WHFoods Weekly Newsletter

[World's Healthiest Foods] Weekly Newsletter - January 16, 2017 The George Mateljan Foundation is a not-for-profit foundation with no commercial interests or advertising. Our mission is to help you eat and cook the healthiest way for optimal health. Dear Friend, As a response to Readers' requests for an example of a healthy way to eat in 2017, we are excited to announce the launch of our new W HFoods 7-Day Meal Plan, one of the most nutritious healthy eating plans around. We put a lot of energy into designing this Plan as we really wanted to to create a 7-day menu that would make it easy for anyone to eat more healthfully. It’s an simple-to-follow Plan that not only combines the great taste of delicious and easy-to-prepare recipes, but also fulfills 100% or more of the WHFoods recommendations for 28 nutrients! The recipes are solely composed of foods included on our list of [100 World's Healthiest Foods] (foods that research has found are among the most nutrient-rich), so you will be getting an excellent combination of all the nutrients essential for optimal health (including vitamins, minerals, and macronutrients such as protein, fiber, and healthy fats) for a minimal number of calories. Because the World's Healthiest Foods have been found to be among the best sources of these health-promoting nutrients, the Plan provides a powerful and easy way to help you take charge of your health and prevent disease. If you want to start challenging yourself to improve your well-being through healthy eating and cooking, our WHFoods 7-Day Meal Plan is a great place to start your new year. Our goal was to provide you with a 7-Day Plan of outstanding nutrient-richness that did not rely on enriched foods, fortified foods, highly processed foods, dietary supplements, or anything that you would not recognize with your own senses to be a whole, vibrant food. It was important to us to provide you with this type of menu for two reasons. First, the research makes it clear that the World's Healthiest Foods are among our very best source of nutrients. Second, these same foods taste the most delicious when you know how to cook them the nutrient-rich way to retain their nutrients and boost their flavor. All 7 days of the Plan provide you with only the World's Healthiest Foods that provide you with a high quality standard for your meal plan. Each day of the 7 Day Plan uses only the WHFoods and provides you a meal plan of the highest nutrient quality. Within our [WHFoods Rating System], we include recommended daily intake amounts for a wide variety of nutrients. All our recommendations are research-based and take into account the current science on food and nutrients. Included in our daily intake recommendations are water-soluble vitamins, fat-soluble vitamins, minerals, protein, fiber, and omega-3 fatty acids. On average, our new 7-Day Plan meets or even exceeds recommended daily intake levels in all nutrient categories and for all nutrients that we analyzed. When you use this WHFoods 7-Day Meal Plan, you will be getting 100% --or more-- of our recommended daily intake amounts for the following nutrients: vitamin B1, vitamin B2, vitamin B3, vitamin B6, vitamin B12, pantothenic acid, biotin, folate, vitamin A, choline, vitamin E, vitamin C, vitamin K, calcium, copper, iodine, iron, magnesium, manganese, molybdenum, phosphorus, potassium, selenium, zinc, chromium, iodine, omega-3s, protein, and fiber. That's 100% or more of 28 key nutrients without the help of any dietary supplements, fortified foods, enriched foods, or highly processed foods of any kind. You may have noted that vitamin D is missing from the list of nutrients. You will find more information on vitamin D when the new Meal Plan is posted. George [Food of the Week] What's New and Beneficial About Kale Among all 100 of our WHFoods, kale tops the list in terms of lutein content. Kale is not only our most lutein-rich food at WHFoods, it is also the top lutein-containing food in the USDA's National Nutrient Database, which analyzes 5,350 foods that contain this carotenoid nutrient. Among the carotenoids, lutein is perhaps best known for its supportive role in eye health, and in particular, for its ability to protect different parts of the eye from potential damage by light or oxygen. A recent study involving African-American women has shown decreased likelihood of glaucoma (an eye problem usually caused by increased pressure within the eye) when dietary intake of kale reaches higher intake levels. In this case, "higher intake levels" were defined as any levelsexceeding a mere one half-cup serving per week! Since our WHFoods serving size for kale is one cup, you will be getting double this amount from one serving based on our standard. Among all of the vegetables examined in this particular study, kale and collards came out at the top of the vegetable list for decreasing the likelihood of glaucoma! A recent study that analyzed the combination of kale with lentils found this food combination to be particularly complementary in providing us with nutrient-richness. Interestingly, this study focused on two areas of nutrition: mineral nourishment and "prebiotic nutrients." Prebiotic nutrients support the growth of desirable bacteria within our digestive tract. These nutrients often involve short chains of simple sugars called "oligosaccharides." (Glucooligosaccharides, fructooligosaccharides, and xylooligosaccharides are well-studied examples of oligosaccharides.) In this study, researchers determined that the combination of prebiotic nutrients in kale-plus-lentils and the combination of mineral nutrients in kale-plus-lentils were especially complementary as each food provided the nutrients the other one lacked. In each nutrient category, kale and lentils were able to "bring something special to the table" that the other could not, resulting in outstanding combined nutrient-richness. Take advantage of this unique food combination by starting with our [Curried Lentils]. Each serving of this vegetarian entreé will provide you with 1/2 cup of kale and 1/2 cup of lentils. And it tastes great, too! The research track record for kale in providing overall cardiovascular support is fairly strong, and not limited to improvement in blood cholesterol levels. However, research on kale and cholesterol levels is especially interesting. Recent studies show that kale can provide you with some special cholesterol-lowering benefits if you cook it by steaming. The fiber-related components in kale do a better job of binding together with bile acids in your digestive tract when they've been steamed. When this binding process takes place, it's easier for bile acids to be excreted, and the result is a drop in your cholesterol levels. Raw kale still has cholesterol-lowering ability—just not as much. Along these same lines, a recent study examined the impact of 5 ounces of kale juice per day for 12 weeks in men with high blood cholesterol levels (above 200 mg/dL). Consumption of kale juice was determined to raise the HDL (good cholesterol) levels in these study participants, lower their LDL (potentially harmful cholesterol) levels, and also improve their atherogenic profiles (which are a measure of the likelihood of developing coronary artery disease). At WHFoods, we always encourage consumption of whole foods in their minimally processed forms. However, we also believe that this study of kale juice underscores the exceptional health benefits derived from this cruciferous vegetable. Recent genetic studies on kale have shown it to have remarkable diversity, not only in terms of its physical varieties, but also in terms of its nutrient content. For example, over 45 different flavonoids are known to be present in significantly differing amounts across the many different varieties of kale that can be found within the very broad kale family. One recent study has compared an Italian Lacinato-type variety of kale (also sometimes called Tuscan Black or Dinosaur kale) to a North American broad-leafed kale (often called a Napus or Siberian type kale) as well as to a German curly-leaf variety of kale (belonging to the Scotch/Scotch-Curled type of this cruciferous vegetable). As you can see, the very description of these kale types requires us to think about two continents and even more countries in which the kale was being grown. This particular study focused on sulfur-containing compounds in kale—including its glucosinolates. The researchers determined that glucosinolate content in kale can vary by as much as 10-fold depending on the specific variety in question and the conditions of cultivation and harvest. In general, this study showed that curly-leafed kale varieties and darker Lacinato varieties of kale contained higher levels of glucosinolates (and especially one particular glucosinolate called glucoraphanin) than the broad-leafed, Napus/Siberian types of kale. For glucosinolate-related health benefits from kale, you might want to eat more of these varieties. In our Description section, you can find more details about each of these kale varieties. Kale is now recognized as providing comprehensive support for the body's detoxification system. New research has shown that compounds made in our bodies from from kale's glucosinolates can help beneficially regulate detoxification at a genetic level. [Read More] [Recipe of the Week] Try This Recipe of the Week 5-Minute "Quick Steamed" Kale This week, I want to share with you the Nutrient-Rich Way to Cook Kale to help maximize its nutrients and flavor! My friends love this recipe. (Taken from page 331 of the 2nd Edition of the World's Healthiest Foods book.) [Read More] [Nutrient of the Week] Kale is an Excellent Source of Vitamin B6 Kale is among the World's Healthiest Food because it is nutrient-rich with health-protective nutrients such as vitamin B6. Discover the power of vitamin B6 ... [Read More] [Hot Topic] Does it matter if dinner is the largest meal of the day? Yes, dinner size matters! And it's not just the size of your dinner but also the timing and the foods you select that can impact your health. As the last meal of the day, dinner plays a unique role in healthy eating, and we think you might be surprised at some of the research findings related to this most widely eaten meal in the United States. On a nationwide basis, 85% of U.S. adults eat something for breakfast, 81% eat something for lunch, and 93% eat something for dinner. While these percentages favor dinner, they are all relatively high and somewhat close. However, when these three meals are evaluated in terms of calories, their differences become much greater. Adults in the U.S. consume two times more calories (34% of total calories) at dinner than at breakfast (17%). And these dinner calories are still 10% higher than calories at lunch (24%). Put somewhat differently, among all meal-time calories, 45% are provided by dinner. Dinner is by far the major meal of the day for U.S. adults in terms of calories. For the rest of the story ... [Read More] Here's to another week of the Healthiest Way of Eating and Cooking! George [WHFoods Book 2nd Edition] The World's Healthiest Foods, 2nd Edition is complete and ready to order with 2 free gifts valued at $51.95. All international orders (including Canada) must be placed through Amazon.com. More from happy book owners: Many thanks for your wonderful "THE WORLD'S HEALTHIEST FOODS". My extended family each has a copy which I gave them and they are being consistently used. - EL [Read more about our book] $39.95 [buy now] visit our homepage at [] Newsletter circulation: over 120,000 Copyright © 2017 The George Mateljan Foundation, All Rights Reserved George Mateljan Foundation, PO Box 25801, Seattle, Washington 98165 [Unsubscribe] | [Change Subscriber Options]