Blood Tests incl. Vitamin D

Well, the medical news from my 2 day visit to Wake Forest Hospital for doctor's appointments and lab tests is not bad, but it's not so great either. The doctors continue to ponder WHY my body is not processing and utilizing all the good, well-balanced nutrients I eat.

Now six weeks after my recent GI bleed, my levels of red blood cells, platelets, hematocrit and hemoglobin are all still below normal (although improving, albeit slowly), and also low are potassium, magnesium and calcium. No wonder I'm tired all the time, and have zero energy!

Surprising to me, my Vitamin D level is also "insufficient". The new recommended daily allowance (RDA), as set in 2010 and based on age, is as follows: for those 1-70 years of age, 600 IU daily; for those 71 years and older, 800 IU daily; and for pregnant and lactating women, 600 IU daily.

I take 1000 IU softgels 3 times daily (breakfast, lunch and supper) but my insufficiency level supports the research I've read over the last 3-4 years that says we may need a minimum of  5,000-10,000 IU's daily. Vitamin D is one of the fat-soluble vitamins, along with Vitamin A, E and K. Those vitamins are stored the liver and adipose (fat) tissue when not needed, but if we don't have an intake of enough saturated fat in our foods, they are lost.

I get enough saturated fat in eggs, cheese, whole milk and grass-fed meats that I'm sure I get enough for the fat-soluble vitamins. I'm not so sure that folks who buy all the "fat-free" products actually get enough (if any) of the right kind of fats to utilize vitamins A, D, E, and K.

What do YOU eat?

Plantain 'Vitamin' Tonic

Photo from The Naturopathic Doctor

Plantain grows like crazy all over my yard and especially in the gravel driveway, so it is a good thing it turns out to be edible! It makes a nice addition to salads, but I'm also using some to make a natural vitamin tonic (tincture) for winter use when I don't get many fresh green vegetables.

Plantain leaves are rich in Vitamins C and K, plus beta-carotene which the body converts to Vitamin A, and it is also rich in amino acids, calcium and potassium. Use the leaves in a salad, or steamed and used as a spinach substitute. The leaves do get tough quickly, so make sure to harvest only the youngest leaves. The immature flower stalks may be eaten raw or cooked, and some folks use the seeds ground for flour.

By the way, I'm referring to the green weed named plantain (Plantago major), NOT the Caribbean banana that must be cooked to eat.

The first 'vitamin tincture/tonic' I made was a chickweed multi-vitamin and mineral tincture, and this one from plantain is the second. It's an easy process and I'll probably make others as I discover more vitamin and mineral properties among my edible weeds. Plantain may not be my first choice in a vitamin tonic since there are others that contain more vitamins, but it's good to have on hand in an emergency situation.

Photo of Plantain with flower/seed stalks from Clemson.edu

You should pick plantain leaves just before the flower/seed stalks emerge (mature stalks shown above) as that's when they are most potent... unless you want a bitter tonic or salad. Best time to pick the leaves is early mornings when they are fresh with dew. Hasten to process them ASAP as the vitamins flee rapidly once picked.

To make a tincture requires only a base liquid, and the herbs or whatever you want to incorporate. Generally an alcohol like vodka, rum or Everclear is the liquid of choice, but I'm going to use raw apple cider vinegar for some added nutritional properties. (Actually I'm out of Braggs ACV, so I used regular apple cider vinegar for this batch.)

I was out of Bragg's ACV, and so was my local store, but at least the Heinz ACV is made from apples, not chemicals, and it's somewhat better than just cheap vinegar with apple flavor added.

To make the tincture: thoroughly clean and rinse the leaves as soon as possible after harvesting. (Vitamin loss starts immediately from any harvested fruit, vegetable or herb.) You can use a salad spinner to spin off most of the water.

Chop the plant leaves, enough to partially fill a glass jar with a tight-fitting lid. Fully cover the leaves with either the alcoholic beverage, or my choice: apple cider vinegar. Tighten the lid securely (I'm using the plastic Ball storage lids because the acid content of the vinegar will eat through regular canning lids in a short time.) Store the jar(s) in a cool, dark place for at least 2 weeks, shaking often. After 2 weeks, strain the infusion into clean jars, re-label and store... again in a cool, dark place.

I take a spoonful or two of raw apple cider vinegar (ACV) every morning anyway, so it is easy instead to substitute some ACV infused with extra vitamins and minerals as a healthy tonic.

Plantain has other uses, too. The best known is probably as a poultice for skin abrasions, and relieving the itch of poison ivy, stings and bites. You can make the poultice by boiling a few leaves in water, let steep a few minutes, strain and soak a cloth in the brew to apply to the skin. In a pinch you can just crush a few leaves by hand and apply directly to the affected area.

You make a similar brew with a liquid vegetable oil and let it sit in the sun for a few days; be sure to strain before use. It makes a great emollient to soften and soothe the skin! (Also works great on a sunburn.) Please be aware that oils that have had greens and/or vegetables soaking in them are a great place for botulism to thrive, so mark these oils "For External Use" only and do not be tempted to use them internally! Tinctures made with an alcohol or vinegar base are safe, as they prevent the nasty botulism bacteria from growing in them.

Health Care vs Illness Care

We should start naming things as they really are, not what someone would like us to believe. What we really have is Illness Care, NOT Health Care. Very little money is ever spent to promote "Health Care" because Health is NOT profitable.

The human body is extremely complex, and we have hundreds of thousands of internal interactions going on at any given moment from our 400 hundred trillion cells. Those interactions are also interdependent, and although our bodies have the ability to fabricate some of the components, we still need some raw materials for manufacturing them.

Jump rope, Photo from tedkerwin

For a different picture for understanding, think about the group children's game we call jump rope; when typically done by 3 or more children it's called long rope jumping. If you have 3 children and a rope, you can play. Remove any one component, and there's no game. 2 children and a rope but no jumper... no game. 3 children and no rope, no game.

Micronutrients (meaning we don't need much of them) like the fat-soluble vitamins have a 'game' (interaction) going on in our bodies too, and if any one of them is MIA, the 'game' suffers. Please note that these essential fat-soluble vitamins can only be dissolved in saturated fats in the body (hence their name). A healthy liver will store any excess, unlike the water-soluble vitamins which we rapidly excrete in urine. 

Photo by Public Domain Photos

Photo by julesjulesjules m

Vitamin A (egg yolks, liver, whole milk, cheese) is needed for eyesight, in other words "essential for the neural transmission of light into vision". All the fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E, K) need a bit of all the others to function (play the game) properly.

I find it interesting that the amount of Vitamin A in egg yolks in the Netherlands is more than twice the amount in the US. I wonder why? What they are fed (non-GMO?) and how they are raised? Curious. source

Photo by Peber the Swede

Photo by andrewmalone

Vitamin D (from sunlight, or oily fish like herring, salmon and sardines) helps the body absorb and use calcium, but you also need to ingest enough of the right kind of calcium for it to work... and then it takes Vitamin A to make the interaction work, too. (Vitamin A binds the Vitamin D receptors). Likewise if you take calcium supplements but don't get enough A or D, the calcium is useless.

Gluten-free (coconut flour) Fried Oysters, by NourishingCook

Oysters Rockefeller, photo by Argyleist

For Vitamin D to work, it also needs the minerals magnesium (green vegetables, nuts, whole grains), zinc (oysters, wheat germ, liver) and boron (green vegetables, fruit, nuts). The other catch is you also need enough Vitamin K (green leafy vegetables) to regulate the entire fat-soluble system.

The fat-soluble vitamins (except E) come from the very animal foods the "health care" industry tells us to reduce or avoid altogether: eggs, butter, and organ meats like liver. (BTW, coconut oil is considered a good saturated fat but contains almost zero vitamins and minerals. The main benefit in coconut oil is the Lauric Acid content, which promotes the "good" cholesterol, HDL.) 

There are many, many other nutrients which are equally essential for good health, and our bodies can utilize them all much better in the form of real food rather than supplements. However, just like the fat-soluble vitamins, most are interdependent on a host of others for maximum nutritional function. Who tells or teaches us that??

It seems the best way to have real health care is in our own hands. If we don't take responsibility for ourselves and our health, who will??

Try this: On your own, research some foods for their nutritional amounts. Research your own nutritional needs for the foods that supply them. If the information comes from research, find out who paid for the research; it is too often biased. Look for the sin of omission, where they tell us the part they want us to know rather than the whole picture.

The spin on many industrialized foods now being promoted as "healthy" is just that: spin. I have to be vigilant about reading labels on foods. A package of crackers I picked up in the natural foods market last weekend had huge advertising all over the front of the box exclaiming "Now made with whole grains!". When I read the label, sure enough there were whole grains... but last on the list just before the chemicals (labels are required by law to list ingredients in descending order of the quantity). The first ingredient was "enriched white flour"... I put it back on the shelf. Deceptive advertising, in my opinion.

Getting and staying healthier is much harder when the truth is so hard to find amongst all the hype. In my opinion, food labels should also list ALL the vitamin amounts, as well as all the herbicides, pesticides, irradiation and chemical washes the food has endured.

I repeat: It seems the best way to have real health care is in our own hands. If we don't take responsibility for ourselves and our health, who will??

Walk the Talk

As much as I continually suggest we should all eat nutritious, real food... I fell off the wagon a year ago. Actually I didn't fall... it was a very long, slow descent, adding a few empty calories here and there... until the additives (which are designed to addict) took over after a few months. I even lost the habit of taking my few daily vitamins. As a consequence, my energy levels are down and my weight is up. So it's time to get back with the program.

I don't have the disorder known as SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) but I can sure tell the difference in how I feel on bright, sunny days, even in winter. My self-diagnosis is a shortage of Vitamin D3 (the sunshine vitamin) and I started taking it again this very morning. I take about half a teaspoonful of fermented cod-liver oil in a gel that's mixed with a high-vitamin A butter oil made by Green Pastures. Mid-day and evenings I take a less expensive D3 gel cap.

A good breakfast had fallen by the wayside too, giving way to something high-carb and/or high sugar with my 2nd cup of coffee. I picked up 2 dozen farm eggs (from chickens fed NON-GMO feed) and some decent organic bacon this weekend, but not enough for the whole month because I didn't intend to start this until January, after the holidays. (It may still be just half-measures over the holidays.)

I'll need to make another trip to the nearest natural foods store (80-90 miles one way) later in the month to re-stock, plus buy some fresh yogurt to inoculate/make my own. I should order some kefir grains too. Mine were stored in milk in the fridge but unmarked, and I accidentally discarded them. Probiotics are an important part of a good food regime for me.

I don't expect the first several weeks will be easy, and I know that every time I nosh on something not good for me, it will just lengthen the time of adjustment back to well-being. No doubt I'll be cranky as a bear much of the time, but the Vitamin D3 should help.

I can't promise this change won't affect my every-other-day postings for the next few weeks. I will do my best, but they may contain some rants against the food companies where their designed use of addiction additives helped my fall from the wagon.

We Humans are 4% Minerals

Yep, that's right... this post is about the 4% of our bodies that are minerals, but a very important 4%!  It came about because someone asked me why I'm adding minerals (like Greensand and Azomite) to my new sheet-composted garden area.

96% of our human body is composed of oxygen, hydrogen, carbon and nitrogen... the other 4% of our body mass contains over 70 or more minerals, some in miniscule amounts and most of which are unfortunately no longer readily available in our soils. Without that mere 4%, we would die. 

Minerals participate in a multitude of bio-chemical processes necessary for the maintenance of health in human beings, animals and plants that inhabit our planet. There would be no life without minerals!

Minerals control literally millions of chemical and enzymatic processes which occur in the human body at all times. That alone should make us want to know more of the importance of minerals for our health and survival, and what to do about the current lack.

So What's the Big Deal about Adding Minerals to my Soil??

Simple. If the soil doesn't have the minerals, there's no way for vegetables to absorb them!

Consider: We no longer get as many minerals from our vegetables as we got 50 years ago. The nutritional value of modern foods isn't just declining, it's collapsing. We cannot live healthily without adequate minerals; they are the fundamental source and the basic building blocks of life.

Over-farming, soil depletion, commercial fertilizer, hybrid crops and genetic modifications are slashing the nutrients found in our fruits and vegetables. In fact, we'd have to eat 10 servings of spinach to get the same level of minerals as from just one serving about 50 years ago.

And that's only the beginning.
Take a look at the United States Department of Agriculture's (USDA) nutritional values for fruits and vegetables today compared to 1975.

Apples: Vitamin A is down 41%
Sweet Peppers: Vitamin C is down 31%
Watercress: Iron is down 88%
Broccoli: Calcium and Vitamin A are down 50%
Cauliflower: Vitamin C is down 45%; Vitamin B1 is down 48%; and Vitamin B2 is down 47%
Collard Greens: Vitamin A is down 45%; Potassium is down 60%; and Magnesium is down 85%

To be fair, some vegetables appear to be gaining vitamins, or at least vitamin A. Carrots, for example, have more of the vitamin now than they did in 1963. Why is a still a mystery. But the phenomenon has apparently occurred just in the nick of time. The National Academy of Sciences has issued an alert that it takes twice as many vegetables to get the daily requirement of vitamin A as previously thought. (Carrots and pumpkin are exempt from the caveat.)

Despite the apparent increase of vitamin A in carrots, most vegetables are losing their vitamins and minerals. Nearly half the calcium and vitamin A in broccoli, for example, has disappeared. Collards are not the greens they used to be. If you're eating them for minerals and vitamin A, be aware that the vitamin A content has fallen from 6500 IUs to 3800 IUs. Their potassium has dropped from from 400 mg to 170 mg. Magnesium has fallen sharply-57 mg to 9. Cauliflower has lost almost half its vitamin C, along with its thiamin and riboflavin. Most of the calcium in pineapple is gone... from 17 mg (per 100 grams raw) to 7. And the list goes on and on.

However, this is not just a 21st Century phenomena!
Back in 1936, a group of doctors introduced Document No.264 to the floor of the United States Senate. It was a dire warning that the mineral content of the soil was eroding. Vegetables were losing their power and people were at risk. Unfortunately Congress did nothing.

Today, it's worse; much worse. Minerals like iron and magnesium have dropped by more than 80 percent. That's from commercial farming technology and powerful fertilizers that practically sterilize the soil... leaving it with little to no mineral content. 

Commercial farming methods have depleted the soil of every essential nutrient, except NPK (nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorous). Our planet's soil is being stripped of minerals, and generally nothing is being done to replace them.


Do we even eat enough vegetables?
No way. The preferred American meal is one-dish, already prepared. Unless a vegetable can be squirted out of a bottle, it’s a nonentity for too many of us. Why? We’re in a hurry. Vegetables are considered side dishes, and Americans don’t have time for such frivolity. The decline is relentless. Within the last 15 years, the percentage of all dinners that include a vegetable (other than salad or potatoes) dropped another 10%. It’s now 41%. (Data Source)

I haven't totally figured out the mineral thing yet in my garden, but I've been working on it going on 5 years now. (The Greensand and Azomite mainly add trace minerals rather than address the major ones like calcium, although they do contain some calcium.) Balanced soil minerals is very complex subject and I'm not convinced anyone has all the answers. For example, a mineral like calcium is one the microbes can/will eat and convert to plant food. We know the microbes make calcium available to plants, but which of the 5 or more forms of calcium should we put on our soils?

Until I can afford $150+ professional soil tests, I have to rely on what I can glean from my research and my gut intuition. My gut instinct tells me that adding trace mineral mixes like Greensand and Azomite has to help put some of that 4% of minerals back into my soil and thus into my vegetables.


My Thanks to Keith Scott-Mumby MD, PhD for the idea that sent me searching for more information on that 4% of our minerals.

Making Weed "Vitamins"

To continue from the "Gotta be a pony in here somewhere"...  I'm starting to make some vitamin tinctures from the weeds in my garden.

Above are the things I picked early this morning (June 16th, which is just 1 day past the full moon) to make some vitamin tinctures. Around the full moon is said to be the best time to harvest herbs for medicinal use.  I don't know if that also applies to culinary use, but it might. That doesn't stop me from cutting fresh culinary herbs from the garden when I need them for a dish I'm preparing, but it might affect those same herbs when I want to dry some for winter.

The large stainless steel strainer basket is full of red raspberry leaves that I will dry for raspberry leaf tea. Raspberry leaf tea is not a tasty tea like mint tea; it's uses are more medicinal and you can do an internet search about them. Raspberry leaf tea was recommended by Dr. Abravanel as the morning beverage for the Thyroid Food Protocol which I followed many years ago. (Dr. Abravanel's Body Type Diet and Lifetime Nutrition Plan)

Finished, Dried Raspberry Leaf

The small strainer basket in the top photo above has red clover, and the plastic bucket behind it has dandelion leaves. Many of the recipes for red clover used medicinally call for just the blossoms, but as I'm steeping mine for a vitamin tincture, I'll use some of the top (softer) stems and leaves as well as the blossoms. Red Clover contains calcium, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, potassium, selenium, and zinc as well as vitamins B3, C and E. 

Medicinally, red clover has been called the "woman's herb" as it contains phytoestrogens, similar to estrogen, and is widely used during menopause. "Although the phytoestrogen effects of soy and flaxseed have been more widely studied, red clover may actually be a more effective treatment for relief of menopausal symptoms. It is an active ingredient in Promensil, an over-the-counter supplement used to help treat hot flashes." (Source) Red Clover has many herbal uses, but as I am not an Herbalist, I shan't go into that here.

Dandelion is rich in calcium, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, potassium, copper and zinc.  It also contains vitamins K, B1 (thiamine), B2 (riboflavin), B3 (niacin) and C along with beta-carotene, which our bodies turn into vitamin A. I haven't been able to find a breakdown of nutritional content of roots, and I'm not up to digging roots right now. Instead I'll make a vitamin tincture from the leaves now, store it, and later mix it with a vitamin tincture made from the roots to get the whole vitamin/mineral chorus in dandelions. Below are the vitamin and mineral contents in 1 cup of chopped raw dandelion greens.

http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/vegetables-and-vegetable-products/2441/2

http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/vegetables-and-vegetable-products/2441/2

To make a tincture requires only a base liquid, and the herbs or whatever you want to incorporate. Generally a food-grade alcohol like vodka, brandy, rum or Everclear is the liquid of choice, but I'm going to use raw apple cider vinegar for some added nutritional properties.  

Note: Everclear generally needs water added because some nutritional properties of herbs are only water soluble, and Everclear has very little water; it is almost all food-grade alcohol, 190 proof, or 95% alcohol.

Dandelion leaves in vinegar

To make the tincture: clean and rinse the leaves and stalks thoroughly as soon as possible after harvesting. (Vitamin loss starts immediately from any harvested fruit, vegetable or herb.)

Chopped red clover

Drain and chop the plant material, enough to nearly fill a glass jar with a tight lid. Fully cover the leaves and stems with either the alcoholic beverage, or my choice: apple cider vinegar. (You could also use vegetable glycerin. Glycerin might be a good choice if making a tincture to give children since it has a sweet taste.) Tighten the lid securely (I'm using the plastic Ball storage lids because the acid content of the vinegar will eat through regular canning lids in a short time.) Store the jar(s) in a cool, dark place for at least 2 weeks although 6 weeks is better, shaking often. Then strain the infusion into clean jars, re-label and store... again in a cool, dark place.

If you think about it, flavored vinegars such as tarragon vinegar, or Provençal vinegar are nothing more than tinctures with a vinegar base, and so easy to make at home with fresh herbs! Since I take a spoonful or two of raw apple cider vinegar (ACV) every day anyway, it is easy instead to use ACV infused with extra vitamins and minerals as a healthy tonic.

Gotta be a pony in here somewhere...

Photo by Vossner of Davesgarden.com

Have you ever noticed that when something shows up, over and over, it's time to pay attention? Like Mother Nature is trying to tell us something?

I've had something showing up for 2+ months now... a new (to me) weed in my garden. I bet I have pulled up several bushels of it since the beginning of May. It seems to die back where I've weeded, then it rains and behold, there is an abundance of new growth, so I finally decided to find out what it is, and why I have so much of it. There's an old joke about twin boys, and their birthday gifts. The favored one got a pony, and the other got a pile of horse manure... which he started slinging about, thinking with all that horse manure there must be a pony in there somewhere.

Photo by Xenomorf of DavesGarden.com

I figured since I have an abundance (to put it mildly!) of this weed, there must be some good it it somewhere. So I researched my weed, and it turns out to be Chickweed, which is edible and very nutritious. It can be eaten raw in salads, and when cooked supposedly tastes like spinach. Chickweed also has some medicinal qualities, and used topically for irritated skin; I didn't research other applications.

I did find this: "CHICKWEED is a nourishing and strengthening food. Chickweed thins cellular membranes so nutrients are absorbed and utilized to their maximum; she weakens, consumes and dissolves bacteria. Chickweed is a superb metabolic balancer and her regulatory effect on the thyroid seems to help women who gain weight no matter what." (Source)

The big value about chickweed for me, though, is the nutritional value. Chickweed is an excellent source of vitamins A, D, B complex, C, and the flavonoid rutin, as well as the minerals iron, calcium, potassium, phosphorus, zinc, manganese, sodium, copper, and silica. Moreover, it is one of the very few plant sources of essential fatty acids (Omega 3 and Omega 6), which our body cannot make.

One plan I have for chickweed is to make a liquid "vitamin tonic" for winter use when I have no greens growing in my garden. I know the human body utilizes natural vitamins from foods so much easier and better than OTC synthetic vitamins, so I'm going to make up several liquid vitamin concoctions. The first ones will be a chickweed tincture for vitamins, and a maybe a chickweed dressing or marinade/green sauce (depending on how chickweed tastes to me!), and both are easy processes.

Chickweed Chimichurri
(recipe from Fat of the Land)
1 packed cup chickweed, chopped
4-5 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp shallot, fine dice
3 tbsp sweet red pepper, fine dice
1 tbsp hot pepper, de-seeded, fine dice
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 tsp salt


Added later: As it sometimes happens, most of the chickweed in my yard has either been pulled up, or is too nasty looking to eat right now (or to make tinctures) so it will be later, after some new growth before I can make liquid chickweed vitamins.

Meanwhile, this journey has taken me down several paths to other healthy and beneficial "weeds" growing in my yarden, and in a couple of days I will be posting about them. Stay Tuned!

Vitamin D, Sunshine, and Great-Grandparents

Photo courtesy of Estrilda's photostream

Recently I had a long conversation with a friend about Vitamin D, and the increasing number of people who don't get enough of this very necessary vitamin. My friend is a gardener, and outside in the sun many hours each day. Her question was why did our great-grandparents get enough Vitamin D from the sun while we do not?

My thought at the moment had to do with the possibility of fine pollutants in the atmosphere blocking the particular UV wavelengths needed to strike out skin to make Vitamin D. However, that idea of why we get less Vitamin D than our ancestors kept nagging at me for about a week, until I finally had to dig into it.

The short answer is: our FOOD supply. Actually it's a bit more complex than just that, but once I understood what Vitamin D does in the body, and what makes it work, I became certain our ancestors ate the real foods that helped their skin make Vitamin D from sunshine.

The important beginning point to understand "D", is that it is a fat-soluble vitamin. The other fat-soluble vitamins are A, E, and K and they must ALL be present in order for any of them to work at their primary functions in our bodies. Secondly, consider the term "fat-soluble"... it means exactly what it says. Those vitamins all need FAT in order to get into solution so that our bodies can use them. Fat-soluble vitamins are absorbed through the intestinal tract with the help of lipids (fats).

What does Vitamin D do? Basically it is critical to bone health (by helping the body absorb use calcium) and immune system functions. Deficiencies have been linked to several major diseases like cancer, heart disease, high blood pressure and osteoporosis. I suspect it might also be linked to S.A.D. but I haven't seen any studies on it.

Healthy skin makes Vitamin D from sunshine. Notice I said "healthy skin"... IF our skin is not well-nourished by Vitamins A, E and K2, all the sunshine falling on the planet will not make Vitamin D in our skin. 

Vitamin D can be broken down into D2 and D3, which are the most common forms of Vitamin D although D2 is not a natural vitamin, and is not present in enough quantity to be detected in the human bloodstream. The Vitamin D added to pasteurized milk is D2, and recently has been linked to calcium mal-absorption. (D2 was patented and then licensed to pharmaceutical companies in the 1920's... and is manufactured by subjecting a plant fungus to ultraviolet light.)

Back to the other vitamin needs in order for Vitamin D to function properly... Vitamin A doesn't come from carrots! Carrots and other orange-colored vegetables only provide beta-carotene, which is just a pre-cursor to Vitamin A and is not very efficiently converted (est 10-12%) to retinol in the small intestine. Retinol is the animal form of Vitamin A, found in egg yolks, liver (even cod livers and chicken livers) and butter. Retinol becomes retinal in the human body, giving us good eyesight, skin health and bone growth. Since conversion of beta-carotene is so poor, the most reliable sources of Vitamin A are animal foods.

Vitamin E works synergistically with Vitamin D; recent research indicates E may act more like a hormone in the body rather than the antioxident is has been thought to be. There is a lot still unknown about Vitamin E in the human body, but we do know Vitamin D needs it to function. Unlike the other fat-soluble vitamins, sources of E are primarily plant-based foods like broccoli, spinach, seeds/nuts and their oils (like olive oil).

Vitamin K is generally less known than the other vitamins. Dr. Weston A. Price identified it many years ago as a compound he called “Activator X”. As with vitamins A and D, there are two main forms of vitamin K, known as K1 and K2. K1 is the predominant form of vitamin K in the diet, coming from plant foods (such as spinach, swiss chard, cabbage, kale, broccoli, avocado and kiwi). K2 consists of MK-4 and MK-7 forms, which are found only in animal foods (egg yolks, butter, beef, hard and soft cheese).

The primary function of K1 is for blood clotting, and K2 to convert a protein molecule to GLA, Gamma-linolenic acid. (GLA is one of the Omega-6 fatty acids.) Along with Omega-3 fatty acids, Omega-6 fatty acids play a crucial role in brain function as well as normal growth and development. Also known as polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), they help stimulate skin and hair growth, maintain bone health, regulate metabolism, and maintain the reproductive system.

Vitamin K2 is normally produced by the fermentation process of bacteria in the large intestine (if given the proper nutrients in our diet), and dietary deficiency is extremely rare unless the intestines are heavily damaged, unable to absorb the molecule, or are subject to decreased production by normal gut flora, from antibiotic use.

I have read this idea over and over, in many ways and many places, and I'll repeat it here: What's interesting is that the very foods required to give us these essential vitamins are the very foods we are encouraged to reduce or eliminate (dietary fats). I did a label-check while I was at the supermarket... several packaged foods listed the water-soluble vitamin content (like Vitamin C) but none listed any fat-soluble vitamins. The exception was Vitamins A and D added to fat-free milk. What's wrong with that picture?

So, if you want to increase your Vitamin D, increase your real animal food/fat intake. (BTW, it is not understood but somehow the natural, fat-soluble vitamins also work together to avoid any toxic accumulation among them.)

How Sustainable is Discarding 1/3 of Every Meat Animal?

We Americans have become very picky eaters, sometimes with good reasoning, but some of it is merely due to the learned 'squeamish' factor. We really don't even want to know where those sanitized packaged chops, steaks and skinless/boneless breasts we do eat come from...

Many folks who read this blog are dedicated in some form to sustainability, and some even raise their own hog or steer to butcher for the family meat supply. After grazing an animal until it reaches butchering size, they are usually trucked off to the butchering facility. Folks get their animal back in neat little frozen packages, total weight well under what they took in.

In the US Meat Industry, statistically only about ⅔ of every beef or hog reaches our domestic grocery stores. Much of the rest is not only very edible, but some of it is far superior nutritionally to the muscle cuts which show up in the meat departments of our stores. The percentage of what reaches our stores now used to be higher, but we have learned to shun many nutritious edible parts over the last 50+ years. Personally, I have shunned those parts with good reason: the CAFO animal offal (for example, liver is offal and a large filter) contains higher amounts of toxins, whether from pesticides and herbicides in their feed or in antibiotics given to the animals.

Most of those edible parts we shun are sold cheaply to other cultures who favor parts like beef tongue, liver, brains, tripe, testicles, intestines and tails (parts considered offal), although some does come to us in the form of hot dogs and sausages. The inedible parts like hide and bones are also profitable to the industry; they are sold to processors for various uses including animal food. Nothing goes to waste, everything makes a profit for them.

Home-raised meat is not very different in what percentage of it we eat, and many small meat processors do not have a market for the portion they don't butcher and package. Much what we discard is not only edible, but some of it is far superior nutritionally to the muscle cuts. How sustainable is it to discard ⅓ of an animal when much of it is edible and all of it is useable?

I am now buying all my meat locally; it is strictly from small, family-farm pastured animals that are chemical, hormone and antibiotic free. Like most people, I could say I don't eat offal. Truthfully all I can say I is that I haven't eaten offal in many years, but now that I have access to pastured meat, that is changing. Why should I spend $6-8/pound for some cuts of meat when the $2/pound will give me more nutrients?

The organs of pastured animals contain much more nutrition that the muscle parts. According to Sally Fallon (Nourishing Traditions), organ meats contain 10 to 100 times the nutrients of muscle meats. In the wild, the organs are always the first things eaten by a predator because of the higher nutrients they contain. Same was true of the Native Americans... they ate the buffalo or other animal organs first, and cured the muscle parts for later when food wasn't plentiful... But when I ask the local farmers for leaf fat, heart, tongue, sweetbreads, oxtail or other offal parts, the usual answer I get is that they don't sell them because there is no demand.

I had to beg the fellow who raises lamb to have his butcher save the sweetbreads for me when I ordered the cheap but very meaty neck bones for stock. He gave me the sweetbreads free because they normally don't keep them. For under $10 I got enough neck meat for at least 8 meals, not counting the delicious and nutritious stock I canned.

Beef liver is a nutritious organ meat that contains several vitamins and minerals important to the human body. One slice of liver (about 3 ozs.) contains 423% of the daily requirement of vitamin A; 163% for riboflavin/B2; 1,122% for vitamin B12 and 28% for iron on a 2,000-calorie per day diet as recommended by the USDA. By contrast, the same amount of a chuck roast supplies 0% vitamin A, 12% B2, 36% B12 and 15% iron.

The average beef liver weighs 10-12 pounds, and I can buy a whole grass-fed beef liver for around $10. (The liver in Grass-fed/Pastured beef is a still a filter, but it isn't filtering any toxins if there aren't any.) I don't like the stronger taste of mature beef liver as much as the more delicate taste of calf's liver, but soaking a slice in buttermilk for an hour or so removes the strong taste! Another tip for liver is to partially freeze it, then slice it very thin, and sauté quickly. Cooking with some bacon or in bacon fat adds flavor, and I prefer cooking liver with shallots rather than onions... plus I add a splash of sherry just before removing it from the pan.

Heart Attacks, Supplements, Natural Vitamins and Minerals

Recently, the New York Times ran a piece about the correlation between heart attacks and supplemental calcium, based on this research posted in the British Medical Journal. The report concluded that calcium supplements increase the risk of myocardial infarctions (what we call heart attacks) by about 30% over five years. 

One of the problems I see with the report is that people believe what they read in reputable publications, whether it's the NYT or the BMJ. Actually, people tend to believe what the read in any publication, and if it is medical or nutritional research, that goes double. The average person has little training in medical research, and takes on faith what they read by someone with a degree, or in 'prestigious institution' publications.

My own in-depth look into medical and nutritional reports in general is what has brought me to the place where I now look closely at all research before I believe anything. Who paid for the research? Who benefits financially? What data did they choose to omit because it disproved their hypothesis?

In my opinion, the report above is in total alignment with the belief that we are too stupid to manage our own health. 

Even according to The Alliance for Natural Health, the report by the BMJ has some serious flaws. 

"It was another example of bad research, poorly constructed from a scientific point of view. But it does contain an element of truth that we all need to understand.

First, the research itself: Daniel Fabricant, PhD, vice president of scientific regulatory affairs for the Natural Products Association, said the results of this study go against years of research showing the benefits of calcium supplementation, and suggested that the authors of the research “cherry picked” the fifteen studies from hundreds of available research studies in the area.

Andrew Shao, PhD, senior vice president of scientific and regulatory affairs for the Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN), said that their conclusions are “dramatically overstated….Seven of the fifteen trials evaluated had no, or incomplete, data on cardiovascular outcomes…. Further, the researchers chose to exclude any trials administering calcium plus vitamin D—including the Women’s Health Initiative, which found calcium plus vitamin D had no effect on the risk of coronary heart disease or stroke.” 

This last point—about taking calcium with vitamin D—is vital but still incomplete.

Supplemental calcium should never be taken alone. It needs additional magnesium, vitamin D, omega–3 fatty acids, and vitamin K (in particular, vitamin K-2, which is especially important). Without these essential co-factors, the calcium may end up in our blood vessels or our heart, where it causes harm, rather than our bones, where it is needed. 

So long as these co-factors are taken as well, many studies have shown that added calcium plays an important role in building and maintaining bone mass—and also reduces the risk of colon cancer.

It is unarguably true that many people are taking calcium in the wrong way. The answer is NOT to stop taking it. There are enough cases of bone loss (osteoporosis) as it is. And the potential side effects of osteoporosis drugs are truly scary.

Here are some of my thoughts on supplements (and I do take some supplements):

Calcium occurring in a natural food form (lots of green leafy vegetables, dairy products like milk, cheese and yogurt, almonds, fish...) was not considered in the research above, but only calcium in supplement pill form, maybe even without magnesium in the compound. So we have no idea if calcium in food form might increase heart attacks; I somehow doubt it.

I don't really know what is true in that research controversy, but maybe I don't need to know if I look to Real Foods for much of my calcium, other minerals, and vitamins.  (Vitamin D is one exception, which I posted here.)

What is true of calcium tends to be true of all vitamins and minerals... they are naturally occurring in our Real Food supply, and our bodies can absorb and use their natural forms appropriately. No one overdoses on vitamins and minerals found in Real Foods.

This assumes, of course, that we know what foods to eat for the vitamins we need. Fast Food does not supply the vitamins we need, and so-called 'vitamin-fortified' foods like breakfast cereals either do not contain the proper balance of vitamins, or they contain vitamins in a form our bodies cannot utilize.

The other thing that is true is that all vitamins and other supplement pills are not alike, and many of the least expensive ones are imported, mainly from China, or are synthetically derived from coal tar.

Now, BigPharma is working to get a bigger cut of the vitamin market, notably the B vitamins which protect against heart attack and stroke. I expect we will see B vitamins like B6, B9 and B12 available by prescription soon, perhaps in response to research like the report above on calcium and heart attacks.

Of course, we all know you can get all those same B vitamins from Real Foods like animal protein (red meat and eggs are best), and some fruits and vegetables, don't we?? 

ps... The B vitamins are water-soluble, which means your body doesn't store any extra B's; you have to replenish them daily.

Vitamins, Couch Potatoes, and Government Regulation

July 4th, Independence Day, the day we celebrate our adoption of the Declaration of Independence, seems a good time to post this. Without any fanfare or media coverage, President Obama quietly signed an Executive Order June 10, 2010, Establishing the National Prevention, Health Promotion, and Public Health Council.

Sec. 5. National Prevention and Health Promotion Strategy.
Not later than March 23, 2011, shall develop and make public a national prevention, health promotion, and public health strategy (national strategy)

(c) contain a list of national priorities on health promotion and disease prevention to address lifestyle behavior modification (including smoking cessation, proper nutrition, appropriate exercise, mental health, behavioral health, substance-use disorder, and domestic violence screenings) and the prevention measures for the five leading disease killers in the United States...

The Surgeon General shall serve as the Chair of the Council, which shall be composed of:

(1) the Secretary of Agriculture;
(2) the Secretary of Labor;
(3) the Secretary of Health and Human Services;
(4) the Secretary of Transportation;
(5) the Secretary of Education;
(6) the Secretary of Homeland Security;
(7) the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency;
(8) the Chair of the Federal Trade Commission;
(9) the Director of National Drug Control Policy;
(10) the Assistant to the President and Director of the Domestic Policy Council;
(11) the Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs;
(12) the Chairman of the Corporation for National and Community Service; and
(13) the head of any other executive department or agency that the Chair may, from time to time, determine is appropriate.

One of the things this order does is to assure the USA becomes fully compliant with Codex:

Sec. 6. Reports.
(g) contains specific plans to ensure that all prevention programs outside the Department of Health and Human Services are based on the science-based guidelines developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention under subsection (d) of this section.

The CDC doesn't have a good track record with complementary and alternative medicine... and Vitamins and herbs, under Codex, are considered toxic substances which would be under strict regulation.

The U.K. is already under Codex, as are many European nations. Until 1996, the average German citizen could buy 500 mg Vitamin C tablets.. or 400 IU capsules of Vitamin E. Today the highest dosage available without a prescription is 200 mg Vitamin C, and 45 IU Vitamin E. (If I am coming down with a cold, I take 2,000 mg Vitamin C every 4 hours for 24 hours (per Linus Pauling, I think it was.) Works wonderfully.) In addition, our bodies need Vitamin C to work with Vitamins A and D for optimum health, and our foods contain far less of these natural vitamins with the increasing soil nutrient deficit.

In Norway, citizens can purchase 2.4 mg of vitamin B1, 2.8 mg of B2, 4.2 mg of B6, and 32 mg of niacin. Any dosage for these vitamins that exceed this level requires a prescription.
In Canada, any herb making health improvement claims is classified as a drug. In Europe, the European Economic Community (EEC) has said if an herb is medicinal, it is medicine and should be sold as a drug.

The original proposals for Codex came from Germany. They were made by a panel sponsored by three giant drug companies: Hoechst, Bayer and BASF. These companies resulted from the disbandment of I.G. Farben after World War II. BASF (of Germany) and LaRoche Holding AG (of Switzerland) recently pleaded guilty to the largest antitrust conspiracy as yet uncovered to fix vitamin prices. Each paid hefty fines. Source

As you ponder this, understand that Codex decisions override those of individual countries. When complaints are filed, they are settled by world courts with little concern about whether Americans get enough Vitamin C every day. Severe trade restrictions can be used by the World Health Organization to twist arms of nations into compliance.

Another disturbing clause is under Sec. 3, Purposes and Duties:

(b) develop, after obtaining input from relevant stakeholders, a national prevention, health promotion, public health, and integrative health-care strategy that incorporates the most effective and achievable means of improving the health status of Americans and reducing the incidence of preventable illness and disability in the United States, as further described in section 5 of this order;

Who are the "relevant stakeholders"???

Who will enforce "appropriate exercise"... an armed Homeland Security Officer?

Per the President's order, he expects "changes in Federal policy to achieve national wellness, health promotion, and public health goals, including the reduction of tobacco use, sedentary behavior, and poor nutrition..."

I wonder what effect this might have on all the proven harmful GMO foods on our grocer's shelves? HA! Fat Chance.

There is a silver lining. This is our wake-up call to start eating right and get healthy. We can learn what's really good for us and not go by marketing propaganda, whatever the source. We can grow fruit, vegetables and herbs. We can raise backyard chickens and rabbits. We can plant Rugosa Roses for their wonderful rose hips full of Vitamin C. We can take responsibility for ourselves, our own bodies.

Some effects of my new food protocol

I have been tracking my weight loss on my new food protocol since early April, over on the right column here. However, I haven't said much about how I'm doing, or feeling otherwise so it's time for an update.

I am now off all my prescription meds. One was for acid reflux (the dosage had even doubled from last summer to last December); another was a beta blocker and my blood pressure is staying lower, and the third was thyroid.

I was very aware I had no stomach distress (nor belching) within 2 weeks of dropping starchy carbs (mostly legumes, pasta and breads) and all sugars from my diet. However, until I recently saw a crass TV ad where the man farts loudly, I hadn't really noticed that I never get gas anymore either. That means my digestive system is processing (and hopefully absorbing) what I eat quite nicely, without having to work hard on non-digestibles.

On the days I start off with my vitamins taken just before breakfast, I have good energy all day, and sleep well through the night. Unfortunately, lately I have been getting busy some mornings and forget. I sure can tell the difference if I have skipped even 1-2 days. I take half a teaspoon or so of a butter-oil / fermented cod liver oil (it's really not too bad, more like swallowing a soft pat of butter, and I wash it down with coffee); the oil is high in natural Vitamins A and D; additionally I take another 1,000 units of Vitamin D with lunch and again with dinner. I also take 1,000 mg Vitamin C at breakfast, and 2 horse-size tabs of calcium citrate with D at breakfast and dinner.

Typical meals for a day start with 2 cups coffee with heavy cream (non ultra-pasteurized), bacon and 2 farm eggs, maybe a side of left-over veggie. A late lunch might be a hamburger patty or 1-2 hard boiled eggs, some homemade plain yogurt and a wedge of a raw milk cheese. Dinner is a portion of meat (lamb, beef, chicken, pork or sometimes trout) that I sauté in cold-pressed coconut oil mixed with organic summer butter, or in bacon fat. I have a small green salad (my tomatoes are just nubbins on the vine so far) dressed with EVOO and raw apple cider vinegar, and a green veggie, depending on what's in the garden. Every 2 weeks or so I may have a small baked sweet potato, with butter of course.

I am told to never let myself get hungry, which leads to popping just anything in my mouth, even if it's wrong. So I always keep a snack available, especially when I leave the house. I keep some good cheese, yogurt and hard boiled eggs in the fridge all the time.

Amazingly, I didn't miss sugar after the first week. Bread was a lot harder! I do eat a small bit of fruit, like berries from my garden, but my endocrinologist wants that kept to a bare minimum until we know more about my thyroid triggers. (Fruit is very high in sugars, same for milk but I can have fermented milk products like yogurt and kefir because the sugars have been converted into lactic acid.) I drink lots of water with fresh lemon, all day long.

I don't eat anything processed nor packaged (except butter and milk which of course come in a 'package'). My skin is healthier-looking, even with my 70-year old wrinkles. I need to walk more; the only exercise I get is gardening and it isn't enough.

I have blood work scheduled July 7th, a complete lipid panel, so I'll know about cholesterol levels. Unfortunately, my doc forgot to order the lipid panel in March just before I started this protocol so I don't have a good starting point. Ten years ago my cholesterol was almost 400.  My doc at the time started me on chloresterol-lowering meds when it was near 400, but I turned out to be allergic to all the meds;  after switching to just butter and EVOO, it dropped to around 220 in less than a year. I doubt it was much lower when I started this, as I had no idea how many bad fats (partially hydrogenated soybean and other vegetable oils, plus trans-fats) were in the fast foods and prepared foods I was eating.

For only a scant three months of eating this way, I must say I feel a lot better. Not 100%. I only wish someone had clued me in about this when I was 50!

Ignoring the Obvious in Supplements?

Photo courtesy of snowpea&bokchoi's photostream

The FDA is trying to crack down on supplements... which is becoming a political hot potato. In recent years, the vast majority of supplement manufacturers and suppliers have relocated overseas, mainly in China. For example, nearly all the Vitamin C, along with many other popular supplements sold in the US, comes from China. The FDA is not required to inspect those plants on foreign soil, and has little funding to do so anyway.

A report from a company that has tested over 2,000 dietary supplements made by more than 300 manufacturers and has found that one in four have quality problems. The 'quality' problems are trace elements of contaminates like lead, pesticides and heavy metals — including mercury, cadmium and arsenic — which did not exceed thresholds (except for the pesticide residues) considered dangerous, the investigators found.

So, what does that really mean?

The FDA wants to  use that data as part of their ongoing efforts to make it necessary to have a physician write all prescriptions for any vitamin and herbal supplements.


Herbal supplements are made from dried and processed herbs, and how they are grown and in what soil controls the quality, in the US or a foreign country. Sure, quality can also be affected by conditions in processing but probably most originates in the field. There are pesticides and herbicides still being manufactured in the US which have been outlawed as toxic for any application in the US, but the manufacturing companies are still allowed to sell them to foreign countries. When other countries apply those products to crops, naturally they show up in the soil and thus the plants, which absorb them from the soil.

It seems to me the FDA should concern themselves more about eliminating the source of contamination (stop the production of toxins), and support the quality herbal manufacturers in the US. Instead, it seems they want to outlaw all supplements unless a doctor prescribes them, which will punish US herb growers and consumers alike.

We have choices when we purchase vitamins and herbal dietary supplements, but choosing which brand is not necessarily an easy decision. Do we buy the cheapest brand with the best safety advertising buzz words? Most of us probably do. Do we bother to look up each company to see where their raw material is grown? Probably not. Do we ask if their ingredients are certified organic, thus free of pesticides and heavy metal contamination? Probably not.

I just looked up the manufacturers of the D3, C, and magnesium I take. Only one lists a materials source (India); one shows the parent company is in China, and all say the have a packaging facility is in the US. That doesn't tell me where all their raw materials originate.

When I still lived in North Carolina, I had the opportunity to visit the farms of Gaia Herbs. They have recently instituted a traceability program for their herbal supplements, and from what I saw of their farms I would trust the integrity of their products. Many of their herbs are grown under very strict organic standards and advertised as such. (I do not work for them, nor do I receive any compensation from them. Their inclusion here is merely an example of what is possible.)

Another choice we have is to eat foods high in nutritional value, assuring our necessary vitamins come from real foods and not a questionable pill. If we can get all our nutritional needs met and our body re-balanced and our stress levels reduced, we may find we won't need the healing powers of herbal medicines as much. 'Course, herbs still make great tea!