Newsletter #13: Easy homemade flax crackers, swapping indoors for outdoors, and why buying local food actually *does* matter for your health

Articles
Written By Casey Means
 
 
 

Welcome back! This week’s newsletter includes:

  • 🥑 Good Food: Easy homemade flax and basil seed crackers

  • 🔄 Good Swap: Swapping sedentary, indoor habits (🪑🏠️ ) for outdoor, mobile alternatives (🚶‍♀️😎)

  • 🧠 Good Thought: Why “eating locally” actually does matter a lot for our health

 

🥑 Good food - Easy homemade Zen Flax Crackers!

If you’ve been following me for a while you know that I love fiber and I love grain free crackers (specifically Flackers - not sponsored, I just adore them). Flackers are incredible because unlike grain based crackers, they have only 1 net carb (will not spike blood sugar!), are filled with fiber (9 grams per serving!), and are organic with only 3 ingredients. 

The great news is that it is also EASY to make your own flax crackers at home (recipe is below), which allows you to mix in additional seeds and spices. Let’s review why fiber is so valuable for our health, and how eating fiber is a way of telling our microbiome and mitochondria “I love you”! 💘🦠 

 

My homemade Zen Basil flax crackers - delicious, a great source of fiber, and nutrient-packed!

 

🤔 What exactly is fiber?

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 “postbiotic” by-products 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.  

💡 Why you should care:

Here is just a short list of what fiber does for you:

The list goes on!

One of my heroes, Dr. Robert Lustig (professor emeritus of neuroendocrinology at UCSF) describes fiber as being “half of the solution” to the obesity epidemic (that’s a big statement!).

Despite this, the majority of people do not consume nearly enough fiber. 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). Ideally, I believe we should aim to consume 50 grams or more of fiber daily. One BIG reason Americans don’t get enough fiber is because 73% of our food supply is ultra-processed ( 🤦‍♀️ ), which strips natural foods of the fiber and nutrients 😢 .

Great fiber sources include:

  • 🥜 Legumes (like lentils)

  • 🫘 Beans (all of ‘em! Lupini beans are especially great because they are very low net carb!)

  • 🥦 Vegetables (especially broccoli, brussels sprouts, leafy greens)

  • 🥑 Fruits (especially avocado, raspberries and blackberries)

  • 🌱 Nuts and seeds like chia seeds, basil seeds, flaxseeds, hemp seeds, and pumpkin seeds.

If you are sensitive to beans and legumes, a good place to start with getting more fiber is raspberries, avocado, and basil seeds (a lectin free seed), which may feel gentler on the gut.

One of my favorite sources of fiber are basil seeds - specifically the organic ones from Zen Basil. They are the only organic edible basil seed brand in the USDA database. Zen Basil seeds also have nearly 2x more fiber, iron, potassium, and calcium than chia seeds. I keep them on my counter and sprinkle them on literally everything (yogurt, smoothies, lunch or dinner bowls etc.).

This recipe for the ZEN FLAX CRACKER includes ½ cup of Zen Basil seeds, which has 60g of fiber which is mind-blowing (to compare, ½ cup of flaxseed have ~22g of fiber). 

This flax cracker is fiber PACKED. 

🧑‍🍳 Zen Flax Cracker Recipe

Servings: About 35-40 crackers, but depends on how you cut them!

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cup whole flaxseeds

  • ½ cup Zen Basil seeds (use code DRCASEY for 10% off)

  • ½ cup sesame seeds 

  • ¼ cup nutritional yeast

  • ¼ cup psyllium husks

  • 1 ½ tsp dried thyme 

  • ½ tsp garlic powder

  • 1 tsp salt

  • 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar 

  • 1 cup filtered water

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. 

  2. You can choose to grind the flax seeds (in a spice grinder, I use this one) or just use the whole flax seeds. In this recipe (and the photos throughout) we used whole flax seeds and they came out great. It really just depends on the texture you are going for. 

  3. In a large bowl, combine the flaxseeds, Zen Basil seeds, sesame seeds, nutritional yeast, psyllium husks, garlic powder, salt, and thyme. Add 1 cup water and 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar and stir until the mixture is fully combined.

  4. Prepare two sheets of parchment paper (or silicon baking mats) to fit either one large baking sheet or two medium baking sheets. Place half of the dough on one of the sheets of parchment and cover with an additional sheet. Using a rolling pin, roll the batter to an even thickness, about 1⁄8 inch thick. Repeat with the remaining half of the dough. If you don’t have a rolling pin, you can use a water bottle! 

  5. Bake for 45 minutes - 1 hour, or until crisp and firm. The crackers will continue to firm as they cool. Watch closely around 45 minute mark as you don’t want them to burn.

  6. Break crackers up into smaller pieces or use a pizza cutter to cut into even squares. 

Watch the reel of @sonjakm and I (@drcaseyskitchen) making them here, and tag us if you make them!

 

Nutrition facts from Samsung Food

 

🔄 Good swap - GET UP, GO OUTSIDE! 😄 

Two stats that I learned while writing Good Energy that I cannot get out of my head are the following:

 

This shows how we spent 86.9% of our time indoors and 5.5% in a vehicle! Source: The National Human Activity Pattern Survey (NHAPS)

 

I think these two stats alone can explain a lot of the mental and physical decline we’re seeing in the country. Despite being the only bipedal mammals with the miraculous ability to walk on two feet on this miraculously gorgeous planet Earth 🌎️ , we choose to spend the VAST majority of our time stuck in a chair, locked indoors in the 4 walls of a house 🏚️. What are we doing!? Of course we’re sick!

This is not how we evolved, and it separates us from the life-giving stimuli of the sun, fresh air, and movement. Sitting indoors is not good for our spirit and it’s not good for our cells. I believe it makes us feel small, scared, and lonely. (Also, indoor air is vastly more polluted than outdoor air).

This week’s swap is not about swapping out a food or household product, but swapping out your daily habits that you are currently doing seated indoors in favor of alternatives that are either MOVING or OUTDOORS (or ideally, BOTH!).

For instance, as I type this sentence I am sitting in my kitchen (womp, womp!). Right now I am going to stand up and go into my backyard and stand at my elevated table out there!

 

Here’s the set-up we have in our backyard! I moved an old elevated table to the backyard! ☀️

 

As we’ve moved from an agrarian culture (with the majority of Americans working in agriculture - on their feet, outdoors) to a society of knowledge workers, sedentary jobs have increased 83%. We aren’t all going to go back to being farmers, but we can find ways to convert our indoor, seated activities to outdoor, moving activities. And we should make this a big priority!

 

This is a comparison of nutrition labels from Claussen (left) and Pickled Planet (right). The one on the right is a great label (organic cabbage and salt - that’s it!). The one of the left has a bunch of BS and isn’t organic.

 

Let’s look at the differences through the lens of our cellular health:

 

Super simple homemade pickled red onions!

 

This leads me to a catchy term that has arisen to refer to more movement through the day outside of exercise: non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT).

NEAT refers to any spontaneous physical activity that is not the result of voluntary exercise. It’s basically activities of daily living that require movement, like cleaning, grocery shopping, gardening, puttering around the house, cooking, walking from the car to a store, going upstairs, using a standing desk, and playing with kids—even fidgeting counts. Unsurprisingly, available data support that more NEAT could be an essential tool for body-weight control.

Treadmill desks are an example of attempting to fit more NEAT into the day (this is the one I have — it’s just $169 and PINK!). Researchers hypothesize that if you have obesity, using a treadmill desk at slow speeds for just 2.5 hours per day could lead to a weight loss of 44 to 66 pounds in a year! This hasn’t yet been proven with data over a full year. But research has shown that using a treadmill desk at work for just 2.5 hours per day for ten days led to an average drop of 2.6 pounds of fat mass and an increase of 2.2 pounds in lean mass (muscle). That’s a LOT!

 
 

So this is the swap for the week: 

I encourage you to take stock all the ways you spend your days (literally make a list of every activity), and figure out how to convert some of these activities to standing or moving, and outdoors. 

Here are some ideas - pick 1 of these actions to swap out, and commit to it starting today!

🪥 Brushing teeth: Instead of standing staring at yourself in the mirror, walk outside during those 2-3 minutes and look at the sky. ☀️ 

🚗 Driving: For trips less than 1 mile, walk or bike. 

🏪 Errands: When running errands, park farther away from the entrance to get more steps in. 

🛒 Grocery shopping: Instead of going to the grocery store or ordering groceries online, go to the farmer’s market (there are now nearly 9,000 farmers markets in the US!). This has the triple benefit of sunshine, walking, and clean non-toxic fresh food. 👩‍🌾 

🏫 School drop-off/pick-up: Are there opportunities to walk or bike to school one or more days a week with kids, or to immediately go on a family walk when you get home? 

💻️ Work: Get a standing desk and a walking pad (mini-treadmill under the desk, some are now less than $150), or if possible - even create a makeshift standing desk outside by stacking books or boxes on an outdoor table! 

📞 Phone calls: Take phone calls while walking outdoors, and even proactively schedule walking meetings with colleagues. 

📫️ Mail: Instead of taking mail inside from the mailbox, just stay outside and open it while standing at a table outside.

📄 Paperwork: Take your paperwork outside and do it there. I take all my paperwork (bills, taxes, etc), and organize it/execute on tasks from a big picnic table in my backyard. 

🪜 Stairs: Take the stairs instead of the elevator at airports, office buildings, etc. 

🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Catching up with partner: When catching up with your partner or friend at the end of your day, do it outside, standing up, throwing a ball, or while on a walk.

👯 Catching up with friends: Always suggest a walk or hike to catch up rather than a drink or meal. 

📱 Social media: Make a rule that you only look at social media if you’re outdoors and on your feet. No scrolling while sitting inside! (Bonus, this will get you to spend less time on social media!)

🍽️ Meals: Sit outside to eat as much as possible! This may require having an easily accessible stash of blankets and jackets near the door for chilly nights, but it’s worth it! 

📺️ TV: If you’re watching a TV show, get on a stationary bike or do some air squats throughout.

🧑‍🍳 Cooking: Take a cutting board outside and do meal prep/produce chopping outside. Start cooking more of your food outdoors on a BBQ, or take your ingredients to a park or campsite and cook on a camp stove/fire pit for a fun picnic!

🕑️ Post-meal: Do 10 air squats after every meal or take a 10 minute walk around the block.

🚻 Bathroom: Use the restroom on a different floor in your office or home and take the stairs to get there. Or, make a habit stacking routine of always doing 2 push-ups after every time you go to the bathroom at home (a suggestion from BJ Fogg from his book, Tiny Habits!)

🚌 Public transport: If you take public transport, stand instead of sitting when feasible.

🥗 Restaurants: Eat as many meals as you can outside - request the outdoor table when making a reservation. (And ideally, move to eating as few meals out at restaurants as possible.)

🌧️ If you live in a cold or rainy environment, you may need to invest in some warmer or rainy weather gear to make this happen. Don’t let weather be an excuse! As the Portland-ers said when I moved there: “There’s no such thing as bad weather, there’s only bad gear!” 😄 

If we want to be healthy and happy, we must respect that we are one and the same with nature – not separate - and our biology is meant to be in motion. The sun and earth are our literal life source, and we are choosing to spend the majority of our time locked away from it in our built environments. We need to get outside and get moving so much more, or we will get sick. Make it a personal KPI (Key Performance Indicator) to see how many hours per day you get activity and how many hours per day you spend outside! Take pride in making those numbers soar!

If you’ve got other outdoor NEAT swaps for daily tasks, respond and let me know. I’d love to hear them!

🧠 Good thought - Why it’s important to buy locally grown food, in one graph

Key point in the graph below: The longer a piece of produce has been removed from the soil (i.e., the longer it has been dead), the less nutrients it has, because they degrade rapidly after food has been harvested. Less nutrients = less health benefits, since those nutrients are what build our body and let our cells work. Buying fresher food (meaning food that recently was removed from the soil) will give our body higher density of molecular information (nutrients) to function well. Growing your own food or buying it from the farmers market is an important choice for health.

 

These graphs show how much antioxidant levels (specifically, vitamin C) drop in the days following the harvesting of vegetables

 

This interesting older study shows what happens to the vitamin C quantity of food that is freshly picked from the soil versus out of soil for many days. What you can see is that after picking, the food precipitously loses its nutritional value for key antioxidant vitamin C (and we can assume that the same is happening for several other key vitamins, minerals, and micronutrients). 

The average piece of produce in America travels 1500 miles from the soil to your plate, during which that plant is disconnected from its life source and its nutrients are degraded. Not only is this bad for the planet (churning through fossil fuels to get it to your plate), but this is bad for our health.

This is an utterly new phenomenon – in 1800, nearly 100% of Americans lived on farms and grew food for themselves and their families. Now, 2 percent of Americans live on a farm. We are much more separated from the production and sourcing of our food. Not only is this bad for the planet, but this is bad for our health.

We take in 70 metric tons of food into our bodies in our lifetime, and the nutrients in those foods determine the quality of our bodies and health. If we can maximize the helpful nutrients in each bite we take, we maximize the opportunity to build a healthy body and have it function properly. 

I used to think that farmer’s markets were a “nice-to-have,” organic was something to prioritize when convenient, and “eating local” was froufrou.

I now believe that almost nothing could be more important for the future prosperity of our country (both health of people and the land) than being more in touch with how our food is grown, and specifically seeking out food that is as close to it’s natural source as possible, and grown in the healthiest possible soil.

Why? Because it will have far MORE nutrients per bite, and nutrients determine cellular function and health. Thinking about vitamin C specifically, it has key roles of acting as an antioxidant in the cell (which protects DNA, the mitochondria, proteins, and other cell structures from excess damaging free radicals) and as a mitochondrial co-factor. We want a maximal amount in our food. 👇️👇️👇️ 

 

The top image shows how vitamin C is a key co-factor for the enzymes used in processing critical omega-3 fats to their EPA/DHA form. The bottom images shows the involvement of vitamin C in the electron transport chain (ETC) in the mitochondria, critical for making ATP (cellular energy). We wants LOTS of vitamin C in our diets - this is why fresh food is important! Micronutrients are non-negotiable!

 

If it seems impractical to always eat fruits and veggies picked the day prior, there’s good news: the study referenced shows that FREEZING food soon after picking is another way to preserve nutrients. Unfrozen produce bought at the grocery store is going to be depleted of key nutrients because it has been sitting out or traveled for long periods. Based on the study, the best nutrient value would generally be freshly harvested/freshly picked produce chilled and then eaten with a day or two. Second best generally is food that was picked and immediately frozen. In last place is produce that was picked 2 or more days ago and then left at ambient temperature (like on the counter) — unfortunately, this is the majority of how our food is eaten.

 

You can see here that garden-fresh spinach has 31.6 mg vitamin C per 100g and supermarket spinach has (in one test) has ZERO mg.

 

Buying most of your food at the farmer’s market is a super simple way to make this happen. The food will have been picked that day or the day prior, has higher nutrient levels, is likely free of toxic pesticides (but be sure to ask the farmer), took a lot less fossil fuels to transport it to you (i.e., your red pepper didn’t have to be flown in from Mexico or Chile), and is so much better for our soil health (more on the importance of soil health in my article, here: Why the way our food is grown matters for metabolic health). If you’re not going to eat the food immediately, you can freeze it right when you get home!

Also, I have to plug one of my FAVORITE companies, Lettuce Grow (no financial relationship), which is the easiest way to grow veggies at home and eat them IMMEDIATELY after picking! 🥬 Rise Garden is another option that my BFF Fiona uses!

What’s one thing you can do next week to buy your food more locally? Trust me, there is probably a farmer’s market near you (see map below!).

 

Make it a priority to buy your food fresh, locally, and organic. 🥦 

 

With good energy 💓 

Dr. Casey

👀 In Case You Missed It

⚡️ Free Guide: How to know if your cells are making GOOD ENERGY

You are the primary person in charge of understanding your body. You may have been indoctrinated to think you’re not capable of understanding your body or your lab tests, but this stops here.

 

This guide walks you through how to get and interpret the 6 basic tests everyone needs, and where and how to get those tests.

 

Download the guide here: https://www.caseymeans.com/labs

📺️ Get FOUR DAYS FREE of my new Commune course, “Optimize Your Metabolism”

This is an 8-day online video course that covers the science and philosophy of “good energy,” so you can say goodbye to fatigue and reclaim your vitality. Learn how you can align your daily choices – from nutrition and exercise to detoxification protocols – to best support your metabolism, now and for the rest of your life.

Sign up here: https://www.onecommune.com/casey

👩‍🍳 New cooking video with me and Dr. Gabrielle Lyon!

Watch us cook this delicious and metabolically healthy pork and cauliflower fried rice, an exclusive recipe from Good Energy! This recipe is high in protein, high in antioxidants, healthy fats, and omega-3s and takes just 20 minutes to cook.

Watch the video below:

 
 

Read the full recipe here.

This recipe was recently shared in Dr. Gabrielle Lyon’s 30G’s Recipes newsletter. Get more high-protein recipes like this by signing up for her newsletter here: https://drgabriellelyon.com/30gs-recipes/

📺️ New video with The Texas Heart Institute!

I was so honored to be joining Dr. Stephanie Coulter and Keri Sprung in studio at The Texas Heart Institute where we discussed the connection between chronic inflammation and diet. This is one of two episodes I filmed with them - stay tuned for the next one!

Watch the full episode below:

 
 
 

Forward to a friend: If you enjoyed this issue, please forward to a friend! They can sign up for the newsletter here.

 

latest articles

 
 
Casey Means
Previous

Recipe: Zen Flax Cracker
Next

Recipe: Pork and Cauliflower Fried Rice