Category Archives: Administration - Page 6

Happy New Year!

(lyrics translated here)

O Come, Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone! My favorite Advent hymn

provides a good prayer for the PHD community:

O come, Thou Wisdom from on high,

Who orderest all things mightily;

To us the path of knowledge show,

And teach us in her ways to go.

This is the Vespers prayer of December 17 (O Sapientia) and, in the Catholic hymnal, the second verse of “O Come, O Come Emmanuel”. But it works well at all times for a science blog.

Remember that God is with us (O Emmanuel), and have a most merry Christmas and a healthful new year!

Fra Angelico's nativity

Christmas Gifts

It’s the most wonderful time of the year:

Shou-Ching and I are working hard on our cookbook and on raising Luke, so blog posts have been scarce. But we will resume blogging in a few weeks and rest assured, we think constantly of our readers.

In the meantime, I’d like to post a few ideas for Christmas gifts and Christmas charity.

Support the Blog

We’ve compiled a long list of PHD-recommended items under the “Shop” tab. Here are links (if you don’t see any products, exempt us from your ad blocker.)

At no cost to yourself, you can help support our blog and our research by starting your Amazon shopping from this site. A big thank you to everyone who shops Amazon from our site. To search all of Amazon, start from this portal:

Perfect Health Retreat

I’ll be blogging about the retreat in January but let me just say – it’s an awesome experience and a great bargain. If you’d like to give the gift of health to a loved one, a Retreat reservation is a great way to do it.

Perfect Health Retreat

Now for a few that aren’t about us.

Rachel Albert

Rachel Albert, who blogs at The Healthy Cooking Coach, has been a long-time member of the ancestral health community. Rachel gave a warm welcome to Shou-Ching and I when we began blogging, and we are proud owners of a copy of her excellent Garden of Eating cookbook. Rachel has metastatic breast cancer and no health insurance. She has started a GoFundMe campaign to help cover some of her health care expenses. If you are looking for destinations for Christmas charity, this is a good one.

A Few Deserving Businesses

A few family-owned small businesses have sent us samples that we can enthusiastically endorse.

Sproutfield Farms sent us some delicious pork. Quality of ingredients is the biggest factor in cooking, and their pork is outstanding. We especially liked the pork butt.

We occasionally hear from readers who can’t find good quality meat products locally. There are many quality farms, such as Sproutfield, who take orders over the Internet and ship with dry ice. US Wellness Meats, for example, has been a long-time sponsor of ancestral health community events.

But be sure to check out your local farmers. Hilltop Angus Farms, the meat supplier for the Perfect Health Retreats, sells locally in North Carolina. Friend of the blog Allan Balliett is a farmer in Shepherdstown, West Virginia who sells in the DC area through Fresh and Local CSA.

Tessemae’s All-Natural sent us a collection of their sauces. All are made with PHD-approved ingredients. All were delicious. We LOVED the hot sauces, both mild and extra hot. You can learn about the company from their video.

Erik Organic Furniture sent us a lovely hardwood cutting board. Their Amish craftsman make hand-made fine furniture using the finest hardwoods. If you want the finest possible furniture, and to support hard-working craftsmen, check out their site.

Healthy Nation Coalition Letter Regarding USDA Dietary Guidelines

The Healthy Nation Coalition has written an excellent letter to the USDA Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee suggesting improvements to the 2015 Dietary Guidelines, which are currently being drafted. They are asking for signatures in support of their letter. There are currently 600 signatories to the letter. It deserves more.

To view the letter, go here. To sign in support of the letter, go here.

Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance Letter to the FDA

The Farm & Ranch Freedom Alliance is a group devoted to helping small farms and ranches maintain their ability to produce food in natural, healthful ways in the face of burdensome government regulations which often, intentionally or not, favor large agribusinesses.

The Alliance is currently seeking signatures on a letter to the FDA protesting its failure to respect legislated exemptions for small farms.

To view the letter, go here; to sign in support of the letter, go here.

Merry Christmas!

Blessings to all of our readers!

Camel’s Milk and Luke’s Baptism

I apologize for the lack of blogging – between Luke’s birth, our October Perfect Health Retreat, and other obligations, the last three months have been hectic. But everything has gone very well, life is returning to normal, and I will resume blogging soon.

In the meantime, let me share a video from Australia and some baby photos.

PHD Cameo on Aussie TV

The Australian television show “Sunday Night” did a special on camel’s milk, and reader Richard Price was featured. He managed to sneak a copy of Perfect Health Diet into the video (watch starting 3:19 for Richard’s story):


A note on milk: Milk and dairy generally are listed among our “pleasure foods”, meaning they are acceptable in small doses but discouraged in large doses. We often serve a mug of warm whole milk with honey and turmeric as a dessert at our retreats; but we recommend against using milk as a staple food, due to evidence of danger such as this study. Milk supports growth of a healthy gut flora, so it can be therapeutic; but I am not familiar with special advantages to camel’s milk.

Baby Photos

Luke was baptized yesterday, and Mom and Dad are proud. Father Mark Murphy presided, the godmother was present, and the godfather participated by Skype from Switzerland:

Father Murphy and company at font

After the ceremony Luke was able to converse with his godfather:

Luke and his godfather

Here is our family (minus two):

Family after baptism

We had been saving a bottle of Chateau Lafite Rothschild Pauillac 1998, originally received as a wedding present, for a special occasion. It was a very generous gift and we thought Luke’s baptism the best opportunity to open it:

Celebrating Luke's baptism

The activity may have tired him out a little:

Luke resting after baptism

Can’t get enough baby photos? I’ve posted a few more on Facebook.