Yummy Mash

The clocks have gone back, the slow cooker is out on the worktop more often, and the delights of mashed potatoes are calling... There’s nothing too unhealthy about mashed spuds but given how important a varied diet is, here’s a few tweaks and alternatives which you could incorporate into your meals this winter:

• Save the water you cooked them in, and then add it back in when you mash them. This means you need less butter and/or milk for a creamy taste.
  Instead of butter, try adding extra virgin olive oil or avocado oil – they are both rich in monounsaturated fatty acids.
• Given how full of antioxidants herbs and spices are, experiment with any flavours you fancy. Mustard is a well-known addition, but what about pesto, wasabi, chives, shredded basil or turmeric, to name a few?
• Add practically any other root vegetables as you boil the potatoes. Carrots, swedes, celeriac, parsnips and turnips are all good, but you can also add non-root vegetables like cauliflower for the last few minutes. You’ve increased your portions of vegetables at a stroke!
• Talking of adding vegetables, you could also add gently sauteed onions, leeks or spring onions after mashing for a version of colcannon, or lightly cooked shredded cabbage or kale to make bubble and squeak.
• Actually on Saturday night, my husband combined the two suggestions above. He boiled some peeled swedes in Marigold vegetable stock, mashed them and added sauteed leeks – delicious!
  Add some cooked Puy lentils after making the mash (you can buy Puy lentils dried and cook them yourselves, saving the leftovers for mash the next night, or buy them cooked in cans or sachets)
• Instead of ‘normal’ potatoes, have mashed sweet potatoes instead. My recommendation is not to boil your sweet potatoes as they can absorb a lot of water. Instead, bake them until they start browning after peeling and drizzling with olive oil. Then mash them with a little creme fraiche. Actually you could do this with butternut squash as well.
• I find the flavours of sweet potato and butternut squash go really well with tastes like ginger, cumin, basil and Thai curry paste, so there’s another load of mashes to try.
• As another alternative to mashed potatoes, try straining a can of beans (butter beans are my favourite in this recipe) and gently crushing them before heating in a pan with some olive oil and any fresh herbs you fancy.
• Talking of ‘gently crushing’, instead of peeling your potatoes and mashing them to a lovely smooth texture, you could try leaving their skins on. Then rather than mashing them, just crush them a little. It’s mash but not as we know it!
  

Finally, you could just cook a few less spuds, leaving more space on your plate for other vegetables. All these suggestions are adding variety to your diet, which means you are getting a greater variety of phytonutrients.

Apples - A Humble 'Superfood'

We keep hearing about ‘superfoods’. The term seems to apply mainly to expensive foods, such as acai berries or pomegranates, which usually need transporting from distant lands. In fact, I can’t think of a single fruit or vegetable which couldn’t be classified as a ‘superfood’. And when you mix as many of them together as possible over the course of a week, you will be eating a super intake of a super variety of nutrients! Much better for you than eating a narrow range of a few superfoods.

Having said that, I suspect a lot of us will be eating a lot of apples in the near future - or at least freezing them or bottling them in jams and jellies. Apples are not as exotic as the glamorous ‘superfoods’, but certainly pack their punch in terms of nutrition. They contain both soluble and insoluble dietary fibre – both of which have their uses. They also contain lots of vitamin C (especially straight after picking from the tree), potassium and B vitamins.

It is the more obscure phytonutrients in apples which really help them up the league of superfoods. These phytonutrients include a wide range of antioxidants such as three different versions of quercetin, procyanidin, coumaric acid and catechin. The peel and the flesh of apples each contain different proportions of different nutrients, meaning we really should eat them both to get all the benefits

It is very hard in research to ‘prove’ that eating a particular food has a particular effect – the strongest conclusion which can usually be drawn is that there is an association between eating the food and the outcome being studied. For example, research links the eating of apples by both pregnant mothers and children with a decrease in asthma. This type of research is backed up by laboratory tests which suggest that apples also help with cardiovascular disease and cancer. But we all knew that, didn’t we? An apple a day…

I’m sure everyone has their favourite apple recipes at this time of year – here’s my Mum’s:

Dorset Apple Cake
Sift 225g of plain flour, 1½ teaspoons of baking powder and at least 1 teaspoon of cinnamon together into a large bowl. Add 115g of sugar.
Peel, core and chop 225g of cooking apples together with the juice of half a lemon – I whizz them briefly in the food processor as we like the apples in small pieces, but you may prefer big chunks.
Beat one egg and mix with 3 tablespoons of milk.
Now add the apples and egg mixture to the dry ingredients and mix well.
Put in an 8” baking tin and sprinkle with 50g of sugar and ½ teaspoon of cinnamon.
Bake at 180°C for about 40 minutes before leaving it to cool in the tin.

Beautiful Beets

My only experience of beetroot as a child was pickled beetroot, with an overpowering taste of vinegar. Thanks to our local vegetable suppliers (Ken and Thelma), I have discovered the joys of young, tender beetroot which are a world away from the pickled beetroot of my childhood.

Beetroot contains lots of vitamin C, fibre, potassium, magnesium, manganese, and folic acid. As a root vegetable, they do contain a lot of natural sugars, which makes them suitable for the cake recipe below in the same way that carrots are used. Flavonoids give beetroot their beautiful purple colour (though golden beetroot are also available) and also their anti-inflammatory properties. The leafy tops are an excellent source of beta-carotene, iron and calcium, and when young and crisp can be eaten raw or cooked like spinach.

A small study last year indicated that the nitrate content of beetroots could help lower blood pressure, though the participants were drinking 500ml of beetroot juice, which is quite a lot as it can have a fairly strong taste. I sometimes suggest to clients that they juice beetroot with carrots, apples and/or oranges, though another idea is to juice just beetroot with a little root ginger, possibly topping it up with ginger ale to taste.

Thanks to a recent glut of beetroot, I have been trying to be creative with both sweet and savoury recipes. Beetroot and chocolate cake is usually pretty popular, and can be made with either wheat flour or gluten-free with equally good results:
· Whisk together three large eggs with 220g of sugar until light and fluffy
· Add 200ml of good quality vegetable oil (I use cold pressed rapeseed oil), 1 teaspoon of vanillla essence and 250g of beetroot which you have previously cooked and grated finely*
· Fold in 75g of cocoa powder, 180g of plain flour and 2 teaspoons of baking powder.
· I usually use this mix to make one small round cake and a batch of buns, so you need to adjust baking times according to the size of your cakes, but check with a skewer after anything between about 25 and 40 minutes at 180°C.

* You can either boil your beetroot or bake them in foil until tender. Just chop the tops off about an inch away from the root, scrub the root and cook. Then after they are cooked, top and tail the roots and rub the skin off.

I also used cooked beetroot to make a tasty dip recently. I whizzed a couple of small, cooked and peeled beetroot with about a third of a tin of rinsed chickpeas, about 50g of diced fetta cheese and a big glug of olive oil. Add a little extra water if it is too thick, and black pepper to taste. You shouldn’t need to add salt as the fetta is usually quite salty. I did make it again without the chickpeas, but I think they do improve both the taste and the texture. You can add the rest of the tin to a salad for protein. If you still have any beetroot puree left over, try adding it to risotto at the last minute for a glorious pink dinner!

Finally, if you do eat a lot of beetroot, you may notice that it can give an indication of your ‘bowel transit time’! Amusing as this is to the less mature among us, it can also be quite a useful as an indicator of your digestive system. Too slow a transit time (more than 24 hours) could indicate a sluggish digestion which gives your body time to absorb excessive toxins and may increase the risk of colon diseases. If it takes less than 12 hours for the beetroot colour to appear, food may be passing through your digestion so quickly that you don’t have time to absorb nutrients, perhaps due to an infection, food intolerance or stress.

Inflammation and Food

Our body’s response to infection or injury is inflammation. The initial trigger sets off chains of immune system responses in order to promote healing or to repair affected tissues. Unfortunately, the body’s inflammatory responses are sometimes triggered inappropriately or run out of control, which is a major cause of ill health and impaired quality of life. It is hard to list the range of conditions which involve inflammation, mainly because the list is so long and wide-ranging, but joint pain, including arthritis, has a prominant place on it. Some foods can contribute to joint pain, while others can have an anti-inflammatory effect, and relatively minor adjustments to the diet can have a positive effect.

We have all heard about fish oils and how good they are for joints. Fish oils, along with seeds and nuts, contain omega-3 fatty acids, which the body uses to make substances called anti-inflammatory prostaglandins – these are obviously good for damping down inflammation. However, the body struggles to make these prostaglandins if it also has to cope with fatty acids from saturated fats, trans-fatty acids (found in processed foods, including margarine), or excessive amounts of alcohol, stress or insulin.

So if you are suffering from joint pain, foods which you could increase in your diet include:
* Fish, seeds and unsalted nuts, as they contain omega-3 fats
* A wide variety of fruit and vegetables. These contain many anti-inflammatory nutrients, including vitamins B, C and E and minerals such as zinc and manganese. They also contain sterols, which can reduce an excessive immune response, and less well known nutrients such as quercetin and bioflavonoids.
* Olive oil contains a compound called oleocanthal which acts like ibuprofen, and oleic acid which is also anti-inflammatory. Fish oils actually reduce the level of oleic acid in body tissues, so if you are eating oily fish or supplementing with fish oils, it is worth making sure that you eat olive oil regularly too.
* Herbs and spices like ginger, turmeric, garlic, and rosemary can block inflammatory molecules in the body so use them generously in your meals. Healthy food certainly doesn’t have to be bland!

There are also foods of which you could try to eat less:
* Animal products containing saturated fat, like meat and cheese.
* Processed foods with trans-fatty acids.
* Too many sugary treats – this increases your body’s production of insulin, which then decreases its production of anti-inflammatory prostaglandins.

If you are suffering from joint pain, you could try making a few simple changes to see if they help reduce inflammation and ease the pain. These changes won’t do the rest of your health any harm!

Glorious Garlic

I love it when science backs up the traditional use of foods, herbs and spices. Garlic is a prime example of this. Along with onions, garlic was considered sacred by the Egyptians, who thought that it possessed magical powers which could ward off evil spirits and the effects of their bad deeds. Garlic was used as a medicine by the Greeks, Romans and Babylonians, as well as in ancient China and India and right up to the first World War.

Research suggests that garlic’s main active ingredient is ‘allicin’, which is antiviral, antifungal, antibacterial and antiparasitic. However, the chemistry of garlic is complex, as allicin is not actually found in fresh garlic. Instead it contains something called alliin and an enzyme called allinase, in different parts of the plant. Destroying the membranes between those parts of the plant allows the two substances to mix and form allicin. The allicin does not last very long, to prevent the plant damaging itself if it’s damaged by pests. The way that allicin is formed explains why we need to crush, finely chop or chew garlic to get its full benefit.

Try to eat a clove a day, although if you are fighting an infection you could try eating up to 5 cloves a day. If the smell of garlic puts you off, try the odourless brands of capsules available in good health food stores, making sure they contain allicin. The allicin in these capsules is apparently activated in the intestine, so it shouldn’t affect your breath. Alternatively, just enjoy the real thing and then chew on fresh parsley or mint, or a few fennel seeds to take away the garlic smell. Most people can benefit from eating garlic, but anyone on anticoagulant medication or preparing for surgery should avoid it due to its blood-thinning properties, along possibly with breastfeeding mothers as it may cause wind in the baby.

It's quite easy to add garlic to your diet - in salad dressings or with chopped onions in soups or stews. From this time of year onwards, you could look out for wild garlic in the woods. It has beautiful white flowers, relatively wide green leaves and a very strong smell of garlic. Make a simple, tasty soup by gently frying a chopped onion with a knob of butter until translucent. Add a scrubbed, chopped potato and sweat for a few minutes, before adding a good pint of chicken stock then simmering until the potatoes are just about cooked. Add about 4oz of well-rinsed wild garlic leaves (enough to fill a colander) and cook for another couple of minutes. Whizz the soup with a blender before stirring in a generous glug of cream. Check your seasoning, adding pepper and a little more salt if necessary.

Just a quick report on my flying visit to the Natural and Organic Products show at Olympia on Sunday:

Due to family commitments, I could only spend a few hours at the show and went round with a friend from ION. As nutritionists, we are always on the look out for new products to recommend to our clients. As a mother, I am always checking out products which I think my children will like. There were definitely several products which fitted both categories - and some which didn't!

Relatively big name companies such as Dove's Farm, Green & Black, Glebe Farm, Ecover and Dragonfly Tea make high quality products which are readily available and reliably tasty (according to the Strategic Nutrition Junior Tasting Panel, anyway). There were also some smaller organisations, some of whom were at the show to raise their profiles or look for distributors. Unfortunately, I am away from home at the moment, so don't have the leaflets which I picked up, so can't share the names of any of the products I liked with you - oops!

There were also lots of cosmetics companies, and supplement and homeopathy suppliers there - it is always worth checking them out, as the quality of manufacture makes a huge difference.

I love rhubarb. It's been available for a while as 'forced' rhubarb, which is a beautiful pale pink. I've never dared try to force the rhubarb in my garden for fear my crop is reduced! As you can see in the photo above, it has recovered magnificently from the recent snow, thankfully.

Rhubarb is not actually a fruit but a vegetable as we eat the stalks, which should be crisp and firm. Generally speaking, the pinker the stalk, the sweeter the rhubarb. The leaves contain toxic amounts of oxalic acid and should be thrown away. As far as nutrition goes, rhubarb contains fibre, vitamin C, potassium and calcium among other nutrients.

It does have a tart flavour, which means that most people like to eat it with a little sugar, but also means that it goes beautifully with rich meats such as duck or fish like mackerel. Apparently the reason why lots of people groan when they are offered rhubarb resulted in part from the war, when sugar was scarce, and it was hard to overcome the tartness. That reluctance to eat rhubarb was passed on down the generations, which is a real shame as far as I'm concerned. If you have avoided rhubarb in the past, hopefully these ideas might pique your appetite

Sweet Rhubarb Puree

The acid in rhubarb reacts with aluminium, so cook it in a stainless steel or cast-iron pan. Put the chopped rhubarb stalks into a pan with just a splash of water. The amount of sugar depends on the rhubarb itself and your taste, but you can add more at the end if necessary. So start with about a quarter sugar by weight – usually a couple of dessert spoonfuls. Cook over a medium heat for about 5 minutes, and then leave to cool for a couple more minutes. Whizz it in a processor if you want a smooth puree. (If you really want the rhubarb to keep its shape, cook it in the oven instead of in a pan).

The flavour of rhubarb goes beautifully with ginger, cinnamon, vanilla, rosewater and orange, so experiment with it – adding these spices or replacing the water with orange juice while cooking.

You can use the puree, with or without stewed apples, as a base for a variety of puddings, such as crumbles, betties or pies. When it’s cooled, fold in whipped cream or Greek yoghurt to make a fool, or add to custard and then churn it in an ice-cream maker for lovely pale pink ice cream.

Savoury Rhubarb Sauce

Gently fry a finely chopped shallot in 1oz/25g of butter in a non-stick pan until transparent. Add 8oz/225g of chopped rhubarb and cook gently until the rhubarb has softened and become sauce-like. Force the mixture through a metal sieve and serve with salmon, mackerel, pork or duck. Again, try adding ginger (powder or fresh grated root) for variety.

Did you know, rhubarb grows so fast that you can actually hear it grow? The heart of rhubarb growing in Britain is Wakefield in Yorkshire. Visit Wakefield’s Rhubarb Triangle either in person or virtually on http://www.yorkshirerhubarb.co.uk/ for more about this tasty treat

My First Blog

Welcome to my blog.

As a blog novice, I imagine I should introduce myself, but have also been told that blogging little and often is the way to go. So I will say a little now, and then add to it as seems necessary over time.

I am a qualified nutritionist, with a degree and diploma from the Institute for Optimum Nutrition (http://www.ion.ac.uk/). Growing up with a diabetic sister, I was always conscious of nutrition. My parents were always more nutritionally aware than was average in those days -Mum breastfed us all, in the face of the opposition which was common in the early 60's, and the diabetes obviously had a huge impact on all our lives.

When I started my own family, breastfeeding was a no-brainer. Even so, my eldest child developed severe eczema. With the help of the dermatology department at the hospital in Geneva, we learned the effect of food on her skin - and my interest in the power of nutrition was kindled!

I find food and its impact on our health fascinating, and love seeing the dramatic improvements to clients' health which can result from a few manageable changes to diet and lifestyle. In this blog, I plan to share this fascination with nutrition, hopefully passing on useful information. I imagine I will pass on some less than useful information at times (especially about the rollercoaster ride which comes with being a fan of the glorious Manchester City) - and hope I will be forgiven for that.

I know I am a little late, joining the whole blog world - but it seems it is probably easier to do a blog than rewrite my website http://www.strategicnutrition.co.uk/ all the time.