I just had to take a photo of the delicious scallops I cooked on the weekend. I heated some olive oil in a small fry-pan and dumped them in along with finely chopped garlic, ginger and coriander root. “One minute each side, turn them over only once and don’t over-cook them,” the helpful man at my local fish shop ordered me. I obeyed the orders and they turned out perfectly. For NZ$15 we had a smoked kahawai and 12 scallops – more than enough for three of us to eat.

“When I was a kid, scallops just washed up on the beach,” my father-in-law reminisced. They don’t do that now so we headed off to what I think is the best fish shop in Auckland – Marsic Brothers in Glen Innes.

It’s great to buy fruit and vegetables in season. Right now we’re eating heaps of sweet corn. It’s so easy to cook: three minutes per cob (husk on) in the microwave. My son and I munch ours straight off the cob but my husband loves his smeared with butter and salt. He’s succumbed to skinny milk, cup-cake sized steak, couscous and lentils so I figure he’s allowed the odd indulgence!

Corn gets its rich yellow colour from the family of phytochemicals (natural plant chemicals) called carotenoids. Yellow, orange, red and dark green vegetables such as spinach, carrots, tomatoes and pumpkin get their colour from carotenoids. Corn is especially high in two carotenoids – lutein and zeazanthin. The macular region of the eye has a high concentration of these substances which implies that they play an important role in keeping our eyes healthy. It’s thought that they protect against light-induced damage to the eye and help prevent macular degeneration, cataracts and other eye problems.

The phone call to our good friend, Mike, started off the usual way: “Hi. How have you been?” The response was not so usual: “Terrible! Last week my lips and then my whole face swelled up! It must be something I ate but I can’t figure out what.” When it’s hard to pinpoint a specific food culprit, chances are it’s an intolerance to salicylates, amines or MSG (monosodium glutamate).

Salicylates are natural chemicals found in a wide range of fruit, vegetables, nuts, herbs & spices, jams, honey, tea, coffee, juice, beer and wine. Aspirin is also part of the salicylate family. Amines are formed by protein breakdown or fermentation. Like salicylates they are found in more tasty food such as avocados, tomatoes, bananas, cheese, chocolate, wine and beer. And MSG isn’t just confined to Chinese takeaways. It’s naturally found in tomatoes, cheese, mushrooms, meat and yeast extracts, sauces and stock cubes.

On our most recent catch-up Mike told us he had cut out tomatoes (“I was eating heaps of them”)and thankfully suffered no more puffer fish face episodes! Tomatoes are high in all three natural chemicals so avoiding them would certainly drop the levels in your body – hopefully to under your natural threshold level.