Chia (Salvia hispanica) is a seed rich in the vegetable pre-formed form of essential fatty acids (EFA) but you need enough of certain nutrients to convert it (fish is a source of the formed animal EFA). It is also a source of soluble fibre and the seed becomes mucilaginous when it contact with water. Many websites make elaborate claims for Chia, however many of these claims are not supported by the scientific literature so unless something is backed up by good research, be careful what you read (1).

Due to Chia’s mucilaginous properties, in cooking and creating recipes Chia can be quite useful. It can aid as an egg replacer (though it won’t have the same nutritional properties as eggs), it can be made into a gel, it can thicken ice creams, puddings and smoothies.

The chia recipe I’m sharing with you today is Chai Fresca. It is a refreshing citrusy drink made with chia. In my version of Chia Fresca i’ve used lime and also added blueberries.

Recipe: Blueberry & Lime Chia Fresca

Alleregen info/recipe info: Chia is gluten-free and dairy-free. This recipe is vegan/vegetarian/paleo friendly.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup (or more) of water
• 1/4 lime, juiced
• a few blueberries
• 1/2- 1 Tbps. chia

How to:

Pour the water in a glass and stir in the lime juice. Add the blueberries and chia seeds. And stir the Chia seeds for a few minutes so they do not become lumpy. Enjoy!

Note: The longer the chia sits the thicker the drink will become.

Reference:

1 – http://www.benthamdirect.org/pages/content.php?RRCT/2009/00000004/00000003/0006RRCT

When we want to eat food to make us feel energetic and happy (which is what food should do), we need to stick to whole, real foods. This because our body needs more than just carbohydrates to produce energy. There are many micro-nutrients we need for optimal mitochondrial function (mitochondria are the “energy factories” of our cells). This is why whole foods need to make up the base of the diet (and refined and processed foods are ideally avoided).

Article: How to get more whole and nourishing foods in your diet

In this Green Energy Soup I cooked the kale for a very short time (until soft but still bright green) and served it with a bit of cream cheese. 

Many of the nutrients in the foods in this recipe are supportive to your mitochondria . These nutrients include magnesium (from the Kale), antioxidants (such as vitamin A from the butter/ghee & beef; vitamin C from kale), vitamin B1, B2, B3, B5, (these B vitamins from the kale, seaweed and beef)  iron (non-heme from kale & heme iron from beef, respectively), cysteine (an amino acid from beef), and manganese (from kale & garlic). Seaweed is also a source of iodine (important for thyroid function), kale contains chlorophyll and ginger has anti-inflammatory properties.

If you haven’t seen it watch the video by Terry Wahls and how she overcame her MS by feeding her body well! Inspiring stuff!

Article: How to be time savvy for your health

Recipe: Green Energy Soup (A Mitochondria Supporting Recipe)

Allergen info/recipe info: This recipe is gluten-free and dairy-free.

Serves: 2

Ingredients:

• coconut oil or butter or ghee
• 2 onion, peeled and chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 2 tsp. fresh ginger
• 3 potatoes, washed and skin kept on or 3 parsnips or 1/4 – 1/2 cauliflower
• a few cups of bone broth (Here is How to make Bone Broth)
• 2 whole small bunches of kale (stems kept on & bottom end of the bunch cut off), washed and chopped roughly
• 2 nori sheets (optional)
• meat from the bone broth (enough for two people)
• a dash of sesame oil
• salt and pepper to taste

How to:

1. In a pot add the oil of choice, the onion garlic and ginger. Cook until the onion is soft and then add the potatoes (or the other veggies listed) and the bone broth and cook with a lid on and the heat set at low until it the potatoes very soft.
2. Now add the kale and cook for a few minutes or until the kale is very soft but still bright green (I cooked mine a bit longer than I should have which is why in the first picture the colour is a bit more dull than the second picture above).
3. Add the seaweed sheets and cook for one more minute.
4. Now in batches add this soup to a blender and blend until smooth.
5. Serve with a dash of sesame oil, the meat from the bone broth and season to taste with salt and pepper.
6. Enjoy!

 I love soups. They are nourishing, easy to digest, inexpensive,  soothing, delicious and of course nutritious. I have quite a few soupy recipes on this blog such as the Purple Valentine’s Day Soup, Seriously Good Sprouted Chickpea Soup and the Herby Veggie Chicken Soup with Quinoa. Soups can be powered with protein, rich in minerals and vitamins, hydrating, and can be a herbal decoction all in one. Not many foods can claim that!

This recipe brings together one of my favourite kinds of soup, Pho (pronounced fir) and the use of bone broth from the meaty bones of grass fed cows. I even mentioned Bone Broth in the post on the many ways to be time savvy for your health! And I have to tell you, the taste of grass fed meat + bone broth is so much more delicious than those of grain-fed cows (and much more nutritious too). However any bones from cows (as used in this recipe) will still work and will still produce a flavourful and nutritious broth. Slowly simmering the bones helps to extract all the goodness from the bones into the water which means we are able to digest and absorb the nutrients from the bones much more readily.

For more on the nutritional content and beneficial effects of consuming bone broth check our Catie Payne’s blog post on her blog Head Plant Health.

How To Make Bone Broth

Makes: a whole heap of bone broth!

Bone Broth Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp. butter
• 1 kg meaty beef* bones (best: bones from grass-fed cows; better: bones from organic/biodynamic cows; good: bones from a local butcher)
• filtered water
• a bay leaf
• a few peppercorns
• a dash of apple cider vinegar
• salt
• pepper

How to:

1. Trim the fat (if any off the bones).
2. In a large stock pot melt the butter and brown the meaty bones.
3. Add enough water to cover the bones and add the bay leaf and pepper corns along with a dash of apple cider vinegar. You may need to add more water as it slowly cooks.  
4. Turn the stove down to the lowest possible setting and put a lid on the pot.
5. Leave to this to cook for 4-5 hours but even longer is better. You can even let it cook for day or two or three (of course turning off the pot before you go to bed and resuming cooking the next day). 
6. You want the meat to fall of the bones and for the bones to be really brittle when they have cooked long enough.  
7. You can use a slow cooker to make bone broth as well if it is big enough or you can just make smaller batches.
8. When the bones have become brittle and the broth tastes good, strain the broth away from the bones and then cool it. When the bones are cool, peel off the meat from the bones and add it back to the bone broth. The benefit in cooling it before you use it is that you can scrape off any fat that solidifiies at the top (if you would like). You can keep the fat and use it instead of butter or coconut oil in your cooking. Just make sure to get the broth to a boil before you eat it to kill an bacteria that has decided to set up house.
9.  Now you can use it as a base for soups, flavour it with some aromatic herbs and spices or have it as is.
10. Store it the freezer in a few small zip lock bags for individual portions or in the fridge for a few days in glass containers.

*In this recipe we are using beef bones but you could also make other flavoured broths such as a chicken broth with raw chicken frames or a fish stock with fish heads and bones, for example.

To check how much this this broth ‘gels’ (an indication of how much collagen/gelatin has come out of the bones) put some of the cooked and cooled broth into a container in the fridge and leave it till it sets. The more gel-like it is the better.

Here is my recipe for Pho using meaty bones from grass fed cows. The secret to a great Pho is flavourful slow-simmered bone broth. The longer you can simmer the bone broth the better. I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I did! If you make this please let me know how it goes for you.

Recipe: Grass Fed Beef Pho

Serves: 2

Allergen notes/recipe notes: This recipe can be dairy free by replacing the butter with coconut oil. It is egg-free.

It can be made vegetarian/vegan by using vegetable stock instead of bone broth and you could use tempeh instead of the meat in the bone broth.

Grass Fed Beef Pho Ingredients:

• 1 C. thin rice noodles (or enough for two people)
• 1 tsp. butter
• 1 onion
• coriander/cilantro, roots and stems (washed & sliced)
• 1 large garlic clove, crushed
• 1 tsp. ginger, chopped into small pieces
• 3 peppercorns
• 1 star anise
• 1 bay leaf
• 4 cups of pre-prepared (see above) grass-fed bone broth (with as much meat from the bones as possible)
• a dash of fish sauce
• 1 cup bean shoots, rinsed
• fresh coriander leaves, roughly chopped
• a few spring onions, washed and finely sliced into rounds
• a few mint leaves
• a fresh red chilli, sliced (to taste)
• 1/2 lime, quatered, to serve
• salt and pepper (to taste)

How to:

Cook the rice noodles according to the package instructions. Set aside.

In a saucepan, cook the onion in butter with the coriander roots and stems, crushed garlic clove, chopped ginger, peppercorns, the star anise and the bay leaf. Cook until the onion is soft.  Add the four cups of grass-fed bone broth + meat and simmer for 10-15 minutes. When ready to serve: add the noodles to two bowls. Pour over the bone broth add a dash of fish sauce, the bean shoots (divided between bowls), the fresh coriander leaves, spring onions, mint leaves and fresh red chilli slices. Season with salt and pepper and serve with a wedge of lime.

Michelle

© Copyright: 2009-2012 Michelle Robson-Garth. Please ask permission first when using any text or images on healthfoodlover.com. Read the disclaimer here. Have a look at the recipe index for more health food lovin’ recipes. Join the Facebook page & follow Health Food Lover on twitter.

I love coconut! There are so many ways to use coconut in different recipes both sweet and savoury. If you have never used a young coconut have a little read about them.

Also if you’ve never opened a young coconut, here is the tutorial I wrote on how to do that (click the small picture below):

How To Open A Young Coconut

Here are other recipes that feature coconut:

How to make ‘Instant’ Coconut Ice

Recipe: Tropical Whole Fruit Juice + How To Make Juice In A Blender (Video & Recipe)

Homemade Bounty Bars (With Real Food Ingredients)

How to Make Dairy-Free Coconut Cream from a Young Thai Coconut

How to Make Dairy-Free Coconut Cream from a Young Thai Coconut

Allergen info/recipe info: This recipe is dairy-free, sugar-free , egg-free and gluten-free. Also no BPA (Bisphenol phosphate) as you would get from canned coconut cream!

This coconut cream freezes well.

Makes: about 1/2- 1 C. of coconut cream

Ingredients:

•  Coconut ‘meat’ from one young thai coconut
• 2 Tbsp. coconut water from the young thai coconut (or enough coconut water to make a creamy consistency)
• 1 tsp. lecithin granules (non-gm soy or sunflower lecithin granules) (optional- it makes it extra creamy)

How to:

Scrape out the coconut meat from a young coconut. Add it to a food processor or blender along with the coconut water. Add lecithin if using and blend until you get a thick coconut cream! Easy! Use however you may use coconut or a dairy-based cream.

You can use it on:

A fruit salad mixed with passion fruit

Michelle

© Copyright: 2009-2012 Michelle Robson-Garth. Please ask permission first when using any text or images on healthfoodlover.com. See the disclaimer here. Have a look at the recipe index for more health food lovin’ recipes. Join the Facebook page & follow Health Food Lover on twitter.

Update 29/1/12: I originally posted this in 2009, but I’ve since updated the information and I’ve made a video! So I hope you enjoy this post!

Why would you want to open a young thai coconut? Because then you can get to the coconut water and coconut meat! Coconut water from a fresh coconut is so much nicer than any bottled coconut water. So I enourage you to try opening a young thai coconut for yourself, but of course be careful!

Some information on Coconut Water and Coconut Meat:

Coconut water is the liquid inside the coconut. You can drink the coconut water and use the coconut meat in smoothies or even add to
a fruit salad or curries. You can also blend together water and coconut meat to make your own coconut milk!

If you fancy yourself a fermentation fetishist try having a go at making Coconut Water Kefir (pronounced Ke-feer) using water kefir grains.

Coconut Nutrition:

According to Simonne (2004) young coconut water contains a high amount of calcium. Mature coconuts also have a high Iron content.
It also has high amounts of magnesium, potassium and phosphorous (USDA, 2004). Coconuts have a high amount of saturated fat. The type of saturated fat in Coconuts are actually medium chain fatty acids (MCFA).

HealthFoodLover.com Video: How To Open A Young Thai Coconut

Tutorial: How To Open A Young Thai Coconut

How to Open a Thai Young Coconut

1.  

2.

3.   

4.

5.    

6.

You will need:

• 1 young thai coconut
• A damp tea towel
• A sharp knife (or a sharp potato peeler)
• A chopping board (plastic or wooden)
• A jugg or glass jar
• A bowl and a spoon to dig out the coconut water

1. Get your equipment ready. Place the damp tea towel under the wooden board (it helps board from moving).  
2. Put the coconut on the side and shave, peel or slice the outside of the coconut husk until you get close to
   the hard brown part of the coconut under the husk.
3. Now balance the coconut upright . With the corner of the knife carefully hit the coconut towards the top of the coconut and make four hits around the coconut.
4. With the four holes now just made, svivel the knife around till it makes a circle and you are able to take the circle
   off as if its a lid. (Be very careful!).
5. Drain the coconut water into a glass or jar.
6. Scoop out the coconut meat and use however you like.

References:

• Discuss Cooking, 2007, Uses for coconut meat, http://www.discusscooking.com/forums/f21/uses-for-coconut-meat-38748.html, viewed 3/8/2009.
• Shilhavy, B, http://www.naturodoc.com/library/nutrition/coconut_oil_healthy.htm
• Simonne, A, Bobroff, LB, Cooper, A, Poirier, S, Murphy, M, Oswald, MJ, Procise, C, 2004, ‘FCS 8525 South Florida Tropicals: Coconut’, University of Florida, http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/HE618, viewed 3/8/2009.
• USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference, Release 16-1, 2004, Nutritional Facts-Coconut, http://www.coconutresearchcenter.org/nutrition.pdf viewed 3/8/2009.
• Yong J, Ge L, Ng Y, Tan S, 2009, ’The Chemical Composition and Biological Properties of Coconut (Cocos nucifera L.) Water’, Review, Molecules, 14, 5144-5164, (click to download: coconut water composition )

Have fun (but be careful!) and enjoy your fresh coconut water and coconut meat!

Michelle

© Copyright: 2009-2012 Michelle Robson-Garth. Please ask permission first when using any text or images on healthfoodlover.com. See the disclaimer here. Have a look at the recipe index for more health food lovin’ recipes. Join the Facebook page & follow Health Food Lover on twitter.

Got milk kefir and not sure how to use it? Here are 70+ ways & recipes to use it. Here are now 80+ ways to use milk kefir!

Some things you should know:

• What kefir ?
• What are fermented foods?
• How to make milk kefir.
• Storing kefir for ripening & reducing lactose
• Kefirpedia

There are a lot of recipes around the internet for using the fermented milk product, kefir so I thought I would make a big list to help inspire you to use kefir and not get bored with using it, if it’s a part of your diet. The easiest way and tastiest way, to me, is to make kefir is in a smoothie or to serve kefir with berries.

Kefir can be used just about anywhere that buttermilk, yoghurt or cream cheese may be used. Other great ways to use kefir are:

• In smoothies
• To tenderize meat instead of yoghurt
• Served with fruit
• In a cold soup
• In an ice cream recipe
• Poured over cereal
• Used instead of yoghurt to make
• In a healthy milkshake recipe
• As a leavening agent
• In place of buttermilk in baking
• As a starter for a sourdough recipe
• To make a herbed cream cheese, or a fruit-flavoured cream cheese
• To ferment grains or flours
• To help dephytinize grains, cereals, nuts and seeds
• In a salad dressing
• In a pasta sauce
• To make proboiotic drinks

Yesterday I showed you a simple and delicious recipe for milk kefir.

This milk kefir recipe was raspberry and lemon flavoured- delicious! I would recommend it as a great simple recipe for those new to kefir.

Pizza dough made with kefir:

Jaffa kefir (organic kefir with blood orange and chocolate!):

Purple kefir smoothie:

Now, below I present to you the largest list I could make of kefir recipes from around the web! If you know any great recipes I haven’t linked to please let me know and I’ll add it to the list (as long as it isn’t too similar to any listed recipe).

Please note: that even though these recipes contain kefir, other ingredients in the recipes may not be the healthiest, so use your best judgment and substitute for healthier ingredients where you can.

Big list of Kefir recipes:

1. Homemade Organic Kefir with Raspberries & Lemon Zest (healthfoodlover.com)
2. Raw Milk Kefir
3. Vanilla Kefir Ice Cream 
4. Kefir-Leban
5. Kefir Cottage Cheese
6. Gayle’s Passionfruit & Kefir Cheesecake
7. Chocolate Zucchini Kefir Cake
8. Lemon Kefir Ice Cream
9. Lemon Yogurt Kefir Ice Box Pie & Sprouted Graham Crackers
10. Kefir Coconut Ice Cream With Mango Soup
11. Kefir Waldorf Salad
12. Peanut Butter Kefir Pie
13. Kefir Snowballs with Plum Filling
14. Kefir Ccantaloupe
15. Kefir Fruit Dip
16. Coconut Milk Kefir
17. Mediterranean Kefir Buns
18. Milk-Free Kefir Sourdough Bread
19. Kefir Flat Bread
20. Pumpkin Cobbler Topping
21. Kefir Scone Recipe
22. Organic Kefir With Blood Oranges and Dark Chocolate (Jaffa Kefir)
23. Pumpkin Cookies
24. Quick Kefir Sourdough Bread
25. Whole Wheat Kefir Pancakes with Bluberry Sauce
26. Calcium Rich Kefir Cocktail & Garden Salad Kefir Lunch Express
27. Wings Of Life Bread
28. Kefir Bread Spread; Kefir Cocktails; Kefir Rolls; Kefir Bread; Kefir Strawberry Dessert
29. Kefir Cheese
30. Chocolate Kefir Power Smoothie
31. Maple Rose Kefir
32. Kefir-Kraut
33. Okroshka (Cold Russian Summer Soup)
34. Lemon Kefir Cake with Lemon Ginger Marmalade
35. Kefir Croutons
36. Kefir Ice Cream Sandwiches
37. Strawberry Lemon Kefir Smoothie
38. Chai Kefir Parfait 
39. Strawberry Kefir Lemon Pie
40. Apple Kefir Breakfast
41. Kefir Claus
42. The Butterfly
43. Kefir & Fruit Cilantro Salad
44. The Water Butterfly
45. Kefir Charmer
46. Herbal Kefir Liver Blush
47. Yorkshire Curd Tart or Cheese Cake
48. Fluffy Kefir Pancakes
49. Kefir Cream Pudding
50. Dairy-Free Kefir Ice Cream with Mixed Berries, No Ice Cream-Maker Required
51. Chocolate Kefir Smoothie
52. Kefir Smoothie: Frozen Summer Fruit Delish!
53. Tricolored Berry & Kefir Popsicles for July 4th
54. Kefir Cheese Cake Recipe
55. Lemon Kefir Soup
56. Em’s Spring Green Kefir Soup
57. Sweetheart Cookies With Kefir
58. Creamy Kefir Salad Dressing or Fake “RANCH”
59. Cold Avocado and Kefir Soup
60. Buttermilk Kefir Chicken
61. Raw Kefir Cheesecake
62. Coconut Kefir Cookie
63. Kefir Preserving Brine
64. Cucumber Yoghurt or Kefir Salad
65. Kefir Custard Fruit Tart
66. Super Green Kefir Smoothie
67. Kefir Poppy Seed Dressing
68. Apricot Mint Dessert
69. Cinnamon Basil Grape Soda
70. Probiotic Potato Salad
71. Fermented Cranberry-Orange-Apple Relish
72. Blackberry Kefir Smoothie
73. Quinoa Kefir Berry Cookies
74. Turkey Waldorf Salad with Raw Kefir (Video)
75. Kefir Morning Smoothie
76. Cabbage-Kefir Stuffed Potatoes
77. Kefir Butter
78. Parsley Mayo
79. Iced Koffuca Latte
80. Sour Cream/Kefir Raisin Bars
81. Apple Pie Kefir Ice Cream
82. Kefir Klaus
83. Unique and Yummy Kefir Drink
84. Sprouted Strawberry Scones with Lemon Kefir Yogurt Topping
85. Lemon Kefir Smoothie
86. Russian Kefir Pancakes (Oladi) Recipe
87. Pumpkin Polenta with Kefir-Honey-Walnut Sauce
88. Organic Kefir with Blood Orange and Dark Chocolate
    

Using Kefir Topically:

1. Kefir Face Mask
2. Latta Russian Kefir Mask

What Is Kefir?

Kefired milk (or Kefir; said as ke-fear), is the fermented dairy* product made from adding Kefir grains** (which are also known as Kefir; see picture above which shows kefir’s cauliflower-like appearance) into milk to ferment. The Kefir grains are a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast which exist on a structure of polysaccharide, protein, amino acids and lipids. Kefir grains ferment milk to produce a probiotic milk, similar to yoghurt. Kefir is another beneficial probiotic/cultured/fermented food which you may like to try adding to your diet. It’s relatively inexpensive and so very easy to make at home. And you don’t need any special equipment!

Some things to know about Kefir:

• How To Make Kefir
• How To Store & Ripen Kefir To Reduce Lactose
• Kefir Fermented For 24 & 48 Hours
• *Kefir is a dairy product so those who are sensitive to dairy please take caution.
• **Please note, Kefir ‘grain’s’ are not cereal grains at all, nor are they similar to cereal grains in anyway.
• Kefir is gluten-free.

This is a really delicious way to eat kefir! If you’re new to kefir you may like to try this simple recipe. This recipe also disguises the taste of kefir somewhat, which can take a bit of time to get used to. Like all fermented foods, starting with a small amount at first is best.

Recipe: Homemade Organic Kefir with Lemon Zest & Raspberries

Ingredients:

• 1/2 C. to 1 C. of kefired milk (made from organic milk)
• raspberries, fresh or frozen (I used frozen to chill my kefired milk)
• lemon zest, (best from an organic lemon, otherwise gently scrub a non-organic lemon to help remove the wax coating)
• B-grade maple syrup/honey

How to:

Pour the kefired milk into a bowl, add the berries, lemon zest and a drizzle of maple syrup or honey. Enjoy!

In my new blog Creative Vintage Lover*, I spoke about my favourite vintage cookbook (currently anyway), which is The Colonial Cook Book: The Recipes Of a By-Gone Australia By Paul Hamlyn. It is a reprint (from 1970) of the “first published Australian cook book”, originally published in 1864. As you can imagine it has a lot of old but still fascinating  recipes and information.

Among that information, I found this passage (click to enlarge):

Why Animals To Be Eaten Must Be Killed, from The Colonial Cook Book: The Recipes of a By-Gone Australia by Paul Hamlyn (1970, p. 21)

The Irish are very hospitable, and are remarkable for the novelty and point of their convivial toasts; so much so; that an Irish squire was known to spend half of his day in inventing toasts and the other half in drinking them-’Nimrod’.

It is universally understood that animals which die from disease are not fitted for our markets. It is also understood that when cattle are over-driven their meat is notably inferior to that of healthy animals, unless they are permitted to recover their exhausted energies before being slaughtered. Why is this? The first and most natural supposition respecting those which die from disease is that their flesh is tainted; but it has been found that prolonged agony or exhaustion are quite as injurious, though in these cases there is no taint of disease. Mr. Claude Bernard propounds the following explanation: “In all healthy animals, no matter what class they belong, or on what food they subsist, he finds a particular substance, analogous to vegetable starch, existing in their tissue, and especially in their liver. This substance he calls ‘glycogene’, i.e., the sugar former. It is abundant in proportion to the vigour and youth of the animal, and disappears entirely under the prolonged suffering of pain or disease.

This disappearance is peculiarly rapid in fish, and is observed in the spontaneous death of animals; but when the death is sudden none of it disappears. He finds that a rabbit, for example, which he killed after suffering pain for five or six hours, exhibits no form of whatever of this sugar-forming substance, and it’s flesh has a marked difference in flavour. The same remark applies to exhausted, over-driven animals; their muscles are almost deficient in glycogene, and yield in water a far larger proportion of soluble principles than the same muscle in a normal state. Mr. Bernard finds, moreover, that animals which are suffocated lose more of the sugar-forming substance than similar animals killed in the slaughter-house. To let us add the fact that the blood of over-driven will not coagulate, or coagulates very slowly and imperfectly, and we shall see good reason for exercising some circumspection over the practices of our meat markets- ‘Cornhill Magazine.’

Poetical. When my spirits are low for, relief and delight; I still place your splendid memorial in sight; And call to my muse, when care strives to pursue, Bring the steaks to my mem’ry, and the bowl to my view. ‘Captain Morris, at the Beefsteak Club, in 1835, at the age of ninety, on being presented with a silver bowl’.

The passage talks about what we seem to instinctively already know, that the food we eat should be real, good and healthy before we can eat it. Even in the 1800s it seems that people knew that animals should be healthy in order for us to consume them.

If we happen to be meat eaters we need to acknowledge the fact that what we’re eating was once was living, to be grateful and not ignore where our food comes from. It’s hard to think about it, but I believe it is our responsibility that if we consume animals and animal products that we buy good quality meats and animal products from healthy animals. Eating more than one cut of meat (i.e. more than just the muscle meats: branch out and try organ meats, for example!) is said to honour the animal as we aren’t wasting and discarding any parts of them. Also, generally the better quality it is, the better it is for our health.

Resources for choosing healthier animal products:

• Health Food Lover: How Conventional Hot Dogs and Bacon Are Made: WARNING: This will put you off those foods due to the sheer gross-ness of the processes the meat goes through!
• Fresh Food Tricks, by Choice Magazine 2010: This is a great article that reveals many of the tricks supermarkets use to make food look and seem fresh when it might not be.
• Health Food Lover: Resources Page: This page on my blog  links to many great brands for healthy meat among other foods.

I hope you enjoyed this article, please let me know what you think in the comments section below!

-Michelle,

Health Food Lover.

*Creative Vintage Lover focuses on my creative adventures and all things vintage! Please stop by if are interested. Don’t worry I will still blog here at Health Food Lover.

© Copyright: 2011 Michelle Robson-Garth. Please ask permission first when using any text or images on healthfoodlover.com . See the disclaimer here.

These days there seems to be plenty of food around, but it isn’t what I’d call real food, nor even food for that matter. The kind of food im talking about, which is most often found on our supermarkets & junk food “restaurants” can be thought of “edible food-like substances”, to quote Michael Pollan.

Edible food-like substances are food items which appear to look and taste like food, but really are adulterated, processed and all-round not that great for us. How can we tell what’s real and what are the imposters? First, read your food labels (and I don’t mean just the nutrition labels, read the ingredient labels!). The ingredient labels on food can tell us so much more about what is in the food and what makes up the food. Get a little book called the Chemical Maze, this will help you decipher the real ingredients from the ones to avoid.

What is real food? It’s nutritious, food that will feed our bodies. It doesn’t contain nondescript ingredients. Food our great, great grandmothers would recognize. Real food is whole. It’s fresh and healthy. It doesn’t come in a packet. It’s not made in a lab. It tastes and looks real. It comes from healthy animals and healthy plants. It’s stored well and kept well and for not too long before getting to our tables. It eventually goes off. It’s sustainable.

What did our ancestors eat? They ate real food. Food as close to nature as possible. Whole foods. They made their own food because it was an important part of their life, it fueled their bodies and kept them well. Food native to their region. Seasonal food. They also took time to enjoy food (much less snacks and convenience food in times gone by) when possible and appreciated it (food wasn’t always so abundant as it is now). Food that wasn’t always saturated in “artificial anythings” and chemicals to prevent things from eating it. Even looking in Australian cookbooks from the 1950′s shows that we Aussies were eating real foods back then! (see pics below).

In these cookbooks typical ingredients you would see are:

• organ meats (brains, kidneys, liver etc)
• suet
• bacon
• vegetables
• fruits (native & otherwise)
• eggs
• legumes
• rice
• tapioca
• butter

Sure, they did use flour and sweeteners (sugar, honey) but their sugar consumption was not as high and refined as it is today (no HFCS/corn syrup).  Data from 2001 & 2004, ”seems to suggest that Americans consume on average 355 calories, or more than 22 teaspoons, of sugar a day”. I’m sure Australian consumption of sugar was at similar figures to those in 2001 & 2004, especially because Australian sugar consumption has been noted to be higher than the US and European countries.

Though, it’s not like they didn’t know sugar was bad for them. According to James Hart in Klinike (a medical treatises) of 1633, “the immoderate use of sugar, as also of sweet confections, and sugar-plums, heateth the blood, engendreth obstructions, cachexias, consumptions, rotteth the teeth, making them look black; and withal, causeth many times of loathsome stinking breath…”, (as quoted by Harold McGee in ‘On Food and Cooking’ (1997)).

Why don’t we eat real food? Often it’s a time factor, we’re too busy. Sometimes because we just don’t cook our own food. (As a side note: Cooking is great! A little bit of incidental exercise and you’ve got yourself a delicious fresh home-cooked meal! Try using these tricks to cut down on cooking and enjoying life more). But there are so many benefits to cooking your own meals. It can also be because we are relying a little too much on pre-packaged foods (they are convenient for a reason).

What can we do about this? Find real food, learn to cook, make the time to cook and eat it, enjoy & be healthy! Do what you can to make real food a part of your life. We owe it to ourselves to nourish our bodies.

Some great tips on budgetting, cooking & shopping (from P.W.M.U Cookery Book, 1958, 11th Impression, Melbourne, Australia ):

• “Keep a record of expenditure;
• Allow a definite percentage of your income for food and live within that amount;
• Do not buy foods which are not in season;
• Shop personally where possible;
• Learn to use the cheaper ends of meat;
• Gain a knowledge of food values and buy foods which include the main food essentials;
• Learn how to conserve the valuable vitamins and mineral salts in the preparation and cooking of foods”.  

Where can we get real food? Good: Skim the perimeter of the supermarket (that’s generally where the freshest food is). Better: Get your fruit and veggies, and meats, from local green grocers and butchers, respectively. Best: Buy from organic shops and accredited farmer’s markets, CSAs and Food Connect (see below for resources) and/or grow your own.  

Eat Real Food (It’s What Our Ancestors Did).

Resources:

• Food Connect (Adelaide, Sydney, Brisbane)
• Ceres Fair Food (Melbourne)
• Weston A. Price Foundation
• Nourishing Australia

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© Copyright: 2011 Michelle Robson-Garth. Please don’t steal my blog posts. Ask permission first when using any text or images on healthfoodlover.com . See the disclaimer here.

Kombucha Tea

Kombucha tea is a refreshing, bubbly fermented tea historically from China, Russia & Germany (Greewalt et al, 2000). It is made from a Kombucha S.C.O.B.Y. /scoby. Scoby stands for symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast. It is also known as a ‘mushroom’ or ‘biofilm’. Kombucha tea is fermented which means that bacteria and yeast which are apart of the scoby, eat up the sugar to produce alcohol and carbon dioxide (which makes it bubbly). For those with a healthy metabolism who choose to drink Kombucha, it is generally considered safe (Mayser, 1995).

Kombucha is known to contain a spectrum of bacteria and yeast:

Bacteria:

The bacteria in kombucha are acetic acid bacteria. They are:

• Gluconacetobacter sp. A4 (G. sp. A4) (Yang, 2010)
• Acetobacter, including Acetobacter xylinum (Mayser, 1995)

Yeast:

Kombucha fermentation is initiated by osmotolerant species and succeeded and dominated by acid-tolerant species (Teol & Cox, 2004).
It contains:

• Brettanomyces bruxellensis (Teol & Cox, 2004)
• Candida stellata (Teol & Cox, 2004)
• Schizosaccharomyces pombe (Teol & Cox, 2004)
• Torulaspora delbrueckii (Teol & Cox, 2004)
• Zygosaccharomyces bailii (Teol & Cox, 2004)
• Yeasts of the genera Brettanomyces (56%), Zygosaccharomyces (29%) and Saccharomyces (26%) (Mayser, 1995)
• Saccharomycodes ludwigii and Candida kefyr (in isolated cases) (Mayser, 1995)
• Pellicle-forming yeasts such as Candida krusei or Issatchenkia orientalis/occidentalis (Mayser, 1995)
• Species of the apiculatus yeasts (Kloeckera, Hanseniaspora) (Mayser, 1995)

As well as bacteria and yeasts it “contains various acids including including acetic acid, gluconic acid and lactic acid, as well as some antibiotic substances” (Mayser, 1995).

Though the verdict is not yet out on the complete benefits of drinking Kombucha, I’m sure there are many people out there who can offer anecdotal evidence for the health benefits of the drink.

Studies on kombucha tea:

• Kombucha has been shown to have in vitro antimicrobial activity and enhances sleep and pain thresholds in rats (Greewalt et al, 2000).
• In rats, Kombucha may have  hepatoprotective and curative properties against CCl4-induced hepatotoxicity. (Murugesan, 2009).
• Kombucha may have antiproliferative and antimicrobial activity (Cetojevic-Simin, 2008).
• The low rate of contamination might be explained by protective mechanisms, such as formation of organic acids and antibiotic substances (Mayser, 1995).
• It has high levels of B vitamins (Gamundi & Valdivia, 1995).
• In rats, a study has shown that it has no effect of toxicity, it was shown to prevent lipid peroxidation and prevents a fall in reduced glutathione level when the rats were exposed to cold and hypoxia in a simulated chamber. It has also been found to decrease paracetamol induced hepatotoxicity significantly. The study shows that K-tea has anti-stress and hepato-protective activities (Pauline & Dipti, 2001).

How To Prepare Kombucha Tea

You will need:

• kombucha scoby
• kombucha starter liquid
• tea (green or black)
• filtered water
• white sugar, around 1 cup of sugar per two cups of tea (this is one case where white sugar is okay, because it feeds the kombucha mushroom)
• wide glass jar
• a jug

Please sterilize your glass jars, jugs and utensils before using in order to reduce chances of contamination.

First step: you need to get a kombucha scoby! As you can see the kombucha mushroomlooks like a flat pancake, though this flat pancake is not passive at all- it is alive!

Where to get a kombucha s.c.o.b.y.? For those in Australia, I got my scoby from Anita Geradi (you can contact her here: gamgo at optusnet.com.au (just remove the spaces and replace ‘at’ with @). Here is a site that lists a whole lot of sources for you to obtain a Kombucha baby.

A kombucha scoby.

Depending on where and who you get kombucha from, your kombucha (most likely) will be sent in some kombucha starter liquid which is great because that liquid helps to start the process of fermentation.

Kombucha grows a new layer ever time you make the tea and forms the shape of the rim of jar.

Second step: Choose what kind of tea you would like to use.

Generally the type of tea used to make kombucha is black or green tea (such as oolong tea). The tea needs to contain caffeine and tannins. You want to avoid any kind of herbal teas. The oils in herbal teas are said disrupt the kombucha mushroom.

Step three: Make the tea.

This is easy enough- just boil water and make tea (sans milk). Make enough to fit in your jar and leave to infuse with the tea bags or the loose leaf tea. Add the sugar to dissolve. Leave the tea somewhere long enough for the tea to cool down to room temperature.

You won’t use the kombucha mushroom at this point, so keep it away from the hot tea for the time being.

Step four: Add the kombucha starter

Once your tea has infused, the sugar has dissolved and the tea has now cooled down (very important!), it’s now time to take out the tea bags (or strain out the tea leaves). So now you have your sweetened, infused tea in the jar. It’s time to put the kombucha mushroom & the starter liquid in the tea. Cover the jar with a cloth and a rubber band and place the kombucha in a safe dark place (like in the back of a cupboard or on a shelf) where it can stay undisturbed (away from light, bugs & movement) for 1-3 weeks to ferment.

Step five: leave to ferment

Leave this to ferment for 1-3 weeks. The longer it ferments the more acidic and vinegary it gets and the less sugar that is left.

Step six: drink!

Take out the kombucha mushroom, reserve a bit of the fermented tea for the next batch & decant the kombucha tea liquid to drink.

Freshly fermented Kombucha & the Kombucha mushroom.

A fresh batch of Kombucha ready to be poured into a jar to be chilled. A bit of the Kombucha liquid has been poured out for the next batch.

You can add the kombucha tea liquid to a jar with a lid (as below) to increase the carbonation of the final product and/or just to put it in a container to chill in the fridge.

The bottle contains bubbly fermented Kombucha tea and the jar has a bit of starter liquid for the next batch.

Bubbly fermented tea!

Kombucha is best served chilled.

Caution:

• Kombucha does have a slight alcohol content (can be up to 3-5% depending on batch) so those who are sensitive to alcohol or who are recovering from alcohol addiction may wish to avoid kombucha all-together. Kombucha may be associated with liver function disorders.
• Kombucha can grow mould. If your kombucha mushroom has grown mould throw away the liquid and the kombucha mushroom.
• The mould in kombucha may grown aspergillus, which is a fungal infection which may be fatal to those who have been diagnosed as HIV-positive (Gamundi & Valdivia, 1995)
• It’s best to use glass only as your fermentation vessel. Ceramic containers are NOT okay as they have been associated with lead poisoning.
• Those suffering from immunosuppression should preferably consume controlled commercial Kombucha beverages (Mayser, 1995).

Resources:

Kombucha Tea- Food Standards Australia & New Zealand

Kombucha: A Systematic Review of the Clinical Evidence

Dom’s Kombucha & Vinegar Making In-Site

References:

• Cetojevic-Simin DD, Bogdanovic GM, Cvetkovic DD, Velicanski AS., 2008, ‘Antiproliferative and antimicrobial activity of traditional Kombucha and Satureja montana L. Kombucha‘, Official Journal of Balkan Union of Oncology, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18979556, 13(3) pp. 395-401, viewed 8/2/2011
• Gamundi R, Valdivia M., 1995, ‘Kombucha mushroom: two different opinions’, Sidahora. Oct-Nov 34-5., http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11363369, viewed 8/2/2011
• Greewalt CJ, Steinkraus KH, Ledford RA, 2000, ‘Kombucha, the fermented tea: microbiology, composition and claimed health effects’, Journal of Food Protection, 63(7) pp 976-81, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10914673, viewed 8/2/2011
• Mayser P, Fromme S, Leitzmann C, Gründer K., 1995, ‘The yeast spectrum of the ‘tea fungus kombucha”, Mycoses, 38(7-8) pp.289-95, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8559192, viewed 8/2/2011
• Murugesan, G. S., Sathishkumar M,  Jayabalan R., Binupriya3 A. R.,  Swaminathan K., and Yun S. E., 2009, ‘Hepatoprotective and curative properties of kombucha tea against carbon tetrachloride-induced toxicity’, Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology, 19(4) pp. 397-402, http://www.jmb.or.kr/journal/viewJournal.html?year=2009&vol=19&num=4&page=397, viewed 8/2/2011
• Pauline T, Dipti P, Anju B, Kavimani S, et al, 2001, ‘Studies on toxicity, anti-stress and hepato-protective properties of Kombucha tea’, Biomedical and Environmental Sciences, 14(3) pp.207-12, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11723720, viewed 8/2/2011
• Teol Al, Heard G, Cox J, 2004, ‘Yeast ecology of Kombucha fermentation’, International Journal of Food Microbiology, 1;95(2): pp 119-26, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15282124, viewed 8/2/2011
• Yang Z, Zhou F, Ji B, Li B, Luo Y, Yang L, Li T, 2010, ‘Symbiosis between microorganisms from kombucha and kefir: Potential significance to the enhancement of kombucha function‘, Applied Biochemistry and Biotechnology, 160(2) pp 446-55, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18810658, viewed 8/2/2011

© Copyright: All text and pictures are copyright of Michelle Robson 2011, unless where noted.