Kale and spinach sauce

This kale and spinach sauce is a nutritious delight to go with so many starchy-dishes; blend it in a jiffy.

Everything of course depends on the freshness of your greens; wilted, old kale and spinach leaves are awful. So we choose to plant them in our garden; two of the easiest veggies to grow at home.

Just make sure you keep your hens out; they too need the lutein in dark-green leafy vegetables even more than we do. They will devastate your patch. A blind chicken would very soon be a dead bird.

We've heard it so many times before how starches, particularly those that have been refined add the inches onto our girths in all the wrong-places; even potato alas.

The trick is to lower the glycemic index so the sugars are released more slowly in the digestive-system; you do that by adding fat and protein. In this instance, we use olive oil, cream and feta cheese in our kale and spinach sauce. All the fibre slows gastric emptying and stimulates the secretion of the incretin hormones.

Retrogradation

You can also cool the starch overnight and then reheat it; this is known as retrogradation. The structure changes making it more difficult for the enzymes in your gut to reach the carbohydrate chains, slowing the release of the offending glucose-molecules.

Whole grains and retrograded-starches are good for us; those that are refined make us fat. You can be sure that a commercial kale and spinach sauce would have added sugar; extra salt and preservatives too.

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Instead we use a touch of natural-honey; interestingly despite the simple sugars it has a low GI.

Use your kale and spinach sauce to lower the glycemic index of your toast, mashed potato or pasta.

Keep the glycemic-load down by always limiting your helpings of starches; too much of a good thing just isn't beneficial.

You've read that enjoying seven or more coloured foods every day lowers the all-risk of death and disease by a massive 33pc. This five minute kale and spinach sauce already provides four.

It is interesting that natural honey that is unprocessed will not spike your blood-glucose^[1]. It has a low glycemic index, with one exception that contains a sugar called melezitose; found in the nectar of certain trees.

Vitamin K for night leg cramps

Night leg cramps in older patients can be very distressing. Researchers have found that vitamin K is extremely effective in reducing both the intensity and the frequency of this painful condition that afflicts so many.

Both spinach and kale are very rich sources of vitamin K.

Lutein and zeaxanthin

There are at least three phytonutrients in your dark green leafy vegetables that are absolutely essential to prevent age-onset blindness and cataracts.

One of them is L-dopa so we often would pour this kale and spinach sauce over broad beans on toast, sometimes with an egg.

The other two are lutein and zeaxanthin; at least five million Americans are needlessly blind and many more have impaired vision because of a deficiency.

Everyone should know about lutein macular degeneration. A deficiency would be devastating.

Our kale and spinach sauce wouldn't look so good on the menu at Beau-Constantia but for sheer nutritional value and flavour it makes for an astonishingly tasty breakfast. How about your very own broad bean season? It will help save your eyes and give protection against the neurodegenerative diseases.

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For starters we had it this morning with freshly-ground 100pc unrefined maize meal porridge; a breakfast like this stays with you for the day. Have no fear of true whole grains but they are hard to get. You may need a baby corn flour milling machine.

Much of the benefit of whole grains is to be found in the bran which contains nearly half of the protein, many vitamins and especially certain phytonutrients; what are lignans?

They have enormous importance in the prevention of malignant breast tumours, prostate cancer and cardiovascular disease; is it any wonder that both conditions have taken off since the refining of wheat, corn and rice became the norm?

Nor need we fear butter if we are eating foods like these; fat increases the absorption of these nutrients. Whole grains promote wellness and help prevent disease.

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Chewing and light cooking

Chewing and lightly cooking kale and spinach releases an enzyme called myrosinase; it has the ability to shear off a sugar molecule from an important plant nutrient called glucoraphanin.

That produces sulforaphane. Forget these awkward names but these compounds enable the liver to take up more glucose from the blood stream.

All those who are insulin resistant, nearly 50% of the population need to eat dark-green leafy vegetables daily; or they'll end up on diabetic medication.

Rather let your food be your medicine.

• Sulforaphane for diabetics

Kale and spinach sauce

Kale and spinach sauce can be made literally in five-minutes. All the fibre helps us in the war against cancer^[2]; prevention always was and still is better than a cure.

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