by Rebecca Prade | Mar 26, 2018 | NUTRITION, Recipes
Milk chocolate, we get it however, the health benefits of dark chocolate are impressive; it’s loaded with an extremely high concentration of free-radical-fighting antioxidants, plus B vitamins, minerals like magnesium and calcium, and much more. Dark chocolate (the higher the cacao percentage the better) has been shown to lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol, raise serotonin levels, improve cardiovascular health and brain function, lower inflammation… the list goes on.
Cacao (raw cacao powder is made by cold-pressing unroasted cocoa beans) has nearly twice the antioxidants found in red wine and almost triple the antioxidants of green tea. Most people know that dark chocolate contains magnesium, which most of us don’t get enough of. But there are many other nutrients in cacao, including vitamins A, B1, B2, B3, B5, C, D, E; and minerals like calcium, iron, zinc, copper, potassium, and phosphorus.
Milk chocolate contains milk, which binds to the antioxidants in chocolate, rendering them unavailable. This counters any benefit of the flavonoids (phytonutrients) in cacao and then you need to consider the much higher sugar content of milk chocolate as well. Eating extra-dark chocolate, at least 80% cacao or higher, is ideal. The higher the cacao content, the more health benefits it has, because there are more flavanols and less sugar. Simple!
So with this is mind and Easter right around the corner we’ve found some of the best DIY versions of chocolatey treats for you to make and enjoy, guilt-free and without the sugar crash.
Easy Crème Eggs
This all-natural version of ‘that’ crème egg with its 6 teaspoons of sugar has just five ingredients and is easy and fun to make with the kids. Serve them at room temperature and you’ll even get that signature gooey center!
https://detoxinista.com/easy-cadbury-creme-eggs-vegan-paleo-friendly/
Easter Eggs
Deliciously Ella is all about the whole-food sweet treats and these lovely Easter eggs are no exception!
https://deliciouslyella.com/2015/04/02/easter-eggs/
ChocBeet Fudge Cakes
These nutrient dense and delicious chocolate fudge cupcakes are made with beetroot and sweetened with sticky dates to give their fudgey texture.
http://www.hemsleyandhemsley.com/recipe/chocbeet-fudge-cakes/
Peanut Butter Eggs
A spin on Reese’s peanut butter eggs but with the sophistication of natural peanut butter, dark chocolate, and a little sea salt.
https://www.ambitiouskitchen.com/healthy-4-ingredient-reeses-eggs-gluten-free-vegan/
Dark chocolate Paleo Bark
This chocolate bark is super-versatile. Create your own textures and flavours by using different ingredients such as nuts, seeds, dried fruit or essential oils. Let your imagination run wild.
https://realfoodrabbit.com/2016/08/04/dark-chocolate-paleo-bark/
Try them out and let us know what you think in the comments below. You can check out our own delicious recipes here. Happy Easter, Love Bexology.
by Rebecca Prade | Mar 16, 2018 | WELLBEING
What is the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning? For many of us, we check our mobile phones, and the second we open our eyes, we spend the first few minutes of the day mindlessly scrolling through social media, reading the news, and checking emails. We have to ask ourselves: is this healthy?
There’s a reason our parents and grandparents are constantly ridiculing us for being glued to our mobile phones. In a generation addicted to technology, mobile phone obsession is just the tip of the iceberg, and the relationship that we have with our phones is very complex. You know how young children get separation anxiety when they are split up from their parents? Many of us get similar feelings when we’re separated from our phones. Worrying, constantly looking for something, sadness, inability to function – all symptoms of separation anxiety, yet also very similar to the feelings we get when we realise we’ve left our phones at home.
Here’s the headline: it’s time to break up with your mobile phones – and I guarantee it will change your life for the better. Breaking up doesn’t mean you ditch your smartphone altogether, but you make a conscious effort to spend less time on it to make your life better.
Fewer Distractions
Our mobile phones are possibly the most significant distraction we have. How often do you pick up your phone to check something specific, get distracted by a notification, mindless social chit-chat, special offers or pointless celebrity news and then spend the next ten minutes scrolling aimlessly, forgetting what you wanted to do in the first place? It’s the modern equivalent of walking into a room and forgetting why you’re there in the first place! Breaking up with your mobile phone means you won’t succumb to the temptation of getting distracted – allowing you to be more focused on achieving what you want to.
Take Control of Your Time
How much time do you spend on your phone each day? I bet it’s even more than you think you do. Research has shown that young adults use their phones twice as much as they estimate that they do, and this is for upwards of 5 hours a day! Because of the aforementioned distractions, it’s so easy to get sucked into a black hole of scrolling that you lose sight of how much time you’ve spent. By breaking up with your phone, you are taking back control of your time and the experiences you have in your life. That means more time for doing the stuff you love. Swimming, walking, cooking, cycling, socialising, being with family, yoga, sleeping… all can be improved if you beat your mobile addiction.
Better Sleep
Everyone claims to want better sleep, but few actually achieve it. Aside from a healthy diet, exercise, and meditation, as I have mentioned in a previous post, you can get better sleep by breaking up with your phone. When we stare at our phones before bed, the blue light emitted keeps our minds active long after we close our eyes. This causes difficulty falling asleep wakefulness and prevents the high-quality sleep we need. Not to mention how often we get disturbed by rogue text messages throughout the night! Ditch your phone, catch some z’s.
Improved Relationships
It is very hard to find anyone, or certainly anything, more interesting than one’s smartphone. This troubling realisation has, for most of us, had huge consequences for our relationships and family lives. Healthy relationships are the key to a happy life. Breaking up with your phone is a massive step towards creating improved relationships for many reasons. As well as having more time to spend with loved ones, the quality of that time will be much better if you aren’t staring at your device the whole time. You will have proper conversations and be able to focus your attention on the person you’re with. This will not only allow you to learn more about the other person, but it will also make them feel valued.
How to Break Up
Now you know how dumping your phone will benefit you, it should make the break up a little easier. It’s important to remember that breaking up with your phone doesn’t mean you permanently get rid of it – we all need to make calls on the move and check maps when we’re lost! But phase it out so it becomes an accessory to your life rather than something that sucks up all your time. Here are some steps you can take to ease into the breakup and help you create better habits.
Buy Some Time
Just because your phone can act as multiple things – calendar, alarm clock, step tracker – doesn’t mean you should use it for all of them. Part of the problem with phones is we rely on them to do so many things and then get distracted by them. Buy an alarm clock, buy a calendar, buy a step-o-meter – and stop relying on your phone to do everything for you. This way, you won’t fall into the trap of feeling that you need it to function.
Set Boundaries
Setting yourself rules and boundaries with your phone will make the break-up ten times easier. For example, set a rule about not using your phone after 8 pm or download one of the many eye-opening screen time tracker apps to help you monitor your phone use. Having long periods of time away from your phone will allow you to reap the benefits and will help you set a new routine that isn’t based on constantly looking at your phone.
Leave it at Home
Ever got on the train to work and realised in horror that you left your phone at home? After the initial feelings of panic and stress subside, most of the time, you end up having a perfectly normal day where the world didn’t come to an end! Instead of only being without your device when you accidentally leave it behind, opt to leave it at home on purpose and spend more time doing what you love.
Delete Apps
It’s very easy to get distracted by the hundreds of apps on our phones, so make it easier for yourself and delete them! This allows you to keep your phone for the important things without wasting time looking at time-consuming, mind-numbing apps which ultimately make you feel worse about yourself anyway (you know which ones I’m talking about!). Only keep the apps that benefit you in a positive way and engage your brain, such as Strava, Headspace, and another Shapr (a cool new professional networking app). If you HAVE to keep your social accounts like Facebook and Instagram, try to only follow people you know (if they won’t wave to you in the street, it doesn’t count!). That means goodbye to people made of plastic who live off of a piece of kale a day (they don’t; they just pretend they do). Following friends means you can keep up to speed with what the important people in your life are doing rather than being overwhelmed by Instagram models. If you’re going to follow people you don’t know, make sure it’s someone spreading positive energy and advice like @bexology_uk 😉
by Rebecca Prade | Mar 9, 2018 | NUTRITION
What does the phrase ‘plant-based’ meat free mean to you? For some people, it means abstaining from meat for a meal. For others, it’s an entire lifestyle choice. In recent years, vegan and vegetarian options have multiplied, and many award-winning plant-based restaurants focus exclusively on ‘plant power’. This has created a lot of happy customers who used to be limited to only one veggie option on the menu.
Vegetable-forward menus are on the rise.
Take a walk down any main road in London and you’ll see a myriad of chickpea-based, tofu-packed delights tempting you away from your traditional meat-centred lunch. Meals that used to be prepared with chicken or pork are made instead of tofu and jackfruit, and vegetables such as aubergine and mushroom are seasoned and cooked in the same way we traditionally cook beef or duck. Given that less than 4% of the world’s population is vegan or vegetarian, it’s impossible to sustain restaurants solely on their custom. Fortunately, many omnivores are also interested in plant-based dining, and eating at a vegetable-forward restaurant is now increasingly common.
What is the attraction to plant-based dining? For many people, it’s about not inflicting animal cruelty. However, that’s not the only reason people opt for vegetable-forward menus. Movements such as meat free Monday and Veganuary have inspired the general population to change their life in small steps, by focusing on vegetables for just one day a week, or one month a year. Choosing to ditch meat in favour of vegetables is definitely beneficial to your health, and going meatless just once a week can reduce your risk of preventable diseases such as cancer and diabetes.
The impact on the planet is also a factor for going meatless.
Eating meat is the second biggest environmental hazard to affect the planet (behind fossil-fuel vehicles). With so many people becoming aware of the damaging impact humans are having on Earth, we are slowly realising that cutting down on meat can make a positive change – even if it is just one day a week.
Vegetable-forward restaurants are about more than moral decisions, however. The combination of different flavours formed by these vegetables makes for a delicious meal – so much so that you won’t even notice it is meat free. People often claim that they love meat for the taste, but what they forget is that meat is usually marinated with herbs and spices, which are plant-based and vegan. Vegetables are often cooked in a similar style to meat, including frying, searing and roasting, and cut to replicate the shape of your favourite meat treats.
It’s a common misconception that vegan and vegetarian food should try to replicate the taste of meat. While some restaurants achieve this goal – think hoisin tofu wraps, jackfruit tacos, ‘bleeding’ vegan burgers – others focus on the flavours and textures already provided for us by vegetables. Pumpkins are roasted until crispy, cauliflower is seared, and aubergines are placed onto skewers and barbequed – and when combined, make a perfect meal.
“What about my protein?” many people cry out, and for good reason. Protein is essential for growth and maintaining health, and we need it to survive. However, protein doesn’t have to come from meat. Nuts, beans, pulses, lentils, soy, dairy and certain vegetables provide a high level of protein, and if eaten in the right quantity, are sufficient for humans to thrive.
Have we whetted your appetite for some delicious vegetable-forward delights? If so we’ve selected some of our favourites for you. Terre-a-Terre in Brighton (terreaterre.co.uk) is an award-winning restaurant cooking up some amazing dishes – their motto is “where vegetarianism is more about indulgence than abstinence”.
Also on top of our list is Brighton’s Food for Friends, offering a gorgeous menu where they place a twist on traditional classics. Based in London? Don’t miss out on Ethos, a self-service meat free veggie buffet famous for its vegetarian Scotch eggs or my personal favourite, The Clove Club, Shoreditch, which offers an incredible vegan set or tasting menu. Other London favourites include Itadaki Zen (Japanese, vegan AND organic – itadakizen-uk.com), Mannav (which has been around for over 50 years), and Palm Vaults (which has a gorgeous interior that’s covered in… you guessed it, plants).
Looking to incorporate more plant-based meals into your home cooking? Follow us on social media and sign up for our newsletter to stay up to date with our latest recipe inspiration
Photo: terre a terre
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