Weight Loss Guru

A problem human beings share is a tendency to fall for the ‘see food’ diet.  Our primitive genetic coding sometimes tells us when food’s available, just incase there’s a shortage tomorrow – and if crispy, golden, succulent goodies confront us at every street corner, we don’t always stop to ask our stomach if we are genuinely hungry.

Of course this weakness has been fully exploited by the big diet companies and the supermarkets too.  The shops are full of products claiming to be low fat or low calorie, but they aren’t really the slimming solutions that they appear to be.

How do you define slimming food? An orange? An avocado? A chicken salad? Or is it a pre-packaged ready meal with low-fat written all over it that looks very much like high-fat, deep fried product we’d actually prefer to eat? Are we really going to change our eating habits permanently by drinking three imitation chocolate milkshakes everyday for a month? Or are our bodies going to be even more confused when we finally give up the pretend party food and start introducing weird stuff like fish and tomatoes and brown rice?

Another problem with special diet foods is that, in order to make them taste as good as real food, a lot of sugar or chemicals have to be added.  So a low-fat label often means high sugar.  A Sunday Times article in February 1999 by Steve Farrar and Tom Robbins revealed that many leading slimming products (including diet drinks) are simply loaded with sugar which can be addictive as well as harmful; according to the same article, refined sugar consumption could be responsible for the deaths of 3000 British women a year with heart disease.

And for chemicals, well, that’s a controversial subject and the jury is still out on a lot of them.  But in the meantime it’s safer to stick with the simplest and most natural basic ingredients instead of putting stuff in our bodies that we haven’t  learned to deal with.

So, weighing up the evidence, it seems that the best thing about diet meals is that they are much more expensive than real food so you probably can’t afford to buy as many of them.

So Why Do We Keep Doing It

The great thing about banging your head on a brick wall is that it’s so wonderful when you stop.  Of course, you may already have caused yourself a permanent injury…

People with problems are anxious and afraid that things will get worse – so the one thing they are reluctant to do is change, which, of course, is exactly what they most need to do.

In spite of the fact that dieting makes them miserable and doesn’t provide a permanent solution, it’s familiar territory.  It can also be expensive and difficult, and that gives them confidence.  Desperate people will believe anything – and if nothing’s worked in the past it’s reasonable to assume that they have to try harder and spend more money next time round.  Of course, this opens the door to a lot of bizarre and even fake diet plans, as well as the usual calorie cutters.

What do you think?

Hi there to you all,

There seems to be lots of people out there at the moment that are feeling under the weather so I want to suggest something to get you fighting fit as soon as possible; Chicken Soup.

I love chicken soup and it's one of the first things I ever remember eating, especially if I wasn't feel well. I love it especially when it's home made or even better made by my mum. It's nutritious, easy to make and delicious.

My mum used to go on about the healing powers of chicken soup and often referred to it as Jewish penicillin. But is it really an effective cure for the common cold?

Dr Stephen Rennard, a specialist in pulmonary medicine, put his wife's grandmother's recipe to the test. He concluded that chicken soup inhibits inflammation of the cells in the nasal passage, reducing the symptoms of a cold. Chicken soup also contains an amino acid that is similar to a drug used to treat some respiratory infections. Other doctors say that most soups promotes mucus secretions that "soothe sore throats and coughs, and trap bacteria".

What seems probable, however, is that while chicken soup doesn't cure a cold, it may alleviate some of the annoying symptoms that accompany a bug. At worst, the soup provides a hot, comforting meal and rehydration. So slurp up when you're feeling a little under the weather or you want a good comforting meal :)

So, I asked my mum to share with all of you, her very own recipe for chicken soup. Take it away mummy...

My Mum's Chicken Soup

Ingredients

• Chicken: You can use a fat boiling chicken or packets of chicken wings or drumsticks and/or a whole roasting chicken.
• 2 large onions, quartered, with the skins left on (helps to colour the soup)
• 2 carrots in chunks
• 1 leek, sliced
• Celery stalks & leaves cut in large slices
• Parsley
• 2 bay leaves
• Salt and pepper

• Turnips and/or parsnips
• Sliced fresh ginger
• Some strands of saffron (again helps to colour the soup)
• A very small piece of shin of beef (ask your butcher) - this seems to give a "kick" to the final product
  

I do vary the recipe according to what I have in the house at the time and how I feel when I'm buying the ingredients.  In this way, it never tastes the same - they say variety is the spice of life and I enjoy tasting the different ways that the soup turns out !

Put the chicken (and beef if used) in a large pot and add water to cover plus a bit more.  Bring to the boil and remove any scum.  Then add the vegetables and seasoning.  Simmer, covered, on a very low heat for 2 1/2 hours, adding water if necessary.

If you are using a whole chicken, lift it out after about an hour, remove the meat so as not to overcook it and keep it moistened with a little soup for a second course.  Return the carcass and bones to the pot and continue cooking for another hour or so.  If you are using a boiling chicken, it needs at least two hours' cooking.

Strain the soup.  If you want to remove the fat floating on the top, you can mop it up with kitchen paper or make the soup a day ahead and keep it covered in the fridge, then skim off the congealed fat with a spoon.  Serve very hot, sprinkled if you like, with a little finely chopped parsley.

And if you really want excitement - try these:

Matzo Balls

• 2 eggs separated
• 75g. (3 oz.) medium matzo meal (most supermarkets stock this)
• Salt
  

Beat the egg whites stiff.  Fold in the lightly beaten yolks, then the matzo meal and salt, and continue to mix gently until amalgamated.  Chill, covered for 30 minutes.  Then roll into 2 cm (3/4 inch) balls and drop into plenty of boiling, salted water.  Simmer for about 20 minutes.  You will see them swell and rise to the top of the pan.  Just before serving, heat them up, then lift them out and drop them into the boiling soup.  If you try to cook the matzo balls in the soup rather than the water, they will soak up the soup and you will end up with far less soup than you had before !

Or you could buy a packet of Matzo Ball mix from a delicatessen or kosher grocer - then all you have to do is follow the instructions on the packet.

ENJOY!

Serves: 4-6. Cooking Time: 15-30 minutes

Be adventurous and make up your own soups with your favourite ingredients and seasonings. See what you have in the fridge or store cupboard, use leftovers and take the opportunity to buy fresh foods that are cheap and in season.

What you need: 

• 500g-1kg/1lb 2oz-2lb 4oz solids: vegetables, canned tomatoes, sweetcorn, beans, potatoes, rice, onions, garlic, pasta, etc.

• 1-1.5 litres/1½-2½ pints meat or vegetable stock, seasonings, spices and flavourings

How to do it: 

1. Simply sauté the chopped onion, garlic and any other hard vegetables in a tablespoon of oil, or soften and turn them a light golden brown, which brings out their sweetness and flavour.

2. Using a non-stick pan and covering it while you sauté the vegetables, so that they sweat as well as fry will mean using less oil, (you can speed up things by leaving out this stage and simply cooking all the ingredients together but it won’t taste as good).

3. Next add any softer vegetables (like tomatoes) and beans, rice, pasta, etc., plus the stock or water and simmer until everything is tender.

4. Taste and adjust seasonings. Decide whether you want to eat rough and chunky, blended with hand held blender bar until roughly chopped with a bit of texture, or completely liquidised until it’s velvety smooth.

Soupy Suggestions...