We are now at the beginning of week 4 of the 40 Day Revolution and I still feel like it’s taken me by surprise. I hadn’t realized I was going to commit to the program until just the night before it started when my wife Bryony piped up unexpectedly and said she was up for it. I had been feeling the need for a detox for quite a while, as the usual post-Christmas and new year cleanse just didn’t materialize this year. My yoga vs caffeine and alcohol balance was out of whack and in need of a little tune-up and so the Revolution presented itself as the perfect opportunity to dive in and get my hands dirty.
At the end of week 1 I ran the Nutrition and The Yoga of Eating Workshop at our Rozelle studio and committed to entering the blogosphere for the first time! This was to cover some basic aspects of my food philosophy while including some recipes to support the revolutionary process.
Before we continue I would like to make it clear that I’m not a nutritionist but a lover of good food and a keen cook. My journey with food has taken me through the realms of abject debauchery in my younger years, followed by a prolonged and rather uncomfortable period of terrible digestion and wavering health, to my current understanding of how amazingly nutritious and soulful food can still be fun and an incredible celebration of flavor and life.
Over the next few weeks we’ll delve into the concept of ‘The Yoga of Eating’, which is all about bringing a heightened level of awareness to how and what you eat so that you can develop your own internal compass that will naturally guide you towards great nutrition. And we’ll also explore some interesting concepts around more traditional cooking techniques to help make your food nutrient dense and delicious.
This week it’s time for fasting and cleansing so I’ve interviewed Emma Sutherland, an amazing local naturopath and nutritionist, as to her key beliefs around what foods we should be eating in general and what we can do to support ourselves throughout the Revolution. After that I’ve added a few recipes that should help you through the fasting week (and beyond!) as well as a menu plan that will make 3 day fast relatively easy.
Interview with Emma Sutherland
Below is an edited run down of my conversation with Emma.
Harry: Can you summarise your food philosophy in a few simple points?
Emma: I have 3 key rules for general health and optimal nutrition
- Food must be organic – particularly anything that comes from an animal.
- As close to the source as possible! You don’t want to be eating a chicken from a farm in Mexico, but instead an organic chicken from a farm right outside Sydney! We’re not just talking about food miles and ecology, but the energy of the food as well.
- Finally, food as unprocessed as possible! So anything that comes in a tin, a package, or a plastic bag – why? It doesn’t need to. If you’re already eating fresh organic food you’re generally going to have no problems with number 3.
Keep it simple! I always tell people if they’ve no idea, especially with organics or if they say it’s too expensive, prioritise! Animal comes first. Then you can look at The Environmental Working Group and their ‘dirty dozen’. You can get an app on your i-phone by the same name as a free download. Every year they do a report on the amount of pesticides found in fruits and vegetables and come up with the top 12 worst offenders called the dirty dozen.
So if you know broccoli is heavily sprayed and contains a lot of residue because of its surface area to volume ratio, then you prioritise. You buy organic broccoli, but conventional potatoes and onions because they’re not as badly sprayed, and the pesticide residue is not as high.
Sometimes we can’t do everything we want, but it’s about knowing where to make the priority.
Also, look for nutrient dense foods! When they’re nutrient dense, you need to eat less anyway and can therefore afford to buy higher quality produce. Less is more; quality not quantity!
Harry: Specific to the Revolution do you have any particular advice on cleansing, fasting and for maintaining physical integrity for what is a serious challenge for most people?
Emma: I would lean more on my naturopathic knowledge for that and would say you need to support your liver and bowels!
First of all taking a pro-biotic and eating a lot of fermented foods, that’s an absolute must! The bowel is our main organ of elimination. If that’s not working well, then you’re going to feel tired and exhausted.
Then moving up to the liver, if that’s not breaking down our toxins effectively then you are going to feel nauseous and headachy, it’s going to have some adverse reactions, so something as simple as dandelion leaf tea, 2 or 3 times a day, and taking St Mary’s thistle (the herb) which helps liver cells to regenerate. Supporting the liver is an absolute must!
Harry: In my workshop I normally recommend that students look at really simplifying their diet for a couple of weeks to really help the cleansing process. So for example I will give up dairy, meat, caffeine, sugar, wheat and will reduce my use of other grains too whilst increasing my consumption of vegetables, in particular greens.
Emma: The food style you are recommending is perfect for liver health, it takes the load off, there’s no meat, no chemicals, no caffeine, no alcohol, so the liver is automatically going into detox mode. Then when you’re adding on the yoga, your releasing lots of stored toxins through fat cells, so you need extra liver support especially to then be able excrete them. Optimizing the liver health and keeping the bowel healthy is absolutely the key!
Harry: And what if you feel the need for a more intensive cleanse?
Emma: This is more an individual thing and depends on what you’ve been exposing your body to – what you’re going to be shifting out of your body.
Depending on what that is, tells you what organs you need to focus on – kidney, liver etc. That’s really an individual approach and probably needs an appointment with me.
But at the very least, even if someone was just to take St Mary’s thistle, this would support the liver far greater than not doing anything. That and Dandy tea, but absolutely no soy, it’s bad for you! There’s more information on this on my website.
Harry: And what do you recommend for fasting? Fasting is great when you’re on retreat, relaxing, under no stress. I normally recommend that if people are really busy and running around town that they don’t do a full fast or a fruit fast but have a few days eating very simple things like Kitcharis and steamed vegetables or if they are going to stick to a fruit fast to make sure they include lots of coconuts, avocado’s and tomatoes. What are your suggestions?
Emma: Perfect! What I will say about fasting is that I see a lot of clients making the mistake of doing vegetable juice fasts. For me, carrot and beet juice is so high in sugar!! So high! You see people who’ve just loaded themselves up with sugar doing vegetable juice fasts, which makes their body work harder, not less. It literally gives them a permanent sugar rush and they just feel very ungrounded and disconnected and it’s not a good experience.
That said, a well performed 3 day fast can be the most beautiful thing for a body. An amazing amount can change! My advice for this would be just to have bone broths, the old fashioned way with organic bones browned and stocked with apple cider vinegar. I also like to put enoke mushrooms and shitake mushrooms in there too as their immune properties are so high.
Harry: Thank you very much Emma! So how can our students come and see you?
Emma: My website for further information is www.emmasutherland.com.au and I’m available for appointments at Darling St. Health on Monday’s, Friday’s and Saturday’s ph. 9555 8806. I’m also available for Skype appointments on Wednesday afternoons. Call me on my mobile for Skype appointments through – 0432042451.
Harry: Finally I normally recommend Nourishing Traditions and The Yoga of Eating as two great food books covering cooking techniques and food philosophy. What are your favorite food books?
Emma: I can highly recommend Healing with Whole Foods by Paul Pitchford and Elixir by Janella Purcell. They would be my two favorite ones and after that, I normally give people resources that scare the sh*t out of them. Like Slow Death by Rubber Duck by Bruce Lourie and Rick Smith.
Our thanks to Emma Sutherland for taking the time to talk to us. Check out her website and keep and eye out for her new TV show launching on LifeStyle You later in the year.
A few words and recipes on fasting
Fasting is something to be undertaken with full awareness and a very clear understanding that it’s not something to be achieved against the grain of good sense. Use your intuition when approaching a fast, and if in doubt seek some professional advice from someone like Emma Sutherland.
As I’ve mentioned before there are plenty of different ways to fast and while I recognize the amazing value of full fasting, I don’t think it’s that practical when in the city and engaged in your regular everyday life. My fasting menu will be a very simplified diet for a number of days. I’ll begin with a coconut smoothie for breakfast, which is the juice and flesh of a young coconut blended with banana and blueberries. For lunch I’ll probably have a salad of tomato and avocado with a warm cup of chicken stock and for dinner I’ll lightly steam fresh organic green vegetables like broccoli and zucchini which I’ll season well with a good unrefined salt, olive oil and lemon juice.
Another option for any of the meals is to eat kitchari which is a time honoured Indian cleansing dish which you can eat as much as you like of (recipe included below). Of course between meals if you get hungry simply have a piece of fruit or a cup of stock. Alongside this I would make sure I was having lots of probiotics either in powdered form from your local health store or in fermented foods like coconut kefir or home lacto fermented vegetables. I’ll cover the making of these in later blog posts, but there’s a recipe for coconut kefir included below which is easy to make once you’ve cracked into the nut!
If you have any questions please get in touch by emailing me at harry@bodymindlife.com . Keep and eye out for further posts and news of our new organic café opening in the next few months.
Happy week 4, Viva la Revolution!
Harry
Recipes
Chicken stock
There are many different ways to make chicken stock, which I will explore further in future postings and workshops. It’s a simple art that takes a little care and bit of time but the rewards are great both in the taste of your food and it’s deep nourishing and nurturing qualities. This basic stock is wonderful as a base for soups or simply to drink on it’s own with perhaps the addition of some miso or dashi.
Method:
From the markets or your quality butcher get either a whole chicken or a couple of chicken carcasses (preferably with the giblets). Submerge in water, add either a glass of left over wine or good splash of vinegar (apple cider vinegar is great here!). Bring to a simmer and over the next half hour remove any scum that rises to the surface. Add a roughly chopped onion, carrot, celery, and some garlic along with any good herbs like bay, thyme, parsley etc. Reduce the heat and cover allowing the pot to simmer ever so gently overnight or preferably for about 24 hours. Towards the end you can remove the lid and allow the liquid to reduce a touch. Most of the time I don’t do this final reducing step as I normally make soups during the week for simple dinners and so the extra liquid is always well come, but if you wanted to store your amazing stock in the fridge or freezer it’s often handy to reduce the volume. You’ll also find in reducing it that it becomes more gelatinous and will turn into a jelly when chilled. The sure sign of a quality stock! Once the cooking process is finished simply pour out the stock through a fine sieve and discard the left over bones. I don’t mind the smaller bits and pieces of chicken being left in the stock but should you prefer a clearer broth you can pass the liquid through a muslin cloth.
Coconut Kefir
To make this amazingly nutritious drink that is both probiotic and cleansing all you need are some fresh young coconuts, a 1-2 ltr glass jar and either a fresh kefir culture or sachet of dried kefir starter. The dried starter is available from good health food shops and the fresh culture is available to order on line from Dom’s Kefir website.
Method:
First of all you need to get into the coconuts. Easy when you have the knack but it can take some getting used to. Personally I use a meat clever to crack around the pointed top section of the nut. This gives you easy access to the flesh too which can be used in other ways. A less hazardous method of entry for the uninitiated is to slice the soft base off the nut to reveal the hard inner shell and 3 round marks that can then easily be pierced using the point of a knife or other implement. Make at least two holes and pour the coconut water into your glass jar. I would normally make 1-2 ltr of the kefir at a time so would open 3-5 nuts in this way. When you have enough water to mostly fill your glass jar simply put in a kefir culture or a whole sachet of the dried starter, seal the jar and leave out of the fridge for 24-36 hours. Once fermented the coconut water will be cloudy and lighter in colour and will keep well in the fridge for up to 3 weeks if it lasts that long. The flavour will be slightly tart and there should be a subtle fizz.
Moong Dal Kitchari
Kitchari is a traditional ayurvedic meal which is popular in winter for its warming, nourishing and balancing properties. This dish does not take long to cook and is delicious and satisfying. While Kitchari is most often prepared with moong beans or chana dal (split chick-peas), other dals are also used, such as split peas and lentils. Kitchari is ideal for people who cannot digest food properly and for those doing spiritual practices who need to eat simple but nourishing foods.
Serves 2-3
- 1 cup of basmati rice
- 1 ½ cups split moong beans
- 8 cups of water for cooking
- ¾ teaspoon of salt
- 1 beet, grated optional
- 2 tablespoons of ghee
- Few chopped coriander leaves
- ½ teaspoon of cumin seeds
- 1 teaspoon of mustard seeds
- 1 teaspoon of tumeric powder
- ½ teaspoon of fresh ginger or ginger paste
- ½ teaspoon of black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon of turmeric
Combine the rice and dal in a large bowl and add enough water to cover and soak for minimum 1 hour. Drain, wash and rinse the mixture. Place it in a heavy pan and add the 8 cups of water and salt. Cover tightly and bring to a boil over a medium heat. Stir in grated beet if desired. Reduce heat and let simmer for 30 mins. Turn off heat and allow to sit for 10 mins to absorb excess moisture. Add coriander leaves.
In a small frying pan warm ghee over medium heat, add the cumin seeds, mustard seeds, tumeric and ginger and sauté until brown and fragrant.
Add the spices to the rice/dhal at the end.
Serve Kitchari hot with this dressing.
This dish can be served with lemon pickle which works like medicine for the stomach; also yoghurt or buttermilk and in a healthy person with pappadam and chutney or pickles.
Ayurvedic Healing Cuisine by Harish Johari