Goodness me by Dee

16/02/2026

Make healthy Sourdough the EASY way! 🍞✨

Grab this opportunity to join our fuss-free sourdough class and learn how to bake a wholesome, organic loaf that’s as easy as it is delicious!

Sourdough isn’t just bread – it’s a naturally fermented, gut-friendly, flavour-packed experience.

Here’s what awaits you:

🌾 Learn how to maintain your sourdough starter
👩‍🍳 See a step-by-step bread-making demo (and the magic of fermentation!)
😋 Taste Dee’s favourite loaf + other fermented delights
🎁 Take home your own active starter + full instruction guide
💬 Post-class support for your sourdough journey

Perfect for beginners or anyone sourdough-curious!

Read all about it here:
https://www.facebook.com/events/773499752462237

Spots are limited ⇒ Message Dee on 021 238 6834 to reserve yours now! 💌✨

naturalhealth realfoodmadesimple sourdoughstarter realbread HealthyBread GutHealth Easysourdough HealthyEating rotoruaevents

15/02/2026

𝐌𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐡𝐲 𝐒𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐝𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐄𝐀𝐒𝐘 𝐰𝐚𝐲! 🍞✨

Grab this opportunity to join our fuss-free sourdough class and learn how to bake a wholesome, organic loaf that’s as easy as it is delicious!

Sourdough isn’t just bread - it’s a naturally fermented, gut-friendly, flavour-packed experience.

𝐇𝐞𝐫𝐞’𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐚𝐰𝐚𝐢𝐭𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮:
🌾 Learn how to maintain your sourdough starter
🍳 See a step-by-step bread-making demo (and the magic of fermentation!)
😋 Taste Dee’s favourite loaf + other fermented delights
🎁 Take home your own active starter + full instruction guide
💬 Post-class support for your sourdough journey
✨ Perfect for beginners or anyone sourdough-curious!

Read all about it here: https://www.facebook.com/events/773499752462237

Spots are limited => 𝐌𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐃𝐞𝐞 𝐨n 021 238 6834 to reserve yours now! 💌✨

09/02/2026

06/02/2026

🌿𝗚𝗨𝗧 𝗛𝗘𝗔𝗟𝗧𝗛 𝗦𝗧𝗔𝗥𝗧𝗦 𝗪𝗜𝗧𝗛 𝗟𝗜𝗩𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗙𝗢𝗢𝗗𝗦🌿

Bloating? Low energy? Unpredictable digestion?
Your gut might be trying to tell you something.

Healthy digestion isn’t just about fibre.
It’s about your microbiome — the trillions of bacteria that help digest food, support your immune system, and even communicate with your brain.

And here’s the truth most people miss 👇
You don’t need to keep buying expensive probiotics!

You can make real, living probiotics at home — simply, naturally, and deliciously.

🫧 Water kefir probiotic fizz is one of the easiest places to start.

Join in our hands-on, practical class to learn all about how to support your gut the traditional way.

👉 Check it out - give yourself a bit more love while quenching your summer thirst with fermented fizzy full of life!

Event link with the details here:
https://www.facebook.com/share/1c6XTjkjay/

24/01/2026

10/01/2026

New year, happy gut 🥬 - feel nourished from the inside out ✨

Join us for our Superb Sauerkraut Workshop and learn how to make this amazing, economical superfood at home. A beautiful way to invest in your health this New Year 💚

Fermented foods are rich in natural probiotics and are a simple, powerful way to support gut health, digestion, overall wellbeing and vitality — and they’re surprisingly easy (and delicious!) to make.

Come learn, taste, and take home skills you’ll use for life ✨

Limited spaces available - message Dee to reserve your spot: 021 238 6834.

Event link with workshop details: https://www.facebook.com/events/825625220512325

06/01/2026

I love my microbes and all they do for me. Not a week goes by that I don’t discover something new that my 100 trillion microbes are doing just for me. I used to think that my liver was mostly responsible for filtering and removing compounds from within my body including hundreds of toxic chemicals and extra hormones (like estrogen) that can damage cells and weaken my immune system, but this is only half of the story. Your bacteria in your gut are responsible for 50% of the detoxification that your body undergoes, but if you don’t have the right microbes and a lot of them, they can’t do their job. So, what do bacteria do to detoxify you?

Chemicals and Fermentation

Chemical BPA

The chemical Bisphenol A (BPA) is found in plastics, paper money, and thermal printer receipts. BPA is a powerful endocrine disruptor and has been linked to forty different diseases. But interestingly, animal research has shown that the proper bacteria in your gut can help detoxify this chemical by reducing the intestinal absorption of BPA and speeding it out of your body.1 What’s really exciting is that many of the strains of bacteria you need are found in cultured foods. Eat them and they become a part of you!

Pesticides

When you make cultured vegetables, specific strains of bacteria go to work that have been shown to degrade many different pesticides in your vegetables such as chlorpyrifos, coumaphos, diazinon, methyl parathion, and parathion. They do this while fermenting on your counter, and the pesticides will be degraded by 83.3 percent in as little as three days. Give it a few more days and they remove them completely.2 The really cool part is that these microbes actually use these hard-to-break-down chemicals as sources of carbon and phosphorous food!

Thanks for this info Donna: https://www.culturedfoodlife.com/the-many-ways-cultured-foods-detoxify-your-body/?

06/12/2025

A frequently asked question... which flour should I use?

Dear beginners, when it comes to sourdough, your flour choice can change everything, from how easy your dough is to handle, to the flavor, to the texture of your loaf.

Let’s break it down in plain, simple terms.

•••

1. Bread Flour

This is the safe choice.

It has more protein (gluten) than all-purpose flour, so your dough holds its shape better and gets a nice rise. If you’re new to sourdough, bread flour will be the easiest to work with.

•••

2. All-Purpose Flour

It works, but has slightly less protein.

You can still make great sourdough with it, but your dough might be a little softer and harder to shape. Many bakers mix all-purpose with bread flour to get a balance between easy handling and a softer crumb.

•••

3. Whole Wheat Flour

This adds flavor, nutrition, and color, but also makes dough trickier.

Whole wheat soaks up more water and ferments faster, so your dough can feel drier and proof quicker. Most people mix it with white bread flour instead of going 100% whole wheat, especially at first.

•••

4. Rye Flour

Rye is amazing for boosting fermentation speed and adding deep flavor.

But it has very little gluten, so it’s usually used in small amounts (10–30% of the total flour). A little rye in your starter can also make it stronger and more active.

•••

Quick Tips:

— If you’re just starting: Use bread flour until you feel confident.

— If you want more flavor: Mix in 10–30% whole wheat or rye.

— Avoid jumping into 100% whole wheat or rye until you’ve got the basics down, they behave very differently.

•••

Bottom line...

Your flour is the foundation of your sourdough.

The stronger the gluten, the easier the dough is to shape and the more it will rise.

The more whole grain, the richer the flavor, but also the more attention the dough will need.

End of post.

As always, I hope this helps someone.

05/12/2025

For this, like so many health-related issues, the solution often comes back to the basics:

🍽️ Eat real food
🥩 Prioritise protein
🥑 Use functional fats
❌ Cut back on refined carbs
🚫 Stop grazing

Insulin Decides Whether You Store or Burn Fat

Fat gain isn’t random.
⚖️ It’s driven by hormones, and insulin sits at the top of that list.

When insulin is high, your body is in fat-storage mode.
It transports excess glucose into fat cells and stops you from using stored fat for fuel.

🔹 You can eat “healthy” food and still gain fat if insulin stays elevated.

🔹 You can also eat more calories without gaining fat if insulin stays low and your metabolism remains flexible.

🔹 This is why two people eating the same calories can have very different outcomes.

Here are the food and lifestyle patterns that keep insulin high:

🍞 High carbohydrates, even when “healthy”
🍪 Refined or processed carbs
🌭 Frequent snacking
🧪 Seed oils that drive inflammation
🍗 Low protein intake

Food is a significant driver — but not the only one.
😰 chronic stress
🌙 poor sleep
🔥 chronic inflammation
🛋️ inactivity
💊 some medications

All of these can raise insulin, even when your diet looks good.
🔍 I’ll cover these in the next post.

High insulin means you store fat easily and struggle to burn it.
Low, well-regulated insulin gives you access to stored fuel and keeps your energy steady.

The solution comes back to basics:

🍽️ Eat real food
🥩 Prioritise protein
🥑 Use functional fats
❌ Cut back on refined carbs
🚫 Stop grazing

🔄 Rebuild metabolic flexibility, so your body can switch between fuels again

When insulin stops driving fat storage - fat loss becomes possible and sustainable.

— Susan Birch, The Health Detective

28/11/2025

Low stomach acid and IBS are connected, and not in the way most people think.

About 60 percent of IBS cases are now believed to be SIBO. And here’s the part no one explains:
Low stomach acid creates the perfect environment for SIBO to develop.

When stomach acid is low (from stress, aging, H. pylori, long-term PPIs), food doesn’t break down well, bacteria aren’t kept in check, and motility slows. That combination allows bacteria to move into the small intestine and overgrow where they don’t belong.

The result?
Bloating, distension, gas, pain, and all the lovely “IBS” symptoms people get labeled with.

Weak stomach acid doesn’t cause IBS directly, but it sets the stage for SIBO — and SIBO drives a huge chunk of IBS.

If you’ve been told “you just have IBS,” it’s worth looking upstream. The stomach is the first step in digestion, and when it’s underpowered, everything downstream feels it.

21/11/2025

💥 Ferment your way to a happy gut 💥

Two workshops on next weekend:

✨ Fizzy Water Kefir – refreshing, probiotic sips 🍹
Event link:
https://www.facebook.com/events/684457800945059

🥬 Superb Sauerkraut – crunchy, gut-loving goodness.
Event link: https://www.facebook.com/events/1960134968171583

Boost digestion, immunity, and summer vibes – all while creating delicious, healthy treats!

Limited spots – grab yours now! 💚

11/11/2025

Have you heard of the "Dirty Dozen"?
It's a list of 12 fruits and vegetables that the Environmental Working Group (EWG) compiles annually, identifying them as having the highest levels of pesticide residue when conventionally grown. This list encourages consumers to consider buying organic versions of these items to minimize exposure to pesticides.

The EWG's 2025 Dirty Dozen list names spinach, strawberries, kale, collard, and mustard greens as the most pesticide-contaminated fruits and vegetables. This year's list also includes grapes, peaches, cherries, nectarines, pears, apples, blackberries, and potatoes, with new additions of blackberries and potatoes.
https://www.ewg.org/foodnews/dirty-dozen.php

The ranking is based on tests by the USDA, which found pesticide residues on 96% of samples, and the list now considers pesticide toxicity in addition to the number and quantity of residues.