At the most general level there are three basic kinds of nutrients - proteins, carbohydrates and fats. While proteins and fats are digested relatively slowly, carbohydrates digest and are absorbed quickly, releasing a surge of glucose into the bloodstream. This sudden rise in blood sugar triggers the release of the hormone insulin, whose job it is to lower the blood sugar level. The insulin works to lower blood sugar by removing it from the bloodstream and storing it as body fat. The resulting drop in blood sugar can trigger feelings of hunger, sleepiness or low energy, which many people respond to by consuming more carbohydrates. Which the body turns into more body fat. And so continues the vicious cycle that is almost guaranteed to contribute to weight gain.

Now I’m not advocating a high-fat diet here. Research into the nature of dietary fats and their effect on our health since the inception of the high-carb, low-fat diet was introduced has shown that the dietary fat issue is more complex than was originally thought. In fact, some fats are good for your health - essential even. It’s not so easy as thinking all fats are bad… some fats are essential for good health, some are good for us, some are bad and some are really bad for our health. And if you haven’t updated your information on dietary fats for some time, the good and the bad may not be what you think they are. But really, this is just a disclaimer, the whole dietary fats story is one for another article. Let’s focus on carbohydrates for now.

All carbohydrates are converted to glucose in the body. And while a small amount of glucose in the bloodstream is essential for healthy brain functioning and energy, eating a diet high in carbohydrates can easily push the blood glucose over the limit, thus triggering the insulin response which ultimately converts that excess glucose into body fat. But this doesn’t automatically mean that all carbohydrates are bad. While there are definitely some “bad” carbohydrates that don’t offer much in the way of nutritional benefits, there are other carbohydrates that contain many nutrients and fiber that’s essential for good health.

What Is The Glycemic Index

The glycemic index measures how much your blood glucose rises after eating a particular food and ranks these foods from 0 to 100 based on the results. You can find a listing of foods and their glycemic index in the database at http://www.glycemicindex.com.

Foods with a glycemic value of 70 or above have a high GI (glycemic index), these foods will cause a rapid increase in blood glucose and insulin levels. Foods that fall between 56 and 69 have a medium GI, and will cause a moderate rise in blood glucose and insulin levels. Anything with a GI of 55 or less will produce only a small rise in blood glucose and insulin, so these are the foods you want to strive to eat more of, while reducing your intake of high GI foods.

How Can A Low GI Diet Help?

A low GI diet can help to control your weight by controlling your hunger. Remember, it’s the sudden rise and fall of blood sugar that makes you crave more carbohydrates. If you can interrupt that cycle, many of your food cravings will disappear.

Processed foods, like white flour, pasta, white rice, and processed cereals rank high on the glycemic index. Since most of the nutrition and fiber have been processed out of these foods they contribute little in the way of nutritional benefits, and the high glucose hit they provide will be turned into body fat, so they are best avoided.

There are however, some high or medium GI foods that are healthy and contain important nutrients essential to a healthy diet. The trick here is to moderate your intake of these foods as well as combine them with low GI foods so that the overall result is on the lower end of the scale. As well as listing the GI of individual foods, the database at http://www.glycemicindex.com also includes some common combinations of foods. If you look up the individual components to see what GI they have and compare that to the combined GI, you’ll start to get a feel for how different foods can influence the total GI of a meal.

Ingredients
2 cups brown lentils
1/2 cup quinoa
7-1/2 cups water
1-2 medium potatoes, diced
1/2 small sweet potato, diced
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 teas wheat-free tamari (or soy sauce if you aren’t on a wheat-free diet)
2 T miso
2 T tomato paste
mixed herbs (any of: oregano, thyme, tarragon, marjoram, sage, cumin)

Instructions:
Rinse and drain lentils, being sure to pick through them to make sure there are no stones. Rinse and drain quinoa. Add to slow cooker.

Dice potatoes and sweet potato, and chop garlic. Add to slow cooker along with herbs (dried or fresh and finely chopped), tomato paste and 6 cups of the water.

Cook on high for 3-1/2 to 4 hours. When the stew thickens and cooks down after about 2.5 hours add 1 additional cup water. Usually the lentils and quinoa will cook before the potatoes do, and potato cooking time will vary depending on how big the pieces are. Once everything is cooked, turn off the heat, add tamari and let set a further half hour.

Mix the miso and remaining 1/2 cup of water, then add to the stew and mix well.

Serves 6.

Serving Suggestions:

• Serve with grated parmesan on top
• Serve with toasted sesame seeds or gomasio (toasted sesame seeds and salt) on top for a vegan alternative
• Use barley instead of quinoa

Originally polenta was a rather bland peasant food, a type of corn mush, commonly eaten since Roman times. But recently polenta has been popularized in more exciting and tasty recipes which make use of fried or grilled polenta combined with cheeses and tomato sauces.

Ingredients:
3 cups instant polenta (G.M.O. free)
8 cups water
2 T olive oil
salt

Instructions:

Cooking Polenta

In a large pot add the water, a generous amount of salt and olive oil. Bring to a boil and let the water boil for a couple of minutes.

Remove the pot from the heat and quickly pour in all the polenta, stirring continuously with a wooden spoon.

Put the pot back on the stove and cook for 5-6 minutes on medium-high heat, stirring constantly.

Turn the heat off and let sit for 1 minute. Your polenta is now ready for use, or eating.

For a softer or firmer polenta add more or less water.

Serves 5-6.

Cautions:
Corn is such a delicious and versatile wheat-free grain alternative that you might be tempted to rely on it as a staple food. Unfortunately, too much reliance on corn as a staple can cause a vitamin deficiency disease called Pellagra.

Corn is a poor source of niacin (vitamin B3) and tryptophan which can cause your body to become deficient in these two essential nutrients if you don’t have a balanced diet. Take care to balance your corn intake with proteins a variety of sources, such as beans, and make sure you have an otherwise balance and varied diet.

Ingredients:
1 cup brown rice
1 cup fresh coconut juice
1 cup water
2 T fresh coconut, finely grated
dash of salt

Instructions:
Wash and drain brown rice and add to saucepan. Add water, coconut juice and salt. Cover saucepan and put on stove over medium heat.

Grate 2 T fresh coconut, if you are using it. Add to saucepan, and cover again.

When liquid starts to boil, turn heat down to low and simmer for about 45 minutes, covered. Turn off heat and leave to set, covered, for 10 minutes.

Fluff with fork and serve.

Serves 2.

Choosing A Coconut
First, a tip on choosing a coconut. If you find fresh coconuts in the shop, hold them up next to your ear and shake them. You should be able to hear the juice sloshing about inside. A fresh, mature coconut should have about a cup of juice. If you ever get an older coconut, you’ll notice that there’s not as much juice sloshing about, and it’s not as heavy (because the juice has dried up) as a fresher coconut.

Get The Juice Out

3 eyes of the coconut

There are 3 darker colored depressions (called ‘eyes’) on one end of a coconut. Make sure you have a good grip on the coconut and have it sitting on a hard surface, concrete or brick is ideal. Using a large, strong nail and hammer, pound the nail into one of the eyes. It’s pretty easy because the shell at those three spots is not a strong as the rest of the shell.

You should be able to break through the depression quite easily. Once you do, work the nail around in a circle to enlarge the hole. Make sure you pound the nail in far enough to pierce through the coconut flesh. Pierce the other 2 holes is the same way.

Now tip the coconut, holes down over a bowl or measuring cup and let the juice drain out. Make sure that air can enter through one or two of the holes, otherwise it will create a vacuum and the juice won’t be able to flow out.

Once you have poured all the juice out you can drink it, or set it aside to use in recipes, like my Coconut Rice recipe. It’s best to use it the same day if possible, and refrigerate if you are not going to use it right away.

Cracking The Coconut

Cracked Coconut & Juice

You want to make sure you have a firm grip on the coconut. It will tend to move and bounce as you’re trying to crack it. If you have a heavy, 3-pound hammer it will make your work a lot easier. Otherwise using the heaviest hammer that you have, hold the coconut in one hand and hit the shell with the hammer. You want to hit directly down on the shell, with a hard surface like concrete underneath it. Turn the coconut and try again from a different angle. Just keep working like this, at some point you will find a weak spot and the shell will crack. Once you have a crack in the shell, keep hammering along the crack to widen it.

Ideally, you want to break the shell into at least 3 pieces. This will make it easier to get the coconut flesh out.

Getting The Coconut Flesh Out Of The Shell

Prying A Strip Off

Take one of the pieces of shell, and holding it firmly use a strong butter knife to cut a line in the coconut flesh about a 1/4 inch (5mm) from one edge. The easiest way to do this is to hold the knife perpendicular to the coconut and push it into the flesh, then rock the knife back and forth a bit. Pull the knife out, move it along and do the same again until you have cut a line from edge to edge. Now insert the knife back into the cut line and rock the blade from side to side, prying the strip of coconut you have just cut. You’ll be able to pry the strip off this way.

Don’t worry if it looks like part of the shell is still attached. You can eat this, there is no noticeable taste to it. Just keep working strips like this until you have taken all the flesh off the shell. Experiment and you’ll get a feel for how wide a strip you can pry off. If you are having trouble, try working on a thinner strip of flesh.

Eating Your Coconut

Ready To Eat

I love eating the strips just as they are. But you can also grate the coconut for use in recipes. To grate it, just hold the strip on the brown side and using a fine grater, grate with the white side against the blade.

So that’s one way to crack a coconut. Tell me how you do it! Do you have any tips that make the job easier? Leave a comment and let me know.

I find this guacamole the perfect way to incorporate hempseed (or flaxseed) oil into my diet. Both types of oil contain high amounts of the essential Omega-3 oils, and since it’s important that you don’t heat the oils, this recipe is perfect. I noticed a marked improvement in my skin and hair health when I started taking hempseed oil. In addition to skin conditions, omega-3 helps with heart disease, depression and fatigue. Flaxseed or hempseed oil is highly recommended for women 35 and older because they are very rich in phytoestrogens.

Ingredients:
1-2 ripe avocados
1 lime, juiced
1/2 lemon, juiced (to taste)
1 T flaxseed oil (can substitute hempseed oil or cold-pressed, virgin olive oil)
1 clove garlic, very finely chopped or crushed
1/4 cup natural acidophilus yogurt
1/2 teas ground cumin
dash of sea salt or Himalayan pink salt to taste

Instructions:
Cut avocados in half and scoop the fruit out into a bowl. Remove any bits that are brown or black. Using a fork mash the avocado against the sides of the bowl to break up any big pieces.

Add the lime juice, lemon juice, oil, salt and cumin. Mash with a fork some more until the avocado is creamy.

Add yogurt and garlic and mix in thoroughly.

Serve with wheat-free corn chips or carrot and celery sticks if you’re on a low-carb diet.

Cooks Tip:
You can store the leftovers in the fridge overnight, the lemon/lime juice ensure that the guacamole will keep it’s color, and the garlic will keep it from going off. The flavor is even better the next day.

About Flaxseed Oil:
Flaxseed oil is one of the superfoods that I consider essential in a healthy diet. But it’s important that you use really high quality flaxseed oil, even though it may cost a bit more than the low quality products, this is one case where buying cheaper is definitely false economy. So when you are shopping for flaxseed oil, sometimes just called flax oil, look for brands that are organic, cold-pressed and stored in the refrigerator rather than on a shop shelf. You should always keep your flax oil in the fridge as well.

If you can’t find high-quality flaxseed oil locally, or you prefer to shop online (saves your fuel and time) here are my recommendations for high-quality flaxseed oil below:

• Barlean’s Flax Oil

Related products you might be interested in:

• Barlean’s Flax Oil
• Garlic Presses
• Himalayan Pink Salt
• Himalayan Pink Salt Bag
• Olive Oil

Soy Fried Tempeh

Tempeh is a traditional Indonesian soy food that’s high in protein and one of the few vegan foods that’s high in vitamin B12. It’s a delicious, low-fat, no cholesterol, gluten-free, high protein alternative to animal products. The soy beans are naturally fermented to aid in their digestion, but nothing about the taste of tempeh says fermented.

Ingredients:
1 block organic tempeh
olive oil
wheat-free tamari or shoyu (soy sauce)

Instructions:
Slice the tempeh as thinly as you can. The thinner, the better, aim for a thickness of 5 mm or less.

Put enough olive oil in a frying pan to just cover the bottom of the pan. Heat up the oil over a medium heat. When the oil is hot, lay the strips of tempeh in the pan.

Heat for 2-3 minutes, then sprinkle in the tamari or shoyu and shake the pan to keep the tempeh from sticking and to distribute the tamari. Continue to cook until the tempeh is golden brown on the bottom and turn. Fry the second side until golden brown and remove from the pan.

Serve and eat!

Cook’s Tips:

Fried Tempeh

This tempeh is great as a starter, either on it’s own or with a peanut satay sauce or sweet chilli sauce. It’s also great broken into pieces and thrown into a salad or stir fry. Put any leftovers in the fridge and use in a sandwich the next day.

Ingredients:
1 banana, chopped
1 granny smith apple, peeled, cored, diced
1 kiwifruit
1-2 handfuls frozen blueberries or mixed berries
3/4 cup apple or pineapple juice
1/2 cup organic yogurt or soy yogurt

Instructions:
Cut the kiwifruit in half, and using a spoon scoop out the flesh.

Add all ingredients to a blender or smoothie maker. Blend well.

Serves 2

Ingredients:
2-3 cups cooked quinoa, cooled
1 handful of mixed salad greens, roughly chopped or torn
1 handful of fresh mint, finely chopped
1 handful of fresh parsley, finely chopped
4 large leaves spinach, roughly chopped or torn
3-4 broad beans, shelled
1/4 red or yellow capsicum, finely sliced
1 carrot, grated
handful of almonds, roughly chopped
1/2 teas ground cumin
salt and pepper to taste

Dressing:
1/4 cup cold pressed extra virgin olive oil
1 lemon, juiced
1 teas wheat-free tamari (can substitute shoyu soy sauce if you don’t mind wheat)

Garnish:
sunflower and pumpkin seeds to garnish

Instructions:
If you cook a bit extra quinoa than you need, you can use the leftovers the next day in this salad. Otherwise, see my article on How to cook quinoa. Make sure it’s cooled before you mix it in with the other ingredients.

Toss all salad ingredients in a large bowl until mixed thoroughly.

Pour the dressing over and toss briefly to evenly distribute it.

Garnish and serve.

Serves 2.

Cook’s Tips:
This recipe uses very loose measurements because for recipes like this I encourage you to change and adapt them to your taste and the ingredients you have on hand.

Dried Quinoa

Quinoa is an ancient food that has been cultivated in the Andes mountains for at least 5,000 years. While it has been well-known in South America, it was virtually unheard of in North America until the 1980s. Considered sacred by the Incans, now it’s hailed as a ’super food’, and has been classified as a ’super crop’ by the United Nations because of it’s high protein content.

Pronounced KEEN-wah, quinoa is often thought of as a grain, and in fact it is often used in the same manner as many grains, but technically it’s a pseudocereal, a seed. The quinoa plant also produces nutritious edible greens as well as seeds, but the greens are not as commonly available as the seed. The seed can be cooked and used like you would rice, barley or couscous. It also comes as a flour, for baking, and can be sprouted.

Benefits of Quinoa

The amazing thing about quinoa is that it’s very high in protein and contains all 9 essential amino acids. Besides being 15-18% protein, quinoa is also high in calcium, iron, phosphorus and vitamins E and B, and contains a good amount of all-important fiber too.

Because of it’s high protein and complete amino acid makeup, quinoa should be considered a staple in any vegan’s or vegetarian’s diet, but you don’t have to be a vegetarian to enjoy it. It’s so high in protein that only half a cup will fulfill a child’s protein requirements.. It’s extremely versatile, being used in both sweet and savory dishes, puffed, rolled, and ground into a flour. The real clincher though, is that it tastes great too.

Quinoa is high in saponins, which have been found to have anti-cancer properties. Saponins block the development of cancer and boost the immune system. Saponins, also found in chickpeas and responsible for the layer of foam that appears on the top of the water during boiling, produce a bitter taste. The taste discourages birds and insects from from eating the seed - it’s the plant’s natural defense. Despite their anti-cancer benefits, saponins can be mildly toxic in large quantities. Even though most quinoa sold commercially has been processed to remove most of the saponins, it’s a good idea to rinse well before cooking.

How do you cook quinoa?

Cooked Quinoa

Quinoa is easy to cook, and it takes only 15 minutes. You need 2 cups of water for every 1 cup of dried quinoa.

Put the quinoa in a fine sieve and rinse thoroughly under running water. Put 1 part quinoa to 2 parts water and a dash of sea salt into a saucepan. Bring to a boil on high heat then turn down to simmer, partially covered, for 15 minutes. If there is excess water in the bottom of the saucepan, remove lid and continue to cook for another minute or so until it evaporates.

How To Use Quinoa

The cooked quinoa can now be used in savory dishes as you would use use rice or couscous. Added to bread dough or pancake batter it boosts the protein content and adds a nice texture. Or you could add dried fruit, honey, milk and cinnamon for a sweet breakfast porridge.

No matter how you use it you’ll find quinoa as delicious as it is nutritious.