Beyond Olive Oil

Vegetable oils are a calorie dense food. Most oils have 110 to 120 calories per tablespoonful, so use them accordingly. Fortunately, a tablespoonful is usually plenty for cooking and most oils add a lot of flavor so you really do not need to use all that much. 

Olive oil gets most of the good press from credible nutritionists and for good reason. Over 70% of the fat in olive oil is oleic acid, a healthy monounsaturated fat. Only 14% of the fat in olive oil is saturated. It also contains a high amount of various antioxidants. Monounsaturated fats are helpful in avoiding stroke and coronary disease. It is also quite tasty.

Olive oil does have a relatively low smoke point, the point at which the heat begins to oxidize the oil, so it may not be best for frying at higher temperatures. But all-in-all, it is hard to beat healthwise.

But there are other oils that also score high with the American Heart Association. All have less than 4 grams of saturated fat per tablespoonful and can bring a whole new set of flavors to your cooking. While olive oil may be your "go to" oil, the following also merit your consideration.

Avocado, peanut and safflower oils have strong flavors and much higher smoke points (450 deg F and up vs 325 def F for olive oil). If you prefer a milder flavor then canola (often called rapeseed), soybean, corn and sunflower oil will all fill the bill. You can use any of them for cooking, baking or as a base for your own salad dressings. Any one of them is wellness friendly.

Coconut and palm oils are best used in moderation. They contain almost three times the saturated fat of the oils suggested above and, like olive oil, have a low smoke point (350degF). Coconut oil is very flavorful though so you may want to have some on hand for occasional use. Palm oil is present in a wide variety of baked goods, so check labels if you want to avoid it.

5 Vegetables That Are Better for You Cooked

 

We usually think of vegetables as being even more nutritious when we eat them raw, and for the most part that is true. Water soluble vitamins like vitamin C and B can leach out when a vegetable is cooked, leaving them behind. But some vegetables are actually better for you when you cook them first. Here are five common vegetables whose nutritional value improves when you cook them.... and why that is.

Tomatoes

You are better able to absorb the lycopene, which is protective against cancer and heart disease, from cooked tomatoes than from raw ones. Happily, this benefit extends to processed foods like spaghetti sauce and tomato paste as well. Just watch out for added sugar and salt.

Spinach

Spinach is known as a great source of calcium. But it also contains oxalic acid, which make the calcium harder for your body to absorb. Cooking breaks it down. Don't overcook it though. Mushy spinach is a culinary nightmare. Blanch or saute it quickly.

Mushrooms

Mushrooms are good source of antioxidants and they can be more concentrated when cooked. Grilling and microwaving seem to be particularly effective at increasing antioxidant activity.

Carrots

The beta carotene in carrots is more easily converted into Vitamin A if they have been cooked.

Broccoli

Broccoli is more easily digested when it is cooked. Steaming does not appear to compromise its nutritional content the way boiling does. As with spinach, you don't want to overcook it.

Cooked or raw though, vegetables should be on your plate at every meal

Say "Cheese Please!"

 

 

Despite its high saturated fat and sodium content and its high calorie density, Americans eat a lot of cheese - about 39 pounds per capita. In fact, cheese is a nutritious food. A typical one ounce serving of cheddar (real cheddar, not that abominable stuff that comes in individually wrapped slices) contains 200mg of calcium and 8 grams of protein. That same 1 ounce also contains around 100 calories though, and there is the problem. Where we usually go wrong with cheese is simply eating too much of it.

So here are some tips for making cheese a part of a healthy diet.

1. Be Aware of what you are eating. Learn what a 1 ounce portion is. It is probably more than you think it is but less than you are used to eating. The amount of saturated fat can vary quite a bit among different varieties of cheese, from about 6 grams per serving at the high end for cheddar and brie to almost none in a cottage cheese or parmesan. 

2. Reconsider your Accompaniments. Instead of just automatically piling your cheese atop crackers that add even more salt and fat to your snack, consider pairing it with fruits and vegetables. This adds nutrients, fiber and water to your snack. For example, pair some mozzarella cheese with cherry tomatoes drizzled with just a bit of balsamic vinegar. Or have a few pretzels with your cheddar instead of crackers.

3. Use Cheese as a Meat Replacement. Cheese is not only for snacking. It can enhance many dishes or even serve as a main entre. Get creative. But measure.

4. What's for Desert? How about cheese? Instead of cake or cookies, try a small plate of a favorite cheese with nuts and fresh or dried fruits. It will not only feel elegant, but it will be a better choice.

With cheese, the main thing to remember is that it is a lot of calories in a small serving. So don't avoid enjoying it. Just consume it deliberately in moderation.

Good News/Bad News for Coffee Drinkers

 

It turns out that the way you prepare your coffee has a major impact on how good or bad it is for you.

A study published this year in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology that followed half a million Norwegian men and women for 20 years has concluded that the way in which you brew your coffee has a strong influence on your risk for heart attack.

Unfiltered coffee - such as that brewed in a French press, perked or using a Turkish Cezve - contains as much as 30 times the lipid-raising substances as filtered coffee. Daily consumption of unfiltered coffee was linked to elevated levels of total and LDL (bad) cholesterol, more heart attacks and more deaths from all causes than those who drank only filtered coffee - such as is made in a drip coffee maker.

The good news?

Drinking 1 to 4 cups of filtered coffee per day is actually good for your health. Better, in fact, than not drinking coffee at all. Those who consumed filtered coffee daily had a 15% lower risk of death from any cause and a 12%/20% (men/women) lower risk of heart attack. It made no difference if regular or decaf was consumed.

So go ahead and enjoy that second cup.

Try More Tomatos

 

When I was growing up on Long Island, every year my dad would plant a vegetable garden. Sometime in the late summer we would get a few scrawny lettuce plants, some radishes and, in a good year, maybe some beans and peppers. It seemed like an awful lot of work for what he got from it.

But for the tomatoes. They seemed to thrive in the hot, humid NY summers and pulling one off the vine and eating it was a summertime ritual. Does anything taste so good as a freshly picked tomato? 

If you think that the tomatoes you buy at the grocery store just don't measure up, you're right. "In an attempt to produce firm, round, red, pest-resistant fruit, big agriculture accidentally bred out the gene that gave tomatoes their flavor," says Amanda Bontempo, a dietician at NYU Langone Medical Center. If that were not bad enough, they are usually picked well before they are ripe to allow for transportation to the stores. That is why the ones you see in the grocery look gorgeous but are hard as stones and tasty as salt water.

If you prefer tomatoes similar to those of your childhood summers, you might try growing your own. You can get the plants already started and they generally will do well indoors in a warm, sunny spot. If like me you have a brown thumb, try to find locally grown tomatoes or grab them at a farmer's market in season.

In addition to being delicious, tomatoes are loaded with lycopene, a powerful antioxidant. Like all antioxidants, lycopene neutralizes free radicals that oxidize (we'd call it rust if we were made of iron) compounds in your body and cause cells to break down over time. They play a role in cancer, heart disease and many diseases associated with aging. Antioxidants are protective against oxidation.

A 2020 study found that men who ate tomatoes almost every day had nearly a 30% lower risk of developing prostate cancer than men who didn't. Lycopene is also believed to be protective of skin cancers and to help maintain bone mass as we age.

Surprisingly, cooking tomatoes increases both the amount and the absorption of lycopene compared with eating them raw. It is also fat soluble, so having tomatoes with olive oil or a little cheese enhances your ability to absorb the lycopene. There is no recommended daily intake for lycopene but as little a 7mg per day is thought to be beneficial.

Not all tomatoes are red. Yellow tomatoes contain lutein, which may help reduce the risk of developing age related macular degeneration. Orange ones pack a lot of beta carotene, which your body converts to Vitamin A. You can also find purple, green, brown and black tomatoes. All of them are healthy choices.

Many people avoid eating tomatoes because they contain solanine, a compound that causes inflammation and which may be toxic in large quantities. (Solanine is common in Nightshades, which include peppers, eggplant and potatoes as well as tomatoes.) But the amount of soalnine found in tomatoes is extremely low and there is no clinical research supporting the theory that they have an inflammatory effect. In fact, the research suggests just the opposite, that tomatoes have a fairly powerful anti-inflammatory effect.

So go on and enjoy your tomatoes. Try a few unfamiliar varieties. And definitely use than in your cooking.

Caring for Your Immune System

 

Your immune system is your first line of defense against infection. In the age of Covid, everyone is concerned about maintaining a strong, healthy immune system. That includes the Marketing Department, who would have you believe that if you just buy and use their amazing product, Covid will be too afraid to come near you.

Your immune system has two main parts, the Innate System and the Adaptive System.The Innate System responds immediately to a perceived threat, summoning white blood cells to attack the invader and also activating the Adaptive System through a process called antigen presentation. The Adaptive System gets most of the press, but the Innate System is the first into the fight.

Once activated, the Adaptive System summons a type of white blood cell called a T-cell. These cells directly attack and destroy infected cells, and signal other B-cells to begin to produce antibodies to the specific infection. This can take several weeks, but once you are producing the antibodies you are either immune to that particular infection or far better able to cope with it. This is essentially how vaccines work, by activating the Adaptive System to produce antibodies without having to have the actual infection first.

Obviously, we'd like our immune systems to be as strong and effective as possible. So it may be tempting to load up on the various supplements, diets, and additives that promise to strengthen and support yours. Unfortunately, the only thing that most of them strengthen and support is the bottom line of the company selling  them to you.

I know you are tired of hearing it, but a having healthy lifestyle is probably the single best thing you can do to maintain your immune health. This means no smoking (including vaping and marijuana), drinking alcohol only in moderation (or not at all), maintaining a healthy weight for your height, getting plenty of good quality sleep, learning to manage the stresses of daily life, regular moderate exercise and (yes, you knew this was coming) eating a balanced diet that includes whole grains, fruits and vegetables.

This seems to be pretty much the same advice you keep getting for a wide variety of wellness issues. Perhaps its worth a try instead of those $60 ImmunoSamurai pills.

You Don't Need to be a Gym Rat

 

 

When discussing important lifestyle considerations, diet is often at the forefront. But exercise deserves at least as much attention. And you do not have to exercise strenuously for hours every day to reap a benefit. Just brief bouts of moderate activity (lets not even call it exercise) will pay lasting health benefits including improved mood and outlook, losing or controlling weight, strengthening your bones, lowering your blood pressure and boosting your energy (among many others).

Now a recent study from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and published in JAMA Oncology suggests it may also lower your cancer risk. The study followed 8,000 men and women and found that the most sedentary individuals had an 82% higher risk of cancer death than the least sedentary individuals.

How much activity was required to realize a benefit? Not much. Researchers found that replacing just 30 minutes a day of sitting with light housework or gardening cut cancer risk 8%. Up your game just slightly, say with a 30 minute walk, and you cut your risk by over 30%.

So stop reading this right now and go for a walk!