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Belinda Clark with her granddaughter Isla

My journey to healthier skin

Diet and the skin-sugar connection

For most of her life Belinda Clark has enjoyed good health, despite a tendency to do too much, but her skin has often shown when something’s amiss. Here she shares her story.

Fortunately my mother started learning about healthy food when my sisters and I were young, and my parents eventually converted their citrus orchard to being organic and biodynamic.

Our mother’s research into wellbeing strongly influenced my own choices with holistic health later. These helped me stay generally well through student and overseas years and teaching in a New Zealand Steiner school, mostly while raising three children.

I sometimes enjoyed sweet foods, concerned only for my teeth and very occasional candida outbreaks, although I knew of naturopaths who advised clients to avoid it. Dr Rudolf Steiner had recommended it for some, I’d heard, and most people ate it, so I took little notice.

Twenty-two years ago, my daughters, our pets and I moved to a lifestyle block near Napier. It was lovely and brought many benefits but also new pressures, especially when I accepted a herd of angora goats.

  ABOVE: Belinda Clark with granddaughter Isla and Caspian the cat, by a raised vege bed.

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Belinda Clark is a Soil & Health member who lives near a daughter and granddaughter at Birdsong Nature Sanctuary.

She enjoys learning from and supporting Nature, writing poems and short stories for her ‘Unusual Encounters’ book, being part of an International Peace Group and singing in Napier Community Choir.

Dark chocolate crunch bars (aka ‘healthy’ protein bars)

By Dr Linia Patel 

Many shop-bought protein bars hit your protein numbers, but they come with so many other sweeteners and additives that aren’t great for you to be eating habitually. With this recipe I tried to create a protein bar that was healthy.

Images and text from Food for Menopause by Dr Linia Patel, photography by Clare Winfield. Murdoch Books RRP $45.00

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Clients (especially those who are on the go a lot) are always asking me to recommend a protein bar. To be honest, there isn’t one that I would recommend for regular consumption! They’re okay as an occasional get-out-of-jail card, but not for regular consumption.

Many shop-bought protein bars hit your protein numbers, but they come with so many other sweeteners and additives that aren’t great for you to be eating habitually.

With this recipe, I tried to create a protein bar (without using protein powder) that was healthy. One that I would be happy to recommend my clients eat regularly. Each bar gives you about 5 grams of protein – perfect for a snack. They are high in healthy fats, so, as yummy as they taste, keep it to one per snack!

Makes 10-12 bars

Ready in 20 minutes, plus chilling

Vegan

Gluten free

Ingredients 

  • 2 tbsp tahini
  • 4 tbsp almond or peanut butter
  • 60g (scant ½ cup) dark (70%) chocolate chips
  • 200g (7oz) cooked quinoa
  • 70g (½ cup) whole unpeeled almonds, chopped
  • 30g (1oz) whole linseeds or flaxseeds

Method

  1. Line a small loaf, baking or cake tin with parchment paper.
  2. Either in the microwave or in a bowl set over a pan of gently simmering water, melt the tahini, nut butter and chocolate together until smooth.
  3. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well.
  4. Tip into the prepared tin and chill for at least 1 hour, then cut into 10–12 small bars.

Tips

These will keep in the fridge for up to 10 days. If you like, you can drizzle with extra melted chocolate before slicing (as per the photo).


Differently wired brains

By Mary Allan

“Neurodiversity describes the idea that people experience and interact with the world around them in many different ways; there is no one ‘right’ way of thinking, learning, and behaving, and differences are not viewed as deficits”.  This is the introductory sentence on the Harvard Education blog “What is neurodiversity?

However, unless we dig a little bit deeper that catch-all term doesn’t explain the glaringly obvious struggles some people live with or the subtle, hardly noticed nuances that make life very difficult for others.

While I applaud inclusive language and thinking, my experience as a specialist in the management of autism spectrum in schools tells me that despite changing the terminology every 30 years or so, we are still very short on understanding how to help neurodiverse people survive and even thrive in our society that caters to the less diverse majority.

Understanding what is going on for people – especially children – is the only way to inform strategies and systems to help them cope with life.

The shape of walnuts is similar to the human brain

  

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Mary Allan is a retired special needs educator who still maintains a focus on managing ASD and severe behaviour. She is a keen gardener, spurred on by the limited range of organic and GE-free foods in the supermarkets, and the need to provide gluten-free and dairy-free food for her family.