Recipe (courtesy of our friends at Healthy Food Guide Magazine) Crumbed Fish and Chips

4 big-size potatoes or kumara, olive oil spray, 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 2 teaspoons olive oil, 1 cup fresh breadcrumbs, 4 fish fillets, skinned and boned (gurnard, tarakihi, snapper)

Preheat the oven to 200°C. Scrub clean about 1 large potato per person, but do not peel. Cut into wedges or chips and pat dry with a paper towel. Line a shallow ovenproof pan with foil (shiny side up), add chips in a single layer and spray lightly with olive oil spray. Sprinkle with salt to taste. Bake at 200°C for 30 minutes, or until the chips are crisp and golden.

Combine the breadcrumbs, parsley and salt in a bowl. Lay the pieces of fish flat on a flat surface and gently but with a firm pressure, pat the crumb mix onto both sides of the fish. Because the surface of the fish is damp, it will cling to the fish (or you can add an egg to the mix). Stand for about 5 minutes. Heat a large frying pan, preferably non-stick, add the olive oil and when it is hot but not sizzling, put in the fish and turn the heat to medium. Cook slowly until the underside is crisp and golden, turn and brown the other side (3-4 minutes total for a 2cm thick fillet).

THE SUN DECEMBER 2011. Merry Christmas everyone! Enjoy the break, relax, smile and breathe. I’ll refrain from dishing out appropriate advice about food and activity for the next few weeks. You’ve all heard it before and you know the ‘moderation’ rule, so I’m going to simply leave it at that. I do however have some advice for the New Year. Get your heart checked! Even if you are fit and apparently healthy, a heart check is never inappropriate. Isn’t it better to know that you are fine, then not know that you’re not fine? As a society we will eventually be forced to be more proactive about our health and less reactive. This means having check-ups on a regular basis, taking positive measures to ensure our good health before we even have a health issue. The health dollar in the future will fund wellness, not illness as it does now. So get ahead of the game and change the way you view your health. Health is about now – but it is also about safe guarding for the future. You have a responsibility to look after your health and more and more we, as members of society, will be held accountable for our health status because the health dollar will be stretched even tighter than it is now. Think about how much we gripe about government spending, the health budget cannot sustain our illness rates into the future and where will be money come from to boost that budget? Education? Social Welfare? The money tree that grows next to the wishing well?

So what’s my point? Good question!

Make 2012 the year of being proactive, not reactive about your health. Forgo the usual “I only see a health practitioner when I’m under the weather” philosophy. Set yourself up for a healthy future where your lifestyle supports wellness as you age.

Look after yourselves and your family and friends this festive season. Merry Christmas and best wishes for 2012.

THE SUN NOVEMBER 2011. Just do something about it. Stress on its own is not detrimental to our health – it is our response to stress that causes all the issues. You’ve most likely heard about the ‘fight or flight’ phenomenon – this is the physiological response to impending danger. Imagine you lived thousands of years ago and you are peacefully asleep in your cave when you are suddenly startled awake by a roaming tiger. Before you are fully awake your brain has sent an urgent signal (in the form of stress hormones) to your body to put it on notice that quick action will be needed – stand up and fight or take flight!

Breathing quickens, your heart rate and blood pressure increase and blood clotting mechanisms activate in anticipation of injury. The activity of your digestive system slows down and stored fats and sugar gush into your bloodstream to provide you with adequate energy. This is a very appropriate physiological response for a cave person whose life is in danger…perhaps not such an appropriate response for a modern human being who is stuck in traffic. Regardless of what the stressful situation is, your physiological self responds in the same way it did thousands of years ago – “get me out of here”!!

Too often today we experience stress over mild situations. Take the traffic jam example – you are not in danger when you are stuck in traffic. You can’t actually do much about the jam when you’re in it expect bide your time and go with the flow. Traffic only causes physiological stress if you perceive it to be stressful.

We spend a lot of time with people who have a moderate to high risk of heart disease, teaching them how to perceive situations differently so that they do not initiate a stress response over the smallest, hardly stressful situation. The first step is to recognise that you have a tendency to get stressed and then make a decision to take control of the situation instead of the situation controlling you. Next, you have to figure out why you are so stressed. Is it work related? Is it something in your personal life? Have you got a type A personality? Are there too many things happening in your life right now? Do you set unrealistic goals for yourself and for others? Then finally, do something positive to manage your stress. There is no single approach to ‘stress-busting’ that works for everyone. You have to find what is right for you. We teach our clients relaxation breathing as a starter but this only successful for some. Other options are to take time-out for yourself once a week, do something that is just for you and you alone. Go for a walk along the beach, practice meditation or yoga, listen to music, read a book, get your hands dirty in the garden, go fishing, take up tai chi…whatever works for you is up to you. Remember next time you feel stressed, perceive the situation you are in differently, in a more positive light and you will reduce the damage that occurs in your body that is caused by your physiological reaction to what you perceive.

1 cup of Quinoa + 2 cups of water (absorption method)
3 cups of roast vegetables (red onion, kumera, pumpkin etc)
1 pack of feta cheese chopped
1/2 cup of chopped parsley
juice of 1 lemon
juice of 1 lime
salt and pepper.
Cook quinoa, roast vegetables and once cool combine. Add feta, parsley, lemon, lime, salt and pepper and enjoy!

What is Quinoa? Quinoa (pronounced ‘ki’—‘nwa’) is a member of the grass family – so not a true grain or cereal – and is closely related to spinach. It is grown for its edible seeds and is often mistaken for a grain food. Quinoa has become highly appreciated for its nutritional value, as its protein content is very high (12%–18%). Quinoa contains a balanced set of essential amino acids, making it a complete protein source, which is unusual among plant foods. It is a good source of dietary fiber and phosphorus and is high in magnesium and iron. Quinoa is gluten-free and considered easy to digest. You can buy it in the supermarket – try the red quinoa. This delicious (and nutritious) recipe was supplied by our marketing and branding guru Angela.

Over the past month or so I have been invited to speak to groups about stress and its effect on our hearts. There has been an increase in awareness about stress and about the need to maintain that often elusive concept of ‘work life balance’.

Stress is a definite risk factor in the development of heart disease. Infact stress is a risk factor in the development of many disease processes that occur in our bodies. The problem with stress is that it is difficult to measure. Stress is not a factor like blood pressure or cholesterol where we can measure something, attach a number to it, and then tell you if your number is appropriate. Stress is also not something that you, as the person experiencing it, can accurately gauge either. Most people that I meet don’t feel stressed because stress is normal, it is how they live their life. Even if you thrive on stress, it motivates you and helps you to achieve your goals, physiologically it is still a stress on your system and can cause negative changes in your body. We as human beings are good at using stress to our advantage but we are not good at de-stressing. The more stress in your life, the more important de-stressing activities are for you. It’s not a case of “I don’t have time for relaxation” it’s more a case of if you do not relax, the stress in your life will may force a down regulation upon you. For example, a heart attack will certainly cause a down regulation in the way you lead your life.

Stress can often manifest as an increase in blood pressure – especially when you are exercising. I often find that people who seem fit and healthy often have an altered blood pressure response to exercise as a result of stress. If you have high blood pressure, and that high blood pressure is caused by stress you can be medicated so that your blood pressure is forced lower by a pharmacological agent. But, if you do not manage your stress better, the negative physiological alterations are almost inevitable. So what is the solution? We cannot remove stress from our lives entirely. We cannot prevent periods of high stress associated with, for example, relationship conflicts, deaths of family or friends and raising children but we can manage it better. We can ensure that we do something every week that we love. Something that is totally relaxing and enjoyable. Whatever activity works for you as a de-stress it has to be something that gets you out of your usual routine and especially gets you out of thinking about all the things that you associate with stress. Yoga and tai chi are fantastic options as they are slow and force you to concentrate on the task at hand as opposed to what is usually in your head. Empty your head of some of the stuff flying around in there by keeping a notepad. Your thoughts are better on a piece of paper than moving at a million miles an hour in your head. And once you have ‘downloaded’ those thoughts onto your notepad, go for a walk around the Mount, stroll along the sand with your better half, curl up for a half hour with a good magazine, potter around your garden…open your eyes and see the world, smell the roses..breathe…be calm…relax

BOP Times Weekender featured 3 clients of The Cardiac Clinic who told their personal stories about heart disease and heart attacks.

SOMETHING else that’s causing Kiwis’ hearts to fail is stress. And it’s not only high-flying corporate males at risk, but women, too. Dr Anna Rolleston of the Cardiac Clinic, says heart disease was ‘‘traditionally a man’s disease’’. ‘‘More men had heart attacks or heart disease than women, but the rate has increased for women significantly over the last number of years,’’ the 32-year-old says. Rolleston reckons you could have a great discussion as to why. ‘‘In my opinion, I think it’s largely around the fact we juggle so much— family, job, responsibility, husband. We’re constantly trying to look after everyone and we forget about ourselves and stress is a big one, especially women in business nowadays. That comes with a whole heap of stress that women never used to have before. ‘‘The problem with heart disease risk is you can’t measure stress. Stress is an unusual anomaly, it doesn’t have a number associated with it and we don’t measure it well because we don’t really know how to.’’Rolleston works from the Aquatic Centre at the Bay of Plenty Polytechnic, and provides individualised programmes for people with cardiac conditions. ‘‘I always say to people, if you exercise a lot and you eat pretty well, but you’re under a lot of stress, you can still have a heart attack.’’To combat it, she recommends breathing exercises, yoga, pilates and thai chi, which are all good for relaxation. ‘‘I often say to women, go and get yourself a magazine and find a warm spot in the house, and just sit there. Don’t think about anything else, just flick through your magazine. Or go for a walk around the Mount but it can’t be classified as your exercise though, because that’s your relaxation time.’’ This year the Port of Tauranga took a proactive approach and paid 50 per cent towards their staff having a heart checkup at the Cardiac Clinic. About 40 out of 160 staff members took up the offer, which was initiated after employee Trevor Hall, who worked for port subsidiary C3, died from a heart attack in June. Hall was only in his early 50s, and fit. Port corporate services manager Sara Lunam, says at the suggestion of another employee, port management decided to partially fund a staff check-up for their predominantly male and ageing, workforce. Lunam, who herself was checked and issued a clean bill of health, says it was an ‘‘amazing thing to do’’. Rolleston says by the time men reach age 45 and and women age 55, it’s time to start thinking about your heart. ‘‘If you’ve never had any family history it would still be a good idea to have a check, so to know you’re fine. It’s better to know you’re fine, than to not know there was something wrong with you.’’ In February, the Bay of Plenty Times featured the story of Tauranga’s Steve Dyer, who had suffered a dozen heart attacks and lived to tell the tale. Within the space of just a week in October 2006, Mr Dyer was rocked by three ‘‘crushing’’ heart attacks and nine smaller ones, at a time when he thought himself a picture of health. Dyer, then 52 and living in Auckland, was close to ideal weight for his height, ate a sensible diet, didn’t smoke and drank ‘‘moderately but irregularly’’. His life was changed forever one afternoon, when he had just finished helping his daughter move house. ‘‘I was only the truck driver, so there was no heavy lifting and carrying,’’ he says. ‘‘At the end of the day I was standing at my sink, totally relaxed, when I suddenly felt this overwhelming pressure on my chest. Dyer describes himself as being fit, strong and healthy at the time. ‘‘It took five more attacks before I began to suspect there might be something going on with my heart.’’ When he finally went to his doctor 10 days later, the heart attack he suffered in the doctor’s surgery confirmed his suspicions. Dyer underwent an angioplasty procedure, where two stents were inserted into his arteries. The experience forced him to seek out amore relaxed lifestyle. ‘‘It could so easily have been different. ‘‘I enjoy every day I’m here—my experience has given me a new outlook on life.’’ On September 29, Dyer is speaking to 300-plus employees at Waipa Sawmill in Rotorua with the aim of encouraging men who ‘‘tough it out’’ to get checked out. ‘‘I urge men to have regular heart checks, to listen to their bodies and to be aware of the signs. ‘‘If you don’t do it for yourself, do it for your family.’’ Mount Maunganui College principal Terry Collett says he too was socked to have heart problems when he considered himself fit—he’d run 15 marathons. As he geared up for his 16th marathon last year, he found himself out of breath, and with a tightness in his chest. An angiogram showed he needed a triple bypass. ‘‘This came as a real shock.’’ He believes his heart condition is probably genetic. ‘‘I sometimes wonder if the good old Kiwi diet we had as kids may have helped. ‘‘We always had a butter rich diet, big meals, puddings every day, roast dinners every Sunday with steam puddings and lashings of cream.’’ To keep a heart strong, exercise and healthy food are essential. It is a case of everything in moderation, Rolleston says. ‘‘I’ll have a glass of wine and I’m not the most strict and structured person when it comes to lifestyle, but I always go to gym three timesaweek; eat well; only have red meat two times a week. I don’t work ridiculous hours. I try my hardest not to work on the weekends.’’ With such a high mortality rate for heart disease, we should all err on the side of caution. ‘‘Everybody knows someone that has had bypass surgery and it’s almost like it’s an everyday thing, but it’s a very invasive surgery and it’s not something you would want to put your body through. It is scary and unfortunately it’s a largely preventable disease. It’s the way we live our life that causes it.’’ THERE isn’t much Nolene De Luca does nowadays that doesn’t involve a bit of sweet-talking to her ole ticker. The 65-year-old lives with the fact that tomorrow, it could fail catastrophically. ‘‘Oh, I respect it very much,’’ she says, her hand instinctively touching her chest. ‘‘It’s a funny old feeling. I don’t think a day goes by where you don’t think of something to do with the heart.’’A year ago though, she didn’t think of it at all. What she knew about it extended to this: ‘‘I knew I needed it to keep me alive and it beats regularly.  Other than that, not much really.’’ Like most Kiwis, De Luca was living life, with not much thought to her most vital organ. After retiring five years ago, life slowed down. De Luca was rarely exercising. She put on weight. She wined and dined. She relaxed. She was content. Her heart wasn’t. For all its expert engineering, her body didn’t give her much warning when it failed. For De Luca, the first sign came with feeling sick. It was May last year, when the heart attack struck. After five hours in her garden, with the sun beating down, she decided to call it a day. She had muscular pain and when she walked inside, she started to feel ill. ‘‘I lay down on the couch and couldn’t be bothered doing anything. I said to my husband, ‘I think you better get your own dinner’.’’ She went to bed and was woken at 11pm by pain ravaging her chest and back. Thinking she had merely worked too hard in the garden, she went back to sleep. By 2am the ‘‘biting’’ pain was worse and she could feel a mighty fist tightening in her chest. ‘‘It was really major and I knew it was something different and I suspected it was probably heart.’’ Husband Mike drove her to Tauranga Hospital. A blood sample confirmed a heart attack. She was given drugs and ‘‘wired up to the system’’. ‘‘They did an angiogram and they found I had a 95 per cent (artery) blockage and a 40 per cent blockage . . . so that was it.’’ After 10 days in  Tauranga Hospital, De Luca went to Waikato and had a stent put in. She was never to be the same. A second September has rolled around, and new life has sprung. De Luca, a former Waihi Beach ward district councillor, is a new woman. Large French doors are pulled back and a tui, in a nearby tree, is singing its heart out. Like most New Zealand women De Luca never thought a heart attack would strike her. She was a sporty teenager and adult—a runner until age 50. When she looks back now though, there were warning signs. After moving from Waihi Beach to their 3.5 acre property in Te Puna nine years ago, De Luca put on weight. At her heaviest she was 84kg. ‘‘I’d get puffed walking up the (300m) driveway after I’d been down to get the paper . . . I wasn’t going for walks at all. I said to someone ‘I’ve become tomorrow’s girl. I’m always  going to do it tomorrow’.’’ She was cooking chicken and steak with the fat on, and spreading a generous helping of margarine on bread. Her portion sizes were large. In hindsight, she should have been mindful of her family history. Her cousin died of a heart attack, her mother had circulation problems, an aunt and another cousin each had a quadruple bypass, and her grandmother had a brain haemorrhage. ‘‘Afterwards I thought ‘Oh dear, that is scary. It’s the family’.’’ To fight the risk of having another heart attack, De Luca goes to the gym; watches what she eats; and climbs Mauao. Her weight has dropped to 73kg. The only luxury she allows herself is a glass of red wine each night. What it’s made her realise, is you only have one life. ‘‘I probably think about it more . . . They tell you at the hospital afterwards, they tell you after the event, they call it an ‘event’, you will feel every pain imaginable, and you do. I didn’t think it would happen to me. I never even gave it a thought.’’ She can’t change her genetic make-up but she can warn others. ‘‘A lot of people don’t want to tell the public they’ve had a heart attack but you can’t get away from the fact, it’s a heart attack. And why did it happen? Because I let it happen. ‘‘I’m 65 and I want my life to last a little bit longer. I’ve got a few things to do yet.’’

Make sure you visit this fabulous foodie store and if you’d like to join their loyalty scheme, go in store and they will sign you up. Each time you flash your card at the checkout you will receive a discount on your shopping bill. They will also send you a newsletter telling you about the weekly specials ahead of everyone else as well as recipes, tips, tastings and demonstrations in store and their weekly Good dinner menu. open Mon-Sat 8am – 6pm, Sun 9am – 6pm. 35 MacDonald St, Mt Maunganui (07) 574 2362

Our recipe this month (see below) is brought to you by The Good Food Trading Co. Make sure you visit this fabulous foodie store and if you’d like to join their loyalty scheme, go in store and they will sign you up. Each time you flash your card at the checkout you will receive a discount on your shopping bill. They will also send you a newsletter telling you about the weekly specials ahead of everyone else as well as recipes, tips, tastings and demonstrations in store and their weekly Good dinner menu. open Mon-Sat 8am – 6pm, Sun 9am – 6pm. 35 MacDonald St, Mt Maunganui (07) 574 2362

Chicken Ragu with Parpadelle
This a fantastic way to turn drumsticks into a luxurious meal. A little bacon or pancetta thrown in with the celery would make a delicious addition, as would a few sliced field mushrooms.

1tbsp olive oil
4-6 Harmony Free Range chicken drumsticks
2 celery stalks, finely chopped
1 small red onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
200ml chicken stock
1 canned Italian tomatoes
3 tbsp chopped fresh herbs (I used basil, sage, oregano and thyme)
3 bay leaves
200ml red wine
1 tbsp milk
sea salt & cracked pepper
400g Colavita pappardelle pasta
parmesan cheese & fresh herbs, to serve

Heat the oil in an ovenproof & stovetop safe casserole dish over a medium heat. Add the chicken and brown on all sides. Remove and set aside. Drain all but 1 tbsp of fat from the pan and add the celery and red onion. Cook for a few minutes to soften. Add the garlic and cook a further few minutes. Add the chicken, stock, tomatoes (plus half a tinful of water), herbs, bay leaves and wine. Bring to a gentle simmer, cover with a lid and place into an oven heated to 180 degrees Celsius. Cook for 1.5 hours, or until the meat falls from the bones. Remove from the oven and leave to cool a little. Remove the skin from the chicken (with tongs if too hot to handle) and cut the meat from the bones. Discard the bones and skin and set aside the meat. Simmer the sauce over a medium heat on the stovetop, adding extra water if too thick or reducing if too thin. Once it’s at the consistency you like, return the chicken meat to the pan along with the milk and lots of salt & pepper and cook until warmed through. Meanwhile cook the pasta in plenty of salted boiling water. Drain well once aldente and stir some of the Ragu through the pasta. Distribute into bowls and top with more Ragu. Serve with parmesan and more fresh herbs.