CLA appetizers

[Theloose]

I've been learning about the digestive wonders of CLA lately, and want to start incorporating some high CLA appetizers into our meals, especially for my 3.5yo dd. I know there are so many yummy options, but she tends to be unpredictable in what she'll eat, so I'm looking for a million fun things to put in front of her.

We're doing this to improve digestion and try to heal food sensitivities, which means we're currently off of gluten and soy, and light on corn and unfermented dairy. There's more, but no need to list it all out... The fun part is that we've avoided most dairy for most of dd's life, and so she won't happily go near it. She'll eat butter cooked in stuff, but doesn't like it unmelted, and won't touch yogurt or cheese. Any ideas happily welcome, but you get bonus points if it's something 'safe' that doesn't rely on spreading butter or chunks of cheese

[Goddess3_2005]

My kids LOVE yougurt parfaits. We put a scoop of yougurt, a spoonfull of nuts, and some berrie or fruit and continue layering this in a cup. They literallt beg for this. Other yummy stuff is smoothies, yougurt or kefir on top of pancakes (we make ours with eggs, flax seed, and coconut flour) . HTH.

[tanyalynn]

Pork doesn't have much CLA, does it? Because something like prosciutto would be easy and yummy.

Flavored butter on a small piece of bread would be so yummy, but if your DD doesn't like visible, unmelted butter, then that doesn't work for you. And if I try this, I need something non-grainy for DH.

So what else, besides dairy, has CLA? Ruminant animals? So fatty beef or goat? Lamb? Mini meatballs?

eta: answering my own question, deer, elk and moose are supposed to be roughly comparable in CLA to grassfed cattle, and apparently mountain lions and black bear are higher (not an option for me), maybe because they eat a lot of deer, elk, and moose?

eta2: I'm having fun reading on this site...
http://www.eatwild.com/cla.html

Marrow, anyone?

[mamafish9]

Cool link, Tanya!

It's the meat fat of grazing animals that is high in CLA, so things like meatballs or sausage where you can soak up the fats seems like it should work. Lamb is really high fat, so that's an obvious one to try. The only thing I don't know is how heat affects the CLA - dairy is easy to eat raw, meat, not so much!

ETA: Good news, CLA in dairy and beef is apparently very heat stable - even making ghee doesn't kill it (apparently increases CLA content!).

http://books.google.com/books?id=d8l...ooking&f=false

So the key is good pastured source ingredients, even if they are pasteurized or cooked.

I love the flavored butter idea too - that's pretty portable...

[ASusan]

So the fat from our lamb sausage or ground lamb would work?

We can't do dairy (yet), but lamb...we have access!

[Theloose]

Egg yolks too, I think?
Yogurt's going to take some work with her, but those parfaits soundlike just the thing to tempt her with! And if she's going to do spreadable butter, I bet honey butter would be the place to start. And great news about ghee! I think it might be time to make up another batch to use for frying stuff. She's been really into popcorn lately, I bet it'd be fantastic for that.

[Theloose]

Creamy soups! Bonus, it gets bone broth in, too
But what are some yummy creamy soups that are light, not too hearty? I tend to make heavy, dinner-in-a-bowl soups. All I can come up with is butternut squash or veggie made with chicken broth and butter.

Breakfast appetizers could be donuts fried in ghee, or honey butter on a mini muffin or...

[mamafish9]

Yeah Susan, I think grassfed lamb fat would be perfect. A great solution for people who can't do dairy.

Egg yolks are good Shannon, but lower than meat fat and dairy, based on what I've read.

If you can get good cream, whipped cream to dip stuff in is yumm and kid friendly. We make dutch baby for breakfast and pre-eat some of the whipped cream.

For me, it's getting easier to think of this as part of the meal, not the appetizer. So I make sure at least one component of our meal is high in dairy/beef fat, and we eat that first (15 minutes before everything else). So yesterday it was butter drenched rice - a few bites as appetizer, then the rest with our meal. The day before at dinner, we had lamb sausage, so a couple bites early, the rest with our meal. Or eating slowly, and starting with the high diary/beef fat food. A spoonful of cream in a little yogurt is still the go to easy appetizer, but I'm trying to branch out a little when it's easy (i.e. something that would work as an appetizer is already on the menu). We always give DS the cream before dinner, but often for me, I grab a few bites of my dinner, then go feed DS, then return for the rest of my dinner.

[AJP]

What are the digestive benefits of CLA? (I didn't see anything about digestive benefits on that eatwild page linked above, but I only skimmed it.) I'm only aware of the anti-cancer and body-fat reduction properties.

[mamafish9]

AJP, this convo moved over from the allergies forum, we've been discussing CLA there in the context of digestion.

Short story of how digestion works - your stomach contents leak into your small intestine and trigger the release of something called CCK, which triggers the release of bile (helps release toxins & digest fats) and pancreatic enzymes (help digest proteins, fats, and carbs).

If you don't digest properly, that can create leaky gut (and often food intolerances) and lots of partially digested food, which grow bad gut flora. We have several people on the allergies forum, including my son, that had their digestion dramatically improved by taking pancreatic digestive enzymes. (I have before and after tests that showed dramatic improvement in his amino acid levels - even though he was eating lots of protein, he wasn't digesting it well). His gut flora got way better, and he gained 5lbs in a month (and he wasn't small before).

Now we're trying to figure out how to replicate the good impact of taking the pancreatic enzymes, by supporting the body's own triggering process, instead of adding external enzymes. Dietary fats in particular are very good at triggering CCK (which triggers the bile & pancreatic enzymes we need for good digestion). Some recent studies show CLA to be particularly good at triggering CCK, and at building up CCK stores in cells (for future release).

Since we eat fairly TF anyhow, it was really cool that our raw cream can be put to good use - so we use that, 15-30 minutes before a meal, to trigger CCK release, to help my son digest his food. It's early days, but appears to be working well. So, we have a thread here to brainstorm yummy, creative ways to get CLAs into ourselves and our kids as appetizers (a little before the main meal to maximize CCK release).

[JaneS]

I think I missed something... is there something about appetizers having CLA that boosts enzyme production? I'm not reading all the threads I know are out there where you could be discussing this so don't be mad at me.

[JaneS]

Ok duh, didn't refresh this screen, thanks MF!

We always take our CLO before bfast, wonder if that would work as well?

[Theloose]

From eatwild, animals in order of how much CLA is in their milk (most first)

sheep
cow
goat
human
pig
horse

eta: presumably that would match how much CLA is in the muscle meat/fat?

lamb
beef
goat
pork

[stephienoodle]

Hmm, we might try this. I looked for pastured lamb at the market today but didn't find any - got ground pork from forest-fed pigs instead to make homemade bologna. The boy has loved homemade bologna when I've made turkey and beef varieties. Maybe I can hunt down some pastured lamb and use it to make bologna next time for CLA purposes. I bet I can get the boy to eat a small slice a few minutes before the main part of his meals...

Anybody know about CLA in fish? Is there any?

[Theloose]

Originally Posted by stephienoodle

Hmm, we might try this. I looked for pastured lamb at the market today but didn't find any - got ground pork from forest-fed pigs instead to make homemade bologna. The boy has loved homemade bologna when I've made turkey and beef varieties. Maybe I can hunt down some pastured lamb and use it to make bologna next time for CLA purposes. I bet I can get the boy to eat a small slice a few minutes before the main part of his meals...

Anybody know about CLA in fish? Is there any?

Wow, homemade bologna? I might have to try that! Where do you even begin to look for a recipe...?

Today's success was that dd tried(!) and liked 'honey frosting' aka honey butter, and ate some before dinner. Now that she knows she likes it, I bet I could do honey butter on a mini muffin or something as a default, and slowly reduce the amount of honey so it's mostly butter. Who tricks their kid into liking butter? What planet am I on? What planet did I grow up on?

[mamafish9]

Yes please, how to make homemade bologna? Texture is a big issue for DD with meat, but she likes salami.

CLA in meat would depend on the fat content, and fat content can really vary (by species, by cut, by individual animal).

Jane, CLO causes some increase in CCK, not as much as CLA though (and CLA is unique in providing a boost to CCK production, so that you have more CCK around for the next meal). Plus butter tastes better than CLO .

[stephienoodle]

None of the bologna recipes that I found last year were nitrate-free. All of them use Morton's Tender Quick (which is salt, sugar, sodium nitrite, sodium nitrate, and propylene glycol). So... I altered some recipes and it has worked so far.

Here's what I do for bologna. It has worked for turkey (which I picked off of the bird and ground myself) and beef (which I used preground and the boy didn't like the coarser texture).

3 lbs ground raw meat (needs to have fat - original recipe I altered uses 80% lean)
2-3 Tbsp sea salt
1 cup water
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
(The recipe I based this off of also uses 1 1/2 tsp liquid smoke... I didn't, but you could if you like meat more smokey.)

Combine all ingredients and mix well. You'll probably need to get your hands into it. If you want your bologna with less texture (like storebought), you may need to regrind the meat first and send it through a fine grinding plate.

Roll into one or two logs. Wrap in plastic wrap and let rest in the refrigerator for 24 hours or so.

Remove the plastic wrap and place log(s) on a greased pan. Bake 1/2 hour at 300 degrees Fahrenheit and then 2 1/2 hours at 200 degrees Fahrenheit. (The recipe I altered uses nitrates instead of sea salt, so bacterial growth is retarded. Because I don't use the nitrates, I increase the temperature to 350 degrees Fahrenheit at the end and cook until a meat thermometer shows that the internal temperature is high enough to be considered well done for the particular meat that is being used.)

Allow to cool and store in the refrigerator. Slice using a knife or meat slicer to the thickness that you prefer. It freezes well, so if you aren't going to use it all within a couple of days, freeze it (presliced works, but make sure you wrap it tightly) in appropriate portion sizes.

If any of you try it with other meats or combos of meats, let me know how it works.

[mamafish9]

Yumm!!! OK, gotta try that. Thanks for the mods without nitrates, that's important to us, we get reactions in this house to too many nitrates.

[Theloose]

Artichokes dipped in melted (garlic) butter. Or hollandaise. Bonus, the bitter artichoke stimulates gastrin/bile, and artichoke leaves are good liver support.

Morning cup of coffee/tea with cream (bonus bitterness there, too).

[JaneS]

Role of both vitamins A and D in regenerating pancreatic cells
http://westonaprice.org/blogs/new-ev...-diabetes.html