As a keen runner, walker, swimmer and yogi, having to spend 4 weeks in a moon boot with no chance for physical activity at all has meant that I’ve had to be very creative and disciplined with my diet! One thing that I wanted to improve was my vegetable intake. I just don’t believe that the World Health Organisation’s target of 5+ servings a day is adequate for good health. The research is beginning to back this up; see this article from The Telegraph: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/10735633/Healthy-diet-means-10-portions-of-fruit-and-vegetables-per-day-not-five.html

I spent a bit of time researching various food trends, and one that got my interest is the Alkaline Diet. Eating food that is alkalinsing for the body is touted to have plenty of health benefits, especially for autoimmune diseases like RA, so I decided to give it a go. Like any food fad, you can do it moderately or go the extreme way. With a busy job and family, I opted to ease into the diet and pick out the bits that appealed to me.

So the most basic and important and part of eating alkaline is to make 75% of your daily intake fresh, preferably raw fruit and vegetables. The other 25% should be made up of alkaline foods, but I kind of figured that any treats could come under the 25% allowance too! So basically my plan was to eat at least 7 cups of veges a day, and cut down on everything else.

At first it sounded daunting, but the first step was to go to the local market and get a huge variety of fresh vegetables. With my fridge chock-full of all that crunchy fresh goodness, getting inspired wasn’t a problem.

The first thing I did was approach meals differently, so rather than plan how to include fresh vegetables in my meal, I planned how to make it with vegetables and accent it with a small amount of protein or grains. I tried to eat only as much wheat as other grains, and keep dairy to a minimum. I included small amounts of fish and free range chicken, but avoided red meat as it is highly acidic.

Some clever tips and swaps I have discovered have been:

• Swap a bread wrap with an iceberg lettuce leaf to make a lunch wrap entirely raw. A bit of hummus or home made aioli adds protein
• Swap pasta/rice/noodles for spinach. It works! One night the kids made nachos, and I spooned some bean mixture over chopped raw spinach. It was delicious and surprisingly filling!
• Get vegetables in at every opportunity. A vege juice first thing in the morning, carrot sticks with hummus for morning tea, salad wrap for lunch, avocado and tomato for afternoon tea, and a salad for dinner easily adds up to 7 cups
• Use less alkalising food as an accent, not the main event. So a few bites of chicken could liven up a curry, while only making up about 5% of it rather than being the main ingredient. A couple of slices of haloumi can lift a vege platter to a new level!
• Legumes are your friend. Sometimes it feels like vegetables alone just will not fill you up, so a handful of chickpeas, a spoonful of bean salad, a blob of hummus or a couple of falafel can give you the protein you need for satiety
• Be creative about making snacks vege-based. I have been snacking on beetroot chips, sliced red capsicum, carrot sticks, kale chips and avocado
• I know it’s become a bit of a cliche, but cauliflower makes an excellent substitute for rice, bread, and potato. Here’s some delicious cauliflower pizzas I made topped with fresh vegetables (and cheese for the kids). Let me know if you’d like the recipe.

The hard-core Alkaline people get technical about food combining and ph levels, and I’m sure that you would get even more health benefits from following all the rules. But for now, I’m happy to be serving more fresh vegetables to my family and using nature’s bounty as the basis of all my meals.