You may not be familiar with this food if you're not from a German or Eastern European family. In my home, we eat it every New Year's Day to bring prosperity. This year I decided to look it up to see what other potential benefits it held. And I was surprised!
The obvious is that since sauerkraut is made from cabbage, a member of the Brassica family, it can help you to fight cancer. Furthermore, the production of sauerkraut from cabbage enhances its cancer-fighting potential. Researchers at the University of New Mexico report that compounds found in sauerkraut specifically fight breast, lung, colon, prostate, and liver cancer! Moms of teens, take note: apparently, it's especially important to eat sauerkraut during adolescence in order to derive the maximum benefit.
The fermentation process that creates sauerkraut from cabbage creates immune-boosting phytochemicals. It tends to be a cold-weather food, eaten with bratwurst or other comfort foods, so it's perfect to eat during cold and flu season.
In your digestive tract, sauerkraut can help to inhibit the growth of E. coli, salmonella, and candida. It can also help produce some powerful antioxidants, superoxide dismutase and glutathione.
Bavarian researchers report that wearing German lederhosen (see photo) can increase the power of Sauerkraut by a whopping 232%.
Ach du lieber! Just messing with you.: )
Not feeling very Germanic today? The Korean version of sauerkraut known as kim chee, has been found to have many similar benefits.
I don't know about you…but some German-apple potato pancakes with a side of sauerkraut are looking like a great possibility for dinner tonight!
I am half German and, as my grandfather on my other side always reminded me…half Southern! I love having such different cultures as influences in my life. On New Year's Day, that means eating black-eyed peas and sauerkraut. The black-eyed peas are so that my Dixie genes have good luck in the coming year, and the sauerkraut is for my German side to make lots of money.
This year, I decided to make extra black-eyed peas and share them with neighbors (figured I'd never be invited to any potlucks again if I tried to serve them with the sauerkraut!).
Early in the morning, I pulled out the slow cooker, poured in all the ingredients, and forgot about the whole thing until late afternoon. My neighbors were appreciative, but they all seemed to think I'd gone through a whole lot of trouble. I hadn't, really, just took 5 minutes to pour a few basic ingredients in the slow cooker before spending the rest of the day having fun.
I was reminded of how my clients often seem disappointed that what I have to offer them when they ask me to help them with changes…isn't high tech, or expensive, or glamorous. The best changes are always the easiest, the cheapest, the lowest maintenance. Why is it that if it's not complicated, high profile, or involving a lot of money, we don't think it's worthwhile to pursue?
The biggest investment with these peas was the slow cooker. And since I made a double batch, I had dinner for a week.
It's really not about big, dramatic, difficult changes. It's about small changes that stick with you over time. For most of you, I bet the hardest thing about learning to use a slow cooker is remembering to put all the ingredients together before you leave for work. But there is always the ever-handy Post-it note reminder right at eye level in the bathroom mirror.
You'll save money, you'll have a great smelling house when you come in at the end of the day, you won't have to worry about what to cook when you're tired…and what you DO eat will be a little closer to what you know you need to do for better health.
What do you say…about making 2008 the year of little changes that add up to big differences?
One of my litmus tests for how healthy a vegan's diet truly is, is to listen to how they describe what they eat. If they focus on telling me what they DON'T eat, and have a limited list of what they DO eat, I start to consider that what we're describing is an eating disorder, not a vegan eater.
Here's a challenge to encourage you to be more vegan and less disordered. It comes from the blog http://www.lunchboxbunch.com/., and it's a list of 100 vegan foods. I've been instructed to italicize foods I'd never try, and bold face foods I have eaten. And to encourage you to share the challenge on your own blogs.
I'm a pretty adventurous eater so there are no italics. I did better than I thought I would, actually, since I am not 100% vegan myself. I now have some great items to add to my own list!
Have fun! 1. Molasses
2. Cactus/Nopales 3. Scrambled Tofu 4. Grilled Portobella Caps 5. Fresh Ground Horseradish 6. Sweet Potato Biscuits 7. Arepa 8. Vegan Cole Slaw 9. Ginger Carrot Soup 10. Fiddlehead Ferns 11. Roasted Elephant Garlic 12. Umeboshi 13. Almond Butter Toast 14. Aloe Vera 15. H and H Bagel NYC 16. Slow Roasted Butternut Squash 17. White truffle 18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes 19. Freshly ground wasabi 20. Coconut Milk Ice Cream (not store bought) 21. Heirloom tomatoes 22. Orchard-fresh pressed apple cider 23. Organic California Mango (in season Sept-Oct only) 24. Quinoa 25. Papaya Smoothie 26. Raw Scotch Bonnet (habanero) pepper (just a bite!…hot! 27. Goji Berry Tea 28. Fennel 29. Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookie 30. Radishes and Vegan Buttery Spread 31. Starfruit 32. Oven fresh Sourdough bread 33. Sangria made with premium fruit and juices 34. Sauerkraut 35. Acai Smoothie 36. Blue Foot Mushrooms 37. Vegan Cupcake from Babycakes nyc 38. Sweet Potatoes and Tempeh combo 39. Falafel 40. Spelt Crust Pizza 41. Salt and Pepper Oyster Mushrooms 42. Jicama Slaw 43. Pumpkin Edamame Ginger Dumplings 44. Hemp Milk 45. Rose Champagne 46. Fuyu 47. Raw Avocado-Coconut Soup 48. Tofu Pesto Sandwich 49. Apple-Lemon-Ginger-Cayenne fresh-pressed juice…with Extra Ginger 50. Grilled Seitan 51. Prickly pear 52. Fresh Pressed Almond Milk 53. Concord Grapes off the vine 54. Ramps 55. Coconut Water fresh from a young coconut 56. Organic Arugula 57. Vidalia Onion 58. Sampler of organic produce from Diamond Organics 59. Honeycrisp Apple 60. Poi 61. Vegan Campfire-toasted Smores 62. Grape seed Oil 63. Farm fresh-picked Peach 64. Freshly-made pita bread with freshly-made hummus 65. Chestnut Snack Packs 66. Fresh Guava 67. Mint Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies 68. Raw Mallomar from One Lucky Duck, NYC 69. Fried plantains 70. Mache 71. Golden Beets 72. Barrel-Fresh Pickles 73. Liquid Smoke 74. Meyer Lemon 75. Veggie Paella 76. Vegan Lasagna (raw optional) 77. Kombucha 78. Homemade Soy Milk 79. Lapsang souchong 80. Lychee Bellini 81. Tempeh Bacon 82. Sprouted Grain Bread 83. Lemon Pepper Tempeh 84. Vanilla Bean 85. Watercress 86. Carrot you pulled out of the ground yourself 87. Vegan In-Season Fruit Pie 88. Flowers 89. Corn Chowder 90. High Quality Vegan Raw Chocolate 91. Yellow fuzz-free Kiwi 92. White Flesh Grapefruit 93. harissa 94. Coconut Oil 95. Jackfruit 96. Homemade Risotto 97. Spirulina 98. Seedless 'Pixie' Tangerine 99. Gourmet Sorbet, not store bought 100. Fresh Plucked English Peas
The Mediterranean Diet is healthy, it’s true, but it’s not the only healthy way to eat. It just happens to be one that is heavily researched… and therefore marketed by the commodity boards representing foods that grow well in the Mediterranean. It so happens that California, the world’s eighth largest economy, and Chile, a country with a large agricultural tradition, have climates similar to the Mediterranean. Both economies depend on our love of the Mediterranean diet to thrive, and they therefore are a big part of the reason why so much research money has been invested into this way of eating. I love the Mediterranean diet myself, but I sure don’t want anyone out there from other cultures abandoning their way of eating because it’s Northern European… or African… or Tasmanian. Mother Nature doesn’t play favorites—she makes sure she takes care of her Eskimos just as she nurtures her Italians. I thought it would be fun to survey varieties of cuisines around the world so that no matter what your origin, there’s something out there that is good for you.
I’ll start with German food, which is part of my personal heritage and what I was enjoying for lunch today. I made a salad with vegetables that likely would show up on a German summer salad, including two different types of radishes.
We got rutabagas and potatoes in our box this week, and I made the rutabaga-potato salad recipe our chef created. I had some lowfat chicken-apple bratwurst in the freezer, so thawed and cooked them up to have ready for the rest of the week’s lunches.
And… for dessert, I had some plain yogurt that I ground some Trader Joe’s coffee/chocolate/sugar mix on top of. Let’s break that down for closer inspection. Salad My salad had two different kinds of radishes, carrots, onions, celery, and a variety of lettuces. I sprinkled some German dill salad mix on top, then added apple cider vinegar and canola oil before tossing. Radishes: Great for cancer prevention. See my colleague Dr. Chris Wharton’s article on why radishes are so nutritious for more information. That beautiful red color? Comes from antioxidants similar to the ones blueberries get all the credit for. Onions: Very important to German cooking. And they are part of the __________family of vegetables, famous for __________________________-- Lettuce: I mixed several varieties to get more red color, again, to get more antioxidants. Bratwurst The traditional version is a little bit fatty, but these days there are so many varieties chicken, turkey, and low-fat sausage, it’s easy to make a high-protein, low fat choice. This lunch, I had the green apple/cinnamon chicken variety from Fresh and Easy. Each link only had 110 calories. Potatoes Potatoes? Yes, potatoes! How many of you stay away from them because you’ve been told they are high glycemic? Well, they are, if you don’t eat them wisely, such as eating them, super-sized, as French fries dripping in pro-inflammatory omega-6 oil. The poor potato in this situation is not the culprit here, it’s the messenger. If you eat a small baked potato in a balanced meal, you’re doing ok. The potato salad I made has two benefits. Baked and then cooled potatoes contain resistant starch, a form of carbohydrate that is not immediately absorbed into your bloodstream. It passes into your large intestine where it ferments and becomes food for healthy bacteria (food that feeds those bacteria is also called prebiotic). Secondly, the dressing for this salad was vinegar. And as you’ve heard here many times before, vinegar helps to keep your blood sugar stable after meals, potentially as well as metformin. So a little bit of potato salad, without the mayo, holds potential to be PCOS-friendly. Vinegar One of the strong points of the German diet is the vinegar. In addition to the salad, it’s used in pickled vegetables, sauerkraut, and sauerbraten. If it's sour, it's likely ok to eat! Cheese Though I didn’t have any with this meal, cheese is something Germans love! A common breakfast is a piece of thinly sliced cheese on a slice of whole kernel rye bread, topped with a tomato. Cheese, remember, in moderation, has been found to be associated with increased fertility. The reason it works in the German diet is because, unlike Americans, Germans don’t shred, smother, and melt it on anything and everything they eat. It’s eaten in small portions and used to accent the rest of the food on the plate. Berries Germany is pretty far north, meaning in the summer it is a fruit basket of flavor. Currants, strawberries, cherries, apples, peaches, grapes… you name it, someone is growing it. Mit sahne (with cream) is a popular way to serve fruit, and if it’s real cream and it’s minimally sweetened, it’s wonderful treat! I have to tell you, the German meal I described above left me feeling so full and satisfied I wasn’t hungry until long after sundown. It really reinforced for me the power of eating balanced. Talk to people of German heritage, and they’ll often tell you about a grandparent or great-grandparent who lived, relatively disease-free, into their 90’s. They certainly didn’t get there on 800 calorie diets… perhaps we should be taking this diet a little more seriously instead of discounting it because of its potatoes.
I am so grateful I went to the educational meeting yesterday I almost didn't attend! For the majority of my career, the health benefits of vinegar is something that hasn't been taken seriously by colleagues in my profession. But when I saw the presenter for this topic was respected Arizona State University nutrition researcher Carol Johnston, I figured it was worth going to hear what she had to say.
Turns out, Dr. Johnston, a few years ago, while working on another project, quite by accident, found an obscure research article reporting that vinegar may be helpful in reducing insulin resistance. She decided to pick up on where the study left off, and what she has learned with her work has a lot of pertinence to PCOS.
One of the goals of better insulin function is to reduce a reading known as"postprandial blood glucose"…that is, the blood glucose reading you see after eating a meal. This reading can be important, because high numbers have been associated with heart disease as well as excessive baby weight gain in pregnancy (macrosomia). For those of you who experience the phenomenon of being hungry after eating a meal, part of the reason may be a high postprandial blood glucose.
Dr. Johnston's first study used nondiabetic subjects who were divided into two groups: insulin resistant and non-insulin resistant. None of these individuals were taking diabetes medications. If they were in the test group, they were asked to drink 20 grams of apple cider vinegar, wait 2 minutes, and then eat a (pretty high glycemic) test meal of a white bagel, butter, and orange juice. Both groups tried the vinegar and no vinegar protocols. Blood glucose 30 and 60 minutes later was measured.
They found that when vinegar was consumed before a meal, postprandial blood glucose was significantly reduced. Dr. Johnston proposes that vinegar actually may have activity similar to that of Precose or metformin. While she used apple cider vinegar in her studies, she shared that any vinegar will have the same effect. So whatever your preference, rice, balsamic, wine, or raspberry…get creative in the kitchen!
She also clarified that the difference between the action of cinnamon and vinegar is that cinnamon reduces fasting glucose and vinegar reduces postprandial glucose. So you can use both if you wish, they're not going to replace each others' benefit…they may actually complement each other.
It's important if you choose to try this, and you're on medication, to share this with your physician. The results may significantly affect the dose of medication you need. I can pretty much bet most physicians aren't informed about this, and since I was skeptical until yesterday myself, I'm providing all of the references used to write this article for anyone to download and share. The journals in which they were published are respected ones.
A really important caveat: you can overdo this advice. Large amounts of vinegar over time can cause low grade metabolic acidosis (Dr. Johnston studied this too, knowing the mentality of dieters and people desperate to get off of meds.), which is associated with osteoporosis. This acidosis can be prevented by making sure your diet has a good amount of high-potassium foods. Since those are notably fruits and vegetables, the obvious practical way to use this information is to eat a nice salad with each meal, topped with a vinaigrette dressing. Dr. Johnston recommends a ratio of 2 parts vinegar, 1 part oil, the reverse of what is traditionally used.
Keep in mind too, if you're planning to go to the health food store and buy the vinegar pills…they aren't going to work. Dr. Johnston did three separate studies with them (because she was so surprised they didn't work and she was so convinced they would), and did not get the same results the original vinegar produced.
We had the opportunity to try a new product by Bragg's, a line of vinegar beverages. inCYST intern Sarah Jones and I tried the apple-cinnamon and the concord grape-acai flavors. Both of us felt the drink was a little much to consume as packaged, but they would be fun to use in vinaigrettes, marinades, etc., in the kitchen. I'm going to try some recipes this weekend.
Keep in mind too, that any favorite foods made with vinegar will also be beneficial! Pickles, sauerkraut, Korean kimchi, there are many cultural favorites that can make this fun! Think of ways vinegar can be added to your own marinades and flip the oil to vinegar ratio.
If you're really adventurous, or just want a fun party gag, try these pickle pops we sampled yesterday! Sarah was not so keen on them but I'm German and found it pretty tasty. When I looked this up for you all,, I discovered there is even a jalapeno flavor. That's pushing it even for me, but hey, there's something for everyone.: )
Check back with us too if you're actually measuring your blood glucose after meals and let us know if this was helpful!
The cost of diabetes medications can exceed $6,000 per year, per person. And one of every 8 federal health care dollars, ($79.7 billion annually), is spent on diabetes care. Imagine what we could do to our personal budgets, not to mention that nagging national debt, if we all just walked into Costco and invested in an industrial-sized bottle of vinegar…
Ebihara K, Nakajima A. Effect of acetic acid and vinegar on blood glucose and insulin responses to orally administered sucrose and starch Agric Biol Chem 52: 1311-1312, 1988.
Johnston CS, Kim CM, Buller AJ. Vinegar improves insulin sensitivity to a high-carbohydrate meal in subjects with insulin resistance or type 2 diabetes. Diabetes Care 2004: Jan 27(1); 281-2.
White AM, Johnston CS. Vinegar ingestion at bedtime moderates waking glucose concentrations in adults with well-controlled type 2 diabetes. Diabetes Care. 2007 Nov;30(11):2814-5. Johnston CS, White AM, Kent SM. A preliminary evaluation of the safety and tolerance of medicinally ingested vinegar in individuals with type 2 diabetes. J Med Food. 2008 Mar;11(1):179-83.
Johnston CS, White AM, Kent SM. Preliminary evidence that regular vinegar ingestion favorably influences hemoglobin A1c values in individuals with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Diabetes Res Clin Pract. 2009 May;84(2):e15-7. Johnston CS, Steplewska I, Long CA, Harris LN, Ryals RH. Examination of the antiglycemic properties of vinegar in healthy adults. Ann Nutr Metab. 2010;56(1):74-9.
I'm supposed to be getting all of you excited about food…how in the world does cabbage fit into that idea?
I think cabbage is one of those overlooked foods that is easy to include in your diet. And I like it because as a vegetable, it's pretty inexpensive.
Plus, cabbage belongs to the Brassicaceae family, which you may know as the cruciferous vegetables. These include: broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, kohlrabi, bok choy, mustard, radish, horseradish, and watercress. These vegetables are superstar cancer fighters. In fact, they have even been shown to stop tumor cell growth in breast and endometrial tissue, especially important for women with PCOS.
So now that I hopefully have your attention, what the heck are you going to do with cabbage?
First of all, don't overcook it. All cruciferous vegetables tend to get a strong flavor if overdone, which may be why many people think they don't like them. They never had a chance to try them at their best. I made cabbage rolls this week, which requires you to steam the leaves until they're soft enough to roll. It was a great make-ahead meal for a busy work week.
Think slow cooker! I love mine, and I use it to make soups and casseroles. It's easy to add some chopped cabbage just a few minutes before serving.
Stir-frying is another way to use cabbage.
In other words, keep a head in the fridge and add it to some of your many favorite meals.
If you've got German blood, like me, you may want to think of sauerkraut. If that's a little bit extreme, try this red cabbage and apple recipe. Even the world's most notorius veggie hater might think cabbage is (at least an occasional) possibility with this treat. Be sure to use canola oil for the best omega-3 source.
