I feel I’ve paid the price this week for every smug Tweet, Facebook status update and Instagram post that graced my social media feeds during warmer, happier times. It’s been wet in Wales this week. Really wet. But in between drenchings I’ve consoled myself with nutritional wisdom and food. Hearty, wholesome, warming fare.
This week I…
Ate
I’m always looking to expand my recipe repertoire especially when it comes to dishes that can be cooked in bulk and eked out over the course of several meals. Leftover lunches were always a big hit amongst my former colleagues.
A kind of cooking equivalent to a sun dance, I decided to look up something that was both a little bit exotic and warming. I came across this little gem: Moroccan lamb with apricots, almonds and mint.
I served it with the suggested steamed broccoli and wholewheat cous cous mixed with soaked raisins and pine nuts.
One thing I will say about this dish though is it does have a fair amount of dried fruit in it. People are always so surprised when I say I consider raisins to be a rare treat.
Fructose is the sugar found in fruit. Raisins (half a cup full) contain 28.7g of fructose compared with an entire cup of raspberries that contain just 2.8g of fructose. Ideally we want to be aiming for no more than 30g of fructose a day – or two pieces of fruit.
So keep an eye on your fructose intake – especially when it comes to dried fruit. Those yogurt coated cranberries? You might as well have a Mars Bar.
Read
There’s no escaping it, is there…? This is currently sitting on my bedside table.
I love Christmas. Like really love it. A borderline atheist I actually have no right to enjoy the celebration really, do I? But for me it’s about sharing wonderful food with my family. A time away from work. A time for climbing mountains to burn off some of those excesses.
*Heads up: December will be dedicated to a series of festive season posts. Is there anything specific you’d like to see covered?*
Learned
Last weekend’s lectures at BCNH were superb. It was a weekend of lightbulb moments and everything finally coming together – everything that is that we’ve covered so far. There are still several years of work to completed!
My favourite section of the weekend was the clinical seminar practice. Four groups, four case studies and a chance to analyse the make believe patients’ symptoms. It highlighted so much nutrition can support.
There was also discussion around nutritional practice’s role in functional medicine. Functional medicine looks at ‘the clinical imbalances that are underlying a disease or condition yet also looks beyond signs and symptoms for a deeper understanding of a person’s imbalances’. It’s about thinking about that person’s environment and acknowledging how we are all individually affected by our actions and influences.
It may sound all a bit w@nky and hippy-like but I honestly can’t recommend starting to pay more careful attention to yourself. Start asking yourself why certain things are happening, why you’re feeling a certain way, what could be making you feel like this? A five minutes of this kind of reflection can prove truly invaluable.
Peace out Homies!
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