Recipe: Peach garlic kick smoothie

Hey team,

Tried again with the green smoothie (this one's more of a mustard colour) with garlic today. Cut down to 1 clove of garlic, will slowly increase the amount of this natural anti fungal healer as I get used to it. Today was a success! No disasters! There are enough disasters in life, so when I make a smoothie, I just want things to go well, you know?

I used a can of peaches in juice and drained and rinsed them, to get rid of the refined sugar. These were additive free ones too, so while they're not in season, this way will  keep you peachy keen year round. Threw an egg in for protein, I use free range, so they're salmonella safe because the birds were likelier to be healthy. 

Even with the garlic, this was a very pleasant drink! Try it. I dare you.

Ingredients

1 clove garlic

handful of parsley

1/4 cucumber

2 tbspn grated root ginger

1 egg 

can of peaches
half cup lite coconut milk
1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk

Method

1. Finely dice garlic and throw in to the blender, with rinsed and chopped cucumber, parsley.

2. Grate and add fresh ginger

3. Throw in the egg and the can of rinsed peaches

4. Add the coconut milk and almond milk 

5. Blend and serve and, as always, 

enjoy!

Disaster smoothie with great results.

Still full from a big lunch out today, I decided to just make a smoothie for dinner. I make smoothies everyday, but decided to make my first vegetable smoothie for tea.

It tasted LIKE DEATH. But I felt so different afterward. 

I have had particularly bad brain fog (unable to concentrate, think of the words you want, mental confusion) for the past four days, so the sudden mental clarity and alertness was very noticeable! I wanted to pause the flat movie night and ask the girls if this is how normal people (healthier folk) feel all the time. I know that there is a whole realm of information about the health benefits of vegetable smoothies and juices, and now I am determined to try a combination of ingredients that are actually tolerable!

Tonight's smoothie contained three raw garlic cloves (have been reading of this amazing natural antibiotic) parsley, coriander, a carrot, fresh ginger, lemon and zest, grapefruit and zest, quarter of a cucumber and about half a cup of water. Needs some green apple, beet or more carrot to conceal the garlic better. Easily done.

So obviously super fueled with antioxidants, it was bitter and spicy. I'll be working on a sweeter (or at least more palatable) recipe to share- but just wanted to share of the effects felt! If you have CFS or feel like you're just always exhausted, you can imagine how exciting it was to have a sharper mind and noticeable increase in mental energy . Hopefully this will make kicking the coffee habit easier (more on this reluctant move soon).

Do you make vege smoothies or juices? And do you notice the benefits? xx

Immune system strengthening smoothie recipe!

Inspired by the book reviewed in my last post, I just whizzed up this gem of a drink! Full of highly nutritious fruit and vegetables, this refreshing smoothie is sweet, without need of any additional sweeteners. I sometimes like to make mine so thick that I eat it out of a huge cup with a spoon, like a pudding. As is the case with this one. Just add more milk for milky smoothie consistency.

Ingredients

1/2 a fresh beetroot

1/4 of a lemon, skin left on

2 tbspn grated root ginger

1 green apple

1 handful fresh spinach or 1 cube defrosted frozen spinach

1 handful of parsley

1 kiwifruit

1 tbspn virgin coconut oil

30ml (or desired amount) coconut milk
1 cup (or thereabouts) unsweetened almond milk

Method

1. Rinse fruit and vegetables

2. Grate ginger, add to blender (store remainder in the freezer to keep it fresh for next time!)

3. Add chopped kiwifruit and green apple and peeled and chopped beetroot 

4. Throw in the parsley and spinach

5. Chop the lemon finely, leaving the skin on (MANY nutrients are found in the skin)

6. Add the coconut oil, coconut milk and unsweetened almond milk and blend until you reach the consistency of your dreams!

Enjoy!

Book review: Eat to Boost Your Immunity

Eat to Boost Your  Immunity by Kirsten Hartvig

I'm really interested in learning more about the immune system, what we can do to strengthen it, and the role that it plays in illness. There are so many things that we can do to strengthen our health, and I believe that what we choose to eat can make or break our health. I know that in my experience that proves to be true, anyway.

I've been flicking through this book and though it's specific focus on CFS is minimal, it does state the following:

"The best way to prevent or manage CFS is through detoxification, and following a diet rich in foods that enhance resistance to disease and support immunity." 

Author, Hartvig advises eating lots of fresh fruits and vegetables and drinking plenty of pure water to boost immunity. She suggests eating foods with high levels of vitamin B5 and C, calcium, zinc, magnesium and essential fatty acids for CFS, while vitamin C and zinc (as well as vitamin A and selenium) are also good for combating stress.

Hartvig includes a list of superfoods for CFS: avocado, banana, beans, beetroot, blackcurrant, borage, chamomile, cleavers, echinacea, grapefruit, green leaves, liquorice root, muesli, nuts, okra, papaya, peas, red pepper, rice, tempeh, tofu and wheatgrass. 

Her list of superfoods for stress is the same as for CFS, with the additions of cabbage, carrot, lavender, lemon balm, lentils, mango, oats, oranges and strawberries. 

An easy, understandable tread, the book delves into the relationships between the immune system and health, and food and the immune system. It also contains profiles on multiple superfoods, recipes for immune boosting foods, and which foods can aid in certain ailments. 

The following recipes are recommended for those wanting to prevent and treat CFS, though they'd benefit anyone's immune system!

Grapefruit salad

1 grapefruit, peeled and cut into segments
1 avocado, peeled, stoned, sliced
1 endive, thinly sliced (leaf vegetable from chicory family, could replace with kale)
2 stalks of celery, thinly sliced
100g bean sprouts
1 bunch watercress
1 lime, to dress salad

Combine all the ingredients in a salad bowl. Add some lime dressing, garnish with watercress and serve immediately.

Immuni-tea

2 parts nettles

1 part borage

1 part cleavers

1 part echinacea

1 part liquorice

1 part thyme

Mix the herbs well. Use 1 teaspoon or herb mixture per cup of boiling water. Place the herbs in a warmed teapot, add the boiling water, cover, and leave to infuse for 10 minutes.

Enjoy!

Book review: Love and Fatigue in America

Love and Fatigue in America by Roger King

I've just finished this biographical novel of British author, Roger King. It tells of King's arrival in small town America, where he has come to teach at university, and is then stricken with the painful affliction of a mystery illness. Sound familiar?

King's journey spans seven years, encountering many doctors and their various responses to his struggle with chronic fatigue syndrome. Some of them are compassionate, some of them are miseducated and some of them are scams. King's retelling of visits to hosts of doctors are entertaining and humorous, while also making me regret paying the same kinds of characters to do weird, fruitless alternative stuff too.We're walked through the decline of his career, conversations with those that don't shun him in sickness, contrasting cultures of America to his London hometown, the American healthcare system and the transformation of his expectations and contentedness in life.

Lavish with openness and honesty (which I value greatly!) King shares about his sudden, debilitating physical weakness and his need to constantly be lying down, in one early instance, collapsing in the gym, and often trying to conceal his complete brain fog, confusion and urgent need for rest by laboring to put one foot in front of the other and keep a straight face. He also tells of his attempt to energise the body with cold water therapy, having cold swims and showers prior to energy consuming events. We are let in to his world, his thoughts, his new lifestyle that he learns how to cope with and his string of unsuccessful relationships where his health changes dynamics greatly. Arriving not knowing anyone, then moving around over the years in quest for comfort and affection, King's only constant companion in the book is his canine friend, Arthur.

Reading this was somewhat therapeutic for me. Having someone intricately describe a personal struggle with some aspects seeming almost identical to your own, is comforting. You are reminded that you are not actually the only one to be facing such hardship, but that someone else knows it and feels it too. There is relief to be found, in reading about another's experience of an illness that is often ignored or disputed by the mainstream medical world.
I would recommend this read, if not only for insight in to someone else's experience with CFS and how they choose to view it. There is definitely some hard earned wisdom to be taken from these pages.

MY STORY

It was in the Autumn of 2012 that my health began to rapidly dwindle. My energy was long lost, no strength remained within arm's reach, and everything including my arms began to ache. I became bedridden and isolated in my own whirlwind of illness and consequent depression. 

Two Autumns have passed and I am progressively gaining strength, after gaining much experience and knowledge of illness, health, and various factors that keep the two notions separate. Join me on my journey as I endeavour to learn more about what makes for a healthy individual, as I put this chronic fatigue to rest.

History

At the age of nine I had glandular fever for about two months.

I had a persistent sore throat, cough and throat clearing thing going on throughout childhood. It drove my mother crazy. The GP diagnosed it as asthma and prescribed inhalers. At the age of ten I was told by a naturopath that this was due to a dairy, wheat, rye and barley intolerance. My diet changed dramatically. My ten year old self hated that naturopath! No longer was the table laden with raspberry buns, Madeira cake and chocolate milk aplenty. Instead I carried around almonds and raisins everywhere I went and reluctantly made the switch to soy milk and corn thins. But I did get down to a healthier weight and with the diet and truckload of supplements, my health strengthened somewhat.

Energy levels

I was often tired. I don't remember so much before the glandular fever, but definitely recall low energy levels after it. I would go through phases of excessive tiredness and then seem to recover for a time. I would try everything, from sleep inducing foods, herbal sleeping pills and lavender baths and earlier bedtimes, to protein shakes, spirulina and the coffee addiction that began at fourteen. I started to 'recover' less as the years went on, often missing a lot of university from age twenty to twenty three because of sheer exhaustion. I could not keep my eyes open. I had to study part time because I had such a seemingly weak constitution, I was always just hanging on. But doctors had always put tiredness down to lack of exercise (which would definitely have been a factor) or depression, or the ho-hum response, "well your blood tests have come back normal, so just see how you go, and maybe come back in a few months if it's still the same."

Stress 

I was going through a particularly stressful period and was then in a car accident. This lead to further stress with insurance companies and disputes tribunals and car purchasing. I began to enter one of those 'phases' of exhaustive fatigue again, but this time I couldn't kick it.

Symptoms

The fatigue became much worse, to the point where not only did I have to leave university and barely leave the the house, but I couldn't pour the jug without using two hands or go to get the phone without becoming breathless. I also experienced the following symptoms:

• sore glands
• dizziness
• nausea
• loss of appetite
• joint pain
• muscular pain
• headaches
• brain fog 
• chest pain 
• shaky hands
• red eyes
• thinning hair
• weight loss
• dependence on coffee and energy drinks to get anything done

Progress

After suffering with the symptoms and the consequent depression and significant life changes, I started learning. It took a while to get a diagnosis, I had to go to multiple doctors, and finally travel to see one who specialised in CFS. Though relieved and grateful to finally receive diagnosis, there was no treatment plan and no cure. I was clueless. Where do you start? After trying bed rest (I didn't have any choice) and weekly vitamin b injections, I saw no progress. I started to read whenever I felt strong enough, trying to gain any knowledge that may help. The next year I discovered the role that diet could play in CFS and autoimmune illness, as well as how possible underlying factors of the illness could be addressed. I started to regain strength slowly, only to lose it again, to gain it....and so on. 

My goal now is not just to recover, but to try and be of help and encouragement to anyone else who finds themselves weak, sick and clueless as to why, and what to do next. 

Now let us continue to learn about immune health, fighting illness and gaining strength!

Love,

Scarlett