Seaweed for Health and Wellness ...

The fall has always been a kind of mini-New Year for me. A time when my mind naturally goes to thoughts of quality of life and what I might want to do, or un-do, to open myself to the flow of vitality and veriditas.

This wellness mindset has been hovering for the past few weeks, with a particular focus on adding variety to my exercise routine and diet. This afternoon, after collapsing on the couch following my aerobic DVD (motivated by the Cobb's cinnamon bun I'd enjoyed with my latte at the Quay), I flipped on the TV for a moment and caught the end of an Irish magazine program on PBS featuring Prannie Rhatigan, a family physician living on Ireland's west coast where she practices organic gardening and seaweed harvesting and cooking.

The program was fascinating and so was reading Prannie's website later in the day. As a Vancouverite, I have eaten nori in sushi and toasted as a snack, but here is a woman so convinced of the benefits of eating seaweed that she has written a 288 page seaweed cookbook covering everything from seaweed smoothies to risotto to chocolate fondant. Amazing!

So, what, exactly, is so good about eating seaweed (or sea vegetables as the marketers like to call it)? While further research is needed, and some of the benefits seem to have been exaggerated over the years, it seems that there are several advantages to adding some seaweed to our diets:

1.  Improved cardiovascular health:  A study in 2011 in the American Chemical Society's Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry reviewed 100 studies on the health benefits of seaweed and reported that some of the proteins in seaweed could serve as better sources of bioactive peptides than those in milk products. (These reduce blood pressure and boost heart health.)

2.  Reduced inflammation: Seaweed is a source of antioxidants and may help to prevent inflammation, a contributor to many chronic illnesses. 

3.  Helps to regulate hormones:  Studies suggest seaweed may help to regulate estrogen and estradiol levels, and thus may have the potential to affect breast cancer risk and ease pre-menstrual syndrome in some women.

4.  A strong source of dietary iodine, a nutrient needed for healthy thyroid function:  After years of iodized salt programs through the World Health Organization, we rarely see serious iodine insufficiency any more but mild iodine deficiency is making a comeback, perhaps due to iodine-blocking agents in our environment or the trend toward using smaller amounts of iodized table salt. Brown seaweed carries an extraordinary level of iodine - 5-50 times the recommended daily intake depending upon the water from which it is harvested.  (Red and green seaweeds carry less.)

5.  A strong source of vitamins and minerals:  Most seaweeds are full of vitamins and minerals - calcium, magnesium, phosphorous, sodium, iron, potassium, and vitamins A, B, C, and B12, depending on the type.

While seaweed looks to be a wonder-food, there are a few caveats regarding its dietary use. When sold as a supplement, seaweed may not be regulated, depending on where you live. This means that the actual amount of active ingredients can vary from bottle to bottle and that there may not be proof of safety or effectiveness.

When using edible seaweed, it is possible to inadvertently take in too much of certain nutrients such as potassium, iodine or sodium, resulting in serious side effects.

There have also been studies showing concentrated amounts of heavy metals, including arsenic, in some seaweeds. These can have serious toxic effects so it is important to obtain your seaweed from a reliable source.

All this said, if you are healthy and have access to safe product, a few of servings of seaweed every week could be just the thing for boosting your nutrient intake without adding excess calories. Here, for example, is Prannie Rhatigan's recipe for a Breakfast Seaweed Smoothie:

Ingredients:

** Always use produce in season and always vary ingredients.  ** 

1.  Seaweed:  Alaria -  6 grams or 1/4 ounce dried alaria, rinsed and soaked in a cup of cold water overnight

2.  Juice:  8 ounces blueberry, ruby grapefruit or apple juice

3.  Seasonal greens:  4 handfuls of spinach, chard, lettuce, rocket, collard greens or beet greens, plus young nettle tops in spring or 1-2 leaves of kale or 1-2 leaves of dandelion greens

4.  Herbs:  Sprig of mint, lemon balm, coriander or fennel.

5.  Fruit:  1/4 ripe pineapple, core included, or a handful of frozen berries or 1/2 apple plus 2-3 frozen or fresh bananas or 3-4 pears.

6.  Spices/seeds:  1 inch ginger.  Ground hemp and flax seeds.

7.  Optional extras:  A shake of cocoa nibs or bee pollen.

8.  To sweeten, if necessary:  A dash of local honey or agave syrup.

Method:

1. Pour the soaking water from the Alaria into a blender. Chop the Alaria roughly and add to the blender with the juice and pineapple. Blend on high before adding the rest of the ingredients.

2.  Gradually add all the greens and fruit leaving the chopped bananas until the end. Add more water or juice if you like. Taste while it is still in the blender so you can adjust the flavour.

3.  If the smoothie is too bitter, add a little more banana or a small amount of honey or agave.

4.  Cook's Tip:  to freeze bananas, pack them into a plastic container that will hold 3 bananas and slice into 1/2 inch pieces. Freeze until needed.

5. You can store your smoothie mixture for 24 hours covered in the fridge.

** Yields 1 1/2 - 2 litres so adjust the ingredients to fit your blender jug size. **

Prannie says you can enjoy this smoothie daily provided you check to see that your iodine, sodium and potassium are within WHO limits.

Enjoy!!

   

  

Fuel for the Fall...

Hi everyone! Happy fall! This is my favourite time of year. I'm just back from the Yukon where, at -2 degrees in brilliant sunshine, it felt much more like fall than it does here today in the muggy heat of Vancouver.

Nevertheless, I went off to the Farmers Market and Lonsdale Quay early this morning to pick up a plethora of fresh fruit and vegetables to stow away for the winter. (Whether I'm giving care to others at home or at work or have signed up for double-duty caregiving, having something delicious already prepared in the freezer can make the difference between a healthy dinner and a high fat, high sugar, refined one.)

I thought that today I would share a couple of the recipes I cook up for the winter every year, in hopes that a few of you might be inspired to share your favourites. (Isn't it true that coming up with ideas for dinner is more than half the battle?)

This past week I made a large pot of borscht which is now sitting in the freezer, divided into enough portions for 12 meals for a singleton like me. And tomorrow, I'll use my friend, Janet's, recipe to make winter vegetable stew. Both recipes freeze really well in ziplock bags and if you freeze them flat, you can later line up the bags like files in baskets in the freezer, making them much easier to find. (The bags are reusable as well.)

Borscht (I double this recipe)

6 large beets

1 Tbsp olive oil

2 leeks, finely chopped (include the light green parts)

2 carrots, coarsely chopped

1 head green cabbage, coarsely shredded

1 can (14 oz) diced tomatoes

2 Tbsp tomato paste

2.5 litres water

5 Tbsp red wine vinegar

5 sprigs fresh dill

3 Tbsp packed brown sugar

Salt and pepper to taste

1/2 cup sour cream or Greek yogurt (optional)

1. In a large saucepan, over medium heat, combine beets & water to cover them x 1 inch. Simmer til fork-tender, 45-60 min. Rinse beets under cold water after reserving 2 cups of the cooking water. Peel beets if desired. Cut into 3/4 inch pieces and set aside.

2. In a large soup pot, over medium-high heat, warm 1 Tbsp olive oil. Add leeks and carrots and saute until soft and slightly brown (5-7 min).

3. Add reserved cooking water, tomatoes, cabbage, water, tomato paste, and dill sprigs, stirring to scrape up the browned bits from the bottom of the pot. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, cover partially, and cook about 1 hour.

4. Add reserved beets, vinegar, brown sugar, and salt and pepper and simmer for 5 min longer. Taste and adjust the seasoning. Remove and discard dill sprigs.

5. To serve, garnish with sour cream or yoghurt and freshly chopped dill. Makes 12-16 servings if doubled. (If you have meat eaters in your house, you can brown and add 2 or 3 pounds of stewing beef to the mix in step 3 and cook 1 1/2 hours or til meat is tender.)

Janet's Winter Vegetable Stew - 4 servings (I double or triple this recipe)

1. In a large nonstick sauce pan - heat 1 Tbsp oil over medium heat

- add 2 onions coarsely chopped

- add 1 shallot or a clove of garlic chopped finely

Cook until tender.

2. Clean 2 leaks - cut into 3/4 inch pieces and add to pan.

3. Add, in 1 inch cubes, - 2 carrots, 2 yams, 1/4 rutabaga or turnip, 1/2 large squash. (The recipe calls for 1 potato, as well, but I tend to add another yam because I think they freeze better. Also, it helps to cook the rutagaga a little in the microwave before adding.)

4. Stir in 3 cups vegetable stock and 1 tsp oregano and 1 tsp thyme.

5. Bring to a boil. Cover and simmer x 30 min until vegies tender.

6. Stir in another vegie for colour and texture - ie green beans, snowpeas, broccoli etc - and simmer x 5 min. (I only do this if I'm serving the stew right away, otherwise I add the last vegie later when I reheat the frozen stew.) Add more water as needed. Serve in bowls with chopped parsley and parmesan cheese.

So, there are two ideas for stocking your freezer. I'd love to hear of recipes that work for the rest of you ...

A Great Nutrition Resource ...

Last Saturday, I went with my sister and her freezing cold grandson, (what is it about preteen boys and their aversion to coats??), to my first Winter Farmer's Market of the season. Up to this point I'd been eating the fruits of the autumn harvest from my own garden but pickings were getting slim so off to the Market I went with family and half a dozen cloth Market bags.

I came home with red kabosha squash, onions, potatoes, kale, carrots, apples and portabella mushrooms and, inspired by the sight and smell of all those wonderful fruits and vegetables, I've taken the time to cook and eat very well this week. (And when I eat well, I have more energy to put into my exercise routine so I've also enjoyed two yoga sessions and great daily walks at the Lake in the spring sunshine.)

There's no question that a healthy diet and good exercise are at the foundation of good physical and mental health, (to say nothing of being an important part of initial recovery from compassion fatigue), but amid all the marketing hype, how can we be sure that we're making the best nutrition choices?

One great resource I like to use as a guide is the Canadian Nutrition Action Healthletter

published by the Center for Science in the Public Interest. The Center is an independent non-profit consumer health group that advocates honest food labeling and advertising, safer and more nutritious foods, and pro-health alcohol policies. They accept no government or industry funding and are thus able to critique food products and policies honestly.

The Healthletter, which is celebrating it's 40th anniversary this issue, is a colourful, sixteen page magazine that arrives in my mailbox ten times a year full of good nutrition research, Canadian name-brand product evaluation, recipes and tips for healthy eating. It is a quick read and provides huge bang for the buck.

Some of this month's articles include:

* Unexpected: Surprise (Nutrition Research) Findings From the Last 40 Years

* Magnesium & Sudden Death

* Don't Just Walk

* Beyond Bread: Think Thin (Brand-Name Ratings of Thins, English Muffins, Bagels etc)

* Under Wraps: Healthy Fillings for Sandwiches

* Artery Crusts: An Evaluation of Brand-Name Pie Crusts

If you are interested in creating a healthier life style, why not take a look and see if the Healthletter might provide the information and motivation to help you on your way?

Fueled for Caregiving?...

Like you, I suspect, I learned about the five (or six?) food groups and healthy eating practices way back in 5th grade Health class but it wasn't until I was literally falling asleep on my feet as a family caregiver that the penny dropped and I truly realized the importance of good nutrition in my life.

My husband had been both cook and baker in our home from the day we were married and while he had tried to make sure that he'd taught me to bake bread and to put together our favourite dinners before he became bedridden, the standing joke in our family still prevailed - "If anything ever happens to Derrick, Jan will die of a Cheerios overdose!". It's not that I didn't value healthy food when someone put it in front of me - in fact, I loved it - but I had no interest in producing it from scratch myself.

Flash forward a year or two, and you would have found me cooking very small and frequent nourishing snacks for my husband. And indeed, when his snacks didn't appeal to me, eating Cheerios, (garnished with various kinds of fruit to make them "healthy"). Up all day and half the night caring for Derrick AND eating poorly quickly caught up with me. I couldn't think clearly, I had no energy, my colour was poor and I dropped two dress sizes. I would sit down on the couch "for a minute" after lunch and wake up an hour later. And, worst of all, I was grumpy and irritable at a time when I truly wanted to enjoy the days we had left. Now, there were a number of factors that went into creating these symptoms, not just the Cheerios, but it was amazing how much things improved with a little nutritional intervention.

That intervention started when my younger sister, a real foodie, introduced me to

Barbara Jo's Books to Cooks, a wonderful bookstore close to Granville Market in Vancouver. Only my sister would have guessed that the way to this non-cook's stomach was through a book - especially one with smooth, shiny pages and beautiful photographs. The first one she picked out for me to peruse was Dana Jacobi's, 12 Best Foods Cookbook, and I was hooked. Just by looking at the cover, I learned that there were 12 superfoods which, if I indulged in them, would not only make me feel better but would protect me from some of the health problems inherent in caregiving. Those 12 super stars were:

1. Blueberries

2. Black beans

3. Sweet potatoes (or yams, as we call them on the west coast)

4. Oatmeal

5. Salmon

6. Spinach

7. Broccoli

8. Tomatoes

9. Chocolate

10. Walnuts

11. Soy

12. Onions

I bought Dana's book and began to enjoy making Sweet Potato & Broccoli Shepherd's Pie, Scalloped Sweet Potato with Apple, Greek White Bean Soup, Spinach Salad with Nectarine, Blueberries, & Lime Balsalmic Vinaigrette and more. And, more importantly, my energy improved, my irritability eased and my brain began to work again. I learned through experience that fueling my body with good food bearing high quality nutrients, bought in-season to keep the cost down, was one of the best ways I could sustain myself for the years of caregiving ahead - and indeed, for my whole life. (Now, if only someone could break my cookbook addiction...!).