{"id":21844,"date":"2022-12-14T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-12-13T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbccountryfile\/?post_type=purple_issue&p=21844"},"modified":"2022-12-15T09:54:56","modified_gmt":"2022-12-15T08:54:56","slug":"eating-for-resilience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbccountryfile\/2022\/12\/14\/eating-for-resilience\/","title":{"rendered":"Eating for resilience"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Cooking from scratch using inexpensive but healthy ingredients can help us cope with life\u2019s ever-growing challenges, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall tells <\/span>Annabel <\/strong>Ross<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

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Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall\u2019s organic smallholding, River Cottage HQ in Dorset, is the venue for a wide range of hands-on cooking courses <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n

Who can resist a pig? I find them almost impossible to ignore \u2013 their beautiful colouring and markings, floppy ears, curly tails and nonchalant attitude. Food writer Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall recently introduced me to the four ginger-coloured Tamworth sisters he keeps at River Cottage HQ in Devon and I could have stayed with them for hours, attempting to befriend them from a safe distance. <\/p>\n\n

\u201cThe first two pigs I ever kept, about 20 years ago, I made the mistake of naming after two friends of mine, Tom and Charlie. It didn\u2019t make it any easier when their time finally came,\u201d says Hugh. \u201cBut, we are a working farm, we\u2019re not a petting zoo, and the animals we raise here end up in our kitchen. While they are here we want to look after them and we want to make sure they have a really nice time, and then we can feel good about what we do with them when they are no longer pigs but pork.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n

\u201cA third of the food we produce is rejected before it even gets to the supermarket shelves\u201d <\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

WAR ON WASTE <\/strong><\/h5>\n\n

While many of us will enjoy bacon and sausages without much thought about what happens to the rest of the pig, at River Cottage they make use of the entire animal, from nose to tail. <\/p>\n\n

Hugh doesn\u2019t like waste. In his War <\/em>on <\/em>Waste <\/em>campaign, documented by the BBC, he tells us just how much food is unnecessarily wasted in this country, starting with the crazy statistic that a third of all the food we produce never even makes it to the store shelves. Why is it wasted? Because the bizarrely named \u2018wonky\u2019 or \u2018ugly\u2019 produce is rejected by supermarkets on a massive scale before consumers even see it. Then, more food is wasted when we throw it in the bin \u2013 it\u2019s estimated that UK households waste 6.6 million tonnes a year, which is 16% of the food we buy. All this while food banks are experiencing a surge in demand. <\/p>\n\n

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Square Food Foundation founder Barny Haughton runs healthy cookery classes in schools, for children, parents and teachers;<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n

Rejecting \u2018wonky\u2019 produce seems especially crazy if you consider plant hormesis \u2013 this is when stress on a plant produces beneficial results. Bristol-based nutritional therapist Sarah Bayliss explains: \u201cWhat we know from nature is that if plants have to work harder to survive, because of their stressful environment, they have had to build greater defences. And if they are building greater defences and creating more antioxidants that we then feed on, then in fact, the \u2018uglier\u2019 ones may be better for us. Put simply, these plants\u2019 phytochemicals help make us more resilient.\u201d Sarah says choosing scarred and scabbed fruit and vegetables over their perfect cousins can help us build up our bodies\u2019 defences. <\/p>\n\n

RETURN TO WHOLEFOODS <\/strong><\/h5>\n\n

Processed foods and takeaways are also changing our relationship with flavour, explains Sarah. \u201cBecause our food has lost a lot of its flavour in the industrialised growing process, the food industry manipulates our food to put flavour back in by using preservatives, colourings, sugar and chemicals to recreate this flavour, and so we\u2019re losing this connection between flavour and nutrition.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

Fibre has also been removed from many processed foods, adds Sarah. \u201cThis is a problem because you now have added sugar along with refined carbohydrates \u2013 such as white flour, white rice, white sugar \u2013 and it was the fibre from the wholemeal foods that protected us from glucose reaching our bloodstream too quickly, causing insulin spikes, driving weight gain, poor mood, cravings, low energy and eventually leading to diabetes and heart disease.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

Does all of this mean that we have lost our connection with food? Would it make a difference if we all learnt to cook with confidence? <\/em>\u201cI think that\u2019s a question we need to keep trying to answer,\u201d says Hugh, \u201cbecause if people can cook healthy food from inexpensive ingredients that they love eating then that gives them a kind of resilience in the face of whatever else life throws at us, and the world is really tough right now. If you can understand what healthy food is, what it looks like, what it\u2019s made of, then you\u2019re going to have at least some resilience at this really challenging time. Our first line of defence is eating good food to keep us well.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n

UPSKILLING IN THE KITCHEN <\/strong><\/h5>\n\n

Bristol\u2019s Square Food Foundation is one of many charities around the country offering cooking lessons to everyone and anyone, from kids to caregivers to great-grandparents. It aims to \u201creduce hunger, improve health and bring people together through food and cooking\u201d. During lockdown, the charity filmed simple cooking videos to reach out to its community. Today, it delivers 300 packages a week, with fresh ingredients and recipe cards, to local families. <\/p>\n\n

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Beans and lots of extra vegetables make Hugh\u2019s sausage and bean stew filling and delicious <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n

\u201cThe anxiety around food insecurity is making people think differently,\u201d says Square Food Foundation founder and cookery teacher Barny Haughton. \u201cThe conversations going on at Square Food Foundation are really different to the ones that were going on five or 10 years ago. The resilience is coming from within local communities, they are taking action and learning for themselves,\u201d he adds. \u201cHighly processed food is weakening our immune systems and then we have a debilitated health service, creating the opposite of resilience. Cooking schools around the country are getting the same message from their students: we love this, this is helping us, this is making my life easier and better. They\u2019re learning new skills, they\u2019re enjoying themselves and they\u2019re proud.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

Hugh\u2019s latest recipe book, River <\/em>Cottage <\/em>Good <\/em>Comfort: <\/em>Best-Loved <\/em>Favourites <\/em>Made <\/em>Better <\/em>For <\/em>You, <\/em>focuses on replacing less healthy ingredients with ones that are better for us. \u201cIt\u2019s comfort food but with the goodness dialled up just a little bit,\u201d Hugh explains. <\/p>\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve found that by tweaking the recipes with a little bit of extra veg or using more wholegrains, many of them become more delicious. Dialling down the sugar in puddings and treats often makes them much tastier and I\u2019m beginning to think that for a long time we\u2019ve been tolerating sugar in sweet things rather than enjoying it. There\u2019s this assumption that we all want a massive hit of sugar every time we want a biscuit or a slice of cake. Take our Victoria sandwich; we used half the sugar, switched to wholemeal flour, added some dried apricots and you\u2019ve got a great-tasting cake.\u201d If we want a diet that is healthier and less wasteful, we would be a lot better off cooking for ourselves more regularly. I\u2019m going to start with what Hugh says is the easiest recipe in the book, his oaty dunking cookies \u2013 you\u2019ve got to start somewhere! <\/p>\n\n

Join Hugh at River Cottage in our recent Plodcast, episode 167. countryfile.com\/podcast<\/a> <\/strong><\/p>\n\n

<\/div>
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Watch! <\/strong><\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

For more on healthy lifestyles, watch Easy Ways to Live Well <\/em>with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Steph McGovern, available on iPlayer <\/p>\n<\/div><\/section>\n\n

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<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n

River Cottage Good Comfort<\/em> by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, with photography by Simon de Courcy Wheeler (Bloomsbury, \u00a327) is out now.<\/p>\n\n

<\/div>\n\n

Photo: Matt Austin, Simon Wheeler, Square Food Foundation<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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