Tomatoes and Beans

Welcome back to my final post for my blog What Makes Super Foods So Super. I have enjoyed being able to share my experiences and challenge of eating super foods with all of you and I hope that I was able to inspire some of you to try them as well. I never thought I would be able to stick with this project; however, I found that incorporating two super foods into my diet per week was actually beneficial for my health and well being and ended up not being very hard to do. This final week the two foods I will be eating are tomatoes and beans. Keep reading to find out more about my experiences with these foods.

            The first super food that I tried this week was tomatoes. I never really ate tomatoes growing up and always avoided them in foods I was given because they never looked good to me. I decided to try them because of the many health benefits they have. Tomatoes are very low in calories and high in fiber, potassium, and vitamin C. According to Health Magazine, dedicated to promote health and fitness, “tomatoes are a rich source of lycopene, which is an antioxidant rarely found in other foods that could protect the skin against harmful UV rays, prevent certain cancers, and lower cholesterol.” Tomatoes are also known to reduce the risk for cardiovascular disease in many people. I found a few good ways to incorporate tomatoes into my meals and eat them throughout the week. First, for lunch I decided to make my own sandwich in Benson and add them to it. I thought this would be a good way to start eating them because they were not as strong of a taste as on their own. I really enjoyed the extra flavor they added to my sandwich. For dinner, I decided to add chopped tomatoes into my salad. They were a little too watery and sweet of a flavor for my salad, so putting them into my sandwich will have to suffice. I found a recipe on Oprah Winfrey’s website from author Dave Lieberman, which suggested tomatoes as a tasty snack that is very easy to prepare. First you slice a fresh tomato and place the pieces on a plate. Then drizzle the slices with olive oil and some Parmesan cheese. They tasted very sweet, and the cheese added more texture to it. This was my favorite way to eat the tomatoes because I really enjoyed the flavor and they were so simple to prepare.

            The second super food that I had this week was beans. The different types that I tried were lentils, black beans, green beans, and garbanzo beans. They all had different flavors and textures; however, all are low in fat and have many health benefits. Beans are a good source of protein, especially for vegetarians. Vegetarians can substitute beans for types of meat and the beans will provide fiber and keep one full and satisfied. According to Joy Bauer, a nutritionist, “beans are a good source of magnesium and potassium and will help lower blood pressure” (JoyBauer.com). Beans are also very inexpensive, thereby, making them easy to get access to. Superfoods Rx, a website with research on the most popular super foods, says that “eight grams of lentils, seven and a half grams of black beans, and seven and a half grams of pinto beans will provide a person with the highest amount of fiber.” Beans are also suggested to prevent types of cancer such as breast and colon.

For dinner, I had a salad from Benson and added garbanzo beans to it. They didn’t really change the taste of my salad, so I didn’t notice much of a difference with them in it. However, because garbanzo beans are full of fiber and iron, I stayed fuller longer and had much more energy. I also added black beans to my salad, which I enjoyed because of their strong flavor and the zest that they gave to my salad. Lentils, another tasty bean, are a good source of amino acids and are packed with vitamins. They also help lower cholesterol because they are high in fiber but low in fat. The last type of bean that I incorporated into my diet was green beans. According to Nutrition and You, a website providing nutritional facts of foods and impact on ones health, “green beans are very low in calories and contain large amounts of fiber, vitamin A and no saturated fats.” I tried green beans by sautéing them with a little bit of olive oil and then added some sautéed shallots to them. This was by far my favorite bean that I tried out of the few because of the taste with the shallots and the texture of the beans. They were not too crunchy, but a warm flavorful side dish to my dinner. Eating beans was a great way for me to add more protein to my diet and keep my energy up.

Overall, I believe I have learned a great deal from doing this project, and it has benefited my health and well being. My hope was to substitute these super foods in for the more unhealthy, processed foods I was eating before. I am glad to say that my eating habits have changed for the better, and I have felt much more energized and healthy. I plan to continue eating many of the super foods that I have researched and tried in the past weeks. I hope that my experiences that I shared with my readers will inspire other young students to try and do their best to eat well and show them that it is possible to do so on a college campus. I really appreciate all of you reading about the super foods and hope that my research will help you to try and incorporate them into your diets!

Salmon and Broccoli

Welcome back to What Makes Super Foods So Super. I really appreciate you all reading my blog again. As a reminder, I am exploring the super foods and finding ways to incorporate two of them into my diet each week. A super food is a food that is very high in nutrition but low in calories and overall helps the body function at its best. This is my fourth week with this challenge, and I have learned about six healthy and delicious super foods that I enjoy eating and continue to include into my meals today. For those of you who are just checking into my blog, so far I have tried blueberries, mushrooms, quinoa, dark chocolate, kale, and nuts. This week the two that I tried were salmon and broccoli. Keep on reading to learn more about each food and ways to try them.

            The first super food I tried this week was salmon. When I was growing up, my family never really ate much fish, so I have never known much about it. I had been told before that salmon is one of the best types of fish one can eat because it has so many benefits for one’s body. First, according to Self Magazine, a magazine that focuses on health, fitness, and nutrition, “salmon is a great source of omega-3 fatty acids that improve insulin sensitivity, which helps build muscle and decrease fat” (Self Magazine). Because our bodies cannot produce these omega-3 fatty acids on their own, we must consume foods that contain them because of the positive outcomes they will have with our body’s health. Also, “salmon contains A and B vitamins and has been shown to decrease heart disease in many people” (Superfoods Rx). Because I did not grow up eating fish, I had to research the best types of salmon and how to cook it. I learned that wild salmon has much more flavor and less fat than farm raised salmon does and that it is best to eat between June and October. Also, it is best to buy salmon from a farmers market, where it is guaranteed to be fresh; however, I bought mine from Whole Foods market. An employee at Whole Foods said that even if their fish are farm raised, they know exactly where they are coming from and what the fish are being fed. Furthermore, Whole Foods has an agreement with the farmers that says, “there can be no use of antibiotics or growth hormones, monitoring the water, and that wildlife around the farm is protected” (Whole Foods Market).

The recipe I tried, from MyRecipes.com, was for grilled salmon with garlic, lemon and basil. It was simple enough for me to cook on my own and only required a few ingredients. All I needed was salmon, basil, lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, and salt and pepper. To prepare it, I combined the basil, lemon juice, olive oil, and garlic in a bowl and let it sit. Then I put the salmon in a pan and added salt and pepper to it. I only had to grill it in a pan for about five minutes and then poured the ingredients in the bowl on top of it. It was so delicious and easy to make myself for dinner. Learning about salmon helped me incorporate a new type of food into my dinners, rather than just usually eating chicken or steak.

            The second super food that I tried during this fourth week was broccoli. I have had broccoli before and never really enjoyed it until now in college. It is one of the most nutritious vegetables and is packed with fiber, calcium, vitamin C and vitamin K. According to Superfoods Rx, “broccoli has been shown to prevent and reduce tumors and also contains antioxidants to fight types of cancer.” Furthermore, there are only about thirty calories in one cup of broccoli, making it very beneficial for one’s health while remaining low in calories. Just one cup of broccoli provides a person with most of his or her daily nutrients. Our cafeteria serves broccoli, so I tried it two different ways this week. First, when I had a salad for lunch I added it in with the rest of my vegetables and ingredients. It gave a bit more flavor to my salad; however, it was not very satisfying. The flavor was a bit bland, and it was too chewy and crunchy for my liking. For dinner, I went to Sauté in Benson and I tried sautéing broccoli and peppers with a little bit of olive oil and then adding chicken and brown rice to it. I enjoyed this much more because it had a lot more flavor than when it was raw and I liked the texture better. The website MyRecipes.com says, “eating broccoli two or more times per week will boost your immune system and provide your body with several health benefits that other foods would not” (myrecipes.com). Although I had had broccoli before, I learned all about the nutrients it contains and the benefits that it would have on my body. Also, I found new ways to incorporate it into my meals rather than just eating it raw. I know that I will continue to eat broccoli throughout my life because it will definitely help my body overall.

            This week, I loved learning about one food that I had barely tried and knew nothing about and another food that I had grown up eating, but never knew about all its benefits. It gave me a whole new perspective on what I should be putting into my body and the ways to be eating each one. Salmon and broccoli are both full of nutrients that provide for a healthy lifestyle, and I know I will continue to eat them. Check back in again next week to read about my final two super foods that I will be trying!