Cooking with Jennifer

[Jennifer]

My apologies for the confusion, @Mossy. LFLs aren’t actual libraries, but a global network of book-exchange boxes in neighborhoods (littlefreelibrary.org). Most of the LFLs I’ve seen look like oversized birdhouses so they can be easy to miss, but some are so creative they’re hard to like an English telephone booth LFL in Tampa, FL. To date, the most elaborate LFL I’ve seen here is a Victorian dollhouse. Regarding your initial criticism of parochial schools, I can understand it. I don’t think it unreasonable to question the integrity of religious institutions, given their less than righteous history.

Wow, what an experience you had with K2. It’s so true what you said about IdeaLabs bottles. I’ve only used one product at a time so I never had any mixups, but my dad has used two and would often confuse them. I’m glad to hear your experience overall with supplements has gone better than in prior years. You’ll take that win, huh?

That’s hard for me to answer. It would be like someone breaking your leg then handing you a crutch. They provided support that you wouldn’t have needed if they hadn’t injured you in the first place. Any benefits I experienced from medical intervention were ultimately negated by doctor negligence, their many gross errors, in some cases, almost lethal. I almost died twice under the care of allopathic doctors, but my nightmare started with alternative doctors whose carelessness led to my spine collapsing, and one was at the top of their field—the president of both the American Association of Naturopathic Physicians and the State’s Association of Naturopathic Doctors.

While I respect wholistic thinkers like Ray and Price, what ultimately helped was letting go of all the perspectives beyond basic diagnostics—the white noise of stress that went unnoticed until silenced by an information vacation. I’m experiencing the best health of my life eating an unrestricted diet comprised of foods that were discouraged. Every expert advised restriction, whether it be proteins, carbs, fats, life-force lol, but seriously, even at 30 kg, doctors placed restrictions on my diet, one even telling me that I only needed 1500 calories daily because I’m small, which I immediately tossed on the growing pile of best of intentions, but harmful recommendations.

Polyphagia…interesting. I’d say it’s psychological because I don’t experience it when making meals for other people, I don’t have a history of caloric restriction, and I continued to experience it even after a year and a half of refeeding on 6,000+ calories daily when my thyroid crashed, under the care(lessness) of the alt. docs. I question if I have a high metabolism or if, because of our dieting culture, people aren’t used to the amount of food a woman actually requires? I average 2,500 calories on days when I’m not climbing, roughly the same amount other non-dieting woman I know average.

Did you end up making the cornbread and if so, what fat did you decide to use? I’m impressed you made your own English muffins! Are they better than store-bought? I have a special baking pan I use to make eggs for my Dad’s egg McMuffin sandwiches that can also be used to make English muffins, but I haven’t tried making them because I get fresh bakery made muffins and wasn’t sure it was worth all the effort.

Oh, yes, Painterland Sisters skyr. I first saw it years ago at the natural market where I purchased my raw milk, but haven’t tried it. I’m glad to know it’s tasty! It’s sold at Whole Foods so I’ll be sure buy a cup when I do groceries. Regarding your experience with dairy fat, do you mean there is something inherently fattening about saturated fat or that it causes you weight gain because it leads to an increase of calories? I’m more likely to lose weight on full-fat dairy, but only because I find fat so satiating that I end up eating less calories if I don’t stimulate my appetite with carbs.

[Mossy]

@Jennifer OK, well, I put the onus on them for any confusion with being a library, given their name .  Seems like an interesting project, though very limited, beyond allowing people to get random books. Though, I could imagine a random book could be just the answer for someone in need of inspiration and prior having had no books at all.

Indeed, a little win mixed with a Darwin award, for absent mindedness.  Though, ultimately, the verdict is still out on my capacity to take supplements.  Based on the last 10+ days, I'd say my body is still not completely receptive to exogenous things. Though, time will really tell.

Wow, that is quite a testimony against doctors of any kind.  I think many people tend to have a sense that alternative doctors may have our better interest in mind, but your experience backs up my own, that many doctors and institutions are seemingly no better than the high-profit and ego-minded conventional doctors.  Where there are alternative doctors that don't necessarily have high-profit in mind, ego tends to drive them, which can be just as bad.  The moral of the story, is that to get something right in an imperfect world is very hard.  That's why those who are indeed good at what they do stand out.  But even then, only so much success can be had by a medical doctor: fixing humans is a very hard job.  I had considered going to a star naturopathic doctor, after my failure with a TCM doctor, but by that time I had soured on the idea of any doctors, for they only seemed interested in my money.  Apart from conventional medicine for emergency situations, I tend to still feel this way.

Yes, if there is one take away 15 years after my health decline, it's that reducing stress will do wonders.  Mental stress is number one, though eventually physical stress can break you down as well.  And stress in the sense of worry and incessant, anxious rumination; not just the working out and solving problems by the turning of the mental gears.  I see the latter as actually, generally, beneficial.

Right in line with my previous comment, I think caloric need can be based just as much on mental activity as physical.  Heavy mental activity tends to keep my metabolism high, even when not that physically active.  So maybe that is where part of your caloric requirements lie, supplying fuel for the mental activity.

I didn't make cornbread, but it's on my list to do every day.  I just haven't gotten around to it yet.  I'm undecided on the fat to use, though all three are on the table: bacon, butter, and coconut oil.  I think coconut oil will make the softest version, but maybe bacon or butter would be tastier.  If you can believe it, I didn't like the homemade English muffins!  My dad likes them, but I thought the taste was sub-par to store bought.  The only advantage I can see is the softness when you eat one freshly made.  But, with a whole batch, there are many left over that will not have the soft, just made taste.  Given the difficulty in making them, with a stickier than normal dough, if I can find store-bought with low PUFA and non-GMO, I'll buy those.  I think it would be too much to ask for glyphosate-free flour in store bought, though I'd prefer that as well.

Yeah, that Painterland Sister's yogurt is one of the best I've had.  I actually did buy another carton, because it was on sale.  There's something about full fat milk that seemingly gives me weight gain, but it's unmatched in taste.  Having learned about 6 months ago true full-fat dairy is far above 4%, I consciously look for it now.  I don't think it's the saturated fat specifically.  Could there be something else about dairy causing it?  My metabolism in general has slowed down, but I have been much less active; so, it may be that.  I realize the perspective is that saturated fat doesn't cause weight gain; and my brother's carnivore diet is proof of that.  Maybe it's simply the additional calories, as you mention.  Yes, I think I'd rather eat full-fat dairy, and less of other calories.  I've just remembered, that Ray consumed low-fat dairy.  How do you think that jives with his pro-saturated fat perspective—simply a desire to reduce calories, not saturated fat?

P.S. I did make potato salad with true baby/petite gold potatoes, and it was very good.

[Jennifer]

@Mossy, I think that’s fair to put the onus on them. I actually like the randomness of LFLs. When I was in elementary school, there was a book club where students could choose from a catalog of books to purchase each month, but my family couldn’t afford it so my mum took me to the library. I grew up in a once very wealthy city with a library occupying an entire city block as one of its many remnants of affluence. It’s in the Italian Renaissance style with multiple floors of Botticino and Lastavena marble, ornate garland, dental and egg-and-dart moldings, fluted pilasters, coffered ceilings and sweeping staircases with intricate iron balustrades leading off of a central rotunda crowned by a skylit dome. It was quite the experience climbing the grand steps of this masterpiece man had built, full of excitement for the books that awaited me, the new (to me) authors that would come to be some of my all-time favorites like Shel Silverstein—he wrote like I think. In a way, the LFLs recreate that experience—random books housed in interesting structures not nearly as mighty, but fun-sized and whimsical.

I can understand being the supplement guinea pig for your dad, but maybe your tolerance, or lack thereof, is your body’s innate wisdom speaking? Ray warned that “manufactured supplements are always risky, partly because of manufacturing impurities” so a sensitivity to them may be an indication of this and not a reflection of your health status?

Agreed! Whether allopathic or alternative, this hopelessly devoted naturalist treads carefully the absolute minefield that is the hellth system. What I took from my experience is that no one knows how my body ticks better than I do, not even the experts, and that I’m not broken, I’m just not well-adapted to the dysfunctions of this world and needed a break from external perspectives to grasp the magnitude of faulty beliefs in circulation and all the blind leading that exists. Even the alternative practitioners who consider themselves to be highly evolved thinkers have beliefs and treatments no less archaic than those of the Frankensteins of the past. Radioactive “health” elixirs a.k.a Miracle Water of the early 1900s vs the bleach therapy a.k.a Miracle Mineral Solution of today and so on. Like you, I believe in emergency care—if I lose a limb, I won’t be reattaching it myself lol—but I do believe our overall health is best left in our own hands, and respect those who preach(ed) personal authority. 
 
Yes, mental stress is rough, though, for me it’s a symptom of disease, not a cause of it, that I use to my advantage. Worry and rumination are two of my most obvious signs that my thyroid is struggling and my lifestyle needs tweaking. When my metabolic rate is high, I don’t worry or overthink things, the anxious, rushed feeling of adrenaline is non-existent and it’s as if time slows down—I feel like I have all the time in the world—while at the same time my mind is functioning at lightening speed. Speaking of the mind, no doubt that the human brain is a large consumer of energy, which is why I believe the human digestive system, including our small cecum relative to other primates’, is optimized for high quality foods, i.e., dense nutrition, low roughage.

Thank you for sharing your experience with homemade English muffins. I’ll stick with store-bought then. The only English muffins without seed oils I know of that are available throughout the country are Thomas’ buttermilk, Bays’ brioche and the cleanest, Food For Life’s 7 sprouted grains:

https://thomasbreads.com/products/thomas-buttermilk-english-muffins

https://bays.com/our-products/brioche

https://www.foodforlife.com/product/english-muffins/7-sprouted-grains-english-muffins

I tried the Painter Sisters skyr. It reminds me of Siggi’s skyr—tart! Regarding the fat % of true, full-fat dairy, it depends on many things such as the breed of cow—for example, Jerseys are said to produce milk highest in butterfat, often exceeding 6%—the diet, the season, the amount of milkings—because the farm I get my milk from keeps the calves with the mothers, only one milking per day goes to the customers so it contains less butterfat—and so on. Regarding Ray’s consumption of low-fat dairy and his pro-saturated fat perspective, I think his was mostly a desire to keep PUFA intake as low as possible, to the point of sourcing fully hydrogenated coconut oil, because even with saturated sources like dairy, the unsaturated fat adds up when using it to get the needed protein Ray recommended—he told me in an email exchange back in 2015 that he recommended any active adult get 100 g of protein daily. He also told me that some people have a hard time digesting dairy fat so he recommended low-fat dairy and was quoted saying that “for people who aren't very active, low fat milk and cheese are better, because the extra fat calories aren't needed.” This is one of Ray’s perspectives I benefited from letting go of—my thyroid markers and health overall improved just by switching from low-fat to full-fat dairy. 
 
That’s great to hear about the (baby gold) potato salad. I’m glad you liked it! They really are fantastic little spuds.

[Mossy]

@Jennifer said:
I know the feeling. I was that kid too, needing to go to the library as a child.  I did the same, but my library sounds like an outhouse compared to the one you had.   Yours sounds like out of an old book itself; or a movie.  I probably would've enjoyed just the library itself, as much as the books, as a kid, if I had yours.  I definitely remember Silverstein.  Where the Sidewalk Ends is probably the most popular one.  The illustrations of books were just as interesting to me as well; just as much as the story.  Maurice Sendek comes to mind for illustrations.  Richard Scarey as well.  And of course, Dr. Seuss.  As a kid, I thought Where the Wild Things are was a little weird, but interesting; as an adult, I still like his illustration style very much.  My avatar is one of his drawings.

I think you're right, about my body attempting to tell me something about supplements.  I could guess many, if not most, are worse than ever; being sourced out of country, for as cheaply as possible. But, maybe there still are some good ones left.  Like that Doctor's herbs you recommended to me a while back.  I'm looking for an all-in-one, or something similar, for my dad.  To see how he does with, several times a week.  And maybe for myself, thought I know it's not too likely I can take it with any regularity.

I couldn't agree more.  I am so skeptical of doctors after my experiences, I do everything to avoid them.  Haha...good idea about your limbs.  I too am convinced, we are best tuned to our own body, and if we have any inkling and interest in self-treatment, it's worth a try.  But, after about 15 years of dabbling in self-treatment, I know I'm limited in what I can understand and do.

Interesting how your metabolic rate is related with your stress-resistance.  That makes sense, and I'd say it correlates for me as well.  I would imagine taking thyroid a big contributor in that: are you still doing that?  Also interesting about the small cecum, how it doesn't like roughage, which jives with my experience when at my worst, and even still.  Even the raw carrot can be hard on my system; so much so, that I've stopped taking it. I'll probably start back again soon.

Thanks for the links.  I have been buying Thomas's, which are hard to beat taste wise.  I did used to buy Food for Life bread, quite some years back, which I thought was hearty and healthy, though not light and fluffy, like we're used to. Maybe I'll try their English muffins one of these times.

That's funny the Painter Sister's was tart for you.  I've only had the vanilla, so it wasn't tart for me at all.  I think the plain would be.  Ok, good information you've passed along from Ray about dairy.  Thank you.  I don't know why I didn't put that together, that Ray was wanting to avoid PUFA, with the lower fat dairy.  I had forgotten that it even had PUFA.  I've really toned down my hyper-vigilance with regard to diet and number crunching, but I do think there is obvious necessity to it.  So you're one of the lucky ones—you do well on high fat dairy.  I do eat it for some items, like the yogurt, but I do think I do better with lower fat over all; at least for now.

Indeed, the baby golds are good!  I've made yet another batch of potato salad a few days ago.  It blows my mind how time intensive recipes are.  I think I'm the problem, though.  I know many cooks can sleep walk in the kitchen, and get the recipe done in half the time I can.