Foraging Ahead

5 years of a HF diet, I’ve learned 2 things: 1. Yes staying keto or even low carb is effing hard. siren songs are everywhere.  2. Eating healthy fats everyday with or without carbs improves the inside of your body.     

Since 2013 my cholesterol profile numbers have continued to improve. dramatically. no matter how many carbs sneak back in. Lesson - we need the fats to be healthy!

Total Cholesterol  from 213 ->185. (<200 is good)

Triglycerides dropped from 206 -> 83

HDL rose from 58 -> 71 (over 50 for women is good, more is better)

LDL dropped from 114 ->109

HDL/Triglyceride ratio from 3:5 -> 1:1.15 (1-1 is perfect) (indicates density of LDL particles)

Fasting blood sugar dropped from 96 ->65 

Seed crackers!

These are so easy. And great taste with a dab of cream cheese. To make a box of seed crackers, I start with two eggs, whipped, then add seeds and dried spices enough to make a thick slurry. I used all kinds, pumpkin, sesame, fennel, chia. Then bake at 350 for twenty minutes and then in a low temp oven, 200, for another 40 to 60 minutes to dry out. Store in the refrigerator if you used egg as a binder.

If you want to go eggless, make a slurry of ground flax seed and warm water to make the necessary “stickiness” before adding the rest of the seeds. I prefer egg as a binder though, for taste and the chew texture.

Fennel really adds flavor (maybe good or bad depending on your preferences). I added a couple of spoonfuls of dried onion powder to the crackers in this picture along with lemon grass and rosemary. The beauty of seed crackers is that you may mix in whatever spice flavor you like.

Great low carb baking charts and explanations:  

Another update for my IBS followers .... It was a bit of a rocky adventure but I’ve mostly finished the Gut Thrive program.

 I didn’t do everything in their sequence but I tried. Mostly my life got in the way. Starting a very restrictive diet and program 1 week before Christmas didn’t work so I postponed. Then started in January but in January my job changed and my home went through some major emergency repairs which put me in a tailspin. The program, which I’ve mentioned in my prior posts, had 2 parts - a pathogen purge for 2 weeks, and then a reseeding with good gut bacteria and soluble fiber for these guys to grow on for a second 2 weeks. During this I developed a near addiction to cacao nibs which are super heavy in insoluble fiber and magnesium (gut stimulator) also. 

With all of the botanicals and supplements, I have taken a significant turn for the better in my fight against my lifelong condition of IBS-C with much much better daily motility although not consistency. If  I had gone through the reseeding completely and faithfully for the 2 weeks I would be in even better shape but I kept stopping and starting those botanicals and fiber scoops. (note,the GT fiber is a proprietary soft blend of chicory root with other botanicals and tastes great - nothing at all like metamucil).  

I am a bit frustrated with the business practices of this program and I was not alone in this. A lot of talk came out from the folks putting this on about how it was their first large online program. Yeah okay. So things like charging us for the supplements weeks before shipping and not having solid menu plans and program explanations were things they were obviously trying hard to fix. But we were also promised lifetime access to all the videos and information and today I logged in and everything is gone. sigh.

Would I do it again? Maybe. But I possibly could have done a purge program on my own with oil of oregano, pau d’arco tea, wormwood oil etc. along with a strict non-dairy keto diet that included heavy use of spices, garlic and bone broth and that might have worked for me without all the price tag and frustration with a program that kept changing its rules. Getting the botanical blends and timing right on one’s own is a big challenge though. So if anyone is looking at the Gut Thrive next release, I’d say go ahead and try it.

Lamb chops with roasted cauliflower

Hi Anon

I decided I didn't want to go through yet another Christmas on a super strict diet. :) So after taking 3 days of the supplements I stopped until just this week. I did start adding in some of the tips though. A month ago making my own bone broth and having that several times a week and began adding raw garlic in two weeks ago. I also started drinking an herbal blend that is recommend - turmeric, ginger, and lemon, boiled together to make a tea (or cold drink).

The GT program revolves around a 4 day bone broth fast, 14 day pathogen purge phase 1 with a selection of botanical supplement blends,  and then a 14 day reseeding phase 2 again with botanical blends (different ones) all purchased through the program. The idea is that the gut biome, the community in there, is driving the baseline of  ill health if it is overrun by the wrong team. The goal of the program is to strengthen the helpful bacteria and cut off the communication and comfort of the pathogens so they leave. Apparently gut bacteria talk to each other. Who knew? (Watch Bonnie Bassler, How Bacteria Talk - a Ted Talk)

The program itself has a lot of information to go through. They have a website that only the participants can sign into and there are pages and pages of PDFs and each week of the program has it's own tab with multiple hour plus long videos to watch that are packed with information on pathogens and "food as medicine" information.  Very impressive compilation. There's also a community chat forum which has been very active. I am learning a ton! I promise to be sharing more soon. 

Flu Flu Go Away, come back again some NEVER day....(from an old nursery rhyme)

Chicken Soup with an Anti-Flu Boost. 

Ingredients: free range pasture-raised chicken, organic rainbow carrots, shiitake mushrooms, shallots, green onions, cilantro, Real salt or pink Himalayan salt, ghee, coconut oil, or olive oil, granulated organic garlic powder, Great Lakes organic gelatin powder, and Bragg's (or other organic and raw) Apple Cider Vinegar.

First make the base chicken bone broth. This step will take a day or two so plan ahead. Bone broth is not the same as boxed broth! Bone broth has minerals from the marrow.

Find a truly range-raised chicken. Chickens are not vegetarians. Most of the chicken found in American stores that is labeled "organic" is raised on a diet of corn. Non-gmo, organic, but still corn, diet. Corn-fed. You wouldn't eat corn-fed beef right? Right? So don't eat corn-fed chicken when you can help it. Chicken will eat bugs, insects and grass. Omega 3 builders. (Corn diet builds an over abundance of Omega 6 in chickens as well as in us.)

Okay now you have your free range pasture-raised chicken. Roast it first and make a Sunday dinner with the meat and save left over shredded chicken meat for lunches for the week. To roast the chicken, rinse it off in the sink and take out the inside pieces if the ranch has left you with the neck and liver (keep these), then truss up the legs close to the body, salt and pepper the skin and put it in a 375 degree oven for about an hour and a half or until the meat temperature is at least 165 degrees. 

After you have pulled the meat off all the bones, throw the bones into a large crock 7 quart pot, along with the neck bones if you have those. The bones don't have to be clean. Extra bits of meat will be fine. 

Add a couple chopped unpeeled organic carrots. The dark purple rainbow colored carrots will make a better tasting soup than the bright orange variety. 

Fill the crock pot three quarters full with water. Add a tablespoon of Bragg's Apple Cider Vinegar. The vinegar helps pull the minerals out of the bones. 

I don't add onions or garlic to my bone broth base. That way the broth can be flavored as needed later and I can also use some of the broth for my dog's food (good for her too!!).

Let it cook on low heat for 24 hours. When it's done, strain the broth from the chicken bones and carrots and now you have your chicken bone broth base for your anti-flu soup. You should have enough base soup for about 4 to 5 large bowls of soup.

To assemble a serving of soup, put about 2 cups of bone broth in a sauce pan along with a half cup each of chopped shiitake mushrooms, chopped cilantro, and about an quarter cup each of chopped shallots, and chopped green onions. Add a tablespoon of the gelatin (I use the beef gelatin), and salt and garlic powder to taste. Use as much of the garlic as you can stand! You could even add in some raw chopped garlic at the end for a super boost. Add a tablespoon of either olive oil, coconut oil, or ghee. Bring the soup to a boil and then simmer for about eight minutes to combine all the flavors. 

All of these ingredients are immune system boosting, virus fighting goodies. Per Christa Orecchio, nutritionist, shiitake and maitake mushrooms will boost the immune system 300 percent!