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The Olive Oil Hunter News #80

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Penne with Warm Cherry Tomato Vinaigrette Recipe, Spotlight on Chives, Importance of Dedicated Kitchen Shears, Tapping Into Your Creativity and Why Use It or Lose It Is Real

Not every great tomato sauce needs hours of simmering! My warm cherry tomato vinaigrette does double duty—equally delicious over hot noodles and cold salads. And it takes less time to make than boiling the pasta. I’m also sharing the essentials on chives, a delicate yet underused herb, and the best way to chop them. You can also read about how to become more creative and why the exercise adage “use it or lose it” holds true.

Penne with Warm Cherry Tomato Vinaigrette

  • Cherry Tomato Vinaigrette Penne with Warm Cherry Tomato Vinaigrette

    This vinaigrette is also delicious as a topping for bruschetta or pizza. And you can let it cool to room temperature and use it as a dressing on cold dishes as well as salads.

    Ingredients

    • 1 pound farfalle
    • 6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, divided
    • 2 shallots, peeled and finely chopped
    • 4 cups cherry tomatoes
    • 2 tablespoon red wine vinegar
    • Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
    • 8 ounces fresh mozzarella, cut into small cubes
    • 4 tablespoons fresh chives, chopped

    Directions

    Step 1

    Cook the pasta as directed. While it’s cooking, heat a sauté pan over medium heat, and add two tablespoons of the olive oil. Add the shallots, and cook until softened, stirring frequently. 

    Step 2

    Add in the cherry tomatoes, and cook until they blister, about 5 minutes, pressing down on them with a wooden spoon to release their juices and smash them a bit. Add the vinegar and the rest of the olive oil, and stir. Season to taste with salt and pepper, and remove from the heat.

    Step 3

    Drain the pasta, top with the mozzarella and the cherry tomatoes, and toss well. Garnish with the chives and serve. 

    Yields 4 servings

Healthy Ingredient Spotlight: Chives

Healthy Ingredient Spotlight

Let’s chop up more chives

Consider chives the mild-mannered relative in the allium family of onions, scallions, garlic, and more. Because their flavor is delicate and easily lost, they’re primarily added after any cooking has been done. But there are different types of chives, some more flavorful than others. 

Common chives are the ones you’re most likely to find at the market. They have slender bright green and hollow stalks, sometimes with flowers attached, and their flavor is quite mild.

Chinese or garlic chives are deep green and have flat blades, with a stronger flavor very reminiscent of garlic. They, too, may have flowers attached. 

Siberian or blue chives have exceptionally tall blades yet are almost as mild as common chives yet harder to find. 

Experiment, and consider growing your own to have chives at your fingertips. 

Healthy Kitchen Nugget: Get dedicated kitchen shears

Healthy Kitchen Nugget

Why you need dedicated kitchen shears

For some kitchen tasks, shears actually work better than a knife, and that’s why you should have at least one pair in your tool drawer. According to the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics’ Food & Nutrition Magazine, kitchen shears are different from scissors. The blade’s pivot point is farther from the handle, making the shears very strong, perfect for cutting up a whole chicken, for instance. The blades are usually longer and should be removable for easy cleaning, the same safety step you’d take after using a cutting board—but using shears means you may not need to dirty a cutting board as often. 

Use shears to snip chives right over a dish, cut bacon into pieces, and even trim dough after you’ve lined a pie plate. Once you see how versatile they are, you’ll be tempted to buy a variety of shears—dedicated poultry shears, herb shears, and shears with offset blades for cutting at an angle. When possible, choose professional-grade carbon steel blades for durability and coated handles, including a large and oblong bottom handle, for the most comfortable grip. 

For Your Best Health: Tapping into creativity

For Your Best Health

Tapping into creativity

Researchers at The Ohio State University (OSU) have developed a new method for helping people bring out their creativity by, in part, helping them think like kids again. It’s based on narrative theory and works by recognizing that we’re all innately creative. According to English professor and member of the OSU Project Narrative Angus Fletcher, PhD, who developed the narrative method of training for creativity, “We as a society radically undervalue the creativity of kids and many others because we are obsessed with the idea that some people are more creative than others. But the reality is that we’re just not training creativity in the right way.” 

The method is an alternative to the standard creativity training technique called divergent thinking, which treats the brain as a logic machine, relies on data and information about the problems and successes of the past … and has less-than-optimal results, Dr. Fletcher says. “What it can’t do is help prepare people for new challenges that we know little about today. It can’t come up with truly original actions,” he says. “But the human brain’s narrative machinery can.” 

His method draws on many of the techniques that writers use to create stories, such as developing new worlds in your mind, and perspective-shifting, which is thinking like another member of your work team, for instance. It’s not that the scenarios you dream up will actually happen, Dr. Fletcher says, explaining, “Creativity isn’t about guessing the future correctly. It’s about making yourself open to imagining radically different possibilities. When you do that, you can respond more quickly and nimbly to the changes that do occur.”

The creativity seen in young children is often unintentionally taught out of them by the time they get to middle school, where the focus is on logical, semantic, and memory training. The narrative approach to creativity can help people unlock the creativity they may have stopped using as they progressed through their education, Dr. Fletcher says.

He and Project Narrative’s Mike Benveniste have worked on the narrative method of training for creativity with the United States Army Command and General Staff College, the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, the OSU College of Engineering, and several Fortune 50 companies to teach creativity to their staffs and students. For a more formal evaluation, they’re conducting randomized controlled trials of the creativity curriculum on more than 600 US Army majors at the Command and General Staff College and working with new organizations, such as the Worthington Local School District in Ohio. “Teaching creativity is one of the most useful things you can do in the world, because it is just coming up with new solutions to solve problems,” he says. And you’re never too old to let your imagination run wild.

Fitness Flash: Why “use it or lose it” is real

Fitness Flash

Why “use it or lose it” is real

Ever wonder why it seems that the less exercise you do, the harder it is to exercise at all? New research offers one possible explanation. Doing less exercise could deactivate the body’s vital Piezo1 protein, according to scientists from the UK’s University of Leeds. Piezo1 is a blood flow sensor. Deactivating it reduces the density of capillaries carrying blood to the muscles, and that restricted blood flow means activity becomes more difficult and can limit the amount of exercise you’re able to do.

The research, published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, was carried out using mice, but because the Piezo1 protein is also found in people, the same results could occur. As lead author Fiona Bartoli, PhD, a postdoctoral researcher at Leeds’ School of Medicine, says, “Exercise protects against cardiovascular disease, diabetes, depression, and cancer. Unfortunately, many people fail to exercise enough, for reasons such as injury and computer usage. This puts people at more risk of disease. The less people exercise, the less fit they become, often leading to a downward spiral.

“Although many responses to exercise are known, how the benefits of exercise are initially triggered at a molecular level is mysterious. Our study highlights the crucial link between physical activity and physical performance made at this level by Piezo1. Keeping our Piezo1s active by exercising may be crucial in our physical performance and health.”

During the experiment, mice who had their Piezo1 levels disrupted for 10 weeks showed a dramatic reduction in activities like walking, climbing, and running on a wheel activity. Specifically they did fewer wheel revolutions per exercise session and had slower running speeds. The mice didn’t have less desire to exercise but rather less ability.

Adds David Beech, PhD, the study’s supervising author, “Our work sheds new light on how Piezo1’s role in blood vessels is connected to physical activity. A lot was already known about its role in blood vessel development, but far less was known about its contribution to vessel maintenance in adults. Our discovery also provides an opportunity to think about how loss of muscle function could be treated in new ways: If we activate Piezo1, it might help to maintain exercise capability.”

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The Olive Oil Hunter News #77

Posted on by The Olive Oil Hunter

Citrus Pork Rib Roast with Roasted Fennel Recipe, Spotlight on Fennel, How to Marinate Safely, Diversify Proteins for Better Health and Resistance Training for Better Sleep

Springtime celebrations demand a dramatic dish, and a pork rib roast fits the bill. This recipe is a great introduction to fennel for those who have been shying away from this versatile veg. You’ll also read about two pieces of interesting health research, important to anyone who wants to fend off high blood pressure (a top heart health risk) and sleep better (not getting enough is a risk to the heart, brain, and overall well-being).

Citrus Pork Rib Roast with Roasted Fennel

  • Fennel Citrus Pork Rib Roast with Roasted Fennel

    This recipe serves a large crowd. For smaller gatherings, cook just one rib roast and cut all the other ingredients in half. If you can’t get bone-in pork rib roasts locally, substitute pork loin roast or even thick pork chops—adjust the cooking times accordingly. The citrus marinade is also excellent with chicken. 

    Ingredients

    • Two 5-bone pork rib roasts, each about 4 pounds 
    • 3 lemons, sliced into eighths and seeded
    • 3 navel oranges, sliced into eighths
    • 1/2 grapefruit, sliced into quarters and seeded 
    • 1/2 sweet onion, peeled and quartered
    • 6 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
    • 3 small sprigs fresh oregano
    • 2 tablespoons fennel seeds 
    • 3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil, divided use
    • 10 whole cloves
    • 10 fresh or 5 dried bay leaves
    • 8 juniper berries, crushed, or 1/4 cup gin
    • Sea salt and coarsely ground fresh black pepper 
    • 3 large fennel bulbs 
    • 15 kumquats
    • Grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, for serving

    Directions

    Step 1

    Put the pork roasts in one or two jumbo-sized resealable plastic bags, a large glass bowl, or baking dish. In the bowl of a food processor, combine the lemons, oranges, grapefruit, onion, garlic, oregano, fennel seeds, and 1/4 cup of olive oil and pulse until the mixture is roughly chopped and juicy. Take the bowl off the processor base, remove the blade, and stir in the cloves, bay leaves, and juniper berries or gin. Pour the marinade over the pork roasts. Seal the bags and place them in a roasting pan to contain any leaks or, if marinating in a large container, cover well with plastic wrap. Refrigerate overnight or up to 24 hours, turning periodically to redistribute the marinade. 

    Step 2

    When ready to cook, preheat your oven to 350°F. Prepare a very large roasting pan by lining it with foil (for an easy cleanup) and placing a roasting rack in it; set aside. Scrape the marinade off the roasts and pat dry with paper towels. Generously season on all sides with salt and pepper. In a large skillet, heat 1/4 cup olive oil over medium heat. Sear one roast until caramelized, turning as needed with tongs, and then transfer it to the roasting pan. Repeat with the other roast. Place the pan in the upper two-thirds of the oven (you’ll need a second oven rack placed in the bottom third for the fennel and kumquats). Set a timer for 40 minutes. 

    Step 3

    While the pork is roasting, prepare the fennel. Cut off the fronds, the feathery green tops of the fennel stalks, chop a few and set aside. Refrigerate the rest of the fronds for other uses. Trim the bottoms of the bulbs and cut off the stalks; reserve the stalks for another dish or the next time you make stock. Cut each bulb vertically through the core into 4 sections. Drizzle the bottom of a rimmed baking sheet with some of the remaining olive oil and arrange the fennel pieces on top. Drizzle more olive oil over the fennel. Season with salt and pepper. Arrange the kumquats among the fennel. Place the baking sheet on the lower rack of your oven when the timer goes off. Roast, turning once, until the fennel is tender and golden brown, about 40 minutes. Transfer the fennel and kumquats to a platter. Dust with the grated cheese and garnish with the reserved fennel fronds. 

    Step 4

    Remove the pork roasts from the oven when the internal temperature in the thickest part is 140°F, about 1 hour and 20 minutes total (this should coincide with the fennel/kumquat cooking time). Let rest for 10 minutes before slicing into chops. Serve with the roasted fennel and kumquats. 

    Yields 10 servings 

Healthy Ingredient Spotlight: Fennel

Healthy Ingredient Spotlight

Get familiar with fennel

For the uninitiated, fennel can look intimidating, but its licorice scent and taste add a lot of appeal to dishes, from soups to seafood—you’ll be pleasantly surprised even if you’re not a fan of black licorice candy.

This member of the carrot family hails from the Mediterranean region but is used, both raw and cooked, in cuisines far and wide. Raw fennel adds crunch to salads, much like celery, when the bulb is quartered and thinly sliced or chopped, depending on the recipe. The feathery fronds at the top of the vegetable can be chopped much like dill and used in many of the same ways, from a garnish to a flavoring. Some people find that the stalks are too fibrous to eat raw, but they soften when cooked—cooking also makes fennel’s licorice flavor milder.  

Healthy Kitchen Nugget: How to Marinate Safely

Healthy Kitchen Nugget

Marinating safely

Marinating food, especially overnight, is a great way to infuse it with flavor. But think “safety first,” according to the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. When possible, marinate in glass, covering the container fully with plastic wrap, or use disposable food-safe sealable plastic bags. Don’t use a metal container because the acid in a marinade can interact with metal. Refrigerate the marinating food on the bottom shelf of your fridge. If a recipe calls for the marinade liquid to be used as a baste,you mustboil it first to kill bacteria. Even better is to reserve some of the marinade separately or to make a small additional batch for this purpose.

For Your Best Health: Diversify Proteins

For Your Best Health

Pick a variety of proteins

Eating a balanced diet and including protein from a variety of sources may help lower the risk of high blood pressure, according to research published in Hypertension, a journal of the American Heart Association (AHA).

In its 2021 dietary guidance to improve heart health, the AHA recommended eating one to two servings, or 5.5 ounces, of protein daily from healthy sources—plants, seafood, low-fat or fat-free dairy products, and, if desired, lean cuts and unprocessed forms of meat or poultry. The new research looked at the link between specific proteins and new cases of high blood pressure among 12,000 participants whose diet records were analyzed over a six-year period. 

Participants were given scores based on the number of different sources of protein they ate: whole grains, refined grains, processed red meat, unprocessed red meat, poultry, fish, eggs, and legumes. One point was given for each protein source, with a top score of 8. The researchers then compared new cases of hypertension to the scores. In contrast to participants with the lowest score (less than 2), those with a score of 4 or higher had a 66 percent lower risk of developing high blood pressure.

But there can also be too much of a good thing, especially when it comes to processed meat. When the researchers divided the total quantity of protein eaten into five levels (or quintiles) from least to most intake, people who ate the least amount of total protein and those who ate the most protein had the greatest high blood pressure risk.

“The heart health message is that consuming a balanced diet with proteins from various different sources, rather than focusing on a single source of dietary protein, may help to prevent the development of high blood pressure,” says study author Xianhui Qin, MD.

Fitness Flash: Resistance training for better sleep

Fitness Flash

Resistance training for better sleep

Having sleep trouble? Strength training to the rescue! Research done at Iowa State University found that study participants who did 60 minutes of resistance exercise three times a week for a year slept longer and fell asleep faster than participants who did aerobic-only workouts or a combination of aerobic and resistance exercises for 30 minutes each. The resistance exercise regimen consisted of three sets of 12 exercises that targeted all the major muscle groups and included bicep curls, crunches, leg extensions, and triceps dips.

Among participants who were not getting at least seven hours of sleep at the start of the study, sleep duration increased by an average of 40 minutes in the resistance exercise-only group compared to an average increase of 18 minutes in the other groups. People in the resistance exercise-only group also reported falling asleep an average of three minutes faster at the end of the 12 months; there wasn’t any notable change in this regard in the other groups.

“While there’s no definitive answer as to why humans sleep, one theory is that sleep provides the body an opportunity to restore different systems,” says lead author Angelique Brellenthin, PhD, assistant professor of kinesiology at Iowa State. “Because resistance exercise is a powerful stimulus that causes stress to the muscle tissue, that stimulus may send a stronger signal to the brain that this person needs to sleep and to sleep deeply to repair, restore, and adapt the muscle tissue for the next time they need it. Our study shows resistance exercise goes above and beyond the benefits you would see from other types of exercise in terms of sleep quality. If people are concerned about their sleep and have a limited amount of time to exercise, they may want to consider prioritizing resistance workouts.”

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The Olive Oil Hunter News #76

Posted on by The Olive Oil Hunter

Vegetables Primavera Recipe, Spotlight on Asparagus, Importance of Preheating the Pan and Indoor-Gardens, plus Exercise for Stroke Prevention

There’s nothing quite like the taste of spring’s first vegetables after a long winter of frozen or imported choices, and the recipe I’m sharing lets them shine without a fussy preparation or heavy sauce. If your thoughts turn to gardening this time of year, you’ll appreciate the benefits of bringing some of that greenery inside. Plus, you’ll see why getting out and walking in the nicer weather has an important health benefit.

Vegetables Primavera

  • Vegetables Primavera Vegetables Primavera

    This dish gets its name from “pasta primavera,” which, as legend has it, originated not in Italy (where primavera means spring) but in the US some 40 years ago when Sirio Maccioni, owner of the famed New York restaurant Le Cirque, had the idea to throw together seasonal vegetables with pasta because he didn’t have any tomatoes at hand.

    While many people have tried to improve on the original recipe, I like the freshness of my simple preparation—no butter or cream is added to the vegetables. And while you can serve it over any pasta or whole grain, it’s delicious on its own or as the side to your favorite protein. Feel free to switch up the veggies based on what’s available in your area, but always add the firmest ones to the pan first to give them the extra cooking time they need.

    Ingredients

    • 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, more for drizzling
    • 8 ounces broccoli
    • 8 ounces asparagus spears, trimmed and cut in half
    • 8 ounces sugar snap peas or shelled peas
    • 1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
    • ½ teaspoon coarse salt
    • 4 ounces arugula or baby spinach

    Directions

    Step 1

    Cut off the ends of the broccoli stems and slice the stems into coin shapes; cut the heads into small florets. Heat a 12″ skillet over high heat until very hot. Add the 4 tablespoons of olive oil and the broccoli to the skillet. Cook for two minutes, rotating the pieces so that all sides get a slight char, and then add the asparagus. Toss every 30 seconds. 

    Step 2

    After two minutes, add the peas and turn down the heat to medium. Sprinkle the veggies with the salt and pepper and keep cooking them until tender. Add the arugula or spinach and cook until the greens wilt and their liquid has evaporated. Remove from the heat and drizzle with olive oil before serving.

    Yields 2 servings as a main dish or 4 servings as a side or over a starch

Healthy Ingredient Spotlight: Asparagus

Healthy Ingredient Spotlight

Asparagus 101

Nothing says spring like fresh, local asparagus. Some people swear by the thinnest stalks, while others like the mouthfeel of those with a larger-than-pencil width—it’s really a matter of personal preference. The key to asparagus is to trim the ends simply by snapping them off where you find no resistance—that will leave you with tender stalks. Three ounces of these low-calorie antioxidant powerhouses supply 2 grams each of fiber and protein, plus good amounts of folic acid and vitamin K, iron and potassium, and many other minerals.

Growing your own asparagus is a true test of patience because it takes three years from planting to harvesting. During the first two seasons you’ll see some shoots, but you can’t eat them—just let them turn to fern-like vegetation. Once the shoots yield true spears, you should have a nice crop for up to 15 years. 

Healthy Kitchen Nugget: Preheating your Pan

Healthy Kitchen Nugget

Get your pan hot first

When sautéing or searing, always heat your pan for two or three minutes before adding your olive oil. This prevents “cooking” the oil as the pan climbs to its optimal temperature. Then let the oil come to a shimmer before adding the food for a tasty sear.

For Your Best Health: Indoor Gardens and Air Quality

For Your Best Health

Get into the indoor-garden groove

Besides looking pretty, plants can significantly cut indoor air pollution at home and at the office, according to new research led by the UK’s University of Birmingham in partnership with the Royal Horticultural Society.

Researchers exposed three common houseplants—peace lily (Spathiphyllum wallisii), corn plant (Dracaena fragrans), and fern arum (Zamioculcas zamiifolia), all of which are readily available in the US—to nitrogen dioxide (NO2), a common pollutant. Their experiments showed that the plants could lower NO2 by as much as 20 percent, whether they were in light or darkness or whether the soil was wet or dry.

“The plants we chose were all very different from each other, yet they all showed strikingly similar abilities to remove NO2 from the atmosphere. This is very different from the way indoor plants take up CO2 in our earlier work, which is strongly dependent on environmental factors such as night time or daytime, or soil water content,” says lead researcher Dr. Christian Pfrang.

Plants can be especially beneficial in offices with poor ventilation and near areas with high levels of air pollution, though the bigger the space, the more plants will be needed.  

Just how they take up NO2 is still a mystery. As Dr. Pfrang explains, “We don’t think the plants are using the same process as they do for CO2 uptake, in which the gas is absorbed through stomata—tiny holes—in the leaves. There was no indication, even during longer experiments, that our plants released the NO2 back into the atmosphere, so there is likely a biological process taking place also involving the soil the plant grows in, but we don’t yet know what that is.”

Fitness Flash: Stroke Prevention

Fitness Flash

Exercise offers protection from stroke

Experts say that preventing a stroke is far better than having to treat one, and one of the best steps you can take is getting physical activity. Among its other benefits, exercise helps lower blood pressure, and we know that high blood pressure is a significant stroke risk factor. The problem is, as we’re spending more and more leisure time on social media and in front of our devices, we’re exercising less and less. In fact, sleep is the only thing we spend more time doing than using electronics. Without an increase in exercise, doctors say we’re going to see an increase in stroke rates. 

New research, published in the Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology, analyzed specific data from nearly 20 years of records from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey and found that different kinds of physical activity done with different frequencies can make a big difference. With choices to fit any lifestyle, you don’t have to adopt a one-size-fits-all approach. 

Here are the most impactful findings:

Moderate-intensity aerobic activities can reduce the likelihood of stroke by 20 percent, and this can go as high as 60% with 30 to 60 minutes of daily activity, such as walking or bicycling. Home chores and yard work count, too, especially when done for an hour or two at a time, five to 13 times a month. You’ll see some stroke prevention benefits with as few as 10 minutes of activity every day, but the level of prevention grows as you reach those hour marks. 

Muscle-strengthening (resistance training) for three to five days per week, or 14 to 20 days per month, can reduce risk by up to 50 percent. One caution: In this study, muscle-training for more than 20 hours per week had the opposite effect, possibly “due to the high cortisol levels that the body releases in a state of constant stress”—a serious warning for bodybuilders.

Having a job that involves moderate to vigorous activities on a regular basis, such as carrying heavy loads, can lower stroke risk between 36 percent and 43 percent, and even more when the activity is daily and vigorous (admittedly, this is hard to do later in life). 

The key word with any of these activities is regular. As the study concludes, “Daily or every other day activities are more important in reducing the stroke risk than reducing sedentary behavior duration.”

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The Olive Oil Hunter News #75

Posted on by The Olive Oil Hunter

The Ultimate Olive Oil-Fried Eggs Recipe, Spotlight on Eggs, Meditation, More than Stress Relief and Building Better Body Fat

Love fried eggs but never quite satisfied with how they cook up? Grab your extra virgin olive oil and get ready to be blown away! I’m also sharing tips for buying and storing eggs, plus ideas to exercise your mind and your body with far-reaching health benefits.

The Ultimate Olive Oil-Fried Eggs

  • Ultimate Olive Oil-Fried Eggs The Ultimate Olive Oil-Fried Eggs

    Frying eggs in olive oil is a Spanish tradition that dates back centuries. This simplest of techniques is having a modern moment in the US as chefs extol the delicious results. When raw egg meets hot olive oil it creates a perfectly browned latticework around the edges of the white while leaving the yolk with just the right amount of runny. The key is to heat the pan first and then the oil before adding the eggs. If you have a 10″ or wider skillet, you can double the recipe in the same pan. Enjoy as is or atop avocado toast or skillet potatoes.

    Ingredients

    • 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
    • 2 eggs
    • Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

    Directions

    Step 1

    Heat a frying pan or skillet until very hot. Add the olive oil. Once the oil starts to shimmer, add the eggs, one at a time—you can crack them right into the pan or from a dish into the pan. 

    Step 2

    Cook the eggs for two minutes until the whites turn opaque and develop crisp, brown edges; the yolks will still be runny. If you want firmer yolks, wait another 30 seconds before taking the pan off the heat. Use an offset spatula to transfer the eggs to plates and sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste. 

    Yields 1-2 servings

Healthy Ingredient Spotlight: Eggs

Healthy Ingredient Spotlight

What’s really inside the egg carton

Ever wonder what the difference is between egg sizes? Starting with the small size, the eggs become larger in just 1/4-ounce increments. That doesn’t sound like a lot, until you consider the leap from the small size at 1-1/2 ounces to jumbo at 2-1/2 ounces. If you need four extra-large eggs (2-1/4 ounces each) for a recipe, for instance, and only have large eggs (2 ounces each) in the fridge, you’ll need five to equal the right amount. For the record, a medium egg is 1-3/4 ounces.

Yolk color depends on the hens’ feed. Yolks are vibrant yellow-orange when hens are free to roam and eat pasture vegetation. Yolks are light yellow when they feed on meal in confined conditions—note that “cage-free” barns can be as cramped as traditional cages if the hens are packed in, according to Foodprint.org.

Eggshell colors can be pastel-pretty, from brown to blue and green, but color tells you only the type of hen that laid them, not anything about quality or nutrients. When looking at egg carton labeling, Foodprint.org also warns that many terms such as natural, humane, and pasture-raised “have no legal definition or are not verified by a third-party inspector.” Instead, the site suggests looking for terms that have been independently certified, such as Animal Welfare Approved, USDA Organic, and Certified Humane. If you’re lucky enough to live near a farm or farmer’s market that sells fresh eggs, make friends with the purveyor and find out how their hens are raised.

Healthy Kitchen Nugget: Eggs

Healthy Kitchen Nugget

Egg freshness

Since eggshells easily absorb odors, keep eggs in their original cartons and always keep them refrigerated. If a recipe calls for eggs to be at room temperature, take out only what you’ll use, not the entire carton. Refrigerated eggs will stay fresh for more than a month. The tried-and-true test of freshness is to fill a cup or bowl with water and add one egg at a time. The egg is still fresh if it sinks, but if it’s a floater, the rule is to toss it immediately. However, according to the Food Network, some eggs can float and still be safe, but if you crack an egg in a bowl and it smells bad or the white has an odd pink color or tints the water a fluorescent green, it’s a no-go.

If a recipe calls for yolks only, save those whites—they’re a great addition to scrambled or even fried eggs. Or you can freeze them either in an ice cube tray or freezer-safe container—mark it so you’ll know how many whites are inside the next time you want to whip up a meringue! 

For Your Best Health: Mediation

For Your Best Health

Meditation: More than stress relief

According to a comprehensive review of many types of studies on meditation published in December 2021 in Frontiers in Public Health, quieting stress is just one of the practice’s many benefits. Meditating boosts physical and psychological well-being, vitality, and quality of life by easing symptoms of chronic pain, cancer, and other conditions, including anxiety and depression. Some of the studies the researchers examined found that meditation can lower blood pressure, boost immune function, and even increase capacity for compassion and empathy. 

Because the studies they reviewed involved many age groups, including youngsters and teens, the researchers concluded that meditation techniques can be of help to a wide range of people—from children to seniors, pregnant women, health professionals, and caregivers as well as anyone with a chronic disease. Want to try it for yourself? Sites like mindful.org and the Calm app can get you started.

Fitness Flash: Building better body fat

Fitness Flash

Building better body fat

New research published in The Journals of Gerontology shows that there’s another important reason to exercise. Our health is influenced not only by the amount of fat we carry, but also by how well that fat functions. Turns out you can improve the quality of your body fat.

Anders Gudiksen, PhD, assistant professor in the department of biology at the University of Copenhagen, and a group of colleagues looked at the role of age and physical training in terms of maintaining fat tissue function. Specifically, they studied the mitochondria, the tiny power plants within fat cells that convert calories from food to energy that feeds cells. To maintain the life processes within cells, the mitochondria need to function well. They also produce waste in the form of oxygen free radicals. If the body can’t rid itself of those free radicals, they can damage cells, speed aging, and cause diseases like cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and Alzheimer’s.  

By studying the way mitochondria performed across a range of young and older untrained, moderately trained, and highly exercise-trained men, the researchers were able to show that, while mitochondrial function does decrease with age, a high level of lifelong exercise helps compensate for that natural aging. In fact, the fat cells in participants who were well-trained older men were twice as productive as those in untrained older men—their mitochondria were better at managing waste produced in fat cells, which resulted in less free radical damage. 

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