Ever wish your favorite comfort food had a bit more pizzazz? It may be high time to diversify from your average meat and potatoes dinner, and this brightly colored vegetable is just the thing. The skin of the purple potato provides a shock of color that can snap us out of our yellow- and red-skinned comas, and boost our health at the same time.
The flesh of these colorful nightshades, praised recently in Mark Bittman’s New York Times column On Growing (And Eating Potatoes), come in many blue and purple varieties, though the Purple Viking and Purple Majesty are two of the most popular for their intense color. They have deep violet, ink-colored skin, and the flesh inside ranges from solid blue to speckled. Perhaps best of all, they taste just like the good old potato that we like so much.
Unearth Healthy Color
We know that blueberries are uniquely advantageous to health because of the pigment in the skin – that deep blue-purple color is a sign of antioxidant richness. Is the same true for a potato hued with blue? Absolutely. While blueberries, particularly wild blueberries, have the high skin-to-pulp ratio and deep color that makes them an antioxidant leader, the antioxidant anthocyanin, responsible for this color, is also behind the skin color of the purple potato. It’s found in other foods, too, like cabbage and eggplant.
While potatoes are challenged with a soiled reputation due to our over-love of the fried variety, potatoes are a vegetable that provides wonderful health benefits. They have moderate fat and calories, are full of vitamins C and B6, and provide a high dose of potassium, an essential nutrient we often get too little of.
Thanks to anthocyanins, the Purple Viking, a white-fleshed potato that Bittman describes as having “a purple skin with pink splashes, as pretty as it sounds” can be depended upon to deliver the anti-cancer, heart-healthy, anti-aging benefits that most deeply colored fruit and veggies do. In fact, they have been recently recognized for their potential to lower blood pressure. Bittman extols the virtues of this earthly purple gem for summer because, he says, they are a delightful food for the grill, and they shine in soups. They also cook and sauté quickly, maintain a perfectly crisp outside, and are full of flavor.
Purple potatoes are often available from local farmers and can be found in local grocery stores, but if you want to plant your very own and you live in Maine, you can obtain your seeds from the Maine Potato Lady in Guilford. Place your seed orders now to ship the last week of April, and you can be fixing up a blue-hued plate in a matter of months that your guests will really dig.
Eating Well is not afraid to showcase the purple potato’s surprising hue with this recipe for Roasted Garlic Purple Potatoes.
This Roasted Blue Potato Wedges with Fresh Herbs recipe (with wonderful step-by-step photos from the Hungry Mouse) is no April fool’s joke – the simple dish wears its purple proudly.
A Unique Nutritional Concept Can Improve Health – Will We Listen?
It’s been the principle of sticktoitveness since Henry Ford created his first car (and his first flop): the difficult road to success – in business, in the arts, in athletics – ends in gold. The bigger the hardship, the more intense the success. In other words, in most walks of life, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.
Can something that applies to football players and CEOs alike also apply to the world of nutrition? The latest research says yes, and it brings to light an exciting new concept in health and disease prevention.
The more we study the nutritional components of food, the more we understand why certain foods are good for us. Some antioxidant-rich foods can preserve healthy organ functioning, prevent disease of aging, and even reverse age-related illness – powerful stuff for something readily available. Part of the reason relies on the principle of adversity – that their challenges have made them stronger and healthier. If we seek out foods that have endured struggles to survive in a difficult environment, we’re taking in powerful nutrition that in turn makes US stronger.
Stressed to Be The Be the Best
Member of The Bar Harbor Group Don Ingram, Ph.D. of the Nutritional Neuroscience and Aging Laboratory and the Pennington Biomedical Research Center at Louisiana State University, recently provided a case in point in an interview on the podcast To Your Good Health with Dr. David Friedman. Dr. Ingram explained why the huge nutritional capacity of certain foods like wild blueberries is the result of their tough nature.
Components in foods like wild blueberries act to protect the fruit against stressful events, said Ingram. Because the berries are grown naturally in demanding geographical areas in Maine and parts of Canada, they endure cold, harsh winters, temperature shifts and intense sun (for which they have developed their own UV protection in their deeply colored skin). They grow in rugged terrain and challenging soil, and they grow close to the ground where they are susceptible to insects, fungi and other pests. Wild blueberries are the product of a dangerous world, and they have evolved to thrive in the face of the harshest stressors. That’s exactly what makes them incredibly beneficial to us.
Why Some Foods are “Lazy”
Because wild blueberries have grown to withstand these environmental stressors, they have naturally evolved to have powerful defenses. When we put these foods in our bodies, we are getting the benefits of those defenses. According to Dr. Ingram, foods that are grown mainly as cultivated fruits such as the cultivated blueberry, or oranges, for instance, while still good for us, could be argued to be a bit “lazy” Dr. Ingram explains. These fruits have lost their protective abilities because through cultivation they have not needed to be tough – instead, we provide them with protection. As a result, truly powerful compounds, he surmises, have dropped from their nutritional profile.
Wild blueberries act on inflammation in the body, and inflammation is at the root of aging and many challenging diseases. Diets with blueberries, studies consistently show, calm destructive oxidative stress and reduce the inflammation in the cells of the brain, the heart, and other organs. That’s why in lab tests, wild blueberries are found to be advantageous for health in important ways such as fighting cancer, diabetes, heart disease, memory loss and Alzheimer’s, and other aging-related illnesses.
Food Adversity Principle = Improved Health for Us
The equation is groundbreaking. But why don’t we treat this phenomenon as the breakthrough it is? While the benefits of consuming foods high in nutrition is generally accepted, we’ve grown used to the evidence – both anecdotal and scientific – in support of healthy food. The advice can ring hollow because it seems so similar to a grandmother urging us to eat our vegetables and clear our plate. According to Dr. Ingram, food just doesn’t prompt the same level of excitement that cure-all medications and new scientific breakthroughs do. But it should.
The Whole Food Research Challenge
“This is a whole area of research that we need to be involved in,” Dr. Ingram told David Friedman of whole food research. “Funding agencies are remiss in funding this kind of research because it just doesn’t seem that sexy.” As a result, he said, we have yet to confirm many of the promising animal studies that would enable us to say definitively that wild blueberries, for example, can provide major benefits for the most pressing health hurdles for our culture.
The results of those studies could affect how we treat diseases related to oxidative stress as well as important areas such as insulin resistance, cognitive deficits, and overweight kids. Said Ingram, “Support for research that shows in a well-controlled trial that these types of foods like berries, particularly blueberries, can have these types of effects would go a long way to convincing the public that they should be eating these types of foods.”
Until we can figure out how to put the sexy into nutritional research, knowing that common Clark Kent foods can be the Supermen of health should be reason enough to make eating them every day a priority. Start applying the principle that what doesn’t kill you can make you stronger when it comes to the foods on your own plate. The street smarts inherent in your food has an excellent chance of translating into your good health.
Listen to the interview with Dr. Don Ingram on the To Your Good Health with Dr. David Friedman podcast.
More than any other topic, ORAC measurements have grabbed the attention of our readers over the last few months. Why the interest in ORAC? As part of our Made Simple Series, we are revisiting this nutritional buzzword to see what makes it worth knowing about by answering your ORAC questions as simply as possible.
What’s in this post:
ORAC Basics
Why High ORAC Scores = Health Benefits
Four Steps to Using ORAC to Better Your Health
1. ORAC Basics
What: ORAC is the nutritional measurement developed and used to evaluate the antioxidant benefit of food. The acronyms stands for or Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity, which refers to how much radical oxygen a food can absorb – that is, its effect on combating damaging free radicals.
Why: The ORAC scale offers the general public a tool that can be used to choose the most powerful foods for health and disease prevention. It also allows for easy comparison of foods to see which food is best when it comes to antioxidant power.
The Buzz: ORAC isn’t a marketing ploy. It was developed by USDA researchers at Tufts University as a way to for consumers to understand antioxidant capacity of foods more clearly. It replaces vague terms like “high in antioxidants” or “superfood” as a reliable way to ensure that foods making antioxidant claims are telling it like it is.
2. Why High ORAC Scores = Health Benefits
What: ORAC is important because measuring antioxidant benefits helps us eat foods that prevent disease and help us live longer.
Why: Dietary antioxidants protect the body against unstable oxygen molecules by neutralizing free radicals. Free radicals are associated with:
cancer
heart disease
brain health & Alzheimer’s disease
inflammation – the chief offender when it comes to the effects of aging and disease
The Buzz: The effect of antioxidants on our health and wellness cannot be overemphasized. Research in the field of antioxidants continues, and according to Susan Davis, MS, RD, Nutrition Advisor to the Wild Blueberry Association it is “incredibly consequential for members of our community and the public at large.”
Step 2: Know the ORAC score of common or favorite foods, fruits, vegetables and juices. For example, about 23 grapes rates 739 on the ORAC scale; while about 70 blueberries comes in at 2,400.
Step 3: Understand serving size: While chocolate comes in at 13,120 ORAC, it’s for 100 grams of unsweetened cacao – an unrealistically high amount to be contained in a sweetened bar.
Step 4: Use the scores to make better decisions about the food you eat. Make ORAC scores part making grocery lists, planning meals, and eating snacks.
The more we know about the aging-nutrition connection, the more theory becomes immutable fact: “Dietary choices are critical to delaying the onset of aging and age-related diseases, and the sooner you start, the greater the benefit,” says Susan Moores, RD, of the American Dietetic Association. Not only is nutrition our secret weapon when it comes aging, the opposite is also true – what we eat can cause aging. So, if you are still searching for the fountain of youth, stop the exploring and start eating, because the jury is in: we can use food to speed aging, or to slow it. The choice is on your plate.
In fact, some experts assert that the disease and deterioration that we often consider the natural process of aging is not natural at all, and is, in fact, completely preventable. While aging may not be entirely preventable through nutrition – there are other environmental or biological factors at work – nutrition is clearly a major key to the prevention of the signs of aging and age-related disease.
How does this magical fountain of youth operate? Nutrition works at a cellular level, where the aging process originates. Deep in the cells of our bodies three factors are at work – they overlap and interact with each other, but they are all at the core of preventing – or hastening – the aging process.
The Anti-aging Keys
1. Inflammation
Anti-aging is synonymous with anti-inflammation. Chronic inflammation at the cellular level is at the heart of many degenerative age-related diseases, and controlling it could be the key to delaying the aging process.
Inflammation is an immune reaction on the cellular level. It is our body’s natural defense – the result of a reaction to environmental toxins, irritation, and infection. In a sort of biological conundrum, inflammation protects our bodies and deteriorates it as well. It is the root cause of many chronic and common diseases of aging, such as arthritis, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, osteoporosis, and Alzheimer’s disease.
The good news is that researchers have found that diet has a significant effect on inflammation. It can minimize inflammation and as a result, delay the aging process. Colorful fruits and vegetables, omega-3 and low glycemic foods, for instance, have been named as part of an anti-inflammation diet. Some diets can cause inflammation, too, essentially producing an immune system that is out of control and putting aging in high gear. We could call it the Aging Diet – one characterized by high-carb, low-protein foods, refined sugar and polyunsaturated fats.
2. Oxidation
Inflammation is caused by free radical damage, and the well-known evils of free radicals are due to oxidation. Simply stated, oxidation occurs when the body produces by-products, referred to as oxygen free radicals. The result is a kind of rusting of the body, and when this rusting is applied to humans and not iron, it results in aging and diseases such a cancer. Free radicals are produced inside our bodies, and occur as a result of food, environmental pollutions and everyday things like air, water and sun. As we age, we become more susceptible to the long-term effects of oxidative stress (or too many free radicals) and inflammation on the cellular level. As E.R. Stadtman, a NIH researcher explains, “Aging is a disease. The human life span simply reflects the level of free radical oxidative damage that accumulates in cells. When enough damage accumulates, cells can’t survive properly anymore and they just give up.”
How do we defeat the aging evil of oxidative stress? That’s where antioxidants (think anti-oxidation) come in. The antioxidants eliminate the damage that free radicals cause in our bodies. Some foods are high in antioxidant content and some contain powerful substances called phytonutrients that some believe are capable of unlocking the key to longevity. Phytonutrients are members of the antioxidant family, and are responsible for ridding the body of free radicals, and as a result, slowing the rusting, or the aging, process. That’s one of the reasons that a diet of high antioxidant foods is your first defense against aging.
3. Blood Flow
Blood flow is key #3, and is affected by inflammation and oxidation. Blood vessels are particularly vulnerable to oxidative stress and inflammation, and keeping them healthy cannot be understated when it comes to preventing age-related disease. Blood flow to the heart protects the heart muscle from damage, and prevents restricted blood vessels, which helps the brain, and every organ in the body.
Low blood flow is a major factor in aging; its relationship to aging and its diseases are permanently intertwined. Enter nutrition to change the equation. According to Steve Pratt, author of Superfoods Rx, some foods lower inflammatory markers, cause basal dilation and lower blood pressure and improve blood flow. They work on the capillary level to keep microcirculation working well, and that affects the heart, the brain and eyes and prevents the diseases of aging that attacks them.
Anti-aging Targets: Brain, Heart & Eyes
Maintaining our brain, heart, and eyes top the list for those concerned about preserving health and youthfulness as they age. If these things are healthy, chances are, you’re healthy, too. Perhaps it’s not surprising that usually, these three body parts work in tandem and are subject to the same forces – inflammation, oxidation and blood flow.
Brain. Isolating Alzheimer’s disease is one step toward achieving the ideal: anti-aging. If we can preserve brain function, along with body function, we can delay the aging process.
Researchers have discovered that one of the risk factors of deteriorating brain function appears to be how the body handles glucose. Studies of the genetic code of those with Alzheimer’s disease appear to suggest it is connected to cholesterol metabolism. Also, high antioxidant foods possess anti-inflammatory benefit to the brain, which researchers have found increases cell signaling pathways. We know nutrients are a contributor in combating oxidative stress, and oxidative stress is a major cause of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases.
Heart. Thanks again to the anti-inflammatory effect of some foods, good nutrition can have a major impact on aging by preserving the function of one of our most important organs, the heart. By decreasing inflammation in the arteries surrounding the heart, we can keep the heart functioning longer and better. Nutrients in some foods that are high in antioxidants protect the heart muscle from damage by acting as anti-inflammatory agents. Nutrition reduces cholesterol levels and by reducing build-up, which helps prevent cardiovascular disease and stroke. And, many studies into the compounds of fruits like wild blueberries indicate supplements can help regulate blood pressure and combat atherosclerosis.
Vision. According to an interesting new study, anthocyanins from blueberries may protect critical eye tissue from premature aging and light-induced damage. The study, published in the British Journal of Nutrition, indicates that cells treated with blueberry extract improved the viability of cells exposed to light which experienced premature aging. The conclusion of the author of the study was that “blueberries, or other kinds of fruits that are rich in anthocyanins, have the potential to prevent age-related macular degeneration and other retinal diseases related to RPE cells.”
Such examples of the vision-nutrition connection is part of a major boon in research into the benefits of dietary prevention when it comes to aging and diseases of aging. Researchers continue to find links between nutrition and healthy eyes. Studies indicate the vitamins and minerals from fruits and vegetables slow the progress of age-related vision loss, and while the exact nutrients and in what combinations is still unknown, researchers have concluded that the big three keys – anti-inflammation, anti-oxidation and blood flow, are at the heart of maintaining vision. Because some foods with anthocyanins, for instance, work on the capillary level to keep microcirculation working well, that has a positive affect on eyes, tired eyes, and vision diseases that occur with age.
Open the door to anti-aging. Still exploring, Ponce de Leon? Try exploring your kitchen instead. When you use nutrition to decrease inflammation, decrease oxidation, and enhance your blood flow, the aging brain, heart, and eyes will have a new lease on long, disease-free life.
Have you ever looked down at the food you’re eating and thought, “Where did you come from?”
It’s no space age phenomenon – it can happen right here in 1873…er, 2011. You can get the feeling a spaceship arrived in your kitchen and took over what you thought was a decent, healthy meal. Sometimes even the good guys – that is, the healthy, disease-preventing foods that provide antioxidants, vitamins and nutrients – can’t battle the forces that have brought your dinner plate to its knees.
That’s when you know you’ve entered a culinary battle royal coming to a kitchen near you: Cowboys and Aliens.
The Cowboys
Whether you consider your eats as urban as Sissy’s line-dancing Bud, or as free as a galloping horse carrying Alan Ladd, your culinary cowboys will always be characterized as foods that roamed the West when America was young. The cowboy foods are the good guys. They are the mainstays of your health: the foods that crusade against disease, fight cancer, maintain a healthy heart, and prevent obesity-related illness. They slap the dust off their boots and get to the work of dusting free radical from your cells.
Feeling like it’s your first rodeo? Here are some examples of culinary cowboys that will tip their Stetson to your well-being and longevity.
Caveman food. They pre-date cowboys by a smidge, but eating like a caveman isn’t that different from eating like a cowboy. Follow suit, and you’ve got a start on battling gastronomical evil forces. According to Superfood originator Steven Pratt, our genetic makeup remains the same as our cave dwelling (or ranch-roaming) ancestors’, but our lifestyle does not. The more modern our lifestyle and food choices, the more we need foods that cavemen used to get their nutrition in order to counteract our choices. That means eating berries, nuts, and foods that grow on trees and from the ground.
Food without labels. Food that requires no packaging and no ingredient label should serve as the basis of our cowboy diet. These cowboy-friendly foods – usually found at the perimeter of the supermarket or at farmer’s markets – are sold just as nature intended them to be, and they are the foods that do the most to keep us healthy as we traverse the frontier.
Local food. They may roam far and wide on their trusted steed in movies, but real cowboys were too busy handling things at home to stray far from the pasture. They ate food made and grown locally that was native to their surroundings. Taking advantage of local food means eating what local farmers grow. And, cooking with indigenous ingredients is often indicative of someone eating real, whole, healthy food. Not to mention, when you are eating locally, your dollars are kept close to home, and that means your helping your own, Pilgrim.
Clear origins. Cowboys brand their cattle so if they stray, there’s no question where they came from. Can you trace the origin of what you’re eating? What does that origin look like? Is it a farm or a factory? Is it a kitchen or a plant? Is it made by many hands or none? Could you tour the facility that made it? Is it far away or close to home? Tracing the origins of what’s on your plate can be a great way to discover the real roots or the wicked source of the food you’re colluding with.
Eating with the Posse. Eating together is the cowboy way. What does that have to do with your plate? A lot, actually. Research shows that making and eating family meals is a key element in eating well and staying healthy. Cowboys also eat as much as they are hungry for, and they eat mindfully – they don’t scarf a bag of chips while they on a perilous journey into the sun. They slow down and enjoy the victuals.
The Aliens
No food is bad. But some are just not of this world. Now that you know the cowboys, the aliens are easier to identify. Sometimes these advanced organisms are straight out of a Spielberg film, sporting one eye and two antennas, but sometimes they walk stealthily among us, their true identity hidden by an earthling-like smile that charms our eyes and our stomachs.
Extraterrestrials. Food activist Michael Pollan cautions against foods your “grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food”. That usual means, in true alien style, that it doesn’t come from the earth. If your food comes in a tube or a carton, is sprinkled with colored sugar or iridescent cheese powder, Rooster Cogburn might have sauntered right by it without even realizing it’s food – and so should we.
Alien names. Do the ingredients in your food seem, well, alien? Unpronounceable, multi-syllabic words on your ingredient list is a sign clearer than a crop circle that there is something unearthly in your lunch. It could be hurting your health, or at least taking up calories that could be spent on those that improve it. Instead, throw your lasso around foods that have four ingredients or less, and when you can, those that have just one.
Alien claims. Whether they are “light”, “enriched” or “heart healthy”, alien foods try hard to assimilate, but if they require a label, it means they are trying a little too hard. The best foods come in their own packages (with the exception of frozen, which require packaging – the good ones have just one ingredient) and make claims from nutritionists and scientists, not marketers.
Ageless food. According to the Lempert Report, shoppers are making more trips to the supermarket and spending less money per trip. These “narrow missions” could be part of avoiding aliens – that is, food that keeps forever. If your food doesn’t go bad, there’s a reason (see above). Frozen fruits and veggies or unfrozen foods that decompose like a giant parasitic egg bent on attacking Sigourney Weaver are foods that are real, whole, natural, and healthy. Keeping fresh, vulnerable foods around might require more frequent trips to the store, but you’ll be free to buy what you want without worrying it won’t get eaten.
Fight the Good (Food) Fight
Sure, sometimes we’re all itching for a good fight (or have a soft spot for Harrison Ford riding a horse), but if you’re interested in doing the best thing you can do for your health and longevity, give the food aliens a boot back into orbit. Knowledge and a few good cooking tools will serve as your magic bracelet – that’s all you need to saddle up and get yourself some colorful, antioxidant, nutrient-rich fixins that aren’t from a galaxy far, far away.
One of the best ways to stay healthy and prevent disease is to eat from the rainbow. That means choosing foods that represent all the colors of the spectrum. Research continues to pile on the evidence to support the color concept. In fact, in tests conducted on rats fed different colored diets, rats fed a strictly white diet not only didn’t thrive, but they died—within three months.
The greatest number of healthful compounds can be found in the most colorful foods. Naturally bright hues prevent aging and disease and keeping our brains, our skin, and our hearts healthy. Available to our cavemen counterparts and on colorful, noticeable display to birds and animals, color sends a clear signal: nutrients can be found here. But what are we really taking in when we eat colorful foods?
Color 101
Plants are colorful because of pigments, which fall into two categories: carotenoids and anthocyanins. Carotenoids are at the yellow-orange-red end of the spectrum. They are found in foods like carrots and tomatoes and are also in leafy greens (they’re just covered by the green of chlorophyll). Anthocyanins are at the red-blue end of the color spectrum. There are over 300 types of anthocyanins, and they are found in a lot of the foods we eat, but they are on brightest display in berries and deep blue and purple colored fruits and vegetables.
Pigments serve as a food’s own personal SPF. They block the UV light that they are exposed to every day, protecting themselves from the free radicals that are produced by the sun – a result of photosynthesis. Just as they protect the plant, so do they protect us as when we eat them.
Just for Hue
Anthocyanin pigments give blueberries their intense blue color – a hue that is almost black, especially in high skin-to-pulp ratio wild blueberries. Blueberries can have as many as 25-30 different types of anthocyanins, and they have them in large concentrations. In studies, rats fed these colorful blueberries were shown to have better physical performance, better communication, fewer damaged proteins in the brain, and better cognitive function.
Recently, new Parkinson’s research has determined a connection between anthocyanin and Parkinson’s disease. Scientists found in preliminary research that the flavonoids in berries could be a key to prevention. While general flavonoids found across many different foods showed a positive link to prevention in men, anthocyanins found in blueberries protected both men and women from the disease, leading researchers to believe that anthocyanin-rich berries made the difference.
Anthocyanins and Cholesterol
Anthocyanins have been found to prevent a key step in atherogenesis: oxidation of low-density lipoproteins, or LDLs. Red pigments seem to retard the bad cholesterol and reduce platelet clumping, which guards against clots.
Anthocyanins and Blood Vessels
Anthocyanins also act as powerful antioxidants, known to fight aging, cancer and heart disease. They have been found to prevent oxidation which has implications for vascular disease, and they have also been found to relax blood vessels, reducing chances of heart attack.
Anthocyanins and Cancer
According to cancer prevention research, anthocyanins can inhibit the growth of tumor cells by slowing the growth of pre-malignant cells, and encouraging cancer cells to die off faster. They are also found to have an effect on reducing the precursors that initiate cancerous tumors.
The journal Molecular Cancer found that a special anthocyanin found in the skins of deeply colored vegetables and berries known as Cyanidin-3-glucoside (C3G) can contribute to decreasing the health-damaging free radicals, and new studies have found that anthocyanins found in black raspberries may inhibit colon cancer cells.
Color Your World!
If you are looking to increase your anthocyanin intake, and you should be, look to berries: wild blueberries, black berries, black raspberries and chokeberries top the list. Other great sources include red grapes, blackcurrant, and eggplant.
A surprising source for anthocyanins is black rice rumored to increase in popularity 2011 (along with mobile TV and bolder beer) due to its Mediterranean diet cache combined with its high anthocyanin content. It’s just one more way to start embracing color by putting an anthocyanin-rich rainbow on your plate.
Antioxidant fruits and veggies must feel like they’ve hit the jackpot when November rolls around. Lauded as helping our bodies defend against free radicals – unstable oxygen molecules associated with cancer, heart disease and the effects of aging – antioxidants are the champs of Thanksgiving. Working antioxidant-rich foods into pies, desserts and side dishes is never easier than it is this month.
A Very Antioxidant Holiday
Antioxidants also protect against inflammation, thought to be a leading factor in brain aging, Alzheimer’s disease and other diseases of aging. Wild blueberries have come to be known as the leading antioxidant (they have been found to have more total antioxidant capacity than any other fruit). But cranberries are full of antioxidants as well, with strawberries, raspberries, prunes and blackberries also packing a punch – all are willing stars in the annual holiday showcase.
This year, double up on health by combining an antioxidant leader with a traditional holiday (and antioxidant-rich) fruit with this Cranberry and Wild Blueberry Pie recently featured by Epicurious.com. They offer up this beauty as being impressive and “professional-looking,” not to mention bubbling over with taste – the perfect thing to be that little something you just whipped up.
Cran-tabulous
Cranberries take the stage at Thanksgiving. Bursting with color and health, they give pies and turkey sandwiches a burst of tart and sweet, and they are perfect for combining with more subtle fruits such as peaches, apples and blueberries. But there’s lots of ways to sneak cranberries onto your table. Try this Cranberry, Balsamic and Mint Relish from Momalicious, for example. It has a multitude of turkey-friendly uses. Or, go crustless with this super-easy Crustless Cranberry Pie from AllRecipes.com.
You’ll soon eschew all can-shaped side dishes in favor of this Chunky Cranberry Sauce from Food & Wine. They also have other fabulous cranberry cooking ideas including Brussels Sprouts & Cranberries (really!) and a Rosé Sangria with Cranberries & Apples you’ll get a kick out of.
Are You Anti-Pie? Maybe You Should Be.
There’s no offense intended to the pie, but at food52.com there’s an effort underway to get outside of the crust. Consider: if you couldn’t serve your standby recipe for pumpkin pie this year (or any crust-enclosed dessert), what on earth would you do? The concept opens up a world of opportunity! Need convincing? Pear Cranberry Upside-Down Cake should do the trick. Check out more of the best non-pie Thanksgiving desserts.
Have a technology-savvy holiday. Ever think this whole cooking thing should be easier? Ifunia agrees — they found the Best Thanksgiving Apps to help you make it through the food frenzy with just a couple of clicks.
Exhausted from cooking? Hostess with the Mostess recommends getting your veggie serving in with a Pumpkin Martini. Does it count? Once a year, absolutely.
Be honest. Does your kitchen need a pare down? It’s easy to accumulate too much these days: too much health information, too much “healthy” food, and just too much stuff. (Do you really need an egg to be scrambled inside the shell?) If you have cartons of low fat this and lite that sitting around on your shelves and you still don’t seem to be able to fill that nutritional void, it may be that you need less, not more.
Instead, try a simpler view of nutrition: focus on how just a few things can keep you healthy — simple whole foods, simple preparations, and simple principles of nutrition that you know intuitively make sense on your plate and in your body. WebMD has isolated their own super six that stand out particularly for women, and we think they are worth repeating. Here’s our simplified version of their list of foods, along with their most significant benefits, that provide super nutrition and don’t require elaborate supplements, eating schemes, or strange kitchen instruments.
While it’s important to point out that these foods don’t provide everything you need, the nutritional protection is wide ranging, and it’s a great start toward paring down the complicated messages of good health that we are exposed to.
So start thinking of your kitchen as a desert island where you can only bring a few of the most important nutritional foods. These foods ought to be on that list. We’ve also provided a Keep it Simple tip that will help you stay on track without complicating your new super-simple life.
1. Low-fat yogurt
Low fat yogurt offers protection from digestive problems, and evidence suggests it could decrease breast cancer risk. It covers you for servings of low fat dairy and is high in necessary calcium.
Keep it Simple Tip: Forget those with added fruit. You’ll just be adding sugar and convince yourself that, as WebMD nutritionist points out, “those two blueberries in the bottom constitute a serving.”
2. Fatty fish
Fatty fish such like salmon provide omega-3 fatty acids that are a dietary must and help protect against major health threats such as stroke, heart disease –even arthritis and joint pain.
Keep it Simple Tip: Only DHA or EPA forms of omega-3 can be directly used by the body. The simplest thing to do is go with the fish source and not those found in mayonnaise.
3. Beans
Beans are great source of protein and fiber, and lentils may protect against some cancers and heart disease.
Keep it Simple Tip: Beans get a bad rap for being boring and pedestrian, but their diversity is no snore: if you think refried with cheese when you think bean, instead think red clover, kudzu, mung beans, alfalfa sprouts, black cohosh, or chickpeas.
4. Tomatoes
Tomatoes have lycopene, and lycopene is a powerful antioxidant. It can also help fight heart disease and protect against UV damage, naturally.
Keep it Simple Tip: Having sauce? Making pizza? Try tomatoes and olive oil and get the wonderful taste of the season. If you are addicted to jars with happy chefs on the label, let them go for your own stripped-down concoction.
5. Vitamin D
Ok, it’s not a food. But you can get it easily through fortified low fat milk, fortified orange juice, or fish, such as salmon and tuna. It facilitates the absorption of calcium and reduces risks of diseases that women are particularly prone to, such as osteoporosis.
Keep it Simple Tip: The simplest Vitamin D supplement? The sun. How’s that for simple? You can actually absorb this vitamin through any exposed skin on any cloudless day. Shrouding ourselves in SPF may have been the prescription for health in years gone by, but in moderation, sun provides an excellent source of your D.
6. Berries
You know we love ’em: wild blueberries have major cancer fighting antioxidants. There’s simply no reason not to be getting this powerful protection for your cells, heart, and skin every day.
Keep It Simple Tip: Lug that enormous frozen resealable package of wild blueberries through the checkout and into your freezer. Now, lavish your breakfasts, salads, entrees and desserts with them every chance you get. It’s the most convenient, simplest way to get your daily servings.
Just twenty years ago we would have been hard pressed to find information about the little substance called the polyphenol, even in the most arcane scientific literature. Now, thanks to chemical research and nutritional science, polyphenols are turning up everywhere. What accounts for polyphenols going mainstream? Many things. But one interesting thing is your skin.
Sunscreen for Your Insides
“We know that a third of skin-related nutrition relates to polyphenols,” Superfood doc Steven Pratt told the Wild Blueberry Health News last fall. “If you want to have healthy skin, you better eat blueberries. They play a bigger role in keeping skin wrinkle-free than any other food group.”
Dr. Pratt was referring to research that indicates that polyphenols play a major role in keeping the skin healthy. While piling on the sunscreen has been de rigueur since people began to understand the dangers of sun exposure, both for good health and for wrinkle prevention, Dr. Pratt suggests putting sunscreen on from inside out, with polyphenols. Polyphenols, found in foods like berries, appear to inhibit the production of inflammatory mediators, protecting the skin from wrinkles and from the signs of aging.
What’s the connection? Chronic inflammation at the cellular level is at the heart of many degenerative age-related diseases. In studies of rats fed polyphenols-rich blueberries, the concentration of several substances in the brain that can trigger an inflammatory response was significantly reduced. Polyphenols appeared to inhibit the production of these inflammatory mediators. That’s important for many health-related reasons, including maintaining healthy, youthful skin. You can read the research here.
Put Polyphenols in Your Life
In addition to serving as an internal sunscreen, polyphenols, because of their antioxidant properties, may reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and cancer. In fact, polyphenols as regulators of carbon cycling have even been of interest to researchers for how they might affect global warming.
Berries are one of the major players in the role of polyphenols, hence Dr. Pratt’s reference to blueberries as a great source. High levels of polyphenols can generally be found in fruit skins, which is why the deep blue skin of blueberries, and the high skin-to-pulp ratio of wild blueberries in particular, puts this fruit at the top of the list. Other sources of polyphenols include tea, grapes, chocolate, and many fruits and vegetables.
The idea that we can protect our skin from within as well as from without should be considered groundbreaking for a society preoccupied with youth (Hands, please!). Health always works from the inside out, after all. Now that summer’s around the corner, you can pack in the polyphenols when you think of slapping on the sunscreen, knowing you are doing something truly beneficial for your skin.
According to a recent study about the eating habits of migratory birds, birds take in huge amounts of antioxidants by loading up on certain high-color, high-antioxidant berries before migration – up to triple their body weight in berries per day, or the equivalent to a human swallowing over 300 pounds!
This University of Rhode Island study found that birds seek out dark pigment berries, and tend to favor those with the highest antioxidant count. According to the leader of the study, the berries’ antioxidants may help the birds combat stress and inflammation that they experience during long flights. That birds turn to berries to help them accomplish the trips of their lifetimes provides fascinating evidence into the natural benefits of antioxidant-rich berries, and might tell us a lot about our own eating habits.
Our long flight, of course, occurs closer to the ground, and over the course of 80 or so years. Antioxidants, which occur in the dark purple and blue pigments of berries like blueberries (wild blueberries have highest antioxidant content of twenty other common fruits) help mitigate the effect of free radicals which create a destructive process in our cells. Resulting oxidative damage plays a huge role in many of our modern-day diseases, including heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and diseases of aging.
Are you attracted to bright blues? Do you eat from the rainbow? When it comes to good health and longevity, we might benefit from thinking like a bird when planning our next meal. This study provides more evidence that color is truly the key to spreading our wings and making that great flight we call our life as healthy as possible!
