from the Irish Times 20.1.2024
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Forget pricey supplements and expensive imports – these Irish superfoods have been seeing us right for centuries
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Every
January, we’re pedalled pricey “superfoods” and supplements offering
all sorts of promises, often flown in from faraway places. But what
about more sustainable local, home-grown treasures for healthier eating?
“We have some of
the best food producers here in Ireland, but people still want to buy
protein bars with 30 ingredients with no thought to their gut health,
our grand central station to our health,” says Heather Maguire, a
nutritional health coach who focuses on the connection between
lifestyle, quality food and gut health with her clients.
Her main aim,
which sounds like what most of want in the new year, is to add “powerful
foods into your diet that leave you feeling energised, dropping the
brain food and lifting the mood”. Yes, please.
Maguire is not a
fan of “new year superfoods”, citing it as one of her main bugbears for
people looking to make changes. One of the first things she does with
clients is take them around the supermarket, pointing out how the “good
stuff” is often not located in the so-called “healthy food” aisle. She
says we overlook the power of simple foods that are full of goodness,
like plain yoghurt and berries, and urges people to look past trends and
fads. “I am on a mission to bring awareness, prevention, change, and,
to be honest, some much-needed common sense back to the table and our
lives,” she says.
Looking beyond
the trends and back into the past, Ireland has a long history of
thinking about food functionally. A recently published Irish book, Cures
of Ireland: A Treasury of Irish Folk Remedies by Cecily Gilligan
explores Irish folk cures and remedies, many of which are culinary and
herbal. Some of the cures noted included “nettle soup in the springtime
for blood pressure, eating young dandelion leaves for gallstones and
drinking honey in warm milk at bedtime for a good night’s sleep”.
Remedies for arthritis included “dandelion tea made from the leaves in
spring and sweetened with honey, or simmer wild garlic leaves in milk,
strain and drink, or eat parsley, or apples, or take a seaweed bath”.
For asthma you might “drink goat’s milk, or take carraigín (seaweed) in
boiled water”. We treated coughs with “rosehip syrup (rich in vitamin
C), dilute with hot water and drink”, and for gout, we would “eat
parsley, or nettle soup, or apply honey”.
Gilligan admits
she does not know the “medicinal value” of the “cures” she has gathered,
but the fact they are part of the folkloric tradition and that they’ve
been around for hundreds of years passed down from generation to
generation says a lot, she believes. There are still many used day to
day, such as honey for sore throats and colds. A traditional cure that
saw a resurgence over the past few years was making a drink with
carraigín to treat coughs – an ancient remedy praised to this day for
its anti-inflammatory and expectorant properties.
In her
authoritative book on Irish food history, Land of Milk and Honey: The
Story of Traditional Irish Food and Drink, Bríd Mahon also mentions many
“cures”, including buttermilk, which was “considered a certain cure for
a hangover and was much in demand after weddings, wakes and festivals
when some were in the habit of imbibing not wisely if too well”. She
writes about whey being used as a cure for kidney ailments, upset
stomachs and fevers, and how goat’s milk was said to cure anaemic
complaints. “Our ancestors brought common sense to everything they did,
including what they ate and drank.” Here are some of the Irish
superfoods that have been seeing us right for centuries.
Oats
Oats
have long been a staple of the Irish diet. “Since medieval times,
porridge and gruel were valued for their nutritional and sustaining
properties, and were regularly recommended for the young, the sick and
those ailing,” writes food historian Regina Sexton in her book A Little
History of Irish Food. She even notes that the monks recognised the
positive values of porridge, calling for its inclusion in the diet of
menstruating nuns.Oats are still recommended to women in particular
today, thanks to the B vitamins and magnesium. “They are full of soluble
fibre, which can help with lowering cholesterol,” Heather Maguire adds.
She recommends steel cut or pinhead oats, even though they take a bit
longer to cook. “They have a lower GI (glycaemic index), which means
they are digested more slowly and help with managing blood sugars.”
Pimp your
porridge to add flavour and even more nutrition. Maguire recommends
nuts, seeds and berries. “Our gut thrives on the diversity of our food,
[we should be] aiming for 30 plants a week.” Another great home-grown
hero food to add is a big spoon of yoghurt, making sure it’s plain,
“non-sweetened with the only ingredients being the milk and the
cultures. You’re adding now healthy fats and your fermented food.”
Beetroot
We’ve
come a long way from vinegary crinkly jarred beetroot ubiquitous on
Irish “salad plates”. Beetroot has had a well- deserved glow-up over the
past decade or so, with good reason. “They are a nutritional
powerhouse,” says Maguire. “They are high in B6 which your body can’t
make, so you need to eat it or supplement it or both. B6 is so important
for many things such as brain health, nervous system, and immunity.”
They are a great source of fibre too. “People will always associate
fibre with digestion, but it plays such a big role in our health. Feeds
the good bacteria in our gut, helps manage blood sugars, lowers
cholesterol and reduces inflammation.”Beetroot also has plenty of
folate, “important for red blood cell formation and healthy cell growth
and function”, and nitrates that “when converted to nitrate oxide,
signal the blood vessels to relax and can lower blood pressure and
enhance circulation, improving workout performance and recovery”.
Sometimes the
preparation can put us off – the boiling, the staining, the peeling.
Cutting beetroots into wedges and oven-roasting or air-frying them is an
easy way to cook them, and it concentrates their delicious, sweet
flavour. A young beetroot will cook in boiling water in 15-20 minutes,
and when they are done, the skin rubs off easily. Buy with the leaves
still on for more health benefits. The leaves are similar to chard, with
a “higher iron count than spinach, and contain way more antioxidants
than the beet itself”, says Maguire.
Mushrooms
When
it comes to foods with big health claims, mushrooms are having a
moment. Take a glance at any health food shop you’ll find a wide
selection of mushroom supplements and powders with names such as lion’s
mane, turkey tail, chaga and reishi. Mushroom tablets, teas and coffees
are pitched as functional, with price tags to match the size of their
claims. Mushrooms have been thought of as medicinal for millennia and
are an important part of traditional Chinese medicine. But what about
everyday mushrooms?
Your supermarket
mushrooms are already packing quite a punch – low in calories, high in
fibre and protein, and a source of potassium, selenium, riboflavin,
niacin, folate and biotin. You can buy mushrooms enriched with vitamin
D, which Irish diets often lack. You can do this at home yourself, by
leaving them in sunlight for an hour. “They are also prebiotic,” says
Maguire. “They encourage the growth of good bacteria in your gut.”
It’s easy to add
more mushrooms into your diet – with eggs for a protein-packed
breakfast, as a nutrient boost for salads, simply cooked and served on
toast, or as a meat substitute. These days there are plenty of
Irish-grown exotic varieties such as shiitake, oyster, maitake, nameko
and white beech. Wild mushrooms are growing in popularity, too, offering
even more of a nutritional punch, but pickers beware: always forage
with someone who knows what they are doing until you know enough
yourself. Look up Courtney Tyler or Bill O’Dea for expertise on wild
mushroom foraging in Ireland.
Honey
Honey
has been a prized food throughout history. In Ireland there was a
special section in Brehon Laws on beekeeping and honey bees. Historian
Bríd Mahon’s book on the story of traditional Irish food and drink, Land
of Milk and Honey, is so-called because of its role in Irish cures and
remedies up to the present day.
According to a
collaborative research project from teams at Trinity College Dublin and
Dublin City University in 2018, Irish honey is a worthy alternative to
imported manuka honey. The researchers found that Irish heather honey
has a similar level of powerful antioxidants called phenolic compounds,
which help to prevent damage occurring in the cells of the body. Honey
can be a source of enzymes, vitamins and minerals, but buyer beware –
not all honey is as it seems. “Not every product labelled as honey is
100 per cent pure honey,” says Maguire.
“Some are filled
with artificial sweeteners, high fructose, and brown rice syrup and
additives. We have some exceptional honey producers in Ireland; I would
recommend knowing your supplier and your source and reading your
labels.”
Look out too for
raw Irish honey, which is less processed, and buy local to help to
support native bees. Due to its high sugar content, honey should be
eaten in moderation, however – and may not offer much health benefit in
such small quantities.
Oysters and mussels
Oysters
have also been gaining attention lately for their potent qualities,
with several Irish “oyster extract” supplements now on the market. It’s
no wonder; they are little parcels of goodness, rich in vitamin D,
copper, zinc, manganese, selenium and protein. They are often touted as
aphrodisiacs too, most likely because the combination of nutrients they
provide is great for energy levels. Rather than reaching for the
supplement jar, go for the real thing. Fresh Irish oysters are local,
delicious and, as an island nation, we should be eating more of them.The
same can be said of mussels, a food we love to eat on holidays in
Europe but often forget about at home. Mussels are some of the most
affordable, nutritious and delicious things we can eat. “Oysters and
mussels are rich in omega-3 fatty acids (healthy fats) which play an
enormous role in our overall health,” says Maguire. “Healthy fats are
essential building blocks for our brain, memory, mood and learning and
they are anti-inflammatory. The body can’t make them; we need to get
them from our food.”
Seaweed
Seaweed
is considered one of the most nutritionally dense forms of vegetation
on the planet. It’s jam-packed with vitamins and minerals, with vitamins
A, B, C, and E, 56 minerals and trace elements. It’s a source of
calcium, vitamin B12, and antioxidants. There are claims that seaweed
can help you live longer, fight disease, lose weight, and make your hair
shiny. In Ireland, the nutritional powers of seaweed – particularly
carraigín moss – have long been known, but it’s not the easiest thing to
work into your diet. So where to start?
There are easier
ways to get hold of seaweed than at the shoreline – look for dried Irish
seaweed in shops and supermarkets to add a nutrient punch and deep
umami flavour to salads, soups, stews, and stir-fries. Irish seaweed
pestos are delicious stirred through eggs, on potatoes and on pasta. If
you do fancy getting your hands salty and foraging for yourself, look
out for food writer Sally McKenna’s brilliant book Extreme Greens, or
look up Silgo-based Prannie Rhatigan for seaweed guide books, walks,
talks and workshops.*
Ali Dunworth
