WHFoods Weekly Newsletter

[World's Healthiest Foods]() Weekly Newsletter - March 13, 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 of World's Healthiest Foods, This week, we highlight another one of our newly created recipes from our upcoming WHFoods 7-Day Meal Plan to help you on your way to optimal health. Over the next several weeks we will be highlighting lunch salads, which are easy to prepare and delicious. They are a great way to increase your veggie intake and combined with a serving of protein, they can satiate your hunger comfortably until dinner. I encourage you to try this week's featured recipe and find how easy it is to combine great nutrition with great taste! [Caesar Salad with Navy Beans]( I also want to share with you the wealth and diversity of carotenoids you can enjoy from our 7-Day Menu. As summarized in the Nutrient Chart for our 7-Day Menu, you will be averaging 189% of our WHFoods recommended intake level for vitamin A when you follow our 7-day plan. What you do not see in this nutrient summary is the remarkable contribution made by carotenoids to this plentiful amount of vitamin A. Carotenoids account for the vast majority of vitamin A that is provided by our 7-Day Menu. Just consider the following averages for carotenoids content in our 7-day plan: - 18,025 micrograms of beta-carotene - 13,675 micrograms of lutein + zeaxanthin (combined) - 2,850 micrograms of lycopene - 550 micrograms of alpha-carotene - 525 micrograms of cryptoxanthin Read the rest of the story, [A Wealth and Diversity of Carotenoids in Our 7-Day Menu](. Have a wonderful week of a Healthier Way of Eating, George [Food of the Week] What's New and Beneficial About Cabbage Did you know that cabbage was one of two vegetable types (the other type was root vegetables) found to be a mainstay for prevention of type 2 diabetes in a recent study of over 57,000 adults in the country of Denmark? In this very large-scale study, adults who closely followed the Healthy Nordik Food Index were found to have the lowest incidence of type 2 diabetes. Importantly, this key health benefit was linked to six food intake categories: (1) fish, (2) rye bread, (3) oatmeal, (4) apples and pears, (5) root vegetables, and (6) cabbage! Researchers have now identified nearly 20 different flavonoids and 15 different phenols in cabbage, all of which have demonstrated antioxidant activity. This impressive list of antioxidant phytonutrients in cabbage is one key reason why an increasing number of studies link cabbage intake to decreased risk of several cardiovascular diseases. You can read more about these individual antioxidants in our Health Benefits section. In terms of price per edible cup, a report by the Economic Research Service at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has shown cabbage to be the second most economical cooked vegetable in terms of price per edible cup. Only potatoes came out slightly less expensive. The relatively low economic cost of cabbage in comparison with most other vegetables makes this cruciferous vegetable a nutritional bargain, especially considering the 3 excellent, 6 very good, and 11 good rankings that it achieves in our WHFoods rating system. There are literally hundreds of varieties of cabbage grown worldwide. But of special interest in recent research studies have been cabbage varieties that fall into the red-purple category. It is the anthocyanin antioxidants (and in particular, a subcategory of anthocyanins called cyanidins) that have been the focus of these research studies. Impressively, the anthocyanins in red cabbage are a major factor in the ability of this cruciferous vegetable to provide cardiovascular protection, including protection of red blood cells. Blood levels of beta-carotene, lutein, and total blood antioxidant capacity have been found to improve along with red cabbage intake, while oxidized LDL has been found to decrease. (This reduction in oxidized LDL is a good thing, since LDL - an abbreviation which stands for low-density lipoprotein - becomes a risk factor for blood vessel problems if excessively present in its oxidized form. Cabbage turns out to be an especially good source of sinigrin. Sinigrin is one of cabbage's sulfur-containing glucosinolates that has received special attention in cancer prevention research. The sinigrin in cabbage can be also converted into allyl-isothiocyanate, or AITC. This isothiocyanate compound has shown unique cancer preventive properties with respect to bladder cancer, colon cancer, and prostate cancer. It's also worth noting here that a second glucosinolate found in cabbage - glucobrassicin - can be converted into two cancer-protective compounds. These two compounds are indole-3-carbinol (or I3C, an isothiocyanate) and diindolylmethane (or DIM). DIM is an interesting sulfur-containing compound that can be produced in the stomach from I3C if the stomach juices are sufficiently acidic. Like AITC and I3C, DIM has been shown to have cancer-preventive properties for the specific cancer types listed above. [Read More]( [Recipe of the Week] Try This Recipe of the Week 5-Minute Healthy Sautéed Red Cabbage Enjoy tasty cabbage prepared the Nutrient-Rich Way in only 5 minutes! (Found on page 207 of the 2nd Edition of theWorld's Healthiest Foods book.) [Read More]( [Nutrient of the Week] Cabbage is a Very Good Source of Copper Cabbage is rich in health-protective nutrients such as copper ... [Read More]( [Hot Topic] Can Preparation Methods Impact the Benefits of Cruciferous Vegetables? In each of the 100 individual food profiles on our website, we tell you the best way to select, store, prepare, and cook each food. Our recommendations are based on our experience with the pleasures of eating - including textures, flavors, and aromas - as well as the research findings about cooking and health. You may already be somewhat familiar with different cooking methods and their impact on food quality. For example, you are very likely to have seen overcooked vegetables that no longer look vibrant or colorful. But you may not be as familiar with the preparation aspect of vegetable cooking and its potential relationship with food quality. Many fresh vegetable preparation steps begin with cutting or slicing. Whenever we cut into a fresh vegetable, a variety of changes immediately begin to take place. Some of these changes are chemical (like the exposure of the vegetable's inside portions to oxygen), and others are biochemical (like enzyme-related activity that begins to take place inside cells that have been cut open). By the way, similar types of chemical and biochemical changes take place whenever we put a fresh vegetable into our mouth and chew. Chewing is a natural way of "cutting open" a fresh vegetable and setting into motion many chemical and biochemical changes [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: Just received my second edition yesterday and I must say I love it. Thank you for all your efforts. - Dave [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](