The Last Winter Dish

Jenny at the farmers’ market in Leopardstown had organic chard for sale today. The season for this lovely dark-green leafy vegetable is really finished, but when I saw it my heart skipped a beat. I always buy it in Italy in winter (there it is called bietola), and, as the day was dull and rainy, I decided to cook the last hearty (but very quick!)winter dish before embracing the spring (which will hopefully be here soon!).

Chard with red kidney beans

• 2 pound green chard (2 large bunches)
• 3-4 tbsp olive oil
• 2 medium onions, cut lengthwise and thinly sliced
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 1 tin red kidney beans
• 1 tin chopped tomatoes
• 3-4 sticks of celery, finely chopped
• 2 carrots, finely chopped
• Fresh parsley (generous amount), chopped
• Salt, black pepper to taste

Sautee the onions and garlic in the olive oil for 2-3 minutes. Transfer them into a pot with the tomatoes, carrots and celery. Cook the sauce, covered, stirring occasionally, for 15 minutes. Add the red kidney beans and cook for further 5 mins.

While the sauce is cooking prepare the chard. Discard any tough parts of the vegetable. Cut the leaves and stems into 1 ½ -2 inch pieces. Boil water in a large pot and start adding chard leaves in batches, stirring until wilted before adding next batch. Cook, covered, until tender, for 4-5 minutes. When cooked, drain and transfer to the pot with the tomato sauce. Add the parsley. Serve hot with a drizzle of olive oil and ground black pepper.

Goodbye winter!

Nutrition info: Chard is rich in provitamin A carotenoids, vitamin C and vitamin K, calcium, iron and manganese.

Artery-clogging fitness

Someone I know has started a new exercise plan for weight loss with a personal trainer. She sent me the diet plan that was offered along with the fitness training. And once again I got a proof that personal trainers know very little about healthy eating and can actually put people’s health at risk sometimes.

The offered eating plan puts a heavy emphasis on proteins. The personal trainer (let’s call him JO’C) says in his brochure: Protein sources - you must have one at every meal and lists red meats without even a hint at a portion size. Then he proceeds to explain that the body burns more calories while metabolising protein. With that approach he might be as well promoting the Atkins diet!

The fitness guru says: ‘you eat a chicken breast with 30 grams of protein that equals 120 calories (protein contains 4 calories per gram so 4 x 30g = 120kcals). That means your body will burn 36 calories (30% of 120) just to break that down... On its own 36 calories may seem small but when you eat 6 times a day you would burn an extra 216 calories’ Does he suggest eating 6 chicken fillets a day?

Meat doesn't automatically mean protein, it means animal proteins. There are many sources of plant proteins that are much healthier (soya beans, pulses etc.) Even an orange has 1g of protein! The suggested diet will lead to a protein (animal protein!) overload, which increases metabolic acid and may cause demineralisation of bone, renal damage and some other lovely detrimental conditions. Both orthodox and alternative practitioners accept that 40g of protein should be sufficient with 15% added for individual variation. So, one chicken fillet with 30g of protein is more than enough in one day!!!

When I looked at the sample week eating plan in the brochure I nearly fainted: it suggests 21 eggs a week!!!!!!!!!! I am sorry, but this is just a sick cholesterol feast! An egg contains 72% of recommended daily cholesterol requirements. Add all the meats to that and you'll have your arteries clogged in exactly one week and a heart attack before you lose any pounds.

Does JO’C realise that recommending 4oz of meat with each meal according to his plan will result in up to 20oz of meat a day? A healthy recommended allowance for red meat is 4oz a day, and not every day but 2-3 times a week or you'll be increasing your risk of cancer and cardiovascular diseases tenfold!

‘Good Fats – Use freely’ declares the brochure. Nonsense! Free use of fats, even the good ones, will lead to a high fat intake and as we all know it is bad bad bad. We should consume not more than 70g of fat a day. A handful of cashew nuts, as suggested in the brochure, amounts to 553 calories and a stuggering 44g of fat! Perhaps, that is why the wise personal trainer says: ‘If you focus too much on calories you are missing the point, you need to start focusing on the nutrient content of food rather than the calorie content’.

The brochure goes on to warn that fruits should be used ‘sparingly if at all’ because they ‘affect blood sugar levels too much especially if you already had sugar cravings’ How about many low GL fruit? Or will they be too healthy to go with the artery clogging eating plan?


The fitness guru goes on how bad man-made processed carbs are and then starts promoting his protein powder, which is HIGHLY processed. I haven’t seen its ingredients but if it has any soya isolates it helps to remember that women should be very careful with those as they mimic oestrogen and are more likely to be GM. On a lighter note: whey and inulin used in most protein shakes give you flatulence!

Hang on to your sits there! JO’C assures you: ‘as long as you are following the nutrition plan, training your muscles and only eating the foods listed in the next section it is very hard to over eat’. I made some rough calorie count based on his nutrition plan and one day came to about 2500 calories. How is that for a weight loss plan? Just to remind you that an active woman should consume about 2000 calories daily. But the worst part of the plan is that about 40% of calories come from FAT!!!


J O'C might be good at fitness, NLP and life coaching but, hell, he has no clue about nutrition!