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Olive Oil Hunter News #172

Posted on by The Olive Oil Hunter

Salmon Bowl Recipe (Made Simple), Spotlight on Sesame Seeds, Thawing Frozen Fish, Why Wild Seafood is Best, and Counting Your Biological Age

Americans still don’t eat enough fish, and the challenge of finding quality fresh seafood is one of the reasons. My DIY salmon bowl recipe is a great way to get the goodness of salmon plus as many veggies as you’d like to include. Read on to see why frozen is actually preferred—unless of course you live near a fishing dock! Then find out about advances in measuring biological aging, a metric that makes your chronological age less important.

Salmon Bowl Made Simple

  • Salmon Poke Bowl Salmon Bowl Made Simple

    Poke bowls are still very popular, but it’s not always easy to buy the sushi-grade tuna needed to make your own. This variation includes sautéed chunks of salmon instead of ahi. The technique is also great if you like tuna but prefer it cooked. I’ve suggested many veggies to fill up your bowl, but have fun choosing other ingredients—be guided by what’s most fresh at your market.

    Ingredients

    For the fish:

    • 1 pound skinless salmon fillet, wild caught if possible
    • 1 tablespoon regular or reduced-sodium soy sauce 
    • 1 tablespoon sesame oil
    • 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
    • 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, divided use

    For the spicy mayo:

    • 1/4 cup best-quality mayonnaise
    • 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
    • 1 teaspoon sriracha, or to taste

    For the spicy bowls:

    • 3 cups cooked quinoa or brown or white rice
    • 1 large cucumber, diced
    • 3 scallions, trimmed and sliced into small pieces on the diagonal
    • 1 cup shelled edamame 
    • 2 large avocados, cubed or cut into thin slices
    • 2 tablespoons black or white sesame seeds or a mix
    • Optional: red onion rings, sliced tomatoes, shredded carrots, chopped red cabbage, enoki mushrooms, and other fresh veggies of your choice

    Directions

    Step 1

    Using a sharp knife, cut the salmon into 1-inch chunks. Add to a glass bowl with the soy sauce, sesame oil, rice vinegar, and 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Toss well and set aside for 30 minutes.

    Step 2

    Make the spicy mayo: In a small bowl, whisk the mayonnaise and the olive oil until well blended, then mix in the sriracha; set aside.

    Step 3

    Heat a frying pan over medium-high heat. When hot, add the rest of the olive oil and the salmon chunks. Sear on all sides, using tongs to turn the pieces. When cooked through, remove the pan from the heat.

    Step 4

    Assemble the ingredients in four deep bowls: Center equal amounts of the cooked grains, then top with the vegetables and then the salmon chunks. Use a fork to drizzle on the spicy mayo, then sprinkle with the sesame seeds.

    Makes 4 servings

Healthy Ingredient Spotlight: Black and White Sesame Seeds

Healthy Ingredient Spotlight

Black and White Sesame Seeds

Sesame seeds are more than a colorful and crunchy garnish—they can be pressed to make the Asian staple sesame oil, both the plain and toasted varieties, and whipped into the Middle Eastern treats tahini and halvah. Importantly, these little seeds pack a big punch when it comes to nutrients, so consider sprinkling them on more than poke bowls and sushi rolls.

Sesame seeds are rich in fat; protein; minerals like iron, calcium, copper, potassium, and manganese; vitamins like A and E and B vitamins; and fiber. Among their phytochemicals are lignans, which have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Because more of these nutrients, including their lignans, are in the hull, always choose unhulled sesame seeds. Black ones almost always come with the hull intact, but you’ll have to look carefully to find unhulled white ones. 

Black and white sesame seeds have some taste differences, with the black ones being slightly crunchier and more bitter. I like to mix the two because this creates visual appeal and different taste sensations.

Quick Kitchen Nugget: Thawing Frozen Fish 

Quick Kitchen Nugget

Thawing Frozen Fish 

Frozen tuna steaks

Fish that’s caught in faraway waters and flash-frozen at sea often retains more of its nutrients and flavor—you’ll often see the words “previously frozen” on thawed fish at markets, a potential good sign. If you’re buying fish still frozen, make sure it’s frozen solid when you purchase it. Let it thaw overnight in the fridge, not on a countertop, to preserve that freshness—defrosting it in a cold fridge also helps inhibit the growth of any harmful bacteria. To do it properly, take it out of its packaging and put it on a plate or tray lined with a few sheets of paper towels or on a rack over the plate with paper towels. Just before cooking, rinse under cold water and pat dry. 

For Your Best Health: Seafood: Why “Wild” Wins Hands Down

For Your Best Health

Seafood: Why “Wild” Wins Hands Down

Research done at the University of Cambridge in the UK offers more insight into why farmed salmon isn’t as nutritious as wild salmon or other wild-caught fish, like mackerel, anchovies, and herring—even though these same varieties are often used in farmed salmon feeds. These oily fish contain essential nutrients including calcium, B12, and omega-3s, but they don’t transfer over in the same amounts when fed to farmed salmon.

By analyzing the flow of nutrients from the edible species of wild fish used as feed, which also included sprat and blue whiting, to the farmed salmon they were fed to, scientists found that farmed salmon production leads to an overall loss of essential dietary nutrients. Quantities of calcium were over five times higher in wild feed fish fillets than in farmed salmon fillets; iodine was four times higher; and iron, omega-3s, vitamin B12, and vitamin A were over 1.5 times higher. Wild feed species and farmed salmon did have comparable quantities of vitamin D. Zinc and selenium were actually higher in the farmed salmon than in the wild feed species due to other salmon feed ingredients—a real mark of progress in the salmon sector, said the researchers.

Another interesting point is that you can get key nutrients, including omega-3 fatty acids, which are known to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and stroke, in smaller portion sizes of wild fish than in farmed Atlantic salmon. 

“What we’re seeing is that most species of wild fish used as feed have a similar or greater density and range of micronutrients than farmed salmon fillets,” said lead author David Willer, PhD, of the zoology department at Cambridge. “While still enjoying eating salmon and supporting sustainable growth in the sector, people should consider eating a greater and wider variety of wild fish species like sardines, mackerel, and anchovies, to get more essential nutrients straight to their plate.” He goes on to say that eating more wild feed species directly could benefit our health while also reducing aquaculture demand for finite marine resources.

“Marine fisheries are important local and global food systems, but large catches are being diverted toward farm feeds. Prioritizing nutritious seafood for people can help improve both diets and ocean sustainability,” said senior author James Robinson, PhD, of Lancaster University, also in the UK.

Fitness Flash: Forget the Calendar: What Counts Is Your Biological Age

Fitness Flash

Forget the Calendar: What Counts Is Your Biological Age

University of Pittsburgh researchers have uncovered blood-based markers that allow them to predict a person’s biological age—how fast a person’s cells and organs age regardless of their birthdate. The new research, published in Aging Cell, points to pathways and compounds that may underlie biological age, shedding light on why people age differently and suggesting novel targets for interventions that could slow aging and increase health span, the length of time a person is healthy.

“Age is more than just a number,” said senior author Aditi Gurkar, PhD, assistant professor of geriatric medicine at Pitt’s School of Medicine and member of the Aging Institute, a joint venture of Pitt and UPMC. “Imagine two people aged 65: One rides a bike to work and goes skiing on the weekends, and the other can’t climb a flight of stairs. They have the same chronological age, but very different biological ages. Why do these two people age differently? This question drives my research.”

To answer it, Dr. Gurkar and her team compared 196 older adults whom they classified as either healthy or rapid agers by how easily they completed simple walking challenges. Because walking ability is a holistic measure of cardiovascular fitness, physical strength, and neurological health, other studies have shown that it’s the single best predictor of hospitalization, disability, functional decline, and death in older adults. Healthy agers were 75 years or older and could ascend a flight of stairs or walk for 15 minutes without resting, and the rapid agers, who were 65 to 75 years old, had to rest during these challenges.

According to Dr. Gurkar, this study is unique because the rapid agers were chronologically younger than the healthy agers, allowing the researchers to home in on markers of biological, not chronological, aging, unlike other studies that have compared young adults with older people.

To define a molecular fingerprint of biological aging in blood samples from participants, they performed metabolomics, the analysis of metabolites, or molecules that are produced by chemical pathways in the body, with blood samples from the two groups.

“Other studies have looked at genetics to measure biological aging, but genes are very static: the genes you’re born with are the genes you die with,” said Dr. Gurkar. “We chose to look at metabolites because they are dynamic: They change in real time to reflect our current health and how we feel, and we have the power to influence them through our lifestyles, diet, and environment.” Healthy and rapid agers showed clear differences in their metabolomes, indicating that metabolites in the blood could reflect biological age.

Healthy couple climbing stairs

Dr. Gurkar and her team next identified 25 metabolites that they termed the Healthy Aging Metabolic (HAM) Index. They found that the HAM Index was better than other commonly used aging metrics, such as the frailty index, gait speed, and the Montreal Cognitive Assessment test, at distinguishing healthy and rapid agers. To validate their new index, the researchers analyzed a separate cohort of older adults from a Wisconsin-based study. The HAM Index correctly predicted whether individuals could walk outside for 10 minutes without stopping with accuracy of about 68%.

“We took a very different cohort of people from a different geographical region, and we saw the same metabolites were associated with biological aging,” said Dr. Gurkar. “This gives us confidence that the HAM Index can truly predict who is a healthy ager versus a rapid ager.”

Using an artificial intelligence model that can predict potential drivers of biological traits, the team identified three main metabolites that were most likely to promote healthy aging or drive rapid aging. In future research, they plan to delve into how these metabolites and molecular pathways that produce them contribute to biological aging and explore interventions that could slow this process. Dr. Gurkar is also planning more research to evaluate how the metabolome of younger people shifts over time. Eventually, she hopes to develop a blood test that could estimate biological age in young adults or predict those who might go on to develop diseases of aging.

“While it’s great that we can predict biological aging in older adults, what would be even more exciting is a blood test that, for example, can tell someone who’s 35 that they have a biological age more like a 45-year-old,” Dr. Gurkar said. “That person could then think about changing aspects of their lifestyle early—whether that’s improving their sleep, diet or exercise regimen—to hopefully reverse their biological age. Today, in medicine, we tend to wait for a problem to occur before we treat it. But aging doesn’t work that way—it’s about prevention. I think the future of medicine is going to be about knowing early on how someone is aging and developing personalized interventions to delay disease and extend health span.”

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Olive Oil Hunter News #171

Posted on by The Olive Oil Hunter

Wilted Spinach Salad with Sherry Vinaigrette Recipe, Spotlight on Spinach, The Great Egg Debate Continues, and How Sleep Patterns Influence Health

Spinach salad is a perennial favorite, simple to prepare, satisfying, and chock-full of nutrients. Wilting the spinach before composing the salad was a foodie trend back in the 1970s (the fixings included mandarin orange segments, a nod to the value of eating a food containing vitamin C at the same meal as spinach to better access the green’s iron). My update adds the tasty crunch of hazelnuts. You’ll be intrigued by a new report that suggests fortified eggs may not pose the cholesterol risks of regular eggs. I’m also sharing the latest research on the perils of poor sleep—motivation to improve the quality of your shut-eye.

Wilted Spinach Salad with Sherry Vinaigrette

  • Wilted Spinach and Mushrooms Wilted Spinach Salad with Sherry Vinaigrette

    Fast-forward 50 years from wilted spinach salad’s debut to this version that offers all the benefits of olive oil in the dressing and the prep. Rather than bothering with croutons, try toasted slices of whole-grain bread for its hearty appeal.

    Ingredients

    For the vinaigrette:

    • 1 tablespoon sherry vinegar, plus more to taste
    • 1 tablespoon shallot, peeled and finely chopped
    • 1 teaspoon fresh thyme, chopped
    • 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
    • Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

    For the salad:

    • 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
    • 1 small red onion, chopped 
    • 4 ounces white or cremini mushrooms, thickly sliced 
    • 8 ounces baby spinach, rinsed and patted dry
    • 2 garlic cloves, minced 
    • 2 medium- or hard-boiled eggs (your preference) quartered
    • 1 ounce hazelnuts, coarsely chopped
    • Optional: 2 slices whole grain bread, toasted and brushed with olive oil

    Directions

    Step 1

    Make the vinaigrette: In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the vinegar, shallot, and thyme. Gradually whisk in the olive oil until incorporated. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

    Step 2

    Heat a large frying pan or wok over medium heat. When hot, add 2 tablespoons olive oil and the red onions; sauté over medium heat until soft. Push them to the outside of the pan and add the mushrooms in one layer; cook until the edges have browned, then flip and brown on the other side. Transfer the vegetables to a bowl. 

    Step 3

    Add the last tablespoon of olive oil to the hot pan along with the garlic and the spinach, adding the spinach by handfuls—as one batch starts to wilt, push it to the side and add another, stirring quickly. It should only take 2-3 minutes to do it all. 

    Step 4

    Arrange the spinach in two large bowls and top with equal amounts of onions, mushrooms, eggs, and hazelnuts. Drizzle with the vinaigrette. If desired, add a slice of toast to one side of each bowl.

    Makes 2 servings

Healthy Ingredient Spotlight: Spinach-maximizing its nutrients

Healthy Ingredient Spotlight

Spinach: Maximizing Its Nutrients

Fresh spinach

It’s no secret that, as a leafy green, spinach is a healthy food. What is less well known is that your body will better process two of its key nutrients, iron and calcium, when the spinach is cooked. That’s because it also contains oxalic acid, which blocks the minerals’ absorption unless the oxalates are broken down under high-heat cooking. If your recipe doesn’t include sautéing, another option is to plunge the spinach into boiling water for 60 seconds and then right into a bowl of ice-cold water to stop the cooking process and keep it a brighter green. 

To get more of the iron when eating spinach raw, add a vitamin C food, like orange segments, to your meal. 

Your body absorbs more folate and lutein when eating spinach raw, so varying your prep is a good idea.

More reasons to eat spinach: It’s also rich in vitamins K, C, A, E, and B6 as well as folate and riboflavin and in the minerals manganese, magnesium, copper, and potassium. It has many carotenoids, among other antioxidants, to protect cell health and guard against inflammation. 

Quick Kitchen Nugget: A better type of frozen spinach

Quick Kitchen Nugget

A Better Type of Frozen Spinach

When fresh isn’t available, frozen can be a good substitute. The key to more flavorful frozen spinach is to select leaf spinach rather than chopped spinach. The leaves go through a lot less processing, translating to better taste and less freezer burn. Of course, look for pure spinach—no added salt or any other ingredients.

For Your Best Health: An Avocado a Day…

For Your Best Health

The Next Round in the “Are Eggs Healthy?” Debate

Because eggs contain some saturated fat, which is linked to higher cholesterol levels, there’s been much research on finding the right number of eggs to eat per week to help keep cholesterol in line. Results from a prospective controlled trial presented at the American College of Cardiology’s Annual Scientific Session offer positive news for egg lovers. One hundred and forty patients with or at high risk for cardiovascular disease were enrolled in the PROSPERITY study and divided into two groups to assess the effects of eating 12 or more fortified eggs a week versus a non-egg diet (fewer than two eggs a week) on HDL and LDL cholesterol and other key markers of cardiovascular health, including lipid, cardiometabolic, and inflammatory biomarkers and levels of vitamins and minerals. At the end of the four-month study period, cholesterol levels were similar in the two groups.

“We know that cardiovascular disease is, to some extent, mediated through risk factors like high blood pressure, high cholesterol, increased BMI, and diabetes. Dietary patterns and habits can have a notable influence on these, and there’s been a lot of conflicting information about whether or not eggs are safe to eat, especially for people who have or are at risk for heart disease,” said Nina Nouhravesh, MD, a research fellow at the Duke Clinical Research Institute in Durham, North Carolina, and the study’s lead author. “This is a small study, but it gives us reassurance that eating fortified eggs is OK with regard to lipid effects over four months, even among a more high-risk population.”

Dr. Nouhravesh and her team looked specifically at fortified eggs as they contain less saturated fat and have additional vitamins and minerals such as iodine; vitamins D, B2, 5, and 12; selenium; and omega-3 fatty acids. All the participants were 50 years of age or older (the average age was 66 years), half were female, and 27% were African American. All had experienced one prior cardiovascular event or had two cardiovascular risk factors, such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, increased BMI, and/or diabetes. 

Participants had in-person clinic visits at the start of the study and visits at one and four months to take vital signs and have bloodwork done; phone check-ins occurred at two and three months. People in the fortified egg group were asked about their weekly egg consumption, and those with low adherence were given additional educational materials.

Fresh eggs

Results showed a -0.64 mg/dL and a -3.14 mg/dL reduction in so-called good HDL cholesterol and bad LDL cholesterol, respectively, in the fortified egg group. While not statistically significant, the differences suggest, according to the researchers, that eating 12 fortified eggs each week had no adverse effect on blood cholesterol. In terms of secondary endpoints, researchers observed a numerical reduction in total cholesterol, LDL particle number, another lipid biomarker called apoB, high-sensitivity troponin (a marker of heart damage), and insulin resistance scores in the fortified egg group, while vitamin B increased.

“While this is a neutral study, we did not observe adverse effects on biomarkers of cardiovascular health and there were signals of potential benefits of eating fortified eggs that warrant further investigation in larger studies as they are more hypothesis generating here,” Dr. Nouhravesh said, explaining that subgroup analyses revealed numerical increases in HDL cholesterol and reductions in LDL cholesterol in patients 65 years or older and those with diabetes in the fortified egg group compared with those eating fewer than two eggs.

Note that what you eat with your eggs counts: buttered toast and bacon and other processed meats are not heart-healthy choices. As always, Dr. Nouhravesh said, it’s a good idea for people with heart disease to talk with their doctor about a heart-healthy diet.

It’s important to point out that this was a single-center study with a small size and reliance on patients’ self-reporting of their egg consumption and other dietary patterns. It was also an unblinded study, which means patients knew what study group they were in, which can influence their health behaviors, and it was funded by Eggland’s Best, a company that offers eggs from cage-free and pasture-raised/free-range hens.

Fitness Flash: How your sleep pattern influences your health

Fitness Flash

How Your Sleep Pattern Influences Your Health

Poor sleep habits are strongly associated with long-term chronic health conditions, according to decades of research. To better understand this relationship, researchers led by Soomi Lee, PhD, associate professor of human development and family studies at Penn State’s College of Health and Human Development, identified four distinct patterns that characterize how most people sleep and how they correlate to overall health. Results were published in Psychosomatic Medicine.

Using a national sample of adults from the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) study, they gathered data on approximately 3,700 participants’ sleep habits and chronic health conditions across two time points 10 years apart. The data included self-reported sleep habits, including sleep regularity and duration, perceived sleep satisfaction, and daytime alertness, as well as the number and type of chronic conditions they had.

With that information, the researchers identified these four different sleep patterns:

  • Good sleepers with optimal sleep habits across all data points

  • Weekend catch-up sleepers with irregular sleep, specifically short average sleep duration, but longer sleep times on weekends or non-workdays

  • Insomnia sleepers with sleep problems related to clinical insomnia symptoms, including short sleep duration, high daytime tiredness, and a long time to fall asleep

  • Nappers with mostly good sleep but frequent daytime naps

The MIDUS study may not represent the entire population, researchers said, as it primarily comprises healthy adults, but they still found that more than half the participants were insomnia sleepers or nappers, both suboptimal sleep patterns. Additionally, being an insomnia sleeper over the 10-year period was associated with a significantly higher likelihood of chronic health conditions, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and depression. Results also showed that people were unlikely to change their sleep pattern over the course of the 10 years, especially the insomnia sleepers and nappers. 

“These results may suggest that it is very difficult to change our sleep habits because sleep health is embedded into our overall lifestyle. It may also suggest that people still don’t know about the importance of their sleep and about sleep health behaviors,” Dr. Lee said. “We need to make more efforts to educate the public about good sleep health. There are sleep hygiene behaviors that people could do to improve their sleep, such as not using cell phones in bed, exercising regularly and avoiding caffeine in the late afternoon.”

While the sleep patterns were seemingly not age-related, researchers found that older adults and retirees were more likely to be nappers. They also found that those with less education and those facing unemployment were more likely to be insomnia sleepers.

According to Dr. Lee, the fact that phase of life and economic conditions can influence long-standing sleep patterns suggests that societal and neighborhood influences—including economic stressors and access to health resources—may have significant effects on individual health and, in this case, sleep habits.

The researchers added that their findings strongly suggest the need for programs and interventions to promote healthy sleep and sleep habits and that such programs should not be one-size-fits-all but rather should be targeted based on a variety of factors, including the risk of chronic conditions and socioeconomic vulnerability.

“Sleep is an everyday behavior,” Dr. Lee said. “Sleep is also modifiable. So, if we can improve sleep almost every day, what outcomes might we see after several months, or even several years? Better sleeping habits can make many significant differences, from improving social relationships and work performance to promoting long-term healthy behaviors and healthy aging.”

According to the CDC, these good habits can help improve sleep health:

  • Go to bed at the same time each night and get up at the same time each morning, weekends included.

  • Keep your bedroom quiet, dark, and at a cool, comfortable temperature.

  • Keep all electronic devices, including laptops and cell phones, out of your bedroom.

  • Skip large meals, caffeinated drinks, and alcohol before bed.

  • Get some exercise during the day—it should 

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Olive Oil Hunter News #170

Posted on by The Olive Oil Hunter

Horiatiki Salad Recipe and The MIND Diet for Brain Health: More Benefits of Olive Oil

I’m a huge fan of both Greek and Middle Eastern salads, the ingredients of which are not only delicious but also mainstays of the MIND (Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay) diet, a way of eating designed for brain health. It’s an offshoot of the super-healthy Mediterranean diet and the DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diet. Why the distinction? Because the latest research on the MIND diet shows it can slow aging as well as reduce dementia risk. Add this to the list of the benefits of olive oil—it’s one of the super foods that MIND suggests including every day.

Horiatiki: The Sequel!

  • Savory Puff Pastry Wheels Olive Oil Hunter News #192

    Savory Puff Pastry Pinwheels and Imperial Bloody Mary Recipes, Spotlight on Herbes de Provence and Ground Sun-Dried Tomatoes, Storing Spices, Anti-Inflammatory Diet and Weekend Exercising

    Recipes are so much more flavorful when you have the best ingredients in your pantry. That’s why I’m so excited about the new herbs and spices in my latest collection from the T. J. Robinson Curated Culinary Selections—six brand-new offerings plus perennial favorites heirloom Vietnamese cinnamon and vine-ripened black peppercorns. I’m sharing two recipes from the Spice Report, the booklet that comes with the collection to show you how easy it is to elevate your dishes. Also, read about an interesting health discovery on the benefits of weekend-only exercise—it provides great motivation for people who just don’t have time to work out during the workweek, along with a study that will have you asking if your diet is pro- or anti-inflammatory.

    Savory Puff Pastry Pinwheels

    Imperial Bloody Mary

    Healthy Ingredient Spotlight: Calamansi Vinegar

    Healthy Ingredient Spotlight

    Herbes de Provence and Ground Sun-Dried Tomatoes 

    Herbes de Provence

    Provence, in the south of France, is known for picturesque villages, fields of lavender, and, of course, a gentle Mediterranean climate. One of its many culinary gifts to the world is the fragrant blend of dried herbs appropriately named Herbes de Provence. With one whiff of this exquisite mix of oregano, rosemary, savory, and thyme, you’ll be transported to this idyllic locale. 

    Herbs have been used for thousands of years. Provence was blessed with a wide range of wild herbs, and eventually, locals began to grow them in private gardens and dry them to use long after the growing season. How the specific mix Herbes de Provence came to be is unclear, though some historians credit it to local monks. Americans’ love of these herbs began in the 20th century when culinary legend Julia Child introduced the US to French cuisine and ingredients. 

    A mainstay of French cooking, these herbs are synonymous with classics like tapenade (recipes for bolded dishes are included in the Spice Report), ratatouille, beef bourguignon, and cassoulet, but don’t stop there. Sprinkle them over potatoes and other vegetables before roasting and to season homemade croutons; dress up flatbread Provençal, pasta, pizza, and omelets. Add them to dry rubs, marinades, and vinaigrettes. Because the flavor is intense, it takes just a sprinkling to impart their essence.

    The various herbs in the mix have been used for medicinal purposes for centuries. Oregano has a high concentration of phytonutrients, including flavonoids and phenolic acids. Savory is also considered a powerful antioxidant and antibacterial agent. Rosemary is an anti-inflammatory with possible antianxiety and memory-boosting effects. Thyme has long been known for its antiviral, antibacterial, antifungal, and antiseptic properties.

    Turkey has a unique location in the world, straddling Europe and Asia, with the sprawling city of Istanbul spanning the two continents. The tomatoes for my Ground Sun-Dried Tomatoes, a variety known for their tangy flavor, are grown on small farms along the country’s Aegean Sea coastline, part of the Mediterranean region. 

    Ground Sun-Dried Tomatoes

    The long history of tomatoes began some 80,000 years ago in South America, where small wild tomatoes about the size of cherry tomatoes grew. Early 16th-century explorers brought tomato seeds back to Europe, and soon after, the seeds were carried to North America. Drying fresh tomatoes after the growing season not only preserves them but also intensifies their sweet-tart flavor. Grinding them into a powder is a more modern concept that extends the tomato’s versatility and is a favorite of professional chefs—pure tomato taste with just the right amount of acidity, balanced by sweet notes. 

    Mix it with panko and herbs for a mac ’n’ cheese topping or to stuff Roma tomatoes before baking. Add it to your favorite rubs for chicken or roasts, vinaigrettes and olive oil-based marinades, hummus, or aioli. Sprinkle it on pizza and into your fresh-pressed olive oil before dipping bread. It will elevate essential tomato sauce and other sauces,gazpacho or other tomato-based soups, zesty rice pilaf, tomato pies,tomato-strawberry jam, savory shortbreads, and scones. It adds color and flavor to breads,homemade pastas, ricotta filling for stuffed shells, and even cream cheese. Sprinkle it on omelets, sautéed or roasted vegetables, and popcorn. You can mix 2 teaspoons of water with 1 teaspoon of powder to make a tablespoon of tomato paste in a pinch!

    Tomatoes are chock-full of nutrients, notably lycopene, an antioxidant that supports heart, eye, and prostate health. Drying and grinding tomatoes into a powder helps make the lycopene more bioavailable. Tomato powder also has small amounts of potassium, beta-carotene, and vitamin A.

    Quick Kitchen Nugget: Storing spices

    Quick Kitchen Nugget

    Storing spices

    The best way to store spices isn’t the handiest—they should be in tightly sealed glass containers away from light, humidity, and heat, so not above the cooktop. Keep them on a dry pantry shelf or in a drawer away from the oven, and soon it will be second nature to take them out of their new “home” as you prep ingredients and set the table with these great alternatives to salt.

    For Your Best Health: Is your diet “pro-inflammatory”?

    For Your Best Health

    Is your diet “pro-inflammatory”?

    As readers of this newsletter know, extra virgin olive oil has significant anti-inflammatory properties—that’s why it gets top marks as a healthy fat. However, according to research done at The Ohio State University’s College of Public Health and published in the journal Public Health Nutrition, more than half of all American adults eat a diet that’s considered pro-inflammatory, meaning it contributes to unhealthy inflammation in the body, which in turn increases the risk of health problems including heart disease and cancer.

    The Ohio State research team examined the self-reported diets of more than 34,500 adults included in the 2005-2018 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey using an existing tool called the dietary inflammatory index, which includes 45 dietary components. The tool assigns dietary inflammation values ranging from −9 to 8, with 0 being a neutral diet. About 34% of those in the study had anti-inflammatory diets, while 9% had neutral dietary inflammatory levels. But “overall, 57% of US adults have a pro-inflammatory diet and that number was higher for Black Americans, men, younger adults, and people with lower education and income,” said lead author Rachel Meadows, PhD, scientist and visiting faculty member. “The overall balance of diet is most important. Even if you’re eating enough fruits or vegetables, if you’re having too much alcohol or red meat, then your overall diet can still be pro-inflammatory.”

    Dr. Meadows said she’s less interested in labeling foods as “bad” and more interested in thinking about anti-inflammatory foods as tools people can employ to boost health. “Moving toward a diet with less inflammation could have a positive impact on a number of chronic conditions, including diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and even depression and other mental health conditions,” she explained.

    Many people also have elevated chronic inflammation due to non-dietary factors, including stress and adverse childhood experiences, said Dr. Meadows. “There are a lot of factors that contribute to chronic inflammation, and they all interact—even sleep is a key component. Diet can be used as a tool to combat that.” In addition to extra virgin olive oil, top anti-inflammatory foods to add to your diet include garlic, ginger, turmeric, green and black tea, whole grains, green leafy vegetables, legumes including beans and lentils, fatty fish such as salmon, and berries.

    Fitness Flash: The benefits of being a “weekend warrior”

    Fitness Flash

    The benefits of being a “weekend warrior”

    Are you too busy during the week to find time for workouts and try to make up for it on weekends? We’ve heard about the downside of being a weekend warrior, like the potential risk of a sports injury when your workouts aren’t consistent. But a recent study led by investigators at Massachusetts General Hospital and published in the journal Circulation found many positives, most importantly that being a weekend warrior is linked to a lower risk of developing hundreds of future diseases from heart and digestive conditions to mental health and neurological illnesses. Also, compared to inactivity, concentrated physical activity patterns may be just as effective for disease prevention as when exercise is spread out throughout the week.

    “Physical activity is known to affect risk of many diseases,” said co-senior author Shaan Khurshid, MD, MPH, a faculty member in the Demoulas Center for Cardiac Arrhythmias at Massachusetts General Hospital. “Here, we show the potential benefits of weekend warrior activity for the risk of not only cardiovascular diseases, as we’ve shown in the past, but also future diseases spanning the whole spectrum, ranging from conditions like chronic kidney disease to mood disorders and beyond.”

    Dr. Khurshid, along with co-senior author Patrick Ellinor, MD, PhD, co-director of the Corrigan Minehan Heart Center at Massachusetts General Hospital, and their colleagues analyzed information on 89,573 individuals in the prospective UK Biobank study who wore wrist accelerometers that recorded their total physical activity and time spent at different exercise intensities over one week. Participants’ physical activity patterns were categorized as weekend warrior, regular, or inactive, using the guideline-based threshold of 150 minutes per week of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity.

    The team then looked for associations between physical activity patterns and incidence of 678 different conditions across 16 types of disease categories, including mental health, digestive, and neurological. Their analyses revealed that weekend warrior and regular physical activity patterns were each associated with substantially lower risks of over 200 diseases compared with inactivity and spanned all the disease categories tested. Associations were strongest for cardiometabolic conditions such as hypertension (23% and 28% lower risks over a median of 6 years with weekend warrior and regular exercise, respectively) and diabetes (43% and 46% lower risks, respectively). 

    “Our findings were consistent across many different definitions of weekend warrior activity, as well as other thresholds used to categorize people as active,” said Dr. Khurshid. “Because there appear to be similar benefits for weekend warrior versus regular activity, it may be the total volume of activity, rather than the pattern, that matters most. Future interventions testing the effectiveness of concentrated activity to improve public health are warranted, and patients should be encouraged to engage in guideline-adherent physical activity using any pattern that may work best for them.”

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  • Imperial Bloody Mary Imperial Bloody Mary

    This recipe has twice the tomato-y depth of traditional mixes, thanks to the tomato powder, yet requires little extra effort for all that taste. Enjoy it “virgin” or with your favorite vodka. Multiply the quantities for a party!

    Ingredients

    • 12 ounces best-quality tomato juice
    • 3/4 teaspoon Ground Sun-Dried Tomatoes
    • Splash (about 10 drops) Worcestershire sauce, plus more to taste
    • 1/8 teaspoon Vine-Ripened Black Peppercorns
    • 1-1/2 teaspoons prepared horseradish
    • Juice of 1/4 lemon
    • Cholula or Frank’s hot sauce to taste
    • 1 jigger vodka (optional)
    • Optional garnish: celery sticks

    Directions

    Add all the ingredients to a small pitcher and stir well. Taste and adjust seasonings to your liking by adding more tomato powder,Worcestershire, horseradish, and/or hot sauce. Add 3 or 4 ice cubes to two highball glasses and fill with the Bloody Mary mix. Garnish with a celery stick if desired.

    Yields 2 drinks

  • Savory Puff Pastry Wheels Savory Puff Pastry Wheels

    These look so elegant yet are a snap to make with packaged puff pastry (I love the Dufour brand because it uses real butter). Flaky and delicious on their own, they’re sublime when topped with a slice of Brie and some fig jam. 

    Ingredients

    • 1 package frozen puff pastry dough, defrosted overnight in the fridge
    • 1 tablespoon Herbes de Provence
    • 1 tablespoon Ground Sun-Dried Tomatoes
    • 1 tablespoon Caramelized Onion Powder
    • 1 small egg, beaten

    Directions

    Step 1

    Preheat your oven to 400°F. On a floured surface with a floured rolling pin, gently roll out any folds in the dough. Sprinkle the entire surface with the tomato powder, herbs, and onion powder (use your fingers as needed to spread them out evenly).

    Step 2

    Slice the dough in half lengthwise, then roll up each half lengthwise, jelly roll style. Next, cut each roll into rounds about 1-inch wide. Place the rounds flat on two cookie sheets and brush the tops and sides with the beaten egg. Bake for 25 minutes until nicely puffed and browned.

    Yields about 32 pinwheels

  • Fresh Herb Marinade Olive Oil Hunter News #191

    Fresh Herb Marinade Recipe, Spotlight on Authentic Balsamic Vinegar, and Keeping Your Blood Pressure and BMI Under Control

    Grilled or roasted, even the best cuts of meat benefit from marination, and the following marinade recipe is a hands-down winner. To impart just the right amount of sweetness, it uses the wonderfully rich balsamic vinegar called Condimento Barili Exclusivi from my new T. J. Robinson Curated Culinary Selections collection of artisanal vinegars.

    Also in this issue of the Newsletter are two studies crucial to the fight against heart disease and other ills—one on keeping BMI in check and the other on the importance of blood pressure control.

    Fresh Herb Marinade

    Healthy Ingredient Spotlight: Calamansi Vinegar

    Healthy Ingredient Spotlight

    Authentic Balsamic Vinegar 

    Condimento Barili Exclusivi

    As those of you who have already been enjoying the vinegars of the T. J. Robinson Curated Culinary Selections know, after years of requests from members of the Fresh-Pressed Olive Oil Club, I made it my mission to source the best artisanal vinegars on the planet. That started with distinguishing true aceto balsamico, or balsamic vinegar, from its many pretenders.

    With so many bottles on store shelves labeled “balsamic,” it’s important to know how to choose correctly. First and foremost, the vinegar must be completely crafted in Modena, a city within the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, according to exacting, centuries-old standards enforced by the local consortiums. Anything else is, quite simply, not balsamic vinegar. Also, it can only be made from very specific grapes. Of course, the ultimate quality of a Modena balsamic depends on the skill of the producer, including knowing what wood to pick for each period of barrel-aging.

    For the past five years, I’ve worked with the artisans at Società Agricola Acetomodena to bring you the finely crafted balsamic vinegar, Condimento Barili Exclusivi, in my collection. The “condiment” designation allows producers more freedom to craft a vinegar that goes beyond strict requirements of traditional balsamic vinegar, or aceto balsamico tradizionale, and with the perfect balance of acidity, sweetness, and woodiness from the barrel aging—thick, rich, tangy, and velvety. I liken it to when vintners create a cuvée, blending wines from various barrels to create a finished product that is greater than the sum of the parts.

    Why you should have this vinegar in your kitchen: Balsamic vinegar is a culinary essential. It adds the perfect finish to cheeses, salads, grilled foods from vegetables to meat, and even fruits, like strawberries, figs, and pineapple. Pair it with your fresh-pressed olive oils to enhance mature or fresh cheeses, from aged Parmigiano-Reggiano to fresh burrata, and to make sauces, marinades, and vinaigrettes. Drizzle a few drops as a finishing touch on flatbreads, steak, risotto, French toast, and even ice cream.

    Quick Kitchen Nugget: Whipping Cream

    Quick Kitchen Nugget

    Deciding Between Vinegars

    It’s important to always have a wide selection of vinegars in the pantry. Sometimes I want a sweeter note, other times one that’s more tart. While I don’t believe in any hard-and-fast rules, I do like to pair milder vinegars with milder oils so that one doesn’t overwhelm the other. 

    Think about the foods on your plate, too. If you’re making a salad with bitter greens, add sweetness with a sweeter vinegar like Condimento Barili Exclusivi or a mildly acidic note with citrusy Calamansi Vinegar. If you’re making a chopped salad with provolone and salami, a vinegar like my Raspberry Vinegar will balance the richness of the meat and cheese. 

    I also like to combine vinegars. For a vinaigrette with great complexity, use equal amounts of a sweet vinegar and a tart one. The beauty of having many wonderful vinegars is that you can have fun discovering the pairings you like best. 

    For Your Best Health: Is Your Blood Pressure Under Control?

    For Your Best Health

    Is Your Blood Pressure Under Control?

    According to a study in JAMA Network Open that looked at data on more than 3,000 people over the age of 18, the numbers are alarming: More than half the adults in the US with uncontrolled high blood pressure aren’t even aware that they have it. This was especially true for younger adults between the ages of 18 and 44 years—high blood pressure, or hypertension, is not just a disease of older age. There is also concern about people who take medication for high blood pressure: For more than two-thirds, it remains uncontrolled. Because this was a weighted study, researchers were able to estimate that of the approximately 120 million American adults with hypertension, for about 92.9 million people it’s not under control.

    The researchers stated: “These findings have serious implications for the nation’s overall health….Uncontrolled hypertension, which is a leading factor associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality and events, including heart attack and stroke, is also associated with an increased risk of diabetes, chronic kidney disease, and cognitive decline.

    “Additionally, despite engagement with the health care system, we found that 70 percent of adults with uncontrolled hypertension who were aware of their condition reported taking antihypertensive medication. While antihypertensive medications are effective in reducing blood pressure and preventing CVD across demographic groups, our results support existing evidence that a prescription alone does not guarantee improved hypertension control at the individual or population level….These findings underscore the need for efforts to improve outcomes across levels of the hypertension control cascade.”

    This study points to the importance of having your blood pressure checked regularly and following up regularly as well to see if treatment for high blood pressure is working.

    Fitness Flash: Keeping BMI in Check

    Fitness Flash

    Keeping BMI in Check

    According to a study published in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, to keep weight in check, it’s important to consider not only what you eat but also the times when you eat. Two specific habits associated with a lower body mass index (BMI) in the long term are keeping a longer overnight fast and eating breakfast early.

    This research, led by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), involved more than 7,000 volunteers between the ages of 40 and 65 who answered questionnaires about their weight and height; eating habits, including meal times; other lifestyle habits; and socioeconomic status. In 2023, after five years, more than 3,000 participants made a follow-up visit to the research team, where their measures were registered again and new questionnaires were completed.

    Woman eating breakfast to keep BMI in check

    “Our results, in line with other recent studies, suggest that extending the overnight fast could help maintain a healthy weight if accompanied by an early dinner and an early breakfast,” explained Luciana Pons-Muzzo, researcher at ISGlobal at the time of the study and currently at IESE Business School. “We think this may be because eating earlier in the day is more in line with circadian rhythms and allows for better calorie burning and appetite regulation, which can help maintain a healthy weight. However, it is too soon to draw definitive conclusions, so recommendations will have to wait for more robust evidence.”

    Added Camille Lassale, ISGlobal researcher and senior co-author of the study, “There are different ways of practicing what is known as ‘intermittent fasting’ and our study relates to one of them, which is overnight fasting. What we observed in a subgroup of men who do intermittent fasting by skipping breakfast is that this practice has no effect on body weight. Other intervention studies in participants with obesity have shown that this tactic is no more effective than reducing calorie intake in reducing body weight in the long term.” 

    “Our research is part of an emerging field of research known as ‘chrononutrition,’ which focuses not only on analyzing what we eat but also [on] the times of day and the number of times we eat,” says Anna Palomar-Cros, a researcher at ISGlobal at the time of the study. “At the basis of this research is the knowledge that unusual food intake patterns can conflict with the circadian system, the set of internal clocks that regulate the cycles of night and day and the physiological processes that must accompany them.” 

    This study provides continuity to a line of ISGlobal research on chrononutrition, which in recent years has published two other studies with results in the same direction. In these studies, it was observed that eating dinner and breakfast early was associated, respectively, with a lower risk of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes.

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  • Fresh Herb Marinade Fresh Herb Marinade

    This marinade imparts deep flavor to meat, especially when marinated overnight. Consider the following herbs a suggestion—make this recipe your own by combining your favorites, fresh or dried. Note: This Condimento Barili Exclusivi marinade is excellent for beef, lamb, and game; you can adapt it to chicken, pork, and fish by using Condimento Bianco Senape from my collection instead of Barili Exclusivi.

    Ingredients

    • 2 sprigs fresh thyme or 1/4 teaspoon dried
    • 1 sprig fresh rosemary or 1/4 teaspoon dried
    • 1 tablespoon chopped fresh tarragon or 1 teaspoon dried
    • 1 sprig fresh basil
    • 3 fresh sage leaves or 1/2 teaspoon dried
    • 2 garlic cloves
    • 1-1/2 teaspoons coarse salt
    • 1/4 cup Condimento Barili Exclusivi 
    • 1 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
    • 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

    Directions

    If using fresh thyme and rosemary sprigs, strip the leaves and place them on a cutting board along with the tarragon, basil, sage, garlic, and salt. Coarsely chop them all together. Transfer to a mixing bowl and stir in the vinegar and black pepper, then slowly whisk in the olive oil until thoroughly blended. 

    Yields about 2/3 cup

  • Lemon Mousse with Blueberry Compote Olive Oil Hunter News #190

    Lemon Mousse with Blueberry Compote Recipe, Spotlight on Calamansi Vinegar, Whipping Cream, Achieving Greater Work Satisfaction, and Travel – A Fountain of Youth

    I hope you’re in the mood for citrus because I have a rich and creamy lemon mousse recipe to share with you. The secret to its depth of flavor is Calamansi Vinegar, part of the quartet of the latest T. J. Robinson Curated Culinary Selections collection of artisanal vinegars. I’m also sharing two studies that touch on the work-life balance so important for well-being. The first reveals a simple step to increase work satisfaction, while the second focuses on time off and details an unexpected benefit of travel.

    Lemon Mousse with Blueberry Compote

    Healthy Ingredient Spotlight: Calamansi Vinegar

    Healthy Ingredient Spotlight

    Calamansi Vinegar

    Condimento Bianco Senape, or White Condiment with Mustard

    If you’ve never tried Calamansi Vinegar, you’ll find that it adds a zesty layer of flavor to recipes that call for citrus. Drizzle it over seafood dishes like ceviche and tuna tataki, crudo, vegetable and grain salads, greens (raw or cooked), and roasted vegetables. It’s excellent in a marinade for grilled fish and as a finishing drizzle on chicken piccata and other dishes with a lemon sauce. Swap it for lemon juice in aioli and in homemade mayo and for lime juice in guacamole and in mango salsa. It enhances citrus-based desserts, from granita to lemon curd, and alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks like margaritas or plain sparkling water. A scant teaspoon—the equivalent of a squeeze of lemon—delivers a punch of flavor.

    Just what is a calamansi? Also called a calamondin or Philippine lime (where it’s now primarily grown), it’s a citrus fruit native to many countries in Southeast and East Asia, such as Indonesia and (southern) China, and a staple of many cuisines in these regions. It’s often described as a cross between a kumquat and a mandarin orange, though its taste makes me think of exotic yuzu enhanced with a blend of traditional citrus—lime, lemon, tangerine, and orange. In my Calamansi Vinegar, you’ll taste notes reminiscent of fresh ginger, lemongrass, lemon verbena, lemon candies, and makrut lime leaves. 

    Quick Kitchen Nugget: Whipping Cream

    Quick Kitchen Nugget

    Whipping Cream

    A simple step often overlooked is to chill your bowl and beaters in the fridge for 15 minutes before whipping heavy cream (if you’re in a rush, just pop them in the freezer for 5). Keep your cream in the fridge right up until you’re ready to whip it so it too will be cold. If you start to whip on a low speed, you won’t find yourself covered in splatters; gradually increase the speed as the cream thickens. If you’re mixing other ingredients into the whipped cream, make sure they’re cold or no warmer than room temperature since warmth will deflate the cream. To retain as much loft as possible when folding in any ingredients, use a spatula in a “J” motion, from the center of the bowl to the outer edge, making quarter-turns of the bowl with every stroke. 

    For Your Best Health: Achieving Greater Work Satisfaction

    For Your Best Health

    Achieving Greater Work Satisfaction

    On average, we spend three and a quarter hours a day looking at our phones. In a recent study from Ruhr-University Bochum in Germany, researchers found that cutting back this time by one hour a day is not only good for our mental health but also helps us feel happier and more motivated at work, with a better work-life balance.

    For their study, the researchers assigned each of the 287 participants all from different professional sectors to one of four groups of roughly equal size: The smartphone group reduced their private smartphone use by one hour a day for one week, the sport group increased their daily physical activity by 30 minutes, the combination group did both, and the control group didn’t change their routine at all. All participants completed online questionnaires before these interventions, immediately afterward, and two weeks after the intervention period ended, providing information about their well-being with regard to both work and mental health.

    The researchers found that in the smartphone and combination groups, work satisfaction and motivation, work-life balance, and mental health had improved significantly. What’s more, the feeling of work overload and symptoms of problematic smartphone use were significantly reduced. All interventions led to a reduction in depressive symptoms and increased the participants’ sense of control.

    “A conscious and controlled reduction of non-work-related screen time, in combination with more physical activity, could improve employees’ work satisfaction and mental health,” concluded Julia Brailovskaia, PhD, corresponding author of the study and a professor at Ruhr, adding that these interventions could either become part of established company programs or serve as a time- and cost-efficient, low-threshold stand-alone program.

    Fitness Flash: Travel - A Fountain of Youth

    Fitness Flash

    Travel: A Fountain of Youth

    Researchers from Edith Cowan University (ECU) in Australia believe that travel could be a great way to forestall aging. For the first time, an interdisciplinary study has applied the theory of entropy to tourism, finding that travel could have positive health benefits, including slowing down the signs of aging. Entropy is defined as the general trend of the universe toward death and disorder. The entropy perspective suggests that tourism could trigger entropy changes, with positive experiences mitigating entropy and enhancing health.

    “Aging, as a process, is irreversible. While it can’t be stopped, it can be slowed down,” ECU PhD candidate Fangli Hu said. She noted that positive travel experiences could enhance individuals’ physical and mental wellness through exposure to novel environments, engagement in physical activities and social interaction, and the fostering of positive emotions. These potential benefits have been acknowledged through practices such as wellness tourism, health tourism, and yoga tourism.

    Travel therapy could serve as a groundbreaking health intervention when viewed through an entropy lens, she added. Tourism typically exposes people to new surroundings and relaxing activities, and novel settings can stimulate stress responses and elevate metabolic rates, positively influencing metabolic activities and the body’s self-organizing capabilities. These contexts may also trigger an adaptive immune system response, the research found.

    T. J. Robinson and Duccio in Chile
    T. J. Robinson and international olive oil expert Duccio Morozzo della Rocca in a Chilean olive grove selecting the best of the best fruit—the first step in our quest to bring you, Club members, the finest oils on the planet.

    “Put simply, the self-defense system becomes more resilient. Hormones conducive to tissue repair and regeneration may be released and promote the self-healing system’s functioning,” said Hu. “Leisurely travel activities might help alleviate chronic stress, dampen overactivation of the immune system, and encourage normal functioning of the self-defense system. Engaging in recreation potentially releases tension and fatigue in the muscles and joints. This relief helps maintain the body’s metabolic balance and increases the anti-wear-and-tear system’s effectiveness. Organs and tissues can then remain in a low-entropy state.” 

    Travel that encompasses physical activities such as hiking, climbing, walking, and cycling, can also boost metabolism and energy expenditure. “Participating in these activities could enhance the body’s immune function and self-defense capabilities, bolstering its hardiness to external risks,” Hu said. “Physical exercise may also improve blood circulation, expedite nutrient transport, and aid waste elimination to collectively maintain an active self-healing system. Moderate exercise is beneficial to the bones, muscles, and joints in addition to supporting the body’s anti-wear-and-tear system.”

    It’s still important to account for the flip side of travel: The research pointed out that tourists could face challenges such as infectious diseases, accidents, and water and food safety issues, all of which should be considered when planning a trip.

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  • Lemon Mousse with Blueberry Compote Lemon Mousse with Blueberry Compote

    Calamansi Vinegar adds depth to the lemon curd that’s then folded into whipped cream for this silky mousse, and it imparts just the right amount of tang to the berry compote. Both the mousse and the compote can be made a day ahead and refrigerated. Layer any extra compote with yogurt for breakfast the next day!

    Ingredients

    For the compote:

    • 4 cups blueberries, fresh or frozen, divided
    • 2 tablespoons cornstarch
    • 1/2 cup sugar
    • 1/4 cup water
    • 1 tablespoon Calamansi Vinegar
    • Pinch of fine salt
    • 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil  

    For the curd:

    • 3 large or 5 small lemons
    • 2 large eggs, plus 1 yolk
    • 3/4 cup sugar 
    • 2 tablespoons cornstarch 
    • 2 tablespoons Calamansi Vinegar
    • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
    • Pinch of sea salt
    • 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil  

    For the mousse: 

    • 2 cups heavy cream
    • 1/4 cup confectioners’ sugar

    Optional garnish: 

    • Fresh lemon zest 

    Directions

    Step 1

    Make the curd: Zest the lemons with a microplane grater, and then juice them—you should have 1 or more tablespoons of zest and 1 cup of juice. Some pulp is fine to include in the juice, but remove any seeds.

    Step 2

    In a saucepan, whisk the eggs and yolk thoroughly, and then whisk in, one ingredient at a time, the sugar, cornstarch, lemon juice and zest, vinegar, vanilla, and salt. Place the pan over medium heat and whisk constantly as it comes to a very low boil. Cook for 2 minutes, lowering the heat if necessary to prevent a rapid boil. The curd should be thick enough to coat the whisk.

    Step 3

    Remove from the heat. (If you see bits of egg white, use the blade of a spatula to press the curd through a fine strainer into a bowl.) Slowly whisk in the olive oil until completely blended. Pour the curd into a glass bowl or jar and allow it to come to room temperature before covering with plastic wrap and placing in the fridge to thicken further, about an hour. 

    Step 4

    Make the blueberry compote: Mix 3 cups blueberries, cornstarch, sugar, water, vinegar, and salt in a frying pan (this allows for more even cooking than a saucepan). Bring to a boil, stirring frequently. Turn the heat down to a simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, until most of the blueberries break up and the mixture thickens, about 3 to 5 minutes. While still warm (but not hot), fold in the olive oil and the last cup of berries. Let it come to room temperature before serving (refrigerate if not using within an hour).

    Step 5

    Make the mousse: Whip the cream and sugar until stiff. Gently fold in the lemon curd with a large spatula until mostly combined. Chill until ready to serve.

    Step 6

    To serve, spoon ample amounts of mousse into dessert bowls or glasses. Stir the compote, then place dollops randomly around the mousse. If desired, use a microplane grater to top each serving with lemon zest.

    Yields 8 servings

  • Pork Medallions with Berry Sauce Olive Oil Hunter News #189

    Pork Medallions with Berry Sauce Recipe, Spotlight on Raspberry Vinegar, How to Dredge, A New Approach for Managing IBS, and Standing Desks for Better Health

    Members of the Fresh-Pressed Olive Oil Club know that I’m a huge fan of pork tenderloin. This boneless cut allows for a faster prep and a more elegant presentation than chops.The recipe I’m sharing uses the Raspberry Vinegar from my new T. J. Robinson Curated Culinary Selections  quartet of vinegars to deglaze the pan (deglazing is a quick trick for creating an instant sauce). It add sweet-tangy notes I know you’ll enjoy. 

    This edition of the newsletter also focuses on new research for people bothered by IBS with an easier-to-follow alternative to the FODMAP diet. The other study I’m sharing looked at different types of workstations to discover which style could be better for easing the aches and pains that come from sitting for hours in front of a screen.

    Pork Medallions with Berry Sauce

    Healthy Ingredient Spotlight: Condimento Bianco Senape 

    Healthy Ingredient Spotlight

    Raspberry Vinegar

    Condimento Bianco Senape, or White Condiment with Mustard

    Look at the ingredients on a supermarket (or even gourmet store) bottle of “raspberry” vinegar and chances are real raspberries won’t be listed, but artificial flavors and colors and sugar will be. For a true raspberry vinegar crafted from raspberries and nothing but raspberries, I’m thrilled to introduce you to the ultimate Raspberry Vinegar from Gölles, the Austrian purveyor of all-fruit vinegars. If you’re used to artificially flavored vinegars, prepare to be blown away. This vinegar is tart and bracing because it is crafted from real fruit using time-honored traditions, and the only sugar comes from the berries themselves. 

    “It was important for us to make it in a pure way—it has one ingredient: raspberries,” said Alois Gölles, whose father started their family-run business in the 1950s. “Our approach is to make raspberry juice, ferment it into raspberry wine, and then transform that wine into vinegar—no adorations, no other ingredients. We do the same with all our fruits, whether quince or apples or pears. And that’s why our products taste unique: it’s the fruit and nothing else. That means no preservatives either,” said Alois. 

    Raspberry Vinegar lends itself perfectly to dressings made with nut oils, such as walnut or hazelnut. Use it on fruit-based salads and to add balance to fruity desserts that would otherwise taste too sweet, such as a raspberry sorbet (you’ll find my recipe for that sorbet along with 29 other dishes in the report that comes with my vinegar collection). Make it part of a chicken or mushroom marinade, and use it to deglaze your pan when making reduction sauces. Raspberry Vinegar also adds punch to drinks, from your morning mixed fruit power smoothie to a raspberry shrub spritzer. 

    Quick Kitchen Nugget: How to Dredge

    Quick Kitchen Nugget

    How to Dredge

    To get a nice “crisp” on sautéed proteins like pork, chicken, and beef, it helps to dredge (or lightly coat) the meat in seasoned flour. But it’s important to do this once your pan is hot enough to start cooking and not before, or else the flour will turn gummy. Heat your frying or sauté pan over medium-high heat; when it’s hot (a drop of water will sizzle and evaporate), add your olive oil, then quickly dip both sides of one piece of the meat in the flour, shake off any excess, and place the meat in the oil. Repeat with the remaining pieces. Tip: A wide pie plate is perfect for both mixing seasonings into the flour and for dredging.

    For Your Best Health: A New Approach for Managing IBS?

    For Your Best Health

    A New Approach for Managing IBS?

    IBS, or irritable bowel syndrome, is more common than you might think, affecting between 10 and 15 percent of the population. If you’ve been diagnosed with IBS, you’ve likely attempted the FODMAP diet, which excludes a wide range of foods that have FODMAPs or fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides, and polyols—short-chain carbohydrates that are poorly absorbed in the small intestine. Problem foods run the gamut from wheat, dairy, beans, and lentils to very specific fruits and vegetables, which is why you often need an app to help identify them and stay on track. Following the FODMAP diet is a complex process because you eliminate the foods, then add them back one at a time to try to identify the ones that bother you the most. Now scientists at Lund University in Sweden have developed an alternative and far less restrictive approach to quelling IBS symptoms like pain and tightness in the abdomen, diarrhea, and/or constipation: reducing sugars and starches. 

    A few years ago, Bodil Ohlsson, MD, PhD, professor at Lund University and consultant at Skåne University Hospital, decided to investigate the role of sugars and starches in IBS following a geneticist’s discovery: A genetic variation that hinders the breakdown of sugars and starches in the gut is overrepresented among people with IBS. Dr. Ohlsson’s first study of a starch- and sucrose-reduced diet (SSRD) found that, after four weeks, participants who ate significantly less sugar and starch, including sweet treats and highly processed foods, greatly reduced IBS symptoms. For the current study, she and her team decided to compare the two approaches head-to-head.

    “One hundred and fifty-five patients diagnosed with IBS were included and randomly allocated to follow either SSRD or low FODMAP for four weeks,” said Dr. Ohlsson. Participants in both groups had to follow the basic principles of each diet, but they chose how often they ate. 

    Results were impressive. In both groups, IBS symptoms improved in 75 percent to 80 percent of the patients, which, Dr. Ohlsson said, “was even better than we expected.” In addition, weight loss after four weeks was greater in the SSRD group. Sugar cravings also decreased the most in this group, which is a positive sign, as IBS patients weigh more on average than healthy people do, Dr. Ohlsson added.

    “We wouldn’t really even call SSRD a diet. It’s how everyone should eat, not just those with IBS. And unlike low FODMAP, SSRD is easy to understand and easier to follow. You can eat everything when you are invited to dinner, just less of certain things. If you rest your stomach for the rest of the week, you can indulge a little one day!” she said.

    Fitness Flash: Standing Desks for Better Health

    Fitness Flash

    “I’m Still Standing…”

    The well-known perils of sitting at a desk all day long include daytime exhaustion, high blood pressure, and musculoskeletal discomfort, just to name a few. Although devices such as standing desks can ease physical symptoms and even boost productivity, the specific effects of different workstation configurations weren’t always clear. To get some answers, a team of researchers from the Texas A&M University School of Public Health decided to compare predominantly standing (or stand-biased), traditional, and sit-stand (hybrid) workstations by measuring the computer usage and activity levels of 61 office workers for 10 days.

    Participants were divided into one of three study groups according to the type of workstation they used—stand-biased, sit-stand, or traditional—with those using traditional seated workstations serving as the control group. The researchers defined sit-stand workstations as desktop units with a fully height-adjustable work surface paired with a traditional office chair. Stand-biased desks were defined as fixed work surfaces at approximately standing elbow height in conjunction with a drafting stool or chair with an extended cylinder, or seat post.

    The researchers collected data on the amount of time the workers spent at their workstations, along with demographic data and information on how they used office equipment such as footrests, monitor arms, keyboard trays, or anti-fatigue mats. They also asked participants about their discomfort levels.

    Woman standing at desk for posture and health

    To monitor physical activity, researchers provided participants with an activity sensor that ran for one workweek to quantify and measure the participants’ activity levels and energy expenditures. To measure productivity, the team monitored participants’ workstation computer use through hidden and silent data-logging software. The resultant files for each participant were downloaded and aggregated to ensure a minimum of 10 workdays of computer use data, which were analyzed using statistical analysis software.

    “What makes our research unique is our use of computer utilization as a possible indicator of, and proxy for, work productivity in all three workstation types,” said Kaysey Aguilar, DrPH, MPH, instructional clinical professor at the School of Public Health. “We found no significant difference in the number of key clicks between the three groups, but the stand-biased group had a significantly higher word count and more errors than the traditional group. In addition, the 24-hour activity data revealed that the stand-biased group had significantly more standing time, less sitting time, and fewer transitions per hour compared to their traditional counterparts.”

    The study also found that while 80 percent of office workers using a traditional desk and chair experienced lower back discomfort, that number dropped to just over 50 percent among workers with stand-biased desks. 

    “The bottom line is that the risk of health issues from sedentary work can be alleviated through alternative desk options, like sit-stand or stand-biased workstations,” Aguilar says. “These are win-win solutions because they benefit worker’s health while maintaining the high productivity employers expect.”

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  • Pork Medallions with Berry Sauce Pork Medallions with Berry Sauce

    Pork and fruit is a winning culinary combination. Rather than using the more traditional apples, this recipe calls for a double dose of berries, both whole blackberries and pure raspberry vinegar to create a tart foil for the pork. For a delicious side dish, a grain, such as bulgur or barley, mixed with caramelized onions would be ideal, adding sweetness to the plate.

    Ingredients

    • 1/3 cup whole wheat flour
    • 1 teaspoon fine sea salt 
    • 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
    • 1 pork tenderloin, about 1 to 1-1/2 pounds
    • 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
    • 1/3 cup Raspberry Vinegar
    • 1/3 cup white wine or homemade or low-sodium store-bought chicken stock
    • 2 cups fresh blackberries, rinsed and patted dry
    • 4 springs fresh thyme or 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

    Directions

    Step 1

    Mix the flour, salt, and pepper in a pie plate. Cut the tenderloin into medallions about 3/4- to 1-inch thick. 

    Step 2

    Heat a frying pan large enough to hold the medallions over medium heat. When hot, add the oil, then quickly coat both sides of each medallion in the flour mixture, shake off any excess, and add to the pan. Sear for 3 minutes on each side or until brown. Transfer the medallions to a dish. 

    Step 3

    Deglaze the pan with the vinegar. Add the wine or broth and the berries, and briefly bring to a boil. Add the medallions back into the pan, reduce the heat to a simmer, cover, and cook until an instant-read thermometer reaches 145°F, about 5 more minutes. Divide the medallions among four dinner plates. Raise the heat on the stove back to medium, and use a potato masher to partially purée the berries; cook for 3 more minutes until the sauce thickens slightly. Spoon the berry sauce over the medallions.

    Yields 4 servings

  • Potato Frittata Olive Oil Hunter News #188

    Potato Frittata Recipe, Spotlight on Condimento Bianco Senape and Blackcurrants, Steaming Potatoes, and A Surprising Benefit of Exercise for Women

    Autumn is a wonderful time to get together with family and friends, and what better way than over brunch? If you’re looking for a simple yet satisfying dish, my potato frittata fits the bill. It features Condimento Bianco Senape, a unique vinegar in my brand new collection of artisanal vinegars from the T. J. Robinson Curated Culinary Selections. Sweet, fragrant, and with a hint of mustard, it’s crafted in the style of a fine Italian balsamic (read below to learn why there’s actually no such thing as “white balsamic”). You’ve never tasted anything like it before—get ready to fall in love! 

    Also in this issue…I’m sharing fascinating research on blackcurrants, a powerful member of the berry family that might hold the answer to protecting women’s bones in midlife and beyond. Keep reading and you’ll also find out about a surprising benefit of exercise.

    Potato Frittata

    Healthy Ingredient Spotlight: Condimento Bianco Senape 

    Healthy Ingredient Spotlight

    Condimento Bianco Senape 

    Condimento Bianco Senape, or White Condiment with Mustard

    I want to set the record straight—“white balsamic” is not a recognized type of vinegar in Italy. That’s because, by its very nature, balsamic vinegar must be made solely with grape must (grape juice made from all parts of the grapes) that naturally darkens to its signature purple-brown color. That being said, my new Condimento Bianco Senape, or White Condiment with Mustard, is reminiscent of a fine balsamic because it’s crafted in the perfect ratio of two parts white cooked grape must to one part white wine vinegar by the amazing vinegar producers known for their balsamic vinegars, Società Agricola Acetomodena in Modena, Italy. Both the grape must and wine vinegar are made solely from Acemodena’s own Trebbiano grapes, which give it its unique light color, and not their Lambrusco ones, which give traditional balsamic its deep color. 

    The idea for creating a complex, mustard-seed infused white wine vinegar in the sweet style of balsamic came from Patrizia Vecchi, the wife of Acetomodena owner Paolo Vecchi. She was inspired by the ancient Roman cooking technique of using a white vinegar along with honey and mustard to get a delicious crust on spit-roasted pork. The white mustard seeds, which are entirely edible, add a subtle layer of flavor to my Condimento Bianco Senape that would be lost in a traditional balsamic. 

    You’ll use this mustard vinegar to effortlessly create a rich and silky vinaigrette just by whisking in fresh-pressed olive oil and a bit of salt and pepper. I love its sweetness yet will also blend it with other vinegars when I want a bit more tartness. Use it as a marinade for poultry, pork, and fish. Drizzle it on steak and burgers, gourmet sandwiches with prosciutto and other meats, bruschetta with tomatoes, fresh salads like rocket with pine nuts and a drizzle of honey, and my eggless Caesar salad which along with the potato frittata are just two of the many recipes included in the Vinegar Report that comes with the collection. 

    Quick Kitchen Nugget: Steaming Potatoes

    Quick Kitchen Nugget

    Steaming Potatoes

    Steaming potatoes keeps them from falling apart and preserves more of their nutrients than boiling. Simply scrub and slice or cube your potatoes and arrange them in a steamer basket set over two inches of simmering water in a stockpot. You can load the basket with two layers of potatoes, but try to keep some space between the pieces for the steam to get through. The potatoes are done when the tip of a knife easily pierces the flesh; start checking after 25 minutes.

    For Your Best Health: Blackcurrants for Better Bones?

    For Your Best Health

    Blackcurrants for Better Bones?

    Research done at the University of Connecticut (UConn) has identified blackcurrants, a tart berry known in French foods and liqueurs as cassis, as a potential way of countering the bone density loss experienced by women in the years surrounding menopause. 

    For many years, Ock Chun, PhD, MPH, professor of nutritional sciences in UConn’s College of Agriculture, Health and Natural Resources (CAHNR), has been investigating the berry’s potential to ameliorate a host of conditions including postmenopausal bone loss and osteoporosis. One of her previous studies showed that in mice, blackcurrant supplements helped prevent bone density loss postmenopause, and that the best time to start taking these supplements is in the transition between pre- and postmenopause, before bone loss has significantly progressed. With these findings in hand, Chun and her team wanted to see whether the benefits would translate to people. The new study, published in the Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry, found that the supplements prevented the loss of, and in some cases even increased, whole-body bone mineral density in women.

    Blackcurrants

    The study involved 40 perimenopausal and early postmenopausal participants between the ages of 45 and 60. They were randomly assigned to take either one or two capsules of blackcurrant powder (392 milligrams per capsule) or a placebo daily for six months. The researchers found that the supplements prevented the loss of whole-body bone mineral density and that the group of participants who took two capsules a day actually showed overall increases in bone mineral density at the end of the six-month trial period.

    The researchers looked at changes to the gut microbiome and immune system, which interact to play a key role in bone metabolism. They found that the blackcurrant supplements decreased levels of proteins called interleukin-1 beta and RANKL. Interleukin-1 beta stimulates the expression of RANKL, which causes bone resorption and thus a decrease in bone density. “The reduction in RANKL is important because that can cause shifts toward excessive bone resorption, so we’d want to see a decrease in that,” said graduate student Briana Nosal, first author of the paper.

    Taking the supplements also increased Ruminococcus 2, bacteria found in the gut microbiome that help degrade polysaccharides and fibers. This is a key function that transforms the foods we eat into energy. This led the researchers to infer that it could be one of the bacteria driving the protective effects blackcurrant has on bones. “It’s all related, and there’s a lot of research showing the gut can regulate various systems in the body,” Nosal said.

    The researchers identified a total of four proteins that had increased expression in the group of participants who took two daily supplement capsules. These could serve as potential biomarkers for the changes in bone density that they observed and potentially allow researchers or medical professionals to quickly and easily assess whether the blackcurrant supplementation is benefiting bone density.

    This study is especially important for perimenopausal and early postmenopausal women who have or are at risk of developing osteoporosis. While medications for osteoporosis do exist, compliance is low due because of side effects. If a blackcurrant supplement can improve bone density without the same side effects, it could prove to be an effective alternative.

    As the research team continues to study the relationship between blackcurrant and its benefits to the body, they’ll try to better understand why exactly they’re seeing these results and “how all our findings connect to each other,” Nosal said. “Conducting that multifaceted research will really paint the picture of how everything works, the different mechanisms, and what we can do for next steps.”

    Fitness Flash

    A surprising Benefit of Exercise for Women

    Recent research led by Donald S. Wright, MD, MHS, of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Yale School of Medicine and published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine found that sticking with an exercise program is linked to older women staying out of the hospital.

    This retrospective study evaluated 718 older adults with a mean age of 69.5; three-quarters were women. The researchers compared the outcomes of those who participated in a structured, individualized exercise training program at a privately owned gym in their community for at least three months (411 participants) to the outcomes of those who did not. The structured program consisted of guided sessions of cardiovascular, strength, and flexibility training monitored by exercise physiologists. Participants completed a baseline physical assessment and quarterly reassessments of physical performance including measuring vital signs, strength (bicep curl or grip strength), mobility (as measured by the ability to easily go from sitting to standing), balancing on one leg, and aerobic capacity. These data were paired with regional hospital data and a national mortality database. Participants were followed for over two years. 

    When the researchers compared outcomes of older adults who participated in the exercise program with outcomes of those who did not, they found that the risk for all-cause hospitalization was 46 percent lower among the women in the exercise program. Surprisingly, this benefit was not seen among the men. 

    The researchers pointed out that the study doesn’t establish cause and effect between exercise and not needing healthcare, just a link, albeit a positive one for women. It’s also not known whether the people who dropped out of the structured exercise program exercised independently, potentially narrowing the observed differences between the groups. They also warned that participants may not be fully representative of the broader US population because they were all from one area of the country and had all been motivated to sign up for the gym program on their own.

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For Your Best Health: Managing Depression: Using Scents to Unlock Memories 

For Your Best Health

The MIND Diet for Brain Health: More Benefits of Olive Oil

According to a new study from researchers at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and The Robert Butler Columbia Aging Center, a very specific brain-boosting diet has been linked to reduced dementia risk and a slower pace of aging. The study, “Diet, Pace of Biological Aging, and Risk of Dementia in the Framingham Heart Study,” published in the Annals of Neurology, also explains how the diet helps slow down the processes of biological aging.

“Much attention to nutrition in dementia research focuses on the way specific nutrients affect the brain,” said Daniel Belsky, PhD, associate professor of epidemiology and a senior author of the study. “We tested the hypothesis that healthy diet protects against dementia by slowing down the body’s overall pace of biological aging.”

The researchers used data from the second generation of the Framingham Heart Study, the Offspring Cohort. Participants were 60 years of age or older and free of dementia and had available dietary, epigenetic, and follow-up data. Follow-up was done at nine examinations, approximately every 4 to 7 years, which included a physical exam, lifestyle-related questionnaires, blood sampling, and, starting in 1991, neurocognitive testing. Of 1,644 participants included in the analyses, 140 developed dementia. 

To measure the pace of aging, the researchers used an epigenetic clock called DunedinPACE developed by Dr. Belsky and colleagues at Duke University and the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand. The clock measures how fast a person’s body is deteriorating as they grow older, “like a speedometer for the biological processes of aging,” explained Dr. Belsky.

“We have some strong evidence that a healthy diet can protect against dementia,” said Yian Gu, PhD, associate professor of neurological sciences at Columbia University Irving Medical Center and the other senior author of the study, “but the mechanism of this protection is not well understood.” Past research linked both diet and dementia risk to an accelerated pace of biological aging. “Testing the hypothesis that multi-system biological aging is a mechanism of underlying diet-dementia associations was the logical next step,” explained Dr. Belsky.

The research determined that higher adherence to the MIND diet slowed the pace of aging as measured by DunedinPACE and reduced risks for dementia and mortality. Furthermore, slower DunedinPACE accounted for 27% of the diet-dementia association and 57% of the diet-mortality association.

“Our findings suggest that slower pace of aging mediates part of the relationship of healthy diet with reduced dementia risk, and therefore, monitoring pace of aging may inform dementia prevention,” said first author Aline Thomas, PhD, of the Columbia Department of Neurology and Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer’s Disease and the Aging Brain. “However, a portion of the diet-dementia association remains unexplained, therefore we believe that continued investigation of brain-specific mechanisms in well-designed mediation studies is warranted.”

“We suggest that additional observational studies be conducted to investigate direct associations of nutrients with brain aging, and if our observations are also confirmed in more diverse populations, monitoring biological aging may indeed inform dementia prevention,” noted Dr. Belsky.

Exactly What Is the MIND Diet?

MIND is a hybrid of the Mediterranean and DASH diets, tailored to reflect key findings from nutrition and dementia research. It details serving sizes of specific foods to focus on and which to limit, primarily those high in saturated fat, which is known to negatively affect brain health. 

Foods and portions to eat every day: 1/2 to 1 cup green leafy vegetables, 1/2 cup other vegetables, 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, and three 1-ounce servings of whole grains. 

Foods and portions to eat over the course of each week: 5 ounces nuts, 2-1/2 cups berries, 1-1/2 cups legumes, two 3-to-5-ounce servings of skinless poultry, and 3-to-5 ounces fish.

Foods to limit to these weekly totals: three or fewer 3-to-5-ounce servings of red and processed meats, 1 ounce whole-fat cheese, 1 fried or fast food, and 4 sweet servings. If desired, no more than 1 teaspoon of butter or stick of margarine a day.

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Olive Oil Hunter #169

Posted on by The Olive Oil Hunter

Elevated Grilled Cheese Sammies Recipe, Spotlight on Arugula, Avocado and Cast Iron Skillets, and How to Manage Chronic Pain with Exercise

Comfort foods are oh so yummy but often don’t have the best health profile. My version of the classic grilled cheese packs high-nutrient foods that deliver on taste, too. One of them is avocado, a food that’s not only good for you on its own but also seems to encourage healthier eating in general, according to a study I’m sharing. You’ll also read about a healthy therapy to help forestall or ease chronic pain. 

Elevated Grilled Cheese Sammies

  • Gourmet Grilled Cheese Sandwich Elevated Grilled Cheese Sammies

    Even finicky eaters rush to the kitchen when grilled cheese sandwiches are on the menu. With a few ingredient upgrades, this lunch or dinner mainstay tastes even more delicious.

    Ingredients

    • Extra virgin olive oil, as needed
    • 2 ounces Manchego cheese, shredded
    • 1 ripe avocado, cut into thin slices
    • 1 ripe pear, cut into thin slices
    • 1 tablespoon fig jam
    • 1-2 cups arugula
    • 4 thin slices crusty whole wheat bread

    Directions

    Step 1

    Brush one side of each slice of bread with olive oil. Build the sandwiches on two of the slices, layering the ingredients equally in this order: a sprinkling of cheese, avocado slices, pear slices, fig jam, arugula, the rest of the cheese, and the top slice of bread. 

    Step 2

    If using a panini press, brush the outsides of the bread with olive oil and heat the press and grill the sandwiches as directed. If using a griddle, heat over medium heat; when hot, add two tablespoons of olive oil in two separate pools and place a sandwich over each pool. Press down on the sandwiches with a large spatula or an empty cast iron skillet (see “Quick Kitchen Nugget” below). When the bottoms have browned, flip the sandwiches and repeat.

    Makes 2 servings

Healthy Ingredient Spotlight: Amazing Arugula

Healthy Ingredient Spotlight

Amazing Arugula

Arugula, pear and manchego salad

We often talk about sensing the spiciness of arugula when doing our fresh-pressed olive oil tastings—the tender greens are full of zesty flavor. If arugula isn’t already on your shopping list, it’s time to add it. The cool weather of spring and fall is its ideal growing environment. Young, or “baby,” arugula is milder in taste—though still peppery—than more mature or late-season harvests.

Though often found in bagged lettuce mixes, arugula (Eruca vesicaria) is actually a cruciferous vegetable, part of the same family as broccoli, cabbage, and kale—and just as packed with nutrients, including antioxidants. In addition to vitamins A, C, K, and folate and the minerals calcium, iron, potassium, and magnesium, arugula has glucosinolates, natural substances that offer some protection from certain types of cancer, such as cancers of the breast, prostate, colon, and lung (glucosinolates are also responsible for that spicy bitterness). 

Arugula makes a great addition to hot and cold sandwiches, focaccia, and pizzas—just be sure to add it after your pizza is cooked, or the high temperature of the oven will burn it quickly. 

Baby arugula tends to come prerinsed, but when growing your own or buying a bunch from the greengrocer, just before eating submerge the leaves in a large bowl of cool water and agitate them to remove any dirt. Wait two minutes, then scoop out the leaves with a spoon strainer, pat dry, and enjoy. 

Quick Kitchen Nugget: Cast Iron Skillet: A Makeshift Panini Press

Quick Kitchen Nugget

Cast Iron Skillet: A Makeshift Panini Press

The value of a panini press is that it grills both sides of a sandwich at once and compacts the contents for better cheesy goodness. But you can achieve a similar effect by placing a cast-iron skillet on top of your sandwich on a griddle or grill. You’ll still have to flip the sandwich, but the skillet’s weight will compress it as it toasts on each side. If you use this method, don’t brush the top outer piece of bread with oil until you’re ready to flip it, to keep the oil from transferring to the skillet. 

For Your Best Health: An Avocado a Day…

For Your Best Health

An Avocado a Day…

A group of researchers from Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Tufts University, the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California Los Angeles, Loma Linda University, and Penn State University examined how the food-based intervention of eating one nutrient-dense avocado per day could impact overall diet quality. Surprisingly, only 2% of American adults eat avocados on a regular basis, even though they’re high in fiber and healthy fats, among many other nutrients. The study was published in the journal Current Developments in Nutrition.   

“Previous observational research suggests avocado consumers have higher diet quality than non-consumers. So, we developed this study to determine if there is a causational link between avocado consumption and overall diet quality,” said Kristina S. Petersen, PhD, associate professor of nutritional sciences at Penn State. 

For the research, 1,008 participants were split into two groups. One group continued their usual diet and limited their avocado intake during the 26-week study, while the other group incorporated one avocado per day into their diet.

Researchers conducted phone interviews with participants before the study began and at a few points throughout to determine what their dietary intake was like in the previous 24 hours and evaluated their diets using the Healthy Eating Index to see how well they adhered to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which was used as a measure of overall diet quality.

“We found that the participants who had an avocado per day significantly increased their adherence to dietary guidelines,” Dr. Petersen said. “By improving people’s adherence to dietary guidelines, we can help to reduce their risk of developing chronic conditions and prolong healthy life expectancy.…In our study, we classified avocados as a vegetable and did see an increase in vegetable consumption attributed to the avocado intake, but also participants used the avocados to replace some unhealthier options…as a substitute for some foods higher in refined grains and sodium.”

Dr. Petersen has conducted similar studies investigating the impact of food-based interventions, including the relationship between pistachios and diet quality. She added that more research is needed to determine what other food-based strategies and behavioral strategies could also be used to improve adherence to dietary guidelines.

Fitness Flash: Physical Activity for Chronic Pain Protection

Fitness Flash

Physical Activity for Chronic Pain Protection

Researchers from UiT The Arctic University of Norway, the University Hospital of North Norway (UNN), and the Norwegian Institute of Public Health knew from an earlier study of  more than 10,000 adults that those who were physically active had a higher pain tolerance than those who were sedentary—and the higher the activity level, the higher the pain tolerance. They next wanted to understand how physical activity could affect the chances of experiencing chronic pain years later and whether this is related to how physical activity affects our ability to tolerate pain. So, they embarked on new research involving almost 7,000 people recruited from the large Tromsø survey, the Norwegian database that has collected data on people’s health and lifestyle over decades.

They obtained information about the participants’ exercise habits during their free time and whether they experienced pain that lasted for 3 months or more, including widespread or severe pain. 

“We found that people who were more active in their free time had a lower chance of having various types of chronic pain 7-8 years later. For example, being just a little more active, such as going from light to moderate activity, was associated with a 5% lower risk of reporting some form of chronic pain later,” said doctoral fellow Anders Årnes at UiT and UNN, one of the researchers behind the study. He adds that for severe chronic pain in several places in the body, higher activity was associated with a 16% reduced risk.

Exercise to manage chronic pain

The researchers found that the ability to tolerate pain played a role in this apparent protective effect. “This suggests that physical activity increases our ability to tolerate pain and may be one of the ways in which activity helps to reduce the risk of severe chronic pain,” said Årnes.

When it comes to exercising if you already have chronic pain, the researcher said: “Physical activity is not dangerous in the first place, but people with chronic pain can benefit greatly from having an exercise program adapted to help them balance their effort so that it is not too much or too little. Healthcare professionals experienced in treating chronic pain conditions can often help with this. A rule of thumb is that there should be no worsening that persists over an extended period, but that certain reactions in the time after training can be expected.”

The research, “Does pain tolerance mediate the effect of physical activity on chronic pain in the general population? The Tromsø Study,” was published in the journal Pain.

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