Maria Middlestead - Clinical Nutritionist, Auckland. Call (09) 418 5422

Pumpkin Patties

(Vegan; no gluten, dairy or egg; with options for nightshades*)

Some vegetarian food is dull and earnest, chaotically combined, or endlessly chewy. Inexperienced cooks often just remove the meat and compensate with heaps of cheese. Little understanding is shown about contrasting and harmonising shapes, colours, textures and the five core tastes of sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and umami (savoury). Dishes can be low in focus and subtlety – and Protein (see TIPS page) due to poor plant combinations.

Fish Fritters

Serves 2-3

“I must eat more fish” is one of those good intentions people often have like regular exercise or sighting unicorns. Vague bright ideas tend to remain in fantasy corners of the brain until a practical way to apply them is found, along with pleasing results to inspire habitual practice.

Elite Dining in New York: Counting Calories or Pennies? Fuggedaboutit

One of the pleasures of travel planning for me is to check out the esteemed World’s 50 Best Restaurant list and make my dream choices.

Most of these dining destinations have waiting lists of one to two months (Google prestigious The French Laundry and find over 7 million results for “how to get a reservation”). Some take your credit card details upon booking and charge you the full price for no-shows. And all of the places internationally among the 50 Best list that I have ultimately eaten at started by saying no, they were fully booked. On this trip it was easier for me to arrange a 20 minute meeting with New Zealand’s former Prime Minister Helen Clark, now in charge of the #3 job at the United Nations (yes, this meeting really took place), than to be immediately deemed table-worthy at New York’s culinary top 5.

MENOPAUSE: How to Avoid Being a Red Hot Mama or Anxious Annie

A sticker as seen on a middle aged woman’s car:

“I’m out of estrogen and I have a gun”.

As a female when you were in utero your entire life’s supply of about 400,000 eggs was formed. While your complex and delicate ovarian tissue was developing, any toxic environmental exposures could have altered or shortened your reproductive ability. Sensitivity to these Chemicals is the most common factor to unexplained male and female Fertility problems (see website TIPS articles). The US Environmental Protection Agency reports that the air inside a typical home is 2–5 times more polluted than the air outside due to standard cleaners, toiletries and other vapour-emitting materials. In some cases contamination is 100 times worse. New habits – and antioxidants, especially high in vegetables and fruit – can help protect you.

IRON: Are You Red-Blooded, Hot-Headed or Pale-Faced?

Iron levels are like most nutritional issues: too much or too little can leave you tired, sick, even fatally so.

If you tend to: low blood pressure, fatigue, dizziness, depression, restless leg syndrome; swollen, sore or bright red tongue; acne; mouth corner sores; frequent infections or slow to heal; menses heavy, missed or with spotting; are cold, pale, weak or breathless, you might be low in iron. If you tend to: high blood pressure, fatigue, irritability, depression, inflammatory conditions such as cardiovascular disease (CVD); dislike heat, get red in the face; bronze or gray skin; joint or abdominal pain, you might be high in iron.

From Cellulite to Circulation to Cancer: One System Affects It All

…and check out my 3 minute cellulite reduction method.

You might know something about the cardiovascular system and can imagine how extensive it is. In fact, your blood vessels if stretched out measure an astounding 96,000 kilometres and could make two trips around the world. But how much do you know about the circulatory system that is double that size?

Your lymphatic system has twice as much lymph as blood, and twice as many lymph vessels as blood vessels. It is the most major part of your immune system. With your help it can keep you free from infection and cancer; help prevent waste and fluid retention and thus cellulite and sluggish circulation; and maximise specific vitamin absorption for healthy skin, hair, nails, respiratory system and more.

YOUR WEIGHT: It’s About Much More than Food and Exercise

Medicine is inclined to a mechanistic approach when problem solving. Weight has been viewed as the result of calories in (through food) and calories out (through exercise). Thus high-fat foods get pilloried due to their greater kilojoule or calorie count compared to carbohydrate or protein. But there is a bigger buffet of contributors to consider such as stress, hormones – and food quality, not just quantity.

How To Dine, Travel and Stay Well

How To Dine, Travel and Stay Well
PLUS Australia’s Top Restaurant: Surprise Trumps Expectation

For over a decade my foodie must-do bucket list has included dining at The French Laundry and Tetsuya’s, which have placed near the top among the world’s finest restaurants. Remarkably I accomplished both within a few months – yet both were surpassed by an unexpected contender.

GLUTEN, WHEAT and BREAD: Nourishing or Nasty?

Unpleasant experiences can become fashionable. Being pale and tubercular in 19th century England was thought to signify an artistic and soulful nature. In Imperial China foot-binding presumably made women more delicate and desirable. Similarly, some people take on restricted diets out of narcissism and status hunger. “Look at me. I am different and therefore more worthy”. It can be no more evolved than insisting on a designer bag with a small dog inside.

Dining at One of the World’s Top Restaurants

For my holiday this year I went to prison.

Alcatraz is not a foodie destination but a grim, solitary contrast to the gourmet, friendly bohemia of San Francisco. Per capita this city has more Michelin star restaurants than grande dame New York. We ate at four winners including one often cited as the best in the country – and sometimes the best in the world.