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 |