Gluten Freedom and this Fresco Life

by Gordon Clevon Alert

Over the past several months I have had the honour of hearing from so many people, how our services have assisted them in changing their lives. This is great but what all our community is seeing today has come from a genuine process within the core families of Fresco Life.

We are a normal, everyday family with kids, committed to several activities with them, in demanding jobs, and having real challenges to deliver healthy meals to our table with consistency and within budget. What I share about our process comes from the genuine struggle that still continues. Only this time we are winning.

As the Dad Chef of our kitchen, there is the matter of cooking healthier meals and also encouraging consumption. If you never try, you never know. It takes discipline on my part to refuse to do things the same way over and over again, and to go the little extra to ensure that a salad is in the mix. My kids are eating way more fruit and veg than a year ago. The process has been long, slow and sometimes frustrating; but to have made as much ground as we have, certainly gives me encouragement.

At the start of the year while buzzing with New Year's Resolutions, I felt slow and sluggish and I knew I wanted a cleanse or detox. So I reached out to Jeanine, our resident doctor on the Fresco Life team, and she sent me a programme for detox. Admittedly, I was initially blown-away by how involved it was, I was looking for a simple purge. But the programme required that I first be no flour, no sugar (NFNS) for a week before starting the detox. It took me a week to fully commit but instrumental in that process was Gluten Freedom.

It is literally the thought that counts. I am an agriculturalist by profession, so when I read the instructions from Jeanine that said: you can eat anything else but sugar and flour; I considered upon the indeed wide range of indigenous foods that could assist me in this regard. Gluten Freedom was simply an empowering thought that this could not only be possible but explosively successful.

I started cold turkey and I have not looked back. What helps, is that I am challenged to create GF/SF meals that the whole family can partake of. Success along this line has certainly benefited me. The Fresco Life of fresh food is another hugely complementary area.

Between eating fresher foods and being Gluten free and Sugar free, over the past month I have lost 15 pounds. My detox programme begins in a few days so I am sure greater benefits await.

Gluten Freedom is simple. Add veggies raw or slightly cooked to starches like potatoes, sweet potatoes, yams, eddoes, dasheens, squashes, pumpkins. You have options of boiled, fried, baked and grilled, but by all means please ensure that slices look interesting. Make a salad to go with whatever you eat, feel free to add a squeeze of portugal or a hint of pineapple to encourage consumption of the greens.

I love drinks, so I experimented with various flavoured waters that simply resulted from fruit and veggie scraps from the cutting board.

I have done lemon water (super easy…half a rough skin lemon in 2 litres of water), cucumber water (a few slices of cucumber in water), pineapple water (pineapple skins in water). I refrigerate immediately to avoid fermentation. My best yet is sugar free sorrel, which was amazingly refreshing and invigorating.

All of the stuff I use comes from the same Market, Veggie Lover and Fruit Bags we supply weekly. Here are some of the examples of what has been created to date.

Pak Choi and Jerk Chicken

Deviled Eggs, Rice Noodles and Fruit Salad

Egg and the Eggplant with Sweet Potato Fries

Pizza, Pizza, Pizza!! (Eggplant as the base)