Acidification of the body, as caused by modern diets and lifestyles, can lead to the buildup of toxicity, as well as the over-growth of micro-organisms like yeasts (such as Candida) and bacteria, that can in turn imbalance our bodies. This toxicity can lead to stress and eventually sickness. The pH level (acid-alkaline measurement) of your internal fluids affects every cell in your body.
When last did you pick up a tub of ice cream and read the ingredients list? If you haven’t or can’t remember, here is the list of ingredients on a well know South African brand. It is ‘creamy vanilla’ flavour, full fat, so the list would be longer for a more complicated flavour: water, reconstituted skimmed milk powder (in full fat ice cream?), butter milk powder (what is that?), modified whey powder (what’s wrong with regular whey powder?), glucose syrup, cane sugar (do we really need both?), vegetable fat, maltodextrin, emulsifiers – E477, E471 (semi synthetic emulsifiers), stabilisers – E412, E410, E407 (thickening agents), flavourings, colourant: paprika – but vanilla ice cream is a creamy white, not orange?
The following question and answer was an interview with Joshua Burt, journalist for London magazine Coach:
Josh: Would you advise calorie counting as a way to diet?
Ian: Personally, ‘no’. My motto is ‘quality before quantity’ - if you truly eat well, with very high-grade local, seasonal, organic produce, and at the same time use your intuition to guide your choices, your need to count anything will fall away over time. Watch how a young child eats - it’s all about whether he/she feels like eating what is on their plate at any one time. Of course, most of us have been bought up with the notion of counting and being accountable for what we eat, so some sort of monitoring is not a bad idea, at least until you’ve created more self-awareness. I suggest writing a detailed food diary at least three days/week for a few weeks for reflective purposes.
An age old tradition that seems to have been mostly forgotten about these days is a hearty, nutritious stock. They are the simplest and probably the cheapest thing to make in the modern day kitchen; however, they have been severely neglected of late. Is it the convenience of popping up to the local store to purchase a MSG loaded, colourant and chemical filled pack, oozing with artificial flavours, that draws us to them? Or is it because meat is seldom sold on the bone in these stores? Or is it simply too much a schlep to make?
This a question I received from my London colleague, Charlene Hutsebaut (www.charlenehutsebaut.com) - one of her clients was struggling with IBS, in particular, the restrictive eating that it was leading to.
Question: I’m always on the hunt for ideas to manage my diet: I have IBS and tend, if anything, to lose weight rather easily so eating is not about control or restriction for reasons of weight loss. It's more about keeping me interested in a rather restricted diet and maintaining health & strength.
