Vegan on the ridiculous?

Thanks for the inspiration Sarra :)

Obviously this isn't true but finding decent sources of protein when you are vegan is trickier than when on a 'normal' omnivore diet. Plants contain protein but much lower amounts than animal products so we need to choose wisely and vary our plant intake to make sure we are getting all the 'essential' amino acids our bodies need to grow and flourish; these amino acids are called essential as our body needs them to survive but cannot produce them. Amino acids are the little building blocks we make into proteins which we need to perform practically every function every day.

Good sources of protein for vegans are shown below. 
You want to aim for 40-60g protein intake per day

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Vegans & B vitamins:

If you are vegan or thinking of it, be careful to plan your meals to maximise your protein intake and also think about supplementing with B vitamins particularly vitamin B12. Ask your doctor to check your B12 levels periodically especially if you are feeling a drop in energy or brain fog, common inB12 deficiency.

Gallego-Narbón, A., Zapatera, B., Barrios, L. and Vaquero, M.P., 2019. Vitamin B 12 and folate status in Spanish lacto-ovo vegetarians and vegans. Journal of nutritional science, 8.

happy hummus - your gut will love all this good fibre!

It is always handy to have a healthy snack available so you don't reach for crap instead! This hummus will keep in the fridge for a good 5-7 days and you can freeze a batch to pull out when you can't be bothered washing up the food processor.

                                      happy hummus

450g chickpeas, can or soaked and cooked at home

1 fat clove garlic

1 dessertspoon tahini

juice of half a lemon

1 tsp coriander powder

1 tsp turmeric powder

1 tsp cumin seeds

15g coriander leaves and stalks

blend all till smooth adding water to desired consistency (I like it rough!), a little salt and pepper to season

serve drizzled with olive oil and batons of crudities: carrot, celery, red pepper, broccoli or a seed cracker like I did.

therapy:

soluble fibre: chickpeas, garlic, tahini, crudities

prebiotic: garlic

antimicrobial: garlic, turmeric, olive oil

vitamin c: lemon (also acidifies digestive tract), broccoli, red pepper

anti-carcinogenic: turmeric, cumin, coriander

*organic where possible

Happy hormones: balance your day from the start....
3 breakfast suggestions for hormonal balance

If you are like me, you start off the day with great intentions and it is all downhill from here, so I like to make a good effort with my first meal of the day.

Eggs? Unfertilized please!

Poached egg on top of a slice of tempeh (fermented soybean ‘cake’) or rye bread garnished with broccoli sprouts, avocado and cherry tomatoes.

 Seedy sheep! Sheeps’ milk yoghurt topped with pomegranate seeds, chopped brazil nuts & LSC ( *)

*mixture of ground linseeds, sesame seeds & chia seeds; can be ground in advance in high powered blender or coffee maker and kept in a glass jar in the fridge for a week or so

Get your (overnight) oats!

Soak 1/3 cup of wholegrain oats in soy milk in a glass jar overnight with a teaspoon of linseeds and a few almonds. In the morning, top with a spoonful of yoghurt, strawberries and raspberries. I used frozen mix berries here.

NB. If you are worried about your hormone balancing or think you are at risk of hormonal driven diseases or indeed are suffering from hormonal issues, please speak with your nutritional therapist before going overboard on processed soy products.

Some consider phyto-estrogenic foods harmful in some cases and others consider them beneficial. In fact, phytoestrogens can be adaptogenic; raising or lowering your hormonal levels according to your needs.

Choccie Chia ‘mousse’

Easy peasy; 10 mins to prepare; makes 6-8 small puds

Ingredients

• ½ cup chia seeds
• ½ cup cocoa powder
• ¼ cup coconut oil soft or melted
• ¼ cup maple syrup (add more if needed)
• 1 small handful of chopped curly green cabbage, stems removed
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• pinch of salt

Instructions

mix chia seeds with 2 cups of filtered water and set aside for 30 mins till a gelatinous mass has formed

Rinse cabbage leaves

Put everything into food processor together and blend on high until a nice moussey consistency is formed

Spoon into little bowls or cups and top with seasonal fruit and dust with cinnamon / cocoa mix.

Cooking oils.......health or hazard?

Cooking oils:  health & horrors      

Heating, smoking & re-using our commonly used oils

We were all convinced to swap butter and lard for the new ‘heart healthy vegetable oils’ in the 80s but what boll*ks!

There are many oils on our supermarkets shelves these days and it is hard to know what to buy. More importantly, how do we use them? Can we cook with them? Which ones are best? Simply…….

AVOID:

Vegetable oils are ‘hydrogenated’, chemically treated and often bleached to be palatable for consumption; these are fake and harmful to health particularly when heated: soybean, corn, canola, safflower, sunflower, palm, peanut, vegetable, veg shortening, margarine and all ‘fake’ butters. These can be carcinogenic and have no known health benefits. 

SAFE to heat:

Organic avocado oil, grass-fed butter & ghee, organic virgin coconut oil and lard / duck fat / chicken fat are all good to cook with BUT don’t let them smoke. As well as changing the chemical composition of the oil getting it that hot, the smoke is also toxic and carcinogenic. Never re-heat and re-use oils.

Eat RAW:

Extra virgin olive oil is best raw (but can be cooked to 140*C/ 150*C without changing its composition). Nut and seed oils; walnut, sesame, macadamia, almond, flax and hemp are all highly nutritious containing vitamin E and omega 3s in varying proportions and should be eaten raw.

SUMMARY:

Oils & fats have been given so much bad press in favor of a higher carb intake over the last few decades, we now know it is ‘fake news’!

We should eat a good nutritious dose of fat with each meal be it nuts and seeds on our salad, sardines or avocado in our salad or good old olive oil dressing our salad. susie@nutritionaltherapy.rocks 2020

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1612-202X/aa7d3e/meta

https://thechalkboardmag.com/dr-hyman-good-fat-bad-fat

Chia seeds – what? why? & how? Plus a gluten-free cracker recipe

Chia seeds are tiny black & white seeds and were an important food for the Aztecs and Mayans back in the day. They were prized for their ability to provide sustainable energy. In fact, "chia" is the ancient Mayan word for "strength". This is due to their high fat and protein content, being a seed and NOT a grain.

Dry chia seeds can be added whole to smoothies and juices, mixed into yogurt or an overnight oatie. If you're adding the seeds to a drink or a "wet" dish like oatmeal, they'll swell up slightly while you eat, but they'll retain a slight crunch. 

Should chia seeds be eaten ground instead of whole? The surface of chia seeds is delicate and easily breaks apart with moisture; therefore they are absorbed and digested well in their whole form, unlike flax seeds but I do grind them with flax seeds to sprinkle on my yoghurt and porridge.

Bursting with protein, fiber and good fats, chia seeds are also rich in calcium, iron and magnesium.

Seed crackers – makes 3 baking trays

5 tablespoons chia seeds

5 tablespoons sunflower seeds

5 tablespoons amaranth

4 tablespoons flax seeds (linseeds) 

3 tablespoons pumpkin seeds

1 cup quinoa

1 tablespoon fennel seeds 

1 tablespoon cumin seeds 

1 pinch salt

You can substitute any seeds you like if you don’t have these above making sure you have at least 3 tbsp chia as too many big seeds and the crackers won’t hold together (hemp, poppy, sesame, buckwheat, mustard, caraway). I used what I had in the cupboard.

Mix seeds together well and add 1.5 cups luke warm water and mix well; mix every 15-20 minutes during 1 hour. Heat oven to 150*C then divide up seed mix into 3 lots and roll out between 2 bits of baking paper and place onto a baking sheet uncovered. Bake in oven for an hour, switch off oven and allow to cool before breaking into cracker-size pieces and store in jars at room temperature. Will keep for a couple of weeks.

Favorite toppings: avocado; almond butter; hummous and marmite.

PS check your teeth before smiling at strangers!!

Winter-warming gut nourishing carrot and artichoke soup

carrot & jerusalem artichoke soup

450g carrots, grated

450g jerusalem artichokes, peeled and grated

1 tsp coconut oil (deodorised) or olive oil

1 onion (large) diced

1 clove garlic chopped

1 tsp turmeric powder or grate 1 cm fresh

1.2 litres chicken stock, homemade or bought 

fry onion, garlic and turmeric in coconut oil for 2 minutes, add carrot and artichoke and fry another 3 minutes. add chicken stock and bring to boil, reduce and simmer for 20-30 minutes until veg is soft, blend, season to taste and serve drizzled with a little olive oil

top with chopped herbs

therapy for gastrointestinal issues:

soluble fibre: artichokes, carrots, onion, garlic

prebiotic: artichokes, onion, garlic

antimicrobial: garlic, coconut oil, olive oil, turmeric powder

anti-carcinogenic: turmeric

betacarotene / vitamin A: carrots

collagen: chicken stock

Post No1 - Never eat advertised foods!

Welcome to the home of fun and easy nutritional tips!

Imagine, you switch on the TV and up comes an ad for an apple, a gorgeous green granny smith.......yup, whatever. Why don't we see ads for good healthy natural foods? Because big business makes more cash when we buy sugar, salt and fat-laden crap which has been processed so much it doesn't resemble any food, in fact, it is franken-food!! We get addicted to the crap put into the food to make us addicted and ultimately spend more cash getting fatter and sicker but big business is happy.

My number one rule is 'dont eat advertise food!' eat wholesome natural food items that are still as nature intended.

Don't be sucked into commercialism; eat whole food.

Susie x