Nutrifact 5: To cook or not to cook: Vegetables

I've returned...and this time as an RD. I passed!! I completed my bachelor's degree and internship and passed the exam...which are the qualifications for becoming a Registered Dietitian...but I'm not done yet! I'm currently working on my master's and plan to graduate in December.

Because of my frenzied studying the past few months before I took the exam, our dinners have mostly been taking advantage of the frozen section of the new Trader Joe's in town. However, I am now on here to write a blog post that has been insanely long in coming.

Have you ever wondered if those green beans are still as nutritiously wonderful after they're been simmering for half an hour? Should I be eating those carrot sticks raw? I'm here to share what I've learned about this topic so you can squeeze the most out of your vegetables!

Vegetables contain many wonderful minerals, water-soluble vitamins, antioxidants, and phytochemicals. However, these can be lost if they are cooked certain ways, such as in water or for long amounts of time. I read a few research articles to try to understand this issue. As an RD, it is very important to me that what I say is evidence-based.

In 2008, a study was performed to determine what happens to carrots, zucchini, and broccoli when they are boiled, steamed, or fried. Interestingly, the antioxidant capacity of the vegetables increased after all three cooking methods. This is likely due to the softening of the vegetable's structure, allowing the antioxidants to be more readily released in our digestive tracts. However, boiling and steaming better preserved the antioxidants than frying. Also, all three methods reduced the amount of vitamin C in the vegetables. This is to be expected, however, because vitamin C is very sensitive to cooking.

In contrast, a 2012 study on the effects of cooking on kale discovered that this vegetable in the cabbage family loses most of its antioxidant activity after cooking (vitamin C, polyphenols, and beta-carotene in this case). They concluded that vegetables in this family may be best eaten raw or with little processing.

So now it was starting to get confusing...which vegetables should I cook and which should I not?

After a little more digging I found that, in general, the nutrient availability of vegetables increases after they are cooked for a short amount of time and with little or no water.

Now, I know there are some people who would want to have a chart on their refrigerator that says exactly which vegetables to eat raw and which to cook and how to cook them the best way. However, in my mind this is complicating things way too much.

My goal is to make eating healthy a simple matter. 

In my opinion, the best way to eat your vegetables is to eat them. Too many people shy away from vegetables to tell them that the only way they should eat kale is raw.

Have fun with your vegetables! Buy different ones every time. Slice them up and try them raw. Saute them in a little olive oil and salt and pepper. Roast them with some grated cheese. Pop them in the microwave with a teensy bit of water. The point is to eat them and to eat a variety.

The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics suggests the following tips for cooking vegetables:

-Clean your thick-skinned vegetables under running water instead of soaking them.
-Steam instead of boiling vegetables. Cooking vegetables in water causes their nutrients to leach into the water, which is then discarded.
-If you do prefer to cook vegetables in water, freeze the water for later use in soups and sauces and such.
-Microwave. This may sound strange at first, but microwaving your vegetables actually allows for a very short cooking time, which maximizes nutrient retention.

I agree with these suggestions. To make it even more simple...don't submerge and don't overcook. If you can remember these two pointers, you'll be golden!

So get out there and try some new veggies!

Home-Roasted Salsa: Preserving the Remnants of Summer

It seems everyone has their own version of salsa. It's one of those recipes that, once made often and long enough, takes on the sacred status of a family heirloom.

I've made this one for a while now...developed in my mom's kitchen a few years ago simply by standing with the pantry door open, pondering my personal favorite qualities of a salsa.

Roasted. Medium spicy. Fresh. And different.

Home-Roasted Salsa
1/2 onion, layers separated (add more if you wish...I have to minimize the onion due to Ryan's dislike of it)
3 cloves garlic, sliced
15 medium smallish tomatoes (or whatever equivalent you care to use--these came from my garden)
3 jalapeños, seeded
1-2 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
Cilantro, 2 handfuls
Cumin, enough to fit in the small part of your hand when cupped
Salt, 2 pinches

Sauté the onion and garlic until soft in a frying pan heated with a little olive oil. Remove into blender. Halve the tomatoes and blacken slightly in the frying pan with a little more olive oil.

(The way I started out doing this was on my mother's gas stovetop. If you have one, skewer the tomatoes without halving them and roast over the flame. Carefully.)

Remove into blender. Add the remaining ingredients. Blend, pulsing until it reaches the desired consistency. Taste and add adobo sauce if you want it spicier. Remember...it may get spicier as it sits in the fridge.

Now I made this batch with my new Ninja blender. Be careful...as it turned my salsa into tomato juice rather more rapidly than I expected.

Nutrifact 4: Detox Debunked

Being a near-dietitian, I find it incumbent upon me to give this blog a healthy spin. There are many nutrition issues I would like to discuss at some point, but one that has been particularly on my mind lately is the Detox Diet.

First of all, let me just clarify that a diet does not entail weight loss. We are all on a diet. Whether it's a diet of McDonald's hamburgers or vegetable juices...it still classifies as a diet. Whatever you normally eat is your diet.

The detox diet comes in all shapes and sizes and everyone has heard of a different juice or smoothie or liquid fast that benefits your body in all kinds of miraculous ways! People usually grab hold of the idea as another elusive quick fix. This is just another example of how the world of nutrition can be extremely confusing. Well, the most recent Food and Nutrition magazine by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics included an article about Detoxification written by (who else?) an RD. (Registered Dietitian...which is what I will be in two or three months when I pass the exam!)

Robin Foroutan, MS, RD, delves into this difficult topic without fear. She starts by defining detoxification as "the biochemical process that transforms non-water-soluble toxins and metabolites into water-soluble compounds that can be excreted in urine, sweat, bile or stool."

This basically means that your body has a process that turns waste products from metabolism and external toxins into forms that can be eliminated from the body. The intermediate stage between the toxin's first form and the form that can is excreted is a free radical.

So this process can go wrong in two different ways. Either the body can't keep up with all the toxins entering the body, resulting in extra toxins getting deposited in the body's tissues. Or the body lacks enough enzymes to transform the intermediate free radicals into the excretable form, resulting in extra free radicals floating around.

So what is a toxin? When the word "toxin" is used in this sense, it generally refers to pesticides, food dyes, additives, and chemical preservatives that are in almost every single food we find on the shelves. Metabolic wastes are basically whatever is leftover after you have gotten everything useful out of whatever you ingested. This is normal. This is the very reason WHY we have an exit at the end of our digestive tract and kidneys that usher leftovers out of the blood and down the tubes.

For example, when you consume protein, you are consuming something that is made up of a bunch of molecules that contain the element nitrogen. Once our body digests these, ammonia is formed from the left over nitrogen. Our bodies can't do anything useful with ammonia and it is toxic. So the liver takes over and converts it to urea, which is much less toxic and can be excreted through the kidneys.

Look at you...learning nutritional biochemistry! :)

In general, the resiliency of our bodies allows us to eat strange diets for a small amount of time without suffering too greatly. One diet I would classify as strange is the juice diet. If you use this diet for a day or two to mentally prepare yourself for a healthy eating lifestyle change, it won't cause much physical harm. (Unless, of course, you have diabetes or blood sugar issues! Please do not attempt any new diet without consulting your doctor!) But basically a juice fast is doing nothing but drinking simple sugars (carbohydrates that are more quickly digested) without the benefits of the fiber that is in the whole fruit or vegetable. You will either suffer through a series of blood sugar highs and lows or you will have to drink a lot of this high-calorie substance to feel full.

Another detox diet is one containing herbal supplements. Generally the ones promoted for detoxification mean they enhance your body's own detoxifying system...meaning extra excretion. Think toilet time.

Another detox diet is only eating raw fruits and vegetables. Unfortunately, many vegetables contain nutrients that are much, much more useful to the body after they have been cooked. (I have been asked about this topic recently and intend to make this my next Nutrifact!)

So the question is...does your body need help doing something that it is already designed to do?

It is my opinion that detox diets are a waste of time and money. However, increasing the amount of fruits and vegetables you consume is never a bad idea and will help your body's digestive and excretion system maintain itself.

If you have any comments or questions, please feel free to bring them up. I would also appreciate any nutrition topic ideas that you would like me to discuss!

Sources:
http://www.foodandnutritionmag.org/defining-detox
http://nutrition411.com/component/k2/item/113-detox-diets-truth-or-fiction
My biochemistry notes

Two Ice Creams: Bailey's Chocolate Chunk and Roasted Banana with Nutella Flecks

My dietetic internship may have been just stressful enough to keep me off of here, but I am not going to let graduate school take my blog away from me. Needless to say, I graduated! No, not back in May, but after the summer session. I have been thoroughly enjoying my couple weeks off before I jump back into the academic world.

What better way to celebrate summer but to make some decadent ice cream?

Bailey's Chocolate Chunk
Roasted Banana with Nutella Flecks

The first is a traditional custard-base flavored with Bailey's or whichever Irish cream you prefer...I used Ryan's...shhhh....

The second is more of an ice milk since it has no cream.

So here we go!

Bailey's Chocolate Chunk, adapted from She Makes and Bakes
Makes about 2 quarts

For the ice cream:
2 cups heavy cream
1 cup Bailey's Irish Cream
1 cup milk (I used 1%)
1 cup sugar, divided
Pinch of salt
5 egg yolks
1 tablespoon vanilla

In a medium saucepan, combine the heavy cream, Bailey's, milk, salt, and 1/2 cup sugar. Heat over medium, stirring frequently, until it comes to a boil. Let it boil for one minute.

Let me interject here. I'm not sure if I can think of a time I have made ice cream with this method without it boiling over. It just takes so darn long for the cream to heat up that I start getting lackadaisical about it and before I know it I hear the dreaded fizzing of cream burning on my electric cooktop. So, speaking from experience, here's what you do if that happens:
If the handles don't have cream bubbling over them, grab the pot and move it off the heat. If the handles are covered, then use hot pads or paper towels or your apron. Turn off the heat. Then take a super quick estimate of however much spilled over...mine's usually about 1/2 - 1 cup. Then use rags or paper towels to wipe up the mess before it hardens. The leftover scum will have to wait til the cooktop cools down. Then add half milk and half cream back into the mixture, use a different burner, and watch it like a hawk until it boils.

So while the milk mixture is heating, whisk together the egg yolks, the other 1/2 cup sugar, and vanilla until thick and pale. After it has boiled for one minute, slowly pour a steady stream of it into the egg mixture, whisking constantly. This is called tempering. Once you have poured 2/3 of the Bailey's mixture into the eggs while whisking, slowly pour the egg mixture back into the pan and reheat over medium heat. Stir constantly with a wooden spoon for a few minutes until the mixture thickens and coats the back of the spoon. Remove from heat and pour it into a large bowl.

Now, if you did a poor job of tempering, you'll have some scrambled egg bits in there and you'll want to strain it as you pour it into the bowl. Also, I like to set the bowl in an ice bath to help it cool down faster. Once it's cooled off for a bit (maybe stop and stir it a few times every so often), cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and place in the fridge to cool for 2-3 hours or overnight.

Once the ice cream mixture is cold, churn it according to the manufacturer's directions. During the last few minutes of churning, sprinkle in about 4-6 oz chopped dark chocolate. Scoop the ice cream out of the maker and into a bowl. Freeze it for several hours or overnight before serving. 

Alright, still with me? Just one more! This one was a little easier.

Roasted Banana with Nutella Flecks, adapted from Chocolate and Chillies

4 bananas (ripe but not overly ripe), sliced into 1/2 inch pieces
2/3 cup packed dark brown sugar
2 tbsp unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
3 cups 1% milk (The recipe called for whole, but I only had 1%...it turned out great...and healthier)
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp coarse salt

Preheat oven to 400 F. While oven is heating, place the sliced bananas, brown sugar and butter in a baking dish. Toss well. Bake for about 30 minutes, stirring once, or until bananas are browned and cooked through.

Scrape the bananas into a food processor.  Add milk, sugar, vanilla and coarse salt.  Process until smooth.  Transfer the mixture into a bowl and store in the fridge until chilled (about 3 hours or overnight).  Once chilled give it a quick whisk and process according to your ice cream maker's instructions. While it is churning, heat up about 3/4 cup Nutella in the microwave just until melted. In the last few minutes of churning, drizzle it in! Freeze about 2-4 hours.

If it is in the freezer for longer than this, it will become rock hard due to its low fat content. So you may want to plan to let it sit out for about 30-60 minutes before serving.

Surprisingly, the Roasted Banana Ice Cream was everyone's favorite. I say surprisingly because the Bailey's Chocolate Chunk is richer and has a better mouth feel. But if I make a healthier option that people actually prefer?? I'd say that's a dietetic success.

Can you spot me?? :)

Wish me luck as I start classes on Wednesday and study for the RD (Registered Dietitian) Exam!