Labneh is a wonderful addition to any autumn meal, or just as a moreish snack with crackers and veggie sticks to keep you powering through a chilly afternoon. It's irresistably deliciously creamy, salty and tangy. It also makes a beautiful gift for friends and family, and as you make it you can infuse it with your loving energy!
Autumn is traditionally a time to make fermented foods, jams and preserves for winter. Around this time of year we begin to enjoy warming, comforting autumn meals like soups, stews, and any slow cooked foods with seasonal root vegetables.
Labneh is a wonderful addition to any autumn meal, or just as a moreish snack with crackers and veggie sticks to keep you powering through a chilly afternoon. It's irresistably deliciously creamy, salty and tangy. It also makes a beautiful gift for friends and family, and as you make it you can infuse it with your loving energy! Welcome back to part 2 of this series on boosting your fertility, naturally, with minimal stress, and - of course - without weight loss dieting, BS fads, or restriction! If you missed out on part 1, you'll really want to read that one first, it's THAT important. If you're up to speed, then read on.. it's time to cover my other top tips for pregnancy preparation starting with number 2...
So, I'm planning to have another baby.
Whilst some women shy away from telling people about their conception plans, I'm a massive over-sharer with an excitable soul! So what better way to revise my fertility nutrition basics in preparation for polishing up my own baby making equipment, than to share this information with you too. I figure that since I've now had one kid, I have a little bit more personal experience to refer to than I did a couple of years ago, BC (before child). Nowadays, I also have more professional experience working with women of all sizes who have worked with me to improve their fertility - some "overweight", some "normal weight", some a little "underweight" as far as medical BMI ranges go - and nearly all have been able to fall pregnant by focussing exclusively on their HEALTH. This experience flies in the face of the advice of many doctors, scientists, and health professionals that "overweight people just need to lose weight" in order to fall pregnant. So before we dive into my fertility boosting essentials that I work on with clients who wish to conceive, it's really important that you understand one important thing. This is so important that it's actually the first of the fertility-boosting tips I want to discuss. To fall pregnant, you must... When you hear the word "detoxification", what springs to mind? Juice fasting and colon cleanses? Coffee enemas and starvation? Health spas and slimming teas? For years, this is what I thought when I heard that oh-so-sexy-sounding word, and practised, much to my body's distress.
For the vast majority of people, these things are totally unnecessary - and they can actually set a person up for disordered eating and eating disorders. When it comes to optimising your body’s detoxification processes, just doing a 3-day juice fast or a colonic – then going back to your normal diet – won’t cut it. It’s time to understand how our bodies really work, and what you can do to gently detoxify every day. When someone comes to me with low iron, one of the first foods I think of is liver.
Yes, I know. Gross. But hear me out... Liver is a true superfood – and you know how much I loathe using that word, so inundated is the health food marketing world with claims of it. So when I use it you know I really mean it. And you know I really, REALLY mean it because for the decade that I was vegetarian, the very thought of eating cooked, blended organ meat would have made me hurl. Even once I started eating meat again a few years ago, the idea of liver still grossed me out. That is, until I finally worked up the courage to buy some liver and cook the dreaded thing. I was heavily pregnant and iron deficient, despite having started to eat muscle meat – mostly fish - for a year or so already. I remember frying the small amount of liver I had purchased, and making a batch of liver pâté. I carefully placed it into a jar. I was nervous and grossed out, but curious. Finally, I tentatively tasted it. The next thing I remember I was crouched over the kitchen sink with an empty jar in one hand, and a cleanly licked spoon in the other. I had devoured the whole jar of pâté in one sitting – or should I say, in one standing. A week of practical food and herbal remedies The last week has felt like one big night out on the town, without the mood lifting substances! (they’re contraindicated when you’re breastfeeding – bugger). My 14 month-old has been fighting off a virus leaving him feverish, cranky and extremely clingy. Four days of severe sleep deprivation has gifted me with the under eye bags of an English bulldog with conjunctivitis. Nights have been punctuated by the following tiring sleep-wake cycle of breast milk-soaked bibs and screaming: Archie wakes every hour (or what feels like every 10 minutes) crying inconsolably. Archie refuses the magical breast because he hates everything. Parents tag team rocking and singing him back to sleep. I breast pump so my boobs do not pop open with milk. Archie finally falls back asleep on someone’s chest. Mummy about to drift off only to have Archie wake again with screams that would test the congeniality of the friendliest neighbour. The days have been long and hard as he cried if we put him down for even a second. Add to that the unexpected ups and downs of normal life and you’ve got one very tired mumma (and – my partner’s edit - daddy!)
Any parent of little kids will be familiar with this scenario – and if you aren’t, you will be soon! (Oh YES, you WILL.) It’s stressful for everybody and I was eager for any kind of help I could get – nutritional, herbal, and emotional. Luckily there exists an abundance of wonderful foods and herbs to help. This article covers what I did in the last week to help Archie deal with his mild fever (37.8 degrees Celsius at its highest point) and to support myself through the increased stress of it all. It is by no means a comprehensive “what to do” guide for fever in kids. If your baby (over 6 months old) or child has a fever over 40 degrees Celsius, seek medical advice immediately. If your baby is under 6 months old and has a fever of any kind I suggest seeking medical advice just to be safe. Just what IS the difference between a dietitian and a nutritionist? This is a very common question that I and other nutrition professionals get asked on a near-daily basis.
Every square is a rectangle, but not all rectangles are squares. Similarly, every dietitian is also a nutritionist, but not all nutritionists are dietitians. But what is the difference between the two, and is one really better than the other? Let's explore 5 big areas where I think there is a difference between the two, and where it actually matters.
Corresponding to my piece on 11 tips for a healthy autumn, here's one of my favourite autumn recipes, using the principles of traditional Chinese medicine, and based on a recipe from my Chinese-malay mum! It's quick, easy, and most importantly, delicious. And it's vegan so everyone can enjoy this one!
Shiitake mushrooms (Lentinula edodes) were a favourite ingredient in my mum's Chinese cooking while I was growing up, and I still love them today. They're packed with flavour, have a great chewy texture and make an incredible meat alternative. Their powerful immune-modulating and anti-tumour actions make them ideal as an adjunct therapy in cancer, for fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome. Other medicinal mushrooms include maitake, reishi, and chaga. I often wonder how different our collective state of health would be if we routinely offered our kids traditional foods like these? I also chucked a little Korean ginseng (Panax ginseng) in for extra mum-staying power! This is easily the weirdest, freakiest post I have ever written. But given that it's Samhain or Halloween today, it's kind of fitting!
The main reasons some new mothers throughout the western world are embracing placentophagy (the practice of mammals eating the placenta of their young after giving birth) centre around these: mood stabilisation and improvement which may reduce risk of postpartum depression, and nutrient replenishment after birth which can help with energy levels, recovery, and breast milk production. Despite these purported benefits, I still struggle with how to explain my decision to eat my own placenta. Even though I instinctively felt it was the right decision for me, I had to do my own research to satisfy my left brain. So let me start off with the reasons why I initially thought I would not eat my placenta. |
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