Real Food Friday Feast - Chicken Liver Pâté

Chicken livers, like eggs, have always gotten a bad rap when it comes to the whole "foods that raise cholesterol" debate. Ironically, this superfood is probably one of the most nutritious things you could possibly eat and we are depriving ourselves of it based on the words of a few government agencies. These people are the same people who will tell you that genetically modified food is safe and that processed food, made by a scientist in a lab, is good for you!

I always vaguely knew it was best to avoid liver and eggs if you didn't want to raise your cholesterol to an unhealthy level. "People" said it and so it must be right... right? Well, if there is one thing I have learnt over the last year it is that "people" are NOT always right and that, finding your own answers is the best route to take, rather than just doing what everyone else is doing. You are missing out on a lot if you take on sheep-like tendencies.

This is why you SHOULD eat liver according to Dr Weston Price (follow the link to read ALL about how wonderful liver actually is) who states that liver contains more nutrients than any other food:

• An excellent source of high-quality protein
• Nature’s most concentrated source of vitamin A
• All the B vitamins in abundance, particularly vitamin B12
• One of our best sources of folic acid
• A highly usable form of iron
• Trace elements such as copper, zinc and chromium; liver is our best source of copper
• An unidentified anti-fatigue factor
• CoQ10, a nutrient that is especially important for cardiovascular function
• A good source of purines, nitrogen-containing compounds that serve as precursors for DNA and RNA.

So, now I KNEW I had to eat liver! The problem was that I had always hated liver. When we were growing up, my mom would often make chicken liver stew. My worst was when I THOUGHT it was actually chicken stew, which I LOVED, and then I would sink my teeth into that weird texture of a liver instead and I would feel like retching! As a child they totally grossed me out and I went to extremes to get out of eating them! As an adult it was far easier to avoid them, and it helped that they were supposed to be bad for me. I had a good excuse to cut them out of my diet. So, when I found out I needed them in my diet, I was not too happy! 

It took me a whole year to actually purchase any for ME to eat. I was buying them for my cats because they eat raw liver as part of their diet, but no liver had made it onto my plate yet. When I started ordering raw giblets from my free-range meat supplier, she gave me about 3kgs of mixed giblets and at least a third of all the giblets were chicken livers. It was way too much even for 6 cats to eat so I had to make another plan or they were all going to go to waste.

I decided that chicken liver pâté was something I could handle eating and I started looking up recipes. Did you know that ALL liver pâté recipes contain alcohol?! Brandy seems to be the preferred spirit. Can't figure that out?! Others contain flour or sour cream. I needed something simple that I could eat it with no bad repercussions. The best thing to do was to experiment!

And here is what I came up with:

CHICKEN LIVER PÂTÉ

500 grams chicken livers

1 small onion, finely chopped

1 garlic clove, finely chopped

2 bay leaves

1/3 teaspoon salt (You can add more according to taste)

1 cup water

1/6 teaspoon ground nutmeg

4 tablespoons unsalted butter (this depends on preference really. If you'd like a harder pâté, add more butter)

• Rinse the chicken livers and cut off any tough pieces of connective tissue
• Place water, chicken livers, leek, garlic, bay leaf and salt in a saucepan on medium heat and bring to a simmer
• Cover, lower the heat and simmer for 3 to 5 minutes. Turn off the heat and let stand, covered, for 5 minutes
• Discard the bay leaves. Drain the liquid out (it makes a really tasty stock for soup!) and scoop everything else into to a food processor
• Add nutmeg
• Process just until the livers are finely chopped, then, with the blade still running, start adding the butter 1 tablespoon at a time
• Once the butter is blended in, season with salt and pepper and continue to process until the pâté is completely smooth
• Scoop the pâté into your bowls of preference
• The pâté will need to stay covered to protect it from air. You COULD use gladwrap but why add more plastic to the world, and to your food?! A very tasty method is to pour melted butter or duck fat on top which will create a protective seal that you can also eat!
• Refrigerate 4 to 6 hours so the it can firm up. Your pâté will stay fresh for about a week.

This recipe is for those who love pâté but want to avoid alcohol and any other funny additives and stick to real, wholesome food. It's the simplest recipe you'll probably find anywhere because there's really not much to it, but, considering how simple it is, it tastes delicious! Because it was my first time EVER making pâté, I was erring on the side of caution but next time I am DEFINITELY adding a few extras like some masala (I DO love my curry;)), and maybe some coconut milk to give it an even creamier texture. I am pretty sure, if you want to avoid too much butter, that coconut oil would work just as well. Just be sure to get the odourless one if you don't want your pâté tasting like a tropical island;)

The BIG test was, of course, GLM;) She is probably even worse than me when it comes to liver! I can force myself to eat just about anything if I know it's good for me but that's me. I will make myself eat some fried liver now, just because it's good for me and I'm even starting to enjoy it! GLM refuses to do it. Pâté was my only hope of getting liver into her system. I put some on a biscuit last night and held my breath...

She LOVED it:) 

She shoots, she scores!

That's it for this week:) Have a lovely weekend and we'll chat again on Monday!

Headaches can be a pain...

Headaches are, at best, annoying, at worst, quite debilitating. I know all about them. I used to get headaches on a daily basis. I always put it down to my eyes, or my sinuses, or lack of sleep or muscle tension due to stress. There could've been any number of reasons but I never looked too deeply into it. I did what any normal person would do, I reached for the panado or the nurofen without any further thought. Anything to take the pain away.

Just over a century ago, before Aspirin was invented, in 1897, and finally released in pill form in 1915, popping a pill was the furtherest thing from anyone's mind when they were inflicted with a headache. If it was a man, he was likely to ignore it and probably have a drink to wash away the pain. It wasn't considered very manly to succumb to a headache. If a woman had a headache it was quite normal for her to take to her bed for a day or two. The local physician might even be called in and he would probably make her a herbal blend to ease the pain or help her sleep.

There are so many different types of headaches that it's often difficult to find the actual cause, and that can make it difficult to treat. It is SO easy to simply pop a pill and move on. The concern there is that you haven't actually gotten to the root of the problem. You've only treated the symptom and that guarantees that the headache will be back. I know because it kept happening to me.

I remember, years ago, I had had a splitting headache for about 9 straight days and I was at the point where I was taking 8 painkillers a day! What I didn't realise was that, the headache had STARTED because of something else, but it was sticking around BECAUSE of all the pills I was taking to try and get rid of it.  I think it was my sister who actually mentioned something she'd heard from her doctor about over-the-counter headache pills actually CAUSING headaches. As an experiment, I stopped taking the pills and pushed through the headache for a few days and it eventually went away!

That doesn't mean to say that I learnt much from that experience! I still thought that my only option with a headache was to take pills. I just stopped taking so many and I changed to something I considered less strong. I was the person who ALWAYS had a strip of compral or panado or nurofen in her handbag just in case I had a headache and everyone knew to ask me if they needed a painkiller.

I can hardly believe I am the same person that I am writing about! I've changed A LOT since then. Two years ago, when I decided to cut out chemicals and go organic, I also cut out all medication from my life. THAT was a hard one considering all the headaches I suffered from, not to mention the once-a-month, agonising period pains. The first time I had a headache, I thought, "I MUST be insane! Just take a pill Mel. Give in and take a pill!" I didn't though. Instead I tried to work out WHY I had a headache.

When I first went organic, I got many headaches. I cut out a LOT of chemicals in my life.  The biggest ones were caffeine, and headache pills. It was only natural that I was going to detox and boy, did I?! I had stomach pains and headaches from hell. But I knew that it was because I was detoxing and I needed to try and get through it. If I took a pill, it would ease the withdrawal but the headache would come back the minute I started detoxing again. I drank loads of water and tea and waited it out.

I got through it ok and these days, I don't get many headaches! If I do, it's never the little aches I used to get. It's almost like my body is saying, "Ok, seeing as you don't have lots of little headaches, we are going to give you a whopper to make up for it!" But it's ALWAYS for a reason and that reason usually involves me falling off the organic fruit basket, or if I'm sick;) I can't drink much these days because my body hates chemicals. That means I suffer BADLY with hangovers. One glass of wine is enough to do it. I also get hangovers from eating chemical-laden food BECAUSE my body is so clean. In the old days, I'd simply take a pill and 20 minutes later I'd be good to go. Now that I spend more time thinking about the root of the cause, I treat it for what it is. I drink a LOT of water, I make a pot of herbal tea (the primary ingredients being milkthistle and stinging nettle and you can read why, here!) and I wait it out. I KNOW my discomfort is caused by dehydration, the alcohol and chemicals poisoning my chemical-free system and putting strain on my liver and I know that, as soon as my body manages to correct the balance, I will feel better. Meanwhile I try to make the process as easy for my body as possible by fixing the cause of the problem, rather than the symptom.

Let me guess, THIS picture resonates with some of you;) I find it very telling that a fast-food joint and an over-the-counter headache pill would join forces... At first glance, this picture is amusing. Most of us have been there right? But look at what this advert is encouraging: Do whatever you want, you can always take a pill afterwards. And they even promote it further by saying it's the GP's choice. I find it a bit scary to think that a GP would actually condone simply taking a pill and masking the symptoms of the abuse your body is taking, and yet that's what a lot of them do.

As I said, there are so many different TYPES of headaches. If you can figure out the cause, you can cure it. Finding the cause is often easier said than done and there have been times when the only relief I can find, is sleep. It's always gone by the morning. A good idea is to start trying to identify the triggers. If you smoke or drink a lot, I'm pretty sure you won't have to look too far to find your triggers. But food can be trickier. Common food triggers are dairy and caffeine and sometimes chocolate (which contains both so no guesses as to why!) Triggers can also be a bad night's sleep or no sleep at all. You may be grinding your teeth or clenching your jaw at night and that will definitely cause headaches. I always get a headache if I skip a meal and that's probably low blood sugar. Dehydration can cause a terrible headache. Emotional trauma can bring on a headache as can a stressful experience. If you can understand your headache, you can fix it.

Here are a few options to consider if you DO have a headache and don't want to simply take a pill:

• Drinking a few glasses of water sounds so simple and yet, often, headaches are caused by dehydration. Try that for a start and see how you feel in about half an hour.
• Sometimes just eating a wholesome, nutritious meal can ease a headache.
• Tension headaches can be eased by a gentle shoulder, neck or head massage if you have someone on hand willing to help out!
• Peppermint oil helps to relax the muscles in your head and neck. Just rub some on your hairline gently.
• A cool cloth will also have a similar effect to the peppermint oil without messing up your hair;)
• A bath with epsom salts and lavender oil can also soothe a headache.
• I am a great believer in the power of herbs. Feverfew is really helpful for migraines. Lemon balm can ease less painful headaches as can chamomile. Ginger tea is anti-inflammatory. Buy a fresh ginger root, crush it up and add boiling water. Drink with honey and lemon to make a delicious, healthy drink.
• If it is a sinus headache, steam your sinuses with some mint tea.
• If it is close to bedtime, perhaps skip the pill and simply get into bed. Your headache will likely be gone by the morning and your body will thank you for staying away from the chemicals!

As I said, you will be better equipped to heal your headache if you know the cause. If you suffer frequently, the first step is to cut out headache pills for a few weeks. Your body will need to detox. If the headaches stop, you more than likely were giving yourself headaches by taking the pills! If they don't, start experimenting by cutting out certain foods. As I said, dairy and caffeine are major headache triggers and good ones to start with. Wheat and dairy are commonly associated with sinus problems, which can cause horrible headaches.

It sounds complicated, but if you HAVE started cleaning up your diet, you will have already started cutting out processed and refined foods. I'd bet that they were also contributing to your headaches. Continue to cut out foods, one by one, to try and find the root of the problem. I bet you will find that a clean diet sorts out your headache problem once and for all, like me:) Just always remember to allow your body time to detox. You can help THAT headache along by drinking a lot of water and milkthistle tea. 

Before you reach for the panado, stop and think for a minute about WHY you might be in pain and then try to target THAT cause. Your body will thank you by not giving you another headache the next day!

I'll take a full cream cappuccino please!

Question: What is the best way to sell a product that isn't moving off shelves and isn't popular with the public?

Answer: Call it a health food and you will see that product flying off the shelves faster than they can manufacture them.

It's sad, but true. So many of us are being fooled by clever marketing and advertising. We are actually turning our noses up at real, wholesome food, and choosing to buy processed, genetically modified foods instead, because the adverts, and sadly sometimes health professionals, tell us to.

If you can, try and cast your mind back to the time that you FIRST heard that full cream dairy was bad for you, I bet you'd struggle to actually pinpoint it or remember who it was who told you? I know you'll probably say you've read it in many magazines and newspapers, or it's something you've seen on TV, or someone said something. Did you ever question it? Or did you just go along with it because the amount of places you heard it or read it or saw it, meant that it HAD to be right? I was SO brainwashed, I actually convinced myself that cream was just gross and that I hated the taste! (I actually LOVE the taste though...)

THAT is the power of propaganda. Even our health professionals have been duped. As an exercise scientist, I am told to advise my clients to stay away from saturated fat and full cream dairy. Discovery Vitalityfoods actually subtracts points if you buy full cream dairy. It's terrifying the far reaching effects good advertising can have. These days, the amount of people who actually know the truth about full cream dairy, and saturated fats, are few and far between. Tim Noakes (read this very interesting article about him and his diet) is probably the only well-known person to actually say it in recent years. But I am trying my hardest to change that!

Did you know that, before World War 2, no-one even knew what skim milk was? People bought milk based on how creamy it was. The thicker the layer of cream on top of the milk, the better the quality, the faster it sold. Milk wasn't homogenised in those days which meant that it still formed that thick layer of cream on the top (yum!) These days, all milk (unless it's bought raw at a farmer's market) is homogenised.

In case you aren't sure what homogenisation is, it's a process where milk is raised to high temperatures and agitated and filtrated to break down the naturally occurring fat molecules that would otherwise separate and rise to the top of the milk to form cream. The process of homogenisation stops the separation from taking place and gives store bought milk its smooth appearance which most people have come to prefer. It also gives the milk a longer shelf life making it easier for manufacturers to transport it over longer distances, and also for consumers to have longer-lasting milk, once it's opened.

One of the problems with this process is that it kills off all of the many healthy enzymes in milk. But a much bigger problem is that, according to Dr Kurt Oster, the process of breaking the fat globules into such small pieces is now a leading cause of arteriosclerosis and heart disease. It's been listed as one of the top three causes of heart disease, along with transfats and chlorinated water.

You might ask, well why do they do it then? We could also ask why they make things like margarine and genetically modified cereals and other processed foods... Because they CAN,  because it makes them loads of money and because WE continue to buy them thinking we're doing the right, healthy thing.

Back to skim milk though, how exactly DID it become a health food? Well, not long after World War 2, people started moving away from butter and full cream dairy, in fact, ALL saturated fats, because some studies had apparently shown that it was linked to a growing number of heart disease cases. What they didn't pay attention to was the fact that heart disease was virtually unknown before the mid 1920's when people still loaded their food with cream and butter. Logic dictates that saturated fat couldn't possibly be the culprit when it came to heart disease, or people would have been dying from it for centuries before. It had to be something new that had been added into people's diets more recently. It's no coincidence that partially hydrogenated fats were introduced around 1921. These fats are primarily responsible for the heart disease epidemic and yet people decided to blame saturated fats anyway.

People started cutting full cream dairy out of their diets due to its high saturated fat content and skim milk became the order of the day. People the world over, bought into the scam and skim milk became the new favourite health food to buy. The great irony is that heart disease is now the number one killer and people have not gotten thinner and healthier. They've gotten fatter and sicker despite the amount of skim milk being sold each year. What does that tell us?

I don't have kids yet, but BOTH of my sisters told me, at different times, that their kids had to eat full cream dairy until they were at least 2 and that it was a struggle to find full cream yoghurt for them. Apparently full cream was essential to their development. Low fat dairy actually posed a threat to their normal development and could only be consumed after they turned 2... I'm sorry, but the last time I checked, kids were humans too. They aren't some strange breed that magically turns human at the age of 2. What they need, ADULTS also need, and vice versa. And if it's bad for kids, you can bet your bottom dollar it isn't good for adults! Who on earth comes up with this nonsense?! Full cream dairy is as essential to adults as it is to kids and that's the bottom line.

So how DOES drinking skim milk make people fatter? Well, milk, without the fat, is really just milk sugar (lactose). That means, when you drink your "healthy" glass of skim milk, you are actually just drinking a sugary drink and we know what sugar does to us... it ultimately makes us fat. Another reason is that, when you reduce the saturated fat in a person’s diet, they start eating carbs (grains and sugars primarily) to fill the gap. It's these grains and sugars that actually make you fat, not saturated fat. I've mentioned it before on this blog; since I started eating saturated fat, I have LOST body fat. It is much easier to control my eating because I no longer have cravings for sugar. I feel satiated when I eat, thanks to eating saturated fat. I am not unique. The rule applies to all of us. If you drink skim milk, you will be missing out on the satiating, blood sugar and insulin steadying affects of saturated fat. That skim milk will actually make your body automatically crave sugar and carbs (grains) to make up for the lack of them. Why else do you crave sugar and carbs when you don't eat saturated fat? It's because the body is incredibly intelligent. It is able to MAKE saturated fat out of sugars. If it is low on saturated fat, it will make you crave sugar so that it can MAKE saturated fat. Unfortunately, eating more sugar also has the horrible side effect of making you fat, not to mention the threat of diabetes and other illnesses.

Here's another frightening reason to avoid skim powdered milk in this excerpt from “Dirty Secrets of the Food Processing Industry” from the Weston Price Foundation:

"A note on the production of skim milk powder: liquid milk is forced through a tiny hole at high pressure, and then blown out into the air. This causes a lot of nitrates to form and the cholesterol in the milk is oxidised. Those of you who are familiar with my work know that cholesterol is your best friend; you don’t have to worry about natural cholesterol in your food; however, you do not want to eat oxidised cholesterol. Oxidised cholesterol contributes to the buildup of plaque in the arteries, to atherosclerosis. So when you drink reduced-fat milk thinking that it will help you avoid heart disease, you are actually consuming oxidised cholesterol, which initiates the process of heart disease."

A last point to make you think: farmers feed skim milk to their pigs TO MAKE THEM FAT. Seems like a paradox, doesn't it? But a farmer actually said that, if she gives her pigs full cream dairy, they eat far less, but, if she gives them low fat dairy, they want to eat all the time! The same rule applies to all grain fed animals. They have so much sugar in their diets that they feel permanently hungry and keep needing to eat. It's not normal, and it's not healthy, not for the pigs, and certainly NOT for you.

Still going to order that skinny cappuccino? I dare you to try full cream for a couple of weeks and see the difference it makes. Lower the amount of starch and grains and increase the saturated fat in your diet. It must be from a healthy, grassfed animal though. Add some raw, full cream milk, and raw butter and some free range animal fat to your diet and see if you can feel the difference. I guarantee you will.

Prevention is better than cure

I often hear people say things like, "I did oil pulling for years but I still got sick and I never lost any weight," or "I took apple cider vinegar every day and I still gained weight," or "I eat a smoothie every morning and I don't feel any different." The problem with all of these people is that they are living their lives on an 80/20% basis. ie. 80% of their lives include normal food, normal beauty products and normal household cleaning products and about 20% of their lives is organic, healthy and chemical free.

I always say, do things in baby steps. I'm all for that. If you try to do something cold turkey, there is a bigger chance of failure. However, if you are going to take a year or two to make changes, then all the apple cider vinegar in the world won't be enough to make any difference. Apple cider vinegar alone, is not a cure. It makes things better, there is no doubt, but if you are still smoking 20 cigarettes a day and eating mostly "normal" food, you might as well be drinking a mug of water instead.

There are no miracles cures and there are very few second chances. If you are one of those people who believe that taking a diet pill and drinking a protein shake, will burn all the fat off you and save you from future dread disease, then I'm not sure my blog will be enough to get the message across. There is no quick fix. There is a decision to make a lifestyle change. And that is FOR LIFE. It's not something you do for a few months to lose some weight, or do a quick detox, and then go back to the way things were.

Pretending something doesn't exist doesn't make it go away. It just puts off the inevitable. I'm a procrastinator myself, I get why you would do that;) It's easier to pretend the horrible truth doesn't actually exist. That way you don't have to accept it. Each day you compromise your health and your future by convincing yourself that you're just not cut out for the healthy life, or the active life, and you're ok with that. You're doing just fine. You really believe it too...

Until the day your doctor tells you that you have diabetes, or high blood pressure, or you're infertile, or worse, you have cancer. Suddenly you think, "Why me?! I was fine!" But were you really? Part of you knows that some of the things you do, are bad for you. I know it. We all know it. We just somehow think that we are invincible. We take for granted that the body we have will never let us down. And then we are always so shocked when something bad happens to us, or someone close to us. I'm not sure what it is in human beings that allows them to be so destructively fearless regarding themselves. It's almost like we are looking for ways to bring the end on faster. But when the end threatens, we gasp in shock and horror that it could actually happen to us.

I'm a rally driver. Seriously, I've competed and won a few of them! I love to drive and I don't dawdle about it;) I used to ignore speed limits and take all the gaps. How I wasn't killed I'll never know! I was young and stupid. I'm older and wiser now, but I still love to take the gaps. I just do it more carefully these days. My eyes are always on every part of the road that I can see. I don't ignore blind spots. But I see it as a challenge, getting from A to B, legally, as fast as I can! I KNOW it's a stupid thing to do. At any point I could hit a pothole, blow a tyre or just not see something, and yet I do it. I just love driving and the challenge it poses for me. I tend to save my rally driving for the actual rallies now though;)

I think a lot of people play games with their lives in much the same way. We just keep thinking, "It'll never happen to us." In fact, I'd go as far as to say that the thought of something bad happening doesn't actually even enter our heads. We don't even consider it because we feel untouchable. I'm not sure why that is. There is enough death and destruction around us to convince us that life is short and every day that we are here is a privilege. But we continue to play with our lives as if we have many of them left. Unlike our cats, we don't get nine lives though. We only get one (depending on your beliefs you may come back to ANOTHER life!)

Some might argue that it makes sense, then, to live your life to the fullest. What does that mean though? I have a wonderful, happy life, but I do everything I can to preserve our health and wellness. I even slowed down my driving;) We go out and have a few drinks now and then with friends, but it's not often and the rest of our lives are lived cleanly. We never stop doing all we can to be healthy, even if we are out having fun with friends. That's not the case with most people I've noticed. Somewhere along the line, people bought into the propaganda that happiness was found in copious amounts of alcohol, foods, beauty products and cleaning products, and cigarettes and other drugs. (Cigarettes are considered a drug in case you were wondering) The propaganda told us that, if anything went wrong with our bodies, we could just take a few pills, or cut out the offending organ, and carry on having fun! 

My question is, why on earth would you want to play russian roulette with your life that way? Already we increase our odds of things ending, every time we get in a car, or cross a road, or fly in a plane. If I'm perfectly honest, I'd take a quick death over a dread disease any day. I have seen too many people suffer through awful diseases, in such terrible pain, only to die, to EVER want to be in that position. There is nothing I can do about planes, trains and automobiles but I CAN take charge of my health. We all could, if we realised just how easy it actually was, and how essential it was.

It IS a lifestyle change though. And it may take a couple of months to get used to it but, if you can convince yourself that this is actually normal, and everyone else is crazy, it makes it a lot easier;) Honestly, I DO think most people are crazy to eat and drink half of what they do. It doesn't make sense to me, that people could allow themselves to be so ignorant about their own bodies. If we didn't have these bodies, we wouldn't exist. Doesn't that mean we should treat it with respect? 

As I said in the beginning, you can do one or two things to be healthier, and "experts" might say that's fine, as long as you do something. But "experts" are not entirely right, there. If you are a healthy individual, if you go for all your tests regularly and you know everything is perfectly in order, THEN living your life 95% healthy and 5% not, is acceptable. Incidentally, if you are healthy, you are exceptionally lucky. These days it's getting harder and harder to find 100% healthy people! And that is the whole point of maintaining a clean lifestyle. The aim is continuous maintenance so that you DON'T end up getting sick. It's all about prevention. Most people who don't live a clean, healthy life, only decide to become clean and healthy AFTER they find out they are sick. It's a lot harder to fix things ONCE you are sick. The sad thing is, most people don't even realise they are sick, and they do more and more damage without realising. Prevention is BETTER than cure.

If you are NOT healthy, if you already know that you have high blood pressure, or you're grossly overweight, or you have diabetes or cancer, or some other dread disease, there can't be ANY half measures in your life. You need to be in it 100% until you are healed. If it's not the type of disease that CAN be healed, you STILL need to be in it 100% if you want to get as close to better as possible. This is your life you are playing with and NO amount of smoothies or apple cider vinegar will help if you are drinking and smoking every day and filling your body with chemicals. All the nutrients you are taking in are literally being destroyed before they can do any good. It's like trying to fill a bucket with a hole in the bottom. If you don't want to do it for you, then do it for those who love you and need you in their lives. There is always a reason to look after yourself. Read back through any of my blogs and start doing your research!

The amount of people in the world, who will actually consider any of this, is minuscule, which is scary to me. If I could, I would make it my mission to change the world, one person at a time. I love the thought of helping people become healthier, of lessening the amount of suffering through disease. That's one of the main reasons I started this blog. I hope that, over time, I can reach more and more people and I can do that with YOUR help. Share it on your pages, become a subscriber and favourite the posts if you like them. I would really appreciate the help, and in return, I will do my best to post things that, I believe, will add value to your life, and to those of your nearest and dearest.

Until tomorrow!

The benefits of raw apple cider vinegar

Every day, after I've done my oil-pulling, and rinsed my mouth with salt water, I drink a warm mug of raw apple cider vinegar, raw honey and water with a dash of cinnamon. Why would anyone do that, you ask? Well, I'm going to give you all the reasons why, right here.

Vinegar has, for centuries, been touted as a remedy for just about every existing ailment. But it's actually apple cider vinegar that has, more recently, been singled out as a health tonic. You'll find it in all health stores and Dischems these days. The big pharmaceutical companies would, of course, have us believe that regular medication is far better than alternative remedies. It always is, for them, because they have absolutely nothing to gain, financially, from alternative and preventative remedies. However, even they can't discount the following studies proving the medical uses of apple cider vinegar:

• Diabetes: The effect of vinegar on blood sugar levels is probably the best researched and the most promising of apple cider vinegar's health benefits. Several studies have found that vinegar may help lower glucose levels. A 2007 study of people with type 2 diabetes found that taking two tablespoons of apple cider vinegar before bed lowered glucose levels by 4%-6% when they woke the following morning.

• High cholesterol: A 2006 study showed evidence that vinegar could lower cholesterol.

• Blood pressure and heart health: A study with rats found that vinegar could lower high blood pressure. A larger study also found that people who ate oil and vinegar dressing on salads five to six times a week had lower rates of heart disease than people who didn't. 

• Cancer: A few laboratory studies have found that vinegar may be able to kill cancer cells or slow their growth. 

• Weight Loss: For thousands of years, vinegar has been used for weight loss. It stabilises the blood sugar making people feel fuller for longer. Bear in mind that apple cider vinegar alone, will not give you the body you want! But it's a good accompaniment to a healthy diet.

Scientific studies are great for some but they're not the be-all and end-all for me, given that scientists also believe that scientifically created food, and medication, is actually good for you! There are many people who also believe apple cider vinegar has the following benefits and I tend to agree:

• Detoxification: Apple cider vinegar is rich in natural minerals, vitamins and enzymes. The unique acids in apple cider vinegar can bind to toxins and help the body eliminate them more effectively. Apple cider vinegar can also help to stimulate circulation and aid detoxification in the liver. In ancient cultures apple cider vinegar was often used to purify the blood. Apple cider vinegar aids detoxification by breaking up mucus throughout the body and cleansing the lymph nodes to allow for better lymph circulation. A healthy lymphatic system can remove toxins from the cells in the body while improving immune system response.

• To help with digestion: This is possibly one of apple cider vinegar’s biggest benefits. It can help with indigestion and gastrointestinal discomfort caused by certain foods. It's said to clear up chronic acid reflux when taken with each meal and I can attest to that.

• Strengthens the immune system: Apple cider vinegar devotees claim that it is one of the main reasons they are able to ward of common illnesses like colds and flu. This is possibly due to its unique blend of vitamins, minerals and enzymes. It also possesses antimicrobial and antiseptic properties. I can vouch for the faster healing, myself!

• For soft and shiny hair: Acetic acid, the main ingredient in Apple cider vinegar, will remove build up from styling products and strengthen the hair shaft, leaving you with soft, shiny hair. It also balances your hair's pH level, kills bacteria, and helps get rid of dandruff. Dilute 1/3 cup Apple cider vinegar in 4 cups of water and pour over your hair after shampooing. Leave it in for a few seconds before rinse your hair using cold water to seal the hair shaft and create more shine. The vinegar smell will disappear as soon as your hair dries! Don't do this daily as vinegar is acidic!

A few other benefits:

• Prevents bladder stones and urinary tract infections
• Increases stamina
• Alleviates symptoms of arthritis and gout
• Reduces sinus infections and sore throats
• Improves skin conditions such as acne
• Protects against food poisoning
• Improves digestion and constipation
• Prevents muscle fatigue after exercise
• Fights allergies in both humans and animals
• Prevents bad breath when used as a gargle mixed with water
• Prevents body odour when used externally
• Prevents night time leg cramps

When I talk about apple cider vinegar, I don't mean the stuff you buy at pick n pay in the vinegar aisle. That is very poor quality, essentially "dead", vinegar and it's not going to have any medicinal benefits. It's been completely stripped of everything beneficial. It also contains preservatives and drinking it may actually be worse for you than not drinking any at all! The stuff I am talking about is raw apple cider vinegar which contains "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 raw brand at a small cost of R19.95

A very good, imported brand, but pricier!

So, how do you drink it? Well, as I said in the beginning, I drink it every morning, about 20 minutes before breakfast. This is how I make it:

• Half fill a mug with hot water
• Add a teaspoon of raw honey and mix until dissolved
• Add a dash of cinnamon
• Top the mug up with cold water
• Only THEN, stir in a capful (or tablespoon) of vinegar
• Drink!

In case you're wondering why you add the vinegar last, it's because it is raw and adding it to boiling water will kill off a lot of the bacteria and nutrients that you NEED to be drinking. So it's best to add it to lukewarm water. The cinnamon is not essential if you're not a fan of it but, to me, it makes it more palatable. Cinnamon IS really good for you, in any case:

• It is known to lower blood sugar and cholesterol
• It has natural anti-infectious compounds
• It reduces pain linked to arthritis
• It may reduce the proliferation of cancer cells
• It is a natural food preservative
• It contains contains fibre, calcium, iron, and manganese
• It's been proven effective for menstrual pain and infertility
• Cinnamon holds promise for various neurodegenerative diseases, including: Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, Multiple sclerosis, brain tumours and meningitis

Knowing all that, why would you NOT add the cinnamon?! Besides which, it makes it taste a bit like mulled wine (according to my brother;)

I was REALLY surprised when, the first time I made it for GLM, she actually said she LIKED it! It is an acquired taste for some but we actually enjoy our morning mug and, if I forget it over the weekend when I'm out of routine, GLM will often go and make it for herself or ask why we aren't drinking it;) 

So, if you are ready to enjoy all the wonderful benefits of apple cider vinegar, head off to your nearest health shop or dischem, buy yourself a bottle and get started!

Real Food Friday Feast - Power Breakfast Smoothie

Doctors, dieticians and nutritionists have always maintained that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. While I think all meals are pretty important, I do agree that skipping breakfast leads to a lot more weight problems. I can't survive without breakfast. I open my eyes and my stomach literally yells for food;) But I struggled a bit with what to have for breakfast when I made a decision to cut out processed foods.

If you walk down the cereal aisle you are literally bombarded with every kind of cereal under the sun. The problem with those cereals is that 99% of them are loaded with sugar (usually GMO corn syrup), and ALL of them are grains with NO exceptions. They are rice-based, or maize-based or oat-based and the rest of the ingredients are sugar, sugar and more sugar, and then add a few of those nice coded foods that no-one understands like E61 and E500. I don't think that starting your day off with a carbo load of GMO grains and a whole bunch of other scientifically generated "foods", is a great way to start it.

I've cut most grains out of my life since I discovered they were largely responsible for my IBS flaring up. If I have them now, I'll make sure they're properly soaked and they must be organic obviously;) If you cut grains out of your life, that leaves very little for the "normal" breakfast options. I don't need to eat "normal" food so that doesn't bother me, but GLM is my little creature of habit and is not a fan of change;) There are some things she will go along with, but some things are just a no-go!

One breakfast meal that has always been a winner for her, however, is the breakfast smoothie. I have been making breakfast smoothies for years but, in the last year, the recipe has changed quite drastically. It used to be a very boring combination of banana, apple, almonds, protein shake and soya milk (Can't believe I bought into the propaganda and drank that poison! I'll blog on that at some point too but, take my word for it, avoid it. Especially if you are trying to have a baby. It's loaded with GMO and hormones.) So anyway, that smoothie was pretty average nutrition-wise but it didn't taste too bad.

Enter the organic, super, real food era and how things have changed;) GLM sometimes asks what happened to our "normal" smoothie? (Creature of habit;) You see, what I have realised is that a breakfast smoothie is the EASIEST and TASTIEST way to get most of your fruit and vegetable daily requirements into your body, in one go. Our breakfast smoothie has replaced our multivitamin because it is loaded with all the natural vitamins we need. It is a powerhouse of goodness all in one glass and it's so easy to make, and eat on the run. There are a lot of websites out there by people who have cured cancer with diet and most of them talk about smoothies and juicing. But these are not just any smoothies and juices, they are supercharged, power nutrition in a glass.

So I am going to give you my recipe, but please bear in mind that this is just ONE way to make it. You can add as much variety as you like, depending on your tastes. Don't be put off by the colour. That will depend on the colour of the food you use but it'll still taste amazing. The more different colours you use, the more nutrition you will get out of it. 

You will need a decent blender (a hand blender will work well too.) 

Power Breakfast Smoothie (feeds 2)

1 raw Banana (medium size)
1 raw baby marrow (medium size)
1 raw patty pan
2 tsp peeled ginger root (or just a nice size chunk)

4 Tbs paw paw
2 Tbs soaked organic chia seeds
1/4 avocado pear
2 tsp organic cocoa powder
4 eggs OR 2 eggs and 125ml organic plain yoghurt
2 Tbs dehydrated coconut
2 slices pineapple
Add water to get a nice consistency

Method

• Throw all ingredients into blender EXCEPT chia seeds, adding liquid last.
• Blend till smooth
• Pour into 2 separate glasses
• Add a tablespoon of chia seeds to each glass and mix in
• Drink!

As I said, these ingredients are not carved in stone. You can replace the fruits with other fruits and the veggies with other veggies. I recommend keeping the coconut, ginger, cocoa powder, avocado (it gives the smoothie a lovely, creamy consistency) and chia seeds, but play around with the rest depending on availability and taste preference. You CAN use milk instead of yogurt. Both are a good source of protein. You can even JUST use milk instead of the eggs. As long as you have some protein in there. Bear in mind that eggs are a GREAT source of nutrition (provided they are free range) and are NOT public enemy number one for those with high cholesterol as some people keep insisting. If you are a vegetarian you can leave out the eggs and milk and just use water but you will need a bit more protein in there so I would add a handful of properly soaked nuts and perhaps a scoop of vegetarian protein powder. 

Some of you may be wondering about chia seeds. These little seeds are like magic seeds;) They are so good for you! They contain your daily dose of Omegas all in one little tablespoon. You can buy them at dischem and all health shops as well. They look like this when they are dry:

And like this when you make them into gel:

Why would you want to make them into gel? Well, they go so much further and they're easier to work with. They are mostly tasteless little seeds but they are good for so many things. 

• Omega 3's - Help reduce inflammation, enhance cognitive performance and reduce high cholesterol
• Fibre - Reduces inflammation, lowers cholesterol and regulates bowel function
• Antioxidants - Help protect the body from free radicals, ageing and cancer
• Minerals - Two tablespoons of chia seeds contain 18% of the daily recommended intake for calcium, 35% for phosphorus, 24% for magnesium and about 50% for manganese
• Satiety - They make you feel full for longer
• They are gluten free
• They make a good egg replacer when baking for those who can't eat eggs
• Blood sugar regulation - They play an important role in regulating insulin levels and can reduce insulin resistance and decrease abnormally high levels of insulin in the blood.
• Raise energy levels

See why you would want to eat these? Making them into gel is really easy. Get a clean glass jar and place 3 tablespoons of seeds in the jar. Fill the jar up with filtered water, all the way to the top and stir with a fork. Leave for a few minutes and then stir again. You'll notice they will clump up a bit. That's because they absorb the water and start to swell. Leave for a bit and then stir again to break up the clumps. Eventually the jar will be filled with chia seed gel and no more clumps and then you simply add a tablespoon of those to each smoothie. You can add them to anything really. You won't notice the taste at all, but you'll feel the health benefits! And that jar will last a week or two in your fridge.

That's it! I recommend eating at least one of these smoothies a day, but you are welcome to have more!

Some easy tips to kickstart your clean, green lifestyle

I know it can be quite daunting making a decision to live green, organic and chemical free. I am sure a lot of you have read these blog posts and been a bit overwhelmed by just how much is actually toxic in our environment, and how much we have to do if we want to keep it, and ourselves, clean and toxin free! I agree. It IS overwhelming. You might be tempted to just leave things as they are and I wouldn't blame you. When I first made the decision to make our household clean and green, I had no idea what I was taking on. Poor GLM had no idea either. She mostly still doesn't;) I often get questions about what goes where and why and how! But she does it without too much complaint because she knows it's good for us and she knows it makes her wife happy;)

So, maybe you want to start with some baby steps, just to ease you and your family into things gradually? Well, you'll be happy to know there are PLENTY of small, simple things you can do that will already make a HUGE difference to both you AND the environment. Perhaps you can make it your goal to achieve just ONE of each of the points below, each week, or even each month if it's easier. I found that I started off a little slowly, because I was learning and discovering things, and then I picked up the pace as I became more accustomed to it. I also found that, the healthier I felt, the more I WANTED to change things. The nice thing about following my blog is that you don't even need to waste time trying to figure things out. I've done that all for you and this blog is here for that purpose. To make YOUR life easier:)

What you can do, food-wise:

• Make a decision to cut out at least ONE of the "normal" foods you buy, from your monthly or weekly shop, and replace it with an organic, or free range, substitute. 
• A great example here would be eggs. By buying free range eggs, you are ensuring that you get LOADS more nutrients into you and your family's bodies. Egg yolks SHOULD be a bright orange colour. If they are pale and anaemic looking, they are not from healthy chickens and have little to no nutrients. They are actually probably doing you more harm than good because the chicken it came from is, very likely, ill. By buying free range eggs, you are also ensuring that you are not supporting the many chicken farms that keep chickens in unethical, cruel conditions. Watch this video to see what you are unwittingly supporting every time you DON'T buy free range eggs. (please be aware that it is not an easy video to watch. I still haven't watched all of it! It just breaks my heart.) Free range eggs are available at ALL grocery stores so it's a very easy, small change to make, and yet it will go a LONG way.
• Most grocery stores now stock organic bananas so that's something else you could consider changing. Kids LOVE bananas and eat loads of them so it makes sense to have chemical-free bananas in the fruit basket.
• If you become acquainted with the "clean 15" and the "dirty dozen", those of you on a budget can make sure you get fewer pesticides in your diet while still spending less money. Of course, the nutritional benefits are far superior when it comes to organic fruit and veg and there is less impact on the environment as well, but just making this little change will already make a big difference to your own health. The list below will tell you what's cleaner and what's dirtier.

• Start collecting bones after meals, store them in a container in your freezer and, when you have enough, use them to make some bone broth. You can use this to cook EVERYTHING with in place of store bought stock. Bone broth is unbelievably nutritious, and so necessary for your health and yet it is so cheap to make. Find out how to make it here.
• Start buying only fruit and veg that are in season. You may notice that some grocery stores will stock all types of fruit and veg all year round. The problem with that is that, different fruits and veg grow in certain seasons and you can be pretty sure that, if they're being sold at a shop out of season, they have either been grown unnaturally OR they have been imported from somewhere creating a huge carbon footprint. Wait it out for a few months and rather get the proper nutritional and environmental value for your money.

What about things you can do, for the environment, around the house, and in your garden?

• Did you know that while you are running your hot tap, waiting for it to get hot, you waste at least 3 litres of water? I actually tried it one day just out of curiosity and I filled up three one litre jugs before the water even got warm. The same applies if you want a glass of cold water and need to run the hot tap for a while to get it cool, especially on a hot summer's day! (You definitely don't want to risk actually drinking the hot water, no matter how cool it might be, because hot water will have a higher lead content due to the heat of the water leeching the lead out of the pipes. NOT good for you.) I decided to put a big bucket next to my sink and, if I needed to run water for any reason that didn't involve me plugging the sink, I would run that water into the bucket instead and use it to water my plants and my garden or even to fill my steamer or boil eggs. At least it's being put back into the environment, or being used to cook vegetables instead of all that clean water just going down a drain. Something small like that will make a huge difference in the longterm.

• Switch off lights in rooms you aren't using. We only ever have lights on in the rooms we are actually in. If we walk out of a room, the light goes off. It's such a habit for us now that I barely notice I'm doing it. I thought EVERYONE actually did that but, now and then, we have guests stay at our house and I am always surprised at how often I have to go into a room after they have vacated it, to switch off the lights! It's a great habit to get into and Eskom will thank you. Perhaps we can avoid the dreaded load-shedding if everyone starts doing it;)
• If you MUST leave on any lights, make sure the globes are energy saving globes. I can't actually understand why anyone would buy a normal globe these days. They last for such a short amount of time, they raise your electricity bill, and they are dangerous, especially if a child should try and play with a bedside lamp. Energy saving globes are far more hardy, they last for AGES, actually saving you money on globes and they also lower your electricity bill.
• Make a compost heap. Words can't describe how easy this is to do and how much difference it makes to the amount of rubbish your family generates, and to your garden. I had a flat piece of wood in my garage so we dug a hole that was the same size as the wood, and about a metre deep. The wood made a great lid! You're thinking that it probably smells right? WRONG! It doesn't smell AT ALL and that is because there is nothing in there TO smell. It's just fruit and veg cut offs, the occasional pieces of newspaper and tissue, grass cuttings and egg shells (rinsed of raw egg) The way to keep it smelling sweet, is to make sure you don't load your compost heap with all of one thing and not the other thing. A compost heap needs carbon and nitrogen to function properly, and to smell sweet. Carbon comes from dry things like dried plants and grass and cardboard and newspaper and tissues. Nitrogen comes from all the ripe, juicy things like banana peels and apple cores and other fruit and veg cut offs. As long as you throw in some of both, your compost heap will not have a smell. Visit this page to get an idea of what you can throw in your compost heap. Don't make things too complicated for yourself though. I may not be getting it 100% right because I don't calculate the ratios but, the good thing is, I am still getting lovely compost for my garden AND my rubbish bin is hardly being used because of that which means I am saving space in the landfills:) What I do, to make things easier for us is, I saved an old 5kg protein-shake container and I keep it next to the bins in the kitchen. I just put all our fruit and veg cut offs, teabags, etc in there until it's full and then I empty it into the compost heap once every few days. It saves me having to go out to the garden every time I want to throw away some stuff. I promise you that container does not smell at all. I keep a lid on it but that's just to stop the cats from messing with it. Get the kids involved in collecting the compost and emptying it into the heap. It'll teach them some good habits and small kids love to help!

That's the little compost container at the bottom!

• Buy yourself a BIG bottle of white vinegar. 

You may not know it but vinegar has MANY uses around the house and it's natural as well. It's GREAT for cleaning surfaces and stubborn dirt off of pots. It's also great at killing germs. You can use it to clean all your fruit and veg knowing that you are not adding further chemicals to your body because it's just vinegar, but you ARE getting rid of bugs. It's good for getting rid of dirt and insects and other creepy crawlies in your lettuce leaves and other leafy greens. I eat A LOT of those so I keep vinegar next to my sink all the time. What I do is fill a big bowl with warm water and about 2 tablespoons of vinegar. Then I throw in all the leaves, stir it around a bit and walk away, leaving them to soak for a good 10-15mins. Wipe off any excess sand and rinse well in clean water and you're good to go.

Another use for vinegar, oddly enough, is as a laundry softener! It works wonders and it's all natural. Hang your clothes out in the sun or tumble dry them and there is NO vinegar smell at all on your clothes. They are just lovely and soft:)

There are LOADS more tips I can give you but I think that's enough for now. More to come later but I think that's more than enough to get you started;)

All about recycling

A few months back I was driving home when, out of the window of the car in front of me, came flying a cigarette box wrapper. I was incensed! I think littering has to be one of the most selfish, self-absorbed, thoughtless, arrogant, lazy, uncaring things a person can do. (does that get the message across;) I have been known to give people a hard time for spitting chewing gum out of car windows! That's just gross, and irresponsible.

It's so easy to find a bin. Seriously, if you are prepared to litter, I think it says a lot about you, the main thing being that you have a complete lack of respect for your country, your fellow citizens, animals and the environment. In short, if you can litter, it's not a big leap to something far worse. It says a lot about your character and lack of integrity. But I digress...

I saw this happen and I got MAD. I'm not a confrontational person. I tend to shy away from it. But I was mad enough to forget about that for the moment. I pulled up alongside him and opened my passenger window and asked him who he thought was going to pick up after him. He looked a bit shocked and, I think, a bit ashamed but he still said, "If "they" can do it, I can too!" I was curious about who "they" was until he made an entirely racist comment about everyone who was messing up "his" country so I said, "And do you think doing what "everyone else" apparently does makes you a better person?"He drove off swearing and waving his hands around. Very eloquent I thought;) This was a middle aged, middle class guy, who probably has a wife and kids and look at the example he is setting.

Guess he won't be recycling. We're lucky if he even knows what a bin looks like, and sadly, that applies to a lot of South Africans... But the majority of us DO know what a bin looks like;) And the majority of us also have a conscience. I think people WANT to make a difference, they just aren't sure how. Well, recycling is one way you can make a HUGE difference and it's really easy, actually.

Have you thought about where all your rubbish goes once you put your bin out for pick-it-up to collect?

Does this give you an idea?

That is where it goes; into a big landfill.  Pretty, isn't it? Most of that stuff you see ISN'T biodegradable. That means it's going to sit there for centuries to come, polluting our environment and just basically being ugly. Think about how much rubbish you put out once a week. Your bin is usually pretty full, isn't it? Food packaging alone takes up so much space that you can probably fill one bin bag in half a day, not to mention soft drink bottles and milk bottles. You probably go through about 2-3 bin bags every couple of days and 80% of that stuff is probably recyclable. And you're just one household out of millions. So why don't more South Africans recycle? Well, it comes to down to a bit of both ignorance and laziness I think. 

It's a great pity that the majority of South Africa hasn't yet cottoned on to picking up the recycling from your house for free like they do in Europe. I think it's only because we still have a fair amount of landspace here unlike Europe, which is literally running out of landspace. Unfortunately one day, when our government wakes up, it'll be too late and they'll have to take drastic measures. We could help avoid that by recycling now but most people either don't know how to, or think it is just too much effort. If you are not sure how to go about it, but would like to find out, good for you. If you are just being lazy and think you don't have the time for it, shame on you. NOT doing whatever you can for our environment is a little selfish, don't you think? If you truly have time constraints then ok, let's just look at it this way: you all make time to wash dishes don't you? You all have time to throw rubbish in a bin I assume? Well then, you have time to recycle.

We have been recycling in our house for years and it got even easier when we discovered Mama-She's. Thanks to them, we can load ALL our recyclables in ONE bin. That includes paper, plastic, cans and glass. (we wash them if needed, to avoid a smell) Mama-She's collected from our house once a week and we paid R25 a month for that. I know what you're thinking, "Why should I pay when I could just as easily throw that rubbish in a normal bin?" Well, you already know my thoughts on that!  You may not pay, but someone will and it'll probably be your grandkids. If you wanted to save that money, you COULD separate paper, cans, plastic and glass yourself and take it all to a pick-it-up site but then you're using petrol, time AND your own rubbish bags so is it really saving you anything? And it really does get a bit much after a while! I know because I used to do it and it was a mission. I can see why people would lose interest eventually. 

I'd far rather pay R25 a month for the convenience of having someone pick it all up from my house. Mama-She's even supply you with a roll of 20 rubbish bags every couple of weeks. Don't you pay at least R25 a month for 10 or 20 rubbish bin bags for your house? Well then, what are you losing really? Not much by the looks of things.

You may have noticed I said "paid"... Well, we're really lucky because Pick it up have joined forces with Mama She's in our area and now our recycling is collected for free:) All the same procedures, we just don't pay R25 a month anymore. I know they are starting to do this in many areas so enquire with your body corporate about it. Maybe start the initiative yourself.

As you can see, we have 2 bins in our kitchen. The left one is for normal rubbish and the right one is for recycling (the small one is for our compost heap but that's for another post!) If you don't have another bin, use a packet. If don't have space for 2 bins, keep a packet in the kitchen and empty it into a box in your garage/scullery/shed when it gets full.  If you have a house party, keep a bin outside for all the glass bottles, for your guests. All of our guests now know that we operate with 3 bins in our house and they don't even blink about it;) Once a week you put it out on your verge and off it goes. I also put out any cardboard boxes or large packaging I may have, with the recycling and they take those too. See what I mean? It's really so easy!

Unfortunately Mama She's only operates in Johannesburg but look at this link to find a recycling collector near you! I can't speak for all of the others, but I can vouch for Mama She's. You have nothing to lose by looking into the others.

We probably fill about 1 and a half recycling bags a week on average, which would usually go into most people's rubbish bins, and then into a landfill. We don't even fill one normal rubbish bag in a whole WEEK, with other kitchen rubbish, because there is none of the big stuff to take up space and, because we compost all of our fruit and veg cut offs, there is even less in our rubbish bin. When our big bin goes out on a Monday morning, it has ONE rather sad, empty looking bag in it which is about a quarter fill, IF it even has anything in it. The only reason we bother to take it out once a week is because it usually has old bones in it from making bone broth, or it may have some raw meat that our cats didn't finish (our cats are on a raw food diet but that's also another blog post!) So it has to go out to avoid it smelling. That's about all we throw in our actual rubbish bin.

You'd be amazed how much of the stuff you use in your kitchen is recyclable and compostable. I'd say easily 97% of it! I actually save and re-use a lot of containers. They become storage containers for various things. I store my bone broth in my old yogurt containers in my freezer and I keep all my glass honey bottles for storing food because it's healthier and I also use them to make bean sprouts and soak nuts and beans (another post!) My egg cartons are great for planting seeds in because, when you transfer them to the garden, you can actually leave the seedlings IN the egg carton and they'll biodegrade eventually. It makes transferring seedlings a whole lot easier. I also buy several litres of raw milk at a time so, when I get it, I decant it all into 1 litre milk bottles that I've saved, and then I can freeze them until I need them so they don't go off.

Those are just some ideas to get your started with your recycling. There are also loads of fun things you could do with your kids to involve them in your recycling ventures and it will teach them some very good habits for the future!

Tomorrow's post is going to give you some nice, easy ways to make a difference that I bet you didn't even think of so watch this space and keep on keeping it green!

Keep calm and drink tea

If you've read all my blogs then you know that I am NOT a fan of doctors or medication. I talked, in this post, about my experience with the flu a couple of weeks back and how I'd managed to beat it using alternative remedies which included things like food, tissue salts and herbs. I'd like to go into a bit more detail about those herbs, today.

Herbs are nothing new under the sun. Long before there was synthetic medication, people were using herbs to cure various ailments. They were used for centuries, in their natural form. These days you find a lot of those herbs, in synthetic form, in medications, beauty products and household cleaners. Companies have tried to harness the healing power of herbs, in a form that can make them some money. My question is, why would you buy the synthetic version for R100 or more, when you can buy a box of the actual herb for about R20, that lasts you several months and is far better for you, and that works? I'm not an expert, as I've said, but I have had great success with my herbal teas over the years and I'd like to share what I've learnt, with you.

Anyone who knows me knows how crazy I am about my teas! I have been drinking herbal teas for years and there is never a shortage of every type and flavour of tea when we have visitors over. Actually, that's not entirely accurate! The one tea that is often missing from my cupboard is your garden variety black tea (five roses etc). I often forget to buy it because it is the ONE tea I don't drink. One or two friends have actually arrived with their own tea because they KNOW I forget to buy normal tea;) Most people assume that, if you are going to have a hot drink, it'll either be normal tea or coffee. You definitely get "tea" people and "coffee" people and the "tea" people will mostly drink normal tea. The lack of variety drives me nuts. I find normal tea so boring since I discovered the world of "all different types of teas" and so I never buy it, or drink it.

Of course, you also get the rooibos drinkers, but, considering rooibos tea is distinctly South African, there are actually very few rooibos drinkers, compared to normal tea drinkers, in South Africa. My gran used to call it "camel's pee" ;) That was my gran, a real character! But a lot of people seem to dislike the taste of it. I started drinking rooibos because the caffeine in normal tea dried out my throat and, as a singer, I found that, drinking rooibos with honey and lemon was very soothing for my throat. It was especially helpful to sip on during a particularly long show on a cold winter's night. I always arrived at a gig with a bottle of water and my tea flask! I wasn't a fan of the taste to start with, either, but it grew on me.

Fortunately, over the years, manufacturers have gotten more experimental with teas and, more and more flavoured teas have started appearing on shelves. I bought every new one to try as I discovered them. I eventually bought myself one of those teabag trays you find in hotels and at catered functions, because I had so many different teas and it was easier than keeping them in separate boxes which took up loads of cupboard space! That's how tea crazy I was;)

Given my obsession with health and my aversion to medication, it was a natural progression to start exploring teas for their medicinal benefits. I was delighted to discover Dischem's HUGE selection of herbal teas. I began to see the benefits of tea leaves, instead of tea bags. I started my teapot collection (with built in tea strainer!) and my tea collection grew steadily. Over the years I have discovered which teas work for what, and I am STILL learning, because there are so many of them!

SOME of the teas in my cupboard;)

So why loose tea leaves instead of tea bags? Well, have you ever torn open a teabag and seen the quality of the tea leaves inside? Unless it says "whole-leaf teabags" you are pretty much getting dust, and what they call, fannings. It's the dregs of the pile of tea leaves after the good leaves have been scooped up and packed into boxes. The smaller the leaves, the less quality and flavour your tea will have. Tea leaves contain essential oils and, when the leaves are broken up, some of those oils will evaporate which will leave you with a tasteless, nutrition-less tea. If the leaves are larger pieces, they will still contain all the necessary goodness and flavour that you are drinking it for. A teabag is also limited, space-wise, which means that the leaves will not be able to absorb water and swell the way they are supposed to. You won't find any of the medicinal herbal teas in a teabag. That's because they won't actually do what they are meant to do, which is heal you, if they are squashed in a tea bag, made up of dust and fannings, and very little goodness. Long story short, stick to tea leaves if you are drinking tea for health purposes or if you are really fussy about flavour! And needless to say, organic is the way to go because herbs can also contain pesticides and less goodness due to bad quality soil.

So what tea helps what ailment? Here is a list of the teas I favour, and why:

• Rooibos: This little leaf has MANY health benefits if you drink enough of it! It's caffeine free for those with a caffeine sensitivity. It is loaded with antioxidants which bind with free radicals, preventing them from damaging cells and causing cancer or from oxidising with cholesterol to clog blood vessels. Rooibos also protects the liver from disease, boosts the immune system, relieves allergies and helps digestive disorders. You need to drink about 6 cups a day to really feel the benefits and it doesn't matter how you drink it really, as long as you drink it!
• Peppermint: Personally I have found peppermint teabags to taste awful no matter what the quality so I really recommend tea leaves! I drink mint tea on a daily basis because it is GREAT for IBS. It is incredibly soothing for sore, bloated colons, stomach cramps and diarrhea. It promotes good digestion and eases heartburn. It also helps to ease a headache, PMS cramps and sinus problems. If you steam with it, it is a great decongestant and just the smell of it makes you more alert and focused so it's a good thing to have if you're studying.
• Milk thistle: This herb has become more and more popular of late for those who are preparing for a big party night where lots of alcohol is going to be imbibed! It is often used as a treatment for liver problems. It is a natural antioxidant. Silymarin (the active substance in milk thistle) appears to have anti-cancer effects and is currently being studied as a possible cancer preventative. A use you probably would never have guessed is that it can be used as an antidote for deathcap mushroom poisoning. Milk thistle counteracts toxins in the mushroom, as long as it's taken within 10 minutes of ingestion. However, even if it's given within 24 hours of mushroom poisoning, it significantly reduces the risk of liver damage and even death. Milk thistle is also recommended as a natural remedy for morning sickness and nausea.
• Echinacea: You've all heard of this one. It's well known for boosting the immune system and preventing, or lessening the impact of, colds and flu. You get it in many different forms, but, because I love teas so much, I drink it! It is a great preventative herb to drink just as winter is starting and everyone is getting sick. If you are too late, it will shorten the amount of time that you are sick. It can also be applied to skin to heal eczema, sunburn and slow-healing wounds. It's not a good idea to drink it for longer than 8 consecutive weeks though because it can inhibit the production of T-cells eventually.
• Lemon Balm: This herb has many benefits! It's great for insomnia, it eases digestion and stomach ailments, much like peppermint tea. It can be used to treat herpes lesions and cold sores if applied externally, it can also help treat the symptoms of alzheimer's disease, it is good for bronchial inflammation, earache, fever, headaches, high blood pressure, influenza, mood disorders, palpitations, toothache and vomiting. It also soothes menstrual cramps and helps relieve PMS. I have used it for many of the above reasons and it works.
• Stinging Nettle: And you thought all it did was irritate your skin;) It has such a wide range of uses though! It's good for allergies, relieves hair loss, treats celiac disease, bladder infections, acid reflux, excess gas, sore throats, hemorrhoids, nose bleeds, mouth sores, skin irritations, neurological disorders, arthritis, gout, rheumatism, and soft tissue conditions such as fibromyalgia and tendonitis. Patients with Lupus and other auto-immune disorders, suffering from joint pain, experience relief from drinking a cup of nettle tea a day. It removes metabolic wastes and is both gentle and stimulating on the lymph system. It is used to help treat alzheimer's, it helps with night time bed wetting in children and supports the endocrine system. 
  
• Chasteberry herb: This is known as the "Women's herb" because it's all about women! It's used for menstrual cycle irregularities, PMS, a more severe form of PMS called premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD), and symptoms of menopause. It is also used for treating “lumpy” (fibrocystic) breasts, female infertility, preventing miscarriage in women with low levels of a hormone called progesterone, controlling bleeding and helping the body force out the placenta after childbirth, and increasing breast milk. I find it works really well for PMS and that's good enough reason for me to drink it!
• Green tea: You all know about this but I bet most of you don't drink it because of it's bitter taste? Well that's just because you aren't buying tea leaves AND you aren't preparing it correctly;) Did you know that green tea is just a younger version of normal, black tea? It is a GREAT cancer fighter and preventer, it prevents heart disease and strokes by lowering cholesterol. Even AFTER a heart attack it prevents cell deaths and speeds recovery. It's anti-aging and promotes longevity and  it also promotes weight-loss and speeds up your metabolism. The key with green tea is to ONLY use good quality tea leaves (Chinese shops have the best options I find) and to only soak them for 5 minutes maximum or you will taste some bitterness. Remember that black, green AND white tea (see below) have more natural caffeine than a cup of coffee so if you're sensitive to it, drink with cauion and not after 5pm.
• White tea: If normal black tea is the grandmother, green tea is the mom and white tea is the child! They are all the same plant, picked at different times of it's life. White tea has all the benefits of green tea but you can multiply them a hundred fold because it is the least processed of the teas and therefore the best quality. It's exceptionally good for all the same reasons that green tea is good, but it's even better. It's the tea of all teas when it comes to goodness:) Prepare it the same way you would green tea.
• Marshmallow Root: I drank this by the bucket load when I had bronchial pneumonia and it really helped my voice come back! It's great for sore throats, laryngitis, whooping cough, bronchitis, digestive disorders like IBS, ulcers, hernias and mouth ulcers. It is good for treating cuts and skin irritations like eczema externally. It also helps soothe teething babies!

I think that list is enough for now but it really is an endless list. I'll revisit it sometime again. The teas I drink depend largely on what is ailing me at the time. I don't drink all of them, all the time. Remember that herbs are powerful. They may be natural but they are, in a lot of cases, more powerful than synthetic medication because they are in their most natural form. You wouldn't take medication constantly and so you shouldn't drink certain teas constantly except for rooibos and green tea of course. All the other teas I've listed here are remedies for certain things and should be treated as such.

The way to make them all is easy. Place a teaspoon of tea leaves in a teapot and fill the pot with boiled water. Leave to steep for about 10 minutes (except the greens and whites) and then drink with honey if you like it slightly sweetened. Lemon juice makes the nutrients in tea more accessible so it's always good to add.

Most herbal teas don't taste great on their own. I never suffer through a bad pot of tea anymore. I have learnt that the key to getting all the nutrients into my body, is to make it as easy to drink as possible. So I buy a few different flavoured rooibos teabags and I add them to whatever herb I need to drink and they mask the flavour of the bitter herbs. I also add a small spoon of raw honey to my tea and a drop of lemon juice and it makes it really tasty. You'll find most herbal teas taste awful with milk and I wouldn't recommend it!

Our morning teapot consists of 4 different rooibos teabags, some flavoured, some plain (to get as much goodness as possible out of them), a spoon of green tea and then whatever herbal tea we may need. If we had a glass of wine the night before then I add milk thistle. If I have a stomach ache, I add mint, if I feel fluey, I add echinacea. I make a big pot and drink it throughout the day when I'm home. You can never get enough tea in you as far as I'm concerned so, the more, the merrier. And winter is the best time to be experimenting with teas! It's not only warming, but it's also so good for you!

In the words of Mrs Tiggywinkle from Beatrix Potter: "When the troubles of the day are over, there is nothing that comforts me like a real, hot, strong cup of tea!"