Salad Days

Red meat consumption has more than doubled in the United States in the last 50 years. A few years ago, The China Study clearly demonstrated the price that consumption of red meat exacts on our health. Now, a new study of 500,000 Americans has provided even more evidence that our affinity for red meat compromises our health and limits our longevity.

Results of the decade-long study were published in the March 23 issue of The Archives of Internal Medicine. During the study, 47,976 men and 23,276 women died, and the researchers kept track of the timing and reasons for each death. Red meat consumption ranged from a low of less than an ounce a day, on average, to a high of four ounces a day, and processed meat consumption ranged from at most once a week to an average of one and a half ounces a day.

Once researchers controlled for other lifestyle choices, they found that, other things being equal, the men and women who consumed the most red and processed meat were likely to die sooner, especially from one of our two leading killers, heart disease and cancer, than people who consumed much smaller amounts of these foods. The increase in mortality risk tied to the higher levels of meat consumption ranged from about 20 percent to nearly 40 percent.

Just think – the simple decision to eat a crisp, juicy salad instead of a hamburger could increase your longevity! Sweet!

Spring is toying with us – one day it’s warm enough to eat your salad on the front porch, the next day the cold temperatures have us shivering under the covers trying to remember where we put our down jacket.

If the day dawns like the latter, it might make sense to pair your daily salad with a bowl of steaming soup. My friend Josie and I made a ridiculously easy tomato-bean soup for lunch today. (Ask her, it took 10 minutes from start to finish including heating it up.) The brilliance of the recipe, besides being so fast to make, is the number of possible variations.

Ridiculously Easy Tomato Soup
Adapted from Vegetarian 5-Ingredient Gourmet by Nava Atlas

1 15-ounce can white beans (drained and rinsed)
1 28-ounce can stewed tomatoes
2 green onions
1 tablespoon salt-free herb seasoning mix
Freshly ground pepper, to taste

Place all of the ingredients in a blender and puree until smooth. Put it in a pot with any extra ingredients you might fancy (see below for ideas) and heat until bubbly. Enjoy!

Here are the 11 varieties of tomato soup we came up with:

Tomato white bean soup
Add several tablespoons fresh dill, parsley or cilantro to the soup base when you blend it. Add another can of white beans (drained and rinsed) when you heat it up.

Mexican black bean soup
Add 1 tsp of cumin, 1 tsp of oregano and a handful of fresh cilantro to the soup base when you blend it (or more to taste). Add a can of black beans (drained and rinsed) and ½ a cup of corn when you heat it up.

Mexican hominy & pork soup
Same as above, but instead of beans and corn, add a small can of hominy (drained and rinsed) and some cooked shredded pork.

Gazpacho
Don’t heat the soup this time, but add some chopped onion, cucumber, bell pepper, celery and chives. A few drops of Tabasco sauce and a ¼ tsp of Worcestershire sauce would finish it off.

Italian Fish Stew
Add some chunks of white fish, a few saffron fronds, and some chopped fresh fennel bulb to the base when you heat it up. Simmer until the fish is cooked and the fennel is soft. Garnish with some chopped fennel fronds.

Summer vegetable soup
Throw in whatever veggies you have growing in your garden or find at the farmers’ market. Depending on the season you might find green beans, summer squash, carrots, asparagus, or hearty greens.

Cabbage patch soup
Sautee some hamburger and cabbage and add it to the soup base as it heats.

Portuguese sausage & kale soup
Add a can of white beans (drained and rinsed), some chopped spicy sausage and chopped kale to the soup base as it heats. Simmer until the kale is tender.

Winter root veggie soup
Add some thyme and sage to the soup base when you blend it. Experiment by cooking with a combination of carrots, turnips, parsnips, rutabagas, mushrooms, and potatoes in the soup base. You could also make this a hunters’ stew if you happened to have some venison or elk.

Cassoulet
This isn’t quite cassoulet, but it’s close. Add some herbs de Provence to soup base when you blend it. Add a can of beans (drained and rinsed) and some chopped sausage/chicken as it heats.

Thai curry soup
Ad some red curry paste (maybe ¼ tsp) and a small can of coconut milk to the soup base when you blend it. Some tofu, shrimp and baby corn would be nice additions as the soup heats.

Nutritional wisdom

Tomatoes are another super food we should be sure to eat plenty of. They contain lycopene, a pigment and phytochemical that can help ward off common cancers, including prostate cancer, breast cancer, endometrial cancer, lung cancer, and colorectal cancer.

And don’t forget, beans are serious health food too! A large recent study examined the eating habits of 32,000 adults for six years and then watched the incidence of cancer for these subjects over the next six years. Those who avoided red meat but ate white meat regularly had a more than 300 percent increase in colon cancer incidence. (1) The same study showed that eating beans, peas, or lentils, at least twice a week was associated with a 50 percent lower risk than never eating these foods. Beans, in general, not just soy, have additional anti-cancer benefits against reproductive cancers, such as breast and prostate cancer. (2)

1. Singh, P.N., and G.E. Fraser. 1998. Dietary risk factors for colon cancer in a low-risk population. Am. J. Epidem. 148: 761-74.

2. Nelson, N. J. 1996. Is chemoprevention research overrated or under-funded? Primary Care & Cancer 16 (8): 29-30.

“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” Or in my words…Give a person a salad recipe and you feed him today. Teach a person to make delicious salads and you feed him for a lifetime! It is in that spirit that I present you with my secrets to salad success.

1. Start with greens (and get creative)
Greens form the basis of your salad, but don’t rely on lettuce alone. Raw chard, kale, spinach, arugula, beet greens, bok choy, cabbage, watercress, and others have a delicious flavor. They are also packed with micronutrients. Did you know that bok choy has 1,055mg of calcium per 100 calories, while milk only has 194mg? Wow! Spinach is 51% protein! (How do you think that Popeye got so big and strong?) So, pick some greens and include a variety of them, if possible.

2. Add color
The more colorful your food, the more excited you’re going to be to eat it. Stock your fridge with a rainbow of veggies. Then, when you’re ready to make your salad, pick a few different colors and you’re good to go! Here are some of my favorites:

White
Bamboo shoots
Jicama
Mushrooms
Water chestnuts
Bean sprouts
cauliflower

Red
Tomatoes
Radishes
Red bell peppers
Beets (cooked)
Red onions

Orange/yellow
Orange & yellow bell peppers
Carrots
Corn
Butternut squash (cooked)
Pumpkin (cooked)
Sweet potatoes (cooked)
Yellow beets (cooked)
Yellow summer squash
Yellow tomatoes

Green
Green bell peppers
Broccoli
Artichoke hearts
Asparagus
Avocado (not a veggie, but still good for you)
Celery
Cucumber
Green beans
Zucchini (it’s delicious raw)
Broccoflower
Broccoli rabe
Cucumbers
Endive
Green onion
Peas

Blue/purple
Red cabbage
Purple endive
Purple carrots
Purple peppers

3. Don’t forget the fruit!
Fruit can be a delicious addition to salads. Often times, the sweetness of the fruit makes the need for dressing obsolete. Great salad fruits include: melon, grapes, pears, kiwi, oranges, cherries, grapefruit, berries, strawberries, apricots, mangoes, nectarines, peaches, pineapple, figs, currants, raisins, and pomegranates. Fruit is one of those things that benefits from a simple treatment though. I like to use a bed of greens, a fruit, a sprinkling of nuts, and a light dressing. More and the fruit gets overwhelmed.

4. Beans!
Beans in all forms are the most perfect food. Besides the fact that they taste great, they stabilize blood sugar, blunt your desire for sweets, and prevent mid-afternoon cravings. The key is in the fiber – a vital nutrient, essential to human health. The fiber in beans slows down glucose absorption and controls the rate of digestion. That helps fill you up and curb abnormal physiological cravings and hormonal imbalances. High fiber foods also help prevent colon cancer and reduce heart disease. So, if you’re not having fruit in your salad, I recommend at least a ½ cup of beans in your salad.

Choices for beans include chickpeas (aka garbanzos), black-eyed peas, black beans, cowpeas, black beans, green peas, lima beans, pinto beans, lentils, red kidney beans, soy beans (edamame), cannellini beans, pigeon peas, and white beans. Yum!

5. Raw nuts & seeds
Eating small amounts of nuts and seeds each day adds valuable nutrients and healthy, unprocessed fats to your diet. They can be sprinkled on the salad or blended with an orange and spices or vegetable juice for a delicious, oil-free salad dressing. Always eat your nuts raw, though, because the roasting process alters their beneficial fats. Commercially packaged nuts and seeds are often cooked in hydrogenated oils, as well, adding trans fats and unnecessary sodium to your diet. If you absolutely must have roasted nuts, lightly toast them at home.

There are lots of choices: almonds, cashews, walnuts, black walnuts, filberts, brazil nuts, hickory nuts, macadamias, pignolis (pine nuts), pistachios, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, and flax seeds.

6. Think BIG!
Raw vegetables don’t have many calories, so it will take a lot of them to provide adequate calories, assuming you aren’t drowning your salad in fat-based dressings. They also have a negative caloric effect: the more you eat the more weight you can lose. Finally, raw foods have a faster transit time through the digestive tract and result in a lower glucose response than cooked veggies. That lower glucose response (again) encourages more weight loss.

7. KISS
It’s really fun to pack a salad with all sorts of veggies, beans and nuts. I love doing that. But sometimes the simplest salad – thinly sliced fennel, celery, and parmesan with a drizzle of olive oil and lemon juice – can be divine. If you only have a few ingredients laying around…heck, even if you only have a head of iceburg lettuce in the fridge…don’t let that stop you from eating a salad. The nutritional benefits of eating a salad every day cannot be understated.