TRANSCRIPT: PROPER PREPARATION OF GRAINS AND LEGUMES By Sarah Pope The focus of the Western diet on grain-based foods has contributed greatly to an explosion of chronic disease in the past few decades – especially in the very young in the form of eczema, allergies, diabetes and other auto-immune ailments. The emphasis of nutritionists to avoid refined grains and to make whole grain foods the basis of one’s diet is certainly well meaning [cutaway to USDA Food Pyramid with grain portion at base outlined in bold]. However, it ignores the fact that traditional societies never ate these foods in the large quantities consumed today nor were ethnic grain-based foods prepared in modern fashion as quick rise breads [picture of store bread], granolas [picture of a box of granola bars], pasta and other rapidly cooked grain dishes [picture of Kraft Mac & Cheese and Hamburger Helper]. Traditional cuisines and pre-industrialized peoples from around the world took great care to soak or ferment their grains before consuming them as porridges, breads and casseroles. Prior to the introduction of commercial yeast, used to make bread rise quickly,[picture of a packet of yeast], Americans and Europeans alike made slow rise breads from fermented dough starters, commonly known as sourdough. In Mexico, corn was fermented for a minimum of several days before being made into a flat bread called tortillas. African cultures also soaked corn for addition to soups and stews. Even rice was carefully fermented in some Asian and Latin American cultures before inclusion in ethnic dishes. Science has demonstrated the wisdom of these careful preparation methods as all grains and legumes contain phytic acid, an organic acid that blocks mineral absorption in the intestinal tract. Phytic acid is neutralized in as little as 7 hours of soaking in water with small amounts of an acidic medium such as lemon juice [picture of lemons] or cider vinegar [picture of cider vinegar]. Soaking also neutralizes enzyme inhibitors present in the hulls of all seeds [picture of wheat kernels] and adds beneficial enzymes which increase the amount of nutrients present – especially the B vitamins. For those with gluten intolerance, soaking or fermenting gluten-based grains breaks down this difficult-to-digest plant protein; studies carried out in Italy have found that people with celiac disease can consume genuine sourdough bread without digestive distress or auto-immune symptoms. A good first step when transitioning to traditionally prepared grains in your home is to soak a pot of breakfast oatmeal overnight. Many older people will remember that the instructions on the oatmeal box recommended an overnight soak before cooking. This was before the advent of quick oats and microwavable oatmeal packets, which caused people to gradually forget this beneficial traditional practice! Soaked Oatmeal To make oatmeal the old fashioned way, mix 1 cup of rolled oats with 1 cup of filtered water and 2 TBL yogurt, buttermilk, lemon juice or cider vinegar. Cover and leave on the counter overnight or for a minimum of 7 hours. It’s important for the oats to soak in a warm kitchen or cupboard, not in a cold refrigerator. After soaking, add 1 cup of additional water and sea salt, bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for several minutes. Serve warm in a bowl with plenty of butter or cream. A whole natural sweetener and fruit or nuts can also be added. You will notice how quickly soaked oats cook in comparison with nonsoaked. You will also notice how much more satisfied you feel eating soaked oatmeal and that you stay full longer. Soaked Pancakes Pancake batter is easily soaked by mixing 2 cups of fresh whole grain flour with 2 cups of filtered water and 2 TBL of liquid whey, buttermilk, lemon juice, or cider vinegar. After mixing, cover and leave on the counter overnight or for up to 24 hours. When soaking is complete, drain off any excess water, blend in 2 beaten eggs, ½ tsp sea salt, 1 tsp baking soda, and 2 TBL butter and fry as usual using a healthy oil like ghee or coconut oil.. Brown Rice While rice is gluten-free and lower in phytic acid than most other grains, soaking prior to cooking is still best for those with any type of digestive complaint. To prepare, mix 2 cups of short grain brown rice with 4 cups of filtered water plus 4 TBL yogurt, buttermilk, lemon juice, whey or cider vinegar and leave covered on the counter for a minimum of 7 hours. Bring to a boil, skim off any foam, reduce heat and stir in salt and butter. Cover tightly and cook on low for about 45 minutes. Soaking of Beans Like grains, legumes contain phytic acid and enzyme inhibitors, and require a careful soak before cooking. For kidney shaped beans, put beans, a pinch of baking soda and enough water to cover in a large pot and soak for 12-24 hours. For non kidney shaped beans like black beans and other legumes, soak with water and 1 TBL of cider vinegar or lemon juice for every cup of dried legumes used. For maximum digestibility, it is best to rinse and refresh the water and baking soda or the acidic medium once or twice during the soaking period. Once soaking is complete, drain, rinse, add fresh water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, add a few cloves of peeled and crushed garlic if desired and simmer for 4-8 hours until soft. If you’ve had trouble with bloating and gas from beans in the past, try the traditional method of preparation and notice how much more easily they settle in your stomach! - See more at: http://www.westonaprice.org/beginner-videos/proper-preparation-of-grains-and-legumes-video-by-sarah-pope/#sthash.kzub6l32.dpuf


Hello! Sarah Pope, The Healthy Home Economist and Weston A. Price Chapter Leader with you once again to demonstrate traditional preparation of stock and soups.

Most people would agree with the old adage that chicken soup is good for the soul as well as for colds and flu. It’s also a great remedy for digestive problems, arthritis, pain, and recovery from all sorts of illness. When it comes to how to truly prepare healthy soup from scratch, however, the majority of folks would not have a clue where to begin.

Let’s be very clear about the dangers of store bought soups, canned broth or stock, and bouillon cubes. They are never healthy options even when organic as they are loaded with neurotoxic MSG, and artificial flavors with little to no redeeming nutritional benefit.

This is due to the rise of agribusiness which, since the 1950s, caused the consumer to gradually lose contact with a local butcher who would sell them a variety of bony leftovers which our thrifty forebears would use to make nutritious stocks and soups.

Almost all culinary traditions from around the world include meat or fish stocks, yet the stockpot has almost completely disappeared from American kitchens.

Dr. Francis Pottenger promoted the stockpot as the most important piece of equipment in the kitchen. He advocated liberal use of homemade stock because it attracts digestive juices to itself in a manner similar to raw foods. Foods that attract digestive juices are much more easily digested and assimilated by the body.

Homemade stock also contains natural gelatin which not only aids digestion but also assists with the healing of many chronic intestinal disorders such as colitis, Crohn’s disease, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, and others

During time of frugality, homemade stock helps keep the food budget in check by allowing health to be maintained with only small amounts of meat in the diet. This is due to large amounts of 2 amino acids in the broth which act together as a protein sparer, allowing more efficient utilization of the complete meat proteins that are eaten once or twice a week.

Homemade stock used frequently in the diet offers protection from gastrointestinal illness, as the natural gelatin acts a neutralizer of intestinal poisons helping to relieve diarrhea and even dysentery.

Chicken Stock

Chicken stock is the ideal stock to make first when you venture to resurrect this age old culinary tradition in your own kitchen.

All that is required is one good quality chicken, preferably from a local farm that practices pasturing of its poultry.

You can make chicken stock using either a whole uncooked chicken or with just the leftover bones from which you have removed all the usable meat.

To make the stock from a whole chicken, place the bird into a large stockpot and just cover with filtered water. You may add the feet to the water as well if you are able to get these from your farmer. Chicken feet impart a lot of extra gelatin to the broth. If you are making the stock from leftover bones, you may want to brown the bones first in the oven, for extra flavor.

Add ¼ cup of vinegar and stir. Add 1 large onion and 2-3 carrots and celery stalks – all chopped if desired. The vegetables add additional minerals to the stock but can be omitted in a pinch.

Let stand for about 30 minutes to let the vinegar begin to draw the minerals into the water.

Bring water to a boil and skim off any foam that comes to the top. This foam consists of impurities and off flavors.

Reduce heat and let simmer for a minimum of 6 and up to 24-48 hours. About 10 minutes before taking the stock off the heat, add a bunch of parsley to add even more minerals to the broth.

Remove the whole chicken or bones. If you used a whole chicken, let cool and remove the meat from the carcass. This meat is wonderful for chicken salads, sandwiches or Mexican dishes. Soft leftover bones may be given to your pet or discarded.

Strain the stock into a large bowl and keep in the refrigerator until the fat comes to the top. Skim off the fat and reserve in small glass bowls for sauteing vegetables.

Store the stock in quart-sized or half gallon containers. Stock kept in the refrigerator will keep for about 5 days. Freeze what you will not use within that time.

Making turkey, duck or goose stock basically follows the exact same process.

Beef Stock

While the best beef stock is made with a variety of bones – knuckle, tail, marrow and meaty rib or neck – you can make beef stock from whatever types of bones you have on hand in a pinch.

The best beef bones can be obtained from a local grassbased beef farm. These farms typically sell them labeled as “soup bones”.

You can also obtain beef bones from a local butcher although the quality won’t be quite as good.

To make, place any knuckle, marrow, or foot bones in a large pot filled with enough filtered water to cover. Add ½ cup of vinegar, stir, and let stand for about one hour.

Place the meaty rib or neck bones in a roasting pan and brown at 350 degrees F, 20 minutes per side.

After browning, add these bones to the stockpot and pour the fat into a small glass bowl and reserve in the refrigerator for roasting vegetables.

Add a small amount of cold water to the bottom of the roasting pan and heat up over the burner using a wooden spatula to loosen any dried juices on the bottom of the pan.

Add this liquid to the stockpot as well along with with 3 onions, carrots and celery all coarsely chopped.

Bring the stockpot to a boil and skim off any foam that rises to the top. Grassfed bones produce significantly less scum than bones from a conventionally raised cow.

Reduce the heat and simmer for a minimum of 12 and as long as 72 hours. 10 minutes before finishing, add a bunch of parsley to the simmering water to add even more minerals.

Remove the pot from the heat and strain. The meat can be reserved for sandwiches or Mexican dishes and the bones and vegetables discarded. Make sure to remove any marrow from the bones first as this is delicious spread on crackers or toast!

Store the broth in quart or half gallon containers in the refrigerator and freeze what you will not use within 5 days or so.

Stock that is left more than a week in the refrigerator can be reboiled and safely used.

Note that lamb, buffalo, and venison stock are made in the same way as beef stock.

I hope this video tutorial has inspired you to make a pot of chicken or beef stock as soon as possible. There are few additions to your kitchen routine that will have as much beneficial impact on your family’s health! Once you have several quarts of stock on hand, you can make all your favorite soups using this authentic, traditional stock in place of any canned or tetrapack versions from the store. You can also use the stock to make delicious sauces and gravies.

For even more information about the benefits of homemade stock, be sure to refer to the Weston A. Price Foundation website.

This is Sarah, TheHealthyHomeEconomist and Chapter Leader for the Weston A. Price Foundation wishing you all the best in the kitchen.



- See more at: http://www.westonaprice.org/beginner-videos/stocks-and-soups-video-by-sarah-pope/#sthash.EMy90ekl.dpuf

Welcome! This is Sarah Pope, The Healthy Home Economist and Chapter Leader for the Weston A. Price Foundation. In the next few minutes, I’m going to talk with you about how what you eat determines your health, for better or for worse – but perhaps not in the way you might expect. Imagine a community of people where nearly every member was free of chronic disease, mental illness and even dental decay. Children and adults alike were strong, sturdy and attractive with wide faces and perfect smiles with plenty of room even for the wisdom teeth. Fertility came with ease and robust, intelligent, and happy children were produced generation after generation. Sound like a utopia? This is the world discovered by Dr. Weston A. Price during the 1920’s and 1930’s as he traveled across the globe. He discovered fourteen isolated traditional societies still untouched by what he called “the displacing foods of modern commerce”. Dr. Price was a dentist and the first modern researcher to examine and write about the food choices and preparation habits of nonindustrialized societies. In his pioneering work, Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, he carefully noted the superior health these habits bestowed upon native populations. These population groups existed entirely on nutrient dense, local foods. While the diets of these peoples differed in specifics, they contained several common factors. First, the groups studied ate liberally of animal proteins and fats in the form of seafood, organ meats and dairy products. Animal fats in particular were valued as absolutely essential to good health and were revered as sacred in bestowing easy fertility and healthy children to the parents that consumed them. These fat and cholesterol-rich animal foods supplied three very important vitamins in large amounts—true vitamin A, the animal form of vitamin D, and the animal form of vitamin K. These vitamins are critical to building healthy bone structure and to the prevention of disease, including tooth decay. The diets of these isolated cultures also all contained at least some animal and plant foods that were consumed in a raw state. These healthy natives stood in stark contrast to members of the same racial groups who had adopted the food products of the Industrial Revolution – canned foods, pasteurized milk, white sugar and refined grains. In these natives, Dr. Price found rampant tooth decay, infectious disease, degenerative illness and infertility. The children of parents who had adopted modern foods into their homes before conception were born with narrowed faces and developed crooked teeth and other deformities of bone structure, as well as high susceptibility to all manner of medical problems. Even the robust health of children born to parents who consumed only their traditional diet during their growing years rapidly declined if those children chose a more modern diet upon reaching adulthood. The drastic difference in health between the natives consuming their traditional diets and those who adopted modern foodstuffs was due not only to food choice alone, however. Traditional societies practiced superior food preparation and storage techniques as well. Grains, milk products and frequently even vegetables, fruits and meats were fermented or pickled through a process called lacto-fermentation. Traditional fermentation techniques preserved foods so that they were available during the winter months and other times of food scarcity. These methods also enhanced nutrient availability and added health promoting probiotic bacteria, which ensured sound digestive health and function. Isolated societies almost universally practiced the liberal incorporation of bone broths into their ethnic cuisines as well. Bone broths supply plentiful minerals in the form of electrolytes which are very easy to assimilate. The gelatin in bone broths attracts digestive juices making any cooked foods that are eaten with the same meal easier to digest. Bone broths are very supportive on healthy cartilage and of digestive health. These wise preparation methods, which enhanced nutrient value and digestibility, stand in sharp contrast to modern processing and preservation methods, which deaden and denature food rendering it high in calories yet low in nutrition. The dazzling allure of brightly colored boxes and packages in modern grocery stores beckon shoppers to fill up their pantries with convenient and fractionated foods. But this convenience comes a heavy price – our health. Even listening to the dietary advice of most doctors, dieticians, researchers, and spokesman for government and nonprofit agencies such as the Food and Drug Administration, the American Heart Association, the National Institutes of Health, The American Cancer Society and others tends to confuse the issue for those who genuinely wish to leave processed foods behind and embrace a healthier diet. The approved guidelines of these Diet Dictocrats are visually depicted as a Pyramid and now a Food Plate, which suggest that the healthiest diet is one based primarily on whole grains along with fruits and vegetables, even though no healthy, traditional society studied by Dr. Price ever ate this way. This is Politically Correct Nutrition – lopsided guidelines that do not distinguish between rancid and fresh, whole fats, irradiated pesticide laden produce and organic fruits and vegetables, pasteurized dairy coming from confinement cows eating genetically modified feed and raw dairy from pastured animals grazing on grass, lean meats from penned animals eating antibiotic laced feed and those from range fed, full-fat animals, and battery produced and free ranging eggs. Such empty nutritional advice has not in any way stemmed the ever increasing tide of degenerative disease and in many ways has made the situation far worse with our children paying the heaviest price of all. Only with a return to the nourishing wisdom of our ancestors as discovered and documented by Dr. Price can we hope to reclaim the vibrant health that is our birthright. Traditional food choices and preparation techniques using modern technology as a generous benefactor surely promise a Golden Age of health to all who heed its call. For more information on traditional diets, please refer to the website of the Weston A. Price Foundation. Until next time, this is Sarah Pope, The Healthy Home Economist and Weston A. Price Chapter Leader and I’m wishing you all the best in the kitchen. - See more at: http://www.westonaprice.org/beginner-videos/introduction-to-traditional-eating-video-by-sarah-pope/#sthash.28psqHD3.dpuf