Education Event
Jo Whitton
Origin story video and audio
Phew, time has really been speeding along the last few months and since our Origin Story with Paul West, Hayley has taught a LIVE Kids' Cooking Class (with some video hiccups caused by what was the beginning of the devastating Northern Rivers floods, however the audio, notes, recipes, equipment list & all her cool teaching brilliance are present for all to enjoy), we've shared our favourite Chocolate Celebration Cake with a plethora of nutrient-dense variations, we've provided simple - and often smelly, ahem, the homemade beef liver capsules - ideas, recipes & lifestyle hints on our Instagram page, we've emptied garden beds and sown new season seeds, and we geared up for this - our fifth Origin Story conversation with the Quirky Cooking Queen, Jo Whitton, and you!
Jo began the Quirky Cooking website in 2008, a 'go-to' site for allergy friendly, healthy recipes, tips & meal plans, she's walked the talk of an individual who has taken stock of her kids' serious mental and physical health issues (and her own!), she's published three cookbooks, including the brilliant new Simple, Healing Food, she's a GAPS protocol aficionado, an educator whose focus is to share how to use foods to heal, she runs cooking workshops, gut health retreats, seminars and classes all around Australia and overseas, and she offers personal mentoring for those facing dietary challenges. What you need to know about healing foods (and what may be harming you), you'll find by connecting with this dynamo!
Some of the topics that resonated with us from our conversation with Jo were:
Looking back upon her upbringing on the QLD Tablelands, Jo shared the way her parents worked to instill in their children a connection with nature, movement and whole foods. Having no TV & living in nature's food bowl with a variety of climates in one geographical area and an incredible array of fresh foods available to them, really helped with this. What came before this time for her parents: her mother (a 'pioneering woman' from Texas) and her father lived in the Ozarks where they hunted for food and foraged for greens. They didn't have a lot of money and no food was wasted. The value of local, seasonal produce has always been shared by them with their children, and they encouraged them to be creative in all walks of life, including within the kitchen, to ensure that food waste wasn't occurring.
Her parents travelled regularly to Mexico for drugs. Listen to the convo for more on this! ;)
Jo spoke to the health issues she began having as a teen, considering a variety of environmental and other factors that may have contributed to these. Some dubious advice from a dietitian kept Jo from really connecting with what the crux of her various illnesses were, but, when her children also began displaying signs of ill-health - especially her son, Isaac, whose OCD behaviours, phobias & rituals became completely debilitating - Jo took a dive into the world of the GAPS protocol, the gut-brain axis and healing through dietary adjustments. The results were incredible. Listen in for more on this - the outcomes are amazing!
What really resonated with us was the idea that healing the gut can begin by ADDING foods such as meat stocks, good fats, organ meats and bone marrow, and then looking to SUBTRACT certain foods that may be harming the microbiome (it's not an 'all or nothing' focus). Jo presented some incredible information about how, when these beneficial elements are added, taste-buds and food preferences will change, therefore making reducing inflammatory foods easier (as tastes broaden and shift when the microbiome is supported, cravings and 'must have' foods are also likely to shift).
We love the notion that following a GAPS protocol doesn't mean whole food groups are removed forever, but that the changes in diet are to replenish and restore the gut microbiome and there may be the opportunity to later reintroduce certain foods that have been sourced and prepared in particular, lower-inflammatory ways.
KIDS ON SUGAR (and off sugar)! Whoa - the information Jo delved into about the impact of sugars (not just 'sweets', but starches too) on individuals and the way that children (and others) can react when these foods are reduced was so interesting (and a little petrifying)! We'll be diving more deeply into this, for sure.
'Movement, sun, sweat, water and changing the diet gently.' Listen in for more on why it's important that these elements are respectfully included within a gut-health-supporting existence.
The difference between meat stocks and bone broths - there's so much to learn about the way that quick-cooking versus slow-cooking changes the healing nature of foods.
Her suggestions for easy ways to support your family's microbiome, in ways that they may not even notice (or taste).
Mentors, experts and supportive texts mentioned by Jo within this conversation were:
Damian Kristof, Jude Blereau (who wrote one of Hayley's favourite books for nourishing foods for babies and children, 'Wholefood for Children'),
Cindi O'Meara, who we spoke with LIVE at the end of last year, Giulia Enders' accessible and wonderful text, 'Gut', Elyse Comerford, an Integrative Nutritionist and Certified GAPS (Gut & Psychology/Physiology Syndrome) Practitioner at Well Belly Health (who has teamed up with Jo to support more people along their gut health journey) and Mary Kelly at Good Mood Food, a mother with extensive 'in-the-trenches' experience of children with experiences of ASD, eczema, behavioural issues, attention disorders, anxiety, depression, IBS, Coeliac disease, Auto-Immune disease, psoriasis, asthma... the list goes on. Jo suggests listening to this episode of her chat with Mary Kelly on The Wellness Couch podcast platform here: AQJ 32 : Anaphylactic Allergies, FPIES, Post-Natal Depression, Parasites and Hope for Healing.
Oh, and of course, the remarkable woman who established the GAPS protocol, Dr Natasha Campbell-McBride.