Having trouble getting enough fruits/ veggies and low fat dairy into your day?
Try a Smoothie!
Add in lots of fresh or frozen fruits and vegetables. Mix in non fat milk/ soymilk, yogurt or ice and water to help boost calcium and hydration.
Be sure to leave on the skin of the fruits and veggies for added fiber and nutrients! Unlike juice, which removes the fiber, smoothies are great because it is just a blenderized version of the foods so you are still getting all of the good stuff!
Try mixing in veggies including leafy greens- the sweetness of the fruit often compliments well with the vegetables, and its another great way to get a vegetable into a meal or snack you might otherwise have skipped it on.
Of course, don't forget, smoothies will be a sum of the calories and carbs you add to them. A large smoothie should be considered a meal. Adding in skim milk/ vegetables and water will help give you more volume while keeping down the total calories and carbs. A smoothie made with all fruit and juice can still add a hefty calorie toll toyour day, despite providing you with lots of antioxidants and vitamins.
Smoothies are a great option for people having trouble getting in enough calories: have a child who is picky eater? A sick member of the family? Elderly relative or friend struggling to get in enough calories? Try a smoothie!
That being said, a small or watered down smoothie is great for anyone trying to boost nutrition including those trying to lose weight. Again, just add in more low cal foods (veggies) and be mindful of the total calories you are consuming :)
If the smoothie still isn't tasty enough for you, you can always add in a packet of sugar, honey or sugar substitute. Also try adding in your favorite spices like cinnamon and cayenne pepper for a kick!
Unfortunately, smoothies you get out at smoothie shops and other fast food joints aren't always healthy- featuring tons of added sugar, ice cream, and who know what else: Check out this article for "health food frauds!"
Alcohol gets very mixed reviews in the health profession. In my opinion, like food, everything is ok in MODERATION.
Red wine in particular has the benefit of being a good source of antioxidants, specifically, resveratrol (RSV). Like AVNs in oats, resveratrol is an phytoalexin, which is important to the grape plant as a form of protection from UV rays, infection, injury, and fungal attack.
RSV is found in grape skin, mulberries and peanuts. Red wine uses the grape skin during fermentation, whereas white wine does not, thus red wine is much higher in RSV and gets more press.
RSV acts as an antioxidant, and helps to activate or inactivate various important proteins in your body. Your body is constantly making new new cells to replace old or damaged ones, RSV plays a role in stabilizing the proteins that help to regulate this activity. This extra stability helps to prevent cancer by stopping mutation, and also has a positive effect on aging.
RSVs also help to prevent cancer in others ways, such as inhibiting cyclooxygenase (COX), which increases cell proliferation (we do not want a lot of proliferation), and limits immune surveillance.
In a nut shell: COX is bad, and RSV stops COX. RSV helps prevent cancer, which is good!
RSV is also thought to contribute to the "French Paradox" of the french eating a relatively high saturated fat diet, yet having low rates of cardiovascular disease. Perhaps it is all that red wine they are drinking that is acting as an antioxidant and protecting their cells!? maybe?
…More research is needed!
Note: The Negative effects of excessive alcohol consumption seriously outweigh any of the positives. Alcohol can ruin you physical health, mental health, and social health. If you are going to drink, drink in moderation, (a maximum of 1 drink a day for females, 2 drinks a day for males.)
Oats are wonderful for so many reasons: they are a whole grain, low fat, a good source of fiber, full of nutrients, and are a delicious and filling.
Considering the amazingness of oats on a whole, it isn't surprising that they are also a good source of antioxidants! Oats contain an antioxidant called avenanthramides (avns for short).
Avns are part of a group of antioxidants called phytoalexins. They are important to oats as plants because they help make them resistant to diseases. In humans, avns act as antioxidants to help protect our cells from oxidation. Oats and avns are associated with decreased risk of cardiovascular disease (related to prevention of over fed macrophages!) Avns, even isolated from oats, help to reduce cytokines (inflammatory markers) in the body, and help reduce cholesterol.
As with all antioxidants, more research is needed, but overall, oats have everything going for them… but just in case you needed one more reason to eat some- there you have it: avns :)
Coffee, is a great love of mine. Its warm, tasty, wakes you up, and is great to dip things in.
Other than all of those benefits, didja know coffee also contains molecules that are antioxidants?? (See my last post for my attempt at explaining antioxidants.)
Coffee contains these wonderful compounds called polyphenols. And in fact- coffee consumption actually provides more than 60% of antioxidants consumed in America.
Epidemiological studies have shown that coffee consumption correlated with less ‘oxidative stress’, aka, less cells with their identity stolen, and less inflammation.
Sometimes coffee gets a bad wrap, in regards to it staining teeth, or its caffeine being bad if you have high blood pressure, but overall it’s hard to really analyze coffee. Many studies looking at specifically at coffee consumption in humans is difficult to translate, because often coffee drinkers also have other negative lifestyle factors such as smoking, or not consuming many fruits and vegetables.
Looking at coffee in animal studies, in vitro (just looking at the cellular interactions), and some human studies have shown positive results for coffee as an antioxidant. Coffee has been associated with decreased risk of heart disease, Alzheimer’s disease, liver disease and type II diabetes. It does this through preventing oxidative reactions, or stopping free radical reactions.
Currently there is no absolute proof that coffee is beneficial, however, it is known that the antioxidant polyphenol compound does exist in the beverage. More well controlled human studies are needed.
But in my opinion, if you enjoy your daily cup of java, go ahead and enjoy :) your body just might thank you later.
You know how antioxidants as super foods has been a hot topic now for quite a few years now? Well, do you really even know what an antioxidant is?
An antioxidant is a molecule that can prevents oxidation from occurring in your body. But, that sounds counterintuitive to some, since Oxygen is generally a good thing, why would we want ANTI-oxidants??
Oxidants are also known as “free radicals,” which are molecules with an unpaired electron... which means they are not happy, and they want to steal an electron from one of your happy complete cells! For the sake of it, lets call the electrons the ‘cells identity,’ so stealing an electron is like stealing someones social security card and ruining their credit. Free Radicals are basically like bullies that want to steal your cell’s identity! which would make your cells unhappy :( Also, once the your cell has its identity stolen - it becomes a free radical, and steals an identity from another cell- and the vicious cycle continues.
That is until an antioxidant steps in an saves the day! The antioxidant gives one of its own electrons to the new ‘free radical’ and stops the cycle, so no more cells have their identities stolen.
So why is all of this electron stealing so bad anyway?
Well obviously no one enjoys having their identity stolen, or their credit ruined. Likewise, your cells, and your body as a whole gets pretty angry about this, and it starts an immune reaction and creates inflammation in your body. In general, inflammation in the body is negative, and correlates with a lot of diseases.
For example, in heart disease your macrophages - which are kind of like your pac man cells that go around gobbling things up, are sent out to gobble up your identity-stolen-newly-free-radical cells. If you have a lot of cells that have been oxidized/ identity stolen, the macrophages have a lot to do. They eventually get filled up with confused identity stole cells, so they cannot gobble up any more, and they become a foam cell, and then become plaque in your arteries, which correlates with heart disease.
Thus, If you have antioxidants to STOP the reaction of identity stealing, your Macrophages will not get filled up excessively fast, and this process will not occur. Your cells can keep their own identities and live blissfully happy lives, with their own social security cards.
So, where do you get these antioxidants?? Mostly in your fruits, veggies, whole grains, and healthy sources of fat!
Vitamin C is an antioxidant, which is found in most fruits and many vegetables, such as oranges, strawberries, bell peppers, broccoli and cauliflower.
Vitamin E, another antioxidant, is basically Vitamin C’s compliment (they work as a tag-teaming pair of antioxidants) is found in nuts, peanuts, vegetable oil, spinach, and broccoli.
I am going to posting about a few of my favorite other sources of antioxidants soon- so check back and help protect your cells from identity theft!
Ghreylin would just like to remind you to keep living, and eating, abundantly.
Unfortunately for Ghrey, cork is not a good source of antioxidants.
Ironically – despite my love of the kidney that I discussed yesterday. I recently had a relatively serious kidney infection. Why you ask? Because I am an idiot. Greater consumption of alcohol and coffee than water, and general lack of taking care of my body.
In the process of attempting to cure my Kidney Infection I tried every at home remedy possible to fix myself including drinking baking soda in water, drinking tons and tons of water in general, vitamin c, Airshield (CVS brand Airborne), and of course, Cranberry Juice, and even cranberry supplements.
In general, I am rather anti supplement and believe that more benefits are extracted from eating the whole food, but after suffering the pain of a UTI, I was ready to try anything, so heck, I'll give Super Cranberry a try and see how I fare from now on.
In the end, I had to give in an go to the doctor and be on antibiotics—however, I will definitely not knock the healing power of some of the more natural remedies, especially as preventative measures.
Today I specifically want to focus on the Cranberry! After all it is fall and cranberries are in season, and furthermore, I am a New Englander, and cranberries are a native crop. Heck, Cranberry World is even in Massachusetts (its pretty awesome if you ever happen to be in Plymouth)
Cranberries are, of course, a fruit, and therefore contain antioxidants and phytochemicals which offer the body many benefits. However, due to their tart taste they are rarely consumed as is. Cranberry juice is one of the main ways people consume these magical berries.
Cranberries are very well known for their benefits in urinary tract health, and I’m sure, in particular any girl who has ever had a urinary tract infection, has been told to drink cranberry juice.
There is also research that shows that cranberries are useful in preventing asthma attacks, improving circulation, reducing cholesterol, and preventing ulcers!
So while cranberries are in season, eat and drink up!
For One idea on how to utilize cranberries, try out this stuffing recipe:
** I would like to cite the source of these recipes, but I have no idea... we made them last year at the BU Nutrition Club, if any one has any idea, let me know**
Cranberry-Mushroom Stuffing
Makes 8 servings (200 calories each)
1 tsp. barley malt sweetner
2 cups water
2 Tbsp. honey
1 ½ cups fresh cranberries or thawed frozen cranberries
½ loaf Cinnamon-Orange Poppy Seed bread (see below)
1 Tbsp unsalted butter
1 large onion, chopped
1 ½ Tbsp. chopped fresh sage, or 1 tsp. dried
1 celery stalk, cut into ¼ inch dice
2 pounds small mushrooms, quartered
1 egg, beaten
½ cup nonfat milk
½ cup coarsely chopped pecans
1. In a mixing bowl, combine the barley malt sweetener, water, and honey. Stir in the cranberries and let stand for 2 hours.
2. To make croutons, preheat the oven to 200F. Trim the crust off the bread and cut into ½ inch cubes. Spread out the cubes on a baking sheet and bake for 3 to 5 minutes. Let cool.
4. Mix together the egg and milk. Strain the cranberries and discard the liquid.
5. In a large bowl toss the croutons with the onion-mushroom mixture. Add the cranberries and pecans and toss again. Add the egg mixture and toss for 30 seconds and serve.
Cinnamon-Orange Poppy Seed Bread.
Makes one 8” loaf (124 calories per ½ inch slice)
1 ¼ cups stone-ground whole-wheat flour
½ cup raw sesame seeds
2 Tbsp. noninstant nonfat dry milk
2 Tbsp. poppy seeds
1 ½ Tbsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp ground cinnamon
2 eggs lightly beaten
¼ cup honey
¼ cup fresh orange juice
2 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled.
2 Tbsp almond oil or other cold-pressed vegetable oil
1. Preheat the oven to 350F
2. In a medium bowl combine flour, sesame seeds, dry milk, poppy seeds, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Stir until well blended.
3. Mix the remaining ingredients in a small bowl and stir into the dry mixture. Mix just until blended. Spoon the batter into an 8 inch nonstick loaf pan and bake for 35 to 40 minutes. Let cool and serve. (or use in stuffing).
