Homemade Coconut Milk

Make Homemade Coconut milk from Dried Coconut  

This recipe comes fom a vendor of coconut products that doesn't sell a canned coconut milk because they say there isn't a good one.  There's a video demonstration on their site here:http://www.freecocon...de-coconut-milk

Homemade Coconut Milk Recipe

 Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups water
• 7/8 cup dry unsweetened shredded coconut

• In a medium-size kettle, heat the water, but do not bring it to a boil.
• Place the coconut in a blender and add 1 cup of the hot water.
• Blend for 2-3 minutes.
• Place a colander in a bowl and line the colander with 4 thicknesses of cheesecloth.
• Pour the blended coconut mixture into the cheesecloth and twist to extract the milk, letting the milk go into the bowl.
• Return the coconut pulp to the blender and add the remaining 1/2 cup of hot water.
• Blend for 1-2 minutes, strain and press through the cheesecloth into the bowl.

Makes about 1 cup

Save  the leftover coconut pulp for pancakes & cookies!   

Mix the coconut with a couple mashed ripe bananas, a little salt and whatever else you'd like such as spices, a little cocoa powder, low sugar dark chocolate pieces, a spoonful of nut butter, etc.  Drop by spoonfuls onto cookie sheet & bake.  Also do with other things besides banana such as baked winter squash or sweet potatoes.  Mix with a little egg for pancakes or even better, with mashed sweet potato and egg.

What you really need to Build Strong Bones & Have Clear Skin is Vitamin D!

Do you want the expensive, temporary treatments vs. long term health promoting solutions and prevention?

Vitamin D for Acne

Acne is a skin condition characterized by hyperproliferation of skin cells. The cell turnover rate in acne prone skin is just right to encourage plugs that don't have enough momentum to be cleared out before new skin cells are building up. Which leads us to treatments.

Accutane works by actually slowing the rate of skin cell turn over.  Vitamin D also inhibits hyperproliferation, and as such, has implications for the treatment of acne in the same way that accutane does. Fortunately, Vitamin D doesn't have the side effects accutane has, and is in fact rather necessary for health, which cannot be said for accutane.

Retinoids help acne (and signs of aging) by increasing cell turnover allowing the pore to clear itself faster, and not giving the pore enough time to form a plug. However, the problem with this is that it can be irritating and makes you more sensitive to sun.

Many medications that speed skin cell turnover rates are also keratiolytic, meaning they break down keratin which keeps dead skin cells attached to one another rather than exfoliate freely. So they break up the plugs and allow dead skin cells to be released from the skin surface. Sulfur and Salicylic Acid are examples of  topical keratiolytic agents. And you can get sulfur via DIY recipes from foods in our kitchen such as a Turmeric & yogurt mask. A probiotic in yogurt also boosts ceramide production.

Now, if you slow the skin cell turnover rate, it will take longer for existing plugs to clear, but as they do, the cell turnover rate is not prolific enough to form a new plug. This is why accutane takes a long time to see results.. But the results are often not permanent. 

Vitamin D for Bones

If you eat a good diet, it's highly unlikely you are deficient in calcium even if you don't drink milk. There is plenty of calcium in many other foods such as sardines with bones, broccoli, greens & almonds. 1 cup of steamed collards and 1 cup of cow's milk are nearly identical in terms of calcium (with collards providing 266 milligrams and cow's milk providing 276 milligrams). And 100 calories worth of spinach provides you with twice as much calcium as 100 calories worth of yogurt.

In fact, too much calcium builds brittle bones so supplementation is not beneficial.  It's far more likely you are deficient in the other nutrients needed to use calcium and to make strong bones such as Vitamin D, Vitamin K and Magnesium. And those seeds & greens mentioned above are great sources of Magnesium while the greens also supply Vitamin K1. The sardines provide some vitamin D.

Also, your body uses Calcium to maintain the acid/alkaline balance (called pH) in the blood. When blood pH starts getting low, it takes the calcium out of your bones to bring the PH back up.  The Phosphoric acid in Soft Drinks and high salt are two things diet habits that will cause this to happen.

Get Your Vitamin D

Supplement at least 1-3,000 IU per day. But try to get it for free from the sun when you can! So get outside. Your skin manufactures vitamin D in response to ultraviolet (UVB) light.  It only takes about 15 minutes for the body to make vitamin D,  but you need to do it when the sun is high in the sky and you need more than arms & face exposed.  They say you make most vitamin D in your torso, but I've not found an explanation for that. Is it simply because the torso is bigger?  Once you've made some vitamin D, cover up. Cover up with a hat & sleeves.

http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/
http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=nutrient&dbid=45

Better Sunscreens

The Environmental Working Group's report on the sunscreens of 2014 found that nearly 2/3 of reviewed products are either ineffective or contain harmful ingredients. 

 Summary article with links to EWG's report and other sources

Your skin has numerous defenses to protect itself. They come from nutrients that you must consume regularly and from the lipids you need to quit washing out of your skin with soap.

Make a habit of consuming the many foods high in nutrients that protect you from sun damage Drink some green tea  and apply topically.  Use a good, fresh high linoleic acid containing oil such as safflower oil regularly as a moisturizer. Make some tomato sauces & soups.

Nutrients that protect you from sun damage:
Lycopene from cooked tomatoes, watermelon, pink guava
Proanthocyanids found in purple/black berries, fruits, tea, cocoa, purple onions and cabbage.  

Some things are good for applying after sun exposure to prevent free radical damage include aloe vera,  vitamin C and green tea.

So, get some sun exposure to make the oh so important Vitamin D, then put on a hat & shirt. 

My Skin Healthy Lunch & Active agents, the effective skin care - vitamins, oils & more

My Skin Healthy Superfood Lunch 

Sweet Potatoes with Wilted Spinach, Olive Oil & a little Cotija Cheese. And of course, my favorite spice blend for sweet potatoes, cinnamon, Cayenne & salt. I've started adding turmeric to the blend to get more into my diet.  The Beta Carotene in the sweet potatoes & greens is converted to retinoids in your skin. 

			The excerpt below is from a German skin care product manufacturer's website.  At times, the translations are a bit funny, but it seems to be a valuable resource for information on skin function and skin care ingredients.Some of which, you should have in your kitchen to make fresh products with no need for preservatives & emulsifyers that dry skin. Active agents, the effective skin care - vitamins, oils & more From A like allantoin to Z like zinc. There is a multitude of active agents on the market either as substances to be used for cosmetics or substances contained in cosmetics. Effects as well as efficacy depend on various factors which will be described in detail in the following article. Before the active agent can become effective a number of prerequisites have to be met as for instance its concentration in the product should be adequate, its release out of the cream base has to be ensured as well as the transport to its destination to start its activity. All these prerequisites also demand for an appropriate packaging. Thus, vitamins are most effective if they are not free but encapsulated as esters in liposomes or nanoparticles in order to be released by enzymatic hydrolysis after penetrating into the deeper skin layers. Vitamin C for example can be encapsulated in nanoparticles as a fat-soluble palmitic acid ester and in liposomes as a water-soluble phosphate ester. In both cases, after their hydrolysis there will be only substances released which are also natural components of the skin. Continue

No Grain, Little Sweetener Nut Butter Cookie Recipe

Gluten Free, Low Sweetener Nut Butter Cookie Recipe

I spotted this recipe in the Houston Chronicle. A picture will have to wait until I make them.  And as the instructions call for a food processor and I only have mini one, I haven't gotten around to it yet. 

You've probably heard of bumping up the fiber, protein & other nutrient quality in brownies & cookies by adding mashed beans.  In fact, I've heard you can just add a can of mashed black beans to brownie mix.  But why even include the high glycemic gluten filled empty calorie white flour if it's not needed?

I doubt there's any reason these measurements need to be precise.  In fact, I make so many variations of this with spices, dried fruit, cocoa, etc. Just like I do with the banana cookies. And if that's enough sweetener for the average person, I will cut it by a third to a half.

Ingredients:

1/14 cup Cooked Garbonzo Beans (is that how much is in a can?)
2 Teaspoons Vanilla extract
1/2 cup plus 2 Tablespoons Nut Butter
1/4 cup Honey
1 Teaspoon Baking Powder
1/2 cup chocolate chips (get a low sugar, dark. Like Ghiradelli Bittersweet)

Preheat oven to 350. Pulse the beans in a food processor until well ground. Drain first if using canned. Add remaining ingredients (except choclate if still using processor.) Mix thouroughly. Then stir in chocolate.

The instruction I have call for shaping into 1 1/2 inch balls with wet hands, then placing on the cookie sheet. I don't know why you couldn't just treat them like drop cookies. I wonder how well the balls will spread when the Bake 10 minutes.  The recipe I have states not to over bake.

French Women Don't Get Facelifts

Mireille Guiliano,  author of "French Women Don't Get Fat" is has published her fourth book titled "French Women Don't Get Facelifts: The Secret of Aging With Style & Attitude."

In it, instead of facelifts and high priced moisturizers she recommends you drink lots of water, get the right nutrients, get quality sleep, find a form of exercise that you will enjoy, and laugh.

I would add not to strip away your skin's natural moisturizers with soap or cleansers. Your skin makes most of those moisturizing substances in those expensive creams such as ceramides & lipids. Or it would if you would just stop interfering with it's ability to function.  Oil cleansing is becoming more and more common. Today I saw that drugstore brand Garnier had a cleansing oil.  But it had a ridiculously long list of ingredients for something that should just be a mix of a few oils. I recommend you go to the food section of a quality food store such as Whole Foods & buy a bottle of food grade quality safflower oil. And find a small dark bottle to pour a small amount into while you store the rest in the refrigerator.  To this you can add essential oils

http://frenchwomendontgetfat.com/

Benefits of Buckwheat

So, Buckwheat is not actually wheat or even a grain, but a gluten-free seed of a plant related to rhubarb and sorrel.

My breakfast concoction has gradually become mostly buckwheat with a little whole oats just because I like the texture (Untoasted buckwheat is kind of mushy when cooked), and coconut and of course spices (ginger and cinnamon), topped with fruit, sprouted sunflower seeds, flax, etc. I knew that oats were a pretty good protein but there was so little in my concoction I was wondering about the protein content. So I looked it up on nutritiondata.com and it turns out both buckwheat and coconut are even better than oats!

Nutritiondata gives buckwheat an Amino Acid score of 99. The omega 6 EFAs seem to be almost entirely linoleic acid which is a good for we acne prone people.  One cup of buckwheat has a low glycemic load. It is very high in minerals with 1 cup providing 98% of the RDA of magnesium. 20 something % of zinc and selenium.

Coconut also has an amino acid rating of 99, low glycemic load and high in minerals similar to buckwheat (98% magnesium RDA, 20 something percent zinc and such) It's very high in healthy medium chain saturated fat and much of the omega 6 content is linoleic acid. 

All three, like most seeds, are rated as strongly inflamamtory,  so you need to counter that with the anti-inflammatory spices and fruit. I use a lot of cinnamon and ginger. Plus have it with my morning cup of white tea with ginger and lemon. Also, I've always soaked my buckwheat which would reduce antinutrients and perhaps the inflammatory effect. And I have begun sprouting it. Nutrition data doesn't have data on sprouted buckwheat, but sprouting generally reduces protein & antinutrient content while boosting the various antioxidant vitamins veggies tend to have such as C, E, etc. So sprouted buckwheat should be less inflammatory.

Buckwheat is beneficial for we acne prone people, people with diabetes or insulin resistance, and PCOS sufferers.

Benefits of Buckwheat.
-Good protein source.
-The buckwheat prolamine inhibits the oxidation of linoleic acid a major component of sebum that works and is defficient in acne & other problem prone skin.
- Buckwheat contains a glucosiderutin , a phytochemical that strengthens capillary walls
-Buckwheat is high in d-chiro-inositol (DCI) which is a component of "the secondary messenger pathway for insulinsignal transduction found to be deficient in Type II diabetes and polycystic ovary syndrome sufferers." It may also lower testosterone and Blood Pressure as well, likely side effects of improved glucose metabolism. There's a form called Buckwheat Farinetta that is extra high in DCI. Carob is another good source of DCI.

In double-blind studies, women with PCOS who received DCI experienced the following statistically significant benefits when compared with a control group: lowered free and total testosterone, lowered blood pressure, increased insulin sensitivity and a corresponding improvement in glucose disposal, and increased frequency of ovulation.^[4][5]

-Easy to sprout. 
-The amount of antinutrients is pretty low compared to grains, even the more benign grains. and the antinutrients it contains are pretty harmless. It contains no gluten.

Sprouting Buckwheat

The trick to sprouting buckwheat is to soak the grains briefly. 20 minutes or so. Too long and they won't sprout. Then drain and rinse, let sit at room temp for about a day. Rinse and drain a couple more times because buckwheat is starchy, then put in the fridge when tiny tails are just visible. They don't taste so good when you let the tails get longer. Then you can cook as usual, or leave raw.

A tea is often made from toasted buckwheat groats. I've seen buckwheat leaf tea mentioned as well but have found very little info on that.