In the meantime, if you’re looking for a nutritionist with a similar approach to mine- i.e. nutrient-dense, traditional diet, focus on the gut and thyroid, energy output etc- then check out Diana Earnshaw at Your Good Health Naturally, though bear in mind she is based in Reading, Berkshire. Nevertheless I believe she offers phone consultations. There are plenty of other nutritionists here in Manchester but they may well take a very different approach from myself.

My other recommendations? Do your own research and check out the work of Mary Enig, Sally Fallon, Ray Peat, Matt Stone, Danny Roddy, Chris Kresser and the Rubins in California, to get you on the right track.

Good luck in your own health journey and keep in touch!

Anyway, that aside, we are still busy nesting in anticipation of the event, and I say ‘we’ because the Fraggle Daddy has outstripped even me in the organising department, doing an impressive amount of DIY in the last month or so: putting up wall tidies, pictures, book shelves, cots, door handles, even a cooker hood vent, etc. Not to pander to gender stereotypes or anything, but my nesting has more taken the form of cooking, cleaning, laundering everything in sight, and well, now baking, which IS a bit of a surprise given that I’ve baked about 3 cakes in my whole life. Of course, it may also have something to do with the fact that the nights are drawing in a bit now and certainly here in Manchester the weather has definitely turned!

This banana bread recipe is adapted from a recipe by Kimberley Walsh (what? Don’t you know who she is? From Girls Aloud, of course) but I’ve changed a number of things, including substituting muscovado sugar instead of white (more mineral-rich), decreasing the sugar by about 50% and adding in some currants for sweetness instead. In fact it’s amazing how much sugar goes into these sweet treats, and totally unnecessarily given how much one’s palate can adjust to less sweetness, especially if you’re going to give these foods to children. Per 100g, muscovado contains 100mg potassium, 85mg calcium, 23mg magnesium. Compare that to white sugar which contains virtually none of these things, and then to add insult to injury, actually uses up minerals such as magnesium to process it (54 molecules of magnesium to process 1 molecule of sugar!) as well as causing a big insulin spike which draws on precious zinc stores (one of the reasons why a diet rich in processed sugar can cause hormonal imbalances and acne in teenagers).

Anyway, here’s the recipe. I made mine with gluten-free flour. Enjoy!

Banana Bread (makes 9 slices)

175g gluten-free self-raising flour

150g muscovado sugar

100g butter

3 mashed ripe bananas

75g currants

75ml milk

2 free range eggs

half tsp bicarb soda

half tsp ground nutmeg

half tsp ground cinnamon or mixed spice

few drops vanilla essence

half tsp salt

• Grease a 19cm square cake tin and preheat the oven to 180C (less for fan oven)
• Beat together butter and sugar until fluffy. Gradually beat in the eggs, then fold in the flour, salt and nutmeg.
• In a separate bowl, mix the bicarb soda into the milk, add the vanilla essence.
• In another bowl, mash the bananas, add currants, salt and spices.
• Add the milk to the flour mixture and then stir in the bananas. Mix thoroughly so there are no lumps.
• Spoon into the tin then bake for around 45 mins until golden brown on the outside and a knife comes away clean from the middle.

So when I was called up a couple of weeks ago by a supplement company looking to promote a new superfood called Moringa, I sent them packing (politely) with a reminder that I don’t do promotions of that kind unless I have seen and experienced their benefits first hand. But I must admit my natural curiosity then got the better of me,  leading  me down a series of web-related worm holes in the pursuit of further knowledge. What took me aback was the  sheer number of glowing,  seemingly genuine testimonials that could be found for this stuff from many different corners.

Moringa leaf is a plant that grows native to the Indian Himalayas and in composition resembles spinach, but with a much lower oxalate content. This is an important consideration since as abundant as spinach is in minerals, it should never be eaten raw, since the oxalate compounds bind to and prevent the absorption of those very minerals (including zinc, calcium and magnesium). And for some unfortunate individuals, oxalates are also the source of joint pains and inflammation.

Moringa has started to garner more widespread attention due to its nutrient-density. The plant can be eaten in a variety of ways, but the easiest is to pick the leaves and either cook them fresh, or dry them and grind them into powder which can then be mixed into food after it is cooked or added to drinks and smoothies. The plant is reputed to contain several times’ the vitamin and mineral content of commonly eaten healthy foods (see above). It also provides an impressive array of B vitamins and good amounts of zinc and magnesium. It also supplies a whopping  30% protein, with all eight essential amino acids.

However, this wasn’t the main reason I was impressed. Moringa also contains high levels of antioxidants and anti-inflammatory compounds, which in some studies showed impressive protection against free radicals. These are implicated in inflammatory disease, cancer, ageing and general oxidative stress to cells. When the dried seeds were extracted with ethanol and given to rats with an inflamed paw, the solution decreased the inflammatory response by 85%. The solution was also tested on Epstein-Barr viral activity (AKA Glandular Fever- a common viral precursor to ME) and completely destroyed the virus (International Journal of Pharmacognosy, 1996). The researchers found that the Moringa outperformed pharmaceutical anti-inflammatories. Anecdotally, testimonials online point to Moringa’s benefits in improving their rheumatoid arthritis, chronic fatigue, advanced liver damage, rapid sports recovery, gout, blood pressure and numerous other conditions.

So, as for me, I’m a few days’ into trialling it on myself and my partner. I also circumvented the expensive route to supplementation (i.e. buying the capsules from a company) and bought the dried leaf directly from a source in India. I’m putting it into my breakfast smoothie and stirring it into sauces, soups and stews after cooking. It’s early days but so far I am definitely experiencing a feeling of increased alertness, and at gone seven months’ pregnant, have even found myself not needing my afternoon nap and motoring on to 11.30 at night with some energy left in the tank!

Curious? Check it out yourself: http://www.treesforlife.org/our-work/our-initiatives/moringa/faq/using-moringa/how-is-moringa-used-medicinally

Now I’m no apologist for heavily salt-laden processed foods, but I am sceptical of the way salt has been held responsible for a whole barrage of chronic diseases, just as saturated fat has been hung out to dry in the last 50 years.

So, the World Cancer Research Fund says 14% of stomach cancers could be prevented by eating less salt, although I couldn’t find this reference on their website. Interestingly in a kind of ‘factoid’ type leaflet, the WCRF also says ‘Although the number of cases is declining, almost 8,000 people develop stomach cancer in the UK each year. Most of these cases are diagnosed in people aged over 50. Scientists estimate that about half of stomach cancer cases in the UK could be prevented by not smoking, cutting down on salt and eating a healthy diet.’ Ah, so now we have all sorts of variables confounded. AND the anomaly that stomach cancer rates are DECLINING despite us consuming 8.6g salt a day.

So perhaps we are consuming more salt now than ever before? Surprisingly not: our salt intake remains roughly the same as it did in 1957 (American Journal Clinical Nutrition, Sept 2010). This is because we used salt to preserve more of our food- handy when you didn’t have a fridge. We’re eating the same amount of salt but in a different way (i.e. hidden in processed foods).

In the US rates of stomach cancer have also declined from over 400, 000 in 1950-69 to 265, 500 in 1985-2004: yet salt consumption has remained constant at about 3700mg sodium per day (about 9g), for the last 50 years (ibid.)

One of the supposed indisputable facts usually held up to support this hypothesis is rates of stomach cancer in Japan, where salt intake is high (use of miso, pickles, salted fish, salt in fermented foods etc), yet even here there is much more than meets the eye. One big factor is smoking. In the 1960s 80% of the male population smoked, twice as high as in the US. The incidence and death rates of stomach cancer also peaked between 1960 and 1980s. Cancers of the stomach and liver alone accounted for 70% of all male cancer deaths in 1951, declining to 41% by 1996 despite liver cancer’s rise (Journal of Demographic Research, Vol.5, 2002). In Japan the stats show that smoking is in decline, but still 51% of men smoke as opposed to 20% of men in the US.

The other significant factor influencing gastric cancer is the incidence of H Pylori infection. In 2006 the journal Gut compared two cohorts of patients, one British, one Japanese, and found that although the infection was almost equally present in the patients’ symptoms of gastritis, the Japanese patients were at greater risk of a more aggressive strain, demonstrating greater atrophy in the gastric lining and more inflammation. This is a key factor in the predisposition towards stomach cancer. In their article ‘The Cancer Transition in Japan since 1951’, the researchers blame over half of stomach cancer cases on the H Pylori infection, and claim that better hygiene and ‘a general improvement in the standard of living’ has seen stomach cancer rates drop. (Journal of Demographic Research, ibid.)

Even if we take stomach cancer out of the equation, limiting sodium intake to under 1500mg a day (that’s less than a teaspoon) has to help prevent cardiovascular deaths, right? Not necessarily and certainly not if you have normal blood pressure. In 2003 the Cochrane Collaboration, partly funded by the US Dept of Health, reviewed 57 short-term salt-reduction trials and concluded that ‘there is little evidence for long-term benefit from reducing salt intake.’ In 2004, it published a review of 11 longer-term salt-reduction trials. Compared to normal diets, these low-salt diets decreased systolic blood pressure (the top number in the blood pressure ratio) in healthy people by 1.1 millimeters of mercury (mmHg) and diastolic blood pressure (the bottom number) by 0.6 mmHg. As the Scientific American magazine put it, ‘that is like going from 120/80 to 119/79’. The review concluded that such ‘intensive interventions…provide only minimal reductions in blood pressure during long-term trials.’

In fact for people with nervous system disorders and thyroid and adrenal problems, limiting salt like this can do far more harm than good, since they find it difficult to maintain adequate electrolyte levels (charged minerals in the blood) which regulate nerve and muscle function, blood pH and hydration. Drinking tonnes of plain water on top of this deficiency can aggravate hypoglycaemia and make people cold, lethargic and anxious.

My advice? Enjoy real food and salt it as you wish- just make sure you use real Celtic sea salt (which should be grey and moist) or Himalayan rock salt, which- unlike table salt- contains the whole spectrum of minerals, not just sodium.

Rice pudding with cooked dried fruit and gelatine

At six-and-a-half months’ pregnant, my appetite is curiously less than it used to be before I got pregnant; however, I am still a fan of breakfast, and a breakfast that earns its keep has got to be one that helps you power through the morning for a good five hours or more. A sign that you’re not eating the right breakfast is when you crack at the first talk of elevenses. Always crave a Twix with your morning coffee? This suggests falling blood sugar, usually as a result of a highly refined breakfast without protein or fat in it. Elevenses are a modern phenomenon, let’s face it- a modern marketing phenomenon- designed to fill a gap that your well-positioned leading brand cereal company can’t meet.

Some people make the transition quite happily to a savoury breakfast: poached eggs on toast, egg scramble with baked beans and tomatoes and mushrooms, a Nordic fish breakfast, even leftovers from dinner. But for others they need easing gently into the breakfast regime, and want something sweet and satisfying to start the day. This recipe is perfect, containing around 20g of protein, as well as 25g of fat, plus abundant compounds that help feed your brain, mood and hormones, such as cholesterol, choline, and amino acids, compounds that stabilise blood sugar and help gut function- such as soluble fibre (inulin) and gelatine, abundant minerals including potassium, some vitamin E, vitamin A, vitamin D.

The only drawback? You’ll need to get up 5-10 mins earlier to prepare it- or do what I do and make it the night before and take it out of the fridge half an hour before eating.

There are 2 versions you can make: one requires making a rice pudding in advance which will last several days, or if you’re feeling lazy, buying some kind of puffed rice product such as Rice Krispies (yes, yes, I know… I don’t really want to give Kellogg’s any kudos, but puffed sweetened rice in the context of a proper breakfast ain’t gonna hurt nobody).

So, advanced version:

~ The night before, cook up a big load of rice- enough for a few days. If you have Candida issues, gut fermentation etc, you might prefer to make it with white arborio or pudding rice (if you think this is controversial, please read some Paul Jaminet and/or Matt Stone). If you want to do it Weston Price stylee and opt for brown rice, then soak it for 12 hours in boiling water with a couple tblsp apple cider vinegar or lemon juice, to neutralise phytates.

~ Into the rice pot, add in a few handfuls of dried chopped fruit- whatever you fancy. I’m enjoying dried pears and peaches at the moment, plus some fabulous giant flame raisins from Unicorn in Chorlton.

~ Immediately after draining cooked rice, add 2 sachets of beef gelatine crystals (gelatine is great for rebuilding the gut in leaky gut/autoimmunity- but this is optional) and stir in. You can also add some fresh fruit juice or some coconut milk- this makes for a thickened jelly consistency. If you don’t like the thought of any of that malarkey, leave out the extras!

~ Store in the fridge.

Now each morning, you make the basics of the power breakfast thus:

- half a ripe avocado

- 2 raw egg yolks (must be free range at the very least- don’t eat battery egg yolks raw)

- 1.5 scoops of whey protein powder. Now I only recommend un-denatured whey protein isolate, which is made by processing whey at low temperatures. Don’t get the cheap stuff as most of the proteins have been altered by heat and can therefore cause more harm than good. This is the only brand I like:

http://www.myprotein.com/UK/products/impact_whey_isolate

A kilo lasts for ages.

Word of caution: people with dairy allergies may not be able to tolerate this product.

~ medium ripe banana

~ a drizzle of whatever good quality unrefined sweetener you fancy: my choices are date syrup or blackstrap molasses which packs a whopping 400mg calcium per 100g.

~ sprinkle of good quality grey sea salt or pink rock salt

~ a good heaped tsp of mixed spice powder- cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger etc. (Cinnamon is excellent for stabilising blood sugar levels)

~ handful flaked almonds or raw cashews

~ optional final touch? A grated raw carrot. Ray Peat PhD says it’s one of the best prebiotics out there to feed healthy gut flora. I dutifully add it to my power breakfast every morning.

~ Mash all the ingredients well with a fork, add a heaped tablespoon of the rice pudding/dried fruit mixture and mix it in.

It might not look the best, but it tastes like the food of the gods

The basic version dispenses with the cooked rice pudding, so you can just add chopped dried fruit and rice krispies- but this misses out the gelatine and also unsoaked/uncooked dried fruit can be problematic for a sensitive gut.

The reasons why people are overweight and eat the things they do are of course indexed to things like social class, education, social mobility and economic wealth. On a physical level there are an equal number of influential factors, such as metabolic health, the state of the gut flora, stress and of course dieting itself… Dieting doesn’t tend to work. All the evidence shows that restricting calories has a temporary effect- yes in the short term participants can lose a lot of weight, regain energy and health- but in the long term, those markers can reverse and come to bite them on the behind. Very few dieters manage to maintain the initial weight that they’ve lost for longer than 2 years.

So if you want to know what my no-diet diet rules are for a healthy and happy life, here they are:

* Eat real food. Closest to its unprocessed self.

* Avoid low-fat foods. These are correlated with increased weight and infertility. They also make you eat more. Cos the body ain’t no fool.

* Avoid PUFAs, or polyunstaurated vegetable oils, if you want the full title. These are the veg and seed oils we’re all being encouraged to eat (so as to avoid the dreaded saturated fat) yet studies show no overall benefit of lowering cholesterol (the holy grail of Big Pharma), and are pro-inflammatory, immuno-suppressive (quickest way to induce cancer in a rat? Feed it a sugar and corn oil mix. Hey wait, isn’t that what a fast food meal is made of??), toxic to the thyroid and liver, AND more fattening gram per gram than saturated fat.

* Don’t diet. Over time it lowers metabolic rate and the set-point, in other words, the rate at which you burn calories for energy. You’ll feel cold and lethargic and stressed. And then you’ll put the weight back on.

* Don’t calorie-count. Not all calories are created equal and your fuel isn’t just burned- it’s used to create your cells, your hormones, your neurotransmitters- all of which you need! Calorie-counting has also never been proved to help people lose weight and keep it off. It’s also a headache.

* Don’t do hard cardio workouts on an empty stomach, or if you’re tired, stressed, or rundown. It will just cannibalise your glycogen stores, your muscle and switch off your thyroid and immunity.  Better to focus on resistance, muscle building and flexibility.

* Eat breakfast. Study after study shows that people who eat breakfast weigh less than people who don’t, function better generally and don’t binge-eat. Whether it’s a handful of nuts and a banana or a full English… eat something!!

* Want to lose weight, or improve digestion and mood? Like the adage says, eat like a King in the morning, a Prince in the day and a pauper in the evening. Your lightest meal should be last. In the West we overload ourselves late at night with huge portions of meat and potatoes, pasta, puddings, sweets and alcohol- no wonder we sleep badly, have acid reflux and constipation and wake up feeling dead. It’s not rocket science!

* Enjoy a treat but eat it after a meal. Constant snacking, even on so-called ‘healthy’ things like fruit juice (and this is true for kids too) can keep insulin elevated, preventing the hormones responsible for fat-burning from doing their job. I’ve lost count of the number of times I see overweight people constantly snacking on fruit. Give your body a rest from digesting- if you have a nice big meal which leaves you satisfied, constantly grazing on things afterwards can- perversely- start making you feel unsatisfied.

* Eat salt! The whole drive to minimise salt is a complete red herring, and salt restriction only brings down blood pressure in a tiny percentage of the population- for many others with hypoadrenal/thyroid problems, their BP is low. Again low-salt and no-salt frankenfoods just make you eat more to get that hit. Real sea salt/rock salt contains all the trace minerals and is essential for proper nerve and muscle function. Oh, and children need salt too, which is why they go crazy for salty things when you’re not around. They’re not daft.

* Avoid artificial sweeteners, which spike insulin, but because they contain no sugar, the insulin is forced to draw on your own blood sugar, which drops, and then you go hunting for food anyway to boost it back up again. So it results in you eating the calories anyway, possibly more than you would if you’d eaten the original item in its full-sugar form.

* Get enough sleep and deal with your stress. Easier said than done, but chronically elevated stress hormones disrupt appetite, make you reach for the quick hit (empty sugar calories, caffeine, alcohol) and release fatty acids into the bloodstream, which depresses sugar metabolism so you can become hypoglycaemic AND insulin resistant. It also leads to systemic inflammation and a big change in your gut flora, which can also alter the way you process carbohydrates. This is a major factor in obesity. Sleeping and relaxing more just on its own can help you lose weight.

* Try and tune into your appetite signals. Eat when you’re hungry, don’t put it off until you’re ravenous- you’ll just eat more. Eat slowly- it takes 10 minutes for your brain to register when you’re full, but if you eat too quickly and mindlessly, you won’t give your brain time to catch up.

* Address your gut flora. Studies have shown that gut bacteria differ in obese compared to lean people and that obese gut bacteria profiles lead to increased energy extraction from food, such as dietary carbohydrates, and increased fat storage (Jumpertz, 2011).

I thought you might like to know about a new delivery service launched and put together by my good friend Simon Whyatt, a personal trainer here in Manchester (http://www.greenpasturefarms.co.uk). 

Like me, Simon is passionate about good quality meat from animals who are allowed to roam on pasture and eat their natural diet (which includes things like grass, flowers, hay, insects and grubs- NOT omega-6-laden grains which make farm animals sick with bacterial infections and dependent on antibiotics). Green Pasture Farms is a collection of farms from Pendle in North Lancashire, and they provide meat selection boxes, offal and cheaper cuts and even things like marrow bones and pasture-raised beef tallow, which I can vouch for as imparting a heavenly taste to cooking and roasting, as well as being a healthier and more stable alternative to heat-damaged seed oils.

They will also deliver anywhere in the mainland UK, and if you have a freezer it might be worth spending a bit more, as orders over £100 get free delivery!

With that in mind, I’m launching a series of fertility workshops in the Chorlton area for small groups of women who are seeking to improve their chances of a healthy conception. In the course of the 2-hour session, attendees will learn about the importance and benefits of nutrient-dense foods and fats (those that we’ve been taught to avoid!), things such as:

- grass-fed meats, broths, offal, eggs, seafood, butter.

- why you might need to supplement with cod liver oil and Vitamin D.

Participants will get to sample some tasty recipes and try their hand at making fermented foods, which can restore healthy gut flora and immune function.

That’s not all….

Nutrition is a good part of the battle, but it’s not the only part. We’ll also cover:

- Why it’s essential to improve basal body temperature as a marker of  healthy ovulation, and how to do this.

- The role that stress plays in infertility; how to interrupt the stress response using the wonderfully simple techniques of Emotional Transformation and return the body to a state of relaxation (and thereby a normal cycle).

All this, including handouts and food is included for the price, a bargain at £35. Dates will be booked around your availability, and are likely to include Saturdays. Book now, and get a discount for multiple bookings

Luckily there is an easy way to prevent this unwanted side effect of consuming pork, which is to cure it, marinate it or otherwise lacto-ferment it (as in aged meats such as chorizo, salami, etc). Subjects who consumed pork in this way showed little to no change in their red blood cell formation.

Here’s a delicious new recipe which I experimented with the other day. Serves 2.

Satay Pork with Roasted Vegetables

Overnight marinade 300g of pork belly strips (preferably outdoor-reared) in a few tblsp raw (unpasteurised) apple cider vinegar, crushed garlic, salt and pepper and some tamari soy sauce.

24 hours later remove and rinse off the marinade.

Pre-heat the oven to 180C (fan) or 200C.

Put a large dollop of coconut oil in a large oven tray and leave in the oven to melt.

Meanwhile cut up the following into medium-size slices or dice:

1 large onion

2 courgettes

2 red peppers

After the coconut oil has melted, remove the tray from the oven and coat the vegetables and belly slices thoroughly in the oil.

Coat with a jar of coconut milk, and some Thai spices like lemongrass, galangal, chillies, ginger, and fish sauce. Crush some garlic and add in.

Toss it all thoroughly and cook for about 40 mins, turning and re-coating the mixture a couple of times.

Serve with white rice, fresh chopped coriander, crushed cashews, and a side salad.

Heaven!