Wellbeing
It's our June installment from The lonely cook today.
Looking back over all of our wellbeing posts it's great to really notice the changes in the season and how we can incorporate that in to the foods we eat.
I'm looking forward to making Lucinda's delicious lolly's with the kids this week,ready for that sunshine we are due !!
Email me or post a comment if there are any recipes or nutritional tips you would love to read in our next post .
The Lonely Cook article
"Summer is here. No, really, it is. The Met Office tells me it is true. June 1st, start of British summertime. No waiting around for equinox, it’s here, it’s now, get your sandals on, fill your glasses with G & T (Pimms is so 2012), and get outside. Even if it’s raining, I don’t care, I’ve had enough of coats and boots and jeans and jumpers. Get me that gorgeous Mango straw bag and Gap midi dress that Voila posted and let me set my feet free in the pair of black leather sandals I bought from Topshop after seeing Gaby looking oh so seasonal in her tan pair! And feed me ice cream. Gallons and gallons of ice cream. Preferably, these ‘you-wouldn’t-believe-they-contained-vegetable’ mint choc-chip sugar-free ice-cream lollies! Yep, you heard me, but before I share the recipe with you I’m going to take the opportunity of having grabbed your attention to do a little preaching.
Sugar-preaching, or perhaps more precisely, sugar-free preaching. We all know by now that sugar has been identified across the board as the nutritional bad guy. It is being held up as the cause of an endless list of illnesses including obesity, type 2 diabetes, auto-immune disease, and heart disease. One study has even linked it to tumoral growth. And the worst bit is, it’s in EVERYTHING! Not just those black-listed fizzy drinks.
Back in the 70’s low-fat foods were introduced as the ‘healthy’ option, but to compensate for the missing flavour (fat tastes GOOD), sugar was added to ‘low fat’ ‘diet’ foods in copious amounts and varying forms, none of them good. There are various reasons for this, and none of them seem to have been based on what was actually healthy, but on what was going to make money for big businesses at the time. Because sugar is so addictive, it made us want more and more of these so-called ‘healthy’ foods and very quickly we became a world dependent on sugar.
Back in the 70’s low-fat foods were introduced as the ‘healthy’ option, but to compensate for the missing flavour (fat tastes GOOD), sugar was added to ‘low fat’ ‘diet’ foods in copious amounts and varying forms, none of them good. There are various reasons for this, and none of them seem to have been based on what was actually healthy, but on what was going to make money for big businesses at the time. Because sugar is so addictive, it made us want more and more of these so-called ‘healthy’ foods and very quickly we became a world dependent on sugar.
But finally the message is being spread and the massive rise of health food blogs, articles, T.V. shows and books on the subject are testament to the fact that people are ready to break the habit. However, it seems that the focus is largely on refined sugars such as table sugar and high-fructose corn syrup, and replacing them with natural sugars such as honey and maple syrup. Unfortunately this ignores the main culprit in the sugar-addict issue: fructose. Fructose is the type of sugar that is harmful and most addictive. There is absolutely no nutritional value to it and it dumps on the liver and raises insulin resistance. And it doesn’t matter what form it comes in, fructose is fructose. In fact, whilst table sugar is made up of 50% fructose and 50% sucrose, the ever-more popular agave syrup is 70-90% fructose! Honey and maple syrup fair a little better but still come in at 40% and 35% fructose respectively. And all those Medjool dates we see being piled in to sweeten shakes and cakes and biscuits and muesli? Packed full of fructose! Yes, these natural sweeteners do contain the added benefit of healthy vitamins and minerals, but none which can’t be found in better, even healthier sources (mainly of the green vegetable variety!). And this seems to be the really hard bullet for people to bite.
Understandably, we don’t want to give up our delicious and ‘one of our five a day’ slice of maple syrup banana bread (one of the highest fructose fruits around), or to cut back on that decadent swirl of honey that teams so perfectly with our natural yoghurt, but there is a danger that people simply replace their refined-sugar habit and with an almost equally addictive natural-sugar habit.
Understandably, we don’t want to give up our delicious and ‘one of our five a day’ slice of maple syrup banana bread (one of the highest fructose fruits around), or to cut back on that decadent swirl of honey that teams so perfectly with our natural yoghurt, but there is a danger that people simply replace their refined-sugar habit and with an almost equally addictive natural-sugar habit.
So what’s the answer? In short, we need to eat less fructose, which means cutting out high-fructose fruits, most natural and refined sugars, and returning to a world where fruit and dessert was eaten sparingly and treats were just that, ‘treats’.
This doesn’t mean we have to go without. There are now more and more websites popping up that offer fantastic recipes for sugar-free baking and cooking and advice on which sweetners are ‘safe’. I have been living a low-fructose lifestyle for more than a year now and I can honestly say that it feels anything but restrictive – in fact, it is liberating. I am no longer a slave to my sugar cravings and I feel no sadness at missing out on sugar-laden treats and desserts because I honestly don’t like them any more – they taste too sweet and I find the sugar just gives me an almost instantaneous headache.
I have only one or two small portions of low fructose fruit a day, such as berries or sometimes an apple (which have a slightly higher content). I still enjoy chocolate, but it always either homemade with a ‘safe’ sweetener or a minimum of 85% cocoa content.
This doesn’t mean we have to go without. There are now more and more websites popping up that offer fantastic recipes for sugar-free baking and cooking and advice on which sweetners are ‘safe’. I have been living a low-fructose lifestyle for more than a year now and I can honestly say that it feels anything but restrictive – in fact, it is liberating. I am no longer a slave to my sugar cravings and I feel no sadness at missing out on sugar-laden treats and desserts because I honestly don’t like them any more – they taste too sweet and I find the sugar just gives me an almost instantaneous headache.
I have only one or two small portions of low fructose fruit a day, such as berries or sometimes an apple (which have a slightly higher content). I still enjoy chocolate, but it always either homemade with a ‘safe’ sweetener or a minimum of 85% cocoa content.
My favourite sweetener option is Rice Syrup, made from only fermeted rice and water and made up of a combination of complex carbohydrates, maltose and glucose, making it relatively slow-releasing and less work for the liver. It has a mild caramel taste, somewhere between honey and agave, and can be used to replace any of those natural sweeteners in almost all recipes, I’ve even made caramel shortbread with it that tasted just as good, if not better, than the real thing.
I also love, love, love to use sweet potato puree as a pudding/sweetener ingredient, so much so that I actually now see sweet potatoes more as pudding than I do as a main meal ingredient (although I do still love a SP chip). They are a low-fructose complex carbohydrate with tons of nutrition value.
I also love, love, love to use sweet potato puree as a pudding/sweetener ingredient, so much so that I actually now see sweet potatoes more as pudding than I do as a main meal ingredient (although I do still love a SP chip). They are a low-fructose complex carbohydrate with tons of nutrition value.
To make a puree, simply bake them in a hot oven (about 220c) for 40-50 minutes, or until they are just turning black, then scoop out and puree the flesh to add to brownies, cakes, shakes and more. I even like to freeze it in ½ cup portions so that I always have some on hand top add to a smoothie or blend with some eggs, vanilla and cinnamon for the best paleo pancakes. You can also substitute sweet potato with butternut squash or pumpkin!
This month, I have used sweet potato puree in my go-to post-workout power shake recipe, which I then used to make ice-cream lollies. When frozen, the shake turns more icy than creamy, not dissimilar to that 80’s classic ice cream, the Feast. I only use sweet potato to sweeten them, but if you are making them for kids you may want to add rice syrup to taste. However, my husband loved them and kept saying, ‘you wouldn’t believe there was sweet potato in them!’, and he has quite a sweet tooth. I would have liked to have used prettier moulds and nice wooden lolly-sticks, but they are quite tricky to get out and the plastic ones seemed a safer, less breakable option. The recipe makes enough for 4-6 lollies, but any leftovers can be kept in the fridge and drunk as a delicious and creamy milkshake. They are the perfect summer treat and go perfectly with any summer outfit! Oh, and I forgot to mention, they are vegan too and full of healthy fat from coconut milk – what’s not to love? "
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This is just one example of how being sugar-free doesn’t mean you have to be restrictive and miss out on the good things in life! Of course, everyone is different and different bodies need different things, but I would, above anything else, recommend that everyone at least tries lowering their sugar intake for a month and seeing what they notice. I have only scratched a tiny bit of the surface of the sugar-debate here, and you can seek out far more detailed discussions for yourself and make up your own mind on how to
OK, preach over. Let the good times begin. Summer, I’m ready for you!
thelonelycook xxxxx
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