March Against Monsanto – Today – May 25, 2013!
May 25th, 2013 by AmandaEating Wheat Again
April 29th, 2013 by Amanda
Real sourdough bread
I went 100 % gluten-free in 2011. Before that I was very low-gluten. Most people now know that modern-day gluten bread is more than just hard to digest. Here’s an article written by Chris Kresser on 50 Shades of Gluten (Intolerance).
Unfortunately, the gluten-free breads I buy are not very satisfying. The ingredients do not read like whole foods – more like refined, processed and unnatural. Even Udi’s, our gluten-free brand of choice, has an ingredient list that looks like this:
UDI’S BEST BLEND (TAPIOCA & POTATO STARCH, BROWN RICE & TEFF FLOUR, MODIFIED TAPIOCA STARCH), WATER, NON-GMO VEGETABLE OIL (CANOLA OR SUNFLOWER OR SAFFLOWER), EGG WHITES, EVAPORATED CANE JUICE, TAPIOCA MALTODEXTRIN, TAPIOCA SYRUP, YEAST, FLAX SEED, XANTHAN GUM, SALT, BAKING POWDER (SODIUM ACID PYROPHOSPHATE, SODIUM BICARBONATE, CORN STARCH, MONOCALCIUM PHOSPHATE), CULTURED CORN SYRUP SOLIDS (NATURAL MOLD INHIBITOR), DRY MOLASSES, ENZYMES.
Bezian’s Bakery Boule Bread Ingredients
A few months ago I read an article in Martha Stewart’s Living Magazine about Jack Bezian, who has been baking wheat bread the traditional way for many years. He sells it at farmers’ markets in Santa Monica, California. Jack has a bevy of gluten-intolerant customers, who are, understandably, so grateful that he bakes the way he does.
Combine that information with my Weston A. Price knowledge, and I was ready to order some real sourdough bread last month. The test would be to see if my nine year old son and I would react (him: eczema, itchy nose, behavior issues; me: aching in finger joints, bloating).
Now, I’ve read enough about gluten intolerance to know that even if you aren’t feeling any negative effects from gluten, that doesn’t mean that you’re free and clear to eat it. Just like when you put on some L’Oreal makeup and the propyl paraben soaks into your skin causing your liver to stress, gluten and other food allergens can do silent damage.
But honestly, the bread tastes so much more real and health-promoting than the gluten-free bread alternatives, and we’ve not seen anything at all to concern us, that we are eating it every day. With lots of raw or low temperature pasteurized butter like Kerry Gold.
Bezian Bakery bread comes 6 in a box
Happily, we are on our second shipped box of real bread. I like the plain boule and the zucchini onion very much and am eager to try the other flavors. I send a 60 dollar money order and a few days later receive a box of six loaves. I freeze five and start on my first.
Having scoured the internet for info before I bought my first box, I read that not everyone says they’re bloat-free and happy after trying some. But many are.
Jack ferments the wheat for weeks which helps lower the gluten and make it more digestible. Here is part of an email from him:
All of our breads are lower in gluten, because we form the gluten better, bake at the right time, and use the right equipment at the right temperature. If you are a severe wheat intolerant, a sourer bread may help you more, but any one in the list should be fine. That is why we prefer white flour against whole grain, we can ferment up to a month, Whole grain fails faster and a coarse grain does not behave as well.
Here’s a video of Jack talking about his type of sourdough culture that contains multiple strains of micro-flora.
I’m not getting a kick-back from Jack. I am only writing this because I am happy to be eating WAPF-style (if Jack will let me call it that) sourdough bread, and if there’s a chance you could eat it too and be happy, then that makes more of us happy. Of course, please do your own research and come to your own conclusions before trying wheat again. Don’t rely on my take.
Do let me know if you’ve tried this bread and what you think!
Dental Materials and Electrodermal Screening
April 5th, 2013 by Amanda
Image courtesy of relfe.com
Yesterday I returned to the doctor who did electrodermal screening on me last year. Back then he told me that I had an infection in my mouth. He was right: I ended up having a whole dental revision that included removal of three infected teeth. He also said I had parasites. Right again. When I take parasite killers, out they come. So I feel that this guy knows what he’s doing.
This time I went because I wanted to find out which dental materials are safe for me. As I wrote in Dental Material Woes, the two bio-compatibility blood tests I had done did not agree with each other on various points. Add the fact that I am now clearly sensing the importance of assessing energy in any illness or state of the body, and this is why I saw Dr. Davidson again. I wanted to know, energetically speaking, which materials will work for my mouth and me.
Dr. Davidson, along with IAOMT dentist Peter Evans, came up with a list of materials for crowns, bridges, fillings, cements and other dentalware to test with bioconductance, or electrodermal screening (also known as EAV).
The two crown materials that tested well for me were:
Empress
Zirconia (factory implant)
Crown and bridge materials that did not test well for me were:
Authentic
BelleGlass
BruxZir – Zirconia
Diamond Crown
E-max – lithium dioxide
Lava – Zirconia
Tescera
Titanium
Yellow High Noble Gold
Cements that tested well:
Rely X (3M)
Rely X Luting Plus (3M)
Variolink II (Ivoclar)
Cements that didn’t test well:
Biscem (Bisco)
C&B Meta Bond (Parkell) clear
C&B Meta Bond (Parkell) opaque
Calibra (Caulk)
Infinity (DenMat)
Lute-It (Jeneric/Pentron)
Since a permanent crown is all I need at the moment, I now have the answers that I wanted. Next week I’ll ask my dentist to use these materials. Davidson thought that because I have a chromium/nickel/iron rod in my back, it may be why I proved to have difficulty with so many of the materials.
I wanted to test some other things with his EDS 2000 machine, but he’s expensive, and it took a while to do the dental testing. But I did find out that I still have some bacteria issues in my jawbone above a couple of teeth (not the ones that had it before). The homeopathic remedy, or small bottle of ‘signals’, that he made up for me should help with that. And we also found something else going on in my joints and my kidneys. But let’s save those topics for another day. One thing at a time!
Dental Material Woes
March 20th, 2013 by AmandaIt’s been six months since my dental revision done in Mexico by Dr. Lagos. I am certainly glad to have three infected teeth gone. But my bite is still off. This is due to my body’s lack of structural alignment – my right and left muscles are out of balance. But other issues I have are dental-related: I have a two tooth-space on my lower left, which used to be covered by a partial but is now uncovered and free, thanks to #18′s root exposure, and I wear two partials on the top – one for the left side and one for the right. They substitute for the missing #3 and #14. Partials are not the funnest when you’re chewing. But implants do not appeal to me.
The reason for this post is a bit of frustration due to not being clear on what materials to use for a permanent crown over tooth #30. This is a tooth that Dr. Lagos covered with a temporary crown, that he said would need a permanent in six months. Just like clockwork, the temp fell out last week, and unfortunately, got swallowed. Oh well, these things happen.
Dr. Lagos said that he would use Diamondcrown for the permanent crown. My local, somewhat holistic dentist said that Diamondcrown is not durable and could crack or come off in a year. Maybe less if I don’t grind my teeth at night, which I don’t. Diamondcrown showed up as ‘Least Reactive’ on my BioComp testing (see below).
So I called Leo Cashman, tireless dental health crusader of DAMS – Dental Amalgam Mercury Solutions. Over the years Leo has been very generous with his time when I’ve called him. DAMS has a newsletter you can subscribe to for $25, highly recommended (email him at dams@usfamily.net). Leo agrees with Clifford Consulting and Research, who believe that alumina in dental materials is not reactive. From Clifford:
Dental products are not the only ones where we find the benign forms of aluminum. The glass jars which contain our foods and beverages on the grocer’s shelf are basically barium-boro-aluminosilicates. Sand on the seashore is a rich mix of aluminum oxide and various aluminosilicates. Glass utensils, dishes and vessels in the kitchen (ie., Pyrex, Kimax, Corningware, Stoneware, Anchor-Hocking) are similar aluminosilicates and aluminum oxides. In our bodies, by nature, the bones are comprised of 2.0% – 2.5% aluminosilicate, aluminum oxide or alumina. If the patient can safely have food or beverage stored in glass, or can safely eat food prepared in a Pyrex pan or bowl, or can safely walk on sand, then it becomes immediately obvious that these forms of aluminum are not a threat to good health. The aluminunosilicate / aluminum oxide content of the bones is supplied and replenished daily from the fruits, grains and vegetables of the diet. The aluminosilicate content of lettuces and other vegetables in a single fresh garden salad serving will easily exceed the total quantity of aluminum released in ionized form from a mouthful of porcelain or ceramic crowns over a period of years.
In 2008 I had the Clifford’s blood test done, and it listed the Aluminum Group as ‘Reactive.’
Clifford Biocompatibility Test Results
In 2012 I had the BioComp blood test done, and it too listed Aluminum as ‘Highly Reactive.’
Biocomp Compatibility Test Results for Metallic Components
So when I went to Dr. Lagos, removing porcelain crowns (porcelain contains aluminum) was part of the dental revision. Dr. Lagos, as well as Dr. Huggins both use BioComp for their biocompatibility testing for dental materials.
Recently I came across the work of Carol Vander Stoep. She is a dental hygenist with thirty years of experience and author of Mouth Matters. She was kind enough to answer my emails:
Hi Carol,
I am trying to find a good material to use for a crown. My BioComp report said no aluminum – that I tested as highly reactive to E-Max. Yet Leo Cashman from DAMS tells me on the phone that that’s the one that is working best for people in terms of reactivity, and that the biocompatibility test may not be all that we hope.
Do you know where I can go online to read about what material to ask my dentist to use?
________________________
Hi Amanda,
That question is a biggie. This article should give you a starting point:
Is There Really Such a Thing as “Metal-Free Dentistry”? | Know Thy Health
Mercola’s interview with me I felt was the starting point of opening a can of worms on materials used in dentistry. It is always a matter of choosing the least toxic for each person… hard to do! One of the reasons I want change in the ways we diagnose at an early age. More accurate, etc.
Best,
Carol Vander Stoep, RDH, BSDH, OMT
www.mouthmattersbook.com
________________________
Carol,
Yes it seems like a biggie. People disagree. Years ago I did a Clifford test. It showed the Aluminum Group as reactive, and Silicates Group as nonreactive. Last year I did the BioComp, which showed Aluminum as highly reactive, but made no mention of Silicates.
My doctor in Mexico, Dr. Lagos, says to use a Diamondcrown material for the crown I need.
My local, somewhat holistic dentist in Va. Beach says Diamondcrown is not durable.
Leo Cashman from DAMS says he wouldn’t use Diamondcrown either, because it’s not durable. He would use E-Max. E-Max showed up as highly reactive for me in the BioComp report.
Dr. Cook’s lab (dentistryhealth.com) said he wouldn’t use E-Max because they don’t test well energetically!
I guess my best bet is finding an EAV person who has the dental material software to test my energy with them?
What do you do in this situation?
And yes, I’d seen that article before, but it was good to read again! Who is right – Clifford (alumina is fine) or BioComp (most people react to alumina)?
________________________________
And so here I remain – researching, talking, reading, about what to do next. If any of you have some experience to share on this matter, I would love to hear about it.
PS: Check back in a couple of months, when I do my expose on Oil Pulling for gum problems and oral (and possibly systemic) health!