Celebrate By Targeting These 5 Market Fresh Foods by NatalieMaynorIt’s not unusual to get a hankering for a bag of farm fresh potatoes (bursting with a variety of phytonutrients). Around the time when the urge hits, wouldn’t it be great to watch them instantly turn into a Garden Vegetable or Zesty Corn and Potato Salad? You can! Maine Foodie Finds digs deep into Maine’s farmers markets and comes up with gorgeous red potatoes and glowing yellow string beans, all fresh from the ground and vine, then uses a little culinary magic to turn these summer nuggets into foodie gold.
It’s easy to get inspired with seasonal ingredients when there is so much pleasure in the hunt. Take a lesson, and hit your own kitchen with your take. It’s the perfect activity for National Farmers Market Week. In July, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack proclaimed August 7th to the 13th, 2011 as National Farmers Market Week – again. It marks the twelfth year markets have been given the national nod.
According to the USDA, the number of farmers markets have multiplied continuously since in 1994, increasing by 16% just last year – these beloved gathering places for fruits and veggies (and other things, like meats, breads, and cheeses, of course) currently number 6,132 nationwide. Year-round markets have increased as well. It means better access to local, fresh food for more people more often. That’s something to celebrate.
In honor of National Farmers Market Week, the Portland Farmers Market in Portland Maine is challenging everyone to prepare at least three meals this week using ingredients entirely purchased at the Market. The food gauntlet is down!
5 Fresh Fruit & Veggie Finds for August
What’s healthy and delicious in August for your (at least) three market-sourced meals? Here are five fruits and vegetables that are likely to populate your local shopping hot spots this month. Get them while you can, and make the most of this seriously servings-rich season.
Wild Blueberries
The verdict is in! It’s harvest time for the tens of thousands of acres in Maine and Canada currently being stripped of their glorious blue color. If you aren’t already smothering your plate with antioxidant-rich disease-preventing wild blueberries, now is the time to start a healthy habit. Initiate yourself with a handful for your salad, sauté some up with a little red wine for a sauce or vinaigrette, use them to lend a spark to fish (try this Tuna Carpaccio with Wild Blueberry Wasabi Sauce), chicken or pork (Wild Blueberry Rhubarb Pork Chops anyone?), and finish with a charlotte or a crumble. The big, blue world is open to you!
Nothing tastes more like August than corn fresh from the garden. August is the month when those pencil-thin stalks start growing to edible size, and the golden gems of summer offer up their sweet taste straight off the stalk, if you like. Get your fill of the essential summer taste of corn by grilling it with a shake of cayenne or cilantro. Make some summer corn chowder, or use it in a colorful salad. While buttered and salted may be a family favorite, we’re up to our ears in ways to leverage this classic summer veggie. Here’s ten sweet recipes from The Kitchen.
Tomatoes
Whether you put their taste on display in a classic caprese salad, in an elegant tomato and lemon mascarpone tart or stuffed with fresh summer corn, tomatoes are the best ever in late summer. There’s simply no taste like a late summer tomato warm from the sill, and thanks to their lycopene, they provide superior health benefits to boot. Eat up, or save your take for a midwinter marinara by preserving them says, the Portland Press Herald.
Peppers
There’s a lot to love about peppers, and while bell peppers can be found year round, late summer they are at their shiny, tasty best. Peppers are a good source of vitamin C, thiamine, vitamin B6, beta carotene, and folic acid, and they contain large amounts of phytochemicals, providing exceptional antioxidant activity. Not to mention, they are a perfect ingredient: they provide sweetness, crunch, and bright color to hundreds of recipes. If you love a stuffed pepper (go meat!) now’s the time. But don’t limit yourself to stuffing. Make it simple, with a sweet and sour bell pepper salad, or try Gourmet Magazine’s logic-defying Chilled Red Bell Pepper and Habanero Soup, a sensational cold soup that’s also hot.
Summer Squash
Summer squash peaks at summer’s end and these long, green vegetables are plentiful for good reason. While they may not be known as one of the antioxidants powerhouses, summer squash is a very strong source of key antioxidant nutrients, including the carotenoids, lutein and zeaxanthin, which could play a role in preventing memory loss, vision loss and heart disease. The skin of summer squash is particularly antioxidant-rich, so leave it intact when you can. (You can read up about the health benefits of summer squash at Livestrong.com.) This versatile veggie can be your go-to summer food during all of August and beyond. It is perfect for stuffing, grilling, tossing with feta and tomatoes, or even putting it in a cupcake.
How are you preparing your (at least) three meals this week using ingredients entirely purchased at the farmers markets?Tell us!
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.
Is a truckload of veggies as desirable as a truckload of flat screen TVs?
Skyrocketing food prices, a difficult economy, and lifestyles that depends on good nutrition may have created a perfect atmosphere for these produce thieves who stole a truckload of tomatoes and cucumbers valued at $42,000. The veggie heist comes on the heels of a similar incident in Florida last month in which a $300,000 worth of vegetable and frozen meat was stolen.
Such high-nutrition hi jinx may be the result of yet another mixed societal message. As a country, we get the blame for eating poorly while at the same time we are virtually enclosed by a ring of processed food; we are urged to buy fresh, whole, organic food while living in a dire economic downturn where household budgets are continually squeezed. It’s no wonder a truckload of fresh food is a precious commodity.
The Costs of Poor Nutrition
If your slip at the supermarket register is telling you food prices are rising, you’re right. According to the U.S. government’s Consumer Price Index, food prices in January rose 1.8% from the prior year, which is the fastest pace since 2009. Basic commodities have risen in price, and average nationwide vegetable prices rose 9.8% in March compared to the same month in 2010, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ monthly Consumer Price Index reported this month.
At the same time, according to the USDA., the cost of food for the average U.S. household makes up a lower percentage of income than almost any other nation – just 6.9% of the average American household’s expenses. Generally speaking, even while food prices inch up, food is available to the majority of middle class Americans at low costs. But is it the right food? Why does food availability seem to parallel our poor eating habits?
Despite the ubiquity of low-priced drive-thrus and cheap bulk snack food, we can eat well for less money—we must. And in the long run, we can’t afford to do otherwise. The treatment of diseases preventable with good nutrition is raising health care costs and sabotaging our health and longevity. As American consumers, we must find a way to eat good food affordably.
Cut the Waste
The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that Americans waste about 20% of their food. It’s a statistic that speaks to our world of food plenty. Wasted food means we expend enormous amounts of manufacturing energy unnecessarily and watch nutrients and dollars go down the drain. A University of Arizona study estimates that the amount of waste from a typical household that shops for four adds up to $40 each week.
While bulk purchases can make budgetary sense, stocking up on perishables like fruit and vegetables is a recipe for filling the trash. How do we start cutting our waste? One European government has considering ridding labels of “best before” dates in order to curb our tossing habit. Websites like Allrecipes.com and the FoodNetwork.com can help us search out dishes based on the ingredients hanging around the house. We can shop with lists; we can organize our kitchens so we know what we have and use it. And, when we must throw out food, we can compost to give food trash a new use.
We can also loosen our standards of perfection when it comes to food. According to New York Times contributor Tara Parker Pope, the trouble with having plenty of food means we can often confuse spoilage for mere less-than-perfect. Brown spots on the lettuce? Cut it off. Not sure about that ice cream? It’s probably fine. Down to the end of that ketchup? Use it up before popping open a new bottle.
Stretch Your Food
As any good restaurant chef knows, the most efficient way to run a kitchen is to use up the food you have: yesterday’s entrée becomes tomorrow’s Soup of the Day. Start thinking like a restaurant chef and you’ll see food costs plummet. Using your ingredients takes a little creativity and a pinch of culinary acumen, but it’s a habit that will stick.
Use leftovers to make delicious soups or to fill a healthy burrito, and embrace foods like chili, shepherd’s pie and quiche to revisit ingredients and take a “stone soup” approach to make ingredients go further. This simplebites.com article called Eat Well, Spend Less offers up five frugal meals to stretch your dollar, including black bean burgers and crustless quiche that uses that scrap of ham and random cup of mushrooms and turns it into something to rave about.
Shop Locally
Supermarkets may have some price points licked, but local markets can come out on top for some important budget-busting items. Check out local Asian markets for good prices on produce and rice, and you’ll likely find budget-friendly spices, meats, cheeses and items like olive oil at your local Italian grocer. As Livestrong.com points out in Cheap Ways to Eat Healthy, shopping at the local farmer’s markets is no luxury—they provide cheap, fresh goods that cut out middleman costs, and allow you to choose amounts based on your needs, whether that’s 1 or 8.
Make Convenience the Enemy
The myth that fast food is easy on the wallet is just that – a myth. According to Michele Hiatt, a registered dietitian at St. John Medical Center, the least-processed foods are the least expensive as well as the healthiest. Yes, you can supersize your meal for a mere dollar, but convenience food is, in general, not good economics. Making food from real ingredients is better on the wallet and the calories, and eliminates unhealthy ingredients that go into processing like those unusually high sugars, salts, and fats.
It’s just that…convenience is so convenient. But a recently article in the Atlantic Monthly called the Joy of Not Cooking points out the irony that surrounds the age of food preoccupation. We obsess over the newest ceramic kitchen knife and spend big for a tricked-out high end stove, but for all its equipment, we actually spend less time in the kitchen than ever before. For example, women who work outside the home log an average of 5.5 hours per week in the kitchen—that’s food preparation and cleanup included. Compare that to our grandmothers, who either ran or grew up in households with women who spent 30 hours a week on food preparation. If it doesn’t motivate us to add a little more preparation time, it at least puts convenience into perspective.
Hiatt discusses her “Top 5 Food Savers” in a recent article and recommends a shopping list which targets fruits and veggies in season, dried beans/legumes, frozen produce on sale, potatoes, lean protein on sale, skim milk and yogurt, and store brand rice, pasta, oatmeal, barley and grits for budget stretching.
Tap into the Season
You can keep good food on your plate and pennies in your pocket by taking local to the next level. Growing your own vegetables at home is a budget-conscious strategy, not just a hobby. According to the National Gardening Association home gardens are up from 27 million households in 2005 to about 31 million households last year. The main reasons? Better tasting food, higher quality food and saving on the grocery bill. According to Michael Pollan, any amount of land will do to start a home garden. Even his own self-described postage-stamp-sized yard with three raised beds provides him with enough to add to dinner most nights, and the price is right.
If you are looking for home farming resources, start with Brett L. Markham’s Mini Farming: Self-Sufficiency on Acre, or reveal your green thumb by using it to thumb through Lisa Taylor’s Your Farm in the City, which provides a complete look at the trend of urban farming.
Other ways to take advantage of the season include picking your own fruits and veggies. Farms that offer this labor-intensive shopping experience can give you bulk produce for a low price: find farms at pickyourown.com. Find other ways to buy fresh on a budget on eHow.com.
Finally, Make Use of Frozen
Frozen is part of any discussion devoted to nutrition and stretching dollars. It can be your secret weapon when it comes to budget cutting. Frozen fruits and veggies offer economy because of their bulk sizes and because they eliminate costly waste that gnaws at the household food budget. There’s also no competing with frozen when it comes to off-season prices and availability. Besides, having at-the-ready daily servings is incentive enough to use frozen – accessible nutrition that is just a good as fresh is worth a truckload of flat screens to any family.
Go forth and eat healthy! You can’t put a price on good health, disease prevention and longevity, so don’t let a tightening budget squeeze the nutrition off your plate. You know fruits and vegetables are the best way to get the most from your dollar when it comes to nutrition – armed with a few dollar-stretching strategies you won’t have to sacrifice good health for their powerful nutritional value.
Not sure what’s in season? Coupons are fine for boxes and cans, but for produce, taking advantage of low prices means homing in on what’s inexpensive in any given time of year. About.com’s Frugal Living
section provides an easy month-to-month reference perfect for posting on the fridge. This month, go for pineapples and artichokes; in May head toward asparagus and okra.
Go Frugal! Forward this post to start a trend in saving money and preserving health!
Lately, the American public has been looking at itself in the mirror. What we see before us is someone overweight or more likely obese; someone with unhealthy eating habits that include large portions, high fat, high sodium, and highly processed food; and someone who either has or will have a litany of preventable diseases. We aren’t just unhealthy, we are sick and costing the country a bundle in health care costs.
Last year, the USDA changed dietary guidelines for Americans. The new guidelines recommend focusing on a plant-based diet, limiting sugars and solid fats, and reducing sodium. Perhaps most importantly, while fruit and veggie serving recommendations themselves didn’t change, the USDA’s conclusion was that we consume too few of them.
This latest message is worth sending, but it had to make its way to consumers. It has had those in the food and nutrition industry asking: how can we increase the public consumption of fruits and vegetables? How can we cut portions and eliminate salt?
To further complicate matters, the challenge may not be solely in the message being heard. For instance, according to a study by Supermarket Guru, 42% of us try to follow the dietary guidelines. As they point out, “try” is no doubt the operative word. Even members of the public who got the message, know the message, and could recite the message like a beat cop reciting his Mirandas, may not know what to do with this information.
The result is a second, equally important question: how do we bridge the gap between what we aspire to do when it comes to healthy eating, and actually doing it? The issue has prompted us to look at a few of the pieces of the nutritional puzzle that work together (and apart) to influence the American consumer.
Suppliers: Heroes & Anti-heroes
Some brands profit from obfuscating their unhealthful ingredients and some proffer outright consumer deception. At the same time, some suppliers use positive messages to penetrate the market. Produce for Better Health Foundation along with the Fruits & Veggies More Matters, recently named their 15 Supplier Role Models and Supplier Champions for 2010. They are food suppliers that were recognized for their positive efforts toward the public health initiative that includes eating more fruits and veggies and less salt and fat. Suppliers like the Wild Blueberry Association, Welch’s, the Pear Bureau Northwest, and even McDonald’s were lauded for being positive role models when it comes helping get consumers the message and make it easier for them to eat healthy.
While these suppliers are mini gladiators in the amphitheater of changing America’s costly health and nutrition habits, we know that information can be both good and bad. One part of Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! campaign is working with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to continue efforts to understand the best way for consumers to get useful point-of-purchase nutrition information. Today, the value of prominent displays, clear labeling, and messages that connect clearly with the consumer are red hot topics that have stakeholders battling it out in the stadium.
Supermarkets: Passive Profiteer or Potential Partner?
Supermarkets can help us eat better, but as we all know, they can also sabotage our efforts. Our stores hold a lot of power, and they may also be holding a lot of untapped potential to connect with their shoppers. And yet, so much of the time we spend shopping for healthy food is still spent avoiding traps.
For example, we know products at eye level aren’t necessarily good for us – they are just those being given preferred placement. We know that the basics like eggs and milk are in the back, forcing shoppers to walk a gauntlet of temptation. We even know that new stores have adopted indirect aisle-planning strategies that serve to sabotage our efforts to shop for “perimeter” foods like produce and other whole foods.
Must the supermarkets we frequent to feed our families be our nutritional nemesis? In the same Supermarket Guru poll, almost half of consumers said they weren’t sure whether their supermarket made it easy to meet dietary guidelines. The resulting report wielded these challenges: Does your supermarket have a dietitian in the store? Does it offer substitution suggestions such as trying frozen yogurt over ice cream? Does it provide options for meeting guidelines that meet our requirements for good taste?
In short, are our supermarkets passive profiteers or nutritional partners? It seems clear that opportunities exist for stores to take a stronger role in health and wellness – if they are willing.
Messaging: Plain Talk for a New Century
When supermarkets and suppliers fail, we rely on the information around us to make our own good decisions. But messages about health haven’t always been effective. Studies indicate that consumers find it difficult to count calories as a way to keep their nutrition and servings in check; they do not connect with the old pyramid-style guidelines for eating; they fail to understand cryptic nutritional labels and ambiguous health claims on food packaging.
Fortunately, these messages and how they are communicated have begun to change for the better. New guidelines have become increasingly consumer-friendly. Rather than lots of numbers that include grams and calories and fractions, messages are getting straight to the heart of the matter by promoting things like simply eat less, filling plates with color, or changing lifestyle habits like cooking at home and eating fewer processed food.
In one example of the new and improved communication of the health and nutrition message, Fruit & Veggies More Matters conjured up the Half Your Plate concept. In an effort to make serving sizes easy to understand, they urge us to simply fill half our plates with fruits and veggies – that’s it. Even National Nutrition Month 2011, which is being recognized during the month of March, focuses on eating right with color – a message that’s easy to implement by merely looking down at your plate. Armed with these goals, we can make smarter decisions about what we buy at the store, despite all the possible pitfalls.
Programs: Nutrition from the Top Down & the Bottom Up
Improving health and wellness can sometimes be effective if it comes to us from the top down. Recently, the United States Agriculture Secretary announced that the USDA will fund the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program, an effort from the USDA to help children change their eating habits and start new consumer habits. The previously mentioned Let’s Move! program launched by First Lady Michelle Obama aims to solve the problem of obesity within a single generation. Healthy People 2020 was created to establish national health objectives and give communities the tools they need to achieve them. These are just a few examples of top-down programs working to take on a true crisis in health and nutrition.
Smaller-scale programs and bottom-up initiatives in schools, communities and businesses are also making it easier to make choices that help us and our families live better by virtue of being part of them. Many of them exist because someone dared to imagine that those just being born today could grow up in a very different, healthier world.
How did YOU get the message of health?
What message of health and nutrition resonated with you?
Was your mom your messenger? Your doctor? A great book or an inspiring TV personality? Whether it was calorie counting or colorful food, let us know what nutritional messages connected with you – leave us a comment!
It’s the stuff of late-night commercials: What if we could max out on nutrition without maxing out on food? With food prices on the rise and fruit and vegetable serving requirements firmly set in stone, extracting the most nutrition and disease prevention from our food purchases is just good sense. The key is to make the nutrients we are already eating go the extra mile. Is it possible to put the stretch on nutritional value?
It’s no dietary miracle, but we found a few legitimate ways to get more super in our superfoods and squeeze more health from our healthy eating. So go ahead –max out, don’t pig out. Here’s how:
1. Go ahead — cook it a little.
While we tend to think of raw foods as the most nutritious, it’s not always the case. Carrots and tomatoes seem to be the exception: gently cooking them actually allows more nutrients to be released, turning golden veggies nutritional gold. While a sliced tomato can appear to make the perfect nutritional plate, cooking tomatoes, as with sauces, is actually better: it breaks down the cell walls making those beneficial vitamins and phytochemicals more easily available for absorption by the body, and it increases the level of lycopene — an antioxidant thought to help prevent certain types of cancer, heart disease, and vision loss.
Boil your carrots? Simmer your tomatoes? Crush your garlic? You can find these and some other under-the-radar tips to Boost Your Veggie Power to get the best nutritional bang from famously healthy foods.
2. Chop it up.
While keeping food intact before you prepare it is the best advice (resist the urge to pre-slice or chop for convenience), chopping at the time of preparation can help maximize the absorption of carotenoid nutrients, like those found in carrots. Research indicates that chopping or grating breaks down the plant material: the smaller the particle size, the better the absorption of beta-carotene. That goes for squash, kale, and sweet potatoes too, all great beta-carotene delivery systems.
3. Get the Skin(ny).
Even the grape-peeling diva Mae West would balk at a request to peel a wild blueberry. Just as well, since their skins are a must-eat: their high skin-to-pulp ratio is what makes them an antioxidant powerhouse! But when it comes to fruit, some skins are quick to be removed for easy snacking; veggies like eggplant, cucumbers, radish – even potatoes – are often stripped for cooking. In most cases, resist the urge to peel – the skins hold the nutrients, especially when they are dark in color.
In fact, some nutritional information suggests that even the seemingly non-edible skins of fruits like bananas or kiwi can help combat cancer—and that dumping the stalk and the core of foods means missing out on prevention properties that could be better in our bodies. Here’s the scoop on how to eat the nutrient-dense skins of some unlikely foods.
Of course, anticipating eating the skins of fruits and veggies is another good reason to choose organic produce. But be sure to wash fresh fruits and vegetables carefully before cooking and eating either way.
4. Use your fresh, or make use of frozen.
It’s a fact of life: time is the enemy. Produce that is sitting in your refrigerator is being drained of its nutrients. What’s more, food that sits on trucks during transport and then on grocery store shelves are no less susceptible to this nutritional leakage. The solution? Buy produce as fresh as possible and consume it soon afterward. But if going fresh is just frustrating, there’s another alternative for preserving nutritional value: IQF freezing of fruits and veggies preserve all the nutrients of fresh until the moment you want to use them, with no waste. And, they are frozen at their peak, which means no sitting on trucks or shelves – it gives your the best nutrition for your buck and the ultimate convenience.
Did you also know that serving foods promptly is the best way to get the most nutrition? The longer they stand, the more nutrients are lost.
5. Find your superfood’s sidekick.
Ready for an anti-anti-fat tip you can get behind? Research suggest that adding a little fat to your tomatoes helps absorption of nutrition. To get the most out of a tomato and boost your lycopene intake, you need only drizzle it with a little olive oil, or add an avocado. It might be nice to know you can forget the low-fat dressing – it’s the fat you need to enhance your plate!
The power of combining food doesn’t stop at the tomato. Certain food pairings provide more nutritional benefits and fight disease. The idea is to find the food combinations that create synergy and maximize nutrition benefit. These ideas from CBS.com present some dynamic duos that up the nutritional content. Tasty suggestions include spinach salad with mandarin oranges and fresh squeezed lemon dressing (an iron-vitamin C combo), and red wine sangria with mango and kiwi (it’s a combination of resveratrol and vitamin E).
You can find out more about synergistic foods for optimum health from our previous post, Food Synergy: Nature’s Meal Plan where we give you the background on these nutritional allies.
6. Avoid cooking culprits.
It comes as no surprise that frying food is a way of negating nutritional value. Deep frying causes continuous oxidation of oil, and that is a source of free radicals, those black hat agents that wreak havoc on healthy cells. Protective antioxidants, whether in the food or the oil, are depleted during the process of oxidation, so the benefit is lost, even for vegetables.
The best cooking method to preserve nutrients? Steaming, of course. It preserves both flavor and nutrients. Stir-frying, microwaving, broiling and high-temperature roasting are also good options, with boiling being a nutrient obliterator. (The microwave is sometimes blamed for taking the nutrients out of food, but it may be the water they are cooked in – no evidence yet suggests it’s the microwave itself.)
Eager to max out on health? While integrating these health-enhancing ideas can help put the super in your superfoods, our best advice is not to worry how you’re eating your fruits and veggies, as long as they end up on your plate.
We are deep in the mid-winter doldrums and it’s the perfect time to check in on your nutrition.
Are you meeting your serving requirements for fruits and vegetables?
Have you been relying on a fruit cup as an afterthought to accompany a meal in an effort to meet your servings?
Worse yet, have you been thinking of blueberries and other fruits as simply a garnish rather than a valuable featured ingredient in your meals?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, it’s time to jolt your thinking from same-old to colorful-new.
We’ve highlighted the unusual and the exotic in recipes that take their inspiration from all over the globe to create nutritious and indulgent meals with an international twist. These recipes, some of which are new arrivals to WildBlueberries.com (recipe-central for unique, nutritious mealtime ideas), will jump start your mid-winter cooking ennui. They feature the powerfully antioxidant-rich wild blueberries (in addition to some other fruits and vegetables) in a way that showcases their versatility, color and palatability.
Starting with an all-American breakfast and ending with a captivating dessert from a country known for its extraordinary cuisine, we’ve constructed the ideal day of international wonders on a plate. All dishes are easy to make and feature real food, along with some underappreciated tastes. Of course, this is just and example of how you can infuse your meals with a little dynamism – search through other wild blueberry recipes by meal and occasion and fill your days with intercontinental delish.
Start the day in the States! This is not your grandmother’s egg dish, but they are still quintessentially American. Farm-fresh eggs and wild blueberries from a Maine or Canadian barren come together to appeal to your early AM sweet tooth. It’s a unique take on a breakfast roll-up that gets your day going with a serving of fruit right from the starting line.
We love this Indian-inspired dish: Low-fat yogurt and a colorful pear and wild blueberry marmalade makes a wonderful light lunch or snack (perfect to follow a breakfast of satisfying omelet rolls) in conjunction with homemade min-naans (made ahead – there will be rising). It’s a perfectly on-trend dish, as naan is a popular side or pizza foundation for those who love it and want to save calories (they can run under 100, depending on the size).
Discover New Zealand’s sweet potato – a bright yellow gem from down under, it is known to be rich in antioxidants and high in vitamins, and it provides a nutritionally-rich snack in salads and as a side. This unique recipe, which requires peeling, slicing and frying (or baking), satisfies a need for chips in a delicious new way, especially when paired with a yogurt-based dip.
Quinoa, with its South American origins, is the food of the moment, lauded for its nutritive value. It enlivens this salad recipe which ends in an geographically eclectic mash-up thanks to the inclusion of zucchini and complement of Havarti and baguette. Say si, oui or you betcha to this healthy, hearty, veggie-rich salad with a zing of blue.
Figs get there due in this light-fare recipe and make an ideal fruit combo in a dish that takes us East. This is an easy, low-fat entrée that wakes up dull chicken by skewering and bathing it in healthy, vibrant fruit.
Beverage: Wild Blueberry Caipirinha
Looking for a Brazilian kick? Look no further than a Wild Blueberry Caipirinh. Leveraging the health benefits of wild blueberry juice (not to mention the taste) with the exotic cachaça, a Brazilian liquor popular in tropical drinks, this cocktail is a fun, colorful way to start a special meal. At 180 calories, it’s a special addition to a diet built on moderation, not deprivation.
For dessert, head to Italy with a gorgeous, indulgent semifreddo awash in bright color. With a hint of chocolate, a generous helping of marscapone, and garnished with pistachios, wild blueberries and mint, this dessert takes fruit to a whole new level of amazing. What a way to kick off a color-inspired, transnational meal!
Find more recipes for breakfast, snacks, entrées, drinks and desserts that include wild blues and array of colorful fruits and ingredients.
A heartening new study for those concerned with cardiovascular health made news this week. The study from University of Oxford found that those who consumed eight or more servings of fruits and vegetables per day were 22% less likely to die from heart disease than those who consumed three or fewer servings.
The research all but turns the fruit and veggie mantra from mythical home remedy to scientifically proven health advice, especially when it comes to the heart. According to the report, on the strength of the study doctors reportedly feel, “it may erase and remaining doubts concerning fruits and veggies, and cardiovascular health.”
Add a Serving, Reduce Your Risk
While the recommendation is for eight servings, researchers have shown that every serving of fruits and vegetables above three reduces the risk of dying of heart disease by 5%. It’s an encouraging aspect of the research for those who feel overwhelmed by the recommendation of eight servings a day. While eight may seem like a lot, the bottom line is: more is better. And, what some of us may not know is that three ounces of fruit is a serving, so eating a large apple, orange, banana, or 3/4 of a cup of blueberries means you’ve knocked two servings off your list, making eight a little more achievable.
As one report points out, even diet organizations like Weight Watchers don’t count the calories from fruits and veggies – they are essentially free caloric intake. In addition, eating more fruits and vegetables probably means you are not eating those things that are detrimental to your health. These foods take up lots of room in your stomach, and the effect on weight can contribute to heart health as well.
There’s simply no downside to adding more fruits and vegetables to your diet. It’s a win-win no matter how you slice it, dice it, sprinkle it or peel it.
Farmers markets showcase the edible gems of the local community. Of course they provide access to a rich, fresh selection of foods to fill our kitchen and our plates. But farmers markets do even more good. If you take a moment to consider the benefits of these local gathering places ornamented with veggies, fruits, meats, cheeses and flowers, you can’t help but get the picture that the food extravaganza in your town is more than just colorful commerce.
First, and perhaps most importantly, farmers markets provide a remarkably rare opportunity for farmers and consumers to develop a relationship. Farmers meet the mouths that they feed, and consumers see where their corn is picked, what dairy farm their goat cheese comes from, and what goes into (and doesn’t go into) the foods they are toting home. It’s a wonderful way to develop a connection with our food and our local farmers while simultaneously providing them with direct remuneration for their dedication.
Furthermore, finding the freshest foods of the season can help us branch out when it comes to eating. Spontaneous buys based solely on availability and interest are not only allowed at farmers markets – they are part of the experience. Haven’t had okra for a while? Bell peppers missing from your plate? Been years since you made a blueberry cobbler? Use the season’s foods to take advantage of new ways of eating and to revisit old friends. And, farmers markets help you eat safely and organically. Looking for foods without antibiotics or growth hormones? Seek out organic farms, and ask smaller farmers about their growing philosophy. Some may not have the paperwork for organic certification, but they may still abide by a no-pesticide or no-antibiotic rules.
Finally, since one of the most important principles of eating well is to put a rainbow of hues on your plate, farmers markets are rife with color. One visit can be the in-road to eating your way through the color spectrum and radically enhancing your health. Start with wild blueberries, add some luscious deep greens, berries, or squash, and round out your bag with a few bright yellow and red tomatoes, and presto, you’ve got a rainbow in your bag.
Ready to go to market? Here are some ways to make it efficient and fruitful:
Set aside some time.
Don’t think of your trip as the same as popping in to the grocery store. You’ll want to browse the selection of wares, and you’ll need the patience to make your way through the crowds. Think of your visit as an event, where browsing, chatting, and enjoying the summer morning is part of the experience.
Timing is everything.
While intuition says arrive early, about.com suggests that going early or late can mean you are market savvy. Early provides the best selection, while late can mean deals for items that farmers don’t want to tote home.
Comparison shop.
It’s just Farmers Marketing 101 – browse the entire market first, then purchase. You’ll see many of the same foods showcased, and prices and quality always vary.
Connect.
Where else can you look the person who grew your food in the eye and ask them anything you want to? Farmers are a wealth of information. They’ll help direct you to products you want, give you tips for your own garden, and often provide you with a sample. They probably also know a favorite recipe for the wares they are selling.
Bring your own.
Don’t forget to pack: You’ll need reusable bags and cash – preferably ones and fives, so sellers can go easy on the change.
Have a meal plan.
It’s easy to pick up lots of items that look great, but when you get home, it might be hard to develop a meal around raspberries and zucchini blossoms. Hard core marketers suggest a little advance planning. You can leave some wild cards for those spontaneous purchases.
Do some taste testing.
This neat tip from ivillage.com can only be done at the market: Buy a sampling of fruit, peppers, tomatoes, garlic or whatever you fancy from several vendors, then take them home for a taste test. You’ll know where to bee-line next week, and you’ll learn about the characteristics and a particular fruit or veggie – in other words, you’ll be on your way to being a farmers market pro.
A Note on Community Supported Agriculture, or CSAs
Helping yourself to the local bounty can be a major inspiration to be part of Community Supported Agriculture. CSAs are communities of individuals who pledge support to a farm by paying a set price to receive part of the farm’s bounty. As a shareholder, growers and consumers share the risks and benefits throughout the entire growing season, and take advantage of a weekly share of fresh seasonal foods for up to 25 weeks.
Find out more about CSAs and find a farm in your state or zip code. Part of a CSA this season? The Crisper Whisperer has great ideas for what to do with that box of wonders.
There’s More Online
At MyPyramid.com there are some practical tools to get the most out of the season’s riches. The MyPyramid Menu Planner will help assist you in your quest for health, and you can also search for a Farmers Market – their database contains 4,800 of the country’s markets.
by NatalieMaynor It’s not unusual to get a hankering for a bag of farm fresh potatoes (bursting with a variety of phytonutrients). Around the time when the urge hits, wouldn’t it be great to watch them instantly turn into a Garden Vegetable or Zesty Corn and Potato Salad? You can! Maine Foodie Finds digs deep into Maine’s farmers markets and comes up with gorgeous red potatoes and glowing yellow string beans, all fresh from the ground and vine, then uses a little culinary magic to turn these summer nuggets into foodie gold.
