All posts by petersan

A mixed fruit salad

Fresh fruit in moderation

nutrition, , ,

Optimize your fruit consumption

There was a time when I ate fresh fruit almost non-stop, all day long, whenever I felt “hungry” for something.
Not coincidentally, this was also the period when I suffered from very irregular digestion and bowel movements.
Is fruit healthy? Yes, undeniably. It is rich in vitamins, minerals, fibre and antioxidants.
The average western citizen probably doesn’t eat enough fresh fruit in general.
But there are a number of conditions for fully enjoying those gifts of fruit.
Fruit is not a miracle cure for weight or health problems.

What are the best moments to enjoy fruit?

Fruit is rich in sugars and also contains fructose, a sugar molecule the body has a hard time digesting as it seems.

Fruit is relatively rare in nature compared to vegetables, so it is best to eat in moderation. It is mainly available in nature at the end of summer and the beginning of autumn. In Mediterranean, subtropical and tropical areas, fruit is more abundantly available, but still always seasonal.

Here are three golden rules and a few more tips:

  • Eat fruit separately from other meals. Allow at least 30 minutes or an hour break. If you do eat fruit with other food, or immediately afterwards, it can lead to all sorts of nasty fermentation processes and gas.
  • The best times: at breakfast and in the late afternoon as a snack. Do not eat fruit late at night before bedtime.
  • Preferably eat fresh, local, organic and seasonal fruit.

How can I improve my digestion of fruit?

  • Do you have difficulty digesting raw fruit? Boil or fry it gently and add some spices, such as cinnamon, aniseed, nutmeg or even a pinch of black pepper. Warm apple, pear, banana or berries are delicious!
  • Drink (fresh) fruit juice sparsely. It is better to consume the whole fruit, including the fibres. Industrial “fruit juice” and fruit drinks or so-called nectars have a very low nutritional value and the cheaper types often have loads of extra sugar added.
  • The combination of fruit with milk products is absolutely not done. It is also better not to eat fruit with cereals (for example: avoid mixing fresh fruit in muesli).
  • Melons are best eaten separately, not even in combination with other fruit.
In mainstream health belief, fruit enjoys an exaggerated status. It is wrongly regarded as an easy way to lose weight. But in reality, you can easily get fat on fruit.
It contains very little protein and very little fat. So fruit is absolutely not a full-fledged nutrition source in itself.
Ceramics: @iittala

Read more about plant-based nutrition and health:

Read more articles about nutrition, health and plant-based foods:

Read more about plant-based food

Read more about yoga and yoga classes in Schaerbeek:

Check out our yoga classes here:

View our full range of yoga classes

Picture of a vegan omelette

Vegan omelette with onions

nutrition, recipes

Yoga Kitchen – Simple, healthy and vegan

Twenty-one grams of protein. That’s what one portion of this Italian-inspired vegetable omelette represents. Super easy to make and oh so tasty.

And there is not one egg involved. Why I don’t use eggs anymore you can read at the bottom of this article. By the way, it is so easy to either omit eggs or to substitute them in a natural and very qualitative way in culinary preparations.

For a rich omelette for two people:

For the filling:

  • 3 red (or yellow) onions
  • equally 3 shallots
  • and 3 large cloves of garlic
  • 2 tablespoons of olive oil
  • ¼ teaspoon of nutmeg
  • Some black pepper and sea or himalayan pink salt
  • 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

For the vegan “egg batter”:

  • 140 gram chickpea flour
  • approximately 350 ml water
  • 3 tablespoons nutritional yeast flakes
  • 1 teaspoon of sea salt or himalayan pink salt

A large frying pan, preferably with a non-stick coating, and a lid that fits.

How to proceed:

Preparing the filling

  • Place the 4 ingredients for the batter in a large bowl and batter with a garden.
    Make sure that the mixture has the consistency of pancake batter.
  • Heat the olive oil in the frying pan.
  • Fry the onions, shallots, garlic and nutmeg in the olive oil until they turn glassy and light brown. In culinary terms, this is called “caramelisation”.
  • Stir regularly.
  • At the end, add the balsamic vinegar, mix and remove the vegetables from the pan.

Finishing the omelette

  • Rinse the pan briefly, add another splash of olive oil.
  • Return the pre-fried onions to the pan, spread them evenly.
  • Pour the batter over the top, turn the heat down low and continue cooking for about 10 minutes. The top side of the omelette should have dried.
  • Turn the omelette (like a pancake, with a virtuoso somersault!) and bake for about 5 minutes more.

Tips and sources

All over the world, the so-called “poor man’s kitchens”, the traditional recipes of the simple folk, are real treasure chests of vegan recipes and common sense. Meat and fish were only for rich people. Another example from the Italian vegetable folk cuisine is polenta.

In traditional recipes, the technique of caramelisation is often used. I really recommend doing this gently and not go beyond light brown. Although extra virgin olive oil is considered one of the healthiest cooking oils, it should not be heated above 160 °C. In general, the best cooking techniques for our health are the gentle ones.

The recipe is one of the many delicious and easy recipes from the book “Veganista”, by Antwerp-based Luna Trapani, written in dutch language. She masterfully demonstrates how easily Italian cuisine can be “veganised”. Highly recommended, just like her second book: “Vegetalia”.

Born as a chicken in the 21st century

At the beginning of the twentieth century, a chicken laid an average of 20 eggs a year. Apart from that, she could happily scavenge through life, in the open air.
Today, the twenty-first century offspring of those belle époque chickens are locked up together by the tens of thousands in the unhealthy, stressful environment of closed hangars where the lights never go out. And A suffocating ammonia smell takes your breath away … they are now so genetically manipulated that their frail little bodies have to squeeze out an egg full of precious minerals and proteins every single day … not to mention the permanent doses of antibiotics they are being administered to prevent them from succumbing prematurely to infectious diseases, bacterial or viral. Why do people do this? Do we not learn from the pandemic of the coronavirus SARS-COVID ?

It is no longer possible to turn a blind eye or look away from these sad, immoral and violent practices. It borders on criminal neglect. That is what I think, at least.
Maybe you have a different opinion. So be it.

Two legged table pose

Good care for your back

health, yoga
Our back, and more specifically our spine, is the central structure of our body that literally supports and sustains our entire body. If at some point the well-being of our back gets lost, it immediately has a major impact on the structure and coherence of our entire life. So it definitely pays off to give your back permanent attention. And this can be done on various levels.

Attention

First of all there is the attention. Bring your attention to your back regularly. Whether you do mental work in a predominantly sedentary job or mainly physical work, you will benefit from allowing your attention to "commute", to go back and forth between the object of your activities and your body, and more specifically your back. How does your back feel? How is your pelvis? What position is your lower back in? Do you have a slight hollow there or do the points of your lumbar vertebrae stick out because your lower back has sagged? And also: where does your head stand in relation to your torso? Is it nicely on top and in balance? Or does your head protrude systematically?

Breathing

Our breathing supports our back more than we might suspect. How is your breathing? Deep or very shallow and restricted? Do you breathe mainly upwards (thoracic breathing) or downwards (belly or abdominal breathing)? It is good to use your whole breathing space, your whole breathing capacity, and to breathe sufficiently upwards, towards the upper chest, shoulders and collarbones. This causes your chest to expand, the expansion and contraction in the rhythm of the breath brings life and movement to the body’s tissues. And this makes it less likely that energy will be trapped and the muscles will have less chance to cramp up and create “knots”. The expansion of the chest opens the body and gives full support to the whole back.

Sitting position

Especially for the large number of people who spend most of their days sitting, it is good to consider your sitting position on a chair. Prolonged sitting on chairs or sofas keeps the muscles in the back of the thigh short, whereas we would benefit from long, supple hamstrings. Moreover, the flow of blood is also slowed down. Sitting on a chair is also fatal for our pelvis. We gradually lose freedom of movement in our hip joint. In fact, sitting and living on the floor is one of the healthiest decisions you can make for your back and hips! Not evident in our Western culture, which collectively rejects contact with the earth.

Micro pauses

Going back and forth with your attention between activity and body can be combined well with micro-movements. These are all kinds of short movements, such as raising and lowering the shoulders, rolling the shoulders, twisting the upper body to the left and right from the waist, stretching the arms and laterally stretching the torso, which break the long, static sitting posture. You should also get up for a few minutes every half hour and take a walk.

Back strengthening

Finally, it is important to keep your back in top condition by regularly doing appropriate stretching and strengthening exercises. Our yoga for the back class is perfect for this. In yoga for the back, we combine attention, breathing and appropriate exertion and relaxation to leave back problems behind us for good. Whatever your condition or body type, our yoga for the back class will provide you with the keys to a full, conscious experience of the wonderful structure that is our back and to restoring and maintaining the wellbeing of your back. Yoga for the back on Friday evening from 19.00 to 20.00 in a small group of maximum 7 persons, the ideal preparation after a busy week to go totally relaxed into the weekend.
A quote from Rémi

How Rémi feels about it

Customers

1. What is your main reason or your main motivation to take yoga classes?

There’s that sporty side and the fact that you gain flexibility, there’s also the relaxation and the feeling of well-being after your classes.

2. What makes you feel motivated to keep taking the classes for so long?

I like continuity in human relationships and in my activities and your course is one of them.
I like to follow your classes and to meet up with other yoga friends and thus form a nice community.

3. Why do you take classes here at Yoga Kitchen, instead of going to another yoga studio?

Your professionalism, seriousness and gentleness.

4. What do you particularly like about the yoga classes / approach / atmosphere here at Yoga Kitchen?

I really like the atmosphere you create in your classes.

5. Are there perhaps any purely practical elements that make you choose the yoga classes here?

The opportunity to do your classes online which is more convenient since your studio is far from my home? I like the online option.
The fact that the class dates and times are precise and known in advance, it allows you to plan your week.
The flexibility of your card system.

Thank you very much for your answers, Rémi, and see you soon.

Peter

Quote from An

The revelation for An

Customers

1. What is your main reason or motivation for taking yoga classes?

The yoga is very relaxing for me, because of the breathing in combination with the movement.
It works quite meditative.
Twice a week I feel really relaxed after yoga. 
They make my weekly two hours with myself (-:

2. What makes you feel motivated to keep taking the classes for so long to this day?

I’ve become a bit addicted to it (while I used to think that yoga really wasn’t for me).
I miss it when I can’t take some classes.
It does not only does good in my mind, my body is also relaxed and I feel more flexible.
I also need the verbal guidance to do the series of postureses, I don’t think I could do it alone or have the discipline to do so.

3. Why do you take the classes here at Yoga Kitchen, instead of going to another yoga studio ?

I’ve never been anywhere else. I am satisfied (-:
Once I did 1 class of a very active yoga style, but it only hurt and they seemed like impossible postures to me.
With the Prana yoga I also found the first classes very difficult. Now I find the recurring sequence of movements easier to do and it’s also nice that things come back.

4. What do you particularly like about the yoga classes / approach / atmosphere here at Yoga Kitchen?

I really like the individual adjustments, and also the fact that you stop to think too much about things, consciously emptying your head etc.
The private session with you concerning my chronic hyperventilation proved very instructive. Because of this, I apply things more during the classes, but also outside of them.
I notice that in the live classes this is attention for the individual is even more important, with small adjustments for those who need something.
I appreciate that we are invited to learn to listen (consciously) to our own body.

5. Are there any perhaps purely practical elements that make you choose the yoga classes here?

For me it was during the COVID lockdown with the online classes of course that I started, also because I had more time available in my schedule then.
I love being able to do it from home, from my friend’s house or whilst on holiday.

A massive thank you for your answers, An, and see you soon!

Peter

A quote from Sanne

Sanne’s idea

Customers

1. What is your main reason or motivation for taking yoga classes?

For me, yoga is a way to get out of my head and stay physically flexible.

2. What makes you feel motivated to keep following the classes for so long until today?

I feel better when I practice yoga, I have less back pain and I am more relaxed.

3. Why do you take classes here at Yoga Kitchen, instead of going to another yoga studio?

.
It’s a nice location, close to my home, small scale, no big gym, pleasant atmosphere.

4. What do you particularly appreciate about the yoga classes / approach / atmosphere here at Yoga Kitchen?

I prefer the longer class of 1.5 hours. There is a good balance between relaxation and effort. The approach is individual, everyone does the exercises and postures in his/her own way.

Thank you very much for your feedback Sanne, and see you soon!

Peter

Tree posture outside

Group class and daily practice

yoga

You can attend as many group classes as you like. There are two facts you cannot ignore:.

  • Yoga postures were originally intended as a preparation for (daily) meditation.
  • Yoga was originally conceived as an individual, daily discipline.

Group classes or no group classes

Even though I like to teach group classes a lot, the finality of a group class is that they cancels themselves out at a certain point. That happens when you manage to create and maintain the discipline of a yoga moment at home on your own every day and make it to a daily ritual.

Only then does it make sense to take group classes.

But I myself also started my discovery of yoga through group classes in my former work environment. In a group class you acquire a good basis. From each yoga teacher you carry pieces of valuable knowledge with you. Group practice also has a unique, special energy and atmosphere that many people love. Especially people who need to be close to other people.

Group classes are also a simplification. Because every body, every soul, every mind, every individual human being is different. A group class cannot possibly fulfil all the individual needs of the moment. Even if the yoga instructors do their best, a group class will remain a “middle of the road” approach.

Those who practice yoga alone at home can make it a highly individual event, followed by a daily meditation practice that is also tailor-made.

Morning yoga

I myself practice yoga for 20-30 minutes maximum in the morning, before meditating for 20-30 minutes. This morning yoga completely changes the energy of my day. It also helps to get rid of the morning stiffness. Afterwards, I can meditate quietly whilst experiencing my body in a pleasant way. Or rather, I hardly feel my body at all. So I can meditate all the better on a mental level.

Some exercises, such as balancing on one leg, are much easier to me in the morning than in the evening. I have atypically shaped feet which give little support, making these postures an extra challenge. In the evening, when I have already been through the wringer of a very active day, I am much more wobbly than in the morning. This wobbling also happens during the group lessons in the evening. Then I am no longer “the yoga teacher who demonstrates the posture to perfection”. And I am fine with that.

Level one

You practice yoga for yourself, with yourself. With the body you have. And that body is different every day, it changes in time, because nothing is permanent. Yoga is therefore an exercise in changeability. And in accepting imperfection. The atypical foot. The occasional wobbling. One shoulder lower than the other. The somewhat crooked spine. It’s not about the perfect alignment, the flawlessly held pose or the aesthetic result.

Physical yoga practice is level one meditation. It means going through a physical and energetic experience that makes you aware. It is about becoming aware of your physical body and your vital energy.

Text quote by Christine

How Christine feels about it

Customers

1. Christine, what is your main reason or motivation for taking yoga classes?

The classes are a good way to keep fit – the combination of concentration and doing exercises feels particularly good to me.

2. What makes you feel motivated to keep taking the classes for so long to this day?

Despite the distance, due to my actual job, I like to take the classes with you. It is also convenient that it can be done online now. I also do not like to change “supplier” especially if I am satisfied.

3. Why do you take the classes here at Yoga Kitchen, instead of going to another yoga studio ?

The small scale and personal approach appeal to me and of course the fact that the classes are also in Dutch. Not always easy to find in Brussels.

4. What do you particularly like about the yoga classes / approach / atmosphere here at Yoga Kitchen?

You can easily adapt the pace and intensity to your possibilities. Yet you can work up to your limit and challenge it a bit.

5. Are there perhaps purely practical elements that make you choose the yoga classes here?

Practical? It’s not as practical as it used to be when I could come from work on foot. Maybe the good price – quality ratio with the 10-classes pass.

Thanks for the time you spent on these questions, Christine, and see you soon!

Peter

Text quote from Koen

Koen’s opinion

Customers

1. What is your main reason or your main motivation to take yoga classes?

My inner balance, both physical and mental.
Yoga practice is quite complementary to my passion for climbing, and also to the other sports I like to do. And at times when I have a harder time mentally, I find great benefit in attending the yoga classes.

2. What makes you feel motivated to keep taking the classes for so long?

The way the yoga is taught over here: in small groups, and therefore personalized, with intensity and precision. I also like the nature of yoga and it is in line with my excellent experiences in Berlin when I started practicing yoga. By nature, I mean the fluidity of the movements in sync with the rhythm of the breathing. Your way of teaching radiates calm and conviction.

3. Why do you take classes here at Yoga Kitchen, instead of going to another yoga studio?

The proximity to my home is a plus, but it’s mainly what I noted above that counts.
I also really enjoy the setting of a stylish small town house. It’s part of the rich architectural heritage of Schaarbeek.

4. What do you particularly like about the yoga classes / approach / atmosphere here at Yoga Kitchen?

The participants are, each in their own way, committed, respectful and intense. The small groups make it easier to get to know people.
I also really appreciate the cup of tea at the end. It is a nice gesture of thanks and it brings people closer.

5. Are there perhaps any purely practical elements that make you choose the yoga classes here?

Not really. I think what I mentioned earlier perfectly describes my appetite for these classes.

Thanks for the time you spent on these questions, Koen, and see you soon!

Peter

Text quote from Lisa

Lisa’s choice

Customers

1. What is your main reason or motivation for taking yoga classes?

Yoga is for me the way to calm down my body and mind and become much more in tune with each other. It puts the focus more on my body and breathing and I can get rid of all the chitchat in my head. A second reason is of course to achieve more strength, balance and flexibility for my body.

2. What makes you feel motivated to keep following the classes for so long until today?

I’ve been taking the classes for a long time because I find that they really work for me. After one hour of yoga from Peter I feel totally recharged on several levels, both my mind and body are grateful for each class and I can rely on that renewed energy for a very long time. The motivation is there every week and of its own accord. I don’t have to make an effort or convince myself to go to class week after week.

3. Why do you take classes here at Yoga Kitchen, instead of going to another yoga studio ?

.
I have tried several yoga classes / workshops, but have not found what I experience at Yoga Kitchen. Because Peter keeps the focus on your breathing during the whole lesson, you really achieve what you want during a yoga class. Not only to maintain your body/muscles, but also to train your mind not to wander, but to stay with the exercises and your body. The combination of the physical exercises and the mindfulness is a great added value and it really makes these classes complete. What I also like is the structure of the class: the build-up of the class follows a fixed structure so you know what the class will look like and that gives a great deal of peace. On the other hand, we do different types of postures in every class, which means that you do and discover something new every week. The fact that the lesson starts and ends in the same way makes it feel familiar and safe. You also feel that every posture has a purpose and is not just randomly chosen by Peter. He often explains why we move in a certain way, which makes you feel even more involved in the class.

4. What do you particularly appreciate about the yoga classes / approach / atmosphere here at Yoga Kitchen?

Peter is so professional and knows his passion through and through. This is not just another yoga class, here you come for the essence of yoga and you really notice that when you join the class. At Yoga Kitchen Peter has an eye for every participant and even adapts exercises for you if you suffer from an ailment. Everyone is welcome here and can get his advice and tips. He will also come to you and improve your postures, always friendly and careful. This personal way of teaching is top!

5. Are there perhaps purely practical elements that make you choose the yoga classes here?

I lived a few blocks from the studio so I chose it. You can also attend each class online. It’s really good quality and also an added value. For this price you will find nowhere else such good and fine classes!

Thanks for the time you spent on answering these questions Lisa, and see you soon!

Peter