SWEET CHRISTMAS 2022
Beyond being a stimulus for the senses, the flavours of food have very interesting dietary and therapeutic properties for our health. In a diet, the five flavours (spicy, sweet, salty, sour, and bitter) must keep a certain balance, but sweetness must predominate, which is why we feel a strong preference for sweetness from the first years of life. However, sweet does not mean dessert, nor sugar, that is what we have not learnt properly.
Flavours express the dynamic nature of energy, and sweetness often has an effect of energy expansion, mental opening, refreshment or even relaxation and comfort, if taken in the right way.
When we think of the festive season, we immediately associate it with a sense of well-being. Just like the word “sweet”, just hearing it makes us feel good. This happens because our emotional body is nourished by sweet flavours, but do we choose the right sweetness? How do we generate sweetness in our lives? Many people, when feeling unbalanced, choose a short-term “miracle cure” with a sweet treat, usually chocolate or a refined cake, which produces an almost instant euphoria. But in the long term, we know that this is not a sustainable effect and that, on the contrary, it makes us feel worse emotionally. So, let’s explore where the sweet craving comes from:
Sweetness is present in most of the carbohydrates we eat and is closely related to the toning of the spleen-pancreas and stomach. We must not forget that all our vital functions need glucose to perform properly.
Remember that there are three types of “sweet” foods: those that come from whole grains, seeds, nuts, vegetables and pulses in the form of complex carbohydrates (with a toning and strengthening effect), refreshing sweets from fruit (with a purifying effect), and chemical sweets, i.e., all sugars, fructose, saccharine, aspartame, sorbitol, etc. The latter, in addition to acidifying the body and altering our microbiota, consume large reserves of minerals.
Vegetables are essential for bringing sweetness to the body, especially root or round vegetables when cooked properly (pumpkin or carrot purées, baked sweet potato, sweet vegetable stew, etc.). A vegetable cream provides us with the calm we need after a stressful day and prepares our digestive system to better digest food.
Similarly, fruit compote or baked fruit has a relaxing effect on our nervous system, in contrast to when the sweet is refined, contains artificial additives and is taken in excess, the effect is just the opposite, of mental dispersion and instability, in addition to the consequences of a rapid rise in the glycaemic index in the blood.
The Mediterranean diet often abuses the use of oils, vinegars, and salt, as well as animal proteins in some cases. This fact energetically unbalances us, as well as loading us with unnecessary amounts of fats and making our stomach suffer, so it tends to want to compensate with refined sweet foods. By being aware of this effect and introducing more fish and pulses into our diet, we can compensate in a more natural way.
Another interesting way to dampen the craving for extreme sweetness these days is to introduce whole grains into daily menus, whole grains cooked slowly, such as brown rice, buckwheat, barley, oats or quinoa, all carbohydrates which, when chewed and mixed with the thialin in saliva, are converted into quality glucose. These can be present in soups, breakfast creams, stews with pulses and vegetables, etc.
A common mistake made by people who opt for a more natural lifestyle is to drastically reduce their protein intake, leading to both nutritional and energy deficiencies that will make your body crave more sweets.
So, before we dive into the sweetness of the holidays, let us think about how we want to generate sweetness in our lives, whether our lifestyle, habits and mental attitudes themselves create the sweetness we desire and, finally, how we want to feel after our sweet choices – satisfied and relaxed or, on the contrary, nervous, weak and unstable.
During the festive season, a good digestive and energetic idea is to leave desserts for snacks, giving prominence, in moderation, to natural dried fruits without sulphites, such as dried apricots, prunes, dried cranberries, baked apples… combined with a handful of walnuts, almonds or pine nuts to moderate blood glucose levels. We can also use fewer exciting alternatives to cocoa, such as carob, which can be used to make delicious sponge cakes or natural cakes (*recipe below).
Finally, the best advice against Christmas binge eating is to stay active during the day and get a good night’s sleep, which moderates our blood sugar levels and generates positive endorphins in our brains. If you are tired from one meal to the next, you will probably eat more sweets out of lack of energy and nervous system repair than out of necessity. The more sleep you get, the less food cravings you will have in general.
At Benefit Brokers, another of the added values we offer organisations are the natural and energetic cooking workshops, a practical health component that allows us to sweeten the holidays and the lives of all our clients in a natural, conscious, and satisfying way.
Best wishes for happiness and healthy sweetness this Christmas.
*María Kindelán’s natural SWEET recipe: Orange and carob cake without refined sugars
Ingredients for 8 people: 2 cups rice milk, 350 g carob cream with hazelnuts, 3 tablespoons rice molasses, 2 tablespoons Agar-Agar flakes, a handful of currants, zest of half an orange, cinnamon powder, and a pinch of sea salt. Sprouted bread for the base.
Prepare a tart tin with the crumbled sprouted bread, pressing with your hands to make the base.
Heat all the ingredients together for 14 minutes until well-integrated and then puree. Add the zest at the end, pour into the mould and leave to cool in the fridge for 2 hours. Decorate with grated coconut and plums filled with walnuts.
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