What you eat will not only dictate whether you are healthy or not, but it can also raise or lower your libido, says nutritionist Gillian Mckeith. Sharon Dale investigates
As aphrodisiacs go it is deeply unsexy, but nutritionist Gillian Mckeith swears that sauerkraut can do wonders for your love life.
"It's amazing. Eat it four times a week and you'll find a remarkable difference," she enthuses.
The fermented, salted cabbage contains a feast of nutrients which are generally good for your health and have a libido enhancing side effect.
If you can't stomach sauerkraut then Dr Mckeith has come up with something a little more sophisticated.
Prompted by reports that sexual drive is at an all-time low for men and women due to overwork and stress, environmental pollutants and a poor diet, she created Love Bars and Love Bites, which are part of her Living Food range.
They are a combination of 12 so called superfoods – vitamin and mineral rich plants which are gathered from far flung areas such as Peru and the Amazonian rainforest.
They include pumpkin seeds, ginseng root, Peruvian Maca root and raw sprouted daikon seeds.
he latter nourish your kidneys, which according to Dr Mckeith, are your constitutional sexual organ. "If you strengthen your kidneys that will make an enormous difference to your sex drive," she claims.
Dr Mckeith, who is working on a new book Good Food for Great Sex, is passionate about nutrition and about the use of "superfoods". A regular contributor to the television show This Morning, her own TV show You are What You Eat will be shown this summer on Channel 4.
Her interest in food and its effect on health was sparked after a bout of serious ill health. Dr Mckeith, who grew up in the Scottish Highlands and who moved to America to go to university, says: "I was working in radio when I started with a migraine which lasted about two years. Then I started having chronic pain and feeling like I had 'flu very day. I ended up on all sorts of medication and at the end I was on injectable pain killers."
She began to think she must have a brain tumour and was referred to a neuro surgeon. She says: "I honestly felt like I was going to die. Then I had this woman on my radio show who claimed to be able to see what was going on inside a body. I was very sceptical, but when I told her of my problem she put her hands on me and I felt this mass of energy. It was amazing.
Gillian went for tests which showed that her health problems were caused by a bout of glandular fever and poor diet. She gave up her broadcasting career to study for a degree in nutrition and she started researching those "superfoods".
"I met a man who had leukaemia and he said his condition had been helped by taking wild blue green algae which is full of minerals. It really fired my interest in these foods we don't have easy access to."
Her first clinic opened in America, then she opened a second in London. "I love my job," she says. "The difference you can make to someone's health is incredible and very rewarding. Most people I see are mineral and enzyme deficient and this can cause health problems. About 80 per cent of people I see are magnesium and zinc deficient.
"The reason is that no-one eats what I call live food, raw fruit and vegetables and sprouted seeds. The food we do eat is so processed it is denutrified. It's dead food."
Since most people can't be bothered to grow their own sprouted seeds and foraging for nutrient rich foods takes time and effort, Gillian created her Living Food range, which includes bars, juices and her energy powder.
"We also do a lot of research projects on the immune system and it's amazing what a difference good food can make."
The nasties, she says, are chemical dyes and preservatives added to food, sugar and cows' milk.
"Cows' milk is not good at all. People with strong stomach functions can cope with it, but they are in a minority.
"If you must have it, it's better to boil it first because the heat breaks down the molecules."
Raw foods are best, plus lots of water and a healthy dose of essential fatty acids found in oily fish and pumpkin and sunflower seeds.
"People who watch their weight are often deficient in fatty acids, so I've relabelled them thinny acids because these substances actually help you break down fat," she says.
Better all-round nutrition will lead to the sort of lust for life and love that many people have never experienced. "It takes time to feed yourself well and it takes effort, but believe me it's worth it," says Gillian.
Gillian Mckeith's Living Food, including Love Bites and Love Bars, are available from Org, Organic Foods, natural products and treatment
centre at 79 Great George Street, Leeds. Tel: 0113 234 7000.
www.org-organics.org.uk.
Sexy sauerkraut...
Sauerkraut was originally made by the labourers building the Great Wall of China, who pickled some cabbage to supplement their diet of rice.
Genghis Khan came along and took quantities of it to fortify his troops as they plundered their way through Europe.
Germans enjoyed it and dubbed the import sauerkraut which translates sour cabbage.
Sauerkraut is traditionally made using the inner cabbage leaves, which are shredded and combined with canning or pickling salt.
It is then placed in a fermentation container for a few weeks before being put in a can or jar.
Am I a passionate lover or just medicore?
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Originally Posted by Bakha
United States
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