Bernie's Healthy Spinach Dip

Bernie's healthy spinach dip can be made in a jiffy.

To make any hearty snack, all you need to do is keep out the chemicals; that means no lemon juice concentrate or solvent-extracted oils.

Fresh fruit and vegetables, and cold-pressed oil from the olive are the order of the day.

This page was last updated by Bernard Preston on 24th July, 2021.

So no preservatives or flavour-enhancers but just your own preferred herbs, fresh lemon juice and olive oil; and a bit of this or that. So I generally make just enough for today's salad,  and perhaps a little left over.

You do have a salad every day, right? Remember 5 to 10 brightly-coloured foods per day is absolutely vital if you want to minimise the chances of getting the big C.

It's the coloured fruits and veggies that have many of the phytosterols. 

Please do not assume that it's only other people who get malignant tumours. It is a horrible way to die, and prevention is the name of the game. Coloured fruit and vegetables, raw or cooked, every day is a great start to reducing that risk substantially.

Then avoid as many chemicals, especially those in your food, as you can; asbestos, certain medications like post-menopausal hormones and smoking too. I watched my father die of a malignant lung tumour; it was not pretty. Fifteen precious years were lost. Bernie's healthy spinach dip contains five of those colours in just one condiment.

Lemon juice concentrate

There are few things more ugly than lemon-juice concentrate, preserved unto everlasting life; just read the label and then taste it. It's horrible.

If you have no access to fresh lemons, then rather use apple-cider vinegar; it too may have sulphur dioxide as a preservative.

Freezing lemon juice is our first choice.

Every home should have a lemon in the garden. Currently in South Africa they sell for R4 each, about US 30c; I've just counted and we have over 200 hanging on our tree and have already eaten perhaps another 100.

So at least R1,000 worth of fruit at the retail price each year. I planted it four decades ago when we built our home; I reckon that would beat any share on the stock-exchange for a return.

• Growing lemon trees
• WHAT ARE PHYTOSTEROLS?

Recipe for spinach dip

Frankly, it is different every time I make it, it is such fun to try a bit of this one day, or that another; never follow recipes strictly after the first few attempts. It is so boring. Like living life in a box, confined, trapped and limited by Bernie's spinach dip recipes. Sometimes I might throw in a radish, half a peach, or a sprig of green coriander, for example.

Bernie's healthy spinach dip

Bernie's healthy spinach dip says now just watch all the salad get eaten; less calcium deposition in your arteries and joints too. One of the carotenoids inhibits the rapid digestion of starch in the small intestine which is vital for those who are insulin resistant.

What is raw honey? You have to find a small local apiarist, or perhaps even learn how to start beekeeping; my life-long fascinating hobby.

Whilst the African bee is very dangerous, mostly its European and American cousins are relatively tame, and you will be making one small contribution to sustaining the environment. Sigh, what kind of a world are we leaving to our grandchildren?

How to grow spinach

You do have a spinach patch, right? After radishes, it is the easiest veg in the world to grow. A 3' square patch in the tiniest garden will keep you going right through the summer.

We have to surround the patch with sticks to keep the dogs out of the spinach.

A stick blender is one of the essential bits of equipment for the kitchen. I like it because it's so easy to clean compared with the big appliances.

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How to make spinach dip

Lutein benefit

Lutein benefit in an important subject for every single person, especially for smokers. Together with zeaxanthin, these carotenoids protect both the retina and the lens from damage from high-energy light radiation.

A deficiency is likely to cause you to suffer from lutein macular degeneration, an irreversible cause of blindness in the older person; and cataracts too.

The richest sources are your greens; enjoy Bernie's healthy spinach dip regularly, kale and broccoli at least once a week and corn on the cob in season and you have adequate protection against MD blindness and cataracts.

Zeaxanthin macular degeneration

Zeaxanthin macular degeneration reminds me of the tragedy of five million Americans who have unwittingly settled for being blind rather than eat their coloured foods; and plenty of South Africans too, only the research has been done in the USA. And another double that number who are now partially sighted.

Zeaxanthin is a potent antioxidant found almost exclusively in the cones in the macula of the eye; that is the region where colour and fine discrimination are detected.

It functions together with a twin brother called lutein in protecting the cones in the retina from damaging high-energy ionising radiation.

Both zeaxanthin and lutein are found in rich amounts in Bernie's healthy spinach dip. Let your food be your medicine, said Hippocrates. A mealie a day would provide most of our needs too.

Another of the carotenoids is beta-cryptoxanthin that is also found in dark green leafy vegetables like spinach; it has scientifically proven properties of preventing dementia^[4]. Large amounts are also located in citrus. Bernie's healthy spinach dip is rich in these phytonutrients that will carry us into a strong and zestful old age.

Being a blood donor is a challenge to the body; large amounts of iron from our food is vital. I find it interesting that despite eating meat only occasionally, the levels of this important mineral are always high; daily spinach and kale is one of the reasons.

It's a time to sow and spinach, kale and lemons should top the list in every garden.

Chemicals in food

If you were to buy a dip like this in the supermarket, you can be sure that food scientists would add preservatives, it just will not keep, antioxidants and flavour enhancers; once they have made it in a factory, bottled it, and it has been some months on the shelf and in your refrigerator, you can be sure it won't taste a patch as good as Bernie's spinach dip.

Make just enough for a couple meals; it does not keep, of course. In short, taking good care of ourselves and our possessions need not be such a chore.

A PROMISE

I know it is dumb to make promises like this, but if you make Bernie's healthy spinach dip, I can give you a reasonable assurance that all the kids, even dad, will finish their salad, and come back for more. Even my grandkids, four and two, comply; with no coercion.

• What is potting in the garden ...?

I love Google, but it is meant the end of the road for the very important apostrophe. Bernie's healthy spinach dip, of course. As a writer I am mourning the demise of the apostrophe. Do you know the difference between Teddybear's picnic, teddybears' picnic and teddybears picnic?

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