Thread Removed! BUT it's became a very good one!!!! enjoy

[Joyce]

http://www.wholesaleherbs.com/essiac.html

52 parts: Burdock Root (cut or dried) (parts by weight)
16 parts: Sheep Sorrel (powdered)
1 part: Turkey Rhubarb (powdered) or 2 parts domestic Rhubarb
4 parts: Slippery Elm (powdered)

[ponderer]

AS Uncle Ralph said: " Ain't Bad. I could eat it."

[Esther]

How does Turkey Rhubarb differ from domestic rhubarb?

[Mikey]

How does Turkey Rhubarb differ from domestic rhubarb?

Turkey Rhubarb has a wattle....

[Joyce]

MIKEY!!!!  

Well, it's not native here to begin with, native to Turkey hence the common name. (also native to China and all countries in between the 2)
And it's root is much more potent than our native rhubarb.
The leaf is different too, more palmate/dissected.
Hmmmm, lemme look it up for you...
Rheum palmatum, which is widely sold as an ornamental garden perennial for its dramatic leaves and tall lacey red flower clusters.


Our native rhubarb (Rheum rhabarbarum) have very rounded leaves...whitish blooms

[PondmaninAL]

You know, I was just sitting here, thinking to myself,"Who would want to eat something that was poisonous to humans?" and then Lawanna mentioned poke salad. Actually, the problem with poke is the human body can't handle all the vitamins that it contains. I know how to cook it and I don't get the runs. I like to mix in some collards, fried bacon, and tomatoes. YUM YUM!

[miguynmkoi]

I'm late chiming in on this topic....but was the thread removed from the rhubarb before someone got the runs?! 

[LeeAnne151]

I have no idea why the thread was removed but I love rhubarb pie and cobbler. YUM.

[karen J]

WHAT a beautiful plant. I wonder if we could grow that here? I've tried several different types of Rheums and killed them all.

The tea looks really interesting, thanks very much for the recipe. I'll have to check and see if I can get those ingredients here at my local health food store.

[tinkster]

joyce and karen... detail me.. are you on specific no sugar diets??? I  am an EX chocolate  and carb of any kind lover .  My insulin levels are up and they have warned me diabetes is coming if I dont stop now but I am having a difficult time finding anything to eat    mostly I had cocoa puffs with chocolate milk for breakfast,  candy bar for lunch.. hamburger or something equally bad for dinner  so any tips would be great!

tinkster

[Joyce]

Basically, don't eat sugary or starchy foods, as much as possible.
(Starches convert into sugars when digested)
This means breads, potatoes (includes french fries), pasta, cereals, anything made with grains: flour.
Stay away from sugary foods, includes most salad dressings, ketchup, mayo, alcoholic drinks (converts to sugar when digested)
desserts, candy, should be obvious MOST of the time, but check the ingredient labels when you buy the foods.
Yes, start reading those ingredient labels...it's a horrifying experience. 
If any kind of sugar (includes corn syrup) is in the first 5 ingredients, it's too sweet. Also, brown sugar, molasses, maple syrup, honey, it's all SUGAR.

If you need a sweetener, use Splenda, it's what all my doctors AND my oncologist recommend.

For those of your who don't realize it, it is SUGAR which triggers your hunger. The more sugar/starches in your diet, the more your blood sugar levels yo-yo, the more often you will 'feel' hungry. Cuz as soon as your blood sugar levels drop a little, it triggers hunger. So if you remove sugars as much as possible out of your diet, you get hungry less often, if at all. This is why some diets work, and some don't.

If you eat proteins, fats (cheeses, nuts, butter, olive oil, GROUND FLAX SEED) and veggies (excluding potatoes and other starchy varieties), your blood sugar levels are kept low and rarely yoyo..so you won't be hungry as often. Fruits are OK, just not so many that you're getting too much sugar.
Also, all this BS propaganda about cholesterol, well, on the low sugar diet, even with extra fat in your diet...watch those cholesterol levels DROP...cuz your body is utilizing its foods in an optimum way. Your metabolism changes and becomes more efficient because you are eating foods which the human body is designed to digest.
No leftover gunk to clog your arteries. Fit 2 tablespoons of raw ground flax seed into your diet every day, and there will be no need for prescription cholesterol meds because ground raw flax seed naturally keeps the levels down. Don't buy foods that have the flax seeds cooked into them. Once cooked, flax seed is basically useless.

Moderation is the key...you wanna glass of wine? Go ahead..ONE glass of wine wont hurt you. It's excessive drinking, more that one glass a day, is unhealthy.
Same with sweets, one 'reward' piece of candy or chocolate won't hurt you.

Believe me, and learn from my cancer battle, 99.99% of our diseases AND cancers are from our 'American' diets and lifestyles. (besides lung cancer from smoking)

[Brian]

Joyce,
Thank you for your helpful information.  I had heard the same thing about flax seed, and have purchased some.  It is relatively inexpensive at about $3.00 for like a two pound bag, which should go a long way at two tablespoons per day.  Problem is, I've got a bag but never tried it.  Can you offer how you use it in your everyday diet?  I guess I've been kind of chicken to try it in fear of ruining the dish I'm eating.  Does it alter the taste very much?  Some friends of mine use the seeds found within the pit of a nectarine (I think that's what it is), and they grind it up and say it is better than flax seed, but it tastes HORRIBLE!!!

I can attest that when I tried the Adkins 'diet' about 10 years ago, my cholesterol went down, so I know the low sugar/carb lifestyle works, but I found it got old.  You're right on in everything you've said, it is just that we are bombarded with carbs and HFCS in everything!  Restaurants contribute to the problem in serving us portion sizes that are way too big too.

[karen J]

Joyce is correct. I think the real kick-in-the-butt for me was the fact that I studied Anthropology. I knew that all these diseases appeared after the agricultural revolution. After people started eating grains (flour). I don't know why, but it took me 20 years to make the connection. If you take any indigenous population and start feeding them a high-carb American diet, the diseases will strike within 20 years.
Those diseases (heart disease, hypertension, T2 diabetes, cancer, periodontal disease, etc) are rarely present in native populations, eating a whole-food diet.


I don't find that it ever gets old eating this way. There are a million things you can make with beef, pork, chicken, fish, wild game, shellfish. It never gets boring. You can eat bacon without guilt.

For awhile, I was afraid of bacon because of the added nitrites & nitrates. But there was something fishy about that... there are nitrates in my pond that are getting taken up by plants. Why would they be bad?
Well it turns out that there are more nitrates in an arugula salad than there are in 275 hot dogs. So, don't let anyone make you feel guilty for eating the real human diet.
Most of the negative things you hear about eating meat are bogus. The studies that show eating meat causes cancer are bogus. The PETA people have a lot to do with that, "torturing the data to make it confess".



The longest- living populations on our planet are the ones who eat plenty of fat, and little sugars. Okinawa (they eat an enormous amount of pork fat) and Switzerland (think cream & butter & cheese).

We do eat chocolate, sometimes every day. But it's usually 70% or higher cocoa with not much sugar.

Carbohydrate drives insulin levels.
Insulin drives fat accumulation and inflammation.

[Joyce]

HI BRIAN!

Raw ground flax seed tastes nutty, not bitter like the nectarine or peach pit.

I mix mine into a cup of plain yogurt, add a couple packets of Splenda or Stevia (natural sweetener) a dollop of no sugar added applesauce (Motts), a couple drops of vanilla extract, and a handful of frozen blueberries, mix it up and munch. I also add a big shake of granola too, no sugar granola I found at Trader Joe's.  It's really delicious and a GREAT breakfast.

I buy mine already ground (Red Mill Brand), used to grind it myself but the ground brans is affordable and I can buy it right at King Kullen or Walbaums, don't need to go to the natural store for it.

[Esther]

Some of you will remember a couple of summers ago my 85 year old dad was run over by a truck. The front wheel went up the inside of his leg, over his groin/hip and over his ribs, shoulders and kind of over the side of his head, breaking only his shoulder bone, collar bone, jaw in two places and cracking bones on both sides of his head above his ears. The bones in his head weren't dislocated but they medical staff has come to the conclusion there has been some brain damage. We don't know what caused it but there is a change in his mental capabilities, not a lot but some. He was consulting with a homopathic doctor prior to that and using certain homopathic herbs and foods. But while in the hospital, it was impossible to stay with his diet so when he was finally able to go home, he was kind of out of the habit and unable to ambulate or do much for himself for a while so pretty much ate what was given to him and never went back to the "healthy" way of eating.

Just recently, he and my stepmom went from Michigan to winter in Florida. As I was talking to his wife a few days ago on the phone, I asked how my dad's thinking ability was. She said, "Better now since he's began using the ground flax seed." He had been using whole flax seed on his breakfast oatmeal prior to the accident to alleviate constipation he thought. Now others have been telling us that since they used the flax seed they seemed to be better able to think and memory has improved. I don't know how he uses it. 

[Brian]

Thanks Joyce,  That sounds really good!  Now I know you're not supposed to cook the flax seed, but was wondering if it is added to a hot meal right at serving if that is okay as far as not destroying the beneficial nutrients.

Karen, I think I could eat bacon every day!!!  Love it!

What is a good substitute for bread if, say I need a quick meal such as a sandwich.  The meat and the cheese and lettuce would be good, but the bread is the bad stuff.  Are flour tortillas ok since they're thinner and just do a sandwich wrap?

Esther, I could sure use the memory benefits from the flax seed for sure!!  Didn't know that was a side benefit!

[karen J]

Brian, Lettuce makes a terrific sub for bread. My favorite Doc (a tireless advocate of low-carb eating) has a blog, and just last week he did a photo journal of everything he ate during the week. You can see a sandwich here- http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/photo-diet-diary/photo-food-diary-tuesday-dec-2-2008/. And if you look at the rest of his photos, you will see that it's not boring at all. He probably eats more carbs than me, but you can get the general idea.

Also, you can gently blanch lettuce leaves (till they're slightly limp), dry them between paper towels, and then they become as flexible as a tortilla. You can fill them and roll them up like tortillas or won tons. You can fill them with chicken salad, tuna salad, burrito fillings, taco meat, etc.

I'd say that the hardest thing about eating this way is that (if you like sauces) you have to cook a lot from scratch. I make my own BBQ sauce, because most store-bought sauce is loaded with HFCS and other nasty sugars. Same with most other sauces. But it's well worth the extra effort.

When my hubby started eating this way, his triglycerides dropped from 206 to 67 after only 2 months. 

I have the ground flax, but I don't use it much anymore. Only in yogurt with blueberries and a touch of DaVinci sugar free blueberry syrup. Makes a nice dessert.

Esther, there was a recent study that showed that vitamin B12 helped with cognitive ability in older people. Generally- the older people who didn't get enough B12 had more cognitive decline. Also, the older you get, the less B12 you can absorb, so it's a very important vitamin.
The best (and only) source of vitamin B12 is meat.

[karen J]

Now I know you're not supposed to cook the flax seed, but was wondering if it is added to a hot meal right at serving if that is okay as far as not destroying the beneficial nutrients.

Brian, I think you should be OK adding flax to something hot. The trouble with actually cooking flax is that heat damages the omega 3 fatty acids.

[Julles]

The important thing about eating flax seed is that it has to be GROUND or CRACKED, because your body cannot digest the thick, hard outer coating.  If that outer shell is not broken, the whole seed is eliminated intact, with no nutrition being derived at all.

And, because the protective outer coating is broken, cracked flax seed or ground seed must be stored in the refrigerator, and consumed rather quickly, or it will go bad.

One of my friends makes a delicious smoothy, and she puts the flax seeds into the blender, which cracks the seeds just enough for your body to be able to digest them.

Re sandwiches, I know some people here don't advocate grains, but I do eat a lot of grains - WHOLE grains.  Instead of bread for sandwiches, I recommend corn tortillas, white or yellow.  They are (almost always) made of whole ground corn, which includes the germ, and little fat, and so are quite healthful.   Flour tortillas, including "whole wheat" tortillas, which are still largly white flour, are a processed flour so they jack with your sugar levels, and they are also full of fat.

And, yes, eating healthfully takes a lot more work than slapping a slice of bolognae on two pieces of bread-from-a-bag.  Like already stated, I end up cooking almost everything from scratch.  But you can make some things ahead (I eat a lot of cooked dry beans, for protein, 'cause I don't eat meat), and frozen in individual-sized containers, which can be zapped in the microwave for a quick meal. 

Oh, and remember to avoid plastic in the microwave.

Uh-oh...I've gone and started a whole new topic!   

[Joyce]

Yes, I did make it clear that flax must be ground. 

Also, grinding is a lot easier in a coffee mill, and not a big blender to clean up afterwards.
So much easier to buy it ground anyway. Saves on electric too.
The ground flax seed package says refrigerate after opening.
Common sense to keep if frigerated anyhow.

Speaking of sandwiches, before you put your sandwich together, one tablespoon of raw ground flax can easily be sprinkled over the mustard or mayo.
You can also mix ground flax into salad dressing or sprinkle it on top of your salad.

Corn is still starch, so corn tortillas aren't that healthy. 
And corn has high levels of sugar in it too, hence how they get corn syrup, a sweetener in many candies, ketchup, BBQ sauce, desserts, etc.

But anyway, it's still better than bread.
But you can also get thin sliced bread, so you use only half the amount that you usually do, cuz the thin sliced bread is half the thickness of normal bread.
It's all in moderation. Even if all of you cut out half of your sugars and starches starting today, you would be so much healthier than you are now.
Do it gradually over a month, and it will be easier. Keep on cutting back until you are to about 10% of you normal sugars/starches.
You don't have to cut them out completely, just back to a level that the human body is capable of handling.
That is why there are so many diseases now, the american diet/lifestyle is above and beyond what the human body is capable of handling.

Brian, I wouldn't even add it on top of something hot. 
Anything that would be hot enough to kill the seed and keep it from germinating, is too hot. 

Esther, they are saying now that Flax seed is awesome for brain power and will fight off Alzheimer's too. 

Karen, my doctor was so struck by how much my cholesterol levels dropped and triglycerides in one month,
she made me come back for another blood test to make sure the first one wasn't off. 
(also because I took myself off Tamoxifen and then Arimidex and they both can mess with your levels)
Now, been on it for over a year, ALL my doctors have noticed and are now firmly advising it to all other patients using me as an example.

[Brian]

Karen,
I checked out the link.  I notice the chili had no beans...are they a no no?  I guess they would be considered a starch, huh?

[Joyce]

Yes, they are starchy.

But I use them anyway just not so many...moderation again.
Make up for the beans with cubed up beef..don't use ground beef.
The butchers are allowed to add a lot of scary stuff (legally) to ground 'beef'.
That's why burger meat tastes like 'burger' and not ground steak.
There is so much beef 'by-products' added to it that the steak flavor changes to 'burger' flavor.

Once you have chili made with cubed up beef, you won't go back to 'burger' chili. 

If you like venison, Chili made with venison is delicious too.

[Desertponder]

Gack!! Rhubarb is just nasty stuff! Pretty plant, great for concrete leaf castings but nasty to eat.

As for the newspapers close to bankruptcy........its not just them.
Newspapers all over the country are in trouble, BIG TIME. Papers depend on advertising dollars and when revenue from it is not adequate, a newspaper gets into trouble real quick.
Costs of paper and ink have skyrocketed.  The internet is also playing a hand in newspapers going under.
The paper I work for is actually still making money but we're way down in sales. We are actually also carrying our sister paper which is the local daily. Its been operating in the red for the last two years. Our parent company, Cox Enterprises has recently separated off all their papers, tv stations and radio into a division by itself. Most likely to make it easier to sell or disperse.
My paper, our sister paper and several others are up for sale. We are not likely to sell due to the economy but we've been told "they have to sell to free up $$$." We're all afraid that if they don't sell us soon they will just start shutting us down. Many of us who have worked here for years stand to lose a great deal whether we are sold or shut down.
All of our papers are currently working to move online. The daily may stop publishing a print edition every day and may only print on Wed., Frid., and Sunday.
The print industry is very difficult right now.

The Rocky Mtn. News in Denver is also for sale. Word is that their owners will stop publication by the end of January if they do not have a solid offer on the table.

[Joyce]

FYI:
Beans are legumes. They are approximately 78% carbohydrate, 18% protein and 3% fat.
Not that great of a source of protein mainly because they are mostly carbs. 

Stick with beef, chicken or fish.

[Julles]

"The butchers are allowed to add a lot of scary stuff (legally) into ground 'beef'.  There is so much beef 'by-products' added to it that the steak flavor changes.
"

Hmmm.  Could that be the answer to "What's in a Jack-in-the-Box taco??"   

Re bread, I think one, maybe two, slices is equal to the entire amount allowed by the USDA's Daily Recommended Amounts.  Which tells you something about portion sizes, and is just another explanation of how Americans got to be the biggest (read: fattest) nation on Earth.

[Jerry]

I am back on line at last.

This has turned into an interesting and informative thread.  I am glad!   

[Roark]

Julles;

You're close enough to us (about an hour) that you ought to drop Savannah an email if you need real ground beef.  We raise our own beef, and every year give away hundreds of lbs of the stuff.  We simply can't eat it all.  No hormones, no additives, no antibiotics.  It's been 6 years since we gave an animal an injection of anything *except* for a vaccine at birth (it's just flat-out cruel if you don't).  All these animals get fed is well-water, free-range native grasses, and a dietary supplement based on grains.  The resulting meat is about as "natural" as you can get and tastes NOTHING like the swill you get at the store.

If you're of a mind, come on by and you can "meet the meat".   Next-years harvest is currently chasing butterflies in the back pasture, and they're all as tame as a dog.

Roark   

[Julles]

Roark, thanks for the offer, as I have heard many times that additive-free beef tastes so much better and "real."  Sounds good, except that... I'M A VEGETARIAN!   

I wouldn't mind, though, sometime taking a drive out there to see the pond and lilies.

Also, please check your mail box, as I've sent you a PM.

Jerry - since this thread is still open, and since it's morphed somewhat, perhaps you could change the title / subject, so people who haven't visited yet will know what the heck is going on in here right now.

[Roark]

J:

It's my understanding that "Vegetarian" is American Indian-speak for "Bad Hunter".  (((ducking!!!)))  Actually, if I had to eat the meat found in stores today, I'd be noshing the Eggplant Surprise right along with you folks too! 

Seriously, you'd be most welcome to visit. Be great to see you, and Savannah can show-off the (currently rather dead-looking due to the hard-freeze) ponds.

Roark

[Johns]

Esther,

It's good to hear your dad's thinking has improved.  Here's a thought about what might have caused his problems in the first place:

Whenever there are breaks in large bones, especially hip, femur or humerus, there is the chance of fat cells breaking loose in the bloodstream resulting in fat embolisms that can restrict capillaries anywhere in the body, but with most dire results in the heart, lungs, or brain.  In the brain, the damage can be ephemeral, last for extended periods, or in the case of severe damage, be permanent. Fat embolisms in the brain (or anywhere else, for that matter) are impossible to predict, hard to diagnose, and often missed by medical professionals.   Brain, lung or heart fat embolisms can cause immediate death or lasting health problems, and in the case of the brain, dementia, memory, concentration, or personality changes, depending on severity and the part of the brain affected.

Just a thought.

(I am acutely aware of this syndrome because when my father broke his hip he had fat embolism syndrome of the brain and was never really back to reality until his death three years later.)