SCD and Paleo and FODMAPs, oh my!

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing ... and sometimes more knowledge is not better! I am now getting quite confused. It seems that everything is bad for me, and some of the recommendations are contradictory. What's a girl to do?

I've been doing the Specific Carbohydrate Diet for a few years now, and I have done very well on it, removing grains, sugar and liquid milk from my diet. It has helped me keep my Inflammatory Bowel Disease under control with no medication, presumably by reducing the inflammation in my gut.

Then I discovered paleo. To be honest, the paleo/primal principles have had more effect on my exercise (walking and lifting heavy rather than chronic cardio and machines) than on my nutrition, as I was already eating free-run eggs (and pastured when available) and organic dairy (made into SCD yoghurt which is fermented for 24 hours to remove all the lactose) in my lacto-ovo vegetarian diet. Removing legumes (aside from occasional lentils) seems to have been beneficial. Moreover, I added fish to my diet back in March, ending 18 years of vegetarianism. Bringing mammals and birds into my kosher dairy kitchen would be a whole other tale, worthy of another blog post. Hasn't happened yet.

I've also, as my faithful readers know, become enamoured of lacto-fermentation, fermenting kale, cabbage (with juniper berries, yum), pearl onions and carrots. Everything I read told me that these would be good for healing my leaky gut. Just as an update, I no longer use mason jars to ferment, but bail-top jars similar to these (affiliate link).While not totally anaerobic according to some people, I am not yet convinced of the necessity for airlocks, especially as Sandor Katz, the guru of fermentation, agrees with me.

So, along comes the whole FODMAPs thing and completely destroys everything I've been doing. This awkward acronym stands for Fermentable, Oligo-, Di-, Mono-saccharides and Polyols. I'm not going to go into all the details of these (visit the Wikipedia links provided if you really want to know), but in short, all my favourite fermentable foods should be off-limits to people with leaky guts. This despite the lovely lacto-bacilli they harbour which are supposed to be beneficial to the same people. I have no problem with avoiding lactose, grains and pulses, but to cut out all the stone fruits, cruciferous vegetables, onions, nightshades and fungi leaves me with pretty much nothing to eat in the plant department.

Oh, and then JJ Virgin comes along and tells me that eggs are inflammatory, too.

Please, shoot me now.

Milk kefir bliss!

I know that a lot of people claim that dairy is too Neolithic to have any place in a paleo-style diet - in fact, I have seen claims that anything you can't pull off a bush or kill with a sharp stick does not belong in our diet. Hmm, a little extreme much? While 10,000 years are a mere blink of an eye in evolutionary terms, the fact remains that many people, especially of dairy-herding heritage, are able to digest dairy products into adulthood with no apparent ill effects. Especially fermented products such as cheese, yoghurt and the subject of today's blog post - kefir.

We are blessed here in Canada with a government that does not permit the use of rBGH (or any other hormones, to my knowledge) in the dairy herd, so that is not an issue. While I would love to buy raw milk, unfortunately that is not legally available in Manitoba (time for a campaign, maybe??). I have to make do with pasteurised milk, but at least it is not ultra-pasteurised (another USAmerican food industry innovation we are blessedly spared), and I can get local whole organic milk at my local health food store. It costs an arm and a leg, of course, but it is worth it to me not to have my boys chugging down antibiotics they don't need.

I myself cannot tolerate plain milk, but I do very well with yoghurt that has been fermented for 24 hours, according to the rules of the Specific Carbohydrate Diet. I therefore decided to experiment with milk kefir, which also ferments for 24 hours.

The main difference between them is the starter - you can make yoghurt from a previous batch of yoghurt (although commercial yoghurt really only has a couple of strains of lactobacilli in it - it would be nice to be able to find more!), but for traditional kefir, you need kefir grains. Those aren't really grains - in fact, they are a SCOBY - a Symbiotic Colony Of Bacteria and Yeast. If the word seems familiar, I have rhapsodised here before about my kombucha SCOBY. The kefir SCOBY looks much friendlier than the kombucha one, as you can see in this picture. They really do look like grains.

You can make kefir using a starter from the health food store, but those aren't grains - it's a powder that contains dried bacteria and yeast in a specific combination. It makes decent kefir, but it is self-limiting - it won't grow grains, and after a few iterations you will have to put in more starter. It's from the same company that makes the dried yoghurt starter, and the results are similar - decent, but not comparable to using real, live food.

I was fortunate enough to be given some grains by a lovely lady I met in the Traditional Foods Manitoba Facebook group - and if you are interested in traditional foods and live in Manitoba, I strongly recommend joining that group. Such kind, helpful, welcoming people - friendly Manitobans all. I love it. I met her on a Friday morning, and by Friday noon my grains were luxuriating in a jar of whole milk on my counter. I checked them again after Shabbat went out, so about 30 hours later.

I should warn you that the grains are living things - don't expect them to do their best work as soon as you plop them down in a jar of milk. Mine had been sleeping in a refrigerator for a few months, and it took a couple of rounds before they woke up and really did their job. In fact, the first milk bath I gave them smelled downright awful, and I sent it down the sink. But the grains looked a little plumper and healthier than they had when I first got them, so I was hopeful. The same was true of the second bath, but the third one was just divine, especially once I flavoured it with strawberries.

The way I did that is called a second ferment - I strained the grains out of the thickened kefir (you can tell it is ready when it pulls away from the sides of the jar) and put them safely away in the fridge to nap in a small jar of milk. Then I put the kefir back on the counter, with a few sliced fresh strawberries in it, and left it there for 12 hours.

I cannot begin to tell you how awesome my strawberry-infused kefir tasted, especially after it had been chilled in the fridge. I also got all the goodness of a fermented food, with no ill effects - and trust me, I know about dairy-related ill effects.

How about you, have you tried making something new and exciting recently?

Encouraging Paleo Kids, One Egg At A Time

 This morning I made a heart-shaped omelette for my daughter.

My kids love cereal, the more sugary the better. We have progressed to the point that the really obnoxious ones (Cinnamon Toast Crunch is the major favourite) are only allowed on Shabbat morning, but I'm trying to wean them gently off Cheerios. Now that school has started and they are no longer eating breakfast at noon, I'm trying to get the egg routine into place.

My eldest son has already developed a taste for omelettes and is old enough to understand the process, even though he sometimes sabotages it - don't we all? My second son blows hot and cold, but he's never been as much of a carb fiend as his siblings. I bought a tiny square cast iron pan and he will occasionally let me cook him a little square omelette in it. "It's so cute!"

My daughter has been a tougher nut to crack. She will occasionally eat the cute little square omelettes, but she really wanted a heart-shaped one, or at least round - but little.

Yesterday I was at Pollock's Hardware, a fabulous co-op here in Winnipeg. I picked up a teeny tiny round cast-iron pan, but then my eye fell on the little tart mould you see here. Bingo!!

So yes, this morning I put the tart mould, well-greased, IN my regular-sized round cast-iron pan, and poured the beaten egg into it. It did leak a little bit along the fluted sides, but I picked those bits up and put them back in. It was a little tricky getting the egg out of the mould to flip it, but a little persistence with a fork did the job.

She totally loved it and ate it all - a first.

Take that, General Mills!!

This Kosher Paleo Steer Has Sharp Horns

Torn between two lovers, feeling like a fool ... loving both of you is breaking all the rules ... remember that song? It's how I feel when I think about keeping kosher, and keeping paleo. Mary McGregor sang about a woman who loves two men at the same time, for the different things they bring to her life. That's how I feel about paleo and kashrut, and living in Winnipeg, they really are not compatible. The horns of this dilemma are getting sharper and sharper as I struggle to bring my health back under control after the stress of Ari's Bar Mitzvah.

I have had an auto-immune disorder since 1987 (at least). At times of great stress and/or lack of sleep (they do tend to come together, don't they?), it will flare up without fail. In the past I have had to resort to steroids and other unpleasant medication. I became a vegetarian in 1992, after a particularly virulent flareup that landed me in hospital for six weeks. I knew something was wrong with my diet, but I didn't know what.

In the last few years I have come to the conclusion that the high-carbohydrate diet we were all encouraged to ingest in the 90s (and which I have inculcated all too well into my children, sigh) is part of my problem. To reduce the amount of carbohydrates in my diet and increase the protein and fat, I have begun eating wild-caught salmon and local pickerel and pike. I have blogged about all this before.

I have not, however, brought meat and fowl back into my life, and this is where the horns of my dilemma are.

It is not hard to find kosher meat in Winnipeg. It would be very disruptive to my home to start buying and cooking it, because right now my kitchen is completely dairy. Fish is considered pareve (neither meat nor dairy). Once upon a time the same was true of chicken, but it has been considered meat (despite having neither hooves nor cud) for centuries now, so I am not going there. In any case, I would have to buy a completely new set of dishes, pots, pans and everything, and make room in my small kitchen for everything to be double.

I might have done all of that, but all kosher meat that I have seen in this city comes from factory farms. And that's where I hit the second horn of the dilemma.

It is not hard to find grass-fed, pastured meat in Winnipeg. But it is not kosher. It is halal, but not kosher. I know Jews who have declared it to be Eco-kosher, meaning that they consider its provenance as grass-fed to be more important than its slaughter with a sharp knife, removal of the non-kosher sinew and everything else that is involved in kosher slaughter. I am not at that point - keeping a kosher home is a very important part of the identity of my family. We keep Shabbat and other laws, and we are not prepared to bring non-kosher meat into our home.

But I am also not prepared to eat factory-farmed animals. I don't think that eating them would improve my health in any way, and I don't want to support that industry. While I find that I am not emotionally attached to being a vegetarian, per se, I do not want to take part in the maltreatment of animals. This quite aside from the indisputable fact that factory-farmed animals produce inferior meat, high in Omega-6 and low in Omega-3.

There are companies out there that provide grass-fed, kosher meat. The nearest buying club that I can find is in the Twin Cities. The buying clubs give a certain discount for bulk, and you have to pick it up from a JCC or synagogue, four times a year or more if there is demand. Otherwise you really need to be near NYC.

Bringing this meat to Winnipeg would be a huge undertaking. Am I talking myself into it? Or should I just accept that I am not going to be able to eat a truly paleo diet, to support my body with the nutrients it needs? And what about that desire to support local farmers, rather than bringing in frozen food from far away?

What I really need is for somebody to start slaughtering locally bred, pastured animals in the proper kosher fashion. Even if it is just chickens, to start with. I wonder if that is an even huger undertaking than bringing it in from the United States?

What to do, what to do?

Spring Paleo Manitoba Supper

 

Yesterday I was at Petrasko Bros picking up some bedding plants, and of course I had to get a picture of this sign. It just shows how Manitobans feel about spring and summer, after six months of the white stuff on the ground. This year actually was pretty good, spring was early and we had some amazingly warm days in March and April. But now we have local asparagus (yes, I know it's June. We're in the NORTH here, people). We have local greenhouse tomatoes and cucumbers from Greenland Gardens. We are fortunate to have local mushrooms year-round from Loveday Mushroom Farms, and we currently also have local onions (of which unfortunately I don't know the provenance - but I trust Eatit.ca when they tell me something is Manitoba-grown). I've also been picking up local produce and organic baby veggie plants at the Red River General Store. A bit of a drive, but so worth it.

So, on to our dinner the other night. Sometimes we are fortunate to have pickerel or northern pike from the lakes of Northern Manitoba, but this was a vegetarian one, with free-run eggs from Nature's Farm in Steinbach. The garlic is not yet local, but I can't cook without garlic. Sorry. I'm not sure why I put the container of tomato sauce (homemade - that's another post) in the picture, maybe I was planning to use some, but in the end I didn't.

Paleo purists will complain about the bag of bagels in the background. All I can say is that my kids are not there yet. Baby steps.

Anyway, we had two main dishes - a mushroom fritatta, and of course, this time of year, we must have asparagus.The cooking oil of choice in paleo cooking is coconut oil, not local, alas. With global warming, though, who knows? Coconut palms at Portage and Main ...

These pictures are mostly just an excuse to show off my beautiful cast-iron pans, which I bought at Pollock's Hardware Co-op, a beautiful place in a beautiful city. Once you start cooking with cast iron, you will never want to go back to those nasty Teflon non-stick pans. Ditch that toxic cookware, people!

Anyway, you heat up your coconut oil, saute your onions and garlic until they are transparent but not brown, then add your mushrooms. Yum. Your kitchen smells good. You scramble up your eggs, add a little oregano, basil and thyme (very shortly those will be extremely local, from my garden!). Salt to taste. Add to your pan, turn down the heat, cover and let it cook merrily away. You may have to brown the top under the broiler, if your fritatta is too big to flip. I'm a wimp that way.

As mentioned, all meals this time of year must include asparagus, on pain of displeasing the Locavore Gods. So here's the braised asparagus dish that went with the fritatta. Start onions and garlic the same as before (although I think I may have used butter instead of coconut oil for this - anybody got a source for local organic butter??).

I think I added a little salt, as well. Fresh, local asparagus does not need any enhancements, in my humble opinion. The flavour of asparagus is what's called the fifth flavour (not sweet, salty, bitter or sour). I don't buy imported asparagus because I really don't think it can stand up to travel. So this time of year is especially precious to me.

So, here is the final product. I'm still learning about food photography as well as cooking and blogging, so bear with me. It was yummy, though.

I would love to see what you are cooking up this time of year!

If not now, when?

Hillel says, "If I am not for myself, who will be for me? But if I am only for myself, who am I? If not now, when?" Ethics of the Fathers, 1:14

Next week, G-d willing, I will be celebrating a significant milestone in my life - achieving the half-century mark. As I fully intend to live to be 100, that's halfway through my life's journey.

As I recently said to my friend Jodi, also turning 50 this year, they don't make 50 like they used to. Once upon a time, a 50-year-old woman was old. Nowadays, I know 60-year-olds who easily bike over a hundred kilometres a day. I know octogenarians who regularly hit the gym. We are fortunate.

So, this is the year I am going to run at least one 5K (I did one last October, but I've let it slip since), lift heavy things and become a strong, healthy person. Maybe I'll even run a 10K. Why not?

This is also the year I am going to find my passion and go after it. I'm going to kick the Lizard Brain in its scaly tail. I've spent too much time worrying and procrastinating and reading Facebook. I don't know yet what I want to be but I've got to grow up sometime. If not now, when?

This is the year I'm going to figure out the veggie paleo gig and blog about it. You are all warned. It may seem like a contradiction in terms, but I'm going to find a way to make it work. It may not be fully paleo or fully veggie, but that's OK. If it works for me and my family, it is good. If I am not for myself, who will be for me?

This is the year I'm going to find ways to give back to my community. I keep meaning to go out and volunteer with all kinds of worthy causes, but there is always something else going on. Enough. I need to do it. I do some things, but I need to do more, and I need to involve my kids. We all spend too much time in front of screens. If I am only for myself, what am I?

Whether you are hitting a significant milestone or have just noticed that time is slipping by, what are your plans for this year?

Dr. Terry Wahls - A Prophet for Our Time

I have just watched the most amazing video I have seen in a long time.

A woman named Terry Wahls gave a talk at TEDxIowaCity, describing how she cured herself of secondary progressive MS. She's a physician - and after seven years of "the best treatment", including chemotherapy, was in a situation where she was in a reclining wheelchair all the time. Being a researcher, she started studying the actual causes of her illness (something modern medicine doesn't usually spend too much time on - making symptoms go away is the centrepiece) and adjusting her diet to support the myelin sheathing on her brain.

Within a month, she could walk with only one cane. Within six months, she was riding her bike. She looked strong and healthy as she gave her talk.

What is the magic medicine she used? A paleo, or hunter-gatherer diet. Greens, sulfur-containing vegetables, brightly-coloured fruit, grassfed meat and wild-caught fish. Nothing Big Pharma could make any money on. But she saved her own life, and she could save yours.

If you are diabetic or have any other kind of auto-immune disease, as I have, what are you waiting for? What am I waiting for? Watch this video and tell me what you are going to do to improve your own life today. Is the taste of bread worth the suffering of diabetes? Tell me.

Riding in the Paleo Rodeo

If this photo looks a little blurry, that's how I'm feeling right now. I've been accepted into a community called PaleoBloggers, and even had my previous post published in their Paleo Rodeo. So cool, but who am I to have my tentative little blog posts in there with Paleo blogging superstars like Whole9 or theclothesmakethegirl or Mark's Daily Apple? So exciting, and what an inclusive bunch.

So if you are even thinking of discussing Paleo on your blog (and I'm talkin' to you, Lynne, Tracey,  Holly, Polli and anyone else), jump in, the water's fine! There's nothing like a community to make you feel less alone on your journey.

How about you, are you looking to improve your life this year? Tell me how!

Paleo

Time to come out of the closet - I'm a great admirer of the Paleo way of life. I think I adhere to it reasonably well, except for the small detail that I don't eat meat. I don't know if that disqualifies me from the Paleo community. I guess I'll find out, as I've applied to sign up to the PaleoBloggers email list. A new adventure ...

So, what is Paleo? I like ModernPaleo's version of the principles:

The core of paleo is the diet: it eschews grains, sugars, and modern vegetable oils in favor of high-quality meat, fish, eggs, and vegetables.

In fact, you might say it's not that different from the SCD. Of course, you can go further in your quest for a Primal lifestyle and learn about the dangers of Chronic Cardio and all the bad things it does to you ... in other words, how to turn upside down pretty much everything we thought we knew. I love it.

How about you, are you ready to make some changes in your life? It's January, after all. Want to do this with me?