Wellness Wednesday - Diseases of civilisation

They were talking about endometriosis on 702 this morning and, since I've blogged about it, and experienced it for myself, I was curious to hear this particular doctor's take on it. If you've read any of my blogs, you'll know my take on doctors. I don't place too much faith in general practitioners. I know they studied for many years, and maybe their heart was in the right place to start with but, in my opinion, the majority of them are more focused on making money than on actually finding the real problem. They are too quick to prescribe antibiotics and too reluctant to look further than the surface of a problem.

Back to the radio show and several women were calling in and commenting on the fact that they had had this condition since they were teenagers and just couldn't beat it. So many women live with this condition and are completely clueless about it. They just know they feel terrible and, when they call in sick for work due to really bad period pains, their bosses have little to no sympathy (unless they're women!) The reality is that the pain can be debilitating for some women. It's a very real condition and no-one seems to know how to fix it short of actually scraping it out of the uterus during a procedure called a laparoscopy.

When one of the women asked the doctor for a solution, it wasn't really a big surprise to me that this doctor prescribed simply having repeat laparoscopies whenever the endometriosis came back. She even recommended a hysterectomy if the woman was past her child-bearing age!

I can't figure out how such an invasive and very FINAL procedure can be a solution and yet the doctor told the woman straight that that was her only option. Interestingly enough, in almost the same sentence she said, "We really don't know enough about the condition to be able to say what causes it and what to do about it short of surgery." She admitted her own lack of knowledge but then unequivocally said there was nothing this woman could do.

The scary thing is that people place their faith in them because, over the decades, doctors have taken on an almost godlike status. If the doctor says it, then it must be so. So this woman is going to have her 4th laparoscopy based on the doctor's advice and, when she is older, she will no doubt have a hysterectomy to end her fight with endometriosis for good. The problem is that it won't be too long before her body's state of "dis-ease" manifests itself in a different way. Endometriosis is just a symptom of a much bigger, underlying problem.

So why are so many women suffering with this condition these days? It has EVERYTHING to do with modern civilisation. It is because of the toxins in the processed food we are eating, the pesticides on our fresh fruits and vegetables, the toxins in the animal products we are eating, in our "health" and beauty products, in our household cleaning products and in our drinking water ie. chlorine and fluoride.

How do I know that? Because I also had really bad endometriosis, with several tumours, 3 years ago. Unfortunately, at the time I found out about the endometriosis, I was still pretty ignorant. The doctor told me the only solution was a laparoscopy and hysteroscopy and of course I believed him and I had the surgery. A couple of weeks later, at a followup appointment, I asked him if it could come back and, if so, how soon. He said it definitely would and I probably had, at best, a year. Of course he only told me this AFTER I'd had the procedure and I had to wonder what the point was of all that pain and trauma if it was just going to come right on back! I didn't want to put myself through that again.

That was when I started taking a closer look at food as a cause and as a medicine. Once I realised just how badly I was eating and how many chemicals and toxins I was exposing myself to on a daily basis through food, I made a decision to change things and begin only eating real food. Then I gradually started becoming aware of the toxins in the beauty products and household cleaning products I was using. The more aware you become, the MORE AWARE you become and, before I knew it I was boiling my tap water and making my own beauty products and guess what, 3 years later I am still completely free of endometriosis. I don't believe that's a coincidence. I honestly believe I have kept it at bay through the complete overhaul that I gave my lifestyle and I don't think it will come back.

Some may read this and immediately call it nonsense. Those people may be doctors, or have a doctor in the family or are simply so caught up the whole wonders of modern civilisation that they can't comprehend that there was ever life before it.

But there was life before it. And it was a GOOD life. Cancer was something that happened to 1 or 2 people IN THE WORLD every few decades or so. Heart disease was the same. Obesity, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, endometriosis, autoimmune disease and osteoporosis were rare or virtually absent in hunter-gatherers and other non-westernized populations. They had other worries, like how to survive a hunt! These days, if you aren't taken out by one of the above diseases, you still have far more to worry about then Ugg the Caveman.

We have cars, planes, trains and buses causing accidents on a daily basis. We have far more natural disasters thanks to climate change. We live in an increasingly dangerous society where violence is a daily occurrence in a lot of people's lives.

Those too can be attributed to civilisation. As people distance themselves further and further from their connection to the earth and to each other, they lose their sense of empathy and their sense of unity and their sense of self-worth. They are also losing their health.

Maybe cancer is genetic. But just because you have a gene, doesn't mean you are going to get it. I believe that it can be avoided, even if you have that gene. I honestly believe that cancer is a disease of civilisation. It's easy to find out when cancer actually started becoming more prevalent. It happened when civilisations started becoming more modernised. The hunter/gatherer simply didn't get cancer, ever. In the words of Doctor Weston Price (a doctor that I DO place a lot of faith in because he lived among various tribes for several years and studied them at great length):

"...Whenever we look at the health of non-industrialized peoples we see the same thing: these are people without cancer, and also without heart disease. Any anthropologist can tell you which bone was from a hunter-gatherer, a pre-grain eating person, and which bone, by contrast, was from a grain-eating person, because the latter has holes in it and looks like it has arthritis and it not as thick and strong. You can see physical degeneration almost every place where people have switched from indigenous diets to primarily grain-based diets."

I don't know anyone who doesn't eat some kind of grain EVERY day of their lives. It's difficult for a lot of people to imagine a day without eating bread, rice or pasta. Most people eat at least one of those every day, some eat all three every day. It's become such an "ingrained" (couldn't resist the pun!) part of our diets that we don't know how to separate ourselves from it and yet, between the grains we eat and all the toxins we are exposed to on a daily basis, we are ensuring that cancer remains a constant threat to all of us. It's become so common that, for some people it's not even a question of "If I get cancer", they talk about "when". 

How scary is that? It's always going to be a shock to hear you have it, but most people just accept the possibility of it happening because every second person seems to have it. When did we become so blasé about it? When did we succumb to it and allow it to be such a big part of our lives? 

ALL of the disease I listed earlier can be prevented. They are all directly connected to modern civilisation. The way I see it, you have two choices: you can continue to live the way you are living and resort to things like medication and going under the knife and putting off the inevitable for a while longer OR you can change your lifestyle and live a long, healthy life without the fear of a dread disease hanging over your head.

Seems like a no-brainer to me! 

I have posted LOADS of information about how to eat, what beauty and household products to use and how to avoid toxins as much as possible. Feel free to take a look through the archives and start on your journey to good health and vitality. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain!

Monday Mix-up - It's time to put our planet first.

In the last couple of months we've had to adjust to load-shedding becoming an expected, and mostly permanent, part of our lives again. It got me to thinking about how much attention we pay (or don't pay) to the resources available to us and how much we take them for granted. We certainly notice when they aren't available. It's annoying when the taps run dry or when the power goes off. When YOU hear that we need to hold back on water or electricity usage, do you make a conscious decision to switch off lights and pool pumps and try not running taps for too long etc? Or are you guilty of thinking, "Someone else will do it?"

The earth's resources are finite. We know this, deep down, although we, as humans, tend to forget it often. We are the only living creatures on earth who keep taking and taking, and seldom give back. One day out of a full 365, we celebrate Earth Day, and on that day SOME of us give something back, but far from all of us. For animals, every day is Earth Day because they are always giving back. It's SO ironic that we treat animals as somehow lower than us. Yes, we have more brain cells, but it's how we use them that makes me think animals have more common sense than we do.

If you did biology in high school, you will know all about symbiotic relationships. These are relationships between living creatures that benefit both creatures. Here is an example:
Fish don't go to spas and salons. Instead, they go to "cleaning stations" which are neutral zones where small cleaner fish like catfish and gobies, wait for larger "clients". When they visit a station, the fishy client, which includes fish like parrotfish, damselfish and sharks, adopt a distinctive pose, which sends a signal that they want to be cleaned (and won’t eat the cleaner!) The cleaner fish then gorge themselves on parasites, mucous and dead tissues from the surface of their client, and that is how THEY benefit. Aside from getting a spick and span skin, client fish also enjoy a good tickle (kind of like us going to a spa for a massage!) It’s actually partly this sensation that stops the client fish from gobbling up the cleaner fish!

When the relationship is parasitic, its definite cause for concern. Here's an example:

A tick is a parasite. It attaches itself to a warmblooded animal and feeds on its blood because ticks need blood at every stage of their life cycle. Unfortunately, ticks also carry Lyme disease, an illness that can cause joint damage, heart complications, and kidney problems. The tick benefits from eating the animal's blood but the animal gains nothing and actually suffers from the loss of blood and nutrients and can get very ill.

How would you label the relationship between humans and the Earth? It's SUPPOSED to be symbiotic, as it is between other animals and the Earth, but it's not at all. This may be hard to accept but, our relationship with the earth is more parasitic, with US being the parasites. We take and take and take, yet only a very small handful of people ever give back. When we take we don't give much thought to who, or what has suffered in the process of that taking. Our only thought is what we are getting from that particular moment. The path it took to get to that moment isn't much of a thought process, is it? Think about what you bought recently. Now think about the thought process that went into buying it. A lot of our purchases are impulse purchases. We went there planning to buy one thing, and end up buying everything BUT that one thing...

There are un-contacted tribes in the Amazon Jungle who have never been exposed to civilisation, who live off the land and give back to it routinely, as part of their daily lives. Watch a video of them here.

How incredible to find humans so untouched by civilisation that it hasn't entered their heads to want more. How incredibly sad it will be when they are finally reached by civilisation, because it WILL happen. Humans are too greedy for it to be any other way. And once they know what it means to want more, how can they ever go back? Our selfish need to own and control everything will lead to the ultimate end of something so rare and special. How much longer can they be protected? And how many of these tribes have become extinct thanks to humankind's desire to own and control and ultimately, destroy? 

When we shop at a grocery store, when we walk in with our trolley and browse the aisles, all we are thinking about is what we are going to be making for breakfast, lunch and supper for the next few days and how much it's going to cost us. We are probably chatting on a cell phone and not really IN the moment at all. We don't think about how that stuff got there and what it involved. If we buy meat, we don't think about the animal that gave up a very traumatic, fear-filled, poor quality life so that we could have meat at our fingertips whenever we need it, at the cheapest cost available. When we are browsing for the best apples, tomatoes or bananas we never think of how much land has been laid to waste by the bad agriculture that supplied us with that produce and the amount of chemicals that were pumped into the Earth to make them grow better, faster and bigger.

How about all of the household cleaning stuff we think we need? We buy it thinking only about cleaning our own houses. The thought seldom, if ever, crosses our minds that all of those toxins will go down our drain and be released into our environment? Once it's gone down the drain it's someone else's problem, not ours. The same lack of thought applies to beauty products like shampoo, conditioner, soap or bubblebath etc.

Our way of thinking, as humans, is very selfish, but, to be honest, I think that most of us simply really have NO idea of our own culpability. We tend to think it's not a problem because no-one makes a big deal about it. We think, "It MUST be ok because the powers-that-be are selling us all this stuff and marketing it and filling the shelves with more and more of it. If there was a problem, someone would say something wouldn't they?" Think again. The sad truth is that the powers-that-be have one thing in mind really. That is to make as much money as possible. It doesn't matter to most of them, how much it costs the Earth and everything that relies on it. That means us, as well as every other living creature on it, by the way.

And, to be honest, there IS a lot of noise being made about climate change at the moment. That is because scientists have finally figured out that we have reached a tipping point and that, if something doesn't change soon, it will be to the demise of the human race. But these issues aren't reaching enough people, with enough urgency and speed and so the majority of the human race carries on as if we have an infinite amount of resources and time.

As I said, most of us just literally have no idea and that's not your fault. But, that's just changed if you've read as far as this. Once you become aware, to do nothing is selfish, irresponsible and negligent. It's like a doctor finding out that that the medication you are taking is slowly poisoning your system, and making a decision to do nothing rather than make the necessary change. You'd be well within your rights to make all sorts of noise about that. You would defend yourself. So, if you KNOW that, by using OMO and Handy Andy and other toxins in your house you are slowly poisoning the earth, how can you stand by and allow it to continue? That knowledge makes you just as negligent as the doctor, if you do nothing. How does the earth defend herself if she has no voice? Well, if you think about it, she is already. Tsunamis, typhoons, earthquakes etc. Those aren't just coincidences. Climate change is a very real threat. Just because it hasn't touched your life directly yet, doesn't mean it isn't. And one day it will but it may be too late by then to affect a change.

Sound too dramatic for you? Why? Why should any ONE person be more important than everything and everyone else on this planet? What gives anyone the right to decide that it is their right to ignore the needs of our planet if they choose to? If reading this makes you sit up and take notice then good for you. If you read it and decide it's too much effort, then shame on you. There's a small handful of people around the world who are doing everything in their power to ensure that the earth doesn't suffer and doesn't retaliate by throwing extreme weather conditions at us and, ultimately, destroy us, but there are not enough of us. It is going to take a worldwide team effort.

If you think you are just one person and it's not going to make any difference I am going to disagree with you there. EVERY little bit helps. LeadSA started with one person and now they have over 60 000 followers on Facebook alone. If you can tell just one person, who tells one person, who tells another person, you have already reached 3 other people. If THEY in turn, can influence other people, you will have reached 6 people and so it spreads. It's called the ripple effect and it's very effective.

So, what can YOU do as one person, to affect a change and positively effect our planet? Here are some things I bet you never even thought of:

• Eat closer to home: The average South African bite of food travels over 2000 kms to reach your mouth. That’s a HUGE amount of fossil fuel used just to transport your food, never mind actually growing and packaging it. Find the nearest farmer's market to you or, if you live in Gauteng, look up Timothy and Clover and order the food you need.
• Eat organic and free range: We all already know it’s better for your health. Well, for the same reasons it's better for soil, water, and air health too. Eating organic keeps the soil healthy and safe. It keeps synthetic nitrogen out of our water and prevents carbon emissions from entering the atmosphere. What’s good for your body is good for the Earth. Give back to the Earth by giving back only substances that the Earth enjoys. 
• Grow your own: It doesn't take much space to start growing your own vegetables. My veggie garden is about 1.5 x 1 metres and yet I get sweet potatoes, carrots, lettuce, spinach, beetroots, various herbs and tomatoes out of it. Save the seeds from veggies you buy and use them to start your own veggie garden. 
• Start a compost heap: Dig a small hole in your garden and cover it with a lid. Put a container in your kitchen that is used purely for fruit and vegetable waste. When it's full go and empty it into the hole you dug. Leave it to sit for a few weeks and you will have organic compost to use on your veggie garden, and the rest of your garden, plus your rubbish bin will be far emptier!

• Thank your food: You may think this is akin to tree hugging but honestly, how often do you even think about where your food came from? Take a good look at the plants and animals on your table. Imagine the rice or oat or lettuce leaves waving under the sun and the carrots developing underground. If you eat meat, think about every animal. Picture the cow grazing (it goes without saying that if you eat cows, eat free-range, grass-fed, not corn-fed ones), the chicken scratching in the dirt (again, make sure they led happy lives outside of cages), the fish swimming in the ocean (not in a fish farm). Think about the hen that laid the eggs and the cow or goat that gave you the milk you drink. Be conscious. You don't need to be a tree hugger to do it. Gratitude is a time-honoured way of reciprocating. Christians call it saying grace. Buddhists call it eating mindfully. It takes a few seconds to thank the plants and animals. Our lives depend on them. Literally. How does this help the earth? Well, if you know where your food comes from, you may feel less inclined to buy conventional food, that hurts the earth and animals. Also, if you teach this to your kids, you are teaching them to respect the Earth and that is something they will carry forward to THEIR kids and that is how you effect change.
• Get rid of your petrol lawn mower: A petrol-powered lawn mower emits more air pollutants than a car! In fact, it emits as much as four cars! Never mind that it's using precious fossil fuel. Get an electric one. Seriously. And while we're talking garden care, what is it with all the leaf blowers?! Never mind the noise pollution which disturbs both humans, birds and other animals but they pollute in the same way petrol lawn mowers do, AND they disperse millions of microorganisms into the air that were intended to be left in the dirt to compost and renew. Really, all you're doing is blowing the dirt somewhere else temporarily until the wind blows it back. They have got to be the most ridiculous invention ever in my opinion! Whoever told you you need one really took you for a ride...
• Use biodegradable body care: Use wooden toothpicks instead of the tiny plastic picks and brushes that many dentists’ offices are passing out to their patients. For skin and hair care, find products that are labelled "certified biodegradable". Just because they say "natural" doesn't mean that they are. Check this blog post to see what to avoid. If they contain any of the chemicals listed there, stay away! They are being absorbed into your blood stream and poisoning you but they are also going into your environment and poisoning that too.
• Use biodegradable household products: This is one of the most important things you can do for you, your family AND your environment. These things are sending unbelievably toxic poisons down your drain but they are also sitting on the surfaces that you eat and live off and you are inhaling and ingesting them. To use them is just plain crazy and irresponsible. If you aren't sure what to use, read this post.
• Teach your children reciprocity: Even small children understand fairness. No one wants to get the short end of the stick. Teach your children to give back when they receive something. They need to know that they are guests on planet Earth and that she is giving of herself as a gift and so we need to give back. Practice it yourself. If each of us gave as much as we took, the world would change, truly.
• Appreciate trees: Without them, we all wouldn't exist. They provide us with life-giving oxygen. The next time you think of cutting down a tree because it's in the way of your view, consider that we are only here because of it.  Without trees we wouldn't have paper. That's a biggie when you think about everything you use it for. Even in this digital age, we all still need toilet paper! Cut down on junk mail, get your bills emailed instead of posted. Recycle whatever paper you don't need and only print when absolutely necessary.
• Reduce pesticides in your area: I had to jump down my gardener's throat when I realised he was using weed killer in my garden!! That's a HUGE no-no. I wash my car with biodegradable soap and make my own compost. Why on earth would I use a weed killer?! Stop using conventional fertiliser in your garden. What you use directly affects the environment because water keeps working its way back to the rivers and oceans. Think BIGGER than just your little world, in everything you do.
• Buy stuff that uses less packaging: Everything you buy at a grocery store uses FAR too much packaging. If you buy something like processed, sliced cheese, there is a layer of plastic between EACH SLICE, never mind the packaging it comes in. I wouldn't recommend eating processed cheese anyway but to mindlessly add so much plastic to the environment is just crazy. I'm pretty sure it's not going to be recycled. It's going to go into a landfill. Remember that and rather go for something else, preferably something healthier for you!
• Reduce, re-use and recycle: This goes hand in hand with the previous point. I collect every container that we get from anywhere we shop and I use them for all sorts of things. You'd be amazed how much tupperware you will have if you collect and re-use. I haven't had to buy tupperware for years. They aren't fancy but who cares? It's just to store stuff and it prevents it from going into a landfill. I cook for clients on a weekly basis and they have no problem with getting recycled containers. They bring them back for me to re-use and, through this, they are learning the value of recycling. If you can't use the containers, recycle them. If you live in Jhb, look up Mama She's and sign up with them. If you aren't in Jhb, visit this post to find someone near you. If you can't find someone to pick up from your house, you will have to drop it off at a Pickit up near you but, given the situation, and this blog post, I think it's a small effort to make for planet Earth, don't you?
• Save water: I've said this before but since it's pertinent to this post, I'll put it here again. Put a bucket next to your sink and every time you need to run water for a while (eg. either waiting for it to get cool or warm), put the bucket under your tap, or put a jug there to catch the excess water. Save that water and use it to water your indoor plants, clean the floor, fill your electric steamer, boil eggs etc.
• Save electricity: This is so easy and it amazes me how people pay NO attention to it. All of the people in our lives are environmentally conscious adults and they're good people, but they still leave lights on in every room they walk in and out of and I walk around after them like the light police;) We only have lights on in the house in the room where we are. If any lights are on, they are energy saving globes. We never buy conventional globes anymore. It doesn't enter our heads to walk out of a room and leave a light on. It's a habit to turn the light off and once you train yourself, and your kids, you'll never have to worry about it again. Start getting into the habit. Maybe we can at least keep loadshedding in stage one! But more importantly, we can help our planet cope by using less fossil fuels.

That's it for now but I know there are more ways and you can feel free to post them in the comments below to give us all some more ideas.

We all get so caught up in our responsibilities within the confines of our own lives, that we forget those that don't directly affect us. Remember that, when I say you need to help your planet, in effect, it means you need to help humankind. The Earth has been here for millions of years and will continue to be here long after we have wiped ourselves out. We are doing a very effective job of it right now and the window of opportunity for improvement is getting smaller and smaller.

The idea of living consciously isn't a new one, but it's one that people tend to forget about. So here is your reminder. Yes, it comes with responsibilities. But what, in life, doesn't?

Read Food Friday Feast - Fermented, Raw Salsa Recipe

I have always loved tomato, in any form. I had tomato sauce on EVERYTHING as a child. In fact, I was so enamored with tomato sauce that I asked my mom if I could have it on my ice cream;) It made sense to my young mind. Tomato sauce made everything taste good and I hated ice cream so I figured that tomato sauce would make it taste better! It didn't enter my head to go without ice cream!?

Anyway, given that conventional tomato sauce is loaded with high fructose corn syrup, I had to start doing without it when I went free-range, organic and chemical free. It was hard. But I have found the most amazingly delicious, and incredibly good for you, replacement!

Fermented foods are unbelievably good for you. I went into quite a bit of detail about them when I blogged about Fermented Chilli Sauce. In case you haven't wondered, I LOVE my spicy foods;) This salsa doesn't HAVE to be spicy (although it seems like a waste of good salsa;) But that's just me!) but even without the spice it's just so tasty and it's one of the best foods you can put in your system. What's even better about this recipe is that it's raw. Raw, live food can be incredibly powerful because it provides your digestive system with the necessary enzymes to digest your food properly. You should always eat something raw with EVERY meal to ensure your body gets all the nutrients it needs.

Here is a quick reminder of why fermented foods are good for you:

• They contain probiotics: Eating fermented foods introduces good bacteria into your body and improves the balance of bacteria in your digestive system, which is often upset by bad diet and antibiotics. It's also been proven that probiotics help slow or reverse some diseases, improve bowel health, aid digestion and strengthen your immune system. If you think you may have Candida, fermented foods can help prevent, and improve it.
• It improves your absorption of food: Having a lot of good bacteria in your colon helps your body absorb more of the nutrients in the food you eat. This is especially beneficial if you are eating a clean, organic, real food diet, AND eating fermented foods. You'll find that your body absorbs a lot more nutrients from the food you're eating and you won’t need as many supplements and vitamins as you used to, because you’ll be absorbing more of the live nutrients from the food you eat.
• Economical: Eating organically can get expensive if you don't know where to shop, but fermented foods definitely make it more affordable because you can buy veggies in bulk and ferment all of them so they last you for months. You can make your own whey at home for the price of a litre of milk and then all you need is a good mineral salt, water and the veggies. Adding these foods to your diet also cuts down on the number of supplements you need, which helps your budget AND lowers possible future medical costs.
• It preserves food easily: Homemade salsa only lasts a week or so in the fridge but fermented homemade salsa lasts months (although in our house it STILL lasts about a week because we love it so much!) Lacto-fermentation allows you to store food for longer periods of time without losing the nutritional value.

There are 4 very good reasons to try out this recipe! Before you make this recipe, you need to get your hands on some whey. Whey is the buy product of raw, unpasteurised milk that is left outside the fridge for 3-4 days. So the first trick here is to get hold of some raw milk and you WON'T find it at a grocery store. Terre Madre sells it and you'll also find it at your local farmer's market. Once you have the milk, here's how you make whey:

• Pour the milk into a glass bowl, cover with a cloth and leave for a few days. Keep an eye on it. 
• It will start to curdle and separate, into curds and whey (like little Miss Muffet;) 
• After it's completely separated (about 3-4 days in summer), get another glass bowl and put a dishcloth over it. (use one that you don't mind getting dirty!)
• Pour the contents of your other bowl, onto the dishcloth.
• Grab all the corners of the dishcloth and gather them together so that the curds are inside the cloth. Tie a knot in them and then leave the whey to drip slowly out of the dishcloth, into the glass bowl beneath it. (I tie piece of string around the knot of the dishcloth and then tie it to one of my cupboard handles in my kitchen and leave the bowl underneath it on the counter for about a day to slowly all drip out.)
• The liquid in your bowl will be the whey you will use for your fermented foods and the solid stuff in the dishcloth is actually cream cheese! It's delicious and exceptionally healthy and tasty as a dip or a spread.
• Pour your whey into a glass jar and place in the fridge. It will keep for a few months. If you find you won't use it often, put it in a container in the freezer.

Now you are ready to make your salsa!

Fermented Raw Salsa

6 medium organic tomatoes
1 small organic onion or leek (feel free to make it 2 onions. I can't eat a lot of onion so I keep it minimal)
1 medium size chilli (feel free to leave this out OR add more!!)
2 organic garlic cloves
A small bunch of fresh organic coriander (if you don't have this parsley is just as nice)
1 tsp dried organic oreganum

Pinch of cayenne pepper (optional)
Juice from 1 organic lemon (don't use store bought lemon juice as it contains preservatives)
1 Tbs mineral salt (himalayan rock salt or sea salt)
1/3 cup whey

A clean glass jar or two

Method

• Cut the tomatoes into halves or quarters (depends on how tough your food processor is!)
• Add the onion, coriander, chilli and garlic
• Give the mixture a few quick spins in your processor
• Add the salt, cayenne pepper and oreganum
• Pour in the whey and lemon juice
• Give it a few good spins in the processor. If you like a chunky salsa then don't spin it too many times. I like it more like a sauce so I nuke it!
• Sterilise your glass jars by boiling your kettle and filling them up with boiling water. Leave them to sit for a while to kill off any germs. You don't want your good bacteria fighting with any bad ones. Don't dry them with a cloth our you'll put some germs back!
• Once they are clean, pour your salsa into the jars leaving about 15mm between the salsa and the lid of the jar
• Put the lid on tightly and put the jars on top of your fridge for a few days. The amount of days is up to you. I left one jar for 4 days and the other one for 7 days. The longer you leave it, the more good bacteria you will have. 
• Once they're ready, simply put them in the fridge and eat as desired. Don't get a fright when you open the jar and there is a little explosion of gas and some bubbles. That means it's worked VERY well and it's very good for you!

Your digestive system and your immune system will thank you for eating this stuff. Incidentally, so will your tastebuds;)

Have a fantastic, healthful weekend!

Wellness Wednesday - Why I don't believe in vaccination.

I pretty much remember most of my vaccinations from pre-school and up. I remember us all standing in long queues and the terror and panic getting worse and worse the closer I got to the front of the line. I hate needles. I can't get my head around deliberately putting a long, sharp object through your skin. That's why I'll never get a tattoo!

But vaccinations aren't something you have a say about... or are they? I'm sure there are more, but I only know three other people in South Africa who DON'T believe that vaccinations should be a part of our lives. One is my homeopath, and the others are the mothers of my godchild. In fact, they first planted the seed in my head about vaccinations. Since then I have done a lot of my own research, as I've done with everything else on this blog, and I've come to understand that vaccinations don't HAVE to be a part of mine, or my pets, or my future children's lives.

This is a controversial topic. Bring it up in polite conversation and you are liable to get your head bitten off! I know my godchild's mothers got a LOT of grief from other moms about their decision not to vaccinate. Mothers threatened to keep their kids away from my godchild, said they were irresponsible and their child was going to die of a dreadful disease before she reached the age of 1!

What terrible things to say to expectant mom's and how completely out of line. It's just as bad as them retaliating and saying that parents who vaccinate are irresponsible and THEY are going to kill their child, but they didn't retaliate that way, even though they had done piles of research, unlike the other parents. My friends didn't go into this blindly, but most parents DO vaccinate blindly, based entirely on what a doctor tells them to do.

It's nobody's place to judge a parent. We all do what WE think is best for our kids and no-one has the right to judge that, unless it's something abusive towards a child. That's why, what I am saying here today is all about MY thoughts and opinions and yes, they're very much based on fact. But, at the end of the day, what you do with your kids is YOUR choice. If you feel you are doing the right thing, and you have made an informed decision, then that's what you must do and no-one can ever accuse you of bad parenting because it comes from a place of love.

So, why do I choose not to vaccinate? Where do I begin...

Did you know that diseases were on their way out long before vaccines arrived? Epidemics have a certain lifespan. According to the World Health Statistics Annual 1973 – 1976, Volume 2, there has been a steady decline in infectious diseases in most developing countries regardless of the percentage of vaccines administered. Researchers pointed out that infectious diseases disappeared as the result of improved sanitation, improved public water supplies and personal hygiene, better distribution and increased consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables. From 1850 to 1940, diseases had declined by 90% and were at an all-time low and only THEN were vaccines starting to be introduced. Interestingly, diseases for which there was never a vaccine, ALSO declined dramatically. eg. turberculosis, typhoid fever, scarlet fever, among others.

 

You'll see in these three charts, that in each and every case, the epidemic was already decreasing dramatically - long before the vaccine was ever introduced. You'll also see that in medical textbooks, the chart showing the decline in the polio death rate is only shown from the point of the first red line forward! This unfortunately leads medical and nursing students to mistakenly believe that the polio vaccine was responsible for the decline in the disease and that's simply not true. As you can see from the chart, polio was already well on its way out before the vaccine was introduced. The same story applies for pertussis (whooping cough) and measles as well as other infectious diseases that didn’t have vaccines.

That is why doctors are very misled about the effectiveness of vaccines. The control of medical and nursing school curricula by big pharmaceutical companies through big research grants and donations ensures that they continue to promote and sell their medication. In fact, the real reasons for the decline in epidemics are running water, improved sanitation/personal hygiene, and greater access to fresh fruits and vegetables. But that doesn’t make anyone any corporations, any money... If you would like to see those graphs more clearly, click here.

People still get things like measles, chicken pox, etc, despite having the vaccines. There isn't even a vaccine for scarlet fever and I got it when I was a kid. I didn't die. I was pretty sick for a while but I lived to tell the tale. Getting a disease like measles, as a child, actually does a lot for their immune system. It's kind of like allowing a fever to run its course. It's not pleasant, make no mistake. But it teaches their bodies how to fight the way they are meant to fight. My three triplet nephews all had chicken pox recently. My poor sister had her hands full with that! But they didn't have the vaccine and guess what, they recovered just fine. And their immune systems are going to be SO much stronger as a result. We're not living in the dark ages. If things go horribly wrong, we have conventional medication to turn to if it's really necessary. I don't see how a vaccine would have changed things for them really. I think they're better off for NOT having it.

Here are 6 very good reasons for why I don't believe in vaccinations:

• Pharmaceutical companies can’t be trusted: Do you know how many times in the last 10 years a medication has been deemed unsafe and dangerous and yet the pharmaceutical companies have covered it up FOR YEARS to continue bringing in the profits for as long as possible? Believe me, it's MANY times. Here's an example: HRT became a standard thing for a menopausal woman over 40 years. Even women with no complaints were advised that this treatment was helpful as it reduced chances of heart attacks and cancer and even helped them feel younger. Those claims were actually false. Breast cancer risk is actually doubled for women on HRT, 41% increased risk for stroke, 29% increased risk of heart attack, and the list goes on and on. How many lives were lost before they finally realised?
  
  How about Vioxx? This dangerous medication caused thousands of deaths from heart attack and stroke before it was finally removed from the market when evidence surfaced that Merck had withheld information and even doctored reports on the dangers years before. Merck agreed to pay $4.85 billion to settle approximately 27,000 cases from victims claiming injury or death of a family member using Vioxx. This is a huge sum of money but, in reality it represents less than one year’s profits for Merck. You can see that it certainly pays for a pharmaceutical company to cover up any risks. They made far more money than they lost! These corporate monsters have proven themselves to be completely untrustworthy based on past behavior. In a court of law, if such a company were an actual witness, an attorney would never put them on the stand due to a serious lack of credibility. Are you really going to take these companies at their word that vaccines are safe when their answer is based on money and profits? I'm not.
  
• ALL Vaccines are loaded with chemicals and other poisons - NO exceptions: Here is a list of some of the ingredients found in the vaccines on the market today: MSG, antifreeze, phenol (used as a disinfectant), formaldehyde (cancer causing and used to embalm), aluminum (associated with alzheimer’s disease and seizures), glycerin (toxic to the kidney, liver, can cause lung damage, gastrointestinal damage and death), lead, cadmium, sulfates, yeast proteins, antibiotics, acetone (used in nail polish remover), neomycin and streptomycin. And the ingredient making the press is thimerosol (more toxic than mercury, a preservative still used in many vaccines, not easily eliminated, can cause severe neurological damage as well as other life threatening autoimmune disease). These vaccines are grown and strained through animal or human tissue, like monkey and dog kidney tissue, chick embryo, calf serum, human diploid cells (the dissected organs of aborted fetuses), pig blood, horse blood and rabbit brain.
  
  Can you imagine injecting this stuff directly into your child’s blood? At least if you ate these ingredients, your body would have a better chance of detoxifying and eliminating them before any permanent damage could be done. But, to inject them right into the blood is the most damaging and lethal approach possible. How could anyone possibly think that injecting a cocktail of such lethal poison could in any way help preserve and enhance your child’s health?
  
• Vaccinated children are the unhealthiest, most chronically ill children: Fact: Vaccinated children have been found to be more chronically ill than unvaccinated children with rates for autism, ear infections, ADHD, asthma and allergies as much as 30% higher than non-vaccinated children. Look closer to home if you are questioning that. Compare notes with parents around you. Granted, MORE of them will have vaccinated than not, but hopefully you'll find some who haven't.  The kids with the most problems like allergies, asthma, ADHD, autism, coordination and other gross motor issues, etc, are the ones that are right on track with their vaccination schedule.
  
• If they're not bad then why are other countries waking up to the dangers: In 1975, Japan raised its minimum vaccination age to 2 years. Their infant mortality rate plummeted to such low levels that Japan now has one of the lowest levels in the Western world (They are number 3 on the list). Guess where South Africa is? Number 137!!!! Granted, we have other terrible issues like babies being murdered on a daily basis... Either way, it's a shocking place to be. We are higher on the list than Iran and Syria... In Australia, the flu vaccine was suspended in April 2010 for children under 5 years because a large number of children were being rushed to emergency rooms with febrile convulsions or other vaccine reactions within hours of getting this shot. Telling, isn't it?
  
• A number of vaccines have already had problems/been removed from the market (FYI: If the vaccines below have had serious problems, there's a good chance that the others do too because vaccine manufacturers follow the same basic formula for every shot):
  
  Here are some of them:
  
• In Feb 2002, GlaxoSmithKline removed the Lyme Disease vaccine from the market citing poor sales when in fact a number of people who received the vaccine reported symptoms worse than the disease itself such as incurable arthritis or neurological impairment.
• The Rotavirus vaccine (Rotashield) was removed from the market in 1999 due to an association between the vaccine and life threatening bowel obstruction or twisting of the bowl. 
• A warning was issued concerning the second Rotavirus vaccine (Rotateq) in 2007 as it caused the same twisting of the bowel problem in 28 infants (16 of which required intestinal surgery). It looks like this vaccine is still on the market...
• Another vaccine that has had a lot of problems but hasn't been withdrawn is the Gardasil vaccine for adolescent girls. A few of the reactions reported are fainting, paralysis and slurred speech and yet this vaccine is still on the market. At least 1600 adverse events have been reported since its approval in 2006, yet doctors are continuing to recommend this shot to their patients.

• You can always get vaccinated, but you can never undo it: In the vase of vaccination, procrastination is a GOOD thing. The longer you wait to vaccinate your child, the better. A child’s immune system continues to develop for years after birth. The blood/brain barrier doesn't fully develop until adolescence. The longer you wait, the more likely it is that your child’s immune system will be able to handle the onslaught with minimal damage. The best option is not to vaccinate at all but, if you delay it for a few years it's definitely better than vaccinating a baby. By the time your child is older, more research will have been done and you will have an opportunity to learn more and maybe become more comfortable with your decision to wait. Who knows, you may even realise it's not something you want to do at all.

The polio vaccine released between 1955 and 1963 is well known to have been tainted with the Simian Virus 40 (SV40) found in some species of monkey, which puts people at risk of developing cancer. 

Most people knew about it some time back and that is why a lot of people made the decision to stop vaccinating. The CDC (centre for disease control and prevention) have known about this for YEARS but they've only NOW admitted to it.They finally posted on their website that as many as 30 million Americans alone could be at risk for developing cancer due to the tainted polio vaccines. After the link went viral, they took it down but you can follow this link to read about it. Why all the secrecy, for so long, about something so vitally important? Many of the people vaccinated with the tainted polio stock are already dead from cancer with many more getting diagnosed each and every day so it's a bit late guys...

It's shocking enough that it took 50 years for the CDC to admit to this, but what's even worse is that it took 3 years to finally recall the tainted stock and reformulate the vaccine. It was actually over 100 million Americans who were vaccinated with the contaminated polio vaccine before action was taken, not just 30 million as the CDC said.

You may be thinking, well, at least they recalled it. But who's to say this is the only problem? They took 50 years to admit to it, and 3 years to recall it, so it was on the market for long enough to do some serious damage. Do you have enough faith in them to believe that they will be truthful the next time it happens, and that they are actually even looking for other problems? Never mind all the other toxins that are actually in the vaccines aside from dangerous viruses that cause cancer.

It's just not a chance I'm willing to take with my health OR with my family's health. You only have to read a few of my blog posts to know that I don't place much faith in doctors or in conventional medication. I haven't taken so much as a disprin for nearly 2 years now. I prefer to use food as my medicine and, if necessary, alternative methods like homeopathy but I don't see chemicals as any kind of solution. That's why it's easy for me to decide against vaccines. I don't buy into scare tactics that say I am putting everyone's lives in danger by not vaccinating. I honestly believe it's all about the money, not about you or me.

You might be different and that's fine because it's your decision at the end of the day. All I'm doing is helping you to make a more informed decision rather than simply doing something because a doctor told you, or because everyone else seems to be doing it and you just assume you should. This is the other side of the coin. If you prefer to hear it from a doctor, read this article. It's long but very interesting.

Now you can go and do your own research and do what you think is best for you and your family:)

Monday Mix-up - You ARE gluten intolerant, you just don't know it.

I haven't eaten wheat for about 10 years. When I say that to most people, they assume that it's because I want to lose weight. I guess I can understand why they'd jump to that conclusion. Wheat tends to be found in everything that loves to sit on your hips, thighs and stomach when you eat it!

It's not my reason though. If you've read any of my posts you'll probably know that I suffered from a condition called IBS for most of my life. I didn't know what it was at the time. No-one really did. Doctors couldn't fix it and no-one really knew how to handle it. I just knew that stomach aches, headaches and digestive problems were a part of my life. They were such a big part that, unpleasant as it was, I just accepted it as normal. Like most things in life, you just learn to live with them. But what's normal about having constant, debilitating stomach aches and an inability to keep food in and being sick ALL the time?

I only found out that food might be the cause of the problem when I was in my early 20s. A homeopath told me I had IBS and suggested that I cut gluten and dairy out of my diet. What a shocker that was! I grew up on bread. I had bread for breakfast, lunch and supper and then snacks in between, every day of my life. Let's face it, it's the easiest and cheapest thing to feed a family with 4 growing kids! What on earth was I going to eat if I couldn't eat wheat?! It was very hard to follow a gluten-free diet in those days and it took me a few years to actually get used to it and get it right.

These days it's pretty easy to avoid it. Gluten-free has become the new fad diet. It's become almost cool to say you're gluten-free. The thing is, most people are doing it for the wrong reason; to lose weight. Don't get me wrong, whatever reason you do it for, can only be for good, because I honestly believe that gluten is very VERY bad for us. We shouldn't be eating it at all and yet, it's pretty much a staple in everyone's diets.

Gluten is a substance made of 2 proteins: gliadin and glutenin. It's found in wheat, and some other grains like barley, rye, and spelt, among others. It's what gives these grains, especially wheat, its stretchiness. Ever eaten a slice of gluten-free bread? It's hard and a bit crumbly and not at all tasty! That's because of the lack of gluten. Let's face it, gluten is what makes bread so appealing! That's the thing with stuff that's generally not good for you... it always tastes so damn good!

Now let's talk about a little protein called Zonulin. Zonulin is essentially there to protect your intestines from foreign invaders. If you eat something that contains bacteria like Salmonella or E.Coli,  Zonulin is responsible for creating bowel “leakiness”. It allows water to leak into the intestine causing you to get diarrhea in order to flush them out. The problem is, Zonulin is ALSO triggered by gliadin which, as I mentioned in the previous paragraph, is one of the two proteins that make up gluten. So, in effect, Zonulin sees gliadin as a foreign invader as well and it reacts by creating "doorways" in the intestines. The problem with this is that it actually generates a two-way response: Not only can water enter the intestines, but the contents of your intestine are also able to enter your bloodstream. Now, generally speaking, you DO want the nutrients in your food to be passed into your bloodstream, but you don't want massive gaping holes that let EVERYTHING through without being digested properly. That's going to cause problems.

Ever heard of leaky gut syndrome? It's a more common name for a condition called Hyperpermeable Intestines. Usually, your intestines are very selective in screening what moves through the intestinal wall into the bloodstream. With leaky gut syndrome, your intestinal lining becomes more porous. It develops holes that are larger in size than they should be and the screening out process stops functioning properly. The result is that larger, undigested food molecules and other “bad stuff” (yeast, toxins, and all other forms of waste) that your body normally doesn’t allow through, start flowing freely into your bloodstream. This is a BIG problem that has a ripple effect, causing a whole bunch of other problems.

The first reaction your body has to these “foreign” bodies in your bloodstream is to fight like mad. What will happen is that your liver will start to work overtime and try to screen out all the food particles that your intestinal lining was supposed to take care of. Unfortunately, your liver has little to no chance of keeping up with the constant flow of waste. That means that all the toxins, undigested food and other pathogens start to accumulate in your body.

This causes your immune system to sit up and take notice, and it will NOT be happy AT ALL. It goes into full battle mode to fight the evil intruders and get them out of the body as quickly as possible. Of course, the body ALSO can't keep up with that and so the unfortunate end result is that the majority of these foreign bodies and toxins are absorbed into the tissues throughout your body and THAT is going to trigger inflammation.

Inflammation is also an immune response and it causes even MORE stress on your system. Now that your body is focused on fighting a serious war, the smaller battles, like filtering out the blood, fighting bacteria, calming inflamed areas and regulating your intestines, are starting to be ignored. This process can actually lead to your body starting to fight itself and that is where you become susceptible to an array of autoimmune diseases such as Chronic Fatigue, MS, IBS, Ulcerative Colitis, and Fibromyalgia.

Your body will begin to produce anti-bodies designed to fight against what it sees as foreign objects (which can be anything from the proteins in milk, to proteins in nuts, grains and eggs). For example, when I was slap bang in the middle of my IBS, I would IMMEDIATELY react to eating a handful of nuts. I'd get an instant headache, brain fog, and I'd be running for a bathroom. It wasn't something slow. It happened immediately. But that's because all of this had been building up for a long time and I didn't realise it. My body was at war with itself.

The problem with this whole process is that, pretty soon, your body starts to see EVERYTHING you eat as a foreign object, so it won't actually matter what food you cut out. It will all cause a reaction as soon as it gets through the holes in your intestines. That's exactly what happened to me. It got to the point where I was permanently suffering from headaches, brain fog and horrible digestive issues. I was living on painkillers and I was eating next to nothing because everything made me feel terrible.

This is what gluten does to you. It's not limited to me, or people who are sensitive to it. It happens to everyone because all human beings produce Zonulin. The problem is that most people don't realise it's happening because most people are so used to being in a constant state of sickness. Like me accepting my IBS as "just how things are", most people do the same. 

You may have a headache every second day, or every day for that matter. You may often have acid reflux issues, heartburn and indigestion. You may find that your memory is getting worse and worse and you feel tired a lot more than usual. You may suffer from eczema or some kind of skin rash that just won't go away. You may catch every bug that is doing the rounds, and when you catch it, you are sick for WEEKS on end. Candida is VERY common if you have leaky gut syndrome. If you suffer with any kind of thrush, you probably have candida and may also have leaky gut syndrome. Sometimes it's so hard to pin down exactly what's wrong, you just know you feel "off". There may be underlying issues but I can guarantee that one of the problems is the amount of gluten you are putting in your body. 

The problem that really gets most people who eat a lot of gluten, is malnutrition. You may think I'm nuts saying that, because I bet you eat 3 square meals a day, just like most people, plus snacks in between. How can you suffer from malnutrition if you are eating all the time? What happens is that your body isn't able to absorb the nutrients from the food you're eating. Your intestinal lining has what's called intestinal villi and it's the job of the intestinal villi to absorb nutrients. If you have leaky gut syndrome, those villi come under attack and are unable to do their job. That means that, no matter what you eat, your body is not benefiting from it. You can be 50kgs overweight and you can still suffer from malnutrition and that is going to lead to a whole bunch of other issues like anaemia, osteoporosis and infertility, to name just a few.

These days, autoimmune diseases are pretty common. Like cancer and heart disease, they are diseases of civilisation. The more "advanced" we become, the more we rely on convenience foods, the greater the stress on our bodies, the sicker we get. What you need to do is halt the process I described a few paragraphs ago, BEFORE you get to the point of no return. I've said it many times before, prevention is far better than cure, and far more effective. An autoimmune disease is pretty hard to fix. And the underlying root of the problem is always going to be there no matter what. What you need to do is change the way you think, completely. If it's going to mean a better quality of life, why would you even think twice about it?

How do you fix this? Well, if you are experiencing any of the symptoms above then it's a little more complicated than just cutting out gluten, but that is an extremely good place to start. Give your body a fighting chance by cutting it out completely. Fixing leaky gut syndrome is quite similar to fixing candida, which I posted about a few days ago. You can refer to that post and you can also try some of these options to speed up the healing process and fix the damage that's been done:

• Dietary Restrictions: Cut out all sugars, starches, grains and processed foods. (which always contain all of the other things anyway!) This immediately alleviates the inflammation and starves the yeast overgrowth. Then the intestinal tract will slowly start to return to its normal permeability, stopping the flow of foreign objects into the blood, which will stop food intolerance symptoms and eventually help stop the vicious cycle.
• Nutritional Supplementing: As I said earlier, you are going to suffer from nutritional deficiencies and, if you don't get proper nutrients into your body, it will lead to a whole host of problems. Supplementing with a good multi-vitamin (Look for foodstate at Dischem. Don't use anything synthetic), large amounts of vitamin D, and zinc will help the intestinal lining return to normal. Fish oils also really help improve the condition of the intestinal lining by reducing inflammation.
• Probiotics: Putting the friendly bacteria Lactobacillus Acidophilus back into your intestine is very important. Cutting out all the bad food will get rid of the bad bacteria and you need a constant feed of the good bacteria to replace it. Friendly bacteria also help prevent bad bacteria and yeast. They heal the intestinal lining and help nutrients get absorbed which helps to keep the vicious cycle in check. Again, foodstate has a very good one.
• Digestive Enzymes: Usually you get digestive enzymes from the raw food you eat (which is why it's essential to eat some raw food with every meal) but your intestines will probably feel a bit aggravated by raw food initially so, to help them out, supplement with digestive enzymes. You will find them at Dischem too.

It's hard to give up gluten. I know. It means no more bread, pasta, most desserts, even soy sauce! But really, you should be focusing on eating real food anyway. Everybody should. Everything you buy on a shelf can be made by you if you know how. That's why I blog, because I can help you there and make your life a little easier! Look back in the archives and find recipes that will help you survive without gluten. It's entirely doable these days and, in fact, entirely necessary.

Your body WILL thank you.

Real Food Friday Feast - Homemade apple cider vinegar

I am so excited to be able to finally post this! I have been trying to make my own apple cider vinegar for about a year! I kept trying different recipes I found, and none of them worked... until now:)

We drink apple cider vinegar daily in our house. In case you aren't sure why, I did an entire post on the benefits of it and how to drink it. Just to recap though, apple cider vinegar has been scientifically proven to help cure, improve, and/or prevent the following:

• Diabetes
• High cholesterol
• Blood pressure and heart health
• Cancer
• Weight loss

Other known benefit and uses for it include:

• Detoxification
• Strengthen the immune system
• Aid digestion
• Prevent bladder stones and urinary tract infections
• Increase stamina
• Alleviate symptoms of arthritis and gout
• Reduce sinus infections and sore throats
• Improve skin conditions such as acne
• Protect against food poisoning
• Prevent muscle fatigue after exercise
• Fight allergies in both humans and animals
• Prevent bad breath when used as a gargle mixed with water
• Prevent body odour when used externally
• Prevent night time leg cramps

Sounds like something you might want to include in your daily diet, doesn't it? The thing is, if you are going to take it as a tonic, you don't want to be using the cheap, refined variety you find at a grocery store. Those have been stripped of all goodness and loaded with preservatives and will probably do more harm than good. You want to use the raw, organic kind that contains what's known as "The Mother". "The Mother" is that cloudy sediment that settles on the bottom of the vinegar bottle if you leave it to stand for a while and it is made of of living nutrients and bacteria which is why it is so beneficial for you.

Dischem sells a brand of raw apple cider vinegar for R19.95. It's the brand above in the picture. The only problem with it is that it isn't organic, but it IS raw. If you go for the organic one, you are looking at about R40 at least. If you drink it daily, as we do, that ends up costing a fair bit a month. So I thought, why keep buying it if I can make it?! Hence the constant experiments. 

It didn't really cost me anything to experiment because all I used were apple peels and cores, and water. I add an apple a day to our breakfast smoothie so all I did was peel and core the apple before adding it to the smoothie. I placed all the apple peels and cores in a container in the fridge and I collected them for a couple of weeks and then, when I had a decent amount, I'd experiment. But it wasn't working and I finally discovered that there was a vital ingredient missing all along that should have been obvious to me, and wasn't! The sugar was missing! Duh...

The sugar is absolutely necessary as part of the fermentation process because it feeds the bacteria. You don't have to worry though. It all gets eaten up by the bacteria as your vinegar is brewing so you won't be ingesting sugar when your apple cider vinegar is ready.

So, without further ado, here is the recipe!

Apple Cider Vinegar

CLEAN apple peels and cores (They MUST be organic, sweet apples. Granny smith won't work too well and the more you have, the merrier!)

1 cup sugar (or 3 Tbs honey)

2 litres clean, filtered water (or boiled tap water left to cool)

Big glass container

Method

• Boil your kettle and fill the glass container with boiling water and swirl it around to get it nice and clean, then pour the water out (you don't want your good bacteria to be fighting any other bacteria. You want them to focus on making you vinegar!)
• Quarter fill the container with boiled water again and add the sugar or honey
• Mix until dissolved
• Add some cool, filtered water to about halfway (so that you don't cook your apple peels!)
• Place all apple off-cuts into the container
• Top up with cool, filtered water
• Take a piece of cheesecloth, or a stocking (something that will prevent bugs falling in while still letting air in!) and use an elastic band to attach it over the top of the container.

I just used a little tea tray cloth I inherited from an elderly relative;)

• Be sure to mark the date you started the process somewhere on the container (I got this handy 3 litre jar from Westpack for about R30 and it gets used A LOT)
• Put it somewhere out of the way where it will be warm (ish) I put mine on top of the fridge because fridges tend to throw a lot of heat
• It needs to sit for about 2 weeks (yes, this is not a quick one!)
• If you peek at it during the course of the 2 weeks you'll see it starts to bubble a bit and even grow a little mold. This is all good believe it or not. Leave it be!
• After 2 week, strain the apple off cuts and mold out and pour the liquid into a clean jar that's also been cleaned out thoroughly with boiling water
• Place the cheesecloth back over the opening of the container and put it back on top of the fridge
• Keep checking it once a week to see how it smells. It'll first turn to cider and then vinegar. You'll know when it's vinegar. It's not a hard smell to pin down;) Once you can smell vinegar, taste it and see how strong it is. If you are happy with it, decant the liquid into smaller bottles, put the lids on and store in a cupboard or pantry. It keeps indefinitely!

You will notice that the longer the vinegar sits, the more of "the mother" it develops. 

Don't strain that out. It's so incredibly good for you and it doesn't make it taste bad or anything. Without that stuff, you're pretty much wasting your time. When you are going to use it, just shake the bottle up so you get some of it into you. You'll see it doesn't make it taste any different, it's not chewy or grainy or chunky. It blends in so it's not even noticeable. 

The scoby

You may even notice that your vinegar develops a scoby. A scoby is a spongy layer that usually sits on the top of your vinegar and it is a culture of yeast and bacteria. It looks revolting and feels worse but don't let it freak you out;)This is a very GOOD thing. It means you can use it to make your next batch of vinegar and it will be even easier. Put it in a container and pour some of your vinegar over it to protect it. Remember, it is a LIVING thing. Just keep it in a dark cupboard, covered with vinegar, until you're ready to make more vinegar.

This is a more frugal method because it only uses apple peels and cores but, if you want to spend a little money and get more bang for your buck, use whole apples. You'll see in the picture I posted with the 11/10/13 date, that I used whole apples. I ended up using 7 of them. Just chop them up and core them. If you think about how much you spend on one bottle of apple cider vinegar at a store, and how many bottles you end up with when you make homemade vinegar, it's not a lot of money to spend at all. I bought my apples from pick n pay. They often have organic apples so go and check them out. Failing that, visit your local farmer's market and get yourself some.

Once you have made a batch of your own vinegar, you can actually use it to start the next batch. If your vinegar didn't develop a scoby, that's fine. Just add a couple of tablespoons of your vinegar, containing "the mother" to your next batch and it will speed up the process.

You may notice that your homemade vinegar isn't as strong as the store bought one. I'm not entirely sure why this is. But it's really, really good for you and it's far easier to drink as well so I don't see it as a problem.

And how do you drink this stuff on a daily basis? Well, it's really simple. We have it before we have anything else in the morning. So I make it, and drink it while I'm feeding the cats and packing GLM's lunch and making our breakfast. Here's how to drink it:

• Half fill a mug with hot water
• Add a teaspoon of raw honey and mix until dissolved
• Add a dash of cinnamon (this is optional but it makes it taste yummy and cinnamon is also really good for you!)
• Top the mug up with cold water
• Only THEN, stir in 2 capfuls (or tablespoons) of vinegar (the reason you do it last is because it's raw and it contains LIVE bacteria. If you pour those into hot water, you will kill them and that will defeat the whole object)
• Drink!

That's it! Super easy and super good for you!

Have a wonderful, healthy weekend:)

Wellness Wednesday - Are you suffering from candida?

I briefly spoke about Candida in this post but I thought it was something worth doing a whole post about because I think there are so many people suffering from it and they aren't even aware of it. It's something I used to suffer with permanently when my IBS was particularly bad and, unless someone had told me about it, I would never have known. It's not like the flu where it only hangs around for a week or so and has very recognisable symptoms. You can have Candida for months and not even know. You'll feel "off" but it's so easy to explain away that that's what you do, and you just feel worse and worse over time.

Firstly, what is Candida? Candida is a fungus, which is a form of yeast, and you are meant to have a very small amount of it in your mouth and intestines. Its job is to aid digestion and nutrient absorption. It becomes a problem when you have too much of it. The good bacteria in your intestines are assigned with the task of keeping your candida levels in check but sometimes things go beyond their control and the repercussions are far from pleasant.

So, what causes Candida to suddenly start overproducing?

• A diet high in processed foods, refined carbohydrates and sugar (they all feed the yeast)
• Consuming a lot of alcohol 
• Taking oral contraceptives 
• Living a high-stress lifestyle
• Taking antibiotics
• Mercury fillings
• Constant exposure to chlorine and fluoride (that's why you should avoid tap water)
• Diabetics are susceptible

How would you know if you had Candida? Well, if you recognise any of these symptoms below and you are guilty of one or more of the causes above, you may very well have Candida:

• Skin and nail fungal infections (such as athlete’s foot or toenail fungus) 
• Feeling tired and worn out or suffering from chronic fatigue or fibromyalgia
• Digestive issues such as bloating, constipation, or diarrhea
• Dandruff
• Oral candidiasis
• Autoimmune disease such as Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, Rheumatoid arthritis, Ulcerative colitis, Lupus, Psoriasis, Scleroderma or Multiple sclerosis
• Difficulty concentrating, poor memory, lack of focus, ADD, ADHD and brain fog
• Skin issues such as eczema, psoriasis, hives, and rashes
• Irritability, mood swings, anxiety, or depression
• Vaginal infections like thrush, urinary tract infections, rectal itching or vaginal itching
• Severe seasonal allergies or itchy ears
• Strong sugar and refined carbohydrate cravings

Some symptoms are more extreme and you may not be at that stage yet, but most of these are fairly common symptoms. The worse your Candida gets, the worse your symptoms will get. The problem with Candida is that, unless you treat it, it's not going to simply go away. People can have it for years without being aware until one of the symptoms becomes worse and they end up with an autoimmune disease. 

I've said it many times and I'll continue to say it. When you get sick, it's never an isolated incident. It's a small part of a much bigger picture. You can go to a doctor and get medicine or surgery, but ultimately, unless you get to the root of the problem, you are just going to get sick again eventually.

I'll give you an example: a few years back, I discovered that I had Endometriosis quite badly. Like Candida, so many women suffer from it and have no idea until, for some or other reason, they need to go for a checkup. There is actually strong a link between Candida and Endometriosis. A candida infection can interact with your hormones and that can stimulate endometriosis growth. (There's a really good reason to find out if you have Candida, and get rid of it!) The specialist told me I'd need an operation to get it all out. It involved a very unpleasant surgery that left me "woman-down" for 2 weeks.

When I went for my follow up appointment, I asked the doctor if it would come back and, if so, when. He very bluntly told me it would and probably in about a year! I was horrified. He never told me how I could avoid it, he just accepted that it WOULD come back. (I have said before that doctors are only interested in medicine and it's true. It doesn't enter their heads to consider telling a patient to try a lifestyle change. Their solution is always to cut it out or mask it.) Over the following few months I started doing serious research into diet and lifestyle and it dawned on me that I was really not doing myself any favours by eating the way I was eating. I thought I was healthy but most of my diet consisted of so-called "healthy", processed, low-fat foods. Processed foods always have hidden sugars and other nasties you don't want to be eating. I was giving MYSELF Endometriosis. Surely that meant I could cure it too?

Over a period of a few months, I started cleaning up my diet. Then I took it a step further and I started replacing all of my chemical beauty products with organic, natural products. Then I started replacing my household cleaning products with organic, natural products as well. If you've been following my blog, you know I've been chemical-free for over a year now. As a direct result of all that, I have remained endometriosis-free! I went for a check-up today, incidentally, and I am in perfect health:)

So, as I said 4 paragraphs up, if you don't treat an illness holistically, and get to the root of it, it will never really go away. You'll mask it, or give yourself a year's grace, but you'll get sick again, unless you get to the heart of it.

So, if it's not obvious yet what it is you need to do to cure your Candida, I'll spell it for you: F-O-O-D. Change the food you eat, and you can fix yourself. You don't need a doctor. You just need a bit of willpower and a bit of knowledge about the foods you should and shouldn't be eating. 

If you google the candida diet, you will find several links giving you a breakdown on what you should and shouldn't eat to cure Candida. I followed it for a while a few years back and I did get better, but guess what? It came back. It fixes the immediate problem, but it doesn't get to the root of the problem.

On the Candida diet, you'll feel better almost immediately, because the diet cuts out ALL sugar which feeds Candida, even raw honey. Fresh fruit, however, is allowed. Candida can trigger an allergy to molds and other types of fungi, so fermented foods including cheese and dairy are also eliminated along with any breads and other foods containing yeast. Other foods excluded from the Candida Diet include vinegar, mushrooms, tea, coffee, dried fruit and any form of fruit juices.

But the Candida diet has 2 fatal flaws:

• It allows foods like potato and other starchy vegetables. 
• It allows grain based foods.

Why are these foods going to give you Candida? Well, because they are made up predominantly of sugar! In fact, they contain DOUBLE sugars (disaccharides) Not only are you still feeding the Candida but, an inflamed, unbalanced intestine full of Candida is not able to digest double sugar molecules completely because the lack of good bacteria. So, while you may heal slightly, as long as you keep eating grains and starches, your Candida will never go away.

So, here is what you need to avoid for a while in order to get rid of your Candida: 

• All grains and any food that contains them. This includes wheat, rye, rice, corn, oats, amaranth, kamut, spelt, barley, buckwheat, millet, teff, triticale, bulgar, tapioca, quinoa and any others I might have left out. 
• Starchy vegetables like white and sweet potatoes, parsnip, arrowroot and taro, starchy beans and peas must also be avoided which includes pretty much all of them with the exception of green peas. 
• All sugars including the lactose in milk and cream. Honey and very ripe fruit are the only sweets allowed. 
• ALL processed foods

You CAN eat just about anything that is real food and isn't listed above. You can also eat things like fermented dairy (yogurt and kefir) as well as butter and ghee. For a very comprehensive list, click here.

It sounds like a nightmare, I know. If you can't eat grains and starches, won't you starve?! Well, no, because there are plenty of other things to fill you up. Vegetables are really filling. So is fat, and you CAN eat that. We have been brought up to believe that a meal without starch isn't a "proper" meal. It's not true at all. But mentally, we can't get our heads around it. I was chatting to a personal trainer a few months back who was trying to lose weight. He said he was absolutely starving because he'd cut out carbs completely. I said, "You're crazy, you  need vegetables!" He looked at me like I was nuts and said, of course he was eating vegetables, he just wasn't eating CARBS... Um, vegetables ARE carbs?! In his mind, carbs were starches and grains and he'd convinced himself that he was starving when really, all he had to do was double the amount of vegetables on his plate and add some nice, healthy fat, and he'd be so full he'd be bursting!

If you simply follow a real food diet for a few months, and make sure you stick to the above points, you WILL cure your Candida and you will feel so much better for it, it will make any sacrifices worth it. When you start reintroducing foods, your body will be strong enough to digest them because you will have given it the tools it needs and your Candida won't come back.