By Scott Mathias Integrative Health Coach and Creator of iLifeFoods.com
Those of you contemplating moving toward a completely 100% Raw diet need not fear that life will become boring. For me the transition has been beyond anything I could describe – inspirational, illuminating and uplifting.
I can feel my complete cellular body enjoys being filled with powerful plant phyto-energies. I feel the new relationship I have with RAW is enabling me to live life in a completely different paradigm; FREE from the need to be, think or act like anyone else. I feel going RAW has enabled me to begin to live my individual form based on new and inspired ideals firmly anchored in my natural relationship with all things of nature.
I sense my DNA is changing to accommodate my original state of true self.
More on this as I bring recipes forward for your contemplation and above all, sheer enjoyment. RAW is tasty and alive!!
Here is my Appetiser HiRise which frankly is more than a tasty meal for one person let alone the four who shared this recently here at RAWHQ!!
This HiRise2 comprises 5 layers.
The base is seed breadwhich I make in my dehydrator – 2 cups sunflower seeds, ¼ cup flax or linseed, 1 small onion, ¼ cup sundried or dehydrated tomatoes, 1/4 cup soaked almonds, 2 tablespoons Shoyu or Tamari – Blend until paste like. Add a few drops of water to achieve paste consistency. Lay out on heat proof board or paper and score into snack size bites.
Place in warm oven or dehydrator no more than 110F for approx 7 hrs.
First layer from the bottom Carrot and cauliflower simple Kimchi – slice carrot and cauliflower into bite size pieces and stuff into an ‘French clamp’ jar (the pull own and seal variety but a vercola will do) fill jar to just cover the vegetables with apple cider vinegar. Leave on the kitchen bench for 3-4 days until when you open the jar you get a ‘sweet ferment’ aroma. Place in the fridge or do what I do and ‘go all the way’ and leave it out until totally consumed. In this case I placed into my bullet blender which is ideal for doing small portions and ground down.
Second layer from the bottom Simple pesto but I make it with coriander and walnuts. Coriander is great for helping to remove heavy metals from the body and walnut is very alkalising or the body. I keep a tub in my refrigerator all the time.
Third layer from bottom I placed three good tablespoons of my dehydrated tomatoes into my bullet blender and reduced to paste and added the next layer to the mould.
Finally the top layer The other thing I have always available is avocado cream or guacamole. Scoop out the flesh of 2 avocados and drop it into your blender. Add the juice of two limes. Add a handful of coriander. Half a chilli and some Sea or lake salt and pepper from North Queensland!!
Then place all the elements layer by layer into your stainless steel mould. Use the little ‘tamper tool’ provided to get the layers even. In this case I garnished with chopped purples cabbage to off set the colours!! I like to serve all my Raw food on white plates and garnish accordingly.
The final move really ‘honours’ the food that has offered itself up for your nourishment.
Here is the other version I do. I call this HiRise1!
Same approach as the HiRise2. make pastes of anything you have in your fridge including totally fresh carrot, tomato, radish or whatever you fancy. I serve with my dehydrated seed bread, some extra dried tomato and some pickles which adds a lovely savoury lavour to the vegetables.
Enjoying Raw food is exciting for me and it can be for you too. Its about disengaging from any of the traditional ways of preparing food. I have all I need – proteins, fats, carbs and vital ‘whole nutrients and vitamins and minerals. ENJOY experimenting!!
Scott Mathias is a Certified Integrative Nutritionist and Professional Health Coach. Based in Noosa, Queensland he consults to clients around Australia including conducting seminars, public speaking engagements. His special areas of interest are Life Balance and the Digestive Function – He conducts Raw Food Classes. He is also the creator of an all Australian range of 100% PURE Nutrient Cell-Foods from www.ilifefoods.com. He can also be seen at the Noosa Farmers Market each and every Sunday throughout the year.
CLICK HERE to go to Scott’s Health Coaching website page
CLICK HERE to join Scott’s Health Coaching FaceBook page.
EMAIL Scott for information about his 1 to1 programs health Coaching or Raw Food classes.
Since posting a picture on the iLifeFoods FaceBookpage I have had numerous requests for the recipe of my famously delicious Spicy Pumpkin Soup.
OK..here is what you will need :
1 medium size pumpkin or the equivalent of a 1/8 slice of pumpkin per person cut into small pieces.
Macadamia oil (Olive will suffice)
1 large glove of garlic (chopped)
1 large onion (chopped)
1 Tablespoon of medium curry powder
¼ teaspoon mustard seeds
1 small red chilli
Sea salt for seasoning
Add the oil along with the aromatic condiments into a sauce pan and allow the onions to ‘sweat off’ (as they say on Master Chef). Then add the chopped pumpkin and allow to gently brown-off (my word) until you can get a nice ‘caramelly pumpkiny’ fragrance from the pot.
Add two glasses of water to leave about 4cm or an inch and a bit of pumpkin showing. Allow to simmer until the mixture thickens – normally about an hour or so. Once the pumpkin is cooked , taste and add sea salty as preferred.
Then place the cooled mixture into a blender or use a ‘bar mixed’ type blender to render the mixture to a thickish puree. Then finally plate –up , add some garlic chives to the top or coconut cream, as some one suggested and vola – you have a really tasty soup which might last a couple of nights if you don’t eat it all at once. I add a small amount of garden chives too!!
If you are bored of eating pumpkin soup, then freeze it and reheat at some later stage. I also add some of the soup to a puree of sweet potato too. Overall totally delish!!
Finally the superfood characteristics are:
The distinctive bright orange colour of pumpkin indicates it's an excellent source of that all-important antioxidant beta-carotene. Research shows that people who eat a diet rich in beta-carotene are less likely to develop certain cancers than those who fail to include beta-carotene-rich foods in their diet. Pumpkin also has another carotenoid, beta-cryptoxanthin, which may decrease the risk of lung cancer in smokers.
Scott Mathias is a Certified Integrative Nutritionist and Professional Health Coach. Based in Noosa,Queensland he consults to clients around Australia
including conducting raw food seminars, public speaking engagements. His special area of interest is the digestive
function and eating food which promotes LIFE!!
He is also the creator of the iLifeFoods range an all Australian range of 100% PURE SuperCellFoods CLICK HERE for product range !!
What is it you are really needing in your life to satisfy an ‘physio-emotional’ need.
Look at the foods, deficits and behaviors in your life that are the underlying causes of your cravings. Many people view cravings as weakness, but really they are important messages meant to assist you in maintaining balance. When you experience a craving, deconstruct it. Ask yourself, what does my body want and why?
The eight primary causes of cravings are:
1. Lack of primary food. Being dissatisfied with a relationship or having an inappropriate exercise routine (too much, too little or the wrong type), being bored, stressed, uninspired by a job, or lacking a spiritual practice may all cause emotional eating.
2. Water. Lack of water can send the message that you are thirsty and on the verge of dehydration. Dehydration can manifest as a mild hunger, so the first thing to do when you get a craving is drink a full glass of water.
3.Yin/yang imbalance. Certain foods have more yin qualities (expansive) while other foods have more yang qualities (contractive).
4. Inside coming out. Often times, cravings come from foods that we have recently eaten, foods eaten by our ancestors, or foods from our childhood.
5. Seasons. Often the body craves foods that balance the elements of the season.
6. Lack of nutrients. If the body has inadequate nutrients, it will produce odd cravings.
7. Hormones. When women experience menstruation, pregnancy or menopause, fluctuating testosterone and estrogen levels may cause unique cravings.
8. De-evolution. When things are going extremely well, sometimes a self-sabotage syndrome happens. We crave foods that throw us off, thus creating more cravings to balance ourselves.
From an integrative nutrition stand point the emotional relationship we have with food can either allow us to be fully rounded and satisfied human beings or ‘ humans going no-where’.
Sometimes too we might need to replace lost minerals from our biosystem too. For-instance a need for magnesium might be a craving for chocolate but rather than going down that slippery slope why not go after raw nuts and seeds, legumes, fruits which will not only meet the need for mag but also satisfy any sugar craving as well.
Phosphorous, sulfur, iron and salt (NaCl) needs might send you off to coffee and tea yet a good and regular diet of chicken, beef, liver, poultry, fish, eggs, dairy, nuts, legumes along with seaweed, greens, black cherries might just be the answer. Without doubt food and emotions are linked.
Scott Mathias is a Certified Integrative Nutritionist and Professional Health Coach. Based in Noosa, Queensland he consults to clients around Australia including conducting seminars, public speaking engagements and corporate health groups. His special area of interest is the digestive function and eating food which promotes LIFE!! He is also the creator of an all Australian range of 100% PURE Superfoods from www.ilifefoods.com.
Virtually everywhere now you will be subjected to products which can contribute to the deterioration of the human immune system.
Each year Americans drink the equivalent of nearly 600 cans of soda
(soft) drink each containing an average of ten, yes that’s 10, teaspoons
of refined white sugar.Similiar per capita data exists for Australia.
Every day the Coca Cola Company sells in excess of one billion cans
of soft drink on Planet Earth. Each can contains an average of ten
teaspoons of pure refined white sugar along with a range of other
nefarious chemicals, most shown to lead to premature death as a result
of numerous avoidable illnesses. (Put aside the affects of aluminium
mining for the moment)
Here is what happens to your body for a full 60 minutes after you
have consumed a can of Coca Cola. This is frightening so hold onto your
seat:
In The First 10 minutes: 10 teaspoons of sugar hit your
system. You don’t immediately
vomit from the overwhelming sweetness because phosphoric acid cuts the
flavour allowing you to keep it down. 20 minutes: Your blood sugar spikes, causing an insulin burst.
Your liver responds to this by turning any sugar it can get its hands on
into fat. (There’s plenty of that at this particular moment) 40 minutes: Caffeine absorption is complete. Your pupils dilate,
your blood pressure rises, as a response your livers dumps more sugar
into your bloodstream. The adenosine receptors in your brain are now
blocked preventing drowsiness. 45 minutes: Your body ups your dopamine production stimulating
the pleasure centres of your brain. This is physically the same way
heroin works, by the way. 60 minutes: The phosphoric acid binds calcium, magnesium and
zinc in your lower intestine, providing a further boost in metabolism.
This is compounded by high doses of sugar and artificial sweeteners also
increasing the urinary excretion of calcium. >60 Minutes: The caffeine’s diuretic properties come into
play. (It makes you have to pee.) It is now assured that you’ll evacuate
the bonded calcium, magnesium and zinc that were headed to your bones
as well as sodium, electrolyte and water. >60 minutes: As the rave inside of you dies down you’ll start
to have a sugar crash. You may become irritable and/or sluggish. You’ve
also now, literally, pee'd away all the water that was in the Coke. But
not before infusing it with valuable nutrients your body could have used
for things like even having the ability to hydrate your system or build
strong bones and teeth.
Let’s take a look at some of the other major components of a can of soft drink:
Phosphoric Acid: This can interfere with the body's ability to
utilise calcium, which may lead to osteoporosis ( and thinning of bone
density) and softening of the teeth.
Sugar: It is a proven fact sugar can increase insulin levels, which may
lead to high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart disease, diabetes,
weight gain, premature aging and other side effects. Most soft drinks
include over 100 percent of the RDA of sugar. Take the Ayurvedic
approach- a balance of sweet, sour and savoury. Suagr is also know to 'feed' the acidic needs of cancer related fungus and bacteria. Have cancer ?? Remove all high GI related sugars from your diet.
Aspartame: This chemical is used as a sugar substitute in diet soft
drinks. There are nearly 100 documented health side effects associated
with aspartame consumption including brain tumors, birth defects,
diabetes, emotional disorders and epilepsy/seizures.
Caffeine: Caffeinated drinks can cause jitters, insomnia, high blood
pressure, irregular heartbeat, elevated blood cholesterol levels,
vitamin and mineral depletion and may cause breast lumps, birth defects,
and perhaps some forms of cancer.
I see dozens of people each week, most looking for easily obtainable
solutions to health issues. My response comes from my Integrative Nutrition training ; find balance in diet and focus more on the
re-schooling the body’s gene nutrition with not only healthy ALKALINE
based foods but also concentrated antioxidant based Superfoods and drinks.
But I hope that Coke information scares the living day lights out of you.
Its time to come home to your pure and perfect self.
Note: This information is intended to assist in the prevention of
illness and disease and provide some motivation for the reader to locate
and touch the pureness and perfection of the human bio-system. Include a GP in your search for appropriate health options.
By Scott Mathias – Integrated Health & RawFood Coach – Creator of the iLifeFood.com range of Enriched SuperCell Foods
I have always maintained that what ever is growing from season to season in your back yard IS FOOD!! It doesn’t have to been on four legs or come out of a building fitted with automatic doors- your back yard is a hive of nutritional industry – all year round.
Several AMAZING food sources grow in mine. Emerging as a weed, I dutifully removed them and dispatched as fast as I could. Then I began to take a closer look. The first is Wild Amaranth which usually turns up early summer or when you don’t plant anything in a patch of garden – so basically anytime, especially if one lives where the weather is a little warmer year round.
Wild Amaranth- High in protein and nutritious
Because it is here to help and assist in our healing process and FEED us, its loves to grow around humans. It will often appear in farmers paddocks after a harvest. Amaranth owes its origins to the ancient Aztec civilisation in Central and South America. It’s very high in protein and jam packed with nutrients from its seeds and leaves.
Farmers world wide despise Amaranth. It is often called by the rather unfortunate name of ‘Pig Weed’. Whilst it is generally cultivate for its seed it is really not a grain. It is more like a ‘seeding spinach’. Quinoa is probably its nearest relative.
The dark seeds from wild Amaranth can be quite hard and sand like but the greens are totally edible and best used in salads or stir fries. Their lighter well bred and cultivated cousins possess a lighter seed suitable for simmering for both savoury and sweet use, as well as flour in breads.These can be obtained from a health food shop. However with a bit of local research you can find the lighter seed bearing variety-sow them and expect a crop season to season. Just one seed has the ability to produce up to 2 kilograms of usable seeds.
An amazing weed indeed!!
Scott Mathias is a Certified Integrative Nutritionist and Professional Health Coach. Based in Noosa, Queensland he consults to clients around Australia including conducting seminars, public speaking
engagements. His special areas of interest are Life Balance and the Digestive
Function – He conducts Raw Food Classes. He is also the creator of an all
Australian range of 100% PURE Nutrient Cell-Foods from www.ilifefoods.com.
He can also be seen at the Noosa Farmers Market each and every Sunday throughout the year.
CLICK
HERE to go to Scott’s
Health Coaching website page
CLICK
HERE to join Scott’s Health
Coaching FaceBook page.
EMAIL
Scott for information about
his 1 to1 programs health Coaching or Raw Food classes.
The first pre-requisite is a good quality, solid and well powered blender or as I know it, a vitamiser!! This one was purchased from Aldi recently for less than $30 but it is the best and most efficient I have ever used.
My research is showing that many people will not make time in their morning's to reactivate the 'nutritional chi' of the body and support its needs to eliminate and begin the energy and nutritional absorption process again.
Smoothies are a wonderful way to nourish the body with a range of goodies - AND if needs be they can be prepared the night before and placed in the fridge with a piece of cling wrap over the top. Ideally though its better to prepare smoothies and drink on the spot, then oxidisation is lessened and the bio-energy levels are retained.
In the picture sequence shown I have simply chopped a range of fresh fruit into the blender. This morning it was: A frozen banana Chopped pineapple Handful of stoned cherries Chopped peach and nectarine Some Rain Plum juice A VegeShot (beetroot, carrot,kale, Rain Plum and mango) and I had some Wild Cherry and Rain Plum
You may actually put what ever your body feels it might like in a smoothie BUT the emphasis is on your body NOT your mind, which may well ask for some sugary substance to be added to your smoothies, when infact it is not needed. By crowding out sugary substances with naturally occurring sweet foods, such as fruit, your mind will begin to relinquish the desire to take refined sugars and thus the body's cravings will diminish.
Try it and you might be pleasantly surprised.
Easy as 1-2-3 !!
For product information on the VegeShot with Rain Plum and MangoCLICK HERE
The above is for information purposes only and is not designed to
diagnose. Please consult your GP to become fully aware of your good
health options.
A growing body of science reveals cherries, enjoyed as either dried,
frozen cherries or cherry juice, have among the highest levels of
disease-fighting antioxidants, when compared to other fruits. They also
contain other important nutrients such as beta carotene - 19 times more
than blueberries or strawberries – VitC, potassium, magnesium, iron,
fibre and folate.
Wild Cherry Shot with Australian Rain Plum™
Emerging evidence links cherries to many
important health benefits – from helping to ease the pain of arthritis
and gout, to reducing risk factors for heart disease, diabetes and
certain cancers. Cherries also contain melatonin, which has been found
to help regulate the body’s natural sleep patterns, aid with jet lag,
prevent memory loss and delay the aging process.
A recent
study from the University of Michigan reveals new evidence linking
cherries to heart health benefits. The study found that a
cherry-enriched diet lowered total weight, body fat (especially the
important “belly” fat), inflammation and cholesterol-all risk factors
associated with heart disease.
Rich in 100% sweet cherry
and packed with deep red antioxidants - polyphenolics, flavonoids,
anthocyanins- high antioxidant capacity with ORAC 3220 TE units/100ml.
The wild harvested Australian Rain Plumtm contains 8220mg/100g anthocyanins, lutein and VIT E, Folate, Zn, Mg, Ca, Mo.
iLifeFoods
Australian Rain Plum contains 8220mg of anthocyanins per 100grams
described by the study scientist as ‘extraordinary’. High levels of
Myrtillin and Keracyanin were also found in sampling, both of these
antioxidants are associated with managing serotonin and blood sugar
levels. Antioxidants are known to work on all cellular levels.
Safe
to use with blood pressure, lethargy & low energy levels, for
immune related disorders, cardiovascular disease, arthritic pain,
inflammation and macular health. A super-healthy high energy pure fruit
juice crystal. Gluten and sugar free.
Those of you contemplating moving toward a completely 100% Raw diet need not fear that life will become boring. For me the transition has been beyond anything I could describe – inspirational, illuminating and uplifting. 
Scott Mathias is a Certified Integrative Nutritionist and Professional Health Coach. Based in Noosa, Queensland he consults to clients around Australia including conducting seminars, public speaking engagements. His special areas of interest are Life Balance and the Digestive Function – He conducts Raw Food Classes. He is also the creator of an all Australian range of 100% PURE Nutrient Cell-Foods from www.ilifefoods.com. He can also be seen at the Noosa Farmers Market each and every Sunday throughout the year. 
The eight primary causes of cravings are:
6. Lack of nutrients.
Sugar: It is a proven fact sugar can increase insulin levels, which may
lead to high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart disease, diabetes,
weight gain, premature aging and other side effects. Most soft drinks
include over 100 percent of the RDA of sugar. Take the Ayurvedic
approach- a balance of sweet, sour and savoury. Suagr is also know to 'feed' the acidic needs of cancer related fungus and bacteria. Have cancer ?? Remove all high GI related sugars from your diet.
