Start the year with healthy eating habits
THERE’S an old saying, “an apple a day keeps the doctor away. An onion a day keeps everybody away.” I have been reading Margaret Roberts’s latest book, Healing Foods – surely her most informative book so far and certainly the most fascinating for people like me who plan to live forever.
Margaret was probably one of the first organic farmers in SA and pioneered the introduction of many foreign herbs into SA. For years she has experimented with what she calls “nature’s pharmacy” at her farm near the Magaliesberg range.
It seems to me that almost anything that grows – even hemlock – can be at least medicinal and the onion can certainly reduce medical bills. Its nutritional value is high and Margaret points out that in addition to its legendary ability to act as a natural antibiotic, “clinical studies have shown that garlic and onions lower high blood cholesterol, prevent clot formation and significantly lower blood sugar levels”.
Eating them fresh will help cleanse the cold sores…
Healing Foods is something between a beautifully-produced colourful encyclopaedia and a family medical dictionary.
The author lists diseases and what particular fruits and vegetables are best for treating them. The most effective she lists under “superfoods”.
She also lists foods that aggravate certain conditions. There are even superfoods that are “memory enhancing” – natural foods that help the brain but at the same time also reduce cholesterol levels, improve blood circulation as well as improve the skin. They contain vitamin B3 (Nialin) and include nuts, cereals, legumes, asparagus, seeds, milk and green leafy vegetables.
She describes vegetables and fruits as foods that help calm children; that are particularly good for the elderly; that are known to reduce the risk of cancer and cardiovascular disease. There are foods that combat tiredness and insomnia and digestive ailments. There’s a recipe for a quick energy boost. Margaret says chocolate does it “but no matter how desperate you are for a chocolate fix, don’t! The sugar boost is short-lived and drops you down deeper into the spiral of chronic fatigue”. She suggests alternatives.
There’s more than half-a-century of personal knowledge and wisdom behind this book because Margaret is a grower of fruit and vegetables as well as a keen cook.
Half-a-century? No, nearly a century, for she has recipes and notes from her granny’s time. Apart from tips on growing and cooking well-known and lesser-known plants, she tells how to introduce them into one’s diet.
The book at R275 is not cheap but it must surely be the world’s most comprehensive book for the lay person on healthy and even therapeutic eating.
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