Health Notes -- Where do I start?

Because we live in the type of world we live in, let me first state my disclaimer - loud and clear.....**I AM NOT A DOCTOR!! THE ADVICE I AM GIVING YOU IS FREE OF CHARGE AND NOT GUARANTEED OR EVEN INTENDED TO DIAGNOSE, TREAT, OR CURE ANY DISEASE (OR EVEN A COLD OR THE FLU)!**

Ok, now that we have that out of the way, let me tell you why I am writing this post. I get calls about four or five times per week, I kid you not, from my friends and acquaintances, and their friends asking me what to take for various medical conditions. Normally, they are common conditions like a cold, the flu, or an allergy to one thing or the other. I am truly amazed that anyone calls to ask my opinion on anything and even more amazed when they call back to tell me they tried it.

I was going to start a separate blog about alternative treatments, but I think I will just try to make a post under the label "Health Notes" every so often. I would say I would start doing "Healthy Friday" or something like that, but I'll spare you the promise that I likely wouldn't keep, and tell you this...I will try, over time, to post the remedies our family uses for various things. I will try to share some of the herbal and homeopathic treatments we use and what supplements we take on a daily basis. That way, you can search under the label "Health Notes" if you have questions. Please don't stop calling me, though - I love to talk about this stuff!

First, I will briefly share with you my journey to a proactive lifestyle. As a teenager and a young college student, I knew nothing about true nutrition. I ate a lot of salad and other low fat things simply because I did not want to gain the "Freshman 15" when I went off to college after graduation. After my first three kids were born, it was pretty much the same. I tried to get them to eat their veggies, but I really knew nothing of "whole" foods or true nutrition.

When I was pregnant with my fourth child, I went to visit a friend who had recently started grinding her own wheat to bake bread. Now, being a home schooler, I knew that there were people who ground their own wheat, but I did not fit that stereotype AT ALL! (And some of you thought we all did that stuff, didn't you?)

Anyway, she showed me how easy it was to do (not by hand, with an electric grinder) and how the bread machine did all the work of kneading and baking. So, after about three minutes of prep time and three hours in the bread machine, there was a loaf of fresh (and I mean fresh) whole wheat bread. Hmmmm.....

I thought maybe it was time I started living up to my "reputation" as a whacked out, tree hugging home schooler.

Thus began my quest for nutritional knowledge. It all started with a piping hot loaf of bread, smeared with real butter!

Over the past eight years I have learned a lot. I could not and would not ever try to share it all with you in one post. It is overwhelming and it would probably bore you to tears.

What I will do is give you my opinion (remember my disclaimer) on where to get started. If I had to pick one place for you to start your own quest to healthy living, I would tell you to cut out the white, processed flour.

Wheat is a grain. There are various types of wheat: hard, soft, pastry. The "hard" wheat has the highest gluten content and therefore is used in yeast breads that you want to rise. Soft wheat has less gluten and is used for muffins, pancakes, and breads that do not contain yeast, like banana bread. Pastry wheat is even lighter and is used for cakes and other baked goods that need to be soft and spongy. When you buy a bucket of wheat berries to grind into flour, they are hard, brown "pellets." The grinder is an electronic piece of equipment that simply grinds the berries into flour.

When you grind fresh wheat berries into whole wheat flour you get the nutrition from the entire berry. The hard outer shell contains the fiber, then you have the gluten next, and finally the wheat germ in the middle. White flour from the store has been stripped of every part of the wheat berry except the gluten. There is virtually no nutritional value left and to top it off, it is bleached so that it will be white. Wheat comes in either "white" wheat or "red" wheat. The "white" is really a light brown color and the "red" is a darker brown. Products you purchase that are stark white are not natural and contain bleach, as in Clorox!

Gluten is a product that helps bread to rise. Some people have severe gluten intolerance, and those people should obviously avoid all wheat products. For those who can handle wheat, whole wheat is the healthy choice. When you eat bread baked from whole wheat, you have the benefit of the fiber and the germ, which acts as a scrub brush on the inside of your colon. It "cleans" house basically, and you will know that it is working! When you eat white flour products, there is nothing left except the gluten, which is the sticky part. Some of you, like me, may be old enough to remember the white paste that we used to use in school to glue paper. If you buy a bag of white flour at the store and mix it will water, you will have paste. As you may imagine, this is not good for your intestinal tract and colon. It sticks to the sides of the colon and eventually turns toxic. This causes all sorts of problems from constipation to colon cancer.

Buying whole wheat bread at the store is better than buying white, but the best case would be to bake your own. It is not difficult to do and it is well worth the effort. I would also recommend that you use fresh ground flour for all of your flour needs - muffins, pancakes, breading if you are going to fry something. We have NO white flour in our house at all.

Remember, that just about every bread product you purchase pre-made or at a restaurant will be made from white flour. Doughnuts, scones, sandwiches, and white pasta. It will take you a while to get used to the alternatives, but there are plenty available. Whole wheat pasta tastes just as good and there are boxed mixes for brownies, cookies, muffins, etc...that are whole grains and organic. Many are available at your local grocery store and if you have a Whole Foods or Trader Joes near you, there are plenty of options there.

I encourage you to try to give up all processed flour products. I have always heard that three weeks makes a habit and that is also about the amount of time it will take your body to cleanse itself of the negative effects of these products. You will also need to try to cleanse your colon of the built up toxins. There are many over the counter, mild colon cleanses available at health food stores. Do not use these if you are pregnant or nursing.

Check in next week for the next step in the healthy living journey!

Whole Wheat Bread

4-5 cups whole wheat flour
2 cups hot water
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup honey
1 tsp salt
1 tblspoon gluten
4 tsp yeast

I use a Kitchen Aid mixer to knead my bread, then I bake it in the oven.

Put water, oil, honey, and salt in the mixing bowl. Add three cups of the flour on top of the liquid. Put the gluten and yeast on top of that and add the remaining two cups of flour.

Use the kneading element on the mixer to knead the dough for 10 minutes.

Cover with a towel and put in a warm place to rise for about an hour - a little more or less depending on the weather.

Take out of mixing bowl and punch down. Separate into two regular sized loaf pans and return to warm place to rise again. Approximately 45 minutes to an hour.

Bake at 350 degrees for 23 minutes. Enjoy with real butter or olive oil!

Healthy Eating!