A collection of the most 'wholesome' recipes you'll find!
I have long been a follower of Dr Greger of Nutritionfacts.org I love his quirky personality and style of presentation and the topical videos he creates that are short and to the point... easy to fit in between moments of my day.
In case you have no clue what or who I am talking about, here's a video extract from his website about page...
"Whenever there is a new drug or surgical procedure, you can be assured that you or your doctor will probably hear about it because there’s a corporate budget driving its promotion. But what about advances in the field of nutrition? The reason we don’t see ads on TV for broccoli is the same reason groundbreaking research on the power of foods and eating patterns to affect our health and longevity gets lost and buried in the medical literature–there’s no profit motive. It may not make anyone money, but what if our lives would profit?
NUTRITIONFACTS.ORG is a strictly non-commercial, science-based public service provided by Michael Greger, M.D., launched with seed money and support by the Jesse & Julie Rasch Foundation. Now a 501c3 nonprofit charity, NutritionFacts.org provides free updates on the latest in nutrition research via bite-sized videos. There are now hundreds of videos on more than a thousand topics, with new videos and articles uploaded every day."
So you can see he really does offer a great contribution to the nutritional world and so I was very excited a few weeks back when I saw a post in a Facebook group I am part of notifying that they were looking for recipe submissions that fell within their (very strict) whole food ingredient criteria...
...this meant not only plant based, but absolutely nothing processed or without the 'whole' food. This included nut milks, soy, any sweeteners other than fruit or date products an also no salt or proceed flavourings (other than natural herbs)
Wow.. what a challenge... but I was onto it!
I sifted through my archives and found some recipes I hoped would meet the mark. Those that were approved now have official status... with a stamp! I feel quite proud!
Whist I myself do not feel the need to be this strict with every aspect of my daily diet I do really appreciate Dr Greger's approach and his desire for recipes to live up to that. In the email correspondence I received back they state: "There is a whole spectrum of healthy eating, but Dr. Greger wants to make sure we only approve the most stringent whole-foods, plant-based guidelines" once they have enough recipes submitted there will be a place for them available in the website as well as Pinterest..so keep a look out!
Here are my approved recipes... including my favourite and oh so versatile 'chickpea cauli-quiche'. You can make these knowing they are some of the most wholesome recipes you could ever find!
Click the images below to go straight to the original recipe blog post...
Dates... ideal food or sugar overload?
I happened to spot this article below in the Mail On Sunday yesterday. It caught my attention in large part because I eat these types of bars and make my own, and I have no problem with them. In addition, my healthy whole food business Wholeplus relies heavily on dates as a source of sweetness and main ingredient in the 'Toppers' product.
Therefore I felt the need to address the issue and provide balance.
The nutritionalist commenting in the article makes largely the same criticism against every single product shown. It's all comes down to the dates.
Her comments such as: "this is massively high in sugar, not even toffee has that much" frustrate me as it shows no distinction between TYPES of sugar.
She does however have some valid points in relation to refined sugars sneakily covered up under different names such as 'organic raw cane sugar' and also pointing out that isolated proteins are not as beneficial as a whole food source. These points I totally agree with but here i'm focussing more specifically on the dates.
Something that is not highlighted at all in this article yet I think it very important is the psychological aspect of these bars. For me a wholefood date based 'chocolate bar' is leaps and bounds ahead of your regular chocolate bar. Yes I agree they're not low in calories and shouldn't be eaten in large quantities, but as a treat in place of refined chocolate or candy… To me they are the perfect solution.
So many people are becoming so much more aware of the major health issues surrounding refined sugary products and are looking for better yet tasty alternatives, so how is an article like this helping? People are so confused already when it comes to food choices, and I can almost hear people throwing there arms up in despair and thinking:
'Well now I haven't a clue what I'm supposed to do, I may as well just carry on eating chocolate bars after all'.
One downside I do sometimes see and one I help clients get a clearer persecutive on when they transition to wholefood treats is that there is the risk of having have the misguided conception that 'they are healthy so I can eat as many as I want!' Whilst they are indeed a much healthier alternative to refined chocolate or sweets, they still shouldn't eaten in excess. They should be the equivalent treat. Treat them as such as you will not go far wrong. In my experience bars like this are often more satiating anyway- win win!
Focus on the whole foods. Dates ARE whole foods!
This is a great 90 second video from Nutrition Facts to have a little listen to...
As One green Planet also cites this interesting study:
"One cup of dates has around 29 mg of fructose and a high glycemic index, which can increase blood sugar levels significantly. So, why do many people who choose to eliminate excess sugars from their lifestyle still consume dates? Well, it seems that dates are naturally rich in nutrition despite being rich in fructose, so there’s a trade-off. Some even consider dates the most ideal food.
Dates are whole foods, but, by weight, they are 80 percent pure sugar. To understand date sugar from the whole food, Israeli scientists took a bunch of people, stuffed them full of dates for a month and measured what happened: they determined that their subjects have no adverse effects on blood sugar or weight, and they had beneficial improvements in triglycerides and antioxidant stress levels."
So in summary, whilst not sugar-free, in my opinion dates can provide the optimum choice in assisting your efforts to reduce your sugar intake. What you really want to focus on is reducing (or omitting) artificial and refined sugars from your diet, and not worry about the natural sugars in whole dates.
I'd love to hear your own thoughts. Do you buy these bars? Do you make your own? How do you feel about the sugar in these types of products in relation to refined sweet treats?
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I am a designer, personal empowerment coach and writer from the UK. I work with health and wellness businesses to bring their mission and purpose to the world. I also help people become the best version of themselves in mind and body.
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