Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook That Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and The... (137 page)

Lauric acid, a 12-carbon saturated fatty acid found chiefly in mother's milk and coconut oil, and in smaller amounts in butter, seems to improve prostaglandin production. When lauric acid is present in the diet, the long chain fatty acids accumulate in the tissues where they belong, even when consumption of essential fatty acids is low. Unfortunately, highly useful and beneficial coconut oil has been forced out of the food supply by adverse propaganda originating with the fabricated food industry, which would rather use cheap hydrogenated oils rather than more expensive coconut oil for shortening.
Tripping Lightly Down the Prostaglandin Pathways

ZARATHUSTRA BREAD

Makes 10 small loaves

3 cups soft wheat berries

¼ cup nonirradiated sesame seeds or caraway seeds (optional)

filtered water

1 teaspoon sea salt

½ cup currants or raisins (optional)

There are many variations to Zarathustra bread—here is ours. Another version may be found in the
Book of Living Foods
published by IBS International, P.O. Box 849, Nelson, BC Canada V1L 6A5.

Place wheat berries and optional seeds in a bowl, cover with water and leave in a warm, dark place for 24 hours. Pour out water, replenish and leave another 24 hours. Test berries to see if they are soft. If they are still hard when pinched, replace water and leave another 24 hours. Pour off excess water, transfer berries with a slotted spoon to a food processor and process with sea salt until smooth. Add optional currants or raisins and pulse a few times. Form into balls and flatten slightly. Place on a stainless steel baking sheet brushed with olive oil or butter and bake about 12 hours in a 150-degree oven, turning after about 6 hours. If you live in a hot, dry climate, you can bake these in the sun—thus baked Zarathustra.

Variation: Essene Bread

Flatten the balls into flat rounds, about ¼-inch thick. Bake on lowest oven heat, in a dehydrator or, in hot, dry climates, in the sun, turning once.

Variation: Essene Crackers

Brush two stainless steel cookie sheets with olive oil or butter and use a rolling pin to flatten dough into thin sheets on the pans. Bake in a 150-degree oven or in a dehydrator until crisp. Break up into crackers.

"How could we cook our daily bread without fire, Master?" asked some with great astonishment.

"Let the angels of God prepare your bread. Moisten your wheat, that the angel of water may enter it. Then set it in the air, that the angel of air also may embrace it. And leave it from morning to evening beneath the sun, that the angel of sunshine may descend upon it. And the blessing of the three angels will soon make the germ of life to sprout in your wheat. Then crush your grain and make thin wafers, as did your forefathers when they departed out of Egypt, the house of bondage. Put them back again beneath the sun from its appearing and, when it is risen to its highest in the heavens, turn them over on the other side that they be embraced there also by the angel of sunshine and leave them there until the sun be set. . .." Edmond Szekely, trans.
The Essene Gospel of Peace

Many of our refined foods have additions of B
₁
and B
₂
. The
British Medical Journal
in an article entitled "Imbalance of vitamin B Factors" reported: "Recent experiments have produced clear-cut evidence of the adverse effects that may be caused by the disturbance of the balance of the vitamin B factors in the diet." They have shown that the overloading of B
₁
, for instance, can produce a definite deficiency of vitamin B
₆
. It is becoming increasingly recognized that there is a need for caution in addition of a supplement of a single synthetic vitamin to food preparations. National Health Federation
Seven Myths Exploded

Legumes or pulses, such as beans, chickpeas, lentils, peas, peanuts and cashews, have nourished mankind for centuries. Throughout the world, they have served as the poor man's meat. The combination of pulses, whole grains and a small amount of animal protein and good quality animal fat is the ideal low-cost diet. Legumes are rich in minerals and B vitamins. Recent research indicates that legumes contain several anticancer agents. All contain both omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. Kidney and pinto beans are high in omega-3 fatty acids; chickpeas are high in omega-6 fatty acids.

Traditional societies whose cuisines are based on legumes prepare them with great care. Beans are soaked for long periods before they are cooked—some varieties in acidic water and some in neutral or slightly alkaline water. The soaking water is poured off, the beans are rinsed and, in the case of chickpeas, the skins picked off. As the legumes cook, all foam that rises to the top of the cooking water is carefully skimmed off. Sometimes water is replaced midway during the cooking process. Such care in preparation ensures that legumes will be thoroughly digestible and all the nutrients they provide well assimilated, because such careful preparation neutralizes phytic acid and enzyme inhibitors and breaks down difficult-to-digest complex sugars.

(Fava beans contain a substance, which is not neutralized by soaking, sprouting or fermenting, that can cause a type of life-threatening anemia in persons with an inherited susceptibility and are therefore best avoided.)

Asians have developed methods of inoculating soaked and cooked legumes, particularly soybeans, to produce products like
miso, tempeh
and
natto
. In fact, soybeans should be eaten
only
after they have been fermented. They are high in phytic acid and contain potent enzyme inhibitors, which can produce serious gastric distress, reduced protein digestion and chronic deficiencies in amino acid uptake. These phytates and enzyme inhibitors are not deactivated by ordinary cooking. We also do not recommend commercial soy milk because of its high-phytate and enzyme-inhibitor content, and because during processing carcinogens are formed.

Bland-tasting legumes marry very well with many sorts of spices, and they are particularly synergistic with sour foods. Always add lemon juice or the liquid from fermented vegetables to bean and lentil soups. Bean and lentil dishes go very well with sauerkraut and other lacto-fermented vegetables. In salads, beans and lentils are enhanced by copious amounts of onions.

What about canned beans? High temperatures and pressures used in the canning process do reduce phytate content, but the danger is that such processing overdenatures proteins and other nutrients at the same time. Canned beans are best eaten sparingly.

BASIC BEANS

Makes 8-10 cups cooked beans

2 cups black beans, kidney beans, pinto beans, black-eyed peas or white beans

warm filtered water

2 tablespoons whey
Whey and Cream Cheese
or lemon juice (for black beans only)

4 cloves garlic, peeled and mashed (optional)

sea salt and pepper

Cover beans with warm water. (For black beans, stir in whey or lemon juice.) Leave in a warm place for 12-24 hours, depending on the size of the bean. Drain, rinse, place in a large pot and add water to cover beans. Bring to a boil and skim off foam. Reduce heat and add optional garlic. Simmer, covered, for 4-8 hours. Check occasionally and add more water as necessary. Season to taste.

REFRIED BEANS

Serves 6

4 cups basic black or kidney beans, drained

about ¾ cup lard or duck fat (
Duck Fat and Cracklings
)

Mash beans with a potato masher. Melt lard or duck fat in a heavy, cast-iron skillet. Add beans and cook, stirring constantly, over a medium flame until all the fat is incorporated into the beans.

Vegetable protein is also important and is found in largest quantities in whole grains, seeds, beans, legumes, peas, nuts, etc. Vegetable protein alone cannot sustain healthy life because it does not contain enough of all of the amino acids that are essential. There is only one plant that can be classed as a complete protein—the soybean; but it is so low in two of the essential amino acids that it cannot serve as a complete protein for human consumption. In fact, most all plants lack methionine, one of the essential amino acids. Vegetable protein, when supplemented properly by animal protein, makes an excellent combination. Health cannot be maintained on a diet that omits animal protein. H. Leon Abrams
Your Body Is Your Best Doctor
.

MASHED BEANS

Serves 6

2 cups small white beans

warm filtered water

2 tablespoons whey
Whey and Cream Cheese
or lemon juice

1 medium onion, coarsely chopped

1 medium carrot, peeled and chopped

1 medium parsnip, peeled and chopped

3 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed

1 medium onion, finely chopped

2 tablespoons butter

1 teaspoon paprika

sea salt and pepper

Cover beans with warm water. Stir in whey or lemon juice and leave in a warm place for about 24 hours. Drain, rinse and place in a pot with onion, carrot and parsnip. Add water to cover beans and bring to a boil. Skim off foam that rises to top. Reduce to simmer and add garlic. Cover and cook at least 4 hours. Remove in batches with a slotted spoon to food processor and puree, adding enough cooking liquid to achieve desired consistency. Saute remaining onion until soft in butter. Stir in paprika and add onion-paprika mixture to the beans. Season to taste. Transfer to a heated serving dish.

In
The Saccharine Disease(1975),
Cleave lays the blame for prevalence of diabetes on the doorstep of refined carbohydrates. He acknowledges the genetic basis of the disorder but "rejects unequivocally" the assumption that this is a "defect." "The hereditary features of the disease. . .do no more than reflect the inheritance of personal build, including that of the pancreas itself, rendering the persons concerned more vulnerable to the new environmental factor. . .. These features in no sense indicate hereditary defect. . .the body is not built wrongly but is being used wrongly." The more pronounced the genetic predisposition, according to Cleave, the earlier the onset of the disease, provided the triggering event occurs. In industrialized society, the triggering event appears to be the overload of sugar, white flour products, white rice and processed fruits and vegetables. "The consumption of refined carbohydrates. . .imposes unnatural strains upon the pancreas, either through overconsumption, or. . .rapidity of consumption and absorption, or. . .both." Joseph D. Beasley, MD and Jerry J. Swift, MA
The Kellogg Report

BAKED BEANS

Serves 6-8

4 cups small white beans

warm filtered water

2 medium onions

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 small can tomato paste

3 tablespoons naturally fermented soy sauce

3 tablespoons vinegar

¼ cup maple syrup

¼ cup molasses

3 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed

1 teaspoon salt

pinch of red chile flakes

Cover beans with warm water and leave in a warm place for 24 hours. In a flameproof casserole, saute onion in butter and oil. Drain beans, rinse and add to casserole, with enough water to cover them. Bring to a boil and skim. Add remaining ingredients, cover and bake in a 350 degree oven for about 6 hours, stirring occasionally and adding a little water, if necessary, to prevent burning. Serve with
sauerkraut
, whole grain bread and
turkey sausage
or
lamb sausage
.

By the mid 1980's, major changes were made in the food supply that were damaging to the image and markets of the naturally saturated fats. Some groups in the edible oil industry—particularly the soybean interests—and some of the consumer activist groups like Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) further eroded the status of saturated fats when they sponsored the antisaturated fat, antitropical oils campaign in the mid to late 1980's. The activism of these groups resulted in wholesale economic boycotting of the so-called saturated fats; especially the palmitic-rich tallows and palm oil and the lauric-rich oils; this activism resulted in their ultimate removal from very many foods. As a result, the partially hydrogenated vegetable oils replaced the naturally saturated fats and there were major increases in the levels of unnatural
trans
fatty acids in popular food items in the U.S. and Canada, especially restaurant foods, bakery goods, snack chips and other widely consumed processed foods. Individual meals in fast food restaurants now provide many times more
trans
fatty acids than they did a decade ago; for example, a meal of the same foods showed 19.2 g
trans
fatty acids in 1992 versus 2.4 g
trans
fatty acids in 1982. This increase is largely due to the campaign waged by CSPI against the naturally saturated fats and oils. Mary G. Enig, PhD
Know Your Fats

FRENCH BEAN CASSEROLE

(Cassoulet)
Serves 12-16

6 cups small white beans

warm filtered water

4 preserved duck legs and 4
preserved duck thighs
, or 4 fresh duck legs and 4 fresh duck thighs (
Duck Fat and Cracklings
)

2 medium onions, finely chopped

1 cup dry white wine

½ cup fresh lemon juice

several sprigs fresh thyme and 2 bay leaves, tied together

½ teaspoon ground cloves

6 cups
beef stock
or
chicken stock

4 cloves garlic, peeled and mashed

2 teaspoons sea salt

1 teaspoon dried green peppercorns, crushed

1 pound lamb stew pieces

1 large can tomatoes

2 cloves garlic, peeled and mashed

3 pounds garlicky lamb or chicken sausage

2 cups whole grain bread crumbs

1 cup grated Parmesan cheese (optional)

2 tablespoons butter

¼ cup finely chopped parsley