Finding the Middle Ground Between Obesity and Disordered Eating: Mexican Style Corn on the Cob

The headlines recently have been presenting a pretty bleak picture of our society’s relationship with food. It feels like we are all stuck between a rock and a hard place – we either give over to a life of macdonalds and couch potato-ing (yes, it’s a verb) or constantly obsess over food to the point where we’re counting calories in toothpaste.

Part of the problem is that, seeing as nearly all basic human responsibilities have been replaced with technology, modern life makes it all-too easy to live a sedentary lifestyle. From the invention of the wheel to do our heavy lifting for us, we’ve developed tools to replace almost every physical task. While robots do all our foraging, building, making and cleaning, we have nothing to do but waste our days in front of screens.  I mean, they even invented a remote so we don’t have to get up to watch TV. Heck, just the thought of walking to the kitchen to get your second tub of ben and jerrys can be exhausting.

With this increasing reliance on tools and technology, exercise has been taken out of our daily routines, meaning we have to make a huge effort in order to lead an active lifestyle. The lack of exercise combined with an excess of unhealthy foods makes being healthy a constant battle. On top of that, as Western-living seemingly guides us toward obesity, not only do we have to make the conscious decision to be eat right, but we then have to deal with temptation on a daily basis. This means that the dichotomy between fat and skinny is ever-expanding. Once you choose to be healthy it’s very easy to become obsessed. Orthorexia Nervosa is the newest eating disorder, where people become excessively preoccupied with eating healthily to the point where they fear foods perceived to be unhealthy. There have been an increasing number of cases of health bloggers and instagramers who, with good intentions, begin a healthy journey that subsequently becomes a life-destroying illness.

Although these may be extreme cases, it is quite difficult to engage in a healthy lifestyle without comparing yourself to the perfect fitspo community who appear to eat only vegetables and wouldn’t dream of sacking off  a gym day. It really feels like our relationship with food is broken. We either ignore the effects of diet on physical and psychological wellbeing and eat what we want, which will almost inevitably result in obesity and or/illness. Or on the flipside, we are conscious of our weight and the way in which diet and exercise can effect us, which leads to obsession and psychological distress.

Obesity or disordered eating, the choice is pretty bleak. Of course this is a gross simplification of something that isn’t so black and white. I like to believe that there is a middle ground – exercising and eating right without letting it control your life.

The key, I think, is to not strive for perfection. Whatever the opposite is to an all-or-nothing approach, (everything in moderation?), do that. If you’re overcome with guilt a having one square of dark chocolate or spend your entire work-out calculating how many calories you’re burning off, you’ve gone too far. I’ve even read of health foodies documenting their guilt at eating too much fruit. If you feel this level of obsession happening to you, take a step back and acknowledge that no one is perfect. Even the slender yogi’s whose instagram feed is inundated with photos of green juice and lycra have off days.

Finding the middle ground isn’t so much about finding the perfect workout or diet as it is about finding the right mindset.

Try a 70-30 balance, being healthy 70% if the time and doing what makes you happy 30% of the time. Most importantly, for the lifestyle to stick without feeling like a chore or obsession, you have to enjoy it. If you hate the taste of kale, stop eating it. If you love reese’s peanut butter cups, don’t give them up. If you try to take up running and find yourself dreading each run, don’t hesitate to find a different form of exercise that you actually enjoy. There are many ways of being healthy and no one way works for everyone. It takes time and effort to try different things but slowly you’ll get to know what works for you and find your healthy groove.

I’ve been trying this for about a year and have still not quite found the middle ground. As soon as I start to compare myself to fitter, slimmer, healthier people and try to adopt their habits, I take one step back from reaching the optimum balance.

But what I have learnt is that there is more to life than having a perfect exercise and nutrition plan. When you find the middle ground life becomes less guilt-ridden. Food tastes better, cooking is funner and exercise is more fulfilling. But most importantly, an enormous load of stress and relief is lifted.

Mexican Style corn-on-the-cob:

Ingredients

1 lime

2 corn on the cob

Handful of chopped coriander

1 tablespoon feta

1 teaspoon capers

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 chilli pepper

1. Boil the corn on the cob for 10-15 mins.
2. Meanwhile finely chop the coriander and chilli, mix in a bowl with olive oil, capers, lime juice, salt and pepper.
3. Drain the corn on the cob. To blacken them, hold with tongs over the hob for about 30seconds until black, turning so each part changes colour.
4. On a plate, drizzle the mixture over the corn on the cob and top with crumbled feta, salt and pepper.

Anyone Else Having a Quarter Life Crisis? : No-bake Blackberry and Lemon Tarts.

I think I’m having a (nearly) quarter-life crisis. The amount of my friends who seem to be having similar weekly existential meltdowns is astounding. Everyone I know seems to be overwhelmed in every aspect of their lives and its’ lead me to the conclusion that being in your early 20s is really damn hard. I mean, its great being young, having your whole life ahead of your and generally being hedonistic. But at the same time it’s pretty scary and confusing.

Think about it, almost nothing in our lives is certain. Most of us have CVs inundated with 6-week unpaid internships in fields that bear no relevance to each other, reflecting that we have no clue what or who we want to be. We’re either still being threatened with a potential grounding for neglecting to tidy our rooms because we live at home with our parents or we’re jumping each year into the next grotty houseshare that eats up our pay cheques and never really feels like home because the landlord won’t even let us use bluetack to stick up the remaining bits of paisley material we kept from that time we went to India and were actually excited about the future. On top of that, all the uncertainty in our careers and location makes maintaining a serious relationship nigh on impossible. Maybe it’s just me but any naive dreams of “finding the one” have been replaced with more realistic goals of finding someone who doesn’t annoy the hell out of me so I don’t have to spend Sundays alone.

I think part of the problem is that being in your 20s is advertised to us as a time of opportunity and adventure, where you can focus on personal development and do what you want. But panicking about how to pay next months rent while you’re waiting to hear back from that job interview where you accidentally gave the interviewer a hug (yes that happened) and watching all your friends get promotions doesn’t really scream adventure. Psychologist Barry Schwartz attributes the quarter-life crisis to “a paradox of choice”. That is, we reach an age where we are presented with many more options than we can handle (from careers, to residence, to life partners), this array of choice becomes so overwhelming until we reach a point when the enthusiasm for “being able to do whatever we want” is replaced with anxiety and self-doubt.

My lovely friend Tasha (whose status showed me just how many people are feeling the same way and inspired me to write this post), summed it up perfectly:

“Recently I’ve been battling a lot of negative thoughts about where I am in my life and what the hell I’m even doing. It wasn’t until speaking to a few other people my age that I realised this is a common theme around 20-something year olds. The fear that you only have yourself to blame for where you end up in life, what your purpose is, what actually even makes you happy. University installs in us that we have to make a career decision at 18 years old and then we are just let loose into the big wide world to make it work. I’ve felt extremely lost over the past few months, not sure what exactly I SHOULD be doing in my life and feeling extremely unmotivated.” – Natasha Bernard

So if everyone is feeling this way, what are we going to do about it? Fake it till we make it and stumble on through until we’re older, wiser and more stable? Or do we waste the seemingly best years of our lives by piling on the pressure until we achieve the security we all desperately seek?

As lame as it sounds I think the key to getting through is to turn to each other. The clearest link to happiness and self-confidence is to feel connected to other people. Although the constant Facebook holiday pictures and Linkedin pleas to “congratulate that random dude you met at a house party on his new job” suggest otherwise, chances are everyone around you is feeling the same. When life is so confusing and you can’t do anything about it, knowing your friends will be there to laugh at your first world problems is kind of the only thing you can guarantee. And hey, if being in your 20s is so damn exciting and fun then we are entitled to make the most of it by getting pissed and complaining together, right?

This recipe is completely unrelated to everything I’ve just written and therefore I have no linking sentence but I wanted to share it coz they tasted really good and sometimes you need sugar to get you through. It’s been a long week, sue me.

No-bake Blackberry and lemon tarts:

Ingredients (makes 12)

 1 handful blackberries

2 tablespoons honey

1 tin coconut milk

2 lemons (use the juice and zest)

2 tablespoons icing sugar

1 packet oreos

2 tablespoons coconut oil

12 cupcake cases

1. Smash the oreos into crumbs using a rolling pin (don’t use your hands or they will go black, I speak from experience)
2. Mix oreos with coconut oil until they resemble a buttery biscuit base
3. Place the cupcake cases on a cupcake tray and push the base mixture evenly into the bottom of the case.
4. Leave in the fridge for 10-15mins
5. Meanwhile, mix the creamy part of the coconut milk with icing sugar, 1 tablespoon of honey and squeeze in the juice and zest of both lemons.
6. Separately, mush up the blackberries using a fork and add two tablespoons of honey.
7. When the base is set, pour the coconut cream mixture on top of the base and set in the freezer for 10mins.
8. When the cream is more solid, spoon the blackberry mixture on top and swirl with a fork.
9. Leave in the freezer and take out 5 mins before serving.

Eat away your stress – Miso-glazed aubergine with green tea rice

 

Although summer is fast approaching, May is always a fairly stressful time of year filled with late-night library sessions and fretting about exams (which explains why I’ve not been posting regularly…I’d much rather write this blog that revise statistics but I don’t think learning about the benefits of healthy cheesecake would have really been conducive to me passing).

I’ve written before about comfort eating, how we often turn to food in times of stress. Eating makes us feel nutured, which acts as a mechanism to soothe high emotions. When we are stressed, the hormone cortisol is released in excess. The primary functions of cortisol is boost energy in our bodies by to increasing sugar intake. Cortisol interrupts our hunger system in several ways by suppressing carbohydrate digestion and blocking insulin release. This explains why we might crave high sugar foods in times of stress, as our bodies have depleted energy resources. So that 4 o’clock pick-me up muffin that is a daily essential during revision time is actually your bodies reaction to stress and low energy.

I don’t need to bang on about the problem with relying on sugar for energy or that eating high sugar food is only going to make stress worse, so instead I’m focusing on the positives – how can we use food to help us when we’re stress?

I devised a recipe where each component is designed to help you relax and destress: miso-glazed aubergine steaks with green tea rice.

When it comes to the association between physical and psychological wellbeing, the gut-brain connection is often overlooked. Our intensites have millions of nerves that feedback to the brain, meaning that our digestive processes heavily influence neural functioning and vice versa. This somewhat explains why digestive malfunctions like IBS are triggered by stress. When the brain is overloaded it creates inflammation in the gut, thus producing IBS-like symptoms. So looking after your stomach and digestive system is a way of indirectly helping your brain. Fermented foods are a great way to improve the health of your gut. Please note, this doesn’t mean you should all go an drink a 6-pack of beer when you’re stressed…although a cold glass of beer after a long stint in the library is actually pretty damn relaxing. You can either ferment your own fruit and vegetables (which is great for you but also quite time consuming and difficult) or eat shop bought fermented foods such as miso, sourdough, anything pickled, sauerkraut, soy sauce, some yoghurt and cheese products. My personal favourite is miso, it has a strong but complex umami flavour which really enhances the meaty flavour of veg such as mushrooms or aubergine.

I’ve paired this with green tea rice – green tea contains theanine, which helps to relaxation our nervous system, reduce anxiety and elevate mood. By boiling the rice in green tea, the healing properties and subtle flavours infuse into the meal.

So here’s the recipe – I know it’s easy to think that cooking is an added stress to your day when you have a million things to do but it also provides a great opportunity to just take a break, relax and eat damn good food.

Miso-glazed aubergine steaks on green tea rice:

(Serves 4)

Ingredients:

3 aubergines

1 tablespoon coconut oil (or any oil you prefer)

3 tablespoons white miso paste

3 tablespoons mirin (or sweet wine)

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 tablespoon honey

1 pinch Chinese five spice

Brown rice or quinoa

4 green tea bags

1 cup edamame

2 garlic gloves

1 pinch ginger

Chopped spring onions and sesame seeds for garnish

For the aubergine:

1. Cut the aubergine into chunky slices and brush with coconut oil. Season well

2. Lightly score the flesh in diagonal lines, roast in the oven for 15 minutes.

3. Whisk together the miso paste, mirin, soy sauce, Chinese five spice and honey. Season with salt and pepper

4.  Pour half of the glaze and grill for around 1 minute until the glaze begins to bubble slightly.

5. Flip the aubergine steaks, cover in the glaze and grill for 1 minute.

For the rice:

1. Cover tea bags in 3 cups of boiling water for about 5-8 minutes.

2. Remove tea bags and combine rice, garlic, ginger, and tea in the pan. Bring to a boil, cover pan and simmer 10 minutes.

3. Add edamame and cover pan again. Cook 5-10 minutes more until rice is fluffy.

To serve, place aubergine steaks on a bed of the rice and garnish with spring onions and sesame seeds.

The Mediterranean diet or attitude? – Prawn, olive, tomato and fresh basil pasta

 

One of the media’s most beloved health regimes is the Mediterranean-style diet. I’ve seen endless articles claiming that the mediterranean diet reduces heart disease, fights dementia, makes you live longer, cures depression and is even better than exercise. To be fair, these bold statements are usually (loosely) backed up with research demonstrating physical and mental health improvements after a dietary change.

The Mediterranean diet is based on traditional Greek, Spanish and Italian eating habits, lots of vegetables, beans, legumes, healthy fats (namely olive oil) and moderate amounts of fish, chicken and wine (wahey! I’ve now started using this as an excuse to drink more wine – beware, it’s a dangerous game, especially when you realise that the Mediterranean diet recommends 7 glasses per week and you are just pouring your 7th of the night…). Nutritional researchers have spent years trying to pinpoint the exact component fostering these health benefits. Is it the oleic acid in the olive oil, antioxidants in red wine, omega 3 in the fish?

 

While this diet is obviously proven to be beneficial, I can’t help feeling like the media has missed the point (as per). It’s not like consuming more olive oil or drinking an extra glass of wine is going to suddenly cure your heart problems and make you lose a bunch of weight. Any diet that includes a wide variety of unprocessed foods, mostly fruit and vegetables, healthy fats and small amounts of lean protein is going to yield a range of health benefits…because that’s what humans are designed to eat.

The Mediterranean diet is merely an example of what we already know is the way we should be eating – as Michael Pollan puts it “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants”. There are many diets which embrace these practices, be it a vegan diet or Okinawans eating an Asian diet. One study compared multiple diets including low carb, low-fat, Mediterranean, vegetarian, vegan, low glycemic, and Paleo. They found no one overall healthier diet but shared principles that stood out as the healthiest – limited in processed foods and rich in plants.

So why are we repeatedly told that it’s the Mediterranean diet that we should be following for a longer happier life? I think what people are missing that it isn’t just about what you eat, but about how you eat.

The diet represents a cultural attitude to eating that fosters pleasure. The Mediterranean lifestyle involves a more leisurely pace of life for more time to cook the fresh produce, to eat slower and (therefore less), and used meal times as a way to relax and bond with family. This couldn’t be more different from the current American and UK eating habits, where food is designed to be purchased and consumed as quickly as possible, to take the least time out of our busy schedules – we often don’t even sit down and stop moving to eat, never mind 2 hour lunches every day. Perhaps what makes the Mediterranean diet so special is that it creates a sense of positivity surrounding meal times, essentially following the ethos of mindfulness where you focus on nothing but the food. They’ve already shown that attending to your food in a positive way improves digestion and, importantly, mends our broken relationships with food. So instead of changing your diet by consuming volumes of olive oil or increasing your feta intake, embrace the Mediterranean attitude to food. Make meals the part of the day where you relax, spend time with family and eat slowly…not only will this benefit your health but you’ll enjoy your food a helluva lot more.

Here is my go to meal when I want to impress, and it’s Mediterranean inspired!

Pasta with a prawn, olive, tomato and basil:

 

Ingredients

1/2 packet whole-wheat spaghetti (Could substitute with courgetti for gluten-free)

1 jar olives

1 punnet cherry tomatoes

2 handfuls fresh basil

1 packet uncooked prawns

2 anchovies from tin (or use anchovy paste)

splash olive oil

1. First boil the pasta in slightly salted water for 10-15 mins or until cooked to your liking.

2. Meanwhile chop tomatoes and olives in half.

3. Cook the tomatoes, 2 anchovies and olives in a pan with a splash of olive oil for 5 mins.

4. Add basil (put a few leaves aside for garnish) and prawns and cook for a further 3-4 mins. Season with salt and pepper.

5. Once the pasta is cooked, mix in the sauce and top with fresh basil leaves to serve.

Let your instincts do the eating – healthy eggs Benedict

It’s egg time. Spring has sprung, flowers are bloomin’ and the country is consuming chocolate at an alarming rate. I used to really hate eggs, I thought of them as kind of gelatinous baby chicken which made them seem really unappetising. But for some reason I stopped caring that yolk is a failed fluffy chick and started eating eggs. This seems to be the case with many people and different foods. As children the thought of consuming foods like fish or spinach is so disgusting that it warrants a visceral reaction. But as we grow into adults, our preferences evolve and get over our innate predisposition to likevery plain or sweet foods. Remember trying your first beer and thinking it tasted like piss? Or having to run around gasping for water after tasting a curry so mild that you’d now scoff at the thought of ordering.

Why do our likes and dislikes change so much as we grow?

We build up tolerance for alcohol and spices, not because our taste buds change but because we expose ourselves to these flavours until our bodies accept them.Psychologists have found that repeated exposure to disliked food over a period of weeks or months generally results in the eventual acceptance of that food. From an evolutionary perspective it make sense why children are hesitant to try new foods – humans have adapted to the potential danger of eating unrecognisable berries or leaves by avoiding novel foods until they could be sure they are safe to eat.  So basically if you eat tomatoes enough times your body will accept that they are not poisonous and you’ll finally stop having to pick them out of every salad.

This process continues throughout our lives until we develop a spectrum of different palates almost as sophisticated as our acquisition of language. If we are evolutionarily designed to learn and acquire an unconscious understanding of food, then why do we need to look to science to tell us what we should be eating? I’m reading a great book by Michael Pollan called ‘In the Defence of Food’ which essentially blames the ‘era of nutrition’ for obesity and modern health problems. As a society we stopped trusting our instincts and looked to professionals and food companies to tell us what to eat. This gave them almost complete control over our diets. Unfortunately, due to bad science and the money obsessed food industry, processed foods became favoured and the Western world didn’t know any better.

Pollan uses the low-fat debate as an example. In the 60s, nutritional science made some far-fetched discoveries that were to change the history of food. ‘Eating fat makes you fat’ was the new revelation that almost all believed to be true, and many still do.  Based on this ‘evidence’, the Western population were driven ditched fat and increased carbohydrate consumption causing huge weight gain and increase in cancer, diabetes and heart disease. Of course, the food companies pounced on this and began to market their foods as ‘low-fat’… which meant replacing the healthy fats with a bunch of sugar and chemicals that are bound to be worse for our health. But the nutritional content of the food does not matter to the everyday person who has read in every newspaper that saturated fats should be avoided at all costs. However, when the data was reviewed, not a single study has found a concrete proof of the negative consequences of a high-fat diet. Our society relied on science to tell us what to eat and as a result we ended up fat, miserable and left the fate of the NHS hanging in balance.

It is important to remember that we are animals. Just look at how cleverly we adapt our flavour preferences based on experience. We do this without reading research or food labels but using complex psychological processes that were designed long before we had any academic understanding of nutrition. Don’t justify food choices based on research that’s probably going to become debunked in a years time. It’s so easy to read research that says chocolate actually fights cancer and use this as justification for reaching for a fourth easter egg but try to listen to what your body wants and needs. Somehow, as a society we must unearth our innate ability to know what’s good for us.

In the spirit of easter and my new love for eggs I have this delicious brunch recipe for you all. Eggs Benedict is one of the most amazing dishes but unfortunately is pretty unhealthy. So I give you my take – healthy eggs Benedict salad that your instincts will tell you to eat again and again!

 

Ingredients (per person)

2 eggs

1 handful salad leaves

3 radishes

1 handful edamame beans

1 red onion

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

1 tablespoon olive oil

For the ‘hollandaise’

1 tablespoon greek yoghurt

1 teaspoon mustard

1 splash lemon juice

salt and pepper

1. Finely slice the radish and chop the onion

2. Mix all the vegetables together and drizzle with olive oil and vinegar

3. Meanwhile poach the eggs. Heat boiling water in a pan and create a whirlpool by swirling with a wooden spoon. Crack the egg in the centre of the whirlpool so the white covers the yolk. Leave to cook for around 3 mins.

4. To make the sauce simply mix ingredients together and season well.

5. Place the egg on top of the salad bed and drizzle with the ‘hollandaise sauce’

The Thinking Kitchen Dinner Party – chocolate banana bread

It’s been a crazy busy week so this’ll be a fairly short post (I seem to have momentarily forgotten that I’m supposed to being doing work for my master’s instead of spending all my time researching, talking and thinking about food). There’s been a new development at the Thinking Kitchen – food workshops to encourage healthy eating and educate students about the link between food and mental health. We teamed up with the Oxford Hub for happiness week to make a ‘serotonin menu’, basically designed to increase serotonin transmission in the brain which has shown to boost mood and fight depression in a natural way.

The menu was based on the key nutrients and foods that promote serotonin functioning:

• Tryptophan (precursor to serotonin) – nuts, lentils, beans, oats, seeds, tofu, chicken, seafood
• Vitamin B12 (neurological synthesis) – bananas, eggs, nuts
• Folate (serotonin regulation) – spinach, dark chocolate, avocado, asparagus
• Magnesium (serotonin transportation) – almonds, spinach, edamame, peanuts

Another vital piece of advice to improve happiness through food is to NOT CUT CARBS! Carbohydrates are better at passing from the bloodstream into the brain. You can boost tryptophan levels by eating more simple carbohydrates; they help eliminate the competition for tryptophan. E.g. whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and legumes.

So I spent the whole day in the kitchen (sorry master’s course) creating the wonderful and vibrant menu for the 25 lucky diners. Bear in mind that I live in a student flat which literally only has one small pot and a rusty baking tray so I pretty much had to make each component one by one (I am now a pro pot-washer), but it all turned out pretty well!

In the spirit of being green and resourceful, the food and I hitched a ride with the lovely eco delivery service pedal and post to feed the hungry students.

Here’s the high serotonin menu, adapted from some of previous recipes from the Thinking Kitchen

Superfood shots

Freshly pressed apple, cucumber, spinach, celery, lime, mint and ginger

 Main Course

Roast pear and lentil salad with goats cheese, walnuts and cherry tomatoes in a balsamic dressing

Dessert

Oaty banana cake with coconut, mango and guava ‘ice cream’
            

The event was a great success and I think everyone left feeling happier and full of energy! This is hopefully the first of many more foodie events in Oxford, including meals and education on how to promote sleep and reduce stress. Watch out for these events as tickets are going pretty fast!

Here is the recipe for banana bread with mango and coconut ‘ice cream’ I made for dessert, it got rave reviews and is pumped full of serotonin producing nutrients!

Ingredients

3 bananas

1 tablespoon natural greek yoghurt

1/2 cup sugar

2 eggs (Use flax egg mix for vegan)

1 cup coconut oil (or butter)

1 cup plain flour (I recommend using wholemeal or buckwheat)

1 cup oats

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 tablespoon honey

1 tablespoon peanut butter

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Handful dark chocolate chunks

1. Preheat the oven to 180

2. Mix coconut oil/butter and sugar in a bowl

3. Add mashed banana and eggs, whisk well.

4. Add all the other ingredients other than chocolate chunks.

5. Spoon the mixture into a square cake tin and scatter the chocolate chunks on top.

6. Bake for 20-30 mins, keep checking as it can overcook really easily!

7. Leave to cool and serve with vegan ‘ice cream‘.

Eat right, sleep tight – Roasted spiced nuts

 

Insomnia sucks. I’ve always been really lucky that I’ve been a good sleeper, I can normally fall asleep in any condition, no matter the hour, bed quality or background noise. However,  in the last few days my body clock has been messed up and my sleep cycle has gone completely awry. After trying all possible pillow-positions, flipping and flopping twenty times and checking my phone only to realise that I’ve been awake for three hours, I sunk into the depths of the night with utter despair. I’ve stopped being so smug about sleep and now feel really sympathetic for dismissing my friends who have sleeping troubles. My housemate once told me that the problem with insomnia is the more you think about it the worse it gets. Well now I completely agree – there is no worse feeling than knowing your body is exhausted as soon as you hit the pillow, your brain just won’t switch off.

I think the importance of sleep is really understated. There are numerous studies which highlight the dangerous effects of poor sleep – you only have to wikipedia ‘sleep deprivation’ to be met with a list of scary physical consequences such as headaches, hallucinations,  risk of diabetes, cancer, high blood pressure, obesity etc. This is coupled with adverse brain functions like poor cognitive function, memory, mood and inappropriate emotional response. Sleep deprived individuals almost always perform worse on cognitive and memory tasks than those who have had a full 8 hours.

When researching this, I was surprised to find that one of the greatest potential side effects of sleep deprivation is weight gain. Sleep deprivation disrupts hormones levels that regulate glucose metabolism and appetite. Acute sleep loss is associated with increased hunger and food consumption. One study compared healthy food decisions of healthy men after a good or disrupted nights sleep. They found portion size and hunger ratings were higher in those who had been disturbed in the night. Several studies even suggest that the obesity crisis may be partially caused by a general decrease in sleep.

So sleep deprivation can wreak havoc with your eating habits, increase your appetite, slow your metabolism and make your gain weight. But on the flip side, diet can be a helpful tool to help improve your quality and length of sleep.

I think this close interaction is understated in our general understanding of sleep. Here are some dietary suggestions for a better nights sleep:

In the daytime:  The key nutrients the body needs for successful sleep is vitamin B and tryptophan. Tryptophan produces serotonin, which regulates sleep (and improves mood). Tryptophan-promoting foods include oats, dairy, eggs, fish,  chickpeas, seeds, nuts and bananas. It is also important to include complex carbohydrates to improve the transportation of tryptophan into the brain. This means whole grains, oats and beans rather than high-sugar carbs like in white bread and pasta. When you eat high sugar foods, you get drastic highs and lows in blood sugar, and that doesn’t promote healthy sleep. So a food promoting diet should be balanced but rich in vegetables, fruits, whole grains and protein.  Check out some of our previous recipes for inspiration.

Foods high in magnesium have also shown to be beneficial to sleep – Magnesium is vital for the function of GABA receptors. GABA is a neurotransmitter that has a calming response on the brain. Without it we find it difficult to switch off, become tense, our thoughts race and we lie in bed staring at the ceiling. High magnesium foods, are nuts and seeds, berries, melon, leafy greens, soya beans or black beans.

Before bed:  Really high tryptophan foods are recommended about an hour before you go to sleep such as nuts, egg whites or dairy. This means serotonin will be released when as you start to sleep, which combats the insomniac brain. Also high-carb and sugar foods should be avoided before bed have been shown to interfer with sleep.

I asked the healthy food community on instagram to help me out,  here are some of their recommendations for balanced and healthy sleep-promoting food. Click on the photos to get the recipes!

Based on these recommendations, I designed the perfect healthy pre-slumber snack to help me sleep… Spiced nuts.  Ironically, the first time I made these I fell asleep while they were in the oven…apparently their magical sleep power can be gained from just preparing the nuts! The recipe is also made with egg whites so are high in both magnesium and tryptophan. Roasted nuts sold in supermarkets are packed with hidden sugar and oil – making your own is really simple and you have the upside of  knowing exactly what goes in them.

Feel free to adapt this using whatever nuts and spices you like, it’s a pretty fool proof recipe (unless you are a big enough fool to fall asleep half way through).

Ingredients

1 bag of almonds

1 egg white

1 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon paprika

1 teaspoon tumeric

1 teaspoon ginger

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon salt and pepper

1. Grab two bowls, place all the spices in one and lightly whisked egg white into another

2. Coat the nuts in the egg white and transfer to the spiced bowl. Repeat until all nuts are coated in the spice mixture

3. Roast on a baking tray for 10-15mins.

Can we taste music? Roast aubergine salad with tahini dressing

Music has the ability to transport us back to our childhood parties dancing to S club 7, make our parents flail their limbs to perfectly depict ‘dad dancing’, burst into tears and cry till we’re completely dehydrated and even increase the intelligence of babies before they’re born. But what are the effects of music on our food experiences?

Researchers at Oxford have been trying to answer this question, with some surprising results. Their findings suggest that the perception of taste and pitch are interrelated. High pitched sounds are associated with sweet and sour foods, while low pitched sounds are associated with more bitter and umami flavours.

More impressively, the sounds we hear might actually alter the taste of foods. Students were fed a toffee while listening to high- and low-frequency sounds. High notes made them rate the toffee as sweeter, where as low notes made it seem more bitter. A food artist, Caroline Hobkinson, wanted to test whether this was true in the real world, so introduced the ‘sonic cake pop’. It was served in restaurants with a telephone number that the diner had to call and then select 1 for sweet or 2 for bitter. Amazingly, the tone played down the phone changed the whole perceived taste of the dish. (You can try this out for yourselves by clicking here).

But that’s not the only effect music can has on our eating experience. Have you ever noticed that fast food chains only play overbearingly loud and intolerable pop music? That’s not just because they all have awful music taste (though this is probably also the case), but they purposefully do this to control the customer’s experiences. They want you to eat fast and leave quickly so make sure they only play high tempo songs. Alternatively, really posh restaurants almost always play soft classical music to increase the quality of your perceived experience (apart from the genius that is Heston who makes diners listen to sounds of the sea before tucking into a fish dish – an idea inspired by this research lab in Oxford).

These music varieties don’t just function to set the mood, but actually change eating behaviours. One study played different types of music to individuals and monitored their number of bites. They ate twice as fast, and consequentially consumed more, when hearing ‘spirited tunes’ in comparison to classical music or silence. The unconscious power of music on food is remarkable, impacting the speed, volume and flavour of what we eat.

This research has recently been used to investigate healthy eating. For an exciting new project, we are going to attempt to reduce caloric intake through music. The idea is that softer sounds increase the body’s perception of sweetness, which will in turn make reduce sugar consumption. We’ll be collecting the results soon, so I’ll let you know if we find music to be a useful weight loss tool!

I encourage foodies and music snobs alike to try and experiment with music and taste – it’s a cool experience that can be done at home. Grab something bittersweet like coffee or chocolate and swap between these two sounds as you taste. You should notice that at high frequencies your whole mouth becomes sweeter and low frequencies make it seem more bitter.

Or have a go at making this dish for some friends. Secretly put on a range of different songs and try and see if their eating speed subtly changes with the music. I tried this and felt like a magician. It’s crazy how easily you can trick the mind. If there is no useful benefit of all these psychological musings, at least it can bring me one step closer to being Derren Brown.

Roasted aubergine salad with tahini dressing:

Ingredients:

2 aubergines

1 tablespoon olive Oil

Handful pomegranate seeds

Handful pine nuts

Handful fresh basil leaves

Dressing

2 tablespoons tahini

1 teaspoon mustard

3 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1 crushed garlic clove

1. To make the dressing, place all the ingredients in a bowl and whisk until smooth.

2. Slice aubergines. Brush each side with olive oil and season with salt and pepper

3. Grill on both sides on a very hot pan for around 5 minutes, until soft.

4. Arrange aubergine slices on a dish overlapping, drizzle with dressing snd sprinkle with pine nuts, basil and pomegranate seeds.

Comfort food: sweet chilli and coriander bean stew

Human beings are social creatures.  From birth we are evolutionarily designed to seek closeness with others. Language is one of the most complex skills to evolve from such a young age, allowing us to communicate our needs with others. Even in adulthood we rely on social contact to feel safe and fill us with a sense of belongingness. But as technology continues to define our social world, society becomes increasingly lonely.

“HAPPINESS IS ONLY REAL WHEN SHARED” ― Jon Krakauer, Into the Wild

This quote, from one of my favourite films, nicely sums up how important it is to be surrounded by others. It’s based on the true story of Christopher McCandless, who travels into the Alaskan wilderness, determined to live a life of solitude to prove he does not need others to be happy. Within a few weeks, he is propelled into deep loneliness and comes to the realisation that no one can be truly happy alone.

Loneliness is a dangerous state, leading people to seek out ‘social surrogates’. Social surrogates fill the void by allowing individuals to feel passively social, such as by entering the world of their favourite book characters or tv shows. People can seek belongingness in a number of methods, through feeling ‘connections’ with celebrities or representing their bonds with photos. Recent research has suggested the food can also act as a social surrogate, capturing memories of social occasions that provide temporary comfort. 

So many happy and social occasions are filled with big meal times or specific food traditions. I can be transported back to playing pass the parcel at birthday parties just by the mention of jelly and ice cream or angel delight. Squidgy chocolate cookies remind me of sitting around in the common room with my friends complaining about teachers. Even food shopping at Tesco makes me feel instantly connect to my sister. The emotional and social information we recall with food memories elevate certain meals to the status of ‘comfort food’. The experience of eating, or even thinking, about comfort foods automatically induces social comfort.

Of course part of the reason foods are often comforting because they are warm and filling. When this is combined with the unique emotional power from connections to social relationships, meals have the ability to reduce feelings of loneliness. One study by Troisi and Gabriel in New York found that eating chicken soup increased social thoughts and behaviour, while reducing negative psychological effects. So it makes a lot of sense why we turn to comfort foods in times of stress. Like babies who need their mother’s to soothe, we use food to increase feelings of social closeness.

Comfort foods are of course idiosyncratic; typically men tend to be comforted by more stodgy meals such as pie or steak, where as women are more comforted by chocolate or ice-cream. I asked some foodie instagramers to share their favourite comfort food recipes and a theme of warm, hearty meals emerged:

Click on the photos to link to their photos and recipes

Sadly, due to the health consequences of these types of food, there are strong associations between comfort food and guilt. This struck me as pretty sad; the very food that connects us to our relationships and make us feel happy, actually makes us feel worse in the long run. Hence, I devised a meal that is warm and comforting but also nutritious. And now, thanks to my dog, I make it I will be reminded of my family frantically running to catch the bowl and it’s flying contents when I next make it… (pictures are pre-dog).   Sweet chilli and coriander bean stew:

Ingredients

1 can butter beans

1 can black beans

Handful chopped coriander

Handful chopped mint

2 tablespoons soy sauce

2 tablespoons sesame oil

2 tablespoons sweet chilli sauce

2 chopped red peppers

1 chopped onion

Handful pomegranate seeds

1/2 chopped cucumber

1. Drain the beans and boil in water for 10mins until soft.

2. Fry the chopped pepper and onion in oil until soft.

3. Meanwhile, mix the soy sauce, sesame oil and sweet chilli sauce with chopped herbs, cucumber and pomegranate seeds.

4. Add the beans and vegetables to the sauce, mix and season well.

Brewed awakening: The truth about caffeine – coffee marinated steak

Lets talk about coffee. Wonderful, vibrant, sharp coffee that has got us through exam periods we thought would never end; deadlines we thought we’d never make and lunch with parents who never notice that we still haven’t slept from the night before. Coffee is loved by all old and young, whether it’s the suits who need it to function at 6am starts or the pretentious hipsters who reveal in pointing out it’s ‘ warm acidic body with caramel undertones’ while wiping coffee granules off their ever-growing beards.

People have even come up with a test to psychoanalyse your coffee preferences. It’s definitely total crap but still fun to do in a buzzfeed-y kinda way.*

* Turns out my coffee personality test got me spot on so maybe there is some truth in it – but still take it with a pinch of salt (…or milk and sugar)

With such a widespread fan-base, it seems strange that no one seems to know the real benefits or consequences of our beloved coffee. Actually, our nation is dangerously dependent on caffeine, beating even nicotine for the title of world’s most addictive drug.

Now I could ramble on about the links between caffeine consumption and depression, anxiety, cancer, heart disease and all the other scary things that we are constantly warned will inevitably occur. But I won’t because we NEED coffee to wake us up and makes us feel more alert right? Doesn’t coffee improve cognitive function and turn us from lazy slobs into productive humans in one sweet sip?

WRONG. There are pretty much no studies that have significantly proven coffee has any influence on cognitive functioning. Furthermore, caffeine hasn’t even been shown to increase alertness beyond natural levels. It is suggested that coffee consumption only makes us feel more alert because we tend to be in withdrawal when we drink it. When caffeine and non-caffeine consumers are compared in the withdrawal stage, non-consumers are obviously more alert. However, when the two groups are compared post-coffee consumption, the levels of alertness are the same. What this means is that the only effect of caffeine is reverse the effect of withdrawal by increasing alertness to the level it would naturally be if there was no addiction in the first place.

So the new lease of life we feel after that a cup is simply our functioning being returned to normal levels, rather than an enhancement above the normal state.

After learning this last year, my housemate and I (heavily addicted coffee-drinkers) decided to give up coffee. After a week of horrible withdrawal symptoms, all I was craving was the sweet sweet nectar. But then I started to be concerned about the potent effects of caffeine if I was getting headaches and shakes from not drinking it for just a few days. We persevered and the effects were rather glorious. I woke up feeling naturally fresher and less blerry-eyed. My usual 4-o’clock wave of tiredness (usually combatted by a strong black americano) was no more. I really couldn’t believe how different it felt. I had spent my whole life thinking that coffee was an upper, when actually it was a downer – only making me feel temporarily better because of the way not drinking it was making me feel. Coffee isn’t the hero that saves us from collapsing with exhaustion, but the villain that makes us need it to stay standing.

So my advice is not to stop drinking coffee altogether, it definitely has it’s place. I still have a few cups a week, but only when I really need it. The best way to reap the benefits of caffeine is to have it in moderation, so it’s alerting effects can be felt without the accompanying withdrawal symptoms.

Coffee is often used in desserts, but i thought I’d try it in a savoury dish – It’s bitter flavour bought both me and the dish to life!

Coffee marinated steak on a bed of spinach:

Ingredients

1 cup coffee

1/4 cup black pepper

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

1/4 teaspoon olive oil

1 teaspoon mustard

1 clove chopped garlic

chopped parsley

1. Mix the olive oil, coffee, mustard, balasmic vinegar, pepper and garlic

2. Coat steaks in the marinade. Season with salt and pepper and leave for 1 hour

3. Sear on a hot pan for 5-10mins until cooked to your liking.

4. Rest for 10mins before slicing. Serve on bed of spinach and garnish with chopped parsley