Making nut milks

So we will play a little guessing game to see who can figure out what type of milk is in each container. So, the choices are cashew milk, coconut milk and almond milk. I made new batches of all three this morning. Are you removing dairy from your diet or your child's diet and trying to keep strict accounting of what is going into their bodies? Do you wonder at those added ingredients, even in the good brands of nut milks? Or are you just tired of paying a lot of money for the commercially made nut milks? Maybe you just ran out and now need some in a pinch? Well if any of those sound like you, then you need these recipes. They are super easy, I made all 3 milks while my kids played upstairs before school, it took me 20 minutes max to make all 3 batches (not including soaking time for the nuts).

3 cups filtered water
1 cup nuts
2 dates (in the almond milk only)
splash of vanilla (in the almond milk only)

Blend then strain with a fine strainer, except for cashew milk which does not need to be strained.

Here is the breakdown, almond milk is sweeter, especially with the dates/vanilla. Cashew milk tastes the closest to cow's milk in taste and texture. Coconut milk definitely has a sweet quality and coconut flavor. They are all great for baking, cooking, whatever you need them for. I use a thicker blend of cashew milk for an "alfredo" sauce over rice pasta. One word of advice, soak your nuts prior to using. Almond can be soaked in a glass bowl overnight with a pinch of sea salt. Cashews can be soaked in a glass bowl with a pinch of sea salt for 2 - 4 hours. Drain, rinse, add to filtered water in blender and blend away. The coconut does not have to be soaked. But, get plain, unsweetened coconut, no additives.

Viola! Fresh nut milk that you made, no additives, no preservatives, no sitting on the shelf for months. And, if you use soaked nuts you are getting even better digestibility out of the deal too! It can be an easy, cheap and convenient alternative to buying prepared nut milks. My son who used to eat dry cereal rather than have the commercial almond milks now asks for the "homemade almond milk" on his rice cereal many mornings.

So here are the answers A) Coconut milk B) Almond milk C) Cashew milk

A safer way to disinfect!

Check out this little gem, courtesy of another FB Autism mom. I just love these ladies, they share so many awesome things that I could never find all on my own. So, here you go, I am always talking about safer ways to clean that are nontoxic! Courtesy of www.healthychild.org


Get Answers: How can I safely clean my child’s toys and play area?
Janelle Sorensen

Friday, July 23, 2010 .You ask, we answer. Find all of our frequently asked questions or ask your own by visiting Get Answers.

QUESTION: How can I safely clean my child’s toys and play area?

ANSWER:

In your own home, many clean-up duties can be handled by water alone. If your child’s been sick (or someone else in the house has been), you may prefer something stronger.

A homemade disinfectant cleaner can be made with:

I teaspoon of borax
2 tablespoons of white vinegar
1/4 cup liquid soap
2 cups hot water

Mix in a refillable spray bottle and you’re good to go! Plain baking soda will remove stains (make a paste by adding a bit of water) as well as deodorize (sprinkle around, leave for 15 minutes, and then vacuum). Browse our website for easy recipes for cleaning products.

Learn more about cleaning specific items like unfinished wood toys and stuffed animals by reading Keeping Toys Clean to Make Playtime Pure.

You may also be interested in watching our Healthy Byte video “How Do I Clean My Scummy Bath Toys?”



Read more: http://healthychild.org/blog/comments/get_answers_how_can_i_safely_clean_my_childs_toys_and_play_area/#ixzz0uZQ9dRnx

Memories explained

So I had a very weird experience this week with my guy. He started talking about memories that happened over 2 1/2 years ago with old hab workers, at old therapy clinics. I am going to tell parents straight up, don't just accept whatever comes your way. Interview your therapists, interview everyone in your child's life. And just because your child is nonverbal, look for clues of a bad fit. I had to "fire" a clinic and their hab program because of how they were treating my child. They were clique-y, they were selective, they were unprofessional, they were too young and not trained enough. It was once a good program and then it went downhill. My son became resistant to going and I listened to his cries and did something about it. So here we are years later and he is telling me about it. I now get verbal affirmation that what I did was the right thing.

The same is true with other therapists. Dawn Winkelmann, SLP and Feeding therapist is also now one of my best friends. But, when I got the call that she had recently transferred into that clinic that I mentioned and had openings, I wanted to talk with her first. I left messages, no one called me back. It was getting close to the first scheduled appt but I refused to go until I spoke with her. My thought was that I knew what caliber therapist I had already, to make a change for my son I had to know I was getting better. Little did I know I was getting a superstar but I would find that out later. She called just days before our appt and we talked for 45 minutes! We clicked, she understood and supported biomed 100%. YIPPEE!! She even knew of Dr. Woeller's work, seeing some of his other patients when she had her own practice in Huntington Beach (where she once again practices for anyone looking for a rockstar speech and feeding therapist!). When she lectures she tells parents about this encounter, about how shocked she was that a parent wanted to grill her. And I was the first parent to do so.

There was a feeling of "take what you can get" back then, for me early on. Services ARE hard to comeby, I understand that as well as anyone. But, I would challenge the opinion that any service is better than no service. Sometimes a bad therapist or experience will do more harm than good. Finding the RIGHT therapist is key, not just finding any therapist. Your child's eyes should light up when they see this person, they should make therapy fun, they should be loving, not cold and dismissive or ignore your child when they approach them. And if your child does not get that "warm and fuzzy", FIRE THEIR ASS! What else can I say? Trust your instincts, someday your child WILL be able to tell you about these experiences, and you certainly don't want to hear about bad memories. I did intervene and I still feel bad about what he did go through until I found out.

Gluten free english muffins

So I have a new product to recommend! While in Flagstaff, I always enjoy shopping at their local health food store called New Frontiers. And more than anything, I love shopping with my girlfriend, former OT and eternal food guru. She is a raw foodist and can always be counted on to provide several new recipes that my family loves. I needed some cacao butter but she had also told me about these sprouted grain, gluten free english muffins from Food for Life. I quickly grabbed up 2 bags. They even have chia seeds so they do offer a little more in the way of protein, not just those nasty starches that I worry about in terms of feeding yeast. Now that we are home, they have become a staple. In the morning they are a great option with some fresh made blueberry jam that I got at the Flagstaff farmer's market. Or after an afternoon running out to the chiropractor (hurt my neck and back somehow) and nothing planned for dinner, they made easy "mini pizzas". All I did was broil them with a little Daiya mozzarella cheese and a single slice of home grown tomato. The kids gobbled them up along with some asparagus spears. Perfect! The kids love them! So if you are looking for another bread option, I highly recommend these. I haven't looked to see if I can get them here, and they aren't even on the company's website that I could find. I will definitely be on the lookout for these locally!

Gluten and Casein free diet for gut issues

So this summer we picked up my step-daughter (12 yo) for our summer visit. Her mom mentioned some stomach issues she had been having, pain, discomfort and a need to GO if you know what I mean. It was happening daily. Since we were in San Diego and I didn't have my full bag-o-tricks, I stopped at Henry's and grabbed just a few things. First off, I took her off of wheat and dairy, not such a stretch considering most of our family eats that way anyways. My step-daughter has also recently gone vegetarian so that was a new twist and provided some challenges but I think we've rocked it overall. Within 1 week, just shy of 1 week actually, her gut issues have resolved! No more pain, urgency to go, etc. just normal bowel function. I added in probiotics and some kombucha, aloe vera and 1 or 2 doses of slippery elm, that was it! Very simple, very easy. So, if you thought this diet was just for Autism or think that those pesky bowel issues are just "you" or they "run in the family" I would suggest you look at diet and whether the wheat and dairy could be problematic for you as well.

How we spent our summer vacation

So, we survived our trip to San Diego, it was busy but so worth it. Our first night there I ran to the store with my mother in law while my husband took the kids across the street to the neighborhood pool. We pull in the driveway just as they are getting up to come home and I hear a little girl yelling bye to my son. He had already made a friend! A couple of days later we saw Dr. Woeller (our DAN! doctor) and wow, what a different appointment it was this year. He sat and had a conversation with M, asked him who is best friend was. He talked to him about the neighborhood friends he has, what he likes to do, what his favorite toy is. My biggest thrill? Hearing Dr. Woeller say "You're there Terri". Not much was recommended other than staying the course (diet, supps, etc) and maybe getting him onto a basketball team with typical peers. What does this mean for us? Well other than feeling REALLY good about life, not much else. I understand Autism (and its healing) is a marathon, not a sprint. I also know there will be regression. I know these things but to hear my son's specialist confirm what I have known in my heart this past year, that my son is very close to recovery, if not there, was so exciting!

This trip also gave us tons of time with my kids' grandparents. My dad and mother in law are both retired now. We stayed with my mother in law so she was with us the whole time. My dad came and met us for just about everything we did. My kids played with their cousins, swam until they were pruny, ran in the waves and built sandcastles, even sat through the Shamu show at Sea World! It was a vacation like I had never been able to expect until now. No meltdowns, not one. We stayed at Sea World hours later than we thought we would. I could tell he was getting to his limit so we got out of the gift shop quickly and yet still no meltdown.

We got home Saturday and then left town again Friday to see our dear friends in Flagstaff for the holiday weekend. My friend was M's very first Occupational Therapist, she was going back to work as an OT at the same time M was getting an early intervention referral, she specialized in Autism and DIR/Floortime therapy. She helped me navigate this process so much easier and has also been my food guru ever since. Our elder kids have been friends since they were 18 months old. The thing is, her daughter is neuro-typical and until the last year or so, my son wouldn't actually "play" with her daughter to the full extent. Now they talk about being boyfriend and girlfriend and can be found wandering their 5 acres telling secrets and handing out hugs and kisses to each other.

Here's the catch, he will always have Autism and I know that. He will probably always have a hard time with certain sounds. He will probably always do a little self talking, some of these things WILL set him apart from his peers, just like any child who is "quirky" or a bit different. And here's something for the Neuro Diversity crowd, I love him just the way he is! But I know that I have removed many, many stumbling blocks for him. The diet full of wheat and dairy that was clogging up his brain, providing the gliadomorphines and casomorphines that had him "high" off of his food are gone. His pain perception is now appropriate because of it. His speech has developed because of it. He has supplements to help his brain and body work the way they were intended. The methyl B-12 aids in so many processes, including helping with sleep (it is a precursor to melatonin production) and detox pathways. The Respen-A is fixing the enzymatic processes that may have been broken with 20+ hours of pitocin during labor, I credit this therapy for the biggest WOW factor yet. We've treated gut yeast and bacteria, whose toxins also interfere with normal brain functioning. All of these things took roadblocks out of his way. I love him just the way he is but now, he can love me back. Now, he can make meaningful relationships, two-way relationships with peers and family. That he couldn't do. He couldn't even look me in the eye when we started this process of biomed, now he reads ME to see my emotions and to read those unspoken words, something I never thought possible. I remember a day, heartbreaking and vivid, I was exhausted from lack of sleep. He would go about 20 minutes at a time sleeping, that's it. He was screaming most of the day and I was just totally worn out. I began to cry and he thought I was laughing and began to smile. Here I was, totally desolate and my child (who was supposed to FEEL my emotions or so the baby books said) was smiling instead. Flash forward a few years and I was nursing my neurotypical daughter and I began to cry, she stopped nursing, looked up at me and started to cry along with me. So to see his eyes bore into mine and read my unspoken emotions makes me want to shout from the rooftops, it is such a cliche but it really does.

So that is how we spent our summer vacation, actually vacationing. A first for our family. Along with our first fireworks display this year too even after a ride home from Flagstaff and a weekend of staying up later than normal. School will be starting for him in just 2 weeks, 1st grade here we come. It has been an amazing summer, lots of memories made, lots of fun times had. I am sad that it is over but excited to see what the new school year has in store. Once again, I do this blog for me as a way to document our story but also to offer hope to other parents out there. I was the parent crying each night, wondering what was going on with my child. I was the mom carrying a screaming toddler out of the grocery store because some sound set him off and I had no clue what had happened. My child was the one who could never "play" at playgroups, I was chasing him out of their back bedrooms, out of their kitchen cupboards, etc. So I stopped going to playgroups because of it. He wanted nothing to do with the kids or the toys, he wanted to sit and spin Tupperware lids, chew on things and make all of the musical toys go at once. Now he makes friends at the chiropractor's office, not wanting to leave because they are playing (with a child 2 years older than him who is the other chiropractor's son!). He makes friends wherever we go now! So for me, biomed has given my son the future he deserves. It has helped remove those barriers to love, learning, sleep, etc. that were impacting him greatly. It will always been a hard road but I feel like we are past one huge hill. Who knows what lies ahead but I am ready for the journey!

Vacation planning and Autism

It is that time of year, VACATIONS! Whether you hit the skies, the roads or do a stay-cation in your own town, there are some things I have learned through the years that may be helpful to others. I haven't been able to look at vacations the way most do. I look at it with trepidation, stress and maybe even a little fear. Vacations just aren't the same when Autism is involved. Here's a typical rundown of some of the stuff we have to do:

Pack comfort items, especially weighted blanket. The last thing you want is a meltdown because the one toy you forgot is the one your child absolutely has to have and is screaming for hours over. Rent trailer from U-Haul to carry all said "loveys".

Food - need I say more? Not only do you have to meal plan for the entire time you are gone but you also have to make and pack food for the WHOLE trip. You cannot count on local stores having GFCFSF, preservative, MSG, grass fed, free range, etc. foods. And just because the local town HAS a (Insert favorite store name here), there is no guarantee that they carry the said item that is your child's favorite, right texture, and chances are it is going to be more expensive in a vacation town. Again, you see how the U-haul can be invaluable!

Activities can be tricky. You don't want to do too much so that your child is overwhelmed and therefore melts down. What if the sounds are too loud? What if it is too crowded? What if someone poured on a bottle of perfume/cologne and is sitting next to you? What if they get away from you and dart off? I could go on and on.

Supplements, what if you forget something? They all need to be prepped and packed, can't leave anything out or lord knows WHAT will happen. Gaba and Theanine forgotten? Oh how the anxiety soars, add a new place and that is just a recipe for disaster. Get that checklist out, open all capsules (for the kiddos not swallowing pills) and of course don't forget the stuff in the fridge or like us, the LDN which is kept upstairs for night time application. Also throw in some epsom salt cream or salts for detox baths after playing in chlorinated pools. Don't forget the enzymes, especially if you are planning on eating out, maybe extra chewable Trienza's in your purse "just in case". I keep Trienza, A & I and vitamin C with me at all times.

Where to stay? Hotels suck, let's just get that out there. Inevitably we are next to the twenty-something partiers who stay up til dawn singing the latest Lady Gaga songs at the top of their lungs, or we end up below the group who decides to have an all night dance party and it sounds as if the roof is going to cave in. Where is the white noise? Where is the consideration? Not to mention you are all sleeping in the same room, hotels with more than one room are hard to find these days (or expensive). I had written a biz plan years ago to pitch to hotels for Autism friendly rooms (except for the fact that I am raising children, one whom has Autism and never got around to pitching it!). Wish I did back then, seems that idea is starting to catch on now. Staying in hotels just sucks for us. Period. We are lucky enough to be from San Diego so we have relatives to stay with and that is where we "vacation" (yeah, I know, we vacation back "home", ironic but it works). But staying with relatives can be tricky too. Will there be a meltdown at 6:00 am because the "right" cartoon is not on the local stations at the same time. Maybe breakfast is a tad different, maybe they are not sitting in their regular seat, you get the picture. You walk on eggs shells not to disturb the whole house when many time, Autism is loud and can be very stressful. Often you are sharing rooms which can be tricky for our phantom sleepers with Autism. We tip toe around our child with Autism, sleep can be precious and sharing a room, not so conducive.

You can see how many aspects of travel can be very stressful. Heck, I still have not braved a flight with my children. Now I must say, this has gotten SO much easier. Car rides alone were torture for a while. As we have done more biomed, as my son has "healed", as his symptoms fade, we can loosen up. Those old worries still crop up. I had to run errands this week with my son. We made 7 stops in one day, in and out of the car, unfamiliar places, therapy appts., etc. He was a trooper! Not one meltdown, rolled with the punches! It is times like that were I have to note how far he has come. 1 outing would have been too much, sensory system overwhelmed and screaming for hours on end and a fitful night sleep would be had for all. Not anymore. Progress....

There is still plenty of prep work involved, special diets prepared to have on hand but even that gets easier. Since retiring, my mother in law has been out more frequently. As a stellar cook, mom and wife, she appreciates what I do daily. She watches, asks lots of questions, not from the place of "Why in the world would you do that?" but from the place of "Wow! I see the changes in M and I want to see WHAT you are doing so I can do that too for him". We get texts (YES she is texted now!!) of "I picked up rice noodles and buffalo meat for spaghetti". There have been so many years that just to be sure, I brought EVERYTHING with me and cooked from scratch in someone else's kitchen (not ideal, let me tell you). I am so thankful that things are changing and that we have family that cares so much about what we are doing and are rallying around us to make our trip enjoyable. I feel like this is the first trip where I can maybe, just maybe take a little breathe and enjoy, not just plan and stress.

So why did we go each year if it was so stressful you may ask? Well for one, we see Dr. Kurt Woeller once a year in person so we always time our trips to coincide. It is a must to get out there. And, it is too tempting to hole up, not go anywhere. My kids deserve to see their grandparents, cousins, our life long friends and their children! And to watch them run and play heals my heart just a little. To see my kids hug their grandparents, and lately ask for them over and over with "I miss them" frequently said, I know it is important. We have to push (gently) past our comfort zone, theirs and ours, sometimes. I am all for attachment parenting, DIR therapy etc. but we cannot do nothing because it is hard. We just have to be smart about it.

So prepare, plan, organize and then breathe. Our kids also deserve for their parents to just enjoy them, watch them run in the waves, touch a starfish for the first time and maybe to get time just to sit on the beach and dig their toes in the sand. Life is what it is, stressful, frustrating, and yet also beautiful, wonderous, and joyous if we make the time to see that. It is something I (clearly) have not done enough of. But, my commitment THIS vacation is to stress less, enjoy more, be prepared and then RELAX. It took us years to get to this point. It was simply NOT an option prior. But you know what, I have worked my BUTT off to get here, and so has HE. So, back to prepping foods, packing and preparing, but my mind is thinking of that beach and maybe, just maybe taking a deep breath of that salty sea air I miss so much. My wish for all of you? Happy, safe vacations, memories made, meltdowns avoided. Most of all? ENJOY the ride!

An open letter from Jon Gilbert

All I can do is cry as I read this, nod my head and remember when.....remember when this was US. This was my son to a "T", right down to the light switches which was a fascination of his. We got to the point where I avoided going places for this very reason. This was us.....but it is NOT anymore. Autism can be treated. Read this, relate to it then read my part again that says it USED to be us. Get empowered, every small step you take can help your child. I thank God for biomed everyday. And I do say, it will not give EVERY child the same results but if there is even a chance, isn't it worth a shot? There are tons of parents out there to help mentor, myself included. NEVER GIVE UP HOPE ON WHAT YOU OR YOUR CHILD CAN ACCOMPLISH, no matter what path you choose! There is hope out there, my son is proof.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
An Open Letter
By Jon Gilbert
The other day that mom with the little boy who was making so much commotion in the fast food restaurant noticed you staring at her. He was a handful, wasn't he? His screaming was incessant

and the way he was challenging his mother: unacceptable. It's understandable that you would never allow your own child to holler at you like that, or bounce between the booths. You found yourself wondering what would possess her to bring an unruly child like that out into public in the first place. As your respectful children stood beside you in silence, you wondered when he would just be quiet. And you wondered what kind of mother she must be.

If you only knew what that mom wonders.

She wonders what she can do to get him to stop screaming. Sometimes it lasts all day, and lately, it's been almost every day. Then, while you put your kids back in the car, she wonders if he'll keep his seat belt on for the entire ride. You will get them home and they'll head right upstairs to play together nicely. She wonders if he'll decide it's time to begin switching the lights on and off repeatedly, or throw to everything that's on the desk onto to the floor.

When your kids fall down, you can ask them where it hurts and they can tell you. It hurts the other mom that all she can do is hold her little boy and wonder when he'll stop crying. Later, while you wonder what story you will read to your child tonight, the mom you know nothing about will once again cry herself to sleep in her husband's arms.

You wonder later why God would give any child to "that kind" of parent, yet she's thankful that God chose her. You judge the stranger based on that one incident, while she wonders why you didn't just ask if you could help. She probably wouldn't have taken it, but she would have appreciated the gesture.

Your four-year-old has mastered the art of conversation. She find's it triumphant that her son mumbles, "go school" and "want eat." You already wonder what your child's high school prom will be like. Meanwhile the other mom wonders when her four-year-old will potty train.

You wonder who your little one will marry some day, while the mom with the rambunctious son worries that he may not graduate from high school. You plan to send your child to the best university, and the lady that you
never met wonders if she'll have to care for hers as an adult.

While she's not jealous that your kids obey, talk and dream, she does wonder what it would be like to be able to call her son "normal." He is who he is. There's no altering that, and his mother wouldn't change him for the world. But feeling your eyes burn through her melts her soul. She does the best he can, and wonders why you judge them both.

She doesn't ask for your sympathy, just your understanding. Her family puts a lot of time and effort into helping him become the best somebody he can be. You don't see it, but that's all right, because his mom sees it every day. She sees the victories as well as the defeats.

You cast your judgment based on the one day you saw the unruly child in public. No one faults you for that, because the other mom used to do the same thing, back before her son's diagnosis. All the mom asks of you today is compassion and consideration.

Tonight, when you tuck your kids into bed, be thankful for the children you have and for who they are. Understand that, while you are getting butterfly kisses from your little angel, there are parents wondering when theirs will be able to say the words, "I love you."

Tanning, Autism, and Respen-A

All Hail The Farmer's Tan!?!

I have questioned this for years, why doesn't my son with Autism tan? He stays white, like Casper the Ghost, seriously, even through 5 hot Arizona summers. He gets the same amount of sun exposure (which is pretty hefty since he is an outdoor kind of kid) as his sisters do and they end up looking like Coppertone babies, they tan even under sunscreen. We let the kids get some exposure to the sun without sunscreen, for proper vitamin D absorption. And if we are going to be doing something like swimming for hours in mid day for example, then everyone gets sunscreen plus swim shirts to cover their torso. We use sunscreen without all the toxic chemicals, I am more worried about the chemicals than sun exposure, especially given our high whole foods diet. So then why does our whole family tan with the exception of my son?

After doing (brief) research I found data on an enzyme process (which is not surprising, I swear ALL processes are enzyme based) that aids in melanin production. OK so we know a lot of my son's enzymatic processes are not working the right way. So, you can imagine my surprise when just a few weeks ago my son got a little pink on his shoulders. The neighborhood kids were all congregating at our house so I decided to pull out the slip and slide. It was placed in the shade of a tree but the kids were running all over, in an out of mid day sunlight. They played for 2 hours, a pittance of our normal sun exposure. We came inside and I noticed a slight pinkening of his skin on the tops of his shoulders, given the relatively light exposure, I didn't make him wear the swim shirt he usually wears for mid day swimming, that and the fact that he never tans! So why would he start tanning all of a sudden? We started Respen-A at the end of last year. Respen-A is supposed to aid in enzyme processes within the body. You can understand my excitement of potentially seeing visible results of this therapy. We've had tremendous success with Respen-A in terms of social/emotional/relationship areas so this was even more exciting to see some tangible results of cellular changes as well possibly.

Then just the other day, Facebook was crawling with people reposting THIS article from Age of Autism discussing this very issue with regards to tanning and Autism. I had never heard of the heavy metals connection before but it is also an interesting theory. Maybe this is also indicative of metal excretion? My son did not show high for mercury but he did for aluminum. Whatever the case, I see widespread healing as indicated by bowel changes, behavioral changes and yes now even tanning.

As I look deeper at my son's progress, I can see changes in his cognition, how he relates to us, how he relates to others. Just yesterday he did a joint OT session with another little boy, a little boy eerily similar to him at age 3 1/2. The child was engaging in echolalia, repeating my son in the same intonation and everything. My son, exasperated, said "Stop copying me, that is SO annoying, we are not the same". His therapist and another staff member found that pretty hilarious. Oh how far we've come. We see "typical" behaviors, "typical" phrases come out of his 6 year old mouth and I have to appreciate that 3 years ago he was virtually non-verbal. He is rounding the corner to 7 so definitely 4 years ago he was non-verbal. Now all we have to work on in speech is the "S" sound. And I link the 2, body and gut healing and progress through therapies. I do not think I could separate them. Without biomed, we would not have made this progress but many times, biomed is leaves you wanting a crystal ball 1) to see what NEEDS to be fixed and 2) seeing what is getting better. The reality is, not many of us can afford to rerun tests (or want to put our kiddos through tons of testing, especially more invasive tests) constantly and so we have to watch for clues that what we are doing is working until we do rerun a test. Some of them are subtle and some things are "wow" factors. So when I see a change like tanning, I am thoroughly excited! So here's to a summer of fun, relaxation, and hey maybe even a farmer's tan or two if we are lucky!

How safe is the sun, and your sunscreen?

As we are thrown into the throes of our summer heat here in AZ, the topic of the sun comes up a lot. I feel, personally, there is a lot of confusion out there. Is the sun, in extremes, harmful? Yes. But with the advent of sunscreen, are we now mostly people with a shortage of the critical vitamin D that our bodies are SUPPOSED to get from the sun? YES! Every one of us should be getting 20 minutes of sun exposure in mid day sun (more if you are darker skinned) WITHOUT SUNSCREEN! Hey, lets remember, we have always had the sun. And while I will admit migratory patterns of humans have probably not always been that smart and there are probably some people who should not be living in California, Florida and Arizona. But that aside, our bodies know what to do with sunlight. The chemicals that are slathered on to "protect us" from the sun is another story. Am I advocating laying in the hot Arizona sun for 5 hours straight with no sunscreen? No, that would be stupid and irresponsible. But what I am saying is that we all NEED some sun, and we also need good protection for longer sun exposure, without the even more harmful chemicals. Chemicals being lathered on the skin is no good. I stand behind MY opinion that cancer has a lot to do with environmental toxins and body PH and less to do with whether you sit in the sun a little each day. Eating a diet high in processed foods, meats, dairy, soda, etc. will create an acidic environment=cancer grows. When you keep your system more alkaline, cancer cannot grow. So, when we are eating primarily raw, unadulterated foods, sitting in the sun isn't such a bad proposition. But, hey remember not too much, find a good quality sunscreen if you are going to be out for example swimming for a few hours, use common sense and ENJOY THE SUMMER! Here is a great article on safer sunscreens. Click HERE to read it.

Avoiding gluten, corn, soy and dairy

This is an excellently written piece with wonderful history and explaination as to why we should ALL be avoiding the Big $ as he calls them, Wheat, Dairy, Corn and Soy. I blog about it all the time. Hear it from someone else too. (From www.dogtorj.com)
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A Brief History of “the Big 4″ I have been gluten-free for over ten years now. But it did not take long for me to realize that there were other foods that needed to be eliminated from our diets…and those of my veterinary patients. Within a few months of starting down this road, I had discovered that dairy was not “nature’s perfect food”, soy was not a “health food” and that corn was the fourth food that induced villous atrophy of the small intestine, just as gluten does. Turns out, my four-legged patients needed this info as badly as I did.
Yes, I began placing all of my dog and cat patients on the same diet that I had adopted for myself, starting with the elimination of wheat and later adding restrictions from soy, corn and all dairy products. Miracles started happening in my veterinary patients! And why wouldn’t they? Dogs and cats are carnivores and not only would they never elect to eat gluten grains, dairy, soy and corn, they would never even be exposed to them, as they are all man-cultivated items.
So, when did we mess things up so badly? Look back…way back.
Dogtor J



A Brief History of the “Big 4”
by Dogtor J

©2010 DogtorJ.com
People ask me all of the time how wheat and dairy could be so bad for us when we’ve been consuming these things for thousands of years. I understand their confusion. After all, doctors have supported the FDA food pyramid for generations, making specific recommendations of multiple servings of each in order to meet our minimum dairy requirements of nutrients. Our parent’s parents forced milk down the throats of their children so they did the same for their offspring. “Builds strong bones and teeth” was their mantra, adopted from the (very successful) rhetoric of the dairy industry. Who can argue with the FDA, doctors, parents and the rest of society?
Those of faith point out that our Old Testament ancestors ate wheat and drank milk, so “How bad can it be?” At first, I thought maybe that these age-old food choices might just be the things meant to limit man’s life here on earth but I soon learned that we are dying prematurely at our own hand.
“There are tares in the wheat!”
We made some very serious mistakes in our nutritional history, starting with the blending of wheat by our Germanic ancestors. In the 4th century AD, they took original wheat (Einkorn wheat – Triticum monococcum) and blended with it two other grasses in the Triticum family, thus creating “common wheat”, from which our present day wheat is derived. We know now that this act not only dramatically increased the gluten content but also introduced the harmful ingredient into gluten to which so many are now reacting. Preliminary studies now being done on Einkorn wheat are showing that known celiacs are likely to be able to handle the gluten in Einkorn wheat. How cool is that? So, the fact that some of today’s wheat is 55% gluten versus the 5-7% of Einkorn is not the only factor. It is what’s in that gluten that makes the biggest difference in whether we become intolerant of that grain. Our ancestors put tares (weeds) in our wheat!
Dairy is not “Nature’s Perfect Food”
The next big mistake occurred when our English ancestors jumped ship from goat’s milk (the universal foster milk) to cow’s milk as their source of dairy products. The difference in the casein fraction is subtle but immunologically immense. Plus, we know now that these Anglo-Saxons chose the wrong cows back in the 1500’s when they picked what are now termed “A1 cattle” (the western European varieties – the Jersey, Guernsey, and Holstein) vs the “A2″ variety (the Zebu or Brahma). A Google search tells you all that you need to know about the ramifications of their choice – BCM7 (beta casomorphin 7), the origin of type 1 diabetes and “the milk devil”.
Recently, researchers have isolated the protein that triggers type-1 diabetes. They have known for years that our children who get cow’s milk in the first five days of life have a 40-50 times higher rate of type-1 diabetes than the general population. But they also noted that Africa’s Masai, who drink the milk of the Brahma, never experience type-1 diabetes. So these scientists took a group of diabetes-prone, non-diabetic rats and divided them into two groups – those to receive A1 milk from the western European cattle and those to get A2 from the Zebu/Brahma. Nearly half of those receiving A1 milk developed diabetes and none of those getting A2 developed the condition. The researchers went on to isolate the single protein that was causing the problem and, in that protein, they found one alteration in the amino acid sequence that made the difference. That’s the razor’s edge on which we live, just like the exact nature of the earth’s orbit required to sustain life.
The Asian Mistake
The “third plague”, as I like to call it, is soy….the Asian mistake. This health-robbing legume was buried underground in one remote area of world and used for years as a non-edible plant used in crop rotation to add nitrogen back to the soil. It took the Asians years to decide to eat it but first they had to develop the means to make it safe for consumption. They learned that fermentation made soy more tolerable just like our ancestors discovered with dairy products (e.g. yogurt, kefir). Interestingly, rice and rice-based wines turned out to be antidotes for some of the harmful properties of their newest culinary creation, in the same way that Italians learned to consume wine, high fat meats, olive oil and vinegar to protect themselves against their passion for pasta. But we should know that any food that requires as much processing as soy – just to make it safe to eat – will cause problems in individuals even when properly prepared.

And yet, the soy industry tried to tell us that soy was a health food and that Asians were healthier because of the soy they consumed. Thankfully, we quickly found out the truth. The only reason that Asians (in Asia) are healthier than Americans in some aspects is because their traditional diet has NO gluten, NO dairy, and NO corn. Soy was their mistake and its gut and tissue-damaging lectins, its overwhelming levels of isoflavones, and its wide array of anti-nutrients tell the tale. No one talks about the fact that Asians actually only live one year longer than the Swiss (and I don’t see them pounding down the soy) and lead the pack in the incidence of stomach cancer.

Like dairy, soy has altered the outward appearance and the internal mechanics of our children. The most notable fact is that the first menstrual cycle of our little girls is occurring much earlier than normal. It was generally accepted in the past that the first menses occurred at 15 years of age. We know from studying this event in the Japanese children before and after WW2, that increased dairy consumption (Americanization has its toll) brought this age down to 12. But soy has dropped this age down into the single digits. It is now reported that nearly 20% of our little girls have their first menstrual cycle by age 8. Wow! If that is not bad enough, I was giving this “lecture” to a woman on the local school board the other day in my office and she told me that there were three nine year-olds in our school system that were pregnant . Unbelievable. Isoflavones are a very real threat to our children’s development, including our males. I’ll leave that part to your imagination and Google.
Corn – The Toxic Grain
That leaves corn – the “gift of the American Indian”, as many of us view it. “Corn must be healthy if the Indians ate it”, a number of people have said to me. Ahhh…but the history of corn is one of the most interesting. It took thousands of years for the Hispanic ancestors to create the ear we see now. It started out as a useless grain in a single valley down in meso-America. And everywhere corn was introduced, pellagra (niacin deficiency) broke out. Wikipedia incorrectly blames this on the fact that niacin is deeply locked in the kernel of the corn. That would be the answer IF corn was their only source of niacin, which it was not. No…corn caused the niacin deficiency because it induced villous atrophy in those sensitized individuals who consumed it, just as it does in countless people and animals today (with rising corn allergies being the outward sign). That’s why pellagra broke out. They could not absorb the niacin from any dietary source once the lining of the gut was damaged. Yes…corn is nasty stuff, supported by the fact that corn gluten meal kills other plants (a “natural herbicide”) and corn meal can be used to kill insects. That’s why it puts fat on anything that consumes it: Fat is the body’s recycle bin and we form new fat cells in order to shuttle bad things out of the general circulation and into the “trash file”.
Our Body Knows What It is Doing
The only other things that damage our villi in the way that these foods do are viruses and fluoride, both of which give us important insight into why gluten, et al do this to our intestinal lining. Why does a toxic does of fluoride cause extreme damage to those finger-like projections called villi? To keep us from absorbing it. The same thing holds true for gluten, dairy, soy and corn. This drastic change is meant to be a temporary means of protecting us. But what part of the cell makes the decision to shrink our villi? Our residential microorganisms do this. Yes, viruses and pleomorphic bacteria are responsible for this amazing adaptive process. I guess we should stop dissing them so badly, eh? Much of what we call “disease” is simply an outward sign of this adaptive process. These resident microbes are on our side!
Making the Turn in Our Health
So…how many of you are on GFCFSFCF* diets? (*That’s gluten, casein, soy, and corn-free)? Have you removed one or the other of the trouble foods but plateaued in your recovery? Are you having a hard time believing that nearly 80% of the standard American diet (SAD) diet – made up of the “big 4” foods - is bad for you? Or are you starting to understand why I lovingly call this quartet “the four horsemen of the apocalypse”?
The bad news is that the damaged food chain does not end here. Have you heard that we can be “secondarily glutenized” by eating the flesh of animals that are fed these food items? This is a very real issue and I am now getting testimonials from people who have seen major advances in choosing grass fed beef and free range, range-fed chicken and their eggs over the grain-fed varieties. This can be especially important in the treatment of immune-mediated diseases as well as neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric disorders.
Is this really “bad news”? Not if you are one of the many who are suffering under the care of the current medical administration that appears to be out of touch with these crucial food issues. If you are looking for real answers to your chronic medical problems, you will find more than you have ever imagined in the pages of this site and those authored by the wise souls who preceded me. Even Hippocrates knew the truth about food and medicine. When did we lose touch with our past?
Dogtor J

Liver support and detox

Our liver is very important for our overall health and functioning. Our liver can become quite bogged down with toxins and needs support to help function optimally. There are a couple of herbs that can be very helpful for that. Here is Dr. Kurt Woeller discussing Milk Thistle and Artichoke Extract as liver support and detox.

Milk Thistle from Autism Supplements Center on Vimeo.

Artichoke Extract from Autism Supplements Center on Vimeo.

More data on the harmful effects of BPA

As I have blogged time and time again, the toxins in our environment, especially our food supply can be reduced to the betterment of our health. BPA is a topic I have discussed before, and even promoted Eden Foods who do NOT use BPA lined cans. Here is an article on MSN talking about what BPA does to our DNA. When we also look at the rise in autoimmune disorders, inflammation, etc., we have to wonder what chronic exposure to these chemicals do to add to these. And when we talk about BPA making us more sensitive to estrogen and we see the rise in soy use (and especially GMO soy which just adds to inflammation) we have to wonder whether we are escalating the diseases and disorders. How do these all fit together? Maybe we will never know. All I know now is that I wish I had understood this while pregnant with my son and daughter. What could our lives be like? No one will know that and really there is no point in asking why other than to caution others out there about these chemicals. Not only should we stop putting them into our bodies, our childrens' bodies and especially into our developing fetuses! We know that our body will not protect these precious babies from these chemicals. Our babies are being born polluted. We need to wake up, learn this stuff and STOP BUYING THEM!! Support Eden Foods and other like minded companies, committed to healthy food choices. We vote with every dollar we spend. Lets stop the rising tide of Autism and other auto-immune disorders. And one way to do that is to reduce the toxic load going in each day through our foods. So read this article, educate yourself and make informed decisions.

Click HERE for the article.

The Ride of Silence tonight

Here is my awesome hubby on this morning's news talking about the Ride of Silence that he has helped organize for the 2nd year here in Arizona. It is a slow, silent ride to show solidarity among riders who share the road with vehicles. Too many cyclists are struck and either injured or killed while legally sharing our roads. As drivers, we need to be more aware of cyclists and make sure we are allowing them room designated by law in those bike lanes.

7 foods farmers won't eat!

As a follow up to the article I just posted, here is more info on some things to avoid. Remember, Eden Foods carries a line of BPA free cans and that includes tomatoes! I prefer to make my own spaghetti sauce and just about died when I found out about BPA. So there is an alternative if you can find Eden Foods tomatoes.

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www.planetgreen.com
7 Foods So Unsafe Even Farmers Won't Eat Them
Grocery stores may sell them, but experts won't touch them; what you should know about your food.
By Laurel House | Mon Jan 25, 2010 17:55

Dick Luria/Getty Images


READ MORE ABOUT:
Green Home | Pollution | Vegan | Vegetarian | Water

Smoking was proven to be cancer-causing, tanning beds were shown to be on par with arsenic, but what about canned tomatoes, corn-fed beef, conventionally grown potatoes? What would it take to convince you to clean out your pantry and change your eating habits? Scientists, doctors, even simple farmers were asked what foods they refuse to eat. The responses had nothing to do with things like donuts due to fat content, or white bread because of the concentration of empty carbs. We're talking seemingly healthy things like tomatoes, beef, popcorn, potatoes, salmon, milk, and apples. For them, it's all about how they are produced and packaged.

7 experts in fields pertaining to both food and the environment answered one simple question: "What foods do you avoid?." Their answers, published in an article entitled "7 Foods the Experts Won't Eat" on Yahoo! Shine, will make you re-think food. When it comes to food and its affect on your health and the health of this planet, this is what they answered:


1. Canned Tomatoes


The Expert: Fredrick vom Saal, PhD, an endocrinologist at the University of Missouri who studies bisphenol-A.
The Reason: Tin cans are lined with a resin that contains the synthetic estrogen bisphenol-A, which has been linked to a slew of health problems including heart disease, diabetes, reproductive problems, and obesity. But that's not the biggest problem. The acid in tomatoes breaks down that bisphenol-A, leaching it into the food, and not just in insignificant amounts. According to the article, Saal comments that "you can get 50 mcg of BCA per liter out of a tomato can, and that's a level that is going to impact people, particularly the young." That's why he's not touching the stuff.
The Solution: If you lo0ve the taste of "canned" tomatoes but prefer to skip the bisphenol-A, select glass bottles instead.


2. Corn-Fed Beef


The Expert: Joel Salatin, co-owner of Polyface Farms and author of half a dozen books on sustainable farming.
The Reason: Cattle are naturally grass eaters... not grain eaters. In order to fatten the animals (and profit margins), farmers feed them corn and soybeans. And while the farmers are beefing up their earnings, they are minimizing the nutritional benefits. The article mentions the findings from a recent USDA-conducted study comparing corn-fed beef and grass-fed beef showing that grass-fed beef is "higher in beta-carotene, vitamin E, omega-3s, conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), calcium, magnesium, and potassium; lower in inflammatory omega-6s; and lower in saturated fats that have been linked to heart disease."
The Solution: Pretty straight forward: Opt for grass-fed beef instead.

WATCH VIDEO: Why Grass-Fed Beef? Emeril Answers


3.Microwave Popcorn


The Expert: Olga Naidenko, PhD, a senior scientist for the Environmental Working Group.
The Reason: It's not the popcorn itself, but the chemically-saturated lining of the bag including a compound called perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) that, according to a recent study from UCLA, may be linked to infertility. Microwaving vaporizes the chemicals as they move from coating the bag to lining the popcorn. But it's not like this fact is un-acknowledged. In fact the article points out that DuPont, as well as other manufacturers, have "promised to phase out PFOA by 2015 under a voluntary EPA plan, but millions of bags of popcorn will be sold between now and then."
The Solution: Pop your own popcorn the way they did it in the olden days--in a pot.


4. Conventionally Grown (Not Organic) Potatoes


The Expert: Jeffrey Moyer, chair of the National Organic Standards Board.
The Reason: Herbicides and pesticides may not be sprayed directly on root vegetables (since they're underground), but they absorb the chemicals through the soil and water. Because potatoes are considered the nation's most popular vegetable, producing a healthy crop is essential to keep up with demand. In order to maintain their health, the article exposes the scary fact that "they're treated with fungicides during the growing season, then sprayed with herbicides to kill off the fibrous vines before harvesting. After they're dug up, the potatoes are treated yet again to prevent them from sprouting." But here's the scary thing, Moyer says that he's talked to potato growers "who say point-blank they would never eat the potatoes they sell. They have separate plots where they grow potatoes for themselves without all the chemicals."
The Solution: Another no-brainer— Only buy organic potatoes.


5. Farmed Salmon


The Expert: David Carpenter, MD, director of the Institute for Health and the Environment at the University at Albany and publisher of a major study in the journal Science on contamination in fish.
The Reason: When salmon is crammed into pens, fed soy, poultry litter, and hydrolyzed chicken feathers (obviously an unnatural environment for the up-stream swimmers), they're levels of healthy vitamin D lowers as the contaminants increases. Those contaminants include carcinogens, PCBs, brominated flame retardants, and pesticides (like DDT). The article points out that DDT has been linked to both diabetes and obesity, quoting Carpenter in saying that "You can only safely eat one of these salmon dinners every 5 months without increasing your risk of cancer... It's that bad."
The Solution: Avoid farmed salmon and instead select wild-caught Alaskan salmon. But make sure the packaging reads "wild." If it just says "fresh Atlantic," according to the article, "it's farmed."


6. Milk Produced with Artificial Hormones


The Expert: Rick North, project director of the Campaign for Safe Food at the Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility and former CEO of the Oregon division of the American Cancer Society.
The Reason: Unlike in the olden days when fresh milk was some of the purest nutrients you could get, dairy cows today are fed growth hormones like rBGH and rBST to increase milk production. Problem is, while they may be making more milk, they are also increasing their chances of udder infections (which can lead to pus in the milk). More than that, the article points out that high levels of IGF-1 from the rBGH may play a role in the development of breast, prostate, and colon cancers... which is why North says that "it's banned in most industrialized countries."
The Solution: Read the labels and be sure that your milk doesn't contain rBGH or rBST and that it is labeled organic or "produced without artificial hormones."


7. Conventional Apples


The Expert: Mark Kastel, former executive for agribusiness and co-director of the Cornucopia Institute, a farm-policy research group that supports organic foods
The Reason: Apples are the recipient of the most pesticides of all Fall fruits. Chemical producers swear that the residue is not harmful for human consumption, but the Yahoo! Article goes on to quote Kastel in saying that "Farm workers have higher rates of many cancers."
The Solution: Buy organic apples where available or at least thoroughly wash and peel apples before eating them.

Related Content on Eco-Friendly Food:
Trust Stella McCartney: Meat-Free Mondays are Hip, not Hippie!
The EPA, Keeping Chemicals Secret Since 1976
The Eco-Friendly Fisherman