Still recovering from the toomuchfood and somanycookiescakespiescandies of the holiday season, I made this rice/lentil/veggie dish in an attempt to get back on good terms with my tummy. It is accompanied by a life-changing cilantro coconut chutney that I learned to make in my Ayurvedic cooking class. Normally I am one of those people who hates cilantro, but somehow adding lime juice, shredded coconut, ginger, and  cumin and mustard seeds toasted in ghee makes it delicious.

This is a great dish for postpartum because it is so nutritious, warm, comforting, healing, and easy on the digestive system.

I got this little pink blender for $12 a couple of weeks ago, and am totally enjoying making smoothies in it. It’s great because the blender is a cup and requires very little cleaning, which was my hesitancy in making smoothies in the first place - I’m too lazy to commit to full-on blending. Plus, I always end up making too much in a full-size blender, and if I were to buy one I’d want to hold out for the craziest fanciest blending machine which is probably around $400 and not happening anytime soon (nor is it necessary, really). My little pink blender doesn’t have a whole lot of power, but it’s enough to blend up fruits and ice just fine.

It’s nice to now have the option of juicing or making smoothies, since they both have different nutritional benefits. Juicing packs in tons of nutrients in a small package, as anyone who has made one cup of juice from a bag of carrots and a few apples could attest to. Because juicing removes all the fiber, it can be good for cleansing and removing waste since it essentially bypasses digestion and enters the bloodstream so quickly, providing the body the energy it needs to clean out the system.

Blending up a smoothie is more like making a meal in a cup, one that contains all the vitamins, minerals and nutrients of the fruits and/or veggies you put in it, along with the fiber so digestion is happening. For me, it’s just easier to eat more fruit when I put it into a smoothie, and with braces it’s definitely a lot easier to drink it all blended up. In a year when I get jaw surgery and can’t eat normal food for several weeks I imagine I will be putting much stranger things than fruit in the blender…enchiladas perhaps?

Making juice with fresh carrots, kale, chard, apples and ginger.

This was my parent’s juicer from the 80’s. I recently inherited it, along with lots of childhood memories of my hippie parents making wheatgrass, carrot and apple juice. This machine is a real trooper, surviving all these years and still working great!

I am not, historically, much of a meat eater. Both of my parents were vegetarians (i.e., hippies) growing up, and I didn’t taste steak until I was 15 (also the age I got my first vaccination and my first kiss. It was a big year).

However, an unexpected result of my education at Integrative Nutrition has been not only opening my mind to adding more meat to my diet, but also the realization that the amount of processed meat and dairy substitutes I have been eating is probably not healthy. “Soy contains a variety of toxic chemicals, which cannot be fully metabolized by the body, unless it undergoes a long cooking, or fermentation process” (read more in depth).

Always paranoid about the effects of environmental toxins, chemical additives and synthetic hormones on my future reproductive capabilities (because my baby crazy reptile brain has serious intentions of reproduction), I am trying to limit my intake of soy products, particularly non-fermented and processed soy products (such as soy burgers, fake taco meat, tofu, soy milk, etc). Soy has high levels of isoflavones called phytoestrogens, which are similar to the estrogen hormones in our bodies but are produced by plants. “Although these isoflavones are weak estrogens, people who eat a lot of it can have their blood level of isoflavones as mush as 10,000 times higher than those who do not consume soy. Over time, high concentrations of isoflavones in the body can have a significant cumulative estrogenic and toxic effect, especially when they are exposed to organs that have sensitive estrogen receptors sites such as the breast, uterus, and thyroid” (source). Some people have also speculated (which I happen to believe) that all of these phytoestrogens, along with the other toxins we put into our body, are screwing up hormone levels and receptors in both men and women, and causing infertility and reproductive issues. This could in-part explain the epidemic of reproductive challenges that many people are facing today.

A healthy amount of soy is about 1 serving per week, and should be primarily fermented and non-processed soy products, such as miso, tofu, and tempe.

One thing that has really impacted my understanding of a healthy diet is the knowledge that all indigenous diets have some components of the following: 1) fermented foods such as miso, kimchi, yogurt or kombucha, and 2) whole, naturally fed and sourced animal protein, full of healthy fats and oils, in which all parts (liver, kidney, face, bone, marrow) of the animal are eaten. It kinda creeps me out to think about eating livers and fish heads, but turns out they had it right back in the day…these things are incredibly nutritious and full of healthy oils and fats that we are not getting enough of in our modern diet.

The really fundamental thing about eating meat is that whatever the animal eats, that is the nutrition that you are getting when you eat the animal. So if it ate grass from fertile soil full of minerals, then you are getting all that awesomeness. If it ate grain made from corn, was given tons of hormones to keep it from getting sick (because cows aren’t meant to eat corn and are therefore extremely susceptible to illness on a grain-based diet), then that is what you are eating. We are made to fear eating fats and oils in our culture, afraid that eating fat translates to getting fat. But actually fats and oils are super vital and important to our body’s proper function.

I bought this bratwurst sausage at the Albuquerque downtown grower’s market last weekend. It is locally raised, grass-fed, happy meat. It is quite apparent from its butchered appearance than I am an absolute novice at meat cooking, and I have to admit that I was terrified the whole time I was cooking it - terrified of germs on the counter, terrified of under cooking it, terrified of over cooking it. But all things considered I think it turned out pretty well. Either way, it was delicious.

Just to qualify, I certainly believe that every person is individual and vegetarian diets can totally work for some people and meat-based diets aren’t for everyone. Plus, there are economic/environmental considerations as well. It’s a personal choice that I am still exploring. But I definitely foresee that I will be raising my own animals for consumption sometime in the future. Boy I never thought I’d say that…just goes to show you - never say never!

Me and my Madre standing inside a giant inflatable colon at the Health Fair at the new Convention Center in Las Cruces.

Today Denicia and I did laundry and made avocado milkshakes. This is something we are always wanting to buy when we eat at Vietnamese restaurants (we work in the International District and are constantly surrounded by great Viet food), but we both can’t have [cow] dairy and they are always made with milk. So we made our own yesterday with my raw goat milk and some honey. It’s probably the most healthy and refreshing milkshake imaginable, and actually requires very little (or even zero) dairy because the avocados are so thick and full of good, healthy fats!

Avocado Milkshake

• 4 whole avocados (peeled, pitted and quartered)
• 1 cup goat milk (substitute: cow, coconut, soy, rice milk, etc)
• 5 tbsp honey, agave nectar, or other natural sweetener
• 2 cups ice

Blend, pour, enjoy.

makes 2 servings

deeeeelish.

My college friend Virginia was one of the first people who inspired my interest in nutrition. She cooked healthy, homemade meals every day, and always made the effort of packing up her healthy homemade food and taking it with her on her bike to work for lunch. She taught me how to cook my own meals, to appreciate foods like brown rice, kale, and different spices, as well as how to make something “healthy” taste delicious. She was a real do-it-yourselfer, knitting, sewing and making her own clothing, socks, hats, etc, and inspired me to learn to knit. She was also an incredibly smart scientist, trying to make the world a better place through her research. And as a 20 year old just starting out on my journey of how to take care of myself and be conscious of what I was putting into my body, I thought that she was the bees knees.

One summer I stayed at her house for several weeks (the site of my first healthy cooking lessons), and I remember her making kale with many of our meals. I always complained about having to eat kale because I said it was gross and tasted like eating raw leaves. She would tell me in her wise, scientist way that kale was extremely healthy and nutrient rich and we had to eat it because it was so vital to good health. So I suffered through eating kale many meals, trusting her judgment and wisdom, but never without complaint at the strange health foods she was torturing me with.

When I started my education at Integrative Nutrition 4 years later, the first recommendation I got as a nutrition student was, “if I could tell you to do one thing that would greatly impact your health in a positive way, it would be to eat more leafy greens”… i.e. - kale.

Virginia passed away earlier this year from terminal cancer at the age of 24. Unfortunately, as with the other big loss I have experienced so far in my life, we didn’t part on very good terms (a lesson I have learned the hard way - to never put off an apology, love letter, or amends for tomorrow). But when I found out about her death, I felt even more inspired by her example to work on my own personal health and to pursue an education in nutrition so that I can work as a Holistic Health Counselor, supporting others the way that she supported me in my journey toward better health.

The crazy thing is that over the past 6 months I have learned to incorporate so many healthy, nutrient packed, leafy greens into my diet, that where in the past I could never have envisioned the day where I would prepare them intentionally, greens have now become almost a daily staple food for me…steamed and served with a little bit of pepper, salt and lemon juice on top. They are the whole, healing foods I turn to when I’ve eaten too much junk food or need to restore balance to my body and my life.

And I still think about Virginia every time I eat kale.

Goat milk with vanilla. A delicious after-work treat on a warm New Mexico summer evening.

One of the things I have learned about recently are the potential benefits of raw, unpasteurized dairy products. Raw milk is a pretty controversial topic apparently, and pasteurization has an interesting history.

Back in the 20s, Americans could buy fresh raw whole milk, real clabber and buttermilk, luscious naturally yellow butter, fresh farm cheeses and cream in various colors and thicknesses. Today’s milk is accused of causing everything from allergies to heart disease to cancer, but when Americans could buy Real Milk, these diseases were rare. (Weston A. Price Foundation)

Raw milk is a great example of one of those nutrition science impasses… demonstrating how few concrete answers we have when it comes to what to eat and what not to eat. There are many highly credible people who firmly believe in the innumerable health benefits of raw milk, and many who believe equally strongly that raw milk is a gigantic threat to public health (and that raw milk supporters are idealistic hippies who are going to kill your children with their bacteria-filled good intentions). 

My personal thought is that any food system as big as ours needs pasteurization in order to function… but I don’t necessarily think it should function at such a scale (example: all the e-coli outbreaks that started at one farm and affect the entire country/world). To me, the science indicating the benefits of raw dairy products seems pretty sound, and the advantages of buying local food are many (supporting local economy, limiting the spread of disease/outbreaks, no need for antibiotics/hormones, more accountability when you are buying food from your neighbors, lots of good necessary bacterias that your body needs, happy cows, etc etc). But only experience will tell…

I don’t do well on cow’s milk, but I’m trying out some raw goat dairy products this week to see how they affect me. I purchased some delish raw goat cheddar at the Farmer’s Market this weekend, and just found a source for raw goat milk as well (though since it’s technically illegal to sell, I won’t name names). My next project is to learn how to make fresh goat cheese, butter and yogurt.

Beyond any health controversy, I think it is pretty ridiculous that the government makes it illegal to purchase certain foods (such as raw dairy), even when an adult person makes a conscious, informed decision to do so, and is willing to accept any potential risks. This is where I start to lean a little libertarian…

Beautiful kale from Los Poblanos Organics, purchased at the Downtown Grower’s Market (reblogged from alethiosaur).

The more we know, the more important it is to grow your own or buy locally from people you know.  It’s hard to tell people the whole truth because they get so discouraged by all the deception in the food industry.  No wonder people just give up and eat anything.  It gets so confusing. (~my Mom)

“A flower, for example, doesn’t count the number of bees that come nor does it pump up its smell just when you walk by. Its nature, as is ours, is to expand itself no matter if anyone ever loves you back. … All the things we so desperately think we need from someone else to make us feel good, we actually experience all by ourselves when we give love freely - without any concern that they will love you back. … “I love you —- but it is no concern of yours” means I now know that what I really seek is to love rather than to be loved.”

-John Douillard, Love Unconditionally with Ayurvedic Philosophy

Also: John Douillard, Open Your Heart with Ayurveda
And: Jonathan Franzen, Liking is For Cowards. Go For What Hurts.