Salad Days

Suppose you are a fat American (or maybe just a few pounds over what you dream of weighing). Suppose, furthermore, that you are increasingly susceptible to any number of diseases, such as heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, cancer, high cholesterol, headaches, or stroke. (Oh, wait…that is everyone who is reading this!) Time is not on your side, and there are more than 25,000 diet and health books in print. Where do you go to find dependable counsel? One place: Eat to Live by Dr. Joel Fuhrman.

In just one month this book has completely changed our lives (that would be Nick and me) for the better. It was also the catalyst for my daily salad posts on facebook and ultimately this blog. Rather than keep all the goodness to ourselves, I thought I’d write a review in the hope that you too will be encouraged to cultivate healthy, life-prolonging, disease-preventing eating habits.

Overview

A good subtitle for this book would be “unlearn everything you ever knew about nutrition and eat what is right.” The book begins with a critical analysis of the Standard American Diet (SAD), USDA dietary recommendations (perpetuated by self-interested lobbying groups), and common weight-loss programs. Then it moves to a crash-course in nutritional excellence, explaining how a nutrient dense diet can reduce or eliminate disease. It ends with dietary recommendations based on the author’s formula for health and two seven-day menus with recipes to get started.

What makes this book truly stand out from the pack of diet books is the amount of scientific research backing the information (the bibliography is 20+ pages). His dietary recommendations are also really easy to follow – no counting points, no calorie restriction, no deprivation.

Sound too good to be true? It isn’t, I promise! Stay tuned for Part 2 of this review: a chapter by chapter tour of the book.

All of this gorgeous spring weather has me thinking about grilling. The smell of seared meat wafting through the neighborhood every evening does too, but that’s another story.

I wondered this morning if I could combine my desire for fire with my love of salads. Turns out you can - quite successfully in fact! Inspired by a recipe at fatfreevegan, I fired up the grill today and made my very own Grilled Romaine Salad for lunch. Hitting the lettuce with some heat tempers its slightly bitter flavor and brings out a bit of nuttiness. Ohhh, yum!

Grilled Romaine Lettuce
Serves 4

2 hearts of romaine
balsamic vinegar
sunflower seeds or chopped almonds
freshly cracked pepper

Cut the romaine hearts in half lengthwise. Trim the stem end a little if you want, but be sure not to cut too much. All the leaves need to stay attached.

Heat your BBQ and coat the grill with a little oil. (A paper towel dipped in oil works well. Use a pair of tongs to rub the oil-soaked paper towel on the grill.) You could also use a stove-top grill pan or George Foreman style grill if the weather isn’t good enough for BBQing.

Once the BBQ is hot, put the romaine hearts on it. Grill for about 2 or 3 minutes, until lettuce has begun to wilt and grill marks to appear; then turn over and grill for another 2 minutes.

Place each piece on a plate, cut side up, and sprinkle each with a bit of vinegar, sunflower seeds, and freshly ground black pepper to taste. Serve immediately.

Nutritional wisdom:

Lettuce, among other things, is excellent source of zinc. New findings in the journal Diabetes Care claim increased intake of zinc may lower diabetes risk in women. Researchers studied 82,297 women and during the course of 24 years more than 6,000 cases of type-2 diabetes were documented and data obtained from a food questionnaire showed women with the highest average dietary intake of zinc cut diabetes risk by 10% and 8% for those with highest average total intake of zinc.

Zinc is important for guys too. Previous studies show low levels of zinc contribute to cancer, cardiovascular and all-cause mortality risk in middle-aged men. Eek!

Other sources of zinc include peas, sesame seeds, asparagus, and other green veggies, like broccoli and kale.

Image courtesy of fodista.

Today’s salad is a mixture of greens, red grapes, and walnuts topped with an ultra-fresh-tasting avocado-pear-cucumber dressing. (The dressing is based on one published on DrFuhrman.com, but tweaked to my liking.)

I love this dressing for two reasons. First, the only fat in it comes from an avocado. Many people perceive avocados as a high-fat, high-calorie food that should be avoided or consumed in only token amounts. Fats from avocado, raw nuts, and seeds, however, are rich in antioxidants and phytochemicals that not only offer unique health benefits, but also maintain the freshness of the food, preventing rancidity of the fat within. Oh-la-la!

The second reason I love this dressing is that there’s no way to “over dress” your salad. The dressing tastes so fresh and delicious you’ll want to eat it straight with a spoon! (Just ask my husband: after scooping some dressing into a container for my lunchtime salad this morning, I ate a spoonful right from the jar. Nick, a salad-dressing minimalist, even likes gobs of this over his greens.)

Bon appetite!

Avocado Goddess Dressing
Yield: 2 cups

1/2 pear, cored & cut in small pieces
1 pickle size cucumber (4-6” long), peeled & cut up
1/2 ripe avocado
2 tbsp white wine vinegar
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp minced garlic
1 tbsp no-salt seasoning
1 tbsp fresh dill
1 tbsp fresh cilantro

Put all of the ingredients except fresh herbs in a high-power blender and blend until creamy. Add the herbs and pulse a few times until there are little green specks throughout the dressing. Pour generously over your salad.

Image courtesy of Gaetan Lee.