Sunny sweetcorn soup

This summer has been lovely, but now autumn has decided it wants a look in and seems to have arrived somewhat early. The air is decidedly cooler and today in particular is looking rather bleak and grey - for Brits, its a typical bank holiday Monday!

Tiny squash coming!

However, the gorgeous, fresh produce that's around at the moment should bring rays of sunshine into anyones life. The hedgerows are laden with berries, fruit trees heavy with magnificent bounty (my apples this year are just huge!) and my tiny little veg patch has been providing us with gorgeous beans and outstandingly flavoursome leeks, whilst I obsessively monitor the growth of some tiny squash.
One vegetable that has been particularly awesome this year is sweet corn - fabulously juicy kernels, so sweet, tender and firm, completely superior to any tinned or frozen variety and great example of seasonal eating.
Sweetcorn has a bit of a bad boy reputation though in the 'dieting' world; higher in calories than other veg as they contain a higher concentration of simple sugars. Nutritionally, though, it's fabulous as it's packed full of phytonutrients and antioxidants that keep your body healthy at a cellular level, along with beta-carotene and some of the B vitamins. But the main benefit is it's fibre content.
Fibre is essential to keep us healthy - not only does it aid the process of digestion by moving things along nicely in the gut (less time for toxins to build up and be absorbed), it releases it's sugars more slowly and actually feeds the gut friendly bacteria to keep it happy and healthy. Processed foods, animal and dairy products contain no fibre, so you need lots of other sources to help things along and stop your gut from becoming stressed and feeble. Which is one reason (of many) why a plant based whole food diet is beneficial to your overall health and well being. And if you can't go the whole hog, then big up your plant fibre intake - your tummy will love you for it!
I love eating sweetcorn on the cob, boiled and seasoned with a little black pepper, with the juices dribbling down my chin in an unladylike manner! However, this soup is another great way of getting all the benefits and flavour of that gorgeous sunny corn, and it can be eaten with slightly more finesse!!
A warming soup for a miserable day in summer - sunshine in a bowl, dairy free and delicious!
Sweetcorn soup

3 sweet corn cobs, nibs cuts off
2 carrots diced
1 onion diced
2 cloves garlic finely chopped
3 small potatoes/1 medium diced
sprinkle thyme
1 litre vegetable stock
salt and pepper
Heat a small amount of olive oil (or water if you don't like oil) in a large pan and sauté the onion and carrot gently until soft. Add the garlic and sauté for a minute but don't let it burn. Add the potatoes, sweetcorn, thyme and stock, bring to the boil then simmer for 20 minutes or so until everything is cooked. Turn off the heat and blitz with a hand blender until smoothish. Add extra stock if necessary if too thick. Season with salt and pepper and enjoy. You and your stomach will feel the joy!

A weighty challenge

Do you always feel like you're on a diet? Lose weight then put it all back on again, lured back into you're old way, getting stuck in a dieting yoyo?  I've tried most of them during my lifetime, - Atkins (lasted 48 hours - it made me so ill!), weight watchers, Rosemary Connolly's fat free, food combining to name a few. Most of the time, I had some success and would lose some weight, but always managed to put it back on again.
Whilst never being massively overweight, I've also never been particularly small and never felt comfortable. Looking back, I realise not feeling right was more to do with not eating the right foods for me, rather than being too heavy and needing to 'diet'. But it was being on a particular diet - Carol Vorderman's 28 day detox plan - that made me realise there was more to this eating malarky that meets the eye.

Rainbow on a shelf!

This plan is plant based, cutting out any food source that can cause inflammation in the body (including wheat, alcohol and caffeine). Lacking the understanding I have now, it was hard, but I felt so good. More energy, less headaches and generally lighter in body and spirit. But I didn't continue with it long term, so slowly the weight started creeping back on.
It was however, the start of my journey to wellness through a plant based whole food diet. And once I applied the principles properly, I lost weight without even trying. But not so much that I'm an unhealthy size. I've plateaued at a healthy 57kg and eat loads more now than I used to, it's just all whole and plant. I've seen this in others too (my daughter lost 10kg over 6 months, a colleague at work must have lost half his body weight over the last year or so), and it's backed up by research; at the Annal Meeting of the Obesity Society in America last week, research comparing different diets revealed that a fully plant based diet lead to the greatest weight loss without having to restrict calories* and The Permanente Journal states that current research is so strong that a plant based diet should be recommended to improve overall health and well being, including weight loss**.

A Clogger Burger!

Although he enjoys the food I cook for him, my husband has been reluctant to go fully plant based; he does enjoy his meat and cheese! But a month away living in a hotel in Mexico eating too much meat and dairy not only expanded his waist line a bit too much, it made him feel pretty unwell in general. This was followed by our family holiday in the US, with large portions and gut-busting burgers. So much food! So much so, that on the way home, he declared his intention to eat a plant based diet for a month to kick start some weight loss (96kg at the mo) and a training plan to cycle up Ventoux (mountain in France) next year (see his blog http://cyclingseagull.wordpress.com/2014/08/12/the-next-challenge). Four days in and he's doing really well, commenting on how he's eating so much more than he would normally. The weekend is going to be his first challenge though - a day trip to watch football in Birmingham with the boys, which usually means many beers, burgers and pies. Beer is the first challenge, as like wine, many brands use animal products for fining (see my blog post http://foodiesensitive.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/milk-in-wine-surely-not.html). Luckily, the Barnivore website has come to the rescue, and even has an app which he rapidly downloaded.
I'm really looking forward to seeing how he gets on with eating this way over the next month - I know it works, but social situations make it challenging at times. Hopefully more and more people will get on board and reap the health benefits of eating plant based; once mainstream, and easily accessible, eating out and socialising will become less challenging. And my man will be more streamlined!

* http://www.obesity.org/news-center/plant-based-diets-show-more-weight-loss-without-emphasizing-caloric-restriction.htm
**http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3662288/