Beet Lovers: Don’t Read This

Love beets? That delicious earthy flavor makes them a favorite in salads, and while we’ve all had them pickled or canned, baked fresh beets can be superb. If beets are a staple in your kitchen, that’s great news. Beets are full of those natural red pigments that may be cancer fighters, and they are one of the healthiest foods you may or may not be putting on your plates.

But even if you are a die hard beet eater, let’s face it—it’s hard to eat them morning, noon and night. For those seeking an alternative food that still has the cancer fighting potential that comes with the deep purple color, New York Times Health writer Tara Parker Pope helps you expand your horizons. In her article Blueberries Morning, Noon & Night  she figures when it comes to this kind of intense nutrition, if you’re stopping at breakfast, your missing opportunities to intensify the health benefits of your plate.

According to Pope, “These nutrient-rich fruits are available year-round and don’t spoil, and blueberries have been associated with better memory in animal studies.” She recommends integrative recipes like Rice Pudding with Blueberries or Papaya and Blueberry Salad With Ginger-Lime Dressing.

If you could use a break from the beloved beet, your health doesn’t have to suffer. Just keep in mind the importance color – that pigment you see in those bright vibrant fruits and vegetables is called anthocyanin, and that’s where the antioxidant activity lies. Of course, all colors of the spectrum are good for dressing up a plate. Consider deep greens, oranges, blues, reds and purples. Wild blueberries are always a powerful pick – because wilds are smaller size in size compared to their cultivated cousins, they have more skin, and that’s where the pigment is.

Antioxidants: Health Benefits That Might Surprise You

Wild blueberries are a fantastic fruit. Pancakes, smoothies, salads and desserts aren’t the same without them! On the surface, they seem like a fun, delicious, and healthy food that deserves a place in your daily diet. But there’s another reason to eat them. The little blue fruit has a secret deep within its dark blue color, and that secret is antioxidants.
Wild blueberries are an antioxidant powerhouse – test after test, they come out as a leader. When it comes to living a long, disease-free life, the importance of this simply cannot be underestimated.
What do antioxidants do in my body?
Antioxidants are a hot topic today. Why? They help our bodies protect against disease and age-related health risks. According to Susan Davis, MS, RD, Nutrition Advisor to the Wild Blueberry Association of North America, research focused on this area of health “is not just fascinating but incredibly consequential for members of our community and the public at large.” Here’s why:
Every day, our cells wage a battle against free radicals – unstable oxygen molecules associated with cancer, heart disease and the effects of aging. Dietary antioxidants are the antidote. These phytonutrients, natural substances found in fruits and vegetables, neutralize free radicals and help prevent cell damage. Antioxidants also protect against inflammation, thought to be a leading factor in brain aging, Alzheimer’s disease and other diseases of aging.
Where do I get an “antioxidant”?
Start with wild blueberries. They have the highest antioxidant capacity per serving, compared with more than 20 other fruits. Using a lab testing procedure called Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity (ORAC), USDA researcher Ronald Prior, Ph.D., found that a one-cup serving of wild blueberries had more total antioxidant capacity (TAC) than a serving of cranberries, strawberries, plums, raspberries and even cultivated blueberries.
Wild Blueberries also outperformed selected fruits in an advanced procedure known as the cellular antioxidant activity (CAA) assay, a new means of measuring bioactivity inside cells. (The Cellular Antioxidant Activity Study was conducted by a Cornell University research team led by Dr. Rui Hai Liu.) As a result of their intense nutritional benefit, wild blueberries are implicated in areas of:
  • Brain Health
  • Cancer Prevention
  • Heart Health
  • Urinary Tract Health
  • Vision Health
The Dark (Blue) Secret of Wild Blueberries
The secret to wild blueberries’ powerful advantage is in the deep blue color. Potent antioxidants are highly concentrated in the deep-blue pigments of wild blueberries. Wild blueberries deliver more antioxidant punch due in part to their pulp-to-skin ratio: they are smaller than cultivated berries, which means when we’re eating wild, we’re eating more of the good stuff per bite.
And, the research into the health benefits of wild blueberries continues. Cardiovascular heath and metabolic syndrome headlined the Wild Blueberry Research Summit, held last year in Bar Harbor, Maine where compelling new data to substantiate the connection between a blueberry-rich diet and prevention of two devastating illnesses: cardiovascular disease and diabetes.
Now, doesn’t that wild blueberry pie taste even better?
Read more about the research into the health benefits of this antioxidant powerhouse.

Frozen Bombshell: Why Nutrition No Longer = Fresh

Whether your cupboards look like Dr. Oz has set up shop in your kitchen, or the puffy pastries and cheesy chips give away your nutritionally-challenged status, we all struggle with affordability and availability of healthy foods. How can we better integrate nutrition into our lives?

We must making healthy eating easier. This demand for year-round availability of nutritionally potent food at good prices seems to have caused a change in thinking about what constitutes healthy eating. For some, this change in thinking may not be news, but for others the shift could be seismic.

For decades, nutrition was synonymous with fresh food – it seemed to be the only way to enjoy the nutritional benefits of fruits and vegetables. It meant fresh from the tree, vine, plant or ground. It meant high nutrient content – the best thing you could put in your mouth.

Fresh is great, that’s true. But here’s the snag: often what we think of as fresh – unfrozen, unpackaged fruits and vegetables available in the produce section of the supermarket – has been subject to weeks in delivery trucks. Travel and transport to deliver fresh food to your local market may mean weeks off of the vine, tree or plant. Furthermore, by the time you put your selection in your cart, bring it home, and consume it, several more days have gone by.

Not only are our choices limited to seasonal and productivity shifts in the produce aisle, but when you eat “fresh” are you really eating fresh?

A New Kind of Fresh

A 2009 State Indicator Report was recently released showing that no state in the nation is meeting objectives for recommended amounts of fruit and vegetables. Access and availability figure prominently on the list of challenges in reaching nutritional benchmarks. Taking advantage of frozen fruits and vegetables could serve as the key to overcoming these barriers.

It may go against our intuition, but thanks to advances in technology, frozen is just as good as fresh. In 1998, the Food & Drug Administration confirmed that frozen fruits and vegetables provide the same essential nutrients and health benefits as fresh. For example, fruit is quick frozen at the peak of ripeness (allowing it to be picked at the perfect time, not prior to its peak in efforts to prevent spoilage). This “individually quick frozen” method (known as IQF) allows for the fast preservation of taste and nutrition, and the fruit can remain frozen for over two years without losing flavor or nutritional value. (That means an IQF wild blueberry has all its antioxidant power locked in until its ready to be used!)

For those unfamiliar with the nutritional value and convenience that frozen fruits and veggies provide, it can seem like a whole new way to shop. The frozen food aisle can serve as an extension of the produce section, offering good, healthy food, season in and season out.

Toward a Healthier Budget

More and more, consumers are tuned into to nutritional value: we can’t afford to make nutritional sacrifices, but at the same time, food budgets are tight. Interest in frozen fruits and veggies may also be driven by a concern about stretching budgets. Frozen means competitive prices and low waste – fruits and veggies can be purchased in bulk sizes, and portions are available in the freezer whenever they are needed.

The Bottom Line

If you are still waiting for summer to get a brief taste of healthy foods, it’s time to change your thinking. You need to make nutritionally potent fruits and vegetables a priority every day of the year. Nutrition is no longer synonymous with fresh: when it comes to getting your fruits and veggies, make frozen your secret nutritional weapon!