Going Against the Grain by Melissa Smith

Well, I finally finished this book. It took me a while, I don't have much down time as you can imagine. Anyway, I recommend this book for anyone who is considering changing their diet to boost your and /or your children's health. While I don't agree 100 % with everything she said in the book, such as cooking with olive oil or her processed meal suggestions, I do think she did an excellent job explaining what eating grains does to our health in the short and long term.

I do think that there is a lot more to being healthy than just cutting out grains but it is definitely a huge step in the right direction. I have recently found that it was the grains in my diet that was causing my irritable bowel symptoms, my depression (who would have thought!!), and my lack of nutrient absorption! Gosh!

With my two lils having Trisomy 21 aka an abundance of free radicals, I feel that one of my main objectives when feeding my family is to keep the food that cause free radicals to a minimum. This is an excerpt in her book that was a light bulb for me.

"Is there anything wrong with eating foods that elevate blood sugar? [talking about grains] In a word, yes. ... elevated glucose generates hazardous molecules called free radicals in the body, which accelerate aging. Also, excess glucose reacts with and damages proteins in the body, which also ages tissues." page 26

She explains how nixing grains can put the brakes on many of the diseases that we think are the norm in this country. I'm finding the further I delve into this new fangled way of eating that many things I thought were just byproducts of getting old are actually byproducts of eating grains and processed food. Things that make you go hmmm..

"Although it seems hard to believe that eating a lot of refined grains sets the stage for such a myriad of health problems, research now shows us that it does. To prevent serious degenerative diseases and minor health aggravations, the healthiest thing you can do both for yourself and your children is to avoid refined grains and sugars that promote elevated insulin levels."  page 44

I have been grain free since the middle of October and I wish I could tell you that I don't miss them or that it is easy but I do and it's not, especially when we leave the house or even watch TV. But I can tell you that I feel great! My stomach issues have cleared up completely and my depression is gone plus I'm off my happy pills that I felt I would be on till my dying day. Good news is though that the longer I am grain free the easier it is. Plus if mess up and eat grains my body reacts terribly and I wish to heaven I hadn't eaten that!

What does your meat look like....

before it is butchered? And what is added?
If you've read my "What do you eat?" page you saw that we eat happy meat. What does that mean? Well pictures are worth a thousand words. Not to mention these links will take you to the websites where we buy our food from. Granted it is a drive for us to get to these places but we buy in bulk and freeze the majority of food we get. That way we only have to go once or twice every few months.
The beef we buy looks like this.

The pork we buy looks like this.

Our milk comes from cows like these.

Why is it important to eat happy meat? Well here is one reason.

Animal Antibiotics hurting humans

Sorry I can't embbed the video, technical difficulties. Just clink on above link to watch short video.

Have I noticed a difference?

I have had a few questions about my two boys that have Trisomy 21 and how our lifestyle/diet affects them. The truth is, it is because of them that we started on this journey and I'm so glad we did. There have been a few ingredients/ products that I have noticed a major difference in the cognitive functioning and behavior of my boys.

One of these ingredients is SOY. My oldest who is a typically developing child weaned himself early, to my dismay. Thinking I was being a healthy mom I put him on soy based formula instead of just regular formula and he became a tyrant. His behavior was awful. He couldn't sit still, listen, obey.... I couldn't figure it out until I read an article about the dangers of using baby formula. And then read an article about the dangers of soy. I immediately took him off the formula and it was a night and day change. He was a different child. It was because of this incident that I never gave the lils (boys with trisomy 21) soy of any kind.

Another product that I noticed a drastic change once I took them off of it was Pediasure. This was a hard product to give up. I felt that I couldn't get the boys to gain weight if I didn't use it. (Keep in mind that Bohdan weighed 13 lbs at 3 years old when he came home from Europe). Not to mention the fact that Bohdan LOVES pediasure. LOVES it!! It was our functional medicine doctor who explained the dangers of Pediasure and any other processed nutritional drink. She explained that the ingredients acted as a neurotoxin in the boys brains. Well yuck! I begrudgingly sold ALL our Pediaure, Boost Essentials, and Duocal just knowing that my boys would lose weight and would NEVER get any bigger (little dramatic). I kept a journal of their progress and weight. It was also during this time that we started the new eating plan as listed under the page "What do we eat?"

The changes has been astounding!! Both boys are gaining weight and getting stronger. In the last few months their development has increased exponentially. They are picking things up more quickly and trying new things they have never tried before without any coaxing. And it is not just us who is noticing. I asked Caius' attendant if she noticed any change and she said "Uhh Yea!! He is doing SO much better." Even their therapists have asked us what we are doing differently because they are noticing a difference. One therapist was amazed and said that the boys seem more focused and able to concentrate on specific activities for longer periods of time. I even had a family member, who hadn't seen the boys in about 5 months and didn't know we were doing anything differently, tell me this past weekend that the boys look so much better. They look so much more healthy and alert.

It is so good to hear these things because it lets me know we are on the right track. Not to mention it is rewarding to know that all this trouble (and I guarantee you it is trouble) is SO worth it in the long run.

I know it is worth it for me personally because of the difference I have experienced in my own health. I have been able to get off of my Zoloft, I have lost 15 lbs, I have energy and don't crash in the afternoons. I sleep!! I go to sleep quickly, sleep all night and when I wake up I'm ready to go! This was not at all true of my sleep habits 4 months ago. Plus I get a ton of complements on my skin and complexion. Yea!!

For you Mommas of kiddos still on bottles or just eating mash just like my lils: this is how I make their food.

Meat mix: I cook meat (beef, chicken, lamb, salmon) with onion, celery, fresh herbs, carrots, zucchini, squash, broccoli and any other veggie I can come up with. (I keep the starchy veggies to a minimum and usually only use carrots or cauliflower). Once everything is almost done cooking I put in a ton of green leafy veggies to soften. Spinach, collard greens, mustard greens, kale, and any other greens I have on hand. I mix all that up and put into a blender, the mix ends up being about 1/3 or less meat to 2/3 or more veggies. I make sure and use all the broth that was used to cook this cuz it is full of nutrients from the food.
Fruit mix: I then make their fruit mix. It changes depending on what is available. I use alot of apples. Now that the boys are older I don't cook the apples I just blend them raw. I use a lot of berries, full of antioxidants, and other fruit available such as peaches, pears, etc. My favorite thing to mix with the fruit mix is pumpkin and squash. I cut them in half, place on a cookie sheet face down, cover bottom of cookie sheet with water and cook for an hour on about 400. Scoop meat out into a blender add apples and berries and blend. I like to make it with just apples and pumpkin adding stevia, nutmeg and cinnamon, super yummy.
Then at meal time the boys eat 2/3 meat mix to 1/3 fruit mix with a long squirt of flax oil. Once a day I blend a whole avocado and mix into their food. You can adjust the thickness by adding water depending on how you child is doing with solids.

For breakfast the lils eat a smoothie:  strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, peaches, banana, vanilla coconut yogurt, spirulina, and flax oil. They love it! You can get organic frozen berries at Costco.

Green Chile Stew Recipe

This is my new favorite recipe. It is so yummy and good for you too!! I am originally from New Mexico land of the Green Chile also known as Anahiem Chile (we don't call it that though). Green Chiles are in EVERYTHING there. You can get them at every restauraunt, fast food place and almost every dish you can imagine and they are heavenly!! It was hard to move to Texas where they think a green chile is a jalapeno but I digress. This recipe calls for a bunch of green chile and if you can't get it where you live click on the link above to have frozen shipped to your door. I also put below health benifits of green chile that I found on ehow.com. Keep in mind that not all green chiles are spicy. It all depends on the season and how much rain they got but they are all yummy!!

Green chile stew

1.5 lbs Hamburger (not lean)
1-2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2-1 onion chopped
1/4 tsp chile powder
Lawrys seanoning salt to taste
1 potatoe, peeled and cubed
1 can rotel (see recipe section for homemade rotel recipe)
8 oz chopped green chile
salt and pepper to taste

Brown hamburger with garlic, onion and lawry's seasoning salt. Boil potatoe until soft in just enough water to cover. Add remaining ingredients and let simmer until hot. Serve with half an avacado cubed. This of course is best the next day but you can eat it right away too.

If you are carb free make sure and cube the potatoe large enough to avoid.

Happy cooking!!!

Vitamins and Minerals

• Green chilies are rich in vitamins A and C with the dried version higher in vitamin A and the fresh version higher in vitamin C. They can contain as much as six times the amount of vitamin C as a single orange. Their vibrant color signal high amounts of the antioxidant beta-carotene, which supports the cardiovascular system, as well as helps maintain the health of the skin, eyes and immune system. Green chilies also contain vitamins B and E, and are a good source of iron and potassium. They do not contain fat or cholesterol and help block the body's absorption of cholesterol while remaining low in calories.

Feel the Burn

• Though the vitamins and minerals are certain advantages to eating green chilies, the greatest health benefit comes from the pain you feel when you bite into one. Capsaicin, the active chemical stored in the veins and seeds that gives them their heat has many nutritional and health benefits. It helps dissolve blood clots and aids in digestion. Capsaicin as a drug has be prescribed to treat wrinkles, heart health and facial twitching. It actually burns calories by increasing your metabolism, as well as curbing your appetite. Capsaicin also releases endorphins in the brain and puts chili eaters in a better mood. Capsaicin creams have also been used as anti-inflammatory medicine and in the treatment of arthritis.

Read more: Green Chili Health Benefits | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/about_5421616_green-chili-health-benefits.html#ixzz1jLvZC5rS

Lemony lime

So a few years ago I thought I should stop drinking coke. I love a cold canned coke! but I knew it was bad for me so I quit and replaced it with other drinks such as Sprite, Gatorade, Squirt and Fresca. I do love Fresca! Then I noticed that Fresca contains Aspertame and known neurotoxin. Yuck! and I did love me some Fresca so after a bit, back to coke I went.

Now we are soda free and I don't even miss them, thank goodness!! Then I came across this article that blew me away. All that time I thought I was doing better by drinking Gatorade and Squirt when in fact I was poisoning my body even worse. Come to find out a lot of those beverages comtain BVO which was orginally patented as a flame retardant!!

Here is an excerpt of the article. To read the whole thing (recommended) click here.

If you live in the U.S. and drink Mountain Dew and some other citrus-flavored sodas, then you are also getting a dose of a synthetic chemical called brominated vegetable oil (BVO).
BVO was first patented by chemical companies as a flame retardant.
The chemical is banned in food throughout Europe and Japan.
But BVO has been added to about 10 percent of sodas in North America for decades, even though it has resulted in soda-drinkers needing medical attention for skin lesions, memory loss and nerve disorders -- all symptoms of overexposure to bromine.
Studies suggest that BVO can build up in human tissues, and animal studies have found it causes reproductive and behavioral problems in large doses.
According to Scientific American:

"Reports from an industry group helped the U.S. Food and Drug Administration establish in 1977 what it considers a safe limit for BVO in sodas.
But some scientists say that limit is based on data that is thin and several decades old, and they insist that the chemical deserves a fresh look ...
With natural alternatives already in use in other countries, why not switch in North America too?"

What is Brominated Vegetable Oil, and Why is it Used in Soda?

Brominated vegetable oil (BVO) is vegetable oil, derived from corn or soy, bonded with the element bromine. It's added as an emulsifier, to prevent the flavoring from separating and floating to the surface. The FDA limits the amount of BVO allowed in fruit-flavored beverages to 15 parts per million.
Bromines are common endocrine disruptors, and are part of the halide family, a group of elements that includes fluorine, chlorine and iodine. What makes it so dangerous is that it competes for the same receptors that are used to capture iodine. If you are exposed to a lot of bromine, your body will not hold on to the iodine that it needs. And iodine affects every tissue in your body, not just your thyroid.

Are You Consuming Sodas Laced with BVO?

According to the featured article, Coca-Cola and Pepsi do not contain brominated vegetable oil (BVO), but the following citrus-flavored sodas and energy drinks, sold in the US, do:

Mountain Dew	Squirt	Fanta Orange
Sunkist Pineapple	Gatorade Thirst Quencher Orange, and Powerade Strawberry Lemonade	Fresca Original Citrus

This is not a complete list however. All in all, about 10 percent of all sodas sold in the U.S. contain BVO, so it pays to read the list of ingredients. Better yet, make a concerted effort to eliminate soda from your diet altogether. With or without BVO, sodas contain so many ingredients harmful to your health—high fructose corn syrup being one of the foremost culprits—that they really have no redeeming value whatsoever.

And please do not make the mistake of switching from regular soda to diet, as artificial sweetened drinks may be the worse of two evils. Also beware of drinks containing sodium benzoate, and Yellow Dye #5. The latter is also known as tartrazine, and has been banned in Norway, Austria and Germany due to its ill health effects.

Unfortunately, according to a 2010 study by the National Cancer Institute, sodas are still the number one source of calories for teenagers between the ages of 14 to 18. Among adults, sodas and other sugary drinks are the fourth largest source of calories, according to the latest dietary statistics from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).

There's no doubt that this kind of excessive soda consumption ravages your body and robs you of good health... I believe one of the fastest ways to make a profound change in your health- and weight status is to dramatically reduce or eliminate soda from your diet, regardless of which type or brand you drink.

Lets talk about Fluoride!

One of the major things I do to keep my family healthy is try to reduce the amount of toxins in their body and thier environment. One of the major toxins that we have eliminated from our house is fluoride. We installed a Reverse Osmosis water filtration system to remove the fluoride, among other toxins, from our drinking water and all our toothpaste is fluoride free.

There is a battle waging in this country (ok little dramatic) between those for and those against fluoride. Fluoride may help to protect teeth and a few decades back someone figured this out and had the bright idea to put it in the drinking water so we all could have better teeth, how sweet of them.

Well now (not really now, it has been while) we are finding that the way fluoride helps teeth is to put it on topically, not ingest it. Ingesting fluoride can cause a host problems from fluorosis, to brittle bones, to cancer, to lower IQ, to thyroid disease and more. Click on each link to get more information. And the kicker is that they can't control the dose that people receive through the water and this is a highly dangerous compound. Its even classified as a neurotoxin and yet they say it is safe to give to our children sometimes even in supplement form, yikes!!

Keep in mind, if you are ready to take the stand against fluoride and get a water filtration system for your home, not all water filtration systems remove fluoride from drinking water. Make sure and do your homework. We got our RO system from Costco for $180 and it has been great and it was easy to install.

Here is some more information from the fluorideactionalert.com
According to the current consensus view of the dental research community, fluoride's primary - if not sole - benefit to teeth comes from topical application to the surfaces of teeth (while in the mouth), and not from ingestion.
It is also acknowledged by dental researchers that fluoride has little effect on preventing cavities in the pits and fissures (chewing surfaces) of teeth - where the majority of tooth decay occurs.
Perhaps not surprisingly, therefore, tooth decay rates have declined at similar rates in all western countries in the latter half of the 20th century - irrespective of whether the country fluoridates its water or not. Today, tooth decay rates throughout continental western Europe are as low as the tooth decay rates in the United States - despite a profound disparity in water fluoridation prevalence in the two regions.

Excessive ingestion of fluoride during the early childhood years may damage the tooth-forming cells, leading to a defect in the enamel known as dental fluorosis.
Teeth impacted by fluorosis have visible discoloration, ranging from white spots to brown and black stains.
Teeth with fluorosis also have an increased porosity of the enamel. In the milder forms, the porosity is mostly limited to the sub-surface enamel, whereas in the more advanced forms, the porosity impacts the surface enamel as well, resulting in extensive pitting, chipping, fracturing, and decay of the teeth.
The discoloration induced by fluorosis - particularly in its advanced forms - can cause significant embarrassment and stress to the impacted child, resulting in adverse effects on esteem, emotional health, and career success.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, 32% of American children now have some form of dental fluorosis, with 2 to 4% of children having the moderate to severe stages (CDC 2005).

New Page Added

Today I added a new page to the blog. It is titled 'T21 Nutrition'. Sorry about the quality of the documents. I am working on getting better quality images but this is what I have for now.
Please keep in mind there is a ton of info out there concerning this and I will add more as time goes on but for now there are two articles there both written by Dr. Whitaker. These articles were given to me shortly after Caius was born.

Problem is you won't hear this information from any of the 'so' called advocacy groups. Why? I don't know. I could speculate, and have, but it would be just that, speculation. I've had some Mom's tell me they would NEVER take away their child's Down's syndrome. Well I would if I could but I can't but that isn't what we are talking about here. All this is is monotoring diet, nutrition and supplements so that all of my children and myself and husband are as healthy as possible.

It is quite a controversial topic in the DS community but my argument remains. If you could take a vitamin or change your diet in order to feel better and think better you would and probably do. Why then is it so offensive to do the same with those who have T21?

To Organic or not?

This is such a hard decision now a days. Of course we want to get the best fruits and vegetables for our family but sometimes* organic is much, much more expensive than their conventional counter parts. So I have put together a list combining lists from the Environmental Working Group, Dr. Mercola and my doctor. This list is not by any means complete but it is a good starting point.

*I haven't found this to be true all the time. The organic apples at Whole Foods were only 10 cents more per pound than the same type of conventionally grown apples.

Must buy organic
 Highest in pesticide levels

1. Apples
2. Celery
3. Strawberry
4. Peaches
5. Spinach
6. Nectarines-imported
7. Grapes
8. Bell peppers
9. Potatoes
10. Blue Berries-domestic
11. Lettuce (all types)
12. Kale
13. Collard greens
14. Potatoes (use sparingly)
15. Cherries
16. Sweet Corn (use sparingly)- sweet corn is low in pesticides but has potential to be Genetically Modified.

Ok to buy conventional
Lowest in pesticide levels

1. Bananas
2. Pineapple
3. Onions
4. Avocado
5. Asparagus
6. Sweet peas
7. Mangos
8. Egg plant
9. Cantaloupe- domestic
10. Watermelon
11. Kiwi
12. Cabbage
13. Sweet Potatoes (use sparingly)
14. Grapefruits
15. Mushrooms

So what do we do?
I try to buy what I can local and organic. I have found a few local farmers that even though they aren't certified organic still grow their produce with the same amount of care. It takes something like 7 years to get certified organic so I figure this is the next best thing. I also like Whole Foods. They have a big selection of fresh organics and they list the place of origin. However, one of my favorite fall backs is Costco. There produce is super high quality and they carry a lot of organics. I bought Organic Honeycrisp apples there for 20 cents less a pound than the WF sale price plus they have organic frozen berries that we use for our smoothies.

Happy eating!

Fats and oils

So I have long loved and used butter. It tastes so much better than margarine or vegetable oils but I always felt guilty. You know the feeling. I tried to be good and use smart balance or some other type of spread. I tried to cook with canola oil or the like but I never liked the outcome. So I resigned myself to just being fat and unhealthy if that is what it took to be able to cook with butter.

My other miss guided thought was if you don't want to get fat then you shouldn't eat fat. Makes sense to me. I figured why give my body something to deposit directly to hips. I'm gonna make it work to turn foods into fat to then deposit on my hips. So I ate lean meats. Cut any trace of fat off of steaks. I would pick apart my bacon so I only ate the meat and there was always a plate of fat pieces left. Well.... I couldn't have been more wrong.

This is an expert from an article I recently read. To read the whole thing click here.

The vilification of fats go back to the early 1950's, when Dr. Ancel Keys published an influential paper comparing fat intake and heart disease mortality in six countries.
Americans, who ate the most fat had the highest heart disease mortality rate, while the Japanese, who ate the least amount of fat had the fewest heart disease deaths.
However, this was a perfect case of statistical cherry-picking to support a position.
Statistics were actually available for 22 countries, and when all 22 were analyzed and included, the link between fat consumption and heart disease was nonexistent....
Unfortunately, the hypothesis presented by Dr. Keys quickly turned into the dogmatic belief that saturated fats increase your risk of heart attack and cardiovascular disease, regardless of evidence to the contrary.
Today, it's been well-established that the only really dangerous fat out there is trans fat (margarine, vegetable oils), which initially, and ironically, were touted as the answer to that heart-harming saturated fat.
Despite this, the general belief that fat is bad for you lingers even in the highest echelons of medicine.
The truth is that your body requires saturated fats, and the 'substantiating evidence' pointing toward saturated fats being harmful is flimsy at best....

Why Your Body Needs Saturated Fat

Saturated fats from animal and vegetable sources (such as meat, dairy, certain oils, and tropical plants like coconut) provide the building blocks for your cell membranes and a variety of hormones and hormone like substances that are essential to your health. Fats also slows down absorption of your meal so that you feel satiated longer.
In addition, saturated fats are also:

• Carriers for important fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E and K, and required for the conversion of carotene to vitamin A, for mineral absorption, and for a host of other biological processes
• Useful antiviral agents (caprylic acid)
• Effective as an anticaries, antiplaque and anti fungal agents (lauric acid)
• Useful to actually lower cholesterol levels (palmitic and stearic acids)
• Modulators of genetic regulation and prevent cancer (butyric acid)

Fats also provide a highly concentrated source of energy in your diet—a source of energy that is far more ideal than carbohydrates, which is why I recommend increasing healthy fat consumption in combination with severely restricting refined carbohydrates (sugars, fructose, and grains).
There is emerging evidence that your diet should be at least half healthy fat, and possibly as high as 70 percent. Part of the reason for this is that there are powerful adverse hormonal changes that typically occur when your body burns non-vegetable carbohydrates like grains and sugars. This does not occur when you consume fibrous vegetables or healthy fats. This likely explains the mountain of scientific evidence showing that calorie restricted diets extend lifespan. Mostly likely it is not a calorie issue per se, as it is the type of calories, specifically non-vegetable carbohydrates.
As a general rule, when you cut down on carbs, you need to increase your fat consumption. Replacing it with more protein is not a wise choice as it will also have similar problems. And, while this also works in the opposite way; meaning when you cut fat, you need to replace that lost energy source with carbs, this strategy has the unfortunate effect of promoting fat storage and weight gain.

Not All Saturated Fats are the Same…

It's unfortunate, but in today's world of processed food-like products, it's more important than ever to really understand what "real" food is, and not fall for the idea that you can substitute real foods with "new and improved" alternatives. Doing so can have severe health consequences. Trading naturally-occurring saturated fats for trans fats is just one example. Not understanding the inherent nutritional differences between grass-fed, organically-raised meats and that from cattle raised in confined animal feeding operations (CAFO) is another.
They're simply not interchangeable. Neither are organic vegetables and conventionally grown—or worse, genetically modified—varieties…
That said, let's get back to fats.
As I just mentioned, when you cut carbs, you need to replace those calories with healthy fats. Both are sources of energy, but healthy fats are far more ideal than carbs. (In fact, saturated fat is the preferred fuel for your heart.) However, not just any kind of fat will do. The Atkins Diet is one popular example of a low-carb, high-fat diet that has helped many shed unwanted pounds. Unfortunately, Dr. Atkins didn't pay much attention to the QUALITY of the fats, so while his recommendations worked in the short-term, many who tried it ended up experiencing long-term problems.
It's important to understand that not all saturated fats are the same. There are subtle differences that have profound health implications, and if you avoid eating all saturated fats, your health will likely suffer as a result.

So, What is "Healthy Fat," and How Much Do You Need?

Sources of healthy fats include:

Olives and Olive oil	Coconuts and coconut oil	Butter made from raw grass-fed organic milk
Raw Nuts, such as, almonds or pecans	Organic pastured egg yolks	Avocados
Grass fed meats	Palm oil	Unheated organic nut oils

Another healthful fat you want to be mindful of is animal-based omega-3. Deficiency in this essential fat can cause or contribute to very serious health problems, both mental and physical, and may be a significant underlying factor of up to 96,000 premature deaths each year. For more information about omega-3's and the best sources of this fat, please review this previous article.
Personally, my diet consists of close to 70 percent fat. I recently published a discussion between Paul Jaminet, PhD., author of the book, Perfect Health Diet, and Dr. Ron Rosedale, an expert on insulin and leptin metabolism, which compares their individual low-carb, high-fat diet recommendations. While there is mild controversy whether or not you can safely include starches like rice and potatoes in your diet, both do recommend consuming somewhere between 50-70 percent fat.
This is in stark contrast to conventional dietary guidelines issued by the U.S. government, which advises you to consume less than 10 percent of calories from saturated fats!

Saturated Fat Does Belong in a Healthy Diet

Such a low recommendation is illogical when you consider the evidence available today, which supports saturated fat as a necessary part of a heart healthy diet. For example, as discussed in a recent article by Donald W. Miller, Jr., MD, a number of indigenous tribes around the world are living proof that a high-saturated fat diet equates to low mortality from heart disease.
These include:

Tribe	Primary Diet	Percentage Saturated Fat
Maasai tribe in Kenya/Tanzania	Meat, milk, cattle blood	66 percent
Inuit Eskimos in the Arctic	Whale meat and blubber	75 percent
Rendille tribe in NE Kenya	Camel milk, meat, blood	63 percent
Tokealu, atoll islands in New Zealand territory	Fish and coconuts	60 percent

And then there's human breast milk, which contains 54 percent saturated fat. Since breast milk is the most perfect diet in existence for developing infants, the presence of high amounts of saturated fat cannot easily be construed as a "mistake."

So what do we do now? We eat fat and love it! I took me a bit to work up to putting a whole piece of bacon in my mouth without picking the fat off but I do and I love it. In fact I crave the fat now. My brain is wanting more and more! Which makes sense since that is what brains feed on. We cook our meat in Ghee (clarified butter that can be used with dairy allergies), even hamburger meat and we don't get lean meat anymore. I use flax oil at almost every meal especially with the babies and we eat a lot of avocados! We still have room for improvement but we have definitely upped our fat intake recently. BTW, since we have upped our fat intake and gotten rid of grains and most starches and legumes I have lost over 10 pounds. Obviously my previous theory was flawed. :-)

Why Raw milk?

One of the things we do is only drink raw milk. I was buying Organic Milk but after doing a little research realized this is a big waste of money. Most of the 'organic dairys' aren't instead they are just green washed (but more about that later) but you still pay a premium for a useless white liquid. It took a while but I have found raw milk from a local man near San Antonio. It was not easy to find him but so worth it. Plus Raw milk is SO tasty and I can rest in the fact that my kiddos (those who can drink milk) are getting the best.

Some tips for you: if you can only go to the farm once a month for instance remember you can always freeze milk. I prefer to do so in Mason jars and then thaw them as needed. You can also skim the cream off the top and make butter or other goodies. I haven't tried this yet but it is on my list.


This is an excerpt from an article from mercola.com. For the complete article and video click here.
Here is a good place to start if you want to find Raw milk in your area. Don't forget to check your local farmer's markets too. That is where I found the farmer I get our Raw milk from.

Raw Milk is a Healthful, Living Food

High quality raw milk has a mountain of health benefits that pasteurized milk lacks. For example, raw milk is:

• Loaded with healthy bacteria that are good for your gastrointestinal tract
• Full of more than 60 digestive enzymes, growth factors, and immunoglobulins (antibodies)
• Rich in conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), which fights cancer
• Rich in beneficial raw fats, amino acids, and proteins in a highly bioavailable form, all 100 percent digestible
• Loaded with vitamins (A, B, C, D, E, and K) in highly bioavailable forms, and a very balanced blend of minerals (calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, iron) whose absorption is enhanced by live lactobacilli

It is not uncommon for people who drink raw milk to experience improvement or complete resolution of troubling health issues—everything from allergies to digestive problems to eczema. It is also common for people who have "milk allergies" to tolerate raw milk just fine. Pasteurized milk is a completely different story.

Pasteurization Creates a Dead, White Liquid That is NOT Beneficial to Your Health

Pasteurization turns milk into a dead white liquid whose health benefits are largely destroyed. Consider what pasteurization does to milk:

• The price of killing the pathogenic bacteria is that you also kill the good bacteria which helps digest milk and make it such a nourishing food
• Proteins and enzymes are completely destroyed or denatured, made less digestible and less usable by your body
• Immunoglobulins, metal-binding proteins, vitamin-binding proteins, carrier proteins, growth factors, and anti-microbial peptides such as Lactoferrin are destroyed
• Many vitamins and minerals are rendered biologically unusable
• Fats are damaged and destabilized

Additionally, the bacteria killed by pasteurization are not removed, so their dead carcasses remain in the milk to ignite immune reactions in those who ingest them, which is one major cause of milk allergies. It isn't really an allergy to the milk itself, but to the organic cell fragments it contains.
Making matters worse, cows in CAFOs (confined animal feeding operations) are routinely given drugs in an effort to counter the ill health and immune problems caused by their poor living conditions. Feedlots are breeding grounds for all kinds of harmful bacteria. So the cows are snowed with antibiotics. This milk HAS to be pasteurized, because it is simply loaded with bacteria—and not the beneficial kind.
Researchers using a highly sensitive test to determine what drugs and hormones might be present in your pasteurized milk found some startling results. The drugs and hormones they detected included the following:

Anti-inflammatories (niflumic acid, mefenamic acid, ketoprofen, diclofenac, phenylbutazone, naproxen, flunixin, diclofenac)	Antibiotics (florfenicol)	Natural hormones (estrone)
Sex hormones (17-beta-estradiol)	Steroid hormones (17-alpha-ethinylestradiol)	Anti-malaria drugs (pyrimethamine)
Anti-fungal drugs (triclosan)

While all types of milk tested positive for chemicals—even breast milk—cow's milk contained the highest levels. Some of these drugs and hormones were given to the cows directly, while others were likely ingested from the cattle food or contamination on the farm. When you drink raw milk from these massive commercial dairies, you might indeed be risking your health. But this is a far different product than raw milk from smaller farms where the farming practices are more natural, sustainable, clean, and humane. Raw milk from these cows is clean and nutritious and loaded with good bacteria—the kind you need for a healthy gut.

WHO'S Your Dairy?

Why is the CDC still determined to hide the facts and prevent you from access to this beneficial food? If safety isn't the REAL issue, then what is? If raw dairy really caught on, wouldn't the dairy industry simply follow suit and begin producing raw products to meet the demand?
They would if they could, but it would be virtually impossible. In order for conventional dairy farms to produce safe raw milk, they'd be forced to clean up their production practices, raise healthier cows (and likely fewer cows), and give them access to pasture. This would cost them money—and lots of it—if it were even possible…and that's a big "if." Their business DEPENDS on pasteurization, and that is why their powerful lobbyists will stop at nothing to persuade government agencies to keep raw milk bans in full force.
Manipulating or outright lying about statistics is just one means of accomplishing this.
The CDC and others who argue that raw milk is unsafe do not differentiate between REAL raw milk, and raw milk produced under the suboptimal conditions often found in CAFOs. Small dairies that are raising "happy cows" that are allowed to roam on pasture, feed on grass, and are raised without the use of antibiotics and hormones, produce raw milk that is loaded with nutrition and free of pathogenic bacteria and other contaminants, the way milk was produced decades and centuries ago.
The good news is, Big Dairy's worse fear is coming true—raw dairy IS catching on! Raw milk has been gaining popularity for years now.
Take Massachusetts, for example. The number of dairies licensed to sell raw milk grew from 12 to 23 in just two years, while the Northeast Organic Farming Association stated that dairies are selling more raw milk than they were five or six years ago, and consumers are calling in increasing numbers looking for advice on where to find it. The conventional dairy industry, realizing this, has redoubled their efforts to stifle raw milk sales, making every effort to prevent it from becoming mainstream, where it could begin to threaten their very livelihoods.