Vitamin D and Sleep

Dr. Seth Roberts (a PhD and biohacker who presented at AHS last year) has been blogging about my Vitamin D and sleep connection for several months now and has been trying it out for himself. Seth has been trying to improve his sleep for years and definitely thinks I’m on to something. You can read about his experiments here. He’s currently writing a publication on the subject, which I can’t wait to read. He’s also been referring to the topic during some of his talks. I know some of you have tried and have had success with changing the timing of your supplementation – we believe it’s more important than previously thought and can impact the outcome.

Paleo on CBS

Paleo’s been on the news again! Dr. Kim Mulvihill at CBS San Francisco recently came to PaleoFX and interviewed some of us. There’s tons of great information, including an interview with CJ Hunt about his new movie, In Search of The Perfect Human Diet. (Spoiler alert: it turns out the perfect human diet is Paleo.) Check out the videos on CBS, or click below. I just happen to be in this one. ;)

Aired May 14, 2012: New Documentary Highlights Health Benefits of Paleo Diet
Aired May 15, 2012: Going Paleo Means Cutting Out Common Items from Diet
Aired May 16, 2012: Plenty of Options When Cooking For Caveman Diet
Aired May 17, 2012: Can the Paleo Diet Extend Your Life?
Aired May 18, 2012: Olympic Athlete Credits Paleo Diet for Healing
Aired May 21, 2012: Plastic Surgeon Prescribes Paleo Diet Instead of Liposuction

Pickle Mayonnaise

I recently went on a road trip to New Mexico to visit a friend who I haven’t seen in years. I have so much in common with this woman that we never run out of things to talk about and do together but thanks to the military we’ve been thousands of miles away from each other since 2006. Staying with her and her family really brought a point home for me – we are not meant to live alone with our immediate families, isolated in our perfect boxes. We’re supposed to have extended family and friends around us most of the time. For support with our children. For help with the cooking and cleaning. To socialize with. We shared so many ideas and tips over a one week period that I have come home with tons of new things to try, many of which I’ve already started doing. We even stumbled upon an amazing mayonnaise recipe that I’m going to share with you. If it hadn’t been for Rhonda, I never would have thought about trying this.
As a lot of you know, making your own mayonnaise is disgustingly easy. I say disgusting because it takes about 30 seconds and tastes better than anything you’ll EVER get in a store. It’s a lot cheaper too. Just like salad dressing and marinades, it uses oil and acid – the difference is, there’s a raw egg thrown in. But just like salad dressings and marinades, you can mix up the type of oil and acid you use to invent amazing new flavors.
Rhonda had recently made a batch of pickles but had forgotten to add water to some of the batch (a crucial step if you actually want to be able to eat the things without your face turning inside out). I was making mayonnaise for our trip back home and needed vinegar. She suggested using the vinegar from one of her jars of dill pickles that hadn’t been diluted so I tried it. OMFG. It was possibly the best mayonnaise I’ve ever had. It tasted like summer – for me, that’s potato salad and barbecues. Since the mayo already had a pickle flavor, we didn’t need to add pickles to our tuna or egg salad on the road which made on-the-go preparations really easy. I added a little extra salt to the batch as well so I didn’t need to deal with adding salt, either.
We came up with the idea to make the vinegar to use for future batches, which is what I’m going to do later this afternoon. All you need to do is find a pickle recipe you like, make it — but don’t add the water or the cucumbers — and pour it into a mason jar. You don’t even need to go through the canning process because vinegar won’t spoil. You could add any number of herbs to it, depending on the flavor you want. I’m going to get some fresh tarragon and try that. Having flavored vinegar will save me having to add herbs to my mayonnaise later on and gives a depth of flavor that herbs thrown in at the last minute just don’t have.

Here’s the recipe. Substitute different oils and acids for different tastes.

Basic Mayonnaise Recipe

1 egg
1 cup oil (I use extra light tasting olive oil or avocado oil)
1 1/2 tbsp acid [vinegar or citrus juice] (3/4 tbsp apple cider vinegar + 3/4 tbsp lemon juice is lovely)
1/2 tsp dried ground mustard
1/2 tsp Real Salt or sea salt (more or less to taste, but 1/2 tsp is what I like)
Optional: fresh garlic, pepper, whatever herbs you want.

Put everything into a mason jar and use a stick blender to combine. You’ll have lovely, thick mayonnaise in about 30 seconds. If you’re using a food processor, add the oil in a steady stream. If you want to make a creamy salad dressing, just add some milk to thin it out, or even some more lemon or lime juice. Using balsamic vinegar as your base in this case works nicely. It all depends on what you want to do with the finished mayonnaise. If you’re making potato salad, I really suggest making and using pickle vinegar. (Don’t use pickle juice from a store bought jar, it has been diluted and your mayo will be runny.)

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I’m still writing my book and I’m really excited about how it’s turning out. As for a guestimate of when I’ll be finished — well, with toddlers, road trips, military PCS’s and life all competing for my time and attention, it could be a while but I’m optimistic I’ll get it done by the end of this year. :)