Homemade Almond Milk

How to Make your own Almond Milk

About a month ago, after learning about all the additives and preservatives in store bought brands of almond milk, I took the plunge into making it myself.  It really is not difficult to do, just a little time consuming, but I think I will get more efficient each time I make it.  I get about two gallons from 2lbs of raw almonds.  Plus, you get the added bonus of almond meal as a by-product for use in Paleo crackers, breads or pancakes!

Step 1:  Soak your almonds in water overnight.  After dinner is cleaned up, I pour two bags of raw almonds into a big bowl and cover with water.  Make sure there is a little room for expansion!  Depending on how much almond milk your family goes through, you can soak more or less almonds.

Step 2:  Drain and Rinse.  The next morning, when you are ready to make your milk, drain your almonds and rinse well with water.

Step 3:  Add new water and blend.  In your blender, add 1 cup of soaked almonds and 4 cups filtered water from your fridge or you could use bottled.  Blend until it looks white and your almonds are ground into small chunks.  I usually let it settle and run it again for a minute.

Step 4:  Strain into large bowl.  Using a sieve, resting on a small bowl, strain your almond milk.  I like to double up with cheese cloth to make sure I don't get any grit in the milk.  It's is super cheap and can be found in the kitchen section of most department stores.  You may have to press the last of it through, with the back of a spoon, to make sure you get every last ounce of the good stuff.

Step 5:  Add extracts.  This is the point that you would add pure vanilla extract, almond extract, or raw cacao powder (will need a little sweetener for this option).  You could also add fresh strawberry purée, but be sure to use within a day or two.  I add about 1 tsp vanilla extract to each batch and then pour into jars and refrigerate.  I stretch mine to about 10 days and its still delicious.

Step 6:  Bake your pulp.  Now with the leftover pulp in your sieve, dump it out on a cookie sheet, spread out, and bake at 300 degrees, until it dries out and starts to brown.  It takes maybe 90 minutes for each sheet and I get about four cookie sheets full.  I stagger them and try to remember which tray went in first, but it's pretty easy to tell which ones are done and which aren't.  Allow to cool on cookie sheets, then scrape off with spatula and spoon into food processor or magic bullet.  Pulse until nice and fine.  You may have to put through sieve again, but by this time you will have your almond milk mess cleaned up and can reuse your sieve.  Just make sure it's dry.

Step 7:  Repeat process.  Repeat the process for almond milk using the 1:4 ratio, until you are out of almonds.

Enjoy knowing you are cutting down on the chemicals and synthetic vitamins that you and your families are ingesting!  My goal was to cut back to 50% store bought and 50% homemade, but I haven't bought store bought since!  When we get low, I just soak more almonds and plan to spend the next morning making milk.  No more carrageenan!  That makes me one happy momma!

Five Reasons To Start Eating More Cholesterol

One of the most important subjects I wanted to look into since I started questioning everything was cholesterol.  I knew that heart problems were common in my family and it seemed that I was destined to be on a statin before I turned 40.  What I wondered was how this seemed to keep happening to my loved ones and what are we doing wrong?  I mean, I know some of the people in my family who are seeing bad lipid profiles are pretty health conscious.  Once again, I turned to literature to get some answers.  I found The Great Cholesterol Myth: Why Lowering Your Cholesterol Won't Prevent Heart Disease.  This book, written by Dr. Stephen Sinatra and Jonny Bowden, delves into the $30 billion a year industry of statins and how they are raking in the cash prescribing drugs that 99% of us don't even need!  Based on what I have read in this book and many other sources, I am going to give you the top five reasons to start eating good natural sources of cholesterol and stop worrying so much about your total cholesterol number.

Reason #1: Promotes Optimal Brain Function

Approximately 25% of our body's cholesterol is housed in the brain.  Our brains need this substance to function at an optimal level.  That is why many people who eat a vegetarian/vegan diet tend to complain of a "foggy" feeling, citing it as a reason they switched to the Paleo lifestyle.  People with no cholesterol in their diets also tend to have memory issues after a prolonged time of cholesterol deficiency.  Eat a kale salad with avocado and extra virgin olive oil and you are eating the true definition of brain food!

Low blood cholesterol (<150) can also lead to a number of disorders related to the brain and nervous system, such as: increased risk of depression, suicide, aggression, Parkinson's Disease, dementia, and cancer!

Reason #2: Supports Your Libido

Simply put, cholesterol is needed for the body to synthesize sex hormones.  Your body cannot possibly create enough testosterone/estrogen on it's own to drive your libido in the right direction - UP!

Obviously, there are other factors that you will need to consider in this discussion.  High levels of "bad" cholesterol and triglycerides can lead to lower circulation in many important places inside the body.  If you don't want this issue, I have a secret for you: Sugar is causing your problem.  Consumption of sugar and carbs in most processed foods is the primary culprit.  If you minimize sugar and only eat it in fruits, you will see major improvements.  Oh, and...

Reason #3: Helps You Lose Weight

Cholesterol has kind of an indirect relationship to weight loss.  I will explain.

Fat and carbohydrates are inversely proportional to each other in a diet.  In other words, a low-fat diet usually means high-carb and vice versa.  In the 1990's we were all told to stop eating so much dietary fat.  This was a direct result of the obesity rates in America.  When we did that, what do you think all of the fat calories were replaced with?  Carbs, of course!  They weren't good carbs either.  No, it was High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) and other highly processed sweeteners and flavorings.  (The sweetener industry is another huge topic that cannot possibly be done justice in this post.)



Fat free?!  I can eat as much as I want, right?!?!

When you adopt a high-fat/low-carb diet, you will do two things: 1. Fill yourself up quicker, and 2. Eliminate the carbs that are truly causing the spare tire and love handles.  Eating good organic sources of fat (i.e. coconuts, avocado, olives, nuts, seeds, grass-fed beef, fish, and fowl) with the protein that accompanies this fat, will fill you up way before you eat too much.  Plus, it will keep you going long after you take the last bite.  If you keep your carb count below 200 grams per day (or about 20% of your caloric intake), you will likely see huge results on the scale.  I try to keep it around 150 grams eating only vegetables and minimal fruit.  Eating your carbs primarily in vegetables allows you to keep your net carb count below 100 grams.  High dietary carb loads cannot all be used by the body for energy unless you are using it in a high-intensity workout.  It has to go somewhere, so your body turns it to fat and stores it away!

Reason #4: You Need It To Reach Peak Fitness

Now, this one requires a transitional period if you are still high carb right now.  If you plan to make the switch, your energy level will stink for a short period of time since most people's bodies are extremely inefficient at using fat for energy.  It doesn't have to be efficient on a high-carb diet, because it has an abundance of carbs to use.  Carbs are used by the body quickly and efficiently, so your body will take the path of least resistance to keep you going...as long as it's available.

Once you switch to a diet high in healthy fats, your body will get more efficient at using fat for energy.  Your body will utilize a process called gluconogenesis to fuel your body instead of relying on all of that sugar, wheat, and other processed carbs.  Not only will this help fuel your workouts, but it will allow you to go much longer periods of time without eating or physically crashing.  The more efficient you are at this process, the more sustainable your activity level will be, thus helping you reach a better level of fitness.

I do use a relatively small amount of high glycemic fruit to help fuel a high-intensity, short duration workout.  Now that I am so much more efficient at "burning" fat for fuel; I can sustain a solid energy level throughout the day.  That means, more playing ball with my boys, ability to help with house work, energy at work, and more quality time with my wife.  All which lead to better overall fitness.

Reason #5: High Cholesterol Doesn't Even Cause Heart Disease!

The entire reason we have been given the advice to lower our dietary cholesterol intake was based on a study initiated in 1973 called the Lipid Research Clinics Coronary Primary Prevention Trial.  This trial took 4,000 men with existing high serum cholesterol levels and gave half of them a cholesterol lowering drug and half a placebo.  The medicine did what it was designed to do, lower cholesterol.  That was about the only successful aspect of this study.  What it showed is that the likelihood of suffering a heart attack was reduced 1.6% in the group who took medication.  Most scientific experiments and/or statistical analyses have, at minimum, a 5% margin for error.  In this case, it pretty much proved nothing.  However, a committee of scientists still did not hesitate to say that lowering cholesterol in the blood lowers the risk of a heart attack!

Since this study "proved" that dietary cholesterol consumption needed to be curtailed, how do you think our heart attack risk has changed in 40 years?  According to the CDC, heart disease still accounts for over 33% of all US deaths.  It doesn't seem like much has changed at all!  In fact, more than half of people who are hospitalized due to a heart attack have normal cholesterol levels!  For more information, go to www.thincs.org.

Conclusion

In short, heart attacks are caused by chronic inflammation in the body.  Sources of inflammation can be a large number of things: stress, sleep deprivation, blood sugar spikes, even over-exercising.  In the diet; alcohol, gluten, casein, processed foods, and sugar are the most inflammatory triggers.  Do you see fat or cholesterol in that list anywhere?  Neither do I!

So, why should you believe me?  As always, you shouldn't!  I will keep saying it until the day I die: Do your own research!  Seeing is believing.  If you base your health decisions solely on some blogger who read some books and articles, you just might be crazy!  Talk to your doctor.  Ask the tough questions.  Ask him/her to explain it.  Do your own research.  The only thing I ask you not to do is NOTHING!  Statins are not the answer.  Regulate your blood sugar by eating healthy whole foods and getting the proper amount of healthy fats and proteins in your diet.  Take care of your body and it will take care of you.