Life is too short for bad coffee, peeling carrots and counting calories!
I believe life is too short for bad coffee, peeling carrots and counting calories!
I also believe it is way too short for us to waste time feeling guilty about having occasional treats or desserts. Even when we are trying to lose weight. It is especially useless worrying nowadays, as there are so many wholesome ingredients for us to use so we can ‘healthify’ any recipe. Just like this delicious brownie recipe my daughter Zara and I ‘healthyfied’ a while ago.
Now, don’t get me wrong here. The delicious refined sugar free brownies you are about to go absolutely coco – loco for, although made with wholesome ingredients, are quite energy dense. They can serve as a healthier alternative to refined sugar treats so like anything, enjoy them in moderation.
As a wholistic nutritionist I believe we should always be looking at giving our body nutrition rather than taking it away. We should always aim at consuming the most nutritious sources of any types of food rather than feeding our body with refined sugar for example, which overtime can deplete our nutrient stores. I first came up with this great analogy to explain to children the importance of including wholesome foods in our diets, I soon realised adults kinds dig this way of thinking as well, check it out:
Nutrients are like having cash in the bank
Think of your body as a healthy savings bank account full of cash. The nutrients you consume through food are your body’s currency. The body uses your currency in different biochemical pathways in order to sustain life and of course, energy.
Wholesome, unprocessed foods deposit more funds into your account, while processed high energy – ‘empty calorie’ foods (refined sugar, fast foods, sweets, lollies, cakes, chocolate, chips etc.) make withdrawals. When we consume high – energy ‘empty – calorie’ food, in other words, food that is so highly processed it has hardly any micronutrients (vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, phytochemicals) available, we are making huge withdrawals out of our body’s ‘bank account’. The ‘empty – calories’ we consume, still need to be converted into energy or be stored as fat. For the body to do that, it needs to use certain vitamins and minerals as catalysts for biochemical reactions which take place in the process. Since processed foods including refined sugars come with close to no micronutrient value, the body starts tapping into our 'savings account'. Slowly, our funds become depleted, which eventually can get us feeling extremely fatigued. We may be depositing cash into our account, but the bank won’t let us make any more withdrawals as we have gone into overdraft!
So finally, here’s Zara’s refined sugar – free brownie recipe, made with wholesome ingredients, which will help top up your nutritional bank account balance:
200ml coconut oil
½ cup raw cacao
2 cups of rapadura OR coconut sugar
1 tsp organic vanilla essence
1 cup self-raising gluten free flour
2 eggs
½ cup chopped walnuts
Icing
(optional - I don't usually use the icing as the brownies are rich enough without it):
1 cup rapadura/coconut sugar OR replace ½ of the sugar with ½ cup of stevia
1 ½ tbsp. raw cacao
1 tbsp coconut oil OR nuttelex
1- 2 tbsp hot water (if needed)
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