Rebuild from Depression Blog

I described in July my plan for participating in this year's Eat Local Challenge. I planned to forage all of my own food here in the Sequoia National Forest. The exercise, air, and sunshine are just what the doctor ordered.

It was a good plan. Back in July my biggest fear was that the bobcat would have eaten all of our hens and I would have no eggs. In fact, we have five hens. I could live on eggs and garden produce in a pinch, no problem at all. (It's good to have food options in case the whole foraging plan goes to seed.)

We've had a pepper bonanza of late and this is one of our favorite ways to cook them. It's easy to do and there are rarely any leftovers.

Read on for the recipe, view the video by clicking on the "play button" in the image below, or go directly to YouTube to watch Roasted Peppers.

Mom writes:

For years I've grown sweet Italians for the rich flavor they add to sauces and salsas. Only in the last few years have we been roasting them. I had never heard of them! In reading an autobiography I came across the concept and came up with this preparation. (The autobiography was not a cookbook, unfortunately.) Roasted peppers now stand as a hallmark of great summer eating in this house.

Part of the changes we have tried to make in improving our eating is packing more food for the road. We have worked on collecting reusable lunch gear and, as we find it, really cool non-plastic gear. The sandwiches have been a bit tricky on the non-plastic front (though a sandwich does fit nicely in a compartment of the To-Go Ware lunch system).

One fun item we have tried is this reusable Wrap-N-Mat. It's better than a sandwich bag because, of course you can wash it easily and reuse it. Furthermore, as you can see, it makes a nice plate. The red-and-white gingham print is extra fun because of the picnic feel it provides.

After each use, rinse the mat off with warm water if it is not too dirty. If has a lot of sandwich ooze, you can throw it in the washer with your regular laundry (though I'd give the ooze a quick rinse first). A machine wash is also good maintenance for the Wrap-N-Mat. You can find the Wrap-N-Mat at Reusable Bags.

(The bottle in the picture is made by Sigg in many different designs and sizes. The child was made by me.)

In honor of the Eat Local Challenge this month and its focus on food preparation, here is a video by mom on what to do with the giant squash that got away from you in your garden. She has recipe ideas but also describes how to process it and freeze it. Below you'll find a zucchini cornbread recipe, a long-time family favorite.

To view the video, click on the "play button" in the image below or go directly to YouTube to watch Zucchini.

That should have been the video we made for the 60 Seconds to Save the Earth Contest at Current T.V. and the Alliance for Climate Protection.

It really does help. Over two years ago now I made it my summer project to reduce our electric usage. We dreaded the bill each month and they were often approaching $300.

With $2000 in new appliances, our bills are always at most two digits and have even been as low as $35.

Now when I see the bill, I smile.

What a change from three years ago.

It does help my mood to be sure, but that wasn't the focus of our video.

I got an email from Al Gore Friday night telling me to put in an "all nighter" if I had to. And before you are terribly impressed that Al Gore is emailing me, he would email you too if you sign up for his list.

The email came in the middle of our busiest work season ever. I have been working at least ten hours a day so focused on the computer screen that my eyes are starting to crust. I probably need to add a load of B vitamins to the regimen to get through the next month. But even in the midst of all of this, Sander and I took a day to make a video

It's hard to say no when you have a chance to win a Toyota Highlander Hybrid and get an email from Al Gore.

I haven't pulled an all nighter in a long time and, luckily, we didn't have to do so last night. However, we did have problems uploading and had to use the U.S. Mail to send in our entry.

Our video did focus on our electric bill success story, but with a unique twist. Our home was the first home in the Sequoia National Forest to have electricity. It continued to guzzle until we bellied up and put in the two thousand bucks. We paid back that $2000 investment in about ten months and now we make a return on it monthly. That $2000 also protects the forest from carbon emissions.

Back when we made changes in our appliances, I actually maintained a house blog and documented some of the changes there. I'll have to post an update one of these days because I expect our reduction is a bit better than the 68% in that old post.

Speaking of the impact on the forest, below is a picture of forest smog I took just yesterday.

I made passing mention of this tea idea in my ebook on iron-rich foods. Nettle tea is a traditional remedy for low iron levels but it is interesting that nettle is also fairly high in tannins which bind iron. My thought was that if we could ferment the nettle tea we might have the gold standard in plant-based iron boosters.

It took my own iron levels to take a little dip to inspire me to try the concoction.

I dragged my father and son to an area creek to harvest nettles and discovered that someone else in the area is into nettle tea as well. I managed a small bundle and brought them to boil in about a gallon of water. I let them steep until the next morning.

In the meanwhile, I was making my other water kefir concoctions and just saved a couple of cups of the inoculated sugar water to add to the nettle tea. (See this post about water kefir drinks. Instead of adding fruit juice, I add the nettle tea.)

I let the tea ferment on the countertop, covered in a dishtowel for a couple of days. After those couple of days, I put the jar in the refrigerator to stop the fermentation. (It could get very sour if allowed to sit out but it's all a matter of taste.)

Although nettle tea is a very boring drink, I found myself wanting more and more of this tea. I felt a bit of an energy boost.

If you ferment drinks, give this a try and post here about your experience. In the meantime, I realize that I need to go harvest some more nettles.

Eggs are a great source of protein and the yolks are a great source of Omega 3 fatty acids (Omega 3 eggs), particularly if the eggs come from hens eating bugs and weeds or on a diet of flax or fish meal. We are always looking for new ways to use eggs. Below is mom's recipe for a "sweet omelet." It is a lot like a crepe, but is entirely egg-based. As a result, it is great for people on a grain-free diet.

Mom writes:

How much Omega 3 do I need? Do I really need to take a supplement?

With research coming out all of the time on the importance of Omega 3 fatty acids for brain function (and particularly for depression), quite a number of people have emailed me about how much Omega 3s they need. And the answer is: it depends.

What we do know is that we need an appropriate intake of Omega 3s to balance our Omega 6 intake. Many people in the U.S. consume fifteen or twenty times the amount of Omega 6s as Omega 3s (or more) - an Omega 6 to Omega 3 ratio of over 15 to 1. It should be 4 to 1 or, ideally, even 1 to 1. A 1 to 1 ratio simply means you are consuming a gram of Omega 3s for every gram of Omega 6s.

How did we get so far from our ideal intake? The answer is at least another article if not an entire website, but the short answer is that our current diets of processed foods rely too much on high Omega 6 ingredients (most notably vegetable oils). Our meat supply has far lower levels too. Animals that eat grass have higher levels of Omega 3s in their muscles. As we have replaced a diet of wild game with meat from animals finished on feedlots, our own meat has less of the necessary Omega 3 fatty acid.

How Much Omega 3?

Yogurt is a traditional method of preserving milk that adds beneficial bacteria to the milk product. The process is fairly simple: heat the milk to scalding to kill competing bacteria, cool the milk to about 110° Fahrenheit, add a bacteria starter, and keep the milk at 110° Fahrenheit for twenty-four hours.

Supplies
1) Starter. Use about a one-quarter-cup portion of a live culture yogurt for every quart of milk. Warm to body temperature, or about 100° Fahrenheit. Alternatively, buy a yogurt starter, a more foolproof method.

2) Stainless steel bowl or pot to heat milk. (See double-boiler method below.)

3) Container to culture yogurt. This can be a glass mason jar or the container that comes with a yogurt maker.

4) Optional: digital thermometer with alarm. (Alarm sounds when the heating milk reaches the desired temperature.)

I really dropped the ball on this contest over the summer. It has just been a ridiculously busy season around here. We had some great contest entries and we had a super funny one I still haven't posted and will post in the next day.

It's not that I need laughs because I am deep in a depressive hole. Thank goodness that is not the case.

Our business has a seasonality to it and when I am knee deep in the contract research, my life becomes very focused and serious. In the last six weeks I am getting so much done that I can hardly believe it myself but, honestly, I cannot remember when I last laughed and I certainly have not had a big belly laugh in the past six weeks. Working ten to twelve hours every single day of the week doesn't leave a lot of time to find amusement.

Angela nominates the rock group "Bowling for Soup" as a rock group and depression buster. She says:

This is sorta a two in one punch: bowling gets the physical activity going and soup is always good for the body and soul (as long as it is all natural). So, you get your healthy eats and a good amount of exercise along with it. :)

I asked Angela about her favorite soup. She says:

I prefer Beef Stew or Chicken N Dumplings...I've gotta experiment with fermented sourdough for my dumplings to make it a little more healthy.

Most folks probably do not give a whole lot of thought to their zinc intake, but apparently, if your diet is lacking, one of the consequences is depression. Doctors who use an orthomolecular approach to treating depression such as those at the Carl Pfieffer Centers or authors Joan Matthews Larson and Julia Ross have for decades examined their patients' zinc levels. They have found what researchers are only beginning to document - that improving your zinc status from a deficiency state can improve your mental function.

Zinc and depression
The clinical trial evidence for the zinc-depression link is still slim, but researchers do give us cause to believe that the two are related:

If you have a chance to see this every day, do it.

Note to self: start enjoying the sunset more often.

This time of year is our peak egg consumption. Much of our egg eating is in the form of egg salad or deviled eggs, probably largely because those are both cold egg dishes and are appetizing on hot afternoons. As the weather begins to change, we will likely replace those dishes with quiche and frittata. But as the season changes, the egg production of our hens will slow to a trickle and we will consume fewer eggs.

As we continue in our egg bounty, mom has been going to town on egg dishes. Here she decribes her deviled egg secrets. Watch the video and read the recipe below. Below the recipe you'll find her tips on boiling and peeling eggs. To view the video, click on the "play" button in the image below or go directly to YouTube: Deviled Eggs.

Many months have passed since my last down cycle but I am keenly aware of how important it is for me to live my life differently so that those cycles either never come again or so that, if they do, they will not be nearly as grim.

One of the tools that I use on potentially very bad days is to challenge myself to see something very interesting. I had a potentially stressful meeting in late August. I tried not to be too anxious about it (but I was). Everyone in the house was well aware that of all of the days this year, that day held the greatest potential for me to go bananas. My mom offered to accompany me to town and run errands while I went through the wringer. Knowing myself the risk in the day, I took her up on her offer.

But before we left home that morning I made an announcement:

"We need to take the camera because today we will take a picture of something spectacular."

Air inside our homes in the winter is much more toxic than in the summer. Researchers from Columbia and Harvard teamed up in the TEACH (Toxic Exposure Assessment, Columbia and Harvard) study to monitor airborne toxic exposure. They found that indoor air has much higher concentrations than outdoor air of many volatile organic compounds (VOCs). We spend eight hours or so every night breathing that indoor air. The quality of our indoor air matters. Researchers are finding that poor indoor air is related to respiratory problems like allergies and asthma, particularly in children.

In the context of depression, any toxins we breathe we must process in our bodies. That processing actually requires nutrients. As we work to rebuild from depression, it is important to reduce our toxic exposure. Toxins rob us of our nutrients. Our indoor air is one key source. Those same air toxins may also aggravate our depression in their own right.

Not only do they have a great life while they are living, but when they are not, they are more nutritious for us. Their liver in particular is much higher in Omega 3 fatty acids when they are grazing on grass instead of finished on grain (beef liver and omega 3). Their meat is higher too, though they are still not quite in the same league as a fatty fish such as salmon (Omega 3 and beef). When they are milking, the milk has higher levels of a special beneficial fat called conjugated linoleic acid (CLA and milk). That fat helps with weight loss. :) These days, grass fed beef has become the gourmet choice and you can even get it in hotdog form (grass fed gourmet hot dog).

Rock on, grass fed beef.

We just submitted some photos to the California Farm Bureau Photo Contest. This photo is my favorite unsubmitted photo. :)

Sander and I both submitted three photos. I submitted my "I Met My Meat" photo, one of cattle grazing in the foothills, and one like this idyllic boyhood photo. Sander submitted a variant of the Frederick and chick photo above, a beautiful farm egg photo, and one like this old cattle fence in the forest.

Eggs are a great source of Omega 3 fatty acids. The egg from a hen freely eating weeds and bugs is most certainly a depression buster food because of the Omega 3 content. Boil them up, peel them, mash them, add some dressing and you'll have the beginning of a great meal. The previous entry on deviled eggs discusses how to peel eggs.

In this video, mom talks about using egg salad to stuff a wonderful end-of-summer pepper. To view the video, click on the play button in the image below or go directly to YouTube to watch (Bell Pepper Stuffed with Egg Salad).

This is the first Rebuild news digest, covering topics related to food, health, and depression.

The Mouths of Babes
The New York Times reports that meaningful parents buying organic cereal for their children are providing a less nutritious product because organic cereals are not fortified and enriched with dietary nutrients. Read more.
Note to parents: there is a reason cereal is fortified in the first place. Instead of buying the box, save some money and make your own porridge, experiment with egg dishes, or go the European sandwich route for breakfast.

As evidence that lawyers should not make our nutritional decisions, Attorney Anne Noyes questions legislating school lunches in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "Children and adolescents who have low-fat diets often suffer from depression, fatigue, anxiety, mood swings, hormonal imbalances and (for young women) loss of menstrual cycle," she writes. Yes, we need fats to keep our brains healthy. The problem for her argument is that the particular fats we need are not present in cakes, donuts, and cookies. I also know of no study suggesting that any of us are suffering from sugar-deficiency health consequences. More.

For more on the school lunch debate, Senator Tom Harkin introduced a bill that would affect what schools can sell in vending machines. The devil's in the details as they say. More.

The Rich Get Richer
Supplement users have better diets than non-supplement users. Read more. The rich get richer, though we are all still poor in magnesium, supplements or no. Be careful about getting too rich, by the way. Note most male supplement users consume too much zinc and iron, both depression-fighting minerals if you are deficient. Both are toxic at high levels.

Some people are apparently getting nutrient supplements in enhanced water. Generally supplementation is healthful, but products like enhanced water could end up with questions similar to the current folic acid fortification program, discussed at our website and in the news.

Fight Depression, Build Health
Science Daily reports on a recent JAMA study on the link between Omega 3 fatty acids and diabetes. There is strong evidence that Omega 3 fatty acids help depression as well.

Food Watch
It's not a depression buster if it has E.coli 0157:H57. Beef, high in vitamins and minerals, is a bad idea if it's laced with pathogenic bacteria. Order the steak, pass on the burger, or acquire your own meat the old-fashioned way. Read more on the recent beef recall.

Organic Mega-Dairy Aurora threatens to sue industry watch-dogs. Read part of the battle at Chews Wise. For this writer's commentary, visit the Ethicurean for "Aurora Confession."

Moms and Babies
One in seven of us will face depression in pregnancy or postpartum, a new study says. Yale expert suggests the reasons are either hormonal or due to psychological adjustment. He forgot the fact that in no time in life is our nutrient requirement so great as it is in pregnancy or breastfeeding.

We hear often that the diet of the mom affects the offspring. The diet of the pregnant cow can affect her calf too. If there were assessments of cow mental states, their pregnancy diet would probably affect their postpartum mood as well. Ranchers in Virginia are talking about how to get their herds through the winter on a low feed supply and the implications for the in utero calves. More.