Susan Alsembach

There is the perception that anything sweet is not good for us. However, sweetness in itself is not bad. Giulia Enders, author of “Gut: The Inside Story of Our Body's Most Underrated Organ”, sums it up nicely: “It just depends where it comes from”. Using this as a basis, [...]

ABOVE: Sprouted grain bread, like Ezekiel bread, is an option for people who are gluten sensitive. Like many other foods sprouted grains appear to be making their presence more noticed in the grocery stores. So, this week I will be looking at what exactly are sprouted grains and the digestive benefits [...]

With spring well and truly here, we are spending more time outdoors and for most people the warming temperatures encourage us to be more active. We are largely made up of water (about 70 per cent) therefore it stands to reason that for our bodies require good hydration to function properly. However, [...]

Sleep is a precious commodity and far too often relegated to the bottom of the heap when looking at lifestyle. I often hear “I manage or get by on 6 hours” as if this were a badge of honour, when in fact we know that good sleep plays an important role in maintaining good health. This week [...]

PHOTO: NICK BRATANE, UNSPLASH Quinoa is native to South America, where it is considered a staple food. It was thought to first be cultivated near Lake Titicaca—between Bolivia and Peru in the Andes Mountains—about 5000 years ago. Due to its many health benefits which we will look at this [...]

February was Healthy Heart Month, so here are a few fun facts regarding our heart. Did you know that your heart is roughly the size of your fist; it pumps about 115,000 litres of blood a day and weighs less than a pound? Its most important role is to pump blood around the body, so it makes sense that [...]

One question I use to dread was ‘what am I going to make for dinner tonight?' It was an awful feeling not knowing what are we were going to eat. Then, I would think of various options only to realize that for each one I was missing a certain ingredient. By this time, everyone in the family [...]

The fourth of February was Homemade National Soup Day. To celebrate this, I will be looking at the value of adding homemade soups to your meal planning, how you can easily increase your vegetable intake, as well as lifestyle and health benefits of soup. I firmly believe that good food does not have to [...]

Above: Gluten free, vegan, banana-oat smoothie! (PHOTO: Dmitrii Ivanov, istock) January is oat month and although February is just around the corner, I feel there is still time to celebrate the importance of oats. So, this week we are be looking at the various ways to integrate oats into our diets, [...]

This week we will look at the practical and health advantages of using a slow cooker. For those of who don't already own one, the ease of preparing a meal in the morning in a one-step preparation — doing all the chopping, cutting, and measuring, setting the timer — and then being able [...]