How much sugar?

This is what I've been grappling with for the last little while.

I've worked very hard to ensure that I nurture my family with food which nourishes them.  I've educated myself according to our specific needs.  I've read widely and listened to health practitioners advice.  I think I could consider myself I bit of a nutritionist and have considered that if I chose to study something at this stage of my life it would be Nutrition.  I was encouraged last week in my small home group when a friend spoke up and said, "You should be a Nutritionist Cathy!".  It was very encouraging considering she doesn't know me well yet and would not know my past and desires in relation to nurture and nourishment.

All appears to well on the homefront, however herein lies my struggle:

As we leave our home and participate in the community more and more, as we are doing in Canberra, we are being confronted by a culture of food sharing and eating which is substantially different from our own.  At least it appears that way on the surface.  When I speak to many mothers about my struggle we seem to share similar concerns.  The main one of which is the amount of sugar which is consumed in everything we eat.  Mothers are trying to bake with half the amount of sugar, struggling to find healthy options to fill a lunchbox, to share with friends.  They are trying to find something on a table of food which is nourishing rather than simply pleasing when we share food.

I am committed to making a concerted effort to stop eating sugar in our household. Fortunately I have some friends who are doing the same.  And by sugar I mean fructose as well as sucrose.  We are now only eating fructose as a whole fruit with all the fibre surrounding aiding the digestion of the fructose.

I'm enjoying the fact that my appetite control mehcanism is now clearly working.  I feel full regularly and rarely have that sense that I need to eat something - just to satisfy.  I'm enjoying lots of different foods with my girls including savoury toppings for toast, treats which aren't full of sugar ie profiteroles and some little chocolate almond cakes we recently baked.  There are more: we are on a journey and will discover as we go.  No doubt I'll share some of our new recipes here to share with you.  Are you already on this ride?  Are you ready to join us?

I'm delighted that my husband is keen to join us for the ride and that we now have a reason not to spend our money at the ice cream shop.

It's taken me a while to really get onboard with this notion.  I was first introduced to this research when my 21 month old baby J was just born by our neighbour.  Now I feel it is time for us.

I'm still struggling with the fact that my children will choose to eat sugary foods when they are offered, however like many other things 'I will let that go'.  I will continue to nourish them at home with quality foods, guided by information that comes to hand and trust that as role models, my husband and I will be remembered as parents who led our children towards paths of good health and responsible eating.

Carrot, Banana and Honey Muffins

A film is just like a muffin. You make it. You put it on the table. One person might say "Oh, I don't like it." Another might say it is the best muffin ever made. One might say it's an awful muffin. It's hard for me to say. It's for me to make the muffin." ~ Denzel Washington

Carrot, Banana and Honey Muffins

Prep time: 15 mins

Cooking time: 20 mins

Makes 12

2 cups of Spelt flour with ½ tsp bicarb and 1 tsp cream of tartar (or 2 cups self-raising flour)

½ tsp bicarb soda (yes pop some more in)

2 teaspoons nutmeg

1-2 tablespoons brown sugar (optional)

¾ cup light olive oil

¼ cup honey

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1 large banana, mashed

1 small carrot, peeled and grated

1. Preheat oven to 200ºC. Line a 12-hole standard muffin tine with muffin cases. Sift flour, bicarb and nutmeg into a bowl. Add sugar if desired, stir to combine.

2. Put the oil, honey and eggs in a medium jug and whisk with a fork to combine. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients. Add the banana and carrot, pour in the olive oil mixture and stir with a fork until just combined. Spoon batter into each muffin case, no more than two-thirds full. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until well risen, golden and firm to touch. Put on a wire rack to cool, dust with icing sugar before serving for a professional touch.

Adapted from a recipe seen in Better Homes and Gardens magazine years ago

Our Drinking Water

I believe that water is the only drink for a wise man.  ~Henry David Thoreau

Image found here

I very strongly believe the above statement, yet perhaps it is not quite so if your drinking water becomes contaminated.  Of course the authorities say this will never happen, they are there to reassure us.

Yet with the current pattern of receiving nil to very little rain in our region the risk of heavy metals being leached into our water supply is very real.  The extreme drought is causing our earth to turn into acid sulphate soils from which can leach heavy metals.  The CSIRO is mapping where this is happening in an attempt to manage the acid levels in soils.  You can read a bit more about what is going on in this news story of last April.  That was almost a year ago and the drought is certainly not broken. We have had hardly any rain in that time, despite the fact that other parts of our country are in flood.  So I wonder what is happening currently.

On the weekend we discovered that we have some cadmium, a heavy metal, in our bodies.  Yes, I do, our precious little Eee and Ess do, and my Generous Gentlemen does as well.  We are probably getting this from our water supply although it does come in other means.  It shouldn't be in our water supply, authorities would tell us it is only there is safe levels. How a heavy metal can be safe at all in our systems is simply beyond me.  They impact the way our brain works and deals with every process in our bodies.  They don't simply go away, the body must deal with them appropriately.  As well as this, cadmium shouldn't be in our system as our water is filtered.  Our filter states that it removes traces of heavy metals from our drinking water.  It was only replaced last December and I don't believe it has lasted long enough if cadmium is getting through already.

At the moment I am feeling a little pensive.  My darling daughters are fighting a virus which causes them to have a fever, sleep lots and becoming seeming better only to fall down again soon thereafter.  Twice I have thought Ess was over it, twice she returned to me with earaches and dark eyes and the need to rest.  Those of you who know Ess, know that she "never gets tired" :). Her nature right from when she was a baby!

Some of this might be speculation, but it does concern me.  At the very least be sure you have your drinking water filtered and that your filter is replaced as often as recommended.  If you are uncertain about heavy metals, ask your health practitioner.  On a greater level, I do wonder where we are headed in this big old world.  Have a little look at this graphic to see what the world might be like in 2050 or so when the world might be 4ºC warmer or so.  If we make it that far.