If one diet’s good then 4 diets make a superdiet, right?!
Let’s take a look at them individually for a minute.

Paleo

The premise:

Our prehistoric ancestors ate the food our bodies were designed to consume. Supposedly this is meat, nuts, seeds, berries and seasonal fruit and vegetables.

How this works in 2012:

The saturated fat brigade run around trumpeting the health benefits of bacon! Because we all know our paleolithic ancestors ate the equivalent to 6 chickens, 2 pigs and a side of beef each week. Probably not. Neither did they eat antibiotics, nitrates and growth hormones.

Why this might not be a good idea:

Carbohydrates are somewhat restricted. If you lead an active lifestyle, especially if you like to run or play team sports you need carbs for fuel.
Fat stores in animals are the places where the most toxins/chemicals are stored.  Pig (those magical animals that brings us such hits as bacon, ham and chops) are heavily farmed and fed all sorts of antibiotics and growth hormones which, you guessed it, are stored in the fat.

The real lesson to be learned:

Eat unprocessed food as close to it’s natural state. Eat a balance of fats from animals and seeds. A good guide is equal amounts of fish oil, plant or nut fats (olive, peanut, macadamia) and animal fat from free-ranging, traditionally farmed animals.

Raw

The premise:
Food heated above 40ºC is dead, thus the enzymes and nutrients are no longer available to our bodies. The current popular form of this diet is raw veganism. Advocates suggest large amounts of juiced green vegetables to provide adequate amino acids. However there are people who combine raw and paleo, eating the same items as in a paleo diet but raw (including meat). Grains and legumes, if consumed are soaked and sprouted to make nutrients more ‘bioavalable’.

How this works in 2012:

Sales of expensive juice extractors and superfoods skyrocket.
Sprouting becomes cool
Raw food ‘gurus’ emerge
People look undernourished, have dull skin and look hungry

Why this might not be such a good idea:
Severely limiting any macro-nutrient, means that your body is not fuelled effectively for performance and even your appearance. If you are aiming to build muscle the aminos provided in greens alone may not be enough. Aminos and B-vitamins are the building blocks of muscle, skin and bones. Deficiencies can result in dry brittle skin, dull hair and weak nails.
It’s expensive, all those aminos from organic leafy greens have to come from lots of organic green vegetables.
The real lessons to be learned
Eat your greens, they’re good for you. Especially the leafy ones.
Experiment with sprouting and soaking grains to see if your body feels more energised from them.

Photo Sura Nualpradid

Intermittent Fasting (IF)

The premise:
There are many forms of IF with varying lengths of fasting periods. Some advocated sight out prehistoric cousins again, while other just claim that after fasting our bodies are more receptive to taking on nutrients and less food will be stored as waste as body fat.

How it works in 2012:
One of the most popular choices, lean gains or 20/4, has dieters fast for 20 hours, workout just before breaking the fast and then eat all their daily nutrients in a  four hour window following.
Advocates say it it allows them to eat larger portions and feel ‘full’ as well as partitioning nutrients more effectively.

Why this might not be such a good idea:
If you suffer or have ever suffered from disordered eating this might sound familiar. Starve then ‘reward’ yourself by stuffing your face.
If you have a healthy relationship with food you may enjoy eating a variety of different foods throughout the day.
It can be anti-social. If you are someone who has an active social life and has to /likes to meet people for meals then you have to schedule your catchups around your feeding window.
If you are trying to maintain or gain muscle mass or enjoy running, cycling or team sports this could affect your performance and ability to improve.

The lessons to be learned:
Hunger isn’t an emergency. Various durations and degrees of hunger can help to understand that hunger is not an emergency and that you do not have to eat straight away.

photo chawalitpix

The blood type diet

The premise:

Dr D’adamo suggests that depending on your blood type the human body is able to process different food items differently. This is traced back to our paleo friends, again, and how they evolved differently depending on their environment and local food sources.

How it works in 2012:
Food lists can be found at http://www.dadamo.com/typebase4/typeindexer.htm Depending on your blood type foods are beneficial, neutral or should be avoided. Additional refinement can be made depending on your ‘secreter’ status using a saliva test kit.

Why this might not be such a good idea
Practicality. The list of foods cataloged is massive and sometimes quite hard to remember. For example type O’s can eat most berries but not  strawberries (if you’re a ‘non-secretor’). This is made easier if you have the iPhone app, but quite troublesome if dining out or at friends houses.
Skewed importance of certain foods. The perceptions that certain foods are ‘super beneficial’ can lead to their over consumption. Over consuming any food will not improve our health.

The lessons to be learned

All blood types are recommended to keep their refined foods to a minimum, including grain based products (ie flour) and instead encourage to eat their starches in less refined forms (ie rolled oats, sweet potato).
Eliminating foods can be really useful to find the ones your body works most optimally on. By eliminating the most common allergens (dairy, nuts, gluten, crucifer, eggs, coffee, chilli, artificial sweeteners) and for a few weeks and then reintroducing the one at a time you may notice symptoms such as bloating, water retention, drowsiness, itchiness, inflammation, sniffles, other respiratory problems or positive effects such as boosts in energy and concentration.

Photo: Idea Go

This  paleo, raw, IF, blood type superdiet sounds possible, but pretty restrictive! The truth is, I’m not interested in the restrictiveness, but the lessons to be learned from each which can be summed up briefly.

• Eat unprocessed food,
• especially plants,
• not too much,
• but don’t heavily restrict any fat, carbs or protein,
• pay attention to what you’re eating and how your body reacts.

Sound familiar? Micheal Pollan came to similar conclusions in his book ‘In Defense of Food’

I’d like to add one more rule in. Make eating enjoyable.
It is not by mistake that our bodies receive pleasure from food. Learn how to cook and learn how to cook with fresh natural ingredients.

This time of year it’s hot, I’ve eaten more rich food than usual and the shops are open sporadically. All this leads to a general feeling of not wanting to be in the kitchen too long. If I can get a meal on the table in under ten minutes it’s a winner in my eyes. I think the Thai’s must suffer this heat lethargy all year round, other than their laborious spice paste, most of their cuisine is so quick to prepare.

This beautifully simple stir fry is inspired by a recipe in David Thompson’s ‘Thai Street Food’. The list of ingredients are glaringly simple, yet the combination of flavours are much more than their individual parts. I’m not one to include a lot of pepper in my food, but this is the secret to the success of this dish. In David’s book, he suggests switching different greens and different seafood or poultry in this recipe. I had some frozen scallops in my freezer, which I quickly defrosted in the microwave, and a few bunches of asparagus to get through and that was all I needed.

Asparagus and Scallops

• 2 tsp coconut oil
• 2 bunches asparagus, woody bases trimmed and cut into 4cm length
• 350g scallops, thawed if frozen
• 2 cloves garlic, sliced/chopped (not crushed- it will burn!)
• 1 Tbsp light soy sauce (tamari for gluten free)
• 2 Tbsp chicken stock or water
• ½ tsp freshly ground pepper

1. Heat a wok until very hot. Add the coconut oil and heat until shimmering.
2. Add the asparagus and scallops and stir-fry for 3 or 4 minutes, until the scallops begin to loose their translucent quality.
3. Add the garlic and cook for a further minute.
4. Add the remaining ingredients and simmer for 2 minutes.
5. Taste and add more pepper if desired

Possibly the simplest recipe in the world, this is the cousin of the Maple Pecan Frozen Yoghurt recipe your find in my book, Healthy Helpings. No need for any fancy equipment (see the tips, below, for ice-cream maker-free options) I was able to throw this together while grilling my lunch on the bbq.

Fruits of the Forrest Frozen Yoghurt

• 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
• 1 (30g) egg white, use pasturized egg whites if concerned about eating raw eggs
• 500g low-fat yoghurt, I used Paris Creek Fat Free Swiss style Biodynaic Yoghurt
• 3 scoops (90g) Vanilla protein powder, I used WPC
• 100g frozen mixed berries

Place all the ingredients except the berries in a mixing bowl and combine until smooth.

Stir in the berries and place in a ice-cream maker. Churn until frozen.

Store in the freezer.

SUBSTITUTES & VARIATIONS

• If you don’t have an ice-cream maker, place the mixture in a metal baking tray, cover with plastic wrap and freezer for 3 hours. After 3 hours scrape the mixture into a freezer-safe container and freeze for another 2 hours
• Protein powder can be replaced with skim milk powder. However, the recipe will be lower in protein.

Nutrition:

Small: 142 Calories, 1.3g Fat, 10.2g Carbs, 1.0g Fibre, 22.1g Protein

Large: 284 Calories, 2.6 Fat, 20.4g Carbs, 2.0g Fibre, 44.2g Protein

As an extra special bonus, for all you protein junkies and/or gluten free folk, I’ve included a recipe to make your own sponge fingers. If you don’t have time, just use the store bought variety.

• 3 eggs, separated
• ¾ cup sweetener (I used ½ cup native, ¼ cup raw castor sugar)
• ¼ cup arrowroot powder or vanilla casein protein powder
• 250g light soft ricotta (I used perfect italiano light)
• 100g low-fat quark or cream cheese
• 90ml (3 shots) espresso coffee
• 60ml (¼ cup) marsala or brandy
• 3 fresh egg whites
• 40g 85% dark chocolate
• 24 italian sponge finger biscuits OR
• 2 whole eggs, separated
• 6 egg whites
• 2 tsp sweetener
• ¾ cup coconut flour
• ¾ cup vanilla casein protein powder OR ¾ cup almond meal

To make the sponge finger biscuits:
Preheat an oven to 180ºC/350ºF
Beat the egg yolks until they change colour, add the sweetener. Set aside.
In a clean bowl with a clean, dry whisk, beat the egg whites to stiff peaks. Fold in the egg yolk mixture and the remaining flours/protein powders. Switch to a wooden spoon and form into a dough. Divide the dough into 24 pieces and form into fingers using your hand (clean hands or gloves for hygiene, please!). Line a flat baking tray with baking paper, and place the fingers on the tray. Bake the fingers for 15–20 minutes or until golden. Allow to cool and preferably rest for at least a few hours before using.

To make the tiramisu:
Beat the egg yolks with the sweetener in a medium sized mixing bowl. Add in the ricotta and quark and stir until combined.
Place the arrowroot or casein in a small bowl. Add a quarter of the cheese mixture and blend until free of lumps. Return the thickened mixture to the larger bowl of cheese mix and stir until combined and evenly distributed. Set aside.

Prepare the coffee and combine with the marsala in a wide bottomed dish. Dunk the sponge finger biscuits in the coffee and and pack in a layer across the bottom of a large (about 30cm) square dish.

Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks and fold through the cheese mixture until evenly combined. Pour over the coffee soaked sponge fingers. Grate the chocolate over the top. Cover and refrigerate for a few hours, preferably overnight, to allow the flavours to fully spread.

By making these biscuits I could bring the downfall of Christmas in my family. Chocolate, the downfall of Christmas? I know…. It’s a risk I’m willing to take.

Introducing anything new to our family’s Christmas is risky. I got weird looks with these stuffed eggs last year; but everyone loved them. This year, I mentioned to my mum I’d seen Viv’s Gianduiotti, and that I wanted to try a making chocolate Haselnussmakronen. There were serious murmurs about ruining Christmas! Chocolate, ruin christmas? Bah!

Plain hazelnut macaroons are steeped in family history. Originally Haselnussmakronen, traditional German macaroons from my grandmother’s recipe. These have always been my favourite Christmas biscuit ever since I was young. When the Christmas baking was handed down to me, I saw how easy it would be to lower the carbohydrates in these. No one even noticed.  We now have several diabetics in our Christmas party and the low-carb approach is really appreciated.

To placate everyone, and satisfy my curiosity, I prepared both. If the family don’t get into them, the woman I bought the hazelnuts from will happily take them off my hands. I hope that these make your Christmas extra special.

xo

Gianduja and Haselnuss Macaroons for Christmas

To make 15 of each

• 300g (18oz) hazelnuts, plus 30 extra
• 150g 85% dark chocolate or cocoa farm sugar free chocolate
• ½  teaspoon vanilla extract
• a pinch
•  salt
• a pinches cinnamon
• 1 cup granular sweetener, or 200g castor sugar
• 4 fresh egg whites, at room temperature

1. Place your oven racks near the centre of the oven, allowing for a little room for the air to flow. Preheat an oven to 120ºC/250ºF. Line two baking trays with baking paper.
2. Place the hazelnuts, reserving the 30 extra, in a food processor and grind until they are a fine powder. Set aside in a large mixing bowl. Break the chocolate into squares and place in the food processor,  process until fine crumbs are formed.  Place in a second mixing bowl.
3. Add the vanilla, salt and cinnamon to the ground nuts, and mix until combined. Place a third of the nut mixture (about 100g) in the chocolate bowl. Divide the sweetener equally amongst each bowl, half a cup in each. Stir both bowls to combine the mixtures.
4. In a large clean, dry mixing bowl, beat the egg whites to stiff peaks. Fold half the egg whites through the non-chocolate mixture until evenly blended through to form a sticky, slightly crumbly dough. Repeat with the chocolate hazelnut mixture.
5. Using your clean hands (for extra hygiene wear gloves), form each mixture into balls the size of walnuts and place on the prepared trays. Gently press a hazelnut into the top of each one.
6. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes. Turn the oven off and leave the door ajar for a further 20 minutes before cooling on a wire rack or elevating the trays on bowls to allow air to flow under them.

Substitutes and Alterations:

• If you don’t have a food processor, purchase ready ground hazelnut meal from the supermarket and grate the chocolate with a cheese grater.
• Raw castor sugar, natvia or spenda would all make suitable sweeteners in this recipe

This time last year I shared with your my family’s Christmas Cinnamon Stars

Cherries are the perfect Christmas fruit. Here, in McLaren Vale, they’ve just come into season, I can buy organic ‘seconds’ from the fruit farm up the road for nearly nothing, and they’re that beautiful Christmas colour. When I imagined this desert for the first time, I knew I wanted to create the layered red and white stripes.

photo © Michelle Koen

The only downside with the layering is having to wait for each layer to set. So pop on your favourite daggy christmas movie while you cook and you’ll soon have a great desert to share with the family.

Layered Cherry-Yoghurt Pana Cotta

½ lemon, juiced
about ½ cup water
10g (about 2 tsp) powdered gelatine
½ cup skim milk
4 Tbsp sugar substitute- I used natvia, you could use raw castor sugar or honey
375g (1 ½ cups) low-fat plain yoghurt- I used Paris Creek Swiss style
1 tsp vanilla extract

Dark Cherry flavoured diet jelly
boiling and cool water
250g (about 1 cup) cherries

In a medium bowl, combine the lemon juice with enough water to make ½ a cup. Sprinkle the gelatine powder over the lemon-water mixture and allow to sit for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, prepare the cherry jelly as per the packet instructions. Place in the fridge to chill.

Heat the milk until almost boiling. This can be done in 1 minute on high, in the microwave, or by stirring for several over the stove. Pour the milk over the gelatine mixture and stir until dissolved and lump free. Stir in the sugar substitute until it dissolves. Add the remaining ingredients and mix until combined.

Using a funnel, or a measuring jug with a spout, pour ¼ cup of the mixture into the bottom of each glass. Place the glasses in the fridge to chill for 45 minutes– 1 hour.

Place the remaining mixture in the fridge until it is cool, but not set. This is a bit of a balancing act between keeping the mixture at a healthy temperature and not wanting it to set. You may need to juggle it in and out of the fridge every 20 minutes. If either jelly becomes to set before you want it too, a short stint in the microwave on medium-low setting and a lot of stirring will help soften the mixture to pouring consistency.

Pit and quarter the cherries, leaving aside a few pretty ones for garnish.

After the first yoghurt layer has set, use a funnel or a jug with a spout to pour ¼–½ cup of cherry mixture into the glasses. Sprinkle the cherries into the glasses and return to them to the fridge to chill for a further 30 minutes.

Finally, pour ¼ cup of the yoghurt mixture into each of the glasses. Return to the fridge to chill for at least 40 minutes before serving, garnished with the reserved cherries.

Substitutes and Alternatives:

• Dairy-free: replace the yoghurt and milk with almond or rice milk
• Higher Protein: Mix 4 scoops of protein powder with 1 ½ cup water. Use in place of the yoghurt.
• ‘Fake food’ free: raw castor sugar or honey may be used instead of sweetener. To make real cherry jelly-  Sprinkle gelatine powder over ½ cup of cool water and rest for 10 minutes. Cook extra pitted cherries in ½ cups of water, puree and add sugar to taste and return to heat. Add to the gelatine to the cherry sauce and stir until dissolved. Remove from the heat and add a further 1 cup of cool water.

Tiredness + stress + hunger = eating a whole bag of macadamia nuts then moving on to the peanut butter jar  (or whatever your vices are). Don’t let overeating ruin your Christmas.

Photo: David Castillo Dominici

Everyone’s up against it a bit this time of year. For my own sanity I decided I needed a few rules to keep things in moderation and make it so I didn’t collapse in a heap by next Sunday. This is what I’ll be doing:

Plan & prepare and cook: With so much going on, map out when you’re going to be where.  From this you’ll be able to see when you’ll need to pack meals to take with you (ie all day shopping adventures), when you’re going to be eating out and when you’re going to just too darn tired to cook. Remember our equation, above! Now you know when you will need feeding, make a whole lot of easy, portable food. For me this is meatloaves, burger patties, veggie sticks and frittatas. Tasty at any time of the day and if you’re feeling a tad more gourmet the veggies sticks can become a starry or salad. Getting this all together shouldn’t take more than 1 hour and a bit. Fire up the barbecue and the oven, grab some garlic, chilli and chopped spring onions and get cooking. This isn’t about being gourmet, but your food needs to be able to compete with Christmas cake. Find the balance, this is an investment in your sanity! Wrap everything individually and freeze most of the protein.

Be naughty and nice:  If you’ve planned, prepared and cooked then you’ll be more nice than naughty. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t enjoy time out with friends, family and colleagues. With a plan you’ll know you’ve got plenty of opportunities to enjoy ‘Christmas food’ and plenty of opportunities to enjoy ‘normal food’. Your naughty to nice ratio might be a bit different to other times of the year but knowing you’ve got both in place means that you’re less likely to overdo it.

Don’t overdo it: Excess + excess= excess excess. If you do overdo it at a party or family event, don’t head out for a 2 hour run. This will just add more tiredness, more stress and more hunger to an already bulging equation. Guilt, leads to stress, which leads to… 5 extra chocolate truffles? Instead, commit to  30 minutes outside in the fresh air every day. This will help you de-stress and cope better with the rest of your day. Get out there with friends and family or find that quiet time at either end of your day where you can just be you.

Know your weaknesses: Whether your weakness is chocolate, macadamia nut stuffing, wine, or that family member who brings out your stubborn side; just don’t do it! If it’s going to cause you stress to stop, don’t even get started.

If you want more handy tips on making food fast, easy, healthy and fun or still stuck for a last minute gift, check out Healthy Helpings: fast food for fit physiques. 200 full pages filled with recipes, photographs and tips and techniques to enjoy your food.

Oxygen Issue 50 Cover (copyright fitmedia 2011)

If you are a fan of the Chicken and Vegetable Korma from earlier this year, you might like to check out the December/January (2011/12- Issue 50) of Oxygen Magazine for my Indian Feast. It’s got 3 new Indian dishes; North Indian style Spinach and Beef Curry (medium), Aromatic Butternut Pumpkin and Chickpea (mild, vegan), Tandoori Spiced Snapper (medium-hot). There’s also a run down of a few Indian ingredients.

Also, a big congratulations to all the girls who entered the cover girl competition. A lot of hard work went into your beautiful physiques. Well done!

I’ve been playing around with a few little ideas for Christmas and asked what everyone was after over on my Facebook page. Shortbread was one suggestion. These aren’t quite shortbread but they fill the house with the sweet smell of baking, all the same. Even better, because they don’t contain any butter, they’ll keep for much longer, making them the perfect sugar-free gift to tuck inside a Christmas card.

 Cashew Finger Cookies

•  90g (¾ cup) cashews
• 2 egg whites, from fresh eggs
• ¼ tsp cream of tartare
• ⅓ cup sweetener (I used Natvia, you could use raw castor sugar, Splenda. Xylitol doesn’t work in my experience)

1.  Preheat an oven to 120ºC/250ºF. Line a large, flat baking tray with baking paper.
2.  Place the cashews in a food processor or blender and grind to a powder. Set aside.
3. Place the egg whites and cream of tartare in a clean dry bowl. Whisk to form stiff peaks. Fold in the sweetener and the ground cashews.
4. Fit a 5mm nozzle to a piping bag. Fill with mixture. Pipe the mixture in 4cm/1.5in lengths onto the baking tray. Bake in the oven for 40 minutes. Remove once golden.
5.  When you remove the the cookies from the oven, they will still be soft. Don’t fret! Let them sit for about 20 minutes and they’ll be beautifully crispy.

Price inflation:

The goji berry has been used in Chinese cooking and herbal medicine for centuries. In my local Asian grocer I can find these little wrinkled berries for $2.00 a bag, sold under the name wolfberries. In my supermarket’s ‘healthfood’ section the same size bag costs $6.56. I don’t believe in get rich quick schemes, but if I did I know what I’d be doing. To the packaging shop!

Impact on native populations:

According to wikipedia (1) the top five countries to produce cacao, is also the bean chocolate is made from, are Côte d’Ivorie (Ivory Coast), Ghana, Indonesia, Cameroon, and Nigeria. None of these countries have the best track records for human rights. In 2005 in the Côte d’Ivore more than 200,000 children were working on cocoa farms (2), and it is estimated that up to 6% of these children could be victims of child slavery and trafficking. There have been moves to address these issues, including the introduction of fair-trade products. However, less that 10% of cacoa harvested is sold as fair trade. There is also discussion regarding exactly how fair, fair-trade is. This is highlighted in this account of a Peruvian coffee plantation workers

“…they are paid 10 soles a day (about $3) – better than the eight soles a day some coffee farmers pay, he says. However, the amount os below the 11.20 soles a day that is the local minimum he should receive… ” (3)

In contrast, quinoa, which was once an amino rich staple of the Bolivians, has helped raise farmer’s incomes in one of the regions poorest countries. However, the demand for this ‘superfood’ has been so great that it has seen a dramatic increase in value, leaving locals unable to afford the crop and raising fears of malnutrition. (4). Luckily, this issue is beginning to be addressed with farms, such as Kindred Organics (Tasmania) http://www.kindredorganics.com.au/ now growing quinoa locally.

Environmental Impact

Many of these so called superfoods are ‘discovered’ in remote corners of pristine, natural, environments. However, once they reach ‘superfood’ status, how pristine do these areas stay? The LA Times describes the cultivation of acai berries as creating a mono-culture in the Amazonian jungle; with other native plant species being removed to allow for greater plantations of acai palms. (5) Although this process doesn’t cause ‘deforestation’ in the Amazon this mono-culture is nearly as bad, and sure to upset the areas natural ecosystems.

Let’s not forget the ‘food-miles’ connected to these foods. An example is maca. Maca grows well only at high elevation, in cold climates with only a particular kind of soil. The majority of the worlds maca crops are grown in remote portions of The Andes (again we’re back in Peru) which is 12810km by air, point to point, Lima to Sydney. This is without the inevitable detour for processing and packaging (value adding).

Weird Names:

How many of you pronounced quinoa (keen-wah/ keen-oah) or acai (ah-say-ee) right the first time you read it? I suggest, not many of you. Just the other day, I found a shopping list written by my thoughtful husband which had kingwar flakes on it. I don’t have a clue how he was going to find them in the shop! These fancy words are not just there to confuse well meaning husbands, they also play right into the hands of marketers. There’s nothing sexy sounding about spinach or broccoli. However, if you can’t say it or it was eaten by a little know tribe, it must have antioxidants, omega-3′s etc. oozing from every millimetre.

photo courtesy of ilovebutter (flickr)

In my search for a definition of superfood that I can feel comfortable with, I came across a tweet-up by #eatkit on superfoods. There was much discussion, but the tweet that struck me the most suggested that ‘superfoods are the nutrient-dense foods you enjoy eating’. In light of the above discussion, I’d like to extend my definition to ‘superfoods are the locally and ethically grown, nutrient-dense foods I enjoy eating’.

This means; if I can grow it, shake the hand of the person who grew it or at least not have to look at an atlas to know where it was grown, it meets criteria A and B. Nutrient-dense encompasses almost everything in the local & ethical criteria, and is also acts as a reminder that a varied diet is important. Finally, you should enjoy the food you eat. If you are new to eating unprocessed/nutrient-dense food it might take a little more time to discover ways of preparing your food enjoyably (I’ve got this great list, and this great book -presale December 12th 2011- to help).

In twenty years, don’t look back, and realise that those superfoods weren’t so super. You might be wrinkle free and glowing with vitality but that’s not much comfort when the world is facing mass hunger from climate change, poverty and pollution. Instead of eating those hard to pronounce, (sometimes) barely palatable ‘superfoods’, take time to find out what delicious, nutrient dense foods are grown in your area, or grow your own.

 References

1.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cacao_bean
2. http://ilo.law.cornell.edu/public/english/standards/ipec/themes/cocoa/download/2005_02_cl_cocoa.pdf
3. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/d191adbc-3f4d-11db-a37c-0000779e2340.html#axzz1ftxSbl9g
4. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/20/world/americas/20bolivia.html?_r=1
5. http://articles.latimes.com/2008/sep/21/world/fg-acai21