The Age-Well Project

Change the way you age

Get our posts direct to your inbox

  • About The Age-Well Project
  • Books
    • Our Books
    • Reviews
    • References
  • Blog
  • Recipes
    • Recipes By Ingredient
    • Breakfast
    • Dessert
    • Dinner
    • Drinks
    • Family
    • On The Go
    • Soups and Salads
    • Treats and Snacks
  • Contact
  • Events
  • Press

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT CARB ‘QUALITY’ AND DARK-CHOCOLATE-SALTED-PEANUT FLAPJACKS

July 3, 2018 3 Comments

One of the latest buzz phrases in the world of nutrition is ‘carbohydrate quality’.  While we’re not big on fads, Annabel and I do love our carbs: whole grains are an important part of our age-well diet. We understand that not all carbs are created equal: it’s obvious there’s a huge difference between the quality of carbohydrate in broccoli, and that in a doughnut. As the Harvard School of Public Health puts it, ‘The amount of carbohydrate in the diet – high or low – is less important than the type of carbohydrate in the diet. For example, healthy, whole grains such as whole wheat bread, rye, barley and quinoa are better choices than highly refined white bread or French fries.’

Did you watch The Truth About Carbs on BBC1 a few weeks ago? Do try and catch it – it’s on iPlayer for another week or so https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0b5y6c0/the-truth-about-27-carbsDr Xand van Tulleken examines the role that carbs, good and bad, play in our diets. He divides them up into white carbs (sugar, sweets, fizzy drinks etc), beige carbs – starchy foods like bread and pasta; and green ones – high fibre fruits and vegetables aka good carbs.

In the programme Dr Xand put a small group of people with weight-related health issues, including type-2 diabetes, on a ‘low-carb’ diet. What’s key here is that it’s low in foods from  the white and beige carb groups, but packed with vegetables aka ‘green carbs’. So the group replace white rice with cauliflower rice and potato with celeriac. After two weeks of counting carbs rather than calories, the group all loved their new way of eating and had each lost half a stone.  The diabetics found that their diabetic blood marker HbA1c dropped, blood sugar control improved, and fatty liver reduced. One of the group had been on diabetes medication for 17 years: after two weeks on the diet he was classified as being in part-remission from the condition, and close to reversing his diabetes. The man looked close to tears (of joy) when he was given these results. There’s more information – and lots of recipes – on www.diabetes.co.uk

The great benefit of quality carbs like whole grains and vegetables is that they are packed with fibre. It’s an indigestible, plant-based carbohydrate and is critical if we want to age healthily. It helps control cholesterol levels, protect against diabetes, manage weight and reduce colo-rectal cancer risk. We need to aim for 30g of fibre a day, which is a lot when you consider that half a tin of baked beans contains 7.5g of fibre and three Weetabix, 5.4g.  Most people in the UK get around 18g a day. As part of our research for our book, The Age-Well Project, we’ve been keeping ‘fibre diaries’ to see how much we consume each day. Not enough is the answer, but we’re working at it. Check out the end of this post for some of our favourite recipes which fit the bill.

We love oats and have more oat-based recipes on this blog than anything else! Luckily they are quality carbohydrates, with every 10g of rolled oats containing one gramme of fibre. So they are the star of this week’s recipe. It’s very versatile: swap the salted peanuts for chopped almonds to cut salt and reduce the maple syrup right down for a less-sweet version. These are vegan and almost refined sugar free.

DARK CHOCOLATE AND SALTED PEANUT FLAPJACKS (GRANOLA BARS)

  • 230g jumbo oats
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 50g dark chocolate, chopped (go as dark as you like – 85% cocoa is good)
  • 50g salted peanuts, roughly chopped
  • 3 ripe bananas
  • 120g crunchy peanut butter
  • 100ml maple syrup (or less, depending on taste)
  • 1 tbs coconut oil + a bit more to oil the baking tin

Pre-heat the oven to 180C and oil a brownie tin. Put the tablespoon of oil, peanut butter and maple syrup in a small saucepan and stir gently until just melted and combined. Take off the heat and mash in the bananas.

In a large bowl, stir together oats, cinnamon and chocolate. Add the wet ingredients to the dry, mix to combine. Carefully stir through the peanuts.

Press into the prepared tin and bake for 20 minutes. I get 12 large or 18 small bars out of this.

Our top 10 quality carb recipes from the blog:

Cauliflower ‘rice’ salad 

Chilled avocado and cucumber soup

No-bake granola

Best-ever vegetable saute

Chard and pearl barley risotto

Millet pancakes

Kale and black sesame rice bowl

Kale Caesar salad

Sweet potato bean cakes

Easy peasy gazpacho

 

Susan

 

  • Conditions: Ageing
« IS ALCOHOL GOOD FOR YOU? GINGER KOMBUCHA
HOW TO CREATE A BODY THAT REPELS CANCER & MISO SALMON TRAY BAKE »

Comments

  1. Nigel says

    September 3, 2022 at 5:36 pm

    Hi Susan, this sounds like a great recipe, just wondering whether it would also serve as an energy bar? I’m not diabetic but I can get hyperglycemic when doing endurance exercise, walking, cycling etc. I seem to need protein more than carbs.

    Reply
    • Susan Saunders says

      September 3, 2022 at 7:11 pm

      Hi Nigel – I’m not a dietician but yes I think this could be a useful energy bar. It’s based on an American recipe for granola bars which can definitely double up as an energy bar. There isn’t a lot of sugar so it should be ok for your endurance exercise. Let us know how you get on! Susan

      Reply

Trackbacks

  1. HOW VALENTINE’S DAY CAN HELP YOU AGE WELL - The Age-Well Project says:
    April 29, 2020 at 2:12 am

    […] Dark chocolate salted-peanut flapjacks – delicious energy treats when you’re on the go […]

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter

Welcome to The Age-Well Project

Welcome to The Age-Well Project!
Here you’ll find easy changes for a longer, happier life. We’ve immersed ourselves in the science of longevity and distilled the research to make it work in our everyday lives. You can change the way you age: here’s how.

Favourite Posts

WHY I’VE THROWN OUT ALL MY BEAUTY PRODUCTS (nearly…)

Why Alzheimer’s Is A Women’s Issue

HOW HAVING A DOG CHANGED MY LIFE

GREEN SPACE IS GOOD FOR YOUR HEALTH

SUGAR, CHOCOLATE, SADNESS AND BRAIN-BOOSTING BISCUITS

WHY ‘INFLAMM-AGEING’ COULD START IN THE GUT AND HARISSA-ROASTED VEGETABLE SALAD

POLYAMINES – THE NEW SECRET WEAPON FOR AGEING WELL & MOROCCAN SPINACH AND CHICKPEAS.

THINNING AGEING HAIR – WARM CHICKEN LIVER SALAD

About The Age Well Project

This site is for anyone who wants to make the second half of their life as healthy, happy and disease-free as possible. Sign up to get the latest research on ageing – and delicious recipes to match – direct to your inbox.

agewellproject

⭐️Change the way you age
📚The Age-Well Project + Age-Well Plan ⭐️Get tips & recipes on our blog - sign up ⬇️

The Age-Well Project blog
Look, we know not many people have round-the-clock Look, we know not many people have round-the-clock access to a sauna. But Susan found one in a hotel she was staying at recently, there’s one in our local gym and Annabel found plenty on her summer holiday in Finland. 

A growing number of studies attest to the longevity-enhancing benefits of routine forays into a sauna. Much of the research has been instigated in Finland where sauna (pronounced to rhyme with downer) has existed forever.

So how does sauna help us age well? The extreme heat activates heat shock proteins which researchers think can maintain the healthy functioning of our cells.  As we get older, the proteins in some of our cells start to misfold and collapse. They then clump together forming plaques, including the plaques thought to cause Alzheimer’s and dementia.

Heat shock proteins – triggered by a sauna stint and possibly by hot baths – appear to prevent the misfolding and collapsing of cellular proteins, as well as clearing out those that have already misfolded. Which is to say they keep our cells in good shape. 

There’s more on the blog - link in bio 

#womenover50 #over50andfit #womenover60 #postmenopause #postmenopausalwomen #postmenopausalhealth 
#brainhealth #alzheimers #reducedementiarisk #cognitivehealth #betterbrainhealth #brainfog  #agewell #longevity #ageingwell #agingwell
Obsessed with the smoked quinoa in this salad! You Obsessed with the smoked quinoa in this salad! You know we love a good grain and this one is particularly delicious. It’s from our friends @hodmedods and they very kindly gave us a discount code to share with you - it’s valid until the end of September. Code and recipe are on the blog - link in bio (it’s the blog post about reducing dementia risk) #prproduct #recipe #healthyrecipe #discountcode #wholegrains #quinoarecipes #womenover50 #over50 #over50health #postmenopause #over50andfit #dementiaprevention #alzheimers #brainhealth #cognition #agewell
Dear followers, we have been hacked and are in the Dear followers, we have been hacked and are in the process of resolving it. Please do not respond to, or interact with, a request from our impersonator calling themselves theagewellproject. We are agewell project - no The! 

Thank you!
Of course, it’s not about numbers, but we’re s Of course, it’s not about numbers, but we’re so thrilled over 5000 of you have joined us on our mission to age well! Thank you 🙏

If you’re new here, we’re Susan and Annabel, long-time friends turned longevity writers. We started blogging about our quest to age well almost a decade ago (!) - you can find the blog at agewellproject.com or via the link in our bio. 

As working mums, we started looking for simple, science-backed ways to make the best of the second halves of our lives. We wanted to improve our own health and reduce our risk of the chronic conditions of ageing. When we started writing, Susan was caring for her mum, who had dementia, and Annabel has also faced challenges with her family’s health. 

Along the way, the blog became a best-selling book, The Age-Well Project, and further books have followed. You can find out more about us individually @annabelabbs and @susansaundershealth 

The blog is packed with posts on the latest research into the science of longevity, and how we make sense of it in our own lives. And there’s also loads of lovely age-well recipes - all approved by our families! 

#longevity #womenover50 #agewell #ageingwell #agingwell #longevityblog #healthblog #agewellblog #over50bloggers #womenover50 #healthspan #womenover60 #postmenopause
Wherever you’re walking this August weekend (a b Wherever you’re walking this August weekend (a bank holiday for us 🇬🇧🇬🇧), take time for your feet. They’re mini miracles and looking after them is key to ageing well. 

There’s more on the blog - link in bio.

And save this as a reminder to look after your feet! 

#longevity #womenover50 #agewell #ageingwell #agingwell #longevityblog #healthblog #agewellblog #over50bloggers #womenover50 #healthspan #womenover60 #postmenopause #postmenopausalhealth #walking #hiking #womenwhowalk #womenwhohike
Load More... Follow on Instagram

Contact Us

For any enquiries please email theagewellproject@gmail.com.

Copyright © 2023 The Age-Well Project