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Eat Fruits & Veggies When You Need Them Most

5 Ways to Increase Your Daily Cups When It’s Cold Outside

When the mid-winter freeze is in full swing, it’s easy to wax nostalgic about the fresh fruits and vegetables of summer. Holding onto warm-weather memories may be one reason we tend to eat fewer fruits and veggies in the winter. Ironically, it’s the time of year when we need them more than ever: healthy eating and optimum servings can boost our immune system and our mood at a time when winter blues can seem to be as much of an epidemic as the flu.

It may be cold outside, but that’s no excuse to wait for summer to fill your plate with disease-preventing, nutrient-rich foods. To keep your eye on your health this season, remember that the USDA recommends 2 cups of fruit and 3 cups of vegetables, on average, for a total of 5 cups every day. Make the extra effort to pile fruits and veggies on your plate when you need them most – when the snow flies, the mercury drops, and shorts sleeves and sandals are just a memory.

Increase Your Cups This Winter – 5 Easy Ways

1. Bake Your Fruits. Winter is the perfect time to indulge in delicious baked fruits and get your recommended cups warm from the oven. Not available fresh? No problem – find fruit in the frozen aisle. Frozen is perfect for baking and has all the taste and nutrition of fresh. Homemade desserts are also an ideal way to avoid the processed treats that swarm the store shelves. Warm Wild Blueberry Pie delivers a nutritious punch in a classic package. Or, opt for the fresh-from-the-oven comfort of this Bread Pudding smothered with wild blueberries for taste and disease prevention in one helping. PBS’s Fresh Taste offers up these phyto-rich baked apples to warm your cockles – an easy way to enjoy a cup of fruit. (Just one more to go!)

2. Enjoy Sauces. Love a piping hot tomato sauce in the wintertime but worried about what the impact of eating like Mario Batali could have on your health? Don’t despair. Tomatoes are full of lycopene, known to possess antioxidant properties, and cooked tomatoes are the best-case scenario – cooking actually boosts their nutritional value. Not to mention, their pairing with pasta is the ultimate comfort food, and adding kale or other leafy greens can easily add bulk as well as nutrition.

Make your sauce at home for the healthiest option – it’s easy. According to Marcella Hazan, creativity is overrated when it comes to sauce – this classic recipe will do just fine. Or, pull back on the pasta by making use of your sauce with seafood and consider the omega-3s you’ll get an added bonus.

3. Make Soup. Soups are an excellent winter option: they are veggie-packed and offer homemade warmth for winter nights. Soup can also provide meal planning relief because of its versatility — assembly can be a cinch with just a few kitchen staples.

This Carrot Parsnip Soup takes advantage of winter veggies, as does this hearty Winter Vegetable Soup if a substantial meal is in order. Need more slurp-worthy ideas? These Best Soup Recipes from Cooking Light keep calories minimized while maxing-out taste.

4. Roast Your Vegetables. Root cellars have gained popularity for food lovers as a way to store winter vegetables like potatoes, onions, parsnips, and squash when they are inexpensive and available. Even if you aren’t using designated storage, roasted root veggies are a warm winter alternative to salads. Try these Honey Roasted Root Vegetables or a Roasted Root Vegetable Quesadilla. Or, discover the wonders of roasting or baking less common vegetables this season like kohlrabi, leeks or the sweetly delicious and seasonal rutabaga.

5. Bathe Comfort Food in Berries (& Other Healthy F&Vs). Steven Pratt, author of SuperfoodsRx, suggests we “bathe our meals in berries” for optimal nutritional benefit and disease prevention. Pairing comfort foods with a helping of high nutrition certainly helps keep the health quotient of our meals in check. Douse a piece of fish with wild blueberry sauce, pair salads with berries, or cover desserts and breakfasts with them – using fresh frozen wild blueberries is a convenient way to make them available by the cup at every meal.

Case in point? These Wild Blueberry Rhubarb Pork Chops, a marriage of comfort and nutrient richness. Or, go ahead and pair the classic comfort of a Ham Sandwich with tasty, antioxidant-rich berries for a pleasing way to rack up your daily cups. You can also combine beloved winter comfort foods like steak and potatoes with nutrition-rich greens like this creamed spinach which keeps the calories moderate and your daily servings in the black.

Get your cups this winter! Know the facts about the USDA Dietary Guidelines and fill half your plate with fruits and veggies!

Five Very Unexpected Benefits of Eating Fruits & Vegetables

by Nina Matthews Photography

Eating fruits and vegetables – widely across the color spectrum – can yield tremendous benefits when it comes to our health and disease prevention efforts. But there are some advantages to eating deeply colored, antioxidant-rich fruits and veggies that may not be on our radar. You can consider these five unexpected benefits just a healthy bonus for eating well. They might even provide a little extra motivation to get your servings.

1. Benefits for Runners

Runner’s World recently reported on a couple of outlandish food benefits especially for runners. One is eating blueberries. (The other is, surprisingly, beer.) A study from Appalachian State University showed that runners who ate a cup of blueberries every day had less inflammation and oxidative damage before and after their run. It’s no surprise – these antioxidant leaders are known to have a major impact on cellular inflammation. The powerful anthocyanins in the berries actually protected them from the after-effects of challenging workouts and helped recovery. If you are in training, eating a cup of anthocyanin-rich berries will help boost your performance and get you in shape for that marathon – or your next workout.

2. Help Quitting Smoking

New studies show there are major benefits associated with eating many types of fruits and veggies if you are trying to quit smoking. The reason is not just limited to replacing a bad habit with a healthy one. First, fruits and vegetables don’t trigger a desire for nicotine, and unlike some foods like meat and alcohol, they don’t enhance its flavor – they actually make it taste worse. Another reason that fruits and veggies can serve as a secret weapon for those trying to quit might be the satiety fruits and vegetables provide. It can help lessen the desire to smoke, and high fiber choices can contribute to that effect. (Fruits and veggies that are high antioxidants also provide protection against lung cancer and respiratory ailments, which can benefit smokers and former smokers.)

3. Prevent Depression

A diet rich in fruits and vegetables can help reduce the risk of depression. Substantially so, according to the Mayo Clinic. Fruits and veggies that are deep in color and fiber-rich provide the most intense benefit. Also, B vitamins are a major weapon against depression because they help balance mood and even treat depression in those experiencing it (Vitamin B6 is found in many foods including bananas and spinach). Vitamin C (oranges, berries, leafy greens) has also been shown to enhance mood and stave off depression. Further studies have linked depression and wild blueberries. In 2010, a study conducted by a team led by Dr. Robert Krikorian, Associate Professor of Psychiatry & Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Cincinnati, confirmed that a diet supplemented with wild blueberries improved memory function and mood in older adults and could decrease depression in the elderly.

4. Change Your Friends…and the World

Eating a diet high in fruits and vegetables can be contagious. We mimic the habits of those we hang around with, which is why recent studies have indicated that obesity is contagious and our social circles affect our weight. Studies indicate that if you start eating better your friends will start eating better, not to mention the affect it will have on your family. If your diet is being sabotaged by your friends’ or co-workers’ bad habits, see what being a positive influence can do to those around you. If you are an influencer, your passion for fruits and veggies could actually start a badly-needed revolution of better health around the nation.

5. More Mojo

It may not be the first reason you change your eating habits, but it could be a reason to continue. Improving your love life can actually be a side effect of eating more fruits and vegetables. According to Slim Calm Sexy Diet author Keri Glassman, indulging in certain fruits like peaches, for example, can increase male hormone production and regulate thyroid function that helps increase libido for both men and women. Fruits and vegetables have the benefit of not just being good for us but boosting our energy and controlling our weight, which translates into feeling more amorous. And, foods high in nutrients, folic acid, potassium, and antioxidants translate into increased energy – and you can channel that in whatever way you’d like.

Learn what specific nutrients contribute to good health at Fruit and Veggies More Matters. You’ll also find out which fruits and vegetables provide the best sources of the nutrients you need.

Dr. Oz’s “Cancer Detective” Makes a Case for Wild

Dr. Oz has enlisted one of the most deductive minds in plant nutrition research to help us understand the compelling potential of wild plants in cancer prevention. For us, this Sherlock Holmes of health has a very familiar name.

That’s because we spoke with Dr. Mary Ann Lila about the fascinating nutritional research taking place at the Plants for Human Health Institute at North Carolina State University where she is the Director, back in September. She talked to Wild About Health for a two-part series about her work in shifting the global perception of plant crops and their potential, as well as her research involving wild blueberries, including mapping the blueberry genome and its fascinating role in Parkinson’s prevention.

Cancer Prevention: Your Diet, Pt 1.

On a recent show, Dr. Oz referred to Lila as a “cancer detective” because she is responsible for some major breakthroughs in nutritional health, particularly in the field of cancer prevention. At the Institute, she and her team are using the most up-to-date technology to understand the most old-fashioned remedies: plants. Her task is understanding how and to what extent they protect human health.

Lila performs research by testing promising plants, and uses that research in conjunction with knowledge gathered from places like Mexico, New Zealand, Equador and Bostwana. In these countries, she and her team tap native elders so they can better understand how berries are collected and used. Combined with research, this information helps them to scientifically understand something we have long intuitively understood about fruit and its medicinal properties.

Lila’s focus is on deep pigment berries. They hold the key to powerful anti-cancer nutrients. Today, 1 in 3 women and 1 in 2 men will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime, and Lila’s detective work entails cracking the case of how berries could lead to stopping cancer in its tracks.

You can find out more about the wild berry mystique at DoctorOz.com and how this translates into protection for our own bodies.

Something Wild

As part of Dr. Oz’s Cancer Prevention series, Lila discusses the compelling cycle of how plants grown in harsh environments naturally have health benefits that are the result of a complex system engaged to defend themselves. Wild blueberries, for example, grow only in Maine and Canada, enduring harsh winters on the coast, and they are prime examples of the wild mystique: wild blueberries are exposed to constant sunlight in the summer, they grow in tough coastal and rocky terrain, and they endure rollicking seasonal shifts.

This otherwise unprotected plant, Lila explains, manufactures its own natural protection. It helps itself endure environmental stress and promote its own survival in its aim to live another season. The wild blueberry’s skin has high concentrations of sun protection; its tough outer tissue wards off cold temperature and salt stress; it naturally discourages predatory insects and invasive microbes; and its bright colors help attract pollinating insects, helping to disperse their seeds. To achieve all this, the plant draws on its own natural components to produce powerful phytochemicals that protect and preserve it and allow it to prosper.

“Stressed for Success”

For human life forms, the benefits from these phytochemicals can’t be overstated. It’s too good to be true that the protection plants use for their own survival and propagation can be used to such enormous effect – aptly stated as medicinal effect – for us. As Lila terms it, these plants are “stressed for success”. The “stress” they endure triggers them to devote their natural resources to accumulating these protective phytochemicals for their benefit and ultimately ours. The anti-inflammatory benefit for heart and blood vessels that phytochemicals provide is medicine we as a population need more than ever as we struggle against increasingly prevalent and deadly diseases associated with these symptoms.

Understanding the difference between wild and cultivated can bring wild’s particular heath advantages into stark relief. Wild blueberries are native to North America and they have little intervention from growers, which allows their natural defenses thrive. In contrast, the berries’ cultivated counterparts are grown for other strengths. That means they have actually been selected against some of the health-protective phytochemicals, Lila explains. And, of course, cultivated plants don’t have the stressors of wild, so they simply don’t produce the protective benefits. Making sure we are eating wild – those native plants indigenous to Maine and parts of Canada – is the key to the most powerful protection against cancer.

In addition to cancer prevention, wild provides plenty of other advantages.

The Wild Advantages:

Superb antioxidant capacity. Wild Blueberries have the highest antioxidant capacity per serving, compared with more than 20 other fruits.
Ability to lower blood glucose levels for diabetics.
Improved motor skills.
Reversal of short-term memory loss associated with the human aging process.
Protection for the heart and help in preventing stroke.
Protection against the effects of aging including its effects on vision and skin.
Promising potential in the prevention of metabolic syndrome.

Learn more about wild at DoctorOz.com, at get recipe suggestions to help you get in touch with your wild side!

One More Reason to Love a Veggie

It’s the season for putting fall veggies like zucchini to use…in any way possible.

According to recent media reports, when a Missouri Montana woman was forced to fend off a 200-pound bear that was attacking her dog, she reached for the closest thing she had – a large zucchini that she grew in her garden. Using the cudgel-shaped edible, she succeeded in saving her dog and herself from this too-close-for comfort encounter.

While large veggies can double as defenders against hearth and home, you may prefer to put yours to more traditional use. Try this Zucchini Quiche from Taste of Home to defend your health with veggies in a less violent way. (And keep another one handy, just in case. )

We know you got ’em. What do you do with ’em? From chocolate cake to tacos, here’s some easy ways to spend your garden capital: page through endless zucchini recipe ideas from About.com, or peruse the Top Zucchini Recipes from AllRecipes, for a start.

Fall Fix for Fresh

We know frozen fruits and veggies are a godsend. They are just as nutrition as fresh if not more, they do away with waste, and they are easily accessible all year round.

But it’s still hard to say goodbye to the unique thrill of bringing fresh food into the kitchen that has dirt still stuck to the leaves. Organic Authority always has a unique take on the world of organic food, including healthy recipes, tips for the eating chic table, and kitchen gardening. They urge us to explore the world of lettuce, baby carrots, eggplant — even bananas — in our own homes throughout the winter by focusing on 12 veggies that thrive indoors, don’t require lots of heat, and do fine in shallow pots. Green thumb optional.

It’s Salad Week, and Lettuce is Just the Tip of the Iceberg

National Salad Week may not seem like your standard Hallmark holiday, but when you consider that April 16th is National Eggs Benedict Day, and on August 8th we celebrate Sneak Some Zucchini on Your Neighbor’s Porch Night, Salad Week doesn’t seem all that out of the ordinary.

Besides, health and nutrition enthusiasts are embracing this week as more important than ever when it comes to giving the long-suffering salad its due, considering national obesity rates and nutritional concerns. This time of the season is ideal to reinforce principles of health such as eating from the rainbow and getting the daily requirements of fruits and veggies – all things the salad accomplishes as well as or better than any other dish.

While finding just the right card to commemorate Salad Week might be tricky, there are plenty of other ways to celebrate.

Turn Over a New Leaf

You know it’s true: even the traditional Wedge Salad is better with Romaine. But even if you haven’t eaten iceberg lettuce since the seventies, you might still be experiencing salad torpor. It’s easy to get stuck thinking one-dimensionally about salad, repeating the same lettuce-and-cut-veggies routine.

Here are some ways to get past salad inertia and make greens the colorful star of the meal, not just a forgettable necessity.

1. Easy on the lettuce. Don’t misunderstand – greens, especially dark greens, are great for you. But if you’re stuck in a rut where your salads are lettuce-laden barrels obscuring the occasional cherry tomato, try upending the equation. Designate lettuce as bed-only (or eliminate it completely). Then pile high with basil and sliced tomatoes, a stack of wedged cukes, a cascade of beets…whatever deserves to be center stage.

2. Make salad the substrate. Having sliced chicken or braised salmon? Place it on your salad for a beautiful one dish dinner that’s vibrant, fresh and crunchy. Plus, salads take excellent advantage of leftovers. Had steak last night? Tonight you’re perfectly poised to have Tarragon Steak Salad. Crave carbs? Include some thin-cut sautéed potatoes on your salad for a healthy twist on a (let’s face it) less healthy food.

3. Fruit. If fruit is getting short shrift on your veggie-heavy salads, you’re missing out on a delicious flavor profile. Wild blueberries (see below), cranberries, mandarin oranges, strawberries, raspberries, peaches, watermelon, grapes…they all add color and zing and nip salad apathy in bud.

4. Greens only. If you often skip the salad because all you have is greens, go for it – tossing mixed greens with vinaigrette is easy and good for you, and mixed greens by themselves are delightful, no chopping and slicing necessary. If your greens are a one-man show, buy fresh mixes or mix in your own frisee, baby spinach, beet greens or arugula. Simply salt and pepper to taste.

5. Don’t hold the nuts. Nuts are made for salads. They add substance, texture, taste, and good fat. Be ready with pecan halves, almonds, and walnuts. The same principle applies to sunflower seeds, cumin and fennel.

6. Use herbs. Bored by salad unless you get a forkful of goat cheese or a giant crouton? This could indicate an herb deficiency in your salad plate. Fresh herbs such as basil, oregano, thyme, parsley and cilantro can turn on taste buds and spice up greens and veggies. You can also infuse your olive oil and vinegar with fresh herbs, such as tarragon, dill, oregano, thyme and basil to turn up salad flavor. Gourmet Sleuth has a neat herb chart that will tell you what goes well with what, like sliced cucumbers, for instance. (Answer: Dill)

Worth a Toss: Salads to Celebrate

The height of the summer is a perfect time to observe National Salad Week because it means a meal that doesn’t require slaving over a hot stove. When the heat is on, salad-as-the-meal is the solution. If Strawberry, Watercress and Cashew Salad sounds good, or Whiskey & Wheat Berry seems worth trying, you can find these and some other distinctive salads at NowPublic.com. It shares 15 great salads that don’t heat up the kitchen.

The Primal Lifestyle gathered some of their favorite salad-related posts in celebration of the week, which they follow up with recipes for Asian Cucumber Salad and so-called “primal” dish, Curried Salmon Salad.

The New York Times has 10 Simple Salad Ideas that are fresh for the summer season and help you capitalize on its most plentiful bounty. These cool customers include green beans, couscous, honey, strawberries, parmesan and mozzarella.

If you just can’t get enough of salads, Eating Well has the definitive recipe and salad tips collection, along with ways to dress them.

Welcome Blueberry News…In Time for Salad Week

As we think outside of the lettuce during Salad Week, it’s worth noting that a recent report from the USDA indicates that one cup of blueberries has all the age and disease fighting compounds you need in one day. We’ve known that the health benefits of blueberries, especially wild, are enormous, and blues offer unsurpassed nutritional content when compared to most other fruits and vegetables. They are rich in Vitamins A and C, and provide a superior punch of anti-aging and disease fighting antioxidants.

Why is this especially tasty news during Salad Week? Because wild blueberries are the colorful highlight of many health-conscious creative salads that delight diners, add pizazz to plates, and provide big nutritional benefits. So, befitting the week, here are some salads featuring wild blueberries that are worth celebrating. While these dishes don’t all have a full cup per serving, most offer a respectable start on your daily intake.

With all of these vibrant recipes, why not make Salad Week every week?

Tuna Carpaccio with Wild Blueberry Wasabi Sauce

Wild Blueberries with Roquefort, Celery and Cumberland Sauce

Savory Salad with Goat Cheese and Wild Blueberry Sauce

Rainbow Superfood Salad with Wild Blueberry and Balsamic

Wild Blueberry Vinaigrette

The Mediterranean Diet & Stroke Connection: Incentive to Get Your Fruits & Veggies?

A new study out of Columbia University Medical Center reveals that adhering to the Mediterranean diet may help seniors avoid strokes, and ultimately dementia. A Mediterranean-like diet can lead to reduced strokes in the part of the brain that leads to reduced cognitive function in later years, according to the study. The Mediterranean diet focuses on eating whole grains and fruits and vegetables, and has been popular over the years for some of its delicious essentials, such as fresh food, seafood, olive oil, nuts – even wine.

This new connection to the Mediterranean diet to neurological disorders is good news, but whether or not we couch eating low fat foods of high nutritional value in “diet” terms, the need for getting fruits and veggies is crucial at a time when their absence in the American diet is clear. Fruit and vegetable consumption has always been low, but today, some nutritionists consider the current climate a “perfect storm” against good nutrition. The nutritional data indicate only 33% of Americans eat the recommended servings of fruit, and 27% eat the recommended amount of vegetables. And, these are benchmarks that should be attainable. They are not, for instance, for every person to eat five servings of fruits and vegetables. In fact, national objectives require 75% of Americans to eat only two or more daily servings of fruits and vegetables – and no state has met this requirement.

There is no reason not to eat healthy food. What we eat is directly related to diseases of aging like heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, Alzheimer’s and other dementias, and some cancers. Plus, a poor diet will show up in energy levels, concentration, poor dental health and susceptibility to viruses and infections. However, fast food availability and advertising for highly processed, low nutrient foods has contributed to this perfect nutritional storm and has led to skyrocketing rates of obesity, which aggravates every disease of aging.

Will the latest news of the benefits of the Mediterranean diet do anything toward turning the raging tides? Anything that puts the focus on the needs of fruits and veggies in the diet is a positive step. But it will take efforts toward affordability, availability and education to calm the gale-force winds of this nutritional storm.

Take the poll below and see where you stand when it comes to getting your fruits and veggies. Then, go to Fruits and Veggies Matter to find out how many fruits and vegetables your body needs.