Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook That Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and The... (61 page)

Cook fennel and onion gently in butter until tender. Add ground anise and fennel seeds and stir around until amalgamated. Add stock and optional wine. Bring to a boil and skim. Add potatoes, peppercorns and garlic. Cover and simmer until the potatoes are soft, about ½ hour.

Puree soup with a handheld blender. If the soup is too thick, thin with a little water. Season to taste and stir in fennel snippings. Ladle into heated bowls and serve with cultured cream.

Raw foods enthusiasts point to scientific evidence which shows that when cooked foods are consumed, the white blood cell count immediately rises, while no such increase occurs when eating raw fruit or vegetables. The white blood cells function as immune system scavengers, removing foreign organisms and any chemical compounds the body considers invasive. The conclusion is drawn that, therefore, cooked foods are bad because the body considers them invasive and toxic, and raw foods are good because they evoke no immune system response. However, one can look at the same results and conclude that the cooked food is stimulating the immune function and causing the increase in white blood cells not because the food itself is toxic, but because a function of cooked food is to "exercise" the immune system in producing white blood cells for real emergencies, somewhat akin to a biological fire drill. Indeed, it is quite natural for the body to use the invasion of low doses of microorganisms or chemical poisons to immunize itself against greater danger. And on one level food
is
a foreign substance that the body must "overcome" through the process of digestion and assimilation. In this sense cooked food can be seen to strengthen the system while raw foods simply do not have the same white-blood-cell-stimulating effect. Marc David
Nourishing Wisdom

ROMAN LENTIL SOUP

Serves 8

3 medium onions, peeled and sliced or 3 leeks, washed, trimmed and sliced

3 carrots, peeled and sliced

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 quarts
beef
or
chicken stock
or combination of filtered water and stock

2 cups red or brown lentils, soaked for 7 hours

several sprigs fresh thyme, tied together

½ teaspoon dried green peppercorns

¼ cup fresh lemon juice or whey (
Kefir
-
Whey and Cream Cheese
)

sea salt or fish sauce (
Fermented Fish Sauce
) and pepper

piima cream
or
creme fraiche

In a large, stainless steel pot, cook onions or leeks and carrots gently for about ½ hour in butter and olive oil. When the vegetables are soft, add stock and lentils and bring to a boil. The lentils will produce a great deal of foam—be sure to skim this off. Reduce heat and add thyme and crushed peppercorns. Simmer, covered, until the lentils are tender—about ½ hour. Remove the thyme.

Puree soup with a handheld blender. Thin with water to desired consistency. Reheat slightly and add lemon juice or whey. Season to taste. Ladle into heated bowls and serve with cultured cream.

Variation: Curried Lentil Soup

Add
2 or more tablespoons curry powde
r
or curry paste
to soup along with thyme and peppercorns.

Variation: Split Pea Soup

Use
2 cups split peas
instead of lentils.

The hearty Roman soldier carried 80 pounds plus his armor and walked 20 miles per day. His fare consisted of coarse bread and porridge of millet or lentils, supplemented with
garum
or
liquamem
, fermented fish sauce. This condiment supplied him with nutrients from the animal kingdom on a daily basis. Made from the heads and organs of fish, it is especially rich in iodine and vitamins A and D and thus contributed to the robust strength of the Roman legions. SWF

The basic foods should be the entire grains such as whole wheat, rye or oats, whole wheat and rye breads, wheat and oat cereals, oatcake, dairy products, including milk and cheese, which should be used liberally, and marine foods. All sea foods are high in minerals and constitute one of the very best foods you could eat. Canned fish such as sardines, tuna or salmon are all excellent; also the fresh fish such as oysters, halibut, haddock, etc. The protein requirement can be provided each day in one egg or a piece of meat equivalent to the bulk of one egg a day. The meals can be amply modified and varied with vegetables, raw and cooked, the best of the cooked vegetables being lentils used as a soup.

There are only a few foods that would give you your fat-soluble vitamins. These are either fish products, including practically all fresh water and salt water foods, milk, cheese and butter made from cows that have been on a rapidly growing green young wheat, either fresh or stored grass, particularly butter made in June. This is much richer than butter made during other seasons of the year. Weston Price, DDS
Letter to His Nieces and Nephews
1934

CHESTNUT SOUP

Serves 6

2 onions, peeled and chopped

2 carrots, peeled and chopped

4 tablespoons butter

6 cups
chicken stock
or combination of filtered water and stock

½ cup sherry

¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper

pinch nutmeg

several sprigs fresh thyme, tied together

13 ounces frozen peeled chestnuts or about 4 cups unpeeled fresh chestnuts

sea salt or fish sauce (
Fermented Fish Sauce
) and pepper

piima cream
or
creme fraiche

You can make this delicious, sweetly flavored soup very easily with peeled, frozen chestnuts if you can find them. Its still worth doing if you have to start with the unpeeled variety. (See
chestnuts
for preparation of chestnuts.)

Cook carrots and onions gently in butter until soft. Add sherry, stock and chestnuts. Bring to a boil and skim. Add thyme and nutmeg and simmer, covered, for about 15 minutes. Remove thyme.

Puree soup with a handheld blender. Season to taste. Ladle into heated bowls and serve with cultured cream.

I found Junkie dead this morning. She was cold and still and dark red-brown blood showed on her nose and paws.

What had I done? I killed her. For fourteen weeks I fed her "junk" food. She ate white flour products of white bread, saltines, doughnuts, sweet rolls, dinner rolls and cookies. Highly sweetened foods were candies, gum drops, malted milk balls, candy corn, marshmallows, sugar frosted cereals, chocolates and jelly on her bread.

Her death abruptly ended my experiment raising two young white rats. Junkie's food contrasted with Goodie's which were nutritious whole foods. She drank milk, had hard boiled eggs, shells and all, whole wheat bread, butter and peanut butter, oats, popcorn, dry beans and seeds, meat, fish, chicken, liver and a fresh dark green cabbage leaf or a piece of fruit.

I wanted to demonstrate the effects of these two diets so I could show off my rats at fairs, in nutrition classes and at day care centers, for both children and parents. The two rats showed a startling difference.

They began when about a month old, weighing almost the same at 128 and 129 grams. . .. I kept them in separate cages and fed them enough of their different diets so they always had more food than they could eat. . .. Goodie drank milk, but Junkie refused uncarbonated soft drinks so I stopped offering them. . .when both were about the ages of an eight year old child, Goodie weighed 469.1 grams and Junkie weighted 168.7 grams.

This contrast in weight showed. When I picked up Goodie she felt firm and solid, but Junkie was light and frail. Goodie's fur was full and thick, but Junkie's fur was so thin her skin showed through. . .. There were contrasts in endurance. I noticed this when I took both out of their cages to let visitors examine them closely. This extra handling had no effect on Goodie, but Junkie tired quickly and curled up for sleep at every chance while Goodie was up and peering out at the excitement.

I had little warning that the end was near for Junkie. She was vigorous, though small and undersized, until the day before yesterday when I saw her lose her balance briefly. . .when she tried to walk she kept falling over. . .. I endeavored to revive her with a little milk, whole wheat bread, peanut butter and a green cabbage leaf. . .. She nibbled on the leaf but I was too late.

It was sobering to wheel a shopping cart later today in a supermarket past shelf after shelf of candies and sweet rolls from which I had selected Junkie's foods. If mothers and teachers could see my little Junkie cold and dead on these foods, they would think twice about letting their children have them, certainly not as a day to day diet.

It could be misleading to look at an undersized active child and think he's doing well. You often hear, "He's the wiry type." Beware. Junkie was active and outwardly healthy up to the day before she collapsed. Ruth Rosevear
PPNF Health Journal

WATERCRESS SOUP

Serves 6

2 medium onions, peeled and chopped

3 tablespoons butter

1½ quarts
chicken stock

4 red potatoes, cut into quarters

2 large bunches watercress leaves, rinsed

sea salt or fish sauce (
Fermented Fish Sauce
) and pepper

piima cream
or
creme fraiche