Nothing drives me crazier than bad chopping knives.
Why?
‘Cause it makes cooking a pain in the arse! I don’t blame anyone for hating food prep if they have a bad knife and don’t know how to chop efficiently… which in my experience is most people! But most people simply do not realize what they’re missing out on.
I’m pretty passionate about this topic… I bring my beloved chopping knife everywhere because I realize just how much easier it makes my life. Plus – NO ONE I visit ever seems to have a good knife (except my mom hehe) so I am forced to bring my own.
Do yourself a favour and get a good knife. You can get ones that do the job well and aren’t even expensive. However, it is really important that you choose the right shape of knife, or you’re still up the creek. Sharpness, while important, is definitely not the most important factor – it’s all in the shape!
Do yourself a favour – watch the video below to find out what sort of knife to buy and how to chop your food properly for efficiency and grace!
Clarification on the chopping technique:
The tip of the knife stays on the cutting board the entire time and simply slides and back forth as the back part goes up and down. It’s very fluid when you’re going fast enough (it is important that your knife is sharp while chopping like this so that it cuts through the food and doesn’t bounce off and cut your fingers).
This technique is awkward at first and you will surely be resistant to the change, but I swear it’s so much easier and faster once you get the hang of it.
Do you have a good knife? If not, do you hate chopping? Do you chop the slow way?
Ah! Mine has a tapered blade. =( And it’s really short. Deary me. I will have to keep my eyes out for a better one. I do have a difficult time chopping up sweet potatoes, which could be dangerous due to the risk of slippage when such high pressure are involved (as are needed to get through that dense root).
Yep it’s definitely that tapered blade that makes chopping tough stuff like sweet potatoes really difficult and dangerous
ughhh frustrated that this was the post 🙁 ive been looking forward to a post since last friday and this really doesn’t seem that related to healing acne!!
What were you specifically hoping to hear about today? The way I see it, anything related to living healthfully is related to healing acne, and in order to live healthfully, you need to cook food and chop it. Many people could majorly cut down on their frustration with a good knife and never thought of it :/ Sorry you’re disappointed.
Sorry I’m leaving this in the comment section, but I’m not sure a better way to contact you…I have some purple pimples that have showed up in the past few days, any idea what they are?? I couldn’t match them up to when you did that different types of acne post.
Hi Karolyn,
Mmm… I’m not sure exactly…. try googling lichen planus and see if the pictures look anything like what you have
hey there!
dont worry tracy, i always find your posts interesting even if they are not related to acne directly.so, dont be disappointed by jones’ comment…! have you done any research on healing adrenal fatigue? i think it goes hand in hand with candida and leaky gut
Hi Magda,
I haven’t done a lot of direct research on adrenal fatigue, but I was thinking I really should… it’s one of those topics that keeps popping up and I know it’s extremely common. I wasn’t aware it was so linked to candida and leaky gut (you don’t mean that it HAS to go hand in hand, do you? You just mean that when you have adrenal fatigue, it’s highly likely you have candida and a leaky gut?)
Hi Tracy,
Great video! I have a knife that looks very similar to that one, so I will definitely be using it to try your cutting method. I bought your book (It’s really great by the way! Well worth the money.) and was about to buy a bunch of the foods/supplements that you recommended, but then I read your article on seeing a naturopath first in order to get to the root of your own particular problem. However, I have already been tested for IgE antibody allergies (by my doctor) and IgG antibody allergies (through a mail-in ELISA blood test by US Biotek Laboratories). The IgE test came back all negative (I didn’t believe I had any of these allergies anyways, but it was free so I took the test). The IgG test came back with a low reaction (a 2 rating on a scale of 0-7) for Gliadin-Wheat and a very low reaction for Whey (a 1 rating). Everything else was 0. I didn’t cut either of those from my diet because it only recommended cutting out 4-7 rated reactions and rotating moderate (3-rated) reactions. So I was planning on beginning the routine you present in your book, but would you still recommend I see a naturopath first even though I’ve already taken an IgG test?
Hi Steve,
No, if you’ve already had a food allergies test, then I wouldn’t bother right now going to a naturopath. Wait to go in case you run into trouble or roadblocks with my program and feel like you need some individual diagnostics – because you might not need to spend the money at all!
yes thats right! sorry for my bad use of english!
haha everything you write always has weirdly good timing. Just got a job selling knives – but yeah I’m not about to try to do that here just funny how that worked out.
I agree though! A good knife makes cooking much more enjoyable and when you have acne cooking your own food is one of the best things I’ve done to help heal my body and soooul. haha cheers
haha that’s funny.. you’re not a traveling knives salesman are you? I once got duped into buying “the best knife ever” from a traveling knives salesman (it was like… $20 bucks, but since I had been using one that was $16 and was awesome, I figured another one would be a good addition). I later realized it kind of sucked because the blade tapered from thin at the bottom to thick at the top….. making it really difficult to cut through those hard veggies like sweet potatoes! This gave rise to my being so outspoken in this video about how much I dislike the taper.
this video was soo hilarious! you look awesome with this huge knife! 🙂
I agree completely with everything you said and I have similar big knife. it makes my cooking (and preparing salads especially) sooo much easier.