gilljacobs

What to drink first thing?

Warm lemon, apple cider vinegar and honey drink I make time for my morning 'habits' because that's my priority, and I don't have young children to be responsible for. But ultimately, even with the busy rush of family life, which I get a glimpse of when my granddaughter comes to stay, there is still the need to squeeze in some things to do first thing in the morning. And this is one of them. But I have elaborated on it to include two other ingredients! So the basic drink is warm water and the juice of half a lemon. To which I add one teaspoon of raw Arbutus honey, and a dash of organic non pasteurised apple cider vinegar. I include

Why do we look down on this delicious vegetable?!

Sofia and Maria: at the Weston A Price 2014 European Conference Today I am running a Fermentation Evening for eight people from my local Transition Towns group, and the event is going to be covered by the Guardian newspaper as part of their Get Together column in the Saturday Food Supplement. The timing is perfect. Two weeks ago I had staying with me Maria Tarantino and Sofia Corte Real from Brussels, who were leading the Fermentation Workshops at the Weston A Price Conference in Surrey, UK. If you do a fermentation workshop, and they were doing three, there is heaps of preparation work to do well ahead to time. They needed a base and so they stayed with me. We

How to make Sauerkraut

Sauerkraut before pounding There is no mystery about fermenting vegetables. Its a traditional way to preserve food, and to use up winter vegetables to last through the cold, and to give added nutrition because of the beneficial enzymes that they produce. Just take a white cabbage, and a selection of other suitable vegetables, such as carrots, onions, cauliflower, celery, onions and turnips, with garlic and ginger juice thrown in, and maybe a few chopped up red peppers for added spice and colour (without seeds though). Grate the carrots and ginger, and thinly slice the other vegetables with a mandolin or by hand. Cauliflower should be quite small and so should the celery and turnips. You don't have to

Tags: fermenting vegetables, Sandor Katz, sauerkraut|

When you have tried everything else …..

When you have tried everything else, and there is just one thing left to do, it might JUST be food that could make all the difference! How has making my own ferments helped me, specifically sauerkraut? ORAL HEALTH IMPROVED Since regularly eating home-made sauerkraut I no longer get plaque build up around my teeth! This is pretty major for me because it was quite a large problem beforehand. The same thing happened to Dr Mercola. Apart from ferments he also recommends Oil Pulling, but I tried that for quite some while before eating homemade ferments and it did not seem to make a difference on its own. SMALL AMOUNT WITH EVERY MEAL The thing about sauerkraut is that you don't

Tags: Health benefits of fermented foods, Heath, IBS cure|

A Quick and Easy Ferment

Beet Kvass ferment: to drink first thing in the morning There is a new focus on food that is bubbling up to the surface, and that is the contribution of fermented foods to health, both of individuals and the planet. Fermented foods are alive with beneficial bacteria, needed in our guts, and enzymes released from food when it is broken down through fermentation. Our guts are often compromised by antibiotic overuse, in our bodies when taken as medication and from food where animals have been given antibiotics and plants have been sprayed by them. Of course because of our reliance on refrigeration as a method of prolonging the ‘freshness’ of food, we forget that fermenting food used to

Tags: Beetroot Kvass, Nourishing Traditions, Sally Fallon Morell|

When some people’s habits challenge your own!

Spending time with friends whose ideas on health are more conventionally based can be challenging. Do you keep quiet when the subject of statins comes up, or cholesterol, or salt or soya, or the importance of good fats? If I sneak in a little clue as to my other take on food and health: • statins are BAD because cholesterol is necessary and indicates the presence of inflammation • animal fats such as lard, butter, and cream, coconut oil and olive oil are GOOD • unfermented soy is BAD • sea salt is GOOD • wheat is BAD • high glycaemic carbs, including potatoes, are BAD • sugar is bad • foods that our grandmothers would recognise are generally GOOD

Tags: good fats, healthy habits|

Getting a handle on Gluten

PUTTING THE FEAR OF GOD INTO MILK

Grass-fed milk full fat yogurt from a US store UK Semi-skimmed pasteurised, homogenised milk in glass bottles Habits for health as we grow older and raw milk?! Isn’t raw milk dangerous for health? Not according to the latest report. Anyway, isn’t milk only supposed to be for calves? Not if you look around the world to see how milk is used raw or fermented to form a significant part of many cultures’ diets. Doesn’t milk cause mucous build up, and allergies? Yes, if its heat-treated. A small number of people cannot tolerate raw or pasteurized milk, but many who assume they are allergic to milk can actually tolerate raw milk. In one study, compared with

Tags: allergies reduced with raw milk, benefits of raw milk, grain fed cows, grassfed cows, pasteurised milk, raw milk|

Slovenia: here food is still real!

Slovenian Soup with additional support! (Photo Kimberley Hartke) I have just come back from a food tour of Slovenia, organised by Dr Sylvia Onusic of Taste of Slovenia, and helped in situ by Kimberly Hartke, the publicist for the Weston A Price Foundation (check out her photos of Taste of Slovenia trip here). Slovenia is beneath Austria, in the former Yugoslavia, also bordered by Italy, Croatia and Hungary. It is a beautiful country, with historic towns, immaculately kept villages and farms, mountains, wild flower pastures, a small but interesting coastline, AND a vibrant and healthy food culture. What is more, most people speak English, because Tito, the President of Yugoslavia before its breakup into separate countries, chose English

Tags: pine tops schnapps, raw milk vending machines, sea bass carpaccio, Slovenian food, sustainable fish farm, turnip sauercraut|

Weight Loss as we get older

Sitting on a bench in Cadiz in May 2012 OK, so here's the biggie, at least for me. Weight loss! As a pubescent girl people looking at my largish thighs used to say its 'just puppy fat'. I did grow out of it, and it was only in my forties that I gained weight during a period of stress. I never calorie counted or went on low-fat diets, but after my first book was finished it was easy enough to get active again, and lose weight put on during the intensity of writing. Then it crept up again, not hugely, but two sizes more than I should have been. I suspected wheat, but at that stage in the

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