Lengua en Salsa (Beef Tongue in Tomato Sauce)

by Andrea on January 30, 2012

in Recipes

I grew up eating organ meats. My mom used to cook liver, kidneys, tripe and more. But tongue was only for special occasions. I loved it!

So recently, and inspired by the prospect of a whole group of traditional foods enthusiasts sharing dishes, I took on the challenge of reviving my mom’s tradition of cooking tongue. Turns out it’s MUCH easier than I thought. And everyone liked it! Most people thought it didn’t taste much different than other meat and the texture was nice and soft. Several “delicious!” were announced.

Eating organ meats is a good thing. Often, they are rich in nutrients that muscle meats lack. Also, because they are not very popular, they tend to be very inexpensive — a great way to have quality, nutrient-dense food in a budget. There’s an ethical reason to eat organ meats as well. Conscious omnivores must make an effort to use as much of the animals we consume as possible. It is VERY important to consume organ meats only from healthy, pastured, grass-fed animals!

Cooking tongue

As I said, cooking it is really easy! I think the most difficult part is to get over the looks. Here is what it looks like raw:

Well, this one was actually sort of pretty. I got it all cleaned and neatly packaged from Fleishers. I paid $11 and it weighed 2+ lbs.

You only need to put it in a pot, cover it with filtered water — and several bay leaves, if you have them on hand — and boil it ’till it’s done! That takes 2 1/2 to 3 hours in a regular pot, or about 45 minutes in a pressure cooker. It’s easier if you do this a day or 2 before you’re serving it, because you can let it cool down right in the pot.

Once it’s cold, the outer skin will come right off, with no effort whatsoever. The resulting stock is totally usable, so save it!

At this point, you can treat it like any other stew meat, keeping in mind that tongue benefits from bold flavoring. Since I was making my version of Lengua en Salsa, I sliced it.

Can you even say that’s a tongue anymore? OK. Here’s the recipe:

Lengua en Salsa (Beef Tongue in Tomato Sauce)

Prep time: 15 min
Cooking time: 30 min
Servings: 6-8

Ingredients:
* 1 beef tongue (2 to 2 1/2 lbs) cooked and sliced
* Tongue cooking stock
* 1 small can of tomato paste (like this one)
* 3-5 garlic cloves, minced or crushed
* 1 onion, chopped
* 2 ribs celery, chopped
* 1/2 red pepper, chopped
* 1/2 to 1 jalapeño, minced
* 2 big carrots, cubed
* 2 medium-size potatoes, cubed (for GAPS-legal version, double the amount of carrots or add some squash instead of potatoes)
* 1/2 cup green olives
* 1/2 lb white mushrooms, sliced
* 1/2 to 1 teaspoon each dried parsley, rosemary and oregano
* Salt and pepper to taste
* Lard, or another healthful animal fat to saute

Directions:
1. In a heavy-bottom pan — a dutch oven, if you have it, is the best — add sufficient fat to saute garlic, onions, celery, red pepper and jalapeño. “Sweat” the veggies until they are nice and shinny.

2. Add tongue stock and water, if necessary, to complete about 10 cups of liquid. Add tomato paste and dissolve well.

3. Add carrots and potatoes. Bring to a boil and let simmer until these are “al dente”.

4. Season with dried herbs, salt and pepper.

5. Add mushrooms, olives and tongue. Heat thoroughly. Correct seasoning and serve, or better yet, let simmer in very low heat for another 10 minutes, turn heat off, let it rest and serve it the next day.

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Double-cooked Brussels Sprouts and Green Beans

by Andrea on December 22, 2011

in GAPS,Recipes

I made this simple dish for a potluck last week and it was a big hit, so instead of describing it to each person who asked, I thought, well… I’ll just publish it in the blog!!

Double-cooked Brussels Sprouts and Green Beans
Prep time: 15 min
Cooking time: 20 min
Servings: 4 to 6

Ingredients:
* 1 lb green beans, ends trimmed and cut in 1 1/2 inch-long pieces
* 1 lb Brussels Sprouts, bottoms trimmed and cut in half
* 2 slices of high-quality, nitrate-free, thick-sliced, or 4 of thin-sliced bacon, cut in bite-size pieces (this one and this one are GAPS-friendly).
* Lard, or another healthful animal fat to saute.
* Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
1. Blanch the veggies: bring sufficient water to a boil in a big pot. Add enough salt, so that the water is salty. Cook veggies in hot water for 5 to 10 minutes. Strain and immediately put the veggies in ice-cold water to stop the cooking process and keep the bright green color. Strain again, once completely cooled off.

*I always blanch vegetables separately because each vegetable takes a different time to cook. In this case, because they are both green vegetables, I recycled the water I used for the green beans to blanch the Brussels sprouts. Sometimes, I blanch veggies a little over the “all-dente” point, so that they can develop some sweetness. I think this is a good practice for people with a low digestive fire, including those following the GAPS protocol.

2. In a big skillet, fry the bacon pieces over medium heat to render the bacon fat. Using a slotted spoon, take the bacon pieces out, once they are done to your liking.

3. Add green beans and Brussels sprouts to skillet and mix until all the veggies are thoroughly covered with fat. Add more lard, if necessary. Season with salt and pepper and warm thoroughly. Add the bacon pieces back. Mix and serve hot.

* You could use sausage or chorizo, cut in small pieces, if you can’t find good quality bacon. Just make sure to add enough fat to saute.

{ 4 comments }

What exactly is this GAPS healing stuff? (part 1)

by Andrea on December 6, 2011

in GAPS,Healing,Nutrition

Last time I was telling you how all diseases actually do start in the gut and the story of Dr. Natasha Campbell McBride, the creator of the GAPS concept (a condition that establishes a connection between the functions of the digestive system and the health of the body, including the brain) and more importantly, the GAPS healing protocol.

However I haven’t said anything about the protocol yet. Lucky day! We’ll start now.

The GAPS healing protocol consist of 3 components:

  1. Diet
  2. Supplementation
  3. Detoxification

Diet is the most important part of the protocol. You could take the supplements and detox until you are blue in the face, but if you don’t follow the diet the impact in your health will be minor.

BUT if you only followed the diet rigorously… Ah! Then you would experience substantial improvement even if you didn’t take the supplements or did the detox. I’m not saying those things are not important; they are. But please understand that the life-changing power of the GAPS protocol lies in the diet.

So, what should a person with GAP syndrome eat?

The capacity to digest and assimilate food is greatly affected in people who suffer from GAPS — remember that we’re talking about a digestive condition — and therefore they are severely malnourished.

The 3 instances of a healing diet for people with GAPS are:

  1. Eat ALL the easy-to-digest, nutrient-dense food you can.
  2. Remove ALL the stuff that’s difficult to digest and adds toxicity to your body.
  3. Recuperate the population of healthy micro-flora in your gut.

Easy peasy! Well, not exactly. You know how they say the devil is in the details? Totally applies.

Today we’ll talk about the fun part…

1. Eat ALL the easy-to-digest, nutrient-dense food you can.

ALL means that, in this approach, there’s no portion control what-so-ever. We rely on the body’s innate wisdom to tell us when to stop eating. In fact, a huge percentage of “GAPSters” (that’s the cool name for people on the GAPS diet) actually struggle not because they eat too much, but because they can’t bring themselves to eat as much of the good food as they need for recovery.

What kinds of nutrient-dense foods are we exactly talking about?

First and foremost, animal foods. The effect of vegetable foods in the human body is first cleansing, and then filling, but not nourishing. The human digestive system assimilates nutrients the most effectively and effortlessly from animal foods. Of course not all animal foods bring the same level of nourishment and digestion ease. That’s why the GAPS protocol is very specific. Here are the details:

All kinds of bone and meat broths and stocks.
Water is the perfect vehicle for the minerals, proteins and fats in the bones, muscle and connective tissue of the animal to get absorbed when digestion and assimilation are weak. If we drew the GAPS food pyramid, broths and stocks would be at the base.

The most common animal to make stock is chicken, but you can use whatever is most convenient to you. The most nutrient-dense stocks are made with bone, connective tissue and some meat as well; cheaper cuts like chicken wings, backs and feet, or oxtails, or shanks are the best to make broth.

Where do you start with broths? It depends. Someone who’s really sick might only tolerate chicken broth made with pasture-raised chicken, free of soy and corn, so that’s where they need to start. Most people tolerate a wide variety of stocks, so choices depend on their own convenience and their taste buds.

This is a great blog post on broth making for GAPS:
http://www.wholetraditions.com/blog/2009/04/making-broth-for-gaps.html

Homemade soups with meat and vegetables
Whatchado with all that broth you’re making? Most of it will go to soup making. By adding vegetables and the same meat and connective tissue you’ve used for the broths, you can build delicious and highly nourishing soups. GAPS patients must eat soup everyday and some must do it several times a day. Soups may be blended if you prefer, thicker or thinner, more complex or very minimalistic. It really doesn’t matter much as long as you are getting those nutrients into your body.

Eggs
Eggs — specifically the yolks — might be the easiest-to-digest-food in the planet. They are also highly nutrient-dense, especially if they come from pastured chickens. When doing the introduction GAPS diet, patients eat egg yolks first and once they are well tolerated, they start eating whole eggs.

What if you are allergic to eggs?
Anaphylactic reactions to eggs are quite rare and, just like any other anaphylactic reaction, they require quite a bit of work to be overcome —if they will at all. However, intolerances to eggs are fairly common. Follow the GAPS process and, trust me, you’ll be able to tolerate eggs in no time.

Meats
All kinds of meats, poultry and seafood are allowed on the GAPS diet, but again, we prefer inexpensive cuts that contain plenty of fat and connective tissue. Steaks should be a rare luxury; muscle meat is just not as nutrient-dense — or as flavorful — as the more humble cuts. We make our best effort to get the highest quality meat and seafood we can find and afford — organic, pasture-raised, wild, etc. However, lack of access to this sort of ingredients shouldn’t be an obstacle to do the diet. If you can’t find the really high quality meats, then you make do with the best you can find.

Preserved meats like sausages, bacon, or cold cuts are not allowed in the diet, simply because of the preservatives and chemicals they may contain. You can, however, make your own versions of preserved meats using only salt, pepper, spices and herbs to flavor them.

Dairy
Fermented dairy products are important in the diet because they provide much needed health-promoting micro-flora to the body. However they must be made at home to ensure a proper fermentation cycle and introduced in very specific ways. Ghee, sour cream, kefir and yogurt are allowed, but they should be made at home from raw and grass-fed milk, cream and butter if possible, or from pasteurized organic ingredients as a second best option. Hard cheeses are introduced in later stages of the diet, followed by soft cheeses, fresh cream and eventually, raw milk without fermentation.

Just as with eggs, people usually overcome lactose intolerance when they stick to the GAPS dairy introduction tightly.

Fat
I mentioned it already, but I just want to highlight the fact that all sorts of fats from healthy animals are not only allowed in this approach, but necessary for the healing of the digestive system. Lard, tallow, chicken fat, duck fat, goose fat, butter, ghee… Bring’em all!

Honey
Honey is really the only sweetener welcome on the GAPS diet. Most other sweeteners are composed of disaccharides or more complex chains of carbohydrates and therefore too difficult to digest (more on this coming soon). Honey is made out of fructose and glucose, which are monossacharides that a weak digestive system can handle. Unheated (raw) honey, which besides sweetness adds wonderful nutrients to the diet, is always best.

OK. As you can see the GAPS diet makes use of plenty of animal foods. But wait. There are vegetables too! Let’s move on.

Non-starchy vegetables
One criteria you need to keep in mind throughout the process of healing your digestion, is the complexity of the molecules of carbohydrates you eat. As I mentioned already, a weak digestive system can’t break down disaccharides or more complex chains of carbohydrates. GAPSters become experts at discerning this (I will explain in detail soon. Promise).

For example, winter squashes are mostly made of simple carbohydrates and therefore they are allowed on the diet. However sweet potatoes, which many people associate with winter squashes, contain starch, so they are a no. Carrots and beets? Yes. Parsnips and potatoes? No.

All members of the brassica family — kale, collard greens, cabbage, broccoli, etc. — are OK, as are all onions. Tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, zucchini, cucumbers, mushrooms, and all other non-starchy vegetables are welcome.

Whereas some raw vegetables might contain more nutrients than cooked, that becomes irrelevant if the digestive system is too weak to handle them. All vegetables get really well cooked in the beginning stages of the diet (remember those soups with vegetables we talked about?) and the fibrous parts get discarded. As the healing progresses and the digestion improves, the person is more able to handle raw vegetables and salads and they can be introduced gradually.

Lacto-fermented vegetables
Just like dairy, lacto-fermented vegetables are highly important in the diet. Lacto-fermentation pre-digests the vegetables and enhances their nutrient profile. More importantly, they provide the healthy kind of micro-flora that we all desperately need.

The first non-dairy, lacto-fermented food that is introduced in GAPS is sauerkraut juice. We then introduce sauerkraut, and from then on, there is a wide variety to try. Pretty much any non-starchy vegetable or its juice can be fermented.

Fruit
Virtually all fruits are acceptable in GAPS, as long as they are ripe. The reason for that is, again, the complexity of the carbohydrates. For example, green bananas contain plenty of starch that breaks down into simpler and simpler carbohydrate molecules as they ripen. Therefore, unripe bananas are not GAPS-friendly, but yellow bananas with plenty of dark spots on the skin are OK.

In an ideal world, all the fruit we consume would be tree-ripened but it’s unrealistic to think we can find such luxurious foods easily. Do your best to allow time for ripening, ideally in a warm place — my fruit spot is a basked hanging in front of a window that receives morning sun.

Just like with vegetables, fruit is introduced slowly and initially, the patient might only tolerate it cooked. Avocados are an exception. Ripe avocados are full of great fats and enzymes and they are preferably introduced pretty early on in the protocol. There’s also a variety of lacto-fermented chutneys and beverages made with fruit that are great additions to the GAPS diet. Dehydrated fruit with no sugar or preservatives added is also allowed.

Nuts and seeds
Pretty much all nuts and seeds — even peanuts, which are actually a legume — are allowed on the diet. Nuts and seeds share a lot of characteristics with beans and grains — they are all seeds after all — which means that it’s best to process them with care and eat them in moderation.

Nuts contain lots of nutrients, but they also contain enzyme inhibitors and antinutrients. The diet allows raw nuts, but if you want to maximize nutrition and digestibility, get in the habit of soaking and dehydrating them. This is important especially for GAPSters, who usually rely on nuts heavily.

Tons of recipes have been adapted for the diet using nuts, dried fruit and honey to make baked goods and desserts. This will give you room to play and not feel deprived, but you need to be careful and eat these in moderation. After all, we do need to unhook from sugar consumption!

Beans
Some beans, which are low in starch, are allowed after a lot of healing has taken place. Just like nuts, they must be properly prepared and consumed in moderation.

Salt, herbs and spices
Plenty of salt, please! Salt is essential for digestive healing to happen. All natural — as in… natural, you know? — herbs and spices are allowed in the diet, so you can always make your food taste good!

O’righty… I think that’s it. As you can see, there’s a wide variety of foods the GAPS healing protocol allows for, so OK; it might not be easy peasy BUT it is (as my client Carolyn said) totally doable and totally worth it. Next we are going to talk about the not so fun: what you need to avoid and why.

Don’t forget to comment and ask your questions down there. ’Till next time!

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My client Carolyn on her experience working with me

by Andrea on December 6, 2011

in Healing,Testimonials,Videos


My client Carolyn shares her great story of healing and how working with me is helping her. I especially loved when she talked about how Dr. Oz should contact me to learn some nutritional strategies to heal reflux ;-).

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All Diseases Begin (and End) in the Gut

by Andrea on November 2, 2011

in GAPS,Healing,Nutrition,Wellness

All Diseases Begin in the Gut.

You might be familiar with that quote. It’s from Hippocrates, the father of Western medicine, who lived 400 hundred years before Christ. That’s a long time ago, and nevertheless, the guy was right.

This is a truth that makes plain sense; it’s right under our nose. Is it so close that we can’t get it? What that statement means is that if you are sick — no matter the nature of your illness — you will find the cause right in your gut.

But, by the same token, you can find the solution right in the same place: your gut.

I know you can understand that, if your illness is obviously digestive — say IBS, ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s, Celiac — then it probably has something to do with your gut. But modern medicine doesn’t consider that, if you suffer from heart disease, then you really are sick in the gut. What about arthritis? Or asthma? Or cancer? Now, what about depression? Or ADHD?

Am I saying that not only physical diseases, but also mental ones, start in the gut? Yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying.

The desperate doctor who got disappointed on medicine.

Once upon a time, there was a smart Russian doctor who was going her merry way, living her life, being a doctor.

And then she became a mother.

At the beginning everything seemed fine with her son. But as the months went by, she started noticing things weren’t quite normal. At the age of 3, the boy was diagnosed with autism.

The doctor was confident that she could find what she needed to help her child within the realms of her profession (and you probably would think the same, if you were a practicing neurologist and your child were suffering from something that’s considered a learning disability).

So she searched and searched, but found nothing. Medicine, the way this doctor had learned it, had nothing meaningful to offer to an autistic child.

Luckily for us, this woman ain’t no quitter. She wouldn’t settle until she found legitimate help. Hippocrates’ wisdom dawned on her; was it possible that this disease too, began in the gut?

She went back to school and got yet another masters degree — this time in human nutrition, and took up as her duty to learn everything there was to learn about nutrition for autistic children.

With much patience, love, experimentation, and the help of a few experts, the boy started making progress; the dramatic changes came about from changing his diet. Nowadays, this boy is almost an adult and if you hadn’t heard this story, you would never know he was sick once.

The name of this doctor is Natasha Campbell-McBride. Her experience with her son became the seed that would sprout into what I believe is the most powerful digestion healing — and hence body healing — protocol there is.

What a tree wants, what a tree needs…

“A human body is like a planet inhabited by huge numbers of various micro-creatures. The diversity and richness of this life on every one of us is probably as amazing as the life on Earth itself! Our digestive system, skin, eyes respiratory and excretory organs are happily co-existing with *trillions* of invisible lodgers, making one ecosystem of macro- and micro-life, living together in harmony. It is a symbiotic relationship, where *neither* party can live without the other. Let me repeat this: we, humans, cannot live without these tiny micro-organisms, which we carry on and in our bodies everywhere.”

Excerpt from Gut and Psychology Syndrome by Dr. Natasha Campbell McBride

Let’s say you have a tree. What’s the most important thing the tree needs to grow? You could say water, or you could say sun. But what if the tree had plenty of sun and water, but didn’t have a place to root? It could not grow because trees intake nutrients by soaking them up through the soil using their roots.

We also have soil; only we can’t see it because it’s inside of us. There are layers of micro-organisms covering organs and tissues everywhere in the body, but especially along the digestive track. These *trillions* of tiny, microscopic inhabitants make up the soil of our body.

Just like the soil supports the tree, our internal flora supports our tissues and organs. And just like the nutrients get filtered and modified through the soil so the tree can utilize them, so do the nutrients in our body get filtered and modified through our internal flora, and in this way, we can utilize them.

The good guys and the bad guys

There are opposite forces, forever attempting to balance each other, everywhere in nature; our bodies are no exception.

Not all the micro-organisms that live inside of us are beneficial. Some of them are… shall we say lazy? And then there are others that are just plain detrimental; they cause a lot of harm.

But we need them all, including the bad ones. The immune system is constantly gathering data from whatever bad guys (AKA pathogens) are hanging out in the body at any given time. This data is what tells the immune system how to kick off the defenses when the body is under attack. Without detrimental micro-organisms in the body, our immune system wouldn’t know what to do.

In a healthy body, the good guys keep the lazy and the bad ones under control, but in an unhealthy body, the bad ones have the power.

The good guys thrive on healthy food that they transform into nutrients for us. In doing so, they make us healthier as they grow in strength and numbers.

The bad guys on the other hand, prefer the unhealthy foods that they transform into all sorts of toxic stuff. Many of these toxins are addictive to us — this is one definite reason why we crave foods we *intellectually* know don’t do us good. In this way, slowly but surely, the bad guys reproduce, conquer the good guys over and damage the body they inhabit.

There’s another piece to this puzzle. As we said earlier, layers of bacteria protect the organs and tissues, and filter nutrients. Well, this is a critical function at the point were food actually becomes nutrients and is absorbed into the blood stream, which is in the small intestine.

But if the layer of healthy bacteria is debilitated then it works like eroded soil. Food matter doesn’t get broken down as it should and it passes through the digestive wall into the blood stream *undigested* and adding toxicity to the body. Did you ever heard the term Leaky Gut? Well, this is it.

It’s a total vicious cycle: the more pathogens, the more toxicity, the more addiction, the more we feed the pathogens and the stronger they get, the weaker the good bacteria, the weaker the intestinal wall, the more pathogens, etc.

When the maid can’t clean up!

We are design to cope with a certain level of toxicity in the body. This is actually the most important role of the liver — to help transform toxins into stuff that can be eliminated out the body through the bowels, the bladder or the skin. But as the good micro-organisms lose battles against the bad ones, the level of toxicity increases. Add the full-on chemical and environmental toxins that enter the body non-stop, everyday to the mix and the result is a clogged elimination system.

Now you got toxins in the blood stream, traveling freely all over the body. The immune system is trying to do its job, but there are so many different pathogens and toxins all over the place that it gets confused and overwhelmed; it becomes overreactive and starts fighting everything back, including the body’s own cells, tissues and organs. This is what’s known as Autoimmunity.

What Dr. Campbell-Mc Bride brilliantly came to understand is that, in her son’s case, the toxic and pathogenic buildup had gotten concentrated in the brain, but the same principle applies to any illness. The place in the body and the form this buildup takes depends on many factors, including the health history, genetic makeup, diet, lifestyle, age, and emotional health of the person. It could be the lungs, the skin or the brain. It could be arthritis, diabetes or depression. Doesn’t matter. They all began in the gut.

She called this GAPS, which stands for Gut and Psychology Syndrome — if the issue manifests predominantly in the brain, or Gut and Physiology Syndrome — if the issue manifests predominantly somewhere else in the body. I say predominantly, because it’s never just one OR the other, you know? Usually there is a puzzling mixture of symptoms, sprinkled all through the body with a few — or a lot of — mental symptoms added to mix.

GAPS is a condition that establishes a connection between the functions of the digestive system and the rest of the body, including the brain.

How does this affect YOU?

If I’ve done a good job explaining this so far, then you already know. However, let me be more specific:

ANY kind of chronic digestive malfunction, is a GAPS condition.

ANY kind of autoimmune issue, is a GAPS condition.

Chronic infections of ANY kind are GAPS conditions.

Allergies of any kind are GAPS conditions.

Skin conditions including acne, eczema, rosacea, psoriasis and more, are GAPS conditions.

Hormonal conditions, including chronic fatigue, PMS, hypothyroidism and more are GAPS conditions.

Issues of the circulatory system including atherosclerosis, heart disease, high and low blood pressure, are GAPS conditions.

Mental conditions including autism, ADD, ADHD, dyslexia, dyspraxia, depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, OCD, eating disorders and more, are actually GAPS conditions.

And if you are one of those people who is not healthy, in spite of the fact that no doctor can ever give you a conclusive diagnosis, who has forever suffered from apparently unrelated, random, puzzling symptoms, then I can almost bet that what you have is GAPS.

So what now?

Understand that if you have GAPS, that is not going anywhere. Unless you address the root of the issue and heal your gut, you will always struggle with your health. You might have suffered from the same set of problems for many, many years and are on medication for life. Or you might have had different issues at different times in your life, but you know you aren’t healthy. Either way, the problem is the same.

And so is the solution: you need to heal your gut.

I’m not going to lie to you. The GAPS healing protocol requires a level of commitment that usually only those who are desperate are motivated enough to bring forth.

Healing the gut takes time and attention, but it’s no doubt the best thing you will ever do for your and your family’s health. This stuff is profound!

It’s not like Dr. Natasha is a crazy loner making stuff up out of thin air, you know? She’s had a clinic since 1998 and has treated thousands of patients. And there are many other doctors and even more alternative practitioners who are using the protocol, or a modified version of it, with great results. Not isolated great results, but systematic great results.

The principles of GAPS are sound and stand on the shoulders of good science. But what I love most is the simplicity of the theory. Once you understand GAPS in the context of your own health, things just make sense. I’ve had a few clients get really emotional and cry when I explain this to them. After years and years of never-ending doctor visits, tests, meds and treatments, they finally get it. What an awakening!

What I think you should do…

You might still be confused, but if these 2000 words have resonated with you in the slightest, I encourage you to get Dr. Natasha’s book. She’s a way better teacher than I am.

Continue your search! Don’t settle for mediocre health. The body has an immense capacity to heal. Commit to getting healthy and the right resources will appear in your life.

And if you already know that this is a path you want to walk, or if you want to understand GAPS in the context of your own health, like… now, then contact me! I am honored to be one of only very few certified GAPS practitioners and I might be able to help you.

I feel very blessed to have come across these teachings in this lifetime. I am grateful to Dr. Natasha and all of the doctors and healers whose insight of human health and of nature has helped shape these principles. I am committed to deepening and spreading this knowledge. This is my mission.

(For you P. I love you.)

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Chicken and (Faux) Rice Soup

by Andrea on September 1, 2011

in Recipes

I love pretty much any version of chicken soup and that includes chicken and rice soup. But since rice is a grain and I try to follow my own advice and limit my consumption of grains, I had this idea to use cauliflower instead of rice. The result? It totally works! Shredded cauliflower has a very similar consistency (and dare I say, flavor?) to rice. However it lacks the starch, which means the soup won’t be as thick. You could use kuzu, agar-agar, or an egg to thicken it, if that’s an important factor for you.

This recipe keeps as much as the chicken fat as possible because that’s what we’re looking for when we’re rebuilding the digestive system and even though I don’t recommend it, you could defat the chicken stock or the soup, after it’s done.

Chicken and (Faux) Rice Soup
Prep time: 15 min
Cooking time: 60 min (mostly unattended)
Servings: 4 to 6

Ingredients:
* Breast and back of one (hopefully pastured) medium-size chicken
* Filtered water — about 10 cups
* Several sprigs of fresh thyme. Oregano works too.
* 2 or 3 ribs celery — you can use the leaves too, chopped
* 1 carrot, peeled and chopped
* 1 white onion, minced
* 1/2 red pepper, minced
* 1/2 green pepper, minced
* 1/2 cauliflower head, grated
* Butter, lard or other healthful fat to saute
* Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
I started this soup by making a quick chicken stock, but of course, you can start with homemade chicken stock and add cooked chicken meat towards the end. From a whole chicken, save the legs, tights and wings for another use and leave the back and breast to make the quick stock.

1.  Put the chicken back and breast pieces with salt and enough fresh, filtered water to cover them in a stock pot. Bring to a rolling boil. Lower the temperature and add the thyme. Let simmer gently for about 45 minutes.

2. Take out the chicken pieces and let them cool until you can handle them.

3. In a separate skillet, saute the vegetables — except the cauliflower — with generous fat until the onion becomes translucent. You could skip this step and add them directly to the broth, but this way they develop more flavor.

4. Separate the chicken meat from the bones and chop into bite-size pieces. I like to keep the skin with the meat, but I understand if that’s not appealing to you. Again, for the purpose of digestive healing, we want to keep as much chicken fat in the soup as possible.

* Save the bones! These still have some nutrients you could render out in a long-cooking chicken stock.

5. Add the sauteed vegetables and the chicken meat to the simmering broth. Let cook until all the vegetables have soften up completely, about 10 more minutes.

6. Stir in the shredded cauliflower and season with sufficient salt, pepper and a couple more thyme sprigs. Let simmer for another 5 minutes and serve pipping hot.

* Are you completely exhausted after you eat a meal?
* Do you suffer from chronic constipation, IBS, heartburn, colitis, diverticulitis, and/or uncomfortable (and embarrassing!) gas?
* Are you a victim of food intolerances or allergies — dairy, gluten, soy, peanuts, seafood, etc?
Then you can't miss the Healing Digestion teleseminar!
Follow these 5 steps and your digestion will improve tenfold in the next 30 days.
Click here to learn more...

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What are nutrient dense foods (and why should you care)?

by Andrea on August 31, 2011

in Events,Healing,Nutrition

Nutrient density is a concept you’d be really smart to get familiar with. When you understand food from the nutrient density point of view, calorie content becomes completely irrelevant. Imagine that!

First, I need you to think about something for a minute. What are you looking for when you eat? The first thing that comes to mind for most people is energy. The second is comfort. Curiously enough, thinking of food as source of nutrients is not at the top of the list, is it?

Nutrients have become something we expect to find in vitamins, supplements, and protein shakes. But not in food, food.

Energy and nutrients are not the same thing, though. Neither are being full and being satisfied. You can get lots of energy in the form of carbohydrates — in fact the simpler these are, the faster they become glucose (energy!) and enter the blood stream — and your body can be starving for nutrients. And as long as your body is starving for nutrients you will not be satisfied. No matter how full you are, you will continue to reach for food.

The nutrient density of a food is independent of its caloric content.

Let’s say you have four foods: butter, kale, Iceberg lettuce and potato chips. Can you guess which one of these has the most nutrients per gram?

Most people guess kale. And yes, kale does have lots of nutrients, but it’s not the most nutrient dense of that bunch. Second guess usually is potato chips, but whereas they do have lots of calories — from carbohydrates and low-quality vegetable oils — potato chips offer little nutrients.

We all know that Iceberg lettuce doesn’t have a lot going on. Neither nutrients, nor calories.

Of these four, the most nutrient dense food is butter. Far more if it comes from grass-fed cows as opposed to conventional, grain-fed ones.

You might be thinking I must be wrong, since butter is “too” high in saturated fat and cholesterol, but what if you knew those are actually desirable nutrients? I must write other blog posts explaining, but right now suffice to say that plenty of evidence proves that is the case.

A little nutrition history…

Dr. Weston Price — a dentist who studied the diet of healthy populations around the world in the early 1900’s, before they had access to industrialized foods — found that the foods these different groups of people prized as the most nutrient dense were sort of different depending on what they had access to, but they were not that different, really.

Things like fish and shellfish, liver and other animal organs, eggs, and butter from various animals were the most important foods, and it wasn’t rare that one or more of these were considered sacred. He also observed that many times people would travel long distances and undergo great discomfort to obtain one of these special foods.

What do all these foods have in common?

First, and to Dr. Price’s dismay who had been partial to vegetarianism, all of them were of animal origin.

Second, Dr. Price found repetitively, a richness of the same set of nutrients: fat soluble vitamins — A, D, E and K — and a few, specific minerals — calcium, phosphorus, iron, magnesium, copper and iodine.

Then, what do all these nutrients have in common?

They all act as “catalyzers” of the rest of nutrients we need, and are specially efficient at doing so, when they are eaten together. In other words, you can be eating foods that contain other nutrients, but if you are not eating one of these nutrient dense foods as well, it is very likely that your body won’t be able to assimilate those other nutrients as well as it should because it’s missing these nutrient “translators”.

Now, just to be clear, I’m not saying these are the ONLY nutrient dense foods there are. Remember I mentioned kale has lots of nutrients too, but in order to count a food as nutrient dense FOR YOU, you need to actually assimilate the nutrients. This is the missing link with supplements and ever with superfoods like chlorella or goji berries. The intention can be right, but the implementation is generally poor.

So what about the caloric content?

Let’s continue to use butter as our example. Butter has a lot of calories because it has a lot of fat, and fat has more than double the calories than carbohydrates or proteins per gram.

But how much butter could you honestly eat in one sitting before you started to feel sick? This is the part where the density — mass over volume — is important.

One tablespoon, or two, tops? Most people couldn’t even do a whole tablespoon. Well, I can. But it requires practice ;-).

Butter is not only nutrient dense, but it is just plain dense. Just a little bit of it will satisfy you. And this is the case with most nutrient dense foods. You don’t need a whole lot because they are dense.But you need them on a regular basis so your body is always armed with those key nutrients that help assimilate the rest of nutrients.

When you focus on eating nutrient dense foods, you can trust that your body will know when you had enough. They are rich and satisfying, so you don’t need to worry about portion control. They are also highly digestible and your body usually assimilates them quickly and efficiently. This means that nutrient dense foods don’t cause weight gain, and in fact they can be great weight loss foods.

Isn’t that liberating?

8 Steps to add more nutrient density to your diet:

  1. Use unrefined salt instead of refined iodized salt.
  2. Eat organic produce instead of conventional.
  3. Eat raw dairy products instead of conventional, processed dairy products.
  4. Eat grass-fed beef and buffalo instead of grain-fed.
  5. Eat pasture-raised chicken and eggs instead of feedlot raised.
  6. Eat wild fish instead of farm raised.
  7. Use unrefined oils, lard, tallow and butter instead of refined oils and margarine.
  8. Minimize your consumption of grains and eat only properly prepared whole grains.

And if you live in New York City or close enough, come to the Nutrient Dense Foods seminar I’m giving at the Park Slope Food coop on Saturday, September 10th at 3pm. It’s free! The details are here.

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Curry Turkey Salad

by Andrea on August 3, 2011

in Recipes

This was the dish I made for the Healing Digestion Workshop a few weeks ago. Super easy to make, everyone loved it. A perfect summer salad!

Curry Turkey Salad
Prep time: 15 min
Cooking time: 15 min (for the turkey meat)
Servings: 4 to 6

Ingredients:
* 1 lb turkey meat — you could use deli turkey breast, but fresh is better-tasting and also nitrate-free.
* Coconut oil or lard for cooking
* 2 or 3 ribs celery — you can use the leaves too, chopped
* 2 scallions or 1/2 red onion, minced
* 1 large green apple
* Juice of 1/2 lemon
* 1/2 cup pecans
* 1/2 cup red grapes, cut in half (optional)
* Fresh cilantro, minced
* Arugula or mesclun greens to serve

For the dressing:
* 1/2 cup homemade dill mayo
* 1/2 teaspoon curry powder
* Honey to taste
* Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
1. Season the turkey breast meat with salt and pepper and cook with coconut oil or lard over medium heat for about 15 minutes, or until cooked through. Let cool slightly and chop.

2. Toast the pecans in a toaster oven or dry skillet. Or better yet, use soaked and dehydrated pecans. Break into small pieces.

3. Peel and core apple. Cut into bite-size chucks and rub with lemon juice immediately to prevent them from discoloring.

4. In a salad bowl mix turkey meat, celery, onions, apples, grapes, pecans and cilantro.

5. Mix mayo, curry powder and honey in a different bowl.

6. Pour dressing over salad right before serving and mix well. Correct the seasoning with salt and pepper and serve over fresh arugula leaves (my favorite) or mesclun greens.

* Are you tired… like ALL the time?
* In spite of that, are you unable to fall asleep when you go to bed?
* Are you gaining weight without apparent reason? OR are you forever trying to lose the same stubborn 10 to 20 pounds?
* Is your sex drive nowhere to be found? * Do you have low thyroid function that doesn’t improve even when taking medication?
* Have your efforts to get pregnant been unsuccessful?
Then you can't miss the Healing Adrenal Exhaustion teleseminar!
Integrate only 2 of these critical strategies and you’ll completely transform your level of energy in less than 60 days…
Click here to learn more.

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Coconut Butter Cookies

by Andrea on August 3, 2011

in Recipes

I made these cookies for the Healing Digestion Workshop a few weeks ago. They were an instant hit. They are incredibly easy to make and GAPS legal: grain-free and sweetened with honey.

Coconut Butter Cookies
(Adapted from Cooking with Coconut Flour by Bruce Fife)

Prep time: 15 min
Baking time: 20 min
Makes about 2 dozen cookies

Ingredients:
* 1/2 cup ghee or butter, at room temperature
* 3 oz (6 tablespoons) honey
* 4 eggs
* 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
* Pinch of salt
* 1/2 cup Coconut Flour
* 2 cups unsweetened coconut flakes

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven at 350 degrees F.
2. Butter cookie sheet.
3. Mix butter, honey, eggs, salt and vanilla together.
4. Stir in coconut flour and flakes.
5. Drop spoon-size mounds 1-inch apart on cookie sheet and bake for 15 to 20 min. Careful! They can burn quickly because of the addition of honey.
6. Remove from cookie sheet and let cool completely on wire rack. They will keep in a cookie jar for several days.

* Are you tired… like ALL the time?
* In spite of that, are you unable to fall asleep when you go to bed?
* Are you gaining weight without apparent reason? OR are you forever trying to lose the same stubborn 10 to 20 pounds?
* Is your sex drive nowhere to be found? * Do you have low thyroid function that doesn’t improve even when taking medication?
* Have your efforts to get pregnant been unsuccessful?
Then you can't miss the Healing Adrenal Exhaustion teleseminar!
Integrate only 2 of these critical strategies and you’ll completely transform your level of energy in less than 60 days…
Click here to learn more.

{ 0 comments }

5 Very Easy Salad Dressings

by Andrea on June 30, 2011

in Recipes

Everyone — even those who love to cook, like me — dreads cooking in the summer. And with good reason! No need to raise the temperature even more. One way to work around this is by making salads and I believe the dressing is what makes the salad.

It is very important that you make all your dressings at home because all commercial dressings are made with very cheap oils and most of them contain high fructose corn syrup. Most homemade dressings have a fridge life of at least a week, so always keep clean jar glasses in your pantry to store your leftover dressings away. Always make your dressings with some kind of fat in them. Not only will your salad be more satisfying, but also more nutritious as many of the nutrients in vegetables are assimilated only in the presence of fat.

Here there are 5 very easy salad dressings. Enjoy!

Basic Vinaigrette

Prep time: 5 min
Servings: About ¾ cup

Ingredients:
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
3 Tbs or more good wine vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste
1 large shallot, finely minced (optional)

Directions:
1. In a blender or a jar with a lid, combine all ingredients minus the shallot until incorporated.
2. Add the shallot and adjust seasoning to taste.

* You can add almost anything to a basic vinaigrette: fresh herbs, dried herbs, little veggie chunks, yogurt, soy sauce, mustard, bacon, any kind of minced onion or garlic… The possibilities are endless!

Balsamic Vinaigrette

Prep time: 5 min
Servings: About ¾ cup

Ingredients:
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
¼ cup balsamic vinegar
1 Tbs mustard
1 Tbs maple syrup
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
1. In a blender or a jar with a lid combine all ingredients. Adjust seasoning to taste.

Simple Yogurt Sauce

Prep time: 5 min
Servings: About 1 cup

Ingredients:
1 cup high quality full-fat yogurt. Preferably raw, but pasteurized will do. Avoid ultra-pasteurized.
1 tsp minced garlic
Salt and pepper to taste
Freshly squeezed lemon juice (optional)

Directions:
1. In a blender, food processor or a jar with a lid, combine all ingredients. Adjust seasoning to taste.

* You can add any fresh herb to this dressing: shallot, parsley, dill, cilantro, mint, etc. Keeps refrigerated for a week at least.

Avocado Vinaigrette

Prep time: 5 min
Servings: About 1/2 cup

Ingredients:
½ avocado (this is a great use for one that’s less than perfect)
1 tsp minced garlic
¼ cup freshly squeezed lemon or lime juice 
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
1. In a blender, food processor or a jar with a lid, combine all ingredients. Adjust seasoning to taste.

* This vinaigrette starts to discolor after an hour or so.

Easy Blue Cheese Dressing

Prep time: 5 min
Servings: About 1 1/2 cups

Ingredients:
1 cup Greek full-fat yogurt or sour cream. 
½ cup crumbled blue cheese
Salt and pepper to taste
Dash freshly squeezed lemon juice (optional)
Extra virgin olive oil

Directions:
1. In a food processor combine yogurt or sour cream, lemon juice, salt and pepper and pulse.
2. Gradually, add olive oil until you get the consistency you like and stir crumbled cheese in.

* Keeps refrigerated for a week at least.

 

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