Healthy Food & Healthy Living by Dr. Ayala

Roasted root vegetable soup for a chilly fall day

 

Halloween is all about indulgence -- even overindulgence -- but before my kids head out into candyland, we'll sit down for a wholesome dinner, and since the evenings are brisk this time of year, soup's on the menu.

Root vegetables become magical when they meet the high heat of the oven. They develop caramelized and mellow flavors, and get so much richer. 

Ingredients:

• 2 sweet potatoes, diced
• 4 potatoes, diced
• 5 carrots, diced
• 2 parsnips, diced
• 3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
• 1 tablespoon honey (optional)
• 1 large yellow onion, diced
• 8 cups vegetable stock
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1 teaspoon dried dill
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1 cup pearled barley
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 cup parsley, finely chopped

Preparation:

• Preheat oven to 400°F (200°C)
• In a large baking sheet, toss sweet potatoes, potatoes, carrots and parsnips with 2 tablespoons olive oil, honey, and some salt and pepper
• Bake for 30-40 minutes, stirring the veggies occasionally, until the vegetables are soft but still chewy and slightly caramelized
• In a large pot, over high heat sauté the onion and the 1 tablespoon of olive oil until golden
• Add the roasted vegetables, vegetable stock, paprika, dill, tomato paste, pearled barley and some salt and pepper, cover the pot, and bring to a boil
• Reduce heat to a simmer and continue cooking until the barley is soft (about 20-30 minutes)
• Add the parsley and correct seasoning

This soup is now ready to serve, but will taste even better the day after, and will keep in the fridge for 5 days.

Yield: serves many (10-12 easy).

Enjoy,

Dr. Ayala

Roasted acorn squash bowls with quinoa

I love winter squashes, not just for their flavor, but also for how pretty they are, and for how announce ‘it’s fall!’ with their very orange being. Acorn squash is great roasted. On the other hand, it’s one of the hardest squashes to peel. In this recipe I avoid peeling altogether, roast these darlings whole, and then mix their softened flesh with quinoa. You’ll get a wow for the presentation, and you don’t have to admit that this is actually the lazy way to use these squashes – keep how easy this is a secret.

Ingredients:

For roasted squash:

• 6 acorn squash
• 1 teaspoon brown sugar
• Salt to taste

For quinoa:

• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1 large onion, finely diced
• 1 cup quinoa, rinsed well in a mesh strainer
• 2 cups vegetable broth
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
• Truffle oil for drizzling (can be replaced by toasted sesame, roasted walnut or olive oil)
• Slivered almonds for garnish 

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 400°F

Cut the top of the squash, about ½ inch from the top

Scoop and discard the seeds

Sprinkle the squash bowls with a few grains of sugar and salt

Place on baking sheet with open side up (don’t worry if the squash wobbles – once baked it’ll be much more stable), turn the squashes to face down halfway through the baking

Roast until tender and slightly caramelized, about 1 hour

 

While the squash is baking, prepare the quinoa.

 

In a medium pot, on medium-high heat sauté olive oil and onions until soft and golden

Add quinoa, and dry toast until fragrant

Add broth, salt and pepper, and bring to a boil

Reduce heat to a simmer, cover the pot, and cook until the liquid is absorbed and quinoa is slightly translucent -- about 15 minutes – and remove from heat

Let rest for 5 minutes, fluff with fork, add parsley, and correct seasoning

To combine:

For each bowl: scoop some of the squash flesh away, making sure you don’t damage the skin, add cooked quinoa and mix. Drizzle with some truffle or other aromatic oil. Garnish with a few slivered almonds.

Serves 6

Enjoy,

Dr. Ayala

 

 

Do star athletes eat the junk they endorse?

What do star athletes eat? I’d bet they view their bodies as a temple and treat it with great care.

Yet for the right price role models of health and fitness will recommend junk food. 

A new study in Pediatrics shows the extent and reach of athlete-endorsed junk food. The study looked at the 2010 Bloomberg Newsweek 100, a list that ranks top athletes on the basis of prominence in their sport and the earning potential of their endorsement contracts. The researchers, led by Marie Bragg, then generated a list of the brands these athletes endorsed, and sorted the brands to 11 categories, including food and beverage, automotive, finance, airlines etc. 

Best endorsers for worst foods

Of the 512 brand endorsements, 122 were for food and beverage, and these made up about 24 percent of all the deals. LeBron James (Sprite, Vitaminwater, McDonald’s, Powerade), Peyton Manning (Gatorade, Wheaties, Pepsi) and Serena Williams (Oreo, Gatorade, Nabisco) had more food and beverage endorsements than any other athlete. 

Sports drinks toped the list of food and drink deals, followed by soft drinks and by fast food. And here’s the nutritional profile of athlete endorsed food: About 80 percent of the foods were energy dense and nutrient poor, and 93 percent of the beverages were sugar water, receiving 100 percent of their calories from added sugar.

What do athletes eat?

LeBron James might not need to care about calorie counts –  he probably burns 3 times the energy most men his age do -- but his food doesn’t come from a factory; it is carefully prepared by his personal chef, Brandon.

When asked about her diet Serena told Body & Soul “My goal is to have a healthy lifestyle so I can live a long life. I don’t eat a lot of meat. I eat a lot of natural food – a lot of green stuff like spinach and cucumber. And I drink lots of water.” 

Marketing junk leads to eating lots of junk. Junk endorsed by sport idols -- the very picture of health and fitness -- removes barriers of judgment, and leads to eating even more junk. And the most talented marketers and endorsers are promoting the worst foods.

Yet in the real world, eating fast food and drinking sugary drinks leads to obesity and disease, not to winning super bowls and grand slams.

An athlete isn’t just a celebrity. His endorsement carries with it a healthy halo, associating the food and drink he’s supporting with fitness, strength and vigor, and creating a confusing mixed message. Although junk food and cigarettes are not the same, the Pediatrics article reminds us that Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio and Lou Gehrig appeared in tobacco ads, and it was only public pressure that did away such practices. Until such pressure is applied to junk food, we’ll continue to see the world’s premiere sports competitions like the Olympics, brought to us by McDonalds and Coca-Cola, and the athletes our kids admire suggesting to them that junk food makes you strong.  

Dr. Ayala

Does it matter which fruit you eat?

Every decent guide for healthy eating encourages us to eat more fruits and veggies. Why? An abundance of fruits and veggies has been associated with lower risk of a whole range of conditions, from hypertension, to diabetes, cancer, heart disease and the metabolic syndrome.

Up-to-date guidelines don’t just encourage us to eat more plants; they suggest we eat a rainbow – they urge us to eat a variety of fruits and veggies. The latest superfruit trend has also hyped several supposedly high performers from the plant kingdom, touting their assumed powers above other humble, non-exotic varieties.

Does fruit choice matter? Should we eat what we like, what’s affordable and available, or should we carefully select specific, health promoting fruit?

Two new studies, just published, address this question. Let’s take a look

Quantity or quality?

When it comes to reducing the risk of type 2 diabetes, some fruit are better than others, so concludes a study in the British Medical Journal (BMJ). The researchers pooled the findings of three large studies, following the diet and disease of 185,000 people over 12 years. About 12,000 people developed diabetes during that time, and while people that ate more fruit also usually made other healthy lifestyle choices (like exercise and eating fewer calories) after controlling for all these, the researchers found that specific whole fruit, especially blueberries, apples and grapes, where associated with lower risk of diabetes while other fruit, such as strawberries and cantaloupe, less so.

Fruit juice, though, didn’t confer the same protection. Greater fruit juice consumption was linked with greater risk of diabetes.

The other study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, looked at fruit variety and coronary heart disease. This study followed a cohort of  about 120,000 people for more than 20 years, during which about 6000 developed heart disease. After controlling for other variables, this study found that the quantity of fruit was more important than the variety. The people who ate the most fruits and vegetables had a 17 percent lower risk of ischemic heart disease. But quantity aside, some fruits and veggies, such as citrus fruit and green leafy veggies seemed to matter more – as long as quantity was maintained  

Super- and miracle- foods and plain old apples

A miracle, by definition, is something that happens very rarely (if at all). But nowadays, superfruit and miracle foods are ‘discovered’ weekly, and incorporated into processed foods and plastered with health claims promising eternal life. 

Plants are very clever biochemical machines, it seems like there are many more mysteries within their cell walls that we have yet to discover, and the more research we do, the more benefits we find. (The opposite can be said of the Western, processed diet – the more we explore its effect the more harm we find.) Not to take away from acai, blueberry and chia, most fruits and veggies, once studied, become super. The love-of-my-kitchen tomato was thought to be poisonous and evil, but is now a superfood because we discovered its health promoting Lycopene.

It very well might be that certain fruits and veggies’ benefits are more targeted to certain conditions, but since our understanding of this is still limited, I’d stick to a simple plan: eat more fruits and veggies and aim for variety, any variety. As long as you don’t confuse whole fruit with fruit juice, and don’t consider potatoes and corn a major veggie, I think you’ll be ok. Diet as a whole affects health – profoundly – but eating the latest fad miracle fruit, sensationalized by the media, is not likely to make much of a difference. Sorry, but shortcuts are improbable.

Bear in mind, superfruit is a marketing – not a scientific – term, invented by the food industry for the sole purpose of selling products.

Here’s my prediction: the fruits and veggies you like and eat anyway might have their moment of fame, and be rebranded as superfruit once studied – and you’ll be able to say you believed in them all along.

Dr. Ayala

Whole wheat pumpkin and spice muffins

 

Photos by Tamar Cahana

Pumpkin season is upon us, and the aroma of spices and fresh baking brings some fall joy to my kitchen on these chilly weekend mornings. They’re great for brunch or dessert, and keep well for a few days.

Notice that the recipe uses plain, pure pumpkin. If you’re buying it prepared, look for the undoctored cans or jars that contain nothing but pumpkin.

Ingredients

For the batter

• 1½ cups whole wheat pastry flour
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
• ¼ teaspoon ground allspice
• ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup sugar
• ⅓ cup canola oil
• 1 cup fresh or canned pure pumpkin puree
• 2 eggs
• ¾ cup raisins (optional)
• ½ cup walnuts (optional)

For the topping

• ½ cup sugar
• ½ cup espresso or other strong coffee
• 2 heaped tablespoons fresh or canned pure pumpkin puree 

Preparation 

• Preheat oven to 350°F
• In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, allspice, ginger and salt
• In a large bowl (or a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment) combine the sugar and the oil and whisk for 1 minute. Add the pumpkin puree and whisk for another minute. Add the eggs, one at a time, and then add the dry ingredients in 2 additions. Mix only until well combined
• If adding raisins and/or nuts: roll these with a tablespoon of flour (this will prevent these ingredients from sinking and aggregating at the bottom of the muffin) and fold in gently
• Put liners in muffin cups, and divide batter -- cups should be ¾ full
• Bake until puffed, golden brown, and until toothpick comes out clean – about 25-30 minutes.
• While the muffins are cooling make topping: combine sugar and coffee in a small pot, bring to a boil, and reduce heat to a simmer, add pumpkin, and simmer until mixture thickens and reduces to ¾. Let cool
• Decorate the muffins with the topping
• Dust with a touch of cinnamon or powdered sugar

Store in an airtight container at room temperature. These will keep for about 3 days.

Makes 12-14 muffins.

Enjoy! 

Dr. Ayala