The latest healthy eating advice doing the rounds is to eat 30 different species of plants per week. I say it's the latest advice but I only mean it's new in terms of gaining a critical mass following. Eating lots of different species has been good diet advice for a long time so this is… Continue reading 30 plants a week
Tag: diet
Slow food
Cutting out salt has been a bit of a learning curve for me. But we're slowly falling into a good routine and I thought I'd share some ideas for inspiration. I started making my own bread and whether it's a coincidence or not the start of homemade bread consumption is when my blood pressure dipped… Continue reading Slow food
Eat healthily or fit in?
My average blood pressure for the past few days is 115/73. A few weeks ago I thought I'd never see a reading under 120 but then one day I got one and gradually over the next few weeks it happened more and more often to where this is now the norm and I'm disappointed if… Continue reading Eat healthily or fit in?
The evolution of salt
The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine is an ancient Chinese text dating from 300 BC. A translation from the text reads, If too much salt is used in food, the pulse hardens...The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine The Chinese knew more than 2000 years ago that salt causes high blood pressure. In chapter… Continue reading The evolution of salt
The world needs more Bens
Sometimes I feel sad about the world. I read the things people say online and I feel despair. What hope is there for us? Some people try to do the right thing and reduce their impact on the planet but what good is it when everyone else is more interested in their taste buds than… Continue reading The world needs more Bens
Covid-busting diet
We had a very healthy meal tonight from the How Not to Diet cookbook by Michael Greger MD. I love Dr Greger's How Not to Die cookbook and we eat recipes from it regularly. This new book of his is almost too healthy and I've had trouble getting inspired by the recipes. I bought some… Continue reading Covid-busting diet
Piling on the pounds
I've put on a kilogram of weight over the past couple of months. I would like to say it's extra muscle from doing Joe Wicks's PE class every day - after all, muscle weighs more than fat - but I think that's wishful thinking. Perhaps I just need to accept that I'm nearly 45 and… Continue reading Piling on the pounds
Eating insects
For several years now I have been quite interested in entomophagy which means eating insects. I've started buying insect dog food for the dogs we borrow and this week I bought a packet of ground buffalo (buffalo is a type of beetle, also known as mealworm) from a Welsh company called Bug Farm Foods. It… Continue reading Eating insects
The best diet
For about a month I tried skipping breakfast in order to lose a couple of kilos so I could zip up one of my favourite dresses again. I lost one kilo after about three weeks and nothing much happened after that except that I found myself starving all morning and sniffing marmite from the jar.… Continue reading The best diet
Breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, dinner like a pauper
I've stopped skipping breakfast. I've decided it's not a very good way to lose weight and apparently there's evidence to back this up. All calories are not equal - it depends what time of day they're eaten. The same calories eaten in the morning are less fattening than exactly the same calories eaten in the… Continue reading Breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, dinner like a pauper
Christmas 2019
I always like to write about what we did for Christmas each year because it creates a record of it for the future. Can you remember where you were for Christmas in 2016? Who were you with? What did you eat? It's amazing how quickly we forget. For Christmas 2019 we were at our home… Continue reading Christmas 2019
Where’s my 8-pack?
I've been doing the baby shark abs challenge for more than 30 days now (32 days to be exact). It has got much easier, so much so, that now I think I could go on doing the exercises for longer than 1 minute 33 seconds. I feel stronger too and notice my new strength in… Continue reading Where’s my 8-pack?
The Game Changers
I'm really looking forward to seeing The Game Changers, a documentary directed by Louis Psihoyos and produced by James Cameron, Arnold Schwarzeneggar, and Jackie Chan. If you're in Aberdeen it's on at the Belmont Filmhouse this evening at 6:30pm. It looks like it will be available on iTunes from early October. The movie challenges the… Continue reading The Game Changers
You don’t need to eat fish to get DHA omega-3s
Tell someone you're vegan and suddenly they become an expert dietitian and will start listing nutrients they think you're deficient in. Often the suggestions are silly, like protein, but someone who has done their homework will list something valid like B12. Vegans do need to take regular supplements of B12 or eat fortified foods. So… Continue reading You don’t need to eat fish to get DHA omega-3s
It’s not all or nothing
I've recently started drinking oat milk drink. I usually drink soya but Ben recently went dairy-free at home and prefers oat drink so I thought I'd give it a try. It's delicious. I'm addicted and prefer it to soya now. I like that oats are grown widely in Scotland and so I feel virtuous buying… Continue reading It’s not all or nothing
Akashinga – the female anti-poaching unit
I love this short BBC video about the all-women anti-poaching unit in Zimbabwe. It brings tears to my eyes to watch, not just for the elephants they're protecting, but for the women and how the job has transformed their lives. They are the Akashinga - the brave ones. It's part of the International Anti-poaching Foundation,… Continue reading Akashinga – the female anti-poaching unit
Dr. Greger’s Daily Dozen
I had gestational diabetes when I was pregnant with Daniel. I never had to take insulin and it went away after his birth. Oddly, I didn't have it during my pregnancy with Elizabeth and I say oddly because usually it gets worse as you get older. Most women who have the disease during one pregnancy… Continue reading Dr. Greger’s Daily Dozen
A weekend of vomit
I cleaned up lots of vomit on the weekend. On Friday night I was woken by the sound of Elizabeth wailing from the bathroom. I found her sitting on the toilet surrounded by a pool of vomit. Why couldn't she have vomited in the toilet rather than on the floor next to it? I suppose… Continue reading A weekend of vomit
Is there anything kale can’t do?
The author of the book, How not to die, has some terrific lectures online. He's very entertaining to listen to and knows his stuff. This particular talk is about the best way to avoid death. It goes through the leading causes of death starting from heart disease and by analysing the latest research demonstrates how… Continue reading Is there anything kale can’t do?
Sainsbury’s vegan mac and cheese
Sainsbury's reported earlier this year that sales of their newly launched vegan cheese exceeded expectations by 300%. This is not bad at all considering the vegan market has always been viewed as small and somewhat niche. I decided to give their vegan macaroni cheese a try. It's a ready-made meal for one which you heat for… Continue reading Sainsbury’s vegan mac and cheese
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