Year: 2013

6 clever ways to get more vegetables into your diet

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I’m a vegetable lover. We’re told to eat 5-7 serves of fruit and vegetables a day. I eat way more than this…but I choose to eat my quota in the form of vegetables in the main, with only a little fructose-full fruit. Which is something I had a rant about here. To be truthful, I feel best when I get a good six or so serves of veggies into my gullet most days. This can take some planning and some clever techniques…Shall I share?

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Kale pesto (top) and green eggs – scrambled eggs slurried with kale pesto (bottom). Both recipes are in my cookbook.

1. Vegetable smoothies.

1 large glass = 2-3 serves vegetables

I don’t make vegetables juice, I blend it whole, ergo a smoothie. Some of the Big Benefits of veggies are lost when you get rid of the fibre (as you do when you juice) and it can leave the resulting beverage too sugary (yep, veggies contain fructose too, but less than fruit). I toss lettuce, spinach, ginger (with the peel on), lemon (pips and pith included), turmeric, fennel (leaves and bulb) into a Vitamix (you do need a high-powered blender for this), with some ice and extra water or coconut water and blend until smooth. It’s a meal in a cup and you’re downing 2-3 serves of veggies in one tumbler. I’ll often have this for breakfast (along with some nuts or toast and nut butter or a boiled egg).

If you’re after some extra veggie smoothie recipes click here.

2. Eat veggies for breakfast.

1 cup = 1 serve vegetables

Either as a smoothie, or try my eggy muggin idea (from my I Quit Sugar Cookbook):

Eggy Muggin

  • 1⁄2 cup par-cooked’n’frozen veggies (broccoli or silverbeet works best) or 1 cup fresh spinach leaves
  • sprinkle of frozen peas
  • pinch cheese, grated (cheddar or Parmesan works) or a few cubes of feta
  • 1 egg

Place vegetables in a large coffee mug with a dash of water. Microwave on high for 30 seconds/a minute. Crack in an egg and add cheese. Stir loosely. Microwave again for another 30 seconds/a minute. Done.

3. Veggie fried rice…without the rice

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In case you missed it…

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…I Quit Sugar has been getting a bit of attention lately, since the release of the print edition last week, and, I think, as the awareness of the failings of fructose spreads. For those of you who didn’t catch the clippings in the various media stories over the weekend, I’ll share a selection below. Consider it your light weekend read.

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Matt Preston discovers (and loves!) kale chips at the I Quit Sugar book launch last week. Photo by Sarah Joy Photography – additional images of the launch below.

1. From Booktopia, I answered ten terrifying questions. I loved this interview, which included questions like:

  • What did you want to be when you were twelve, eighteen and thirty? And why? I love this…my interests did shift. As a kid I wanted to be the first female Prime Minister of Australia. I was the eldest of six kids…being influential was in my blood. At 18 I was dreadfully confused. And so I tried all kinds of things for a good decade. At 30, I wanted to be doing something meaningful, communicating and working freely….which is pretty much my life now.
  • What were three big events – in the family circle or on the world stage or in your reading life, for example – you can now say, had a great effect on you and influenced you in your career path? My Year 5 teacher gave me the class prize and said, in front of the school at the end of year “graduation”, that my curiosity was a gift. I treasure her words. They spurred me on. Moving to Sydney when I was 29, from Melbourne. Suddenly everything sped up and made sense. I felt that I belonged. Reading Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela. Such mindful endurance of hardship…it very much guided me through my own troubles with illness.
  • If your work could change one thing in this world – what would it be? To get everyone back to natural appetite and hunger. This would solve obesity and most modern diseases, as well as reduce the environmental impact of processed food.

To read the rest of the article, click here.

2. From the Canberra Times, whose writer declared me too sweet to wage war on sugar, “Quit and

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running from the quietness

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I think many of modern life’s ills stem from running away from quietness and lurching for something more. Constantly lurching, reaching out, not settling inwards. I think about this today as I bounce and lurch from task to phone call to the fridge and back again.

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by Lizzy Stewart via “advice to sink in slowly”

We are so afraid of stopping and being quiet. I practice being in a quiet space each day by meditating. To sit and do nothing is noble. It takes smarts. Reflection. I don’t kid myself it’s easy. It is my life’s toughest journey: down and in.

As Oscar Wilde once wrote:

“To do nothing at all is the most difficult thing in the world, the most difficult and the most intellectual.”

To sit with the silence, the nothingness, it’s a tug of brutal war. Every part of me wants to run from the quietness that my meditation mantra attempts to take me to. So much so, my right hip actually aches as I meditate. It’s my right leg that lurches out towards life. In many traditions, the right side of the body is seen as the “masculine” side. As in, the side that tends to be about lurching out, conquering, forcing, making things happen, doing. And so my right hip aches to move away, to do.

As an aside, it’s my right leg that attracts all my injuries – I’ve broken my right ankle twice, split open my right knee twice, broken my toe and torn a tendon… all on my right leg. And always when I’ve been forcing life too hard. When I’ve been doing and not sitting in enough quietness.

You might want to read about one of my favourite techniques for sitting quietly with myself here.

Why do we run from the quietness? Pscyhiatrist Neel Burton writes about the manic defence in The Art of Failure, The Anti Self-Help Guide:

The manic defence is the tendency, when presented with uncomfortable thoughts or feelings, to distract

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my simple home: my next project

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A few things are about to change around here. In a few weeks this site will be all fresh and different, and my new I Quit Sugar site will be starting to take shape. 

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image via energy efficient homes

In the meantime, much of my passion is going to funnel into my next campaign, which is all about setting up your home to be as sustainable, ethical, minimal, efficient, toxin-free and economical as possible. I’m going to share the best tips and advice via my own bumpy journey to transform (or steer) my own home.

Just before Christmas I bought my first apartment. It’s not big – 1.5 bedrooms, no balcony or yard, no parking. It’s old. It doesn’t have much storage nor many flourishes. It’s a bit of a shell. On top of this, I own no furniture. Actually, that’s a lie. I have a mattress, an old Formica table that I inherited from a friend and two IKEA chairs, an old crate I found at the dump when I was 18 and have lugged about with me for two decades, two cushions, a coffee table and bookshelf I found on the street about 10 years ago and two boxes of sentimental nick-knacks and crockery. Oh, and two surfboards. I’ve simply never bought stuff. I’ve inherited and given away my white goods and couches (actually I’ve NEVER bought whitegoods or couches, not even a kettle) and I’ve never been one to go for vases or candles or whatever else people buy at homewares shops on weekends. Which means I’m in an amazing position to start from

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sugar-free berry and buckwheat galette

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I love Aran from Cannelle e Vanille. We all love Aran. And we love that she’s offered to share another recipe with us all today. I recently shared three summer quinoa recipes from Aran’s beautiful book Small Plates and Sweet Treats (now available, details here). This one is a sweet one…but I’ve adjusted it to be sugar-free.

Summer Berry Galette

Summer berry and buckwheat galette

Serves 6 to 8

Buckwheat crust

  • 3/4 cup superfine brown rice flour, plus more for dusting
  • 1⁄4 cup potato starch
  • 1⁄4 cup buckwheat flour
  • 3 teaspoons stevia granules
  • 1/8 teaspoon salt
  • 1 stick (8 tablespoons) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1⁄2-inch cubes
  • 1 egg yolk
  • 3 to 5 tablespoons ice water

Summer berry filling

  • 31/2 cups assorted berries
  • 2 tablespoons stevia granules

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how to earn $1000 a month selling my books on your blog (plus a sugar-free almond butter fudge recipe)

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You might not be aware of this, but each month more than 300 people out there on the interweb are earning extra cash – up to $1000 a month – by sharing the I Quit Sugar message among their readers. Some of you have been asking how this affiliates set-up works. And how you can do the same. So I’ll share. I’m also taking a little moment to thank the affiliates out there who’ve supported me over the past year or so.

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This is a sugar-free creamy almond butter freezer fudge from Megan at Detoxista’s site. Her efforts have made her the top affiliate last month.

From time to time I like to give gifts to the most enthusiastic affiliates – last month the sleek Maria at Scandi Foodie was that enthused person (thank you thank you!) and I am sending over $500 worth of vouchers and prizes to say…thank you thank you! Check out how she does it so well here. And also scroll down below to see how a couple of other affiliates are doing it…in a way that’s helpful and effective and not…sell-in-ish. If you know what I mean.

Firstly, what IS an affiliate program?

A clever way for you to take part in spreading the sugar-free message with me. If you liked the ebook/s,  share your thoughts on it/them with your readers, and I’ll help you make some money for your efforts.

Can anyone be an affiliate?

Yep! You can. You can run your affiliates through your website, as well as a newsletter, magazine, put it in your email auto-signature, or share on your social media sites.

What do you get?

For my affiliate program, 30% commission on every sale that goes through your site. This means you make $8.70 on the bundle deal

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It’s better to feel normal about being abnormal

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I like Henry Miller’s mind. I’ve written about it before. He expresses without apology. His writing just…goes there; it cuts through and doesn’t pause to deliberate fruitlessly. It feels like freedom to just read his work.

Image by Jody Rogac
Image by Jody Rogac

I came across these Henry Miller quotes just now. It’s from an essay he wrote on the musings of psychoanalyst E. Graham Howe. Miller dissects some of Rowe’s thoughts on normality, and surrender, that I rather like:

“‘Normality,’ says Howe, ‘is the paradise of escapologists, for it is a fixation concept, pure and simple.’ ‘It is better, if we can,’ he asserts, ‘to stand alone and to feel quite normal about our abnormality, doing nothing whatever about it, except what needs to be done in order to be oneself.’

Yes, we must stand alone in order to be ourselves. And, yes, it’s the most challenging thing in the world to do. It’s my greatest ambition… to be truly, bravely myself.

As Miller goes on, a little aloofly:

It is just this ability to stand alone, and not feel guilty or harassed about it, of which the average person is incapable.

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cooking sugar-free with xylitol

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As many of you who follow the I Quit Sugar journey know, my preferred sweetener is rice malt syrup and stevia for a number of reasons, which you can catch up on here. But I’ve also mentioned before that xylitol is one of the very few safe sugar alcohols and works a treat for baking.

Our I Quit Sugar friend Nat Kringoudis is a xylitol fan, and I’ve asked her to share why this is the case, plus a few very pretty sugar-free recipes from her new book Eat Fat Be Thin. Go Nat!

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Nut and yoghurt tart, recipe below

Nat is an acupuncturist, herbalist, natural fertility educator, writer, blogger and natural health expert…and mum!… and has often helped us with our I Quit Sugar programs, most recently helping to answer questions on our I Quit Sugar Facebook page program. Nat has been following I Quit Sugar from the start, and also lives sugar free. In her new book, Nat has joined forces with Andi Lew to inspire women of all ages to be healthy by eating plenty of healthy fat.

Nat says: Xylitol is another alternative to sugar and artificial sweeteners, and may be used safely in small amounts. Derived from the birch tree:

  • it is widely used in chewing gums as it inhibits bacterial growth and reduces the incidence of cavities.
  • it tastes exactly like sugar, and is especially good for diabetics and those who are hypoglycaemic.
  • it’s safe: a 1986 study verified Xylitol’s safety and it received the highest and safest ADI (acceptable daily intake) rating.
  • it can be purchased from health food stores and you can use it as a sweetener in drinks and baked goods.
  • it has 40% less calories than sugar.
  • it’s also plant-derived, which means it’s natural, unlike aspartame, which has been known to be carcinogenic and affect the digestive system.

Xylitol like anything is really safe in small doses and like with all our recipes, these were created as ‘treats.’  Xylitol in larger doses (more than 50gm per serve) may have a laxative effect, just like many fruits would – so be aware that overdoing may see you visiting the loo more than usual! There are no other reported problems associated with xylitol in healthy doses – and like all foods we encourage our readers to eat a variety of fresh whole foods.

Nat has also shared two xylitol recipes from her Eat Fat Be Thin book.

Nut and Yoghurt Tart

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45 tips for saving $1036

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Last week I chaired a food wastage forum – Whatever Happened to Waste Not Want Not – as part of the Sydney Festival. It was a joint initiative of Target100, a beef and lamb industry sustainability program, and EPA’s Love Food Hate Waste program (I’m the ambassador to both). The forum raised so many points, the aim of which was to encourage everyone in the audience to reduce their waste by 50 per cent.

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A few factoids for you:

* By 2075, there will be 3 billion more mouths on the planet to feed, requiring 70 per cent more food than is available now. We can’t feed the planet now…what the hell are we going to do?

* The BIGGEST environmental issue facing the planet right now? According to many experts it’s food wastage.

* More than 50 per cent of all food produced doesn’t make it to our gobs. It’s wasted at the farm, in storage, transport, at the supermarket and then in our homes.

* The BIGGEST wasters in that cycle? Consumers. Yep. We toss out 20-50 per cent of our food each week. The average Australian household wastes $1036 worth of food a year.

* And the WORST offenders? 18-24 year-olds and those earning more than $100K a year. The young and the rich!

* Australian farmers, in particular meat farmers, have some of the most sustainable practices in the world. A meat-inclusive diet (as opposed to a vegetarian one) is the most sustainable here in Australia. I’ve touched on why here, but will be posting more on this soon.

At the forum, we asked everyone to try cutting their food wastage by 50 per cent. Totally reasonable. The European Parliament has resolved to reduce food waste by 50 percent by 2020. About 60 per cent of all food waste is entirely avoidable.

And we asked people in the audience to share the tips (from us on stage and their own) on Twitter on the hashtag #wastenot. The hashtag #wastenot went viral, and trended in Australia, and there are some fantastic tips on the tag. I’ve shared some here, but for more, simply do a little read through on the hashtag.

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For more tips, here’s how to eat your scraps.

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yes, I eat fruit. and, no, I’m not misleading Australia.

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You might have caught last night’s A Current Affair segment on the telly about sugar? I popped up as a sugar-quitting expert, along with my mate David Gillespie. However, I was used mostly as a voice of extremeness via some quotes I’ve made to ACA journalists previously, repackaged in rather extracted form. In particular, I was presented as being anti-fruit. You can catch the clip here.

Image by stephaniegonot
Image by stephaniegonot

A few people today have got outraged on my behalf (fired up that my quotes seemed to be placed out of context), or just outraged that I would diss fruit. I don’t tend to get upset by these kind of things. ACA presented an interesting take on the subject. And besides, how splendid! I now have a great opportunity to clear things up nice and crystal-like.

1. I eat fruit. One of the ACA grabs sees me listing the high-fructose fruits, as requested by the journalist at the time (during an interview a while back). I recommend eating the low-fructose fruits where possible: kiwi, berries, grapefruit and so on. If you’re doing my 8-week program, I advise cutting out fruit for 6 weeks. This is to break the sugar addiction and to recalibrate our bodies, just for that short period. I then, at the week-7 mark, invite everyone to reintroduce fruit and read how their bodies take to it.

2. I make the point over and over, based on the only comprehensive research I’ve found (by the American Heart Foundation):

we are only able to handle 6-9 teaspoons of sugar a day. Which is about the amount contained in 2-3 pieces of low-fructose fruit.

Many experts in this area – cardiologists, endocrinologists and nutritionists without vested interests in the sugar industry – confirm this amount as being appropriate. I personally find it’s the amount my body can handle before I start to feel the effects.

3. If fruit is your only source of fructose in a day, then 2-3 pieces of fruit is fantastic. If fruit is treated as a treat…which is how I was raised to eat it, and our parents and grandparents were raised to eat it…then bloody fantastic. But do you eat fruit as your treat? Do you eat fruit instead of chocolate or ice cream? Or as well as?

4. Know this: fruit today is MUCH sweeter than it was only two generations ago. They’re being bred this way because

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