We began the GAPS diet (or enhanced Specific Carbohydrate Diet) in February, so we have now been on it for more than six months. The difference is remarkable. I have sent in for another hair analysis so I can compare the result with the test I did last November. All of our conditions have not completely disappeared. We have had to do a fair amount of travelling earlier this year and it has been difficult to maintain full control over everything that goes into our mouth on those occasions, but on the whole we have done very well.

The hardest thing about this diet is that it makes it very difficult to socialize. We can’t really go out to eat, go over to peoples houses to eat or even out for a couple drinks. We have started to drink Bloody Mary’s on occasion, as they seem to be relatively harmless. Beer or wine or anything sweetened just does us in. Going out to restaurants is a real pain too as you can never really be sure what is in a dressing or soup or whatnot unless you really know the place you are eating at is dedicated to real food. It was surprisingly easy in LA to go out to eat, and I think the gluten-free fad has really taken off all of a sudden, so I think it will get easier as well, perhaps grain-free will catch on by default!

Read more ...

A big thanks to everyone for their kind words of support over the past week or so since we found out that my mother has cancer in her pancreas. Sorry I haven’t been communicating this last week, we got the news and then had to get our taxes done, which was a bit pain in the neck. We are also taking a trip to LA this month, so I am trying to get my garden and everything else in place before we go. I have been thinking about cancer as a result so these ramblings are what have been fermenting in my mind of late.

When food, the body, the heart, and the mind become perfectly united with nature, a natural diet becomes possible. The body as it is, following its own instinct, eating if something tastes good, abstaining if it does not, is free. -Masanobu Fukuoka

Yesterday, at the laundromat, I managed to read a few more of Masanobu Fukuoka’s essays in what has been dubbed ‘the little green book,’ The One-Straw Revolution. I got into the section on what he calls ‘natural diet.’ He lays out in a clear and beautiful way a description of the importance of the relationship of nature and mankind and how this relationship is developed through eating and farming/foraging. I got so excited by it that I have pulled out my favorite excerpts here. I feel that this SCD/ GAPS diet we are on is helping me to regain the sensitivity of a natural person who is in tune with their instincts, that Masanobu Fukuoka speaks of. Please take a minute to read the sections I pulled out, very profound, it shows the importance of food for creating a natural and peaceful culture for our world.

Read more ...

The One-Straw Revolution is Masanobu Fukuoka’s manifesto about natural food and farming. It is a collection of short essays that were translated from Japanese. Masanobu was trained as a scientist, but rejected modern agribusiness and centuries of agriculture lore. He perfected what he called the “do-nothing” technique of farming. Masanobu Fukuoka died in 2008 at a ripe old age yet still stunning the world with his highly effective no-work farming techniques.

This little book is filled with amazing insights into modern life. These excerpts were taken from sections on food and natural diet. Masanobu Fukuoka puts into clear and concise language a practical way to return to a state of health for our world and ourselves. I highly recommend getting your own copy as this book is so full of profound understandings of nature that they are best absorbed in small doses.

“A Natural Diet Lies Right At Ones Feet”. -p133

Read more ...

Many people have been asking me how the GAPS Diet has been working out for us, and I am finally getting a chance to post about it. We started this diet because we have had serious re-occurring health problems ever since living in a moldy apartment in New Zealand. Our problems seemed to just get worse instead of better. I seemed to have developed leaky gut syndrome and was getting intolerant of more and more foods. We had been on no-carb diets, and various other health regimes which worked for a while but were unsustainable for long periods.

Read more ...

We just made a batch of these and the wonderful aroma fills our apartment. These are so delicious, you barely realise you are on the Gut and Psychology Syndrome Diet. Based on the Zucchini Muffin recipe in Breaking the Vicious Cycle by Elaine Gottschall.

• 2 c grated zucchini
• 2 c ground almonds
• 2 eggs
• 1/3 c ghee or melted butter
• 1/3 c honey (raw)
• 2 t cinnamon
• 1/2 t baking soda
• couple of pinches of salt
• A couple handfuls of frozen or fresh blueberries

Method: Mix almond flour, zucchini, fat and honey. Add the eggs, salt, cinnamon and baking soda. Mix very well. Add blueberries (or other fruit), but don’t add too many or the muffins will not hold together.

Bake in muffin tins filled 2/3 full for about 20 minutes in a 350 F (180 C) degree oven.

Read more ...

Most of my life I have been excessively healthy. No cavities, never sick, and with rapid healing powers so that I have no scars despite the multitude of oven burns, chopped fingertips and other disasters that being a chef generally involve (I have chopped off the tip of my left pointer finger several times but you wouldn’t know by looking at it!). I took that amazing health for granted, assumed that it was just who I was and didn’t stop to think for a second that it might not last. Working in the fast-paced and highly demanding culinary industry stresses your body physically, the long hours and high pressure alone are quite enough to wear you down over time, but along with that for years I maintained a diet of coffee and cigarettes, and generally didn’t really put anything else into my body. After a couple years of this I discovered that I was highly neurotic, with blood sugar swings that left me an emotional basket case.

Read more ...

I picked up a bag of shelled hazelnuts and soon found they are very easy to shell using a morter and pestle. After soaking the nut meat overnight I roasted them in a very low oven. The following recipe is what resulted next:

• 1 1/2 c hazelnuts (ground)
• 1/2 c almonds (ground)
• 1 T anise (ground)
• 3 T butter, softened (or coconut, lard, duck fat)
• 6 eggs (separated)
• 1″ slice date paste or 2 handfuls of seeded dates
• 1/2 c boiling water (approximate)

Method: Boil water and soak the dates in boiling water to soften. Mix the nuts, anise and butter. Add egg yolks to the nut mixture. Mash the dates to a pulp and add to mixture. Mix well. Beat egg whites to stiff peaks (add a pinch of salt). Fold the egg whites into the nut mixture in 2 to 3 stages. Do not over mix. The egg whites will bring air into the mixture to lighten the cake.

Place mixture into a round cake tin that has been buttered and floured. Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Read more ...

After reading Anna’s positive experiences with the GAPs diet I ordered the book and have just finished reading it, I have tried a lot of diets over the years especially after living in a moldy apartment in Wellington, NZ which has resulted in problems with my digestive tract ever since. November last year was a month of non-stop rain here in Vancouver, BC and with the temperature change, was the perfect breeding ground for mushrooms, mold and yeasts. As a result our health problems reared their ugly heads again and showed us that we still have an overgrowth of harmful yeast in our systems. In some ways this is good because we at least know that we need to deal with it.

Read more ...

My copy of Gut and Psychology Syndrome by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride arrived last week and over the weekend I had leftover spaghetti squash. On page 149 I found a recipe for egg-free bread/cake/muffins which called for mashed squash. Spaghetti squash is a little watery so it comes out quite dense, but very healthy and tasty.

Carrot, Blueberry and Spaghetti Squash Muffins

1c spaghetti squash (cooked)

1c carrots, grated

3T butter (lard, duck/goose fat, coconut oil)

1 1/2 c almonds, ground

1/2 c walnuts, ground

3/4 c date puree or seedless dates (about 2 handfulls)

1/2 c boiling water (soak dates in water 5 mins)

1/2 c frozen blueberries

1 t cinnamon

Read more ...

Hypoglycemia: A Better Approach

By Dr. Paavo Airola (1977)

I know you might be thinking “Why not choose something more up to date?” Dr. Paavo Airola was addressing a conditions that most other Doctors were ignoring or attacking, at that time. I found this book a very interesting read with that perspective in mind. It is a good place to start if you are interested in hypoglycemia. Over the last 30 years or so, hypoglycemia has become a household word and much of what he says is now common knowledge.

It is also interesting because the AMA etc are still doing the same thing they were doing then-insisting that certain conditions are non-existent and later doing a complete 180 degree turn-around. We all know today that hypoglycemia is not an imaginary state of being. It is rampant in our societies today, often a pre-cursor to diabetes.

If you have a condition that the medical establishment won’t acknowledge, don’t feel like you are the crazy one. This is a well established pattern. In fact the establishment is proving itself insane under this definition of insanity: repeating the same mistakes over and over again, expecting to get a different result.

Dr. Paavo Airola recommends a diet for hypoglycemia which is included in this book. He also recommends avoiding high protein diets, because of the strain they put on your calcium resources and your adrenal glands. He highly recommends brewer’s yeast for hypoglycemics.

Read more ...