mint & berry & Lisboa

mint&berry Spring/Summer 2014 from mint&berry on Vimeo.

Health On A Plate

More than two years ago I came across the concept of Alkaline nutrition. Things I read on it rang the bell and made so much sense for me. Since then I've been giving up on sugar, soda drinks, packed juices and most of the processed foods. Of course it is not a crime to break the rules once in a blue moon but even introducing some of these things in my everyday life has changed a lot (gradually losing 10 kg without much of an effort might tell something). It is true that at the beginning you might think that there is nothing much left to eat, but with time you come down to eating more of simple and whole foods. It is also true that nowadays we are surrounded by so much information often a contradictory one when talking about food (or anything else for that matter) and it becomes hard to understand where the truth is but your own body might tell you a lot as well. Problem is that nutrition science is still in its' diapers (as some clever people say) therefore none of the nutritionists can tell you the absolute truth about anything in a long run, food industry is using and inventing new chemicals to grow and to make their produce. If we look back like 50 years ago some things scientists said were good turned out to be bad and vice versa. And we don't have to look back even that far. As my Chinese acupuncturist said - Listen to your body more often!, (unless you're eating junk food which is full of substances to make you crave for more :)) after I've been drinking at least two liters of water a day which was supposedly a healthy thing to do but not for my body constitution. So it really boils down to fusion of gathering the information and knowledge, analyzing it, trying it out, observing and listening to your body and dropping it or carrying on with it respectively.

My very recent discovery and favourite thing is quinoa but I will have to experiment with it for a bit longer to come to a legitimate conclusion and to become its' advocate :) Grapefruit has been my great friend and immune system booster for at least a year already - having it as a fruit or squeezed in juice, though one has to take care if taking some pills at the same time because it is proven to interact with medication. And then of course avocado which I love and consume a lot. Nevertheless I have to mention that I also believe that eating traditional, organic and locally grown whole food is essential, best if grown by yourself. As I once mentioned in one of my posts - it can be done even on your balcony or windowsill.

This is as local and organic as one can get - bilberries from Latvia's forests :) I think Latvians are one of the few European nations who can still call themselves 'gatherers' as we use our natural food resources a lot be it a wild berry or a mushroom or herb in the meadow. So - go out in the nature more often and benefit from it!

When I am in the shop I always read labels on products and avoid the ones which contain more than five ingredients (and of course checking what those ingredients are) following the suggestion of great Michael Pollan. His book Food Rules is a book to have in your handbag.  In Defence of Food is a more extensive version of Food Rules but as interesting and down to business. He depicts quite clearly the problem of modern society - us that is in many aspects, not just the nutrition.

And in the video below Michael Pollan speaks on his new book, food history and anthropology:

And here is another one which touches upon many important issues:

The song of the day

Absolutely LOVE this song for two months already and don't seem to get tired of it. People say the whole new album is a marvel.