Interesting Information AND Turkey Tracks: Making Bone Broths AND What’s In Them

Interesting Information AND Turkey Tracks: December 18, 2013

Making Bone Broths AND What’s In Them

I love it when something is being discussed or a piece of information is sought and “the universe” pops it up for you. That phenomenon is called synchronicity. And it happens in my life all the time.

My post yesterday on dysfunctional gallbladders talked about bone broths for healing–and about that time, the Mercola web site did a posting on bone broths–why they are good for you and how to make them.

Here’s that link:

Bone Broth: One of Your Most Healing Diet Staples.

Then my oldest friend (in length of time, not years) got very sick and landed up in the hospital–pneumonia–and I said “bone broths” to her. She asked next how to make them. So, here is synchronicity working for her.

Mercola discusses chicken bone broth. If you use a whole chicken–take the chicken out after about 30 minutes and strip the meat from the bones and put the bones back into the pot to make the “bone broth.” Use the meat in another recipe. You don’t want to cook the meat to death.

If you want to use beef or lamb bones–and you do–and you can also mix them with poultry–brown them in a hot oven in a shallow pan first. Put all the fat that gets rendered into the soup pot with the browned bones. You can add some savouries–onions, carrots, celery, garlic, etc.–but you can also go plain and add the savouries to your stock when you make soup, etc. Fry them up a bit in fat first. You can pull fat off the top of your chilled stock and use that to sauté.

Remember, you want to cook the bones at least 12 hours. You can leave the pot UNCOVERED on the stove over night and resume cooking the next morning. As long as you heat it for at least 10 minutes, it’s fine.

Interesting Information: What Causes Gallbladder Dysfunction?

Interesting Information: December 17, 2013

What Causes Gallbladder Dysfunction?

My father’s gallbladder blew up one day, nearly killing him.

Emergency surgery followed.

My dad had no choice, and he was lucky.

But removing the gallbladder is also a serious thing to do. And this removal may have contributed to my father’s growing inability to absorb the nutrients from his food, particularly vitamin B12.

In my 40’s, I started having symptoms that I felt were signs that maybe my gallbladder was not so healthy either. I was at that time “female, fat, and forty.” (I’m still female, but not fat or forty.)

This episode may have been the start of my interest in healthy food for healthy bodies. I tried to be a vegetarian, and while the gall bladder issues cleared up (probably because I ate a lot of cheese and olive oil), I set in motion a new set of more severe symptoms–hair loss, nail splitting, more weight gain, and a bunch of new cavities. And, I think I caused the start of my leaky gut problems, which led, in turn, to the food allergies with which I live today.

So, what does cause the gallbladder to run amok?

Laurel Blair, N.T.P., takes on this issue in “A Nutritional Perspective on Gallbladder Health,” in Well Being Journal, July/August 2012.

The gallbladder is a “small storage organ that sits just below the liver.” The liver produces bile, and the gallbladder stores the bile. “Bile released from the gallbladder is an emulsifier that enables us to absorb dietary fats, as well as the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K, and essential fatty acids such as omega 3’s. Without bile, these nutrients pass through our bodies without being absorbed.”

And, I know from other research, that if the delicate balance of our bodies gets “off,” it begins to rob stored nutrients to try to make the whole system work or to, at least, make a particular part of it work. Is that what happened to my dad?

So, modern medicine removes diseased gallbladders. And in my dad’s case, he was lucky that his gallbladder blow out didn’t cause other tissues/organs, etc., to become diseased.

But, taking out a diseased gallbladder never deals with the cause of the gallbladder disease. So now a person has no gallbladder AND still has the original problem that caused the disease in the first place.

What is the cause of gallbladder disease? Here’s Blair’s answer:

What causes gallbladder dysfunction in the first place? There are a number of factors that can play a role, including food allergies and obesity, but the two that seem to be the most important are low-fat diets and excessive consumption of refined carbohydrates.

The gallbladder is designed to empty several times per day in response to dietary fat and acidity, but it can continue to concentrate and store bile temporarily when food is scarce. When you eat a meal that contains little or no fat, the gallbladder will not get the message to empty itself. The liver, however, will continue to make more bile whether the gallbladder empties or not. The gallbladder has the ability to concentrate the bile and save it for the next meal. But if the next meal (and the next, and the next) is low in fat as well, the bile begins to become thick, sludgy,and congealed, a condition called biliary stasis. Over long periods of time the thickened bile can crystallize into actual gallstones. This is particularly true if the bile is supersaturated with cholesterol. Refined carbohydrates have been shown to increase the cholesterol saturation of the bile. Refined carbohydrates also deplete magnesium rapidly from the body, and magnesium deficiency is another factor that has been linked to gallstone formation.

Blair lists some ways to prevent gallbladder disease:

1. Avoid refined carbohydrates like white flour and sugar. (An overload of these can cause the body to pull nutrients from body storage, one of which is, AHA, the B vitamin complex.)

2. Eat plenty of healthy fats which include saturated fats from pasture-fed animals (butter, ghee, cream, tallow, lard, fatty meats, egg yolks, organ meats, etc.), tropical oils (palm and coconut), monounsaturated fats from extra virgin olive oil and avocados, and small amounts of polyunsaturated fat from nuts, seeds, and fish. AVOID corn, soy, canola, sunflower, safflower, cottonseed, other seed oils, and hydrogenated oils.

3. Make sure your diet contains plenty of minerals–eat homemade bone broth, dairy products, organ meats, seafoods, and organic vegetables (especially leafy greens)

4. Include taurine-rich foods as taurine is a major constituent of bile. Taurine is an amino acid found in animal proteins, including meats, seafood, eggs, dairy products, and brewer’s yeast.

5. Eat beets. Beet root and stem are “natural bile thinners.” Beet greens are high in magnesium–but, I’d add, also high in oxalates, which can cause kidney stones.

6. Avoid rapid weight loss and very low-calorie diets–as this behavior can increase the risk of gallstones. Lose only about two pounds a week.

Hang on to your gallbladders!

Feed them with good fats!

Turkey Tracks: December Update

Turkey Tracks: December 14, 2014

December Update

Well I have neglected the blog.

I’ve been busy with the Christmas party for the Coastal Quilters and with buying and starting to learn a new MAC computer (!).

I’ve been told for years and years that MACs are great for artists, and I have completely fallen in love with my Apple IPad and IPod Touch. So, when my PC recently threw up the blue screen of death and started screaming at me–necessitating putting it into the car and rushing it down to Archangel Computers, which, fortunately for me, was open–I started rethinking getting a MAC. I personally believe I am due a nice treat for this first Christmas I will be spending alone. And I learned you can turn off a computer by holding down the start button for ten seconds. Another piece of the learning curve…

And then there was the issue of trying to juggle email on four different devices that were not talking to each other. Our local Time Warner carrier has roadrunner, and they have instituted changes that have made it pretty much totally unworkable, clunky, time-consuming, and a general pain in the you know what. So…I’ve also gone to a gmail account.

The PC was, by the way, playing an audio book on CDs. And it was sitting on my ironing board while I was sewing. Who knows what happened…??? Anyway…I had to take the CDs back to the library as I do not have any way to play CDs except for an old CD player in the living room–and I don’t quilt in the living room. I’m not sure I want to pay to download books, but I might. I’m still rethinking this particular problem. The CD players on the market now are either really cheap and have terrible reviews or are really expensive–and I’m not going to spend money on dead technology.

Anyway, I do have an update for you.

I finished the knitted cowl and am more than a little mildly disappointed with it. Oh, it’s big and warm, but I thought the blues and greens would be dominant.

Here is a reminder of what the yarn looked like:

Knitted, the yarn is kind of muddy looking–though it’s growing on me with my brown coat. The pattern is nice and there is a lot of texture:

Here I am in it:

I can now take a picture like this one on the MAC!

And I’m going to need to make a hat that goes with the cowl…

The sauerkraut is ready to give away or store:

Isn’t it gorgeous!

I finished “Clue Two” of Bonnie Hunter’s 2013 Thanksgiving Mystery Quilt: Celtic Solstice. They were chevrons and quite pesky to sew. “Clue Three” came out on Friday, and I finished these units sometime on Thursday. Here they are with “Clue One”–the units that will make stars when assembled.

Here’s another view–a close up:

The Facebook group members are all wondering how these chevrons will be used in the quilt. Here are some patterns, though not all I’ve seen:

Bonnie shows a picture of an intricate tiled floor she took on her trip to Ireland this past summer. Hmmmm.

The new clue came out Friday. They are 2-inch half-square triangles in the yellow and orange. Some are sewn into pinwheels; some are left alone.

I have a pile of “interesting information” to write about–and I promise to get going on that information in these quiet days.

We are expecting a BIG SNOW tonight, and it’s bitter, bitter cold here in Maine.

Interesting Information: 7.83 Hz, and Sleep in the Quiet Dark

Interesting Information: December 8, 2013

7.83 Hz, and

Sleep in the Quiet Dark

I used to fuss at my younger son and his wife all the time about the sleep monitors they have in their babies rooms. The older child, especially, is a very light sleeper. To give her comfort, they also keep a night light on.

But I’ve given up. And they do have to live their lives in their own way.

Nevertheless, like many of my generation who grew up without much technology, I’m worried about the overload of radiation in our world today–from cell phones, baby monitors, microwaves, wireless transmitters of all sorts (computers, Smart Meters, radios, etc.), the machines at the airports. It’s a growing list.

I myself cannot sleep with lights on around me. The fire alert contraption on the ceiling near my bedroom door–meant to show me where the door is in the case of fire–seems at night like a strobe light. I covered it with several coverings of masking tape. But I can still see it once my eyes get accustomed to the dark, and one of these days, I’m getting on a ladder and putting MORE tape over it. The light from the clock or from the plug strip in my room or from the phone–I block or cover them up. Then I get, blissfully, dark. Then I have only the monthly full moon and the countless bright winter stars to thwart my sleep.

Am I nuts?

You can watch Resonance: Beings of Frequency for free at https://vimeo.com/54189727 (James Russell and John K. Webster Directors, Patient Zero Productions).

And below you’ll find the review of this DVD from Tim Boyd in the Spring 2013 issue of Wise Traditions, the journal of The Weston A. Price Foundation.

Seems that 7.83 Hz is the resonant frequency of the earth–and as such is the frequency at which the alpha waves of our brains resonate. If that frequency gets interfered with, ill health follows. Reviewer Tim Boyd notes that if you put a cordless phone in a bee hive, the bees leave.

Be sure to read the paragraph on dark and wireless devices and melatonin production.

Resonance: Beings of Frequency

Written by Tim Boyd

Tuesday, 23 April 2013 20:05

Resonance: Beings of Frequency Directed by James Russell and John K. Webster Patient Zero Productions Available for free viewing at http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/resonance-beings-frequency/When you have a sphere within a sphere and an electromagnetic field, that arrangement creates a frequency. For at least a few centuries most of us have known that Earth is a sphere and it is surrounded by a larger sphere we call the ionosphere. Using that information, Winfried Otto Schumann calculated the resonant frequency of the earth as 7.83 Hz. I know what you’re thinking. Why would anyone care? It turns out that alpha waves generated by the human brain resonate at about that same frequency. It also turns out that when researchers constructed an underground bunker completely shielded from those waves and put test subjects in that bunker, they discovered that was bad for human health.

Other experiments with DNA in water showed that DNA strands communicate with each other at about the same frequency. Life in general seems to be tuned to 7.83 Hz. In our current era we are now adding an unprecedented amount of other electronic frequencies and noise to the environment. Between radio transmissions, cell phones and other wireless transmissions, it is becoming almost impossible to detect the Schumann resonance around big cities.

There is reason to believe this is having adverse effects on human and animal life. When cordless phones are put in a beehive, the bees don’t return. When natural electromagnetic fields are disrupted by things like cell phones or cell towers, birds and bees are no longer able to navigate. There may be other factors involved but this appears to be a significant factor in the decline of many species of birds and insects. In human populations, cancer clusters have been noted around cell phone towers.

Melatonin is a powerful antioxidant that regulates the immune system. It is produced by the pineal gland when it is dark. That is why you need to sleep in complete darkness to get the benefits of any melatonin. There is now evidence that melatonin production is disrupted by other forms of radiation besides visible light, particularly from wireless devices.

There have been a number of studies showing problems with cell phone radiation. There have also been many studies claiming that there is no problem. When you look at who carried out (or paid for) the studies showing no problem, it is obvious that the sponsor of the study had a vested interest in finding nothing. This video also points out that there is no effective government oversight or regulation of all the new phone technology. It is almost amusing when people are shocked by this fact. Large corporations control the governments of the western world. How much genuine regulation do you expect? All of this is more bad news for cell phone lovers. This one gets a thumbs UP.

This article appeared in Wise Traditions in Food, Farming and the Healing Arts, the quarterly magazine of the Weston A. Price Foundation, Spring 2013.

Interesting Information: Vitamin B12 Deficiency

Interesting Information: December 8, 2013

Vitamin B12 Deficiency

My father’s body stopped being able to use the B12 vitamin in his later years–which is a malabsorption issue.

He got B12 shots, but he slipped into dementia (not Alzheimers) anyway a few years later.

The Spring 2013 issue of The Weston A. Price Foundation’s journal Wise Traditions, Nutrition and Behavior, discusses at length the connections between human violence and other behavioral issues and the lack of nutrients–vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and so forth.

Sylvia Onusic, PhD. CNS, LDN, in “Violent Behavior: A Solution in Plain Sight” (Wise Traditions, Spring 2013) discusses the lack of B12.

Here’s the link: http://www.westonaprice.org/environmental-toxins/violent-behavior-a-solution-in-plain-sight

Here’s what Onusic said about the lack of B12:

Vitamin B12 deficiency has a well-known correlation with mental disorders, including irrational anger. A higher incidence of low B12 is found in mental patients than in the general population. Deficiencies cause mental symptoms ranging from poor concentration, depression and severe agitation to hallucinations [citation here]. Deficiencies are caused by pernicious anemia, an autoimmune condition; they are also found in vegetarians and vegans, those with low animal protein intake, and individuals with leaky gut. Drugs including anesthetics can deplete B12 [citation here].

My dad, as I said above, had some sort of malabsorption going on. He was thin as a rail though my mother, a great cook, fed him very well. He took a boat load of drugs for allergies and asthma. (We know now that most food allergies and asthma can be associated with foods and an impaired immune system–not to mention all the chemicals washing over our world these days. My dad lived across the road from an agricultural field that held skull-and-crossbones signs at its four corners.) He probably had leaky gut…

Anyway, this article is interesting…

And gives us a lot of information to contemplate.

Interesting Information: Stell Shevis’s Enameled Music Boxes

Interesting Information: December 8, 2013

Stell Shevis’s

Enameled Music Boxes

When I graduated from high school, my grandmother gave me a china box that I treasure to this day–though it is worn and tired and old now.

It lives on my dresser and holds some pearls John gave me long ago.

I wanted to give my grandchildren some small treasures that they would have always. Each has their name spelled out in brightly colored wooden letters–led by a train and followed by a caboose.

And to each–up to the birth of the youngest last April–I gave an enameled music box made by Stell Shevis–who is far more than a local artist here in Maine. Stell and her husband have national reputations, and we are only just lucky that they decided to live in Maine. (Shevis died a few years ago.)

link: Stell Shevis | About Stell and Shevis- Maine’s local artists.

I discovered Stell’s music boxes when we first moved to Maine ten years ago now.

But, Stell, who is in 2013, 97 years young (and she is young in mind and heart and sharp as a tack), stopped making the boxes some time ago.

When Ailey was born, I called Stell and asked if she had any left in her studio. She did, and I chose one for Ailey.

Last week, I worked up my hope and called Stell again. Perhaps she had a few left, I asked when she answered the phone.

I went right over, and there were four boxes left.

I bought two. One for Cyanna. One, just in case…

And Stell and I had a wonderful visit to boot.

Here are the boxes:

The white is silver, and the yellow, gold.

One plays “White Christmas” and one plays “Wind Beneath Your Sails.”

Hmmmmm…..

Turkey Tracks: Lacto-Fermenting Project

Turkey Tracks: December 7, 2013

Lacto-Fermenting Project

I got it into my head that I needed to make a good bit of lacto-fermented foods right away.

Thursday saw me buying a huge bag full of cabbages (red and white), leeks, turnips, rutabegas, and parsnips. I already had a big bag carrots. And the garden is full of kale.

Here’s the spread:

And the kale from the garden. I also brought in handfuls of the last of the sage, which is a bit more winter hardy than the other herbs:

On Friday, I started food processing. I had two projects: to make a new batch of the root veggies I LOVED over the past few months. The first batch was just turnips, carrots, garlic, and sage. This batch would have also parsnips (very sweet) and rutabegas and red onion.

I don’t know how to describe the taste of this turnip mixture. It does not taste like turnip. It does have a bright, fresh taste that is delightful–much as Sandor Ellis Katz promised in his book WILD FERMENTATION.

The second project was some mixtures of cabbage (red and white), leeks, onions when I ran out of leeks, kale, carrot, one had a turnip, more garlic, and sage. I decided to do at least two mixtures of just cabbage, carrot, and caraway seeds–the traditional mixture from NOURISHING TRADITIONS (Sally Fallon Morell and Dr. Mary Enig of The Weston A. Price Foundation) with which I started this journey.

The project went rather well:

There is a gallon of fermented cabbage in the crock. I transferred it to jars this morning. So I have almost 4 gallons of delicious food.

The orange is the root veggie mixture. The cabbage mixtures will turn bright rosy pink in a few days–from the red cabbage effect.

The kitchen was a mess when I was done. (You should have seen the floor.)

But it cleaned up quickly as no grease was involved:

Hint: the jars will be so pretty with a red ribbon and a Christmas Card attached, don’t you think?

Shhhhhh…..

And I’m not giving away the big root veggie jar or the jar with the hinge. They’re for ME!!

Turkey Tracks: Celtic Solstice Quilt Update

Turkey Tracks: December 7, 2013

Celtic Solstice Quilt Update

The first “clue” for Bonnie Hunter’s 2013 mystery quilt, Celtic Solstice, came out November 29th, the day after Thanksgiving. Following “clues” will come out each Friday.

Bonnie Hunter is a scrappy quilter, so if, for instance, one needs “blue” for a task, one gets many shades out of one’s stash.

We were to make 188 (for the 75 x 75-inch quilt–there are many more units for the king-size quilt Bonnie made) block units that will form a star. About half of the blue stars have a scrappy orange background and half have a neutral background. I put four together of each so you can see what will happen eventually. We will obviously be making the center of the star at some point.

I finished these 188 units Friday night.

The new clue came out early Friday morning–and the email traffic on the Facebook group dedicated to this project has been humming. As have sewing machines.

The new block is a chevron of green, yellow, and neutrals. One hundred of them. My patches are almost cut out now… And I’m going straight to the sewing machine after I’m done with the blog.

You should see some of the beautiful blocks, and also different color combos than Bonnie used, people are making.

Inspirational!

If you’re interested in making this quilt, go to quiltville.com, click on the blog button, and in the masthead, click on “Celtic Solstice Mystery.”

Interesting Information: Vaccines In Your Body: How They Really Work (Or Don’t)

Interesting Information: December 4, 2013

Vaccines In Your Body

How They Really Work (Or Don’t)

I’ve looked for some time for a simple explanation of how vaccines work (or don’t) in your body.

Shane Ellison, also known as The People’s Chemist, explains in his Over-The-Counter Natural Cures that vaccines come through the “back door” of the body–through a puncture wound–which breaches the body’s first line of defense: the skin. Vaccines are supposed to “trigger” the immune system, but because they are entering the body through the back door, “they fly below our immunity radar, rendering many of them ineffective” (96).

Ineffective at least in part means a short shelf life. I’m beginning to read that drug companies and most doctors are realizing that vaccines have a limited range of effectiveness–maybe up to two years. So now, in my opinion, they have a conundrum: should they recommend booster shots, a practice that would mean more money, but which would certainly increase the harm from vaccines, which could result in everyone stopping drinking this particular koolaid mixture, which would mean no money. I’m betting they will play around the edges of keeping the status quo.

But what goes on inside the body once a vaccine has entered it?

Why is the vaccine response ineffective?

I finally got my answer in an article by Thomas S. Cowan, MD, in the Spring 2013 edition of The Weston A. Price Foundation’s journal, Wise Traditions.

The link: Preventing and Treating the Flu – Weston A Price Foundation.

Dr. Cowan explains that we have two immune systems: the cell-mediated or Th1 (thymus derived) immune system and the Th2 immune system which targets extracellular (outside the cell) infecting agents (like worms) or foreign proteins and which “produces antibodies that call for a killing response before the offending agent gets into our cells and makes us sick” (50).

Dr. Cowan explains that the Th1 system is intracellular (inside the cell):

It primarily works through the production of white blood cells that essentially digest and then excrete cells (for example, in our throat or bronchial tubes) that have been infected with a virus or bacteria. The consequences of a cell mediated response, that is, the digestion and excretion of dead and infected cells, are what we call sickness. In other words, fever, rash, cough, mucus and so forth are not caused by the virus but by the body’s response to the virus.

When you get a naturally occurring infection “both immune systems respond, first the cell-mediated to clear the virus, then the antibody or humoral system to make antibodies to remember what happened so our cells don’t get infected with the same pathogen more than once.”

The degree of “severity of any particular illness is a function of how many cells are infected and the strength of our cell-mediated response.” And, “whether we get repeated sickness is related to whether we can make an effective antibody response.”

So, and this part is important, if we have a strong immune system, we throw off infection quickly and gain immunity to that infection/illness for life.

Dr. Cowan writes that “the cell-mediated exercise is largely responsible for immunity to cancer, auto-immune disease and other chronic conditions.”

So, vaccines “deliberately” try to “bypass the cell-mediated immune system and only provoke a humoral response. And Dr. Cowan notes with sly humor that “if a vaccine provoked the cell-mediated immune system, it would just make us sick and no one would agree to them.”

And, so, vaccines shift us into “what is called a Th2 dominant mode, an imbalance in which the humoral immune system is too strong and the cell-mediated immunity is suppressed.”

Here’s the kicker:

This leaves us with no avenue to clear the poisons that we have just been injected with from our tissues; it leaves us with chronic inflammation as our bodies struggle to clear these inflammatory toxins, such as mercury, formaldehyde and dead viruses, and an increased susceptibility to chronic disease. An overactive humoral immune system often leads to auto-immune disease, where the humoral immune system attacks our own tissues.

Dr. Cowan goes on to name sugar and refined carbs as trouble in that they “blunt the immune response and should be avoided as much as possible.”

Dr. Cowan discusses preventative and helping strategies, like cod liver oil and elderberry extract. For more detailed advice and remedies you many want to keep on hand, you can read the article for yourself.

Some questions to ponder:

If vaccines are hobbling the normal working of our immune system function, could that help account for the horrific rises in cancer?

Heavy metals like mercury and aluminum damage the brain–do vaccines set in place future cases of neurological diseases like Parkinson’s? Especially if the body can’t clear these toxins properly? Neurological diseases are also on the rise…

Interesting Information: Chandler Webb: Flu shot killed son, Utah mother claims

Interesting Information: December 4, 2013

Flu Shot Killed Son, Utah Mother Claims

Chandler Webb

We are bombarded with media pleas to get a flu shot these days–even though there have been many mainstream stories questioning the efficacy of the flu shot. There are even signs in drug stores and grocery stores that advertise that you can get the shot in those places.

There are few stories of the danger involved in getting ANY vaccine in the media.

But, here’s one. A very sad one.

Chandler Webb: Flu shot killed son, Utah mother claims.

If you watch the video you will see that a CDC doctor does acknowledge that the flu shot can cause encephalitis (an infection of the brain) and death, but this doctor claims that death is very rare. And you will see that many tests were done on Chandler Webb to see if anything on earth BUT the flu shot made him so sick. In the end, the doctors had to admit that the flu shot was the culprit.

The burning question is not only how rare death is, but what kinds of damage are done by vaccines every day. That information is not being pursued, and you can understand why. The money involved with vaccines is, simply put, enormous.

So, again, as is raised in the documentary THE GREATER GOOD, how many people are being seriously hurt or killed to promote “the greater good” of having some kind of projected “herd immunity”–an actual scientific concept that is being vastly misused in the vaccine propaganda.

There may be a place for vaccines. More and more I think not. But that’s my decision for me. It is crystal clear, however, that vaccines pose a real danger to many people and that there needs to be some kind of testing for vaccine reactions before they are given.

I will follow this post with one by an MD who explains how vaccines work in your body. Or, don’t work.

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