4 Nutritional Powerhouses You're Already Eating

www.huffingtonpost.com - April 15th, 2014

Lately there's been so much focus on newcomers like acai and kale that less glamorous fruits and vegetables are sometimes treated like second-class citizens. But researchers are discovering new reasons to get excited about the old standbys.

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The Truth About Kale

www.webmd.com - March 20th, 2013

Move over Popeye and make room for the "queen of greens," kale. Gaining in popularity, kale is an amazing vegetable being recognized for its exceptional nutrient richness, health benefits, and delicious flavor.

Eating a variety of natural, unprocessed vegetables can do wonders for your health, but choosing super-nutritious kale on a regular basis may provide significant health benefits, including cancer protection and lowered cholesterol.

Kale, also known as borecole, is one of the healthiest vegetables on the planet. A leafy green, kale is available in curly, ornamental, or dinosaur varieties. It belongs to the Brassica family that includes cruciferous vegetables such as cabbage, collards, broccoli, and Brussels sprouts.

What makes kale so exceptional? Here is why it's a superstar vegetable -- and ways to work it into your diet.

Kale is a Nutritional Powerhouse

One cup of kale contains 36 calories, 5 grams of fiber, and 15% of the daily requirement of calcium and vitamin B6 (pyridoxine), 40% of magnesium, 180% of vitamin A, 200% of vitamin C, and 1,020% of vitamin K. It is also a good source of minerals copper, potassium, iron, manganese, and phosphorus.

Kale’s health benefits are primarily linked to the high concentration and excellent source of antioxidant vitamins A, C, and K -- and sulphur-containing phytonutrients.

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Cooked Food Allowed Evolution Of Primates' Big Brains

www.huffingtonpost.com - December 19th, 2012

That's because humans would have to spend more than 9 hours a day eating to get enough energy from unprocessed raw food alone to support our large brains, according to a new study that calculates the energetic costs of growing a bigger brain or body in primates. But our ancestors managed to get enough energy to grow brains that have three times as many neurons as those in apes such as gorillas, chimpanzees, and orangutans. How did they do it? They got cooking, according to a study published online today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"If you eat only raw food, there are not enough hours in the day to get enough calories to build such a large brain," says Suzana Herculano-Houzel, a neuroscientist at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil who is co-author of the report. "We can afford more neurons, thanks to cooking." 

Humans have more brain neurons than any other primate—about 86 billion, on average, compared with about 33 billion neurons in gorillas and 28 billion in chimpanzees. While these extra neurons endow us with many benefits, they come at a price—our brains consume 20% of our body's energy when resting, compared with 9% in other primates. So a long-standing riddle has been where did our ancestors get that extra energy to expand their minds as they evolved from animals with brains and bodies the size of chimpanzees?

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Processed Foods are Killing Us

chicagophoenix.com - December 10th, 2012

As American society became more industrialized and modernized, we focused the same innovation to our foods in an effort to make them more affordable and accessible, resulting in processed foods. While this made food cheaper and allowed Americans of all walks access to more calories, it did not lead to better nutrition nor a healthier society. This change to a heavily-processed food supply also can be correlated to the rise in Type 2 diabetes.

So why are processed foods so bad and how is it linked to the rise in Type 2 diabetes? Until the turn of the century, most Americans either produced their own foods or bought them from local producers in an unprocessed state. With advancement in food storage and preservation, foods were altered to have longer shelf lives and foods once produced at home, like bread, could now be mass produced in baking factories. Mass production led to processed foods appearing cheaper by their convenience.

The act of processing a food product breaks down the item to its basic components, often leaving healthy and nutritional things behind, like fiber. While this allows manufacturers to store products, like flour or corn syrup, easier and longer, it’s not necessarily better for your body. I like to use the example of a log and stack of papers. If you were to set a log on fire, it would burn slowly and release energy and smoke over a prolonged period of time. However, take that same log and “process” it into paper then set that pile of paper on fire. It would burn quickly, releasing it’s energy and smoke over a very short period of time. The same happens with food. For example, corn in its whole form takes time to break down and release its energy. Corn syrup, on the other hand, beaks down very quickly once ingested, releasing its energy all at once.

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Fast Food 'Healthy Options' Don't Mean Fewer Calories

www.huffingtonpost.com - December 3rd, 2012

We at Healthy Living have long known that the 'healthy' items on fast food menus can be anything but. And now, a new study has confirmed that observation: although menus grew between 1996 and 2010 to include 53 percent more items, the average number of calories in each item hasn't changed significantly.  

The major growth area on menus during this 14-year period has been toward "healthy" salads, yogurt parfaits and other lighter-seeming fare. Unfortunately, these items aren't rendered less caloric merely by the addition of iceberg lettuce or apple slices.

"Entree salads, which are increasing in number, can be bad, too. With fried chicken on top and regular dressing, they can have more calories than a burger," lead researcher Katherine Bauer, an assistant professor in the department of public health at Temple University, told HealthDay.

As part of their study, which appeared in the latest issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, Bauer and team analyzed the menus of eight national fast food restaurants -- McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's, Taco Bell, KFC, Arby's, Jack in the Box and Dairy Queen -- using the University of Minnesota Nutrition Coordinating Center Food and Nutrient Database. They found little difference in the average calorie value of entrees, which clocked in at an average 453 for things like salads and sandwiches. Side dishes like fries, soups and bread maintained an average 263 calories. The researchers did find a slight increase in the caloric values of drinks and condiments.

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Berry Greek Yogurt Smoothie

1 cup plain Greek yogurt

1/2 cup fresh raspberries

1/2 cup fresh strawberries1/2 cup fresh honeydue

1 cup ice

1 cup fresh peaches

1 scoop vanilla protein powder (Bluebonnet Whey Isolate French Vanilla) 

Blend all the ingredients until smooth.  Enjoy!

Kale Edamame Grape Salad With Teriyaki Vinaigrette

Salad:

6 cups chopped kale, remove stem

1 medium red onion, thinly sliced

1 cup edamame

1 cup seedless black grapes

1 cup cooked skinless chicken (optional)

2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds

Sea salt and black pepper

Arrange salad ingredients on a large serving platter (refer to picture).

Vinaigrette:

3 tablespoons raw honey
1 cup teriyaki sauce

Whisk all the ingredients to fully combine. Drizzle over the salad