I expect that like most people, I want to eat healthy. When I was younger, I took various cooking classes and enjoyed planning and executing new and interesting gourmet type meals. As I got older I found that time would not allow for those type of meals and I used juicing as a way of getting vegetables in my diet combined with bulk type main courses that I could freeze and reheat when needed. Now I am at the stage where crock pot meals and casseroles are more my style. I find that when I try juicing, a lot of fruits and vegetables just rot before I get to juicing them. So now I depend a lot on powdered plants that I buy or make myself. I just blend them in a protein drink and feel that it makes for a pretty good diet. Better at least than fast food. I also use tincturing as a way to capture and preserve whole food nutrients and medicinal plant extracts. As some know, I do make some silver citrate. Since it can be concentrated, I experiment with it as a preservative for some extracts, Mostly water based extracts. I also plan to look at using magnetic pulses as a preservative. Perhaps in conjunction with other preservatives. Some items such as giant brown kelp that I get locally, I extract the juice and powder it using a homemade low temp vacuum machine to try and preserve the enzymes. I don't do it often as my wife doesn't like the odor. Because of some posts by Renee, I may try my hand at essential oil extraction but I am not sure that will be cost effective but maybe in certain cases. But I still wish that I could get more raw fresh vegetables and fruits in my diet. Sous Vide cooking looks to be one way to cook and preserve meats and vegetables while retaining a large amount of their vitamins. Sous Vide is a cooking method that cooks food at low temperatures in vacuum sealed bags submerged in water. Temperatures are carefully controlled at temps below boiling. Cooking can take several days at the lower temperatures. Vitamins, even vitamin C, are mostly retained, even during storage in the sealed cooking bags. This may be the ultimate crock pot. The main drawback is that Sous Vide cookers are expensive. You can do it manually but it takes a great deal of your time. But I came across plans for a DIY Sous Vide cooker that you may even be able to simplify some more than it is. The plans use a microcontrolled heater but I think that one could devise a method using a simple digital thermometer that has a settable audio temp warning capability. The audio warning could be used to halt the heater for a predetermined amount of time when the desired regulated temperature is achieved and maintain satisfactory temperature control. A digital thermometer of that type costs around $20. Sous Vide cooking does not reliably kill all pathogens and so food must still be refrigerated or frozen but the food will keep for an extended period of time without a significant loss of vitamins. Again, something such as silver citrate or magnetic pulsing might help to extend the period of preservation.
For those who may be interested here are the plans for the DIY cooker: http://lifehacker.com/5545690/build-your-own-electronically+controlled-s ous+vide-cooker Here is some misc information on Sous Vide cooking: A Practical Guide to Sous Vide Cooking http://amath.colorado.edu/~baldwind/sous-vide.html Main Benefits of Sous Vide Cooking http://www.cookingsousvide.com/info/main-benefits-of-sous-vide-cooking Shades of Green http://www.popsci.com/diy/article/2009-01/shades-green What Sous Vide Can Achieve, at a Glance http://www.globalgourmet.com/food/cookbook/2009/under-pressure/sous-vide .html A study on the nutrient retention of Sous Vide cooking: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/123342834/abstract?CRETRY=1&S RETRY=0 - Steve N -- The Silver List is a moderated forum for discussing Colloidal Silver. Rules and Instructions: http://www.silverlist.org Unsubscribe: <mailto:silver-list-requ...@eskimo.com?subject=unsubscribe> Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/silver-list@eskimo.com/maillist.html Off-Topic discussions: <mailto:silver-off-topic-l...@eskimo.com> List Owner: Mike Devour <mailto:mdev...@eskimo.com>
