HealthyFoods4Change: August 2010

Monday, August 16, 2010

Spinach Salad For The Soul

I'm not one to follow recipes and usually find myself creating meals from the heart and soul. I start off with a basic principle of eating healthy. I find a base food and build upon it by adding ingredients that add flavor, and compliment my needs to eat well. My spinach salad is so simple and so basic but I feel it clearly represents my style of eating and is true to me.

Spinach includes one of my 40 Best Foods and is a renowned muscle builder. It has a great color and presents itself well as a stand alone full bodied lunch or dinner when chicken or fish is added. I love the texture of the leafs and it holds a dressing well.

Larry's Spinach Salad

(5) cups of chopped baby spinach
(1) cup of "Craisin" or Strawberries
(1) handful of black Calamata olives
(1) cup of feta cheese
(1) small apple cubed
(1) handful of chopped walnuts

Dressing:
(2) part olive oil
(1) part apple vinegar
(1) tsp. of Mrs. Dash Seasoning

Add for additional protein:
(1) 4 oz. chicken breasts or
(1) 8 oz. albacore tuna or
(1) 4 oz. salmon

Bread sticks on the side will add some crunch to your afternoon lunch or light dinner.

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Sensible Snacking

Snacking seems like an American pastime.

I know we eat because we get hungry and I understand there are many reasons why we eat between meals but what constitutes a good snack vs a not so good snack?

Frito-Lay suggests that clearly there is a difference between mindless eating and snacking to curb the appetite between meals. Snacking can be part of a healthy, balanced lifestyle and offers many benefits. When keeping healthier ingredients, portion size, and personal calorie needs in mind, snacking can be useful in managing weight and sustaining energy throughout the day. See Frito-Lay at http://www.fritolay.com/

I also feel its important to look at the healthier alternatives to snacking such as a handful of nuts with dark chocolate. The benefits provided in these wonderful MUFA's are endless and still provide the needs in managing weight and providing energy throughout the day. And lets not forget that the apple a day your mother always stressed. My favorite snack food has always been the combination of raw nuts with dark chocolate. After a good walk or workout at the gym I usually follow it up with a cup of "All Natural-Nonfat Greek Strained Yogurt" topped off with a fruit for added flavor.

Shouldn't we be looking for alternative healthy snacks instead of the convenience found in a bag of potato chips?

Your thoughts?

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Lunch Time Alternatives

I recently received a "Best 40 Food Lists" from a friend of mine.

This list encouraged me to build my dinners, lunches and snacks around these top food choices. The picture posted here is a simple lunch I made for my partner and myself. It includes seven of the top 40 foods. In addition to selecting the best foods, it also has a very responsible caloric count. (375 calories)

Ingredients:
10 oz. Chunk White Albacore Tuna in Water
6 oz. All Natural-Nonfat Greek Strained Yogurt
(1) Teaspoon of Turmeric
(1/2) Cup of walnuts
Salt & Pepper to Taste

Blend all ingredients and place on a full slice of fresh pineapple. Add some salad garnish with spinach & carrot sticks as shown in the image. Don't forget to add some black olives (MUFA's) to aid in your digestion of food. MUFA's will be introduced in future postings.

I also like to serve this with some lemon water!

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MUFA The New Mantra

What are MUFAs? Pronounced (MOO-fah)

MUFAs are Monounsaturated Fatty Acids. In biochemistry, we learned that Mono-Unsaturated Fatty acids have ONE single double bond in the fatty acid change where as the PolyUnsaturated fatty acids have more than one double bond (hence mono and poly). MonoUnsaturated fats are plant based fats, see below for foods high in MUFAs.

What are the Health Benefits of MUFAs?

Studies show that a foods rich in MUFAs help reduce LDL (Low-Density Lipoprotein) cholesterol, the kind that clogs up arteries, and possibly help boost HDL (High-Density Lipoprotein) cholesterol, the kind that sweeps cholesterol out of the arteries and clears it from the body. They can also lower the risk of heart disease and improve insulin.

How much fat per day should I eat?

Fat should not take up more than 20- 35% of your daily caloric intake. So lets say you consume 2000 calories a day,
- 0.20 x 2000 = 400 fat calories
- 0.35 x 2000 = 700 fat calories

How many grams is that?

We know that 1g fat = 9 calories therefore;
- 400 cal/9 cal per g = ~ 44.5 g
- 700 cal/9 cal per g = ~ 77.8 g

This means that out the 2000 calories that you eat per day, 400 – 700 calories or 44.5 – 77.8 g should come from healthy fats.

What are some foods that are MUFA rich?

Oils
Pick your MUFA: Canola oil, flaxseed oil, olive oil, peanut oil, pesto sauce, safflower oil, sesame oil, soybean oil, sunflower oil, walnut oil, hemp oil
Use them like this: Stir-fry with sesame, peanut, or canola oil; pan-fry in walnut or olive oil; cook with safflower, soybean, or sunflower oil; use flaxseed oil and hemp oil

Nuts and Seeds
Almonds, Brazil nuts, natural peanut butter, dry-roasted cashews, dry-roasted peanuts, dry-roasted sunflower seeds, hazelnuts, macadamia nuts, pecans, pine nuts, pistachios, roasted pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, walnuts. This also includes nut butter; almond butter, cashew butter, peanut butter

Use them like this: Eat nuts as a snack or sprinkle on a salad, oatmeal. Spread nut butters on toast, add them in your oatmeal or top it on your sweet potato.

Avocado

Pick your MUFA: Florida avocado, Hass avocado

Use them like this: Slice and serve with a salad or any entrée; mash with lime juice, salt and pepper and serve with chips; chop and fold into store-bought salsa

Olives
Black olives, black olive tapenade, green olives, green olive tapenade

Use them like this: Serve olives as a snack; sprinkle sliced olives on pizzas, salads, or pastas; spread tapenade on crackers or sandwiches

Dark Chocolate
Pick your MUFA: Dark or semisweet chocolate chips, shavings, or chunks

Use them like this: Any way you crave!

On wooden vs. plastic cutting boards:

"It turns out that wooden cutting boards are good in a couple of ways — they're porous so they tend to soak up juices from cutting meats and fish, for example, and that carries the bacteria down into the cutting board where they're not at the surface anymore. And woods often contain anti-bacterial compounds in them so there's kind of a natural antibiotic in the surface of the wood. Plastic cutting boards are easier to clean and are safer to put in the dishwasher, for example, but they also will tend to develop scars and bacteria will lodge in the scars and cause problems later. So I actually have a couple of each and use both. When a plastic cutting board develops scars, I replace it." Read More

According to Harold McGee who is the author of several books on the chemistry and history of food. He also writes a regular column debunking kitchen myths for The New York Times.

What is Resistant Starch?

As we have already learned, starch that we eat is digested at different rates. The starch in potatoes, cereals, and baked goods digest very rapidly. Other starchy foods, such as beans, barley or long grained brown rice, are digested more slowly, and cause a much slower and lower blood sugar rise. Resistant starch actually goes all the way through the small intestine without being digested at all. In this way, it is more like a fiber, and in some cases is classified and labeled as fiber. Read more

You can see all 40 Best Foods List here.

The Dirty Dozen

(CNN) - If you're eating non-organic celery today, you may be ingesting 67 pesticides with it, according to a new report from the Environmental Working Group.

Here are the Dirty Dozen:

Celery

Peaches

Strawberries

Apples

Domestic Blueberries

Nectarines

Sweet Bell Peppers

Spinach, Kale and Collard Greens

Cherries

Potatoes

Imported Grapes

Read more to see the "Clean 15". Not all non-organic fruits and vegetables have a high pesticide level. Some produce has a strong outer layer that provides a defense against pesticide contamination.

Lettuce

The Importance of Acid and Alkaline Balance for Health

Virtually all degenerative diseases including cancer, heart disease, arthritis, osteoporosis, kidney and gall stones, and tooth decay are associated with excess acidity in the body. While the body has a homeostatic mechanism that maintains a constant pH 7.4 in the blood, this mechanism works by depositing and withdrawing acid and alkaline minerals from other locations including the bones, soft tissues, body fluids and saliva. Therefore, the pH of these other tissues can fluctuate greatly. The pH of saliva offers a window through which you can see the overall pH balance in your body.

Cancer cannot exist in an alkaline environment. All forms of arthritis are associated with excess acidity. Acid in the body dissolves both teeth and bones. Whatever health situation you are faced with, you can monitor your progress toward a proper acid/alkaline balance by testing your saliva pH.

See Saliva pH Test for more information

People who eat one 3-ounce serving of black beans a day decrease their risk of heart attack by 38 percent, according to a study in the Journal of Nutrition. And while other beans are also good for your heart, none can boost your brainpower like black beans. That’s because they’re full of anthocyanins, antioxidant compounds that have been shown to improve brain function. They’re also packed with superstar nutrients, including protein, healthy fats, folate, magnesium, B vitamins, potassium, and fiber.

TURMERIC

Curcumin, the polyphenol that gives turmeric its tang and yellow hue, has anticancer properties, anti-inflammatory effects, and tumor-fighting activities known in nutrition- speak as anti-angiogenesis. Researchers at UCLA have also found that it helps deter the accumulation of amyloid plaques in the brain, tiny blockages that may cause Alzheimer’s disease.

Turmeric’s prevalencein India, the researchers suggest, may help explain why so few of the country’s senior citizens have the disease, whereas the statistic is close to 13 percent in the United States, according to the Alzheimer’s Association. One tip: Pair it with pepper in curries. “Adding black pepper to turmeric or turmeric-spiced food enhances curcumin’s bioavailability by 1,000 times, due to black pepper’s hot property called piperine,” says nutritionist Stacy Kennedy of the Dana Farber Cancer Institute.

See 40 Best Foods

TOMATOS

There are two things you need to know about tomatoes: red are the best, because they’re packed with more of the antioxidant lycopene; and processed tomatoes are just as potent as fresh ones, because it’s easier for the body to absorb the lycopene. Studies show that a diet rich in lycopene can decrease your risk of

bladder, lung, prostate, skin, and stomach cancers, as well as reduce the risk of coronary artery disease, and help eliminate skin-aging free radicals caused by ultraviolet rays. “Cooked tomatoes and tomato paste work best,” says celebrity trainer Gunnar Petersen.

See 40 Best Foods

Top 10 Interesting Facts about Food

Interesting Food Facts

There are different varieties of nutritious and lip smacking foods on earth. Each has its own unique taste and history. Interestingly, there are several strange food facts that cannot be imagined. Let us delve into the wonderful world of foods and try to understand some of the best fun, strange and healthy facts about food:

Hot Chocolate: Ancient Mayan Recipe?

Everyone loves to drink delicious hot chocolate. But did you know that the origin of hot chocolate dates back to 5th century AD? Yes, ancient Mayans prepared a very strange concoction from cocoa beans, chili peppers, cornmeal, spices and water. However, the mixture was not “hot” and tasted bitter and spicy unlike today’s hot chocolate.

Did you also know that Chocolate was one of the MUFA's ?

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