Spinach, strawberries, almonds and feta...

I visited my brother few weeks back for a completely carefree vacation in Washington state where organic baby spinach and strawberries were in season! I know these are not in season in Lebanon right now, but I find it hard not to share this recipe especially that it's super easy to make, it's absolutely refreshing and I've been meaning to try it ever since I saw a similar salad up on Foodess.

What you need to have:

For the salad

• 150 grams baby spinach, rinsed, dried and cut into bite-size pieces
• 150 grams strawberries - cleaned, hulled and sliced
• 75 grams almonds - roasted, unsalted and chopped
• 100 grams feta cheese, crumbled or diced

Fro the dressing (all Jazmin's idea, and it fits the strawberry spinach blend perfectly!)

• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tbsp white wine vinegar
• 1 tbsp mustard, whole grain Dijon
• 1 lemon, juice with pulp
• 1 clove of garlic, finely grated
• 1 small shallot, finely grated
• 1 tsp of salt
• 1/2 tsp of black pepper

What you gotta do:

• Mix the spinach and the strawberries together. Set them aside while you prepare the dressing.
• Then whisk all the dressing's ingredients altogether. I actually shook them inside a tightly closed jar, so they turned out pretty creamy and well blended.
• Drizzle the dressing on top of the salad and mix.
  Make sure not to add the dressing, unless everyone is prepared to start eating as the white vinegar will wilt the spinach if left for a long time.
• Sprinkle the chopped roasted almonds and the crumbled feta on top of the salad, and please be generous. If you tend to be stingy, set aside 2 tiny bowls, one for feta and one for the almonds, just in case anyone wants to add some more.

And voila...

Pungent, tarty and refreshing for the taste buds!

Needless to say, the salad was a hit, the extra almonds and feta were much appreciated, summer was good and my trip was both relaxing and active at the same time. I took a photo of how my most relaxing day looked like at Lake Union's westernmost point in Freemont.

Statue of Peace Leader, Sri Chinmoy at Lake Union

Your Nutrition Guide - Indian Style!

If you have noticed, we are all facing an ever ending flood of information about different dietary habits and guidelines from each end of the world! Different dietary systems seem to conflict entirely with each other.

I had the chance to visit the fascinating India this summer, in which I learned that, we are no where near the Indian cuisine and the community's dietary habits! Most Indians are vegetarians - No meat, fish, poultry, milk nor eggs!  Even non-vegetarians don't consume meats (beef, pork, lamb, mutton), rather, they have their proteins from legumes, fish and poultry. To top that, everything is super spicy, even if you ask for it to be spices-free, dream on! Herbs and spices are a major part of Indian dietary habits and cuisine - from cayenne to cinnamon, ginger, oregano, rosemary, chilli, cumin, cardamon and turmeric, the list is enormously long and extends to spices I have never heard of. Therefore, spices, herbs and their health benefits will have to be discussed in a separate article alright!

So long story short, according to Dr. Anjali Mukerjee, a nutritionist, medical doctor and alternative medicine specialist, she explains in her "Healing with Food" book how to energize your body Indian style! Some of the points that are helpful to both Indians and us are:

1. Drink enough amounts of water: Although many seem to forget the importance of this essential non-nutrient, drink at least 10 glasses of water daily in order to balance electrolytes, cleanse the kidneys and rehydrate your cells.

2. Have yourself some goodnight sleep: Dr. Mukerjee insists that there's no substitute for adequate sleep - no amount of healthy nutrients and no mutli-vitamins can rejuvenate your body like 7 hours of good sleep.

3. Avoid stimulants: such as alcohol, tobacco and caffeine which stimulate your body for a short period of time only to cause chronic fatigue if used for a long period of time! These stimulants promote dehydration and increase your blood pressure!

Breathe and relax

4. Relax and try to control your every day stress: In this section, i loved the statement: "Toxic emotions are worse than toxic food." Stress zaps all energy right our of our bodies! Work on controlling your stress, breathe, meditate and relax - don't just say life is too hectic to relax, find time.

5. Limit your sugar intake: Sugar may give you the instant energy but in the long run, sugar reduces the life span - that serious! Soft drinks, pastries, cakes, ice creams, dressings, low fat foods, etc. all contain added sugars that cause imbalances in our bodies, deteriorate our immune systems and increase our risk of gaining weight.

6. Avoid fried foods: that get digested slowly, prevent the digestion of other foods and lead to sluggishness, other than the very well known adverse effects of fries on weight, blood profiles and chronic diseases!

7. Limit your intake of red meats: like beef, lamb, pork and cold cuts which are loaded with saturated fats and which some (like processed meats, salami & packed meats) are hyped up with preservatives, additives and colorings. Red meats cause an increase in inflammatory agents, build up of uric acids, increase the risk of various types of noncommunicable diseases like hypertension, type 2 diabetes and cancers as well as mess up our blood profiles!

8. Limit milk and dairy products: that increase the formation of mucus, sinus problems, intensify acne problems and may trigger allergic reactions. Make sure to get your calcium from green leafy vegetables, broccoli, almonds and soybeans. Milk could be beneficial is small amounts, such that it aids in relaxation of muscles and sleeping well so limit your consumption (to 1-2 servings per day).

9. Multivitamins supplements: especially B vitamins decrease fatigue, help your body's metabolic reactions and convert your nutrient intake from food to energy! Have yourself some mutli-minerals and vitamins to complement your healthy diet, not to replace it.

10. Get movin': Have at least 40-50 minutes of exercise each day such as walking, swimming, jogging, etc. Increase your heart rate and sweat, but don't overdo it! Regular exercise creates balance between water & electrolytes in your body, aids in weight loss, helps your body to get rid of toxins and burn extra fat, promotes muscle mass and helps building calcium in your bones so you don't want to miss out on its benefits!

11. Eat food closest to its natural form: Eat whole foods - a point world-wide guidelines are now emphasizing on and a point in which we are so advantaged to have! Our Lebanese cuisine helps us in eating foods closest to their natural form from Mjaddara, Loubye, Fasolia stew, Koussa, Vine leaves, Tabboule, you name it! Eat foods with minimal processing such as whole grains, brown rice, brown bread, legumes (chickpeas, lentils, beans), fresh fruit and veggies, raw nuts and seeds. These foods provide your body with complete forms of energy while refined foods provide you with non-essential nutrients and with only the partial energy your body needs.

This book "Healing with Food" is seriously helpful with more of lots of information and tips on how to prevent and treat diseases through food, each disease at a time! Its ways are unconventional and in some points, it opposes the Western school of nutrition! For those who are advocates of the Western school of nutrition, I'm all with you - they are scientific based but as you can see, most studies end with "more research is needed" so we can't totally shut off the possibility of new, unconventional information! This information may complement what we already know, so it's up to us to wait for conclusive results, be less biased, less influenced by food politics and wise enough to learn from different nutrition schools!

7 Things You Gotta Know About Coffee

• Coffee has its different national days in some counties that are actually public holidays. In Japan, for instance, October 1st is 'Coffee Day'. In Ireland, it is September the 19th, and in Costa Rica it is 12th September.There's no such thing in Lebanon, at least not yet!
• A cup of black coffee does not contain any calories if served without sugar, yet is still contains the caffeine. And even if you decide to go decaf, you'll still get some of that caffeine. In fact, if you drink 5-10 cups of decaffeinated coffee, you could get as much caffeine as from 1-2 cups of caffeinated one.
• More than 1.4 billion cups of coffee are consumed each day worldwide and it takes around 40 roasted coffee beans to make just one single espresso shot!
• Caffeine is not the main bitter compound in coffee; it's just responsible for 15 % of the bitterness you taste. The rest is due to antioxidants that form during the roasting the coffee beans.
• The traditional espresso machine was actually invented in France, not in Italy, bummer! However, the Italians took this idea, perfected it & made it their own and nowadays, the best espresso coffee machines are still made in Italy. Note that espresso in Italy is rather too important to be consumed with a meal. It is treated as a separate event and is given its own time after the meal.
• The most expensive coffee in the world comes from Civet poop. Civets are cat sized mammals that only ingest fine ripe berries and excrete them partially digested. Yup the partially digested berries are those fine coffee beans! Believe it or not 1 pound (around 1/2 kg) sells between 120 and 600 $.
• Last but not least, here's a quick mini poster that would help you to decipher all those coffee options next time you're ordering/making one: Make sure to go decaf, get yourself some skimmed milk & lay low on those added sugar, cream, syrups, toppings and chocolate chips! You can read more about what to choose when ordering/preparing your coffee here.

Illustration by Lokesh Dhakar

References:

Live Science

Escoffier

4 cups of coffee photo 

Different coffee types poster 

Get Yourself Enough Vitamin D

Lack of vitamin D has become quite the issue among the Lebanese community nowadays and I'm hearing lots of concerns of what foods provide you with your daily needs of this vitamin especially that this vitamin is associated with good, strong bone health!

Vitamin D insufficiency can result in thin and brittle bones and thus increasing the risk of rickets in children and osteomalacia in adults. Together with calcium, vitamin D helps protect from osteoporosis, modulates neuro-muscular function and reduces inflammation.

So where can you provide yourself with enough vitamin D?

Sunlight helps your body to make vitamin D. But because of the skin cancer risk, there are no official "sunlight" recommendations up till now. Therefore, exposing yourself to small amounts of sunlight - 15-20 minutes - could be helpful. Keep in mind that the sun is less likely to provide your daily needs at higher latitudes, in winter, if you're older or dark skinned. So with this scorching sun during summer in Lebanon, it is important to use sunscreen when you're spending the day at the beach! Saying "I'm getting my daily dose of vitamin D" is not actually a wise decision to take!

Fatty fish such as  salmon, trouts, mackarel, tuna, eel and canned tuna & sardines can provide with you with good amounts of vitamin D as well as heart healthy omega 3 fatty acids. 

Fortified milk/yogurt can be fortified with vitamin D >> the key is to read your nutrition facts label. And a good note to keep in mind is that ice creams, labne and cheeses are never fortified with vitamin D! On the other hand, some soy/rice milks can be fortified so yea, keep reading those food labels!

Egg yolks- the yellow part of an egg- is what contains the vitamin D you want. Therefore having boiled eggs can be a part of healthy diet when eaten in moderation, but make sure to adjust your cholesterol intake during your day because the American Heart Association recommends that you consume no more than 300 mg of cholesterol per day, and just one egg contains 200 mg!

Vitamin D can also be found in fortified cereals, fortified orange juices and in beef liver. Though I personally don't recommend that you have your vitamin D from beef liver because it's super high in cholesterol - and no you don't need that much of cholesterol in your diet!

Supplements can provide you with your vitamin needs but it shouldn't be your first option, like most doctors in Lebanon advise you to go for! Supplements are surely needed if you have low levels of vitamin D and best thing about them is that you don't have to split your supplement doses. Just don't go buying supplements, consult your doctors ahead of time because vitamin D can be toxic in large amounts.

References: Health.com

Enjoying a day at the beach photo

Delicious salmon dish photo

Fortified cereals with fortified milk photo

Coffee - Everyone's Morning Ritual

An innocent cup of coffee can become a morning ritual, right? Well it has probably happened to you! However, it's important to know the facts!


A cup of plain black coffee contains around 10 to 15 calories tops! And moderate intake of coffee - a cup or 2 per day - provides you with rich antioxidants and is actually linked with lower risk of diabetes type 2, heart diseases and Alzheimer's! But be warned, this is only linked to plain black coffee!


BUT - Ordering from the fancier side of the menu, say at Dunkin Donuts perhaps, you decided to go to a coffee coolatta with cream. Well, sorry to burst your bubble, but this contains 400 calories, 23 grams of fat and 43 grams of sugar! Even if you chose the skim milk version, you will end up with 210 calories and 49 grams of sugar!


So let's say you dropped by Starbucks:
If you go for its Frapuccino, we are talking about 450+ calories and even if you decide to go for "lighter" or simpler options such as the iced falvored Latte with only 2% fat milk, this is more like 250 calories with 6 grams fat and 34 grams of sugar! Cocoa whole milk (venti) is 600 calories, Mocha whole milk (venti) is 500 cals, caramel Machiato whole milk (grande) is 300 cals, mint Mocha chip frappucino (grande) is more like 500 cals and white chocolate mocha with whipped cream is 470 cals, I mean just to name a few!


So now you're probably asking "What can I order then?"

• First of all, stick to one cup a day! Skip all the rituals of one cup in the morning, one on the break and another in the afternoon! You don't need this much caffeine in your body. Keep in mind that too much caffeine is linked to bone loss, fertility problems, headaches, irritability, little sleep, back pain, heartburn and ulcerpain! Moreover, try to avoid other caffeinated foods and beverages throughout your day such as carbonated sodas, tea and chocolate

• Watch your order size, always go for the smallest cup
• Ask for skim milk or 1% fat milk (low fat)
• Avoid adding sugar
• Avoid the whipped cream topping
• Avoid sugary syrups like the chocolate/caramel/vanilla ones!
• AND, lay off the extra doughnuts, croissants, muffins, brownies, cookies and cakes that may accompany it! Just think of the blueberry muffin at Starbucks: it's 360 cals, apple bran muffin 470 cals, apple fritter 490 cals, butter croissant 350 cals and vanilla cupcake 340 cals!

So enjoy a good warm cup of coffee without those fancy mixings and extra calories, fat and sugar!


Source: Everyday Health

Stop N' Shop Smart!

Understanding food labels can for sure help you shop for health and nutrition but you should know that’s just not it! Part of shopping smart is to know few yet very important tips to save time, money and get help in “buying” your health.

The Famous List

• To start with, keep a shopping list and stick to it. This will help your memory and

  

  Photo credit: Theglobag.com

  save you time as you walk in the supermarket. With a specified list, you are less likely to spend money on items that are unhealthy and that deep down inside, you know you don’t really need, money and calorie wise.
• In your daily life when you run out of things keep a list in the kitchen with a pen to directly take a note of. Organize them in categories such as dairy, meats, canned foods, condiments, etc.

Shopping Tips

• Avoid extra shopping trips to the supermarket. If it possible shop 1 or 2 times per week. This way you will save time, expensive gasoline trips, and yes we ought to take that into consideration too.
• Don’t shop when you are hungry. You are less likely to succumb to impulse items, cravings for unhealthy snacks and foods that are high in fat and sugar. Just think about it, just after lunch, you are more likely to say “Don’t show me that food again” while if you are really hungry, you might decide to snack on cookies while you shop.
• Try to shop during off hours. If possible shop when the store is not crowded, on weekdays rather than weekends or early in the morning/late in the evening. This will make shopping less stressful and actually more fun and relaxing.

Seize the Day with your Fruits & Vegetables

• Take advantage of seasonal produce such as fresh fruits and vegetables to increase the rainbow colors in your diet and to increase your vitamin intake, fibers and antioxidants.
• Buy perishable foods in amounts that will be consumed during their peak quality. An extra bunch of cauliflower that spoils in the fridge is not considered to be saving, no?
• For fresh fruits consider ripeness, some fruits like bananas, pears, peaches and pineapples can ripen after picking. If you are buying fruits to eat them today choose them ripe. But if you are not planning to eat them until later in the week, buy them un-ripen.

Be Smart

• Read the food label to compare types of foods, which contain less saturated and trans fats, less sodium, more fiber and less sugar. And yes be flexible as you shop. Amend your eating habits if you find a product is better than another you already used. Note that you don’t have to be professional to be able to compare foods’ nutritional content, challenge yourself next time you are at the supermarket and make a smart healthy choice.
• Buy family size packages only if you really consume this much. If you buy large quantities and you don’t need them, you’ll succumb to the all Lebanese tradition that “It’s a shame to throw them while others are starving” and Voila! You end up eating them.
• Don’t forget to read the expiration date at the supermarket and when you are at home, use the FIFO rule: first in, first out so that you would use the older foods you bought first.

Icy Section

• Buy foods that need a fridge last, such as frozen foods, poultry or even milk. This way, you will go directly to the cashier then head home and right back to the fridge.
• When buying frozen foods, they should be solid. There should be no sign of thawing and refreezing crystals in the bottom of packages. If there are any tiny refrozen crystals, simply don’t buy that specific package.

Your Eggs & Cans

• Before buying the eggs, open the carton. Avoid cartons with cracked eggs. Just make sure they are clean and whole. Now when you reach home, don’t wash eggs before you place them in the fridge. Only wiping them with a clean cloth is fine.
• As for canned foods, buy them bump or bulge free. If they are swollen, damaged, rusted or dented, reject them because these are warning signs for bacteria.

Buckling Up

• Make sure to put meats and vegetables apart in your trolley and in separate bags in your car trunk. This way you will prevent any risk of cross contamination.
• Take groceries home immediately and store them once you reach home. If have few errands to do before reaching the house, keep chilled containers in your trunk to store perishable foods in. This way, the foods will stay cooler for longer.

Wherever you are buying make sure to include lots of fruits and vegetables, minimal amount of snacks/junk foods, go lean in your meats, go low fat/skimmed in your dairy and don’t forget to read your food label!
So as you see, it’s easy and simple to be a smart food shopper! You will help yourself and your family by knowing exactly what you need and out smart marketing tricks that may encourage you to buy foods that are not on your list and extra calories that are neither on your mind nor your hips!


Brought to you by Paty M! You can also check this published in Fitness Newsletter.


This is my first article in my new lovely blog! All the thankings go back to Chantal Souaid, whom from her own personal blog experience, encouraged me to blog about My Nutrition World!