Olwen Anderson's Blog

Yoghourt – The Probiotic In A Tub

Yoghourt has been used for centuries in many ancient cultures both as a food and as a medicine. Our ancestors realised that the good bacteria really boosted their health, as well as giving them a new way to enjoy dairy food. Here's how you can use yoghourt to benefit your health today:

That tub of sour-tasting milk is actually a fermented brew of healthy bacteria for your gut. We all have many varieties of bacteria in our bowels, both healthy and unhealthy varieties. They compete for passing nutrients, and some of the good ones help us absorb vitamins and prime our immune systems too.

By enjoying yoghourt, you are actively replenishing the good bacteria in your gut, and making life harder for the bad bacteria.

When you visit the supermarket to buy some health-giving yoghourt, follow these simple steps to get the result you want.

- Choose plain unsweetened yoghourt, and add fresh fruit at home to sweeten if you need to. The extra sugar in flavoured yoghourt can really expand your waistline!

- Avoid flavoured 'low fat' yoghourt for the same reason. Extra sugar has often been added to compensate for the reduced fat. Plain low fat yoghourt though is great. 

- Remember that the fresher the tub, the more friendly bacteria it contains: Check the use-by date.

- You don't need to eat much yoghourt to get a benefit. 100g, or four dessertspoons, will give you the right dose of friendly bacteria for the day.

- Choose a different brand of yoghourt every time you shop. Different brands contain different friendly bacteria varieties. Each of these varieties will have a different benefit for your gut.

Here's a tip to help you adjust your palate to the more 'sour' taste of real yoghourt: Mix some plain yoghourt with pineapple or orange juice. Use it as a 'dip' for pieces of fresh raw fruit. As you become accustomed to the taste, reduce the amount of fruit juice. The kids will really enjoy this as a treat if the fruit pieces are threaded onto skewers first.

Yoghourt can also make a great dip mixed with fresh raw minced garlic and finely diced cucumber. Use carrot sticks as dippers rather than crackers. Very refreshing on a hot day!

NOTE: If you have diarrhoea or have been taking antibiotics, you need probiotic capsules for a really big dose of good bacteria to reinoculate your gut.

Would you like to make a big positive difference in your nutrition with a minimum of effort? All you have to do is access the power of raw food.

Although some fruits and vegetables really have to be cooked to be edible (potato and rhubarb spring to mind instantly), there are many that will lose most of their nutrients if you overcook them.

We had a joke in naturopathic school about the 'old' Australian style of boiling vegetables until they were mushy and colourless: You could cook your veg this way, but you would benefit most if you then threw out the vegetables and drank the water they were boiled in – as that was where all the nutrients went to.

Vegetables do sometimes need to be cooked. Many contain phytic or oxalic acid, naturally occurring plant chemicals which deter insect pests. This phytic or oxalic acid will get in the way of mineral absorption, and also prevent us from absorbing the minerals in the plant. So by lightly cooking foods like silverbeet we're actually helping our digestion.

Because its hard to tell which vegetables have high levels of oxalic or phytic acid and which don't, the trick is to only lightly cook your veg, so that the phytic/oxalic acid is destroyed but the cooking hasn't continued long enough for nutrients to escape. A general rule of thumb for non-root vegetables like beans, carrot, broccoli and cauliflower is 90 seconds cooking, either steaming or stir frying. Obviously some vegetables need longer cooking to make them palatable – like brussels sprout, potato and pumpkin.

Fresh fruit actually tastes better when its raw, and its so easy to prepare. By choosing to eat your fruit raw you're including more vitamin C and other antioxidants in your diet. 

On a day-to-day basis, here is how you can increase the proportion of raw fruits and vegetables in your diet:

- leave the cans of fruit and vegetables on the supermarket shelf. Head for the fresh food department instead. Ideally, choose organic for better flavour and nutrition.

- avoid dried fruit – its really high in sugar

- when buying yoghourt, buy the natural variety and add your own fresh fruit.

- Make sure you enjoy 2-4 pieces of raw fruit every day.

- Choose a salad for lunch – either as a meal on its own, or as part of a salad sandwich.

- Use chopped fresh carrot and celery sticks for dips rather than crackers.

- Lightly steam or stir fry your dinner vegetables for only about 90 seconds so they're cooked but still crisp.

Naturopaths often refer to the 'life force' in raw fruits and vegetables, as these foods contain the optimum levels of vitamins and minerals. After a few weeks of choosing raw rather than cooked food, you'll find that your wellbeing starts to improve naturally.

Trace minerals are vital for the health of your body’s cells. You could take the minerals as a supplement – but there’s an easier way to include them in your diet every day - and you won’t even have to convince the kids that it’s ‘good for them’. 

All you have to do is use a different kind of salt.

White salt that flows easily out of the shaker has been refined in its journey from the sea to your table. Most of the trace minerals are extracted, and minerals or chemicals added (usually aluminium) to make the salt flow freely. Iodine is sometimes added too, as iodine deficiency is common. The end product that you shake onto your food is almost exclusively sodium and chloride.

Unrefined natural sea salt (also known as ‘Celtic’, ‘grey’ or ‘macrobiotic’ salt), on the other hand, is pure evaporated sea water. All the trace minerals available in the ocean remain in the salt – like calcium, magnesium, iodine and iron, and lots more. 

Sea water is collected and evaporated in large ponds. The resulting salt crystals are ground then packaged for sale. Straight from the ocean to you. You can buy crystals coarsely ground (good for cooking) or finely ground, ready for use on the table.

Naturally evaporated sea salt appears grey because it hasn’t been processed. Its important though to check that the salt has been assessed for the presence of pollutants. If the salt is certified organic, it has been collected in clean waters, and checked to ensure no pollutants are present. 

Minerals in sea water are dissolved, in ionic form, which means that the molecules are arranged to be more easily absorbed by the cells of your body. This is the best possible way for your body to utilise whatever minerals are present in the food you eat.

Unrefined sea salt from different parts of the world will have slightly different colours, and slightly different tastes. 

If the idea of using grey salt doesn’t appeal to you, try including some kelp in your diet, wrapped around sushi or added to a seafood stew, as a way to obtain extra minerals from the sea.

Next time you’re buying salt, why not buy the ‘grey’ variety instead, and give your body an extra dose of trace minerals. You can easily find it in the health food store, or in the organic / health foods section of the supermarket.

I’ve been asked a couple of times lately whether organically labelled food is really organic. So I thought I’d write a little about why choosing organic is such a clever move for your health, and how to make sure that what you’re buying is really organic. 

We have a choice now – organic food is more widely available than ever before; even in the major supermarkets. But why make the decision to switch to organic when you have the choice? Here’s why:

Organic food tastes better. This is particularly noticeable with apples and tomatoes, but with most other foods too.

Organic food is grown using full spectrum nutrient fertilisers. This means that the plant can take up more nutrients, and that the soil remains viable. Organic food is purported to have a higher concentration of vitamins and minerals as a result, although this is a subject of heated debate in the scientific community!

Because organic farmers use only natural substances to fertilise their crops, care for their animals, deter pests and combat disease, the farmers are not exposed to any harmful chemicals, and the environment is not polluted.

We are all exposed to non-natural chemicals every day. Our bodies have some ability to excrete them, but if we’re overloaded, our bodies will try to store the toxins where they won’t cause any harm. Often this is in fat tissue. Some industrial chemicals are hormone disrupters, potentially causing hormone imbalance disorders. Choosing organic reduces your exposure to these chemicals.

Some organic farmers use biodynamics, energetic remedies to further boost the life force of their crop. For a real taste treat, try biodynamic almonds or walnuts. 

To maintain the health of their animals, organic farmers use natural remedies – herbs, nutrients and homoeopathy. This makes them completely free of chemicals and artificial hormones. I particularly enjoy cooking my breakfast egg, knowing that the hen that produced it has had a happy life.

Genetic engineering is a relatively new practice in agriculture that may detrimental effects in the future. Organic food is not genetically engineered.

Organic growers must undergo a lengthy and exhaustive process to obtain the ‘certified’ logo which guarantees you are buying a truly organic product. When you buy a certified organic product you will see a retailer or producer number. Growers are regularly audited to ensure their compliance, and any organic product can be traced back to its source through the food chain. By looking for the certification logo and producer number you can be sure that the food you are buying is truly organic.

Because organic food is so widely available now, the gap between the price of organic and non-organic food has narrowed considerably; particularly in the areas of dairy, flour and bread. Next time you shop for food, enjoy the extra benefits you can get from choosing organic!

Summer is suddenly here, and our taste buds naturally start seeking out cooler, fresher foods. Here’s a great opportunity for you to get more raw food in your diet, particularly in the form of salad. Its easy to prepare a different salad every day when you know the basics. 

Raw vegetables are an important part of a healthy diet, full of water soluble vitamins which can be destroyed by cooking. Naturopaths know that fresh raw food has more ‘life force’, which means better nutrition and more energy for you.

Of course the same salad ingredients every day can get boring, so here’s the magic formula for making endless variations, depending on what’s in season, what’s in your fridge and what’s in your garden. You’ll be limited only by your imagination.

1. First the base – leafy greens. You can buy interesting mixes of salad greens at the supermarket or vegie market. Use the more strongly flavoured greens like rocket if you’re going to use strongly flavoured toppings, and softer greens if you don’t want to overwhelm the subtler toppings.

2. Next, choose a protein, such as tuna, salmon, chicken, beef, egg, legumes or tofu. For a ‘warm’ salad, just use the meat or egg when its still warm from cooking. 

3. Add something crunchy – like capsicum, zucchini, cucumber, green beans, bean sprouts, or cherry tomatoes. Along with the greens, the crunchy ingredients should create the bulk of your salad, so be generous.

4. Add something creamy – like avocado, or leftover roast pumpkin, or a soft cheese – or your dressing could be of the ‘creamy’ variety.

5. Something tangy – like olives or feta cheese.

6. Something special – like a sprinkle of nuts, or freshly snipped herbs from the garden

7. Finally, add a dressing. It can be as simple as a splash of balsamic vinegar, or a squeeze of lemon juice; or something creamy, like yoghourt. My personal preference is to use oily accompaniments like olives or nuts rather than an oil-based dressing, but whatever you choose, a delicious dressing is an important finishing touch.

Here are some possible flavour combinations to get you started:

Tuna, white beans, olives

Chicken, asparagus, lemon juice, avocado

Marinated beef strips (cooked), capsicum, bean sprouts, rocket

Tofu, green beans, cashews, tamari-based dressing

If you’re eating away from home, an easy way to include a salad in your diet every day is to choose a salad sandwich. Just make sure it includes some protein, for sustained energy levels.

Buy organic foods currently in season if you can – they’re better tasting and better for you. If you’ve got space for a garden or herb patch, picking your salad vegies from your own garden is heavenly. Or its easy to grow some herbs or sprouts on your kitchen windowsill.

Happy salad days!