Blackstrap Molasses: An organic, medicinal superfood, even for diabetics!

 

Image via ASPhillips

Surprised?

I was, too, at least about the good for diabetics part. I think country-folk are largely in the know about the health benefits of maintaining blackstrap molasses in their diets. Not just for themselves but also for their animals.

Other than flavor, what’s it good for?

A lot! So much, I wish I’d researched it earlier, like before I had cancer and chemotherapy. You’ll see why in a bit.

To keep this as condensed as possible, I’m going with bullet points again. They’re both slow and speed-reader friendly! 

Blackstrap molasses is rich in the following nutrients, most of which are essential elements our bodies need to function.

• Antioxidants: Essential in protecting our cells from damage by neutralizing unstable molecules called free radicals, which helps lower the risk of chronic diseases like cancer, heart disease, and Alzheimer's, supports healthy aging, boosts immunity, and promotes skin and brain health.

• B vitamins: Essential for converting food into energy, supporting brain function, and maintaining healthy skin, hair, and nerves by aiding metabolism, DNA synthesis, and cell repair, with benefits like boosting energy, reducing stress impact, forming red blood cells, and improving mood. They work as coenzymes in numerous bodily processes, essential for overall vitality, though each of the eight B vitamins has specific roles in energy, nerve, and cellular health.

• Calcium: Essential in building strong bones and teeth, muscle contraction (including your heartbeat), nerve signal transmission, blood clotting, and releasing hormones, with adequate intake helping prevent osteoporosis and supporting overall bodily functions. Vitamin D is vital for calcium absorption, and a deficiency can lead to weak bones in children (rickets) and adults (osteoporosis).  

• Iron: Essential for oxygen transport via hemoglobin, boosting energy, improving focus, and strengthening the immune system. It supports physical performance, brain development, healthy skin, hair, nails, and is vital during pregnancy for maternal and fetal health, helping prevent fatigue and anemia.

• Low glycemic index: Helps us with blood sugar control, sustained energy, weight management, improved cholesterol, and reduced risk of heart disease, diabetes, and certain cancers, all by releasing glucose slowly for stable insulin levels and increased fullness. These foods, like whole grains, legumes, and non-starchy vegetables, offer a steady energy supply and promote overall metabolic and cardiovascular health.

• Magnesium: Essential and involved in hundreds of biochemical reactions in the body, magnesium helps convert food into energy, supports muscle and nerve function, and helps regulate blood pressure and maintain brain health.

• Potassium: Essential in regulating blood pressure, fluid balance, nerve signals, and muscle contractions (including the heart). It helps counter sodium's effects, moves nutrients into cells, removes waste, supports bone health by reducing calcium loss, and may prevent kidney stones. You get it from foods like bananas, spinach, potatoes, beans, and avocados, but it's important to balance intake as both deficiency and excess can be harmful, so always check with a doctor.

Image via Pexels of Pixabay

Process makes the difference
Molasses becomes blackstrap only after the third rendering (boiling down) of sugar cane juice. Blackstrap is very dark with a strong, bitter and almost salty taste, yet it still maintains about 45% of its sugar and is nutrient dense. 

Blackstrap is often an ingredient in many savory recipes, such as meat and vegetable glazes and sauces as well as a baking ingredient for brown breads, muffins, cookies and gingerbread.

With blackstrap, you can have your cake and eat it, too!

Image via Nordwing of Pixabay

Easy with the portions

Although it has a low glycemic index, being considerate of your portions is a must if you’re diabetic. One tablespoon of blackstrap is all most of us need in a day. How you take it is up to you. In my case, I put it in my coffee, stirring it in along with sugar free, flavored creamer. 

Readily available

Most grocery stores carry it, and there are several varieties available. 

"And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat." Genesis 1:29 KJV

The wrap!

Thanks for your visit today! Hope I’ve at least produced enough curiosity to at least try some blackstrap for yourself, if you’re not already familiar with it. If you’re already a blackstrap fan, please leave a comment below and share why and how you use it. Sharing is caring and knowledge is power. 

‘Til next time,

Shalom, shalom!

Angelia

Update: Nine months of Ryze Coffee

 

Image via AS Phillips

Before you jump to a conclusion

Nope, I haven’t given up the daily consumption of one of my two fav beverages, cofffffeeeee! Mmmmm! The other is ginger ale/ginger beer. It's a rare thing for me to go a day without both. Once upon a time I incorporated chaga-java into my coffee habit, and enjoyed it a lot, for reasons I can't remember, I gravitated back to regular coffee and eventually stopped ordering the chaga.

However, after trying Ryze for six weeks, I've decided it's a keeper!

What interested me in Ryze?

After surviving a colorectal cancer challenge, I was determined to be as proactive as possible in increasing my overall health (especially my gut-health) and doing it as organically as possible. Due to a colon resection with a permanent colostomy, my digestion ability slowed in some areas, causing obstructions. 

Before getting a colostomy, I was able to eat a wider variety of high-fiber, low carb foods. About a year into recovery, that changed. Now, three years later, I’ve had to eliminate the trouble-makers from my diet due to negative gut reaction. 

This isn’t the case for all ostomates. Some can eat whatever they want without any ill effects. 

In researching what natural foods that tended to help prevent the type of gut-challenges I'd been dealing with, Ryze mushroom coffee kept popping up in my searches. It was pricey but claimed only a cup a day would be sufficient to energize and increase focus. It was said to play well with low-carb and keto diets and tasted great.

I figured it couldn't hurt to try it. 

What’s in it?

Ryze is a coffee made of a variety of mushrooms, blended into a smooth powder. 

It has 1 gram of total carbohydrates per teaspoon, 1 gram of total fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 0 milligrams of sodium, 0 grams of dietary fiber, and 0 grams of protein. 

Ingredients

☙ Arabica coffee

☙ Organic mushrooms: cordyceps, lion's mane, Reishi, shiitake, turkey tail, and king trumpet. The mushrooms are sustainably grown in California.

☙ Organic MCT (medium chain triglycerides) oil

☙ Organic coconut milk

Benefits

☙ Ryze is BIG on antioxidants: Medicinal mushrooms boast an ungodly amount of antioxidants. Decades of scientific research show how antioxidants help protect you from all kinds of harmful problems including premature aging.

☙ Immunity boosts:  Wards off infections and harmful bacteria. Medicinal mushrooms can help stimulate the immune system in such a way that they strengthen immune response and have been found to exert anti-tumor and anti-cancer activity against harmful cells in the body.

☙ Increased brain health: Improves focus and is beneficial for brain health. Most mushroom coffee has less caffeine than coffee but focuses your brain in a different, better way. Some medicinal mushrooms have been found to repair and regenerate neurons and improve cognitive function.  

☙ Increased energy levels without the jitters: Caffeine can improve focus, but in excess can cause jitters and elevated anxiety. Thus, adding in stress-regulating adaptogenic mushrooms mitigates the energy spikes and leaves a jitter-free no crash feeling of awesome steady focus and energy.

☙ Keeps digestion calm as a low-acidity coffee alternative: Special compounds in medicinal mushrooms act as prebiotics in the digestive system and directly help improve digestive health. They patrol the gut and help keep the gut microbiome free of bad bacteria.  

☙ Improves organ health because it's rich in antioxidants and essential vitamins

Additional info...

Medicinal mushrooms, especially Reishi, contain vital nutrients that can prevent liver toxicity and lower glucose levels, directly affecting heart health. Medicinal mushrooms are also antivirals, antimicrobials, and contain antioxidants that pump up the body’s natural defenses to fight disease.

Ryze is a winner!

One of my friends asked me what Ryze tastes like. Although many reviewers said it tasted exactly like coffee to them, that wasn’t the case for me. It tastes like enhanced coffee, enhanced in a good way!

It has a definite coffee flavor, with a hint of hazelnut. It's rich, smooth and minimally acidic.  

The reports of user experiencing a decrease in fatigue and an increase in energy are true. That’s been a huge help due to the challenge of chronic fatigue worsening after getting an ostomy. In order to decrease symptoms of GI disorder, exercise has been essential. Before Ryze, I was losing ground in the fatigue battle. Within the time I’ve been using Ryze, I’ve been more able to maintain therapeutic workouts, at least most days. 

Where to get it

Most often I purchase mine from Amazon. There have been reports of pseudo-Ryze products floating around on Amazon and eBay, however, I still order mine from Amazon and have found no difference in the taste or effects. I did order Ryzo once, a less expensive alternative. It looked different, lacked in flavor and required twice the amount per cup.

I'll stick with Ryze.  

"Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for medicine"." Ezekiel 47:12

 The wrap!

Thanks for visiting! If you’ve had your own experience with Ryze, I encourage you to share it with us in the comments! Your interest and input is always appreciated and other readers may find it very helpful.

Shalom

Of Sailors and Sauerkraut

 

 

Image via Kelsey Todd of UnSplash

“Oh no! It’s the scurvy! Arrgggh!!!!”

Back in the days of big ships, with high masts and billowing sails, scurvy was one of the most dreaded ways for sailors to die.

It'd be easier to imagine the Scourge of the Sea referring to hurricane-force winds, big fish with big teeth, or pirates, but nope. Scurvy held the title. It was lethal and claimed the lives of an estimated 2 million sailors during a 300-year span. 

The disease is caused by a lack of vitamin C. The symptoms can progress to be hideous and horribly painful.

Image via thommas68 of Pixabay

In 1768 Captain James Cook of the British Royal Navy set sail on a three-year mission. His food stores would remain intentionally well-stocked and among the stores was 7,860 pounds of sauerkraut. At the end of the mission, not a single death was reported to have been due to scurvy.  

What was being used by the Brits in the 1700s, had already been in use for several centuries (if not longer) by the Asians. Kimchi (one of my all-time fav foods) and other varieties of fermented cabbage were common fare in Asian communities and considered essential during long winters when fruit was sometimes scarce.

Fruit’s tasty, life-saving alternative!

Image via distelAPPArath of Pixabay

Raw cabbage has vitamins. But, cabbage fermented in nothing more than salt and its own juice, or whatever else might be added to it, like rice wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar, becomes a super-food, due to probiotic enhancement that occurs during fermenting.

Image via lydiana of Pixabay

The fermenting that ultimately gives sauerkraut and kimchi its sour scent and taste is also a result of what takes it from being basically healthy food to super-food! During the fermenting process, the vitamins in it multiply, along with good gut bacteria.

The list of health benefits that can be derived from fermented cabbage is huge, but I'll keep it at a decently-sized overview of the big guns for you.

• Reduces inflammation 
• Protects and increases digestive health
• Boosts circulation, protects and boosts heart health, and enhances energy
• Promotes healthy skin, protects against some types of cancer and helps maintain good, or better vision.
• Promotes healthy blood cell production
• Helps support and maintain strong bones

You can buy organic sauerkraut with live cultures for a small bit of coin, but making it yourself is super-easy and even less expensive. It stores easily too. 

Another plus to making it yourself is that you'll know for certain it's chemical-free. Too, you can make it the way you want, adding your personal preferences to the ingredients. 

Caitlin Shoemaker is cookin’ up a storm on YouTube. Her videos are chock-full of excellent recipes. Hope you’ll like the one I’m sharing in this post and if you enjoy it, please consider subscribing to her channel. 

Just click on the vid below to see an excellent example of how to make your own great-tasting sauerkraut variations.

Some doctors recommend eating at least a few bites of fermented food with every meal. Just sayin'--knowledge is power and apparently, so is sauerkraut!

23 Those who go down to the sea in ships, who do business in great waters,

24 these see the LORD’s deeds, and His wonders in the deep.

Psalms 107: 23-24

(World Messianic Bible Translation)

The wrap!

Thanks for visiting today. If you’re a sauerkraut fan and maybe have further information about it you’d like to share or have a question about it, I encourage you to please let me know in the comments. 

Thank you as well for your interest and support of the independent journalism community.

‘Til next time,

Shalom

FarmaCOPEia: Pond Water Tea

 

Image via AS Phillips

How do you prefer your pond water? 

Room temp and neat? On the rocks? With a twist of lemon? Shaken, not stirred?

Ponds are what Nee (my sister) and I learned to swim in. Two in this area were Eastville and Barefoot. Both look way different now, but back in the day, they were probably our favorite swimming holes, where we kept cool on hot summer days with our family and friends. 

However, today's post isn't featuring pond water from a favorite swimming hole. Instead, it's filtered water with a majestic mix of herbs harvested right from the yard and garden.

I've named it Pond Water because that's what it looks like. ☺

Not mucky-dirty-scummy pond water, but pretty pond water. The sort that's crystal-clear and has beautiful green plants drifting side to side in it.

Minus the pond scum, of course...

Pond Water is my own variation of a blend I've seen circulating on the social networks recommended by Dr. Oz. His was a specific one for increased energy and weight loss.

I decided to make use of some of what he suggested but alter it to allow for a wider scope with whatever ingredients we had on hand. 

The pictured batch has a variety of herbs and liquids blended with filtered well water that rendered a bright, yet savory, flavor that's packed with good-for-you nutrients.

It was so good I became an instant fan before I swallowed the first sip.

Included in this blend are (to the best of my memory) rosemary, cilantro, lemon juice, dandelion, violet, mint, sage, oregano and apple.

There are lots of other delicious things that can be included in your own pond water, but, those are what I had on hand.

As the growing season progresses I'll add more to each batch, including things like cucumbers, berries, cherries, sliced ginger, lemon fruit and/or lemongrass, wheat grass, oranges, grapes, rose petals, celery stalk, chili pepper, and maybe even a bit of honey.

Ingredients: Have ‘em YOUR way!

• Water. You can also include carbonated water, tonic water and/or fruit juice for your liquid base. 

Your favorite tasty plants. A few examples could be...

• Lemon grass
• Mint
• Apples/Guava/Mangoes/Peaches/Plums/Pineapple
• Blackberries/Blueberries/Mulberries/Raspberries/Strawberries
• Celery/Cucumber

And, on and on it goes! There are oodles of choices for you to personalize it, but you can also minimize to work with what you already have on hand...

Image via AS Phillips

In event you’re a vinegar fan, a splash of plain or apple cider vinegar goes well with it, too! 

For diabetics, including vinegar is a great option due to its ability to lower blood sugar. If you need a sweetener, my recommendation for diabetics (and even non-diabetics) is monkfruit sugar or stevia. Both taste great and keto-friendly, having zero calories and carbs.

Hoping whatever ingredients you incorporate will be organically grown, just to keep it as healthy as possible. 

An easy, simple prep

Nothing fancy needed to put this recipe together!s

• Clean and wash the ingredients
• Bruise any leaves and stems you’re including
• Put everything into a roomy, glass container (preferably with a lid) 
• Fill it up with water

*Sometimes, you can get two batches from the same set of ingredients

*Recycled large pickle jars make perfect containers for this stuff

*When your tea is all gone, the leftover ingredients go great in nearly any kind of salad

A delicious, inexpensive, refreshing and healthy alternative to commercially processed beverages

If you're someone who has a thing for soda, or whatever else you might drink frequently that isn't a healthy beverage, I urge you to please give this blend a try.

Our bodies are magnificent creations and will maximize any good thing we do for them. This is one way of pulling that off in a blonde-friendly, no-fuss, and little-to-no-cost fashion.

If you decide to make yourself some Pond Water Tea, please come back and leave a comment as to how you made it and whether or not it was a hit! I’d love to hear all about it, especially any variations you might have used in the ingredients.

Image via AS Phillips

29 And God saith, `Lo, I have given to you every herb sowing seed, which [is] upon the face of all the earth, and every tree in which [is] the fruit of a tree sowing seed, to you it is for food;

Genesis 1:29

Young's Literal Translation

The wrap!

Before I leave you, I wanted to share a link to post with you, produced by Vicki Warner, regarding diet drinks. It's part of her Processed Foods series on WarnerWords. Great post for some surprising and helpful info regarding diet drinks, especially sodas! Just click here to get you there.

Thank you for your visit today and ‘til next time, 

Shalom

Ginger: The creepy-looking, good medicine!

 

Image via AS Phillips

What is that ugly thing?

An ingredient commonly found in tea and soups, breads and cookies. Too, it can be dried and crystallized into a chewy, healthy snack item. In the same form, it makes a wonderful and very effective (from personal experience and multiple testimonies from other users) easy-to-keep organic medicine to treat a wide array of ailments including (and especially) nausea associated with motion sickness and flu virus.  

Ginger may be a hooky-spooky lookin’ root (which is the part of the plant mostly used in the above food products) but wow! It makes up for its looks with outstanding flavor and health benefits.

Soooo many reasons...

I love ginger for a bunch of reasons. Near the top of the list is because it’s an easy-keeper. Just wash it, bag it (even with paper or another organic material) and put it away in the freezer and it will keep for thousands of years. Kidding, but it will keep frozen for a very, longgggg time.

You can keep it in the fridge too, but it won’t stay as well-hydrated there. 

Each time you need some, just chop a bit off, process it, via slicing, grinding or mashing, to add it to whatever dish you want, or let it cool enough to chew it up and just eat it as is. I love refrigerated, fresh ginger. It has both delicious flavor and a crisp texture that’s addictive. 

Low-carb, organic goodness

Ginger is naturally low in calories. It's an organic, high-quality, broad-spectrum anti-microbial and anti-parasitic, even being lethal to cold and flu viruses. It's rich in antioxidants, anti-inflammatory agents and contains therapeutic compounds of gingerol, shogaol, paradol and zingerone.

Another of my fav forms of ginger is the sort made by my colleague and close friend, Vicki Warner of WarnerWords. Vicki, is a retired professor, multi-business owner and a well-respected mentor in the independent business community.  is also a master gardener, and a collegiate-trained chef. This chic can seriously cook, and grow an impressive amount of her own ingredients. 

She processes ginger into delicate, thin slices, dries it, and adds a light, crystal-sugar coating. It’s the best ginger, in that form, I’ve ever had and I’m convinced it had a great deal to do with how I managed to feel as good as I did while working with her in western Canada.

I’ve had a variety of the same sort of processing here, but none can compare to Vicki’s. Her crystallized ginger still ranks as primo.

To get there, and during my stay, we traveled quite a lot. I have a tendency for motion sickness and Vicki urged me to try an organic med, available in Canada, called Gravol. Its main component to combat motion sickness is ginger. It worked great and there were no side effects, such as drowsiness or dry mouth. In raw or crystallized form, ginger has never produced any foul side effects at all when I’ve used it.

Organic help for a gripey gut

My sister also got me into the habit of using crystal candy ginger as a natural medicine to combat nausea and menstrual cramps. It came in very handy when we traveled home to Kentucky to visit our kin, driving along the twisty roads through the Appalachian mountains.

Ginger is an effective remedy for tummy cramps, whether they’re from the flu, a spastic colon, irritable bowel syndrome or menses.  It also has nice warming effect that brings on a comfy-cozy feeling during cold weather, which is maybe part of the reason ginger snaps and ginger bread are so popular in cold weather and cooler seasons.

In cookie (or biscuit) form, it’s an excellent choice to partner with coffee, tea, cocoa or milk. I only use plant-based milk, but ginger cookies and breads go well with whatever type of beverage you prefer. 

My family and friends also use cookies (snaps) as treats for our horses and a few other animals. It warms their bellies when it’s cold and they love the taste. Ginger snaps store well for long periods of time if sealed in a dry environment.

You can make a go-to infusion for your homeopathic medicine cabinet with ginger by adding several slices of it to a plant-based oil, such as EVOO or coconut oil. It also works in much the same way if you add it to alcohol, such as a high-quality potato vodka. You can also blend it with other herbs of your choice in this fashion, like mint, clove and cinnamon, to name a few.

It's warm

Ginger is a hot plant and tastes a bit peppery. Please be mindful of the heat factor when using it. A little goes a long way and I advise big caution with it where children are concerned. 

To get your own, I hope you’ll consider buying it from a local farmer’s market or even getting some starts from a friend who has heirloom plants. If not, get some from your local health food shop. You can start your own ginger plants with it, even if you want to grow them in a pot. They’re very pretty, a bit exotic looking and you can harvest them and regrow the next batch using just a few pieces of the root you harvested.

14 He causes the grass to grow for the livestock, and plants for man to cultivate,

that he may produce food out of the earth:

15 wine that makes the heart of man glad, oil to make his face to shine,

and bread that strengthens man’s heart.

Psalms 104:14-15 

(World Messianic Bible)

The wrap!

For a fun and informative read on how to easily grow your own ginger, here’s a great article compliments of Vicki Warner and WarnerWords, Ginger: A Celebration! 

Thanks so much for visiting today. Your interest and support of the independent business community is always appreciated, especially by bloggers and vloggers!

Until next time,

Shalom