Your Second Brain

For hundreds of years, fermented foods have long been a way of life.  Think about it, when there was no refrigeration, fermenting was necessary to maximize your harvest.  Before our diets became accustomed to processed foods, we ate fermented foods daily, and there was no real need to supplement with probiotics.  

It’s neither here nor there whether our moods have evolved to our detriment, but study after study has shown that there is a parallel between the rise in disorders like ADHD, anxiety and depression and the fall of the number of beneficial bacteria in our guts.  Fermented foods have been found to supply the types of bacteria that act as “the clean up crew” to toxins and harmful organisms in our bodies by attracting them and then literally carrying them out of your gut in your waste. 

Making fermented foods takes less time than cooking dinner, and in 7-10 days you (your gut and your disposition) got yourself a real treat.  Check out different websites on fermenting like this one from The Nourished Kitchen (http://bit.ly/19NN6Gn) :  all you need is a couple of jars and some good sea salt.  Get creative, add your own twist to the standards, like my Purple Kimchi here.  

Thanks for reading,

Judith

"Planting your nutrition seed for the day."

Sources: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/03/18/mcbride-and-barringer-interview.aspx

Chemical-Crustables

Okay now:  how many of you Moms (and Dads) are guilty of this UnCrustable sin?  It’s just plain heinous, I tell ya!

The first time my daughter (who was six at the time) asked me to buy these because her cousins had them, I thought, “ok, sure”…I was just glad there was something that she liked that I could pack in her lunch, and hey, I didn’t have to make it, right?  (so I was naïve then; it was pre-nutrition education, alright?!)  So when I got to the market and turned the box over---HOLY CRAP!!  I counted at least 40 ingredients.  That’s right, I said “Fuggedaboutit!” 

So for Olivia to save face at school, I had to get a little creative:  I got our “good” bread, you know the kind that doesn’t have all the crap in it; the “good” jelly (ditto) and the “good” pb…cut the bread into rounds with a round cookie cutter, slapped the pb&j in the middle, pressed the two pieces together and used a fork to “crimp and seal” the edges (like you would a pie).  TA-DA!

It was a little ghetto, but those other six-year-olds didn’t have a clue…and Momma could sleep at night knowing that I wasn’t  servin’ up a Chemical-Crustable to a six-year-old!  

Thanks for reading,

Judith

"Planting your nutrition seed for the day."