How To Make Raw Almond Milk

Step 1:  Soak your almonds for at least 24 hours prior to making your milk. 

For a nutritional boost, use sprouted almonds.

Step 2:  Rinse your almonds and then put them in the blender with filtered water.  For every cup of almonds, add three cups of water. 

Step 3:  Put a large piece of cheesecloth over a bowl and secure with a rubber band.  Slowly pour your almond milk into the bowl to filter the chunks of almonds.

Step 4:  Squeeze the milk from the cheesecloth and set aside your almond leftovers.

Step 5:  If you want to do another filtering, a coffee liner in your funnel works well (but takes a while to filter).

Step 6:  If you're lazy like me, and don't mind a few small chunks, just ladle the milk directly into your containers.

Step 7:  Make sure to add a pinch of salt to each container before you seal them up, which will help to preserve the milk (mine lasted 4-5 days).  You can taste it when it starts to go sour. 

Chill the milk in your fridge before serving.

One pound of raw almonds yielded this much milk and almond pulp:

In the future, I will not make quite as much, because it is hard to use up so much milk before it spoils.

I used my pulp to make two batches of homemade granola bars.

If you're planning to drink the almond milk as a milk substitute, you may want to flavor it with some vanilla or warm it up with some honey.  It has a very bland, nutty taste without any extra flavoring.

You can also add a liquid calcium supplement and probiotic powder to make it a more nutritious milk substitute for people with milk allergies.

My boys and I enjoyed the milk in a smoothie.  Yum!

Enjoy!

-Jessica

The Whole Soy Story

After a visit to a homeopathic doctor in 2008, I discovered that I am soy intolerant, a diagnosis that has changed my life in many ways.*  I used to be a sushi addict and my mouth still waters at the idea of a spicy tuna roll dipped in soy sauce, but then I remember the days following my sushi binges and how the soy sauce would leave me curled in the fetal position on the floor of my bathroom, writhing around in pain. 

I also was a vegetarian for nearly ten years prior to this diagnosis.  I lived off of tofu burgers and veggies shreds.  As soon as I learned that the soy was making me sick, I had to completely change my lifestyle and begin eating meat again.

A few months prior to my diagnosis, it was also discovered that my older son, Gabriel, had a soy allergy.  His first bottle of soy-based formula caused a severe allergic reaction.

Because of this our home has been soy-free for nearly two years, except for a couple of foods that my husband enjoys to have around as snacks.  Gabriel and I are also unable to eat food that has been prepared at restaurants, because the only items on the majority of menus that do not contain a soy product are plain fruits and veggies that haven't touched the grill (which is usually covered in either margarine or soybean oil).

It is estimated that nearly 70% of the foods on our supermarket shelves contain soy.  It has become filler that is used in just about everything, because it is cheap.  But what's even worse is that over 60% of the soybean crop in the United States is genetically modified.

One day Adam heard a news story that linked soy to hormone imbalances in men, specifically that eating high levels of soy causes men to produce more estrogen, leading to a whole host of health problems.  That was the final straw - all of the negative information I had been hearing about soy made me want to learn more about why it is considered a "healthy" food in our culture.

I finished reading The Whole Soy Story by Kaayla T. Daniel, PhD, CCN and I learned more than I ever wanted to know about the food.  The book gives a background on how this crop that historically was used as a cover crop to enrich soil, became part of a health-food craze in America. It also breaks down all of the health concerns about eating soy.  I recommend the book for anyone interested in learning why you shouldn't be consuming this food in the amounts that we find in the average American's diet.

I just wanted to highlight some of the interesting things I learned while reading the book:

The study that really made soy a healthy food in America showed that the Japanese (who eat 30 times the soy we eat) have lower rates of breast, uterine and prostate cancer.  What the media coverage of this study failed to also tell us is that the Japanese have higher rates of esophageal, stomach, pancreatic and liver cancers.  Asians also do not eat soy in the ways we eat it.  They leave the soybean intact in fermented products like miso, tempeh and natto. 


The FDA approves soy protein as a heart healthy food but it is also found on their "Poisonous Plant Database."


Soybean oil is a mosquito repellant.  It actually kills the mosquito, which makes you wonder what it does to your insides.


People who eat ground meat with textured soy protein extenders (this is what is served to our children in school) lose 61% (at a 3:1 ratio) and 53% (at a 2:1 ratio) of their ability to absorb the iron from the meat.


Here are all of the toxins and antinutrients that soy contains: 

• allergens
• goitrogens - cause thyroid damage
• lectins - cause immune system reactions and play a role in allergic reactions because they destroy intestinal mucosa.
• oligosaccharides - cause bloating and gas
• oxalates - prevent the absorption of calcium and linked to kidney stones
• phytates - leads to poor growth and anemia.  Levels are higher in soy than in any other food.
• isoflavones - cause reproductive damage
• protease inhibitors - cause gastric distress, poor protein digestion, cancer, and damage to the pancreas.  Many foods contain them (grains, nuts, seeds, some veggies, etc.), but cooking deactivates them.  They are at higher levels in soybeans (and even higher in GM beans) and are more resistant to neutralization through cooking.

The scariest information to read was about soy-based formula:

• The isoflavones in the formula effect hormones and can cause developmental problems in the reproductive system.  They also put children at an increased risk of thyroid problems (hypothyroidism and autoimmune thyroid disease). 
• Infants fed soy formula also produce more gas (CH4 and H2S), which has been linked to intestinal disorders, such as ulcerative colitis and Crohn's Disease. 
• Scientists have suggested expensive techniques that would neutralize the phytates in formula, but the industry prefers to go the cheaper route and enrich the formula with zinc, iron and calcium to compensate.  They are required by law to do this. 
• Iron absorption from soy formula is 27%.  It is 65% in breast milk, 60% in whey formula and 46% in casein formula.

Something I learned from the author's website - "The Israeli Health Ministry has issued a health advisory warning that infants should not use soy formula. So have the British Dietetic Association, the New Zealand Health Ministry, and the Swiss Federal Health Service."

Soy lectin may contribute to Type 1 Juvenile Onset Diabetes because it destroys pancreatic cells that secrete insulin.

Asian monks used to eat high levels of soy because it was known to lower their libido.

I have also read before that animals that are fed diets high in soy fail to thrive and show signs of malnutrition.  They also have a shorter lifespan and produce less offspring. 

When I put all of this information together, it's a no-brainer for me.  It's yet another reason to make sure the food I am feeding my family isn't processed and is prepared properly (soaked, cooked properly, etc.).  Since cutting out soy from my diet, I have not had a major flare-up of my Crohn's Disease and have been able to stay off of toxic drugs like Prednisone.  I think I now know why!

If you are interested in learning more about soybeans, I suggest reading this book!

-Jessica

I was not contacted by anyone to review this book.  I just enjoyed it and wanted to share some information with my readers.

*Diagnosis made through IgE fecal test.

The Dangers of Rice Milk and Rice Cereal

I wrote recently about our switch to hemp milk as a cows' milk alternative for Gabriel. Because hemp milk is hard to find where I live, we have still been giving him rice milk every now and then. Today I learned a startling fact about rice milk and will no longer be feeding it to anyone in my family.

Studies were done in early 2009 by the European Food Standards Agency on 60 samples of different rice beverages. Since this study came out stores in countries across the UK and even China have stopped selling many rice beverages and rice cereals marketed toward babies and small children.

Arsenic is found in many foods in both organic and inorganic forms. Obviously, the organic form is not as harmful, however, long term exposure to the inorganic form (often used as a pesticide) is proven to be a carcinogen. For some reason rice tends to contain higher levels of the inorganic form than many other foods.

Even the organic brands of rice milk contain high levels of arsenic in this study.

Conclusion of the study:

Daily consumption of rice drinks in quantities similar to the average consumption of cows’ milk (one glass, approximately 200 millilitres by adults or half a pint, approximately 280 millilitres by a toddler/young child) would lead to an additional daily dietary exposure to inorganic arsenic. This increase is minor for adults and young persons and they do not need to change their diet. This increase in the intake of inorganic arsenic could be up to four fold for toddlers and young children (ages 1- 4.5 years) if rice drinks are consumed instead of breast milk, infant formula or cows’ milk. Therefore the Agency advises against the substitution of breast milk, infant formula or cows’ milk by rice drinks for toddlers and young children. All other consumers do not need to change their diet. Parents of toddlers and young children who are currently consuming rice drinks because they are allergic to or intolerant of cows’ milk are advised to consult their health professional or dietician about suitable alternatives to cows’ milk.

You can read the complete study here.

-Jessica

Source:

Arsenic in Rice Drinks. European Food Standards Agency. http://www.food.gov.uk/multimedia/pdfs/fsis0209arsenicinrice.pdf Web. 10 Sept. 2009.

Hemp Milk

We have been researching milk alternatives ever since we met with Gabe's nutritionist, who told us that the rice milk we were giving him was inadequate in fat and protein.

Here is a chart I made comparing the amount of fat and protein (in grams), as well as the % RDA of calcium in 8 ounces of each type of milk:



As you can see, the nutritionist was correct - rice milk and almond milk do not compare to any of the other alternatives in terms of fat and protein. Even soy milk falls short in fat. But what surprised me most were the levels in hemp milk, an alternative I had never heard of before.

After doing a little more research about hemp milk I discovered that it is not only high in fat and protein, and contains half of your daily calcium, it also is:

• high in omega 3/omega 6


• contains no cholesterol


• a complete protein, containing all of the essential amino acids


• contains potassium, phosphorus, riboflavin, Vitamin A, Vitamin E, Vitamin B12, Folic Acid, Vitamin D, Magnesium, Iron, Zinc, and more (sounds better than my prenatal vitamin!)

And don't worry, it does not contain THC.

Hemp milk just became popular a few years ago and is growing as an alternative to dairy, soy, and almond products for people with allergies and intolerances.

I also discovered that rice milk and soy milk can contain phytates (which block the absorption of certain nutrients) and oligosaccharides (which cause gas and stomach problems). Hemp milk does not.

So we switched Gabe over to hemp milk several days ago and he seems to be enjoying it. We are still adding probiotic powder to his breakfast drink and a liquid calcium supplement to his dinner cup to compensate for what it is lacking.

The only brand that we found in our local grocery store was HEMP Dream, made by the same company that makes Gabe's rice milk. It was costly (nearly $6 for 32 ounces) and doesn't contain the same amount of calcium as other brands, so I don't know if we will stick with it.

I have heard good things about the taste of Living Harvest Hemp Milk, which can be ordered here for a very reasonable price. But, the nutritional label shows that it only has half of the protein of other brands.

Manitoba Harvest offers several varieties that are cheaper than HEMP Dream, but also do not contain the optimal amount of calcium.

We are still shopping around to find the right product for Gabe, but are thrilled to know that there is an alternative out there that can give him everything that cow's milk can!

-Jessica

Source:

"The Benefits of Organic Hemp Milk Natural Health & Organic Living Blog." 02 July 2009 .