About me

I started this blog as a place to record my recipes, research and information for healthy living. It is my online personal diary and it gives me a goal and structure in my quest for a more balanced lifestyle. I am happy to say blogging about healthy cooking has turned into one of my favourite things at the end of the day - my little 'saving the world one step a time deed'.

The reason I became interested in nutrition and healthy living is because I started suffering from IBS 5 years ago, since I first moved to England. It has been a long and disheartening battle, trying to figure out what was wrong with me and listening to clueless or apathetic doctors that said 'just learn to live with it'. But  instead of listening to GPs, I decided to listen to my body and work out what's best for it, one meal at a time.

This blog is my personal recipe inventory, it represents the methods that work for me to stay healthy and keep the ailments at bay. I aim to provide holistic and informed advice, but of course - what might be great for  me is not necessarily what's best for someone else. I believe we should always be inquisitive, critical and do our own research when it comes to our general health. This is why whilst I respect my doctor, I don't always take their opinion as a mantra. I have been misdiagnosed and given harmful medication on many occasions, so I believe we should learn to observe and understand our bodies and work together with our doctor to make an informed diagnose.

Most of the recipes in this blog are dairy-free and yeast free - I have found these are the catalysts for my IBS symptoms. I am generally against consuming cow's milk after we stop nursing - I think it is overly acidic for our bodies and as some of us lack the enzyme lactase that helps digest milk, we get allergies and intolerances. I am in favour of simple cooking, with lots of fresh vegetables, salads, unprocessed foods, and avoiding mixing proteins together. I am also not much of a meat eater for ethical and heath reasons, but I prefer fish and occasionally some good quality meat. 

I come from Bulgaria, where we cook with a lot of seasonal, fresh vegetables. As the national diet is becoming more and more westernised, there is a direct correlation with the rise of heart disease, cancers and diabetes. We have a fare share of those in my family tree so I have seen first hand what overindulgence in meat and sugar does to you. On the other hand, the traditional Bulgarian diet consists of vegetarian, even lots of vegan meals for most of the year. The consumption of meat was for celebration and special occasions. This resulted in an incredible number of centenarians and generally the rural population was very healthy - having a great-grandma was a common thing! In a way it is sad to see the world today so disengaged from their food yet so obsessed with consuming it in larger quantities. Worldwide, there is an unprecedented rise in allergies, digestive disorders and related diseases, as people consume more and more processed, GMO food, and as our diets become more and more narrowed and oriented towards subsidised foods. These tend to be generally red meat, corn-syrups, natrium glutamate, all sorts of added sugars, pasteurised cow's milk - all of these things are dominating our diets and contribute to acidic, disrupted ph levels in the body and general lack of enzymes in our stomachs to digest their altered proteins.

Learning from traditional cuisine and exploring different methods of cooking is fun and extremely interesting for  me. I take my inspirations from cook books, magazines, websites, blogs, from friends' recipes - I then adapt them to suit my tastes and health requirements. So, in a nutshell, I would like to revisit a more simple, healthy lifestyle that is lighter, more sustainable and gives you more energy.