I'm a non-stop eater. I do love food and I love preparing it, but I prefer the simple things to the elaborate stuff.
New green cucumbers: I have a great weakness for these but you can't always find them. I buy them whenever I see them in the shops.
Palm hearts: These come in tins. They have no cholesterol and practically no calories. I add them to salad. You can also serve them as a first course with rocket, chopped hard boiled egg and French dressing.
Blooms salami: I either have this cold as a snack or with scrambled egg.
Papaya: Actually, I love all tropical fruit. I also adore mango, pineapple and banana.
Gazpacho soup: This is so simple to prepare and healthy. It's one of my husband's favourites.
New green cucumbers retain their crisp, green appearance but have a high salt content.
Dietary cholesterol, as opposed to blood cholesterol, is found in some animal foods such as offal and eggs. (Plant foods never contain dietary cholesterol.) Reducing the saturated fat content of what you eat is of greater importance for heart health than reducing dietary cholesterol.
Most meat products such as salami are high in saturated fat, and there are no low-fat alternatives so it should be eaten only occasionally.
Papaya, mango, and peppers, a basic ingredient of gazpacho, contain cancer-fighting, heart-protective antioxidant phytochemicals beta-cryptoxanthin and beta-carotene. Both of these are best absorbed when eaten with fat, so eat these fruits and vegetables as part of a mixed meal (such as after a salad with olive oil dressing; the gazpacho already has oil added).
Shirley Eskapa's novel In a Naked Place is published by Quartet on October 3rd