Fuzzy little puffballs

Last week I went to Del's to buy some chicks. On the way there I stopped by the bank to cash a check, and chatted with the teller for a few minutes. She asked what I was doing that day, so I told her I was on my way to the feed store to pick up some chicks. She was excited and told me that people occasionally bring their pets into the bank and one day someone had brought in some baby chicks and she got to hold one.

So I went on my merry way, and as I was coming home I thought "well, I'm driving right past the bank, I might as well stop by and show Lynnette the chicks!" The chicks were chirping loudly as I walked in the door, so everyone turned to look. There was a youngish man (25 or 30) doing a transaction with Lynnette, and when he saw me with a box of chicks he quickly swept his money aside and told me to put it down right there on the counter. I did, and then opened the box and took a chick out for Lynnette to hold.

The guy stood there with eyes as wide as saucers, gawking at the chicks like he'd never seen a chick in his life. He probably hadn't. I asked him if he wanted to hold one, and he carefully reached out one little finger and gently touched one. I repeated that I could hold one if he wanted, and then picked one up and held it out to him.

He took it, and stared at it for the longest time. Then he brought it up close to his face and stroked it with his fingers, cooing and talking to it. "Hi there, little chickie... how are ya?.... you're so soft.... you're a cute little thing...." Eventually he put it back in the box, and he shifted his wide eyes from the chick to me, and said with the deepest sincerity, from the depths of his soul, "Thank you for letting me hold the chick. That was amazing". And then as I picked up my things and walked to the door, he must have thanked me at least three or four more times.

As I drove home I figured I must have been just as elated as they were - only for a different reason! They were excited to have experienced new life, and the simple joys of simple living with a rural lifestyle. For me, I was blessed to have given them the opportunity to experience these joys. It was a simple little thing, just took maybe five minutes out of my time, but it brightened their day considerably. (especially that man's day - I still smile when I remember the expression of awe and gratefulness on his face! He was obviously a city-slicker who had never seen a chick in real life!)

And thus ends the tale of our little fuzzy chicks.

More Coming Soon!

I'm home from the conference. It was an awesome weekend, filled with great sessions and good conversation. There's just something about being in a room with over 200 other people that share a similar outlook on health and nutrition.

It was well worth it, but now I am thoroughly exhausted (which is not good for my adrenals, nor is the coffee that I drank in order to stay awake while driving home!). I'll try to fill you in sometime this week on more details. It might not be tomorrow, because I might be sleeping all day! ;-)

Traditional Diets....

"Traditional diets maximized nutrients, while modern diets minimize nutrients".

- Sally Fallon Morell

Boats

There were hundreds of boats on the water this morning. It looked like they were having a convention of some sort, but I think it was just people out for pleasure rides.

NTA Conference Notes Day 1

I'm here! After driving around lost in the big city for quite awhile, I finally found my way to the Red Lion Hotel in Vancouver, WA.

I had a short while to say hello to my NTP teacher Cathy Eason, and see classmates from school last year. It was great seeing everyone and catching up on the past year! Now we're beginning our first session, by Sally Fallon Morel. She's introducing us now to the dentist Dr. Weston Price, and then will be talking about "Nourishing Traditional Diets: The Key to Vibrant Health". We'll be hearing from her until 6:30 tonight.

Dr. Price wrote the book Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, which is an incredible documentary of his findings as he traveled the world seeking to find healthy cultures who subsisted on nourishing diets. If you haven't read the book, try to get your hands on it and look through it!

His first stop was in some small villages in Switzerland. The only way you could access the village was with a cart, so obvious that all the food they ate was grown in their village.

He lined up the people and began opening their mouth, taking pictures and writing notes about what he found. He saw less than 1 percent tooth decay in these people. No crowded or crooked teeth. Broad faces with high cheek bones. They also didn't brush their teeth and some of their mouths had teeth covered with green slime -- but there was no tooth decay.

The #1 source calories in their diet was raw milk. (accused of causing tuberculosis)
rye - dense sourdough rye bread.

typical school lunch for the children - slice of bread, thick slice of cheese.

diet based on dairy and grains. (few veggies in summer months)

Every village sacred foods. Important for men and women before conceiving, women during pregnancy, children while growing.

Sacred Food For Switzerland: Butter that came from cows when first went to pasture in the spring. Deep yellow/orange butter. Esp prized for growing children and pregnant women.


GAELIC PEOPLE
Genetically have a narrower face, but still no crowding.

lived on windswept island that had no animal life, and no trees or vegetables. What did they eat?

Diet based largely on seafood. Ate the whole fish -- heads, liver, etc. They did eat 1 vegetable - seaweed.

They could grow oats.

Favorite breakfast for children so they would grow strong and healthy: Fisheads stuffed with oats and chopped cod liver. :-) yum! ;-)

They used smoke-blackened thatch on their fields, and that's the only way their oats would grow.

They lived in these smoke filled cabins for most of the year, and never got lung cancer.

ALASKA

contrast with villiages that have contact with the outside world:
 - rampant tooth decay. They had received the foods of the outside world, but not the dentists yet
 - narrower faces with not enough room for the teeth to come in straight.
 - Dr. Romeg (been in AK 30 yrs) had never seen a traditional Eskimo heart disease, tuberculosis, etc. Women always had healthy babies.

WHAT THEY ATE:
 very few plant foods
 animal fat (seal oil)
 80% of diet fat (cooking, dipping food in, etc.)

They ate their fish fermented. Dug a hole in the ground, put the fish in, let it stay there until it got mushy, so they could eat all of it including the bones.

They knew that if they gave dogs fresh fish they couldn't pull the sleds all day, but eating fermented fish they could.

They never ate lean meat. When they had lean meat they would cut it into strips and dry it. Then spread the dried meat with fat before they ate it.

sacred food:
fish eggs


So you say "that's only their teeth.... we can just eat sugar and go to the dentist. But the teeth is only the part that we see. It is telling of the rest of the body. If there is plenty of room for the teeth, that implies that there is room for the head organs.

Straight teeth ......... Crooked, crowded teeth
plenty of room in head for pituitary, pineal, hypothalamus......compromised space for master gland in the head

Good skeletal development, good muscles...... poor development, poor posture, easily injured

keen eyesight and hearing... poor

optimal function of all organs.... compromised

opitomistic outlook, learns easily...... depression, behaviour problems, learning problems,

round pelvic opening, easy childirth .... squished pelvic opening and difficult chilbirth.

Tropical Islands
coconut
pig (fav. food
tubers

All children in tuberculosis ward had dental deformities. Not cause of tuberculosis, but it shows there were connected underlying nutritional problems.

Now she is showing us pictures of people in the USA. Contrasting faces of improperly nourished people to those of well-nourished people. The session is about over, and my laptop battery is about to die. So I guess that's all for now folks. ;-)

Coconut Oil Freezer Fudge

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/3 cup coconut oil (not rock hard)
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup unsweetened baking cocoa powder, very heaping (might as well make it 2/3 cup!)
1/2 tsp vanilla
two shakes of salt

Place all ingredients in food processor. Blend until smooth. Spread into a dish lined with foil that is oiled with coconut oil. (I used an 8x6 Pyrex dish, but you could also use a loaf pan, or whatever else you can find).

Put in freezer and let harden. Once it's firm, peel off foil and cut fudge into squares.

Go ahead and play around with the measurements on this. I often use equal amounts of coconut oil and butter, but it seems a little too oily to me that way. When I use less coconut oil, I taste the butter - which isn't necessarily desirable in fudge! Maybe unsalted butter would work better. I also didn't have any vanilla last time, and it still tasted great.

Chocolate Giveaway

Who can resist a bite of rich, dark chocolate - especially when it can even be called healthy?

Go to here to enter your name in a giveaway of some Askinosie chocolate! The giveaway includes a 77% Davao Bar, Natural Cocoa Powder, and a 70% Del Tambo Dark Chocolate Bar.

MMM.... all this talk of chocolate has made me decide I want to go in the kitchen and make some healthy coconut oil fudge. (I'll share the recipe with you soon.) Then I'll clean up the kitchen and start a batch of cheese.

God's Mysterious Ways

Last week I received an amazing blessing from the Lord.

And yes, it's related to nutrition! ;-) After all, this IS a health blog!

In the spring of 2008, I completed a Nutritional Therapist training program, making me a Certified Nutritional Therapy Practitioner. In order to keep my certification up to date, however, I need to have "X" number of hours of continuing education each year. I've let the year slip by, I not given much thought to how I was going to get these credits.

There is a Nutritional Therapy Conference being held in Vancouver, WA later this month, and it would provide the credits that I need, but I didn't think it would be a wise use of my money right now and so I brushed that thought aside.

Last week my dad told me I needed to get on top of this... the next morning I was to get online and research how I can get those credits I needed. Well, the next morning came and what do you know but that I forgot! When I went to check my email though, I found a message from one of the ladies organizing the conference. She asked if I would be interested in volunteering for the conference and getting in at half-price. I was about to reply with a "yes", when Mom saw the email and said "Dad and I will cover half of that".

So peoples, for 4-hours of volunteering, I get to go to a three-day nutrition conference. And pay only 1/4th the cost of general admittance.

As I watched this all unfold, I realized this is a complete "God-thing". He had a plan and laid it all out before me so beautifully. And I am so thrilled to be able to go to this conference! Sally Fallon Morrell (Nourishing Traditions) and Natasha Campbell-McBride (GAPS diet) will be speaking, among others. I'm particularly interested in hearing Sally Fallon.

I'll try to remember to give you all a report when it's over! :-)

The link between Autism and Vaccinations

Take a few minutes of your time to watch this very informative, yet very disturbing, video exposing the link between autism and vaccinations - particularly the mercury used as a preservative in the serum.

It's frightening. And I believe it completely. I have heard enough evidence to prove it in my mind, and I even know a woman personally who watched her eight-year-old son become autistic before her eyes after receiving some immunizations.