Instructions:

1. Heat oil in a large, flameproof casserole dish or large frying pan to medium heat. Season chicken thighs and brown and seal on both sides for few minutes each. Remove and set aside. Preheat oven to 200ºC (180ºC fan oven).

2. Add the onion, garlic, carrots, oregano, thyme and potatoes to the pan, and cook, stirring, for around 5 minutes. Add the tomato and cook for further 3-5 minutes, stirring occasionally. While the vegetables are cooking, chop the chicken into bite sized pieces.

3. Stir in the flour, cook for 2min, then pour in the stock.
4.  Season to taste, then return the browned chicken to the casserole dish and pour over the vegetable/broth mixture. Add zucchini, pea’s and broccoli.
5. Cover and cook in the oven 30min (or if cooking in saucepan – cook on low on stove top) until the chicken is cooked through and the sauce is piping hot and thickened. Serve in bowls with a sprinkle of chopped parsley, salt and pepper to taste

Vitamin C  – How to dose to match your bodies needs.

As Naturopath it is common practice to dose vitamin C until bowel tolerance, a nicer way to describe it is the Vitamin C flush. This involves taking as much Vitamin C as your gut can tolerate in order to saturate your cells. Once you hit the point at which you can no longer absorb vitamin C from your gut, you will experience an enema like evacuation, like diarrhoea, from your bowel.

There is some evidence to show that the amount of vitamin C which can be tolerated orally, without producing loose stools, increases in correlation to how unwell you are. (2,4)
Most people reach bowel tolerance at around 10-15g, but in an acute illness like a cold that tolerance can increase up to 50g within 24 hours. A bad cold can increase tolerance to 100g, the flu up to 150g and viral pneumonia to as much as 200g within 24 hours.(4)
Large doses of vitamin C should always be given in divided doses and consultation with your health practitioner is always best.

What you need:

–       A buffered Vitamin C powder that includes Calcium ascorbate or potassium ascorbate. Best to avoid the ascorbic acid as can cause irritation in such high dose.

How to do it:

-Choose a day when you are at home or close to a toilet you feel comfortable using.

-Start by taking 1000mg of vitamin C in a glass of water

-Repeat this every hour, on the hour, recording each time you take a dose

-Continue taking 1000mg hourly until you go to the toilet with loose stool – a watery stool. Once this occurs you can stop taking the vitamin C. Take note of how much you took in total before hitting bowel tolerance. i.e.: every hour for 6 hours = 6,000mg.

– Continue to drink water throughout the day, you may notice some continued loose stool.

– The following day take 75% of the total amount in 3 divided doses i.e. 75% of 6,000 = 4,500mg which would be 3 divided doses of 1,500mg.

– Each day reduce the total amount you are taking by 1000mg. i.e. The next day take total of 3,500 in 2-3 divided doses until you are down to 500-1000mg daily.

Who shouldn’t do this? Although vitamin C is a water soluble vitamin and your cant actually overdose I would advise against people with the following conditions to avoid.

–       Irritable bowel or inflammatory bowel disease

–       Gilbert’s disease

–       Haemochromatosis

– Preconception, Pregnancy or breast feeding

Reference:

1.Cathcart RF. Clinical trial of vitamin C. Letter to the editor. Med Tribune 1975. [Link]
 

2.Cathcart RF. The method of determining proper doses of vitamin C for the treatment of disease by titrating to bowel tolerance. J Orthomolecular Psychiatry 1981;10:125-132. [Full Text]
 

3.Cathcart RF. Vitamin C: titrating to bowel tolerance, anascorbemia, and acute induced scurvy. Med Hypotheses 1981;7(11):1359-1376. [Full Text]
 

4.Megascorbate therapies: vitamin C in medicine. The Vitamin C Foundation 1997 [Link]

GUT BUILDERS Food that supports and encourages a healthy and diverse gut population

Prebiotics encourage fermentation to happen inside your gut and can have a greater impact on the gut microbiome than probiotics. Super important!!

o   Vegetables: cruciferous veg, Jerusalem artichokes, radish, onions, shallots, beets, leek and garlic, leaky greens like dandelion greens, burdock and chicory root, kale, collards, asparagus, fennel.


o   Starches, beans, chickpeas, lentils and other legumes cooked and cooled white potato, green bananas and sweet potato.


o   Nuts and seeds – chestnuts, hazelnuts, pecans almonds, cashews and pistachio. Sunflower, pumpkin, LSA mix, Flaxseed meal, black tahini

o   Fruits – black elderberries, black currants, blueberries, cherries, strawberries, black berries, plums, raspberries, apples (red), black grapes.

o   Partially hydrolysed guar gum (PHGG). This can be purchased from health food shop and is a great prebiotic to add to smoothies or cooking.

Fibre is our friend: Beneficial metabolites in the form of short chain fatty acids (SCFA’s) are produced when fibre is broken down by the gut bacteria. We know that these SCFA’s nourish the gut barrier, increase immune function and reduce inflammation.

One of the most important SCFA’s is Butyrate. It is shown to reduces mucosal inflammation and oxidative stress, reinforces the gut defence barrier, and modulates intestinal sensitivity and intestinal motility. All important!  A growing number of studies have stressed the role of butyrate in the prevention and inhibition of colorectal cancer. Outside the intestine, butyrate exerts potentially useful effects on many conditions, including genetic metabolic diseases, high cholesterol, insulin resistance, ischemic stroke and hemoglobinopathies.

How to increase butyrate producing bacteria

Include: Psyllium husks and ground flaxseeds, PHGG, Inulin-FOS as supplement, and different types of resistant starch.

Resistant starch can be found in:

o   Whole grains, seeds and legumes –  buckwheat, sorghum.

o   Potato starch (must be eaten unheated) raw potato, green bananas, legumes.

o   Root veg cooked then cooled -e.g. cooked potato or sweet potato eaten in salad, legumes.

Probiotics supply active bacteria cultures as a result of fermentation that happens outside the gut. When food is fermented, its digestibility is enhanced and its nutrient levels are increased.

o Cultured dairy – fermenting dairy digests the milk sugars that may otherwise cause digestive issues. Yoghurt, butter milk, crème fraiche and some cheese. Non-dairy milks can also be fermented.

o Fermented soy – the best type of soy as the fermenting introduces beneficial bacteria and improves the digestibility. Tempeh, miso, soy, sauce and fermented bean curd.

o Fermented foods and beverages – kefir, kombucha, kvass, fermented vegetables like sauerkraut and kimchi. Any fermented veggies really.

Healing foods that are healing to the gut


o Bone broths


o Gelatine and collagen

o Good quality fats – olive oil, coconut oil, meat


o Herbs & spices – basil, cilantro, caraway, cinnamon, garlic, thyme, turmeric.