Superfood of the Week: Avocados

There's no denying it--avocados might be one of the most delicious things a person can eat. Whether you're enjoying a few slices of avocado in your salad or added to a sandwich, diced into ceviche, or making guacamole--avocados have been known to jazz up any meal with their smooth texture and addicting nutty and buttery taste! YUM! Here's the best part: Avocados contain a large variety of nutrients including vitamins, minerals, as well as heart-healthy monounsaturated fat, so eating a little avocado along with carotenoid-rich vegetables and fruits is an excellent way to improve your body's ability to absorb carotenoids while also receiving other nutritional benefits! Now here are some fun facts and important questions you might be wondering about the mysterious fruit... WHERE ARE THEY FROM? Avocados are the fruit from the Persea Americana, a tall evergreen tree that can grow up to 65 feet in height. There are dozens of varieties of avocadoes, which fall into three main categories-Mexican, Guatemalean, and West Indian. They all differ in their size, appearance, quality and susceptibility to cold. WHERE DOES IT GET ITS NAME? The avocado is colloquially known as the Alligator Pear, reflecting its shape and the leather-like appearance of its skin. Avocado is derived from the Aztec word "ahuacatl." WHAT SHOULD I BUY? The most popular type of avocado in the United States is the Hass variety, which has rugged, pebbly brown-black skin. Another common type of avocado is the Fuerte, which is larger than the Hass and has smooth, dark green skin and a more defined pear shape. WHAT CAN I EAT? The edible portion of the avocado is its yellow-green flesh, which has a luscious, buttery consistency and a subtle nutty flavor. The skin and pit are inedible. FACT #1: Avocados contain oleic acid, a monounsaturated fat that may help to lower cholesterol. In one study of people with moderately high cholesterol levels, individuals who ate a diet high in avocados showed clear health improvements. FACT #2: Avocados are a good source of potassium, a mineral that helps regulate blood pressure. Adequate intake of potassium can help to guard against circulatory diseases, like high blood pressure, heart disease or stroke. FACT #3: One cup of avocado has 23% of the daily value for folate, a nutrient important for heart health. Since heart disease is the #1 killer in women, this is a HUGE FACT that we ladies should all take seriously and do whatever we can to lower these statistics. WHEN CAN I EAT IT? A ripe, ready to eat avocado is slightly soft but should have no dark sunken spots or cracks. If the avocado has a slight neck, rather than being rounded on top, it was probably tree ripened and will have better flavor. A firmer, less mature fruit can be ripened at home and will be less likely to have bruises. HOW MUCH DOES AN AVOCADO WEIGH? The Hass avocado weighs about 8 ounces on average and has a pebbled dark green or black skin, while the Fuerte avocado (pictured below) has smoother, brighter green skin. Avoid Fuertes with skin that is too light and bright. Florida avocados, which can be as large as 5 pounds, have less fat and calories, but their taste is not as rich as California varieties (which is why we love them so much!). WHEN IS IT RIPE? A firm avocado will ripen in a paper bag or in a fruit basket at room temperature within a few days. As the fruit ripens, the skin will turn darker. Avocados should not be refrigerated until they are ripe. Once ripe, they can be kept refrigerated for up to a week. If you are refrigerating a whole avocado, it's best to keep it whole and not slice it in order to avoid browning that occurs when the flesh is exposed to air. HOW DO I STORE ONE ONCE I'VE USED IT? If you've used a portion of a ripe avocado, it is best to store the remainder in the refrigerator. Store in a plastic bag, wrap with plastic wrap, or place on a plate and cover with plastic wrap. Sprinkling the exposed surface(s) with lemon juice will help to prevent the browning that can occur when the flesh comes in contact with oxygen in the air. Now that you are a little more knowledgeable about our yummy superfood, let's put this baby into action! Here are some of my favorite recipes and ways to use the delicious fruit! INFAMOUS GUACAMOLE RECIPE: Makes enough to share with friends...even though you might want to eat it all yourself! 5 ripe avocados; 2 tablespoons finely chopped red onion; 3 tablespoons finely chopped tomatoes; 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice; 1/2 medium jalapeño pepper, seeded and chopped; 1 garlic clove, pressed; 3/4 teaspoon salt; fresh ground pepper; 3 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro (optional); Tortilla chips Cut avocados in half. Scoop pulp into a bowl, and mash with a potato masher or fork until slightly chunky. Stir in chopped red onion and next 7 ingredients. Cover with plastic wrap, allowing wrap to touch mixture, and let stand at room temperature 30 minutes. Serve guacamole with tortilla chips. *TIP: Make skinny margaritas to go along with this for a fun mexican fiesta! FRESH GREEK SALAD WITH AVOCADO: So easy to make you'll wish you had known about it sooner! 1 cup sugarplum tomatoes; 2 whole heirloom tomatoes; 1 avocado; 1/2 cup sliced cucumbers; 1 tablespoon kalamata olives; 2 tablespoons feta cheese; 2 tablespoons fresh chopped parsley and/or basil; 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil; 1 teaspoon red wine vinegar; sea salt and pepper to taste. Slice heirloom tomatoes in half and slice avocado. Combine the olive oil and red wine vinegar and set aside as dressing. In a medium-sized bowl, add together both tomatoes, avocado, cucumbers and olives. Garnish with feta cheese and fresh parsley and/or basil. Drizzle dressing over the salad and season with sea salt and pepper to taste (easy on the salt). Can be enjoyed as is, stuffed into a whole-wheat pita pouch, or atop quinoa. VEGETABLE CUT ROLLS: Why go out and spend a fortune? Get out a bottle of sake and let the sushi-rolling begin! Makes 2 vegetable cut rolls: 2 sheets Nori (Japanese seaweed paper); 1 cup or container of sushi rice (can make this or buy from local sushi restaurant for an easier option); 4 asparagus spears; 1/2 avocado, cut into slices; carrot, cucumber and/or green onion slices (optional); wasabi; low-sodium soy sauce; bamboo sushi-roll mat Place nori on a bamboo sushi-roll mat with the rough side of the nori facing upwards. Slightly wet hands and evenly spread 1/2 cup (or 1/2 container) of sushi rice on top of nori paper. Smear a SMALL amount of wasabi over rice. **Wash hands thoroughly--YOU DO NOT WANT TO TOUCH YOUR EYES AFTER USING THIS!** Top with fresh avocado slices, 2 asparagus spears and any other vegetables you like (such as carrot slices, cucumber, and/or green onion). Lift the bamboo sushi-roll mat and slowly start rolling the nori over the vegetables, continue to roll until nori is completely wrapped. Squeeze over the bamboo mat to secure the enclosed roll. Grab a sharp knife and slice the roll into 6-8 sushi pieces. Repeat this sequence to make the second sushi roll. Serve with low-sodium soy sauce. There you have it! Now go and be avocado-happy with these fun recipe ideas and aboundant amount of information on this delicious and likable superfood!

Food Rules: A Tiny Book that Speaks Volumes

If you've never read Michael Pollan's book "Food Rules," than you're missing out! One of the best-selling-food-guru authors and even featured on Oprah--enough said for some women--this man has a lot of important statements to say on food and (maybe even more importantly) how society and corporations have swayed our perception on food. An easy beach read (literally--you can read the whole book in an hour if you're focused!), Pollan lays out his "food rules" in three interesting parts: What to eat, the kinds of foods to eat, and how much you should actually be eating. With so many great points in this book, I'm going to give you the cliff notes version on what stuck with me the most from each section. However, this is one of those books that is inexpensive and fun to read, so if you have $10 and the time to run over to Borders--grab it! :) Part I: What should I eat? Answer: Eat Food. "Don't eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn't recognize as food." Foods are processed in ways specifically designed to get us to buy and eat more by pushing our buttons--our preference for sweetness, fat and salt. These tastes are difficult to find in nature, but cheap and easy for the food scientists to create! The result: processed foods. The great-grandmother rule will help keep most of these items out of your cart...(*If your great-granny wasn't a cook, imagine someone else's great-grandmother who knows what real food looks like!) "Avoid foods that have some form of sugar (or sweetener) listed among the top 3 ingredients." Complicating matters even more, there are now 40 types of sugar used in processed food! Ahhhh!! This includes high-fructose corn syrup, barley malt, beet sugar, brown rice syrup, cane juice, corn sweetener, dextrin, dextrose, fructo-oligosaccharides, fruit juice concentrate, glucose, sucrose, invert sugar, polydextrose, turbinado sugar, etc., etc. SUGAR IS SUGAR people--stay away from it if you can! "Shop the peripheries of the supermarket and stay out of the middle." For the most part, supermarkets are all constructed the same way: fresh foods such as produce, meat, fish and dairy outline the walls of the store, while the processed foods dominate the center aisles. If you keep to the edges of the store, most likely you'll end up with real food in your cart. "Eat only foods that will eventually rot." When food goes bad it means that fungi and bacteria and insects and rodents got to it first. They want the nutrients and calories too! Food processing is a way to extend the shelf life of food by protecting it from these little pests by making it less appealing to them. The more processed food is, the longer the shelf life and the less nutrients it typically has. Real food is alive--and therefore it should eventually die! (*An exception to this would be honey, which has a shelf life measured in centuries!) "If it came from a plant, eat it; if it was made in a plant, don't." Enough said. Part II: What Kind of food should I eat? Answer: Mostly Plants. "Eating what stands on one leg (mushrooms and plant foods) is better than eating what stands on two legs (fowl), which is better than eating what stands on four legs (cows, pigs and other mammals)." This is a great Chinese proverb that offers a good summary of traditional wisdom regarding the healthfulness of different kinds of food. However, it does leave out the very healthful and entirely legless fish! "Eat animals that have themselves eaten well." The diet of animals strongly influences the nutritional quality of food we get from them, whether it be meat, milk or eggs. The food from animals who are grass-fed contain much healthier types of fats (more omega-3s, less omega-6s) and have higher levels of vitamins and antioxidants, compared to those who are not. If you can, try buying your meats, eggs and dairy products from grass-fed animals labeled organic. They're worth paying the premium for. "Sweeten and salt your food yourself." Food and beverages that have been prepared by corporations contain far higher levels of salt and sugar than any ordinary human would ever add--even a child! By adding flavor yourself, you'll consume A FRACTION of the sugar and salt as you would if someone else were to prepare it! That can make a big difference in your waistline. "Don't eat breakfast cereals that change the color of the milk." These cereals are highly processed and full of chemical additives and refined carbs. Sorry kids, fruity pebbles and coco puffs are out! "Have a glass of wine with dinner." (This might be my favorite page of the whole book!!) Being an integral part of the French and Mediterranean diet, there's evidence that people who drink moderately and regularly live longer and have less cases of heart disease than those who do not. Also, the health benefits may depend on the drinking pattern: drinking a little bit every day is better than drinking a lot on the weekends, and drinking with food is better than drinking without it. Most experts recommend no more than 2 drinks a day for men and one for women. Part III: How should I eat? Answer: Not Too Much. "Eat when you are hungry, not when you are bored." Food is a costly antidepressant. For so many of us, we eat out of boredom, comfort, for entertainment, or to reward ourselves. In other words, we rarely eat when we're actually hungry! Try to be aware of WHY you're eating, and ask yourself if you're really hungry before you continue to pick at food... "Buy smaller plates and glasses." We tend to eat up to 30 percent more when food is in front of us. Food marketers know this, which is why portions are always supersized (so we end up buying more), and unfortunately finishing what we didn't want to keep eating in the first place. NOT something we want to carry over to our own kitchens! One researcher found that people who simply swapped out their 12-inch dinner plates for 10-inch plates reduced their food consumption by 22 percent! Now that's a fact worth buying new dishes for! :) "Treat treats as treats." Sounds simple, right? There is nothing wrong with special occasion foods, as long as EVERY DAY isn't a special occasion! Indulgences such as fried chicken, french fries, pizza, cookies or cupcakes are fine every once in a while--but the trick is to MAKE THEM YOURSELF. The amount of work involved of making these foods keeps the frequency of indulgence in check. These indulgent foods offer some of the great pleasures in life, so we shouldn't deprive ourselves, but the sense of "occasion" needs to be restored. Another idea to limit such foods is to save them for weekends or only special events. "Some people follow a so-called 'S policy: no snacks, no seconds, no sweets--except in the days that start with an S.'" "Cook." (One rule I truly, whole-heartedly believe in and preach!) I've talked about this enough, but cooking really does save on waistline expansion. Unless you can hire a private chef, allowing someone else to cook every meal for you means loosing control of your life. Cooking is the only sure way to take back control of your diet from the food scientists and processors, and to guarantee you're eating real food and not edible food-like substances. Simple point: Learn how to cook. "Break the rules once in a while." Obsessing over food rules is going to drive you mad! Its no good for your happiness, let alone your health. Over the past few decades, people have been dieting and worrying too much over nutrition guidelines, which ironically has only led us to an unhealthier country. There will be occasions you want to throw these "food rules" out the window--that's fine! Just remember its the every day habits that govern your eating on a typical day. "'All things in moderation,' is often said, but we should never forget the wise addendum, sometimes attributed to Oscar Wilde: 'Including moderation.'" :)