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Low-carb Diet: How Does It Work, Is It Useful for Losing Weight?

Every year, from New Year’s Day to Easter, you hear new and old suggestions on how best to implement the good intention of “finally losing weight” – the low-carb diet is a classic. Right?

To put it simply, the low-carb diet is about consuming fewer carbohydrates, as these are considered “fatty foods”. Instead, protein meals are supposed to make the body believe it is hungry and force it to burn fat.

Depending on the low-carb nutrition plan, one to all meals a day should be prepared with as few carbohydrates as possible. As a result, the pounds should tumble. That doesn’t happen, because no diet can do it quickly and easily. Losing weight with low carb is very possible – but only if you change your diet in the long term and don’t shy away from more sport and exercise.

Everyone can get in – something with these 5 low-carb recipes that focus on protein. In the supermarket there is also a growing number of industrial foods and cookbooks, from low-carb bread to low-carb pasta and low-carb pizza, everything is there. Because you can make money with diets and corresponding products.

But is all this really necessary? So we took a closer look at the nutrition trend.

Low-carb diet: only for healthy people

Basically, all metabolic processes and quantity recommendations in this article refer to healthy people. For example, someone who already suffers from type II diabetes due to being overweight has a different metabolism and therefore needs different nutritional recommendations.

Low Carb: Diet without carbohydrates

Carbohydrates are basically a very good source of energy, which benefits our muscles and brain. If you eat the right carbohydrates in the right amount, you won’t get fat. Carbohydrates can keep you full for a long time and ensure, among other things, that the body forms the so-called happiness hormone serotonin.

If you always eat enough carbohydrates, you will also do something good for your soul: you will become more resistant to stress, keep your mood and have a lower risk of developing depression. Because: Perhaps you have already noticed that many people are in a bad mood during a diet and when losing weight, are more easily stressed and do not seem happy.

There are two different types of carbohydrates:

complex carbohydrates (bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, grain products, muesli …), i.e. starch products, and
simple carbs (fruit, candy, cookies…), meaning things with sugar
The body converts both types of carbohydrates into glucose, but at different rates. Complex carbohydrates are absorbed into the blood more slowly in the form of glucose than simple carbohydrates. Prerequisite for a long-term low-carb diet: at least one meal per day contains complex carbohydrates.

It’s not like complex carbohydrates are any better for losing weight. But the simple carbohydrates definitely carry the risk of weight gain.

Eating carbohydrates raises blood sugar levels, which leads to insulin release. Insulin is a metabolic hormone that ensures that the glucose from the meal is also transported into the cells and stored as glycogen. As long as this process is going on, the body can’t get to its fat deposits, and therefore your love handles can’t get to the collar either.

The consumption of carbohydrates is therefore unproblematic as long as you allow the body time between meals to burn up the nutrients transported into the cells. During this time, for example, you should not eat any more carbohydrates and also refrain from anything else that would raise the insulin level again, such as consuming high-calorie drinks or snacks.

Carbohydrates in themselves are neither unhealthy nor bad, but an important nutrient for muscles, brain and psyche! The clever low-carb diet is less about losing weight and more about not gaining weight through the wrong carbohydrates thanks to a sensible change in diet.

Is protein better than carbs for weight loss?

Of course, you also need protein, and every balanced meal includes a source of protein. Also read: Vegetable protein: These foods provide a lot of protein. The protein is broken down into amino acids in the body, which do not increase the blood sugar level and therefore do not initially lead to insulin release.

However, a few of these amino acids cause the body to start producing glycogen itself. What is intended as an “emergency program” in order to still have energy in times of hunger no longer makes sense in modern everyday life, but it nevertheless leads to an increase in blood sugar levels and thus to a release of insulin. However, this only happens after about six to eight hours.

A meal that contains no carbohydrates and consists only of protein only leads to an interruption in fat burning after many hours due to the delayed release of insulin. If you avoid carbohydrates, you can give your body at least six hours more time to burn fat. That’s why the low-carb diet is so often recommended for weight loss.

Does the low carb diet really work?

First of all: No “diet” works in the long term – unless you also follow this diet in the long term. A change in eating habits is therefore better than a short-term diet. And they can very well include aspects of a low-carb diet.

Ideally, with a low-carb diet, one or two of the three meals a day are prepared according to low-carb. If possible, such a meal contains a lot of protein, no carbohydrates and only a little high-quality vegetable fat in order to avoid an increase in insulin levels and the associated interruption in fat burning.

However, it is important not to eat or drink anything between meals, which increases the blood sugar level and thus leads to the release of insulin. Snacks, fruit, coffee with milk and other solid or liquid carbohydrates between meals are completely taboo.

The low-carb diet allows snacks, but these are generally not recommended because they train the wrong eating habits with snacks between meals.

Because protein also leads to a (delayed) insulin release, it makes sense to fill the time of this insulin release with a carbohydrate-rich meal in order to make at least a minimum of it available to the muscles, brain and psyche. A balanced, mixed-food meal with at least 50 percent complex carbohydrates (preferably whole grain) is advisable here.

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Tips for Using Up Leftovers From Christmas Dinner

Leftovers from Christmas dinner are definitely too good to throw in the bin. We’ll tell you how you can use them instead to make them delicious.

For most who celebrate Christmas, extensive feasting is part of it. Especially with guests, it is not always easy to estimate how extensive the Christmas menu must be. There is often leftover food that you don’t have to throw away. Use these tips to use up leftovers from Christmas dinner.

Processing dumplings: this is how it works

Dumplings are a real winter classic and the leftovers are easy to use up after Christmas dinner. The easiest way to do this is to fry them. Cut them into slices and fry them on both sides in a little hot oil. Fried potato dumplings taste both savory with salt and pepper and sweet with sugar and cinnamon. The savory variant goes well with various types of salad, for example. But the fried dumplings also taste great with cranberries.

Alternatively, you can also cut the dumplings into slices and fry them together with onions and vegetables. With spices such as paprika powder and herbs such as parsley or chives, you get a delicious dumpling pan.

By the way: When you prepare the dumplings, you can use some older bread to fill them.

Use leftovers from Christmas dinner: kale

Kale is also often on the Christmas menu. You can process the leftovers of the winter vegetables into stuffed puff pastry or kale baguette, among other things.

You can also freeze processed kale without any problems. It is best to freeze the vegetables in portions. You can defrost it as needed and eat it with pasta or potatoes, for example.

For filled puff pastry you need:

1 clove of garlic
Kale
seasoning yeast flakes
Salt
pepper
Puff pastry (tip: make your own puff pastry)
And this is how easy it works:

Peel the garlic clove and cut it into cubes.
Toss the kale with the garlic, seasoning yeast flakes, salt and pepper.
Roll out the puff pastry and spread the kale evenly over it.
Now roll it all up. Prepare the baking tray by lining it with baking paper or a substitute for baking paper.
Place the puff pastry on the baking sheet. If you bake the whole roll, you will have a kale strudel later. If you cut the roll into one to two centimeter thick slices before baking, you will get individual kale snails. Before baking, make sure that the snails are lying individually on the baking sheet.
Set the oven to 180 degrees Celsius top/bottom heat. The puff pastry is ready as soon as it smells fragrant and turns brown.
Tip: You can vary the kale filling with different spices and other ingredients, for example with paprika powder, nuts, olive oil or fried onions.

Kale baguettes made from leftover Christmas dinner

You can also use up the leftovers from your Christmas dinner with baguette. For these kale baguettes you will need:

1 onion
smoked tofu
vegetable oil
Kale
Mustard
Baguette (tip: bake a baguette)
optional: salt and pepper
How to prepare the baguette:

Peel the onion. Dice the onion and the smoked tofu.
Heat some oil in a pan and sauté the onions and smoked tofu for a few minutes.
Add the kale and mustard to the pan and mix together. If necessary, you can season the kale with salt and pepper.
Allow to simmer for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Meanwhile, slice the baguette.
Spread the kale evenly over the baguette slices.
Finally, put the whole thing in the oven at 180 degrees Celsius for about ten minutes.
The baguettes are good as a starter or snack.

Leftovers from Christmas dinner: red cabbage

You can also easily freeze ready-made red cabbage. Put the red cabbage in portions in screw-top jars and store them in the freezer. You can defrost and heat the red cabbage at any time as an accompaniment to mashed potatoes or gnocchi, for example.

You can also use red cabbage to make strudel or puff pastry pockets:

Mix the herb with any other ingredients you have around the house.
For example, fried onions, chili, walnuts, garlic and curry powder or raisins are suitable.
Then fill the puff pastry with the red cabbage mixture and bake until it has a nice golden brown colour.

Another way to use up red cabbage leftovers from Christmas dinner is in a red cabbage pan. For this you need:

1 onion
Potatoes (pre-cooked, alternatively: leftover dumplings)
mushrooms
vegetable oil
Red cabbage
Caraway seeds
paprika powder
Salt
pepper
How to prepare:

Peel the onion and cut it into cubes.
Cut the potatoes or dumplings into cubes.
Clean the mushrooms and cut them into slices.
Heat the vegetable oil in a large pan.
Sauté the onions in the hot oil for 2-3 minutes.
Add the diced potatoes and mushrooms and sauté for about 10 minutes, stirring regularly.
Now add the red cabbage. Mix the ingredients together and season with the spices, salt and pepper. After another three to five minutes you can serve the red cabbage pan.

Use leftovers from Christmas dinner: More tips

If you had meat for Christmas, you can cut the leftovers into strips and fry them together with vegetables or fried potatoes. The same goes for vegan alternatives, of course.
If you have an excessive amount of leftover fruit, toss it in the blender and make a breakfast smoothie out of it.
Melt down leftover chocolate from Christmas dinner and use it as a frosting for cakes or cookies. With hot milk or a plant drink of your choice, it becomes hot chocolate.
Slightly older speculoos are good for making speculoos tiramisu.
Refill the leftover food as soon as possible and put it in the fridge. So you have a higher chance that nothing spoils.
If you still have sealed groceries that you no longer need, give them away. Apps like UXA can help you with this.

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Vegan Brunch – Recipes and Ideas for a Vegan Buffet

At a vegan brunch you can discover the whole variety of vegan cuisine. From savory to sweet – here are our tips for a vegan breakfast buffet.

It doesn’t matter whether you eat a plant-based diet or not – it’s worth discovering vegan cuisine. A brunch offers the perfect opportunity: Here you can try both vegan breakfast dishes and lunch. There is almost nothing that doesn’t fit on a brunch buffet: from bread and muesli to soups and salads to sweet treats, we’ll show you simple and delicious recipes for a vegan brunch.

Baked goods, spreads, and dips for vegan brunch

A brunch includes freshly baked goods, preferably homemade bread. Conveniently, many bread recipes are vegan. This does not necessarily apply to bought bread – some varieties contain skimmed milk powder, for example.

You can spread and top the pastries with store-bought sweet or savory spreads and cold cuts – or you can make the vegan spreads yourself, for example based on legumes or sunflower seeds.

A cashew aioli dip is quick to prepare and goes well with a vegan brunch. For four servings you need the following ingredients:

180 g cashew nuts, soaked in water for about two hours
two tablespoons of lime juice
two cloves of garlic
two tablespoons of water, maybe more
two tbsp yeast flakes
salt and pepper
That’s how it works:

Drain the cashews and place them in a blender.
Add the remaining ingredients and mix thoroughly.
If the dip is still too thick for you, you can add a little more water – in the end it should have a creamy consistency.
Season the dip with salt and pepper.

Sweets for brunch: fruit, cereal and pancakes

Fresh fruit provides a balance to the hearty start to the day. You can serve it with vegan pancakes, for example, or use it in Bircher muesli. The muesli can be prepared the day before, is healthy and also tastes delicious in the vegan version. You can vary the fruits specified in the recipe depending on the season.

For four small portions of vegan Bircher muesli you need the following ingredients:

8 tablespoons oatmeal
200 ml plant-based milk (e.g. oat milk)
a tart apple
250 g soy yoghurt
1 tbsp maple syrup or other vegan sweetener
2 tbsp fresh blueberries
eight almonds or other nuts
a pinch of cinnamon
How to prepare the muesli:

Mix the oatmeal with the milk and refrigerate overnight.
Finely grate the apple and mix it with the oatmeal.
Divide the mixture between four glasses, top with the soy yoghurt and garnish with the remaining ingredients.
You can also serve the muesli in a large bowl for a buffet.

Vegan vegetables, soups and salads

What would a vegan brunch be without all those delicious veggies? You can serve many of them raw with a dip or raw in a salad, for example as pinzimonio. A filling and refreshing salad classic is the bulgur salad tabbouleh. Pickled vegetables also taste delicious and are easy to prepare.

Between all the cold dishes, a warm soup comes in handy. How about a parsnip cream soup, for example?

For four servings you need:

300 g parsnips
300 g mealy potatoes
an onion
1-2 tbsp olive oil
about 500 ml vegetable stock
250 ml coconut milk
Salt pepper
half a bunch of flat-leaf parsley
That’s how it’s done:

Peel and dice the parsnips, potatoes and onion.
Heat the oil in a saucepan, add the diced vegetables and sauté over medium-high heat for a few minutes. Stir every now and then so that nothing burns.
Pour in the vegetable broth and let the soup simmer for about 20 minutes until the vegetables are tender.
If you prefer a finer consistency, puree the soup and strain it through a sieve. Add the coconut milk and let the soup simmer for another five minutes. Season the soup with salt and pepper.
Wash and chop the parsley and garnish the finished soup with it.

Vegan dessert for brunch

A delicious dessert rounds off your brunch. For example, try a vegan carrot cake or vegan truffles made from dates, almonds and cocoa: make your own energy balls. Vegan mousse au chocolat is also very easy, for example based on silken tofu. You can conveniently prepare them the day before.

For eight servings you need the following ingredients:

550 g silken tofu
100 g fair and vegan whole milk and dark chocolate each (if you like it particularly chocolaty, you can increase the proportion of dark chocolate)
2-3 tablespoons agave syrup or another sweetener
Spices as desired, for example chili, orange peel, ginger powder or cinnamon
Chopped and toasted nuts for garnish, if desired

How to prepare the mousse:

Drain the silken tofu and pass it through a sieve.
Melt the chocolate in a water bath along with the agave syrup.
Whip the mixture with the silken tofu until creamy and season to your taste.
Place the mousse in the fridge overnight.
Garnish the mousse with the chopped nuts before serving.
This goes well with fresh fruit, a fruit sauce or a fruit mirror without gelatine, for example.

Drinks for brunch: Vegan thirst quenchers

In addition to all the delicious food, of course, the drinks should not be missing. With fair coffee (you can easily replace the milk with plant milk), fair tea and water, you won’t go wrong.

Juices also go well with a brunch buffet, but beware: not all juices are vegan. Gelatine is often used for clarification – this also applies to many beers and wines, by the way. So check if the juice uses a vegan gelatin substitute.

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Treated Fruit isn’t Always Vegan: What to Look Out For

Treated fruit is not always vegan, because the glazing agents often contain animal components. You can find out what they are and how to recognize them here.

Basically, fruit is one of the foods that are part of a balanced vegan diet. For the optics and a longer shelf life, however, fruit is often treated with coating agents. These agents slow down the ripening process because they allow less oxygen to penetrate and less moisture, smells and flavors to escape.

There are different types of coating agents that are either of vegetable, animal or synthetic origin. According to this, fruit treated with animal products is, strictly speaking, no longer vegan.

All possible types of fruit can be post-treated. These include, for example, apples, pears, strawberries, bananas, tangerines, oranges, lemons, bananas, mangoes, melons, pineapples and avocados.

Treated Fruit: These remedies are used

Glazing agents are among the food additives, which is why each agent is assigned its own E number.

Coating agents of animal origin include:

Beeswax (E901) is produced from the comb of honey bees. It is a valuable raw material with many areas of application.
Shellac (E904) is formed when certain species of scale insects convert plant sap into a resinous mass. Shellac also offers many possible uses, for example as a coating for tablets or a cosmetic ingredient.
Plant-based coatings include:

Carnauba wax (E903) comes from the leaves of the Brazilian carnauba palm. Carnauba wax is not only used as a coating agent, but has many other uses, for example in cosmetics or cleaning agents.
Candelilla Wax (E902) is made from the leaves and stems of the Candelilla plant.
Synthetic coatings include:

Esters of glycerol from root resin (E445)
Polyethylene wax (E914)
Mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids (E471) can come from vegetable, animal or synthetic production. Usually, however, soybean or canola oil serve as a source.

Fruit glazing agents can often consist of a mixture of synthetic and natural waxes.

Here’s how to identify and avoid treated fruit

You can sometimes recognize glazing agents by the fact that the fruit is very shiny. Treated fruit is always labeled in one way or another.

On the one hand there is the indication “waxed”. This labeling is used when the coating agents are additives

E 445, 471, 473, 474, 901-905 and 914
acts. Another way of labeling treated fruit is for retailers to

class of the food additive and the name of the additive or the E number
brag. If the fruit being treated is citrus, you will recognize this by statements such as

“treated with E471 or E473”.


You can use this information to check whether the coating is vegan. In principle, fruit is not labeled vegan.

The indication “untreated” means that the fruit was neither preserved nor waxed after harvesting. However, this information does not prohibit the use of plant protection products during the growing season. This means that the fruit may well be contaminated with pesticides.

In short: To avoid animal coatings, pay attention to the E901 and E904 labels. E741 can also be animal products.

It is easiest if you choose your fruit in organic quality. After all, it is not allowed to treat organic fruit. At the same time you can avoid chemical-synthetic pesticides.

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Cooking Fennel: Recipes for Frying, Cooking or Eating Raw

You can prepare fennel in many ways – whether fried, boiled or raw. It is suitable for much more than just a cup of tea. We’ll show you how to use this healthy and versatile vegetable.

To prepare fresh fennel, it is best to buy it during the season from June to October. You can recognize it by its typical shape, which is reminiscent of a human heart with its white bulb and green stems. Ideally, buy fennel from the region and in organic quality. In this way you can be sure that the fennel has not traveled long distances and was grown without chemical-synthetic pesticides.

Tip: The fennel is fresh when it has no brown spots and the green fennel is neither wilted nor dried out.

Fennel is rich in healthy nutrients

You can prepare and eat both the white and the green part as well as the seeds of the fennel. They all taste like anise because of the essential oils. In addition, fennel contains many other healthy ingredients, including magnesium, potassium, iron and vitamin A and vitamin C.

How to prepare the different parts of the fennel:

The white of the fennel can be eaten raw, boiled, roasted or baked in the oven. It goes well with many types of vegetables and fish.
You can use the fennel greens to season fennel dishes.
You can use fennel seeds to flavor baked goods or Mediterranean sauces. You can also use them to make a healthy fennel tea.
To prepare fennel, you must first wash it thoroughly, as there is often sand in the gaps. Then separate the green and cut out the stalk. You can do this by halving or quartering the tuber.

Eat fennel raw

Raw fennel tastes delicious as a fennel salad and can be combined with many types of vegetables. We recommend that you cut it into fine strips due to its strong flavor. An interesting combination is, for example, raw fennel with oranges and olives. For four people you need:

2 juicy oranges
1 small fennel bulb (about 150 g)
2 small white onions
1 tsp chopped rosemary
1 tsp white wine vinegar
4 tablespoons good olive oil
salt and pepper
a handful of olives
How to prepare the salad:

Peel the oranges and remove the white skin.
Cut the oranges into 0.5 cm thick slices and remove the stone. Arrange the slices on a platter. Catch the orange juice.
Clean the fennel bulb and remove the hard outer parts.
Set the fennel greens aside.
Cut the fennel heart into small cubes or fine strips.
Cut the onions into very fine rings.
Whisk together the reserved orange juice with the vinegar and olive oil, add the rosemary.
Season everything with salt and pepper.
Chop the fennel greens and spread them over the orange slices. Top with the onion rings and fennel and drizzle with the dressing.
Put the olives on the salad.

Cooking fennel – what to watch out for?

You can cook a fennel bulb whole or cut in half. Depending on the size, the fennel needs ten to 20 minutes to cook. You get a nice aroma if you add lemon juice to the cooking water. You can then season the fennel as you like, drizzle with olive oil or bake in the oven.

Frying fennel in the pan

The roasted aromas that develop when roasting go very well with the taste of the fennel. Here is an easy fried fennel recipe. For two servings you need:

1 fennel bulb with greens (about 500 g),
2 tbsp olive oil
a bit of margarine
a squeeze of lemon juice
a pinch of sugar
salt and pepper
How to prepare the fennel:

Clean the fennel and cut off the green.
Halve the fennel lengthways, cut out the stalk and cut the fennel into strips.
Heat the olive oil in a pan. Fry the fennel in it over high heat for about four minutes.
Add a pinch of sugar.
Add the margarine and some water and let the fennel simmer over medium heat for a few minutes until cooked.
Season the fennel with lemon juice, salt and pepper and sprinkle with the chopped fennel greens.

Cooking fennel in the oven

Fennel also tastes very good from the oven. Here are some suggestions on how to cook it in the oven:

Mix chopped fennel with other vegetables, place on a baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil and season. Then bake the veggies in the oven for about 30 to 40 minutes until tender and lightly browned.
Cook the halved fennel bulbs until done and then bake them in the oven for about 20 to 25 minutes. You can use (vegan) cheese of your choice for the gratin and add (plant-based) cream, spices and other vegetables if you like.

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Shopping Healthy: 7 Tips for Weekly Shopping

In order for you to be able to shop healthily, you don’t have to pay much attention to it. In this article we show you seven tips that can help you with your weekly shopping.

Shopping for a healthy diet is a matter of knowledge and habit. Once you know how it works, shopping will be easier for you and you will know what you need without having to think too much.

Healthy shopping Tip 1: Pay attention to the quality

The quality of the food is the basis for healthy shopping. We recommend you to choose organic quality food. In this way you can avoid chemical-synthetic pesticides and support more sustainable agriculture.

Organic products are subject to specific and controlled guidelines. The aim is to do business in harmony with nature as far as possible and to promote biodiversity and the ecological system as a whole. In addition to the EU organic seal, concentrate on the three stricter seals Demeter, Bioland and Naturland so that you can keep track of the seal jungle.

You should keep an eye on this especially if you consume animal products. The guidelines for animal husbandry, but also for other foods, are formulated more precisely and in a way that is more species-appropriate than for conventional products.

Healthy shopping Tip 2: Cover certain food groups

By focusing on specific food groups, you support a balanced diet with fewer highly processed products. Vegetarian food groups include:

Cereals, cereal products and potatoes
vegetables
fruit
milk and milkproducts
eggs
legumes
nuts and seeds
Oils and fats
water

If you eat vegan, then the animal products are also omitted. In addition to vegetables and fruit, pay particular attention to legumes, nuts and seeds. To make it easier for you to shop healthy, you can keep the vegetarian or vegan food pyramid in mind when creating your shopping list and compare your list with it.

Healthy shopping Tip 3: Use seasonal fruit and vegetables as a guide

If you orient part of your shopping towards seasonal foods, then you ensure variety and diversity in your diet all year round. Our seasonal calendar can give you an overview. If you also pay attention to regionality, then you can not only make your purchase healthy, but also particularly sustainable. Because you avoid long transport routes.

Healthy shopping Tip 4: Integrate fermented foods

Fermentation is a traditional preservation process to preserve food for a longer period of time. Fermented foods have a number of advantages, particularly in terms of nutritional physiology. Because the food is “pre-digested”, they can be easier for you to digest and support your intestinal flora with certain bacteria, such as lactic acid bacteria. They also provide additional nutrients because fermentation increases the amount of vitamins C and B, for example. Fermented foods include:

Sour Dough Bread
active yogurt
kefir
active sauerkraut
kimchi
tempeh
fermented tofu
miso paste
fermented garlic

Healthy shopping Tip 5: Prepare a shopping list

Doing your weekly shopping with a shopping list has several advantages:

You avoid the inconvenience of forgetting a product when making your purchase.
By writing down foods and planning out recipes, you can automatically incorporate more variety into your healthy shopping through more clarity and structure. If you more or less stick to your list, you might find it easier to avoid resorting to unhealthy products.
You save time when shopping and don’t have to worry about whether you’ve thought of everything.

Healthy shopping Tip 6: Don’t go shopping when you’re hungry

“Never go shopping on an empty stomach” – you’ve probably heard this sentence before. This tip is no secret and yet very effective. When you shop hungry, you can tend to shop for more than you need and in unhealthier ways. If, on the other hand, you go shopping comfortably full, you can concentrate better and more clearly on healthy shopping.

Healthy shopping Tip 7: Dare to experiment with every weekly purchase

To add some fun and variety to your shopping, you can set yourself a small challenge for each weekly purchase. For example, you can buy a type of fruit and vegetable that you have never tried before – for example a black salsify? Then learn how to cook them. You can also try to replace a non-regional product on your shopping list with a regional product.

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Kale Salad: A Vitamin-packed Salad for the Winter

Kale Salad is a fresh alternative to traditional boiled kale. We’ll tell you how to process the healthy winter vegetables raw and which ingredients make the salad taste particularly good.

In the European winter kitchen, kale is usually cooked on the table. The traditional type of cabbage can also be eaten raw: you can use the leaves for a crisp kale salad, for example.

You can buy locally grown kale from November to February. When doing so, and also with the other ingredients, it is best to pay attention to organic quality, for example with the Naturland or Bioland seal. This is how you support ecological agriculture without chemical-synthetic pesticides.

Kale Salad: An easy recipe

For 1 to 2 servings of kale salad you need the following quotes:

about six large kale leaves
about four to five mushrooms (tip: clean mushrooms: simple step-by-step instructions)
1 onion
2 lemons
1- 2 tablespoons tahini (tip: make tahini yourself: recipe for the oriental sesame paste)
olive oil
Salt
agave syrup or maple syrup
1/2 can of cooked chickpeas
1/2 apple

And this is how you prepare the kale salad:

Remove the stalk from the kale, wash the vegetables thoroughly and chop them up.
Wash the mushrooms and cut them into slices.
Peel and dice the onion.
Briefly sweat the onion cubes together with the mushrooms in a pan until the onion cubes become translucent.
Place the kale in a bowl and pour the juice of one lemon over it. Let the kale leaves steep for about ten minutes. This will make the firm kale more tender and easier to chew later.
While the leaves are steeping, you can prepare the dressing for the kale salad. To do this, stir the tahini into the juice of the second lemon. Season the dressing with olive oil, salt and some agave syrup.
Place the chickpeas in a colander, rinse and drain.
Meanwhile, cut the apple into small pieces. Add the pieces to the bowl with the kale along with the chickpeas and dressing.
Mix everything well and let the kale salad rest for a moment before serving.

Kale salad: That’s why winter vegetables are so healthy

Kale has rightly been considered a regional superfood for years. Kale, as it is called in English, is a real vitamin bomb and is low in calories. Thanks to the healthy winter vegetables, kale salad contains, among other things:

vitamin C
Vitamin A
vitamin E
folic acid
protein

Important: Vitamins A, D, E and K are fat-soluble. So don’t skip the oil in your salad or your body won’t be able to absorb them from the kale.

In addition, kale salad is rich in important minerals. These include:

calcium
potassium
magnesium
phosphorus
iron
zinc

Kale is usually served as an accompaniment to hearty dishes. Since some ingredients are heat-sensitive, kale develops its health benefits best when eaten raw – for example in a kale salad.

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Fasting Properly: Instructions and Tips for Healthy Fasting

Proper fasting can be interpreted in very different ways depending on the nutritional approach. We will show you which forms of fasting there are and how you can implement them yourself at home.

Proper fasting: There are these types of fasting

Fasting is originally a purely religious ritual that believers practice to free themselves from any distraction and thus establish contact with God. The interpretations are very different, but mostly the renunciation should serve the purification of the soul, penance, the defense against evil, the striving for concentration, enlightenment or salvation.

In addition to religious fasting, there is so-called therapeutic fasting. The Greek doctor Hippocrates is said to have spoken of this healing method almost two and a half millennia ago. The therapeutic fasting cure is intended to purify the body and/or cleanse the soul.

Therapeutic fasting has become a trend in recent years and fasting cures are becoming more and more popular. In Germany, some hospitals and clinics offer therapeutic fasting as fasting therapy. Today, many people resort to fasting, primarily to do something good for their health.

Different types of fasting have become established:

With so-called full fasting, the body is not supplied with any calories at all. The fasting drink only water and tea. This form of fasting is extremely risky and therefore not recommended from a medical point of view.
Buchinger fasting also integrates vegetable broth and juices.
Juice fasting focuses on various fruit and vegetable juices that you consume throughout the day.
While you should only go through the types of fasting mentioned so far for a limited period of time, you can firmly integrate what is known as intermittent fasting into your everyday life. You’re still eating regularly, but there are longer periods when you don’t eat at all and really fast. This includes, for example, dinner cancelling.

When is Lent in 2022?

In Christianity, people traditionally fast the 40 days before Easter, i.e. from Ash Wednesday up to and including Holy Saturday.

This year, the six-week Lent begins on March 2nd and ends on April 16th, 2022.

It is not advisable to strictly fast for the entire duration of “Lent”. Anyone who takes a fasting cure, a fasting holiday or a fasting day usually does so independently of the traditional fasting period.

What does fasting bring?

The supposedly positive effects of proper fasting have not yet been adequately scientifically proven. So far, there have mainly been studies that are based on animal experiments or a comparatively small number of participants. However, according to the Federal Ministry of Nutrition, there are indications that (intermittent) fasting has a positive effect on the brain, heart, fat cells, muscles, intestines, liver and blood.

Possible effects are, for example:

Reduce and prevent inflammation in the body
improved cognitive functions
higher muscle effectiveness
higher stress resilience
However, fasting is not a way to lose weight in the long term. During a zero diet, the body first reduces muscle mass and not fat. In addition, our organism wants to replenish its stores as quickly as possible after a zero diet, so that the well-known yo-yo effect easily occurs here. According to the DGE, only certain forms of intermittent fasting may prove to be a favorable aid for weight reduction.

Strict fasting methods are not suitable for older people, children, young people, pregnant women or people who suffer from certain diseases – they could even worsen the health situation. Uncontrolled fasting should also lead to a nutrient deficiency, cardiac arrhythmia or other complaints. So if in doubt, talk to your doctor. You can also inquire if there are reputable facilities in your area where you can practice proper fasting under supervision.

Correct fasting according to Buchinger: the basic rules

The so-called “Buchinger fasting” was developed by the doctor Otto Buchinger and is one of the most well-known types of fasting today. If you do the program independently at home, you should do it for about seven days.

Proper fasting according to Buchinger includes the following rules:

Lent begins with a day or two of rest to prepare you physically and mentally for the days to come. You take in about 600 kilocalories, mainly in the form of carbohydrates. For example, you can eat mostly brown rice or oatmeal with some fruit and vegetables throughout the day.
The first day of fasting is followed by defecation with the help of Glauber’s salt, laxative drops or laxative tea.
During the fasting period of about five days, you drink about 250 milliliters of tea with a little honey in the morning and afternoon. A quarter liter of fruit juice (freshly squeezed if possible) is on the menu for lunch and 250 milliliters of vegetable broth in the evening.

In addition, you should drink at least two liters of mineral water or unsweetened tea every day.
In some cases, you can also integrate oat or rice gruel as well as buttermilk and skimmed milk (or plant-based alternatives) into the fasting plan.
Use the time when you really fast to calm down inside. So you can do relaxation exercises and breathing exercises or meditations every day.
You should also move every day. So you can do light sporting activities such as walks, yoga or a short jog. Make sure not to overexert yourself physically, especially now, but to listen to your body’s signals.
To avoid a yo-yo effect after fasting and to slowly reintroduce your digestive system to solid food, you should only slowly increase the number of calories each day for the next five to seven days. At the beginning, use foods that are gentle on the stomach, such as potatoes and (steamed) fruit and vegetables, and later also whole grain products and yoghurt or quark. Animal protein should be reintroduced slowly.
Proper fasting also includes avoiding coffee, alcohol, sweets, and nicotine.

This is how intermittent fasting works

You have various options for designing intermittent fasting and adapting it to your lifestyle. The 16:8 method is particularly popular, i.e. fasting properly for 16 hours and eating within a period of eight hours. You simply extend your nightly fasting period, for example by stopping to eat at 7 p.m. the day before and having your first meal at 11 a.m. the following day.

Another well-known strategy involves eating as usual five days a week and then fasting two days straight. The Federal Ministry of Nutrition provides the following information for the fasting days:

Drink at least two liters a day. Use (warm) water, tea, vegetable broth or highly diluted fruit juices or spritzers.
Eat lots of vegetables on fasting days.
Also, include healthy sources of fat, such as vegetable oils (like olive oil or flaxseed oil), nuts, and seeds, in moderation in your fasting diet.
Avoid fatty animal foods. Instead, opt for protein sources with fewer saturated fats, such as legumes and nuts.
Replace white flour products with whole grains if possible. You can use oatmeal, whole grain pasta, spelled or brown rice, among other things.
To enhance your meals and save salt, you can use dried and fresh kitchen herbs, balsamic vinegar, mustard or horseradish, for example.
Also, make sure you get enough sleep and moderate physical activity.
In order to fast properly, you should also avoid stress as much as possible or develop strategies to better cope with stress.

8 tips for sustainable fasting

Instead of giving up all food, you could simply use the fasting period to avoid certain foods.

Here are eight sustainable suggestions:

Eat only regional foods – preferably only those that are in season or come from regional storage. Think about which region you want to limit yourself to: your district, a radius of 150 kilometers, your federal state or the whole of Germany? If you are consistent, you will have to do without a lot – but you can also use this opportunity to consciously find out what is growing and being produced around you and when. Take a look at our seasonal calendar to see what’s freshly available!
Don’t eat meat. Eating less meat is good for the environment and doesn’t harm your health either. Here are 10 tips to go a little more vegan.
Or you can go one step further and try out the vegan diet for a few weeks. It’s worth a try, isn’t it?
Buy only organic products. Far too expensive, you might think now. But is that really true? Just try it.
Don’t eat processed products. Fresh home-cooked food is more environmentally friendly, tastier and healthier than ready-made meals. And you can also easily make finished products such as vegetable broth yourself.
Stick to the 5-a-day rule: two handfuls of fruit and three handfuls of vegetables every day. It’s actually a very simple rule!
Only buy fair trade products. Surely your purchase will be a bit more complex and maybe you have to do without a few things. But fasting is about conscious renunciation!
Only buy unpackaged groceries – plastic fasting, so to speak. This requires a little bit of effort and preparation, but with these 4 simple tips for bulk shopping it will definitely work. Also interesting: plastic-free shopping in online shops

Proper fasting: It’s in your hands

In the end, you have to decide for yourself what “properly fasting” means for you personally and adapt it to your individual situation. If the conventional types of fasting are too radical for you, you can only do without sugar, alcohol, ready meals, meat or cigarettes for a certain period of time.

Fasting doesn’t have to be just about diet either. In the sense of a “digital detox”, you can do without social media, television or your smartphone for a while and thus consciously make time for other things that are often neglected in everyday life. Such a “strict” fasting period can then be the beginning of dealing with yourself and your fellow human beings more consciously and mindfully.

Many people also want to combine fasting with a break from everyday life. A fasting holiday offers the opportunity to consciously calm down and find oneself without the stress of everyday life – for example fasting hiking: for a few days you go without food and hike through nature. Fasting is often done according to Buchinger, but some organizers also offer raw food fasting, smoothie fasting or alkaline fasting. Just do some research on the internet.

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Food

These 9 Foods are Good for the Heart

You can easily incorporate foods that are good for the heart into your diet. In this article we will show you which ones are included and give you healthy recipe suggestions.

Cardiovascular diseases are a widespread problem and occur particularly in old age. With simple habits and small changes in everyday life, you can keep yourself and your heart healthy for a long time.

Of course, your heart health is inseparable from your overall health. Basically, there is no food that is only good for a certain part of your body. It is therefore also important for your general well-being to pay attention to a balanced diet, physical activity, a stress-free everyday life and healthy sleep.

In this article we would like to introduce you to foods that can support your cardiovascular system, among other things. When shopping, we recommend that you look for organic quality whenever possible. In this way you can avoid residues of chemical-synthetic pesticides and artificial fertilizers. Incidentally, most of the foods listed here are locally grown during their season. By shopping regionally and seasonally, you avoid unnecessarily long and climate-damaging transport routes. You can read about the seasons of regional fruit and vegetables in our seasonal calendar.

Berries are heart strengthening foods

Berries contain many antioxidants. There is a lot of the blue pigment anthocyanin in dark berries such as blueberries, blackberries or black currants in particular. This substance is one of the flavonoids that have various positive effects on the cardiovascular system. According to the Federal Center for Nutrition, they can, among other things, strengthen the immune system, prevent blood clots, regulate blood sugar and blood pressure. You can eat berries just like that, use them as a topping for your muesli or use them in blueberry muffins, for example.

Green foods that are good for the heart

Especially dark green leafy vegetables and certain herbs and spices have a positive effect on your heart. They contain many different vitamins, minerals and fiber. These include in particular provitamin A, vitamin C, B vitamins, folic acid, potassium and magnesium. For example, you can prepare a refreshing lamb’s lettuce, a warm kale, chard or spinach dish. All of these dishes can also be refined with Italian herbs.

Red and orange foods that are good for the heart

Red and orange foods also contain the flavonoids mentioned earlier. Carrots, tomatoes and sweet potatoes in particular also contain so-called carotenoids. According to BZfE, this plant substance has a cell-protecting and cholesterol-lowering effect, which is positive for your cardiovascular system. Tasty recipes that you can try with these vegetables are for example a carrot ginger soup, a sweet potato curry or classic tomato recipes like tomato salad or tomato sauce.

Whole grain foods are good for the heart

In addition to many vitamins and minerals, whole grain products contain fiber in particular. According to the German Society for Nutrition (dge), a good supply of all three groups reduces the risk of various diseases. These include cardiovascular diseases, but also type 2 diabetes, dyslipidemia and colon cancer. Foods that provide you with healthy fiber are, for example, wholemeal pasta, wholemeal bread or oatmeal.

Legumes as heart-strengthening foods

Legumes are also generally very rich in nutrients and, in addition to protein, fat and fiber, contain B vitamins and folic acid in particular. The secondary plant substance saponin, which has a cholesterol-lowering effect, can also be found in abundance in legumes. In everyday life you can, for example, prepare a lentil soup, a tempeh dish or a pea stew to benefit from the healthy effects of the legumes.

Nuts: Unsaturated fats are good for the heart

In addition to vitamins and minerals, nuts also contain monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids. According to the BZfE, these properties have a particularly good effect on your blood lipid levels and your cardiovascular system. To benefit from this, you can eat all kinds of nuts. These are, for example, walnuts, macadamia nuts, almonds, pistachios, cashew nuts, Brazil nuts, pecan nuts or hazelnuts.

Olive oil promotes heart health

Regular consumption of at least half a tablespoon of olive oil per day is not only associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular disease. The oil is also said to protect against neurodegenerative diseases, cancer and respiratory diseases. For example, you can use olive oil in a salad dressing, homemade hummus, or spaghetti aglio e olio.

Onions and garlic are good for the heart

Onions and garlic in particular contain sulfides. Among other things, these are associated with blood pressure-regulating, cholesterol-lowering and blood clot-preventing effects. You can use onions and garlic in a variety of ways in the kitchen: they refine numerous hearty recipes, such as a pepper and vegetable pan or a broccoli and potato casserole.

Tea as a food that is good for the heart

Teas contain phytochemicals such as flavonoids, tannins and catechins. These are also associated with cardiovascular protective effects. You also have a large selection of different types of this food. Try it with a green tea, white tea or herbal tea.

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Food

Wild Garlic Salt: Recipe for Herbal Salt with Fresh Wild Garlic

Making wild garlic salt is a great way to preserve fresh wild garlic leaves. So you can enjoy the taste all year round. We explain what you should consider.

The wild garlic season starts in mid-March and you can harvest wild garlic leaves for homemade wild garlic salt. Wild garlic not only offers a wonderful, regional variety in the kitchen, but is also very healthy. The leaves contain valuable essential oils, as well as vitamin C and minerals such as iron, manganese and magnesium.

In addition to the classic wild garlic pesto, there are countless other recipes with wild garlic. We’ll show you a simple recipe for wild garlic salt so that you don’t have to do without the fine, spicy taste of the wild garlic leaves for the rest of the year.

Wild garlic salt: Two simple ingredients

You only need two ingredients for the basic recipe:

250 g table salt or other salt
100 g fresh wild garlic
Since dried wild garlic leaves quickly lose their taste, it is best to process them immediately after collecting them. Optionally, you can refine the wild garlic salt with a little spiciness. White pepper or chilli are particularly suitable for this.

You also need:

a mortar or a blender
Screw-top jars for filling

Recipe for wild garlic salt

The preparation of wild garlic salt is very simple:

Wash the wild garlic thoroughly.
Dry the leaves well or place them in a salad spinner.
Then remove the stems and cut the leaves into strips.
Grind the strips in your mortar or use a chopping knife to cut them into a homogeneous mass.
Mix the salt with the wild garlic paste.
Spread the mixture on a baking sheet.
It is best to dry the moist salt in the sun. This is the best way to preserve the taste of the wild garlic. This takes about eight hours. (In bad weather, you can alternatively dry the wild garlic salt in the oven at around 50 degrees. Check regularly whether it is already dry and stir it with a spoon so that it dries evenly. It should be ready in about four hours.)
You can fill your wild garlic salt directly into a spice mill or grind it finely again before filling it into screw-top jars.


You can simply sprinkle wild garlic salt on buttered bread or use it for cooking. From scrambled eggs, to salads or pan-fried vegetables – wild garlic is always a good choice, even if garlic would also be a good choice.

Storage: Wild garlic salt should be stored in a dark and dry place. The wild garlic is well preserved by the salt and lasts for at least a year.

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