A Tour of My Favorite Foods

A few weeks ago one of my many favorite clients asked  “why don’t you blog about things you like?”  So here are a few things I frequently recommend, some of which you may already know.  I currently do not receive any type of compensation from any of these companies.

Nut Butters:

I do think nut butters are my favorite food – peanut butter and cashew butter in particular.  Making your own with the Vita-mix is the best option but if you don’t have one my favorite brand of peanut butter is Crème Nut made by a small company in Michigan.  My favorite cashew butter, which I recently discovered is Artisana – pure dessert on a spoon.

Tea:

I drink a lot of green tea and decided the bagged was just not satisfying enough.  I splurged and bought the Art of Tea one day and have not looked back - ordering off their web site is much more economical than buying it at Whole paychecks as Jeffrey calls it.  I recently bought the Eisai’s Choice Sencha Green Tea and the Holiday Berry Green Tea, which is currently on sale.  Mixing them together is the perfect combination.

Dark Chocolate:

I’ve tasted dark chocolate from all over the world and some of my clients have brought some from far away places.  Seems like I am always trying new brands.  A few weeks back I bought Green and Black 85% and was blown away by how rich and smooth it tasted.  I highly recommend a few squares a day for those flavonoids which lower inflammation in the body.

Cocoa:

A few years back I discovered Marie Belle and have not found anything comparable since.  Lower sugar dark chocolate cocoa, which mixes easily with milk for a great satisfying cup of hot chocolate.  They ship from New York but now you can buy from Williams-Sonoma to save on shipping.

“Faux” Crackers:

One of my clients introduced me to Skinny Crisps and I have not found anything comparable.  Gluten-free “crackers” made of almonds, flax seeds, and olive oil (something you never see in a cracker).  My favorite flavors are Plain Jane, White Sesame and Seeded.  A great substitute for bread or when you need to nosh on something.  They go well with cheese, guacamole and hummus.

I’ll save the rest for a future blog.  Enjoy!

EAT LIKE ME

Some exciting news came across my path this week.  Self magazine asked me to audition for their column “Eat Like Me’ in which a Registered Dietitian blogs a few times a day about what she eats, how she shops, cooks, etc.

I heard that I was in the finalists along with 3 other very talented R.D.’s, one of which is a friend of mine.  One thought I had was “maybe they should let us all share the job?”  It would be so flavorful to get 4 perspectives on eating versus just one.

A successful client of mine told me one of her mantras:  “I’m going to do the job till I have the job.”  She told me this that last week and guess what? She got the job she wanted.

I thought this was a brilliant idea and since many of you are always asking me what I eat I thought – what better time to start than now? So here it goes for today.

A Day in the Life of Susan….

I woke up at 6:30 am to get to the gym.  Since I know it’s important to have some protein first off I ate about ½ cup of 2 % cottage cheese and a third of a banana before I was out the door.

When I got home from the gym I had:

A combo of cottage cheese/plain organic yogurt with 1 tbsp. of ground flax seed, and  1/2 cup of mixed berries and a handful of cashews on top.

Then off to the Santa Monica farmer’s market.

I’m a bit spoiled since I can walk there in about 5 minutes.  My first stop was purchasing organic pink lady apples for my lunches. Then I went to my favorite vegetable stand and purchased:

• black kale which I usually stir-fry with a little olive oil for one of my green veggies
• pea pods which I eat as part of my lunches (a favorite since childhood) and a crown of broccoli.

Next I went to the stand that sells:

• Mexican guavas, a delicacy I recently discovered which tastes tropical like something you would eat in Hawaii
• One basket each of organic strawberries, blackberries
• A bunch of carrots

And finally a dozen of the pastured (ones from grass-fed cage-free chickens) eggs from Healthy Happy Farms.

Are you still with me?

Before leaving the house again I had a bowl of Greek yogurt with some walnuts and the blackberries I had gotten at the Farmer's market.

I had to drop Jeffrey off at a photo shoot so afterward I thought I’d treat myself to shopping at the Santa Monica Co-op which was recently revamped and was told it had a great look and feel.

At the Cooportunity…

Immediately I realized this was a cool fun store.  On the first aisle they had bulk items.

Although I love peanut butter, I don’t like peanuts.  However, I love raw Spanish peanuts which I discovered at one of my babysitting jobs in high school so a bag of those went in my cart.

I bought a few bananas and then went to the prepared foods counter.  The Co-op sells the best chana masala which are garbanzo beans made with the Indian Spice garam masala.  It contains limited ingredients and is a spicy treat to eat with your plain Greek Yogurt.

Next I hit the dairy section and bought a few small Fage 2% yogurts for the office and 2 Strauss Organic Whole Milk yogurts for home.  I don’t advise nonfat yogurt since it has less protein and more carbohydrate.

They had ground flax seed on sale so I bought a few bags of the Spectrum and then on to the tea aisle where I purchased Uncle Lee’s Green Tea in bulk.  It is a great quality loose leaf green tea. 

Although my favorite is Matcha Green tea I can’t bring myself to spend $20 for a little bag of it.

A few cans of premium cat food for George (my 17 year old geriatric cat) since I don’t want to make a second trip to the regular store and one package of the Raw Wheat Free Crusts for the office.  Those are the “faux seed crackers” I have my clients try to substitute for bread – crunchy, satisfying and a great thing to have with guacamole or hummus as a snack.

I’m about to have my snack of natural cashew butter and an apple and who knows what dinner will bring?

So there’s the first entry in “Eat Like Me.”  If you go the Self Magazine web site and sign up it starts in about a month.  They will have each of the 4 R.D.’s doing different days and then the readers vote.  I encourage you to go there and see what transpires and in the meantime follow me here to see what my days of eating are like.  I’m excited to see where this journey takes me and my loyal readers.

Green Tea and Me

If you had asked me 2 months ago if I drink green tea I would have replied:  I only drink black tea and avidly drink a pot a day.  Although I know green tea was better for your health, it was not as appealing to me.

All that changed recently when I got a bad allergy attack with sinus issues.  For some odd reason my black tea did not interest me.  We had a few packets of green tea from the Naturals Food Expo so I tried them and felt better.  In fact, I felt so much better I went out and bought a few boxes of green tea and haven’t looked back.

What are the studies showing regarding green tea?  It contains important polyphenols called Catechins.  Polyphenols are antioxidants that are known for reducing heart disease and cancer since they can lower cholesterol levels and inflammation in the body.

Green tea also contains a bonus polyphenol called EGCG which has been associated with reduced risk of prostate, stomach and colon cancer.

A few studies show a slightly elevated metabolism from drinking green tea although this benefit is still under investigation and questionable.  I’m not questioning the studies since my clothes are fitting looser.

This week I posed the question on twitter:  what is your favorite green tea? Of all 730 people I received one response- proof that not many people are drinking it.

So far the brands I preferred are Tazo Zen, Allegro Organic Decaf and Pomegranate and Matcha green tea which is supposedly the cream of the crop type in Japan and considerably more expensive.  A usual box of green tea is 3-5 dollars and the Matcha was 20 dollars although it came it a beautiful tin and I savored each cup.

Give green tea a try – hopefully you won’t have to be sick to be willing.  The benefits are compelling.  And if you want a few months of black tea give me a call – I have a stock of it I won’t be consuming anytime soon.

Peel over Pill for Prevention

After attending the Natural Foods Expo in Los Angeles you might have been led to believe the way to eating “naturally” is to pop a pill or drink a beverage laced with green tea extract, quercetin, or Curcumin.  These hot breaking news nutrients can have tremendous benefits for your health.

But are taking supplements really “natural?”  Can we take what is in Mother Nature and replicate the benefits in a pill?  So far the research is leaning towards eating your nutrients.  However, the lure of a magic pill for benefiting your health remains.  Here’s what we know right now:

So far we’ve identified about 13,000 nutrients in foods known as phytochemicals or phytonutrients.  Phytochemicals are substances that plants naturally contains to protect themselves against sunlight, bacteria or viruses and oxidation – kind of like a natural sunscreen. Simply put, once we eat these plants, our immunity increases, and we become more resistant to diseases such as cancer, heart disease and other medical problems.

It is estimated there are over 100 phytochemicals in just one serving of a fruit or vegetable.  For example, a carrot can contain as many as 100 different carotenoids, whereas a beta carotene supplement has only one type of carotenoid.  Furthermore, you receive the benefit of the fiber and fullness of the actual food when you eat the carrot.

Apples contain the phytonutrient quercetin.  Extensive research by food scientist Rui Hai Liu at Cornell University found that both the apple skin and the fruit contain nutrients to help lower cholesterol and inhibit or kill cancer cells.

Curcumin is responsible for the yellow color in the popular Indian curry spice turmeric.  Known for being an anti-inflammatory agent and antioxidant, some research shows turmeric can be helpful in preventing development of medical issues related to oxidative damage such as cancer and heart disease.

UCLA Neurologist John Ringman studied Curcumin supplements in Alzheimer’s patients.  The study results showed no differences in patients treated with Curcumin supplements versus a placebo.  However, this study and others do show Curcumin has poor or uncertain absorption when taken in supplement form versus used as a food spice.

Tea contains a type of phytonutrient called EGCG.  Green tea contains the most EGCG of all the varieties of tea.  However, all tea leaves are good sources.  EGCG has been linked with a lower risk of heart disease and lower cholesterol levels. It is also associated with reduced rates of prostate, stomach and colon cancer.  However, studies to date show drinking the tea has the most potent and effective benefits.

The discovery of nutrients in foods is ongoing.  The research shows eating your phytochemicals through food instead of popping a pill is currently the path to health and definitely more “natural.”  I guess Mom was right when she told us to eat a balanced diet with a variety of fruits and vegetables.  Make sure to consume a mixture of color to obtain your phytonutrient needs.  Remember, it’s prevention, not prescription!

Quercetin and Resveratrol?

Two buzz words in nutrition and supplement research – quercetin and resveratrol.  What is the lowdown?  Should you take a supplement or just eat the food?

The simple answer is unclear.  Quercetin is a type of antioxidant known as a polyphenol.  Two categories of polyphenols are flavonoids and non-flavonoids.  A flavonoid is a pigment in food that has important health benefits.  Besides antioxidant activity, flavonoids are known for their prevention of heart disease and cancer, since they can lower cholesterol levels and inflammation in the body.

Quercetin is found in the greatest concentration in apple skins, but can also be found in red grapes, green tea and buckwheat.  Several positive studies were done with animals, including one in which quercetin supplemented mice were less likely to get the flu.  Human studies to date have been inconclusive on supplement usage.

Resveratrol is a non-flavonoid polyphenol that is found in grapes and grape skins.  It has strong anti-inflammatory effects in the body which can be helpful in the prevention of atherosclerosis.  Wine drinkers tout they are getting their resveratrol for the day.  However, you would have to consume 180 glasses of wine per day to obtain the amount necessary for health.  Studies are also inconclusive on supplement usage.  More importantly, many supplements tested do not contain the amount of resveratrol that is stated on the bottle.

Bottom line?  Until more research is in, eat apples and grapes, and drink green tea.  You will be receiving the quercetin and resveratrol your body can readily use and absorb and there is nothing to lose except bad health…and maybe the flu.