With the summer holidays coming to an end and a new school year approaching, with a home made organic wholefood lunch your children can perform at their very best, also a home made lunch can bring some of the comforts of home. For a succesful school lunch :

• Involve your children, don’t make eating well a battle. What is their favourite wholefood dish? Do they like a few organic nuts (or seeds if nuts are not allowed) and some dried fruit. 
• Fibre and protein should be included in the lunch box, so look for the wholemeal option where possible, so wholemeal bread is a good start with a nourishing filling, an organic nut or seed butter can make a good filling.
• Try your lunch ideas at home first so that you are sure the children like them and also perhaps it does not want to be too wacky.
• Dried organic fruit makes a great easy snack, you can eat these on the run and they are a good for morning break. Dried fruit has a high calorie count so on games day or if the children run around lots dried fruit is a good idea. With five lunches a week to prepare it is a good idea to buy in bulk when you can.
• Don’t forget a drink.
• Sandwiches can get boring, you could try a wholefood salad made with organic brown rice or wholemeal pasta and vegetables or beans/pulses.
• Home made wholemeal pizza can make a good change.
• Find a healthy alternative to the high calorie sweets and chocolate. Home made biscuits are a good alternative, you can add sesame seeds or nuts also if you get the children to help bake then they will also be more likely to eat them.
• Make sure the lunch is well packed so that is appetising and appealing at lunch time, so an extra minute in packing can be a minute well spent.

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A recent article in “Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association” has reported a dramatic impact for those that switch from red meat as a source of protein. The article reports that if one serving of red meat is substituted for nuts then there is a 30% lower risk of heart disease, this reduction was the highest reported, with the next category being fish at 24%, followed by poulty at 19% and low fat dairy products at 13%.

If you are going to significantly increase the amount of organic nuts you eat each day then you need buy nuts in bulk, or at least by the kilo. This is where Naturally Good Food can help as we stock a hugh range of nuts all available in larger pack sizes or with case discounts.

If you follow a wholefood diet with lots of nuts, grains, pulses and dried fruit the holiday time can be a problem, especially if you want to also have the Organic option. These are not always available or easy to find. So, instead of missing out on either your holiday or your health we have come up with ten top tips.

•  Before you go do a little research, there may be some local speciality to savour, or alternatively that local organic shop with a great selection of nuts, dried fruit and other wholefood lines. If you are lucky they may also do sandwiches, or you could order ahead to pick-up. If things are not available locally have a box delivered, Naturally Good Food delivery nationally in the UK so you could have a box of organic goodies waiting for you, no shopping no mess.
• Ask someone locally where you can get good food.
• You are on holiday so enjoy a few luxuries, try a new organic fruit add a luxury to your shopping basket.
• Take snacks with you, organic dried fruit and organic nuts travel really easily. If you take snacks with you then this will save a fortune and you can guarantee to get what you want.
• Take a cooler with ice packs to keep your snacks and beverages cold in. You can also use the cooler to store a meal or two.
• Order a soup or a salad to eat with your main course. Soups and salads are generally healthy and start to fill you up so that you eat less of the more calorie-dense main meal.
• Don’t super-size your meal. It sounds like a great deal, but you will eat way too much calories, fat, and sodium.
• Try self catering as a holiday, you control what you eat.
• Don’t buy food at the airport it is always too expensive and often not great quality.
• Take a thermos flask, a sharp knife or veg peeler with you.

September 10-12 2010 from 11am to 4pm there will be series of events, this will include :

• Heritage tours (11.15am/2.15 pm from the Schoolhouse)
• Art Exhibition (in Church)
• Archive Display (in Church)
• Family History Information (Schoolhouse)

“Pick up a Pencil”

2 Day begineers Art Workshop by Becy Roberts (£50 per person advance bookings now being taken). A two-day workshop introduction to drawing for all ages with professional artist Becy Roberts. 11-12 September 10:30am – 4pm

On Saturday 4th September from 10am to 5pm we will be holding our annual Organic Tasting Day.

This year you will have the chance to taste cakes made with ingredients from the garden in addition to a range of bread, raw food cheese with free recipes to take home and try.

Phil will be doing tours of the gardens and Tom will be running the Merlin Engine.

Jason has got a new range of organic sausages using ingrediets from the garden and you can also admire some lovely stained glass from Ellie.

In the US the USDA regulations require that nuts be steamed or treated with a chemical in response to salmonella outbreaks in 2001 and 2004 blamed on raw almonds that left some ill.

These rules are now being challanged by organic producers who have won a legal victory last week when a US Court of Appeals judge ruled they could proceed with a lawsuit challenging the regulations.

At Naturally Good Food we stock Spanish Almonds that have not been processed in this way.

In an article entitled “When is it worth buying organic?” even the Daily Mail reports that eating organic dried fruit is better than conventional. The paper reports that convedntional Dried fruit uses preserving ingredients such as sulphur dioxide and potassium sorbate which are not allowed in organic dried fruit.

The paper went on to report that Sulphur dioxide can cause wheezing in sensitive individuals, and drying concentrates any pesticides present in the fresh fruit. In recent Government surveys, up to two-thirds of dried fruit samples have been found to include organophosphates and other pesticide residues

For out full range of organic dried fruit..

Don’t forget that dried fruit count as part of yuor five a day.

We have some new sale lines this week including some great savings on gluten free breakfast cereals. For our full sale range.

With some supermarkets no longer stocking the Nature’s Path Millet Rice Flakes you may be looking for an alternative supply. Look no further at Naturally Good Food we continue to stock the whole Nature’s Path range with a 10% case discount.

With rising food prices especially grains, (wheat, rice, rye) in now makes sense to buy in bulk while prices are still cheap. This will give you a double saving not only will you save on your purchase as prices rise you will be saving even more. Food prices will be pushed up with food shortages in many parts of the world resulting in reduced exports.

We stock a great range of bulk organic wholefoods, organic nuts, dried fruit and shampoos.