I don’t endeavour here to do a huge in-depth piece on what is a really complex topic that I’ve been studying for three years now (frankly, I don’t have the time). But since gut health is becoming more and more of a “big deal”, I’ve put together an elevator guide to the microbiome, a bunch of facts you need to know, nicely packaged in bite-sized form to tell your mates, Gran, postman or hairdresser.
Image via nytimes.com
1. News just in: The microbiome is responsible for most contemporary illness.
2. The microbiome is the bacteria living inside you and on your skin – bacteria, viruses, archaea, eukaryotes and fungi included.
3. 95 per cent of microbiota sits in your gut – home to approximately 100,000,000,000,000 (100 trillion) micro organisms. That’s 10 times more than the number of cells in the human body.
4. Your gut microbiome comprises 80 per cent of your immune system.
5. You don’t get your bacteria until after you’re born. We acquire most of our microbiome by the age of three.
Are you a young person wondering what the hell you’re meant to be doing? Trying to find your place? Are you a parent with a beloved young person in your life who is struggling with their place?
Image via fourtears.tumblr.com
My suggestion: read famous creatives’ graduation speeches. They are truly inspiring frothings in which said famous creative confesses they, too, had no idea when they were young as to their allotted groove, with tricks on how to “settle” into it.
Journalist Pamela Druckerman recently shared this piece of writing when she was struggling to draft a commencement speech for her students at a Paris Arts College. This is the part that struck me most.
Pay attention to what you’re doing on the side.
“I started my writing career as a financial journalist. On the side, I took samba-dancing lessons, and eventually wrote a first-person article about this experience. It was the first piece I’d written that lit me up inside. Though it took years before I got to write that way for a living, I had found my place, the tiny hole in the universe shaped like me,” she shared.
Same with me. I was studying law and politics and waitressed for fun (and survival). My love of food saw me explore further in this realm. I did work experience at a magazine and offered to redesign the food pages over the weekend…because my love of food steered me to this. Monday morning I got the gig as the
Let me introduce to you: Gelatin. My new obsession and wonder weapon for gut health. In fact I believe in the power of gelatin so much I’ve produced my own.
Gut Lovin’ Gelatin, available at IQuitSugar.com
I’ve banged on about just how good this stuff is for you before. If you ask me, everyone can benefit from a little Gut Lovin’ – but if any of the symptoms below sound familiar to you, look no further. Gelatin is your new best friend.
1. If you’ve got acne
Gelatin contains the essential amino acid proline, which is used by the body to repair connective tissues, produce collagen and improve the texture of skin.
2. If you’ve got reflux
Gelatin reduces heartburn, ulcers and acid reflux by binding gut acids with the foods.
3. If you’re an insomniac
Reasearch has shown that the amino acid glycine contained in gelatin can actually enhance sleep quality,
I work in chaos. Plus, I’m very visual and I need to see ALL my bits of notes and ideas and outlines in one bird’s-eye grasp. So I scatter them around me at my desk, or the floor, or (as is often the case) the cafe bench where I’ve set up shop for the morning.
My writing desk in my office at IQS HQ
Also, my eyes and brain respond better to handwritten and hardcopy things. (My advice to young writers is to handwrite their story outline first.) Whether it’s the supermarket receipt with my scrawl-of-a-thought or the serviette from the cafe where I got my great intro paragraph idea for my next book, these messy, tangible things trigger my best creative thinking.
I’m in good company, apparently.
Albert Einstein had a desk that “looked like a spiteful ex-girlfriend had a mission to destroy (my) workspace.” Which, apart from anything else, is a fabulously evocative bit of descriptor.
Einstein would also say, in defense of his chaos:
“If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, then what are we to think of an empty desk?”
Lana Jankovic’s recreation – Gym Go-er Choc Spice Energy Bars
These little chocolatey flavour bombs are already packed with protein from black beans and tahini. But if you want to boost the protein content, swap the oat flour for protein powder. Lana‘s verdict after testing? “They turned out delicious – almost like a fudgey brownie!”
Oh I do love a bit of Thich Nhat Hanh. I recently discovered that the Vietnamese monk who brought us the mindful concept of “washing the dishes, to wash the dishes” has written about mindful love in his book “How to Love”.
Image via fourtears.tumblr.com
It’s a beautiful read. It hits nails on relationship heads. But I was struck by this passage that points to a yearning, which I’ve written about before. This yearning is a deep sense that something is missing, a “something” that we long to connect with. It’s essentially a visceral longing to connect with our “real selves”. But we don’t always get this.
Nhat Hanh writes:
“Sometimes we feel empty; we feel a vacuum, a great lack of something. We don’t know the cause; it’s very vague, but that feeling of being empty inside is very strong. We expect and hope for something much better so we’ll feel less alone, less empty…
“Because we feel empty, we try to find an object of our love. Sometimes we haven’t had the time to understand ourselves, yet we’ve already found the object of our love. When we realize that all our hopes and expectations of course can’t be fulfilled by that person, we continue to feel empty. You want to find something, but you don’t know what to search for.”
Let’s get really Sustainable Nerd today. I promote using sealable plastic bags when cooking and freezing food. They’re the perfect size for storing individual portions and things like parcooked ‘n’ frozen veggies really well; they become totable freezer blocks in a blink; they are better for storing in the freezer (I pack mine in layers); they’re washable and reusable; and they can be kept in your wallet ready to pull out at a restaurant or cafe when they serve too much bacon or butter or whatever, becoming waiter-friendly doggie bags.
I use ziplock bags that come with prescriptions and electrical equipment. I use all my ziplock bags multiple times. I’ve only ever bought one box of the things. I simply wash them out, then dry them by hanging them on my spoons in the drying rack or sticking them on a window or a splashback (they fall off when they’re dry).
Here’s a little listicle of other stuff you can do to max ya zips:
1. Make pre-packed smoothie bags. Freeze all the ingredients for your smoothies and freeze in icecube trays. Transfer to a ziplock bag and they’re ready to plonk into your blender (no ice required).
2. Store parcooked ‘n’ frozen veggies. Place in the freezer flat so that they can then be stacked neatly. It’s easier to “crumble” off veggies when they’re in a bag, much like you probably do with frozen peas (I often have to bang the bag on the bench).
3. Use as a take-away bag. When you’re grabbing a bagel or sandwich from a cafe, use the ziplock bag instead of getting it wrapped in a million layers of paper bags.
4. Create different scrap bags in the freezer. I usually add vegetable, herb stalks and other scraps as I go along. I have one for vegetable stock, chicken and fish stock and a leftovers pesto bag.
5. Stick a wet sponge inside and use as a freezer pack. You save tossing out an old sponge at the same time.
6. Remove chewing gum or candle wax. Got gum or wax on your tablecloth, couch or carpet? Fill a ziplock bag with ice and gently rub it on the gum or wax until it hardens. Then shatter the frozen gum with a blunt object and vacuum up the chips. Or use a plastic spatula to peel off the frozen wax.
“EVERY summer for many years now, my family has kept to our ritual. All 20 of us — my siblings, my dad, our better halves, my nieces and nephews — find a beach house big enough to fit the whole unruly clan. We journey to it from our different states and time zones. We tensely divvy up the bedrooms, trying to remember who fared poorly or well on the previous trip. And we fling ourselves at one another for seven days and seven nights.”
Why do we do it? Why do we stay so long when – to be honest – it ain’t always that easy?
To be there for the good stuff.
Bruni writes:
“With a more expansive stretch, there’s a better chance that I’ll be around at the precise, random moment when one of my nephews drops his guard and solicits my advice about something private. Or when one of my nieces will need someone other than her parents to tell her that she’s smart and beautiful.”
He makes the key point: to truly be present, we need time and space. Actually we need extra time and space, so that we can just be there, present and ready for when life unfurls.
I think a lot of our lives are stressfully spent trying to make quality time. I’ve pointed out how imperative
Back in the late 1700s, French philosopher Denis Diderot found himself broke. But he lucked out when Catherine the Great heard he couldn’t afford to pay for his daughter’s wedding and she stepped in to give him a huge wad of cash.
Image via abduzeedo.com
Feeling flush, he bought himself a new red robe. Then this happened…
He immediately felt his other possessions looked flabby in contrast to his new robe. So he bought a new rug. Then some sculptures. Then…and on it went. Until he was once again unable to afford the wedding.
This is the Diderot Effect: when you buy stuff that then creates a spiral of empty consumption.
I’ve said this many times before, shopping begets shopping. You go to The Shops and it compels you to make the most of your visit and you find yourself buying stuff you don’t really need. You figure you
Summer has hit and it’s HOT here in Sydney. So I’m sharing one of my favourite recipes from my latest book I Quit Sugar: Simplicious: the Beet That Popstick Salad. Yep, a salad with popsicles. (Note, one of the Big Food companies – let’s call them Nestle – has the trademark to”popsicles” and sues everyone and their pet duck if they use it in a recipe title. Not kidding.) A great Christmas lunch stopper bound to impress family and friends. You’re welcome.
“Beet That” Popstick Salad from Simplicious, on the right
I should also point out, I designed this salad to use the whole beetroot – leaves, root and the juice from the water that the beets are cooked in.
Beet That Popstick Salad
3 red beetroots, trimmed, peeled and chopped into 2 cm chunks
3/4 cup frozen raspberries
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 yellow or other coloured beetroots (if you can’t find any, use 2 large carrots)
3 handfuls of baby beetroot leaves or rocket leaves
1/4 cup walnuts (preferably activated), roughly chopped
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
pinch of sea salt
Place the red beetroot in a saucepan with enough water to cover. Bring to the boil (with a lid on) and cook for 20 minutes or until cooked through, but not mushy. Strain, reserving the precious bright-red beet water. Place
