Lifestyle Choices

There are many self-help activities that can help elevate the mood of seniors:

• Mild exercise — going for a walk is a pleasant way to pass time and keep the blood circulating and the joints supple.
• Music — listen to one’s favourite songs and sing along. Better still, invite friends for a sing-along session. It is more fun when done in the company of others.

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Infection

Certain food poisoning bacteria other than staphylococci can infect food and grow in it without detectable taste or smell. Then, when the food is eaten, these germs gain access to the gut of the consumer, multiply there and cause a typical gastroenteric form of poisoning.

An example of this type of infection is that caused by the Salmonella group of bacteria. These germs are normally carried in the gut by pigs, poultry, cows, bullocks, sheep, domestic animals and rodents, and, to a lesser extent, human beings. Eggs (especially duck), egg powder and milk can also be affected. (more…)

For the protection of your family, watch for the unsuspected dangers that lurk in your kitchen

“The standard of food hygiene in this I country must be raised.” That statement has been voiced in the press, on the radio, in Parliament, even on the village green, with increasing frequency during the past few years. And rightly so, for it concerns us all. But it is the housewife particularly who has it in her power to see that the standard is raised. (more…)

This is the most important step of all, for no house can be a real home unless those who live there hold ideals that are kind, noble, and good. Without high ideals it is easy for even the best of homes to drift apart. There must always be some things that will hold the family together, such as family worship, in which all the members may share. These happy occasions are not likely to come by accident but must be carefully planned by the parents. (more…)

Many parents hold to the foolish idea that money is the important thing in life. As a result they neglect their children and fail to spend sufficient time in their training. This is a serious mistake. Money is always useful, but material wealth alone will never guarantee a happy home. In fact, it might have the opposite effect.

Although a good bank account might be a fine asset to any well-trained young person, it could be a menace to one who has never had adequate training. When such a person inherits a large fortune, he may quickly lose it on useless investments. Or as it sometimes happens, he may try to dominate those around him by giving or withholding money. In the end no one is happy. (more…)

What does cooking do to food? When properly carried out, it greatly improves the flavor. Cooking changes the chemical composition and often makes the foods more digestible. The heat helps to destroy many harmful germs. But do not overlook the fact that one serious type of food poisoning known as botulism may arise from the use of vegetables that have not been properly canned or preserved.

Under proper, germ-free conditions many foods can be preserved indefinitely, such as in canning. However, one should be careful when opening a can not to introduce germs into the food from outside. Carefully wash the container before opening it. (more…)

Rain and snow are the original sources of all our drinking water. Raindrops are formed from the heavy vapor that arises from the sea. As the clouds pass over the land, they condense into drops of rain or flakes of snow. We are all familiar with the fact that a rainstorm clears the air, washing it clean and free from dust and smoke.

Raindrops are usually free from germs, although they may contain a little dust and perhaps a few harmless microbes. Trouble starts when the raindrops strike the surface of the earth. The rain that collects on cultivated fields, farmyards, and city streets may contain many different kinds of germs, some of which are harmful to man. Many of these germs found on the ground have come from the digestive organs of animals and human beings. These are the bacteria that often cause serious intestinal diseases.

But the trouble is not always with water that falls onto the ground. People who use tanks and cisterns must also be careful. Roof water may be almost as badly contaminated with germs that have found their way there by dust blowing up from the street. There is also the problem of germs from the droppings of birds. Tank or cistern water should always be boiled or sterilized. (more…)

It is easy to adapt all of the recipes and meal plans. Here are some simple suggestions for making the recipes vegetarian:

• Replace the meat or fish in a recipe with Portobello mushrooms or aubergine, but remember that this will raise the carbohydrate levels in the recipe. You will also need to take extra whey-protein drinks and maybe increase your intake of nuts and high protein snacks to keep your protein levels high enough.

• Cook with tofu instead of the meat or fish. However, tofu has a quarter as much protein per gram as meat and a third as much as most fish. This means that not only should you replace the meat or fish in a recipe with a higher amount of tofu, but you should also add whey-protein powder to the recipe or supplement your meal with a whey-protein shake.

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Women hate being efficient in the home. Lists and routines simply do not fit into the pink-check-gingham.. and-lace mental picture of the soap opera mother, which so many of us were brought up to be. When you become a working mother with any luck you will get twice as much out of life, but you can’t run your house as if you weren’t working. A working mother has to work faster and more efficiently in the home. She has to be twice as reliable outside it because people expect her not to be.

I have evolved my own system, which I slowly slip away from, but it pulls me back to reality at regular intervals, and heaven knows what I would be like without it. (more…)

There are obvious disadvantages to a child in having a working mother but there are less obvious advantages. Children with working mothers certainly don’t suffer from smother-love — over-fussing. They learn to be realistic, independent, responsible and sometimes stoical, no mean preparation for the toughness of life.

Your children risk having a mother who’s not permanently on tap for them but who is likely to have a younger outlook and be more tolerant and open to new ideas (although I did hear myself saying to my older son during that craze, `I don’t know how you can walk on those high heels’). (more…)

Make your own decisions: Althoughspecialists may be useful to analyse asituation and suggest solutions, theycannot run your life for you. Onceyour choices are clarified, use yourcommon sense to make your owndecisions. Then force yourself to bepessimistic, to look for the snags inthe arrangements and face them.

Don’t opt out because you don’tunderstand your position. Make your adviser explain it all again until s you do understand it, and so can be b responsible for deciding which path e you want to take. Be prepared to be f responsible for your own decisions. y Life is a risk. Nothing is certain inthis world and there is no guaranteed le security, financial, intellectual or d emotional. Security lies in your own st self-reliance to deal with the problems of life. You will make some right decisions and some wrong ones. Pay the penalty for the wrong ones, cut your losses and start again. (more…)

Behavioral psychologists begin with the notion that eating behavior is learned and maintained as a result of interaction between you and your environment. And their definition of environment includes everything around you—people, events, things you see and respond to. These psychologists are not very interested in deep-seated motives for compulsive eating and they acknowledge that there is nothing you can do to change your genetic inheritance. But what you can do, they say, is to get to grips with overweight by looking at it as a voluntary disorder brought about by habit and environmental stimuli (remember how the habit of eating at certain times or the sight of food triggers hunger in overweight people). Change your environment, they say, and you will alter your habits and your eating patterns so you lose weight and keep it off. (more…)

Forget about counting kilojoules, but accept that they are not all equal. By now you know that unnecessary kilojoules gained from fat are the biggest contributors to your excess weight and detractors from your general well-being. You might as well also accept the fact that the enjoyment of fat-rich foods started off as a habit; one that perverted your taste buds to favour certain kinds of foods -the fatty kind, usually concocted into a fat feast with the addition of refined starch, sugar and/or salt. And I daresay, a habit that possibly grew into full-blown emotional dependence on the sensual comfort they provide - a dependence that hampers emotional growth in the long run and pushes you further into the vicious cycle of eating to feel better, only to wake up feeling worse.

But simply removing fat from the cooking process would mean removing a great deal of taste and juiciness as well. And you should also know that in the long run, bland and fat-free food could cause you to abandon your healthy eating plan. (more…)

How should you cook in a healthy and conserving way and yet still be able to enjoy the results of your efforts? Consider in the first place whether the food, in fact, needs to be cooked for lengthy periods of time. A healthy diet depends to a large degree on foods that are as near to their natural state as possible, thus retaining their vitamin content and nutritional value.

Vegetables should be absolutely fresh, preferably young, and they should be prepared with the minimum of wastage. Fresh raw vegetables and fruit are highly nutritious and retain most of the minerals, vitamins, trace elements, and fibre often destroyed by cooking. They are also good for the teeth and digestion. You can eat the overwhelming majority of vegetables raw, after thorough preparation, which includes washing them thoroughly to remove any trace of possible pesticide residues. You should peel some vegetables, including commercially grown carrots, for the same reason. Raw root vegetables, potatoes apart, are excellent grated and have better, more distinct flavours than when cooked. Leaf and stem vegetables should always be perfectly fresh whether you intend to eat them raw or cook them, since the vitamin and mineral contents decline rapidly once they are harvested. (more…)

Breakfast smoothie

A complete meal in a glass, blended so that you can drink it justbefore rushing out of the door. Vary the fruit you use (although choose low-GL ones such as apples, peaches, oranges, plums and apricots, and keep within 10D per person) to keep it interesting and to get a range of different nutrients.

SERVES 1

1 tbsp seeds (such as linseeds, pumpkin, sunflower or sesame seeds) (optional)

150g (5¹/2oz) live, organic natural yogurt, or soya yogurt ¹/2 banana

1 punnet of berries, about 1 00g (31/2oz) (use frozen berries when fresh ones are out of season)

A little lemon or apple juice (if necessary) (more…)

Each of these breakfasts provides 10 GL to comply with the GL guidelines for main meals. They are designed to fill you up rather than fatten you. I f you lack inspiration or energy in the morning, the low-gl Get up and go is a great solution.

Porridge

Oats are full of soluble fibre for healthy digestion and release their energy very slowly to keep you filled up all the way through to your snack and lunchtime.

SERVES 1

35g (11/4oz) whole porridge oats

225ml 18fl oz) water (the guide is two parts water to one part oats)

1 tbsp seeds (such as any combination of pre-cracked linseeds, sunflower, sesame and pumpkin seeds)

A little xylitol to sweeten or a sprinkling of Solo or other low-sodium salt, to taste (optional)

1. Place the oats and water in a pan. Bring to the boil then gently simmer, stirring, until the porridge thickens and the oats soften.
2. Stir the seeds into the porridge and spoon into a bowl.
3. Sprinkle with xylitol or the salt, if using.

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WEEK 3 AND BEYOND – ACHIEVING YOUR TARGETS

By days 16 to 21 you will begin to feel the benefits of being on the diet. Your skin will have a healthy glow, your clothes will start to fit better and you will be getting used to using and portion sizes. Most people by this stage are feeling so good that they are contemplating adopting the low-GL principles for life, not justfor three weeks.

DAY 1

Breakfast Breakfast smoothie

Lunch Chicken, sun-blush tomato and pine nut salad (more…)

WEEK 2 STAYING ON TRACK

Days 8-14 are about staying on track and motivated. So, you’ve kept your cravings at bay for seven days. That’s cause for celebration. Part of the low-GL philosophy is to separate treats from food, so instead of reaching for high-GL snacks or a glass of celebratory wine, why not reward yourself with a different kind of treat? Giving yourself (non-food) treats is very important as it helps you to celebrate and recognise the progress you are making.

DAY 1

Breakfast Breakfast smoothie

Lunch Deli-style pastrami open rye sandwich

Dinner Pesto-baked salmon with boiled baby new potatoes and roasted vegetables

Snacks 1 slice pumpernickel-style rye bread with nut butter/celery and ¹/2 carrot made into crudites with guacamole (more…)

The Low-GL Diet is all about freshness, variety, flavour and enjoyment. No foods are banned (although the quantities are limited) and there is scope for infinite variety. Adjusting to your new way of eating couldn’t be easier as the first three weeks of the diet are planned out for you day by day. The idea is to give you time to get used to the quantity and balance of foods on the diet. Once you’re familiar with the portion sizes and with the basic rules, you can adapt the recipes, create your own, or swap meals from one day to another.

WEEK 1 - GETTING STARTED

Days 1-7 are all about enthusiasm and getting started. Encourage yourself to achieve early successes by keeping strictly to the daily menus. There will be a few ingredients such as quinoa, miso soup and tahini that you may not be used to using every day — but enjoy the experimentation, and give yourself time to get used to new cooking methods and flavours. (more…)

Store-cupboard staples

These staple ingredients will ensure that you are always able to rustle up a low-GL meal at a moment’s notice.

• Low-GL Get Up & Go (a delicious smoothie mix that you blend with fruit.)
• Xylitol (a naturally sweet, low-carb sugar alternative that has 40 per cent fewer calories than sugar).
• Low-sodium salt, or sea salt (to be used in moderation). -*Black peppercorns.
• Marigold Reduced-salt Vegetable Bouillon powder.
• Whole organic rolled oats and oat flakes.

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