Friday 11 July 2014

Turmeric sunrise

The 'turmeric sunrise' - The ultimate brightly coloured, anti-inflammatory drink!

I use roughly:
  • 5-7 Oranges - juiced on an orange juicer
  • 5-12cm Turmeric
  • 1 Large stick of celery
  • 1-2 red peppers
  • Half a teaspoon of powdered, or cracked black pepper corns
  • Optional (if you like the fire) Pinch of ceyenne
Put everything other than oranges through the juicer, I use a masticating 'oscar 900'  which crushes the juice out of the cells but a centrifugal juicer will work fine. 

This recipe combines the healing power of curcumin (in turmeric, not to be confused with cumin) and 'piperine' found in black pepper corns. These two substances compliment each other as the benefits of combining results in much better absorption and assimilation of the curcumin. This juice gives you a very uplifting, warming and nourishing feeling instantly and puts you into the now!

So lets talk the science, why is it so good? Well, curcumin is one of the best studied herbs, and is one of the few substances that can cross the blood brain barrier. It's no wonder it has been linked to better brain function, anti-depression and improved memory! It has a very powerful anti-oxidant profile, powerful enough to effectively reduce and slow the ageing process, by buffering the oxidation of DNA and the oxidative stress of eating cooked foods! Often if I do eat cooked food, I will put the powder onto steamed vegetables, potatoes and put the pulp into a curry. It's one of the most well studied herbs, with a lot of research showing it's effectiveness in regards to treating diseases partly caused by low level inflammation, like alzheimer's, cancer and rheumatoid arthritis. It has cooling, cleansing and healing effects on the kidneys, liver, gallbladder and intestines which can on holistically cultivate health in a diseased body. For example I have noticed my joints, skin and mental clarity to be much improved shortly after a few days on a turmeric juicing protocol.  

Historically the Indian population had very low rates of bowel cancer, probably due to various things like preferable squatting positions and a predominantly plant based diet. It seems widely thought that turmeric has a strong role to play in this. It's be shown to be more effects than many depressants, and anti-inflammatory drugs without the collateral damage associated with those pharmaceuticals. I drink a LOT of turmeric, often pure SHOTS! The only issue I have found with the herb is that it stains everything! So try not to ruin to stain everything orange ;)

For more information on spices that fight inflammation, check out SPICES THAT FIGHT INFLAMMATION on nutritionalfact.org, a fantastic website for up to date easy to digest, nutritional research compiled into small videos and blogs. It's worth following their facebook!

Another recipe worth trying (I have Zaheer to thank for this one) is:
  • Turmeric
  • Mango
  • black pepper
Blended into a smoothie. So be creative and infuse turmeric into your lifestyle and reap the benefits. I would like to hear of any other creative ways that you might use it!

On another note, I want to make more videos and share content. I lovingly welcome and invite suggestions, feedback and requests :) 

Peace out for now x

Thursday 20 March 2014

Raw 'rocky road' style superfood chocolates

Heres a quick delectable raw crunchy / chewy chocolate recipe. So stop drooling at the pictures and make some! The great thing about these is you can vary the recipe easily and their easy to make.
Raw cacao butter can be purchased from wild oats in Bristol, The chocolate love temple in Glastonbury or other good online retailers. 


A variation with raw almond butter
 For roughly ten biscuits you will need:

  • 70g raw cacao butter
  • 2 tbsp of raw coconut oil
  • 70g Lucuma powder 
  • 1 tbsp of vanilla bean paste 
  • Pinch of himilayan crystal salt
  • 2-3 tbsp of cacao powder
  • 75g of sprouted, then dehydrated buckwheaties
  • 25g Goji's
  • 2 tbsp of hulled hemp seeds
  • If your not scared of sugary dates, then 16 chopped up into small pieces. (alternatively use 2 tbsp coconut blossom nectar/sugar).
Optional:
  • Super food powders, ginger slices, nut butters, chilli, peppermint, bee pollen, coconut creamed butter etc etc etc etc  
Ingredients 

Step one:

In a bowl that's above a gently steaming pan of water, melt the cacao butter, coconut oil and coconut butter (if you decide to use it) until runny.

Step two
Put all powders, sugar, salt, vanilla bean paste and hemp seeds to a separate mixing bowl and add the cacao/coconut oil mixture. Thoroughly mix with a wooden spoon. 

Step thee
Stir in buckwheats, dates, goji berries ginger slices etc (if you decide to use them). 

Step four
Spoon mixture into a BPA free Tupperware until no more than an inch thick. Tap the container down on a surface to release air bubbles.

Step five  
Put into the fridge for 30 minutes -  an hour until nice and firm. 

Step 6 
Try not to gobble them all up in one sitting.