Showing posts with label probiotics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label probiotics. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

thoughts on diabetes prevention

Crash by Images by John 'K', on Flickr
Diabetes: Protect our Future,
by International Diabetes Foundation

November 14 is World Diabetes Day.

The overall theme for the years 2009-2013 is "Diabetes Education and Prevention" with this year's slogan being "Diabetes: Protect our Future."

diabetes education

I see no point in educating directly, as I know of two outstanding sources.

Jennifer's advice to the newly diagnosed
If you only read one page about blood glucose control, this should be it, even if you are not yet diabetic. Jennifer discusses how to use a blood glucose meter to learn about managing your bG.
Blood Sugar 101
If you want to learn about diabetes and controlling blood glucose, but don't want to get a biochemistry degree, Jenny Ruhl's site is for you as she translates what is known for laymen very comprehensively.

diabetes prevention

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

are mud pies a superfood?

rain, dirt road, mud pies by paloetic, on Flickr
rain, dirt road, mud pies by paloetic, on Flickr

No, not the chocolatey confection, but the ones you made sitting in a pile of mud when you were a three-year-old.

I've noticed that advertising soil bacteria on your probiotics is becoming more and more popular.

It occurred to me that this was a rather stupid thing to buy cause I have dirt in my yard; presumably with soil bacteria in it. I've been composting the heck out of my garden for years and it's full of worms and other slimy things, so I imagine bacteria are happy out there too.

OK, so I wasn't really planning on sitting out there with a spoon and digging into the dirt. I mean, there's WORMS in that dirt after all!

But it occurred to me... healthy microflora has several hundred species of bacteria and most of your probiotics only have a handful. Maybe this is why homemade ferments, like sauerkraut, are so much more health-giving than fermented products from the grocery, sterilized and then inoculated with only a few bacteria.

And then it occurred to me, maybe I should just not wash my vegetables. I mean, they grow in perfectly healthy compost. I've made the jokes in comments in several blogs recently; that we ought to consider eating dirt.

And yesterday, I discovered Dr. Ayers' blog (Cooling Inflammation, linked in the sidebar) and saw that in several posts, he recommended eating unwashed vegetables. So I'm not the only one with this peculiar notion!

Of course, they need to be organic, you don't want to eat pesticide and herbicide coated vegetables without washing them. The veggies in my garden qualify, and I've always eaten them out there without washing, though I usually wash them when I bring them inside.

But maybe I'll stop. Seems cheaper than buying dirt pills.

Friday, August 3, 2012

yogurt

Yogurt by Mom the Barbarian, on Flickr
Yogurt by Mom the Barbarian, on Flickr

The whey from yogurt is a stage 1 food; yogurt itself is a Full Gaps food.

The big difference in making GAPS-style yogurt is that it needs to be cultured for 24 hours to be sure all the lactose is broken down. I expect this also increases the probiotics quite a bit also. And I'd expect the yogurt to be more tart.

My "normal" crockpot method doesn't work anymore because the milk doesn't stay warm enough long enough.

Thursday, July 5, 2012

the ThreeLac experiment

 

 

WARNING: This post may be TMI for some. Sorry, but there's just no way to discuss GI issues without... well, discussing GI issues!

 

I started ThreeLac in January of 2012.