, soaked in water 4 hours
• 1 cup quinoa , soaked in water overnight, rinsing a couple times
• 1 tomato
• 1 cup red pepper , diced
• 1/4 cup flax seed , ground
• 1 pinch cumin or chili powder
• 2 teaspoons salt


THIS COULD ALSO BE DONE WITH AN ASIAN FLAIR. USE SOY SAUCE AND MAPLE SYRUP TO SWEETEN, BIT OF CAYENNE.

Directions:
1. 
Requires preparation! Soak sunflower seeds, pecans, and almonds for 4 hours.
2. 
Add all ingredients to food processor and process until as smooth as desired.
3. 
Spread out on teflex sheet, fruit roll up tray, or waxed paper and dehydrate for about 24 hours. After approximately 8 hours you can cut the crackers to desired size and flip.

Read more: http://www.food.com/recipe/raw-cheez...#ixzz1kKim5p21

The cracker idea sounds interesting - will have to do that on a weekend when I'm not working, lol!
I tried my dehydrator to do "sun-dried tomatoes" once, but it didn't turn out very well..I may try again one of these days....
My boyfriend makes me shake my head- he's one of those guys who loves meat, but hates almost any fruit or vegetable! He loves beef jerky, and dried meats...but heaven forbid he eat a dried fruit! At least he will eat raw veggies, so all is not lost.....
He always chuckles, points to himself and says "Carnivore". Then points to me and says "Herbivore!" LOL. Technically, I guess I would be an "omnivore" since I eat both veggies, and meat :)

Originally Posted by DebbyM

Hi Stephen, I bought an Excalibur dehydrator a couple weeks ago and have used it twice so far. Because mine is big, it takes a bit of organizing to get things ready (like soaking nuts and seeds and lentils and stuff for 24 hours and then processing the mixtures to prepare for spreading onto the racks. I found one recipe for a cracker that I and my husband really like and will use it as a springboard to making up a couple more recipes. Great for snacking and no guilt attached as a result of buying munchies with mystery ingredients.
<..>
You said you were fermenting vegetables. Do you mean like sauerkraut? And can you do that with other vegetables? Having a thyroid condition, I have to avoid raw cruciferous veggies. So I would be interested in hearing about 'The Further Kitchen Adventures of Stephen and His Lady' in that regard.

Love this conversation you and sesheta are having! I have my eye on an Excalibur dehydrator as well... just debating on the 5 or 7 shelf version..
the 7 shelf is only a few dollars more than the 5 so eventually I may just spring for the extra... we've been buying a lot of stuff though as of late,
so I may need to give new purchases a rest for a time in order to give myself the space to develop an operational-flow with the stuff we already
have! :^)

Love the cracker recipe you posted!! Can't wait to eventually give it a go! I sure do miss having crackers or something to nibble on... whole foods are
fun but they're mostly soft and damp... a little dry crunchy from time to time is nice! :^)

This fermenting of vegetables at home is interesting! It looks like my kefir experiment is coming along nicely! A large cup of organic whole milk, mixed
with two of Dr Mercola's probiotics, then allowed to ferment for around 24 hours at about 70F.... the milk thickens a bit, some of the sweet taste is
gone, cause the biotics use the sugars for food, but there is no sourness at all (to my relief! :^) I drank about half, still warm, and as-is, but the
second half I added a few drops of liquid stevia/English Toffee flavoring.. omg that was wonderful!! I now have a nutrient rich milk shake to add to
my doable inventory!

As to the fermenting of cabbage, if you want to you can just drink a little bit of the brine that it's in... to eat the veggies is okay but the fermenting
process is such that the veggies serve mostly as food for the little beneficial organisms. Dr Natasha would have us approaching fermented foods rather
carefully at first anyway! Many of modern day folks have a mess going on in their guts! The bad organisms in our tummies can easily be either
dominant, or pretty close to it! When you start taking in the good ones in a focused and sustained way, then these good ones will kill-off the bad.
Some folks can actually get flu-like symptoms during this die-off... it's one of those cases where "getting sick" is a "good" thing! Once the good guys
start dominating and effectively clean-house, then the gut starts repairing and eventually foods that once bothered us no longer do!

So a slow careful approach is recommended anyway... eventually, when all is in order, we can move along with the process at full steam! :^)

Gotta run to work! But I loved checking-in! It's wonderful to watch how you and sesheta are actively engaged in the explorative nuts and bolts of
good health!! :^)

It's great to come on here and find other people interested in natural remedies and solutions to health :) My co-workers always laugh and think it's funny that I know all these "home remedies" - they are so used to just running to the drug store to cure everything! Don't get me wrong - if I get a bad enough bug, I have a stock of Neo-Citran, and Buckley's cough syrup! But I prefer to try to be pro-active, and stop the bugs before they get bad enough to need the traditional medicine...Just a few of the things I've learned and use:

Apple cider vinegar for allergies
Blackstrap molasses for extra iron
cinnamon to control blood sugar levels
pineapple as a natural antibiotic
Honey and garlic for almost anything!

It always amazes me how the food we eat every day can help us with so many things....and it also amazes me that people seem to forget that all modern medicine was, at some point in its development, based on natural ingredients!