Serves 3-4
A hearty salad with some savoury grunt and a warm accompaniment can accommodate many seasons. Among its many other nutritional virtues, the carbohydrate content is an important source of water. In addition to the 6-8 cups we need to drink, even more top quality fluid is needed to help produce the astounding 9 litres of digestive juices required daily.
(No gluten, dairy or cane sugar; with options for soy)
It is challenge enough to produce moist and fluffy baking that is gluten– and dairy-free, but a chocolate icing without added sugar is a culinary Everest. The cake achieves sweet stimulation courtesy of dried and fresh fruit, a little honey, plus spices and vanilla. Thanks to maturing flavours, it tastes even better the next day. Alternatively, the batter can be poured into paper-lined tins and baked as muffins. The icing is rich and creamily convincing despite some non-traditional ingredients. The trick with any dietary substitution is to achieve equivalent flavour, as well as consistency or structure. One of the hurdles here is to offset the natural bitterness of the cocoa content. This is compensated for with a date puree (pre-soaked into sweet succulence) although few taste testers will recognise its presence. For the creamiest result the dates are best soaked overnight.
Serves 4
(No gluten, dairy, cane sugar; with options for soy, nightshades, and plant/animal protein).
Pureeing half of the soup gives it a thick, creamy texture along with the visual benefits of the remaining diverse and chunky pieces. The lime juice added at the end provides an important percussive tang. Both legumes such as beans, and tart citrus juices significantly slow the breakdown of the meal’s entire carbohydrate content into glucose. This means that blood sugar and vitality levels are gradually raised and sustained. This prevents post-meal fatigue and makes inappropriate weight gain less likely. Legumes are high in sustaining plant protein and the bowel’s favourite fare: soluble fibre.
…while your night depends on your day.
“An uninterpreted dream is like an unopened letter from God”. The Talmud.
Sleep is a pleasure and a necessity. Enjoy seven to eight hours of regularly timed, sustained sleep. If you want dependable function from your body, you must in turn provide it with consistent, supportive rituals. Wake at a similar time, go to bed at a similar time and precede sleep with a period of quiet, calm and dimmed lights.
If you want glowing skin, good digestion, sustained vitality, and a long and healthy life, then remember to love your liver.
Every time you breathe, eat or drink, a variety of toxic substances enter your body. No one anywhere on the planet can completely avoid the presence of industrial and agrochemicals, exhaust fumes, out-gassing plastics, paints, dyes, building materials, and other health-challenging residues. These are evident globally in air, soil, waterways, and wildlife from Arctic polar bears to Amazonian fish. Intake can be minimised, but not prevented. The big question is how well can you detoxify and eliminate the inevitable tally?
Sister Bernadette had a fine mind which she enjoyed putting to work with puzzles, debating social issues, and teaching the young. She kept lively until her death at 85. As part of an ongoing study by American epidemiologists, she was one of 600 nuns who donated their brains to science. Soon before her death she continued to score in the ninetieth percentile on cognitive tests. Yet when she was examined post mortem, massive destruction from Alzheimer’s was evident. Her brain was filled with the disease’s characteristic rigid plaques and messy tangles. From the inner hippocampus (the central train station for learning, stress and mood management pathways) to the outer cortex, there was the most extensive degree of damage. So why did she remain so sharp?
Imagine if you could travel through time.
Quantum physics tell us that ‘space-time’ is one stretchy, unified substance that makes this possibility completely achievable – as soon as we develop the required technology.
Say you travelled back less than 200 years ago to the 1800s. This was a time when rapid industrialisation, new invention and the power of science enthralled with its possibilities. Perhaps you met with scientific leaders and tried to explain the modern world. You could tell them how most people have in their living rooms a box where – at the flick of a switch – small people emerge on screen and offer entertainment and world news. Many have another type of box in their study or workplace which – by moving their fingers over it – can instantly communicate with others through words, moving pictures and sound, accessing information live from anywhere in the world.
Scrub it, squeeze it, scrape it, burn it, cover it with toxic chemicals – are there any indignities not performed on the organ you then perversely wish to show off and have stroked fondly?
Apart from looking good, the skin’s functions include the regulation of body temperature; maintaining water and electrolyte (mineral) balance; acting as a defence against sun and harmful substances; and providing instructive communication about pleasurable and painful stimuli.
Cardiovascular disease has been the number one killer in New Zealand and most industrialised nations. What is less known is that kidney problems can be the cause of heart and blood pressure problems – as well as high acidity which impedes sleep, digestion, elimination, joints and bones.
Bones are like massive bridges. They have to support an enormity of weight and pressure. Yet important maintenance must somehow be accomplished while the structure is still in use. Small areas are constantly being broken down and reformed: sections get removed and stronger new bone is deposited. In youth, bones grow in width, length and increase in density until about age 30. From then on breakdown is faster than bone formation, and density begins a gradual decline. Or the rate can be speedy depending on your lifestyle.