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The Olive Oil Hunter News #19

Posted on by The Olive Oil Hunter

Squash and Carrot Soup Recipe, Spotlight on Turmeric, Add a Microplane Grater to Your Kitchen, Anti-inflammatory and Antioxidant Turmeric Properties, and Limiting Dangerous Downtime

I love a dish that’s easy to make yet tastes complex with layers of flavor and, even better, is also comforting on a cold day. The first recipe in this issue of The Olive Oil Hunter Newsletter delivers on all counts. The directions for many vegetable-based soups suggest boiling the vegetables before puréeing them, but that technique is no match for roasting to bring out all their natural sweetness, which, in turn, adds richness to the finished dish. Because I so want to introduce you to turmeric, often under appreciated in American cooking, I’m also including a second recipe that features it—chai masala, an amazing spice mix that makes it easy to create your own chai tea (or coffee) at home. Enjoy!

Squash and Carrot Soup

  • The Olive Oil Hunter News #19 Squash and Carrot Soup

    This dish is easy to make yet tastes complex with layers of flavor and, even better, is also comforting on a cold day. I recommend roasting your vegetables—before puréeing them—for maximum flavor and enhanced natural sweetness.

    Ingredients

    • 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
    • 2 pounds squash, such as butternut, acorn, or Hubbard, halved, seeded, and cut into large pieces
    • 4 large carrots, scrubbed and quartered
    • 1 onion, quartered
    • 1-1/2 cups chicken or vegetable broth, homemade or low-sodium canned
    • 1 teaspoon cinnamon, preferably Vietnamese, plus more to taste
    • 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
    • 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg, plus more to taste
    • Freshly ground black pepper to taste

    Yields 6 servings.

    Directions

    Heat your oven to 425°F. Coat a large baking sheet with the olive oil and add all the vegetables, with the squash pieces skin side up. Roast for 30 minutes, flip the vegetables with a spatula, and roast for another 20 minutes. Once the vegetables are cool enough to handle, scrape all the squash flesh from its skin and transfer to your food processor along with the carrots, onions, 1 cup of the broth, and the spices. Pulse a few times, adding more liquid as needed until it reaches a purée consistency. Taste and add more cinnamon and/or nutmeg as desired.

Healthy Ingredient Spotlight: Turmeric

Healthy Ingredient Spotlight

Turmeric

India is the land of intriguing spices, rich and deep, and none more colorful than turmeric. The country produces nearly all of the world’s turmeric and its 1.3 billion people consume 80 percent of it! Turmeric (Curcuma longa) belongs to the Zingiberaceae family, which also includes ginger, and you can see the similarity between them when you hold up the edible parts, the rhizomes. Fresh turmeric reminds me of a thick tree trunk with a tight network of branches. Also, like ginger, turmeric has been used for thousands of years in both sweet and savory dishes in India and throughout South Asia and into the Middle East, Africa, and beyond. Apart from its culinary history, turmeric has been widely used in Eastern medicine, in religious ceremonies, and even as a natural coloring. Essential in Indian dishes from kormas to dals, it’s also delicious in sauces, stews, broths, salad dressings, juices, and baked goods for depth of flavor and a jolt of color.

Healthy Kitchen Tip: Kitchen Tool Recommendation: Microplane Grater

Healthy Kitchen Nugget

Kitchen Tool Recommendation: Microplane Grater

If you don’t yet have a Microplane grater (or two), it’s time to add this essential to your culinary gadget drawer. It makes fast work of grating nutmeg, not to mention finely zesting lemons, limes, and oranges. The graters are available everywhere from Amazon to top homeware retailers like Williams-Sonoma.

For Your Best Health: Homemade meals and your health

For Your Best Health

Anti-inflammatory and Antioxidant Turmeric

Most of the interest in turmeric comes from its powerful polyphenol curcumin, which is thought to have anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties, although research done in Western countries hasn’t quite been able to explain how it works. Interestingly, we know that, on its own, curcumin has a low bioavailability, meaning the body isn’t able to draw out and make the most of its nutrients. According to a report in the journal Foods, you can increase that bioavailability by having black pepper, rich in the active ingredient piperine, along with turmeric. So, every time you reach for turmeric, grab your black peppercorn grinder, too.

Fitness Flash: Limit Dangerous Downtime

Fitness Flash

How to Limit Dangerous Downtime

Working at home has its merits, but there’s a potential downside, too—more time spent sitting and less energy expended. In fact, according to a post from the American College of Sports Medicine by fitness and wellness experts Alicia T. Bryan, PhD, FACSM, and Raymond Jones, PhD, many people are clocking another three hours of sedentary behavior a day on top of the eight hours we’re already averaging. “With the recent rise in virtual learning, teleworking, and health-mandated quarantines/isolations, we can be confident that adverse health outcomes will eventually emerge among those who now find themselves classified as physically inactive or insufficiently active,” their report stated.

How to stop this dangerous activity slowdown? One key piece of the advice given by Drs. Bryan and Jones is to reimagine Zoom meetings (business and social) with these pointers:

  • Limit meetings to one hour or less.
  • Have breaks between meetings rather than scheduling them back to back so you can get in some light movement or even a short workout.
  • Spend 5 minutes in a standing activity for every 25 minutes you’re seated.
  • Between calls, practice stretches at your desk that target the hips, hamstrings and lower back.

They also offer the reminder that everyone can achieve health gains through small, incremental bouts of physical activity, even just five minutes at a time to start. Here are more ideas—they’re written with meeting organizers in mind, but can be adapted by anyone wanting to be more active.

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The Olive Oil Hunter News #18

Posted on by The Olive Oil Hunter

Maiale con Salsa Verde (Pork with Green Sauce) Recipe, Spotlight on Parsley, Boosting Flavor with Leftovers, and Learn More About Resveratrol

One of the things I love most about traveling the globe is tasting how each cuisine puts its own spin on the universal foods we love—breads, dumplings, sausages…and green sauce! Some cuisines, such as Mexican salsa verde and Argentinian chimichurri, are known the world over, while others are waiting to be discovered. To my delight, on one of my many trips to Italy, I experienced their version, redolent with anchovy and capers—so delizioso that I’m sharing it with you here. It’s so versatile, too, delicious on all types of meat and seafood. Let it inspire you to try your hand at creating your own herb-based sauces—the basic elements are leafy herbs such as parsley or cilantro, onions or garlic, olive oil, and an acid such as lemon juice or vinegar, plus spices that include one form or another of red pepper for a nice kick.

Italian cuisine is synonymous with pasta and pizza, but pork is also a favorite in Italy. Pork tenderloin is the leanest cut of the pig, on a par with skinless chicken breasts. Because tenderloins have little fat and typically weigh only a pound, they cook quickly and can quickly dry out if they cook too long, so set your timer as soon as you pop them into the oven.

Maiale con Salsa Verde/Pork with Green Sauce

  • The Olive Oil Hunter News #18 Maiale con Salsa Verde/Pork with Green Sauce

    Italian cuisine is synonymous with pasta and pizza, but pork is also a favorite in Italy. Pork tenderloin is the leanest cut of the pig, on a par with skinless chicken breasts. Because tenderloins have little fat and typically weigh only a pound, they cook quickly and can quickly dry out if they cook too long, so set your timer as soon as you pop them into the oven.

    Ingredients

    For the pork:

    • 2 pork tenderloins, about 1 pound each
    • Extra virgin olive oil
    • Coarse salt to taste
    • Coarsely ground black pepper to taste

    For the salsa verde:

    • 1 cup flat-leaf parsley leaves, packed
    • 1 anchovy fillet, coarsely chopped
    • 1 to 2 cloves garlic, peeled and coarsely chopped
    • 1-1/2 tablespoons drained brined capers
    • 1 tablespoon lemon juice
    • 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
    • 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
    • Coarse salt to taste
    • Coarsely ground black pepper to taste

    Directions

    Step 1

    Preheat your oven to 400°F. Trim off any fat and silverskin from the pork tenderloins and rub all sides with extra virgin olive oil. Season generously with salt and pepper. Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a large cast iron or other oven-proof skillet over medium-high heat. Sear the tenderloins until nicely browned, about 2 minutes per side, 8 minutes in all. Place the skillet with the meat in the oven. Roast the tenderloins until the internal temperature registers 145°F, about 10 to 12 minutes or as needed. (The meat will still be slightly pink inside. Roast longer if you prefer your pork more done, but don’t overdo.) Let cool slightly before slicing.

    Step 2

    To make the salsa verde, combine all the ingredients in a blender or food processor and run the machine until the ingredients are well combined.

    Step 3

    Carve the pork tenderloin into 1/2-inch slices and arrange them on a platter. Drizzle some of the sauce over the meat and pass the rest.

    Yields 6 servings.

Healthy Ingredient Spotlight: Parsley

Healthy Ingredient Spotlight

Parsley

Parsley is one of the unsung heroes of the herb garden. Of course, I mean flat leaf or Italian parsley, not the curly leaf variety, which has very little flavor. It’s a disservice to parsley to treat it as a garnish to brighten a plate since it can really brighten the food itself. It makes the perfect base for many sauces and dressings and is a great finishing touch to chicken and pasta dishes when it’s incorporated during the last minute of cooking. A key ingredient in the Middle Eastern classic tabbouleh, parsley can be a tasty addition to most salads, not only because of its flavor but also because of its nutrients. Parsley is a rich source of vitamin K and a good source of vitamins A and C. It has fewer than 4 carbs per cupful, and half of them are fiber (that means only 2 net carbs!). When parsley is fresh, you’ll be able to easily inhale its aroma, which is milder than the other great flat-leaf herb, cilantro.

Healthy Kitchen Tip: Flavor-Boosting with Anchovies

Healthy Kitchen Nugget

Flavor-Boosting with Anchovies

Wondering what to do with leftover anchovies? Think of an anchovy fillet as a flavor booster—it won’t add a fishy taste. Caesar salad dressing isn’t the only dressing that benefits from anchovies—add a fillet to the mix the next time you whip up your favorite recipe. But don’t stop there. Add an anchovy to the pan when you sauté garlic or onions, especially when building flavors for a rich tomato sauce. For ease of use, buy jarred rather than canned anchovies. But if you find that you really only use them occasionally, get a tube of anchovy paste instead. Like tomato paste in a tube, it’s handy when you only need a small amount. A half teaspoon of paste equals one whole anchovy.

For Your Best Health: Resveratrol

For Your Best Health

Resveratrol

A blog post from Joe Schwarcz, PhD, director of McGill University’s Office for Science and Society, whose mission is “separating sense from nonsense,” may have you reevaluating your wine intake. Dr. Schwarcz puts into perspective all the hoopla surrounding resveratrol, the compound in grapes and red wine that has been looked at for potential anti-cancer and heart-health properties. Cell cultures and research on rodents, worms, and the like has shown benefits, but even if resveratrol had all the same effects on people, we would need to drink “about a hundred bottles of wine to approach the amount of resveratrol fed to the mice,” writes Dr. Schwarcz.

Is the answer then to take the resveratrol supplements that have flooded the market? “More than 20,000 papers later, in spite of the plethora of laboratory and animal studies, human clinical trials, and speculation about theoretical mechanisms of action, it is still not possible to say yay or nay about taking resveratrol supplements. On the positive side, there have been no safety issues with doses as high as 5 grams. That’s comforting because if there is to be any beneficial effect from resveratrol, it will have to come from supplements. At some point, I wish we could end such articles with something other than ‘more research is needed,’ but unfortunately, this is not that time. As far as that glass of wine with supper goes, there is a good reason for drinking it. The taste. And the pleasant after-effects,” Dr. Schwarcz concludes. You can read the entire post here.

Fitness Flash: The Tremendous Benefits of Exercise

Fitness Flash

The Tremendous Benefits of Exercise

Exercise Is Medicine® is an initiative launched back in 2007 by the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) and the American Medical Association to make physical activity and exercise a standard part of disease prevention and treatment in the US, and to encourage primary care physicians to include exercise when designing treatment plans for patients. But, all these years later, too many annual doctor visits don’t even touch on the subject.

That’s unfortunate considering the tremendous health benefits seen with even low levels of exercise—as ACSM points out, the amount of exercise needed to benefit health is much lower than the amount needed for fitness (though that should be a goal, too!). Regular exercise at moderate to high intensity reduces the risk of heart disease by 40%, stroke by 27%, and the incidence of diabetes and of high blood pressure by almost 50%. It can lower the risk for certain cancers and of developing Alzheimer’s disease as well as decrease depression as effectively as Prozac or therapy. All this means that you shouldn’t leave your next doctor visit without getting an assessment of your current physical activity level and an appropriate prescription for an exercise program or a referral to a qualified fitness professional who can design one for you.

If you want a preview of how ready you are to exercise on your own, check out the Physical Activity Readiness Questionnaire, with its general and follow-up health questions. Use your results to initiate a conversation on exercise with your doctor.

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The Olive Oil Hunter News #17

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The Ultimate Guacamole Recipe, Spotlight on Cumin, Cooking with Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Actually Keeping Your New Year’s Resolution

While avocado toast has had its moment in the foodie spotlight, avocados have always been in style. I love topping avocado slices with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and a sprinkle of Maldon salt. Their creaminess makes them a great omelet stuffing and of course, there’s nothing quite like guacamole, a surprisingly healthful dish when you dip veggies instead of chips or use it as a spread instead of mayo. I’m always entertained by the theater of tableside guac prep at Mexican restaurants, but making it at home is actually quite simple. So, grab a fork and get ready to mash…

The Ultimate Guacamole

  • The Olive Oil Hunter News #17 The Ultimate Guacamole Recipe The Ultimate Guacamole

    This guacamole gets a jolt of flavor from cumin. You can intensify the heat by leaving in some of the jalapeño seeds.

    Ingredients

    • 2 garlic cloves, peeled
    • 1 small jalapeño
    • 1 small onion
    • 1 cup of cilantro, leaves and some stems
    • 3 large ripe avocados
    • 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil, or more to taste
    • 1 lime, halved
    • 1 teaspoon cumin (wild if possible), toasted and ground
    • Freshly ground black peppercorns
    • Coarse sea salt

    Directions

    Mince the garlic and set it aside for 10 minutes to allow its healthful compound allicin to develop. Wearing gloves to keep the jalapeño’s powerful oils off your skin, slice the pepper in half lengthwise and use a small spoon to scrape out the ribs and seeds, and then cut it into a small dice. On a large cutting board, chop the onion into a large dice and keep chopping as you add in the garlic, jalapeños, and cilantro to meld them together. Halve the avocados and use a spoon to scoop all the flesh into a large bowl. Add the olive oil, coarsely mash the avocado with a fork, and then fold in the onion mixture. Squeeze in the juice of a lime half and fold in the cumin, a few twists of your peppercorn grinder, and a sprinkle of salt. Taste and adjust the seasonings, adding more olive oil, lime juice, black pepper, and/or salt as desired.

    Yields 4-6 appetizer servings. ​

Healthy Ingredient Spotlight: Quick Croutons to garnish homemade meals

Healthy Ingredient Spotlight

Wild Cumin

Experimenting with new spices is a passion of mine. Sometimes, it’s not a completely different spice that intrigues me, but an elevated version of one that I already use. That’s the case with wild cumin (Bunium persicum)—rare, dark-brown seeds handpicked from wild plants growing in the Hindu Kush mountain range in Afghanistan and then sun-dried. Wild cumin, used in cooking for centuries, has a somewhat mysterious history because it’s native to very remote areas of the world, notably other regions of Central Asia such as Iran, Pakistan, and the Himalayas in northern India, where it is known as kala jeera. Wild cumin is also known as black cumin or royal cumin. It’s often confused with Nigella sativa because the common name of that seed is also translated as “black cumin.” But Nigella is part of the Ranunculaceae family, whereas the plant that gives us wild cumin, along with parsley and dill, is from the Apiaceae family.

Wild cumin has a depth that’s missing in the common variety. It has the aroma of cedar, pepper, eucalyptus, and rye, and, on the palate, is very reminiscent of the caraway on seeded rye breads. It tastes both earthy and bright with hints of anise, eucalyptus, and mint. Used whole or ground, it shines in classic Indian dishes such as biryanis and curries, Middle Eastern falafel and hummus, and North African tagines and harissa, a heavily spiced chile paste. It also adds wonderful zest when sprinkled whole on naan and other flatbreads and when ground for dry rubs and marinades. And, of course, don’t be shy about using it in Mexican and Tex-Mex dishes that typically call for plain cumin.

Healthy Kitchen Tip: Cooking with Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Healthy Kitchen Nugget

Cooking with Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Much has been written about the smoke point of oils (and butter), the temperature at which the fat begins to smoke in a pan. This smoke is a sign of its chemical breakdown, or oxidation, and the potential loss of nutrients. One of the biggest myths surrounding olive oil is that it reaches its smoke point at a lower heat than other oils, meaning it isn’t a good choice for frying or high-heat sautéing. However, a number of lab tests over recent years, including an extensive one published in Acta Scientific Nutritional Health, have found this to be untrue. The integrity, nutrients, and flavor of extra virgin olive oil, or EVOO, can, in fact, withstand temperatures of 475℉ on the stove or in the oven, a temperature nearly twice as high as the typical heat of sautéing. Starting with the highest-quality EVOO with plentiful antioxidants actually protects the oil’s stability when heated. The volume of oil needed to deep-fry a batch of potatoes, for instance, makes using EVOO for that purpose a very expensive proposition. But for most other dishes that call for cooking in oil, it’s a great way to infuse the food with olive oil’s rich flavor. Check out this article in US News & World Report for a full rundown on the testing.

For Your Best Health: Wild Cumin and Your Health

For Your Best Health

Wild Cumin and Your Health

Wild cumin has a bounty of antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant properties. Many cultures have used the essential oils pressed from the seeds as a botanical remedy for digestive and other problems for centuries. Because different strains grow wild in different parts of the world, it’s hard to study wild cumin’s health benefits in a formal setting to truly unlock its potential, according to research in the journal Physiology and Molecular Biology of Plants. So, for now, think of these properties as a possible bonus to its unique taste.

Fitness Flash: Actually Keeping Your New Year's Resolution

Fitness Flash

Actually Keeping Your New Year’s Resolution

Have you already made and broken a list of New Year’s resolutions? Vera Ludwig, PhD, a research associate in the Platt Labs at the University of Pennsylvania, has a better way based on what’s called reward learning and intrinsic motivation. Her method, which draws on mindfulness and self-regulation, was published in the journal Perspectives on Psychological Science. It focuses on adding awareness to the mix of goal setting and changing behaviors.

“There’s this idea that there are two systems at work in the brain: the impulses and desires trying to tempt us and the cognitive control processes trying to rein in those desires and impulses,” Dr. Ludwig says. “We were interested in how this can happen in a more harmonious way. Rather than fighting against impulses, why not try to align those with our values?”

The process starts with realizing that the behavior you want to change doesn’t make sense for you or doesn’t match up with your goals. Next, try to understand what triggered the behavior and how you feel afterward. Then, think about more positive behaviors you can take instead and how you might enact them. “In the final step, you become aware of how the new behavior feels physically and emotionally,” Dr. Ludwig says. “The idea is that the brain reward system will then update the reward signal to encode the reward value of the new option as higher. Then, we may effortlessly act this way in the future. Studies show that behaviors that are aligned with our goals and values subjectively feel better than those that are not. The hope is that simply by paying attention, we can notice that the new behavior is really beneficial. When we get a positive outcome, the new behavior gets reinforced.” Read more about Dr. Ludwig’s research at Futurity.org.

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The Olive Oil Hunter News #16

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Grilled Salmon with Canary Islands Mojo Sauce Recipe, Spotlight on Dried Chiles, Avoiding Mislabeled Seafood, Protein Power and Strength Training for Women

If you’re a year-round griller like me, you’ve probably lit up the hardwoods even on days your porch or yard was buried under snow. But if you’re not that daring, you can still enjoy a subtle char from your oven broiler. I also find that the dead of winter is the perfect time to experiment with some added heat…from dried chiles. Peppers—fresh, dried, and ground—are the stars of this week’s Olive Oil Hunter Newsletter.

Grilled Salmon with Canary Islands Mojo Sauce

  • The Olive Oil Hunter News #16 Grilled Salmon with Canary Islands Mojo Sauce

    This piquant sauce comes from the famed islands off the coast of Spain. It’s so popular that it’s often served at tapas bars as a dip for bread. I also love it with other toothsome fish like tuna, sea bass, and monkfish.

    Ingredients

    For the mojo:

    • 2 red bell peppers
    • 1 dried chile pepper, such as ancho
    • 8 sprigs fresh cilantro, leaves plus a few stems
    • 2 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
    • 2 to 3 tablespoons white wine vinegar
    • 2 teaspoons honey, or more to taste
    • 2 teaspoons pimentón (smoked Spanish paprika)
    • 1 teaspoon ground cumin, or more to taste
    • 1/2 teaspoon salt, or more to taste
    • 1 cup extra virgin olive oil

    For the fish:

    • 2-pound fillet of salmon, skin on
    • Extra virgin olive oil
    • Coarse salt
    • Fresh coarsely ground black pepper

    Directions

    Step 1

    To make the mojo sauce, start by charring the red peppers. You can do this on a grill, under the broiler in your oven, or by holding one pepper at a time over a gas range burner. Turn as needed to blacken the skin on all sides, and then let them cool for several minutes before peeling off and discarding the skins and removing the stems, ribs, and seeds. Coarsely chop the peppers and put them in the jar of a blender.

    Step 2

    On the grill or in a dry sauté pan, toast the dried chile pepper for 30 seconds to 1 minute, turning once. Let cool, and then break into pieces, discarding the stem, ribs, and seeds. Add half to the blender jar, reserving the rest. Add in the cilantro, garlic, vinegar, honey, pimentón, cumin, and salt. Blend until fairly smooth. Then slowly add the oil through the blender lid with the machine running and process until the oil is incorporated. You want a thick but pourable sauce. If the sauce is too thick, add water one tablespoon at a time until you reach the desired consistency. Taste for seasoning, adding more of the reserved chile, vinegar, honey, cumin, and/or salt as needed. Pour into a serving bowl and set aside.

    Step 3

    Run your fingers over the salmon fillet to check for bones. Pull out any that you find with kitchen tweezers or sanitized needle-nose pliers. Lightly oil the salmon on both sides and season with the salt and pepper.

    If you’re using your oven broiler (typically at a temp of 450-500ºF), place the salmon on a baking sheet and broil for 10 to 15 minutes. (Alternatively, you can bake it at 350ºF for 20 to 25 minutes or until cooked through.)

    Step 4

    If you’re grilling the salmon on a charcoal grill, rake the coals to one side of the grill pan; for a gas grill, light the outer burners but leave the middle burner(s) unlit. Brush and oil the grill grate. Arrange the salmon with its skin side down on the grill grate, but not directly over the coals. Put the lid on. Cook for 12 to 15 minutes, or until the flesh is opaque and flakes easily when pressed with a fork. Use a large spatula to transfer the fillet to a platter. Drizzle some mojo sauce over the fish and serve the rest of the sauce on the side.

    Note: A wire grill basket is a great tool for grilling fish—oil the basket, place the fish in it, and place it on your grill. When the fish is done, use tongs to lift the basket off the grill without the worry of the fillet coming apart.

    Yields 4 servings.

Healthy Ingredient Spotlight: Dried Chiles

Healthy Ingredient Spotlight

Dried Chiles

A bag of dried chiles can look intimidating, but they’re so easy to use that you should make room for them in your pantry. Just as I have various fresh chiles on hand when available, I keep a selection of dried varieties in my kitchen—cascabel for mild heat, ancho for rich smokiness, guajillo for smokiness and a bit more heat, and arbol for a lot of heat! I love them for adding depth to sauces like mojo, to stews and casseroles, and of course, to all manner of Mexican dishes.

Toasting them—for less than a minute—brings out their flavor before grinding or chopping them, but depending on the recipe, you might instead rehydrate them with a 20-minute soak in warm water. With either method, before using the peppers, discard the stems, ribs, and seeds, which can add unwanted bitterness to your dish. Also, kitchen scissors are great for snipping off the stems and cutting the peppers into pieces whether they’re dry or rehydrated.

Healthy Kitchen Tip: Avoid Mislabeled Seafood

Healthy Kitchen Nugget

Avoid Mislabeled Seafood

Renewed reports about mislabeled seafood might have you questioning whether that wild salmon you’re eyeing at the store could actually be farm-raised. After shrimp, salmon is the second-most mislabeled seafood, according to the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch program, which assesses most of the seafood consumed in the U.S. and offers recommendations for making sustainable choices. According to the watchdog group, virtually all Atlantic salmon is now farmed rather than wild-caught. But not all farm-raised Atlantic salmon (think of it as the variety, not its geography) is bad. Because of better farming techniques, Atlantic salmon farmed in Norway’s Skjerstad Fjord in marine net pens and worldwide in indoor recirculating tanks with wastewater treatment is a “best choice.” Farmed Atlantic salmon from Maine, Canada’s British Columbia, Scotland’s Orkney Islands, the Faroe Islands, and elsewhere when produced in indoor recirculating tanks without wastewater treatment is a “good alternative.” You want to avoid Atlantic salmon farmed in Canada’s Atlantic, in Chile, and in other areas of Norway and Scotland, mostly because of the overuse of chemicals.

According to a report published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, it’s not just consumers who pay the price of mislabeled seafood—the consequences extend to marine life, fisheries management, and the environment. “In the United States, we’re actually very good at managing our fisheries,” said the study’s lead author Kailin Kroetz, assistant professor at the Arizona State University School of Sustainability. “We assess the stock so we know what’s out there. We set a catch limit. We have strong monitoring and enforcement capabilities to support fishers adhering to the limit. But many countries we import from do not have the same management capacity.”

To make the best choices, know the buying recommendations and make friends with your local fishmonger so that you’ll feel comfortable asking about the origin of any seafood you’re considering. Check out the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch search tool to learn which types of seafood are fished or farmed in environmentally sustainable ways.

For Your Best Health: Protein Power

For Your Best Health

Protein Power

Have you ever noticed that you feel more satisfied after eating protein? It’s not your imagination. Protein does a better job of quelling hunger than carbs and fat do. That can make a difference when you’re cutting calories to lose weight and want to stay on track. A small study published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition looked at how healthy participants metabolized a high-protein liquid diet of 40% protein, 35% carbohydrate, and 25% fat compared to one with 15% protein, 55% carbohydrate, and 30% fat (the breakdown of the typical U.S. diet). Researchers found that people on the higher protein diet burned more fat and calories—more evidence of the power of protein.

According to NASM, the National Academy of Sports Medicine, while many different diets can result in weight loss, a diet’s protein content is a key factor for a number of reasons. Eating enough protein helps you hold on to lean muscle as you lose fat. Your body also burns a few more calories when metabolizing protein than carbs or fat—up to 75 calories a day or the equivalent of an extra 10-minute walk. While all excess calories tend to be stored as fat, it’s harder for the body to do this with protein.

How much do you need? NASM’s guidelines are to eat 0.73 to 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight, or 1 to 1.5 grams per pound if you’re a heavy exerciser, when trying to lose weight. One gram of protein has 4 calories, so once you total how many daily calories go to protein, subtract that number from your overall calories to know how much you have left to allocate to healthy carbs (veggies, fruits, and whole grains) and fats like extra virgin olive oil. If you’re vegan or vegetarian, NASM has terrific tips to help you meet your protein needs.

Fitness Flash: Strength Training for Women

Fitness Flash

Women and Strength Training

Strength training is an important part of building health and fitness, yet many women shy away from it. A study done at Penn State University and published in the Journal of American College Health has shed some light on why. Researchers found a reluctance on the part of female students to use weights at the campus’s gym facilities, describing them as “highly gendered spaces.” A lack of knowledge about how to use the equipment, a lack of confidence and feeling self-conscious in the presence of men, and getting unsolicited advice from male peers were the main reasons—all of which can prevent women from strength training at the very time it should be becoming part of a regular fitness routine. Since developing and maintaining muscle strength is essential, especially in later years, if you’re not yet lifting weights, it’s time to get started. And you can do it at home or by joining a gym that caters to women or has women-only sections or hours.

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