Quirky Cooking Chats

AQJ 105: Healing with Food, Becky Plotner

When a mother is told they are a ‘bad mum’ by doctors because their son has aspergers syndrome, ADHD, is bipolar, dyslexic, hypoglycemic, and has uncontrollable behaviour… what does a mum do? Give up and medicate him because she is told that’s all she can do? That’s not what Becky Plotner did. She studied her son’s food reactions every day, working out what tipped him over the edge and what made him better, until she healed him with food. Then she set out to heal herself from a long list of chronic illnesses, including Hashimotos, IBS, eczema, fibromyalgia, stomach ulcers, Lyme disease, SIBO, polycystic ovarian disease, and lots more!
After one year, her son was completely well. After a few more years of hard work, she was well also. How did she do it? Becky says it took a lot of prayer, GAPS, and learning to listen to their bodies.
“No one can tell you where to start. Only that person’s body can tell you where to start. And if you make one better step today, or tomorrow, or one better step a week, you are closer to an answer.” (Becky)
In this fascinating podcast, Jo and Becky talk about Becky’s story, the science behind how the gut works, how it is damaged, and how it heals, the importance of fermented foods, iodine deficiency and how to turn it around, sensory processing disorder, and so much more.
Becky is a naturopathic doctor and traditional naturopath (ND, CGP, D.PSc.) in Georgia, USA, and she works as a Certified GAPS Practitioner who sees clients in her office, and by Skype and phone. She has been published in Wise Traditions, spoken at two Weston A. Price Conferences, Certified GAPS Practitioner Trainings, has been on many radio shows, television shows and writes for Nourishing Plot. She continued her education specializing in Leaky Gut and parasitology through Duke University, finishing with distinction. She is a Chapter Leader for The Weston A. Price Foundation. You can find out more about Becky on her blog, Nourishing Plot.
Useful Links:
Becky’s delicious GAPS/Keto pizza base recipe, mentioned in the podcast!
Jo and Fouad’s upcoming Life-Changing Food events
The MINDD Forum which Jo and Isaac will be speaking at in May
Live Streaming of the MINDD Forum for those who want to watch from home
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AQJ 104: Mary Kelly – Letting Go, Moving On

One of our favourite GAPS mentors, Mary Kelly, joins Jo in this episode to talk about life after GAPS. What happens next after you’ve healed your family from life-threatening allergies and chronic illness? How do you begin to let go? Sometimes it’s hard to move on because of the fear of going backwards.
Mary says, “We did GAPS Intro and my son healed incredibly. We then did full GAPS for 4 years before we started to introduce more ‘Nourishing Traditions’ foods (properly made sourdoughs and spelt pastas and things like that)… The kids have been chomping at the bit to no longer be on GAPS…
“There comes a point in your journey where you need to accept that you have healed. And you have to accept that you are not in control of their health, you’re just trying to influence it. And the point I reached was where I realised that I had been white-knuckling the whole time, and it was like God was trying to undo my fingers from the reins and go, “You know what? It’s time for your child to make some choices and you have to stop being afraid of his choices because even if he makes the wrong choices, it’s all resolvable.” That has been – not just for this journey on GAPS – that has been my whole life. Trying to control. It’s like I was learning that HUGE lesson in this environment of food, because it’s a very good teaching environment. And it’s relatable to all areas of life! It’s like a circle. All of our life is made up of these circles, and they all link together in a chain that makes up our whole life, and they all start with a message and they end with being reminded of that original message. Then you move on.”
Join us for this touching episode where we talk about the anxiety mothers often go through while learning to ‘let go’ and allow their kids to take some responsibility for their lives. We also discuss parenting gifted children, working out whether your child’s meltdowns are gut health related or not, Mary’s struggles to heal after a miscarriage and a third baby, postpartum depletion, the importance of focusing on your health over your ‘ideal weight’, having healthy boundaries, and working through anxiety, stress and overwhelm as mums.
Useful Links:
Mary’s website: Good Mood Food
Mary’s healing balmsPost Natal Depletion (podcast with Dr Oscar Serrallach)
Past Podcasts with Mary:
Anaphylactic Allergies, FPIES, Post Natal Depression, Parasites, and Hope for HealingHealing from Anxiety and DepressionDealing with ParasitesPreparing for the Birth of a Healthy BabyHealing with GAPS When You Can’t Tolerate Many Foods
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AQJ 103: Healing Eczema with GAPS

The subject of healing eczema generates a lot of conversation in the Quirky Cooking community. In a previous episode with naturopath Liezel Barnard of Weleda Australia, we talked about topical applications that can help the skin to recover. Today’s episode with Elyse Comerford, health scientist and GAPS practitioner, takes the conversation further, to the importance of finding the root cause of the eczema. Elyse clearly and simply explains practical steps for a nutritional approach to healing, using the GAPS protocol.
Useful Links:
Elyse Comerford, Health Scientist and GAPS Practitioner: http://www.elysecomerford.com/
Join us for our Life-Changing Food seminars to learn more about healing with food: Life-Changing Food Events.
Natural, non-toxic balm that is great for eczema sufferers: Good Mood Food Healing Balm
Weleda Evening Primrose Range:  Get 10% off your order and free shipping over $90. Use coupon code QUIRKYJOURNEY on heck out.
Solidteknics Aussie Iron Pans: Get 10% off your order. Order here: quirkycooking.com.au/solid and use coupon code 10QCP.
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AQJ 102: First Steps on the Health Journey

We all know how overwhelming it can be to start something new, especially when it involves letting go of old negative habits and starting new healthy ones. The momentum to change can quickly vanish due to overwhelm, confusion and trying to do too much all at once. In this episode, Jo and Fouad share their tips for simple, low effort, and high impact changes you can make as you start on the health journey. They cover first steps to changing your family’s diet, simple lifestyle changes, time management tips, and more.
This episode will also give you a simple framework through which you can understand food to enable you to make better decisions as you reclaim ownership of your health.
Useful Links:
Top 6 Foods for Gut Health
Where do I start with GAPS? (Or with whole foods!)
Quirky Cooking for Gut Health online program (For those ready to step up the healing! Simple, nourishing recipes and plenty of support.)
Solidteknics Aussie Iron Pans (Non-stick, seasoned, multi-generational warranty.) Use the code 10QCP for 10% off.
Weleda (Organic, Non-Toxic Body Products.) Use the code quirky15 for 15% off.
Zazen Water Filters (Clean, alkaline, remineralised water.) Use the code qcwater15 for 10% off.
EVENT ALERT
The Wellness Basecamp hits Adelaide THIS Saturday April 7. 
Catch Kim Morrison, Damian Kristof, Brett Hill, JP & Andy from Smashed Avocado and Marcus Pearce for one day of inspiration and education.
And the best bit? You can get TWO tickets for the price of one when you click here or buy your tickets below. Bring along a friend or family member to double the transformation and empowerment!
Powered by Eventbrite
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AQJ 101: Whole Foods 101 with Soulla Chamberlain

Soulla Chamberlain is a health educator and the owner of Star Anise Organic Wholefoods Broth Bar & Larder, a Sydney-based whole foods store. A former macrobiotic vegan, Soulla has had a remarkable health journey, healing her body by switching to a nutritionally dense ancestral diet. Having been exposed to the work of Dr Weston A Price and attending a seminar by the incredible Sally Fallon, Soulla’s mission is to educate people on the benefits of ancestral eating. In this episode she discusses this topic that is dear to our hearts and gives clear and helpful instructions to those who are starting or already on the health journey. We feel this podcast can be used as a Wholefoods 101 course, as it provides such a wonderful overview of this powerful and life-changing approach.
Links from show:
Star Anise Organics: You can find Soulla’s online store here.
Healing Balms: These are the natural healing balms from Good Mood Food which we mentioned on the show, including the Black Poultice which is used for drawing out thorns, splinters and other foreign objects – amazing stuff!!!
Solidteknics Non-Toxic Pans: We love these naturally non-stick, Aussie pans! You can get 10% off if you use the code 10QCP.
Life-Changing Food: If you need help with cooking nutrient dense, whole food meals for your family, you’ll find our cookbook invaluable! Recipes include both Thermomix and conventional methods, and multiple variations for different dietary challenges.
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AQJ 100: GAPS with Dr Natasha Campbell McBride

Welcome to our 100th podcast! We are so excited and honoured to have with us today the founder of the GAPS protocol and a world expert on gut health, Dr Natasha Campbell McBride.
Dr Natasha is a medical doctor with two postgraduate degrees: Master of Medical Sciences in Neurology and Master of Medical Sciences in Human Nutrition. She is well known for developing the GAPS (Gut And Psychology Syndrome) protocol, which she described in her book Gut And Psychology Syndrome – Natural Treatment for Autism, ADHD, Dyslexia, Dyspraxia, Depression and Schizophrenia. Thousands of people around the world follow the highly successful GAPS Nutritional Protocol to help heal themselves and their families. You can learn about GAPS on www.gaps.me
In this podcast Dr Natasha shares her story – how and why she developed the GAPS protocol, the influence of her medical training combined with the age-old traditions of nutritional healing that her Grandmother taught her growing up in Russia, and how these principles helped her autistic son and many, many more of the patients in her clinic and all over the world.
The concept of nutritional healing using foods our bodies are biologically designed to eat has been part of traditional wisdom and cultures for thousands of years, but our society has wandered away from these basic principles and is now paying the price in the rapid rise of chronic illness. Dr Natasha speaks beautifully about the importance of returning to whole food traditions, and gives practical guidance in the ways to do this.
Dr Natasha makes it clear that although basic biology dictates what foods our bodies need to heal and rebuild damaged cells and to rebalance our microbiome, our bodies are all different and there is no ‘one size fits all’ when it comes to diet. We each need to adjust our diet to what is specifically needed for our own body and the season of life we are in. You can read more about Dr Natasha’s thoughts on the flexibility of healing foods in this article: One Man’s Meat is Another Man’s Poison.
We’ve used GAPS for our own personal healing, and Dr Natasha is a personal hero of ours. We are delighted to bring this eye-opening and information packed podcast with such a world leader in health to you.
Other books by Dr Natasha:
On heart disease: Put Your Heart In Your Mouth! – What Really Is Heart Disease And What We Can Do To Prevent And Even Reverse It.
On vegetarianism/veganism: Vegetarianism Explained
Stories of healing: GAPS Stories
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AQJ 99: Electromagnetic Radiation Effects and Solutions

Exposure to EMR is “one of the newest and fastest-changing environmental exposures on the planet,’ says Lyn McLean, Director of EMR Australia PL.
Electromagnetic radiation (EMR) is the invisible signals emitted by all wireless devices – mobile and cordless phones, base stations, computers, tablets, routers, baby monitors, microwave ovens, smart meters, smart TVs and other WiFi devices. The term ‘EMR’ is also used to include the electromagnetic fields from electrical sources: powerlines, wiring, meter boxes, transformers and appliances.
Lyn established EMR Australia in 2004 to inform people and help the many people she knew experiencing problems from exposure. ‘I’d already been working on this issue for twelve years, so I’d had plenty of conversations with people who were affected by EMR and desperate for help. At that time, there was nowhere else for them to turn.’
This episode brings to light the symptoms of EMR, and how to minimise exposure in your home and workplace.
You can find out more about the work that EMR Australia do here: http://www.emraustralia.com.au/
We highly recommend reading Lyn’s book “Wireless Wise Families” – what every parent needs to know about wireless technologies.
You can find the Home Test Kit mentioned in the podcast here: http://www.emraustralia.com.au/shop/meters-testing/home-office-test-kit-hire-1
Follow EMR Australia’s Facebook page for regular updates: https://www.facebook.com/EMRAustralia/
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AQJ 98: Layers of Healing – Elyse Comerford

When you’re working on healing gut issues with the added challenges of MTHFR gene mutation, histamine issues, candida, heavy metal toxicity, allergies, etc, it’s vitally important to take each step slowly and carefully. In this episode, Jo and Elyse Comerford (GAPS practitioner and nutritionist) talk through the challenges of working through the layers of healing, not rushing through, and facing each new challenge as it arises with trust that you are on the right journey. Elyse reminds us that even when you seem to be getting nowhere, your body is working hard under the surface to make you well again, so it’s important to not give up – keep on with all the nourishing foods and the rest and the sunshine and clean water and getting out into nature and swimming in the ocean or lakes and all the things that help the body to heal, and trust you are making progress.
We also continue with last week’s discussion about MTHFR and histamines, and answer nitty gritty questions from readers about MTHFR, heavy metals, parasites, signs and symptoms of these health issues, and knowing when to test and when to wait. (We go into a lot more detail about MTHFR and testing in the last episode, Healing with MTHFR & Histamine Issues.)
We highly recommend getting in contact with Elyse if you need a practitioner’s help with working through these difficult health issues. You can find Elyse’s website here: http://www.elysecomerford.com
Elyse also has a gut health retreat coming up in Byron Bay in July – find out more here: https://lifewellnessco.clickfunnels.com/nourish-flourish-byron-bay-2018
For help with the diet changes for gut healing and cooking for GAPS, see our online Quirky Cooking for Gut Health program, here: http://gaps.quirkycooking.com.au/
To find out more about the Primal Alternatives business mentioned in the intro, visit: http://primalalternative.com
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AQJ 97: Healing with MTHFR & Histamine Issues

There are many variables when working through gut health issues, and one that seems to throw a lot of people into a spin is the MTHFR gene mutation. It suddenly seems to be very common… is that because there are more genetic mutations these days, or just because more people are getting gene testing done and finding out about it? What about all the people in past generations that had it – why didn’t they suffer such adverse affects as people do nowadays? How is it linked to histamine reactions? And if it’s genetic, can anything actually be done about it? Or are you stuck with the MTHFR and histamine problems for life?
Elyse Comerford, health scientist and GAPS practitioner, joins us in this episode to talk us through the above questions, and many more, in a scientific but easy to understand way. If you are struggling to cope with detoxing and gut healing, and MTHFR and histamines are doing your head in, you need to listen to this podcast!
Visit Elyse’s website here: http://www.elysecomerford.com/
For help with the diet changes for gut healing and cooking for GAPS, see our online Quirky Cooking for Gut Health program, here: http://gaps.quirkycooking.com.au/
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AQJ 96: The Gut Movie with Kale Brock

Kale Brock is traveling Australia raising awareness of the importance of gut health with his new documentary, The Gut Movie – a fascinating story of poo, and the future of medicine! Kale talks us through how he became interested in gut health, why he decided to make a documentary on the gut health of the bush people in Namibia, what he hoped to learn from his experiment, and how his findings apply to our health here in the western world.
If you haven’t yet seen this documentary, you can find details of screenings here: http://kalebrock.com.au/gutmovie/
Find Kale’s books and products here: http://kalebrock.com.au/products/
Follow Kale on Facebook and Instagram.
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AQJ 95: Hitting Rock Bottom with Dr Brett Hill

Chiropractor Brett Hill is the host of That Paleo Show, a great podcast on all things health. Today, Brett joins us to talk about men’s mental health, as he is in the process of writing a book – “Rock Bottom” – which details how he overcame a sudden divorce and occupational difficulties. Brett speaks about kindness and mindset, overcoming difficult times, and we also get into his love for movement and natural running. A great episode that highlights the issues men have around emotional connection and is a must listen for many of us going through challenging times in our lives.
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AQJ 94: Joel Salatin – Regenerative wisdom from the world’s most famous farmer

Today’s guest is the most famous farmer in the world: Joel Salatin from Polyface Farms in Virginia, USA. Joel is featured in Michael Pollan’s best-selling book, The Omnivore’s dilemma, where Pollan proposes Polyface Farms as the model farm for the future. Joel is considered a revolutionary in the agricultural world as he brings attention to the ability of animals to regenerate damaged land. Joel’s focus is on using nature to heal nature, and his farming practices produce large yields of food, which yes, surprisingly, has a net positive gain for the ecology. This completely obliterates the commonly held view that farming and in particular animal farming is damaging for the environment. Joel is the author of 13 books including Folks this ain’t normal.
Joel is a personal hero of mine and I was quite nervous to interview him – he is a deeply intellectual, deeply spiritual human being and a beacon for light and sanity in this world that we are all trying to help heal.
Links:Polyface Farms
Joel’s Google Talk: Folks, This Ain’t Normal
Additional Viewing: Alan Savoury uses grazing animals to reverse deserts
Come and see Jo and Fouad in Brisbane (Feb 20th and 21st)
https://www.quirkycooking.com.au/life-changing-events/
Save 10% off your Solidteknics purchase. Use coupon code 10QCP when shopping at http://quirkycooking.com.au/solid
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