Healthy Food & Healthy Living by Dr. Ayala

Add this to your wellness regimen

Dr. Oliver Sacks – the famed late neurologist, author and master communicator of the human condition – wrote in his last collection of essays: “In 40 years of medical practice, I have found only two types of non-pharmaceutical “therapy” to be vitally important for patients with chronic neurological diseases: music and gardens…In many cases, gardens and nature are more powerful than any medication.”

Living in greener cities is associated with better health: It lowers the risk of heart disease, obesity, diabetes, asthma, anxiety and early death. It’s even been shown that fewer kids need corrective glasses when there are more greenspaces in the neighborhood.

One can of course argue that higher socioeconomic status is usually related to the amount of open space, street trees, community gardens and green roofs around urban homes, but many studies that controlled for income and education found that the correlation stands.

Being close to nature gives you indirect advantages – you’re visually exposed to green things that grow even if you’re not actively walking in the park, and local trees clean the air that you breathe and reduce the noise that you hear.

While some people – and even more dog owners – frequent parks and nature trails, others do so rarely. Living close to green spaces makes it more likely that you’ll be exposed to the power of green and actually take advantage of the park. But nature seekers will be willing to travel far to see a garden or enjoy a nature reserve.

But it’s the direct exposure that can tell us more about the power of nature to lift our wellbeing.

Effective green dose

A new study, published in Scientific Reports, focuses on direct exposure to nature. It looked at a nationally representative sample of 20,000 from England. Some of them live in greener places, some live in less green cities. The participants reported how often and for how long they visit nature and on their wellbeing. The study controlled for the amount of neighborhood greenspace or lack thereof, for air pollution, for physical activity, for physical disability that might interfere with the ability to seek the outdoors, and for socioeconomic status.

The nature minimum dose, according to this study is 2 hours per week. It doesn’t matter if you’re young or old, man or woman, whether it was divided into short visits or experienced all at once.

There was a dose response, and wellbeing peaked at 3-5 hours a week. But two hours are enough to make a difference.

This study suggests that just like there are now guidelines for weekly physical activity, there should be recommendation for nature activities.

Finding time to fit the minimum two and a half hours of physical activity and the two hours of nature into the week leads to an obvious solution: exercise while being outdoors. Walk, run, dig the garden soil, climb a hill, or a mountain.

Exercising in nature is a two-for-one.

“Gardens and nature are more powerful than any medication”

Young kids and dogs erupt in exuberant joy when their little feet and paws touch real soil and birdsong fills their ears – they know what many of us grown-ups have forgotten.

We’re all afflicted to some extent with a neurological condition: stress, mental overload, the challenges of being a mortal human.

We all need a garden. We could all use the perspective of a butterfly and a tree.

Dr. Ayala

A snake visits our summer garden

I am taking a summer break for a few weeks to spend time with my family and travel. Meantime, I'm reposting some of the more popular posts I’ve written over the past almost two years (wow, how time flies!) so that new readers have a chance to catch up. Enjoy this post! - Dr. Ayala

This week my kids came running into the house screaming “Snake!”

They had been playing in the back yard and while looking for the lacrosse ball, they lifted the sled they left under the magnolia tree a week ago (what they were doing with a sled in mid-summer is another topic).

And there was the snake, with its beautiful checkerboard patterns, sticking out its tongue at me. I quickly took these pictures and the snake left quietly.

I’ve only lived in this area for about 9 years, and this was the first snake I saw in our own garden. We get plenty of rabbits, deer and foxes, and we’re happy with our animal visitors -- even when they eat up the garden -- but my kids weren’t happy with the snake.

Is fear of snakes inborn? A fear we learn from everything we read, including the very beginning of the Bible? So very few people are happy to see a snake and many snakes wind up getting killed for no good reason.

My kids and I took this opportunity nature had given us to learn more.

Pennsylvania has only three types of venomenous snakes, and we found that an easy method of telling the difference between a poisonous versus a non-poisonous snake is to look at the shape of the pupil. Non-poisonous snakes all have a round pupil (like us people) whereas all poisonous snakes have a vertical elliptical (cat-like) pupil. Alas, I didn’t pay enough attention to the snake's pupil, as the tongue and skin were so much more interesting (and in my picture the snake has “red-eye” syndrome).

I sent the pictures to my very clever friends, and got my answer.

The first to identify the snake as an Eastern garter snake was my artist friend (in my personal experience, artists are acute observers of nature, as nature is the major inspiration of art), followed by my kids’ head of school -- a self attested snake lover, who has a few snakes as pets -- who emailed me that snakes are a good sign of a well-balanced eco-system.

The compliment to my backyard eco-system was nice to hear, as was the fact that these snakes are harmless, and actually beneficial to the garden. They can keep pests, such as rats and mice, in check. Later on I got the same reply from a docent at the Philadelphia Zoo. (You can email any animal question to the zoo, and they’re very responsive and knowledgeable.)

I’m grateful to my garden, for giving me this line of connection to nature and living animals. Although I refer to the garden as “my garden” I know I don’t really own it, but only share it with other living things. So much happens in my little piece of nature that I can’t control and I’ve stopped trying to pretend I can.

We haven’t had even one strawberry this year, although we have three plants. As soon as they ripen, a mysterious caller takes them away, and since we admit that we have so much food, and the animals have so little, we are quite pleased to donate the strawberry.

As to the herbs, I’m happy to say that those are not shared by our wildlife. They leave the herbs well alone for the butterflies to visit.

Somehow, it gives me comfort to know that I, the humble gardener, am just a small part of what’s going on in this ecosystem, and that life bursts forth with all its force, despite my efforts to tame it.

Hope you’re enjoying your summer!
Dr. Ayala

A kitchen garden for a healthy body, mind and spirit

Foodies and gardeners were ecstatic to hear that Michelle Obama started an organic edible garden on the south lawn of the White House last week. Maria Shriver, California’s first lady, also announced that she plans to establish an edible garden at Capitol Park in Sacramento.

Millions of Americans have started private and community plots with the intent of growing their own food. Seed sales are up, and it seems like everyone’s ready to dig in the dirt.

Hooray! I’m pretty sure that every gardener is enriched by working the garden, and we can all learn a lot about good food by growing some of it ourselves.

Since I’m sick of hearing about the recession and pinching pennies, I promise I’ll be discussing the many benefits of gardening besides saving money. (In fact, I think you need to be quite clever to save money growing your own veggies in the first few years of your gardening adventure—read William Alexander’s “The $64 tomato” for one honest and hilarious gardener’s take on growing a few extremely expensive tomatoes in his patch.)

Both the act of gardening and that of being in a garden have a significant impact on people’s well being. What is it about the garden that so many people find restorative and healing?

• Contact with nature promotes good mental health, relaxation and even faster recovery from disease. A classic study showed hospital patients with a view of trees—as opposed to a brick wall—tended to have shorter stays and better outcomes. Several other studies have shown that green spaces are positively related to people’s self-perceived health and mortality risk. In his book “Biophilia,” famed biologist Edward O. Wilson suggests there’s an instinctive bond between human beings and other living systems, and that we have an innate attraction to nature. (I have a few friends who argue with that, and insist that they absolutely hate the outdoors, but they’re the exception, and frankly are even more bizarre than people who hate chocolate!)

• Gardening is great way to teach children about plant food and healthy nutrition. I think it’s quite obvious that with familiarity and positive experiences fondness grows. If kids have fun in the vegetable patch, and see their seeds grow into beautiful fresh vegetables, they’d be more likely to eat them. Since few American kids consume enough fruits and veggies gardening projects can address this important nutrition objective.

A recent study in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association reviewed the scientific literature between 1990 and 2007, and looked at eleven studies of the impact of garden-based nutrition education on fruit and veggie intake and preferences of kids. The researchers concluded:

“Based on the review of relevant but relatively limited literature, the evidence for the effectiveness of garden-based nutrition education is promising. Garden-based nutrition-education programs may have the potential to lead to improvements in fruit and vegetable intake, willingness to taste fruits and vegetables, and increased preferences among youth whose current preferences for fruits and vegetables are low.”

• Gardening can be great exercise. It can be moderate and even strenuous exercise; this really depends on how you garden and what you choose to do. I’ve written before about my inability to get excited about the gym, and that I’d much rather get work done than wait for time to pass when on a treadmill.
If you’re like me, gardening’s the exercise for you. I can edge my beds and dig for hours, and not believe it’s already lunch time, but I can’t take my eyes off the stationary bike’s timer and I swear something’s wrong with it. Whether it’s light pruning or heavy digging, gardening sure beats sitting down. Gardening is physical activity—and it’s especially beneficial for older people.

• Gardening will get you into composting. Any organic gardener knows that the secret to great crops is great soil, and great soil comes from great compost. It sometimes seems to me that some of my gardening friends are more excited by the leftover peels and skins—the stuff that goes in the compost pile—than in food itself. If you grow vegetables, you’ll surely want to recycle your kitchen scraps and send less trash to the landfill, and that’s definitely a good thing.

Even though gardening is good for body and mind, I have a few common sense words of caution: be careful with the sun, be extra careful if you use any power tools, don’t garden with bare feet (or much bare skin altogether; who’d do that, you wonder? I’m not telling!), and stay clear of the poison ivy.

I am still a beginner gardener after more than a decade of working in the soil and I still know very little. I’ve had successes and failures, and I learn something new from my garden every time I’m out there. Here are a few lessons my little piece of nature has taught me and that I’d happily share with Michelle, Maria and any other backyard gardener:

• The easiest growing edibles are culinary herbs. They ask for very little, thrive on neglect, and give great satisfaction. You can start harvesting practically from day one, and they’ll enrich your meals with their complex flavors while adding healthy benefits.

• A garden has a mind of its own about what it wants to grow. Left alone, mine (which has good soil and gets plenty of rain) is sure not to grow any veggies and will be overtaken by weeds. Weeding is therefore the bread and butter of gardening; it’s where I spend most of my time.

• You can either fight the multitude of animals wanting a share of your bounty, or give up without a fight. I opt for the latter. I’m grateful to be able to have rabbits, deer and squirrels in my backyard—they make me happy, they were here before me, and I’m not sure I would have won the fight anyway, as they’re so very clever about getting food. So, I plant a lot to make sure there’s enough for everybody.

• Growing an edible garden sure did deepen my respect for the farmers who grow my food. Growing quality organic food requires knowledge, experience and lots of hard work. I’m very grateful that I can depend of professional growers to supply plenty of delicious produce, because to be quite honest—it’s not that easy to grow your food. If you have little experience your “seasons” are way too short, and not that plentiful. Most of the time it seems you’re practicing delayed gratification just waiting for the veggies to ripen. Waiting and weeding.

• For apartment dwellers interested in joining the edible garden movement a few suggestions: If you have a sunny window you can grow herbs in pots. You can also look into joining a community garden; besides all the benefits mentioned above you'll enjoy gardening in a social setting, and beatifying your neighborhood.

I’d love to hear about your garden experiences and insights. Wishing you a great growing season.

Dr. Ayala

“You can bury a lot of troubles digging in the dirt.” ~Author Unknown

homemade pesto- a great way to incorporate herbs in your meal

Homemade pesto is a delicious, healthy sauce that can be used in countless ways. The fragrance of pesto just lifts my spirit. I make it once a week, and use most of it to make my gnocchi with pesto dish. The rest I store in the fridge in an airtight container, and use in sandwiches (fresh mozzarella and tomatoes go really well with pesto), on bruschetta, as a dip, on pizza, or as the green dollops of garnish needed to complete a more elaborate plate presentation.

Notice that I add no salt to the pesto. None is needed. The flavor of the basil, pine nuts, olive oil and parmesan are complete without.

Pesto has its origins in Liguria, Italy, where people have been making it for hundreds of years with wild basil. I grow plenty of basil in my garden during the summer, but in the winter months my indoor pots do not produce nearly enough for my pesto sauce, which is especially rich in basil. Luckily, basil in now available in any good supermarket or farmers market. Choose young, bright green leaves. Make sure to get rid of the stems (they don’t taste too good).

Homemade pesto is infinitely superior to anything you can buy in a jar. The ingredients in some shop bought pesto often include very little nuts, with cashew nuts replacing the pine nuts, very little basil, a random cheese or low grade oil. There’s usually also a long list of ingredients which have no place in pesto, like flavors, preservatives and colors.

Ingredients:

2-3 cups of loosely packed fresh basil leaves (2 bunches),
1/2-2/3 cup pine nuts
2 tablespoons of fresh grated Parmesan
2-4 large cloves of garlic
1/3 cup of extra virgin olive oil
Freshly ground pepper

Directions:

The practical way:
Food processor- using the “pulse” setting, pulse several times, until you reach the consistency you prefer. I like my pesto course, with no visible oiliness. Add more oil if the sauce is too dry to your taste.

The romantic way:
Mortar and pestle: probably the best tasting pesto you’ve ever had. Children have a great time using the mortar and pestle. The fragrance of the basil fills the kitchen with happiness, and gives everyone a real connection with the food. It does take plenty of time, but worth doing at least once, maybe on a snowy day.
Grind the dry ingredients in the mortar, by pressing and pounding with a pestle, and then add the oil gradually.

A few words about basil:
There are dozens of varieties of basil, some with more flowery notes, some dominated with spicier and clove like notes.
The flavor of basil depends not just on the variety, but also on the soil condition, the sun exposure and the stage at which the basil is harvested. I find that the younger leaves are much more aromatic.
Basil is rich in phenolic antioxidants, anthocyanins (plant pigments, very potent antioxidants) and aroma compounds, and is being studied for its many medicinal effects.

Enjoy,
Ayala