Easy healthy BREAD, the best condiment in the world 🌶️, and cultivating abundance

Welcome back! This week’s newsletter includes:

• 🥑 Good Food: EASY healthy, keto flax bread 🍞 

• 🔄 Good Swap: Homemade Good Energy Chili Oil (aka the best condiment in the world) 🌶️

• 🧠 Good Thought: ABUNDANCE 🚀 

🥑 Good food - Easy healthy BREAD 🍞 

This week’s good food is a super easy keto flax + almond flour bread that is paleo (grain-free), low carb, gluten free, high fiber, and SO delicious. This recipe is by my dear friend Beth Bollinger of Nest Wellness, and I’ve made it many times when I want to quickly mix up something bread-y in one bowl. No kneading, resting, or starter required! The flax bread has a nutty flavor and the texture is perfect for avocado toast, a turkey sandwich, PB&(no added sugar 😄)J, or dipping in high quality olive oil! It includes psyllium husk and flax seeds which add FIBER (6 grams per slice!), which is key for our metabolic health. 🔑 In fact, Dr. Robert Lustig, professor emeritus of neuroendocrinology at UCSF and author of Metabolical, calls fiber “half of the 'antidote' to the obesity pandemic.” 

💡 Why having more fiber matters:

Fiber is a type of carbohydrate found in plants that is not fully broken down by the body and therefore does not get converted to glucose in the bloodstream. Instead, the gut microbiome ferments fiber into beneficial “post-biotic” byproducts like short-​­chain fatty acids (SCFAs)—​­ including butyrate, acetate, and­ propionate—​­ that get absorbed into the body through the gut and regulate metabolism and improve insulin and glucose levels, regulate hunger and appetite, as well as promote ­anti-​inflammatory effects in the gut and body. Fiber can help protect the gut’s lining and mucus membrane, and slow digestion and absorption of nutrients. All wins!

We want to consume diverse, organic fiber sources from unprocessed foods - I aim for 50 grams per day! My favorite sources of fiber include flax seeds (often in the form of Flackers), hemp seeds, Zen basil seeds, chia seeds, lentils, beans (all kinds of beans, but lupini beans have the fewest net carbs!), avocado, and raspberries. The USDA’s Dietary Guidelines for Americans state that over 90 percent of women and 97 percent of men do not meet the recommended daily intake of fiber, which is already set at an extremely low 25 to 31 grams per day (depending on age and gender). 🤦‍♀️ 

Wait a minute, how can you make bread blood sugar friendly? 🤔 

1. First, you can make or buy a lower carb bread. This recipe has just 2 net carbs and 7 grams of protein per slice. Levels has a great blog article about 8 low-carb breads that are less likely to spike your blood sugar. 

2. Second, when eating bread, pair it with blood sugar-buffering fiber, protein and fat which can reduce insulin secretion to healthier levels. I like to top my bread with things like avocado, smoked salmon, eggs, roasted chicken, a sprinkle of Zen basil seeds, and of course sauerkraut for probiotics (all foods that meet different criteria for the 5️⃣ elements of Good Energy meals!).

🧑‍🍳🍞 Easy Keto Flax Bread, by Beth Bollinger

Ingredients

• 1 cup ground flax seeds

• 2/3 cup almond flour blanched, finely ground

• 6 tsp psyllium husk flakes

• 2 tsp baking powder

• 1 tsp sea salt

• 6 large eggs (look for pasture-raised whenever possible)

• 4 tbsp yogurt (use greek yogurt, goat yogurt or your favorite)

• 6 tbsp olive oil

• ghee or coconut oil for greasing the pan

Instructions

Make the batter

1. Preheat oven to 400℉

2. In a medium sized mixing bowl, add ground flax, almond flour, psyllium husk flakes, baking powder and sea salt. Mix well using a whisk or a fork.

3. Make a well in the dry ingredients and add eggs, yogurt and olive oil. Mix well using a fork until the ingredients are completely incorporated. Allow the batter to sit while you prep your loaf pan.

Prep your pan

1. Brush your loaf pan with ghee or coconut oil or line the pan with a sheet of parchment paper.

Bake your bread

1. Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan and smooth the top if necessary.

2. Put the loaf in the oven and immediately turn the heat down to 350℉ when you put your loaf in the oven. This is an important step!

3. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until the top of your loaf is golden brown.

4. Remove loaf from the loaf pan and cool on a cooling rack.

5. Enjoy this bread warm or in a sealed container in the refrigerator. It will keep 5-7 days.

Recipe can also be found here. Be sure to use organic ingredients in this recipe, especially for flax seeds and psyllium husk, to avoid excess pesticide residue!

If you make this, tag me @drcaseyskitchen and Beth @nestwellness. We’d love to see!

🔄 Good swap - Good Energy Chili Oil (aka the best condiment in the world) 🔥 🌶️ 

Chili oil is by far one of my favorite condiments to make a meal absolutely POP, but nearly every brand contains one or more ingredients that don't align with Good Energy principles (like refined sugars or industrial seed oils, or they are not organic).

The great news!!! 👉️ You can make it (in bulk) in 10 minutes or less and use Good Energy aligned ingredients like organic avocado oil and organic chili flakes, plus a little bit of allulose for sweetness (a natural non-nutritive sweetener). Crunchy, salty, spicy, and a little sweet, this sauce amps up endless meals… We drizzle it on hummus, my Good Energy “tuna salad,” egg dishes, bison stir fries, on top of avocado on a Flacker… really anything savory! It’s also a great gift (we’re thinking of giving our friends and family a pair of “soil and oil” jars for the holidays this year: a jar of our backyard worm compost 🪱 and a jar of Good Energy chili oil! Good, right? 😆 ). 

💡 Read ALL labels and avoid industrial seed oils:

And if you need a quick reminder of why I recommend avoiding industrial seed oils, it’s because they are extremely high in omega-6 fatty acids, skewing the balance of fat types in our body towards the more pro-inflammatory omega-6 fats and changing our cell membrane fat composition in a negative way. Additionally, industrial seed oils - which are often aggressively heated during production, and then stored in clear plastic bottles - can easily oxidize and promote oxidative stress in the body (one of the 3 hallmarks of Bad Energy, or metabolic dysfunction, that I describe in my book!). What’s more, the omega-6 fats compete for the same protein enzymes for processing in the body (called desaturases and elongases) as omega-3s, so in overloading the body with omega-6 fats from seed oils, we BLOCK the ability of the body to make anti-inflammatory EPA and DHA (two types of omega-3 fats).

Additionally, seed oils are relatively new in the course of human history - canola oil began to be made in the US as recently 1974! Our bodies are not equipped or adapted to process such a massive load of industrial oils like corn oil, vegetable oil, canola oil, sunflower seed oil, soybean oil, and peanut oil, which now make up around 10% of caloric intake in the Western world. 🤯 

The rise in seed oil use has tracked directly with obesity, pre-diabetes, type-2 diabetes, inflammatory bowel disease, Alzheimer’s dementia, and more.

Yes, this is correlation. But this epidemiology, coupled with what we know about the mechanisms of how seed oils can potentially hurt our cells, plus the fact that seed oils are made in gross conditions (watch this video to see) and are generally incorporated in ultra-processed foods we should never, ever eat, I’m a firm pass on them. Read your labels, always, and don’t but products with these oils.

🧑‍🍳 Good Energy Chili Oil 🌶️ 

Recipe adapted from Jeeca, the force behind The Foodie Takes Flight!

Ingredients

• 6-9 tbsp gochugaru Korean Chili Powder

• 6 tbsp chili flakes or crushed red pepper

• 2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

• 1.5 tsp Chinese five spice powder

• 3 tsp allulose (I use Rx sugar)

• 1.5 tsp fine salt

• 5 pieces star anise

• 3 cups organic avocado oil

• For storage: I like to use 1 L jars 

Instructions

1. Add all the dry ingredients (except the oil) in a large heatproof bowl. Mix well with a fork.

2. Meanwhile, heat the avocado oil in a saucepan over medium low heat to 200-210 degrees F.

   📌 Notes:

   • I use a meat thermometer dipped in the oil to tell the temperature.

   • If the oil is too hot or starts to smoke, turn off the heat and allow for the oil to cool down slightly before pouring it over the dry mix. Oil that's too hot cause burn the dry ingredients and create a bitter chili oil.

3. Turn off the heat of the pan and carefully pour the oil over the dry chili mix.

4. Mix everything well with a fork.

5. Taste the sediments and feel free to season with more salt and Rx sugar to taste, if needed. If you want more spice, you can add more chili powder/gochugaru.

6. To store: Leave the mixture to completely cool before transferring to a glass jar with a lid. Store in room temperature in a cool, dark place.

If you make this, tag me @drcaseyskitchen - I’d love to see!

🌶️ Here is a comparison chart with popular chili oil brands:

My favorite store-bought organic, no-seed oil, no sugar chili oil is Erewhon’s Garlic Chili Crunch Oil made with avocado oil, but they unfortunately don’t ship it and it’s quite pricey. This homemade version is very similar tasting!

🧠 Good thought - Cultivating abundance, aka BIG BOWL ENERGY ✨ 

At Steve Job’s funeral, he planned for guests to receive a single item: a brown box with a copy of the book Autobiography of a Yogi inside. This book, by spiritual teacher Paramahansa Yogananda, sets out a vision for a concept call “self-realization:” the path of cultivating a direct relationship with the spiritual world, source, or God. In Yogananda’s teachings, he suggests we can find the bliss we are all looking for by taking the time to retreat from the senses, transcend the physical body and mind, and connect with our true nature as spiritual beings connected with everything. In his paradigm, this is all done through the regular practice of meditation. (If words like “spiritual,” “divine,” or “God” don’t land well for you, just replace it with inner calmness and peace.)

When we’re not traveling, my boyfriend and I attend a Sunday group meditation and inspirational spiritual lecture held at one of the meditation centers started by Yogananda (there is a worldwide network of these meditation centers you can find here). It is the highlight of my week, and gets me into an inspired, calm, grounded mindset to start the week.

This week’s lecture at Lake Shrine was about abundance, and below is a short (paraphrased) passage from the lecture that I loved. It’s important to realize that the “abundance” referenced here is not simply about the abundance of money… It’s about abundance of deep rooted inner peace, joy, meaning, and sense of safety, regardless of what is happening around us.👇️ 

Why I like this passage: I love the concept of creating a more functional, larger “bowl” within ourselves to “collect” abundance with (aka, what I will now refer to as BIG BOWL ENERGY 😄🥣🚀 ). As this passage alludes to, to have a stellar bowl, it means we need to take steps to repair defective bowls, cleanse the bowl, and enlarge our bowls. In this passage, we are advised to repair our leaky bowls by eliminating fear, hate, doubt, and envy; cleanse the bowl by cultivating inner peace, tranquility, devotion, and love; and enlarge the bowl with generosity and service.

When I hear the word “devotion,” I hear this as a firm and unwavering commitment to moving towards our highest expression of ourselves and our highest purpose, every single day, no matter what the circumstances around us are or what our spiritual beliefs are. It is a devotion to honoring the miracle of being alive through how we eat, think, sleep, move, and love each day.

It is a devotion to waking up and turning to optimism, hope, and a sense of limitless possibility for ourselves and the world, and rejecting the pull towards the weary, defeated cynicism that is all too common. It is a devotion to giving ourselves permission to believe and feel that a life of abundance is fully possible… that the planet can heal, that we can heal, that more harmony and peace on earth is possible, and that health and meaning is possible for all.

I can speak for myself only, but I think sometimes the biggest roadblock in our journey to creating the “bigger bowl” is our own minds blocking us from even allowing ourselves to feel that a more positive, incredible vision is even possible. Our culture and our algorithms seem to love fear, conflict, and scarcity. As the CNN technical director got caught saying in an undercover video, “If it bleeds, it leads.” And yet, it is free and simple to let the neurons of positivity and gratitude fire, and yet so often, it’s the step we simply forget to take in the negativity-biased, distraction-industrial-complex of the modern industrial Western world.

What we can do today:

• Repairing our leaky bowls might look like 5 minutes of writing down what and who we are grateful for today, spending 5 minutes to journal and work through an issue or friction in our lives, starting a book or podcast on growth mindset or personal development (I have tons of recommendations for these types of books in Chapter 9 of Good Energy), or seeking out therapy or coaching.

• Cleansing our bowls might look like committing to meditating or doing breathwork TODAY (my curated meditation resources are HERE), mentally reciting a few positive affirmations, reading an inspirational or spiritual text (Mary Oliver is always a great choice), and taking a walk outside in nature.

• Enlarging the bowl might look like prayer (of any type, it doesn’t need to be religious if that doesn’t work for you… sometimes I pray to trees, my ancestors, or universal source! It can all open up a path in your brain to express wonder and receive support), serving or helping others with love and care, and taking time to let yourself imagine a positive vision for the future for yourself and all beings.

👆️ Can we commit to one of these habits today? 😃 

Sending you Big Bowl Energy! 💓 

Dr. Casey

🙅‍♀️ Products to Not Eat ❌ 

I’m experimenting with a new section in the newsletter called “Products To NOT Eat” - inspired by one of our subscribers, Alan, who wrote in! The goal is to help us all gain more familiarity in reading labels. There is so much packaged food in our groceries that are bad for our mitochondrial and cellular health - some are even disguised as “healthy” food with misleading label. But we know better! Reply to this email with a photo if you come across a “product to not eat!” that is particularly egregious.

First up: Blue Bunny Ice Cream 🤮 

This is a dessert served in First Class at American Airlines 🤦‍♀️ One look at the ingredient list and you’ll find out why this is in the “Products To Never Eat” list. It has added sugar, seed oils, corn syrup (twice!), “natural” and artificial flavors, and a slew of other chemical ingredients. This is not food. This is a chemical experiment that should not touch the human body. If a food product has ingredients that you cannot easily visualize in your own mind (like “carrageenan” or “tara gum” or “polysorbate 80”), RUN. 🏃‍♀️ Put it down. Respect the temple of your body and don’t eat it. It will probably scare your cells. 😱👻 

A quick Google search will tell you that this has 12 grams of added sugars - with 15 grams of sugar in total. 🤢 

If you’re looking for healthier alternatives to in-flight snacks, I shared a few tips on healthy travel snacks in my previous newsletter.

If you love ice cream and are looking for a better-for-you alternative, try making your own homemade ice cream! I’ll include my easy recipe for how to do so in an upcoming newsletter.

Thank you to Alan for sending this one along!

👀 In Case You Missed It

📚️ Good Energy on the Levels Book Club

Join me and Dr. Robert Lustig as we discuss the overarching themes of Good Energy why we need changes in government and health care, and how people can overhaul their own health with actionable tips, such as eliminating ultra-processed foods from their diet. Plus, I answer readers’ burning questions! 🔥 

Watch the recording on YouTube, or listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

📑 New Good Energy features

Check out these recently published articles:

• “In Longevity Game, Most Americans Have It All Wrong, Doctor Says” on Athletech News

• “In 'Good Energy,' a doctor lays out how to measure and boost your metabolic health” on NPR

🎙️ New podcasts!

Check out these recently released podcasts where I talked about metabolic health and Good Energy:

• Conversations Above the Noise with Maria Shriver (Available to anyone with the Sunday Paper Plus membership - start your free trial here!)

• The Tudor Dixon Podcast (Apple Podcasts, Spotify)

• The Metabolic Link (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube)

• Hart2Heart with Dr. Mike Hart (Apple Podcasts, Spotify)

• YouTube Live with Dr. Annette Bosworth (YouTube)

• Radio New Zealand (Website)

❤️ MOJO Health - Supportive Cancer Care

Conventional cancer care focuses on treating cancer cells, but unfortunately the root causes often go unrecognized and unaddressed. Cancer thriver Julie Stevens realized she not only had healed every single diagnosis from the inside out, including Stage 4 aggressive, inoperable, and chemo resistant colon cancer, she also had successfully healed without suffering. She did this by using blood markers to predict cancer outcomes, building her body up so she could outmaneuver side effects and heal the root causes of disease, advocating for herself, and living in joy, not fear. She has launched non-profit MOJO Heath to empower other patients to not suffer after a diagnosis.

• Check out their website mojohealth.org for more info on the five pillars every cancer patient should know to improve their quality of life and overall survival outcomes

• Listen to her podcast MOJO Rising… how to make cancer suck less to understand what else is important to know after diagnosis

• Look at their dig a little deeper diagnostic to learn about how you can make your body inhospitable to cancer

• Check out their strategy builder to teach you what supplements, diet, lifestyle, or facilitated healers can help you outmaneuver side effects

• Buy her book MOJO Healing

• Or they have sourced what you need most to hit the easy button on your healing journey at their sister company Morejoyhealth.com, where every dollar spent benefits the non-profit MOJO Health.

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Do you have requests/ideas for a future newsletter? Feedback on this newsletter? Want to share a “product to never eat”? Reply to this email and let me know!