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What is Real Food?

What is Real Food?

In talking to people about what I do, I have been asked the Question: What do you mean by Real Food? Isn’t all food real? It’s edible? Right?

This is a great question. What is Real Food?

Real food can mean different things to different people.

Let me clarify what Real Food is…

All food is not created equal. Just because is it appears edible, does that mean you should eat it? This reminds me of a childhood saying – if your friends jumped off a cliff, does that mean you should do the same?

In moving through my health journey, my perception of food has totally changed. I now view food in a whole new light. Food is no longer just a source of pleasure (boy, do I love to eat food) and something to stop the growling tummy. For me, eating Real Food is nourishment, my medicine to heal, an opportunity to achieve my best possible health and live a vibrant and abundant life.

When it comes to food, we have a choice. Do we choose food that will serve us? Or do we choose food that depletes our body of vital nutrients while clogging and slowing down our system. We have the power to make a choice by what we put on the end of our fork. You get to choose: Do you jump off the cliff? Or do you seek a the longer path that is safe, scenic and more enjoyable.

Let me take you down that path. The path to better health through better food choices.

So back to…. What is Real Food?

Real Food is as close to its natural form as possible, not man made and not altered in any way.

To simplify it. I have two basic rules to help you change directions in your health journey:

If it comes from an animal or plant, eat it. If it coms from a factory plant, don’t eat it.

But why is Real Food important?

Food is not just carbs, proteins and fats. It is information for your body. Food is like a language, an unbroken information stream that connects to every cell in your body and talks to your DNA. The better the source (from natural whole foods) and the more undamaged the message when it arrives to your cells, the better your health will be. It is central to good health and Real Food can do more than anything else to improve one’s health and quality of life.

Even if you are not presented with any symptoms at this time. A diet of processed foods will eventually catch up with you through nutritional deficiencies. You are made from the food you eat. Your body functions on the food you eat. Every single cell in your body depends on quality nutrition for its structure and function. If cells are not provided with correct nutrition, they will struggle to perform their function optimally and this can lead to dysfunction.

Food in nature comes as a package. Nothing in nature works in isolation. Whole, unprocessed food contains all the vitamins, minerals and information needed to be utilised by the body. Processed, commercial, manmade foods (Franken-foods)are missing some of this vital information and nutritional components. Your body can’t absorb what it doesn’t recognise. Therefore, these Franken-foods place stress on your body by drawing valuable nutrition from elsewhere – creating deficiencies. As humans we think ourselves pretty smart! We know that processed food are missing some vital compounds required, therefore we replace them with synthetic vitamins – I call them counterfeited parts.

Tell me what happens when you put diesel in a petrol car?

It is not the right fuel for that motor. Diesel has components a petrol car does not need, and they will clog system. Diesel has components missing that a petrol car needs for optimal function. A petrol car can run for a while on diesel, but it will eventually breakdown.

Processed foods are like diesel to the human body. They are nutrient deficient and clog the system. Why would you put diesel (Franken-foods) in your finely tuned body?

Its your choice? You get to choose your destiny by what you choose to eat!

Every ‘body’ runs better on Real Food.

Desserts

Berry Ice Dream

This super fast dessert is a crowd favourite.  You will never miss ice-cream again!

1/2 cup frozen raspberries

1/2 cup frozen blueberries

100g coconut cream or crème fraiche or double cream

Place frozen berries in a food processor and blitz until they resemble fine crumbs.  Add cream and blend until smooth.  Serve immediately topped with coconut chips or crushed nuts and cacao nibs.

Serves 2

Commercial Ice-cream is generally full of refined sugar, artificial additives and emulsifiers.  This recipe is a great alternative and is so easy to make.

Print Recipe

Side dishes, Vegetables

Spaghetti Squash

Have you ever tried Spaghetti Squash?

When cooked it does actually look like spaghetti. So cool! And delicious too.

To Cook:

Cut it in half, rub over a little ghee, season and bake it in the oven for 45 mins – 1 hour at 180 deg. Scoop out the strands of flesh and use as desired and freeze the rest in portion sizes for added convenience.

It is so versatile. It can be used wherever you would normally use pasta. Soups, pasta dishes, omelettes – possibilities are endless.

They are in season now (April) and nature does this for a reason. They have fabulous antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties providing us with an immune boost in readiness for the flu season.

Get it into ya!

Drinks

Kombucha

  • 3 litres water – filtered or rain water
  • 1 cup sugar – organic raw or brown sugar
  • 4 tea bags of organic black tea (or 3 bags of green tea and myrtle and 1 bag black tea)
  • ½ cup Kombucha from a previous culture
  • 1 Kombucha mushroom (Scoby)

Bring water to the boil in large pot. Add sugar and simmer until dissolved. Remove from heat, add the tea bags and allow the tea to steep until    water has completely cooled. Remove tea bags. Pour cooled liquid into a 4 litre glass bowl/jar and add ½ cup Kombucha from a previous batch. Place the Scoby on top of the liquid. cover with a cloth and secure with a rubber band.  Transfer to a warm, dark place, away from contaminants and insects.

In about 5 to 10 days the Kombucha will be ready, depending on the  temperature. It should have a sour but pleasant taste, with no taste of tea remaining (not sweet and if vinegary you’ve left it too long). Remove Scoby and its new baby and 1 cup of brew for the next brew and add fruit for second ferment* or transfer to glass bottles securing lid tightly for unflavoured Kombucha.

*To second ferment: After removing the 2 Scoby’s and cup of brew, add fruit of choice to a 3-4 litre jar and seal.  Allow to brew for 2 days at room temperature – this is when it gets fizzy.  Strain off fruit and bottle into glass bottles and seal well.  Store in a cool place.

(Note: Do not wash Kombucha bowls or bottles in the dishwasher.)

The sugar in Kombucha feeds the Scoby and  little is left at the end of the fermenting process.

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I am a sugar addict

I used to have this standard joke.  Whenever I went to a work-related workshop and we all took turns in introducing ourselves and saying where we’re from, I always announced “Hi, my name is Sue and I am an alcoholic, oh, sorry I mean………”.  I always got a laugh, even if it was just a muffled sneer.  The truth of the matter is, I might not be an alcoholic, but I am a sugar addict.  So my introduction should have sounded like this…..  “Hi, my name is Sue and I am addicted to sugar.  I have been sugar free for, ummm……. I’m not sure how long because I keep falling off the wagon. I quit in 2014.  I always forget that I am an addict and I slip up by having something sweet.   Annnnnd then I am back to square one, fighting cravings again for the next 3 or 4 days.”  Not sure if I would have got the same response from the crowd announcing my sugar addiction.  But the truth is, being addicted to sugar is the same as being addicted to anything else.  The only thing is, sugar is EVERYWHERE!

In life, I will be travelling just fine living my sugar free life.  I’ve done the hard yards, got rid of all temptation from my pantry and fridge.  Trained my family not to bring temptation back into the house (this can be one of the hardest steps as we always want to love our family with sugar).  Then, I’ll l be caught unawares, someone dear to me lures me in with “Would you like a ……… (Cake, dessert, chocolate, blitz ball)?”  I hesitate, then they proudly announce. “I made it with you in mind, it is gluten free!”  Before I know it, my response is “Thank you, how thoughtful, just one bit”.

Well….

I CAN’T HAVE JUST ONE BIT!

That one bit has woken the beast.  I have been starving it for so long and now I just poked it with a huge stick.  It’s like a bear is inside of me, woken from its winter sleep, it is starving and will do anything to be fed.  Sugar is the only thing it wants and it will do anything to get it.  In my attempt to re-tame the beast, I head down the natural isle.  Thinking, “Oh, I will make some frozen banana whip – that will be okay, it’s natural sugar.  I can keep the beast happy and I’m not breaking my rules of eating sugar, bananas are a whole food, right?  It only has natural sugars, right?  Surely, my body will know when I’ve had enough and I can keep the beast happy too, right? ”

WRONG!

The beast ain’t happy, it knows when I’m trying to trick it!  That natural stuff ain’t going to cut it!  I am just teasing it.  I’ve woken it from hibernation, and now l’m teasing it.  How stupid was I to think that I can live with this beast in harmony.  How wrong was I?  I can not live harmoniously with this beast.  When it is awake, it takes over my life and I have no control.  So, I am back to square one.  Taming the beast 101. NO MORE SWEET STUFF, especially frozen banana whip!

Hi, my name is Sue and I am an addict – a sugar addict.  I have been sugar free for 12 hours…….  I slipped up again last night (well, it was paleo carrot cake made with rapadura sugar and I scraped off the topping) and now I’ve pulled out the big guns to get that bear back in its cave, where it belongs.

How do you tame the sugar cravings beast?

Join me in The RESTART Program to tame the sugar beast together.

The RESTART Program

Salads

Beetroot Salad

  • 1 carrot grated
  • 1-2 beetroot’s grated (depending on size)
  • 1 apple grated
  • 2 spring onions sliced
  • 2 sprigs mint (or coriander) chopped
  • 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
  • 2 tablespoons cold pressed extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 pinch Himalayan pink lake salt

Mix all ingredients and sit at room temperature for at least 30 mins to allow the flavours to develop.

I like to serve on a bed of salad greens and my fav grass fed meat – lamb chops – makes it an all round great Aussie feast.