TERAPROOF:User:desodriscollDate:29/09/2010Time:11:58:23Edition:01/10/2010FeelgoodXH0110Page:12
Zone:XH
12 Healthy food
XH - V1
Kudos for him Time to throw away the frying pan
says the top ‘oil man’ Roz Crowley
ON YER BIKE: Dr Udo Erasmus believes good qualities oils added to a low-carb wholefood diet can turn your health around.
Feelgood
WHAT to Cook and How to Cook It by Jane Hornby is a chunky hardback packed with good illustrative photographs of basic dishes, such as stir-fries, pasta dishes and treats, such as Lemon & Poppy Seed Drizzle Cake. Easy to follow, it would make a great gift for beginner cooks and students who want to cook well for themselves. Published by Phaidon, F30. (£24.95)
Wellness date
A
RE there any pleasures left in life now we’re being told to throw away our frying pans? Canadian Dr Udo Erasmus says the best thing we can do is hit ourselves on the head with them and remember the pain the next time we are tempted to have a fry up. We know Udo from his blend of oils which provide a range of omega oils and health benefits. His concern about frying is the result of research which shows we create toxins when we heat oil of any kind. He says we cannot even enjoy the simple pleasures of crisp skin on chicken or duck. “Skin is a good way of helping meat to steam underneath, but we must throw away the skin which gets burned, just as we have to resist bread which has a burnt crust or praline which is burnt sugar. We must not burn starchy foods,” he says, warning of the dangers of water retention, tissue stagnation, acidity, inflammation and tissue degeneration as the basis of many diseases. To drive home his message, Erasmus has some memorable soundbites: ■ Fats are vindictive — fry them and you fry your health. ■ Eat carbs, get fat. ■ Burn them or wear them, he says of the need to exercise off calories. Erasmus says that green vegetables have enough carbohydrates for our needs. And he dares to add that we need to eat fewer potatoes in Ireland. “If we ate 70% of what we wanted to eat, we would reduce our illnesses by 50%. We need to get into systematic under-eating.” We talk on the phone while he is in Iceland where he is negotiating ways of processing cod liver oil so the nutrients are not destroyed while the toxins are filtered. “It’s not as easy as it sounds,” he says. “I had to work on technology to make sure my plant oils retained as many nutrients as possible while being processed. Now I am trying to have technology developed that will do much the same thing with fish oils which are rich is much needed vitamin D.” Like a car, our bodies need a change of oil. He advocates changing from cooking in oils to adding oils to food while retaining their benefits, without heating them. If we get a handle on the correct healthy approach to the food we eat, then we can get benefits 17 times greater than from supplements, Erasmus advises. Approving of extra virgin olive oil as long
Cover story
THE next three-day wellness programme with author and cancer survivor Bernadette Bohan, right, takes place on September 17-19 at Grove Health Spa, Shanballymore. Enquiries 086-8135805 or www.grovehealthspa.ie.
Field study THE ninth annual Longueville Mushroom Hunts take place on October 10 and 24. To learn how to forage successfully: ring 022-47156 or see www.longuevillehouse.ie.
Chef’s delight WOULD-BE chefs have an opportunity to win a Ballymaloe cookery course in Chef Factor, a new web-based venture by Cully and Sully, right, to find a budding chef worthy of the course. Details: www.cheffactor.ie
as it’s cold pressed, he suggests adding it to soups and stews after cooking to flavour them. He does, however, point out that olive oil does not have any Omega 3s and is low in Omega 6 healthy fatty acids. “First of all we have to avoid bad fat from which we get disease. These bad fats are found in processed foods and anything that is fried.” After that we need to replace them with oils that are good for us. His Ultimate Oil Blend, a product combining flax, sunflower seed, sesame seed, coconut, evening primrose, rice bran and oat germ oils, delivers a good quantity of healthy oils. But what about the bitter taste? Erasmus
says it should not be used for flavouring, but as a base for other more appetising flavours. Erasmus suggests that those suffering from conditions such as arthritis should take a hint that something in their lives needs to be changed. They may need purely organic food to avoid toxins and he believes any extra cost is well worth it. He stresses that supplements don’t deliver health on their own and we need good food too. Our food culture may be killing us — along with an unhealthy lifestyle, says Erasmus. On his tour, he talks about the need for us all to slow down and get connected with ourselves.
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2010
“People often like to blame others for how they feel and look for distraction. They get angry and disconnected from the world. We have to acknowledge the thirst to make change, make a deliberate choice and find a way to feel fulfilled and content. “A deficiency of the heart is worse than a deficiency of vitamin D and can lead to illnesses both physical and psychological.” ■ Omega 3 Cuisine, by Udo Erasmus and chef Alan Roettinger has plenty of salad and soup recipes, without the use of a frying pan. Published in paperback by Books Alive, it costs F14.95.