Milk Consumption Tied to Lower Risk of Breast Cancer

A study published in the International Journal of Cancer has shown that childhood and adult milk consumption can protect against breast cancer.

Women who drank more than 3 glasses of milk per day had half the risk of breast cancer compared to women not drinking milk according to a study of 48,844 women in Norway. The results of this study are in line with earlier research results showing the protective effect of milk on breast cancer. A study published in the British Journal of Cancer showed that the women who consumed the most milk had less than half the risk of breast cancer compared to women consuming the least milk.

Milk's protective effect can be attributed to the cancer fighting substance conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) found in milk fat. Numerous studies indicated that CLA had a protective effect against breast cancer.

A recent Finnish study has shown that postmenopausal women with the lowest levels of CLA in their diet and in their blood had, respectively, a 3.3-fold and five-fold greater risk of breast cancer than those with the highest levels of CLA.

Milk from grass fed cows contains over 5 times the levels of CLA than grain fed cows!!
So drink up!

Here is a great way to get more milk into your diet without high levels of sugar. Brayden made this last night and we all went wild!

Brayden's Late Night Shake

2 cups Trader's Point Chocolate milk
2 scoops vanilla ice cream - homemade at best, Breyers at worst (check their ingredients, some contain high fructose corn syrup and other nasties)

Add all to blender and blend. Absolutely the best shake we have ever had!

Soaked Grain Pancakes

Pancake breakfasts are a solid staple in our home and have been for years. I think that of all the meals I love to share, breakfast is the fast winner. I just love to invite people over for breakfast. I will squeeze fresh orange juice, make toast from homemade bread, roast a great blend of coffee beans, make pancakes, homemade veal sausage and fried eggs fresh from the henhouse and we will sit in the garden and talk for hours.

Ever since we gave up boxed cereals breakfasts have fascinated me. What a difference between tearing open a cardboard box and pouring hard, lifeless flakes into a bowl and getting the family together to make a wholesome, delicious breakfast together. In our house, Brayden was always the orange juice squeezer and Rhayna learned to get the pancakes ready at the age of 8.

Most people believe that a made from scratch breakfast is impossible on the weekends let alone every day of the week. Thanks to Sue Gregg, this is no longer the case, even in our frenzied world.

Sue discovered the secret to soaking grains in the blender many, many years ago. I remember purchasing her extensive collection of cookbooks over 15 years ago but at that time she, along with many others, were promoting the use of soy, fructose and a few other unhealthy foods. Then one year at a homeschool convention in Indianapolis Sue's husband approached me and we struck up a conversation. He proceeded to tell me a tale of a woman who wrote cookbooks for 25 years and then read Nutrition and Physical Degeneration and it turned her cooking on its head. "After 25 years and finally thinking we were finished writing cookbooks, she wants to start all over and switch the recipes to fall in line with Weston A. Price's recommendations."

This conversation caused me to take another look at Sue's work and indeed she was on a new road. Her work with soaking grains is the best anywhere. She is truly an innovator and her website is full of wonderful lessons in cooking with whole grains.

Make sure you try the pancakes!

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.

Soaking Grains

Here is a cereal I could eat everyday. It is quick, nutritious, filling and a very healthy alternative to boxed cereals. I first tried this super granola in Italy and then feasted on it again in Switzerland and I have been hooked ever since.

It is always so interesting to me when I learn a concept, such as that all grains should be soaked to remove phytic acid before eating, then I open a German cookbook and viola! a cereal that is soaked. The concept behind this healthy breakfast is best described by Sally Fallon in her wonderful cookbook/ traditional eating encyclopedia Nourishing Traditions:

Phosphorus in the bran of whole grains is tied up in a substance called phytic acid. Phytic acid combines with iron, calcium, magnesium, copper and zinc in the intestinal tract, clocking their absorption. Whole grains also contain enzyme inhibitors that can interfere with digestion. Traditional societies usually soak or ferment their grains before eating them, processes that neutralize phytates and enzyme inhibitors and in effect, predigest grains so that all their nutrients are more available. Sprouting, overnight soaking, and old-fashioned sour leavening can accomplish this important predigestive process in our own kitchens. Many people who are allergic to grains will tolerate them well when they are prepared according to these procedures. Nourishing Traditions, Sally Fallon, Pg 25

I learned about the benefit of soaking grains when I began to develop symptoms of diabetes, which runs in my family. I realized that each time I ate grain, even my own milled grains, I steadily began to feel sluggish and tired. I finally came to the point when after eating grains I needed to lie down and rest. After a bit of research I found that certain people (especially those predisposed to diabetes) can be affected by the insulin inhibitors that are released from the pancreas after eating grains. Once I began to soak my grains the symptoms went away.

Wonderful Soaked Grain Breakfast Cereal

1 2/3 cup Windy Acres Farm Shop Muesli Mix (try some from the Farm Shop!)

Or

1 2/3 cup your choice of grains

2-4 apples
2 tb buckwheat
2 tb sesame seeds
2 tb sunflower seeds
4 tb raw honey or maple syrup
2 ts vanilla
2 ts cinnamon
2 tb raisins or dried cranberries
Seasonal fruit

Grind the grains and oats coursely the night before and the barley and barely cover with water (and two tablespoons cultured dairy product or whey if available). Leave overnight.

The next morning grate the apples and but the fruit into small pieces and mix with the grain mixture. Lightly toast the buckwheat and sesame seeds and sunflower seeds and mix into grains. Season with honey or maple syrup, cinnamon and vanilla. Pour cream or milk over cereal and garnish with raisins and nuts.

Serves 6

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.

Reduce Breast Cancer Risk With Grass-Fed Meat and Milk

A little over 10 years ago while traveling in Europe I came across a study that found that women who consumed 100% grass fed animal products could lower their chance of developing breast cancer by 74%.

Why do 100% grass fed animal products protect women from breast cancer? Grass fed meat, milk and eggs contain a much higher concentration of Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA) than do products from grain fed animals. Studies show that CLA offers many health benefits, including reducing the risk of breast cancer and tumor reduction. You can read more about the benefits of CLA from Eat Wild, The Townsend Letter, and The California Breast Cancer Research Project.

Reading the European study a decade ago changed the way I farmed and made me a purist when it comes to grass versus grain for my animals. For me, this means no grain fed to ruminants at all: not to get them to love me, not to get them to come into the barn or to stand still while milking or any of the other excuses I have heard for feeding grain. None of these reasons seem very important when I weigh them against the faces of friends who suffer with cancer, or women I know who have predispositions toward breast cancer. How can I imagine feeding grain if there is even the slightest possibility that my food could help them to avoid this horrible disease? Even the slightest chance is worth not having a little more milk to sell or an animal that goes to the butcher a few months sooner. The possibility is just too great to cut any corners here.

So please, if you purchase meat or milk from a farmer that you can actually speak with, ask them to stop feeding grain and let them know that you are willing to pay more to help them with the extra expenses. And if you don't buy milk or meat from someone you can persuade to go grass fed - you should.

Local Pecans - Oh Yeah!!

Ever since I read the lovely book, French Women Don't Get Fat by Mereille Guiliano I have been nuts about nuts. The way she described the difference between shelled nuts and their stale, overly salted, roasted impostors set me on the hunt for fresh, and hopefully local, nuts.

Many people think of nuts as being too high in calories to be a health food but the truth is that higher calories also come with higher vital nutrients and as long as you keep them in the shell, you have to work for your food and surely that will work off some of the extra calories.

Pecans are a great source of protein, unsaturated fats and are rich in omega 6 fatty acids. A diet rich in nuts can lower the risk of gallstones in women and the antioxidants and plant sterols in pecans can lower cholesterol by reducing LDL levels. Clinical research has shown that eating a handful of pecans daily can reduce cholesterol levels as much as cholesterol reducing medication and without the nasty side effects. Pecans are a good source of folate vitamin E, potassium, magnesium and zinc, all essential for good health.

Most of what we buy in stores is old and already rancid and this is especially true of anything roasted and salted, which is usually employed to mask rancidity. But a fresh, Tennessee pecan, straight from the shell is another thing altogether.

We purchase our pecans from a local grower in Tuft, Tennessee who tends 13 mature pecan trees. This definitely falls within our "small batch, artisan" criterion and we couldn't be happier to have found Ray and Wynna. We will carry fresh pecans until supplies run out and then wait patiently for next year's harvest.

Fresh nuts should be stored in an airtight container away from the light and according to Mereille "please, never stored in the refrigerator".

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links.

The Naturally Sick Child

My family suffered waves of illness last week, and I found it difficult to maintain a natural/healthy approach. I had some turkey bone broth on hand which, when cooked up with spinach and barley, made a healthy and healing soup for upset tummies. I attempted to make my own saltine crackers from scratch, but that was a colossal fail. They turned out more like thin and tasteless wheaten biscuits. The kids still nibbled at them, and perhaps that is the point of saltines when sick anyway. I attempted to give my 2 year old and almost 4 year old mineral water, but they said it was "too spicy" so I did wind up getting some sprite instead even though it was loaded with sugar and who knows what else.

As this is cold and flu season, I hope I can keep lots of bone broth on hand in my freezer and maybe we can beat the next bug more quickly! In the meantime, I hope you have been staying healthy and enjoying the holidays!

Traditional Bone Broth - Food or Medicine?

When the cold weather creeps in it is time for me to make broth.  The warmth and nourishment seem to fit well with my quest toward natural and seasonal living.  I used my last quart of beef broth last week for the sensational, crowd pleasing Shepherds Pie (recipe forthcoming). Something in me just doesn't feel right when there is no stock in the freezer. I have had the severe misfortune some years ago of depleting my stock of stock and being forced to resort to store bought "stock". What an ordeal! What salty, tasteless, flat squalor!

I normally put up at least 52 quarts of bone both broth throughout the winter, one for each week but after reading the article by Traditional bone broth in modern health and disease by Allison Siebecker I may have to double that amount. Her article describes in detail the benefits of bone broth as well as explaining each component of bone broth and its benefits. Here is her list of ailments that are benefited by broth: aging skin, allergies, anemia, anxiety, asthma, atherosclerosis, attention deficit, bean maldigestion, brittle nails, carbohydrate maldigestion, Celiac Disease, colic, confusion, constipation, dairy maldigestion, delusions, dental degeneration, depression, detoxification, Diabetes, diarrhea, fatigue, food sensitivities, fractures, Gastritis, grain maldigestion, heart attack, high cholesterol, hyperactivity, hyperchlorhydria (reflux, ulcer), hyperparathyroidism (primary), hypertension, hypochlorhydria, hypoglycemia, immunodepression, increased urination, infectious disease, inflammation, Inflammatory Bowel Disease (Crohn's Disease and Ulcerative Colitis), insomnia, intestinal bacterial infections, irritability, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Jaundice, joint injury, Kidney stones, leaky gut, loss of appetite, meat maldigestion, memory, muscle cramps, muscle spasms, muscle wasting, muscle weakness, Muscular Dystrophy, nausea, nervousness, Osteoarthritis, Osteomalacia, Osteoporosis, pain, palpitations, Periodontal Disease, pregnancy, rapid growth, restlessness, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Rickets, seizure, shallow breathing, stupor, virility, vomiting, weakness, weight loss due to illness, wound healing.

Broth is one of those foods that have been around for centuries and due to our overly busy schedules we have let fall by the wayside, imagining hours of straining and stirring. Nothing could be further from the truth. Stock making can be an easy and enjoyable part of natural and seasonal living, if you remember a few key tips.

1. Always use bones from healthy animals
2. The longer you simmer, the more you will pull from the bones
3. Don't boil the stock - just let it gently simmer - don't let it go over 200-220 F
4. Don't leave the lid on the pot
5. Use only organic vegetables
6. Try to use a variety of bones for their different properties

Putting things up

I did not grow up with the concept of preserving food, although my mother canned jams and applesauce with her grandmother. The idea of preserving food while it's in season appeals to me not just because of tradition but because of health and stewardship.

First, fruits and vegetables at the height of their season in your area will be freshest and the vitamins and nutrients in them will be most available to your body. If you buy a food out of season, you can bet it didn't come from close by and that it lost quite a lot along the way getting to you. Preserving foods when they are at their nutritional height is the smart way to be able to enjoy those foods longer than their brief season.

Second, I find that when a food is in season, it is also at it's lowest price. This is the time of year for apples and squashes and pumpkins. You can get quite a lot of food for not much money, especially if you're willing to buy in bulk, as you would certainly want to do to preserve it. Of course apples and pumpkins can be found in one form or another year round, but you'll pay a premium for them six months from now and they won't be promoting sustainable farming in your area.

I may have mentioned before that I don't can (I have very little pantry space and an extreme fear of botulism!), but I do have a stand alone chest freezer that I've been filling up with applesauce (there would be more if we didn't eat it almost as fast as I can make it!), and this week I'm aiming to roast and puree an enormous pumpkin and a huge assortment of squashes of various types. I plan to freeze the puree in one and two cup amounts as that is what most recipes call for. We will love eating the pumpkin and squash in savory soups, baked goods and desserts throughout the winter.

Lots of produce can be frozen or canned or stored in one way or another. It's another way to live by the seasons while also extending them somewhat!

Health Benefits from Cultured Foods

Did you know that you can preserve vegetables without freezing or canning them? Cultures all over the world use the process of lacto-fermentation to preserve foods and aid digestion. German sauerkraut, Russian pickled tomatoes and peppers, Korean kimchi, and Indian chutneys are just a few examples of foods traditionally made by converting sugars and starches into lactic acid, which is a natural preservative and inhibits putrefaction.

When traditional fermented foods entered the mass market, food producers typically left lacto-fermentation behind in favor of cheaper and faster methods of preservation, using vinegar for brine and then pasteurizing the product which eliminates all the beneficial effects on digestion. This is unfortunate, because lacto-fermentation offers a wealth of health benefits in addition to being a preservative.

The process of breaking down starches and sugars in lacto-fermentation renders the food highly digestible, and increases the amount of bio-available vitamins and enzymes in the food. Lacto-fermentation also provides the food with several antibiotic and anticarcinogenic properties, and promotes intestinal health.

The good news is that making your own fermented foods and condiments is quite simple! Stay tuned for most posts this week on how you can make your own sauerkraut!

Note: Information for this post was taken from Nourishing Traditions and the Weston A. Price Foundation website.

More reasons to love maple syrup

In addition to being an excellent natural sweetener and far superior in taste and quality to knock-off grocery store syrup, real maple syrup offers excellent health benefits.

A mere two teaspoons (and don't tell me that's all you put on your pancakes!) of maple syrup contains .44 mg of manganese, which is 22% of your daily need for that mineral. Manganese is critical in maintaining a healthy immune system, is an excellent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory aid, and helps to control cholesterol. A serving of maple syrup also contains .55 mg of zinc, another immune system booster and aid for reducing cholesterol and lowering risk of prostate cancer.

As we head in to cold and flu season, it's good to know that using maple syrup as a natural sweetener can also boost our health!

Maple Syrup - How It Is Made

Maple Syrup begins as sap in a maple tree. The sap is harvested in the spring when temperatures rise into the 40s during the day and cool off into the 20s at night. It takes a very special place for the conditions to be just right.

The sugaring season, as it is called, can begin as early as late January in Southern Kentucky and ends in late March. The season usually lasts about a month whenever it begins, but it can be extended if the weather is right.

Trees are tapped using a drill to make a small hole. A spile is inserted into the hole and the sap drips out if conditions are right. The sap either drips into a bucket or flows down a special tube to a holding tank. Drop after drop collect until there are gallons upon gallons of sap. Many gallons of sap are needed to make just one gallon of maple syrup. It can range from 35-50 gallons of sap, depending on how much maple sugar there is in the sap. All maple syrup has the same amount of maple sugar, but the maple flavor can be different as we shall learn.

The sap is collected into a large holding tank and from there is fed into the sugar house (the place where the magic happens!). In the sugar house, it is systematically poured into an evaporator (pictured here). Maple sugar evaporators are specially designed to 'boil off' hundreds of gallons of water very quickly and so the sap is concentrated into maple syrup. This is called 'boiling down'.

The evaporator works by first 'pre-heating' the sap so that it is almost boiling. This is done by making use of the steam that is already coming off of the evaporator. A series of pipes works the cold sap through the hot steam under the hood at the rear of the evaporator. The rear portion of the evaporator is where most of the serious boiling takes place. There are groves in the pan that drop down into the heat source below (fire, oil or otherwise). These give the pan more surface area and so the boiling is more fierce.

As the water is boiled off and the sugar becomes more concentrated, the sap moves toward the front of the pan. There, the sap becomes syrup and is 'drawn off' into a pail or some other container before it is filtered. The syrup at this point contains nitre or sugar sand. This needs to be removed from the syrup or it will have an off taste.

Once filtered, the syrup is put in bottles or containers and sealed until someone opens it up to enjoy a sweet treat!

In early January we will start to watch the weather and take a trip out to the farm for anyone interested in seeing full process. We have just received another, and probably our last, shipment of maple syrup until the new syrup is harvested. We have both Grades A and B in stock in quarts and half gallons.  Buying local maple syrup is an excellent way to add a whole food to your diet and also support local farming.  Eat Local!

Maple Syrup

There are times when I get so disappointed in the success of media hype and food masquerading that I could just... scream. Not much is sadder that the marketing campaign against maple syrup and how we have been duped into believing that the imitation is better than the real thing. I have had several women give me recipes for "maple syrup" consisting of corn syrup, sugar, imitation maple flavoring (ouch!) and water. When I tell them that this is not real maple syrup, that real maple syrup is a whole food and does not need a recipe, they seem surprised. We seem to have "cut off our heads to save our pocketbooks"!

I am always amazed at the wording used to describe the imitation syrup and how it is touted as being healthier with less calories than the real thing and, surprise, surprise, it actually tastes better.

Here are the ingredients to Aunt Jemima's Original syrup; CORN SYRUP, HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, WATER, CELLULOSE GUM, CARAMEL COLOR, SALT, SODIUM BENZOATE AND SORBIC ACID (PRESERVATIVES), ARTIFICIAL AND NATURAL FLAVORS, SODIUM HEXAMETAPHOSPHATE.

Here are the ingredients in real whole food maple syrup; MAPLE SAP

I am trying to count how many of Michael Pollan's rules for eating that this "food product" breaks.

1. Don't eat anything with more than 5 ingredients

2. Don't eat anything with ingredients you cannot pronounce (even my spell checker didn't recognize 3 of the ingredients) or don't know

3. Don't eat anything your grandmother would not recognize (come on, no real maple syrup oozes like that)

4. Don't eat anything that contains high fructose corn syrup.

5. Don't eat anything that won't rot.

It so saddens me to hear mothers tell me that their children will not eat real maple syrup. Many mothers resort to emptying the Mrs. Butterworth's container and filling it with real maple syrup because their children will rebel other wise. I have a customer who's children will tell me that they hate maple syrup when they have, unknowingly been eating only real maple syrup for years.

What are we doing to this younger generation when they refuse to eat the real thing because we have trained their palates to prefer what is sweeter and gummier? There are groups on the Internet that suggest that the public does not want real maple syrup and that taste tests show that people prefer imitation over the real thing. The general comment is not how good the imitation version is but that it is what they grew up with and it gives them a "comfort feeling".

Over the next few days I will post information on REAL maple syrup so that you will know the real skinny on why maple syrup is such a healthy product and how to use it in your kitchen. We will examine the different grade, cooking tips and recipes.

So I'll close this post with a rule of my own,

7. Don't eat anything that tastes disgusting, even it you grew up with it.

We have several great maple syrup producers in the Southern Kentucky region and we are trying to support them and keep them in business. Otherwise....it Mrs. Butterworths for us all!!!  Eat Local!

Cultured and Fermented Foods

If you're interested in trying cultured or fermented foods before you decide to try your hand at making them yourself, the farm shop carries sauerkraut and cultured vegetables already made the natural, wholesome way! These wonderful traditional foods will help to build your family's immune systems and provide a whole host of other health benefits.

If you're new to cultured and fermented foods, be sure to let us know what you and your family think, and how you integrate these foods into your diet!

How to Get Raw Milk: Cow Sharing

What is the world is cowboarding or cowsharing? That is a question that I have been asked more times than I can count. Here is how it all started for us...

Raw Milk 

From as early as I can remember I could not tolerate dairy of any kind but I accepted that and lived with the inconvenience or pain. Then, in 1994, I heard a woman named Sally Fallon speaking about raw milk. I had never even heard the term "raw milk" before in my life and for two years I pondered her words, delving into still little known world of raw milk. Finally, with two years of research under my belt I borrowed a cow and began to milk her. To my great surprise not only could I tolerate the raw milk but my then 5 year old son absolutely thrived on it.

About the time I had to give the cow back to its owner, we moved to Indiana and of course I had to have a cow of my own. We purchased a Dutch Belted cow and began what seemed like the innocent task of milking our own cow and enjoying her milk. As word got out into the community that we had raw milk, people began to show up at our home asking us to provide them with fresh, straight from the cow, milk. Honestly, I was completely taken aback by the demand and before we knew it we had two more cows and were selling milk to 40 families. I had a few people tell me that I should be labeling the milk with "not for human consumption" stickers and that piqued my curiosity. Why? I had no idea that I was participating in the illegal dealing of a controlled substance but further research led back to the Weston A. Price Foundation where I learned that some people actually frowned on the very idea of drinking milk straight from the cow without intervention from pasteurizers, homogenization machines and the like.

Cow Sharing

After researching the laws in Indiana, which are quite stringent, we decided to sell shares in cows and set up our first cowsharing program. Under our program, people could buy a share in a cow and pay us to board and milk the cow, then pick up a certain number of gallons of milk per month. Well, the state of Indiana made me aware that my subversive activities were still not to their liking and delivered a freshly signed Cease and Desist order. After several meetings and finagling with State officials (who actually turned out to be really nice people, very professional and knowledgeable) we came to quasi-agreement that it was legal to pay a farmer to milk a cow which you purchased, even if you share that cow with others.

Now we have moved back to Tennessee and are planning to set up another program very much like the first. Thankfully, much of the forging we did in Indiana has already been done in Tennessee by Shawn Dady, chapter leader for Tennessee's Weston A. Price Foundation and Tennesseans For Raw Milk. If you are interested in finding out more about our cow boarding program please contact us at 615-654-3276.

Health: Natural Sources of Vitamin A

As with children, cows are susceptible to bouts of pinkeye from time to time. Part of sustainable farming is coming up with natural methods for managing problems like this whenever possible. One of the best natural cures for pinkeye in cattle (though not recommended for human children!) is putting drops of cod liver oil in the cow's eyes. This remedy cures the pinkeye quickly, as the Vitamin A in the cod liver oil promotes healthy eyes.

Vitamin A is available in a variety of natural forms. While the commercial pasteurization process removes vitamins and replaces them with synthetic Vitamins A and D in whole milk, raw milk contains natural Vitamin A among other beneficial vitamins and minerals. Eggs from free range chickens are another good source of Vitamin A, as are dark colored fruits and vegetables like carrots, sweet potatoes, and spinach. Cod liver oil is another good way to add Vitamin A to your diet, but be sure the brand you choose contains natural Vitamin A, not synthetic add-ins.

Choosing natural vitamin sources prevents toxicity and overdose concerns sometimes associated with synthetic vitamins. You don't need to resort to processed "fortified" foods and chemical reproductions of Vitamin A - the best sources are those found in nature.  You can support sustainable farming and your goals for natural living by meeting your family's Vitamin A needs with raw milk, eggs from free range chickens, and produce from local sources or your very own organic garden.