Food and Mood, What's the Link?

I am firmly of the belief that every item of food or drink we consume has a biochemical effect on us, some negative and some of course positive. Furthermore it could be said that along with all the conventional methods of grouping foods that we could use the following:

Nutrient, stimulant and empty calories, let me explain group by group.

Nutrients are natural food stuffs that are not processed or altered from their original state by modern food industry practise. This means their natural chemical compounds and nutrients are left intact and are able to feed the body and have positive biochemical effects. This group includes all fresh fruits and vegetables and other natural foods nuts, seeds, beans, greens, oats, brown rice and all those other items that look the same served up as they do growing wild. This group is called Nutrients because they offer all the life giving power of natural foods whose positive effects are still to be fully understood.

Stimulants these are the temporary boost foods, usually high in sugar, caffeine or other artificial stimulants that give temporary energy followed by a low or crash as their active ingredients rapidly pass through the blood stream and are processed by the body. So tea, coffee, stimulant drinks, sugar rich foods and drinks. This group is probably the most harmful to the wellbeing of the mind and body and also can be dangerously addictive as the boost delivered is desirable and may be repeated with another dose! Stimulants are exactly that, nutritionally pretty void, they boost the body in an artificial short term way instead of fuelling the body with the nutrients it needs. Talk to someone in a coffee bar, and you'll see what I mean! Addiction to stimulants is a real danger as resistance is developed and more and greater doses are required for the same heady effect! Avoid this group and your reward will be better energy levels and a more stable and genuine mood, with greater resistance to temptation! Check out the ingredient panel of food packaging, manufacturers have to list ingredients in order of volume in the product, if sugar is in the top 4 leave it out of your shopping trolley. Isn't it crazy that most breakfast cereals have a huge amount of sugar in? Stuff a load of sugar down first thing and you'll be on a sugar craving roller coaster all day.

Empty calories, this is the U.F.O. food group, Unidentified Food Objects, you know the score, funny looking and smelling things that resemble nothing in its natural state! Generally they are cheap and certainly in the "junk" category. As we all know cheap isn't necessarily a good thing. Cheap batteries in your walkie talkie on a jungle trip could be a bad thing! Cheap food during your lifetime will definitely have a negative effect. These empty calories can have an extraordinary effect as they are calorie rich, high in sugar and other addictive ingredients BUT nutritionally poor, leading to over eating as the body craves nutrients and gets addicted to the sugar boost. It's impressive that a junk food addict can be at once obese AND malnourished, a testimony to the emptiness of the calories in this food group!

I hope this simple look at foods makes you keen to explore the nutrient group as stay clear of the other two, I certainly ask myself as I select things for my shopping trolley, is this nutrient, stimulant or empty calorie.

A lot of my food consumption is through my juicer and blender as I like to keep things fresh and natural, try here for some fresh and natural recipes.

Save Money on Food and Drinks

The weekly grocery shopping bill is many people's biggest expense after housing. While it's difficult to save money on mortgages and rents there are plenty of savings to be made by being careful with food and drink expenditure.

Plan a weeks worth of meals, create a list of ingredients and only purchase these items. By sticking to this no food will go to waste and you will be less tempted to purchase extra goodies. When you are in the supermarket where possible try to purchase "own brand" items. You'll find them much cheaper than leading brands and often the product tastes very similar if not exactly the same.

When you visit your supermarket don't go in hungry. Research suggests that you will spend around 20% more when you food shop hungry as opposed to shopping after a meal.

Buy in bulk. Markets and greengrocers will give good deals on produce if you buy in larger quantities. Supermarkets often have BOGOF (Buy One Get One Free) offers. Take advantage of these: freeze the extra items for use in the future. Grow your own, find an allotment or convert part of your garden into a veg patch. You'll be surprised by the savings and how good home-grown produce tastes.

Shop around - don't just stick with one shop play the supermarkets against each other. Special offers tend to move from one chain to the next so use price comparison sites to find the best deals before you set off shopping. Buy local. By supporting your local farmers market more money makes its way back to the local economy. Check out old Christmas gifts - there may be food hampers that you have forgotten about full of luxury food and drinks

Try to cook just what you planned for in your recipe, this way you'll only use the ingredients you've bought and not extras. Don't cook too large a portion, when cooking pasta and rice use a mug to measure out the amount needed. Consider taking a packed lunch to work, cook up a bit more of an evening put it in Tupperware and freeze them.

Once you've finished cooking, use up the leftovers. The end of a chicken, cut offs of vegetables can be turned into stock or a tasty homemade soup. Don't buy bottled water or soft drinks. Drink tap water! A water filter will do wonders if your tap water isn't too nice or just leave a glass of tap water in a window for around 30 minutes for the chlorine taste to go away.

Shop around - don't just stick with one shop play the supermarkets against each other. Special offers tend to move from one chain to the next so use price comparison sites to find the best deals before you set off shopping.

Whet Your Appetite During the Scottish Food and Drink Fortnight

If you love Scottish food you're sure to not want to miss a two-week event taking place in Scotland in September.

Plan a stay at your large holiday house in the region to make the most of the Scottish Food and Drink Fortnight, which champions local produce to protect the nation's culinary heritage and help safeguard the future of workers such as farmers and fishermen.

The event celebrates local fare across restaurants and shops while also encouraging healthy eating. It runs between September 4th and 19th and could provide an excellent opportunity to catch up with friends and rent a castle in Scotland to spend some time together.

Both big brand and local artisan businesses are invited to take part, showcasing their wares alongside window displays and offering samples of produce to passers-by or drawing people in with banners and signs.

Restaurants in the nation will be developing special Scottish-themed menus over the two-week period and some may be running competitions for consumers to create their own Scottish recipes, with the winner chosen to be made into a dish at the eateries.

Some will be holding cookery courses with local chefs to highlight how you can recreate the best traditional dishes back at your Scottish holiday home, making the most of local ingredients.

Recipes concocted by big names in the local industry for the festival include marbled roulade of chicken, goats cheese, roast red pepper and basil, served with warm tomato relish, rocket and parmesan salad and pesto dressing, as invented by Willie Pike of the Federation of Master Chefs Scotland.

Contests are set to run throughout the event, such as the Mini Masterchef, which was held in 2009 for youngsters aged from eight to 14 when it was won by an eight-year-old girl.

Meanwhile, if you're staying in a far-flung Scottish holiday home, you may find you have access to a range of food-related films in rural areas, as the event organisers have teamed up with cinema access provider Regional Screen Scotland to put on shows in remote location in conjunction with local food producers.

However you choose to spend your fortnight, you're sure to get a taste for Scotland at the Scottish Food and Drink Fortnight.

Food Elements - Learn About the Nutritional Elements of Food and Healthy Eating

The purpose of consuming food is to ensure good health and wellness, and therefore, healthy eating is an essential aspect of eating every day. The requirement of food over the years changes over time, with respect to the stage of life that you are in. So while a child requires food to grow and develop, adults need it more for the energy required to function daily. In addition to that, food is also required so as to repair the various parts of the body that are worn away, or those that have had to be discarded due to wear and tear.

We tend to use various parts of our bodies with everything that we do, be it breathing, thinking, moving, playing or working on the computer. This means that we need to be able to continuously replenish our body with a variety of elements that are present in food and drink.

The various elements of food that exist, their characteristics, the manner in which they can be used, and the right way in which specific foods should be combined to obtain maximum benefits are given below:

The Food Elements

Healthy eating is possible only when you ensure that your body is getting the right food elements in the right quantity that it requires. Therefore, it is essential to know about the food nutrition to be able to make sure that you are consuming everything. Some of the food elements that you should be aware of include starch, sugar, albumen, fats, minerals, and indigestible ingredients.

These are often clubbed together to form the basic classes including carbonaceous, nitrogenous, and inorganic. While all the starches, fats and sugars fall under the carbonaceous category, the albumen is considered to be nitrogenous. All inorganic substances include all the minerals that we need for the body. It should be noted that all healthy recipes or menus should ensure that all the various categories of food are finely balanced in a meal.

Carbonaceous - All starches, sugars and fats are covered under this category. Starch can be found in grains, most vegetables, and also in some fruits. Sugars are available in the form of cane, grape, other fruit sugars, and milk sugar (a constituent of milk).There are also some sugars that are made in the laboratory.

Glucose, for example, is an artificial sugar that is similar to grape juice. It is made from potato or corn starch in a chemical process. However, it is not as sweet as the natural sweeteners that nature provides. Fats can be found in vegetables and animal food too. Butter and suet are examples of animal fat, but you can also find fat in plant sources like nuts, beans and some fruits like olives too.

While fat is commonly used as a free element (as in butter) and we use it in many not-so-healthy recipes in abundance, not only is free fat difficult to consume, but it also interferes with the digestion of other foods.

Nitrogenous - Albumen in its purest form can be found in the white of an egg. The entire white of an egg is nothing but pure albumen. You can also find albumen in other animals and vegetable foods as in the case of oatmeal. Gluten closely resembles albumen and is also a nitrogenous element. It is found in rye, barley and wheat. Casein is also a part of this class of food elements and can be found in peas and beans.

Inorganic - Almost all the foods we consume have a certain proportion of inorganic and mineral matter. Grains and milk have a large proportion of the minerals that we need on a daily basis.

Indigestible substances - These are foods that are not digestible by the body and are therefore only meant to provide bulk to the food that we eat. Bran and fibrous tissues in the body are examples of indigestible foods.

Food Element Uses

Most of the food that we eat is carbonaceous in nature. This is something that has been proven after studying the daily eating habits of various cultures. The carbonaceous food element allows our body to produce heat, and in conjunction with other food elements, allows us to be able to use force and strength. Carbonaceous food elements also help the body replace the fatty tissue that gets used up in the process of fat burning.

While fats produce the highest amount of heat among the carbonaceous food elements, it should be remembered that these are most difficult to digest and can therefore lead to various health issues. Healthy eating deems that only the recommended proportion of fat should be included in meals on a daily basis.

The nitrogenous nutritional elements help in keeping the brain, nerves, and muscles healthy and fit. These are the food elements that ensure that you remain healthy in all respects including mental health. All healthy recipes should include a decent proportion of nitrogenous food elements to ensure that the stimulus to tissue change is provided to the body at all times, thus keeping all tissues fighting fit.

The most commonly required inorganic elements are phosphates. These provide the building blocks for bones and nerves and are therefore critical for good bone health.

Combination of Food Elements

There is a saying that 'too much of everything is bad', and this applies to food as well. While all food elements are required by the body, it is necessary that each of the food elements be consumed in a specific proportion to ensure healthy eating and healthy living. If you want to learn how to cook healthy recipes, you need to know which of the food elements are required by the body and in what quantity.

For one, the daily intake of the body should ensure 6 carbonaceous food elements to 1 nitrogenous food element. It has also been noticed that this one-sixth of nitrogenous food elements can be used up to 3 ounces in a span of 24 hours.

So if you want to ensure that you are making healthy recipes for your family, you need to make use of this scientific knowledge about nutritional element to ensure that your family stays healthy and fit.

10 Holiday Ideas For Enjoying Food and Drink

Although human beings do not necessarily live to eat, they certainly have developed a fine sense of taste. Food and drink is such an essential component of one's existence that it is quite unsurprising that tourism has now included it as a concept. Here are ten destinations in the world that are known for holidays where one can enjoy food and drink.

1. Corsica - Holidaying in Corsica has a large ingredient of enjoying the hearty food native to the region. The wild boar stews, among other typical dishes, are made according to traditional recipes. Chestnuts are native to the land and Olive oil production is big; the wildflower honey that is harvested there is among the best in the world.

2. Cyprus - Cyprus prefers to stick to their locally grown produce for their cuisine. Exotic fruit like kiwi, olives, citrus fruit, and figs grow in abundance here. Sample the carob that grows liberally in the region, and some of the delicious sweets. There is soutzoukos which is a sweet grape paste containing lots of nuts, stafidakia which are sun-dried raisins, and hiromeri, smoked pork leg.

3. Napoli - On a food holiday in Napoli, have breakfast like a local - a shot of espresso as an accompaniment to a cornetto pastry. Lunch for most working individuals is a takeaway pizza wrapped in paper. Fritters with seaweed are popular munchies in the Neapolitan day. The buffalo mozzarella cheese is unrivalled.

4. Spain - Spain is known for its exquisite and unique dishes, its spicy and delightful cuisine is a favourite with food lovers all over the globe. Spanish wines accompany the food and are often used in cuisine.

5. France - France is one of the best places to understand and enjoy top class cuisine. Bordeaux, France's wine making region is a great place to learn about wine. Wine tasting tours in France have been all the rage for quite a while now, and most of the visitors are housed in the old chateaux in the region.

6. Cambodia - Cambodian cuisine is based mainly around fresh fish and rice, with stewed meats liberally thrown in, and accompaniments like spicy vegetables, seafood fritters and shrimp concoctions. The cuisine is essentially fusion, inspired from neighbouring countries in the Orient.

7. Thailand - Thailand is a beautiful country, steeped richly in culture and heritage. Thailand is a great place to enjoy seafood and sample spicy cuisine. Cooking Thai food starts in the marketplace, buying local fresh produce.

8. Vietnam - Vietnamese cuisine is inspired a great deal by Indian, Cambodian and Thai cuisines, and there is a liberal use of coconut milk in various preparations. The meals also consist of many different kinds of tropical fruit, not available in the cooler areas up north. Vietnam tourism also has a number of package tours, designed to combine sightseeing and experiencing its cuisine, hand in hand.

9. Mexico - San Miguel de Allende is known for its exceptional culinary features, and its rich array of art galleries and boutiques. Cooking holidays in Mexico are journeys through the exultant culture that pervades every aspect of life. This is a chance to learn how to make perfect salsas and burritos, with coffee flavoured with chocolate, and to mix the perfect marguerita.

10. India - India is such a large nation that its cuisine depends on each state. Currently taking the world by storm is one of the South Indian cuisines from the state of Kerala. Rich in fish and coconuts, this cuisine is delicately spiced and flavoured. Learn the Kerala cuisine living on a houseboat, floating across the scenic backwaters of the beautiful Indian state.

Traditional Devon Food and Drink

The wonderful county of Devon is situated in the south west of England and is not only known for its sandy beaches and wonderful countryside but also for its glorious local recipes and ingredients.

The Devon pasty is by far the most well known of Devon's cuisine exports. With its mix of beef, sliced potatoes and vegetables the pasty has gone from strength to strength over the past 20 years with many new flavours and styles being created every day.

There has always been a slight difference of opinion on whether the Devon pasty was created before the Cornish variety. Back in 2006 a researcher found evidential proof of the making of a Devon pasty in a receipt book, with information dating back to the sixteenth century contained reference to the cost of making a pasty from venison reared at the Mount Edgcumbe estate near the Tamar valley. Making the Devon pasty a clear winner by over 200 years against the Cornish pasty.

It is often said that the Pasty was invented originally by the wives of miners; the pasty was thought to have had a great advantage over food types due to its tough texture. The miners would be able to eat the contents of the pasty and throw away the exterior that would be covered in mud and dust.

Another popular food item is the Devon Cream Tea which consists of Tea served with scones, cream and jam. The cream used very often is Devon clotted cream. Clotted cream is made by heating unpasteurised milk and leaving it in shallow pans for several hours. In this time the cream will rise and clot which gives it its unusual texture and colour. Cream teas are also very popular around the world, for example in Australia and New Zealand they are called Devonshire Teas and in America they are Devon Teas and often served in the afternoon.

Evidence has shown that Cream Teas date back to the eleventh century; Monks at Tavistock abbey are reported to have been consuming bread with cream and jam for several hundred years.