Mastery and Mummyhood

I had intended to write this post on the first day of the new year, but such is mummyhood!

This year, 2012, is my new beginnings year. I'm aware that many people believe this year is special and significant. I find it interesting that I spontaneously decided to make this year transformational for me personally. At-bloody-last!! I've finally decided to implement some changes I've been "thinking about" for years. Thinking about as well as preaching!

For example, my number one project is to give up sugar. To 'quit' the stuff like a smoker or an alcoholic. I'm a sugarholic. Or I was until Sunday. I've been clean 3 days now. It's not the first time I've quit sugar; I've done it at least annually since I was 9. That was 20 years ago now, and though I was very diciplined at first, each time I quit it was for a breifer period, until it became almost too dificult, I put on weight and found it hard to shift. This did, of course, coincide with my move to Melbourne, where the food is decidedly better, cheaper, available and more generously portioned. I may have lost control!!

In my youth (she muses wistfully!!) I imagined that someday, a vague timeframe occuring around the scary age of 30, I'd clean up my diet permanently, with the vain motivation of age defiance. Now my reasons have broadened to include my health, both mental and physical (nothing like sleep deprivation to inspire appreciation for mental health!), and my son. I believe role modeling is the best parenting tool, thus if I wish to protect him from the poison, I'll have to get off it too. There's a great story about a mother who went to Gandhi to ask him to tell her son to stop eating sugar. He told her to bring the son to see him in two weeks. She did this, and Gandhi simply told him to stop eating sugar. The mother asked why the two weeks were necessary and Gandhi replied "Because two weeks ago I was eating sugar."

And so I'm a dreadful hypocrite no longer! But so far I just feel hungry!! I do have 20 years of tricks up my sleeve though, and I'll share those here if you're interested in trying this for yourself. It does take time to detox sugar. If you were thinking of trying it I'd recommend Sarah Wilson's fabulous ebook, I Quit Sugar'. It's a quick and easy read and very motivational.

This is, as I said, my number one project, but it's the 'lead up' to my much grander goal of self mastery! I've become aware recently that the dissatisfactions I feel with my own life all seem to coincide with the themes of the solar plexus chakra. That's the third one, it's yellow, like fire, and it centers around ego, boundaries, decisions, personal power, will, that sort of thing. I'm so lacking in all that, so despite my creativity, I never really accomplish much! It relates to the pancreas, liver, spleen and upper intestinal tract, all of which are compromised when I binge on sugar. It all ties together so neatly!




So this year will be dedicated to balancing my solar plexus chakra, using tools like my diet, yoga, meditation, breathing, herbs, and general mindfulness of these issues in my everyday life. I intend to blog for accountability. At this end of proceedings the idea of a shiny new self is very exciting, but I know it will get ickier as the year wears on. I know there will be steep challenges, balancing my self and my journey with my responsibility to my family. And I suppose I don't really forsee true balance eventuating at all, since mummyhood and family harmony are my first priorities. I'll fit 'me' in around them. Which means I'll do a little bit during nap time and a little bit in the evening, and a very little bit while someone else cares for Antonio. But it will be done! And for now, the most important thing is what I'm not doing; eating sugar!

So now I'll finish off my chai spiced cocoa with coconut oil and take myself to bed.

Wholefoods for Baby - recipes

Here are some of the wholefoods recipes Antonio loves best.

Baby Dahl recipe

This is a recipe I've addapted from my Harre Krshna cookbook, which I love. It's fantastic because I can make a large quantity if we're having Indian food for dinner and we all eat the same. Always preferable to cooking two different meals! These quantities make about 2 meals for baby.

1/8 cup masoor dal
1/8 cup quinoa or rice
2 cups water
1 tomato
70g sweet potato
2tsp butter or ghee
2tsp grated fresh ginger
2tsp cumin seeds
1tbsp organic shredded coconut
pinch aesefetida (if you have it)
sea salt to taste

Boil dal and quinoa/rice in a small pot with the water. Add sweet potato and chopped tomato, boil again, cover and turn down heat. When the dal has dissolved turn off the heat and cover.

In a small frypan heat ghee or butter, add ginger and cumin seeds and fry. Add coconut and brown a little, don't burn the spices. Add aesefetida and remove from heat. Add spice base and some salt to the dahl. Blend with a stick blender and serve.

Cauliflower soup

Another one for the whole family. These flavours compliment fish well, so I sometimes poach a slice of a mild, white fish in the soup, then break it up with a fork.

one whole cauliflower
2 large potatoes
1 cup quinoa
1 leek
1L homemade chicken stock
sea salt

Fry off leek in a heavy casserole pot, add potatoes, cauliflower, stock, quinoa and salt. Boil then blitz!


Baby Breakfast Smoothie

This fun, fabulous recipe is made possible because Antonio learned to drink from a straw! It was so easy to teach him, and makes it easy to keep his fluids up. The following can be blizted in a processor or in a milkshake cup using a stick blender.

half a banana
1/3 cup of fresh or frozen berries
2 tbsp whole natural yoghurt
1 tbsp coconut cream
one raw egg yolk



Baby Bucco recipe

1 small slice osso bucco
half carrot
half celery stick
small onion
small garlic clove
1/2 cup homemade chicken stock (or water)
splash of olive oil
2 fresh tomatoes or half tin chopped tomatoes
sea salt
optional dried herbs

Chop veggies and saute (all but tomatoes) with the oil or butter til soft. Add dried herbs. Brown osso bucco in another pan, then add to vegies. Add stock, chopped garlic and tomatoes, then season and pop the lid on over low heat and cook 1/2 to 1 hour, til the meat is soft and the bone is empty. Chop or blizt, depending on the age of your baby.


Baby Lamb Korma recipe

This is a recipe I pulled from an online Indian recipe database years ago, and I've made it so many times since then that I no longer require the recipe, my hands do it on autopilot! You don't have to use lamb, I've done it with beef, chicken and vegetarian. This makes a few meals worth.

1 clove garlic
same amount fresh ginger
100g lamb cubed
half a cup cubed veg, anything works
half a tin chopped tomatoes
3 tbsp whole natural yoghut
1 small onion
2 tsp cumin seeds
2 cardamom pods
2 whole cloves
tsp garam masala
tsp turmeric
sea salt


Mince ginger and garlic and put into 1/4 cup water and set aside.
Heat ghee and add cumin seeds and onion. Fry til the onion softens, then add other spices. Add tomatoes and allow to reduce. Add yoghurt and veg.

In a separate pan, heat more ghee and brown meat, then add to the curry. Cook until the meat is soft, gradually adding the garlic/ginger water. Remove whole cardamoms and cloves, and cut up or puree.

Wholefoods for Antonio

Having finally emerged from the sleep deprived daze of my child's first 10 months, I feel ready to take up my blogging anew. I'll begin with a topic dear to my heart; little Antonio's journey into solid foods. I feel it's an interesting one since there are such strong controversies surrounding the subject of a baby's diet, as with diet in general, however in addition to the controversy, parents become emotional about the food they choose for their kids. There is much conflicting information about this, and as Mums we read or ask our female kinfolk in search of the best advice.

The wisdom I found satisfactory was provided by nutritionists such as Sally Fallon and Jude Blereau, who espouse a return to the traditional cooking methods of our ancestors which our bodies are evolved to, rather than following the often misguided and unhealthy advice of the current "pollitically correct" (cereal box) nutritional models. In practical terms this means offering whole foods to provide the 3 macronutrients; fats, protein and carbs, and the many micronutrients (vitamins, minerals etc)required for good health.

Antonio's solid food journey began when he was around 5 months old. Until that time he was exclusively breastfed, and although the WHO recommend that continue to 6 months, my big boy was clearly displaying signs of starvation! I judged him to be ready for foods, and began by handing him spoonfuls of mashed avocado to put into his mouth (the first destination of all grasped objects), which were sucked down and how.

It was mostly avocado during this first month. Avo, how do I love thee, let me count the ways!

1. It's RAW and packed with life force, live vitamins like A, E, C, and K, and minerals like iron, magnesium, zinc and selenium


2. it's green, therefore packed with antioxidants


3. it's high in fats, therefore perfect for little growing brains, very like breastmilk


4. It's an uber convenient, portable baby food


5. it's anti-inflammatory, therefore perfect for emerging teeth


6. it helps with blood sugar balancing

Other than avocado, Antonio had some mashed sweet potato, some flaked quinoa mixed with expressed breastmilk, and some fruits like pear, apple, rockmellon and late season blood plums (he loved those!).

After an early experience with baby rice cereal which constipated the poor little thing, I did some reading and concluded that I should have followed my instinct not to feed it to him. No one does well on refined grains. I threw out a full box.

At that early stage of fooding, I was more interested that it was a fun experience and generally allowed Antonio as much autonomy as safety permitted. We laughed throughout, and he usually wore at least as much as he ingested. He always licked the bowl.

After the early stages of single tastes, when he began to take 2 and then 3 meals a day, I began to mix his veggies into stews, added some such as carrots, peas, pumpkin, green beans, zucchini, brocoli (loved that...still does!), and grains such as whole oats and whole rice. At this point I tried egg yolks, which were a raging success and I wish I'd started them sooner! I often give them as an appetiser because they increase his interest in dinner.

The value of egg yolk is in the fats, vitamins and minerals. The phospholipids found in runny egg yolk are invaluable brain nutrition. High levels of zinc, calcium, selenium and iron as well as vitamins A, E, and K make it an important food for all of us, but most interesting is the levels of vitamin D, about 110 IU per 100g, means we should consume these all winter long. In fact 2 egg yolks contain 60% of the daily requirement of vitamin D.

Many people are scared to give eggs to their infants because they're on the no-no list of the handy hand-out we get from the child health clinics. This is because infants can't yet digest egg whites, but it's such a shame to ignore the enormous benefits of the yolk. Here is the preparation method that best worked for Antonio and me:

Take one or two free range organic eggs. Boil a small pot of water. Separate white from yolk with your hands. Store the whites in the freezer to make friands, pavlovas etc. Have a small cup (like a little espresso cup) and a soup spoon at the ready. Drop the yolk into the boiling water and wait a minute. Fish it out with the soup spoon and gently peirce the yolk, squeeze the runny stuff into the cup, eat the 'skin' yourself (this way you wont unwittingly serve an off egg to bubby. Trust me it happened last night, thank god I realised!) and serve.

For some current information about egg consumption:

www.whfoods.com

After another while, around 8 months, Antonio tasted meat for the first time, which probably should have been fish, but was organic chicken instead. As it turns out, he loves fish, which I poach for him in coconut cream and water, with a few complimentary veg such as zucchini, peas or broccoli. He enjoys his chicken, beef and lamb too, and his favourite meals from this range of foods include my Grandma's chicken stew, lamb stew, "Baby Bucco" which is his own version of Osso Bucco, and poached fish. I am careful to space out his intake of meat to go easy on his little liver, and I tend to give yolks on the non meat days. I try to give him home made chicken stock as often as possible, as this mineral rich brew is arguably the most beneficial thing he could ingest.

His favourite vegetarian meals include dahl / lentil and veg soup, pumpkin risotto, potato and broccoli, minestrone with quinoa, banana and avocado with coconut cream, and the very recently added plain, full fat, natural yoghurt. He also enjoys nawing on some of my avocado rye bread toast.

The foods Antonio has not yet tasted are those I consider to be on the unhealthy side; sugar and refined wheat products like bread and pasta. The later his body has to deal with these insults the better he'll be set up for health in later life. You may find yourself thinking "I was given pasta as a baby", and many people do this, but consider that the cultures whose chronic and increasing ill-health are those that consume refined carbohydrates, while the healthiest people on the planet do not. Rather than emulate your own parents, move forward with what science has shown our ancestors knew; food comes from nature, not factories.

I encourage anyone in charge of a childs's diet to pick up a copy of Jude Bereau's Wholefoods For Children, and also Sally Fallon's Nourishing Traditions. Both are exceptional and very complete nutrition advisers.

As I refine the recipes Antonio prefers, I may post them in subsequent blogs.

X X X

Miraculous Magnesium

Many of you will have heard me rabbit on about Magnesium. Of all the minerals our bodies require to function, Magnesium is used up in the greatest quantities, so we need to make sure we intake enough through our food or we'll experience symptoms of deficiency. The first symptoms you'll notice are muscular cramping, spasms, ticks, headaches, allergies, fatigue, blood sugar imbalance and constipation. The effects of long term, chronic Magnesium deficiency can be anxiety, depression, insomnia, joint inflammation, osteoporosis, asthma, diabetes type 2, angina, high blood pressure and a heightened sense of stress. Once you're experiencing symptoms of magnesium deficiency it's important to see your Naturopath for a good quality supplement; supplements have not been created equal. Some are far better than others.

Food is a very good way to up your stores of Magnesium. The richest source is tahini, or sesame seed paste. After tahini come almonds and the other nuts and seeds. Raw cocoa is a great source too. Buy some raw cocoa powder and use it unsweetened as drinking chocolate as an easy way to get Magnesium into everyone!






Vegies come next. Anything green is high in Magnesium because the chlorophyll molecule contains Magnesium. In fact green smoothies are an incredibly effective way to boost your intake. You can make them by pulling out your blender and throwing in any green fruit and veg you have on hand. Green smoothies will not only enhance your intake of Magnesium, they're full of vitamins such as A, C, E, B group and K, and many other antioxidants. Salads are another great way to eat loads of vegies, as are stir fries and soups.




Other useful sources are tofu, oats/porridge, polenta, lentils, beans and chick peas. Look out for the next blog which will be called "Meals that Heal" for ideas on how to incorporate all these high performance foods into your diet.


Changing your salt will be a big help too. Processed, supermarket salts are pure sodium chloride, while real sea salt or rock salt contain many minerals, including Magnesium.

On the other hand, certain foods increase your requirement for Magnesium. Sugars and refined foods have caused the western world to become ever more deficient, which has probably contributed to the advent of our ridiculously high rates of osteoporosis, heart disease, mental illness, diabetes and allergies over the last 50-odd years. So there's yet another reason to avoid them. Once again these are foods like pasta, bread, pastry, biscuits, crackers, chips, soft drink, cordial, cakes and sweets.

If your health problems are caused by Magnesium deficiency, changing your diet and taking a good quality supplement will make you feel absolutely magnificent within a few days. Why not give it a try?

Meals that Heal

Another recipe blog!

Here are some recipes for meals so high in nutrition they're actually medicinal. One of the ancient forefathers of medicine said "let food be your medicine and let your medicine be your food". We're beginning to discover how right he was; science is discovering that we absorb nutrients most effectively from food and not so effectively from supplements. What a shock, Mother Nature had it right the first time! Humans still can't beat her complex system.


So include these kinds of meals regularly in your diet and feel the vitality!


Grapefruit and Avo Salad (to serve 2)

Grapefruits are awesome food. They actually clean the liver! Only Mother Nature provides substances that clean the liver at this stage, modern medicine hasn't yet come that far. A clean liver is important because the liver regulates the health of our entire body. It's the body's filtration system. A healthy liver burns more fat, increases immunity to disease, prevents allergies like hay fever and asthma, balances cholesterol, balances hormones and allows you to feel energetic and vital, free from toxic accumulation and hyper-acidity.

Apart from grapefruits, eating more raw foods will help to clean the liver.


1 large pink grapefruit, segmented and cut into chunks
1 large avocado, cut into chunks
fresh salad greens, like baby spinach
handful of sprouts, like alfalfa
a few tbsp organic olive oil to dress

In a bowl toss the salad leaves with the alfalfa to distribute evenly, then arrange pieces of avo and grapefruit over the top. Drizzle with oil and serve with fish, tempeh or chicken.



Stracciatella Soup

This is a traditional soup from the region of Lazio in Italy. (Rome is in Lazio.) It's made for any ill person who doesn't want solid foods, and it packs some fantastic nutritional value into every spoonful. This one was passed on to me by my Dad, so it's particularly special.

2L home made chicken stock (see Eating Warm part 1 for recipe)
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese
4 eggs
big handful fresh chopped parsley

Bring stock to the boil and simmer. Whisk eggs and add grated Parmesan and chopped parsley. In a thin stream, add to the simmering stock while whisking to separate. Simmer another minute or two to cook through, then serve hot.


Turmeric Cabbage

A double dose of greatness! Turmeric is a powerful anti-inflammatory with an affinity for the liver. As a concentrated medicine it can be used to treat inflammatory conditions from arthritis to hepatitis to colitis. As a spice in cooking it's a great preventative for all these things. Also, the mustard seeds have anti inflammatory properties.

Cabbage is a fabulous alkaliser, and therefore also great for reducing inflammation. Studies also show that cabbage has special anti-cancer properties, especially when gently cooked as in this recipe. It's one I've adapted from my Hare Krshna cookbook, one of my prize possessions!

Half a head of cabbage, shredded
4 or 5 medium tomatoes cut into wedges
2 tbsp black mustard seeds
1 tsp asefetida
1-2 tbsp turmeric powder
1 small cinnamon stick
2 cloves
ghee
salt


In a large pan heat the mustard seeds until they start to pop. Add ghee then asefetida, cloves and cinnamon stick, stir for a minute, then add cabbage and turmeric. Sweat the cabbage down gently and turn to coat with spices and ghee. Add tomato wedges and cover for about 5-10 minutes over low heat. You want to retain some crunch in the cabbage. Warm through, covered, then serve with rice and dahl.




Sprouted Quinoa and Coriander (cilantro) Pesto


Coriander is a wonder-herb. Recently scientists found it's capable of chelating heavy metals. In English that means it safely removes Aluminium, Arsenic, Mercury &c. from the body. Those metals don't belong in our bodies, but when they get in there they can cause chronic ill health; fatigue, lowered immunity, poor metabolism etc. They get into us via dental fillings, cookware, vaccinations, contaminated food eg shellfish, etc


When quinoa is sprouted and prepared raw its nutrition is increased enormously. Sprouting foods increases the vitamin content so much that they become medicinal. If you add sprouted quinoa to your diet you can prevent lifestyle diseases like type 2 diabetes and heart disease. Quinoa is also well known as a helpful food in female reproductive disorders from painful periods to infertility, and helps to increase breast milk for lactating mothers.

Pine nuts are the highest protein nut, so combined with the protein from the quinoa this recipe is very low GI, therefore a perfect snack for anyone seeking to loose weight or increase muscle mass.

2 cups chopped coriander leaves and small stems
1 cup sprouted quinoa
1/2 cup chopped pine nuts
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 clove garlic

To sprout the quinoa soak a cup of dry white quinoa in a bowl of cold water for at least 4 hours.


Blitz all of the above in a little blender. Use it as a dip with some vegie sticks, or stir it through rice for flavour.

A healthy lifestyle without cramping your style

Fact: we live in the developed western world. We have lifestyles to maintain, often very busy ones, kids to keep up with, money to make. We prioritise everything but our own health, mentally, physically and emotionally. While we know our lifestyle choices are creating substandard health, we often can't see how life could be fulfilling or rewarding if we did things diferently. People say "sure, I'd love to breathe clean air, eat clean food and drink clean water, but I don't want to move to the middle of nowhere to get it!"

Fair enough, neither do I. But I do want to show respect and care for my whole self. That's a priority for me, because I like to feel energetic, to think clearly, have balanced emotions and look my best, and I know my diet and lifestyle choices have the greatest impact on those factors. I don't always succeed, and sometimes I do fantasise about moving to the middle of nowhere to be rid of temptation, but I know that it's possible to be healthy in the midst of it all.

So here are some thoughts about living a normal life in a healthy way. Please email me any more you think of.

PS: Yes, the following can be used as a weight loss regimen. The healthy, maintainable way.


At home: This is where you have the greatest influence, make the most of it!

- Avoid the supermarket. Get your fruit and vegies organic from a specialist shop or delivered to your home. (Delivered feels like decadence, I promise! Plus the food is fresher that way.)Get organic meat too. Once you're eating predominantly organic you're most of the way there, since organic food has a higher nutritional profile, you don't require as much to satisfy, and your body won't keep asking for more nutrients.

- Filter your water. Heavy metals, flouride and chlorine are the enemy of health, especially of the thyroid

- Don't allow junk foods into your house, ensure your partner is on board with this. Keep nuts and fruit for snacks. Keep yourself satisfied using these foods and you won't miss a thing, especially when you see the effect.


Out for dinner: You'll find something healthy on most menus, as long as you know what you're looking for.

- Avoid wheat including bread and pasta. Empty, nutrition free calories will just get stored

- Opt for Asian if you can. Asian food is some of the healthiest around, which is why those cultures tend to look so good and have lower incidence of lifestyle diseases.

- Go for high vegetable content options like salads and soups, clean proteins like fish, chicken or tofu, or at least neutral dishes like risotto

- If you have to have an alcoholic drink with dinner choose red wine

- Don't do dessert


Friends over:

- Serve snacks like a bowl of roasted nuts, it's amazing how moreish these are, you won't miss the sugar. Other options include dips like mashed avo, hommus, or find a brand that doesn't contain E numbers, serve with carrot and celery sticks and rice crackers.

- Make sure you've eaten well (protein and veg) before people arrive so you're genuinely not hungry anyway.

- If they're over for dinner make something easy and healthy like risotto or a roast or some fish and veg. If they offer to bring something tell them salad, which means you have control over dessert, not them. See Baking section to sort this out.

- If others bring junk with them it can throw a spanner in the works, especially at the beginning of the regimen. If it's soft drink I find that easy to avoid, as I prefer sparkling mineral water anyway. If it's chocolate I may have a problem, in which case I try to ignore it and tell myself "it's not mine, they brought it for them". Always give any left over back to them before they go.


Out for coffee:

- Drink green or herbal tea. Coffee disrupts your Cortisol/DHEA cycle, inhibiting weight loss and depressing immunity by preventing deep sleep. It doesn't matter what time you drink it.



Movies:

- Popcorn and water, not lollies and soft drink

- Fizzy water if you must


Quick meals:

- Stir fries are super fast, fresh and loaded with nutrition

- Soup. So easy, so light, so what your body will love

- 4 bean mix salad with some rice or quinoa (see quinoa blog) and few chopped crunchy veg. Also kid friendly, but a nice dressing and some fresh herbs makes it adult friendly!

- Omelette, with just about any vegetable on hand. Great 'loose ends' meal

- Don't make the mistake of thinking that the expensive, packaged frozen 'diet meals' are going to help you. You might lose weight but you won't gain nutrition, therefore you won't gain health. Without health you won't maintain the weight.



Takeaway: You can't fault the diets of healthy races like the Thais!

- Thai - I don't think they make anything heavy. Coconut is a good fat

- Indian - here opt for dahls, vegie based dishes and avoid the heavy, meaty, creamy ones and the breads

- Malaysian - laksas and vegie dishes


Out for drinks:

- Stick to spirits like gin and vodka, mix with soda water and real lime, or grapefruit juice.


Brunch with the girls:

- Choose bircher muesli and yoghurt or a bowl of porridge, or fruit and yoghurt.

- Drink water or mineral water. So European. So chic



Baking:

- If this is a hobby of yours, buy some Xylitol. It's a natural sugar substitute made from a plant extract that doesn't move your blood sugars, therefore it won't disrupt your pancreas and, in turn, stuff up your whole hormonal system the way sugar does

- Buy some gluten free, or at least wheat free flour, because refined wheat is not much better than sugar


- Fruit based desserts are great when you have people over. Apple crumble with a topping made from oats and almond meal, poached pears, baked peaches etc can all be served with a little organic cream, which won't move your blood sugars. Much better for you than ice cream. Also much easier and quicker than cake baking



Tips that don't take much effort:

- Drink 2 big glasses of water on rising, before anything else goes in.

- Have a high protein breakfast to keep you going and reduce cravings for naughty foods (see blog 'What's for Breakfast' for ideas)

- Carry fruit and nuts with you at all times to ward off evil

- Drink 2+L water daily

- Eat grapefruits regularly. I have a great recipe somewhere for red grapefruit salad, I'll share it when I find it!

- Switch to a natural sea, rock or river salt. Processed, refined salt is bad news

- Take a probiotic and a good quality multi every morning with your first glasses of water.

- Do exercise you enjoy. If you don't enjoy something, do something else. I love to walk, swim, do yoga and go for PT sessions. I once loved to dance, that probably worked better than anything!


- Ignore calories, eat real foods - the ones nature made. Remember, it's the excess sugar in refined, processed foods that you're trying to avoid. Fats will not make you fat. In fact, not enough fat makes you fat, and makes your skin saggy. So eat plenty of avo and nuts and fish and tofu and eggs.

- Decide on a "worth it" food. What's the naughtiness that gives you the most indulgent pleasure? Make it something great, for example you may decide on fresh vanilla slice from the french patisserie. Mentally categorise all chocolate, lollies, pastries, chips, pies, pasta, boxed breaky etc as not worth it and ignore them. Give yourself vanilla slice very occasionally because it's 'worth it'.



For me, using these tips doesn't make life any harder. I can still do all the things I usually do, only the small, insignificant choices are altered. Sometimes some foreplanning is involved, but that's a matter of habit, which comes with determined persistence.

There are times when it's really hard. Especially in the first week when your blood sugars are out of balance (see blog Easter Special for info on blood sugar balancing). But as these tips become habit you'll most certainly notice the difference. I can promise that avoiding processed, sugary foods will work to create health. They're the sole problem with the western diet. It's just a matter of getting used to it.

Best of luck and give me feedback! I want to know what the hardest parts are for you.

Candidiasis - my journey

I've been meaning to write about Candidiasis for a while now, and I've even been asked to by patients who struggle with it, but I haven't yet. This is because it's such a boring subject by itself. A description, some recommendations...yawn...

Yet it's totally integral to good health. Without good intestinal health, we can't be healthy at all, physically, mentally or emotionally. The intestines are the crux of our total health.

Candida albicans is a yeast which lives in our gut along with many other microbes (bacteria such as acidophilus & friends, e-coli etc) which function in a perfectly balanced ecosystem to digest our food. When we mistreat our 'intestinal flora' (the collective name for all these yeasts and bacteria) with sugar, alcohol and excessive antibiotics, the candida becomes too prolific, because the others can't keep it in check. This results in poor digestion of food and poor absorption of nutrients, and without enough nutrients no system can be healthy, including our immune system (allergies, colds & flu, recovery time etc), liver, kidneys, heart, muscles, bones, hormones (which affect weight, fertility, stress) and nervous system (and therefore emotions). This situation is known as 'malabsorption syndrome'. Then of course there are the other little complications such as bloating, gut cramps, oral and vaginal thrush, urinary tract infections, and other rashes and fungal infections anywhere else on the body.

I learned the importance of balanced gut flora the hard way, and it's probably the reason I became a Naturopath. So instead of listing all the treatments for intestinal candidiasis I'm going to share my story, which may be very familiar to you, because it's common amongst little kids. Some of us lucky ones are taken to a natural health professional and recover, others continue with modern medicine and the story continues into adulthood.


As a small child (I'm told) I had many recurrances of urinary tract and ear infections. Each time my Mum would take me to the doctor and I would be prescribed antibiotics. Over and over again. That many courses were probably enough in themselves, but I was also consuming cereal and milk and bread daily, and possibly too many biscuits at Grandma's house! So, by the time I was 8 or 9 I had such a rampant case of candidiasis that I developed very bad vaginal thrush. I remember this part well; no 9 year old should ever have to endure thrush. At the time it was the worst thing that had ever happened to me. At her wit's end, my poor Mum took me to a Naturopath. This Naturopath, though I don't remember her at all, changed my life. I was sent home with an eating plan which involved eliminating all sugar in all forms. That is lollies, cakes, biscuits, commercial fruit juice, soft drinks, dried fruit, bread, pasta and other wheat products, and dairy, (with the exception of plain, natural pot-set yoghurt). These high GI foods are what candida albicans loves to eat. I was also given a probiotic powder (these days we have capsules, I did it tough!) to recollonise my gut with good bacteria (the ones the antibiotics killed), and the most vile liquid herbal, to kill the excess candida, both to be taken daily.

Now as a Naturopath I would struggle to believe any 8 or 9 year old would follow this regimen. And of course it is largely up to the parents to ensure the programme is followed, however I remembered and remember still what that thrush felt like. I was more than willing to do whatever was required to ex it. And when I noticed one day that my bloated tummy was now flat, I was hooked!

It wasn't easy at first though. Back then there weren't as many wonderful alternatives to wheat as there are now. The bread for my school lunches was dry and had a nasty habit of crumbling. The wheat free pasta was woeful, I'd rather have eaten brocoli than the wheat free biscuits of the day and all of it was hard to source. Forget the existance of a health food asile in the supermarket. There were no wheat free breakfast cereals that were also sugar free so on schoolday mornings I ate puffed something-or-other, which tasted like cardboard, with either goats milk or yoghurt. We soon abandoned the cereal/milk thing in favour of real food; fruit, yoghut and nuts or eggs or baked beans or rye bread toast with almond spread. (Now I have a lot of porridge too, but Mum has bad childhood memories of the stuff and couldn't bring herself to feed it to us.)

One of my Mum's favourite memories of my first couple of days was about 72 hours into the programme, when I announced that "I feel better in my feelings". When asked to explain I said that the girl down the road was "still annoying, but I don't feel like killing her anymore."

There was pent up irritability that just disappeared. There were loads of physical symptoms that disappeared, including the bloating, and the infections. I was a much happier kid in general, and I never forgot the instant difference the treatment plan made for me. After a while I discontinued the herbal, and only took a course of the probiotics here and there, but I stayed on the diet for the most part. There were, of course, times when it wasn't possible, like our family trip to Rome over Christmas when I was 9 and a half. Thanks to the abundance of sugar and pasta and bread (mmmmmm) some symptoms returned. It's happened like that over the years; I start eating sugar and flour and after a week or so I feel different. But it's never been severe and out of control again. I now know how to manage my gut flora and still live a normal, restaurant-loving Melburninan life.

Now that I'm about to start a family of my own I hope that I can help them to maintain gut flora balance, and prevent all that pain and discomfort. Here are some of the things I will do to ensure their health:

Breast feed and never give formula. There are herbs I can take if there's a supply problem.

Ensure they eat real food at all times, ie fruit, veg, nuts, seeds, legumes, meat, fish, real yoghurt, oats, rice and quinoa. This ensures they get plenty of nutrients and don't get sick much in the first place.

Ensure they never drink soft drinks and grow up knowing that they're poison

Ensure they dont drink processed cow milk

Keep sugary foods (including breakfast cereals) for very special occasions like Christmas, Easter and Birthdays, and even then keep it to a minimum

At home, cook mostly wheat free foods, so that when they are out it's not as big an issue.

Treat ear infections with a drop of garlic oil and a homoeopathic, no need for antibiotics

Treat colds with homoeopathics and (when they're older) herbs unless it's a critical situation


So these are the preventative measures you can use for candidiasis. The great thing about raising kids this way is that they'll be really healthy in general, and you'll never know what other diseases you've prevented. You'll most certainly use less pharmaceuticals because there will be less need for them. They are less likely to develop allergies because their little livers will be clean, and they'll be more emotionally balanced and mentally at their best.

If you're treating yourself for candidiasis, these are the two products you can get from your pharmacy or health shop









Or you can see your Naturopath for an individualised treatment plan. If you also have thrush I find garlic tablets work very quickly, and they don't have to be fancy ones, Natures Own Odourless Garlic works fine, 2 tablets 3 times daily til it's gone, in conjunction with the diet, probiotics and herbs. With garlic treatment thrush is usually gone in a day or so.

If you need to take a course of antibiotics, and I stress the word 'need', as I believe they should be used in very rare circumstances, then always take a course of probiotics immediately after you finish them and spend some time on the diet as well.

Exercise and sleep are also important for treating candidiasis. Exercise is known to boost the immune system in several ways; by increasing happy brain chemicals and by encouraging good quality sleep. During good sleep our bodies replenish, and the immune system is strengthened. If you're not waking feeling refreshed then you're not getting good quality sleep. The clean eating plan alone will probably recitfy this.

It's important to remember that candidiasis is endemic to the westernised world, where we consume highly processed foods every day and feed them to our kids, and overuse antibiotics. As a Naturopath I tend to find it at the core of most of my client's ill health, because we can't be healthy without a perfectly balanced intestinal system. The good news is that the intestinal system regenerates itself very quickly; in 3 months it's an entirely new gut. This means that if you remain on the treatment for 3 solid months you have a gut that's made from good food, and will be functioning beautifully.

If you want more info on candidiasis or you want to share your story, please comment or email me


Wishing you great gut health!