Recently a Michelin-starred restaurant, that uses some of our ecological vegetables, presented us with a copy of a recipe book called ‘Menus for Cardiovascular Health’.  It was published jointly by the Californian Walnut Association and Spanish Heart Foundation to promote the use of walnuts in leading Spanish restaurants. 

We were surprised, however, that more than half the recipes used sugar or corn syrup, and not stevia. When we raised this with one of the contributing chefs, he said that ‘clients respond well to sweet-tasting dishes. and the use of sugar is not that unhealthy’. We were surprised by his reply for two reasons. In the past few years he has lost over fifty kilos in weight, and he has a supply of stevia. But he is right about one thing: we have always been given sugared things as a treat from an early age and often prefer them to things that are spicy or tart.

This prompted a look at the shelf of British products in a local store stocked to attract expatriate customers, which included a popular brand of horse radish sauce.
Horse radish is easy to grow in Spain and we regularly grate a root to mix and dilute it with nothing other than extra virgin olive oil if we are to eat it with meat, and cider vinegar or fresh lemon juice to accompany a fish dish.

But back to the bottle on the shelf.  Its contents read ‘Horse radish 30%, water, spirit vinegar, vegetable oil, turnip, glucose syrup, sugar, pasteurised egg yolk powder, salt, stabiliser gum, mustard flour, flavouring, sodium meta-bisulphite as a preservative’.

If you have a terrace, patio or garden, why replace the natural healthy benefits of an easy-to-grow inexpensive healthy plant for a product that contains flavourings, sweeteners and other ‘enhancers’?  The plant has a unique flavour of its own, and it contains useful levels of vitamin C, potassium calcium and sulphur; it has anti-inflammatory, and diuretic, properties, and it also helps our metabolic rate.

© By Clodagh and Richard Handscombe, holistic gardeners living in Spain.  Their website is www.gardeninginspain.com and their latest books relevant to all Mediterranean climate situations are ‘Your Garden in Spain’, ‘Growing Healthby Fruit in Spain’ and ‘Growing Healthy Vegetables in Spain’. August 2009.