Video on cholesterol

Cholesterol is an important part of any discussion of diet and health. There has been a focus on it for the last few years with the introduction of large scale use of statins to control cholesterol levels. The video is well worth the watch. Much of it is very technical, but the message is very well presented. Ivor has done a great job researching this. Very little opinion, lots of hard facts.

The takeaway message though is that a low carb diet is key here too.

Don't bother with raspberry ketones

You have probably seen these if you have been in a pharmacy recently. They are prominently placed with the rest of the slimming pills and quick fixes. This article gives a good review of the science around the use of raspberry ketones.

The basic idea is that they have not been proven to work in humans. The doses to get them to work in rats where huge. The got their big break when they were promoted by a TV doctor in the US who has a history of giving advice that is not based on evidence.

Save your money and don't bother with raspberry ketones. Reducing your carbohydrate intake has been proven to improve your health. That's the magic pill.

If you are interested in low carb living then Authority Nutrition is a great blog to follow.

Beef Stew

This dinner is one of our staples, but a recent change to low carb/no sugar requires a few changes.

Ingredients:

600g stewing beef
1 Tin of tomatoes
Half a celeriac - optional
4 carrots
2 onions
1 beef stock cube - made up as per instructions
3 sticks celery
Handful of sage leaves chopped finely
Small handful of marjoram chopped finely (leave the stalks out)
Small glass of red wine - optional

Method:

Peel and roughly chop all of the vegetables.
Add a couple of tablespoons of olive oil (not extra virgin) to a large casserole on high heat. Fry the onions and beef for a few minutes until the beef is well coloured. Add all the other ingredients and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat to very low and leave it to cook for 2 to 3 hours. Exact time will depend on the cut of beef used.

Differences from 'Normal':

• No potatoes used 
• No tomato puree used - this usually has added sugar
• We just serve this on its own. It has enough veg without side dishes
• It contains more beef than we would normally use for this size of casserole
• Check all ingredients used for sugar
• The red wine might be a bit of a rule breaker, but we add it early so most of the alcohol is gone and besides, it really lifts this dish

Venison stew

I was given a leg of venison by my dad. He knows a guy whose son hunts. None of them seem too keen on it, but I am. Have had venison a few times and it is always delicious. Bit pricey and tricky to get, so was very happy with this. There is a tablespoon of redcurrant jelly in this and it is served with roasted potatoes. Neither of these are low carb of course, but we had guests so needed to accommodate them too. You could of course leave these out if you prefer.

Venison Stew

Ingredients

1.5 kg of venison leg - chopped into chunks
2 Rashers of smoked bacon, roughly chopped
3 Carrots
2 Onions
3 Sticks of Celery
1 Tbsp of redcurrant jelly
1 Beef stock cube
5 crushed juniper berries

Method

Preheat the oven to 150 degrees C.
Peel and roughly chop the vegetables. Fry them in a little olive oil in a large pot suitable for the oven.
When they have softened remove them from the pot and put aside.
In the same pot fry the bacon until some of the fat starts to run. Brown the chunks of venison in with the bacon. Return the vegetable mixture to the pot and cover the whole lot with boiling water from the kettle. Add the beef stock cube and make sure it is dissolved.
Bring to the boil and place it in the oven with the lid on.
It will be ready in between 1.5 and 2 hours. Check the meat is tender before serving.
I served this with roasted potatoes and a garden salad on the side.

Stir fried broccoli

This is a very simple side dish, but it goes with a lot of different mains. I first saw this done with cabbage and it is lovely that way too, but this is a broccoli version.

Ingredients

A large head of broccoli including stalk
3 cloves of garlic sliced thickly
2 tbsp of cold pressed vegetable oil - details of what is good here
1 tbsp of Soy sauce (tamari is wheat free, so this is probably better here)
1 tbsp of Shaoxing rice wine - you can get this in chinese supermarkets

Method

Cut the stalks off the broccoli and scrape off any tough bits. Split the main stalk into 4 pieces lengthways and then slice these pieces finely. For each floret that remains do the same with the attached stalk so that there is as little stalk as possible still attached. This means that all the parts will cook together and you don't get rock hard stalks on the florets when everything else is cooked.
Heat the oil in a wok until it is almost smoking. Add all of the garlic and stir fry for a minute. Add the broccoli and stir fry on a high heat until cooked through. Make sure you keep everything moving or the garlic will burn. When it is ready add the wine and soy. Continue to cook until these have evaporated off. Serve immediately with a sprinkle of sesame seeds.