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Monday, May 27, 2013

PaleoJay podcast #32- Paleo Diet, Dairy, and make your own Kefir!

Add in the above kefir to smoothie maximum health...
Paleo Diet, Dairy, and make your own Kefir on PaleoJay podcast #32- 

There is a lot of confusion in the Paleo sphere about dairy:  is it OK?  Sometimes?  Often?  WHAT!?

I have found that, at least in my case, dairy is a fine addition to my Paleo diet!  Granted, I rarely drink milk; the bulk of my intake is in the form of Kerrygold (i.e. pastured/grass fed butter), full-fat Greek style yogurt, and- ta da!-homemade Kefir.

I purchased some kefir "grains" via eBay, Culturesforhealth.com is a really reputable source,  and added them to a quart jar of whole, organic, raw local milk. This milk has to be tasted to be believed- kind of like what was available from the "milk man" when I was a wee lad...  And they also sell organic cream (in glass)- YES!

If you don’t have access to raw milk, goat’s milk, even if pasteurized is a close 2nd.  Now, I have two quart jars going of kefir, one of raw whole milk, the other of goat milk!  Actually, 1-3  days after adding about a Tablespoon of the grains to a jar filled with milk, the kefir is perfect!  I just let it sit on the counter at room temperature ( leave the lid jar loose- the effervescence of the fermenting could break the glass otherwise) - nothing could be easier!

When I purchased my kefir, (it's rather expensive), I would only use about 1/2 of a cup in my Paleo smoothie... Now, though, with fresh, active, cheap, really tangy and tasty kefir, I use about a cup and 1/2 in each smoothie!  

What a difference in the taste of the whole smoothie!!

Really, this is the way to go- get some grains, and make your own kefir.  Very easy, and the benefits of the fermented beverage are so good in terms of gut health and repair.  The probiotics, or intestinal bacteria that kefir affords your system are incredibly valuable, especially in this modern age of damaged intestines with permeable membranes, insulted by having been subjected to high levels of grains, legumes and sugars over a lifetime of poor, Big Ag eating.

And, these probiotics, or gut bacteria that we are putting back into our guts where they belong, help us in so many ways!  They help us to digest (we don't really do most of the digesting of our foods- our friendly bacteria do that for us).  They also are potent cancer fighters; we all have cancer and other "predator" agents within us at all times- the only thing that protects us is our ability to fight them off!  
Gut bacteria, or probiotics are one of our first, and most potent lines of defense.

If you are of Northern European descent, full-fat dairy will probably not be a problem for you at all to digest!  (Northern Europeans have been consuming dairy for many thousands of years as a mainstay of their diet).  And, even if you are not, by consuming kefir daily for a couple of weeks, you will colonize the bacteria within your intestines...

and you will become able to digest dairy!
Or, rather, the kefir bacteria that you have introduced into your system will
digest it for you!  

So, give kefir a try!  This is the first real change I've made to the Paleo Quick Start smoothie, tripling the amount of included Kefir, and it's a big improvement, both in taste and in nutritional value!!


Let’s say, though, that either YOU or some friends or relatives really, really want to get healthy, but they just aren’t motivated enough to actually follow through and prepare and make their own healthy kefir- actually, for them there is a solution that is even (gasp!) better!  Just costs a bit more, but is very, very convenient and accessible...

Amasi is the name of this beverage, and it is produced by Beyond Organic- Here is the link:


This beverage is fermented from the milk of A1 dairy cattle, which is the ancient strain of cattle that our ancestors domesticated over 10,000 years ago!  So, it is completely digestible and natural for our systems, and since it is fermented as well, is a wonderful source of probiotics, which are the wonderful bacterial creatures that live in our guts, digesting things FOR us, and fighting back the BAD bacteria all around us that are always looking for things like SUGAR, and are our enemies...  

To have a healthy gut is paramount in our health!  You could even eat a perfect diet, and if your gut is inhabited by bad bacteria, it would do you no good at all- gut health is that important!

What about conventional dairy?

In a word, it’s horrible!  

Anything that is high heat processed (pasteurized) destroys the bulk of the nutrients in the milk- add in the antibiotics fed the cattle that produced the milk, the GMO feed loaded with pesticides that that cattle had to eat, and then is loaded into the milk, and then the fact that the FAT in the milk is almost always skimmed off- this same fat that contains all the fat-soluble vitamins and nutrients that make this dairy so valuable...

and you have a travesty.  Milk without fat is “sugar water” with pesticides and hormones that spikes your insulin like candy, and gives no satiety or nutrients as well...

Eat raw dairy when possible, NEVER drink skim or low fat milk (or anything else low fat for that matter!) - low fat means “high sugar”...

Get yourself some raw cheese, raw milk, raw free range eggs ( in your Paleo Smoothie!) and you are good-to-go!


PJ

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