How to Increase Your Covid Risk of Death Tenfold

I really did not want to write an article about covid.  

The simple act of reading the word for a lot of people piles on anxiety and contributes to a disruption in mental health.  The media has never talked about another issue as much as it has with this one; it is ultra-saturation overboard and I did not want to contribute to any of that.  Most of the articles that are scrolled across are full of panic, fear, death, OCD-handwashing, isolationism, potential poverty, job loss, economic collapse, and political fights.  It is no wonder that people are stressed out and on high alert, living around the clock in fight-or-flight mode.  Something as simple and seemingly benign as a trip to the grocery store has people behaving as if every other human being is a threat to their life - strangers hiding behind masks, gloved up, and eyeing each other suspiciously or not at all. 

As the weeks and months have crawled on at a snail's pace, we have thankfully been able to gather quite a bit of data regarding many things surrounding this issue to understand it a bit better.

I have recently come across some information that may be initially a little scary for some of you, but I intend to give you a workaround and provide you with some hope.

Here's the thing, lovelies - we're not afraid of a regular virus.  We're not afraid of the flu, we're not afraid of a cold.  

We are, however, afraid of a virus that we think is going to kill us haphazardly.  We don't want to die.  We don't want our loved ones to die.  We don't want to be a statistic.  We don't like the thought that just going to the grocery store could end our lives.  Many are paralyzed with fear that they could be carriers and kill of their parents, their children, and all the old people in the grocery store, out on the streets going for a walk, and all of our neighbors.  What seems like a random chance of a very unpleasant death alone in a hospital bed is a nightmare that none of us want to participate in.  Nobody wants to play Russian roulette with this.

This is understandable.  

But what if it's not exactly that way?

We have read the numbers about how it significantly affects the elderly population more strongly than the youth.  This is still not a relief, of course, but with this we are able to see a pattern.

New information is coming out that is showing an overwhelming and shocking link to the severity of covid with several underlying comorbidities.

Data from the first 2204 patients admitted to the National Health Service in Europe revealed that 72.7% were overweight or obese.  That is an incredible number!  This number speaks only of obesity, and not even of age.  (Please note that this number is the percentage of those who were admitted to the hospital, and not of those who died.)

Those with type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome have a ten times greater risk of death than those who are metabolically healthy. 

Because this virus strongly affects lung function, it is no surprise that a study from China found that smokers were fourteen times more likely to get severe disease than non-smokers.   

Other staggering comorbidities reflected that hypertension (high blood pressure) was a prevalent partner in those who were dying from the novel coronavirus.  

With only 12.2% of Americans metabolically healthy, how could this ever be hopeful?

It is hopeful because of something called nutrigenomics.

Nutrigenomics is the study of how our genetic expression is affected by the food we eat and how the food we eat affects our genetic expression.  This branch of science, biology, and medicine offers a tremendous amount of hope to all of us, but especially to those who are living in fear of death by "the rona".  

Here's the deal.  Food is the language of our cells.  Every single bite is information to our bodies.  Every single bite delivers information that turns on or turns off genetic expression.  Maybe you are among those who are suffering from type 2 diabetes or obesity - right now, your body has those switches flipped on.  But it doesn't have to stay that way!

When we think of making a difference in our bodies by changing our diets, many of us think that it takes months or years of nonstop suffering and kale to see effects.  We think with targets out that far away, it's not even worth it - there's no hope.  It will take too long and it will cost us too much joy.  Weight loss may be something that does take a while, especially if you don't have a lot of testosterone and if you are over 40.  But weight loss is not the same as genetic expression.

All of this means that you can do something about it.  It means that you can drastically cut (or increase) your risk of death by the novel coronavirus.  It is not an unknown monster hiding in the closet.  It is not Russian roulette.  You have access to actions that can decrease or increase your risk of death.

Every single bite you take makes a difference.  Every. Single. Bite.  Within two weeks, your body will begin reflecting significant change in genetic expression.  You may not see that in weight loss and you may not see instant toned abs and a six-pack, but at a level that you cannot see, change is happening and it is drastic. 

Type 2 diabetes and obesity can be changed drastically with diet.  It is a wonderful, glorious, and hopeful fact!  It is not easy and there is no magic pill to take, but it will bring results that you will be thankful for.  

If you find yourself in this position and you want to make change, I urge you to do a few things that will significantly affect your genetic expression, pushing you farther and farther away from risk in each bite that you take.

1.  Only eat real food.  

This sounds dumb, but most food in the grocery store isn't real food.  I mean that you should be eating only fruits, vegetables, meats/fish/poultry, and very minimally processed dairy.  You should not be eating food that comes out of a box.  You should not eat foods that have bright colors.  Eat food that grew on trees, grew out of the ground, walked on the ground, swam in the water, and is recognized in nature.  

Cereal is not real food.  Tortilla chips are not real food.  Granola bars are not real food.  At least, none of those are real food for this purpose.  Eat only real food that you put together to make other food, not food that a factory made for you. 

Yeah, I know.  I lost you when I spoke disparagingly about tortilla chips, but since this is a life or death kind of thing, I'm going to tell it to you straight because you need to hear it and because you really can change your life.

2.  Avoid sugar and carbs like the plague.

You already know this, especially if you have diabetes - sugar cranks up your levels like crazy and makes you get into a downward spiral for insulin sensitivity.  That's the problem and that pushes you deeper into metabolic syndrome, type two diabetes, and obesity.  

The other thing is that sugar destroys the good guys in  your immune system and paralyzes them.  That's the last thing you need when there is a psycho virus on the loose.

This includes liquid sugar (which is the absolute worst of all) - soda, juice, energy drinks, and coffee drinks that pretend to be coffee but are actually just dessert.  It includes cookies, cakes, pies, candy, ice cream, and every single thing that you love.  (I know.  I'm just going for it all today, aren't I?  Sorry, not sorry.  I will risk hurting your feelings if it will save your life.)

Bread?  Nope.  Not right now.  Not for you.  Pasta?  Sorry, it's not on your team, either.  I wish they were.  I get it, I really do.

If you don't hate me yet, I'll get you with this - alcohol.  You probably should significantly limit that, also.  

3.  If you have type 2 diabetes, you should consider looking into intermittent fasting.

That looks like eating within an 8 hour window in a day.  This helps regulate insulin levels significantly. 

Here are some things that you should be doing:

1.  If you're not taking zinc, you're out of your mind and you need to get on that immediately.  Research is coming out solidly showing how zinc works with your immune system to fight covid before it can even get in and cause damage. 

2.  Drink your water.  Hydration is huge for helping your body work optimally.

3.  Get outside and get vitamin D on your skin.  This is huge for fighting this virus.

4.  Exercise at least 150 minutes a week.  Go.  This is not for vanity anymore.  This is to save your life. 

5.  Take and eat probiotics.  This includes naturally fermented foods like brined sauerkraut, kimchi, kombucha, kefir, miso, tempeh.  You can also take it in supplement form.  These not only help digestion and weight loss, they boost your immune system.

I know that many of these things are hard.  I know that reading through this might feel like I am a huge jerk who is raining on every fun party that ever existed in the history of the world.  I understand why you would think that - these changes are difficult! Not drinking wine and whiskey while simultaneously having to suddenly homeschool your children is for some a rather monumental task.

But lovelies, difficult is not impossible.  You can do this.  And with the risk that is out there, you owe it to yourself and to your family to have a fighting chance and to get yourself out of those categories that push you much closer to death.

Feeling out of control and hopeless is a very disturbing place to be.  Certainly life comes with wild things and we cannot control everything, but with what we know and understand of this virus, there are some helpful things that can be done to mitigate significant risk.

Let us not panic.  Take charge and do something about it.  If you are concerned with the death rate, begin taking action that will separate you from being a person of high risk.  

Do hard things.  We're in this together and I'm cheering for your success.

You've got this,
Ms. Daisy

Weight Loss on the Winning Team

Well, lovies, we've made it.  2017 has been cleared off of our plates and we're here with a fresh start, a new calendar waiting for you, blank, and ready.  The first day of 2018 greets us with the promise of new hope, dreams, and aspirations.  Will you focus on self-improvement, sanctification, connection, your health, being intentional and present, dropping addictions, loving more, enjoying your littles, learning something new, or a combination of all of those? 

Or perhaps you resolve to not make resolutions.  You've failed in the past and you aren't about that useless nonsense of flipping a calendar and waving a magic wand, hoping that you will magically change into someone new. You know yourself well enough to know that change comes slowly, and not because it is tradition when the Gregorian calendar tells us so. 

Whatever camp you find yourself in on this day, perhaps you are like many of my clients and friends who find themselves not quite exactly where they'd like to be physically after the head-on collision they've had with the holidays.  It all starts so subtly.  An extra bag of candy from the grocery store at Halloween because they've got a 2 for 1 sale slides quickly into the eating frenzy and near bake-off of Thanksgiving, which careens us smack into Christmas and Hanukkah, at which point we have given up on the voice of moderation because "it's the holidays" and we'll deal with that later, but now is the time for enjoyment!

Ah yes.  Enjoyment.  January 1 comes and that luster of "enjoyment" looks like you staring at yourself in your mismatched plaid pajama pants, gazing disgustedly at your puffy face, your unshaven bits (PSA: Hey guys!  It's time to shave those beards!  No, seriously - the homeless look is now officially out of vogue - unless you're a millennial, then whatever, man, go back to your microbrewery in the basement.  We won't bother you while you so creatively express yourself.), and a pile of glorious lumps you have somehow managed to acquire over the last few months.  You look aghast, wondering if it is the lighting or if, please God no, let me not really and actually be this hideously ugly.

Okay, that's it.  I'm not going to say it to my friends or on facebook, but bruuuh, I have got to do something.   And so it begins.  You start to reel it in just a little because you know you cannot go on like this. 

But what will work?  What will bring the success that you crave?  (Hint: It's not taking my locker at the gym.) 

Will it be to swear off cookies for the rest of your life?  Will it be to sweat it out on the ellipitical for three hours a day everyday for the unforeseeable future (a.k.a. until Valentine's Day when they have candy hearts and boxed chocolates for sale)?  Will it be to make chard sandwiches for breakfast to punish (I mean, reward) yourself?

If you even have an inkling about the nature of our complicated brains, you will know that these things can only work for a short time.  They are not sustainable (especially the chard sandwiches - right, Court?).  We are desperate little creatures sometimes and we will resort to absurdities to climb out of our panicked states.

I am not all about that cray cray thang.  I believe in making sustainable change slowly, and making it a lifestyle (want more?  Hint: YES, YOU DO.  Check out my book on Amazon: Just One Thing: Simplifying the Mystery of a Healthy Lifestyle.  You can snuggle it on your pillow or frame the cover and hang it on the wall.  Blow it up to poster size and put it next to your mirror with a speaking bubble that says, "YOU CAN DO EEET!"  Or just read it.  Any is fine.). I want you to be able to actually enjoy your life with a cookie, but not be a slave to the sugar god.  I want you to be able to look at something (even though it looks completely delicious) and shrug and be able to say, you know, right now I'm just not feeling it.   Contrast this with the feeling of you holding that third cookie in your hand, biting down, chewing, and thinking, I don't even really want this.  What am I doing right now?!  

What works?  In my health coaching practice, there is one thing that brings a glowing highlight of attention to what is going on in your life, and where you can study yourself to make good and lasting change.  It isn't exercise (although you ought to exercise).  It isn't swearing off foods exactly.

It's a food journal.

What?!  Yes.  A food journal.  Let me propose something to you.  I know it may seem wild, but just hear me out.  I believe that there is a potential that you may have slight cognitive dissonance between what you think you are eating and what you are actually eating, and you won't be able to bridge that gap until you put it in black and white and see for yourself.

My awesome clients have come back to me with amazing revelations.  They see that they are desperately in love with tortilla chips.  (This is actually a recurring theme among many of them. Read: YOU ARE NOT ALONE.)  They see that they are eating about a micro-ounce of protein all day and it suddenly dawns on them why they feel like they got hit by a truck and have energy swings like a cross between a Nanny 911 toddler and your 16 year-old self raging through a tornado of severe PMS.  They see that they are surviving on McDonald's and coffee during the day, cheese and crackers for dinner, and three bowls of ice cream before bed.  They realize that they are drinking a lot more junk than they thought they were (whether that is the poisonous Coke Zero or Tito's vodka or vanilla caramel lattes from Starbucks). 

You can do this old school - pen and paper.  You can get an app.  (And if you do, for the love of all that is good, do not bother tracking your calories.  Counting calories is so Jane Fonda era.  What counts is that you're eating real food.)  You can do it throughout the day.  You can do it at the end of the day.  You know what will work for you.  I also recommend that you write down a few other things in your food journal: how much sleep you got the night before, your overall mood (on a scale of 1-10), if you took any vitamins that day, and your stress level.  Those things will give you a broader picture of  what is going on in your life and how your body is responding to things.

Exercise is great and has many benefits for mental health, brain plasticity (by creating BDNF), preventing Alzheimer's, dementia, and increasing overall good mood, but it will not erase and repair your five donut a day habit.  Food is first.  In my personal guesstimate, I'd say that weight loss is 85% your food and beverage choices and 15% exercise.  Exercise comes to tone up the flabby.  Exercise is how you get that solid six-pack, but you won't even find that six-pack if you buried it under six layers of bagels and Pop Tarts.  Hear me: I do want you to exercise, but I want your exercise to be effective.  It is a lot easier to keep something up when you are actually hitting goals and making change than when you shovel ice cream down your pie hole and put yourself back ten steps.  You're fighting yourself and that is a losing battle, no matter how you look at it.

I want you to win for 2018.  I want you to smash goals.  If you're still breathing, you life isn't over.  Your race isn't finished.  It is not time to give up.  You've got stuff to give.  You were put on this planet to do something, to help others, to give your talents to change the world.  That is a lot easier to do when you have energy, a clear brain, and a body that works optimally.  No, it's not everything.  Your eternal soul will long outlive your shell, but what you do here and now makes a difference for eternity.  Embrace it and go get it.

Peace, love, and let's do this!
Ms. Daisy

p.s. If you'd like to work with me and have someone come along side of you and cheer you on and guide you toward your goals, get in touch with me.  It is an honor to watch people grow and change and become who they have wanted to be.  I'd love to help.  (Send me an email and connect with me: energeticwellnesscoaching@gmail.com)  I do Skype as well as in person programs.

me vs. waffles

I woke up this morning happy.  I saw the sun dancing through the leaves (despite the fact that it is fall and they are turning to yellows, oranges, reds, and browns); the chill outside of the blankets was not totally intolerable.  I was thinking about the blessings of the lovely people who are braided into the tapestry of my life and I decided that nothing could stop me.  Nothing could kill my happiness, not even my nemesis.  The unspeakable would not thwart me today.  I stood strong and spoke my intention firmly, you shall not succeed, you will not beat me.

I was going to make another attempt at waffles.

No, this may not sound like anything to you, but that is because you are normal.  The way that I make waffles is nothing short of being considered some sort of minor life event near worthy of marking it down in an online diary (ahem, like this).  As you can imagine, I am certainly not going to open some box of waffle mix and throw that onto some poison non-stick Teflon plug-in waffle maker.  That would be way too easy.

When I make waffles, it has to be a well-thought out, conscious decision.  The challenge that I am about to take on could quite possibly flip my switch from happy to irate in under an hour.  It is with this in mind that I summon sisu, pull up my big girl panties, throw on my Wonderwoman tank top, and get after it.

I want to eat as real as possible - it just tastes better, and you get a lot more nutrition.  This may seem slightly more complicated, but that's not where the challenge lies.  Grabbing eggs from the chicken coop and using a grain mill to make my favorite blend of flour brings a level of satisfaction that I don't consider a bother at all.  Instead, the challenge comes from the tools that I have decided to use, and the resulting mess that is nothing short of legendary.

Let me introduce you to the very impossible cast iron, stove top waffle maker.  It's small, maybe 8" in diameter.  The very useless and poorly thought out handle is about 4" long, which is just the right size for you to burn your hand even with an oven mitt on.  I bought it online, which is great for a better price, but is a bummer because it was not seasoned.  (The rest of my cast iron collection was purchased at antique stores - that is the way to go.)  This is where things get complicated.  Impossibly hot cast iron short handled waffle makers over fire combined with unseasoned insides and sticky batter makes for an interesting form of frustration.

It is with this in mind that you must use a bit of science (yay, science!) to have at least one successful waffle out of your gallon of batter.  The first waffle on this waffle maker is a bust; quite frankly I don't even pretend to hope anymore, although it has been so long since I have made waffles (due to this frustration) that a dim hope dared to spring up inside - fear not, it was quashed the moment I opened the waffle maker to check its progress.

The science is simply this: use a crap ton of coconut oil all over the inside of the waffle maker (even though the recipe has ONE FREAKING CUP of butter and you would think that perhaps just by that fact, it may not utterly fail - but you would be mistaken) - so much coconut oil that every person in the house comes up to you individually and asks you if you are also making popcorn (no). 

My family knows the history of these waffle challenges and they used to have quite a pile of negative responses when the waffles weren't working. 

Kid 1: Mom, are these burnt?  I don't want any burnt stuff on my waffle.
Kid 2: This one is kind of falling apart, Mom.
Husband: Maybe you should just get a waffle maker like your mom.

Hey, I have an idea!  Maybe you all should just shut up.

But now because I have shut down all waffle making for at least a year (no soup for you!), upon the announcement of "I am making waffles today", I received nothing short of accolades and positive reinforcement.

Kid 1: Wow, Mom, that sounds great!  I am so hungry!
Kid 2:  I bet these will taste great, even if they are falling apart!
Husband: You're making waffles?  (pause - was it in fear?  I'm not sure.) Oh, I was hoping you would!

I pulled out my mom's recipe that requires separation of eggs and the folding in of stiff-peaked just-layed-this-morning egg whites (because go big or go home, right?), milled a perfect blend of oat, spelt, and winter wheat flour, melted a cup of butter in the cast iron pan, and crossed my fingers.

First waffle:  Seriously.  What even the heck is this.  No really, what is this?  Gooey mess conformed to every freaking crack on both sides of this burning hot cast iron mess.  Separate the two sides, scrub down over the sink with a brush.  Start over.  I had a feeling you would be a fail, but this is of epic proportion.

Waffle #2: Add coconut oil to the top and bottom of the waffle maker, watch the oil ooze out onto the stove when you flip it over.  Add batter.  Set timer.  Holy crapola, man.  No.  It's bad, but not as bad.  Re-scrape.  Kid #2 enters and remarks, oh, that's okay, Mom!  I know it looks crumbly, but I'll eat it.  I bet it tastes really good.  God bless you, child.  Take this from my sight and never speak of it again.

Waffle #3:  Add even more coconut oil to the top and bottom of the waffle maker.  Scrape the waffly bits from the cracks and crevices.  Cross fingers. Pour batter, set timer, flip.  Burn hand only slightly.  Watch as the melted coconut oil mingles with the rebellious crumbles of what was supposed to be a waffle around the gas flame on the stove.  Pray that you do not burn down the kitchen.  Waffle 3 is a better success than the first two, and I am gaining hope.

Waffle #4: Add so much coconut oil that you think that just by standing here in front of this, you're absorbing it into your skin.  Imagine showering with a Brillo pad.  Watch the stream of melted coconut oil pour all over the stove when you flip the waffle and burn your hand (yes, even with the oven mitt).  Watch how the oven mitt seems to catch fire while you're wearing it, if only for a second.  Muse to yourself that cooking is an adventure.  Have the first successful looking waffle peel from the sides of the ridiculous waffle maker, start thanking Jesus aloud for this unexpected mercy.

Waffle #5: Look into the Costco-sized vat of coconut oil and be impressed with just how much you've used, and then use a lot more.  Pour batter, set timer, watch as the simmering crumbles of ex-waffle dance in the puddles of coconut oil beneath the waffle maker, surrounding the gas flame.  Make a mental note of where the fire extinguisher is.  Begin thinking through the step-by-step plan of how on earth this is ever going to be cleaned up.  Waffle #5 peels off without a challenge and children are coming up to cheer me on.  You did it, Mom!  Look at that!  I'm too happy about it to be bothered with what must be (on some level) patronizing comments. 

Waffle #6-10: Use even more coconut oil because this is the only thing making these stupid things not glue themselves to the side of the pan, give up on the thought of ever not having the kitchen looking like some weird tropical hurricane sped through here on its way directly from a waffle factory.  Amuse yourself with the steady cheers of the peanut gallery who are singing the praises of your waffle-making skills like you just simultaneously painted the Mona Lisa and won the Olympics and the lottery.  Decide that maybe this isn't so bad...

Until you finish and start cleaning it up.  Good thing I have Norwex.

 It was a heck of a fight, and it was a close one, but I'm sure I won this one (like a good kick set).

Peace, love, and pass the butter,
Ms. Daisy

Your food addiction, solved.

Are you addicted to food?  Or maybe you've just got a habit that you are having trouble breaking?  Some people need to cut out sugar, some want to give up pop (especially if it is diet, a.k.a. toxic death poison), others want to scale back carbs.

I would love to see you rehabbed.  It is worth it.

Here is inspiration for you.

After you take a look at this one, you'll need to see how to solve it here, in food rehab.

  

Well.  Or something like that.

Happy Friday!

Peace, love, and pasta,

Ms. Daisy

 

First Day of School

Hi all my peeps!  

Okay, so - check it out.  I am so excited.  Do you know what today was?  Today was my first day of school.  I'm going to be a health coach (and I'm going to get an A+++).  I have been wanting to start this program for at least three years, but it wasn't the right time, and there wasn't the right funds, and all of that, but now it has fallen into place.

You get weekly modules that you have to finish that include lecture videos, and then you do some assignments and take a quiz.  (I got a 100%.  Duh.)  

It opened at 9:00 a.m.  I just finished the assignments and lectures for the week at 3:30 p.m.  (I'm not sure I mentioned it, but I'm kind of excited.)  Well, I mean, how else would you do it?  You wouldn't wait until the last minute, right?  That would be awful.  It would make you gag and die!  Right?  I know.  Everyone must be like me, I'm sure of it.

One thing that made me laugh aloud was that the main head dude said (and I quote), "You don't need to be the food police."

Well, that seems kind of counter-intuitive, doesn't it?

I mean, I kind of do need to be the food police.  Perhaps he doesn't know me and my style.

Or perhaps I'll learn how to be more balanced this year.

No, probably not.  What am I saying!  The food police sounds kind of right up my alley.

Hey!  What are you eating?  Does that contain ingredients God didn't make?  You better cut that crap out, you know you're just killing yourself, don't you?  Do you want to be fatter?  Why don't you screw up your metabolism with those partially hydrogenated oils, preservatives, and wild chemicals?  You can even eat yourself to sickness, that sounds like a good plan!  Have some more McDonald's, maybe you can ask for an extra order of Type 2 diabetes while you're there.  Good plan.  Seems like whatever you're doing is totally working.

I mean, it's that or this - 

So, what do you think you should be doing to improve your health?  Uh huh (nod and look interested).  Wow.  So, can you tell me how you feel about that?  And can you tell me how you might be able to get yourself to do it?  Wow, that sounds very healthy of you.  Good job.  Keep it up.

Obviously the first one is better.

What do you think?  I was just talking to my Trader Joe's cashier about why people do things they know is unhealthy.  What reasoning is there behind doing such things?  If you could enlighten me, that would be great.

In the meantime, I have to go and knock some food out of people's hands now.

Peace, love, and Type A is for awesome,
Ms. Daisy

Beet Kvass: Your Healthy Liquid Dirt Drink

Do you like beets?  I don't.  I hate them.  They taste exactly like dirt.  I cannot even begin to comprehend how anyone could like them, unless, of course, you are that kid that used to eat dirt on the playground, then I totally get it.  When people call it "earthy", I have to laugh, because it is the equivalent of calling someone "big boned".  We all know what that means. 

But I digress. 

Even though beets are disgusting and taste like you are diving mouth-first into your backyard garden, we all must admit that they are healthy.  What could make beets even more healthy?  Why, fermenting them in salt (I love you, probiotics!) and making them drinkable.  

Yum.  (Try to contain your excitement.)

This is exactly what beet kvass is - a fermented beet drink.  I first found out about beet kvass from my awesome book, Nourishing Traditions, by Sally Fallon.  This book taught me about kombucha (I love that), kefir (also yums), and about the importance of incorporating fermented foods into your daily diet (sauerkraut, sourdough bread, yogurt, etc.).  Bringing in such acquired tastes to your daily diet is healthy for your guts, your immune system, and much more. 

Did you know beet kvass is a good blood tonic?  Beets can reduce blood pressure, are used even to increase endurance in sports (take that, steroids!), and have even been said to help with ED (not like you have a problem with that).  Beets are high in folate - that B vitamin they load you up with when you get knocked up.  (Was that too vulgar?  Sorry.  When you are "with child".)  They've got the power to detox your liver and contain betalain, an anti-inflammatory compound.  The sugars in beets won't raise your blood sugar, and researchers are not exactly sure why (I think it's because your mouth just told your body you're eating dirt, personally.), but they think it has something to do with the betalain and the natural nitrites (don't get confused and start eating sodium nitrates and nitrites in your lunchmeat now, what's up, pancreatic cancer).  

Even knowing all the wonders of beets, I still cannot stand the taste of them.  

However.  

I walked into my favorite health food store in the entire world on Saturday and what was going on?  There was a lovely girl there proclaiming the accolades of fermentation - and she had samples.  She had local, organic, fermented products.  I couldn't NOT try it.  Every ounce of my healthy brain was screaming out for me to try it, even if it was worse than swimming a set of broken 300s.  I started out with the sauerkraut (which I hate) - and this one had crazy stuff in it - turmeric (wow, okay, yeah, you just convinced me, gonna have to try it), carrots, cabbage.  I tasted it.  I didn't throw up, so that was good.  It was pretty salty and tangy, but only a tiny bit revolting. 

Since I am a glutton for punishment and think that you should always seek ways to subdue your body (no, not like a flagellant, just to increase self-discipline in general), I tried the other sauerkraut, too.  Mmm.  Salt.  Psyche, that was sarcastic, it tasted like eating an entire teaspoon of salt (and not the good Celtic Sea salt, the horrid iodized and anti-caking kind).  She also offered tempeh, so I tried it.  It was actually good.  Well, I am not sure if it was good.  I thought of it as good, but then again, I had just put two different kinds of sauerkraut in my mouth, so take it for what it is.

And then...at the end of the table, lined up in tiny plastic sample cups was a deep purpley-red beverage.  The product stood behind it.  It said, "Heart Beet" beet kvass.  A very small, half-invisible Sally Fallon instantly appeared and stood on my shoulder.  She whispered into my ear, "Yummy, yummy, beet kvass!  It's so good for you!  Fermentation!!"  I told the fermentation girl with the perfect complexion that I hated beets, but I have always wondered what beet kvass tasted like ever since Sally Fallon told me I should drink it in her book (I didn't tell her about the shoulder).  I knew it was time to pull up the big girl panties and take a shot of this disgusting concoction.  So I did.  I didn't even die.  It was bad, but not as bad as I thought it would be.  

As we waxed and waned over Sandor Katz, Michael Pollan, and other pro-fermenters, lacto-fermentation, kombucha and kefir, I imagined myself drinking beet kvass on a daily basis.  I thought that would give me good street cred.  Or something.  At least to myself in my own head.  So I bought the beet kvass and the crazy sauerkraut and plan on spreading the health to the fam.  (They're so excited.)  

I came across an interesting sounding recipe if you are intrigued - it's over here.  They combine it with ginger (anti-inflammatory! anti-cancer!) and some orange (probably so you don't gag as much).  

Whaddya think?  Would you try it?  

Peace, love, and just beet it, 
Ms. Daisy

Poison, I mean, cereal.

I pretty much grew up on cereal.  It was what was for breakfast.  My brother ate the crazy ones - Fruity Pebbles, Froot Loops, Reeses, the list goes on and on.  Pretty much if it was bright blue and fluorescent orange, it was his fave.  Note: my brother may or may not have two heads, five eyes, and three arms.  My mom also fed him hot dogs when he was like five days old, so no further explanation necessary, your honor.  He actually LIKED it when his cereal milk turned pinkish orange.  Gag. me.
 

May not contain "froot".

I ate cereal too, but didn't go that route as much.  I liked granola and ones with sliced almonds in them.  Ooh, yummy.  And then Costco had a blip of time where they sold chocolate Love Crunch and I think I ate that for about four hours a day until it was gone (good thing Costco sells really huge bags).  

Mmm, Love Crunch is good.  
 
And then I read Nourishing Traditions (by Sally Fallon).  It changed how I felt about cereal.  I thought I was good - I was eating organic cereal!  (So health conscious!  I probably deserve a shiny gold sticker.)  And then I realized it was pretty much an anti-food quasi-foodlike substance and felt kind of disturbed about my life.  Aw, man!  

Here's the deal.  Grains are so much more nutritious and bioavailable if you soak them (or sprout them).  When you pour milk on pretend grains and eat it for breakfast, it kind of counts the same as punching yourself in the face with a blowtorch...but worse.  

In 1960, a researcher named Loren Zanier at the University of Michigan conducted a very crae crae experiement.  He selected different groups of rats and fed them the following things:  

Group 1 - rat chow (yummy) and water (= control group)
Group 2 - cornflakes and water  
Group 3 - (I kid you not) cardboard and water (Umm...basically testing if you should eat your cereal or your cereal box, I guess...)  

Why did Zanier do this?  He wanted to check out the extrusion process on grains.  Basically, extrusion is when the grains get all gushed up and smashed, then fired through a fast and furious squirter (these are all very scientific terms, I can assure you) into little O shapes (or whatever groovy shape the cereal maker wants), sprayed with sugar, and baked to your crunchy perfection.  

So what were the results?  

The rats who ate the cornflakes died BEFORE the rats who were eating cardboard.  Seriously.  Read up a bit more on it here.  That is inexcusable.  This is the testing that has been done, and it is showing it is better to eat the cereal box than the stuff inside the box.  I'm just going to come right out and say that is kind of scary.  You make your own conclusions.  Paul Stitt, in his book Fighting the Food Giants, talks more about this and other such studies if you are interested in further information.

In another interesting article called, "Cereal: The Breakfast of Toxins", the author posits that extruded grains are toxic to the neurological system.  The extrusion process destroys the good fatty acids within and even the chemical vitamins that  they add to try to make it have something in it ("Fortified with 9 vitamins and minerals!").  That doesn't sound like what you want to serve up to your offspring before you send them off for their statewide standardized tests, now is it?!  

On the wikipedia page (I know, totally not a great source, but anyway), it describes the process of extrusion and makes the following comments: 

It [extrusion] may also cause the fragmentation of proteins, starches, and non-starch polysaccharides to create "reactive molecules that may form new linkages not found in nature". This includes Maillard reactions which reduce the nutritional value of the proteins. Vitamins with heat lability may be destroyed. As of 1998, little is known about the stability or bioavailability of phytochemicals involved in extrusion. Nutritional quality has been found to improve with moderate conditions (short duration, high moisture, low temperature), whereas a negative effect on nutritional quality of the extrudate occurs with a high temperature (at least 200°C), low moisture (less than 15%), or improper components in the mix.  

So, basically, it's a freak of nature, reduces nutritional value, and it's near totally untested.  Awesome.  Sounds good.  Let's do this.  

Over at Nourished Kitchen, she hits it home hard.  She pleads with you in her article called, "Boxed Cereal is not Food" (as she should, and as I will) that you cook a real meal for breakfast, and not fall back on cereal (as tempting as it is to do).  In fact, she suggests that the organic cereals, because of their generally higher protein content, are actually worse for you than their Froot Loopy counterparts.  (No, people eating Froot Loops, you do NOT get to rejoice.  It's still an epic fail.)  She even has a recipe or two at the bottom for you to try instead.  

Soaked grains are the best way for us to be able to digest food, and it is no wonder that there are so many digestive issues going on now (we kind of skipped that step because it takes too much of what we think we are saving by eating cereal - time).  

Personally, I am not a superfan of grains for breakfast.  I am more of the free-range, local, egg cooked in grass fed butter (on a cast iron pan, of course) - add celtic grey salt and a crazy amount of cracked black pepper to help my turmeric absorb - with some spelt/olive oil/rosemary homemade toast with half a gallon of butter kind of person.  Kids add ketchup.  Otherwise, if I'm going to make oatmeal, I try to soak it at least from the night before.  If not either of those, French toast is just fine.  If it's Saturday, well, bring on the pancakes (flour from the grain mill).  That's how you get muscles, you know.  Pancakes.  Please do eat that with some real maple syrup and don't get the toxic fake stuff.  Your muscles (and brain) will shrink.  

So why would it be hard to break away from the habit?  Here are a few (very scientific) answers I've come up with from a poll (also very scientific) I put out.  

People have the following reasons for eating cereal:  

1.  They like it.  Okay, I really have nothing to say about this.  I think if you want to eat it as dessert, you go on with your bad self.  I agree.  Love Crunch is pretty freakin' amazing.  But I'm not going to eat it anymore.  Unless it's for dessert on an amazing glop of yogurt with some berries, but I digress.  (But, if you are eating it as your main start of your day, you might want to ponder that deeply.)  

2.  It is fast and easy.  So is not wiping after you go to the bathroom, but(t) that's not super recommended.  

3.  "It's easy and I like eating ground up bugs/mice/rats."  These are the people I call my friends, if this is any indication to you on anything at all.  I have literally no comment at all except for loud laughing.   

4.  I need fiber.  (So that whole cardboard thing...)  Garden of Life, Raw Fiber.  1 scoop and stay in for the next 24 hours, gather plenty of reading material and put it on your bathroom counter.  Otherwise eat tons of raw fruits and veggies.  You can overdose on some spinach salad, too.  If there are digestive issues, perhaps soaking your grains would help, and I'd douse in some probiotics and tons of water, too.  

Rays of glorious sunshine descend upon the magical treats...

Cereal in this hiz-ouse is a dessert-like treat.  I buy it once in a never.  I will confess something to you, though.  I am buying it for an Easter present for the littles.  Chocolate bunnies ain't got nuthin' on a box of cereal around here.  Yes, it is Cascadian Farms organic fruit and nut granola, but it will be a bigger hit than crack Peeps.  (Don't tell!  It's a secret!)  

Peace, love, and crunchy granola as an adjective for people should maybe be renamed to soggy soaked grain or something,  
Ms. Daisy

Magical chia seeds

If you've been looking to gain some superpowers (as I'm sure you are - who isn't?!), I have the scoop.  Are you familiar with chia seeds?  If you have walked into a health food store in the last year, you probably had a hard time avoiding them.  What's the deal with these teeny things?  

Let's start out with the freakish facts, shall we?  

Just one ounce of chia seeds contains 4915 mg of omega-3's and 1620 mg of omega-6's.  As a comparison, 3 ounces of cooked wild caught king salmon has 1500 mg of omega-3's.  Why do you care about omega-3's and 6's?  (Well, maybe you don't...shall I rephrase that?  Why should you care about these omegas?)  Heart health, for one thing.  Brain health for another.  They fight inflammation in your body, too.  (Good things those aren't important or anything.)  They also work on cancer, inflammatory bowel, and autoimmune diseases!  

Check it out - the Harvard school of public health has info for you.  

An ounce of chia seeds has 11 grams of fiber.  That is a crazy amount.  It's 42% of your daily value.  And you know what fiber means, don't you?  It means happy guts.  If your guts aren't happy, I can tell you, you're not going to be very happy.  Maybe you've heard people say that your health begins in the gut, and how your immune system is linked to it.  Because your intestinal walls are thin little ditties, you can pass a lot of crap (er, junk?  bacteria?  No. Pun. Intended.) through that wall, and I am pretty sure that is not going to promote great health if your stuff is sitting there too long.  Get out your specially made pom poms and cheer for the fiber.  

Do you need a boost of manganese?  It's got 30% of your daily value in an ounce.    It has an amino acid score of 115 (scores above 100 mean it is a complete protein).  They have more antioxidants than blueberries and they are grain and gluten free.  It's pretty much a boss all the way around. 

How are you going to use these little babies?  

Personally, I put them in my kombucha (I guess you could put them in water kefir, too, why not?) and my smoothies.  They act crazysauce when you put them in liquid.  They get this fantastic gooey bubble around them.  I can't explain it, except to tell you it is cool.  They come in different colors (black or white).  

Another favorite way I get my daily dose of chia is in coconut chia bars (Health Warrior makes some).  I hide them the way most people hide really good chocolate.  If my offspring find them, they think they have won the lottery.  

They are great energy bars - totally recommended for running (before a run scarf some down for a boost; after a run, rehydrate and replenish your electrolytes with coconut water). In fact, Wellness Mama even makes an energy gel with them - she uses a cup of coconut water and a few tablespoons of chia seeds.  Better than GMO artificially colored and flavored nonsense, I think.  

And duh, you can make a homemade Chia Pet.  You can just make a terra cotta head of your favorite Duck Dynasty character and grow them a beard.  Seriously, I could have just posted this and that would be enough information for some of us to have a long, productive relationship with some chia seeds. Did my Mom get Uncle Si for Christmas?  You just ask her.  

In the meantime, go get yerself some delicious ch-ch-ch-chia seeds!  

Peace, love, and superpowers, 

Ms. Daisy

The best pretend chocolate pudding ever (it's even GF!)

I am about to give you a recipe that is so delicious but yet sounds so utterly horrifying, I am sure you are going to give me every weird eyeball, nose crinkle, and mouth wrinkle face there is.

Sounds GREAT ALREADY, DOESN'T IT?

Actually, a lot of you won't think it's that crazy, but at first glance it seems like an odd pairing.

I came up with this crazy sauce one day when I had a craving for chocolate but wanted to restrain myself a little bit and not go bonkers on the homemade magic shell (that would be melted coconut oil with chocolate chips - pour it over ice cream and it hardens...consider this as your warning if you plan on trying it - you will eat the entire batch.  In fact, sometimes I just want to eat that hardened magic shell so much that I get this pathetic tiny scoop of ice cream - a 1 tbsp. kind of tiny - and repeatedly pour magic shell on it over and over again to get that wonderous chocolate magicness.), especially since I think it was something like 10:30 in the morning.  

So I thought I'd make myself a smoothie and add some cocoa powder or something into it to see if I could get my fix.  I have to say, it was quite a hit. I struck upon a wonder.  Eureka!  Even the littles begged for more.

Here's the gluten-free, dairy-free, good fat filled, potassium, magnesium and omega-3 rich, healthy amazeballs dealie: with your blender, mix a ripe banana, half of an avocado, golden ground flax seed, a scoop of cocoa powder and some water.  The avocado thing initially sounds weird, but that crazy little avocado makes your smoothie as smooth as pudding.  It is so creamy soft delish, you won't believe it.  Now if your avocado has turned to stink with black spots on it, don't use it.  It will funktify your wonder and make it putrid.

Bonus:  If you want to pretend what you're doing is even more delicious, you can freeze it in a mold (unfortch mine is plastic - yuck) and make yourself some pudding pops.  I just ate one.  It was amazing.  

Only thing that could have made it better would have been to dip it in some magic shell...
  Peace, love and take that, Skinny Cow!
Ms. Daisy

Healthy and homemade summer treats, want s'more?

It seems that the world cannot get enough of sugar, and summertime is no exception.  Just think of the High Fruc Truck as it slings its crack down the street to those nice innocent tunes while all of the little sugar-high babies come running out of their homes, waving their $5 bills, begging to be bestowed with high fructose ADHD brain damage and Red #40 in those rocketship patriotic red, white and blue pops.

Ah, such lovely pictures of summer in America.  It must be Independence Day.

Another thing that all the peeps love to dive into in the summer is s'mores.  You know, the litmus test for cavities or gum recession?  You take one bite of that and you will know if you have a direct opening to your root as you climb the wall and die of pain (may I recommend Standard Process Bio-Dent for that situation?).  If you have no idea what a s'more is, it is a graham cracker sandwiching a toasted marshmallow with a piece of chocolate (it makes the chocolate melt on everything and goo goes everywhere). The name is from people crying out, "some more!"

But if you go on down to your favorite store, you'll see that what is sold in those baking aisles is exactly not food.  In fact, maybe it is more like rocket fuel.  It contains GMO corn syrup (would you like a taste of infertility, little one?), artificial flavors, artificial colors, dextrose (in case you didn't get enough GMO corn in the  corn syrup, you can have more in the dextrose), tetrasodium pyrophosphate, and the mysteriously listed ingredient: "a whipping aid" (what the heck?!  I am totally positive that MUST be good for you.).

So sad.  How are you going to enjoy delicious s'mores with that kind of poison list?  You aren't.  Well, I won't.  But all this to say there is a solution to all of this.

You can make your own marshmallows.

Totally.

And I don't mean some ridiculous 3 hour process with complicated ingredients, either.

Do you have a Kitchen Aid mixer?  If you do, it is going to be crazy easy for you.  If you don't, well, neither do I, and I make it work with a hand blender anyway.

Ready to do this?

Ya Need:
a candy thermometer
a large stainless steel pot (not like giant, just like regular large)
an 8x8 or so glass dish
3 packets of gelatin, or the equivalent in Great Lakes Gelatin out of your container
2/3-1ish cup of water (maybe a little more)
1.5 cups of organic sugar
a pinch of salt
a splash of vanilla
coconut oil (for your pan and your hands)
organic confectioners sugar (a cup would be enough)

and...either a hand blender or a Kitchen Aid mixer.

Get It Started:
1.  Pour 1/3 cup of water into either the bowl of your Kitchen Aid or into a large bowl.

2.  Sprinkle the gelatin on top of the water.  It will ooze in after a few minutes.  Don't touch it, just let it be.  Unless it is making you totally crazy, then poke it with a fork to mix.

3.  Slather your 8x8 glass dish with coconut oil everywhere.  No.  Everywhere.  (On the inside at least.)  If you miss one centimeter, you will lament it.  Dump some confectioners sugar in and bang it around to cover all of the coconut oil.  This step is vital for you not poking your eyes out with blowtorches later.

4.  In your stainless steel pot, pour the 1.5 cups of sugar.  Pour 1/3 cup of water over the top.  If it doesn't cover the sugar, add just a little more water until you get it just over.  You're going to be making a goo here, so don't worry that it looks like you have not a plethora of water.  Clip your candy thermometer into the pot so you can watch the temp.

5.  Add a pinch of salt into your cauldron.

6.  Turn that heat on to about medium (you are using a gas stove, right? Oh I love gas stoves.).  Watch that puppy bubble.

7.  The very second it hits 240 degrees (soft ball temp), turn the heat off and carefully pour your boiling sugar into the bowl where you have the gelatin/water goo.  If you are using the Kitchen Aid, start to mix VERY slowly.  Can you imagine the pain of that splash?  Yeah.  If you're using a hand mixer, I'd put it down in the sink.  Start it on low and increase speed.  While it is on low, you can add the vanilla.

8.  Stand there and dream about your dream kitchen.  Or farm.  Or picture what workout you're going to do next.  Plan your week.  You're going to stand there for about 8 minutes whipping this goo up.  You'll know 100% when your goo is ready because it will look like a giant thing of marshmallow fluff.

9.  Slather your hands in coconut oil and dig the goo out into your 8x8 glass dish.  Press it down flat-ish.  Cover the top with confectioners sugar lightly.

10.  In a very few minutes, you will see that you have a gigantic whole marshie square.  You can pop it out if it is room temp.  Cut whatever shape you'd like (usually people do square-ish things) and dip each blob into confectioners sugar so it doesn't stick to every single thing in your entire life.  If you want to roast them, I suggest making them slightly larger to make sure they fit on your pokey stick.

You can store them in a large jar or a gallon resealable bag.  They're sugar, they keep well for a couple weeks.

Get yourself some dark soy-free, fair trade chocolate and some organic soy-free graham crackers and go to town.

Yes, these are not what I would consider a health food by any stretch of the imagination, but at least they aren't filled with infertility and poison.  (It just contains the narcotic of sugar.)

Peace, love and fluffy puff marshmallows, they're dot com!
Ms. Daisy