Wellness Wednesday - Eating your way to good dental health

Today I decided to chat about teeth! Most of us have them, in various stages of health, and we all take them a little for granted until they start to give us grief. Then we pop a hundred pills to avoid having to go to the dreaded dentist because, who actually LIKES the dentist!?

I've always been irrationally terrified of dentists. I think a lot of people are. The thought of that sharp metal tool scraping away at my teeth has my teeth curling! It's like nails down a chalkboard which also sets my teeth on edge.

We've all always been told we need to go to the dentist at least every 6 months for kids, and once a year for adults. And let's not forget the dental hygienist, which needs to happen every 6 months as well. My wife is one of those people who sticks to her appointments. She prefers to leave the health up to someone else because her time is precious to her and she doesn't have time to brush each individual tooth for 5 seconds;) (she DOES brush her teeth! But she does it the normal way) I have to admit, when I learnt that the best way to brush my teeth was to hold my electric toothbrush over each tooth (front and back) for 5 seconds and let the toothbrush do the work, I had no idea how long that would actually take! It takes looooong...

I've never been one to back down in the face of a challenge so I do it, every day and every night, despite how time consuming it is. On the days that I honestly just don't have the time, I make sure I only brush "down", and I move gently, so that I don't mess up my gums. That's really the motivation behind the 5 second rule with electric toothbrushes. Most people brush their teeth sideways, back and forth, pressing hard, while the toothbrush head is also swivelling around. That's how you expose nerves and get receding gums and eventually this...

... a very horsey smile! I try to avoid looking like a horse;)

The upside to the 5 second rule is that it basically achieves what a dental hygienist would achieve because it focuses very specifically on each tooth. I find that my teeth ALWAYS feel smooth and clean since I started doing it. No plaque in sight:)

I'll tell you a secret... I don't believe in going to dentists or dental hygienists. I used to think it was a necessary part of life but, in my quest for knowledge about health and nutrition, I have come to realise that, like any other part of your body, if you look after it the way it should be looked after, not only will it will be with you for a long, long time, but it won't need tune ups now and then either! You don't need to go for regular stomach tune ups do you? Well, why should your teeth be any different? Some of you are saying, "Well, it's best to avoid a tooth problem by going for regular check ups, isn't it?" Again I'll say, do you do the same with your stomach?

I will agree with regular dentist visits IF you are eating a nutritionally deficient diet and not looking after your teeth properly. Your health is directly determined by the fuel you are putting into your body. If the fuel is low grade, then ALL the parts are slowly but surely going to start giving out, and it often starts with the teeth. In fact, if your teeth are suffering it's a very sure sign that your nutritional intake needs to be addressed and I would also start checking other body parts because something else is going to start giving out soon! The sad thing is that MOST people are eating a nutritionally deficient diet and they don't even know it.

I've spoken before about how to prepare grains properly. It's so important that you really pay attention to that post because grains are LARGELY to blame for the world's dental problems. How can that be, you ask?! All the magazines and books and experts tell us to eat whole grains, in excess. Surely they can't all be wrong? Sadly, they are. There has been a shift in thinking over the last couple of years. It is a slow shift, but it's there, and, one by one, people are waking up to the fact that there is something to all of this and that we need to cut down on grains and eat protein and fats instead. The banting diet has been a huge help in this area.

We ALL eat a lot of bread. If not bread, then other wheat-based foods like pasta, cereals, rice, wraps, cakes etc. And if you thought that going with whole grain, as opposed to refined grains, was better for you, I have bad news. In a weird way, it's actually worse! Which is a disaster because nutritionists EVERYWHERE keep telling us to eat as many whole grains as possible! Let me run through a quick explanation about phytic acid and phosphorus in case you haven't read that blog post yet.

When we consume whole grains we are consuming the bran and the germ part of the plant. The bran is the part of the grain that contains all the good nutrition, BUT it also contains phytic acid. Phytic acid is found in most plants. It is their built in self-defence mechanism and it protects them from germinating until conditions are optimal. Phytic acid is bad for us because it binds with all those important minerals found in the bran and makes it impossible for our bodies to absorb them. Most importantly, phytic acid binds with phosphorous and makes it nutritionally unavailable for our bodies to use. Phosphorous is one of the most important minerals in our diet as far as dental health is concerned. It's actually even more important than calcium when it comes to bone growth and the health of your teeth.

The only way for us to be able to absorb the phosphorous and other minerals from the bran in whole grains, is to properly prepare them by soaking, sprouting, or fermenting them. It breaks them down and makes the nutrients bio-available to our bodies. The problem is, phytic acid is not only limited to wheat. ALL grains contain it and so ALL grains need to be prepared properly. That means oats, rice, quinoa, millet, rye etc. If you want to know how to prepare them properly, here's that link again.

Personally, I think that one of the best ways to avoid this problem is simply to cut down on grains significantly unless you prepare them properly. Humans weren't designed to eat so many grains. The scary thing is that it's pretty much the biggest part of everyone's diet and it's the real reason that dentists are in such great demand these days.

I'm not going to tell you the foods to avoid to prevent tooth decay because it goes without saying that sugary, processed foods are a no-no, for everyone, but ESPECIALLY for kids. So, what can you do, nutritionally, to make your teeth healthier?

• If you aren't soaking, sprouting or fermenting your grains, start now. If you can't properly prepare them, don't eat them. In the longterm, they will make a mess of your digestive system and ultimately deprive you of much needed nutrients and ruin your teeth. This especially applies to your kids because the teeth they start out with will be the teeth they are stuck with for life. Give them a good start.
• Eat bone broth - Bone broth is so good for your teeth because it's rich in minerals. These days, our bodies are extremely starved for minerals because of our excessive intake of whole grains, our depleted soils and our use of chemicals with agriculture. When you make your bone broth, always include marrow bones from pasture-fed animals. If you find a marrow bone in your lamb stew, scoop out the marrow and eat it. It's very rich in minerals and an excellent source of healthy fat. 
• Raw Milk - Raw milk and other raw dairy products are an excellent source of calcium and phosphorus which are crucial to dental health. Raw dairy has many health benefits, one of which is that it contains more bio-available calcium than pasteurised dairy products, which actually contain little to none. Find a farmer near you who sells it. You will often find it at farmer's markets. Not only is it delicious, but it's a superfood of note.
• Organ Meats - Organ meats are some of the most nutrient-dense parts of an animal. Traditional cultures always highly prized the organ meats of the animals they hunted and it was the first thing they ate from it. They are so important for dental health because of their high vitamin and mineral content, which includes the all-important phosphorous. It is, however, essential that you get your organ meats from pasture-fed, free range animals because the liver is the organ that processes toxins in the body. You don't want to be eating toxins! If you don't like liver, try and make yourself like it! It's actually quite easy! I used to hate liver. I couldn't bear the texture and taste. It literally made me gag. But I'm one of those people that, if I know something is exceptionally good for me, I'll force myself to eat it until it becomes the norm for me . It's a true story that if you give yourself 10 days with anything, your mind and body can adjust to it. Now, I actually LOVE liver. Go figure! But I'm glad because it's incredibly good for me. Now if I could just get GLM to try that... ;)
• Butter - It took me a while to get my head around the fact that butter was actually GOOD. I truly struggled because of years of conditioning telling me that saturated fats were bad. I'm not ashamed to admit I was wrong. But it MUST be butter from grass-fed cows. Our bodies need the fat from things like butter in order to assimilate the fat-soluble vitamins A,D,E, and K. Grass-fed butter is an excellent source of vitamin K and something called the “Wulzen factor”. The “Wulzen factor” is a hormone-like substance that can only be found in raw butter and cream and basically assists the body in getting calcium to the bones instead of the joints. It’s also called the “anti stiffness factor” because of its ability to help prevent arthritis.

So, that's what you can eat to help your teeth stay strong and healthy. Needless to say, it will also keep your body strong and healthy because all of the above foods are superfoods in terms of nutrients. You want to be eating all of them, all of the time.

Something else that has helped my teeth and my health immensely is oil-pulling. Since I already wrote a whole blog post on it, I won't go into all the details again, but read the post and give it a try! One by one my friends and family are getting into it which I'm really impressed with;) It's done WONDERS for my teeth. Once a day is all it takes. You CAN do it;)

Needless to say, the toothpaste you are using is likely NOT doing you any favours. Toothpaste is full of nasties, the worst one being flouride. And just because a toothpaste says its for kids, doesn't mean it's good for them. Kids and adults should be able to use the same toothpaste. Read my blog post and please consider moving over to a natural toothpaste. If you are eating right, and you are oil-pulling, you really don't need anything fancy. Even without those things, your teeth are actually just fine without fluoride. You could brush them with bicarbonate of soda and it would actually be good enough as long as you are doing all of the above to look after them.

Try only going to the dentist if it's really necessary and then, if you do go, go to a holistic dentist. Google to find one near you. The chemicals that conventional dentists use are horribly bad for you. In case you wonder why you feel a bit ill or out of sorts for a few days after a visit to a dental hygienist or dentist, chances are it's because of all the chemicals they have put in your mouth. That machine doesn't suck out everything! You usually need a few days to detox after a visit to one of them. Don't subject your body to them if it's not necessary. Oh, and if you have mercury fillings, consider visiting a holistic dentist and GET THEM OUT!!! I will blog on this next week. They are slowly poisoning your body and need to be removed, CAREFULLY.

That's my two-cents worth on dental health. It's actually easy to look after your teeth and it's definitely worth it!

Monday Mix-up - Natural Air Fresheners for your home

Most of us aren't even aware of it, but each house has it's own unique smell. It's a combination of our day to day lives, which includes the food we cook, the beauty products we use, the cleaning products clean our houses with, the pets we have etc. That combination means the smell can be anything from a light, fresh smell, to a musty dog kind of smell. The problem is that we get so used to the smell of our own house that we don't even notice it when we walk in the door. Unfortunately, our guests do!

In last week's post I brought up the issue of commercial air fresheners and just how toxic they are for you and your family (that includes furry children too!) The problem is, a lot of us have pets, and some of you are smokers as well. (I hope I don't need to tell you the dangers of THAT but, just in case, I blogged about how it affects your loved ones a short while ago) Pets and smoke make for a potentially, odorously offensive house. You certainly DON'T want to make it worse by adding chemicals to the mix, so what can you do to make sure your guests aren't looking for an excuse to leave shortly after they arrive?

You have a few options actually, and they are all natural options. Ideally, you don't want to just mask a smell, you want it to disappear. That means you need some kind of odour absorber. Here are a few weird and wonderful ones:

• Diatomaceous earth - This stuff has many, many uses. Aside from being an effective, healthy and natural solution to de-fleaing and de-worming your pets, it also absorbs odours. Diatomaceous earth absorbs moisture in the air which often contains germs and pests and smells. You can place a small container of it in your fridge, or leave small bowls in unobtrusive places around the house. Replace them once a week. You can sprinkle it at the bottom of your rubbish bin and it will get rid of the smells in there. It even works for smelly shoes;) Place some in a old stocking and tie a knot to keep the Diatomaceous earth in. Place the stocking in the offending shoes and leave overnight. If you sprinkle it into your cat's litter box it will help a lot with offensive smells. With 6 cats in our house, we are constantly paranoid about that.
• Coffee grounds - There are few better smells than the smell of coffee brewing but I'm actually talking about the coffee grounds themselves absorbing odours, much like Diatomaceous earth does. Place small bowls around the house in unobtrusive places and let it do its work. Used coffee grounds works just as well once they're dry so, instead of chucking them away, put them to work around your house!
• Plain old elbow grease - Air pollutants actually get trapped in house dust so a good vacuum and dusting with a damp cloth will go a long way to getting rid of odours. To avoid adding more chemicals to the mix, stick with natural cleaners or make your own with white vinegar, lemon juice and bicarb, all of which are also natural odour removers.
• Palms trees - I don't mean the kind lining a beautiful beachfront (although that would be a good way to escape odours;) I mean the small palm plants that a lot of people have in their gardens and houses. Palms are very effective air purifiers. They remove formaldehyde, which you'll find in paints, furniture varnish, and the glues used to hold laminate flooring together. (bet you didn't even think of that kind of stuff did you?) If you don't like palms, try one of these:

Aloe Vera

Gerbera Daisy

Dragon Tree

English Ivy

Boston Fern

Peace Lily

The beauty of using plants is that, not only do they absorb toxic chemicals and smells in your house, but they also add an element of beauty and peace to a house. I love walking into a house full of plants. I immediately feel peaceful and it's not just because they are beautiful, it's because they emanate health and vitality.

A lot of homes have what I call "signature scents". The minute I walk in the door the familiar smell awakens memories and associations and, depending on how much I like the smell, I will either feel immediately comfortable, or I'll be planning my escape route. The same applies to people. Everyone has a signature scent too. That's why perfume companies make so much money. Scents are powerful. They can take you back in time in a flash and they can influence your moods and your thoughts and emotions. Most people find bad body odour offensive. Bad house odour is no less offensive and, like body odour, it can be avoided, naturally.

Here is one way to make your house smell good enough to eat if you are expecting guests:

• 3/4 fill a pot with water and place on the stove on high heat
• Add a sliced up orange, a sliced up apple, a sliced up lemon, a few cinnamon sticks, (or a teaspoon of ground cinnamon) some fresh rosemary and a vanilla pod if you have one on hand
• Bring to the boil then turn down to simmer
• Leave it there for as long as you need to send a beautiful spicy, fruity scent travelling through your house, topping up water now and then when necessary to avoid a burnt fruit smell!

When you are done, turn it off and leave to cool, then pour all of it into a large jar and refrigerate. You can re-use it several times during the course of a week and then throw it into your compost heap when the week is up. Uncooked jars will last for about 2 weeks in the fridge.

You can make these jars beforehand and keep them in the fridge so they're ready to go in an emergency. Don't they look yummy!

Some other examples of spices that you can use are:

• Peppercorns
• Nutmeg
• Whole cloves

And herbs:

• Thyme
• Lemongrass
• Mint leaves
• Fresh basil
• Earl grey teabags
• Bay leaves

And fruits (citrus fruits will keep for longer):

• Apples
• Limes
• Cranberries
• Ginger

If you love the smell of pine trees, like I do, you can even get really adventurous and add pine needles to the pot, or whatever tree smells you like! Keep it REALLY natural;) Play around with combinations until you find some that work for you. You don't have to cut up whole fruits either. You can use the off cuts from your morning smoothie. Skins of fruits will smell just as good:)

Another option is to use a slow cooker instead of a pot on the stove. That way you can leave it on all day without worrying about it running out of water or using lots of electricity.

Make your own room spray

If you live a busy life and prefer to just keep a bottle of room spray on hand for emergencies, it's very easy to make your own:

• Find a clean spray bottle
• Fill with 3 parts water and 1 part vodka (just the cheap, plain kind) It helps break down the oils a bit so they travel easier.
• Add 10-20 drops of your favourite essential oil (or a combination of your favourites like lavender, eucalyptus, geranium, tea tree oil, sweet almond, cinnamon or orange)
• Shake and spray

Sometimes people are so busy trying to mask smells that they forget there is often a very effective, simple way to get rid of them. Never underestimate the power of fresh air. Often all it takes to get rid of an offensive odour is a good through-draft! Open the doors and windows and let mother nature dissipate the smell for you. Then add some of your homemade room spray to make it smell even better!

If you own an oil burner you can add your favourite essential oil to a little water, light a tealight candle underneath it and put them in bedrooms to make them smell good. If you have a large enough one you can even put some of your fruit and spice mix in instead. The heat from the candle will be enough to spread the scent through a bedroom.

There you have it! Simple and easy, effective ways to make your home smell good, naturally!

Real Food Friday Feast - How to make your own coconut butter and coconut milk

I'm a huge fan of all things coconut. It's so incredibly good for you that I find every way possible to get it into my system. I use coconut oil for just about everything when cooking, I add some of it to my apple cider vinegar drink in the mornings. I eat the flakes like chips because they are just yummy and I add 2 tablespoons of coconut flakes to our morning smoothie as well. I also use coconut butter and coconut milk for cooking various things.

The problem with store bought coconut milk is that, by the time they are finished with it, it is so far removed from actual coconut milk that you might as well be drinking store bought pasteurised cow's milk. It's full of thickeners and preservatives and the cans are invariably lined with BPA. It's more carcinogenic than it is good for you. I like to add coconut milk to my soups and curries so having it on hand is, well, handy! Having NUTRITIOUS coconut milk on hand is even handier because, why go to all the trouble of making an organic, free-range, chemical free, nutritious meal, if you are going to go ahead and add a can of chemical-laden coconut milk?

The good news is that it's REALLY easy to make your own. All you need is a good blender and a bag of organic dehydrated coconut (which you can buy at most health stores)

Let's start with coconut butter because, once you have coconut butter, you will be able to make your coconut milk.

COCONUT BUTTER

6 cups dehydrated organic coconut flakes (yup, that's all you need! The amount is optional but it makes it easier if you use more rather than less)

NB: This won't work with desiccated, sweetened, reduced fat or fresh coconut

METHOD

• Place coconut into a blender and blend on high power.
• The flakes will eventually move up the sides of the blender and you will need to use a spatula to push them down again.
• Keep blending... and blending... aaaaaand blending!
• It may take about 10 minutes, some patience and a lot of scraping the sides of your blender down but eventually your coconut flakes will start to turn to cream.
• Stop blending when all of the flakes are gone and the coconut is liquid. (you may need to switch off the blender every minute or so to prevent burning out the motor)
• Place in a container to cool and harden

Voila! You have made coconut butter. Pretty easy huh? You should end up with between 2-3 cups of butter from this recipe. 

If you have a hand blender, I find that works even better, as long as you use the container it comes with because it usually fits the blender part perfectly so it prevents the coconut from escaping up the sides.

Depending on the climate, your coconut butter will either be rock hard or quite runny. Coconut tends to harden in lower temperatures and turn liquid in higher temperatures. I keep mine in the fridge and then just take it out a few hours before I need it, depending on the weather.

Why would you need coconut butter? Well, vegans would definitely prefer this to normal butter, for one thing! But honestly, once you taste it, you will wonder no more! It's delicious! It makes anything you bake with it, taste heavenly. And the wonderful bonus about coconut butter is that you can now make your own coconut milk from it.

Here's how:

• Fill a mug with boiling water
• Add a teaspoon of coconut butter
• Stir until dissolved
• Hey presto! You now have coconut milk!

Now don't be surprised at the consistency of your coconut milk. It's not thick and gooey like the canned stuff. But that's because it's THE REAL McCOY and it doesn't contain thickeners. It's delicious and so good for you and it costs you so little. Using only 1 teaspoon of butter per cup of coconut milk means it lasts a long time. If you think about what you pay for one can of coconut milk, you are saving lots of money by making your own!

That's it! Have a super, green, organic weekend;)

Wellness Wednesday - Air Fresheners: Slow, but effective poisoning of you and your family

I don't know anyone (besides us!) who doesn't have a can of toilet spray in their bathroom. Besides the toilet spray, you also get those wooden sticks that you put into fluid and leave scattered around your house? Another popular option these days are those battery operated air-fresheners that pump out supposed sanitisers every hour or so. I know people don't realise just how bad all of these are for you, but the reality is that they are TERRIBLY bad for you. I start feeling panicky and claustrophobic before I even go into those houses because I know, no matter how clean I keep our lives, we are going to be breathing in toxins every minute that we are there.

I have to wonder why having a floral scented home or car is more important not only than YOUR health, but also the health of your pets, your house guests and the environment in general. Those toxins don't just stay in your house or car. They head out the window and join the myriad of chemicals already in the air all around us. People even leave stasoft refills lying around their cars because it "makes it smell fresh". It may smell fresh, but that fresh smell is toxic to your system.

In NO way, shape or form does having these things in your house, office or car create "fresh air". In fact, the air couldn't be any less fresh THANKS to those chemicals. Believe me, it was cleaner before. Yet people are seduced into filling as many rooms as possible with these fresheners which circulate chemical, toxic scents throughout the house. Consumers are further duped into installing fresheners in their cars. Because of loopholes in the chemical perfume industry, companies aren't even required to list the ingredients of anything labeled as "fragrance." We breathe them in daily, every minute, even while we sleep at night and the damage is beyond anything you can imagine.

I remember taking a drive somewhere on holiday in a friend's car a few years back. Within a few minutes of being in the car I was feeling so ill and I had a raging headache and I was ready to pass out. I couldn't figure out the problem at first, but then we found an old air-freshener under one of the seats that had somehow been missed. You know those ones that are designed to attach to your air vent so the fumes can circulate? I have always reacted very badly to them and people told me I was making it up in my head. At least now I could prove it because I had no idea it was in the car or why I was feeling so bad. A few minutes after we threw it out I started heading back towards feeling normal again. Just because you don't react as badly as I do, doesn't mean it's not affecting you. You know those days when you have a headache that just "appears for no reason"? I'd start by looking at the air fresheners in your life, be it at work, in your car or at home.

Have you seen that the packaging of Glade Car Scented Oil warns you that "Irritation to nose, throat and respiratory tract" is a possible health hazard. Presumably, then, you're supposed to hold your breath as you drive while using this product...

Here's what you are breathing in while your home and your car are smelling "clean":

• Phthalates - These little nasties are possibly the WORST ingredient in air-fresheners. Phthalates are chemicals used to extend the length of time that a scented product maintains its fragrance. The problem with them, though is that regular exposure increases your risk of developing endocrine, reproductive, and developmental problems and yet some of the brands that test positive for phthalates don't even include phthalates on their lists of ingredients. They actually have the gall to say they are "all-natural" and "unscented". What's scary is that phthalates are also present in most beauty and household products as well. Check out this document to get an idea of what they are all about and also a list of products that you should avoid. To be honest, if they don't contain phthalates, they will still contain other toxic ingredients so I will never recommend commercial products. What's interesting is that, companies who make products containing phthalates, CAN actually make products WITHOUT using them, and they do, so why are they even using them if it's possible to leave them out? No-one can really answer that. The fact is, there are little to no regulations when it comes to any household or beauty products so they CAN simply omit an important ingredient like phthalates on the ingredients list you find on the packaging, and you'd have no recourse of any kind if you WERE to get sick.
• Acetone - A toxin that adversely affects the blood, heart, gastrointestinal system, liver, kidney, skin, respiratory system, brain and nervous system. In other words, it can damage just about any part of your body and have a wide range of negative effects on it.
• Butane and Isobutane - Yes, I'm talking about lighter fluid! It a serious toxin to our brain and nervous system and you are breathing it in daily...
• Liquified Petroleum Gas and Petroleum Distillate - I think it's fairly obvious why we wouldn’t want to add this to our air supply on a daily basis, or even on a annual basis! Your air-freshener contains the byproducts of petrol. Probably the parts that the oil industry can’t put into motor vehicles. Waste not, want not, right? Wrong. In this case I'd say it's better to waste it!
• Propane - Toxic to the cardiovascular system, blood, liver, kidney, respiratory system, skin, and nervous system. It's known to be EXTREMELY dangerous. That’s why we tend to keep gas canisters outdoors whenever possible; yet we’re spraying this stuff into our indoor air willingly, and breathing it in.
• Perfume or fragrance - This one ingredient contains up to 400 different toxic ingredients. 95% of those ingredients are derived from petroleum products. Clinical observation by doctors has found that exposure to fragrances can damage the central nervous system and cause depression, hyperactivity, irritability, inability to cope, behavioral damages, headaches, dizziness, rashes, hyper-pigmentation, vomiting, coughing, and skin irritation.
• Benzene - This stuff is known to cause leukemia in humans.
• Formaldehyde - This is linked to cancers of the upper airways and it is also used to preserve body parts in a lab... need I say more there?
• BHT—a known neurotoxin (a substance that is toxic to the brain and nervous system), a hormone disruptor, immune system toxin, and irritant to the skin, eyes, and lungs.
• Acetaldehyde - a known carcinogen (which means it causes cancer) that affects the reproductive systems and hampers normal development  (yes, that means it can damage a foetus) It's an immune system toxin, and an irritant to skin, eyes, and lungs.
• Propylene Glycol - a known carcinogen which is toxic to the immune system, causes allergies and accumulates in the body and irritates the skin, eyes, and lungs.
• 1,3-Dichloro-2-propanol - This causes cancer.
• Methyl pyrrolidone - Very toxic to the reproductive system. It's also been linked to birth defects,
  allergies, immune system disorders, and skin, eyes, and lung irritation.
• Ethyl acetate - another brain and nervous system toxin (or neurotoxin) which is also linked to developmental disorders and reproductive disorders.
• Amorphous Fumed Silica - This is present in Glade plug-ins. Overexposure can cause silicosis, which is a disabling, non reversible and fatal lung disease

If all that doesn't scare you enough, these things also come with warning labels that state “Deliberately…inhaling the vapour of the contents may be harmful or fatal” or “Avoid inhaling spray mist or vapour.” I find that so ironic. They are sold to us as "air fresheners". Which should mean we should be able to breathe them in, right? So how are we supposed to avoid inhaling something that is constantly being forced into our air space? Whether we stick our mouths right over them, or just breathe them in daily, we are still being poisoned, whether it's inch by inch, or in one foul swoop.

We’ve been duped into thinking that we need these products to protect us from harmful bacteria or viruses even though there is no evidence that they actually disinfect the air AT ALL. They only mask smells. They don't get rid of them. What there is evidence of, is that they harm us, sometimes irreparably. There are so many other alternatives to make your house smell good, while still keeping it safe and non-toxic for you and your family.

You don't need to have a smelly home. I understand how it can be with pets. We have 6 cats! But there are ways to avoid it using natural options that don't irreparably harm you and the environment. I will post a blog about this next week so watch this space!

Monday Mix-up - Clean and Conscious Living

It's funny what happens when you change your mindset. It can take years to change it, but once the penny drops, you wonder how you ever could have thought differently. I felt it when I suddenly realised why I HAD to recycle, and also when it finally clicked into place that organic and free-range were actually the only healthy and ethical options for us and I cut chemicals out of our lives and stopped buying conventional meats and produce. Looking back I can't imagine a time when I ever thought that, what we did, didn't affect anyone else but us, and why I thought that our health wouldn't suffer. Now I can't turn back because I've become CONSCIOUS.

Take, for example, an ex-smoker. It can take years to quit. They will find every excuse and justification in the book, and then some! But, after they finally bite the bullet and quit, they become worse than non-smokers;) They will often be the ones to complain the loudest when someone is smoking within a 100 metre radius of them. I think it's because they have realised just how intrusive and selfish a habit it can be, and they are secretly very mad at themselves for taking so long to realise it. My theory is that, every time they berate a current smoker they are, in fact, berating themselves;) 

When I was in my teens I smoked for a while. I enjoyed it too! I was an incredibly shy, incredibly unsure of myself, little girl and smoking gave me a false sense of confidence; something to do with my hands when I felt completely lost or exposed, which was often. Its crazy, isn't it? I was a singer and the state of my voice was a constant concern to me and yet I allowed myelf to damage it with cigarette smoke. One day, thank goodness, I found some common sense and I just stopped. 

After that, I had the same epiphany that all other ex-smokers had. I realised that all smokers reeked, no matter how much gum they chewed, and that they had yellow teeth and fingers, bad skin and a constant, hacking cough. It literally controlled their lives. Its so ironic because smokers seem to ooze confidence. Just look at the camel man;)

I've always thought that most smokers look sexy and "together", but I know that, in reality, they are a little shaky and unsure of themselves, even if it's subconsciously. Why? Because they are addicts at the end of the day, and their comfort and security depends on a little white stick and how often they will be able to get up close and personal with it. I feel terribly sorry for smokers. They may have made the choice to light up in the first place, but, after that, their right to choose was taken away from them. Cigarettes are harder to quit than heroin!

I can't really give advice on HOW to quit. There are so many WHYS. But I don't think focusing on THEIR health as a smoker is what is going to give them pause to reflect. I've heard so many justifications and excuses as to why someone isn't quitting YET and the reality is that a smoker doesn't actually want to quit. They aren't concerned for their health and telling them that it's bad for their bodies won't make a difference. They are in complete denial about what it's doing to them and, because they don't value their bodies, (how can you if you willingly abuse it) telling them it's not good for them will wash off them like water off a duck's back. But, while smokers may have little regard for their own bodies, they DO tend to have plenty regard for the bodies of those they love.

So this is what smoking does to those you love:

Partners of smokers:

Passive smokers have a much higher risk of cancer and heart disease if they are exposed to other people smoking for long periods of time. The risk of developing lung cancer is increased by about 20-30% in people who are regularly exposed to other people's cigarette smoke. Cigarette smoke is also an irritant, and can make asthma and other conditions worse. Standing at a window and holding your cigarette out of it doesn't make any difference. Enough smoke blows back in to have a lasting, and devastating effect.

What most smokers don't realise is that their choice to smoke, while a serious health threat to them, is an even worse health threat to their partner. A cigarette has a filter on the end of it for the smoker, to remove some of the toxins, but the passive smoker is breathing in the chemical-laden, unfiltered, raw, toxic smoke from the other end all the time. They chose NOT to smoke, because they value their health and their bodies, but a smoker's habit is directly affecting their loved ones freedom of choice to be clean and smoke-free.

Pets of smokers (you didn't think they were somehow immune did you?):

Nicotine from secondhand smoke can have seriously negative effects on the nervous systems of cats and dogs. Tobacco smoke contains numerous cancer-causing compounds, making it JUST as toxic for animals as it is for humans. We share a lot of the same physiology so it makes sense that, what hurts us, would hurt them. They are just as at risk for cancer and heart disease. Animals are also particularly susceptible to "third-hand smoke" which not many people know about.

Third-hand smoke is an invisible but toxic mix of gases and particles that attach themselves to smokers’ hair and clothing, cars, and carpeting (that lovely Eau de Ashtray that tends to cling to a smoker!) and it lingers long after the visible second-hand smoke has cleared the room.

A Harvard study actually found pets to be uniquely susceptible to this toxic cocktail of poisons. The reason is that, not only are they breathing the smoke-filled air, but they are also lying on the carpet and furniture, and on your lap and picking up anything clinging to it and absorbing it into their skin. Then, to make matters worse, the animal will groom themselves and ingest whatever is clinging to their fur. 

In a lot of households, especially during winter, your animals can’t get away from smoky air meaning that they become victims of your habits (and opening a window is not enough.)

Children of smokers:

• Are more prone to asthma, and ear, nose and chest infections
• Have an increased risk of dying from cot death (sudden infant death syndrome or SIDS)
• Are more likely than average to become smokers themselves when older
• On average, do less well at reading and reasoning skills compared to children in smoke-free homes, even at low levels of smoke exposure
• Are at increased risk of developing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and cancer as adults
• Small children are also uniquely susceptible to third-hand smoke for a lot of the reasons that pets are

If you thought all that was bad, what about the effect it has on the environment:

Researchers estimate that 1.7 billion pounds of cigarette butts accumulate in lakes and oceans and on beaches and the rest of the planet every year! These cigarette butts contain the same dangerous chemicals contained in a cigarette, including carcinogens and other poisons.

Globally, about 4.3 trillion cigarette butts litter the earth every year. Smokers in America contribute more than 250 billion cigarette butts to that number. The UK contributes 200 tons of butts, and Australian smokers, more than 7 billion cigarette butts every year. In most Western countries cigarette butt litter accounts for approximately 50 percent of ALL litter. The problem is that smokers don't even really think of cigarette butts as litter. They casually throw them out of car windows and flick them over walls without a second thought as to what happens then.  Yet most of them wouldn't think of doing that with a colddrink can. Why are a lot of smokers in such denial?

We don’t live in a vacuum. I've said it a few times. The choices we make have a way of trickling down to others, and it's often the people we love. Unless you're a sociopath, you don't MEAN to harm your family, your pets, the wildlife and the environment by smoking but, sadly, that’s exactly what you're doing. It's not rocket science to make the connection between the cigarette butt you flick out your car window and the cigarette filters found in the stomachs of fish and birds who mistake them for food.

Besides the actual cigarette butts, there is also the issue of the smoke which, besides being breathed in by those around you, is also ending up in an environment already overloaded with toxic chemicals. When you drive out of Johannesburg and look back, all you see is a dirty, grey, mushroom-shaped fog over the whole city. Not all of that is from factories and vehicles.

The air pollution from cigarettes is 10 times greater than car exhaust fumes. Cigarette smoke produces fine particulate matter, which is the most dangerous element of air pollution when it comes to health. Amazingly, the levels indoors can be even greater than those outdoors, because new cars and lead free petrol have cut the levels of particulate matter from car exhausts. Factories also have strict regulations when it comes to emissions into the environment which means that your cigarette smoke is among the most toxic parts of the air pollution we live with on a daily basis. It doesn't just disappear when you put your cigarette out. in fact, it never EVER disappears.

That's the reality folks. I know a lot of people who smoke. Some of them are very close to me and they're people I love very much, but I don't love their habit and I can't condone it at all. Not when I know what it's doing to me and MY loved ones via second-hand smoke, and even my animals via third-hand smoke because who doesn't stroke a cat or dog when they come looking for love?

Just because I focused on smokers, doesn't mean I feel any less strongly about people who don't recycle, or who use chemicals in their house without a second thought for the environment and the impact it's having, or people who refuse to buy free-range without a thought for the animals. What kind of legacy are we leaving for our children and our children's children? What kind of planet are we going to be left with if something doesn't GIVE really soon. The penny needs to drop and it needs to drop YESTERDAY.

But I also know about mindset changes and about what it takes to become more conscious. I may be clean and green now but I also used to be ignorant about the part I was playing by not being conscious of my own personal impact on the world around me. That's the case for most people and it's fine, as long as it's only because you ARE simply unaware. However, once you HAVE been made aware, it is unforgivable NOT to act. 

If you have read any of these blogs, then you are aware. That means its time to start living consciously.

Today looks as good a day as any, don't you think?

Understanding Type 2 Diabetes, insulin and blood sugar.

These days everyone seems to know at least one person who is fighting some kind of dread disease or chronic illness. It's become so commonplace and yet we still feel so shocked when it hits us close to home because it IS shocking, and horrible, seeing a loved one suffer. Cancer and heart disease are right at the top of the list, but something else that has become just as commonplace is Type 2 Diabetes. Every second person either has it, or has extremely high sugar and needs to monitor it to avoid becoming a full blown diabetic.

There are two types of diabetes, as most people know by now (because it has become so common) so let me first explain the differences between the two.

Type 1:

Type 1 Diabetes is an autoimmune disease that the majority of sufferers will acquire before the age of 40, which is why it's often called Juvenile Diabetes. When your own body destroys the good guys in your body, it is known as an autoimmune disease. In the case of Type 1 Diabetes, the person's own body has destroyed the insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas. That means that that person is simply not capable of producing their own insulin. About 15% of diabetes patients have Type 1.

Type 1 is not a preventable disease. It is absolutely not the result of a person's lifestyle. It makes no difference what size a person is, or how active they are. In fact, the vast majority of people who develop Type 1 are not overweight and are mostly healthy when it starts. You can't reverse or prevent Type 1 by exercising more or eating carefully but doing both of those things will help a person manage it better. Simply put, the cells that produce insulin cease to function meaning that the person needs to inject insulin for the rest of their lives in order to survive. No-one really knows what causes Type 1 Diabetes. Genetics probably plays a role, exposure to certain viruses may trigger it and sometimes a really bad shock can also trigger it.

Type 2:

A person with Type 2 Diabetes has one of two problems, and sometimes they are affected by both. Firstly, they are not producing enough insulin and secondly, their insulin is not working properly. This is known as insulin resistance. Type 2 is directly the result of bodyweight, fitness and lifestyle. Most sufferers have been overweight, unfit and eating badly for some time and the constant trauma to the body as it tries to adjust, leads to insulin resistance, and Type 2 Diabetes.

It would make sense, looking at the above paragraph that Type 2 Diabetes is both preventable and reversible. But how does being overweight, unfit and unhealthy actually cause Type 2 Diabetes and what does insulin resistance actually mean?

When you eat food, your body digests all the macronutrients, ie. proteins carbs and fats. WE measure those macronutrients in terms of grams and calories, but your body sees them, simply, as fuel. If you eat more fuel than your body needs (which most people do) the body has no choice but to store the excess fuel. This ability to store comes from our ancestors being in a constant "feast or famine" state thousands of years ago. Our bodies are very clever. They evolved to make sure we survived as a species in times of famine. Unfortunately, that process is still very much in action despite the fact that a lot of us in 1st world countries have far too much food available these days!

In case you didn't realise it, every type of carbohydrate that you eat (this includes bread, pasta, cereal, potatoes, rice, fruit, dessert, sweets, fizzy drinks and fruit juices) is eventually converted to a simple form of sugar known as glucose. While glucose is a necessary fuel, it can be quite toxic in excessive amounts, which is why you don't want it to stay in your bloodstream. You want to get it inside your cells to be burned for fuel and our bodies have evolved a clever way of getting it into those cells.

The muscles and the liver are storage places for glucose. They store it in the form of glycogen. Glycogen is a muscle fuel that is used by hard anaerobic exercise (think sprinters like Bolt or power weight lifters) Remember I mentioned how in Type 1 Diabetes, the beta cells in the pancreas have stopped working? Well, in a normally functioning body, those beta cells in the pancreas would sense when there is an overload of glucose in your bloodstream after you've eaten and they would secrete insulin. Simply put, the job of insulin is to allow glucose to gain access to the inside of muscles and liver cells. But there's a catch: Once those cells are all full of glucose, as they are almost all the time with inactive people, the rest of the glucose is then converted to saturated fat.

Here is the great irony, the saturated fat that we eat is NOT what gets stored as fat, it's sugar that gets stored as fat. This is something that is really confusing for a lot of people who think that saturated fat is the root of all evil. 

This is the reality: If we go back 10,000 or more years, we'll find that our ancestors had very little access to sugar or ANY carbohydrates for that matter. They had some fruit here and there, a few berries, roots and shoots but most researchers believe that our ancestors only consumed around 80 grams of carbs A DAY. The rest of their diet consisted of different amounts of fat and protein. (Compare that to today where most people eat around 400-1000 grams of carbs A DAY!) Because the carbs they ate were very fibrous and complex (think roots and shoots) their effect on raising insulin was minimal. In fact, there was so little carbohydrate/glucose in our ancestor’s diet that our bodies evolved FOUR ways of making EXTRA glucose ourselves and only one way of getting rid of the excess we are eating. Go figure.

When we eat too many carbs, the pancreas releases loads of insulin as it's been programmed to do, but if the liver and muscle cells are already filled to overflowing with glycogen, those cells eventually start to become resistant to the call of insulin. The insulin “receptor sites” on those cells start to lose their efficiency and, since the glucose can’t get into the muscle or liver cells, it stays in the bloodstream.

The pancreas senses there’s still too much toxic glucose in the blood, so it panics and pumps out even MORE insulin, which causes the insulin receptors on the surface of those cells to become even more inefficient and resistant. Why? Because, to add insult to injury, excess insulin is also toxic and they don't want anymore of it! Eventually, after bucket loads of insulin have been released, it invariably DOES help the glucose find its way into your cells.... just not the right ones. It ends up in your fat cells, where it is stored as fat. So you see, at the risk of repeating myself, it is not fat that gets stored as fat, it's sugar.

Of course, as time progresses, we continue to eat too much sugar and insulin resistance continues to build up until, eventually, only medication can regulate the situation but medication can only do so much.

Here is what happens when a person develops Type 2 Diabetes: 

1. There is more glucose in the blood for much longer because the glucose can’t get into the muscle cells. This excess glucose is like toxic sludge which clogs arteries, binds with proteins to form harmful AGEs (advanced glycated end-products) and causes inflammation throughout your system, increasing your risk of heart disease.
2. More sugar gets stored as fat over time. The muscle cells will be getting less glycogen because they have become resistant, and, to make it worse, insulin inhibits the fat-burning enzyme lipase, so now you can’t even burn the stored fat as easily. So you get fatter and eventually those fat cells become resistant to insulin as well!
3. Then it gets worse. Your insulin STAYS higher for longer because the pancreas thinks "this isn't working so we need more!" The problem is that insulin is very toxic at high levels. It causes plaque build-up in the arteries (which is why diabetics have so much heart disease) and increases your risk of cancer.
4. As I said, insulin resistance prevents glucose from entering your muscle cells but it also prevents amino acids from entering and these are essential for building and maintaining your muscles. Along with that, other parts of your body think there’s not enough stored sugar in the cells (because of the insulin resistance), so they send signals to start basically cannibalising your muscle tissue to make MORE sugar! You get fatter and you lose precious muscle tissue.
5. You start to feel tired all the time and when your energy levels drop, you get hungry... for MORE carbs. You also have zero energy to exercise. Ironically, you actually crave more of the poison that is slowly killing you.
6. When your liver becomes insulin resistant, it can’t convert the thyroid hormone T4 into the T3, so you end up with an underactive thyroid, something else that plagues most women these days. Doctors will say they don't know why it happens. 9 times out of ten, THAT is why it happens.
7. You start to develop nerve damage and pain in your extremities because the damage from all the excess sugar destroys nerve tissue, and you begin to lose your eyesight as well.
8. Eventually, the pancreas is just so exhausted, it can’t produce any more insulin and you wind up having to inject LOTS of insulin just to stay alive and that is when a person has full-blown, insulin dependent, Type 2 Diabetes.

Sounds bad, right? It IS bad. But there is good news! It's entirely avoidable and, to an extent, reversible. I say "to an extent" because, if you are insulin dependent and already have nerve damage and eyesight damage, that will be pretty hard to reverse. You can, however, make it MUCH better.

Of course, first prize is to simply avoid the risk of getting it altogether. Medical experts will tell you that some people are just genetically predisposed to Type 2 Diabetes and it's got nothing to do with lifestyle. I will say this: I believe that we are ALL genetically predisposed to Type 2 Diabetes because our bodies were never designed to consume so much sugar. If we all ate the same, we'd ALL get Type 2 Diabetes. Thankfully we don't all eat the same, but there is a large portion of the population that does and they are ALL getting Type 2 Diabetes. It's become as common as flu, only it lingers forever.

I think it's a no-brainer that we need to stay away from refined grains and sugars. It kills me when I see dieticians STILL telling people that they need to eat 60% carbs a day!!! Are they insane? That is what started the madness in the first place and now it's become like a runaway train, almost impossible to stop. Every food place is based around carbs, more specifically, refined carbs. How do you re-train entire nations?

It starts one person at a time which is why I write this blog and why, I hope, you share this blog. The solution to preventing, and curing, Type 2 Diabetes is in your diet and how active you are. It's so simple and yet, it's not, because our brains have been trained to think a certain way. You need to go back to grass roots and start questioning everything you've ever been told about the world and our bodies, and how it all works.

You don't "need" grains, you don't "need" sugar, you don't even "need" starches. The foundation of every good diet is organic vegetables. That is ALL the carbs your body actually needs. I wouldn't even go with 5 helpings of fruit a day, unless you split them up into several meals. Fruit is sugar. But I would still recommend eating them in moderation because they DO contain loads of goodness as well.

When I was doing my first year of exercise science and I had to shadow personal trainers for a while, I was quite shocked at the total lack of knowledge that one of them had. He was on a strict diet and he had cut out carbs altogether, he told me. He said he was struggling because he was hungry all the time. So I said, "So you're just eating protein and fat then?" He said, "NO! No fat at all. Just meat and vegetables, strictly no carbs." His idea of carbs was rice, bread, potatoes and pasta. What he'd actually done was cut out grains and starches but, as he didn't consider vegetables to be carbs, he had convinced himself that he was literally starving himself to death by cutting those grains and starches out so he was only doing it for a month because he was too hungry all the time.

This kind of diet is actually a waste of time and not a longterm option because, for one, your body NEEDS fat to function, and secondly, when he introduces grains and starches again, as he will, he'll just  gain back all the weight he lost. If he was so hungry when he cut out grains and starches, he should have simply increased the amount of vegetables he was eating, and added fat to his diet, and he'd have felt satisfied. You can eat as many vegetables as you like. They are so low in calories they won't be anything but good for you and they are high in fibre so they fill you up. He was actually going through withdrawal from the grains and starches because your body does get addicted to them. Had he increased his vegetable and fat intake and pushed through, he'd have found it easier to cut grains and starches out altogether and felt fine AND maintained his body weight.

So, it's simple. Make your diet predominantly fat and protein-based, with vegetables and a bit of fruit as your carbs and you will prevent the onset of Type 2 Diabetes, as well as things like heart disease and high blood pressure etc. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain by doing it, especially if you have already been told your sugar is high and you are at risk of developing Type 2 Diabetes.

Stop diabetes before it stops you!

Real Food Friday Feast - Cauliflower Pizza

Banting is all the rage at the moment and, while I'm not a supporter of fad diets, I have to admit I'm quite happy about the state of affairs! It's always such a struggle for me to find anything gluten-free, never mind grain-free and now virtually the whole country is demanding it. Suddenly coconut oil and flour are everywhere and they're cheaper than they used to be. Two years into us eating this way, the country has finally caught up! Thanks Tim Noakes! Even my in-laws are following the diet so Sunday lunches now include cauliflower rice instead of refined white rice. I couldn't be happier:)

Imagine my excitement when I discovered that my favourite pizza place, Col'Cacchios, have started making cauliflower-base pizzas! We treat ourselves to a gluten-free pizza there now and then but I was so keen to try their cauliflower-base pizza. That's why last night we treated ourselves to a date night of pizza and some red wine:)

It wasn't totally awful... but it wasn't good either. The base was soggy and tasteless. It was a struggle to get it off the pizza plate and onto our dinner plate. It all kind of collapsed and you ended up eating something more like pizza mash then actual pizza. It was also expensive! A normal pizza there is 28cm and it costs about R100. The cauliflower-based pizza is 21cm and it's the same price. We didn't think it was worth it at all.

In fact, GLM paid me a huge compliment when she said this one doesn't hold a candle to MY cauliflower pizza recipe! Bless her heart:) I actually agreed with her though! I think next time we go out for pizza, we'll stick with the gluten-free base and just treat it like what it is... A rare treat night!

So anyway, I have friends who are following a very banting-friendly diet right now and they have been asking me for my cauliflower pizza recipe which is why I decided it was time to blog about it. Honestly, don't spend a fortune on a pizza that isn't going to cut it when you can make it at home for less than half the price and 20 times the taste.

You can read all of the awesome benefits of cauliflower in my cauliflower rice recipe. The main reason for people substituting cauliflower for rice, mash and pizza bases is that their grainy equivalents are very calorie-dense and they're linked to diseases as well. Cutting them out of the diet for a period of time has led to huge amounts of weight-loss for people. Using cauliflower means you can eat the same quantity for less than half the calories. Plus, it's all round a healthier meal.

So, without further ado, here is my recipe. Needless to say, all of these ingredients are organic and free range (how well do you know me by now;):

Ingredients

Base:

2.5 cups grated cauliflower (or use your food processor)
1 large egg, beaten
1 Tbs butter
1 cup grated cheese
1 tsp basil
1 tsp oreganum
1 clove garlic, chopped small
1/2 an onion or 1 small onion, chopped small

Topping (this is really up to you. This is what we used):

1 pack bacon, cooked
1 tomato, diced or sliced (depends on your preference)
1 cup cheese
1/2 avo, sliced
1 cup mushrooms, sliced and fried in butter (or coconut oil or lard if you prefer)
Sprinkle of oreganum
1/2 a sliced banana (this was on GLM's half, not mine!)

Method

Base:

• Preheat your oven to 220º C
• Lay some baking sheet on a baking tray or pizza pan if you have one
• Place a saucepan on the stove and put it on medium heat
• Add the butter
• Add the garlic and onion
• Fry for about 3 minutes until nice and soft
• Add the cauliflower and fry for about 5-10 minutes
• Remove from heat and allow a few minutes to cool while you prepare your other ingredients
• Into a mixing bowl, add cheese, egg, basil and oreganum
• Mix up and then add cooled cauliflower and mix well
• Spread your dough on your baking tray making sure not to leave any holes. Try make the thickness the same all over. It will seem weird. Don't worry. It comes together in the baking!
• Place in the oven for 15-20 minutes. Keep an eye on it so it doesn't burn
• Remove from oven and add all toppings except avocado and banana
• Put oven onto grill and place under grill for 2-3 minutes
• Remove and eat!

Your base will go crunchy if you give it time to. It's never going to be as sturdy as a gluten base pizza but I promise you the taste will make eating with a knife and fork worthwhile. It's honestly the tastiest pizza we've ever eaten. What I do is cook up a huge batch of cauliflower and freeze it in 2½ cup size portions so it cancels out a lot of the work. That means that, when you want your pizza, it's good to go in about 25 minutes.

Enjoy and have a wonderful weekend!

 

Why balanced meals are important

Just when you thought all you had to do was eat healthy food to be healthy and to lose body fat, (which, let's face it, is most people's main motivation!) I'm going to tell you that that isn't really all there is to it!

Eating real food is, without a doubt, going to keep your body healthier and functioning better and you will likely lose weight as a result but, after a while, you may find things plateauing and possibly even reversing direction. You start gaining body fat and it makes very little sense because you're eating so WELL!

I've said before, in this post, losing body fat is about 80% diet and 20% exercise. Everybody's needs are different. It depends on how much you weigh, your age, whether or not you're pregnant, whether or not you're sick, what medication you might be on and how active you are. (that includes everything from how much walking you do at work, in other words, "unconscious exercise", to how much time you spend consciously exercising) That's a lot to think about. There is a way to make things simpler though, for those who really don't have time to think too hard about it and I'll tell you about it in a bit.

If diet is such a big part of it, it makes sense to focus a bit more on that but, as I've said before, every person's needs are different. Your BMR or Basal Metabolic Rate is going to be determined by all the factors I listed in the above paragraph. Children have a higher BMR than adults (generally) because they are constantly growing and so they need constant fuel. But an adult who spends 6 hours of their day sitting in front of a computer, who doesn't exercise, will almost certainly have a lower BMR and therefore require less fuel to keep their body functioning. Most people know this as their metabolism. If a person eats a lot but never seems to gain weight, we often say they must have a fast metabolism. In actual fact, they have a high BMR.

The key, then, would be to eat less than your BMR actually requires. That way, your body will need to turn to fat reserves to fuel all your bodily functions. Seems easy in theory right? It's not so easy in practice, I know. When you go out to dinner and there are starters, mains and desserts, it's SO hard to eat less than your body needs. A woman of average height and weight will probably only require approximately 1200 calories a day. Divided up into the usual 3 meals a day, that leaves you with 400 calories per meal. A dessert at a restaurant is likely going to be about 350 calories alone, if not more! It's likely your stomach is going to think your throat has been cut if you are used to eating more in one sitting!

A way that WE get around it is by eating small meals throughout the day, and only when we get hungry. This method doesn't work for everyone and it's not a surefire way of losing weight because what sometimes happens is that overweight people then eat the same size meals, several times a day! You do need to keep an eye on your calorie intake if you are trying to lose body fat.

The pros of eating small meals is that you never get to the point where you are STARVING and you can keep your blood sugar stabilised. If you suffer from IBS it is also much better for you because you give your colon time to work with small amounts instead of bombarding it with 3 heavy meals.  I find that, eating lots of small meals has definitely sped up my metabolism and it's improved the running of whole system. Eating small meals keeps my body busy digesting throughout the day and digestion needs energy. If you have extra body fat, that will be used for energy (if you are eating below your BMR) and you will lose body fat. The cons ARE that you may end up eating too much in your "small" meals and you may also end up eating the wrong kinds of things.

When I say that, I don't mean that you are eating unhealthy things. I mean that, because it's such a small snack, people seem to think that it doesn't need to be a balanced meal. Nothing could be further from the truth. Even your small snacks need to be balanced. Let me explain a bit more about balancing.

For most people, a healthy snack between main meals would be a fruit. Why would that NOT be considered balanced? Well, because it's mostly a big dose of fruit sugar. What happens when you eat sugar? You have a sugar spike, followed by an insulin spike and then you crash and suddenly you are STARVING and you will likely want to eat everything in sight! While a piece of fruit is a much better option nutritionally, than a chocolate bar, it's still mostly sugar.

So, how would you balance that meal? Well, I'd add a small yogurt, or a glass of milk, or a few sticks of biltong and some nuts. All of those options contain protein and fat. Are you starting to see where I'm going with this? Protein and fats are ultimately what are going to fill you up in a meal so that you will feel satiated enough to be able to last a few hours and NOT feel tempted to devour anything and everything.

You don't need nearly as much carbohydrates as people are telling you you need. Your body generally contains enough stored glycogen to keep you going without having to add too much more unless you are an elite athlete. Fruit, vegetables, sugar, grains and starch all fall under carbohydrates and with the odd exception, most people eat these things at various times of the day already. Remember also that things like milk contain sugars too, so even having a cup of tea with milk and sugar is providing your body with carbs.

All the excess carbs you eat are therefore going to be stored as body fat if your body doesn't need them, and this is what you are trying to avoid. What your body needs, more than carbs, is protein and fat. I'm not saying skip the apple. Fruits and veggies are good for you, but I'd say veggies are far more forgiving in terms of calories, than fruit. It's really hard to eat excess vegetables because they contain minimal sugar, but it's very easy to eat too much fruit and cause an insulin spike and have to deal with excess calories as well.

Raised insulin is bad. You need to avoid it happening and, with the diets that people follow these days, most people AREN'T avoiding it. Carbs are in EVERYTHING. They are the foundation of EVERY meal you eat, be it fast food, restaurant food or at home. For most people, their meal just FEELS wrong without rice or potatoes or bread, right? GLM feels weird eating chicken curry on a pile of vegetables instead of a pile of rice. I don't think that will ever change for her. Most people ARE like that. We're conditioned to it throughout our lives, and it's because our parents were told that carbs were good for us. It's time to start getting yourself out of that mindset. Eat as many vegetables as you like, but, if you must have rice or pasta, limit it to a tablespoon or 2 at the most.

This meal to the left would be just fine without all that rice. Instead, what should happen is that the vegetables should be doubled in place of all that rice OR they should have a salad in place of it. The person who eats this is going to have a sugar spike because the rice is refined and very high in sugar and there is simply TOO MUCH of it. Some people can't eat starchy carbs at all. They just immediately go to their hips and thighs. If you are eating well, but gaining weight, you could be one of those people. A way to find out is to cut them out for a month or two and see what happens.

The most important thing to remember, as you eat throughout the day, is to get enough protein and fat with EVERY meal, even if it's a small snack. We love to go to the movies. I am a popcorn addict and so, my one vice is ordering a big box of movie popcorn (It's popped in vegetable oil, so I know it's terrible for me, but as I've said, if you have a 99% clean diet, these little pleasures are ok!) but I try and make up for all of those carbs in one sitting by taking along a bag of biltong and I make sure I eat some of that with the popcorn. The biltong is full of protein and fat which balances out all the carbs of the popcorn and prevents me from having a sugar and insulin spike. It lowers the GI of the whole meal.

If we're at a restaurant and we only go there for dessert, we will order a starter that's just protein, like chicken kebabs for example, and we'll eat that just before we eat the dessert to keep the meal as balanced as possible and prevent a sugar spike. We don't do it often, obviously. Some of our friends have a good giggle at us but we're used to it by now;) It looks odd, granted, but I don't see anything wrong with that if I know I am helping my body cope with the heavy dose of sugar I am about to give it.

Another thing that I consider essential when eating every meal, is eating something raw with that meal. Too much cooked food strains the digestive system and your body. The body needs some "live" food to keep it functioning properly. For that reason, we will either have a salad with dinner, or a fruit for dessert, or a glass of raw milk, for example. You can never eat enough salad as far as I'm concerned. I don't just mean lettuce, tomato and cucumber. Add as much as you can to a salad to get the real benefits. A salad can be a wealth of nutrients if you allow your imagination to run wild with it. Add herbs, seeds and nuts, sprouts, raw veggies, fermented foods, whatever tickles your fancy, to get as much goodness out of it as possible.

A salad can actually be a meal on its own if you put enough effort into it. I make sure I eat at least one big one, once a day. Again, making sure it's balanced. I always add some cheese and avo or nuts and a couple of boiled eggs, or some chicken or other meat because I believe the protein and the fat is what really makes that meal so satiating for you. A salad without protein is not going to contain lots of sugar like a piece of fruit would, but it will mean you will be starving in about an hour because there is not a lot to a salad, calorie-wise, unless you add some protein and fat to it and make it balanced and substantial enough to sustain you. It's one of the reasons most diets fail. They keep you living on green salad which, on its own, is never going to sustain you in the longterm.

At the end of the day, what keeps your body going, is protein and fat, NOT carbs. Protein and fats are used to repair and replenish your body, not carbs. Your body has enough stored carbs to keep you going for a long time. You don't need to fuel up with them unless you are doing the 94.7 cycle challenge!

So, to recap, start out by calculating what your BMR is. Then just make sure you consume fewer calories than that. Eat only when you need it. Don't follow a strict 6 meal a day or 3 meal a day routine or you will probably eat too much. Eat as your body needs it. That's how it was designed and that's how it has functioned for thousands of years. Make sure that every meal you eat contains proteins, fats and carbs but keep the starchy, grainy carbs to a minimum and focus far more on real food in the form of vegetables and salad. Work out how much protein your body actually needs by following the instructions in this post. Everyone is different. Finally, make sure you eat something raw with each meal or snack. If you can avoid it, don't eat a fruit on it's own, or any carbs for that matter. It won't keep you going for long. If you are vegetarian, find out which foods contain protein like lentils or quinoa, for example. I'm sure, if you are reading this blog, you know that you need to cut out all processed, packaged foods and only eat real food while you do all of this;)

Do that and your body will respond positively in every way:)

Good luck!

Why children should eat a real food diet from the start

Something that really confuses me is how adults wil be entirely concerned about their bodies and feed themselves healthy food, but send their kids off to school with sandwiches made from grocery store-bought bread, chips, sweets, biscuits and sugar-laden juices. Even worse, they will just give them tuck money to sort out their own lunch. We all know how THAT'S going to go... Lunch will be ice-cream, chips, sweets and fizzy soft drinks.

I've also noticed that, when parents make dinner for their family, they often make a "special meal" for the kids. Now, I totally get this if you are eating a hot curry. But if you are having a healthy piece of chicken with some veggies and brown rice, why should the kids be fed macaroni cheese? A dish that is predominantly processed grains and, more than likely, a mix-with-water, instant cheese sauce with some melted, processed cheese over the top of it. Usually these are ready-made microwave meals as well which means they are full of preservatives and other horrible stuff. What is healthy about that meal? Absolutely nothing. Yet so many parents will buy a ready-made meal like pasta, to feed their kids while they eat a different, often healthier, meal.

It's no wonder that kids refuse to eat their veggies. If they get special meals laden with artificial flavours, from a young age, they will always expect special meals with artificial flavours. They consider chicken and veggies to be an adult, and therefore boring, type of food and call it "gross". Of course it will seem gross if they are used to corn syrup and preservatives! My own belief is that parents make too big a deal about "eating your greens". The minute you give it a name, it becomes a big deal. If you feed them real food from the beginning and don't differentiate they won't know the difference. Yes, there may be things they don't like, but supplementing with processed food isn't doing them, or you, any favours. Work your way through your real food options instead. If that's their only option, they won't know to ask for anything else.

Most people start their kids day with breakfast cereals like pronutro, cornflakes, cheerios and coco pops. If they had any idea of the kind of rubbish that goes into those cereals they'd probably think twice. But people buy into the marketing that they are full of vitamins and minerals and good for your kids and they are lured by the convenience aspect. Have you noticed how much sugar is in those cereals? Not to mention artificial colours, flavours and preservatives and the fact that they contain genetically modified ingredients. They are so far removed from real food it's pretty scary. The promise that they are "fortified" with vitamins and minerals is an empty one. Yes, they fortify them, but with synthetic vitamins and minerals that our bodies can't assimilate which means they are actually doing very little at all. As an adult you're probably more inclined to feed yourself jungle oats or something along those lines. Why would you give yourself something that is sugar-free and colourant-free and feed your kids pure sugar and preservatives in a bowl?

The problem starts when our kids are babies. For years, doctors have been telling parents to feed babies all of the wrong things. They start with baby formula in place of breast milk, and then, at 6 months, start them on an "approved" baby cereal and purity. Parents have been told it's the right food for a baby. What is wrong with this eating plan? For starters, NONE of it is real food. Babies that should be getting breast milk, which is full of all the goodness they could possibly need, are getting a powdered formula that very likely contains GMOs among all sorts of other nasties like corn syrup and sugar. Baby formula is about as healthy as a can of coke. You wouldn't give your baby coke would you? So why give it something made of the same stuff? I understand there are times that a woman can't breast feed but there are other, better options. My godchild was supplemented with goat's milk when breast feeding wasn't possible. Raw milk is full of goodness and it's completely natural. It's a superfood. Baby formula is engine oil compared to it.

In the words of Dr Weston Price: "Commercial infant formulas are highly fabricated concoctions composed of milk or soy powders produced by high-temperature processes that overdenature proteins and add many carcinogens. Milk-based formulas often cause allergies while soy-based formulas contain mineral-blocking phytic acid, growth inhibitors and plant forms of estrogen compounds that can have adverse effects on the hormonal development in the infant. Soy-based formulas are also devoid of cholesterol, needed for the development of the brain and nervous system."

Then the babies are moved on to baby cereal at 6 months. These are largely white rice-based which means refined and processed, not ideal for a growing baby. However, what makes them so much worse for your child is that babies can't digest grains until they are over a year old, sometimes even 2 years old. An enzyme called amylase is used to digest any grains you ingest. But babies don’t make amylase in large enough quantities to digest grains. That means those undigested grains will be wreaking havoc on your baby’s intestinal lining for a long time. It's probably giving them terrible acid reflux and stomach cramps. It can throw off the balance of bacteria in their intestines and lead to lots of complications as they grow up including: food allergies, behavioural problems and mood issues, to name a few.

Purity is another popular food choice for babies going onto solids. Did you know that a lot of these foods are also full of GMOs? They contain artificial flavourants, colourants and preservatives and very little real food. Yes, they make organic purity now but it still contains modified maize starch. Why would you buy purity when you can just as easily cook some organic pumpkin and blend it yourself? That way your baby is getting all the goodness it REALLY needs, and not what a big food corporation tells you it needs so they can make money out of you.

Following along with, what many doctors tell us, is the proper eating plan for kids, as soon as we can, we move our kids onto bread. It's the easiest meal for kids, I get that. Especially if they are now addicted to refined grains, which they will be because they were raised on them. Those sandwiches are probably filled with margarine and processed cheese, right? Or a processed peanut butter or jam or processed meats like ham which are full of poor quality off cuts from unhealthy animals anyway.

Have you noticed another glaring fault with this eating plan for babies and young kids? Where is the protein and good quality fat? Babies who aren't getting breast milk will get almost NO protein in their diets right up until they are between 1 and 2 years old. Contrary to what your doctor has told you, your baby needs protein and fat just as much as you do, possibly even more so. Dr Weston Price wrote a very good article about feeding babies which you can read here.

To quote part of it: "Baby's earliest solid foods should be animal foods as his digestive system, although immature, is better equipped to supply enzymes for digestion of fats and proteins rather than carbohydrates."

Have you noticed that, when you go to a child's birthday party, there is the kids food and the adults food. The kids food is predominantly chips, sweets, biscuits and cakes and they're often the cheap ones from Makro so you can buy in bulk! The adults food will be things like veggies with a cream cheese dip, maybe some liver pate and biscuits, basically FAR healthier food than the kids. All those chips and sweets they are eating are LOADED with toxins. You'll say where's the harm? It's not all the time. Let them enjoy themselves for a couple of hours... But what are they sacrificing in the longterm health-wise? And if you're not feeding them nutrient-dense food the rest of the time then how will their little bodies recover from all of that poison in their systems? People always say that kids are germ-ridden. It's no wonder they always get sick when they eat so badly. Their little immune systems can't cope because there is no nutritional support.

Children's diets should really be no different to ours. In fact, they should be MORE nutrient dense. There is so much growth and change happening constantly in a child's body as they grow and, a lot of what happens nutritionally, will affect their adult years so giving them a solid foundation will stand them in good stead for the rest of their lives. Yes, it's time consuming making real food but, if you get them involved, they will probably enjoy it more and learn good habits at the same time.

Next time you fill your child's lunchbox, consider some fruit and nuts to snack on whenever they're hungry, a chicken drumstick, maybe a potato and a block of real cheese (not processed) and always send them off with a bottle filled with clean water to sip on through the day, NOT juice. (not even fruit juice) A meal like that will fill them up and energise them for the day far better than a sandwich and they will LIKE it too. Kids enjoy variety. Sandwiches are boring. Lots of different things to snack on will keep them interested, while keeping them healthy.

If you make a choice to have kids, you are making a choice to make sacrifices so that they can have the life they deserve. A healthy lifestyle needs to be part of that. It's as essential as the packs of pampers you can never seem to have enough of! Your child will thank you by being healthy and happy all the time and isn't that really all a parent wants?