Year: 2016

Time for me to get really real with you about the sugar tax

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I’m going to start this post by saying hats off to Big Soda…they sure do a fine job of spreading misinformation.

xxx

Last week the I Quit Sugar team and I launched a huge campaign for an Australian sugar tax on sugar soft drinks.

Click to sign now if you like.

Jamie Oliver did similar in the UK and, with 155,000 signatures, was able to influence UK Parliament to commit to a 20 per cent tax on sugary soft drinks in 2018. The folk behind his campaign – change.org – approached me to do the same here.

Wonderfully, on the weekend, Jamie Oliver got on board and endorsed my petition.
Wonderfully, on the weekend, Jamie Oliver got on board and endorsed my petition by sharing my link. You can do the same, adding your own empassioned message. Simply click here.

We now have 15,000 signatures. And counting.

Click to sign now to add to the tally.

Anyway, I’ve become a little frustrated about the push-back from some to the campaign. I love debate and constructive questioning of anything I do. I’m grateful for it. It keeps me on my toes and committed to getting closer to truth. But I tend to get frustrated when push-back is wedded to the black and white and lazy blanket

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9 fun ways to make last night’s dinner with an egg on it

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Folk out there are still scared of leftovers. They needn’t be. They’re safe, and legal (to take home in doggie bags from restaurants), and entirely sensible, sustainable and simplicious. If there’s one trick you need to perfect, should you be new to this leftovers caper, is to know how to repurpose dinner into another meal the next day.

https://www.instagram.com/raeishungry/
Rae’s clever take on this dish, details below.

I call it “Doggie Bag Dinner the Next Day”. The French call it oeufs en restes. Whatever you want to call it, the idea entails putting a leftover meal in a pan – it can be a whole meal (chopped up), a soup, a pasta or a stew – adding a dash of broth and sticking an egg in the middle.

Fennel, silverbeet, turmeric, leek, garlic, miso, blended, with an egg smoodged through it. Plus coriander. Because I'm snotty.
Last night’s fennel, silverbeet and leek, plus turmeric garlic, miso, blended…with an egg smoodged through it. Plus coriander.

The 2:4 Doggie-Bag Rule. 
Don’t be scared of food poisoning: simply get the meal to the fridge within 2 hours, and keep it there for no more than 4 days before eating. Oh, and reheat it in the microwave for at least 2 minutes until it’s steaming

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When other people do Simplicious better than me!

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One of my great mates, Bill, told me he’s sick of the sound of my name. His partner Mark has changed the way they live and it’s kind of annoying Bill. Bones being collected from his plate and the smell of bone broth…it’s driving him mental. Worse, whenever he arks up, Mark’s response is, “Sarah Wilson says…”.

The embarrassing thing is, Mark is actually doing a better job of the whole Simplicious caper than me at the moment. He out-Simplicious’d me. He’s not alone…awkwardly enough.

I've been out-Simplicious'd!
I’ve been out-Simplicious’d!

I Quit Sugar’s recipe developer Meg has a housemate Lucy who goes beyond.

Says Meg: “We always keep a “banana box” in the freezer for smoothies and whatever. One day we were cutting up the bananas to freeze and Luce was just like OMG I can’t throw out the peels. And I was like… throw out the peels you crazy person. So then she Pinterested the hell out of it and found you could make “banana water” so she simmered the peels in a pot of water… then froze the water into ice cubes to use in smoothies and things.”

Yeah, totally out-Simplicious’d.

xxx
Bananas about to be simmered up for Lucy’s “banana water”

Then “Emily”, a reader who once posted a “celery boner” on Instagram (which I reposted) emailed me to share this: “The other day my friend texted me, ‘Every time I throw away food, I feel like Sarah Wilson is looking

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10 things to do to heal your gut

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I’m gut-health obsessed. I talk about gut health a lot, here and elsewhere. I believe most contemporary ills stem from gut issues and I’ve got my fair share of personal experience. Today, I’m sharing some of the tips and tricks I’ve accumulated in my years of research on the topic.

Things to heal your gut Sarah Wilson
Image via montanaroue.com

1. Don’t worry about dirt on veggies.

A little dirt provides your gut with some soil-based organisms, which, through a process of gene swapping with the microbiome, have been found to strengthen the immune system. European scientists worked out this is why kids living on organic farms are far less likely to develop asthma or allergies. They call it the “farm effect”. I reckon I have this…I used to live in dirt, eat dirt and certainly didn’t have a germ-a-phobe mum.

2. Quit sugar.

Sugar is your microbiome’s worst enemy. It promotes the growth of bad bacteria in the gut and hampers the growth of the good stuff. But good news: the effects of sugar are not irreversible (unlike the effects of seed oils, for instance). When you quit the white stuff and Just Eat Real Food, your gut flora will repair itself.

3. Avoid Aspartame. 

It’s converted to formaldehyde (yep, the stuff used an embalming fluid) in your body. Your liver can’t clear this toxin normally, so it remains lodged, activates inflammation in your gut and can lead to autoimmune issues and cancer growth.

4. Just Eat Real Food.

Because processed foods contain all the things you should avoid if you’re aiming for a

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My bareboating (and hiking) guide to the Whitsundays

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My recent sailing trip up at Australia’s Great Barrier Reef was quite possibly the best trip of my life. Brace yourself for a fair bit of hyperbole. Apologies in advance!

xxxx
Bareboating in the Whitsundays…I slept. And read. And hiked. And ate.

Please note: I was supported in doing the bareboating by Tourism and Events Queensland, however, as always, the trip was conducted on my own terms and the recommendations are my own. The operators and providers I went with were my own choosing. You’ll find my position on sponsored posts and advertising here.

So the basic gist is this.

Bareboating entails hiring a boat that you sail yourself. You live on the boat in extremely comfortable digs. You are the captain, skipper and crew. You choose where you go and where you anchor for the night.

There are 74 islands in the Whitsundays to visit and more than 50 anchorages. It’s all very choose-your-own-adventure. Which totally floats my boat. I’m not so good at being handheld through a holiday. Contiki tours and

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My Indian Kimchi recipe: The best probiotic food

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Kimchi is hands down THE best probiotic food out there. I add it to my meals on a regular basis and figured it’d be a good idea to share why it’s so bloody good for you…as well as a recipe from my latest book I Quit Sugar: SIMPLICIOUS. Yeah, for free.

My Indian Kimchi
My Indian Kimchi, recipe from I Quit Sugar: Simplicious

Probiotics vs prebiotics

Before I start ranting about the health benefits of kimchi I’ll distinguish between the two ‘biotics. Folk can get them confused.

* Probiotics are live “good” bacteria that aid the digestive system by controlling the growth of “bad” bacteria. That lactobacillus acidophilus in yoghurt…that’s a probiotic.

* Prebiotics on the other hand are non-digestible food fibres that enable probiotics to stick to the bowel wall and helps stimulate their growth. Fibres found in foods that typically make us fart are prebiotics (they travel to the large intestine intact where the “good” bacteria tries to break it down, facilitating “good” bacteria growth and…gas).

The two go hand in hand.

So why are probiotics so important?

Bacteria are crucial to human health. In fact, the vast community of bacteria (also called the microbiome)

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Are you a pre-crastinator?

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I am. Researchers at Penn State have identified what I would suggest is a modern coping phenomenon – hurrying to get something done so we can cross the task off our mental to-do list, even if doing so is non-productive.

pre-crastinating Sarah Wilson
Image via Jack Shainman Gallery

They call it pre-crastinating and they suggest those of us who do it, do so to offload “working memory”. That is, we plough through something just to reduce the number of things we have to remember to do.

My main pre-crastinating activity is attending to email each day rather than prioritising the more important tasks. I can get totally caught up in cleaning out my inbox. Ditto social media fussing. As I fuss and tend I convince myself I’m getting shit done. I convince myself I’m in control. And I’m validated.

But it’s an illusion. It’s like trying to plug a dyke with your thumb. Except it’s worse. Your thumb-plugging is

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Golly! Your nail polish might be making you fat…

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Nail polish. I don’t use it. For the same reasons I avoid conventional beauty products, sun screen and perfume. The stuff is toxic and not necessary. Now, new research claims nail polish can cause weight gain. Good Lord.

Image via coolechicstylefashion.blogspot.com
Image via coolechicstylefashion.blogspot.com

The recent study, conducted by researchers at Duke University and the Environmental Working Groupg (EWG), tested the urine of 26 women who had recently painted their nails. It found traces of Triphenyl Phosphate (TPHP), in every participant.

What’s TPHP?

TPHP is a chemical commonly used to make plastics and fire retardants in foam furniture. In nail polish it’s used to provide flexibility to the product.

TPHP is a chemical known to disrupt hormone function by mucking with our endocrine system, affecting a variety of vital functions, including reproduction.

Plus, it specifically and significantly interacts with a protein which is central to regulating our metabolism and the production of fat cells.

How does it get into your body?

First off, you inhale it as soon as you open the bottle. But the more remarkable finding of the study is that women who directly applied polish to their nails (as opposed to those who wore gloves and applied the

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This is the goal of the human experiment

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Bite on this and chew it:

“You will be civilised on the day you can spend a long period doing nothing, learning nothing, and improving nothing, without feeling the slightest amount of guilt.” – Nassim Nicholas Taleb.

doing nothing Sarah Wilson
Image via Mery.jp on Pinterest

Reader Leonie shared this with me following my post about my time in an Ayurvedic clinic in India from a few months back. I read the quote. And absorbed the “civilised” notion. I get the full weight of this.

I take civilised to mean solid, steady, considered, wise, tempered. It’s non-reactive. It comes from a place of full consideration. To reach this point, we need to be reflective. To sit. To allow. To witness.

Doing is great. But we also have to sit back and allow. Sprint, rest. Sprint, rest.

I know many people don’t know where to start this experiment. And it is an experiment that takes a lot of building up of

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Your favourite songs to lull anxiety

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A few weeks ago I shared a post about songs that can lull anxiety. And why.

Image via Pinterest
Image via Pinterest

To refresh, this is the top ten list as compiled by a bunch of boffins from the British Academy of Sound Therapy:

  • 1. Weightless
  • 2. Electra (Airstream)
  • 3. Mellomaniac (DJ Shah – Chill Out Mix)
  • 4. Watermark (Enya)
  • 5. Strawberry Swing (Coldplay)
  • 6. Please Don’t Go (Barcelona)
  • 7. Pure Shores (All Saints)
  • 8. Someone Like You (Adele)
  • 9. Canzonetta Sull’aria (Mozart)
  • 10. We Can Fly (Café Del Mar).

You lot had a bit to say on the matter and shared your Music for Quietening An Agitated Soul. I like your work:

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