Category Archives: Food & Drink

Where Can You Get Inulin?

Food & Drink, Health,

There are a couple of reasons why you might be wondering where you can get Inulin as shown below.

If you were watching the BBC TV program ‘How to Stay Young’ recently you may have seen a segment whereby Angela Rippon, who is 71 but in very good shape for her age, underwent an MRI scan to check her insides.

Although she had come out well in other tests, there was an obvious excess of visceral fat showing in the scan pictures both around her heart and in her abdomen, the levels she had were much higher than they should have been for her age group.

The results of having too much visceral fat can be very detrimental to your health – for example you have an increased risk of health problems such as type 2 diabetes and heart disease as well as strokes and dementia, and if you can it is worth trying to reduce the amount of visceral fat in your body.

As a result of this she was recommended by doctors to take inulin for 6 months to try and reduce the levels of visceral fat in her body. You can take inulin in powdered form and just add it to your food. So if you saw the program maybe you are wondering where can you get inulin?

Well you can get it at local specialist health food shops and you can also get it online. There is quite a wide selection of Inulin available from Amazon mostly in powdered form and in different quantities. Check out some of the links below for different options:

 

What is Inulin?

Inulin is a natural product that is found in plants. You can get the same effect as taking inulin by eating certain foods, however, if you wanted to have the same effect by eating things like chick peas and lentils, you would have to eat a very large quantity of them so perhaps the inulin supplement is the way to go.

It seems likely that a lot of us are carrying extra visceral fat that could be damaging our health but unfortunately we are unlikely to be able to have an MRI just to check the levels. But if you have a protruding abdomen and you are carrying extra weight around your belly then it is quite possible that you have too much visceral fat.

If this is the case then it is worth thinking about taking an inulin supplement to try and decrease those levels. You can add the powder to your food so that you don’t even notice that you are taking it.

Angela Rippon is now taking the supplement and it will be interesting to see if they do a follow up to see what kind of effect it has had on her visceral fat levels.

The Nemecheck Protocol

The other reason you might be wanting to get hold of Inulin is if you are thinking of following the Nemecheck protocol. This is a protocol of supplements that are supposed to help with non-verbal autistic children and getting them to speak. Inulin is part of that protocol.

 

 

How to Cook Parsnips

Food & Drink, Home & Garden

How To Cook Parsnips

Cooking Parsnips

Parsnips are one of those vegetables that, in the UK, only get eaten once a year in some households, and that is at Christmas! However, there is no reason why they can’t be eaten year round and give a bit more variety to your vegetable selection.

As far as I am concerned, the most tasty way that you can cook parsnips is by roasting them. Ideally you can do this as part of a roast dinner so that you can combine their cooking with that of the roast potatoes and other roast vegetables that you might have.

However, you can also just boil or steam parsnips along with other vegetables or mash them on their own or with another vegetable.

Add parsnips to your usual vegetables to get some variety.
Add parsnips to your usual vegetables to get some variety.

Boiling or Steaming Parsnips

Firstly, you will need to clean and peel the parsnips. Put on a large pan of water to boil so that the vegetables will all be covered by the water. Add salt if you wish.

Cut the parsnips into similar shapes as you might with carrots for example into rounds or else you can cut into quarters lengthwise or into strips. The smaller that you cut the parsnips the shorter amount of time they will take to cook. Parsnips take a similar amount of time to cook as carrots.

Now how long you cook your vegetables for does depend to a certain extent to how crispy or not you like your vegetables to be. If you like them to be reasonably hard (al dente) then only simmer them for 8-10 minutes. If you prefer them to be softer then cook for 12-15 minutes. Check with a sharp knife to see if the parsnips are cooked to your liking.

Mashed Parsnips

Another option is to have mashed parsnips. You can have them on their own or also mash them up with swede or something similar.

Once you have chopped the parsnips up into similar sized chunks, bring the water to the boil and simmer the parsnips for around 15-20 minutes. once they are well cooked, drain them and mash the parsnips with a potato masher whilst adding some butter (and possibly a little cream if you are feeling indulgent). You could also add a small amount of a spice like nutmeg to give it a twist.

Roast Parsnips

Roast parsnips may take longer than you think to cook, so make sure you plan in advance. Firstly peel the parsnips, then chop them in half and then cut them into quarters lengthways. If they are quite small they may just need chopping in half.

Parboil your parsnips for a short period of time. Basically this means simmering them in boiling water for only around 3-5 minutes. Drain the parsnips and dry them on some kitchen towel. put the parsnips onto a plate or into a bowl and add salt. Toss the parsnips around in the salt so that they have a light coating. If you want an extra flavour you can also add honey to the parsnips.

Heat up some vegetable oil in a roasting tin or pyrex dish. The oil should just cover the bottom of the tin although the more oil you add the more of a ‘deep-fried’ effect you will give the parsnips. The oven should be at around 220 degrees C but if you are cooking other things in the oven at the same time then you can use a lower heat but just extend the cooking time.

Once the oil has heated up, add the parsnips to the pan and turn them over so that they are completely coated in the oil then put the dish back in the oven. Cook the parsnips for around 30 minutes ensuring that you turn them over during cooking so all sides are evenly browned.

The Dangers of Fad Diets

Food & Drink, Health

Dangers of Fad Diets
Dubai-UAE: 30 December, 2015 –

Dr Ganesh BhatThe New Year brings with it the hope of a fresh start and resolution lists. Many will have losing the excess holiday weight on top of their goals for the New Year. Playing to these weight loss sentiments are a series of fad diets – the high protein diet, the liquid diet, the zero fat diet – all claiming to leave those who try them out slim and trim.

However, these fad diets can wreak havoc with the digestive system and other body processes. “People resort to a quick fix to lose weight without realising the strain they put on their body and organs. Our body requires food from the three main food groups namely carbohydrates, proteins and fats which are complemented by vitamins, minerals and fibre,” said Dr. Ganesh Bhat, Consultant Gastroenterologist at Medeor 24×7 Hospital, Dubai. “Omitting a certain food group from the diet or going on an all liquid diet can hamper bodily functions and make a person undernourished.”

Liquid only juice cleanse diets, that promise to rid the body of toxins and result in weight loss, are fast gathering popularity across the world. One such diet involves the drinking of 6 to 12 glasses of a concoction of lemon juice, cayenne pepper, maple syrup and water during the day and a laxative tea in the night.

“One of the main functions of the liver and kidneys is to rid the body of toxins and hence we do not need to do so through these detox cleanses. Liquid only diets are low in protein which will hamper the building of cells and muscle regeneration,” Dr. Bhat said. “Rather than lifting one’s mood like detoxes promise they result in mood swings, fatigue and irritability. It also affects the digestive system causing stomach pain, irritable bowel syndrome and acidity and in the long run stomach ulcers. With no food to digest, the stomach acids can begin to digest the walls of the stomach.”

Another popular fad diet is the one that encourages dieters to consume up to 50% of their daily calorie intake in protein with little or no carbohydrate. “Consuming a diet high in protein can be detrimental to one’s health. Sure, it helps you feel fuller and hence you consume fewer calories in the short run. In the long run, the lack of carbohydrates equates to less fibre consumption bringing with it constipation,” the Doctor continued. “It can also hamper kidney function in the long run as our body may have trouble eliminating the large quantity of by-products of protein metabolism.”

The word fat has many bad connotations especially in a world where size 0 models continue to walk the runways. However, cutting out fat or consuming very little fats puts your health at risk.

“Our bodies use fats to help in the absorption of vitamins A, D, E and K, which are essential for growth, immunity, cell repair and blood clotting. When fats are cut from a diet, these vitamins are not utilized and are stored in the liver tissue and eventually excreted resulting in vitamin deficiency,” Dr. Bhat said. “Another risk of low fat diets is that it brings down the level of HDL or the good cholesterol level in our body. It is important to maintain optimum levels of HDL as it transports LDL or bad cholesterol from the blood to the liver so it can be excreted from our body. When the balance is thrown, our LDL levels are heightened putting us at risk for heart disease.”

Dr. Bhat advocates a balanced diet of proteins, carbohydrates and good fats coupled with vitamins, minerals and fibre along with an active lifestyle to achieve weight loss.
“Cutting out foods high in refined sugar, processed foods and fast food can result in weight loss over a sustained period of time,” he said. “Make sure you get at least 30 minutes of exercise daily too.”

“At Medeor 24×7 Hospital, we are committed to the health of the UAE population and believe in a holistic lifestyle that promotes a balanced diet and an active lifestyle which will not only help an individual lose weight but also cuts down their risk of lifestyle-related diseases such as diabetes,” said Dr. Mohammed Berer, Medical Director at Medeor 24×7 Hospital, Dubai.

What is the Most Healthy Thing to Eat at Burger King?

Food & Drink, Recreation, ,
Most Healthy Food at Burger King

burgerking1Well to start off with it is a question as to what you call the most healthy. Many people have different ideas of what they consider to be healthy, whether that be the items with the lowest number of calories, lowest amount of fat or indeed the carb content of food. In this article we look through the figures as provided by Burger King themselves (they are quite transparent as to the numbers that are contained in each item) and analyse the data from the different categories so that we can present it to you in a way you might find both interesting and surprising!

Please note that when quoting values, although Burger King quote their values to 1 decimal place, we have rounded their figures for ease of display. After all half a calorie is really neither here nor there with some of the numbers!

At the end of the article you can find a summary of which items tend to come out top in all categories – low calorie, low carb and low fat.

Calories

Beef, Chicken, Fish and Veggie Options Under 500 Calories
burgerking2
The hamburger is lowest in calories after the salads.

Firstly we will look at the main meal type options as classified above. In this case we have sifted through the data and come up with the options that contain less than 500 calories. In order of total calories from lowest to highest they are as follows:

Garden Salad – 18
Grilled Chicken Salad – 113
Hamburger – 275
Chicken Nuggets (6) – 285
Sweet Chilli Chicken Wrap – 298
Cheeseburger – 316
Whopper Junior – 344
Caesar Chicken Wrap – 346
Rodeo – 360
Chicken Nugget Burger – 367
Chicken Burger – 392
Sweet Chilli Crispy Chicken – 411
Quarter Pound Cheeseburger – 436
Chicken Nuggets (9) – 442
Double Cheeseburger – 460
Big King – 473
Bacon Double Cheese – 477
Sweet Chilli Chicken Royale – 480
Veggie Wrap – 494
Ocean Catch – 499

As you would expect, the salads do well and the chicken dishes are lower in calories than the beef dishes. Also go smaller (e.g. Whopper Jr) and you will obviously eat less calories too!

The one that you might not expect is the Veggie Wrap coming in at 494 calories, nearly 150 more than the caesar chicken wrap.

Sides Dips and Extras Under 250 Calories

We have restricted the list of sides, dips and extras to show only those under 250 calories, as obviously these are extras! So on top of whatever else you have you need to remember to add this lot on…

Tomato Ketchup Dip – 27
BK Fresh Apple Fries – 28
BBQ Dip – 30
Add Bacon – 35
Sweet Chilli Dip – 60
Add Cheese – 83
SATISFRIES (small) – 215
Fries (small) – 222
Onion Rings (5) – 232
Chilli Cheese Bites (4) – 238

Unfortunately a lot of restaurants are no longer serving the SATISFRIES as they were given the option to stop serving them by Burger King when the take up was not as much as they hoped. However, small fries at 222 are only an extra 7 calories.

Soft Drinks Under 125 Calories

Ok so we chose a cut-off of 125 calories for this section as this excluded around 50% of the drinks listed for sale. Most of the higher calorie items were different sizes (or larger servings) of Coca-Cola and Sprite and those under 125 calories are the following:

Water – 0
Regular Diet Coke – 1
Large Diet Coke – 1
Super Diet Coke – 2
Alive – 63
Regular Sprite – 112
Tropicana – 113
Milk – 123

Breakfasts – Calories

With regards to breakfast, the only item that is under 250 calories per serving is the Bacon Butty with Heinz Ketchup which comes in at 216 Kcal. Next best is 6 Mini pancakes and syrup which contain 269 calories – the rest of the breakfast options come in at over 300 calories (most of them a lot more) unless you count the add-ons like hash browns which contain 192 calories for a regular serving.

Desserts and Shakes – Calories

You would expect desserts to be heavily loaded with calories (although perhaps shakes less so) and for the most part you would be right but there are some options that appear to not actually be too bad. Top of the list coming in as the only item on the dessert menu at less than 100 calories is the Ice cream cone. Ice cream often contains less calories than people imagine – often because it contains less cream than you might imagine and more ice!

There are a couple of desserts hovering around the 130 level namely the strawberry sundae at 133 and the regular frozen lemonade at 138. You could also just sneak in a chocolate sundae at 153 calories but after that (apart from the large frozen lemonade) you are looking at over 200 calories and up to a whopping 612 for a large chocolate shake.

Carbs

Low Carbs

In recent years a low carb diet has become one of the more popular ways to eating healthily and perhaps losing some weight. Guidelines differ as to how many grams of carbohydrates are recommended for those on a low carb intake diet, and it is more a case of finding the level for you as each person is different. Certainly it is not recommended to eat less than 50g of carbohydrates a day though.

Again I have rounded out the carb numbers to the nearest gram for ease of reference.

Beef, Chicken, Fish and Veggie – Carbs

So for the best carb options I had to go with those containing under 40g as there was only one option under 30g as you can see below:

6 Chicken Nuggets (with dip) – 25
Caesar Chicken Wrap – 30
Big King – 32Cheeseburger – 32
Hamburger – 32
Whopper Junior – 33
Double Cheeseburger – 33
Bacon Double Cheese – 34
Sweet Chilli Chicken Wrap – 35
Chicken Nugget Burger – 39

Sides, Dips and Extras – Carbs

So, coming in under 30g of carbohydrates are the following:

Add Bacon – <1
Add Cheese – 1
Tomato Ketchup Dip – 7
BK Fresh Apple Fries – 7
BBQ Dip – 7
Sweet Chilli Dip – 15
Chilli Cheese Bites (4) – 25
3 Mozarella Sticks (inc dip) – 27
Onion Rings (5) – 28
SATISFRIES (small) – 29
Fries (small) – 29

 Breakfast – Carbs

Ok so there are no breakfast items that are lower than 30g of carbs apart from the Hash Browns add-on which contain 22g for the regular size. Other than that the two items with the lowest carbs for breakfast, which are under 40g are the Sausage Butty with Heinz Ketchup containing 34g and the Sausage, Egg and Cheese Butty with Heinz Ketchup containing 37g.

Soft Drinks – Carbs

Any amount of diet coke has 0g of carbs so I won’t list all of the quantities, of the rest there are some that have less than 30g as follows: However, that would be quite a lot when added to a similar amount for a meal and extras so take note of what else you are having!

Water – 0
Milk – 13
Alive – 15
Tropicana – 24
Regular Sprite – 26

Dessert and Shakes – Carbs

If you are looking to reduce your carb intake then you may wish to avoid the desserts and the shakes in particular! There is one reasonably good option which again is the ice Cream Cone. This only has 16g of carbohydrates. The next best are 3 that are over 30g and they are the Frozen Lemonade Regular (33g), the Strawberry Sundae (36g) and the Chocolate Sunday (37g).

Top of the list (again) is the large chocolate shake with a whopping 113g.

Low Fat

 Low Fat Options

If you are looking for options that are low fat then we have analysed the data on fat content and found the following:

Beef, Chicken, Fish and Veggie Options

Garden Salad – 1
Grilled Chicken Salad – 3
Sweet Chilli Chicken Wrap – 7
Hamburger – 10
Rodeo – 13
Cheeseburger – 13
Caesar Chicken Wrap – 14
6 Chicken Nuggets (with dip) – 14
Whopper Junior – 17
Quarter Pound Cheeseburger – 17
Chicken Royale – 17
Chicken Nugget Burger – 17
Chicken Burger – 20
Sweet Chilli Crispy Chicken – 20

It’s reasonably predictable that the salad options would come out on top but the sweet chilli chicken wrap also comes out favourably.

BurgerKing3
Soft Drinks – Low Fat

Generally speaking soft drinks do not contain much fat and the only soft drink option that contains above 1g of fat is the milk at 4.3g.

You are never going to go wrong if you opt for water though!

Sides, Dips and Extras – Low Fat

For the dips you can expect very little fat in any of them, in fact the Ketchup, Sweet Chilli and BBQ dips have no fat. Adding bacon only adds 0.4g, so not a lot but adding cheese gives you an extra 6.5g which is significant for a small extra. So at 10g and under all you can get are fries at 10g and SATISFRIES if you can get hold of them at 8.4g.

Breakfast – Low Fat

So we have narrowed down the breakfast options to the ones that contain less than 15g of fat and those are as follows:

Bacon Butty with Heinz Ketchup – 6
6 Mini Pancakes and Syrup – 10
Egg and Cheese Butty with Heinz Ketchup – 12
Sausage Butty with Heinz Ketchup – 13

You could just tip over the 15g with 9 Pancakes and the Bacon, Egg and Cheese Butty but the rest are significantly more.

Desserts and Shakes – Low Fat

As the majority of the desserts and shakes come out at under 10g of fat each (apart from the muffins, brownie and toffee sponge which are streets ahead!), we have focused on those items that contain less than 5g of fat each.

This basically covers all of the smoothies – they are all at less than 2g of fat – and the frozen lemonade which has none. The ice cream cone also still fares pretty well at 3.4g.

Overall Summary of the Healthiest

So looking at the overall picture, regardless of whether you are counting calories, carbs or fat, there are a few items that are consistently near the top of the list for all of them. There is an obvious choice of going for a Grilled Chicken Salad with a bottle of water which is the best idea if you are going to Burger King maybe with friends and are not too fussed about having a burger.

However, if you are going to Burger King with something more in mind then you might be advised to stick to maybe either a sweet chilli chicken wrap or a hamburger. Obviously water for the drink but otherwise a regular diet coke (unless you are specifically watching carbs) and then the most common item at the top of the healthy list for desserts is the ice cream cone.

Adding regular fries will bump things up a bit but may be an essential part of the meal for you.

So a quick summary gives the following:

Totals for a sweet chilli chicken wrap, regular fries, water and an ice cream cone are:

  • Calories: 619
  • Carbs: 80g
  • Fat: 20g

The Easiest Dessert Ever!

Food & Drink, Home & Garden, Lifestyles, Recreation,

This really is the quickest and best tasting dessert in my humble opinion! Anyone can make it and look like a great cook.

Really quick, easy and tasty dessert!

I made up this recipe a short while ago when I wanted to do some individual desserts for the adults at my son’s birthday party. It had to be something quick and easy as I had loads of other stuff to prepare and I was running short of time! What I came up with was not only simple but also really tasty, easy to make in small or large quantities but also made use of the old baby food jars I had saved for just such an occasion!

dessert-ingredientsYou can also make this dessert in ramekins, old creme brulee dishes (you know the glass ones that you sometimes get when you buy them) or just in any small bowls you might have. You could probably do a large one in a flan dish too but I haven’t tried that yet.

What you need:

  • butter (optional)
  • digestive biscuits
  • yoghurt
  • squirty cream

Quantities obviously depend on how many you are going to make but you need about a small knob of butter, 1 digestive biscuit  and about 4 large teaspoons of yoghurt per serving, plus a squirt of cream.

How to make it – well there are 2 ways, the quick way and the really quick way!

digestives and butterWell the really quick way is to crumble a digestive biscuit up into the pot you are going to serve it in. The slightly less quick way is to put a small knob of butter in the microwave for 10 seconds and mix the crumbled digestive into that. if you are making a batch, melt about an ounce of butter in the microwave or on the hob and add half a packet of crushed digestives to that. Put the biscuit mixture into the bottom of the dish and press it down. If you have used butter you may want to put this in the fridge for an hour but you don’t have to as it tastes just as good if you don’t. 🙂

yeo lemon curdNext step is to choose your yogurt – basically any flavour will do but may favourite to use for this is Yeo Valley Lemon Curd Yoghurt – it makes the end result taste similar to a lemon meringue pie. But really, any flavour will do as the end result is just like a cheesecake too.

biscuits and yoghurtAdd your yoghurt into your pot – if you are using the baby food jars then add until it’s just over half full so that you can still put the lid on for transportation if required.

baby-food-jar-dessertThen just squirt some cream on top and it’s done! The beauty of using the baby food jars is that you can see the layers of the dessert through the sides, and of course you can transport a bulk load in a box if you have all the lids too. If you want to do this as a desert at a dinner party then use ramekins or small glass pots to look even better.

Great use of old baby food jars for a dessert
Use baby food jars with lids for easy transportation if you are taking these desserts to another venue.