My Advice for Eating Better

I like food. I like eating. I like cooking. I like shopping for dinner. I like waking people up with scrambled eggs, or a fatly sliced watermelon and yoghurt. I like picking blackberries, spreading soft butter on hot toast, or stirring a big cauldron of soup. I like the juice to drip from a bright orange. I like white goat's cheese to crumble at my touch. I like my fruit swimming in thick cream.
But at least as much as I like preparing or scoffing food, I like talking about it, reading about it and thinking about it.

My friends and family know this only too well. Plenty of them routinely roll their eyes heavenwards as I begin to blab about the goodness of cholesterol, about why fat is great, but carbs and sugar are not. I think most of them stopped listening a while ago, bored of my bitching about ingredients lists, my rants against dirt-cheap supermarkets, or my fear or endless rows of corn.

Guacamole de Pancho y Chio

Habrá una manera mejor de pasar un jueves veraniego, en el que hace un calor tremendo y pegajoso, que juntarte con tus amigos para preparar una cantidad de guacamole igual de tremenda que el calor, enorgullecerte de haber hecho algo más que ir a la piscina, y zampártelo con unas patatas y unas cervecitas bien frías?

Pues sí. Hay algo mejor... llegar justo a la hora en que están terminando de prepararlo, verlos con sus sudadas y sonrientes caras, sentarte con dicha cerveza, adularles como si de los dioses del guacamole se tratase, y darles la enhorabuena por su iniciativa... mientras disfrutas con gula de su trabajo bien hecho. ¡Perfecto!

Put Your Heart in Your Mouth: Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride

A few months ago, I had the good fortune to see Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride talk at a Weston A Price Foundation conference in London. I had already heard of one of her books: Gut and Psychology Syndrome, in which she explains the causal link between imbalances in intestinal flora and various mental disorders such as autism, depression and schizophrenia. While I’d always thought the book sounded very interesting, I hadn’t tried to buy it because I wasn’t personally affected by any of the conditions it focused on.

Hearing her talk, however, made me change my tune. Hers is a very holistic approach, based on her professional and educational background in medicine, neurology and nutrition, and the personal experience of having an autistic child within her family. Campbell-McBride’s research and books may be most specifically aimed at those already suffering from health problems, but they are relevant and useful for anyone interesting in attaining or maintaining good health. I bought both of her books before leaving the conference.

I dived straight into Gut and Psychology Syndrome, and promptly passed it on to a needing friend; this thin book is a veritable bible of good eating advice and nutritional wisdom. I have now just finished reading her second book Put Your Heart in Your Mouth, in which Campbell-McBride focuses on the causes of and suitable, natural treatment for heart disease.