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Sought-after Recipe!
As promised; if you LIKE, I deliver!
Yesterday I posted the following picture on Facebook and asked you to LIKE it if you would like the recipe:
So. Here it is, as promised, the recipe of my gluten- and sugar FREE chocolate yummyness for you to make in your own home! And: it’s for FREE! Amazing, huh?
You’ll need:
1 dl goji berries
1 dl almonds
8 large dates
2 tbsp cocoa (raw, if at all possible)
1 tbsp coconut oil
0,5 dl shredded coconut
Cover the berries in water for a few minutes. Drain.
Add all ingredients (apart from the coconut flakes!) into a mixer or blender and mix until you’re happy with the consistency.
Make into little balls, roll in the shredded coconut and put them in the fridge for a while. ENJOY your yummy chocolate treat without the bad conscience!
Let me know what you think of this recipe; did you notice a difference in taste? Will you make it again?
QA – Exercise?!
It’s time for another Q which I’ll try to A.
This weeks question comes from Helen in Zürich, who is asking the following:
“Hey Hanna!
I have to admit that you have really awakened my curiosity about food with your posts. Thank you for that!
I’m an avid exerciser, I go to the gym, I run and swim. My question for you is: what about exercise? You write so much about food and health, but never about exercise. Is that not important to you too?”
First of all, thank you so much for your question, Helen!
As a short answer: OF COURSE exercise is important to me. Without a doubt, next to food it is one of those immediate mood lifters in life.
I exercise myself every day, or at least I try to. Mainly lower level stuff like long walks and mild weight training, using only my own weight. This is what feels best for me and my body. I have been a runner and for a period of time in my life, I frequented gyms like they were going out of fashion. But after a while it didn’t give me anything anymore. It became boring, predictable and instead of building my body up, I was breaking it down. So I stopped. Today, I’m much happier in my exercise routine. I love my walks, and frequently get lost in a new part of town or lose myself in a really great audiobook.
I am however no expert in the field. I know the basics, the heart rates and the impacts, but I can’t say I know everything exercise and working out. That’s why I don’t want to write and share too much about it – I simply know too little about it to do so.
What I can say is this; daily exercise is important. Very important. For our sedentary lifestyle, we need to move a lot more than we do. There is scientific proof that almost any (chronic) disease can be helped by the right amount and type of exercise. The body regenerates better, you sleep better, you get more energy.
What, of course, is even more important is the combination of the food you eat and your exercise. Remember that the body rebuilds its muscles with the help of the amino acids found in your protein, and that carbs only give you a momentary boost of energy. :)
I hope this answers your question, Helen. Do you have a question you’d like me to answer? Email me, or send it to me on Facebook.
Now I want to hear about your exercise routine. What do you do to get that heart rate up? What gives you the most joy? Have you changed exercise habits to make it fit your lifestyle better? Let us know in the comments below!
Quick ‘n’ dirty
I think that you and I can agree on one thing by now; fast food isn’t your greatest option of available food.
Yet both of us (I do it too), grab it when we’re short on time (and cash) and need something to eat. What we don’t think of (or don’t know. Or care.) in that exact instance is just how bad fast food really is. What does Burger & co actually contain? And where does it come from?
First off, and I’m going to sound harsh here, fast food is not fit for human consumption. At all. Nor is it fit for animal consumption. Here, I’m not even thinking about the trans-fats and sodium levels, but the fact that the animals used for the meat are usually sick in countless ways and forms themselves.
The animal cruelty involved in the processing of fast food can be very dangerous to humans. Setting the diseases aside, it’s clear to most of us that they won’t use grass-fed cattle to produce your burgers. (Some places do, but I’m not talking about them here) Instead sick, underfed cows pumped up on drugs and steroids are used, which means the meat doesn’t have any health benefits at all and, if unlucky, can even make you sick.
Instead of using the wonderful taste that real meat has, to get taste, fast food companies almost exclusively use chemicals and science to flavor your food. That’s right, you know I looooove those chemical additions to food. Wait, what?
I’ve got three examples for you: sexy sounding ethyl-2-methyl (hey at least it rhymes!) gives something a taste of apple. For popcorn, please add some methyl-2-peridylketone. And last but not least, ethyl-3- hydroxybutanoate reminds you of marshmallows. Sounds super yummy and delicious, right?? Whats worse, they’re allowed to be called “natural flavors”, at least in the US. There must be something wrong with that, don’t you think?
With taste comes color. It’s long been studied how people react to colors when it comes to marketing, for example. The same goes for food. The bun, the meat, milkshake, cheese and even the fires in a normal fast food meal all have added color to them. Not even the grill marks you find on certain burgers are real, they were put there by the factory. Add to that, a lot of restaurants (if you can call them that anymore) re-heat left over food the following day, or throw huge amounts away each night. Eww.
There have been huge disputes between authors trying to bring this to light and the fast food companies before. And while fast food companies weren’t able to deny anything that books such as Fast Food Nation (Eric Schlosser, 2002) brought up, the companies are still allowed to roam freely among us.
What do you think of fast food? How often do you eat fast food? Would you pay a little extra for better quality food? (If you like, I’ll happily recommend two burger places here in Zürich that are definitely in the green zone!)
(Source: naturalnews.com, rd.com)
Sugar, ah honey honey, you are my candy…
I found this wonderfully informative video on one of my favorite health blogs, and can’t help but share with you, my dear reader.
Here is the truth about sugar and how your body handles it (or doesn’t).
What are your reactions to this video? What do you think of this information?
The World’s Fattest Country is…
…not the United States of America. Nor is it India. Or China.
It is MEXICO.
According to a recent report by the UN, Mexico has now overtaken the US in terms of having the most overweight population.
The US has for very long held this position, but with 70 percent of adult mexicans now being overweight and 32,8 percent obese, the US has now had to step down from this Number One placement. (31,8% of the US adult population is obese, according to the same report).
Childhood obesity has increased trifold in the past 10 years and about one third of teenagers are overweight. One in six adult mexicans are diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.
Increased availability and consumption of fast food is supposed to have caused this epidemic, and with an incredible consumption of Coca Cola at 225 litres per person and year, this is not difficult to believe. (As a comparison the (marginally) leaner USA drinks 200 litres per person and year. Mexico’s consumption makes up for 11% of the global sales of the Coca Cola Company.)
This is an incredibly scary development, and shows,yet again, what happens when we eat foods that we shouldn’t (or aren’t made to eat). That more than every third person is obese is difficult to understand, and that seven out of ten are overweight is even more so. That’s almost the whole of the mexican population!
What do you think of this? Do you have any reactions? If you’ve been to Mexico, is this true?
(sources: fao.org, smigroup.it, kostdoktorn.se , di.se)