A few posts back Julie Cowdroy wrote about the Below the Line campaign – a program in May that sees well-fed westerners live on $2 a day to experience what it’s like for the world’s poorest. And to raise $$. I promised to give it a crack and did so for a day. As, it seems, with most people who did it, I resorted to lentils.

Lentils are cheap. And Dr Weston A Price considers the little buggers the most nutritious of all legumes – high in minerals and they help assimilate protein and iron absorption. But they can be bland and horrible and really crook on the gut. If you don’t play right.

Here’s some tricks for eating them.

Just mine. It’s not a comprehensive list.

1. Add red lentils to soups and casseroles and curries…

for extra bulk and fibre and protein. A cheap way to spread out a meal. Simply rince a handful and toss in 15-20 minutes before the dish is cooked. They disintegrate and you’ll barely know they’re there.

2. Soak your green and brown lentils a few hours.

Most recipes will say you don’t need to at all because they’re quite low on phytic acid. Soak in warm water with a bit of lemon juice. Seven hours is good.

3. I make dahl…
by boiling  soaked brown lentils (1.5 cups)  in water to cover, adding a tsp of turmeric (a great anti-inflammatory), pepper and garlic. I simmer for an hour  (covered) and then whisk the lentils til creamy. In a pan I saute cumin seeds and 2 small hot chillies in butter (or ghee) and then fold that through the lentils with some coriander.

4. I sprout lentils.

Here’s a few cooking and eating tips I live by for a Tuesday. Enjoy! Oh, by the way, the new nutrition makeover show I finished filming in January – Eat Yourself Sexy – will appear on Lifestyle YOU in August…in time for Spring. That should give you enough time to subscribe to Foxtel/Austar!

1. I blend my tomatoes. Cooking tomatoes increases the available lycopene antioxidant content by five times. Blending tomatoes does the same but avoids the heat and oxidation, as well as water and enzyme damaging properties of cooking.

2. Marinate meat in rosemary. Cooking meat at high temperatures can create toxins called heterocyclic amines, linked to cancer. But, marinating lowers the risk by preventing the formation of the toxins -  rosemary is the most effective marinade herb to use. Makes sense. They taste good together.

3. Here’s how to do speedy pumpkin: To stirfry cubes of pumpkin (for a quick lunch salad etc) without pre-steaming it, fry it up with a liberal shake of salt. I’m not sure why, but the salt breaks down the pumpkin’s starch faster, so it softens as you fry.

4. I cook with coconut oil. It tastes amazing – a little bit sweet and a bit toasted. And it’s sooo good for you. It’s made up of ninety percent saturated fats (good fats). And 50 percent of the fat content iis a fat rarely found in nature called lauric acid. Your body converts lauric acid into monolaurin, which has anti-viral, anti-bacterial and anti-protozoa properties, as well as being antifungal, antioxidant, and soothing. PLUS it supports thyroid gland and enzyme function.Pumpkin in particular tastes great with this oil. It’s also less fattening than other oils…if that matters to you.

Sometimes health needs to be explained in nonsensical, onomatopoeic language. Yuk! Goob! Stodge! If you’ve been unwell for a while, or get gut aches for no discernible reason (and you’re told you’ve got IBS), or you go around in circles with complaints, or if you have some sort of auto-immune disease, then you totally know what I mean. Health, once you’ve gone past the level of taking a pill or getting a cast put on a broken leg, is nebular.

Or fuzzy.

Melbourne naturapath Gill Stannard alerted me to this youtube link with Gil Hedley talking about The Fuzz, a case for stretching in the morning. Totally pervy and visceral. And totally geared at anyone with inflammation issues (hello, auto-immune disease!!!).

This much you need to know: if you have inflammation issues, stretch in the morning, get massages, move.

Other ways to deal with inflammation:

1. Avoid processed foods - trans-fats, high-fructose corn syrup, chemicals, additives and other “non-food” ingredients. Sugar is highly inflammatory.
2. Eat healthy fats such as extra-virgin olive oil, coconut, avocados, nuts and seeds.
3. If you drink alcohol – an occasional glass of red wine is best.
4. Eat coloured vegetables and fruit. Eat more veggies than fruit (5-6 servings of veggies, 3-4 servings of fruit).
5. Only eat non-gluten grains – quinoa, amaranth and brown rice.

6. Eat turmeric. Here’s why.