How To Eat Better

     A diet emphasizing plant-based whole foods
is an excellent objective.  If you’ve taken a turn in
that direction, you deserve congratulations.  
Fortunately, that’s not the end of the road for
those wanting the best nutrition available.  As it
happens, there are clever ways to squeeze
more healthful nutrition from common foods by
learning how to select, store, and prepared
them.

     If ready to take another step toward optimal
nutrition then get a copy of “
How to Eat Better:
How to Shop, Store & Cook to Make Any Food
a Superfood” by  James Wong.  As you first
open the book, turn up the
Rocky Balboa theme
music.  Before finishing the first 20 pages you
will be empowered.  At that point, the book
becomes a guidebook to be read selectively
from topics in the table of contents.  Just flip to
the pages of personal interest for a selected
vegetable or fruit and prepare to be delightfully
amazed, educated and entertained. While the
word superfood in the title may sound like an
exaggerated claim, don’t be surprised if you
soon discover it’s actually a fair claim when it
comes to the potential nutrition that can be
unlocked.  In 224 pages, the book brings
together the information needed to understand
how to incorporate the best nutrition using
ordinary whole foods.

    Although the greatest opportunity for
enhancing nutrition is with vegetables and fruits,
for the meat eaters in the family, there are
several recipes that could be easily modified by
adding meats to accommodate those needing
an easier transition to a plant-based diet.  
Understandably, acquiring a fondness for new
flavors may take time.

     Before dismissing the book as just another
way to make eating more complicated, let me
set your mind at ease.  Assuming you already
eat a few vegetables and fruits each day the
approach suggested will not require a major
diet makeover.  Rather, it’s about tweaking
plant-based whole foods you already like with
small practical changes. In many cases, the
increased nutritional advantage gained from
making these easy changes literally transforms
some common foods into the superfood class.

     A major strength of the book is the author’s
reliance on credible published research rather
than exaggerated claims about ‘astonishing
breakthroughs’.  In just two pages the book
explains the different types of nutrition studies
and what each represents in terms of the
research quality.  In this regard, the book is
clear about what is established facts and what
is suggested by science but not fully established.

  The book can serve as either a reference for
improving the nutritional value of selected foods
or as a cookbook.  As a reference, the book
covers twelve vegetable groups, ten fruit groups
and a miscellaneous category that includes
grains, beverages, beans, etc.  For each food,
group there are usually two or three easy to
prepare recipes.  Actually, a third use of the
book is personal entertainment.  My first
experience with the book was flipping through
the colorful pages, stopping for a moment to
read a bit and then thinking, “that’s amazing, I
didn’t know that.”

     Many food myths are discussed.  Typical of
the advice is an explanation for why local foods
are not always the best and why ‘processed’
does not necessarily exclude the possibility for
foods being nutritious.  In some cases, the
processing can make foods safer, more
digestible, or more nutritious.

     A sample of ideas from the book follows.  
These are typical of the gems creatively
condensed into this very readable and useable
book.

  • Don’t store tomatoes in the refrigerator
unless they are fully ripened.  A chemical
reaction needed to produce lycopene doesn’t
happen in tomatoes stored below 50°F.  When
stored at room temperature for a week they can
almost double their lycopene content.  Among
the benefits, the extra lycopene can lead to
significantly higher levels of pro-collagen, the
protein that gives skin the firmness of youth.  

  • Short-grain white rice raises blood sugar
very rapidly. In contrast, black rice provides
more than 14 times the polyphenols which puts
it in the elite class of foods like blueberries for
their antioxidants - and, at a fraction of the cost
of blueberries.

  • Brussels sprouts, kale, cabbage, and
cauliflower are not only nutritious, they also have
cancer-fighting properties. The finer you chop
these vegetables, the better they get.  While
cooking can inhibit the release of nutrition,
adding 1 tsp mustard powder per pound of
cruciferous vegetables fixes the problem.

  • Storing apples on the windowsill where they
catch the sun can increase their vitamin C
content by six times without affecting the flavor.

  • The glycemic index of pasta can be lowered
by cooking and chilling. This converts part of the
carbohydrates into resistant starch which isn’t
burned as calories.

  • Putting white button mushrooms in the sun
(exposed to UV light) briefly can increase their
vitamin D by up to 1000%

  • The available antioxidants in sweet potato
skin can be up to four times higher than the
flesh. The purple variety can contain three times
the antioxidants of blueberries.

  • Microwaving beets increases their nutrition.
Boiling or roasting lowers available nutrients.

  • Using uncooked rolled oats to make a
breakfast cereal like bircher muesli, significantly
decrease the number of calories.

  • Green bananas can be used in recipes as a
replacement for other starchy foods.   They
contain over 20 times the resistant starch of
yellow ones and next to no sugar.  Now that’s a
nice low-calorie food!

  • Purple sweet potatoes contain 3 times the
antioxidants of blueberries.

  • Cook broccoli with a teaspoon of added
mustard and send its levels of cancer-fighting
potential skyrocketing ten-fold.

  • If you cool potatoes after cooking, they have
more resistant fiber. When reheated, they don't
lose the fiber benefits.

  Almost every food can be made more
nutritious by way of thoughtful selection, storage
or preparation.  Making these opportunities
easy to understand and apply makes the book a
must-have reference for anyone serious about
improving their diet.

      While the science of nutrition isn’t perfect,  it’
s the best guide we have.  For example, we
know that the underlying cause of most chronic
diseases like cardiovascular disease, type 2
diabetes, cancer, and neurodegenerative
disorders involves oxidative stress and
inflammation. We also know that we can
increase the antioxidants circulating in our body
through diet. At the population level science tell
us we are on the right track.  However, at the
individual level, an explanation for exactly how
and why the benefit occurs remains a work in
progress.  While waiting for the science to be
perfect is one strategy, I favor spending my
grocery money on plant-based whole foods that
have demonstrated benefits even if some
unknowns remain.

   “How To Eat Better” is definitely a cookbook
with a difference.  It’s also a reference book with
a difference.  The easy to read layout and
colorful pages are a plus.  If reluctant to
purchase a personal copy, the local library often
has a copy on the shelf.  In my opinion, it’s a
book that pays for itself the first few times you
use one of the many nutrition-enhancing
suggestions it provides.

  For those reading the book, thanks in
advance for passing along nutrition enhancing
tricks you use that the book missed.  Even
better, bring your ideas along for our next walk.  
Morning exercise with friends and a chat about
creative food ideas gets me pumped.  Really,
when life’s this good, who needs
Rocky Balboa
theme music?

     
Nancy Neighbors, MD
      Huntsville, Alabama