yogurt

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.

vitamin A

Retinol or Vitamin A 3D space model (balls model), by YassineMrabet, on Wikimedia Commons

There is just so much confusion on this topic that as a chemist, I decided to set the record straight.

Vitamin A comes in a number of forms:

retinol

vitamin A; the normal form that is stored in the body; chemically it contains an alcohol functional group

retinal

the form actively used by the eye; chemically, a reduced form of retinol containing an aldehyde functional group

retinoic acid

acts as an important hormone-like growth factor; chemically, an oxidized form of retinol containing a carboxylic acid functional group

retinyl palmitate

the form found in animal foods; chemically, an ester function group joins retinol to palmitic acid (the most common saturated fatty acid)

alpha-carotene, beta-carotene, gamma-carotene and cryptoxanthin

the provitamin A forms found in plant foods; the thesis of this post is that these are not "real" vitamin A, though useful nutrients on their own

So first, let's take a look at the various forms of vitamin A...