Japanese Cooking Blog with Asako Nonaka #12
Asako Nonaka ◆ October 13, 2015
What make your heart move? You? If so, can you stop and move the heart consciously? The answer is no.
The body works day and night for you. It’s not only the heart but also other organs.
When we eat food, the body transfers it to the stomach and digests it, absorbs the nutrition and water in the intestines, and excretes the remainder.
When we get an injury, the platelets help you stop bleeding, the white blood cells fight infections and the cells make new skin and blood vessels.
The lungs help you to take fresh air, get rid of stale air, and even talk.
Frankly they are almost magical systems! Originally the body helps you maintain a healthy body. In order to do that, what we take into the body is food.
You can decide what you eat. You can choose between rice or bread for breakfast. I would like you to talk to your body before eating. Is the food a healthy choice for the body or not?
We should have proper nutrition everyday. There are carbohydrates, proteins, fat, vitamins, minerals and water. They help you make the cells and energy and prevent a number of health conditions like abnormally high or low blood pressure, anemia and life-style disease.
A car requires gasoline to run. But if it’s low-grade fuel, the car will not run. Likewise, your body needs not foods which contain many additives, sugary soft drinks and snacks, but real good food.
The body doesn’t have a voice. But it can appeal to us in other ways like pain, inflammation, and fever. There is also evidence that the body fights with something bad. We have to notice the signs. It’s not a real solution to take medicine. We have to talk with the body and know what happens in it.
“Is the food a healthy choice for the body or not?” I would like you to ask your body before and after eating. When you eat the food you might feel happy, but after 30 minutes you might have dull stomach pain.
I don’t want you to be stoic before eating. At first, after talking with your body, then if the body says ok, try the food. If it disagrees with you after eating, you can avoid it next time.
There is no one perfect diet for everyone. I hope you will find an individual diet talking with your body.
This time I am introducing Japanese braised pumpkin for the Halloween season!
Pumpkin has plenty of nutrition. It is said that you will never catch a cold if you eat pumpkin in the winter because it boosts your immune system. Vitamin E is good for your hormones and works for improving blood circulation and unit-aging. It also works for those who have shoulder ache.
Recipe: Braised Pumpkin
Ingredients
1/2 or 1/4 pumpkin
1 cup of water or broth (Dashi)
2 tbsp of brown sugar
2 tbsp of mirin
2 tbsp of sake
2 tbsp of soy sauce
Directions
1 Wrap the pumpkin and put in microwave for 1-2 minutes.
2 Remove the seeds and cut into bite-size chunks.
3 Put the pumpkin into a pan and add the other ingredients.
4 Bring to boil then reduce heat. Cover the pumpkin with paper towel and place lid on pan. Simmer for 13 minutes.
Enjoy cooking and have a great Halloween season 🙂
