This past September, I was able to take a lovely vacation with my sister, my parents and a group of friends in Cape Cod, MA. We used to spend two weeks out of every August up there when my sister and I were young, and I had not been back since I was eighteen and a freshman in college, so this was a trip down memory lane of sorts.

My parents have a strong knit group of friends from high school, and eight families that have known each other for years and years would rent houses close by to one another around Bucks Pond in Harwich. We were quite a gang, and we still treat each other as one very big family.

Favorite past times were taking the Sunfish boat out for a sail around the lake, swimming all day until our fingers pruned, and fishing for small mouth fresh water bass in the pond. When we went up there this year, of course we partook in all these activities; however, we got more serious about fishing this time around.

My father hired a charter boat and we went fishing twelve miles out off the coast of the Cape, just south of the Boston channel. We left at dawn, and I was the first time I had seen the sun rise in a very long time. It was so beautiful:

It was cold and windy out there on the sea, the waves were choppy and I was very nauseous for most of the trip. However, we saw dolphins, whales and.. almost caught a tuna. A fish hooked and ran with the line, and we shouted and cheered as we tried to reel in, but the fish was too strong and broke off. The line could support a 200 pound fish, so the tuna that got away must have weighed more than that! However, tunas are overfished and it’s probably best he got away.

But on our way back in to shore, we hit a school of striped bass and managed to catch 8 huge ones! That’s a lot of fish, but we didn’t over the allowed quota, their population is healthy and robust, and that’s what freezer storage for.

That night we dined on grilled striped bass, and the next evening, a citrus ceviche. The rest we froze and took home for later.

The night before Thanksgiving this year, the bass was removed from the freezer, and my father prepared a delicious chowder with the fish we caught on our family vacation, using potatoes and leeks his garden. It was a great way to look back on the fun times out at sea in September, and the all the special meals we had as a family over the years up in the Cape.

I can’t wait for this September to wake up bright and early, and go fishing.

For information on sustainable fishing and buying, check out the Marine Stewardship Council.

Have you ever heard of vibropathic remedies? Vibropathics are remedies that use vibrations to heal the body in new ways. I was lucky enough to be introduced to this form of therapy when I was a young girl and have been using the remedies with great success for most of my life. I’ve utilized vibropathics to heal emotions, specifically to help elevate my mood and fight anxiety and depression.

Like homeopathics, vibropathics encourage the body to heal itself naturally. The key difference is that homeopathics utilize plants and other things in nature, while vibropathics focus on using straight energy vibrations to positively influence how people feel.

When it comes specifically to emotions, some of my favorite vibropathics have been parasite remedies, like the Protozoa Vibropathic remedy that helps dispel unwanted critters from the body. It’s been amazing to me how much better I feel about life after cleansing my body of parasites. Make sure to check out my other article to learn more about natural ways to get rid of parasites.

While using vibropathics may seem to be a foreign concept, if you think about how how energetic vibrations work in science, it starts to make a lot of sense. There have been profound studies that measure how different energies work…why not use these energies to heal? Head here to learn more about this exciting form of healing and share your comments below on what you think.

I love Milk. I grew up loving it. We did not have a lot, but we had milk. It was one thing you could count on. We bought ours from the store, but when I was very young, my grandmother still had her milk delivered to the door. It came in heavy glass jars. The milkman literally came and dropped off her weekly order, which sat in an insulated tin box till she opened the door to fetch it. I remember her taking the lids off those sweetly curved bottles and pouring the cream from the top. For those reasons and about a million others, when I began hearing that milk may not be all that good for you I just could not believe it.

Then my first grandchild came, bringing with him gastronomic apocalypse. My daughter quickly ascertained that something was not right and under the advise of her pediatrician, switched him to a non dairy substitute. “Its just one of those really odd, unlucky things,” I thought.

Then came my second grandchild and a call from my other daughter saying “… So I asked the Dr., ‘Is it normal for babies to have diarrhea that shoots across the room and lands in your hair?’” (I am not making this up.) O.K. clearly something is not right. In what country, I wonder, do babies get shooting diarrhea from milk? Well, ours for one, and we are not alone. How did this happen? Well, actually its been happening for a long time but we just weren’t aware of it. At least not in the US I grew up in. Campaigns for milk, and government subsidies for dairy bolstered up and touted milk as the totally wholesome drink it isn’t.

Today the Department of Agriculture’s recommendation for dairy is still three cups daily – that’s 1½ pounds – for every man, woman and child over age 9. That is an awful lot of anything to consume on a daily basis.

Why is this a problem? Well, for some lucky folks it might not be, but for a significant part of the population it is. And it’s not just kids. Hindsight being what it is, I now realize that my Mother in Law probably had a dairy sensitivity that masqueraded as “indigestion,” passed along to my spouse who has his updated diagnosis of GERD or “acid reflux.” After decades of taking Tums for “heartburn” and then graduating to proton-pump inhibitors, we are coming to understand that it may just be diet that is to blame, milk specifically.

If you think you have a milk allergy – or even if you don’t,

What Happens With a Milk Allergy?

Allergic reactions are the body’s immune system gone haywire. When someone is allergic to a particular food, it’s the proteins in that food that the body is overreacting to. In cows milk the proteins are divided into two groups. Solids -curds and whey, (which is about 80% of the protein,) and the watery part left over which accounts for the other 20%. People can be allergic to one or the other or both. The body attacks these proteins as if they were harmful invaders and releases its defenses. These defense chemicals – according to kidshealth.org result in some of the following:

• wheezing
• trouble breathing
• coughing
• hoarseness
• throat tightness
• stomachache
• vomiting
• diarrhea
• itchy, watery, or swollen eyes
• hives
• red spots
• swelling
• a drop in blood pressure

Contrary to popular belief, allergies are not all that common, and usually occur within minutes to hours after eating foods that contain milk proteins.

So again, why the milk hysteria? – Enter Lactose intolerance.

Milk allergy and lactose intolerance are not the same thing, though they can share many of the same symptoms. Lactose intolerance is when your digestive system doesn’t produce enough of the enzyme needed to break down the sugar in milk. Here is an excerpt from Dr Greg Laden’s blog, which I found both helpful and entertaining. He says:

The vast majority of humans do not digest lactose as adults, only as babies, like normal mammals do. With the rare and odd population exception of Western Europeans, and Western Europeans have another somewhat unique trait: They define everything else in the universe in relation to themselves. So, if Africans and Asians and Native Americans and Australians and even a bunch off other Europeans are normal mammals and don’t digest milk as adults, then that condition … being normal … must be the disease.”

So really what he is saying is that lactose intolerance, or the inability to breakdown the sugars in milk is the true “norm.” According to Dr Laden, and a lot of other current research, we aren’t meant to drink milk except as infants and even then, not cow’s milk.

Luckily the marketplace has begun to change to accommodate this fact, and there are a lot of substitutes available. Like anything there are pros and cons with each, though if you are suffering with an allergy or intolerance, sometimes the lesser evil is an improvement worth investigating. If you think you have an intolerance, or are allergic to milk, talk to your doctor. Another simple (and free!) way to find out is to eliminate it from your diet for a few weeks and see if your symptoms subside. There are some great recipes (below) for do it yourself milk substitutes. If you decide to explore the world of milk substitutes already on the shelf, be careful to read the sugar content which can be as high as some sodas. Also watch your labels for carrageenan, which is common in many milk substitutes including soy and almond.

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Healthy Home Economist. – recipes for the three best substitutes for a child allergic to milk

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What-is-the-best-alternative-to-milk?

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http://kidshealth.org/teen/food_fitness/nutrition/milk_allergy.html

Maybe you’ve spent enough time in the kitchen over the past two months whipping up festive holiday meals to think you deserve a vacation from KP duties.

But this delicious recipe is one that you can prepare in the same amount of time it would take to throw some pizza poppers in the over. And need I say that not only is it more delicious (and nutritious) but will make a great Super Bowl party dish. Much better than just serving chips and a dip!

First, this is all about fresh mozzarella, the often neglected relative of the “melting” kind that you use on pizzas, lasagna, and other Italian dishes.

Fresh mozzarella, while similar in taste, is creamy, soft and, in my opinion, much more delicious (and not used for melting). It’s usually sold either packed in a “brine” or wrapped tightly in the deli department. If you have an Italian (or gourmet) market in your area, you can probably get some home-made sliced to order. And that’s about as fresh as it gets!

Note about keeping fresh mozzarella: Since this cheese isn’t aged, it won’t keep as long as other varieties. If you have any left that’s not used in this recipe, keep it covered and in a water “bath” that you replace about every other day. But once you start using fresh mozzarella, it’s doubtful you’ll have any leftovers for too long.

Fruit-and-herb-marinated mozzarella recipe

Serves around seven

• 1 ½ to 2 pounds of fresh mozzarella
• 1 (15 or 20 oz.) can of mandarin oranges, drained
• 1 (15 or 20 oz.) can of pineapple tidbits, drained
• 3 to 4 tablespoons Wild Oats organic olive oil
• ¼ teaspoon Wild Oats organic crushed red pepper
• ½ teaspoon Wild Oats organic thyme
• Ground pepper to taste

Cut mozzarella into cubes and combine in a serving bowl with the mandarin oranges and pineapple.

In a small bowl, mix the olive oil, and herbs, and then drizzle that over the mozzarella and fruit, toss lightly and sprinkle with ground pepper.

Cover, and let it marinate at room temperature for 30 to 60 minutes.

Serve with thick slices of warm, crusty bread, and enjoy! It’ll be a winner no matter which team wins.

The exercise hormone!?!  That sounds made-up!  And … it’s not.

It was 3 years ago, this month, that the “exercise hormone” was introduced to the world by the researchers from Harvard who discovered it.  The researchers named it “Irisin”. They have found that Irisin is released from muscle cells in response to moderate endurance aerobic activity and it appears to be “the” messenger molecule that communicates with various tissues in the body, leading to the many health benefits of exercise and physical activity.

Here are some of the things that have already been proven about Irisin:
●  It acts as a hormone that can reprogram the body’s fat cells to burn energy instead of storing it.
●  It turns on genes that convert  “white fat” into good “brown fat”;  brown fat continues to burn off more calories even after the actual aerobic activity.
●  It increases the metabolic rate causing more calories to be burned (for sure through the “brown fat” connection and possibly through other ways as well).
●  It improves cognitive function.
●  It protects the brain against degeneration.
●  It triggers the development of new brain cells.
●  It slows cellular aging by protecting the cell’s DNA and prolonging the ability to make new “daughter cells” (this is how the cells in our bodies are replaced;  when a cell can no longer create daughter cells, the aged cell dies off and there is no replacement).

This all sounds great, right?  So, here is the challenge … the only way to get your levels of Irisin up … and enjoy all the benefits that come with that … is to exercise!!!  Oh NO!!!  It doesn’t need to be a crazy amount of exercise but it does need to be the type of exercise that makes you sweat, increases your heart rate, and, candidly, feels like a workout.  There are so many activities that fall into this category!  It really becomes a personal choice for you.

Are you confused about “aerobic” versus “anaerobic” exercise?  Here is a great explanation done from the perspective of a marathon runner.  You’ll get the idea.  One of the simplest ways of “feeling” the difference between the aerobic and anaerobic during an exercise period is when you feel the “burn” in particular muscles.  The burn equals an anaerobic phase to your activity.  It is often very brief in the flow of an overall aerobic activity.  The “burn” is great for building and toning muscles.  It is not great for making irisin.

I live in the Pacific Northwest and it is a great place to hike!  Walking up a trail is definitely aerobic and there are short stretches of uphill that turn anaerobic …  where I feel the burn in my legs.  There are tons of other examples.  If you are into yoga, you feel the “burn” a lot!  Plan your exercise to include at good portion of time in the “aerobic” zone.  It doesn’t need to be super long, even 20 or 30 minutes will be a good start.  You’ll figure it out  –  moderate endurance aerobic activity is your target.  So, for all the reasons you should exercise, you can add irisin to the list!

Additional Resources:

Great Overview on Irisin

Brown Fat vs White Fat