Tag Archives: Raw

The Nuts and Seeds Issue.

Last night, I felt positively awful. I had a depression episode, and to top it off my binge eating tendencies came back. This continued in the morning and the afternoon – if anything I felt worse today. I managed to drag myself to the gym, but it was tough.

My strong gut instinct was that it was all of the nuts and seeds I consumed yesterday. Nuts contain an anti-nutrient called phytic acid. This is indigestible, and worse, binds to essential nutrients such as zinc and iron. If you soak nuts and seeds you can remove this phytic acid. In the past I used to eat a cereal consisting of sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds and had no issues, but I always soaked them overnight. I ate the seeds yesterday without soaking them, and this could have significantly irritated my gut, leading to IBS, leading to depression.

Incidentally, in the past I also developed awful IBS when I started using almond flour. I discovered today that almonds are super high in phytic acid. Again, evidence that it could be a prime culprit for depression.

Today I had brown bags under my eyes – evidence that my body wasn’t getting enough nutrients. Another piece of the puzzle that makes sense.

I resisted the urge to binge on ramen, and decided to go super duper healthy and to attempt to get as many nutrients as I could in my body. I decided to take a half raw half paleo approach today. I’ll save the pros and cons of the raw diet for another post, but it’s clear that eating lots and lots of fresh vegs couldn’t hurt at all.

Lunch: Gazpacho + Over-Roasted Salmon

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Gazpacho: Blend chopped tomatos, cucumber, bell pepper, onion, garlic and a bit of apple vinegar. Salt and pepper to taste/

Oven-roasted Salmon: Salmon w/ asparagus, mushrooms and spinach, soy sauce and butter to taste.

Dinner:  Thai Salad + Thai Fish Curry

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Thai Salad: I got the recipe from the Raw Chef’s cookbook. So far, all of his recipes are pure alchemy, it blows my mind how he comes up with the flavours he does. This one is a great dish as it has *so* many vegetables and herbs in it: courgettes, peppers, cucumbers, basil, mint, spinach, spouts….basically anything green you can bung in there. The dressing is made out of tahini, lime, garlic, ginger, tamari, and agave nectar. As the tahini in my cupboard was dangerously out of date (read: six years old) I made my own from scratch. I know I used sesame seeds but I thought a bit on dressing shouldn’t irritate my gut too much. I also garnished the salad with some roasted butternut squash seeds as I used butternut squash for the curry. I soaked them for an hour before roasting them.

Thai Fish Curry: Standard. Green curry paste, coconut milk, kale, mushrooms, onions, cod, butternut squash.

I had a very, very satisfying meal. We’ll see how I feel tomorrow.

Although…. I have a confession, because I had coconut milk left over I made chia seed pudding out of it. A quick skim on the internet said that if they’re soaked their fine, but after consuming them and reading further it doesn’t seem to be good for people with IBS, so I may have counteracted my dinner by having this dessert. Ah well. I’m hoping the ridiculous amounts of veggies I consumed today will help.

Oh, and don’t mistake ‘cumin’ for ‘cinnamon’ when making dessert. Doesn’t make for a good flavour….

Peace out.

Win Some, Lose Some: Maguro Peperoncino and Roasted Butternut Squash Soup

Some days you have good cooking days, some days you have bad. Today was both.

Today in the morning, I was delighted to find in the fish section of ASDA a fresh slab of tuna for three pounds. Wanting to eat just a bit more than sashimi, I concocted another ‘zoodle’ – zucchini noodle – dish (see previous post). I attempted to make it peperoncino style. I fried some onion, garlic and chilli, and then added the microwaved the zoodles. Didn’t really work too well. Zoodles, as nice as they are, are a bit soggy, so you just end up with a mushy stir-fry. I’m right now thinking of a way to dry them up a bit to give them a more noodle-y texture. Onions were a mistake – far too overpowering.

Will have another go soon.

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My peperoncino zoodles w/ raw tuna (Maguro)

After the lunch disappointment, things were brought back later during dinner. I decided to make Roasted Butternut Squash Soup (recipe here). This recipe is so simple, yet incredible! I didn’t expect it to taste as good as it did.

Some extra tweaks: I added a bit of ground ginger to the marinade. I also roasted the seeds from the butternut squash, roasted them w/ a bit of salt, and added them later to garnish. Mmmmmmmmm. Perfect soup for the winter.

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Roasted butternut squash soup, garnished with oven-toasted butternut squash seeds and coriander.

Did make me think – I often buy butternut squash soup from the supermarket. If you look on the back there are so many ingredients, including things such as potatoes and corn starch. This recipe only has butternut squash, apples and onions. Nothing more. Yet it tastes far more flavourful than anything you would get in the shops.

Food for thought.

As yummy as the soup was, I didn’t feel satiated enough without some protein. So I ate the rest of the tuna.

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Post-dinner snack: Tuna sashimi.

What I did struggle with today were snacks. I taught a Zumba class which meant my sugar levels were very, very low in the afternoon. Eating fruit didn’t help and I had to escalate to a huge hot chocolate. I know that because I’ve been eating starches such as wheat, as well as things such as chocolate, my sugar levels are still very mercurial. I sugar crash a lot. If I hit rock bottom I desperately need a pick me up. I’m hoping to discover some alternative snacks to help me along instead of going straight cold turkey on sugar.