Wednesday 29 January 2014

full euphoric spiral with the jun

Had an unexpected arrival in my life recently.  For many years I have mostly refused to drink any kind of alcoholic drink because of the mood drop compared with how I generally feel.  Sometimes I would wonder if I was missing out on something but I just wasn't willing to experience the unpleasant side that wine, beer or spirits would have for me.  For the most part I haven't been bothered though as feel so good on what we are doing.  So it was a really nice to surprise that the very small amounts of alcohol in the jun we have got going along with the other mind enhancing compounds in there are giving me a lovely tipsy and actually euphoric but still mentally functioning feeling at the end of the day.  Admittedly it doesn't take much for me.  Anyway, unexpectedly I've got the opportunity for an evening tipple back.  The feeling is very similar to then one I remember as a youngster drinking the amazing concoction my Dad used to ferment from orange juice, when I started to go out and drink commercial beers I was shocked out how deadening their effects were compared to the almost psychedelic effects of my Dad's magical brew.

Years ago, getting healthy was purported to mean abandoning chocolate, cheese, nice cups of tea and alcoholic drinks.  And I was willing to do it.  Bit by bit it has all come back unexpectedly and delightfully in upgraded, more natural form., raw chocolate, raw dairy products such as raw cheese and kefir, herbal teas and elixirs and now the jun.  Jun works for me much better than kombucha because you can drink it without it being fermented to a vinegary state.  If kombucha isn't fully brewed out to this state then there is a residue of sugar which I really don't get on with and also, from a technical point of view, stops the immune system working to full capacity.  Jun is quite like kombucha but it can digest honey so you don't need to make it with sugar.

The tea we are using is chaga.  Brewing the tea extracts many of the medicinal factors out of the chaga whilst the alcohol in the jun extracts the alcohol soluble triterpenes (Betulinic acid) that are well known for their amazing healing properties in Russia.

I have actually been enjoying our ginkgo version even more than the original chaga jun in our range, it will be on sale very soon, just as soon as the labels get here.  Ginkgo is a long time favourite of mine, it is a very magical tree and boosts circulation and brain function.

So life has come full circle or maybe full spiral, in many other ways too, feel like finding many of the real versions of things that I had let go of.  Real sky astrology is a prime case in point.

Sunday 26 January 2014

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.

Wednesday 22 January 2014

language of destiny

The words desire and destiny when broken down into their parts literally mean that which comes from the constellations (stars).  Our desires are given to us, it is up to us how we handle them.
"What you desire in life does not belong on the realm of needs....when reading real sky zodiac we are reading our desiderata (destiny), our destiny is written in the stars, it cannot be read in conventional astrology....  Conventional astrology is  a psychological profiling tool...[It] ignores the stars, for our ultimate purpose we need to look at the real stars."  John Lash



http://www.metahistory.org/SkyLore/skyloremp3/CT%205%20The%20Language%20of%20Destiny.mp3

Tuesday 21 January 2014

nature improves happiness

"...Not only does direct exposure to nature increase happiness, but simply imagining yourself outdoors or recalling previous outdoor excursions has been shown to increase serotonin levels, thus boosting mood, decreasing exhaustion and improving overall health..."



http://www.naturalnews.com/043518_happiness_nature_mental_health.html

Monday 20 January 2014

laying my cards on the table

I have decided to lay my cards on the table.

Personally I have got to the point now where it just doesn't seem possible to dance around any longer the central issues that face us as humans.  The issues we face in the world now are just too big and complicated to unravel or deal with by previously known methods.  And the little issues too seem unresolvable unless we look deeper to the root causes.I sometimes remark to friends that what shocks me and hurts me the most is not the ecological crises - like many others - I saw them coming; not the epidemic of health problems - like many others, I saw them coming, not the wars - I saw them coming; what shocks me is that rather than facing them harmoniously and together, there is bickering even between people who are close or even claim to hold to the same ideals, in fact the bickering is sometimes the most intense between these people.  So, what to do?

From what I can make out, from experience of living and listening to people who have thought and researched deeply and make sense to me, that along the way, in some way humans have  (hopefully temporarily) lost much of their innate capacity for feeling i.e. for being energetically aware of what is going on in real time.  This manifests as loss of sense of connection to each other, the Earth, other species and beings, our intuition, divine intelligence and so on.  Deprived of these innate faculties we attempt to cobble our way through life with a set of rules and dogmas as an approximation to the guidance we would otherwise receive from the source of our lives.  Inevitably these rules clash, but as we perceive them as our lifeline to divinity we are willing to fall out with real other humans over them.

I still dream that we will regain our innate faculties, natural capabilities that have come to be seen as supernatural and I think there is a lot that can be done to start to re-establish them, that is what 'food for consciousness' is about.  Meanwhile we somehow need to get along in the understanding that we will, in our current state, inevitably tread on each others toes.  One of the most painful things we can experience is disconnection between human hearts especially, with a dearly loved one, and it is one of the things that interferes with our functioning and happiness the most.  One of the most empowering things we experience is the love and acceptance of another human being.  I am trying, as fas I can with my own limited abilities, to accept the human situation and the inevitability of us treading on each others toes and am endeavouring to learn the art of not taking offence.  The main thing is this: let's get over it together.

There is so much that could be said on this subject.  For now I just want to voice my perspective on this central issue which is basically this.  As humans have lost their feeling capacity, they have lost some of their capacity to actually feel good, so are now trying to 'be good', i.e. to 'be right' as defined by mental programs.

In some recent audios John Lash has been discussing the 'righteousness' virus and how it has infected us all. He comes from a mythological and metahistorical perspective.  There is a link to a recent audio below. My other favourite resource is Tony Wright's research on the biological aspects of our loss of faculties outlined but not fully explained in his book 'Left in the Dark'. I think we've got to the point now where the roots of the problems have been pretty well identified, at least enough for us to start to engage in solutions. As we do this the nature of the problem will also inevitably become clearer and yet more aspects of the solution will emerge.

http://gaiaspora.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Nav-Briefing-104-Pristine-and-Copacetic-Part-Two-14-January-2014.mp3

Friday 17 January 2014

quest for the zodiac

John Lash has begun a new study course on Celestics or forensic astrology.  It is star based i.e. based on the actual positions of the constellations in the sky unlike other modern versions of astrology, surprisingly.  It has been a long time dream of mine to study this subject matter with John Lash and here it is! and free and online. I can study in the comfort of my own delightful home and even have stellarium to assist when it's too cloudy  here in misty Avalon to see the starry sky.  He starts from the beginning and carefully takes us through the language and concepts so that we can think about it for ourselves.  It's also very entertaining.


There are three genres of Celestic Science:
astronomy or the naming of stars
astrology or the language of stars
astrolegy or divination by reading the stars
I studied astronomy of sorts at university as part of a physics degree and also astrology for years but never felt that I was getting the knowledge I was looking for, now I feel that I am on that journey at last.  A lot of threads are quite suddenly coming together, it's a very exciting moment to be in.

the thirteenth constellation

"Drawing the thirteenth constellation was the crowning moment of my long artistic experiment with the zodiac. This is Ophiuchus, the Charmer of Serpents, or Snaketamer, the figure that had to be excluded in order to introduce the new paradigm of psyche-cosmos mirroring, using the 12-sector format without stars. Its exclusion signals one of the more devastating turns in the history of our species, a very bad turn, indeed. By a striking coincidence, the starless Ptolemaic zodiac was proposed in 150 AD, the same year that Justin Martyr came out openly and attacked the Gnostics of the Mystery Schools. But this is no coincidence, because the suppression of the Mysteries has everything to do with the loss of the Snaketamer and all he represents: namely, the millennial tradition of indigenous shamanism in Europa, the Levant, and Egypt.



When it finally came to formatting the entire round of thirteen figures, I had to make an artistic decision about which side was up! Many factors went into this decision, far too many to elaborate here. But the principle factor was simple: I chose to put the galactic center uppermost, front and center, in the Rimsite. The direction toward the galactic center, let's recall, is a point near the tip of the Archer's arrow, above the sting of the Scorpion: designated by the oblique black triangle above the Archer's left hand. This puts the Fishes and the VP, 1 degree Aries, at the nine o'clock position, the summer solstice at six o'clock, the autumnal or fall equinox (in the Virgin's face) at three o'clock, and the winter solstice at midnight. Positioning the Rimsite in this way works for precessional timing, and other purposes. It emphasizes the coming of the midnight hour, when the winter solstice aligns exactly with the galactic center, around 2216 CE. It also highlights the largest interactive tableau in the zodiac: the Scale-Scorpion-Snaketamer-Archer scenario. This tableau carries an important lesson for our species, perhaps the decisive lesson: cosmic balance in the symbiotic web of life (Scales) depends on a clear intention of how to use destructive force (Archer) and ..... of our own inner powers (Snaketamer)."
John Lamb Lash
http://www.metahistory.org/SkyLore/starbase/primer3.php

Sunday 12 January 2014

earthing - a missing link to health and sanity

Earthing, sometimes known as grounding, is one of the most significant yet simplest steps you can take, living in civilisation in a modern life, to improve your health and enhance your well-being, mental function and everyday experience of life. Of all the healthy lifestyle practices you can engage in,  earthing requires the least effort and time commitment yet it maximises results.

Here is our interview with Dr John Kelsey explaining in wonderful depth about the use of earthing devices and their benefits.



Personally I feel an intense desire to live as immersed in nature and as close to the Earth as possible. For the moment the things I need to do to fulfil my purpose keep me living and working in a house much of the time and I am immensely grateful for this very simple technology.  It does not replace getting out into nature and going barefoot on the Earth rather it fills in the gaps when we can't do this.

Putting it in basic terms, our body metabolism , by its very nature produces free radicals.  These need to be counteracted by antioxidants or electrons, which we get to some degree from foods such as fruit and vegetables and also the hormone melatonin.  However we were designed to run in physical connection with the earth, without any insulating materials between us, such as rubber soles, carpets and floorboards.  From the Earth comes a flow of electrons which naturally balance the effects of metabolism.

Earthing sheets are cotton sheets with silver threads running through them. You just put one on the bed on top of your normal sheet and plug into the socket.  The plug does not make a connection with the live part of the mains, just the earthing connection which runs down into the ground.  So the socket does not need to be on and an earthing sheet is not an electrical device in the sense that we normally understand. Through  the moisture that comes out of our bodies we connect electrically to the sheet and through that to the Earth.

The change to sleeping on an earthing sheet was a profound experience for us.  For the first week we actually felt fuzzy headed and found that difficult to deal with.  After those effects had waned we noticed how well we were sleeping and how refreshed we felt when we woke up. I think it has made us feel closer too.  One of the effects of grounding is to increase melatonin levels and even this by itself is known to increase the levels of harmony between people. The more of the time we are earthed the better. As Dr John Kelsey explains in our recent interview with him, even if we are earthed at night, we will get more benefit if we are also earthed before we go to bed. In the day we regularly use earthing throws and mats as well as walking barefoot in nature.  Users report that earthing for two hours before bed helps them sleep.  It is possible that the Earth is able to communicate to us the rhythms we need to function optimally.

Earthing also tends to balance brain hemisphere function.  Speaking to Tony Wright on the subject he hypothesises that what is actually happening is the right hemisphere has the capacity to respond to the improved conditions and becomes more active thus ameliorating to some degree cerebral dominance of the left hemisphere.

Recently I have got to the point of recommending earthing in nature and through earthing devices above any other health practice so it made sense to stock these products for sale.  We chose the convenient half sheet, the mat and grounding rod as the most popular products and the ones we have found most useful.  It's a one off investment which can last for years.  You could think of it as a device to harvest electrons.  Generations of humans  preceding the industrial revolution were conceived , born and grew up, worked and played in direct physical connection with the Earth. I personally think that beginning to re-establish this vital connection to our life source is fundamental to turning us into the sane and harmonious humans of the future.

Saturday 4 January 2014

chocolate pudding recipe

This is a recipe I used for many years to give myself and my family a nourishing breakfast.  It covers many nutritional bases and is nourishing and sustaining for growing young people and people who are very  active especially. It used to keep us going for most of the day.


This recipe covers a large range of nutritional needs - fats and proteins, carbohydrates, minerals, vitamins, fruit compounds and many other subtle nutrients - in an easily usable form for the body and sets us up for the day. The prototype was designed by Tony Wright as optimal brain nutrition.  It is  very nourishing and satisfying for growing children.  Use it as a dessert mousse or chocolate sauce or freeze it as delicious totally healthy ice-cream.

serves 3

Basic ingredients:

150g  hemp seeds soaked overnight in water
200 – 300ml liquid -this can be all water or freshly squeezed orange juice, dried fruit soak water,  or a mixture of these.  1 orange gives about 50ml juice.
a little orange zest/peel
3 dried figs, soaked overnight in water
3 dried apricots, soaked overnight in water
50g sunflower seeds, soaked overnight in water
50g pumpkin seeds, soaked overnight in water
50g sesame seeds, soaked overnight in water
3 bananas
few chunks fresh coconut or ½ tsp coconut butter
a few grains Himalayan or sea salt
superfoods to taste: cacao nibs or powder, maca, gojis, carob powder, mesquite, rosehip powder, vanilla pod or powder, if you can get hold of it, hemp leaf blends in beautifully taste-wise and makes the recipe even more complete.

Optional extras and/or substitutions:

blueberries, blackberries,  bilberries, strawberries, pear, kaki/sharon fruit
lime juice and zest
prunes instead of apricots
walnuts, hazelnuts or brazils instead of some of the seeds
use purple corn soak water to make the hemp milk
for an extra lift: he shou wu, hemp leaf powder, purple corn powder, suma, AFA blue-green algae

To make hemp milk, drain the hemp seeds and blend with the liquid until the hemp seeds are broken down and the liquid looks milky.  Strain and squeeze through muslin or similar cloth  to make hemp milk. A muslin bag is easiest.

Drain the soaked ingredients and blend all the  ingredients together until smooth.  If using a very powerful blender it may not be necessary to pre-soak the dried fruit – this then gives a thicker result.

Particularly delicious topped with fruit such as cherries, raspberries, mango and/or some kefir or yoghurt or even ground hazelnuts.

B17

Vitamin B-17 or nitriloside is a name used to describe a large group of water-soluble, non-toxic, sugary, compounds found in over 800 plants, many of which are edible.  It is said by many to be a preventative for cancer or even it is said by many that cancer is a vitamin B17 deficiency metabolic disease.

Nitrilosides comprise molecules made of natural sugar, hydrogen cyanide, and a benzene ring or an acetone. Though the intact molecule is, for all practical purposes, completely non-toxic,  in metabolism, nitriloside is hydrolyzed to free hydrogen cyanide, benzaldehyde or acetone and sugar.

This is how the theory goes: When part of the body is damaged in some way stem cells rebuild the damaged area.  It is thought that nitrilosides, through their cyanide and benzene breakdown products, prevent the rebuilding process getting out of hand.  In the past, human diets were rich in nitrilosides, but the modern processed diet can easily be almost completely lacking in them. For example, the nitriloside rich cereal millet was once more widely used in human nutrition than wheat and the now ubiquitous wheat seed contains little or no nitriloside.  Vitamin B17 appears in abundance in untamed nature.  B17 is bitter to the taste and humans taste buds have changed  over time due to a deviation away from a natural diet.  In an attempt to improve tastes and flavours, we humans have eliminated bitter substances like B17 by selection and cross-breeding.  However many of the foods that have been domesticated still contain the vitamin B17 in that part not eaten by modern humans, such as the seeds in apricots. If B17 is lacking in the diet, the rebuilding process can get out of hand and tumours can develop. Vitamin B17 is toxic to problematic overgrowing cells, but non-toxic and in fact nourishes ordinary cells.  In other words, it is said that cancer is a chronic metabolic disease that arising from a specific vitamin deficiency--a deficiency specifically in vitamin B-17 (nitriloside).

One of the most common nitrilosides is amygdalin. This nitriloside occurs in the kernels of seeds of practically all fruits. The seeds of apples, apricots, cherries, peaches, plums, nectarines, and the like carry this factor; often in the extraordinary concentration of 2 to 3 per cent.

There is plenty of precadent for believing that a once fatal disease could turn out simply to be a metabolic disorder.  At one time the metabolic disease scurvy killed hundreds of thousands of people, sometimes entire populations. It found total prevention and cure in the ascorbic acid or vitamin C component of fruits and vegetables. Similarly, the once fatal diseases pernicious anemia, pellagra, beri beri, countless neuropathies, and the like, found complete cure and prevention in specific dietary factors, that is, essential nutrients in an adequate diet. Before these diseases were understood, before the means of total prevention and cure were discovered, it was widely believed that these dietary deficiency diseases were due to viruses, bacteria, bad air, "infection," or some such cause.

Much of this material is taken from a paper by Ernst Theodor Krebs, Jr. presented in German before a congress of the International Medical Society for Blood and Tumor Disease,

Nov. 7, 1970, in Baden-Baden, West Germany. On this occasion, the author received an award honoring his discovery and research on vitamin B-15 (pangamic acid) and vitamin B-17 (nitriloside).

for  more information visit:
http://credence.org/B17manual/

Foods Containing B17 (Nitrilosides)

Listed below is an evaluation of some of the more common foods.  Keep in mind that these are averages only and that specimens vary widely depending on variety, locale, soil, and climate.

Fruits Range*
blackberry, domestic     low
blackberry, wild     high
boysenberry     med.
choke cherry     high
wild crabapple     high
market cranberry     low
Swedish (lignon) cranberry     high
currant     med.
elderberry     med. to high
gooseberry     med.
huckleberry     med.
loganberry     med.
mulberry     med.
quince     med.
raspberry     med.


Seeds Range*
apple seeds     high
apricot seed     high
buckwheat     med.
cherry seed     high
flax     med.
millet     med.
nectarine seed     high
peach seed     high
pear seeds     high
plum seed     high
prune seed     high
squash seeds     med.


Beans Range*
black     low
black-eyed peas     low
fava     high
garbanzo     low to med.
green pea     low
kidney     low to med.
lentils     med.
lima, U.S.     low
lima, Burma     med.
mung     med. to high
shell     low
Nuts (all raw) Range*
bitter almond     high
cashew     low
macadamia     med. to high


Sprouts Range*
alfalfa     med.
bamboo     high
fava     med.
garbanzo     med.
mung     med.
Leaves Range*
alfalfa     high
beet tops     low
eucalyptus     high
spinach     low
water cress     low


Tubers Range*
cassava     high
sweetpotato     low
yams     low

Range*       1000 mg ( milligrams ) = 1 gram

High — above 500 mg nitriloside per 100 grams of food.

Medium — above 100 mg nitriloside per 100 grams of food.

Low — below 100 mg nitriloside per 100 grams of food.

kefir the magic elixir

Kefir is an incredible magic food which comes into being through the symbiotic activities of three living groups: humans, grazing animals and beneficial micro-organisms. The name 'kefir' itself means 'good feeling', an apt name as it contains a lot of tryptophan from which serotonin, the well-being biochemical, is made.

Kefir can be thought of as a kind of powerful yoghurt but with some significant advantages. It is the most powerfully probiotic food or supplement that we know of. It actively repopulates the gut, laying down a healthy mucus layer that micro-flora can flourish in, supporting the digestive and immune system.

The culture is so powerful that, unlike yoghurt, it can successfully compete with all the micro-organisms that naturally exist in milk and also it will work at room temperature. This means that, unlike with yoghurt, the milk does not have to be heated to make it and so the nutritional components in the milk remain undamaged. This is great because it allows us to take full advantage of the nutrition in dairy milk, for example the fat soluble vitamins A (retinol), D3 and K2. Also it avoids the changes to the proteins and sugars in milk which can cause problems.

The kefir culture, which transforms animal milks into a supremely nourishing drink, is actually a mixture of numerous kinds of friendly bacteria and yeasts. Our bodies are really whole ecosystems and ideally our digestive tracts contain ten times more friendly micro-organisms than we have cells in our bodies; these support a healthy immune system and brain function. The kefir culture itself is potentially immortal – if properly looked after and fed with milk, it can live indefinitely. The liquid kefir that it makes is a preserved living food and can keep for months. We prefer to store it in a cool place but this is not necessary. If it is stored in a warm place secondary fermentation in the bottle will take place so you may want to check that too much pressure is not building up over time.

The particular nutritive properties of kefir are numerous. The culture rebalances the amino acids in animal milk making them more suitable for humans. In particular, as already mentioned, it increases the amount of tryptophan which is the raw material from which serotonin, the well-being biochemical, is made. Tryptophan tends to be lacking in modern diets as it is easily damaged by cooking. Kefir contains ample amounts of B vitamins including B12. Acetylcholine in it improves sleep and is good for memory, intelligence, learning, enthusiasm and general mood. Kefir also contains lecithin which helps in the assimilation of fats. It contains 'right-rotating' lactic acid (as opposed to 'left-rotating' lactic acid found in other yoghurts) which revives cells.

One of the great aspects of kefir is that it allows us to take advantage of the nutrition in raw milk whilst avoiding some of the potential allergenic problems of dairy products. The culture breaks down the lactose into lactic acid and the casein into beneficial peptides. If kefir is made with Jersey milk (which ours is) then the additional allergenic problems of modern milk are further avoided.  Jersey cows along with Guernsey, Asian and African cows are a traditional breed which produce predominantly A2 milk which is  much more suitable for human consumption than the allergenic A1 type milk  produced by modern breeds of cows. In A1 milk the amino acid proline is replaced by histadine which breaks off and creates a rogue form of casomorphine. The cows that produce the organic milk that we use are grass fed for most of the year and when possible in winter. It is also interesting to note that kefir can break down pesticides.

Added to all this, kefir has an unusual, delicious and acquired taste. When bottled,  it undergoes a secondary fermentation and becomes slightly fizzy - the 'champagne of raw dairy'. You need to open it carefully – occasionally it can bubble over the top of the bottle.

Using kefir

Kefir can be made into a mild soft cheese. Simply pour into a muslin bag (for example the type used for making seed and nut milks) and hang over a container to catch the whey. Leave for 24 hours and you have kefir cheese in the bag. You can use this to make raw cheesecakes.

To make kefir cream simply leave the kefir in a jar and let it separate out and scoop the cream off the top. You can use the whey that is left behind too to inoculate vegetable ferments. Sometimes the kefir is already separated out in the bottle this way. If you want to mix it up you can just shake the bottle. Be careful when you open it after doing this as it will make it more fizzy!

Kefir is delicious drunk by itself but you can also mix in superfood powders and fruit etc according to taste. One of our favourite foods to add is yacon, either as the yacon root powder or yacon syrup; they contain prebiotics, indigestible sugars and fibres which act as food for beneficial micro-organisms in the gut. Dried noni is also a great addition as it facilitates the absorption of tryptophan.

Making kefir

Kefir can be made from almost any kind of milk – cows’, goat’s, sheep’s, soy, coconut, nut milks and seed milks – but not rice or oat milk as they are quite different. It is much easier to make kefir with animal milks and this is what the culture really needs to feed on.  If you make it with nut or seed milks then you need to sweeten the milk for example with blended in soaked dried fruit and you may have to feed the culture itself with animal milk from time to time.  Also the culture thrives best on raw milk, you can make kefir with pasteurised milk and this will help add life-force to your milk but it is tastier and more nutritious with raw milk and the culture does better.

So...you just put the culture (it looks a bit like cottage cheese and is different to the drink which is made with it) into the raw milk in an airtight glass jar (a kilner type jar is ideal). The process is anaerobic (happens better without oxygen). Metal can damage kefir if it touches it. Plastic is no good for any period of time as the kefir, being acidic will slightly corrode the plastic into the kefir. Just leave at room temperature for about 24 hours, strain with a plastic sieve and use the liquid that drains out for eating, drinking or recipes. Store the liquid in the fridge until you use it. Clean the jar with hot water and put the lumpy bits (culture) back into the jar. You can rinse the lumpy bits with lukewarm water before you return them to the jar but traditionally they were not washed and this may be better for them.

If not making kefir for a while store the culture in a mixture of water and milk in the fridge. Kefir culture multiplies very quickly - store spare culture in this way until you find someone else who wants it.

You can obtain cultures and kefir by the bottle at here at food for consciousness shop

Holly Paige

recommended raw food groups

This list has been written and revised over years, informed by our own and others' experience.  It is designed to cover all nutritional needs for most people but you don't have to be going 100% raw to include these vital foods in your diet.  We recommend including the following food groups for optimal brain nutrition:

Fruit – including tropical fruit such as mangoes, figs, papayas and bananas; berries and other fruit. We enjoy melons, apricots, apples and pears, cherries, kakis, grapes, currants, oranges, lemons, grapefruit, avocados, tomatoes, cucumber etc.

Nuts and Seeds – fruit is not dense enough to supply all our nutritional needs in our current state. And, in our natural state, would we would be eating and digesting the seeds within fruit. Nuts and seeds give us dense nutrition. They should generally be soaked in water for a few hours before use to break down their growth inhibitors which interfere in digestion and assimilation of nutrients. Seeds are much more digestible than nuts which are best consumed in moderation. Hemp is a good staple; also sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, hazels (filberts), walnuts, almonds, coconut, Siberian cedar nuts, macadamias, brazils and pecans contain beneficial nutrition.  Chia seeds are a great source of omega 3′s and fibre.

Greens and vegetables – needed for minerals, chlorophyll and protein and various co-factors, they also alkalise the body in a way that is essential to counteract the acid-forming properties of most nuts and seeds and some other foods. Dark greens provide the most intense nutrition. In late winter and spring we wild green juice and wild greens with salad can be extremely revitalsing.  Grasses can be juiced too. Home grown salad greens are the freshest. Sprouts such as alfalfa, radish, quinoa can provide fresh living greens, especially if you grow them yourself which is very quick and easy when you get the hang of it. Home grown sprouts are a very economic way of getting high quality nutrition and life-force. Dried green superfoods such as barley grass and hemp leaf are also helpful.  Root vegetables such as carrots and sweet potatoes are very nourishing

Sea vegetables – provide iodine and trace minerals which are more abundant in the oceans than the land. Kelp is the richest in iodine.  Sea spaghetti is a tasty ingredient for making appetising and interesting dishes.

Oils – we get fatty acids from nuts and seeds but to keep the correct balance between omega 3 and omega 6 essential fatty acids flaxseed (linseed) oil is helpful. This oil is very unstable and needs to be kept sealed and cool. A flax oil that has not gone rancid is surprisingly pleasant to the taste. The omega 3 essential fatty acids from plant sources such as flax have to be converted inside us to provide EPA and DHA which the brain needs. Coconut oil helps this process but actually most people need to ingest EPA and DHA directly. We recommend purified fish oil or marine phytoplankton or other supplement for those who do not want to eat fish products. Click here to read more.

Raw dairy – we have found these foods, in moderate quantities very helpful in enabling us to eat entirely raw foods and maintain excellent health. The main point is the need for most people for nutritional components found in raw animal-sourced fats so if you don’t eat raw dairy it is wise to think where you obtain these nutrients. You can choose from raw goats and cows milk, goats’ and cows’ butter, sheep or goats’ yoghurt, kefir, unpasteurised, cheese and sometimes raw (carefully selected organic, free-range) egg yolks. They could be seen as a substitute for the large amount of insect matter we would consume if we gathered our food in the wild. They are a vital source of vitamins D and retinol (vitamin A), fat soluble vitamins which are difficult to obtain in sufficient quantities and in an assimilable form from elsewhere. In temperate latitudes for much of the year, the sun does not rise high enough to give us the UVB light our skin needs to make sufficient vitamin D. B12 needs also to come from animal sources – plant sourced B12 is not the form humans need and can even get in the way of proper B12 absorption. We suspect there are also subtle factors in animal products that we do not fully understand yet. We have found ethical sources of these products. Click here for Raw Dairy Suppliers.

Fermented foods – provide probiotics and B vitamins and can be revolutionary in our health.  They include coconut and milk kefirs, kombucha, cultured vegetables such as sauerkraut and kimchee, miso and seed cheeses.  Kefir is probably the most powerful probiotic known.  For more information about kefir click here.
Medicinal mushrooms – reishi and shitake have become well known. Also chaga, lion’s mane, shitake, tremella etc all boost the immune system and have many other health enhancing qualities.

Flowers – the precursors to fruit are delicious embellishment to our diets.  Edible flowers include borage, nasturtiums, honeysuckle, rose petals, evening primrose and many more – many flowers are edible especially if the fruits are.

Superfoods and Supplements- due to poor quality of soil (including organic because of long term soil erosion), fruit being picked unripe, storage and the fact that the human gut is not working at its best, we need all the help we can get. This is the case whether eating cooked or raw food. We obtain extra minerals, vitamins and healthy mood enhancing compounds from superfoods and supplements and also take MSM, viatmin D3 and iodine. Aloe vera contains some invaluable elements; the fresh gel is ideal and the plants are easy to grow on a window sill. It can be applied to the skin.  Superfoods take nutrition to another level of evolution. Goji berries, raw cacao, maca, bee pollen, algae and barleygrass, purple corn, algaroba, rosehip, vanilla, noni, suma, shilajit and royal jelly are some favourites.  In terms of supplements, the list goes on but these ones feel important to mention: uibiquinol is highly recommended for those over 40, progesterone cream for women and melatonin is beneficial for many people.

Tonic Herbs – well worth looking into, some of our favourites are he shou wu and rhodiola.

Water – of course- our main constituent – it is well known now that we should drink plenty of good water – clean fresh spring water is the ideal.  It does not need to be drunk alone – it is an excellent carrier for other supernutrition in the form of teas, elixirs, juices, smoothies etc.

Earthing - last in this list but not least, in order to function sanely and healthily as human animals we need a connection to the source of our physical life, the Earth itself.  It is important to spend time in nature and go barefoot, but when this is not possible we can maintain an electrical connection with the Earth through the use of 'grounding' devices such as earthing sheets and mats.