Healthy Food & Healthy Living by Dr. Ayala

Delicious, nutritious Halloween rice

It is the season for black and orange, and I can’t resist this occasion for sharing with you my favorite rice: black rice. Oh, how I love this dark, fragrant whole grain. In this dish I combine black rice with orange butternut squash. Orange is the color that epitomizes harvest and fall, and black and orange do work wonders on the eye.

Halloween is just around the corner. Try this dish for the pre-Halloween dinner. In my home we eat dinner before trick-or-treat. Sadly enough, my kids don’t take me along anymore; I stay home and clear the dishes. My junk-on-Halloween philosophy is eat-whatever-you-want on October 31st but Halloween is just one day. We used to picnic on a cushy pile of leaves under our favorite tree at the end of the evening, picking out the best of the loot. The rest – I feel a little uncomfortable admitting this – we threw away. I think that eating a sack full of candy for weeks to come is a bit much, and I try not to have junk-a-plenty at home. And while I hate throwing away things, especially food, in the case of Halloween candy I’d feel worse giving it away: If I don’t want it for my own kids I don’t want to give it to the kids of others.

Back to black rice. Black rice is rice variant with a deep dark purple-black outer bran layer. The dark color is due to antioxidants known as anthocyanins, which are also found in blueberries, acai and grapes. I don’t much care for the antioxidant wars between the so-called super-foods, but I think the take home message is simple: Black rice is a good addition to your diet. Black rice is a good source of protein, minerals (including iron) and fiber, much like brown rice. The anthyocyanins are a nutritional bonus.

But even forgetting the nutritional benefits, black rice’s taste is reason enough to fall in love with it. It has a nutty aroma that fills the house, a full bodied fruity/nutty taste, and a really nice texture. Compared to it, white rice is plain and boring. And mind you, I think there is some terrific tasting brown rice, but not all whole rice tastes great to me, so if you’ve tried switching from white to brown and found the rice-bowl rejected, please don’t give up, there are many varieties to try.

I find my black rice at Whole Foods, which sells Lotus Foods’ black rice in small packages branded “Forbidden Rice”. Why forbidden? Legend has it that this rice was originally considered the Emperor's rice and was forbidden for anyone else.

This is a really easy recipe. The hardest part is cutting the butternut squash – you’ll need a sharp knife and determination. Black rice cooks in 30 minutes – pretty fast.

Here goes:

Black rice

Ingredients

• 2 cups black rice
• 1-2 tablespoons canola oil
• 1 large onion, diced
• 1 teaspoon salt or to taste
• 2 and ¼ cups water (this does not conform to the package instructions. I find that using less water results in better flavor and texture)
• Optional: chopped fresh parsley or cilantro.

Preparation

• Rinse rice in a strainer under cold running water for 30 seconds.
• Heat the oil in a medium pot, over medium-high heat.
• Stir in the onion and sauté until golden.
• Stir in rice and toss around until coated with oil and fragrant.
• Add salt and water and bring to a boil.
• Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 30 minutes. By the time the water is absorbed the rice should be done.
• Garnish with freshly chopped parsley or cilantro and serve hot.

Roasted butternut squash

Ingredients

• 1 medium butternut squash, seeded and diced to 1/2’’ cubes
• 1 tablespoon maple syrup
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• Salt and pepper
• Optional: chopped sage.

Preparation

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
• Toss butternut squash cubes with the rest of the ingredients.
• Spread the cubes out on a baking sheet and roast in the oven until they are tender and slightly caramelized. This will take 25-35 minutes.

Finishing touches

You can combine the rice and butternut squash, or (my preference) serve them in a large platter where the rice creates the outer circle, and the squash is placed in the center. I like this presentation visually, and it also allows each diner to choose how much of each of the platter components he wants to eat.

Happy Halloween,
Dr. Ayala

Reposted as part of Food Renegate's Fight Back Fridays--go join the food fight!

Mediterranean Diet Cuts Disease Risk

Pleasure, practicality and healthfulness—the Mediterranean diet is one of these recipes for a good life that has it all.

A new, updated meta-analysis combined the findings of many prospective studies, pooling more than 2 million people, and looked to see whether sticking to a Mediterranean diet was associated with protection from chronic diseases and a longer, healthier life.

The answer is a resounding yes! Adherence to a Mediterranean eating style seems to offer significant defense from heart disease and cancer and to improve overall health. And there’s more.

Mediterranean style diet, what is it and how do we measure adherence to it?

The Mediterranean diet isn’t really a specific diet, but more of an eating style, traditionally followed by the people living in the countries that border the Mediterranean Sea. The eating pattern is characterized by high consumption of fruit, vegetables, herbs, spices, legumes and complex carbohydrates, moderate consumption of fish, olive oil as the main fat source, low to moderate consumption of red wine during meals, and low consumption of meat and full fat dairy.

How can sticking to a Mediterranean diet be quantified? There are several well-established scoring methods that compare a person's diet to the traditional Mediterranean dietary pattern. Basically, you get a score of zero for each component of the Mediterranean diet you don’t meet the cutoff for, and a 1 for each one you do. Maximum score is 9, and you get no points for having a Greek mother.

The Mediterranean diet’s promise of good health expands

The study, to be published in the November print edition of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition and led by Francesco Sofi, collected all relevant prospective studies that looked at the association between the Mediterranean diet and health, including 7 new studies that appeared in the last 2 years.

The researchers found that a mere 2 point increase in adherence to a Mediterranean diet was associated with these beneficial health outcomes:

• 8 percent reduction in death
• 10 percent reduction in cardiovascular illness and cardiac death
• 6 percent reduction in cancer
• 13 percent reduction in neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s

The newer studies in the meta-analysis showed that the Mediterranean diet also seems to offer some protection from stroke and mild cognitive losses.

A 2 point increase, as explained above, amounts to pretty minor lifestyle change, akin to eating a good amount of fruits and some nuts – clearly doable.

Should we care?

I’m not holding my breath for the final verdict on the calorie restriction diet’s promise to prolong life. I wouldn’t consider adopting it no matter what. I, for one, wouldn’t sacrifice everyday joy on a regular basis for a presumptive longer life.

But the Mediterranean eating pattern is one that’s been the lifestyle of choice of some of the most food-loving hedonistic people in the world. It’s no good-for-you-bad-for-your-palate misery. And I think it’s also best viewed as a pattern, a total plan, and adopted as one. There’s no point in trying to tease out which part of the eating pattern confers the most benefit or in frying chicken nuggets in extra virgin olive oil. The pattern works as a whole; all parts of it are probably beneficial, and it very well might be that they work in conjunction with each other.

I thank OldWays for allowing me the use of their illustrative Mediterranean diet pyramid. Head over to their website. It offers a wealth of recipes, resources and motivation for anyone looking to go Med.

Dr. Ayala

Related post: Nutrition and Cancer
Reposted as part of Food Renegate's Fight Back Fridays--go join the food fight!

Sleep Yourself Thin?

“A good laugh and a long sleep are the best cures in the doctor's book.” ~Irish Proverb

Eat fewer calories and exercise more – that’s the age old recipe for weight-loss – the rest is gimmicks. But a new study suggests that we should perhaps add one more element to the regime: Get a good night’s sleep.

Sleep is one of the central pillars of good health. Sleep is absolutely critical to keeping us sane and happy. Yet we don’t give sleep as much respect as it deserves.

Several studies have shown a link between obesity and lack of sleep, but the association by itself doesn’t give much of a clue as to which came first and doesn’t prove causality. Obesity can cause sleep problems (the most serious of which is obstructive sleep apnea). Being awake at night can increase appetite and night-time-snacking (which usually isn’t green salad), and sleep deprivation can lead to poor food choices and inactivity.

But this new study in the Annals of Internal Medicine isolated the effect of sleep quite nicely; it looked at overweight adults on a weight-loss diet, and showed that all other things being equal, lack of sleep hindered the dieter's ability to shed excess body fat.

The study recruited ten overweight healthy adults who were fed a moderate calorie-restricted diet. Dieters were randomly assigned to sleep either 5.5 hours or 8.5 hours each night, for two weeks on each regimen, in a closed clinical research environment. The researchers measured weight, but also measured body fat directly (using dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry or DXA), so they could calculate how much of the weight-loss was loss of fat, and how much of it was lean tissue or muscle loss. The results in this small group were quite clear:

• Overall weight loss was similar whether the dieters slept 5.5 hours or 8.5 hours

• Sleep restriction resulted in more loss of muscle and less loss of fat: More than half the weight lost during the 8.5 hours sleep condition was fat, compared to just one quarter in the 5.5 hour sleep condition.

• During the two weeks of sleep restriction, dieters felt hungrier

Can a good night's sleep help preserve muscle during weight-loss?

When we ingest fewer calories than we expend – which is what happens on a weight-loss diet – the body goes looking for energy stores, and will break down both fat and protein to make sugars for energy.

The goal of any diet is to lose fat, not muscle. Not only do we like our muscle’s look and strength, muscles are active metabolically and burn energy, and loss of muscle during weight-loss diets is part of the reason people who've lost weight are so prone to regain it, and actually need to consume fewer calories just to keep their new weight stable. Preserving muscle is one of the reasons there’s such an emphasis on exercise during a weight-loss diet – working those muscles and building them is protection from dwindling muscle mass and slow metabolism. (For the sake of preserving muscle-bulk it’s also a good idea to avoid extremely low-calorie and nutritionally unbalanced weight-loss regimens.)

So a regime that protects muscle and leads to more fat-loss is very valuable. But don’t get excited just yet: This study involved only ten healthy participants, studied for a short while. But if results are confirmed by other studies this finding could be very important.

How could sleep affect fat loss? The researchers measured the levels of the hormone ghrelin and found that when dieters where on the sleep deprivation regimen ghrelin levels rose. Ghrelin, they reason, has been shown to signal hunger, reduce energy expenditure, hinder the breakdown of fat and increase the liver’s production of sugar. In this calorie deprived state of high ghrelin, the liver needs to make sugar while fat stores aren’t really open for providing building blocks, so it will break down muscle to fill the demand. There are, of course, many other possible ways in which lack of sleep may hamper fat-loss: fatigue may cause a dieter to be less active, and move less, for example.

Sleep isn’t a waste of time

Sleep is precious. Sleep isn’t always easy to get. Some people suffer from insomnia. Some work night shifts. Some have babies that make life look like a
night shift. But for those of us for whom going to bed late is just a habit, I think it’s time to rethink sleep. I used to turn in after midnight – for no particular reason – it made me feel that there are bonus hours to my day. When I moved to the street I live on now I was surprised to see that most homes were dark by 10:30pm. I asked my neighbors what the lights-out was all about; they were astonished by the question. The thought of going to sleep at 10:30 never occurred to me, but I gave it a try, and was absolutely shocked by what a difference it made to my general well-being.

If you’re sleep deprived give sleep a try. Adequate sleep is underappreciated, and I believe it to be one of the most important ways to achieve optimal health. I’ll be curious to see if further studies confirm sleep’s role in fat-loss.

Dr. Ayala

Related posts:
Three healthy habits to fight childhood obesity
The recipe for a long and healthy life

*As of next week I’ll be posting regularly on Wednesdays instead of Mondays.

Reposted as part of Food Renegate's Fight Back Fridays--go join the food fight!

Reply to a young reader: Is fast-food evil?

I read every email and every comment I get from you, dear readers, but I can only wish I could reply to each and every one of them. Many times I have nothing clever to add to the conversation beyond what’s already in the post and in the comments, and quite frankly, I just have a hard time keeping up.

But I do hope I never miss a chance to reply to young readers who want to know more about nutrition.

A middle-school student from California recently asked me for an email interview about fast-food (I'm not sharing her name to protect her privacy). I thought her questions (and my replies) are worth sharing.

Q. In your opinion, what fast food restaurant would you say is the least healthy? Please Explain.

A. All fast food restaurants serve highly processed foods, and serve food that is high in calories, high in fat (especially worrisome are the trans-fats) high in sugar and salt, and low in fruits and vegetables (French fries are not a vegetable). It would be unwise for me to pick one chain over another. I suggest we eat fast-food only rarely. By rarely I mean once a month or less.

Q. What would you think is the least healthy food out of all the fast foods? Please Explain.

A. Soda and other sugary drinks.
Soda has nothing in it that we need (we definitely don’t need more sugar and corn syrup), and there are many studies that show that our body doesn’t count the calories in these sugary drinks. These drinks are just extra calories. It very well may me that soda makes us eat even more.

Fast-food restaurants have the biggest profit margin on soda—that’s why they make them so attractive in pricing, super-sizes and refills. But if you ask for the free water instead you’d be shaving 210 calories (the calorie content of a medium soda) from the fast food meal.

The average American kid drinks 300 empty calories in soda and sugary drinks—this is the first thing I'd suggest to change in our diet.

Q. Where do you think the fast food industry will be in 30 or 50 years?

A. I hope we’ll wizen up, and consumer’s rejection will lead to shrinkage in the fast-food industry.

I hope fast-food will go back to what it was 30 years ago, and people will go back to cooking most of their meals and eating real food.

That’s my hope. For now, fast-food is still growing, and its expansion is unfortunately especially robust in lower income neighborhoods and in places like China, India and South America.

Q. Do you think there are any healthy choices in any fast food restaurants? If So, Please explain.

A. I think fast-food is trying to offer a few better options. Laws forcing fast-food chains to post calories on menu boards in some cities have also led to the introduction of lower calorie options and smaller portions. Many fast-food restaurants now offer salad, and if you don’t add fried meats and lots of dressing to them that is a healthier option.

Q. Are you worried about the consumer’s weight and what will happen to them if they have fast food a lot? Please Explain.

A. Absolutely. A third of American kids are overweight or obese, as are two-thirds of adults.
Studies have shown that eating fast-food frequently is associated with obesity and diabetes.

Q. Instead of people eating fast food, what do you think they should be eating?

A. We should be eating mostly simple meals prepared at home. The emphasis should be on eating more plants: more fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. We should try to eat less processed food.

Q. What do you think is the worst part of fast food? [i.e. calorie and fat intake, how clean their restaurant is, etc.]

A. I think you’ll be surprised by my answer; there are so many things I don’t like about fast-food, but the worst thing for me is that it’s so cheap.

For as long as fast-food is cheaper than making a simple, healthy meal at home, it will be very hard to get even motivated people to find the ingredients and the time to do so regularly.

Fast-food is cheap in the short term but very expensive in the long run—obesity and diabetes cost a fortune.

Q. How many calories should people be having each day? Does fast food take over that number?

A. The number of calories we need changes by body size and build, gender and by levels of physical activity. In the case of kids, growth also needs to be accounted for and requires extra calories.

An adult woman is estimated to need 1800-2200 calories a day.
An adult male is estimated to need 2200-2800 calories a day.

Young kids need fewer calories, as their bodies are smaller. Rapidly growing adolescents need more.

If we take a moderately active average height and weight 12 year-old, a rough estimate of her daily calorie requirement is 1600-1800 calories.

A kids’ hamburger-and-fries happy meal at McDonald averages more than 600 calories. Do 12 year-olds go for the happy meal? I think they don’t.
The Big Mac Combo with medium fries and medium soda has a total 1250 calories.

You can see that even with the kid size happy meal eating too many calories is really easy: there are 3 meals a day, and a few small meals in between.

The calorie information of fast-food menu items is available online. Take a look at the meals and I think you’ll see why pediatricians and nutritionists see these meals as having too many calories.

Q. Would you really believe that McDonalds is the worst fast food restaurant according to what others are saying?

A. I’d hate to single out one fast-food chain over another. Perhaps because McDonald’s is so successful and they market and advertize so heavily they get more criticism. McDonald’s by far in the lead in advertizing and marketing to kids. It is said that most kids can recognize McDonald's before they know how to speak.

I think that the practical approach is to see all fast-food as something we should be eating less of.

Q. If you were stranded on an island with only fast food restaurants and you needed something to eat or you would pass out, what fast food restaurant would you choose?

A. I’d go to the nearest one and revive myself.
I’d then set out to change the food landscape of that island and make it so that there’s real food for its inhabitants.

Dr. Ayala

Reposted as part of Food Renegate's Fight Back Fridays--go join the food fight!