Superfoods part 13
Welcome to our health & self help blog.
In it we post health commentary & reviews of books, eBooks, & other things that improve or protect your health or which enable you to live longer, to be more prosperous, & to be more effective.
Today’s post: Wednesday, 5-3-2006 Superfoods & Honor Roll Foods, part 13
Sweet Potatoes, Yams, Pumpkin, Squash, Carrots, & Spinach in moderation –
AND Tomatoes & Broccoli.
Carotenoids are a key to good health. All these foods are high to very high in various carotenoids, so they are all Superfoods.
People who have high blood levels of carotenoids from the foods they eat are healthier, age more slowly, & are less likely to get cancer.
And, except for the lycopene supplements from tomatoes & the relatively small dose of beta carotene in most of today’s multivitamins, studies show that by far the best health results come from eating a wide variety of carotenoid containing foods each week.
Like the B vitamins, there are many kinds of carotenoids; & they apparently work best in combination & in combination with the other micronutrients found in foods containing them that science has not yet identified.
Sweet potatoes are just sweet enough to be good with no added sugar or spices by just opening a baked sweet potato & spooning out the sweet orange part of the sweet potato. And, their glycemic index is far lower than regular potatoes. Plus they are high enough in fiber to be quite filling.
And, if you are very short on time to cook, both sweet potato & squash are available in a single serving sized jar you can take in a bag lunch or use as a snack at home. You can find them with the Gerber babyfoods in their 3rd foods size in most larger supermarkets.
(And, they are a great idea to feed your baby or kids for that matter.)
Cooked & canned yams are also readily available. It’s better to get an unsweetened variety; but either way, the nutrition is there. And you can eat them cold if you are in a rush.
Pumpkin is actually better canned. You can buy it canned without added sugar in most larger grocery stores.
This is enormously faster, takes up less space, & is much less messy than buying the pumpkins & processing the pulp by hand.
I’ve found that adding a bit of 1 percent lowfat milk, some cinnamon, & some pumpkin pie spice to canned pumpkin makes a snack or dessert that tastes very much like a good pumpkin pie.
And, if you want a more dessert like version, you can add a bit of extra virgin olive oil & a bit of brown sugar & heat it up.
Summer squash can be diced up or sliced raw & added to salads. And many people like baked Acorn Squash.
Carrots have gotten a bad rap of late due to their high glycemic index. But they are widely available. Many people like the crunchy feel of eating carrots raw. They work well when cooked into stews. And, they are small enough & high enough in fiber, their actual glycemic load is far less than you might think.
Spinach is high in the carotenoid, lutein, that is apparently good for preserving your eyesight.
However, spinach is also quite high in oxalates. So spinach is best eaten at a meal with no milk or cheese, since the oxalates tend to bind with calcium & make it hard to digest. And, spinach is better as a once a week or a few times a month food, since a diet high in oxalates (&/or soft drinks) tends to produce kidney stones.
Tomatoes & Broccoli are both high in carotenoids & are already listed as super foods here.
>>> Other News you can use:
Extra info on Green Tea: (A superfood we covered earlier in this series.)
Today, in a health news item I read, it said that a study from Japan showed that the more green tea people drank, the lower their incidence of cognitive impairment.
This may be explained by the other point in that item. EGCG, the key antioxidant in green tea, is stronger than vitamin A or C & stronger than the resveratrol found in red wine.
In it we post health commentary & reviews of books, eBooks, & other things that improve or protect your health or which enable you to live longer, to be more prosperous, & to be more effective.
Today’s post: Wednesday, 5-3-2006 Superfoods & Honor Roll Foods, part 13
Sweet Potatoes, Yams, Pumpkin, Squash, Carrots, & Spinach in moderation –
AND Tomatoes & Broccoli.
Carotenoids are a key to good health. All these foods are high to very high in various carotenoids, so they are all Superfoods.
People who have high blood levels of carotenoids from the foods they eat are healthier, age more slowly, & are less likely to get cancer.
And, except for the lycopene supplements from tomatoes & the relatively small dose of beta carotene in most of today’s multivitamins, studies show that by far the best health results come from eating a wide variety of carotenoid containing foods each week.
Like the B vitamins, there are many kinds of carotenoids; & they apparently work best in combination & in combination with the other micronutrients found in foods containing them that science has not yet identified.
Sweet potatoes are just sweet enough to be good with no added sugar or spices by just opening a baked sweet potato & spooning out the sweet orange part of the sweet potato. And, their glycemic index is far lower than regular potatoes. Plus they are high enough in fiber to be quite filling.
And, if you are very short on time to cook, both sweet potato & squash are available in a single serving sized jar you can take in a bag lunch or use as a snack at home. You can find them with the Gerber babyfoods in their 3rd foods size in most larger supermarkets.
(And, they are a great idea to feed your baby or kids for that matter.)
Cooked & canned yams are also readily available. It’s better to get an unsweetened variety; but either way, the nutrition is there. And you can eat them cold if you are in a rush.
Pumpkin is actually better canned. You can buy it canned without added sugar in most larger grocery stores.
This is enormously faster, takes up less space, & is much less messy than buying the pumpkins & processing the pulp by hand.
I’ve found that adding a bit of 1 percent lowfat milk, some cinnamon, & some pumpkin pie spice to canned pumpkin makes a snack or dessert that tastes very much like a good pumpkin pie.
And, if you want a more dessert like version, you can add a bit of extra virgin olive oil & a bit of brown sugar & heat it up.
Summer squash can be diced up or sliced raw & added to salads. And many people like baked Acorn Squash.
Carrots have gotten a bad rap of late due to their high glycemic index. But they are widely available. Many people like the crunchy feel of eating carrots raw. They work well when cooked into stews. And, they are small enough & high enough in fiber, their actual glycemic load is far less than you might think.
Spinach is high in the carotenoid, lutein, that is apparently good for preserving your eyesight.
However, spinach is also quite high in oxalates. So spinach is best eaten at a meal with no milk or cheese, since the oxalates tend to bind with calcium & make it hard to digest. And, spinach is better as a once a week or a few times a month food, since a diet high in oxalates (&/or soft drinks) tends to produce kidney stones.
Tomatoes & Broccoli are both high in carotenoids & are already listed as super foods here.
>>> Other News you can use:
Extra info on Green Tea: (A superfood we covered earlier in this series.)
Today, in a health news item I read, it said that a study from Japan showed that the more green tea people drank, the lower their incidence of cognitive impairment.
This may be explained by the other point in that item. EGCG, the key antioxidant in green tea, is stronger than vitamin A or C & stronger than the resveratrol found in red wine.
posted by David at 12:54 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home