iLife Foods

Since posting a picture on the iLifeFoods FaceBook page  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.

CLICK HERE to go to Scott’s Health Coaching

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.

Here is a recipe from Carolina who lives on the Shinshine Coast, Queensland, Australia. If you are in need of an energy boost or some extra alkalinity from the Beetroot, at the same time some natural occuring sweetness from the Sweet Potato then do have a go at this really easy recipe. All ingredients are available fresh from your local farmers market.

You will need:

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.

The source of this amazing information is nutritionresearchcenter.org

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.

CLICK HERE For information on the range of iLifeFoods Pure Australian Superfoods

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.

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EMAIL Scott for information about his 1 to1 programs health Coaching or Raw Food classes.