Cod Liver Oil

I was introduced to the wonders of Cod Liver Oil at the Weston A. Price Foundation Conference last year. Yes, I was introduced to a lot of stuff while there... it's taken me over a year to process it all, in fact.

I was able to sample the High Vitamin Butter Cod Liver Oil in various flavors from Radiant Life. Frankly, I wasn't overly impressed with any of them, but did purchase a bottle of the chocolate flavor anyway and brought it home. I took it home and took it only sporadically for the next several months.Then I ran out. I figured my diet was moving onto the high side with liver dishes weekly, real butter, real milk and weekly fish meals. We eat real eggs and fresh salads and lots of other healthy stuff. But after about six months without CLO, I was experiencing bouts of constipation and lower energy levels. Not much, but enough to make me go back and figure out what I was missing from the first few months. It was the CLO.

So, I went on line and looked at the prices. I balked. I really did. I held off for another three months when my friends went to the conference in Texas and I had them order me some more. Unfortunately, the shipping took the large order of CLO to my friend's place in Washington, D.C. and while it arrived there safely a couple of weeks ago, she is off traveling again and won't be home for a weekend until February when I can go pick it up.

I decided that I wanted my HVCLO now and so I put an order in directly to Radiant Life for one bottle of the chocolate HVCLO and some dried anchovies and some more bovine gelatin. The package arrived on Monday. I've been taking a teaspoonful every morning and wow! I feel much, much better. I don't know if it is directly connected, but I slept through the night last night for the first time in months. I'll have to monitor this more closely and see if there is a direct connection. Since then, I've discovered the source for the CLO: Green Pastures. You can order directly from them as well.

I think it's important to note that the best cod liver oil is fermented. I suspect there are other manufacturers out there with fermented cod liver oil, but I haven't found them yet. 

By the way, the little anchovies are the best little salad toppers! I like freaking out one of my co-workers by eating them straight out of the bag. He noted that they look like tiny snakes and since he is terrified of snakes, the idea that I'm eating them is completely horrifying to him.

I'm not sure I can convince husband to get on the CLO bandwagon. Even refrigerated with flavor, it still has a cod liver oil flavor coming through. To me, this is the taste of health, but to him it's pretty nasty. I can't even get it past his nose. So, I'm thinking of making another Radiant Life order and get him a bottle of the capsules. It sure won't hurt his cholesterol numbers and I really do want to get him off the statins. Maybe that will be the kicker.

Better Butter

I have a new found respect for butter.

I have been purchasing wonderful, delicious salted butter in two pound rolls wrapped in waxed paper from this place for just over a year. The butter I purchase from Quail Cove Farms is from Minerva Dairy in Ohio. It's not local, but it's really good butter at a pretty good price.

I've been getting real, whole, fresh from the cow milk for a few months now. It's milk from a Jersey cow and it's wonderfully rich and the cream rises very nicely to the top. I keep the milk in 1/2 gallon jars. I've gotten in the habit of letting the milk sit in the refrigerator and wait for the cream. The next day I pour off the cream into a pint jar, and usually get about a half a pint. Then I shake the milk jar to reincorporate any cream I missed and top off my pint. This pint becomes my coffee cream (real half and half) for next several days until I use it up and attack my second half gallon. .

Well, earlier this week, I took my coffee cream with me to training. Long story short, the little lunch box cooler did not stay very cool and my cream got to room temperatures overnight. I like clabbered milk but did not really want to put it in my coffee. But I'm loath to waste such precious stuff.

So, when I got home, I poured off the clabbered cream  and fed the cats with the other bit of slightly aged milk.

The cream went into my food processor yesterday morning where it whirled for a good 20 minutes while I got dressed for work and low and behold, I got butter! There wasn't much. Just about 2 tablespoons came out of that 1/2 pint of cream. But it was real butter. And I made it myself.

Here it is in a little dish with a teaspoon next to it for size.

I was very excited and proud and shared my newest discovery with my husband who, of course, was amused by his crazy wife and paid out the required homages.

But if 1/2 pint of cream only makes two tablespoons of butter, how much cream does it take to make two pounds? I'm thinking it's a lot.

Big changes, small changes

So, what did I learn at the Weston A. Price Conference? I learned that everything I had been eating to maintain my health and battle my weight problems was completely wrong. I found out that the main reason that I had skin problems, depression, aching joints, muscle spasms, massive fatty tumors in my gut, obesity and bowel problems was directly related to what I was and was not eating.

My whole life I had been told to eat less food. Eat no fat. Avoid meat. Eat whole grains. Eat soy.  Follow various diets including Weight Watchers and despite chronic pain, I had been told to exercise regularly and hard.

So, I've come to recognize that while I probably should eat less, I"m still probably in a transitional period that my body does not recognize as anything but a ploy. I eat even though I am no longer hungry because I've I have tortured myself for so many years with feast and famine, my body is anticipating a famine any day now. But I'm reaching awareness and I think this coming year I will begin to see myself get a better handle on this issue. Interestingly enough, I have not gained any weight. My cholesterol which was good before, has actually gotten even better. My blood pressure, always good,  remains the same and some of my other issues, like skin blemishes and aching joints, are starting to resolve themselves. 

What has changed?

I am eating whole foods now. I eat free range eggs at least three days a week, sometimes more. I eat real butter. I drink real milk that came out of a cow into a stainless steel pan, then was poured into jars. There are no middle men other than the gal who milks that cow. I eat meat and I eat the fat that came on the meat!  I eat whole fat yogurt, raw cheese and drink kefir and whole fat cultured buttermilk. I also drink something called Kombucha, Beet Kvass and sometimes the juice from homemade sauerkraut. I eat a lot more salt than I used to eat.

I have eliminated soy. Completely. I don't even eat commercially prepared bread anymore because it contains soy lecithin. Don't believe me? Go read the label on that loaf in your kitchen. It's in your breakfast cereal, and any baked goodies you may have purchased at the store. Soy oil is in your ketchup, the soup you bought and most definitely in your margarine. What's so bad about soy? We will cover that in future posts.