Let It Go!

Let it Go!

25 October 2022|Health, Nutrition, Recipes, Research papers, Sustainability

Red autumnal leaves on a wooden table

Nature’s currently showing us the beauty in letting go here in the Northern hemisphere.

As she lets go of what’s no longer needed she’s preparing for the next season – cocooning for winter.

These were green until a few weeks ago, then turned a vibrant red as they fell to the ground – going out in style.


Bag of medicines, a prescription

We’ve been ‘letting go’ too, clearing our home, clearing our minds for what’s next.

This haul is unused medicines from a scary breast cancer diagnosis.  None of it was asked for, most of it unused.

It felt unsurprisingly good to ‘let it go’ after passing the 5 year milestone last month!


Plate of broccoli, sprouts, cauliflower and a knife and fork

This was part of the medicine we did use – many studies support the use of cruciferous vegetables in healing from breast cancer: ‘Sulforaphane (found in broccoli, kale, cauliflower, cabbage) was found to inhibit proliferation, angiogenesis, and metastasis. At the same time it can induce cell cycle arrest and apoptosis in breast cancer cells.’  Full research paper here, added to the many already featured on our site.


We all know that women’s and men’s brains are not the same.  Joking aside, women are far more likely to get Alzheimers whilst menopause has a huge effect on their hormones.

Food, exercise, sleepstress, all affect our hormones – and therefore our brains…

Phytoestrogens from plants can help menopausal women; particularly flax seeds, sesame seeds, dried apricots, legumes and certain fruits.  Dark chocolate too – all gain estrogen.  Whilst stress depletes them.

This fascinating TED Talk from 2020 has over a million views

The XX Brain book cover

And Lisa’s book is currently on sale with Amazon Kindle UK for 99p until the end of October/ 1.19 euros with Amazon FR.


Dawn Lossau finishing the Norwich 10k

She did it!

Our friend Dawn ran 10k in a wet Norwich, England at the weekend.  

She raised money for Finbars Force a local charity which supports children with cancer (and their families).

We love this pic; relief? satisfaction? A mixture of both?

Either way, it’s good to see her exercising and achieving goals when she’s in the midst of grief – losing her only child from a brain tumour 2 months ago.

One word – AWESOME.


Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec quote

‘I will drink milk, when cows graze on grapes.’  So said the French painter Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.

A ‘tongue in cheek’ comment, but… We are the only race that drinks the milk of another’s young.  

Leaving that there…


Alpro plant milks

M. Lautrec never got to see this product in the stores: plant milk.  This brand is owned by Danone, a multi-national Paris-based company.

The market for plant-based alternatives is soaring.  This one is their almond milk – the main ingredient is water, then, 2.3% almonds, and a slew of stabilisers and emulsifiants.

We can do better!  Do check the ingredients – or make your own?


Double-zero.org business cards from Vistaprint

These arrived this week, yeah!  In an online world we’ve scribbled our website address on the back of too many pieces of paper.. So now we have business cards.  Thank you to those of you who supported our recent fund-raiser: Domain name, website hosting, email address and now business cards, all done.  Tick.

(Impressed by the re-useable packaging Vistaprint too)


UK National Food Strategy graphic

Those big circles are farm animals and people. The smaller ones domesticated animals and wild animals.

The balance is WAY off.  Time for change.  Radical change.  Our planet cannot sustain these levels without consequences.


The Plant-based Diet Revolution book cover on an Instagram story

We shared Dr Desmond’s bargain priced book on gut health via Instagram this week – he went on to share our post.  

Let’s keep sharing – and healing and maintaining that good health.


Adzuki bean salad and fresh pineapple

Yesterday’s lunch: A bean salad and fresh pineapple, delicious.  Eaten in the unseasonably high sunshine.  Perfect.  No recipe, I made it up as I went along…

Adzuki beans are high in protein, fibre, vitamins, minerals and plant compounds.  Apparently soaking them makes it easier for our bodies to absorb the above.  So I did;

I bought 500g of dried beans, popped them in a bowl covered in water overnight.  The next morning I drained them and put them in the slow cooker, again covered with water.  3 hours later they were cooked.  

Rinsed them and added to couscous, some grilled artichoke hearts (bought ready prepared), tomatoes, rocket from our garden (still going!) and fresh coriander (which I seem unable to grow…)

Batch cooking is definitely the key to make this all do-able, so there are more beans in the fridge, ready for a chilli tonight!


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By doublezero100

Denise Stevenson founded the health and wellness charity Double-zero.org in 2021 after healing from stage 3 breast cancer at (5-zero) and realising there was no one source to access the wealth of resources that had guided her back to health without the mastectomy her oncologist said was a certainty. Denise is a church founder and president, author and local councillor. She's English-born and has French nationality after living there with her husband and 3 girls for the past 20 years.

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