Coconut Flour for Baking

I've just found a great post on the blog The Nourishing Kitchen on How to Bake with Coconut Flour.

For those who want a grain free or wheat free alternative to flour, coconut flour looks like a great choice.

This blog post is an excellent reference for how to use coconut flour, the benefits of coconut flour, measurements for substituting coconut flour for other ingredients, and links to a number of recipes using coconut flour.

Here is just one section of this very informative post:

"Benefits of Baking with Coconut Flour

- Coconut flour is rich in protein, fiber and fat, which makes it exceptionally filling.

- Coconut flour is also a good source of lauric acid, a saturated fat thought to support the immune system and the thyroid. Like most healthy fats, lauric acid also promotes good skin health.

- Coconut flour is an exceptionally goodshource of manganese which helps you to better utilize many nutrients including choline and biotion (found in eggs), vitamin C and thiamin. Manganese also supports bone health, nervous syste function, thyroid health andhelps to maintain optimal blood sugar levels.

- Coconut flour is not grain-based, and, as such does not present many of the issues that accompayn grains. Coconut flour is a gluten-free and, while it does contain food phtate, the mineral-binding effect of phytates in coconut are virtually non-existent so coconut flour does not need to be soaked (read more about soadking coconut flour)."

 

eat your greens

Informative article on why eating your greens not only feeds you, but is healing, too.

"Who told you to eat your green veggies? Your mother? Me, or another clinical nutritionist? Well, not only was mom right, but there is now some amazing research that will get you running to eat that broccoli and kale! Really! Read on…

Food goes into your intestines, you knew that. But did you know that 80% of your immune system is housed in your small intestine? The immune system is the one that either successfully fights off ‘bad guys’ such as bacteria and cancer or it succumbs to infections and disease results.

Three brilliant women, doctors and researchers from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute’s Molecular Biology division in Melbourne, Australia, just discovered that a special type of immune cell can be controlled by the consumption of leafy greens in your diet."

please click to read the rest of this article "Eating Greens ..." by Dr. Vikki Peterson

Some of best of the Green (Cruciferous) Vegetables, according to the article are:

• Greenest: arugula (rocket), bok choy, broccoli, broccoli rabe
• Greener: cabbage, cauliflower, collard greens, watercress, kale, mizuna
• Green: radish, rutabaga, turnip greens

there are others ... I recommend reading the full article

Puddink Lovers Alert

I have not tried this recipe yet, but its on my list of things to do very soon.

Chocolate Avocado Pudding recipe

Thank you, Jess, who writes Forgiving Martha, for your post on how to make it! I've just poked around a little bit on her blog, and she has many gluten free recipes, in addition to this Chocolate Avocado Pudding.

Mmmmmm!

Lyme Disease and Diet

Fairy Frost photo jkhat o'brien(c)2003

I have had Lyme Disease for three and a half years now. I have tried the standard Lyme treatment, which is not working. That treatment is to take antibiotics for months, if not years. I just felt too weary and overwhelmed to try to stick to a decent diet (which for me is a wheat and dairy free diet) during that time. I knew there were herbal protocols, but when I read about them, they were so complex that I did not want to attempt them. Lyme had also caused scarring on my brain, and I feared that an herbal protocol might not get to the Lyme in my brain.

Early on in my Lyme journey, I got a concussion. I had an MRI of my head, and it was discovered that I had severe scarring in my brain, much like the scarring that ocurs with MS (Multiple Sclerosis). As the neurogolist entered the room, she announced to me - "From our test results you either have MS or Lyme Disease!" Amazing to discover that the same brain scarring from MS is present in some cases of Lyme Disease. Amazing and very frightening!

I recently came to a place in my life where I had to stop the antibiotic treatment. It was not clearing up the Lyme, and it was really wreaking havoc on my body. My health had degenerated so much, a good part from long term antibiotic use, that if I wanted to get better I felt I needed to turn back to what I knew - a simple, healthy diet and an herbal regimen.

Wheat and dairy also devastate me. I have an intolerance, or sensitivy to both. The list of symptoms and conditions that those sensitivities can cause is very, very long. Gluten sensitivity is now coming to the attention of the general public, although I have been dealing with wheat sensitivities knowingly since the early 1980's. Who would think that foods could be a big contributor to poor health, disease, or even death?

"It's only a cookie ..."

After getting wheat and dairy out of my diet for two weeks, I was offered a delicious homemade cookie (made with wheat flour) and a cup of coffee with just two tablespoons of half and half in it. A few hours later, my body ballooned up, my weight and blood pressure went up - I gained 5 pounds overnight from a cookie and a coffee - wheat and dairy. I needed no further proof that I had made the right choice to change my diet, and I won't be eating any cookies or drinking any coffee any time soon.

Yes - insanity is doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results. I didn't need to take the cookie, but it was offered by someone I love and care about and I didn't want to offend them. Besides, what is the harm in one cookie? Well, I had almost immediate proof of that. I hope to stay off that Insanity Wheel and choose to graciously refuse what I know is not to my benefit.

Since this blog is about what is sacred to me, my health is sacred to me. A journey to wellness out of disease is sacred to me. Some indigenous cultures see those struck by serious illness to have been chosen by Creator to walk a sacred path. Lyme Disease has called me back to remembering what is sacred to me, and what I hold dear. For that I can say today that I am grateful. I choose to see my body's wisdom in not toleranting antibiotics any longer as a sacred call - a call back to the way that shall heal me.

Walk in Beauty!