Archive for the ‘Food’ Category:
The Good Avocado Superfood
As a child I never had the opportunity to eat much avocado. I’m Chinese and avocado simply didn’t make its way into many, or any, of the meals my mom prepared so I wasn’t exposed to the delicious treat until much later. I think my first try was sometime in college when I tried guacamole, the delicious nacho topper made mostly of avocado. Since then, while I’m not an avocado fiend, I do enjoy its rich creamy flavor both on salads (it makes a great contrast with the crispness of bell peppers and lettuce) and guacamole.
Later on, I discovered that avocado was remarkably good for you. It’s surprisingly rich in monounsaturated fatty acids, the same good stuff that’s in olive oil. Monounsaturated fatty acids has been shown to lower the bad LDL cholesterol levels while increasing the good HDL cholesterol levels. In addition to those benefits, avocados also contain fiber, potassium, magnesium, folate, and antioxidants.
I don’t know if the creators of salsa and guacamole knew this but combining the lycopene in tomatoes and the vitamin E in avocados heightens the positive health benefits of both (especially enhancing antioxidant effects). You add in some onions and the oligosaccharides will boost the tomatoes’ lycopene benefits. Seems like eating lots of salsa and guacamole is pretty good for you.
So, if you’ve never tried avocado, give it a try. If you love the stuff, good for you because it’s good for you too!
(Photo: avlxyz)
Subscribe to the comments for this postOmega-3 vs. Omega-6 Balance
Earlier this week I wrote about why Omega-3 fatty acids are important and discovered that it’s not only important to eat Omega-3 oils but it’s important to ensure your Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids are in proper balance. Both are essential but the proper ratio is necessary because both compete for the same metabolic enzymes. I’m not a Biology major but we know that Omega-3 and -6 fatty acids break down to the products we need (eicosanoids) and that process requires metabolic enzymes, if they’re both fighting for the same ingredients then we need to ensure one doesn’t “starve” out the other.
What’s the ratio healthy ratio? The healthy ratio appears to be anywhere from 1:1 (omega-6 to omega-3) to 4:1. According to JR Hibbeln in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, published June 2006, Western diets provide ratios of 10:1 to 30:1, which is far too much Omega-6.
The reason is because the oils we use often have a higher Omega-6 to Omega-3 ratio. Corn oil’s ratio is a staggering is 46:1. Popular new oils like Olive oil has anywhere from 3-13:1 and canola is 2:1 but both contain only a small amount.
How do you keep it in balance? Eat a diet rich in Omega-3’s and the it sounds like the Omega-6 will balance itself out. Eat lots of seafood or seeds that contain Omega-3 and everything should work out.
What Are Omega-3 Fatty Acids?
Omega-3 fatty acids are good for you, that’s something we’ve known for quite some time now, but do we know why? I didn’t until I did some research.
Why Omega-3
Omega-3 fatty acids are family of unsaturated fatty acids that your body can’t make itself and it’s an essential nutrient for your body. What exactly is the Omega-3? (warning, chemistry coming up) The three in Omega-3 refers to the fact that the first double bond exists as the third carbon-to-carbon bond in the methyl end of the carbon chain; that’s not important to know though when it comes to why Omega-3’s are important for you but I figured I’d share it anyway.
There are several Omega-3 fatty acids but the three that are the most important are:
- α-linolenic acid (ALA),
- eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), and,
- docosahexaenoic acid (DHA).
Since your body can’t produce these essential fatty acids, you have to eat them!
What To Eat?
So, what should you be eating to get these fatty acids? ALA is found mostly in seeds such as flax and soybean. EPA and DHA sources are fish oil, such as from cod, salmon, sardins, mackerel and herrings. If you’re not a fan of fish or flax seed, you can simply buy supplements that provide these fatty acids.
Daily Recommended Values
Do you know what the daily recommended values (DV) are for everything on that nutrition label? It’s like budgeting, you don’t know if you’re doing well or doing poorly unless you have a reference point. Daily recommended values is the FDA’s way of setting reference points and it’s important to know what they are, even if it’s only at a high level.
Here are the high level numbers:
- Calories: 2,000
- Fat: 30% of calories - 65g
- Saturated fat: 10% of calories - 20g
- Carbohydrates: 60% of calories
- Protein: 10% of calories
- Fiber: 11.5g per 1,000 calories
- Sodium: 2,400 mg
- Cholesterol: 300 mg
That’s a ballpark estimate, obviously younger people who are growing will need more calories and those who are older will need less.
‘Daily Values’ Encourage Healthy Diet [FDA.gov]
Low Carb Diet Is Best!
Which is best? Low carbs? Low fat? Or the Mediterranean diet chock full of healthy fats, fruits, and veggies? Turns out that conventional wisdom, where lower fat is always better, doesn’t always win out and the latest study shows that low carbs is actually the biggest winner. This was a story featured on ABCNews and one I caught on World News Tonight.
The Study: Researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, MA put 322 obese subjects through one of three diets. The three were the ones just described, a low far, a low carb, and a Mediterranean diet. They had the subjects participate for two years and found that the low carb dieters lost the most weight, 12 lb., and the Mediterranean dieters scored second place with an average of 10 lb. Low fat dieters trimmed seven pounds in two years.
There’s more to it so check out the story on ABCNews.
What are Nitrates and Why Are They Bad!?
Nitrates, and nitrites like sodium nitrite, are additives. They were added processed foods, usually meats like cold cuts and hot dogs, to fight botulism. The unfortunate part is that they can form nitrosamines in our intestines once they are digested. Nitrosamines are bad because they might be carcinogenic.
Does that mean you should avoid processed foods like cold cuts and hot dogs? (or anything with nitrates or nitrites) No, because a diet rich in vitamin C will prevent nitrosamines from forming. It’s that very reason that foods with nitrites find themselves packed with lots of vitamin C derivatives such as ascorbate or sodium erythrobate.
Best Fruit Drinks for You
My wife used to drink a lot of apple juice as a child. She absolutely loved the stuff. Me? The only juice I ever drank was orange juice. Tropicana Pure Premium Orange Juice, usually with as much of that juicy fiberous pump as humanly possible. I always thought apple juice was like sugar water and my orange juice was the healthy goodness it was meant to be. Well, according to a study at UCLA, OJ ranks only 8th and Apple Juice ranked 10th in terms of antioxidant goodness. This makes sense though, they always say that the darker berries and grapes have the most antioxidant fighting power and oranges and apples are neither dark berries nor grapes! 
Number one on the list is a fruit that has been gaining popularity, especially in the alcoholic beverage market, and that’s pomegranate juice. The other day we picked up a bottle of pomegranate liquor on a whim and we’ve had Pom brand pomegranate juice in our fridge a few times. Pomegranate itself is quite fun to eat, you crack it open, suck on the little pomegranates and then spit out the seeds.
For those vino lovers, red wine makes in at #2 and even MLM-favorite Açaà juice slides inot the #6 spot. I joke about the MLM-favorite status only because it’s this juice that is pushed by Mona Vie.
Pomegranate Juice is Packed With Antioxidants [Health.com]
Carnival Foods
It’s been a long time since I’ve gone to a carnival but the same types of food served there are also served at local Renaissance festivals, wine festivals, and, well, every other festival. Newsweek took a crack at the most unhealthy carnival foods:
- Deep fried Oreos
- Cotton candy
- Corn dogs
- Deep fried Twinkie (detecting a trend?)
- Snow cone
- Funnel cake - These are my favorite, but 8.3 ounces has 760 calories, 44g fat, 80g of carbs, and 20mg of cholesterol.
- Deep fried candy bars (if you haven’t detected the trend yet…)
In summary, the foods are bad in one of two ways. Either it’s deep fried or it’s basically sugar, or it’s deep fried sugar. Deep fried is never good for you. Copious amounts of sugar is never good for you. It’s no surprise these treats are bad for you so enjoy in moderation.
Is Margarine Better than Butter?
It’s gotten to the point where I don’t know if margarine is good for you, bad for you, better than butter, worse than butter, which is it? The flip flopping by the scientific community has my head in a spin and I have no idea which way is up. Fortunately, in the confusion, science has prevailed and there is a scientific explanation as to which is better and why.
First, let’s talk about what margarine is. Margarine is essentially hydrogenated vegetable oil. Hydrogenation refers to the process of infusing hydrogen atoms in liquid fats, like vegetable oil, so that they are solids at room temperature. The by-product is a significant amount of trans-fat acids. For a while, margarine was hailed as better because trans-fats aren’t saturated fats, which were known to be unhealthy for you; but it wasn’t until further study (a report released in 2005 by the US Dept. of Agriculture) did we learn that trans-fats are treated the same as saturated fats in the body.
Butter is bad for you because of saturated fat, margarine is bad for you because of trans-fat. They both have their positive merits but the bottom line is that you should eat them both in moderation.
More Beets & Cabbage
Beets and cabbage have headlined the latest “best foods you’re not eating” article, this time on the Well column of the New York Times. Author Tara Parker-Pope listed these items as foods you should be eating but probably aren’t (along with simple preparation methods):
1. Beets
2. Cabbage
3. Swiss chard
4. Cinnamon
5. Pomegranate juice
6. Prunes
7. Pumpkin seeds
8. Sardines
9. Turmeric
10. Frozen blueberries
11. Canned pumpkin
Of the foods listed, my wife and I do get cabbage from time to time as well as frozen blueberries in our fruit smoothies. Outside of those two, we hardly eat any of them (pumpkin seeds from time to time too, now that I think about it) and probably should integrate them more. Pumpkin appears twice, that’s interesting… since most Americans only think of them during Halloween!
