IS MY SWEETIE REALLY SWEET?

Here I go again challenging another food essential.  Over the years I’ve had a love/hate relationship with sugar and not really known what to do about it.  I’ve tried to summarise my reading over the past years and now I’ve spent the last few days researching a bit more.  I hope this newsletter is interesting and helpful. 

We’ve been created with a taste for sweetness and there’s nothing wrong with that.  Actually the Latin word ‘frui’ is the root of our English word ‘fruit’ and means ‘enjoy.’¹   Sweetness is something to be enjoyed.  We can get quite addicted to sugar though, and food manufacturers understand this very well.  Sugar tastes good but it’s not good for you – let me tell you why.

Refined sugars require many B vitamins to help in their digestion and utilisation in our bodies.  However, all naturally occurring carbohydrate foods contain an abundance of B vitamins and fibre. Our bodies can assimilate these natural sugars well.  Unfortunately, what’s wrong with the stuff we call ‘sugar’ is that when we refine sugar cane or beet we also remove the B vitamins and fibre during the processing.  Our bodies then have to find these B vitamins from somewhere else.

A story is told by William Duffy in the book Sugar Blues (see Wikipedia) about the survivors of a ship wreck on a distant island, carrying a cargo of sugar.  The sailors ate only sugar and drank water for the nine days they were stranded.  Their rescuers found them surprisingly sickly and weakened.  The poor health of the sailors was attributed to the severe deficiencies in B vitamins caused by their sugar diet.

We’re talking about sugar here, and by the way I don’t only mean white sugar I also mean soft brown sugar, raw sugar, Demerara sugar, dark cane sugar and golden syrup and possibly other sugars like turbinado and muscovado .  One assumes, and we are lead to believe, that they’re less refined, but there’s much refining that goes into removing the ‘raw’ sugar juice from the cane.

Here are some descriptions of the various sugars available in NZ.  The list runs from best to worst:

1. Rapadura is the pure juice extracted from the sugar cane (using a press), which is then evaporated over low heats, whilst being stirred with paddles, then seive ground to produce a grainy sugar. It has not been cooked at high heats, or spun to change it into crystals, and the molasses has not been separated from the sugar.  It is produced organically, and does not contain chemicals or anti-caking agents.  Rapadura is a wholefood product which can vary according to sugar cane variety, soil type and weather. This is why one batch of Rapadura may be lighter or darker than the last batch. Because Rapadura is not separated from the molasses, it contains more nutrients, vitamins and minerals. In baking use cup for cup instead of sugar. ²
2. Sucanat, which is a trade name, (a contraction of "Sucre de canne naturel") is different to Rapadura in that the sugar stream and the molasses stream are separated from each other during processing, then re-blended to create a consistent product, whereas Rapadura is a whole food product.  
3. Jaggery, which I grew up with as a child in India, can be made with either whole cane sugar or palm sugar.  It is also heated to higher temperatures than Rapadura, as much as 200 degrees C.  Jaggery, with its caramel flavour, is solidified and formed into cakes. We often see this sugar here in NZ; it comes from Fiji and is sold in solid brown cakes in island shops and is grated for use.
4. Muscavado, Turbinado, Demarara and 'Organic Raw Sugar' are all refined sugars, though not quite as highly refined as white sugar. They are the products of heating, clarifying, then dehydrating the cane juice until crystals form, then spinning it in a centrifuge so the crystals are separated from the syrupy juice (molasses). The clarifying process is usually done with chemicals, although sometimes through pressure filtration.  The crystals are then reunited with some of the molasses in artificial proportions. The molasses contains vitamins and minerals, and is recommended for a healthy diet, but the crystals themselves are pretty much 'empty carbs.'
5. 'Raw' sugar is not really raw - it has been cooked, and a lot of the minerals and vitamins are gone. Some people choose this sugar as it’s minimally better than refined sugar because it has a little of the molasses still clinging to the sugar crystals.  Some sugar is sold as 'organic' raw sugar, and people think this means it's unrefined - all it really means is that it's grown with organic agricultural methods, then refined as usual... the juice (molasses) has been mostly removed, and there's not really much goodness in it.
6. White sugar is refined much further.  The raw sugar is washed with a syrup solution, then with hot water, clarified (usually chemically) to remove impurities, decolourized, concentrated, evaporated, re-boiled until crystals form, centrifuged again to separate, then dried.  By then any lingering goodness has completely disappeared! A short video about how  sugar is made in NZ: http://www.chelsea.co.nz/content/about-sugar/how-sugar-is-made/default.aspx  Crystallised refined sugars are pure sucrose and contain no nutrients beyond calories. They are a "pure" industrial product, and can hardly be considered a food. Some would say they are closer to a drug, which affects our bodies adversely and is very addictive. Not only do they not give anything beneficial to our bodies, they actually take away from the vitamins and minerals in what we are eating. They are extremely acidic to the body causing calcium and other mineral depletion from bones and organs. People who get headaches from eating refined sugars usually find they have no problem with Rapadura.
7. Brown sugar is just white sugar mixed with molasses.
8. Corn Syrup: A combination of sucrose and fructose.  Highly processed and contains no nutrition at all apart from empty calories.  A liquid derivative of corn starch, that is primarily the sugar called glucose. It is used extensively in the manufacture of processed foods and beverages in the US and increasingly so in NZ.  Many Maple Syrups are made using not maple syrup but corn syrup and maple flavouring.  Honey and brown rice syrup are good substitutions for corn syrup.
9. Maltodextrin  Foods that contain maltodextrin are often labelled “Low Sugar” or “Complex Carbohydrate” which sounds good, but this sweetener should be avoided.
10. Artificial sweeteners:  Nutrasweet, and such like, now sold in NZ, contain the sweetener aspartame. One of the components of aspartame is aspartic acid, a neurotoxin.  Another component is phenylalanine and a final component, wood alcohol, a generalised toxin, particularly harmful to the brain and eyes.³ Aspartame is often present in chewing gums, which causes concern as the cells of the mouth readily absorb the chemicals that are partly digested in our mouths through chewing.  Watch out for it in sugar free soft drinks as well.

Admit it, you're addicted to sugar just like the rest of us; if you don’t believe you are then go on a sugar fast and see how long it takes before the cravings kick in.  Our addiction doesn’t really want to accept the truth about sugar.  I’d have to say I keep avoiding it because I come up against resistance in myself and my family.  I know all this stuff, but now I need to put it into action. The conclusion we’ve come to is that the best option is to avoid refined sugar as much as possible.  We can replace it with less-processed sugars like date puree, Rapadura sugar, raw honey, stevia and so on (more on this in the next newsletter). One of the steps we’ve taken recently is to toss out our refined sugar from the pantry and now I make a kilo or so of date puree each week.  I keep this in jars in the fridge.  We use this in meals like curries that call for a touch of sweetening, on porridge or muesli in the morning, and in some baking.  I’m working on trying some other sweeteners and experimenting with ideas. I had so much to put in this newsletter – overflowing with information - that I’ll save some for next week.  Then you can have a look at the alternative sweeteners available in NZ and I’ll give you some ideas for baking so that children can enjoy making sweet things in the kitchen that are better for them than white-flour-and-sugar cakes and biscuits.  If you have any recipes to contribute then send them to me over the week. The idea is to eat your food: as whole or as unprocessed as possible as fresh as possible and to avoid addictions If we care about maintaining good health we’ll realise that our time and the cost of investing for the long term is worth it. Like you, trying not to be fanatical, but wise!   Penelope www.happyandhealthy.co.nz

Bibliography:
1 & 3:  Rex Russell M.D,  What the Bible Says about Healthy Living, Regal Books, California, 2006
2: http://quirkycooking.blogspot.co.nz/  17.11.12  Some info about sugars

MY SEVEN PRINCIPLES FOR HEALTHY EATING

There is a myriad of different foods available to us on this wonderful planet we call home. New Zealand is particularly blessed in having a great climate for agriculture and horticulture. There are innumerable ways to prepare food for healthy eating. Honestly there is no end to the delicious and nutritive possibilities available to us.

However, if you’re like me you’ve probably come across a heap of conflicting directives about a healthy diet. Here’s a new one a friend sent me the other day that I hadn’t seen before: Not everything should be eaten raw, especially vegetables! (evidently, according to the article, cabbage, cauliflower & broccoli always need to be cooked).

Or how about; don’t eat grains, do eat grains, don’t eat grains and white sugar mixed, don’t eat meat, eat only vegetable protein, fish is good for your brain, only eat certain foods fermented, sprouts are bad for you, sprouts are good for you, take supplements, buy super-foods, don’t fry with olive oil, don’t eat cooked foods, eat raw, use coconut oil, use raw milk, don’t use homogenised milk, use kefir instead of yoghurt, avoid soy products… and the list goes on!

As I’m interested in healthy food options and I have the privilege of working from home and developing Happy & Healthy with my husband, home educating my young adults and tending my vege garden, I get to invest some time into reading, research & experimentation with healthy food. I know you might not have that focus as perhaps you may work outside your home, or are so busy with family & everything else you’re involved with.

Maybe you just don’t get the time to read the research or keep up with the fads, so perhaps I can give you a few helpful principles that guide me in trying to provide healthy nutrition for my family. I don’t want to get caught up in fads or make unwise choices yet I do want to be aware of healthy nutrition without having a fanatical approach to it.
The principles I go by when I shop for food items that contribute to healthy nutrition are:


Principle #1: Moderation in all things. When we start putting our trust in that way or this food we inevitably end up not being moderate in our consumption of this food or that method of preparation.

Principle #2: Avoid all bad numbers! This means I always check food labels for numbers which indicate emulsifiers, preservatives, colouring, thickeners, stabilisers, anticaking agents, flavour enhancers and so on….some numbers are okay by the way. I’ve now worked out a list as to what I do and don’t buy from the supermarket. The Chemical Maze quick reference shopping companion, that I use, is very helpful to understanding all "the numbers" that are in the food - the good, the bad & the ugly.



Principle #3: As unprocessed as possible – meaning that we eat things as they were created, before we’ve changed them into things humans think might be better (usually commercially better). We avoid foods that have undergone complex, commercial processing using chemicals, high heat and so on. Simple processing like low-heat home cooking, or juicing, or dehydrating, or chopping, grating, blitzing, sprouting, and fermenting is fine if we use a good variety of foods and a variety of preparation methods. I don’t get stuck on just one thing.

Principle #4: Avoid items that indicate a high level of processing has gone into this food - for example: hydrolysed anything, starch anything, enriched anything, milk solids, natural flavourings (which are not actually natural), refined sugar, maltodextrin, sweeteners like aspartame (in chewing gum etc)... and again the list goes on.

Principle #5: Fresh is best. That’s why I have a vege garden and a sprouter. I like and prefer organic, but if I find veges that are super-fresh and not organic I’ll go for them instead. The same with fresh dried goods rather than products that have been sitting open in a bulk bin oxidising. For us personally, fresh outweighs organic at the moment.

Principle #6: Avoid addictions. I keep an eye out for things we eat too much of, or have cravings for. Sugar for example, and in my case chocolate. You could also look at fried foods, meats, takeaways, sweets, baking…or even carrots. I have a good friend who told me she once started turning orange because she ate and juiced too many carrots!

Principle #7: Don’t follow the crowd in doing what’s easier or the accepted norm – educate yourself, you don’t have to be a fanatic, just be wise - dare to be healthy!

Actually, we also use these principles in the decisions we make about the goods we sell through Happy & Healthy. We don’t put anything on the website that we wouldn’t select for our own use. In fact most of my weekly shopping is done at Happy & Healthy now.

Anyway, here comes summer! Happy days!
Penelope
www.happyandhealthy.co.nz 

WHY SPROUT? IS IT GOOD FOR YOU? (3)

Sprouting Categories:
To make things easier we have divided SPROUTS into 4 categories. Have a look at the handy Sprouting Chart that I have cobbled together from my research and put online (print it out and put it up on the fridge to refer to).

1. Leafy Sprouts

Leafy Sprouts cover alfalfa, clover, radish, broccoli, red cabbage, onion, black mustard seed, cress, rocket, mizuna, mibuna and more. These are sprouts that are best eaten raw not cooked. They’re the most nutritious when their first green, cotyledon leaves are appearing – after about 4 to 5 days in the sprouter or jar. In general 1 tablespoon of seeds yields 7 tablespoons of sprouts.¹
If you like brassicas such as broccoli, cabbage, cauli, you'll love the sprouted version - if you don't like brassicas you're more likely to enjoy them as sprouts, if for no other reason than - they are so amazingly healthy - full of antioxidants.²
In order for the stronger tasting or peppery hot sprouts to be palatable you need to mix them with a mild sprout like clover or alfalfa. There are some nice mixes or blends of these seeds that make tasty sprout combos.

2. Bean, pea and pulse sprouts

These are essentially just root sprouts. If you were to leave them to sprout leaves they’d be too tough to eat raw. These sprouts can be eaten raw or cooked. In fact if you want to reduce the rather gaseous results of eating beans then sprout them first before you cook. As I said in our last newsletter sprouting helps break down the complex sugars responsible for that, making them easier for us to digest. Sprouts in this category include: pea, chickpea, green, and brown lentils, mung, adzuki bean, raw peanut(which is actually a legume)… All beans can be sprouted and cooked. We’ll have some nice combos available soon.
 
3. Grain & Pseudograin Sprouts

Grains are a quick sprout, taking as little as 20 minutes, and no more than 2 or 3 days to produce a finished sprout. If you let large grains like Wheat, Barley, Rye, Spelt , etc. grow for several days they produce grass (wheat grass for instance). Sprouts in this grain category can also include Buckwheat, unhulled Sesame, Millet, Amaranth. Grain sprouts are all sweet, though some are sweeter than others. Children tend to love them because of their sweetness, so they are often a child's first positive sprout experience. ³
They can be used in breads, as a cereal, in stir-frys or as a snack - or anything else you can imagine. These sprouts are generally eaten raw and you can include them in a healthy breakfast like I do. Top your sprouts with some fruit & nuts, milk or cream and a sweetener or fruit juice. 

4. Nuts and other seeds

These should really be called ‘soaks’, because you soak them, but don’t actually go as far as sprouting them. Almonds, pumpkin seeds, quinoa, sunflower seeds (which can also sprout), and whatever other whole nut you want to soak are in this grouping. These swell after a day or so and the essential nutrients within the seed begin to be activated and are more easily digested.

Remember, you don't have to be fanatical, just wise.
Penelope
www.happyandhealthy.co.nz 


Bibliography:

1. The Sproutpeople website, www.sproutpeople.org
2. www.sproutpeople.org
3. Karin Puttner, Nutrition Awareness: Ten Steps to Healthy Eating, p43

WHY SPROUT? IS IT GOOD FOR YOU? (2)

I’ve always been a “Sprouter”, on & off throughout my adult life. I’ve always known that sprouts were high in antioxidants and many vitamins and minerals, but I never really looked into it seriously. I would go through sprouting phases and I have a wonderful husband and 5 children who have gone along with my health-foody adventures over the years AND lived to tell the tale!

Now that I have my Auto Sprouter, which is great, it has encouraged me to experiment with various sprouts and I’m finding some great sprout mixes. Sprouts and Microgreens are a fabulous way to get your fresh veges – I mean “super-fresh” and “super nutrious”. I read in a study, published in the Soil & Health mag some years ago, that showed that when you harvest a vegetable the vital substances (minerals, vitamins, enzymes…) begin to break down and halve in the first hours after picking.

Most people know about “beansprouts.” I mean we buy them in the supermarket and vege shops; tufts of alfalfa, long, pale, leggy mung bean sprouts, pea stems, and the occasional broccoli or radish sprouts. However, it appears there’s a lot more to sprouting than meets the eye!

• One - If you’re going to sprout, buy seeds from a reputable supplier (like Happy & Healthy) and get organic. Don’t sprout your left over seeds from a commercial seed packet that you used to plant your vege garden last year because those seeds have most probably been treated with an anti-fungal, anti-mould chemical, preparation.
• Two – Seeds that have been heat treated (pasteurised) by the wholesaler or exporter don’t sprout very well at all. There are always a good proportion that just don’t activate. So if you have had this problem in the past, as I have, you will most probably discover that they are pasturised.
• Three - As we know sprouts have to be good for you, but did you know that some sprouts, in particular Broccoli Sprouts, have proven anti-cancer fighting agents in them? We have all come face to face with the devastating effects of cancer in either a family member, a friend, or a friend of a friend and it seems to be getting worse. Even though cancer is on the increase in our western society, we can take practical steps to minimise the risks with good nutrition and the quality of the food we eat. We can even go on the offensive by eating more Broccoli, or better yet Broccoli Sprouts (which have 40-60 times more anti-cancer agents than the mature vegetable).

We came across the following One News video, made in the nineties, that reports on the 
benefits of Broccoli and in particular, Broccoli Sprouts – enjoy.

Some Parting Tips:

1. Can you eat 3 tablespoons of raw sprouts per day? You’ll really up your antioxidant activity levels and your body’s cancer fighting ability if you do.⁴
2. Fresh is the absolute best. That’s one of the reasons home-grown sprouts are so good. No grower, no market, no vege shop between you and your sprouts!
3. Big savings for the household budget when you grow and consume your own sprouts. Much cheaper than buying them retail and better health in the family means fewer trips to the doctor (check out the all new Sprouting Chart).
4. With the savings that you will make with your own “micro-farm” harvests you can look at investing in some automated sprouting equipment, eg. the Auto Sprouter and the all “new” EasyGreen MicroFarm (with this little beauty you’ll never be out of sprouts or mico-greens) .

Our Mission is to provide you with healthy choices, through education and high quality products, to enable you to be happy and healthy.

Remember, you don't need to become a fanatic to eat well, just wise.
Penelope
www.happyandhealthy.co.nz 

WHY SPROUT? IS IT GOOD FOR YOU? (1)

How about growing a garden in your kitchen all year round? That’s what you can do if you SPROUT! You can have fresh, organic plants to eat throughout the year; they can be grown easily and in a small space and they’re highly nutritious.

What’s a Sprout? A sprout is a little treasure chest of nutrition in your kitchen. Nuts, legumes and grains can all be soaked and sprouted to unlock a treasury of previously unavailable vital substances. In its dry seed form, this vital nutrition, vitamins, minerals, trace elements, enzymes, fatty acids, aromatic substances and fibre, is locked away by inhibitors, like phytic acid, which are designed to stop the seed germinating at the wrong time. This makes some of the vital substances unavailable to us because we can’t digest them in this form – ie. a dry grain or a nut or seed. These inhibitors can also cause digestive problems for some people (bloated stomach, etc).

Just a little aside for all you scientific brains out there: Phosphorus in the bran of whole grains is tied up in a substance called phytic acid. Phytic acid combines with iron, calcium, magnesium, copper and zinc in the intestinal tract, to make phytates, locking the absorption of these vital minerals. Whole grains also contain enzyme inhibitors that can interfere with digestion. Traditional societies usually soak or ferment their grains before eating them. These are processes that neutralize phytates and enzyme inhibitors and in effect, pre-digest grains so that all their nutrients are more available to us. Sprouting, overnight soaking, and old-fashioned sour leavening can accomplish this important pre-digestive process in our own kitchens. Many people who are allergic to grains will tolerate them well when they are prepared according to these procedures.¹

The benefits of sprouting and soaking to aid digestibility:

1. Sprouting helps break down complex sugars into a form that’s easier to digest. These complex sugars are responsible for the intestinal gas that’s often formed when we eat lentils or beans!
2. Sprouting in-activates phytates making vital substances much more available to us
3. Sprouting and soaking produces highly absorbable Vitamin C and increases the content of Vitamin B2 and B5 dramatically.
4. Sprouted grains and legumes are alkalizing.
5. Sprouts are high in fibre
6. Being grown in your kitchen they’re also the freshest of the fresh – and fresh is best!

Wise Tip 1: Soaked grains & nuts or sprouted grains & seeds make vitamins and minerals much more available to your body and make the whole grain/seed much easier to digest. For those of you with digestion problems this has got to be a good answer.

Wise Tip 2: Try soaking nuts overnight, almonds for example, before eating them on your breakfast, making almond milk or using them as a mid-afternoon snack.

How to Grow Your Own Sprouts for use in Salads or in Cooked Dishes
I don’t come across may people who sprout their own seeds or grow wheatgrass for the kitchen and I think it’s because they may assume it’s too hard or maybe they don’t know how to do it. I’ve been using sprouts for years and I’ve finally found an extremely easy way of sprouting and growing wheatgrass. We have a constant supply of sprouts in our kitchen now and it’s because Rodney found me the Auto Sprouter which is by far the easiest, quickest way of sprouting and soaking seeds that I’ve found. I always used to forget to rinse my sprouts and then end up wasting them because they’d get smelly (go off). I didn’t used to rinse them often enough during the day, but now with the Auto Sprouter our sprouts taste really fresh and “clean”. They’re noticeably better and its all become so easy.


 
The Simplest way to Sprout: All I do now is check and wash the seeds I’m going to sprout; place them in the Auto Sprouter and that’s it. This simple little machine automatically rinses them every hour for ten minutes (24 x 7). The seeds thrive with all the water and begin to sprout within 24 hours or less. I can used them just soaked or leave them in the Sprouter for a few days covered with the silver reflective cover that encourages germination (as seeds like to grow in the dark). I change the water in the Sprouter every evening and that’s all I have to do – except marvel at them growing every time I go into the kitchen. In this great little auto gizmo, thingy I can easily make enough sprouts for our family of 8, or as little as needed.

Other Ways of Sprouting: For ½ - 1 cup of dry seeds use one of those old, large-size preserving jars. Cut a piece of mesh to fit into the preserving lid ring of the jar or buy a purpose made lid for sprouting which has a mesh already in it.

Here’s how to sprout brown or green lentils:

1. Check your lentils for stones or bits of earth.
2. Rinse well several times and pour them into the jar.
3. Fill the jar with plenty of water and leave the seeds in the jar with the mesh lid screwed on overnight, or for about 12 hours
4. Rinse well and tip all the water out of the jar.
5. Now leave the jar resting on its side..
6. Every 3 hours or so give the lentils a good rinse with clean (filtered) water. Do this several times until the rinse water comes out clear.
7. Turn the jar upside down to empty & drain before you put it on its side again.
8. Keep going with this regular rinsing and draining until you see the seeds are sprouting. This takes about 24 – 30 hours
9. When they’ve grown as big as you want give them a final rinse and tip them into a colander to drain and dry slightly.
10. Then put them into a bowl, cover with plastic film and store in the fridge.
    • If you make too many to use in salads then cook them in stir a fry or curry.

Sprouting for 20 people or more! For larger quantities I have had 3 or more lots of sprouts going in 3 large colanders. More hassle, but a great result. However give me the Auto Sprouter any day – so easy.

Wise Tip 3: If you soak and sprout your lentils and beans before you use them in a cooked dish, that calls for pulses or beans, you’ll reduce intestinal gas (aka flatulence), plus you’ll be making vital substances more available. 

Penelope 
www.happyandhealthy.co.nz
 
Bibliography

1. Sally Fallon, Nourishing Traditions, New Trends Publishing, Washington DC, USA. Pg 25

REVIVE CAFE COOKBOOKS

We cannot recommend the Revive Cafe Cookbooks highly enough - it's just one of the best cookbooks we have come across - treat yourself.  And now, hot off the press, we have the Revive Cookbook 3 for even more great recipes.

We are sure it will be a big help to you, as it has been for us.

Penelope
www.happyandhealthy.co.nz

OUR GUIDELINES FOR CHOOSING PRODUCT

We are currently knocking on the door of 1000 product lines on the website and we are spoiled for choice when it comes to what else we can add. There are hundreds of more products on offer, but we are being very careful, as we work on your behalf, deciding what we put up for sale. We have worked out the following guidelines to help us:

1. Organic were possible (and if the price is right),
2. Whole foods with a minimum of processing,
3. No highly processed or broken foods containing chemically based additives, and
4. No refined sugars (raw unrefined cane sugar is just OK, especially when it's in the Trade Aid chocolate that we love - a weakness we know). 
5. Locally produced where possible 

Do you think there are any other guidelines we should consider? If so let us know.

Penelope
www.happyandhealthy.co.nz

USING ALTERNATE FLOURS

Vary your Flours and some info for the Gluten-Free
Flours come from many sources including grains, legumes, starchy vegetables, nuts and carob, with each having their own baking properties and uses. Our bodies need a variety of nutrients, minerals and active substances so it’s beneficial to vary the “staple” that you use even if you’re not gluten-free. So try some of the other flours available. Don’t get stuck on wheat or rice as a staple.

Wise Tip: Even if you’re gluten-free (GF) eat your food as unprocessed as possible, as natural as possible and as fresh as possible.

Grind Your Own
Gluten-free diets are notoriously dependent on refined flours and foods. If you follow a GF routine I suggest you get yourself a good grain mill (or share one with another family) and buy your grains and legumes whole then mill them fresh yourself. Millet, brown rice and buckwheat are especially recommended. Nuts can be “milled” into flour using a good blender.

Generally in gluten-free breadmaking a flour, a starch and a gum are combined to replace gluten in wheat bread. Starches are Tapioca, Arrowroot, Potato, Corn, and gums are Guar gum(a vegetable gum), Xanthan gum (made from the dried cell coat of the micro-organism called Xanthomonas campestris). Xanthan can give better results, but Guar is cheaper.

Note, if using Tapioca or Arrowroot as a starch know that they are not whole flours as they’ve been highly refined and therefore are not recommended for a healthy diet. Again, always try to eat wholefoods. Other gluten-free thickening agents that you can use and are healthy choices would be Rice, Millet or Buckwheat flour for savoury dishes and Agar Agar for sweet foods. Chickpea flour and Millet flour are quite sweet and good for cakes and breads.¹

Almond flour made from blanched, ground almonds or the nut residue left after the sweet almond oil has been extracted from the almond nut. It’s gluten-free and used in cake & biscuit baking. Almond meal is similar, but made from the unblanched almonds; the brown skin is left on. Best to “mill” your own in a high speed blender and retain the oils. I have it on good authority that the following is a great (healthy) Lemon Curd Bar recipe.

Amaranth flour has minute traces of gluten and combines well with other flours to make smooth textured breads, muffins, pancakes and cookies. It is strong flavoured and moist. In breadmaking combine with starch (such as arrowroot) in a 3:1 ratio. Amaranth is an ancient Aztec food with an impressive amount of protein, fibre and minerals.

Barley flour adds a nutty, malty flavour to breads or pancakes. Barley is usually used as a whole grain or in malting, but it is also valuable as a flour because it gives breads a cake-like texture and pleasant sweetness. It can also be used as a thickener.

Brown rice flour is nuttier and richer tasting than white rice flour and also more nutritious. It is useful for making breads, cakes, muffins, or noodles. Brown rice flour is gluten-free.

Buckwheat flour is full-bodied and earthy flavoured, the traditional flour of Russian blini, French Brittany crepes, Japanese soba noodles, and of course, buckwheat pancakes. Gluten-free buckwheat isn’t really a grain, but a member of the rhubarb family. Try the following Buckwheat Galettes (Buckwheat Pancakes) recipe

Chickpea flour is gluten-free and made from dried chickpeas (garbanzo beans). Also known as garbanzo flour, gram flour, channa or besan, chickpea flour is a staple of Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi cuisines. Great Zuchinni & Sesame-seed Fritter recipe from the Revive Cafe (or buy the great Revive Cookbook and get it from there).

Cornmeal flour, made from maize it is more finely ground than cornmeal (or polenta), is rich cream-colored, slightly sweet and gluten-free. It is not the same as cornstarch in the US or what we call wheaten cornflour in NZ, which is used as a thickener.

Millet flour, ground from whole millet, adds a nut-like, slightly sweet flavour to wheat breads. It is gluten-free and traditionally used in some African cuisines. Great in combination with corn flour & buckwheat flour.

Oat flour is made by grinding oat groats to a fine consistency. Make your own by grinding rolled oats in a food processor or blender. It has only a small amount of gluten and it’s not the same gluten as in wheat. If you’re not overly sensitive, try it.

Potato starch flour is made from peeled and steamed potatoes that have been dried and ground. It is stark white and very fine. In baking it adds a light airy texture. Used to thicken sauces, it can also be used the same way as brown rice flour. Potato flour is suitable for those on a gluten-free diet.

Rye meal flour produces a loaf with a full-bodied, bitter, slightly sour flavour. It does not contain enough gluten-forming proteins to raise loaves well by itself and the gluten it contains is delicate. Rye loaves should be kneaded gently to avoid breaking the gluten strands.

Soy (soya) flour is richer in calcium and iron than wheat flour, gluten-free and high in protein. Soy flour is ground from raw soybeans; soya flour from lightly toasted soybeans. Both add a slightly sweet, fairly strong but pleasant flavour to bread. Loaves made with soy flour brown quickly.

Spelt flour is from non-hybridized wheat with a long cultivation history. It works well as a bread flour and has an exceptional protein and fibre profile. Spelt gluten is highly water soluble so that it is easy to digest. Spelt flour may be a good wheat substitute for some people who are allergic to wheat.

Keep flours refrigerated or in the freezer to prevent spoilage.

Remember: You don’t need to be fanatical, just wise.

Penelope
www.happyandhealthy.co.nz

PENELOPE'S WHOLEMEAL BREAD RECIPE

Makes One Loaf

This recipe turns out 1 good loaf in about 3 ½ hours. I start around 9am and it’s ready for lunch at 1:00pm (sometimes I begin it the night before, leaving the wet dough in a covered bowl, and have it out of the oven by 10:00 the next morning).

1. 400ml tepid water into a large bowl (bigger the better) 9:00am (start)
2. ¼ tsp honey – mix this into the water
3. 1 tsp Active yeast – sprinkle onto the top of the water, no need to stir
4. Leave the yeast for 10-20 minutes to bubble up a bit – go & do something else, have breakfast ...
5. 2 ¹/₃ cups wholemeal flour and 1 cup white flour - tip the flours into the yeast mix
6. ¼ cup olive oil – tip on top of flour (the oil makes a Vogel’s type moistness, more oil more Vogelish!)
7. 1 rounded tsp salt – on top of flour. Now mix altogether with good sturdy spoon. The dough should be quite moist. Some days I need to add another tablespoon of water – why I don’t know.
8. Cover the bowl loosely with a plastic supermarket bag and leave in a warm place to rise for about ½ an hour.
9. Wet your hands. Punch down and knead for only about 2-3 minutes.
10. Leave to rise again for about ½ an hour
11. Wet your hands again. Punch down again and knead for about 3-5 minutes or so. (Can do more if you feel like the exercise, it will develop the gluten better.)
12. Prepare a bread tin with baking paper.
13. Turn the tap on slow – leave the tap running. Wet your hands. Gather up the dough. Knead it and shape it into a rounded sausage shape. With a wet hand from the tap wet the top of the bread. Put it into the tin…
14. Decorate with seeds or sifted flour.
15. Preheat the oven to 180/190 ˚C.
16. Leave the dough to rise in the tin while the oven is heating- about 20mins.
17. Bake for 50-60 mins at 180/190 ˚C. Some ovens need slightly hotter temperatures & longer cooking time.
18. Take the loaf out of the tin and place on a rack to cool. Cover with a tea towel.
19. Cut when coolish - if you can wait 1:00pm (ready to eat)

Step 16

Step 19

MODERN BREAD - THE BROKEN "STAFF OF LIFE" (2)

Part Two: Looking at Wheaten Flours available in NZ
 In Part One I talked about the “Broken Staff of Life”, the loss of nutrition in bread & baking made with highly processed white flour. So many people unknowingly suffer from metabolic disorders linked to a lack of Vitamin B1 as a result of eating too high a proportion of white flour. ¹ A lack of vitamin B in the diet comes through the combination of white flour, which is low in vitamin B, and high consumption of refined sugar, which is a Vitamin B robber.²

One of the first steps towards long term good health is to encourage and enable ordinary people, like ourselves, to incorporate more whole grains in our diet. A small step but a wise one - Greatly enhance the nutritional quality of your baking by substituting a good part of the white flour in a recipe with wholemeal flour. I’m not asking you to ‘go raw’, although there is a place for that and I’ll talk about ‘raw’ in another newsletter. You don’t have to be a fanatic – just be wise.

Most flours consumed are made from wheat and are the most readily available. Wheat contains the most gluten. Gluten is a protein found in some grains that helps bread rise and keep its shape. Flours with more gluten make better breads.
White flour available in NZ.³

1. All-purpose flour is a blend of bread flour and pastry flour - for most baking needs.
2. High grade or “strong” flour. Also called Baker’s Flour is made from semi-hard wheat and has a medium to high protein content. It is used for making bread.
3. Standard or plain flour, also called soft flour, is made from soft wheat varieties and has a low protein content. It is used for making cakes and biscuits
4. Self-raising flour is made by combining flour with baking powder or a similar chemical aerating agent. How to make your own self-raising flour http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Self-Rising-Flour
5. Durum flour is ground from durum wheat, the hardest wheat grown. Semolina is refined durum flour. It is the flour commonly used for making pasta. In wholemeal pasta (LINK TO PASTA) the bran and germ have been left in the flour the giving the pasta its characteristic brown colour.
6. Gluten flour is made from hard wheat that has been treated to remove some of its starch and concentrate its protein. Gluten flour contains at least 70% pure gluten. It can be added to low-gluten flours to lighten the loaf. This is a highly refined flour and should only be used sparingly to improve bread rising capabilities.
7. Unbleached, organic white flour is highly refined. Although we don’t bleach our flour here in NZ it is sometimes labelled “unbleached”. However most of the nutrients have been removed during the refining process. It can be used for breads, pastries, cookies or cakes.

A better option; use more Wholemeal Flour (or Brown Flour or Wholewheat Flour)
i. Wholemeal Bread flour or hard wholemeal flour is ground from semi-hard wheat, and is the best for making breads and rolls.
ii. Wholemeal Pastry flour or soft wholemeal flour is milled from soft wheat, a different variety of wheat than the one used for bread baking. It has the ability to hold a lot of fat, and is ideal for pastry and cake making. Breads made with whole wheat pastry flour will not rise.

Wise Tip: Eat your food as unprocessed as possible, as natural as possible and as fresh as possible.

Penelope
www.happyandhealthy.co.nz

MODERN BREAD - THE BROKEN "STAFF OF LIFE" (1)

Part 1: Whole-grain Wheat Flour

Have you ever wondered how the food-related diseases of our Western culture develop? I’m talking about problems or diseases like obesity, bowel cancer, diabetes, kidney stones, gout, arthritis, infections of the kidney & bladder, stiffness in the joints, digestive disorders and so on.

We must keep an eye on our health and our eating. Have you noticed that what we sow, we eventually harvest? Early signs of deteriorating health can be headaches, depression, low energy, constipation, dental decay, back pain.

Many people unknowingly suffer from metabolic disorders linked to a lack of Vitamin B1 as a result of eating a high proportion of white flour. ¹ A lack of vitamin B in the diet comes through the combination of white flour, which is low in vitamin B, and high consumption of refined sugar, which is a Vitamin B robber.²

What actually happens to wheat as it’s commercially milled and prepared for making our daily bread and why is it the broken ‘staff of life’? Let's have a look at the process used in NZ.

1. In the process of milling the grain is broken open and ground into flour. However, mainstream flour production, takes nutritious grain and refines it into nutritionally poor flour. To understand why, let’s have a look at the structure of a wheat grain.

The Bran is the husk; it contains protein, many vitamins, minerals, and dietary fibre. During milling the bran is discarded and used as animal feed, or (and this is ironic) the vitamins, minerals and fibre it contains are reprocessed to be sold as supplements.
The Germ, or wheat germ, is the young plant within the seed. It contains proteins, highly unsaturated fatty acids, good sugars and is high in B vitamins. The protective layer around the germ contains many essential chemicals (amino acids) that help us digest the proteins and starch in the wheat. Our bodies can’t make these amino acids so we must have a dietary source. Whole grains are a very good source.
The Endosperm is the only part used in white flour; it contains a lot of proteins and starch.

• The majority of the nutrition is contained in the bran and the germ.
• The endosperm is the only part of the wheat grain used to make white flour. Thus, you can see that white flour is missing many vitamins, minerals, amino acids and fibre.
• The germ is removed during milling as it contains plant oils that will go rancid very quickly and so limit the shelf life of the flour.³

2. In New Zealand, thankfully, our flours are unbleached. Some organic white flours are called “unbleached” and they are, but then all white flour is unbleached in NZ. Colour of the flour depends on the strain of wheat milled.

3. Addition of synthetic vitamins to fortify the pre-mix. If you look at the labels on baked goods you’ll see that many baked goods are fortified. In NZ, unlike many other countries, the actual flour itself is only fortified with folic acid. The other ‘enrichments’ are added by the millers when the pre-mixes are put together for the various breads, cakes, biscuits, pancakes etc.

Nutritional analyses have been carried out on flour samples from New Zealand flour mills.
Approximate nutrient content (mg) per 100g of flour⁴

Nutrients	(Supermarket Retail) White flour	(Supermarket Retail) Wholemeal flour
Protein	11740	12360
Calcium	20.8	35.9
Iron	1.45	3.25
Potassium	194.8	406.7
Dietary fibre	3140	12040
Thiamin	27	45
Riboflavin	9	15
Niacin	132	220
Vitamin B6	16	45

From the New Zealand Flour Millers Association

Note: Supermarket wholemeal flour has undergone the same treatment as white flour and the millers add some “stabilised-for-the-shelf” bran and wheat germ back into the mix and call it wholemeal.⁵ It’s a little bit like trying to put Humpty Dumpty back together again, it doesn’t work very well – once it’s broken, it’s always broken.

You can see that even supermarket wholemeal flour is much more nutritious than refined white flour. So why not ‘up’ your nutrition by using more whole grains?

1. Be adventurous, give other whole-grains a try, like; amaranth, buckwheat (called kasha in the Middle East), millet, brown rice, or wholegrain couscous.
2. Buy good quality, freshly baked wholemeal bread made with freshly milled flour (good)
3. Buy freshly milled wholegrain flour and make your own bread in a bread maker or by hand (much, much better)
4. Mill your own flour in a small home mill to make your own bread (the best)

It’s true that all vitamins, even in the best quality flour, will be partly destroyed during cooking because of the heat. Vitamin E for example, deteriorates quickly when cooked. That's why it’s important to eat some raw, unheated grains or sprouted grains to obtain all the vitamins and other phytochemicals that our bodies need.

A note about storing flour: Wheat, and in fact all grains, contain oils (like wheat germ oil for example) that go rancid very quickly. Now white flour doesn’t contain much in the way of these good oils so it can sit on supermarket shelves for several months, but a good stoneground wholemeal flour will be full of wonderful oils and you’ll need to protect these nutrients in the freezer. So for best results freeze wholemeal flour in an airtight container and use within two to three months.

A final note: Milling your own flour just before baking your bread ensures that you are getting fresh whole grain flour and maximising all the vitamins and minerals. It is also much cheaper. A kilo of wheat grain is only $2, about a third the price of “genuine” wholemeal flour. If you bake bread on a regular basis then you can pay for a flour mill in about 18 months. After that you get to keep the weekly savings, plus enjoy very nutritious home baked bread and have the delightful smell of freshly baked bread wafting through your home daily. We use our Wonder Mill all the time, producing fresh flour to make our own bread, pizza, pastry, biscuits, etc.

Penelope
www.happyandhealthy.co.nz


Bibliography:

1. Bruker: Gesund durch richtiges Essen, p18
2. Puttner Karin, Nutrition Awareness - Ten Steps to Healthy Eating, Karin Puttnre, 2006
3. Cranton, Elmer, MD, Modern Bread, the broken staff of life, 2005
4. New Zealand Flour Millers Association http://www.flourinfo.co.nz/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7:nutritional-aspects-of-flour&catid=5:flour-&Itemid=58 15/08/12
5. Basey, Marleeta F. Flour Power: a Guide to Modern Home Grain Milling. Albany, Or.: Jermar, 2004. Print.