Fermentation and Neuroactive Nutrition Food Preparation Class

Sunday 25th September 2016
Amazing health secrets you and your family need to know.
Exact location to be confirmed, it is full day class that is part of a weekend retreat. It will be in South Wales, we can collect from train or bus stations of necessary. Book before 16th August to get early bird price of £85.
In this informative, exciting and comprehensive class you will learn.
Food, supplements and herbs that regenerate our neural systems, supply good fuel and modulate our existing biochemistry to give us the best experience of life possible….enhance our cognitive abilities, perception, capacity to feel and to feel good. ongoingly,sustainably, functional and productive in the world as well as ecstatically connected.
The optimal biological diet of our species.
Raw food nutrition principles and recipe creation for long term success.Why kefir is one of the most powerful and cost effective superfoods available.
How to use exotic cruciferous veggie ferments to safeguard you and your family from xenoestrogens and harmful chemicals in plastic.
For more details and booking click here:
http://foodforconsciousness.co.uk/product/fermentation-fetish-one-day-food-class-85/

fermented foods class

My dear friend Jane Slater asked me yesterday whether I thought fermented foods enhance our connection to Gaia.   I had never thought about it quite like that.  I definitely think natural raw foods do and it stands to reason that fermented foods with their incredible life force and multitude of life forms in them would increase the effect.  As humans, we are ecosystems much as our mother Earth is an ecosystem, teaming with different kinds of organisms.   A healthy person has more microorganisms in their gut than cells in their bodies, apparently.  Thing is we want them to be beneficial organisms and this is what this class is about; as well as producing a day's worth of incredibly tasty dishes of course.  You see me here preparing my mouth watering cherry chocolate kefir cheesecake, rich and delicious but totally easy to digest and actually light and healthy.  So, if you can, please come along.  Details and bookings here:

March 1st fermentation class

weekend fermentation workshops

Bristol fermentation talk

chocolate kefir cheesecake at our Meare fermented foods class

I explain the wonders of kefir at our Meare class

Thank you Dunstan for your lovely comments "For me it wasn't 'just information'. There was some serious transmission of energy and frequencies in the room. I could feel my consciousness expanding with the words that were shared."
Click here for details of our classes in Meare, Somerset.

fermented foods ~ instant energy for the brain

kefir with yacon, a prebiotic

We have been finding from experience that fermented foods such as kefir and kraut and jun give us a particular instant energy boost that we don't experience from other foods.  This intrigues us and we have been wondering what is the explanation.  With the question about what is the ideal fuel for the brain on my mind I came across the information below.

First thing to mention is that while glucose is an oxidative fuel for our bodies and brains,  it is actually used to make ATP or adenosine triphosphate which is a  usable form of energy for cells - "the energy is "trapped" in a chemical bond that can be released and used to drive other reactions that require energy. (endergonic reactions)."   http://scienceline.ucsb.edu/getkey.php?key=2254


So how do we go from glucose to ATP? "This is achieved through the process of "oxidation" - and this is carried out through a series of metabolic pathways. Complex chemical transformations in the cell occur in a series of separate reactions to form each pathway, and each reaction is catalyzed by a specific enzyme. Interestingly, metabolic pathways are similar in all organisms, from bacteria to humans. In eukaryotes (plants and animals) many of the metabolic pathways are compartmentalized, with certain reactions occurring in specific organelles. Basically, cells trap free energy released from the breakdown (metabolism) of glucose. This energy gets trapped in the ATP as it converts from ADP to ATP by the addition of phosphate.
There are 3 main pathways for harvesting energy from glucose:
Glycolysis - begins glucose metabolism in all cells to produce 2 molecules of pyruvate. Occurs outside of mitochondria, usually in cytoplasm.
Cellular Respiration - uses oxygen from the environment and converts each pyruvate to three molecules of carbon dioxide while trapping the energy released in this process in ATP. There are 3 sub-pathways of cellular respiration - pyruvate oxidation, the citric acid (Krebs or Tricarboxylic Acid) cycle and the electron transport chain. Occurs in different sub-compartments of mitochondria.
Fermentation - converts pyruvate into lactic acid or ethanol; does not need oxygen. It is not as efficient as cellular respiration; it occurs in the cytoplasm." http://scienceline.ucsb.edu/getkey.php?key=2254

We want to look more into this but on first sight  it seems we have an explanation, we are using the help of friendly micro-organisms to convert the sugars on milk or vegetables or honey into ATP, an immediate energy source for the body and brain.

Now the brain uses a  lot of energy, a high percentage of the body's energy requirements.  Glucose is  a very immediate source of oxidative fuel for ATP production (and it seems the brain does need at least some glucose) while the breaking down of fat, protein of glycogen is a bit more long-winded.  However it seems to us that fermented foods can supply instant brain energy without having to take in a lot of fruit sugar which, as many of us know can cause challenges to our bodies in other ways.

Could it be that in order to advance our evolution as a species we do need a more instantly accessible source of large amounts of energy for the brain and that by engaging harmoniously with friendly micro-organisms we have this?

our fermentation fetish workshop

making chocolate kefir cheesecake...

the final touch...

Our workshop went so well yesterday, we always get very appreciative feedback and this was a particularly fun day.  Here is what Chris Paradox, Vandita and Alan had to say afterwards, they really capture the mood of the event.

We feel this is a new generation of raw food, by fermenting gourmet raw food or using fermented foods to make the dishes, it is brought to life and becomes infinitely more digestible.

Next one is 22nd March.  Click here to find out more.

our fermentation fetish class in meare

We are really enjoying teaching these classes and the very appreciative feedback.  Yesterday we made lacto fermented Mexican salsa

basil kefir cheese pesto

lacto fermented pineapple papaya curry chutney

coconut kefir ginger beer

kefir breakfast pudding

chocolate kefir cheesecake

We also demonstrated kraut made easy 

and the ins and outs of making kefir.

These classes are also a great introduction to making raw food work for you.

Next one is on 22nd February,  Meare is in Somerset, about four miles from Glastonbury.

Thanks to Anna Middleton for fabulous photos.

wonders of kefir

Milk kefir is one the major staples of our diet.  There are many wonderful things about it.  Not least is that it enables us to benefit, with digestive ease, from the goodness in raw dairy milk, including the crucial fat soluble vitamins D and K2 and also various B vitamins which are otherwise difficult to obtain in sufficient quantities from a plant sourced diet.  In high latitude countries such as Britain it is not possible to obtain vitamin D from sunlight for about half of the year due to the low altitude of the sun. 

Kefir transforms the milk of another mammal, for example a cow, so that the ratios of the amino acids are more suitable for humans.  In particular in increases the amount of tryptophan which it is very easy to be deficient in and is the precursor to serotonin.  The kefir culture also breaks down difficult to digest casein proteins into peptides and lactose, which is  a problem for many, into lactic acid.  Kefir is  the most powerful probiotic substance we know of, actively repopulating the gut with friendly bacteria. 

If you make your kefir with the milk from traditional A2 type cows such as Jersey cows, then all the better. This milk does not release a particular beta-casomorphine called BCM 7 which is responsible for some milk intolerance.  Jersey milk also contains more cream therefore more fat soluble vitamins.(more below).

We integrate noni powder into some of our kefir meals.  The xeronine in noni helps the tryptophan get through the intestinal walls more effectively.

Demonstrating kefir at Dutch Raw Food Festival:



at our workshop:



addendum on A1 and A2 milk:

"All proteins are long chains of amino acids. Beta casein is a chain 229 amino acids in length. Cows who produce this protein in their milk with a proline at number 67 are called A2 cows, and are the older breeds of cows (e.g. Jerseys, Asian and African cows). But some 5,000 years ago, a mutation occurred in this proline amino acid, converting it to histidine. Cows that have this mutated beta casein are called A1 cows, and include breeds like Holstein.

Proline has a strong bond to a small protein called BCM 7, which helps keep it from getting into the milk, so that essentially no BCM 7 is found in the urine, blood or GI tract of old-fashioned A2 cows. On the other hand, histidine, the mutated protein, only weakly holds on to BCM 7, so it is liberated in the GI tract of animals and humans who drink A1 cow milk."
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/07/09/the-devil-in-the-milk.aspx