Milk is a tricky subject.  For years the dairy industry has led us to believe that if we don’t drink milk, we won’t have enough calcium for strong bones. Truth is, that isn’t true. Countries that have higher milk consumption, actually have a higher percentage of osteoporosis. Wait, what?

Milk is acidic within your body and throws off your pH balance.  Your body then tries to correct this imbalance by using calcium and potassium and other minerals from inside the body to neutralize the excess acid.  Don’t have any alkalinizing minerals just laying around?  Not to worry, your body will just pull it out of your bones.

Humans are the only species that drinks the milk of another animal. And we are the only creatures that consume milk after being weaned off breast milk.  Unfortunately as we get older our bodies stop producing the enzymes needed to break down the lactose found in milk.  It’s nature.

Let’s start with where milk comes from – typically cows, but goats and sheep are gaining popularity now as well.

Lady cows are artificially inseminated every year for a several years to produce more cows.  That’s until they are slaughtered because they have wrecked themselves having baby after baby so close together, all the while producing way more milk then their babies would ever drink.  The average life span of a dairy cow is around 5 years, although naturally they would live 20 years or more.  These moma cows rarely feed their babies as all their milk goes for our consumption.  (I’m not getting into what happens to the babies. Warning: if you google it, you’re going to cry.)

Non-organic and organic dairy cows are given limited amounts of yard time. Meaning they are housed inside cramped living conditions that would make you cry, and then they get “recess”.  They are usually fed grains, which is not their native diet, but it’s cheap.  In Canada non-organic dairy feed usually contains GMO ingredients.  Our milk needs to be fortified with Vitamin D because the cows don’t get it from the sun as they live mostly inside barns.  Cows would also get vitamin D from eating grass, but not in the feed used.  So supplements are needed.

Constant demand for more and more milk from these lactating cows can cause metastasis.  Metastasis is a blockage of the milk duct that can lead to infection and bleeding. There is an “acceptable” level of blood and puss allowed milk for human consumption.  Think about that one for a second…  How do we clear infections?  Antibiotics…  What goes in mommy, comes out in milk.  Ta Da – you’re taking antibiotics you don’t even need.  That goes for stress too. Cows shoved in electrified milking stalls are under stress, and these stress hormones are in the milk you drink. You have enough stress of your own, don’t need more for breakfast!

How do you get certain fat percentages in milk? You spin the milk until it separates and then make other products such as butter or cream from what is left.   Fun fact: People who drink skim milk are more likely to be obese.  Fat makes you feel full longer. Fat free milk still has calories but you’re hungry very soon after and therefore you will eat larger portions or more frequently to feel full again.

We pasteurize our milk to kill potential harmful bacteria.  Pasteurizing means heating the milk to over 150 degrees F.  This kills the potentially harmful bacteria.  Healthy cows, raised in clean humane conditions produce milk that probably wouldn’t need pasteurizing.  Pasteurizing also kills so much more. It kills vitamins, and enzymes required to absorb vitamins and minerals from the milk.  It heats the delicate fat molecules causing them to deteriorate and creates free radicals. But hey, it increases the shelf life of milk. This means less will spoil and dairy industry will make more money.

After being pasteurized milk is then homogenized.  This is how they keep the milk from separating once in a carton.  The process is essentially firing milk through the finest screen at very high pressure to break apart the fat molecules so they will be evenly dispersed within the milk.  What’s the big deal here? This oxidizes the fat. Oxidized cholesterol, is now rancid fat, which causes heart disease.  You are drinking free radicals.  Better get those anti-oxidants up!

And the last step for this science project, the milk is put into BPA plastic bags and sent to your store.

So you think you’re eating healthy food because on the label there are lots of vitamins and minerals. Labels don’t tell you how absorbable these vitamins and minerals are. Labels don’t disclose oxidized cholesterol, or antibiotics or GMO feed, crazy stress hormones or puss and blood…. Let that one sink in again… You want to be healthy? Eat a vegetable! Leafy greens are packed with absorbable calcium. Eat some almonds or sunflower seeds. Make almond milk.

I know cheese tastes so good, and sour cream goes well on everything! Just try removing dairy from you diet, even for a few weeks and see how you feel. You might be surprised.

Learn more: Why Milk Is Bad For You And Your Bones by Vivian Goldschmidt, MA

 

 

We do not eat peanuts in our house. For those of you who don’t know, my daughter is anaphylactic to peanuts. I feel like that awards me the right to say “I hate peanuts”.  I did a lot of research on peanuts when I was hit with that news and what I discovered will alarm you, allergy or not.

Tree nuts grow on trees, these are your almonds, cashews etc.  Then there are peanuts. They are not technically nuts, they are legumes.  Peanuts grow in the soil and absorb more toxins then the average food grown underground.  Big deal, right?  So they absorb stuff from the soil? Yes, they “clean” the field by sucking all the chemicals from the soil.  Typically farmers rotate crops to optimize their output and they rotate peanuts with cotton.  Cotton is one of the top genetically modified crops in the world.  And it’s sprayed with even more kill-all pesticides because cotton is not a food.  See the problem?  Truckloads of hazardous chemical residue in the soil where they plant peanuts.  Any wonder so many kids are seriously allergic to peanuts?

This is how the majority of non-organic peanuts are farmed.  Is organic better?  Well, organic soils have no Monsanto chemical residues.  Environmentally speaking it is a more responsible purchase.  In my house, organic or not, it’s not allowed.  Even if my daughter weren’t allergic, I would avoid peanuts, just for the fear of cross contamination with regular peanuts.  What if one of those super chemical peanuts moseyed on over to the organic field and made chemical babies?  No thanks, I’ll stick to making my own almond or cashew or sunflower seed butter.

Something else no one talks about in peanuts is “Aflatoxin”.  This is a result of mould on the peanut.  (Yes peanuts are also mouldy.)   Aflatoxin is a known carcinogen.  Carcinogens cause cancer and liver damage just to rhyme off a few significant health concerns.

The moral of the story here folks…. Peanuts are not good for you.  They are not good for your kids, allergy or not.  Make your own nut butters or try my sunflower seed butter instead.

You can make your own flour!

Almond, other nuts, coconut, buckwheat, oat, spelt, rye, barley, rice, amaranth and wheat (if you’re into wheat) ….. CAN ALL BE MADE INTO FLOUR WITH A BLENDER

If you have a kick-ass blender, you really, REALLY should be making your own flours.  Some blenders even have attachments to grind flours. These attachments are essentially upside down blades. Traditional blenders push whatever you are blending down towards the blades. These grain attachments do the opposite.  They push up, and the bigger pieces fall to the blades. Once you have the kick-ass blender, the grain attachment is another smart investment. You can also grind spices, or coffee, which eliminates the need for another appliance.

When flour is made it starts to oxidize and the natural oils start go rancid.  Rancid oil is full of free radicals.  Free radicals are free to roam throughout your body and create serious problems. This is why anti-oxidants are so important to get in your diet. Anti-oxidants help neutralize some of these free radicals.  Don’t even get me started on what lurks in bleached flours.

Back to making flours – you want to eat the most nutritious foods, so grinding right before use, is as good as you can get.  Plus it’s way more flavourful!  Old stale flours have very little taste.  If you do grind in big batches, you want to keep all flours in the fridge, because keeping stuff cold prevents decomposition.

So how do we make flour? 

1. Take ingredient.
2. Put in Blender.
3. GO!

That’s it.  You are the master of the flour!

• You can choose how fine or coarse you want it by blending it longer or shorter.
• No addition of synthetic vitamins to “fortify” the finished product.
• No wondering how long this flour has been sitting in the warehouse oxidizing before you use it.
• No worries that flour is made in a grinding mill with the same machine as something else, causing cross contamination.

It’s just superior nutrition, and the peace of mind of knowing that you made it yourself and you know exactly what’s in it.

Oh, and the real kicker… IT’S CHEAPER!

Fresher, cheaper, more nutritious and easy.  Try it!