You can't hurry marmalade...

You can't hurry marmalade... like love, mama said, you just have to wait... (it don't come easy, it's a game of give and take) and like the song says, you have to trust the process. The same goes for marmalade...

First, you have to wait for the briefest of seasons - from mid to late January - when the Seville oranges are available, and if you miss it you have to wait another year... it's about the only fruit that can't be found all year round.

I particularly like the ritual of making marmalade when the days are bleak and spring still feels unlikely, a gap between Christmas excess and January abstemiousness, filling my home with the scent of warm citrus and evoking summer when outside the skies are the colour of old saucepans.

I make my marmalade by boiling the oranges whole for a couple of hours. Then when they're cool they are much easier to handle - scooping out the flesh and pips, finely cutting the softened peel, reserving the original water in which to add all the ingredients and bring it to the boil.

It takes time, methodical time, and it's a process that can't be hurried. From sourcing the seasonal oranges, to checking the recipe, bringing out my preserving pan, boiling the fruit, sharpening my knife, working my way through each of the oranges... Then bringing it all gently to its boiling point - 220 degrees F, 105 degrees C - and maintaining that fast, rolling boil until it works its alchemy and reaches the point at which it sets.

I only make marmalade once a year, so the process hasn't become routine and I have to remind myself of each step, especially what it looks like when it reaches that setting point. I like the way I have to concentrate, watching as the syrup in which the now translucent slices of rind are bubbling, until it changes colour and tempo and shows me it's done.

You can't hurry it, that moment of magic when the combination of oranges, water and sugar becomes marmalade. Just give it time, no matter how long it takes...

Just like love.

How better posture improves concentration

What your posture has to do with your ability to concentrate may not be immediately obvious, but if you have a sedentary job, you may want to consider how you sit when you work.

You may also want to think about sitting on an exercise ball, or add a wobble cushion to your chair, while you work. Experts think that the micro-movements your body needs to make to adjust will do more than just improve your core muscles and posture, it can also make you concentrate better.

Why?

When you sit on an exercise ball, you are constantly making tiny, subconscious physical movements to maintain your balance. “Movement awakens and activates many of our mental capacities,” says neurophysiologist Carla Hannaford, who has studied the relationship between movement and learning. “Movement integrates and anchors new information and experience into our neural networks.”

It’s this subconscious mental activity that lies at the core of the science behind the benefit of the exercise balls, which has seen some schools in America replace their hard chairs with them. “The tiny movements kids make while balancing stimulates their brains and helps them focus,” says Dr. John Ratey, a Harvard University professor and author of Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain. Apparently some children with attention disorders have a ‘sleepy cortex’, and exercise combats that mental disengagement. “Just by using their core muscles more, they’re flipping (their cortex) on,” says Ratey. “This causes the prefrontal cortex to get turned on, which does a lot of things, including inhibiting impulses.”

So if you thought that sitting in front of a desk for any length of time just caused poor breathing patterns, restricted circulation, muscular strain and repetitive strain injuries (RSI) – think again. Swapping your chair for a posture ball, or sitting on a wobble cushion, could make all the difference to your concentration levels as well as your aching back.

Plato's concern

‎When was the last time you heard a parent complain about their child reading too much?

400 years BC, this was a concern for Plato. He was as worried about the impact of reading and writing on the brain as we are now about digital technologies.

"For this invention of yours will produce forgetfulness in the minds of those who learn it, by causing them to neglect their memory, inasmuch as, from their confidence in writing, they will recollect by the external aid of foreign symbols, and not by the internal use of their own faculties..."

There is no halting progress but all these new-fangled inventions, from the printed book to the iPhone have their up and down sides. The key is making the most of them without losing sight of the necessity for balance.

Any new technology is a good servant but a bad master, so it's worth teaching ourselves and our children the use of the metaphorical "off" button, too and the benefits of concentrating on one thing at a time rather than perpetual multi-tasking.

A little something I concentrated on earlier...

Ruby the Musical Star, seen here on display at the Royal Opera House shop, London is the follow-up book to Ruby the Ballet Star both written by me, and illustrated by Anne Holt.

Both books tell the story of an indomitable guinea pig called Ruby who refuses to be put off from her aim and who learns that if at first you want to succeed, you have to concentrate on what you what to achieve, and find a way to do it...

Ruby is neither physically nor constitutionally blessed to immediately excel at either ballet dancing, or playing in the orchestra.

In the former she finds practice (10,000 hours anyone?) the route to success. In the latter, she finds that perseverance in finding the right instrument leads her to the triangle, an essential instrument for the playing of Liszt's Piano Concerto No.1 in E flat major - otherwise known as the Triangle Concerto. Such an instrument suits her perfectly, in spite of her short arms and long whiskers, and all is well. Ruby achieves her aim of playing in an orchestra and is a lesson to us all...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ruby-Musical-Star-Ting---ling/dp/1857075218/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1294065760&sr=8-5

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ruby-Ballet-Star-Twirly-whirly-Pop-up/dp/1857074653/ref=pd_sim_b_1

Cooking and concentration

I come from a family where we cooked. My mother, a doctor, cooked every day from scratch. Vegetables were prepared, meat casseroled, sauces made, stock bones boiled, cakes baked. She bought locally, she used seasonal vegetables (often grown at home) and knew what to do with left-overs. We made our own bread, chutneys, marmalade. What I learnt from her, in easy familiarity in a family kitchen, I find is fashionable today.

For years, my cooking was more functional than fun. With children to feed, and working fulltime, I still did as she did and cooked a meal every day from scratch. I still do. But now, with a bit more time on my hands, I am cooking more thoughtfully, enjoying it more and becoming more experimental. Now my pleasure is no longer purely in the end result and feeding my family – who have always loved food and never been picky over vegetables or difficult to please – but now there’s something more.

When making a cake, I cream the butter and sugar by hand, marvelling at the alchemy that transforms these two simple ingredients into a creamy, whitened base to which I gently add the beaten eggs, emulsifying the fat and whisking in the life, before adding the flour and placing it in the oven for its final transformation.

Now I watch TV cooks in the way I once watched my mother. Seeing Nigel Slater transform black bananas into a cake, I was soon in the kitchen creating a concoction of ground roast hazelnuts, chunks of dark chocolate, along with those black bananas, and the result was a spectacularly delicious take on my usual, rather perfunctory banana loaf.

I have my mother’s old, 1950 Penguin copy of Elizabeth David’s A Book of Mediterranean Food (with original ‘decorations’ by John Minton), which makes wonderful reading, alongside my ancient Delia Smith and more contemporary Nigella Lawson, lurking amongst other cookbook treasures.

But it is the slow, methodical putting together of ingredients that pleases me now. Taking the time to measure, weigh, sift, whisk, beat, tear, chunk or chop ingredients, meditating almost on the process as step by step I create the small daily miracle that could be a jar of marmalade, a loaf of bread, a Moroccan stew, an orange and lavender cake – or a freshly boiled egg with hot buttered toast. The alchemy that is creating and cooking food is a wonderful way to concentrate the mind.

Spanish edition

Spanish edition to be published on January 18th 2011... and I shall be in Madrid for publication to promote the book.

www.theartofconcentration.co.uk

Was your granny right - is fish good for your brain?

Regular research studies suggest that eating fish is good for you because it supplies a source of omega-3 essential fatty acids (EFAs), but you could be forgiven for wondering why there's so much fuss about them. Just how essential are they?

Very, is the short answer. Omega-3 EFAs are critical for our health, and the development and function of our brains in particular. We have to get them from our food, as we can't manufacture them ourselves.

Why do we need omega-3s?

While Western diets tend to provide excessive omega-6 fatty acids, many are relatively lacking in omega-3. This matters, because the ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 in our diets should be around 3:1 or less, but for most of us it's nearer 10:1 and in some cases as high as 20:1. Not only that, omega-6 competes with omega-3 for conversion to its respective EFAs, so a high intake of one can leave us deficient in the others.

"What's more, some people are more susceptible to a low ratio," says neuroscientist Dr Alex Richardson, a senior research fellow in physiology at Mansfield College, Oxford, and a member of the International Society for the Study of Fatty Acids and Lipids. "And some people may also have an in-built inefficiency in their conversion process, making them even more susceptible to deficiencies. Symptoms of low omega-3 status, which we know can affect neurotransmitters such as dopamine and serotonin in the brain, can include mental health problems ranging from depression, mood swings and anxiety to behavioural problems like ADHD, dyslexia and dyspraxia."

Could we get enough from our diets?

Cold-water fish like mackerel, herring, tuna, salmon and sardine are an excellent direct source of the omega-3s our brains need, and the current Food Standards Agency recommendation is that we eat four 140g portions of oily fish every week. But when was the last time you ate a herring? If we followed these guideline we would get enough omega-3, but it's not quite as simple as that. "Many things can contribute to low omega-3 status," says Dr Richardson. "One is our high intake of not only omega-6 but hydrogenated and trans fats, found in highly processed junk foods that are high in vegetable fats. These can block the conversion of omega-3s, as will a lack of any one of the co-factors necessary for conversion - vitamin B3 and B6, vitamin C, magnesium, and zinc, to name a few. Stress and some viral infections can inhibit conversion, while excessive drinking and smoking both help destroy these crucial fatty acids. So it's imperative that while upping your intake of omega-3, you cut out the junk."

Can EFAs help improve our mental health?

Dr Joseph Hibbeln, of the National Institutes of Health in the US, published research on fish oils and depression in The Lancet as long ago as 1998. He claims omega-3 deficiency may have an affect on mental health, and suggests that the increase in depression rates could be linked to our vastly increased use of vegetable oils, and the corresponding increase in omega-6 and depletion of omega-3. Other studies have shown that 1g of EPA (an omega-3 fatty acid) every day can be as effective as Prozac and Seroxat in tackling depression - without the side effects.


How much do we need?

The recommended therapeutic dose of EPA is 1g per day for those with mental health problems or 500mg for those without. That's 1g of EPA, not 1g of oil, something to consider if you're buying supplements. "Supplementation isn't necessarily a bad move, if you're improving your diet and cutting out processed foods," says Dr Richardson. "But only if you take a supplement that gives you what you need. Cod liver oil provides some omega-3, along with vitamins A and D, but this and ordinary fish oils can also contain a lot of saturated fat. And if you took enough to obtain 1g per day of EPA, you would risk vitamin-A toxicity. Livers detoxify, and as cod swim in some pretty polluted waters, it's worth checking that your supplement carries no risk of containing mercury, PCBs or other contaminants."

What's the vegetarian option?

"Flax seeds and flax oil provide the omega-3 fatty acid ALA, but this still needs conversion to EPA and DHA, another fatty acid, whereas fish oil doesn't," says Dr Richardson. "The body isn't good at making this conversion, because it's so dependent on numerous co-factors. Some knowledgeable vegetarians therefore choose an algal-source DHA supplement in addition to plenty of flax seeds or oil and green leafy vegetables that provide ALA."

What are the other benefits?

There is also some research-based evidence to suggest that omega-3 EFAs, which have an anti-inflammatory affect, also help protect against coronary heart disease, as well as Alzheimer's Disease and rheumatoid arthritis. There's even evidence to suggest that omega-3s can help with benign prostate disease. As far back as 1986, Dr David Horrobin published research in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute showing that exposing cancer cells to EFAs like EPA inhibited growth and could enhance the effects of chemotherapy. "Omega-3 EFAs are no miracle cure," says Dr Richardson. "But their benefits are increasingly relevant in our malnourished, stressful and ageing society. We ignore this at our peril."

So your Granny was right... fish is good for the brain.

www.fabresearch.org