About ten months ago I had my first dentist visit in twenty years. My teeth are pretty healthy and no new cavities were found. I have one mercury “silver” filling that I want out. I inquired my dentist about her opinion this filling and she nearly laughed when I told her that I believe that this filling is one of the contributing causes to my Candida yeast and Anxiety/OCD disorder. She said it was a small filling, it was secure and it “looked” pretty good. She said it was not worth taking out but she would do it if I asked her.

I then went to my doctor and inquired about my mercury levels. The test showed that I had mercury in my blood but not in amounts that would be a cause for concern. My Whole blood levels were 9 µg/L and the safe levels are  < 8.0 µg/L  and for occupational limit in exposed workers < 15.0 µg/L  (Source)

So my level is just above the safe level.

So here are my thoughts about mercury:

If health professionals don’t take mercury amalgam poisoning seriously then you need to find another health professional that does.

Why?

1. Mercury is toxic even in small amounts. It is the most toxic, non radioactive substance in the world. It is more toxic then lead.
2. Mercury passes the blood brain barrier.
3. Mercury is attracted to lipids (fats) and the brain has the highest concentration of lipids of any organ.
4. Mercury vapour from dental fillings is highly toxic

Watch this startling video on how brushing your teeth can lead to toxic overexposure to mercury just by the dental amalgam vapours. Even drinking hot beverages and soups can leach more mercury into your body then in an undisturbed amalgam. Any kind of stimulation will disturb the mercury to release vapours. Mercury vapours are then released for a minimum 1.5 hrs.

I will be having my fillings removed within the next couple of weeks. I found a holistic dentist that will do this work and I meet him on Sunday. (An odd day for business, but it is the first day of the week) I will meet with him to see if I feel comfortable with him doing such work in my mouth.

I will also start taking supplements to chelate mercury. The supplements include Iodine, Selenium, Cilantro, Chlorella, High dose vitamin C to bowel tolerance. That is a start for now and as I find more info I will add to this list.

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Here is a Caesar Salad Dressing worth making at home. It is so good that it will make store bought salad dressings look like cheap imitations . I hope that you will try this and let me know what you think.

Sweet Almond Oil is what I use in this dressing and my mayonnaise. I purchase sweet almond oil at my local health food store. It is very light and tastes delicious. To me it is a good replacement for Canola oil. Nearly all canola is GMO except for organic! You want to avoid Canola oil as it is highly processed Omega 6 oil.

Wikipedia states that Almond Oil is stable and that…

” In Ayurveda, an ancient system of health care that is native to the Indian subcontinent, almond is considered a nutritive for brain and nervous system. It is said to induce high intellectual level and longevity. Almond oil is called Roghan Badam in both Ayurveda and Tibb Yunani (the Greco-Persian System of Medicine). It is extracted by cold process and is considered a nutritive aphrodisiac both for massage and internal consumption. Recent studies have shown that the constituents of almond have anti-inflammatory, immunity boosting, and anti-hepatotoxicity effects.[22]”  (Source: Wikipedia)

If you buy almond oil make sure that it is Sweet Almond Oil and food grade.

Cost warning: It is expensive! 750ml costs about $14-15 Canadian dollars.

Extra Virgin Olive Oil is a good choice if you have a good oil that does not have a strong taste.

Caesar Salad Dressing

2 pasture raised organic egg yolks

2 cloves of garlic

½ cup of Real Parmesan Cheese

1 can of Anchovies (50g)

½ tsp of ground mustard

1 cup of Sweet Almond Oil

2-3 tblsp Of whey (optional)

Put all the ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth and creamy. Put in a jar and store in the fridge. If you added whey, put your dressing in a jar and let sit overnight to allow it to ferment.

Is this recipe worth a five star recipe rating?

This post is part of Real Food Wednesday hosted by Kelly The Kitchen Kop

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The month of September was just so sunny and beautiful in my area. I was basking in the sun and enjoying every minute of it knowing that it was short lived. Last week the weather changed and the clouds rolled in and stole the wonderful sun away and brought with it the rain. That is when I found out that I could hardly get up from bed. I also could not stop crying and for no reason at all. It was extremely hard just to get my kids of too school and getting through the days was all I could do. It was getting worse and worse every day. This definitely was not normal!

I don’t know how it can happen so quickly – that one day I just can’t get out of bed anymore. I was feeling emotionally beaten up and had no fight left in me.

Four days of this was enough for me to go out and splurge on some vitamins. Usually I make a great effort to get sun on my skin everyday and take Cod Liver Oil all for the Vitamin D. However I picked up some Vit. D pills just to get me through the winter. I also picked up a Multi B vitamin as it is generally known to fight depression and good for adrenals and stress management.

I took my supplements that night which consists of:

• Vitamin C 1000mg
• Multi Vitamin B 100s
• Vitamin D up to 4000iu depending on sun exposure
• Vitamin E mixed Tocopherol 400 IU
• Cod Liver Oil
• Handful of Dulse for iodine
• Magnesium Powder

After adding the Vitamin D and B vitamins I feel like a whole NEW person. The sun did not shine for days but it did not matter anymore. The tears went away and the energy came back.

One thing that I was also looking to buy was full spectrum lighting to put in my kitchen as this is the place in my house that I spend a lot of time. I don’t need that right now but as the fall and winter season arrives I will probably have my husband install the new lights.

Absorbing Nutrients

I am eating a healthy and nutritious diet and getting lots of Vitamin B through my food as well as getting Sunshine. Why is it that adding these two “pills” would make such a difference. Why can’t I get the same effect from eating liver which is rich in those vitamins?

I am assuming that the food has to get digested and broken down by the digestive bacteria and fed to the cells and a vitamin pill is a lot easier to absorb.

A healthy gut is the KEY to optimal health.

Food digestion is critical to health and that is why I blog so much about my Candida Yeast issues. I am also an advocate for fermented foods such as yogurt, sauerkraut, beet kvass, kefir which replenishes the gut with healthy bacteria and fight yeast and pathogens. Fermented foods also aid with digestion problems like diarrhea, constipation, acid reflux, gas, bloating and food allergies.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and Anxiety

My OCD normally gets worse when we start burning the wood stove for heat. So far it has not been so bad. I check the stove before leaving the house or going to bed like I always do but the anxiety around it is not there. My anxiety in general has gone down. Not totally gone away but I am able to fall asleep without worrying about the house burning down, my kids dying or someone breaking in.

This is a breakthrough! It is absolutely horrible to feel afraid to sleep.

As I wear my heart on my sleeve I hope that someone may be helped with my battles and breakthroughs. Instead of reaching for medication I try to find out what nutritional needs might not be getting met and then try to remedy it. This is the long way to healing but at the moment it is the only one I got. Hiring a holistic doctor is not affordable at this time.

My History Note: When I was battling suicidal depression as a teenager my father sent me to an Iridologist. This Iridologist put me on vitamins and I pulled out of the depression rather quickly. Vitamin D and Multi Bs were part of my vitamin cocktail. I thought that I was just growing out of the teenage hormones change and did not give much credit to those vitamins. Eventually I stopped taking them.
Right now I feel a lot better than when I was taking St. Johns Wort and Sam-E. Those are natural anti-depressants and supposedly work as well as medications prescribed by doctors for mild depression.

At this point I give the credit for my well being to the vitamins.

An exciting update: after I wrote this post I talked to my father and spoke of my health issues. He was witness to what I went through as a teenage kid so he understands greatly what it is to be “unbalanced”. So he has offered to pay for me to go to an alternative doctor! I am absolutely ecstatic!!!

This post is part of Fight Back Fridays hosted by Food Renegade

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Normally I don’t do a lot of baking for my family. I am just not to confident in that department. My kids do go without dessert a lot of the time. It is time to polish up this skill because I have a lot of homegrown apples that I need to use up. This is the first year that we have had a decent crop of apples off of our trees and they also taste good. They are not sweet apples and rather tart and good on a low carb diet. It is also hard to overeat tart apples as they make your mouth pucker up even when picking them off the tree!

This recipe tastes great and is a very healthy. It is also very aromatic and will make your house smell delicious!

Nutty Apple Crisp

2 cups of chopped tart apples (peeled and cored)

2 tablespoons of lemon juice

1 cup of ground almonds (preferably soaked and dried to remove anti-nutrients)

1 cup of chopped pecans (preferably soaked and dried to remove anti-nutrients)

1/2 cup of dessicated sugar free coconut

1/2 cup of butter

1 tsp of cinnamon

1/2 tsp of nutmeg

2 tsp of vanilla

4 drops of NOW non bitter stevia

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F

Peel your apples, core and chop into small pieces. Drizzle lemon juice over apples.

Mix in a bowl ground almonds, chopped pecans, coconut, cinnamon, nutmeg, stevia and vanilla. Add butter to the bowl and work it into the “crumb” ingredients.

Take half of the crumb mixture and place it into a 9″ square baking dish. Add apples and top with the remainder of the crumb mixture.

Bake for 30 minutes or until apples are soft.

Enjoy!!

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So the cold and flu season is well underway and with all the hoopla about swine flu in the news I have been experimenting with eating raw garlic daily. Garlic works almost immediately when you notice the first signs of a cold coming on. I can feel my nose clearing up within minutes – even if I am not feeling sick!

Garlic can be found in the produce section of your grocery store. It is safe with no nasty side effects and according to Science Daily it is one of the world’s most powerful antioxidant. Not only is it antiviral and antibacterial, garlic is also great as a daily supplement for healing the gut from candida yeast because of its antifungal and antiparasitic properties. Garlic also has been shown to reduce blood glucose levels which are very beneficial for insulin resistant and diabetic health issues. (Source: Indian Journal Of Medical Sciences)

This beautiful medicinal tasty food renowned for its immune boosting and virus killing health benefits is most effective when eaten raw and freshly crushed or chopped. But it is in this state that it is also the most pungent and spicy.  It is also really hard to get little children to eat raw garlic. I have tried and succeeded!

I have combined a list with the most child friendly meals on top.

How To Eat Raw Garlic

1. Salad Dressings – Homemade Creaser Dressing (this one is a favourite for the kids!) Anchovies, 2-3 cloves of raw Garlic, Lemon juice, 2-3 egg yolks, ground mustard and almond oil. Put everything in a blender and blend.
2. Salsa – Tomatoes, Avocado, lemon juice, Salt and Pepper and raw garlic
3. Guacamole -  Avocado, Lemon juice, Salt and Pepper and raw garlic
4. Pesto – Fresh Basil, Raw Garlic, extra virgin olive oil, Pine Nuts and Parmesan Cheese
5. Chicken Soup – Warm homemade stock with veggies and just before serving add raw garlic.
6. Hummus –  Chick Peas and Tahini, Lemon Juice and raw garlic
7. Veggie dips – Yogurt, mayonnaise, raw garlic, lemon juice and your favourite herbs like oregano and thyme
8. Eggs (sunny side up) sprinkled with turmeric and Salt and Pepper served with fall squashes and raw garlic and butter. This is my favourite breakfast!
9. Garlic and Cheese – I make mini “cheesewiches”! A cheese slice is used as a bread substitute and I just lay thin slices of raw garlic on it and top with basil, tomato, mayonnaise and salt and pepper.
10. Garlic Bread – toast, butter and garlic.  Although not a low carb way of eating garlic but it is the way my husband eats it.
11. Garlic in bacon fat! I spoon some bacon drippings on a spoon, take a fresh crushed clove of garlic, mix together and swallow. The fat neutralizes the heat and odour a bit so the garlic is much less offensive.  Eat garlic like this on a full tummy.

Now its Your Turn!

What is your favourite Raw Garlic Recipe?

This post is part of Real Food Wednesday hosted by Cheeseslave.

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I have been struggling to try to comprehend if probiotic Sugar Water Kefir is beneficial on a Low Carb and Anti-Candida Diet. Considering the high sugar content you would think that it goes against common sense to consume it when you are trying to avoid sugars.

At the beginning of the fermentation the sugar is composed of glucose-fructose. The probiotic sugar kefir grains break down the glucose-fructose disaccharide into fructose which is a mono-saccharide.  The sugar kefir grains themselves are composed of glucose and therefore need the glucose in the sugar to grow. The result of the fermentation is a probiotic rich fructose water. Depending on the type of sugar you use, there may also be minerals such as calcium, magnesium, iron.

Water kefir is extremely high in probiotics that work in symbiosis. This is so important as life itself IS symbiosis. When there is an unbalance problems occur. A good example of this is a sauerkraut fermentation project gone bad! The balance of bacteria has changed resulting in a foul smelling, horrible tasting food.

Probiotic supplements are expensive compared to cheaply made probiotic food. We do not know if the strains in the supplements will actually be beneficial and work to repopulate our gut flora. Good brands like Bio-Kult are very expensive.

Normally it is fructose that is associated with Insulin Resistance, Diabetes, Obesity, Non Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease and heart disease but…

This Study shows that good gut health is associated with better blood glucose control as well as being  beneficial for weight loss.

This report talks about how gut dysbiosis and pathogenic gut bacteria lead to Type 2 Diabetes, Obesity and Heart Disease.

This study done by John Hopkins Medical Institution shows how optimizing gut flora can reduce insulin resistance and non alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), obesity and related health problems…

So is the fructose in water kefir really bad? Do the probiotic microbes neutralize the side effects of the fructose?

Share your thoughts..

This post is part of Real Food Wednesday hosted by Kelly The Kitchen Kop

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Well, its that time of year again when zucchinis are growing in abundance and garden growers are trying to sneak them into any meal. That is one great thing about this abundant summer squash – it is so sneakable!

Here is a great tasting zucchini pancake recipe that has a bit of a kick to it:

Spicy Zucchini Coconut Pancakes

1 med. zucchini grated and squeezed

4 green onions

3 tablespoons of coconut flour

3 organic pastured eggs

3 tablespoons of coconut oil or butter (melted)

1/2 teaspoon of baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon cayenne ( feel free to adjust to taste)

pepper to taste

Coconut oil or butter for frying

Grate zucchini and give it a good squeeze too drain the water. Chop green onions.

In a bowl mix dry ingredients: Coconut flour, baking powder, salt, pepper and cayenne. Mix well. To the bowl add melted coconut oil, eggs, zucchini and green onions. Mix well again.

Melt coconut oil in a skillet and spoon 2 tablespoons of pancake mix into it. Cook pancakes until golden brown. Flip pancake and do the same on the other side.

Makes about 10 pancakes.

This post is part of Real Food Wednesday hosted by Kelly The Kitchen Kop

Enjoy!

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I love coconut oil. It is wonderful for many things. It is also one of the healthiest oils to use. It is a stable oil and does not oxidize easily and can be left at room temperature for up to two years. It is has antimicrobial, antifungal, antiviral and antiprotozoal properties. It is also great for fat loss as it stimulates metabolism and suppresses appetite. Another great property of coconut oil is that it can protect against heart disease by raising the HDL (good cholesterol) and improving the total cholesterol ratio.

So how can you incorporate coconut oil into you daily life?

1. Low Carb Coconut bread
2. Coconut in milk
3. Coconut Chicken Curry
4. Coconut Herb Buns
5. Coconut Pancakes (This recipe comes from CHEESESLAVE but I made a savory version of this pancake using my garden zucchinis that I will post soon)
6. Low Carb Breakfast Porridge
7. As a toothpaste
8. As a skin lotion (I use coconut oil with some peppermint essential oil)

Share your thoughts! How do you use coconut oil?

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I created a low carb grain free bread recipe that my kids and I enjoy. The bread toasts really nicely and has a very light texture. Kind of a blend between bread and cake.

Coconut Bread Recipe

1 cup of ground dessicated coconut
1/4 ground golden flax meal
5 pastured organic eggs
1/4 cup of coconut oil
1/4 teaspoon of baking soda
1/4 teaspoon of salt
2 drops of NOW non bitter stevia

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix together coconut, flax, salt and baking soda. Mix well enough so most of the lumps are gone. Add wet ingredients (eggs, stevia, coconut oil). Mix well again. Place batter in a buttered pan. Bake for 30-35 minutes until knife comes out clean.

Note: From what I have read the essential oils in the flax seed do not get destroyed.

This bread is really good. It has a very mild coconut flavour but in a not offensive kind of way. Nut butters go very well with this bread.

My lunch consisted of a cheese sandwich with fresh dill and tomato. You hardly notice the coconutty taste.

Enjoy!

This post is part of Real Food Wednesday hosted by Cheeseslave.

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I purchase some yummy organic organ meats from a local farmer very close to my house. Unfortunately when the poor animals went to the abattoir they did not individually wrap the organs to sell separately. Instead they just dumped random parts in a plastic bag. I knew I could be getting a wonderful surprise when I purchased them.

I am asking for some help in what to do with this. I desperately do not want to cook it up and feed it to the dogs.

I am currently also making a homemade chicken stock. I am apprehensive of adding this to my crock pot of chicken bones. The ears have hairs on them and I do not want them to fall out in my broth while cooking. I am wondering if this can happen because when they pluck chickens they put the chicken in hot water to loosen the feathers.

Any thoughts?

This post is part of Fight Back Fridays hosted by Food Renegade

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