1. Combine the first six ingredients in a large bowl. Set aside. 2. Add the coconut oil or palm oil to a dutch oven and add the onion. Cook until soft. 3. Add the pepper, green onions, garlic and bay leaf. Saute for approximately ten minutes or until vegetables are softened. 4. Add tomatoes and tomato paste and cook for another five minutes. 5. Add the chicken and fish stock along with the cilantro and simmer for about 10 to 15 minutes. 6. Lastly, add the coconut milk and red pepper flakes and fish. Cook for about three minutes. Adjust for salt and pepper and serve. Recipe courtesy of Diana Rogers, Radiance Nutrition, 2012.

1/3 cup lime juice (the juice of approx. 3 limes) ½ teaspoon sea salt ½ teaspoon black pepper 2 garlic cloves, minced 1 ½ pounds sea bass, cod, or other firm white fish cut into 1 inch pieces (for the video, I used Hake) 1 ½ pound shrimp 2 tablespoons coconut or palm oil 2 cups chopped yellow onion 2 cups chopped red pepper 1 cup minced green onions (for the video, I substituted 2 TBS garlic chives) 5 garlic cloves, minced 2 bay leaves 2 cups diced tomato (about 2 large tomatoes) 3 teaspoon tomato paste ½ cup fresh cilantro, chopped 1 can (14oz) fish or seafood stock 1 cup chicken stock 1 can coconut milk (full fat) ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes (more if you like it hot)

Back to Moqueca: the fish is briefly marinated in garlic and lime, added to a great pile of softened peppers, tomatoes and cilantro, and finished like a Thai soup with coconut milk.

About the pasture raised thing: A grain-fed animal, Rodgers says, is a receptacle for all those omega 6 fatty acids we should be avoiding. To dine on a grass-fed steer or acorn-fed pig is to benefit from the omega 3 fatty acids the animal enjoyed in their lifetime. I asked Rodgers what to do if pasture-raised meats simply weren't available or in the budget; eat pasta? She recommended choosing industrially produced chicken, but avoiding the skin; omega 6 fatty acids tend to pool in the fat.

Years ago Rodgers discovered she had Celiac disease, and went on a gluten-free diet, consuming all the gluten-free breads and pasta she could find in the specialty stores. But, she says, she was hungry all the time, and still felt "digestive distress." Reading Rob Wolff's The Paleo Solution sent her full-time to a diet rich on pasture raised meats she has a gorgeous stew repertoire: Chinese Pork with Ginger with Chard, Loaded Chicken Soup, Seafood Stew with Fennel, and lots of creative pancakes, including sweet potato and a coconut crepe.

Rodgers claims the Paleo diet largely reflects foods we evolved to digest without stressing our bodies. Easily digestible nutrients are easy to access. The science gets dense here, but much of the Paleo thinking is based on avoiding something advocates call "anti-nutrients", colloquially known as toxins. Apparently seeds - and wheat grains are seeds, as are rice, barley and rye - have an outer coating intended by nature to guarantee the seed makes it through our digestive tract intact, thus able to relocate back in the soil and propagate. Coated with "anti-nutrients", or toxins, the seed protects itself from our hungry digestive enzymes. The lucky host gets a good dose of toxins from that portion of seeds, and thus feels fairly crummy for a while - bloated, cramping, yucky. Hello, gluten-free muffins! - or so one would think.

Rodgers claims this nutritional approach provides a big bang of vitamins, minerals and omega 3 fatty acids in each Paleo portion. The diet is also low in omega 6 fatty acids, the bad guys associated with pro-thrombotic, pro-inflammatory and pro-constrictive processes which cause stroke, cancer and heart disease. Consuming high levels of omega 6 fatty acids has been associated with breast cancer in post-menopausal women and prostate cancer in men. Vegetable oils - canola, corn, soy and safflower - are significant sources.

Theoretically based on the protein and vegetable-packed dinners from which homo sapiens evolved, the Paleo Diet is rich with grass-fed meats, eggs, avocados, coconut milk, (even bacon and lard from pasture-raised animals), sweet potatoes and carrots. Yes, the diet is loosely based on early man, the coconuts representing the kind of omega 3 fatty acids scrounge-able 20,000 years ago. The Paleo approach excludes the more recent additions to our evolutionary timeline (Wheat was first domesticated in Turkey circa 9,000 BC, considered recent for Paleo advocates.) - grains, beans, and sugar, all of which spike blood sugar levels and cause inflammation, processes linked to diabetes, heart disease and cancers.

Formerly the "farm family" at Green Meadows Farm in Hamilton, MA, Rodgers and her husband have transplanted their two children to The Clark Farm in Carlisle, MA where on twenty-two acres they raise organic chickens, pigs, sheep and ducks, and will begin a CSA next year. Rodgers also runs a private nutrition practice called Radiance Nutrition. "My mission is to help you rejuvenate your health through optimal nutrition, blood sugar regulation, and digestive support." The Paleo Diet is the template by which she practices.

Diana Rodgers, a certified nutritional therapist and passionate advocate of the Paleo diet, hails this African-shaded Moqueca as a wonderful example of the nutrient-dense recipes in her Paleo recipe box.

Brazilians know "Moqueca", a fish stew redolent with sweet peppers, lime, garlic and cilantro. Reflecting the African shores across the ocean, Moqueca baina includes shrimp and sometimes crab, and is finished with coconut milk.

I'm with nutritional therapist Diana Rogers. Hi, Diana.

Hello.

And I know you're going to make one of my favorite recipes of yours. Tell us about it.

I'm going to be making a Brazilian fish stew. It's also called moqueca. And it's with fish and some coconut milk, a little tomato. And it's a really rich, satisfying stew.

So first, I've cut up a pound and a half of [? peixe, ?] which is a white fish?

Yes a white fish, kind of firm. But you could really use cod. You could use mahi mahi-- any firm white fish. And to that I'm adding some shrimp. So here I'm adding lime juice. And this will just start breaking down the fish a little bit like a mini seviche.

A little garlic and then just a little bit of salt and pepper. And then just toss it a little bit. And then and the end we'll add the fish. And what I'm adding right now is coconut oil. And a lot of people might be a little intimidated.

It's going to surprise timid people.

And it looks a little lumpy and almost like paste that you would play with in kindergarten. But at 76 degrees, it melts. A lot of times in your home in the kitchen in summertime it'll be a clear liquid. See how it's melting right there?

So it's a perfect oil because it doesn't go rancid easily. Next, we're going to add the onions. And you can smell the coconut oil. Doesn't it smell nice?

It smells wonderful.

And there's going to be coconut milk later added to this recipe. So the coconut oil just works perfectly.

It's a Brazilian recipe?

That's correct. I really love the food from Brazil. A lot of times when you go out for Brazilian food, it's naturally gluten-free. They use a lot of tapioca starch. I have to be gluten-free, because I have celiac disease, which is an autoimmune condition where your body reacts to gluten.

And gluten is the protein found in wheat, rye, and barley. So I decided to try the paleo diet, and within two weeks, I was completely free from all my food addictions. It was really, really amazing the transformation that happened with me.

Here we're adding beautiful colored peppers. Classically, this dish would have green peppers in it, but I've altered it a little bit, because I don't really don't green peppers.

We don't like the green peppers. I don't really like them either.

I just did extra red and yellow peppers this time. Doesn't this look so great?

It's beautiful. Absolutely beautiful.

So the paleolithic diet is pretty much a diet based on having lots of foods that are extremely nutrient-dense-- so really looking at the nutrient value.

Beautiful colors means lots of nutrition.

Beautiful colors, lots of natural meats, grass fed meats, saturated fats, like coconut oil. While we're talking, I'm just going to add some red pepper flakes here. And this can totally adjusted according to taste. We improvised on this diet a little bit, because you had some beautiful garlic chives outside.

So these are the garlic chives. So you can use these or some scallions. It really doesn't matter.

It smells so good.

I used a slightly lower quantity, because these are so strong.

When it looks beautiful, it's often full of vitamins and good things for us. Right?

That's right. We want to try to focus on food that's extremely nutrient-dense-- vegetables, meats. Saturated fats are a lot higher in its nutrient value and lower in anti-nutrients than grain products and a lot of dairy products. So that's pretty much the premises of the paleolithic diet.

So these are softening nicely. We're just going to let it go a little bit longer until everything is nice and soft. And then we'll add the tomato products. So things are soft in there, right?

Things are nice and soft. And now at this point, we can add tomatoes. And this could be canned diced tomato. We just happen to have some fresh today. I'm going to toss a couple of these beautiful fresh bay leaves.

My bay leaves.

And then just a little bit of tomato paste. So this is just going to cook for about another 10 to 15 minutes, and then we'll add the rest of the liquid and the fish.

Tons of great flavors in there.

We've got some seafood stock. You can use fish stock, too. I like seafood stock, because it tends to be a little richer. And some chicken stock-- and I really a big advocate for making your own chicken stock from scratch. And lots of cilantro.

I love cilantro.

And then we're just going to let this simmer for about 10, 15 minutes or so. And then the last part would be the fish and the coconut milk. This is full fat coconut milk, one whole can of it that we've poured into here. It's a little lumpy, because some of the fat is still a little bit solid.

Coconut milk will give it a lot of richness. It'll thicken it. Sometimes I even use it in my beef stews just to thicken it a little bit. Lots of great fat to keep you full and satisfied.

Coconut milk I also use in smoothies a lot, sort of as an alternative to cream.

And it's coconutty.

It is pretty coconutty.

You're adding the coconut flavor.

The fat is what's going to keep you full, make you happy, and give you lots of energy for the rest of the day.

That's a paleo statement, right?

Yes. What we have here is the fish that we started earlier.

It's maybe a little bit cooked in there. Just a little bit.

Just a little tiny bit from the lime juice. And so we're just going to add the entire thing, lime juice and all.

So all that good lime juice and garlic goes in there.

Sorry if I splash it on you a little bit.

It's all right. I'm used to it.

And then we're just going to let this go really quick just until the fish is cooked through. And you can see how the coconut milk has really given us a lot of depth. And it's really simple, too. I like recipes that aren't too fussy. It seems like it has a lot of ingredients, but really just throw a bunch of vegetables in here, a little coconut milk, some broth, and some meat.

You could use chicken if you wanted to. Fish is the classic. I'm just adding a little bit of salt and pepper here. And also as a mom, it's easier to get vegetables into my kids if it's all mixed together and they can't really avoid them.

Yeah, yeah that's true. Stews are good for that.

So are you ready for a little taste?

I am, yes. I love the way it's almost become kind of rosy pink with the tomato and coconut milk.

It's delicious.

It smells so good.

I really like to make this for guests, too, because it's really hard to screw up. You can make it ahead of time and just let it sit. I think the only thing that someone might be able to screw up is adding the fish too soon and letting it cook too long.

And they are tastes that people don't get every day, the garlic.

So it's really surprising. And I can't see why you wouldn't love this.

Oh, wow. It's better than mine. It's so delicious.

The richness of the coconut milk, the tomato.

And all the peppers-- the hot pepper, the sweet pepper. The coconut milk just carries all those tastes.

It's perfect.

It's good, yeah. Thank you very much.

You're welcome.

You taught me a lot about coconut milk, paleo diets, and nutrition.

It was great to be here. Thanks.