C6 Tuesday, January 7, 2014
FITNESS & WELL-BEING HEALTH BITES ............................................ Jeanette Wang jeanette.wang@scmp.com
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saac Goldstein often suffered from skin problems, but never realised that certain foods were triggering them until he started following his wife’s vegan diet and gave up animal products. “I soon realised when I dined out how much I was sensitive to certain foods,” says Goldstein, who discovered he is lactose intolerant. “It was enlightening.” As cheese lover, he found it difficult to cut dairy from his diet. But after a period of abstinence, the taste of pizza or ricotta would make him feel sick. “The more I wasn’t eating dairy, the more powerful the adverse reaction to it,” he says. Doing away with ice cream was tough, too, but he was living in San Francisco at the time and finding non-dairy ice cream alternatives was easy. The problem started when he and his wife, Lacey, moved to Beijing four years ago. “When I came to Asia, I missed having ice cream, so I decided to start making it myself. In our kitchen in Beijing, my wife and I started to play with flavourings and sugar quantities. We made our own gelato,” he says. Their coconut milk-based frozen confectionery was a hit among family and friends. After the couple moved to Hong Kong in 2012, Goldstein decided to ditch his hospitality job and be a full-time ice cream maker. And so, Happy Cow was born. Lactose intolerance is the result of reactions in the stomach to dairy products. These can cause symptoms such as flatulence, diarrhoea, a bloated feeling, pains and cramps, stomach rumbling and a general ill feeling, according to Britain’s National Health Service. Asians tend to be more prone to lactose intolerance than Northern Europeans because of ancestral diets, some studies show. The habit of drinking cow’s milk is said to have started about 7,500 years ago in central Europe. Continued exposure to milk caused the genetic change in Europeans that enabled them to digest the milk sugar lactose. However, Asians tend to stop producing lactase, the enzyme required to digest milk, as they mature. In Hong Kong, many people are lactose intolerant because mothers
The big scoop: Holy Cow founder Isaac Goldstein with his creation. Photo: Dickson Lee
Away
Isaac Goldstein’s lactose-free ice cream tastes just like the real thing, but it’s better for you and the environment, writes Andrea Oschetti
with the dairies tend to cut milk out of their child’s diet after they turn one year old. But not all adverse reactions to dairy are caused by lactose intolerance. Some people are allergic to milk proteins, casein or whey, resulting in reactions such as a runny nose, itchy eyes, dry throat, rashes, hives, nausea and diarrhoea. As a sign of the increasing demand for non-diary milk, “culinary leaders will turn to cashews, almonds, and peanuts to make their milk”, according to Sterling-Rice Group’s 2014 food trends predictions based on feedback from an independent culinary council of more than 125 chefs,
restaurateurs, supermarket analysts, food media experts, and consumers. Global launch numbers for lactose-free dairy products more than tripled in the fiveyear period to the beginning of 2012, according to a report from Innova Market Insights. The global lactose-free dairy product share of total dairy introductions rose from less than 2.5 per cent to 4.5 per cent over the same period. Data from SPINS, a USbased research company for the natural, organic and specialty products industry, show that sales of non- dairy organic frozen desserts in the US increased 12 per cent from 2012 to 2013 – more than double that from 2011 to 2012 – driven largely by growth in coconut milk-based ice cream. Other ice cream alternatives substitute cow’s milk with soya, rice or almond milk. Coconut milk ice cream is the closest to dairy ice cream due to its naturally
Plant used in Chinese medicine fights chronic pain Researchers at the University of California, Irvine, may have found a new natural product that can relieve pain – dehydrocorybulbine, a compound found in the roots of the flowering plant Corydalis, a member of the poppy family. Reporting in the journal Current Biology, they say the extract dealt with all types of pain in animals – acute, inflammatory and chronic – and doesn’t appear to lose effectiveness with time. Corydalis plants grow mainly in central eastern China, where underground tubers are ground and boiled in hot vinegar to treat pain. More testing for toxicity is needed before doctors should consider prescribing it to patients, say the scientists.
higher fat content, according to Marc Donofrio, marketing director at Luna and Larry’s Coconut Bliss, the company that launched the first coconut milk ice cream in the US in 2004. “Other options such as rice, soy or even almond milk, often need to add oil, gums and fillers to create a creamy consistency,” Donofrio said in a report in April last year in the US-based publication Organic Wellness News. “Coconut milk has the natural creamy consistency of dairy but healthier medium-chain fatty acids.”With some seed money from friends, Goldstein initially ran his business from home, using a blender and a small ice cream maker. He refined the texture and flavours, and invented new recipes. In January last year, he started a Facebook page (facebook.com/ happycowhk), which now has more than 1,000 likes. As word spread about his ice cream, within four months he could no longer keep up with demand, so he decided to open a factory in Mong Kok. Since opening the site in August, Goldstein has sold almost 2,000 litres of his vegan ice cream. “There is a huge and growing market for dairy-free alternative foods in Hong Kong,” he says. “On a global scale, consumers have become more concerned with their health and maintaining a sustainable lifestyle. “This is also true in Hong Kong where groups like Green
Goldstein began making ice cream in his own kitchen.
Coconut milk also contains antioxidants which promote health ISAAC GOLDSTEIN
Monday and Meat-Free Monday are gaining momentum as people try to find the simplest way to shift towards a more sustainable lifestyle.”Goldstein shows me the ingredients list on the packaging of a famous ice cream brand. He notes that it contains many items in addition to the main flavour: milk, milk cream, powdered
milk, saccharose, atomised glucose, invert sugar, stabilisers and flavour enhancers. He says that Happy Cow has fewer and better ingredients: coconut milk, coconut sugar, the flavour itself and guar gum, a plant-based stabiliser. His product contains no artificial flavours, colours or preservatives. Goldstein also follows the guidelines of the Environmental Working Group, a US organisation of scientists and policymakers that has differentiated food groups into two lists: The Dirty Dozen and The Clean 15. This helps consumers know when to buy organic and when it is unnecessary. “Our cherries, vanilla and chocolate are organic,” he says, “our pineapple is not”. Sustainability is another key value at Happy Cow. “Animal farming and milk production are often harmful to the environment and the animals,” says Goldstein. “There is a limit to how much dairy can be produced in a sustainable way, but the demand is increasing. "In factory farms, the animals are treated as a commodity, the dairy is full of hormones and antibiotics, and the waste from the production process is highly polluting. I have nothing against dairy per se: there are many small producers who do a good job. "Unfortunately, traditional farms are being replaced by factories which are not sustainable.” Andrea Oschetti is a private chef; cuoreprivatechef.com
Annual lung cancer screening urged High-risk adults between the ages of 55 and 80 should receive annual lung cancer screening with low-dose computed tomography, according to final recommendations from the US Preventive Services Task Force published in Annals of Internal Medicine. High-risk adults include heavy smokers or former heavy smokers who have quit within the past 15 years. In Hong Kong, about 90 per cent of male lung cancer patients are smokers, according to the Hospital Authority. Cholesterol link in Alzheimer’s disease High levels of “good” cholesterol and low levels of “bad” cholesterol are linked with lower levels of the amyloid plaque deposition in
the brain that is a hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease, a new study published online in JAMA Neurology has found. A similar relationship is found between cholesterol and heart disease, say the researchers from the University of California, Davis. For HDL (“good”) cholesterol, a level of 60 milligrams per decilitre or higher is best. For LDL (“bad”) cholesterol, a level of 70 mg per decilitre or lower is recommended for people at very high risk of heart disease.
WE RUN HK ................................................ Rachel Jacqueline life@scmp.com The Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon, which started in 1997 with a humble 1,000 runners, has grown into a running festival with 73,000 racers expected to take part this year. To celebrate the city’s passion for running, we’ll be featuring one inspirational athlete each week until the race on February 16. Though he lost his eyesight as a teen, Mok Kim-wing has never relinquished his vision to make life better for the disabled. Despite his blindness, Mok has always been a runner and has long promoted the sport in Hong Kong’s disabled
community. But it was the founding of the Fearless Dragons running club three years ago – a unique partnership between blind and deaf runners – which has seen him take his dream for the community to a new level. As part of the Fearless Dragons, the 49-year-old social worker has run many marathons around the world. Last year he ran the Kyoto Marathon and raised HK$200,000 for the local disabled. Together with his deaf partner, Eric Yeung Yuk-wing, he aims to complete this year’s Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon within five hours. I was blind in one eye from the age of six. Then when I was 13 a classmate hit my other eye,
causing retinal detachment. Unfortunately, the operation failed and I became completely blind. I have learned to accept my fate. The experience has given me courage to take on new challenges. The Fearless Dragons running club’s motto is “can’t hear, can’t see, can marathon”. The deaf runner leads and is the “eyes”, making noises to make the blind runner aware of any obstacles. The blind runner is the “ears”; he will tap the deaf runner’s arm to alert him if he hears something from behind. We have volunteer “guide runners” (who are not visually or hearing impaired) who run with the pair. They are our invisible heroes.
Visually impaired Mok Kim-wing and his deaf running partner Eric Yeung Yuk-wing training in Diamond Hill. Photo: Nora Tam
In this bond, we are equal. We support each other and we each have the opportunity to “give”. When we cross the finish line, we have a sense of achievement far greater than that of an ordinary runner. Fearless Dragons running club will have 34 disabled runners taking part in the 2014 Hong Kong Marathon. We run to raise public awareness of the needs of people living with a disability. But it’s more than that – I run to show more disabled friends that they can take on challenges and showcase their spirit of “never giving up”.
scared because you don’t know if the road is flat or if there are obstacles in your way, like stones or an uneven path. This is why the partnership works so well.
Running is very different for a blind runner. As you can’t see, you don’t know how far you have run. Sometimes that makes you feel desperate. You feel
If I didn’t run, I would not have experienced life as fully as I have. The most rewarding thing is crossing the finish line; it’s a marvellous experience.
I run twice a week; it’s the fun in my life. After training we chat and have something to eat. Running a marathon is not only about how long you run but the depth of your experience; persistence, resilience and friendship are key. Whether you are disabled or not, the finish line is waiting for everyone.