My poor liver

It has been very busy week so far, haven't had time to write anything on the blog. Yesterday I went to see my Natural Health Consultant, and did my second bio scan. Apparently all my other organs except liver are more or less in perfect order. A bit disappointed that my liver's health hasn't improved much, so I need to concentrate on this more from now on. This means more green vegetables, few more liver flushes, no alcohol, fatty foods, meat (which I don't eat anyway) and adding superfoods and herbs which support liver.

Liver performs over 200 functions in the body, including breaking down toxic matter and poisons. The liver is also responsible for your energy levels and regulates hormonal balances. Many of us have fatty livers due to bad diets (and also alcohol consumption), and most people have liver stones that block liver's functions. So doing several liver flushes will help to expel the stones, toxins, parasites and even worms. Adding liver supporting food and herbs will additionally help to heal the liver. Below are notes from my Natural Health Consultant:

Symptoms associated with liver dysfunction

Abnormal Metabolism of Fats

Abnormalities in the level of fats in the blood stream, for example, elevated LDL cholesterol and reduced HDL cholesterol and elevated triglycerides. Arteries blocked with fat, leading to high blood pressure, heart attacks and strokes. Build up of fat in other body organs (fatty degeneration of organs). Lumps of fat in the skin (lipomasand other fatty tumours). Excessive weight gain, which may lead to obesity. Inability to lose weight even while dieting. Sluggish metabolism. Protuberant abdomen (pot belly). Cellulite. Fatty liver. Roll of fat around the upper abdomen - (liver roll).

Digestive Problems

Indigestion. Reflux. Haemorrhoids. Gall stones and gall bladder disease. Intolerance to fatty foods. Intolerance to alcohol. Nausea and vomiting attacks. Abdominal bloating. Constipation. Irritable bowel syndrome. Pain over the liver - (upper right corner of abdomen & lower right rib cage).

Blood Sugar Problems

Craving for sugar. Hypoglycaemia and unstable blood sugar levels. Mature onset diabetes (TypeII) is common in those with a fatty liver.

Nervous System

Depression. Mood changes such as anger and irritability. Metaphysically the liver is known as the “seat of anger”. Poor concentration and “foggy brain”. Overheating of the body, especially the face and torso. Recurrent headaches (including migraine) associated with nausea.

Immune Dysfunction

Allergies - sinus, hay fever, asthma, dermatitis, hives, etc. Multiple food and chemical sensitivities. Skin rashes and inflammations. Increased risk of autoimmune diseases. Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Fibromyalgia. Increase in recurrent viral, bacterial and parasitic infections.

External Signs

Coated tongue. Bad breath. Skin rashes. Itchy skin (pruritus). Excessive sweating. Offensive body odour Dark circles under the eyes. Yellow discolouration of the eyes. Red swollen itchy eyes (allergic eyes). Acne rosacea (red pimples around the nose, cheeks and chin). Brownish spots and blemishes on the skin (liver spots). Red palms and soles which may also be itchy and inflamed. Flushed facial appearance or excessive facial blood vessels (capillaries/ veins).

Hormonal Imbalance

Intolerance to hormone replacement therapy or the contraceptive pill (eg. side effects). Menopausal symptoms such as hot flushes may be more severe. Premenstrual syndrome may be more severe.

NOTE:
All of the above symptoms are common manifestations of a dysfunctional liver. However, they can also be due to other causes, of a more sinister nature, so if not sure, it's best to see your doctor.

If you have even only few of these symptoms it's best to start to look after your liver. Here is how:

1. Eliminate consumption of recreational and junk food, diary, wheat, meat and alcohol.

2. Divide your weight in half and drink that many ounces of non-polluted water each day or three-quarters your weight in fresh raw juices.

3. Decrease cooked food to no more than 50% of the diet. The rest should be raw fruits, vegetables, seeds and nuts.

4. Ensure you are using Celtic sea salt rather than any other kind of salt. Pure white salt has been heated and the 78 trace minerals your body needs have been removed.

5. Cleanse the colon so there is no more self-poisoning from putrid, stagnate waste.

6. Exercise vigorously for an hour each day. Exercise stimulates blood circulation, which improves all the organs. Stretching and deep breathing exercises in the morning provide great benefit for a weakened liver.

7. Cleanse your liver. It is too vital to leave it polluted and congested.

8. Cleanse your kidneys.

The best liver cleanse consists of a "liver friendly" diet, a 5 day juice fast to allow maximum healing and cleaning and herbs and friendly bacteria to restore health to the colon as well. The herbs stimulate, cleanse and protect the liver and gall bladder and rid the body of parasites. Milk Thistle has chemicals that bind to and
coat liver cells. These phytochemicals (plant chemicals) not only heal previous liver damage but also protect the liver from future damage. The Oregon Grape root bark, Gentian root, Wormwood leaves and Dandelion root are all bitter liver herbs which stimulate the liver to excrete more bile, which cleans the liver and gall bladder, flushing the gallstones naturally during the juice fast. Black Walnut, Wormwood and Garlic are strong anti-parasitical plants. Finally the olive oil and lemon liver flushes will clean your liver, usually 5-10 are needed for complete cleanse. I'm so looking forward to another 3-5 Friday nights staying home and drinking olive oil instead of my usual glass of red! Not!

Why raw?

Many of my friends usually raise an eye brow when I mention that I strive towards Raw Foodism, even though the name says it all. Here is what Wiki says:

"Raw foodism (or rawism) is a lifestyle promoting the consumption of un-cooked, un-processed, and often organic foods as a large percentage of the diet. Raw foodists typically believe that the greater the percentage of raw food in the diet, the greater the health benefits. Raw foodism or a raw diet is usually equated with raw veganism in which only raw plant foods are eaten, but other raw foodists emphasize raw meat and other raw animal products. Depending on the type of lifestyle and results desired, raw food diets may include a selection of raw fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds (including sprouted whole grains such as gaba rice), eggs, fish (such as sashimi), meat (such as carpaccio), and non-pasteurized/non-homogenized dairy products (such as raw milk, raw milk cheese, and raw milk yogurt). Raw foodists can be divided between those that advocate raw vegetarianism or raw veganism, and those that advocate a raw omnivorous diet."

So where do I belong? At the moment, I would say I'm 70% raw vegetarian, which means I eat mainly raw fruits, veggies, nuts, sprouts, but I also eat cooked vegetables, grains, legumes, fish and occasional egg. Now and then I might have a bit of chicken and a slice of cheese, especially at weekends. I would never eat raw meat, not only it tastes horrible, but it might also contain harmful bacteria, parasites, hormones and viruses. I do have occasional sushi, but mostly I end up with smoked salmon. As for raw milk, I've never tasted and it doesn't really appeal to me, if I fancy something milky I use rice, nut or soya milk (some smoothies are nice with added nut milks). I don't think I'll ever go 100% raw, but I'm hoping to reach 80-85% one day. I've decided not to stress about it too much, just do as well as I can under circumstances. I do believe in health benefits of high raw diets, and that's the main reason I'm doing it. And also for my little baby angel, she's enjoying her daily mountain of fruits, not so keen on raw veggies though, but cooked seem to be ok. Even my husband is coming around and starting to share my veggie juices (mixed with lots of apple and carrot juice) :-)

There are always pros and cons with any life style choice, as there are advocates and opponents. Raw Foodists say that cooking destroys vitamins, minerals and enzymes of raw fruits and vegetables, while the opponents claim that our digestive system has evolved to eat plants and animal meat in cooked form. I agree that all fruit should be eaten raw, and most of vegetables are more nutritious in raw form. But nutrient content in some vegetables actually increases when cooked gently, such as carrots, broccoli and tomatoes. I also find quite difficult to eat cauliflower raw, but for the rest: Raw does it! And if I feel some days I haven't got enough greens, I'll just juice them! I think everybody should find what suits them and their family best, and I think I'm getting there.

What have I eaten since my last post? As it's weekend, it's been a bit varied: smoothies for breakfast, today we had also freshly pressed grapefruit juice (so goood!), yesterday's lunch wasn't great as had to eat in hurry on the go and ended up with egg roll, and for dinner we had our first BBQ with grilled veggies and corn fed chicken kebabs (marinated in my "secret" recipe) with salad and salsa. For starters I made my garlic-chilli-coriander-lime marinated prawns. Today's lunch consisted of left-over BBQ, guacamole and M&S Super-food salad, and for dinner we had fish.

Hopefully I'll have more pictures next week. Time for bed now!

Ups and downs

I had a mini crises yesterday, had toast for breakfast and fish casserole for dinner (nothing raw there). Managed to have huge salad though, but even in salad I had some quinoa and crayfish. So what brought this on? I suspect it was the huge peeling, chopping, blending and juicing exercise the day before. On Wednesday after work I was doing 2 dinners (one for a day later, as I went to gym), juicing, making guacomole and nut mayo and chopping fruit for salad and smoothie for next morning. With hoovering and clearing up I didn't finish until 9.30 pm (and that with the help of my lovely husband), so I was exhausted and somehow fed up of all this prep I need to do for my Raw Food lifestyle.

It's quite common though to have ups and downs when it comes to food, so as long you pick yourself up again, it shouldn't be much to worry about. I'm back on track again, had fruit salad for breakfast and Innocent veggie pot for lunch. I'm doing my second liver flush today, so yesterday I did bowel flush in preparation. So I've been feeling very hollow inside again, salad for lunch didn't really appeal, but a vegan cooked food tasted lovely and filled me up (as not having dinner today, needed something filling).

We have been promised good weather for this weekend, so we're thinking of buying new BBQ and trying something nice. Obviously it won't be raw, but some marinated and grilled veggies or chilli-garlic prawns with huge salad sounds tempting.

Food intake and recipes

My food intake during the past week in pictures:

                                                  

Veggie juice: 2 celery sticks, 1/3 cucumber, 2 carrots, 1 apple, handful of spinach and handful of red cabbage - hence the purplish colour.

My Big Breakfast smoothie this weekend: 1/4 of pineapple, 1/2 of mango, 1 banana, 2 tbsp of wheat germ, 1 tbsp of sesame seeds and juice of 1 orange. Yummy! Maya had this for breakfast too instead of porridge, with added pieces of banana, dried apricots and milled seed mix. She ate it all!

Green veggie juice: 2 stalks of celery, 1 carrot, 1 green apple, handful of green grapes, larger handful of spinach, bunch of broccoli stalks, 1/2 tsp of spirulina powder. Nutritional powerhouse? Yes!

Monday lunch - Rabbit Food from Toss It Salad Bar: Cos lettuce, cucumber, carrot, beet, asparagus and feta cheese, served with vinegar-oil dressing and sprinkled with pumpkin seeds.

Monday dinner - Curried veggies with smoked mackerel fillet: 1 shallot, 2 garlic cloves, 1/2 red pepper, 1/2 zucchini, 1/4 cauliflower, handful of spinach, few sugar-snap peas and can of flageolet beans sautéed with stash of turmeric and curry. 

Tuesday lunch - Avocado and fennel salad: 1/2 bag of baby leaf salad, 1 small avocado, 1/2 fennel head, 1/4 carrot, 1-2 tomatoes, bunch of basil leaves, stash of balsamic vinegar, sea salt and pepper. Squeeze all together with your hands so avocado covers everything, sprinkle with nutritional yeast if preferred. 

Red veggie juice: 1 carrot, 1 green apple, 1/2 fennel, 1/3 red cabbage.

Simple guacamole: 1 avocado, 1-2 garlic gloves (depending on your love of garlic), juice of 1/2 lime, sea salt and stash of cayenne pepper, make as spicy as you wish. Mash avocado with fork and mix the rest in. Had it with salmon and salad for dinner.

Protein myth revealed

Since as early as we can remember we have been told that we have to eat meat to get enough protein into our diets. That high animal protein diet is healthy and necessary if we want to grow big and fast. If that’s true, how do elephants get so big?

The truth is that protein does not create protein in our bodies, amino acids do that. Best source for amino acids is green leafy vegetables and other plant foods. And it’s in readily accessible form, which your body can easily assimilate. Most of the animal protein is destroyed during cooking anyway, and whatever is left, is difficult to digest. So if a huge piece of meat has 20 g of protein, after cooking it around 10 g remains, and of that your body might get out maybe few grams of protein. Compare this to green leafy vegetables such as broccoli, kale, collard or spinach, they may have only few grams of protein per average portion, but all this can easily be assimilated by your body, plus you get extra nutrients, vitamins and minerals (instead of hormones, antibiotics, chemicals and parasites which might be present in meat products).

Obviously it’s not only raw, green vegetables that contain protein - beans, legumes, nuts, seeds and certain grains have also easily accessible, high quality protein present. To this day we’ve been told that plants don’t contain the full range of amino acids, and need to be combined to get the “complete” protein. It’s a myth. Protein is made up of amino acids, often described as its building blocks. We have a biological requirement for amino acids, not for protein itself. Humans cannot make nine of the twenty common amino acids, so these amino acids are considered to be essential, which means we must get these amino acids from our diets. And we need all nine of these amino acids for our body to make protein.

Soybeans, quinoa (a grain), and spinach also are only few non-animal sources considered to have high quality protein, which means they have large amounts of all amino acids in easily accessible form. Other protein sources of non-animal origin usually have all of the essential amino acids, but the amounts of one or two of these amino acids may be low. If you eat varied, raw plant based diet, you’ll get more than enough protein.

You might wonder why we have been made to believe that meat is best protein source and milk is best calcium source if they’re not. Answer is simple: huge and rich meat and dairy industries has been funding lots of research done on protein and calcium. They’ve spent millions and millions on advertising and lobbying for this message to be indoctrinated. Obviously it has worked, still is, as majority still believe this message. Did you know for example that high-protein diet is depleting your calcium levels via urine and is number one cause of osteoporosis? Not to mention about proven scientific link between high animal protein diet and various cancers. And if that is not enough, think of animal welfare and poor creatures that are first being fed, drugged and then slaughtered by various cruel means so you can eat them.

P.S. Another myth – milk and other dairy products are not the best source of calcium, yes, you guessed right, plants are!

Yours truly,

Former meat and cheese eating monster

Don't you feel hungry?

I get this question quite often when I mention that I eat Raw Food diet. And that was my fear as well before I started to eat more raw food. In the past I've always been feeling constantly "hungry" when I've been on any restricting diets - low fat or portion restrictions or calorie counting diets. But I must say that I do not feel at all hungry now when eating so much fresh, live foods. My body gets the nutrients it has been craving for, and I can eat as much raw food as I want - no calorie counting or portion control here!

So what is hunger? If you haven't eaten for a while you start to feel something you identify as hunger - abdominal cramping, weakness and feeling ill or dizzy. But according to Dr Joel Furhman this is not hunger. He writes in his book Eat to Live: "Our dietary habits, especially eating animal-protein rich foods three times a day, are so stressful to the detoxification system in our liver and kidneys that we start to get withdrawal, or detoxification, symptoms the minute we aren't processing such food. Real hunger is not uncomfortable. True hunger is mediated by the hypothalamus in the brain. The hunger-related activity of the hypothalamus correlates best with increased sensation of need in mouth and throat area."

So eating animal protein puts lots of stress on your liver and generates nitrogenous waste which is toxic. These toxins rise the uric acid in your blood stream and withdrawal of these toxins can cause uncomfortable symptoms that many call hypoglycemia. Hypoglycemia means "low glucose in the blood stream". Furhman says that most people who have been (self-) diagnosed with hypoglycemia have normal glucose levels, reason they feel ill is when their stomach empties the detoxification begins. As with any withdrawal or detoxification, you get the symptoms I mentioned above. To get better means stopping eating animal protein, feeling bad for a week, and then feel great. That's exactly how I felt first week after I stopped eating meat - proper withdrawal symptoms with headache and all. I still have a bit of chicken now and then, but I'll probably never go back eating so much meat as I did before, definitely no red and processed meat. And if you now ask where do I get my protein, I'll say: vegetables, nuts, seeds, beans and legumes. And occasional fish. I will write more about the Protein Myth another day. For now, time for bed!

I survived...

No, it wasn't that bad actually, the liver flush. Drinking the 2 glasses with Epsom salt was easy, I just held my breath and didn't taste a thing. Drinking the oil and lemon mix was a bit more trickier. I read somewhere that using straw would be easier, but it was not nice. So I just hold my breath again, and drank it all quickly, felt a bit nauseous after second glass, but not too bad. I did wake up at night feeling dizzy though. In the morning I felt like I had major hangover, really weak. No stones came out though, but it's normal after first flush, if I have any they might start to come out after second or third flush. Had a smoothie for breakfast as was not hungry at all, but by lunch I felt I needed something heavier, so had baked potato with cheese and coleslaw.

By afternoon I felt quite ok, and later went for BBQ at friends house. Had huge salad and even some grilled chicken breast. I have a feeling that BBQs are going to be tricky if I decide to increase my raw food intake, but as it is at the moment I still eat fish and cooked veggies, so I'm cooool =)

Today I feel really good, like I've got some extra energy from somewhere. I've decided to do second liver flush next weekend, and then maybe few more to get my liver squeaky clean!

Apart from smoothies and veggie juices I've had veggies with hummus for lunch and salmon with spinach and veggies for dinner. Haven't had time to make any raw dishes this weekend, hopefully can do something during the week. I got new book delivered yesterday: Raw Food Made Easy, with loads of lovely recipes.

Liver flush

I've been eating quite well this week, some days have been 100% raw. I've been feeling quite well, more energy, I even woke up before 6 am without the alarm!

I tried some lovely smoothies for breakfast, these actually fill me up more than fruit salads as I can add milled seeds, flax seeds and oatmeal. I also added Spirulina to my smoothies, makes them not-so-nice green, but the taste is still lovely. Google: "As a health supplement, Spirulina algae is an extremely high protein source with a protein content of 60-70 percent higher than any other natural food and most nutritional products. However, even greater nutritional value can be found in its high concentration of vitamins, minerals and other beneficial nutrients. This super food has the most remarkable concentration of functional nutrients ever known in food - animal or plant."

Today I'm doing my liver flush. As I wrote earlier, I've done bowel flush few weeks ago to get rid of any waste from my bowels, and I did another one yesterday in preparation of liver flush; been feeling hollow inside whole day. Had fruit for breakfast, and some toast later to fill my tummy a bit, and a huge salad for lunch. I haven't been eating anything since lunch, so my liver is now ready to flush out any stones, toxins and parasites that might be in there. I started the flush with glass of water and 2 tsp of Epsom salts, an hour later another glass which prepares the ducts for elimination. I then mixed 400 ml olive oil with juice of 1 lemon and 1 lime, and drank half of it an hour later. Will drink the rest before I go to bed, and hopefully by tomorrow my liver should be cleaner. It's not very nice thing to drink, but it's doable, just must hold the breath! Will write how it went tomorrow.

Here are some pictures of my food intake

Breakfast on the go - green smoothie

Dinner: mixed vegetables, shiitake mushrooms and punto beans sautéed in coconut oil, with kale and avocado salad. Incredibly tasty!

Lunch: Romaine salad with avocado, olives, sun-dried tomatoes, celery, carrots, tomatoes and mung bean sprouts, sprinkled with nutritional yeast. You won't believe until you taste it how good it is!

Putting price on health?

Feeling good today, went to gym first time since I started to work, which I realised to my horror is 6 months ago! Wanted to start gently, so I went to Pilates, scary how stiff my muscles are. Will do same on Thursday, and once my body is used to it, I might start Spinning again, my favourite.

Anyway, I have been in Planet Organic again, went in just to get a smoothie with wheat grass, but ended up buying tahini, raw coconut oil, carob flakes, raw cacao nibbles and spirulina powder (for my smoothies). It cost me a small fortune, it usually does when I go to Planet Organic. And considering we are buying 3 times the amount of fruit and veggies as before, it starts to feel in our bank accounts. But as somebody said: Can you put a price on your health? I think not. Sure, you might be saving now buying cheap and nasty food, but you'll eventually have to pay with poor health and illnesses. So I'll always think: We'll manage. And it has already started to pay off, I feel much better and even my energy levels are starting to increase.

So what did I eat today? For breakfast as usually huge fruit salad. Here are some pictures of my tasty food:

My 10-am-snack was flaxseed and sesame crackers with sauerkraut, nut mayo and a sprinkle of nutritional yeast, yummi!

Enjoying my apple-grapefruit-orange-wheat grass smoothie in the sun

Off the topic: I love my new Puppies ;-)

For lunch I had kale and avocado salad with quiona, spinach, aduki bean and sun-dried tomato mix. Gorgeous! 

Afternoon lift: a bit of raw chocolate

Went past Scandinavian Kitchen and bought a bottle of pressed wild blueberry juice. Very strong flavour, but also very good.

And I finished off my day with carrot-celery-cucumber-apple juice and Body Builder smoothie made of soya yoghurt, wheat germ, linseeds, banana and orange-lime juice. De-li-ci-ous!

P.S. Note the little monkey in the background =)

Today's food intake

Just a quick update of my rawish day - for breakfast had huge fruit salad, mid-morning snack of flax cracker and sauerkraut with tea, lot's of fresh apple juice in between (for my poor liver), and kale-avocado salad for lunch. Got hold of wheat free cheesy snacks, but weren't really nice, weird texture. And for dinner had huge green juice  of apple-carrot-sprouting broccoli-red cabbage. I made mango-pineapple-banana-raspberry smoothie for my dear husband and darling daughter, and I sneaked in some of my green juice into the smoothie. They loved it!

And for dinner - kale, pok choi and various other veggies in a wok with wholemeal rice and quorn, topped off with sesame seeds. And now my mouth is watering of all the lovely food I'm writing about, so I better go to bed.

Will take my camera with me tomorrow so I can take some pictures of the raw stuff (or not so raw) I eat, for me to look at when slipping, and for you to see how lovely it is! =)

My raw "cooking" premier

This weekend I managed to "cook" some nice raw recipes. I made nut mayo, which is absolutely delicious, I had it on rye bread with nutritional yeast, yummi!

And I also made sweet potato pie, with nut and date crust. I like the crust, but sweet potato mix didn't come out quite well, maybe I used too much maple syrup as it came out way too sweet. I served it with raw strawberry sauce, which was lovely. Next weekend I'll try to make raw cheese with cashews, and hopefully some other delicious raw recipes.

Nut Mayo with cashews, olive oil and lemon juice.

Raw sweet potato pie with strawberry sauce

Not so raw weekend

Weekends seem to be definitely hardest to stay in track with raw food. I had toast again for breakfast on Saturday, then we went to farmers market in Hertford, and found French restaurant, where I had onion soup. For dinner I had kale salad with falafel, and some of that freshly baked rye bread that my husband bought from the market. Sunday fry-ups are now being slowly banished, we just had some beans and scrambled eggs, not much raw there though. For lunch I made lovely beetroot and spinach salad, and for dinner we had monkfish with aduki bean, spinach and sun-dried tomato quinoa. Wasn't keen on monkfish, I've always loved the ugly fish when ordered in restaurant, but the one I made wasn't that good.

So to conclude - far too much bread and cooked food this weekend, and my body is not happy! My belly is so bloated I look like 6 months pregnant, and I feel exhausted. If there was even a little bit of doubt that it's healthy, raw food my body needs, it's now gone. Even if I might have not felt any major change when I was eating healthily, I definitely feel the change to worse when I'm not.

At least I've been good with juicing, had kale-celery-cucumber-apple juice on Saturday and celery-grape-watercress juice today.

Fish or no fish

Haven't been here for a while, busy weekend. I was supposed to post this on Thursday, but the blogger didn't work at my workplace, so here it comes:

This week has been great! (I know, there are still some days left) I haven’t eaten bread, hard cheese and meat since last week, and I must say I feel great. I haven’t had any major energy boost yet, but I guess it comes with the time. I do try to think more consciously how I feel; can I already reap the health benefits of raw food? It’s not easy, but I think I feel lighter, not in a physical way, but like inside my body there is more space, no more heaviness like you feel after huge rich meaty meal.

This morning my hair felt very soft and shiny though, this being due to high raw food intake or my new and incredibly expensive shampoo and conditioner kit – who knows. http://www.ojon.co.uk/volumizing.html

I’ve discovered my new favourite raw snack from Raw Intent: Mediterranean Flax Crackers with fresh basil and tomato. These are absolutely delicious with a bit of sauerkraut on top of them! Since I started the raw lifestyle, I’ve been pondering over if I should have midmorning and mid afternoon snacks. I do feel quite hungry around 10ish, as the fruit salads I eat in the morning are digested quickly. So now I can eat something really tasty that is also very healthy – flax seeds are rich is omega oils and are good source of protein and sauerkraut is great immune booster and digestive aid. Only downside is the price – crackers cost over £1 each…

For lunch today I had huge avocado, Romanian lettuce and red onion salad with some leftover baked salmon. I have decided not to give up fish, not only because I love fish, but also I think that there is still some goodness in fish. There are huge amounts of studies done into the health benefits of fish, most seemed to agree that eating few portions of fatty fish such as salmon and mackerel is good for you – the health benefits outweigh the risks. There have been concerns about the pollution toxins in fish such as mercury, PCB’s and dioxins, but it has now been concluded that the levels of these toxins are too low in an average fish to cause any health issues in adults. Then there is wild or farmed fish – here I believe that wild salmon is better, apparently farmed salmon is being fed with feed high in PCB’s which is stored in fat cells and farmed salmon being the fatter ones means more PCB’s. Organic is of course to prefer, if price is not an issue.

So while I had my delicious spinach, roasted butternut squash and feta salad yesterday for dinner, my own recipe fish casserole was cooking away on the stove. As I get home quite late at evenings, I either have to prepare something quick, or if doing cooked food, I prepare it day before. My fish casserole has mixed fish, parsnips, 1 potato (for texture) and loads of cauliflower, spiced with fennel seeds, saffron and dill. It’s incredibly tasty, I hope that Maya will eat it as well; she’s not keen in fish, even though I’m trying it over and over again. One evening we had salmon with steamed veggies, and she would not eat it, so I decided not to give her anything else and off she went to bed without dinner. Didn’t seem to do much harm, she had the same food for lunch day after and ate the lot!

Almost raw day

As usually, I'm doing great at the beginning of the week, I'm full of resolution and enthusiasm. Would I be able to feel same for rest of the week?

Anyway, today I've had raw breakfast - fruit salad, and raw lunch - avocado, fennel and tomato salad (I borrowed recipe from Gena (www.choosingraw.com), it was delicious! For dinner I had carrot-celery juice and pok choi and veggie wok with quorn. I've also taken another bowel flush today, as I feel I need to cleanse my digestive system again after weekend full of bad food.

I've started today with liver tonic, and have also ordered Epsom salts for my liver flush. I'm thinking of doing the liver flush this weekend, if no other plans come up. Will let you know how it goes.

Maya is now off from cows milk, she's taken to Rice Dream very easily. She's also eating more raw veggies, and  lot's of fruit as usually. Her favourite is still pasta though, and cooked food generally, so I've replaced wheat pasta for quinoa and  rice or spelt pastas, served with yummy tomato sauce and lot's of "hidden" veggies. If I only had found the raw food life style when I was doing Baby Led Weaning with Maya, it would've been easier to introduce her directly to all the goodness of raw vegetables, now she's resisting the change. Would be great to find a blog of a parent who's been or is in similar situation, any inspiration is needed at the moment.

Google is my best friend =)

Will power and self discipline

Easter weekend is over now, and as much as I enjoyed the time off, I didn't do too well with the food. Raw food was hidden in the fridge, and somehow didn't find the way out from there. I've had prawns, baguette, chicken and beef borritos this weekend, yesterday we had salmon. I've been feeling bloated and tired whole weekend, and the more "bad" stuff I've been eating, the less good stuff I've been wanting, despite the way the it makes me feel - bad stuff bad and good stuff good. So why, one must ask? Why do I choose the baddies over the goodies? Taste of course, and the habits perhaps. But is it the lack of will power that makes me want to eat food that I know for sure is not good for me? Everything I need is there: the knowledge, the healthy food in my fridge, the good intention, but still there I go and reach for that piece of cheese, I butter the toast and put the cheese on it and eat it, almost like a robot, while thinking, I should eat fruit salad instead. Why? I don't know, but my guess is weak will power and lack of self discipline.

Definitions of Will Power and Self Discipline

Will power is the ability to overcome laziness and procrastination. It is the ability to control or reject unnecessary or harmful impulses. It is the ability to arrive to a decision and follow it with perseverance until its successful accomplishment. It is the inner power that overcomes the desire to indulge in unnecessary and useless habits, and the inner strength that overcomes inner emotional and mental resistance for taking action. It is one of the corner stones of success, both spiritual and material.


Self-discipline is the companion of will power. It endows with the stamina to persevere in whatever one does. It bestows the ability to withstand hardships and difficulties, whether physical, emotional or mental. It grants the ability to reject immediate satisfaction, in order to gain something better, but which requires effort and time.


Everyone has inner, unconscious, or partly conscious impulses, making them say or do things they later regret saying or doing. On many occasions people do not think before they talk or act. By developing these two powers, one becomes conscious of the inner, subconscious impulses, and gains the ability to reject them when they are not for his/her own good.


So, I might have to develop these two abilities before I can become raw foodist. Time to Google more, find books and read, read, read.

Happy Easter?

Easter. Besides being off from work for 4 days, it's not much to it, never really has for me. I remember as a child painting eggs and swapping them with friends, then eating them until ready to vomit. During my years in Sweden I did celebrate Easter more, but here in England not so much. So my only worry for this holiday is how to stay on the raw food track. Weekends are my weakest points anyway, so long weekend will be a challenge. But I'm positive, I can do it!

Have been reading few other raw food blogs, and I'm getting some inspiration. I admire everyone of you out there who are not tempted with all this "junk" we are surrounded with on daily bases. Maybe one day I'll be there, I'm taking one step at the time, introducing new foods and supplements as I read and learn more.

This morning I gave Maya rice milk with blackstrap molasses. She had around 150 ml, didn't seem to mind. But tonight she only had few ml's, wasn't overly keen on this. Hmm, we might even manage to wean her off from the bottle... As for eating more raw food, I discovered that if I chop vegetables into small cubes, she'll actually eat most of it, so that's what I do every morning before I go to work. Luckily she loves fruits, probably as they are sweet, anything sweet goes. We had raw blueberry cheesecake today for afters, she ate nearly all, very reluctantly sharing with her poor mum. But main meals remain headache, she loves her cooked food... more research needed!

Whole food supplements

I borrowed a raw food cook book from a friend of mine, interesting reading: "The Joy of Living Live" by Zakhah. She mentions 7 daily whole food supplements in her book:
- Blackstrap molasses
- Sesame seeds
- Kelp
- Brewers yeast
- Fresh parsley
- Fenugreek
- Wheatgerm

So off I went to my favourite shop in London - Planet Organic, and I managed to get hold of few of those supplements. Blackstrap molasses is actually a healthy sweetener - spoonful provides almost your daily needs of iron, calcium, potassium, and is rich in B vitamines, copper, magnesium, phosphorus etc. You can add it to your smoothies or juices or water. I have been thinking some time to try to wean Maya off from cows milk, but not sure what to use instead. Soya milk is not best option for babies/toddlers, and many seed and nut milks are very expensive. I tried almond milk, which tastes quite strong, but then I found rice milk, which has mild, a bit watery flavour. You can get it with added calcium, but if you add spoonful of blackstrap molasses to it, it should provide many of the vitamins and mineral a toddler needs. Will try it tomorrow.

I also bought wheatgerm and brewers or nutritional yeast, I'm yet to try these. Parsley and sesame seeds I already have at home, the latter not used very often though, mainly in woks. No kelp and fenugreek yet.

Wohaa, it's midnight already, I'd say it's enough of blogging for today...