As I mentioned in my Valentine’s post I am declaring Buddha Chocolate a new fave around here. I have always adored raw chocolate but since going Paleo late last year I am craving chocolate more than ever. Not the milk chocolate you find at most grocery stores either. I only want super dark chocolate, which is harder to find unless I drive to a health foods store. Not sure why I am experiencing these cravings but I feel comfortable just going with it. Buddha Chocolate sent me some of their offerings to review and I shared them with the husband this week. We both curled up on the couch for a good movie while the kiddies were at school and we noshed on chocolate. Does it get better than that? Nay.

Okay so what makes this chocolate better than what you can get at the grocery checkout? Well, it is raw & organic artisan chocolate made with pure Ecuadorian cacao beans. They sweeten it with raw, humane honey and the total ingredient list is very short with REAL food ingredients. Since the chocolate is not heated over 108 degrees all the enzymes and nutrients are in tact, which makes it a healthy, living food. They are dairy free, soy free, gluten free, and have no added sugar.

I was also blown away by the taste. The two almond butter cups they sent were my fave. A healthy version of the infamous peanut butter cup! The almond butter was creamy and delicious and the chocolate was rich and amazing. One of them (the red) has strawberries and full Goji berries in it. It was my #1 pick. All three chocolates have mesquite in them which gives them a lovely smoky flavor and they all have Pink Himalayan Crystal salt in them too. The salt factor gave them a real wow factor. The chocolate bar was generously sprinkled in the stuff. Insanely delicious!

The packaging is gorgeous and each piece has a Buddha quote on it for a bit of fun. I still have the little quotes on my desk. One was about quality of life and the other was about love. Both timely for Valentine’s Day I think. The owners of Buddha Chocolate are two adorable yoga teachers in New York City so this is a small business worth supporting too. As with most raw chocolate the price is up there but these are luxurious chocolates that are very rich and worth the price as long as they are an occasional luxury. If you love raw chocolate as I do, Buddha Chocolate is a must try. Enjoy!

Telling me you are a doctor and know a little something about nutrition and health doesn’t mean much to me. The more you research and take your health into your own hands… the further you go down that rabbit hole, the more you realize that most doctors and physicians are just products of a failed system and flawed science. Vaccination is a perfect example. We are told over and over again that vaccines are safe and that they keep us safe. Get those shots! It is only when a parent comes home from a well check or a hospital with a severely damaged child that they decide to kick over some rocks and find the truth. It is the same with many other aspects of health, disease, and nutrition. We have all been indoctrinated and it takes a great bit of courage and strength to take the red pill (ala The Matrix) and wake up from the fog. When you do, you start to realize that many doctors and physicians took the blue pill and they cannot help you on your journey to true wisdom and knowledge.

From there you have to find the physicians, researchers, scientists, and otherwise motivated individuals who have been brave enough to forge their own path and challenge current ideas about health and diet. I am going to list some resources that I feel fit the bill here. This is not to say that I agree 100% with everything contained therein but they have a lot of great info that challenges conventional wisdom. Read through and see what you think. Also shout out your own resources in the comments. Enjoy!

Wheat Belly – You may be sick of hearing about this book by now since I mention it quite often. It really is a life changing book that manages to take random bits and pieces you already knew and arrange them in a completed puzzle. You close the book wondering how you never saw it before.  You also wonder if mainstream medicine is really that stupid or if they are covering this up to protect other interests.

The New Evolution Diet - This book shows our paleolithic ancestors did not suffer from heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, or obesity. It also exposes a good deal of what we view as normal aging as a modern condition that is more akin to disease than any natural state of growing older. While it does confirm that we have made many wonderful advances in medicine it also shares why our modern ideas on nutrition and diet have been devastating for human health.

Nourishing Traditions – This is one of those books I don’t completely agree with but it still has lots of great info. Most importantly it shares how saturated fats and cholesterol are not villains but vital factors for health. While it doesn’t encourage us to go back as far as our paleolithic ancestors for dietary ideas it definitely encourages us to stay away from modern processed foods.

Eat Fat Lose Fat - Flouts conventional wisdom by revealing that so-called healthy vegetable oils (such as corn and soybean) are in large part responsible for our national obesity and health crisis, while the saturated fats traditionally considered “harmful” are essential to weight loss and health.

The No Grain Diet - The main point is that refined grains of any type are basically deadly and eating them should be viewed as an unhealthy addiction.

Good Calories, Bad Calories: Fats, Carbs, and the Controversial Science of Diet and Health -  This book could use a Cliff Notes companion. It is REALLY in depth and at times a tough read but WOW. It is jam packed with wonderful information. The author shows us that almost everything we have been taught about the nature of a healthy diet is wrong.

The Whole Soy Story: The Dark Side of America’s Favorite Health Food - An expose about the information the soy industry has tried to suppress. Soy is not a health food, does not prevent disease and has not even been proven safe.  Epidemiological, clinical and laboratory studies link soy to malnutrition, digestive problems, thyroid dysfunction, cognitive decline, reproductive disorders, even heart disease and cancer.

Fat Head – This is a movie and you can actually get it on Netflix. When I sat down to watch it for the first time I thought it was going to be a crock of you know what because it takes aim at another documentary, Super Size Me. I have no love for McDonalds so even though I have never seen Super Size Me I WANT to believe that every incriminating thing in the movie is true. Fat Head shows us how that other documentary was more fiction than fact. Tim Naughton does a high fat, fast food diet himself for 30 days and loses weight. And no the movie is not actually an endorsement for fast food. You have to watch. The latter half is actually the most informative. Naughton discusses how we came to accept current nutrition ideas, why they are wrong, and how politics and the food industry is keeping that from us. It is also VERY funny.

Earthing – Demonstrates how our loss of physical contact with the earth is harming our health and provides a solution that does not include sleeping in a grass hut.

Lights Out: Sleep, Sugar, and Survival - This book attacks agriculture and grains as the most devastating thing to happen to human health and the invention of the light bulb and artificial light as the second worst. Lots of wonderful information on why we need more sleep and how we can help reduce stress in our bodies caused by artificial light.

There are probably numerous other resources I could mention but those are the ones on the front burner for me lately. How about you?

Added to Real Food Wednesday

Over the weekend rumors were flying that Paula Deen was going to announce that she has developed Type 2 Diabetes. This is such a hot issue because in recent years she has been called out in the media, and by fellow Food Network chefs, for her food being so unhealthy. Today she did in fact confirm that she developed diabetes three years ago. The delay in the announcement seems clearly, to me at least, an attempt to buy time and figure out how to spin this and profit from it. In addition to becoming a pharmaceutical company spokesperson she is also starting a new diabetes management program called ‘Diabetes in a New Light’ which appears closely linked to the aforementioned pharma company.

I have limited knowledge of Paula Deen myself. I did not watch her show (though I may have seen bits of an episode or two) and I don’t want to bash her or bash her food. That is not the intent of this post. What irritates me about this whole thing is that the first thing people say when they hear about this is… “Well, just look at all the fat in her recipes!” They talk about her fried foods and her love of butter. They talk about all the bacon she used in her recipes. They talk about how she needs to go vegan and get rid of all that fat. Huh????

Color me confused but what in the heck does fat have to do with this issue. Nothing. Why does everyone bring up the fat content of her meals? It was not the fat that made her diabetic. It was all the sugar and other foods that turn into sugar and cause insulin spikes and blood sugar imbalance, the carbs. It was not the butter, it was the bread, pasta, grains, baked goods, and sugar. It wasn’t the egg, or the patty, or the bacon in her Lady’s Brunch Burger… it was the glazed doughnut that sandwiched these things.

Perhaps Ms. Deen DID go overboard with fats in her recipes. I don’t dispute that. I highly doubt she much considered the quality of her fats either. But I do not think that fats make you fat and lots of current research supports this. Watch the movie Fat Head for a crash course. The book Wheat Belly also addresses this at length. It is too many calories and all the carbs… grains, pancakes, pasta, doughnuts, bread, oatmeal, etc that causes obesity. The insulin causes our body to store fat and send messages to our brain to keep eating carbs, even though technically we have eaten enough calories. Fat satiates us and makes us feel full. Carbs make us hungry again an hour after we eat a big meal. The insulin spikes from the constant carb load eventually cause insulin resistance. Our body is worn out from years of abuse and we develop type 2 diabetes and it wasn’t from eating fat. If you put two sticks of butter in your mac and cheese that didn’t help matters. Yet it was the pasta next to all that cheese and butter that caused your body to store that fat instead of burn it and make you ready for seconds before the first plate even digested.

It bothers me to see bloggers and other media folks harping on the fat while they give a free pass to the real culprits… the grains and carbs. Obesity is blamed when obesity is simply the symptom. Sadly when Paula Deen’s recipes are revamped for “healthier” eating they will likely become low fat whilst remaining high carb. A diet like that almost ensures that a diabetic will need to take insulin for management and intertwine their future with a pharma company who is motivated by profit and has no desire to help you achieve actual health.

Sadly I see the wrong foods being blamed here and the “cure” isn’t going to do anything but ensure you become and remain, a pharma customer. Why isn’t anyone talking about that?

Lady Brunch Burger Photo Source  | Added to Real Food Wednesday

When I posted about going grain free this week and also eschewing some other foods, I got many comments and emails asking what in the Sam Hill I WOULD be eating. I understand the confusion. As a nourished vegetarian most of my protein came from eggs, dairy, grains, legumes, beans, lentils, nuts and nut butters, greens, and protein supplements. This year I have decided to go grain free and pseudo grain free. This means everything from whole wheat and oats, to rice and Quinoa, is on the chopping block. I am also giving up potatoes, legumes, beans, and lentils. I am restricting dairy to just a small bit of cheese and/or Greek yogurt each day as well.

The comments I got in regards to this were a mixture of confusion (what is left to eat?!) and frustration. It is indeed very frustrating to hear that the foods that have been paraded around in front of you as healthy for all your life, actually aren’t so healthy for you after all. Everyone thinks they have the “right” answer as well. The Weston A. Price folks cling to their lard, tallow, and liver like a security blanket, while the vegetarians and vegans sing the praises of their grains and soy. Raw foodies have wisely ditched the grains but go a bit overboard with nuts and carbs. I have followed all of these diets in the past. None of them seemed to cure everything that ailed me though and recently that has really started to bother me. I truly believe that food should be our medicine and instead of accepting certain nagging health issues as part of life I decided I wanted to get to the bottom of mine. I never imagined that I would want to go paleo or primal and in fact last year I would have said you were out of your cottin pickin mind if you told me I ever would. Those folks are fanatical about meat! And they don’t like dairy, like my beloved yogurt!

So what changed my mind? Actually it was by listening to my own body and analyzing all of my food intake in depth. Thanks to my obsession with SparkPeople.com I have tracked every bit of food that has entered my mouth for over a year. I saw exactly how many grams of carbs, fat, and protein I was consuming as well as all the major vitamins and minerals. It is conventional wisdom that guides Sparkpeople so it is naturally aimed me for a high carb, low fat, moderate protein diet as the goal. Even if I knew that fats were not bad as we have been programmed to believe it still bothered me to get a warning at the end of the day if I went over what they considered healthy. It was almost impossible to eat too many carbs though, which seemed wrong to me. I also had trouble meeting the minimum protein requirements many days.

After I got into weight training I realized my protein load was lacking and my carb load was causing me to feel hungry all day. I was frankly sick and tired of feeling ravenous only an hour or two after a big meal. It got to where I was making dinner for myself later and later because I hoped I would be in bed and asleep before the inevitable after-dinner hunger pangs struck. I knew something was off… my blood sugar and insulin levels. I need protein to keep making gains at the gym. I need less carbs so that I won’t be hungry all the time and be causing my blood sugar to spike all day long. I need more fats in the diet for the same reason… fats are what make you feel satiated and full. My analysis leads me to think I would be better served by a high fat, moderate protein, low carb diet.

If I want low carb then I need to stick to fruits and veggies as my source of carbs and drop any processed carbs that cause blood sugar spikes like grains, rice, potatoes, beans, and the like. After reading books like Wheat Belly I learned of another bazillion reasons to ditch them as well, especially grains like wheat. Going raw again was my first thought but I didn’t want to go crazy with nuts just to get my protein and fat levels higher. They are really hard on the digestive system. I am not a fan of avocados the way most raw foodies are either and coconut products are good but not in massive quantities. Plus raw foodies typically eat metric tons of fruit and dehydrated fruit… ala constant blood sugar spikes yet again. Ironically I had just read a blog post by a raw foodie talking about how many raw food dessert bars they ate in one day, uncontrollably. That sealed it. Lots of dehydrated fruit is no good either because the concentrated sugars will cause you to be ravenous just a short time later as your blood sugar drops. I needed to get off that roller coaster, not find a different version of the same ride.

At the same time I also wanted to address nagging health issues. My thyroid problem was not going away and I am still forced to take meds, something I detest. The hair loss in women is a deal breaker for many, me included. I am also suffering from sleep issues, seasonal depression, some annoying aches and pains, bloating, dry skin, and I broke out like a teenager during a couple of my last menstrual cycles. Yeah, something was way off. It isn’t something I started eating, like the soy-thyroid fiasco, because my diet has been constant, it is most likely something I wasn’t eating.

My research kept leading me back to the paleo or primal diet which is high fat, moderate protein, and low carb (no bad carbs). So why not? Well there is that whole vegetarian thing but I never gave up meat because I thought it was unhealthy to eat. It was out of concern for body acidity and environmental impact that I gave up on meat. I will keep things alkaline by going grain free and the eco issues are solved by buying local, pastured, ethically treated meat and not supporting factory farming. I always said I would go back to eating meat the moment we could raise our own on a small family farm but I guess I can’t wait that long. Of course I will have to put my own spin on the paleo diet and keep most of the fruits and veggies raw, drink my green smoothies, and not forgo dairy entirely. Another big factor is that the rest of my family eats meat and cooking/making different meals has got to stop. It will be such a huge stress reliever to make one meal that all of us eat!

This blog is not vegetarian centric in any way but I know that early this year when I posted a picture of a fish my son caught, some readers acted as though they wanted to come through their computer screens and claw my eyes out. I know some may be disappointed or angry to read I am going back to eating meat but I think I have explained some very solid reasons for doing so. It’s worth a try in my opinion.

I started this diet just before Christmas so it is hard to say with certainty how it is going but I am encouraged thus far that I am on the right track. I am already noticing that I am not experiencing bloating anymore, and I am not hungry between meals. Not hungry AT ALL. In fact I am having trouble getting in all the calories I should be consuming because my body already seems to be using fat stores for energy rather than sending messages to my brain that glucose fuel is needed and I need to eat carbs. I have also been sleeping better already, waking up slightly less in the night. No miracles to proclaim but there is improvement. I look forward to seeing what 2012 brings my way.

Right now I am reading lots about paleo/primal diets. It is based upon meats, seafood, nuts, healthy oils, greens, veggies, and fruit. We all know that previous generations were healthier than our own but rather than eating like my grandmother or my great-grandmother did, I am going back a bit further. The science is there and it is fascinating to read about the way we ate for thousands of years, primal health, and even ways we can exercise that can help us achieve the lean but immensely strong bodies of our ancestors. After reading The Primal Blueprint I was ready to kiss Mark Sisson, whose blog I used to eyeball occasionally but never read in depth, until now. He advises against chronic cardio and shows why that is actually not good for us to run marathons and do extensive cardio as so many do these days. I felt like a lazy slug because I had no desire to run long distances. I am totally content with running a mile or two max (and not every day) and yet all the cool kids seem to be doing marathons and half marathons. Now I am completely content to stick with my mild cardio workouts and weights.

Other Books I am Loving:

The Primal Blueprint Cookbook

Everyday Paleo (pictured above)

The New Evolution Diet

Hope I have answered the “What Will You Eat” question. I wanted to find a happy balance… WAPF with less grains and dairy, raw with more protein and diverse fats, and less sugar/carbs. I think that paleo /primal is a happy middle ground. Is it the “right” way? The jury is still out.

I recently spent a few days at my parents’ house a couple counties away. I always bring a few books with me and enjoy the unplugged time and this particular visit was no exception. Almost as soon as I walked in the door I plopped down on a recliner and pulled out a book I was excited to read, Wheat Belly by William Davis, MD. It was the second book I read in a week that dealt with the issue of eschewing grains from the diet (more on the other book later).

For the new year I decided to make some diet changes. I would consider myself a pretty healthy person who eats a healthy, balanced diet. The nourishing vegetarian, high raw diet I have “mostly” followed since my cancer diagnosis in 2006 has brought me back to health and vitality and yet there are some nagging health issues that have not been cleared up. My thyroid issue, which I am certain was caused by the soy I didn’t even know I was eating, is not reversing itself. I have had trouble getting to sleep and staying asleep for several years now. I think I have a few too many aches and pains for a 34 year old woman to have. As healthy as I may think my diet is, something has to be missing, right? The answer seems to be lurking in the dietary realms in which I did not want to go. Time to man up, or woman up, and go there for 2012.

One major change is that I am going grain free this year. No more wheat for me. I am also adding to my “NO” list rice, legumes, lentils, potatoes, corn, and quinoa. All of these things have either gluten-like components that cause digestive issues and immunity issues or they cause blood sugar spikes which can lead to insulin resistance. After reading Wheat Belly I am more and more convinced that this is the right thing to do. Despite the fact that I already limit grains and/or soak and ferment them, I know that they actually have no place in my diet at all and there is no time like the present to bite the bullet.

The book is essentially about modern wheat’s assault on our health. It follows the evolution of wheat, starting with its much milder, ancestors einkorn and emmer to the drastically hybridized and genetically modified wheat we have today. The early versions of wheat would not be suitable for things like bread and doughnuts; it was more suitable for porridge. It was also not suitable to be grown on a very large scale. Hence human involvement to adapt and change wheat so that it was everything we wanted it to be. Everything except safe for consumption ironically. No studies or tests were done to determine if all these changes we have made to wheat were safe and many scientists, including the doctor who wrote this book, think it is one of the most devastating foods to human health there is. It is a major factor behind obesity, diabetes, intestinal issues, Celiac Disease, compromised bones, heart disease, skin conditions, hair loss, and inflammation like rheumatoid arthritis. The book also explains how wheat is an addictive substance. There are numerous stories about how his patients reversed some very serious health conditions simply by kicking wheat to the curb.

The reason the book is called Wheat Belly is pretty clear from the beginning chapters. Wheat actually causes your body to store fat. It elevates blood sugar almost more than any other carb, including candy bars. It triggers insulin and the growth of fat, especially in the abdominal area. Not only does it make us fatter, it also stresses out our endocrine system with all the glucose spikes. If we eat a lot of complex carbs it’s like a roller coaster ride that never ends. It is no wonder that so many are getting type 2 diabetes. They are wearing these bodily systems out!

Another big sticking point is that wheat and other grains make the body acidic. This, coupled with concerns about factory farming, was why I gave up meat. I did not realize that grains had the same, and even worse, effect. I would have been much better served giving those up instead but conventional wisdom trains us to believe that grains are so good for us. Just think about how many times you read a food package and it says “Heart Healthy Whole Grains”.

There is so much information in this book that I barely knew where to start in reviewing it. I think I have hit on several of the major points but I barely scratched the surface. It is a must read for anyone who is eating grains.

Here is to a great “grain free” year!