Aging isn’t the same thing as getting older – it’s a slow degradation of our bodies down to the cell and DNA level, and scientists are still trying to understand precisely what causes it. It seems that to a certain extent we are designed to age – it’s a design flaw resulting from the way our DNA slowly degrades as our cells regenerate. But outside factors such as stress, diet and pollution also play a big role, and that’s where we as individuals can make a difference. Much of the damage done to our bodies results from free radicals, which are oxygen molecules that bind to and damage our cells over time. Our bodies produce them naturally, but we are also bombarded by external sources such as cigarette smoke, radiation, ozone, certain medications and a variety of pollutants.

General good health – eating well, getting regular exercise, limiting alcohol and obviously not smoking – is always going to be your best front line defense against aging and age-related illnesses. But yes, there are certain foods that will give you an added boost, primarily those with high levels of antioxidants which can help neutralize free radicals. There are many forms of antioxidants, and scientists are still unsure of which ones provide health benefits, so a wide range antioxidant-rich foods is the key. Here are some good choices:

Nuts and berries: Strawberries, blackberries, cranberries and raspberries are all fantastic sources of antioxidants. While many tout the benefits of Goji berries for their high Vitamin C content (Vitamin C is a powerful antioxidant), the actual vitamin content of Goji berries can vary widely, and on average is probably no higher than that of strawberries. Pick what you like! Nuts are also a great source, but remember, peanuts are not nuts. Choose almonds, walnuts, pecans and pistachios. And don’t forget that almond powder makes a great flour substitute for breading chicken or fish.

Fruit and vegetables: Artichokes, spinach, red cabbage, broccoli, potatoes, tomatoes and watermelon are all antioxidant-rich. Spinach, cabbage and broccoli are all healthier eaten raw, and are wonderful salad ingredients. Tomatoes, on the other hand, are better for you when cooked, but don’t let that stop you from throwing a few into the salad bowl as well. Carrots and yellow squash are also delicious sources of beta-carotene, another powerful antioxidant.

Other sources: Green tea, red beans, pomegranate juice, oats, dark chocolate (be sure to check that it contains 70% or higher cacao), red wine and herbs such as cinnamon, ginger and oregano are all antioxidant rich foods.

While the antioxidants are doing their job, you need also to consider the most common age-related illnesses, which can often be warded off by maintaining high levels of certain vitamins. To fight osteoporosis you should regularly eat foods high in zinc and calcium. Drinking milk is not the answer – milk contains calcium, but your body doesn’t absorb it, and drinking too much cow’s milk can actually promote calcium loss in your bones. Leafy vegetables are a much better source of calcium (where do you think adult cows get their calcium?), salmon and sardines are also calcium-rich. Get your zinc from meat and shellfish or, if you are vegetarian, from sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds and wheat germ.

To prevent heart disease, foods with Vitamin E are crucial – maintaining your levels of E can cut your chances of heart disease in half. A salad with spinach, avocado and nuts would give provide ample quantities of E. Foods rich in beta-carotene (carrots, squash and sweet potatoes) are important, and grapefruit has been found to lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels.

Memory loss is a common problem as we get older, so keeping your brain active is essential. Feed it B vitamins – meat and fish, lentils, asparagus, broccoli, spinach, nuts, wheat germ and bananas. Wrinkles aren’t quite an illness, but if you want less of them, focus on beta-carotene and food rich in Vitamin C.

Total Time: 25 min
Prep Time: 25 min

Ingredients:

2  ripe avocados
1 cup(s) fresh or jarred salsa
2 teaspoon(s) oil
1  red pepper, chopped
1 cup(s) shredded carrots
1/2 teaspoon(s) ground cumin
1 can(s) (15 oz) low-sodium black beans, rinsed
1/3 cup(s) chopped cilantro
4 whole(s) wraps
4 cup(s) coarsely chopped or shredded romaine lettuce
Serve with: lime wedges

Directions

Remove pit and peel avocados. Coarsely chop 1 avocado; mash the other avocado in a small bowl and stir in 1/4 cup salsa until blended. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside.

Heat oil in medium skillet over medium-high heat. Sauté pepper and carrots 3 minutes. Add cumin and cook 30 seconds or until fragrant. Add beans and remaining 3/4 cup salsa; heat through. Stir in the chopped avocado and cilantro; mix well.

Spread about 3 Tbsp mashed avocado-salsa mixture on each wrap and top with 1 cup lettuce. Spoon 1 cup bean mixture over bottom third of wrap. Starting at bottom, roll up tightly. Place seam side down on serving platter. Serve with lime wedges.

Taken from Woman’s Day

Modern wheat contains heightened levels of gluten

We all know by now that what we put into our bodies affects how those bodies work. Eat well, you feel better. Eat junk, and you’ll feel that too. This may seem like an obvious point, but the part of your body that’s most immediately affected by what you eat is your gastrointestinal tract. We’re talking about a good 30 feet of tubing running through your body, so it’s not surprising that most people, at some point, experience some form of GI trouble. One of the most common complaints is gluten intolerance.

Gluten is a protein found mainly in the common grains that form a large part of most people’s diets. There are worse things than gluten, but like so much in life, it’s our own reaction to it that can create problems. One of the ways this can happy is Celiac disease, a condition in which the presence of gluten triggers an autoimmune response. The immune system attacks the villi, areas of the intestinal lining that aid in digestion, and as a result impairs the body’s ability to digest food as it should. This can lead to a wide variety of symptoms: abdominal pain, gas, indigestions, constipation, diarrhea, lactose intolerance, nausea or unexplained weight loss. The resulting lack of nutrients in the body can also trigger hair loss, mouth ulcers, depression, fatigue or joint pain.

Celiac disease affects less than one in a hundred people in the US, but many more people suffer from similar symptoms and yet test negative for the disease. The fact is that Celiac disease is only the extreme and medically diagnosable end of a broader spectrum of gluten intolerance. Some researchers estimate that as much as 10% of us have some form of intolerance to gluten which irritates the digestive system enough to create Celiac-like symptoms but does not qualify as Celiac.  This is known as being Non-Celiac Gluten Intolerant (NCGI), which gives you a good idea of just how little we really know about the condition.

In looking at which foods to avoid, it’s important to understand that the form of gluten which triggers intolerances is specifically that found in wheat, barley and rye. Rice and corn also contain gluten, but in a form which seems not to trigger intolerances. So clearly bread is out, as is pasta and most breakfast cereals. Simple, right?

Well, no. The bad news is that wheat crops up in all sorts of unexpected places, and to make matters worse, modern wheat contains far more gluten than its ancestor varieties did.  Soy sauce, for example, contains gluten. Wheat powder is used as a thickener in many processed foods, showing up in mustard, tomato paste, pasta sauces and even in some medications. If you are mildly NCGI, this may not be a problem, but if you have Celiac, you’ll need to be very careful about even trace amounts of wheat. Sufferers of Celiac should always consult a nutritionist to devise appropriate meal-plans and detailed shopping lists to avoid hidden glutens.

In either case, to eat gluten-free and healthy means more than simply buying “gluten-free” bread and pasta. Many of these gluten-free products compensate for the lack of gluten by adding sugar and other additives – always keep in mind that gluten-free junk food is still junk food. Your better bet, as always, is to focus on real food alternatives. Potatoes, corn, rice and beans are all starches that are safe for those with gluten intolerances, and while I’m not suggesting you should load up on potatoes every day, they can offer a creative alternative to pasta when looking for ways to use a sauce. Quinoa pasta is a delicious option than many people prefer to the wheat variety. Otherwise, use the misfortune of gluten intolerance as a way of cutting down on carbohydrate intake – building your meals around vegetable dishes and non-breaded poultry and fish options is a healthy and natural way of avoiding gluten. Remember though that balance is always the key; grains are a common source of vitamins B and D, so be sure to vary your diet and consider extra helpings of vitamin B and D rich foods such as oily fish (salmon, sardines, mackerel), eggs, avocadoes and walnuts. With all those options to choose from, a little culinary creativity will go far to compensate for all those pasta dishes you’ve left behind.

Ingredients:

4 bone-in free-range organic chicken breasts
Drizzle of olive oil
Sea salt and pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium red onion, peeled, diced
2-4 cloves fresh garlic, chopped
1 large or 2 smaller sweet potatoes, peeled, diced
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon GF chili powder (or double the cumin and add 1 teaspoon of paprika)
2 teaspoons dried oregano
Hot red pepper flakes, season to taste
3/4 cup chopped roasted green chiles or tomatillo salsa verde
2 15-oz cans organic cannellini or Great Northern white beans, rinsed, drained
2 cups low-sodium organic chicken broth
Squeeze of fresh lime juice

For serving:

Fresh chopped parsley
Fresh chopped cilantro
Fresh lime slices

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 375ºF. Rinse the chicken breasts and pat dry. Remove the skin, if you like. Place meaty side up in a baking pan. Drizzle with olive oil and season with sea salt and pepper. Sprinkle with dried herbs such as thyme and oregano.

Turn the chicken over, bone side up, drizzle again, and season.

Roast the chicken bone side up for roughly 30 to 35 minutes until done and no longer pink inside (check with a meat thermometer for an internal temp of 165º to 170º).

Tip: Roasting bone-in, with the rib side up, will give you moist, tender, juicy chicken.

In the meantime, start your pot of chili.

Heat two tablespoons of olive oil in a large soup pot over medium high heat. Add the red onion and stir for a minute. Add the garlic and sweet potatoes. Add ginger, cumin, oregano and hot pepper flakes. Stir to coat. Add in the roasted green chiles, white beans and chicken broth. Cover and bring to a light simmer.

When the chicken is done, let it cool off slightly, until it is cool enough to handle. Cut the meat off the rib bones, or tear off pieces by hand. Add the chicken pieces to the pot and stir gently to warm through.

Squeeze in some fresh lime juice to brighten flavors. Stir gently. Taste and add seasoning if necessary. If it has thickened too much, add a touch of broth to thin.

Serve with lime wedges and a sprinkle of fresh chopped parsley and cilantro.

Serves 6.

Taken from gluten-free goddess.

Yes, I know. It’s January, and I’m supposed to be haranguing you about your New Year’s resolutions. Time for austerity, self-deprivation, no-pain-no-gain and all that. Well, forget it. Austerity is boring, unpleasant and doesn’t work. Let’s talk instead about eating well.

The fact is that most of us don’t eat well. We eat quickly, we eat what’s easy, and when we become worried about our weight we try to eat less. We deprive ourselves of what we like, eating smaller portions, feeling miserable, and eventually falling off the wagon. Then we tell ourselves that we just need more willpower and we start the cycle all over again.

Whatever your age or body type, it’s never too late to break that cycle, and a cleanse is a great place to start. As I’ve written before, a well-designed cleanse does not deprive your body of good food – it’s not about starving yourself or eating only wheat grass for weeks on end. A real cleanse is about getting rid of toxins and, perhaps even more important, breaking the bad habits and addictive cycles you may fallen into. Once you’ve cleaned out your system and are no longer living from one insulin high to the next, then you’ll be in a position to start your new healthy habits and improve your quality of life.

The key to making these habits lasting ones is to focus on eating better rather than on eating less. Americans spend almost 90% of their food budget on processed foods. Some of that is the burger-and-fries variety, but the greater part is ready-made dinners. While certainly a frozen vegetarian meal or a can of wholesome chicken soup is better than a Big Mac, even “healthy” processed foods can accelerate weight gain and other health issues.

Processed foods generally have very low nutrient density – the ratio of nutrients to calories – compared with fresh food. That diet frozen dinner may indeed have only 300 calories, but its ingredients have been dehydrated, reconstituted and chemically altered to the point that there isn’t much nutrition left. The more nutrient-poor Styrofoam you eat, the more your body will scream out for food. You’re setting yourself up for failure.

Processed foods are also full of additives. Even so-called healthy processed meals tend to have way too much sodium, and most have various forms of trans-fatty acids and simple sugars (I’ve counted over 40 different names for sugar, but a good rule of thumb is that if the word ends in “ol” or “ose,” or is a “syrup,” then it’s sugar). Many other additives such as colorants, “flavors” or flavor enhancers are suspected of causing a variety of health problems, including insulin resistance, and yet are permitted even in processed “diet” foods. For example, the ingredients of the “Butternut Squash Ravioli” dish from a well-known diet brand contains, among other things, sugar, maltodextrin, brown sugar, “mushroom flavor” and something called “salted milkfat blend.” None of that will kill you, but really, salted milkfat blend?

Food awareness is crucial, but even better than reading food labels is avoiding them. The items in your shopping cart shouldn’t have lists of ingredients, they should be ingredients, ingredients whose names you can pronounce and spell. When you stop eating calcium pantothenate and start eating real food, your body will react with fewer cravings and more energy to get out there and exercise. It’s not quick, cooking real food rather than pulling it out of the freezer, but the extra time spent is more than worth it. Your food will taste better and you’ll need less of it.

If you want 2012 to be a great year, then the best thing you can possibly do is to get clean, stay clean and eat well.

Bon appetit!

Zest and juice of 1 lemon, divided

1/2 cup sliced almonds, coarsely chopped

1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh dill or 1 teaspoon dried

1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided

1 teaspoon kosher salt, divided

Freshly ground pepper to taste

1 1/4 pounds Pacific cod or halibut (see Note), cut into 4 portions

4 teaspoons Dijon mustard

2 cloves garlic, slivered

1 pound baby spinach

Lemon wedges for garnish

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Lightly oil the baking sheet.

2. Combine lemon zest, almonds, dill, 1 tablespoon oil, 1/2 teaspoon salt and pepper in a small bowl. Place fish on the prepared baking sheet and spread each portion with 1 teaspoon mustard. Divide the almond mixture among the portions, pressing it onto the mustard.

3. Bake the fish until opaque in the center, about 7 to 9 minutes, depending on thickness.

4. Meanwhile, heat the remaining 2 teaspoons oil in a Dutch oven over medium heat. Add garlic and cook, stirring, until fragrant but not brown, about 30 seconds. Stir in spinach, lemon juice and the remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt; season with pepper. Cook, stirring often, until the spinach is just wilted, 2 to 4 minutes. Cover to keep warm. Serve the fish with the spinach and lemon wedges, if desired.

Tips & Notes

Note: Pacific cod, a.k.a. Alaska cod, is considered a good choice for the environment because it is sustainably fished and has a larger, more stable population.

Nutrition

Per serving: 249 calories; 13 g fat ( 1 g sat , 8 g mono ); 46 mg cholesterol; 8 g carbohydrates; 0 g added sugars; 28 g protein; 4 g fiber; 496 mg sodium; 1025 mg potassium.

Nutrition Bonus: Vitamin A (184% daily value), Vitamin C (37% dv), Folate (36% dv), Magnesium (35% dv), Potassium (29% dv), Iron (22% dv), Calcium (17% dv)

Carbohydrate Servings: 1/2

Exchanges: 1 vegetable, 3 lean meat, 2 fat

Taken from Eating Well

In a perfect world, everything would run smoothly. Imagine it: no morning traffic, supermarket shelves empty of junk food, children who would spend their time reading and playing outside and volunteering for charity work on weekends with never a word about video games and Twinkies. Our bodies would always function at optimal efficiency, eliminating toxins and leaving us feeling happy, energetic ready for anything.

Back here on Earth, though, it’s not so easy. Our bodies face a constant barrage of toxins – air pollution, chemicals leaked from food packaging, heavy metals in the water supply, stress and even, yes, holiday overindulgence all take their toll. The good news is that we’re built to deal with it. Your liver, kidneys, lymphatic system and even your skin are all working hard every day to get rid of those toxins.

And that’s really the point – your body is working on overdrive every day to keep you clean. All it asks in return is food, water, sunlight and exercise. What a cleanse does is give your body’s natural defenses a break. Think of it as a holiday for your liver. A 14-day period in which you minimize the intake of toxins and purge your system gives your body a chance to rest, regenerate and perhaps get rid of the traces of toxins that it never manages to get to while it’s dealing with its daily workload.

The benefits of a cleanse go well beyond a little gastrointestinal housekeeping. While your GI tract is enjoying a well-deserved holiday, you’re also giving yourself a chance break any bad eating habits and start the new year afresh. Having made a clean break from your normal eating routine, you’ll give yourself a chance to restart with the right habits that, long term, are the key to getting and staying healthy. You’re likely to find after a cleanse that you have more energy, and you’ll probably sleep better, think better and feel better all around. You’ll feel empowered, too. A sensible cleanse means 14-days of being in total control of what you’re eating, and the psychological boost from proving to yourself that you are in charge is enormous. When you feel like that, I assure you, saying no to that chocolate muffin becomes a lot easier.

If you’re going to do a cleanse, though, do it the right way and for the right reasons. You can probably lose weight if you only drink lemon juice for a few days, but you’ll gain it back and won’t have done any lasting good. And, let’s face, you’ll be miserable. A true cleanse, one that can really boost your energy levels and help you stay on course for long term weight loss and health benefits, needs to be well planned to ensure balanced nutrition throughout the process. There are pitfalls to avoid; for example, without proper supplements a cleanse diet can partially detoxify substances into even more harmful compounds and then dump them back into the bloodstream. That’s the last thing you’d want, and it’s just one reason why you should avoid extreme fad diets you hear about on the internet or celebrity talk shows.

With so much bad advice out there, how do you choose a cleanse that’s right for you? An intelligent cleanse will be balanced, will have a real food component and will be accompanied by a range of supplements. Avoid any cleanse regime that involves only drinking fruit juice, or only drinking shakes, or really any advice that has you eating only one specific food or beverage. Likewise, be wary of unrealistic claims. There is no hassle-free-three-day-chocolate-chunk-muffin-cleanse, nor one that can make you thin and healthy as if by magic. It takes some effort on your part, and some good professional advice, but it’s worth it.

Under the guidance of a certified nutritionist, and after consulting a doctor if you’re on any medication or suffer from a medical condition, a thorough cleanse is a great way to end the old year and begin the new one on a positive note. And that amazing feeling of vitality you’ll experience afterwards… that’s your body saying “Thank you!”

Ingredients

for the soup:

4 tomatoes, diced
1/2 medium white onion, diced
1 glove garlic, peeled and minced
Lemon juice to taste
1 cucumber, peeled and chopped

for serving:

4 tablespoons freshly chopped cilantro
1 scallion (green part), finely chopped, for garnish
1 red bell pepper, seeded cored, and diced
1 table spoon raw virgin olive oil
1/4 cup mango, diced in small cubes

Directions
Place all ingredients a blender and puree. Strain (vegetable press is easiest) to remove any vegetable pieces and pits that are not fully liquefied (like tomato skins or seeds). Alternatively, if you have a juicer, you can also put all ingredients in the juicer, using a coarse screen.
Chill overnight, if time permits. Before serving, sprinkle the chopped scallions, olive oil, some finely cut cilantro and mango.

Tip:

Instead of red bell pepper, mango and cilantro, you can use pesto and fresh basil leafs as topping.

Taken from

The Best of Raw Food

Once cooked and blended, squashes take on the flavors of spices as if they were made for each other. Try using other spices like chili, cumin and lemongrass for variations on this soup. A dash of lime juice also works wonders.

Ingredients:

1 tbsp grape seed oil

1 small leek, roughly chopped and washed

1 small onion, peeled and roughly chopped

1 oz. root ginger, scraped and finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, crushed or chopped

A few sprigs of thyme

One large (2 lbs) butternut squash, peeled, seeded and roughly chopped

2 cups vegetable stock (a good quality cube will do)

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preparation:

Gently cook the leek, onion, ginger, garlic and thyme in the oil until soft, add the butternut squash and vegetable stock, bring to the boil, season with salt and pepper then simmer for 20 minutes.

Blend the soup until smooth, then strain through a fine meshed sieve. Reheat the soup and adjust the consistency with a little vegetable stock or water if necessary and re-season with salt and pepper.

Adapted from The Independent

The basics of a traditional Thanksgiving are actually quite healthy. Turkey is a low fat, high protein meat containing good doses of zinc, iron potassium and vitamin B. Cranberries offer tons of anti-oxidants, and there is plenty to choose from in picking healthy vegetable side dishes – French beans sautéed in garlic, for example, or vitamin-packed roasted root vegetables. Butternut squash is in season, and there’s no better way to get your antioxidants, vitamins A and C and potassium. And of course a hearty salad brings all the goodness of fresh raw vegetables to your holiday table. So from a nutrition perspective, Thanksgiving can be a healthy meal with plenty of goodness packed in every bite.

But all too often we’re tempted to take the phrase “packed in” literally, using the holiday as an excuse to overindulge rather than to savor, and be thankful for, the seasonal foods that help make Thanksgiving special.

Here are a few thoughts about how you can enjoy Thanksgiving dinner without regrets:

1. Portion control. Thanksgiving is a heavy meal, so avoid the temptation to fill your entire plate. Choose sensible portions, and wait at least fifteen minutes before you decide on going back for seconds. Give your poor stomach time to tell you that you’re full. Portion control means limiting the alcohol as well – keep in mind that that extra glass of wine is not only full of calories, but will probably relax your inhibitions about helping yourself to another plate of stuffing. If you’re tempted by another glass, pour some sparkling water with a slice of lemon instead.
2. Keep it natural. The Pilgrims were eating farm fresh ingredients, and you should too. Aim for fewer dishes but concentrate on using high quality produce, organic if possible, and stay away from processed options such as stuffing mix or cranberry sauce from a jar. If you must have sweet potatoes, do bear in mind that the Pilgrims did not have packs of gooey marshmallows to melt on top. As a rule of thumb, if you have to do that to a vegetable to make it taste good, it means you don’t like it.  Pick something else.
3. Choose your carbs carefully. You really don’t need mashed potatoes AND sweet potatoes AND stuffing AND bread. Pick one, and aim for the healthier options like roasted winter squash or root vegetables rather than starchy spuds.
4. Avoid “trigger” foods. You know what foods I mean. Go ahead, have a slice of pumpkin pie, but avoid those desserts that you know will compel you to go back for more, and more, and more. Ice cream is a common one, but everyone is different – be honest with yourself and avoid anything you know will make your eyes go glazed and your self-restraint fly out the window.
5. Move. The worst thing you can do after a big meal is to collapse in turkey-induced stupor in front of the television. Take advantage of our wonderful California climate and drag the family outside for a walk after dinner.

Happy Thanksgiving!