Dairy-free sticky ginger cake

This is an indulgent treat for people who can’t eat dairy. The sugar and treacle produce a really sticky cake, which will taste even better after a day or two.

Prep 20 min Cook 40 min Cuts into 8

Cooking oil spray, to grease

150ml soya milk (or dairy-free alternative to milk)

2tbsp black treacle

100ml groundnut oil

225g self-raising flour

½tsp baking powder

100g Whitworths dark soft brown sugar

1tsp ground ginger

50g crystallised ginger, finely chopped

1tsp white wine vinegar

1tsp bicarbonate of soda

1.     Preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan/gas mark 4. Grease and line a 900g loaf tin.

2.     Beat the soya milk or dairy-free alternative to milk, treacle and oil together. Add the flour, baking powder, sugar, ground and crystallised ginger and mix well. Stir the vinegar and bicarbonate of soda together, add to the batter and mix well. Pour the mixture into the tin and bake for 35–40 min until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.

3.     Remove the cake from the oven and allow it to stand in the tin for 1-2 min before transferring to a wire rack to cool.  

Per slice: 296kcal; 3.1g protein; 13.3g fat; 2.6g saturates; 43.8g carbs; 21.9g sugar; 1.3g fibre; 0.7g salt; 145mg calcium; 2.3mg iron

Is coconut oil healthy?

By Liz Atkins

At Healthy Food Guide we get a lot of enquiries about coconut oil. Is it better for you than other oils, is it really full of antioxidants, can it help you lose weight, and do all those coconut-crazed celebrities know something the rest of us don’t? It certainly seems to be taking up a lot of supermarket shelf space at the moment…

So the facts are these: coconut oil is high in saturated 

fat – a typical level tablespoon has 135kcal and 15g fat, 

of which 13g are saturated (it also has small amounts of monounsaturates and polyunsaturates). We shouldn’t be eating more than 20g saturates a day if we want to reduce the risk of raising bad (LDL) cholesterol in the blood, and thus the chances of heart disease.

But here the waters get a little muddied... Virgin coconut oil is high in lauric acid, a type of saturated fat that’s sub-classified as a medium-chain fatty acid. This, say scientists, can lead to a rise in both bad and good (HDL) cholesterol levels in our blood. So, despite being rich in saturated fat, virgin coconut oil may actually have a neutral - or even beneficial - effect on overall blood cholesterol levels. At least, that’s what early research is suggesting. But it’s far from conclusive.

Research into other health benefits, including its effect on weight loss, is limited. Virgin coconut oil does appear to contain some antioxidants but, if you’re eating a balanced, varied diet that includes plenty of fruit and veg each day, you shouldn’t be going short on these.

Sadly, like all other oils, it’s high in calories, so if you’re watching your weight, you need to restrict the amount you use. Skinnier-than-average celebrities, remember, tend to eat very little of anything, coconut oil included. The government recommends sticking below 70g total fat and 20g saturated fat each day.

Still curious?

If you want to try it, we recommend you go for virgin coconut oil, which comes from the fruit of the ripe coconut flesh. It’s an unrefined fat, ie no chemicals are used and it’s not heated to high temperatures. Avoid both refined and partially hydrogenated coconut oil: they’re likely to contain trans fats, which appear to be even more damaging to our bodies than saturated fats.

How to cut your risk of type 2 diabetes

By Tracy Kelly, Diabetes UK

Diabetes levels are soaring with no signs of slowing down.

New figures just released by Diabetes UK show that the number of people diagnosed with diabetes in the UK has increased to more than 3.2 million. This is the biggest increase in a single year since 2008, with 163,000 more cases in 2013 than there were in 2012.

These figures demonstrate that the sharp rise of new cases over the last decade shows no signs of slowing down. Even more worrying is that if we continue on this trajectory it is predicted there will be 5 million people affected by diabetes in the UK by 2025.

Type 2 diabetes accounts for most of the increase and one of the main reasons for this is the high obesity rate. Being overweight is a significant risk factor for type 2 diabetes, while other factors include genetics, age and ethnicity. We need more people to be aware of diabetes, more people to know their risk of developing type 2 diabetes and more people being supported to reduce their risk of developing it.

The big increase in the number of people with diabetes confirms that we are in the middle of an unfolding public health disaster  and  it is frightening to think that one in 17 people you walk past in the street has been diagnosed with the condition. This doesn’t include the 630,000 who have diabetes but don’t yet know it. The time to act is now! 

Apart from campaigning for better public awareness, better prevention programmes for type 2 diabetes and better care for everyone with diabetes, we need to address the obesity crisis by making healthy food cheaper and more accessible and by making it easier for people to build physical activity into their daily lives.

We’d really encourage Healthy Food Guide readers to find out more about diabetes by visiting www.diabetes.org.uk. You can also find out your risk of developing type 2 diabetes by taking a quick online risk assessment (www.diabetes.org.uk/risk) or discussing your concerns with your nurse or doctor.  Taking action now could help you to significantly reduce your risk of developing Type 2 diabetes.

How to cook a healthy Valentine’s supper

By Melanie Leyshon

HFG crème brûlée: pure indulgence for under 200kcal 

One Valentine’s Day, before joining Healthy Food Guide, I was planning a night-in for two. I spent an age on recipe sites, trying to find three perfect courses – not too everyday, not too indulgent. There’s nothing seductive about a pudding that delivers 900 calories in one go or a meal that makes you feel so stuffed that you want to go to bed early… to sleep it off.

I couldn’t find any planned menus I liked, so chose three recipes that came in under 1,000 calories – a simple smoked salmon pâté to start, a fantastic seared steak with rocket (tagliata) and an extravagant, but not too OTT, chocolate pud (thanks to Healthy Food Guidemagazine’s indulgent cookery cousin, http://www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk).

This year, as editor of Healthy Food Guide, I thought I’d do myself (and those of you who are also staying in à deux) a favour by asking our recipe consultant Phil Mundy to plan a healthier Valentine’s supper. The brief: the menu needed to be satisfyingly sexy but still under 700 calories.

Phil chose a French bistro-style meal that has 673 calories all-in: a prawn salad with mango and chilli, steak and chips with a homemade tomato chutney and a prepare-ahead crème brulée.

Our friends at the Express newspaper came over to the HFG test kitchen to film Phil cooking all three recipes. Even the paper’s man-size cameraman found them filling as well as tasty.

Sit back and watch Phil whiz up the menu at http://www.express.co.uk/life-style/food/454999/How-to-cook-a-healthy-three-course-Valentine-s-Day-dinner-for-two. He also shares his brilliant cookery tips and nutrition advice.

For more recipe clips, see Phil cook our three favourite Healthy Food Guide mood-boosting recipes at: http://www.express.co.uk/life-style/food/455028/beat-the-january-blues-with-three-easy-mood-boosting-recipes.