What is healthy food?

Wheelchair Dancing involves keeping fit and healthy, so we asked one of our Trustees, Caroline, a qualified nutritionist, What is healthy food?

I was in my canteen at work the other day and looked at the healthy options, looking back at me was jelly…wow wow wow, since when is jelly a healthy option?!?  Would you pick up the jelly thinking it’s a healthy option?  What is healthy food?

Aren’t we all trying to be a bit more “healthy”? But have you ever asked yourself what does that really mean?? So many things sell themselves as “low fat” so is fat bad? Low carb diets are all the all the rage, so carbohydrates (carbs) bad, aren’t they? Someone told me too much protein bad for you, should I avoid protein? It is so confusing to know what to eat!  So let me try and help…

1. Fat is not evil
2. Carbs are not evil
3. Protein is not evil

I know, given all we’ve heard over the years its hard to believe that fat is not in its spare time hanging out with Lucifer hatching plans to send us all to an early grave.  The truth is that we need fat in our diets, in fact it is critical for the health of our cells.  I’m not suggesting you go eat a bar of lard, or even half a bar, just that fat is not generically bad and there are some fats that are even known as “good fats”.

So without boring the life out of you with a lecture on what fats are ‘good’ let me give you a couple of super simple recipe ideas that might even be worthy of a healthy label!

Avocado and Prawns

This could not be simpler, all you are going to need is:

• 1 ripe avocado
• 100g cooked prawns (drain off any juice)
• 1 tablespoon of salad dressing (Newmans is a good choice)

How to make

Cut the avocado in half length ways and remove the stone.

Scoop out the avocado with a spoon and roughly chop up in to chunks

Put the avocado in a bowl, add the prawns and mix

Eat out of the bowl or serve on a plate

…add some lettuce, tomatoes or other salad if you want!

If you’re not a shell fish fan swap out the prawns for chicken, either get some cooked chicken or chop some chicken breast in to bite sized chunks and fry in a pan with a little oil over a medium heat until the chicken is white all the way through.

Baked Salmon

You’ll need:

• 1 piece of salmon per person, around 100g depending on your appetite.
• A nob of butter per person (avoid margarine if you can – it’s a whole other blog to explain why)
• 1 slice of lemon per person
• Salt and pepper
• A bag of ready prepared salad leaves
• Washed new potatoes
• a piece of tin foil
• baking tray
• saucepan

How to make

Switch on the oven at 180C

Fill and boil the kettle

Put the potatoes in a pan, cover with the boiling water and set a timer for 20 mins

Take a piece of tin foil that is about 3-4 times as big as the piece of salmon

Place the salmon in the centre of the tin foil, season with salt and pepper, put a slice of lemon and a nob of butter on top

Fold the tin foil up at the slide and scrunch together to make a parcel and put on the baking tray

Cook in the oven for about 15 mins

When the timer for the potatoes goes off, check they are cooked by sticking a sharp knife in them and then drain the water off (you can use a colander for this)

When the salmon has been in the oven for 15 mins, remove from the over (using oven gloves) and open the parcel if the salmon is cooked it will be a lighter pink colour

Serve with the salad and new potatoes.