The Fresh Network Blog

Product Focus - pH Stix

pH Stix - Specifically designed to test Urine and Saliva pH.

The acid/alkaline range that pH Stix measures is 4.5 to 9.0.

The duel colour system is the most accurate way available in a home test.

Buy pH Stix Now Fresh code PH03 Price £7.99 for 80 test strips

Why Test Your pH in the first place?

A major factor in achieving optimum health, is your body's ability to achieve and maintain the correct pH levels. Whether you are consciously aware of it or not, your body is constantly trying to save your life by keeping your pH levels within a certain range - exactly the same as with body temperature. If it isn't able to do this then you will become seriously ill and may even die.

Many external things affect our body pH, food being one of the main factors. Others include: emotions, alcohol, medicinal drugs, supplements, environment and recreational drugs to name a few.

London premiere for compelling film documentary - May 3, 2006

The London film premiere of the film documentary The Future of Food, organised by the Guild of Food Writers with the Soil Association, is on Thursday June 22. The afternoon screening at the French Institute, South Kensington, will be followed by a question and answer session with the director Deborah Koons Garcia, chaired by Craig Sams, founder of Green & Black's, and followed by organic finger food and a chance to network.

A compelling documentary, the Future of Food is a wake-up call from the US about the threat to natural and organic food from GM technology. Charting the revolution that is transforming the nature of the food we eat the film offers an “in-depth investigation into the disturbing truth behind the unlabelled, patented, genetically engineered foods that have quietly filled grocery store shelves for the past decade”.

"I thought I knew everything about GM issues but this film opened my eyes to more," says organiser Elisabeth Winkler.

Tickets are £10-£5.

For more details contact ewinkler@soilassociation.org

Karen's A Business Woman Uncovered!

Top UK Life Coach Lynette Allen recently launched the "Business Uncovered" concept and web site - a place where the people behind the business could be seen as well as heard.

Fresh's own Karen Knowler went along to London one day in March and was filmed live for the BU site, and this month she's been picked as May's Business Woman of the Month!

To see what Karen had to say live to the camera, click here.

Sara's Little Addition

Karen: If you like the new look of our web site then you (and we) have Sara Simon to thank. Sara has been designing our web site for YEARS and has seen us through no less than 3 completely new looks. What makes this time extra special is the fact that she designed the current site in the very week that her second child was due!

And so, just last week when our newly revamped site went live, Sara was preparing for baby numero two to join the Simon household. Would it be another boy ...or a girl??? (I was sure it was a girl)

Well, on Sunday 30 April, (the exact same day that our very own raw chef Russell was born 30 years ago) all was revealed - a second boy! At time of writing we're waiting to find out his name, but what we do know is that he was born naturally at home with daddy Alex and big bruv (now 4!) present up North in Cheshire.

Apparently "the whole family is feeling great". Well done Sara!!

All together now.... ;)

Raw Food - Why Wouldn't You?

Karen: Emma and I are busy finalising all the details for the Raw Food Leader Teleclasses for the rest of the year. We have a great line up ahead for every single month, with Paul Nison speaking with us live in just under 2 weeks on Wednesday 17th May, and then Cherie Soria four weeks later in June.

All the teleclasses between now and December are looking FANTASTIC, and you'll be able to read details on here about Paul's call in the next few days. In the meantime, if you'd like to find out more about what these teleclasses are (I didn't know what a teleclass was until a year ago and was more than a little wary, but now I LOVE them!), then you can read all about them by clicking here.

Cherie has just submitted her photo to accompany her call information, and, seriously, after looking at what raw food can mean in the photo above, it really does beg the question, Why wouldn't you?

(Click on the photo to enlarge it and feast your eyes on that little lot ; )

Come back Radio 4, you've got it all wrong!!!

So, so, wrong.....

Tomato & Macadamia Mozzarella Linguine

From Russell: I've just posted this recipe on my blog so I thought I'd share it here too!  This is a great recipe (if I say so myself) that tastes like it's taken you ages to prepare. Note: It does take ages if you have to do it for 30 people, unless you have a handy helper called Emma to peel and spiralize for you!

Here we go...

Is it possible to be a raw foodie AND a ‘foodie’?

Sarah here with some thoughts on Radio 4’s Food Programme about the raw diet, which included an interview with Karen (see her post below for more details). I share Karen’s views on the way the topic was presented, and will be writing in to voice them to the producers, but for now some musings of a slightly different nature...

Has anyone else noticed the extreme resistance traditional ‘foodies’ – and this was after all a show for foodies, presented by a foodie – seem to have to the notion that we should place any restrictions on the foods we eat? The unspoken rule seems to be that if something tastes divine enough or is labelled by the culinary establishment as a ‘delicacy’, to avoid it out of concern for its effects on health and/or because of the cruelty involved in producing it is to reveal oneself not to be a ‘true’ gastronome.

Raw Food on Radio 4

By Karen: On Sunday 30 April and yesterday, Monday 1 May, Radio 4 aired a 25 minute piece about raw food on their Food Programme.

The piece comprised of:

• Interviews with diners at the first Fresh Network Raw Dinner Party in London (the one that took place on Sunday 23rd April)
• Me being interviewed at my home by FP presenter Sheila Dillon about all aspects of going raw
• Sheila's audio food diary of her 6 days on raw
• An interview with anthropologist Professor Richard Wrangham from Harvard University about his latest research on when humans started cooking food and the evolutionary impact cooking had on our development
• Studio guests Patrick and Lyndsay Mikanowski, co-authors of Uncooked and nutritionist Jane Clarke being interviewed while Patrick prepared a raw meat dish

When I heard the final cut on Sunday, I was prepared for it to be controversial, and in some ways it was 'kinder' than I expected, and in other ways a surprise - not especially pleasant, but nonetheless the internet will allow me to have my say...

Get Fresh! Spring 2006 Issue

Hi, it’s Sarah here, to give you the latest on Get Fresh! magazine. For all of you eagerly awaiting your next dose of raw inspiration I can reveal that the spring issue is due to be with readers by the middle of May.

We know how eagerly Get Fresh! is awaited – indeed some readers have told us it’s the best magazine they have ever read. That’s exactly how I felt when I finished reading my first copy in the summer of 2002. Already a journalist and magazine editor by profession, I wasted no time in contacting Karen, complimenting her on a fantastic publication and fishing for a job...

Soon after, I had my eager hands on every single issue ever published (at that stage, some 30+), and read them all while on holiday in Italy, staying up into the early hours when everyone else was asleep in order to do so. This was soon after I first discovered the concept of being ‘raw’, and absorbing myself in all this information was just what I needed to do at the time.

It also gave me the clearest of insights into how Get Fresh! had evolved – something that still amazes me to this day.