News: My favorite superfoods

I remember once listening to a Christian comedian making fun of the way some Christians pride themselves on all the "evil" things they don't do.

"We don't drink, we don't smoke, we don't dance, we don't party, we don't work on Sunday, we don't wear long hair (men), we don't wear short hair (women), we don't wear pants (women), we don't, we don't..." 

OK, great!  You don't do a whole bunch of things some people find fun.  Must be quite difficult and heroic staying away from all those vices!  So... what do you do?  There is more to Christianity, or any religion, than what you can't do.

Successfully keeping white flour and sugar away from three children sometimes feels like a heroic accomplishment, especially when it comes to attending parties, pot lucks and all manner of social events that revolve around cheap food.  When we attend those events, the focus tends to be on what the kids can and can't eat.

However, it's not so much about what we don't eat but what we do eat.  Our goal is to eat well so we can be healthy, not to simply avoid certain foods.  It's never a good idea to consume cyanide but I don't go through my life thinking of myself as a cyanide avoider.

With that in mind, two superfoods I give my children regularly (and take myself) are fermented cod liver oil and high vitamin butter oil, both available from Green Pasture.  Weston Price found the combination of cod liver oil and high vitamin butter oil could help an ill person recover.  Cod liver oil contains a lot of Vitamin A and Vitamin D, which apparently our bodies need lots of.  Vitamin A is only accessible to our bodies when it's taken with fat, which is a good reason to always serve vegetables with butter.  High vitamin butter oil is an extract from cream taken from cows grazing on green grass.  If the cows are fed hay or grain and anything but growing grass, their cream won't contain Vitamin K-2, a little understood but necessary nutrient.

Some of us may remember being forced to take daily doses of cod liver oil as children.  Our parents had good reasons for torturing us in this way and as a parent I am passing it along.  Cod liver oil and butter oil are best taken together with food.

Ideally, small doses of cod liver oil and butter oil would be given out three times a day.  I give my children a larger dose every day or at least every other day.