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FOOD
Love in Food : Conscious Food Prep Matters
  • Posted By Jamila Starwater
  • on April 6,2014
This is a Birthday Cake Jai Gopal made for me one year.

Food made with love tastes better and is better for you. I feel like this is the most obvious yet least acknowledged fact. We know it is true but we don’t know how it actually works, so it gets overlooked. “Love is the secret ingredient” is an anecdote we might see written in swirly letters on a new age cereal box or as a cute addition to a recipe write up. The irony is that it is so true. It is an open secret. We aren’t taught about this in a serious way and I feel like this is our loss. The intention with which food is prepared is just as important as where it comes from and what it is made of.  Let’s explore why this is.

Quantum theory states that the act of observation affects the observed. I’m thinking of that as I try to find the best way to describe the relationship between the cook and the food. Obviously the cook is transforming the food by chopping, mixing, heating etc. but food contains more than its physical components- the vitamins, minerals, protein etc. The subtle energy we call prana that is running through every living thing is also something that is ideally in our food. I say ‘ideally’ because often prana is not in food anymore. Overly processed packaged foods don’t have prana. It is the prana in food that nourishes all of our other energy bodies (11 bodies total!) . Fresh foods in general have more prana than cooked, canned and processed foods. But the energy of the cook can add prana to ANY food by the consciousness that is given to the food preparation.

A cooks energy field as a whole has a tremendous influence on the pranic energy contained in the food they prepare. A human can have an aura that reaches 9 feet in every direction. So the food that is being handled by the cook is IN THEIR AURIC FIELD.  The cook can add love to the food simply by thinking loving thoughts while preparing a dish. One can also use a mantra and chant it silently or out loud while preparing the food. Playing mantras in the kitchen also works. Practicing mindfulness by being aware of the breath and all the sensations while cooking can make the whole experience of food prep a meditation. If we enjoy the process of cooking chances are we are adding love without even realizing it! It isn’t complicated. Just the intention to add love works.

This subject makes me think about the awareness that restaurant workers bring to their jobs – and how , if you pay attention, you can taste and feel it! The fact is that many people that work in restaurants are underpaid and under-appreciated and that has a definite impact on the food they make. The vibe of a restaurant is just as important to me as the “fresh, local, organic” ingredients. I would rather eat something made with average ingredients prepared with devotion and love than something made with exceptional ingredients but prepared with anger and indifference. If you search your memory banks I am betting you can come up with an example or two of both scenarios!

So, moral of the story! Put love in the food you eat and prepare for others! Get intentional about it and see what happens. My guess is that you will enjoy it more and feel healthier after you eat it. It’s easy, free, powerful and delicious!

My next post on this subject is going to be about the power of “blessing” food before you eat it. Another simple practice that can transform food and your relationship to it.

 


FOOD
Bread Love
  • Posted By Jamila Starwater
  • on January 7,2014

bread is awesome

 

I feel like defending bread for a minute , or at least looking at the cons – and PROS , of the subject. Wheat and gluten has gotten a bad rap lately and I know there is a lot of truth to the hype. Maybe I am just an addict (I LOVE BREAD!) but I do think there is some legit reasons to question this anti-bread message being broadcasted so loudly everywhere right now.

I am in the discovery stages of this subject.. I am learning as much as I can and I invite your input !

This is what I’ve found so far:

Nay:

Wheat Belly : “After witnessing over 2,000 patients regain their health after giving up wheat, Davis reached the disturbing conclusion that wheat is the single largest contributor to the nationwide obesity epidemic — and its elimination is key to dramatic weight loss and optimal health. In Wheat Belly, Davis exposes the harmful effects of what is actually a product of genetic tinkering and agribusiness being sold to the American public as “wheat” — and provides readers with a user-friendly, step-by-step plan to navigate a new, wheat-free lifestyle.”

Dr Mark Hyman’s take: “This is not the wheat your great-grandmother used to bake her bread. It is FrankenWheat — a scientifically engineered food product developed in the last 50 years.”

Living with Phytic Acid : the Weston Price take on the subject. Kind of depressing.. but very solution oriented..

Yay:

Sourdough Bread and Health :  ONE OF THE BEST ARTICLES ON BREAD I’VE EVER READ. “Most of us do not know that before the 1950’s most bakeries ran 2 shifts of workers because the dough was fermented throughout the night with a long and slow natural fermentation process. The very first things corporate bakers did to increase profits was to introduce the fast loaf (3 hours from start to finish), effectively eliminating the need for this second shift of workers. This seemingly innocuous cost-cutting decision would prove to have an incredible impact on our health as have a host of commercial processes in the food and agricultural areas. ”

Top Ten Reasons to Eat Real Sourdough Bread : Really informative article listing why sourdough is good for you even if you are gluten intolerant.

Five Reasons to make Sourdough your only Bread : “Sourdough is a dough containing a Lactobacillus culture, usually in symbiotic combination with yeasts. However, the lactobacillus is much greater in proportion to the yeast.  In comparison with yeast-based breads, sourdough produces a distinctively tangy or sour taste, mainly because of the lactic acid produced by the lactobacilli.” 

I Don’t Taste Any Difference : A great article on why we need fresh local wheat

Phytic Acid Solutions : an interesting thread full of ideas

Phytic Acid – Friend or Foe : I didn’t read the whole thing but I like this. An intelligent biblical/science/historical/baker’s viewpoint on the matter.

Sourdough 101  : All about it and how to make it – Looks easy!

 

So, YAYAYAYAYAYYYYYYYYYYYYY. Also, sourdough is clearly where it’s at. I think I’m going to only eat sourdough from now on. Also we need to actively seek out ancient wheat varieties. I think this sounds way better than just banishing bread forever, don’t you?

Also if you are in the Los Angeles area and want to taste some REAL SOURDOUGH bread check out my friend Rose’s amazing bakery Red Bread ! They just opened last year in Culver City and sell on Wednesdays at the Santa Monica Farmers Market. I highly recommend..

Signed,

Bread Lover


HEALTH
Cleansing : Addition before Subtraction
  • Posted By Jamila Starwater
  • on January 6,2014

green fresh living foods

I’ve been “cleansing” on an off for 8 + years. I’ve had a lot of mysterious health issues that doctors don’t really know how to fix, so I’ve been on a journey to learn how to heal myself. I’ve always hoped that some day I could share what I’ve learned so it could make someone else’s journey a bit easier. Writing this blog is a big step for me in this direction. Hopefully some of what you find here will be useful.

I had a friend write me recently asking my advice on detoxing/ cleansing. I’m no expert but I guess I’ve posted enough on facebook about all the weird health trips I’ve been on to be perceived as someone to ask.. Anyhow. It got me thinking about the best ways to cleanse , especially in the colder months. The key thing I’ve learned over the years is this: it takes energy and nutrients for the body to do the work of letting toxins go. When you are depleted, you need to fortify your self with healing , easy to digest foods and liquids before you think about doing deeper cleansing protocols like fasts and flushes (liver/kidney etc).

You need to add before you can safely and efficiently subtract. You can really do more harm than good, and weaken your self, if you jump right into heavy detox mode (water/ juice fasting for example) before your body is ready. So what would be a healthy and nourishing way to build your health? I have a few ideas to recommend that are universally beneficial and that have helped me a lot over the years.

1. Kitcheree 

Kitcheree (aka Mung Beans and Rice)  is an Ayurvedic dish made from mung beans, rice, vegetables and spices that dates back thousands of years. It is known to be balancing and beneficial to all three doshas (all body types) . It is also delicious. There is something so comforting and nourishing about this food. You can make it as mild or as spicy as you like it, and it keeps well so you can literally make a pot of it and be well fed for days. My husband makes the best I’ve ever had and he published his recipe here on his blog. Have a look at his recipe and then read my notes below if you want some more tips to make it even easier to make.

Mung beans and rice is a staple at our house. We eat at least one batch per week but some times we eat it a mono diet. This means mung beans and rice for breakfast, lunch and dinner. When we do this we also usually have steamed vegetables and homemade yogurt on the side. This is a super healthy and easy way to gently re-set your digestive and glandular systems. The dish is considered to be “pre digested” because its so well cooked, and the ingredients are so health giving to begin with. When you eat it, your body does not have to work very hard to assimilate the nutrients. The less energy your body needs to use to digest your food, the more energy it has to repair and detox itself. It is also my understanding that when you consistently give your body everything it needs then it can balance out your gland secretions, which then gives all your body systems a reset. Sounds great right? All I know is that I feel real good when I eat it – it truly is a nourishing situation that you can easily add to your routine.

* I would only make a few small suggestions to his recipe, that makes it even easier to prepare. You can skip making the masala mixture separately, and literally throw it all in the pot together. If you do it this way, skip adding the ghee or coconut oil till the very end. You do want to let the mung beans cook first – let them get soft and kind of “open up”- and then you can add all the vegetables and spices in the pot, raw. Also add the salt at that time, not before. Cook for a while, let the vegetables get soft, then add the rice, cook about 5 – 10 more minutes and then shut off the heat and let sit with the top on for at least 10 or so minutes. And for a super delicious finish, add the juice of one lemon to the pot before you eat it. YUM. The lemon brightens the flavors and allows you to use less salt, if you want.

2. Probiotics

Add living , cultured foods into your diet. Your gut is alive with all kinds of bacteria – good and bad. When your intestines have plenty of good bacteria then it allows your body to easily digest and use all the nutrients in the food! When your body can properly digest food, you will be balancing any deficiencies you may not even know you had. Some times you can eat plenty of iron rich food, for example, and still be very anemic, because your body simply can not break down the food into the forms it needs to access the nutrients. That’s how it’s possible to be eating all the right things but still be feeling weak and unhealthy. When you heal your gut, you truly can start healing all the organs. True cleansing and detox can happen when the body has the support it needs from all the good food you are eating.

Eating cultured probiotic foods help your body grow more of the good kind of digestive bacteria and they are also delicious. Super cheap too if you make them yourself. You can buy raw sauerkraut and lacto-fermented pickles from health food stores too, but you will find them to be pretty pricey. We’ve been making our own for a few years now and it is EASY. Before we ever tried it though it seemed really intimidating. Check this post out for more info on making your own pickles!

IN ADDITION :

Take a good probiotic in pill form , as well. I have been recently learning about how there are thousands of kinds of good probiotics, but it is important to take the kinds that live in specific parts of the human body to get the best – or any – results. I’ve done a lot of research and its not too clear which brands contain the kinds that are native to the human body. The brand I am currently using is Renew Life . These are the best I’ve ever tried, giving the best results. It is important that the kind you take are in a capsule designed to resist stomach acid, because your stomach can kill all the good guys before they reach your intestines and then you wasted your money. This a big subject but for now, just know that all brands are not created equal . This is  also one product that I always buy at a health food store you trust, because how the product is handled is really important. Even if the pills are shelf stable, the good bugs will die if the bottles get too warm, and the worst part is that you would never know it!  Also, to really get results – take 50 – 100 billion CFU’s of probiotics daily. For a long time I thought that 5 Billion per pill sounded like plenty (we are talking billions after all!) , but the more I’ve been reading I am understanding that the body needs much more. Try one month of taking 10o billion CFU’s a day and see what happens. Worth every penny.

3. Super Greens

Eating plenty of green vegetables of all kinds will help everything and give you that unmistakable healthy glow. Steamed, raw, blended, sauteed and baked. Just find the kinds you like and eat as many of them as you like. Get them organic and from a farmers market if you can. The fresher the better. Eating green vegetables both fortifies you and gives the body a way to eliminate stuff it does not need. Toxins can leave better when your intestines have enough fiber, but there are many more subtle yet powerful chemical combinations that happen in your digestive system when you eat vegetables. For example, did you know your body can dump excess estrogen when you eat broccoli? I read that and was like wow! Our bodies naturally grow towards health and balance when you feed it the right stuff.

IN ADDITION:

Spirulina, Blue Green Algae, Chlorella , etc are all powerful ways to gently cleanse while also fortifying the body with nutrients. Try different kinds and find what you like. Personally I am not fond of the taste so I usually take them in pill or tablet form. Powders are usually cheaper though and you can disguise the taste ( somewhat) by adding them to other foods — like smoothies. Also – Having green superfoods as a part of your routine when you travel is especially smart because a lot of times its harder to eat a lot of green vegetables on the road.

.____________________________________________.

Well there is so much more to write on all three of these suggestions, but hopefully this is a good jump start. If you want to read more about the subject of using foods to cleanse, check out the Body Ecology Diet book, as well as Paul Pitchford’s classic tome, Healing with Whole Foods.


FOOD
Real Old Fashioned Probiotic Pickles
  • Posted By Jamila Starwater
  • on June 9,2013

home made pickles

A couple of years ago I started reading about people making home made raw pickles and sauerkraut. It seemed really delicious but it scared me so I put it off for a while. Then we got up our courage to try it and were completely blown away with the results. I became a probiotic pickle evangelist overnight! I was telling everyone about this revelation. It is actually EASY and exceptionally delicious. Also it is CHEAP! Have you priced out raw artisanal probiotic pickles at your local health food store lately? Crazy pricey. Which is ridiculous because at one time not long ago this was just a normal way to make pickles and not rare or expensive. I find it also interesting to note that almost every traditional culture has some kind of fermented vegetable pickles in their daily cuisine . Korean kimchi, Japanese tsukemono, European Sauerkraut etc.

home made vegetable pickles

Anyways! I’m here to inspire you to try it! You are going to want to find pickling cucumbers (it’s a particular kind, ask for them)  at your local farmers market. If you don’t have a farmers market (or garden!) then you really just want to get the freshest veggies you can find. I would recommend using carrots (get the “tops on” kind ) and onions or green beans to start. I have tried pickling a variety of veggies and it is so fun to experiment. I am going to link below to some sites that will be able to help you better than me as far as recipes and proportions go but I’d like to go over a few things I found to be extra important.

First of all – make sure your jars are SUPER clean. Break out the bleach and sanitize those mofos. You will read recipes that just call for water and salt.  My recommendation is to add a few capsules of your fav probiotic supplement to the mixture before you pour it into the jars. Just open the caps and sprinkle it in. You will be giving the good bacteria a head start with the probiotics. You can get extra fancy and pour the probiotic powder into a small bowl with slightly warm water and some sugar / honey (tiny bit) to wake the good guys up before you add that mixture to your larger brine. I almost never do that and it works out fine though. Make sure your water is super clean stuff too – ie. purified / distilled / spring water etc.  Chlorine and other nasties will fight the good bacteria we are looking to cultivate here. Lastly, be sure to use really good salt – real sea salt, pink Himalayan salt, etc .

Here are my go to blogs for fermentation inspiration!

http://nourishedkitchen.com/sour-pickles/

http://renegadehealth.com/blog/2013/03/13/fermented-dill-pickles-recipe-from-cultured

and the fermentation GURU Sandor Katz :

http://www.wildfermentation.com/making-sour-pickles-2/

HAVE FUN AND BE FEARLESS!!!!!!!!!! Happy pickling 🙂

dill pickles


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