Super Sprouts

With Christmas not long behind us I’m sure your immediate thought when reading the word “sprouts” is of the dreaded / loved Brussel Sprout.
In my family it is traditional that every year I be given my Christmas Sprout which will be placed on my dinner plate and ceremonially ignored.

Those of you who like me are not particularly enamoured with Brussels will be glad to hear that this is actually about Sprouted Seeds.

Sprouted seeds were one of the new “superfoods” that everyone went crazy about a few years ago and as a consequence you can now buy them in supermarkets as well as health food shops.
Bread made with sprouted quinoa and rye is now commonly available and you may have seen news articles warning of outbreaks of salmonella that began with a batch of sprouts.

What is Sprouting?

It is another name for the process of germinating a seed, just the same as you would if you wanted to grow the plant. A variety of seeds, nuts and pulses (which are seeds) can be sprouted for eating.

Why should I eat them?

You may see esoteric theories about the stored life within the seeds which is released during the sprouting process allowing you to ingest all of the stored life force that would have grown the plant

I can’t say that doesn’t happen, but for the sake of my non esoteric readers lets have a look at the scientific benefits

The process of germination has been shown to increase vitamin content, improve the quality of the proteins and to decrease phytates and protease inhibitors – see here for more details.
This means that eating the sprouted form of something you would normally eat non-sprouted should make the nutrients more bio-available.

Sprouting grains reduces the starch content in the grain which is why they are a popular ingredient in bread products. A loaf of bread made entirely with sprouted grains would have a far lower GI than one made with standard grains.

They are also something that everyone can grow at home. If you have room for a jar and access to a tap you can grow sprouts.
As you will be eating them straight from growing they are as fresh and live a food as you are likely to see!

Finally if you have kids they are a great thing for them to help you with – think how much fun you had growing cress on one of those cress-heads as a kid!

If you eat Chinese takeaways or stir fries it is likely you already eat at least one type of sprout – Beansprouts.

These are actually sprouted Mung Beans although the ones you put in your stir fry will normally be larger than the ones you would see in the health food shop or the salad section of the supermarket where you now find boxes of sprouts.
I find the prepacked bean sprouts from the supermarket come in bags far larger than I want for a stir fry and I’ve always ended up throwing out half a bag of slimy leftovers about a week later after completely failing to find anything else to put them in.

How can I get started?

OK, obligatory health and safety bit first.

Raw sprouts can contain bacteria including Salmonella, E-Coli and Listeria and eating them can make you very ill. As with all food safety the only way to be certain you have killed these bacteria is to cook the sprouts thoroughly.

My real world experience is that provided you’ve been careful in the sprouting process, stored the sprouts appropriately and eaten them within a sensible timeframe you should have no issues eating most sprouts raw.

As with anything please do your own research before chomping into raw sprouts on my say so.
I have personally eaten alfalfa and mung bean sprouts raw with no issues and will shortly be trying quinoa which I’m told is also fine raw.

You will need:

• Glass Jar/s
• Muslin / fine woven cloth
• Elastic band / string
• Seeds to sprout
• Water

Make sure your jars are really clean. You don’t need to sterilise them but they do need to be properly clean. I am currently using washed out cooking sauce jars – the 500g ones.

For this size of jar you will want about a Tablespoon of your chosen seed.

Some tougher seeds will need to be soaked for an hour or so. Smaller things like alfalfa won’t require this.

If you soaked your seeds drain them by fixing the muslin over the top of the jar with the elastic band to use like a sieve.

If you didn’t soak them then fill the jar about half full with water and then drain as described above

Leave the jar somewhere out of direct sunlight. Ideally in your kitchen as you will be rinsing a lot.

Rinse and drain the seeds 2-3 times per day
The rinsing is VERY important. The way people get sick from sprouts is due to a build up of bacteria on them. Each time you rinse you are washing away some of this bacteria and stopping it from getting out of hand

Within a few days you will see the sprouting beginning to happen

Your sprouts should be ready within a week – again this depends on what you are sprouting. Alfalfa takes about 3 days, Mung Beans a bit longer.

Some people choose to put the sprouts into the sunlight for the final day – this encourages the production of chlorophyll in sprouts that have leaves and increases the nutrient value. You’ll see the tiny leaves greening up if you do this.

How to eat sprouts

I like to simply munch on the Alfalfa sprouts – here’s a small tub I took to work this morning as a snack.

They can also be added to sandwiches and salads if you want to break up the flavour a bit.

Mung Beans are great for stir fries as mentioned above – the great thing about sprouting your own is that you won’t have mountains more than you want for a given meal (at least once you get used to how much you get out of them).

They also go well in vegetable curries, dhals, soups, stews and anything else you might put pulses into normally. Just pop them in during the last few minutes of cooking and you’ve added some home grown, fresh nutrition to your meal

Wishing you all successful sprouting!

R

All content provided on this “CurlyhairRach” blog is for informational purposes only. The owner of this blog makes no representations as to the accuracy or completeness of any information on this site or found by following any link on this site.  The owner of “CurlyhairRach” will not be liable for any errors or omissions in this information nor for the availability of this information. The owner will not be liable for any losses, injuries, or damages from the display or use of this information.

Fun with 5 a Day

Hi Again, remember me?

Its been a while since my last post so I’m jumping back in with a non recipe one as they are definitely less labour intensive!

In the last few days it was on the news that The new chair of the Royal College of GPs, Dr Helen Stokes-Lampard thinks that 2 fruit and veg a day is more realistic advice than 5 a day. 

If you read the article rather than just getting annoyed by the attention grabbing headline you will see that she is actually suggesting that you need to tailor advice to the individual and that for someone who eats next to no F&V (fruit and veg) aiming at 5 a day may seem so unattainable as to be a massive turnoff.

As someone who eats a lot of fruit and veg generally, and certainly knows they could be doing better on the days when I don’t, this seems bizarre to me!

However it did make me think of a colleague years back who actually did say she thought 5 was far too many and she aimed for 2-3 a day herself.

So I thought I’d do a quick post about the 5 a day thing.

5 portions of fruit or vegetables per day  is the minimum amount recommended by the UK government for a variety of health reasons.
Its said to reduce your risk of cancer, heart disease and stroke and provides vitamins and minerals which contribute to your overall health

The portion sizes laid down for this are actually fairly sensible:

• 1 apple, banana, pear, orange or nectarine
• 2 plums, kiwis or satsumas
• 7 strawberries – once you get to these smaller fruits I find it easier to use a good handful (depending on the size of your hands!)
• 2 broccoli spears
• 4 heaped tablespoons of cooked kale
• 3 heaped tablespoons of carrots, peas, sweetcorn
• 3 sticks of celery or a 5cm long chuck of cucumber
• 3 heaped tablespoons of pulses
• 200ml fruit juice

Simple Rules

• Potatoes don’t count. They are starchy and count more like bread or pasta in terms of nutrients. Sweet Potatoes however DO count
  
• It needs to be 5 DIFFERENT fruit and vegetables.
• Only 1 can be juice
• Only 1 can be pulses

Now this is all information that most of you probably already know and most of you will fall into one of 2 categories – either

A)    I eat loads of Fruit & Veg already so I’m fine
B)    I can’t possibly eat 5 so stop trying to make me

I’m mostly talking to the people in camp B here obviously, but my fellow camp A’ers – don’t get too smug just yet!

So camp B – you can’t possibly eat 5 a day huh?

How does this sound?

• Have a glass of fruit juice with breakfast – apple, orange, guava even – whatever you like the taste of – That’s 1
• Have a banana, or an apple or some grapes etc for your mid morning snack instead of those crisps – That’s 2
• Have baked beans on toast for lunch – its cheap, quick and even better – That’s 3
• Mid afternoon slump? Most people get one around 3pm – grab some raisins. Full of natural sugars to pick you up and now you’re at 4
• Tea time – just have any kind of veg with it – carrots, peas, whatever you like most – Congratulations you’ve hit ….
  

  5 a Day!

I’ve deliberately kept it to cheap, easy to find and prepare foods as I know a lot of people complain about the cost of eating well.

So camp A, have you noticed the flaw in my simple 5 a day plan?

How many are vegetables?  2 out of 5.
Ideally you should be aiming for the opposite ratio – 3-4 veg and 1-2 fruit.

The reason for this should be obvious – fruit has a lot of sugar in it.
Its natural sugars so not as bad as the shiny white stuff but its still going to rot your teeth, spike your blood glucose and do all the other things sugar normally does.

Now if you’re a hardcore camp B person – someone who’s last attempt at fruit & veg was a Terry’s Chocolate Orange for example – Ignore this issue entirely and chow down on the fruit!
Its better than nothing and you’re more likely to do it than jump straight into munching raw Kale.

I’m no angel here myself. Today so far I’ve eaten

• 1 satsuma
• 1 small banana
• 1 apple – as juice
• 1 lemon – as juice
• 1 portion of pineapple

I have another small banana and a satsuma on my desk which may not see the end of the day.

Veggie wise on the other hand I’ve eaten

• 1 portion of cucumber – as juice
• Approx. 1 portion of Kale – as juice
• Whatever the 1 portion of veg it supposedly is in a tin of Heinz Big Soup

As in my example above my fruit intake outweighs my vegetables.

I’ll try and make up the difference at teatime as its only 3.30pm here now and I don’t eat much fruit after work.

Some final thoughts on 5 a Day

Fruit

• I tend to eat my fruit earlier in the day. That way I can use the energy it provides for something useful
• Drink plenty of water with your fruit. It will wash out your mouth and help mitigate the tooth decay
  
• Try replacing one of your fruit snacks with veg sticks like peppers, celery, carrots or cucumber – hummus or baba ganoush make good dips and are both added veggies

Veg

• Get your greens – try to make sure some of the veg you eat at least are dark green. These have such health benefits
  
• Change your cooking.
  Don’t like overboiled stinking cabbage that reminds you of school dinners? Try sautéing it in some butter and garlic – toss in some lardons if you eat meat and don’t be afraid to squeeze some lemon juice over it once cooked.
• Swap your carbs – if you’re having mashed potatoes could you swap to sweet potatoes?

Whoever you are and whatever you currently eat, its unlikely that more fruit and veg in your diet will be a bad thing.
So get creative, visit your local markets, raid the reduced section in the supermarket and get those goodies into you!

R

All content provided on this “CurlyhairRach” blog is for informational purposes only. The owner of this blog makes no representations as to the accuracy or completeness of any information on this site or found by following any link on this site.  The owner of “CurlyhairRach” will not be liable for any errors or omissions in this information nor for the availability of this information. The owner will not be liable for any losses, injuries, or damages from the display or use of this information.

Exploring new food with the Reduced Section – Papaya

Recently I found myself buying an absurd amount of fruit out of the reduced section of the supermarket on my way home.

Amongst the “normal” fruit – mangoes, nectarines and strawberries, I found a large papaya. Reduced from £4 ($6) to 99p (about $1.5)

Now I wasn’t about to let a bargain like that pass me by, regardless of whether I knew what a papaya actually was or not!
I knew it was a type of exotic fruit and vaguely remembered seeing it as a yoghurt flavouring alongside things like mango and passion fruit so I was pretty sure it would be ok.

Preparation

I cut mine in half lengthways to reveal the bright orange flesh and a core of little black seeds.

I removed the seeds into the compost with a spoon in the same way you would with a butternut squash.
The seeds can technically be eaten, but can have some interesting side effects so I wouldn’t recommend eating them until you’ve looked into it a bit first.
I may post more about them in future if we decide to eat them ourselves.

The flesh of a ripe papaya is very soft and easily scooped out with a spoon.
If you’re feeling a bit 80s you could easily make papaya balls, especially as I would compare the taste to that of a Cantaloupe Melon although a touch more musky.
I just dug mine out and put it in a bowl – its only for me!

An interesting point to note about papaya is its smell.
Mine didn’t have a particularly strong smell, but what there was I would describe as slightly unpleasant. Having never tried one before I decided to ignore it and give it a chance on a taste test and it tasted fine.
From a bit of light Googling it seems that the larger varieties of papaya tend to smell quite unpleasant so please don’t let this put you off

Papaya Nutrition & Health Benefits

Papaya is currently a very fashionable “Superfood”, with many people lauding its amazing health benefits.
I’ve done a bit of research into its nutritional values when compared to the Cantaloupe Melon as I think they taste quite similar.

• The Melon has lower calories per 100g with 34 compared to Papaya’s 43.
• Sodium, Potassium, Protein and Vitamin A are significantly higher in the Melon.
• Fibre, Vitamin C, Calcium and Magnesium are significantly higher in the Papaya

More nutritional comparison

Low GI?
I found several websites claiming that Papaya is an excellent fruit for diabetics to eat because it has a very low GI. These websites tended to provide no reference for the claim so I checked for myself.
According to Diabetesnet.com, Papaya has a GI of 58.
When you compare this to Oranges which we know to be a very sweet fruit, they have a GI of 43.
I wouldn’t therefore call Papaya a low GI fruit and I certainly wouldn’t recommend it to a diabetic friend as such.
To be fair in my comparisons I should mention that the Cantaloupe Melon has a GI of 65.

Papaya’s unique benefits

• The papaya contains an enzyme called Papain which can help in the digestion of protein – in fact it is for this property that papaya is used to tenderise meat in various cultures.
• It also contains Lycopene – a carotinoid that has been showing some benefits in preventing cancer and heart disease
• As a bright orange fleshed fruit, papaya has all of the health benefits you would associate with high levels of carotene, and this has been shown to have greater bioavailability in the papaya than in carrots or tomatoes.

Conclusions

I enjoyed the papaya and would happily eat it again. Its lycopene content alone is enough to make it worthwhile.
It broke down very quickly once cut so I would recommend only cutting it up when you are ready to eat it – this is not a fruit that can sit ready prepared in the fridge for days on end.
Although the large papaya would have been very expensive at full price you can buy smaller ones for about £1 ($1.50) each so it doesn’t have to be a luxury item.
I tend to buy 1 or 2 “exotic” fruits per week to spice up the standard banana/apple/orange fruit bowl inhabitants and will be buying papayas in future especially if I see them on offer again.

I find that it goes very nicely with chunks of pineapple and the variety of having something else with it allows me to eat more at once (handy as the large ones are, understandably quite large)

R

//All content provided on this “CurlyhairRach blog is for informational purposes only. The owner of this blog makes no representations as to the accuracy or completeness of any information on this site or found by following any link on this site.  The owner of “CurlyhairRach” will not be liable for any errors or omissions in this information nor for the availability of this information. The owner will not be liable for any losses, injuries, or damages from the display or use of this information.//

Making better choices.

I’ve had a couple of “cheat days” recently.
This has always been my weakness when it comes to healthy eating. I normally do very well during the week when routines are in place.
Then the weekend comes and it all goes out of the window.

The usual excuses are never far away:
“I’ve had a long week”
“I’ve been so good, a bit of bad won’t hurt”
“X,Y,Z bad thing has happened so I deserve a treat for dealing with it“
and of course the ever convincing
“I just WANT to, ok?“

When I got in this afternoon and plonked myself on the sofa there were still some crisps left in the bottom of the bags from yesterday:

Of course I grabbed the bags and started nibbling.
Suddenly I realised what I was doing – mindlessly filling myself full of rubbish food.
I wasn’t even that bothered about the flavour, I just wanted something to munch on while watching TV.

So I got up and went to the kitchen. 2 minutes later I came back with this:

I ate them dipped in the remains of my Great Guacamole.
It was lovely and totally guilt free.
The raw, vegan, vegetable based dip being close to hand was a huge bonus.
Some people could find this a little bland without a dip, personally I love carrots and cucumber on their own.
You might argue that the crisps are nicer, but I honestly don’t think they were – I had a couple right before I changed my mind.

Nutritional Comparison

Now this is fairly obvious – the veg is better for you.
Below are a few quick comparisons to highlight why you might want to take 2 minutes to peel and cut something rather than open a bag.
Comparisons disregard the guacamole – its simpler and you might not choose that dip!

Chicken Flavour Crisps – 503 Calories per 100g. This is about 2/3’s of a large bag
Carrot & Cucumber – 57 Calories per 100g (cucumber – 16, carrot – 41). A medium carrot is only about 75g.

Chicken Flavour Crisps – 26.4g of Fat  per 100g
Carrot & Cucumber – 0.35g of Fat per 100g (cucumber – 0.11g, carrot – 0.24g)

The pack gives no data for the crisps on vitamin and mineral content. We can assume it’s negligible.

Cucumber contains 16% of your RDA of Vitamin K per 100g and plenty of water for hydration
Carrots contain per 100g:
104% RDA Vitamin A
77% RDA of Beta Carotene
11% RDA of Vitamin B6
13% RDA of Vitamin K

More information about carrots and cucumbers.

The crisps contain as many calories and probably more fat than a small meal, these are pretty empty calories providing minimal nutrition.
Alternatively the vegetables contain very few calories and give you some real nutritional benefits.

I know these won’t be the last bags of crisps I buy, but I’m pleased that just this once I stopped and thought about the choice I was making – it allowed me to make a better one!

Wishing you luck and enjoyment in your choices, whatever they are.

R

All content provided on this “CurlyhairRach blog is for informational purposes only. The owner of this blog makes no representations as to the accuracy or completeness of any information on this site or found by following any link on this site.  The owner of “CurlyhairRach” will not be liable for any errors or omissions in this information nor for the availability of this information. The owner will not be liable for any losses, injuries, or damages from the display or use of this information.