This seems crazy to me – where is the commonsense in this? Most of us can testify that drinking water improves our general sense of wellbeing and our energy levels. Many of us know that a lack of water can exasperate headaches, a dry mouth, constipation and tiredness.

Between 60-70% of our bodies are thought to be made up of water. It is found in muscles, lungs, the brain and of course the blood. It is needed to regulate our body temperature, protect joints and organs, and transport oxygen around the body.

The best way of knowing whether you are drinking enough is to look at the colour of your urine. It should be straw colour (light yellow) and have no odour. If you are taking B-vitamins when your urine maybe bright yellow and if you have eaten asparagus, it may have an odour.

Top tips

• If you have difficulty remembering to drink, carry a bottle around with you and set goals for yourself. Most people should be aiming to drink between 1 ½ to 2 litres of water per day.
• Include herbal teas, diluted fruit juices and roobios in your intake
• Increase fruit and vegetables in your diet as many of these contain lots of water, fibre and nutrients.

Recipe of the week

Warm Chicken Soup
Keep your chicken bones from your Sunday Roast! This delicious chicken soup should keep you warm as the days get colder. Chicken bones are full of minerals particularly calcium so making stock from them is great for your bones.

Chicken Stock

1 chicken carcass
1 onion, roughly chopped
1 carrot, roughly sliced
1 celery stalk, sliced
2 garlic cloves, whole
2 bay leaves
10 peppercorns

Put the chicken bones in a large saucepan with add onions, carrot, celery and garlic. Cover with water and, bring to the boil. Simmer gently for 1 hour in a covered saucepan.

Skim off any scum and leave to cool.

Remove the layer of fat on the surface. Drain and remove the vegetables etc. Take the chicken off the bones and set aside.

Soup

3 tbs olive oil
2 onions, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic
1 leeks, finely sliced
3 celery stalks, finely chopped
3 carrots, scrubbed and roughly chopped
4 pts chicken stock
2 tbs Tamari Sauce
Season with Sea Salt, Pepper and a little bouillon
Flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped

Sauté onions, leeks and celery for 10 minutes in a covered saucepan (without colouring!). Add carrots and chicken stock. Cook for a further 30 minutes in uncovered.

Add the chicken to the soup. Bring back to simmering and season well.

Garnish with chopped parsley

So, what is the cause of this deficiency?
Most of us are deficient simply because we are not getting enough sunshine on our skin. Firstly, we are spending far more time than ever inside and secondly, we are plastering ourselves in sun-cream for fear of skin cancer.

Certain groups of people are at higher risk than others. These include those who are older, overweight, eating a poor diet, pregnant and bearing children, darker skin pigmentation, suffering from an inflammatory bowel disease and using medication which interferes with vitamin D metabolism.

You might ask but what about food sources? In order to avoid deficiency we would need to eat between 200-800g salmon daily (which is one of the best sources of vitamin D) but is this really feasible on a daily basis.

How can you prevent a deficiency?
Book in for a consultation and we can discuss your individual needs.

Christmas Pudding

Try this sugar-, gluten-, and dairy-free Christmas Pudding and see if anyone notices!!!

Preparation: 30 minutes
Cooking: 3-4 hours
Serves: 6-8

Ingredients
1 large carrot, grated
120g ready-to-eat dried prunes, pitted,
chopped
120g ready-to-eat dried apricots,
chopped
300g mixed raisins, currants and
sultanas
1 orange, grated (zest only)
1 lemon grated (zest only)
100g coconut oil or olive oil
3 tbs xylitol
2 eggs, beaten
1 tsp baking powder
75g ground almonds
100g porridge oats (gluten-free from
Waitrose)
1 tbs ground mixed spice

Method
Mix together the carrot, prunes, apricots, raisin mixture and grated orange and lemon zest and set aside. Melt coconut oil (warm olive oil) gently in a pan over a low heat and set aside. In a separate bowl beat together the xylitol and the eggs. Stir in the fruit mix, the coconut/olive oil and all the remaining ingredients, cover and refrigerate overnight. Spoon into a 900g/2lb pudding basin, cover with a pleated piece of greaseproof paper and secure with string. Steam for 3-4 hours, ensuring that the pan does not boil dry.