In this interview we take another look at Iida’s plant-based cookbook: she shows us how it can be used to maintain a Paddison Program lifestyle and enjoy a variety of tasty meals!

• Iida’s book “A Kitchen Fairytale” and its low fat, plant based, oil free recipes
• Its focus on inflammation reducing foods, especially good in the first phase of the Program
• How she came to the decision of writing a cookbook
• The big success it’s having in the community
• Recipes for breakfast
• Advancements in the plant-based movement
• Pasta recipes
• Plant-based desserts
• How Iida started with the Paddison Program achieving impressive results

Clint – One of the questions that I get asked all the time is, once you’ve discovered the right way to eat with inflammatory arthritis, which is to eliminate the big three, which is meat, dairy and oils. Because that isn’t the most common way to eat in Western society. How can you put together some more meals that make you enjoy the meals that are good for the whole family? And also, of course, healing and keeping inflammation above absolute minimum? Well, around four years ago now, one of our community members and a good friend of mine now Iida, did really well following the Paddison Program so well in fact, that she then created a cookbook and released a cookbook and it was really, really popular. A lot of people since then, now four years later, may not even know this cookbook exists. So what we’ve done today is brought Iida back onto this podcast and she’s going to refresh our memories or tell us for the first time, if it’s new to you about her cookbook and how it’s all compatible with the Paddison Program. And after that, we’re going to catch up on her health because she’s now been through this lifestyle journey for many, many years, and it’d be great to hear how she’s doing and any modifications she’s made, any setbacks that she might have had and how she overcome them and how her family is doing after she went through a plant based pregnancy and cooking plant based meals at home. So we’ve got all that catch up ahead of us. But first, eat a welcome back. Great to have you back. How are you?

Iida – Hi, Clint. I’m good, I’m good thank you so much for having me back. I think it has been four years since we last spoke here. So, yeah, it’s absolutely lovely to be here and connect with the community again and also. Yeah, thanks for having me. Oh, it is always good here in rainy England.

Clint – Yes. And whenever you come on it’s always refreshing to because we’ve got people from all over the world and some people are in apartments or some people in, you know, shared living spaces and all that sort of stuff. And you get kitchens in the background and you get. Sometimes what appears to be like a garage or a workshop. You always have beautiful settings behind you with picturesque European gardens. Big Ceiling to floor windows, and it’s just really, really well, it’s almost like some interior decoration has been going on before we chat.

Iida – Yeah. it’s a good spot. I mean, I’m from Sweden and I do love kind of being close to nature. And also, we were so lucky to find this place here in England. Actually, 2015 which is when I went to the Paddison Program, so I’ve been living here all through this journey. It’s a very special place and it does feature a fair bit in the cookbook as well because I’ve taken all the photos in our garden and also.

Clint – Yes, yeah, the cookbook is beautiful. Let us get straight to the point here. People need more recipes. My skill is more in understanding the science and delivering the foods in a practical, pragmatic way. Your wonderful contribution has been to take those foods and say, well, let’s make them look wonderful, let’s make them taste delicious. So what’s the name of your book? Tell us the principles behind it and then we’ll go through some of your favorite recipes and where people can get the book because it’s coming up to Christmas and it might be a great opportunity to grab a copy. Okay, So let’s hear all about it, please.

Iida – Absolutely. I apologize this is my own copy and I do use it pretty much every day. So it’s a little bit well-worn, but it’s called the book is called A Kitchen Fairytale. It is available on on Amazon, it’s pretty much available everywhere. If you go into a bookshop, at least here in the UK, you can just place your order and they will they will get it in for you. And you can also order it from Hammersmith Books, the actual publisher. So maybe we can put a link in later on. And I think the Book depository down in Australia, there are a few places to get it, so I think we might just have to link them all. It is a good Christmas present because I mean, I myself keep meeting people who have various chronic illnesses and it is nice to be able to kind of refer to this and just say, you know what, actually maybe if you want to cook like this for a couple of months and see what happens. And so yeah, so for Christmas, it’s definitely, definitely a good idea. And yeah, What other questions did you have about.

Clint – So the principles behind it is essentially a low fat, plant based, oil free compilation, but beyond that of which there are a growing number of books on the market. This emphasizes a lot of the foods that are the ones that are most inflammation reducing that comprise some of the earlier parts of our program. So you have got foods in there like sweet potatoes and quinoa, there is a lot of leafy greens. And so this emphasis differentiates the book tremendously from just in general plant based book.

Iida – Absolutely. And I think mainly that is because when I started writing this book, that’s when I first of all, I went on the Paddison Program and then I started cooking, you know, kind of taking slight further steps forward, incorporating new foods and seeing what I was able to have without getting more inflammation. And a lot of people were asking me, they were trying the foods and they were saying, you know what, this is actually really delicious, I’ve never had known these foods before. Would you mind maybe sending me the recipe? And I was like, Oh, okay, well, I’ll just, you know, I’ll scribble down what I had. And the more I got these questions, the more I started keeping a log of these foods. And then I thought, you know what? Maybe I should write a cookbook because it has always been a dream of mine. It maybe not a plant based one initially before I went plant based. But actually, now that I know all the benefits of plants, that is, that’s a good idea. So I was taking these photos during my I think it was kind of my first year on the Pederson Program, actually. So it’s all real time, all the photography and everything has been taken during that time and that’s why all the foods are going to be featuring that are so incredibly good for us, that are keeping inflammation down and helping to heal the gut. And so yeah, that’s it’s essentially a from the first year of on the Paddison Program, which means that if it works for me, it’s likely to work for others as well.

Clint – Yes exactly.

Iida – Yeah, the feedback has just been so, so lovely because I think it can be quite a lonely journey as well. And then seeing that other people are actually going through the same thing like we have, you know, we have the forum and we have all of your podcasts and that and all of that. But then also having the foods that are very inclusive and lovely also for the rest of the family.

Clint – It minimizes some of the objection, I guess you would say, because people might be, might be really interested to reduce inflammation, they might be really, really, really determined. But then if, if the food becomes too laborious or it’s too plain to simple, too hard to get, then it just adds that extra level of friction to the healing process. So it’s a wonderful contribution. Let’s hear about some of the recipes, some and just give us some examples starting, if you could, with ones that you use the most or ones that you used to use the most.

Iida – Well. So yeah, in the beginning, I mean, I think that breakfast is always such an important part of the day, I cannot function without breakfast. And I did find that the, the quinoa and the buckwheat that you came up with that mix lends itself very, very well to breakfast. And I mean, this is just showing everything that’s so good for you. The nuts will be a later addition, but having papaya, quinoa, buckwheat, cinnamon is beautiful when it comes to anti-inflammatory. So this one is called apple infused quinoa and buckwheat porridge. I had that for the longest time. And then once you can have oats, I remember you’ve always talked about how oats are very, very good for you once you’re able to have them. I actually have quite a funny story. So here I have a recipe for steel cut oats and quinoa. And I went to New York probably I think I had been on the Paddison Program for about a month. And I got in, I went to Whole Foods, and I was at my hotel room, you know, thinking, okay, what can I cook in the hotel room? Because I won’t be able to have the hotel breakfast. And I went to Whole Foods and I bought these oats and I just poured hot water over them and I kept stirring and nothing happened for like half an hour. An hour they just didn’t cook. And in the end, I realized I had bought steel, cut oats, which I had never tried before. And you know what? They are beautiful. They’re my absolute favorite oats, if you can boil them. So if you have the opportunity to try steel cut oats, definitely do. But you won’t be able to cook them just with some hot water in a mug in a hotel room. Little tip there.

Iida – Just so for breakfast as well once you’re having porridge and other absolute favorite of mine is a rice porridge, which is what in Finland, which is where my family comes from. We always have rice porridge on the 24th of December, because that’s our day. That’s kind of our Christmas day. You know, Santa will arrive and we’ll have a beautiful dinner and all, but the morning will always be with rice porridge. And that can so easily be made with any any plant milks. If you obviously if you can have nuts, you can have almond milk. But I find that oat milk is very good as well. I’ve never tried things like hemp milk with this, but you know, it’s always worth a try. And I actually think that with with all these recipes, they don’t have to be followed exactly. So I tried to create them so that you guys can like anyone who’s using them, can actually remove something that they are not yet able to have and just include something that that will work better for them. So, you know, if someone can’t have, let’s say, butternut squash, they can use carrots instead and things like that so I think that’s quite an important one. You don’t have to follow it rigidly. You can definitely make modifications.

Clint – Yeah, that’s great.

Iida – Yeah. So. Oh, and the funny thing is, is now obviously that I have two kids now, one is going to be three in January. The girl, Adelaine and our oldest one Johannes will he just two and five. Adelaine is such an avid porridge person. In the mornings you’ll wake up and you’ll be like, Mummy, I’d like some porridge. And I’m like, Okay. But to get that going quickly, as you would decide, was going to go in there and it’s always things like know she loves peanut butter, peanut butter, raisins. I tend to put in black stuff molasses because it’s very good for Iron levels and the other kids are just always absolutely devouring it. So this is a good porridge.

Clint – It’s proven by the proven by the five and three year old’s.

Iida – Exactly. And then obviously, the Buckwheat Healing buckwheat pancakes. These were I’m probably not the only person in the world who absolutely loves pancakes. So these ones were very, very good in the beginning. I still have friends who are just talking about them and making them over and over again and our kids. So this is quite a messy page. But we we do this almost every week. These are the sunshiny pancakes. They’ve got banana and oats, which are always just perfect for making any pancakes really.

Clint – So it’s good. Yeah. These are fantastic.

Iida – So, you know. Yeah. Breakfast. I find breakfast to be very straightforward, quite easy to make all the use using all the ingredients that you can have in the beginning. And when you get a little bit more advanced and maybe you can have tofu, there is something with scrambled tofu and this is basically what you’ll get in a in a hotel if you go for for breakfast. There are a lot of a lot of scrambled tofu versions around. Quite often they will have oil, so it’s always worth checking if you’re eating out. I don’t see the point, I think that they are it’s perfect without. I actually find I don’t know if you do as well cleanse but if I have something and I realize that there has been oil because you know, you go to a restaurant and you say, oh, no, no oils, please or my usual sentence will be, I’m on a medical diet. So vegan, no oils. And that usually gets people to kind of go, oh, okay, paying a bit of extra attention if they don’t and there is some oil in the food. I do find that it I don’t enjoy the taste, it tastes almost rancid to me. It tastes like there is something in there that just doesn’t that isn’t a food.

Clint – Yeah. I’m trying to sort of check in with my response system. And I think that a lot of it’s intellectual. And I just think what I do is I actually if you take a little bit of sample of you can you can see it listening so you know something’s up. And if you rub it on to your lips and then rub your lips together and breathe in over the over your lips, if it dries out quickly and evaporates, it’s water. And it’s just, I think different sorts of processed starches can be used that look like oil, but aren’t oil. Melissa cooks with one or two of them and I’m always, gee, that seems like oil. And she’s like, no. And she explains like it. But yeah, if it evaporates quickly on your lips then and you slide them back and forth, left and right, breathing in and disappears, then I’m comfortable with it. But if it remains, I just think this is this is just, this is too much. Yeah.

Iida – That’s it. Exactly.

Clint – And I just think stodgy.

Iida – And it’s so great that the plant based kind of movement has made such advances in the last few years. I feel since 2015, I think we were starting to go in the right direction. It was starting to get a little bit easier, but definitely in the next kind of two years after that. But you started getting even, you know, even walking into a pub here, there is a separate there was a separate vegan menu in I think about 2017, and I was just blown away. But the problem is that quite a lot of it will be processed, processed burgers and sausages and things that just don’t quite work with awesome that won’t have the health benefits of real food. And yeah, I mean our kids for example that they don’t, they’re not keen on any of the if I’ve tried to make like I’ve got a bought one of those burgers and cooked it for them and they’re just not, not very interested.

Clint – Interesting. Our kids are similar, they’ll eat them. So there is some different brands that make plant based alternative chicken tasting or whatever. They’ve never had the chicken, so they don’t know what the what the actual chicken type is thinks has some kind of flavor to it. But no, they it’s it’s not the easiest not for us around the table with their eating They we had black beans and rice tonight and it was pretty easygoing. You know you don’t want to have to parent their eating too much but on the nights that they’ve got those meat alternatives, normally soy based things. Yeah, it’s often a little bit. Come on, guys, Eat a meal, come on.

Iida – There is one brand of of kind of a plant based sausage that our son will will really enjoy, and that’s about it there is one. And our job to kind of push it to the side and have our potatoes and peas or whatever, you know, whatever she’s having. So, yes, I find that quite funny because they have obviously never had meat.

Clint – Yes, right.

Iida – They wouldn’t know what to compare it with.

Clint – Yeah, exactly. Give us a couple more recipes there.

Iida – Sure. I think with breakfasts, that’s it. These were know lifesaver in the beginning for me. So these are what I call them super humble sushi rolls because you can stuff them with any veggies that you can actually have. And our favorites including the kids who absolutely love making these as well. You know, you put the Nori sheet down, you put the rice down, and then you just add a kind of strips of avocado. And a very, very good one is actually oven baked sweet potato that just lifts it up to a whole different level.

Clint – Yeah. I had that last night at a friend’s house, they made it for us. It was it was so great because we haven’t had that for a while in our house. But yeah, oven baked sweet potato, no oil. And that just is so, so nice. Yeah. I’ve never had that inside sushi rolls, but that would be next level.

Iida – That’s. Yeah. Yeah. No it’s really lovely. It just marries up so well with like abo and if you want to have tofu or cucumber, just any asparagus is really good in there. I mean I end up just stuffing them with too many and then I’m just like not rolling the little ones. I’m like, Oh, I can totally do this. And the kids are getting a bowl and it does like I really want some. I also had a friend who made some baked sweet potatoes for us when we went over for dinner and she had like a black bean sauce with that, and it was just absolutely divine. So there we go. So, yeah, the sushi is definitely a favorite. You’ll find yeah, there is a similar one, obviously, with summer rolls. I believe you guys might be going into summer now. We’re heading into Deep Winter, and the summer rolls are also just such a game changer. You just stuffed them with whatever you absolutely love, and then you’ll be dipping them in your favorite sauce. If you’re using miso paste, you can do like, tahini. So, for example, maple syrup or some other sweetener that you I don’t like calling them sweetness because sweetener has such a bad ring to it. I think of artificial sweeteners, but at least that’s never what I would refer to maple syrup or molasses or anything. So if you’re using miso paste and it’s an unpasteurised one, just make sure you do not pour boiled water, so 100 degree water in there because obviously it’ll kill off the good or the good bacteria. So yeah, the summer rolls are just absolutely divine. Pasta, we eat a fair bit of pasta. So spaghetti, spaghetti Bolognese, this one is what is called with a lentil with a lentil ragu, red lentils. I found that red lentils didn’t agree with me for a very long time, whereas green lentils seem to be better, even if I had been soaking them. So, you know, you can always try with different lentils whatever you find have kind of worked best for you. Something that you’re not reacting to.

Clint – Some people at this point, when they see the pasta, they just think, oh, that’s that just seems too good to be true. You know, I’m meant to be on a on a diet that feels like it’s focused on healing and so forth. But let me just jump in and say, hang on a second, you can totally eat pasta. So if you’re able to eat white rice, basmati rice, it has been processed and processing going on. And if that’s okay, you’re not far away from being able to eat pasta. And it’s something that is just opens up just a world of happiness because it restricts you from feeling you can only have the pseudo grains and some rice and maybe some lentils or stuff. But to be able to feel like you’ve opened up that that Italian angle, it’s just really uplifting. So I’d encourage anyone who’s listening to this and thinking, that’s beyond me. Just test some pasta, test just a little bit like a baby’s or a child’s serving. Have it one night alongside your vegetables as a side and if you’ve got no problem, wonderful is huge opportunity there. So then you can have some pasta meal once a week and just breaks up everything the family can get involved. It’s just opens up so much, so much more. And you yeah.

Iida – You do want to check the ingredients, I just found the brown rice pasta it’s just 100% brown rice. And it obviously just being processed into looking like pasta. I very early on discovered it in the first few months, I think, and was able to just use it. I mean, I do remember going to a restaurant in London and I called them ahead of time and I just said kind of a no-oil vegan, medical diet. What they made for me was pasta with tomato sauce, and they had just cut up very thin little bits of butternut in there. It was absolutely gorgeous, it was so, so delicious. And that definitely inspired me into like into using especially Butternut in a lot of recipes because we know that kind of squashes pumpkins are so, so good for the gut as well. Now after Halloween, I mean, I was so excited to use the pumpkins that we were carving. Turns out those are not the best to use because they didn’t stay very good. But we did have a few that we kind of just like left out, standing as they were. And also the kind of mini ones that the kids had picked out. They thought it was really exciting to eat those. And pumpkin lends itself really well also to porridge, so you can just kind of puree your pumpkin with water. You can just pour it into your porridge because you’re suddenly getting a ton of goodness in there with porridge. You can actually if you want to do some hidden veg, you can also do a very, very finely grated zucchini and get that into your oats, which they call zoats, because it’s just it’s absolutely delicious, it just makes it creamier and lovely. And zucchini is also very good to cook, to bake with instead of oil. Yeah. So that’s. Yeah. I’m passed down on the pasta topic, definitely try it. And I think it’s worth trying it with a fair bit of greens in the beginning possibly. So it just helps break it down in the guts.

Clint – Absolutely. Alright, well give us maybe one more and then we’ll talk about how you’re doing and, and get some other updates.

Iida – Yeah, sure. I’ll give you my absolute favorite and this is a slightly more advanced one because it does have cashews.

Clint – Yes.

Iida – This is a cheesy cashew cream sauce. So this is what the kids in my house know as carbonara. So you just make it and you use a lot of good. That’s what I love about plant based cooking, you add things like nutritional yeast, which will bring some beautiful B12 into it and all that, and that will just give you kind of like a cheesy flavor. But I do think that you need to add a little bit of lemon juice to your nutritional yeast because that marries together really well and gets more of a like a mummy flavor to it. So. Yep. Yeah. So you just mix this in with your pasta and then you will add whatever black beans or I do find green lentils to be really good as well. And then just lots of lots of veg chopped up spinach. I was going to say something else about that. Oh, yeah. So this sauce is also really good if you want to make an extra creamy mash. So if you’re making mashed potatoes, you can add this into it and it just becomes a very luxurious, luxurious mash that will go with, you know, any gravies or anything that you’re making. I do have a mushroom gravy in here as well, which is really delicious.

Speaker2 – That’s awesome.

Clint – You touched upon a few things that we’ve just had in the last few days because going through Thanksgiving, my wife coming from Florida does Thanksgiving no matter where we live. And so we had mushroom gravy that she made, which is off the charts. And we had mashed potato, which all the kids love except Aiden the four-year-old he’s not into that yet. But the other two just like creating all sorts of with wonderful vocals. And then there was something else that you said as well on top of that that I was going to mention all the nutritional yeast. Nutritional yeast, again, if you’re enjoying this information, test your nutritional yeast, because if you haven’t ever tested it and you’re not in the first month or two of the program, then it’s totally worth testing it. Because once you get a nutritional yeast for that problem, not just the nutritional benefits but the flavors, eventually. The flavors just mean you can add it on to old things and it’s sort of like a cheese replacement and you can cut it, use it in a way that feels modern and you put it on different foods.

Iida – It’s so funny. Our kids if I give it to them and I really want them to like, come on, let’s just eat the food. Now. I’ll accidentally put a tiny bit too much and they’re like, whoa. And I’m like, Oh, no, I just put too much on there. Like, I’m totally having this before you can take it away. And I was also just going to say that there are a lot of desserts in here as well, by the way, which you’ll be able to have. I had these I think I made these for my birthday, which was probably about four months into the Paddison Program, because, you know, it’s oat-based. You don’t even have to put in the baking powder or the baking soda, and they just won’t kind of rise. But it’ll still be amazing because it uses like an apple sauce as the oil. It’s got a bit of maple syrup and oat milk and then just, you know, raspberries and blueberries and you can use almond flour. If you can’t have almonds, then just skip that. Just use more oats. So yeah, you can definitely kind of indulge. And here is the that’s coconut yogurt on top there, and this is a really yummy, yummy chocolate brownie. And this Yeah, the banana walnut bread. This I’m actually using when I’m making birthday cakes these days. So in the middle, I just had like layers of of mashed banana and what is it I might use either like smashed blueberries or blueberry jam if you’re in a bit of a hurry. Then you just like cover it up with coconut yogurt or whatever is available. So yeah, they’re all looking I think with fruit, and berries, you know, everything becomes kind of dessert anyway.

Clint – Well, something that I think that it’s good to keep in mind here is that when we see all this laid out on pages and see how it demystifies the cooking process and actually presents us with an opportunity to enhance our lives through delicious foods that doesn’t feel that far away and that’s important. We don’t need to, and nor should we deliberately stay on a small range of foods for a long time. We need to be expanding our food base. The more plant based foods we eat, the better our diversity in our gut. this is linked to health. So we definitely want to be doing that and going through those pictures and seeing all the foods that we can either eat now in a slightly more flavorsome and interesting way or even see those foods that we’re just out of reach for that we might be willing to give it a go because we’ve got the allure of that wonderful meal that we could then eat if we could just have that one extra thing so safely.

Iida – Thank you, and also adding leafy greens, like we said, I mean, kale and spinach are such a staple in our house, it’ll be in pretty much of everything. I mean, the kids have probably never seen a smoothie without either kale or spinach, they will think that that’s one of your bases every smoothie comes with that. So I think that definitely helped me because it just helps break down all the foods, and in the beginning, yeah, especially. But then just trying to keep it on. I’ve been listening to some really interesting podcasts by Plant Strong, Rip Esselstyn Yeah. Dr. Sutton. And there is also just so much interesting information coming from there, a lot about leafy greens. I know that his mom is very much about all the leafy greens and how much she uses in her kitchen. So yeah, it’s also another good source to refer back to you if you have any questions.

Clint – Yeah. Well, thank you for all that. If people want to go and get a copy of the book, I highly recommend it. There’s nothing in there that you need to be careful about if you’re feeling sensitive to foods. The only thing I would say is just to reiterate something, we’ve already gone over there. There’ll be some foods in there that you not maybe able to eat just yet. If that’s okay, then omit them or just choose another recipe. There’s a lot there. And then with time you’ll be able to eat more foods and then you’ll be able to work your way through more and more of the recipes in the book. It’s wonderful and thank you for making it. I mean, what a great contribution. So that’s awesome.

Iida – Thank you for showing me the path to be able to make these foods because it’s just everything. I think everything just kind of fell into place for me when I learned a lot of the Paddison Program and read up more as well. I think for me it was quite important to try to educate myself as much as I could. And there are so many podcasts, you know, all the materials and doctor Klaper, and all of that information is so easily available. And if one ever feels I don’t know, you know, you can sometimes eat, lose, you know, lose my motivation or inspiration and then I just find that indulging I’ve said this before. Indulging yourself in YouTube videos and there are lovely, lovely bits on Instagram as well that this kind of short little videos that they make that just show you that, Oh, yeah, actually this is a good idea. So, yeah, definitely.

Clint – The fact that I haven’t heard much from you in our community tells me that you’re doing great. Remind us of the diagnosis, remind us of where you got to and then the ups and downs during and after pregnancy, and then how you are now.

Iida – Okay. Yeah. So my diagnosis was given to me back in 2015. It all started in 2014 with I had a very swollen knee for many months that no one was able to figure out what it was. And I think it took about six months before I was referred to the rheumatology department, and they said that I had ANA-positive oligoarthritis, which is just a different type of inflammatory arthritis. And I started the medication only six months later because I was getting married in the summer and I was quite worried about the side effects. So I was just kind of limping around until then and I got hives all over my body When I that medication. I think I had been taking it for about two weeks, maybe I had not seen any improvement. I had only felt I do remember how awful it was, like a very metallic feeling in my body and in my head. And I just knew that this was not the way that I needed to be treating this situation. So, yeah, after two weeks, I ended up in the emergency room and I came off the medication and I was told that there was only one other medication that I would be able to take if I wanted to get pregnant because the other ones would not be safe during pregnancy. And my husband and I just got married and we were hoping to have children quite, quite soon. So yeah, So instead I did I was reading a book where they were talking about gluten, and I just thought, you know, there is nothing to lose here, I’ll just cut out gluten, dairy and sugar. Within two weeks I didn’t need any medication, my symptoms have pretty much gone away completely. The rheumatologist just said, whatever you do and keep doing it, and yeah, I felt amazing. I was still having fish, eggs, and meat at the time and it took me maybe a couple of months to find the Paddison Program. And when I read your book, everything just kind of fell into place. I think because it tells you the whys as well, why you have why, why you need to do it this way. And so I literally from one day to the next, I just stopped with all the animal products and all the oils. I did the elimination diet and yeah, and because I remember that, I just never wanted to risk this happening to me again. That’s why I continued my research after having done my own initial changes. After that it was kind of maybe not smooth sailing, but it was pretty straightforward for me, and obviously writing down all the recipes. I remember how much I was just absolutely loving this lifestyle, it’s as if everything just kind of fell into place for me. I’ve always been a huge animal lover and also for that side of things as well, because you are so disconnected to where your food comes from, even in our modern society, really.

Iida – So and yeah, then in 2006, a year after that, yeah, I fell pregnant. I had an amazing pregnancy with our son. Everything was just all the levels were tiptop. And he was born and he absolutely loved food when we started introducing it. Well, the first time he tried avocado, he did cry. But then after that, he’s been such a big Avo fan that, you know, he’ll have it most days. And our daughter came in 2020, so right before COVID hit. With her, it was a slightly different pregnancy. I don’t know if it’s because it was a girl or whatever, but I went off salads so strongly I just could not stand salads for probably took me about a year to get back from falling pregnant when all this started to when I could have that again. So I think that that possibly would have contributed because your diet is not going to be as perfect if you can’t have salads. And so yeah, with her I had some low iron levels and I tried they did give me a tablet for that, and I actually had a reaction in a finger I could feel when a joint kind of gets really, really sore. That just completely freaked me out, so for four days I just went on a full Paddison Program, you know, the kind of initial stages just to stop that. And then I just over like overindulged almost in leafy greens for the rest of the pregnancy and it just cleared up the iron levels went back up again.

Clint – How about that? And so even though you didn’t like the leafy greens, you forced yourself.

Iida – Yeah. So it was more actual kind of salad salad that I couldn’t have, sorry lettuce, those kinds of greens, so any kind of raw greens. But if I would, if I were to cook it I was able to, to have it if that makes sense.

Clint – Right. Right. Yeah. You did like a Popeye thing and did cook spinach sort of thing.

Iida – I sure did. Oh, so much. And it’s interesting because apparently when you have low Iron levels, especially during pregnancy, I would love crunching away on ice. It’s like it’s an addiction, yeah, you can read about it if you look it up online. So all I wanted was just to eat ice all the time, that was just very, very unexpected. And then, you know, then she came along, had a home birth. I remember just mentioning it to the midwife. I just said to her that, Oh, yeah, I’ve be considering home birth. She’s like, That is excellent. I will refer you to the home birth team. And I was like, Oh, oh, okay, all right. I do love it here, they are so encouraging about kind of anything natural, actually, in my experience. So I had this amazing midwife team that just came here and they came here for the birth as well. And, I did Hypnobirthing, which I would just recommend anyone to do, even if you don’t intend to have, you know, well whatever birth you’re intending to have just to hypnobirthing is fantastic. The birth took a very long time with her for various reasons, and hypnobirthing got me through it because I wasn’t able to have any guests in there, I wasn’t able to be in the pool. Everything too slowed it down. So I basically had a birth without anything and with Hypnobirthing it was still an amazing experience.

Clint – We got talking about that right? I think Melissa, my wife with you because I don’t know if she has the hospital record that I want in the first for her first child. She came in the door and was holding the baby within 46 minutes and she beat that with the second child in the door. And it was in the 30-something minutes. But but that’s nothing to be proud of because I was actually just we left home too late, like that was just too close. So we were told to stay at home until we were in an advanced stage and then to call the midwives and they would assess her breathing and had conversations with her over the phone. And then based on that, tell really where she was at in the labour, after a few questions were answered and I was pretty blasé and said, oh, you know, they said, wait a little longer. And then her mother, who was staying with us at the time, said, Clint, you need to take her now. I’m like, okay, So off we went. And yeah, then it was 30 something minutes with Ariel. So yes, and Hypnobirthing the whole way, I mean, she was a textbook off that book and I’d rehearsed with her and I’d memorized all the lines I need to say and reminded her how to breathe and what to say to. I mean, a very, very effective, effective book.

Iida – It is. And I mean, I remember before the first one, I did have a friend, I just said, Oh yeah, I’m doing Hypnobirthing. And she’s like, Oh, was the contractions set in? You know, you will forget all about that. And I really didn’t, I did not find that at all. I just found that you were even more in your body and you’re so. Yeah, because you guys gave some really, really good tips on literally just relax and breathe as low down as you can and that’s it. Like, you can write a whole book about it. But for me, that’s, that’s what did it.

Clint – So yeah, I remember us exchanging emails about it.

Iida – Yeah exactly. I came across those the other day. I was like, that makes so much sense. I’m always like, Yeah, Anyway, So no, that was incredible And it was amazing to have her at home and we had prepared everything and, and yeah, the midwives were here. It was very funny because we had a couple of them, I think they always came in two, and they were just sitting there kind of drinking tea at the table going, I didn’t know this about plant based cooking. Oh my goodness, this looks so delicious. And I was like, Yeah, I’m just going to. Yeah. So with this recipe, you literally just like you cook the potatoes and then I’m just going to say, you know, hours of that, that that was very funny.

Clint – I love it. I love it. Yeah. That’s awesome. And so has there been I don’t know if we kind of close the loop of when you were having a few sore fingers during one of the pregnancies related to a medication that you took. But I mean, just generally, what we really want to know is like, are you still doing well? Is everything still on track or have the wheels fallen off? And does this thing not work?

Iida – Oh, my goodness, it works 100% this is what I live by. And I will say, you know, with kids, we are always out and about. I love doing things, I’m always doing things with the kids. So from time to time, if you’re absolutely starving and there is nothing to eat except we’ve had like these veggie straws that are not really veggie straws, they’re just crisps, they’ve got oil in them. They’re obviously vegan, but there is oil in them. So I’ve had things like that from time to time. And I will know in my body that this just isn’t the right thing to do. I did get I actually got some hormonal migraines after my second one. And I know that that’s because from time to time I would kind of, you know, have oil that I shouldn’t have had. And I spoke to a plant-based doctor over here about it, and she said, oh, I was so surprised to see that you would have that, because I know that you’re whole food plant based. And I said, Yeah, from time to time there has been some oil kind of sneaking in. And she’s like, Yeah, that’s that, that’s it. So all I did was just sort myself out, and now I know how to, to manage that. And I can still kind of feel like I will know that if I have anything, anything like that right now, because they’re always hormonal, they will come at the same time of the month. If I will have something, something naughty at this stage, then this could kick off. It was worst right after I stopped breastfeeding her when all the hormones are kicking in because I have always underestimated the hormones and how much they can actually affect us. But I’ve seen it firsthand now. So after stopping breastfeeding that kicked in and it was very bad initially. And then when I understood what was happening, I was able to keep an eye on that. And yeah, it’s okay now.

Clint – So it’s it’s a cumulative thing, isn’t it? So just the hormones alone, based on your equilibrium that you’ve established, probably no problem. But hormones plus a little bit of oil creeping in, for instance, processed foods and your body says, no, it’s just a little bit too much. I’m going to show up some symptoms in the body and you’re like, okay, that’s my threshold, I know where I’m at exactly. We have all these influencing factors, and so at any one time we’re influencing our vitamin D, our essential fatty acids ratio between omega 6 to omega 3, whether or not we are physically active, the quality of sleep, the foods we’re eating, all of these things, they’re all sort of this dance of balance. This is why people think, Oh, I’ve had some random flare. No, you haven’t, it’s just one of the balls that you’re juggling. Yeah, you’ve stopped that and things are collapsing and it’s a consequence of something that’s caused so well done. So great to hear that you’re doing great. You’ve got two kids, you’ve got a picturesque background for all you zoom.

Iida – Give me some sunshine now and vitamin D, that would be lovely.

Clint – Life’s busy and you’ve got so much other things on your mind, but just trying to recover. You’re now in the process of living.

Iida – That’s it. And I think, you know, I’ve been wanting to write this the next cookbook, which will be a family one, and I kind of put all this pressure on myself and I was trying to write down the recipes while I had had two kids to look after and one of them is mainly at home with me all the time. I am, yeah, on my own during the weeks, mainly because my husband is working quite a lot. So in the end, I just realized that I do need to kind of shelve that project for the time being and just be here and be here in the moment because that just makes such a difference to your kind of well-being, just your mental well-being. I think not having if you’re able to just, just take it a little bit easy and then it’ll just come, I think more automatically like the first book did. So my wish is to be able to write that eventually and it’ll come out because the recipes are pretty much ready, I Just need to kind of put it all together.

Clint – I watch my friends who don’t have children and I speak to them on the phone and I hear about what they’re up to. Like, I’m actually in disbelief at the sort of ways that they consume their time with seemingly just endless amounts, trivialities, all that. You seen that movie yet? I mean, the movies in like six years, what are you talking about? Eight? Except for a kids film me We went and watched the other day. We were actually written more than what we saw, like one of those million films about. That’s why I’m still babysitting, right? I’m still with children.

Iida – Exactly. So do you need to go to the toilet right now? Really? Just sat down and it just. Okay, that’s fine. Let’s go. Let’s go. That’s right.

Clint – So they’re doing these wacky things, driving from I could make and just share this stuff with you. But anyway, so. Yeah. And then you have kids and you can’t even find time to use the bathroom without being interrupted.

Iida – Exactly.

But anyway, everyone else knows this. We’re not teaching anything new at the moment, so why don’t we leave it there? And I just want to thank you all. Thank you once again for all that you’ve done. And when that book next book comes out, we’ll get you back on and we’ll do this again about your new book. And in the meantime, stay healthy and keep just living.

Iida – Thank you. Thank you for everything again. Thank you.