Wellness Wednesday - Why we should ALL be eating our greens

I think many parents have had dinner table "discussions" with their kids about the green "stuff" on their plates and why they have to eat it. I could get into a discussion (and I have in the past) about how kids are often fed all of the wrong kinds of foods which actually makes them focus far more on the blandness of some vegetables and turn vegetables into a kind of punishment. They become accustomed to added sugars and processed and refined foods and they crave those far more.

But this post isn't just about kids eating their greens. What I find is that parents will tell their kids they need to eat their greens all the while shoving pizza in their own mouths. Besides the fact that no child is going to feel compelled to eat their greens simply because "they're good for you", when their parents are eating pizza for dinner, there's also the fact that parents seem to think they are immune to the need for greens, themselves.

But why is there such a fuss about greens? According to Dr Elson Haas, author of  Staying Healthy With Nutrition, "The leafy greens are probably the richest in nutrients of any foods in the vegetable kingdom."

Greens balance out the healthy animal foods, like grassfed meats, organ meats, eggs, & raw dairy. Greens are cleansing foods, while animal foods are nourishing foods. Greens are good detoxers, which is vital and necessary for our immune system, and every cell in our bodies.

Here are some other benefits that we get from greens. They are:

• Full of vitamins
• Full of minerals
• Full of chlorophyll, which is the compound responsible for harnessing the sun’s energy and making it into food & energy for the plant
• Full of enzymes (only if they're raw or fermented)
• Full of phytonutrients

Let's talk about those phytonutrients a bit more because most people get a bit confused when they hear that word. Phytonutrients are plant chemicals which are developed by the plants to protect themselves from things like insects, animals, and even UV rays from the sun. If WE eat those phytonutrients, they protect us as well. There are WAY more phytonutrients than normal nutrients (like vitamins, minerals, proteins, carbohydrates & fats) in plants. In fact, we're talking 10,000 to 1!

There are literally thousands of them. Hundreds of them are responsible for the colour in our food alone. In fact, phytonutrients are responsible for the colour, smell, and taste of our food. Chlorophyll is a phytonutrient and it harnesses the energy of the sun and turns it into chemical energy, as well as giving the plant its green pigment.

Aside from providing us with the colour, taste and smell of plants, they also provide us with the following benefits. They are:

• Antioxidant
• Antibiotic
• Antiviral
• Cancer preventative
• Anti-inflammatory
• Tissue protective
• Immunosupportive
• Immune stimulating

The more variety of greens you add to your diet, the more variety of nutrients & phytonutrients you’ll be eating which will really boost your body's immunity. You don't need to eat piles and piles of spinach and kale either. Just by adding a few different herbs to your diet you are already increasing your exposure to all of the available nutrients. Here are some examples of greens you can easily add to your diet:

• Stinging nettle (which can be bought at dischem in the form of a herbal tea)
• Parsley
• Basil
• Thyme
• Rosemary
• Oregano
• Chives
• Dill
• Coriander
• Cilantro
• Mint
• Spinach
• Spring Onion
• Sprouts
• Dandelion (which can also be bought at dischem in the form of a herbal tea)
• Cabbage
• Swiss Chard
• Spinach
• Kale
• Leafy green lettuces
• Watercress
• Rocket

See how easy it is to add these things to your diet? You could sneak quite a few tasty herbs into a dish and no-one would be any the wiser as to how many nutrients they just consumed;)

It's important to note that it's vital that you use good quality greens, in other words, go organic. You don't really want to waste money on conventionally grown greens. The reason for this is because plants develop their phytonutrients in response to their natural environment of insects, pests, animals, and UV rays. The more we spray crops with pesticides and strip their environment of diversity (as in mono crops), the less phytonutrients they will develop, the less nutrition you will be getting. (aside from the amount of chemicals you'll be ingesting)

If you're stuck on how to use greens in your kitchen to boost your immune system, here are some ideas:

• Season your cooking with green leafy spices like basil, thyme, rosemary, parsley, chives, oregano, mint, & dill. A really easy way to do this conveniently and cheaply (while also being reassured that it's organic)  is to have an indoor herb garden. Here are some tips on what to grow, and how to grow them during winter. Add your fresh herbs at the end of cooking so you don't overcook them lose the valuable nutrients.
• A Daily Salad, with endless options for combinations. Salads shouldn’t be boring but most people think they are and just forget about them. Try this one on for size. It's delicious and very filling!
• Smoothies and juices. Mint is a herb that compliments most smoothies. I have been known to add parsley and basil to my smoothies too. A little bit goes a long way! Feel free to add all sorts of leaves and herbs to your smoothies. The only thing I'd go easily with is cruciferous vegetables like cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli etc as well as things like kale and spinach. I'll blog about that soon so I can go into more detail about them.

There you have it. Go forth and consume lots and lots of greens:)

Real Food Friday Feast - Roasted Stuffed Butternut

Butternuts are such a versatile vegetable. You can roast them, make them into soup, mash them with a bit of salt and butter or throw them in a stew or curry. Kids love them because they're colourful and sweet. Because of their unusual shape, they can really make a table look interesting if you decide take advantage of that and stuff the skins with all sorts of yummy things.

It actually doesn't matter how you eat them, as long as you do:) Because they are exceptionally good for you! Here's why:

• Carotenoids: Butternut is one of the best sources of four carotenoids: alpha-carotene, beta-carotene, lutein and zeaxanthin. The body converts alpha- and beta-carotene into retinol, which is the form of vitamin A needed for healthy eyes and skin. Lutein and zeaxanthin are the only carotenoids found in the retina. They are powerful antioxidants and may also prevent age-related problems like cataracts and macular degeneration. 
• Antioxidants: Aside from those mentioned above, butternut contains several other antioxidants. Just to recap, the purpose of antioxidants is to neutralise free radicals and prevent them from damaging healthy cells and causing inflammation that leads to chronic illnesses. Butternuts contain the powerful antioxidant, Vitamin E. Because it's fat-soluble and an antioxidant, it's able to protect lipids that perform important roles. for example, forming the structure of cell walls. Vitamin C is a water soluble vitamin so it's free to move throughout all the fluids in your body, where it neutralises a whole bunch of different free radicals, including those that harm your skin cells.
• Fibre: Butternuts contain both soluble and insoluble fibre. Just so you know the difference: Insoluble fibre adds bulk to digested food and helps it to move through your digestive tract smoothly. It's kind of like a scrubbing brush. It helps clean you out;) Soluble fibre slows down the absorption of carbohydrates and that prevents large spikes in your blood sugar after you eat meaning it can help to prevent type 2 diabetes.
• Minerals and Electrolytes: Electrolytes are minerals that break down into molecules that can carry an electrical charge through body fluids. They stimulate muscle contraction and nerve impulses. They also control the movement of fluids in and out of your cells to make sure your body maintains the correct balance. When you are dehydrated, doctors usually prescribe Rehidrate which most of us have used at some or other time in our lives. It contains loads of electrolytes which help put your body back in balance. Butternut actually provides your body with three important electrolytes: potassium, magnesium and calcium. Potassium activates the electrical impulses that regulate your heartbeat and stimulate muscle contraction. Magnesium and calcium work opposite each other. Magnesium relaxes cardiovascular muscles, while calcium stimulates their contraction. All three are essential.

There you have it. Several really good reasons to eat butternut. The soup is delicious, but since I've already posted about that, let's look at another, very tasty way to enjoy this nutritious vegetable. Needless to say, all of the ingredients should be organic to get the most nutritional benefits out of them.

Roasted Stuffed Butternut

1 large butternut (try choose one with a really nice shape since you will be using the skin for decoration)

1 small onion

1 garlic clove

1 tomato

1 cup chopped mushrooms

1 Tbs butter or duck fat or coconut oil

1/2 tsp cumin

1 tsp salt

1 cup bone broth

1/2 cup grated cheese

Sprinkle of parsley

Method

• Preheat your oven to 180°C
• Scrub the skin of the butternut (this means you can even eat it if you want)
• Wrap it in tinfoil and place in the oven for about half an hour
• Remove from the oven and CAREFULLY cut it in half without messing up the skin (I do this because it's easier to cut but also because, if you cut it fully cooked, it will be so soft the skin will likely tear and totally mess with your design;)
• Wrap each half back in the tinfoil and place back in the oven for another half hour or until both are soft
• Remove from oven
• Place a frying pan on the stove and turn onto medium heat
• Add the duck fat/butter/coconut oil
• Chop up the onion and garlic and add to the pan
• Fry for 2-3 minutes
• Add the mushrooms, tomato, cumin, salt and bone broth and cook for 2-3 minutes
• Going back to your butternut, scoop out the seeds and throw them in your compost heap (I'm being very optimistic here:) 
• GENTLY scoop the soft flesh of the butternut out and add to the frying pan mixture. Get as much as you can without breaking your skins. This part is very delicate and I've been known to shed a tear when the skin tears so go carefully;) As you can see from my picture, mine aren't entirely stable. (That's because I got distracted with work and overcooked them...)
• Set the skins aside and mix up your butternut with the other ingredients
• When everything is mixed completely, remove from heat
• Turn your oven onto GRILL
• Gently scoop your mixture into the skins until they are full
• Sprinkle grated cheese over the top of each butternut half
• Sprinkle some parsley over the cheese
• Place in the oven under the grill for about 5 minutes or until the cheese is melted
• Enjoy!

Even if the skin tears and its look isn't going to win you any prizes, I guarantee the taste will make it a winner in your friends and family's eyes;)

Wellness Wednesday - Superbugs vs antibiotics. Who will win the fight?

Apologies for not posting on Monday! I was sick in bed with a nasty bout of flu. I haven't been hit that hard in a long time! I put it down to the travelling I was doing and a total lack of sleep for several days in a row. Plus it's really hard to eat properly on the road. Even if I stick to real, healthy food, it's seldom organic and free range and, thanks to my IBS, my body doesn't take that so well! Put all that together with the fact that both my mom and sister were sick, AND I spent a lot of time around them, and you have a perfect breeding ground for a virus.

So, I have been out of sorts since last Wednesday, but FLAT on my back since Saturday evening and only finally managed to drag my body back to my desk today. Despite the flu being great content for a health blog, I STILL wasn't sure of what to post about today until I heard a discussion on Talk radio 702 this morning in the healthy lifestyle slot, about antibiotics and superbugs. It also has a lot to do with the flu, and there was my topic for the day:) I know that I've spoken about this before, but, to be honest, I don't think it can be spoken about enough. Especially since things have reached crisis level around the world with the World Health Organisation finally making the distant fears, a current, and very scary reality.

An article released on New Scientist yesterday has been receiving a lot of attention today. This is how it begins:

"A post-antibiotics era in which common infections and minor injuries can kill, far from being an apocalyptic fantasy, is instead a very real possibility for the 21st century."

It sounds overly dramatic but I can assure it, it isn't merely sensationalism on the part of the journalist. This is straight from the World Health Organisation's website, WORD FOR WORD.

The problem has now become so urgent that, this week, the World Health Organisation's 194 member states are meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, to endorse a proposed action plan to SAVE antibiotics. Part of the plan is to find a new way to research and market future antibiotics.

There isn't big money in antibiotic research. At the moment, because profit is dependent only on the amount of antibiotics sold, the research and marketing of these medications is powered by marketing alone, and how many sales can be made. When money alone is the focus, that is NEVER going to lead to responsible use of antibiotics.

A big problem is also that older antibiotics are obviously still around. They're off-patent, which means that cheaper, generic versions can be made and they end up taking the place of the more expensive ones. So the newer ones have to be priced lower, even though they cost more to research and make, and that means that, the only way for the companies to recoup their costs is to sell in VERY large quantities. Unfortunately, the more antibiotics that are out there, the faster the development of resistance becomes.

Because of the lack of money in antibiotics, companies have gradually stopped researching and making them. In fact, only two new classes of antibiotics have been brought to the market in the last 30 years and many medication developers have left the field. That's pretty scary when you think of all the new superbugs out there and how ineffective our current antibiotics are becoming. We need constant, and new research to prepare us for the onslaught of the superbugs that have ALREADY developed.

There are many reasons that bacteria are developing more and more resistance to antibiotics. The main ones being the fact that they are administered too readily, and that there is simply too much of them out there for us to be exposed to, and another one being that people don't take them correctly. I'm sure you've all taken antibiotics at some point in your life, and you've been told by your doctor to finish the course? The problem is that a lot of people don't listen to that because they don't know the importance of it. They start to feel better and they think they've taken enough to beat the bug and they put them in their medicine cupboard for the next bout of flu.

Let's just put aside the fact that antibiotics don't work against flu viruses, for now, and talk about a bacterial infection. If you don't finish the course of antibiotics, and some of the bacteria survive, they will have the time to build up a resistance to that antibiotic which will make it as effective as a sugar tablet the next time you get the same infection. And you WILL get the same infection again, because that bacteria is still alive in your system.  But this time it will be worse. Then you'll have to go back to the doctor and get a different antibiotic to try and fight off that stronger bug. If you don't finish THAT course, the cycle continues.

I don't understand why doctors don't really STRESS the importance of finishing a course. I think they should actually TELL people why. It's a general rule we all seem to know but no-one knows why really. It takes on "Fish-wives tale" status and that means it's a rule that can probably be disregarded. But honestly,  if you are going to mess around with something as strong as antibiotics, then you need to act responsibly, especially as a doctor. Patients are less likely to act responsibly regarding medication than doctors are (although sometimes I wonder about that...) I think a big part of the problem is that, as with most things in life, people become complacent. They have forgotten just how powerful antibiotics are. They are taken for granted and treated like headache pills. Nothing could be further from the truth. Those pills are what stand between us and a return to a post-antibiotic era where something as small as a cut could lead to an infection, and death.

Not finishing the course of antibiotics, and being exposed to so many of them via our meat supply, will all lead to the same result: an antibiotic resistant group of superbugs. Even without these issues to deal with, all living organisms, bacteria included carry resistance genes for self-defence. One good thing is that those defences suggest there are plenty more potential antibiotics out there, if someone would just take the time to develop them. We've only touched the tip of the iceberg with antibiotics. Existing antibiotics come from the 1% of soil microbes we can culture. That means there's a whopping 99% still left to explore. Imagine the possibilities.

The World Health Organisation says that we especially need antibiotics that target specific bacteria, instead of broad-spectrum antibiotics that attack all the bacteria in your body. That ALSO promotes resistance. It messes further with your health because your body NEEDS the good bacteria. Killing them all means you are left with no defence whatsoever.

This is just SOME of what we have in store for us if we don't start acting responsibly now:

• Multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) is growing. Existing drugs for TB cure only about half of those treated for MDR-TB. Only one new antibiotic has been introduced in 40 years, despite global efforts.
• MRSA, or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, has been joined by a staph that resists another last-resort antibiotic, vancomycin. Livestock reared using antibiotics can develop MRSA infections. These strains can spread among humans, as shown by recent human cases in Denmark even though it has banned antibiotic growth-promoters in livestock.
• CRE, or carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae, is a group of gut bacteria that resists carbapenems, which are last resort antibiotics. One set of CRE genes was first seen in India in 2009 and has since been found around the world. The bacteria can cause urinary tract infections, and the resistant strain is making this widespread ailment untreatable.
• Gonorrhoea, a sexual infection also known as "the clap", is becoming increasingly resistant to antibiotics. Untreatable cases have emerged.

Scary stuff folks. You may be saying, "Well, the World Health Organisation is on it so why should we worry? You know how these things can go. It could take months, or even years for them to hash it out and decide how money can still be made while doing the minimum requirement to make things "better".

It's up to us to start being responsible:

• Stop expecting, and requesting, antibiotics when you go to the doctor. Ask for a blood test to check if it's bacterial or viral. It's your right, as a patient, to get the best healthcare you can. How can you know for sure what it is without the right tests? Medical aid will cover it so just take the tests. If your doctor says it's not necessary, fire them and move on to the next one. There are so many out there.
• If your doctor simply offers you antibiotics without you even asking, tell him you'd like to know more about your illness before taking them, and his reasoning behind giving them. "Covering all the bases" isn't a good enough reason for him to give. You want solid proof. Again, if you don't like his reasoning, fire them and move on.
• If you start a course of antibiotics, FINISH THE COURSE no matter how healthy you feel.
• Always take probiotics when you've had antibiotics to try and restore some balance to your colon and put the good bacteria back.
• Stop eating meat and dairy products that contain antibiotics. That will allow bad bacteria to build up more resistance. Stick to free range and organic meat and dairy.

For me, first prize is to avoid those antibiotics altogether. But I also know that there is a time and a place for them. If you are gravely ill, with a bacterial infection, THAT is the time and place. Never for flu virus, never as a preventative measure and never if you are not sure what you have. 

Don't be scared to question your doctor. They are not gods, they are just people. Fallible people. And sometimes they need to be reminded of what their job is actually about. Remind them.

Real Food Friday Feast - Apple Puff Cake

With Autumn comes loads of apples, and since my fridge is full of them, I decided another apple dish was in order! Something about winter just makes me crave warm, sweet desserts and this one can definitely provide both of those criteria.

Since I listed all of the health benefits of apples in last week's post, I won't go into all of those details again. I'll simply get right to the point and give you the recipe!

Apple Puff Cake

2-3 apples of your choice. If you want this dish to be nice and sweet I would recommend using anything Granny Smith apples.
¼ cup butter
3 eggs
¼ cup chickpea flour
½ cup milk

1½ Tbs honey

1 tsp cinnamon

½ tsp bicarb
1 tsp vanilla extract

½ tsp xantham gum (not essential, just gives it a nicer texture)
Pinch of salt

Use this vanilla extract and not the fake stuff you get at most grocery stores. Dischem sells this.

Method

• Preheat your oven to 230°C
• Core your apples, throw them in a food processor and chop them up

• Add the butter to a pan
• Throw in the apple and sauté until it starts to get soft, then add 1 Tbs honey and ½ tsp cinnamon and mix

• While the apples are cooking, add the milk, vanilla extract and eggs to a bowl and beat until smooth

• Add the flour, ½ tsp cinnamon, ½ Tbs honey, bicarb and salt to the egg mix and beat until smooth
• Add the apples mix to a pie dish and spread them out evenly

• Pour the batter over the apples (don't worry if some of the apples peek out. The batter will sort that out) If you want, sprinkle some cinnamon on top. I did just for fun:)

Looks like a melk tart but it isn't!

• Pop in the oven for about 20 minutes or until the batter is baked (poke a knife into it and when it comes out clean, it's done)

• Serve immediately to enjoy the steaming heat

If the dish is too dry for you, why not add a little home made custard? If you prefer vanilla custard, just leave out the chocolate in the recipe. I made this custard a few weeks back for a lunch and the bowl was practically licked clean;) I know the two of these recipes will go very well together.

Have a scrumptious weekend:)

Wellness Wednesday - Children who eat junk food have lower IQs

Life is crazy and busy. There are so many mouths to feed and just not enough time to get everything done. Popping through a drive-through seems like the easiest and most convenient way to make sure the kids are fed while still having enough time to squeeze in a few other errands because you didn't have time to cook dinner. It's a catch 22 situation that most parents are caught up in, because, while you may have saved yourself a few minutes of time, you're contributing to a lifetime of complications for you and your family.

A recent study undertaken by an academic at Goldsmiths, University of London, found that parents with a higher socio-economic status gave their children meals prepared with fresh, real ingredients more often, which had a positive affect on their IQ. The study showed that lower socio-economic status was associated with more children having fast food, and this led to a lower IQ.

Dr. Sophie von Stumm of the Department of Psychology at the University of London said: “It’s common sense that the type of food we eat will affect brain development, but previous research has only looked at the effects of specific food groups on children’s IQ rather than at generic types of meals.” 

Let's face it, if you can afford to pay for someone to help look after your kids and run your house for you, or you are a stay at home mom because one salary is enough to keep your family going, you will have time to cook proper meals for your family. But in households where both parents are working, or where there is only a single parent trying to work 2 jobs to make ends meet, cooking dinner is a luxury that simply doesn't exist. Fast food is going to the obvious choice and what child will argue with that? What if I told you it's a proven fact that those children score lower on intelligence tests and they often struggle in school?

Even if parents are managing to cook decent meals for their kids at home, all of that hard work is often undone once the kids are at school. Schools in less privileged areas don't really go out of their way to help feed kids a balanced diet. Tuck shops are full of things like burgers and french fries and hot dogs and loads of junk like crisps, chocolates and sweets. If the school has a cafeteria, it is stocked with all of the wrong kinds of foods. A friend of mine went to fetch her child from school and happened to arrive as they were having their afternoon snack. That snack consisted of a sandwich with hundreds and thousands on it!! On what planet is that nutritious for a child?!

Yes I mean these things!

People seem to have the misconception that, as long as a child isn't hungry and has a full tummy, they are doing fine. Nothing could be further from the truth though. Freshness and quality of food matters so much more than just being full, especially when children are young and developing. The lack of wholesome food is going to have a lasting effect on those kids and THAT is going to greatly affect their future. 

Another study done in Australia at the University of Adelaide, published in August 2012, showed that toddlers who eat junk food grow less smart as they get older. In this study, the diets of 7000 children were examined at the age of 6 months, 15 months and 2 years. When the children were examined again at age 8, those who were eating a lot of sweets, fizzy drinks and other junk food had IQs up to 2 points lower than children eating a wholesome diet.

That may not seem like a huge amount but it is actually. Kids who are even SLIGHTLY slower at school not only get left behind, but also get picked on and bullied by other kids. That is going to lead to a lifetime of lowered self-esteem and insecurity. Besides, imagine those kids after another 10 years of eating junk food? They are going to be distinctly disadvantaged by the time they are a teenager and even more so as they reach adulthood. The situation isn't going to improve unless the diet does.

An American study showed that children who eat junk food such as pizza, chips and biscuits before the age of 3 will likely end up having lower IQs than children who eat home-cooked meals with fresh fruits and vegetables. These children were tested 5 years later and had IQ scores that were as much as 5 points lower than their healthier-eating peers. A big problem is that, the effects of eating junk so early in life can't be changed by future healthy habits because brain development has already been hindered, so you need to start them being healthy from very young and keep them there.

Those early developmental years are SO important. It can't be stressed enough. Yet those are the years that parents seem to think they can feed their kids anything, as if it doesn't really count because they have such a high metabolism they burn it off anyway. It's not about what makes kids fat. It should NEVER be about what makes anyone fat. It should be about what makes them healthy and gives them every advantage they need to get as far as they can in life.

Next time you consider a drive through, take a detour instead to the fresh food section of a grocery store and feed your child some fruit instead. It's not only cheaper, but it will have a long lasting, positive effect on your child.

Real Food Friday Feast - Grain free apple and cinnamon mini-muffins

It's been a while since we had any baked goods in our house simply because time has been limited the last few weeks. Well, I had a craving, I knew my food post was due today and I decided to experiment:)

The reason I made mini-muffins is simply because I have more of those trays than I do the normal size ones. It has nothing to do with trying to limit calories, I promise;) Though these little babies have only 49 calories per muffin so you can eat them with a clear conscience. They are also grain free which makes them extra good for you.

Why apples? Well, I currently have a fridge-full because I'm making lots of apple cider vinegar while apples are in season! They're also yummy and go so well with cinnamon. But there are a few other reasons why I chose apples:

• Scientists from the American Association for Cancer Research have found that eating flavonol-rich apples could help reduce your risk of developing pancreatic cancer by up to 23%. Researchers have identified several compounds in apple peel that have potent anti-growth activities against cancer cells in the liver, colon and breast. But, just in case you were wondering, the whole apple ALSO has a benefit. It has been proven to reduce the number and size of mammary tumours in rats so that's a really good sign for humans too!
• A new study performed on mice shows that drinking apple juice could keep Alzheimer’s away and fight the effects of ageing on the brain. In the study, the mice that were fed an apple-enhanced diet showed higher levels of a neurotransmitter called acetylcholine and they did better in maze tests than those on a regular diet.
• Red apples contain an antioxidant called quercetin. Recent studies have found that quercetin can help boost your immune system, especially when you're stressed.
• The soluble fibre in apples is good for SO many things: 
• It helps to decrease your risk of diabetes
• It helps protect against parkinsons
• It helps reduce cholesterol
• It makes your heart healthier
• It prevents gallstones
• It prevents both constipation and diarrhoea
• It controls your weight

Seems mom was right! An apple a day keeps the doctor away;)

Without further ado, here is your recipe:

Grain Free Apple and Cinnamon mini-muffins

Ingredients

1 large egg (free range)

2 Tbs plain yogurt

4 Tbs melted butter

1 Tbs raw honey

1 apple (chopped or grated, or just stick it in your food processor for a few seconds)

3/4 cup chickpea flour

1/2 tsp bicarb

1 tsp cinnamon

Method

• Preheat your oven to 180°C
• Into a mixing bowl add the egg, yogurt, butter, honey and apple
• Blend together well
• Add flour, bicarb and cinnamon
• Blend together well
• Butter your trays
• Use about a tablespoon of mixture for each muffin depending on the size of your tray
• Bake in oven for 10 minutes
• Enjoy!

Quickest dessert ever! Of course, you can also make these into big muffins. Double the recipe if you want more of them.

I will be in Durban until Tuesday so Monday's post won't be happening I'm afraid but I will be back in action on Wednesday!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Wellness Wednesday - Why making your mark is so vital

Today is voting day in South Africa. Millions of people have been making their way to polling stations all over the country to make their choice for provincial and national government for the next 5 years. It's an important day in the history of our country. Important because our democracy is still so young. Until 1994, only a select few were allowed to vote at all. But it's also important because our young democracy seems to have taken a bit of a turn for the worse over the last few years and the people's voice, once again, needs to urgently be heard.

What does this have to do with Mellow Health? Well, I think it has everything to do with it. We are currently sitting with a government so deeply buried in corruption that it's actually forgotten the difference between right and wrong altogether. Every wrong doing is followed rapidly by machine gunfire excuses. The offenders receive a rap on the knuckles publicly and a pat on the back privately and the corruption continues unabated.

While the fat cats in parliament continue to take money from our beautiful country and all of its people, they are also completely oblivious to the needs of our country, and, by that, I mean, the land. Sustainable living is so far removed from their understanding that it's not even a pinprick of a thought for them. If they can't look after the people, how will they ever start to look after the land, not to mention our beautiful wildlife.

Our animals are being slaughtered right under our noses: canned lion hunting, rhino poaching and elephant poaching are rife, and those are just the animals that are highly publicised. The people talking about these things and actually taking action are NOT the government. They are private companies and individuals who care enough to take matters into their own hands.

South Africans have learnt to do things themselves if they want something done. Wait for the powers that be to take a stand and you will be waiting a very long time. But is that really how it should be? I don't think so. That is why today is such an important day. There are many who have decided it's a waste of time to vote but, to those people I say, "Shame on you." If you choose NOT to make your mark then you have no right to sit and complain about the state of our country. You may think you are just one person, but there are thousands just like you. If those thousands all actually voted, they would be a force to be reckoned with.

Honestly, I hate politics. I think that most politicians are self-absorbed, arrogant megalomaniacs that only know how to spin and blow hot air;) Unfortunately, however, this is the way the system works and you can either fight against it eternally, or go with it. I choose to go with it because there is always the chance that it could make a big difference. Surely ONE of those megalomaniacs must also have good intentions!? So I weigh them all up and choose the lesser of several evils;)

When I start to think about what a waste of time it might be, I think about all of the things that I personally want for this country. I want to see an end to poverty and starvation and suffering. But I think the pathway to that lies in sustainability, in taking climate change seriously, by taking away all the power from the big corporations, and encouraging organic and free-range, sustainable farming. I want a government that doesn't simply supply food to the masses, but rather teaches them how to grow it themselves so that they will always have the ability to feed themselves and others. I want to see people being educated about the effect their carbon footprint has on our environment and wildlife and being forced to make sustainable changes. As long as we have a government that is completely self-absorbed and setting the wrong example, we will have citizens who feel they can do the same. I think it's time that changed.

Some people may think I'm nuts. There are bigger things in the world to worry about. That's your opinion and that's fine. This is mine. I don't agree. I think that, without a planet, nothing else will be relevant anymore. Without a safe place to live, we won't be around long to enough to worry about anything else.

So I am going to vote and hope that it makes that little bit of difference necessary to force the powers that be into doing the things I think are important and relevant to our survival, not just for South Africans, but for every living creature around us.

I hope you all will do the same.

Monday Mix-up - Why, and how, to use re-usable shopping bags

They jokingly call the plastic shopping our "national flower". It's not a very funny joke actually, when you think of all the havoc it wreaks on our environment. If you are anywhere near a river in Johannesburg, those bags are literally hanging off trees lining the rivers, by the thousands. I'm not exaggerating. It's not just ugly, it's killing our wildlife and poisoning our environment.

It boggles my brain that someone can buy a chocolate bar and ask for a shopping bag to put it in. Yet that's what people do. Why can't they carry it in their hand? Or put it in a pocket, or their handbag? People just seem to have NO idea the damage they are eventually going to do to the environment by purchasing that pointless bag. Plastic doesn't biodegrade. Once it's made, it's here to stay. Even if you use it as a rubbish bag, it's still going to be around the next several hundred years. I'm only talking about one bag. People buy those things by the thousands.

This is how quickly they add up. Now multiply that by millions... Am I the only person who finds that thought really scary? Once I became aware of the damage I was doing to the environment by buying them, I made a decision a few years back that I was no longer going to. I was going to use my own bags. It was a bit of a slow process getting it right!

For weeks I would either forget them on the dining room table, after purposefully taking them out for shopping, or I'd forget altogether to take them out, or I'd put them in the car and then only remember them at the till! It takes a while to form a habit. I think it takes longer when you aren't that driven to help the habit form. At the time I decided to take my own bags I will still pretty uninformed about the environment so, while I really wanted to be good about it, I wasn't as focused as I could have been.

That's changed thank goodness! These days I carry my bags with me everywhere. They are now old and rather ratty, very well travelled bags and they are made up of all sorts. Any bag I find, or am given gets turned into a shopping bag if it suits the purpose! I also carry a very large handbag for the rare days when I don't have a shopping bag handy. Anything small gets thrown in there. GLM and I have been known to walk through a shopping centre balancing piles of things in our arms, just to avoid having to buy bags and add more plastic to the world. Bless her heart, she never complains;)

This is something very small that you can do to help ease the pressure on our planet just a bit. Set an example. Carry your reusable bags with pride. Flaunt them for all the world to see when you get to the till. If it makes the person in front of you just A LITTLE bit guilty, and they end up not buying a bag, so much the better!

Here are some tips to help you get the shopping bag thing right:

• Make sure you leave home with enough bags: I often used to make the mistake of only taking 2 bags and then running out of space and having to buy 2 or 3. Rather have more than less. Take at least 5 of them with.
• Keep the bags in the car, not the house: If you keep them in the house, guaranteed you will forget them. I seem to have formed enough of a habit now that I grab them from the kitchen cupboard almost without thinking, but, while you are getting into the habit, keep them in the car!
• Keep bags in ALL your cars: Okay, most people don't have more than 2;) But just in case! That way, if you are out in your spouse's car and need to buy something, you aren't forced to buy a bag.
• After you unpack your shopping, put the bags BACK in the car: It's amazing, but, in the this crazy, busy world, our heads are so full of things to do that you can forget from one minute to the next, what you had planned to do. That's why we've got a thing in our house. If you say, "I MUST do such and such before we go," we both say, "Do it NOW!" Because if we don't, we'll forget for sure. So, don't even hesitate, unpack, and head straight to the car, do not pass begin, do not collect $200;)
• Have bags for different things: Packing meat with veggies just isn't going to go down well. You especially don't want meat packed in a thin, material bag. So make sure you have bags that suit the various things you are buying.
• Finally, don't forget to wash the bags now and then: They gather lots of bacteria over the weeks and you ARE carrying food.

There you go! Easy as pie:)

Real Food Friday Feast - Lamb neck casserole

We were in Durban this past weekend and the weather was still so lovely and warm, so it was a real shock to the system when we arrived back in Johannesburg on a VERY chilly Tuesday evening and realised winter was here! It's somehow worse when you've spent 4 days with gorgeous weather.

Winter is the time of year when we crave all sorts of comfort foods. It's also usually the time of year where we shrug our shoulders in acceptance of the 5kgs we will invariably gain over the next 3 or 4 months.

If you read my blogs often, you all already know that the weight gain shouldn't be an issue, but the TYPE of foods you eat, should be. I have posted MANY options for healthy meals that, I think, would definitely be called comfort food! They're tasty, some even decadent but ALL good for you.

This post is no different. It's also a first for me because, for more than 12 years I didn't touch lamb. I couldn't eat it. It always made me sick. However, thanks to 2 years of eating clean, organic, chemical-free food, I seem to able to eat a lot of what I never used to be able to as long as I keep it clean. So I decided to try free-range lamb and I discovered that I could eat it quite easily. Boy, was that a happy day:)

My mom actually put me on to lamb neck casserole. In case you hadn't noticed, lamb is rather pricey... (sarcastic much?!) However, lamb neck is definitely more affordable and it also has nice chunks of meat on it if you don't mind eating around the bones. The nice thing about the bones is you can add them to your pot of bones when you're making bone broth and they add a delicious flavour.

So, let's just quickly discuss the benefits of a lamb casserole made with free-range, grass-fed lamb:

• When we talk about omega-3 fats, we straight away think of nuts and seeds as a source on the plant side of things and fish on the animal side. But did you know that you also get an impressive amount of them from grass-fed lamb? The content will depend upon the diet of the sheep, but if they are purely grass-fed, your lamb will have a decent amount of omega-3s. In some countries without access to a coastline and fish, lamb has been shown to provide more omega-3s than any other food in the diet. In Australia, where lamb is eaten a lot by both children and adults, recent studies have shown that lamb ranks among the top omega-3 foods in their daily diet. Grass-fed lamb averages about 25% more omega-3s than conventionally fed lamb and as much as 49% more ALA (alpha-linolenic acid, the basic building block for omega-3s)
• If you've tried to lose weight at any time of your life, you've probably heard of Conjugated linoleic acid or CLA. It's an omega-6 fatty acid that has quite a number of health benefits. We usually don't bother with omega-6s because the average adult consumes too many omega-6s in comparison to omega-3s, but there are many health benefits for increased amounts of individual omega-6 fatty acids. What's REALLY interesting is that CLA is not JUST an omega-6 fatty acid. It's also a trans fatty acid. Yes, I know. Those things are EVIL! However, it seems that CLA is the exception to the rule about omega-6s and trans fats. There is an increasing number of studies that show that CLA is associated with improved immune and inflammatory function, improved bone mass, improved blood sugar regulation, reduced body fat, and better maintenance of lean body mass and guess what? Recent studies show that grass-fed lamb contains nearly twice as much CLA as conventionally fed lamb. 
• Lamb is an great source of iron. An average portion can provide 20% of the recommended daily intake for men and 12% for women. The iron found in lamb meat is in a form that's easily absorbed by the body. Iron in your diet is vital for the formation of red blood cells.
• Lamb meat provides 45% of the daily requirement of zinc, essential for growth, healing and a healthy immune system. Like iron, the zinc found in lamb meat is more easily absorbed by the body than zinc found in other sources.
• It's a great source of B vitamins which are essential for metabolic reactions in the body. It can provide over 100% of the daily requirement of B12 and is also a good source of thiamine.
• Trace elements such as copper, manganese and selenium are also found in lamb
• Lamb is a very fatty meat. We know this. But half of that fat is unsaturated and most of that unsaturated fat is monounsaturated, which is the kind commonly found in the healthy 'Mediterranean-type diet'. That being said, you know my thoughts on saturated fat. I don't believe it's bad for you either. All the same, it's nice to know you're getting the benefit of different types of fat by eating lamb.

The key is to make sure that the lamb you buy is grass-fed. That means buying it from a reliable source, in other words, not a grocery store. Free-range doesn't always mean the animals were allowed to roam free and eat grass.

So, how do you make lamb casserole? Well this is my way. You'll find a lot of recipes tell you to fry the lamb in some oil in a pan first but I prefer not to do that. I find it makes the lamb quite tough. Slow cooking them in an oven makes the lamb extremely tender. It also soaks up all the flavours in the bone broth which makes it absolutely delicious. It should go without saying that all of these ingredients need to be organic and free-range to really get the full benefit of this as a healthy comfort food.

Lamb neck casserole

This is what lamb neck looks like

1 kg lamb neck

1 shallot or half an onion

2 garlic cloves

1 litre bone broth

4 large potatoes (or sweet potatoes)

4 large carrots

2 cups whole mushrooms

A few sprigs of rosemary (dried will also do fine)

Salt and pepper

2 tsp ground coriander

Method

• Preheat your oven to 150°C
• In a roasting pan pour the bone broth
• Add all the herbs, spices, salt and pepper
• Mix together
• Chop and add garlic, onion, potatoes, mushrooms and carrots
• Leave the lamb in whole pieces and add to pan making sure it's all covered by bone broth
• Add one or two more sprigs of fresh rosemary if you have it
• Put the lid on and place in the oven for about 3 hours
• Serve!

Enjoy and have a wonderful weekend!