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Scrambled Eggs with Smoked Salmon

• 2 eggs
• 1 tbsp cream
• 1 splash water
• Salt and pepper, to season
• 1 slice smoked salmon
• 1 pinch of grated cheese
• Dill, to serve

Combine everything except the salmon and dill in a bowl and mix with a fork to combine. Melt some butter in a pan on medium heat, and pour in the egg mixture. Break the salmon into large chunks and scatter over the egg mixture. Once the eggs have started to firm up a little around the edges, gently scramble the eggs by pulling the eggs from the outside of the pan into the middle with a wooden spoon, rotating this action around the pan. At some point you may need to flop larger sections of the eggs over to cook it evenly.
Spoon into a bowl and sprinkle over the dill. Enjoy!

Toasted Muesli

Ingredients

• 3 cups rolled oats
• 3 tbsp maple syrup
• 1-2 handfuls of chopped dried fruit (dates, cranberries, raisins, goji berries, apicots)
• 1 tbsp sesame seeds
• 2 tbsp LSA
• 3 tbsp shredded coconut
• 4 tbsp seeds (sunflower and pepitas)

Method
1. Spread oats on a large flat oven tray add the maple syrup a little bit at a time, you just want the oats to be a little wet not drowning. Stir through then you bake it in the oven till the oats are golden and crunchy. Allow to cool.
2. Bake the almonds and coconut until golden.
3. Mix all the ingredients in a bowl.
4. Store in an airtight container.

Bircher Muesli with Fruit

Note: In winter, use plump soaked raisins and pears.

Ingredients

• 2 cups rolled oats
• 1 cup apple juice (choose the organic cloudy looking one, the regular type is too sweet)
• 1 cup coarsely grated apple
• ½ cup natural yoghurt
• Juice of 1 lemon
• ½ cup sliced peaches and nectarines
• ¼ cup mixed berries
• 2 tbsp honey

Method
Place oats and apple juice in a bowl and soak for 1 hour, or overnight. Add grated apple, yoghurt and lemon juice to oat mixture and mix well. Spoon into serving bowls and top with fruit. Drizzle with honey. Serves 4.

Chia Pudding with Fruit and Caramelised Buckinis

Ingredients

• 1-2 tbsp chia seeds
• ½ cup kefir
• 1 kiwi fruit, peeled and chopped
• 1 soft in season fruit, e.g. persimmon, fig, peach
• 2 tbsp caramelized buckinis (I use Loving Earth)
• Vanilla extract
• Hydrolysed gelatin powder (I use this brand)

Method
Pour kefir into bowl and stir through gelatin powder and vanilla.
Stir through chia seeds and allow to sit for a few minutes to swell up.
Add fruit of your choice and top with caramelized buckinis.

The post 4 Breakfast Recipes appeared first on Alison Mitchell Naturopath.

Watermelon, basil, salt and chilli granita

Perfect for the hotter weather, this is always a big crowd please.  Try this one out before watermelon goes out of season.

Serves 4-6

You’ll need:

• ½ watermelon, skin removed and flesh cut into chunks
• Juice of ½ lime
• ¼ tsp Himalayan or Celtic sea salt
• Large handful of fresh basil leaves, finely shredded
• ¼ tsp dried chilli flakes

How to:

1.  Place all ingredients (reserving 1/3 of the basil leaves) into a food processor and blend until the mixture has a pulpy consistency.
2.  Pour mixture into a tray (I used a loaf pan) through a sieve, pressing the contents through well to get as much liquid as possible.  Discard the remaining solids.
3.  Carefully transfer the tray to the freezer and freeze for 4 hours.  Once it has become firm, use a fork to scrape the granita into a snow-like consistency.  You should only need to do this at the end, but it doesn’t hurt to do it at the 2-3 hour mark just in case.
4.  To serve, give the mixture a good scrape to fluff it up, then spoon into serving bowls and stir through a good pinch of the reserved basil leaves, and sprinkle with a little dried chilli flakes.

The post Watermelon, basil, salt and chilli granita appeared first on Alison Mitchell Naturopath.

 Ingredients

• 1 1/2 frozen bananas
• 1/2 frozen mango flesh
• 250mL coconut water
• 1 tsp Maca powder
• 1 tbsp vanilla protein powder (I used Biomedica Protein Complete)
• 2 tbsp kefir/yoghurt

Method

Combine all ingredients, whizz up in a blender or using a bar-mix.

Enjoy!

The post Coco-Nana Smoothie appeared first on Alison Mitchell Naturopath.

Serves 2 – 3

Ingredients

• 2 roast duck breasts
• 2 big handfuls of washed and chopped cos lettuce leaves
• 1 1/2 cucumber, sliced
• 1 spring onion, chopped
• 1 red onion, chopped into wedges
• 1/2 butternut pumpkin, sliced thinly
• 4 small figs, cut into wedges

Dressing:

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 1/2 tbsp pomegranate molasses
• 1/2 tsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
• salt and pepper to taste

Method

1.  Preheat oven to 180C.
2.  Place pumpkin and onion wedges on a tray, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Roast for 15-20 minutes, or until started to go brown.
3.  Meanwhile, assemble lettuce, spring onion, cucumber, lettuce and figs in a salad bowl.
4.  Cook your duck breast, either by grilling or baking.  The duck breast we bought was already roasted (to our surprise) so I only needed to grill it for 5-6 minutes until warmed through.  It was surprisingly tender considering it had already been cooked!  However if you buy duck breast not already cooked, you may want to start it sooner.
5.  Make your salad dressing while the duck is cooking by whisking together the ingredients in a small bowl, and season and balance the flavours according to your taste.  You want it to be a bit tart and sweet, as when you pour it on the salad it will subdue the flavour somewhat.
6.  When the pumpkin and onion are cooked through and golden, take them out of the oven for a few minutes to cool down.  You should also allow your duck to rest for a few minutes, then slice.
7.  Combine all the ingredients together, add the dressing, mix together and serve.
8.  Enjoy!

The post Roast Duck and Fig Salad appeared first on Alison Mitchell Naturopath.

Nutritious, delicious, thirst quenching, sweet and satisfying.

Fruit, in moderate amounts, is good for you. But what fruit is best for you? In this article I detail the nutrient content of fruits, and also list their health properties.

A lot of the health properties I mention are based in Chinese medicine principles. An example of this is when a food is described as ‘cooling’, ‘drying’, or ‘warming’.

Ernestina Burchmore is a acupuncturist who has been in practice for 10 years. She has kindly explained the effects of these properties in foods for us.

Warmer/hot foods tend to cause dryness. Cool/cold foods tend to moisten, promote urination and reduce fever and dryness. Damp is created when the digestive system is weak and cannot fully process food, thereby creating an excess amount of mucus that comes out in the skin, stools or through the lungs or sinuses. E.g. Coconut can give rise to eczema-like rash, oranges can make you sneeze and wheeze.

This is just a rough guide. Other food properties include the roles of the 5 Flavours – sweet, sour, pungent, bitter and salty. But I won’t discuss this here.

Ernestina Burchmore is a qualified Acupuncturist and experienced Chinese Herbalist. She graduated from the University of Technology, Sydney in 2001 with a B.A, in Health Science (Acupuncture) / B,A. International Studies (China Studies). Ernestina has been practicing at Health Dimensions in Bella Vista and WIndsor for 10 years. Her general practice focuses on pain management, stress management, fertility solutions, women’s health, pregnancy, gastrointestinal disorders and respiratory disorders.

Ernestina believes that treating the whole person and getting to the root problem that is causing the symptoms is the key to really solving the problems you come in to have treated.

From a botanical perspective, fruits are technically the flowering part that derives from a plant’s ovaries and are any vegetable which contains seeds. Therefore fruits also include beans, corn, tomatoes, cucumber, capsicum, eggplant, and pumpkin (to name a few). This article only covers those which are commonly classified as fruit, and only the most popular varieties.

General tips about fruit:

It is always important to ensure your fruit is properly ripened (via tree or vine). If a fruit is not adequately ripened it doesn’t have as many benefits, and may even have some harmful properties (particularly so with citrus). When unripe fruit is purchased, it should be allowed to ripen at room temperature before eating. An exception is the intentional use of certain unripe fruit for its medicinal effect.

Another potential issue with is the excessive use of pesticides on the most popular types of fruit. These pesticides can often negate any health benefits.

Fruits are easily digested, and are alkalizing, cleansing and cooling. If you are overly stressed or have a lot of ‘mental heat’, then fruits are for you. The alkaline natures of fruits also help to get your bowels moving.

If you have a lot of sweet fruit every day, it is possible to develop too much ‘damp’ (according to Chinese medicine principles) and therefore it is beneficial to have occasional periods where you don’t have fruit. Too much fruit will also mean too much sugar, which is not helpful for weight loss or keeping blood sugar levels stable.

The sugar in fruit is fructose, and this takes longer to affect your blood sugars than standard sugar such as sucrose or glucose. Fructose needs to be converted to glucose by the liver. Fructose is also 1½ times sweeter than sucrose. Therefore if you’re craving something sweet, not only will having a piece of fruit instead of a chocolate bar provide you with more vitamins and minerals, it will also have a better affect on your blood sugar levels.

It is best to avoid having too much juice, and rather have the benefits of fruit by eating them whole.

Apple

• Cooling nature (Reduces heat, especially summer heat)
• Helps to produce fluid for the body, making it good for lung health. It can help protect the lungs from cigarette smoking (not that anyone should be doing that anyway)
• Stimulates digestion
• Green apples cleanse the liver and gallbladder and help to soften gallstones.
• Contains malic acid and tartaric acid which can help to inhibit the growth of bad bacteria and reduce fermentation.
• Contains pectin, which removes cholesterol and helps bind up and remove toxic metals, and also promotes good bacteria in the digestive tract
• Contains calcium-d-glucarate, which is good for healthy hormones
• Helpful for people with low blood sugar levels
• Grate an apple and apply directly or wrap in muslin and put on your eyes for 20 minutes to help with eye strain, pink eye or sunburn

Apricot

• Moistens the lungs
• Fresh apricots are good for dry throats, thirst and asthma
• When buying the dried type, buy the organic or uncoloured variety as dried apricots often have added sulfur compounds to make them brighter and this can worsen allergies and asthma particularly in children
• Good source of vitamin A and carotene.
• Dried apricots are a good source of iron, cobalt, and copper making them good for anemia

Avocado

• Cooling nature
• Helps to build the blood and increase ‘yin’ energy
• Harmonizes the liver
• Good source of lecithin which is important for brain health and helps with fat digestion
• The fat content is very easily digestible, and is mainly in the form of mono-unsaturated oils
• Rich in copper, vitamin E, protein and potassium
• Great for nursing mothers

Banana

• Cooling nature
• Helpful for dry conditions (e.g. dry coughs) as it produces mucous
• Avoid if you’re very mucousy
• Before they are fully ripened, bananas having a drying property. If you have diarrhea, colitis or hemorrhoids then unripe bananas are helpful.
• For hemorrhoids, steam the whole unripe banana until very soft and eat one organic banana (with skin if you can manage it) twice a day on an empty stomach.
• Bananas are helpful to treat drug addiction due to their cold nature and high sugar content.
• Due to their high potassium content, bananas are good for high blood pressure.
• They have high sugar content (17-19%)

Blueberry

• Cooling nature
• Blood, eye and liver tonic
• Good for countering urinary tract infections
• Good source of vitamin C, manganese and vitamin A

Cherry

Cranberry

Date

Feijoa

• Rich source of fibre, vitamin C, Iodine and Folate. (Iodine is not included in table due to the lack of data of iodine content in other fruits).
• Has blood pressure regulating properties.
• The nutrient content makes this a great fruit for pregnancy.

Goji

• Considered a ‘super food’ because of the high levels of antioxidants they contain.
• High in vitamin A and taurine
• Helpful for diabetic retinopathy,
• Thought to have anti-aging properties
• Strengthens the kidneys
• Helpful for liver health, especially when eye symptoms are associated with liver weakness such as dry and tired eyes and blurry vision (in Chinese medicine, it is thought that the liver sends nutrients and energy to the eyes). Goji and chrysanthemum tea is good for this.
• Can help to reduce cholesterol
• Helps to reduce blood sugar levels
• Eaten long term, Goji berries can support the immune system. However if you currently have an infection it’s best to avoid them.
• Contains germanium, a mineral shown to have anti-oxidant and anti-cancer properties (not included in table due to the lack of data of germanium content in other fruits).

Grape

• Increase qi energy
• Good for the liver – grape juice is helpful for hepatitis and jaundice
• Diuretic – reduces edema and helpful for painful urination
• Help to reduce menopausal heat symptoms
• Grapes are a good snack for children
• Darker grapes are good for blood building
• Good source of vitamins A, B-complex and C.

Grapefruit

• Cooling nature
• Helpful for poor digestion, such as burping and poor appetite (especially during pregnancy)
• Good for hangovers
• The peel has many beneficial properties for digestive health and mucous in the lungs, and is rich in vitamin c. You can make a tea from the peel (fresh or dry) by simmering it for 20 minutes. Apply a compress of this tea to frostbite (at room temperature) to restore circulation.
• Citrus seed extract is primarily made from grapefruit and has many health benefits. It is a potent antibiotic.

Guava

• Has astringent and laxative properties
• Tonifies the lymphatic and skeletal system
• Good source of vitamin c and potassium

Jackfruit

• Cooling, nutritious and tonifying.
• Can counteract the influence of alcohol
• The ripe fruit has laxative properties
• Dried seeds contain B-complex vitamins, calcium, iron and sulfur

Kiwi

• Cold in nature, clearing heat
• Promote the production of fluids making them helpful for dry mouth and throat
• Can help the passage of kidney stones
• They are very nutrient dense. They have twice the vitamin C of oranges, and are also rich in magnesium. They are higher in potassium than bananas and oranges.
• Low in calories (45 calories per fruit)

Lemon and Lime

• Cooling nature
• Very helpful for people who have eaten a high fat/protein diet
• Helps to destroy putrefactive bacteria in the intestines and mouth
• Antiseptic, anti-microbial and reduces mucous
• Good for coughs
• Good for fevers
• Supports liver health and bile production
• Supports weight loss
• Alkalizing: their alkaline content is five times greater than their acidic content.
• Only contains 1% sugar
• Good source of vitamin C, and is also high in potassium, and vitamin B1.
• Apply the juice externally to relieve insect bites and to soften corns
• Limes generally have fewer chemicals used on them than lemons
• Avoid if you have excessive stomach acid or stomach ulcers

Lychee

• Good for the spleen, pancreas, stomach and liver meridians
• Promote body fluids and ease thirst
• Contain vitamin B and C, folic acid, citric acid, malic acid and arginine

Mango

• Cooling
• Good source of vitamin A and C and potassium
• High in calories
• Related to poison ivy, and contains the same toxic chemical – urushiol. In some people this can cause itching and skin eruptions.

Orange

• Cooling nature
• Regenerates body fluid
• Helps to cool and moisten the body
• The inner white lining, placed directing on the eyelids, helps to dissolve eye cysts.
• Good source of vitamin C, potassium and also contain some calcium
• The inner white lining also helps with iron absorption and has anti-oxidant and anti-cancer properties.

Papaya

• Warming nature
• Tonifies the stomach and acts as a digestive aid
• Ripe papayas moisten the lungs and alleviate coughing
• Under ripe papaya and its seeds are rich in the digestive enzyme papain, which helps digest protein, break down deposits on the teeth, resolve mucus, and has a strong vermicidal action capable of destroying most intestinal worms including tapeworm.
• Also contains carpaine, a compound providing anti-tumor activity
• Excellent source of vitamins A, C and E, and are also rich in calcium, iron, potassium, and phosphorus.
• Papaya is often referred to as pawpaw in Australia, however they are actually different fruit. Papaya (Carica papaya) is the longer green/yellow-orange fruit with pinky/orangey flesh (when ripe). It has multiple small black seeds. Paw Paw (Asimina triloba) is indigenous to North America, it has large seeds (approx 1 inch in diameter) shaped like lima beans, is a rounder fruit and has yellow flesh.

Passion fruit

• Good source of vitamins A and C
• High in fibre
• Contains anti-oxidants and sterols, making it helpful for lowering cholesterol and promoting heart health
• Helpful for people with asthma and allergies due to its anti-histamine properties
• Extracts of the whole plant are excellent for calming the nervous system

Peach

• Cooling nature
• Builds body fluids
• Moistens the lungs and intestines
• Useful for dry cough
• Helps to reduce excessive perspiration due do it’s astringent properties
• Peach leaf tea can destroy worms

Pear

• Cooling nature
• Good for lung health, and helps to reduce heat in the lungs
• Don’t eat if you have loose, watery stools
• Don’t have excessive amounts of pears during pregnancy

Persimmon

• Cooling nature
• Clears lung heat
• Builds body fluids, removes phlegm
• Unripe persimmon has an astringent taste from the tannic acid, which eventually goes when the fruit ripens
• Partially ripe persimmons are helpful for diarrhea, dysentery and hypertension

Pineapple

• Removes summer heat
• Contains the enzyme bromelain which increases digestive ability and destroys worms. Bromelain also has anti-inflammatory properties, making it good for joints.
• Thirst quenching, diuretic
• Treats sunstroke, indigestion, diarrhea, lack of appetite and fluid retention
• Under ripe pineapple is very acidic and can damage teeth

Plum

• Good for liver health and diabetes
• Stewed prunes are a good remedy for constipation
• Plums also treat cirrhosis of the liver and liver conditions generally (the purple variety)
• Umeboshi salt plums (very sour and salty) are very good for digestion and liver health. They are highly alkalizing.

Pomegranate

• Good for bladder disturbances
• Destroys worms in the digestive system
• Strengthen gums
• Soothes ulcers of the mouth and throat

Raspberry

• Good for liver and kidney health
• Cleanses the blood
• Good for menstrual cycle regulation
• Raspberry leaf is widely used for childbirth preparation as it strengthens the uterus and reduces excessive menstrual flow

Strawberry

• Cooling nature
• Improves appetite
• Moistens the lungs and generates body fluids
• Eat before meals to treat poor digestion accompanied by abdominal pain and swelling
• Relieves painful urination
• Good source of silicon and vitamin C, making it very useful for arterial and connective tissue repair
• Allergic reactions to strawberries are often caused by berries that are not vine-ripened

Watermelon

• Very cooling
• Removes heat, especially summer heat
• Has diuretic properties
• Helpful for thirst, urinary difficulty, edema, depression, kidney and urinary tract inflammation

The post Everything you ever wanted to know about fruit appeared first on Alison Mitchell Naturopath.

I can’t believe how quickly this year is going! Only 3 months until christmas, I haven’t got anything prepared!

As most of you know I am going to be away during October because I am GETTING MARRIED! I will be honeymooning in the Clare Valley and Melbourne, doing very un-naturopathic things like drinking wine. Don’t worry, I will be bringing my liver herbs with me. 😉

Are you getting your 5 and 2 everyday?

Australians Fail to Meet Daily Nutritional Requirements

The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) recommends that adults eat 5 serves of vegetables and 2 serves of fruit every day. Are you getting your 5 and 2 each day? If your answer is no, then you are not alone. Results from Australia’s largest nutrition survey of over 13,000 Australians found many people are falling short of their daily requirements of fruits, vegetables and essential nutrients. In fact, around half of the Australian population aren’t consuming the recommended daily servings of fruits and vegetables, and over 25% of males and 50% of females did not meet their daily requirements for calcium. Findings also suggested that many people are missing out on vital minerals including magnesium, zinc, and iron

Spoilt for Choice

Why are so many people from a nation of prosperity lacking so many critical nutrients? Most Australians and New Zealanders have access to healthy food and the means to buy it. When faced with such abundance of food at the supermarket, many people are filling their trolleys with pre-packaged and processed foods. Only a small portion, if any, contain fresh fruits and vegetables. A low intake of plant-based foods is, in part, contributing to the prevalence of nutritional deficiencies in Australia.

In addition to a low fruit and vegetable intake, the way in which foods are grown and processed may also be contributing to the prevalence of nutritional deficiencies. For example, the soil in which many fruits and vegetables are grown is often deficient in minerals. This is compounded by modern food processing and cooking techniques, which can leach valuable nutrients from food before it hits the dinner plate. Therefore, not only are people eating a lower quantity of plant-based food, but the fruits and vegetables they are eating may also be of a poorer quality.

Photo by Thomas Le on Unsplash

Bridging the Nutritional Gap

Along with lifestyle modifications, support with herbal and nutritional supplements may bridge the gap between the current intakes of vitamins and minerals and the optimal levels required daily. Men and women have different nutritional requirements and as such, multivitamin formulas should be tailored to suit each gender’s specific requirements. If you are interested in this, I can recommend high quality multivitamin formulas that are specific to your individual needs.

Nutrition – Your Body Deserves it!

Taking a daily multivitamin is the first step to complementing your diet as part of a targeted nutrition plan. There are, however, further steps you can take to implement a more comprehensive, optimal nutrition strategy.

Step 1: Optimising Mineral Status

For those with additional nutritional requirements, add a high quality mineral formula containing therapeutic levels of magnesium, calcium, iron, zinc, iodine, chromium and potassium as part of a premium nutrition plan.

The practicalities of creating a multivitamin tablet make it impossible to physically fit high levels of minerals into a single tablet as it would literally be the size of a golf ball! As such, taking a separate mineral formula can be an effective way to ensure you are receiving therapeutic levels of key minerals important for many aspects of health, including structural support, antioxidant action, and healthy immunity.

Step 2: Superfoods for a Super-You!

You can improve a diet lacking adequate fruit and vegetables with a high quality whole food powder containing an array of organic fruits and vegetables. Fruit and vegetables not only provide essential vitamins and minerals, they also contain a variety of beneficial plant chemicals known as phytochemicals. Plants produce phytochemicals as a part of their defence mechanism, when they are exposed to stressors within the environment, in order to protect themselves.

Research now shows that when consumed by humans, these unique phytochemicals may also play a significant role in the benefits offered from regular fruit and vegetable consumption, including reduced risk of chronic disease such as cardiovascular disease. Your Practitioner can recommend a great tasting, high quality super food powder that is made from phytochemical-rich organic fruits and vegetables.

Laying the Foundations for optimal Health

Australia and New Zealand are countries with an abundant food supply, yet many people have nutritional deficiencies.

A mineral formula and super food powder can be taken alongside a high quality multivitamin as part of an optimal nutrition plan, to ensure you are providing your body with the essential nutrients for good health.

The post Are you getting your 5 and 2 everyday? appeared first on Alison Mitchell Naturopath.