Wed, July 22, 2009
Do I really need to say more? Probably not, but I will. The egg in the center of the picture above is from Dave & Kim Raylinsky who have a flock of 21 heirloom-breed chickens (see below for her description of the breeds). These lucky chickens eat a delicious and appropriate diet of earthworms, ticks, mosquitos, lush grasses, weeds, table scraps, fresh veggies & fruit, a little chicken feed, and the occasional fish, frog, or snake. They also roam free on 3/4 of an acre. After looking at these pictures it's pretty hard to keep insisting that food has nothing to do with health or functioning! A quick glance at the yolk of an egg tells us a lot about that hen's health and diet. read more

Wed, September 23 2009

"Discover the simple goodness of Land O'Lakes. Fresh, wholesome and real, Land O'Lakes provides pure, fresh taste for people who strive to keep life uncomplicated and appreciate life's simple pleasures."

I laughed out loud when I first read this phony baloney description in my in-laws' fridge. It still shocks me how food companies can get away with writing complete BS on their packages. I haven't yet figured out what people think they're gaining by eating margarine (or similar products) instead of butter. This margarine actually has the same number of calories, the same total grams of fat, and only four grams less of saturated fat than regular butter (which is actually a very bad thing, not good the way we have been taught). Not to mention NO NUTRIENTS (the added vitamin A is synthetic and completely useless to our bodies if not actually harmful). All you have to do to realize what's really in this sorry excuse for a buttery spread is to look at the list of ingredients: soybean oil processed in three different evil ways makes up the first FOUR ingredients, along with water. By now we know that the words "hydrogenated" and "partially hydrogenated" are a big clue that this is not a health food, yet they appear THREE times on this one small package. (To add insult to injury, the oil is extracted through a less-than-natural process from genetically modified beans. These are beans that even animals know not to touch.) read more

Fri, Oct. 2, 2009

Thursday lunch: "juice" from roasted chicken, lacto-fermented pickles, raw goat's milk Havarti, cured sausage, baby pear

At his current age of about a year (13.5 months to be exact), Oliver still gets most of his nourishment from breastmilk. Some kids show an early interest in solid foods while others are content to continue nursing for the most part, with supplemental solids, and Oliver is one of the latter. He loves eating and trying new things, he has his favorite and his not-so-favorite foods, but for the most part he seems to still be getting a lot from breastmilk. As someone put it to me recently, "They nurse until they feel complete." I would add to this and say that in my own opinion (based on observation and study), since the quality of the mother's breastmilk depends largely on the quality of her diet (particularly whether she has enough fat-soluble vitamins available), this will affect the child's interest in solid foods. Some babies reach for food early and seem to have a huge appetite because they know they aren't getting all that they need from nursing alone. There are many people who would be up in arms at this idea, but if we acknowledge that diet does affect breastmilk quality (which has been proven), then it really does make sense.

All of Oliver's food is from small, local family farmers (or fishers) who follow sustainable, humane, and ecologically-friendly practices. So from the raw milk in his bottle to the scallops at dinner, Ollie is getting a completely nutrient-dense and natural diet. Usually he has three small meals daily and about two bottles of raw milk yogurt (which is pretty liquidy and drinkable) and/or raw milk, with some supplemental raw cream, and/or raw egg yolk added as extra fortification. He also gets about 1/2 tsp. of high-vitamin cod liver oil daily added to one of his bottles. read more