A healthy lifestyle involves healthy eating and Kornelia Santoro has kick-started a healthy food revolution with her book, “Cooking for allergies”
Kornelia Santoro peels a carrot in her impeccably-cleankitchen at her house in Sangolda. Around her are packets of organic vegetablesand products – sundried tomatoes and millet, amongst others. This is thekitchen where she experiments with food and has worked out great dishes thatare a part of her new book –Kornelia’s Kitchen 2: Cooking for allergies.
In our quest to feed the growing population of hungry mouthsin the world, the health aspect of eating has been left behind. And it is thisquest that has led to GM foods, chemical additives and preservatives, whichhave disastrous after-effects. “Allergies are on the rise,” says Kornelia, aformer journalist in Germany adding further, “I don’t believe that you need tofight obesity with dieting, because dieting disrupts your metabolism. I think thekey to staying healthy is to eat properly, but also balance it out with properexercise and a healthy lifestyle.”
These are the words of a lady who looks far younger andhealthier for someone her age. Kornelia was obsessed with calorie-counting andthe healthier side of food when she was younger and it was that obsession thatled her to continuously research food and the new ‘innovations’ that were putinto production. “I don’t think it’s going to be easy to get away from GM food.You cannot be sure whether what you’re buying from the market is organic orgenetically modified. It’s not like the West where you have an abundance oforganically-produced fruit and vegetables.”
Kornelia busts a few myths based on her research and pointsout ways to eat healthier. According to her, it all starts with choosing theright oil. I prefer to use olive oil for cooking. If I do deep fry anything,which is rare, I use rice bran oil,” she says. Coconut oil is a good substitutefor butter when it comes to baking. According to experts, sunflower oil is goodwhen not heated, i.e. for salads, but when heated the oil turns into trans fat,which is an unhealthy byproduct.
“When I write, I state facts from research and personalexperience,” claims Kornelia, going on to emphasise the fact that eggs are goodfor you and not unhealthy as some would claim. Soya, on the other hand, is notthe health food that it is purported to be. “Soya is best in the fermentedform. The reason being that soya beans contain something called phytic acid,commonly found in the skin of nuts and beans. It’s a natural preservative andcan only be broken down by fermentation and by soaking it in certain liquids.Phytic acid binds with minerals during digestion and that leads to a lack ofminerals in the body.”
Kornelia doesn’t claim to be an expert and grins when shetalks about how people consider her advice. “They rarely criticise you to yourface. It depends on what you want to believe.”
