We humans aren’t the only ones who relish lush, juicy summertime produce. Mold, too, thrives happily on the sugar and moisture so readily available in ripe fruits and vegetables. It even can grow deep into these foods where you can’t see it! According to Leigh Broadhurst, PhD, research geochemist in the USDA’s Beltsville Agricultural Research Services, even invisible mold in your food can make you sick. She told me that just sniffing mold in food can make you ill with symptoms that can range from slightly nauseous to a life-threatening toxic shock reaction. Here is her advice…

Citrus fruits. When you get home from the market, do an immediate and thorough check of citrus fruits in bags and boxes — if you find one or two with even a bit of visible mold, there are likely to be more. Return them all to the store or toss them all into the trash. Mold spreads easily and fast with these fruits, and eating citrus with mold can make you quite ill. And, since it’s sometimes hard to see, if a fruit tastes moldy when you bite into it, spit it out.

Soft fruits and vegetables. This category includes peaches, nectarines, plums, grapes, melons, cucumbers, zucchini and the like, all of which are prone to announce mold by developing soft spots. For these, it’s okay to cut small moldy spots away (meaning those that are less than a quarter of the total piece), taking one-half inch around the spot. To avoid cross-contamination, don’t let the knife touch the mold. Larger soft areas, though, mean mold has invaded the whole fruit or vegetable even though you don’t see it, throw the food away.

Firm vegetables. Hard vegetables, like cabbage, cauliflower, carrots, peppers and others, have little moisture, making them less vulnerable to mold. It is fine to cut off any small patches of mold you see, in this case at least one inch around the mold.

Tomatoes. Brown spots on the outside and dark seeds inside mean you should throw the entire tomato away.

Berries. The ones with hollow centers (like raspberries) may grow mold from the inside out, so cut these in half and look before eating.

Block That Mold!

The safest produce, of course, is that which hasn’t had a chance to grow mold. Dr. Broadhurst has a few tips for that as well…

• Shop at local farmer’s markets, where produce is more likely to be just-picked.
• Wash produce only when you are ready to eat, cook or freeze it. Fruits and vegetables naturally have protective microorganisms on their surfaces that are harmless, washing strips these off and opens the way for mold to settle in.
• Use “freshness preserving” containers and/or bags. These are designed to release the ethylene gas produced as fruits and vegetables mature, which if allowed to accumulate increases the speed of ripening and thus spoilage.
• Use the freezer, in particular for fresh berries you want to save. Place the entire package (washed first) into a sealed plastic bag and put it in the freezer, then use the fruit as you need it. (It won’t have the same consistency as fresh fruit, but it’s delicious… nutritious too.) Also a good choice: Frozen berries from the supermarket — they do not mold and are good year-round.

Source(s):

Leigh Broadhurst, PhD, a research geochemist in the USDA’s Beltsville Agricultural Research Services, Beltsville, Maryland.

It is amazing all the things you can find within your foods. Avoid dealing with such situations and keep your knowledge strong with our health and weight loss tips now.

With all the recent talk about a “sin tax” on sugary sodas, I’m surprised no one is talking about slapping a tariff on deep-fried foods. Yes, they are tasty as anything, but they’re also really terrible for your health. Jane Kirby, RD, author of several cookbooks as well as books on nutrition and weight loss, discussed delicious foods that you can’t, in good conscience, enjoy very often. She offered some great advice on how to prepare foods so that they can achieve that seductive deep-fried crunch while still retaining some measure of being “good for you,” too. You will want to try her cooking methods, but first…

Why Not Fried Foods?

Nutritionists caution against eating fried foods for two reasons, says Kirby. For starters, frying adds lots of calories to food (fat has nine calories per gram compared with just four per gram for protein or carbs), but the second reason is more disturbing as it is impossible to fry foods without having at least some oxidation in the oil, which creates those nasty free radicals that contribute to cardiac disease and other health problems.

It’s actually quite fascinating what happens to food when you fry it. When you cook food in hot oil, the heat transforms the food’s internal moisture into steam, which cooks the food inside and pushes steam against the surface. This is supposed to block the oil from seeping in, but it is a difficult feat to pull off, because it requires a very particular oil temperature, just below the oil’s smoking point. Cooler will slow down moisture conversion giving the oil plenty of time to soak in, if hotter, you risk taking the oil to its smoking point, the temperature at which it oxidizes. The first result is bad for you, while the second result is bad for you too.

Better Ways to Get That Crunch

Happily, there are ways to lessen the problems inherent in frying. Let’s start with sautéing, thought by many to be a healthier way to cook. It is, but only when done the right way. Unfortunately, the usual way people “sauté” is to pour oil in a pan, heat it up and plop in the food, giving it an occasional stir. This is in fact frying and not sautéing, Kirby says. She explains that sauté literally means “jump,” a skill television chefs demonstrate when they continuously shake a pan to tumble the food within. Mastering this skill lets you achieve that crispy crust with less oil agitating the food brings its entire surface into contact with the hot oil for brief periods but not long enough that it soaks in. If you haven’t honed this skill, try just stirring the food quickly and continuously over fairly high heat (don’t let it reach the smoking point) until it is done.

For dishes that use onions and garlic, Kirby suggests “sweating” them first in a mere shimmer of oil.

Here’s how: Place chopped onions and garlic into a pan with a half-teaspoon of oil, cover and cook slowly on a low heat to release the moisture. Once you’ve done that you can add vegetables and protein and, if you want, a bit more oil. Turn up the heat to cook rapidly as you stir. You can add flavor by pouring a small amount of olive oil over the food just before serving.

Least Harmful Ways to Fry

Should you opt to pan- or deep-fry food, here are the ways to protect it from becoming loaded with unhealthy fat and calories…

• Use an oil with a high smoking point. This is one type of cooking for which virgin (not extra virgin) olive oil is preferable, since extra virgin olive oil is more fragile and has a much lower smoking point (320 degrees, compared with 420 degrees).
• Other good choices: Palm oil has a high smoking point (about 425 degrees), as do corn oil (about 450 degrees), walnut and canola oils (about 400 degrees). All these are healthful choices in small amounts.
• Food must be at room temperature before cooking, chilled food lowers the temperature of the oil too much.
• Don’t overcrowd the pan. This, too, lowers the temperature of the oil.
• Don’t use fat in your batter. Batter with fat in it attracts more fat to it, says Kirby. Instead, dip food in egg whites, then flour, then water, fat-free milk or flattened beer rather than whole eggs and whole milk. Seasoned bread crumbs, following a quick egg dip, also make a nice, fat-free batter, good for coating chicken breasts and fish fillets.
• Never reuse oil. Once it has been heated it has oxidized and should be tossed.

Crispy-Like-Fried

For almost fat-free foods that are crispy-like-fried, turn to your oven. First, preheat the oven to 400 degrees (on bake) for vegetables. Cut food into small pieces and coat lightly with oil or batter, then spread on a cooking sheet and pop into your oven.

For chicken breasts and fish fillets, preheat to 375 degrees, then dip into seasoned, fine bread crumbs, then milk, and back into the crumbs for another coating. Bake fish about 10 minutes and chicken about 15. The coating combines with the oven’s heat to turn out food that is crispy, browned and delicious.

And here’s a tasty, and healthier, way to enjoy potato chips: Slice potatoes thinly and evenly, then spritz lightly with olive oil (you can buy olive oil spray cans from Amazon.com for about $20)… and place on a flat pan in one layer. Bake the potatoes in the oven at 400 degrees for about 45 minutes. (If they’re thickly sliced, they’ll need to be turned midway.) Kirby’s insider tip: refrigerate potatoes overnight before you cook them (usually a huge no-no for potatoes) to convert their starch to sugar. This will make them even crispier when oven-fried. Sweet potatoes are also excellent prepared this way (no need to refrigerate the raw sweet potatoes).

Who needs to fry?

Source(s):

Jane Kirby, RD, CD, CCP, author of several cookbooks and books on nutrition and weight loss… former program director of Vtrim, an on-line weight-loss program at the University of Vermont… and founder of Vermont Grain Mills (organic whole grains), Charlotte, Vermont,www.vermontgrainmills.com.

Potato chips can be healthy and something you can continue to enjoy. Want to find out more things you can enjoy while dieting? Come back tomorrow for the next fast weight loss tips that we are bringing you.

If you want to keep your bones healthy as you age, it’s important to be sure that you are getting vitamin D and calcium in adequate amounts. Make sure you read that as both, not one or the other.

Each has important health benefits on its own;  but together these two are like “team health.”  The US Department of Agriculture has just published new research highlighting how important it is to get sufficient calcium and vitamin D.

Calcium + D = Strong Bones

More than 25 million adults (men and women) in the US either already have or are at risk for osteoporosis. It’s common to equate osteoporosis with inadequate calcium, but according to Dr. Rubman, inadequate vitamin D is a far more pervasive threat. Here’s why: When calcium levels fall, the body activates vitamin D consumption. It gets sent to the gut to encourage better calcium absorption and to the kidneys to limit calcium loss in urine. Without enough of it, bones grow thin and brittle.

What You Can Do

This is why getting calcium alone isn’t the answer to bone health. You must also get enough vitamin D. You can get it from a variety of foods: Salmon, tuna, mackerel, fish liver oils, D-fortified foods such as milk, orange juice and breakfast cereals.  And your body can also synthesize it from 10 to 15 minutes of daily sun exposure. But the body’s ability to manufacture vitamin D diminishes with age, and most Americans are short on it.  So Dr. Rubman prescribes up to 2,000 IU daily of vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol) to many patients.

Note: The current government-recommended intake is only 400 IU daily for adults age 51 to 70, but experts agree that this is too low, and there are plans to raise it. In the meantime, Dr. Rubman suggests asking your doctor to test your D3 level to see if you are deficient, especially important for seniors, he notes, as well as all people who may not be spending much time in the sun.

To get enough calcium: The official recommended calcium intake for American adults age 50 and older is 1,200 mg daily.  This is generally sufficient if your body is absorbing it properly. However, insufficient stomach acid due to aging or stress or, worse, the persistent use of acid-blocking medications, can impede this process. A supplement is one option, but perhaps not necessary; most people can get sufficient calcium from dietary sources. Cow’s milk, even though it contains 300 mg of calcium per cup, is not necessarily the best choice since it is tough for many people to digest fully.

Here are some good dietary sources:

-One cup of goat’s milk contains 325 mg of calcium

-1 cup of collard greens 350 mg

-3 ounces of canned salmon 180 mg

-1 cup of boiled black-eyed peas 210 mg.

That’s practically a day’s worth of calcium right there.

Getting sufficient amounts of these vital nutrients isn’t hard, and it is vitally important. When it comes to bone health, calcium and vitamin D need each other to deliver the benefit.  So aim for adequate amounts of both or you will get the benefit of neither.

Source(s):

Andrew L. Rubman, ND, founder and director, Southbury Clinic for Traditional Medicines, Southbury, Connecticut. www.southburyclinic.com.

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Hmmmm, blueberries; in pies, muffins and pancakes, this magic fruit is reminiscent of all kinds of childhood activities.  And based on the latest research on this super-food, it may actually be that eating all those blueberries sharpened my cognitive abilities, making their deliciousness all the more memorable!

Perhaps the connection is not quite so direct, but a recent study reports that blueberries have a profound effect on human brain function. Researchers from the University of Cincinnati Academic Health Center asked nine older adults (mean age 76 years) who were experiencing early-stage memory decline to drink blueberry juice three times a day for 12 weeks. The amount they drank was adjusted for their weight and ranged from about 15 to 20 ounces per day. Results (based on before and after tests) showed that participants’ memory function significantly improved; there was also a slight trend toward reduced depressive symptoms and better blood sugar control.

Antidote to Poor Dietary Habits

When I spoke with study author Robert Krikorian, PhD, he told me that the polyphenols in blueberries may somehow correct abnormalities in our brains that result from our nutritionally weak Western diet. His guess is that if we ate more whole, nutritious food and less artificial and/or processed food, we might not need the brain boost that blueberries give.  But since few people eat as well as they ought to, almost everyone, could, it would appear, benefit from eating blueberries regularly.

An all-natural juice with no additives (the expensive kind you find in quality health-food stores) was used in the study, but Dr. Krikorian told me that you get the same benefits by eating somewhere between a half cup and a cup of whole blueberries each day. Though fresh ones are easy to find at farmer’s markets this time of year, the most nutritious blueberries are actually found in the freezer section of your supermarket, Dr. Krikorian told me.  This is because nutrients get locked in when the berries are frozen at the very height of ripeness.

Dr. Krikorian said that blueberries aren’t the only fruit with memory-boosting polyphenols — they’re also found in other berries, grapes, cranberries, and vegetables including artichokes, parsley and Brussels sprouts.

So indulge in a frozen blueberry treat or a warm, blue muffin while you not only build lasting memories but also preserve your ability to remember them!

Source(s):

Robert Krikorian, PhD, associate professor of clinical psychology, University of Cincinnati Academic Health Center, Ohio.

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It may be that life’s important decisions should come labeled “eat before deciding.” Researchers have discovered a link between the body’s level of blood sugar — essentially, the amount of energy you have at any given moment — and your ability to make wise decisions.

Decision Testing

A team of researchers at the University of South Dakota, led by psychology professor Xiao-Tian Wang, PhD, set out to explore what effect changing blood glucose levels had on decision-making. 65 students were given a list of 14 questions asking them to choose between a pair of monetary rewards — a smaller reward that could be received sooner and a larger reward that the students would have to wait longer to get. One example was, “Would you prefer to receive $120 tomorrow or $450 in 31 days?” To encourage thoughtful and honest responses, participants were told that they would have an opportunity to roll dice at the study’s conclusion for a chance to win one of their actual choices.

Dr. Wang first measured the blood glucose levels of the students, then asked them to answer 7  questions. Next they were given a caffeine-free soda, sweetened either with sugar or with the artificial sweetener aspartame (they didn’t know which), and asked to drink it. Their blood glucose levels were then measured again. Ten minutes later, they were asked the remaining seven questions. Dr. Wang found:

-Students who drank the sugary soda were more likely to choose a larger reward later than to go for the fast cash in lesser amounts. Speaking purely financially, this was the wiser decision because the amounts of the delayed payments were far higher than the payments they could receive immediately.

-Students who drank artificially sweetened soda (which contains no calories and therefore doesn’t provide the body with energy) had the opposite response — they were more likely to choose the “smaller and sooner” monetary rewards.

How Sweet It Is

These results raise an interesting question: Why would a relative lack of energy in your body (in other words, being hungry as evidenced by the lower blood sugar levels) affect decisions you make about money? Dr. Wang offered his best guess:  When we’re hungry, our bodies and minds experience a general feeling of need, which can theoretically lead us to grab for every available resource, whether it’s food or something else. In such situations, patience (which is required to willingly delay a reward now for a larger one later) all but disappears.

Earlier theories set out by other researchers had argued that our society’s overwhelming focus on wealth is an outgrowth of our evolutionary desire for food,  and that both are partially regulated by the amount of glucose in our bodies. Dr. Wang’s hypothesis is that these same evolutionary reasons might explain how caloric energy enables us to be more future-oriented in our decision-making. “The future is more abstract than the present and thus may require more energy to process,” he says. These ideas are interesting, but Dr. Wang cautions that this is basic research, and it’s a leap to arrive at real-world conclusions.

Future research may find applications for treatment of people with impulsive behaviors and disorders, such as addictions or anorexia. In the meantime, since this study demonstrated that even blood glucose fluctuations within a normal range — after drinking just one soda — affect decision making, I’ll make a point to avoid making big decisions on an empty stomach!

Results were published in the February 2010 issue of Psychological Science. Dr. Wang’s coauthor was doctoral student Robert Dvorak.

Source(s):

Xiao-Tian Wang, PhD, professor of psychology, The University of South Dakota, Vermillion.

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Is your body getting all the oxidants you need? Yes, you read that right… this is a bit of advice I bet you haven’t heard before: Our bodies actually require oxidants… and more and more evidence is piling up that overenthusiastic consumption of antioxidant supplements has serious consequences.

Oxidants & Health

It turns out that good health requires hanging onto some oxidants — especially if you exercise regularly. While research had already demonstrated that exercise boosts the body’s level of a type of oxidant called reactive oxygen species (ROS), scientists initially thought it indicated a need for more antioxidants. Researchers at the Cardiorespiratory Exercise Laboratory at Kansas State University (Manhattan) have now learned that some oxidants (hydrogen peroxide, for instance) act as vasodilators (expanding blood vessel walls) to increase delivery of oxygen to muscles — getting rid of them with antioxidants impairs that process. The studies also revealed that a very high level of antioxidants interferes with the natural regulatory systems that help muscles to function properly.

Yet another study, this one done with mice at Monash University in Australia (Melbourne), found that oxidants can help hold back the onset of type 2 diabetes. They help prevent insulin resistance, a hallmark of impending diabetes, by improving the body’s ability to respond appropriately to insulin signals. The mice given antioxidants developed diabetes at higher rates than the control group even though their high-fat diets were otherwise the same.

And a third study, a very early one from Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute in Los Angeles, finds that high doses of antioxidant supplements may boost cancer risk. More research is needed on this preliminary finding, and it doesn’t pinpoint the level that may be dangerous, but even so it is yet more evidence that it’s possible to overdo antioxidant supplementation.

Oxidants for Good Health

Oxidants definitely have health benefits. Daily Health News contributing medical editor Andrew L. Rubman, ND, told me about some of the important functions they help fulfill…

• Oxidants help fight cancer. They weaken cell membranes to facilitate the natural destruction and turnover of tissue cells (apoptosis), including pre-cancerous tissue.
• Oxidants are important to heart health. Blood vessels need oxidants for proper function — in fact, patients with heart disease are prescribed the oxidant nitric oxide (in the form of nitroglycerin), which relieves angina by expanding cardiac arteries.
• Oxidants facilitate sexual satisfaction. When people are sexually aroused, oxidants expand appropriate blood vessels to allow for engorgement — it’s actually the mechanism responsible for making erectile dysfunction drugs work.

A Matter of Balance

It almost sounds as if oxidants are our new best friends, but Dr. Rubman stresses that balance between oxidants and antioxidants is what’s important — he describes it as “a dance between the two.”

The reality of the way most of us eat (lots of oxidants) combined with environmental challenges (such as pesticides, petrochemicals and plastics) means that most Americans are already skewed in the direction of oxidants, Dr. Rubman said. The best way to achieve and maintain appropriate balance is to eat plenty of whole foods that provide your body not only with the nutrients it needs, but also the enzymes and cofactors that optimize their absorption. If you aren’t sure your diet accomplishes that, antioxidant supplements may then be in order.

How to tell? Blood tests aren’t a great measure, as they fluctuate day to day, and you can’t always tell by how you feel, either. Dr. Rubman said a far better measure is to consider how your body copes with challenges. For instance, if you suffer from a mild seasonal allergy to pollen, high levels may bring congestion, but if you are “in balance” you should bounce back quickly without becoming stuffed-up and sick. Similarly, you may notice that your gym workouts aren’t achieving the results you’d expect — you’re not building muscle commensurate with the effort you are exerting. These subtle signs may be clues your system is overloaded with antioxidants — if you suspect that you have this problem, get advice from a doctor trained in the nuances of nutrition. He/she can help figure out how to achieve the right balance.

Meanwhile, I imagine we’ll be hearing more on this important topic in months and years to come — I’ll provide updates as they arise.

Source(s):

Andrew L. Rubman, ND, medical director, Southbury Clinic for Traditional Medicines, Southbury, Connecticut. www.naturopath.org.

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There’s no shortage of research affirming the benefit of omega-3 fatty acids… but until now it hasn’t been all that easy to learn whether you get enough from your diet or should buy the supplements. It’s not a casual question — high-quality fish oil comes with a wince-worthy price tag, and it may be one supplement you can afford to do without if you are an enthusiastic eater of cold-water fish, walnuts or any of the many other foods that are rich in this vitally important nutrient.

So I was intrigued to learn that there is now a home-test kit you can use to determine whether you have sufficient blood levels of these fabulous fats. Called the “HS-Omega-3 Index” blood test, it measures blood levels of the two heart-healthy fats found in fish, EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) and DHA (docosahexaenoic acid).

How the Test Works

I did the home test and found that it was actually very easy. All it requires is a quick swab of your fingertip with the enclosed alcohol wipe and then a prick (it didn’t hurt) with the lancet. You have to allow blood to collect on your fingertip until there’s enough to fall as a drop onto the square of blotting paper, and then you send this paper to the lab in the enclosed postage-paid return mailer that you can drop right in a mailbox. It took less than five minutes to prepare my sample, and in less than two weeks, I received my results via e-mail in a special password-protected account.

I spoke with William Harris, PhD, founder of OmegaQuant, LLC, the company that produces the test I tried. He told me that the company’s goal is to provide a standard for assessing omega-3 blood levels because “this is a risk factor you can do something about and, though people are increasingly aware of the need for omega-3 fatty acids, few know what their omega-3 level actually is,” he said. Dr. Harris is director of the Cardiovascular Health Research Center at Sanford Research/USD in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and is a research professor of medicine at the Sanford School of Medicine.

Is It Worth The Price?

How did I do? On a scale of “undesirable” (4% or less)… through “intermediate” (6%)… to “desirable” (8% or more), my result was a very satisfying 13.1%. This measure reflects the percentage of EPA and DHA fatty acids in my red blood cells — and it’s not altogether surprising that my score was excellent, since I supplement with two teaspoons of fish oil daily.

I do have some concerns about this test kit and other products like it, however. For one thing, Dr. Harris acknowledged that it’s not yet known exactly how much EPA+DHA any particular person should take to achieve the desirable target. At $200, the home-test kit doesn’t come cheap, but Dr. Harris told me that since medical professionals pay a wholesale price, you may be able to get the test done for less by your doctor or at a lab with your doctor’s prescription. However, because the standards of measurement have yet to be clinically validated, it’s unlikely to be covered by your health insurer.

So is this money worth spending? If the decision whether to have this test comes down to dollars and cents, I am not sure it adds up. On the other hand, if it shows that you are in serious need of supplementation and it gets you focused on that, it may turn out to be invaluable.

Source(s):

William S. Harris, PhD, research professor of medicine at the Sanford School of Medicine at the University of South Dakota, Sioux Falls. www.omegaquant.com.

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As though anyone needs an excuse to indulge in a cool, juicy slice of melon on a hot summer day, these popular fruits — including watermelon, cantaloupe, honeydew and casaba melons — are a rich source of potassium and a host of other nutrients as well. Refreshing and delicious, they also are a healthy, natural way to help lower your blood pressure, notes Lona Sandon, MEd, RD, LD, an assistant professor at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, Texas, and a national spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association (http://www.eatright.org).

Shake Off Blood Pressure Worries

If you have salt-sensitive high blood pressure, you probably know already that you should watch your sodium intake. Too much salt — both from the salt shaker and from processed foods — causes fluid retention and blood vessel contraction that contribute to hypertension. What you may not know is that potassium also plays an important role in this equation. A study published last year in the Archives of Internal Medicine noted that people with a low sodium-to-potassium ratio — that is, those who made a point of both consuming less salt and eating more potassium-rich fresh produce than is typical for the American diet — were less likely to experience high blood pressure. Because it is a vasodilator and helps get rid of sodium and water, potassium helps curb fluid retention and blood vessel contraction.

According to the American Heart Association, the recommended daily intake of potassium for adults is 4,700 milligrams. Many people don’t normally consume this much potassium, but melons provide a tasty solution. Two cups of cubed melon contain more than 1,000 mg of potassium, or nearly one-fourth of your daily requirement.

Other rich dietary sources of this mineral include apricots, artichokes, avocados, bananas, beans, kiwis, oranges, peas, potatoes, prunes, raisins, tomatoes, spinach, Swiss chard and other green leafy vegetables.

Melon at Every Meal?

Melons are much more versatile than most people realize, and you can easily incorporate them into a wide variety of dishes. Instead of reserving them for breakfast or a snack, take advantage of the season’s bounty and put melons on your family’s summer menu of soups, salads and salsas…

Melon soup: Puree chunks of ripe honeydew and cantaloupe with orange juice and chill.

Luscious melon salad: Combine small chunks of your favorite melon with raspberries, strawberries or orange sections and drizzle with honey and lime or lemon juice.

Fish or chicken with melon: Serve the grilled or broiled meats on a bed of diced ripe melon. Or make a melon salsa to accompany the main dish — combine finely diced honeydew and cantaloupe, diced tomatoes, minced red onion, orange juice, lime juice, cilantro and salt.

Grilled melon: Cube honeydew, and toss in lemon juice, brown sugar and ginger. Thread onto skewers and grill for three to four minutes or until slightly soft and beginning to brown.

Note: Potassium affects the balance of fluids in the body, so too much can be a problem for older people and those with heart or kidney disease. If you take a diuretic drug or have issues with fluid retention, talk to your doctor before adding significant amounts of melon to your diet.

Source(s):

Lona Sandon, MEd, RD, LD, assistant professor, department of clinical nutrition, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas. Sandon is a National Spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association. www.eatright.org.

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Recently, scientists proudly announced their creation of an index to rank how particular foods encourage or discourage inflammation — a well-known contributor to chronic health conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, cancer and dementia. This is great in theory, but scientists being scientists, it’s all obscure algorithms and formulas — hardly a useful list to take to the grocery store. So I asked contributing medical editor and nutrition expert Andrew L. Rubman, ND, to give us his easy-to-follow list of foods that reduce inflammation — making us healthier — along with the most inflammatory foods that should be avoided. But first, the latest findings by researchers…

How Do Foods Spark Inflammation?

Philip P. Cavicchia, MSPH, a PhD student in the department of epidemiology at the Norman J. Arnold School of Public Health at the University of South Carolina, helped design this new inflammatory index. He and his colleagues scored 41 foods and food components thought to positively or negatively affect levels of inflammation, based on a review of all the English language, peer-reviewed studies relating to diet and inflammation that were published between 1950 and 2007.

Carbohydrates, fat and cholesterol were among the food components most likely to encourage inflammation, while magnesium, beta-carotene, vitamins A, B-6, C, D and E, fiber, omega-3 fatty acids, flavonoids, turmeric and tea were the strongest anti-inflammatories.

Next, using data from the Seasonal Variation of Cholesterol Levels Study (SEASONS), they examined the records of 494 men and women (average age 48), looking specifically at the relationship between the inflammatory index (what they ate) and their blood levels of C-reactive protein (typically called CRP). Manufactured by the liver, CRP predicts vulnerability to inflammation and is also elevated in people with obesity, allergies and immune disorders — a lower CRP is thought to translate to reduced risk for heart disease, cancer and other inflammation-related chronic health conditions.

After factoring in variables such as age, weight and smoking status, Cavicchia and his team found that there is indeed a relationship between an anti-inflammatory diet based on the inflammatory index and a reduced level of CRP.

These findings appeared in the December 2009 issue of The Journal of Nutrition.

Now, here are Dr. Rubman’s picks of the best and worst foods if you want to reduce inflammation in your body…

10 Best Anti-Inflammatory Foods

• Wild salmon, mackerel and other omega-3-fatty-acid-rich fish.
• Berries.
• Green, leafy vegetables (e.g., spinach and kale).
• Cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, etc.).
• Deeply pigmented produce, such as sweet potatoes, eggplant and pomegranate… along with carrots, plums, oranges, peppers, peas and red grapes.
• Nuts.
• Whole grains.
• Tea — specifically black, green and white teas.
• Cold-pressed fresh oils, including avocado, flaxseed and olive oils in particular.
• Spices (specifically, garlic, ginger, turmeric, saffron).

10 Worst Inflammatory Foods

• Desserts made with lots of sugar (cookies, candy, ice cream and so on).
• Sweetened cereals.
• “White” carbohydrates (white bread, white rice, white potatoes, English muffins, etc.).
• Non-diet soft drinks.
• Anything containing high-fructose corn syrup.
• Processed meats (bologna, salami, hotdogs, sausage and others made with preservatives and additives).
• French fries, potato chips and other fried snack foods.
• Fast foods, most specifically the ones that are high-fat, high-calorie, high simple carbohydrate — which describes most of the inexpensive offerings at quick-serve restaurants.
• Margarine, because it contains processed sterols called stanols that have been implicated in both atherosclerosis and various fatty-deposit diseases.
• Organ meats such as liver, because these often contain undesirable products including antibiotics, fertilizer and other unwanted residues.

How to Feel Better Fast

While on the topic, Dr. Rubman urged me to add one more bit of information to this “highly inflammatory” list. “It should also include almost any food eaten quickly, especially if you drink a lot of liquid while eating,” he said, noting that this is all the more true for people who then end up soothing their predictable digestive distress by taking anti-heartburn medication. His advice is to eat slowly… chew thoroughly… avoid liquids during a meal so that you don’t dilute the stomach acid and reduce its ability to help digest food… and include items from the “best” list in every meal, every day, while eliminating those from the “worst” list or at least reserving them for an occasional treat. “Within weeks, you will decrease your risk for disease, improve your digestion, enjoy more energy and feel better overall,” he promised.

Source(s):

Philip P. Cavicchia, MSPH, student in the department of epidemiology, Norman J. Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina.

Andrew L. Rubman, ND, director, Southbury Clinic for Traditional Medicines, Southbury, Connecticut. www.southburyclinic.com.

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“You are what you eat” has been a catch phrase since I was a child… but new research from Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City suggests it’s not only what you eat but how hot you cook it that matters. Subjecting certain foods to prolonged high heat — not only for frying, but also for grilling, roasting, broiling or baking — creates toxic, inflammatory particles. These, in turn, cause the oxidation and inflammation in the body that are associated with such diseases as diabetes, heart disease, kidney disease, Alzheimer’s disease and others.

Called advanced glycation end products (AGEs), these toxic particles adhere to the arteries, kidneys, brain and joints, where they heighten inflammation. Our typical Western diet, heavy on meat and processed foods and light on plant-based foods, is believed by many scientists to contain at least three times more AGEs than is considered safe.

Good News from This Study

It’s always exciting when research reveals a way to avoid a common health problem — and this new study does just that. According to the researchers, you can achieve dramatic and quick benefit — within just days — by reducing your intake of AGE-containing foods. Doing this decreases the body’s level of inflammation and helps restore its defenses against disease.

The study divided 350-plus participants into three groups — healthy adults between the ages of 18 and 45… an older healthy group, all past age 60… and nine patients with chronic kidney disease (the kidneys are believed to be especially sensitive to AGEs). Participants were randomly assigned to eat either a regular Western diet in which foods were grilled, fried or baked (in other words, loaded with AGEs) or what the researchers called “the AGE-less diet,” which included the same foods, only poached, boiled or steamed so that they contained only about half as many AGEs. The two diets were similar in calories and nutrients. After four months, all participants on the AGE-less diet showed a 60% decline in blood levels of AGEs as well as in several other inflammation markers. According to the study’s lead author, Helen Vlassara, MD, professor and director of the division of experimental diabetes and aging at Mount Sinai, this indicates that your actual chronological age may not be as significant a factor in aging and health as the AGEs in your food. A finding that’s even more impressive: The patients with kidney disease had a similarly substantial reduction after just one month on the AGE-less diet.

The Heat is On…

I asked Dr. Vlassara to explain to me how the AGEs get into foods. They develop as a chemical reaction when heat is combined with protein and different sugars, she said — and she noted that meat-rich diets are especially bad, since meats contain high levels of easily oxidizable fat and protein.

There is a third point that is crucial to understand — which is that removing all visible fat when you cook meats doesn’t solve the problem. All cells in meats contain not only fat and proteins, but also sugars — some more reactive than others. Therefore, exposure to high heat will still cause AGEs to form in meat at much higher levels than in starch even if you cut away the visible fat. In fact, Dr. Vlassara told me that when you see meat brown while cooking, what you’re witnessing is the rapid reaction among proteins, fats and those reactive sugars to the heat. And, since they are also animal products, when they are cooked, full-fat milk and cheese also develop high levels of AGEs.

Even worse, manufacturers often add AGE-containing flavor-enhancers or coloring (such as caramel) to processed and packaged foods. You may be surprised to learn that a major offender in this category is dark-colored soda. Generally speaking, fast foods and processed/packaged foods also tend to be high in AGEs, which gives us yet another reason to avoid them.

Avoiding AGEs

The good news is, it’s not all that difficult to reduce the amount of AGEs in your diet, Dr. Vlassara said. It just requires making some modest changes in the way you prepare food. Her suggestions…

Meats

• Marinate in an acid-based mixture (such as vinegar or lemon juice) before cooking, which helps reduce the amount of AGEs produced by heat. Note: Avoid marinades containing sugar, such as most barbecue and teriyaki sauces.
• Aim to serve meats rare to medium rare if possible — for instance, cooking pork to just beyond pink. This is admittedly a balancing act — you want to cook as briefly as possible to minimize development of AGEs, but undercooking carries its own set of dangers.
• To achieve a brown finish to meats, Dr. Vlassara suggests cooking on your stovetop with a cover to conserve moisture, and then placing the meat under the broiler for just a few minutes at the end.
• Use as little fat as possible — as Dr. Vlassara points out, even healthy olive oil oxidizes at high heat.
• Water inhibits the formation of AGEs, so poaching, stewing, steaming or even boiling proteins is best (including fish and eggs).

Dairy and Other Foods

• Avoid bringing dairy products to high temperatures — for instance, when using milk in sauces or when melting cheese under a broiler. Dr. Vlassara said the less time these foods cook, the better. She added that lower temperatures are preferable, as is increased distance from the heat source.
• Brief microwaving produces a lower level of AGEs than broiling, grilling or stovetop cooking, so this is a great way to cook liquids.
• Plant-based proteins also create dangerous levels of AGEs when subject to very high heat for long periods — so be aware that there are dangers to even seemingly healthy foods like broiled tofu or roasted nuts.

What About Restaurant Food?

Fortunately, the increasingly popular Mediterranean Diet uses lots of foods with low AGEs (including fruits, vegetables, beans and whole grains), so it once again ranks among the healthiest ways that you can eat. This not only provides a good framework for eating at home, it also suggests a wide variety of delicious, healthful, low-AGE dishes that you can order in restaurants. But Dr. Vlassara noted that cooking even these foods at high heat with low hydration is problematic, so there’s no way around it — cooking at high temperatures is not so hot for your health.

Source(s):

Helen Vlassara, MD, is professor of geriatrics, medicine and molecular medicine, director, division of experimental diabetes and aging, department of geriatric and palliative medicine, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York City.

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