Tuesday 1 January 2019

January 2015: dieting = dangerous








DIETING = DANGEROUS




The diet plan. Will it work? In the short term - you may be lucky. Or disciplined, rather.
In the long term, no. 

Everyone is different. Your size, your shape, the history, your genes: everything has a say. Since the children left home, my husband and I have totally different meals, though we both eat healthily - more or less.
Listen to your own body. We’ve all developed habits, some good, some bad. Should we throw all that by the wayside in favour of a one-size-fits-most plan? Some of it, I expect, but not all.

- Dieting leads to bingeing, and this is not just because we’re weak-willed. Discipline doesn’t work, not for long, or only at great cost to the rest of your life.
- Bingeing may even be a sign of need: your body lacks something and overrides all your good intentions. (1)
- Dieting - at least, dieting according to someone else’s plan - won’t help you to get in touch with your own body’s needs: on the contrary.
- In a way it’s easy, following someone else’s guidelines. Getting in touch with yourself takes patience and observation.
- And then there is the issue of hormones: leptin and ghrelin for instance, make ‘dieting’ a complicated game in which we usually end up losers. (2)

Therefore, low calorie and low fat diets can have serious consequences for your health.
But what can we do instead?

Avoid (artificial) sugar. Sugar is addictive, and hides in many things. Sugar makes you want more and more and more. Artificial sugar is bad for you in other ways [3]. Getting used to less sweet food is not too hard, and saves a lot of trouble over a lifetime. 

Try have healthy snacks handy for when the need arises: crackers with cheese, (dried) fruit, may help cravings without leading you astray. Nuts, seeds. A nice sandwich if you fancy it, made with quality, filling bread.

And don’t worry about the calories! If it’s good stuff, you won’t go far overboard.
A biscuit easily leads to a packet of biscuits. A sandwich on the other hand … you aren’t going to eat the whole loaf, are you? A nice sandwich fills you up.
Nuts - provided they are not oiled or salted, will give you nutrients and leave you satisfied. 

It shouldn’t surprise you that I recommend full milk and butter instead of skim and marge [4]. We need good fat, and when our body doesn’t get it, it turns to carbs (sugar and grain, mainly) to fill the gap. At last, ‘saturated fat’ is loosing the bad name it has been given for years. [5]

And beware: when watching television, especially if it's scary, we tend to eat far more than we would otherwise do. 

Try things out, observe, learn about yourself. It’s not as easy as following someone else’s ideas - it may even be scary at times - but the road will be interesting. [6]








To sow/plant:
if the weather is suitable: early peas, broad beans. Apple trees, if it's not too cold and the ground is not waterlogged or frozen.
And keep weeding - they don’t stop growing just because it’s winter! You’ll be glad you did it when you’re busy in spring. 

To eat:
Veg: beet, broccoli, brussels, cabbage, carrots, chard, celeriac, kale, cavolo nero, leek, parsnip, potato, pumpkin, rocket, spinach, swede, turnip, jerusalem artichoke, chicory, celery, corn salad, endive, kohlrabi, salsify, winter purslane.
Fish: bib, cockles, crab, dab, flounder, lobster, mackerel, oysters, pollack, scallops, seabass, whiting.
Meat: game is bountiful, cheap and good for you. This is the time to buy - or catch! - it. 

I didn’t like swede in November. Now I love it. Has my taste changed? I don’t think so: root vegetables do get sweeter in the course of the year, as do potatoes, and apples. Cold weather turns their starch into sugar. So, if you did not like swede in November, try again! 

RECIPES

To find general ideas for winter SALADS, click on December on the right hand side and see the issue for December 2010.

MUTTON (or lamb) SOUP for 6
500g chopped mutton (or lamb if you can't get it), 3l stock or water with herbs, 225g barley, 175g split peas, 1 large onion, 1 leek, 2 big carrots, 1 swede, 2 celery stalks, oil, chopped parsley to garnish
Cover mutton with stock/water. Cook till tender, about 1 1/2 hour. Top up with water if necessary. Add barley and split peas for the last healf hour. Chop and sauté the veg for a few mins, add to the pan, cook till done. Adjust seasoning. Finish with chopped parsley. Serve with nice bread. 

SOMERSET PHEASANT for 3-4
1 pheasant, chopped onion(s), chopped cooking apple, 250ml cider, 2 chopped garlic cloves, seasoned flour, bay leaf, thyme, oil/butter, 125ml liquid, salt, pepper.
Cut pheasant into pieces, dust with flour. Fry onions, take from the pan. Brown pheasant. Add the onions again, plus the other ingredients. Stir and simmer for 5-10 mins. Cover and simmer gently for 30-40 mins, stirring now and again - or put in the oven if you prefer.

BRUSSELS SPROUTS with HONEY and MUSTARD
500g Brussels sprouts, 1 tbsp olive oil, 300ml vegetable stock, 2 tbsp wholegrain mustard, salt and freshly ground pepper, 2 tbsp clear honey.
Prepare the sprouts and cut in half. Heat oil, add sprouts and fry for 2 mins. Remove from heat and carefully pour in the stock and stir in mustard and seasoning. Bring to the boil, simmer uncovered for 3-4 mins until the sprouts are tender. Stir in honey, season and serve immediately.

KALE with GOATS' CHEESE, makes 3-4 servings.
150-200g kale, 60g crumbled cheese, olive oil, 6 eggs, salt, pepper.
Strip thick stalks from the kale, chop. Preheat oven to 190°C. Sauté kale while stirring, until wilted, about 3-5 mins. Put in greased dish, crumble cheese over it. Beat eggs with salt and pepper, pour on top. Stir gently with fork, bake 40 mins. Serve hot. Good with plenty of sour cream. Leftovers keep in the fridge for a week.

CHESTNUT and CELERIAC PUREE
500g celeriac, 500g cooked chestnuts, 300ml water/stock, 1 bouquet garni, small bunch of chives, 1 tblsp butter, 2 tblsp crème fraîche, salt, black pepper.
Peel celeriac, cut into small (1 cm) dice, cook until soft. Drain the chestnuts if canned, add and simmer for 3–4 minutes more. 
When the chestnuts and celeriac are cooked, strain, reserve the stock. Remove the bouquet garni and purée the vegetables. Return purée to the saucepan, add the butter and place over low heat until the butter has melted.
Stir in crème fraîche. If it is too thick, add a little of the reserved stock, or some more crème fraîche, to thin it slightly. Taste, season and sprinkle with the chives.
Perfect on a cold night as a comforting accompaniment to roast meat or game dishes.

LEEK and GOAT'S CHEESE PIE for 6
250g sliced leeks, 400-500g hard goat's cheese cut into dice, 250g chopped spinach, 12 sheets of filo pastry, 2 sliced onions, 50g melted butter plus extra for frying,
Heat oven to 180°C. Fry onions in butter until golden and caramelised, 10-15 mins. Fry leeks till soft, season. Mix onions, leeks, cheese, spinach. Butter baking dish, lay 3 sheets filo on the bottom, buttering each layer (trim if you need to). Put 1/3 of the leek mix on top of the filo and add 3 more layers of pastry. Add another 1/3 of the mixture with 3 more layers of filo. Finally add the last of the mixture and the last 3 layers of pastry and lots of butter. Bake for 30-40 mins until crisp and golden. 
This recipe is slightly more complicated than most, unless maybe you have dealt with filo pastry before. But everyone liked it so much .....
If using spinach beet instead of spinach, you may want to precook this for a few minutes. 

SPROUTS and SQUASH CASSEROLE
500g Brussels sprouts, 500g cleaned cubed butternut squash, 1 large onion, 2 cloves garlic, nutmeg, 240ml water, 240ml full milk, 1 heaped tblsp butter, 1 heaped tblsp flour, sea salt, pepper.
Cut large sprouts in half. Cook or steam sprouts and squash separately. Preheat oven to 180°C. Sauté chopped onion and minced garlic in butter. When onions are translucent, add flour, keep stirring. Add water/milk slowly, bring to boil, remove from heat. Season. Grease oven dish and dust with flour. Put in squash, then sprouts, sauce on top. Bake for 30 mins.

APPLE CIDER SAUCE
This sauce is delicious with roast pork and can be kept in a (sterilized) airtight jar in the fridge for ages. 
100g raisins, 550ml cider, 6 cooking apples, cored and diced, 80g fresh grated ginger, 1 chopped onion, 2 cinnamon sticks, juice of 1 lemon, 50g sugar, 200ml cider vinegar, ½ tsp table salt, thyme, nutmeg.
Place raisins and half the cider in a small pan. Simmer gently until the raisins are very plump (15–20 mins). Put the other ingredients except the nutmeg, into a larger pan, add raisins cider mix, and cook gently until the apples are soft. Remove the cinnamon and blend until smooth. Grate the nutmeg liberally over the top, mix.


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NICE GENERAL SITES:

[1] See the issue for June 2012 (click on June, right hand side). See also http://www.livingthenourishedlife.com/2013/07/how-to-prevent-binge-eating
And many more sites on request! 



NEXT ISSUE: Supplements: should I take them? 




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