You’ve heard me say many times that “you don’t need to live off raw kale and green juices to look and feel your best“. Don’t worry, I haven’t changed my mind: I still strongly believe that life is way too short to feel deprived and miserable. Nutrition can be sexy if you know how to master and combine the power of foods with the pleasure of eating, just like the French do.

However, many of my clients kept asking me to include juices in my nutrition programs. So I listened and I did it…

Did I say juices? Moi?  Well, not any kind of juices is welcome in my programs… Only the ones that follow 5 principles.

Principles that make those juices true anti-oxidants, nutrients, alkalising powerhouses!

Principle #1: no fruit juices, vegetable juices only.

About to make my green smoothies!

While most of us think juices are our best health allies, they actually are often our worst enemies!

We have all been brainwashed by the health halo that juices have. Since our childhood, we’ve been told that an orange (or other fruit) juice had to be part of our breakfasts. We were even advised to add fruit juices as great healthy options for our kids’ lunch boxes. Well, it’s time to totally shift our perception and look at juices for what they are: absolute sugar bombs that contribute to making our society fatter and sicker every day.

Am I exaggerating? An apple or orange or mango juice can contain as much sugar as a Coca-Cola. When we consume fruits without the pulp, we absorb the sugar straight away, generating a spike in our blood sugar, quickly followed by a crash that triggers a need for more sugar… The typical vicious circle of sugar addiction (weight gain, tooth decay amongst many other nasty things).

Consider fruit juices as treats just like cakes and make vegetable juices.

With vegetable juices, it’s also important to be careful. Most of them, even the so-called ‘green’ juices you’ll find in juice bars or even in health food stores are usually loaded with sugar as they mainly contain fruits like apples and a very little amount of vegetables. The best vegetable juices are the ones made mainly of leafy greens.

The solution? Make your own juices, with leafy greens and ONE serve of fruit (for 1 to 1.5 litre of juice) whether it’s one banana or one apple or one orange.

Principle #2: the best is in the pulp .

Even if your green juice is only made with leafy greens, it’s still only a juice, without fibre and nutrients that the pulp contents.

Without the pulp, your body won’t be able to process and make the most of the health benefits of the vegetables.

So here’s my simple rule: Instead of discarding the pulp, always add it to the juice. 

Principle #3: choose the most powerful leafy greens.

I hugely recommend choosing the leafy greens with the highest level of nutrients… And thank God for people like me who loathe kale, there are many other and better options as I explained in this article.  

The Centre for Disease Control ranked 47 powerhouse fruits and vegetables according to how much fibre, vitamins, minerals, protein and potassium they contain. Kale came at the 15th position ONLY with a ‘low’ nutrient density score of 49.07 out of 100! This means that we have 14 other options more nutritious (and with a better taste –  at least for me!) than kale!

Personally, I like spinach, rocket, parsley and cress. 

And of course, organic only, as the last thing you want is to drink a glass full of highly toxic pesticides.

Principle #4: make sure you can absorb all nutrients.

My just-made green smoothies.

These leafy greens are rich in fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E, K).

This means that for these vitamins to be absorbed properly by your body, they need to be consumed with fat. So each time you make your green smoothie, always add a good quality fat (3 spoons for one litre) of olive oil to make the most of these very important vitamins.

It sounds odd and not very appealing but you won’t notice it once it’s blended with all the vegetables.

Also to make your smoothie even more alkaline, anti-oxidant and rejuvenating, add one big lemon (juice, pulp and white flesh!). It will not only add a rich flavour but also all the super benefits lemons bring – as explained in my article here.

Principle #5: take good care of your green juices.

Your green juices (with pulp!) have 3 enemies: heat, light and time. They all reduce the number of vitamins and nutrients considerably.

So as soon as you have made your juices, put them straight away in the fridge, don’t let them in the daylight and consume them within 3 days maximum.

The fresher, the colder, the better! Simple.

Here’s my recipe:

To make 1 to 1.5 litre of green juice, put all these ingredients (organic ONLY) in a blender and once done, store in 500ml glass bottles:

• one banana OR one apple
• 3 large handful of spinach
• 3 large handful of rocket
• 1 bunch of parsley
• 1 lemon: juice, pulp and white flesh
• 3 large spoons of olive oil
• add filtered water

I usually recommend my clients to at least have 500ml a day if they can’t manage to have enough leafy greens in their diet.

Have a beautiful green end of the week.

Yves

PS. Have your say! I’ve been pretty quiet on my blog over the last few months as I am super busy working on a few new nutrition programs to help heal specific conditions such as gut health, diabetes type 2 or meet specific goals such as slowing the ageing process, managing stress or adopting intermittent fasting safely. I would love to know what you think: simply tell me what programs could interest you by sending me a short message to yves@nutritionbyyves.com.au

Merci!

The post Green juices? Only if… appeared first on Healing Nutrition by Yves.

“Let’s Rosé” as Jerome Dubois the founder/owner of the very recently opened Rosé Royale Bar in Sydney, the world’s first bar dedicated to this wine, says… And I’m totally for it! When I moved to Sydney ten years ago, it was quite impossible to find any drinkable rosé. It has changed a lot since!

I love rosé.

Even if I’m a big fan of red wine – for its taste and its health benefits as explained in one of my first articles here – I also love rosé. To me, it means summer, Saint-Tropez, Provence, lazy long lunches with friends and family. Bliss.

But not all of the rosé wines are equal to me. I’m actually very picky and very ‘Franco-French’: I usually only like and drink icy cold, very dry ones, with an extremely pale colour and ONLY from Provence, in particular from the region of Saint-Tropez. Actually, the colour is the best indicator: the lightest the better.

My favourite is called Château Minuty. A crispy, dry rosé, with a sand pink colour, almost transparent from the Côtes de Provence… Sublime! It proved to be challenging for many years but I finally can find it in Sydney. I’m happy.

Rosé has taken the world by storm.

This wine used to be the cheapest and sweetest – and the most awful – wine you could get.

30 years ago, things started to change in France. Winemakers improved the quality and with the help of genius marketing experts, they managed to make it the trendiest summer wine. Since the early 90s, whether you’re having a business lunch on a chic terrasse in Paris or sunbaking on a private high-end beach on the Cote d’Azur, there’s always an expensive bottle of rosé from Provence on the table.

This trend is now global.

Rosé is the fastest growing wine variety with, for instance, a whopping 60% growth in only the last 12 months in Australia and New Zealand!

The world’s first bar 100% dedicated to rosé.

Rosé and white chocolate ice cream at the Rosé Royale Bar

Jerome Dubois, French gourmet living in Sydney for 22 years and founder/owner of the Rosé Royale Bar, was sick and tired to find wine lists offering large numbers of red and white wines but only 2 rosés maximum.

A few pop-up bars opened in summer in New York and Los Angeles but no one ever had the genius idea to open a bar that is here to stay, all year round.

Jerome did it! And everyone is talking about it: Elle, Time Out, the Urban List, Daily Telegraph or SBS.

Everything is dedicated to rosé in his bar: from the list of 30 rosés (yes, 30!) with 20 available by the glass and the great cocktail list to the modern French-inspired food menu where white or red wine has been replaced by rosé in all recipes: mayonnaise, butter, sorbet, ice cream, jam to name just a few.

As Jerome puts it, rosé wine is not only delicious, it also makes you happy.

Long lazy summer lunches with rosé.

Jerome’s wines come from France but also Australia, New Zealand, Turkey, Spain, Italy, Portugal. The colour range from very vibrant pink colours to very light, almost transparent and the taste from very dry to super fruity and sweet. This diversity actually depends on the way the wine is made and how long it has been exposed to the skin of the grapes.

This also gives a great choice when it comes to pairing with food.

For instance, Jerome recommends a very fruity pink yet very dry rosé from New Zealand to go with one of his unusual entrees made of grilled king prawns cutlets layered with foie gras disc, served with toasted fruit bread and caviar butter. Yes, please!

If you’re not in Sydney…

If you can’t go and try the long wine list of the Rosé Royale Bar, the best is to look at reviews: it will help you a lot to navigate the new and sometimes complex world of rosé.

Start by this brilliant article and review of the best French rosés made by Social Vignerons (Minuty, my favourite, is #1!).

There are also a few excellent reviews from experts in

• New Zealand by Air New Zealand;
• Australia by Gourmet Traveller;
• the US by Conde Nast; and
• the UK by the Independent.

While I still cherish my Minuty, I’m definitely interested in exploring the wines from New Zealand and Australia more… So, any tips, advice or recommendation will be more than welcome! I already love you for this!

Have a beautiful rosé end of the year and festive season – but please enjoy responsibly and with moderation!

Happy holiday (if you’re lucky to take some) and I’ll see/talk to you in the new year.

Yves

The post Let’s Rosé! appeared first on Healing Nutrition by Yves.

As you might remember, I started to follow the intermittent fasting diet back in January (fasting for 16 hours with an 8-hour eating window every day). I’m so amazed by the results that I can’t wait to share with you my experience and learnings over the last ten months.

First of all, if you want to have a summary of what intermittent fasting is and how it works, you can have a look at the article I posted after the first three months here.

Intermittent fasting: it works. It really does.

Intermittent fasting: you’ll love it too

Intermittent fasting has become part of my lifestyle and I’m loving it:

• I feel very energised all day long: I’m never tired in the morning, I never feel like having a nap after lunch and I sleep like a baby at night.
• My immune system is definitely stronger: I did not have a single cold or caught the flu even though Australia experienced the worst winter/spring flu epidemic in decades. I have been constantly exposed to people with the flu over the last 5 months and did not get anything.
• I definitely lost weight and got much leaner.

… But it hasn’t been always the case.

At one stage, I thought I was going to give up intermittent fasting. After the first five months, I reached a plateau: I was finding harder and harder not to have breakfast, I was getting physically tired and I wasn’t losing the weight I wanted to lose.

I reintroduced breakfasts in my intermittent fasting.

It clearly meant that something wasn’t working for me. As always, if you want different results, you need to change the way you do things. So instead of fasting from dinner to lunch, I decided to fast from after lunch until breakfast on the next day (which means that I would have breakfast and lunch, instead of lunch and dinner).

This change had a massive impact:

• I found quite easy not to have dinner and realised how much I loved starting the day in the sun with a gorgeous and nutritious breakfast.
• I found myself fasting for more than the 16 hours required. For instance, when I have lunch at 12 pm and breakfast at 7 am, it means that I fast for 19 hours, which increases the benefits of intermittent fasting on the energy level, cell rejuvenation and weight loss. Bingo!
• I easily and happily lost the stubborn kilos I’ve been trying to shed for months.

I do intermittent fasting my way.

I found out that I could totally adapt intermittent fasting to my lifestyle while abiding by my approach to life and diet: always enjoy food, never feel deprived and stick to my motto: Real Food + Pleasure = Health ©:

• While I don’t have dinner most of the time, I sometimes swop depending on my schedule and have dinner, in particular if I know I’ll have a social dinner or an evening function. I know that I can adjust by fasting until lunch on the next day. Easy as.
• I even allow myself one (two max) cheat days a week where I don’t fast at all. Once again, enjoying life always comes first for me and I would not sacrifice it for a diet, as successful as it might be. Intermittent fasting is actually flexible enough to allow anyone to embrace my approach to nutrition, pleasure and art de vivre without compromising anything.
• 

  Enjoying life always comes first!

  I don’t restrict what I can eat. While intermittent fasting ‘purists’ will disagree, I actually found that I could be very relaxed and enjoy more treats than usual, with no or limited impact on weight loss.

• I, however, have to make sure my diet is highly nutritious in particular in regards to my green vegetables daily intake, which can be challenging when you have breakfast and lunch (and no dinner). Fortunately, after a few tweaks, I now have helpful tricks.
• It works even if I don’t exercise. Since I injured my back and then my right elbow, I had to stop yoga completely and reduce drastically swimming (which is extremely challenging for me). Another proof that all the health benefits I have been enjoying are due to intermittent fasting only. I can’t wait to exercise again and see what difference it can make.
• Intermittent fasting will be the ideal ally during the festive season as it will definitely help balance out the negative impacts of the quantity of food and alcohol we can have during these few weeks or even months. Intermittent fasting is perfect for the liver to rest and restore.

Intermittent fasting can be the solution for you too.

Intermittent fasting: easy as… with a bit of coaching.

Just like everything when it comes to nutrition, intermittent fasting is not a one-size-fits-all solution.

As I discover with my own experience and a few of my clients, you can totally adapt this diet to what you like, how you feel and the goals you want to reach AND have long-lasting results!

All that you need is a bit of coaching and support to find what works for you while making sure you have a nutrient-dense and delicious diet.

Once you know how to make the most of intermittent fasting, you too can get fantastic results.

So… ready to lose weight for good, to be full of energy and feel your best at last?

Have a great end of the week.

Yves

The post Intermittent fasting? It works. appeared first on Healing Nutrition by Yves.

I just came back from my annual own “Tour de France”… This year, while I went to many different places to visit friends from Paris and Brittany to Perigord and Provence, I spent most of the time in the very remote region of Aurillac where my family lives: untouched nature, pristine rivers, lush green mountains, which actually sit on the oldest and largest volcano in Europe.

Aurillac, the capital city of Le Cantal.

My great grandmother’s house

Aurillac, where I grew up, is one of the pathways of the Saint-Jacques of Compostelle Pilgrimage, which has become increasingly popular in recent years. Aurillac also gave one of the most influential Pope of the Middle Age, Sylvester II.

It is the capital city of one of the oldest French cheeses, Le Cantal, made of raw milk from cows pasturing all summer in the mountains.

This region is home to nurturing and healing, traditional slow-cooked dishes made using fresh whole foods. La Truffade, made with young Cantal, is to die for. It’s usually served with a home-made sausage and a green salad (see photo below).

If you followed me on Facebook (you can like my page here to get my daily updates on nutrition and the French Art de Vivre), you’ve seen all the mouth-watering dishes I enjoyed over four weeks – all made from family recipes and cooked by my father with love as my mother was unwell. Thank you all so much for your likes, comments and messages!

Art de Vivre, every day.

Every day, we had this very beautiful French Art de Vivre routine:

• deciding together (my mum, my dad and I) on the menu for lunch and dinner at breakfast and making sure it’s well-balanced, nutritious and most importantly delicious;
• walking to the local food market to select the best products directly from the producers;
• having an espresso at one of these beautiful typical cafes where everyone meets after the market, reads the local daily paper or simply watches the passersby (a very French thing to do!);
• selecting the wine from the cellar; and
• dressing the table while my father locks himself in the kitchen to have the peace he needs to cook the best meals…

My great grandmother’s garden.

Fresh from my great grandmother’s garden

Part of this daily routine was also to pick up a few fresh and vibrant vegetables in my great-grandmother’s garden, still maintained with love, dedication and passion, by my 86-years old uncle Lucien.

As you know, my great-grandmother Marguerite was a popular cook and a healing practitioner in the 1920s, leaving a legacy that continues today. I’ve inherited her personal practitioner book, full of invaluable family recipes, home remedies and handwritten notes.

So, each year, it’s vital to me to return to my family home and reconnect with my upbringing around the positive attitude of the French to life and food known as Art de Vivre, a healthy diet, and the philosophy of food as medicine.

Cheese AND wine AND bread AND dessert!

In a very traditional French way, all the meals I had were always made of an entree, a main and vegetables, cheese platter, a green salad, dessert, (preservative-free) quality red wine and fresh wholemeal bread. I can already hear you: how can you have cheese AND wine AND bread AND dessert every day, for lunch and dinner … and not putting on weight?

Well, it all comes down to the French Paradox and what I preach for every day with my clients –with results! If you follow a few simple rules, you also can enjoy my motto Real Food + Pleasure = Health©, reclaim your health and stay slim just like most of 60 million French people!

Truffade, hand-made sausage and green salad.

It’s all about eating real products (whole, fresh, local, organic – nothing processed), cooking at home as much as you can (there are many ways to do it in a very efficient, inexpensive, quick and easy way – ask me!), knowing how to manage portion control and how to enjoy each bite (remember, it’s about Art de Vivre – here too, I’ll be happy to help) …

… AND having a green salad at each meal, the best way to get your daily intake of alkalising leafy greens, critical for all body functions and to give you the vitamins, minerals, fibre, antioxidants you need to feel your best. And it can be delicious too – and not boring at all!

The list of the recipes of the to-die-for dishes I enjoyed over four weeks is definitely too long to share so I’ve selected three of them… and included a few photos of others of my favourites dishes.

FAMILY RECIPE #1: STUFFED TOMATOES AND POTATOES (4 people)

Ingredients (all organic):

5 big tomatoes, 5 big potatoes, 100 g of brown or wild rice.

For the stuffing:

• 500 to 700g of cooked pork meat (cutlets and belly)
• 2 onions
• 1 handful of parsley (can be more if you want a greener stuffing)
• 2 slices of wholemeal bread marinated in full cream milk
• 2 eggs
• natural sea salt and pepper

Stuffed tomatoes and potatoes

Directions:

• Stuffing: beat the eggs; mince the meat, onions and parsley together; mix with eggs and bread
• Potatoes and tomatoes: with a tea spoon, make a hole and take the flesh out, leaving around 1 cm of flesh around the skin; keep aside the flesh; fill the vegetables with the stuffing.
• Put the rice at the bottom of an oven-proof dish, leaving a space of 2cm between the dish and the rice (as the rice swells up when cooking) and add olive oil generously.
• Put the stuffed tomatoes and potatoes on the rice and fill the gaps with the flesh of the potatoes and tomatoes that you’ve left aside.
• Put in the oven (180 degrees) for 90 minutes.
• Serve with a huge green salad with olive oil, apple cider vinegar and Dijon mustard dressing and with a good red wine.

FAMILY RECIPE #2: CHOU FARCI (4 to 6 people)

Cabbage is part of the cruciferous or brassica vegetable family, which also includes bok choy, kale, broccoli, brussels sprouts, daikon, radish. Incredibly nutritious, cabbage has it all: uber-alkalising, very high in fiber, Vit K for bone health, very good amount of iron, calcium or manganese, storehouse of powerful antioxidants to fight free radicals and help protect against breast, colon and prostate cancers. It is recommended to eat several servings of cruciferous vegetables per week. It becomes very easy and enjoyable with the Chou Farci!

Ingredients (all organic):

• 2 green cabbages
• 1kg salt pork or other organic salt-cured meat (only from the local butcher)
• 1 onion
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 handful of small cabbage leaves
• 2 organic eggs
• 2 slices of whole meal bread
• 1 glass of full cream milk
• 2 organic carrots
• 1cm thick rasher of smoked bacon

Chou farci about to be put in the oven.

Directions:

• Remove all leaf central ribs, wash the cabbage leaves, put them in hot salted water for 5 minutes and drain them
• In a bowl soak the bread in the milk, drain the bread (discard the milk)
• Mince the meat with the bread, garlic, handful of small leaves and 2 eggs in a blender until you get a nice mixture
• Cover the bottom of a casserole with slices of carrots and bacon (fat side down)
• Cover first with the big darker green leaves (don’t use all green leaves at this stage) and then with a layer of mixture (1cm)
• Then cover with leaves and then with another layer of mixture. Each time pack tightly. Repeat until all the mixture is used.
• Put a final layer of leaves, using the remaining big darker green ones
• Put in oven at 180° for 2 hours
• Once cooked, turn out, discard bacon and serve. You can keep the Chou Farci for a week in the fridge.
• If you want, you can also make individual Choux Farcis in small casseroles (2nd photo)
• It’s even better the next day (reheat in a pan with some olive oil.
• You also can easily freeze it.

FAMILY RECIPE #3: CRÈME CHANTILLY

Creme Chantilly in the local biscuit called Cornet de Salers.

Yes, crème Chantilly. The real one. Not the disgusting Chantilly you can get from the supermarkets and quite often in restaurants, loaded with sugar (or even worse high fructose corn syrup) and many nasty artificial ingredients. My family recipe is very light in sugar and is slightly pink as we put a few wild raspberries in to add some flavour and colour. Beautiful!

Ingredients

• 50cl crème fraiche
• 5 tbs cold milk
• 4 tsp sugar
• ½ tsp vanilla extract

Directions

• Mix all ingredients in a bowl.
• Whip until you get a firm crème.
• Serve with berries… To die for!
• For a super indulgent dessert, we sometimes add it on top of my Chocolate Mousse, quite certainly the most popular of all my family recipes – made of eggs and dark chocolate only (no sugar, no butter)… or simply on top of my coffee. Et voila!

Now… in the kitchen!

Bon appetit and have a delicious end of the week.

Yves

PS. Remember, you can follow me on Facebook every day. Simply like my page HERE.

The post Family recipes appeared first on Healing Nutrition by Yves.

As you know, I LOVE soups. Delicious, satisfying, alkalising, packed with vegetables, minerals and vitamins, winter soups are an essential part of the traditional French diet and play definitely a critical role to make the French one of the healthiest and slimmest people on the planet.

My family onion soup recipe… To die for!

I am a big fan of homemade soups and broths as most already-made soups you find in supermarkets are loaded with nasty ingredients that turn one of the healthiest dishes into a food to be avoided at all cost.

However, I know that we don’t have always the time to shop for the best vegetables, prepare and cook soups at home. So when I received a beautiful hamper from Amy’s Kitchen packed with their organic soups, I decided to make a quick review of the supermarket soups that I eat myself and recommend to my clients. I hope you’ll find this winter soups review useful.

I hope you’ll find this winter soups review useful.

Winter soups review: Pintago

Pintago soups: organic and delicious

Proudly based in New Zealand, Pintago is a very popular brand you can find in many supermarkets. They cleverly called themselves ‘the soups for the lazy foodie’!

The Free Range Spring Lamb is my favourite but many others are also absolutely delicious. I like the fact that they sustainably source their fresh ingredients from small, local growers. 

Without any added preservatives either, they have plenty organic, gluten-free and vegetarian options and contain several serves of vegetables per pack!

Almost as good as my list of homemade organic soups here.

Winter soups review: the Art of Whole Food

The Art of whole Food and Naked Locals soups: yummy!

Bone broths can make a huge difference on your health so if you don’t have the time to cook your own broth (you can find my family recipe here), the broths from the Art of Whole Food are the best option.

The Art of Whole Food is a small boutique Australian company run by a nutritionist with a passion for cooking and premium quality food, using only fresh, locally sourced grass-fed beef and free-range chicken and organic vegetables.

Great news! You can buy them online. A bit pricey but so worth it, if you’re serious about reclaiming your health as I explained in this blog.

Winter soups review: Naked Locals

‘Naked-cuisine without compromise’, Naked Locals pride themselves in using local and fresh produce. They also don’t use any added preservatives.

My favourite is the Windsor Mushroom soup with mushrooms from the Hawkesbury Valley.

These soups are cheaper as they are not organic. One thing I don’t like though: they contain canola oil, one of the worst oils…

Winter soups review: Amy’s Kitchen

Amy’s Kitchen: organic, delicious, affordable.

Who would have thought that I would recommend canned soups one day? Well, Amy’s Kitchen made me change my mind.

Amy’s Kitchen is a family business based in the US, deeply committed to producing yummy, convenient and affordable organic soups.

GMOs, dairy, wheat and gluten free, these vegetable soups are full of flavour, well balanced and the most affordable organic option of my winter soups review.

Very important, all their cans are BPA free, which makes them totally safe to use.

My favourites are the Quinoa and Red Lentil and the Split Pea soups.

One thing to watch: sodium!

Except for The Art of Whole Food, all soups from my review, with between 250 and 350 mg per 100 gr, are high in sodium.

So please don’t use salt at all, add some water and enjoy these soups with moderation.

Once again, while all these soups are super handy and easy, nothing is better, healthier and more delicious than a homemade soup. So if you want to master the art of homemade soups, have a look at my Delicious Sexy Soups Series on bone broth, healthy soups and soups for weight loss. You’ll love it!

Have a fantastic end of the week.

Yves

PS1. I’m not affiliated to any of these supermarket soups. I simply received a hamper with Amy’s Kitchen soups.

PS2. I’ll be in France for my annual (delicious!) Tour de France from the end of June for 3 weeks. See you mid-July!

The post Winter soups review appeared first on Healing Nutrition by Yves.

As you know, I’m a big fan of cheese. Real cheese, which to me (and to many other French people) means raw milk cheese. What a relief when Food Standards Australia and New Zealand (FSANZ) lifted the ban on some raw milk cheeses in 2015! I could finally enjoy the cheese I love again and recommend it to my clients as one of the most delicious ways to reclaim their health.

Raw milk cheeses… and red wine!

Raw milk cheese suffered from a very bad reputation in our bacteria phobic modern society for decades to a point where all unpasteurised milk products were forbidden in many countries such as New Zealand or Australia.  It is fair to say that this safety measure helped stopped very dangerous infectious diseases such as tuberculosis and is still totally valid to protect the immune system of pregnant women, elderly people or young kids.

The issue, however, is that while pasteurisation destroys bad bacteria that could cause harm, it also kills all good bacteria or probiotics (see my article Be Stronger With Probiotics), critical for our body to function properly and to maintain a strong immune system.

Now that gut health (see my article Good Health Starts With Gut Health) is finally recognised as one of the essential conditions for good health (mental health included), enjoying some raw milk cheese is one delicious way of making sure you have your daily intake of friendly bacteria.

Why the French love raw milk cheese.

The French eat most of their naturally fermented cheeses from raw unpasteurised milk.  Made with milk coming from properly raised grass-fed animals (goats or cows), this beautiful cheese:

• contains protective CLA and good fats (just like grass-fed butter or creme fraiche);
• is packed with calcium, protein, rich in healing fats and, very important, is an excellent digestive aid; and
• is bursting with probiotic activity, keeping pathogens at bay, guarding against infectious illness, and aiding in the fullest possible digestion of all food we consume; and

Last but not least, these friendly bacteria play a major role in developing texture, aroma and taste of the best cheeses on earth…

“Perhaps this is why so many traditional societies value fermented milk products for their health promoting properties and insist on giving them to the sick, the aged and nursing mothers”, as nutrition researcher and Weston A. Price Foundation co-founder Sally Fallon explains.

My 3 favourite raw milk cheeses.

Reblochon. I’m a big fan of its very soft texture, its nutty taste and even its firm orange skin (I eat it all!). Delicious as is, it is also just perfect melting as you can find it in the very popular dish from Savoie (French Alps) called Tartiflette, made of olive oil, garlic, creme fraiche, parsley, onions, potatoes, pancetta and bacon. Served with a green salad, the Tartiflette is the perfect dish for the winter months.

Here’s the quick and easy recipe below:

Raw milk Saint Nectaire purple wild figs.

Saint Nectaire. One of the most delicious French cheeses from the region I come from, Auvergne. I would literally die for a piece of Saint Nectaire, made with the milk from cows that spend months in pristine mountains. I love its smell, its nutty taste, its grey skin… Give me some, now!

Roquefort, yes please!

Roquefort. The best blue cheese ever! Its blue/grey mould, moist yet hard texture and very strong flavour give the Roquefort its very assertive personality. You can use it in sauces for pasta, soups or meat dishes, for salad or simply on a piece of wholemeal bread with some butter. Delicious!

Survival guide if you can’t find raw milk cheese.

What to do if you crave cheese but can’t find raw milk cheese…

• Look at the labels: only buy if there aren’t any other ingredients than milk, culture, rennin and salt. Simple.
• Please stay away from so-called low-cholesterol cheese made with vegetable oils and likely to contain trans fats.
• Processed cheese also should be avoided at all costs for the same reasons.They are highly processed and are everything –bad- but cheese.

Now, sit back, relax and enjoy your favourite raw milk cheese with a glass of your favourite red wine… Heaven!

Have a beautiful end of the week.

Yves

The post Raw milk cheese. appeared first on Healing Nutrition by Yves.

“Thank you so much, Yves. Since I’ve been strictly following your advice, I’m not tired anymore, I don’t feel hungry all day and I finally start losing weight … I heard it many times before – even my mum told me to never skip breakfast – but your simple few rules and delicious recipes made the whole difference!”. 

As you know, a wealth of research shows that starting the day with a good nutritious -and delicious!- breakfast is the MOST important thing to do to beat cravings, maintain a healthy weight and give you the focus and energy you need to function properly, whatever your day holds.

So… DON’T SKIP BREAKFAST. If you take your health and your job seriously, it’s not negotiable – Unless you’re interested in intermittent fasting as explained in my last article, but this is another story!

So here are two key principles and seven delicious recipes, one for each day!

Don’t forget to allow some time to enjoy your breakfast.

Don’t have your breakfast on the go! Take your time and enjoy! breakfast is the most important meal of the day so it deserves all your attention and care.

Sitting while you eat, chewing to better assimilate the nutrients and enjoying each bite will go a long way towards performing at your best for the rest of the day.

Allow 15 minutes at least.

What is a good nutritious breakfast?

A croissant is a treat, not a nutritious breakfast!

Easy! It’s made up of clean protein (yoghurt, eggs, ham, beans, nut butter / all organic), complex carbs (wholemeal bread, sweet potatoes, quinoa, brown rice, hummus), some healthy fat (organic butter, avocado, olive oil, coconut oil) and a (very) limited amount of sugar.

If you can, add some leafy greens too: spinach, collard greens, rocket or, if you like it, kale. I know that might be a bit challenging for many of us, me included, but give it a go. You’ll notice the difference in your energy level very soon.

And for all croissants lovers (included me!), remember: croissants are a treat, not a breakfast to have every day! I’ll write an article on this delicacy very soon!

Here are my favourite breakfast recipes. Bon appetit

BREAKFAST 1: HOME-MADE GRANOLA TRIFLES, BY BONDI HARVEST

• 1 tablespoon pumpkin seeds
• 1 tablespoon pistachios
• 1 tablespoon walnuts
• 1 tablespoon macadamias
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• finely grated zest of 1 lemon
• 1/4 spring thyme
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 2 cups of natural yoghurt
• In season fruit

BREAKFAST 2: CLASSIC

2 organic poached eggs served with one cup of slightly steamed spinach, some wild-caught salmon (grilled or poached) with mushrooms, some wholemeal bread, some grass-fed butter, a pinch of natural sea salt and pepper. Heaven!

BREAKFAST 3: FRENCH COUNTRYSIDE STYLE

• 2 slices of organic ham
• a piece of real cheese
• a piece of wholemeal bread
• one apple

BREAKFAST 4: HOME-MADE MUESLI/GRANOLA IF YOU ARE ADDICTED TO CEREALS …

• Coconut oil *(1/3 or ½ cup), rolled oats (1 kg), 250 grs nuts (almonds, walnuts, macadamia), pumpkin seeds): you can change the quantities depending on what you like
• Fresh berries, fresh fruits, full cream yoghurt, full cream milk
• Optional: Dried goji berries, sultanas, dried black currant
• Optional: raw maple syrup (1/3 cup), cinnamon*, rolled amaranth and rolled quinoa (instead of or in addition to the rolled oats)

Home-made muesli… The best!

Directions:

• Chop all the nuts in small pieces
• Put rolled oats, nuts (almonds, walnuts, macadamia), pumpkin seeds, cinnamon in a dish (3 to 4 cm)
• Add coconut oil and mix together until it is moist
• You also can add the maple syrup; otherwise you can sweeten the muesli with the fresh and dried fruits when you eat it
• Put the dish in the oven (150 degrees on grill/oven) and mix every 5 minutes until all ingredients are well roasted – not burnt!
• Let it cool down
• Store in a container
• Add just before serving: fresh fruits (in particular fresh berries), some dried fruits such as sultanas, goji berries, dried black currants (not too much as they are loaded with sugar), some full fat milk and/or yoghurt if you want

Tip: You can also make muesli bars, perfect healthy snack!

Simply add some water to the mixture before putting into the oven, it will make it expand. Mark lines (to make it easier to cut when cooked) and put in the oven. Cook it very slowly.

BREAKFAST 5: IDEAL FOR THE COLDER MONTHS… and so quick

Homemade oats porridge with coconut milk. Use quinoa for a gluten-free option. I prepare a batch on Sunday night, heat it up every morning and serve with a few slices of pears or apples or banana, a few almonds or walnuts and a dash of crème fraiche. It only takes 5 minutes.

BREAKFAST 6: PERFECT MEAL

• 2 organic eggs
• 1 cup of spinach or rocket or collard greens or kale
• 1 medium size sweet potato
• natural sea salt and pepper
• olive oil or grass-fed butter

Eggs, spinach, wholemeal bread …

Directions

• fill small pot ¾ full with filtered water, put the eggs and bring to low boil. Let it boil on low heat for 3 minutes
• fill steamer pot with a little bit of filtered water on high heat
• put sweet potatoes (washed and chopped in small cubes) in steam basket and steam for 5 minutes.
• put the greens (washed and chopped in 3cm pieces) on top of the potatoes. Steam until they are tender: one minute should be enough. Remove from heat when done.
• Peel the eggs and put them on a plate over the greens and sweet potatoes. Add salt, pepper and a piece of butter or olive oil on top.

BREAKFAST 7: ON THE GO… if you have to!

• 1 large glass of almond milk (1 cup of almonds, 3 cups of water with vanilla extract) + ½ cup of blueberries: Blend and serve
• A green smoothie if you like this (1 cup spinach, 1 cup parsley, ½ banana, 1 cup coconut milk, filtered water)

Have a fantastic end of the week.

Yves

The post Don’t skip breakfast! appeared first on Healing Nutrition by Yves.

Intermittent fasting? Are you serious? This is something I would never advise my clients to do… Well, until today. When a client of mine asked me to help her optimise the way she was doing intermittent fasting, I was a bit in shock.

Intermittent fasting? No way!

She was already a big fan of my approach to food (Real Food + Pleasure = Health©) and wanted to know how she could apply it to intermittent fasting. She was using the 16/8 method (fasting for 16 hours with an 8-hour eating window every day). I actually was totally against this ‘diet’, which to me was the best recipe to triggering eating disorders, nutrient deficiencies and weight gain.

I, however, have one principle in life: to be always open to considering new ideas, new ways of thinking and approaches, even if it is challenging at times

This client insisted. So I took up the challenge and replied: “You know I don’t like the idea of intermittent fasting. However, given you don’t want to give up on it, I’ll do my best to help you do it in the healthiest and most enjoyable way”.

I did a lot of research, asked my nutrition mentors for guidance, attended workshops and training. I looked at the nutrition literature, met with experts and interviewed people doing intermittent fasting.

I actually was blown away by what I found out: while fasting is not for everyone, many recent studies suggest it can drastically improve your health, from helping lose fat (and not muscles) to optimising metabolism and even extending your lifespan by preventing chronic diseases, reducing inflammation and slowing down the ageing process!

Who can say no to this… even if it sounds too good to be true?

I was so intrigued that I decided to go even further: to try intermittent fasting myself so I would be even better equipped to guide my client in the very best way! I decided to do it for four weeks, and then to go back to my normal diet. I thought a month would be perfect.

So here’s my own experience of intermittent fasting during these last four weeks.

Before starting intermittent fasting

Bye bye breakfast!

The first thing to understand: intermittent fasting is not about skipping breakfast at all. Many people already do it but they don’t get the benefits as they often eat something by 10 pm and therefore break the fast. Intermittent fasting means fasting for 16 hours minimum for your body to use your body fat as energy.

When you fast for 16 hours straight, you have to decide what meal you won’t have anymore. You clearly have to choose between breakfast or dinner. For me, the choice was quick as not having dinner would have had too much of an impact on my social life.

However deciding not to have breakfast anymore wasn’t easy either. I love breakfast. I simply love it… The idea of not enjoying this delicious and nutritious meal was literally heart-breaking and against all my nutritional principles. This idea was so unbearable that I delayed the start of my fasting every day for at least 10 days!

One day, I was finally ready! Ready not to eat for 16 hours from after dinner (8 or 9 pm) until lunch (12 or 1 pm) on the next day. During the window of eating of 8 hours maximum, you can (have to) drink as much filtered water as you can (3 litres minimum) and coffee or tea – black with no sugar.

The first few days and week of intermittent fasting

I chose to start on a day when I knew I did not have too much on. Enough not to be inactive and not to think too much.

On the first two days, I was fine. Hungry but it was manageable as I, as advised, I drank a lot of water (and coffee!). I had to give up on my latte though (because of the milk in it), which for me is huge!

3 litres of filtered water a day!

I was fine until 11 am: the last hour was actually awful. I could only think of anything but eating. A totally out-of-control obsession. I was feeling dizzy, convinced that I would not be able to wait until 12 pm. I actually did and ate like a monster… This feeling, fortunately, disappeared from day 3.

The afternoon until dinner was very easy. The only unusual thing was to remember to have dinner before 9 pm if I did not want to have my lunch later than 1 pm on the next day.

I was so ready to suffer, feel deprived and miserable that I actually found week 1 much easier than I thought.

I realised that managing hunger is not the challenge (2 glasses of water STOPS hunger each time!), it’s actually totally doable. The challenge is the idea of not eating that can become very overwhelming. It was all in my head (and not in my stomach).

week 2 and 3 of intermittent fasting

Proteins and vegetables are critical.

It became easier and easier.

I was still hungry in the morning but less and less. I was surprisingly looking forward to my long black (actually a large black filtered coffee) and wasn’t missing my latte anymore. A huge beautiful surprise for me!

The key here was to drink a lot. As you soon as I was feeling hungry or obsessed by the idea of eating. Another critical rule was to eat enough proteins and vegetables so I could get as many nutrients as I needed not to feel hungry.

I found myself being much more alert and focused in the morning. I was not tired at all, with a lot of energy. Very impressive!

I could also feel that I was losing some body fat. Even if I did not have much to loose, I was feeling much lighter – a fantastic feeling!

week 4 of intermittent fasting

I weighed myself for the first time: I only lost 2kgs when I should have lost 4 kgs (the weight loss with intermittent fasting is usually 1kg a week). I was a bit surprised…

However, some friends at the beach, who did not know I was doing intermittent fasting, asked me if I was going to the gym as I was definitely leaner, with better muscle definition (always nice to hear!).

I actually stopped doing any exercise for the last four weeks as I was scared of not being strong enough. Once again, the power of the mind: to me, the idea of fasting could not go with exercising… with no good reason as I never experienced this level of energy before!

And now, what?

Intermittent fasting is challenging but eventually very manageable.

Enjoy your meals!

I don’t even miss having breakfasts, I gained in clarity and focus and I feel so much lighter. Very importantly I enjoy my 2 meals a day more than ever before. I eat what I love, with always a glass or 2 of my favourite red wine, while making sure I have enough proteins.

I’m so positively impressed that I have decided to do it for 6 months (at least).

It will give me enough time to form my own comprehensive view, assess the pros and cons and impact on my body, my mind, my life. Enough time to provide me with an in-depth knowledge and experience to guide my clients if they are interested in this approach, while still having a lot of pleasure with food and optimising their health.

I will now resume exercising as I need it for my well-being but also to experiment the impact of exercising on body fat loss and muscle gain, which is supposed to be drastically optimised by intermittent fasting.

I’ll share with you how I feel very soon.

Have a beautiful end of the week.

Yves

PS1.What do you think? Should I develop an online programme on intermittent fasting for my clients?

PS2. Did you like this article? Sign up to my nutritious tips here and you’ll get them straight to your inbox. It’s FREE.

Important: Nothing in this article or in my practice is intended to diagnose or treat any disease. My nutrition coaching is not a substitute for any treatment that may have been prescribed by your doctor or qualified health professional. If you suspect that you have a medical problem and/or before taking any supplement, always seek professional medical help. 

The post Intermittent Fasting? appeared first on Healing Nutrition by Yves.

Bonne Année! Happy New Year! Sorry, I’m a bit late… I was actually away. I spent some time celebrating Christmas in France with my family for the first time in ten years. First time in ten years! It was beautiful, delicious and… cold!

Not enough water? This one from NZ is my favourite one!

I hope you had a great start of the year just like I did. Don’t worry! I won’t ask you how you’re going about with new year resolutions. Many studies have shown that 90% of the time resolutions are forgotten by the end of January, so let’s not go there.

However, there’s one resolution, one little (easy) thing you should commit to if you’re serious about your health: drinking enough water.

Boring, I know but it’s the most important thing you can do for your body. For instance, some of my clients have finally lost weight for good by drastically increasing their daily water intake.

Without enough water, you definitely can’t lose weight. Without enough water, your brain can’t function properly. Without enough water, your cells can’t rejuvenate.  Without enough water, your skin doesn’t glow and ages faster. Without enough water, your liver and kidneys can’t do their detoxifying job. Without enough water, you can’t be healthy. Simple. 

“I drink enough water” is what most clients tell me. In 99% of the cases, it’s not true.  Not that they lie to me but more because it is actually very difficult to really know if we drink enough water. As you know, we all should drink between 2 and 4 litres of filtered water a day. This is a lot for many people. The exact quantity actually depends on each individual’s needs, lifestyle and condition. So it’s important to know how to assess whether or not you drink enough water so you can adjust and drink up to 4 litres if need be.

The most important thing to do is to listen to the signs your body sends you when it screams for more water – even and in particular if you’re not thirsty… Here are the most common 8 signs.

Not enough water? Sign #1: your mouth is dry.

No need to wait until you’re thirsty. A dry mouth is one of the first signs your body needs water. So if your mouth is often dry, you know what to do!

Not enough water? Sign #2: you have a headache.

As soon as your body lacks water, in particular when it’s hot outside, headaches can start occurring. One large glass of filtered water can help.

Not enough water? Sign #3: your urine is dark.

This is one of the most common and recognisable signs of a significant lack of water: your urine has an intense yellow/dark yellow colour and often smells. One the other hand, the urine of someone who drinks enough water is almost as clear as water (yes, as clear as water!) and no smell at all.

Not enough water? Sign #4: you are constipated.

Drinking enough water helps the digestion process and softens stools. The less water you drink the harder they are, making it difficult to poop sometimes!

Not enough water? Sign #5: you are tired.

Your body needs a lot of water to function properly and without enough water, it gets tired very quickly. So if you feel tired on a regular basis with no clear reason, it might be because your daily water intake is way too low. As soon as you feel tired, reach out to a large glass of filtered water.

Not enough water? Sign #6: you feel dizzy.

Fever? Dizziness? Your body is screaming for water!

Not enough water? Sign #7: you are grumpy.

You might not know it but drinking enough water directly affects your mood, your level of anxiety and even depression. So if you’ve been really grumpy lately, water can help!

Not enough water? Sign #8: your skin is dry.

Even if you spend $$$ on expensive (French!) moisturising creams, your skin might still be dry. Increase significantly your daily water intake and you’ll see the difference quite quickly.

Alkaline water can be a great detox booster.

So… Do you drink enough water?  If you don’t, you know what to do (between 2 and 4 litres a day). If you do, you are definitely on the right track for a healthy and beautiful new year! You can even try alkaline water. It works for me so well, as I explained in this article here.

Remember: if you struggle to stick to your 2017 weight loss/get healthy resolutions, I’m here to help!

Have a beautiful end of the week.

Yves

The post Enough water? appeared first on Healing Nutrition by Yves.

Parties, celebrations, drinks, lazy long summer lunches… I hope you enjoy the silly season as much as I do… You know me, I’m not at all going to ask you to stop! Never. However, we also need to face the reality: we all know these few days or even weeks for some (many?) are not the best thing for our health.

Our diet and lifestyle become hyper acidic (too much alcohol, too much sugar, too much food, less sleep, sometimes more stress), which has a direct negative impact on our body, health and waistline.

Good news! I have a few solutions for you.

The first thing you can do is to go back to my recent article here on my approach to an alkaline diet, the best way to feel better while losing weight.

You also can follow my 13 tips to navigate (and enjoy!) the silly season…

No need to use all of them… Try the ones that are the easiest for you. My advice? Focus on tips #4, #7, #12 and #13!

silly season tip #1: 

CHECK-IN WITH YOURSELF before a meal and assess your hunger. Decide how you want to feel at the end of the meal. You don’t have to leave the table stuffed and miserable.

silly season tip #2: 

DON’T RUSH your food and overeat. Remember, you will have many of these festive meals: there’s no need to fear missing out! Relax.

silly season tip #3: 

LIMIT triggers as much as you can: caffeine, alcohol (I know it’s hard!), refined sugars and packaged foods. The more you eat, the more you want.

silly season tip #4: 

IF YOU CAN, have a healthy substantial snack (made of proteins and low GI carbs) half an hour before big festive meals. A few of my clients eat 20 to 40% less when they follow this simple rule.

silly season tip #5: 

THINK FIBRE, FRESH, GREEN, CLEAN: unlimited amounts of organic leafy green vegetables: a spinach and lettuce leaf salad with a beautiful dressing.

silly season tip #6: 

DITCH the processed mayonnaise or dressing and other nasty pre-made sauces. Always choose: olive oil, sea salt, lemon, apple cider vinegar, Dijon mustard.

silly season tip #7: 

EAT MINDFULLY AND SLOWLY and savour your food. Meals with others always taste special and better, so don’t speed through them. You may want to go back to my last article. It could help your waistline a lot!

silly season tip #8: 

FIRST THING IN THE MORNING, EVERY DAY: lemon juice (or 3 tbs apple cider vinegar) diluted in warm water. You can add 1 tbs of maple syrup or raw honey.

silly season tip #9: 

DRINK MORE THAN 2 LITRES a day of filtered water. I can see some of you frowning already… It’s non-negotiable, sorry! Alkaline water is my water of choice in particular during the silly season.

silly season tip #10: 

SWAP COFFEE (even if you love it like I do) for green tea as often as possible, or even better for coconut water.

Don’t be too silly! 2 glasses of water for each glass of Champagne!

silly season tip #11: 

ON THE DAYS BEFORE THE ‘BIG’ DAYS:

• Eat lots of green vegetables and fruit.
• Also include neutral and restoring foods like whole grains – brown rice, quinoa and couscous.

silly season tip #12: 

ON THE ‘BIG’ DAYS:

• Choose seafood and fish over meat.
• If you do eat meat, accompany it with plenty of mustard it helps break it down more easily.
• Don’t go for second servings, and certainly not third!
• Try to eat lots of leafy green vegetables and salads at each meal.
• Drink lemon in water during meals.
• Drink 2 large glasses of water for each glass of wine/Champagne/alcohol.
• Portion control: once again, relax. Remember that you will have many of these festive meals, there’s no need to fear missing out!
• To avoid binge eating, never sit down to a meal feeling super hungry: have a healthy snack before each big meal.

silly season tip #13: 

HAVE FUN, make memories, let go and relax: quality time with those we love reduces stress hormones and promotes health. Celebrate the good.

I also would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your support during 2016. Thank you from the bottom of my heart to all my clients, my supporters and Facebook fans here in Australia and overseas…  It means a lot to me.

Joyeux Noël (Merry Christmas)!

Yves

PS1. I’ll be in France for the next few days celebrating Noël with my family. I can’t wait to see you… next year! I’m back to Sydney on 1/1 and will take new client appointments from 9/1.

PS2. Not receiving my newsletter with delicious nutrition tips yet? Sign up here, it’s FREE.

The post Silly season! appeared first on Healing Nutrition by Yves.