Life-Saving Health Briefs and a cheesecake

The Most Important Supplement for Children

Nutritional supplementation with zinc among children provides immeasurable benefits. Zinc supplementation (20 mg daily for 14 days during each episode of diarrhea) given to nutrient starved children in Bangladeshi prevented absolute death by 50% and decreased the need for antibiotics by 60% among those who suffered from diarrhea.

Zinc also prevents pneumonia among children by up to 41%. Scientists from the Johns Hopkins School of Health stated that the sum effect of zinc supplementation on childhood health has a greater preventative effect for pneumonia, which kills millions of children per year, than any other current intervention. Such results often go ignored in the pharmaceutically dominated media.

By Shane Ellison, M.Sc.
Author Health Myths Exposed and
Hidden Truth about Cholesterol-Lowering Drugs

I thought that was important enough to post here. The winter is over us - mild though it is at the moment - and the flu won't be far behind regardless of temperature. If giving zinc to our kids can help them not get sick or get better faster if they do get sick, then what are we waiting for? And it's got to help us too, right? The problem may be getting them to take a supplement. Many children have trouble swallowing pills and capsules. The thing to do then, is to look for foods with a high level of zinc naturally present in them. Or, crush the pill and mix it in a spoonful of jam or peanutbutter, that works too.

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How to bring something healthy and tasty to your in-laws for the weekend? Well, I thought of two things, and made both.

Yesterday I spent an hour making some hummus - sure I could have bought it, but home made is so much tastier, and at least I know there's nothing but chick-peas, tahini and olive oil in it (and a little lemon juice). What's so time-consuming is getting the outer skin off the peas. It's so tough that you don't want to have it in the hummus. But I had nothing else to do while I waited for a delivery man to show, so it didn't matter.

This morning I spent another hour making a cheesecake. First the crushed digestive biscuits (200 gr) and just what I needed of butter to make the crumbs stick together (125 gr) - no more! 15 minutes in the oven at 175ºC Next the layer of cheese (400 gr of Philadelphia cheese, light please!) mixed with 2 eggs. Normally I'd just have sugar and vanilla in it, but today I grated a lemon and an orange and had the peel in the mix. Really refreshing! 25 minutes later, out of the oven it came, and I turned the oven off, leaving the door closed to keep the heat in, topped the cheese layer with sour cream (2% fat) mixed with some juice from the lemon and orange, vanilla powder (natural extract) and a few drops of Stevia. Popped it in the oven for a last 5 minutes without turning it back on, just using the residual heat.
Today though, I experimented further for the decoration. I sliced a mandarin into 8 thin slices and put them in a pan where I had boiling water-and-sugar, leaving the whole thing for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. (You don't want to turn your back on caramel!) The slices turned out caramelized, and the remaining water/sugar mix was pure caramel. I placed the slices on the cake, and dripped caramel over it with no particular pattern.

Easy as pie (or cheese cake) and ought to bring some "Ooh"s and "Ah"s around the dinner table tomorrow night :) OK, so I like showing off a little and make things from scratch rather than buying. BUT, it's also the fact that this way I know what's in the food and thereby how much I can have without blowing the calorie-count for the day. Another thing is that it is totally normal in southern Europe at least to make things from scratch. Except maybe for some school bake-sales, no French housewife would dream of bringing a store-bought cake anywhere! Well, maybe the younger generation ... guess I'm still old school :) (thanks Mom).

So now I'll pack us ready for tomorrow, get the dogfood for 2 dogs 2 meals, set up the cat for 36 hours alone (she's 5 months, but I trust her not to tear down the Christmas tree while we're gone), and take the dogs for a nice, long walk as it's all of +10ºC outside - that's around 50ºF for those of you who prefer that. And look at the date: December 15th, Canada - not Australia or anywhere else in the southern hemisphere! Global warming? Or just a freak weather system? No telling - yet.

Have a great weekend everybody!