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!”