Getting to grips with 'sweetness' and the next step.

I am certain that the taste for sugar, even a repugnance to it, can be developed through gentle and continued exposure to the other tastes especially umami. This is the one probably best exercised when we try Asian foods - no one goes to the Chinese, Japanese and Indian restaurants for the 'sweet'.
Of course those restaurants provide 'sweets' to accommodate our western tastes, and they do have their own dessert menus. Chinese 'afters' whether man made or fruit - tend to be much less sweet than ours - our 'sticky puddings' comes to mind.
As human beings we tend to push ourselves a great deal - the element of striving I suspect is never is never in the vocabulary of our animal friends. With us it is, of course part habit and/or ritual or courtesy - who in their right mind refuses the host efforts to provide us with a tempting sweet. But that 'kicker' at the end of meal is just that. Having had a starter and presumably a meaty main and physiologically be about to nod off, out comes this 'small mountain of sugar'. Ice cream, sauces, fruit salad, pastry etc. All sugar dense and boy oh boy does it waken us up and enliven the conversation. It's like giving the table an intravenous shot and it acts almost as fast and then coffee, another shot in the right direction to keep us going, bolstered by mint and chocolate thins - what chance do we have?

Many cope with sweeteners. Though these would appear to be resolve somewhat the problems of sugar related to weight gain and tooth decay. Naturally much research continues to search for health problems associated with sweeteners but specific issues are rare. An interesting resume helps put things in perspective. The endorsement of xylitol by many in the dentistry industry gets my vote though one is warned off cheap versions and that made from corn instead of birch.

Allowing one has come to grips with sugar the next in line for the firing squad are the refined carbohydrates and it these 'fillers' that need to be considered. Forgetting gluten sensitivities, flour and what is made from it, the two staples, bread and pasta, has to be, with the cooking of vegetables, the biggest culprits of all. Of course biscuits, cakes etc are involved but unless the situation is dire they are not staples.
The problem with flour is that is too starch ridden and not fibrous enough. This is on top of many other issues that relate to its gluten content. That issue is in itself worrying but in terms of just fighting readily available calories bread needs to change. Also pasta offers the same concerns.
The big fight is for the bread bakers to change. We know the hit from bread in terms of the 'sugar' hit it provides and which is itself addictive but gluten itself is increasing suspected of being addictive as mentioned in the above reference. They must know that changing bread risks changing its addictive qualities so it is likely that only regulation will work.

The problem with Celebrity Chefs

How disastrous is sugar - its affect on teeth has been known for a century and that on obesity for 50 years - yet it is only in the last few years that any national effort to curtail its use been implemented viz Denmark and the taxing of it.
In England here repeated national headlines condemning it go unheeded because nothing is done that changes things. Taxing it causes an outcry on behalf of the poor whose pockets won't go to replacements or healthier food and the food companies themselves who use it widely as a preservative and flavouring.
Just recently Jamie Oliver has said he will charge an extra percentage on sugary drinks sold in his chain of restaurants. How nice, and how much more of a statement would it be to not sell those drinks at all. In reality one can't seriously imagine that it will affect his sales - he'll make more money and have the kudos of affecting interest in the problem.

Food programs in the UK occupy high viewing time in no uncertain manner and in no way is there any sway from them against the refined carbohydrate and sugar content of the dishes. Of course it would interrupt the flow of treating and satisfaction those dishes offer.
What we want is chefs denouncing flour, pasta, potatoes not embracing them.
It is outright stupidity that these massive audiences are denied the chance of intelligent options by these food aficionados.
But the most important indentation into the sugar and refined carbohydrate cult is EDUCATION.
So there should be saturation advertising by the government and health charities so that people will choke on ( reflectively, that is ) rather than enjoy sugar.

A boost for melon - as if it needed it!

It's interesting how things catch one's eye. This week reading a recipe involving watermelon the writer mentioned it contained citrulline. In the space of half a sentence the writer described very nicely how this amino acid released nitric oxide that  in a way simulated Viagra. Apparently the highest concentrations lie in the skin of the melon. It seems that July 4 in America is big on water melon in particular - of course the skin won't be everyone's cup of tea so scientists are now working on water melon gene to get the luscious pulp to contain more citrulline. So I guess future Independence Days may indeed see a lot more melon being consumed by American men if the scientists make it come off.

On the shelling of citrus fruits

My apologies here as pro temp I shall soon be using the grapefruit in stills to roughly demonstrate what I am talking about but later shall replace them with, hopefully, a video using a lemon and/or an orange.

As a kid I was sent to school with sandwiches and an orange. The orange was impossibly thick skinned and pithy and there was no way my little fingers could penetrate the skin to get into it.

Like some animal we see on nature programs these days dropping stones on shellfish or bashing nuts with rock, my way was to throw the orange at a wall or onto the ground with all my force to split it and thus get a start-messy but it worked.

I noticed other kids came with oranges where the skin had been spirally peeled and then re-wrapped in the skin - altogether easier.

   Much later when it didn’t matter and to the present day I use a different technique of peeling citrus fruit for a variety of reasons however it it just great for kids taking fruit to school or lunch or anywhere.

Wash the fruit especially around its equator.

Using a sharpish and idealy slightly serrated knife just cut through the skin into the pith around its equator.

        Here the knife looks a lot deeper than just skin deep but grapefruit have a thick puffy skin.

Holding half the fruit in one hand, and using a slightly curved end of a teaspoon handle feel your way under one side of the equatorial cut you have made working into the pith, and rotating the fruit, allow the handle to ease the skin off following your line around the ‘equator’.

The curve of the spoon handle sits neatly around the pulp of the grapefruit but not in it.

Keep the spoon handle in the pith - that is between the surface of the skin and the flesh under the pith. Working toward the pole on that side is the aim but don’t free it from the pole yet.

Start on the other half but again leave the shell attached at the pole.

Now to access the inner fruit the shells can be twisted on each other and this will free them from the poles and presto a fruit ready to eat for you kids or for anybody’s packed lunch.

 

Now the twisting action of the halves free's the remaining pith from the poles of the fruit.

Of course the shelled fruit can be segmented in any fashion, re-capped, placed in a neat fitting plastic bag with a twist tie to hold it all together.

        Here the two caps with their segments are being placed together to make a natty bundle.

        
       - or popped on a plate ready to eat!

In my warm and raw vegetable salad I use a lot of lemon juice and citrus pulp to flavour and bulk it out but I don’t want always to use all the juice and pulp therein at once. So this is what I do.

Having shelled the lemon as above and left it attached to the poles I cut it in half and de-pip it, keeping the pips to be ground up with pomegranate seeds to go later into carrot,apple and beetroot ice blocks.

Using a common lemon squeezer (remember the stellate ridges are highly efficient if they are sharp and not blunt as many seem to be) I get the juice and most of the pulp out. That that remains is the hard and fibrous septa of the lemon. Great  for flavouring, and as I have said for bulking out a vegetable salad. It is really tough and a good source of fibre. Anyway I pop it in the fridge and use it later - just cutting the pole off the lemon and it falls out free ready to be chopped and added.

Brown Jam, a Healthier Jam

In the struggle to eat healthier one gives up much in the way of tempting habits. Jam on toast or spread on a cake are facile in the attempt to be healthy - sugar - refined carbohydrate - overheated fats!
However sometimes it can help to bridge giving these up altogether with the occasional temptation if that temptation - bread, cake or jam is cut down on sugar, or has high roughage or no or little gluten.

Call it cowardice if you like but it could help in the struggle to have a healthier food intake.

Brown jam is easy to make and has no added sugar - good because normal jam has 50 to 65% sugar added to whatever fruit is used. The cooking at which normal jams are made are at dreadfully high temperatures wiping out any nutrient value and such fibre as may be retained is knocked into nothingness - ie conventional jam is little more than confectionery and simply bad for your health.
The absence of heat in my concoction means any contained nutrients and fibre are preserved.

Brown jam is simply made by blending whole lemon(s)  with soaked raisins, prunes and dried  psyllium husk - decant and keep in the fridge.

As regards amounts, this is just down to how runny or stiff you like your jam. To kick off with start with equal amounts of dried fruit and half one of these amounts with psyllium (by volume - I say this because this so very light in weight)
The psyllium offers the mixture a set - its gelatinous nature replaces pectin in ordinary jams. One might like to try without it. Whatever, it will taste great.
I remove the lemon skin and pips but as long as you know the skin is clean of wax and insecticides this could be added to taste giving it overtones of a lemon marmalade. And the pips similarly, these offering good roughage and the bitterness of their contained cyanide. Some might say this latter may have a cancer protective quality.
Less soaking of the dried fruit will make a stiffer jam and soaking the dried fruit in whisky or gin might offer a nice varient.
No cooking, quite long lasting from the natural sugars in the dried fruit and the vitamin C of the lemon, roughage from the psyllium and the skin of the dried fruit,

The general  principles here can accommodate any fruit and offer hours of inventiveness to satisfy your own taste - remembering to rely on the fruits' own sugars and the lemon as natural preservatives, and the decanted jam being kept in the fridge. I have'nt tried it yet but chia seeds might also provide the gelling effect and replace psyllium.

Great on very lightly toasted and buttered slice of healthy home-made bread and taken all with less guilt. But being sharpish and sugar free it will work a coulis, perhaps mixing some with a little lemon or orange to cut through the fat and contrast with the sweetness of duck etc.