Monday, 31 October 2011
Saturday, 29 October 2011
Spookie Cookie
You are all invited to my special workshop today, Sunday 30th October,this afternoon!
from 2 pm to 4pm at
4 Tanner’s Hill, London SE8 4PJ
from 2 pm to 4pm at
COME AND MAKE YOUR OWN SPOOKIE COOKIES FOR HALLOWEEN
A SCARILY EASY AND FUN WORKSHOP FOR CHILDREN AGED 3 TO 99
4 Tanner’s Hill, London SE8 4PJ
020 3583 0878 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 020 3583 0878 end_of_the_skype_highlighting
Sweet Pumpkins...spooky lanterns
We had a nice afternoon and the children were sweet and the pumpkins were sweet and spooky!
The kids carved their pumpkins, painted their glass lanterns and had some not so spooky fun, since it is not quite Halloween and day time...! Let us call it a gentle build up to spookier time!
Morgana had a lovely day with her friends ...I had a rest in the morning, as I am still ill with flu...I was better during the day but at around 4 pm gradually became more tired and my headache much worse...
Despite all this the children were good and had some artistic fun.
getting things ready
The kids used some tools from a supermarket kit, and I was impressed by the results...I would normally use just a sharp knife but this carving kit was what they needed to make those special effects!
impressive!
what a mean face!
hard work...
Pumpkin bits everywhere! Never mind!
Jack o' lantern!
Spookie!
The kids carved their pumpkins, painted their glass lanterns and had some not so spooky fun, since it is not quite Halloween and day time...! Let us call it a gentle build up to spookier time!
Morgana had a lovely day with her friends ...I had a rest in the morning, as I am still ill with flu...I was better during the day but at around 4 pm gradually became more tired and my headache much worse...
Despite all this the children were good and had some artistic fun.
getting things ready
hard work...
Pumpkin bits everywhere! Never mind!
AUTUMN TREASURES
Happy sunny days and treasure hunting!
What a perfect day for a walk in the park!
yes
amazing colours all around!
Outside our doorstep...
Into the nearby streets...
Oh what a lovely light!
makes you dizzy!
and jumpy!
The Witch Morgana found a branch!!
getting ready for Halloween!
different ways of displaying autumn treasures...
and different things we can do with the Autumn Treasures...
On Morgana's window
For Lantern Festival...
and now, stay tune for we will make some more decorations this weekend...
Pumpkins and spookie cookies coming soon!!!
x
Susannah
P Save a tree - only print this if you have to!
What a perfect day for a walk in the park!
yes
amazing colours all around!
Outside our doorstep...
Into the nearby streets...
Oh what a lovely light!
and jumpy!
The light and the colours, amazing!
so back to finding treasure....
The Witch Morgana found a branch!!this is what it was for:
we just added sheep's wool, gently streched acroos the branches to create a spooky spiderweb and made spiders with string...
getting ready for Halloween!
different ways of displaying autumn treasures...
and different things we can do with the Autumn Treasures...
On Morgana's window
For Lantern Festival...
and now, stay tune for we will make some more decorations this weekend...
Pumpkins and spookie cookies coming soon!!!
x
Susannah
P Save a tree - only print this if you have to!
Tuesday, 18 October 2011
Fall
Fall, leaves, fall; die flowers away;
Lengthen night and shorten day;
Every leaf speaks bliss to me
Fluttering from the autumn tree. -- Emily Bronte
what a glorious day!
I love the way the light plays with the colours , yesterday in Greenwich park!
The sky this morning ( can you see the squirrel on the roof?)
A for Angel!
early morning frost and dewdrops
close up of bark with moss: tree by Priory Park bus stop.
cobweb on the school gate
The girls are getting super excited about Halloween....watch out!
( all photos taken with Susannah's Blackberry Pearl)
Lengthen night and shorten day;
Every leaf speaks bliss to me
Fluttering from the autumn tree. -- Emily Bronte
oh what a windy day!
The sky this morning ( can you see the squirrel on the roof?)
The girls are getting super excited about Halloween....watch out!
( all photos taken with Susannah's Blackberry Pearl)
Saturday, 15 October 2011
How to get started with Macrobiotics
Thank you to all who came this afternoon to the talk!
We also had the opportunity to sample some basic recipes for young babies and children.
I would like to invite the others who could not make it today to my next part two!
Perhaps there will be a change of location as I would like you ladies to have a more hands on experience and actually learn to cook.
I will need to know what dates you can make first before I decide on a day.
As a follow up I am happy to give support and advice to each of you. If you have any questions just ask!
Meanwhile, as you are all so keen to start and do stuff at home following the talk, here are some more tips and info.
Eat fresh seasonal vegetables
Make rice the staple food eat a little daily
Eat light meals
Eat freshly prepared food
Eat balanced food in terms of the five tastes: sweet, sour, salty, bitter and pungent
• Avoid heavy, greasy, overcooked, raw or unripe foods
Avoid hard and fatty meat
Fish eaten whole and cooked with ginger and soy sauce
Do not overeat
Eat only 80% ˆ 90% of your capacity
Never eat when worried
Do not eat between meals
Avoid eating before bed
Take a short walk after eating
Self-reflect (a grace) before eating
Thanking the farmer, those who have supplied the food, those who have cooked, those who have served it. Remembering those who are without food.
We also had the opportunity to sample some basic recipes for young babies and children.
I would like to invite the others who could not make it today to my next part two!
Perhaps there will be a change of location as I would like you ladies to have a more hands on experience and actually learn to cook.
I will need to know what dates you can make first before I decide on a day.
As a follow up I am happy to give support and advice to each of you. If you have any questions just ask!
Meanwhile, as you are all so keen to start and do stuff at home following the talk, here are some more tips and info.
How to get started with Macrobiotics
First of all, follow these very simple suggestions:
Make rice the staple food eat a little daily
Eat light meals
Eat freshly prepared food
Eat balanced food in terms of the five tastes: sweet, sour, salty, bitter and pungent
• Avoid heavy, greasy, overcooked, raw or unripe foods
Avoid hard and fatty meat
Fish eaten whole and cooked with ginger and soy sauce
Do not overeat
Eat only 80% ˆ 90% of your capacity
Never eat when worried
Do not eat between meals
Avoid eating before bed
Take a short walk after eating
Self-reflect (a grace) before eating
Thanking the farmer, those who have supplied the food, those who have cooked, those who have served it. Remembering those who are without food.
When we first hear about macrobiotics it can sound interesting, different and challenging. A good place to start is with cooking because it gives us daily nourishment, so here are some basic tips to begin with
- Start by cooking a meal each day.
- Connect with the time-worn ritual of food gathering and preparation; nurture the enjoyment of nourishing yourself well.
- Clear out the old ingredients from your kitchen, and make the space to prepare and cook your food.
- The best saucepans for health are stainless steel, not aluminium. A wooden cutting board and a good knife are helpful.
- Find out where your nearest organic shops are, and about organic box schemes.
- Stock up with organic vegetables and (good) best quality food ingredients.
- Look at some macrobiotic books and web sites and try out some recipes.
- Talk to friends who are already into macrobiotics. Ask them if you can sometimes cook and eat together.
- Take a few cooking classes with experienced macrobiotic teachers or go on a macrobiotic holiday or retreat.
- Get together for potluck meals and picnics on a regular basis with other people in your area, with time for discussion.
- To aid digestion, chew your food well.
- Gradually get rid of clutter at home and add some green plants to your living space.
- Slowly find ways to develop your sense of gratitude for life, enjoy it, have fun and be happy through being of service to yourself, to others and to our planet earth.
- Take regular exercise especially out-of-doors, in most weather conditions! Start with a daily 15/20 minute walk.
- There are certain life-style practices that benefit us as we get started and throughout life. Review your lifestyle. See what you are doing that already supports you, and what does not. Then begin to make your changes accordingly.
- Take up a couple of regular practices to clear and improve your health such as daily body-scrub, do-in, chi kung, yoga, tai-chi, shiatsu, meditation, singing, dancing, swimming and so on.
- Use natural fibre clothing (especially underwear), bed linen, natural toiletries, deodorant and perfume; and natural cleaning products in the home.
- Explore your intuition - listen to your body, watch the changing seasons and how they affect you.
- Look out for the rhythm of Nature across the world, be inquisitive and constantly ask why and search for the answer.
- Explore all aspects of our amazing evolution, all cultures and traditional wisdom, with a discerning mind and an open heart.
Nutrition Talk- today Saturday 15th, 2 to 4 pm
A few spaces left for today's talk!
Nutrition Workshop
Wholesome Food
for Wholesome Children
this equally for people who came last week or who want to just come today!
Saturday 8th October
part one
and Saturday 15th
part two
today it will be all about cooking ingredients, style of cooking, weaning and feeding babies and young children and toddlers,food for health and vitality for breastfeeding mums and food for growing into a balanced child using the principle of basic nutrition with a deeper understanding from the macrobiotic point of view.
Where?
at Blossoming Together cafe
I am really looking forward to seeing you all there!
Yin and Yang balance in life and in food
Macrobiotics gives me the understanding of food energetics.
It is up to me to use the knowledge for the benefit of my own health.
I am nevertheless human and I can be at times weak.
It is my striving and my working towards the ideal balance.
Grains, root vegetables, vegetable proteins, legumes, greens, fruit, sea vegetables, condiments...
Simple food for energy!
We all know that excess is bad; extreme yin, too much sugar, alcohol, and extreme yang, meat, salt, makes us, in long term, lethargic, irritable, gives us tension, stress, fatigue, low immune system, illness and disease.
This is because our bodies naturally strive for balance.
Read this extract from http://macrobiotics.co.uk/articles/principles.htm
Ohsawa used this Latin phrase to describe the ideal way for achieving maximum health; we take what is required—by our bodies for nourishment and in terms of what we surround ourselves with. This can be applied in a human health perspective as well as a social one. At the root of our consumptive mentality is a deep loss of gratitude, fear and physical imbalance.
One of the reasons we consume beyond our needs is because of its availability, or because we maintain moods of scarcity. Sometimes, our desire for being full is due to the growing realization that we are actually in need of some other kind of nourishment--we are feeling, simply empty. But, no food can satisfy this type of hunger.
Most of us have little idea about the origins of our food, how it is grown, how concentrated or refined it may be, or what kinds of nutrition it contains. The majority of people are primarily concerned with taste. Just like children. Several years ago, I pulled into a small gas station in northern Iowa around midnight. I went inside and waited for the cashier to key my gas fee into her register.
She was a young woman of tremendous girth with bad skin and the warmth of a Mason jar. Not once did her eyes meet mine. But, I noticed she was chewing. Vigorously. Whatever was in her mouth required major effort. This is the exchange we had:
"What are you chewing?" Continuing to stare at her register, she points to a cylindrical plastic container that holds, "Bubba's Hearty Beef Jerky."
I pick up the container and read the ingredients. My naivete' is showing; I am shocked. Aside from dried beef, there is an entire paragraph of chemical names as part of the ingredients, with sugar being the second ingredient after meat.
"Wow, do you know what's in this? It's all chemicals!" Now she turns to me; an isolated side rotation of her neck almost robotically. She tilts her head down as if peering over imaginary bifocals and shrugs her shoulders helplessly as she manages to utter two words: "Tastes good..."
For most human organisms, excessive fat, animal protein and concentrated sweeteners—our modern staple foods—might be temporarily satisfying but in excess, can be potentially deadly — except for my neighbor who is 91 and looks like he lives on baked scrap leather. He tells me he, "eats everything." Worse, he even enjoys it. Imagine that! But I've seen him eat. And they guy lives on garbage. But, he eats like a bird. No, not a vulture. A sparrow — big difference. He takes the "minimum." And, somehow, it works for him.
Ohsawa was an advocate of eating the minimum; staying slightly hungry, keeping active. If you have strong passions and things that you want to do in life, this comes naturally, because your are feeding a bigger appetite. But, if you are bored by your current life, what's the incentive to suddenly discipline yourself?
If we're discussing the volume of food we consume, I think it would be essential to explain what some of the culprits are that make us want more food. Yep! There are actually a number of reasons that drive overeating cravings.
There are some accepted psychological reasons for food obsessions and addictive eating that cover the gamut from self-esteem and social issues to the immediate impulse of using food as a way to get stinking numb. However, my contention is that if we remove the physical reasons, the psychological become so much more easy to handle. Maybe not entirely heal, but at least begin to feel a motivating clarity by witnessing positive physical change.
Consider the volume of food that you eat. If you put the pinky sides of each had together and cup your hands, as if scooping water from a stream, this hand shaped bowl is equal to the size of your stomach, only with a top cover. Consider the amount of food you had in your last meal and visualize that amount. Isn't it bigger than the little bowl your palms create? It's surprising to think about how much we eat.
More frightening to think about is what we actually absorb. The problem, in a nutshell, for people who are always overeating is not knowing what are the responsible factors for such a monstrous appetite. Here, based on a chapter in my book, "Nature's Cancer-Fighting Foods" (Prentice Hall-Penguin-Putnam Books) are five possible reasons for overeating:
1. Low Blood Sugar - Contrary to popular macrobiotic recommendations, I don't believe the solution for low blood sugar lies simply in making a "sweet vegetable drink." It's a nice soup base, but throwing away the fiber (vegetable matter) defeats the entire purpose. It is the fiber that will regulate the blood sugar. Consuming only the liquid can slightly elevate blood sugar, but, then you have an equal lowering later on. For someone with noticeable blood sugar irregularity, it might be best to make a soup with these vegetables and either eat the whole vegetable in the soup, or make it into a puree'. Additionally, don't go more than four hours without, at least, eating a small meal. Fasting long periods throughout the day promotes low blood sugar and late night eating. In this tired state you may find yourself desiring coffee, sugar, tobacco--any familiar stimulant to get you over the energetic hump.
2. Excessive Salt or Animal Protein - Too much salt will not only make you want sugar or more fluid, but can stimulate overeating. Salt can have a depressive effect on blood sugar and a marked tightening effect on tissue and muscle. Like those old sailor's, who look like they eat small children for breakfast and have very crinkly faces, traditionally called Old Salts; presumably after living on the water, breathing salt air and no doubt eating a good share of it. Salt excess can be alleviated by either an abundant amount of fluid (for dilution), citrus, or simple sugar (for neutralizing). Sugars have the opposite reaction in our body: they promote inflammation. While it's busy fanning the fires of inflammation, Sugar finds time to annoy and paralyze our busy immune system while it discreetly robs minerals from the bodies different storage sites. Biological mutiny.
3. Inactive Lifestyle - Becoming more regularly active can increases your sensitivity to the subtle, and not-so-subtle, effects of overeating. Your active condition offers a more reliable barometer of good health and your physical limitation. I'll never forget a conversation I had with a running partner named Arty ("Hi, I'm Arty from Nu Yawk"), as we we taking a long run one early Sunday morning, prior to a track event. Nine miles into our run, he had a burst of thundering gas. No one said anything. About one-half mile later, he turned to me and said:
"Wow, took 9 and 1/2 miles to get rid of that. What if I had sat on the couch all day? I'll tell you whut woulda happened: One night at 2 AM my head would suddenly explode...thank God for long dirt trails..."
Such were the intimate exchanges we'd have on a training run.
It made me realize that we have the ability to condition our bodies and control our health so much more than we imagined. For most people the only control they have dietarily is the use of stimulants or depressants; they're tired so they drink coffee or have a cigarette. They're all keyed up, so they'll have an alcoholic drink. Beyond these extremes, few people really know how to influence their health, mood and energy level with food.
Physical activity can be a great neutralizer. Challenging your physical limitations might mean to walk longer distances, stretching in more advanced postures, hiking to increase heart rate or lifting weights to solidify bone mass. In a toned, active body, it's easier to exercise discipline because you know what works best for your body. Exercise also increases your will.
4. Poor Digestion - There could be an infinite number of related digestive conditions, but most of them are aggravated, if not caused, by long time acidity. This can come from: inadequate chewing, meal time tension, the need for fermentation with meals, a lack of enzymes to digest properly, parasites, etc. So, we often end up attempting to compensate by volume. Calm mealtimes, a bit of pickle with your meal, less volume, thorough, but not obsessive chewing and a bit of tea after the meal all insure good digestion.
5. Nutritional Deficiency - Lack of nutrients, good quality protein, oil, salt and the five tastes of salty, sweet, bitter, sour and pungent all conspire to foster overeating if we don't include these into our daily diet. A fixed template of a circle divided into percentages can only go so far? While you can use that initially, it takes consistent experimenting to find your balance—and this is a never ending research project because there are always different ways to balance excess and because your condition is constantly changing.
6. Emotionality - There are many emotional factors that are the basis for overeating or binge eating. If you feel that this is a component to your overeating, first, remove the dietary imbalance factors mentioned above that may be pushing you in this direction. Second, accept that your overeating needs to embrace an emotional perspective and either seek support or do some research to better understand more about these factors. Generally, we can easily anesthetize ourselves with the sensory pleasure of different foods, such as sugar, or by overeating. Stuffing your face literally shuts off the emotional center, at least temporarily, and insulates us from thinking. Sometimes, this can be a good thing. However, this soon wears off and we are no better for a solution. There are a number of books that can provide more insight, including, Geneen Roth's, "Feeding the Hungry Heart" and Jane R. Hirschmannn's, "Overcoming Overeating."
See you!
Blossoming Together Cafe
The main topic of this talk is healthy balanced nutrition for infants, babies and weaning and young toddlers....
please read this extract as a preparation for my talk:
From Breast Milk
to Solid Food
Breast feeding an infant is the most natural and wonderful experience for mother and child. The composition of breast milk is perfectly suited, it is naturally and completely digested, and has immunoglobulins which provide protection against bacteria and viral infections. Breast fed babies are less likely to develop allergies and the mother can control the quality of the milk by what she eats and the life-style she lives.
When to Start
The time to introduce solid food to a baby differs from child to child. There is no rule on when to start. A baby who is steadily gaining weight, alert, active, with good sleeping and eating patterns (This means: taking two naps a day for one to three hours at a time, mostly sleeping through the night, and not wanting to be fed every hour night or day.) does not need solid food however old the baby is unless the breast feeding mother is exhausted and/or under weight. For an infant that is not having it's nutritional needs met by mother's milk for one reason or another, a homemade grain milk can be used. Other liquids and water can be offered to a baby. Watered down apple juice, homemade barley or rice tea and the unsalted liquid left after cooking sweet vegetables all make acceptable drinks. These can be used to change baby's condition, fill in when mom is away or to give dad a chance to feed baby.
A baby may show signs of needing solid food earlier, but most are between the ages of four and eight months. Mother's milk changes to meet the needs of the baby as the baby grows older but many other factors influence the quality and quantity of the milk. The food and liquid quality and amounts the mother consumes, how often she eats, her activities and amount of rest she gets and how stress free she is are the most important factors. There may be an adequate amount of milk, but it may not be thick enough to satisfy an active baby's needs.
The need for solid food is apparent if the baby is not gaining weight, sleeping patterns are poor, hungry often, constipated or abnormal bowel movements, irritability or any other change in the baby's normal healthy development. In a healthy baby a sign that the baby is ready for solid food is when the teeth are ready to come in. In most macrobiotic babies the teeth come in very slowly and very strong. Drooling is usually the firs sign along with the baby gnawing on everything and anything. Sometimes the baby will have restless sleep, a low fever and/or diaper rash. A sure sign is when the baby wants to be held constantly, especially during the night and nap times.
Sometimes parents decide to introduce solid foods to help the baby sleep through the night or because the mother is going back to work and expressing milk to save for the baby is not always enough.
Whatever the reason to start, do not wait too long, the older the baby is the harder it will be for the baby to accept the consistency and taste.
The time of day the food is offered varies depending on what works best in the parents' and baby's schedule. Dinner time usually works best because there is more time during the day to prepare the food and the baby sleeps better at night with a full tummy. Sold food should be offered before the breast to develop good eating habits and because the baby is more likely to accept the solid food if really hungry.
Baby's First Solid Food
y cause the baby to reject vegetables when offered.
The most common first food is cereal. Cook whole grain brown rice very soft with a tiny piece of sea vegetable (1/8 to 1/4 inch dry piece of kombu or wakame per cup of grain simmered in about ten cups of water) squeeze through cheese cloth or push through a strainer to remove hard pieces. Medium or long grain rice not pressure cooked usually works best.
The baby will continue to receive all of the nutritional needs from the breast milk until a balanced diet is given, and that should be by the time breast feeding is finished. One or two teaspoons are enough to start with and half of that will be spit or drooled out until the baby gets used to it. The water content lessens as the baby gets older, after one week introduce other grains, one at a time, giving each one a week, then mix the grains so that the baby gets use to variety and having foods both alone and mixed. The other grains best suited for babies are barley, sweet brown rice, oats, and millet.
Vegetables are usually given next. Introduce one at a time to give baby time to get use to it and to see if there is any negative reaction. Vegetables should be simmered on a low/medium heat until soft and then mashed in a suribachi, put through a baby food mill or put through a strainer. Cut pieces very small so that they will cook quickly. Boiling makes the vegetables more moist than steaming and easier to grind. Vegetables can be mixed at times and sometimes mixed into the grain.
When to Salt?
Babies are small and we want them to grow bigger. Salt, which causes contraction, is usually avoided in baby food. Salt, shoyu, miso and other seasonings are cooked into the food gradually after age one or later. Roasted unsalted ground seeds such as sesame can be added to grain cereals after a month or two of eating solids especially if weight gain is needed. Beans, sea vegetables and fruits are added slowly after vegetables so that by the time the baby is weaned they are having a balanced diet.
Cooking food for baby separately from adult food is very important. The needs are very different and difficulties in health and behavior can develop if a baby eats adult food. Babies do not need oil or fat as long as the breast milk is rich. Oil is added the same time as salt.
Nutrition Workshop
Wholesome Food
for Wholesome Children
this equally for people who came last week or who want to just come today!
Saturday 8th October
part one
and Saturday 15th
part two
today it will be all about cooking ingredients, style of cooking, weaning and feeding babies and young children and toddlers,food for health and vitality for breastfeeding mums and food for growing into a balanced child using the principle of basic nutrition with a deeper understanding from the macrobiotic point of view.
Where?
at Blossoming Together cafe
Location
Find us at:
Blossoming Together Tel.
Arts and Craft Gallery Cafe’
4 Tanner’s Hill
Arts and Craft Gallery Cafe’
4 Tanner’s Hill
London SE8 4PJ
I am really looking forward to seeing you all there!
Macrobiotics gives me the understanding of food energetics.
It is up to me to use the knowledge for the benefit of my own health.
I am nevertheless human and I can be at times weak.
It is my striving and my working towards the ideal balance.
Grains, root vegetables, vegetable proteins, legumes, greens, fruit, sea vegetables, condiments...
Simple food for energy!
We all know that excess is bad; extreme yin, too much sugar, alcohol, and extreme yang, meat, salt, makes us, in long term, lethargic, irritable, gives us tension, stress, fatigue, low immune system, illness and disease.
This is because our bodies naturally strive for balance.
Read this extract from http://macrobiotics.co.uk/articles/principles.htm
Ohsawa used this Latin phrase to describe the ideal way for achieving maximum health; we take what is required—by our bodies for nourishment and in terms of what we surround ourselves with. This can be applied in a human health perspective as well as a social one. At the root of our consumptive mentality is a deep loss of gratitude, fear and physical imbalance.
One of the reasons we consume beyond our needs is because of its availability, or because we maintain moods of scarcity. Sometimes, our desire for being full is due to the growing realization that we are actually in need of some other kind of nourishment--we are feeling, simply empty. But, no food can satisfy this type of hunger.
Most of us have little idea about the origins of our food, how it is grown, how concentrated or refined it may be, or what kinds of nutrition it contains. The majority of people are primarily concerned with taste. Just like children. Several years ago, I pulled into a small gas station in northern Iowa around midnight. I went inside and waited for the cashier to key my gas fee into her register.
She was a young woman of tremendous girth with bad skin and the warmth of a Mason jar. Not once did her eyes meet mine. But, I noticed she was chewing. Vigorously. Whatever was in her mouth required major effort. This is the exchange we had:
"What are you chewing?" Continuing to stare at her register, she points to a cylindrical plastic container that holds, "Bubba's Hearty Beef Jerky."
I pick up the container and read the ingredients. My naivete' is showing; I am shocked. Aside from dried beef, there is an entire paragraph of chemical names as part of the ingredients, with sugar being the second ingredient after meat.
"Wow, do you know what's in this? It's all chemicals!" Now she turns to me; an isolated side rotation of her neck almost robotically. She tilts her head down as if peering over imaginary bifocals and shrugs her shoulders helplessly as she manages to utter two words: "Tastes good..."
For most human organisms, excessive fat, animal protein and concentrated sweeteners—our modern staple foods—might be temporarily satisfying but in excess, can be potentially deadly — except for my neighbor who is 91 and looks like he lives on baked scrap leather. He tells me he, "eats everything." Worse, he even enjoys it. Imagine that! But I've seen him eat. And they guy lives on garbage. But, he eats like a bird. No, not a vulture. A sparrow — big difference. He takes the "minimum." And, somehow, it works for him.
Ohsawa was an advocate of eating the minimum; staying slightly hungry, keeping active. If you have strong passions and things that you want to do in life, this comes naturally, because your are feeding a bigger appetite. But, if you are bored by your current life, what's the incentive to suddenly discipline yourself?
If we're discussing the volume of food we consume, I think it would be essential to explain what some of the culprits are that make us want more food. Yep! There are actually a number of reasons that drive overeating cravings.
There are some accepted psychological reasons for food obsessions and addictive eating that cover the gamut from self-esteem and social issues to the immediate impulse of using food as a way to get stinking numb. However, my contention is that if we remove the physical reasons, the psychological become so much more easy to handle. Maybe not entirely heal, but at least begin to feel a motivating clarity by witnessing positive physical change.
Consider the volume of food that you eat. If you put the pinky sides of each had together and cup your hands, as if scooping water from a stream, this hand shaped bowl is equal to the size of your stomach, only with a top cover. Consider the amount of food you had in your last meal and visualize that amount. Isn't it bigger than the little bowl your palms create? It's surprising to think about how much we eat.
More frightening to think about is what we actually absorb. The problem, in a nutshell, for people who are always overeating is not knowing what are the responsible factors for such a monstrous appetite. Here, based on a chapter in my book, "Nature's Cancer-Fighting Foods" (Prentice Hall-Penguin-Putnam Books) are five possible reasons for overeating:
1. Low Blood Sugar - Contrary to popular macrobiotic recommendations, I don't believe the solution for low blood sugar lies simply in making a "sweet vegetable drink." It's a nice soup base, but throwing away the fiber (vegetable matter) defeats the entire purpose. It is the fiber that will regulate the blood sugar. Consuming only the liquid can slightly elevate blood sugar, but, then you have an equal lowering later on. For someone with noticeable blood sugar irregularity, it might be best to make a soup with these vegetables and either eat the whole vegetable in the soup, or make it into a puree'. Additionally, don't go more than four hours without, at least, eating a small meal. Fasting long periods throughout the day promotes low blood sugar and late night eating. In this tired state you may find yourself desiring coffee, sugar, tobacco--any familiar stimulant to get you over the energetic hump.
2. Excessive Salt or Animal Protein - Too much salt will not only make you want sugar or more fluid, but can stimulate overeating. Salt can have a depressive effect on blood sugar and a marked tightening effect on tissue and muscle. Like those old sailor's, who look like they eat small children for breakfast and have very crinkly faces, traditionally called Old Salts; presumably after living on the water, breathing salt air and no doubt eating a good share of it. Salt excess can be alleviated by either an abundant amount of fluid (for dilution), citrus, or simple sugar (for neutralizing). Sugars have the opposite reaction in our body: they promote inflammation. While it's busy fanning the fires of inflammation, Sugar finds time to annoy and paralyze our busy immune system while it discreetly robs minerals from the bodies different storage sites. Biological mutiny.
3. Inactive Lifestyle - Becoming more regularly active can increases your sensitivity to the subtle, and not-so-subtle, effects of overeating. Your active condition offers a more reliable barometer of good health and your physical limitation. I'll never forget a conversation I had with a running partner named Arty ("Hi, I'm Arty from Nu Yawk"), as we we taking a long run one early Sunday morning, prior to a track event. Nine miles into our run, he had a burst of thundering gas. No one said anything. About one-half mile later, he turned to me and said:
"Wow, took 9 and 1/2 miles to get rid of that. What if I had sat on the couch all day? I'll tell you whut woulda happened: One night at 2 AM my head would suddenly explode...thank God for long dirt trails..."
Such were the intimate exchanges we'd have on a training run.
It made me realize that we have the ability to condition our bodies and control our health so much more than we imagined. For most people the only control they have dietarily is the use of stimulants or depressants; they're tired so they drink coffee or have a cigarette. They're all keyed up, so they'll have an alcoholic drink. Beyond these extremes, few people really know how to influence their health, mood and energy level with food.
Physical activity can be a great neutralizer. Challenging your physical limitations might mean to walk longer distances, stretching in more advanced postures, hiking to increase heart rate or lifting weights to solidify bone mass. In a toned, active body, it's easier to exercise discipline because you know what works best for your body. Exercise also increases your will.
4. Poor Digestion - There could be an infinite number of related digestive conditions, but most of them are aggravated, if not caused, by long time acidity. This can come from: inadequate chewing, meal time tension, the need for fermentation with meals, a lack of enzymes to digest properly, parasites, etc. So, we often end up attempting to compensate by volume. Calm mealtimes, a bit of pickle with your meal, less volume, thorough, but not obsessive chewing and a bit of tea after the meal all insure good digestion.
5. Nutritional Deficiency - Lack of nutrients, good quality protein, oil, salt and the five tastes of salty, sweet, bitter, sour and pungent all conspire to foster overeating if we don't include these into our daily diet. A fixed template of a circle divided into percentages can only go so far? While you can use that initially, it takes consistent experimenting to find your balance—and this is a never ending research project because there are always different ways to balance excess and because your condition is constantly changing.
6. Emotionality - There are many emotional factors that are the basis for overeating or binge eating. If you feel that this is a component to your overeating, first, remove the dietary imbalance factors mentioned above that may be pushing you in this direction. Second, accept that your overeating needs to embrace an emotional perspective and either seek support or do some research to better understand more about these factors. Generally, we can easily anesthetize ourselves with the sensory pleasure of different foods, such as sugar, or by overeating. Stuffing your face literally shuts off the emotional center, at least temporarily, and insulates us from thinking. Sometimes, this can be a good thing. However, this soon wears off and we are no better for a solution. There are a number of books that can provide more insight, including, Geneen Roth's, "Feeding the Hungry Heart" and Jane R. Hirschmannn's, "Overcoming Overeating."
See you!
Blossoming Together Cafe
The main topic of this talk is healthy balanced nutrition for infants, babies and weaning and young toddlers....
please read this extract as a preparation for my talk:
Feeding Baby
by Diane Avoli
to Solid Food
Breast feeding an infant is the most natural and wonderful experience for mother and child. The composition of breast milk is perfectly suited, it is naturally and completely digested, and has immunoglobulins which provide protection against bacteria and viral infections. Breast fed babies are less likely to develop allergies and the mother can control the quality of the milk by what she eats and the life-style she lives.
When to Start
The time to introduce solid food to a baby differs from child to child. There is no rule on when to start. A baby who is steadily gaining weight, alert, active, with good sleeping and eating patterns (This means: taking two naps a day for one to three hours at a time, mostly sleeping through the night, and not wanting to be fed every hour night or day.) does not need solid food however old the baby is unless the breast feeding mother is exhausted and/or under weight. For an infant that is not having it's nutritional needs met by mother's milk for one reason or another, a homemade grain milk can be used. Other liquids and water can be offered to a baby. Watered down apple juice, homemade barley or rice tea and the unsalted liquid left after cooking sweet vegetables all make acceptable drinks. These can be used to change baby's condition, fill in when mom is away or to give dad a chance to feed baby.
A baby may show signs of needing solid food earlier, but most are between the ages of four and eight months. Mother's milk changes to meet the needs of the baby as the baby grows older but many other factors influence the quality and quantity of the milk. The food and liquid quality and amounts the mother consumes, how often she eats, her activities and amount of rest she gets and how stress free she is are the most important factors. There may be an adequate amount of milk, but it may not be thick enough to satisfy an active baby's needs.
The need for solid food is apparent if the baby is not gaining weight, sleeping patterns are poor, hungry often, constipated or abnormal bowel movements, irritability or any other change in the baby's normal healthy development. In a healthy baby a sign that the baby is ready for solid food is when the teeth are ready to come in. In most macrobiotic babies the teeth come in very slowly and very strong. Drooling is usually the firs sign along with the baby gnawing on everything and anything. Sometimes the baby will have restless sleep, a low fever and/or diaper rash. A sure sign is when the baby wants to be held constantly, especially during the night and nap times.
Sometimes parents decide to introduce solid foods to help the baby sleep through the night or because the mother is going back to work and expressing milk to save for the baby is not always enough.
Whatever the reason to start, do not wait too long, the older the baby is the harder it will be for the baby to accept the consistency and taste.
The time of day the food is offered varies depending on what works best in the parents' and baby's schedule. Dinner time usually works best because there is more time during the day to prepare the food and the baby sleeps better at night with a full tummy. Sold food should be offered before the breast to develop good eating habits and because the baby is more likely to accept the solid food if really hungry.
Baby's First Solid Food
y cause the baby to reject vegetables when offered.
The most common first food is cereal. Cook whole grain brown rice very soft with a tiny piece of sea vegetable (1/8 to 1/4 inch dry piece of kombu or wakame per cup of grain simmered in about ten cups of water) squeeze through cheese cloth or push through a strainer to remove hard pieces. Medium or long grain rice not pressure cooked usually works best.
The baby will continue to receive all of the nutritional needs from the breast milk until a balanced diet is given, and that should be by the time breast feeding is finished. One or two teaspoons are enough to start with and half of that will be spit or drooled out until the baby gets used to it. The water content lessens as the baby gets older, after one week introduce other grains, one at a time, giving each one a week, then mix the grains so that the baby gets use to variety and having foods both alone and mixed. The other grains best suited for babies are barley, sweet brown rice, oats, and millet.
Vegetables are usually given next. Introduce one at a time to give baby time to get use to it and to see if there is any negative reaction. Vegetables should be simmered on a low/medium heat until soft and then mashed in a suribachi, put through a baby food mill or put through a strainer. Cut pieces very small so that they will cook quickly. Boiling makes the vegetables more moist than steaming and easier to grind. Vegetables can be mixed at times and sometimes mixed into the grain.
When to Salt?
Babies are small and we want them to grow bigger. Salt, which causes contraction, is usually avoided in baby food. Salt, shoyu, miso and other seasonings are cooked into the food gradually after age one or later. Roasted unsalted ground seeds such as sesame can be added to grain cereals after a month or two of eating solids especially if weight gain is needed. Beans, sea vegetables and fruits are added slowly after vegetables so that by the time the baby is weaned they are having a balanced diet.
Cooking food for baby separately from adult food is very important. The needs are very different and difficulties in health and behavior can develop if a baby eats adult food. Babies do not need oil or fat as long as the breast milk is rich. Oil is added the same time as salt.
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