Feeling a bit tired?
Very easy to put it down to good old winter, but could it be something more? Iron deficiency is the largest nutritional deficiency in the world. Iron was the media darling a few years back, but is no longer the hot topic that it perhaps should be, considering how many people it affects worldwide.
Iron deficiency is particularly common in females, infants, teenagers, elderly and vegetarians or vegans. That pretty much covers most of the population! The main cause is inadequate intake of iron rich foods or blood loss – or a combination of both.
Having low iron can cause all sorts of problems, the most common being fatigue. Other symptoms include frequent infections or illnesses, feeling the cold, headaches, irritability, problems concentrating, pale skin and cracked lips and altered nail shape. In young children difficulty learning is a real concern.
So if you have been diagnosed with low iron there are some things that can you do to help improve your iron status. Large amounts of calcium or dairy products with your main meals limits iron absorption. Also avoid polyphenols, this means avoid your cup of tea, coffee or red wine within ½ – 1 hour of a main meal.
An iron supplement may be necessary but don’t leave it only to this. Go and get yourself a large cast iron pan, cooking with this releases iron. Have some vitamin C with you meals such as a juice, citrus fruit or kiwifruit. Consider having a wee white wine with an evening meal (but keep it to just the one!). Try to have some form of meat with the main meals. There is a factor in meat known as the meat fish poultry factor (MFP factor), that helps with iron absorption. Also look at increasing your lean red meat intake.
Worth checking out the old iron levels. It can make a huge difference to the way you feel and function. It may not be just that winter has arrived.
Prebiotics and Probiotics
We are simply covered in bacteria. It sounds all a bit yuk when we say within our guts 35-50% of the content is bacteria, containing up to 400 different species or 100 trillion individual bacterium. But not all bacteria are bad, some are in fact beneficial.
Probiotics
Probiotics are good bacteria that we are adding to foods or taking as a supplement. By doing this we increase the number of beneficial bacteria in our guts. For years we have been eating them in our yoghurts and other fermented products but now we can get also large doses as supplements.
Prebiotics
Prebiotics are what the probiotics feed on. Prebiotics are complex carbohydrates including fibres and fructooligiosaccharides (FOS) that are undigested until they reach our colon, where they are fermented. This helps with healthy bowel function but also feeds our probiotic bacteria. These are found in foods such as bananas, asparagus, onion, garlic, honey, beer, leeks and artichoke. Increasingly these complex carbohydrates are being added to our foods as a food source for the probiotics.
Benefits of probiotics.
Beneficial bacteria help us absorb nutrients and vitamins. There also appears to be links with reducing allergies, boosting immunity, reducing lactose intolerance, prevention of osteoporosis, decreasing blood pressure, improving gut function, decreasing the symptoms of Irritable Bowel Syndrome, reducing flatulence (Lactobacillus casei), preventing tooth decay (LGG – Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG), assisting weight loss and may have a link to reduction in some cancers. It has been observed that probiotics taken in pregnancy can reduce the risk of the baby developing allergies by 50%.
If you have a tummy bug and/or diarrhea, try taking a course of probiotics (with LGG). Tummy upsets are frequently caused by an excess of bad bacteria. The faster we get the good bacteria back in the faster we recover. Also consider after a course of antibiotics or if suffering from thrush or other infections i.e. when your immunity levels are low.
Large numbers are needed you want to be looking for at least one million per gram of each type of bacteria. Also remember probiotics are alive and do die with time, so fresh is best.
Zucchini Salad
I have a zucchini overload in my garden at the moment and was getting a little tired of them in every dish I made. For a bit of variation I tried them as a salad. Give this one a try for a high speed yummy change.
Ingredients:
2 zucchini grated
1-2 tbsp poppy seeds
1 tbsp olive oil
Juice of half a lemon
1/4 – 1 clove of garlic
Mix all together. Simple.
Shapeshifters feature member
Steph a Shapeshifters member has laid down the challenge! What a successful camping trip. Way to go girl!
Dutch apple cake
Preparation 20 mins; Cooking time 1 ¼ hours; Serves heaps
Ingredients
4 egg whites
125 g sugar
1 Tbsp grated lemon rind
2 Tbsp lemon juice
2 Tbsp canola oil
200ml apple juice
250gm flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp mixed spice
4 large apples peeled and sliced
50g almonds whole, sliced, chopped or slithered
1 ½ Tbsp sugar
1. Beat the egg whites until stiff. Slowly add the first 125 g sugar. Continue beating until stiff and meringue like.
2. Add the lemon juice, lemon rind, oil, juice, flour, baking powder, mixed spice and mix gently until combined.
3. Pour half the batter into a greased spring baking dish approx 9 inch.
4. Layer in half of the apples.
5. Scrape the remaining batter over the apples and top with the remaining apple and almonds. Sprinkle 1 ½ Tbsp sugar over top.
6. Bake for around 1 ¼ hours at 170˚C.
Enjoy!
