Green Goodness with Sarah Britton

The other day I told you about my admiration for Sarah Britton, who shares her passion and knowledge of healthy eating over at My New Roots.

I was so lucky to be able to attend her class, Green Goodness, while she was visiting Amsterdam. She is such a bubbly, happy person. Sweet and kind and humble as well. Of course she started by live-demonstrating how to make your own nut milk.* But what I loved the most is how much knowledge she has about nutrition. When she tells you "what you should do" she doesn't do it in a dogmatic "you are with us, or you are the enemy" kind of way. Instead she takes her time to explain why doing things in a certain way is important. And she believes this is knowledge that should be commonplace so she pretty much dedicates her life to spreading her love for good food, which is, ultimately, being kind to your body, and obviously has an effect in all the other aspects of your life.

 For instance, going back to the nut milk, she explained why it is so important, crucial even, to soak your nuts before eating them. You could be eating dried nuts the whole day and not getting anything from them. Because here's the thing, as you know, nuts are seeds, they have the potential of life hidden in them, in the form of nutrients. But this potential is locked. In order for it to be released you have to activate the seed's metabolism, starting the germination process that will then make those precious nutrients available. That's what happens when you soak your nuts (4-8 hours, depending on the type of nut). Moreover, as a defense mechanism against herbivores the nut's skin is rich in enzyme-inhibitors, substances that are able to block the digestion process as soon as they reach your stomach. You can get rid of these by rinsing / soaking the nuts and peeling them or by roasting your nuts ( at temperatures not higher than 150ºC) which denaturalizes (destroys/deactivates) these inhibitors. Also, you should never get almonds that have been pasteurized as the pasteurization process seals the skin to the nut making them impossible to peel, and probably also having an effect on the nutrients (high temperatures destroy pretty much everything, which is why we pasteurize foods in the first place, but in this case its counter productive).

She also explained why it is important to cook with oils that have a high smoking point (like ghee or pure coconut oil). You see, when I lived in Spain I took the local custom of cooking everything with olive-oil. I thought I was being super healthy. The smoking point is the point at which a fat begins to break down into its components (glycerol and fatty acids) and starts to burn. At this point oils become carcinogenic, because they acquire the ability to "steal" oxygen from everywhere around them, causing cellular damage. Well, olive oil has a relatively low smoking point and therefore the only safe way is to avoid cooking with it. Which is to prove my mom knows best, luxury item that it is in Mexico, we would only use it for salads. It turns out that's the healthiest way of consuming it.

It was such an inspiring experience. I can't wait to start changing even further our eating habits, it's like a whole world of discoveries and experimentation lays open in front of me. We already eat mostly vegetarian dishes, and yet, there are so many things to learn, so many ways to cook. And now that my birthday is slowly approaching I might ask for a food processor.

*I have a post coming on making almond milk, and what I've learnt there but in the meantime you can go visit Marcela, The celebration girl, for a recipe.