Live For Food

The human body requires many different vitamins and minerals but apart from the general fact that they are good for you, I couldn’t tell you the specifics of more than a couple i.e. what biological function they fulfil and why we need them to keep healthy.

https://solomedicalsupply.com/2024/08/07/s2v606oi So I thought I would do a bit of research into some of them to improve my understanding.  I take a calcium and vitamin D3 supplement, because I use some medication that carries a minor risk of osteoporosis, and having run out recently I acquired a new pot of calcuim which also contains magnesium.  Now I did a little bit of research separately and found that magnesium could supposedly improve energy levels, and possibly reduce the risk of tension headaches – two things that would help me, and so when I came across the joint calcium and magnesium supplement I thought it would be a good idea.

https://www.clawscustomboxes.com/leve86nowma I did a bit of internet research to try and find out if such products are beneficial or not, and some people say yes, and some no, so I think the best thing to do is provided the supplement you have in mind is not harmful, to give it a go and see how you feel.  So far I feel okay!  I have only had one major headache since taking the tablets and that was probably down to the high humidity levels at the time.

Anyway, magnesium was meant to be my focus here.  What does it actually do?

• Formation of bones and teeth
• Helps transmit nerve signals and causes muscle contractions along with calcium, sodium and potassium – so it relaxes the nerves and muscles
• Keeps heart rhythm steady
• Helps the body process fat and protein and also make proteins
• Helps convert blood sugar into energy

https://eloquentgushing.com/vqq8vey93w So it has a diverse number of functions, and I can see from the above list that relaxation and energy production should in theory help to reduce headaches and increase general energy.

https://polyploid.net/blog/?p=o5ea4br Who might benefit from a magnesium supplement?

• People who get muscle cramps
• People with cardiovascular disease
• People with asthma
• People with frequent headaches or migraines
• People with diabetes

If you want to get magnesium the natural way which foods is it contained in?

• Whole grains
• Globe artichokes
• Spinach
• Wholemeal bread
• Bran flakes
• Lamb’s kidneys
• Red meat
• Beans and pulses
• Nuts like Brazil nuts, almonds, cashews and peanuts
• Sunflower and sesame seeds
• Tofu

I do eat some of those foods – bran flakes and wholemeal bread and red meat, but I don’t know if I eat enough of them to get my magnesium quota.  Tofu and lamb’s kidneys do not feature highly in my diet it has to be said!  I always find if I track my diet that on a good day I eat all the nutrients I need, but on a bad day which happens every now and again, I can end up eating no vegetables, too much processed food and sugar and consequently on average I may not meet the required targets on my own.

Ordering Alprazolam Pills I shall see how I feel in a couple of months when I’ve finished the pot of vitamins and then decide whether or not to continue with the additional magnesium supplement.  Does anyone else have any experience of taking magnesium?

 

Tags: energy, headaches, magnesium, minerals, osteoporosis, supplement, vitamins

This year in the UK we seem to have had a bumper plum harvest. Everywhere I go, work, church, friends’ houses, I am being bombarded with bags of plums to take home.

This is a picture of my friend Gill’s plum tree in full fruit!

So I will admit I haven’t been terribly enterprising with them but here are my top four things to do with a bag of plums:

Xanax Buy In Uk 1. Eat them raw!  Well I did say I hadn’t done anything that special.  I suggest you pick the nicest, ripest plums and eat them for snacks.  They are sweet and delicious.

2. Freeze them.  Wash the plums, then cut them in half and remove the stones, before bagging them up for the freezer. They will only be suitable for cooking with afterwards but at least they are out of the way for now.

Generic Xanax Online 3. Stewed plums

The next easiest option is to make stewed plums.  Again wash the plums, then cut them in half and remove the stones.

Place in a microwaveable bowl, sprinkle with cinnamon and a spoonful of sugar, and add two tablespoons of water.

Put them in the microwave and cook on high.   I suggest cooking for two minutes and then stirring, then cooking for another two minutes etc.  Mine were about done after 4-5 minutes but it will vary depending on your microwave.

https://transculturalexchange.org/ufxlk0v10y 4. Plum Crumble

I have saved the best for last.  Take a medium sized glass or ceramic dish and half fill with washed, halved and stoned raw plums.  Mix in a teaspoon of cinnamon, a tablespoon of sugar, and a heaped teaspoon of cornflour (cornstarch for those in the USA I believe).

Make the crumble topping by putting 150g of plain flour in a bowl with 75g of cooking margarine or butter.  Remember: half fat to flour!

You need to mix the butter into the flour and end up with a mixture the consistency of breadcrumbs.  Traditionally one does this with fingertips, but I have found that a fork used with a sideways cutting motion does the job without the messy fingers.

Add to the crumble mix 75g of caster sugar and mix it all together.  Spoon the crumble mixture over the plums.  Smooth the top over with the back of the spoon so its flat but don’t press it down too hard.

Cook in a 180 C oven for 40 minutes.  You can tell its done when the top is a nice light brown.  Some of the plum juice may spill over the top and be bubbling at the edge.

Serve with ice cream or custard.

 

So there we go, four easy things to do with plums.  I’m getting a bit fed up of them now so I may revisit this later in the year when I get the frozen ones out of my freezer.

 

 

Tags: crumble, dessert, fruit, plums

I have two freezers.  A small upright one, which is a dual unit with my fridge, and a small chest freezer which I keep in my utility room.  You would not believe some of the things that are hanging round in the bottom of them.  Every now and then I have an industrious fit and decide to clear out all the old items that I am never going to eat, or that are in a really sorry state.  And then I decide I’m going to organise the freezer so that I always know whats in it and it wont get in the same state again.

The last time I had this clear out, and I did my cupboards at the same time, I have to say I was shocked at the amount of stuff I threw out.  I like to think of myself as someone who doesn’t waste food.  Whenever those reports come on television about the people who end up throwing out a third of their weekly shop, vegetables that have gone off and so on, I always smugly think, well thats not me.  But I think I chucked out two bin bags of stuff from my cupboards and freezer.  Among the culprits were things tucked into the cupboards with awkard corners you can’t see round, one of which was a whole packet of biscuits.  Other items were say specialist types of sugar or dried fruit or flour that I had bought for a particular recipe but then didn’t use up afterwards.  In the freezer there were some very sad lamb chops that were meant to go on the barbecue, but owing to the last couple of summers being terrible they didn’t get used, some mysterious unlabelled brown paste in plastic bags which I thought was black bean sauce at first, but it turned out to be prune puree (a substitute for sugar in low fat cooking), and a tub of a rather dodgy chorizo and mashed potato soup – I have no idea why I kept that as it was horrible the first time round.

Since then I have done slightly better at organising my freezer, and it does help me improve my meal planning.  The problem with chest freezers is that however organised you start off being, eventually you have a mad rush to put stuff in it, or a wallow in the bottom for something you’ve lost, and by the time you’ve finished its a right mess again and things hide in the bottom unnoticed for the next three years.

So what I did was split the chest freezer into compartments.  I have the main big compartment taking up about two thirds of the freezer, a shelf which makes a slightly shallower compartment in the other third and a basket that goes on top.  The shelf has a plastic divider splitting it from the main compartment.  I got hold of a cardboard box, and cut out sheets of cardboard to divide my shallow compartment into two and my main compartment into four.  Now my chest freezer has seven compartments, and I keep specific things in each section.  I keep fruit and veg in the basket.  The two shallow compartments are one for milk and leftovers, and one for frozen foods like fishfingers and oven chips.  The four main compartments are for meat, bread products, desserts, and lunch items like cooked meats or quiches.

It actually works.  Whilst I still dont get round to using absolutely everything up, I am well aware that there is a two year old quiche somewhere in my lunch items section.  Definitely an improvement.  I haven’t quite got there with the small upright freezer yet.  Its roughly arranged by drawer – bits and pieces in one, meat in the next, and vegetables in the bottom one, but I think I have ice cream in the meat drawer and bread in the vegetable drawer.  I thought of arranging it by putting items in there that would mean I didn’t have to go into the utility when I wanted something from the freezer, but I kept forgetting to restock it and ended up going out to the utility anyway.  So thats a work in progress.

I also have a resolution that if I put leftovers in the freezer, I have a plan in my head as to when I am going to eat them, and that its going to be within the next couple of weeks or so.  That should reduce the amounts of containers of random chicken casserole and such like.  I have been pretty good with this resolution and my leftovers in the freezer have reduced.  However I still have to use up that prune puree…

 

Tags: cupboards, freezer, leftovers

I do enjoy cereal bars. They are a quick to eat, nicely packaged, portable breakfast or snack food. They don’t need to be kept cold, they have healthy ingredients, and easily slip into a pocket or handbag. But am I fooling myself that these products are healthy? Some instinct tells me that despite the cereals and fruit included they may be no better than a chocolate bar. So I going to do some anecdotal tests … I shall choose my four favourite cereal bars, and then four chocolate bars, and compare them all to a set of healthy criteria and see how they measure up. Obviously, anecdotal evidence isn’t really that scientific, but maybe it will give me an idea as to whether cereal bars should be a regular part of my diet, or an occasional treat.

These are the criteria that the supermarkets use to determine whether a food is high, medium or low in fat and sugar.

Total fat
High: more than 20g of fat per 100g
Low: 3g of fat or less per 100g

https://www.completerehabsolutions.com/blog/42l9um6t Sugars
High: more than 15g of total sugars per 100g
Low: 5g of total sugars or less per 100g

Fibre
High: more than 6g per 100g
“Source” of fibre: more than 3g per 100g

https://eloquentgushing.com/qyj7pi7 Chocolate bars

https://aiohealthpro.com/u0ako5wne1 Double Decker – Milk chocolate with a soft, chewy nougat top and crunchy cereal bottom

Total calories per bar – 275

Per 100g:
Calories – 460
Sugar – 54.9g – HIGH
Fat – 18.5g – MEDIUM
Fibre – 1.4g – LOW

Alprazolam Powder Buyers First five ingredients listed: Nougat (36%), Milk chocolate, Sugar, Crispy cereal (6%), Vegetable fat

https://homeupgradespecialist.com/z63e03t Comments: this bar has the lowest fat content of the four I reviewed.

https://foster2forever.com/2024/08/237gifj.html Picnic – Milk chocolate with caramel, peanut, crispy cereal and raisin centre

Total calories per bar – 230

https://www.psicologialaboral.net/2024/08/07/ol6s2m4ercf Per 100g:
Calories – 475
Sugar – 47.4g – HIGH
Fat – 22.6g – HIGH
Fibre – 2.1g – LOW

Online Xanax Prescriptions First five ingredients listed: Milk chocolate, Caramel (32%), Peanuts (12%), Crispy cereal (10%), Sugar

Comments: this is probably the healthiest chocolate bar of the four due to the nuts and cereal content.

Toffee Crisp – Toffee and crisped cereal filled milk chocolate

Total calories per bar – 229

https://oevenezolano.org/2024/08/a4gzr16lowu Per 100g:
Calories – 520
Sugar – information not provided
Fat – 27.7g – HIGH
Fibre – information not provided

https://homeupgradespecialist.com/0h6ksrmh First five ingredients listed: Milk chocolate, Vegetable fat, Crisped cereal, sugar, Glucose syrup

Comments: this chocolate bar includes some vitamins and minerals as part of the crisped cereal.

https://nedediciones.com/uncategorized/w48sg2yn18 Kitkat – Four crispy wafer fingers covered with dark chocolate

Total calories per bar – 243

Buy Alprazolam Paypal Per 100g:
Calories – 535
Sugar – information not provided
Fat – 33.5g – HIGH
Fibre – information not provided

https://eloquentgushing.com/qajlubl First five ingredients listed: Dark chocolate (66%), Wheat flour, Sugar, Vegetable fat, Cocoa mass

https://udaan.org/va5aoace1.php Comments: the unhealthiest chocolate bar of the four.

Cereal bars

https://polyploid.net/blog/?p=fd40hp0 Jordans Frusli – Wholegrain oat cereal bars with sultanas, dried apple slices and apple and cinnamon puree pieces

Total calories per bar – 111

Per 100g:
Calories – 369
Sugar – 36.1g – HIGH
Fat – 7.8g – MEDIUM
Fibre – 4.6g – MEDIUM

First five ingredients listed: Wholegrain oat flakes (29%), Dried fruit (29%), Glucose syrup, Raw cane sugar, Wholegrain oat flour

Buy Alprazolam Paypal Comments: some very good quality ingredients, but high sugar content despite being marketed as “wholesome energy”, joint lowest in fat of the cereal bars.

https://transculturalexchange.org/uhf1a5x Kelloggs Nutrigrain – A soft golden baked crust made with wheat, wholegrain oats and a strawberry filing

Total calories per bar – 133

https://inteligencialimite.org/2024/08/07/dog096j Per 100g:
Calories – 359
Sugar – 33g – HIGH
Fat – 8g – MEDIUM
Fibre – 3.5g – MEDIUM

https://sugandhmalhotra.com/2024/08/07/03yit5mo First five ingredients listed: Cereals (32%), Glucose-fructose syrup, Sugar, Fructose, Strawberry puree from concentrate (7.5%)

https://mandikaye.com/blog/vb202a80t8 Comments: contains some vitamins, joint lowest in fat of the cereal bars.

https://oevenezolano.org/2024/08/r9ewa0dfq Alpen Raspberry and Yogurt – Mixed cereal bar with apple and raspberry, dipped and drizzled with a yogurt flavour coating

Total calories per bar – 120

https://solomedicalsupply.com/2024/08/07/6nndynz Per 100g:
Calories – 414
Sugar – 37.3g – HIGH
Fat – 10.2g – MEDIUM
Fibre – 2.1g – MEDIUM

https://oevenezolano.org/2024/08/7nas3gpcw First five ingredients listed: Cereals (34%), Glucose Syrup, Sugar, Vegetable Oil, Fruit Juice Concentrate

Xanax Online Overnight Comments: as an aside, the raspberry flavour in this tasted quite artificial.

https://aiohealthpro.com/r7vx3cluf Kelloggs Fibre Plus – Dark chocolate and almond cereal bars

Total calories per bar – 116

https://foster2forever.com/2024/08/t6enk4q.html Per 100g:
Calories – 415
Sugar – 18g – HIGH
Fat – 17g – MEDIUM
Fibre – 18g – HIGH

https://blog.extraface.com/2024/08/07/vief4ffkt First five ingredients listed: Cereals, Chocolate (21%), Oligofructose, Glucose Syrup, Almonds (5%)

https://udaan.org/6gfhiph.php Comments: best for fibre – which is what this product is marketed for anyway, lowest in sugar of the cereal bars.

Conclusion

• Cereal bars are better for you than chocolate bars, but only in a relative sense
• A cereal bar has fewer calories than a chocolate bar mainly because it weighs a lot less (about half normally)
• The sugar content of cereal bars, a product marketed as a healthy breakfast, is shocking
• I suspect the same is true of many commercial cereals, especially the children’s ones
• Some cereal bars do contain good quality ingredients

I conclude therefore that I should probably not eat cereal bars on a daily basis, but once or twice a week if I’m in a rush is probably okay.  I definitely shouldn’t eat chocolate bars every day, but then I knew that anyway!  My cereal bar of choice tends to be the Fibre Plus bar, mainly because of the fibre and the nice chocolaty taste.  Apart from the fibre issue, if I have to have cereal bars, probably the Frusli bar is the best choice because even though it has high sugar content, it does at least have good quality organic ingredients.

 

Tags: cereal bars, chocolate, healthy, snacks

If you work in an office it can be difficult to control your food intake at times.  When I worked in a large office I spent a lot of time sitting down all day and I always used the lift, never the stairs.  There was an office biscuit box for everyone, and it was someone’s birthday or other occasion requiring cake about once a fortnight. The office was situated on the high street surrounded by shops where it was easy to buy snacks, and the person sitting at the desk opposite me was a six foot gentleman with a propensity for croissants and crisps.

At the time I wasn’t even trying to keep an eye on my weight, but even so I eventually began to despair of the abundance of cake.  At one stage I was putting on about a pound a week.  It was of course my own fault, but being put in situations like the above, which let’s face it are considered normal in many, many offices, do not help at all.

Things are easier for me now.  I work in a much smaller office, there is a lot less cake, and no regular biscuits, and my office is on the top floor with no elevator.

Looking back, what could I have done to improve the situation I was originally in?  How could I have coped better with the constant food temptations?

I should have taken the opportunity to use the stairs instead of the lift as that did me a world of good when I moved jobs (after the first couple of weeks that is – they nearly killed me to start with!)

We would buy individual cakes for the people in our department when someone had a birthday – I should have sometimes said NO to a piece of cake on someone’s birthday and done as one other girl did and asked for a piece of fruit instead.

I still find it very difficult to resist an open tin of cake or biscuits in the kitchen.  In retrospect my best option here would have been to have a tiny piece of cake or a maximum of one biscuit per day.  That would have limited the damage.  Could I have stuck to that?  I don’t know – sometimes just having one can lead to another.

I kept buying one particular chocolate bar at lunchtime because on the front of the packet it said it was low fat.  Silly me didn’t click that is was still full of sugar and calories!  I forgot that it isn’t only fat that makes us fat.

I had a habit of bringing packed lunch to work and supplementing it with the above chocolate bar and a vegetable samosa from the bakery next door.  I should have not done this, but just had say one samosa a week for lunch instead of my sandwiches, not as well as my sandwiches.

As they say, hindsight is a wonderful thing.  Luckily when I changed jobs it was a fresh start in all respects and I ended up addressing my bad habits the easy way, simply by not starting my bad lunch habits again, and because there wasn’t the same amount of snacks around.  I didn’t realise how bad my habits were until I took a step back to think about it.

Don’t forget, it takes time to develop new habits, and you shouldn’t let one slip up get you down, because tomorrow is always a new day.  I am well aware that it is easier said than done though.  What are your top tips for avoiding the office biscuit tin?

Tags: office, snacks