Does Eating Vegan, Organic, or Gluten-Free Make You Healthier?

There are many different trends now in the food industry. Many Americans are becoming more aware of the current state of public health in this country, as well as of the numerous issues surrounding conventional and factory farming. As a result, they have begun to buy more foods that are labeled all-natural, organic, vegan, non-GMO, vegetarian, and so on. Others are required to buy foods with these healthier-sounding phrases on their labels because of medical concerns such as Celiac disease.

Gluten-Free Foods

Celiac disease is an autoimmune disease triggered by the consumption of gluten, which causes permanent damage to the intestinal villi. This negatively affects the body’s ability to absorb vital nutrients.This condition is diagnosed now more than ever before. Its prevalence has spread awareness about gluten in general since many people never even knew what gluten was before Celiac became such a buzzword. Non-diagnosed people have also begun to experiment with reducing or eliminating gluten from their diets to see if certain symptoms improve.

At first, gluten-free food choices were hard to come by in stores and restaurants. One could only find them in a tiny spot in the frozen-foods section or the pasta aisle in health food stores and healthier grocery stores like Whole Foods Market or Trader Joe’s. The prices were exorbitant. However, people paid them and began to demand more gluten-free foods. Consequently, the supply increased, and now many regular chain grocery stores feature gluten-free aisles. In addition, certain restaurants, like PF Chang’s, offer gluten-free menus. Even fast food chains and stadiums have caught on—Domino’s Pizza now advertises gluten-free pizza and many stadiums sell gluten-free snacks. While prices for gluten-free foods have come down due to increased supply, they are still quite expensive.

Vegetarian and Vegan Foods

The majority of people interested in healthier eating, as well as animal rights, have seen the horrific videos about the treatment of animals in conventional factory farms. If you haven’t seen them, simply do a search for factory farming and you will get pages upon pages of graphic images and videos from organizations like People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and others who have exposed the truth of what actually goes on in these facilities. These images and videos have successfully turned many former meat lovers into hardcore vegans.

Cruelty aside, these videos and images have also exposed the truth about many issues including:

• The lack of sanitation in these facilities
• The rampant spread of disease among the animals
• How meat from diseased animals is still processed and allowed into the American food supply

The media also now focuses more on the many benefits of plant-based diets. Multitudes of books, doctors, celebrity nutritionists and endorsers, documentaries, and other forms of media illustrate how consuming less (or no) meat can reduce obesity and improve many health conditions.

So whether it’s for the love of animals, for fear of eating chemically-altered food from diseased animals processed in filthy conditions, or for the love of clean arteries, more and more people are choosing to ditch meat or animal products altogether and eat only plants.

Organic, All-Natural, Non-GMO

Awareness continues to spread about how toxic pesticides, antibiotics, growth hormones, steroids, and genetically-modified foods are to nearly every system of the human body. Accordingly, more people now choose to alter their families’ budgets in order to accommodate the lofty cost of organic, all natural, and non-GMO food  and other products.

Soy is Not a Healthy Alternative

Many vegan and vegetarian foods contain high contents of soy. Soy appears on food labels as many different names (soy protein, hydrolyzed soy, soy lecithin, etc.), and many mistakenly believe it is a healthy alternative to dairy and animal products.

The soy industry has convinced the general public that soy is healthy. They point to Asian cultures, which have regularly eaten soy for thousands of years and look how healthy they are! This is only part of the story. These cultures have indeed consumed soy for thousands of years in their traditional diets. Those who have maintained these traditional diets do have higher levels of health and longevity. However, those cultures do not drink soy milk, eat soy burgers, soy cheese, tofurky, or other processed foods using soy products as binders, fillers, and protein substitutes. They eat small quantities of traditionally fermented whole soy foods like tofu, miso, tamari, natto, and seitan—the key words being: small quantities, fermented, and whole.

The highly processed soy food-like substances that would-be health-conscious Americans now massively consume are not healthier choices for the human body than the foods they are attempting to replace. According to Dr. Kaayla T. Daniel, author of The Whole Soy Story, “hundreds of epidemiological, clinical, and laboratory studies link soy to:

• Malnutrition
• Digestive distress
• Thyroid dysfunction
• Cognitive decline
• Reproductive disorders
• Infertility
• Birth defects
• Immune system breakdown
• Heart disease
• Cancer”

So What’s a Health-Conscious Person to Do?

Healthy eating is not necessarily about reading labels on packages. It’s more about avoiding the packages in the first place by choosing whole, real foods that you prepare yourself. Michael Pollan’s words “eat food, not too much, mostly plants” really sum it up. The “eat food” part refers to actual whole foods that are part of nature: foods that grow, run, swim, or fly. Chemically-altered food-like substances that sit in boxes on shelves for five years are not included in this description of food.

If you choose a gluten-free diet, eat whole grains that don’t contain gluten like quinoa, amaranth, millet, and buckwheat. If you are a vegetarian or vegan, don’t eat “veggie” burgers from box in the frozen section. Instead you can easily make your own from wonderful nutrient-rich plant foods like whole grains, mushrooms, beans, and chopped veggies, and bind them together with cooked grains like millet or quinoa. Don’t use soy milk as a substitute for dairy. It is healthier to get your calcium and vitamin D from plant sources and small amounts of sunlight. Instead of “healthy” sodas and sport drinks, just drink water or freshly brewed teas or fresh juices.

If you eat meat, research where your meat comes from and how it is processed. Look for the words “organic, pastured, grass-fed” for beef and lamb and look for “organic” and “pastured” for poultry. If this type of meat is too expensive or is not available, then you should either get the very best you can afford and consider reducing your meat intake.

If you have a busy schedule (and I don’t know anyone who doesn’t), learn to plan ahead. Make big batches and freeze meals in healthy portions so that the frozen foods you take to work are ones you made yourself with ingredients you can pronounce.

It’s a wonderful thing that more people want to live healthier lives. Gluten-free, vegetarian, vegan, and other diets can be healthy. Reading food labels and knowing what the long words mean is a daunting task. Why not just avoid foods that need labels in the first place? That is the best way to start living a healthier life.

Summer Feasting

Zucchini and summer squash display such rapid middle of summer growth that some gardeners sneak out at night and gift their surplus on local doorsteps. If you discovered a mountain of summer squash in your garden or on your doorstep, steaming, sautéing, baking, grating raw in salads, slicing and dipping, dehydrating, and making noodle shapes for sauce are some of the many ways squash can be devoured.

Unlike the sweet fruits of summer, zucchini and summer squash are actually non-sweet fruits that tend to be easy to digest and very balancing to the body. So feel free to indulge and find new ways to eat these tender fruits. You’ll reap the health benefits these squash offer.

Recent studies have shown, zucchini and other summer squash rank in the top three foods high in antioxidant rich carotenoids like alpha-carotene, zeaxanthin, and lutein. Summer squash are also high in potassium, vitamin C, manganese, and vision preserving vitamin A, as well as B-1 and B-6. These nutrients support bone health including the health of the teeth, heart health, healthy weight, cancer prevention, collagen production (think beautiful skin) and eye health. Beyond eating them raw, steaming them with the skin intact (as opposed to boiling or microwaving), has been shown to be the best way to preserve those nutrients.

Summer squashes are members of the Cucurbitaceae family and are relatives of both the melon and the cucumber. All parts of summer squash are edible, including the flesh, seeds, and skin. For Native Americans, squashes were so prized they were coined as one of the “Three Sisters” along with corn (maize) and beans.

Zucchini can have a yellow skin, green skin, or striped and speckled skin. Black Beauty, Golden, Caserta, Cocozelle, Round, and Dark Green are some of the popular varieties and as one more bonus, zucchini is one of the summer squash types that produces edible flowers.

Golden Summer Crookneck and Early Prolific Straightneck are the varieties many of us refer to as summer squash and they are most often yellow in color – although they can also be pale green.

Scallop Squash, also called Patty Pan, can be white, pale yellow, or light green in color and are the shape of a thick sand dollar or saucer. Scallop Squash often have a sweeter flesh than other summer squash.

The trick to harvesting fresh zucchini and summer squash all summer is to plant in succession in late spring, sowing a few seeds every two weeks. This way if your neighbor doesn’t leave you a basket of these beauties, you’ll still be enjoying squash in salads or warmed up with fresh garden tomatoes, basil, and onions. Instead of high carb noodles, make spirals or ribbons with your squash and then indulge in pasta sauces over nutrient rich, hydrating (95% water), low-calorie summer squash.

Feeling adventurous? Find novel ways to make zucchini bread and zucchini chips. Your search engine will lead you to many recipes, both raw and cooked, that you will be proud to present at parties or for just you and your clan.

The price of organic kale, collards, and broccoli are likely to continue to increase. So even if you have room for just a few containers on your deck or balcony, if you act quickly, you still have time to grow some gorgeous winter greens.

Most garden centers and nurseries have potted starts of kale, broccoli, and collards available during the month of September. This is a good thing, because it’s a bit late to start winter greens from seed in most zones after Labor Day.

Kale and collards are easy to grow and are the best bets for greens that will winter over. Spinach and chard, if you have the space, make for tasty fall feasts, yet once winter comes, the delicate leaves of chard, spinach, and lettuce are likely to wither away.

If you have gardened in containers before, you might have a designated space and a few supplies on hand – potting soil and some two, three, or five gallon containers with drainage holes. For container gardening, choose a potting soil that has vermiculite or perlite added, and if you anticipate heavy rains, consider adding a bit extra to help with drainage. A small amount of coarse sand can be mixed into the potting soil either with, or in lieu of, the vermiculite or perlite.

Minerals have a magic all their own. By adding a balanced fertilizer to the potting soil on the day you transplant, you’ll be giving the winter greens an extra boost. And – no surprise – when you eat these greens, the living minerals from the healthy vibrant plant will enter all the hungry cells of your body.

If you are growing on a deck or balcony, you will want to choose smaller containers that are spread evenly so they don’t put too much weight on your given foundation.

With a yard or patio you have more options when choosing containers. A creative gardener can make use of dozens of objects — anything that will drain — and turn them into growing containers. Some may be quite unique and some purely functional and practical.

A five gallon bucket with holes pierced in the bottom is a classic example of a functional, practical, garden container. With two gallon containers, plant just one or two kale or collard plants. A five gallon container can hold two to four and, as you continue to harvest the outer leaves, these plants will produce for months.

If you find yourself inspired to start a fall container garden, have fun with it!   Maybe a few garage sales or thrift stores will help you to gather some outrageously shaped non-toxic gadgets that can be transformed into growing pots. .

The sooner you can get to the nursery or garden center in September, the better your chances of getting some starts. So cheers to you and happy gardening!

8 Reasons Why Laughter is the Best Medicine

“I don’t trust anyone who doesn’t laugh.”
~Maya Angelou

Along with every notorious saying rides a bundle of truth.

I adore a good chuckle…not just any variety of chuckle, a hearty one.  The kind that leaves you gasping for air, clutching your mid-section, and complaining about how much your face hurts for minutes after. The variety of laughter that arrives when all inhibitions are released, when there is no worry about what’s right, what’s acceptable, what’s proper, or how or what others are seeing.  Laughter that urges you to reach out to someone, if only to avoid falling. 😉  Laughter that instantaneously invites others to this special place…even, or especially if they have no idea what you’re even laughing about.

I love that laughter is such an innate, unlearned response.  Infants begin to smile during the first few weeks of life and begin to laugh only months into their journey.  It is awe-stirring that we are all born with this intrinsic affinity towards smiling and making noise out of pure delight for…errr…whatever we find funny.  For anyone (that would be all of us?) who simply feels really incredible after a hearty laugh, laughter having “measurable” benefits won’t come as a surprise…or even, really, an interest.  Still, I thought it was interesting enough to intermingle the whole beautiful, riotous mess with a smidgen of organization in written form. So, here ’tis:
8 of likely many quality reasons we all should lean into a good belly laugh (or twenty) every day.

Laughter relaxes the whole body.

A good, body-involving laugh evaporates stress and relieves physical tension, relaxing muscles for a stretch of up to an hour after.

Laughter releases endorphins.

Merriam- Webster’s definition of endorphins: any of a group of endogenous peptides found especially in the brain that bind chiefly to opiate receptors and produce some pharmacological effects (as pain relief) like those of opiates.
{ahem?!}
My definition of endorphins:  feel-so-good, feel-so-happy chemicals.
The more we laugh, the better we’ll feel…so let’s heartily chortle at every meal! 😉

Laughter boosts your immune system.

I’ve come across several studies that suggest that laughter helps to boost your immune system through decreasing stress hormones and increasing immune cells/infection-fighting abilities, improving the body’s overall resistance to disease.

Laughter protects your heart.

Laughter improves the function of blood vessels and increases blood flow, decreasing high blood pressure, which can help protect against a heart attack and other cardiovascular complications.

Laughter dissolves distressing emotions.

Go ahead.  Enjoy a good laugh the next time you and your spouse are ‘spiritedly’  processing through a difference!  It’s so very difficult to feel nervous, angry, or sad while you’re deep in authentic laughter.

Good humor shifts perspective.

It allows us to see situations in a less menacing light.  Just as I was beginning to write this, my 7 year old daughter–already in a questionable mood–stepped it up a notch or three on the voice decibel meter.  Out of seemingly nowhere, I told her that she was acting like a pirate.  She followed up with announcing that I was acting like a recycling can.  We went back and forth, eventually wrapping up our obscure fest with “acting like a smurf’s knee.”  We were both, by that time, laughing so hard that we could barely understand each other.  The moment was entirely transformed.  Neither of us could recall what she was upset about to begin with.  The ability to laugh, play, and have fun with others not only makes life more enjoyable, it also helps to revamp problems and strengthen connections with others.  People who incorporate playful humor into their daily lives discover that it renews not only themselves, but has a ripple effect, reaching many of the people surrounding them.

{On third thought, that “connection” bit should be a point all its own…}

Laughter helps us connect with others.

Simply written: it feels good to laugh with someone.  It feels great to laugh with someone.  It feels great to laugh with anyone.  hella~great.  Laughter is a sort of bonding cement, deepening the bonds that we experience with people we’re already close with and forging bonds with people we’ve only recently met. And feeling connected, is (in general) one of the most important foundations of good health.

“Laughter is the shortest distance between two people.”
~Victor Borge

{and my personal favorite….}

Laughter holds us in the present moment.

When we’re laughing, we’re focused on whatever is funny in the moment.  We’re not replaying the past or worrying about the future.  We’re simply enjoying what is here. What is *now.*

Regardless of how badly we might feel or how tough things may (momentarily) seem, laughter has the ability to immediately transform us and, often, our surrounding circumstances.  It has the ability to bring us into a cozy space, to a place of pure joy and bliss, to a new and more balanced perspective, to happiness– over and over again.  There’s really nothing quite like a really good, from-the-gut, tears-streaming-down-the-face, nose-wiping, can’t-quite-breathe, where-did-the-seat-go?!, belly-aching guffaw.

There’s only one downside to laughter:  it happens far too infrequently.  While I don’t feel like writing about them here, I can think of a whole slew of, mostly culturally based, reasons why laughter seems to occasionally, if not often, get placed on the back burner.

To steal a dear friend’s one word response that is quickly becoming a “go to” staple when “thangs” become too intense or weighty: *burp!*

Just laugh!  Laugh heartily!  Laugh often!  Laugh while you’re rolling out of bed.  Laugh while you’re making breakfast.  Laugh while you’re making love. Laugh, solo-style.  Laugh in large crowds.  Laugh while you’re crying. Laugh until you’re crying.  Laugh when your heart hurts. Laugh when your heart is happy.  Laugh when it feels appropriate. Laugh when it feels inappropriate.  Laugh until you have no idea what you’re laughing about…and then laugh some more.

Cheers to consistently finding ourselves amidst a hearty concoction of unrestrained “medicine.”
No doctor or therapist required.

“Man is the only animal that laughs and weeps; for he is the only animal that is struck with the difference between what things are, and what they ought to be.”
~William Hazlitt

“Laugh as much as you breathe and love as long as you live”
~Andrea Levy

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No Shampoo!

I am a clean freak as well as a water baby. A Cancer with Pisces rising and a Cancer moon, I always loved the water so much I should have been born a mermaid. For most of my life, I bathed or showered every morning and often at night as well.

A few years ago, my son presented me with a gift—a basket full of organic soaps. They were wonderful! I loved the shape, the smell, the texture. But the strangest thing happened—by using organic soaps I discovered that I no longer needed to use deodorant. Seriously. No body odor, not even on hot sweaty days.

I don’t know the science behind it, but my best guess is that antibacterial soap strips the body’s natural oils that protect the skin and kills off the good bacteria that keep the bad bacteria on our skin in check.

These days I refuse to use any soap that isn’t organic. I know my skin soaks up toxins and chemicals from anything I put on it, so I am organic all the way. Due to organic soap, I don’t need to bathe more than every other day to every three days. But I’ve always showered or bathed every morning just to wash my hair! If I washed it at night, it would still look good in the morning, but by the afternoon—yuck.

For years I’ve tried to train my hair to need less washing. Remember the good old days when women washed their hair once a week? It’s just a matter of discipline, right? I knew over-cleansing my hair, washing it once a day since I was thirteen, had screwed up the natural balance of oils. But I could never seem to go more than two days without washing, and day two had to be a stay-at-home day. So imagine my interest when I kept seeing articles from women who have stopped shampooing their hair and raved about the results. These “no-poo” gals say it takes up to six weeks of not shampooing for the scalp’s oil glands to readjust and start working properly again. They said the change after six weeks was remarkable, that their hair was healthier and more beautiful than ever before, that they would never use shampoo again!

So I thought about the similarity between the cause and effect of antibacterialsoap and body odor and the cause and effect of shampoos and excessive hair oil and decided I would take the challenge. From day two through day four I scraped my hair into a ponytail and suffered—until I couldn’t stand it anymore. On the fourth night I gave up and washed my hair.

A few weeks later, I decided to try again. On day six, my hair looked like it was full of gel. I could hold it up or out and it would stay put for a while. But instead of giving up again, I went back to the net and did more research.  I read one article about four women who committed to a six week trial. Two loved the results; two never adjusted. Then I found several articles where the successful “no-poo” gals talked about rinsing their hair with baking soda mixed in water as needed. They also recommended an additional rinse with water and apple cider vinegar if the hair was dry. Dry? With all this oil?

Well, I decided to give it a try. I used a tablespoon of baking soda in a cup of water and poured it through my hair, then rinsed with plain water. When my hair dried, it felt like silk. Each individual shaft of hair was coated in natural oil, not too much, not too little, just enough. My hair was full, shiny, and showing off its natural wave. It was beautiful! And it felt better than it has ever felt after any conditioner or oil treatment. And today? The day after? Perfect! It looks like I washed it and conditioned it this morning, only better. It shines and curls and is completely manageable. My fine hair has body and volume it never had before. I have officially joined the ranks of the “no-poo” gals. I don’t need another five weeks. I’m a convert!

Note: it has now been three months since I originally wrote this article and I am still a convert. My hair is wonderful. I rinse it with baking soda water once or twice a week and occasionally rinse it in between. A final rinse with apple cider vinegar and water closes the cuticle on the hair shaft. This helps prevent breakage. My hair is stronger, thicker, and easier to manage than ever before. To think I used to wash my hair every morning just to remove excess oil that was caused by my shampoo.

Recommended Reading:

• Hypothyroidism – Prevention and Natural Remedies
• The Power of Our Hormones and How To Balance Them
• Reverse Gray Hair Naturally
• Natural Hair Loss Baldness Remedies and Cures

When it comes to produce, should we choose organic or local? The obvious answer is “both.” But when local, organic produce is not available, which is the greener and healthier choice?

People who vote for organic will argue that organic is always healthier because it is not genetically modified and is not sprayed with pesticides and herbicides. On the other hand, many of the eco-conscious cite the enormous carbon footprint involved in the transportation of produce. It is a bit ridiculous to buy organic California grown oranges in Florida and vice-versa. Buying locally not only saves on fossil fuels, it also keeps money in the local economy.

So, if you’re buying for health, you should always buy organic, and if you’re buying for environmental reasons, you should always buy local, right? Not necessarily.

Which is Healthier?

Locally grown fruits and vegetables may actually be healthier than organic fruits and vegetables shipped in from afar. While GMOs should be avoided at all costs, if health is your primary concern, try to find out if the farmer practices crop rotation. This is necessary to determine the nutritional value of the produce. Consider the distance organic produce travels with the substantial loss of enzymes and nutrients compared to fresh produce. And remember that organic farmers are allowed to use some harmful pesticides under many circumstances. Then consider the significant increase in vitamin and mineral content in produce grown on local farms that practice crop rotation.

The vitamins and mineral content of produce is not always higher when produce is organic, not when the nutrition is determined by the health of the soil and the freshness of the produce. While organic practices typically do promote healthier soil and more nutritious produce, with big business fully on the organic bandwagon soil quality is not always taken into consideration. Consequently, crop rotation, one of the best ways to help restore the soil, can be ignored.

The average person, that is, a person whose health is not degraded to the point where chemical sensitivities are an issue, would do better to ingest a little more pesticides with a lot more vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients, and enzymes. It behooves the consumer who shops in this manner to choose wisely. If buying conventional for health’s sake, conventional produce that typically contain the highest concentrations of pesticides, like berries and apples, should be avoided. It is likely that the increased benefits of local fresh strawberries are nullified by the enormous amounts of pesticides conventional farmers use to grow them.

Which is Greener?

When purchasing produce, we should consider long term ramifications of decisions. Voting with the pocketbook is the most powerful vote anyone can make considering its frequency and potential to evoke real change. Money talks. Every time a purchase of conventional produce is made a vote is cast for non-organic, environmentally harmful practices. Buying non-organic produce encourages everything the environmentally conscious stand against. Purchasing local conventional produce for the purpose of saving carbon emissions is penny wise and pound foolish.

To further complicate matters, the way food miles are calculated often misses a big piece of the puzzle. When purchasing an apple grown locally, for example, one should take into account the fact that the apple grown on a small scale farm may have arrived to the market via a small farmer’s pickup truck that traveled 65 miles to the market with around 100 apples or so. Compare this to a semi truck carrying two or three thousand apples. We can do the math to calculate the fuel consumed per apple, but in most cases, the math gets way too complicated. Farmers often bring their produce to large farmer’s markets in their area via their pickups and flatbeds, where the produce is shipped all over the country via tractor trailers.

A Better Idea

Ask the local grocery store manager if s/he carries local, organic produce. When shopping at farmer’s markets ask the vendors if they have organic produce and if they practice crop rotation. When the answer is no, move on. This is how change happens.

Even Better

Grow as much of your own food as you can.

Bonus – How to Eat Raw Eggs Safely

For decades, the need for Calcium and Magnesium for growing and maintaining a healthy body has been well established. Absorbing these nutrients isn’t so easy. Most mineral supplements come from inorganic matter that is not bioavailable. In fact, taking a calcium or a calcium magnesium supplement will often do you more harm than good.

The fact is that most supplements on the market are toxic. It doesn’t matter how many milligrams of calcium a supplement has if it causes kidney stones. And while supplementing your diet with calcium can rid the body of many common health ailments, taking the wrong kind of calcium overtaxes the body and can actually cause arthritis and many other degenerative diseases. The only inorganic Cal-Mag formula to date that I know of that benefits the human body comes from this lemon-egg recipe. All the rest are junk.

Lemon Egg Recipe – the best organic calcium supplementation

1. Carefully place whole, clean, uncooked, uncracked, organic eggs in a clean wide-mouth jar or glass container. How many eggs is up to you, but the lemon juice needs to cover the eggs.
2. Cover the eggs with freshly squeezed organic lemon juice (concentrated lemon juice is pasteurized and should never be used as a substitute).
3. Cover the jar loosely and place it in the refrigerator. A few times during the day, gently – very gently – agitate the liquid in the jar. As the Calcium from the shells is leached by the lemon juice, bubbles will appear around the eggs.
4. Approximately 44 to 48 hours later, when the bubbling has stopped, carefully remove the eggs from the jar, being sure not to break the egg membranes. Replace the lid tightly on the jar containing the liquid and shake the mixture. You now have “Lemon Egg”. I love to drink it straight or mix 2oz in my smoothies. It can also be used for recipes calling for lemon juice as well. If there is no more than twice as much lemon juice per egg volume I take a tablespoon to two of the lemon mixture and up to six if I don’t eat enough vegetables.

One whole medium sized eggshell yields about 750 – 800 mgs of elemental calcium plus other microelements, including but not limited to magnesium, boron, copper, iron, manganese, molybdenum, sulphur, silicon, zinc,  (27 elements in total). The composition of an eggshell is very similar to that of our bones and teeth.

Calcium-magnesium is not the only homemade supplement you can make. Check out our Homemade Vitamin C article.

How to Eat Raw Eggs Safely

If you’re looking for a way to eat raw eggs safely, without the risk of salmonella, this recipe can double as egg safety protocol! The lemon juice kills the salmonella leaving you with just the egg itself (like in the picture). Great for smoothies and any other recipe that calls for raw eggs.

It should be noted, we do not recommend the consumption of factory farmed eggs under any circumstances, raw or cooked. Salmonella is not an issue in healthy eggs produced by healthy, trulycage-freee, organic chickens.

Alternatively, instead of discarding shells after cooking eggs, as long as the shells weren’t cooked (no boiled egg shells for this), you can put those in lemon juice as well (thank you AeRhee Lee at Healing Foods to Go).

Recommended Supplements:

• Total Nutrition Formula

Further Reading:

• Bullet Proof Your Immune System
• Total Nutrition – Make your own Homemade Multivitamin and Mineral Formula
• Homemade Vitamin C