Monday 30 January 2012

Fermented vegetables

Today we fermented vegetables in school.... Something I have wanted to learn for a while.. It was really easy and I don't know why I haven't just looked it up how to do it. Here it is though; parsnips, garlic, ginger, carrots, beets, cauliflower, swede and cabbage. Now it's suppose to be in room temperature for a few days and if it's then sour and not moldy then it has worked :) Our plan now is to buy lots of those glass cans and do a lot of fermented vegetables.

For you who don't know what it is.. It's vegetables with looots of good bacterias! Super healthy and so easy to do!

Take whatever vegetables you want like the ones I wrote about above but also broccoli, cucumber, onion, beans.. Grate them or cut them in smaller pieces. Add whey that you can easily make by yourself if you live in sweden and has filmjölk :) Strain it over night through like a coffee filter or something like that and the thing that goes through is the whey you should use. We have probiotic (good bacterias) in powder form at home that we are using instead.. You can also use that if you have that. If you use whey then that should be about 1 dl (100 ml) for 1 kg of vegetabels.
Add water so it covers the vegetables. Weigh it all and add 1,5 % salt of the total weight (vegetables + liquid) - very important! So if it weight 1000 grams, add 15 gram salt. Put it in a glass cans with a rubber thing in the lid that keeps the air out. Use a lid and a plastic glass and push the vegetables down under the water. Close the can with the plastic glass so it keeps pushing it down. It is VERY important that ALL vegetables are under the water otherwise it will get moldy and you'll have to throw it all away. Keep it in room temperature for a few days (around 3-5). Make sure there's no mold and also that it has become sour otherwise you can unfortunally not eat it. When you have opened it, keep it in the fridge. It taste the best after about 3 weeks in the fridge but it's also okay to eat directly.
Good luck!!!! (and don't forget that you can use spices in it such as cumin or parsley)

Sunday 29 January 2012

Magnesium!!

Magnesium is involved in more than 300 biochemical processes in your body.
Early symptoms of magnesium deficiency (brist) are:
  • Obesity
  • Body aches, muscle twitches
  • Leg cramps, headaches and migraines
  • Fatigue or low energy
  • Restless sleep
  • Prementrual syndrome
  • Chronic bowel problems
  • Insulin resistance
You can obviously get these symptoms for other things as well, but I just want you to understand how important it is to eat a balanced food with enough vitamines and minerals.

A magnesium deficiency left untreated will lead to more life threatening conditions such as hypertension, heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, osteoporosis and more.

And here is some examples of food and how much magnesium they contain (mg/100 g):




Saturday 28 January 2012

Eating raw?

S. Bengmark has a slide on his powerpoint where it explains a little bit what foods are better, 2nd best and worse.. This is how it looks like:


Copied by permission from S.Bengmark

So, the best thing to eat is fresh and raw, 2nd best is food cooked in a low temperature/steamed that has then cooled down (the structure in the molecules tries to go back to its origin structure when it cools down) and then the worst is if the food is cooked and eaten hot, or cooked in a high temperature or/and overcooked...

I personally wouldn't wanna eat only raw food so my next step would maybe be mixing raw food with foods that has been heated in a low temperature and that has then been cooled down.. You don't have to be extreme but a change for the better is still a change for the better no matter how small or big the change is.

Friday 27 January 2012

Meat consumption in the world - kg/person/year/country

Have I ever posted a list of the meat consumtion in the world? I don't remember but I don't think I have so here you go... These numbers are from 2007 and it's kg/person/year