An ancient Chinese proverb says: Drinking a daily cup of tea will surely starve the apothecary. Indeed, in the East, tea has long been seen as a key to healthy body, mind and spirit. Although all teas, black, white and green alike, come from the same plant, it is the processing of the leaves that…
Hereby the last recipe for a week-long grain-free challenge. As the pumpkin season is nearly upon us, I thought it would only be right to include this tasty seasonal option. The recipe has just 10 ingredients, but don’t be fooled by its minimalism: it is packed full of goodness. Pumpkin, the main ingredient of this recipe,…
This dish bursts with Indian flavours and aromas and is particularly heavy on coriander. Coriander has a high essential oil content, which gives this herb its distinctive fresh and citrusy taste. The very same essential oils also contain an array of phytonutrients, which have shown strong antifungal and antimicrobial activity. Compounds isolated from coriander essential…
The objective for this week’s dinner menu is to stay grain-free. For this reason, I am including a cauliflower rice recipe, which makes a delicious low-calorie substitute for real rice. Add chicken poached in coconut milk infused with Asian flavours and you get a healthy and delicious dish. Cauliflower is a non-starchy cruciferous vegetable with…
This recipe makes healthy eating a walk in the park. Not only is it delicious, simple and quick to put together, but it also delivers on the health front. Salmon, for instance, contains a good amount of Omega-3 fatty acids. Two of them in particular – eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) – boast…
The next dinner recipe from the series is kuku bademjan. It’s an Iranian aubergine dish, a cross between frittata and soufflé. I am very partial to aubergines. Having grown up in the south of Russia, where aubergines are plentiful between August and October, I loved them for as long as I can remember myself. I…
The next dinner recipe on the menu is Turkey breast medallions with quinoa and oven roasted vegetables. It is easy as well as delicious and boasts a nice balance of quality protein and healthy carbs. Protein in this case comes from 2 sources: turkey and quinoa. Although quinoa is eaten in many ways as a…
The summer is drawing to a close and for many of us vacation is sadly over. Some might find that they came back home with more baggage than they bargained for. I mean this dreaded extra baggage around the middle… It is so easy to put on some weight, when taken out of the daily…
Sometimes magic happens in the kitchen. Take a humble potato. Most people know that potatoes are starchy vegetables. Starch, is actually a type of carbohydrate that easily turns into glucose (i.e. a simple sugar) in the gut. Frequent overloading the body with glucose creates blood sugar fluctuations which favour weight gain and diabetes. That is…
Yes, they can! But how? Let’s start with the weight. Gut bacteria participate in the energy balance of the hosting human. Some species promote increased energy harvesting and fat storage, while others don’t. In other words, if your gut is dominated by such “hungry” bacteria, you might struggle to maintain or lose weight. Numerous studies…