6 Strategies for Cooking Healthier

Diet

Whether you’re hoping to lose weight or just trying to improve your overall health, the way you cook can mean the difference between you feeling energetic and getting the right kinds of nutrients, and you feeling sluggish because you’re detouring away from your usual calorie and sugar-laden ways. Just cook healthier.

There are many changes you can make to your diet that don’t have you feeling deprived. In fact, you may feel more sustained and satisfied than ever before once you implement these tips.

Some people worry that healthy means bland and flavorless. That couldn’t be further from the truth. You just need to learn how to bring out the rich flavors of foods in their more natural way than masking it with unhealthy salts and sugars.

There are six easy strategies to improve the way that you eat without vowing to deprive yourself of the foods that you want. It’s just a few simple alterations and you could be seeing changes in your health stats and energy levels easily!

#1 – Choose the Right Cooking Methods

The actual method that you cook foods in can play a big role in how healthy your meals are. Some people only focus on calories – never giving credence to healthier cooking options.

Let’s start with a big misconception people have about microwaving. We tend to view a microwave as unhealthy, but it’s primarily because of the typical foods we put in there – processed, quick and easy meals.

Of course those aren’t healthy for you! They’re packed with unrefined grains, fatty meats and sugars. But if you turned your microwave into a home for healthy vegetables, you’d see a whole new side of it.

Vegetables do best when they’re lightly cooked. A fast nuke in the microwave can heat up and soften your vegetables without you having to drain all of the nutrients from them with lengthy cooking methods.

Many things can be rapidly cooked in a microwave without having to use the same fattening oils (like butter) that you might put in a pan if you were to cook it on a stovetop instead.

The biggest problem with microwave cooking is that people don’t know how to cook more complex foods or meals in it. They only know how to melt chocolate or blow up a bag of popcorn in it – but now there are tons of books and even videos that teach you how to cook complete meals that are healthy for you in your microwave oven.

Steaming is another great way to cook healthier. Steaming lightly preserves the nutrients of the foods that you’re cooking. Of course some people steam the foods to the point where they lose their vitamins and minerals, so timing is everything.

When you steam foods, you won’t have the oils and fats that normally give foods flavor with other cooking methods. So you want to learn how to use herbs and seasonings for a natural flavor punch that won’t sabotage your health/

Baking is healthy if you choose the rights food to put into your oven. You can help foods retain their natural juices and flavor through the use of baking. You might lose some of the nutrients due to the lengthy heat required to thoroughly cook many foods, but you do get the benefit of not having to add fats to your foods while getting them to a “done” state.

Grilling is fantastic for healthier eating. Not only does your food cook without harmful fats, but the flavor that grilling imparts on your food is absolutely amazing!

Invest in a good grill that won’t be so complex to use that you dread it. Have something easy that you can use constantly. They even have little indoor grills you can use to cook healthier these days!

Boiling, frying and poaching decrease nutrients or add fat to your meals in some cases. With boiling, you are cooking at such high heat levels that all of the benefits of the foods you’re eating get lost in the water.

Frying can be done in levels of healthy or unhealthy. You can cook in solid lard, which is obviously very unhealthy, or use better oils like olive oil to fry, which is healthier.

Even poaching can sometimes drain foods of their nutrients, but it’s also healthy to cook some meats like salmon this way, so no cooking method is completely off limits – just learn how to maximize your meal quality.

The following tips can help with that aspect of it.

#2 – Cooking With Meat

Most people are not vegetarians or vegans, although it is a fast-growing segment of the population. You can certainly add meatless meals to your cooking plans and have a much healthier outcome – but some people like meat and want to continue consuming it, so you need to learn how to make it better.

First, start by choosing organic meats. You want foods that haven’t been fed tons of antibiotics and hormones or feed that isn’t healthy for them. It’s a humane issue for many, but even if it’s not for you, focus on the fact that free-range animals who have organic feed are healthier for your body.

Organic does cost a bit more than other cuts of meat, but if you’re looking at cost, think of the toll it takes on your body, and even the future medical costs you’ll have later on – due to poor choices.

Once you find meats that are cut from animals raised in a good environment, choose better cuts of meat, like those that naturally have less fat on them. A filet mignon is going to be a healthy cut of steak, but remove the bacon wrapped around it before eating it.

Lean meats – meats that have less marbling – can still be packed with flavor and juices – you just have to learn how to cook it so that it retains that flavor without drying out.

Buying beef like hamburger meat is easy because it will be labeled with the percentage of fat. You may have always bought 80/20 so that it would be juicy, but start learning how to prepare the 95/5 packs instead.

If you’re buying chicken, look for skinless cuts rather than those with the skin on. If you’re on a budget, just remove the skin at home before cooking. Generally, white meat is healthier than brown, but there’s new evidence showing brown chicken has some benefits, too.

In general, it’s best to cook fish instead of other meats. Chicken is next on the healthy scale, followed by beef and then pork. Of course there are ways to make all of these meats healthier, if you try.

#3 – Cooking With Fat

Fats are actually good for you! You shouldn’t be on a diet that eliminates fats completely. But there are good fats and bad fats – and you want to cook with the healthier options.

You want to get rid of the artery cloggers. If the fat is hard in its room temperature state, it’s not as healthy as a liquid one will be. For example, olive oil (a liquid) is healthier than a stick of butter.

Understand that a little bit of fat goes a long way in terms of moistening your foods and in giving them flavor. Consider even using spray on types of fats for fewer calories.

Select fats that aren’t packed with trans fat or saturated fat. Pick olive oil and other oils made from things like sesame or sunflower. Don’t use fats like lard from animals. Not all non-animals fats are healthy. Coconut oil and palm oils have lots of saturated fat in them.

#4 – Cooking With Grains

When you eat grains, you might be thinking you’re eating healthier. But unless those grains are whole, in their natural state, not refined and processed, then they’re less healthy.

You should be finding breads and beans that are still whole, not processed and stripped of their nutrients. It can be hard to get used to but try various types to find what tastes best to you.

Also try a new slew of grains – things you may not have ever tasted before like quinoa. Look up flavorful recipes and see how you like it. Or, if you see it on a menu at a restaurant, give it a shot!

#5 – Cooking With Vegetables

It’s been mentioned before, but the less you cook your vegetables, the better they are for you. Heat depletes them of their vitamins and minerals. So lightly steam or sauté and then eat them. You can steam veggies in a microwave oven, in fact. A healthier way to use a microwave for sure.

Better yet, eat them raw! There are many foods that taste wonderful raw, including baby spinach, turnips, cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, and more.

#6 – Tweak Your Recipes for Improved Health

You probably have some favorite recipes lying around that are your “go to” meals for things like special occasions – or even everyday life! Look at how you can make each meal healthier and over time, you’ll cut back on a lot of calories, salt and unhealthy ingredients.

For example, if a recipe calls for one egg, use double the measurements – of the egg whites only! Or if it calls for something like sour cream or cottage cheese, you don’t have to lose all of the flavor with a fat-free version, but go light or reduced fat instead.

Use fresh seasoning that you develop to your own tastes rather than seasoning packets that stuff a whole bunch of salt in them. Try using peppers for added flavor – they’re also a great way to kickstart your metabolism!

There you have it – you can cook healthier with simple changes in your methods. Give some of all of these a try for better health and wellness.

Mediterranean Diet with Olive Oil — Better for Health

Diet, Integrative Medicine

One of many studies (Eur J Clin Nutr. 2009 Aug 26) reports that a diet rich in virgin olive oil increases levels of beneficial antioxidants better than other types of diets, over a 3-year period. Increasing total plasma antioxidant capacity with olive oil in the diet is advantageous in terms of not only its preventive role for various health problems, but also weight reduction.

The evidence also suggests that eating a Mediterranean diet can help control blood sugar and associated health issues in people with diabetes. A 2020 review article in the journal Nutrients concluded that this eating style is anti-inflammatory and can support a healthier gut microbiome among other benefits.

Try switching over to olive oil as a primary source of fats in the diet. The data seem to be piling up to support its use.

If you don’t know where to start, check out our affordable starter program for the Mediterranean diet on Natural Wellness Land. A huge advantage that eating the Mediterranean way brings you is that it is a healthy way to eat over the long term. So, no more fad diets. Just maintain yourself for years eating good foods — and seeing excellent results.

Dietary Improvements In Alzheimer’s Disease?

Diet, Getting Well, Integrative Medicine

Here’s a copy of the public press release on a new study in animals that offers promise for an adjunctive dietary aid for treating Alzheimer’s disease. This is not a cure, I hasten to point out, but it helps you function at the best level you can at the point in the disease that the dementia has reached:

Healthy diet could slow or reverse early effects of Alzheimer’s disease

Patients in the early to moderate stages of Alzheimer’s Disease could have their cognitive impairment slowed or even reversed by switching to a healthier diet, according to researchers at Temple University.

In a previous study [http://www.temple.edu/newsroom/2009_2010/12/stories/alzheimers.htm], researchers led by Domenico Praticò, an associate professor of pharmacology in Temple’s School of Medicine, demonstrated that a diet rich in methionine could increase the risk of developing Alzheimer’s Disease. Methionine is an amino acid typically found in red meats, fish, beans, eggs, garlic, lentils, onions, yogurt and seeds.

“The question we asked now as a follow-up is if, for whatever reason, you had made bad choices in your diet, is there a chance you can slow down or even reverse the disease or is it too late — that there is nothing you could do,” said Praticò.

As in the previous study, the researchers fed one group of mice a diet high in methionine and another group a regular, healthy diet. After three months, they split the group receiving the methionine-rich diet into two, with one group continuing the amino-heavy diet while the second switched to the healthy diet for an additional two months.

“At the end of the study, when we looked at these mice, what we found — very surprisingly — was that switching to a more healthy diet reversed the cognitive impairment that had built up over the first three months of eating the methionine-rich diet,” said Praticò. “This improvement was associated with less amyloid plaques — another sign of the disease — in their brains.

Pratico said that the cognitive impairment that had been observed in the mice after three months on the methionine-rich diet was completely reversed after two months on the healthier diet, and they were now able to function normally.

“We believe this finding shows that, even if you suffer from the early effects of MCI or Alzheimer’s, switching to a healthier diet that is lower in methionine could be helpful in that memory capacity could be improved,” he said.

Pratico stressed that this was not a drug therapy for curing MCI or Alzheimer’s, but that it did demonstrate that a lifestyle change such as diet can improve some of the impairments that have already occurred in the brain.

“What it tells us is that the brain has this plasticity to reverse a lot of the bad things that have occurred; the ability to recoup a lot of things such as memory that were apparently lost, but obviously not totally lost,” he said.

Pratico also emphasized that the researchers believe that in addition to switching to a healthy diet, patients diagnosed with MCI or Alzheimer’s also need a regiment of physical as well as mental exercises.

“This combination won’t cure you, but we believe, as we saw in this study, that it will be able to slow down or even possibly reverse the effects on the cognitive impairment,” he said.

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The study, “Normalization of hyperhomocysteinemia improves cognitive deficits and ameliorates brain amyloidosis of a transgenic mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease,” is being published in the Journal of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (http://www.fasebj.org/). It was funded by a grant from the National Institutes of Health.

Copies of this study are available to working journalists and may be obtained by contacting Preston M. Moretz in Temple’s Office of University Communications at pmoretz@temple.edu.

Myo-Inositol for Lung Cancer Prevention?

Complementary and Alternative Medicine, Diet, Vitamins

The B vitamin-related natural substance, myo-inositol is in the news lately. Now new research suggests that changes in a set of genes that are active in smokers who go on to develop lung cancer might offer early detection and even prevention treatments. Once cancer is initiated, the factors that promote it can differ from those that initiate it.

In any event, the gene involved is called PI3K, which interacts with inositol. Patients in a trial of inositol for lung cancer prevention apparently showed reductions in the activation of the PI3K. So, inositol may tell the genetic and cellular changes that precede full expression of lung cancer to stand down and halt their progression toward disease.

Sounds worth exploring. As always, who knows if inositol would have actual clinical benefits and low risk, and it is up to each person at risk of cancer or with cancer now to decide at this point in time if the current unknowns about inositol are worth dealing with sooner rather than later (as usual, myo-inositol is widely available over the counter in health food stores). This is worth a discussion with your doctor, though, if lung cancer (or some other cancers where inositol might be helpful) is a concern for you.

Here’s the whole abstract about this latest study:

Sci Transl Med. 2010 Apr 7;2(26):26ra25.

Airway PI3K Pathway Activation Is an Early and Reversible Event in Lung Cancer Development.

Gustafson AM, Soldi R, Anderlind C, Scholand MB, Qian J, Zhang X, Cooper K, Walker D, McWilliams A, Liu G, Szabo E, Brody J, Massion PP, Lenburg ME, Lam S, Bild AH, Spira A.

Section of Computational Biomedicine, Department of Medicine and Pulmonary Center, Boston University Medical Center, Boston, MA 02118, USA.

Abstract

Although only a subset of smokers develop lung cancer, we cannot determine which smokers are at highest risk for cancer development, nor do we know the signaling pathways altered early in the process of tumorigenesis in these individuals. On the basis of the concept that cigarette smoke creates a molecular field of injury throughout the respiratory tract, this study explores oncogenic pathway deregulation in cytologically normal proximal airway epithelial cells of smokers at risk for lung cancer. We observed a significant increase in a genomic signature of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) pathway activation in the cytologically normal bronchial airway of smokers with lung cancer and smokers with dysplastic lesions, suggesting that PI3K is activated in the proximal airway before tumorigenesis. Further, PI3K activity is decreased in the airway of high-risk smokers who had significant regression of dysplasia after treatment with the chemopreventive agent myo-inositol, and myo-inositol inhibits the PI3K pathway in vitro. These results suggest that deregulation of the PI3K pathway in the bronchial airway epithelium of smokers is an early, measurable, and reversible event in the development of lung cancer and that genomic profiling of these relatively accessible airway cells may enable personalized approaches to chemoprevention and therapy. Our work further suggests that additional lung cancer chemoprevention trials either targeting the PI3K pathway or measuring airway PI3K activation as an intermediate endpoint are warranted.

Tea for High Blood Pressure? Hibiscus Tea…

Diet, Holistic Medicine Updates

Studies have been accumulating to show that drinking a few cups of hibiscus tea daily can significantly lower elevated blood pressure in people with pre- and mild hypertension. In a paper that appeared in the Journal of Nutrition in February 2010, Tufts University researchers reported an average drop of over 7 mm HG for hibiscus versus only 1.3 mm Hg for placebo in these types of hypertensive people. The effect was stronger for systolic than for diastolic blood pressure. This is a potentially mild and helpful adjunct for treatment of this common and dangerous condition. Talk with your doctor, monitor your blood pressure, and see if this is right for you.

The great thing about hibiscus tea is that unless you are allergic to it, it is a benign step to take to help in your overall program of controlling your blood pressure. Yes, diet, exercise, salt avoidance, smoking cessation, and certain natural supplements can all help lower elevated blood pressure too.