Wizard Recipes

Apart from breastmilk, no single food contains all the essential nutrients the body needs to be healthy and function efficiently. The nutritional value of a person’s diet depends on the overall balance of foods that is eaten over a period of time, as well as on the needs of the individual. A healthy diet is likely to include a large number or variety of foods, from each of the food groups, as this allows us to get all the nutrients that we need.

We need energy to live and this is provided by the carbohydrate, protein and fat in our diets. But the balance between these nutrients must be right for us to remain healthy. Getting the right amounts of vitamins, minerals, dietary fibre and water is also important for health.

So what becomes as important as the type of foods we eat, is the amount and frequency that we include different foods in our diet. All foods can be part of a healthy diet, so you don’t have to give up the foods that are a real treat, as the key message is that it is the overall balance of foods that is important for health.

The food groups

We can think of all foods as belonging to one of five different food groups:

• Bread, rice, potatoes, pasta and other starchy foods
• Fruit and vegetables
• Milk and dairy foods
• Meat, fish, eggs, beans and other non-dairy sources of protein
• Foods and drinks high in fat and/or sugar.

We will look at these food groups in more detail on the following pages, but let’s first think about the proportions of these food groups in our diet.

Our diets should be based on bread, rice, potatoes, pasta and other starchy foods and rich in fruit and vegetables. A variety of foods from these two groups should make up two-thirds of the food we eat. Most of the remaining third of the diet should be made up of milk and dairy foods, meat, fish, eggs, beans and other non-dairy sources of protein, with limited amounts of foods and drinks high in fat and/or sugar.

It might be helpful for you to think of your diet as a big plate, with sections representing the different food groups. This is the healthy eating model that we use in the UK to describe a healthy varied diet and it is called the eatwell plate.

You should aim to achieve this balance every day, although it is not necessary to achieve it at every meal.

This guide is appropriate for most people over the age of two years, including: vegetarians; people of all ethnic origins; people who are a healthy weight for their height as well as those who are overweight; and pregnant women. People under medical supervision or with special dietary requirements may want to check with their doctor if this general description of healthy eating applies to them.

Children under the age of two years have high energy needs compared to their size and capacity for food so some of the foods (especially those low in fat or high in fibre) included on the eatwell plate are not suitable for them. But between the ages of two and five years, children can make a gradual transition towards the type of diet depicted in the eatwell plate.

For most healthy people, eating a healthy varied diet will provide all the vitamins and minerals the body needs. There are certain times in our lives when we may benefit from taking supplements, e.g. when you are thinking about having a baby or when you get older and you need to take a vitamin D supplement. But you should remember that supplements cannot replace a healthy diet.

Here are two easy examples to help you see that by making very simple changes to your diet, you can easily achieve the right proportions of different food groups within a meal.

Pizza:

Pizza can contain ingredients from the four main food groups:

• A dough base – from the  bread, rice, potatoes, pasta and other starchy foods group
• Tomato puree and other vegetables such as mushrooms, sweetcorn and peppers – from the fruit and vegetable group
• A moderate amount of cheese, or low fat cheese - from the milk and dairy foods group
• A moderate amount of ham or tuna - from the meat, fish, eggs, beans and other non-dairy sources of protein group.

Bacon sandwich:

A bacon sandwich can contain ingredients from three main food groups:

• Two slices of thick cut wholemeal bread – from the  bread, rice, potatoes, pasta and other starchy foods group
• Lean, grilled bacon – from the meat, fish, eggs, beans and other non-dairy sources of protein group
• The sandwich can be filled with plenty of lettuce and tomato and served with a glass of pure fruit juice or a piece of fruit – from the fruit and vegetable group
• If served with a glass of low fat milk, all four groups would be met.

Two of the most nutritious plants in the world are weeds- wild spinach and nutrient-rich grass- and some traditional dishes like the Mediterranean ones, are frequently using wild green plants, herb or spices. The surrounding fields and woods are full of plants that contain higher levels of phytochemical substances than their domesticated relatives. Why? Because of the fact that these plants had to defend themselves against pests and diseases. For along time, man has selected and cultivated the sweet plants, many of the compounds that plants produce to defend themselves have a bitter taste. Also, wild green plants are generally richer in omega-3 fat acids than their domestic relatives, who have been selected precisely to resist more after they are collected.

If you have the chance, eat meat from wild animals. Generally the meat from hunted animals contains less saturated fat and more omega 3 fat acids than the meat from domestic animals. The hunted animals that we eat have a varied nutrition, based more on plant than on cereals. (The nutritional profile of cattle raised on pasture is very similar to that of hunted meat)

Generally, wild fish have higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids than farmed fish, which are often fed with grain. If we judge by the experience of the population who consume a lot more fish, like Japanese, it would be possible that eating several times more wild fish every week we could reduce the risk of heart affections, live longer and maybe we could be even happier.

I still hesitate to recommend you wild species because many of them are in danger of extinction; many wild fish almost disappeared because of overfishing. So far, all the recommendations offered comply with your health and the environmental health. Most of them come to support agricultural practices that enhance soil and water health. Unfortunately it is in this case not recommended. There are too few animals and wild fish left (except deer and wild pigs) so that we can reduce them by hunting them. Luckily, some of the most nutritious fish species like salmon, mackerel, sardines and anchovies, are well managed and in some cases, there are even plenty of them. So do not forget this full of fat fishes.

Eat products grown and cultivated on healthy soils.

It would be easier to say “eat organic products“, it is true that certified organic nourishment is usually properly cultivated or grown on healthier soils- soils fed with organic matters. Yet, there are some farmers in America that don’t have attested organic food,  but whose products must not be overlooked. The “organic” mark is important, but it is not the only key for the production of quality food.  In fact supermarkets are full of processed organic food products that are just a little bit better, at least in terms of health, than their conventional equivalents.

Organic cream cookies aren’t a healthy food product. When an organic Coca-Cola will be launch, what will happen for sure, then it will be probably a big strike in ecological terms, but not for our health. Most of the consumers expect automatically that the mark “organic” is a synonym with “healthy“, but the fact that the corn syrup with high fructose from your soft drinks, is organic, is not at all an advantage for the metabolism of insulin.

Yet, the superiority of real food grown on healthy soils seems to be obvious. More and more studies support the hypothesis which was first launched by Sir Albert Howard and J.I. Rodale; soils that are rich in organic matters produce nutritious food. Recent some comparisons made between organic and conventional crops have shown that several plants from organic crops had much higher levels of antioxidants, flavones, vitamins and other nutrients. But of course after been carried for several days by truck, any fresh product loses its nutritional quality, therefore it would be good to search not just for organic food but also local organic food.

Psychologists proved, the most of us eat according to external signals, especially the visual ones. The bigger the portion of food, so much more we will eat; the bigger the plate, so much more we pour soup, the more we buy if the wending machine is nicely arranged and the more we will eat, if the bowl with M&M’s is closer to us.

All of this makes us easy targets for the alimentary producers and advertiser that want just to sell us more and more food. Like many others branches of our modern life, the food industry, has become a visual culture. But for the eating process, it’s better to till also our other senses, which often provide more useful and accurate information that are useful for our own body.

Is the third bite of dessert better than the first?

Could I continue to eat? But am I still hungry?

It seems that the human brain needs 20 minutes to get the information that the stomach is full; unfortunately the most of us eat in less than this 20 minutes, as result the feeling of satiety is influencing in a little way or not at all, the quantity which is consumed.

This means that by eating more slowly and being more careful for the satiety sensation, we could learn to eat less. French’s know this better than us, Brian Wansink proved it. When asked when to stop eating, the French subjects answered “when I feel full” (what a brilliant idea! Americans answered “when there’s nothing else on the plate” or “when I’m fed up”)

Maybe that’s why the long and relaxed meals allow French’s to know when they are sated. When we will learn to eat slower and will pay attention to our senses, than we could change the external signs that guide us. The idea is that it’s better to self-manipulation than traders-manipulation.

You will find a lot of tips in the recent work of Wansink, Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think, but I prevent you that all will hurt your quality of free will. Eat little portions, in little plates, eat and drink from small recipients (even if it means to reassign the products from gigantic packages into little containers); leave your food rests on the table- empty bottles, bones and so on-  so that you can see how much you eat. Use tall glasses instead of the wide ones; leave the healthy food at sight and hide the unhealthy ones; leave the food containers from where you served in the kitchen so that you are not tempted for a second round