The problem with pre-eating

I’m not sure where I heard this term. It was in passing, a cursory phrase to describe something so familiar to us that no one – to my knowledge – has paused to discuss it in depth.

Image via Favim.com
Image via Favim.com

So many of us pre-eat, especially at dinner. Peanuts, crackers and cheese before dinner. The desserty treat when we can’t quite make it to lunchtime. We think we can’t last, we’re that hungry. Or that’s what we tell ourselves.

This is the thing I wonder:

Are we so uncomfortable with the feeling of hunger, that we have to get rid of it before we eat?

I also wonder – actually I strongly suspect – it could have a lot to do with being scared of restraint and lack. Many of us fear that feeling of missing out and the feeling of “emptiness”, for a whole quagmire of really messy reasons.

We shove food down on top of hunger, hoping it will silence all other emptiness or flutteriness we might be feeling.

There’s also this: As I’ve written before, our willpower muscle has limited strength. After being worked all day, it becomes exhausted and by 6pm it falls into lactic collapse. Which is why we tend to pre-eat at this time.

But pre-eating is also a chapter in the big book Why We’re Getting Fat. Which is the companion title to The Story of How We Lost Our Real Appetite.

* We tend to pre-eat food that’s carby. We do this to stoke our flagging blood-sugar levels. It gives us a quick kick and is a

Read more

Why I drink “natural” wines…

This is a post that is probably going to introduce many of you to a trend that is very new, and yet as old as the hills. It’s become a pet subject of mine lately. My efforts to take eating and drinking back to no-brainer basics has seen me head here. Ditto my efforts to get back to a more basic, robust, real way of life.

Image via Pinterest
Image via Pinterest

I’m hoping by the time you get to the bottom you’ll be equally intrigued. So do natural wine enthusiasts Mike Bennie, a wine journo and organiser of natural wine events, including the Sydney Rootstock festival, and Richard Harkham, Hunter Valley natural winemaker and the producer of this natural wine documentary, who I’ve co-opted to pipe in with their pithy insights along the way. OK, let’s pop a cork…

What is natural wine?

Good question, no straight-forward answer. I’d describe it as “minimally fiddled with”. Or the equivalent of using pure rosehip oil as a moisturiser (one ingredient, no fuss, no added bits), or of using a glug of olive oil and a squeeze of lemon juice as your salad dressing…get the drift?
It’s keeping things as simple as possible and as close to the ancient practice of squashing some hand-picked grapes in a vat.

Mike adds that it’s a bit of an umbrella term that can describe completely unadorned wines (quite literally hand-picked and squashed grapes) from biodynamic vineyards made with minimal intervention and put to bottle without sulphur. But it can also include wines a bit further up the fiddled-with spectrum – wines from sustainably farmed vineyards with some sulphur addition used to get wine to bottle. As a rule natural wines include most or all of the following tenets: sustainable and organic and/or biodynamic viticulture, hand-picking of grapes, no heavy machinery, low new oak usage (if at all), natural fermentation, no chemical or winemaking product additions, minimal (or no) sulphur use.

Richard sees natural wine as being like a naked body (“You can see all the blemishes”) and points out two interesting factoids:

  • 1. This vagueness as to what constitutes a natural wine causes lots of arguments within the “movement”. [Indeed, note some of the conjecture in the emerging comments below – Sarah.]
  • 2. The modern natural wine “movement” began as a backlash to the science and technology that’s led to a loss of identity and personality in wine.

Why natural wine?

There are a few things that appeal to me.

Read more

Wow! Dr Lustig, Dr Noakes and Action on Sugar all in the one room!

This is a brazen community announcement, as I figured you might be interested in this little update. The third round of my I Quit Sugar 8-Week Program is about to start and it’s bigger and better than, um, the last round (not so keen on too much hyperbole, as you all know!).

Dr Robert Lustig and I share a wine after chatting why the red stuff is good for you
Dr Robert Lustig and I share a wine at a recent conference where we were both speaking (PS a glass of red wine is ALLOWED most nights of the Program).

I won’t take up too much marketing oxygen here; you can read more about it over at I Quit Sugar. I just wanted to highlight something that I think adds to the value and bigger picture of what I’m doing.

One of the biggest reasons I developed the 8-Week Program was to be able to provide emotional and informed support for people during their sugar quittage. I just couldn’t do it via books, or via random encounters in the street. By having an online Program, and taking on extra staff (eek!!) I could set up forums where questions can be answered in an intimate yet bulk manner. The Program has gradually attracted support and endorsement from some high-profile players in the anti-sugar debate, many of whom are wanting to support what I do and help many folk in their quest to quit. They’re doing so by joining our panel of experts who answer all the niggling, nagging and emergency questions that come up as we go.

I’ll introduce them below, along with a few things I’ve learnt from each of them.

Dr Robert Lustig

Pediatric endocrinologist Dr Robert Lustig is the author of Fat Chance and, most recently, The Fat Chance Cookbook. But it was Lustig’s lecture “Sugar: The Bitter Truth”, with over four million views on YouTube, that placed him at the forefront of the sugar debate.

Lustig and I were both keynote speakers at the recent FIZZ symposium in New Zealand.

* Rob often shares that obesity isn’t the problem. Metabolic disease is and obesity is just one “symptom” of metabolic disease. This has stuck with me… and has alarmed me (obesity is only the tip of the health disaster iceberg!).

Read more

Paleo salmon chowder plus a giveaway

The interwebs continue to get tighter. As some of you know, I recently connected with Mickey Trescott from Autoimmune-Paleo.com via Instagram (I think it was) on my recent US trip. Turns out she found me years ago when she got diagnosed with hashimotos and began reading my autoimmune posts. Wonderfully, she went on to study the topic intensely and now follows a strict autoimmune protocol, thus healing herself dramatically.

Salmon Chowder xxx
Mickey’s Salmon Chowder, recipe below

Her tenacious and dedicated efforts put mine to shame (I get a bit lax with the grains, nightshades and gut-building stuff).

Anyway, when I passed through Seattle we managed to catch up for brunch and bush walk and did what hashis sufferers do best – talk passionately and excitedly about stuff…including our illness. Turns out her book was about to come out and she promised to let me loop readers here into things when it did and to share a recipe and give away a few copies. (Giveaway details below.) Here’s her chowder…totally Paleo and gut-building and autoimmune protocol perfect.

Salmon isn’t necessarily the most sustainable fish to eat (large fish generally aren’t; to see my guide on which are, go here), but when you’re using the carcass to make the stock (as you do in this recipe), you can offset things somewhat. Also, I advise asking your monger to give you the offcuts (not the cutlet or steak) – you’re cutting it up; it doesn’t need to be a perfect shape. Additionally, I advise tossing the bones and skin Mickey asks you to trim into the

Read more

My slow hike in Dorset, Somerset and Wiltshire, UK

Growing up in the 1970s on a desolate hill where ABC was the only TV station available, I was exposed to a lot of quaint British programming. The Good Life, Worzel Gummage, The Famous Five, To The Manor Born, All Creatures Great and Small…you get the drift. All of which were evoked in full rolling-hills-and-howling-hounds effect during my most recent adventure.

Love the Brits observation #464468: they're perfectly happy to have a public #bushhike route pass through their front yard
Love the Brits observation #464468: they’re perfectly happy to have a public bush hike route pass through their front yard

You might be aware: two of my biggest passions are hiking and eating and I try to combine the two whenever I get a moment’s leave. I always try to orchestrate it so that I hike a good 5-6 hours, from one foodie village to another foodie village (you can catch up on previous efforts here and here). It creates a destination to aim for, a sense of adventure, a “point”.

During my most recent trip (you can catch up on it here and here) I took four days off in a mad-busy schedule to do a walk in the Southwest of England. Some careful planning – totally aided by the team at Foot Trails – saw me hike and eat my way along the most perfect little route, foodie village to foodie village around the Dorset-Somerset-Wilshire borders. Added bonus: quaint hills, hounds, brambles, bleating lambs, brooks, eccentric folk in tweed ensembles, pints and soup in cosy inns and the whole clichéd shebang!

This is how I packed:

Read more

The IQS 8-Week Program goes global! Plus an international Getaway Giveaway…

I’m not sure if you know – I Quit Sugar has gawn global. As in, my book is now on sale around the world and the online 8-Week Program can be done wherever you are on the planet. The impact of this, for me, has been huge. I now get feedback from people from cities I have to look up on Google who share their experiences with the Program. I meet people in the street in countries on the other side of the world who approach me to tell me how going sugar-free has affected them and their families. I am always touched and awed by the way messages can cross borders. Mightily humbled!

Screen Shot 2014-05-19 at 1.52.41 PMAnyway, as a sort of celebration of all this international-ness…I have a treat for you, wherever in the world you come from…

I’m giving away an international Mr & Mrs Smith Hotel voucher valued at $AU600
($US600/£400GBP). Details below.

The I Quit Sugar 8-Week Program now has participants from as far afield as Dubai, Kuwait, South Africa, Panama, Switzerland, Indonesia and Sweden. The impact of sugar on humanity’s health is crossing all kinds of cultures and borders and demographics – a massive concern in health circles right now is the rise of sugar-related diabetes and obesity in second world countries such as India and Indonesia.

  • You can read here about how Laura from the UK quit sugar after seeing an extract of I Quit Sugar in The Mail.
  • Read here about how Anita the pastry chef from Spain has changed her eating (and cooking!) through the Program.
  • Or here about how Lucy from New York  has completely changed her tastebuds after quitting sugar.
  •  Or here about how Daniela from Germany has healed her depression.

    Read more

A slow food (and Paleo) guide to London

I’ve done a few trips to London in the past few years and have witnessed the slow/mindful/locavore/sugar-free/whole/Paleo food scene really shift. It was interesting to arrive this time from the US (I was in both New York and London doing publicity for my books) and compare the difference in food tone. The UK is super receptive to shifting its eating. The government is onto it and the opposition looks set to implement massive bans on sugary food. Plus Action on Sugar is speeding things up, too. The shift, quite literally, has happened since about January this year (or perhaps I’m flattering myself as this is when I Quit Sugar was released there).

Image via flickr.com
Image via flickr.com

Today, London is offering some of the most exciting sustainable eating I’ve seen anywhere in the world. I reckon this is in part due to the fact Brits are simply returning to their cooking roots. Traditional British food is inherently sound. Sunday roasts, offal, English breakfasts…it’s all very much in line with the way of eating I advocate.

All great news for anyone visiting there soon. So, too, the fact I’ve put together this little guide. It’s mostly centred around the Soho/Marylebone area, as this is where I tend to stay when in town (see below for more).

Around Soho and Marlyebone

Dorset Square Hotel. I stayed at this Firmdale hotel (they also own The Charlotte Street – below – and Crosby St hotel in New York) last visit. I love the location – right on Dorset Square, super quiet, a few blocks from Regent Park (and Primrose Hill just beyond) and a 5-10 minute walk to the Marylebone eateries. If you’re a cricket fan, you’d be interested to know it’s on the site of the old Lords grounds and is dripping in cricket paraphernalia. If you’d like to visit this hotel, check it

Read more

Why introverts just can’t handle you… sometimes

My post last week touched on being an introvert. It brought a lot of my introverted friends out from their inner reverie to share a few thoughts they’d developed on their internal brainstorming-for-one white board.

Image via Going Home To Roost
Image via Going Home To Roost

The common thread of our chats: the challenges we face dealing with (read: living with) extroverted friends and loved ones. In these extrovert-happy times where group exercises and brainstorms and Fun! Parties! Are What We Do, introverts can feel deficient. Thus, as Susan Cain explains in her TED talk, introverts wind up apologising for themselves a lot.

For this is the thing: introverts constantly feel like they’re letting people down.

This pains me. And confounds me. But I have a few thoughts on the matter that have helped me find a little peace.

To be clear an introvert isn’t someone who’s shy and plays Dungeons and Dragons in a dark room. The official definition of an introvert is someone who turns inward.  An introvert can stand on stage and be as erudite and bold and entertaining as an extrovert. It’s just that they’ll go back to their hotel room straight after, skipping the post-event drinks.

Indeed, Lady Gaga, Christina Aguilera and Emma Watson are classified as introverts. And  Forty percent of CEOs are introverts.

This is the other thing, which often doesn’t come up in a world where extraverts design the party, send out the invite and keep the drinks flowing: introverts can find extroverts hard work.

I’d go as far as saying that I can sometimes find extroverts – not show-offs and bombastic arm-wavers necessarily, but those who draw their energy from other humans –  to be energy vampires. These people are positive, kind,

Read more

Looking after yourself

No really. Do you? Look after yourself? I often don’t. I learned the other night that it’s a Capricorn thing (being a bad self looker-afterer).

Image via imgur.com
Image via imgur.com

The same night, the same person – one lovely Lou Androlia – shared that while she suffers from Hashimotos (and previously fibromyalgia, another autoimmune disease), she doesn’t get too many flares these days because she doesn’t get anxious too often. Anxiety and lack of sleep cause the biggest flares, we both agreed.

How come, I asked?

“Because I’m really good at looking after myself,” she said. Not smugly, just matter-of-factly (probably because she’s a Scorpio with Taurus in her sign…?!) This part of the conversation struck me and I went home elevated by it. Yes, looking after myself!

Before I go on, some context. I hooked up with Lou in Primrose Hill after she commented on Instagram under my shot taken just outside her house as I rode home from a yoga class at Fierce Grace yoga school (yes, more on this later). I recognized her handle. I knew she’d followed me for a long time and so I replied to her, on a whim, on my last night in London, asking if she’d like to meet up for a drink. She did (want to). So we did (meet up) an hour later. She was unmissable. She has flaming orange hair that just works a treat.

So it turns out Lou knows Gabby Bernstein. In fact, the last time they met up for an impromptu drink (after meeting online, too), Lou shared with Gabby that she might like to try my IQS 8 Week Program, which Gabby did.

So it was you who got Gabby onto it!?

The loops tightened. And tightened further. Turns out, too, she’s friends with Gala Darling. Who’s also friends with

Read more

How to Heal Autoimmune Disease: 6 clever tricks from Mickey at Autoimmune-Paleo.com

For three years now I’ve been running this occasional series of posts geared at making anyone with autoimmune disease feel less like a freak. It’s been extraordinary… I’d say more than half of all readers here came to this blog for the AI information. Even more extraordinarily, a huge chunk of the rest of you have later developed an AI or found out a loved one had. Add to this, so many of the like-minded bloggers who I’ve got to know around the world have AI’s. I’m talking Cannelle Vanille, Glutenfreegirl, Gabby Bernstein, Clare Bowditch, DeliciouslyElla, Louniverse and many more.

As I say often, we’re a “type”. We’re earnest, ambitious, solo operators and with a drive to communicate and help. It should come as no surprise to us that our thyroids, the site of communication, presents us with challenges!

A hike and hashi chat with Mickey Trescott in Seattle
A hike and hashi chat with Mickey in Seattle

Recently, Mickey Trescott came into my orbit and we hooked up for a Paleo breakfast – and an impromptu hike! – in Seattle. She began following my blog a few years back… and now has her own site where she shares incredible, dedicated information about how to heal AI. She’s also just self-published her own cookbook, The Autoimmune Paleo Cookbook.

I figure you all might find her personal story and her tricks for dealing with thyroid crappiness helpful. She knows her stuff. Over to you Mickey…

I’m Mickey Trescott and I write about nutrition and autoimmune disease. I was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s and Celiac disease when I turned 26 and have spent the last three years digging myself out of the deep, dark hole that was my epic autoimmune crash. I started my journey having been vegan for a decade, and ended up on the Paleo end of the spectrum after I figured out that grains, sugar, and a lot of other elements of my diet were doing me no good. I like to take a multifaceted approach to managing autoimmunity—one that takes into account not just diet, but stress management, movement, and living a more balanced life. Here are a few of my tricks to staying healthy and happy, despite autoimmunity!

Six ways I keep my autoimmunity at bay:

1. Mini rebounding trampoline.

Those of us with Hashimoto’s know how awful it feels to have lymphatic congestion—I get it mostly in my face and neck (which is quite unattractive!). Since the lymphatic system does not have a pump, it is dependent on the movement of our bodies for circulation. Mini rebounding trampolines are great because they vigorously circulate lymph with just tenminutes of gentle bouncing. I bought one from Rebound Air and keep it in my office for “bounce breaks”. Even on days where I am not feeling up to exercising, I can manage a little bounce to get everything moving, reducing puffiness and congestion.

2. Soil-based probiotics.

Since we now know that gut issues are at the root of autoimmune disease, I do everything I can to keep my flora balanced and happy. Our digestive tracts are home to thousands of different species of bacteria, not just the few strains found in regular probiotics these days (like lactobacillus). While I eat fermented foods and have taken traditional probiotics in

Read more