Tomato, spinach & egg tagine
Posted by kathryn in Vegetables, Eggs and Main courses
I’ve had some lovely entries for the Pantry Challenge. I’m in the process of collating them and putting together the round-up – which I’ll post on Thursday.
In the meantime though I have a recipe of my own.
I’ve been making variations on this tagine for years.
It started with a recipe I spotted in a North African cookbook for vegetarian kofta balls in a tomato sauce. The meal was finished with whole eggs, cracked into the dish and poached in the tomato sauce. This strategy has stayed with me ever since – as it’s an easy way to bump up the protein in a meal.
This dish takes about 30 minutes to cook, but it’s not one you need to hover over. Plus it’s a one-pot meal, which cuts down on the washing up.
While it might be put together from the pantry, it’s by no means nutritionally second-rate.
Tomato, spinach & egg tagine
Serves 2
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 onion, peeled, halved & cut into thin half-moons
- 2 teaspoons of Moroccan spice mix
- 1×400g tin tomatoes
- ¼ cup frozen peas
- ½ block of frozen spinach
- ¼ cup basmati rice
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 4 eggs
Sauté the onions: Place a medium-sized pan, with a lid, over a medium-high heat. When hot, add the olive oil and onions. Cook the onions, stirring frequently, for 5 minutes, until softened.
Cook rest of vegetables: Add the spice mix and continue cooking for 30 seconds – stirring the onions, until they’re fully coated in spices. Add the tomatoes, peas, spinach, rice and ½ cup of water. Don’t worry about breaking up the spinach, just turn the heat down slightly and place the lid on top. Leave to simmer for 15 minutes.
Add the eggs: Add the soy sauce and stir through. With the back of a spoon make 4 “wells” or holes in the top of the tomatoes and spinach. Break an egg into each well. Place the lid back on and leave to gently poach for 7 – 8 minutes. Once the eggs are cooked, serve immediately.
This is not a stir-fry
Posted by kathryn in Vegan, Legumes and Main courses
A while ago I blogged about how small impediments can stop us from eating well and why I never cook stir frys.
I love eating them. They’re quick, tasty and healthy. You can add in lots and lots of vegetables, change around the flavours, use some low fat protein. What’s not to like?
Instead I don’t cook stir frys because I hate cleaning the wok afterwards.
So this meal is what I make instead. It has many of the elements of a stir fry, but without the actual wok usage. Since my small impediments post, this has become one of the most common meals I make. And as with almost everything I cook, it’s very flexible.
Notes on the recipe
- I use whatever vegetables are in the house. In this version I’ve added carrot, fennel and pak choy. But it could just as easily be zucchini, snowpeas, spinach, daikon, capsicum, onion – anything that cooks quickly.
- You could use meat or prawns, instead of tofu.
- The impact of this dish is in the dressing. It’s tangy, salty and has plenty of oomph and flavour. I often tweak it, depending on what’s in the house. Fish sauce, lime juice, tahini, fresh chillies, even mustard are regular additions.
- Usually I cook the tofu on a stove-top grill plate but a non-stick frying pan would do just as well. I also use Hippolyra’s method of oven baking tofu if I have time.
- I find I don’t need to use any extra oil, when cooking the tofu on a grill plate – but you may need some.
Not a stir fry: tofu & vegetables
Serves 2
- 300g tofu
- 1 tablespoon sesame seeds
- About 400g vegetables – in this version I used 1 carrot, 2 heads of pak choy and 1/2 fennel bulb
- Canola oil for cooking the tofu (optional)
Dressing
- 2 teaspoons sesame oil
- 2 teaspoons shoyu
- 2 teaspoons rice wine vinegar
- 1 teaspoon grated ginger
- 1 shallot, thinly sliced
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon honey or agave nectar
Prep the tofu: Cut the tofu into 0.5 cm thick slices. Sprinkle the sesame seeds onto a plate and press the tofu slices into the seeds, so they’re all coated with a smattering of seeds.
Prep the vegetables: Cut the vegetables into thin pieces. The kind of size you’d use in stir frying. I julienned the carrots and sliced the fennel into strips about 0.5cm thick. I cut the end off the pak choy bunch and left the leaves whole.
Make the dressing: Whisk together the dressing ingredients.
Cook the tofu: Put a grill plate on a medium heat and add the oil if using. Place the tofu slices on the plate and cook for 3 – 4 minutes on each side, until crispy and golden. The seeds may start to manically pop at the end, but don’t let this put you off.
Steam the vegetables: While the tofu is cooking, put the vegetables on to steam. I only cook them for a few minutes, as I like them a bit under-done and crunchy. I added the carrot and fennel first. Then the pak choy after 2 minutes and continued cooking for another 2 minutes.
To serve: Divide the vegetables between 2 plates and top with tofu. Drizzle over the dressing and serve immediately.
A Legume Love Affair
I don’t usually blog on the weekend, but this is an eleventh hour entry for My Legume Love Affair. The The Well Seasoned Cook’s monthly event, this time hosted by Lucy.
Quicklinks
Posted by kathryn in Health News, Sustainablity, Breakfast, Mental & emotional health, Vegan and Main courses
It’s been a light blogging week for me. I’m working hard on a writing project for Wellbeing – something interesting they’re releasing early next year.
But I shall be back properly next week. For a few days of food made from the pantry. I’ve had some entries already and am going to post a couple of recipes of my own.
In the meantime, here’s the usual Friday Quicklinks. Plus a photo of my fridge – which is for Wendy.
Using pears; the problems with salt & a reminder
Posted by kathryn in Blogging and A Balanced Diet
Ten Minute Kitchen: pears
The latest issue of Life etc magazine is out. This includes my regular recipe column: Ten Minute Kitchen. The featured ingredient in this issue is pears. The column includes three recipes for:
- Pork cutlets with pear
- Pear & berry compote
- Roasted pears with blue cheese
Here in Australia, Life etc is on sale from newsagents. If you just want the recipes you can download them from their website. Just click on the button, about half way down the right-hand sidebar.
Is salt a problem?
In the last Q & A Thursday I answered a question about salt: how much sodium in a low salt product?
I’ve written a longer and more thorough exploration of salt for the latest issue of Wellbeing magazine. So if you want to know what salt does in your body, how much you’re eating and whether it’s bad for you, pick up the latest magazine from a newsagent.
The Pantry Challenge: a reminder
And a quick reminder about the Pantry Challenge. Given a list of 15 common pantry items – what would you make?
For more about the Pantry Challenge click here and remember the deadline is 9.00am Monday 29th September. And this is 9.00am my time, ie Australian Eastern Standard Time. Happy cooking.
Photograph by Anushruti R.
Quicklinks
Posted by kathryn in Sustainablity, Fat, Salads and Soups
- Dukkah on soup: Lovely idea from Veggie Meal Plans on how to spark up a vegetable soup: red lentil & cauliflower soup with dukkah.
- How much ham is in your ham? News this week from Choice that many packaged ham products are loaded with water to increase the weight and price consumers will pay.
- Beetroot & caraway seeds: You know I’m a sucker for a new beetroot recipe. This one from Nami Nami is a new flavour combination for me: roasted beetroot with caraway seeds.
- Carrot & ginger soup: I’m relatively new to Souvlaki for the Soul, and I’m thoroughly enjoying Peter’s photography and food descriptions. I particularly like the look of this roasted carrot with ginger soup.
- Omega 3 oils: Good round up of information on the major sources of Omega 3 oils: how they’re produced; where they come from; sustainability; the current research. From Nutraingredients.
- Speedy Asian-style coleslaw: I can’t go past a headline which promises Crunchy, Tangy, Quick. And the Crunchy Green Things blog has put together a fantastic looking coleslaw of wombok, carrots, snowpeas coupled with a creamy, ginger-infused dressing.
Photograph by Tamaki.
31 Ways to a Better Diet
Posted by kathryn in A Balanced Diet
Eating well is one of the foundations of health. A good diet not only reduces your risk of ill-health in the future, but it will make you feel good right now. A good diet enables your body to function at it’s best – so you will have more energy and vitality.
Do you feel overwhelmed?
However changing your diet can feel like an overwhelming task. Eating more vegetables, reducing saturated fat, having plenty of fibre, balancing kilojoule intake, eating less processed foods . . . the list of dietary advice goes on.
But you don’t have to change everything at once. Instead you could make regular small changes. Tackling your diet one habit at a time. And if you approach dietary change in this way, over the days and the months you will be changing the way you eat in a practical and sustainable way.
During August I posted one dietary challenge every day. And together these add up to 31 ways to make your diet better. Thirty-one different tasks and food related challenges, which will improve the way you eat. And if you do all or some of these:
- You’ll be eating more fruit and vegetables
- You will have a better awareness of your eating patterns and how to make your diet work for you
- You’ll have tried some different foods and also increased the variety in your diet
- You will be on the way to controlling hunger and the portions you eat
- Plus you’ll have worked out some strategies for eating well when you’re busy
Make a commitment to changing your diet. And be realistic.
Over the next few weeks and months, how much time do you really have to make changes to your diet. It’s easy to over-commit and end up disappointing yourself. To avoid this, spend some time thinking about your schedule and make a commitment. Being realistic is an important part of changing your health.
It’s easy to lose track of what you’re eating. You may think your diet is full of vegetables and well balanced, but is it really as good as you think?
When changing your diet it’s important to get a clear picture of what you’re doing now, so challenge number two was to record everything you eat for seven days.
Eating a variety of foods is important. It’s the easiest way to ensure you’re getting all the nutrients you need.
There are so many wonderful foods out there, it’s a shame to restrict your eating to the same foods week in and week out.
Why not try something different from a food group you rarely consume.
In my opinion, one of the most useful things for making it easier to eat well is a stockpile of plastic containers. These make it easier to take your lunch to work.
Which saves money and means you can control what you eat. Avoiding the high fat, high sugar, high sodium options found in most food halls. Get some plastic containers.
A guest post, this one from Crabby McSlacker of Cranky Fitness fame, talking about ways to make a salad more interesting:
“I’ve learned to include ingredients I really like that may not be super low-cal, but are healthy and filling and make a salad something to look forward too. Make your salads more enjoyable by splurging just a little.
A post asking what are your hunger signs? It may seem like a funny question, but many people don’t know when they’re hungry, which is a problem. If your day is structured you may never get to the point where you’re actually hungry. People also mistake other signs for hunger, such as dehydration and tiredness.
Get acquainted with your hunger signs.
A task designed to increase cooking skills and confidence: take an ingredient from the back of your pantry and include it in dinner. Using up ingredients from the cupboard is a great way of increasing the scope of your diet. You already have the ingredient in the house. You’ve already been persuaded to eat that food. Now you just need to cook it.
A reminder to take some time over your meals. If you gobble down your food, thinking about everything but what you’re eating, how can you possibly be satisfied with your food?
This challenge was to switch off the TV, eat away from your desk, use a knife and fork. Savour, enjoy your food and spend some time over your meals.
This task was the second guest post in the 31 Days to a Better Diet series. This time from Mike Kinnaird of Habit Guide. Mike’s suggestion is to create a structure to your diet
This can be repeated each day and provides a simple framework, which takes the guesswork out of nutrition. Save yourself some time and create a structure.
Fitting all the vegetable serves into a day can seem overwhelming. However it’s much easier, if you spread the vegetables out. Adding a few to all your meals and snacks sets you up to easily reach the five a day target.
Try to include vegetables in every meal . . . even breakfast. It’s easier than you think.
You might understand that criticism from others can affect your confidence. But did you know criticism from yourself can be even more damaging?
Negative self-talk can be constant and unrelenting, distorting your perceptions and making you feel bad. This post is about tuning in to your self-talk about food.
Another guest post, this time from Cassie of Veggie Meal Plans.
“I’ve learned to keep convenient vegetables and fruits on hand so I can add them to my plate with minimal effort. I don’t always have the energy to tackle fresh artichokes, but usually manage ten seconds to slice a cucumber to put on the side of a bowl of chilli.” Add more fruit and vegetables to your plate.
To avoid food becoming too much of a routine, my suggestion in this challenge was to flip your diet and spend the day doing the opposite. Every time you eat something ask yourself what would I normally do – and then make a different choice.
Do the opposite, or just do something different. Get out of your routine and your comfort zone and flip your diet.
One easy way to increase the variety of foods you eat, is to change your bread.
Choosing a different loaf means you’re still eating a food you know and are used to, but you’re also adding to your nutrient intake. It’s a simple way to get that little bit more variety in what you eat. Don’t go for the same old thing, choose a different bread.
In a busy life it’s handy to have a couple of easy, flexible dishes in your cooking repertoire. The kind of thing you can make at the end of a long day, using what’s in the house.
The top of my list for this kind of cooking is a frittata. You can include plenty of vegies, use only one saucepan and it’s ready in 20 minutes. So get practising and make a frittata.
A guest post from Lucy of Nourish Me about increasing the vegetables you eat, by trying something new on a regular basis.
“It is easy to fall into ruts; to mechanically reach out for the same things, rushing, as we do, through busy lives. But Variety, well, she really is the spice of life.”
Try something new this week.
Unless you read the ingredients list of every product and know a bit about food, it’s easy to miss what you’re actually eating.
Food packaging is covered in marketing, so this task is to ignore the hype and check the actual ingredients.
Find out how many different sugars are in your the food.
One of the easiest ways to get more variety in your diet is by boosting up your breakfast. Adding yoghurt, fruit, a sprinkle of nuts, or some vegetables are all easy and quick ways of increasing the nutritional impact of what you’re eating.
Plus they add only seconds to your morning routine. So increase the variety of your diet and oomph up your breakfast.
Sophie from Mostly Eating guest posts with some wise words about avoiding those alcohol fuelled food blow-outs.
“Having some food in your stomach slows down how quickly your stomach empties. When you drink alcohol not long after eating a meal or snack the alcohol takes longer to get from your mouth to your bloodstream”. Try eating before you go out drinking.
Taking lunch to work saves money and is generally a healthier strategy. However an unappealing lunch is unlikely to keep you on the nutritional straight and narrow.
Keeping some foods at work, good lunch-time fodder, can make this easier. But they have to be foods you both like and find easy to use. Avoid the local takeaway by keeping a pantry of foods at work.
Each time you try a new food you make a judgement about it. A bad first experience can put you off something forever.
Retry a vegetable you avoid. Cooked in a different way and matched with different flavours, you may actually like it. Don’t limit the foods you eat, try something again and see if you like it this time.
A good breakfast can set you up for the day. Stabilising blood sugar levels and helping to keep mood and energy even-keeled.
However do you know which is the best breakfast for you? Some people are better on cereal, while others need a more protein-infused meal. Experiment with different breakfast and find out which works best for you.
A guest post from Lindsey of Oh Sunday School. Lindsey’s eating well strategy is to put together a clever shopping list each week.
“I am much less likely to make impulse purchases of foods I don’t really need or aren’t very good for me, it means that I am guaranteed to have enough food in the house to create fresh, healthful and appealing meals every day”
Do you buy the same fruit each week? Dull, bland tasting stuff because you know you should eat fruit and it’s the cheapest on offer? This may be a false economy. Boring food is unappealing.
My suggestion: stop buying bags of fruit you don’t really like because they’re on special. Instead choose something you love, fruit that makes you salivate. Buy the best fruit you can afford.
Eating a variety of foods is a cornerstone of good nutrition. But lack of time and the lure of convenience, means many people eat the same things day in and day out.
Spend a day seeking out new and different foods. If you can increase the variety of foods you eat on a regular basis, you’re improving your diet. How many different foods can you eat?
Shauna from The Amazing Adventures of Dietgirl writes about changing your attitude to treats. Work out what you really like, down-scale your portions and savour every bite.
“I’ve always believed that a life without chocolate is not a life worth living, but in order to shed that weight and maintain my loss I had to reinvent the way I treated my treats.” Here’s how to do it.
For some dining out is a rare treat. Special occasions only. However, if you’re dining out or getting take-away a couple of times a week, this is part of your regular food routine. And you need to consider what you’re eating.
Make up for the lack of vegies in most restaurant meals by choosing a side dish of salad or steamed vegetables.
Lentils, red kidney beans, chick peas, black beans are all legumes. And they’re a wonderful source of nutrition. Including these foods in your meals each week will improve your diet.
Try out some legumes, use them in different ways and your health will benefit. Here’s how to make legumes a regular part of your diet.
The bigger your plates the bigger your portions are likely to be.
Reduce the size of your portions, without feeling deprived, by down-sizing your crockery. Save the large plates for salads and vegetables and use smaller plates and dessert bowls for the meal.
How big are your plates?
This guest post from Katrina of Kale for Sale is about being more aware of where your food comes from.
“I believed I could put healthier food on the table than what was manufactured or delivered from around the world to the corner store. And I was right. I could and I am. It’s the best thing I’ve ever done.” Improve your diet by becoming a locavore
Pick one or two of the challenges. They could be the ones you’ve most enjoyed, or the tasks which will make the biggest difference to your diet. And continue doing them. Adapt these changes into your daily and weekly routine. Integrate them into your life, until they become normal for you.
Then you will have achieved the goal – your diet will be better.
How are you going to make your diet better today?
Images by G & A Scholiers, Benjamin Earwacker, Sanja Gjenero, Hannah Boettcher and Vika Valter.
My quest for portion control
Posted by kathryn in A Balanced Diet
Following the success of the guest posts during the 31 Days to a Better Diet series, I’m continuing the series. Each month there will be a post from a guest writer on what they do to eat well. And this month it’s Sue-Lin Tin from Noodlebowl talking about watching your portion sizes.
I am Sue-Lin Tin, an average girl with an average yo-yo dieting lifestyle and a more than average love of broccoli.
Muesli, yoghurt and a banana. A healthy breakfast right? But how much of a good thing is a bad thing?
The recommended serving size for muesli is 30g. What does 30g look like? Is it a shake of the bag, 3 tablespoons, half your cereal bowl? How big is that banana? How much yoghurt did you pour on? I was surprised to find how very little 30g is. I was deceiving myself by choosing healthy options but eating far too much of it.
When I began tracking my diet, I decided to do it properly and weigh each portion of food before I ate it. I was constantly surprised how badly I estimated how much each item weighed and not in a good way. I weighed everything consistently for about a week or so, until I could better gauge each portion size. I use a tracking tool that has a library of most Australian food items; it allows me to enter in x grams of food and it will work out how many calories it is, as I am following a calorie restriction diet.
I have found the following tools to be useful in my quest for portion control:
Electric scales:
We have a set of electric scales that has a tare function so you can put on a container, set it back to zero and chuck in the food item. We bought these from a homewares shop and I love the tare function.
Measuring cup:
We have one of those glass pyrex jugs that measure in both mls and cups. Good for liquids and recipes that call for cup serves.
Glad lock bags:
Break up food into pre-weighed portion sizes. For example, break out meat into single portion sizes and write down the weight on the pack before freezing it.
Write it down:
When concocting a meal, it is easy to lose track of what you’re putting together. My husband started writing it on our kitchen blackboard as he went and I thought this was a very good idea.
Take a photo:
I just thought of this but haven’t implemented it yet. Take a photo of what a serving size of pasta should be, tape it to the front of the pasta container.
I found at the start of the diet, I was tracking very consistently and weighing everything. The enthusiasm for this activity wanes as you would imagine. I found the best way was to make a commitment to weigh and portion control for at least one week. This covered most regular items I would eat in a week and gave me a good gauge of what a serving size should be.
I still struggle with this and sometimes I just go to hell with it, why can’t I just eat like a normal person! But I know now that what I used to think was a normal portion size is really almost double what I should be eating. It will be an ongoing adjustment to rethink what ‘normal’ is.
Have a go at measuring your portion sizes for just one day, it would be interesting to hear if your portion sizes were more or less than you thought.
I am Sue-Lin Tin, an average girl with an average yo-yo dieting lifestyle and a more than average love of broccoli. My blog Noodlebowl is a random collection of food and other musings.
Scales photograph by Benjamin Earwacker and measuring jug by Tory Byrne.
Announcing - the Pantry Challenge
Posted by kathryn in Shopping Basket
Announcing the Pantry Challenge
In a busy life eating well can sometimes be difficult.
Regular planning, shopping and cooking all take time and if you’re having a flat-out week these things get overlooked.
Without good food in your cupboards or freezer the tempting fall-back is take away and fast food.
If this is happening intermittently it’s not a problem . However if you’re regularly turning to take-away then your diet and health are suffering.
Cooking from the pantry
What if there were ingredients you could keep in the house to make a healthy meal? Ones with long, long sell-by dates. Foods that could just sit in your pantry or freezer, until needed. Then, when life was too busy you could pull them out and put together a quick, easy and healthy meal. With minimal fuss.
Well I think there are just such a group of foods. Ingredients you can keep long term. Ingredients that will give you a flavour-full meal. Fifteen foods that will even give you options and choice about what you make.
And I’m challenging you to help prove me right.
The ingredients
Here is a list of fifteen foods. These are basic ingredients you can keep in the pantry and fridge. They last a long time and most of you will have at least some of them already.
- Olive oil
- Tinned tomatoes
- Tinned legumes or beans
- Soy sauce
- Frozen vegetables
- Flour
- Pasta
- Tinned fish
- Eggs
- Rice
- Bread
- Vinegar
- Fresh onions
- One spice or spice mix
- One dried herb or herb mix
If you have these foods in your house I think you could put together a healthy meal. In fact I think there are probably quite a number of different dishes you could make. All with just 15 ingredients.
The Pantry Challenge
So I’m setting a pantry challenge. To see how many different meals you and I can make from this one list.
Using all or some of the above 15 foods, what would you have for dinner?
The details
If you want to take part, here’s what you need to do:
- Make a meal using ingredients from the above list.
- I’ve allowed some flexibility in the list, for example you can choose your own herb, spice and so on. You don’t have to use all the ingredients but your recipes must only use these foods. No tweaking the list and no adding in extra sneaky ingredients. The point is for us to come up with a diversity of dishes from the same list.
- If you have a blog, post your recipe on your site and then send me an email. Please include a link back to this post, announcing the Pantry Challenge.
- If you don’t have a blog but still want to take part, then please do. You can email your recipe and any photos directly to me and I’ll include them in the round up.
- In your email please state your name, blog name (if you have a blog) and where you’re from. Include a link back to your blog post and feel free to also include a photograph of your dish.
- You can enter more than one recipe.
- The closing time and date for entries is 9.00am on Monday 29th September. Please note that’s 9.00am my time – ie Australian Eastern Standard Time. For many of you that’s still going to be Sunday night.
- Due to time constraints I won’t accept late submissions.
- I’ll post a round up of the recipes and entries during the week following the deadline.
Are you going to take part in the Pantry Challenge?
Photograph by Petre Birlea.
7 Life Changing Strategies My Clients Taught Me
Posted by kathryn in A Balanced Diet
I first wrote this post for the Passion For Health blog. Recently Mike & James have closed down that site, to focus on Habit Guide – so I’m re-posting it here.
I have now been a practising nutritionist and herbalist for five years. As you’d expect I’ve learnt a lot over this time and have grown and developed as a practitioner.
While I still have the same fundamental philosophy about health, my approach to patients and their health has changed considerably . . .
Most naturopaths start out with a gung-ho approach to health, only for this to be watered down as they come into contact with the realities of peoples’ lives. However, I was the opposite and started with an overly timid approach to health. While some practitioners could be accused of demanding too radical a change from their clients, I didn’t ask enough.
I’ve always been aware that patients have busy lives. Changing your diet, lifestyle and health, in the context of today’s world, can be a big ask. In the western world our diets are getting worse and worse, and while our lives just seem to get busier, we’re moving less.
Being overly conscious of peoples’ schedules, I’d ask clients to make small, incremental changes. Stuff that would be easy for them to manage in the context of their lives. Sounds reasonable? However, I’d find clients would get frustrated. While I was worried about over-loading them, clients didn’t feel they were getting anywhere and sometimes gave up.
I’m still conscious of the limitations to change that are imposed by people’s lives, but I’m now a much more pushy practitioner. I’ve found you can guide people through quite big changes to their health, as long as you give them simple and practical solutions for doing so.
I’ve learnt from clients, which has led me to alter my strategies for change and here’s what I’ve found out:
- Set out blocks of time to focus on your health: it’s hard to constantly be thinking about your diet and exercise regime, so make a commitment to a block of time. This is your time to work on improving your health. I’ve found six – eight weeks a good timeframe. It’s not too daunting, but you can still achieve measurable change.
- Set some goals for what you want to achieve: have a think about how you feel now and how you want to feel. Be clear about what you want to achieve and be realistic. If you’re not doing any exercise, then in a few weeks you’re not going to be running marathons, however you might be able to walk to the shops without getting out of breath – an excellent achievement.
- Concentrate on one aspect of your health for the first two weeks: it’s hard to do everything at once, so pick one particular aspect of your health you want to improve and work on that. I frequently set clients one small nutritional goal in the first two weeks, but place my focus on getting people moving and starting to build a regular exercise habit. It’s the quickest way to start feeling better.
- Don’t give up: nobodies diet is perfect. We all have good days and bad days. You’re going to get some things right, but at times you’re also going to stuff up. If things don’t go to plan, you haven’t blown it, so don’t give up. Just take a few moments to re-focus and get back on track.
- Keep your changes targeted and practical: instead of setting a goal of “eating healthily”, work out two or three things you could do which would improve your diet. It might be eating breakfast every day, aiming for three different vegetables in the evening, having a healthy snack in the afternoon, or limiting your soft drinks to the weekend only. Define your changes and make them do-able.
- Plan, plan, plan: I can’t emphasise the importance of this. Many a good intention has been let down by a lack of planning. Schedule your exercise in your diary. Make a shopping list and buy your groceries on the weekend, to ensure you have the good food you need easily available.
- Improving your health is one of the most important things you can do in your life. Don’t put it off until the future when you have more money, more time or work gets easier. Act now and you’ll have more energy, vitality and also the satisfaction of knowing you’ve improved your health.
What have you learnt about changing your health?
Photograph by Sanja Gjenero.
Quicklinks
Posted by kathryn in Sustainablity, Snacking, Vegetables, Mental & emotional health and Main courses
- Easy way with broccoli: There’s a big promise in The Wednesday Chef’s post on broccoli, but this is a super simple and great looking recipe.
- Huevos Rancheros: Smitten Kitchen is a new blog to me, but I love the look of this recipe for the Tex-Mex dish huevos rancheros.
- Indian spiced croquettes: I’m loving the idea of these spinach and pea tikkis from Quick Indian Cooking. And they’re grilled, not fried.
- BBC’s food resource: There’s much wonderful stuff on the BBC’s Good Food site, but I’m particularly taken with their glossary. Simple quick descriptions of different ingredients, along with excellent photos. It’s not comprehensive, but a good place to start.
- Fructivism: Describing himself as a fruit activist, George Monbiot writes about his love of old varieties of apples and pears. And look at the varietal names: Ambrosia, Althorp Crasanne, Wyken Pippin, Beurré Rance. Gorgeous.
- No fast food: News from the US that Los Angeles City Council are prohibiting fast food joints from opening in the poorest neighbourhoods.
- Freedom & responsibility: Not directly about food, but there are two great posts from Victoria at Freedom for for Living Skills on the topics of taking responsibility and finding your freedom for . . ..
Photograph by lockstockb.
Why do people gain weight when on antidepressants?
Posted by kathryn in Mental & emotional health
Finally in today’s Q & A Thursday a reader asks: how do SSRI antidepressants cause weight gain?
I’m not an expert in pharmacology but as far as I know, there’s no answer to this question – yet!
SSRIs or Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors are a group of antidepressants which include prozac, zoloft and lexapro. About 25 percent of the people who take these antidepressants gain weight, but at the moment we don’t know the precise mechanism by which this occurs.
It’s believed that SSRIs affect both appetite and metabolism. It’s also been suggested that as people’s mood improves, the pleasure and enjoyment they get from food returns – causing an increase in food consumed.
What to do?
If you are on antidepressants and are concerned about weight gain, this is the best advice I can give:
- Speak to your doctor: weight gain is not guaranteed when on SSRIs and it may be that a different drug or a different dosage may give you the mental health benefits, while reducing weight gain.
- See a nutritionist: Many people who are not on medication struggle with maintaining a healthy weight. Professional help can assist you with working out the best foods, the right portions and how to manage your appetite.
- Exercise: Given it’s believed SSRIs impact metabolism one of the best routines you can get into is regular exercise. Both cardiovascular, but also strength training. Reducing fat and increasing your muscle mass will boost your metabolism. This has the added benefit of improving mood.
- Eat low GI foods: Carbohydrates are a much maligned food. While I don’t recommend giving them up, switching to low GI carbohydrates will help you control your appetite.
- Deal with carbohydrate cravings: Some people on SSRIs mention carbohydrate cravings. There are some good dietary strategies for dealing with this in how to deal with a carbohydrate addiction in five steps.
Q & A Thursday is over for this month
That’s the end of Q & A Thursday for this month. Hope you’ve enjoyed the four posts.
The next forum will be on Thursday 2nd October. If you have a question you’d like answered send me an email. For more information you can take a look at the Q & A Thursday archives.
How much sodium in a low salt product?
Posted by kathryn in Shopping Basket and Food Labelling
In Q & A Thursday Kaya asks: what constitutes a ‘high’ or ‘low’ salt product.
Salt is made up of two elements: sodium and chloride. These are both electrolytes and they’re important to your body.
- Fluid balance: they assist in maintaining the subtle and complex balance of fluids in your body, despite the daily fluctuations in your water intake and losses.
- Nerve and muscle function: They’re involved in muscle contraction and relaxation and assisting the transferral of messages along your nervous system.
Is salt bad for you?
Most people consume a lot more sodium than is needed and there’s considerable debate about whether this is safe or not. High salt diets have been linked to raised blood pressure (hypertension), one of the risk factors for cardiovascular disease.
The DASH (Dietary Approaches to Hypertension) group have found reducing dietary salt does improve blood pressure. While the prestigious Cochrane group have concluded there is little short or long-term benefit to reducing salt intake.
What does seem to be the case is that a certain portion of the population are salt-sensitive. In these people, salt will increase blood pressure and it is worthwhile reducing their intake. The benefit for the rest of the population is debateable and all experts agree the most important intervention for managing blood pressure is reaching and maintaining a healthy weight range.
This advice is not carte blanche for people with normal blood pressure to eat as much salt as they want. Excessive salt intake has been linked to other health problems:
- excess calcium loss from bones, increasing the risk of osteoporosis
- kidney stones
- fluid retention
- some cancers
Salt is not solely responsible for these health risks. However we eat a lot more salt than we actually need, so it is worthwhile monitoring and reducing your intake, where possible.
How much salt is safe?
While you need salt, you don’t need a lot of it.
This is not much. 2,300mg of sodium is contained in about a teaspoon of salt. Most people consume more than twice that amount.
Most of the sodium we eat doesn’t come from the stuff we add to cooking, it’s from processed foods. Salt is added to foods that are not obviously salty, because it’s a cheap and effective flavour enhancer. It’s used in:
- bread
- breakfast cereals
- mayonnaise
- cream cheese
- muesli bars
- some sweet biscuits
- salad dressings
- tomato ketchup
- stock cubes
- many tinned vegetables and beans
- fast foods
- snack foods like chips and crackers
- dehydrated and packet noodles and soups
And many more . . .
Five ways to reduce your salt intake
- Reduce processed foods. Given most salt in your diet comes from processed foods, making more of your own food will automatically reduce your sodium intake.
- Choose lower sodium products. The amount of sodium in a product is listed on the nutritional panel. Check the amount per 100g of the food. A low sodium product has less than 120mg of sodium per serve.
- Avoid high sodium foods. If a product has more than 500mg of sodium per 100g then it’s classified as a high sodium product.
- Retrain your taste buds. Gradually reduce the amount of salt you add to food. Doing this over a period of time gives your palate the opportunity to adjust.
- Add salt at the end of cooking: Add small amounts of salt at the table, instead of during cooking. This way you will get the taste, but use less salt.
Do you worry about how much salt you consume?
Is there a problem with cooking nuts and seeds?
Posted by kathryn in Fat
Next on Q & A Thursday Naomi has asked what are the health benefits of raw vs cooked nuts and seeds.
I love nuts and seeds. They’re delicious, crunchy and packed full of nutritional goodness. However most people don’t eat a lot of them. I read a statistic recently that Australians only eat an average of 4g of nuts per day – although don’t quote me because I can’t remember where I saw that snippet.
What about the fat?
Part of the reason many people avoid nuts and seeds is because of their fat content. And it’s true, they are high in fat: it ranges from 50 – 76 percent, depending on the nut. However the fatty acids in nuts are mostly poly- and mono- unsaturates. They contain very few saturated fatty acids. This means while you should be careful of how much you eat, it’s in your best nutritional interests to include nuts regularly in your diet. Unless you’re allergic of course.
Should you avoid cooked nuts?
I’ve seen articles which claim that cooking nuts changes the fatty acids in them from un-saturated to saturated. This is not true.
It is possible that at extremely high temperatures some of the fatty acids could be converted from un-saturated to trans fatty acids. And trans fatty acids can act in the body like super-charged saturates.
However both home-cooked and commercially roasted nuts are not heated to these sorts of temperatures.
The main difference between cooked and un-cooked is a alight decline in the B vitamins. Nutritionally that’s about it.
Why nutritionists always recommend raw nuts
Despite this, most nutritionists still recommend buying raw nuts. This is because commercially roasted nuts are often cooked in oil and most have lots of added salt. Which adds kilojoules and sodium most of us just don’t need.
If you buy raw nuts you can control how they are prepared and served. You can toast them on the stove-top or under the grill, without adding any extra oil.
If you want to buy commercially roasted nuts, then choose brands which specify they are dry roasted. Or check the ingredients list to see if any oil has been added.
Eat in moderation
Most clients who come to see me have nuts and seeds added to their diet. They’re simply too good nutritionally to avoid. Nuts can also provide a contrasting flavour and texture to dishes and make a really useful snack.
But it’s best to eat them in moderation. A daily serve of about 30g of nuts gives you all the benefits, without adding too many kilojoules. This is about:
- 1/4 of a cup or a small handful of mixed nuts
- 20 walnut halves
- 2 tablespoons of pine nuts
- 20 almonds
- 10 Brazil nuts
- 15 cashews
So eat nuts – but not too many of them
How to choose the healthiest cooking oil
Posted by kathryn in Shopping Basket and Fat
After missing a month due to the 31 Days to a Better Diet series, Q & A Thursday is back.
The first question is from Maja who asks which is the healthiest oil for frying and roasting?
Why do we use oil in cooking?
Oil has to be one of the most frequently used cooking ingredients. We use it in dressings and when marinating foods. However it’s also the foundation of several cooking techniques: sautéing, roasting and stir frying.
Cooking in oil is different from cooking in water, because it heats to a higher temperature. While water turns to gas at 100°C, oils remain liquid at temperatures above 200°C.
This temperature gives food a crisper texture and more intense flavour.
What makes an oil more or less healthy?
There are three factors which affect the health quota of an oil:
- The type of fat it contains
- How the oil reacts to heat
- How much of the oil you use
1. The type of fat
There are three distinct groups of fat found in oils: saturated, poly-unsaturated and mono-unsaturated fatty acids. While all three are present in both animal and plant foods, different oils tend to be dominated by one group.
While we need each of these fatty acids in our diet, most people eat too much of the saturated kind. Here in Australia, on average people eat twice the recommended daily intake. And a high saturated fat diet is a problem, because it’s associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer and diabetes.
In contrast mono- and poly-unsaturated fatty acids are associated with health benefits. These include reducing cardiovascular risk and cognitive decline in old age, and improving mental health.
2. How the oil reacts to heat
The amount of saturated, poly-unsaturated and mono-unsaturated fatty acids varies considerably between different oils. This affects the stability of the oil and how it responds to heat.
Heat can change the structure, composition and flavour of an oil. All oils have a smoking point, although the temperature at which this occurs varies. If you heat an oil beyond it’s smoking point it will burn and the flavour deteriorate. More concerning for your health though, heating an oil beyond its smoking point encourages the production of free radicals.
To prevent this it’s important to choose an oil which remains stable at a high enough temperature for the cooking method you’re using.
3. How much of the oil you use
Even the healthiest of oils can be over-consumed. Oils are basically 100 percent fat. Which makes them a concentrated energy source and therefore high in kilojoules. Too much of even the best oils can contribute to weight gain. Quantity counts.
How to use some of the most common oils
- Olive oil: high in mono-unsaturated fats and has a lowish smoking point of 190°C. Therefore suitable for cooking at lower temperatures. Use for sautéing foods, adding at the end of cooking to flavour a dish, roasting foods in the oven at a lower temperature.
- Canola oil: high in mono-unsaturated fatty acids and has lowest saturated fat content of all the common oils. Has a higher smoke point than olive oil (240°C). Therefore suitable for higher temperature cooking, without affecting flavour or increasing free radical damage. Blander flavour makes it a good multi-purpose oil. Use in baked goods and for stir frying where a medium – high temperature is required.
- Sesame, peanut and sunflower seed oils: high in poly-unsaturated fatty acids and have distinct amounts of mono-unsaturates. At 232°C they have a higher smoking point than olive oil and are in a similar range to canola oil. Excellent for stir-frying or frying.
- Macadamia oil: different fatty acid profile from the other nut and seed oils. 85 percent mono-unsaturates, 14 percent saturates and virtually no poly-unsaturates. Has a distinctive flavour and medium smoking point of 210°C. Excellent for stir fries and roasting.
Five tips for using the healthies oil in your diet
- There is no one perfect oil. As with other parts of your diet, variety is the key. Use olive oil some nights, but also include canola, sesame, macadamia and so on. It’s the best way to ensure you’re getting the fatty acids you need.
- Buy cold pressed. Cold pressed and extra virgin oils are the first pressings from the nut and seed, which are extracted without heat or chemical solvents. These are purer, better oils, with a fuller flavour.
- Don’t exceed the smoking point. If you exceed the smoking point, you’re damaging the oil and increasing free radicals, so use the right oil for the cooking job.
- Avoid using too much. Find ways to reduce the overall amount of oil you use. While a recipe may specify tablespoons and cupfuls, it’s usually possible to reduce this down.
- Replace saturated fatty acids. Rather than adding mono- and poly-unsaturated fatty acids to your diet, use them to replace some of the existing saturates you use. Add canola oil to baking and dip your bread in olive oil, rather than using butter.
What about trans fats?
I specifically haven’t mentioned trans fats in this post, as they’re not regularly found in the oils we use at home. If you want to know more about trans then see my previous posts on the subject:
If you want to know more about cooking oils, then I have an article coming up in Wellbeing magazine. It will be published in the November issue.
What oils do you most commonly cook with?
What's in season in September & a question
Posted by kathryn in What's in season
We’re moving towards spring. A change in seasons. Which means the fruit and vegetables available to us also starts changing.
September and October are months of flux. When what should be available to us and what’s actually available can be two different things.
At the moment I’m thinking a lot more about local food. For the past few years I’ve increasingly tried to limit my grocery shopping to Australian goods. Well, mostly Australian at the very least.
However more recently, partly prompted by Katrina’s post on being wild minded, my thoughts are turning to even more local than that.
Not just Australian produce, but food grown closer to home again: New South Wales and the Sydney basin.
In response I’m thinking about trying to make my regular what’s in season list as local to Sydney as possible.
What do you think? Would this be useful?
If you’re from other states of Australia, don’t feel abandoned. You can still refer to last year’s list. And if you think it’s a good idea, I’ll almost certainly need help with finding out what’s local and in season. As I’m very much feeling my way with this topic.
In the meantime, here is the normal list of what’s in season.
Fruit:
- Apples: still plenty of varieties available. The best are Pink Ladies, but they’re from WA
- Bananas
- Blueberries: they’re beautiful but pricey
- Cumquats
- Custard apples
- Dates
- Grapefruit
- Lemons
- Mandarins: Honey Murcott’s & Imperials
- Mangoes: Northern Territory season has just started and they’re still expensive
- Mulberries: from Queensland
- Oranges: Australian navels & blood oranges
- Pomelos
- Rockmelons
- Strawberries: from Queensland
- Tangelos
Vegetables
- Artichokes (globe)
- Asian greens
- Basil
- Beetroot
- Broad beans
- Broccoli
- Broccolini
- Capsicums: from South Australia & Queensland
- Cauliflower
- Celery
- Chillies
- Daikon
- Fennel: fantastic at the moment & cheap
- Kohlrabi
- Lettuce
- Okra
- Onions
- Peas
- Potatoes
- Silverbeet
- Snowpeas
- Spinach
- Sweet potato: cheap and good quality
- Wild rocket
- Witlof
- Zucchini
Should I endeavour to make this list truly local?
The monthly what’s in season guide is compiled from a number of sources, including: the Harris Farm Market and Fratelli Fresh market updates; Lettuce Deliver’s weekly shopping guide; the Sydney Markets seasonal guide; updates in Donna Hay and Delicious magazines; a range of books; as well as my own observations of what’s currently available and good value. I sometimes continue to make updates during the month, as fruit and veg availability changes.
Mulberry photograph by Mr Truffle.
What's next?
Posted by kathryn in Blogging
Now the 31 Days to a Better Diet series is over, what’s coming up next on Limes & Lycopene?
What’s in season?
As it’s the beginning of a new month, I’ll be posting my regular list of the fruit and vegetables in season, here in Sydney.
Q & A Thursday
The first week of the month also means Q & A Thursday: the monthly forum where you ask the questions. If you have a question about food or diet, then send me an email. For your question to be included it must be:
- Emailed to me. Do not leave questions in the comments below, as it gets too difficult and time-consuming for me to track.
- Sent to me by 9.00am on Thursday Australian Eastern Standard Time.
- Please keep your question specific and succinct
- I will try to answer all the questions I receive each month, but if there are too many I will carry some over to the next month.
- I can only answer questions of a general nutritional nature – I’m not able to either diagnose or treat individual health issues through Limes & Lycopene.
- If I think your question requires a long and detailed answer, I may save it for a separate post.
Quicklinks
This Friday my regular Quicklinks post will also return.
Plus there will be posts on food, diet, recipes and how to eat well. I have some more guest posts lined up, and next week I’ll be starting a new series – including a challenge which you may want to be involved in.
So there’s plenty coming up.
8 comments
30 September, 2008
