Green mealie risotto

A green mealie risotto is a traditional Italian rice-dish enriched with kernels harvested from fresh corn; white or yellow.

A few thoughts about your green mealie risotto are in order.

Firstly keep it simple; our motto is slow food, made fast. For heaven's sake do not strain off the solids from the mealies; they are the prebiotics that are so important for a happy colon.

Green mealie risotto

Do not be afraid of the cream if you are retaining all the fibrous part for your green mealie risotto. The fat aids in the absorption of the important beta-carotenes and lowers the glycemic index of the starch; it is less likely to trigger a rise in blood glucose.

Take a short brisk walk after every starchy meal.

Never eat white rice if you value your well-being. It has an extremely high GI, even greater than that of sugar. If you are unconvinced, read the story of the discovery of the first vitamin called thiamine.

A very observant doctor in Indonesia noticed that the chickens of the wealthy suffered from a nasty neurological disease which also killed tens of millions of people; but the hens belonging to the poor were unaffected^[1]. Can you guess why?

There is masses of research confirming that whole grains like brown-rice and kernels of corn are very healthy; but once refined they are extremely bad for us^[1].

Copy and paste "generalised muscle weakness" into Site Search in the main menu to get the answer; it's a fascinating story of medical history.

There is a frequently-expressed belief that all carbs are bad for us. It is based on two verifiable facts; it is difficult to get whole grains and most of us eat far too many delights baked from refined flour, cornmeal and sugar.

The result is obesity, insulin-resistance and ultimately type 2 diabetes.

This green mealie risotto has only whole grains. It will not raise your blood-glucose dramatically; nor will it make you fat.

Having said that if you are already obese then some of these ketogenic diets may make sense. The only way to lose weight is to cut back dramatically on all refined carbs; and for a period even the good ones may have to be restricted.

I do not believe in diets but some of them like that of Atkins have important central truths; mostly they are not sustainable, leaving you famished and miserable all day. Research shows that after one-year 95pc of folk have not lost an ounce; and many have put on. They are a complete and utter waste of time and energy. They will make you depressed.

Instead merely cut out all the refined carbs from your diet, adding some extra fat and protein to give your food satiety; those unwanted pounds will slowly but surely fall off.

Pre-biotics

Pre-biotics are the food the friendly gut microbes need to thrive. These bugs feed on carbohydrates that are not absorbed in the small intestine; instead they pass through to the colon. They consist in the main of the following types of compounds.

• Resistant starch that the enzymes in the small intestine cannot digest.
• Fermentable dietary fibre such as pectin.
• Phenolic acids which exhibit powerful anti-oxidant activity. Examples are the flavonoids, coumarins and lignans found in many plants.

They are found naturally in many fruits, vegetables and whole grains; and in beans, nuts and seeds.

Your green mealie risotto contains many of these pre-biotics that are so essential to keep the tum happy. Do not strain out the fibrous part as recommended by many recipes.

• The happy tum
• About resistant starch
  

Artisan bread

The hardest part is that you will have to start baking your own artisan bread if you love a few slices daily. The commercial loaf is a carb-disaster; most or all of the fibre has been extracted. Accept that and you will be home and dry.

It literally takes only five-minutes if you have a bread machine to bake the best loaf in the world; I'm not kidding.

By best I mean the most nutritious and the wonderful flavour of sourdough; but it doesn't slide down your throat like a white tea-scone with strawberry jam.

Following recipes

I never follow recipes down to the last detail; even my own. Today I have added a few sticks of lemongrass and a peppadew to our more usual green mealie risotto; and we have yellow corn growing in the garden this summer.

• What to do with lemongrass
• Growing peppadews
  

Don't disregard your own creativity; that is what makes cooking such fun. However someone else's recipe is a good place to begin. Today I also added some chicken bone broth.

Yellow corn is rich in the beta-carotene that the average person enjoying typical grocery store food is desperately short of; it is the precursor of vitamin A. Nearly half a million children every year go blind due to a deficiency.

Betaine

Betaine is considered a non-essential amino acid, yet the body is unable to manufacture sufficient from other protein sources. It has important proven functional properties in lowering toxic homocysteine which has been fingered in many serious diseases. Those eating typical grocery store food are likely to have less than 50% of the required daily amount.

Beets and whole grains are the richest sources; it is found mainly in the germ and bran.

Whilst wholewheat is the richest grain source, your brown rice and unrefined corn are also good. This green mealie risotto is simple to make, very tasty and highly nutritious.

Those on gluten-free diets are most likely to be deficient; they should regularly eat beets.

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