Kate Dimmer Nutrition

11/10/2022

Baked feta and figs 😋

Still holding onto salads but I’m enjoying warm elements to them. I’m loving baked feta combined with ripe figs and thyme. Just pop in the oven for ten mins whilst you prepare the rest of the salad. I’ve added it to mixed organic leaves, beetroot and walnuts. Simple. Very tasty too.

08/10/2022

Gut friendly🫒 foods

Not all gut friendly food will be friendly for YOUR gut unfortunately. We are all different and if there are some imbalances and digestive issues, some of the most healthy foods can cause wind and bloating. In general, a diverse diet is best for gut health. This ensures your body receives a broad range of nutrients. A common way to achieve this is to include lots of coloured veg and fruits in the diet.

In this salad I have included sauerkraut and olives which are both probiotic foods that feed the gut bacteria. Healthy gut bacteria is important for digestion and immune function (among other things!). The beetroot supports liver and bile flow and provides a source of starchy carbohydrates. The chicken provides protein (amino acids are what we get from protein) -important for many things including keeping us fuller for longer. Protein is needed for bones, muscles, immune health, hormone balance, cognitive health and more. I’ve included mixed leaves and lentils providing gentle fibre. Tomato is there for carbohydrates and antioxidants. All the foods on the plate are packed with vitamins and minerals.

Other factors affect gut health - not just food. The top issue I see in my clinic alongside IBS is stress. Stress damages the gut lining and affects blood glucose and blood pressure too. This is why I’m training in hypnotherapy- to support my clients with stress and anxiety.

Today looks like a beautiful day for getting out into nature which is a great stress reliever. Have a good weekend. What are you up to? 😊

29/09/2022

I thought this was a useful little vid from Dr John Campbell. He suggests a couple of devices you might like to keep in your first aid kit.

Well worth having these in the home and learning about your normal physiology. This is called your baseline. If you know your baseline physiology it becomes ...

11/09/2022

Boost your nutrient content

Just a quickie to give some suggestions on how to increase your nutrient intake with food. It’s now autumn and it’s a time of year when we start to see more colds going round. Take a dose of elderberry syrup daily during autumn and winter. Elderberry has antiviral properties.

This salad is packed with herbs. I’m terrible at growing things but I do have some herbs in the garden and kitchen. Herbs are very densely packed with minerals, vitamins and other health promoting compounds. In this salad there’s Basil, mint, coriander and oregano. Go with your personal tastes. Now autumn is coming I will probably move from Basil to thyme.

Spices are also packed with nutrients. Just add some seasoning (but not the packets with blends containing sweeteners and sugar) to your meal for a nutrient boost. Cinnamon is warming. Cardamom has many antioxidants. You could add both to porridge. Turmeric is anti inflammatory and can be added to smoothies and curries.

Garlic and ginger are warming and both have anti viral properties. Ginger is a great home remedy for upset tummies. If you’re still enjoying salads, garlic, chilli and ginger along with fresh coriander leaves make a zingy nutritious dressing. ⭐️

Ps still obsessed with feta since Greece.

19/08/2022

Simple food 🥗
The other day my friend made me a delicious lunch. She said ‘it is just sample food’. And it was simple. But very tasty. Sometimes we think that simple food is boring. But the simplicity is just in the ingredients used being natural and unprocessed. And maybe there are only a few ingredients. The flavours and textures can be exciting. When you eat less sugar and avoid artificial sweeteners, you suddenly become aware of the simple sweetness of a ripe nectarine. Our palates can get used to processed foods, especially sweet things, and lead us to crave more. Fortunately for me this hot weather is helping me eat good simple food. Assembling a salad is not difficult. It is easier in summer, I think, than winter when we need higher energy, comfort foods. Try and simplify some of your meals - maybe the ones that you don’t have to cook for others 😆and see how you learn to enjoy the subtle flavours. I am back to eating a large ripe tomato with feta and herbs and olive oil for breakfast. The herbs really take it to another level. Just shake on some dried oregano or use a few fresh basil leaves or maybe add mint. This basic salad for lunch is poached chicken (a poached a batch ready for meals) with different organic leaves, avocado, olives, pumpkin seeds and fresh basil. I used olive oil, a squeeze of lemon, sea salt and black pepper as a dressing. But you could make a more exciting one. The other day I made a carrot and pea shoot salad with a lime, garlic, coriander leaf and garlic dressing. It was tasty 😋!

10/08/2022

Last Sunday I picked blackberries 💜with mum. It reminded me that we don’t do enough of these sorts of things -foraging and also side by side mother and daughter domestic jobs. It can be bonding. Years ago we got our knowledge from our families. Now we use Google. Anyway I had these gorgeous blackberries to use. Not wanting to make a crumble in the heat, I created blackberry cashew creams. Perhaps this recipe already exists out there but this is what I created. It is tasty, not too sweet, cool and refreshing. And packed with nutrients of course.

Recipe
1 cup cashews
1 cup water
1.5 cups blackberries
Pinch sea salt
Teaspoon vanilla extract
Teaspoon maple syrup

Blend the cashews and water into a smooth cream. Then add the blackberries and other ingredients to taste. I wonder if it would be better not smooth. You go get bits of blackberry seed.

Pour into 5 pots or ramekins and refrigerate.

04/08/2022

Helpful foods for digestion🫐and general well-being

It blows my mind when I hear of a health professional who says that food has no influence on health. I’ve heard it from opticians, doctors, gastros, dermatologists and more 🤯. We are literally made of and function because of nutrients! Crazy. Anyway I’ll leave it there.

Non-food factors can affect digestion (see previous post) but foods have a clear influence. Helpful foods include fibrous plants such as veg, salads, fruit, nuts, seeds, beans and pulses. Fruits can aid constipation are a good source of antioxidants and polyphenols. Polyphenols are like antioxidants that balance gut bacteria. They also have an anti inflammatory effect which is supportive of health in general. Good sources of polyphenols include berries, olives, tea and dark chocolate 👌. Nuts and seeds can be very useful for normalising bowel movements and for supporting hormone balance.

If in doubt as to whether something is ‘healthy’ to eat, ask yourself ‘is this is natural?’ If it came from a factory then it’s most likely not! 😉

📸 tahini loaf, cashew cream & raspberries

27/07/2022

27/07/2022

Non-food factors that may influence your digestion 😴

Nutritional therapists like me are trained in ‘lifestyle medicine’ which means we learn about lifestyle factors (physical activity, sleep, emotions, daylight exposure, stress and more) that affect our overall health. Our digestion is sensitive to lifestyle influences as well as food and nutrition. Non-food factors affecting digestion include parasites, infection, bacteria imbalance, poor digestion, undiagnosed health condition, stress, anxiety, poor sleep, disrupted circadian rhythm, late nights, travel, emotional upheaval, trauma, unhappy relationships, poor connection, light exposure, exposure to radiation, exposure to chemicals, toxins, moulds and more. Many of my clients have IBS and it’s important we talk about stress and anxiety because the vagus nerve (part of the parasympathetic nervous system) goes through the gut to the brain and influences digestion. If you experience or have past experience of stress, anxiety or trauma, you can be stuck in ‘fight or flight’ mode, and this may affect your digestive symptoms causing loose stools or constipation. Therefore, relaxation practices may sometimes help people with IBS. I’m looking forward to integrating hypnotherapy into my practice for this reason.👌

22/07/2022

Breakfast. The good, the bad, and the ugly.

Breakfast is often the first thing I support changing with clients. It’s the meal that usually has the least amount of thought and time put into it because we are busy. And that’s ok. By the way, you don’t need to eat breakfast and it isn’t necessarily the most important meal of the day -except where it’s doing more harm than good.

There’s no polite way to say this so I’m sorry if it offends but breakfast cereals are some of the least healthy foods you can eat. They are marketed to sound like they are going to fix your health problems and provide fibre but nothing could be further from the truth. Unfortunately cereals are sugary, high GI processed foods with added artificial vitamins. Furthermore they often contain high levels of pesticides. Yes even Weetabix. Sorry mums!

The best breakfast for ‘cereal’ lovers might be organic oats. Add nuts and seeds for fats and protein (missing from cereals) and maybe organic yoghurt and berries. Eggs are packed with nutrition and make an excellent start to the day. Or eat something unconventional like I do - Greek salad 😆. You need protein and fibre- from veg, get it, nuts, seeds or pulses.

I don’t like to be a meany and try never to say never, so if you or your children love cereal, have it as an occasional treat. The same as you would cakes and biscuits. 😊

17/07/2022

Eating for the heat 🌞🍉🥒

I’m sure I don’t need to tell you to stay hydrated and eat lots of juicy fruits and veg- I expect that’s fairly obvious. But it can be useful to have awareness of how your food can support hydration and help protect your skin from sun damage.

Firstly, if you’re sweating lots, make sure you replace the salt. You shouldn’t be scared of salt anyway. Just another myth! I’ve just come back from a lovely holiday in Kefalonia. I had salted nuts (almonds, peanuts, pistachios, cashews) as an afternoon snack to replace the salt and minerals and for an energy boost.

A good drink at this time is coconut water as it contains many of the electrolytes often lost in the heat, such as sodium, chloride and potassium. Celery is a good food to snack on for this reason too.

You might like to put some fruit in the freezer. I prepared slices of watermelon and put some in the fridge and some in the freezer for a cold refreshing snack. I also have ripe banana in the freezer which can be blitzed up to make ice cream. Banana is also a good source of potassium. As is carrot.

Carrots (and orange and red fruits and veg) are high in beta carotene and lycopene, antioxidants that help protect the skin against the sun. Watermelon and cooked tomatoes are great sources of lycopene. A Mediterranean diet is naturally high in these skin protecting antioxidants. I’m surprised I didn’t turn into a tomato, the amount I ate in Greece. 😆