Not another health blog

Naturopathy

2012-02-11T09:35:00.000-05:00

Arthritis is a degenerative disease, there's no cure for it. When I had a really bad eczema flair up, they gave me cortisone to get the swelling down. You manage eczema, you don't cure it. And then you hope you don't have too many flair-ups because every time you use cortisone, your skin gets thinner. Had to use an Epipen twice in your life? You've got permanent heart damage. It's pretty obvious that conventional medicine isn't the way to go for me.

The Oxford dictionary defines naturopathy as: a system of alternative medicine based on the theory that diseases can be successfully treated or prevented without the use of drugs, by techniques such as control of diet, exercise, and massage. Hippocrates believed the body contains the power to heal itself. A month ago I decided to cut sugar, gluten and animal products from my diet. I figured, start with managing inflammation, it seems to be the most common thing going on in my body. Then a co-worker of mine studying to become a naturopath came up to me and suggested I become one of her case studies for school. I agreed and with the help of her teachers, she put together a list of foods I should (strive to, ha) avoid, herbal teas to take for a week once a month, a tincture to take for 2 months and an elixir. I'm now doing yoga once a week thanx to my workplace offering it to employees, yay! I'm definitely not strict with my diet, I've eaten animal products and wheat twice and more alcohol than I would like to but... what normally should have reduced me to a limping ball of pain by the end of the week, hasn't. I'm 98% pain free today.

Now I'm not getting overly excited, my health issues haven't magically disappeared. But this gives me so much hope that I can manage them with diet, plants and exercise. In 10 years from now, I can still work in a kitchen and not resign myself to sitting at a desk 8 hours a day, that makes me very happy :)

mmm, blood oranges

In 6 weeks from now, I'm doing something completely drastic: I'm going on a 60 day juice fast. Why? I'm going to give my digestive system a break to repair itself (an ayurvedic doctor I saw 12 years ago suspected I might have leaky gut syndrome), get rid of chronic systemic inflammation and detox from all the junk I've eaten through the years. I've also heard of people getting rid of allergies by doing this. Yes it's drastic but it's only 60 days of my life and people have been known to do 40 days of actual fasting (water only) and survive. Honestly, it'll only be extra hard because I work in a kitchen so I can't really not think of food... Anyways, the week after my birthday is when I'm starting but I'll post about it again as we get closer, in case anyone wants to join me :)

Thanx for reading, have a great week!

Chocolate!

2012-02-08T21:23:00.000-05:00

This week has been pretty crazy at work since we're doing a Valentine's day special which includes a special dessert and of course our chocolates are selling like mad... It's hard to find sugar-free chocolates that don't involve some form of artificial sweetener but working at Crudessence, I've discovered a whole world of chocolate flavored treats sweetened with all kinds of things like agave*, maple syrup, fruits and stevia. On top of it, we use raw cocoa powder (called cacao in the raw food world to differentiate it from conventional cocoa). Raw cocoa has the benefit of having high levels of antioxidants and minerals which normally would get destroyed in the roasting process. It's actually good for you!

6am army of raw chocolate boxes

I haven't been indulging in chocolates that much outside of when I'm testing new recipes at work; I made coconut pulp (leftover from making our chocolate mousse which highly recommend and you can easily switch the agave for maple syrup 1 for 1) date and fig cookies and added cocoa powder and that's totally satisfying as a sweet treat. I even had part of of a banana by itself yesterday and found it too sweet. I've always been an all or nothing with desserts: the more sugar I eat, the more I crave it. Which is kind of annoying when special occasions come around and you want to indulge a little... I really hope I can get to a point where I can have a piece of cake and don't feel the need to eat the whole thing the next day.

Before I go, a word on agave: there currently is a debate on whether it's actually healthy or not, here's an ok article on it that sums up the debate. I treat it like any sweetener and stop using it if it starts causing cravings. Oh and if anyone have any good stevia recipes, I'd love some, I just can't get passed the taste... Thanx for reading and enjoy your Valentine's day however you see fit ;)

Les 400 Coups experience and drinking greens

2012-02-05T19:20:00.000-05:00

Last night I had my first one night stand with... a restaurant. Actually, my bff declared that we are coming back for my birthday but we'll see; I don't want to ruin that experience with the possibility of a less than perfect one next time. It was blissful: the portions were perfect, the textures, divine and the flavors, oh the flavors, in levels that kept appearing in your mouth making you go "oh...oh...Oh!" Ahem. We had le menu dégustation (tasting menu) and just like the person who had recommended Les 400 Coups had mentioned, they gladly modified it so that mine didn't have almonds or hazelnuts and my guest had no gin or juniper berries. I couldn't say thank you enough, if it was a hassle for the kitchen, we saw no signs of it. I've been told that if you call or email them in advance, they can accommodate a vegetarian (and in a very excellent way unless you don't like mushrooms) and gluten-free as well. Although for vegan, your money would be better spent elsewhere.

left: blueberry green smoothie, right: pineapple, fennel and kale juice

A couple of weeks ago, I called to Pete: "you have to try this! it's amazing!" he looked at me with skepticism as I threw baby greens, mango and water in the blender... but he agreed, it tasted good. Now I know what you're thinking, no way, that's way too grano for me, it can't possibly taste good. I kept hearing about Victoria Butenko so I went to her site and discovered this really simple recipe: 1 cup of greens, 1 cup of fruit, 1 cup of water. I use organic mixed baby greens for their convenience, frozen or fresh fruit I have on hand (I usually use only 1 or 2 types fruits) and water, nothing else, no superfoods, no protein powders. Oh you can add those, I just really enjoy the simple clean flavor: you take a sip and catch a bit of the taste of greens and then woosh, fruit! I'm not going to go on and on about the health benefits of eating more greens (check out the Butenko family site above for more info) but I especially appreciate the lack of sugar cravings. This for someone with a fierce sweet tooth is such a blessing! I'm not super hardcore about juicing yet which has other benefits like adding mass amounts of vitamins and minerals while giving the digestive tract a break but we'll get to that soon enough, I have a juice fast planed after my birthday in March :)

thanx for reading, have a great week!

So, what do you eat anyways...

2012-02-04T08:56:00.000-05:00

It's early Saturday morning, I'm sitting on the couch listening to Miss Kittin and Crystal Castles on the headphones browsing through my blog reader. This is my body's idea of sleeping in... I just can't seem to switch from weekday to weekend schedule at the drop of a dime *shrugs* c'est la vie. I am however, enjoying the result of a recent quest of my chef and I for a decent raw form of toasted bread. He gave me his recipe for energy bars and I turned it into banana toast :) Basically, it's seeds and mashed bananas, c'est tout. Mix 'em together and spread thick or thin on a dehydrator sheet and dehydrate to desired consistency. I eat them for breakfast with cashew/macadamia butter. Sounds decadent but if you're in Montreal, go to Segal's on St-Laurent and you can find very cheap Nuts to You nut butters, win!

raw banana bread with cashew/macadamia butter

That's a good example of Things I Eat these days, I'm a huge fan of crunchy things :) Describing my current diet is a bit tricky and labeling it, near impossible... you could say I eat 90% vegan, 100% gluten-free, 50% raw. But tonight I'm taking my bff to Les 400 Coups for her belated birthday gift so yeah, I can guaranty that won't even be vegetarian. Am I a hypocrite? I say no, my goal right now is to build a loving and more importantly lasting relationship with food. I'm a self proclaimed foodie, I want to have amazing and mind blowing experiences with food (no, not that kind :P). But how can you be a foodie, you don't eat bread! Yes well, this is the difference with how I'm going about it. I have health issues that need to be dealt with so I can't be a no hold bars foodie 24/7. I love Anthony Bourdain and have great respect for the man but I'm making the choice to go about it in moderation and not die of a heart attack or cancer in 5 or 10 years from now. Anyways, it's not like I pay my rent by having people watch me gorge myself on tv, my foodie indulgences are purely for myself.

So what does that mean? It means that most of what I eat during my work week is vegan and 2 out of 3 meals are raw: I eat raw bread, soaked chia or a green smoothie for breakfast, a green smoothie while I work since I don't stop for lunch (yes, a bad kitchen work habit, I know) and a vegan cooked diner with my husband. The weekends or odd nights out are more spontaneous: depending on what's available or if we're eating at home, I might have something with cheese or a latte. I'm slowly losing my taste for meat which is a huge surprise to me (more on cravings later). So although I'll surely eat some form of animal flesh tonight, I'm not jonesing for it.

The choice to go vegan came after spending a week on a resort in Cuba and eating some of the most unsatisfying food I've ever eaten and drinking rum based drinks in quantities I had never thought possible for myself. All we wanted when we got back was to eat salad for weeks and this even though it was -25 celsius in full January winter. Both Pete (my husband) and I decided the first thing we wanted to do was cut all sugar from our diet. He's on epilepsy meds and has energy level issues because of that, I'm hypoglycemic (the more I eat refined carbs, the more insulin I over produce) so we both feel a whole lot better when we're not cracked out on sugar :) A non strict version of veganism soon followed and then we invested in a dehydrator (yay staff discounts!) because I just can't stand most of the gluten-free breads available on the market, never mind their exorbitant price tags.

So that's what I eat, in a nutshell (har). Thanx for reading, I will elaborate more later on direct and not so direct effects on my body as well as what I'm doing with my naturopath (aka the woman who's trying to cut even more foods out of my diet ).

Here we go!

2012-02-03T21:45:00.000-05:00

There are so many blogs on eating healthier around these day... what makes this one different? Well, to be honest, not much, but I decided that I needed an outlet to write about what I'm currently doing for both myself (as a place to record what I'm doing and the changes happening) as well as my friends' sanity so I don't keep chewing their ears off about my diet and health changes :) So *what* exactly am I doing... the short version is that I've struggled with several health issues for most of my life and they're just getting worst so I've decided to take matters into my own hands and see if I can turn things around.

Both my mother and grand-mother suffer(ed) from arthritis; my mom started having pain in her hands and arms at 16 years of age and I was about 21 when it started for me, delayed most probably due to the fact that I was vegetarian. I also have several food allergies due to having oral allergy syndrome: I'm allergic to birch tree pollen which causes me to have allergic reactions to several foods. And finally, I also have eczema and psoriasis. So as you can see, it all has to do with my immune system not being in check and basically, my body's attacking itself.

About a month ago I had quite the reality check: the over the counter medications I usually relied on just weren't working. I had been good at mostly avoiding prescription medication and sticking to regular anti-histamines and anti-inflammatory medication with only one instance where I needed prescription cortisone for my face because my eyes were nearly swollen shut from the intensity of the eczema flair-up. But now they just weren't working... I was going to have to make the jump to prescription meds that I'd been avoiding . Medication that would alleviate the symptoms but possibly cause damage or worse, cancer. It just wouldn't do, I had to do something about this. And this is where it all started.

thank you for reading, stay tune to find out details of what I'm doing.

Not another health blog

Naturopathy

Chocolate!

Les 400 Coups experience and drinking greens

So, what *do* you eat anyways...

Here we go!

So, what do you eat anyways...