In the spotlight - Blackberries

Admittedly we're cheating a little bit here. Blackberries don't usually come into season till September, though some years you do see ripe berries on the brambles in August, but with the weather this summer, I don't think there have been the conditions for that this time around. However, with a bursting fruit and veg basket on offer in September and All Things Fruit and Veg away for part of September, it makes sense to get a head start on those to spotlight.

There can't be many of us who as a child didn't spend an autumn afternoon gathering blackberries growing in hedgerows; no doubt some of us still enjoy this now, particularly when the end result is a crumble, fruit pie or jar of jam. However, apart from being a pleasant way to while away a couple of hours and producing some sumptuous sweet treats, blackberries offer a lot nutritionally. Blackberries are rich in Vitamin C and K, fibre and contain smaller amounts of most other vitamins and minerals. Their dark colour also means that they are packed full of phytonutrients including antioxidants, thought to be protect the cells of the body from damage. In fact, research published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 2006 indicated that blackberries have the highest phytonutrient content of any food. That's an excuse if ever there was one to eat up blackberries whilst they are in season!

It's probably best to go easy on your intake of the desserts that blackberries feature in due to their sugar and fat content. However, these can be made healthier - reduce the amount of sugar added to the fruit or use a sweetener; replace a portion of the flour used in a crumble with oats; or only use pastry to top a fruit pie instead of having a pastry base and sides as well.

Although blackberries make a good snack to nibble on, they can also be incorporated into breakfasts and healthy desserts to follow a meal. Blackberries make a nice addition to cereal or to top porridge; make a smoothie with these berries, a banana and natural yoghurt; set them in a sugar free jelly and even make a trifle from this by adding a layer of sugar free custard then Quark - a virtually fat free soft cheese that can be used instead of cream.

Attribution:
Photo by De-Okin via Wikimedia Commons

Only fruit and veg?

We've talked about the virtues of fruit and veg in just about every blog post, but could you get by if you ate just these and no other foods? It's not something I would encourage anyone to do, but it's an interesting thought.

Fruit and veg fit into a balanced diet, which is one containing a variety of different foods, providing all the nutrients that the body needs. Whilst fruit and veg might be a bigger focus in the diet of a vegetarian or vegan, they would also include foods from the three other main groups - starchy foods (the likes of cereals, rice and pasta), protein rich foods (eggs for some vegetarians, along with pulses, nuts and alternatives such as soya products and Quorn) and dairy foods or their alternatives (think soya, rice and oat milk, ideally fortified with calcium and vitamins).

If you were to include starchy vegetables such as potato, and pulses, which are technically sometimes excluded from the fruit and veg group, as their nutritional composition is generally more similar to foods in the other groups, it might be possible to get away with a diet limited to fruit and veg. However, to ensure you were receiving an adequate intake of all the necessary nutrients, a lot of forward planning would be needed.

Whilst intake of fibre, vitamin C, K, beta-carotene and various B vitamins could easily be achieved when just eating fruit and veg, the following nutrients pose more of a problem, so care would need to be taken:

• Calcium. Admittedly pulses, green veg and dried fruit are a source of calcium, but to meet the target of 700mg for an adult you would need to include these in one day: a 200g tin of baked beans, 120g spinach, 80g each of broccoli and okra - perhaps you could make a curry out of all of these - and 4 figs.
• Iron. Whilst men and women over 50 years of age might be able to achieve the recommended 8.7mg daily from an intake of pulses, green veg and dried fruit, younger women will struggle to achieve their target of 14.8mg daily. For reference 8.7mg iron could be achieved with a cup of prune juice, 200g cooked lentils, a baked potato and a tomato - certainly the latter three lend themselves to the base of a meal very nicely. With plant based sources of iron it is essential to always include them with a source of vitamin C, so this is where green veg, citrus fruits, berries, kiwis and the like come in handy.
• Protein. The majority of us eat more protein than we need - as a general rule adult females only need 45g and males 55g daily - so eating less than we currently do would be no bad thing. The important thing to do though is to ensure that we can obtain all the amino acids - the building blocks that make up protein. Certain amino acids are known as "essential" as they must be obtained from the diet, as the body is unable to generate them from reactions within the body and apart from soya, no other vegetable sources of protein provide all the essential amino acids. Including soya every day would be ideal, but if not possible, including a range of other pulses would help increase your chance of securing all the essential amino acids from your diet, as different plant-based foods have various combinations of the amino acids. To put things in perspective 200g cooked soya beans would provide 32g protein, which you would need to spread over two meals, as pulses are very filling due to their fibre content. All veg has a certain protein content, but without the inclusion of pulses, you would find it very difficult to meet your protein requirements.
• Vitamin D. Unfortunately there are no fruit or veg rich in vitamin D, so you would need to be sure to roll your sleeves up every day to catch some rays from April to September to generate your own by the action of sunlight on your skin.
• Vitamin E. If you were including vegetable oils, vitamin E isn't a problem. If not, you would need to include avocados, sweet potato, broccoli or asparagus daily.
• Essential fatty acids. As with vitamin E, oil is a very good source. Choose rapeseed oil, as not only is this packed with monounsaturated fat - the best type of fat to maintain healthy cholesterol levels - it is also a source of omega-3 fatty acids, which are thought to have a role in the health of the heart, joints and nervous system. Your best bet for vegetable based essential fatty acids - those that the body can't generate - are avocados. Green leafy veg also provide small amounts of omega-3 fatty acids. Throw in some nuts and seeds and your requirements for essential fatty acids and Vitamin E would be easily be met.

So although fruit and veg do contain a range of nutrients, it is hard - though admittedly not impossible - to obtain all that your body requires to remain in good health. The key is to include foods from all the groups - starchy foods, those rich in protein and dairy, or their alternatives, in addition to fruit and veg - in your meals each day.

Photo by Emeraldhorticulture via Wikimedia Commons

In the spotlight - Cauliflower

For 11 months of the year cauliflowers are in season in the UK, so an excellent veg to enjoy all the year round. It's therefore a shame that sales of cauliflowers have dropped 35% in the last 10 years and it has been suggested that cauliflower is a regular feature on the dinner plate in only four in ten homes. So why might this decline in cauliflower consumption be? Besides their reputation as a somewhat soggy veg, it might have more to do with the increase in popularity of their cousin broccoli. The greener florets of broccoli have been heralded as a super food, causing a rush to put these in the shopping basket in place of cauliflower. It shouldn't be forgotten though that cauliflower is a good source of Vitamin C and K, as well as containing smaller amounts of B vitamins, so is still a useful nutritional addition to a meal.

Liven cauliflower up with strong flavours such as chilli, garlic and mature cheeses. Their flesh is such that it absorbs flavours very well and is why it commonly features in curries and Indian side dishes. Cauliflower florets also absorb fat well, so go easy on the amount of oil that you use in dishes.

Don't just stop at Aloo Gobi and cauliflower cheese. Look at the following websites for some further inspiration for how you can make cauliflower a regular feature again at meal times:

http://www.abelandcole.co.uk/recipes/cauliflower
http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/search.do?keywords=cauliflower
http://www.channel4.com/4food/recipes/popular-ingredients/cauliflower
http://www.foodnetwork.co.uk/recipe/cauliflower-ingredients.html


Photo by Anthony DiPierro via Wikimedia Commons

Fruit and Vegetables - a Heart Healthy Choice

Most of us know we should be eating more fruit and veg for our health and if asked to name some foods good for our hearts, fruit and veg would probably appear on at least some people's lists. That's no surprise. The case for getting our "5 A Day" came from population studies that showed countries where they ate at least 400g of fruit and veg (which can be thought of as equivalent to 5 servings of 80g), had lower rates of various chronic diseases, including heart disease. So what is it about fruit and veg that make them so good for the health of our hearts?

We've mentioned on a number of occasions that fruit and veg are rich in antioxidants. These protect the blood vessels from damage and build up of deposits on the artery walls, so the blood is more able to flow freely and blood clots less likely to form. The theme of eating fruit and veg in all the colours of the rainbow has also come up, as it is these antioxidants that are responsible for the bright colours of their skins and flesh - see whether you can eat 5 different coloured fruit and veg daily.

Fruit and veg are low in fat - with the exception being avocados and even these are high in heart healthy monounsaturated fats. With the drive towards a low fat diet to help keep our cholesterol levels down, it makes sense to fill up on fruit and veg at meals and incorporate them into snacks. Use extra veg to bulk out stews, casseroles, curries, pasta dishes or whatever else you enjoy to have for your cooked meal. If you have a sweet tooth and like a dessert to follow a meal, try to choose one based on fruit - good examples include sugar free jelly with tinned fruit set in it, banana with low fat custard or berries with low fat natural yoghurt; perhaps once a week have a fruit crumble as a treat, just try to have a larger proportion of fruit to crumble topping. As a change from fruit as a snack, try veg sticks (carrot, celery, pepper, cucumber, even raw cauliflower florets work well) with a low fat dip such as salsa, cottage cheese or extra light soft cheese.

As excess weight puts a strain on the heart and can increase risk factors such as blood pressure, cholesterol and blood clotting, fruit and veg make a good option as they are low in calories, so can help you to achieve weight loss or at least maintain your current weight. If you are looking to lose weight, use this as a rule of thumb - at your main meal try to have half of what you eat as veg. Salad is also good to fill out sandwiches if you have reduced the number of slices of bread you have or the amount of filling you add. If you have reduced cereal portions, add sliced fruit or a handful of berries, or follow with a piece of fruit if mixing the two doesn't appeal.

Fruit and vegetables are rich in soluble fibre, the type of fibre that has been shown to lower cholesterol. It is thought that soluble fibre binds to cholesterol preventing it from being absorbed by the gut. Pulses - peas, beans and lentils - are particularly high in soluble fibre, so try replacing a proportion of the meat in dishes with these protein rich veg.

Finally, fruit and veg are rich in the mineral potassium. This counteracts the action of sodium, found in salt, so a diet rich in potassium may have a positive impact on blood pressure. However, if you have kidney failure you may have been told to limit your intake of potassium, as in this instance excess potassium can't be adequately excreted from the body.


Attributions
Fruit salad by Pink Sherbert Photography via Wikimedia Commons
Salad by Cheryl via Wikimedia Commons

In the spotlight - Lettuce

With the lettuce season in full swing, it's time to turn our attention to this leafy green. While it might look quite like a less tightly packed cabbage, nutritionally they are very different. As we've mentioned before leafy greens tend to be rich in Vitamin C, Vitamin K and Beta-carotene, and a good vegetable source of iron and calcium, not to mention fibre. However, lettuce is generally quite disappointing when it comes to their nutritional content, containing just small amounts of the aforementioned nutrients. As a general rule, choose those lettuce with darker leaves as they are more nutrient dense - good examples include Lollo Rosso and Red Leaf.

Even if lettuce aren't as rich in vitamins and minerals as other veg, a salad just wouldn't be the same without them - they make the perfect bed on which to arrange all the other elements; tomatoes, grated carrot, chopped pepper and spring onions would look a bit lonely without them. However, you could use spinach or shredded dark green cabbage as an alternative leaf.

Besides serving in a salad, you are somewhat limited with what lettuce can be used for, as they do not survive heat well. Perhaps the key is to keep salads interesting with the addition of varied ingredients. Don't just stick to the usual suspects; try the following additions to a salad:

• Fruit - whether you choose grapes, pineapple or mandarin segments, fruit can add an additional splash of colour and please anyone with a sweet tooth.
• Sweetcorn - another naturally sweet addition. If using that from a tin, try to choose those that aren't tinned in water with added salt and sugar, or at least rinse them well before using.
• Beetroot - they don't come much more colourful than beetroot. Serve them grated raw or sliced when cooked. The vacuum packed beetroot are handy if you can't find them fresh or are pushed for time, as are those pickled in jars, though the latter tend to be high in salt.
• Nuts and seeds - rather than add croutons, which can be high in saturated fat, for a healthier crunch add nuts and seeds, which are packed with heart-healthy unsaturated fats. However, just add a small sprinkle, as they are still high in calories.
• A veggie side dish - bean or lentil salads, couscous with added onion and peppers, grated carrot with beetroot and sultanas are all possibilities. Try experimenting with different combinations.

Salads can be a bit dry without a dressing, but mayonnaise, salad cream and oil-based dressings are all high in fat and calories. Try a balsamic dressing for a virtuous choice or why not make your own salsa?

Photo by Frank C. Müller

Eat Up Your Greens to Protect Your Bones

Osteoporosis, otherwise known as brittle bones, affects 1 in 3 women and 1 in 12 men aged over 50, increasing the risk of fracture, notably of the wrist, hip and spine. The cells in bone, like all other tissues, are constantly being replaced. During the first three decades of life the cells in bone are replaced quicker than they are lost, which increases bone density and strengthens them. However, by the time you reach 30, your bone cells are lost quicker than they can be replaced, leading to loss of bone density. From this, it's easy to see the importance of maximising bone density during the earlier years of life. A balanced diet and healthy lifestyle can help to achieve this - note that smoking, excess alcohol, being underweight and inactivity can all increase osteoporosis risk. That said, it's never too late to turn your efforts to bone health, as even if you can't add extra strength, you can slow down the rate at which bone density is lost through lifestyle measures.

Whilst we might associate improving bone health by eating plenty of dairy produce, there's more to strengthening your bones than just getting sufficient calcium from milk, yoghurt and cheese. A range of nutrients are essential for bone health.

Green leafy veg such as cabbage, broccoli and kale are a plant source of calcium, the mineral that adds strength to bone. Pulses such as baked beans and lentils, as well as dried fruit, are another way to get additional calcium. Although calcium derived from plants is not as plentiful, for anyone who does not eat dairy foods, they are a useful addition. Other non-dairy sources of calcium include tinned fish with bones (though you must eat these to get the benefits), soya, rice or oat alternatives to milk to which it has been added, and nuts.

Eating your way through extra green veg also provides Vitamin K and magnesium. Vitamin K is essential for the formation of proteins found in bones and magnesium is needed by the body to process calcium and Vitamin D. Although there are no plant sources of Vitamin D (necessary for calcium absorption), you can ensure adequate is made by the action of sunlight on your skin. Expose your lower arms and face to the sun for ten to fifteen minutes without sunscreen a few times each week between April and September to top up your Vitamin D levels. Outside of these times the sun is not at a high enough elevation in the sky at higher latitudes such as the UK to make Vitamin D. If you are unable to spend time outdoors, consider eating fortified breakfast cereals, eggs and oily fish for additional Vitamin D, though you still may require a vitamin supplement.

All fruit and veg are rich in potassium, another mineral which has been shown to be essential for maintaining the strength of the skeleton. Potassium is thought to counteract the effects of sodium, which is present in salt and has been shown to increase calcium losses from bone. Fruit juice, tomatoes, pulses, bananas and dried fruit are particularly rich in potassium, but may need to be avoided if you have kidney problems, as potassium can accumulate in the blood if they are not functioning properly.

As well as dietary measures to strengthen your bones, bear in mind that weight-bearing exercise such as walking, jogging, dancing and skipping can also help protect bone density.

Photo by  Fir0002/Flagstaffotos via Wikimedia Commons

Fruit and Vegetables - Could They Help You to Kick the Habit?

When looking for some inspiration on what to write about, I stumbled across an article from June that puts forward the case that fruit and veg might help smokers to quit. This had passed me by at the time - I'm going to blame it on being on holiday when it was published - so I read it with some interest.

The study, which was carried out in 1000 smokers, found that those who increased their fruit and vegetable intake were more successful in giving up than their counterparts who didn't. It found that smokers who ate 4 or more portions of fruit and veg each day were three times more likely to still be off the cigarettes 14 months later, compared to smokers who had fewer than two portions daily. Even when factors such as age, gender, education and indicators of a healthier lifestyle were controlled for, the trend remained consistent. Even if participants were still smoking, those who ate more fruit and veg had fewer cigarettes daily.

The reason for the association between fruit and veg intake and smoking habits isn't fully understood. However, there is some evidence that fruit and veg are one of the groups of foods that make cigarettes taste worse - unlike coffee and alcohol which are thought to improve their taste - so smoking is not as enjoyable. Another theory is that cravings for food and cigarettes can be mixed up, so that eating more fruit and veg - which are filling due to their fibre content - can block the desire to have something else. It does remain a possibility though that people that have higher intakes of fruit and veg are generally more conscious about their health, so recognise that they should really give up smoking.

Just don't eat it all at once...

Leading on from whether fruit and veg can help you to quit, eating more is also likely to help prevent the weight gain often associated with stopping smoking. As smoking may slightly raise your metabolic rate and dampen the appetite, both are reversed on quitting. Combine this with looking for something food or drink related to replace your cigarettes with and it's no wonder that the weight starts creeping up. As we've already mentioned, fruit and veg are a good option to fill up on at a meal and as they are low in calories, won't affect your waist line. Keep the fruit bowl topped up and perhaps keep some veg sticks such as celery, carrot, pepper and cucumber in the fridge to nibble on - serve with a low fat dip such as salsa or extra light soft cheese. Just watch dried fruit, as although a good handful of raisins or apricots might seem like a healthy alternative to an equivalent amount of sweets, they are concentrated in sugars so it's easy to consume more calories than you realise.

Photo by Megan from New York via Wikimedia Commons

In the spotlight - Plums

Now that August is under way, yet more fruit and veg enter into the seasonal basket. If you're lucky enough to have some fruit trees in your garden or know someone who does, you will soon be able to enjoy juicy plums. Whether you serve them stewed with custard, make them into a crumble or slice them on top of yoghurt or cereal, you'll get a good dose of nutrients - as we've said previously it is the dark skinned and fleshed fruits that pack the biggest nutritional punch.

Plums or more precisely prunes - their dried cousins - are often quoted as being good to keep you regular. We all probably have heard of someone who takes a glass of prune juice each day to do just that. However, what's the scientific basis for this? Plums do indeed have three components that can benefit the digestive system, helping the transit of  what we eat through our intestines.

• The first is fibre. Plums are rich in both insoluble fibre (found in their skin, this type of fibre adds bulk) and soluble fibre (found in their flesh, this type of fibre absorbs water).
• They are also rich in sorbitol, a sugar alcohol, which exerts a laxative effect by drawing water into the bowel.
• Lastly they contain isatin, another natural laxative, which is thought to stimulate contraction of the intestines.

Whether you're interested in the laxative effect of plums or not, they're still a top fruit to include in your diet. If you're after some alternative ideas for how to eat them - they feature in a number of savoury dishes - explore the following links for more suggestions:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/plum
http://www.cookitsimply.com/category-0020-0228p.html
http://www.goodtoknow.co.uk/recipes/plum
http://www.channel4.com/4food/recipes/popular-ingredients/plum

Photo by Genet at the German language Wikipedia via Wikimedia Commons