To carb or not to carb, that is the question – particularly when it comes to age-related, degenerative disease. The battle lines are being drawn in the fight for our health. If that sounds melodramatic, bear with me. The traditional view of our nutritional needs is encapsulated in the NHS-approved food pyramid, with plentiful portions…
WHY TEA AND CAKE WILL IMPROVE YOUR MEMORY AND HELP YOU LIVE LONGER
No doubt you’re dieting, detoxing or drying out – it is, after all, the month of penitence, atonement and resolutions (read ours here and here). But it’s dark n’ cold out there and my body’s begging for sugar and carbs. To top it all, my eldest daughter is mid-exams and comes home starving and exhausted. And…
BOOSTING IMMUNITY FOR 2015, SOUP AND A SALAD
Last week Annabel posted about her key Kale and Cocoa resolution for 2015: to get more vegetables into her family’s diet, aiming for SEVEN portions a day (you can read why seven is the new five here). So here’s my New Year’s health resolution: to boost my immunity so I don’t get any sodding awful…
CARING, TURMERIC AND A RECIPE FOR SALMON PILAFF
This weekend feels like the start of the long march to Christmas – with all the presents, all the parties, all the food and all the mayhem that entails. For anyone who takes care of anyone (which is most adults, to be honest) it means even more juggling than usual, fitting in the children’s activities…
HOW TO GET YOUR CHILD EATING HEALTHY FOODS – AND RECIPES FOR KALE CRISPS
For those of you who think the off-spring of Ms’s Kale and Cocoa happily munch on spinach and lentils, let me put you right. They (mostly) don’t! Like mothers everywhere, we cajole, bribe, threaten and despair. But after sixteen years of feeding multiple children and reading multiple books and reports on the subject, I’ve made…
ANXIETY, MOOD FOOD AND CHINESE ‘SPAG BOG’
A headline that could only appear in the Daily Mail: “Women who are anxious, jealous and moody are ‘twice as likely to suffer from Alzheimer’s in old age’” – as if the daily anxieties and strains of midlife aren’t enough to worry about! But the science behind the headline is interesting, and at Kale and Cocoa…
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….
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…
SUNSHINE, VITAMIN D AND A RECIPE FOR COCONUT-CRUSTED SALMON
Not difficult to top up the Vitamin D in the summer, is it? All that endless sunshine, those days by the pool and drinks on the terrace (well, that’s what my Facebook feed looks like anyway – thank you friends). But this summer, I’m stuck inside, working 12 hours days with a long, underground commute…
