GORGEOUS Aussie dietitian Michelle Stuart left Merkinch with more than she bargained for after talking on food matters at the Friendship Club on 17th January. For she was promised a bit of fresh-caught salmon and shown living proof that eating oats keeps you lively!
Michelle, who only came to work at the Royal Northern Infirmary last month, delighted her audience by saying: “I'm really impressed that you Scots really do love your porridge and oatcakes – that's really great.” Michelle was soon told how much the older generation already knew about good, healthy food. “All that carry-on in those TV programmes is a lot of rubbish,” they told her. “We eat the good plain food the same as our parents.”
Michelle went quickly over the basic food requirements:
She then ran through the various sorts of long-lasting items she would expect people to keep in their store cupboards at this time of year when they might not be able to get out to the shops. These included: tins of soup and fruit, dried/frozen fruit, jars of beetroot; tinned milk, custard, rice pudding;lentils, eggs, tins of beans, tinned/frozen meat and fish. Ideally, she said, one should try to have a bit of meat (or other protein) with meals once or twice a day, to which one gentleman said he didn't mind what he ate as long as it was fish.
Were there any vegetarians present she asked, to which came the reply: “No, we're all Church of Scotland here!”
Other January activities included a 3D (darts, dominoes and draughts) Competition in which Georgie Newlands won both the darts and draughts.