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Writer's pictureDr Rav James

Rav’s Kitchen: My 13 Kitchen Culture Rules

“Food as medicine” is one of my strongest #BadAssMedicine mantras.


For me and my family, health starts in the kitchen. The kitchen isn’t just a room in the house, it is a culture. It is where we connect, talk, argue (read: “debate”), share the food preparation duties, taste, laugh and eat. It’s always a mess. Leaves, stems, peels, water, pot lids, food for the compost heap… it’s a living and loving room.


Here are 13 rules of our kitchen culture at home:

  1. Good quality, unprocessed foods only

  2. No sugar ever

  3. We all know our oils, even my four-year-old: We know which to never touch, which to use on salads, which can be gently heated, which we can fry with, and which not to heat

  4. We almost never make use of the microwave (Ryan occasionally cheats at lunchtime if he has a meeting to get to – but I’m not happy about it)

  5. Make BIG, inventive salads that are generous with the olive oil

  6. Add seeds, nuts, herbs and spices as much as possible

  7. In terms of red meat we stick to grass-fed venison and organic liver as much as we can

  8. Greens, greens and more greens (broccoli, lettuce, watercress, rocket, green beans, kale, spinach, cabbage)

  9. Recycle as much plastic as possible

  10. Everyone contributes… the kitchen is a place where we can all be creative and thoughtful, not just mama!

  11. Never put warm or hot leftovers into plastic Tupperware. Use glass storage as much as possible and never re-use plastic water bottles. In fact avoid plastic water bottles as much as possible

  12. Never plate-up in the kitchen: Always put all the food in the middle of the table and encourage the kids to take the quantity that their body is needing on the day, with gentle salad and vegetable reminders

  13. Always phone close friends and family and ask them to remind us about good recipes that they have made us, on the phone, while we’re doing it

There are more that I have forgotten I’m sure. But these are the ones that form the basis of our kitchen culture.


What’s your kitchen culture? Are there any that you would add to this list?






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3 Comments


byronandval
Mar 02, 2021

Thanks so much Rav.


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byronandval
Feb 26, 2021

Hey Rav - great tips - can you elaborate on the oils........which to never touch, which to use on salads, which can be gently heated, which we can fry with, and which not to heat. I hear such mixed things about frying with olive oil.

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rav
Mar 02, 2021
Replying to

Hi Byron & Val, I never touch vegetable oils as they are highly processed and high in omega 6. Omega 6 in itself is not an issue, but our diets have a much higher ratio of omega 6 to omega 3 - which creates an inflammatory environment.

Different oil have different 'smoking points' - which guides the max temperature at which you can use them. Animal fats are more stable at higher temperatures than plant based fats.

Cooking with rendered animal fat (as our grandparents did, before supermarkets/food industry was around) or good quality (grass fed) butter, like Kerrygold, is safe for higher temperature cooking such as frying. Though I wouldn't recommend frying as we know that the charring of…

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