Autumn yummy recipes!

Ohhh... Autumn is such a pretty season!

Being here in the countryside in North Wales for this season has been a fantastic experience: to watch the leaves turn yellow, orange and red, then watch them leaves turn more of a brownish colour and finally, to slowly fall down. The grounds are getting covered with leaves now. The winds have been blowing strong since last weekend.

this is my in laws' beautiful autumn garden!

when the sun is out, its just fabulous!!!

I have been indulging myself with loads of fruits and vegetables of the season:

Mangtout: raw in salads and added to stir-frys.
Pumpkin and butternut squash: I have made this deliciously simple soup with mainly butternut squash and a small piece of pumpkin and added coconut milk, turmeric, onions, chillies and lime.
Potatoes, Leeks, Onions and garlic, Mushrooms, French beans, Courgettes, etc.
Potato and leek soup - an English classic!
Pears, apples, plums.


Some ideas for you to try:

. Roast parsnips, butternut squash and sweet potato with olive oil, honey and thyme.
. Cut butternut squash in small cubes, roast then add: to watercress and feta for a fab salad!
. Make a delicious earthy vegetable casserole with potatoes  carrots, parsnips, tomatoes  peppers. Add some paprika, chillies and cumin. You can also add some beans. Bean casserole - tchan tchan!

. Porridge! Yummm... be creative with your porridges:
- Add dates and almonds to it.
- Great an apple on top of your porridge add some cinnamon and chopped nuts of your choice.
- Remember to make your porridge with water. You can add any nut, seed or coconut milk to it after.
- Sprinkle cacao nibs, dried coconut flakes and some agave syrup.
- Simply add organic honey.


Indulge yourself with healthy meals.


















Health & Love,
Carolyne

Autumn is here!

Autumn is the season of harvest, a time when we start to go inward and gather together on all levels, a time to store up food, fuel and warm clothing, a time to think, perhaps study and plan for the soon coming stillness of the winter. In nature, everything moves its energy inwards and downwards. Leaves and fruits fall. Green grasses turn into lighter and drier colours. Those enchanting yellow, orange and red colours are everywhere!

The forces of Autumn create dryness in Heaven and metal on Earth; they create the lung organ and the skin upon the body... and the nose, and the white colour, and the pungent flavour...the emotion of grief, and the ability to make a weeping sound. 
 - Inner Classic


The autumn is the time to be more focused on preparation of food to obtain the energy required for the cooler months ahead. Soups, grains and loads of earthy vegetables come in play, hotpots, roasts... Play with the vegetables and fruits in season: apples, damsons, pears, plums, chestnuts, elderberries,blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, artichoke, aubergine, beetroot, broccoli, butternut squash, carrots, celery, courgette, fennel, garlic, kale, leeks, onions, potatoes, turnips, watercress, celeriac, kohlrabi, pumpkin, jerusalem artichoke, parsnips, chicory, beetroot, cauliflower. 

In Chinese medicine Autumn is the season of  the metal element and the organ represented are the lungs and the large intestine. Here are a few words associated with the Autumn/Metal. Take a look at them and observe yourself and the others around you! Can you recognize any symptoms? This may indicate balance and/or imbalance

Reflective             Spiritual and mental nourishment             Heavenly father providing the chi                     the ability to let go - to grief  life or someone
Colours                Pure                                       Cold                                    Blocked
Valuable               Perfectionism                         Precise                                 Congestion
Sharp                   Strength                                 Structure                              Materialism
Hard                    Shiny                                      Connection/Network within our body
connectedness in a spiritual level - if imbalanced, feeling of disconnection    
                
colour: white-pure/ high expectations
lungs: the way we take in pure chi energy and are connected to the Universe and each other.
large intestine: the way we get rid of what we don't need.
illnesses: asthma, skin issues like eczema. IBS, constipation, a flamy cough/ mucous, weeping eyes...  

Let's explore Autumn and the Metal element. Here are some ways you can start exploring:

* Keep observing what is happening in nature. How does the first day you felt Autumn make you feel or made you feel?

* Notice how connected you feel, are you in touch with how your body feels in relation to seasonal changes, the planets and the food you eat? Are you aware of what you need to give quality and meaning to your life emotionally and  spiritually? The metal element gives us the clarity and strength we need to see these so we can begin to get the best for ourselves. Maybe use your favourite meditation or piece of music to spend some time connecting with the wonderful essence that is within you.

* Explore the emotion of grief, remember or imagine a loss, this could be the loss of a person, a relationship, a dream, leaving a job, moving houses... anything that involves reflecting, moving on and saying goodbye. When you feel you grasped the emotion reflect on where you feel on your body, how your energy feels and what helps you moving out of the emotion.

* Enhance your minerals - notice how many vegetables you eat and if possible increase your intake of vegetables. Ahhh!!! This is a great time of the year to introduce sea vegetables into your soups, hot pots - they are full of minerals! 

Health & Love,

Carolyne 

Nutritional Talks in Brighton

Come and join me!

Enjoy your summer season!

Ideas  for your summer days:

* Create a space in your day to spend a regular amount of time in natural sunlight.

* Sunflowers love the sun - the flower heads follow the sun's path through the sky. Snack on sunflower seeds, which contain essential fatty acids, zinc, iron, calcium and a high level of B complex vitamins, specially B5 which nourishes the adrenal glands in the body, and helps alleviate stress.

* Celebrate the midsummer by visiting a favourite place in nature to watch the dawn and rise and/or meditate.

* Run barefoot early in the morning. I did it this morning by Brighton beach. It was great! 

* Prepare a picnic with foods that have absorbed the light energy of the Sun and spend time nourishing your body with light form inside out.

* Make a green juice everyday. Mix and match with celery, cucumber, spinach, parsley, lemons, fresh wheat grass, ginger... you can add half and apple or pear - sprouts... Play wit it! Its is fresh and nutritious!

* Have loads of fun!

Remember to drink plenty of water. We need a minimum of 2 litres of water a day just to carry on with our bodymind daily tasks - if you are all day out in the hot sun, drink more fresh water. Hydrate yourself!

Love & Health,

Carolyne

Summer time...

Summer is here even with all these grey and rainy days in England, it is summer!!!
The sun will appear again.



" Our task is to take in light (when we have it!) so that we may merge with our true selves and our destiny, thus facilitating the healing of the planet. As each of us becomes whole we radiate light - light from within - unimpeded by our self imposed emotional and physical blocks".    Jacob Liberman


Summer is a period of abundant growth. 

Expansion  -  Growth  -  Lightness
Outward activity  -  Brightness  and  Creativity








Summer foods:

Use loads of colourful summer fruits and vegetables and have fun creating beautiful meals. Use flowers to eat and decorate your plates and table.
Serve cooling fresh foods like salads, sprouts, cucumbers, fruits. Apples, watermelon, lemons and limes are best cool summer heat.
Eating heavy meals on hot days cause sluggishness. Such foods as nuts and seeds in excess, dairy, meat and grains. Well, with our weather here in England we can play with it. Eat more fresh foods for sure, specially in hot days and in the grey ones, add grains like quinoa, amarranth and brown rice to our salads. 

To be more comfortable on very hot days, drink more warm or hot drinks to induce sweating and to cool the body. Cold drinks are no good, really! Interesting to know that ice creams and ice drinks contract the stomach and stop digestion.

In the Chinese Five Elements philosophy the Summer is represented/connected with the Fire Element.

The supernatural forces of Summer create heat in the Heavens and fire on Earth; they create the heart and the pulse within the body... the red color, the tongue, and the ability to express laughter... they create the biter flavor, and the emotions of happiness and joy.       Inner Classic

The Fire Element rules the heart and the small intestines. In chinese, the word heart is xin, and is translated as  "heart-mind". Dean Ornish, heart specialist in California has developed from his own experience this awareness:"I think the mind is where heart disease begins for many people".

General Symptoms of a Heart-Mind Imbalance:
* Scattered and confused mind
* Excess or no laughter
* A rudy or very pale face
* Speech problems (stuttering, excess verbiage, confused speech)
* Depression
* Poor circulation
* Weak spirit
* Aversion to heat

The heart in harmony: 
Those with a healthy hearts are genuinely friendly.
Clarity is a central attribute of those with a harmonious heart-mind. They seem to see effortlessly through a problem to arrive at brilliant solutions.
We of "the information age" tend to have mental hyperactivity. Energy from the excessive thought and worry races through the head while the heart is weaken.
When spirit becomes sufficiently concentrated in the heart, superficial thinking stops and integrated thoughts begins. Rather then thinking about "reality", thought becomes reality - one becomes fully present.

Foods for calming and focusing the mind:
A simple diet with occasional light fasting promotes deep, peaceful thinking.

. Grain: whole wheat, brown rice and oats gently calm the mind.
. Silicon foods: cucumber, celery, lettuce, celery-lettuce juice.
. Fruit: mulberries and lemons calm the mind.
. Chia seeds: have sedative action
. Spices: dill and basil can be use both in food and teas.
. Herbs: chamomile (my favourite!), catnip or valerian - helpful for nervous person or insomniac.
Magnesium in foods is healing to the heart. It retrains the "anxiety peptide", a complex of amino acids in the brain which appears to contribute to anxiety.
Green foods re rich in magnesium as well as organic whole grains.



Let's explore this Summer! Even if it really does not feel like it is Summer at times...
Observe your heart-mind! 
Be at peace!


Love & Health,
Carolyne 

A nicotine story...

Hi all!

I have been away... Left the blogging aside but now I am back. Its been soo long...
I have past my exam for my Naturopathy Nutrition diploma and I am now studying for the Advance diploma. It has been an amazing journey! I am extremely passionate about the course and its philosophy. The philosophy of the cell has become pretty much my philosophy.

-------

I came across this article at the Metro newspaper the other day.

'Hoping to kick the habit? Just nibble a carrot'    by Fred Attewill

Don't waste your money on electric cigarettes and patches if you are trying to give up smoking - just grab a carrot stick instead.
People wanting to quit are 3 x more likely to succeed if they eat plenty of fruit and vegetables, a study shows.
Smokers with higher fruit and vegetables consumption also smoked fewer cigarettes a day, waited longer to smoke in the mornings and scored lower in nicotine dependence tests.
The results - which were taken from 1,000 smokers over 14 months - were consistent for people of all ages, genes, races and backgrounds.
Jeffrey Haibach, who led the research said: 'It is also possible that fruit and vegetables give people a feeling of fullness so they feel less of a need to smoke'
Unlike some foods which enhance the taste of tobacco - such as meat, fizzy drinks and alcohol - fruit and vegetables actually makes it taste worse.
The research, carried out at the University at Buffalo in New York state, was published in science journal Nicotine and Tobacco Research.

Great, ha!?

Our body is our own pharmacy. If our body have all the necessary nutrients it can make its own feeling good factors. The need to reach out for tobacco, alcohol, sugars and other substances to feel better, relaxed, to ease a pain or experience pleasure, will diminish and eventually stop, because we will be experiencing bliss from within, with our own chemicals. 

We need a well balanced diet full of organic fruits and vegetables, good oils and plenty, plenty of water - the way to pollution is solution. In case of addictions, vitamin Bs, amino acids and possibly some other supplements, are very important.


Did you know...
. if we were to inject the nicotine of 1 cigarette we would die
. 10 million people smoke in the UK
. 106,000  people die every year from disease related to tobacco
. 1 cigarette contains 4,000 chemicals - 30 of them are cancerous

Love and health,
Carolyne x

Potential health issues associated with milk and dairy products

    Dairy products have been overly consumed for many years. Consuming dairy products, specially non - organic products, for a long period of time has been proven to cause health problems.

When we look at the populations that have had a big increase in milk consumption in the last couple of decades like United States, Canada, France and England we find that illnesses like asthma, cancer, heart diseases and osteoporosis have increased tremendously. United States number one killer is heart diseases and the second, osteoporosis. Number one in breast cancer is Denmark followed by Norway then Holland. Number one in heart diseases is again Denmark, Norway, Holland and Sweden; all countries with the highest milk and dairy consumption. In the other hand, countries from eastern cultures which consume much less milk have shocking less cases of degenerative diseases.

   Dairy intolerances and allergies are very common among many populations. Intolerances happen when the body (just after babyhood) stops producing the enzyme lactase which is used to break down the milk sugar called lactose. Not having enough lactose makes it more difficult for the body to digest milk. Some of the symptoms of milk intolerance are: irritable bowel syndrome, nausea, bloating, stomach cramps, migraines and others. Dairy allergies happen when the body have instant reactions to casein, whey or other allergens found in cow's milk. Dairy allergies can be very dangerous. Children are the most affected and the symptoms can be diarrhoea, vomiting, stomach cramps, skin rashes, difficulty in breathing and others.

   Poor absorption of nutrients is associated with dairy products. Casein, a hard protein found in milk is very difficult to digest. The body tries to digest this protein but it can not digest it completely. Through the process of digesting it, mucous is produced. Over a long period of time consuming milk and having to deal with this protein, a lot of mucous is accumulated in the intestinal walls attracting food residues to the walls. The intestinal walls become covered, blocking the absorption of nutrients.

 
Diabetes have also been linked with the protein found in milk. Many studies in various countries show a relation between dairy products and Insulin-Dependent diabetes. Researchers found that the protein in cow's milk provoke an auto-immune reaction in the body, which is believed to be what destroys the insulin-producing cells of the pancreas.

Osteoporosis is a major disease related to dairy products. The government persists saying that the calcium found in cow's milk and derivatives is crucial for having healthy bones, consequently, preventing osteoporosis in older age. There are no proofs that this saying is true. Drinking milk does not prevent bone loss. Countries like Japan and China, where people consume less milk and protein have low osteoporosis rates. Western countries with the highest rate of osteoporosis like United States and Scandinavian countries consume a lot more milk and animal protein. Studies also show that higher intakes of protein and use of cigarettes, salt and caffeine provokes calcium losses. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (2001), found that "women who ate most of their protein from animal sources had three times the rate of bone loss and 3.7 times the rate of hip fractures as women who ate most of their protein from vegetable sources."

The calcium found in cow's milk is useless for humans. Cow's milk has much more calcium than magnesium. We need a balanced calcium and magnesium intake otherwise we will face mineral problems. Green leafy vegetables, tofu, seeds and nuts which also contain other essential nutrients for our health, have a far better calcium and magnesium balanced ratio.

   Prostate, breast and ovarian cancer are diseases also related with consumption of dairy products. A study done by Daniel Cramer and his colleges at Harvard back in 1989 already showed the relation between galactose, a sugar found in cow's milk and ovarian cancer. Daniel suggests that if galactose is not broken down correctly by enzymes, it will build up in the blood and may affect woman's ovaries. Many women have low levels of these enzymes and if they consume dairy products daily, their risk of ovarian cancer triple then of other women. Galactose is also linked with infertility. Researchers found that individuals with high levels of calcium intake have three to four times their risk of prostate cancer. This happens because too much calcium interrupts the vitamin D to act as the body's natural anti-cancer mechanism.

   IGF-I (insulin-like growth-factor I) is a very powerful growth hormone found in cow's milk. This hormone has been identified as a key factor with tumour growth.

"IGF-I can stimulate normally slow-growing cancers (like breast, ovarian, and prostate to grow very quickly, causing them to appear in a decade or two or even less." Delicious 12/95

A study showed that men which had the highest levels of IGF-I hormone had more then four times the risk of prostate cancer then men with lower levels of IGF-I.

   There is also a problem with a protein enzyme called xanthine oxidase (XO) which is in cow's milk. XO helps the digestive system breaking down milk proteins. In whole fat milk, XO will be present but in semi-skimmed and skimmed milk the fat is removed consequently XO, making it much harder for the body to digest the protein. However, when milk is homogenized small fat globules surround the xanthine oxidase and it is absorbed intact, without being break down, into our blood stream. This causes problems in the artery walls and blood vessels. Cholesterol gets accumulated and vessels become blocked causing cardiovascular system problems like arteriosclerosis, atherosclerosis and high blood pressure.

Get going with your nut and seed milk! You will love it! If ever having milk and dairy products, purchase them from local farms or where you know you can trust the quality of the milk, at least.

In health,
Carolyne x