LISTEN TO THIS WEEK’S SHOW ON iTUNES, STITCHER OR SPOTIFY OR LISTEN RIGHT HERE:

Now onto the show…

One day I was researching rice bran oil for our Low tox community. I didn’t have to look far when I found Cyndi from Changing Habits’ research on it and over the years since, Cyndi and I have met and exchanged like minded chats on food industry motive, back door deals done to skew our understanding of what makes a healthy food mix, and I knew there was no one better to invite onto the show to share our listener’s biggest food confusion issues today.We talk about fats, sugars, wheat, meat and more in a serious debunking session to leave you clearer on what ‘eating healthy’ really means. Cyndi is a nutritionist on a mission to help people live healthy minus stress and shame. Life’s too short for all that, so enjoy the show and bring your note pad – it’s one of those!

Here’s a little snapshot of the juicy bits in today’s episode…

• Rice bran oil is highly refined. The only way to get the oil out of a grain such as rice is to bring it out of the germ and a lot of solvents are used to do that. As a result rice bran oil won’t have the nutrients needed in order for the body to use that fat.
• Sugar is a very important part of our evolution: not the white refined sugar or rice syrup but the glucose and fructose that are naturally found in fruit, grain, sugar cane. Eating fruit seasonally is healthy and using dates and rapadura sugar for example is a great way to add sweetness to food.
• The cholesterol myth can be seen everywhere. Cholesterol is such an important component of the body. If you don’t eat it, your body will make it. It’s important to eat good quality cholesterol such as eggs, and not in isolation as much as possible. Variety is key with proteins.
• The generic statement about salt is that it causes hypertension, so we should reduce it. It’s a perpetuated myth once again. There is a difference between refined salt and salt. Caustic soda, sulphuric acid and chlorine are commonly used to clean all the minerals out of the common refined salt, which then gets heated at extreme heat before adding anti-caking agents or bleach. Having unrefined salt is very important for our bodies.
• There are two types of meat: the domesticated, grain-fed version with antibiotics and growth hormones which is what we want to stay away from. The beautiful meat that comes from grass-fed and grass-finished animals, living an outdoor life is the healthiest kind. Red meat has been eaten by many civilisations throughout the years without any type of side-effects on the body.
• Happiness comes from eating in season, listening to your body, and if you’re choosing to cut things out of your diet working with a nutritionist to find the right balance. Aim for the qualitarian diet: quality food first and foremost.
• Certain cultures around the world have dairy as the main part of their diet and no allergies resulting from it. Different types of proteins are found in dairy: goat, camel, sheep and jersey cows milk all contain A2 protein, a type of protein more easily digested. We could be allergic to modern milk because of the processing that happens at the farm which removes the nutrients that help our bodies digest it.
• Wheat is another old-fashioned food that has been consumed throughout the ages. Preparation is key to eat the grains successfully, breaking down the phytates and other anti-nutrients. Wheat was once a seasonal food prepared with consideration. Today we eat far too much of it and fortify it with synthetic nutrients, on top of heavily spraying the crops. The grain is not the problem, it’s what we have done to it through processing that can explain why people can’t tolerate it anymore. Traditional, old-fashioned wheats are an alternative replacement to modern wheat: spelt, kamut, einkorn, emmer.
• To heal yourself and your family, know where your food is coming from, how it’s been produced and favour farmers’ markets or coops. Make food from scratch as much as possible by spending time in the kitchen.

 

And here are all the important links:

Cyndi’s online store and books and the documentary What’s with Wheat:  “Changing Habits Changing Lives”

“What the health” film that Cyndi mentions

“The untold story of milk” by Ron Schmid – the book that changed my perspective on dairy

“Dark Emu” by Bruce Pascoe – the book that Cyndi mentions

 

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