There is nothing more that my kids love to eat more than their grilled cheese sandwiches. That is their favorite lunch food. Before I decided to give up grains due to Candida Yeast issues, grilled cheese sandwiches were one of my favorites as well.

The other day, i was watching the Rachel Ray Show and she was making a grilled cheese sandwich out of Tomato Slices. Her recipe used grain flour so I had to improvise a bit. Let me tell you how excited I was about this recipe!

Garlic Basil Grilled Cheese Sandwich

1 Large tomato

1/2 cup of ground almonds (or almond flour)

1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese

small handful of fresh basil (about 1/3 cup)

1 clove of garlic

1 Pasture raised free range egg

Cheese Slices

Salt and Pepper to taste

Butter for frying

Grind your almonds until they have a flour like consistency. Place into a medium mixing bowl. Add your Parmesan cheese and mix well.

Core and thinly slice your tomato (reserve the end pieces for a salad if you like) I got about 4 slices which would make 2 “sandwiches”.

Wisk your egg in a small bowl.

Finely chop your basil and garlic.

Warm up your skillet and melt butter for frying. Dip your tomato in the egg mixture. Then drag your tomato through the almond and Parmesan mixture. Make sure it is well coated. It will be a bit sticky. Do this for all your tomato slices.

Fry your tomato slices in butter. Once browned flip to the other side. This will take 3-5 minutes per side on low to medium heat.

When your tomatoes are nice and crispy top *half * your tomatoes with cheese slices and garlic basil mixture. To make a “sandwich”, place the remaining tomatoes on the garlic basil cheese. Cover your skillet with a lid and let the cheese melt.

Add salt and pepper to taste!

This recipe will make two delicious grilled sandwiches!

Recipe note: Fresh basil tastes very different from dried. You may substitute a good quality pesto if you do not have fresh basil.

Enjoy!

This recipe is submitted as part of Real Food Wednesday hosted by Kelly The Kitchen Kop.

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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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Do you ever wonder if your body has an immediate effect after eating a fast food meal? This news clip shows a visual effect of increased triglycerides and shows how much harder your heart has to work to pump blood. Go watch this 2 min news clip and come back to share your thoughts.

In this news video about fast food and its affect on triglycerides they demonize saturated fat. But we know that from this study and many low carb dieters that triglyceride levels go down when restricting carbohydrates.

Here Dr. Briffa writes about a group of McMaster University researchers in Ontario who reviewed all the scientific nutritional evidence linking to heart disease. They found saturated fats to not be on that list.

Some dietary factors were associated with an increased risk of heart disease. These were:

A higher intake of trans-fatty acids
A higher intake of foods of high glycaemic index or high glycaemic load

Please note the absence of saturated fat in this list. In other words, this review shows the totality of the evidence does not support a link between saturated fat and heart disease. By the way, higher intakes of meat and eggs were not associated with an increased risk of heart disease either. And neither was total fat consumption.

Most fast food is detrimental to your health because of rancid vegetable fats like canola, corn and soy. These oils are the omega 6 oils that are highly unstable.

One reason the polyunsaturates cause so many health problems is that they tend to become oxidized or rancid when subjected to heat, oxygen and moisture as in cooking and processing. Rancid oils are characterized by free radicals-that is, single atoms or clusters with an unpaired electron in an outer orbit. These compounds are extremely reactive chemically. They have been characterized as “marauders” in the body for they attack cell membranes and red blood cells and cause damage in DNA/RNA strands, thus triggering mutations in tissue, blood vessels and skin. Free radical damage to the skin causes wrinkles and premature aging; free radical damage to the tissues and organs sets the stage for tumors; free radical damage in the blood vessels initiates the buildup of plaque. Source: The Skinny on Fats By Mary Enig PhD and Sally Fallon

Trans fats have also been used in the fast food industries because they are cheap and make food taste good as well as increasing the shelf life of vegetable oils. Although some cities have banned the use of trans fats for frying deep fried food, restaurants may still serve margarine instead of real butter. Trans fats can also be hidden in pastries, peanut butter, pizza dough and cookies. So unless you are reading labels on your fast food, you can’t be certain that you are eating a trans fat free meal. Trans fats can have a negative effect on heart disease, cancer, diabetes, immunity, reproduction and lactation, and obesity. Source: Mary Enig PhD  Dangers of Trans Fats.

Some healthy choices for restaurant food:

• is baked fish with lemon and herbs
• bunless burgers (check for fillers)
• grilled steaks
• baked chicken
• vegetable stir fry’s minus rice cooked in butter

There must be more healthy options but I can’t think of anything else.

My question for you:

What are your healthy restaurant food options?

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

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In an attempt to get my children to eat (and like) liver I have been experimenting different ways to make it. I think I have come close. Although this recipe was not a hit with the kids at dinner time last night, it has great potential. I enjoyed and loved it very much and would not mind eating liver like this weekly. My children do not enjoy the texture of fried onions so I gave it to them without them.The onions contribute a lot of  the flavour. Next time I will add the fried onions into the food processor while making the liver mix.

I tried to make liver meatballs but had to much liquid and they went flat, turning into patties. This is a Low Carb Recipe using almonds instead of white flour or bread crumbs.

Yummy Liver Patties

1 lb of organic liver (I used pork)

1 organic pastured egg

1 cup of almonds (preferably soaked overnight and oven dried)

1/2 cup of milk

2 cloves of garlic

3/4 tsp cumin

1 large onion

Salt and Pepper to taste

Butter for frying

Chop onion and fry in butter until golden brown. Place liver, egg, almonds, milk, garlic, cumin in a food processor and blend mixture until smooth. Spoon out liver mixture into the frying pan and cook for a few minutes until golden brown. Flip the patties and cook for a few minutes. Top the patties with onions, salt and pepper.

My question to you:

What else could you add to make these kid friendly? I was also thinking about adding a can of tomato paste.

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

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Constipation is a big problem for a lot of people. Especially those that are transitioning to a low carb, low fiber diet. Did you know that this transition to low fiber is actually very beneficial to your colon health?

Of course constipation is not good, but using fiber to relieve this constipation can be very damaging. Fiber may actually be the cause of your constipation.

Konstantin Monastyrsky, the author of the Fiber Menace  describes how all our belief systems about the virtues of fiber have been all lies.

1. Fiber does not prevent colon cancer
2. Fiber does not prevent breast cancer
3. Fiber does not lower cholesterol
4. Fiber does not reduce the risk of heart disease
5. Fiber does not regulate blood sugar
6. Fiber does not reduce the risk of diabetes
7. Fiber does not decrease appetite
8. Fiber does not help with weight loss
9. Fiber does not keep the colon clean
10. Fiber does not help stop diarrhea
11. Fiber does not ease constipation

Watch these videos as Konstantin Monastyrsky explains the fiber misconceptions with scientific studies.

I have found 2 effective ways of regulating bowels without the use of fiber.

Lacto-fermented foods and coconut oil.

The lacto-fermented foods provide my gut with beneficial probiotics and enzymes required for food digestion as well as nutrient assimilation. The coconut oil stimulates bile production.

Dietary fat stimulates the release of bile from the gallbladder, which, in turn, stimulates the gastrocolic reflex. This in turn stimulates peristaltic mass movement, which, in turn, stimulates defecation. Source.

For healthy bowel function I try to eat lacto-fermented foods with every meal and take 2 tablespoons of coconut oil daily.

Share your thoughts!

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There is no need to stay away from all fruit on a low carb and anti-candida diet.

There is a great way to remove sugars and pre-digest the carbohydrates so they don’t negatively impact insulin levels. It is by way of fermentation.

There are many benefits that you can get from fermenting your fruit. When making sauerkraut the vitamin C content is much greater than in a plain old cabbage. The Vitamin C is increased by the fermentation process. So there is a good chance that there may also be a greater vitamin content in fermented fruit. The fermented fruit will not taste sweet. It will have the flavour of the fruit without its sweetness.

If you are suffering from Candida Yeast this is probably the only way to eat fruit. Although I still suffer from symptoms of Candida, they have not gotten noticeably worse from eating this fermented fruit.

I also get severe binging urges when I eat fruit due to insulin resistance (including strawberries and other low sugar fruit). Eating the fermented fruit actually eliminates any sugar craving I may be having and satiates my hunger.

Lacto-Fermented Fruit Recipe

1 pinapple
2 oranges
1 apple
1 inch piece of grated ginger
1/4 cup of rapadura sugar
1/4 cup of whey
1 teaspoon of salt

I cut up the fruit into small pieces. I put the pieces in my jar and gently squished them to get them juicy. I put in the salt, whey and sugar and mixed everything together. Close the jar up and let this sit (fully covered) at room temperature for 2 days. Transfer to the refrigerator after 2 days.

Note:
This is probably not a tasty recipe for most people. I have learned to love the taste of ginger. It spiciness makes the whole batch quite sour. However ginger is a great tonic for the liver and aids any tummy troubles. It is a great anti-inflammatory and and may inhibit cancer cells in the colon.

Since Candida yeast inhabit the colon, there may be some benefits of consuming ginger for candida.

This study shows how effective ginger is at inhibiting oral candida yeast and compares it to Nystatin drug.

The trick here is not to have the urge to add yeast to your fermenting fruit! This can turn your fermenting project into alcohol.

This article is part of Fight Back Fridays hosted by Food Renegade.

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In today’s culture of the low fat movement, the idea of slathering, eating and cooking with saturated fats is disgusting to most. To lose fat we need to eat light, light and even lighter. Popular weight loss shows demonize meats and saturated fats and forbid egg yolks and encourage anything lean.  So what else are we to think?

Low Fat Dogma!

If we eat light – we will be light, have a lighter carbon footprint, love our animals, and have clearer minds to see and know our inner spiritual selves and god.

What this is is an ideology. It is all perception.

When it is portrait on television as healthy, the government reinforcing it in food guides, doctors and nutritionist telling their patients, magazines touting it as the greatest way of losing weight and product manufactures jumping on the “lean” bandwagon it is no surprise that everyone would try to adopt this way of living.

It is easy to vilify the meat and fat as artery clogging.

Eating “light” saves the animals. Eating meat “murders” animals (I do own a t-shirt that reads “meat is murder”).

Heavy, greasy saturated fat is bad. Light vegetable polyunsaturated oils are good.

We know that studies have shown the opposite –  that saturated fats are good and vegetable fats (polyunsaturated fats) are bad. Meat does not cause heart disease.

We have evidence all around us. Obesity is epidemic. Never in history has obesity been so prevalent. Obesity has created new industries – new drugs and supplements, weight loss clinics, food products, food addiction centers etc. Do you think that spouting the truth, that eating saturated fat will decrease appetite and help folks lose weight is going to happen? No. There is too much money now in the weight loss industry and in the drug industries.

Just remember how persecuted Dr. Atkins was. Nobody wanted to hear his science. The perception of eating bacon and eggs as being healthy was laughed at.

How do you change this “low fat” and “eating light” perception? You can start by enjoying your saturated fats and not feeling guilty by doing so. If you have vegetarian ethics (and even if you don’t!), I recommend that you find a good organic farmer that loves their animals. You can find out how the animals are handled, what they are fed, if they get to hang out in the pasture fields and eat good healthy bugs.

Don’t forget that it is carbohydrates in all forms that increase insulin and get stored as fat (fruit, grains, breads, beans, lentils and sugars etc). To get the fat loss benefits of saturated fats, carbohydrates should be restricted.

When you eat meat and saturated fats you can

• be as spiritual as a vegetarian
• love your animals
• you can have a low carbon footprint by selecting food from local organic farms
• you can feel “light” by breaking your food addictions, feel satisfied after eating meals and stop carbohydrate cravings
• you can feel great and have lots of energy and a “clear mind” (brain fog is a symptom of candida  yeast which thrives on carbohydrates and sugars)

You can enjoy your bacon and eggs (yolks and all), lose weight and be healthier for it!

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The media, doctors and health experts all agree on 2 things that we are supposed to adhere too to be healthy and fit. Those two things are to eat less and exercise more. But it is extremely hard to eat less when you have uncontrollable cravings and food obsessions. Are we to forget and ignore what our bodies are trying to tell us when we can’t stop eating?

A few months ago my husband and I went out to eat at a restaurant in the city. I had a hard time finding food on the menu because they mainly served pastas, pizzas and sandwiches. There was only one Low Carb option and that was the Salmon Plate for a whopping $16-17. It was a salmon steak served with a small amount of veggies and a ridiculously small salad. But the salmon was a good size. It did fill the plate up and it did look like it would fill me up too.

The problem was that after leaving the restaurant I should have been quite full but instead I was still hungry. The salmon, even though it was big in size was baked with only lemon juice. There was hardly any noticeable fat on it. Fat (especially healthy saturated fat from healthy animals) helps quench those hunger pangs. It was a tasty meal, but it really lacked substance.

When I got home, I had to eat again. There is nothing more frustrating than being hungry after a meal you paid $17 for!

Now lets look at a different scenario…

If you check out my May 8th Low Carb and Anti-Candida menus blog, you will notice that at 4:30 pm I had a high fat snack, at 6:30 pm I had a homemade Caesar Salad with organic bacon. I made my own high fat salad dressing and then I added my bacon drippings on my salad. And that was all I ate for the rest of the evening and I felt like I ate a very satisfying dinner. If I had a low fat salad, I would need to eat a full meal with it!

Now my 2pm lunch on that day was rather low fat because my beef stew was made with Organic Grass fed Beef (grass fed beef is naturally low fat) and I did not add butter to it like I did with my dinner the night before. So I ended up needing a high fat snack in mid-afternoon.

So if you feel like you still have food cravings while on a low carb diet then add some more fat to your meals.

I get dismayed when the “health professionals” demonize fat and then talk about portion control. Are we supposed to ignore our bodily signals and live feeling deprived and hungry? And what about getting more exercise? Well exercise stimulates appetite! So with the “eat less, eat low fat and exercise more” philosophy you are setting yourself up for failure.

To watch your portions and eat smaller meals, add more fat to them. You will not be left hungry.

With love,

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Some days I just want to cry. From the moment I get up till the wee hours of the morning. I visit my doctor and get blood tests done. I get referred to a councilor and get handed a prescription. I know the prescription is not going to fix me. I know the councilor is not going to really help even though her intentions are wonderful and caring. I feel that my problem is physical.

The blood tests reveal nothing really abnormal except some severe iron deficiency and some mercury. I did not think anything about the iron deficiency since I have had this problem for a very long time (probably since I was a kid). The problem is that I have been eating lots of grass-fed organic beef, organic liver, I also eat dark leafy greens almost every day! (visit my Low Carb and Anti-Candida Menus Blog)

So how the heck am I not absorbing all this iron that I am ingesting?

I found out that celiac disease (which is an intolerance to gluten found in wheat and other grains) causes damage to the small intestine and inhibits absorption of vitamins and minerals. Iron deficiency is a sign of celiac disease. Never in my mind have I ever thought that I had celiac disease. I don`t get the physical signs (diarrhea and skin reactions) but on occasion I would suffer from bloating and gas (before going on a low carb diet) – but nothing extreme or excessive.

The thing is that a low carb diet is an anti-candida diet. And Candida Yeast do create bloating, gas and digestive upsets. That could be the reason why I don’t have gas or bloating anymore.

So sticking to my guns I was still researching if Candida Yeast can be the reason for my iron deficiency and low and behold I came upon this research on how Candida uses Iron to grow by taking it from its host and creating Iron deficiencies…

I don’t understand this paper very well. I will take it to my doctor next week and discuss it with him. I did find this from the paper…

So now that I know that the Candida is the probable thief and robbing my body and organ tissues from vital oxygen, I can now understand the true impact of this pathogenic organism.

Not only is it impeding digestion, inhibiting vitamin absorption, releasing toxins,  it is also literally driving me crazy!

I know that I have talked about my Generalized Anxiety Disorder and my experience with taking Effexor. But I have never admitted on this blog to having Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) or from suffering from Depression. But they are all symptoms of Candida Yeast.

I have told my doctor and the counselor that there is something WRONG IN MY BODY that is making my mind crazy. And their response is that that is the reason very reason that they give medicines to control and regulate brain chemistry.

How Has OCD and Anxiety Affected My Life?

• It took me six years to graduate high school instead of 4. I dropped out 3 times and transferred to three different schools
• It took me years to learn to drive because I was so anxious in traffic. I had got my license and did not drive for years. I had to take another road test to get my full license years later and that is when I was forced to relearn how to do it. I am one of those people that you yell and curse at in traffic.
• I have quit several jobs due to extreme stress and anxiety. I even suffered from anxiety serving pizza, cleaning houses, and even writing this blog.
• I am afraid to sleep. Yup, I think the house is going to burn to ashes and my kids will suffocate in their sleep. I check that they are breathing before I can go to bed.
• My marriage is in shambles and my husband does not understand my issues. He is the classic definition of normal.
• My father is elderly and lives quite far from me. When I can’t get a hold of him I jump to the conclusion that he is dead. He lives alone and I always fear the worst has happened.
• I am anxious about God and fear that He has abandoned me and that I am going to Hell.

Candida and Weight Problems

Candida releases many toxins (over 70!)  into the body and blood stream like ethanol and acetaldehyde and can have great affect on the metabolic system and therefore weight gain. Those toxins can also mimic estrogen and have a significant effect on thyroxine (thyroid hormone) and other hormones in your body resulting in excess weight.

Candida messes with your emotions and mental health. Emotional and stress eating is a huge problem for me. When a person is depressed and in the dumps the “I don’t care about anything” attitude creeps in. So why not indulge in the immediate gratification of the sweet tooth? Candida feeds on sugars for survival. So those sugars will look mighty irresistible for Candida sufferers and of course it is sugar that causes that extra weight.

Where to go from here?

I am going to do some more research on the Gut and Psychology Syndrome. I had heard about this a while ago but kind of brushed it off. But I now see how the pieces of the puzzle are fitting and know that the link between everything is the Candida Yeast.

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When it comes to weight loss there are so many products to choose from. There seems to be a food to fill any kind of need that we have. These franken foods come as…

Low Carb Tortilla’s, Low Carb Bread, Low Carb Chocolate, Low Carb Desserts, Low Carb Syrups, Low Carb Sweeteners and Low Carb Countdown Milk.

These foods all have artificial or modified ingredients in them. When I was vegetarian I ate plenty of fake meats, cheeses and sauces with horrible ingredients thinking they were healthy. I did not see any bad health problems until I was eating them for over a decade!

I now prefer to eat REAL food that my grandparents would recognize. So even if I am feeling emotional and want to sink my teeth into an apple or banana to get my sugar fix – I will. I will eat REAL honey. I will eat sprouted whole grain bread. It will cause my cravings to skyrocket and it will cause me to overeat. It may also cause a Candida Yeast outbreak.

But real food has real nutrition. Fake processed foods cause the real damage to your body (How else did I get insulin resistant!). Think about what happens every time man tries to interfere with food…

• Turning away from butter to margarine… we have created trans fats and a heart disease catastrophe!
• Turning away from raw milk/eggs to pasteurization… this has allowed for the industrialization and factory farming of animals and getting away from the traditional family farm.
• Turning away from whole grains to bleached and processed grains… These grains are so nutrient deficient that they need to ADD vitamins back into them.
• Turning away from nutrient dense spices to artificial flavours… These flavours are so dangerous that they kill brain cells.
• Turning to Genetically Modified Foods to mass produce food.
• Turning to fast food junk rather than slowly cooked nutrient dense traditional food.
• Turning to mass pesticide/fertilizer use and poisoning of our food, soil, water and air and abandoning traditional biodynamic organic ways.

There are still probably many ways that we alter food and in turn poison ourselves that I have not thought off.

Is it any wonder why we are sick?

Am I supposed to trust these people that put this junk on the market? I don’t think so.

All of this is done for one reason – For profit!

Don’t feel bad about cheating on your low carb diet with real food. Do it occasionally if it does not cause to much health and weight issues.

To your health and wellness,

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