Unhealthy eating can cause as much DNA damage as exposure to radiation. This is just one little gem of information I picked up from listening to Dr Michael Fenech,  Research Group Leader in Genome Health and Nutrigenomics at CSIRO, speak at a seminar for dietitians last week.

He described how a deficiency of folic acid in the body can be more damaging to our DNA than unsafe doses of radiation. We all know that healthy eating has a huge effect on the body but to hear it in terms of the effect on DNA somehow adds more power to the argument.

Plenty of folate in your body means longer telomeres. Telomeres are like the hard bits at each end of a shoelace. They are strips of DNA at each end of a chromosome which protect the DNA in the chromosome. Each time the cell divides the telomeres get shorter. When they get too short the cell can no longer divide and becomes inactive or dies. Researchers measure the length of a person’s telomeres as one indication of DNA damage and consequent aging.

So what we want is long telomeres, not short ones. Eating processed meat, a high homocysteine level (caused by low folate intake), low B12, obesity and stress are all associated with shorter telomeres – not a good thing.

On the other hand these five nutrients are associated with reducing DNA damage ie longer telomeres:

Vitamin E – wheat germ, nuts, seeds, whole grains, eggs

Calcium – cheese, yoghurt, milk, sardines, canned salmon with bones

Retinol (vitamin A & beta-carotene) – oily fish, butter, eggs, cheese, dark green & orange vegetables – broccoli, spinach, silverbeet, carrot

Niacin (a B vitamin) – tuna, salmon, wheatbran, peanuts, legumes, lean meat, liver

Folate (another B vitamin) – green leafy vegetables – spinach, silverbeet, Asian greens, watercress, Vegemite, Marmite, whole grains, nuts, avocado, liver

Nutrition and its effect on DNA is an emerging science. There is so much more to learn but here are a few facts we know so far:

DNA damage increases with age.

DNA damage is greater in overweight people. One study showed that overweight children had five times more DNA damage than normal weight kids.

70% of our enzymes need a nutrient to work. If we don’t put these nutrients into our body, those enzymes won’t be able to work as they should.

What’s really interesting is that people’s specific nutrient needs vary depending on their genotype. For example, choline is an important nutrient found in eggs, wheatgerm and liver but some people will need more of it than others depending on their individual genetic make-up.

So how have I translated this fascinating information to my kitchen? Looking at the list above, the foods I have not been eating so much of are wheatgerm and green vegetables. So I have bought some wheat germ to sprinkle on my porridge and add to homemade muesli (recipe on this blog). I have been cooking silverbeet sauteed with onion, garlic, olive oil, toasted pinenuts and currants – delicious. But to get the maximum amount of folate from green vegetables they should be eaten raw because folate is destroyed by heat. So I have been experimenting with blending raw silverbeet or spinach with various combinations of carrots, apple, pineapple and orange to make a super juice drink. The colours have varied from bright green (comment from husband – “It’s not normal”) to putrid beige (I didn’t dare to even show him that one!) But they taste great and amazingly cut any craving for cakes and bikkies for at least a few hours. Try it – if you dare!

Pictured: Green drink made from 4 leaves spinach, 1 apple, 1/4 pineapple, a splash of apple juice and ice.

If you want a fun kitchen experiment for your kids, buy some chia seeds and stir a teaspoonful into half a cup of water. After a few minutes they will see the liquid turning to gel. These hard little black or white seeds have microscopic fibres on the outside which attract water causing a gel to form around the seed. In fact a chia seed can absorb nine times its weight in water.

Chia also packs a mean nutritional punch. It is a wholegrain which means it has all three parts of the grain: bran, endosperm and germ. It is gluten free and it’s the only wholegrain that we can eat without cooking. Chia is originally from South America but much of the chia we eat in Australia is grown locally in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. (www.thechiaco.com.au) It is very high in fibre – 36% – and is a rich source of ALA – the plant form of omega-3 fats.

I had just popped into my local deli – The Gourmet Grocer in Balmain – when an enthusiastic man thrust a sample stick of golden gooey stuff at me. “Would you like to try my really good peanut butter?” he asked. The timing couldn’t have been better: peanut butter was top of my shopping list.

Peanut butter is one of my favourite convenience foods. It’s about one-quarter protein and one half fat – most of which is poly and monounsaturated. These are essential fats that our body needs in small amounts. When my son needs a high protein sustaining snack, I simply spread peanut butter on a couple of whole wheat wraps. At schools where peanuts are not banned, it makes an ideal school lunch as an alternative to meat, hummus or cheese.

Having said that, not every child likes the look of peanut butter. Just writing this has conjured unpleasant childhood memories of peering into my lunchbox and hesitantly lifting the corner of my ‘rustic’ sandwich. My heart would slump as I spotted the cloying brown stuff that would remind any child with half an imagination of embarrassing bodily processes. Hunger always overrode my imagination and I would stoically swallow it.

Fortunately the school experience didn’t scar me for life and now I always have a jar of peanut butter in the pantry. But not just any old peanut butter: it has to be one without added sugar and salt. So many foods have extra salt and sugar added that we are not aware of, and peanut butter is one of them. Tragically my pantry has been devoid of peanut butter lately as the local supermarket deleted my favourite brand. The only choices were brands with extra sugar or salt which I refuse to feed to my family.

I had been about to head to the local health food store which offers a great service grinding peanuts and other nuts on the spot but after tasting Pic’s Really Good Peanut Butter I didn’t bother. Pic is a Kiwi bloke who lives in sunny Nelson at the top of the South Island of New Zealand. What I like is that all the nuts used in his original, crunchy peanut butter come from Kingaroy in Queensland – no other country. (This means that if he can’t source the Kingaroy peanuts, he makes no crunchy peanut butter.) This ‘original’ peanut butter actually has a little salt added – 200mg sodium per 100g. Most of the regular supermarket brands have around three times more sodium – 600-700mg per 100g.

When buying peanut butter I like to check four things: 1 Whether the peanuts are local 2 The percentage of peanuts 3 Sodium  4 Sugar. Look at the ingredients list to find the percentage of peanuts, as well as if there is any added salt or sugar – including maltodextrin which is a type of sugar. In the nutrition panel maltodextrin is classed under ‘Total carbohydrate’ so it can be easily missed. I discovered one type of Kraft smooth peanut butter with over one third carbohydrate (39 grams per 100 grams or 39%) due to added maltodextrin. Most peanut butters have around 10-16% total carbohydrate with around half classed as sugar.

Both Sanitarium and Kraft now offer a no added salt and sugar product which is great. I do not know where they source their peanuts but imagine it is a mixture of Australia plus other countries when the local supply is limited. If anyone knows for sure, please add a comment.

I prefer my peanut butter plainly spread on wholegrain VitaWheat crackers or soy and linseed bread. But I want to dedicate this post to my wonderful dad who died suddenly a few months ago. His sandwich combinations were nothing short of adventurous – peanut butter with marmalade, banana with honey or marmalade with avocado. In fact my childhood memories are just one big adventure. Dad, thank-you taking us flying, fishing, water skiing, white water rafting, snow skiing off piste, bush walking off track, snorkeling, sailing in gales, surfing huge swells at sea, for making the best banana muffins and the worst school lunches, and for being completely faithful to Mum, us kids and God. No-one could have a better dad.

It’s Boxing Day and I’m sitting on a picnic rug in the Botanic Gardens overlooking the beautiful Sydney Harbour. We’re here to catch a glimpse of the start of the Sydney to Hobart yacht race – one of the most dangerous yacht races in the world. Helicopters buzz overhead while a myriad of vessels laden with well-wishers swarm around the racing yachts as they sail up the harbour and out to sea. We’re also here for a picnic of Christmas leftovers – prawns, baguette, cherries, Christmas mince tarts, chocolates (Santa was overly generous with the chocolates this year), and terrine.

Terrines look like hard work but are really quite easy to make. You make it one or two days in advance and on the day, simply take it from the fridge, slice and serve – ideal for a warm southern hemisphere Christmas.