I Love You - But Read Your Ingredients List

Staying at your parents place when they're not there to be parent-like, isn't the same at all!  I had to cook my own food, do my own dishes, wake myself up and turn all the lights off before I went to bed - may as well have been at home really.  

BUT - the snooping is waaaay easier.  

I might possibly maybe have raided my mum's closet (totally joking mum, I have no idea where your Holt skirt is, and I've never even see that new scarf that you must have left at work).  And I most definitely did raid the kitchen cupboards - and guys, you get a big fat FAIL.

I've already blogged about this - but apparently I'm going to have to repeat myself ~ read your ingredients list.  

People think if you just look at the number of calories, % of fat and carbs etc that you're getting a good summary of what you're eating.  Wrong.  Did you know that in some countries (ahem... the USA) they don't have to list trans and saturated fats - only the total fat.  There might be no trans fats listed and you then might make the reasonable assumption that there are no trans fats in the food you're about to eat.  Wrong.  Unless it says "Trans Fat 0%" then there are likely trans fats in your food.

BUT - if you read the ingredients list you might see that this food contains Hydrogenated Oil (aka trans fat).

Before I continue to berate my parents (who are avid readers of my blog and I love them very much!) let me throw in a little perspective:  My parents are all smart people (It's not a grammatical error - I have 4) and they have always raised us to eat healthily and have tried to educate us about the right things to eat.   All of them as they have aged (I know, I'm sorry but no better word is coming to mind) have exercised more, changed their diets as new nutritional facts have come to light and are probably healthier now than when I was a kid.  So if they can get this wrong, we all can.

Right - now on with the public scolding...

My peanut butter at home is just peanuts - 100% ground peanuts - seems pretty basic right? Well, my parents peanut butter has 7 ingredients, the 2nd of which is icing sugar and the 5th is Hydrogenated Oil (aka trans fat).  

They also fell for the 'healthy packaging' trick.  I don't care how many times a package says 'healthy' on it, if the 1st or 2nd ingredient is sugar - then it is clearly not healthy.  I mean let's just be sensible about this please - if your girl/boyfriend tells you they're not cheating but there are hickies all over their neck, besides from the fact that you must be dating a 16 year old - they are clearly cheating.  

Okay - I am done. 

To Supplement or Not To Supplement...

...if only the question were that simple.

Of course the ideal is that we all eat exactly the right combination of healthy whole foods to give our bodies the right balance of protein, carbohydrates and fat, as well as all of the vitamins and minerals that it requires to operate at it's optimum capacity.  This would mean that we wouldn't need to supplement in the traditional sense at all (no vitamin pills etc.) because really we'd be supplementing our diet with the correct foods, in the correct amounts, at the correct times.  There are few among us that have the knowledge, time, or left over brain capacity to get this right.

So most of us need to supplement with vitamin and mineral pills.... but it gets a little tricky.

For example: in order to absorb Calcium correctly we need half the amount of Magnesium, sufficient amounts of Vitamin D and we need to watch our Phosphorus levels because Phosphorus and Calcium compete for absorption in the body.  I know - you thought putting together IKEA furniture was complicated. 

So when someone is suffering from Osteoperosis it is rarely just because they aren't getting enough Calcium, and more often than not because they are getting too much Phosphorus.  

Besides from a bad diet, there are other certain circumstances that call for supplementation too - sometimes our bodies just don't absorb or process a certain substance as efficiently as it should - or we might have an illness, or be stressed, or pregnant, or recovering for surgery... all times when supplementation of a certain vitamin or mineral will help or perhaps be necessary.  Sometimes, if we are knowledgeable enough we can supplement through diet (sprinkling wheat germ on cereal, in smoothies or in baking instead of taking vitamin E).

Clearly everyone's supplementation needs are different - but here are my basic recommendations that I think can apply to most of the masses (don't you love being referred to as the masses?):

There are 2 major problems for most people stuck on an Industrialised Western Diet (if you eat MacDonalds, fried food or diet pop then I'm pointing my finger at you), first of all processed foods are overwhelmed with Phosphorus - and too much phosphorus throws so many of the other subtle interaction between minerals into turmoil. 


Second, and far more disturbing, is that our bodies could be getting the correct amount of certain vitamins and minerals at some meals, but because our insides are so f*cked from all the bad sh*t we've put in there (fast food, processed meats & cheese, alcohol, diet pop) that our intestines and digestive system are not working at a high enough standard to actually get the vitamins and minerals out of the good food.  Isn't that gross?!  Think of it like your shower head, when it gets all clogged up from the crap in the water that comes through it that eventually when you try to shower the water can't get through properly and spurts in all the wrong directions.

So first ~ stop eating processed and refined foods.

~ a general multi vitamin is a good start - you want to look at what the non-medical fillers are and get as natural a pill as possible (this will unfortunately be more expensive) - it would be good to have selenium, potassium and zinc as well as all the big names

~ take a time released Vitamin C pill - otherwise the Vit C will be in and out of your system in 2 hours ish

~ choose a Vitamin B complex (you need to take all your Vit B's together to work at their optimum) but here's a warning - it will turn your urine an awesome shade of radioactive yellow

I take all of the above with breakfast - Vit B gives you an energy boost so morning time is perfect and both are best taken with food

~ unless you eat a lot of seeds and/or fish then you need to take a fish oil supplement in order to get enough Omega 3

~ finally before bed take a Calcium and Magnesium pill (ration 2:1) - it will make you sleepy - or just do some more reading on supplementation and it should put you right to sleep.


Of course, everyone's needs are different and if you're not feeling quite right, or if you're eating everything you're supposed and you're feeling sluggish or out of sorts then you're best bet is to visit a Nutritionist who will be able to tell you what to eat, and also what not to eat, specifically tailored to you.

Let's Kiss and Make Up

Hi, it's me - please don't hang up!


I know I owe you an explanation, an apology: I didn't realise how lucky I was to have you, I neglected you - took you for granted, assumed you'd always be there.  And I'm sorry.


Rather than a lengthy list of (although completely true) hard to believe excuses, I'm going to stoop to bribery:


~ I've discovered the cure for hangovers!  No, seriously.


Come on... you know you want to keep reading... just give me one more chance.  Please!


Part of my time away from you was spent in the Uk, catching up with friends and family - and we all know that catching up is impossible without several glasses of wine or pints of beer.


Night #1 ~ the primary purpose of my trip was to attend my girlfriends wedding and my first night was spent with my girls at a Mehndi - part of the Hindu wedding tradition where all of the women get beautiful henna designs on their hands, and important to this antidote - there's an open bar.  After dancing the night away I woke up fresh the next morning and jumped on a train home.


Night #2 ~ My sister and I, clearly being the smartest, sanest, least judgmental and I'll throw in modest members of our family, decided to solve all of my family's problems over several bottles of red wine... of course we neglected to write anything down so next time there will be more wine and more solutions.


Night #3 ~ Is entirely my brother's fault. I was planning on a nice quiet night, but my brother came home  and dragged me kicking and screaming to the nearest bar.  He force fed me drinks and I had no fun at all.


The next day I received a very mumbled phone call from my brother where all I could really decipher was "how the f*ck are you not hungover?!"


I realised that while everyone else I'd been drinking with had dealt with diabilitating hangovers the next day, I had been tired but not hungover.  To be fair, my sister did manage to dress herself and make it to the couch to sleep all day.  She looked half dead, my brother sounded half dead.


Rather than accepting defeat (my brother and I are not at all competitive), he declared "it must be how you're eating now" - my new lifestyle.  This seemed completely logical, but I didn't actually realise how literally correct he had been until I did some reading and found that some of the supplements I've been taking for completely different reasons are actually warding off my hangovers.


Next blog (if we can kiss and make up now) I will fully go over supplements, what I take and what I recommend, but for now I will stick to the two you care about, the magic vitamin and mineral that combined kept me hangover free for nearly the whole 2 weeks.... on day 12 I did have to admit defeat.


Are you ready?


Magnesium taken with Thiamine (commonly known to us as Vitamin B1) are known to prevent hangover symptoms.  I take a Vitamin B complex in the mornings and a Calcium & Magnesium supplement before bed.


So there you go - my secret has been shared.  I no longer will be the only one well enough to go out and get coffee for everyone in the morning, or make everyone else breakfast, or clean up from the night before... man, I've been getting scr*wed here.


Am I forgiven? Come over here and give me a cuddle.


Thank you for following. This blog is updated monthly... Promise!

A New Member of the Family

Today I received my newly adopted word in the mail and put it promptly on my fridge door.... Healthy now stares back at me every time I'm in the kitchen.


I am very proud of my new word and I plan to nurture and care for it everyday - to make it feel welcome in my life and have it never leave my side. 


Let me explain. For Christmas my father adopted me a word (for charity ~ adoptaword.com).  He bought all of us a word.


For my brother: Honour ~ he is training to be an officer in the British military.
For my older sister: Care ~ she is a pediatrician.
For my younger sister: Protect ~ she is becoming a social worker.


All of these words seem very apt and thoughtfully picked - congratulations Dad - you've done well!


I called him to say thank you and he informed me that he found my word the hardest to pick - he had a tough time choosing between Healthy and Partying!  Anyone who knows me will now be making the universal noise of agreement: 'mmm-hmmm'.


Getting off the phone mildly disappointed with my father's recognition of my dual lifestyle and a little frustrated at the reputation I have created for myself, got me to thinking: am I too much of a contradiction? 


You should know that I am writing this with a mild hangover.  But I can also say that I haven't put anything processed in my body since January 1st.   And honestly - I am happy with both of those choices.


I want to lead by example, and my example is not that you must change your entire life.  It is not put down your glass of wine, only eat spinach and never eat chocolate.  There are few among us that relish and enjoy that lifestyle - and I would never advocate to anyone to stop enjoying life.


Instead I challenge you to this: start to make healthy choices more often.


 ~ Instead of a processed chocolate bar - buy a freshly baked chocolate chip muffin from Whole Foods
 ~ Cook at home more often
 ~ Chose the single patty burger, or only eat half of the deliciously creamy pasta order


You can still enjoy everything you do already - just smarter!


I am now going to cap off my hungover Sunday with a spinach salad, detoxifying green tea and a chocolate chip banana muffin.


A healthy partier - now that's a reputation a girl can be proud of ;)


Thank you for following. This blog is updated monthly.

Sugar by Any Other Name - Still Makes You FAT!

I have a girlfriend at work who I go to when I want something deliciously bad for me - but last week she directed me to a box of granola bars - lured by the words granola, fibre and omega 3 she was offering what she though was a healthy snack.


After careful inspection of the ingredients I threw the bars back in ungrateful disgust.  My flippant response to what I was hopeful would be an enjoyable yet 'good for me' snack left me with an all too familiar feeling of disappointment.


Let's face it, misleading packaging has been letting us down since we were kids.  The great big Christmas present that's actually a tiny small gift your parents wrapped in multiple layers; The chocolate Easter bunny that's unfulfillingly hollow when you bite into the ears; The girl in high-school who totally stuffed her bra; The guy who takes off his wedding ring before he asks you for your number.


Today, what you think you are being sold is very rarely what you are actually taking home - and this couldn't be more true when it comes to food.  With words like Fibre and Omega 3 plastered across the front of the box, it's easy to see how one would think they were making the right choice. But take the time to read the ingredients list (far more useful than examining the calorie and fat count) and you'll see you've been duped. 


You know your healthy low fat cooking spray you use thinking you're making the right choice - look at the ingredients - it contains propane and/or butane.  Throw it away. 


Sugar and Sodium are no brainers - but they're smart, they disguise themselves, use other names - tell you they're not like all the others... oh but they are!  So to help, here are the top 5 (and by top I mean I did some research at my local grocery store one afternoon) unhealthy ingredients hidden in your supposedly healthy snack options:


~Sugar aka Sucrose - commonly hidden as Dextrose, Glucose or Fructose: 
So we all know to stay away from Sugar, but it's very easy for the others to slip by. There's a whole book load of chemical jargon that explains the subtle differences between these various forms of carbs (basically dextrose, glucose and fructose are easier for our bodies to process - unless combined), and as thrilled as I am to be learning it all (no, really, I totally am) I won't bore you all with it here. 


~ High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS):
Besides from the many environmental and moral reasons to stay away from most corn products - HFCS is said to be far more addictive and increase obesity more than any of the above mentioned sugars.

~ Hydrogenated Oils aka Trans Fats:

These are the worst fats for our bodies.  Here's the most basic way to explain this: both saturated and non-saturated fats are classified as ESSENTIAL fatty acids - it is essential to our health that we consume both of them at some level.  Trans fats are not essential, and are proven to increase cholesterol levels, heart disease and diabetes. Look at most "low-fat" options (margarine is a big one) and they will contain something Hydrogenated - sometimes "low-fat" is not the healthy option. 

~ Soy Lecithin (or Soy anything for that matter):
There are new and very real concerns about the high levels of estrogen in soy products.  High levels of estrogen are linked to tumor growth, and especially breast cancer.  Lecithin is found in the cells of all living organisms, but soy lecithin is literally taken from the waste of soybean processing. Soy Lecithin is found in most processed foods, and I don't think I've come across many things that sound less like something I want to put in my body.


~ All Natural:
The slogan 'All Natural' on your food, is exactly that: just a slogan.  There is no legal definition - aka no regulation on the use of this term - it just has to have been extracted from a plant or animal product - so deep fried fast-food french fries could legally be called 'All Natural'. 

So do your research, don't be fooled by appearances - I know it can be hard when that chiseled jaw... I mean 'All Natural' labeling is staring you in the face, but dig a little deeper, take a little time - get to know your ingredients and then make your educated choice. 


Thank you for following. This blog is updated monthly.

Christmas Nookie

I was recently down in the states to see my family for american Thanksgiving, and while sitting there eating my turkey and stuffing, surrounded by loved ones, I realised that this holiday was really all about the food. My aunt and stepmum had spent days planning the menu and had been up since dawn cooking. My cousin and Busia had arrived laden with appetizers and desserts, and all of the men brought more wine and champagne than was necessary... which doesn't mean to say that it wasn't all gone by morning. 

And it's not just Thanksgiving and holidays - it's dinner dates, coffee dates, breakfast meetings, and cocktail receptions. It's drinks with the girls, beers with the boys, housewarming muffins, birthday cake at the office, and popcorn with movies. Rarely are we engaging in these acts of eating and drinking out of the neccessity of being hungry or thirsty; it's almost as though we don't feel comfortable to interact unless there's a plate between us or a glass to cheers.

Of course, 'tis the season to eat drink and be merry. All of the magazines right now are full of helpful tips to 'avoid that holiday bulge', so I was weary to write this blog post. But then I read an article and was confronted with advice like: 'eat before you go out', and 'only eat one of each hors d'oeuvre', and I thought maybe I could offer some advice that we can actually all follow.

~ 'Eat before you go out' - this is not only rude but often times just plain impractical. But, when you do eat out at a restaurant never add salt or butter to your food. Why do you think it already tastes so delicious?!  I work at a restaurant in a culinary school and the food is superb and the diners all leave happy and full. But trust me on this one: the chefs of tomorrow are being taught by the chefs of today to throw fistfuls of salt (yes, plural) in the veggies and slabs of butter almost as big as the meat into the pan with it.

~ Try to drink little to no water while eating, or directly afterwards. If you need to drink something, hot is best (mulled wine?!) but cold water is the worst. It dillutes the acid and enzymes in your stomach which can slow down digestion.  This can lead to discomfort and bloating - never a good look in that holiday dress, and even worse if you're lucky enough to get a little Christmas nookie.

~ This 'only eat one' advice is just asking for trouble; it's like the add says: bet you can't eat just one!  So instead, if you know a particular item will be trouble, either stay away completely (If I even open a bag of Oreo Cookies or Mini Eggs I will consume all of them at record speed - so instead, I just say no!), or wait until there is only one or two left to try one, or even grab one as you're walking out the door, either way avoiding further temptation.


~ Lastly try to think a little about the order in which you put things in your mouth (yes yes, that's what she said). Hit the veggie tray first and try to fill up on the good stuff.  Then when you get to the 'bad' carbs (aka dessert) try to eat them with some protein (nuts and cheese will probably be the most readily available).  Protein takes longer to digest and will ultimately lessen the peak in your blood-sugar that eating high GI carbs alone creates - when your glucose levels stay more consistent you will feel fuller for longer and your metabolism will work more efficiently.  You get less fat!


With all of that said, there is always the viewpoint that that is what New Years resolutions are for, and it's Christmas time so eat what you damn well please... 


Merry Christmas everyone, and please do Eat, Drink and be very very Merry xox

Water is to Vegetables as Relationships Are to Sex

Now I know this may seem like a stretch, but bear with me and I think I might be able to change your mind.

Vegetables - we all need more of them, and unless you're one of the very few 'over sexed' and therefore completely envied individuals secretly living among us, then we all need more (good) sex too.  But acquiring good sex, I mean vegetables, always seems to take too long, require too much preparation or cost too much money.

So we settle: we order the vegetables covered in too much grease, but man do they smell good.  Or we pick up the Italian dish oozing with cheese, but you know there's some goodness tucked in there somewhere - and hey a little's better than nothing at all right?  This is in fact not true.  In the case of vegetables, over cooked and over processed veg lose most if not all of their nutrients and the additional fat and 'bad' carbs we wrap them in are entirely the opposite of what we're looking for.  When it comes to sex a girlfriend once related, "I had to do it again, just to see if it was actually that bad"...


So how do we find the good stuff?

Vegetables contain healthy carbs, protein and calcium - 3 building blocks that we have forever been taught we must get from other sources (breads, meat and dairy) - but only if these nutrients still remain in the vegetables.  The longer it takes from the second the vegetable is harvested until you digest it - the more nutrient depleted it is.  
But it is unrealistic to imagine that all of us will have the time, space or inclination to have a vegetable patch out back, so contrary to what many of us think, fresh is not always best and frozen may be the way forward!  Frozen vegetables are pulled directly from the ground to the freezer, meaning that they are frozen with all of their nutrients in tact.  Using frozen vegetables also makes life easier - pre-chopped, and with a much longer shelf life they are there to throw on the stove and serve up within 5 minutes.  Of course always check the label and make sure you are buying pure frozen vegetables – sauces and sodium negate all of the above.


As for good sex, as far as I can tell its pretty much hit or miss - until you add the relationship…

Like a relationship water is a complex balance of trying to remove all of the bad components while maintaining all of the essential goodness that is the reason we want it in the first place.
Here are your options:

Tap water - straight up what we've got is what we've got.  I'm either lazy, like living on the edge or believe that nothing can be perfect.  I'll take the bad with the good and in 30 yrs time well see if it’s eaten away at me so badly that I’m decaying from the inside out. 


Filtered Water – some pretty basic, but pretty effective steps have been taken to try and block out most of negative substances from the end product.  Sure a little might get through, but all in all we’re on the right track here.  
There are two types of filters to choose from – granulated carbon or solid carbon block.  Granulated is the equivalent of highlighting what the issues are but then not really dealing with them, so they sit for a while and can in fact multiply in the air-space. 


Reverse Osmosis is a process that picks everything apart on every level. It costs a lot of money and produces a lot of waste; what you’re left with is a product that has been cleansed of everything bad but most likely so over analysed that some of the good stuff we want is now missing too.


Distilled Water - everything has been taken away from this water -  it is missing so much substance that it literally starts to leach minerals from your body so that things can be a little less boring.


Now we reach the step where the water interacts with the vegetables. Steaming is arguably the healthiest way to cook them. In fact the water never actually touches the vegetables - but your relationship is raised to such a high level that it can't help but have a gentle, nurturing affect on your sex-life.

Or there's fully immersing the vegetables in hot boiling water. Your relationship gets so intense so quickly that relationship, emotion and sex all get intertwined together. To begin with this can make the sex better faster, but eventually the relationship will take over so that all you are left with is a fully saturated relationship but things have definitely gone limp in the bedroom. 


Maybe the raw food enthusiasts have it right. Maybe all we need to do is wash away the filth from our first sexual encounters with the healthy nutrients of our relationship, but otherwise let sex be sex and love be love and consume each on their own merit.

Personally I’m going to try and find myself some freshly grown peas and carrots and gently steam them with my solid carbon block filtered water. Sound sexy or what?!