I'm a 5:2 faster, maintaining at around 10 stone for my height of 5'6". I believe in 80:20 i.e. 80% healthy and 20% indulgence. Obsession isn't good.

dj your link is just a portal though, there's no supermarkets where you can do most of your weekly shopping, just lots of independents - some very small with limited product ranges e.g. tea only. It would be easier to buy from the major supermarkets. There's nothing in my local area either.

M0nica I followed the Bio-Coop link in Mamie's post and it certainly looks like a big organisation. My Mum uses her local butcher because in addition to doing his own butchery, he also makes his own meat products like the delicious steak pie Scotland is famous for and what I miss the most being a veggie.

That's the point of it, Wilma. It's a super market for organic produce.
However, I have discovered a farm shop closer than my local supermarket to go to. I will try it and see.

Mamie, Our house is in a small town between Coutances and St Lo. We shop mainly in Coutances, because it is the nearer of the two, although that makes little difference because the main supermarkets in both are Leclerc and Inter Marche.

As we have a very good local butcher, he regularly has boards outside announcing the prizes he has won for his charcuterie in various Concours Gastronomique that we rarely buy meat at the supermarket and, as you say, then always buy Red Label.

I love the charcuterie prizes! Only in France.

My local pig producer/butcher in the UK did win first prize in a European Concours Gastronomique for his dry-cured smoked bacon.

But dj it's basically a search facility, that's all. I use a local farm shop for a few things (not showing through your link btw), but it doesn't sell stuff like cleaning products, toiletries, etc., like the chain in France Mamie posted about. Biocoop has almost 350 stores and sells organic produce, eco friendly products, fair trade products, toiletries and cosmetics - more than 8000 products. The shops can be small or as big as the one in the photo. Not sure though if the fair trade products are what we would buy, or if the fair trade refers to French products. It's been around for more than 20 years too. I'm impressed.

I must admit that for those I use www.ethicalsuperstore.com

I call it local because they are in Gateshead, but I get stuff delivered.
I agree it would be good to have stores like that all over the country. Perhaps if more people used them, there would be more, but people complain about having to pay a few pence extra for fairtrade and organic.

I've been reading up on this and the Soil Association (nearly took a job there) did a case study of biocoop in 2011 for a conference as part of the Make Local Food Work initiative (finished now). It talked about France having a large and growing population of consumer activists (rough translation) who support their local biocoop shops. It sounds like in the UK our organic produce infrastructure is about 15 years behind France and we're still at the stage of setting up local initiatives (that's partly what the Make Local Food Work initiative was about). The problem is the dominance of the major supermarkets who sell 75% of organic produce in the UK and the fact that the market has shrunk, not grown in recent years - not by much, but still going the wrong direction. The power of the major supermarkets might mean there's no appetite here to take them on, as there was/is in France. Part of the reason for starting co-ops was to stop small and medium sized farmers going out of business. Hope things change.

I think the Fair Trade label means roughly what it does in England, you also see "équitable" on products. Our local co-op has been stocking excellent olive oil from organic producers in Tunisia which we have been buying in a very small effort to help their economy.
There is no doubt that there is a big focus on supporting local farmers and producers in France though. Sometimes it makes shopping a bit samey and we fall on Lidl's Italian week with joy!
Off to Spain for three weeks this week. We have found one organic shop where we are going and Carrefour has some organic stuff in their stores, but suspect it is not as well developed there.

My experience of shopping in France is that while the French supermarkets go big on local produce, it is not always easy to find organic food. Most food chains, and other chain stores in France are franchises rather than branches of the main company, the more common arrangement in the UK so this makes local more important - and they do do that very well.

The selection of organic fruit and vegetables in the Leclerc I use is very poor compared with my local Waitrose in the UK and other organic foods are stocked with health foods rather than on the main food shelves.

You do not find farm shops in France they way we have them in Britain. I beleive that is something to do with how the tax system works. However a lot of farms sell at the farm. We can get a list of of farmers selling at the farmgate from the local mairie. The disadvantage of this is that they have variable and unreliable opening hours, which means while we have an award winning organic cider maker just down the road from us, and his cider is really delicious, we find fitting in with his openeing times so complicated we end up buying cider at the supermarket.

Last time I went to the dentist she mentioned my gums were showing I was a bit rundown and suggested I take a multivitamin for older women. I was surprised as I feel I eat healthily, with plenty of fruit/veg, take exercise etc. Anyway ordered some multivits but can't honestly say I feel any different. Will be interesting to see what dentist says next week when I go for check-up.

Ms Grumbley says . As yet no cookbook particularly targeting the older person. I have a cookbook by Marguerite Patten called Eat Well Stay Well. Published in 1989. It's a good all round cookbook with lots of delicious recipes aimed at the young at heart. On the downside, it may not be in print anymore, I got my copy in a charity shop. But I'm sure if there was a call for it Hamlyn might consider re-publishing it.

It looks like it's out of print, but it is available in Amazon's Marketplace for as little as £2.81 (1p plus P&P)

Eat Well Stay Well

DeeWhyO I've never heard of that before. I did read gum disease can affect other parts of the body like the heart, but to say your gums showed you looked a bit run down is different. If she thought you were anaemic, a multi vitamin might help you a little but I'd have thought she say see your doctor. Makes you wonder what she saw!

It is harder because you need to keep off processed food but you just get used to it.

Being new to this blogging business, I found a few local difficulties, like the title was changed so I was unaware that it was my blog being posted. Then I had forgotten where to find “blogs” and when attempting eventually to respond to posts, couldn’t post them, which is why I have not commented on those who’ve commented on my blog.

Yes, my married name really is Grumbley, which I switched from Nixon in 1973 at the height of Watergate: if you remember, Richard Nixon was president.

Jinglbellfrocks hopes that toast loaded with marmalade is OK. Errrm, as long as the toast is wholemeal, and marmalade has a lot of sugar in it, so only very occasionally, as a treat. We need to vary our diet as much as possible to absorb the variety of vitamins, minerals etc. If you want to make a jam tart, make it, and even eat some of it. The pastry should have wholemeal flour; pastry is fat held together with flour; and jam is just sugar. The less sugar you eat the less you will feel the urge for sweet things – for most of us. But we are all different.

Maybe it’s just luck that I actually really enjoy foods that are good for me and it has become a habit, so I’m disgustingly smug. Unless alcohol is classed as a food, which it is – and now we are told we shouldn’t be drinking any – oops!

WEIGHT MANAGEMENT I find one way to keep down weight and maximise vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals, anti-oxidants, etc is to avoid starch: potatoes, rice, bread, pasta, pastry, quinoa, ie complex carbohydrates. This means we have to get our carbohydrates from the vegetables and fruit we eat. The starch in our diet gives us energy, and essential, but we do not find that our energy levels have diminished. After all, we are retired now, although we do a lot of exercise. And this has nothing to do with those carbohydrate exclusion diets: it came instinctively, to cut down on quantity rather than quality.

We don’t eat biscuits, cakes, desserts, or anything sweetened: just fruit. I’m aware that the purists tell me that fruit, and many high sugar vegetables, are just largely sugar: a simple carbohydrate. However, incorporated with the fruit is fibre – very important – and a whole load of anti-oxidants, phytochemicals, vitamins and minerals, so please purists, remember that.

LOW BLOOD SUGAR AND/OR DEHYDRATION This becomes more difficult to manage as we age. Metabolic Disorder and Diabetes are extreme versions of low blood sugar and Dr Michael’s?? latest diet (after 5:2, surely the easiest and healthiest weight loss diet with which to stick! And no, he’s not paying me) is worth taking on board. Sometimes when we are just feeling blah, tired and irritable, it could be simple dehydration and/or low blood sugar levels. You’re not sickening for anything; it’s not the medication: it’s just that you do not have enough fluid circulating or enough of the appropriate foods. We really need those two litres of fluids, preferably water, daily, and we do need to eat small meals three to four times a day.

This is where we come back to carbohydrates, which boost blood sugar levels. Simple carbohydrates (anything sweet) will give an almost immediate boost, but it will make your aging pancreas work hard. Within fifteen minutes your mood and fatigue will lift, but subsequently your blood sugar levels will drop, so that you are in an even worse mood, and more tired. So complex carbohydrates come in, and my choice is oatcakes, as they are whole oats, with no sugar, and they gradually lift your mood/fatigue. Peanuts or any beany food (hummus) will also gradually push up your blood sugar levels, as they have a low glycaemic index.

ABDOMINAL FAT (WilmaKnickersfit) As for fat tummies as we age, I regret it’s the collapse of connective tissue after the menopause. It happens to some women more than others, it happens to women who have been slim all their lives, it happens particularly to women, (not fair!) and at different stages. As we lose muscle tone on our bottoms, they simply sag and our bottoms flatten. But because there’s a lot more connective tissue associated with the fat on our tummies and waists, it is much more noticeable. You can slim all you like, and lose the fat, but once the connective tissue has lost its elasticity, no amount of time in the gym or tummy exercises is going to do any good to the saggy bits, and that includes “bingo wings” (triceps).

DENTIST (DeeWhyO) As we age we do not absorb the essentials from the food as efficiently, (aging means that nothing works as well as it used to, sadly) which is why at some time we may need to boost with supplementary vitamins and minerals. Another common problem is dehydration, and in the mouth it means less saliva, which protects our teeth and gums. So drinking water does not help in this situation, but according to the latest Saga magazine, chewing gum does, disgusting though that is!

OLD AND VEGETARIAN COOK BOOKS (ElroodFan and others) How we eat should have changed in line with research, so although older cookery books may have delicious recipes, it is not ideal to stay with these eating patterns, unless the recipes are modified to incorporate healthier eating practices. At least older books all start with the premise that everything should be cooked from scratch, which is essential for healthy eating. Personally I find that food from recipes that are not put together by chefs is often dull, but no doubt worthy: I very rarely cook the same thing again, without at least some tweaking, but that’s me. So I go to the library and take out endless cookbooks, as I perhaps complete only a couple of recipes per book, as being appropriate for my type of eating (and my husband luckily goes along with it!)

SOY So how do people incorporate a lot of soy into their diets? Soy has a mildly estrogenic effect, and is particularly useful to the post-menopausal, and to men, but can’t remember how. One of the effects of soy in the diet is cancer prevention (there are many other claims.) So how much soy should we be eating? And we are all different, so different people should be eating different amounts. Furthermore soy is just a texture, as it contains no flavour, evidenced by every which way that the soy bean has been processed, making it difficult to eat in reasonable quantity, for the western palate. The beans can be eaten as a flavoured snack: Food Doctor does one, but expensive. Tempura has slightly more texture, and I add tamari rather than soy sauce to stir fries. But Ottolenghi in his vegetarian cook book “Plenty More” used tofu in only one recipe, as Tofu Puffs, which can be bought in Asian markets. I get the feeling that soy/tofu, although good for us, is just not very exciting, and seems to have gone out of fashion.

FERMENTED FOODS We should be eating more of these to boost the levels of the beneficial bacteria in our intestines, to avoid increasingly common gut ailments. So dolloping the cereal with yoghurt simply isn’t enough. Which is why I use tamari (see above) rather than soy sauce, as it has gone through a fermentation process.

CALCIUM becomes increasing difficult to absorb from supplements as we age. And all post menopausal women, as well as lots of older men, need high levels of calcium, to prevent/ameliorate osteoporosis. So we really need to load our diets with calcium, in the most absorbable forms. The trouble is that many of us take calcium supplements, but we don’t know if they are working. I was particularly fortunate to find that I was not absorbing calcium carbonate – the most usual form – when I had two bunion surgeries, one after the other. The first toe took a longer than average time to heal, although I had an exemplary diet, and took calcium carbonate supplements. After the surgery on the second toe, I loaded my diet particularly with parmesan, grated over soups, stews, salads: the most absorbable form of calcium. Parmesan is a half fat cheese, as skim milk is added to the full fat milk at a later stage of the process, therefore slightly less fattening than simple full fat cheese. Also parmesan is very strongly flavoured, so not so much required. In fact, all the full fat, hard cheeses are good sources of calcium; soft cheeses less so simply because the calcium is less concentrated. And why skim milk anything has more concentrated calcium, as the fat has been removed.

PRUNES I recently read in a research article, as well as Saga, that prunes are helpful for maintaining bone density and useful for arthritics. We all read about the latest wonder food for this that and the other, but actually incorporating such a food into the regular diet can be a problem. And where is the research, I wonder, for most of these claims? Luckily, with pre-softened prunes which we can buy these days – I haven’t read that there are many additives – we now eat two prunes at each meal, without any great hardship, and hope that it’s doing good.

HUMMUS I use as a salad dressing, because it is relatively high in calcium. Sesame seeds are high in calcium; chickpeas relatively high in calcium; both high in fibre, protein and phytochemicals; lemon juice and (better with virgin olive) oil. Compare this to mayonnaise or French dressing: just oil and lemon, and a teeny bit of egg with the mayonnaise.

DARK LEAFY GREENS We are all aware that we should be eating dark leafy greens, particularly from the cabbage family, every day, to prevent cancer, and again I can’t remember all the other benefits, but there are loads of them. I can’t be the only one who gets fed up with eating the one savoy cabbage all week, steamed, fried, stuffed, and being very good not throwing it out, to avoid waste. So how do we incorporate more and varied greens in our diets? I do tend to eat rocket most days, besides its keeping qualities, it’s from the cabbage family. And I scatter our food with handfuls of herbs – all dark green and leafy, but I don’t know that any are from the cabbage family. Then too much parsley prevents absorption of something, so not too much parsley. And on it goes! I also make a salsa verde, without capers (although they are very good, and fermented), and anchovies incorporated in the traditional recipes. I just mince handfuls of all the herbs, including rocket, available, and dollop a good spoonful into salads, soups, stews etc.

SPINACH may be high in calcium, but also high in oxalic acid, which prevents calcium absorption, and supposedly even leaches calcium from the system. Spinach has many other benefits, so should not be excluded: a matter of moderation, as in all things.
Taste Buds As we age our taste buds are less sensitive, so adding handfuls of herbs – or spices – has not brought howls of complaint. However taste buds become less tolerant of chilli in particular, so these can be served separately.

S[ICES We evidently haven’t been eating sufficient spices now that research has thrown up their efficacy, but how much, and quite difficult to incorporate in the traditional western diet in sufficient quantity. Luckily most modern cookbooks include a lot more spicing, and as long as it doesn’t unbalance the recipe unduly, and your digestion is tolerant, adding a little more, won’t do harm, unless it’s nutmeg: toxic in quantity. I give a boost to standard steamed broccoli or any vegetable, with a spicing of garlic, ginger, turmeric, chilli, and panch phoran all sautéed together. However, I have yet to dollop everything with “golden paste!”

I eat quite a lot of soya. The ones I like best are Taifun, with almonds and sesame seeds or with basil. They are high protein, low carbohydrate.
Very tasty.
In the summer we take it as it is on picnics. In the winter, I cube it and add to stir fries.

Heckter you actually changed your surname because of Watergate?!

I've bought the pre-loved Marguerite Patten now. Sorry.

jinglbellsfrocks in 1973 it was the convention to exchange your maiden name to your married name. And I am sure Marguerite Patten's book is great as long as you are cooking from scratch, which is most important for maintaining good health.

I thought that you were connecting the two things as well as jings - It was the juxtaposition of Watergate and you changing your name from Nixon.

Sometimes we eat Wiltshire Farm Foods ready-meals. And even the odd Waitrose one.

And then there's Marks and Sparks.



(Sorry for the confusion about your name)

Prunes have an excellent laxative effect, so be warned. They are also quite high in calories!

Figs are lower in calories but also good for their laxative effect!

When you're cutting down on your food intake constipation can sometimes be a problem, especially for us older types. Therefore helping things along naturally can be good for us.

durhamjen

I am a member of Viva!, Wilma. It's an excellent website, and vfl is an offshoot, when they realised how many older vegetarians there are.
It lists care homes, cruises, sheltered housing, etc.
If you are a member, there is a list of companies that give discounts to members.

Actually, durhamjen, V for Life is not run by Viva! but is in fact its own charity which works on behalf of older vegans and vegetarians in the UK. They offer recipes, nutrition information, advice, a pen pal scheme, and a grants scheme for veggies, and also have a list of care homes which cater well and ethically for veggies, as unfortunately sometimes they don't...

Also, your concerns WilmaKnickersfit about distressing photos will definitely not be a problem on V for Life's website. They offer friendly information, and campaign for the respect for veggie diets in later life, but don't share images of animals!

See some of their useful resources below:
Veggie Recipes
List of UK Care Homes
Nutrition Advice for Older Veggies