2013 - Page 3 of 14 - Sarah Wilson

I was wrong about sugar…

October 28, 2013October 24, 2013 by Sarah Wilson

Just kidding.

Although today I want to take a moment to emphasise and clarify a really crucial issue that a few unmentionables in the comments insist on challenging: that my focus on fructose is misguided. Or, more specifically, that substituting fructose with glucose as a sweetener is misguided (which I don’t actually do, but more in a second…).

Image via — Photography by Angie Gassner & Thomas Mailer

I’m responding to you lot (calm and reasonable readers; not Mr Unmentionable) in the event that you might be wondering if I care about the issue at all.

I do. And to be honest, I’ve had to double-check my position. Just to get clear myself. And for this, I’m grateful to the Mr Unmentionables out there who like to go after me for encouraging people to get real with their sugar intake. As I emphasise throughout my books and other materials, I’m constantly exploring and researching this area and am open to tweaking my thinking as I go. Then sharing it with anyone (calm and reasonable) in my orbit who cares to read on.

So, let’s break it down.

Why do I target fructose specifically (and not sugar as a whole, or glucose)?

Sugar is 50:50 fructose and glucose. It’s the fructose bit that I say is problematic. This is because:

1. Fructose is metabolised by our liver (while glucose is metabolised by all our cells). This taxes the liver BIG TIME: it spends so much energy turning fructose into other molecules that it may not have much energy left for all its other functions. Leading to the production of uric acid, which also promotes insulin resistance and is linked to a whole bunch of metabolic diseases.

2. This liver dumpage also causes it to store the fructose as fat, especially in the liver, and triglycerides, leading to a fatty liver and insulin resistance.

3. Fructose stuffs our appetite mechanisms. Our bodies strictly regulate the amount of glucose in the blood. Glucose stimulates the pancreas to

A bunch of IQS recipes

October 24, 2018October 22, 2013 by Sarah Wilson

A handful of IQS recipe favourites, just for you! You can find these and more recipes like them here. Flower Power Eggs Makes: 4 Preparation time: 3 minutes Cooking time: 5 minutes For a pop of colour, try this recipe with orange, yellow and green capsicums. The kids will love it. coconut oil, butter … Read more

The Sugar Science

October 23, 2018October 22, 2013 by Sarah Wilson

The Science. We try to stay on top of all the latest research on what sugar does to our health. It’s an ever-evolving area and some of the research is super new, requiring more time to prove the strong hypotheses. Below, however, are the latest studies that draw on the highest standards of proof (meta-analysis … Read more

How to heal autoimmune disease: the most insightful cure I’ve found (so far)

March 13, 2015October 22, 2013 by Sarah Wilson

Last week I shared some bits I found interesting in writer Meghan O’Rourke’s essay “What’s Wrong With Me” in New Yorker magazine. She has the same disease as me: hashimotos, with a side order of several other (possibly) related vague autoimmune (AI) conditions. And her insights touched me – and you guys – big time.

But I saved the bit that REALLY grabbed me in the guts for this post.

Have you ever thought you knew Everything about Something, but then you read something that really stopped you in your tracks? It stops you so abruptly because it’s so blindingly obvious. How could I have missed this? A total A-ha! Moment.

In her essay, O’Rourke shares her frustrations about how no one really knows what causes AI, nor what will fix it. It’s “shadowy”, she says. For some it can be a matter of taking the drugs, and off they go to live normal lives. I know lots of folk like this. I’m happy for them. But if, like me and O’Rourke, you let the disease tangle for too long before getting help your clusterf*ck of symptoms won’t be unraveled with one pill. And, so, like me and O’Rourke, you can develop a domino-ed set of other AI conditions.

And so the “morass of uncertainties” twists tighter.

Like me, O’Rourke reaches a point where she’s largely able to manage her disease through diet – no gluten, no sugar, meditation, kefir, avoiding nightshades, etc. etc. I’ve tried it all. And it’s all required to maintain something resembling a normal life when you have a tricky AI.

But, and this is the two points of note:

She hasn’t been cured as such. The “flares” and cycles continue.
Her focus on trying to find a cure, and on controlling the AI, has seen her AI control her.

Her A-ha moment comes, however, when her endo delivers blunt news after a “lapse”. Despite her best efforts to control things with her lifestyle habits, she seems to go backwards, causing her to lament, again, that no one knows what the hell is going on. Says the endo

Sardines for World Food Day

October 18, 2013October 16, 2013 by Sarah Wilson

Happy World Food Day! I hope you celebrate by eating your leftovers, choosing a secondary cut of meat, getting smart with your food scraps and using up all your leftover herbs.

Food sustainability is my number one passion right now. And, just to give you a sneaky head’s up (hopefully my publisher’s not reading this!) my next book, out in March, is pretty much a vehicle for weaving this message into things. In a fun, colourful, nourishing way.

Photo by thirschfeld, recipe below — Sardines, avocado and radish salad – recipe below. Photo by Thirschfeld.

But for today, let’s turn to my love of sardines. Sardines are the best fish. Period. They’re super high in DHA, their edible bones are brimful of minerals, they are low in mercury and, this is the relevant bit right now:

Sardines are the most sustainable option at the monger.

They’re currently not over-fished, there’s little or no by-catch and you can eat the whole thing, heads, tails, bones and all (nose to tail, right there!). Oh, and they’re dirt-cheap. Sardines are the future, I tell you.

This first recipe below is a one-pan-wonder-for-one, easily expandable to serve more. I recommend solo cookers cook up a bunch and then setting aside to eat as below.

Oh, and know this: studies show oven-baking is the best way to preserve sardine’s healthy oils.

Oh, and sorry to interrupt again, you can buy sardines whole and fillet them yourself by cutting from just beneath the head down the belly and removing the gills and insides. Wash under running water and rub to remove blood and scales. Pat dry. (I personally eat the heads and

How to heal auto immune disease: 20 weird thyroid symptoms (for your comfort)

April 16, 2018October 15, 2013 by Sarah Wilson

I’m not sure if you caught Meghan O’Rourke’s essay What’s Wrong With Me in a recent issue of New Yorker? It shines a spotlight on what it’s like to live with autoimmune disease. Totally pervy stuff for us AI folk.

I read it. I read it again. And I wept. You know that kind of weeping that is all about the sheer relief of having connected after not realising you felt so, so, so alone? Or of having recognised a part of yourself in another, of feeling the enormity of it all, and finding that this is somehow comforting. The bigness – and one’s own smallness and individual pain – is exponentially comforting. Oddly enough.

Of course, weeping is one of the 2938747 side effects of thyroid disease. And connecting with other sufferers is the most soothing respite we AI-ers can draw on. Ain’t that a fact. (As always, at this juncture, I ask anyone reding this who doesn’t have an AI to a) read on regardless as any AI insights can be extrapolated out to the meta population’s health and b) pass this to any loved ones with an AI.)

For those of you without a New Yorker account, I’m going to a) suggest you subscribe even just to read this article and then b) outline the bits that I was compelled to underline for those of you who only like highlights. I’m good like that! I’ve added in my own experiences and observations, too.

1. It can feel like depression… but not. “I wondered if I was depressed. But I wanted to work,” writes O’Rourke. “I didn’t feel apathy, only a weird sense that my mind and my body weren’t synched.” Shit! I get this. Let’s break it down…

2. Work is OK. The rest is hard. Of all the commitments in my life, working is the only one I can deal with when my thyroid folds. But only when I can shut out (oh, I hate that this is so…) people and other “complications”. It’s two things. First, in times of desperation (like when I have to do TV or

A Field Guide to dealing with Trolls and Snippities

August 21, 2014October 8, 2013 by Sarah Wilson

Troll baying seems to come in waves. Is it a lunar thing?

Lately, something has been going on. They’ve been making quite the cacophony out there in the social media zoo.

It’s not just the traditional trolls either. It’s everyday people who get all snippety about an issue and forget that online slam-downs are no different from screaming hysterically at a stranger in the street. It’s also Big Name Bloggers who feel they have license to get, well, plain mean.

Over the years I’ve truly come to weather the slings they throw from time to time on this blog, and now on my Instagram and Twitter accounts. Age helps – “sheer years on the planet” as I say quite often. Feeling comfortable with what I do does too. So does being bullied as a kid. I was ostracised most of my childhood until my intensity found a place on the planet. Again, sheer years on the planet!

I have a troll that follows me about. David Driscoll is his real name. He sets up fake Twitter accounts using pictures of cute, likeable 20-something women and goes after me for, yes, suggesting to others they might like to limit their sugar. He attacked me – for days? weeks? – for not responding to some comments from a dietician posted in response to a blog I’d written. FYI: I’d made my point already in my post (and didn’t feel I needed to say more), the dietician in question is sponsored by a major sugar-based food company (so I didn’t feel I needed to expend too much energy on her take), and – besides – I’d decided to contact the dietician direct and met her for coffee to discuss offline. Like real people do. We had a great coffee chat, didn’t agree, but kept it amicable. Like real people can.

Anyway, I’ve just done what I’m about to advise one does not do (see below).

Why am I taking time to write about this? Because I’ve been really concerned that readers here on this blog (and who follow me on social media) have been copping it from these Trolls and Snippities on my behalf recently. Some of you have – very kindly – jumped on to

Slow food and hiking guide to Sardinia #2

October 29, 2018October 3, 2013 by Sarah Wilson

A few weeks back I posted a Slow Food and Hiking Guide to Sardinia part 1. Forthwith is the rest of it. Sing out if you need any other tips. I’m forthcoming, mostly.

Sardinia is an intriguing place. You’ll like it. But, as I always advise, it’s always best to make your adventure your own. And to not over plan. I’ve shared my thoughts on travel here before.

So, we left off at Gavoi in the mountains. I then drove over to the West Coast. I kinda liked it more over this side. It felt a bit more genuine, and the towns were both less touristy and more alive. The food scene was a bit more robust, too.

Bosa

A fabulous little seaside town – population eight thousand – known for it’s agriculture and fishing. I stayed 10km out of town at Tresnarragus, at Villa Gli Asfodeli Hotel Tresnuraghes. Why? The place is a bike hotel… and, it turned out, a super friendly place to boot. It’s a big old building with sloping floors and grand windows, an amazing buffet breakfast and with a pool. It’s perched in the middle of the village square, but with an outlook over the fields and the ocean.

In Bosa, make sure you check out the Cantina Malvasia – a wine cave where you can taste the DOCG wine along with, wait for it, dark chocolate filled with pecorino cheese and bottarga (the famous mullet roe from the region). I also loved the Restaurant Borgo Sant’lgnazio just around the corner from the Cantina. Very authentic food and you sit out in the cobblestoned street to eat. I ate

I’ve become a food wastage nag….

October 2, 2013September 25, 2013 by Sarah Wilson

…But I don’t apologise for it. Are people wasting more food these days? Caring less? Or am I just becoming increasingly obsessed? A lot of all three, me thinks.

I’ve been working on a food shoot for my next book. That’s me above making sauerkraut, with my mallet from the toolbox. I’ve been flying a bit interstate, too, passing through food wastage hot-spots (in-transit eateries). And I’ve been eating out and at other people’s homes since getting back from overseas. I thought, then, it might be a good opportunity to share what I do to prevent food being wasted. I’ve been to the food wastage frontiers. Let me report back, in the desperate hope I can inspire even just one person out there (please let it be you!) to shift their ways a little.

For this is the reality:

Food wastage is the #1 environmental issue today, causing more carbon emissions than cars.

Consumers – us – are the biggest food wasters. We chuck 20% of the food we buy.

I suggest this is a conservative estimate.

So, some examples of what I did to stem the tide this week:

A swede and turnip bought for propping: cooked and mashed, frozen to top shepherd’s pie down the track. I cooked it while steaming veg for dinner that night (using a double steamer on top of the roots).

Sardines, cooked, used on shoot: I invited (forced!?) everyone to eat them…they left behind the heads and tails. I kept my heart-sinky disappointment to myself and took them home and ate on top of vegetables that night. They’re the best bits people! And I kinda think that if you’re not up for eating the whole fish, you shouldn’t be eating any of it. I know, harsh. But this is where the food landscape is at:

We need to earn our right to eat good food.

And please don’t give me the Oh But The Germs argument. We kiss our mates. We eat our lunch at our computers (which are festooned with more germs than a toilet bowl). We live in polluted cities. Some of us smoke cigarettes.

Fennel, beetroot (including the leaves) and leek bought for propping: cooked up into a soup that I took to a friend’s place,