Probably the healthiest granola recipe ever..

Granola is so yummy, and a nice transitional food for the accustomed morning cereal eater, as it is a food that can be prepared simply and eaten with milk. However, the downside of granola, is that it is often made with refined oils, concentrated sweeteners, rancid nuts and seeds, hot spices, and generally just kinda heavy, greasy and overly sweet. What is the solution? Make your OWN with good ingredients! Here's how I do mine:

- DRY pan toast some almonds and pumpkin seeds until aromatic (do NOT burn!)

- Add some oat flakes and stir quickly - not too much toasting time for these guys. If they are over-heated, it will not be good for your liver or heat condition, and generally not recommended.

- Chop in some fruit, like apple slices, or stir in some blueberries. The fruit may sweat and add moisture to the dish, but if it doesn't, add a TINY bit of water, or better yet, a little bit of orange juice (fresh squeezed is best).

- I usually stop cooking at this point, even before the fruit usually, and put it into a bowl, however you can add spices and continue baking it for a little time to make it more warming.

- Add spices like cardamom, green stevia, nutmeg, etc, but cinnamon tends to be too hot, and if eaten before bed can cause things like night sweats, or worsen inflammation, etc.

- I put the warm granola into my bowl, (this is where I add the OJ, fruit and spices actually), and then pour over a little flax or hemp oil to give it some richness and greasiness.

- I was a little extra hungry, so I broke up some brown rice cake into as well and stirred it.

- I was also gifted a little dark chocolate, so I chopped that up and stirred it in as well too!

- Since I make my own goat kefir, which is really my only animal product, I topped it off with that, or I might add a little homemade almond milk with it as well.

NO sweeteners, refined or cooked oils, no salt, no flours, no junky nuts, and all fresh! YUM!

KILL YOUR YEASTS!

Yeast, or more specifically Candida Albicans, is a bacteria that should normally be 15% of your intestinal flora, however, with antibiotics, poor dietary habits, poor chewing habits, and excessive sweets or alcohol, candida tends to thrive and be the "man in charge" in your gut - which isn't good because candida is also a malicious fungus that can bore holes through you intestinal lining and make its way through your body tissues, plaguing your other nearby body parts with infection and fungus (such as a yeast infection) but also can be localized in the ears, mouth, liver, etc.. AND can sometimes be systemic, which means your entire body is filled with it, greatly taxing your immune system as it's ALWAYS cleaning up this culprit. 

The candida bacteria have the job of cleaning up your waste foods, typically unchewed food, undigestible foods (such as maltodextrin and other zero-carb sugars), but otherwise eats leftover carbs in the body.

The resulting effects of a yeast (candida) overgrowth is 

• itchiness (ANYWHERE, nose, anus, feet, face, hands)
• foggy headedness (as the metabolic byproduct of yeasts is ALCOHOL.. which means, you actually have alcohol in your blood stream, leaving you feel drunk and stupid!)
• sluggish digestion and weird bowels
• insatiable appetite, easily feel like you are overeating
• edginess and inflammation (which go hand in hand)
• moodiness
• decreased energy
• decreased immunity, and a host of other symptoms. 

Basically, this fungus is like a parasite, constantly taxing your body, and as long as you've got it, you've got an infection festering inside of you - leaving your body sick and at war for as long as you've got it. Antibiotics are given to kill this baddie off, but it also kills the bacteria that check and balance the candida, giving you NO immune defense, which means the candida have an even easier time coming back. I really don't think there is a remedy that a doctor can give that will totally get rid of it that will last. Really, I believe that most people have this to some degree (more so the younger you are, because of the worsening of our diet and increase in antibiotic use) but remember that we should have some of it - but our healthy bacteria should be the majority party ruling our intestines, which keeps the bad boys in check. We're obsessed with sterility and anti-bacteria. But really, our ancestors have grown up with bacteria all their lives, its all around us, heck - we actually have more bacterial cells in our body than human tissue cells.. isn't that amazing? A forest floor has bacteria to help decay and breakdown to renew life, and so do we! I've always got something fermenting in the kitchen, whether on purpose (sourdough, sauerkraut, rejuvelac, etc) or unintentionally (leftover rice, beans, veg... these can sit out for quite a while, as long at the food is still 'sweet' and not foul, you're game for good bacteria!). We've got this same lovely fermenting bacteria in our gut (the good ones) but when you have candida, everything just molds and turns to fungus. But really, must we sterilize EVERYTHING!? Our food is so sterile, not even bacteria can survive from it - but it is this good bacteria that we thrive from!! Did you know that US almonds are ALL sterilized with a toxic chemical, so that NO bacteria can thrive from them? Gees, we've got pasteurized nuts now too!! 

What do we suggest to get rid of this enemy inside us?

1. Don't overeat!.. and for heaven's sake - chew your food!! Especially carbs
2. Raw foods easily rot in the body, making it easier for the candida. "Rot" (breakdown) the food by cooking it first (therefore, eat mostly cooked foods)
3. Exercise, as fungus can't survive in an oxygen rich environment (picture hanging a mildewy cloth out on the line to get sun and air, and the mold disappears!)
4. Eat little salt, and ABSOLUTELY NO SWEETS, of any kind. Natural or refined (and definitely not artificial!! Stevia is tolerated however)
5. Avoid preservatives and other non-foods
6. Eat fermented foods, as they contain lots of GOOD bacteria (like acidophillus)
7. Don't eat cold foods or drinks, but drink tea and room temperature water moderately
8. Don't worry - worry worsens any damp condition, and don't force it, because you'll worry
9. Eat chlorophyll rich foods (green!) as it neutralizes toxins in your body and heals our tissues
10. AVOID bad oils, packaged foods, anything refined, overly floury foods (please, just eat a whole foods diet for goodness sake!!)

As I felt the onset of yeast last week (starting with an itchy nose), I started delving into sweets and ignoring it. It really started to bother me when my food didn't satiate me, which DRIVES ME NUTS!...  So I did this therapeutic plan for three days and seriously kicked its ass.

(From Left to Right in the photo)

1. Dandelion tea/coffee - which cleanses the blood (especially effective if systemic)
2. Lavender essential oil - please be cautious, use 100% botanical and only do ONE drop every three days to start.. if you get a headache, you're using too much (cleansing reaction)
3. Oxygen - which just destroys yeasts on contact. Good for systemic as well, please don't overdo this as well (remedies 1-3 are HIGHLY cleansing and should be moderated) 20 drops a day to start (I did 100 drops a day, but I also had no cleansing reactions)
4. Sauerkraut (in back) - a bacterial supplement for the body, which helps check and balance the yeasts, takes their place when they die, and is rejuvenating for the tissues (HIGH in vitamin C!). An acidophillus supplement is advised as well, but I had already spent too much money on the remedies and needed low cost bacterial support. This sauerkraut is locally made, is raw (unpasteurized), and NO SALT - which is preferred for killing candida or any infection
5. Garlic - nature's antibiotic!! This KILLS any pathogenic microbobes BUT leaves the good ones standing, giving them a favourable place to proliferate!! Seriously, antibiotics kill life, good and bad, but garlic just kills the bad.....  One clove eaten raw before a meal, sometimes best eaten with an apple slice, yogurt (another fermented food!) to soothe the digestive lining if the garlic burns too much. I ate a head in under 3 days! Too much!! Garlic is known in the East by sages to create emotional desire. This actually happened to me!! Desire arose, and I became very emotional. I stopped the garlic, and the desire went away - interesting lesson. (Sweets create desire as well... which just leaves us perpetually shackled to the things we desire!! Not good!)
6. Flax oil - healing for the digestive lining (to reduce inflammation), and rebuilding. Also satiates when you are in an "unsatiable mode"! Repairs the tissues that were aggravated by infection, and cleanses the liver (the body's filter) of junk while healing. Good stuff!
7. Aloe juice from inner fillet (not GEL - and NOT the WHOLE LEAF!!!). This stuff is magic. The sour flavour of the juice just gives away its healing and restorative properties (the sour flavour is healing to the liver as it is like soap, or a solvent to toxins, fatty residues, and all the other crap that is stored in the liver). It is also BUILDING!! Isn't this amazing!! It cleanses and builds at the same time!? It's an antimicrobial, like garlic, but builds the immunity, heals tissue and reduces inflammation, while keeping us cool and refreshed. This is a great pair for when using lavender oil or oxygen, as it "protects" us from the harsh reducing nature of the aforementioned remedies. Oxygen alone can create a feeling of light headedness and poor stability, but when combined with oxygen, keeps us centred, but clear as a bell. Drink 2-3 oz. a day to start (with 20 drops of oxygen) but up it if you can handle it and want to specifically heal short term. I drank the whole bottle of juice in 3 days, accompanied with larger doses of oxygen - but treated it acutely.

Typically, if the "infection" is acute, an short term and aggressive remedy is effective, however, if you suspect that you've had it for a while, and is chronic, it is best to do long term (.5 - 2 years?) and start with the dietary changes, while doing some remedies at a very low level for a longer period of time. 

* NOTE: These are NOT to be taken as a daily preventative medicine, and we are not trying to replace the efforts of the medical system, and this is NOT a prescription. We are simply offering information, and what you do with it is up to you, and we will not be held liable for any healing effects or symptoms that may arise from it. Understood!? Any questions can be directed to Whole Foodies Michael and Sharla at foodies@wholefoodies.org