Recount: Trip to France and Food!

About two weeks ago my French class had a trip to Brest, France. Throughout the entire week we stayed there, I was living with a host family, and I got to try out a lot of new foods. However, the day that stood out was the day I arrived. That day I had both lunch and dinner with my host family.

For lunch that day my host family had prepared a salad with cabbage, rasped carrot, tomatoes and goat cheese. While for dinner they prepared the french meal "canard d'orange", which means "Orange Duck", with baked potatoes. Canard d'orange is duck marinated in oranges. In my opinion this food was absolutely delicious, and thinking about it, it was healthy as well! I'm going to tell you why, however before we begin I created a list of key terms I will be using and their definitions:

• Manganese: helps create essential enzymes for building bones
• Dietary fiber: normalizes and maintains bowel health, lower cholesterol levels, helps control body sugar level and helps in achieving healthy weight.
• Potassium: relief from stroke, blood pressure, heart and kidney disorders, anxiety and stress, enchased muscle strength, metabolism, water balance, and nervous system.
• Vitamin B1: plays an important role in maintaining a healthy nervous system and improving the cardiovascular functioning of the body. 
• Phosphorus: vital part of growth process of bones and teeth.
• Magnesium: vital for containing a normal heart beat.
• Calcium: vital to build and maintains strong bones.
• Iron: plays and important role in the production of hemoglobin and red blood cells.
• Protein: used to build and repair tissues, and is also used to make enzymes, hormones, and other body chemicals.
• Vitamin A: Reproduction and immune system health.
• Vitamin E: Protection against toxins such as air pollution.
• Vitamin C: Protects against immune system deficiencies, cardiovascular disease, prenatal health problems, eye disease and even skin wrinkling.
• Vitamin K: Plays a role in the bodys blood clotting system.
• Vitamin B8: Controls hypertension, helps deal with depression, improves cognitive functioning.
• Pantothenic acid: Reduces chances of getting conditions like asthma, hair loss, allergies, stress and anxiety, respiratory disorders and heart problems.
• Niacin: lowers cholesterol levels and controls them
• Thiamine: Vitamin B1
• Riboflavin: Vitamin B2
• Zinc: responsible for many functions in the body and helps stimulate the activity of a 100 different enzymes.
• Folate: plays a role in DNA synthesis and repair.

To begin with, we had the lunch salad. Here were their ingredients and what minerals, vitamins or nutrients they were rich in:

• Cabbage: manganese, dietary fiber, potassium vitamin B1, phosphorus, magnesium, calcium, iron, pantothenic acid, protein and niacin.
• Tomatoes: potassium, manganese, dietary fiber, vitamin A, vitamin E and phosphorus.
• Carrots: vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin K, vitamin B8, pantothenic acid, folate, potassium, iron, copper and manganese.
• Goat cheese: calcium, protein, vitamin A, vitamin K, phosphorus, niacin

Next up we had dinner. For dinner we had duck with baked potato. Duck meat is a good source of protein, phosphorus, riboflavin, iron, zinc, thiamine, folate and magnesium. However eating to much is not good as duck meat is relatively high in fat and cholesterol, especially if you eat the skin. Beside the duck we ate potatoes which contain vitamin C, manganese, phosphorus, potassium and fiber.

As you can see, apart from the duck being high in cholesterol and fat, the meals were very healthy. A light lunch, and more heavy dinner is how it should be. However, at the same time very healthy. I hope you enjoyed this recount of my trip to France and their food, and maybe try out one of these meals yourself!

Letter to the Editor of Health & Life Qatar

Cecilie Kamilla Kristensen
Dr Bryns Vei 5
3610 KONGSBERG
cecilie.kamilla@hotmail.no

23.05.2016

editor@health-n-life.com
Health & Life
Dubai

Dear Editor,

I have recently read your article in the 9th issue of Health & Life  called The No-Diet-Way, and I just wanted to say that this is the most useful article on healthy eating I've come across so far. It gave me a good perspective on diets and why they don't work out long-term. It is true that more an more people are trying the trend of "dieting", however as you mentioned it will not last, and might even harm your body.

Many people think that having a low fat diet, or high protein diet or very low calorie diets/meals replacement diets might help reduce weight and make them healthier. However, as written in your article, restricting certain food groups can cause nutrient deficiencies , which can lead to serious health problems. The body needs a variety of nutrients to achieve an obtain optimum health, and many diets require the elimination of essential nutrients.

Toward the end I enjoyed how instead of encouraging "dieting", you came up with the brilliant idea called the "no-diet dieting". It was very helpful that you added a list of things you can do to have a successful, long-term and healthy weight loss, without dieting. I believe that for me and many others, this will be something new and interesting to read and learn about, because in a world where so many people talk about dieting, it's hard to imagine that you can loose weight in any other way.

To conclude I would just like to say that the layout of your article was organized and easy to understand. The visuals, such as tables, fact boxes, listed items, bullet points, and the use of questions directed at the reader, kept me engaged throughout the entire article. It would be wonderful if you could continue to make articles on the topic of healthy eating, as I found this very interesting and would love to read more!

Sincerely
Cecilie Kamilla Kristensen

Poem about Healthy Eating

I created a poem about healthy eating to encourage you to make healthier food choices:

People who eat a lot of sugar,
Will look much more fuller

They also have a bigger risk of getting diabetes,

So are you sure you want to buy that bag of treaties?

If your answer is no,

Then don't do it!

I'm telling you, just let it go

Make better choices, commit and never quit!

Step over to a healthier side

It will make you feel better,

Make your life a happier ride

In the end you might actually fit into your sweater!

I wrote this poem after a class trip to France, where I was left with a lot of money to buy food, and I could make my own decisions about what to eat. It wasn't much different that in Norway, the only difference was that in France everything is so much cheaper, making it so much more tempting to go straight for the foods high in sugar. The first day I was swimming in sugar, eating candy and chips almost three days in a row. However after three days I realized what this was doing to me. I was less focused, more tired and felt worse in general. Therefore I decided that it was time to make healthier choices!

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Baked Dried and Salted Cod with Vegetables

Today I decided to share a recipe on how to make baked dried and salted cod with vegetables. This is a traditional meal that dates a long way back in the history of Norway. Even though it might take some time to prepare, it is definitely worth it! It is healthy, and super tasty, especially for all of you out there who love fish. 

Background of Dried and Salted Cod

The dried and salted cod itself, also known as Klippfisk, dates back at least 500 years. Salted cod was dried only by the wind and sun, and hung on wooden scaffolds or on clean cliffs or rocks by the seaside. By drying the fish, a lot of the nutrients are preserved, and the process of drying and salting the cod is said to make it tastier. Salting became common in the 17th century, when cheap salt became available. The method was cheap and could be done by the fisherman in families. The resulting product was easily transported to markets, and dried and salted cod became a staple item in the diet of the populations of Catholic countries on "meatless" Fridays and during Lent.

Ingredients:

• Dried and Salted Cod Round pieces (1 kg)
• Water
• Olive Oil
• 10 Potatoes
• 4 Carrots
• 4 Celery roots
• 2 Broccolis
• Salt and Pepper
• Scallions
• Parsley
• Ovenproof dish

Directions

Preparing the dried and salted cod:

1. Buy round pieces of dried and salted cod, up to 3 cm thick each.
2. Put them into water (5 liters). 
3. Let them stay in the water for three days, switching water every morning and evening.
4. After three days take the dried and salted cod out and put it into a plastic baking bag filled with olive oil and crushed garlic. Leave it there for one day in the refrigerator. 

The rest: 

1. Take 10 potatoes and peel them. Mix them with salt, pepper and crushed parsley.
2. Put the potatoes into the oven (convection/hot air) at 225 degrees celcius for 10 minutes.
3. Take the carrots, celery roots, and broccoli and cut them all up in 1 cm pieces. Put them all into an ovenproof dish and pour some olive oil on top.
4. Once the potatoes have been in the oven for 10 minutes, put the vegetables in, and then let it all bake for 20 minutes more.
5. After 20 minutes take out the ovenproof dish with the vegetables and put the vegetables out to the side. Then in that same ovenproof dish put the pieces of dried and salted cod, and on top of that put the vegetables. Also cut up the scallions into 1 cm pieces and sprinkle some on top.
6. Set everything into the oven, and let everything (along with the potatoes) bake for 15 minutes more (until the fish is 60 degrees celcius).

Take everything out after 15 minutes and you are ready to serve! I hope you enjoyed this unique recipe and soon I will also post a review on this recipe like I usually do. I hope you try and make this because the outcome is amazing!