How to Cook for Allergies, cooking demo

Last night I attended a cooking demonstration called 'How to Cook for Allergies' by Lucinda Bruce-Gardyne who has recently published a book of the same name. It was held at NW Circus Place branch of Herbie of Edinburgh, a local company dedicated to the slow food movement.

Lucinda's passion for perfecting delicious alternatives for people with allergies was a real inspiration and it proved a really enjoyable evening.

Trained at the Leith School of Food and Wine in London, her demonstration was educational, accessible and most importantly useful. She took the time to explain how certain ingredients behave in different circumstances, giving a much needed reason to the amateur kitchen-user as to why a gluten-free cake might need 5 types of flours. It finally gave me extremely good reason to buy the rather irritatingly long list of flours often listed in recipes, and know that it will be money well-spent and storage space well-used.

Lucinda's can-do attitude was galvanising. Rather than being intimidated by a chef who knew everything and used fancy techniques too tricky for the general public, her focus was to teach the basics and show how easy it is to get started. Her book really details how to use variations to the best advantage. I may be a further £16.99 out of pocket, but now I'm fully referenced up and ready to get started.

To top it all off, the evening was evenly sprinkled with tasters of all the recipes covered. And they were out of this world. These simple recipes and techniques have ridiculously high pay-off. I ate the tastiest slice of Victoria Sponge I have ever eaten, even including those held in the category of Childhood Memory. I had some Tarte au Citron which knocked my socks off. The bread was easy to make (no kneading required), light in the middle, just the right kind of chewy on the outside and not in the slightest bit grainy. Washed down with a couple of glasses of white wine, the £12 ticket was definitely money well spent.

If you're interested, Lucinda will be giving 3 more demonstrations in the near future at The Edinburgh School of Food and Wine (Dairy-free 10 Aug, Egg-free 17 Aug, Gluten-free 14 Sept). Details on Lucinda's website (http://www.lucindabrucegardyne.com/) and on ESFW's (http://www.esfw.com/).

The Optimal Diet for 21st Century Living

Last night, Dr Walt Willett, Professor at Harvard School of Public Health and at Harvard Medical School, gave a lecture in 'The Optimal Diet for 21st Century Living', the second in the University of Edinburgh Enlightenment Lecture series.
www.ed.ac.uk/explore.av

Dr Willett has spent the last 25 years studying the impact of diet on the occurence of major diseases. His lecture covered the impact of different food stuffs, such as types of fat, dairy and carbohydrates, as well as consumption of fruits and vegetables on illnesses such as coronary heart disease, types of cancers, osteoporosis and others. While some of the terms were technical and some charts less easy for the untrained eye, his messages were clear. We can make very real positive impacts on the health of our bodies if we make changes in our lifestyle and eating habits, even at later age.

The lecture was packed with information, but a few key messages stood out for the general member of the public and can frame the way we look at what we eat:
1. Dairy- debunking the myth we need to drink more milk to save our bones
2. Fats -a more decadent diet rich in transfats is deadly, while one rich in polyunsaturated fats, omega 3s, can reduce risks of disease
3. Glycemic Index- as a helpful way of chooseing which foods are healthiest
4. The 'Healthy Eating Pyramid' - a simple illustration on how to plan our eating in a balanced and healthy way

I have summarised these points below but a great deal more can be found at the Harvard University website: http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/what-should-you-eat/pyramid/index.html. This includes further details of good foods, what to avoid and some delicious-looking recipes.

1. Dairy
Daily calcium intake does not seem to be as high as recommended in the US (1200mg/day) or the UK (700mg/day), as the World Health Organisation recommends 500mg/day with no adverse risk of osteoporosis. This dietary requirement in adults can be met with a well-balanced diet and one portion of dairy a day. Increasing milk consumption does not decrease risk of osteoporosis, in some instances can increase possible risk of fractures and in men can increase risk of fatal prostate cancer (the latter based on a study of men who drank more than 3 glasses of milk a day).

2. Fats
The fats that we choose to consume, and importantly not consume, has a very clear impact on our health. Transfats (those which for the main are solid at room temperature) greatly increase risk of coronary heart disease, as do saturated fats (animal fats) to a lesser extent. These should be avoided. Interestingly the consumption of certain other fats (such as unsaturated fats) actually decreases risk. The healthiest fats are in the polyunsaturates omega 3 family, which include fish oil and plant oils (soya, olive and rapeseed). If you consume both healthy and unhealthy oils, they provide some sort of balance. If you want to decrease risk of various diseases, you should limit all oils but unsaturated fats which you can enjoy to your heart's content. As Dr Willett put it, load on the salad dressings, these can improve your health and make the salad taste a lot better too.

3. Glycemic Index
The Glycemic Index is a sound way to approach what foods to eat as this focuses on a slow, sustained release of glucose. In layman's terms, it leaves you feeling fuller for longer. Dr Willett reported that eating a diet with a high Glycemic Load increases risk of heart disease. Sadly as such, high GI goods include both potatoes and bagels. More details on nutritious delicious low GI foods to come.

4. The Healthy Eating Pyramid
This summarises very simply what principles we should employ to eat a healthier diet:

• the foundation of a good diet is to be active and take exercise
• a plant-based diet rich in wholegrains, fruit, vegetables and plant oils is most important
• this should be supplmented with smaller portions of protein, fish and chicken for meat-eaters, and nuts and pulses for vegetarians
• dairy products should be eaten in smaller quantities again, and
• red meats and refined carbohydrates (white bread, flour, pasta and potatoes) should be eaten only in very limited amounts.

Taste of Edinburgh May 2008

Last Saturday was the first glorious summer's day to hit a weekend in Edinburgh in 2008. This was fortuitous as was the day we went to the much-hyped and rather over-priced Taste of Edinburgh event held in The Meadows.

The day was a huge success if measured by the extent of bared skin, thankfully less sun-burnt than is traditional to see on the first sight of sun. The place was flooded by multitude of tea-dresses, long shorts and sunnies.

I wouldn't call the event a complete success however. For £12 entry, plus the need to buy vouchers to eat or drink inside, it was not particularly good value for money. Sadly when our food did arrive, the quantity was quite skimpy - a disappointment really.

Perhaps it was mismarketed - a Taste of Edinburgh to me suggested a fair bit of sampling. While samples were available from the stalls, a great many were alcohol-based and there wasn't nearly enough food samples to provide a pleasant balance. Perhaps my cunningly light breakfast was my own downfall.

All was not lost though, as I wandered amongst the stalls, I came across the Simpsons of Speyside, purveyors of the humble oatcake. And there, sitting on one of the taster plates was one of my sought-after goods – wheat-free and palm oil- free oatcakes. See my blog on top three oatcakes to buy to find out more.