Superfoods

Now let's briefly touch on some superfoods, which I would like for you to experiment, including into your diet on a weekly basis. Now, when you think of superfoods, you might be thinking, oh, spirulina, chlorella, all these kind of things. You know, superfoods is a bit of a marketing jargon nowadays, touted to kind of help get you to buy something from the Himalayas. But the superfoods that I'm referring to are tried and tested foods that were really prioritized and revered in our ancestral cuisine throughout. You know, depending on where, you know, regardless of where we are from, I think they're sort of like a globally accepted foods that were very highly nourishing and very nutrient dense. And a lot of the superfoods that I'm going to mention are actually from animal products. Um. So again, if you're not eating animal products, it's something that you might want to consider experimenting, including into not all of them, but the majority of them. But let's start with one that I mentioned earlier. And one of the big, in my opinion, one of the most nutrient dense superfoods, that we can consume on a regular basis is liver. Now liver is, you know, you probably think of it as like, oh, it's our detoxifying organ. A lot of people go, ooh, liver, isn't it full of toxins? Actually the liver is one of the hardest working organs of our body. And it's, it does, it is, you know, it does, it is the main organ of detoxification, but it actually neutralizes toxins. So there's no toxins that are stored in the liver. Actually, the liver is a storage organ for a lot of nutrients. So it stores glycogen, as we saw earlier. It's also really important storage organ for B vitamins. It's really important for retinol, stores retinol, vitamin A, B vitamins. It's very high in iron, very high in copper and a lot of other nutrients. So if you're, and if you think about all traditional cuisines, they, they have a sort a form of liver dish in their cuisines. You've got liver pate, you've got liver just eaten on its own liver and onions, et cetera. So if you're able to include liver in the diet, and again, you don't need large quantities of this. It's. You only need about 100 grams a week of liver. And this is going to, you know, because of all the Nutrients that it contains. It's really great for skin health. It's really great for hormonal health. It's great for thyroid function. It's great for energy production because it contains B vitamins, contains a lot of iron and copper, which helps the iron be released and used from storage. So it's really potent nutrient. But you don't need a lot of it. You don't need, like, big slabs of liver every day. We don't be overdoing them, just small amounts. And you can include these in various ways. You can have liver, if you like liver, it's part of your cuisine. Amazing. Just have a piece every week, however you like to consume it. Other ways. For people who don't like liver, other ways that you could look at experimenting is making a liver pate, though that's usually more palatable for people. Making a pate and then spreading it on some sourdough bread. Or you could hide it in things. And this is what I normally do to get it into my daughter. I will put. You can blend liver and then add it into any sort of meat sauces that you have. So things like Bolognese, Ragu, you know, like a meat tomato sauce. Or you can put it in meatballs and have it that way. Or you could, put it in, you know, if you're making burgers or things like that, or a meat loaf, all of these things. You can hide some of it in, you know, in these foods. And usually just starting slow because it can have a bit. Especially beef. Liver has quite a strong taste. So you could, you know, you can start with slow and then add more in as you, you know, as you become more accustomed to it. If it's something that you really cannot stomach at all, then there are now liver supplements that you can take. Like desiccated liver capsules. You know, they're really expensive compared to liver, but they're also a way if someone. Or if you're traveling, for example, that can be something to consider. And I'll share some of my favorite resources in, when we talk about the supplements, in the supplements module. But yeah, liver, nature's multivitamin, really, really amazing, superfood that only you only need a little bit every week. That's definitely something that will, you know, show your hormones a lot of love. The other ones that I talked about before as well was oysters as well. So seafood. Oysters are kind of like the seas version of a multivitamin. Really high in Zinc, really high in copper, very high in minerals. It's kind of the main source of zinc. And zinc is really important for thyroid function, immune system function, and skin health and gut health. So it's a really potent one. Again, oysters is not something that maybe everybody can get a hold of on a regular basis. If you can, amazing. If not, you could just add some, you know, more seafood. So things like scallops and prawns and mussels. Couldn't think of the word, mussels. Those are really, those are great too. But oysters would be great. And again, you can find, desiccated oyster capsules as well if that's something that you're wanting to add in as a supplement. I prefer things from food sources. Obviously you can taste whether it's good or not. But I, you know, there's a, also ways of getting around it if you don't like. The other one that I mentioned earlier as well is gelatin and collagen. So as I've said before, gelatin, our animal products are usually the way that we would have consumed it would have been with a lot of collagen and gelatin because of the connective tissue and the bones, etc. How we cooked things and certain cuts of meat. It's something that we've kind of lost track. We've lost the habit of consuming. And so, this is a really important one especially for things like gut health, skin, hair, nails. But also to offset the inflammatory, amino acid profile of, you know, too many muscle meats. So if you're eating muscle meats in the diet, then adding some collagen and gelatin into the diet is really important. It's great for digestion as well. And so you can, you can make, as I said, collagen rich broths by boiling things like chicken feet or pig strutters or chicken wings for example, and skimming off the fat. Or you could buy gelatin and you can make things like gelatin gummies or gelatin, you know, jellies in the summer or things like marshmallows, homemade marshmallows with gelatin. Those are great ways of getting them in. Or just adding some collagen into your hot drinks or into your, you know, into your soups and, and, and stews and things like that. Be a great way of getting them in. Potent, anti inflammatory, really great for digestion. Another couple are, you know, another one is fruit. And we've talked about it when we're talking about Carbohydrates. Fruit is one of those things that so many women are scared of. Fruits and fruit juices, they're like, oh, it's basically just like sugar. But as we've seen earlier, fruit is a really important form of carbohydrates. And carbohydrates are so key and crucial to keeping our blood sugar stable, to helping keep a cortisol low, to helping with progesterone production. And fruit is a really easy to digest form of carbohydrates, especially if the fruit is ripe, and if it's eaten in season. So this is a great hack for someone, someone who is struggling with sugar cravings in the afternoon. Whenever I get my clients to add fruit into their meals, like every meal, have some fruit, like some food at breakfast, some fruit at lunchtime, food at dinner time, with a snack, with some pro, obviously always paired with protein, suddenly their sugar cravings disappear. I will, you know, I've seen this happen time and time again. So adding fruit in and fruit juice as well, like freshly squeezed orange juice for example, is, it can be really amazing, with a meal example in the right amounts. The other one is dairy that we talked about earlier. If tolerated, dairy is very high in calcium and potassium and bioavailable protein and retinol, calcium is so important as well for keeping inflammation low for our bone health. And it's, you know, it's actually been shown to actually help with, you know, maintaining a good, weight as well. So consuming calcium rich foods. Now if you're consuming a lot of dairy, just be mindful to be the amount of fat that's in the dairy. So sometimes people are like, oh yeah, you know, dairy is great and they start consuming a lot of whole milk and a lot of cheese. And these are all great, but in high amounts, obviously they can lead to weight gain. So we want to balance out the types of dairy sources and have a variety of different sources. So if you like drinking whole milk, then maybe have a lower fat source of yogurt or some naturally lower fat cheeses like parmesan cheese or cottage cheese for example, and just play around with them according to the fat content of the other foods in your date, you know, in your daily diet, for example. But dairy is a great one. And then finally the carrot salad. And the carrot salad is a really important, recipe to include in your diet on a day to day basis to help with any sort of estrogen progesterone imbalances. It helps to get clear the gut it's the, the carrot salad. Carrots in itself are very antimicrobial. Think about where they grow up. They're kind of in the dark and the under underground. And if you think about the carrot, the, you know, in that you've forgotten in your fridge for weeks, they usually go a bit soft but they don't completely disintegrate like for example your lettuce leaves. Right. So carrots are just naturally antimicrobial and if you're consuming them raw in a salad, so either ribboned or grated, with, dressed with some coconut oil or some ol. Ah. And salt and consuming them on an empty stomach or at the beginning of a meal, it has a bit of a brushing effect through the intestines which can help sort of balance out, get rid of those excess estrogens that are circulating that need to be excreted. We'll look at those in the, you know, in the gut and liver love module. But it can help. I've seen it help with things like obviously digestive issues, bloating. I've seen it help with uh, Mike, you know, migraines as well. And the important thing about the carrot salad is it needs to be eaten daily. So consistency really is key here. Having it on a daily basis, it's going to have a much, you know, a much more profound effect than consuming it on a day, you know, on and off for example. But yeah, liver, oysters and seafood, gelatin, fruit, dairy and carrot salad. These are things that should be included in your diet on a regular basis. Liver and oysters only need to be weekly or bi weekly for example, every other week is fine. Gelatin and fruit and the carrot salad and dairy if possible would be great to include weekly. Just be mindful of the dairy. If you're consuming like full fat dairy just, you know, play around with different types. It doesn't all have to be fat free. Again we're not in the 90s or the 80s. But just play around so that you're not adding loads of fat into the diet which can then can lead to, to weight gain. But let's move on now and let's talk about two other bit more controversial topics. Coffee and alcohol.