Plantiful Nutrition

If you're looking for an easy, tasty and healthy chocolate-banana treat, look no further! This brownie-style cake/dessert is sweet, rich, creamy and chocolatey, and it's unbelievably easy to make. It also happens to be: Gluten free, Vegan, Grain free, Paleo, Baking powder free, Yeast free, added sugar free, oil free... And it counts towards your 5 (or 10) a day! All you need is three ingredients, a blender and a baking dish. As long as you don't make it too thick, you can vary the quantities quite liberally, it's a very forgiving dessert. So, for this recipe you will need: 5-7 ripe bananas (depending on the size, I used 6) 2-3 heaped tablespoons nut butter (I used almond but have previously tried peanut and it worked great) 2 heaped tablespoons (or to your taste) cacao powder (I had also used carob powder and it worked well too) Optional: fresh/frozen berries or nuts/seeds to top (this time I used a few frozen cherries and some blueberries). Instructions: Blend everythi

Many of us these days try to choose healthier snacks, such as cereal bars, nuts, seeds, raisins and dates. But is dried fruit a health food? Dentists would probably say that it isn't as it can get stuck between the teeth and increase the risk of developing cavities... Also, dried fruit is void of water, so sugar is much more concentrated than in regular fruit. In reality we might eat 2-3 apricots but eating them dried makes us consume way more: smaller volume just doesn't fill us up, and they do taste nice and sweet. This in turn can spike our blood sugar (and crash it back down...). Another side that we rarely think of is that sometimes fruit that is chosen for drying may be of the poorest quality - sad looking, damaged, underripe or overripe that is not deemed to be of saleable condition when fresh. Generally fruit needs to be dried quickly, so often high temperatures are used which may cause many vitamins to be lost and damaging compounds to be created. You need to reach hig

These days everyone knows at least one vegan, gluten free, paleo or any other health/eco "nutter" (aka a person into healthy lifestyle). They can be a real pain at the dinner table or when thinking of presents... In case you needed some last minute Christmas gift ideas, you're in luck! The limit is only the depth of your wallet. Obviously - some health foods! You could make up a whole hamper with chia seeds, coconut oil, spirulina, acerola powder, coconut jerky, lucuma powder, kale crisps, goji berries, herbal teas, freeze dried fruit, yacon syrup, coconut sugar - or just pick one for a healthy stocking filler! Look for some dairy free or raw chocolates while you're at it. Exotic fruit basket - make one yourself or order online, and include weird fruits like starfruit, guava, tamarind, jackfruit, mangosteen, durian, cherimoya, lychee, rambutan, longan, prickly pear, papaya, kumquat, dragon fruit and all sorts! Fun, tasty and educational. A piece of natural skincare -

Obviously, it's not the same for everyone: we have different lifestyles, finances, different eating habits, favourite foods, different absorption/malabsorption and different needs due to our genetics and state of health. But there are a few basic reasons. - Foods that we eat are depleted. Mono-culture grown crops with artificial fertilizers probably optimize their growth but that's about it - the most common formula is NPK, adding only Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium. We need more than that! Soil used over and over loses its mineral content, they are washed off by erosion, and there is no added organic matter (like compost) to return those minerals. - Food storage reduces the nutrient content even more. Foods, especially if shipped from far, continuously lose their nutrient value and oxidise while sitting in the box or on the shelf. By the time they reach your table they are far from fresh (imagine how old your flour is, for example). That's why there can be massive di

I must admit I love organically grown produce for quite a few reasons: lower environmental impact, no GMOs, fewer chemicals such as pesticides and fertilizers on the products, higher antioxidant content and if eating animal products, organic means higher welfare standards and no antibiotic overuse. However, it's easy to get an illusion that everything that's organic is somehow better. Then you can buy crisps and sweets that are organic, organic pastries and cakes, organic fudge and soft drinks. And they may be "better" to some extent: the materials used probably caused less environmental damage as it was grown organically, promoting wildlife, not using bee-killing pesticides etc. Also, these products will probably (or hopefully) be made by ethical businesses that invest in charitable causes and are more respectful of the environment, so you are supporting them over the big mainstream companies that only care about more and more profit. But health-wise, there is no big

Yes, that's true, you can use sugar AND have a perfectly good health. And I'll tell you how. Use it to exfoliate your face and body with home-made sugar scrub . You can make it as simple or as fancy as you please. Use sugar to clean the grease off your hands after dealing with oily, greasy substances. If you tend to remove hair anywhere from your body, make your own (incredibly easy) sugar wax . If you like painted nails, try sugar nail art . Make sure you use natural nail polish. Make sugar chalk . Especially fun with kids. Make sugar art and all sorts of things, including bowls and sculptures . I think you get the idea... Just don't eat it! :) Do you know of any other fun uses for sugar?