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The Olive Oil Hunter News #79

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Grilled Tuna Steaks with Salmoriglio Recipe, Spotlight on Parsley, How Accurate is Your Calorie-Counting App and Are You Wired for Shorter Sleep? ?

Got your grill primed and ready for the warmer months? Then I’ve got a zesty tuna recipe to start the season with a bang. My tuna primer will cue you into the differences in tuna varieties so you know what to keep an eye out for at the fish counter. If you like to track your meals on an app, you’ll be surprised at the results of a study on their accuracy. Plus, I’m sharing the latest research on how genes influence sleep patterns.

Grilled Tuna Steaks with Salmoriglio

  • Grilled Tuna Steaks with Salmoriglio Grilled Tuna Steaks with Salmoriglio

    With origins in Sicily, this simple yet zesty sauce is also excellent with grilled salmon, beef, poultry, or vegetables. 

    Ingredients

    • 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil, plus more for the fish
    • Juice from 1 lemon
    • 2 tablespoons hot water
    • 2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced 
    • 3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
    • 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh oregano or 1 teaspoon dried oregano 
    • 1 tablespoon brined capers, drained (optional)
    • 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes or more to taste
    • Salt and freshly ground black pepper
    • 4 tuna steaks, each 6 to 8 ounces and 1-inch thick 

    Directions

    Step 1

    Make the salmoriglio: Put the 1/2 cup olive oil in a small saucepan and warm over low heat. Whisk in the lemon juice and hot water. Stir in the garlic, parsley, oregano, capers if using, red pepper flakes, and salt and pepper to taste (go easy on the salt if you’re using capers). Keep warm. 

    Step 2

    Set up your grill for direct grilling and preheat to medium-high (450ºF). Lightly brush the fish with olive oil, and season with salt and pepper. Arrange on the grill grate, and grill until the fish is opaque and easily flakes when pressed with a fork—about 12 minutes, turning once with a spatula. (If you prefer your tuna on the rare side, cook the steaks for less time.) 

    Step 3

    Transfer the tuna to a platter or plates, and drizzle with the salmoriglio. Serve the remaining sauce on the side. 

    Yields 4 servings

Healthy Ingredient Spotlight: Tuna

Healthy Ingredient Spotlight

Reeling in the right tuna

According to the National Fisheries Institute, of all the varieties of tuna in the oceans, you’ll most likely find only five at fish stores and on menus:

  • Albacore is the tuna you know best packaged in cans or pouches. It has a mild flavor and white to light pink flesh.
  • Bigeye (ahi in Hawaii) is the favorite for sashimi and is also mild in flavor.
  • Bluefin, used almost exclusively for sushi, is the darkest, fattiest, and arguably the most expensive variety, with a taste that gets more pronounced as the fish reaches adulthood. Overfishing has made it a priority for conservation efforts.
  • Skipjack is the tuna type you’re now most likely to see in cans and pouches. Considered “light tuna,” it’s high in nutrients, including omega-3 fatty acids.
  • Yellowfin, sometimes sold as ahi, has pale pink flesh and is slightly more flavorful than albacore.
Healthy Kitchen Nugget: Flat or Curly parsley

Healthy Kitchen Nugget

Flat or curly: picking parsley

Fresh parsley is a lot more than a plate garnish, especially when you choose flat-leaf, or Italian, parsley over its curly cousin. Flat-leaf parsley has a more herbal taste compared to the crunchy and bland grassy taste of the curly variety, due to different proportions of some of parsley’s natural compounds. Chopped or minced, flat-leaf parsley adds bright color as well as flavor to a dish—people who aren’t fans of cilantro can use it instead. 

For Your Best Health: How accurate is your calorie counting app?

For Your Best Health

How accurate is your calorie-counting app?

That’s the question researchers from Northwestern and Benedictine Universities set out to answer. They compared nutrient data on the 50 most frequently eaten unprocessed or minimally processed foods from four commercial nutrition apps against a leading research-based food database, Nutrition Data System for Research (NDSR). They looked at calorie counts, macronutrients, total sugars, fiber, saturated fat, cholesterol, calcium, sodium, and more. Here’s what they found: “CalorieKing and Lose It! had mostly excellent agreement with NDSR for all investigated nutrients. Fitbit showed the widest variability in agreement with NDSR for most nutrients, which may reflect how well the app can accurately capture diet.” The study also found some flaws with MyFitnessPal, such as fiber accuracy and poor agreement with NDSR on calories in particular. The findings were published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

Fitness Flash: Are you wired for shorter sleep?

Fitness Flash

Are you wired for shorter sleep?

According to researchers at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), some people have genes that allow them to thrive on just four to six hours of restorative sleep each night. What’s more, these elite sleepers also have psychological resilience and resistance to neurodegenerative conditions. Of course, not everyone is wired this way, but uncovering what enables some people to stay healthy despite getting little sleep can provide answers for those who need more and can’t seem to get it.

“There’s a dogma in the field that everyone needs eight hours of sleep, but our work to date confirms that the amount of sleep people need differs based on genetics,” says neurologist Louis Ptacek, MD, one of the senior authors of a study published iniScience on March 15, 2022. “Think of it as analogous to height; there’s no perfect amount of height, each person is different. We’ve shown that the case is similar for sleep.”

For more than a decade, Dr. Ptacek and Ying-Hui Fu, PhD, both of the UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences, have studied people with Familial Natural Short Sleep (FNSS), the ability to function fully on four to six hours of sleep a night, which runs in families. To date, they’ve identified five of the genes that play a role in FNSS. These genes may help in the development of future drugs to ward off sleep disorders, protect against brain disorders, or slow down their progression. 

“Sleep problems are common in all diseases of the brain,” says Dr. Fu. “This makes sense because sleep is a complex activity. Many parts of your brain have to work together for you to fall asleep and to wake up. When these parts of the brain are damaged, it makes it harder to sleep or get quality sleep.”

Their latest work tested Dr. Fu’s hypothesis that, for people with FNSS, elite sleep can be a shield against neurodegenerative disease rather than speed up its development as it seems to do in people who need closer to seven to nine hours and fail to get it. They bred mice that had both short-sleep genes and genes that predisposed them to Alzheimer’s and found that their brains developed much less of the hallmark signs linked to dementia.

Identifying more special sleep genes will take time, and the researchers liken their work to solving a jigsaw puzzle. “Every mutation we find is another piece,” says Dr. Ptacek. “Right now, we’re working on the edges and the corners, to get to that place where it’s easier to put the pieces together and where the picture really starts to emerge.”

“This work opens the door to a new understanding of how to delay and possibly prevent a lot of diseases,” says Dr. Fu. “Our goal really is to help everyone live healthier and longer through getting optimum sleep.”

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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 #43

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Grilled Halloumi Over Salad Recipe, Spotlight on Cheeses That Can Take the Heat, When to Wash Veggies and The Link Between Exercise and Sleep

Who doesn’t love a gooey grilled-cheese sandwich? But what can you do when you want cheesy goodness without the bread? The delicious answer is cheese varieties that hold their shape under heat.

GRILLED HALLOUMI OVER SALAD

  • GRILLED HALLOUMI OVER SALAD Grilled Halloumi Over Salad

    I’m a huge fan of halloumi, a brined goat’s milk cheese from Cyprus. Because it has a high melting point, this firm, somewhat salty cheese can be grilled directly on the grate. You can skewer chunks along with your favorite veggies or simply grill slices and serve them with the refreshing seasonal salad in this recipe.

    Ingredients

    • 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, divided
    • 1 tablespoon best-quality red wine vinegar 
    • 1 teaspoon fresh oregano, chopped, or 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano 
    • Kosher salt to taste
    • Freshly ground black pepper to taste
    • 8 ounces cherry tomatoes, halved 
    • 1 cucumber, diced
    • One head romaine lettuce, washed, dried, and torn 
    • 12 brined Kalamata olives, drained, pitted, and halved 
    • 1/2 cup loosely packed flat-leaf parsley, coarsely chopped
    • 12 ounces of halloumi, cut crosswise into 1/3-inch-thick slices 
    • 4 tablespoons Greek yogurt (optional)

    Directions

    Step 1

    Make the salad: In a bowl, whisk together 2 tablespoons of the olive oil, the red wine vinegar, oregano, salt, and pepper. Add the tomatoes, cucumber, lettuce, olives, and parsley. Toss gently to coat the vegetables with the dressing and divide evenly on four plates.

    Step 2

    Pour the rest of the olive oil onto a rimmed sheet pan and gently coat both sides of each cheese slice. On a medium-hot grill, grill the cheese for 1 to 2 minutes per side, turning with tongs or a thin-bladed spatula. (Work in batches if necessary.) 

    Step 3

    Top each salad plate with equal amounts of the grilled cheese and add a dollop of yogurt, if desired. Serve immediately. 

    Yields 4 servings.

Healthy Ingredient Spotlight: Americans and Potatoes

Healthy Ingredient Spotlight

More Cheeses That Can Take the Heat

Halloumi isn’t the only fresh, semi-firm cheese that can be cooked without melting. Another great one is paneer, the cheese used in Indian cuisine, most famously the creamy spinach dish saag paneer. It’s readily available at many markets, not just specialty shops. And from frigid Finland comes leipäjuusto, popular there at breakfast, according to the experts at the magazine Culture: The Word on Cheese. These cheeses will soften when grilled, but they won’t break down and melt thanks to their low acid content. That’s also the reason you may hear a squeaking sound as you bite into them!

Healthy Kitchen Tip: Grapefruit Knife

Healthy Kitchen Nugget

When Exactly to Wash Veggies

While most concern over food contamination centers on raw meat, vegetables as well as fruits can have organisms you want to keep out of the kitchen. Here are some tips from the FDA and the University of Maine Cooperative Extension to stay safe.

Start by choosing produce that isn’t bruised or damaged. If shopping for precut foods, like fruit chunks or bags of lettuce, make sure they’ve been kept refrigerated or on ice at the store, and get them into the fridge as soon as you get home. If a food gets marred before you’ve had a chance to use it, cut off the affected areas before preparing or eating it.

There are also steps to take with freshly harvested produce, whether from your own garden or a farmers’ market. Washing off produce can help reduce microorganisms. There’s no need to use soap or a special produce wash—just gently rub the produce while holding it under plain running water. Do make sure the water is no more than 10 degrees Fahrenheit colder than the food, or else any pathogens could get drawn in through the stem (if there is one). Because excess water can lead to faster molding or rotting, be sure to thoroughly dry your produce with clean paper towels before storing it in the fridge. To store produce without washing it first, shake, rub, or brush off any garden dirt with either a clean, soft brush or a clean, dry paper towel before you bring it inside if possible. Then place the produce in a plastic bag or container to prevent any risk of contamination to other foods in your fridge. For a list of which produce should be washed and which produce should be wiped clean, check out this resource page from the University of Maine Cooperative Extension.

Always rinse produce right before you peel or cut it so that any dirt and bacteria aren’t picked up by your knife and transferred back onto the fruit or vegetable or elsewhere in your kitchen.

For Your Best Health: Brain Health

For Your Best Health

The Mediterranean Diet: Brain Booster

One of the reasons I’m such a proponent of olive oil is the key role it plays in the fabulously healthy Mediterranean diet, known for its heart health benefits. A recent study published in the journal Neurology advances the theory that it protects brain health too. The researchers found that, among a group of 500 seniors, those who ate an unhealthy diet had higher levels of amyloid and tau proteins, which have been linked to Alzheimer’s, in their cerebrospinal fluid, and that they performed worse in memory tests than those who regularly ate a Mediterranean-like diet. “There was also a significant positive correlation between a closer adherence to a Mediterranean-like diet and a higher volume of the hippocampus. The hippocampus is an area of the brain that is considered the control center of memory. It shrinks early and severely in Alzheimer’s disease,” explained Tommaso Ballarini, PhD, lead author of the study. “It is possible that the Mediterranean diet protects the brain from protein deposits and brain atrophy that can cause memory loss and dementia.” The researchers will continue their work by reexamining the same study participants in four to five years.

In the meantime, this delicious way of eating isn’t complicated. According to the Mayo Clinic, while there is no single definition of the Mediterranean diet, it is typically high in vegetables, fruits, whole grains, beans, nuts and seeds, and olive oil. Here’s an easy way to adopt it:

  • Daily: vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and healthy fats
  • Weekly: fish, poultry, beans and eggs with moderate portions of dairy
  • Limited: red meat
Fitness Flash: The Link Between Exercise and Sleep

Fitness Flash

The Link Between Exercise and Sleep

There are many factors that contribute to good health, with getting enough exercise and getting good quality sleep among them. We know that, separately, physical inactivity and poor sleep are linked to a greater risk of death from causes such as heart disease and cancer. New research published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine now shows that exercise and sleep may be more linked to each other than we thought. Scientists looked at the exercise and sleep patterns of more than 380,000 middle-aged adults over an 11-year period and how different combinations affected their health. Not surprisingly, compared with those with a high physical activity level and healthy sleep combination, those at the other extreme—no moderate-to-vigorous physical activity and poor sleep—were most at risk for heart disease, stroke, and cancer. However, the findings also showed that getting the recommended 150 minutes of exercise a week could mitigate the risks posed by poor sleep, prompting the researchers to suggest that there’s a certain synergy between the two activities. This was an observational study that relied on self-reported data so cause and effect can’t be established, but it does give the idea that you should meet physical activity goals as you work on getting better sleep. Other lifestyle habits that helped participants achieve better sleep levels were being thinner, eating more fruits and vegetables, spending less time sitting each day, not smoking, and limiting alcohol.

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