bite my words

Dispelling nutrition myths, ranting, and occasionally, raving

Tag Archives: vegetables


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Cucumber

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Yes! I found a vegetable that’s in season that I haven’t blogged about yet. Cucumbers!

Cucumbers are delicious, healthy, and refreshing. One cup of cucumber contains a mere 20 calories. It also provides you with lots of water as well as 20 mg of calcium, 185 mg of potassium, and 16 mg of magnesium (not a lot, but every little bit counts!).

Try adding cucumber slices to your water for a refreshing drink. Snack on cucumber spears. Or make a simple salad of chopped cucumber and tomato topped with freshly ground pepper and a little bit of salt.


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A realist’s view on the antioxidant and optimism study

I’ve recently seen a few references to a study about vegetable consumption and optimism. Full disclosure: I am not an optimist; I’m a realist. As such, there are a few things about this study that bother me:

1. I’m unsure how much this study really tells us about the relationship between vegetable consumption and optimism. The researchers measured blood levels of antioxidants in 982 men and women and compared them to self-reported optimism (as assessed with the revised Life Orientation Test). We all know that self-reports tend to be inaccurate. I also wonder how accurate a marker of fruit and vegetable consumption blood levels of antioxidants is. As the researchers point out, there is no way to determine causality. Thus, eating more fruit and vegetables is not necessarily going to make your disposition any more positive.

Please, don’t think that I’m implying you shouldn’t eat your fruits and vegetables. Nearly all of us could stand to eat more veggies. I suppose if the belief that eating more of these foods is going to improve your outlook on the world then I really shouldn’t complain.

2. What’s so great about being an optimist anyway? Personally, I think that those who are blindly optimistic are delusional.

3. Why are research dollars being wasted on such banal topics? I’d much rather see funding going to research that is going to improve the healthspan of the population.

 


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Foods not to refrigerate

I won’t tell you my inspiration for this post (to protect the guilty). Suffice to say, I’m always looking for new blog material so really they did me a favour.

Unsure about what foods to refrigerate? Here are a few that you shouldn’t refrigerate:

  • Bananas – as my old prof, Dr Kwan, used to say, refrigeration will cause “chill injury”. Bananas will turn black in the refrigerator. While this will not immediately impact the flesh, it’s none too appealing.
  • Basil – also susceptible to chill injury it will blacken and wilt prematurely if stored in the fridge.
  • Tomatoes – refrigeration will cause them to become mealy.
  • Potatoes - refrigeration affects the starch molecules in potatoes causing them to convert to more simple sugars and affecting the way they’ll cook and taste. Store in a cool dark place, in a breathable bag. Exposure to direct light can cause them to sprout faster and also to develop the toxin solanine.
  • Garlic – it will go soft faster in the fridge. Store in a similar manner to potatoes.
  • Squash – winter squash has a longer shelf life outside of the fridge. Summer squash, such as zucchini, is also susceptible to chill injury and is best stored on the countertop.


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Rooting for rutabaga

This is a tough time of year to write about local seasonally available foods. Rutabaga is one of those foods that last well through the winter and you can usually find local rutabagas available year-round.

Rutabagas are similar to turnips but tend to be larger and their flesh is more yellow. It may actually be a turnip-cabbage hybrid. Most of the rutabagas available in the grocery store are waxed and will keep well in a cool dark place, or the refrigerator, for up to 3 months. Obviously, you’ll need to peel a waxed rutabaga before cooking and eating.

One cup of raw rutabaga has only 53 calories. It’s also got 3.6 g fibre, 70 mg calcium, 499 mg potassium, 34 mg magnesium, and 37 mg vitamin C.

One of my favourite rutabaga recipes (it calls for turnip, but don’t be fooled, rutabaga is what you want) is rutabaga and pancetta hash. It’s a great side dish. Rutabaga also roasts nicely and works well in stews.


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Can you get your vegetables from chips?

These chips caught my eye the other day:

Really? Could it be that easy? I wondered how they differed from the ubiquitous vegetable chips that are essentially the same as regular potato chips. A quick look at the nutrition facts panel and ingredients told me that they weren’t all that much different.

Ingredients in their sour cream and onion chips: INGREDIENTS: NAVY BEANS, DRIED POTATOES, RICE FLOUR, EXPELLER PRESSED SUNFLOWER OIL, CANOLA OIL, POTATO STARCH, CARROT, SWEET POTATO, WHEY, SUGAR, MALTODEXTRIN, SALT, ONION POWDER, SOUR CREAM POWDER (CULTURED CREAM, NON-FAT MILK), NON-FAT DRY MILK, KONJAC FLOUR, CITRIC ACID, SPICE, LACTIC ACID, NATURAL FLAVOR (INCLUDING MUSTARD), YEAST EXTRACT.

Ingredients in traditional sour cream and onion potato chips: POTATOES, VEGETABLE OIL SUNFLOWER, CORN AND/OR CANOLA OIL), SOUR CREAM & ONION SEASONING (SKIM MILK, SALT, SOUR CREAM (CULTURED CREAM, SKIM MILK), ONION POWDER, WHEY, WHEY POWDER CONCENTRATE, CANOLA OIL, NATURAL FLAVOUR, PARSLEY, GUM ARABIC, MATODEXTRIN (MADE FROM CORN), SUNFLOWER OIL, CITRIC ACID, BUTTERMILK).

Sure, the Eat Your Vegetables chips have some carrot and sweet potato but judging by the ingredient lists, the traditional potato chips technically contain more vegetables as their number one ingredient is potatoes (and not overly processed dried potatoes at that). Score one for the traditional chips.

Let’s see how they compare nutritionally…

Eat Your Vegetables (per 1 ounce / 28 gram serving):

Calories 130, Total Fat 7g, Saturated Fat 0.5g, Trans Fat 0g, Cholesterol 0mg, Sodium 125mg, Total Carbohydrate 17g, Dietary Fibre 3g, Sugars 2g, Protein 3g, Vitamin A 35%, Vitamin C 4%, Calcium 4%, Iron 4%

Traditional potato chips (per 1 ounce / 28 gram serving):

Calories 160, Total Fat 10g, Saturated Fat 1g, Trans Fat 0g, Cholesterol 0mg, Sodium 160mg, Total Carbohydrate 15g, Dietary Fibre 1 g, Sugars <1g, Protein 2 g, Vitamin A 0%, Vitamin C 10%, Calcium 2%, Iron 2%

Clearly, nutritionally, the Eat Your Vegetables chips are a slightly better choice than the traditional potato chips. However, I think this comparison may be a little unfair. After all, Eat Your Vegetables are claiming to provide you with a full serving of vegetables. Perhaps I should be comparing them to actual vegetables. Since they have some carrot in them let’s see how they stack-up against a serving of raw carrots (one medium carrot = 61g):

Calories 25, Total Fat 0.15g, Saturated Fat 0.023g, Trans Fat 0g, Cholesterol 0mg, Sodium 42mg, Total Carbohydrate 5.84g, Dietary Fibre 1.5g, Sugars 2.89g, Protein 0.57, Vitamin A (beta carotene) 5054mcg, Vitamin C 3.6mg, Calcium 20mg, Iron 0.18mg.

Don’t be fooled into thinking that these Eat Your Vegetable chips are comparable to a serving of real vegetables. Sure, they’re a slightly better choice than regular potato chips but they don’t have anything on the real deal.

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