Fourfold Path to Healing, Day 3

 Today was an "all Sally Fallon" day and what a delight it was!  We had two individual lectures where we carried on with how to change your diet and simple recipes.  We also had one group lecture on the dangers of soy and the benefits of raw milk.

Plus another nourishing meal of grassfed meatloaf, mashed potatoes (with lots of butter), sourdough bread (with lots of butter), fermented radish (I believe), salad greens with olive oil and vinegar, roasted root vegetables and rich cheesecake with a crunchy nut crust for dessert!  Ok, I just had to get the food out there first, it was soooo delicious!

Onto how to change your diet for the better with 11 simple initial steps.  (These principles with thorough explanations contained in the entire Powerpoint from the conference can be found here.)

So here is how you can change your diet for the better:

1. Make your own salad dressings
2. Switch to butter - avoid partially hydrogenated oils
3. Make sure your diet contains sufficient HIGH QUALITY animal products, some raw
4. Eliminate refined sweeteners 
5. Eliminate toxic metals and additives as much as possible 
6. Be kind to your grains... and your grains will be kind to you
7. Make stock (bone broth) at least once per week
8. Eat a variety of fresh vegetables and fruits, preferably organic
9. Reduce stresses to the body
10. Put the principles of lacto-fermentation to work for you
11. Practice forgiveness

So there you have the 11 principles we discussed today.  Much more information regarding these principles can be found in the Powerpoint presentation.

In regards to the dangers of soy, here are some facts for you:

• Soy foods increase the body's requirement for vitamin D.
• Soy contains high levels of lectins, which can damage the gastrointestinal tract, high levels of manganese, which can cause brain damage in infants, and high levels of oxalates, which can contribute to kidney stones.
• Reproductive problems, infertility, thyroid disease and liver disease due to dietary intake of isoflavones (plant types of estrogens) have been observed in several species of animal.

You can read more about soy on the Weston A. Price Foundation website or by reading the book The Whole Soy Story.

So now what do you drink?  Raw milk from pastured cows!  Here are just a few of the benefits:

• Contains lactoperoxidase, which has powerful anti-microbial qualities
• Contains lactoferrin which is a built-in protective system
• Pasteurized milk is causing an increasing number of health problems in children. 

More resources for raw milk include the wonderful Powerpoint presentation, the book The Untold Story of Milk.

I had such a great weekend and learned so much.  I feel more empowered now and am excited to bring in even more nourishing foods to our diet.  I also purchased the DVD: The Oiling of America and just finished watching it.  It is a lecture by Sally Fallon discussing the cholesterol myth and introduction of these polyunsaturated fats.  I'm sure this will be passed around the local community!

I hope you enjoyed the summaries and if you have any questions, don't hesitate to comment and I'll do my best to answer!  You'll definitely be hearing more Nourishing Traditions related posts on this blog from here on out!

(You can also check out the GNOWFGLINS Fundamentals eCourse which is a 5 month e-course on 14 Nourishing Traditions cooking skills.  Also check out the Real Food Face-Off at Kitchen Stewardship for great insight into eating real food.  Yours truly will be featured on February 11th!)

Read more...

Fourfold Path to Healing, Day 2

As I snack on potato chips fried in lard, I come to share with you the treasures I learned today at the Fourfold Path to Healing Conference!  (Read on to the end for a special treat!)

The morning session was with Jaimen McMillan regarding spacial dynamics.  While I'm not really into this part of the conference, I do want to share with you his website, Spacial Dynamics Institute, if you'd like to do further research.

After the session with Jaimen we moved into individual "tracks" with the different speakers.  My interest is definitely nutrition, so I chose to sit in the lectures with Sally Fallon Morell.  We kicked off the session talking about what a healthy diet is and segued into the works of Dr. Weston A. Price.  By the way, his book, Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, should be in everyone's home library!  We examined the different tribes and countries he visited and the information he learned from looking at the native peoples' teeth and facial structure and how it correlated with their diets.

We then talked about the 11 underlying characteristics of these traditional diets.  Here they are:

1. No refined or denatured foods
2. Every diet contained animal products
3. Dr. Price's key findings: Primitive Diets contain 4 times the calcium and other minerals, and 10 times the fat-soluble vitamins as the modern American diet.
4. All cultures cooked some or most of their food…but they always ate some of their animal foods raw.
5. Contained high levels of enzymes and beneficial bacteria
6. Seeds, grains, legumes & nuts are soaked, sprouted, fermented or naturally leavened
7. Total fat content of traditional diets varies from 30% to 80% of calories, but only about 4% of calories come from polyunsaturated fatty acids.
8. Nearly equal amounts of Omega-6 and Omega-3 Fatty Acids
9. All diets contained some salt
10. All traditional cultures made use of bones, usually as bone broth
11. Traditional cultures made provisions for future generations

What an energizing list!  The thing I found most fascinating was how everything worked together in the primitive diet.  You received the nutrients you needed from the food you ate, no need for a pill case full of supplements, just some fermented cod liver oil!  Tomorrow we'll be diving into soy, raw dairy and grains/legumes.

We also broke for lunch which was a lovely spread of Nourishing Traditions food.  We had fermented gingered carrots and sauerkraut, hunks of sourdough bread with butter and ghee, brown rice, salmon, bone broth made with chicken feet and heads, and maple apple crisp for dessert!  I bet your salivating by now!  The recipes can be found in Sally Fallon's book, Nourishing Traditions.

In between the individual lectures with Sally Fallon, we had a group lecture with Dr. Tom Cowan.  He gave a discussion on cancer and Alzheimer's, their history and lack of presence in primitive cultures.  Some information on the ketogenic diet and cocount oil was given with the possibility of those alleviating some of the cancer and Alzheimer's symptoms.  Last was a discussion was regarding grains and their origins in our diet.  I'm sure I'm not summarizing his speech the best, but it was very enlightening, especially in dealing with cancer in my family.

So you're dying for the treat, aren't you?  How would you like to view all the Powerpoint slides for Sally Fallon Morell's discussion with her notes?  All three segments can be found at the New Trends Publishing website.  You definitely need to download these and work your way through them...enjoy!

Have a good night!

Read more...

Fourfold Path to Healing, Day 1

I just had an awesome time at the first meeting of the Fourfold Path to Healing Conference!  And what a way to start it off then actually speaking with Sally Fallon Morell (author of Nourishing Traditions and Eat Fat, Lose Fat) over a reception of yummy Nourishing Tradition-esque foods!  She was full of information and I'm highly looking forward to her break out sessions I'll be attending.

During the actual meeting we heard all three speakers talk, Sally Fallon Morell, Tom Cowan, MD, and Jaimen McMillan.  The evening comprised of each speaker talking about the fourth path of healing being the mental/spiritual path.  This path encompasses the other 3 paths; physical, emotional and life body.

For Tom Cowan (life body) it was about how we think and our outlook on life, who we are as humans.  The way we see our life affects how we express ourselves.  And the most important thing is how we think about life.

Jaimen McMillan (emotional) spoke about spacial dynamics and how we choose spaces we like to live in and how we are spacial beings.  He also spoke on how our perception is active and our reality is determined by where we meet it.

Sally Fallon Morell wrapped up the evening spoke about the writings of Rudolf Steiner and how the different stages of life shape our four paths and make us who we are presently.  She also discussed the different foods that play into the four paths of healing and the current dietary misinformation.

Overall it was a highly informative night and I'm totally looking forward to the next two days!  I am going to leave you with the "conference book list," so get to reading!  I will be back Saturday and Sunday with more updates regarding the conference!  Have a great weekend everyone!

• Nourishing Traditions
• The Fourfold Path to Healing
• Honoring Our Cycles
• Performance without Pain
• The Whole Soy Story
• The Untold Story of Milk
• The Yoga of Eating
• A Life Unburdened
• DVD: The Oiling of America
• DVD: Nourishing Traditional Diets

“Thinking … is no more and no less an organ of perception than the eye or ear. Just as the eye perceives colours and the ear sounds, so thinking perceives ideas.” -Johann Wolfgang Goethe

Read more...

Last Minute Reminders

Today is the last day to pre-register for the Fourfold Path To Healing Conference in Nashua, NH.  For more info on why you should attend, click here.  By registering today, you can save $50 off "at the door" admission prices.  I can't wait to attend and hope to blog and tweet from the conference, can't wait to meet Sally Fallon!

Next, as most of you  know, tomorrow, January 9th, is the Seacoast Eat Local's first Winter Farmers' Market of the new year.  This market is located at the Exeter High School and runs from 10 am - 2 pm.

Don't forget to check out the Button Up NH workshop schedule to learn ways you can "button up" your home for the winter and save some energy.

I hope everyone has a warm toasty weekend...see you at the market!

Read more...