THE LOW-CARB LOWDOWN

If you want to know more about the benefits of low-carb, high fat diets and the ketogenic diet, this Q&A session between Domini Kemp and Patricia Daly, authors of The Ketogenic Kitchen, and their US publishers Chelsea Green Publishing is excellent and very informative.

Domini Kemp and Patricia Daly

Chelsea Green (CG): It’s clear from the book’s subtitle that a ketogenic diet is high in fat and low in carbohydrates, but what does “ketogenic” actually mean in terms of the diet’s impact on the body?
 
Patricia Daly (PD): When somebody is eating ketogenic, the goal is to get the body into a state called “nutritional ketosis” (not to be mixed up with ketoacidosis!). This means that the body is starting to use fat instead of sugar as the main energy source. Blood sugar levels will stabilise at a lower, steady level, which has many effects on overall health and well-being. Ketosis can be achieved by reducing carbohydrates to a very low level and also by keeping protein relatively restricted. The missing calories are then replaced with fat in the form of oily fish, avocados, olives, coconut products, and also fatty cuts of meat, for instance. I prefer to talk about a “lifestyle” rather than just a diet because there are so many other factors that impact and enhance the effects of ketosis: stress, exercise, toxins, and sleep are among them.
 
CG: How did you come to write this book? And how did you meet each other and form this collaboration?

Domini Kemp (DK): We didn’t meet until I went to Patricia for a consultation at her clinic after I had finished chemotherapy. Up until that point, I had done my own research and was feeling quite frustrated about the lack of good information, as well as all the misinformation available to patients. Patricia and I got on immediately, and her consultation gave me huge confidence that what I was doing was right for me and that I was on the right track regarding sugar, exercise, and nourishing foods, as well as fasting, which I was inadvertently doing. Over time and because of the encouragement (read: bullying!) of mutual friends and family, we decided to write a book that we both wished was available when we were diagnosed with cancer.
 
CG: The book is actually “two-books-in-one.” Why?
 
DK: We both follow different diets. I am a chef and food writer and run cafes and restaurants here in Ireland. Sometimes I eat carbs, so following a low carb diet 80-90% of the time works really well for me. But going into ketosis for 2-3 weeks a year potentially has lots of benefits and is well worth doing. Many gyms use it to help clients lose weight—which is a great aspect of the diet—but it gives you a sense that you’re recalibrating your body to some extent.
 
PD: I’ve been following a ketogenic diet for over 4 years now. Conventional treatment in 2008 put a (temporary) stop to the growth of my tumor but management via diet is clearly key for my ocular (eye) melanoma. Two years after my relapse in 2010, I struggled with significant side effects from my treatments that really impacted me in my daily life. I took a leap of faith and started going into ketosis while being monitored closely. The effects were visible within weeks only—the swelling in my eye went down, my vision started to come back, excess blood vessels disappeared, and there was just a general “calming down” noticeable around my tumour. I also had a tumour outside the eyeball, which was still unchanged after radiotherapy, but then completely disappeared once I adopted a ketogenic lifestyle. The interesting thing is that my diet is so second nature to me now although I keep researching, fine tuning, and optimising my protocols depending on what’s going on in my life. I’d say I spend less time planning, cooking, and eating now than I used before going keto!
 
CG: How do the recipes differ in “The Low Carb Way” and “The Ketogenic Way”?
 
DK: The amount of carbs in the Ketogenic section are much more limited and food needs to be measured a bit more carefully when going into ketosis. Low carb—for me—is easy to implement and stick to. You have to do what works for you!
 
CG: Ketogenic diets have been used for decades to prevent seizures in children who suffer from epilepsy, most notably by The Ketogenic Diet Center at Johns Hopkins University, and the diet is also used sometimes for weight loss. But your book is the first to claim that a ketogenic diet can be an effective strategy in the management of cancer. What evidence has emerged—or is emerging—to suggest this?
 
PD: The strength of this approach lies in the metabolic aspect—meaning that we teach our body to generate energy in a very different way compared to somebody whose diet is reliant on mainly carbohydrates. As you can imagine, this is a powerful approach that leads to many changes in the body. The first and probably most obvious advantage for a cancer patient is that blood sugars are kept at a low, steady level. Many studies and well-respected researchers have shown how cancer cells thrive on glucose. It’s their favourite food. This “quirk” of cancer cells is being used to diagnose the disease via a PET scan. Once a patient manages to keep blood sugars low for a while, many things start to happen: In response to low blood sugar and also insulin levels, the body starts to produce ketone bodies from fatty acids. These become the main source of fuel for most healthy cells but can’t be readily used by cancer cells—on the contrary, there are studies showing how they can make a cancer cell’s life very difficult. If someone implements a ketogenic diet in a safe and effective way, it has wide-ranging effects on many hallmarks of cancer (i.e., angiogenesis, gene expression, and inflammation, to name just a few) but also on general well-being. Many of my clients report, for example, better mood and focus, better digestion, more energy, reduced cravings, and clearer skin, possibly because of improved hormone balance. I’ve been in ketosis for over four years now—every single day, without a break. But my way of eating now is certainly very different to what it was at the beginning because my body is so adapted to burning fat now.
 
CG: How do you respond to critics that say this type of diet could be harmful to cancer patients?
 
PD: First of all, we make it incredibly clear in our book that the ketogenic diet does NOT replace conventional therapies but is a supportive and complementary tool. With low carb, it’s definitely different because there aren’t such dramatic metabolic changes involved. While I think it’s a good idea to monitor bloods on a regular basis (which most cancer patients should be doing anyway), it’s not compulsory on a low carb diet. Like with any dietary approach or indeed treatment, the ketogenic diet is NOT suitable for everyone. There is a list of contraindications in the book, which explains who should not attempt a ketogenic diet (mainly due to genetic metabolic dysfunctions). We also emphasize the importance of a multidisciplinary approach, regular blood monitoring, and involvement of professionals. Many people “out there” attempt a ketogenic diet on their own based on their internet research, which indeed can be harmful. We point out that certain individuals have risk factors that need even closer monitoring. Our book is aimed at people who are at the information gathering stage, who are planning to get support or indeed are already implementing a ketogenic diet but need a lot more carefully calculated meal plans and nutrient-dense recipes.
It’s important for health professionals to understand the clinical implications of a lack of resources/studies into this promising area of cancer research. Public interest is ever increasing—there’s no stopping this trend, whether our book is on the market or not. Online resources are growing on a daily basis—some good, others of very poor quality. When using our book, cancer patients can be assured that the information is up-to-date, well researched, and endorsed by top notch scientists, researchers, and medical professionals.

CG: Can the ketogenic diet also be effective in the management of other serious illnesses?
 
PD: As we outline in our book, the ketogenic diet has been used for centuries in the management of uncontrollable epilepsy, and a number of randomized controlled trials have shown that it’s a safe approach. When it comes to other diseases, we have strong evidence for the use of the ketogenic diet for weight management, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. In other areas like cancer, PCOS, or neurological diseases like Alzheimer’s, we’re only just at the beginning of obtaining “hard data” from clinical trials. There are clinical studies underway now, and it’s my assumption that medical doctors are waiting for the results before being able to implement any protocols. But the issue is that this might still take months if not years, and unfortunately, many chronically ill patients don’t have the luxury of time. We actually already have a considerable amount of evidence in the form of laboratory data, and new studies appear on almost a weekly basis. It’s such a rapidly evolving field now that it can no longer be ignored.
 
CG: In some ways, the ketogenic diet represents a shift in thinking about cancer—one that is less of focused on genetics and that views it as much as, or more of, a metabolic disease. This idea was first proposed by Otto Warburg in the early 20th century and is now garnering renewed interest and appreciation. How does the ketogenic diet fit, or not fit, into Warburg’s ideas about cancer as a primarily metabolic disease? Is that mutually exclusive or compatible with the more recent and prevailing focus on genetics?
 
PD: There is a convincing—and growing—body of research that questions the origins of cancer and whether cancer is really a genetic disease. What most of us have learned about cancer is that it originates in the DNA of a cell when a series of mutations in a single cell happen. Mutations that affect cell division (particularly those that allow cells to divide uncontrollably) can be the start of many forms of cancer. That’s why some people call cancer “a genetic disease.”

For the past 50 years, this so-called “somatic mutation theory” (i.e., mutations that take place in non-reproductive cells) has been the prevailing paradigm in cancer research. But genomic instability hasn’t always been considered the primary cause of cancer. German physician Dr Otto Warburg was one of a number of researchers in the early 1900s who came to the conclusion that cancer is primarily a mitochondrial metabolic disease. Metabolic diseases are conditions in which the metabolism—or in other words, the creation of energy from the food we eat—is abnormal or defective in some way. Warburg demonstrated in his studies that cancer cells used sugar (glucose) as their preferred fuel, even when oxygen that healthy cells use for energy generation was present. This so-called Warburg effect has been confirmed in many studies and today is a well-established hallmark of many types of cancers (Hanahan and Weinberg, 2011). And yet the concept of cancer as a metabolic disease has still received little or no attention from the oncology world since the 1930s.

But recently, an increasing number of scientists have been looking for other approaches to cancer management. What if cancer has little to do with genes, but metabolism is much more important? One of the scientists at the forefront of the notion of “cancer as a metabolic disease” is Professor Thomas Seyfried from Boston College, who has been carrying out extensive research for many years now. He took a particular interest in so-called “nuclear transfer experiments,” which we explain in our book.

In my opinion, it’s a bit of a chicken and egg situation when we talk about the origins of cancer: what was there first, mitochondrial damage or mutations in the DNA? Fact is, these two don’t have to be mutually exclusive. We have preliminary (and I have quite a bit of clinical) evidence that the ketogenic diet—or even “just” a low-carb approach—can be beneficial for patients undergoing chemo- and radiotherapy. Side effects tend to lessen, and some studies show that the effects of conventional treatments can be enhanced.

The ketogenic approach is complementary to other therapies, and it should not be considered an alternative or stand-alone treatment. I also see a role of low-carb and ketogenic eating in prevention of chronic diseases, which obviously should be a key priority given the soaring rates of cancer and other illnesses.
 
CG: Superficially, the ketogenic diet resembles some other diets such as Atkins and Paleo. How do you distinguish it?
 
DK: I think it differs, as there are so many more vegetables in it. When you think of the Atkins diet, you imagine eating steak for breakfast! But going Ketogenic is much less geared towards reliance on protein. I love the focus on healthy fats, leafy veg, nuts, seeds, eggs, avocados, and oily fish.
 
PD: Atkins tends to be very focused on animal proteins and many people following an Atkins diet might not be in very deep ketosis—this depends on their activity levels as well. A Paleo diet can be very similar or incredibly different to keto, depending on how it’s implemented. Some people still eat loads of fruit, sweet potatoes and other starchy tubers on a Paleo diet, which would certainly be very far from a ketogenic diet. As Domini said, plant foods play an important role in a well-formulated ketogenic diet, and there are many ways of incorporating highly nutrient dense foods into the protocols.
 
CG: What are some of your favorite recipes from the book?

DK: I regularly make all the dishes in the low carb section, but I am addicted to the keto granola bars in the Ketogenic section. They are divine to eat and really keep you going all day. The meat pizza is also delicious. A little bit “Homer Simpson,” but rich and delicious.
PD: Domini has a number of fab recipes, and I love her spicy fish cakes, Harira chicken soup, the sun-dried tomato tapenade, and the Caesar salad dressing is to die for, too. My keto section obviously contains all my favorite recipes that I’ve been developing over the past four years. Only the best made it in this book.

For more on Chelsea Green, go here: http://www.chelseagreen.com/

And you can buy The Ketogenic Kitchen here: http://www.easons.com/p-4101768-the-ketogenic-kitchen.aspx
The ketogenic kitchen by Domini Kemp | 9780717169269
www.easons.com
Domini Kemp and Patricia Daly, who have both recently come through cancer, have discovered a life-changing way of eating. In The Ketogenic Kitchen

Thanks.
Team Alchemy

A CRACKING GOOD RECIPE

As you know, The Ketogenic Kitchen, a best-seller in Ireland, has just been published by Chelsea Green Publishing in the US and is getting rave reviews as there is such huge and growng interest in both low-carb, high-fat diets and the ketogenic diet. You can read about it here on the Chelsea Green website: https://www.chelseagreen.com/food-drink/the-ketogenic-kitchen

To coincide with that, below is one of our favourite recipes in the book, Domini Kemp's Cracking Crackers. There's also a brilliant video here in which Domini shows how to make them: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ONamf6ZQ7w

Photo: Jo Murphy (www.joanne-murphy.com)

Cracking Crackers

• 75g sunflower seeds
• 60g chia seeds
• 45g psyllium seed husks (most health stores have these)
• 45g flaxseeds
• 30g pumpkin seeds
• 20g sesame seeds
• 2 tsp fennel seeds (10g)
• 1½ tsp sea salt or Himalayan pink salt (8g)
• 1 tsp dried thyme (1g)
• 3 good tbsp coconut oil (81g)
• 200ml boiling water (200g)

Makes about 12 crackers:

These crackers were adapted ever so slightly from the original recipe from Sarah Britton’s book, My New Roots. The trick was to remove the oats. Oats in general are a great food, but they are mega high in carbohydrates. After many attempts, here they are: low-carb, grain-free and absolutely delicious.

Preheat the oven to 170°C (340°F). Line a baking tray with non-stick baking paper.

Put all the dry ingredients in a large bowl and mix well. Next, add the coconut oil to the boiling water so it melts. Once this has melted, add this to the dry ingredients and mix well to form a wet dough that’s kind of cement-like.

Pour the sludge into the lined baking tray and smooth it out with a spatula. If the mix is being really uncooperative, sprinkle it with water so it gets a bit wetter and therefore spreads easier. It just means you’ll have to cook them longer. Press down the mix roughly so it spreads out, then place a second sheet of non-stick baking paper on top of the cracker blanket and carefully apply pressure to make the mixture thinner and so that it covers the whole tray. It’s easier doing it this way than with a rolling pin.

When that’s done, remove the top piece of baking paper and bake the crackers for 30 minutes. If you can, use a flat surface to flip them over (like you would one half of a cake) and bake for another 20 minutes. If you find the outside bits are going nice and brown but the inside is still a bit raw, break off the cooked bits and keep cooking the middle. They need to be really crisp and golden brown, not raw and wet or soft. Turn off the oven and leave them to cool fully and dry out before breaking up into rough squares or rectangles for serving.

If after a day or so you find they need to be crunchier, stick them back in the oven for a blast. The main thing is to let them truly cool down before you store them, or any residual heat will make them sweaty and soggy. Ewww!

You can also buy The Ketogenic Kitchen here: http://www.easons.com/p-4101768-the-ketogenic-kitchen.aspx

Many thanks and enjoy!
Team Alchemy

WE ARE GO!!!

Our new shop on Lower Leeson Street just off Stephen's Green is now open, bringing you the best in raw food, juices, smoothies, healthy lunchboxes, speciality coffee from The Barn Berlin, tasty treats and much, much more!

Here's Domini talking about the new shop, the philosophy behind Alchemy and her approach to healthy eating: 

Our full menu is here: 

http://www.alchemyjuice.ie/#menu

Thanks and see you on Leeson Street (and, of course, in The Brand Store on Grafton Street).

Team Alchemy

SOMETHING OLD, SOMETHING NEW

Two snippets of news this week on the Alchemy blog! First, as you know, the brands in BT2 Grafton Street have moved across the road to the main Brown Thomas store. However, Alchemy is still here in the same place on Grafton Street serving our full range of juices, smoothies, treats, lunch boxes and specialty coffee from The Barn Berlin. And there's also the fab new BRAND STORE in the rest of the shop! Well worth a browse!

Secondly, our new store is almost ready to go! All things going according to plan, we will open on Monday, September 5th!! The new shop looks pretty cool from the oustide as you can see! And inside will be fresh and cool and healthy too! It is just off Stephen's Green and opposite the East Side Tavern. We can't wait to see you next week.

Thanks.
Team Alchemy

VIDEO TIME

Folks, we are delighted that the best-selling Ketogenic Kitchen by Alchemy founder Domini Kemp and nutritional therapist Patricia Daly is about to be launched in the United States by Chelsea Green Publishing. It is so great to see an Irish book like this be given its own launch in the US and we are very very proud of the boss.

If you want to know more, these two videos featuring Domini and Patricia will give you a really good introduction to both low-carb, high-fat eating and the ketogenic diet:

Introduction to low-carb, high-fat eating by Domini Kemp: 

Meet Domini Kemp, an author of The Ketogenic Kitchen

Introduction to ketogenic cooking by Patricia Daly: 

Meet Patricia Daly, an author of The Ketogenic Kitchen

To find out more about the US launch, go here: http://www.chelseagreen.com/the-ketogenic-kitchen

And you will find this dedicated website is also a great resource with recipes and more videos: http://theketogenickitchen.com/

Many thanks and best of luck to Domini and Patricia.

Team Alchemy

ALCHEMY NEWSROUND

WE ARE HIRING!!!

Love food? Healthy eating? People? Coffee? Then, you should be working with us!!!

We are hiring staff now, preferably with barista experience. Drop your CV into us here in Alchemy (upstairs in BT2 Grafton St) or send a cover letter and CV to hello@alchemyjuice.ie

We look forward to hearing from you!!

STAYING PUT!!!

Folks, as you may have heard, BT2 on Grafton Street is moving across the road to the main Brown Thomas store at the end of August.

HOWEVER .... WE ARE STAYING PUT TILL CHRISTMAS!!

There will be other exciting things happening here in the store between now and the end of the year.

BUT REST ASSURED: WE'LL BE HERE SERVING YOU!!!!

PS Our Leeson Street shop will also open soon!! Exciting times!

WONDERFUL WORKSHOP!!!

We had a great turnout for last Saturday's free CHOCOLATE WORKSHOP with the fab Ola from Positive Vitality!! So enjoyable, so informative and so much fun!!

And guess what? Due to popular demand, we will be doing more!!! Watch this space!

SUCH GREAT NEWS!!!

The already-bestselling The Ketogenic Kitchen is back in the bestseller list!!! Huge congrats to Domini and her co-author Patricia Daly!

If you haven't already bought it, you can get it here: http://www.dubraybooks.ie/The-Ketogenic-Kitchen_9780717169269

And, of course, The Ketogenic Kitchen is about to be published in the US by Chelsea Green. That is a phenomenal achievement for an Irish book and a real endorsement of all the hard work, long hours and extensive research Domini and Patricia have done (not to mention both having cancer twice!!). Read more about the US launch here: http://www.chelseagreen.com/the-ketogenic-kitchen

Thanks.
Team Alchemy

GREAT NEWS

As The Ketogenic Kitchen by Domini Kemp and Patricia Daly gets set to be published in the United States by Chelsea Green Publishing on August 22nd, it is also back on the best-seller list here in Ireland. This is a ringing endorsement of what a great book it is and of the huge interest out there in low-carb, high-fat eating and the ketogenic diet.

To find out more about why Domini wrote the book, about what she thinks of healthy eating and about how she has built a hugely successful food ‘kempire’, there is also this really lovely interview with her on TheTaste.ie headlined: Domini Kemp on High Fat Diets and Lean Business. You can read the article here: https://thetaste.ie/wp/domini-kemp-on-high-fat-diets-and-lean-business/

Photo: Barry McCall

Also, the first American review of the book is in and it too is really great. We have copied and pasted the review by Georgia Ede MD below (or you can read it here: http://www.diagnosisdiet.com/review-ketogenic-kitchen/)

"The Ketogenic Kitchen: A Cookbook for Cancer

The Ketogenic Kitchen is no ordinary cookbook. Yes, it is bursting with creative recipes and beautiful photographs of delicious dishes, but these recipes are expertly crafted to help people fight CANCER.

Most other cookbooks are useless against the Big C…unless you drop them directly on top of your tumor from a great height. In fact, most conventional “healthy” cookbooks actually feed cancer cells, because they are based on high-carbohydrate ingredients like grains, beans, fruits, starchy vegetables and juices.

In sharp contrast, nestled between the covers of The Ketogenic Kitchen lies a powerful, science-based, dietary prescription for cancer written by two women who use low carbohydrate diets to support their own recovery from cancer. In addition to culinary inspiration, you will receive guidance, motivation, and hope from women who walk the walk.

Domini Kemp and Patricia Daly: Authors You Can Trust

These are no ordinary women. The Ireland-based authors are Domini Kemp, a professional chef and former food writer for The Irish Times, and Patricia Daly, a Swiss-born nutritionist who specializes in dietary counseling for cancer patients.

We’ve both had cancer twice, and when we found that conventional nutritional advice failed adequately to support our treatment via the usual means of radiation and chemotherapy, we both independently decided to look elsewhere for answers.

Both women generously share their powerful personal stories with you to provide real life inspiration. In Patricia’s case, switching to a ketogenic diet tamed her aggressive eye cancer within only a few weeks, reversing vision loss and sparing her from radical eye removal surgery. Her cancer has thankfully been quiet for over five years now.

What is the Ketogenic Diet?

A ketogenic diet is a very low-carbohydrate, moderate-protein, high-fat diet that reduces blood sugar and insulin to healthy, stable, low levels. This forces the majority of your cells to burn fat (ketones) instead of sugar (glucose). Cancer cells LOVE glucose and most can’t make the switch to ketones. Without all that excess glucose around, cancer cells struggle to survive, while your healthy cells thrive.

Fortunately I haven’t personally dealt with cancer, but I follow a ketogenic diet myself. It is the only diet I have ever found that easily controls my appetite, weight and blood sugar, all while supporting a positive sense of well-being and providing excellent energy. [You can read more about my experiences with this diet in the posts listed at the end of this article.]

The Ketogenic Kitchen: What’s Inside

The vast majority of recipes are constructed entirely of whole food ingredients. That alone makes this cookbook a healthy kitchen companion, whether you have cancer or not. I would characterize most dishes in this book as “Paleo plus dairy”:  free of grains, legumes, processed foods, and refined carbohydrates. There are a few desserts in the book sweetened with yacon syrup, maca powder, or lucuma powder. Every recipe includes a diagram showing you how many fat, protein and carbohydrate grams are in each serving.

The 449-page cookbook is beautifully organized and divided into two halves.

Domini Kemp: Low-to-Moderate Carbohydrate Plan

The first half of the book, crafted by chef Domini Kemp, is intended for people who want to eat a healthy lower carbohydrate diet without having to commit to a ketogenic diet. Some recipes are ketogenic, while others are low to moderate in carbohydrate and protein. Carbohydrate content ranges from a few grams to about 40 grams per serving. Protein content ranges from a few grams to about 50 grams per serving.

Her recipes are creative and many have an international flair: lime mint chicken parcels, lamb and prune tagine, green tea poached salmon. She also dedicates an entire chapter to vegetarian main dishes, including aubergine dengaku, and tarts made with cauliflower, almond and goat cheese.

Patricia Daly: The Ketogenic Plan

The second half was designed by Patricia Daly, whose recipes are strictly ketogenic. Protein content ranges from a few grams to about 25 grams per serving, and most dishes contain fewer than 10 grams of carbohydrate per serving. Many of her recipes rely on seeds, nuts, and high-fat dairy, which is a common pattern for ketogenic cooks, since those foods are often lower in protein and higher in fat than many types of meat, seafood, or poultry.

It can be challenging to make ketogenic recipes exciting, but Patricia has risen to the challenge: prawn-filled avocado, vegetable muffins, lamb pizza, sea bass with celeriac and chorizo puree, chicken with walnut sauce. She organizes her section of the book into weekly meal plans, which busy folks will find incredibly helpful.

Valuable Extras

Patricia Daly is an expert among experts. She has been following a ketogenic diet for more than five years, professionally counsels clients with cancer, knows the science of the ketogenic diet inside and out, and has a firm grasp on nutrition research. She includes 30 pages of information about ketogenic diets written in a way that everyone can understand. What does the science say about ketosis and cancer? Which foods are allowed and forbidden? How and when should you test your ketones and blood sugar? What should you do if you’re having difficulty transitioning into ketosis? It’s all in there.
Kemp and Daly also offer down-to-earth advice about eating a low-carbohydrate diet in the real world, such as cooking for a family and modifying recipes for children.

Wish List

I think this cookbook is a must-have for people with cancer, so I only have a few minor criticisms.

The authors are based in Europe and therefore many of the measurements are metric: grams, milliliters, etc. For my U.S.-based readers, please enjoy this handy one-page conversion table in PDF form that you can download or print.
As many of you may know, I believe that “post-agricultural” foods (grains, legumes, processed foods and dairy) are best avoided for optimum health. There are only a few recipes in this book that call for beans, soy, quinoa, or rice, and some that call for dairy. Dairy foods can stimulate our hormonal systems, including insulin and growth hormone pathways. This means that dairy products could theoretically support the survival and spread of cancer cells. However, I believe that refined carbohydrates like sugar, flour, and juice are FAR more powerful in this regard.

The Ketogenic Kitchen is actually two cookbooks in one, and I love that Domini Kemp offers options for people who want a less strict approach to a healthier diet. Just keep in mind that, while her section is entitled “The Low-Carb Way”, some recipes contain as many as 50 grams of carbohydrate per serving, which I think of as “moderate” in carbohydrate. People with insulin resistance should take care not to partake of those recipes too often.

The Bottom Line: I Highly Recommend The Ketogenic Kitchen

You don’t have to have cancer to benefit from this beautiful cookbook. The first half of the book is essentially a healthy, lower-carbohydrate, whole foods cookbook. All of us should be eating this way. The second half of the book is an expert guide to the ketogenic diet, which can be used not just to treat cancer but also to treat numerous neuropsychiatric and metabolic diseases, from Alzheimer’s disease to heart disease.

If you or a loved one has been diagnosed with cancer and want to know more about the potentially healing power of the ketogenic diet, this book is the only one I know of that can give you everything you need all in one place: scientific theory (explained in a way that is easy to understand), practical advice, gorgeous recipes, hard-earned wisdom, and real life inspiration.

Full disclosure: I am a huge fan of Patricia Daly’s pioneering work. I not only enthusiastically agreed to review her new book here, but also contributed to the collection of expert opinions published in the book."
 
You can buy the book here: http://www.dubraybooks.ie/The-Ketogenic-Kitchen_9780717169269

Thanks.
Team Alchemy

MUFFIN MANIA!

Domini was on Ireland AM on TV3 cooking some delicious and super-healthy low-carb muffins from her best-selling cookbook, The Ketogenic Kitchen.

They freeze really well. They don¹t just fill you up for ages in the morning- especially if you spread a good layer of butter or ghee on your muffin- but are also an ideal snack or lunch box filler for your kids!

Here's the recipe:

Vegetable Muffins

Makes 12 muffins

• 180g Coconut flour
• 2 tsp Baking powder
• 3 tbsp Chia seeds, ground
• 1 clove Garlic, crushed
• 1 large Courgette, grated
• 150g Onions, red, chopped
• 200g Carrots, grated
• 200g Spinach leaves, chopped
• 300ml Coconut or Almond milk
• 6 Eggs, beaten
• Butter, unsalted
• Zest and juice from 1 Lemon

1. Preheat oven to 180C/350F.
2. Mix all dry ingredients well. In a separate bowl, mix all the wet ingredients and add to the dry ingredients.
3. Spoon the mixture into them a greased muffin tin.
4. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Serve with butter.

Calories per muffin: 243, net carbs: 7.1g

Thanks and enjoy.
Team Alchemy

COMING SOON TO LEESON ST!

Folks, great news! We are opening a new Alchemy Juice Co on Lower Leeson Street just off Stephen's Green in the next few weeks!! Just putting the finishing touches to the new shop!! 

We're very excited to be branching out and want to thank all our customers for their loyalty! It is so much appreciated and makes it all worthwhile for us!

SO HUGE THANKS TO YOU ALL

Team Alchemy

THE KETOGENIC KITCHEN GOES STATESIDE

Having already been a best-seller here in Ireland, Domini and Patricia's book, The Ketogenic Kitchen, will soon be published in the United States by Chelsea Green Publishing. This is so exciting and a real endorsement of all the hard work they put in to writing the book.  To read more about the book and about Chelsea Green, go here: 

http://www.chelseagreen.com/food-drink/the-ketogenic-kitchen

Quinoa, cauliflower, raisin and feta cakes (closest) and Low-carb fishcakes (background). Both recipes from The Ketogenic Kitchen

There are also some lovely endorsements of the book on the website, including these two:

“I awaited the release of The Ketogenic Kitchen with child-like anticipation, and it has not let me down. It is a toolbox ‘must’ for all my patients—to support and inspire them with the beautiful and delicious recipes that fill the pages. There are plenty of folks claiming to have written ketogenic cookbooks, many filled with underwhelming recipes and ‘fake food’ ingredients. The Ketogenic Kitchen focuses on real food, something harder to come by these days, as well as creative menu ideas. If you are looking to round out your cookbook collection, ketogenic or not, this book offers something for everyone.”

-Dr. Nasha Winters, ND, LAc, FABNO

“Public interest is increasing but clinical trials exploring the effect of lower-carbohydrate or ketogenic diets are slow to get off the ground, and clinical support, experience and understanding can be frustratingly hard to come by. Patricia and Domini’s book explains the precautions, the practicalities, the theories and the uncertainties and will be of value to individuals, their families and the clinicians supporting their treatment pathway. Thank you, Patricia and Domini, for your considerable endeavours in creating such an informative and deliciously practical book.”

-Sue Wood, Specialist Ketogenic Dietician, Matthew’s Friends Clinics, UK

Domini and Patricia also recently hosted a Ketogenic Kitchen Supper Club in the Itsa Cafe in the Dundrum Town Centre. The sold-out event was a huge success, and Domini and Patricia met so many wonderful people who are interested in low-carb, high-fat eating and the benefits of the ketogenic diet.

Following on from the success of the event and their demo at the Dalkey Book Festival, Domini and Patricia will also be appearing at the Savour Kilkenny festival in October. More information here: 

http://www.savourkilkenny.com/the-ketogenic-kitchen-with-domini-kemp-patricia-daly/

Many thanks.
Team Alchemy

Growing interest

It is great to see more rational and scientific discussion going on about low-carb, high-fat diets and the ketogenic diet in particular.  This means that The Ketogenic Kitchen by Alchemy founder Domini Kemp and nutritional therapist Patricia Daly could not have been more timely. As two people who have had cancer twice, they present the evidence about LCHF diets and the ketogenic diets in an extremely responsible way, relying on the most up-to-date scientific evidence from around the world. (They also give some excellent LCHF and ketogenic recipes which are healthy, tasty and easy to prepare.) It really is an invaluable book to have!

Photo: Jo Murphy (http://www.joanne-murphy.com/)

Here's what Adrienne Scheck, PhD said about The Ketogenic Kitchen: 

"Work in our laboratory and others have demonstrated that a ketogenic diet can slow the growth of brain and other tumors in pre-clinical models. In addition, it has been shown that a ketogenic diet can enhance the effectiveness of radiation and chemotherapy in these same models. We now have scientific evidence demonstrating that it is not just the reduction in glucose that has a beneficial effect; it is also the increase in ketones.

For this reason, the proper use of a ketogenic diet is likely to have a multitude of beneficial effects in the fight against cancer. This is now being recognized by patients and clinicians alike. Published case reports and a large body of as yet unpublished information from reputable sources are demonstrating the utility of a ketogenic diet in people with brain tumors and other cancers.

This has led to the opening of clinical trials designed to demonstrate efficacy; however, the available data combined with the demonstrated safety of a properly managed ketogenic diet from the epilepsy community has made this approach desirable even before the clinical trial data is available. The proper design of a ketogenic diet that is both palatable and safe is not common knowledge, even among registered dietitians.

The Ketogenic Kitchen will be an invaluable resource for those wanting to follow a ketogenic diet under the direction of their medical professionals, and it will be an equally useful resource for medical professionals that want to add this to their patients’ therapeutic regime."

- Adrienne C. Scheck, PhD, Associate Professor, Neuro-Oncology Research, Barrow Brain Tumor Research Center, Barrow Neurological Institute, Phoenix, AZ

The sold-out Ketogenic Kitchen Supper Club with Domini and Patricia on Thursday, June 30th also demonstrated the interest in LCHF and ketogenic diets that is out there - and showed how tasty and simple the dishes could be!!

As an example, here is a lovely recipe for Eggs Benedict from the book:

INGREDIENTS

• 4 Portobello mushrooms (336g)
• 2 tbsp sherry vinegar (23g)
• Salt and pepper (3g)
• 2 ripe avocados, mashed (360g)
• 1 tbsp tamari (18g)
• 1 tsp sesame oil (4g)
• Few shakes of Tabasco (5g)
• Splash of white wine vinegar (2g)
• 4 eggs (228g)
• Furikake seasoning

Serves 4

METHOD

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Peel the mushrooms but leave them whole. Put them in a roasting tray, sprinkle with the sherry vinegar and season. Roast for 15–20 minutes, until they are soft and juicy.

Mix the mashed avocados with the tamari, sesame oil and Tabasco and set aside.

Now poach your eggs. If I was doing this in a large batch, then I would just plop them in without worrying too much about swirling the water and so on, so just get on with it. Get a frying pan and fill it with water.

Bring it up to the boil and add the white wine vinegar, then reduce the heat so that it’s barely bubbling. 

Crack the eggs into the water, keeping the water simmering very gently. 

After 11⁄2–2 minutes, lift the eggs out of the saucepan with a slotted spoons andpat them dry with some kitchen paper. 

Top the warm mushrooms with the avocado cream, then the poached eggs, which is available in health food stores, good delis and Asian markets. It’s a mix of toasted sesame seeds and seaweed and is quite delicious, especially sprinkled on avocados.

To find out more, go to http://theketogenickitchen.com/

Many thanks.
Team Alchemy

SWEET!!!! BUT NOT TOO SWEET!

We have a range of healthy treats in here which are as tasty as any other treat you'll fine or want but much healthier!

They include:

• NEW IMPROVED GRANOLA BAR: gluten free oats, olive oil, honey, figs, apricots, cranberries, pumpkin seeds, almonds, pecans, sesame seeds and cinnamon.
   
• CASHEW & CHOC CHEW BAR: cashews, dates, coconut flour, almond butter, dark chocolate (85%), desiccated coconut, maple syrup and coconut oil.
   
• CHIA & CHOCOLATE COOKIES: cacao powder, banana, almond butter, chia seeds, coconut sugar, vanilla, salt, chocolate chips and goji berries.
   
• SPIRULINA & MATCHA BALL: dates, cashews, coconut oil, spirulina powder, matcha powder and coconut.

and, of course, the legendary . . .

• BOUNTY BROWNIES: chia, dark chocolate, almonds, eggs, coconut and coconut sugar.

Thanks.
Team Alchemy

THE LOW-CARB/KETOGENIC SUPPER CLUB ON JUNE 30 2016

The debate about low-carb, high-fat diets goes on and more and more people are asking about ketogenic diets due to recent reports coming out in the UK. Read this excellent piece for some background info: http://healthinsightuk.org/2016/06/06/low-carb-revolt-start-of-a-brave-new-medical-future/

With that in mind, the launch of the best-selling The Ketogenic Kitchen could not have been more timely. Alchemy and Itsa founder Domini Kemp and nutritional therapist Patricia Daly have both had cancer twice and decided to empower themselves as cancer patients to find out what they should be eating while undergoing treatment such as chemotherapy, surgery and radiotherapy. And they discovered a wealth of really useful information which they have shared in their book along with tasty and easy-to-prepare low-carb and ketogenic dishes. It is a truly wonderful resource!

Now, Domini and Patricia will host a special Ketogenic Supper Club in the Itsa cafe in Harvey Nichols in the Dundrum Town Centre. There will be a lovely three-course dinner cooked exclusively from their cookbook, as well as a discussion on low-carb, high-fat diets and on the ketogenic diet, as well as a Q&A session afterwards.

The Supper Club takes place on Thursday, June 30th, from 7pm-9pm in the Itsa Cafe in Harvey Nichols in the Dundrum Town Centre. Tickets cost €35 per person and can be purchased here: https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/the-ketogenic-kitchen-dinner-with-domini-kemp-and-patricia-daly-tickets-25878385949 or by emailing harveynichols@itsa.ie

Many thanks and hope to see you there.
Team Alchemy

Low Carb, High Fat

If you follow news about healthy eating and the latest scientific research, you will have seen reports this week extolling the benefits of a low-carb, high-fat diet, which is what Domini's new book is all about. The Ketogenic Kitchen is divided in two sections, one dealing with LCHF diets and the other with the ketogenic diet. As well as advice and the latest research, the book contains tasty, healthy and easy to prepare recipes for all the family.
To find out more, go here: http://theketogenickitchen.com/

Photograph: FotografiaBasica/Getty Images via The Guardian

In relation to the National Obesity Forum and the Public Health Collaboration's report this week, here's an extract from The Guardian:

"Urging people to follow low-fat diets and to lower their cholesterol is having “disastrous health consequences”, a health charity has warned.

In a damning report that accuses major public health bodies of colluding with the food industry, the National Obesity Forum and the Public Health Collaboration call for a “major overhaul” of current dietary guidelines. They say the focus on low-fat diets is failing to address Britain’s obesity crisis, while snacking between meals is making people fat.

Instead, they call for a return to “whole foods” such as meat, fish and dairy, as well as high-fat, healthy foods including avocados, arguing: “Eating fat does not make you fat.”

The report – which has caused a huge backlash among the scientific community – also argues that saturated fat does not cause heart disease while full-fat dairy, including milk, yoghurt and cheese, can actually protect the heart.

Processed foods labelled “low fat”, “lite”, “low cholesterol” or “proven to lower cholesterol” should be avoided at all costs, and people with type 2 diabetes should eat a fat-rich diet rather than one based on carbohydrates.

The report also said sugar should be avoided, people should stop counting calories and the idea that exercise could help you “outrun a bad diet” was a myth. Instead, a diet low in refined carbohydrates but high in healthy fats was “an effective and safe approach for preventing weight gain and aiding weight loss”, and cuts the risk of heart disease, it said."

Read the full article here: http://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/may/22/official-advice-to-eat-low-fat-diet-is-wrong-says-health-charity

Also, if you are looking for more information and analysis of  the latest research, this piece on the Authority Nutrition website is good: https://authoritynutrition.com/23-studies-on-low-carb-and-low-fat-diets/

It is great that new research is being done all the time into these areas and it is so important that it is not dismissed. Let's all keep learning and trying to find out what's best for all.

Thanks.
Team Alchemy

KETO KUDOS

It is so great to see the amazing new book, The Ketogenic Kitchen by Alchemy founder Domini Kemp and nutritional therapist Patricia Daly, doing so well. It really is an important book written by two people who have had cancer (twice each!) and are so passionate about healthy eating in general and about making the best possible dietary choices when going through treatment such as radiotherapy, chemotherapy and surgery.

Domini Kemp and Patricia Daly at the launch of The Ketogenic Kitchen in BT2 Grafton Street. Photo: Conor O Mearain

In the book, they share with you exciting nutritional developments about the benefits of a diet low in carbohydrates and high in (good) fat. This food philosophy has the welcome side effects of weight management, higher energy levels and glowing good health for all! And there are plenty of tasty, healthy and easy-to-prepare recipes for all the family.

Here are extracts from some of the reviews of the book:

"All in all, there was nothing I made from this book that I will not make again, in addition to the many earmarked recipes I have added to my must-try list from it. For  me, a cookbook should be made of more than just a collection of projects and instructions, it should be a source of inspiration for your own dishes and a catalyst for experiments and the Ketogenic Kitchen delivers this in bucket-loads. Domini and Patricia have given so much of themselves, generous with both their collective knowledge as a chef and a nutritional therapist and their very personal stories as survivors. Their unique, pioneering contribution to a field of vital importance is a must-read for anyone and everyone, packed with delicious recipes to boot."

- Darina Coffey in TheTaste.ie (http://thetaste.ie/wp/the-ketogenic-kitchen-by-domini-kemp-and-patricia-daly-cookbook-review/)

“Whether you are facing treatment, going through recovery or simply want to choose food that helps to keep you healthy in the long term, Domini and Patricia's fantastic new book will be your best friend in the kitchen, packed with revolutionary advice and delicious recipes. 

The authors also share their startling personal stories of battling cancer and their research into ground-breaking new ways to feed your body for optimal health.

Divided into two sections; the Low-carb Way contains easy low-carb recipes bursting with flavour and nourishment that will guide you on your path to optimum wellness while the Ketogenic Way will help you through periods of illness, recovery and treatment.”

- MummyPages.ie (http://www.mummypages.ie/the-ketogenic-kitchen-by-domini-kemp-and-patricia-daly)

“We also received so much encouragement from friends and family that eventually we came to the same conclusion that people needed an up-to-date resource where they could find out about following a low- carb diet that could progress towards a ketogenic diet, with lots of nutritional information about which foods to eat, which foods to avoid as well as options for when you are going through treatment and feeling poorly.”

- Domini in an interview in The Irish Times with Caitriona McBride (http://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/health-family/a-cookbook-with-some-special-ingredients-1.2617716)

“The book is in two parts. The first half by Kemp gives low carb recipes. The second is aimed at someone who wants to go full keto with a practical meal planner to avoid having to prepare something from scratch three times a day. Both sections are full of great family friendly recipes. (The no-drizzle three-minute mayonnaise is worth the cover price alone). It’s a serious book that doesn’t take itself too seriously, perhaps the only one in its genre where you’ll see wheatgrass described as tasting like silage.”

- Catherine Cleary in The Irish Times (http://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/food-and-drink/high-fat-low-carb-is-the-key-to-ketogenic-eating-1.2617759)

For more on the book, go to their Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/theketogenickitchen
or follow them on Twitter: @TheKetoKitchen_
The website is here: http://theketogenickitchen.com/

You can also buy the book here: http://www.easons.com/p-4101768-the-ketogenic-kitchen.aspx

Many thanks.
Team Alchemy

RECIPE TIME!!

Check out this Baked Beans with Chorizo, Egg and Feta Recipe from Domini Kemp and Patricia Daly's best-selling The Ketogenic Kitchen . . .

'This recipe makes an incredibly delicious breakfast. This is also excellent for dinner and is usually my ‘OMG, there’s no food in the house’ kind of supper!'

Photo: Joanne Murphy (http://www.joanne-murphy.com/)

Ingredients

• - 200g chorizo sausage, diced
• - 2 large onions, finely chopped
• - 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• - Few sprigs of thyme or rosemary, chopped
• - 80ml red wine vinegar
• - 4 tbsp tomato purée
• - 2 x 400g tins of chopped tomatoes
• - Salt and pepper
• - 1 x 400g tin of cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
• - 8 large eggs
• - Splash of olive oil
• - 200g pack of feta

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
2. Sauté the chorizo in a large frying pan that can go into the oven until the chorizo is starting to caramelise. It does release lots of fat, which you can leave in there for extra unctuousness.
3. Add the onions and continue to sauté until they too are just starting to colour.
4. Add the garlic, herbs, red wine vinegar, tomato purée and tomatoes. Mix well, season and cook for another few minutes.
5. When everything feels well blended, take it off the heat and mix in the cannellini beans.
6. Make eight wells or holes in the beans and crack an egg into each well.
7. Drizzle with a little olive oil, crumble the feta on top, season with lots of black pepper and bake for 15 minutes or so, until the eggs are just cooked.

We hope you love it.

The Ketogenic Kitchen is in bookstores now or you can buy it here: http://www.easons.com/p-4101768-the-ketogenic-kitchen.aspx

Thanks.
Team Alchemy

Note: This recipe is also on the fabulous TheTaste.ie website

OMG!! IT'S THE OMG!!!

Credit: John Mooney Photography (http://johnmooneyphotos.weebly.com/food.html)

What a majestic shot of our OMG Smoothie here in BT2 Grafton St!! It's definitely one of our most popular ones! Made with banana, dates, almond milk, almond butter, vanilla extract, cinnamon and Himalayan Pink salt ... and full of flavour and goodness!!

We make six other smoothies here in Alchemy. Which one is the one for you?

BOOTY MINT & LEMONADE CRUSH: Lemon juice, reverse osmosis water, cayenne, organic maple syrup, mint. 

SLUSH PUPPY: Strawberries, mango, apple, lemon, ginger, cayenne, coconut water.

BERRY BUDDY: Banana, blueberries, strawberries, acai powder, Himalayan Pink salt, coconut water.

GREEN BRUTE: Avocado, fresh pressed green juice, almond milk, spinach, banana, dates, lemon juice, ginger.

MY-MY MILKSHAKE: Bananas, almond milk, fresh pressed coffee, raw Cacao, agave nectar. For energy ignition.

KALE-KETO CRUSH: Lightly steamed kale, coconut milk, coconut oil, cinnamon, cider vinegar, Sun warrior powder.

For more info, go to: http://www.alchemyjuice.ie/#menu

Thanks and have a super smooth day!!
Team Alchemy

A cookbook with special ingredients

Caitriona McBride interviews Domini Kemp and Patricia Daly for The Irish Times about their new book, The Ketogenic Kitchen. 

You can read the original article here: http://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/health-family/a-cookbook-with-some-special-ingredients-1.2617716

It is an ordinary Dublin day where ordinary things are happening and I am having coffee with two women talking about ordinary things. Except chef, author and businesswoman Domini Kemp and Patricia Daly, a nutritional therapist, are anything but ordinary.

Both are cancer survivors and bonded over a shared love of trying to figure out what they could do to try to battle cancer through their diet and exercise, as well as conventional treatment. Out of something wretched came something quite special, their new cookbook, The Ketogenic Kitchen.

Kemp is used to press interviews for her own cookbooks, but this is the first one she has co-written in what she and Daly jokingly call “their arranged marriage”. They are friends, and laugh and chat with ease and respect; an unseen hum of a connecting melody and deep bond between them.

Daly was diagnosed with a malignant melanoma of the eye in 2008. Following her cancer diagnosis, she left her corporate career and started studying nutrition, specialising in integrative cancer care.

“Back then I was working as a corporate banker and knew nothing about health. I had never been sick and even when they told me ‘malignant melanoma’, I didn’t actually make the link that it was cancer until I was given a leaflet, Eye cancer for patients. I had really rough treatment.

Under general anaesthetic, they stitched a radioactive plaque to the back of my eye, turned my eye around and put it back in.

After four days, the plaque came back out under another general anaesthetic.

“I felt so crap. I asked my oncologist what could I do myself to help and was told ‘Nothing, just go back home and back to normal.’ I knew being diagnosed with cancer at 28 meant there was no way I was going back to that life. I had to change something.”

Nutrition study

Three weeks after finishing her radiotherapy Daly started studying nutrition. She left banking behind and is now a nutritional therapist. She relapsed less than two years after her initial diagnosis and had to have treatment again.

During her own research she came across the ketogenic diet and, in 2012, with her vision almost gone and the risk of losing her eye ever-increasing, she decided to go “full on keto”.

“I knew I had nothing to lose but my eye. A few weeks later when I went back to my consultant, he said, ‘Wow, it looks like the calm after the storm.’ The side effects from treatments had settled down and my vision started to come back.”

Kemp was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2013 which required chemotherapy, a mastectomy and radiotherapy. During this time she became frustrated with the healthy eating leaflets she saw being offered so started doing her own research.

“It was all based around the food pyramid and I think it’s fair to say that things have moved on quite a bit. I read as much as I could about diet, exercise and cancer and started to tweak what I was eating to what felt right for me.”

Kemp waited until she had finished chemotherapy before booking an appointment with Daly.

“We immediately bonded over our mutual frustration. She just spoke so much sense. It can feel almost like a hangover after chemo and you might be tempted to sit on the couch and eat loads of junk food, which is totally understandable. But my frustration was I thought I could be more proactive myself during treatment with diet and exercise.

“The frustration of that, meeting Patricia, herself having gone through cancer twice, and both of us thinking there must be something we can do led to the cookbook.
“We also received so much encouragement from friends and family that eventually we came to the same conclusion that people needed an up-to-date resource where they could find out about following a low- carb diet that could progress towards a ketogenic diet, with lots of nutritional information about which foods to eat, which foods to avoid as well as options for when you are going through treatment and feeling poorly.”

What is ketogenic?

So what is ketogenic and what does it mean for your body? Daly explains that when somebody is eating ketogenic, the goal is to get the body into a state called “nutritional ketosis” by reducing carbohydrates to a very low level and also by keeping protein restricted.

“Many studies and well-respected researchers have shown how cancer cellsthrive on glucose. It’s their favourite food. Our body works a bit like a hybrid engine; we can either burn sugar or burn fat for generating energy.

“Nutritional ketosis means the body uses fat instead of sugar as the main energy source. Cells make that switch and this has a range of metabolic changes. Blood sugar levels will stabilise at a lower, steady level, which has many effects on overall health and wellbeing but has also been shown to enhance effects of conventional treatments. The missing calories are then replaced with fat in the form of oily fish, avocados, olives, coconut products and also fatty cuts of meat.

“Cancer cells do not know how to metabolise fat in an effective way but they know exactly what to do with sugar. That is why the PET scans work so well because radioactive glucose is injected and the oncologist will see the cells which are metabolically more active.

“The likelihood is that these are cancer cells because they multiply rapidly, need fuel and, therefore, gobble up sugar at a much higher rate. Oncologists are using the underlying science of the ketogenic diet in diagnostics but not for management,” says Daly.

Kemp says she does not understand the reluctance by some doctors to acknowledge the link between sugar and cancer cells. “Maybe it is too simplistic to say ‘sugar feeds cancer’.

“Fair enough, it is more complex than that but the bottom line is cancer cells seem to require a lot more glucose than regular cells, and seem to thrive on it and do not seem to thrive as well on a diet that is fat-based.”

If someone implements a ketogenic diet in a safe and effective way, Daly says it has wide-ranging effects on cancer cells but also on wellbeing including better mood and focus, improved digestion, more energy, reduced cravings and clearer skin, possibly because of good hormone balance.

Kemp says they both feel strongly that the diets they followed helped support their systems during a difficult time. But they are very clear that their diet and lifestyle changes did not cure cancer and are not advocating you forgo traditional treatment for a ketogenic diet.

In the book, they write: “First and foremost, the benefits of a ketogenic diet have been shown when it is used alongside conventional treatments.

“There is no data to suggest that the diet by itself can treat, cure, maintain or manage cancer...the preclinical data is compelling but this data is for animals. and is case study based”.

“The ketogenic approach is complementary to other therapies and should not be considered an alternative or standalone treatment,” emphasises Daly.

Kemp’s diet is now low carb but she has gone with an 80/20 approach. “I run food businesses and have to have that flexibility, so I embrace leafy greens and good fats, including natural saturated fats, keep my protein moderate and really watch the amount of carbohydrates I eat.”

Is the medical world embracing this diet? “The ketogenic diet has been used for centuries in the management of uncontrollable epilepsy and many studies have shown that it’s a safe approach (Studies include Groesbeck, Bluml and Kossoff, 2006).

“When it comes to other diseases, we’re only just at the beginning of obtaining “hard data” from clinical trials.

“We actually already have a considerable amount of evidence in the form of laboratory and pre-clinical data and new studies appear on almost a weekly basis. It’s such a rapidly evolving field now that it can no longer be ignored,” says Daly.

Recipes

Kemp says some of her favourite recipes in the book are the roast shoulder of lamb, the salsas, pestos as well as the soups and low-carb crackers. Daly’s favourites are the organ meats because they give her energy, are easy to prepare and taste much nicer than people think.

Both women are keen to emphasise that this is no fad diet. There is no insta-Kardashian filtered outcome promised with this cookbook, nor would Kemp and Daly want you to think that. This is something that could help you if you are looking for support during cancer treatment.

“As Dr Dominic D’Agostino, from the University of South Florida, recently stated, the ketogenic diet is anything but a fad diet but a very powerful metabolic therapy. I actually don’t like calling it a ‘diet’ because it is so much more than that.

“The more we discover about keto, the more we realise what potential it has to make a difference,” says Daly.

They sit in front of me like sisters with a secret, having gone through an experience and fought it with guts and fervour. The level of pain, sickness and anguish both have gone through, while permeating their lives, has not ebbed their bright spirits and I leave in awe of these women who remain very much ordinary about their extraordinariness.

Visit: theketogenickitchen.com

Many thanks.
Team Alchemy

Note: This article was first published in The Irish Times Health supplement.

KETOGENIC KITCHEN HAS LAUNCHED!!

We were delighted to host the launch of The Ketogenic Kitchen by Alchemy founder Domini Kemp and nutritional therapist Patricia Daly here in BT2 last Tuesday. It was a really great evening with a huge turnout. All were agreed that the book was much more than a cookbook and was indeed a way to change your eating habits forever and pursue a healthier lifestyle.

Nicki Howard of Gill Books, which publishes The Ketogenic Kitchen, also revealed at the launch that the book had been snapped up by an American publisher which means it will get distributed in the United States. That is huge news for any Irish book and we are thrilled for Domini and Patricia.

Domini Kemp and Patricia Daly at the launch of The Ketogenic Kitchen in BT2 Grafton Street. Photo: Conor O Mearain

The book itself was launched by the legendary and hugely knowledgeable John McKenna of McKenna’s Guides. He spoke so eloquently about how important the book was for people interested in eating well and for those going through treatment for serious illness or aiming to reduce the risk of contracting one. He rather aptly said that The Ketogenic Kitchen was “a health service that actually worked”.

John also mentioned the ‘Low carb. High fat. Extraordinary health’ theme of the book, saying how crucial it is that we reassess our approach to eating and acknowledge that ‘good’ fats are not ‘bad’. He also mentioned this article by Ian Leslie in The Guardian which got more than one million hits recently:
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/apr/07/the-sugar-conspiracy-robert-lustig-john-yudkin.
Definitely worth reading!

Patricia and Domini also spoke on the night about the separate journeys that led them to writing The Ketogenic Kitchen together. Both have had cancer and gone through rigorous treatment for it. Both pointed out that their book was not about replacing conventional medical treatment but about making sure you are in as good condition as possible when undergoing it. When you buy the book, you will be able to read more about their fascinating and extremely moving stories. They are both very practical women who knew they had to look into what was happening to their bodies during treatment and we are lucky they have produced such a fantastic and useful book.

You can also listen to them talking to Shane Coleman on The Pat Kenny Show on Newstalk here: http://www.newstalk.com/podcasts/The_Pat_Kenny_Show/The_Pat_Kenny_Show_Highlights/135787/How_can_food_help_your_battle_with_cancer

And here’s another medical professional talking about The Ketogenic Kitchen:

“What you eat, (and don’t eat), how you eat, the amount you eat, the nutritional supplements you take, the way you manage your stress and emotions, the support you receive, the amount of rest, physical activity and sleep you get, and the level of happiness, awareness and meaning you have in your life, all play a vital role in the cancer recovery process. Lets take the first one – what you eat (and don’t eat). When I provide advise to clients with cancer, I talk about two very different diets. The pesco-vegetarian, Mediterranean style diet and the Ketogenic diet. Of course there are many other options, but these are the two I focus on. They both have pros and cons. If someone is highly motivated, willing to learn about the ketogenic diet and committed to being on the Ketogenic diet (and has the support of those within their household) then this is often the best option – especially if that client has high fasting insulin / glucose levels and/or is overweight. If someone lacks motivation, and doesn’t really care about food, then we focus on cutting out sugar and processed foods, avoiding foods to which they are sensitive/intolerant and maximizing nutrient intake. Some clients start with a Ketogenic diet and then transition to a Mediterranean diet after six months or so. Others will remain on the Ketogenic diet. Why? Because they feel great! The challenge was, up until now, a lack of access to Ketogenic recipes that taste great. That has all changed with the arrival of the Ketogenic Kitchen. The Ketogenic Kitchen is a wonderful, practical resource for the person who wants to improve their health by shifting to ketone–based metabolism. This is the cookbook that my clients and I have have been waiting for!”

Dr. Mark Atkinson MBBS
Mind-Body Medicine Physician, Cancer Recovery Advisor & Developer of the Cancer Recovery by Design Program

Many thanks and we hope you enjoy the book. It is truly a wonderful resource to have with so many tasty, healthy and easy-to-prepare recipes.

Team Alchemy

LOW CARB. HIGH FAT. EXTRAORDINARY HEALTH.

As you may already know, Domini Kemp and Patricia Daly’s new book, The Ketogenic Kitchen, is out next week. We feel this is a really important work and is not simply a great cookbook with excellent recipes. It is a life-changing work which presents a different approach to how we eat and what we should eat.

The Ketogenic Kitchen, Domini Kemp and Patricia Daly

In The Ketogenic Kitchen Domini and Patricia, who have both recently come through cancer, share with you exciting nutritional developments, which reveal that a diet low in carbohydrates and high in fat, in conjunction with the treatment recommended by medical professionals, offers new hope in the support of and protection against many chronic illnesses. Whether you are facing treatment, going through recovery or simply want to choose food that can keep you in long-term optimal health, The Ketogenic Kitchen offers advice and delicious recipes that will aid weight loss and leave you with higher energy levels and glowing good health.

Here’s what one doctor had to say about the book and about ketogenic diets:

“Public interest in ketogenic diets for the treatment of cancer and other challenging health conditions is growing rapidly; much faster, in fact, than the availability of high quality resources people can use to apply these valuable dietary principles to their daily lives. That is precisely what makes The Ketogenic Kitchen such a timely treasure.

“I follow a ketogenic diet myself, so I can tell you firsthand that it is safe, comfortable, and effective. While it can be challenging to learn and adjust to at first, the benefits are well worth it. As a psychiatrist with a special interest in nutrition and metabolism who studies, writes about, and prescribes ketogenic diets, I can tell you that they have uniquely powerful healing properties for the brain. Ketogenic diets have been used to treat a variety of complex neurological and psychiatric conditions, from epilepsy to Parkinson’s disease to Alzheimer’s dementia. There is even emerging evidence that people with bipolar disorder and other mood disorders may benefit from a ketogenic diet.

“These specially-formulated low-carbohydrate, adequate-protein, high-fat diets rescue us from the invisible roller coaster of blood sugar, insulin, and stress hormones that most people ride all day long without even realizing it. This dangerous pattern destabilizes brain chemistry, causing spikes and crashes in energy, mood, and concentration throughout the day. This is why I recommend low-carbohydrate/high-fat and ketogenic diets to my patients with mood and attention disorders.

“Ketogenic diets are not just good for the brain; they are good for the whole body. Conventional carbohydrate-based diets flood our bodies with sugar and wreak havoc with our metabolism, which can lead to type 2 diabetes, obesity, and other serious health problems, including cancer. It is firmly established that cancer cells thrive on glucose (sugar), and have a very difficult time burning fat, whereas most normal cells can easily burn fat for energy. Furthermore, excess glucose in the blood triggers insulin surges which promote the growth and multiplication of all cells, including cancer cells. Ketogenic diets nourish normal cells with healthy fats and proteins, shield them from the damaging effects of excess sugar, starch and protein (all of which can turn into glucose), while simultaneously depriving cancer cells of the fuel they need to grow and spread. There is no other nutritional approach that can do all of these wonderful things.

“Patricia Daly and Domini Kemp have written an authoritative guide that will help you put the powerful science of ketogenic principles to work in your daily life. Their hard-earned wisdom coupled with their culinary expertise set this book apart from other health-oriented cookbooks. For issues ranging from mental health disorders, to diabetes to cancer, The Ketogenic Kitchen will be indispensable to those seeking to incorporate a powerful, science-based nutritional approach into their comprehensive treatment plan.”

- Georgia Ede MD, psychiatrist and nutrition consultant
www.diagnosisdiet.com

Thanks and we hope you like the book.

Team Alchemy