This season I will mostly be eating........Avocado

Avocado
This goes against the 'eat local produce' thing, but I just lu-uuh-uuve avocados.
Spain is the only commercial producer of avocados in the EU, although they do grow in southern european countries. Most of the avocados available here are imported from Central America or Israel.

The wikipedia link has great info on the fruit that's really a berry.

Nutrition
The nutritional profile of avocados makes them a very interesting addition to a healthy diet. They are high in folate and have more potassium than bananas (good for blood pressure regulation if you keep your sodium intake down too). The fat content is mainly of the 'good' monounsaturated variety, and helps to promote the absorbtion of lycopene. Another reason to eat salsa, anyone?

Of course, the fat content also means waaaaay more calories than your average fruit - so perhaps caution with the amounts of guacamole if you're watching your weight.

Recipes
I'm not so sure about avocado ice-cream like they eat in Brazil (they love their avocados so much that none make it for export), but I have what's amounting to a borderline avocado fetish at the moment.
A lunch favourite is ripe avocado, fresh vine tomato and buffalo mozzarella with a little balsamic. Or just ripe avocado mashed onto bread. Or fresh guacamole with warmed pitta.......mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
Avocado also goes well in many sushi favorites ....Califonia rolls....mmmmmmm. All this drool can't be good for the computer- time for lunch.

I think I've found next year's holiday.

I love the sound of agriturismo.....how come the Italians seem to know how to do this kind of thing so well?


There are quite a few working farms in Ireland who've been doing the farmhouse accomodation thing very successfully for a while. Not so many offer dinner, and I'm intrigued by the fact that the owner of this farmhouse in Cork won the 'Housewife of the Year' title in 1990.

MSG

From this month's Observer Food Monthly, an article on MSG.

Good news for anyone in search of umami......

Wealthier not healthier.

This article summarises some recent European research published in the British Medical Journal looking at socioeconomic status and insulin resistance in children.

Talbot 101

Located, as the name suggests, upstairs at 101 Talbot Street, this is one of the few good places to eat in the area. It surprises me that it remains unknown to a lot of Dubliners, but it's far from a hidden treasure with a loyal clientele since it opened in 1991.
The Talbot 101 still does what it does well without much fuss. It's a good value, great buzz restaurant with a healthy variety of vegetarian dishes on the menu alongside the steak, chicken and seafood.
Highly recommended for pre-theatre (The Abbey is around the corner) or post- cinema (The Savoy on O'Connell Street). And there's always an exhibition of paintings or photography to admire or buy. Not a fancy place, but delivers far more than it promises foodwise.

This season I will mostly be eating.......Tomatoes

Tomatoes
Why?
The wonderful fruits of the tomato plant are at their best from now until September. Tomatoes are so easy to grow; one year, I managed to have delicious cherry tomatoes well into October from a plant supported in a large sunny apartment window. They just need a lot of water and a lot of food. There's great satisfaction in eating something you've grown yourself- even if it's easier, or cheaper to buy it. (Which it isn't, incidentally!)
It's great fun for children to watch something grow and to have an active role in caring for it. I also think it's worthwhile for them to have a sense of where food comes from and may have some fringe benefits: my little 18 month old nephew can be bribed far to easily with a cherry tomato.

Nutrition
Apart from the nutritional value of fresh tomatoes, dried, semi-dried tomatoes an tomato pastes and purees have an extremely high concentration of the antioxidant lycopene - even higher than the fresh fruit. Lycopene is what gives tomatoes their red colour and a high intake of lycopene has been shown to help prevent prostate cancer making it another 'nutriceutical' of interest. Lycopene absorption is improved in the presence of fat, making even more sense of the Mediterranean tomato salad with olive oil.

Recipes
How easy are tomatoes?
For an impressive Insalata Caprese starter, simply slice ripe vine tomatoes and some buffalo mozarella and arrange on a plate with some fresh basil leaves. Drizzle with a good quality extra virgin olive oil and a tiny little bit of sea salt if needed.

As a great side dish, try this salsa which is a feature at our friends Helen & Brendan's wonderful barbeques.

Tinned tomatoes and sieved tomatoes (passata) should be a mainstay of any store cupboard. Apart from the extra high lycopene content, the easiest pasta sauces can be made from them in minutes- minus the trans-fatty acids and salt content of commercially prepared sauces. Try this recipe and add to it whatever you like.

Eating Disorders

BodyWhys is a support organisation for people suffering from eating disorders, their families and friends. Their website is an extremely helpful starting point if you know someone struggling with food and weight- or if you need some support yourself.

For health professionals and helpers, Marilyn Duker & Roger Slade's book Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia: How to Help is a very useful guide to what can be a bewildering condition. It is available through McGraw-Hill.

Slow Food

This is a good resource website for anyone interested in organic produce or sustainable living.

Folic Acid

Public consultation on the question of whether to fortify foods with folic acid has closed.

In my opinion, there is no question.

There is incontrovertible evidence that it results in fewer of the birth defects spinabifida and hydrocephalus, which have a higher than average prevalence here in Ireland due to genetic susceptiblility as it is.

The real questions are how to do it and how soon can it be done.

The useful website which facilitated the consultation process remains a good source of information on folic acid.

Holistic Dietician?

Oooooooooooooooooh!!!! I know I should rise above it, but every so often the nonsense put out by 'alternative' practitionners makes me grind my teeth.

Only the under-qualified and over-confident could set themselves up in business and claim to have solutions to all sorts of common ills that have perplexed the best minds of several generations. It takes a lot of training and professional experience to recognise the limitations of your expertise, but even the greenest new graduate in one of the therapy professions would have more sense than to advertise that they can provide a guaranteed solution to obesity.

I also take issue with how the terms 'holistic' and 'natural' have been co-opted by the largely unqualified practitioners as if the rest of us don't look after the whole person in a natural way....grrrrrrr.

There is currently no protection of title for the therapy professions Nutrition & Dietetics, Physiotherapy, Occupational Therapy and Speech & Language Therapy. Each of these professions has a recognised University level qualification (BA or BSc) and a recognised under and post-graduate training structure - and an established career path within the Health Services.
Though many suitably qualified individuals will choose to work outside of the hospital or community health care setting, either in private practice or consultancy roles, they are eligible to work in the public sector hospitals and health authorities.

People who have no qualification at all can call themselves a dietitian without even so much as the 6 week 'comprihensive'(!) diploma course offered by some well known home-grown snake-oil gurus, but they absolutely cannot work in health care. Nor can they be a member of the national professional organisations. All that takes is a 5 year degree with 6 months hospital and community based training and a research thesis.

Caveat emptor when seeking professional services- whether it's your doctor, solictitor, accountant, physiotherapist or dietitian, you should check that the person is suitably qualified before you pay good money for questionnable advice.

I should say that there are Nutritionists whose course of study and career path follows a different trajectory. They tend to have a BSc and to work more in an industrial or advisory capacity rather than as 'diet therapists' which is essentially what a dietitian does .....and since I'm all riled up- it's DIETITIAN anyway....2 't's not a 'c'.............hrrrrrrrrmph.

'GI Jennie'

Great interview with Prof Jenny Brand-Miller,the Australian research nutritionist who has been to the forefront of research into the glycaemic index of foods for the past 25 years.

The original research was patchy internationally and tables of the G.I. of foods were of questionable use as they listed a value for the food items tested alone; composite meals, cooking time and method and combinations of foods all affect the overall G.I.

Additionally, different methods of assesing G.I. compared foods with either glucose or white bread; it's always preferable to have things measured against the same standard if you are trying to compare them.

There are now updated tables available (Brand-Miller 2003) which makes life much easier for everyone.

There has been an interesting antipathy for years between Brand-Miller in Australia and the Toronto based researcher David Jenkins, who conducted the original studies quantifying the effects of specific foods on blood sugars. Both have made G.I. their life's work and published their own books on the topic including 'the New Glucose Revolution' and 'What Makes my Blood Sugars Go Up and Down?'.

To my mind, it doesn't really matter which of them is more correct in their approach. The fundamental advice using the G.I. principles is a useful basis for a healthy diet. As I said before however, one principle is never the only story when it comes to nutrition.....

Metabo-what?

Metabolomics.
The fine pointy end of nutritional research.
The science that examines various metabolites, the end products of metabolism, at a cellular level, at the same time.

It's a very new science and is being used as part of The Human Genome Project, in conjunction with other new nutritional research diciplines, to provide insights into how cells regulate gene expression.

It's part of the new field of Nutrigenomics.....which sounds like an utterly futuristic concept, but in fact we're closer and closer to a world where Personalised Nutrition is the norm. I first heard of it in any detail at a keynote presentation by Professor Mike Gibney, who was a charismatic lecturer of ours at university and who continues to be a respected figure in nutrition research.

So, it's 2010. You get up in the morning and check your inbox. Your updated meal plan has just been sent from your nutrition lab. You had the 6 monthly urine test done 2 days ago, and there aren't too many changes to make but as you've been under a lot of stress at work recently, your antioxidant needs have gone up, so more berries and oranges on your shopping list. You still need to avoid specific foods to minimise your diabetes risk, but you've been fine tuning that for some time based on your nutrigenomic profile from your annual blood test.

Don't be seduced by the above scenario just yet though. There is no laboratory capable of providing the 'personalised nutrition' service on a commercial basis at the moment, and those that offer diagnosis of disease or food intolerance based on finger-prick testing are peddling bad medicine.



'Just as pharmacogenomics has led to the concept of “personalized medicine” and “designer drugs”, so will the new field of nutrigenomics open the way for “personalized nutrition.” In other words, by understanding our nutritional needs, our nutritional status, and our genotype, nutrigenomics should enable individuals to manage better their health and well-being by precisely matching their diets with their unique genetic makeup.'

Low birthweight and insulin resistance.

Small numbers in this Dutch study, but it's an interesting look at how poor growth in utero may be a risk factor for diabetes and heart disease in adult life.

The researchers examined insulin resistance in 28 pre-pubertal children born small for gestational age (SGA) who were still short for their age. Despite being lean, these children had significnatly reduced sensitivity to insulin.
Other researchers have shown that healthy children with reduced insulin sensitivity tend to have an inreased fat mass over time.

Again, small numbers mean that these current results are statistically underpowered, but it points to more prenatal and childhood influences on adult diseases.

Promoting a healthy active lifestyle and avoiding weight gain have even more relevance where individuals start at a health disadvantage.

London- dignity in the face of tragedy.

Such a strange week for London. Such elation with the successful bid for Olympics 2012....such devastation with the terrorist bombings....and today the ceremonies to mark the 60th anniversary of end of the Second World War.

My heart goes out to the bereved in London. And my respect to the people of London and their political and religious leaders who have shown such dignity in the face of tragedy...again.

What's the skinny on........The G.I. Diet?

The G.I. Diet
Based on the theories of the Glycaemic Index of foods, this is the must do diet of the moment.
So what's the story? Is it the miracle solution millions of overweight people have been praying for?

Well, the truth is that there are no miracle solutions, but as eating plans go, the principles of the G.I. are balanced and based on reasonable nutritional science. However, the whole story with any healthy eating plan is never based on one principle alone and most dietitians will have been incorporating the basics of G.I. or, more appropriately, Glycaemic Load into healthy eating and weight management advice for some time; other considerations such as low and healthy fat, correct portions and sufficient fruit, veg and micronutrients remain important.

There is a proliferation of G.I. recipe books, diet books, tapes and e-diets as the scientific information and even the term G.I. are not protected- i.e. anyone can write a G.I. diet book without infringing on copyright.

The I.N.D.I. has an information sheet to download free of charge.

The Mermaid Cafe

Another review- such consistently good food here! And great staff.....gotta love it.

WildLight

Off topic, but I love this.........innovative and fresh and miles away from crazyfrog

This season I will mostly be eating.....Blueberries

Blueberries
Why?
One of the most delicious fruits is also one of the most nutritious and summertime means that all the best berries are in season. While I haven't signed up as a bone fide 'fan', I do love these sweet little gems.

Nutrition
Blueberries have an extremely high antioxidant content (anthocyanidins are responsible for the blue colour- they put the blue in blueberry). Wild (or lowbush) berries have the highest antioxidant activity, but all are good, including dried and frozen.
-High in antioxidants
-High in vitamin C
-High in fibre- mainly the soluble fibre pectin
-Very low in calories

Th white-ish bloom on fresh berries is a natural protective coating. They should be washed just before eating rather than straight out of the pack to keep them as fresh as possible, but they do last much longer than other berries and also hold their shape well in baking and cooking.

Recipes
The simplest thing is to enjoy the little berries like little sweets as a snack.

I like to add them to cereal in the morning or to yogurt with strawberries and raspberries for a delicious low calorie dessert.

Mixed frozen berries are also a great 'storecupboard' item. Add them to smoothies or yogurt straight from the freezer or heat them to have with ice-cream or as a sauce with many desserts.

Blueberries, like strawberries, raspberries and oranges go very well with chocolate and children will love this:
Chocberries
Melt some good quality (70% or more cocoa solids) dark chocolate in a bowl over a pot or bowl of boiling water.
Gently add the rinsed and dried blueberries and stir lightly. Spoon them out onto a baking tray or shallow dish dredged with cocoa powder.
Shake, shake, shake to coat and separate the berries and leave to stand in a cool place or in the fridge. The chocolate will harden very quickly.

The chocberries need to be used within 10 days if stored in the fridge- but this isn't usually a problem. Dark chocolate is also high in different antioxidants- an added nutritional bonus if you need justification.