Old story then?

On 8 December 2013, the following article was published:

Heart surgeon declares on what really causes heart illness

Allow me to highlight a few important bits:

“The discovery a few years ago that inflammation in the artery wall is the real cause of heart disease is slowly leading to a paradigm shift in how heart disease and other chronic ailments will be treated.”

“The long-established dietary recommendations have created epidemics of obesity and diabetes, the consequences of which dwarf any historical plague in terms of mortality, human suffering and dire economic consequences.”

“Simply stated, without inflammation being present in the body, there is no way that cholesterol would accumulate in the wall of the blood vessel and cause heart disease and strokes. Without inflammation, cholesterol would move freely throughout the body as nature intended. It is inflammation that causes cholesterol to become trapped.”

“Let me repeat that: The injury and inflammation in our blood vessels is caused by the low fat diet recommended for years by mainstream medicine.”

“What are the biggest culprits of chronic inflammation? Quite simply, they are the overload of simple, highly processed carbohydrates (sugar, flour and all the products made from them) and the excess consumption of omega-6 vegetable oils like soybean, corn and sunflower that are found in many processed foods.”

“There is but one answer to quieting inflammation, and that is returning to foods closer to their natural state.”

“The science that saturated fat raises blood cholesterol is also very weak. Since we now know that cholesterol is not the cause of heart disease, the concern about saturated fat is even more absurd today.”

“Mainstream medicine made a terrible mistake when it advised people to avoid saturated fat in favor of foods high in omega-6 fats. We now have an epidemic of arterial inflammation leading to heart disease and other silent killers.”

Well, then ….

Butternut

PS: Dr. Dwight Lundell has also been listed on Quackwatch on 8 February 2013 as not to be trusted. NOW there’s more Doctors and qualified researchers saying the same thing. One wonders if this listing will be reviewed now that evidence proves Dr Lundell to be right.

 

BPC makes you bulletproof …

BulletProofCoffee is basically coffee with a combination of coconut oil/butter/cream.

*Sorry for the blurry photo, it was taken VERY early this morning …

I never would have thought that I’d drink coffee with butter, never mind like it. I ♥ it!! I drink one or two cups early morning and then have brunch at about 11 – 12 am. No more early morning munchies or hunger pains, it’s enough to keep me going for hours. Fat feeds, obviously.

Here’s how I make mine:

1 heaped teaspoon coffee, 1 heaped teaspoon Xylitol, big blob of double thick cream, sliver of butter and some gelatine powder. pour some boiling water over and stir quite a bit to get the butter dissolved. Drink before it gets cold.

You can even add some vanilla/caramel essence/extract if you’d like.

Yum Yum.

Butternut

 

Could it be true? (A conspiracy theory in the making . . .)

We all know that business is about making money. ALWAYS. Someone somewhere is making money. Small amounts, big amounts, some amounts. They’re in it for the money, no matter what they say.

My theory thus:

Since “banting”/LCHF is helping a lot of people lose weight and return to a healthy state of life (and thus dropping a lot of prescribed medicine), would “industry” be the ones trying to divert people back to their old lifestyles and prescription medicine?

“Industry” being pharmaceutical companies/manufacturers, slimming product companies, dieticians, cardiovascular surgeons and gastroenterologists, pharmacies and slimming clinics, grain farmers and grain product manufacturers, sugar farmers and sugar product manufacturers, etc.

Are they all trying to be Orwell’s Big Brother and keep everyone under control? Hooked to carbs and sugars?

“The Party “seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power.”

 

Is this what Tim Noakes is fighting? Industry scared of losing millions and millions of bucks in consultation fees and products getting old on the shelves? Because people are moving back to natural and healthy and less chemical?

Could all this be true? Could this be a conspiracy? Slamming Tim Noakes to scare people off? The world is much, much bigger than we think and there’s lots going on that we, the small people, do not know about.

Luckily, we think for ourselves. Thank goodness for guys like Gary Watson and all the people administrating the “banting” and LCHF Facebook-groups who strive to educate.

Butternut

 

The epic journey to find a grain/cauli-free pizza base ….

… is an ongoing battle.

The LOML (LoveOfMyLife) is not a big fan of the cauliflower-anything. By itself he will eat it, even better when smothered with a cheese sauce. But caulimash or caulisticks or caulibase . . . no. NO. NO!

So, enter Sunday-evening and a hectic week ahead. We are considering going to get some pizza. Normal grain-based pizza. *shock* *horror*

In this desperate state of mind, I decide to try and concoct a BIY (bake it yourself) pizza base (or something similar), hoping to get as close as I can to the real thing.

I’ve added the following and mixed them all together:

1 cup Almond Flour
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon Psyllium Husk
pinch of Himalyan salt
+/- 1 tablespoon melted butter
+/- 1 heaped tablespoon smooth cottage cheese
some cream to thin the mix out

I let it stand for 5 minutes whilst I got the flat toaster warmed up. This mix makes 2.

Put a line of mix down the middle of the taster (it will spread out and flatten) and close.

This will now be called TFB in our house – The Flat Bread/Base. Nicely toasted.

Although it does not come close to a wood-fired-oven-baked-pizza-base, it’s sturdy enough to use as a pizza base as long as you don’t add too soggy ingredients. I’ve had mine with avo:

The other one I just covered with cheese as I took it out of the toaster:

I will try and make some pizza over the weekend – using the same recipe, but baking it in the oven. Will report back.

Butternut

(seriously impressed with my ingenuity – because it was edible!)

PS: seriously shopping for a sandwich toaster with smooth plates on both sides.

 

To “bant” or not to “bant” …

… is that the question?

If we go with well known answers, it would be: 42. But that doesn’t really answer the question, does it?

Borrowed from Goodhousekeeping.co.za

What I believe:

1. FULL cream for living life to the fullest. I like this idea.

2. Go back to nature. Live life as clean and simple and natural as you can. Stay away from processed foods where you don’t know or trust what’s been added to the product.

3. Grain is bad for you. Due to genetic manipulation for bigger crop yields to feed the masses, grain (wheat/maize/oats/rice/etc) is not what it used to be before WWII and it’s not good for you. (The same might apply very soon to nuts with the current shift in replacing traditional flours in baking with nut flour.)

4. “Organic” is very, very expensive. “Organic” on the packaging might very well be a lie. Do the best you can with what is available within your budget.

5. Do what works for you. Eating two meals a day with full fat or eating 6 small meals with no fat, whatever.

6. Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it. I know that eating 6 small meals a day (100 grams of Foreman’ed chicken strips/steak/biltong/tuna with a scoop of broccoli every 2.5 hours) worked like a charm for me, but fuck after 2 months of that I can’t even look at broccoli anymore). And the moment you stop, you return to old habits and pick it up all over again. And more.

7. LCHF/banting is not a diet, it’s a lifestyle. It’s a way of living. And if you drop weight with the new way of doing things, all the better.

8. Dieting is a temporary measure; if you make a lifestyle adjustment and don’t deprave yourself of “all things bad”, if should not be difficult to keep up.

9. Seeing the results of stable sugar, reduced cholesterol levels, reduced inflammation and arthritis from banters on Facebook is motivating. Again, it doesn’t work for everyone, but a lot of them have dropped all kinds of medication (under dr’s supervision) due to living healthier.

10. Google is your friend. Read, read, read. Do your own research. Make your mind up for yourself. Find alternatives if something doesn’t work.

11. As LCHF or banting takes the world by storm, it should be easier to get appropriate meals in restaurants. Following this:

12. It should not ruin your life or stop you from enjoying time with friends, eating out, etc. It should not (according to me) be the end-all of everything. You need to relax and take things in your stride. It’s not worth stressing about.

13. Enjoy whatever you do. Find joy in making things yourself that you’ve always bought.

I recon this will be a learning curve for me as well. And somehow we will all come to our own answer.

(And maybe even find out what the ultimate question is …)

Butternut