Celery Juice, Keto and a Confession.
Tomorrow is the Equinox which means Summer is almost at an end. As usual the UK hasn't wasted any time getting colder and we all have our umbrellas at the ready for next week.
I hope you had a lovely summer. Mine was difficult as a close friend ended up in hospital where she remains, seriously ill with an illness brought on by high blood pressure and stress. As hard as it's been this summer it has served as a reminder about how much our lifesyle affects our health.
You may remember from my last update or my instagram posts that my plan was to give this Celery Juice craze a whirl and see if it improved my health. I was also umming and erring about trying out the Keto diet - the other food craze. So, let me tell you all..
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What's in the cup?
Celery Juice or a Keto friendly bullet proof coffee?!
Imaginary drum roll please
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There's no point switching up your diet for the sake of it. Since I've started making my Kimchi and Kraut and all my other Eat Live products I have healed several health conditions, don't get ill much and have some of lowest markers for all the bad health stuff that my Bupa assessor had ever seen (no affiliation but their health assessments are excellent if you can manage to get one). In spite of being much healthier than before I was still suffering from low energy and feeling sluggish after eating. I also strayed from my usual cleanish diet - thanks a lot Cornwall and put on a bit of weight.
Finally, I have mild Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) which causes cramps after menstruation rather than before. Both Celery Juice and the Ketogenic diet are claimed to help with the all these issues. I decided to try them separately, so that if I had an improvement I knew why. I started with celery juice. |
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A herbalist and 'psychic to the stars' started the Celery Juice movement. The latter part of this description might put you off but Anthony Williams the Medical Medium gives a comprehensive break down of the components of celery and the reasons for it's healing benefits. There aren't any long term studies on taking celery juice in the way he prescribes but he does have thousands of anecdotal testimonials to it's benefits that seem to be legitimate, with plenty of before and after pictures of course.
The instructions for the celery juice protocol are very specific. You need to juice a whole head, with no additional ingredients, none, not even ginger :-( and drink it on an empty stomach. Then wait 30 minutes before having anything else. No guidance is provided on how long you need to do this cleanse for, but he does mention that some people start to see the benefits as soon as a week in. I tried it for 21 days.
The benefits are listed as clearer skin, improved digestion, less bloating, sustained energy, better mental clarity, weight loss, and stable moods, healing from all kinds of acute and chronic illnesses, including Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, eczema, psoriasis, acne, SIBO, constipation, chronic fatigue syndrome, blood sugar issues, migraines, acid reflux, high blood pressure, addictions, adrenal issues, gout, allergies, autoimmune conditions. So far, so good.
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For anyone around my age or older you'll recognise Keto because it is basically just the Atkins diet, in that it is a very low carb diet. The only difference between Atkins and Keto is that Keto limits protein too. The structure is high fat, moderate protein and low carb, whereas Atkins is basically a protein and fat for free all and the only thing to limit is carbs.
Here's a good description from the BBC about how the diet works
Your body uses whichever energy source is most readily available. This is normally glucose (sugar) converted from carbohydrates. If you drastically limit your carbohydrate consumption and replace it with fat, your body is eventually forced to use fat from food or your stores as energy instead. This process is called ‘ketosis’.
The health benefits of the Keto diet are listed as
- Aiding weight loss, because it takes more work to turn fat into energy than it takes to turn carbs into energy
- Reduces acne
- May help reduce risk of cancer
- Improves heart health
- May protect brain functioning
- Potentially reduces seizures
- Improves health in women with PCOS
Pretty impressive, so I tried the Keto diet for 21 days too.
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I was biased towards the celery. I love plants and I wanted the celery juice to transform everything. It didn't. It made me more *ahem, regular, not that that had been an issue, and I could feel it was having a cleansing effect. But other than that I didn't feel that different.
Keto on the other hand, well, just a few days in and I felt much more energetic. I lost the extra 5 pounds pretty quickly and it stayed off, without any hunger pangs or feeling deprived. I have no post meal slump which is a big plus. I wake up in the morning feeling rested and ready to go, My skin is clearer. I'm using the present tense because when something's working there's no reason to stop, so I have continued to eat this way for the most part.
My cramps are no different so although I haven't had another scan yet I'm guessing neither has made any difference to my PCOS, but interestingly the last time I did have a scan the technician mentioned that several people she'd come across had healed PCOS with the keto diet - obviously that wouldn't be a 21 day thing so I'm going to keep going and I will keep you posted of course.
Confession time - in spite of all my Vegan and Vegetarian hashtags on Instagram I've started eating meat again. Keto is much easier to do with meat and dairy, particularly when you're just starting out. I also tend towards low iron levels so it makes sense from a health perspective for the time being. I'm still drawn to a vegetarian diet, so now I know keto suits my body I'll be working on vegan and vegetarian recipes so I can do it in a way that I feel happy with.
But
One big reservation with the keto diet is that doing it strictly is not the best for women. The same can be said for too much intermittent fasting which is a practice I've mentioned before that often goes hand in hand with keto. Women in particular need carbs, and drastic restriction disrupts our hormones. Sticking with the upper end of the carb intake and looking at net carbs (carbs - fibre) rather than total carbs is a much better approach for women (and for men who want a less extreme approach). It also encourages much healthier choices like complex carbs and lots of veg.
Although I didn’t have any significant improvements from the celery juice I’m still confident that it does have very important healing properties. As well as it containing a range of vitamins and minerals, it also contains two important antioxidants, apigenin and luteolin that have been shown to improve brain health, reduce inflammation that underlies illness and potentially even halt and prevent cancer.
I think someone with more significant health issues would really benefit from a longer course on the celery juice regime and particularly if it was done in conjunction with an anti inflammatory diet. As with all herbal medicine (celery is a herb) it is difficult to benefit if the rest of what you are eating is causing inflammation. So, in fact doing the celery juice cleanse in addition to a healthy version of the Keto diet would be likely to optimise healing. For someone who’s just looking to lose a bit of weight and improve energy levels the keto diet definitely works quickly and it seems to have impressive long term effects on the body too.
For me an ideal days eating would be my kitchari cleanse meal plan or something similar. This is very nourishing, protein rich, good fat rich and high in fibre which makes it low net carbs, excuse the plug but do stayed tuned for the Autumn 3 Day Kitchari Cleanse coming again soon if you’re interested in detoxing, resetting your gut and getting out track to start losing any weight that wants to go.
Anyway I'm aware this 'update' is going on and on, so if you'd like more info on this, what I'm eating, times - eating windows and the like, not to mention the awful consequences when I tried to have a 'cheat day' lol! then click here as I'm planning to go into more detail on my keto forary for those of you who are interested. |
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| Lots of people have been asking for the easy kimchi recipe lately so here it is again, it's a nice to do at the start of Autumn and you can throw all sorts of veggies in that you happen to have in the fridge, provided you keep cabbage as the main ingredient. If you don't have the time or inclination to do this, buy mine here
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Easy Kimchi
Ingredients
- 1 medium white cabbage roughly chopped into bite sized pieces - you can use any variety but steer clear of too many dark leafy greens as they can be a bit trickier to ferment
- 2 big outer cabbage leaves and the core - put these aside to use at the end
- 2 grated carrots
- 2 cloves of garlic crushed
- 2 teaspoons of grated ginger
- 1 dessert spoon of sea salt (white, not pink) *note - your salt content should be 2.5% of the total volume of ingredients. This equates to about 1 dessert spoon and means it tastes quite salty when you have made it but it will get less so once it is fermented
- 2 dessert spoons of gochugaru or you can use any type of chilli flakes or cayenne pepper
- Culture - you can use the brine left over from a previous batch of kimchi or one of my jars. Or you can use two probiotic capsules mixed with 100 ml of water. This one contains complimentary cultures. (no affiliation). Alternatively, you can leave out additional cultures and just ferment for longer - give it about 2 weeks fermentation time
Method
As soon as you've chopped your cabbage pour the culture over it, give it a mix and then leave the cultures on the cabbage to get to know the ones in the liquid whilst you prep the rest of your ingredients. When you've finished all your grating and crushing..
Sprinkle the salt all over the cabbage and start massaging! If you don't want to use your hands you can use a rolling pin to pound it, spend a good 5 mins on this and your cabbage should start to become limp and soggy!
Add everything else and mix well,
Pack into a glass mason jar and use your big cabbage leaves and the core to push the kraut down beneath the brine. You can top up with some extra salty water - about half a teaspoon to each 100ml. Don't use any more water than you need to cover the cabbage.
And that's it. Leave the jar at room temp, on a plate to collect any overflowing brine, for about 3 days. Open the jar each day to release the gasses and ensure the kraut is is still beneath the brine. Then transfer it to the fridge for a further week. It's ready to eat and will last in the fridge for at least 6 months. You can use the brine from this batch as a starter culture for your next batch.
If you want to mix it up a bit other nice kimchi ingredients are spring onions, radish and my personal favourite, jerusalem artichoke.
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New Collection Point - Romeo's Sugar Free Bakery Angel, Islington N1
You can now collect all your 3 Day Detox and all Eat Live products from Romeo pictured above, yes that's the owner's name! This is a collection point rather than a stockist so if you're near there you'll just need to let me know about a week in advance what you want and I'll drop it off there for you to collect for free. Leave yourself enough time to have a slice of cake and a hot chocolate whilst you're there.
Remember we have a few stockists dotted around London now if you want to have get some of our kraut with your shopping have look at the bottom of my website for one near you. They're all small, independent ethical businesses and we all appreciate your support.
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