Fitness Matrix

Preparation Time 15 minutes

Cooking Time 25 minutes

Ingredients

• Large knob of butter
• 1 large onion – chopped
• 4 chicken breasts – chopped
• 4 cloves of garlic – crushed
• 1 red chilli – thinly sliced
• 2 red peppers – chopped
• 200g mushrooms – sliced
• 200g tin of olives – pitted
• 2 x 400g tin chopped tomatoes
• Handful of fresh thyme
• Sea salt and black pepper to season

To serve:  Wholewheat pasta or homemade chips cooked in lard, goose or duck fat (see recipes)

Method

1. Heat the butter in a large pan, then add onion and fry until soft.
2. Add the chicken and fry until cooked through.
3. Once the chicken is cooked, add all the remaining ingredients, cover and simmer for 15 minutes .

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There are three types of cholesterol:-

High Density Lipoproteins (HDL) – Your body’s protector!

Low Density Lipoproteins (LDL)

Very Low Density Lipoproteins (VLDL)

We are persistently bombarded by the media with television adverts and magazine articles, that tell us our cholesterol should be low….this simple isn’t true!  Not all cholesterol is bad for you.  The VLDL and LDL are the bad types of cholesterol and the HDL is the good type.  The VLDL and LDL are produced from trans fats, which go to work on the inside of your arteries, making them narrower and increasing your blood pressure.  The HDL works in the opposite way, by galvanising your arteries and protecting your body against the VLDL and LDL, preventing them from penetrating your arteries and reducing the risk of hypertension.

To increase your HDL, you should be eating more good saturated fat.  Follow this link for more information:  http://www.fitnessmatrix.co.uk/2009/04/good-saturated-fat-the-past-is-the-future/

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In an article in the November issue of Womens Fitness, they state that celebrity cookbooks may be damaging to our health, according to a new report by the ‘Fat Panel’.

The study revealed that the saturated fat content of many dishes from celebrity chefs’ recipes, contained more than 100 per cent
of the guideline daily amount of saturated fat in a single serving (30g for men and 20g for women).  Sian Porter registered dietitian on the fat
panel, says “having a celebrity chef treat is one thing, but eating these dishes regularly could bump up your saturated fat intake considerably”.

Yes it could and it should!  Your body wants good saturated fat, as it is its primary source of fuel, supplying sustained energy and acting as a protector, because it provides the immune system with the fuel it needs to become strong, resulting in the body being more equipped to fight-off infection.  Good saturated fat is also vitally important for the body to properly metabolise all other nutrients and receive the best from the food ingested.

I realise that this is contrary to popular belief and that you may be thinking that saturated fat will be detrimental to your health, but this couldn’t be further from the truth.  The human animal has historically lived on good saturated fat for hundreds of years, but in the last century, we have been brain-washed by the media and the power of advertising, to believe that foods that are ‘low-fat’, ‘light’ and ‘healthy option’ are good for us, but this is not the case.  Some of the products that provide good saturated fat are; whole milk, butter, cheese, double cream, free range eggs, lard, beef dripping, goose and duck fat, which are natural products and benefit from not being tampered by humans.

For more information on good saturated fat, follow this link:  http://www.fitnessmatrix.co.uk/2009/04/good-saturated-fat-the-past-is-the-future/

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This has been and is, of paramount importance to your body. Hundreds of years ago people lived off the land, getting their milk straight from a cow, with no pasteurisation process, which takes out half the goodness.   They got their eggs from chickens that roamed free and were not battery farmed and not force fed.  They got their meat from pasture fed animals, not a man made diet laced with antibiotics. [...]

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