White - The Virtuous Tart: Sinful but Saintly Recipes for Sweets, Treats and Snacks

THE VIRTUOUS TART

RECIPES FREE FROM WHEAT,

DAIRY AND CANE SUGAR

Contents

INTRODUCTION

A man who gives little time to health
will one day give much time to illness.

WHATS IT ALL ABOUT?

Healthy food is all very well and good, but its got to taste great, right? Damn right! I love cooking for flavour, but cooking for the good of my body makes me giddy. Its like dating a terribly tasty hunk, then finding out hes rich too.

Health and flavour are my thing, a potent duo. This way of cooking stokes the imagination. Gives wings to your spice rack. Thrills the body. And places vitality at the centre of your table.

Imagine a nutritional slam-dunk while snacking on a slice of tiffin. Picture your taste buds raving to the tune of BBQ veg crisps or your toes break dancing with every crunch and snap of a teff cookie. Wholesome food need never tax your taste buds.

Food is information. Every bite we eat contains software that tells our genes how to express themselves. Food literally has the ability to turn our good genes on and our bad genes off. By nourishing your body with the right nutrients, your body will nourish you. It makes a lot of sense to count nutrients, not calories. If calorie-controlled diets worked, wed all be thin (and achingly dull).

So what counts as nourishing? Raw, unprocessed food like whole fruit, quirky beans, fresh vegetables, groovy grains such as buckwheat and quinoa, and weird-sounding flours milled from chickpeas and rye. Fat is your friend: chia, olive, flaxseed, almonds, avocados, oily fish and coconut. These choices will service your body like a first-rate Formula 1 pit stop, and youll have the winning body to prove it. Whether its in the boardroom, college library or on the track, we want to perform, right? Lets not sabotage our own fuel supply.

Yet thats exactly what I did 10 years ago. I thought I was too busy to cook and cycled past my local grocer, cackling at the queues. Turns out smarter people make time to cook. Smarter people pay the grocer, not the doctor. Smarter people embrace cooking as an adventure, a love affair. Smarter people prioritise their health over their wristwatch. The irony was rather spectacular.

It wasnt wheat, sugar or dairy that triggered my portfolio of health disorders. It was the industrial amount of it I was consuming and the dodgy expiry dates that accompanied my preferred junk foods. I thought healthy food was for the elderly or infirm. I convinced myself that pepperoni was a vegetable. I counted coffee as one of my five a day (coffee beans are from a plant, right?) and horsed into breakfast cereals with a misguided sense of passion normally only seen in Silvio Berlusconi.

Eventually my body said no. Enough. First up was chronic stomach upsets that felt, and sounded, like a civil war was erupting inside my colon. Then exhaustion, with no energy to think straight, to make judicious decisions, to summon patience when required. Then insomnia set in and symptoms rocketed as I dragged my body around campus thinking it was quite acceptable to feel ill and confused in my twenties. My peers werent the epitome of health either, but it was difficult to tell hangovers apart from deeper health issues. One thing was clear, though: we were digging our way to the grave with our teeth.

The amount of white flour, white sugar and dairy we eat is borderline pathological. Cereal and milk for breakfast, sandwiches for lunch, scones, cake, toast, biccies, pasta the same old circus day in, day out. Sound familiar? My body begged for a break. Maybe yours is screaming for one too.

Im not against wheat, sugar and dairy. Theyre all delightfully alluring. But my energy levels are a whole lot better when I cut back on their mindless consumption. When I open up my food choices to all the other exhilarating ingredients around me, suddenly I find that eating less wheat, less sugar and less dairy isnt restrictive at all. In fact, its the exact opposite. My choices become liberated and I discover loads of fabulous stuff I didnt even know existed.

We are excluding so many outrageously tasty foods when were stuck in the dairy-wheat-sugar love triangle. Are you a fan of crisps? Wait until you try them made from Jerusalem artichokes! You think Im joking? Just turn to . Fudge brownies? Theyre way better made with sticky dates and walnuts. Love pasta and couscous? Not when you discover at least a dozen tastier choices in the Asian supermarket, ranging from black sticky rice to mung bean noodles.

Figure out what makes your body feel good. Pizza, ice cream and soda can be like a two-faced friend whos kind to your face, then stabs you in the back. So thrill the bejaysus out of your taste buds. Spicy black bean chilli? Raw chocolate torte? Maple and sesame halva? Now youre listening. That was your body talking. Work with your appetite instead of fearing it. You already know what your body needs.

WHY SUGAR FREE?

I used to carry Kit Kats like cigarettes. An expert sugar junkie.

Not anymore. Ive cut out nasty refined sugar and ditched sodas. This simple change has transformed my energy levels and even my dress size. And guess what? Its far from restrictive, which was my first assumption when I embarked on this crazy-assed plan. Its the exact opposite.

Suddenly I found loads of different ingredients within my orbit that not only tasted better, but treated my body better too. Discoveries included chestnut flour, Medjool dates, coconut sugar and naturally sweet spices like cinnamon and liquorice. These flavours helped nurse my sweet tooth while recalibrating my taste buds.

Its science, innit? My taste buds have been reprogrammed. Yours will be too. Along with this reprogramming comes a profound sense of respect for my body and how it works. Thats because every bite I took affected my mood, my skin and my energy, either positively or negatively.

Im not controlled by the sugar highs anymore. I have escaped their poxy shackles. Ever known what its like to be in the nucleus of a comet? This might be your year.

So how can you service your cravings and lessen the damage? Look at Mother Natures stash of nectar (turn the page). All contain valuable trace minerals and vitamins as well as offering that sensual sweet hit Ray LaMontagne on the lips.

If your diet obliges you to stay off sugar, this means quarantining all forms of sugar, good and bad, from your diet, including maple syrup, honey and even dried fruit. My cookbook only evicts nasty white sugar from your kitchen. I cant accuse any sugar of being nutritious, but what follows is my list of healthier choices when it comes to tickling a sweet tonsil. Glycemic loads, per serving, are scribbled to the side for diabetics to note. As with all sugars, you can pack on the pounds if youre using them with glorious abandon. Think of these as sweet treats. If sugar, even natural ones, becomes a staple in your kitchen, youll have the waistline to prove it!

Candida diets require the elimination of all sugars, including natural, unprocessed sugars like fresh fruit. Small amounts of stevia and xylitol are permissible, but its always a good idea to find a specialist to embark on this candida pilgrimage with you. Youll slowly be able to reintroduce natural sugars to your diet, mindfully, just like I did.