I got mine from Amazon.

I will definitely try it, as soon as I can get some.

Shame there is no difinetive answer here! I have been drinking Kefir for 3.5 months, only just read today that their could be issues with immunosuppressants. It does seem that no-one is monitoring. Sad

Well, I haven’t started yet – only just read the book!

Rolled Grains + Dried Fruits + Nuts and Seeds + Seasoning is my formula of success for home made muesli, this amazing dish charges me with power in the morning. Also, I like to take muesli as a lunch, just using nice food container, for example, this one https://allinpackaging.co.uk/food-packaging/ and enjoy my taste and healthy food.

Face similar problem and decide to refuse drinking alcohol in any form and it helps.

There is some interesting research out there on the skin barrier/ skin microbiome and its importance in overall health. For example moisturising newborns skin daily (so strengthening the skin barrier) reduces incidence of atopic eczema … and subsequent incidence of asthma and hayfever!

Between my sibling and I we have eczema, hayfever and asthma. Neither breast fed, healthy wholefood/ home grown childhood diet, numerous courses of antibiotics for tonsillitis. I cleared my eczema simply by switching shampoo. Many ingredients trash the skin barrier/ skin microbiome … and they are in *everything* including products marketed for babies and for sensitive skin.

Hope something in my ramblings helps!

You would be safest discussing diet modification with a paediatrician/ midwife/ dietician or similar. I don’t think anyone here is qualified to give safe and effective advice for a newborn/ breastfeeding mother.

My (rudimentary!) understanding is that a newborn gets much of its microbiome during the birth: from contact with the mother’s vagina, skin, even traces of urine and faeces.

There has been some research on C-section babies to mimic or replace this. Rob Knight (of American Gut Project) was involved. He wrote a book on the gut microbiome which might be worth a read. He tested his own (C-section? Antibiotics?) baby’s nappies regularly!

Then the baby gets additional probiotics and prebiotics in breast milk, and from skin contact when feeding or cuddling (so not just mother). Presumably these depend on the quality of the mother’s diet, and the gut and skin microbiomes of her and other caregivers.

The CG Diet book strongly emphasises variety, so we should be rotating our breakfast choices anyway.There are loads of granola and muesli recipes online, but you don’t say what you didn’t like about the Clever Guts version.

IIRC Alpen is wheat-based so not ideal depending what phase of the CG Diet you are in. Most westerners eat wheat products far too often and too large a serving, ie. we lack variety in our diets.

Are you willing to try the CG granola with different fruit combos, different dairy substitutes (coconut milk) or different dairy products (goats milk/ Greek yoghurt)? I prefer crunchy granola as a topper for a thick yoghurt or fresh cheese. Whereas muesli and porridge are fine with a liquid milk.

I found that ground flaxseed/ linseed ruined every recipe I tried it in, so switched to cracked (Granovita Linseed Plus).

Whether whey powder (milk protein) or milk powder (inc. the sugar lactose) is suitable for you is personal: dairy products being in the reintroduction phase of the CG Diet.

Lactose is not suitable for anyone diagnosed lactose intolerant, or medically prescribed a low FODMAP diet.

However lactose is ‘food’ for some probiotic bacteria, so it acts as a prebiotic. Certain beneficial bacteria convert lactose to lactic acid which changes milk to yoghurt or kefir!

Hi Donna, where do you buy your potato starch from please? Joanna

Hi there. I have tried making the granola from the book which I liked the first couple of days but could not face it on a regular basis. I have been using Alpen (no added sugar)which is more expensive than the sugar variety!!! but I am not keen on the salt and other ingredients (dried milk powder and whey powder) as I don’t know if this is good for your gut biome or not. Does anyone have a recipe for home made meusli?

Donna78, Happy Birthday! I to am 78 & have been following Dr Moseley’s advice about taking a teaspoonful of potato starch in a small glass of milk or kefir, it’s worked for me! I have been doing this for about 6 weeks & have gone from very broken sleep of 2-3 hours a night to 7 hours 51 minutes this week!!! Average night now is about 6 hours…… Worth a try, I’m sticking with it🎂

I would,like to take part in The potato starch study. Turned 78 this morning and hardly slept last night, and it wasn’t because I was excited about my birthday!

Ok so i just found this mob who promise “The percentage of the types of bacteria in your gut”.
https://www.smartdna.com.au/

Anyone have any experience of their service?

Hey good topic.
The nutripath lab sounds open and clear and they have sample reports which are helpful but…
They seems to test for 5 bacteria in their DNA test (Faecal Multiplex PCR), and 9 (+ other) in their CDSA tests.
This is not what i was expecting after reading Mosley’s book. He spoke about broad groups of bacteria like: Fermicutes, Akkermansia.

I would like to sign up for the potato starch study please

Hi IKeeptrying

There is also an online program developed by Michael Mosley and his team called IFast12 (www.ifast12.com) if you do feel that you want extra advice and support.

The online program runs for 12 weeks and provides Med Style Diet recipes, meal plans, shopping lists, High Intensity Interval Training workouts, videos and educational handouts. The program is based around a 800 calorie fasting day.

I hope this helps and good luck with everything 🙂

I am very keen to know about the availability of seaweed capsules in Australia.

My baby was given antibiotics in his first days of life. I have read studies that indicate that diversity of gut flora is changed long term. Is there anything I can do to help him regain this diversity before he starts solid food? He is breastfed and I won’t be giving him anything else until six months, but is it worth my taking probiotics or exposing him to environmental factors?

Want to sign up for the study please

Resistant starch research is very much in its infancy, so its unlikely anyone knows the ‘best’ cook/ cool/ reheat protocol.

For practical reasons I would cook pasta, potatoes and rice to ‘al dente’: such that a quick nuke doesn’t ruin the texture. It would be a challenge to boil potato chunks in two stages without the nutritious skin falling off!

My family all have rice cookers: so steaming basmati rice without any stirring or agitating. Steaming leaves the individual grains in excellent shape to be microwaved without ending up soggy/ sticky/ mushy.

Apparently steamed rather than boiled rice and basmati rather than short grain rice, have a lower Glycaemic Index, so are gentler on the blood sugar. I wonder if this has to do with resistant starch.

Whether coconut oil would be a wise addition to your diet will depend on your specific health issues, advice of your medical professionals, and other experts in those fields.

I found coconut oil a useful addition to my ‘arsenal’ of cooking fats, but I certainly don’t focus on it. I am working on variety in all food groups, and use the wholefood version – block creamed coconut, olive tapenade, mashed avocado, hazelnut butter – rather than a processed oil/ butter wherever practical.

You might find the Rapeseed Oil thread in the Mediterranean Diet forum useful.

HTH!

Would love to sign up please. I’m a very light sleeper and it’s getting worse (though in good health otherwise). Thank you

Thanks to Paintrocks48 and Firefox7275 for your input. Dr Perlmutter’s response to the AHA was very interesting. I just hope it isn’t the start of a “he said/she said” situation. Now … do I want to try coconut oil?

Looking at trying the above method for altering the starch in my Pasta and Rice. Do I fully cook the Rice/Pasta (suitable for serving) then put it in the fridge and later reheating it in the microwave, or do I 2/3 cook it then cool it, then reheat enough to finish cooking it?
Thanks

*Forum mangled my response: this should have preceded my last post.*

Part of the answer is on page 109: “it can take three years to get the oils from the fish to those plastic bottles you see on pharmacy and supermarket shelves. Omega-3 is relatively unstable and in that time it may go off.”

Natural cod liver oil is not a great source of vitamin D, generally that is added along with vitamin A and sometimes vitamin E. A and E are antioxidants so may help slow oxidation. Cod liver oil is also a poor source of omega-3s so there is less to go rancid. Personally I can’t see the point of it, may as well just ask your doctor or pharmacist about supplementing vitamin D (esp. if in one of the UKs ‘at risk’ groups).

I take triple strength fish oil capsules bought online, so *hopefully* good stock turnover and better storage conditions than in a store. I have only experienced ‘fishy burps’ when I knew my stock was old (= forgotten at back of cupboard). My skin quality is definitely better with them.

Like Dr Mosley I trained myself to eat and enjoy fish. If I can anyone can because I was very fussy before! I literally gagged the first time I opened a can of salmon, but promised myself I would eat one bite. Now – when well enough to prepare healthy meals – I eat oily fish perhaps five days a week, and even order fish in restaurants.

Wiz53: there is some research on coconut oil/ key components, but not the large body of evidence there is for extra virgin olive oil/ key components. Hence you won’t find mainstream medicine actively recommending it.

Whilst EVOO has proven health benefits, the distinctive savoury flavour is not suited to all types of recipe.

There is no alternative fat source that is proven ‘healthy’ or ‘good for you’. Butter contains milk proteins and saturates, neutral tasting vegetable oils are often rich in inflammatory omega-6. Nothing has the antioxidant punch of EVOO (certainly not unrefined coconut oil).

The initial stage of the Clever Guts Diet eliminates many foods whilst still striving for some variety. Whilst I am not a fan of the meal planner, I can see why the breakfasts include subs for cereals and bread. Also why we aren’t expected to cook up eggs or fish and vegetables before work/ college/ the school run.

IMO the initial stages of the CG Diet don’t have that much in common with the Mediterranean diet: little or no dairy, grains, pulses, cured/ preserved meats. The ongoing phase is much better suited to being a reduced carb version of the Mediterranean diet.

Depends which underlying medical condition(s) you are dealing with: Metabolic Sydrome, Type 2 Diabetes or more. What your surgeon/ specialists have advised, what specifically you mean by ‘Mosley dieting’.

For optimal healing and recovery the body needs a balance of *all* the macro and micro nutrients, not too few overall calories such that you are in catabolism (tissue breakdown, inc. weight loss) rather than anabolism (tissue building, inc. weight gain). Protein is *not* more important than other nutrients. It is needed little and often from breakfast since our only ‘stores’ are muscle (inc. the heart!).

As I noted in another thread, the ongoing phase of the Clever Guts Diet fits in pretty well with UK official healthy eating guidelines (I haven’t read the Blood Sugar Diet book so can’t comment on that).

Minimising processed starches and sugars, more healthy fats inc. oily fish and olive oil, eating a really wide variety of wholefoods from *all* the food groups, appropriate portion sizes …

If you are eating reduced carb/ lower grain it is important to get the lost minerals and fibres from other food types. So a wide variety and balance of beans, lentils, seeds, nuts, very long cooked bone broths and cocoa/ low sugar dark chocolate.

With animal proteins I would opt for the micro nutrient dense ones: whole organic eggs, very oily fish, other seafood esp. molluscs, organ meats such as liver, probiotic-rich cheeses (from unpasteurised milk/ mould ripened/ rind washed/ grass fed sheep or cows), game meats. Don’t waste calories on low nutrient chicken breast, white fish or other pale and lean meats.

*Note that it is not my intent to advertise product or affiliate links. The link in my previous post is merely for info.*

Allow me to clarify my comment: I did not offer any opinion about the pros or cons of using UHT milk and my original post was made in reference to the original question “any recommendations on a yogurt maker?”
I mention using UHT milk because I had the opportunity to buy several litres at a very reasonable price and I wanted to test yogurt-making in an Instant Pot.

Over and *definitely* out.

*Note that TDF1315’s blog post is advertising the product/ contains affiliate links.*

I don’t see the logic in using Ultra High Temperature (UHT) milk when making yoghurt for the probiotic content. Yes bacteria may cause pasteurised or raw milks to ‘spoil’, but controlled spoiling is exactly what yoghurt and cheese are!

The natural microbes in products made with non UHT milk *may* even add to the health benefits. There are interesting studies on Roquefort and Pecorino Romano cheeses, both of which are made with (very fresh) unpasteurised/ raw milk. Dr Mosley, Prof. Tim Spector and other experts advocate a wide variety of probiotic microbes and prebiotic foods.

I have been making yogurt with the Lakeland 1-litre electric yogurt maker twice a week for 18-20 years years without any problem. Simple to use, easy to clean. Highly recommended. In fact I also bought a spare inner bowl at the same time (I see this is still available.)
I prefer making a big batch rather than individual servings. It also make more sense for me as I prefer to drain the whey for a thicker yogurt.
I bought a cheap and cheerful yogurt maker from Lidl for under £10 purely for the glass jars, as I recently started making yogurt with the Instant Pot using UHT milk and I wanted to start with small quantities. My comments about this here: https://www.everynookandcranny.net/instant-pot-uht-milk-yogurt/

I totally agree, and have long thought that these celebrities forget that for some of us ( outside London, Borough Market etc), access and cost are real issues. I never, ever buy organic because the arguments don’t stack up, it is a very poorly checked and overseen area and I do not trust a label to be what it says it is.
I make my own delicious yogurt using only full fat milk and a starter from my previous batch. 14 yogurts for a cost of £1! I also make my own Kimchi but without the gloopy paste.

Along with so many others, I too would like to sign up for the potato starch study, joanna

I use the Andrew James Spiralizer and find it easy to use and simple to clean. It comes with 3 blades to make flat ribbons, noodles as well as spirals of veggies. It’s also dishwasher safe. Hope this helps.

Dr. David Perlmutter has some interesting facts to relate on coconut oil on his website drperlmutter.com

I make great kefir. You only need a nylon sieve, no metal.

I would probably carry on with the diet, but maybe slightly higher in protein and a good variety of it for the recovery period. You shouldn’t need to up your carbs too much for strength, just eat normally, and with as healthy a mix of fruit and vegetables as you can.

My understanding is that Greek-style, Icelandic-style and some Middle Eastern-style yoghurts are strained through muslin cloth after fermenting/ setting.This removes excess watery whey whilst retaining the more solid curds.

The result is sometimes described as ‘yoghurt-cheese’ or even ‘fresh cheese’. No idea where the dividing line between yoghurt and cheese is; hopefully someone more knowledgeable will chime in!

I bought the Easyfibre Cleanse natural psyllium husks from Healthspan, and am following the dosage and instructions to take a break which come with it. Psyllium husks have only a very mild laxative effect, but it is cumulative over a couple of weeks and I found myself getting increasing windiness However, it is all worth it for the quality of the sleep, such as I do not remember having had since I was a young adult. Despite being marketed as a laxative, the product is listed under probiotics and prebiotics on the Healthspan website.

Maybe you should try reducing the amount you take each time, if you’re having to take a break from it. Tom Kerridge’s book, ‘The Dopamine Diet’, has some recipes in it that use psyllium. Haven’t tried it specifically for sleep (only bought the stuff yesterday, to put in the recipes!), but it may well work as you suggest. Never really thought of it as a prebiotic, I have to admit!

Rereading your post, JoiningtheDots, you seem to be using two completely different styles of fasting. This is purely my personal opinion, but the closing of your eating window doesn’t seem like a fast to me; I know the theory is, that you’ll eat less, because you’ve less time to do it in, but I suspect it would be very easy just to pack it all into the shorter hours! It’s not really when you eat that matters, as how much, and that will depend on your age, gender, basal metabolic rate, and lifestyle – a deckhand on a sailing vessel needs between 3500 and 4000 a day; a doddering ancient like myself can survive very happily on 1800 or less.

Probably your first act should be to keep a food diary, as recommended in cgd – this absolutely MUST be accurate, so weigh and measure everything (and I do mean, everything! Right down to that sneaky Polo mint you thought wouldn’t make a difference…). A good set of kitchen scales, which will measure to the gram, is a great investment, and if your mental arithmetic isn’t too hot, a calculator will help. Fortunately, most things, in the UK at least, come with calorific values on the packet. Don’t bother about what you’re eating, just eat normally and keep the diary for three days. You may well be surprised at what you can remove from your diet without noticing the loss. This, though granted it’s tedious, will also show you where your normal diet is deficient , whether your portion sizes are right, etc. Then you can start adding in the cg good guys, taking out the things that are, if not actually harmful, not doing you any good. And work in fast days – the 500/600 calorie rule is a bit much for me, I find it hard to stick to, but even aiming for 900 a couple of times a week will help. Remember: a pound of fat = 3500 kcal; eliminate that from your weekly intake, and you’re on a winner. Unless, of course, your ‘normal’ diet turns out to be way above 500 kcal/day too many!

My yoghurt maker produces very watery, sour yoghurt. I much prefer the Greek-style, which is milder-flavoured as well as having a better texture. I know one can buy greek yoghurt mix in a packet from H&B (just add water), but does anybody here know how to make it ‘properly’, ie with milk and starter?

Don’t know where you are, Catananche, but if in the UK, Tesco stocks it

Traditional (German/Polish/French) sauerkraut has NO vinegar. The cabbage is pickled in a brine made from salt and its own juices, which are drawn out of the cabbage by the salt.

A good start would be to take this back to the trader (presumably he’ll be back!) and demand a refund. Complain to Trading Standards, too. And then go online or to a proper health food outlet like Holland & Barrett, and buy the real thing! Tapioca flour and potato starch don’t even come from the same or even a nearly-related plant – tapioca comes from under the bark of a tree that grows in the Pacific.

The more the merrier, kindly include me too.Fit4life😎
Great Gutsy Gastronomic read .

I would like to sign up for the Potato Starch study. Just bought a bag labelled “Potato Starch” from a market stall. When I got it home, it also carried the label Tapioca Flour. Now I don’t know what I bought. How do you tell them apart?

I have just returned home following 4 weeks of diet interruption. Initially I had an Umblical Hernia ,then after a week of recovery I had an emergency Gall Bladder removal.
Prior to my Hernia operation I had been Mosley dieting and had lost 18 kg, stabilized my blood sugars to 4.9, and corrected my fatty liver . The Surgeon told me that my weight loss and sugars greatly assisted my recovery.
My questions what should I eat after surgery to regain strength, but not to undo the good work I’ve achieved?