Are you a Baking fan?
You'll be happy to know that you need to give up your favourite hobby. Here are tips for some healthy substitutes for common baking ingredients

Sugar substitute               Unsweetened Pureed Apple

Best with:            Cakes and baked goods. 

How to:                Cut the sugar amount in half by adding the same amount of pureed cooked apple plus an extra 1/3. Eg. If recipe calls for 1 cup sugar, you can use ½ cup sugar and about ¾ Cup pureed apple (½ cup +1/3).  Keep in mind that you will need to cut down the recipe’s main liquid by about ¼ for every cup of apple sauce added.

Can’t seem to look at the menu without looking at the dessert section? Have an uncontrollable sweet-tooth? Try these tips from Kezia first:


1.       Begin with fruit

Fruit is naturally sweet.  It’s also packed with vitamins, minerals and antioxidants, but most importantly its low in fat.

Ideas

·         Fruit yoghurt / low fat vanilla yoghurt with fruit added

·         Bananas baked in orange juice, cinnamon and a tsp of honey

·         Poached pears

·         Grilled fruit, especially nectarines, apricots and peaches. (Cut in half, remove the pip. Sprinkle with one tsp brown sugar and place under the grill until sugar has dissolved)

·         BERRIES!!! A 1 and ¼ cup of berries can go a long way.

o        Added to low fat yoghurt

o        Pureed with a splash of orange juice and poured over low fat ice-cream


2.       Eating dessert out tips

·         Order a small portion.  You only need a two to three mouthfuls to satisfy your sweet-tooth

·         Share a dessert between two people

·         Avoiding the biscuit base and only eating the filling


3.       Low fat options

·         Low fat vanilla ice-cream with a sprinkling of cinnamon

·         Low-fat custard

·         Low-fat, low sugar sorbet

·         Low-fat frozen yoghurt

Adapted from tasteofhome.com

Serves 4

1 serving = 2 starches + 2 proteins + 1 fat

Ingredients:

1 cup fat-free milk
1 1/4 cup grated reduced-fat cheddar
125g (1/2 tub) fat-free chunky cottage cheese
125g (1/2 tub) fat-free smooth cottage cheese
3 tblsp flour
2 1/2 cups cooked macaroni pasta
3 tomatoes, sliced
1/2 grated onion
Salt and pepper to taste
Paprika

Method:

1. Mix the milk, cheeses, flour and pepper
2. Stir in the macaroni and onion
3. Place half mixture in a baking dish, top with sliced tomatoes.
4. Place the rest of the mixture in and top with the remaining tomatoes
5. Sprinkle with paprika
6. Bake uncovered at 180ºC
7. Serve with a fresh green salad

Cauliflower is not only rich in fibre and antioxidants, but also makes this excellent creamy, low-calorie and "free" soup!

Serves 10

Ingredients

1.5kg cauliflower, washed and cut into florets
1 tblsp olive oil
2 stalks of celery, chopped
3 leeks, sliced
1 large onion, chopped
2 - 3 tblsp powdered chicken stock
Water
Salt and pepper to taste

Get creative with veggies
 
Having a green salad every day or the same steamed broccoli every night can get very boring. Fortunately, there are many interesting ways one can prepare vegetables to create a whole new taste experience: 
 

• Mushroom burger. Try using a large grilled mushroom as a burger patty. Just be sure to use a low GI seed roll rather than a normal white burger bun.
• Grilled vegetable kebabs. Brush a “lite” Italian dressing over baby tomatoes, mushrooms, sliced baby marrow and red peppers. Push the pieces of vegetables onto skewers and grill until the vegetables are tender (i.e. about 6 to 8 minutes).
  

There are so many conflciting pieces of information when it comes to boosting your metabolism. Here we debunk those myths...

1. Fact or fallacy: There’s nothing you can do to speed up a slow metabolism
Fallacy. Whereas many may have a sluggish metabolism due to hormonal problems, many others tend to use this as an excuse for not losing weight. Either way, you can speed up your metabolism by following the “Facts” in this article.
 
2. Fact or fallacy: Drinking water can boost your metabolism
Fact. Yes, you’ve probably heard this one before, but drinking more of the translucent stuff is definitely worth your while. The reasons for this are two-fold. Firstly, water is essential for many of the metabolic processes that take place within the body, so it therefore makes sense that if you don’t drink enough, your metabolism cannot function optimally. Secondly, often one mistakes thirst for hunger, leading to one eating when actually your body is craving hydration. Therefore by drinking enough water you’re also preventing yourself from overeating. So try and drink at least 2 to 2.5l of water a day.

“Eating FAT will make you fat”, “FAT is bad”, “cut out bad FAT to live longer”.  These statements have been said and heard more than enough times, resulting in much confusion.
Kezia helps us to debunk the myths and clarify the effect different fats have on our health.

Good fat, bad fat, why do we even need fat?

First of all the right kind of fat plays an essential role in the body. Namely, fat is vital for vitamin absorption, energy development as well as adequate brain functionality.  There are even some fats which lowers the risk of developing heart disease. So which are good and which are bad?

Fats are divided into 4 main classes

o        Saturated fats

o        Monounsaturated fats

o        Polyunsaturated fats (omega 3 and 6)

o        Essential fatty acids

Different fats have different effects on the body:

In conclusion, we can see that FAT isn’t ‘bad’ and that they’re not the enemy, we simply need to understand them correctly. If we place more emphasis on limiting the ‘bad’ fats while making sure that we eat enough of the ‘good’ fats, we’ll be one step closer to living a healthier life.

Click here for Lila's comments on Leptin in relation to weight loss on SHAPE Magazine Online

Article from Slimtrack.co.za:

There has been recent debate about low carb diets, here are my thoughts on the subject:

The High Protein, Low Carb diet such as recently proposed by Tim Noakes is not a new one – it keeps on coming back into fashion. But like many fashion trends, it is one of those diets that it would be best to forget (shoulder pads, anyone?).

Read the rest of the article here