HealthY FooD..Do we EaT it?
Foods You Eat………..or Should be Eating?
Beets:
Why they’re healthy: Think of beets as red spinach. Just like Popeye’s powerfood, this crimson vegetable is one of the best sources of both folate and betaine. These two nutrients work together to lower your blood levels of homocysteine, an inflammatory compound that can damage your arteries and increase your risk of heart disease. Plus, the natural pigments - called betacyanins—that give beets their color have been proved to be potent cancer fighters in laboratory mice.
How to eat them: Fresh and raw, not from a jar. Heating beets actually decreases their antioxidant power. For a simple single-serving salad, wash and peel one beet, and then grate it on the widest blade of a box grater. Toss with 1 tablespoon of olive oil and the juice of half a lemon.
The 10 Best Foods You’re Not Eating
Cabbage:
Why it’s healthy: One cup of chopped cabbage has just 22 calories, and it’s loaded with valuable nutrients. At the top of the list is sulforaphane, a chemical that increases your body’s production of enzymes that disarm cell-damaging free radicals and reduce your risk of cancer.How to eat it: Put cabbage on your burgers to add a satisfying crunch. Or, for an even better sandwich topping or side salad, try an Asian-style slaw.
Guava:
Why it’s healthy: Guava has a higher concentration of lycopene—an antioxidant that fights prostate cancer—than any other plant food, including tomatoes and watermelon.How to eat it: Down the entire fruit, from the rind to the seeds. It’s all edible—and nutritious. The rind alone has more vitamin C than you’d find in the flesh of an orange. You can score guava in the produce section of higher-end supermarkets or in Latin grocery stores.
Cinnamon:
Why it’s healthy: Cinnamon helps control your blood sugar, which influences your risk of heart disease. In fact, USDA researchers found that people with type-2 diabetes who consumed 1 g of cinnamon a day for 6 weeks (about 1/4 teaspoon each day) significantly reduced not only their blood sugar but also their triglycerides and LDL (bad) cholesterol. Credit the spice’s active ingredients, methylhydroxychalcone polymers, which increase your cells’ ability to metabolize sugar by up to 20 times.How to eat it: You don’t need the fancy oils and extracts sold at vitamin stores; just sprinkle the stuff that’s in your spice rack (or in the shaker at Starbucks) into your coffee or on your oatmeal.
Pomegranate juice:
Why it’s healthy: Israeli scientists discovered that men who downed just 2 ounces of pomegranate juice daily for a year decreased their systolic (top number) blood pressure by 21 percent and significantly improved bloodflow to their hearts. What’s more, 4 ounces provides 50 percent of your daily vitamin C needs.How to drink it: Try 100 percent pomegranate juice… It contains no added sugars, and because it’s so powerful, a small glassful is all you need.
Dried plums (aka “Prunes”):
You may know these better by the moniker “prunes,” which are indelibly linked with nursing homes and bathroom habits. And that explains why, in an effort to revive this delicious fruit’s image, producers now market them under another name.
Why they’re healthy: Prunes contain high amounts of neochlorogenic and chlorogenic acids, antioxidants that are particularly effective at combating the “superoxide anion radical.” This nasty free radical causes structural damage to your cells, and such damage is thought to be one of the primary causes of cancer.
Yes. Yes.
We are all well versed.Fruits and vegetables must somehow be worked into our daily routine, some say at least five servings a day.
Lean meats are great sources of protein, as are fish, eggs, beans, and nuts.
Whole-grain breads and cereals are a must.
If you must snack………..then snack on low-fat yogurt, peanut butter and celery, or whole-grain crackers and cheese.
Um…what?..No chocolate or dounuts?
Limit your fat intake by avoiding deep-fried foods. (There goes the fried chicken..french fries, fried dounuts too…..)
Choose healthier cooking methods, such as broiling, grilling, roasting, or steaming.
Try low-fat or nonfat dairy products. 
Limit that nasty fast food and all the other yummy, but low-nutrient snacks, such as chips, cookies and candy.
Do away with those sugary drinks, such as soda and fruit-flavored drinks.
Serve water instead.
Did I forget to mention limiting portions and not overeating.
This is gettin harder by the minute.
That would be ideal sweet friends, now wouldn’t it……….
Okay then.
Free dinner at my place for anyone who can come up with the “healthy” reasons to eat these: Heh.
Offering a taste to my friends over at Pirate’s Cove, Leaning Straight Up, Big Dog’s Weblog, Right Truth, and Right Voices, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.
February 18th, 2008 at 7:47 pm
That is great advice!
One of the modern dilemmas is the abundance of fast food amidst our usual time restricted lives….lots of people don’t realize how quick, easy and great tasting fruits can be……I know I used to avoid them because I figured all that cutting was too time consuming.
It’s really not much more so than opening up a package of something we’re better off avoiding.
Great post!
February 18th, 2008 at 8:01 pm
No way, JMK. Fruits are quick and easy, but they don’t count as ‘great tasting’, unless you are using their ground up remains to wash down some bacon and eggs.
February 18th, 2008 at 8:03 pm
Did you guys know that ‘hamburger’ is ancient Samorian for ‘fruit of the cow’?
February 18th, 2008 at 8:34 pm
Well …. as someone who has practiced a lifetime of healthy eating ….while still enjoying the burgers and steaks etc….. in appropriate numbers.
I’m happy to report that I’m one of the seeming few who are not being put on diets that try to compensate for bad habits of earlier years.
I always have a laugh when some self made macrobiotic scarecrow expounds on their “Healthy lifestyle”. Meanwhile all they’ve accomplished is to avoid ever having any joy in eating and turning themselves into emaciated weaklings.
All things in moderation … Including Moderation!
February 18th, 2008 at 9:14 pm
OH! now I am hungry for pizza and chocolate!
February 18th, 2008 at 11:08 pm
I eat very healthy, but haven’t tried the Pomegranate juice yet because I did not know it was sugar free, or no added sugar. I gave up sugar and a lot of fats a few years ago. I feel much better and it is so much easier to keep my girlish figure, ha.
I saw something about all these foods this week in MORE Magazine. When I want a chocolate treat I buy Figis or Swiss Colony sugar free deserts. You cannot tell the difference, especially the Gormet brownies.
February 18th, 2008 at 11:38 pm
for good abs remember to eat as much of these as you can while keeping an exercise regimen:
A = almonds
B = beans - any kind
S = spinach
February 19th, 2008 at 12:30 am
This post is making me hungry. I have always felt that if God didn’t want us to eat animals He wouldn’t have made them out of meat.
February 19th, 2008 at 2:24 am
Geez Angel, i’m starving now.. i’m skipping the first half of the post..
February 19th, 2008 at 5:38 am
Really Angel, you have a way of making a head of cabbage look fantastic.
On sugar-free chocolate, you can get one from Belgium in Australia which is to die for. I hate to say it but it leaves our Aussie one for dead. (But we do other stuff pretty well!)
February 19th, 2008 at 6:48 am
Pomegranate juice! Way to go, I love it .. even with a meal, really gets the digestive juices going … Beets, Guava yum. never had dried pluns though. One thing missing, least I didn’t notice, a fine crystal glass just over half filled with the fermented juice of red grapes - a fine Cabernet Sauvignon …
February 19th, 2008 at 8:31 am
My last round of blood tests showed that my cholesterol count is 207. Therefore, I’ve added cinnamon in oatmeal to my daily diet–easy to do. We’ll see what the next round of tests shows.
I’ve always been a peanut-butter addict. I eat it right out of the jar! But peanut butter can pack on the pounds, which is a drawback.
Right now, my weight gain resulting from a strict no-exercise life style, has to be ignored in favor of a high-protein diet, another requirement of the Prolotherapy I’m undergoing.
Pom juice is expensive. However, now that you’ve told me that I need only two ounces to get some benefit, I’ll get some pom juice on my next trip to the grocery store.
Great post, Angel!
February 19th, 2008 at 8:32 am
Addendum: When checking food labels, also take note of the count for fats, not just the cholesterol count on those foods.
February 19th, 2008 at 9:29 am
I posted on something similar yesterday!!
I love guavas,they sold them on the road in India.My dad used to cut them open and sprinkle with salt and chilli powder.
Looking at the price of them now,gives me heart attack!!So its not good for my health!
February 19th, 2008 at 9:31 am
Actually my diet is not so far off from your list…OK, except for the beets. I can’t stand beets or lima beans. Really I’ll eat any other fruit or veggie, except those two.
February 19th, 2008 at 9:45 am
On the other end of the spectrum :
Schachtplatte
For some … death on a plate … for others Meat Nirvanna!
February 19th, 2008 at 10:38 am
Cabbage and prunes…mmm! Seriously, I love raw cabbage and a moderate amount of prunes. Nanc, your comment applies perfectly to me too. (I really should be doing more sit-ups, though…)
February 19th, 2008 at 10:43 am
Oh Lordy.
I like the looks of the bottom part the best
February 19th, 2008 at 11:39 am
For the beets, let me add this, try lime juice, a hint of chile powder depending on your tolerance, and a sprinkle of salt, you can do this with any fruit/vegetable that you have trouble liking.
I’m a sucker for pizza, who’s not….it’s 9:30am I think I’ll head on over to Oregano’s for some pie in anhour or so!
February 19th, 2008 at 12:26 pm
Mmmmm… I may have to go buy some more lunch now, having already eaten before reading your post!
We fry a lot of our foods (even veggies) but always in olive oil. We also de-fat and de-skin all meats. Chicken fat (for all the promos on eating chicken for good health vs. red meats) is much worse for you than beef or pork fat. And chicken breast, frequently criticized for “lack of taste” vs. the darker chik meat, absorbs the flavor of marinades and spices exceptionally well if given just a bit of prep ahead of actual cooking. We eat tons of raw veggies and always have vegetables and fruits with every meal. Neither of us were raised and allowed candies so they aren’t even longed for.
We both LOVE all types of curries and frequently curry our vegetables, too (peas with onions are a favorite).
Wild game birds (partridge, pheasant, quail, duck, goose), venison and moose meat are always stashed in our freezer to boot. Good stuff and no wondering what they were raised on.
Nice post and change of pace, Angel!
February 19th, 2008 at 1:42 pm
Mmmm, donuts…..
Portion control is my biggest enemy. Well, that and I have met very few foods that I don’t like, and I replaced the cigarettes with a fork. LOL
Thanks for posting this. A buddy of mine was just complaining about his blood pressure (systolic is a little elevated) so I passed along the pomegranate juice advice to him.
February 19th, 2008 at 1:44 pm
Oooh, that chicken/broccoli salad thing looks to DIE FOR!
Here’s one on the prune juice…
February 19th, 2008 at 2:22 pm
There are ample reasons to eat healthy, but there is nothing wrong with a little chocolate cake and fried anything. It’s that people take things to extremes. They either eat sticks and bark or eat McDonald’s everyday.
February 19th, 2008 at 2:23 pm
You love food! Who doesn’t and I admit I have a sweet tooth when it comes to good chocolate - no kisses or hershey bars — lol! I love Belgian chocolates and truffles. But I do not eat it often or often enough — just in moderation.
Still twenty to go…….another food post huh hun??? LOL!
February 19th, 2008 at 4:08 pm
Ah,
Every now and then one has to indulge to satisfy the pleasure sensors of the brain. It is unhealthy- especially for mental health- to deny one self some culinary pleasure once in a while. Man does not live on punishment alone.
February 19th, 2008 at 4:39 pm
Momma taught me well…
Cupcake…Califlower,
no contest…give me 3 custard, two jelly and call me in the morning…..
Angel, your pictures rock…just ate three cookies right off the page!!!
February 20th, 2008 at 5:22 am
Mmmmmmm!
I always opt for those yummy freeze dried army rations myself. All the nutrients you need in a bag! Yummy!
A Cabbage sallad is always nice with your Pizza (a Swedish speciality).
Everything from the family of Tomatoes, Potatoes and Tobacco (as long that it’s not smoked).
And Reindeer Jerky, always Reindeer jerky!- Low on fat and high in proteines.
Fish!- In all variants.
Cloud Berrys and Blueberrys- Full of vitamines and antioxidants.
Palt. Nothing beats palt! (Ok! it might not be so healthy Per Se, but it makes you feel that much better!).
Wine in moderate proportions (even if I nearly ever drink the stuff).
Live like a Laplander and you will …Err live like a Laplander. I’m not sure you will live for a longer time, but you will enjoy it meanwhile.
February 20th, 2008 at 10:20 am
Beef. It’s what’s for dinner!
February 20th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
I was going to say that you make healthy food look good, until I saw the cake. It was all over at the cake.
February 20th, 2008 at 6:40 pm
Lovely new blog and wonderful food photos…. I’m with Rita, after looking at that chocolate cake, I’m now distracted!
February 22nd, 2008 at 1:43 am
I’m starving, gotta go raid the fridge.