You can read a copy of the warning letter sent to Diamond Nuts on the FDA’s website located here.

I took a look at the Diamond Nuts website that the FDA references in the warning letter and I find nothing about health claims so I’m assuming that Diamond complied with the warning letter.

Having read the warning letter, I have to wonder if the linked article from American Vision News might be on to something with the last line “The FDA’s language,” Faloon writes, “resembles that of an out of control police state where tyranny (reigns) over rationality.” Remember the FDA are the same ones who have stated on public record that “There is no absolute right to consume or feed children any particular food.” stating their opposition to freedom of food choice.  Of course, maybe because of the FDA’s opposition to freedom of food choice, I’m a little bit biased in anything ‘they’ say…

What do you think? Did Diamond Nuts cross the line and put nuts in the drug category with their statements?

Mostly unrelated to this post but super important is this ACTION ALERT: Urge your Representative to Protect Raw Milk

Photo Credit: funadium on Flickr

The instructions are for one hearty serving. Scale up as needed. For Christopher (age 3) I do about half on the almond meal and honey but still use a whole egg. For a lighter eater, you could scale it down as I do for Christopher.

Almond Meal Pudding (makes 1 hearty serving)

1 cup Almond Meal
1/3 cup water
1 teaspoon (more or less) honey
1 egg
Dash of vanilla

Almond Meal Pudding Consistency Before Cooking

Choose a heavy bottom pan. To help prevent scalding, rinse the pan with cold water. Mix almond meal and water in pan. You want a thickish consistency but not too thick. Add more water a teaspoon at a time if too thick (see photo). Add your honey.

Crack your egg(s) in a heat proof bowl and beat to mix well. Once that is done, turn on the heat to your almond/water/honey mixture to medium low. Heat stirring often. When it is hot and beginning to bubble turn to low.

Now you want to temper your eggs. Add a ladle full of the hot almond meal to the eggs and stir well. Add another ladle. The egg temperature should have risen enough that when you add the eggs to the almond meal they won’t curdle. Stir while adding in the tempered eggs.

Almond Meal Pudding After Cooking

Turn off the heat and add your vanilla.

Serve as is or topped with butter, cream (or milk) and chopped fresh fruit (if desired).

I love this not just for breakfast, but also as a great snack or even a not too sweet dessert.

Cost Analysis:

Almond meal/flour is not an inexpensive ingredient.  Pricing locally, it scared me. I couldn’t find it for less than $9 per pound (ouch). Azure Standard does offer it at a much more reasonable price. A 5 pound bag ends up being $3.84 per pound (today’s price, it seems to fluctuate and I paid less than that in November). 

At $3.84 per pound and using this guide from Bob’s Red Mill that says there are about 4 cups per pound this is how the cost analysis looks per hearty serving.

1 cup almond meal= .96
water= no charge(?)
1 egg= .25 (at $3 per dozen)
1 teaspoon honey= .04
Dash of vanilla=.05 (maybe, my dashes might be a little big)

$1.30 per serving brings it in at an amount higher than I like for our breakfasts to cost. But it isn’t something we have everyday and is a nice change of pace to our old standby of fried egg breakfast (fried eggs don’t actually end up much less since Joe likes to eat 5 for breakfast by himself…) plus it makes a great hot meal that requires no soaking or thinking ahead.  Not to mention that almonds are an excellent source of protein, magnesium and a great fat.  I guess you could say this Almond Meal Pudding is a ‘healthy’ fast food.

The first thing that jumps out at me is the title Nutrition and Physical Degeneration: A Comparison of Primitive and Modern Diets and Their Effects.  What jumps out is me is the use of the word ‘primitive’. Dr. Price uses this word often through out the book. I have read articles in various places that suggest that people find the word ‘primitive’ to be unacceptable or not respectful. In reading this book, I do not feel that Dr. Price uses the word primitive in a way to suggest that he does not respect the people he is meeting. In fact, I believe that he had an amazing amount of respect for the people he studied and in some cases even awe.  I believe it was a word that he used that was acceptable for the circumstances and the time the the journeys were made and the book was written. 1939 was in many ways an incredibly different time than 2012. 

The Introduction really sets the pace for the book.This is an excerpt from paragraph three:

“There have been many  important unexpected developments in these investigations. While a primary quest was to find the cause of tooth decay which was established quite readily as being controlled directly by nutrition, it rapidly became apparent that a chain of disturbances developed in these various primitive racial stocks starting even in the first generation after the adoption of the modernized diet and rapidly increased in severity with expressions quite constantly like the characteristic degenerative processes of our modern civilization of America and Europe. While tooth decay has proved to be almost entirely a matter of the nutrition of the individual at the time and prior to the activity of that disease a group of affections have expressed themselves in physical form.  These have included facial and dental arch changes which, heretofore, have been accounted for as results of admixtures of different racial stocks. My investigations have revealed that these same divergences from normal are reproduced in all these various racial stocks while the blood is still pure. Indeed these even develop in those children of the family that are born after the parents adopted the modern nutrition”

WOW.  The addition of a modern diet was found to change even facial structures almost immediately after the addition.  Dr. Price goes on to compare the American families and how the families show the same deterioration. And not in just physical characteristics but mental, personality, and unsocial behaviors.

Another great quote and something that as a whole our society does not adhere to is in paragraph seven:

“A very important phase of my investigation has been the obtaining of information from these various primitive racial groups indicating that they were conscious that such injuries would occur if the parents were not in excellent physical condition and nourishment. Indeed, in many groups I found that the girls were not allowed to be married until after they had had a period of special feeding. In some tribes a six months period of special nutrition was required before marriage. An examination their foods have disclosed special nutritional factors which are utilized for this purpose.”

Dr. Price goes on to point out in paragraph nine that it is not just what the mother eats but the ‘germ cells of the two parents’ affects the development of the child. 

The Introduction really hits hard at just how detrimental our ‘modern’ diet is.  Not just for us but for our children. 

Chapter 1 begins with a general overview of how he found his ‘controls’ and what he hopes to gain from his research.  In paragraph three he points out that he shows the level of tooth decay in the primitive group and when available he contrasts that with modernized natives.

Another section I found worth quoting is from paragraph five:

“It will be easy for the reader to be prejudiced since many of the applications suggested are not orthodox. I suggest that conclusions be deferred until the new approach has been used to survey the physical and mental status of the reader’s own family, of his brothers and sisters of associated families and finally of the mass of people met in business  and on the street. Almost everyone who studies this matter will be surprised that such clear cut evidence of a decline in modern reproductive efficiency could be all about us and not have been prevuously noted and reviewed.”

Such a true paragraph. I know in my own observances I have noticed these things. And I have to admit, when we first started this food journey I would not have believed that statement.

In paragraph eight Dr. Price again states: “The writer is fully aware that his message is not orthodox; but since our orthodox theories have not saved us we may have to readjust them to bring them into harmony with nature’s laws. Nature must be obeyed, not orthodoxy.”

Yep. That gets it. If what we are doing doesn’t work, then why do we keep doing it? If the food pyramid (now replaced by a plate) doesn’t work then why do we keep following it? If low fat diets are keeping us fat and unhealthy why do we keep at them? And why is the idea that following proven methods by ‘primitive’ people considered quackery but taking a pill to mask the symptoms (and then another pill alleviate the side effects for the first pill) is acceptable?

Chapter 2 “…the rate of degeneration is progressively accelerating constitutes a cause for great alarm, particularly since this is taking place in spite of the advance that is being made in modern science along many lines of investigation.”  This is written in 1939 and the rate of degeneration was alarming at that time. I can’t imagine that the rate has slowed much, if any, in the years since. 

Chapter 2 quotes many sources proving Dr. Price’s point on this degeneration. One source shows that “Every day one out of twenty people is too sick to go to school or work or attend his customary activities.”  This is just the beginning of his quotes on illness. I actually found the numbers to be quite staggering. In my mind, I would have imagined that people (Americans specifically) would have been in much better health in the 1930′s than they are today. Reading these numbers, I’d hate to see what today’s numbers are.

Dr. Price quotes Dr. Earnest A. Hooton in this chapter. Dr. Hooton states:

“In my opinion there is one and only one course of action which will check the increase of dental disease and degeneration which may ultimately cause the extinction of the human species. This is to elevate the dental profession to aplane on which it can command the services of our best research minds to study the causes and seek for the cures of these dental evils… The dental practitioner should equip himself to become the agent of an intelligent control of humanevoltuion, insofar as it is affected by diet.  Let us go to the ignorant savage, consider his way of eating and be wise. Let us cease pretending that tooth-brushes and tooth-paste are any more important than shoe-brushes and shoe-polish. It is store food which has given us store teeth.”

I’m sure even at the time that Dr. Hooton made that statement (1937 per the sources at the end of the chapter) the idea of tossing out the toothbrush and eating a diet similar to that of a ‘savage’ didn’t win Dr. Hooton many popularity contests.

Chapter 2 continues to have lots of great information and quotes from a variety of sources on the degeneration at that time. The chapter finishes with Dr. Price making clear that he went to the primitive people searching out a control group to determine exactly what modern peoples may be missing that was causing so much tooth decay and degeneration.

Next week (Wednesday) we’ll continue by reading Chapters 3 and 4

I’d love to know your thoughts on Nutrition and Physical Degeneration through Chapter 2. What jumped out at you? What observances did you make? Any additional thoughts or insights?

Chicken Broth

When I’m looking at little bits of leftover meat and a small selection of vegetables (either raw or previously cooked) Hash immediately comes to mind as the perfect meal. Especially if I just happen to also have leftover gravy made out of nutrient dense bone broth.

.I loved reading this description of Hash through history. As a child growing up, my mama made it the same way I do (out of leftovers) and it was always a favorite meal.  I’ll share the formula with you that I loosely base Hash off. You can adapt it to whatever ingredients you have on hand or are least expensive for you.

Ingredients

Meat
Any leftover amount of chicken, turkey, beef, whatever. Or if you are really hungry for hash, you can use fresh cooked ground beef.

Potatoes: either leftover baked or uncooked (I figure on two potatoes for my husband and one for each additional person)

Vegetables
Chopped onion (1/2 to 1)
Any other vegetables such as sliced cabbage, carrots, green beans, corn, etc. (any amount)

Spices
Salt
pepper
Garlic powder or fresh minced garlic
Others: celery seed, basil, oregano, thyme, whatever you like

Liquid

Leftover gravy is the best or substitute broth or you could use milk or even water.

The Method (if using raw potatoes)

Scrub and slice potatoes. Cook in your favorite skillet with fat (duck, chicken, coconut oil, tallow) until they begin to soften.

Once potatoes are soft add your onion and let that cook for a few minutes. Then add in any fresh vegetables such as thinly sliced carrot or shredded cabbage. Add your spices at this time so it can all meld together. Let cook until potatoes and all veggies are soft.

Then add your meat and any previously cooked vegetables. Give it a good stir and finish with your choice of liquid. Go easy on the liquid adding a little bit at a time. You want somewhat of a mash so chop the potatoes a bit as you stir and cook. Finish with more salt and pepper as needed.

The Method (if using leftover baked potatoes)

Chop your onion and any uncooked veggies so they are ready to go. Slice leftover baked potatoes fry  and put in skillet with a good amount of fat add in your onions, uncooked veggies and spices. Cook until potatoes are heated through and veggies are soft. Add your meat and proceed with above instructions.  Already baked potatoes make this a super quick dish.

Serve

Hash Topped with Soft Cheese

This dish won’t be overly attractive (take a look at my picture and you’ll see what I mean) but it is a very tasty ‘comfort’ food.  Sometimes we serve it topped with a fried egg or sour cream. In the picture it is topped with homemade soft cheese. I also put out the ketchup since that is how Kiki likes to top hers.

Do you have a dish like this that you make? Do you call it hash or by another name?

This post is shared at The Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways Wednesday Blog Hop.

Work is still keeping me busy with getting all the tax stuff together but I’m feeling on the home stretch. I started gathering things earlier this year which really helped avoid the ‘crunch’. This blog was something that I spent some time on this week too. I’m working on getting all the links cleaned up so when you click on something like Stretchy Beans it doesn’t take you back to the old blog. Once I’m done with that I’ll somewhat disable the old blog so I don’t face the ‘duplicate content’ issue.  I am super duper thankful to Erin from Homestead Host. I know I’ve said it before but the truth is, I can’t sing her praises loud enough. She has been wonderful as far as helping me get this going and guiding me through things. If you are in the market for hosting services, she is your person!

I’m happy to say I have a few pictures from this week. My favorite ‘old’ camera that I thought was broken was able to be repaired by my wonderful husband.  It didn’t help my photography skills any but at least the pictures aren’t a blurry mess

New this week: 

Impossible Apple Pie. Impossible sourdough pie is a lesson from the GNOWFGLINS Sourdough eCourse. The apple pie version was a wonderful combination shared by one of the forum participants recently. It made a spectacular and quick breakfast somewhat like an apple fritter. Definitely a repeat.  You can get the recipe by joining the GNOWFGLINS eCourses (a new eCourse starts soon to make a total of access to five courses– I’m not an affiliate I just love these eCourses and highly recommend them).

Creamy Chicken Enchiladas

Creamy Chicken Enchiladas. I love the kind of enchilada with the white sauce and wanted to find a tasty version to enjoy a home. The version I made was good but needs a little work. Hopefully I can get it ‘just right’ to share with you. As you can see from the picture, it certainly was cheesy enough! If you look really close you can actually see just a smidge of the tortilla underneath all of that cheese.

Crispy Braised Duck Legs- These were terrific. I used 6 duck legs and omitted the celery. Perfect! Served with mashed potatoes topped with the broth and cooked vegetables. On the side we had kale and Swiss chard topped with a basil kefir cheese inspired by this recipe shared by Wardeh.

Homemade Fudge. This recipe from Passionate Homemaking (everything doubled but the honey– only 1 cup of honey total) with about 3/4 cup of almond butter added in. Oh My. So good.  So wondering if I could make this everyday…

Revisited

Almond Pudding

Almond Pudding: Yummy. This is a recipe shared by a real life friend that I have been tweaking a bit. It is a delicious and grain free breakfast, snack or even dessert.  I’ll share it with you in a few days.

.Standards

It occurred to me that I’ve neglected to mention broth in my Standards the last couple of weeks.  This is a standard for us with rarely a week going by the we don’t make (and use) broth. I think we make about 2.5 gallons a week just depending on how much water I started the broth with, what bones and which crock pot was used.  Other standards this week were sourdough bread, butter, kombucha, sour cream and clabber cheese.

 What’s been cooking in your kitchen? Try anything new this week?

After 2 plus years of kefir on a regular basis I thought she was beginning to enjoy it. But given a choice, I guess not. I’m not complaining that she likes the wonderful flavor of our real milk but would like her to get the additional benefits that kefir offers.

So that brings me to the question, How Do You Like Your Kefir? Please share your ideas.

Not sure what kefir is? Here is a great description including kefir benefits and here are some additional FAQ’s

My Well Loved Nourishing Traditions Book

Our real food journey started in January of 2009 with the book Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon Morell and Mary Enid.  That book opened up an entirely new way of thinking as far as food and nutrition was concerned.  Among other things Nourishing Traditions showed me that saturated fats were not the enemies and that butter was good. I learned about enzymes, probiotics, soaking, sprouting and souring. 

From Nourishing Traditions I was led to the Weston A. Price Foundation of which Sally Fallon Morell is the President. The Weston A. Price Foundation and the book Nourishing Traditions are both founded on the teachings and research of Weston A. Price, DDS author of Nutrition and Physical Degeneration.

Nutrition and Physical Degeneration was published in 1939 and is an in-depth summary of his worldwide expeditions. He started his journeys as a search to find control groups that were not affected by modern degeneration. He studied primitive, isolated cultures to determine primarily how affected they were by tooth decay. He compared these with their more ‘socialized’ counterparts, those who had access to modern foods such as white flour, white sugar, etc. In addition to tooth decay he noted bone structure and general health of the societies.

For the next several weeks, I’d like to break down Nutrition and Physical Degeneration for discussion. Something like a book review or book club.  So pull out your copy of Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, order a copy, or access it online.

Wednesday (January 25) we’ll start with the Preface, Forward, Introduction, Chapters 1 and 2.  I’ll share my thoughts and what I found to be ‘highlights’. I hope you will do the same in the comments/discussion section.

While the book Nourishing Traditions began this journey for our family, the book that really started it all was Nutrition and Physical Degeneration. I look forward to really reading it in depth and continuing to learn from it.

Disclosure

Homemade Butter

This morning, my husband Joe, had one of those ‘morning shows’ on.  I wasn’t really paying attention to it until one of the ‘medical contributors’ made a statement something like “Paula Deen has diabetes from eating butter.” 

What?

Butter causes diabetes? It’s not the highly processed donuts and white bread sandwiches (or how about the Ladies Brunch Burger which is a sandwich made out of a donut?), and a generally less than optimal diet prevalent in our society and promoted by our health care experts?

While this is not the clip that I watched this morning, this one also mentions Paula Deen and her use of fried foods, butter and cream.  While I would never advocate deep frying in the crisco or (1)peanut oil which Paula Deen uses, butter (and cream) is abundant in health promoting properties.

(2)Butter helps with brain function, provides anti-oxidants, protects from tooth decay, protects against joint stiffness, prevents goiter, protects against gastro-intestinal infections and a whole host of other things. Not to mention it tastes great! 

Here is the interview with Al Roker where Paula Deen discusses her diabetes and her new venture as a paid spokesperson for a Type 2 Diabetes drug. Which brings me to an opportunity to link a wonderful article Treating Diabetes: Practical Advice for Combating a Modern Epidemic by Thomas Cowan, MD as opposed to only taking ‘your medicine’ for diabetes (Paula Deen actually says that toward the end of the linked video). In fairness, the doctor that joins in on the linked discussion with Al Roker, does not target butter and cream as the cause of Paula Deen’s diabetes but rather lists certain ‘risk’ factors.

I want to say that I do not make light of Paula Deen having Type 2 Diabetes. What I take issue with is the mainstream promotion that healthy fats, like butter, causes diabetes and the idea of ‘let’s just take a pill or a shot to make everything all better’ instead of attempting to eliminate the issue. 

Type 2 Diabetes is something that I pay attention to. My grandma and my dad both had/have Type 2 diabetes.  Both lost their eye sight due it, had heart attacks and other issues. My grandma is no longer living but my dad lives daily with the side-effects of diabetes.  While my diet is far from perfect, I am very mindful of eating a real/whole/traditional foods diet in order to help prevent falling victim to this degenerative disease for myself and my children.
 

I would love to link the segment that I watched this morning that got my blood boiling but it does not seem to be available. I believe this is a link to the entire program that our channel was turned to when the snippet came on but it may have been the earlier (crack of dawn) actual newscast on ABC. I really wish I would have been paying better attention.

Does this kind of stuff rile you up as much as it does me?

(1)Peanut Oil: From Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon Morell page 19 ” Peanut Oil contains 48 percent oleic acid, 18 percent saturated fat and 34 percent omega-6 linoleic acid. Like olive oil, peanut oil is relatively stable and therefore appropriate for stir-fry on occasion. But the high percentage of omega-6 presents a potential danger, so use of peanut oil should be strictly limited.”

(2)Butter Benefits Sources: Why Butter is Better, The Oiling of America-Benefits of Animal Fats,  The 20 Health Benefits of Real Butter 

Grain-Free Clafouti with Pears

Mmmm. Clafouti. Definitely a favorite. I had actually never heard of clafouti until it was featured in the menu mailer from Cooking Traditional Foods which I subscribed to for several months.  KerryAnn has shared a modified version of her recipe as a Budget Breakfast using soaked flour. I’ve made the version she shares and it is delicious. 

Clafouti for breakfast almost feels like a decadent treat. Sometimes I’ll decide last minute to make this so I wanted a recipe that doesn’t require soaking the flour.  Since we recently did GAPS and have been trying to continue to limit our grains, coconut flour seemed a reasonable item to use in place of the soaked flour.

Coconut flour is high in protein and fiber, gluten free and since it is not a grain requires no soaking. A definite plus for a quick recipe.  I do seem to remember reading in the GAPS book (Gut and Psychology Syndrome by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride) that coconut flour can be a bit harsh and shouldn’t be used until some gut healing as occurred.

Clafouti is extremely adaptable to whatever fruit you have on hand. I’ve made it with bananas, apples, pears and frozen blueberries.  As you can imagine the blueberries do make an interesting final product (blue) but the taste was great. This can also be a very reasonably priced breakfast.  KerryAnn has a price break down on her recipe,  I’m sure my version does not come in as inexpensive as hers with the changes I’ve made but is still quite reasonable.

Grain-Free Clafouti

4 eggs
1 Tablespoon Coconut Flour
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup cream or yogurt (or use all milk or sub coconut milk)
2 Tablespoons Sucanat
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
A couple of shakes of sea salt
Choice of fruit (2 pears, apples or bananas, 1/2 cup blueberries, etc)

Turn on oven to 350 degrees Butter an 8×8 pan or equivalent. Cut fruit into bite sized pieces and lay in bottom of pan. In a separate bowl mix eggs and coconut flour. Slowly add in milk (I find that coconut flour mixes best doing it this way) add Sucanat, vanilla and salt stirring well to mix.
Pour egg mixture over fruit. Bake in oven until just set and slightly puffed 25-30 minutes. Let set 5 minutes before serving.

With such a small amount of coconut flour in it, I’ve thought I could just eliminate it. And that does work but it seems to have a much better consistency with the addition of the 1 Tablespoon of coconut flour compared to without.

Have you made Clafouti? What is your favorite fruit to use?