More cheese!

Trader Joe's has started carrying a sliced goat cheese. Or they've carried it for a while, and I never saw it before. Whatever, it's SCD legal!!

It does have egg in it for some reason, so if you're not able to have egg, then you'll have to stay away.

Ingredients: Pasteurized goat's milk, salt, starter culture (does not specify if cow dairy starter or not so if you are sensitive, please use common sense), microbial rennet, lysozome (enzyme from egg white).

ETA: Reader Natalie asked me a few more questions as to how I can be sure this cheese is legal. Here's what I told her:

The key is in the starter culture and in the carb count.

The back of the cheese package lists 0 grams of carbohydrates per serving and the ingredients list rennet and starter cultures. Both are used in aged cheeses (even if they aren't aged for a very long time -- the goat cheddar I use is only aged about three months). Unaged illegal cheeses are very soft and don't really hold a shape when sliced -- like ricotta or mozzarella.

This packaged cheese is a firm cheese that is sliced. This is another clue that tells you it is an aged cheese.

Since this is packaged as "Dutch" cheese it is likely a type of gouda or edam. Both are legal.

Hope that helps!

Susan :)

Cheese!

Here's a link to a great blog post about all the different types of Trader Joe's cheeses.

I believe people with compromised immunity should avoid raw milk products, especially people on long-term antibiotic therapy.

But Trader Joe's also carries goat milk cheddar for $10 a pound -- far below the price you will pay anywhere else.

So! Enjoy! :)

Raw milk

There was a post on the Fat head blog about raw milk, and I thought I'd take a little bit of time to do some research on it.

The basic position of raw milk proponents is that pasteurized milk is not as digestible as raw milk. The pasteurization process kills off beneficial enzymes and changes the protein structure of the milk.

I can buy that. Ultra high pasteurized milk doesn't even need to be refrigerated. That's kind of disgusting.

My main concern with raw milk is about the possibility of contamination with e. coli and other pathogens. There are several disease outbreaks attributed to raw milk.

Weston A. Price says that bias does exist here. That may be true.

Now, I'm not saying that all raw milk producers make contaminated products. The risk may be low, but it's still there.

And if you're following the SCD, chances are you have a compromised immune system. A compromised digestive system goes hand in hand.

So if you have compromised digestion, you should probably avoid raw milk. If you wish to use it for yogurt, you should heat it yourself slowly to kill pathogens, as Elaine recommended in Breaking the Vicious Cycle.

I have even more reason to avoid raw milk products, because I am on long-term antibiotic therapy.

If I were to be exposed to e. coli, my antibiotic use could destroy my kidney function, land me in the hospital, and/or kill me. Antibiotics are expressly contraindicated in e. coli infection.

Please keep these concerns in mind, should you decide to try raw milk products.