Grain Pain

As a grain farmer, it is in my best interests to promote grains as a part of a healthy diet. However, when people ask me about weight loss, the first thing I say it to try a gluten free diet for a while.

My reasoning is, that the Western Diet relies far too much on wheat. It is in everything from custard powder, cornflour, seasoning mixes, soup mixes etc. It isn't so much that wheat is a problem, it's the fact that it isn't prepared correctly for our bodies to assimilate the proteins it contains, known collectively as gluten. As the name suggests, gluten is the glue that holds everything together when wheat flour is used to make cakes, bread, biscuits and sauces.

Gluten is a generic name for the proteins found in a specific sub-group of grains - the Pooideae family of grasses. Wheat, oats, barley & rye belong to this grass family. Each grain contains a different type of protein, for example rye contains a protein called secalin and oats have a protein known as avenin.
Gluten from wheat is actually a composite of two proteins - gliadin and glutenin.

Wheat proteins can be particularly difficult for some people to digest. Around 1% of the population cannot have any gluten in their diets at all due to a condition called coeliac disease which is an immune reaction to proteins found in wheat, barley, oats, triticale and rye. The tiny finger-like villi in the large intestine (bowel) become inflamed and flattened, leading to malabsorption of nutrients and a host of symptoms including bloating.

When people are overweight or eating the wrong sorts of foods - eg highly processed (generally the two go together), the villi in the bowel can be compromised. They may be clogged, blocked and even laying down flat so that nutrients aren't getting to all the tissues and organs in the body that need them. Consequently, many systems begin to fail and various conditions raise their ugly heads - gallstones, arthritis, IBS, type 2 diabetes, ulcerative colitis, gout and a host of other conditions and diseases.

Are you still reading? Good on you! Here's a couple of pictures to break up all the verbosity.

Healthy villi

Damaged villi

Courtesy http://www.coeliac.org.au

Therefore, removing gluten from the diet for a month or so can make a real difference to the body. The villi need to be in great condition in order to digest grains efficiently and gain the benefit of the vitamins (particularly the B vitamins), minerals, phytonutrients and fibre that they provide for ultimate health.

Once the body begins to recover and a whole foods diet is being followed, the villi will recover and begin to do the job they were designed to do. The body begins the recovery process and many people find that conditions they've lived with for years disappear. This is when whole grains can be added back into the diet.

By whole grains, of course I mean the complete grain - the bran which is the outer layer, the endosperm which is the inner layer and the germ, the heart of the grain. All these work together to assist with digestion of the grain. The germ of any grain will not survive nutritionally  for very long outside the grain. The endosperm will also lose a significant percentage of its nutrients when the outer bran is removed.
White flour is simply the endosperm of the grain that is left once the bran and germ are removed. Many healthy breads and bread mixes add back the bran and germ after milling. I find this amusing. ....Pull it all apart, allow some of it to break down and lose its nutritional value, then put it all back together and call it healthy.....

The best way to prepare whole grains for better assimilation and digestion is to soak, ferment or sprout them. Both nuts and grains contain phytic acid in their outside layer. Phytic acid can bind with key minerals needed from the nut or grain so they are less available to the body. Soaking, fermenting or sprouting grains in particular will also allow enzymes, lactobacilli and other helpful organisms to not only neutralise the phytic acid but also break down and release the complex starches and proteins within the grain to allow for easier digestion.

 Sue Gregg of Sue Gregg cookbooks has developed some fantastic recipes using what she calls 'blender batters' using a two stage process. The grains are soaked in an acid medium ( usually whey but lemon juice is adequate) for 12 to 24 hours and then blended to a smooth batter. Eggs, flavouring and rising agents are added before baking.
There is no need to use whole unground grains, either. You can just as easily use whole grain flour and soak the batter. Just click for my Coffee Cake recipe and Blender Batter Waffles.  Both are also delicious, though both of these are wheat free.

I am now the proud co-owner of a fantastic Skippy Grain Mill and have been experimenting wheat from our farm. I've been grinding it to make wholegrain wheat flour and have developed a great recipe for almost wholegrain bread. The preparation needs to begin the night before you want your bread as the flour is soaked overnight.
Find the recipe here.  Soaked Whole Wheat Bread


Megan

Does fat make you fat?

My answer would be yes and no.

My recent research into fats in our diet has shown up a number of misconceptions, many of which are perpetuated by organisations such as The Heart Foundation and Nutrition Australia. These 'facts' are then transposed down the line by nutritionists, then journalists and they turn up in our magazines, online articles and newspapers. Basically, these organisations are saying that eating fat contributes to heart disease and obesity.

Advice such as 'cut the fat off your meat', buy low fat yoghurt', 'use low fat milk' etc leads people to believe that all fat is bad for you.
Has this fat phobia made a difference to the general population's health? Not as far as I can see. People are still overweight and sick. Diseases such as diet related diabetes are rampant.
In an article from Raisin-Hell (Is the Heart Foundation's Advice Killing us?), the following information should make us think:

The AusDiab (Australian Diabetes, Obesity and Lifestyle) study has been monitoring the health of a random selection of 11,000 Australian adults since 2000. The results of the 12 year follow-up were published this week. (mid-August 2013)
The update shows that the number of us with Type II Diabetes has increased by 41%; that obesity has increased by 22%; that almost half of us now have chronically high blood pressure (this is despite a 30% increase in the use of medication to control it); and that the average 25 year old gained 7 kg on the scales and 7 cm round the waist; all in just over a decade.

So what is the solution? All my research tells me that we must consume fat in our diet. Fats provide energy and are vital as building blocks for cell membranes and for hormones and hormone like substances. Simplified, cholesterol comes from (mostly animal) fat. Cholesterol is a type of sterol, sterols are hormones.
Fat soluble vitamins such as A, D, E and K are only made available to the body by a process that uses dietary fats.

Sally Fallon, in her book, "Nourishing Traditions. The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats" (I know, it's a great title!) discusses a theory that began to be espoused around the 1950's known as the 'lipid (lipid = fancy name for fat/oil) hyphothesis'. The theory, developed by researcher Ancel Keys, stated that there was a direct link between the amount of saturated fat and cholesterol in the diet and the incidence of coronary heart disease.
Fallon comments that since this research was first published, there have been numerous subsequent researchers that pointed out the flaws in his data and conclusions. But it was all too late. The vegetable oil and food processing industries promoted this original theory since they would be beneficiaries of the move away from competing traditional foods.

Fallon also discusses Nathan Pritikin's low fat diet craze. Those who managed to stick to it for any length of time suffered from a variety of health problems with many suffering depression and experiencing vitamin and mineral deficiencies. The other complication, believe it or not, was weight gain!!
Pritikin himself commited suicide when he realised his low fat diet could not cure him of leukaemia.

The Heart Foundation in Australia endorses a low fat diet, encouraging the use of margarine instead of butter, polyunsaturated vegetable oil instead of saturated animal fats and low fat everything. Yet, the Heart Foundation tick applies to many highly processed sugary empty calorie foods (eg. Milo Cereal with 27% refined sugar) seen in the supermarkets today.
In fact, during my research, I've come across a petition from wellness practitioners asking the Heart Foundation to stop promoting these sugar laden high calorie cereals. Find the article here. An excerpt from the webpage petition says the following:

 "Honestly it just seems absolutely ridiculous that a health authority like the Heart Foundation whom many of the public trust and listen to, advise to eat a diet made up of mostly processed carbohydrates in the form of cereal, bread and pasta, consume margarine and toxic oils, processed sugar filled foods filled with additives, preservatives, colours and flavours and which are devoid of essential nutrients and products that contain aspartame. How can they honestly say that this will protect people against cardiovascular disease?"

The article goes on to state that researchers, nutritionists and authors have all come to the conclusion that eating fats from natural healthy sources such as grass feed animals, free range eggs etc will actually contribute to protecting against heart disease.
Sally Fallon, Dr Sandra Cabot, Mary Enig and Cyndi O'Meara are amongst these authors and researchers. These are my go to authors when I want to find out the facts about nutrition.

Here's a link to an excellent article written by Mary Enig and Sally Fallon on the Weston A Price (a dentist and nutrition researcher) Foundation website: The Skinny on Fats

The 'yes' part of my answer to the question on whether eating fat makes you fat, comes about from eating the wrong sort of fats coupled with the way in which the fats are presented. For example, if you eat deep fried sugary doughnuts regularly, then yes, you will gain weight, from the trans fats in the hydrogenated vegetable oil used for frying and the sugar contained in the doughnuts!
If you eat a lot of highly processed foods with added fat, then yes, you will get fat.

But, if your diet consists of wholefoods, including whole eggs, full fat dairy products, free range red meat with a little fat, free range pork with some of the fat, free range chicken with the skin and you use monounsaturated oils such as olive, avocado or macadamia in your dressing, butter on your vegetables and coconut oil, duck fat, lard, butter and tallow for cooking, then, no, you shouldn't get fat. You will find that you won't consume such large portions as you will feel fuller and more satisfied with a diet rich in good fats in combination with whole fruits, vegetables and whole grains and legumes (prepared correctly).
In contrast to a low fat (usually highly processed and high sugar) diet, you will be much healthier and have great skin and hair.

If you're still with me after all that reading, congratulations! Will you be changing the way you look at fats?
Please leave a comment below, I'm interested to hear your views.

Not a Skinny Dip

Skinny doesn't always mean skinny when it comes to buying pre packaged foods. Browsing the supermarket for a bought dip recently, knowing I may not have time to make one, I was studying the calorie content of two packs of Hommus.
One was Black Swan Skinny Hommus, the other, Willow Farm Hommus. One would think the skinny one would have less calories, but it was not the case!
Here's the evidence:

The Black Swan Skinny Hommus is on the left. It has 826kJ per 100g. The regular Hommus on the right contains only 711kJ Don't pay any attention to the 'per serve' information as the serving size differs with each product. Always look at the per 100g quantity.

The sugar content is lower in the regular Hommus, making it a better choice.
Better still, make your own:

Easy Hommus
1 x 425g can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup tahini
one clove garlic
2 Tbsp EVOO
1/2 tsp ground cumin
salt to taste
black pepper
Extra EVOO and paprika to serve

Blend lemon juice and tahini for about one minute. Scrape down and process for another 30 seconds.
Add garlic, EVOO, cumin and seasonings. Blend for 30 seconds, scrape and blend for a further 30 seconds.
Add half the chickpeas and blend for one minute. Add the remaining chickpeas and blend for one to two minutes until smooth. Test for seasoning and adjust if necessary.
Place in a bowl and swirl around. Add a little EVOO in the swirls, then sprinkle with paprika.

Note:
The blending and scraping down creates a creamier texture. You can just through everything in the processor or Thermomix and blitz for three minutes.

Belly Fat

Belly Fat, that annoying spare tyre, muffin top or whatever euphemism one would like to use, it's one of the most frustrating areas to try and fix.

An interesting article in the latest Australian Healthy Food Magazine gives an outline about how dangerous belly fat actually can be to our health. But what are the causes?
According the article, written by Stephanie Osfield, there are a number of reasons why fat can accumulate around the middle.

Hormones, simply overeating, alcohol, menopause, not enough sleep and stress. What's really interesting are the effects that this benign muffin top or beer belly can have on our bodies.

"Belly fat is often a sign of fat hiding in the abdomen," according to Tim Crowe, Associate Professor of Nutrition at Deakin University.
This is known as visceral fat and it can accumulate around organs such as the kidneys and heart. It's actually metabolically active, which means it pumps hormones and inflammatory chemicals  into the body. In women, this can lead to excess oestrogen which can lead to fertility issues, and I'm sure problems with menopause too.
Those chemicals and hormones are linked to conditions such as asthma, diabetes, arthritis and heart disease. How can that happen? It's just a bit of a spare tyre, isn't it?

For example, visceral fat continually releases excess fatty acids directly into the bloodstream. These then are processed by the liver and cause an increase in the production of other fats such as the 'bad' cholesterol, LDL. As if that isn't bad enough, the chemicals released by this visceral fat can prevent glucose from moving around the body and instead keeps it in the bloodstream causing levels to rise. So, the body tried to get rid of it by producing more insulin. This excess insulin in turn causes the insulin receptors to shut down and you get insulin resistance - bango wango - you're looking at Type 2 Diabetes.

Other health risks include dementia, osteoporosis, migraines and breast cancer.

BUT! There is good news! Nutrition and exercise...fancy that! Yes, as soon as you cut back those calories, the visceral fat is the first to go. As far as exercising, you don't need to do crunches, weights or sit ups by the dozen. In fact, a nice little tidbit I read in the magazine stated that:

"The marketers of the heavily advertised Ab Circle Pro exercise machine were fined $25 million in the US for deceptive advertising."

A little simple cardio will help. Anything that makes you breathless - climbing stairs, power walking, swimming, dancing and aerobics.

By following the the 80/20 idea (80% nutrition/20% exercise), visceral fat will reduce substantially along with that annoying spare tyre!
I know I've gone down a few notches in my belt.

Leftover Almond Meal

If you're making your own almond milk from the recipe on my blog, then you'll have leftover meal from your DIY efforts. This isn't strictly almond meal as a lot of the goodness has been extracted. But, you can make almond flour. Almond flour is gluten free, high in nutrients, low carb and very expensive to buy.

As you make your milk, put the pulp aside until you have a reasonable amount. It's probably a good idea to freeze it while you're building up the quantity.

Place it onto a baking tray and into a very low oven, 50 - 60 degrees C. Leave it for around three hours until it's completely dry. Place into a food processor, blender or Thermomix and blitz until fine. Place into a glass jar.

Here's a link to some recipes using almond flour: http://www.elanaspantry.com/almond-flour-recipes/
If you google almond flour recipes, you'll come up with loads.

Easy Almond Milk

Almond Milk is a perfect addition to the morning Herbalife shake and it's so easy to make. This is my own recipe and can be made in a food processor, blender or the ultimate machine, Thermomix.

I have read where it's advisable to soak the almonds in hot water overnight to 'release the goodness', but I rarely remember to do that. If you do, that's great.

Boil the kettle first - use filtered water where possible. Place 60 - 100g raw almonds into machine. Add 1 teaspoon coconut oil, a splash of maple syrup (optional) and a dash of pure vanilla extract. Add 960g (about 1 litre) hot (not boiling*) water from the kettle and whizz for one minute.

While it's whizzing, prepare your strainer. Simply a piece of muslin, a wire strainer and a large jug. Place the muslin into the strainer and over the jug. Pour the liquid into the muslin. If you have a small strainer just do a bit at a time. Allow to drain and help with a spoon. Gather the muslin into a ball in your hand and squeeze out carefully until all liquid has been extracted. Refrigerate in a glass bottle. Use within three days.

Makes around a litre.
*If you use boiling water, the nuts will cook and absorb the water. Make sure it's no hotter than 60 degrees.

Check out this blog post to see what to do with the leftover almond meal.

Weight Loss Time

Yep, winter is a notorious time for putting weight on. All those delicious warm desserts with custard and cream, the luscious thick and creamy soups and freshly baked buttery rolls. I love to bake bread and winter time is ideal with the oven warming the kitchen and the inviting aroma filling the house.

So, I've decided it's also the perfect time this year to start a weight loss program. I've tried being mindful of what I eat in the past, but find all that I do all day is think of food. It's just too damn hard trying to reduce food intake and count calories without a little bit of help.
In the past, I've poohooed these sorts of programs, but I do think I have enough knowledge of nutrition to manage a commercial weight loss program sensibly.

Research of the various weight loss companies led me to Herbalife. Herbalife sounds like it's a bit of a rort, an MLM company that is hitting those most vulnerable in the hip pocket. Well, that's what I thought, at first. But, after some google research, I've found that the positive reviews of the program far outnumber the negative. The negative reviews have come from those who looked at the program from the outside and didn't actually try it.

I began watching my food intake about three days prior to starting on the program while awaiting delivery of my products. I managed to lose about 500g in that time. I knew I wouldn't be able to keep it up, though as I've tried before.

The Herbalife programs are flexible and one can choose the products to suit the desired outcome. Since I want to lose 5 kgs to start with, then a further 2 -3 and maintain that weight, I've gone with only one Shake a day, the Multivitamins and the Herbal Tea. I loathe shakes, so this was a bit of a daunting prospect for me to replace my favourite meal of the day, breakfast, with a shake.

Day two today and I'm coping well. Today, I added one frozen banana and 6 frozen strawberries with a tablespoon of chia seed to the almond milk I made and the shake powder and blended in the Thermomix. I ended up with ice cream, not the best thing to enjoy on a cool winter's morning, but very delicious and filling.
I followed this with a cup of warming Herbal Tea, which I really enjoy.

1kg down and 4 to go before my first goal is reached. Weeks one and two are meant to be easy, then it gets harder, so I expect it to take a couple of months.

Sassy Water

This is the most delicious tasting and refreshing drink! It's simply filtered water with sliced lemon, sliced cucumber and mint, but don't be fooled, the flavour is amazing. I can't stop drinking it. Some recipes also contain a teaspoon of grated ginger. I'll try that next time.

It's apparently used as a detox in a four day diet that's supposed to give you a flat tummy. I'm sure I'd have a flat tummy if I cut out wine, beer, bread, potatoes, biscuits, cakes, salt and sugar. But where's the fun in that? And, how long would that last anyway?

I don't believe diets work. Reducing calories (sorry, just can't work with kilojoules) and increasing exercise will help you lose weight, but it has to be something you're prepared to do for ever. It's all about metabolism and everyone's metabolic rate is different.
The body is designed to use all the energy that is taken in and if  there is excess, it's deposited as fat. The fat serves a purpose in that it will be converted to energy when there is nothing coming in, ie, when we're dieting.

My theory is that some people have a caveman metabolism where the body will conserve energy as fat and slow right down when calories are reduced. As soon as calories are increased, it will store them to protect against that starvation period just experienced. So weight appears to come back very quickly. This is how yo-yo dieting comes about.

When I find I am gaining a little weight, like right now over winter, I'll just exercise more. I don't reduce my food intake, because as soon as I try to do that, all I can think about is food! I find that once the exercise kicks in and weight begins to drop ever so slightly, then the food intake lessens automatically.
But, I'm lucky and have my Dad's metabolism. He managed to eat and drink everything and never gain any weight. I have gained weight over the years, but not so much that I'm overweight - yet.

I just like drinking this flavoured water. I drink a lot of water during the day anyway, so this just makes it nicer. If it gives me a flat belly, well that's just a bonus, but I'm not holding my breath...

Megan