Avivah Werner

Category: Healthy Living

  • Why I changed my diet to zero carb/carnivore

    A couple of weeks ago I shared about the health improvements I’ve seen since upgrading my nutrition, and naturally a number of you asked me to share what I’ve changed.

    Eight years ago, I encountered a dietary approach that was new to me. I did some brief reading on a personal website of someone sharing her experience, and while I appreciated it was beneficial to the individual sharing about it, I didn’t read more deeply with the intent to understand.

    A year later, I came across information about this same approach, but this time I was intellectually curious enough to do a LOT of reading. After a deep dive, I was intrigued by the level of healing I had never seen before on any eating plan I had investigated – not whole foods, vegetarian, vegan, keto, WAP (Weston A. Price) – all of which I’ve experimented with personally at length.

    What was most fascinating and surprising to me was seeing the healing of significant mental health issues that are assumed to be treatable only with medication. I had never seen testimonials of people with issues like these healed by any other diet. I also saw a tremendous amount of physical healing of many issues that generally aren’t considered dietically related (everything, everything, everything about your health is impacted by what you eat!!!). It was just amazing.

    My husband has a much more sensitive digestive system than I do and as a result, has to be very careful about what he eats. I told my husband about the many testimonials of physical healing I read about, and it was about seven years ago that I suggested he consider following these guidelines.

    My husband has a lot of faith in my research, and began immediately without even reading any more about it. I began with him and felt great for the five weeks I did it but budgetarily it was a strain for us and since I wasn’t suffering any health issues or discomfort in any way, wanted to direct our food budget resources to him. He stayed with it for two and a half years before shifting back into GAPS due to finances.

    Since then I’ve continued learning and reading about this approach. When I first came across it, it was known about by a relatively small group of people who had tried everything else to heal and were desperate enough to do something different. I came to believe this was an ideal way of eating but almost never spoke of what I learned: I wasn’t doing it myself, and secondly because it was completely opposite all mainstream nutrition advice so there’s so much to explain. I expected it would remain far outside of the social norms forever.

    However, there were some high profile individuals who shared about their success eating like this. As a result, interest in this approach has grown and particularly in the last couple of years it has really gained traction.

    This way of eating has become popularly known as the carnivore diet, though the term I originally heard used and still prefer is zero carb. I follow the guidelines of the original group where it’s kept really simple: meat, chicken, eggs, fish, beef fat and butter. I stay away from dairy for the most part (the hardest thing for me to give up was our own raw goat dairy, and why I took a very long time to commit to trying this).

    I’ve been eating this way for ten months. Despite my reticence to share about this, this is something that can help with so many health issues and it would be selfish to keep it to myself.

    Unfortunately our public nutritional guidelines are so completely corrupted that there’s no way for a person to achieve good health long term by following those guidelines. The official guidelines will lead to the doctor’s office and long term medications for physical and psychological diagnoses.

    In contrast, zero carb eating can reverse many chronic conditions and keep a person healthy with minimal input from the medical system in most cases.

    When I began researching this topic, there was very little available online. Most of the information was in Facebook groups. But now you can find so many people with lots of experience with this way of eating talking about it at length, including medical doctors from all disciplines.

    If you want to know about why not vegetables (Dr. Anthony Chaffee), or what about cholesterol/ won’t this give you a heart attack (heart surgeon Dr. Philip Ovadia), or how does it affect your mental health (pyschiatrist Dr. Georgia Eades), how to eat for fertility (Dr. Robert Kiltz), how it affects your eye health (Dr. Lisa Wiedeman), or every aspect of general health (Dr. Ken Berry, Dr. Shawn Baker) you have so much information available. I have listened to hundreds of interviews of people sharing their personal health transformations (No Carb Life has eight hundred so far; a number of other Youtube channels have many great interviews as well).

    I believe this is the way of eating that will give the most health benefits to the average human, and though it’s not necessary for everyone, in that vast majority of people it will be very beneficial. I was in pretty good health but still have seen improvements in hormone balancing, joint pain, metabolism, energy and mental clarity.

    It’s wonderful that something so simple can make such a big difference, and maybe that’s the hardest part about it. We’ve been conditioned to believe that achieving good health is complicated and difficult, when actually our bodies are intended to be healthy and move towards healing and wellness when given the nutritional building blocks it needs.

    Avivah

  • Eliminating joint pain by cleaning up my diet

    Nine months ago I sat down and made a list of health concerns, however small they seemed.

    The main thing that concerned me was a pain in my hip. I’ve written here about going to the osteopath for that and getting relief from it. He said it was caused by misalignment, and I noticed it happened whenever I was very busy. So I would rest more often. Then it started happening more often. To compensate, when standing I would shift my weight to my other leg.

    As a result of my compensation, I began getting discomfort in my left knee, which then travelled to the bottom of the left foot and manifested as a tightness of the muscles. When the osteopath worked on my foot, he said something about the plantar fascia, and then I realized it was the beginning of plantar fasciitis. Oy.

    I asked him what I was supposed to do to stay in alignment, but I was doing everything suggested and I still needed regular appointments (about every 4 – 6 weeks). Then I heard an interview with a doctor who was asked how she chose her specialty of endocrinology, and she said she had been an osteopath and began noticing how many of her patients in their forties and fifties were coming for weekly appointments because their bodies couldn’t hold the alignment. She wanted to study hormones to help women stay in good health.

    I don’t remember what she said after that, but realizing that me not being able to stay in alignment was something others in my age range were experiencing was a jolt and got me thinking.

    (I also felt stiffness when standing up after sitting for a while, and mild soreness in the joints of my hands periodically. It seemed minor but I included this in my list. )

    It occurred to me that the pain I was having might be caused by internal inflammation rather than the localized muscle discomfort I was assuming it to be. If so, I was making a mistake by treating the symptoms of pain rather than addressing the underlying cause.

    Along with my thoughts about the possible physical causes, I reflected on my expectations of what it means to get older. I didn’t want to internalize the societal belief that getting older means more pain and less mobility, and I was ready to actively challenge that belief. I wanted to create a new expectation for myself, that as I get older I will be active and energetic, flexible and healthy.

    Once I was honest with myself about what I was feeling, I resolved to do something different. If it was possible my hip pain was caused by inflammation, then I needed to reduce the inflammation. How could I do that?

    By changing my diet.

    I resisted this for a long time because my diet was pretty good; most people would say it was very good. But once I was willing to be honest with myself, I knew I needed to make some changes.

    I eliminated every possible source of inflammation, and soon began feeling more energy. I began losing some of the weight I put on after the car accident that had left me completely sedentary. But the hip pain didn’t go away as quickly as I expected.

    In the first three weeks the plantar fasciitis disappeared, then the pain in my left knee, but I still had some periodic discomfort in my right hip. But I began noticing my overall movement became much more comfortable and fluid; I easily and quickly shifted from sitting or laying down to standing up. I got up and down from the floor without thinking about it. My hands never felt any soreness.

    The pain in my hip faded and I don’t know when it completely disappeared because I stopped being aware of it. It might have been a month or even six weeks until it was completely gone.

    One day my husband and I took the kids for a walk and he lagged behind me with one of them. When he caught up to me, he asked me if I was aware that I was walking differently. Again, changes happen over time and he hadn’t noticed my gait had changed as a result of the pain until he saw me walking without pain. He commented on it again a week later, marvelling and saying the difference was miraculous, that I walk with the same fluidity I had in my twenties.

    Recently over the two weeks of holidays, I ate some foods I don’t usually eat – things you would call ‘healthy’. I had some moussaka – with eggplant, ground beef, homemade tomato sauce and a coconut cream ‘cheese’ topping. I ate some halva ice cream – made with dates, coconut cream and tahini. I had some fresh fruit and some compote, some slices of cheese, three small pieces of potato. These were the only changes to my usual way of eating, all seemingly small quantities over a two week period.

    The homemade ice cream was clearly a sugar overload for me – I napped afterward as if I had taken a sleeping pill. As far as the other foods, my digestion wasn’t as perfect as it usually is.

    What took a little longer was for my hip to begin hurting again.

    It didn’t happen immediately after I ate a peach or a slice of cheese. But the pain is a powerful reminder of what I used to feel and I’m so glad for the reminder. It’s remarkably easy to forget the negatives when they’re no longer part of your life and to take good health for granted. I didn’t intend this to be a test of what I’m sensitive to, but that’s what it’s been.

    I have been blessed for many months now to consistently feel very good physically and emotionally, and have taken that for granted. Now it’s easy for me to see when something I eat detracts from that, and I’m glad for the motivating nudge to recommit to giving my body the fuel it needs to feel its best.

    Avivah

  • Why I turned down routine health scanning

    A while back, I received a call from my local health clinic. The nurse calling inquired if my husband and I were new to the area, and I told her we’ve been here a few years. She was surprised since neither of us have recent blood work or doctor visits on record, so she invited us both in to have our medical details noted.

    I politely declined, letting her know we were in good health and had no concerns, but she was very persistent and insistent that I needed to have my markers checked. I politely declined several more times before we ended the call.

    I’ve been learning about health and nutrition for decades now, and it’s something I think about regularly. I took a big break from sharing health related topics from 2020 and on since people like myself who had alternative suggestions about how to improve immunity and lessen the likelihood of disease were vilified and treated as anti-science conspiracy theorists. At this time I feel able to share more about my personal health perspectives and decisions and to clarify the paradigm that underpins all of my decisions in that arena.

    To some people, getting your blood pressure, weight, and blood work checked regularly is critically important. The thinking is, if something is wrong with any of these markers, you can them meet with a doctor and get guidance on how to address the issue. Generally the recommendation will be a pharmaceutical. That’s fine if that’s what you want to do.

    I don’t believe that health comes via a prescription pad and it’s not a doctor who can keep me healthy. It’s my job to keep myself healthy, and I recognize it’s no one’s responsibility but mine. Medication can suppress symptoms but when the core issue that led to the symptom remains unaddressed, over time other symptoms will appear and create seemingly new health problems. Those will then need to be medicated; in addition there are now side effects of the medication that may also need to be medicated, and so the cycle continues. Symptom suppression is not the same as healing.

    Doctors are very well-trained in identifying symptoms and medicating them, and that’s a much needed and important skillset. When I have a health issue that I want feedback about, I occasionally go to a doctor to get their educated opinion (for example, after my car accident when I was diagnosed with post concussive syndrome). A diagnosis as well as their suggestions are helpful and from there, I can choose to continue my research to learn about why a symptom appeared and what to do to resolve it at the root level, or not.

    About twenty years ago I had a swelling in my throat area – a friend with a medical background noticed it and insisted I get to a specialist immediately to have it checked out. As soon as the specialist looked at my neck, he was visibly alarmed and immediately performed a biopsy.

    Thankfully, the biopsy was clean though he said the swelling on my thyroid was so large that it’s possible they missed the cancerous cells. He suggested I do a follow-up biopsy to be sure. I asked him what caused my thyroid to swell, and he said, “Sometimes thyroids do that.” I was fairly certain that if I continued doing biopsies that they would eventually find something and I wasn’t interested in chasing an undesired diagnosis, so I left that day, grateful I was healthy but no wiser as to why I had this symptom.

    I don’t remember how much later it was that I adopted a very clean diet with no sweetener of any sort – I feel like it was at least two years later. And I don’t remember how much after that, when I passed a three way mirror in the hotel I was in and noticed I had no swelling; my neck area was completely normal. I stopped and looked at my neck at different angles again and again, in disbelief that there was no sign of anything. I was obviously thrilled it had disappeared but wondered how it happened.

    It took a few years before I found the answer but guess what? Despite what the specialist told me, thyroids don’t just randomly swell as mine did. There was something that caused it. Candida feeds on sugar and can overgrow in the body, which resulted in the swelling in the area of my thyroid gland. When I took out the sweeteners, the growth disappeared.

    That’s another foundational understanding of mine – that there’s a reason for everything the body does. Many health issues that we attribute to as happenstance simply aren’t; when we remove the cause of the problem, the body can heal.

    ——————–

    For the most part most of what I’ve experienced has been in the range of normal seasonal viruses. But occasionally I encounter things that are unusual for me.

    This fall I had some soreness in my upper arm that made it hard for me to reach my arm behind my back, and I couldn’t put weight on it. I waited for it to go away but time passed and the soreness wasn’t passing. It was bearable but annoying, leading me to wonder if it was age related muscle weakness. I mentioned it when I went to the osteopath, who found that the lymph nodes in that area were blocked. He worked on that area to release the blockage; it was extremely sore for the following week, but after that my arm has been pain- free and strong again.

    ——————————–

    I don’t think I have the answers for everything, all the time. However, I do live in my body all the time. I know what’s normal for me and what’s not. I know what kind of help I can expect from what avenues and I use all of that selectively as is appropriate to the situation.

    I also believe in asking people who have the results you want to see for advice. If my doctor is brimming with health and energy, then I want to hear his suggestions about how to upgrade my health. I can’t say that my external perception of most of the medical professionals that I’ve encountered is of models of health. If I have to have a surgical procedure, they’re the ones I’m going to ask about it. But if I want to be healthy, I need to ask people who know about health and wellness, not sickness, and I’m not going to participate in scans and tests that I don’t see as valuable at this time, just to to meet someone else’s idea of what I’m supposed to do.

    Avivah

  • Keeping kids full – what I feed them first thing in the day

    This week when I took my six year old to kindergarten, his teacher told me the day before he was very hungry when he came to school. He and ds7 took an especially long time to get dressed and he only had time for a banana or two before he left, so I wasn’t surprised. I pack his lunch box with enough food that he can eat something as soon as he gets to school if he wants to. All the kids eat as soon as they get to school even though the official meal time is at 10 am meal time.

    I mentioned that today he’ll be fine since he had a cheese omelet before leaving home. “What, an omelet?” she exclaimed. “Of course he’ll be hungry. I would also be hungry if all I had was an omelet and cheese. You have to give him fruit to fill him up.” (She seems to have missed the detail that the day before he ate fruit and was hungry.)

    This same teacher told me a few months ago that he was very hungry when he arrived at school each morning. On that day, I told her he had eaten two apples with peanut butter, two hard boiled eggs and a cup of milk before going to school, literally fifteen minutes before arriving in his classroom and saying he was hungry.

    I explained that as is common with foster children, there is an emotional component to his hunger due to growing up without predictability with regards to food, so the hunger is usually not physical. (Dd6’s teachers realized this very quickly before I spoke to them about it.)

    After hearing all of the above, she insisted he was hungry because I didn’t give him crackers, because fruit and eggs aren’t filling. I found it ironic when a week later I heard her tell another parent that children need a fruit before going to school so they won’t be hungry. She insisted that she has experience as a parent and she knows this to be a fact. (Her oldest is ten.) I suggested to her that we each know what works best for our children.

    Since the twins are one of the first to arrive in their kindergartens, I regularly see children walking to school or to their classrooms eating their breakfasts. I’ve seen this particular teacher’s children eating chocolate bars and wafers, and that’s typical of what I see children eating. Today I saw a child having a bag of chocolate milk, another sucking on a foil bag of fake juice, another with a bag of pretzels. Wafers, tea biscuits and cornflakes in sandwich bags are very common. The twins used to have cookies for breakfast in their last home, and their foster mother was relatively health conscious.

    Processed carbohydrates are not foods that will stabilize blood sugar and provide steady energy for the body and brain. Instead, snack foods like these set a child up to have blood sugar highs and lows, with foggy brains, difficulty focusing and behavior issues. There was a study done years ago in which sugar was removed from the diet of prison inmates and they saw an immediate and drastic reduction in fights. Don’t you think that doing the same for school children would result in calmer and happier children?

    What do I give our children in the mornings? Until recently, I was giving each child a fruit (usually an apple or banana), sometimes with peanut butter, two or three hard boiled eggs and goat milk. I stopped giving them hard boiled eggs a few weeks ago since the twins only eat the whites.

    Interestingly, dd’s teacher told me that lately she’s been extremely fidgety, and suggested I should get her evaluated for attention deficit issues since her inability to sit still will be an issue in first grade. I didn’t think to ask how long they had noticed this increased fidgetiness. I wonder if the lack of protein first thing in the day was a contributing factor to her behavior change to any degree, and am now being more careful that the four younger children all have more protein first thing in the day.

    Though we think of fruit as a healthy snack – and it’s better than pop tarts or boxed cereal by far – it still has a good bit of sugar in it. It tastes good in the mouth, but doesn’t have the fat necessary to cause the brain to register satiety and it doesn’t keep their blood sugar levels optimal. It’s important for all children to have stable blood sugar, but particularly those with ADD/ADHD, as it keeps their brains and bodies on a more even keel.

    As such I’m experimenting with moving away from fruit in the morning, and am looking to increase the amount of protein I get into them before the school day begins. Since I’m trying to minimize grains, whole grain breakfast bars, muffins, cookies or hot cereals like oatmeal and polenta infrequently make an appearance before school, even though I enjoy making them and the kids of course like eating them!

    Here’s some of what I’ve been giving them lately:

    Cottage cheese mixed with sour cream – all of the kids like this and it’s really filling so this is great.

    Scrambled eggs with butter – sometimes I give them cottage cheese or sour cream on the side

    Cheese omelets – I scramble five or six eggs and cook them in butter in a large frying pan. I add shredded cheese on top to half of the pan, then fold it over and slice it into four portions. When they finish, I make a second batch for anyone who wants more.

    Spelt pancakes – to boost the protein content, I increased the ratio of eggs from one egg to one cup of flour, to 6 eggs for one cup of flour. They all like this a lot, but since I’m trying to minimize grains it’s not something I’m going to make more than once a week.

    Almond flour pancakes – like the spelt pancakes above, the kids like this a lot but due to almonds being so high in oxalates which build up in the body and can later cause painful issues (kidney stones are an oxalate overload issue), I try to keep my use of almond flour to a minimum.

    Cottage cheese pancakes – cottage cheese combined with egg and some almond flour or gelatin (fish based) – I haven’t yet made them but they’re on my list to try in the next few days.

    Butternut squash muffins – this is a GAPS friendly recipe that uses baked and blended butternut squash combined with eggs and peanut butter with a little bit of sweetener. So far they liked the maple syrup version best.

    Chocolate pudding – I used this recipe as a base; it uses hard boiled eggs as a base, blended up, which is a simply brilliant concept. I tweaked the recipe, made this the night before, poured it into individual cups and put in in the fridge to set overnight. Since usually the kids have flavored yogurts for Shabbos breakfast (which they call pudding), this was very exciting for them! However, seeing how messy some of them got, I’ve decided to save it for Shabbos mornings to preclude the need to spot clean their clothes or have them get dressed again on a busy school morning.

    I’ve just bought a waffle maker with the intention to ‘package’ high protein ingredients in a fun way. That will be something I begin experimenting with next week.

    Eventually if I get around to making cheeses with our goat milk (right now cheesemaking is very much on my back burner) I can add that to the morning foods or foods I send to school. Our teen boys make yogurt and soft cheeses, but it’s somewhat irregular.

    I’m going to check in a few weeks with dd’s teacher and see if there have been any improvements in her fidgetiness. Ds6 is already the best behaved child in his class of 9, but I have a meeting with his main teacher (not the one mentioned above) next week and will be asking about if they notice any differences in his ability to stay focused.

    A noticeable change in behavior would be a nice bonus, but I’ll continue feeding them in this way regardless. When I eat like this – ie high fat/moderate protein – it keeps me satiated for long periods of time.

    What do you like to give your children for breakfast? What keeps them full the longest?

    Avivah

  • When kids are sick – trusting the healing process

    We’ve emerged from the two week period of sick children and it’s great to have everyone up and about again!

    One of the flu symptoms everyone experienced was deep exhaustion One of my teen sons, seeing one of the younger boys sleeping a lot, asked me if it I felt worried to see such an active child completely passive for so long.

    Although as a younger mother I got more nervous if a child was sick, in general twenty or thirty years ago people were more relaxed when a child was under the weather. It was understood that kids get sick and with time will get better; there wasn’t an expectation that we had to run to a doctor and medicate every symptom. With a lot of years of experience I’ve developed a steadfast sense of trust in the healing process.

    When I look at a feverish child with flushed cheeks, huddled under a blanket and sleeping for long periods of time, I don’t feel anxious – I see the amazing ability of the human body to take care of itself, to cleanse itself of toxins and restore health and harmony to the body. The body is doing what it’s meant to do – burn out the bad stuff and build future immunity. While the body is working hard to neutralize the germs, the child is sleeping because the healing process takes a lot of energy. A child who just wants to sleep and isn’t interested in eating is doing just the right thing.

    That fever is our friend and working hard for the child, if we can just let it do it’s job. This is why I don’t use fever reducers. (If a fever is extremely high, there are natural ways to bring it down, and I did once do this with a twelve year old whose fever spiked very high.)

    To nurture the child during this time, I’ll give him drinks, warm blankets, a hot water bottle, and let him sleep in unusual places that bring him comfort. For most of the kids this was in the living room, on a mattress on the floor or on the couch. On one sunny day, I placed mattresses outside and three of them slept for hours in the sun. Sometimes I’ll take steps to address other symptoms (eg homemade onion honey cough syrup for coughing), and giving vitamin D is a great way to shorter the duration and the intensity of the symptoms.

    But overall, my job is to stay calm and support the healing process.

    One of my grandsons was sick and my daughter called to ask about when she should go to a doctor. I don’t tell my children to do with their children; I’ll only offer my person experience and perspective. My position is, if you feel worried, go to the doctor. I’ve done that several times over the years when something was outside of my experience and it provided confirmation that the child just had a virus and I could relax.

    Right now the flu is going around, so I share this perspective with the hope that it may be of encouragement and support to you when your children are feeling under the weather. Remember, the flu is a vitamin D deficiency – some doctors have said you can not get the flu unless your vitamin D is low. Read my post here that talks about the vitamin D hammer for the flu.

    Avivah

  • Making a flu bomb to cure cold symptoms

    My throat was feeling a little scratchy yesterday morning, so my first activity of the morning was self-care: I made myself a flu bomb.

    At this time, when one can so easily be overwhelmed by anxiety or stress thinking about the state of the country/world, I’m finding it helpful to focus on small projects. I don’t have time or headspace for anything big, so I’m talking about small things like cleaning my ceiling fan, binding some of our children’s books that were falling apart, making spice blends – and making myself a flu bomb.

    Now, a flu bomb is more of a concept than a specific recipe. Basically, you mix several foods with demonstrated powerful antioxidant/antibiotic/antiviral qualities and then drink up!

    I was reminded about the flu bomb when listening to a talk on home remedies by Barbara O’Neil. (I’m making the effort to listen to topics that aren’t related to the war, that I can learn something concrete from. Again, putting the focus on something I can do in the moment.)

    Barbara’s recipe is: garlic (as much as you can but three cloves a day is recommended), ginger root (1/4 t.), eucalyptus oil/tea tree oil (1 drop – added note – do not use eucalyptus for children under 10), cayenne pepper (1/2 t.), juice of lemon, 1 t. honey. Grate the ginger and garlic, add the remaining ingredients as well as 1/2 – 1 c. water, and mix it all together. You can strain it and then drink it; this is enough for one flu bomb/one dose.

    Over a month ago I decided to be proactive and have my supertonic ready to go if cold symptoms made their appearance in our home. (Some people call this fire cider.) Using my homemade apple cider vinegar as a base, I added garlic and chopped onion and let it steep for a few weeks before straining it out. I didn’t have the other ingredients that are commonly used when making supertonic, like hot pepper, ginger, or fresh lemons, but it’s still really good.

    To make a flu bomb, I decided to use my supertonic as a base. I didn’t have fresh ginger or cayenne pepper (to remedy my pantry lapse I bought a kilo bag of powdered ginger and cayenne today), and though I put my bottle of tea tree oil on the counter with the intent to add it to my mix, I inadvertently placed it where it was obscured and couldn’t find it until two hours later when I no longer needed it. 🙂

    Keeping it simple, I didn’t chop or mince or grate anything. I blended my infused apple cider vinegar together with five cloves of garlic, two peeled lemons, a sprinkle of powdered tumeric, some water and a teaspoon or two of maple syrup. I chose to drink the blended mixture rather than strain it; again, that’s me keeping it simple. You can strain it!

    I drank more than half right away, and put the rest in a bottle to have later in the day. I liked the flavor – it’s like a lemonade with some kick – and definitely felt the benefits within a few minutes: my throat felt better almost right away and my slightly raspy breathing quickly became normal.

    I saw the suggestion to prepare the flu bombs in a large batch, then freeze them in mini muffin pans; you add hot water when ready to drink. That’s a good idea. When I blended the lemon, it tasted fine when I had it right away, but by the time I had my second dose, I it had been in the fridge for hours and became bitter. Freezing it right after making it would probably avoid that issue.

    Having said that, I liked the freshness of it and time and energy allowing, would prefer to make it right before drinking it.

    In addition to the ingredients I listed above, you can also add in black pepper or cinnamon. Black pepper and tumeric are a good combination and advised to use together since they work synergistically together. I’ve seen radishes recommended as something that cuts phlegm and even bought some to have on hand for this purpose, but they don’t stay fresh forever and by the time I was making my flu bomb, the radishes had already been eaten as a salad. 🙂

    When do you take a flu bomb? You can use it when you feel cold symptoms coming on or when you’re already sick; it’s helpful for bronchitis, flu, sinusitis, asthma or any upper respiratory complaint. It’s recommended to take it twice a day; how many days you take it depends on if you’re already really sick when you take it, but usually three days is enough to have you on the mend.

    Isn’t it nice that you can whip up something so helpful from ingredients that are probably sitting in your kitchen right now?

    Avivah

  • How to reduce your likelihood of catching a virus

    Last week, many of my family members spent Shabbos together in Jerusalem and afterwards several of our older children had mild cold symptoms. One asked me with concern if it had been brought back to the rest of the family here.

    I told her not to worry – no one here caught anything, but even if they did, these things really don’t concern me. People may be under the weather but they get better – this is the natural cycle and it’s not something to get anxious about, or make a big deal of. Every person has been supplied with an incredibly sophisticated system to protect them from disease and help them heal if they do come down with something – our immune systems.

    Three years ago I was talking with my accupuncturist and she introduced me to the term ‘terrain versus germ theory’. While I wasn’t familiar with the term prior to our talk, I was very familiar with the thinking behind each theory.

    The germ theory posits that the germ is the danger to health. The focus is thus on eliminating the germ, and is the focal point of the medical world.

    The terrain theory posits that it’s the health of the host that is of primary concern, and the threat of a germ is minimized by strengthening the host.

    Why do some people stay healthy when others around them are getting sick? Is this random, or is this something we can affect with our direct actions?

    There are germs floating around everywhere, all the time. To focus on the germs that we can directly do nothing about is disempowering and makes us fearful and passive victims, waiting to catch whatever the latest bug is going around. This approach leads people to feel helpless, that the answer is outside of their locus of control, and dependent on others to find the answer for them.

    While germs have been and will always be a biological reality, when we focus on the health of the individual, on supporting the most powerful health system that is known to man – our immune system – we take back power.

    There is so much you can do about your personal health. Stress and poor diet are two highly negative influencers of personal health, both of which lead individuals to be much more likely to catch whatever is floating around.

    The best defense is a good offense! To minimize the likelihood of getting sick, you can proactively focus on building your personal immune system.

    Reduce stress – Turn off the news that is non-stop anxiety inducing; bad news is their business and how they make money! Who benefits if you get anxious and start looking outside of yourself for solutions? Instead focus on all the wonderful things in your life. Taking time to write three things you’re grateful for daily requires just a few minutes and shifts your mindset and focus. Negative emotions weaken immune response, and positive thinking strengthens your mind and body!

    Get out into sunlight and fresh air. I always find my mood brightens without moments of doing this. Spend time in nature. Twenty to thirty minutes a day spent just sitting in nature is correlated with a notable drop in cortisol levels.

    Take a daily walk or exercise in some other way. Exercise strengthens the immune system. If you walk with a friend or family member, you get the double benefits of increased relationship while exercising!

    Invest in the relationships that matter most to you and and spend more time interacting with those you love. Did you know hugs strengthen the immune system? The less robust someone is, the more they need this – for example, our elderly need increased physical contact and social connections.

    Improve diet – The most common diseases that kill people in the US every year are: heart disease, cancer, chronic lower respiratory diseases, obesity, Alzheimers, and diabetes. Do you know that almost every single one is highly correlated to diet?

    Simply eliminating sugar from the diet would dramatically improve the immune system of every single person on the planet. It’s curious how hospital menus are filled with processed food and sugar, and also interesting how people are frequently told by doctors that it doesn’t make a difference what they eat, when diet is the biggest influencer of health.

    There are also many ways to alternatively support immune health, some of which I’ve shared over the years. Well known supplements to boost immune function include vitamin C, vitamin D, and zinc. There are many, many other ways to prevent and treat illness; in the past I’ve shared different home effective home remedies that use ingredients found in the typical kitchen.

    If there were a significant health threat, what would be cause natural immunity to be negatively impacted and make people more susceptible to getting sick?

    First of all, raise stress levels – flood the airways with frightening and alarming news.

    Simultaneously forbid stress-reducing outlets – spending time with family and friends, exercise, time in nature and physical contact between humans.

    Cause deep personal economic distress by shutting down the ability to earn and pay bills. Keep children from attending school and take away the predictability of their regular routine.

    Mock and marginalize anyone who suggests that individuals can reduce their risk of catching whatever is going around, or treating it, by improving diet and using alternative means to support their immune systems. Insist that nothing matters except the germ, and all steps taken to wipe it out are justified, regardless of negative impact.

    Does this look like the perfect recipe for physical disease and mental health issues?

    Worldwide these measures were taken to supposedly keep the population healthy. It’s distressing but not surprising to see the statistics and recognize the feverish focus on the germ, with the corresponding stressors on the host, have had a hugely negative impact on world health. Hopefully humanity has learned the dangers of an approach like this.

    Reducing exposure to germs can never be of benefit to the average person unless there is simultaneously a focus on improving physical and emotional health.

    As a parent who cares deeply about the well-being of my family and has spent hundreds of hours learning about various aspects of health, my focus is on supporting wellness, not focusing on disease. That has been extremely effective throughout the years, and continues to be where I recommend that concerned individuals put their focus whenever health is a concern.

    Be empowered, not fearful. As we move into the fall season when sickness begins to become a concern, be assured that there is so much you can do to protect your families. Regardless of current or future threats to your health, this is a timeless approach that is helpful regardless of the specifics of a particular pathogen, virus or microbe.

    Avivah

  • Recap of Ancient Israel herbalism conference

    Where do I start?!

    I enjoyed every single second of this conference, which was wonderful in every way from start to finish.

    First of all, the location was amazing. The conference was held in a resort in Poriya, and I don’t think you could find a more physically glorious location. The panoramic view in all directions of the Kineret and surrounding mountains was stunning. The weather was perfect, warm and sunny.

    I didn’t think much about who the attendees would be when I registered; I was going for the opportunity to increase my knowledge. I didn’t expect to know anyone there other than two of the organizers, but I was pleasantly surprised! I met an attendee of the 2010 Torah Home Education Conference that I organized in the US (who recently made aliya), someone who contacted me a couple of years ago about potential communities to move to in Israel, someone who contacted me nine years ago for family advice, someone else who contacted me for a session, someone I had known online for 17 years but finally met in person, someone who had spent Shabbos with us in Yavneel…it seemed everywhere I turned I was seeing familiar names.

    And it wasn’t just the people who I had some prior connection with who I enjoyed spending time with. There were a lot of really awesome people and I made some new friends. It was wonderful to be with people who shared my belief in the amazing ability of the immune system to heal, and are also interested in learning more ways to strengthen the entire body that are nourishing and non-toxic.

    The speakers. Wow. What a lineup of incredibly knowledgeable and experienced practitioners. I attended as many workshops and lectures as I could, but it was impossible to be at three places at once so I can only share about the talks that I attended.

    I missed the opening circle on Tuesday afternoon but got there immediately afterward in time for dinner, which was the perfect time to begin to meet other attendees. (All the meals were delicious and abundant, and every meal was a time that I enjoyed getting to know people.)

    Afterwards, there was a talk by the three organizers of the conference. Conference founder Rivkah Asoulin, herbalist and fertility consultant, knocked it out of the park with her powerful comments about healing, intuition and bodily integrity, and Gilla Weiss and Chava Dagan were also fantastic as they talked about the role of feminine healing.

    I then stayed for hours talking to other attendees, and got home close to midnight. That was really enjoyable but I didn’t get much sleep before the next day’s busy schedule!

    I appreciated being able to attend on a day pass, which allowed me to be present for my kids in the morning, and then get there in time for breakfast. After arriving towards the end of breakfast, shortly after the first talk of the day began.

    Sara Chana Silverstein, US herbalist, homeopath, lactation consultant and speaker gave an amazing talk about how to do intake of clients, which sounded like a dry topic but I think she must make every topic fascinating. I thought it would have no relevance for me since I’m not a practitioner but it was very interesting.

    Nir Avraham, founder of Trifolium, Israel’s first one hundred percent herbal pharmacy, spoke about the healing power of assorted herbs in the mint family. While I was familiar with most of the herbs, I gained technical knowledge that I didn’t have.

    Next I attended a two hour talk by Matthew Wood on blood indicators. While that sounds like another dry topic, it was fascinating. Matthew is the author of many books about herbs and has helped tens of thousands of people over his decades of practice. He’s filled with knowledge, experience and great stories, and is a genuinely down to earth person, caring person.

    We had lunch, and I then participated in a plant walk led by Peretz and Roni Gan, herbalists, agronomists and founders of Al Alim Center for Herbal Medicine. During a plant walk, local plants are identified and the qualities of each are discussed. I especially these hands-on learning opportunities.

    Herbalist and doula Gilla Weiss was an online friend of many years and it was a joy to finally meet in person. As a doula and herbalist, she is extremely knowledgeable and experienced regarding the use of herbs in pregnancy and postpartum, and I participated in her workshop for birth and postpartum herbs. I appreciated the opportunity to walk away with a lovely blend of herbs and while I made mixtures like these for myself in the past, I feel inspired to make more of these blends to share with daughters and daughters-in-law.

    Next was dinner, followed by a musical ensemble. Since the night before I didn’t get home until almost midnight since I was enjoy chatting so much, I disciplined myself to leave earlier and got home at 10 pm so I would get enough sleep to more fully enjoy the next day’s session.

    The last day began with breakfast, where I sat with a journalist who wrote for a well-known Israel international news site. I told him that seeing his articles in the first months of the ‘pandemic’ were encouraging to me at a time that I wondered if journalism was dead. He flatly replied, “It is.”

    We then had a thought-provoking conversation about as a writer, what and how to share, and my conflicts in that regard. He suggested that I write – just for myself – all the things that I want to talk about, and then maybe at one point, maybe in years, I’ll feel ready to pull them all out. He made the decision to quit the news site he was writing for, and to leave behind the stress, high blood pressure and having to fight for every article that he wrote, and instead moved to a different organization. I could have sat there for much, much longer with him and his wife, but the next talk was beginning so we cut it short.

    The first talk of the day was a talk by Matthew Wood on plant energetics. It was another interesting and educational talk with lots of great stories and examples.

    I next attended a workshop on making herbal creams, with Boaz Tzur, Israeli herbalist and producer of his own line of herbal creams, tinctures and other products. I’ve made salve in the past and making a cream is just one step up from that. Now that I have some direction on how to do this, I’m planning to experiment with making a cream of my own after the wedding and Pesach are over.

    Next I attended another plant walk, this time with a foraging focus, led by Kate Breslaw. I appreciated hearing a different perspective, and again seeing some of the plants I had first learned about the day before was very helpful. It takes time to learn to recognize plants and I now have two new plants to add my repertoire of wild edibles that I’m comfortable foraging (wild lettuce and cleavers), and a third, lambsquarter, that I’m not sure I’ll easily recognize but will be looking for it. (There were more than just these herbs talked about, but others I was familiar with already.)

    Then we had our final meal at the conference, before continuing with the next workshops.

    I was conflicted about which workshop to attend, and signed up and then unsigned up for both. The two options I couldn’t decide between was making a botanical beeswax candle, or herbs for veterinary use. I decided to do something fun, since I had so much information I was accruing, but after a few minutes waiting for the candle making to begin, checked in with myself and felt it would be a better fit for me at that moment to attend the pet workshop.

    That was a great decision, and I enjoyed every minute of it! This was led by Chava Dagan, with whom I felt an affinity before I had any idea how many interests we share (that I didn’t know about until I looked at her website after the conference). I really enjoyed her presentation style, which was a natural fit for me, and the information about how to use herbs to keep animals healthy was validating and encouraging.

    The conference ended with a panel of almost all the herbalists who had spoken, followed by a closing circle.

    I got so much value for every single shekel spent, and was so glad that I attended. I don’t know what next year will hold, but if Ancient Roots Israel has another conference, I’ll certainly want to attend.

    Now I need to go through all of my notes to process and organize the information, so it doesn’t stay on the written pages! I also want to order a couple more books on herbalism – I only have two – to have some good resource material on hand to easily access.

    Avivah

  • Ancient Roots Israel herbalism conference – starting today!

    When I learned that the Ancient Roots Israel herbalism conference would be held this year in Poriya, not far from my home, I was excited that I’d be able to attend on a day pass. I could put my kids on the school van in the morning, daven, milk the goats, and make the fifteen minute drive over in time to join others for breakfast!

    Then my daughter got engaged, and with so much to be done in a short time (the wedding will be the end of February and we have a short engagement period of just seven weeks), and I wondered if it was responsible of me to take two days out to learn about plant uses when there were so many pressing things to attend to.

    Last week I concluded that busy or not, I would regret giving this up if I didn’t go. (Have you ever noticed how we parents so often give up the things that are important to us, to do the things that are important to other people?) Just a week before the conference was to begin, I registered.

    There’s a lot I know about health and healing, but I enjoy continuing to expand my knowledge, and learning about the medicinal qualities of the plants all around us is empowering. I remember when I learned on a nature walk in Maryland about the ability of plantain to instantly soothe bee stings, and soon after used that knowledge when a boy next to us at my son’s baseball game was stung. (We were sitting on the grass, so I quickly picked some plantain growing right on the ground next to us, told him to chew it and put it on his sting. He was amazed that right away it felt better.) It’s not just for my own family but to help others that I want to learn more, though I have no desire or intention to pursue healing at a professional level.

    Some of the compounds in plants have been isolated and used to produce pharmaceutical products, but many more remain unknown to most, despite having been effectively used for thousands of years in cultures across the world. Last year I went on a foraging hike and enjoyed learning about the plants growing locally, and my interest in learning more continues to grow.

    Here’s the schedule of events for the Ancient Roots Israel herbalism conference. I’m planning to attend two of the plant walks, in addition to other talks. (They have also done free virtual plant walks, the videos of which can be found here.)

    Since my younger boys get home at 2 pm, I’m going to be hiring my thirteen year old to take care of them during the afternoon hours I’m gone. My husband will give everyone dinner and put the younger boys to bed, and I’ll get up in the morning with them to get them ready for school. Initially I thought I might come back home during the extended breaks, but that may be stressful so I have the option of staying there for the entire day. The conference begins 5:15 pm today, and concludes on Tuesday at the same time.

    I really wanted to let you know about it in advance, knowing that there are those of you who would be interested in attending, and am sorry that my time constraints didn’t allow me to share about it sooner. At this point, all the rooms are taken and only day passes are available.

    Having said that, in the event that someone is spontaneous and wants to attend even though it’s the last minute but the last of room at the hotel room leaves you without a place to stay, be in touch with me (avivahwerner at yahoo dot com). I have guest rooms available for a small fee and will be driving back and forth daily, so you’re welcome to join me. 🙂

    Avivah

  • Easy Buckwheat Chia Bread – gluten free

    I’ve discovered – and been incorporating – a new ingredient into my gluten free cooking: green, unroasted buckwheat!

    I used to buy this many years ago and didn’t know what to do with it other than cook it as a rice substitute. It was kind of gluey but my husband liked it….

    Well, in recent months I’ve purchased it once again, and have appreciated how versatile it is!

    (About cooking it as a rice substitute…not the greatest use of this. Roasted buckwheat is a much better option for that.)

    This is a great ingredient to use for making gluten free breads. We’ve found store bought gluten free breads not to be very tasty, and definitely not nutritious, though I use them for convenience. You can find unroasted buckwheat in the health store in the bulk grain section. There are a number of ways to use unroasted buckwheat for baking; here’s one easy recipe that I regularly make. It requires about six minutes of hands-on preparation time; most of the prep is soaking.

    Buckwheat Chia Bread

    • 1 1/2 c. green buckwheat
    • 1/4 c. chia seeds
    • 1 c. water
    • 1/2 t. salt
    • 1 1/2 t. baking powder

    Soak the buckwheat in water to cover for a couple of hours but you can leave it overnight if you like. Drain, then rinse.

    Separately, soak the chia seeds in one cup of water. Stir it so that all the seeds are submerged in the water. Let it sit for up to twenty minutes until it’s gooey.

    Process the soaked buckwheat in a food processor with an S blade. You can process the chia seeds separately and then combine the two mixtures, or just process it at the same time. I generally opt for simpler options so I process it all together. Process until the mixture is smooth.

    Add in the salt and baking powder, mix. Pour the batter into pans (I use a silicon loaf pan and a silicon muffin pan). Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit/180 degrees Celcius for up to an hour and fifteen minutes. A smaller pan and muffins will take less time. Let it cool completely before slicing.

    When I use the extra large muffin size pans, I slice each muffin into four slices.

    This lends itself to be eaten as an open face sandwich. Below, pizza wheels were very much enjoyed for dinner.

    Avivah