Remembering Why We Celebrate Christmas

Post by Carman Licciardello.

Do you rinse YOUR poultry?

For years I've wondered why people rinsed their poultry. Rinsing obviously won't remove salmonella or other bacteria. Cooking poultry to the correct temperature should destroy any worrisome bacteria. There are different types of meat thermometers. This is the one that I use, that is also handy for the BBQ:

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So to wash the poultry or not? What do you think? If you're not sure of the right answer, please watch this video:

Perhaps if you watched the video, you will agree with me - "Ewwwwww!!!"

What's the Deal with Probiotics?

Probiotics - the Good Bacteria and the Bad Bacteria

It seems people are doing a lot of talking these days about probiotics. Scientists have discovered that our gut is 80% of our immune system and that our immune system contains trillions of good bacteria, also known as probiotics.

Those of us with Chronic Lyme Disease know the importance of taking probiotics along with antibiotics. Well, here's what happened to me...

My daughter introduced me to Kombucha. In case you don't know, Kombucha is a fermented, sweet tea that was brought to the United States from Asia (China, I think) in the 80's when President Reagan developed cancer. At least according to legend, that's how it came to the US. And when I say legend, I mean 'the Internet.' When I first tasted it, I wasn't impressed. It has a tart, vinegar-like taste. Actually, it's easy to over-ferment and turn it into vinegar.

While I was on high-dose antibiotics for Chronic Lyme, I suddenly loved the taste of it and somehow couldn't get enough of it. At the same time, I continually forgot to take my high-dose, high-end, expensive, probiotic capsules. Surprisingly, I didn't have symptoms that taking antibiotics can cause - mainly diarrhea.  Occasionally, I would remember to take my capsules.

I never felt taking all those antibiotics was the right thing to do, yet I had to do something as I was failing quickly.

A friend of mine developed C. diff. after a course of high-dose antibiotics for Chronic Lyme. If you've never heard of it, c. diff is short for Clostridium difficile, pronounced 'klos trid ee um ~ diff uh seel.'  It's a nasty infection that occurs when we do not have enough good bacteria in our guts. This typically happens during or after a course of antibiotics. It can also be deadly!

According to NHS Choices,"C. difficile does not usually affect healthy children and adults. This is because the bacteria normally present in the healthy bowel keep it under control." Sounds simple to me.

C.diff lives in our guts harmoniously until we kill off the good bacteria, which allows the bad bacteria to take over. When my friend told me this happened to her, I felt lucky it hadn't happened to me, especially since I kept forgetting to take my probiotics. My friend also told me that her Naturopath prescribed something called sachromyces boulardii (also known as s. boulardii) to help combat the C. diff.

Later, I learned that s. boulardii is the yeast that combats and keeps C. diff in check. And WHAT a surprise to find that Kombucha is full of s. boulardii! In fact, G.T.'s Kombucha lists that it contains two billion in their 16 oz. bottle! No wonder I was so lucky! I was drinking about 32 ounces of Kombucha per day. I just couldn't get enough of the stuff.

But wait - there's more! I purchased a wonderful, informative, politically incorrect book - Nourishing Traditions. Much of the information contained in it I already knew - like the fact that humans were made to eat REAL food rather than processed, man-made foods i.e. saturated fats, eggs WITH the yolk, raw milk, etc.

What I didn't know, and had never thought about, is the fact that we are supposed to be eating fermented foods. Fermented foods are the foods that contain good bacteria - PROBIOTICS. Capsules are a good backup, but we are supposed to be eating fermented foods. Reading about this in Nourishing Traditions, I felt a light bulb go off (as it has so many times along my food-learning path). When canning came into our picture, good bacteria for our gut went out the window. We are supposed to be eating fermented foods on a daily basis. Foods like sauerkraut, yogurt, milk kefir, water kefir and fermented vegetables in general. There was a time this was our only way, aside from salt, to preserve foods.

We have at least 500 different bacteria in our guts and a probiotic capsule contains, at most, a few different strains. I had to ask myself, if I've taken antibiotics and most of these bacteria are killed, how do I put back those 500 different bacteria? And how do I put them back in a high quantity? Even yogurt only contains about five transient bacteria strains at most - needing to be replaced daily.

It turns out that we have transient bacteria (that stay only for a short time) and we have bacteria that can colonize the gut.

According to Cultures for Health, "The beneficial bacteria found in yogurt help keep the digestive tract clean and provide food for the friendly bacteria found in a healthy gut. They are called transient because they pass through the digestive tract. The bacteria in milk kefir, on the other hand, can actually colonize the intestinal tract." 

Dr. Mercola writes that our bodies have 100 trillion bacteria. I don't want to do the math, but it seems if we take a capsule containing a couple different strains and a total of 15 billion, it takes A LOT of capsules to re-colonize the gut.

If we need to keep our gut colonized, we need to be eating/drinking fermented foods on a daily basis. When we take antibiotics we need to re-colonize even more because of what was killed off by the antibiotics. Plain and simple - fermented foods! Once I started drinking milk kefir, it was just like with the Kombucha -  I couldn't get enough. I've now leveled off, but will continue to drink and eat fermented foods of all kinds on a daily basis. 

Nourishingplot.com reported in an article: "Dr. Mercola sent his sauerkraut off to a lab and reported the finding of probiotics saying, 'We had it analyzed. We found in a 4-6 ounce serving of the fermented vegetables there were literally ten trillion bacteria.' "  

PLEASE NOTE that I am not a doctor and none of my statements have been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. None of my statements or anything on this site is intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. 

PLEASE do NOT eat any foods that don't taste right!!!

One of my favorite books!   My affiliate Link:

Sources:
http://nourishingplot.com/2014/06/21/sauerkraut-test-divulges-shocking-probiotic-count/

http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Clostridium-difficile/Pages/Causes.aspx

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/09/24/one-of-the-most-important-steps-you-can-take-to-improve-your-health.aspx

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/04/18/probiotics-the-case-for-healthy-bowels.aspx

Great Price on Banderol!

If you have Lyme Disease, or especially if you have Chronic Lyme disease, you're probably familiar with Banderol. This is a great price! Affiliate link:

Lighted Planters

I love these lighted planters and would love to line them up on my deck!

Omega NC800HDS Juicer

We were long overdue replacing our centrifugal juicer with a masticating juicer. Our Jack LaLanne juicer served us well for many years. I'm not so sure it was the best choice, but since I was only just becoming a 'foodie' when I purchased it, it was a good choice at about $100. I always felt guilty throwing out all that pulp, especially since it stayed quite moist. The Omega's pulp is much dryer.

While researching juicers, one quickly learns the health benefit isn't the same for all juicers. From what I've found, the Norwalk is the best juicer available.  At roughly a $2500 price tag, it's clearly not for everyone, including me. If I was ever told I had cancer, or seriously suspected that I had cancer, I would desperately search for a way to purchase this juicer so that I could properly follow the Gerson Therapy.

A centrifugal juicer is said to heat the fruit/vegetables causing the enzymes to break down and negate healing effects. My personal experience proves they are harder to clean. The surface area of the strainer that's exposed to the fruits and vegetables in a centrifugal is much, much larger than a horizontal masticating juicer.

The strainer in the Omega horizontal is tiny in comparison.

One thing that impresses me most about my Omega juicer, is that it goes together and comes apart easily and quickly. (I like that I don't need to grab my eyeglasses to put parts on or take them off.) Best of all—cleaning is a breeze. I spend much more time washing my fruits and vegetables than I do washing this juicer. A brush is included which makes cleaning the strainer easy. This juicer is not only capable of juicing wheatgrass, fruits and vegetables, making nut butters and making frozen desserts, but can also extrude pasta.  Even though pasta isn't a staple in my home, I'm happy I now have a way to shape it. I'm looking forward to making pasta with my own healthier ingredients. It's great that I not only didn't have to pay for extra parts to use this for more than a juicer, but I also don't have to find extra space in my kitchen to store another big, clunky accessory. My main reasons for choosing the Omega NC800HDS over other masticating juicers:

   1.  Successfully juices wheat grass without purchasing extra parts.  
   2.  Makes frozen fruit sorbet/desserts without purchasing extra parts.
   3.  Horizontal model is easy to clean, with less parts than the vertical model.  
   4.  Includes 6 nozzles and 1 juicing screen.

This particular model, according to the Omega website, has a 'bigger' shute for the fruits/vegetables. The Omega website states, "The size of the feed chute is larger so you spend less time prepping before juicing." I would honestly hate to see the smaller chutes.

I always juice more fruits and vegetables than I can immediately drink. Although it's recommended to immediately drink the juice, I seal leftover juice in a canning jar with my Foodsaver Jar sealer and store in refrigerator. Using a Foodsaver to Seal Canning Jars.

Source: Gerson Guide to Juicers

Do You Know about Bitly.com?

I've used bitly.com or other sites for years - primarily to shorten a url.

I can't tell you how many times I've had to format a computer and lost all my 'Favorites' or 'Bookmarks.'  With smartphones, tablets, labtops and desktops, it's sometimes hard to remember which device I was on when I saved a link. I don't really want to sync all my devices together; I just want to be able to find a link when I want to find a link.  Bitly.com allows me to save everything in one spot and allows me to search all my links. I can even add a searchable 'note' to a link.

Bitly is a handy tool, especially when it's an extremely long url.

I can't believe I missed out on the possible storage possibility for such a long time! Being able to search my stored links is the best part.  Adding my own note makes it even easier to search.