An update on eating from the cupboards
Posted by kathryn in Blogging
This week I’ve set myself the challenge of eating from the cupboards. It’s easy to be constantly buying new ingredients and stocking up the fridge. However I wanted to find out how well I could last with what’s in the house. Without sacrificing the health value of what I’m eating.
A couple of days in and I’m going well. I did buy some fruit and a couple of tins of tomatoes. And I have had lunch out once. Apart from this want to know the number one thing I’ve learnt so far? When you set yourself a challenge it’s important to let your partner know.
Monday
Monday was no problem. For lunch I used leftovers from Sunday night and coupled that with a simple coleslaw made from cabbage, toasted pumpkin seeds and tahini dressing.
In the evening I used the bunch of beetroot for a curry and pulled some split mung beans out the cupboard and made a cabbage dal, similar to this.
Tuesday
Tuesday morning I had an early start, but struggled to get up in the cold weather. Running late meant breakfast had to be quick. I remembered we had some frozen berries, so I whizzed these up with yoghurt and a combination of leftover milks to make a smoothie.
Tuesday is the only day both Alexia and I are at the clinic and we always have lunch together at one of the local cafes.
In the afternoon, between clients I had a pear and a piece of orange marmalade slice I’d taken from the freezer.
Tuesday evening I was expecting to have leftover dal. However I’d forgotten to mention the challenge to Richard. So when I came home from a long day he was making home-made tomato sauce to go over pasta. While he had purchased some ingredients, there’s no way I’m turning down a home-made meal for any challenge.
Wednesday
Today I’ve had porridge for breakfast, made with soy milk and water. With a drizzle of maple syrup on top.
For lunch I continued making my way through the cabbage and I found a bulb of fennel. So I finely shredded some of these vegetables. I then cooked the remnants of a packet of wholegrain noodles and toasted a combination of pumpkin seeds, pine nuts & walnuts. I tossed all these together and made a dressing. Similar to my normal tahini dressing, but I added some sesame oil and rice wine vinegar, instead of the mustard. I also stirred through some silken tofu – to bump up the protein quota.
This afternoon I have fruit and an apple muffin. Then it’s dal and beetroot curry for dinner.
So we’re eating well!
Update
I lasted without buying anything else until Saturday. Which given I would normally go out on Monday and spend about A$60 on groceries, is quite interesting.
What I ate for the rest of the week
Wednesday evening I cooked some barley in my rice cooker and I made a batch of soup. The soup was made from:
- 2 onions
- 1 potato
- red & brown onions
- a chunk of cabbage
- a cup of frozen peas
- stock
- a tablespoon of my favourite spice mix
Thursday and Friday mornings I used the barley for breakfast. Topped with soy milk, frozen berries, LSA, walnuts and some maple syrup, it was a revelation. I loved it, and it kept me going until lunch-time each day. I’ll be having this again.
We ate the soup for lunch on Thursday and Friday. Thursday night we went out for dinner and then Friday night I made an odds-and-ends oven baked meal:
- brown rice
- rolled oats
- cabbage
- frozen edamame beans
- silverbeet
- the remnants of silken tofu
- stock
- soy sauce
I’m not sure I could even repeat this dish, as I made it on-the-fly adding cups and spoonfuls as I went through the pantry. But again it was delicious. Hearty, warming, with a rich, thick gravy.
However it was more grain-heavy than I like my meals to be. Usually in the evening I follow the 50/25/25 rule. I enjoy this way of eating and feel better for it. But we’ve run out of the majority of our regular protein foods (tofu, eggs, cheese) and also down to very few vegetables.
What I’ve learnt
The last few days have made me consider some of my cooking practices. And how easy it is to fall into a rut with what you’re eating. While I think I eat a wide variety of foods, I could do more. This week has expanded my cooking horizons and made me think laterally.
Plus we’ve eaten some delicious food and I’ve discovered a new breakfast.
The next month on Limes & Lycopene
Over the next month I’m going to be running a series of posts on Limes & Lycopene. This means there won’t be a Q & A Thursday during August and I won’t be posting any Quicklinks posts.
However I’m pretty excited about the series. And I’m hoping you enjoy it and get a lot of value from the posts and theme. More about this on Friday.
A week of eating from the cupboard
Posted by kathryn in Shopping Basket
On my list of things to do today is some grocery shopping. In my head “we’re out of food”. But if I stand in my kitchen and look in the fridge, freezer and pantry, this is plainly a ridiculous statement.
There is actually plenty of food in the house.
I have dried beans, rice, quinoa, noodles and pasta in the cupboard. My spice rack is full, plus there’s olive oil, soy sauce and a number of spice pastes in the fridge. The freezer contains apple muffins, orange marmalade slices, frozen peas and at least one tub of dhal.
Fruit and vegetable wise I have virtually a whole cabbage, a bunch of beetroot, onions, potatoes, silverbeet, oranges and two avocadoes.
And that’s just the stuff I can see.
So this week I’m in the mood for a little experiment, partly inpired by two other bloggers who’ve set themselves challenges. I’m not going to the shops today. Instead I’m going to see how little I can buy this week and still eat well.
My question for myself each day will be, what can I make from what we have? It’s an extension to my lunch last week and thoughts on frugality.
There are two definite gaps to what’s available that I will plug. The only fruit we have is oranges, so I will buy some more varieties. Plus I’ll be getting some tinned tomatoes, as I find these invaluable. Normally on Tuesdays I have lunch with my clinic partner. While Thursday Richard and I always have dinner out.
However, apart from these two I’m going to try and eat from what we have.
Quicklinks
Posted by kathryn in Sustainablity, Legumes and Main courses
- Fuel prices vs food prices: Interesting read from Crikey. While we’re concentrating on rising fuel prices, it’s food prices which are more worrying.
- Easy fish: Another of Mark Bittman’s easy recipes – this time grilled fish with fennel. Only six ingredients and takes about 20 minutes.
- Beer-baked beans: One recipe I’m going to make very soon is Cassie’s beer-baked beans from Veggie Meal Plans.
- Filo samosas: Wendy from A Wee Bit of Cooking has been making samosas with filo pastry. They’re oven-baked and significantly lower in fat.
- Eating sustainably: last week I linked to an article at The Gobbler about a backlash against ethical eating. This week Duncan of Syrup & Tang has blogged about the impediments for most people to eating sustainably.
- Are you a junk food vegetarian?: There are vegetarians out there who don’t eat any vegetables, living on cheese and carbs. If this is you, then Calorie Lab has some good advice.
Photograph by Alexandra Moss.
What I had for lunch today & thoughts on frugality
Posted by kathryn in Shopping Basket
I’m working from home today. Which means I can stop and make something different for lunch.
Not having done any meaningful shopping for a while, there’s an odd mixture of goods in the cupboard.
This always happens towards the end of the week. While it sometimes leaves me uncertain about what to eat, I usually enjoy the challenge.
Can I make something delicious and healthy with what’s in the house?
It would be easy to go out for lunch or head up to the corner store and buy something. However, over the last few months I am more and more making do with what we have. It’s partly about reducing waste – after reading the horror stories of how much food people throw out each week. But it’s also about saving money.
In the last 12 months we have become a 2-small-business household. Paychecks are less regular, costs have needed to be reduced, belts tightened.
Being frugal has meant eating at home more; making use of all our leftovers; not throwing anything away. It means we’re buying the cheaper vegetables and trays of tinned tomatoes.
We’re eating out less, rarely buying take-away, being careful to buy in-season and on-special. In the past I would have decided what I wanted and then bought the necessary ingredients. Now I’m checking the cupboards and asking myself what can I make from what we have?
Lucy has been talking about frugality this week. While it’s not a very glamorous or even popular concept, I love the word. And to be honest the frugality is going well. In amongst this penny-pinching our diet has improved.
So don’t feel sorry for us. We’re eating really, really well. Hearty, warming, delicious food that feeds our bodies.
What I had for lunch
An example. In my foraging today I found:
- 4 small Nicola potatoes
- about 2 cups of leftover herbs and greens
- a nearly empty jar of capers
- a punnet and a half of cherry tomatoes
- a tin of 3-bean mix
- some pine nuts
And this made lunch.
I boiled the potatoes in their skins. While these were cooking I finely chopped the herbs and greens and mixed them together with the capers. To this I added about a tablespoon of olive oil and 2 teaspoons of balsamic vinegar.
I then halved the cherry tomatoes and put them in a bowl with the 3-bean mix. Added the cooked potatoes and tossed through the herb dressing. We ate this, with pine nuts sprinkled on top.
It was delicious and easy. Lunch for two, ready in the time it takes to boil potatoes. No extra expense required.
Photograph by Dragonmage06.
The Limes & Lycopene newsletter: an update
Posted by kathryn in Blogging
Thanks to all who weighed in with thoughtful comments on what I should do with the Limes & Lycopene newsletter. I really appreciate hearing from you.
The next newsletter
After reading through and thinking about my work commitments, I’m going to keep it a monthly bulletin. And the next one will be sent out later this week.
I’m still working out the final format – but it will include a homework exercise. This was definitely the most popular option.
How to subscribe to the newsletter
If you’re not already on the distribution list you can sign up for the Limes & Lycopene newsletter here. Please note it’s a two-stage sign up. Fill out your name and email address and you will then be sent an email. You need to click on the link in that email to confirm your subscription.
And if you haven’t already taken part in the discussion there’s still time for you to leave your thoughts at this post.
Photograph by MJM.
Quicklinks
Posted by kathryn in Sustainablity, Breakfast, Salads and Main courses
- The Great Big Vegetable Challenge: The Great Big Vegetable Challenge has charted one family’s attempt to convert vegie-phobic children into vegetable lovers. They’ve come to the end of the alphabet and are challenging you to make a vegetable face.
- Strawberry salad: I love the strawberry salad on this post from Just Braise. Leaves, kohlrabi, fresh herbs, strawberries and goats’ cheese. Light and delicious.
- Sustainable food: Interesting debate on The Gobbler about the possible backlash against eating seasonally and ethically.
- Spinach rice gratin: This week I made Heidi’s spinach rice gratin. It’s delicious and super-easy. In fact it fits into the one pot category. Next time I’d just add a bit more veg – maybe some peas, or a bit of steamed brocolli.
- Different breakfast idea: I like the breakfast idea at Flexitarian Menu barley porridge with red kidney beans. Add some cinnamon and sweeten with a bit of maple syrup. Yum.
- What are Pringles made of? A British High Court recently ruled that pringles are not chips or crisps, because they’re only 42 percent potato. More on Weighty Matters.
Photograph by chotda.
Sneaky foods: one product I object to
Posted by kathryn in Food Labelling
Last week I blogged about some of the tricks and traps of food labelling – the marketing that’s used to make a product look better than it actually is.
There are many, many examples of this. Some more obvious than others.
While spiderman chocolate breakfast cereal is a true Frankenstein food, it’s pretty obvious this product is not healthy. Instead it’s the more sneaky products that drive me up the wall. And the top of my most hated list?
Gourmet Garden Herb blends.
These are the squeezy tubes of “herbs” that sit in the fridge of the fruit and veg section, right next to the fresh herbs.
Why pick on Gourmet Garden Herbs?
I can see the attraction. It’s a convenience food, marketed as a quick and easy alternative to using fresh herbs. They seem quite innocuous.
However this product ticks many of the tricks and traps boxes.
Firstly it masquerades as something fresh and therefore healthy. It’s there in the name Gourmet Garden herbs and in the red seal on the front, promising a “fresh chopped taste”. The illusion of being something special and premium.
But it’s not fresh chopped – in fact it’s not “fresh” at all.
How much herb is in there?
But the main reason I object to Gourmet Garden Herbs is the additives and extras they contain. They’re positioned in the supermarket right next to the fresh herbs. They’re marketed as an alternative to fresh herbs. But they contain a whole lot of ingredients not found in fresh herbs.
In the Gourmet Garden range the amount of actual herb in the product varies between 33 and 63 percent. That’s it. The smallest amount of actual herb is in the rosemary, while the higher number is the coriander.
There’s an indication of this in the name on the front. These products are actually described as herb blends. So the rosemary is called Rosemary Herb Blend. There’s a Basil Herb Blend and a Coriander Herb Blend. But the words Herb Blend are in smaller letters and it’s really not obvious what they mean.
What else is in there?
Next to the herb the biggest ingredient is sugars – in different forms. Most contain both glucose syrup and dextrose. Other ingredients include:
- canola oil
- acidity regulator
- humectant
- salt
- antixoxidants
- whey powder
- thickeners
That’s a lot of ingredients for something that’s offered as an alternative to fresh herbs.
This extra sugar and oil means the Rosemary Herb Blend has twice the kilojoules and almost three times the fat of fresh rosemary. And it’s unnecessary kilojoules and fat.
I’ll agree there are worse products out there. Foods that do far, far more damage. Foods that have a much larger impact on your health. But these herb blends turn a wonderful healthy addition to your cooking into something negative.
They are marketed as an alternative to fresh herbs. But they’re sneaky. It’s not a fresh product. They do not provide the same flavour. And they’re not a patch on fresh herbs.
What food products have you been caught out by?
Photograph by Amanda Bel.
What do you want from the Limes & Lycopene newsletter?
Posted by kathryn in Blogging
If you look in the right hand sidebar you’ll see a little envelope button, which asks if you want to subscribe to the Limes & Lycopene newsletter.
It’s supposed to be a monthly newsletter. But I haven’t sent it out for a considerable number of months.
What happened?
Problem was, I really didn’t feel I was hitting the mark before.
If I’m asking you to give up inbox space, plus your precious time and attention, then it has to be for something relevant and meaningful. Which I don’t think was the case.
So rather than sending out less than useful broadcasts and clogging up your email, I decided to rest the newsletter for a while.
However I’ve been thinking about re-launching, with a change of focus. And I want your input.
What would you find most useful in a newsletter from Limes & Lycopene?
What content do you want?
At the moment my thoughts are falling into three main areas:
- What’s coming up on Limes & Lycopene: advance notice of what I’ll be focussing on during the next month. It may be a specific ingredient, a style of eating, or even a particular meal. But highlighting what topics I’ll be writing about and how you can take part.
- A homework exercise: something you can do today / this week to improve the way you eat. It might be an eating tip, a food awareness exercise, trying a new food – but something quick and easy that will change your diet and health.
- The Top 10 posts: for those who don’t have time to read every week, a list of the primary posts from the last month. The ones which have struck a chord, had the biggest readership, or sparked the most debate.
Do these topics sound useful? Is there anything else you’d like covered?
How often do you want it?
At the moment the newsletter is (supposed to be) monthly.
But I’ve been wondering if a weekly broadcast wouldn’t be more useful?
While you might think I don’t have time to read a weekly newsletter my plan is it would be short, succinct and highly targeted. One subject. One thing for you to think about. One bit that’s going to add to your nutrition knowledge or tweak the way you eat.
What do you think?
I’d love to know your thoughts and insight. Do you read newsletters? What would be most useful for you?
I should also add that I will definitely read, think about and take into consideration every comment. Although if there’s a lot of different opinions, I can’t promise to do exactly what you all say!
Let me know what you think in the comments below.
Photograph by MJM.
Jamie Oliver's Eat to Save Your Life
Posted by kathryn in Food & Health Myths
For the readers here in Australia – tonight Channel 10 is showing Jamie Oliver’s programme Eat to Save Your Life.
It’s all about what junk food does to your health. It looks at the history and evolution of mass produced, processed foodstuffs and exactly what this food does to your body. It’s a hard-hitting programme, aimed at shocking people into improving their diet.
But as well as the negatives, it promises simple and easy steps you can take to improve what you eat. And your health in general.
Sounds like compulsory viewing to me.
- Eat to Save Your Life
- Wednesday July 16
- 9.30 – 10.30pm
- Channel 10
I’d love to know if you watched the programme and what you thought.
Just to clarify – this is not Jamie Oliver’s website.
Hi there. My name is Kathryn Elliott and I’m a nutritionist and health writer in Australia. You’ve reached my blog – Limes & Lycopene – where I comment and write all about food, health and how to eat well when you’re busy.
The buzz about Jamie’s show is big and I’m really interested to know what you thought?
However if you’re looking for the man himself – he can be found here.
If you’d like to know more about Limes & Lycopene then take a look at these posts:
Hope you enjoy the reading.
Quicklinks
Posted by kathryn in Sustainablity, Salads and Main courses
- A week of salads: Over at Food Stories Helen Graves has celebrated her blogging anniversary with a week of posts on salads. My two favourites are the zucchini with cornichons, herbs and capers and the glorious looking beetroot, pumpkin & haloumi.
- Rhubarb with lentils: I’ve been buying the most glorious rhubarb recently. Once a week an organic shop near my clinic has vegetables picked that morning. At the moment it’s rhubarb. With this week’s bunch I’m making Indian spiced lentils & rhubarb. No idea what it will taste like, but am intrigued.
- How to avoid wasting food: Kale for Sale posted some excellent strategies to avoid wasting food. The good ideas continue into the comments.
- Small vs large farms: At The Gooseberry Fool Caitlin explores the question of whether small farms really are more productive than large-scale productions: could peasants feed the world?
- A winter salad: Another delicious looking salad, this one from Pikelet & Pie: fennel, orange, olive and herb salad. Fennel is in season, cheap and glorious at the moment, which makes this salad just perfect.
- Lemongrass, ginger & coconut: I’m not sure which of Lucy’s recipes I’m more excited about – the lemongrass, ginger and coconut rice or the Indonesian cucumber and carrot pickle. They both feature in this post at Nourish Me.
Photograph by La Tartine Gourmande.
The best foods to eat at the office
Posted by kathryn in Shopping Basket and A Balanced Diet
Today I’m very pleased to be doing something new. New for Limes & Lycopene anyway. We have a guest blogger, Ali from The Office Diet. If you read my Quicklinks posts you’ll know I’ve recently become a fan of this site and it’s commonsense approach to eating well at work. Over to Ali . . .
If you work in a desk-based job, sometimes making it to five pm at all can be a challenge, let alone getting there with your diet intact. The day can be full of bad food decisions. It starts with that croissant grabbed on the way to work, continues with a too-tempting-to-refuse doughnut mid-morning and carries on into lunch with colleagues at that new café . . .
Of course, you don’t have the time and equipment to whip up healthy meals while you’re at work. But there are some great foods that will make life easier for you, and will dramatically increase your chances of reaching the end of the day with a healthy glow rather than in a surge of blood-sugar spikes and slumps.
Breakfast cereals
Humble cereal is one key food in your office dieting arsenal. If you don’t have time for breakfast at home (or if you can’t face eating that early in the day), keep a box of cereal and a litre of milk at work. Remember a bowl and spoon too, if your workplace kitchen isn’t stocked with crockery and cutlery – you don’t want to end up eating dry cereal straight from the packet.
The best cereals have words like “wholegrain”, “bran” and “fruit” in their names. Anything involving “chocolate” is, sadly, not likely to be a healthy option.
Easy-to-eat fruits
One of the best snacks to have on hand in the office is fruit. Go for apples, bananas, satsumas, plums – anything which can either be rinsed and eaten straight away, or which only needs your hands to peel it.
Very ripe, juicy fruits tend not to mix well with your keyboard, and strawberries and cherries are best avoided unless you want a dramatic red dribble oozing down your chin . . .
Snack-sized bags of popcorn
Sometimes you just have to have something sweet, salty or crunchy. Popcorn hits the spot, with fewer calories and more fullness-factor than potato chips or chocolate. It gets a bad reputation due to the colossal portion sizes sold in movie theatres . . . popcorn is actually relatively healthy.
If you’re making your own, invest in a popcorn maker and make your own air-popped corn, rather than using the microwaveable sort (which contains oil and thus more fat). Alternatively, buy a few mini bags of ready-popped corn and stash them in your desk drawer for when you’re sorely tempted by that stack of cookies in the office break room.
Sandwiches
No, sandwiches don’t have to be boring. Of course you’ll get fed up if you pack yourself a ham-and-cream-cheese sandwich every day of the week, but try mixing things up a bit and you can enjoy healthy, easy, cheap and tasty lunches. Go with different types of bread (granary, wholegrain or seeded loaf, wholemeal sub, bagel, pita) as well as different fillings (heavy on salad and lean protein, light on mayo or butter works well).
Still need ideas? Check out The Office Diet, a blog full of healthy living tips for busy people who need their diet to fit round their life.
Photograph by Keuynish.
Food labels: the top 5 tricks used to entice you to buy
Posted by kathryn in Shopping Basket and Food Labelling
Food shopping used to be simple. You’d buy meat from the butcher, vegetables from the greengrocer, milk from the milkman.
But that’s not the case anymore. Now food comes in boxes and wrappers. It’s covered in words and phrases which promise a lot. It may be “a delicious snack the whole family can enjoy” or “full of the goodness of wholesome grains”. Other products have a “fresh chopped taste” or even a “new formula with fruit pulp”. Sounds good doesn’t it?
Some aspects of food labelling are heavily regulated. However most of what’s on the label is marketing. And marketing is about selling a product. It’s there to entice you to buy. Marketing emphasises the good parts and downplays the negatives of a product. Which is exactly what happens on food labels.
I’ve talked before about food labelling. But I thought it time for a round-up of the top five ways food manufacturers can catch you out.
1. Disguising the nutritional negatives
While you may be trying to limit saturated fat, sugar and salt, food labels don’t always make this easy – even if you do read the ingredients list. Fat, sugar and salt all come in different forms, which means they can be hidden under different names in the ingredients’ list.
A packet of muesli may contain sugar, sucrose and malt. Three separate ingredients, but all containing sugars.
Tinned soups are often high in sodium, but manufacturers mask this by using several different sodium containing ingredients. Salt may be at the bottom of the ingredients, but look out for yeast extract and soy sauce. While these two add flavour, they are also high sodium ingredients.
What to do: You can find a full list of alternative names for fat, sodium and sugar in this post: food labels – how manufacturers disguise the baddies.
2. The illusion of quality
Ever wondered how a packaged product can be “fresh” or “home-made”? I don’t know either. However, along with “pure”, “gourmet” and “premium” these terms are frequently splattered over products.
Part of the problem is there’s no legal definition for any of these terms. Which means manufacturers are free to use them. And they do with gusto. Each term hints at a distinctive, special quality. Setting up the expectation of one product being better than its competitors.
Manufacturers also offer the illusion of quality through their packaging. High priced products are in special boxes, packets and cartons. But there’s often little difference between them and their cheaper neighbours.
I was thinking about this over the weekend, when looking at the nutritional breakdown of two brands of vegetable stock. One was powdered and in a fairly cheap looking container. While the other was in a carton, with gorgeous soft-focus pictures of soup on the outside. The carton stock looked better than the powdered: more natural, home-made – a better product. But nutritionally the reverse was true. The powdered stock was lower in salt and had fewer additives.
What to do: Ignore these illusions of quality and make up your own mind. Try the products out and compare the ingredients list. Does it contain what you think it should contain?
3. Vague nutritional claims
Here in Australia health claims are carefully regulated. You’re not allowed to say a product improves health, without significant research confirming the claim.
However manufacturers are free to use vague, misleading nutritional descriptions:
- “rich in the energy food for your body”
- “contains the goodness of milk”
- “high in dietary fibre to keep your body in great shape”
- “full of the goodness of wholesome grains”
- “a unique energy management system”
- “light in colour and taste”
I don’t know what half these really mean and I’m a nutritionist. They’re vague, useless terms. Emotive words which set up an expectation of health – but rarely mean what you expect.
What to do: Ignore these marketing claims and check out the nutrition information panel and ingredients list. This is the best way to work out whether a product is right for you.
4. Sneaky serving sizes
The majority of food packets include a nutrition information panel. This provides a breakdown of the nutrient content of the food per 100g and per serving.
Manufacturers frequently use odd serving sizes, to show their product in a favourable light. Particularly in comparison to their competitors.
Two of my favourite examples are:
- a couple of yoghurt manufacturers list their small, individual 200g tubs of yoghurt as two servings, when most people would eat the whole lot.
- One soft drink manufacturer describes a 375ml cans of their product as 1.88 servings – so they can make a claim about the kilojoule content of the product.
What to do: Be careful when looking at the nutritional information per serve. It’s easier to compare products through the information per 100g and then relate that back to how much you would eat.
5. When a picture doesn’t tell a thousand words
Pick up a packet and invariably the product looks fabulous. But when you open it up you can be severely disappointed. With the actual food looking nothing like the picture on the outside.
Food pictures are the product of food stylists, photographers and photoshop. What comes out the box can look very different from the photo.
One of the best examples of this is a local blueberry and apple breakfast cereal. The picture on the front looks like it’s bursting with real blueberries. However inside are pieces of dried apple soaked in blueberry juice and not one single actual blueberry.
What to do: Ignore the photo and flip the packet over. If an ingredient is in the picture it’s considered a characterising ingredient and the label must show the percentage of that ingredient in the product. Check your labels and that the food you’re buying contains what you think it should contain.
Label tricks don’t make shopping easy, so be sceptical and look at what you’re buying. Try to do most of your shopping in the periphery of the supermarket – where the fruit and vegetables, deli and fresh foods are. This will enable you to avoid most of the labelling tricks and traps.
What label tricks and traps have you noticed at your local supermarket?
Photograph by Chris B.
Quicklinks
Posted by kathryn in Shopping Basket, Sustainablity, Salads and Main courses
- Eating well with limited resources: Really like this post from The Simple Dollar. It’s all about making your diet better when you have minimal space, equipment and dollars.
- The Cheese Guide: Good information on cheeses. Which have the most fat, calories and calcium. Thanks to Sophie.
- Ethical fish: Fascinated to read Kale for Sale’s review of Bottomfeeder – as she says it’s the Omnivore’s Dilemma of seafood. I’m going to look out for a copy of this.
- Recipe makeover: A good example from 101 Cookbooks of how to make a dish more healthy. This time it’s potato salad. Rather than an artery clogging mayonnaise dish, Heidi has made a grilled potato salad with a light, tasty dressing.
- Quick Indian Cooking: I’m drooling over Mallika’s “blindingly simple” paneer dish. I’d serve this with a quick, crunchy salad and some rice.
- Barley dish: I love barley. Think it’s a massively under-rated grain. And at the moment when it’s cold, this barley dish is exactly the kind of thing I can imagine cooking. It’s from the Little Bits blog.
Photograph by Amanda Rudkin.
Q & A Thursday is over
Posted by kathryn in Q & A Thursday
It’s been a bumper edition, but Q & A Thursday is now over for this month.
Today I’ve answered questions on:
If you have a question for next month then let me know by email. For more information you can take a look at the Q & A Thursday archives. I’ll update them with today’s posts in the next few days.
And of course thank you to everyone for your excellent questions and for taking part in the discussions.
Q & A Thursday: fasting
Posted by kathryn in Q & A Thursday
The last question for today’s Q & A Thursday is about fasting. A reader asks:
do you believe in the claim that fasting allows the body to detoxify and heal any parts of it that are ill? And do you believe there are any long-term ill effects that might be associated with doing a 24 hour fast once a week?
Up front I need to say I don’t have a lot of experience with fasting. It’s not a regime I use in clinic and it’s not something I recommend to clients.
While I appreciate there are many reasons for fasting, my focus here is on doing it for health.
My short answer is it depends on why and under what conditions you are doing it.
Fasting for weight loss
I do not believe that fasting is an effective tool for weight loss. Reducing your energy intake below 3,300 kJ leads to a significant drop in metabolism. And this drop in metabolism is not conducive to long-term weight loss.
In the short-term fasting will lead to weight loss. However the difficulty comes when you stop fasting and want to keep that weight off. As well as lowering your metabolism directly, fasting reduces your muscle mass – which further affects metabolism. And when you start to eat again, this lowered metabolism makes it harder to keep the weight off.
Fasting to detox
As you may know I’m not a fan of detoxes in general, including fasting. As far as I can see there’s no evidence that fasting will detoxify your body, or even that this is necessary.
To improve your energy and improve your health, you need to eat a better diet, get plenty of sleep, exercise regularly and drink water. It’s not fashionable and it’s not glamorous – but this is the optimal way to improve your general health.
Fasting to live longer
Early studies in rats and humans have shown possible links between calorific restriction and increased life span. This is very early work though and by no means conclusive.
Plus this research has looked at energy restriction – which is not the same as fasting.
Fasting for heart disease and chemotherapy
There are also some studies which show potential benefits of fasting during chemotherapy and to reduce the risk of heart disease.
Neither of these are conclusive, but they’re interesting pieces of research. Hopefully these will be followed up by further work.
Do you have any experience of fasting? And do you know of any other research into the health benefits or otherwise of fasting?
What is Q & A Thursday?
This post is part of Q & A Thursday – a monthly burst of blogging, where you get to dictate the subject matter. Q & A Thursday is all about simple, practical answers to food and diet dilemmas sent in by readers.
For more information you can take a look at the Q & A Thursday archives.
Q & A Thursday: cooked vegetables and their nutrients
Posted by kathryn in Vegetables and Q & A Thursday
The next question in Q & A Thursday comes from Tian:
I just had lunch of chilli chicken and veg. Because it was already packed in the tupperware, the green veg was no longer green. When veg lose their colour do they lose their nutrient content as well, making them not worthwhile eating?
From the moment vegetables are picked they start losing nutrients. Therefore the shorter the distance and time between harvest and you eating them, the better.
Vegetables also lose nutrients whenever they’re processed or cooked. And the loss of colour you’re seeing is because some of the nutrients have leached out or degraded.
Sounds bad doesn’t it?
But, hold your horses. Don’t give up on eating vegetables. Because of course, it’s more complex than that.
- While some nutrients have been lost, there’s still plenty of goodness in there. Your vegetables, even with the colour loss, have fibre, minerals and vitamins. This alone gives you reason to carry on eating them.
- While some antioxidants do degrade during cooking, others actually get more accessible. The classic example is lycopene which is more accessible in cooked and processed tomatoes than it is in fresh.
- The vegetables are filling you up, while adding only small amounts of kilojoules to your diet. Therefore they’re helping you achieve and maintain a healthy weight.
- Without these vegetables, even with the colour loss that has occured, you’ll be missing out on important nutrients.
So, please, please, PLEASE carry on eating your vegetables. Include plenty in your diet – both in quantity and variety. Aim for at least five serves a day to maximise your health.
What is Q & A Thursday?
This post is part of Q & A Thursday – a monthly burst of blogging, where you get to dictate the subject matter. Q & A Thursday is all about simple, practical answers to food and diet dilemmas sent in by readers.
For more information you can take a look at the Q & A Thursday archives.
Q & A Thursday: should you grind up nuts & seeds?
Posted by kathryn in Fat and Q & A Thursday
The next question in Q & A Thursday comes from Zoe and it’s about LSA – does grinding the seeds make the nutrients more accessible?
What is LSA?
LSA is a mixture of linseeds (or flaxseeds), sunflower seeds and almonds – all ground together to form a finely powdered mixture. It’s available from health food shops and some supermarkets.
Many people use LSA as a dietary supplement, as it’s very high in nutrients – particularly the essential fatty acids. It’s one of the stronger vegetarian sources of Omega 3s. Plus it contains plenty of minerals, fibre, vitamins and even some antioxidants.
LSA vs the whole nuts & seeds
Eating whole nuts and seeds generally gives you really, really good nutrition. As I’ve said, they’re packed full of goodness and add some good oomph to your diet.
Provided you chew your food.
Sounds like a silly thing to say? But I know plenty of people who gulp down their food at a rapid pace. Rushing to move onto the next thing or get back to work. Big bites, a couple of chews and the food is swallowed down.
Your digestive system is equipped to breakdown proteins, fats and carbohydrates. To extract vitamins and minerals, and get rid of the waste. However once the food is beyond your mouth there’s a limited capacity to physically break up large chunks of food. Some churning and muscle contractions in your stomach, but that’s about it.
This is not so much of a problem with nuts. They’re bigger and you have to chew them. However linseeds are tiny and protected by a fibrous outer coating. So they’re much more likely to be swallowed whole, or only partially broken up.
And if this occurs, they will probably remain largely untouched during the journey through your digestive system. This makes them good fibre and good for your bowels, but you’re not extracting many of the nutrients.
And of course it depends
So really it depends on what you’re using the LSA for. If you want the goodness out of the linseeds, then you need to have them in the ground up form. However, if you’re looking for a good fibre supplement, then it’s the whole seeds for you.
But I’d feel free to eat most of your nuts and seeds whole. Just remember to chew a few times before you swallow.
What is Q & A Thursday?
This post is part of Q & A Thursday – a monthly burst of blogging, where you get to dictate the subject matter. Q & A Thursday is all about simple, practical answers to food and diet dilemmas sent in by readers.
For more information you can take a look at the Q & A Thursday archives.
Q & A Thursday: do you need to worry about the biological value of protein?
Posted by kathryn in Protein and Q & A Thursday
Next on Q & A Thursday Chloe wants to know about the biological value of protein – what it is and how to use this information.
This is a tricky concepts. It’s hard to explain and an important nutritional principle. But (thankfully) it can also be translated into simple dietary guidelines. Stuff you can follow, without tracking numbers and doing complex calculations.
I’m mostly going to answer this question by linking back to a previous post. In a previous Q & A Thursday I wrote about how vegetarians can get enough protein. This post contains an explanation of biological value and how it relates to different foods. Read this post before continuing, otherwise the rest won’t make sense!
High or low biological value – which is better
Unlike the GI or cholesterol levels, when it comes to biological value the higher the better.
While protein is found in a huge range of foods it’s animal foods which have the highest biological value. They most closely match our amino acid requirements.
In contrast plant-based foods have a low biological value. They contain low quantities of one or more of the essential amino acids. They are the furthest match from our amino acid requirements.
Do you need to worry about biological value?
In theory the low biological value of plant proteins seems to indicate vegetarians are protein deficient. And that animal based foods are the only ones to eat – their higher biological value makes them better?
However, in practice this is not actually the case. By varying the plant proteins you eat, you can counter-act the amino acid deficiencies. One plant group can make up for the inadequacies of another, effectively balancing out the amino acid profile and making it a closer match to your requirements.
By consuming grains, legumes, nuts, soy foods you are effectively raising the biological value of what you’re eating.
You don’t have to eat all of these in one meal, or even in one day. But over the course of a week vary your protein sources and you don’t have to worry about biological value.
Yet again, it’s through eating a variety of foods that you gain the best nutrition.
What is Q & A Thursday?
This post is part of Q & A Thursday – a monthly burst of blogging, where you get to dictate the subject matter. Q & A Thursday is all about simple, practical answers to food and diet dilemmas sent in by readers.
For more information you can take a look at the Q & A Thursday archives.
Q & A Thursday: should you drink soy milk to reduce acne?
Posted by kathryn in Q & A Thursday
The next question is a follow up to my post on milk and acne. A reader has asked if it’s better to use non-dairy “milks” like soy or rice milk if you’re trying to reduce acne.
The short answer to this question is it depends on the person . . .
- Research has indicated there may be a link between cow’s milk and acne. I’ve blogged about this before here and a copy of one of the research papers can be found at Dermatology Online Journal.
- If you remove cow’s milk from your diet and notice a continued improvement in your acne, then converting to soy, rice or almond milk is a good idea.
- Nutritionally, soy and almond milks have higher protein and a lower GI than rice milk. But given variety is a key nutritional concept it can also be a good idea to vary the milks you consume.
- There are some indications soy milk may inhibit the effects of dihydrotestosterone (DHT), thought to be one of the drivers behind acne. Therefore it’s possible including soy milk may reduce the effects of this hormone and improve acne. Although the exact effects of this are still unclear.
- It should also be noted soy is a common food for people to be allergic and intolerant to. This can manifest as skin changes. So if you’re adding soy milk in, to reduce acne, monitor your symptoms.
What is Q & A Thursday?
This post is part of Q & A Thursday – a monthly burst of blogging, where you get to dictate the subject matter. Q & A Thursday is all about simple, practical answers to food and diet dilemmas sent in by readers.
For more information you can take a look at the Q & A Thursday archives.
Q & A Thursday: can you eat too much fruit?
Posted by kathryn in Fruit and Q & A Thursday
Another reader has asked about fruit: how much is too much and can eating fruit increase your risk of diabetes?
How much fruit should you eat?
Here in Australia the dietary guidelines recommend two serves of fruit and five serves of vegetables every day.
Both are important to your health as they provide vitamins, minerals, fibre and antioxidants.
While fruit and vegetables are rich in nutrients, fruit also contains more kilojoules. So eating more than two serves of fruit a day is okay as long as you’re at a healthy weight and you’re eating the other food groups you need to maintain good health.
If you’re not within your healthy weight range, or you’re eating fruit at the expense of other food groups, then I would advise cutting back. Because you need to re-balance your diet.
Does eating a lot of fruit increase your risk of diabetes?
The risk factors for Type II diabetes are many and varied. It is a complex condition. A high fruit diet is not a risk factor for Type II diabetes. While fruit contains “sugars”, most of it has a low GI and does not contribute to the disordered blood sugar response seen in Type II diabetes.
The primary dietary and lifestyle risk factors for Type II are:
- A high fat diet, particuarly high saturated and trans fats
- Excessive alcohol intake
- Being overweight or obese
- Including a lot of high GI foods in your diet
- Not exercising
- Smoking
There is no one single food or even food group which causes Type II diabetes.
Some more information can be found at the GI News site.
What is Q & A Thursday?
This post is part of Q & A Thursday – a monthly burst of blogging, where you get to dictate the subject matter. Q & A Thursday is all about simple, practical answers to food and diet dilemmas sent in by readers.
If you have a question you’d like answered send me an email. For more information you can take a look at the Q & A Thursday archives.
Q & A Thursday: can you eat leftover rice
Posted by kathryn in Q & A Thursday
The first question in today’s Q & A Thursday is from Caroline: is it safe to reheat cooked rice?
Raw rice naturally contains a bacteria called Bacillus cereus. In large amounts this bacteria can cause vomiting and diarrhoea.
Bacillus cereus spores survive the cooking process and are not killed off when rice is reheated. So the safety of rice is dependant on how you handle the rice once cooked.
The temperature range of 4°C – 60°C is considered the danger zone for food. These temperatures are the perfect environment for most bacteria, when they are able to grow and multiply at a rapid rate. And the same is true for rice.
The longer rice is within this temperature range therefore, the more likely Bacillus cereus spores are to grow and multiply. And the more chance you have of getting food poisoning from eating it.
Therefore it’s not the reheating of rice which is potentially a problem, but how it’s been stored prior to reheating.
- If you’ve cooked too much rice, put the leftovers in the fridge straight away, so they cool down quickly.
- Keep rice salads in the fridge, right up until they’re needed and serve them cold.
- Be careful of leftover takeaway rice: by the time it’s been cooked, kept warm in a rice cooker, delivered to you, eaten, stored – there’s plenty of opportunity for Bacillus cereus to multiply. I’d throw the leftovers out once you’ve finished the takeaway.
- Keep leftover rice for no longer than one day before re-using.
And remember bacteria are present in many of the foods we eat. And this is natural. Cooking and correct food handling will either kill-off these bacteria, or at the very least prevent the population from over-growth.
For some good information on food safety in the home, take a look at Food Science Australia.
What is Q & A Thursday?
This post is part of Q & A Thursday – a monthly burst of blogging, where you get to dictate the subject matter. Q & A Thursday is all about simple, practical answers to food and diet dilemmas sent in by readers.
If you have a question you’d like answered send me an email. For more information you can take a look at the Q & A Thursday archives.
Today is Q & A Thursday
Posted by kathryn in Q & A Thursday
It’s Q & A Thursday. I have some excellent questions to talk about, covering a wide variety of topics.
Usually I continue to accept questions during the day of Q & A Thursday and post answers. However I have plenty of topics to get through already – so I’m not taking accepting any more questions.
I’ll get cracking soon. First up it’s food safety and reheating rice.
Fruit & vegetables in season: July in Sydney
Posted by kathryn in What's in season
The beginning of the month, so it’s time for the regular list of what’s in season in Sydney.
Fruit:
- Apples: the best apples this month are are Golden Delicious, Red Delicious Granny Smith, Jonathon’s and Pink Ladies.
- Avocadoes: Hass are in season
- Bananas
- Blueberries: from Coffs Harbour – they’re beautiful but pricey
- Cumquats
- Custard apples
- Dates
- Dragon fruit
- Grapefruit: yellow grapefruit are in season and rubys are on their way
- Kiwifruit: both green and gold
- Lemons
- Limes
- Mandarins: Imperials, Alphora, Empress and Daisies all available
- Nashi pears
- Oranges: Australian navels now available and they’re gorgeous
- Passionfruit: local panamas are in season, very cheap and deliciously sweet. I bought a large bag on the weekend for under $2 – and they’re gorgeous.
- Pears: Bosc, Packham, Sensation, Corella and Josephine all in season
- Pomelos
- Quinces
- Rhubarb
- Tamarillos
- Tangellos
Vegetables
- Beetroot
- Bitter melon
- Beans: Borlotti and Broad beans
- Broccoli
- Broccolini
- Brussels sprouts
- Cabbages
- Carrots
- Cavalo nero or black kale or curly Russian kale – although this is hard to find
- Cauliflower
- Celeriac
- Celery
- Chillies
- Daikon
- Fennel: fantastic at the moment
- Jerusalem artichokes
- Kohlrabi
- Leeks
- Mushrooms
- Okra
- Olives
- Onions
- Parsnips
- Potatoes: best are chat, Dutch Creams, Sebagoes, Kipflers, Bintje & Nicolas
- Pumpkin: Kent, butternut and Grandma pumpkins are the best
- Silverbeet
- Spinach
- Swede
- Sweet potato: cheap and good quality
- Turnips
- Witlof
The monthly what’s in season guide is compiled from a number of sources, including: the Harris Farm Market and Fratelli Fresh market updates; Lettuce Deliver’s weekly shopping guide; the Sydney Markets seasonal guide; updates in Donna Hay and Delicious magazines; a range of books; as well as my own observations of what’s currently available and good value. I sometimes continue to make updates during the month, as fruit and veg availability changes.
Q & A Thursday is this week
This is a Q & A Thursday week – so if you have any questions about food, diet and nutrition then send me an email.
For those of you new to Limes & Lycopene Q & A Thursday is a monthly burst of blogging, where you get to dictate the subject matter.
The Q & A Thursday forum is all about simple, practical answers to food and diet dilemmas sent in by readers.
If you have a question you’d like answered send me an email – do not leave your question in the comments below. For more information you can take a look at the Q & A Thursday archives.
Ten Minute Kitchen: ricotta recipes
Posted by kathryn in All In A Day's Work, Pudding and Main courses
The latest issue of Life etc magazine is out, complete with my Ten Minute Kitchen recipe column.
This month the three recipes all feature ricotta:
- Lemon chicken with pea & ricotta puree
- Lentil, ricotta & rocket tarts
- Toasted brioche with warm fruit salad
The magazine is available from newsagents and ABC shops. You can also download the recipes from the Life etc website – simply click on the link about half way down the right hand sidebar.
Q & A Thursday is this week
This is a Q & A Thursday week – so if you have any questions about food, diet and nutrition then send me an email.
For those of you new to Limes & Lycopene Q & A Thursday is a monthly burst of blogging, where you get to dictate the subject matter.
The Q & A Thursday forum is all about simple, practical answers to food and diet dilemmas sent in by readers.
If you have a question you’d like answered send me an email – do not leave your question in the comments below. For more information you can take a look at the Q & A Thursday archives.
11 comments
30 July, 2008