How comforting to think about the Mediterranean Diet as we head towards the shortest and darkest day of the year! Wine, sun shine, peaches … Sounds good, right? Yes, I know Brussel sprouts don’t have quite the glamour but bear with me because the big nutritional news this week has been another study endorsing the…
OATS, GLORIOUS OATS – AND A RECIPE FOR SUPER-SPEEDY NO-BAKE GRANOLA
I’ve always longed to be the sort of girl who wafts around making her own granola. Yes, I know making granola is neither arduous nor complicated. But it often seems a faff – you have to turn the oven on in advance, then you have to hang around while it’s baking, gently prodding and turning….
WHY EATING WELL NEEDN’T COST A FORTUNE – SARDINE AND WATERCRESS PÂTÉ
As I stood in line at a supermarket checkout recently, I overheard a young couple in front of me querying the cost of their weekly shop. The checkout lady confirmed her till was working properly and she hadn’t put any items through twice. Then the young woman’s face crumpled. “We were just trying to be…
REPLENISHING YOUR GUT BACTERIA – LEEK, BLACK BEAN AND BACON SOUP
There’s nothing like spending time in hospital to remind you why health matters. But when my second daughter was hospitalised with a burst appendix two weeks ago, it wasn’t degenerative disease on my mind, but gut bacteria. Five days of triple intravenous antibiotics, followed by twelve days of aural antibiotics, had me straining for my…
EAT YOUR GREENS … BUT WHICH ONES?
Spending a fortune on blueberries? Don’t know which vegetables to buy? Take a look at this new study from William Paterson University in New Jersey, which ranked 47 fruit and vegetables in terms of nutrients per bite http://www.cdc.gov/pcd/issues/2014/13_0390.htm#table2_down Researchers analysed each fruit and vegetable for 17 critical nutrients proven to reduce chronic disease.* The findings…
INCREASE YOUR MICROBIOTA – AND PEA & SOYBEAN SALAD
Preparing to hunker down for the cooler months? Feeling gloomy about the end of summer? Stop right there! If Susan’s last post on Vitamin D and dementia didn’t get you up and out, then tune in to this week’s BBC Horizon programme (http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b04g507y/horizon-20142015-5-allergies-modern-life-and-me) on the explosion of allergies in the developed world. Horizon covered not…
PRO-AGEING RED BEANS – SPICED KIDNEY BEAN DIP WITH SMOKED PAPRIKA CRISPS AND CHERRY TOMATOES
This week’s big break-through has been the lycopene study, proving that lycopene really does protect against heart disease and strokes. We’ll be telling you more about lovely lycopene later, but you can catch up at: http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/jun/09/tomato-extract-lycopene-relieves-damaged-arteries-cambridge-study But my favourite research? The one showing cynics faced a ‘far higher risk of Alzheimer’s’! Indeed, the Scandinavian study…
