Put a Little Spice in Your Life!

   While reading articles on spices, I came across interesting information on how certain herbs and spices fight cancer.  This was interesting to me because on May 24th I celebrated my 5 year "cancerversary." (5 years cancer-free!) There were several sites making lots of claims. One website, The Cancer Project, seemed to me to be pretty credible.  In it's "Ask An Expert" section, it talked about garlic, onions, turmeric, and ginger.  I had seen garlic, turmeric, and ginger mentioned in other articles.  

   According to the answer for a question about the health benefits in garlic,  "The protective chemicals in garlic and onions appear to block carcinogens from reaching their targets, destroy cancer cells, and suppress tumor growth." One of the quantifiers was that if you cooked the garlic it lost this property. This can be reduced by crushing the garlic and letting it stand for 10 minutes before cooking.  Check out the link on Herbs and Spices at The Cancer Project for more info.

     Face it, eating the same old thing everyday is not fun or motivating when it comes to trying to eat healthy.  Adding spices to your foods can help you feel more satisfied with your meals.  Something as simple as sprinkling cinnamon on apple slices, chopping up jalapenos to add to low-fat sour cream to use as a dip, or using a baked garlic clove to spread on bread (instead of butter) can put a little spice in your meal.  A couple of good articles to check out for lots of spicy suggestions are "Spice Up Sandwiches"  and "Get Saucy."
   So if "variety's the very spice of life that gives it all its flavor" (William Cowper), then the variety of spices is what helps keep life healthy!

   

Try Something New-Rhubarb!

    

Rhubarb...I've heard of it, I've seen it in the grocery store, and I've had a piece of rhubarb/strawberry pie.  My roommate in college loved rhubarb cake.  It's a vegetable.  That's pretty much my knowledge of rhubarb.

   The other day, I mentioned it during a meeting and today I happen to see "rhubarb" in the title of an article listed on the news site I read.  When I clicked on the article, "Red Stalks of Rhubarb," I was interested in the list of recipes, both sweet and savory. This prompted me to research further.
   I found the site The Rhubarb Compendium. (Side note: Learned a new word! Compendium, according to Webster's, means a brief summary of a field of knowledge.) This site is truly amazing to meander through. In addition to describing rhubarb and giving over 300 recipe links, it also tells about it's medical use.  Be sure to use the site index to navigate the "brief summary" of rhubarb.  Who knew there were Rhubarb festivals?!
   On a nutritional note, rhubarb is a healthy vegetable.  It contains no fat or sodium.  It has vitamin C, calcium, and fiber. It really is a versatile food, and I think I may be motivated enough to incorporate it to a few of my summer meals.  Stay tuned!

How to Become Supermarket Savvy

   We all love to go grocery shopping...NOT! Visiting the supermarket will probably be absent from most "Top Ten Things I like to Do" lists. This week's WW topic involved how to outsmart the supermarket.  Many members shared their tips and were the same ones that the lesson mentioned.  They were things like make a list and stick to it; beware of the end caps; stay away from certain isles; and fill your cart with the "good stuff" (aka Power Foods).  I found a few articles on the WW website that elaborate on the topic.  Check out Outsmart the Supermarket and Supermarket Psychology.
   Some advice my mom gave me was "Don't go to the grocery store hungry."  That has stuck with me and I try to follow it.  Even if I need to stop by to pick up a few things after work, I usually eat a string cheese or low-fat yogurt from my "snack stash" in the break room fridge before I go.
   "If you're not planning for success, you're planning for failure."  I see that quote every time I go in a fellow teacher's room.  That applies to grocery shopping, too. Plan your list by where the food is located in your favorite store.  Stick to your list.  (use the Plan-Friendly Shopping Guide to give you an idea of staples to purchase to help you with your healthy eating.) Plan a few meals for the week and add the ingredients to your list.  Plan to make a produce run during the week...you don't want to buy a lot of fresh produce all at once to have it go bad before you can enjoy it.  The time you spend planning is an investment to help you "Outsmart the Supermarket."