 "Let food be thy medicine and let medicine be thy food" (Hippocrates 400BC) |
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Hi again. Wow what fantastic weather we've been having so far this summer. I've been out in the garden as much as I can, trying to make the most of the sunshine whilst it's here. I've decided this year to try and grow as much of my own vegetables as I can because I'm beginning to realise it's the only way to know exactly what you're eating and make sure that it's really fresh. This way you are ensuring that you get the best quality and nutritional value from what you eat making sure that you are giving your body the best chance it has to maintain itself at its optimal level which will keep you looking and feeling really healthy. So, I've been busy clearing some space in my small ‘postage stamp' size garden to enable me to grow a few more things this year. (I did have some help to do the digging for me or I'm not sure it would have happened). It doesn't matter how small your garden is you can still have a go and make the most of it by growing things in pots as well, if you're short of space. I've planted all sorts of vegetables this year and it's been great just watching them all grow. I even planted some sunflower seeds (I usually keep a packet in the cupboard to use on my salads etc.) to see whether they would grow, as I thought they would make a nice backdrop to the vegetable patch and I'm surprised to see that every one is growing really well. I'm hoping to harvest the sunflower seeds once they have flowered and maybe just leave a few for the birds as well. It was great to have my first lot of new potatoes, mangetout and beetroot to accompany some fresh mackerel for my dinner last night, all of which were freshly picked and cooked within a couple of hours. They were all so tasty and the flavours were fantastic. It was really simple to cook, packed full of antioxidants, no toxic chemicals, you just can't beat it! If you get a glut of fruit and vegetables then juices are a great way to use them up. These will give your body a well deserved boost as they are just like little vitamin and mineral shots which will leave you feeling energised They are also very cleansing which will give your liver a helping hand. The liver is your body's workhorse. It normally gets such a hammering having to cope with the endless stream of toxins we bombard it with on a daily basis it's good to be kind to it at regular intervals as well. (Liver cleanses are another useful consideration.) This will make your liver more efficient at detoxifying your body which will strengthen the immune system and help to prevent any diseases appearing. For more information and tips on juicing see my ‘Juicing' page on my website www.seekingbalance.co.uk I think it's important to eat food that is in season and organic where possible for several reasons. For a start it just tastes so much better! Fruits and vegetables are full of juicy flavour and there are so many different varieties to choose from you'll be amazed. There are over a hundred varieties of potatoes to choose from all tasting slightly different, so how can anyone say that they are boring. I've heard you can get some with purple skins on which I'd like to try but have yet to find. Intensively farmed produce is often sprayed with a cocktail of pesticides whilst they are growing, with apples being renowned to be one of the worst products. The average conventionally grown apple can have between 20 – 30 chemicals on its skin and don't think that you can just rinse them off because this doesn't work although it will reduce them slightly. Peeling the skins will help but you will lose valuable nutrients this way which defeats the object somewhat. The top ten foods that have the most pesticides on are: • Celery Fresh organic produce typically have a higher vitamin and mineral content than conventionally grownproduce. Fertilizers that are used in intensive farming often don't replace all the nutrients back into the soil; instead they only add what is necessary for the plant to actually grow. Important minerals such as magnesium are often lacking and studies now show that magnesium levels in the average vegetable are much lower now than they were just a hundred years ago because of depleted soil levels. Potatoes grown in Egypt aren't even grown in soil. They are grown in the dessert in sand and are fed nutrients through a sophisticated hydroponics system where the water is drilled from deep below the earth's surface. This is only sustainable whilst the supply of water is still available. So what happens then? Tomatoes and peppers grown in Denmark are produced in a similar way in big green houses the size of football pitches. Again no soil, just nutrients fed through a hydroponics system. This is not at all natural whilst flavour and freshness will be compromised as this food has to fly half way around the world in order to reach us which all contributes to global warming. Start looking at labels to see where produce has come from and try to buy local produce where possible as it will be fresher and hopefully have a higher nutrient content. Farmers markets are great places for fresh produce and are a good alternative if you can't grow your own. I have been reading a book lately about the impact that supermarkets are having to the way that food isproduced. Their high demands have led to farms having to produce things more and more intensively to be able to make a profit and stay in business. Small suppliers are being squeezed out and people who are trying to produce things in a more sustainable way with emphasis on quality just can't meet the high demands the supermarkets are making for cheap produce. It is ‘us' that are ultimately paying the price for this with inferior products being produced for consumption with less nutritional value. To add insult to injury it is taxpayers money that is being used by the ‘National subsidising programme' to give billions of pounds to giant corporations like Cargill to process cheap foods. For further info I would recommend reading ‘Eat your heart out' by Felicity Lawrence . (Oh yes, Lampeter gets mentioned several times in this book on their efforts to make it into a ‘transition town')I hope I've given you all some good reasons to get digging. You'll feel much better for it and it's an enjoyable way to get in some exercise at the same time. Let me know how you get on. It would be great to hear how you have benefited from this. If you have any topics you would like me to cover in further newsletters then just drop me a line. If you have any questions at all then I'm happy to help so feel free to get in touch. may@seekingbalance.co.uk Whats On July 19 th 2010 I have a couple of spaces left on both of these courses. If you would like to attend either of these then contact me A.SA.PJuly 24 th 2010 August 15 th 2010 Summer Promotion Enrol on one of my Nutrition level 2 courses for only £50. Offer ends Aug 1st 2010. If you are interested in attending one of these courses then please e-mail me registering your interest and I will let you know the dates of the nearest venues to you in the near future. If you have any events with a holistic connection happening near you, that you would like me to include in my next newsletter then e-mail me with the details and I will happily include it. If you would like to subscribe to my free newsletter then click on the subscribe button on the home page of my website and enter you e- mail address. Health and happiness May Lauder |
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