Making Love in the Kitchen

Written by Christopher Paton-Gay

Just before last Christmas, I had a scheduled full checkup with my doctor. That was when I discovered that my blood pressure was getting dangerously high (165/124) and so I was immediately referred to a cardiologist for stress tests and a MRI. A week later my cardiologist had finished the tests and prescribed two types of blood pressure pills. I filled the prescriptions and never took a pill; feeling that I could control my BP and pulse rate by making some substantial changes to my lifestyle and more particularly, what I was eating. At the time, I weighed 224 pounds, drinking 16 cups of coffee a day on average, smoking (1 pack a day), travelling constantly and eating in restaurants in Europe and the USA.

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I have been just about bursting at the seams over excitement wanting to share with you every last sweet detail of our forthcoming FIRST EVER online course. We had so much fun around the kitchen getting our outline together for the course, deciding what recipes to include, what would be part of the wicked awesome meal plan and then of course planning and prepping out each and every one of the 20 videos. Deciding what course would be the first, well that was easy. We did have nine to choose from and every one of those nine that I have been teaching over the last four years will soon make their way into video form too. For the first one, we had to go with the one we get the most demand for.

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As a natural foods chef, I spend most of my day creating menus and cooking healthy meals for my clients and their families. All of my meals are whole foods based, local as possible and often all-organic. But by the looks of the dinner parties, cocktail soirees and celebratory brunches I put on weekly, you’d hardly know the food I serve is all-natural, or heaven forbid- healthy. Because you see, although my clients are often already on the healthy train (or well on their way, by hiring me!) their guests often are not. It’s my job to create a menu that will satisfy even the pickiest of eaters, and impress even the most hardcore fast food addicts of the bunch. So when Meghan asked me to do some posts on healthy entertaining, I agreed without hesitation- this is my area of expertise. My goal is to show you how to impress your guests with healthy food- no arguments or wrinkled noses in sight.

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I know that my readers and friends of my readers get their vegan underthings in a tangle whenever we hate on soy over here. I know. I understand. It goes beyond dietary choices to animal rights and cries for compassion. The point we continue to try and make, however, continues to be missed, or misunderstood. We’e not saying you have to up and start mowing on the farm animals if that’s just not you’re thing. Allow this to be another attempt to help you understand why soy does need to have a conscious place in your diet.

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Remember a few weeks ago we wrote about our Friendly Correspondence with McCain Foods? After attempting to interview someone- anyone! – at the company in regards to their new “It’s All Good” campaign, our e-mails were dutifully ignored and we received no response after the initial inquiry about the nature of our interview. The thing is- after we posted our questions for McCain, it turned out a lot of you good peeps were looking for answers, too. We received countless comments and e-mails asking for a follow-up to our interview with McCain. Did we get our answers, you wanted to know? Maeve followed up with the representative at McCain who had initially (and briefly) been in touch, and passed along a link to our post. No response. Maeve followed up again- which, of course, garnered no response.

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There is more bacteria in and on our body, than human cells. We are outnumbered ten to one. You might even say that we are more bacteria than human. The implications of this are becoming more and more evident. Bacteria influence our health in hundreds of ways. Everyday there are new discoveries on how these microorganisms interact with human physiology. The benefits of consuming probiotics (“pro” meaning “for”, “biotic” meaning “life”) are truly abundant. However, the cultured foods that are available are usually of the lowest quality and advertised to consumers through clever marketing. An example of one of these products is Activia yoghurt by Danone.

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I get loads upon loads of questions from amazingly excited people about to embark on their career in the health or creative field, seeking tips and tricks on how I manifested this wee little biz of mine.

Now this may not seem like a health related question, but it is. It really, really is. Remember that video I shared last week- about the missing link in the secret of health?

On May 1st, in a little over two weeks time, my business, Meghan Telpner Inc., will be turning 4 years old! That is pretty freaking exciting, especially since, when I started this here little blog and cooking school, which were both teeny, tiny- I hadn’t a clue where I wanted it all to go. I just kept working, envisioning, working more, being brave, being creative a lot of the time and smart some of the time.

The result is that in four short years- I’ve taught more cooking classes than I can count, had over 2,000 people attend one of my classes or public cooking events, sold out 4 retreats with the 5th on its way (just 3 spots left!), been a regular writer for a national newspaper, and a regular on national television, and most recently signed my first book deal (and then wrote, shot, edited, edited some more the best book there ever was) that will have Canadian and US disribution. Plus I have a few very special signature products.

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I’ve been there. I am sure you have been too at one point or another. You know- where you feel like you’re doing everything right, everything according to plan and yet you still don’t feel well. You eat all the right foods, do everything your doctor or natural health care rock star suggests and still it seems like it is all continuing to unravel. As a health cheer leader, I am forever telling my own story and offering guidance for others. Sometimes, I need to hear it too- my words but in someone else’s voice.

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My love sweet loves. I know you are busy peeps- but you must take an hour and a half out of your day (or evening- Sunday is perfect for this, no?) to watch “Hungry for Change”. This amazing film – which is available for free! -is a real game changer. If you put food in your mouth, you need to watch this. The film features some of my most favourite peeps- including David Wolffe, Kris Carr, Dr. Christine Northrup and Daniel Vitalis to name a few. Truly, everyone must watch this film.

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It’s been a bit of a detox themed week here on the Love in the Kitchen blog, no? Being so excited about the next round of our amazingly awesometown Fab Uplift Detox program, we can’t HELP but be chitchatting about detox power.

Sometimes it’s easy to forget just why detoxes are so important for our bods. Yes, you may shed the junk in the trunk and yes you will feel and look amazing. You will glow, you will feel light on your toes. But most importantly, detoxing is about making your body a strong powerhouse against illness and disease. It is about giving your body a fighting chance and making it the healthiest it can be. Eliminating the toxins from within and building your immune system are truly the best benefits from detoxing, no two ways about it.

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“Friendly Correspondence” is a semi-regular feature on Making Love In The Kitchen. As you may know, we’re not afraid to ask questions of BIG food, pharma, and fundraising to get more basic details regarding ingredients, chemical levels, testing and where donations end up. I continually aim to have an open dialogue and invite interviews. I seem to be getting ignored a lot. I decided I would just start sharing the correspondence. If we can’t stand up for what we do, why are we doing it? “It’s All Good”, or so their slogan says. But is it? We posted this a few months ago and received a notice from McCain’s ad agency that the ingredients had changed and that we should have a look. Funnily enough, when we hopped over to the McCain Pizza Pocket website, the following was splashed across their website: Can a nutritionist and a Pizza Pockets® snack get along?

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Gluten-Free Cleanser Mary asked us the following: If I am doing the Gluten-Free Cleanse, do I need to do a detox too?

Our answer: They definitely support each other but unfortunately, given the world most of us live in- that includes questionably clean drinking and showering water, strange chemicals in our food and air, and likely doing too much and not sleeping enough, sometimes our body needs an extra list.

Did you know we carry on average 7-25 pounds of poo around with us in our intestines (I know you want to tweet that gem of knowledge)? Eeeeww! Imagine what kind of poo juice you are absorbing back in if you’re not cleansing all that goo out!

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We’ve all read stories in glossy magazines that feature people who drop 50 pounds, or quit smoking, or banish sugary treats, or give up coffee and won’t stop gushing about how amazingly fantastic they feel. What they don’t talk about is the dreary space in between being sick and being healthy, when you feel completely lousy. It’s as if those people are like mothers who go through 57 hours of excruciating labour and instantly forget the pain when they see the cutesy shmoopy baby. Sometimes, when we make the commitment to cut the crap out of our lives and get healthy, we don’t feel the way we anticipated.

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The title of this piece is tongue and cheek as much as it is serious. The truth is if you want to read about the facts of why and how yoga can help you, you can go to a health magazine or bookstore and find out. Don’t get me wrong they are very necessary, of extreme importance actually, but those articles/books become un-interesting quickly because it feels like you are reading something that is in a foreign language. Reading that a posture will massage your internal organs or rather someone speaking about your cervical spine and the importance of creating space while being properly supported is most likely going to go in one ear, and out the other. What I can and am going to do, is tell you about a type of yoga that I believe to be the most transcendent, transformative, and empowering type of practice I have personally experienced and witnessed. It is called Restorative Yoga.

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Should sugar be regulated like other ‘drugs’ we can so easily get our hands on if we want? This was all over the news last week and I thought I should offer my view. It may surprise many but hear me out on this. The argument in favour goes like this: “Sugar poses enough health risks that it should be considered a controlled substance just like alcohol and tobacco, contend a team of researchers from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF)”. Read the full Times article here. I opted out of going on to the mainstream news to discuss this because what I really wanted to say isn’t what the peeps over in mainstream generally smile upon. Understandably- as it tends to offend a lot of advertisers. Since I don’t allow advertisers that I think are part of the problem to advertise, I have no one to please but you, my mom and my dad. So- here are my thoughts.

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