Ready for Spring

We have talked a little bit about eating real food, getting kids to eat vegetables, and the new things I am trying in the kitchen to eat well and stay in the budget.  I tried lactofermenting salsa earlier, but I must have done something wrong, because I never saw bubbles and then the top seemed to get moldy.  I got a little discouraged on that front.  I do expect to try it again with salsa and pickles this summer.

But for now I am satisfied with bringing a little of the outside into my kitchen.  I read about never ending celery and onions, so I thought I would try it.  Basically the idea is that you cut the roots off of spring onions and celery and place them in water until they start to grow roots.  I haven't bought any green onions yet, so I have been trying it with bulb onions, leeks, and celery.  And it seems to be going pretty well.  Check it out.

Celery:

I had two celery bunches from the store.  I pulled off all the outer stalks and kept the inner ones that were white and leafy.  The photo on the right is from the day I put it in the jar of water.  The photo on the left was taken on the same day, but it had been in the water for about a week.  Look how green it is. In the third celery photo I have planted both of the celery plants in dirt.  The plant on the right in the bottom picture is the same one as the one on the right in the top photo.  Look how much leafier and greener it is.  I do not think I have ever bought celery this green.  But both of these plants were bought at the grocery store.  It really makes me wonder how long it takes from when they are uprooted until they get to the store. Or if there is something else that happens to make the celery white.  Do people prefer white celery?

Leeks:

The first day after I cut the stalk off.

Same leek, same day, different view.

Here it is about 10 days later.

Here is it now, after 3 weeks.

Here it is with a second leek.

Onions:
The onions are not working as well.  To be fair, I haven't read anything that said it would work with bulb onions.  But I tried anyway.  One onion was already growing in the pantry and too squishy to use so I put it in water.  Then I have put the root end of the bulb onions that I am cooking with in water probably eight times.  Two of them have grown roots.  One of those two got moldy before I put it in dirt

Onion with roots and green growth

Squishy onion in water

Here they are planted.  I'm still wondering if they will survive.

Herbs:
I also planted a pot of herbs to put on my windowsill.

Seed growth after 1 week, two green sprouts.  They are hard to see here.

Seed growth now, after 3 weeks.

Veggies:

I am on a very limited budget, so I am trying to get as much food to plant for spring and summer harvest without a lot of up front cost.  I purchased some seeds from Seeds of Change at Walmart.  I also had some lettuce seeds from Baker Heirloom Seeds.  So I started some lettuce, broccoli, spinach, and spring onions in egg cartons.  I really don't know much about starting seeds, so I am a little worried that the lettuce might be leggy.

Now we have 4 inches of snow on the ground and the kids are all out of school, but I am itching for spring so I can get these plants in the ground and start some direct sown seeds.  I also really like Smart Gardener because it gives me a plan for planting and tells me what to do when as far as planting, fertilizing, and watering.  And I am going to need as much help as I can get.

Lacto-fermentation introduction

Well, it has been a week in 2013.  How are you doing so far on your word, resolutions, or goals?  I posted my joy dare this weekend, so you know I have been doing ok on this front.  I have been doing my daily Bible reading and scripture memory too.  And I got Christmas put away.

 But, I did not get my 90 minutes of exercise done last week.  I haven't scheduled time to be intentional about relationships, and I have only barely increased my prayer time.  Probably because I have not done my weekly or monthly planning yet.  So much for planning ahead.

I also have not gotten my probiotic post completed yet...(my goal is Wednesday).  But, I have made yogurt several times and even got my pickiest to eat it more than once.  Of course I had to let her crumble some Oreo cookies in it.  But keep in mind, she only eats strawberry Gogurt or yogurt with Oreos in it to begin with.  So I am counting it a success.  On the yogurt front, my next step is to try to make gogurt like Money Saving Mom or get some Kinderville Little Bites Ice Pop Molds so I can make it like Lisa.

I also made (OK started) my first lacto-fermented salsa.  I used the recipe from Nourishing Days. Here is a picture of it next to my sourdough starter on top of my fridge.  My fridge is starting to look like a chemistry project, although, it is probably more like a microbiology lab.  Those were two of my favorite subjects in nursing school, so you can see why I am having so much fun.  And I have always loved to cook.  Just ask my mom.  She might even tell you about the kindergarten who made up a homework assignment in order to do an experiment in the kitchen.  Yes.  I admit it.  When I was 5, I lied to my mom.  I told her that my teacher told us to mix eggs, flour, and cheese and cook it on the stove.  I just had to know what would happen.

Now, what I haven't done is tell my husband or kids that the salsa I made will be lacto-fermented.  I haven't even said that word to them.  So I am taking a risk by telling you about it.  Because two of them regularly check my blog to see what I am saying about them...My goal is to get them to taste it before they decide it is gross.  But if they ask I will tell them.  What is lacto-fermentation?  And why am I doing this microbiology experiment on my family you ask?

Well, lacto-fermentation uses salt to kill bad microbes and then allows Lactobacillus to turn sugars into lactic acid which gives it a distinctive taste.  Think pickles or sauerkraut.  I did salsa because we eat a lot more salsa than pickles or sauerkraut.  And my family is already used to me making it.  And I am trying it as part of my probiotic experiment which you will hear more about Wednesday.

More on fiber and oligosaccharides

Our bodies are very complicated.  The more I study it, the more I am completely convinced that only God could have created as marvelous a thing as the human body.  But, I am also realizing that we should treat our body as an ecosystem.  When we think about having more good bacteria than bad bacteria in our colons in order to have a healthy GI system and immune system and feeding these bacteria fiber so they can thrive like we did yesterday in the fiber post, it become clear how much our body is more like an ecosystem than a single organism. 

But, if your family is like my family, increasing fiber can be a complicated task.   The short list of fiber foods are things you may already know: whole grains, beans, vegetables, fruits, seeds and nuts.  So where do you start?  I’ll tell you where I am NOT going to start, and that is whole grains.  I haven’t quite figured out what I think about grains, whole or otherwise, soaking or not soaking, etc etc.  That doesn’t mean that I am not eating grains.  It just means that for now I am not really going to worry about increasing my intake or my kids intake.  I will say that most of the sandwich bread that I buy is whole wheat because it is much easier to find without high fructose corn syrup.  But, so far, what I am making at home is with plain old all purpose white flour. Gasp. I know, I told you I have to think more about all the issues related to flour and grains in general.

Here are the things that my kids eat that are especially high in fiber:

Corn ½ Cup = 5 g fiber

Popcorn ½ Cup = 1.7g fiber

Apples 1 med = 4.4g fiber

Berries (especially raspberries) ½ Cup raspberries = 4g fiber; 1 C cup strawberries= 3.3g fiber

Kiwis 1 large = 2.3g fiber

Peanuts and Cashews 1/4cup 1-3g fiber

Broccoli 1Cup = 5g

Cabbage (if its cole slaw) 1/2Cup slaw = 1g fiber

Brussels Sprouts (only if they are cooked the right way) 10 sprouts have 7g of fiber

Avocado 1= 9g of fiber

Oatmeal ¼ Cup= 4-5g fiber

Raisins ½ Cup – 4g fiber

Carrots 1 = 2g fiber

Here are the high fiber foods that I want to get them to eat, eat more, or try:

Beans and Lentils black beans and kidney beans 1/2Cup= 9.7g fiber lentils = 7.5g fiber

Chia Seeds 1 tablespoon = 5.5g fiber

Basically, the older my kid, the more variety of fiber foods she eats.  So I am going to make sure that we have these foods around a lot and gradually increase the amounts and varieties that we all eat.  My little ones always want to eat what the rest of us are eating.  And yes, I mean the baby too.  Baby loves his broccoli and carrots.   Of course, we aren’t trying berries and nuts just yet. 

But, we learned yesterday that fiber is really necessary to keep the bacteria fed and the bile clean.  So did baby only just now get fiber?  I mean, milk doesn’t have fiber, does it?

Now, I’m going to get a little heavy.  There is this thing, called oligosaccharides.  They are carbohydrates that consist of a relatively small number of monosaccharides, or simple sugars.  So, they are sort of between sugars (monosaccharides) and staches (polysaccharides) and lately we have heard them called prebiotics.  They are made by plants and are not digestible by humans, which makes them technically a fiber.  And they are food for the good bacteria in your large intestine.  There are several types of oligosaccharides: fructo-oligosaccharides (FOS), galactooligosaccharides (GOS), mannan oligosaccharides (MOS), and HMOs.  You can take GOS supplements.  They are quite popular in Japan.  And a study has shown them to decrease influenza infection.  You can get them naturally by eating chicory root, Jerusalem artichokes, onions, leeks, garlic, legumes, wheat, and asparagus.  My understanding right now, is that when you soak or ferment foods before eating them some of the oligosaccharide is used up.  I’m not sure if that decreases the beneficial effects in the intestines or not.

So, back to whether or not baby got any fiber in breastmilk.  The answer is an amazing “YES”.  In fact, breastmilk has Human Milk Oligosaccharides (HMOs).  These are the HMOs listed above.  According to Engfer,Stahl, and Finke et al “ a majority of HMOs reach the large intestine, where they serve as substrates for bacterial metabolism. Therefore, HMOs might be considered the soluble fiber fraction of human milk.”

I think that is enough for today.

Fiber sources links:

http://www.mensfitness.com/nutrition/what-to-eat/10-best-sources-of-fiber?page=11
http://www.wehealnewyork.org/healthinfo/dietaryfiber/fibercontentchart.html
 http://www.uic.edu/orgs/cphp/resources/Fiber/How%20much%20fiber%20are%20you%20getting.pdf
 

References:

Cummings, JH. "The Large Intestine in Nutrition and Disease" (monograph), December 1996, ISBN 2-930151-02-1 

Engfer, Meike, Stahl, Bernd, Finke, Berndt, Sawatzki, Guenther, and Daniel, Hannelore. “Human milk oligosaccharidesare resistant to enzymatic hydrolysis in the upper gastrointestinal tract.” American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 2000; 71(6):1589-1586.

Niness, KR. "Inulin and Oligofructose: What Are They?". Journal of Nutrition 1999;129:1402S-1406S.) 

 

Meyer, Pl Diederick. “Nondigestible Oligosaccharides as Dietary Fiber.” J. of AOAC International May/June 2004; 87(3):718-26. 

Why does it matter if I eat fiber?

     What exactly is fiber?  It is the part of the plant that we cannot digest.  Insoluble fiber is usually part of the plant’s outer cover, like the skin.  It makes stool softer and bulkier and easier to well, get out.  Soluble fiber is part of the plant cell, and it combines with water in our body to make a gel that slows down the absorption of carbohydrates and reduces cholesterol in the blood stream.

     Most of us need more fiber in our diets.  Basically the more you eat the more fiber you need to digest that food.  The recommendation is about 12.5mg of fiber per 1000 calories.  Why?  Fiber does a lot of things for the body.  If you have read anything about the benefits of fiber lately you may already know that it may decrease or prevent  diarrhea, constipation, hemorrhoids, Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), diverticulosis, high cholesterol, diabetes, obesity, cancer, and heart disease.

     But did you know that it is essential for enterohepatic circulation?  Did you what to know what enterohepatic circulation is?  It is the circulation between the liver and the intestines.  Enterohepatic circulation removes fat soluble wastes from our bloodstream.  That is what bile is for.  Bile is circulated through our blood stream picking up toxins and wastes and then is recirculated through the liver.  When bile comes in contact with soluble fiber it binds to it and is then eliminated.  When we don’t eat enough fiber, we recirculate all those toxins back through the body.  

     After a long period of time without enough fiber, the bile changes from a liquid to more like mud or sludge, which can increase the chances of gallstones and atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries).

Also, fiber provides food for the good bacteria in our gastrointestinal system.  So, after you eat the yogurt for the probiotics, you don’t want to starve them. 

Now, if you are convinced that you want to increase your fiber how do you do it?  An equally important, how do you increase the fiber in your kid’s diet?  More on this to come later, but don’t just start eating your daily fiber requirements all of a sudden.  Slowly increase the fiber in your diet so you don’t have an uncomfortable and socially unacceptable side effect of bloating and gas and diarrhea or constipation depending on your water intake.    That gas by the way is a sign.  It is a sign that your body needed more fiber and that it is doing the job of binding with the dirty bile.
 For more information check out my post about oligosaccharides and Karen Hurd’s website.

References:

http://www.karenhurd.com/pages/healthtopics/specifichealthconcerns/ht-shc-whybeansdontcausegas.html

 http://www.umm.edu/altmed/articles/fiber-000303.htm#ixzz2ENhuoiL0

www.experiencelife.com/article/fiber-why-it-matters-more-than-you-think/