Who can say no to a big bowl of delicious, creamy broccoli soup made from scratch?

For the longest time, I didn’t really care for broccoli. Maybe because it’s touted as something that is “good for you”, I just naturally rebelled against it. Maybe because it was always paired with an olive oil, and I wished for a more filling combination. Then, one day, I decided to give broccoli another chance. It was nothing fancy, just steamed broccoli with a big pat of lightly salted pastured butter melted on top. And goodness, was it good! It was just missing a big chunk of butter all these years. Since then, I’ve learned that butter from exclusively grass-fed cows is “good for you” too! And boy, was that a revelation — all this time I had the wrong impression that things that are good for you aren’t that tasty. Broccoli soon became one of my favorite veggies.

Check out this little cute broccoli floret. You can just eat this steamed with butter. It's the stalks that need to be pureed into soup to be just as yummy!

Recently, I’ve also been into experimenting with soups. After investing in a trusty stainless steel immersion blender (Cuisinart Smart Stick Hand Blender is the one I’ve been using – it’s awesome), I’ve been obsessed with making soups. I recently made a very simple creamy cauliflower soup that doesn’t involve any dairy or gluten. Another one of my favorite soups is a vegetarian one that I posted on midEATS: the Egyptian red lentil soup (I do sneak in a couple of vegetables in there, but I’m partial to the delicious lentil flavor). And after recently learning about the many benefits of bone broth, I usually save the bones from a pastured and organic chicken or turkey that I buy and when I’m ready for broth, I simmer the bones for several hours overnight till they’ve released their collagen, gelatin, vitamins and other goodness, and I use that broth in my non-vegetarian soups! I also often boil a pastured chicken to yield a simple chicken stock that I use as a base for many of my soups.

Making a soup using broccoli was just the next logical step in my soup-making extravaganza. I’ll let you in on another secret: I still haven’t learned to enjoy the fibrous, crunchy broccoli stalks in their original form. Buttered up broccoli florets are perfect when they’re slightly soft but haven’t lost their crunch entirely. Broccoli stalks, on the other hand, don’t easily yield to heat in the same way; plus, their flavor is less interesting than the delicate florets. Buttering up the stalks just doesn’t cut it and eating them still feels like a mini-chore. But not eating them isn’t an option for me either: throwing out the vitamin-rich stalks just because they’re not super palatable when eaten whole might be the stupidest move — both for your health, and for the sake of world hunger (stop the trend of wasting food!).

Don't waste healthy food. Chop up those broccoli stalks and add 'em to your soup!

So, I’ve devised a way to save both the broccoli stalks and the bones from pastured birds from being added to the growing bins of food waste! Cooking the sliced stalks, along with carrots and caramelized sauteed onions, in bone broth and pureeing them into a velvety perfection is the answer. If that’s not a good example of frugal eating, I don’t know what is! I’ve tried with both bone broth from turkey bones I’ve saved from the Thanksgiving turkey, and with chicken stock from a pastured chicken. Either way, the soup is tasty as it is with only the veggies and broth, but adding some raw grass-fed milk in there takes the soup from good to stellar. Adding a cup of raw milk after the soup has cooked imparts that delicious creaminess to the soup. In terms of spices, I like to keep it simple with just a little sprinkle of organic ground ginger and fresh sage leaves.

As delicious as it looks!

And what’s an authentic broccoli soup without some cheese? I leave the cheese out of the large pot, and offer it as an optional side. I’ve tried crumbling bits of the grass-fed Kerrygold Dubliner into my broccoli soup, and I loved the wonderfully salty and cheesy taste it imparts. The Dubliner is pasteurized but at least it’s full-fat and grass-fed. According to Kerrygold’s website, the Dubliner is “aged for 12 months, and has elements of a mature cheddar, sweet nutty tones of a Swiss and the piquant bite of aged Parmesan.” You can try melting any type of grass-fed hard cheese into the soup — just makes the soup-making process that much more interesting, in my opinion!

Cream of Broccoli Soup (Made with Turkey Bone Broth)

by Heba

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 45 minutes

Keywords: saute simmer blender soup/stew gluten-free nut-free soy-free sugar-free low-carb broccoli winter fall

Ingredients (serves 6)

• 4 large organic broccoli stems, peeled and cut into chunks (of course, you may also use the florets if you wish; but soups are a good way to eat the otherwise fibrous stems)
• 3-4 large organic carrots, chopped
• 6 cups homemade chicken or turkey bone broth or homemade chicken stock (using pastured and organic chicken or turkey) – I used turkey bone broth from Thanksgiving turkey bones that I had saved in the freezer – turned out fabulous
• 1 large yellow onion, peeled and diced
• 1 cup raw whole milk from grass-fed cows (use organic, grass-fed low-temp pasteurized milk if you have no access to raw milk)
• 1 tablespoon grass-fed organic ghee or pastured butter
• 3 tablespoons fresh organic sage leaves, chopped
• 1 teaspoon organic ground ginger
• Unrefined salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• Kerrygold Dubliner or other hard cheese, preferably raw and grass-fed (optional)
• Fresh lemon juice, to taste (optional)

Instructions

(1) Prepare the bone broth or stock: If you have no broth or stock on hand, use some saved bones (that you’ve previously frozen) from pastured birds to make a nutritious broth by simmering the bones overnight in a pot-full of filtered water, a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar, an onion, some carrots and celery, and spices. You can also make stock in advance by boiling the pastured bird for an hour or two with an onion, some bay leaves and cardamom seeds, and some salt and pepper. For either, make sure to filter the veggies, bones and spices out before saving the liquid in a glass jar. This recipe assumes you have either bone broth or homemade stock previously prepared.

I regularly freeze bones from pastured animals (pictured here: turkey bones) and use them to make broth. It's a frugal way to add some vitamins to your diet!

(2) Chop and saute onion: Peel and dice an onion. In a large stainless steel pot, melt a tablespoon of grass-fed ghee or pastured butter, and saute the onion on medium heat until it has caramelized a bit and has become fragrant, stirring occasionally throughout.

You can use other varieties of onions you have on hand instead of the yellow onion; it's more flexible than you think!

(3) Chop broccoli and carrots and add to pot: Peel the broccoli stalks and chop into small pieces. Chop the carrots as well. Add chopped broccoli and carrots to the pot and saute on medium heat for a few minutes with the onions, stirring frequently.

Again, you don't have to use large carrots. I just sub in baby carrots if these are on hand.

I found that lightly sauteing all the veggies together for a few minutes gives a nicer flavor than just boiling them right after the onion has caramelized.

(4) Pour the stock or bone broth in the pot: Measure approximately three parts stock to two parts veggies, and add to the pot. Bring to a boil, cover, and leave to simmer on low for 35 minutes, until the broccoli stalks and carrots have become soft.

(5) Puree the soup, and add milk and spices: Using an immersion blender, blend the soup into liquid. Then, add a cup of raw whole milk to the pot, and blend once again to integrate the flavors. Finally, add the ground ginger, fresh chopped sage leaves and unrefined salt and black pepper, and bring the hand blender to a final whirl. Taste the soup and adjust the seasonings as you see fit.

I guess you could use heavy cream instead of milk if you have that on hand. I prefer eating my cream raw though!

(6) Add the cheese and lemon juice (optional): If you wish, you can add a few drops of fresh lemon juice to the soup for a little zest. In individual plates, you can also add thin slices of hard tasty grass-fed cheese for a little extra flavor and for the texture of melted goodness. Either way, make sure to serve warm, and enjoy!

I've tried this soup with and without cheese, and have loved it both ways.

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This post has been shared on Easy, Natural Food’s Sunday Night Soup Night, on Butter Believer’s Sunday School Blog Carnival and The Healthy Home Economist’s Monday Mania.

I’m fed up. So many things touted as ‘healthy’ are in fact, responsible for robbing us of our health (ahem, low-fat yogurt, anyone?). So I’m launching a series. A lifelong series on My Life in a Pyramid, that I will call “Debunking Myths.” Every time I come across a health-related topic that is widely accepted by the general public as being true, even though it is in reality an unproven myth, I’ll write a post about it. If you follow me on Facebook, you can see a lot of the articles I read and share about health and nutrition, and a lot of them go against the conventional wisdom. A couple of days ago I posted a Harvard study I came across that explains the importance of a substance in dairy fat that can significantly lower the chance of getting Type 2 diabetes. (Yes, that means Paula Deen really should keep eating her butter, as long as it’s from pastured cows … but she should probably cut down or eliminate the refined carbohydrates and excess sugar). Politically incorrect recommendations (that go against conventional wisdom)  are often scientifically correct!

The Myth that Sodium Is Bad

Let me tell you the problem: People want simple, easy answers. Either sodium is bad for health or it isn’t. Everyone wants to see the science. What do the studies say? Does salt increase blood pressure or does it not? Most people know what they’ve heard through media for the past 25 years: Sodium increases blood pressure and should be decreased in the diet … well, if you want to avoid heart disease and an early death. But what the media pundits, scientists, physicians, and statisticians don’t tell you is that the correlation isn’t that clear cut:

Consider, for example, the Intersalt study, one of the largest observational studies that medical journals cite to this day as being proof that there’s a strong relationship between salt in the diet and high blood pressure. The study, done in 1988, was based on a sample of 10,079 men and women aged 20-59 from 52 populations around the world. As renowned science writer Gary Taubes writes in this piece titled “The (Political) Science of Salt,” the results from the study (and many others before and after it) were not consistent, not significant and misrepresented. “In fact, the population that ate the most salt, about 14 grams a day, had a lower median blood pressure than the population that ate the least, about 7.2 grams a day” (Scientific American). The misrepresentation of the results happened in several ways. For the first edition of the study, the 20-29 age group had no difference in blood pressure from the high-salt diet, but this data was dropped from the conclusion because it did not support the scientists’ hypothesis.

Somehow, after statistical manipulation, the authors of the study concluded that  the correlation between high-sodium intake and hypertension is a strong one. Misleading and unscientific? Yes. But does it mean that there is a correlation there or not? Possibly, but it has likely been exaggerated. Could it be that salt has little or no effect on blood pressure, and that blood pressure increases with age in those who live sedentary lives and eat an otherwise unhealthy diet? Could be. We’ll never find out because many of these studies can’t be controlled easily. Changing the amount of salt on the diet invariably leads to eating more fresh foods and dairy (the DASH diet)… which can be related to the decrease in blood pressure if a decrease is indeed observed. Generally, it’s extremely difficult in these kinds of studies to control or account for other variables and confounding factors in the diet or lifestyle.

According to this article by Joseph Mercola, there are many other studies that have failed to show any correlation between high-salt diets and cardiovascular diseases and deaths. In fact, some studies, like this one from 2011, have shown the inverse to be true!

Sodium is Necessary for Human Health

In other words, don’t wait for a study to prove that our bodies need salt. Basic science and human pathology show us that sodium is a necessary substance in our bodies, for a variety of vital functions:

• Taking nutrients in and out of your cells
• Regulating blood pressure
• Regulating nerve impulses
• Helping the brain and muscles communicate efficiently, so that your muscles can move on demand
• Proper thyroid and adrenal functioning
• Digestion of proteins and carbohydrates
• Maintaining electrolyte and osmotic balance

It probably has other functions that we are just beginning to discover, but the truth boils down to one fact: we cannot live without sodium. So, if we can’t live without sodium, it can’t be an evil substance. Water and oxygen are both things we cannot live without, but that doesn’t mean that more of them is always better. There is a limit and a balance to what we can consume without hurting our health. It’s the same for salt!

In fact, just as extremely high amounts of salt are damaging, several studies have shown that a diet too low in salt can be damaging for health. Here are a few of the effects of a too-low-salt diet:

• Increased risk of insulin resistance
• Higher risk of heart attacks and cardiovascular complications (and here’s another study with similar results from 2011)
• Large bone fracture in elderly patients
• Mood fluctuations (unrefined mineral salt is a natural antidepressant)

So How Much Sodium Does the Body Need to Function Optimally?

This remains up for debate, but based on some of the latest research, somewhere between 9 and 18 grams a day is recommended by the WAPF and The Salt Institute, except for those who are salt-sensitive. WAPF publicist and health food blogger Kimberly Hartke shares Sally Fallon’s answer and Morton Satin’s answer (of The Salt Institute) to the question “How much salt should you eat?”

“Yes, our consumption prior to the ‘50s was around 18 grams salt (almost 3 teaspoons) per day because salt was the primary means of food preservation. As refrigeration quickly took over that function after WWII, by the end of the 50s, our consumption dropped to approximately 9 grams (1-1/2 teaspoons) of salt per day and has remained there ever since. [...] And, in fact, the latest study (JAMA Dec 2011) by O’Donnel et shows the dose-response curve and indicates that the area of lowest risk to negative health outcomes is  between 9 and 18 grams of salt (equivalent to 3,450 – 7,000 mg sodium per day, or between 1-1/2 to 3 teaspoons salt daily). Anything below or above that range poses a much higher risk to health” (Hartke is Online).

The FDA has been on a mission to significantly reduce sodium concentration in foods for the past few years. There is even talk about using an untested salt substitute from the biotech company Senomyx to mask the blandness of foods without adequate salt seasoning. This substitute falls under the “flavors” category, so it’s not required to be specifically labelled on foods. The Weston A. Price Foundation has warned the FDA in a press release, that changing the dietary guidelines to reduce salt for the entire population (and not just for the salt-sensitive minority) can have negative implications on the health of many. The Salt Institute’s Morton Satin discusses some of the implications of a low-salt diet on health, in a statement on the 2010 Dietary Guidelines. This detailed article from Sally Fallon Morell of the Weston Price Foundation explains why we need salt, and discusses some of the mix-ups that have led may to believe in the myth that sodium is inherently an evil substance.

I believe that the body self-regulates. If you end up eating too much salt, your body will tell you. You might feel excessively thirsty, bloated (fluid retention), irritable, or feel lethargic. If you eat too little salt, you might start craving salty foods, and feeling fatigue, headache, muscle cramping, loss of appetite, nausea and vomiting. Make sure to listen to your body in each case, and respond accordingly.

Here’s the Caveat: The Quality Makes All the Difference

I’ve known for a while now that — despite what doctors and conventional nutritionists will tell you — the quality of a real food determines whether or not it’s healthy or unhealthy; not the type of real food itself. Consider the egg. Not all of them are created equally. The nutritional profile of a truly pastured, cage-free egg is completely different (and looks different!) than that of an “organic” store-bought egg or even a factory-farmed egg from an abused and antibiotic-pumped hen. It’s the same with salt, and virtually every other real food (and by real food, I mean foods found in nature, not those manufactured in a lab).

The problem is that sodium (and it’s derivatives) is found in excess in a lot of processed and pre-packaged foods, and most people eat a lot of those unhealthy foods. I’m not going to be discussing the danger of processed foods, because you should know by now they are not real foods and can’t be digested properly by the body. Also, it’s important to note that these processed junk foods are full of refined salt. “What, so there are differences in salt quality too?” you may be wondering. Oh yeah! Not all salts are created equally!

Like all industrial foods, commercial table salt undergoes a whole lot of processing. It’s heated to upwards of 1200 degrees Fahrenheit, bleached with toxic solvents and ferro cyanide and aluminum to make it white, thereby stripping it of its minerals, and then mixed with anti-caking agents and free-flowing agents to keep it from sticking together. Oh, and then iodide — one synthetic nutrient — is added on because back in the 1920s they found that otherwise, people get iodine-deficiency, resulting in goiter. The problem is that this iodine in processed salt isn’t enough for the body, as seen in a study published in 2008, which found that a lot of Americans are still iodine-deficient.

What you probably don’t know is that this heating, bleaching and processing with other chemicals end up stripping the natural salt from many other minerals that our body needs like calcium, potassium, copper, sulfate, iodine (hah! It’s found naturally in the real stuff), iron, manganese, magnesium, silicon, phosphorus, vanadium and zinc (Mercola). In fact, the processing only leaves the sodium and chloride, which amount to 97%-99% of table salt ingredients. Unrefined salts contain about 85% sodium, and the rest is composed of other minerals and trace elements.

In many unrefined salts, you can see the color that the minerals impart – the salts of the earth are as colorful as many other foods, with some being gray, red, brown, black and even pink! Many people nowadays are deficient in these nutrients, because the salt they are adding to their foods is a processed product, and because many of even the fresh vegetables and fruits we are consuming are grown in nutrient-deficient soils (the chemical fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides tend to do that).  Additionally, a processed-foods diet has made most people magnesium-deficient. Unrefined mineral salt is an excellent source of magnesium, and according to Lawrence Wilson,

“The blood pressure-raising effect of table salt can be due to its high content of sodium with not enough magnesium to balance it.  This has a magnesium-lowering effect that can constrict the arteries and raise blood pressure. Sea salt contains plenty of magnesium, which is why it usually does not affect blood pressure at all, or does so much than table salt and should be eaten by most people.  Also, if one’s magnesium status is adequate because one has other food sources of magnesium, salt-eating will have less effect or no effect on blood pressure.”

The solution then is not to throw up your hands in the air and say ‘the heck with it’. There’s a much better solution: buy unrefined mineral salt! Yes, these salts exist. There are a few salt companies out there that are producing salt the old-fashioned way. The company I use (and it’s pretty economical as their prices aren’t staggeringly expensive) is called SaltWorks. So far, I’ve only tried their Himalayan Pink Sea Salt, and I usually buy it in bulk. Only $19 for a 5 lb. bag (often with free shipping) is a great deal, especially as compared to the prices I’ve seen in health food stores! There are many fusion salts (salt infused with other ingredients, like balsamic vinegar or chili peppers) on SaltWorks, but I prefer to buy the pure varieties so it doesn’t impact the taste of the different meals I prepare.

Another company I’ve used before is HimalaSalt. I bought a small shaker of the stuff from Whole Foods to try it out a while back, and it tasted great, but was more expensive than the SaltWorks version. This is what HimalaSalt has to say about refined salt on their website:

Common Table Salt is an industrial by-product, stripped by chemical processing of all elements except sodium and chloride – detrimental to health in isolated form. Anti-caking and flow agents are added, yet the FDA Code 21CFR101.100(a)(3), does not require their disclosure to consumers. Table salt comes from the same lots as vacuum-refined industrial salt and is treated with caustic soda or lime to remove all traces of magnesium salts, which are important for health.

Important minerals are removed because they provide large corporations with staggering profits for use in agricultural and industrial chemicals, pharmaceuticals, ammunitions, and other unsustainable industries.

After extreme chemical processing and heated at up to 1200 degrees, table salt cannot support health and no longer combines with our body fluids.  Table salt can also cause a deficiency of important essential trace minerals, which are abundantly present in HimalaSalt.

If you’re in the United States, and looking for something more local than Himalayan salt (which is usually harvested in Pakistan), there’s a company called Redmond’s Real Salt in Utah that uses traditional harvesting methods to produce unrefined mineral salt. I haven’t yet tried it myself, but a few fellow bloggers who live in the U.S. have tried it and rave about it! In this brochure, Redmond’s Real Salt promotes the use of most unrefined mineral salts including both Himalayan salt and Celtic salt, but describes the Real salt brand as “sweeter”, as compared to the Himalayan salt which is more “earthy”. I’m looking forward to trying the Real brand soon! I’ll be sure to report back on any difference in taste …

Don’t Be Fooled by the Word “Sea” in Front of Your Salt

As Emily of Butter Believer warns us in her post about salt, the word “sea” in front of salt is not enough to ensure that you’re not buying refined and processed salt. Since all salt is technically “from the sea”, many manufacturers use the qualifier ”sea” liberally (and deceptively) to describe their salt, even though it’s the same processed salt — only coarser. It is not the coarseness of the grain that matters; it’s the processing the salt undergoes. So, yes, sorry to all my Costco-loving friends, but the Kirkland “Mediterranean Sea” Salt is NOT the unrefined mineral salt I’ve described above. Don’t buy it!

How I Use Himalayan Sea Salt

Since becoming a convert to using real unrefined mineral salt, I’ve only tried the Himalayan salt, though I plan to vary it up a bit to get other minerals that may not be found in this variety. Himalayan salt comes from the Himalayas, so it’s fairly pure and free from most environmental toxins. It also doesn’t have any additives. Here are a few things to keep in mind when using unrefined mineral salts:

• Unrefined salts are not as salty as table salt. They contain less sodium chloride and more minerals. I use the same amount of salt as when I previously used table salt, and I’m enjoying the more natural and subdued taste of unrefined salt.

• Himalayan salt comes in degrees of coarseness ranging from extra course grain, to fine grain (I buy the fine grain because it’s more convenient). There are even slabs of salt that many people use as a cooking surface to impart a delicate salty (but not at all overpowering) flavor. I’ve never tried, but many say that these salt slabs distribute heat evenly and aid in precise cooking. Check out this post from My So-Called Knife, where Liam shows us how to use a Himalayan salt slab for grilling! Yum!

• Himalayan Sea Salt can also be used topically in bath soaks, to treat skin conditions, as a sinus flush, or as a throat gargle (Mercola).

So that’s it for my first post of debunking myths. Don’t be afraid of high-quality unrefined mineral salt. Listen to your body, and remember to take most conventional health advice with several grains of salt!

P.S. Be sure to sign up for my newsletter, to receive these posts right to your email inbox! Simply enter your email address in the “Sign up” field on the right of this page. Thanks a bunch!

*This post has been shared with the Butter Believer’s Sunday School Blog Carnival and Monday Mania at the Healthy Home Economist.

When I made this delicious raw pumpkin pie recipe a few weeks ago, I got really good feedback about it from friends and family. So I was inspired to make another easy raw dessert recipe: Raw apple pie (with a grain-free crust, of course)! I love to cook, but baking really isn’t my forte. So I’ve always gravitated towards raw desserts, like these chocolate mousse balls (quite honestly, these are better than most conventional desserts). As for this apple pie, I’ll let it speak for itself. For me personally, I find it quite irresistible and arguably more satisfying than the typically greasy and mushy cooked apple pie …

There’s another reason I’ve been opting for raw desserts lately: For those of you who don’t know, I’ve been experimenting with limiting grains for a few months now. I eat sprouted brown rice now and then, but I’ve cut out all store-bought breads and pastas (and I’ve broken up with cereal and other packaged grain-products for several years now)– a decision that has improved my health and helped me stay lean without much additional effort. I’m also taking  a break from making oatmeal in the morning, which featured heavily in my breakfast routine until about a year ago. Now don’t get me wrong; I’m not saying that I’ve cut out many grains because they’re all bad all the time. However, it’s important to note that in a typical American diet, grains feature heavily – too heavily in fact, because they’re in everything and they’re almost always heavily processed (yup, even your beef burger is affected by grain because all conventional cattle are grain-fed — that’s why you gotta opt for grass-finished if you eat meat). There’s also the argument that  most grains, unless soaked, sprouted or fermented, have anti-nutrients that make it difficult to digest them because they prevent the absorption of nutrients in other foods. Finally, there’s the fact that grains have a high-glycemic index, and that is bad news for anyone trying to lose weight or stay trim.

I’ll save the long discussion about grains to another post, because I don’t want to get too sidetracked here. Where were we? Oh yes, raw apple pie.

Ok, I’ll make a small admission: it’s not entirely raw: I like to saute some of the apples (the portion to be pureed) in a little bit of grass-fed ghee to soften the crunch and add a rich flavor — that’s how I prefer it personally. But you can definitely make an all-raw version, a la the Raw Foods Witch, who inspired this recipe. Nourished Kitchen’s Apple-Pear Sauce has been calling my name for a while now, so I decided to marry the two recipes to make a mostly-raw, grain-free and delicious dessert.

This past weekend, I tuned into TEDx Manhattan 2012, “Changing the Way We Eat”, a day-long seminar with inspirational speakers from the food world. Needless to say, I was stoked! My “highlights” review will be featured in a guest post on the real food blog Hartke is Online. Until then, I thought to share a little snippet from the seminar. One of my favorite presentations was not a talk, but a recorded video that shows rather than tells how the human body digests processed food as opposed to real (whole) food. For all the doubters out there, this is hard-core evidence that the body was not meant to digest Cheetos, Gatorade, Cheerios, Ramen noodles, or any of the synthetic so-called “foods” out there. If you’re still not convinced that you need to abandon your junk food ways, I urge you to watch this video; it’ll speak for itself:

Stefani Bardin is the talented media maker behind this video. In collaboration with Dr. Braden Kuo who conducted the trial at Massachusetts General Hospital, she filmed the “M2A: The Fantastic Voyage”, a video that for the first time in human history actually brings us into the digestive tract while the food is being digested, and compares the difference between how the body processes synthetic food and real food. The M2A pill, which has a wireless camera, and the SmartPill which comes with sensors, both track how liquids and solids ingested are processed by the body.

We see how blue Gatorade stains the stomach lining because of the artificial color added (a petrochemical derivative!), and how Ramen noodles are not effectively broken down in the digestive tract (they contain TBHQ which is related to butane) … ugh, gross! The “whole food meal”, while definitely more nutritious than the junk food alternative, is still not ideal, but  at least the body knows what to do with it! This goes to show you that even incremental changes in your diet can either heal or further complicate your digestion…

So, next time a medical doctor urges you to give your sick child a colorful Gatorade to “replenish his electrolytes” when he or she has a fever (advice that makes me recoil in horror every time), I urge you to email him or her this video … and then find yourself another doctor!

So in case you’ve been living under a rock for the past couple of days (or simply haven’t turned on any news sources), Paula Deen, 64-year-old Southern-cook turned Food Network celebrity chef has been diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. She’s kept the news on the down low for the past three years, but it made headlines as soon as Paula revealed that she has the condition on the Today Show a few days ago. Paula’s reluctance to alter her diet coupled with her endorsement of a diabetes drug, Victoza developed by the Danish drug company Novo Nordisk have both sparked a lot of heated discussion.

“Moderation”: An Excuse to Binge

“Everything in moderation, including moderation.” ~ Oscar Wilde

In her announcement on the Today show, Paula reminds us that diabetes can be triggered by a lot of different factors, including “genetics, lifestyle and stress.” But what about diet? Paula shies away from admitting that diet plays a huge role in disease development. Instead, she uses my favorite word when it comes to dieting (note my sarcasm): “moderation.” I‘m sorry but saying you want to eat junk food in moderation just means that you want to make allowances for eating it more often than you would like to admit. Whenever someone I know says that they feel comfortable eating unhealthy foods “in moderation”, I tell them that unless they’re vigilant with their diet, what they think is moderate will become a lifestyle that allows junk into the body —  and that this strategy never fails to bring disease along with it.

Sadly, even Paula’s attempts to be “healthier” are misguided. In this cooking segment on the Today show she, along with her two sons, also chefs, show us how to make a supposedly “lighter/healthier” lasagna. The focus points: use low-fat cheese instead of full-fat, lean beef (quality or source of beef is given no mention), egg whites instead of an extra egg, low-sodium tomato sauce, low-gluten pasta. None of the changes they have made are actually healthier! Instead of focusing on macro-nutrients like fat and dietary cholesterol – which have nothing to do with developing diabetes – they should have instead focused on the QUALITY of the foods, and reducing sugars and grains. Is the beef from grass-fed cows grazing on pesticide-free grass? Is the cheese from healthy cows and not processed in a way that oxides the healthy cholesterol therein? Are the eggs pastured? Is the tomato paste from organically grown tomatoes and packaged in glass? Is the pasta healthy at all – weather made of ‘whole grain’ or not? No to all of those! Paula’s use of low-quality ingredients that have been processed to reduce fat will not make anyone “healthier”!

I don’t expect Paula to know anything about nutrition and healthy eating. But what about the so-called diet experts and educated media pundits? Do they also know nothing? After being irritated with the speculations about healthy eating that have been thrown around as “facts”, I had to write a post to rectify some of the misinformation…

Butter is not the culprit!

Paula’s cooking is unhealthy, no doubt about it (donuts fried in rancid vegetable oils are disgusting!). But if someone else yells out “No wonder she got diabetes — it’s all the butter and fat!” once again, I’ll scream. Eating butter doesn’t have an impact on unmanaged insulin levels, which is the underlying cause of type 2 diabetes. When a person has diabetes, his or her body either does not produce enough insulin or has enough insulin but cannot use it because the body has grown resistant to it. In both cases, this results in excess sugar (blood glucose) accumulating in the bloodstream, making one hungry for more insulin-spiking foods (like sugar and grains), which are again not metabolized properly by the body. This unregulated insulin stores calories as fat, instead of burning them up as energy. Frequent carb-rich meals that aren’t nutrient-dense (for example, cereal and Tropicana orange juice for breakfast) spike blood sugar, and if done excessively, can lead to diabetes. Eating fat does NOT spike the blood sugar, and therefore keeps the person satiated for a longer period of time.

The Healthy Advocate has the right idea:

News reports are claiming that Paula Deen’s “high fat recipes” may be a cause to her possible diabetic diagnosis; however, natural fat from things like butter, coconut oil or lard has virtually no effect on insulin resistance. It is true that hydrogenated forms of these fats can be a contributor to a number diseases; natural fats like butter do not raise blood sugar levels or insulin.

In fact, fat slows down the break down of carbohydrates in the body, leading to a slow release of insulin. The cells are then not bombarded by an onslaught of insulin, which can weaken insulin receptors. Cells actually need dietary fats to provide stabilization to receptor sites.  Natural fat also lowers the glycemic index of a meal, which is one of the reasons why coconut oil is promoted as a healthy fat.

Delicious and creamy scalloped potatoes au gratin

It’s almost mid-January, and there’s nothing better than a hearty dish on a cold winter’s day. When you’re super duper hungry (try to think back of such a time if it’s been a while), what do you immediately crave? A juicy carrot? An apple? I think not!

You most likely crave something with fat that is hearty and satisfying, like your mother’s chicken soup, or a juicy leg of pastured lamb, a hearty bowl of vegetarian chili, or some potatoes layered with cream and cheese … mmm. A delicious memory of that last one – the potatoes with cream and cheese – somehow nudged me in my dreams the other night, and I was inspired to replicate it at home. I couldn’t quite remember where I’ve had it, but it had registered in my brain as something I should definitely making. When the Advent fast was over, and we celebrated Christmas in my household, I made this dish for a potluck at my uncle’s and it was a hit!

There is some ‘controversy’ in the foodie community about the “correct” name for this dish – is it scalloped potatoes or is it potatoes au gratin? I did a little bit of Googling, and found that many people use the terms interchangeably, though technically ‘au gratin’ has grated cheese on top and is lightly browned, whereas the scalloped potatoes do not have any cheese. Technicalities! In this case, I decided to name the dish Scalloped Potatoes au Gratin because the potatoes are cut into thin slices, made with cream and milk, and topped with cheese. So it’s a fusion of the two recipes, and I found that they get along very well together. It’s a pretty rich dish, but it’s bowl-lickin’ good!

Since this isn’t a recipe I grew up making, nor is it one that is traditional in Egyptian households, I had to read a few others’ versions of it before I could come up with my own ingredient list and method. This version, from Real Simple was pretty much what I had in mind, but  it lacked a little bit of ‘character’ so I added the fresh thyme and ground nutmeg for a little extra flavor. I was going to go with just the sauteed onions, until I came across this recipe from The Brown-Eyed Baker, which also includes some minced garlic. And because I genuinely feel that garlic and potatoes are meant to be together, I added that in as well.

I’ve made this recipe twice so far, and the results come out almost identical both times – a good sign! The creaminess in every bite will fill you up and warm you up on a cold day in a way that almost no other dish can (other than soups, which are awesome at this time of year!)

A note about potatoes: It’s wise to opt for organic potatoes, because conventional potatoes have some of the highest pesticide residues among all crops. Check out this site, “What’s on my Food?” to get an idea of the pesticide content of different foods. Here’s the one for potatoes.

Opt for organic potatoes whenever possible.

Without further ado, here’s the recipe below, courtesy of Recipage, which now allows embedding of the printable recipe right within the post. That’s right: you can simply click “Print” below to get an awesome print-out of this recipe to bring to the kitchen. (I know from experience that bringing the laptop/phone to the kitchen to follow a recipe ain’t the best idea… trust me on that one!)

Scalloped Potatoes au Gratin

by Heba Saleh

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 45 minutes

Keywords: bake simmer entree side gluten-free nut-free soy-free sugar-free vegetarian potato French winter

Ingredients (Serves 8-10)

• 8 medium organic Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and sliced 1/8 inch thick
• 1 medium yellow onion, finely chopped and sauteed in ghee
• 2-3 cloves of garlic, minced and added to the onion saute
• 2 tablespoons grass-fed ghee, plus more for the baking dish
• 2 cups whole grass-fed milk
• 1 cup grass-fed heavy cream (or if you don’t have cream on hand, just add an extra cup of whole milk)
• 1 bay leaf, crushed
• 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
• 1/4 teaspoon organic ground nutmeg
• 2 teaspoons unrefined mineral salt (like Himalayan, which I buy online here)
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• about 1 cup of grated grass-fed Gruyère or Dubliner Irish cheese, shredded on top

Instructions

(1) Wash, peel and chop potatoes: Wash the potatoes under running water, peel them and slice them into 1/8 inch pieces.

I don't have a mandoline, but chopping them into fairly equal slices wasn't difficult to do manually.

(2) Chop and saute onion and garlic: In a large pot, chop 1 yellow onion and mince 2-3 cloves of garlic and saute them in 2 tablespoons of grass-fed ghee until they have released their aroma and have turned a golden color.

(3) Add other ingredients to the pot: Add all chopped potatoes, and the rest of the ingredients with the exception of the grated cheese (2 cups milk, 2 cups cream, teaspoon of fresh thyme, 1 crushed bay leaf, 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg, 2 teaspoons unrefined mineral salt, and 1/2 teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper).

(4) Bring to a boil and simmer: Stir well and bring to a boil. Quickly lower the heat before it spills over, and continue simmering until potatoes have cooked – about 30 minutes.

(5) Add to a baking dish and bake: Grease 9×13 inch baking dish with a bit of ghee, then pour the potatoes into the dish. Grate about a cup’s worth of cheese (I used the Irish Dubliner) on top, and bake in a 350F oven for 15 minutes. You may wish to brown the top a little by broiling for an additional 3-5 minutes.

Grate some cheese on top - make sure the cheese is grass-fed for it to be healthy.

Serve warm and savor the creaminess.

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Behold this deliciousness, all raw!

After successfully making one raw dessert, you’ll feel almost invincible and you’ll resist going back to baking desserts. For those with the quizzical facial expressions right now, a ‘raw’ dessert is what it sounds like: a dessert whipped up from purely raw, or unheated, ingredients, and served, well, raw! There are many purported benefits to eating raw foods, though I don’t subscribe to an all-raw diet because there are some foods that can only be enjoyed (and benefited from) while cooked (and I would never want to deprive myself of that pleasure).

Who can wait for half an hour or more for something sweet and yummy to be baked in the oven? Not me, with my impatience in the kitchen! Though I am yet to find my (hidden) baking talent, I do revel in my ability to cook. In my opinion, cooking is simple: all you gotta do is mix stuff in proper proportions and watch to make sure the food doesn’t burn. With raw desserts, it’s even easier. In fact, the elimination of ‘cooking with heat’ makes raw desserts almost fool-proof. Since the ingredients you’re dealing with can be consumed raw, you can go a step further to ensure that the proportions are indeed proper, and that’s by taste-testing your dessert creation every step of the way (if you wish). Yes, I just gave you permission to dip a spoon into your half-baked (not literally, of course) raw dessert to test it out!

Today I’d like to share a delicious and super-simple recipe that I recently made: raw pumpkin pie, made with all natural, organic ingredients, and inspired by the Raw Foods Witch.

Carve pumpkin with a large, sharp knife – vertically through the middle.

You may be thinking: ‘I don’t want a hippie version of pumpkin pie – I want the real deal’. But I assure you that this pie is even better than the ‘real deal’. The pumpkin puree, fragrant with homey spices like cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg, melts in your mouth. The ‘crust’ adds the perfect crunch to every bite – oh the crust is another story entirely. You won’t even believe your taste buds when you find out that it’s made of just – brace yourself – TWO ingredients, and neither one of them involving gluten or anything related to grains.

Walnuts and dates really should wed. They’re a match made in heaven, especially in this grain-free crust!

Even though your eyes can’t believe that you’re making a legit crust out of just walnuts and dates (with a pinch of mineral sea salt), your taste buds nod in approval when you try a mini-bite as you’re taste-testing.

Fall this year has not yet turned into winter – check out the leaves in the background that are still hanging onto their branches.

I made this pie to take as dessert for one of our couple friends who kindly invited us over for a seafood dinner this week. You see, as Orthodox Christians, we fast for Advent for forty days from all animal products with the exception of seafood (so we’re basically vegan with a seafood allowance for 40 days before we celebrate Christmas on January 7th). So, you’ll find me actively experimenting with vegan recipes such as vegan ‘cheese’ (made with raw cashews), homemade almond milk, and vegetarian chilli (to name a few) several times a year. Although I personally don’t believe that abstainance from animal products is ideal for health (at least that’s my own personal experience), I do enjoy making nutritious vegan meals because of the culinary challenge they present!

So, if you’re in the mood for a healthy pumpkin pie that you can whip up in half an hour with access to a blender, give this one a try. It’ll appease even the finickiest of eaters, so you can consider making it this holiday season if you’re having a few people over, or attending a potluck!

Raw and Vegan Pumpkin Pie (Grain-Free and Sugar-Free)

by Heba Saleh,  adapted from the Raw Foods Witch

Prep Time: 30 mins+ 30 mins to chill

Keywords: raw snack dessert gluten-free low-carb low-sodium soy-free sugar-free vegan vegetarian pie fall

Ingredients ( Serves 8 )

For the Raw Pumpkin Pie Crust:

• 2 cups raw walnuts or pecans (I used walnuts – delicious!), soaked overnight in warm water with a little bit of sea salt, then rinsed and dried in the morning
• 1/2 cup dried dates, soaked for a few hours to soften
• Dash of unrefined mineral salt (I used Himalayan)

• 

  The raw pie crust ingredients – yup, just dates and walnuts (and a dash of salt!)

For the Raw Pumpkin Pie Filling:

• 2 cups organic shredded pumpkin, butternut squash, or sweet potato flesh (I had baked the whole pumpkin in the oven because I used one half of it for soup, but you can definitely go completely raw)
• 1/4 cup homemade almond milk OR filtered water to help blend
• 1 cup dates, soaked for a few hours to soften
• 2 teaspoons organic cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon fresh diced ginger (or 1 teaspoon organic ginger powder)
• 1/4 teaspoon organic ground nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon virgin coconut oil
• 1-2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Test-taste the raw dessert recipe in between the steps to ensure the flavor is just right!

Instructions

(1) Make the ‘crust’: Blend the soaked walnuts and dates in a food processor, then distribute the mixture evenly on the bottom of an 8-10-inch pie plate. Make sure to cover all areas of the pie plate evenly and compactly so it can hold together well (the stickiness of the dates does a good job of keeping the crust together anyway).

It’s even better than the traditional pie crust. You can take my word for it!

(2) Blend raw pumpkin: I baked the pumpkin halfway because my food processer isn’t strong enough to handle completely raw pumpkin. If you own a Vita-Mix, add shredded raw pumpkin and blend well.

(3) Add other ingredients and blend: Add almond milk (or water), soaked dates, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, coconut oil, vanilla extract, and blend well. Taste-test to see if it needs any adjustments in spices.

The filling, in raw form.

(4) Add filling to crust: Scoop the filling out of the processor and into the packed down pie crust. Even out with the back of a spoon, and refrigerate pie for 30 minutes to set. Enjoy!

The ‘decoration’ here is just crushed walnut powder (it was in the bottom of the bag and I thought of doing something creative with it)

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Once you’ve watched it all the way through, take out your calendar. If you’re old fashioned, you may still find some paper lying around your house. If you’re a tech freak, turn on your smart phone. Now take a look at your schedule for the next week. Schedule half an hour a day – preferably towards the beginning or middle of the day – to walk outside. Nothing fancy. Nothing tiring. Just a somewhat fast-paced, brisk (but not super fast) walk outside in the fresh air.

If you’ve taken the time to watch the video, you’ll know why this is super important. And if you think you’re ‘wasting time’ by not going hard during your workouts, think again. And if you’ve forgotten how to walk (gosh, I hope there aren’t very many people in this category), or if you like to do things ‘just right’, check out The Definitive Guide to Walking from Mark Sisson, author of The Primal Blueprint.

Happy walking!

Make ginger a regular visitor in your kitchen for good health.

Secretly, I’ve always wished I had red hair, just so I could be called Ginger. It’s such a carefree and colorful name; don’t you think? It’s also shared by a root that many tout as a ‘superfood’ - making it even cooler as a name, especially for a health nut like me. I’m willing to take the nickname, for all who can look past my dark brown hair and moles instead of freckles …

Pungent yet aromatic, ginger is an indispensable spice in my kitchen – often added in soups and smoothies, cakes and seafood dishes, sometimes in powdered form, but always more prized if it’s raw. Its powerful impact on the palate is a boon to some, and a curse to others; but whatever your personal taste, you cannot deny the accolades that it has collected over the years. Wherever you look in natural remedies and in modern medicine, you’ll find ginger being praised for its many medicinal and nutritional properties. If you want to get technical, ginger is rich in “hundreds of phytochemicals, including gingerols, beta-carotene, capsaicin, caffeic acid, curcumin and salicylates” (Food Watch). For all intents and purposes, you should probably know that it has been shown to inhibit the growth of cancer and to treat infections. For me, these benefits – accompanied by its unique taste – are enough to make me want to make it ‘crash’ permanently in my kitchen – always living in the door of my fridge and hanging on my organic spice rack.

The fact that it’s a root (if you want to be technical, it’s a rhizome) and tends to make nauseated and restless people feel more ‘rooted’ on the ground is a pretty cool connection, don’t you think? In any case, seeing that I have a problem with motion-sickness, ginger – previously the crystallized kind, but more recently, just raw or in smoothies – has come to my rescue many times in the past.

However, the “ginger ale” you find at the store really isn’t ginger ale at all, as you can see from the Food Facts information in the image below:

If you simply take the time to read the ingredients, you’ll realize you’re being duped if you buy this drink thinking that it contains anything that even resembles true ginger ale. You’re better off drinking water. Or, if you’re craving that tangy-spicy taste of a cold ginger ale, maybe you can just brew it yourself. Thinking that the process was too complicated for my measly abilities of making drinks at home, I procrastinated in looking up a recipe. Then one day, one of my family members came down with a nasty cold, and I figured I’d try to speed up the recovery naturally, using none other than the homemade ginger ale I’ve been craving.

When I came across Sarah’s recipe for ginger ale on her blog, The Healthy Home Economist, I had no more excuses. I had to try it! I was especially intrigued because it was also a fermented drink. Sarah’s addition of liquid whey (not the processed whey powder, but the liquid leftover from straining yogurt) helps promote the growth of probiotics, making the drink healthy, not only because of the ginger in there, but also because of the good dose of good bacteria naturally in whey that are necessary for a healthy gut!

Instead of trying to explain why fermented foods are healthy for us, here’s an excerpt that’s succinctly informative:

“The probiotic effect, or ‘natural healing force within each one of us’ are real, living beneficial microbes proven by modern science to exist in a wide-variety of lacto-fermented foods. Our flesh and digestive systems are dependent on microbes. When we do not have a diet rich in beneficial (probiotic) naturally-created food, this natural healing force suffers, and in turn, so do we.” (Pickl-It)

Surprisingly, it was super easy to make. I followed Sarah’s recipe, but made a few substitutions – for example, I used raw ginger instead of powdered, and used Rapadura, the least processed, purest sugar available instead of sucanat. Also, I did not feel the need to use raw honey or stevia, but it’s good to have the option to add it in your own drink if you’d like it sweeter.

Top: Himalayan mineral salt, grated raw ginger, Rapadura sugar Bottom: fresh lime juice and liquid whey from raw yogurt

Lactofermented Ginger Ale – Made from Scratch

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Fermenting Time: ~3 days on the counter and a few hours in the fridge

• 3/4 cup organic ginger, peeled and grated
• 2 quarts filtered water
• 1/2 cup fresh lime juice (about 3-4 organic limes)
• 1/4 cup of liquid whey, preferably raw/from raw yogurt (basically, it’s the leftover liquid after straining yogurt) If you have a dairy allergy, Sarah recommends “the contents of a probiotic capsule, coconut water kefir or the liquid strained from coconut milk yogurt from the store instead as the fermenting medium”, but I haven’t tried this to confirm if it’s the same taste.
• 1/4 to 1/2 cup of Rapadura (pure sugar)
• 2 teaspoons of unrefined mineral salt (I use Himalayan)

Directions:

1. Peel and grate ginger, squeeze limes, and if need be, strain the yogurt you have to get some whey.
2. Mix all ingredients (water, ginger, lime juice, Rapadura, whey, salt) in a 2 quart glass jug/jar, but leave an inch on the top, or “else the soda will rot and get moldy instead of ferment”, according to The Healthy Home Economist.
3. Stir well and cover tightly.
4. Leave at room temperature, on the kitchen counter, for 2-3 days. For more fermentation, and therefore more fizz, store for an extra day outside the fridge.
5. Chill in the refrigerator.
6. Shake well before consuming. If you find the flavor too strong, feel free to water it down with some filtered water. You can also stir in some raw honey if you’d like it sweeter.

To be honest, this drink recipe rocked my world. For those in my family used to Starbucks specialty drinks and bottled juices, the ginger ale wasn’t ‘sweet enough’. But, an easy solution to that is the addition of some raw honey, stirred into the cup to make it a tad sweeter. I actually really enjoyed making this, though at first it felt like a science experiment with all the mixing that was going on!

The refreshing final product!

Let me know if you ever try this, and what you think of the taste!

Dear Chipotle executives,

A few years ago, we learned about Chipotle’s ‘Food with Integrity’ philosophy and were thrilled that there exists a tasty fast food chain in America that defies many shameful practices of the fast food industry that have now become mainstream. It is pretty much the only fast-food spot we would consider frequenting, in terms of both health and ethical considerations: we believe, as Chipotle does, in food that is sourced as naturally and as locally as possible. So, when it comes to the fast food industry, we consider Chipotle’s position to be a pioneering one, and we want to thank you for the many satisfying dinners you’ve ‘salvaged’ in our household when we were in a pinch!

We appreciate Chipotle’s effort to make sure much of the meat is sourced in a natural and sustainable way. Of course, we encourage continuing further along in that direction, toward organically raised, pastured and grass-fed animals, as well as organic vegetables. However, we realize that it’s a long path toward making a complete switch in a cost-effective way.

At the same time, in recognizing your effort to uphold integrity in every facet of the food business, we would like to share a small complaint that we think would be easy to address, as we wish to continue to enjoy Chipotle’s food without any major concerns for our health. Based on our repeated and very consistent observation in several Chipotle locations all over the country, much of the food served comes speckled with noticeable black spots (especially on the fajita vegetables). These jet-black, shiny spots, as seen in the image below, range from tiny specks to larger pieces, but undoubtedly they are pieces burnt residue that results from cooking and subsequently scraping the cooking surface.

We believe that a different protocol for cleaning the surface, and/or a different material for the surface (that does not leach onto food) would easily solve this problem. Leaving this unaddressed introduces major health risks as burnt food or cookware pieces have been found to be possibly cancerous as explained in this article, this article, and this article. At the same time, mitigating this issue would require a solution that we do not imagine to be extremely difficult or costly.

We thank you for listening to your customers and addressing our concerns, and we would love to hear back from you about this issue.

Sincerely, 

Chipotle-lovers who don’t want burnt pieces in their food