Tag: reference

Where to Find Homemade KimChi Recipe

KimChi recipe on For the Love of Food blog is a good one to start.  It is based on the method in the book Wild Fermentation by Sandor Katz.  There are many variant methods for making KimChi and many use different ingredients.  It is an art as well as science.  If you want to learn more detail about fermentation, read the book Wild Fermentation.  I have.

PerfectHealthDiet has another kimchi recipe and explains the health benefits of fermented food, which kimchi is.  He also answers a lot of questions in the blog comments.  There could have been more emphasize on the need to make sure the vegetables are submerged in brine throughout the fermentation process in order to avoid molds.

Some people like to put a leaf of cabbage or bok choy at the top to prevent air from getting in.  Others like to put plastic wrap between lid of jar.

Dr. Ben Kim has a recipe that uses the “secret ingredient” of apple/pear/onion.  This is better than using of sugar, which is what is often used in commercial kimchi.  Although, this “secret ingredient” is not such a secret.  Because many other recipes uses this as well.

In particular, here is a YouTube video that use that.  Although I would omit the sugar in this one.

Some Food Cooking Recipe Blogs

We all know that cooking at home is healthier than eating out.  With so many food cooking and recipe blogs out there, who needs a cook book?
Pick some and try it out.  Here are some In no particular order and not linked.  But you can google them.
  • Nourished Kitchen – reviving traditional foods
  • nom nom paleo
  • Wellness Mama
  • Perfect Health Diet
  • Paleo Plan
  • The Nourishing Cook
  • The Whole Kitchen
  • Health Bent
  • Chow Stalker – we don’t do cupcakes
  • Serious Eats
  • Just One Cookbook – Quick and Easy Japanese Recipes
  • Just Hungry

 

Direct-to-Consumer Lab Tests

In the past few years, there has been a spawning of various direct to consumer lab testing. These are places online where you can order your own medical tests, go to a local blood draw location (such as LabCorp or Quest Diagnostic), and get your results online. No doctor visits nor referral are needed. All the standard blood tests like cholesterol, glucose, vitamin D, B12, etc are available.

These are great for people who do not have insurance or have a high deductible insurance. And they just want to check their basic health status every once in a while without needing a doctor’s visit. It is sometimes difficult to get a doctor’s appointment without insurance. Because the first thing they ask is what insurance you have.

For those who do have insurance, there might be times when you want to get a test done, but your doctor says that it is not warranted. You can now get your own test done.

Also there are certain tests that you might want to run more frequently without having to always make a doctor’s visit. We all know that doctors are quite busy and have a full queue of patients. An example is a diabetic who wants to get an glycated hemoglobin A1C test done every three months to check to see if diet and exercise is having an effect.

With the Internet as a research tool, many consumers are savvy as to what tests to run and what the results means. For those individuals, they can save the time and expense with direct-to-consumer lab testing.

However, there are others consumers who would be better off seeing a physician in the traditional setting. These do-it-yourself testing is not for everyone.

Of course, there are certain medical conditions where a physician is definitely recommended for everyone.

What Others are Saying about Direct to Consumer Lab Testing

Here is what the media is saying about direct-to-consumer lab testing …

Direct-to-Consumer Lab Testing sites

Here are some direct-to-consumer lab testing sites…

  • DirectLabs.com — Chris Kresser mentions the use of this lab on his site.
  • PrivateMDLabs.com — Jimmy Moore mentions this one on his site.
  • TrueHealthLabs.com — They have Cyrex gluten sensitivity and autoimmune antibody screening tests.
  • WellnessFx.com — They say “You Can Only Improve What You Measure”. They have an health platform that track your biomarker results.

How Safe Is Your Cosmetic?

You can find out how safe your particular brand of cosmetic and health care product by going to the Environmental Working Group website and look for its Cosmetics Database.

You can search over 78,000 products and it will tell you the “hazard score” from 0 to 10 (where 10 being hazardous).  The score is colored coded green, yellow, and red.

You can drill down into the product and it will tell you the ingredients that are of concern.  They look at Overall Hazard, Cancer Hazard, Developmental & reproductive toxicity, allergies & immunotoxicity, etc.