Cooking is key to the good life.

Byline: By Hannah Davies

Margaret Davidson has brought together her knowledge of healthy living in a unique cookbook, Kitchen Yoga. Hannah Davies found out more.

Sales of porridge oats have soared 81% in five years, Jamie Oliver has transformed the way people think about school dinners, and diets based on unprocessed natural foods have become fashionable.

But Margaret Davidson, 61, first got involved with healthy eating over 30 years ago when she moved to New Zealand.

Spending 30 years researching both nutrition and yoga, the mother-of-three, who now lives in Wooler, Northumberland, has put a lifetime's knowledge into a book which takes good food as the basis for a healthy body and mind.

"For me cooking is one part of a whole holistic outlook to life. When I cook I have to be focused and in the right frame of mind, as should anyone," Margaret says.

"This book, Kitchen Yoga, is part of that holistic outlook. It is primarily about creating delicious food, which takes care of the body, combined with simple yoga exercises.

"What you put into your mouth influences how you think and feel ( people only just seem to be cottoning on to this in the light of increased asthma and hyper-activity among children, and illnesses such as heart disease.

"It amazes me that more people have not realised that if they put rubbish into their bodies, then it will have an effect."

Margaret believes true health comes from taking care of your body as a whole. She describes Kitchen Yoga as being dedicated "as much to preparing the body for food as preparing food for the body".

"Eating healthily is about looking after the body as a whole, including the mind, and it goes hand-in-hand with a discipline like yoga," she says.

"Today's society seems to ignore the body. Children are brought up eating high fat, high sugar and highly processed foods. Of course, it is going to have an impact on their general well-being. Their bodies are struggling to get the raw material from the foods they need.

"Hand-in-hand with this is a couch potato attitude. People do not need to be athletes to generally take care of their bodies, and exercise does not need to be a high impact, stressful thing to do."

Margaret was born in Sheffield and met her Geordie husband John, 61, in 1963 at Leeds University where they were both studying history.

Following graduation, the couple briefly moved to High Heaton, Newcastle, until in 1967 John got a teaching position in Nottingham.

Their first son, Jonathon, now 38, and an art teacher in Wales, was born there in 1968, but it was a move in 1971 to Gisborne, New Zealand, which was to ignite Margaret's passion for nutrition.

As a child of the 1960s, Margaret began to look at alternative ways of thinking. It was in New Zealand she first encountered yoga and ideas about healthy eating after the birth of her second son Alex, 31, who lives in Bristol.

She and John also have a daughter Catherine, 28, an administrator at Durham University.

Margaret says: "In New Zealand, everything was fresh and mainly free range. I was introduced to different fruits and vegetables ( things like butternut squash ( which I hadn't had in Britain before.

"I also began to study different doctors, nutritionists and yoga teachers. It was something which fascinated me, and luckily for me, in New Zealand there was plenty of information about it."

But in 1979 the family felt it was right to move back to Britain.

"We came to Tyneside in the late 1970s to visit John's parents and realised how beautiful the North-East is. We said, `what have we gone half-way around the world for? Everything we need is right here'," Margaret said.

But she adds: "I was shocked at how little people knew about food. Healthy, organic and free range foods were all around the place in New Zealand, but the food environment was very different in the North-East.

"People ate highly processed foods and the produce in the supermarkets at that time was terrible.

"Ignorance about food really was quite shocking, so I came up with the idea of setting up a wholefood shop."

Yours Naturally opened in Monkseaton, North Tyneside, in 1981.

"I assumed people would just come flocking because there was nothing else nearby like it," Margaret says. "But I was wrong ( consumers didn't know about good, healthy food so I found myself going out and teaching people about it."

As time went on, people began coming to her for advice on organic foods and homeopathy. Her yoga teaching and talks to groups, such as the Women's Institute, also started taking up more and more of her time, so Margaret decided to quit the shop. I followed what had become my great passion really, which was to teach people to cook better and to take care of themselves more. A lot of what's happened recently with people like Jamie Oliver pushing for better school dinners has been around for years ( I know, I've been preaching it ( but it's great it is coming to the mainstream."

Along with Margaret's new direction came the idea of producing a cookery book which combined her philosophies of life and food and 30 years' research and experience as a practising nutritionist and yoga teacher.

"This recipe book came about really because of my weekend yoga class. I would prepare meals for the students and they would ask how I cooked them.

"It was something which I think had been growing in my mind for probably around 30 years.

"When I started out looking for organic and free range food on Tyneside, I had to adapt recipes a lot and be creative with my ingredients. This book is meant to be a guide, there is the room for people to improvise and adjust recipes to their own tastes.

"I'm delighted people are starting to pay more attention to their bodies and, hopefully, this book will help them to do it ( in an enjoyable way."

* Kitchen Yoga, pounds 18, is stocked in Waterstones, Newcastle, and Words and Music in Alnwick. It is also available by post from Peanut Productions, 10 Burnhouse Road, Wooler, Northumberland, NE71 6EE, or from Margaret's website, www.abmworks.f9.co.uk

Steamed sponge and CUSTARD

Weigh two large organic eggs

Use the same weight of organic butter, natural cane caster sugar and organic white self-raising flour.

Using a wooden spoon, cream the sugar and butter in a mixing bowl until white and fluffy.

Whisk the eggs, strain into a small bowl and gradually add these to the creamed mixture, beating thoroughly with a wooden spoon.

Sift the flour twice into a small bowl and fold this into the batter with a metal spoon or spatula.

Lightly grease a 907g (2 pint) pudding basin and spoon in 1-2 tbs sugar-free jam. Spoon the cake mixture over the top. Cover with lightly oiled greaseproof paper and foil and place in a steamer filled with rapidly boiling water.

Turn down the heat and steam for 1 1/2 hours, checking occasionally to ensure the steamer is not about to boil dry. Add more boiling water from a kettle as necessary.

About 10 minutes before the end of the cooking time, make the custard according to packet directions. Pour into a large jug and keep warm. Allow one litre for eight people. More if your guests are male or predominately male!

To turn out from a standard basin, remove the foil and greaseproof paper and simply run a knife around the inside.

Place a warmed plate over the top of the basin as above and invert. From here it can be easily transferred to a pre-warmed dish of choice, particularly if you want to serve it in a sea of custard.

Couscous CASSEROLE

250gm couscous

1/2 tsp salt dissolved in a cup of warm water

For the casserole:

3tbs olive oil

1 large onion chopped

2 large carrots scrubbed and diced

250g cooked chickpeas

1tsp each ground cumin, coriander and cinnamon

2 tbs tomato puree

75g raisins

450ml water

1 tbs chopped fresh parsley

2tsp lemon juice

sea salt and black pepper

Spread the couscous on a tray and sprinkle with one third of the water. Rub the grains between the fingers and leave for 10mins. Repeat this twice more.

In a heavy based pan, gently fry the onion in the oil for approximately 10 minutes. Add the carrots, chickpeas, spices, puree, raisins and water. Bring to the boil and simmer with the lid on for about 30 minutes or until the vegetables are tender.

To cook the couscous:

Line a colander or steamer with muslin or a double layer of greaseproof paper. Set the steamer over the stew when it is just boiling and cook for about 30 minutes. If necessary add more water to the stew.

Add the lemon juice and parsley to the stew. Adjust the seasoning.

Fork the couscous to separate and fluff grains. Add a little olive oil to enhance the flavour and appearance.

Accompany with a green salad or a tureen-full of steamed spinach into which one large tablespoon of crAme fraiche has been stirred and lightly dust with grated nutmeg.