I decided to request this book from the library last week after I saw it pop up a few times on Facebook. I was intrigued by the cover and I think I wanted to challenge myself and my ideas about hunting with another’s women’s perspective. The fact that this particular woman looked like a Manhattan socialite, and indeed she once was, also piqued my curiosity. But I think my motive was mostly to try and come to grips with my own fear and hatred of hunting. I resumed eating meat again late last year and the diet principle I am following (primal/paleo) prizes grass fed, pastured meat sources but also wild game if at all possible. The idea is that “you are what your food eats”. Obviously the healthiest meat you will find comes from animals still living the wild lives and eating the wild foods they were intended to eat.

This is problematic for an omnivore who has always viewed hunting as cruel an unnecessary. I realized even before I read this book that this makes me a big hypocrite. It is ironic that we had guns in our home in Arizona that we could grab quickly if we spotted any javelina or rattlesnakes on our property but that was DEFENSE. Going out to intentionally kill something that wasn’t bothering us… barbaric! That is why I wanted to read Girl Hunter: Revolutionizing the Way We Eat, One Hunt at a Time and I am glad I did.

It really did put it all out there how un-cruel hunting can be, especially when compared with the cruel lives inflicted on the animals that end up in our supermarkets. I know that factory farming is the epitome of cruel but I never quite understood that skilled hunting was and is the much more humane option of the two. It is one of those books that kind of reaches out and slaps you in the face with a big fat dose of reality. Of course if you have eschewed meat altogether then the logic will not mean much to you but for omnivores I think it is an important read.

The books follows Georgia Pellegrini to various places across the US and even in England, where she hunted various game. I appreciated the fact that most of the hunters she same in contact with were avid environmentalists and good stewards of the land they hunted. They also knew more about the animals they hunted and respected them more than most people in my opinion. There were only two hunters that left me with a bad taste in my mouth, the poacher that she calls out in one of her chapters, and also a boar hunter who I felt did not value his hunting dogs beyond their service to him.

Also in the book was information about hunting, the really strict laws that protect each species and the land, and also insight into the lives of all the species she hunted. The author was also refreshingly honest, even telling us about a bad shot that ended up causing an animal to suffer. Much of what I read was also stuff I have heard my husband say over and over, since he has tried to get me to hunt off and on for years. There is just something about reading it from a woman’s more delicate perspective that helped the message come through this time.

The best part of the book was hands down the recipes provided at the end of each chapter. Ms. Pellegrini’s background as a French chef translates into the description of each meal and your mouth is watering with the start of each new chapter. It made me want to try some things I never imagined I would want to try, like squirrel, which she calls the best tasting meat in the woods.

I cannot say that I am strapping on my rifle (I don’t even have one) and heading out into the woods tomorrow but this book was an important, eye opening read and I am glad I read it. My husband and I have been discussing it at length and dissecting our own preconceived ideas about hunting and living off the land. I would also love to meet the Girl Hunter someday!

How do YOU feel about hunting and the “messy bits” that some omnivores don’t like to be confronted with?

A couple months ago I accepted some cookbooks to review. At the time they either perfectly complimented my diet or I was just curious to take a look. Now the ones that were perfect are less so, as I start my journey with paleo, and the one that I was simply curious about is not as much help as I would have hoped. The world is full of surprises I guess. I never imagined I would do a 180 on my diet but when you feel the urge to make the change you just have to trust that you have done your homework and take the leap. So far, so good. REALLY good.

Anyway the 3 cookbooks…

Another Fork in the Trail – Vegetarian and Vegan Recipes for the Backcountry. I haven’t missed grains in the least since I abandoned them but the muffins on the cover of this book look heavenly, no denying that! As you can guess this is a recipe collection designed for the veggie based diets of outdoor enthusiasts… hikers, campers, backpackers, etc. When I got this book I was really excited to try some of these recipes in the spring. The quinoa berry muffins, hazelnut fig granola, and pumpkin breakfast bars were calling my name. Even after reviewing it with my grainless, primal eyes I still see tons of value in this book though. There are plenty of veggie based meals that do not include grains/beans and I love me some veggies. If you are eating vegetarian or vegan then this is an excellent cookbook to add to your library, one the best I have seen in a long while.

The Raw Truth: Recipes and Resources for the Living Foods Lifestyle - I think this is an excellent beginner book for anyone wanting to explore more raw foods. The recipes are simple and not daunting as many raw recipes can be and they look appetizing. I have dozens of raw food un-cookbooks and I hate it when they take a glamorous photo of something that looks like baby vomit and expect that we will actually want to make it. Recipes that caught my eye were the banana date pudding, Pesto Wraps (which I plan on making), and the Black Raspberry Prickly Pear, which I would also make if I still lived in a place where I could get cacti locally. I AM an Arizona girl living in the Midwest.

Most of these recipes, while I am sure they delicious, are not going to make their way to my plate anytime soon because they have lots of nuts and high glycemic fruit. Nuts are getting harder for me to digest the longer I stay away from grains (same with dairy) so I think my gut is likely healing from sensitivities I did not know I had and now it is objecting to other hard-to-digest foods. Fruit is perfectly okay but I am staying away from dried fruits and fruits high on the glycemic index like bananas and dates. Raw food recipes typically utilize metric tons of all of the above. Still want to make that prickly pear recipe though. Eating cacti is totally primal!

The Cooking Light Gluten-Free Cookbook – Since I don’t eat grains it goes to follow that a gluten free cookbook would be perfect right? Yeah, not so much. This book is full of recipes that incorporate gluten free flours not recipes that are grain free. It is actually kind of grain centric with lots of bread recipes, pasta, rice, and corn. That may be typical for gluten free cookbooks though. I never looked at one before. The Pan Seared Scallops with Bacon and Spinach and the Prosciutto Stuffed Pork Chops look good but overall there are not a lot of recipes I can use. When I flip through and see all those grains I don’t get a “cooking light” vibe. All that stuff would make me feel bloated and heavy. I would pass on this one.

Anyway, since the publishers were nice enough to send these books my way I wanted to give them a quick review. Even though I am not eating raw or vegetarian anymore I would still recommend the first 2 books for any who are. Off to write down some recipes from the primal books I got at the library. Be well!

I have read hundreds of books about green living and sustainability over the years. The preservation of our planet is big on my hot topics list. This is not what actually motivated me to start living green though. The issue that started my great green journey was actually the environment much closer to home… the building with four walls that housed my family and I. It was the threat contained in our food, home, bed, air, personal products, toiletries, etc that motivated me to keep it green and clean. As a mom I really want to know about environmental factors and products that may affect the health of my family. By this time I already had a very sick child who was poisoned by the pharma drugs (vaccines) I had been trained to believe would keep him healthy. I had also experienced him becoming very ill in reaction to a toxic toilet cleaner and he didn’t even eat it or rub it on his skin, he simply inhaled the fumes. With fresh eyes I decided not to trust my government anymore because they were clearly lax in their duties to keep products offered to the public safe. Thus began my own journey.

When I heard that my bloggy friend Deanna Duke (ie Crunchy Chicken) was writing a book called The Non Toxic Avenger, I knew it would be right up my alley. Not only do I love her writing and her humor, I love the subject matter. It is near and dear to my heart, especially since her husband was diagnosed with a type of cancer that is typical to elderly folks and so was I. When her husband and son both received a heartbreaking diagnosis within the span of one week, she wanted answers. I appreciated very much reading about her journey, the answers she found, and her insights into the toxins all around us, toxins that are making us sick.

Deanna decided to get tested for a wide array of toxins and measure her “toxic body burden”. While she had been furthering green and sustainable causes for years she really believed that things like shampoo and deodorant were safe or the government would not allow them to be sold. After her personal experiences with her son and husband though, along with some insights gleaned from a book titled Slow Death by Rubber Duck, she decided to make some changes. She wanted to see what her toxic body burden was and if she could reduce it by eliminating sources of toxins in her life. This book is the result of that personal experiment.

When she got down to the nitty gritty of her experiment she analyzed ALL her choices and habits from the material used to make her eyeglasses to the jewelry she had in her jewelry box. Going along with her on this journey was very eye opening as she did an incredibly thorough job researching all potential sources of toxins in her family’s life. It also had so many aspects that directly related to me and my struggles. My first child was just a mess as far as health was concerned so of course I wonder if my own choices and toxic body burden played a role in his issues. For more than 9 months he had a very unhealthy home in my womb. Were his issues caused by vaccines alone or were my toxic shampoos, hair coloring, MSG Chinese take out meals, and nesting activities that included a big bottle of Windex a factor? These are the questions that can keep you up at night.

This is exactly why books like Deanna’s are so important. Young folks need to be made aware of the all the choices they are making that could adversely affect their health and that of their as yet unborn children. It is books like this that should be making the high school reading list! Instead of debating abortion in college, like I had to do, have students debate issues like this… the toxic nature of our lives. The abortion debate did nada for me in real life but this was info I could use!

Also discussed in the book were common health issues and what may be causing them. I had no idea for instance that a Swedish study in 2010 had found that children raised in homes with vinyl flooring, which can emit phthalates, were more likely to have autism (had vinyl floors for years AND a son with autism – we had the decked stacked against us). This clearly shows that environmental factors can be a culprit. ADHD, cancer, and early puberty in kids are also explored.

Some of the products that Deanna analyzed in depth include:

• Non stick cookware
• water repellent fabrics
• food dyes
• candles
• mammograms
• perfumes
• nail polish
• deodorant
• tap water
• pharma drugs
• pillows and bedding
• hair care products
• house paint
• alcohol
• heating oil
• soap
• makeup
• lotion/sunscreen
• food
• holiday decor
• menstrual products
• cellphones and computers

What makes all of it infinitely more interesting is that you are not reading a dry list of factoids. The information is shared much the same way a friend would tell you about what she discovered when she researched this and that and what it meant to their lives and health. I especially loved that she got household items tested with an XRF gun. A necklace she frequently wore tested way over the federal limit for lead, as did a charm on a bracelet her daughter wore. A PC laptop charger tested high for bromine levels but a Mac charger tested with no detectable levels. A small sampling of items tested raised a lot or red flags and made her wonder about other things in her home. It just goes to show that all those government regulations can end up meaning diddly squat in the end.

Criticisms about the book? I found myself wondering about the need to find substitutes for some things… like a wrist watch, lotion, or makeup for example. I got to thinking that there was some rationalizations of silly things but then I had to own up to the fact that this can be chalked up to our differences as human beings. I found it incredibly easy to forgo wearing a watch, putting lotion on my skin, or wearing a stitch of makeup… but that is me. I am also not a former model and I don’t occasionally appear on TV like the author. I was also generally not a fan of the idea that flu shots are a necessary evil. I don’t think I have ever gotten a flu shot and I know my kids haven’t either. It is unlikely we ever will but then again I don’t live with someone who has immunity issues due to chemo. I cannot really criticize anything in the book. I only disagreed with a couple small things or felt the rationalization for needing certain products didn’t resonate with me personally.

Overall the book is a wonderful source of information about our toxic home environment and how that contributes to our health. It packaged in an easy to read and humorous format that kept me glued to the book from the first page to the last. Since I tend to lose interest in many books quite fast that is saying quite a bit. I am very picky about my reading material so am always pleasantly surprised to pick up a book and find myself halfway through the book in no time at all. I would recommend it highly to all parents and those seeking to move beyond planetary issues alone and include more education about body burdens and sustaining our own health.

And I just have to add that I read this book several months before it released and shared my feedback with Deanna way back when. She included my endorsement in the opening pages of the book. Booyah! This is like the 3rd or 4th time I have been quoted or mentioned in a book but it never gets old. ;)

Enjoy!

Book Link: The Non-Toxic Avenger: One woman’s mission to reduce her toxic body burden

At the library recently I picked up Money Secrets of the Amish: Finding True Abundance in Simplicity, Sharing, and Saving. It sounded like a perfect fit for me. I am fascinated by the Amish, who live very near to me, and I am a big fan of simple living. I have also recently delved into the world of scrimping and saving, something totally new to me actually. We have lived comfortably for years and without a budget of any kind, but we have also lived pretty much paycheck to paycheck. We have been one disaster away from real financial trouble for years because we could not manage to save. Didn’t even have a savings account until September of this year… pathetic I know. Anyway, a book changed all that about 2 months ago but I was still looking for ways to save money so that my burgeoning savings account and IRA could be beefed up even more. Once I got started saving it became like a game of sorts and I liked the challenge of finding ways to continually add more and more money to my these accounts.

In order to save more money I have been reading up a storm about great savers and the Amish definitely qualify! I have been in several Amish homes and it is absolutely amazing how they survive and thrive on so little. Money Secrets was written by a journalist after she read an article about how the simple people were actually thriving after the recession of 2008. She was so keen to find out how they do it that she decided to spend some time in their neck of the woods and interview many Amish families. What also makes it interesting is that she was experiencing lots of money hardships at the time and was looking to put what she learned into immediate practice. Learning their tricks was needed for its practical application.

It was an interesting look into the daily lives and habits of these people and also an interesting look into how the author applied everything she learned. One of the chapters that had the biggest impact on me was about the UWMW principle, “Use It Up, Wear It Out, Make It Do, Or Do Without”. The Amish use everything until it is threadbare or just a scrap of what it used to be and then they use it some more. I have to get MUCH better about sewing clothing that rips around here instead of just turning it into rags or finding someone to fix a broken piece of equipment instead of giving up and buying new. I also need to do a bit more “home recycling” of what might otherwise be considered garbage or recycle bin fodder. Right after reading the book I remembered how I wanted to go thrifting for some baskets to go under our bathroom sinks. After looking around our house a bit I found a couple cardboard boxes that will do instead and I can even paint them using Tempera paints we have on hand if I want to. When the Amish need something simple (like a storage container) they figure out how they can get it without buying it. When they need something big they still try to find out how they can get it free… scrap yards, junkyards, dumpsters, etc. I recall that when my grandmother died a few years ago there were some Amish at her estate sale. They bought up old stuff from the barn that I would have assumed was trash but I imagine they took the stuff home, cleaned up 20 years of grime, and it served them well for many years. I want to be that thrifty!

Other interesting chapters addressed things like instant gratification and how patient the Amish are when it comes to their want list, gifting during special occasions and holidays, buying in bulk, and being frugal foodies. After reading I really wanted to find an Amish grocer in my area so I can see their bulk offerings and I got a hankering for Shoofly pie. Oh and next spring I will insist that my hubby find an Amish source for grass fed beef because the prices the author started paying were staggeringly low.

The only thing that bothered me about the book was that sometimes the author would relate how she asked one of the Amish a question and then she would get sidetracked by some funny reponse or story and then never share the true answer to the question. A couple times I was left scratching my head and going “Is that it?” but otherwise it was a very enjoyable book and it really got my wheels turning about how I can bring some of that simple abundance into my life and save some pennies to.

Enjoy!

If you have ever embraced a plant based or raw foods diet then you have likely heard of Brendan Brazier.  He is an Ironman Triathlete who also happens to be vegan. I have read about him in various raw foods books since he is quite the fan of raw foods but mostly I knew of him from his product Vega, which I have used in smoothies. Even if you are not raw it is beneficial IMO to look to raw supplement powders because they always tend to be made from whole, organic, healthy foods that are as close to their natural state as you can get. Despite being a fan of his product and admiring his achievements I never picked up any of his books. I guess I figured they were geared towards athletes and that did not interest me much. But after reading Thrive Foods I am thinking I should reserve some of his other books at my local library because this book at least, was very relevant to my life and to anyone concerned with healthy foods I suspect.

The concept behind it is very near and dear to my heart since I call myself a nourished vegetarian. That primarily means that I subscribe to WAPF ideas while maintaining a vegetarian diet. More specifically it means I try to eat a nutrient dense veggie diet. Thrive Foods is one of the best books I have read though that explains exactly what that means.

It was Brazier’s search for foods that would help him recover fast and make the greatest gains in his athletic training that lead him to the ideas in this book. He figured that if he wanted to keep improving his body and performance then he needed to concentrate on the regeneration process our bodies go through after we exercise. How well and how fast we regenerate depends on our cells – the biological building blocks. If our cells do not have everything they need to function they experience what he calls nutritional stress. At first Brazier did what most athletes do… consume mass quantities of food thereby consuming mass quantities of nutrients. When he didn’t get his desired results he decided to analyze his food choices more carefully and realized that being fed is not the same as being nourished.

He discovered that macronutrients is what he needed to be looking for. Foods that had the most bang for their buck or the most maronutrutrients per calorie, ie nutrient density. What amazed me was the idea that is our body’s search for missing nutrients is what causes us to feel hungry and not a need for more fuel (calories). I always thought  that when we felt hunger pangs it is was calories to keep the home fires burning that we needed. But after reading this book it was a light bulb moment for me because true enough if I eat a big handful of pretzels/crackers I will be hungry literally 5 minutes later. If I eat a banana though, I am satiated for awhile, even if it had less calories in it. It is in fact nutrients our body is asking for and here I thought my ravenous hunger of late meant I was not eating enough calories to support my increased exercise and weight lifting activities. For the past week or so I have been very mindful of nutrient density when choosing foods and have experienced almost no hunger even though I ate less calories than previous weeks. Whether that will mean more muscle remains to be seen but I am pretty convinced.

Where this book differs from WAPF ideas on nourishing foods is obviously the fact that it encourages plant based foods above animal products. While it is true that animal products may actually be more nutrient dense there are still rampant problems with them. Brazier goes into a step by step comparison of how efficient it is to eat animals versus eating select plants and when you consider all the resources used to grow feed crops and raise animals it is simply more efficient and less of a strain on our planet to go with plant based foods, even when considering shipping of more exotic varieties. The book even addresses grass fed and pastured animal products and does not dispute that they are favorable to other animal products for a variety of reasons. But he makes a convincing arguement for why these types of products could never be available to the whole planet. There simply would not be enough to feed everyone and that makes it unsustainable in the long run. I read the chapters that discuss this with great interest and I have read opposing ideas as well (ala The Vegetarian Myth) and Brazier definitely makes the most compelling and researched case.

The second half of his book goes through a variety of foods, page by page, highlighting why they are nutrient dense, healthy food choices. Then it concludes with 200 recipes. Many of the recipes came from celebrated chefs who specialize in plant based cuisine and this was done so we would get an amazing array of tried and true dishes that taste good. I plan on making many of them myself but I started with the Parsnip Oven Fries. I wanted an after school snack for my kids and this french fry look alike hit the spot. They cooked up nice and crispy but a bit too dark and that was my fault for gabbing on the phone while they were baking. Served them up with some catsup and the kids thought they were regular old fries (which excited them because I never make fries) with just a bit of an “off” taste. Plus they were full of healthy fats via coconut oil.

Will be trying some of the other recipes soon. I already see improvement in energy levels since reading Thrive Foods. It just makes you all that more aware of the nutrient density of the foods you are choosing and when I am aware I make better choices and get more nutrition out of my food overall. At the very least it has spurred me into eating more fresh fruit throughout the day, which has done wonders for the skin. LOVE the title too… it is about being nourished instead of just fed and it is about thriving instead of just getting by.

“Like” Brendan Brazier’s Facebook page for some free recipes from the book. Enjoy!