Golden Spinach and Sweet Potato Healthy Saute - Healthy Food Tip and Recipe

healthy food tip and recipe
July 17, 2013

Check Out What's New On Our Website

Intake of cantaloupe has recently been found to lower risk of metabolic syndrome, a group of health problems that includes high blood fats, high blood sugars, high blood pressure and too much body fat ... For more see What's New and Beneficial about Cantaloupe.

Today's Recipe

If you don't know what to serve for dinner tonight ...

Enjoy the combination of spices that gives this spinach and sweet potato dish a unique flavor. Spinach is one of the most nutrient-rich vegetables around and the sweet potatoes add fiber and an extra dose of health-promoting carotenoids to this dish. Enjoy!

Golden Spinach and Sweet Potato Healthy Sauté

Prep and Cook Time: 35 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 4 medium cloves garlic, minced
• 1 cup + 1 TBS chicken or vegetable broth
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
• 1/2 tsp coriander
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1/4 tsp cardamom
• 1 TBS fresh lemon juice
• 2 cups sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
• 6 oz frozen spinach, thawed
• 2 TBS chopped fresh cilantro
• salt & pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Chop onions and mince garlic and let sit for 5 minutes to bring out their health-promoting benefits.
2. Heat 1 TBS broth in a large stainless steel skillet. Healthy Sauté onion in broth over medium heat for 5 minutes stirring frequently. Add garlic and continue to sauté for another minute.
3. Add seasonings and lemon juice and stir to mix thoroughly. Add broth and sweet potatoes. Simmer covered over low heat, stirring occasionally, until sweet potatoes are tender, about 15 minutes. Uncover to allow sauce to thicken and cook another couple minutes.
4. Press water out of spinach and add to sweet potatoes. Cook uncovered for a 3-4 more minutes to allow sauce to thicken. Add cilantro, salt, and pepper.

Serves 4

Printer Friendly Version of Golden Spinach and Sweet Potato Healthy Sauté
In-Depth Nutritional Profile for Golden Spinach and Sweet Potato Healthy Sauté

Healthy Food Tip

Can salmon be a good source of iodine?

If you are trying to maximize your iodine intake from fish, you'll probably want to stick with saltwater versus freshwater species since they tend to contain more iodine. Examples of saltwater fish include cod, halibut, and tuna. Examples of freshwater fish include lake trout and lake herring. Scallops, clams, shrimp, mussels, and oysters all come in both freshwater and saltwater varieties and the saltwater varieties are more likely to provide you with iodine than the freshwater ones. Since salmon go through both freshwater and saltwater phases during their lifecycle, they can vary widely in their iodine content for this reason. While not a reliable source, salmon can sometimes provide up to 60-70 micrograms of iodine in about 3-4 ounces of fish, or about 40% of the recommended daily value.

Cantaloupe with Lime and Mint - Healthy Food Tip and Recipe

healthy food tip and recipe
July 16, 2013

Check Out What's New On Our Website

Intake of cantaloupe has recently been found to lower risk of metabolic syndrome, a group of health problems that includes high blood fats, high blood sugars, high blood pressure and too much body fat ... For more see What's New and Beneficial about Cantaloupe.

Today's Recipe

If you don't know what to serve for dessert tonight ...

This is a great way to enhance the flavor of cantaloupe.

Cantaloupe with Lime and Mint

Prep and Cook Time: 5 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 cantaloupe
• 2 TBS fresh lime juice
• 4 mint leaves

Directions:

1. Cut cantaloupe in half and scoop out the seeds.
2. Sprinkle each half with 1 TBS lime juice.
3. Tear mint leaves by hand and sprinkle over cantaloupe.

Serves 2 Printer Friendly Version of Cantaloupe with Lime and Mint
In-Depth Nutritional Profile for Cantaloupe with Lime and Mint

Healthy Food Tip

The Latest News About Cantaloupe

The name "cantaloupe" actually comes from the name of a town in Italy near Rome called Cantaloupo in Sabina, where seeds were brought from Armenia and planted in the Papal gardens during the 1400-1500's.) Cantaloupes are members of the cucurbit family of plants (Cucurbitaceae) that also includes cucumbers, pumpkins, squashes, gourds, and a long list of melons. Melons in this same plant family with cantaloupe include Watermelon and honeydew melon, along with crenshaw, casaba, Persian, and canary melon. Because many members of the cucurbit plant family can easily cross-pollinate, there are also many different hybrid melons in the marketplace that combine features of true cantaloupe with features of these other melons.

What's New and Beneficial About Cantaloupe

• Because the flesh of the cantaloupe is often pastel-like in color (compared to the more vibrant color of fruits like oranges), we sometimes forget how important cantaloupe can be as a fruit source of vitamin A (in the form of carotenoids). Researchers have recently measured the carotenoid contents of six different California-grown cantaloupe hybrids and discovered that their beta-carotene content can reach levels as high as 3,138 micrograms (per 100 grams of fresh weight). That's about 30 times higher than the beta-carotene content of fresh oranges. Although this nutrient richness of cantaloupe still does not place it in the beta-carotene range for fresh carrots here (about 8,300 micrograms), it's still an aspect of this delicious fruit that is all-too-frequently overlooked.
• At first, we were disappointed in the outcome of a recent French study that put cantaloupe at the very bottom of the fruits list in terms of its polyphenol content. In this French study, fruits like strawberries, lychees, and grapes came out far better in their concentration of antioxidant polyphenols than cantaloupe, and no fruit scored lower in its concentration of polyphenols. But then we read about the total amount of polyphenols that cantaloupe contributed to the average daily diet. When looked at in this practical context, cantaloupe ranked higher than many other commonly eaten fruits, including kiwi, grapefruit, and clementines. It also ranked higher than watermelon and pineapple. Obviously, the higher volume of cantaloupe consumed helped to offset its lower polyphenol concentration. This practical principle is important to remember. A health-supportive, whole food like fresh cantaloupe may show up as being lower in its concentration of certain nutrients (including total polyphenols), but because we often eat it in serving sizes that are relatively large, we often get substantial nutrient benefits, even in the case of nutrients found in lower concentrations.
• Intake of cantaloupe has recently been found to lower risk of metabolic syndrome. In a study involving hundreds of women living and teaching in Tehran, Iran, the lowest risk of metabolic syndrome was found to occur in women who ate the greatest amount of fruit. (In this study, the "greatest amount" meant a minimum of 12 ounces per day.) Five fruits contributed most to total fruit intake: apples, grapes, cantaloupe, watermelon, and bananas. Women who consumed the largest amounts of these fruits were also determined to have the healthiest levels of C-reactive protein (CRP) in their bloodstream. CRP is an indicator very commonly used to assess levels of inflammation, and it's very likely that the anti-inflammatory phytonutrients in cantaloupe and other fruits contributed not only to these participants' healthy levels of CRP but also to their decreased risk of metabolic syndrome.

Insight of the Day - Funny Monday 7/15/13 - Quote by Orison Swett Marden

"Joyfulness keeps the heart and face young. A good laugh makes us better friends with ourselves and everybody around us."

Orison Swett Marden
1850-1924, Author and Founder of Success Magazine

Insight of the Day 7/11/13 - Quote by Stephen Covey

"I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions."

Stephen Covey
1932-2012, Educator, Author, and Speaker

My Prayers Goes to Cory Monteith and His Family and Especially Lea Michaels

This Makes Me Sad Even To The Point of Being Ashamed to Be White

Poached Eggs over Spinach & Mushrooms - Healthy Food Tip and Recipe

healthy food tip and recipe

Today's Recipe If you don't know what to serve for dinner tonight ...
Don't reserve this meal just for breakfast; it's great for lunch or dinner as well. You may not think to enjoy vegetables with eggs, but it is a wonderful combination and a way to include more vegetables in your Healthiest Way of Eating. Frozen vegetables are a good choice when fresh is not available and it is also very convenient when you don't have much time. Enjoy!

Poached Eggs over Spinach & Mushrooms
Prep and Cook Time: 20 minutes
Ingredients:

• 4 large free-range chicken eggs
• 1 tsp light vinegar, (rice, white wine, or apple cider)
• 1 TBS chicken or vegetable broth
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2 cups sliced crimini mushrooms
• 1 medium tomato, seeds and excess pulp removed, chopped
• 3 medium cloves garlic, chopped
• 10 oz package frozen spinach, thawed and excess water removed
• salt and black pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Chop onions and garlic and let sit for 5 minutes to enhance their health-promoting properties.
2. Add 1 tsp vinegar to water in a 10-inch skillet.
3. While water is coming to a high simmer, in a separate skillet heat 1 TBS broth. Healthy Sauté onion and mushrooms in broth for 3 minutes over medium heat stirring frequently.
4. Add tomato, garlic, spinach, salt and pepper and sauté for another 2-3 minutes.
5. When water comes to a high simmer poach eggs for about 5 minutes, or until whites are firm. Remove from water with a slotted spoon and place over spinach mixture.

Serves 4 Printer Friendly Version of Poached Eggs over Spinach & Mushrooms
In-Depth Nutritional Profile for Poached Eggs over Spinach & Mushrooms
Healthy Food Tip
Does orange juice from concentrate (without additional ingredients) have the same benefits as fresh orange juice?

The more processing that a food undergoes, the more potential there is for nutrient loss. Any juice will have fewer benefits than an equivalent amount of the whole food from which it is made (provided that there are whole food parts-such as pulp-never making it into the final juice). For example, whole, organic oranges always provide better nutrition than freshly squeezed organic orange juice, unless all of the pulp that would have been eaten with the whole orange was also consumed in the freshly squeezed juice.
Freshly squeezed organic orange juice provides better nutrition than organic orange juice made from concentrate because it takes processing to manufacture orange juice concentrate. However, the differences here may not be very dramatic. One cup of orange juice from concentrate, for example, contains about 100 milligrams of vitamin C and 40 micrograms of beta-carotene (according to the USDA's SR19 nutrient database). The same cup of freshly squeezed orange juice contains about 125 milligrams of vitamin C and 80 micrograms of beta-carotene.
I haven't seen data for other phytonutrients contained in fresh orange juice compared to orange juice from concentrate, but I suspect that cryptoxanthin, hesperidin, limonene, and other phytonutrients found in the orange are found in decreasing amounts as the processing of the orange increases and therefore that the orange juice concentrate would have less of these phytonutrients.
Even though processing does have an impact on the nutritional value of whole oranges, I do not believe that organic orange juice from concentrate is a bad dietary choice. Many supermarkets do carry cartons of fresh, organic orange juice that is not made from concentrate. If that is not available, I think that an organic orange juice made from concentrate is still a very high quality drink compared to dozens of other choices (such as fruit drinks and soda pop), and it provides a very significant and worthwhile amount of many nutrients.
With all fruit juices, you do need to be more careful about the amount you consume than you do with whole fruits. Many people wanting a snack would naturally eat one whole orange and then stop. In that one medium-sized orange, they would get about 100 calories and 18 grams of sugar. On the other hand, it's not hard to find a 16-ounce bottle of orange juice in many stores, which will provide about 225 calories and 42 grams of sugar!

Curried Chicken Over Spinach - Healthy Food Tip and Recipe

healthy food tip and recipe

Today's Recipe If you don't know what to serve for dinner tonight ...
This is a great tasting dish that requires little work. The curry coconut complements the flavor of spinach and you can easily include more vegetables. Just increase the amount of sauce slightly and add along with the bell peppers.
Curried Chicken Over Spinach
Prep and Cook Time: 30 minutes
Ingredients:

• 3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts cut into bite sized pieces (6oz each)
• 1 1/2 cup chicken stock
• 3 cloves garlic, sliced
• 1 TBS fresh ginger chopped, or 1/2 tsp dried
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
• 1 tsp curry powder
• 1 medium sized onion, cut in half and sliced
• 1 medium sized red bell pepper julienne about 1 inch long
• 1/2 cup coconut milk, make sure it is mixed well before using
• 4 bunches fresh spinach
• salt & white pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Bring water to a boil for spinach. While water is coming to a boil, cut chicken into bite sized pieces. Healthy Sauté onion in a medium sauté pan over medium low heat for about 5 minutes stirring frequently. Add garlic and fresh ginger and continue to sauté for another minute. Add turmeric, and curry and mix well. Add stock, chicken, and coconut milk. Simmer for 5 minutes and add bell peppers and other vegetables you desire. Cook until chicken is done, about another 5 minutes.
2. While chicken is cooking, cut ends off the bunch of spinach all at once. Don't bother trying to do it one stem at a time. It will take you too long and it is not necessary. Rinse spinach well and drop into boiling water for just 1 minute. Strain and press dry. Season with salt and pepper.
3. Place spinach on plates and top with chicken mixture.

Serves 4 For optimum flavor and nutrition serve with:
Minted Carrots Printer Friendly Version of Curried Chicken Over Spinach
In-Depth Nutritional Profile for Curried Chicken Over Spinach
Healthy Food Tip

How do organic foods compare to non-organic foods in terms of nourishment?

From a research standpoint, I believe that scientific comparisons of organic and non-organic foods show the clear benefits of organic. However, I also recognize that there are a relatively limited number of studies in this area and that the results have been controversial. Virginia Worthington, as part of her doctoral dissertation at John Hopkins University analyzed (and later published) 41 existing studies that compared organic to non-organic foods. On average, she determined the organic foods to contain:

• 27% more vitamin C
• 21.1% more iron
• 29.3% more magnesium
• 13.6% more phosphorus

In her review, she also noted that while five servings of organically grown vegetables (lettuce, spinach, carrots, potatoes, and cabbage) provided the daily recommended intake of vitamin C for men and women, their conventionally grown counterparts did not. Organically grown foods were also found to contain, on average, about 5% less nitrates than conventionally grown foods. While nitrates have not been conventionally spotlighted as toxic risk factors in food, they nevertheless appear (in the 216th spot) on the 2007 CERCLA Priority List of Hazardous Substances as published by the Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease Registry at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. This review of organic foods also determined them to be lower in protein than their non-organic counterparts but to contain higher quality protein in terms of amino acid composition.
Other studies on organic versus non-organic foods have found fewer statistical differences between their nutrient content, and in some cases, greater amounts of some nutrients in non-organic versus organic foods. These studies also typically show large amounts of variability in the nutrient contents of different foods, both organic and non-organic.
From my perspective, it makes sense that certain crops, grown under certain very favorable environmental circumstances, would be likely to show greater concentrations of certain nutrients than other crops grown under less favorable environmental circumstances, even if non-organic farming methods were used in their cultivation. Basic patterns in sunlight, rainfall, temperature, and other factors would always remain critical in the final chemical composition of the foods. For this reason, when I consider the research as a whole, I believe it clearly shows the nutritional advantages of organically grown versus non-organically grown food.
A second and equally important consideration with all organic foods is the absence of unwanted contaminants. Organically grown foods are very important for the chemicals they are missing! The stringency of the federal organics legislation makes it illegal for most synthetic pesticides to be used in organic production. Sewage sludge is also prohibited. The absence of potentially toxic residues on organic food has also been studied, and organic foods have been compared to non-organic foods in this regard.
In a study reviewing data sets gathered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, researchers found that in a comparison of 8 fruits and 12 vegetables, 73% of the non-organic crops were found to contain pesticide residues, in comparison with 6-27% of organic crops (depending on the exact crops that were compared). For some non-organic fruits (apples, peaches, pears, and strawberries) and for one non-organic vegetable (celery), over 90% of the non-organic food samples showed pesticide residues.
Additionally, 12-62% of the non-organic crops were found to contain multiple pesticide residues, and in some cases as many as 14 different pesticide residues. In the case of organic crops, this range was only 1-7%. About two-thirds of the time, a lower quantity of the pesticide levels was found in organic versus non-organic foods.

Braised Cod with Celery - Healthy Food Tip and Recipe

healthy food tip and recipe

Today's Recipe If you don't know what to serve for dinner tonight ...
The combination of ingredients in this recipe offers a delicious flavor while providing you with an excellent source of health-promoting nutrients. And you can enjoy a complete meal in 30 minutes.

Braised Cod with Celery
Prep and Cook Time: 30 minutes
Ingredients:

• 1 medium onion, cut in half and sliced thick
• 6 cloves garlic, sliced
• 2 cups celery, cut diagonally about 1 inch long
• 1 15 oz can diced tomatoes, drained
• 3/4 cup green olives cut in fourths
• 1 TBS + 1/2 cup chicken or vegetable broth
• 1 TBS fresh lemon juice
• 1-1/2 lbs cod, cut into 2 inch pieces
• pinch red chili flakes
• salt and black pepper to taste
• 2 TBS chopped fresh cilantro

Directions:

1. Slice onion and garlic and let sit for 5 minutes to enhance its health-promoting benefits.
2. Heat 1 TBS broth in a 10-12 inch skillet. Healthy Sauté chopped onion in broth over medium heat for 4-5 minutes, stirring frequently, until translucent.
3. Add garlic and celery and sauté for another minute. Add drained diced tomatoes, green olives and remaining broth. Stir, cover, and simmer on medium-low for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until celery is tender.
4. Place cod, lemon, salt, pepper, and chili flakes on top of celery and continue to simmer covered for another 5 minutes, or until fish is cooked. Sprinkle with cilantro and serve.

Serves 4 Serving Suggestions: Serve with

• Brown Rice

Printer Friendly Version of Braised Cod with Celery
In-Depth Nutritional Profile for Braised Cod with Celery
Healthy Food Tip

How safe is salmon with respect to mercury?

Based on an outstanding 2007 report by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), we've come up with four categories you can use to judge the mercury-safety of all types of seafood, including salmon. Here are your four safety categories that will show you how salmon fits into our overall evaluation of seafood and mercury risk:
Very low: This category includes our recommended best-choice seafood when it comes to avoidance of mercury. Wild-caught Alaskan and Pacific Coast salmon are found here, together with Pacific scallops, shrimp, oysters, clams, mussels, herring, and anchovies. We recommend this category for several meals per week. As you can see, two types of salmon (wild-caught Alaskan salmon and wild-caught Pacific salmon) are included in this very low risk category.
Low: This category still keeps your mercury intake at a relatively low level and seafood in this category could often be consumed one time per week. Included here are canned light tuna, Pacific cod, Pacific haddock, wild-caught Atlantic salmon, mahi mahi, canned light tuna, fresh/frozen Pacific tuna and Dungeness crab. As indicated in this list, wild-caught Atlantic salmon are included in this next-to-lowest risk category.
Medium: Most individuals could consume seafood in this category about once per month. A 6-10 ounce serving of any type of seafood in this "medium risk" category on a once-per-month basis would typically fit within a Healthiest Way of Eating. Some individuals in at-risk groups (like pregnant women) would need to keep consumption from this group at a lower level, in the range of only 4-8 ounces on a once-per-month basis. Fish included in this group are halibut, sea bass, grouper, albacore tuna, bluefish, canned albacore tuna, fresh/frozen Atlantic tuna, and Maine lobster.
High: We consider seafood in this group as those that should only be eaten on very rare occasions, and for individuals in higher-risk groups (like pregnant women or young children weighing less than 44 pounds), we treat them as seafood options that should be avoided altogether due to risk of mercury exposure. Fish in this group include swordfish, tilefish, marlin, shark, bluefin tuna, and king mackerel. (Please note that other types of mackerel-including Spanish mackerel, chub mackerel, blue mackerel, and many others-fall into lower-risk categories and can be eaten more frequently).
As you can see from our four level rating system, wild-caught salmon achieves our "very low" mercury rating provided that they are caught in waters outside of Alaska or along the Pacific coast of the United States (offshore from California, Oregon, and Washington). Wild-caught Atlantic salmon achieves the next best rating of "low." We only recommend farmed salmon if they have been organically farmed. Even though we have not yet seen data on the mercury content of organically farmed salmon, we are confident that this type of salmon will achieve our "very low" mercury rating.

Insight of the Day 7/10/13 - Quote by Maya Angelou

"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."

Maya Angelou
Author and Poet

Insight of the Day 7/9/13 - Quote by Steve Maraboli

"With one kind gesture you can change a life. One person at a time you can change the world."

Steve Maraboli
Author, Speaker and Radio Show Host