An Update on our Tooth Decay Journey

It's been awhile since I've updated and there have been many questions I often see repeated on the Natural Alternatives board in regards to curing tooth decay.  I'll share our journey so that you can learn what we do, but it's not a one size fits all plan that will work for everyone.

First of all, get your hands on a copy of the book Cure Tooth Decay by Ramiel Nagel.  Start implementing the things he talks about in how to properly prepare foods to boost nutrient density and prevent foods from blocking mineral absorption.  This allows the body to maximize remineralizing and healing teeth.  For a quick overview of the diet recommendations, you can also see my previous post where I laid out a brief description of what I'd learned from the book.  See - Curing Tooth Decay ~ Things I've learned that may have contributed to our plight

Our supplements

Fermented Cod Liver Oil and Butter Oil
Supplements that my 5 year old takes (the one with cavities) are Fermented Cod Liver Oil and Butter Oil by Green Pasture's Products.

There has been lots and lots of questions as to what flavor is the best or easiest to take.  This is going to be different for everyone, however, here is our personal experience.  The first time we ordered, we got the emulsified, "kid friendly" peppermint flavor fermented cod liver oil and unflavored butter oil.  We ordered separately, not premixed.  My kids DID NOT like this!!!  The emulsified version would separate into an oil on the top part of the jar, and a thick goopy mess at the bottom of the jar.  It was incredibly gross looking and even grosser for the kids to actually have to try to choke it down.  We were grateful when it was gone and we could try something new.

The next time we ordered, I decided to try regular liquid.  The reason I decided to do this was for cost purposes.  With the regular liquid fermented cod liver oil, there are 118 servings for $43.99, in comparison to the emulsified which had only 64 servings for $38.99.  BIG difference in price!  We opted to try the orange flavor, and then we added butter pecan flavor butter oil.  It was a success!

Rather than needing to get into the jars repeatedly, I just pull out equal servings of each fermented cod liver oil and butter oil and store it in a small 1/2 cup container with a lid.  Like these.  The regular liquid fclo came with a syringe, so I pull up 1/2 tsp of the mixed oils and shoot it in her mouth and she chases it with raw milk.  Twice a day is ideal, but sometimes I only remember once a day.

Cell Salts

Next, are cell salts.  They are a homepathic remedy that can provide beneficial minerals to help support bones and tissues in the body.  To learn more about cell salts and what each one specifically is good for, this is a great place to start. ~ Cell Salts PDF  We have chosen to give #1 (Calc Fluor), #2 (Calc Phos), #8 (Mag Phos), #10 (Nat Phos), and #12 (Silica).  We use Hylands brand and I order from Vitacost or Amazon (if you would like to receive a $10 refer a friend from Vitacost, please click on that link and we each get a coupon!)  I give these 2-3 times a day as I can remember.  And I go by the suggested dosage on the side of the bottle per age.

Vitamin D

Vitamin D is one of those things that just about everyone is deficient in.  Kind of like just about everyone is low on magnesium as well.  I also get the Vitamin D from Vitacost.  Now, I'm not really sure that the brand I got (this one)  is any better than the vitacost brand or not, but it was recommended by a friend as the best, so I got it.  In spite of it being twice as expensive.  It only takes 1 drop per day to get 2,000 iu, which is a sufficient amount for a daily dose for my 5 year old.  You could also try this one and only give 1 drop instead of the recommended 2 drops for the same dosage and a cheaper price at Amazon.

Swishing and Toothpastes

I encourage xylitol swish 5-6 times a day (purchased from Vitacost or from the local health food store, this one is gmo corn free).  I do not encourage her to ingest it, but I do encourage her to swish and spit as soon as she wakes up, after breakfast/lunch/dinner, before bed, and any other time I think it fits in there.  Xylitol stops the S. Mutants known to cause tooth decay.  It kills it and prevents it from doing damage.  Fore more information, simply google Xylitol for tooth decay, but here's a link to get ya started.  There are tons of articles out there.   So, we dissolve 2 tablespoons into a full cup of hot water and wait til it cools.  Set it in the bathroom next to the sink and have her rinse and spit.  Even the 2 year old will do this.

I also encourage oil pulling with coconut oil, and alternating with colloidal silver swishing.  I let her choose which she wants to do.

For toothpastes we alternate between using Branam's xylitol toothpaste and homemade toothpaste.  I use Black Walnut tincture, xylitol, coconut oil, bentonite clay, and a small amount of essential oils in the toothpaste.

And of course flossing.  This is essential to get the food off those bad spots so it doesn't sit there and decay up against the teeth.  So I do encourage flossing after every meal.

All in all, our routine is:

Wake up and brush and swish
Eat breakfast
floss, and swish
If I remember, remind her 20 minutes later to brush and/or swish again (because bacteria from food peaks 20 minutes after eating)
somewhere between breakfast and lunch do supplements
Eat lunch
floss and swish
try to remember to have her at LEAST swish again 20 minutes later
supplements again between lunch and dinner
dinner
floss and swish
try to remember to tell her again after 20 minutes
maybe one more snack before bed if we had an early dinner
floss, brush, and swish before bed.

Other additions through diet

Other things that we do are to get as much grass fed gelatin and bone broths into our diet as possible.  I make homemade yogurt and add some gelatin to it when the milk is warm before adding the starter so that it's slightly thicker.  I only add 1/4 cup of Great Lakes grass fed gelatin to a gallon of milk.  So it's not a huge amount, but it does change the thickness to be more like store bought yogurt.  If you get too much, you will have yogurt jello squares rather than anything that resembles actual yogurt.  :)  Added to the yogurt is a couple drops of liquid stevia extract and a bit of vanilla extract to taste.

Bone broths are used for soups, gravies, cooking vegetables, potatoes, the not very often (soaked and sprouted) beans or rice, and just about anywhere that water would normally be added in cooking I try to use bone broths instead.

Grains, sugars (even honey and fruits), cereal, oatmeal, etc are not a part of our normal diet any longer and we've learned to live without them.  Now I personally, do not follow the diet recommendations as closely for myself because I don't have cavities, and I'm pregnant as well as nursing and have different dietary needs.  One of my best hold over snacks in the middle of the night when I wake up starving to death is a handful of a few grapes and small square of cheese.  Which brings me to again recommend the Cure Tooth Decay book.  It helps you understand how to properly prepare foods like the beans, rice, etc, but also how to pair foods together to maximize nutrient absorption.  Like adding healthy protein and fat to fruit.  Serving cooked fruits like baked apples is better than raw.  Topping beans with cheese and sour cream for instance.

Our progress

So how is it going and is there actually any progress?  Well, now that the initial brutal diet changes are normal for us, it's going a whole lot better.  Her decay has progressed slightly since first diagnosed 7 months ago, but after the first couple of months, it has not gotten any worse.  I can't say that it has halted, because there are a couple of places that are still small brown spots, BUT, it hasn't gotten any worse!  Which means we are holding steady and hopefully heading in the right direction.  There are 3 spots that I am keeping an eye on regularly and checking to make sure it's not worse.  All of the other places that were original concerns are now white and hardened and no longer active decay at all.  So we've had SOME success, but not complete success....yet.  :)  She is not in any pain, there is no infection, no red gums, or abscesses or anything like that at all so we are comfortable to just watch and see what happens.

*Update as of 2/10/14 - - - Only *1* tooth remains to halt decay completely.  You can SEE that it is on it's way.  The other teeth have completely stopped decaying and hardened!  So close!

HOWEVER!!!  I do have an amazing story to share in regards to my 2 year old!  I have been keeping a VERY close eye on all 4 of my kids teeth since the cavity diagnosis for the (now) 5 year old.  One day, I noticed a spot on an upper molar of my 2 year old.  I nearly cried.  Though we were on the dietary stuff, she was not taking the supplements, and my husband and I were more lenient with her and would often share our own foods with her that our other kids didn't typically eat.  For instance, sometimes I'd wake up on the morning and my husband was eating toast with peanut butter and sharing with her.  He had been warned to not give this to our kids, ESPECIALLY the child with tooth issues.  But when you have a cute 2 year old begging for your food who has no tooth problems, sometimes you give in.

I was so upset seeing this spot on the 2 year old's tooth.  I looked at it several times throughout the day and was just feeling very defeated and devastated.  I immediately started giving her the supplements and had to trick her to get her to take the fermented cod liver oil and butter oil.  I don't give honey to my other kid because of it's affect on blood glucose and us working SO hard to try to get her teeth healed.  We are very strict with the dietary stuff with her.  But with the 2 year old, I really felt it was worth it to at least get the fclo/bo into her.  So, I did half fclo/bo mixture, and an equal amount of honey.  I shook it up on the syringe and then gave her her "honey" which she chased with raw milk.  She loved it!  Begged for more!  So I gave this to her twice a day.

Three days later I took another peek into her mouth to look at her tooth again and was SHOCKED!  I mean, I was absolutely floored by what I saw.  Nothing.  The spot was GONE!

Before starting supplements pic vs. 3 days later after doing supplements.

Of course there is skepticism.  *I* was skeptical!  How could that be?  I KNOW I saw that there!  I took a picture of it so I could monitor it and make sure it didn't get too bad!  Someone else suggested maybe it was food or something, but no it was not!  I brushed her teeth, I looked at it several times that day in near tears.  Yet 3 days later it was GONE!

This is not typical as you can see from my story of my other child.  But really, is there such a thing as a typical result?  I'm not so sure.

The body is constantly working to heal and remineralize bones and teeth and when it's missing something, if that something is then given, it can repair!  This will make total sense to anyone who has ever had a cut or scrape and cared for it, bandaged it up, and then removed the bandage a couple of days later to be amazed at how much it's healed!  Particularly if any herbs like comfrey or plantain or other healing herbs are applied to help accelerate healing.  It makes total sense when you look at it from that perspective.

My take away with this is that I believe we are on the right path for my 5 year old, but her diet deficiencies will take much longer to repair, as she had a much longer amount of time to get to the point she was before we started the healing procedures.  As long as there is progress or stabilization, we will keep on this path.  In fact I've since learned that some countries don't drill and fill baby teeth at all!  See here.  Which is fascinating to me how much different other countries do things.

We are still learning.  We don't have it all figured out, but I do feel as though we are headed in the right direction.  I hope this post is helpful to some of you as you either consider this different approach, are beginning your own journey, or even if you've been on the journey and looking for a cohort in the battle for your child's teeth.  Cause I get it.  I truly understand the feeling of FIGHTING for your child's teeth and health apart from the normal dental recommendations.  I get the anxiety you feel as you wonder....am I doing the right thing?  As other people think you're crazy for not just going to the dentist and doing the normal thing.  The feeling of frustration when trying to figure out what to feed your children that is healthy and good for them that they will actually WANT to eat!  I get it.  I really do.  So I hope this post is helpful to others.

* This post has affiliate links.  If you click on them and order a product, it will not change the price you pay, but will help me out a tiny bit.  I thank you for helping out another momma to get the good stuff for our family!

Grain Free-Sugar Free Pumpkin/Sweet Potato Pancakes

It's been a while since I've posted.  Life has been pretty busy with getting things ready for winter around here.  Lots of harvest to bring in, wood to stack, you know, all those things city folk don't have to worry about.  :)

Anyway, I'm sharing a recipe with you that I made for the kids today.  We haven't had pancakes since May when we started this Cure Tooth Decay diet.  I had seen someone say they made some sweet potato pancakes with basically nothing but sweet potatoes and eggs, but I wanted a little more than that.  So, I searched the web for some other recipes.  Most all of them had things in them that we couldn't have.  Flour, sugar, nuts, nut butters, or something like that.  So I took a few bits and pieces of different recipes and pulled them all together to make this one.

My kids absolutely LOVED it!  My personal opinion is that.....it was ok.  It was not like pancakes to me cause it wasn't sweet.  It was definitely edible to my starving pregnant self and I ate 3 of them!  But my kids loved them in a way that they want a pancake day every week with them.

So here's the recipe.  Obviously you can tweak it to what you like best.  Use all pumpkin, or all sweet potato or mix the amounts differently.  Add a bit of honey if you want, or maybe even a couple drops of stevia or a spoon of xylitol as sweetener.  Use syrup!  Or top it with peanut butter!  The ideas are really endless!  But with our limited availability, we ate them like this.

3 eggs
1 cup of pumpkin puree
3/4 cups of steamed, mashed sweet potato
1/2 cup of milk, or milk substitute of your choice
1 Tablespoon of coconut flour
2 teaspoons of cinnamon
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon of salt

Feel free to add a bit more spices to it too if you want!  Cardamom, ground cloves, etc.

Beat all the ingredients in a bowl and let them set while you grease your pan or griddle well with coconut oil.  Be sure to grease again between each batch as well.  Heat your griddle to warm.  Water should sizzle when you flick a couple of drops onto the pan.  Then you  know it's ready.

I used about a 1/2 of a 1/4 cup measuring cup worth of "batter" for each pancake.  Let them cook until they look almost dry through, then flip them.

We then topped ours with some cream cheese.

I'm sure that tomorrow my kids will be begging for these again.  As an adult that loves real pancakes with maple syrup and lots of butter......I may have to sneak some real ones after they go to bed.

Cavity Fighting, Remineralizing Toothpaste

And, it's squeezable!  How about that?  :)  I took a recipe from Wellness Mama and mixed it up a bit with some info that I've learned along the way on our Cure Tooth Decay journey.

The first ingredient in the original recipe is Calcium Carbonate Powder.  Or Calcium Magnesium Powder.  These can be purchased at Vitacost for relatively cheap!  (If you've never purchased from them before, may I introduce you to a friendly referral code so we could both get $10 off?  Just click here - Vitacost referral.)

However, what I did was that I used cell salts.  Cell salts are a part of the recommended protocol for healing tooth decay by supplying important minerals that help heal and harden bones.  Is it cost effective for this?  No.  Not really.  But I had then on hand already and I thought they would make a great substitute.  So, using the powder above is a more cost effective route.  I used 1 teaspoon of each of the following cell salts, #1 - Calc Fluor, #2 - Calc Phos, #8 - Mag Phos, #10 Nat. Phos, and #12 Silicea.  To learn more about the importance of cell salts to a healing regimen, check out this link.

Next is xylitol powder.  I use crystals and just ground them up in my food processor along with the cell salt tabs.  While most xylitol is a GMO product because it's made from corn, you'll want to look for a pure birch xylitol. Particularly if you are using it in something that will be ingested.  Vitacost carries both types of products.  The birch xylitol is quite expensive.  So for ME, as long as it's not being ingested, I use the GMO product.  It's usefullness at preventing the bacteria that causes decay is noteworthy.  And as I mentioned, we aren't swallowing or ingesting the toothpaste.  Therefore in this recipe I just used the regular ol' Vitacost brand of xylitol.  For more information on how xylitol is helpful in oral care, this link might help a bit.

Coconut oil is used in this recipe.  I used Vitacost brand of this as well.  Coconut oil helps bring everything together, plus it's just SO good for you!  It has anti bacterial and healing properties all of it's own.

Baking Soda.  Any kind will do.  This is helpful for balancing the pH of the mouth and even to gently polish and whiten the teeth.

Bentonite Clay.  I purchased a 1 pound bag of it from Frontier.  You can also get it at Vitacost as well if you don't have access to a wholesale group to get it a bit cheaper.  This particular ingredient is supposed to help with the remineralization due to the calcium that is in it.  As well as draw out any toxins that may be in the mouth or on the teeth contributing to the loss of minerals.

Distilled Water.  I did not use water.  Instead I opted to use vodka.  As soon as water is introduced to a recipe, you run the risk of growing bacteria, fungus, or molds.  Vodka, is an alcohol (Duh!) and therefore will act as a preservative and prevent bacteria or molds from growing.

Essential oils and trace minerals.  I LOVE (and am an affiliate for) Mountain Rose Herbs certified organic essential oils.  I opted to use a bit of Cinnamon Bark, Clove Oil, and some homemade Black Walnut Hull tincture.  Black Walnut Hull has some amazing healing benefits and is even being researched for use in some cancer treatments!  For this recipe, I'm using it for the purpose of strengthening and restoring tooth enamel.  It also helps destroy germs and bacteria!  Which is a major bonus for any of us doing this journey to heal tooth decay.  Clove oil helps improve blood circulation and also is a powerful pain reliever, as well as being anti bacterial and anti septic and is known to freshen bad breath.  Thankfully, my kids aren't having any tooth aches or pains, but if they were, this would be a great help for that.  And finally Cinnamon Bark.  It is a very strong anti bacterial essential oil.  I would NEVER advise using it 'neat' or undiluted.  In this recipe, I used it very sparingly.  I actually only added it for a hint of cinnamon flavor since it would be used for kids and peppermint is not advised for children's use.

Ok, so here's how the recipe looked in the end after I made a much a smaller amount and switched up some stuff.

5 teaspoons of cell salts (or you can use your calcium powder, etc)
3 teaspoons of xylitol
4 teaspoons of coconut oil
1 teaspoon of baking soda
2 teaspoons of bentonite clay
3 teaspoons of vodka
8 drops each of clove oil and cinnamon bark (*optional!  I don't recommend if using for kids!!!)
20 drops of black walnut hull tincture

First, I took all the dry items and crushed them up in my food processor.  The cell salts (or your calcium powder), the baking soda, bentonite clay, and xylitol.

Alternatively, you could use the Birch Xylitol.

This is what it all looks like as a powder before you add in the liquids.

Ok, then dump all of that out into a bowl and add you coconut oil and vodka.

Then add in your essential oils of choice.

Mix it all up together really well.

I picked up a 3 oz squeeze tube at Walmart in the travel container section for 97 cents.  It is NOT BPA free however.  For some, you may want to invest in something other than the walmart one.  That's totally cool!  I get it!  But since BPA is most often the concern for when the plastic is heated and this toothpaste is not warmed for any reason, I am not too overly concerned about chemicals leaching, and I'm trying to work on a tiny budget.  So, this worked for me.

And the final product.

It's a nice consistency and squeezes out really easily.  This recipe only filled the tube about half way so realistically it could probably be doubled for a full container.  It doesn't bubble like store bought toothpaste, but it does a good job of cleaning our teeth.

So there ya go!  A homemade toothpaste recipe.  :)

Making Beef Tallow

Beef tallow is one of those things that unless you're a whole foodie like me, that you'd probably never even THINK of using!  I mean, a few years ago the very thought of cooking in animal fat was a huge no no in my mind!  The very idea that people cooked in or consumed any amount of fat was just appalling to me!  Didn't they know that's how you got fat!?

Ha ha ha!  Oh how I've learned differently!  Of course!  I mean, I make my own butter now too and you couldn't pay me to buy margarine.  So, why not find animal fats useful for cooking as well?  Not only is it good for cooking, it's also useful for making soap!  Beautiful, wonderful, lovely soap!

So today, I'm going to show you how incredibly easy it is to take a humongous slab of cow fat and turn it into something useful.

I'll start by saying that if you choose to use your tallow for food consumption, PLEASE be sure that it is from 100% pure grass fed pastured beef.  Know your farmer, know your food.  ;)  However, if you only plan to use your tallow for soap, then you can utilize any beef suet (fat) that you can get a hold of.

I called around to see what I could come up with.  My local farmer that we buy our bulk beef from was willing to sell me some grass fed suet for $1.50 a pound.  When we buy our 1/4 cow, he always throws in the suet as part of the package deal anyway, but if I were to buy it separately, then that was has asking price.  Not a bad deal for high quality suet that I'd feel good about frying up some potatoes in!

A nearby meat locker was willing to sell me their grain fed beef suet for $1.20 a pound.  And better still, the little butcher shop right down the road from me was willing to GIVE it away!  So free, of course, is always better.  :)  I was able to pick up 15 pounds of beef fat for nothing.  Most places simply throw away the fat anyway, so they truly aren't out anything by giving it away.  However, because it is not grass fed, this will only be used for soap. I'm not a big bird person, but of course this could also be used for suet bird feeders as well.

So of course your first step is to obtain some beef fat. AKA suet.

Cut it in some chunks or cubes.  The smaller it is, the faster and more efficiently it will melt down.  Leaving it in large chunks makes for a much longer process.   I did get lazy towards the end and make bigger pieces cause my arm was about to break and I physically could not cut any more.  But smaller is better.

Throw it in a large pot and turn it on Medium - Medium High and just let it melt.  

Let it melt, simmer, cook down until the remaining pieces of fat turn brown and crispy and all of the oil that is usable is out of it.  Then you'll strain it.

I forgot to take a picture of this step.  Sorry!  I used my large mesh over-the-sink strainer with a large piece of an old clean t shirt cut to line it, then sat it over the largest stainless steel bowl I had and just let it strain.

Once that was done, I put it in some baking dishes I'd lined with wax paper.  Previously when I did this I just poured it straight into some glass mason jars, but it was incredibly difficult to get it out once it was hardened. This time around,  I put it in the baking dishes, and let it set on the counter until it had slightly hardened and then put it in the freezer to continue hardening.

When it was fully hardened, I turned it over dumping it out, breaking it into pieces, and then froze it in Ziploc baggies in 1 pound portions.

Now, whenever I'm ready to make some soap, I've got my beef tallow ready too!  :)

Stuffed Spinach Rolls

This is quickly becoming a new favorite in our home. Stuffed shells have been a favorite of my husband's ever since we first met.  In fact, that was the dinner I had made for him the night he proposed to me!  So giving up grains and pastas have been pretty difficult for us in finding a good use for the dozen or so jars of homemade pasta sauce stored away in the basement.

This is a really simple idea and like most of my recipes, I don't have exact measurements.  I don't really measure stuff unless I have to and I'm a throw it together kind of gal, but I'll do my best here with approximate amounts.

A run down of ingredients:

Mozzarella Cheese
Ricotta or Cottage Cheese
Parmesan Cheese

Cheese can be made with raw milk for extra nutritional value.  I recommend Cultures For Health starter cultures, as well as their recipes linked on their website for lots of great homemade cheeses.

Ground Beef
Small Onion
Fresh Spinach Leaves
Spaghetti Sauce

You could also add in some dried basil, or other herbs.  You could mix half sausage and half beef.  There are tons of variations on this.

Brown up a pound of grass fed hamburger along with 1 small diced onion.  While that's cooking, sort your spinach leaves.  Find the biggest and best ones you have that don't have any holes or tears in them.  Preheat the oven for 350.

When your meat is fully cooked, drain, and let slightly cool.  Then add in about a cup of cottage cheese, or ricotta cheese, and about a 1/4-1/2 cup of Parmesan cheese.  Mix thoroughly.

Put a small amount of your sauce on the bottom of  pan to coat.

Take one spinach leaf and place a spoon full of your filling in it.

Wrap your leaf around the filling and then place in your dish seam side down.

Top with sauce and freshly shredded mozzarella cheese.

Place into your preheated 350 degree oven and let bake until the cheese is brown and bubbly.  About 45 minutes.

This recipe actually makes about a 9 x 13 inch pan.  I split it into 2 dishes so I'd have enough for another meal.

I recently took this to a potluck type dinner and to my surprise, it was gobbled right up by others and I got complements on how good it was, so I guess it's a keeper.  :)  We sure like it!

One Dish Chicken & Vegetable Bake

This is one of our FAVORITE family meals!  It dates way back to our pre children days when we used to cook this up in aluminum foil on the grill.  We never seem to make enough.  Ever.  As I've evolved in my "crunchiness", I no longer use aluminum foil, but instead bake it in glass in the oven.  I can make a lot more at a time this way too.  :)  AND all year round!  Not just when it's nice outside.

Hot and steamy from the oven.

So the first thing I did was to gather all my ingredients.  I'm one of the lucky people that gets to have an amazingly large garden in the summer so this meal was completely home grown, except the chicken.  We did not use our own chickens on this.  :)

This is the really fun part.  You can use whatever you like, or have on hand.  You don't HAVE to use my ingredients at all!  This is just an idea to get you started for a great meal that everyone loves.

What I added in were some red potatoes*, carrots, broccoli, onions, sweet banana peppers*, and a bunch of herbs.  I just went out and pulled whatever was ready.  The herbs I threw in were fennel, basil, oregano, marjoram, sage, and thyme.

*Potatoes, peppers, and tomatoes are part of the night shade family.  According to the Cure Tooth Decay book, it says that if you are having problems getting decay to halt after all other diet eliminations, you may want to consider removing these from the diet as well.  Sweet potatoes are a better alternative to regular potatoes if you have them.

Cut up the chicken and put it in the bottom of your baking dish.

Then layer in the vegetables according to the ones that need to cook longest.  Carrots, then onions, then potatoes, then broccoli.

Top with herbs.  Dried herbs work really great here too.  They don't have to be fresh.  Salt and pepper to taste.  Then drizzle with some coconut oil and a bit of HFCS free Teriyaki Sauce**.

**If you make a homemade Teriyaki, it will have a small amount of honey or other sweetener.  While we want to stay away from sweet stuff when healing decay, the amount in this is minuscule, really.  But use your discretion and you could always simply leave this ingredient out.  :)

Ok, once it's all assembled, cover and put in your preheated oven at 350 for an hour.  Check your carrots after that to see if they are done or if they need a few more minutes.  Then serve!  Delish!

Sprouting Beans and a 'Cure Tooth Decay' Approved Meal

I originally encountered the idea of sprouting beans back in 2004 or so when I read The Maker's Diet.  The idea was that it turned a dry dead food into a living food. I had started soaking and sprouting my beans after reading about it, but then I got away from the practice.  Mostly due to time constraints and the convenience of just opening a can of beans rather then properly soaking and sprouting them myself.  I now have renewed vigor in properly preparing my beans since we are working on the healing of cavities and reading about this practice once again in the Cure Tooth Decay book.

Here are some reasons sprouting beans is beneficial:

Beans, Beans, the musical fruit,

The more you eat the more you toot.

Ever heard that saying?  Well....

1) they don't cause gas.  Did you know that?  Properly prepared beans (and seeds) don't cause gas.  Sprouting neutralizes enzyme inhibitors present in all beans and seeds.  These inhibitors also inhibit our own enzymes in the digestive tract causing gas or even stomachache.

2) significantly reduces Phytic Acid.  Phytic Acid is that nasty little thing that is known to bind with minerals in the body causing mineral blockers and preventing the body from being able to absorb many of the nutrients that are so beneficial, and necessary.  Especially when trying to heal/remineralize teeth.  Like, calcium, phosphorous, magnesium, iron, and zinc.

3) sprouting increases the available vitamins A, B's, and C.

It's really not hard to soak and sprout, it's just time consuming.  It typically takes 2-3 days to have beans ready to prepare.  However, you can easily soak and sprout a large quantity and then can then up in your own jars for future use for that easy open and dump routine that was so alluring for me.  With just a little bit of forethought, I could still have that same convenience of just opening a can and using them.  Plus, the added benefit of them being healthier.

So, the first thing you want to do is to rinse your beans.  Sort them, which just means look for any small pieces of gravel or dirt or anything that looks like it doesn't belong.  Then cover them in water.  Giving an extra couple inches of water for the beans to expand.  Cover them and let them sit for 8-12 hours.  I usually do overnight.

Then, you just dump off the water and rinse them.  There are actually special sprouting gadgets that you can buy, but I'm not that fancy.  I just use a mesh strainer that fits across my sink.  Makes it super convenient to rinse occasionally, which should be done every 8-12 hours until you've got the size of sprout on them that you want.  This part will typically take 1 1/2 - 2 days.

Anyway, once you've rinsed after dumping off the soak water, leave the beans in whatever you plan to use as your sprouter.  It should allow for air circulation, but not so much that it dries them back out.  I put a cloth towel or cloth napkin over the top and just let it set on the counter out of the way.  Rinsing occasionally.

Once you have sprouts, you can then cook them!  I usually wait until I see a good sprout on the majority of my beans.

Add them to your pot, covered in water, and bring to a boil.

Now, I do one extra step that I've never read anywhere, but I do it anyway.  Once my beans start simmering and I get just a bit of foam in the water, I then dump that water, and refill the pot one last time.

I don't KNOW that this is a necessary step.  However, it just feels right to me.  It gets rid of the foam that was forming, and in my mind, I THINK it also helps get rid of just that much more phytic acid and enzyme inhibitors.  But I've got nada to back that up.  Just a hunch that it helps?  Not sure.  Though I'd probably do it just to get rid of the foam anyway, even if it proved that nothing else happens.  :)

So then I just boil my beans until they are cooked through and soft.  You can add anything you want to season and flavor them.  Salt, onions, pepper, fresh herbs.  Ham?  Or beef soup bones?  Just add stuff to taste here.  I usually just do a bit of minced garlic, chopped onion, salt and pepper.  Sometimes I also add some chicken bone broth in place of some of the water for added flavor and goodness.

Now if you were going to preserve the beans by canning, you could do that here instead of fully cooking them.  Instead of cooking them first, put the sprouted beans in jars and then cover in boiling water and do a cold pack pressure canning for them.  Which just means, the beans are cold and not yet cooked.  Pack them in jars, wipe the rims, add the lids, and process in the pressure canner for 1 hour 15 minutes for pints, 1 hour and 30 minutes for quarts.  This time should allow for fully cooked beans at the end.  Ready to just pop open a can and use them as conveniently as store bought canned beans.

Now, back to the meal I was making with those beans.  :)  This is as close to a healthy bean and rice meal as I could muster using the ideas from the Cure Tooth Decay book.

I made some white basmati rice cooked in chicken bone broth (that I'd made myself).  First measuring out the rice, rinsing it in water and draining it, then adding bone broth.  If you can't use the amount of bone broth for the full liquid amount, then use as much as you can and supplement with water for the rest.  Then cook the rice like normal.  When it's done, it will be kinda yellow looking from the broth.

Then, I topped it with some homemade grass fed butter.

Added some freshly picked and chopped cilantro.

Next the beans, and then topped it with some raw cheddar cheese.

And served with a glass of fresh raw milk on the side.  :)

It was so super awesome!  Yumm-o!

Now, to add a link to Sprout people so you can search for any kind of bean, nut, or seed you want to see info on how to sprout.  :)

This was a fantastically filling meal, it tasted great, and even better, no toots from the musical fruit!  :)  I guess it's not so musical after all, huh?  :)

Enjoy!