Turmeric Trigger

What?!? The title of this post isn't also the name of a tune?!?

Sorry, I tried - but couldn't think of a fitting song to marry to this post...

I don't know if turmeric qualifies as a 'superfood,' but it is quite amazing! There are several (understatement of the week!) articles re: turmeric promoting the benefits of this spice. Rather than trying to re-type all of that information, I'm simply providing you with links to some of those articles. Go ahead and peruse these links. I'll wait right here for you...

• You can check out an article by Dr. Josh Axe: 

• 10 Turmeric Benefits: Superior to Medications?

• As well, the site "The World's Healthiest Foods" has one:

• What's New and Beneficial About Turmeric

• The reason that I go for turmeric rather than the isolated curcumin is described in this article found on Huffington Post:

• 6 Health Benefits Of Turmeric

• In case you have an issue trying to access it through the link, I'm providing a quote from that article here:

"Another compound in turmeric may protect the brain. Aromatic turmerone or ar-turmerone is not as well-studied as curcumin, but it also likely plays a part in the turmeric puzzle. In a recent study, researchers found ar-turmerone promotes repair to stems cells in the brain. The study examined the effects of the compound in rats on a type of stem cell that is also found in adult brains. These stem cells are involved in recovery from neurodegenerative diseases like stroke and Alzheimer’s. The compound could potentially be used in the treatment of these diseases in the future, the findings suggest."

• The last link that I'm providing is a little more scientific and a little less opinionated than the previous three. WebMD:

• Find a Vitamin or Supplement: Turmeric

• Definitely check out the 'Side Effects' tab before you add turmeric to your diet

...and, we're back!

OK. So, there are several reasons why you might want to add turmeric to your seasoning options. But why did I title this post "Turmeric Trigger?"

Well, turmeric is great, but it works a whole lot better when you also add its trigger to your seasoning! That trigger is piperine. Adding piperine to your spice increases the absorbability of curcumin by up to 2000%!

"So... Where do I find that piperine stuff and how much should I use?"

Piperine is easily found in black pepper and you can use as little as 1/20th tsp. to trigger your turmeric!

Breakfast in America

It has been a while since I have posted anything, but sometimes life just demands more time.  This year has seen a lot of snow in Connecticut and I have been doing quite a bit of shoveling.  Because Rae is working nights, I try to get the driveway shoveled before she comes home in the morning so that she has a place to park.

One of the things that I have been trying to do for the last couple of months is to get some exercise every morning prior to breakfast.  With my heart-rate monitor, I have been fairly consistent incorporating Dr. Mercola's Peak 8 philosophy at least a couple of times per week.  On the other days, I have simply been utilizing my Wii Fit Plus along with some dumbbells.  On days when I have had to shovel I considered that as my exercise for the day.  Of course, I took a break from exercise in order to let my body recover.  For the last couple of days, though, I have been somewhat out of commission.  I seem to have a pinched nerve in my back - or something similar - that is causing pain every time that I turn my head or lift my left arm.  While it isn't a significant pain, it is enough that I don't want to aggravate it by exercising.  Today, it is feeling much better so I will likely get back into the swing of things tomorrow - just in time for the next predicted snow storm!

Today's post is named for Supertramp's song (and album), Breakfast in America.  I chose this title because I wanted to talk about my new, favorite breakfast!
For quite a while now, I have been reading quite a bit from Mercola.com - a website that focuses on holistic health.  Dr. Mercola and other regular contributors talk about ways to maintain and recover a healthy state through proper nutrition and exercise.  Rather than promoting a carnivorous, omnivorous, or vegetarian diet, Dr. Mercola thinks that each of us will fall in to one of three categories.  We, as individuals, will either be a protein type, carbohydrate type, or a mixed type.  As such, some of us will thrive on an Atkin's-type diet while others will thrive on a primarily vegetarian diet and others will do better on a blended diet.  Essentially, he encourages us to take clues from our bodies to determine what suit us best.  To interpret those clues, he provides a questionnaire.  For more information, visit HERE.  According to my results, I am a Mixed Type - somewhat of a surprise to me.  Given my thorough enjoyment of eating meat and my previous success with following the Atkin's Diet, I fully expected to land in the Protein Type category.  As a Mixed Type, it is recommended to consume proteins along with vegetables and carbohydrates.

Breakfast is definitely one of my favorite meals.  I can eat eggs prepared just about any way and be happy!  About the only thing I am a bit leery of is eating eggs raw.  Unfortunately, the more that things are cooked, the less beneficial they are from a nutrition aspect.  To compromise, I decided to cook my eggs in a way that would allow me to eat them but still be somewhat closer to raw - poached!  As a kid, I always loved poached eggs over toast, so it only made sense for me to revisit this.  As such, my new (or, at least renewed), favorite breakfast is two poached free range eggs on one slice of toasted Ezekiel bread.  While this is not a lot of food, it really does satisfy me and makes a great start to my day.

Happy Spring Day!

Today is the first day of spring and it is absolutely amazing weather!

It is also my birthday, today.  I had set a goal for myself to be down to 250 lbs. though my nutrition plan is not focused on weight loss.  Since I have started on The Maker's Diet, I have been losing weight at a fairly regular pace.  I figured that I might as well set a goal for myself.  When I set the goal, 250 lbs. seemed like a reachable goal, though not too simple.
Well, I haven't weighed myself yet.  I honestly don't think that I have made it to that goal and I don't really care that much.  I suppose that if weight loss were my primary reason for following the diet, I would be a little more anxious about it.  Depending on how the day unfolds - if I have the time - I may get around to weighing myself to see how close I came to my goal.

It has been a busy day, already.  This morning, I made French Toast again.  I used the Ezekiel 4:9 bread for mine, but for everyone else I bought a loaf of Texas Toast at Trader Joe's yesterday.  I think my cast iron skillet is finally seasoned properly.  I had no issues with the egg sticking to it at all.
After breakfast, we drove down to Deerfield Farm to buy some more milk.  On the way back, I went into It's Only Natural.  I have been wanting to pick up a mortar and pestle so that I can grind my own spices and It's Only Natural has a decent selection to choose from.  I also picked up a few other things - like Ezekiel 4:9 cinnamon raisin cereal! (This link is to the almond variety, but they don't seem to have the cinnamon raisin on their website)  I am looking forward to trying this cereal out.  It is a little pricey ($4.99 per box at I.O.N.) so I am sure that I will be using it only sparingly.  It will be nice to have something to eat that is easily and quickly prepared (get bowl, pour cereal, add milk, eat!) - not to mention easy clean-up - when I just don't have the motivation to cook a meal.

After arriving home, I washed my newly acquired mortar and pestle and started preparing some Crispy Almonds.  The almonds need to soak in filtered water and sea salt for 12 hours before being transferred to my food dehydrator.  I liked the way they tasted when I added granulated garlic to the soaking solution, so I did that again.

For lunch - not being terribly hungry - I ate a RAW Revolution Coconut and Agave bar and an apple.  Stop & Shop has three varieties of the RAW Revolution bars and they put them on sale for 3/$4.00.  I figured I would at least give it a try.  It was good, but it is not something that I will be eating too often (if at all).  I really like what they have to say about food, though.  From their website: "Raw, living foods are clean, and have higher nutrient content than cooked food. Processed foods such as protein isolates and grain based fillers are acidic and cause fermentation in the body. Raw Organic foods are closest to their natural state, bringing us closer to healing ourselves and the global ecology."  The bars are gluten free, vegan, wheat free, corn free, soy free, as well as being trans-fat, cholesterol and refined sugar free.  Personally, I am not concerned with gluten or cholesterol.  I have long been of the belief that dietary cholesterol is not the villain that it has been made out to be and while many people have issues with wheat gluten, I do not.  I also think that issues with gluten and lactose are more a result of the processing flour and milk undergo than any sort of inherent allergy - but that is a soapbox for a different day.

As I write this entry, I am sitting outside in the late-afternoon sun typing on my laptop.  My kids are playing with the neighbors, my wife is reading a book, and our dog is alternating between trying to make sure that she knows where everybody is and curling up at my feet.  The mail arrived a while ago and included were the tickets I bought to the New Britain Rock Cats games for the family as a Christmas present.  My older daughter announced that - in celebration of MY birthday - she is buying pizza dinner for the family (so I can't eat the pizza, but the thought is there).

All in all, a pretty good day!

Papaya pepper!

Today I am making papaya pepper.  It is a simple recipe that I got from the book Nourishing Traditions using the seeds of a papaya.  Well, the recipe itself is simple, but the preparation is a bit tedious.  Properly prepared, the papaya seeds can be used similarly to black pepper - in fact, the seeds even resemble peppercorns in appearance.

Papaya seeds have numerous health benefits.  According to Eat This!, the benefits include:

• Antibacterial Properties - Research has found that papaya seeds are effective against E. coli, Salmonella, and Staph infections. 
• Kidney Protection - Research has found that papaya seed extract may protect the kidneys from toxin-induced kidney failure. 
• Eliminate Intestinal Parasites - There is evidence that papaya seeds eradicate intestinal parasites. In a study done on Nigerian children with intestinal parasites, 76.7% of the children were parasite-free after seven days of treatment with papaya seeds compared to only 16.7% of the children who received a placebo. 
• Liver Detoxifier - In Chinese medicine, it is believed that a teaspoon of papaya seeds will help detoxify the liver. Papaya seeds are often recommended by natural doctors in the treatment of cirrhosis of the liver.

 The seeds are prepared similarly to other nuts and seeds in that you need to soak them for a period of time followed by drying them in an oven (though I intend to use my food dehydrator for this).  The tedious part comes from the fact that the individual seeds are encased in a sort of pulp that needs to be removed prior to soaking.  I am sure that this could be done with some sort of mechanical process, but I ended up pinching each seed to 'pop' the pulp and remove it.  It took me about an hour for that process.  As I write this entry, the seeds are soaking in filtered water.  Later today, I will transfer them to the dehydrator to dry them out.  The seeds can then be used/eaten as is or ground to be used as a pepper substitute - not that there is anything wrong with pepper.  Supposedly, papaya seeds also make an excellent meat tenderizer.

I recently returned the copy of Nourishing Traditions that I had borrowed from the library.  I was planning on buying my own copy, but I hadn't gotten around to it yet - partially due to the cost.  Yesterday however, I obtained amazon.com's Kindle for PC.  This software, available for free at amazon.com and allows you to read the Kindle version of books on your PC.  Amazon.com also sells Nourishing Traditions in a Kindle version for only $9.99.  The price combined with the instant 'delivery' made the decision to buy the book a lot easier.

Eating on less than $3.00 per day.

Not long after I started following The Maker's Diet, I began to consider ways to improve the quality of the food I was eating without incurring too much added expense.  The fact is that good food costs more than the processed junk that we have grown accustomed to eating.  For instance, raw whole milk from Deerfield Farm is priced at $6.75 per gallon as opposed to about $3.50 per gallon of pasteurized/homogenized milk from my local grocery store.

One thing that I had considered doing was a modified 'egg fast' for a period of time.  For this fast, my plan centered around relying on eggs as my primary source of nutrition.  Eggs are praised as a source of nutrition as often as they are vilified.  Opponents claim that the fat and cholesterol in the yolk is detrimental to good health and should only be consumed in moderation while proponents claim the egg to be the perfect food.  In the right circumstances, both schools of thought can be correct.  The problems with eggs generally stem from the way that they are produced.  Most of the eggs we buy in the grocery store are produced by 'battery farms.'  These farms cage their chickens and feed them a controlled diet usually consisting of soy and other vegetarian feeds.  The chickens are not allowed to forage on their own and are raised entirely for the purpose of laying as many eggs as they can in as little space as possible.  This is neither good for the chickens nor the people that consume the eggs.  Chickens are omnivores.  They need to be allowed to consume not only vegetables and grasses but also meat - usually in the form of insects and worms.  Free range chickens are able to do just that.  As a result, the eggs that they produce - though quite possibly fewer in number - are much more nutritionally complete than those from battery hens.
For further information about eggs, I recommend reading "Eggs: What Health-Conscious People REALLY Need to Know about One of the Most Controversial Foods."

One reason - probably the biggest reason - why I didn't immediately set out on the egg fast was lack of variety.  The old phrase, "variety is the spice of life" tends to apply to my eating habits as much as any other aspect of my life.  It is easy to grow tired of something when it is all you eat.  Another reason was my initial sense of 'sticker shock.'  Free range eggs - as mentioned above - are more expensive than standard, battery eggs.  My knee-jerk reaction was to avoid buying more eggs than I would normally consume due to the added cost.  Plus, like the raw milk, I need to travel a longer distance to get them.

I am a very stubborn person.  When I think that I have an idea that is good except for a few obstacles, I tend to think about ways to make it work.  As such, I just simply could not get away from trying to work out a feasible and beneficial way to follow the egg fast.

A couple of days ago, I registered with the website, The Douglass Report, and began receiving The Daily Dose email newsletter.  In yesterday's email, Dr. Douglass discussed the many benefits of eggs.  This was the final straw for me.  My desire to come up with a viable egg fast was renewed and I set myself to that very task.

Today marks my beginning of my egg fast.  I will be using only free range eggs and raw, whole milk as my staples.  With some variations, my daily plan is based on the following:

• Breakfast:  Two eggs, 1 Tbsp. flax seeds, 1 slice Genesis 1:29 bread.
• Lunch:  6 oz. yogurt, 8 oz. milk, fruit
• Dinner:  Two eggs, veggies, 8 oz. milk

I intend to add various fruits and vegetables as well as properly prepared nuts and seeds on occasion, but this will be the basis of my diet for the next couple of days.  I will vary the way that I prepare the egg meals - scrambled, omelet, fried, etc. - and the yogurt will be only that which I make myself.

This plan takes care of a number of issues that I have been facing.  First, it addresses the cost of healthy foods.  Eggs - even free range ones - are still one of the most affordable foods available.  Deerfield Farm sells a dozen free range eggs for $3.50.  At two eggs per serving, this comes to $0.58 per serving or $1.16 per day.  At four eggs per day, I will consume 1 doz. eggs over the course of three days.  Second, it gives me an easy-to-prepare meal to make alongside the meal that is being prepared for my family.  While I would really love it if my family would join me in following The Maker's Diet, it is taking time to turn them around.  I am hoping that, once I have fully adapted to the plan and have managed to make it more affordable, they will join me.  As it stands, I am constantly faced with preparing two meals - one for me and one for them - or I am forced to partake of the same foods that they are eating.  Occasionally, they are also eating acceptable foods, so it isn't always a problem.  Third, I can develop a better mind-set.  One problem that I have is a lack of fore-thought when it comes to meals.  I tend to just throw a meal together based on what I have on hand.  Sometimes, the results can be less than desirable which can lead to frustration.  Because I am committing to a narrow selection of nutritious foods for an extended period of time, I can deal with the lack of variety.  Truth be told though, there are a lot of ways to prepare eggs to avoid boredom.

The basic meal plan that I described above comes to a grand total of only $2.74 per day.  Adding some fruit or vegetables will modify that cost upwards, but that is a pretty good starting point.  Here is how it breaks down:

• Eggs @ $3.50/dozen.  2 eggs per serving yields 6 servings per dozen @ $0.58 each times 2 per day.
• Genesis 1:29 bread @ $6.49/loaf.  1 slice per serving yields 20 servings @ $0.32 each.
• Flax seeds @ $6.98/bag.  1 Tbsp. per serving yields 74 servings @ $0.10 each.
• Milk @ $6.75/gallon.  8 oz. per serving yields 16 servings @ $0.42 each times 2 per day.
• Yogurt (made from milk) @ $6.75/gallon.  6 oz. per serving yields about 21 servings @ $0.32 each.

My plan is to maintain this fast for 3-5 days. After that, I will switch out one of my meals.  I intend to repeat the 'fast' 2 or 3 times per month.  Whatever I do, I certainly intend to use eggs as a major part of my plan.

New Year...

So, a new year has begun. While I am not prone to making New Year Resolutions, I felt that this year I might do that very thing. Though I would have made this particular resolution on any other day of the year, the timing was just right to do so for New Year's Day.

This year, I am resolved to work harder to being symptom-free. As such, I plan to do a couple of new things to help me to achieve that goal.

As you probably know by now, I have been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. However, I am not 100% sold on this diagnosis. As such, I feel that there are things that I can do to not only reduce my symptoms, but to possible even heal myself completely!

For over a year now, I have been using a product called VIDACELL to aid in recovery. I have no doubt in my mind that I am better off today as a result. My symptoms, though not gone, have been less severe than they were previous to my using VIDACELL. While the battle seems to be going in my favor, it seems that it will not be won in the near future without adding a few more weapons to my arsenal.

One of the things that I have resolved to do is to learn the art of T'ai Chi. Several years ago, I purchased a DVD to learn T'ai Chi at home. While I tried it out a couple of times, I just did not have the time or the motivation to stick to it very long. Knowing that I would someday regret getting rid of the DVD, I hung on to it. Well, it seems that the time has come for me to dust it off and give it another shot. Because T'ai Chi is used to bringing the mind, body, and spirit together to gain balance, prevent injury, and promote good health, I felt that it might help me out. MS or not, whatever is causing my symptoms is definitely neurologically based. From my experience as a personal trainer, I know that the brain-muscle connection is improved through repetitive motion. I know - I KNOW - that exercise is essential to my recovery. Due to my symptoms, beneficial, effective exercise is not always the easiest thing for me to achieve. I know that this can also be an excuse for me to not even try. Last year, I joined the YMCA to use the pool and gym equipment. While it worked out well for me when I was able to get there, getting there was not always possible. I am dependent on having my wife drive me there as I cannot drive myself. I had it worked out so that I could go to the YMCA once a week during the time that the rest of my family took their weekly trip to the library. Well, circumstances change - as they are prone to do - and the weekly library trip is now part of a day long educational event (we homeschool our children), thus making it next to impossible for me to continue with that plan. As a result, I have not been to the YMCA in over 5 months, now. One option is for me to find an alternative at home. Well, it seemed about time to dust off the DVD and do my best to learn the basics (this particular DVD covers the first 30 positions) of T'ai Chi. In the brief attempt I had made previously, I know that T'ai Chi is fully capable of filling my exercise needs. However, I fully intend to supplement my T'ai Chi sessions with other exercise options.
Last year, we purchased Wii Fit for the family. We weren't really sure how much of a benefit we would get out of using it, but I figured that it would at least provide me with a higher level of activity as well as something to do as a family. As you would expect, motivation waxed and waned over the year. Well, it is my plan to utilize this tool more regularly and even expand my options by picking up the new addition, Wii Fit Plus.
For the third arm of my exercise program, I plan to use the heavy bag that I purchased during the height of my physical fitness craze several years ago.

Earlier, I mentioned that the time for this resolution just seemed right. Well, when I posted my intent to "to learn T'ai Chi and work towards being symptom-free in the coming year" as my status on Facebook, a good friend of mine responded. He provided me with a link to a website about nutrition. When I went to the site, I was immediately in conflict. Some of the things mentioned just flew in the face of all of the currently held beliefs about nutrition. Now, one thing that you have to understand about me is that I have an open mind. I am willing to take a look at opposing views and hear the supporting arguments. If there is merit, then I am willing to consider the options. Rather than state the point of view and their supporting data, I will simply direct you to the website and let you come to your own conclusions. Mind you, I still need to do a lot more research, but I have known for some time that changes need to be made in my nutrition. Prior to even looking at this website, I knew that I wanted to take steps to move away from processed foods and toward natural foods. While the site talks about things that I may or may not agree with, they do have some things that I very much agree with. To establish your own opinion, I recommend visiting the site by clicking HERE.
As a result of another suggestion by my friend as well as supporting reviews on the above site, I ordered a copy of The Maker's Diet. As I have not yet taken delivery on the book, I cannot offer my own opinion of it. When Josh mentioned it to me, the name rang a bell. It turns out that it was a book that I had at least passing familiarity with. It had been sold, along with another book by the same author, Patient Heal Thyself, at one of my former employers. Of course, at that time I didn't have any reason to review either book for my own purposes. The author of these books went on a nutrition program with which he was able to cure himself of Crohn's Disease.

Well, I hope to receive my copy of the book in the next day or so (tracking shows that the shipment is currently at my local Post Office!), read it, and get started soon on my new nutrition plan. I am obviously not yet sure if I will adopt the one detailed in the book or some other plan, but I do intend to provide regular updates here.

For now, I am off to another T'ai Chi DVD session in my living room!