Category Archives: Primal

Simple Tricks for Meals: Getting Butyrate from Your Diet

2/4/2022

A long time ago I wrote a series on butyrate because I believed it to be very valuable for health. Supposedly decreased cancer, decreased diabetes, decreased obesity, decreased leaky gut, improved brain health, and so much more–and now improved COVID outcomes. My sister sent me an article about it the other day.

I no longer think about butyrate and resistant starch routinely, but I have developed simple habits that add buytrate-producing foods to my family’s diet each day. I wanted to share them with you and remind you to keep at food for health. I don’t know who you are reading this, but I would like you to be healthy and feel good inside and out (emotionally, spiritually, and physically). When a person feels good, they can share that true joy and it survives bumps and potholes in the road.

Simple Tricks to Add Butyrate-Producing Foods to a Diet

Eat a plain green banana.

Freeze some green bananas (I peel them.) and then use them in smoothies.

Use a green banana in banana bread. (I replace one brown banana with a green banana in the recipe. It gives it a very nice texture my kids like.)

Toss some beans onto a salad.

Toss some beans into taco meat.

Eat chili with multi-colored beans.

Eat hummus.

Bake lots of potatoes ahead of time, then eat them reheated or slice them and fry them with onions for fried potatoes.

Baked beans.

Make a big batch of rice, and then use the leftovers for fried rice.

Toss green peas into anything you can: a salad, vegetable soup, fried rice.

Serve green peas as a quick side dish.

Toss nuts onto salads, onto hummus, into fried rice.

Eat a handful of nuts.

Note: Plantains are a wonderful source of butyrate-producing plant matter! You need to be a bit more adventurous to learn to cook them, but they are a real treat we love. Raw oats and corn tortillas are also high, so if you like those and they cause no problems, go for it. My kids tend to eat oats and corn frequently, but I find they’re not pleasing to my body in various ways I try to respect. Whole grain breads are also a rich source, but I hesitate to encourage bread because there are so many additives to it–and it often replaces vegetables and fruits calorically in many people’s diets.

Closing

It’s January, and a VERY hard month for those who live in winter-producing climates. You have to be tenacious and proactive to keep healthy in winter. Move. Reduce sugar. Cut down on breads and grains and comfort foods. Give yourself grace. Give yourself a kick in the butt. But please don’t top trying. Find a path that works for you.

Eat real, whole food as most of your food intake. Please. Please. Please.

Don’t get bogged down in the dogma and the institutions and the fundamentalism and the indoctrination and the propaganda. These things can really confuse you and overwhelm you. Keep it simple. Real, whole food. Take note of your body. Eat real, whole food and see how you do. Adjust foods as necessary.

Don’t forget to add the simple and easy butyrate-producing foods to your diet, which studies suggest will help you out. Decreased cancer. Decreased diabetes. Decreased long-COVID. But keep it simple.

Eat real food to live.

Terri F.

Article my sister sent me:

Long COVID: Gut bacteria may be key

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/gut-bacteria-may-play-a-role-in-the-development-of-long-covid

A Stay-At-Home Mom’s Diet Enters Medical Research

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gottschall

When I used to work as a physician, I wondered what it’d be like to stay home with the kids full-time. Some moms would say, “I HAVE to work. My kids drive me crazy.” I always thought to myself that I’d still like to try it and see. Maybe crazy is a state of bliss that I’d like quite a lot.

I did get to stay home, and to my chagrin, I did fall into crazy. Crazy nutrition. At first, I honestly did wonder if I had taken neurotic to its pinnacle, but I kept reading and reading. And over the short four years since I began having any interest in nutrition at all, other than having the best chocolate chip cookie recipe, there have been some major upheavals in medicine regarding nutrition, particularly regarding fat and cholesterol. But I know there will be more.

One upheaval that intrigues me, because I swear real food is pixie dust, is doctors using a real food diet to throw inflammatory bowel disease into remission without medicine. At Seattle Children’s Hospital, researchers are reversing serious cases of ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease using the exact same voodoo, or pixie dust (if you prefer), diet that Elaine Gottschall, a stay-at-home mother of two, used in the 1950s to save her 8 year-old daughter’s life from near-terminal ulcerative colitis. The diet, called the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD), was the last hope that Elaine had for possibly saving her child’s colon, maybe even the child’s life itself. Permanent poop collection bag? Death? How about we try this weird diet.

Dr. Sidney Valentine Haas’s Stodgy, Misinformed Diet

The SCD is not a new diet. It has been around in some form since approximately the 1920s, when Sidney Valentine Haas, MD was using it on his celiac and severely afflicted gastrointestinal patients. At this time, there was no known celiac disease and gluten connection. Dr. Haas, using close observation skills and taking good patient histories (all things falling into disfavor in today’s medical climate), felt that starchy carbohydrates and table sugar were bad for his patients. So he developed a diet which removed starchy foods and sugar, making it inherently gluten-free and grain free. He found that his patients did fine with fruit, and he strongly encouraged bananas, and he even thought there was something special about the banana.

His “banana” diet was pretty popular and was used to manage celiac disease until the gluten connection was verified. Then, Haas and banana diets fell into disfavor, ridicule even. However, Dr. Haas, a reportedly kindly man who lived into his 90s, never acquiesced that gluten elimination should be the sole treatment of celiac disease. He remained adamantly suspicious that most starchy carbohydrates were problematic and needed removed for a time (not a lifetime). He genuinely believed in his diet, and if you read closely, he is scorned for never succumbing completely to the hypotheses that gluten is the sole problem for celiac patients.

(Now, I don’t know whether he was right or wrong about gluten. I DO KNOW that there are celiacs who follow a STRICT gluten-free diet, never eating away from home, and I know they still have abdominal issues. So, perhaps his intuition is not as laughable as it seems. Perhaps, as time passes and we learn more, we will find facts that make him more right than wrong. I don’t know. History repeatedly shows genius in ridicule, and maybe there’s more to treating celiac than just taking away gluten.)

A Doctor -Shopping, Stay-at-Home Mom

This photo of Elaine Gottschall came from www.breakingtheviciouscycle.info , the official Breaking the Vicious Cycle and SCD website.

The SCD would have probably stopped right there if it hadn’t been for Big Magic (you really should read the book by this title, very good). Elaine Gottschall (now deceased, 1921-2005) called herself an ordinary, happy, stay-at-home, 1950s’ mom. She had two young daughters. One of her daughters, Judy, began experiencing incapacitating gut issues and was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis at the tender age of four years old. Little Judy was so sick and malnourished by the time she was 8, she had stunted growth and even her neurological system was shutting down. Elaine and Herb were told their daughter had two options: colon removal or death. Elaine wouldn’t hear it and refused to take death or colectomy (colon removal) as an answer for her daughter if she could do anything about it.

So she did what all desperate patients do (or parents of patients), she doctor shopped. After much doctor shopping and no hope in sight except surgery, an acquaintance of a friend pointed her to an outdated, nearly ancient physician. She finally landed in the arms (figuratively) of our now 92-year-old Dr. Sydney Valentine Haas. He started her daughter Judy on his version of what is now the Specific Carbohydrate Diet. Her daughter improved dramatically within days and even more in the months that followed, living a full life, even being able to eat a very diverse diet eventually.

Humiliating Success

Dr. Haas died within two years of meeting the Gottschall family. Would his diet die with him? No. Elaine Gottschall made it her mission to understand that man’s diet, even going back to school and earning degrees in biology, nutritional biochemistry, and cellular biology. If this diet helped Judy live and get her life back, she wanted to know why and share it with the others who were sick. Many times she wanted to give up, but her husband was convicted that the world needed this information that would be lost without Dr. Haas, and he knew Elaine was just the woman to do it.

Herb encouraged Elaine to write a book eventually called Breaking the Vicious Cycle, do health consults, and speak. She functioned at a grassroots level, and she touched thousands of lives, helping people turn their health around with the SCD. But, sadly, she could never break through to medical circles. Her daughter said: “She also wanted the acceptance from–if not approval of–the medical mainstream, which she never got. She was told stories by mothers who said their doctors would refuse to treat their children if they followed her diet…”

Doctors refusing to treat patients if they tried this diet? A diet that has now entered the halls of medical research with initial success? Elaine’s diet brought success to many suffering patients, but the patients’ doctors wouldn’t have it. How could a simple diet help? How could a stay-at-home mom know what she’s talking about? Who was she to challenge medical management?

Because of Elaine’s tenacity and courage (and ability to persist despite medical contempt), people today may have an opportunity to try diet over drugs. Some doctors are listening to patients and trying the SCD in clinical research. (See my last post.)

Elaine, Herb, and Judy (their daughter), thank you.

Closing

The SCD studies are small and sparse, but they’re pretty remarkable, especially in kids, whose healing capacities are always amazing. IF diet makes a difference, then I think Elaine Gottschall is right, the only way it’s going to get to medical doctors is if patients keep showing them. Dr. Suskind’s studies from Seattle are shedding some light, but they’re so small. With just a snap or a new successful medical discovery, his work will be trampled over forever, as Dr. Haas’s almost was.

Did Dr. Haas have it ALL right? No. Did Elaine Gottschall? No. Does the doctor named Natasha Campbell-McBride (who has taken Elaine Gottschall’s work further in her clinical practice, renaming her diet GAPS)? No. Does Dr. Suskind, a researcher using SCD in his studies? No. But continuing to cut out colons and continuing to prescribe immunosuppressants without ever trying significant dietary modification such as the SCD is irresponsible and, to me, unethical. Medical doctors maliciously, scornfully, and condescendingly name-call and ridicule diet theories they don’t agree with like pompous elitists. And guess what! When we do that, nurses, dietitians, pharmacists, and the public follow along. Then, we end up in a big mess. Like Days of Our Lives. Please stop the division.

You are never too small. You are never too insignificant. You are always enough. Your experience is for you. Your experience is for others. Live boldly with love and compassion.

Even your cooking can change someone’s life.

Ciao.

Terri

Sites and links I followed for information, which should always be verified before you even think about trusting anything…

Frontiers in Celiac Disease, pages 5-7: https://books.google.com/books?id=gqaDD3jkcfYC&pg=PA6&lpg=PA6&dq=haas%27s+banana+diet+celiac+disease&source=bl&ots=pPA2rdAt9_&sig=tgEgHivZWbdeSKX5j1Dajx243Iw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi1xNTukc_RAhVG4IMKHdtmBKo4ChDoAQglMAI#v=onepage&q=haas’s%20banana%20diet%20celiac%20disease&f=false

http://www.breakingtheviciouscycle.info/p/about-the-author/

Recipes for the Specific Carbohydrate Diet by Raman Prasad

Hypoallergenic Food

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Listen, you’ve heard the term hypoallergenic as it relates to your jewelry, your skin care products, and your laundry detergent, but have you ever thought about the food you eat? Have you ever thought about if what you eat is hypoallergenic? No, no. NOT sterile. Hypoallergenic doesn’t mean sterile!

You don’t blink an eye when a friend says, “Oh, I can’t wear cheap earrings. My ears get sore.” You get that! We can all relate to people needing hypoallergenic jewelry or skin products. But have you ever thought about the food you eat and whether or not it’s hypoallergenic to your system?

Yes, indeed! Just like these external substances can lead to immune reactions, so can the food you eat! However, the food you eat leads to a chain reaction of internal immune system activation that doesn’t just sit right there at the gastrointestinal (GI) tract.

You have immune cells lining the intestines which sample the foods you eat and decide whether or not they like it. Whether you like the food doesn’t matter. Whether the food you eat is healthy or not doesn’t matter. If the immune cells sample it and don’t like it, they are going to send out signals (histamines, prostaglandins, interleukins, interferons, and other cytokine signals) in the blood stream which can affect any organ system in your body: you stomach, your brain, your skin, your reproductive system, your lungs, your connective tissue (joints, as an example), your thyroid.

My Oligoantigenic (What!?!?) Diet

When I first started down this fascinating nutrition avenue a little over four years ago (from a classic diet of cereal for breakfast, a sandwich for lunch, and pizza or pasta for supper), one of the first things I learned about and tried was an “oligoantigenic diet.” I had read that some people with the same gastrointestinal malady that I suffered from had been treated in a medical research study with an oligoantigenic diet!

What in tarnation is an oligoantigenic diet? I’d never heard of that! Basically, it is a strict, hypoallergenic diet that allows only foods which are accepted to be very mild on the body’s immune system. Once I figured out that I could think of an oligoantigenic diet as a type of “hypoallergenic” diet, I got it! Choose foods which cause the least known reactions! For those of you familiar with a strict elimination diet, you know what I’m talking about here too.

So I started on a (miserable) diet consisting of three foods which don’t seem to rile up people’s immune systems too much: lamb (I didn’t even like lamb), plain sweet potato (I had only ever eaten those as fries), and white rice (which I had never eaten plain). Did I mention it tasted miserable? But persistence led me on a food journey of a lifetime (for a lifetime). And as I’ve heard it said, “I didn’t know I was feeling so bad till I started feeling so good!”

An oligoantigenic diet (or hypoallergenic diet) is NOT meant to be a long-term diet. A person starts with a small group of 3-5 foods and builds from there, learning to observe signs and symptoms that tell him or her that a particular food category raises immune reactions (by observing for headaches, GI changes, spikes in fatigue, skin rashes, and other clues).

The Pesky Foods

Never once going through pharmacy school, medical school, residency, and hundreds of hours of continuing education did I ever hear about a hypoallergenic, oligoantigenic diet or even an anti-inflammatory diet. (I was served plenty of donuts, bagels with cream cheese, and pizza, though.) It took me going after my own health to learn about nutrition.

Since my oligoantigenic diet, I’ve done a lot more reading. What I’ve found is that the same foods that doctors KNOW are immune provoking because they cause true, life- threatening food allergies, are the same foods that can be removed to lighten the load of a body stressed by health problems. By removing known immune-provoking, inflammmatory-producing foods, the body gets a rest from the prostaglandins, histamine, interleukins, interferons, and other cytokines that it makes in response to something it thinks is harmful.

Although any food can cause allergic and sensitivity issues, there are eight foods that are medically known to cause the majority of the reactions. Why? These foods have what I call “pesky proteins.” They have proteins in them that have very, very strong bonds, making them difficult for our digestive tracts to break down. The better food is broken down into its smallest parts in our intestinal tracts, the less inflammatory it is to us.

The pesky eight foods are:

Peanuts
Tree nuts
Milk products
Egg
Wheat
Soy
Fish
Shellfish

These are the common drop-dead if you eat them allergenic foods. But I’m not talking about drop-dead allergies here. I’m talking about you and me and Mr. Smith walking around with headaches, bloating, fussy guts, allergies, asthma, psoriasis, eczema, depression, fatigue, puffy eyelids, puffy faces, coronary artery disease, increasing forgetfulness, dry and itchy eyes, chronic sinus problems, joint pain–do I HAVE to keep going? I sure can. Sometimes by simply eliminating the above food categories (with NO cheating), a person can gauge how much food is affecting their health.

Enter Anti-Inflammatory Diets

Since trying my three ingredient, hypoallergenic diet, I’ve discovered a whole world of anti-inflammatory type diets, which aren’t as strict as an oligoantigenic (hypoallergenic) diet. I find it fascinating that these diets often eliminate the Pesky Eight foods, capitalizing on what we know about the immune system and health! However, anti-inflammatory type diets incorporate and expand further on the idea of the immune system and inflammation in the role of health problems.

Each named anti-inflammatory diet (sometimes called autoimmune diets) has its own unique quirks. In general, though, these diets do three things.

Eliminate most of the Pesky Eight foods (although seafood is usually encouraged if a person knows they are not truly allergic) and a few other problematic foods which don’t make the top eight. (Things like corn, any gluten grains, beef, chocolate, citrus, tomato, and beans)
Eliminate processed foods, refined foods, including sugars.
Include abundant vegetables and fruits.

Anti-inflammatory diets (autoimmune diets) seek to eliminate the most common food problem causers and also try to bring in food problem solvers.

Conclusion

Diets in general can be overwhelming, and when they talk about restricting food groups, diets can be downright terror-provoking. As I’ve journeyed away from an oligoantigenic elimination diet, my own diet landed very similarly to many of these anti-inflammatory type diets. It wasn’t by choice and planning. That’s just how it fell. I can’t eat many of the Pesky Eight foods and feel good doing so. My body likes hypoallergenic food best.

I hear a lot of people say that no good diet restricts food groups. I really, really understand what they’re saying. However, LOOK AT THE PESKY EIGHT! They are good, healthy foods!!!!! But if the GI tract immune system triggers a cascade that sets the rest of the body on edge, you’re not going to feel good.

So please, when someone says they can’t eat dairy or wheat, give them a break. When they say they can’t eat eggs or beef, give them a nod. It’s just as frustrating for them as it is you. And if you have any nagging health problems, talk with your doctor about a dietary referral to see if an oligoantigenic food trial helps you gain control of any of your issues.

Don’t use anything on my site as medical guidance or instruction. I hope it sparks curiosity to help you want to learn more. And, oh yes, I like to think that for most people, autoimmune type diets can be expanded with a whole health approach.

Be well. Be curious.

Terri

Eleven Reasons THAT Won’t Work For You

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Xiao_er_lun_-_Confucius_and_children It’s so easy to let jealousy torment you when your husband loses 30 pounds eating very low carb (while sneaking in Snicker bars)–and you only lose 5 and swear it makes you manic. Why does it work this way?

It’s so easy to cry and wallow in yourself when you try everything for your multiple sclerosis (MS) and nothing seems to make it budge–well, not like it did for Terry Wahls, who changed her diet and lifestyle and went from a zero-gravity recline wheelchair to riding a bike. What does she have that you don’t?

And how about these people with cancer? The people who go to Mexico and get coffee enemas? Why does one come back glowing and cured and the other one we remember with love and frustration, saying, “Tsk, tsk. She wouldn’t take chemotherapy and look what happened to her. Goes to show. . . ”

I could go on and on. He dropped gluten and his arthritis went away. She started coconut oil and frankincense for her dementia and now she recognizes her family again. He gave up dairy, started some aloe, and his constipation is gone for good. Going raw, vegan cured her chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia. Dropping all grains and all dairy and all sugar and starting physiologic folate helped his autism. Fish oil cured her depression.

Can I stop? Do you get the idea? Is this you?

Shocker. Spoil alert.

Stop reading if you’re completely sold on a new diet or have just spent big money on a new supplement because I have some bad news.

It may not work for you. (Gasp. Shocker.)

But I have some good news too! It MAY work!

Today I want to help you understand maybe why you’re not getting better doing the good things you’re doing. Why each person’s health plan (diet, supplement, exercise, sleep, etc.) must be tailored individually. It sounds overwhelming to think you actually have to formulate your own health plan, that it’s not written out there for you in some book, but isn’t that really the journey of our whole life? Finding out what makes us tick? What brings us peace? Coming to terms with our limitations and expanding our strengths?

“I Don’t Have MS, Terri.”

Medical doctors group symptoms and tests together to arrive at a diagnosis. A label. A name. The name helps us to know what to expect for a patient’s outcome. What we’ve tried before that has helped or not helped.

Dementia. Psoriasis. Ulcerative colitis. Multiple sclerosis. Migraines. Crohn’s Disease. These are labels. They are necessary labels! For example, we know that the group of people who have ulcerative colitis symptoms and tests will need monitored for colon cancer, and that many celiac patients can be symptom-free following gluten-free diets. Having a label helps!

But there are tough cases. Cases which don’t fit, and sadly, they’re more common than medical doctors want to admit or even know about. These patients doctor shop, so often a doctor isn’t given the chance to even know that refractory cases are as rampant as they are. There are diagnoses that don’t have good treatments, like irritable bowel syndrome and fibromyalgia.

These patients, these refractory cases, are like a nebulous cloud which floats around looking for answers. Why can’t they get their answers?

I have a friend (actually I have many friends with MS, sad to say) with classic multiple sclerosis (MS) symptoms and diagnostic tests. She repeatedly tells me, “Terri, I don’t have MS. I’ve never believed I have MS.”

You’d think as a medical doctor, I’d laugh my head off silly.

Maybe you, as a vociferous alternative health proponent are thinking, “She must not be doing it right. She needs to do this [insert your desired diet or supplement]. She needs to try harder. She needs to try longer. . .”

Now, my friend is a little frustrated. She has had MS for years, and sometimes it’s better. Sometimes it’s worse. She has tried nearly everything.

What I want you to think about for people–is the possibility that our labels group similar health cases together which may stem from different causes. And when that is the case, when the underlying cause of presentations which LOOK the same is NOT the same, a person can bang her head into a wall (this is one of my favorite images because I’m so prone to doing this if I’m not careful) wondering, “Why not me? Why can’t I? Why did it work for her?” Except in a highly motivated individual who says, “I’m moving on. I can do this. That failure taught me something,” this can be counterproductive and harmful.

One Leukemia: 11 Diseases

And now I get to the crux of my post. When I was in medical school, I learned about acute myelogenous leukemia (AML). I learned it as ONE disease entity. ONE (a bad disease entity at that). New research shows that this AML that I learned about as one disease, is actually 11 diseases, with 11 different causes–which show up looking the same! This helped explain why some people responded so well to treatment and some people tragically did not. We weren’t treating ONE disease, we were treating ELEVEN!

See: Genomic Classification and Prognosis in Acute Myeloid Leukemia

I think that most of our clinically diagnosed diseases will ultimately be found to be caused and/or impacted in different ways. Until that day that you know exactly what the cause of your illness is–your obesity, your thyroid problem, your irritable bowel, your IBD, your arthritis, your insomnia, your depression, your constipation, your MS, and so on–until that day, you’re just going to have to take a flat-out comprehensive approach to have the best outcome.

So…

Should you eat low carb?
Should you eat high fat?
Should you eat dairy?
Should you eat meat?
Should you eat grains?
Should you take calcium?
Should you supplement with CoQ?
Should you take iodine?

And so on and so forth. Whether you should or shouldn’t may depend on your genes, how they are expressed, your gut microorganisms (bacteria, fungi, viruses), and how your environment (sun, exercise, sleep, diet, daily doses of inadvertent toxins) interacts with those.

There is no ONE diet. There is no ONE lifestyle. In fact, there’s probably no one dementia. No one MS. No one IBS. There may be 11. So find a platform which resonates with you. Try it. Be willing to modify it. Don’t abandon what works. Keep what works and build your plan. Don’t despair. Don’t give up. Start with absolutely real food if you have a problem you really need to tackle. And move forward, tweaking as your body tells you.

(And, of course, seek medical advice and always be safe.)

Terri

Photo credit: By An unknown Chinese artist [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

How Do You Eat That Vegetable? Parsnips.

“I LOVE those French fries!”

Have you tried parsnips? Have your kids tried parsnips? Do you or your family like parsnips? Do you have a great parsnip recipe? Do you know what parsnips are?

For my kids, I often find keeping dishes simple and flavors not too complex suits their taste buds more at this young age. Plus, when you’re eating a whole, real foods lifestyle, faster and easier is much better for the cook, too! We made parsnip “fries” to prepare for this post. When my husband and kids came into the kitchen, I was frantically grabbing fries to stash and hide behind the coffeemaker so I wouldn’t have to make more to photograph! I was glad the “fries” were a gastronomical success! M5 year-old daughter said, “I love those French fries, Mom.”

This wasn’t always the case.

If you can do it with a potato…

As I’ve pointed out, we’ve only been eating this way for about two years now. The word out there is: If you can do it with a potato…you can do it with a parsnip. So I tried parsnips in soups, roasts, mashes, and casseroles. (“What is this, Mom?” As in, they didn’t approve.) I even made parsnip fries, which you could tell they didn’t mind, but they didn’t really eat many. My kids were just too close to their potatoes. Near removal of the potato and addition of parsnips on occasion, and my kids can now tally parsnips to the growing list of vegetables they’ll eat!

What am I saying? If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again! Kids need repetitive exposure and a great example. Persist in a vegetable-rich diet for your family. Understand it may take years. Accept it and don’t give up. In the meantime, just be prepared to eat a lot of vegetables yourself…

What is a Parsnip?

It is a root vegetable which looks like a fat, white carrot (one of its relatives).

Commonly cultivated and eaten in Europe before the potato was introduced. (Do you know where potatoes originated from? The mountains of Peru.)
Usually thought of as a fall and winter vegetable, but since it stores so well, it is available year round.
It is a starchy vegetable and has a sweet, nutty taste and a potato-like texture when cooked.
Frost and refrigeration bring about a sweeter taste.
Neck to neck, there’s not much nutritional difference between a parsnip and potato. Parsnips have a little more calcium and a little more fiber. Parsnips are a little (not much) lower on the “net carb” ladder than a potato. The only real difference I can think of is that a potato belongs to the family called a “nightshade” and a parsnip doesn’t. (Nightshades are excluded for people who follow an anti-inflammatory diet because some minor research indicates they may be detrimental to the lining of the GI tract, may increase the body’s production of inflammation-producing chemicals, and increase arthritis and achiness in people. So someone on an anti-inflammatory diet could easily replace the potato with the parsnip.)

Parsnips are nice because they keep in your refrigerator forever. I choose them and store them like I do carrots. Often they come coated in a waxy material, so I always peel my parsnips with a potato peeler before using them to get this strange stuff off.

Then, do what you’d do to a potato! Here’s one to try, but don’t stop here!

Parsnip Fries

Parsnips, washed and peeled
Olive oil
Salt as desired
Garlic powder and onion powder if desired

Preheat oven to 375-400 degrees Fahrenheit (191-204 degrees Celsius). Cut the parsnips so that they resemble French fries. Toss in just enough olive oil to lightly coat. Sprinkle with salt and other seasonings. Lay each cut fry on a baking sheet so that the fries have space between them. You may need to use two baking sheets if you’re making a lot. (If you get them too close together, they steam each other and get soggy rather than crispy. Uck.)

Baking times seem to vary immensely. The best idea is to just watch. I start by baking in the preheated oven for about 10-15 minutes (but still watching them), and then I take them out and flip the fries. I bake for another 10-15 minutes or so. The goal is a fairly golden brown fry that isn’t burnt and isn’t soggy. Sometimes I remove the ones that look done before the rest.Taste before serving and add more seasoning as desired. Serve hot. Nobody likes cold fries of any kind. Do they?

Family “gustar” report: 5/5 ate these fries all gone. Will definitely try to include these more in our repertoire.

Note: Parsnips are discouraged for the GAPS/SCD diets.

So what vegetables are YOU all eating? ~~Terri

Other vegetables in The Vegetable Series: Rutabagas, artichokes, kohlrabi, and jicama.

Iodine Post 2, More Iodine Introduction and Review to Lead Up to Iodine in Fertility

1 Reply

Today continues on in the long, arduous, controversial trek that is iodine. For this post, I had wanted to take a critical look at how iodine affects fertility, both male and female, and pregnancy. The post was too long, so I am splitting it into three parts.

More iodine introduction and review today because I want to stress again how iodine deficiency may be present despite the common medical community saying it isn’t in industrialized/developed countries.
Iodine and pre-conceptual/conceptual fertility tomorrow or so, as time allows me to get my citations in somewhat presentable documentation form.
Iodine and post-conceptual fertility/pregnancy the post or so after that. (Notice the “or so?” Moms always learn to be wishy-washy on timing of events, right?)

I spent a long time searching about fertility and iodine, and thus my absence in publishing blog posts lately. One article and question always leads to another and another. Despite looking high and low, I will make no great conclusions regarding iodine and fertility. Sorry. Hypothyroidism (low functioning thyroid gland) and hyperthyroidism (over-functioning thyroid gland) clearly do play a role in male and female fertility, but connecting the dots to iodine has not been performed much yet in research studies. However, we DO know that iodine deficiency is one cause of hypothyroidism.

My take, off the cuff, without sources and science, regarding iodine

Although we absolutely need iodine, our bodies seem to become adjusted to regulating our thyroids and bodily systems based on how much iodine we give them. Our bodies make do, down-regulating this pathway and up-regulating that pathway, until a critical iodine low point at which the system fails and you see the serious consequences of overt hypothyroidism and offspring with severe deficits, such as mental retardation. Before that severe iodine deficiency crisis hits, there are varying degrees of “normal” a body can manage to function at in different people with the iodine amount provided–which probably aren’t really “completely normal” functioning states but good enough to sustain life and reproduction with little noticeable compromise.

To significantly replace iodine at this point, when a person is “low in iodine” but functioning “okay” (where the body has managed to find a nice “homeostasis” regarding iodine use), can do one of three things. It can:

1) Benefit the body without negative thyroid side effects (the goal and the most common outcome).
2) Bring about a hypothyroidism.
3) Bring about a hyperthyroidism.

If a person is already hypothyroid from low iodine intake, even if mildly so, hopefully iodine replacement will allow the body to start optimizing its iodine use for improved thyroid function and the functioning of other tissues that use iodine, such as the ovaries, breasts and prostate without any ill effects. In fact, most people do fall under the umbrella of tolerating iodine supplementation just fine and benefitting from it, but doctors worry a lot about iodine bringing about hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism in what were observably “normal” people. And this does happen. Cruise the internet for research studies and iodine supplementation anecdotes, and you’ll see good and bad outcomes. (To optimize replacement with the least amount of negative thyroid response, iodine supplementation needs to be taken along with some other important co-nutrients: selenium, vitamin C, and zinc. This is a topic for another post.) Iodine is a mixed, controversial medicine bag.

As an obvious reminder, don’t use anything in my posts as medical advice, only use it for introductory informational purposes. The internet is a not a doctor. And there can be huge risks from implementing what you find on internet health sites. Walk cautiously, and find a healthcare person you DO trust to talk things over with.

Let’s remind ourselves of why a person would be iodine deficient from the last Iodine Post and then eventually move on to what I could find regarding iodine on male and female pre-conceptual/conceptual fertility tomorrow…

Iodine deficiency erratically riddles the population of developed societies. Why? Who is at risk? Am I? Are you? Why do they say we are “iodine sufficient” if we are not?

Why would well-fed people be iodine deficient?

(I am omitting the discussion of goitrogenic foods and halides, which put people at risk for iodine deficiency disorders, despite adequate iodine intakes. I will discuss those in later posts. It is an important topic which needs its own post.)

Real food iodine sources primarily include dairy, eggs, ocean seafood, and seaweed. Iodine can be a dietary toughie to get because levels of iodine fluctuate greatly EVEN IN THESE REAL FOODS. I would like to contrast this with nutrients such as B vitamins and magnesium, which although they are diminished in our modern food sources, they are abundant in MANY, diverse food sources which people eat, especially real food advocates.

Milk iodine content will vary depending on if the grass cows eat has iodine (Are they grazing on coastal pastures or iodine-deficient Great Plains grass?), if cows are supplemented with iodine-containing feed, and if iodine containing washes are used prior to milking.
Egg iodine content will vary depending on if the chickens are fed iodine supplemented chicken feed or not.
Vegetables and plants have no need for iodine, although they will take it up from the soil, passing it graciously on to us. Most soils away from the ocean coasts are iodine deficient (iodine is most abundant in ocean water, which falls on the land in the form of the rain cycle, replenishing coastal soil and plants with iodine from the sea), so eating “locally grown” food from iodine deficient soils will provide less iodine content.
Meat iodine content will vary, again based on what animals are fed or where they are grazing.
Sea salt mostly has only trace amounts of iodine.
Bread products use bromine rather than iodine-type dough conditioners, like they used to. (Heck, homemade bread doesn’t use either!) I realize to some readers that bread is a processed food, but it is eaten by most people. And the replacement of iodine-based dough conditioners for bromine-based dough conditioners, which interfere with iodine utilization in the body, plays a significant role in iodine deficiency disorders and the decreasing amount of iodine intake in the United States.
Seafood and seaweed’s iodine content vary by the kind of seafood but is usually a lot more predictable than the foods listed above.

Who is at risk? Examples.

If you stop and think, you can easily identify why people would be iodine deficient:

Case 1: An American woman who is dairy-free, doesn’t like seafood, and who has switched over to non-iodized sea salt because she thinks it tastes better. She still eats bread, but her bread has no iodine, and in fact does use a bromine derivative for dough conditioning. Hopefully she eats eggs and lives on the coast.

Case 2: An American college student who eats only bagels, cereal bars, or Pop Tarts for breakfast, sandwiches with chips at Subway for lunch, and some freezer-kits for supper. All these processed foods may not provide enough iodine, since non-iodized salt is used. Hopefully, some iodine is sneaking in through the cheese and eggs used in the products chosen. But we don’t know.

Case 3: A family in Australia who eats strictly organic, without realizing that studies show that organic dairy has less iodine, organic bread in Australia has no iodine, and their fruits and vegetables are grown in an iodine depleted area. They worry about mercury and radiation in seafood, and one child has an egg intolerance/allergy, so they shy away from eggs. I’m not sure where this family gets enough iodine. Maybe they take a multivitamin.

Case 4: A 67-year-old man who has lactose intolerance, who shuns salt because of blood pressure issues, who only eats the egg whites (not high in iodine) due to cholesterol concerns, and whose wife doesn’t like fish at all.

Case 5: A vegan who eats no dairy, no eggs, no meats, and no seafood. She could eat seaweed but doesn’t like the taste. Iodine intake is not lookin’ good.

Why do they say we are “sufficient” if we are not?

(Emphasized phrases are bolded by me.)

From The Proceedings of the Nutrition Society, 2010:

The WHO [World Health Organization] prevalence data emphasise that iodine deficiency is not only a problem of developing countries; the highest prevalence of iodine deficiency is in Europe (52.0%), where the household coverage with iodised salt is the lowest (approximately 25%), and many of these countries have weak or nonexistent control programmes for iodine-deficiency disorders. (1)

and The American Journal of the Medical Sciences, 2009:

IDD [iodine deficiency disorder] can occur in iodine replete-environments. A high index of suspicion is needed to recognize these cases. It is pertinent that the correct diagnosis be made to avoid unwarranted life-long thyroxine therapy in patients presenting with goiter and hypothyroidism, which is easily treatable with iodized salt. These cases underscore the need for considering iodine deficiency in the etiologic diagnosis of goiter and hypothyroidism, even in iodine sufficient regions. (2)

From my research, I am concluding that iodine deficiency is insidiously surfacing in individuals and small subpopulations (for example, pregnant women, vegans, or those with multiple food intolerances) in many developed countries, probably riddling whole populations like a shot-gun due to unique dietary patterns and habits of individuals and their families. How is it that the medical community, chomping on their brominated office donuts, sipping their Coffee-Mate tainted coffee, and brushing their teeth with fluoridated Crest, may be slow to recognize this? (Yes. This was me.) Well, when the scientific community prudently checks to see if an area is getting enough iodine, they look at levels as a POPULATION, not in individuals. To determine the iodine sufficiency of an area, “on-the-spot” urines are checked for iodine in a sample of hopefully “representative” people.

Spot checks of urine for iodine content are known to be erratic and insensitive, so they can’t be used to determine true iodine status of an individual, but when they are collected and pooled together an overall snapshot of the area (or population) in question can be gained. The median (That’s the number that occurs in “the middle” when all the result values are lined up from smallest to greatest–it is not the average/mean.) is then used to determine if the tested population is iodine sufficient.

The median value determined can still “hide” a significant amount of the population who may be deficient. What values are on the low side of the median? How low do they go? If most people in the community who are checked use iodized salt and drink milk, well, those folks are probably iodine sufficient and pooled results tell the researchers that “all is well.” However, if you and your family don’t drink milk and skip iodized salt, plus you all hate seafood, your low urinary iodine spot check will be lost on the low side of the median. You’ll be told your community or population is iodine sufficient, and you won’t change a thing you eat. Iodine deficiency affects us as individuals, but unfortunately, iodine evaluations are made based on populations. True, accurate testing in individuals is pretty intensive. It requires a 24-hour urine collection, and so just getting “eyeball” spot urine results and pooling them together makes the most sense for determining a society’s iodine status. (3)

Bottom Line

So as I did in the last post, I encourage you to take inventory of your family’s commonly eaten foods to see if you may be at risk for mild iodine deficiency despite your government and medical societies saying: “There is no concern of iodine deficiency in the United States (or Australia, France, etc.).” I’ll bring a wealth of information eventually on iodine to the blog, but it takes me time. Meanwhile, just explore your diets, and make sure you’re getting some foods which usually have decent sources of iodine.

Remember, food counts. It really matters. It matters for you and your family and their families to come. Let’s move on to iodine and fertility tomorrow-ish…

Terri

Sources:

1. Iodine deficiency in industrialized countries. Zimmerman M. Proceedings of the Nutrition Society: Conference on ‘Over-and undernutrition: challenges and approaches. 2010; 69: 133-143. (Full text link.)

2. Iodine Deficiency Disorders in the Iodine-Replete Environment. Nyenwe EA and Dagogo-Jack S. The American Journal of the Medical Sciences. Jan 2009; 337 (1): 37-40. (Full text link.)

3. Estimation of iodine intake from various urinary iodine measurements in population studies. Vejbjerg P, Knudsen N, et al. Thyroid. Nov 2009; 19(11):1281-6. (Abstract link.)

Hobos

This makes five packets for me, but it could EASILY make more! I just get lazy.

2 pounds ground beef (grass fed beef imparts some extra health benefits)
1 and 1/2 onions, sliced into circles or as desired
1/2-1 potato or sweet potato per person, sliced
1 carrot per person, peeled and cut into coins, not painfully thin, but not so thick it takes them forever to cook
Salt
Pepper
Garlic powder, optional
Onion powder, optional
Olive oil, just enough to lightly coat the vegetables
Aluminum foil
Parchment paper, optional (I recently learned to use it to minimize aluminum transfer to foods cooked in foil. Compliments of salixisme.wordpress.com)

1. Mix all of your vegetables together in a large bowl. Toss with just a little olive oil to coat, and sprinkle if desired with salt, pepper, garlic and onion powders. I found if I don’t use a tad of oil, the vegetables want to stick to the foil or parchment.

2. In a medium-sized bowl, place your ground beef. Season it with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder to taste. I probably use a teaspoonful of salt, 3-4 shakes of ground pepper, and a couple shakes each of garlic and onion powder.

3. Lay out large rectangles of aluminum foil and line with parchment paper if desired!

4. Place a pat of ground beef (remember this makes 5 pats for us, but it can easily be divided into more) on each rectangle of aluminum foil. I push the pats down into irregularly shaped patties. Top with the mixed vegetables.

5. Fold the packets such that all the contents will stay enclosed, or draw up all the sides like a “hobo” bag.

6. Place on hot grill for about 20-30 minutes. (Sometimes I cheat and open one up, checking to make sure the beef is done as I like it.) If you make them in the oven, it takes about twice as long. You just want to make sure your carrots and potatoes are tender and the beef is done. Steam escapes when you open so be very careful!

7. Remove from heat, and serve in packet or transfer onto a plate. I usually divide one in half for each of my kids.

8. My kids like to top with mustard and ketchup.

Family “gustar” report: 100% success (5/5 of us)! When a friend asked about what in the world to do with all of her ground beef, I suggested these. Her family of six loved them, too!

Certainly hope you’re having a great week!

~~Terri

How Do You Eat That Vegetable? Kohlrabi.

2 Replies

So far we’ve hit artichokes, rutabagas, and jicama in “The Vegetable Series,” all vegetables I only learned to make AFTER our family’s big eating change. Today we’re going to add kohlrabi to the pot. Kohlrabi takes me back to my high school, big-hair days. I first (only) ate it at the house of one of my best friends, fresh garden-picked kohlrabi, sliced and eaten raw with a sprinkling of salt, with all her family gathered around the table. Fun times. Her mom was a cardiac nurse. No wonder they ate kohlrabi. But YOU don’t have to be a cardiac nurse or doctor to know the advantages of kohlrabi! Uh, uh.

Terry Wahls’, MD reversed her debilitating multiple sclerosis using a vegetable dense (also meats, fruits, and other food components) diet. One of her “rules” is that sulfur-rich vegetables must be eaten every day, about 3 cups worth. Kohlrabi counts as a sulfur-rich vegetable, which helps regenerate a necessary pathway for dealing with “toxins”, called the glutathione pathway. Sulfur-rich vegetables are also important for mitochondrial function, enzyme structure and function, and dealing with heavy metals.

Coal + Rob + Bee = Kohlrabi

Geesh. Learning to pronounce the names of some of these vegetables requires more effort than learning to eat them. So to start off, the vegetable called “kohlrabi” is pronounced to my ear like these three words combined: coal + rob + bee. Which is different from how I was pronouncing it before this post, a cross between what you get for Christmas if you’re naughty and a Jewish teacher of the Torah: coal + rabbi.

A wee kohlrabi plant in our garden. You can just see the bulb forming. Darn rabbits about ate all the leaves until we sprayed them with red pepper mixed in water and put out cute little flower wind-catchers.

Kohlrabi is a member of the same family as cabbage, Brussels, and cauliflower, the brassica (or cruciferous) family. In fact, its name is German for cabbage (kohl) and turnip (rabi). (1) (If you like languages, then think about “cole slaw.”) Although it looks like a root vegetable (such as beets or carrots), it grows as a bulb above the ground. I want to point out that cruciferous vegetables may interfere with thyroid hormone and iodine utility, however, some of my reading suggests that if you have enough co-nutrients, like selenium, this may not be a problem. So hopefully I’ll get a post out about this as I work through the iodine posts.

Good. Good. How do you eat them?

Without a doubt, my favorite way to eat kohlrabi is raw. It tastes like a radish without the spiciness and is every bit as crunchy. However, like many, many vegetables, you can steam it, roast it, grate it for a slaw, stir-fry it, or throw it in a soup. Fear should cause no restraint here.

How do you prepare them?

Chop off the greens. If the greens are still fresh looking, you can sauté or steam them as you would spinach or any other green you like. (If you’re not sure how to make greens, leave a question in the comments, and I can throw out some ideas.) If they are not fresh looking, and you want to use them anyhow, then wash them up and toss them in some broth you may be making. If you want, discard them. I’ve started composting this year, so my wilted greens go here. (I even Googled chemtrails a week or two ago. I am so lost. No going back now. Please can I have my aluminum deodorant back yet? 🙂 )

Deeply peel the bulb. Wash kohlrabi, and then start peeling. There is a fibrous outer layer that you want to completely remove. You can see the fibers running along the bulb, so it’s pretty apparent how deep to cut. I use a paring knife to peel them, rather than a potato peeler, and I hack off the ends because they’re hard to peel. Once it’s all peeled, slice it up and eat it with some salt. Or cook it up however you choose.

Kohlrabi keeps well unpeeled in the fridge, although the leaves do not. I’ve had mine in there before for a week or more (admittedly really a lot more). The leaves only last a couple of days or so.

Do your kids like it?

Yes. All three kids (girls aged 10, 8, and 5) liked kohlrabi raw. My husband, one daughter, and I all liked the kohlrabi roasted.

Recipes ideas and recipes from other sites:

Roasted kohlrabi: I have made roasted kohlrabi where I chopped the kohlrabi into small cubes, added chopped onion, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and olive oil to moisten, spread in a single layer on a cookie sheet, and roasted at 400 degrees Fahrenheit (204 degrees Celsius) until golden brown. It looked like roasted potatoes, but they were not a bit starchy and had a bit of the cabbage family bite. Three of us liked it (out of 5), but next time I would mix it with a starchier vegetable like sweet potato or butternut squash for depth of flavor and texture.

Mashed kohlrabi: Instead of mashing cauliflower or rutabaga, try mashed kohlrabi. Steam the kohlrabi until fork tender (boiling it may make the mash more soupy). Place in a small food processor or blender or mash by hand with oil of choice (bacon drippings, butter, or olive oil would be good choices depending on your preferences and tolerances), just a bit of oil at a time until you get the consistency you want. Add salt and pepper to flavor. If you’re fancy, add some roasted garlic. (I am not fancy, but I almost always make the effort to throw some garlic cloves tossed in olive oil to roast in the oven while I’m preparing a mash. I think the roasted garlic makes “mashes” of any kind taste that much better, especially if you don’t/cant’ use butter and milk.)

Kohlrabi soup: This uses dairy and flour, but these pesky ingredients can be easily substituted with coconut or almond milk and arrowroot powder for those with intolerances.

Asian Kohlrabi slaw: Sesame oil and rice wine vinegar are the only flags I see for some folks with intolerances here. If you tolerate those, this slaw looks perfect!

Kohlrabi curry: We make curry like this a lot, but I’ve never used kohlrabi. Next time I have some sitting around, I’ll not hesitate to throw it in the skillet.

Closing

If you’re proud that you or your family has tried a new vegetable, even if it’s not “exotic” or “out there,” leave a comment. I’d LOVE to hear about it! Broadening the taste buds certainly seems to help when it comes to “healthy eating.” And look around you. Listen to those around you. Perhaps even look at yourself. Humanity and society cannot afford to continue down the horrific nutritional path that is now common practice. Processed foods HAVE to go. Work on it. If you don’t try, it will NEVER happen. And trying isn’t just serving it once, and saying, “They didn’t like it. They won’t eat it.” That is NOT how you learned to ride a bike.

~Terri

Source:
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Related Posts:

Jicama

Artichokes

Rutabagas

Iodine, Post 1

23 Replies

Iodine All Boxed Up

As far as most of the medical community is concerned, iodine has been boxed up in its cylindrical Morton’s salt-box (with that cute umbrella girl on it) and shelved–as if there is nothing further to know or learn about it. Not so.

For iodine, I want you to be aware of three ideas:

1. Iodine deficiency is insidiously on the rise in developed countries and putting people, particularly women and children at HUGE risk. (Pregnant or pregnancy-eligible women need to take note.) Many US doctors are not aware yet of this re-emerging problem. We took care of “severe” iodine deficiency, and now years later, mild iodine deficiency is invisibly in our midst, wreaking its damage without our awareness.

2. It’s not just the thyroid that needs iodine, but brains, immune systems, prostates, and breasts, too. (Ahem, you got some of those, don’t you?) I know my knowledge-base had a huge gap here regarding iodine, and therefore, I assume other medical doctors (I’ve asked a few too) and people in general may be lacking information in this area as well.

3. There is a fear of iodine supplementation and excessive iodine intake because of the risk of hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism. There are different camps of thought. Who is right? Who does know yet? Debatable. Regardless, many people aren’t even getting the bare minimum amount.

Could I be iodine deficient?

A resounding, “Yes.” Iodine deficiency was believed to be a resolved health issue in the US, but as I research, I see an insidious re-emergence of iodine deficiency in places such as the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom. And I also see a lack of knowledge in standard health-care providers about the re-emerging deficiency. In pharmacy school and medical school we were taught that iodine deficiency was remedied in the United States by the implementation of iodizing salt back in the 1920s. Job accomplished! No more goiters! No more cretins (infants who are severely affected by iodine deficiency)! Celebrate and no more worries, right? Not so fast…

Apparently, somewhere in the realm of 38% of the world’s population is still deficient in iodine. Thirty-eight percent seems awful high to me, especially considering the nefarious effects on unborn fetuses. Looking at a few developed countries, the United States, Australia (New Zealand included in one of the citations), and the United Kingdom, each has pockets of iodine deficient populations (1, 2, 3, 4, 5). Increasingly, studies are showing iodine deficiency in modernized countries where iodine deficiency was presumed to be eradicated, yet I hear little hubbub about it, despite the potential gravity of the consequences! This bothers me. Apparently and quite sadly, iodine deficiency hasn’t yet made the consciousness of mainstream practicing medical doctors, like deficiencies of vitamin D and folate have. Why? I think because we rested on the laurels of “curing” severe iodine deficiency maladies. But laurels shrivel and decay, and the world changes and moves on. Changes in our food sources and practices greatly affect our iodine levels.

Why would a problem that we had “taken care of” be re-emerging?

Why is iodine deficiency re-emerging? As with almost all things, it’s due to multiple hits in our iodine intake. Take a look! Do any apply to you and your family?

1. Cutting down on salt use for health and also cutting down on other iodine-rich foods. People are following medical advice to cut down on salt, and therefore using less iodized salt. Also, egg yolks contain some iodine, but people have been told to cut down on those, too, due to cholesterol concerns. Seafood contains iodine, but we’re told to limit seafood due to mercury concerns.

2. We eat out lots more and we eat more processed foods–and iodized salt is not used in these foods. The commercial-grade salt used in processed foods and in restaurants is usually not iodized. I repeat: the salty foods you eat from a box or at a restaurant are (most likely) not iodized. So none of the salt in Ruffles potato chips or from McDonald’s French fries counts toward your necessary iodine intake.

3. Switching to sea salt and shunning iodized salt. Sea salt does not contain enough natural iodine to prevent iodine deficiency. It may have traces of iodine, but not nearly enough! Sea salt, unless specifically stated to be enhanced with iodine or seaweed, does not provide you with enough iodine. It is not a good source of iodine.

4. Iodine deprived soils. Some soils have always been low in iodine content (plants don’t need iodine to survive but they take it up if it’s in the soil), especially in areas away from the sea or under cover of mountain ranges. Some soils have become depleted of iodine with use and lack of iodine restoration. Plants grown in coastal areas should theoretically have more iodine in them, but lately there is a huge emphasis on eating locally so this could contribute to iodine deficiency, as well.

5. Changing from iodine based dough conditioners to bromine based dough conditioners. Iodine used to be used (specifically iodate) when making bread products. Now a form of bromine, bromate, is used, although its use is being discouraged. (6) Not only does this provide LESS iodine, but if you look at your periodic table, you’ll see that iodine and bromine are in the same group of the periodic table (halides). So bromine will actually compete with iodine in the body and “displace” iodine from necessary body reactions. I will try to explain this concept in more depth later because it is so intriguing. The same holds true for fluorine and iodine competition. (7)

6. The iodine amount in iodized salt is not uniform. The amount of iodine in a carton of iodized salt is not uniform. Sometimes the top of the carton of salt has less iodine than the bottom of the carton. Some brands do not contain as much iodine as others. The amount of iodine in a box may wane over time. These idiosyncrasies often have to do with the chemical properties of iodine which will allow it to “leach” out of the carton. (7)

7. Changing dairy-farming practices. Dairy is touted as a good source of iodine because the cows are frequently given iodine-supplemented feed and their teats are washed prior to milking with an iodine antiseptic to kill bacteria. However farming practices are changing and dairy cattle may or may not be receiving these interventions now. (When I bought milk and butter from the dairy farmer yesterday, I asked her about this. Her cattle are all grass-fed and she does not use an iodine-based cleanse for the teats. So I cannot imagine that the milk is rich in iodine that we personally buy, although it will be rich in vitamin K2 at the moment and butyric acid because it’s spring-grass eating time!)

8. Choosing organic milk over conventional milk. Organic milk usually has less iodine than conventional milk due to the cows being grass-fed. (9, 10)

Points to be eventually covered in Iodine Posts

Iodine is a big topic that I don’t want to undermine, so I will break it down into several posts. A few months ago, I thought iodine’s role was limited to prevention of goiter and keeping enough thyroid hormone around. That is all true, but there is so much more to iodine’s story, and some parts haven’t even been unraveled yet! Take home points that I will eventually cover in iodine posts, but probably not in this order. (If you are pregnant, able to be pregnant, or nursing, I urge you to start reading about iodine today, and don’t wait for my posts to roll out. Here is a simple article to get you started: Iodine Deficiency Common in Pregnancy, Docs Warn.):

Do I need iodine? Absolutely. Can’t live without it. Function poorly with too little of it. “But what’s it do? What’s it for?” That is a bit challenging to answer. Kind of like, “What’s the sun for?” Is it for the trees? The flowers? Your vitamin D production? Your food production? Light? Energy? What aspect of our lives does the sun not touch? What aspect of our health does iodine not touch? Whether it is through the effect of thyroid hormone, which is composed of iodine, or direct effects we’re just now learning about, the body needs iodine. So it’s your job to make sure you know where you can get it. I will go over where to get iodine in future posts and “what it does.”
Iodine deficiency is increasing for multiple reasons in developed countries, and I’ll bet money that you are affected by a couple or more of the reasons no matter what your health and food choices. No diet group is allowed to snicker here or stick their noses in the air. Many people are just not getting the iodine they need, and if they are, there’s a good chance that the body’s use of iodine is being interfered with by food and health choices they maybe haven’t even considered. I will go into food and environmental factors that may be interfering with your body’s use of iodine.
Our childbearing women and their offspring for sure are hit VERY hard by an iodine deficiency. Women, did your obstetrician prescribe you a prenatal vitamin with iodine in it? If not, did your obstetrician ask you if the prenatal vitamin you chose has iodine in it? I will go over why women of childbearing age, their fetuses, and their children NEED adequate iodine. SADLY, these populations seem to be the most iodine deprived!
Prostate, breast and immune health are starting to be linked to iodine. I will do my best to present some of this information. Much of it is newer, not well understood, and not well accepted.
Iodine is important in brain health! Low IQs, increased ADHD, and apathy have been linked to iodine deficiency. We have studies to support this, and I will present those for your perusal.
Iodized salt is not the devil. Iodine deficiency is a devil. I know so many of you treat processed, iodized salt like the plague. But there is a reason why The Morton Salt Company iodized their salt here in the States, and it helped immensely! I can’t underscore that enough. I guess I don’t really care if you shun iodized salt, I just want to make sure that no matter who or where you are, that you are aware of the body’s need for iodine and you take measures to get you and your family some good source of iodine. For many, the simple answer may just be adding iodized salt back into their diets. Others lean toward seaweed. Still others rely on supplements.
Do I need to take high doses of iodine? Not sure. That might fall into the “voodoo” realm. (Voodoo is my tongue-in-cheek word for food and health related things I see that I’m just not sure about. I used to call diet changes “voodoo.” I don’t anymore, but it took a lot of reading!) Tread cautiously. I will eventually talk about how some people use high doses of iodine and what the proposed benefits and risks of this are, particularly fibrocystic breast disease, prostate cancer, and a touch on the big topic of thyroid disease. The turf here is largely uncharted and uncertain.

Eat well to live well. Make sure you’re getting an iodine source. And lastly and importantly, my blog posts are never intended for use of diagnosis, evaluation, or treatment. Hopefully you’ll use them as stepping-stones to learn more about the topics I present and be able to have a conversation with your favorite healthcare provider.

~~Terri

1. Are Australian children iodine deficient? Results of the Australian National Iodine Nutrition Study. Li M¹, Eastman CJ, Waite KV, et al. Med J Aust. 2008 Jun 2;188(11):674. (Abstract link.)

2. The Prevalence and Severity of Iodine Deficiency in Australia. December 2007. Prepared for the Population Health Development Principal Committee of the Australian Health Ministers Advisory Committee. (Full text link.)

3. Iodine deficiency in the U.K.: an overlooked cause of impaired neurodevelopment? Bath SC1, Rayman MP. Proc Nutr Soc. 2013 May;72(2):226-35. doi: 10.1017/S0029665113001006. (Abstract link.)

4. Iodine in Pregnancy: Is Salt Iodization Enough? Elizabeth N. Pearce. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. Jul 2008; 93(7): 2466–2468. doi: 10.1210/jc.2008-1009 (Full text link.)

5. http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Iodine-HealthProfessional/

6. http://www.newsweek.com/five-controversial-food-additives-83551

7. Iodine Nutrition: Iodine Content of Iodized Salt in the United States. Dasgupta PK, Liu Y, Dyke JV. Environ. Sci. Technol. 2008, 42, 1315–1323. (Link to full text.)

8. Iodine concentration of organic and conventional milk: implications for iodine intake. Bath SC1, Button S, Rayman MP. Br J Nutr. 2012 Apr;107(7):935-40. doi: 10.1017/S0007114511003059. Epub 2011 Jul 5. (Link to abstract.)

9. Essential trace and toxic element concentrations in organic and conventional milk in NW Spain. Rey-Crespo F1, Miranda M, López-Alonso M. Food Chem Toxicol. 2013 May;55:513-8. doi: 10.1016/j.fct.2013.01.040. Epub 2013 Feb 4. (Link to abstract.)

10. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/07/130704094630.htm

How Do You Eat That Vegetable? Artichokes.

Just Steam ‘Em!

Now a fresh artichoke was new to me for sure! Canned artichoke hearts? Yes. Artichoke and spinach dip? Absolutely. But never a fresh artichoke! Once upon a time, my daughter and I were shopping the produce aisle when the artichokes caught her young eye. She began asking and begging me to buy some artichokes. Here I am, The Vegetable Queen, making excuses to not buy those artichokes for her. I don’t know what to do with them. We may not like them. They’ll go bad in the refrigerator before I figure out how to use them. But my hypocrisy galled and sickened me, along with a smirking customer bystander who mockingly reassured me they were “quite easy to make…just steam them.”

So we bought those artichokes and we winged it! I didn’t even look up how to make them or eat them. I just steamed them like the good lady in the produce aisle said to do. I’m going to tell you how we made them and ate them. I don’t think it’s “the right way.” But silly-sally on that. The right way. Pshaw. Just get the blasted vegetable cooked.

I want you to know up front, artichokes are a process to eat–but in a good way. Like a “family-popcorn-night” fun kind of way. Not at all like broccoli or cauliflower where you slap it on the plate, get your fork out, and gobble it all up. We have a lot of fun sitting around the kitchen table eating our artichokes as a family. I hope you’ll give them a try!

Choose artichokes that are closed rather than open as they are fresher. Also, don’t be afraid of purple markings which indicate that the artichoke received a bit of a frost in the field, which will make it more tender and flavorful. (You can see those purple “blush” marks from frost on my photo up there.)

Steamed Artichokes

What you’ll need:

As many artichokes as you want. I usually do one per person.
A mechanism to steam the artichokes. I use a pot with a steamer basket and lid.
Oil of choice to dip the artichoke in. Most people use butter, but we used olive oil. Some use mayonnaise.
Salt to sprinkle or dip the artichoke in.

Wash artichokes. Place artichokes (careful of any sharp spines that may prick you) in your steamer pot and steam for about 20-30 minutes. You know they are done when you can pierce the base right above the stem easily with a fork or knife. Allow to cool enough to handle and serve!

No cutting?

What? No cutting? No chopping off the tops? No clipping the spines? Nope. Go ahead and do that if you want. I don’t care. But time is a premium commodity for me, and I’ll bet it is for you, too. Since making these the first time, I have tried chopping the tops. I noticed no difference with chopping the tops or not chopping the tops. I have never clipped the spines on the leaves, although it looks really snazzy that way. The spines soften up in the steaming process and cause no issues. So I don’t clip those either.

(Note: Most sites will tell you to cut off the top, trim the stems, pick off the lower hard petals, shear off the spiny tips of the petals, put some herbs in your steaming water, brush with lemon juice, and so on. I know that may make them “better”–but what good is “better” if you never make them because that’s way too much work? And the kids love them this way–and so do my husband and I?)

So how do we eat them?

There are three parts to eat:

The creamy pulp at the end of each petal.
The artichoke heart.
The stem, if you wish.

With an artichoke, you literally pull each petal off, one by one. Dip the pulpy, whitish end of the petal in oil (or butter or mayonnaise) and sprinkle it with salt. Then, pull the end of the petal between your front teeth to scrape off the white, soft, creamy artichoke pulp. Keep an empty plate in the middle of the table to put the artichoke refuse on. Repeat this process until you get to the choke, a fuzzy-thistly topper to the artichoke heart.

The fuzzy choke (not edible) on top of the artichoke heart (deliciously edible).

Peeling the choke off of the artichoke heart.

At the choke part, you need to carefully separate the choke from the heart. My kids always hand off their artichokes to me expectantly when it’s time for the choke to come off their artichoke. I use a knife to carefully lift off the choke in one piece. If it doesn’t separate well, I just use the knife to slice off the choke, but you lose a little of the delicious artichoke heart. Whatever you do, don’t eat those thistly fuzzies. They are not good. Dip in oil and sprinkle with salt.

At this point, the great stuff is gone, but the top of the stem is often tasty and edible, too. If not, and it’s too fibrous, your artichoke party is over.

The Lazy Answer: I Don’t Know

Dr. Goulet, my intense and fierce general surgery staff doctor back in the day, always barked at us, “Don’t tell me ‘I don’t know.’ That’s a lazy answer.” (Ow. Trust me. We learned to never say “I don’t know.”) So don’t be lazy. Don’t be cowardly. It is JUST a vegetable. Add to your vegetable repertoire! Try artichokes, and then go back and try rutabagas! I don’t care. Try whatever you want, but break out of your spinach, carrot, and broccoli rut! And don’t let “I don’t know how” ever be your ball and chain.

~~Terri

More in the “How Do You Eat That Vegetable?” series:

Rutabagas

Jicama

Simple Tricks to Add Butyrate-Producing Foods to a Diet

Closing

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Dr. Sidney Valentine Haas’s Stodgy, Misinformed Diet

A Doctor -Shopping, Stay-at-Home Mom

Humiliating Success

Closing

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My Oligoantigenic (What!?!?) Diet

The Pesky Foods

Enter Anti-Inflammatory Diets

Conclusion

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Shocker. Spoil alert.

“I Don’t Have MS, Terri.”

One Leukemia: 11 Diseases

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“I LOVE those French fries!”

If you can do it with a potato…

What is a Parsnip?

Parsnip Fries

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My take, off the cuff, without sources and science, regarding iodine

Iodine deficiency erratically riddles the population of developed societies. Why? Who is at risk? Am I? Are you? Why do they say we are “iodine sufficient” if we are not?

Why would well-fed people be iodine deficient?

Who is at risk? Examples.

Why do they say we are “sufficient” if we are not?

Bottom Line

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Hobos

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Coal + Rob + Bee = Kohlrabi

Good. Good. How do you eat them?

How do you prepare them?

Do your kids like it?

Recipes ideas and recipes from other sites:

Closing

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Iodine All Boxed Up

Could I be iodine deficient?

Why would a problem that we had “taken care of” be re-emerging?

Points to be eventually covered in Iodine Posts

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Just Steam ‘Em!

Steamed Artichokes

No cutting?

So how do we eat them?

The Lazy Answer: I Don’t Know

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