Food hourglass healthy meal plans

Here is my sample five day meal planner which follows the food hourglass principles:

Breakfast: Each morning. Oatmeal porridge made with nut, soya or hemp milk, flavoured with as high a percentage of cocoa solids cocoa powder as possible, (mine is 93%). A handful of strawberries, blueberries, raspberries or dark grapes. Ginger tea, made by grating a tablespoon of raw ginger into a tea pot and infusing with boiling water for about five to eight minutes.This makes enough for  about two mugs.

 Mid morning snack: a handful of walnuts.

Lunch:
 1. Smoked mackerel with large green salad, with added parsley and mint, celery and cucumber.
 2. Lean roast chicken with sprouted beans and coleslaw made with red cabbage, carrot and onion grated and dressed with extra virgin olive oil and lemon.
3. Butternut squash soup.
4. Scrambled egg, with slices of beef tomato.
5. Large salad of prawns, flaked salmon, leaves, home grown golden tomatoes, strips of cucumber, celery, parsley, mint, grated carrot and slivers of almond. Side of home made hummus.

Snack: piece of fruit or mix of freshly juiced fruit and vegetables.

Dinner:
1. Chicken and bean stew.
2. Salmon roasted in foil with ginger, lemon and soy sauce served with large portion of broccoli, roast tomatoes and dressed white beans.
3. Sweet potato and chick pea fragrant curry with spinach.
4. Green tofu stir fry with boiled buckwheat.
5. Bread free nut roast with carrot, green beans, broccoli and swede.

Snacks:
Small slices of toasted rye bread (rye flour has a comparatively low GI) topped with hummus and tomato
Handful of mixed nuts
Fresh Fruit
Oatmeal porridge served as desert topped with black currants or blueberries. 
Soya yoghurt and strawberries.


Drinks throughout the day are water, water with lemon, green tea, white tea, fresh juice, herb tea such as peppermint or chamomile, cocoa at night time made with nut milk and no sugar. 

I think as far as food is concerned I am now eating very much according to the food hourglass principles. What I am doing very little of is......

EXERCISE

The health benefits of walnuts

Since I first picked up the food hourglass book, I have been happily eating a handful of walnuts every day without really questioning what makes them so good for me. Walnuts have lots of fat in them. Though that should set alarm bells off, the fats in walnuts are omega 3 fatty acids. These type of fats are particularly good for brain function, they slow down the ageing process of the brain and may even   slow the advance of brain diseases such as Alzheimer's.

Walnuts have a great protective effect on the heart and cardiovascular system too. In fact, Dr Verburgh tells me over afternoon coffee (made with half water and half hazelnut milk and of course no sugar), that in a study, women who ate a handful of walnuts a day had a 45 % less chance of getting cardiovascular disease. This is due to the fatty acids and to an amino acid, called arginine, which actually dilates the blood vessels, improves the elasticity  of vascular walls and reduces vascular inflammation. Walnuts are also loaded with different forms of vitamin E. Of course it's not only walnuts that have a beneficial effect on the heart and  circulatory system, nuts in general reduce the risk of vascular congestion. But walnuts are particularly good.

Tonight we are off to see the film Pompeii at our local Whitby cinema. It's a great cinema with digital sound. Living in a very rural area, I appreciate when I can be entertained without  needing to travel 20 to 30 miles. I know the reviews are not too hot for this flick, but it's great having the cheap thrill of those ridiculous Hollywood effects and lame dialogue to look forward to. Can't wait.

Food hourglass juicing

The juicer is here! It's a Philips centrifugal model and really easy to put together and take apart. Cleaning is very quick and simple too. I've had a go at a really simple carrot, ginger and apple juice and I was pleasantly surprised at how much juice I get from a couple of carrots and apples. It comes out tasting beautiful and so fresh.

The rye starter is doing nicely. Bubbles have formed in the mix and I have fed it as instructed. I asked for advice about ergot and have been reassured that the fermentation process is safe.

We had sunshine yesterday and the shrub roses are blooming fantastically, the farmer has cut the hay in the field beyond my garden and the first baby blue tits have flown the nest next door in my sister's garden. People have been out on horses and a number of walkers have passed the door looking happy and dusty from their walk on the dry tracks among the heather.

         ..........

Have just tried this green juice, I must admit I was a bit dubious because of the amount of green stuff, I thought it would come out tasting bitter, but not at all -the apples and lemon lifted the taste so that it was clean and sharp but lovely.

Four handfuls spinach

Half  cucumber

Two apples

Two handfuls kale

Half lemon

Three stalks celery

Juicing is such an easy way to get a huge shot of flavonoids, vitamins and minerals. Never mind the Red Bull, juicing gives you wings! 

Stacking logs

I have known for some time that some fats are better for us than others, but to be honest, I always believed that a diet low in every type of fat was better for health in the long run. I re read Dr Verburgh's explanation of why unsaturated fat is less of a threat to cardiovascular health. Apparently it's all to do with the way the atoms bond. Saturated and trans fats do not have kinks in their bonds and can nestle up to each other inside our artery walls. They are less likely to be dislodged and can therefore narrow the arteries in a way that can lead to heart attacks or a stroke. It's a bit like piling up logs in a woodpile. Saturated fats give a well constructed deposit inside the artery wall. The unsaturated fat bonds have kinks in them, so they are more difficult to stack up. It's like trying to make a neat wood pile with kinked logs. It's unstable and the logs will easily destabilise. Any accumulation soon disperses and our arteries are soon cleared. Good fats which do not tend to clog our arteries include olive oil, oily fish, walnuts and flax oil (linseed). Omega 3 oils decrease inflammation in the body, which I now know is a good thing.

Incidentally , I have had problems with my Achilles' tendons for around three years. Every morning I have got used to a ten minute slow shuffle until they flex enough for me to walk about unhampered. Running, which I used to enjoy, is now not possible as the Achilles hurt too much and even going on long walks can be a problem. Since I have been drinking ginger tea every morning the problem with my Achilles has improved dramatically. I now get out of bed without a twinge and I can go on long walks with little or no difficulty. If I touch my Achilles they are still sore, but the improvement has been so sudden I can't help thinking it must be down to the anti inflammatory powers of ginger!

I found a recipe for rye sourdough and have begun my rye starter which needs to be fed for a few days before I make the bread. I was and to be honest still am a little concerned about ergot. This is a fungus that grows on rye grains and causes hallucinations. I don't  think breeding yeast in a sourdough starter is any risk, having now read up about it. If anyone else has any info I would be glad to hear it.

The Dispensary

The Dispensary is a fantastic little shop off Skinner St in Whitby North Yorkshire, which not only sells some amazing health foods, but also has a holistic approach to health. This means that they are as concerned about your spiritual and mental well being as your physical health. They have an impressive list of local practitioners to call upon, and can help you in virtually any area of your life, or at least point you in the right direction. It's the brainchild of my sister and Mr J, who run the shop, workshops and assist people to access the help they need to live a full and wonderful life.

I bought some hemp milk from them this morning and thought I would try it in my oatmeal porridge. my sister and Mr J are visiting my nephew in Edinburgh for a couple of days ( remember, the one who looks like Dr. Verburgh?) and my dad is looking after the shop. We had a cup of herb tea together and people popped in to buy stuff or just to have a chat.

 This afternoon I'm going to have a go at rye bread. Apparently rye  flour has a great low glycaemic index so is more slowly absorbed than both white and wholemeal wheat flour. It may be a little heavy- I'll let you know how I get on.

Yesterday I ordered a juicer! You can get so much nutrition straight from the juicer it's amazing. Can't wait for it to come and have already been looking up green and healthy juice recipes.

You can see what The Dispensary does at:
www.thedispensary.org.uk/whitby

Healthy fats

Well, well, Dr. Verburgh has told me that I can eat fats more freely than I thought possible! In fact, even saturated fats, those that we find in butter for example, are not as bad for me as I thought. Trans fats are indeed villainous, and can ambush your heart through mass produced confectionary and fried foods. However, omega 3 fatty acids, such as those found in oily fish, can actually protect the heart and are good for protecting mental health too. They are an all round good food and should be more widely praised by the medical profession. They aren't because nobody can patent something freely available which does not require a special manufacturing process. Where there's no big money there's no big noise.

I've bought smoked mackerel, a lunch meal I used to have often as a child and had forgotten how much I enjoyed. This far into my food hourglass journey a typical eating day will be:

Breakfast: oatmeal porridge made with soya or oat milk with added 93% cocoa powder and a few blueberries.
Snack: a handful of walnuts
Lunch: smoked mackerel with a large green salad, dressed with extra virgin olive oil, lemon and mustard.
Dinner: Tofu stir fry with broccoli, pak choi and cashews, followed by some red grapes with soya yoghurt
Supper: an oatcake with a small piece of cheese and an apple
Drinks: ginger tea, white tea, green tea, water with lemon juice, plain water.

I feel curiously energetic, like I am plugged into a source of smooth electricity which doesn't peak or trough, and I am aware of being able to breath more deeply and cleanly. I didn't think my lungs were congested before I began this experiment, but they feel like they have expanded so that I occasionally feel I could trot up a hill.

Sugarless brownies and a Father's Day treat

I decided to have a go at these chocolate brownies. I can't believe they don't have refined sugar in them, they are absolutely gorgeous, moist, chocolatey and very moreish. 

Chocolate Brownies

200 grams  dark chocolate (70% or more)
½ teaspoon baking soda
200 grams pitted dates 
3 eggs
57 grams coconut oil, melted
 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Melt chocolate in a bowl over a pan of hot water. Blend dates, chocolate, baking soda, coconut oil, lightly beaten eggs and vanilla together.
Transfer mixture into a 20 x 20 centimetre baking tin, rubbed with olive oil.

Bake at 180°C/350°F for about 25 mins
Cool on a wire tray.

There is no flour of any kind in these and no refined sugars at all. A food hourglass bulls eye - something sweet for a treat -but also good for you.

As it was Father's Day today, we spent part of the day with Robs daughter, her partner and their two lovely boys Benjamin and Lewis, then we were at my sister's next door for lunch with my parents. My sister and her partner (Mr J), caught the train to Edinburgh after lunch to visit her son. I took her and Mr J to the station then we finished the Father's Day party at her house, without her! Later, Rob and I sat in the garden, watched the blackbirds and admired our weeding handiwork from yesterday. We have a David Austin standard shrub rose called Mary Rose and it has tens of new buds just waiting to burst into pinkness.

 Not a good food hourglass day today. We had vegetation lasagne, with lots of easily absorbed carbohydrate in the pasta, and that was accompanied by white garlic bread (!). It did taste lovely though. The insulin must have been pouring into my blood like Boxing Day shoppers into Fenwicks.

I contributed a desert of mixed red and dark fruit, which we ate with ginger Greek yoghurt. I'm sure I pulled back a few points for that...( I had a quick chat with Dr Verburgh before tea, but he remained unimpressed). A large celery and freshly pulled leaves salad with salmon and a glass of water with a squeeze of lemon may get him smiling again. The pasta made me feel quite sleepy. Or was it the large glass of red wine we drank when we sat in the garden? Happy summer weekends.