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HEALING THERAPIES

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MAY 2006 - NEWSLETTER #6

This is the sixth in a series of occasional newsletters. If this is your first one, and you’re wondering what it’s all about, I send this out to anybody in NZ I’ve talked to about whole foods, kefir, kombucha, raw milk, or wellness generally. [Click here for printable version. Read previous newsletters : No 1, No 2, No 3, No 4, No 5]

It’s been a long time since the last newsletter, with lots going on. In the last three months we took a long holiday round the South Island, moved all our websites to a new server and I wrote a (long) new article about the pros and cons of milk. The changes to the server mean that all the pages on DietNet are now at new addresses. But www.diet.net.nz will still take you to the new front page, and if you have old pages in your Favorites, they all have automatic redirections to the new locations. It was also a good opportunity to make some changes to the navigation, and update some pages. More pages will be updated over the next little while, and the best news for site visitors is that we will be able to add a Search facility.

Topics in this newsletter:
  • The whole truth about dairy
  • Recipes
  • Upcoming Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) courses and talks:
    • Intro talks (learn abut EFT and how to use the shortcut method)
    • Weight Loss and Health Skills course
    • 2006 dates for EFT Level 1 to 3 Workshops

Can you help?

A newsletter reader has been trying to locate pomegranate juice and tinned organic red salmon. Does anyone know where to get either?

The whole truth about dairy

I’ve had an article about the pros and cons of milk half written for a while. On our trip down south, it was wonderful to meet several farmers and consumers of raw milk, and readers of the newsletter, and it inspired me to finish writing it.

There is a lot of information around about dairy products, and opinion about whether we should consume them, most of it contradictory. That’s because the subject is quite complex. But we can distill it down to two main elements – how good the milk is, and what your individual tolerance is.

Quality:

We’re lucky here in NZ that our milk comes from cows that are pasture raised, while in some countries it comes from factory farmed animals. But there are other things we need to look for:
  • Organic – as with everything, organic is more expensive, but better if you can get it
  • Not homogenised – homogenising changes the structure of the fat, making it harder to absorb and assimilate. Most milk is homogenised these days, but you can find whole milk in some brands, such as MeadowFresh, Naturalea Organic and Ecofarm Organic
  • Full fat – This is a bit contentious, as many people believe lower fat milks to be healthier and better for weight control. It’s true that some people gain weight from dairy, and not everybody can tolerate dairy fat, but consider this:
    • Our ancestors only used whole milk
    • All the Vitamin A & D in milk are in the fat, being fat soluble vitamins
    • Vitamin A (which is only found in animal foods) and fat, are needed for protein assimilation. This makes prolonged use of high protein, low fat diets dangerous.
    • Vitamin D is needed for assimilating calcium.
  • Raw – We talked about the benefits of raw foods a few newsletters back. This applies not just to fruit & veges, but to animal foods such as dairy. Pasteurisation destroys most of the beneficial qualities in milk, including the ones that combat food contaminants, and the one needed to assimilate calcium! (For anyone interested in learning more about raw milk, we can supply a very good DVD by Mark McAfee, a well respected supplier of raw milk in California. Email me if you want a copy.)
  • Fermented – if you can’t get raw milk, fermenting the best milk you CAN get restores some of its beneficial qualities. Even with raw dairy, our ancestors always fermented their dairy products for better digestibility and assimilation. Think of yoghurt or kefir, with their many beneficial bacteria.
  • A2 milk, or milk from jersey cows, or goats or sheep – A2 milk is the traditional form of milk that our ancestors used, and research so far indicates that it is associated with less health problems than A1 milk, which most supermarket milk is

Tolerance:

The argument that cow’s milk is designed for calves, not people, and that humans only recently started drinking milk is a good one. But on the other hand, we are a very adaptable race, and some people have adapted just fine to dairy products. So there is a spectrum of individual tolerances and needs for dairy:
  • People whose ancestors were well adapted to dairy, such as Swiss or Indian
  • Vegetarians, or others who for various reasons are unable to get sufficient animal protein and fat from other sources
  • Those who feel fine on dairy but don’t need it
  • Those who feel good on it, but find it causes weight gain
  • Those who are ill on pasteurized dairy, but are fine on raw
  • Those who can’t tolerate even the best raw dairy, unless it’s fermented
  • Those who need to avoid all dairy – for example, casein intolerance comes a close second to gluten intolerance, & even fermenting the best quality raw milk doesn’t help (but you might be OK on ghee)!

So the answer to the question “should I drink milk” depends on where you fall on the spectrum, and what kind of milk you can get.

This is just a very brief summary. Now go and read the whole article, which covers, in more detail:
  • What are the characteristics of good quality milk?
  • Is milk a suitable food for humans?
  • Different levels of dairy tolerance, and
  • What to do if you can’t have dairy at all

Recipes

Talking about dairy makes me think mostly of breakfasts, and desserts. Most people know how to make a breakfast smoothie, so here’s a couple of dessert recipes, each with dairy or coconut alternatives.

Strawberry Fool
Serves 4-6 people

A traditional fool is made from fresh or stewed soft fruit (eg. berries, poached stone fruit or stewed rhubarb or gooseberries) folded into whipped cream. This version also adds a thick Greek or European style yoghurt.

  • 250ml (1 cup) cream
  • 250ml (1 cup) plain, unsweetened yoghurt (preferably thick, like Cyclops)
  • 200g strawberries
  • 1 Tbs glycerine plus pinch stevia; or other natural sweetener of your choice
  • grated chocolate (optional)

Beat the cream and sweetener till thick. Stir through the yoghurt. Chop the strawberries finely, by hand or in a food processor, then stir through. Chill for about ½ an hour, and serve topped with grated chocolate.

Find your own favourite combination. Some variations:

  • Strawberries can be replaced with most other fruits:
    • Other berries (which are often better whole)
    • Finely chopped fresh fruit such as apricots, peaches, mangoes, pineapple or kiwifruit
    • Stewed fruit such as apples, gooseberries or rhubarb (some will require extra sweetener)
    • Mashed banana
    • A mixture of fruits
    • Or use 200g mashed Beauregard kumera, add 1 tsp mixed spice, and reduce the cream to ½ a cup
  • The sweeteners can be replaced with any natural sweetener for a different flavour - rapadura, palm sugar, maple syrup or honey. Or try a Tbs of liquer, some spices or a natural essence.
  • Add some chopped crispy nuts
  • For an evener richer dessert, use all whipped cream, or cream & cultured cream whipped together.
  • Replace the cream with coconut cream. Chill it well before whipping, and whip in a food processor as it takes longer. If you have it, add 1 tsp agar powder while whipping.
  • If you’re totally dairy intolerant, use just whipped coconut cream and no yoghurt, tropical fruit like pineapple or mango, and add some desiccated coconut or creamed coconut.

Dairy-free Coconut Custard

  • 1 ½ cups coconut cream
  • 3 egg yolks
  • pinch Celtic sea salt
  • 1 Tbs honey
  • ¾ tsp vanilla essence

This makes a hot, runny custard. Heat up the coconut cream to just short of boiling. Meanwhile, if you have a double boiler, beat the egg yolks and salt together in the top part. Otherwise, find a bowl that will sit on top of a pan of boiling water, and use that. Pour the hot coconut cream slowly into the egg yolks, whisking most of the time. Set on top of a pan of simmering water, and whisk till it thickens (about 10 mins). Take off the heat, whisk in the honey and vanilla essence and serve immediately with fruit crumble, pie, ice cream or fruit.

Variations:

  • Pour into bowls, add fruit, nuts, muesli or other extras, and leave overnight to set - instant breakfast!
  • To make a thicker custard, for a pie filling or on top of a trifle:
    • Add an extra egg yolk.
    • Add the honey to the hot cream and egg mix, before thickening
    • Mix together 1 Tbs arrowroot mixed with 2 Tbs coconut cream. After 10 minutes cooking, add a little custard to the arrowroot mix, then add the lot back into the custard. Cook for another 2 minutes, whisking continually.
  • For a more traditional custard, replace the coconut cream with cream or full fat milk.

To your continued good health, and until next time,

Deb

PS See below for the usual list of helpful resources

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~ Site Intro ~ News & Updates ~ About DietNet ~ Search Dietnet ~ Site map ~ Contact DietNet ~

"How To" & Resources section:

~ Wellness guide ~
~ NZ shopping guide ~ NZ Places to Shop ~ Seminars ~
~ Changing Diets ~ How to do an Elimination Diet ~ Reverse Elimination ~
~ Avoiding gluten ~ NZ GF guide ~
~ EFT courses ~ Health Coaching ~ Whole Foods Cooking Course ~ Recipes ~
~ Cooking Grains ~ Breads & Pancakes ~ Baking ~ Holiday Recipes ~ For "A" Blood Types ~
~ Newsletter Feb 08 ~ ~ Newsletter Apr 07 ~
~ Newsletter Oct 06 ~ Newsletter May 06 ~
~ Newsletter Jun 05 ~ Newsletter Aug 05 ~
~ Newsletter May 04 ~ Newsletter Aug 04 ~Newsletter Dec 04 ~
~ USA News ~ UK & Europe News ~
~ Reading List ~  Links ~
Other people's articles: ~ Natural remedies safe? ~ NZ health at risk ~

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My other websites:

~ www.eft.net.nz - Emotional Freedom Technique ~
 ~ www.heal.net.nz - Diet, EFT & Health Therapies ~

Other links:

~ Weston A Price Foundation ~ Gary Craigs Emotional Freedom Technique site ~
~ Amazon Books ~ Frot Design Portal ~
~ Chi Rising - Directory of natural health & personal growth practitioners in Wellington, NZ ~

The information provided in this website is for educational purposes. It is intended as a sharing of knowledge and information from our own research and experience.

We suggest taking responsibility for ones own diet, lifestyle, diagnosis and medication, based on informed decision making. We encourage you to make your own health care decisions based upon your own research and in partnership with qualified health care professionals.

We do not offer medical advice. That is the job of your natural health practitioner, or doctor. But we think it's important that you have access to as much information on diet and health as possible, and that's what we're aiming to provide.