I Quit Sugar for Life (46 page)

MAKES

Cut the pepper into four 1.5-cm rings and place in a lightly oiled frying pan over low heat. Crack an egg in the middle of each ring, then cover and cook until done. If your
kids like their yolks firm, break the yolks and then cover and cook over low heat until both whites and yolks are firm.

SUSTAINABILITY TIP:
Use the leftover pepper in a soup, salad, juice, casserole or to make Bento Bits.

The recipes here are nutrient-dense parcels of goodness.

Heck, some are healthy enough to eat for breakfast (as I do!).

Chocolate can be a health food. I sometimes eat it for breakfast. True story. But it needs to be cooked and eaten the right way.

When you read about those studies that report the amazing health benefits of chocolate, know this: they refer to raw cacao. Raw cacao powder is made by cold-pressing unroasted
cocoa beans. The process keeps the living enzymes in the cocoa bean and removes the fat (cocoa butter). Cocoa powder is raw cacao that’s been roasted at high temperatures. Sadly, roasting
changes the molecular structure of the cocoa bean, reducing the enzyme content and lowering the overall nutritional value. If you’re stuck, though, feel free to substitute cacao with cocoa
1:1.

Many commercial chocolates contain unhealthy poly-unsaturated oils, often palm oil, or PGPR. Why? Because it’s cheaper than cocoa butter. Why should we care? Because these
oils cause a lot of oxidative stress in our body and are linked to cancer and heart disease. Cocoa butter is the fat in cocoa beans that separates from the powder when the bean is cold-pressed
(cacao) or roasted (cocoa). It’s fantastic stuff. You can buy it in health food shops in buttons or chunks (that you’ll need to grate before melting).

A few recipes call for store-bought chocolate. If you’re going to eat commercial chocolate, go for 85% cocoa varieties. A 70% variety is passable in small quantities. Do
your maths and be aware of how much you’re eating. Generally, whatever’s not cocoa is sugar. So, a 70% cocoa chocolate bar will contain about 30% sugar. If you’re eating a small
35 g bar, that’s about 10.5 g sugar, or 2½ teaspoons. Be conscious of this.

My experiments to find the perfect raw choc recipe.

IS CAROB OK?
Short answer: No!

It contains up to 50 per cent fructose, while the fructose content of cacao/ cocoa is less than 1 per cent.

BEWARE

Most sugar-free chocolate is sweetened with maltitol, a sugar alcohol that passes straight to our large intestine, where it is broken down via fermentation by our gut bacteria,
causing wind, bloating and diarrhoea. It has also been linked to the formation of cancer tumours.

The iquitsugar.com team and our instagram followers have been perfecting perfect chocolate combos for a while now . . .

Chop it into even-sized bits.

Use a double boiler, or simply place a heatproof bowl over a small saucepan with 2 cm of water in it.

Simmer very gently over very low heat, stirring with a rubber spatula (never a wooden or metal spoon). (Chocolate
retains its shape when melted, so the only way to know if it is actually melted is to stir it.)

Stir continuously until your chocolate is shiny, smooth and completely melted.