Spring Butter

 

Does what animals consume affect the quality of food that comes from them?  You bet.  That is why buying the best quality ingredients that you can is so important to your health.  That is also why eating foods in season is so important to your health.  Health is dependent upon living and eating according to the rules set up by God in nature.

 

Above is a photo of butters that I have made from my fresh, raw milk.  The one on the left, which I have in my freezer, is from this winter (February).  The one on the right I made this morning (May).  It is a much deeper yellow color because the grass that the cows are now eating is green.  This deep yellow spring butter is the healthiest - filled with vitamins and anti-oxidants.  In the 1930's, Weston Price realized the importance of spring butter and health when he studied the diets of the healthiest native people groups around the world.  Dr. Price clearly documented the link between top quality foods and excellent health.  



However, the knowledge that the deep yellow color of spring butter is 'healthy' was known before Weston Price investigated healthy native diets in the 1930's.  The food industry by the turn of the century was artificially trying to produce spring butter year round.  The interesting bit of information above states that in 1904 it was already widely recognized and accepted to artificially color butter to make it look like healthy, spring butter.  This documentation is from a Supreme Court case in 1904 concerning taxation of margarine artificially colored to look like butter (the artificial coloring was not in question, just the amount of tax that could be collected). It states that butter was artificially colored because "the taste of consumers of butter in the United States required all butter to possess the deep color naturally belonging to butter made in the spring season".

 

The government and big business cannot be blamed for the poor quality man-altered foods that are now available.  As shown in the proceedings from this court case, American consumers wanted the best quality all the time, not only when available in season.  Wanting to sell products and maximize profits, the food industry developed artificial colors and flavors to provide what 'appeared' to be the best quality year-round for butter and eventually all of our foods.  The prime products of the season were 'created' and then were made available throughout the whole year. 

Not only are these man-altered products nutritionally inferior, artificial ingredients are toxic to human bodies (not recognized as food) and require additional nutrients to neutralize them and eliminate them from the body.  Even worse, the conditions in which animals are raised were allowed to deteriorate to a point where 'healthy' foods are never produced.  Unfortunately, with the artificial doctoring of the foods, no one knows by just looking at the food.   

 

Artificially producing food, man-altered food, does not provide the nutritional foundation that God's foods in season do and which are essential to maintain health.  Butter and eggs are two foods that one can easily see the change in quality with the seasons.  While I have mentioned eating produce in season - think about eating all foods in season.  Eggs and fresh milk are abundant in the late spring and thus great additions to your diet at this time after completing an annual early spring detox (but only if you have found a local source of good quality eggs and milk).

 

Quality, quality, quality.  God has given us quality foods and we need to follow God's plan eating foods in the right season and growing/raising our foods naturally.  Man cannot make/alter nutritious foods that will nourish our bodies; man can only create poor quality imitations.  Don't be fooled and deceived.

"We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us."  1 Corinthians 2:12

Keep your eyes open

 

A text from a good friend has prompted me to write this post.  If you don't learn anything else from reading this post, remember: 

 

Keep reading ingredient labels and buy locally as often as possible!!!  

(However, if you are just getting started on a healthy diet, don't get overwhelmed by this post.   Start with the weekly challenges which provide easy steps to help you transform your diet within a year from typical unhealthy man-processed foods to a diet of nutritious foods as provided to us by God.  I know if you stick with these challenges that you will reap the benefits of health and vitality!  And you will be ready to delve deeper into issues like the ones presented in this post.)

 

The text message that I received shows the importance of continually checking out the ingredient lists on all products.  Organic Valley is one of the few companies that has not been bought out by a large corporation and thus I thought to be 'better' quality.  I knew the organic brands sold at Walmart, such as Horizon, were poor quality but Organic Valley is a farmer cooperative with higher standards, or so I thought.  But perhaps all companies get to a point where they are too big to maintain top quality and still meet market demands.  Here is a great article from 2006 that you might want to read.  The situation has only gotten much worse over the last 8 years, so that now in 2014 it is more important than ever to find local top quality ingredients.

 

Back to the text message.  What are the ingredients in Organic Valley's heavy whipping cream?  It is hard to read in the photo, but they are listed as: Organic Grade A Cream (Milk), Carrageenan.  Why is 'carrageeanan' needed in a carton of whipping cream?  Good question.  I am so glad that I never buy whipping cream, but use the fresh cream that I skim off my raw milk straight from the cow.  No processing; no additives.  So I investigated and found the following about the additive, carrageenan and Organic Valley.  Read the rest of the article if you wish to further understand why Organic Valley is using this additive.  Here are a few details from the article:

 

At the May 2012 meeting in Albuquerque, the NOSB carried out their legally mandated "sunset" review of carrageenan, and, despite disturbing evidence that this synthetic ingredient causes digestive problems and cancer, decided to allow it in organic for another 5 years. With carrageenan allowed in organic for at least another 5 years, the only thing left for organic consumers to do is to ask companies to voluntarily phase it out. So far, nearly 3,000 Organic Consumers Association members have sent letters to organic brands that use carrageenan.

Stonyfield Farm and Organic Valley are the first companies to respond to the thousands of letters from consumers asking them to stop using carrageenan, a synthetic emulsifier linked to digestive problems and cancer, in their products.

 

It's great that Organic Valley is actively trying to phase out their use of carrageenan, but it is somewhat ironic given that National Organic Standards Board member Wendy Fulwider, an employee of Organic Valley, voted in favor of continuing to allow carrageenan as a synthetic material on the USDA's National List of Approved Substances, and that Organic Valley CEO George Siemon called NOSB members by phone prior to the meeting and lobbied them, urging the re-listing of carrageenan.
 

Hmmm, is big business more concerned about making money or about your health?  I don't like bringing up negative things or to dwell on these issues.  But knowing big food companies, even those who sell organic products, don't have my health as their number one concern is important.  Knowing this, I like to focus my energy on growing, raising and obtaining the best local ingredients that I can find.

 

So, it is very important that you understand that the quality of the ingredients that you buy is key.  Once you accept the fact that man-altered foods have detrimental effects on your health, this is probably one of the most important things for you to realize and pursue. 

One way that quality is greatly reduced is when a large food corporation buys out a small company.  Many of the small companies from the 1980's and 90's that were concerned about the quality of the foods and offered excellent quality products have been bought out by large corporations.  These buy-outs occur for a number of reasons but bottom line, the large food corporation is not concerned with supplying the best quality but with the amount of profit they can make.  When they can cut corners, they do.  They also often try to hide the fact that the small company has been purchased.  For example, Stonyfield yogurt.  If you google Stonyfield, and click on the link 'about us', you get a wonderful story about a little farm in 1983 that started selling quality yogurt.  Nowhere does it mention that a large corporation, bought out this small company. 

So how do you find quality ingredients???  Each year this question gets harder and harder to answer.  It is frustrating for me to even address this topic but two things you should do regularly:

 

1.  Read ingredient labels (while trying to minimize buying things that have ingredient labels).

2.  Find high quality local sources for your foods.

 

Remember, just because it says it is 'organic', it may not be a quality product.  Don't be lured into thinking all is o.k. by these big corporations who have changed the food game again.  Big business and organics often don't mix.... be informed, start a garden, grow some herbs, find local farmers' markets, join a food coop.  Keep your eyes open, great local food choices are all around us!

Storing and using fresh milk

 

We only drink fresh, raw milk and when it is not available we don't drink milk (*see below for more information about why we don't drink man-processed milk).  From my raw milk, I make butter, kefir and plain yogurt (which I use to make fruited yogurt and fruit smoothies and yogurt cheese).  I use the liquid left from making butter to make my oatmeal - nothing is wasted.  One day, I hope to also make my own cheese, but I think that will need to wait until I am no longer homeschooling.

 

If cared for properly, my raw milk lasts easily 2 - 3 weeks before souring.  Sometimes, I don't make my butter before the skimmed cream sours, but this 'soured' cream makes great lemon poppy seed muffins.  But careful, however, that your 'soured' cream is still usable for cooking - that is does not smell off or have any discoloration, typically reddish color on the surface.  If so, toss it out.

 

My milk comes in plastic gallon jugs. I do not have my own cow, which takes a lot of time and commitment, but I am blessed to have a close source of raw milk.  If you live in the North Texas area, Lavon Farms, in Plano, sells raw milk or there are several farms a bit outside of the area that sell raw milk at their farms. 

 

Handling raw milk properly:

 

1.  Be sure that you bring a pre-chilled cooler with you when picking up your milk.  It is very important to keep your milk cold at all times for it to last 2 - 3 weeks before going sour.

 

2.  I transfer my milk from the plastic jugs into glass jars.  The morning that I am going to get milk, I sanitize my already cleaned glass jars in my dishwasher, using the sanitize and heat dry options.  (After a milk jar is emptied, I clean it in the dishwasher and store it until ready to use again.  Be sure you store your clean jars with the lid off so they can air.)  I transfer my milk into half gallon wide-mouth glass jars when I get it home.  These large jars are available at Elliot's hardware in Plano, sometimes at other stores that carry canning jars, co-ops like Azure Standard, and on-line.  A word of caution:  you MUST let your glass jars cool to room temperature before pouring your cold milk into them or they will crack! 

 

3.  I then place my milk on the top shelf of my 'cold' refrigerator.  Find the coolest spot in your refrigerator to store your milk if you have only one refrigerator, and turn the temperature colder while still being able to store your produce in your refrigerator without damaging it.  I let the milk sit for a day in the refrigerator to settle before I start using it (unless we are completely out of milk).

 

4.  When I am ready to use a jar of milk, assuming it has had at least one day to settle, I skim the cream off the milk to make butter.  This leaves a natural milk that is comparable to about 2% milk.  I purchased a small metal soup ladle at Target that I use to skim off the cream.  As shown in the photos, you need to gently submerge the level ladle into the cream.  Watch carefully and you will see when you have all the cream skimmed.  I place the cream into a small glass container and then place it back into the refrigerator until I have enough to make butter.  Typically I like to have the cream from 1 to 2 gallons of milk for a batch of butter, which yields about 1 pound of butter and 3 to 4 cups of sweet 'butter' milk which I use to make oatmeal.  DO NOT skim the cream off your milk, until you are ready to use the milk.  If you skim several in advance, the milk will start to sour within a few days.  The cream layer keeps the milk from souring.  Once skimmed, the cream will last about a week (sometimes a little longer) before starting to sour.  We like 'sweet' cream butter, but you can make 'cultured' butter also if your cream has soured.  I prefer to make lemon poppy seed muffins with my slightly soured cream.  If I am making yogurt, which uses a gallon or two of milk, I get enough cream to immediately make butter with the cream.

 

5.  I never set a jar of milk out on the table or leave it out on the counter.  I pour what we are going to drink into glasses or measure it out for my baking and then immediately put the jar of milk back into the refrigerator.  The only time you would want to leave the milk out at room temperature (or slightly warmer) is when you are culturing it, or you want it to sour. 

 

Using these methods, my milk stays fresh for two to three weeks, minimum.  We use our milk to drink, for baking, and to make:

 

butter

yogurt (post coming soon)

fruited yogurt and fruit smoothies and mango lassis, etc.

kefir

yogurt cheese or sour cream

lemon poppy seed muffins (from old cream not used for butter)

oatmeal

 

* Why we don't drink commercial milk:

 

Milk that has been pasteurized or heated to kill off all bacteria in it, no longer contains the many beneficial aspects of raw milk.  In fact, it no longer contains any of the good bacteria that keeps it from being unsafe.  If you are interested in learning more about why the pasteurization of milk began, you should read the book, The Untold Story of Milk by Ron Schmid.  A brief summary is that it was considered too expensive to improve the conditions in which the cows were being raised and what they were fed (resulting in unhealthy raw milk) thus the solution was to pasteurize the milk.  Milk was needed in the cities and it was difficult to transport fresh milk for the large masses of people who had migrated into the cities during the Industrial Revolution.  It was decided a good compromise would be to pasteurize the poor quality milk, rather than requiring better quality.  Because people did not like this option, selling raw milk was made illegal forcing everyone to buy pasteurized milk.  However, the officials making this decision, allowed one children's hospital to continue to use raw milk from cows out on pasture because they admitted that the children in the hospital would not survive if forced to drink the unhealthy pasteurized milk.  I personally think we have now raised a generation of people who are all too unhealthy to continue drinking pasteurized, homogenized milk.

 

The second and just as unhealthy practice that was adopted was homogenization of the milk.  Homogenization changes the particle size of the milk, so then the cream does not rise to the top of the milk.  Unfortunately, this practice came about and was readily accepted as people got more and more modern conveniences in their homes.  It is definitely much easier to pour milk directly out of a jug than to first skim the cream off.  So this second practice is more associated with laziness.  But there is a price to pay for this 'convenience'.  The smaller particle size of the milk is unknown in a person's gut and causes many digestive problems because it can leak through the gut undigested. 

 

Even worse, they are now adding vitamins to milk.  These vitamins are man-made vitamins that are not absorbed by our bodies (which is why I do not recommend eating anything that is 'enriched').  Rather than buying foods that are enriched by man, one should look for the original unadulterated foods that contains the natural vitamins and minerals and co-factors and other things we don't even understand yet in just the right combination and balance. 

 

"God saw all that He had made, and it was very good." Genesis 1:31a 

Browning Ground Meat or Sausage

 

I purchase meats that come from animals that have been raised outside in humane environments and fed a natural diet (for example grass, only, for cows).  I like to buy local when possible and in north Texas we have many resources.  How the meat was raised is my top concern, not the fat content because the way to determine if something is healthy is to evaluate how closely it was raised or grown to God's standards, not man's.  For example, for 100% grass fed beef, the fat make-up is very different, not unhealthy, compared to an animal that was raised on grains in a crowded feed lot.  So the 'amount' of fat is not the concern, it is the 'type' of fat that one should be concerned about.

 

It is also important to think about what you are adding into your foods with your cookware.  I use heavy cast iron skillets that have been properly seasoned to brown my meat.  I do not recommend using pans that have a non-stick coating to prepare any foods.  These coatings will add toxins to your foods, even if new and not scratched.  Of course, as they age, the situation worsens.  One of the problems that these coatings have been linked with is reduced fertility in people.  This is a serious problem, especially if you are cooking food for your children.

 

From The University of Rochester's Medical website, 

How Safe Is Nonstick Cookware?

You probably have some pots, pans, or baking tins in your kitchen that are coated with Teflon. The chemical name for Teflon is polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE). This chemical is what keeps food from sticking to nonstick cookware and it has been used commercially since the 1940s.
The potential problem with nonstick cookware comes from another chemical used in making Teflon. This chemical, perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), has been linked to cancer in laboratory animals, and possibly linked to elevated cholesterol, thyroid disease, and reduced fertility in people.
PFOA has come under scrutiny by the EPA because the chemical has shown up in samples of people’s blood. This concerns the EPA because PFOA lasts a long time in both people and the surrounding environment.

The article goes on to say that more testing is needed to determine just how dangerous PFOA's are to health, and if the PFOA's are getting into people's blood from cookware or other sources.  It really concerns me when a pro - 'conventional medicine' site suggests there are risks to some man-made chemical.  Elevated cholesterol, thyroid disease, and reduced fertility in people are all problems today in the USA; don't use nonstick cookware that has been coated with Teflon or other man-made coatings.

 

Instructions:

 

1.  Heat a heavy cast iron (my preference), enameled or glass skillet to medium heat.

 

2.  When skillet is hot (not before), add your meat to be browned.  Stir and flip and break up into chunks.  Continue to cook into no longer pink.

 

3.  Remove from skillet with a slotted spatula and place on a non-plastic plate covered with a couple paper towels.  Place a couple more paper towels on top of meat and press down to remove the excess grease.  I then drain out any remaining grease that is in the skillet into my 'grease' jar which I store in my refrigerator.  I use an old glass jar with lid for this purpose and once full, it goes in the trash.

4.  Once cooked, use the meat in your recipe or place in the refrigerator (up to a couple days) until ready to use.

 

Chipotle Grill Better Quality?

 

I don't really know but I do know that they are trying to make people aware that how animals are raised is very important.  As I have mentioned many times, the quality of the food you eat is critical.  If you eat poor quality foods (those that are heavily processed or raised 'conventionally'), you will reap poor quality health.  It is inevitable.  You may be fortunate and have started with better nutrient reserves, but eventually your body will run out of these stored nutrients which are required for good health and you will develop health issues. 

 

I have two videos for you to watch today.  Both are by Chipotle Grill, which is one of the few restaurants that we eat at occasionally. 

 

The first video is one that Chipotle Grill has made to introduce a new mobile game aimed to educate people about the quality of our foods.  I hope after watching it that you are encouraged to support local farms and ranches that are not using conventional, mass production methods that are bad for the land and create poor quality foods.

 

The second video is about Niman Ranch meats, one of the suppliers to Chipotle Grill and one of the brands of ham I purchase (more on that tomorrow).  I hope this motivates you to find local producers of your meats, those who are raising their animals free-range.

 

Watch these videos and be encouraged to buy better quality foods and ingredients, minimally processed and raised the way God intended (free range on a natural diet).  Learn where the foods you are eating come from and how they are raised and processed. 

 

Find local producers who are raising small quantities for the local market for the best possible quality.  For example, I purchase my 100% grass-fed beef from Burgundy Pasture Beef, where I have visited and seen how the animals are raised, and I know and trust Jon and Wendy who run the ranch.  They also deliver to most of the DFW area so I don't have to drive to their ranch to get my beef.

 

Here are some links again to help you find other local sources:

 

http://www.eatwild.com/products/texas.html
http://www.localharvest.org/
http://www.ediblecommunities.com/dallasfortworth/farmers-markets/farmers-markets.htm 

$0.00 on Over-the-counter and Prescription Medication



Five years ago when I taught classes, I had said that we had spent $0.00 on over-the-counter and prescription medication in the previous ten years.  This $0.00 amount is for all four of us:  Fred is now 55, I am 53, Tom is 18 and Jon is 15.  I think this fact is as unusual for a family in the USA as our diet of eating only foods created by God. 

Since those classes five years ago, I have spent about $5, so I have spent less than $1 a year now over the past 15 years.  What is your yearly medicine bill?  If you feel you cannot afford the best quality FoodsbyGod, take into consideration the money and time you might be paying in other ways as a consequence of your food choices.

So why did I spend $5?  About 4 years ago (after teaching the last set of classes), I bought one bottle of infant dye-free Tylenol for Tom (who was 14 at the time).  He had his last baby tooth extracted, one that would not fall out and which was preventing a permanent tooth from coming in.  The dentist said he would be in a lot of pain and I needed to give him something.  I chose the infant Tylenol, thinking it would take the edge off the pain.  Though Tom was not in pain yet, I gave him one dose.  I watched him closely and he showed no signs of excess pain (nor did he complain), so no more was needed.  Last month, I threw away the rest of the bottle.  That was a waste of money but I wanted to be a 'good' mom and was scared by the dentist into thinking I needed some man-made pain medicine since Tom was only 14. 

 

I did not give him more because over-the-counter medications do not help one's body heal but only mask symptoms and load the liver with toxins.  Instead I like to use anti-inflammatory healing supplements such as garlic and vitamin C or I increase consumption of anti-inflammatory foods in our diet.  There are many wonderful options, such as pineapples, which contain bromelain, an amazing natural anti-inflammatory healing chemical.  (Be aware that if you are having surgery that some supplements thin the blood and must be stopped a week or two before your surgery.)  I cannot offer you an Advil or Tylenol if you are at my house and have a headache or a Tums if you have a stomachache.  We use none of these things and keep none in the house. 

 

So now I have spent about $5.00 once in the past 15 years on over-the-counter medications and $0.00 on prescription medications.  We use minimal supplements too; I don't know the exact amount but less than $20 (probably less than $10) in supplements for the four of us during the year.  Most of my supplements go past their expiration date before we use them up. 

 

So what is in my medicine cabinet?  

 

Tom just went off to college, and thus we got him my basic 'first aid' supplements in case he needs them.  Since I have just been thinking about what these would be, I thought I would share that information with you. 

 

For stressful time periods (to take daily when immunity is low):

 

Cod liver or fish oil (store in refrigerator, I buy Nordic Naturals or Carlsons)

Probiotic (store in refrigerator, there are many good brands)

 

For first signs of cold/flu (sore throat or chills):

 

Healing chicken soup in freezer (must be homemade)

Chicken stock in freezer (must be homemade)

Echinacea/Goldenseal tablets  (take for only 1 - 2 weeks max at a time)

Vitamin C with Rosehips tablets

Garlic tablets (I like the Kyolic brand, odor-free)

 

For stomach virus/food poisoning:

 

Activated charcoal (causes constipation - only take what is needed for nausea or diarrhea)

 

For skin cuts/infections (topical use instead of antibiotic ointments):

 

Colloidal Silver

Tea Tree Oil (not in photo because I gave my bottle to Tom - I prefer to use the colloidal silver)

 

These are the basics that I like to keep on hand or take with me when traveling.  We take no supplements on a regular basis, though if I were not making our own yogurt and kefir, we would take a daily Probiotic. 

Please note, I do not take the Echinacea/Garlic/VitaminC regimen typically when I start to feel that I might be coming down with something.  Taking supplements does not allow my body to build its own immunity, so these are only for special times when I just can't get sick (such as when on a trip or teaching a class, etc.).  Instead of taking these supplements - I eat nutritionally dense foods, such as healing soup, completely cut out all sweets, and try to rest more to allow my body to fight off the infection.  As I stated in a previous post, we eat the foods God has given us, those that are filled with the nutrients our bodies need, and thus we have no need for extra supplements and medicines on a regular basis.

Avoid Genetically Modified Foods (GMO)



First let me say, that next week I will be 53 and I have no problem at all with arthritis or joint inflammation or pain in my hands.  I do get cuts and scrapes from working out in the yard; and red, dry skin from doing dishes; but no joint pains or inflammation.  But I could quickly and easily have problems again, with very little effort.  Let me explain. 

I starting having problems about five years ago with arthritis type symptoms in my fingers.  A couple finger joints started to ache and became noticeably swollen and red.  Then several joints on several fingers on both hands developed the same aches and inflammation.  At first, I thought I was developing arthritis since my mother had severe, painful arthritis in her fingers by the age of fifty.  I thought I was destined to develop arthritis too so resigned myself to learn to live with it.  Fortunately, God had other plans in mind and graciously showed me that I was not destined to crippling arthritis at such a young age.

 

The arthritis type symptoms would come and go and then I started to realize that when I was at home, they were much worse than when I was traveling on our homeschool trips around the country.  I assumed it was due to a different climate (everywhere was good except at home...) and was just grateful to have a reprieve from the aching occasionally.

 

After dealing with this, on and off, for about two years, I happened to mention my finger inflammation and pain to a mom of one of my son's friends.  She mentioned that studies were showing a relationship between finger joint inflammation and GMO foods.  I was amazed and started to evaluate the difference in my diet when at home versus on our trips.

 

At home we were going every week or two to a local Mexican restaurant.  I thought that it was o.k. since I was getting the fajitas and eating lots of fresh grilled vegetables with them.  They also had a wonderful homemade salsa.  I would enjoy the salsa with chips while waiting for our dinner.  Whereas on the trips, we seldom ate out and when we did, we ate at natural local food restaurants and cafes. 

 

I did know that most corn in the USA was GMO and most corn products that were not certified organic would probably contain GMO corn, but I did not think my once every week or two consumption would be a problem.  Especially since the rest of my meals were home cooked using excellent quality ingredients.

 

However, I was wrong.  I think this was the beginning of my understanding that going 100% does not allow consumption of man-made  or man-altered foods/ingredients every week.  I was getting a bit desperate for a solution (as the symptoms got worse, I decided that I did not want to live with this problem and have painful, badly disfigured, bent fingers like my mom) so I tried an experiment.  No more eating corn tortilla chips at restaurants.  Bingo.  Within weeks my fingers were doing much better. 

Of course, this was hard to do at first because we thought we loved eating out at this restaurant and this meant I did not get a break one night a week from cooking.  It was not hard for long though.  The benefit of not having a chronic health problem far outweighed these things and I realized that we had become a bit addicted to this restaurant food (I wonder what other ingredients were in the food that were drawing us back...). 

Unfortunately, or perhaps I should say fortunately, this was only a temporary fix, which opened my eyes to a bigger problem with today's food supply and the importance of being aware and listening to your body's clues rather than taking some medication to attempt to 'get' rid of the symptom, which is your clue.  Though I was no longer eating the chips at restaurants (or even eating out regularly anymore), I was still buying organic tortilla corn chips and eating them on a weekly basis.  My fingers would get better and then the problem would start up again, though with much milder symptoms. 

 

At this point, I came to realize that even many of the organic brands of corn chips were causing my finger inflammation and pain.  So I started experimenting with different brands of organic corn chips until I finally found one brand that did not cause problems for me.

 

I concluded that what I had been reading about the cross-contamination of corn was indeed true.  And my body seems to now be sensitive enough to this problem to see it.  The one brand I found that I could eat without having problems was made in Canada.  For now, it seems to be using a fairly pure source of organic corn.  Perhaps one day soon, I will no longer eat any corn.  I have already almost entirely cut it out of my diet.  I eat one brand of corn tortilla chips and occasionally eat something that has a little organic cornmeal or other corn ingredient in it.  I now suffer with no arthritis type symptoms of any kind - to think I could be developing severe crippling arthritis now!  And if I had gone with the problem to a doctor, I would probably be on some man-made medication that would be causing the development of other chronic problems and side effects.

I said that I could easily and quickly have problems again.  I know this is true because once or twice I have thought perhaps I was mistaken about the cause and eaten some corn chips or other corn products when not at home. The next morning, I will often wake with a 'funny' swollen feeling in my fingers.  This is my 'wake-up call' and I don't let it get any further.  We really have no idea what is in our foods when we eat out.  Thus I then immediately eliminate eating anything out unless I know who prepared it.  There are many GMO foods now, not just corn.  So I am very, very careful about my food choices, eating at home and buying the best quality ingredients, just in case, not eating anything away from home for at least a few weeks to let the problem abate.  My fingers are so happy that I do this!

 

I share this with you to encourage you to take very seriously buying the best quality food and ingredients that you can afford and finding local foods that are not conventionally raised or grown.  Man-made foods, man-altered foods will make you sick.  You may never develop arthritis problems.  Instead, you may be prone to develop heart disease, digestive problems, diabetes, dementia, or maybe a nervous system problem such as MS.  You may get away with eating poorly for a long time if you started out with a strong constitution but it is not possible to maintain optimum health on a diet of man-made foods.  Genetic modification of cells (which if you don't know about you should investigate - a virus is used to inject the DNA change into the cell) is just one of the newest ways that man is creating unhealthy foods.  Unfortunately, a GMO food can 'look' completely normal so you must educate yourself about the foods/ingredients you are buying.   

Going 100% to me means cutting out man-made foods and ingredients.  It does not mean eliminating specific foods from my diet - I eat all of the many, many different foods and ingredients that God has given us.  I enjoy a huge assortment of delicious foods and feel quite blessed doing so.  Do not think you must live with chronic health issues or that you can't enjoy great foods.  It can be very frustrating to correlate, but your diet plays a huge role in your health.  Figure out what your 100% approach looks like and then begin to implement it.  I thank God that I did. 

 

"The LORD is my strength and shield. I trust him with all my heart. He helps me, and my heart is filled with joy. I burst out in songs of thanksgiving." Psalm 28:7    

 

Simple Roast



My good friend, Lois, taught me how to cook a simple roast and it is so simple with great flavor.  However, buy a good quality 100% grass fed roast if you are going to eat beef.  If you are trying to go to a diet of 100% real foods made by God, you must be aware of the man-made changes in foods like raw meats.  Conventional ranching has changed the make-up and quality of the meats we eat so they are no longer equivalent to the standard God provided for us to keep us healthy.

 

Cows are finished in feed lots, fed grains or even 'garbage' such as leftover excess cheap breads and pastries.  While you could say this is not being wasteful by feeding this man-made food to the cows, it is creating very unhealthy cows, just as it creates unhealthy humans.  Fortunately, due to Mad Cow's Disease, cows are no longer fed animal scraps but being fed any unnatural foods for a cow, even grains, creates unhealthy cows.

 

Why is it a problem for the cows to be fed grains?  Beef is no longer healthy because once a cow eats grains (versus its natural diet of grass and green plants), it develops unhealthy fat.  This change in the make-up of beef is why it was decided eating beef was no longer healthy for people starting in about the 1980's.  But this is not the case.  It is NOT beef, it is man-modified beef.  Here is a great CNN article (I've copied it below also);  though not entirely pro-100% grass fed it presents well all of the facts.

 

I only buy 100% grass fed beef.  I have bought for many years from Burgundy Pasture Beef (which has home delivery), plus I buy ground beef from Natural Grocer (when it is on sale), and occasionally from other sources such as food coops.  Your source is very important.  Burgundy Pasture Beef is outstanding and I highly recommend their beef. 

 

As the CNN article states, you can find 100% grass fed beef that is very tough and chewy.  Read the article and find a source that you like.  We have SO many in the DFW area to choose from.  Be familiar with the information in the quality post and use the links provided at the bottom to find local sources of high quality foods.

 

It is also important how the meat is prepared.  Since 100% grass-fed beef has less fat content, it can dry out quickly if cooked in the same manner we have grown accustomed to preparing conventional beef.  I also don't worry about buying the 'lean' ground beef.  100% grass-fed beef has a different fat make-up and it is not the 'bad' fat that develops in feed lot cows.  So spend the extra money on 100% grass-fed ground beef and not 'lean' ground beef.

 

I have not even mentioned other negative changes in how meat cows are raised, such as the use of antibiotics and growth hormones, because I think everyone agrees (except those producing and using these products) that these are not good practices for producing healthy meats. 

 

I know one concern is that 100% grass fed beef is very expensive.  I have two thoughts on this comment.  First, if it is expensive, you will not be eating an excess amount of it, which is unhealthy in itself.  If you can afford today's cheap feed lot meat, loaded with poor quality fat, you will eat more of it and reap the benefits of heart disease and other ailments.  Second, it is much less expensive to be healthy and not under a doctor's continued care and medicines.  So looking at the big picture, you will actually save LOTS of money not needed for health problems created from your foods. 

 

Finding and buying good quality meats is an essential component of going 100% and seeing the health benefits.

 

Ingredients:

 

Roast (one that will fit in your pan)

Onion chunks

Garlic, 2 or 3 cloves

Sea Salt

Pepper

 

Place your roast in an oven-proof casserole dish with tight lid (or your glass bone broth pot).  I typically rinse and dry the meat first.  Then sprinkle with sea salt (I use one of my salt grinders) and pepper.  I then mince a few cloves of garlic across the top and finally lay some chunks of onion on the top.  Place lid tightly on roast and bake in oven at 350 °F until cooked to your liking.  Cook time is dependent upon the size of the roast.  Using a meat thermometer is a good way to check if it is done.  Remove from oven and allow to rest 20 to 30 minutes with the lid still in place.  Slice and enjoy with a few side dishes.  Leftovers can be used in many ways from chopped BBQ beef sandwiches to replacing ground beef in a Mexican stew.  DON'T throw away the beef drippings.  Make gravy or use in a soup/stew.  I typically use my drippings to make beef barley soup (recipe coming soon).

 

 

 

CNN Article

 

The grass-fed vs. grain-fed beef debate

By Kim Cross, Cooking Light

March 29, 2011 7:54 a.m. EDT

 

A large herd's worth of beef cattle has passed through the Cooking Light Test Kitchen over the past 24 years, almost all of it standard-issue, grain-fed supermarket meat. But with beef, as with everything in the American diet, change is afoot. Shoppers are seeing more and more grass-fed beef in regular grocery stores, along with meat from breeds marketed as special (like Angus), and meat from organically raised animals. The local/sustainable movement has been singing the praises of the grass-fed cow, while the grain-fed industry has been under attack by food activists.

 

The grass-fed cow, which eats from a pasture and is not "finished" on a diet of grains and supplements for rapid weight gain, is said by its promoters to be better for the planet (less energy goes into growing grass than grain); better for the beef eater (less overall fat, and more omega-3s and other "good" fats); and better for the cow (critics decry feedlot practices as inhumane). In this article, though, we're looking not at meat politics but at three things that most cooks are acutely interested in: price, taste, and nutrition.

 

Price may be the first thing you have noticed about grass-fed beef: In supermarkets, small-production, grass-fed meat can be a lot more expensive than your average grain-fed beef, just as artisanal cheese costs more than industrial cheddar.

 

Cooking Light: Six ways to save on beef

But the cook will notice that the meat often looks different, too -- sometimes a lot darker, often with less of the coveted fat-marbling you see in the highest-grade grain-fed meat.  To dive into the subject, we bought half a cow. Specifically, we bought half of a 648-pound Brangus cow, pasture-raised by Alabama farmer Melissa Boutwell, who is pretty local: She works about 175 miles from our main editorial offices. Boutwell Farms supplies regional restaurants, which have included James Beard Award-winning Chef Frank Stitt's restaurants in Birmingham.  We talked to Boutwell about her husbandry. We saw our meat through the butchering process, took delivery of 243 pounds of meat (plus bones) cut to our specifications, and conducted blind tastings in our Test Kitchen.

 

We learned that we could dodge supermarket prices by buying in bulk: Our cost per pound of Boutwell's beef was $5.32, including everything from ground beef to liver to filet mignon, which made it only marginally higher than similar quantities of regular grain-fed beef prices in local supermarkets, and a lot less than we would have paid for premium grass-fed or grain-fed meat. As for nutrition, we put fat-content claims to the test by sending some of our finest grass-fed steaks for nutritional analysis, along with supermarket and specialty grain-fed cuts. And on the matter of taste, we confirmed that grass-fed beef can be delicious and versatile but, if it comes from a lean cow like the one we bought, requires careful cooking lest the extra effort of buying it go to waste on the plate. (We're still cooking our way through steaks, ground beef, chuck, roasts, and ribs, plus bones and organs, and we will provide beef recipes from our grass-fed project as the year goes on.)

 

Cooking Light: Grilled beef recipes

Buying beef directly from farmers not only is a logical next step in the "buy local" movement but also hearkens back to the way many of our parents or grandparents bought meat.  All you need is to do some digging for local suppliers and buy a good-sized freezer (you'll find our primer on sourcing and buying online at CookingLight.com/features).  Some readers are already doing it, as we learned after putting the word out on Facebook, and one benefit of bulk buying is that it obliges the cook to experiment and enjoy less familiar cuts of meat. "Purchasing a quarter cow was very educational," says Cooking Light reader Julie Lineberger. "I had never even cooked a roast, and now I am comfortable with roasts, brisket, and all sorts of cuts."  Of course, most cooks won't want to buy a whole grass-fed cow or even a half-cow. One option is to "cowpool" with curious friends.

 

Cooking Light: Cow-pooling made easy

Another is to turn to a CSA, or community-supported agriculture group. CSAs have been popping up like mushrooms in many cities, and many deliver quantities of meat on a weekly or monthly basis.

 

The skinny on grass-fed beef

As we stood at the checkout at a Publix supermarket with some grass-fed cuts, a young checkout clerk asked, "So, what is grass-fed beef?"  Hearing the short answer -- meat from cows that eat only grass -- he looked surprised. "I thought all cows just ate grass."  All cows do graze on pasture for the first six months to a year of their lives, but most finish at a feedlot on a concentrated mix of corn, soy, grains, and other supplements, plus hormones and antibiotics.

 

This growth-spurt formula is the backbone of a hugely productive U.S. beef industry. A feedlot cow can grow to slaughter weight up to a year faster than a cow fed only forage, grass, and hay.  "That's one year that you don't have to feed the cows in the feedlot," notes Eatwild.com founder Jo Robinson, who spent the past decade examining scientific research comparing grass-fed and grain-fed animals. "Conventional factory meat is so cheap because they've done everything to speed growth and lower the cost of feed."

 

The feedlot process not only speeds the animal to slaughter weight but also enhances fat marbling, which is one factor that determines a cut of beef's USDA rating -- the more fat within the red meat, the richer the taste, the higher the grade.  Most supermarket beef is Choice, which is one step below Prime, the top grade typically found in steak houses. Boosting fat levels changes the nutritional composition of the meat, of course, and, from a health point of view, not for the better.

 

Cooking Light: How to buy the best beef

A study by researchers at California State University in Chico examined three decades of research and found that beef from pasture-raised cows fits more closely into goals for a diet lower in saturated fat and higher in "good fats" and other beneficial nutrients. Grass-fed beef is lower in calories, contains more healthy omega-3 fats, more vitamins A and E, higher levels of antioxidants, and up to seven times the beta-carotene. Skeptics such as Chris Raines, a professor of meat science at Penn State, say the benefits of the different fat profiles are overblown:  "Some people get very excited about the fatty-acid profile of grass-fed beef. Then, in the same breath, they'll talk about how wonderfully lean it is. We're talking up the good fats that aren't really there."

 

The National Cattlemen's Beef Association, which says it supports all forms of beef production, echoes this much-ado-about-not-much theme. Shalene McNeill, who has a Ph.D. in human nutrition and is executive director for human nutrition research at the association, acknowledges that "if you feed (cows) grass, you can slightly increase the omega-3 content, but if you look at it in terms of a whole diet, it's not a significant advantage to human health."  Ditto, McNeill says, for some other "good" nutrients. Yet a 6-ounce grass-fed beef tenderloin may have 92 fewer calories than the same cut from a grain-fed cow.  "If you eat a typical amount of beef per year," Robinson points out in Pasture Perfect, a book about the benefits of pasture-raised animals, "which in the United States is about 67 pounds, switching to grass-fed beef will save you 16,642 calories a year." 

 

It would also, if you paid supermarket prices and dined on tenderloin, cost you about $300 more. Despite an uptick in consumer demand for grass-fed beef, the market is still relatively small -- possibly less than 3% of all U.S. beef sales.  And while the number of U.S. grass-fed beef producers is rising -- from 50 in 2002 to more than 2,000 today -- they face big challenges, including higher operating costs, a shortage of processors, loose standards for the definition of "grass-fed," a lack of consistent quality, and consumer wariness about taste and texture.  Meeting the Meat Standing in a meat locker among a small crowd of hanging beef sides at a family-run abattoir, we learned some lessons about beef from a guy with an 8-inch knife and a rancher who was wearing eye shadow.

 

Melissa Boutwell, the rancher, practices rotational grazing with the deliberate precision of an industrial process engineer. She had offered to let us choose our half-cow in person. Bill Towson, the butcher and owner of the family-run Towson Fine Meats in Tifton, Georgia, agreed to let us watch his team cut up Boutwell's cow to fit our specifications. Towson made a clean slice between the 12th and 13th ribs of an Angus cow and a Brangus (an Angus-Brahman hybrid), two grass-fed cows raised in identical conditions. "USDA inspectors use this single cut to determine the grade of the entire cow," said Boutwell, who raised both of these animals.  Delicate veins of fat running through the meat play a critical role in flavor and grade. It was easy to see the difference in the exposed rib eyes: The Angus had more marbling compared with the superlean Brangus. Next to our Brangus carcass was a much scrawnier specimen that had little fat and whose meat had the dried-out look of jerky.

 

Cooking Light: Five-ingredient meat recipes

Another lesson, then, about grass-fed beef: It's not only about the grass, but also the breed, and the cow. We were looking for a lower-fat cow, so we chose the Brangus.  Though lean, it was still blanketed with a jacket of fat that would play a flavor role in the evolution of the meat. The fat would mostly get trimmed away during the butchering, but before then it would protect the meat during the dry-aging period, usually 10 to 14 days, in which the carcass hangs in a cold locker while natural enzymes break down tough muscle fiber and tenderize the meat.  It's worth noting that although the best steak-house steaks are dry-aged, most supermarket beef is wet-aged in a plastic vacuum-sealed bag that prevents shrinkage but also precludes the concentration of beefy flavor that occurs with water loss.

 

The amount of fat cover also determines how much is available to go into the ground beef -- which we ordered in 85/15 and 90/10 meat-to-fat ratios. The fat on our grass-fed cow looked different from the fat we have been accustomed to cooking.  Compared with the bright, white fat of conventional beef, grass-fed fat is often yellower, stemming from the higher levels of beta-carotene. And as we would learn, the quantity and the quality of our cow's fat would play a key role in cooking.

 

The bottom line: taste and tenderness

Our Test Kitchen experimented with various cuts of grass-fed beef, both from our Brangus cow and from local supermarkets. The meat had good, clean beefy flavor but tended to be a lot chewier than we were used to, and sometimes drier. There can be such a thing as too lean in beef cuts that are conventionally fairly high in fat, like strip steaks and other luxury cuts. 

 

Adjustments had to be made for these steaks, which were producing less fat in the pan than we were used to and could turn tough. "Fat is an insulator," says Deborah Krasner, author of Good Meat, the first major cookbook dedicated to sustainable meats. "So if you cook something that's very fatty, and you cook it badly, it's still going to taste pretty good because fat insulates the meat. When you have leaner meat, you don't have that safety net, so you have to cook it carefully." Cook with care, or chew like crazy, basically. "Carefully" means that tougher cuts like short ribs or brisket require the very-low-and-slow approach -- long cooking at low temperatures. But it means cooking a tender steak more aggressively than you might be used to for such a pricey cut.

 

We decided to really turn up the heat on a thick, 12-ounce grass-fed New York strip purchased at Whole Foods, preheating a cast-iron pan on high, turning on the fan, and nearly smoking out the kitchen when the meat hit the metal. Testers were coughing and shaking their heads as the vent fans roared. After a billowing three-minute sear on each side, there was very little fat in the pan. Previous tests suggested that the meat, though good, would lack the buttery deliciousness many of us like in this rare treat. Recipe tester Robin Bashinsky turned down the heat and began basting the steak with two pats of butter (see recipe, page 143, for this method).

 

When done, the meat got a short rest under foil and then was sliced; it was perfectly medium-rare within. Could a grass-fed cut, with its lower-fat content, rival a grain-fed cut? Yes: It was succulent, buttery, and robust, with a perfectly caramelized crust. The juices formed a simple, rich sauce. But is this a paradoxical way to cook a steak bought in part for its lean fat profile -- adding butter to "beef" up the flavor? (After all, grass-fed fans suggest it just takes time to come to love what Deborah Krasner calls "meatier, purer, more mineral" flavors.) Not necessarily.

 

First, most of the butter does not cling to the beef, so we estimate the process adds less than half a gram of saturated fat to the final meat. (If you use the pan juices as a sauce, more is added, but total saturated fat for a serving is still only 4.4 grams.) Second, a cook may have bought grass-fed meat for many reasons -- ecological, ethical, or to support local businesses -- but still desires a hit of full-on steak-house flavor now and then. As we tasted more beef, however, we found that there aren't clear-cut, consistent taste differences between grass-fed and grain-fed meat.

 

This emerged after a blind tasting of eight New York strips, cooked identically. Samples included regular supermarket beef; steak from our grass-fed cow; and meat from a variety of grass-fed and grain-fed animals of different breeds raised in different states. The latter came from a "Discover Beef" tasting pack from The Artisan Beef Institute in Santa Rosa, California, whose founder, Carrie Oliver, applies the wine-tasting model to meats. Our testers liked several samples but discovered no universal preference for grass-fed or grain-fed, finding various degrees of beefiness and juiciness across the samples.

 

Beef really is like cheese or tomatoes or any other food: The proof is in the pudding, not in claims about the pudding. The cook needs to explore and sample with an open mind.

But this is good: However the politics of beef resolve themselves, the move from industrial production toward more emphasis on breeds, feed, care, and provenance will present the Americancook with more choice, more variety -- and more pleasures in the kitchen and on the plate.