Some gentle prods to make you walk more
Posted by kathryn in Exercise & activity
1. Walktober
October is Walktober, particularly down in Victoria. Walktober is a Victoria Health initiative designed to get you walking more. There’s all sorts of stuff planned:
For more information about the activities and also the benefits of walking, see the Walktober website.
2. Walk to work day
Friday 5th October is Walk to Work day, all over Australia. This has the double-whammy of both promoting exercise but also reducing our reliance on the car.
If you live in the inner City suburbs you could walk all the way to work. If you’re a bit further out, why not plan to walk part of the way? Alternatively take a walk during your lunch break or walk a stretch of the journey home.
There’s more information on the Walk to Work website
What happens to carbohydrates in your body?
Posted by kathryn in Carbohydrates
A couple of days ago I blogged about why you should be eating carbohydrates. The simple truth is they’re impossible to avoid. But what happens to that carbohydrate once it enters your mouth?
Carbohydrates are the most widely consumed substance in the world, second only to water. Most cultures have carbohydrates as their staple foods. Whether it’s rice, corn in the form of polenta or maize, pasta, breads, potatoes, couscous – carbohydrates are the foundation foods of the majority of the world’s population.
What are carbohydrates made of?
The basic building block of carbohydrate is a sugar molecule. This is a simple combination of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen atoms. Sugar molecules are bound together in lots of different combinations, to make up all the different carbohydrates we eat. Some carbohydrates contain hundreds of these smaller sugar molecules.
Glucose is the primary energy source for your body. It’s a single sugar molecule, small enough to cross into the blood stream and be utilised by the body. However, we rarely eat glucose in its pure form. Instead, before we can make use of the carbohydrate in our food, it has to be broken down into glucose units. This is part of your body’s digestive process.
How do you digest carbohydrates?
The digestion of carbohydrates starts in your mouth. Enzymes in saliva kick things off by breaking apart carbohydrate molecules. In contrast nothing much happens to carbohydrates in the stomach. Instead, the next stage of digestion occurs in the small intestines. Here, enzymes produced by the pancreas break down the remaining carbohydrate into individual glucose molecules. These are then absorbed through the digestive tract wall, into your bloodstream.
The speed at which this occurs depends on the nature of the carbohydrate itself. Among the factors that affect carbohydrate absorption are:
- the structure of the carbohydrate molecule
- whether it’s bound up with fibre
- how it exists in the foodstuff
This means some carbohydrates break down really quickly and easily. Others take a longer time, are much more difficult to break down and release their glucose molecules more slowly.
What does insulin do?
Insulin is a hormone, produced by your pancreas. Once the carbohydrates from your food are digested and absorbed into your blood stream, your pancreas excretes insulin.
Insulin is what moves the glucose from your blood into individual cells, so it can be used to fuel your body.
The amount of insulin released by your pancreas depends on the amount of glucose in the blood stream. A large amount of glucose means a lot of insulin is released by the pancreas to deal with it. In contrast, if there are only small amounts of glucose, only small amounts of insulin are needed.
Over the next week I’ll be continuing this series on carbohydrates. The next post will touch on the problems of having too much insulin and how this can be controlled.
Quicklinks
Posted by kathryn in Recipes: main dishes, Recipes: salads, Recipes: vegies, Weight loss and Vegetables
- I originally saw the link to Shape of a Mother on Cranky Fitness. This is a wonderful site, giving a refreshing dose of reality about womens’ bodies after pregnancy.
- After discussing the Australian proposal to offer people money to lose weight, over at Dietriffic Melanie has brought up the topic of workplace better health incentives. Do they work and are they a good idea?
- Veggie Chic has posted about calling a truce with your vegetable enemies. Remember those vegies you hated as a kid? If you’re still avoiding them, it may be time to reconsider.
- Bon Appegeek is promising a lot with her exciting eggplant with exciting spicy peanut topping, but it looks wonderful and easy to make.
- Susan of Well Seasoned Cook fame has put together a simple salad with an amazing looking dressing: raspberry marmalade vinaigrette. It’s hot, sweet, zesty and sour all at the same time and I can’t wait to try it.
- Veggie Meal Plans has posted a recipe for whipped white beans with roasted beetroot and mushroom. Apart from the obvious point it contains my most adored vegetable, beetroot, I love the whipped white beans recipe. This dish is a great alternative to mashed potato for those trying to eat more vegies and lower the GI of their diet.
- Mallika at Quick Indian Cooking has been curing her husband with fighting fit spicy chicken curry. According to Mallika “what a grown man needs to cure a sinus is hearty, spicy chicken curry, cooked by his loving wife”!
The first Limes & Lycopene newsletter was sent today!
Posted by kathryn in Blogging
Today we sent out the first Limes & Lycopene newsletter – which I hope you enjoy.
If you have subscribed but haven’t received it – I’ve noticed there are a number of unconfirmed subscriptions. If this is you, let me know by email and I’ll update your subscription profile and forward a copy of the newsletter to you.
If you want to subscribe for the future, then click here.
Q & A Thursday is over for today
Posted by kathryn in Q & A Thursday
Q & A Thursday is over for today.
If you have any questions for next week, then let me know by leaving a comment below or sending me an email.
As always, thanks HEAPS to the question askers, to my readers and to everyone who has taken part in the discussion.
How to feed kids during a growth spurts
Posted by kathryn in Kid's nutrition and Q & A Thursday
The next question in Q & A Thursday is from Andrew and he’s asking about feeding kids :
We work hard to try and give our kids a healthy variety of food, but sometimes their appetites are unexpectedly huge, they can eat a whole plate of quality food and still be super hungry (especially at dinner) . . . To avoid junk after dinner, we often end up giving them bananas, toast or weetbix as they are available, easy and fill cavernous voids. Is this OK from a dietary and nutritional perspective (the kids are fit and slim)? Do you or your audience have any ideas for short notice & healthy bulk stomach fillers for these crazy nights.
There are usually two reasons why kids are ravenously hungry:
- Growth spurt: If your child is growing rapidly they’ll need more food. At this time they need basic energy, but they also have a higher nutritional requirement. They need more protein, fat, vitamins and minerals to feed the changes that are taking place in their bodies.
- They’re not getting enough: If your kids are regularly hungry in the evening it may mean they’re just not getting enough during the day. Many kids need three meals plus two or three snacks each day, to fuel their bodies. Little children have anatomically small stomachs, so they need regular amounts of food. Older children are sometimes more distracted around eating and don’t eat enough.
If your child has had a particularly active day, that may also lead to an increase in hunger.
How to fill the “cavernous void”
As I mentioned above growing bodies need more than just fuel, they also need a diverse set of nutrients.
- Feed your kids a meal, before you start on the snacks. Learning to eat meals and not rely on snacks is an important part of their nutrition education.
- If they’re still hungry after dinner, then try to put together snacks that are nutritious and filling.
- Use all the main food groups, by including some starchy carbohydrate and protein, as well as some fruit and/or vegetable. If they are growing then it’s particularly important to include a bit of protein in there.
- Avoid the high fat, high sugar, high junk foods like chips, lollies, biscuits and chocolate.
Snack suggestions
The following would all make good after dinner snacks:
- a tuna sandwich on wholegrain bread with tomato and cucumber
- a small plate of cheese, vita-weat crackers, cherry tomatoes and a mandarin
- toast with hummous and tomato
- a cream cheese, carrot and sultana sandwich
- a small bowl of cereal with a dollop of yoghurt and a banana
- an English muffin with ricotta and jam, followed by a piece of fruit
- some hummous, carrot sticks, avocado and crackers
- make some low fat and low sugar muffins to keep in the freezer
Does anyone have any other suggestions on quick snacks to fill up kids?
What is Q & A Thursday?
This post is part of Q & A Thursday – a weekly burst of blogging, where you get to dictate the subject matter. Q & A Thursday is all about simple, practical and sensible answers to food, diet and health dilemmas sent in by readers. If you have a question you’d like answered, then either leave a comment or send me an email. For more information you can take a look at the Q & A Thursday archives.
It's NSW Bike Week and I almost missed it!
Posted by kathryn in Exercise & activity
A quick interruption to Q & A Thursday, because it’s NSW Bike Week and I’ve only just realised.
There are still a few events on this weekend.
NSW Bike Week is a state-wide NSW Government initiative that raises the profile of cycling as a healthy, easy, low cost and environmentally friendly alternative to driving for short trips in your local community. NSW Bike Week provides an opportunity for the local community to participate in organised bicycle events in a safe and supported environment. Participation is aimed at all members of the community, with a particular emphasis on encouraging new cyclists.
There’s more information on the RTA website.
Have I had my head in the sand, or has everyone else missed this event as well?
5 ways to beat jet lag and have a fabulous holiday FROM DAY ONE
Posted by kathryn in Seasonal Health and Q & A Thursday
The first question in today’s Q & A Thursday is from Lucy over at Nourish Me – what are the best ways of dealing with jet lag.
What is jet lag?
While going on holiday can be a wonderful, exciting thing, spending the first few days spaced out and tired because of jet lag, is not fun. Jet lag occurs when you cross time-zones. The symptoms are usually worse after a flight going east rather than west. The more time zones you cross, the worse your jet lag will be.
This type of travel disrupts your body clock, or circadian rhythms. When you travel across time zones your internal body clock is out of sync with the time at your destination, In fact, it’s still running at the time of the place you just left. Therefore you’re experiencing daylight and darkness contrary to the rhythms you’re accustomed to.
Beating jet lag is all about re-setting your body clock.
The symptoms of jet lag
The symptoms of jet lag include daytime tiredness, disrupted sleeping, headaches, difficulty concentrating, loss of appetite and irregularities in bowel movements. All of which can also make you quite cranky.
So how do you beat jet lag?
1. Adjust your sleep to your destination time
- Jet lag causes so many problems because of the mismatch between your internal body clock and the time at your destination. Getting your body in sync with the new time is therefore the most important strategy for dealing with jet lag.
- If possible, start this a few days before your holiday. by going to bed a little later each night.
- During the flight, sleep according to the time at your destination
- As soon as you arrive, adopt the local hours for sleeping, eating and socialising – even if it means dragging yourself out of bed when you least feel like it.
2. Avoid dehydration during the flight
- During a long flight in a pressurised cabin, dehydration is your enemy. It will make you more tired and uncomfortable than you need to be.
- Drink plenty of water and don’t be tempted by the free booze.
- On long haul flights I usually take a couple of large bottles of water with me and try to sip at least a cup (250ml) every hour.
3. Don’t over-eat
- There’s not much to do on long flights. You spend most of the time sitting down, sleeping, reading and watching movies. Plus of course there are the inflight meals. While it can be easy to use food as a distraction, you’ll feel better during and after the flight if you don’t eat too much.
- Before you fly, phone the airline and order a light meal. Most airlines have low fat and heart healthy options. Some even do fresh produce meals, based around fruit and vegies. I usually order a vegan meal, as it’s almost guaranteed to contain lots of salad, vegies and fresh fruit. You don’t need a lot of kilojoules during a flight, so avoid over-eating.
- When you arrive continue to eat light food for a couple of days and avoid heavy meals.
4. Get outside and exercise at your destination
- The first day of your holiday get up early and go outside for a walk. Exposure to sunlight first thing in the morning will stimulate the release of melatonin from your pineal gland.
- Rather than just lounging around at the beach, plan to do some light exercise on the first few days of your holiday – it will keep you more alert during the day and help you sleep at night.
- While it can be tempting to use caffeine to keep yourself awake, limit yourself to one or two coffees in the morning.
5. Try these herbs
- As well as my bottles of water, whenever I travel I also pack two bottles of herbal tablets, to use in the first few days of my trip.
- The first contains a combination of valerian, passionflower, skullcap and chamomile. This is my sleep assisting formula, which I take during the flight and for the first 3 – 4 days of my trip, about one hour before bed.
- The other bottle contains a combination of ginseng, gotu kola, rosemary and damiana. For the first few days at my destination, I take this in the morning to improve my energy during the day, and help my body adapt to the shift in time zones.
Do you get jet lag and do you have any tried and tested ways of beatingit? I’m not a homeopath but I’m interested to hear if anyone’s used the homeopathic jet lag preparations, particularly arnica and cocculus? Let me know.
What is Q & A Thursday?
This post is part of Q & A Thursday – a weekly burst of blogging, where you get to dictate the subject matter. Q & A Thursday is all about simple, practical and sensible answers to food, diet and health dilemmas sent in by readers. If you have a question you’d like answered, then either leave a comment or send me an email. For more information you can take a look at the Q & A Thursday archives.
Cranking up Q & A Thursday
Posted by kathryn in Q & A Thursday
Q & A Thursday is open. I have a couple of questions but have space for mre.
So . . . if there’s something about food, diet or health you’ve always wondered, or if you’re unsure what to eat and how to put together a healthy diet, then let me know. All answers will be posted on Limes & Lycopene today – Q & A Thursday.
You can either leave a comment below, or send me an email.
For more information take a look at the Q & A Thursday archives.
Why you should be eating carbohydrates
Posted by kathryn in Carbohydrates
Carbohydrates are present in most of the foods we eat. In fact they’re impossible to avoid – unless you’re willing to live on a diet of just meat, fish and oil of course. The following foods all contain carbohydrates:
- vegetables
- fruit
- dairy
- nuts
- seeds
- lentils
- chick peas
- soy products
- olives
- avocado
- pasta
- bread
- rice
- couscous
- cakes
- biscuits
- lollies
- apple pie
- ice-cream
Carbohydrates are important to us, as they are the primary source of energy for our bodies. They provide essential fuel to our brains, and are the main source of fuel for our muscles. We use carbohydrate to fuel the functioning, movement and activity of our bodies. Every time a muscle contracts, every time your heart beats, every time you speak, smile or think about something, you’re using carbohydrates. So we all need them and we need them every day.
While this food group is an important part of a healthy diet, many people do eat too much carbohydrate and these excess kilojoules can be converted to fat in the body. It is also true that some carbohydrates are better for you than others. Eating a diet too high in carbs and eating too many of the wrong sort, increases your risk of putting on weight, of obesity and also diabetes.
The take home message
Yes, you should be including some carbohydrates in your diet. It’s impossible to avoid them, without severely limiting your diet and becoming a complete carnivore.
However, it is advisable to limit your intake of the grain-based carbohydrates. These are the foods we can end up eating too much of and can contribute to weight gain. Instead, fill up on vegies and restrict the grain-based carbohydrates to about 25 percent of your meal.
Reminder about Q & A Thursday
Tomorrow is Q & A Thursday – a weekly burst of blogging, where you get to dictate the subject matter. Q & A Thursday is all about simple, practical and sensible answers to food, diet and health dilemmas sent in by readers. If you have a question you’d like answered, then either leave a comment or send me an email. For more information you can take a look at the Q & A Thursday archives.
Photograph by minnibeach under the terms of a creative commons license.
Tomorrow is Q & A Thursday
Posted by kathryn in Q & A Thursday
Tomorrow is Q & A Thursday on Limes & Lycopene – a weekly burst of blogging, where you get to dictate the subject matter. Q & A Thursday is all about simple, practical and sensible answers to food, diet and health dilemmas sent in by readers.
If you have a question you’d like answered, then either leave a comment or send me an email.
If you’d like to see the questions and answers from previous weeks, then click on the Q & A Thursday archives page.
Should we be eating kangaroo?
Posted by kathryn in Sustainablity
An article in the Eco section of today’s SMH asks whether we should be eating kangaroo – is it kind to the planet or unspeakably cruel?
Supporters of the kangaroo meat industry, including Tim Flannery, claim it’s the best managed managed meat industry, from an environmental perspective, in Australia. While beef and dairy cattle are enemies of biodiversity, kangaroos emit far less methane and require considerably less water. However, opponents state the industry is inherently cruel and should be banned.
The full article can be found here.
Reminder
A reminder that tomorrow is Q & A Thursday – a weekly burst of blogging, where you get to dictate the subject matter. Q & A Thursday is all about simple, practical and sensible answers to food, diet and health dilemmas sent in by readers. If you have a question you’d like answered, then either leave a comment or send me an email. For more information you can take a look at the Q & A Thursday archives.
The CSIRO's ten ways to improve your child's health
Posted by kathryn in Health News and Kid's nutrition
With much fanfare the government has announced the CSIRO Wellbeing Plan for Australian Children. It’s a ten point plan, covering healthy eating and lifestyle advice. The plan is aimed at helping parents to ensure their children are eating well and developing health habits.
Under the programme fridge magnets are being distributed to primary school children and the CSIRO’s website has been ramped up with lots more information and resources. According to the CSIRO:
The CSIRO Wellbeing Plan for Children will provide easy-to-access, practical, evidence-based advice for parents to promote healthy eating and physical activity in children.
The ten point plan
The plan includes both healthy eating and healthy lifestyle advice:
And the CSIRO has a whole lot of information about each of these on their website.
What do I think?
There are many positives to this initiative. It’s a basic, practical plan, that’s appropriate for all children – and most adults. By emphasising healthy habits, as well as diet, it gives parents a clear picture of the fundamentals of improving their child’s health. Plus it includes the importance of parents acting as role models for healthy lifestyle behaviours.
The website contains a lot of information and gets down to the nitty-gritty of how much and how often. It also includes tips on what to do if your kids are reluctant to eat vegies or drink water and so on.
It’s a positive message and a good initiative. Overweight and obesity is a problem in Australian society and this gives parents some clear guidelines to follow. However, there’s still no movement from the Federal government on the advertising of junk foods to children. While parents are getting some good advice, there’s still no help in reducing pester power.
Further information
Should governments pay people to lose weight?
Posted by kathryn in Health News and Weight loss
Concern over levels of obesity has led the Australian General Practice Network to propose a $170 subsidy be given to overweight people, to encourage them to take part in an accredited weight loss programme.
Individuals would be required to take part in a 12 week programme, with specific goals set for weight loss over that time. As reported on the ABC Dr Tony Hobbs from the AGPN says:
the proposal would help address Australia’s obesity problem by making it easier for people in lower-income brackets to get help. “We believe that this will go a long way to helping people get access to accredited weight loss programs where the people will be supported”
While the AMA have rejected the idea as a “flash in the pan initiative”, the plan is part of a pre-election wish-list the AGPN has presented to the government.
This reminds me of a story from a month ago, where people in the town of Varallo, in northern Italy would be paid to lose weight. This community-wide project was supported by Mayor Gianluca Buonanno.
“Lots of people are saying, ‘I really need to lose some weight but it’s really tough.’ So I thought, why don’t we go on a group diet?” said Buonanno, who said he was about 6 kg (13 pounds) overweight.
You know, I can’t make up my mind about this idea. Part of me is uncomfortable about people being paid to lose weight and wants to know why do we need financial incentives to live a heathier life? Is the idea of living a longer, healthier, happier life really not enough?
However, I’m also aware current initiatives are not working and it might be time to try something new?
But, is it really that easy to get people to lose weight? Get someone to follow a 12-week programme, pay them $170 and then they’ll be fine? There are already supportive programmes to assist with losing weight, however, their stats on participants keeping the weight off long-term are still not great. As one reader on the ABC’s site says:
My problem is being thought of as a burden to society. I actually work in the health industry and I weigh 130kg. Not something I am happy about. I don’t want money to lose weight. I want TIME. Working 50+ hours a week and being a full-time sole parent . . . I would much prefer assistance with childcare which is non-existant for high school children unless I pay a private company and I can’t afford that.
I’m really interested to know what you think of this idea? Would a financial incentive make it more likely you’d lose weight? Are you happy for your government to be spending money in this way? And what about all those people who are already maintaining a healthy weight? Let me know by leaving a comment below.
Normal service should be resumed
Posted by kathryn in Blogging
Sorry about the intermittent blog availability over the weekend. Complex computer issues (ie stuff that I don’t understand) means Limes & Lycopene was down for most of the weekend. All should be fixed and back to normal now.
The search for a milder onion
Posted by kathryn in Health News and Vegetables
Researchers in Australia are trying to work out what makes one onion taste stronger than another. While red onions are often chosen for their milder taste, variety is not a reliable guide to the sharpness of an onion’s flavour.
This work is a big deal in the onion industry where “mild onions” have become the holy grail. Scientists and farmers have joined forces on the project and Food Science Australia have even been running consumer taste tests.
Over the course of an hour raw onions were fed to ten professional “super-tasters” and over 100 members of the public. While there was a ten minute gap between each test, tasters had to chew and swallow chunks of raw onion, with no spitting out allowed. Volunteers were paid for their work, but even so . . .
From this research we now know people prefer their raw onions mild. However, more significantly for the industry, the testers perception of taste correlated with the level of pyruvate in the onion. Researchers have also developed a pneumatic onion press, enabling them to detect how much pyruvate is in different onions.
Pyruvate is a compound that occurs naturally in onions. Levels are affected by both the conditions in which the onion is grown, as well as how long the onion has been stored for.
The craze for putting slices of raw onions on sandwiches and salads isn’t just an Australian phenomenon, instead it’s considered a worldwide growth sector – hence the onion industry’s interest. However, switching over to mild onion growing isn’t necessarily that easy. Among the complicating factors for farmers is the sulphur content of conventional fertlisers, which actually increases pyruvate levels.
Fruit: don't forget the humble apple
Posted by kathryn in Blogging and Fruit
My first guest post is up on Diet-Blog. For once, I didn’t write about vegetables or even beetroot.
In fact, the post is all about apples.
We often forget about this fruit, but it’s a nutritional wonder. So take a look at my post don’t forget the humble apple.
Thanks to Jim at Diet-Blog for inviting me to write for them and welcome to all Diet-Blog readers. For more info on Limes & Lycopene click here.
Photograph by Jan Tik under the terms of a creative commons license
Quicklinks
Posted by kathryn in Health News, Recipes: vegies, Vegetables and Breakfast
- Refrigerator Raid has posted a beginner’s strength training programme. It’s a simple 30 minute programme, covering both upper body and lower body strength. If you have less time try the 15 minute home fitness circuit I posted last month.
- A woman after my own heart, over at Veggie Chic, Jul asks is it really so hard to eat vegetables?. Confused about how many vegies you should be eating each day? Take a look at my post on what five serves of vegetables looks like.
- Photographer Jon Huck has posted pictures of people with their breakfast. There’s no background information or text, just photographs. I love this sort of stuff – showing what people really eat. Thanks to the Fanatic Cook for the original link.
- At the Guardian blog, Denis Cook asks why won’t MPs act on healthy food?
- Spring is here, which means asparagus is appearing in the shops. Over at Stonesoup, Jules has posted some beautiful asparagus recipes.
- Cranking up for barbecue season this year, Cook Sister has a round-up of meat-less barbecue recipes. While there is a bit of fish in there, the post also contains lots of lovely vegetable, haloumi, paneer and burger recipes. Thanks to Where’s the beef for the original link.
Photograph by Taylorkoa22 under the terms of a creative commons license
Q & A Thursday is over for another week
Posted by kathryn in Q & A Thursday
That’s it for Q & A Thursday this week – just two quick questions:
As always, many thanks to the readers who posed questions. If you have any dilemmas for next week, then let me know by leaving a comment or sending an email.
If you’d like to review the questions and answers from previous weeks, then have a browse through the Q & A Thursday archives.
Limes & Lycopene comments are back
Posted by kathryn in Blogging
Thanks to the readers who’ve let me know about their difficulties in leaving comments. This function should now be back and working normally. Sorry about that.
Q & A Thurs: is pomegranate juice as good as the fresh fruit?
Posted by kathryn in Antioxidants and Q & A Thursday
Another question for Q & A Thursday. Mariana has asked:
Pomegranate Juice. There has been a lot of talk about the wonderful nutritional value found in this fruit. I cannot get the fruit in my local fruit shop. Consequently I have been using pomegranate juice that says “all natural”, no preservatives and no added sugar but 100% made from pomegranate concentrate. Am I getting any nutritional value from this at all or am I just wasting my money?
Over the last couple of years there’s been an explosion in research into pomegranates. A quick trawl through Pubmed, shows it’s currently being investigated for:
Fruit vs juice
I can remember having pomegranates growing up in the UK. My mum used to pack one in my lunchbox as an occasional treat. When ripe they’re delicious, however they’re tricky and a bit time-consuming to eat. While the flesh is sweet and juicy, it’s riddled with small, bitter pips.
All the research I can find into the health benefits of pomegranates uses the juice and not the fresh fruit. This is probably partly due to the difficulties with eating the fruit.
Pomegranate juice is definitely a healthy food. Pomegranates are high in vitamin C and we’re are gradually finding they contain more and more antioxidants. At the moment, research into the disease fighting capabilities of pomegranate juice is in its early stages. Most of the research has been done on mice and there have been very few human trials. While some of the health claims will almost certainly be backed up by human studies, pomegranate juice is, like most superfoods, only one aspect of a healthy diet.
What is Q & A Thursday?
This post is part of Q & A Thursday – a weekly burst of blogging, where you get to dictate the subject matter. Q & A Thursday is all about simple, practical and sensible answers to food, diet and health dilemmas sent in by readers. If you have a question you’d like answered, then either leave a comment or send me an email. For more information you can take a look at the Q & A Thursday archives.
Q & A Thurs: will one hot chocolate ruin your diet?
Posted by kathryn in A Balanced Diet and Q & A Thursday
This Q & A Thursday question is a variation on one I receive often – if I consume a hot chocolate / glass of wine / cake / packet of lollies / chocolate bar / tub of Ben & Jerry’s . . . will it ruin my diet?
It all depends on the diet
While I can’t condone the whole tub of ice-cream, part of the answer is of course, it depends on the diet. If you’re eating well most of the time, and active in your daily life, then the occasional hot chocolate isn’t going to ruin anything. It’s a treat food and treats can be part of a healthy diet.
The power of one food
The other part of the answer is, it’s rarely one food that “ruins a diet”. If you’re eating high saturated fat and sugary foods and there’s little fresh fruit or vegetable, then a hot chocolate is not your only problem. Our food habits are rarely messed up by one food alone.
The take home message
What is Q & A Thursday?
This post is part of Q & A Thursday – a weekly burst of blogging, where you get to dictate the subject matter. Q & A Thursday is all about simple, practical and sensible answers to food, diet and health dilemmas sent in by readers. If you have a question you’d like answered, then either leave a comment or send me an email. For more information you can take a look at the Q & A Thursday archives.
Q & A Thursday is on . . . but there's only one question!
Posted by kathryn in Q & A Thursday
Q & A Thursday is open for this week. At the moment I only have one solitary, lonely little question.
If you have any questions about nutrition and health and want to get an answer this week, then send me an email or leave a comment below.
For more about Q & A Thursday, read the introductory post, or you can take a look at the Q & A Thursday archives.
Does knowledge of mental health language distance us from how we feel?
Posted by kathryn in Health News
Over the weekend an opinion piece in the SMH made me pause. It’s written by Tanveer Ahmed, a doctor working in the mental health system and he writes about mental health language. As people have become more and more aware of the language of psychiatry and the mind, he wonders if we are becoming distanced from the emotions we feel.
Clients no longer say they are “unhappy”, but are instead almost always “depressed”. It’s not uncommon for him to be told “I’m pretty sure I’m coming down with a depressive disorder” or “I think I’m developing a personality defect”. While he’s partly amazed at people’s command of the language of psychiatry, Tanveer also wonders if this is the best way to express and understand our distress?
Increasingly they no longer suggest they feel depressed, but that they are getting depression, in the same way we may catch a cold. The consultation then moves to the awkward dance modern therapists play. I become the healer attempting to cure their condition, pretending somehow their malaise is one of biology and not of meaning. The result is that it can blind them to the possibility their actions may have played a role in their problems.
It is Tanveer’s belief that the dominance of mental health language, particularly among the most disadvantaged, is detrimental to long-term health and recovery. This language encourages passivity, removing the individual’s sense of autonomay and personal responsibility.
To see the full article click here, it’s an interesting read.
If you could take a pill, would you ever exercise again?
Posted by kathryn in Health News
Over at Diet-Blog, Crabby McSlacker asks the interesting question: if there was an exercise pill, would you still work out?
Suppose there was now a pill that could burn the same number of calories, build the same muscles, and provide all the same health benefits as any amount of exercise you could do . . . would you ever go to the gym again?
At the moment, comments are heavily in the yes I would still exercise camp – but I suspect this wouldn’t be the response of the majority of the population!
Take a look at the conversation over at Diet-Blog.
Reminder: Q & A Thursday is tomorrow
Posted by kathryn in Q & A Thursday
Tomorrow is Q & A Thursday on Limes & Lycopene – a weekly burst of blogging, where you get to dictate the subject matter. Q & A Thursday is all about simple, practical and sensible answers to food, diet and health dilemmas sent in by readers.
If you have a question you’d like answered, then either leave a comment or send me an email.
If you’d like to see the questions and answers from previous weeks, then click on the Q & A Thursday archives page.
When is a free range pig not a free range pig?
Posted by kathryn in Food Labelling and Sustainablity
In a report that somewhat befudlles me, I read in today’s SMH that the ACCC has dismissed a complaint by some pork farmers into misuse of the phrase “free range”. The ACCC has ruled there is no difference between pigs who spend their whole life outside and those which only spend the first few weeks of their life outside, before being moved to intensive rearing enclosures.
The ruling hinges on consumer interpretation of the phrases “free range” and “bred free range”. In the bred free range group, pigs spend the first few weeks of their lives outdoors, where they’re free to roam in paddocks. At about three weeks they are weaned, moved to indoor enclosures with other pigs and then slaughtered at five months.
However the ACCC has ruled consumers don’t know the difference between free range and bred free range and therefore both terms are valid:
“If a claim such as free range does nothing more than confuse the average consumer as to its meaning, then the claim is not misleading,” the assistant director of the regulator’s Queensland branch, David Sutherland, wrote.
Does this strike anyone else as bizarre? Consumers are confused, but as long as everyone’s confused, the status quo is aceptable. I realise the ACCC is only responding to the legal challenge and it’s possibly not within the remit of this case to establish a clear guideline, but surely confusion is not the best outcome?
Apparently in Australia, a free range pig is not necessarily what you might think.
More tools for making food labels easier to understand
Posted by kathryn in Food Labelling
FSANZ last week released a range of new and updated resources, aimed at making it easier to understand food labels. These are available from their website and include:
All this information is based around the FSANZ released booklet Choosing the right stuff.
The Greens Cookbook: a review
Posted by kathryn in Reviews
I have a new cookbook: The Greens cookbook: extraordinary vegetarian cuisine by Deborah Madison – and it’s wonderful.
The Book
I haven’t heard of this book before, but I suspect my international vegetarian restaurant knowledge is woefully inadequate. In researching, I’ve found Greens is a really well known restaurant in San Francisco, that opened in 1979.
This book was first published in 1987, but has been out of print for a while. Just recently Grub Street in London have published a new, updated, gorgeous looking copy of the book.
The author, Deborah Madison was the founding chef at Greens and is largely responsible for the restaurants style, repertoire and ethos.
The recipes
The Greens Cookbook is a one-inch thick hardcover, filled with over 250 vegetarian recipes. While there are recipes offering simple, tasty five-minute dishes, most take a little more time. It’s not the sort of book I use a lot mid-week. However on the weekend, when I’m happy to spend a little more time, there are interesting, beautiful flavours and dishes available. The recipes include soups, salads, tarts, gratins, pasta meals, sandwiches, vegetable side dishes, desserts and more. Plus there’s a whole section at the end on how to match wines with vegetarian food.
While it’s a north American book, Deborah’s recipes are influenced by the food of Europe, Mexico, Japan, Northern Africa and many other countries. Each recipe is clearly laid out with ingredients in one column down the left and the method on the right of each page. Instructions are clear and easy to follow, even for the more involved dishes. Where there are several stages to a recipe, it’s split into sections, to make the instructions clearer and easy to follow.
I’ve been cooking a bit from my new book and the recipes I’ve tried so far include:
- Beetroot with walnut vinaigrette
- Spinach soup with Indian spices
- Winter vegetables with parsley sauce
- Buckwheat linguine with lentils, carrots and chard
- Sweetcorn, bean and pumpkin stew
- Leek and mustard pie
- Rhubarb and apple betty
Everything has worked really well. So far, I haven’t made any substitutions and have each time produced a tasty meal, with leftovers that have become even better the next day. Two recipes were particularly good. Both the winter vegetables with parsley sauce and buckwheat linguine were intriguing dishes. When I read through the ingredients and method, they seemed to be slightly worthy, “healthy” dishes. Old fashioned vegetarian food that would taste like it was too-good for you and yet the final outcome was light, finely balanced and simply delicious.
What’s so special about it?
There are a LOT of recipes to choose from and most importantly, they work, but there are two other reasons why I love this book:
- Stock-making: One of the most surprising sections is the chapter on making stock. While this is something I do sporadically, and slightly haphazardly, Deborah outlines guidelines and a long list of the different vegetables, herbs and spices that can be used in stock making. More significantly she then goes on to detail exactly what effect that food will have on the flavour of the stock. I never dreamed you could use the seeds and stringy bits from the inside of a pumpkin in a stock. While apparently lettuce, eggplant, nettles and mung bean sprouts are all, in the right circumstances, fodder for the stockpot. While I can’t imagine doing this for every soup I make, it’s a useful and unusual resource.
- Menus: At the end of the book there are six pages of seasonal menu plans, all using recipes from the book. I have a couple of cookbooks that feature these sections and I always find them useful and inspiring. In Deborah’s book each menu uses in-season ingredients and combines dishes where the taste, textures and colours complement each other. If I have people coming round for dinner I might cook a whole menu, but I often just pick a couple of dishes from a menu, to put together a flavour combination I might not have considered.
Health quota
This isn’t just a book for vegetarians, it’s also for people trying to fit more vegetables and variety into their diets.
There are no pictures in the book, which some people will find off-putting. However, if you can get past this, it’s a beautifully laid out cookbook with recipes and food combinations that are interesting and certainly not your bog-standard vegetable fare. Even simple meals, like sandwiches have an inspiring twist, like chipotle chilli puree on a toasted cheese sandwich and cream cheese enlivened with handfuls of fresh herbs.
This is a recipe book you can use for family meals, but also pull out for dinner parties and special occasions.
You can purchase a copy from My Amazon Store.
No comments
29 September, 2007