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nutrition

Breakfast

Why eating in season is so much better for our health

Why eating in season is so much better for our health

There is something exciting about eating different fruits and vegetables every season. As a child I knew that with the start of summer we would start getting cherries (in Romania cherries were the first ones to ripe),followed by strawberries and just a bit later raspberries and blueberries. Nowadays in supermarkets you can get almost anything at any time. While that might be great from a flexibility perspective, there might be many more benefits to eating in season beyond just giving variation to your menu.

4 benefits of eating food that is in season

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Mains

Healthy roast chicken with spiced roast quince and parsnip

Healthy Roast chicken

You know winter is coming when the house is suddenly cold, when you go out your breath is like a mist and after a few minutes you cannot feel you cheeks, lips and ears….oh yes! I must say this reminds me of home as minus temperatures are a feature of Romanian winters (the average I would say is -10 C but we also get -40C!). So what better recipe to make you feel warm and good inside than a proper roast chicken! Mine comes with a twist: 1. this is a healthy and nutritious alternative to your usual roast chicken and 2. giving you an alternative to the less nutritious and sometimes boring roast potatoes.

This roast chicken recipe is healthier because it is not using oil when roasting meat (I know some of you don’t already so that is already great!), and it’s giving you inspiration in using some higher nutritional, in  season veggies to pack your body with that essential goodness to prepare you for the cold ahead. I am making use of what Autumn has to offer: kale, parsnips and one of my favourite autumnal fruits, quince.

HEALTH BENEFITS Continue Reading…

Nutrition

Why is sugar bad for us

Why is sugar bad for you

This post will be a bit different from my usual recipe post. If you remember my first post was actually on detox. Well, now I am picking up another of the baddies that I called out in my principles…SUGAR. When I say sugar I mainly refer to the refined kind. Most people are scared of fat, but for me the biggest enemy is sugar. It’s hidden everywhere (from breakfast cereals, fruit juices, some almond milk, fat free yogurt, and even hummus).

In a report from the World Health Organisation in 2014 more than 1.9 billion people (13% of total population) were obese and almost 30% are overweight. More worryingly, a study conducted by the same organisation in 2013 concluded that 42 million children under age of 5 were obese or overweight! This is truly shocking…Being obese decreases life expectancy by 10 years in average and it is also linked with high incidence of diabetes, heart disease and some types of cancer (endometrial, breast and colon). In the context of the UK, this costs our national health system over £3 billion per year. In some respects I am not at all surprised by these figures. We are over exposed to high sugar, high salt, high fat, micronutrient poor food. Continue Reading…