Super Food: Ginger

The benefits of ginger are overlooked in Western world largely I think because we often see ginger served with Japanese food, and Americans tend to equate anything resembling an Asian herbal remedy to a mysterious kung fu wizard with a 3 foot goatee and a green tea fetish.  HAI!

Researchers have started studying ginger and through the scientific method have started to climb on board with 4,000 years of ancient Asian white rice samurai magic. It turns out; ginger is good for more than just cleansing the palate after spicy tuna rolls.

Ginger is highly recommended for nausea (I have been supplied many a candied ginger pill while racing as nausea is a common side effect of distance running), reportedly because elements of ginger aid in “gastrointestinal transport”. For this reason ginger is recommended to pregnant women and people subject to motion sickness.

Ginger has also been shown to reduce the instance of certain kinds of cancer and aid in the treatment of other devastating illnesses. Ginger is an antioxidant and contains what scientists have defined as 6-gingerol which reduces the depletion of naturally produced antioxidants in the body and inhibits production of nitrous oxide (a harmful free radical). Diabetic rats given ginger supplements have been shown to have higher levels of antioxidants and have reduced nephropathy compared to control groups. Scientists suspect that the ginger is helpful in treating this disease because it aids in blood vessel balance. Some cancer patients may have a call to be optimistic, as ginger has been shown to kill ovarian cancer cells, and slow the growth of colon cancer.

Ginger is used sometime to control inflammation and act as a pain killer for cramping, arthritis migraines, even heart burn. Ginger has been shown to relieve pain in some arthritis patients when all other forms of pain killers failed. Ginger has even been shown to thin the blood and lower cholesterol, aiding in the prevention of heart disease.

The beauty of Ginger is that it is common in most markets, cheap, keeps for a while in the fridge, is safe to take in large doses, and not many people are allergic to it. So eat up, put it in your soups and in your salads. Bake it with your chicken and soak it in your soup. For a simple fix, soak a few slices in hot water & throw in some lime, brown sugar and honey for a delicious tea. Zest up your lemonade, make your own salad dressing or sauté it with your vegetables. Ginger is just another example of why it is important to have a varied diet full of a variety of fruits, vegetables and tubers and I have made an active effort to always have some in the house.

Next Time on Popular Excuses:  Is it OK to blame Fast Food?
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Reading List
10 Benefits of Ginger (with links to other articles)
NY Times article on Ginger & Cancer
Worlds Healthiest Foods - Ginger
Wiki on Ginger
Ginger Recipe - grouprecipes.com: Ginger Honey Dressing
Ginger Tea Recipe

Super Food: Vitamin C

I grew up hearing lots of old wives tales and superstition about Vitamin C so it was difficult for me to write this entry. Difficult because everything I read in my research enforced what I had been told about Vitamin C as a child. I thought I was going to go digging and find that everything I thought I knew about Vitamin C was a joke and that dietary supplements are about as useful as a magnetic bracelet, but apparently – the old wives were right.

Vitamin C, (or Ascorbic Acid) is a kick-ass vitamin, and you need it in your diet every day.

Vitamin C aids in collagen structures and therefore is good for the skin and cellular health including wound healing and ocular health. Since it is an anti-oxidant it is said to help the body remove the free radicles that cause cancer from outside toxins including cigarette smoke.  Vitamin C is even shown to reduce the risk of stroke in some studies. During sickness and stress the levels of Vitamin C in white blood cells is depleted, which is why your mother always gave you orange juice when you got sick as a child.  I wouldn't recommend juice, but if you get sick, avoid further complications (like pneumonia) by loading up on your Ascorbic Acid intake!

I imagine our hunter gather ancestors had their fill of Vitamin C because high amounts of it can be easily incorporated into a diet high in vegetables. Check out these common fruits and veggies and how high in Vitamin C (given their low calorie content) they are.

Spinach 51 mg (20 calories a cup)
Red Pepper 190 mg (50 calories a piece)
Kale 186 mg
Broccoli 113 mg
Parsley 9mg (2 tablespoons)
Green Peas 27 mg
Tomatoes 23 mg (60 calories a piece)
Strawberries 59 mg (100 calories a cup)
Carrots (raw) 9 mg (surprisingly low - but still healthy)

Delicious!

Other foods that contain Vitamin C: famously; limes but also garlic, blueberries, cabbage, apricots, shiitake mushrooms, avocado, corn, yam... the list goes on

Some words of warning: Vitamin C is destroyed when exposed to air, so if you cut up oranges for your kids, beware that about 40% of the Vitamin C is gone by the time they go for them at lunch. If you are a Whole Foods salad bar person, understand that the early morning slicing of the fruits and veggies they set out for you greatly reduces your Ascorbic Acid intake by the time you get there for your late 2:00 lunch. If you eat too much Vitamin C you are likely to get some pretty severe cramps. Vitamin C needs vary greatly from person to person, so you’ll have to use some self analysis to see how much is too much. The rule of thumb is 1500 to 2000 mg a day, but the RDA is much lower than that, closer to 60 mg a day.

So - enjoy your Vitamin C (but please without the juice).

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Next Time on Popular Excues:  Too Fat to Fight
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Reading List:
"Healing Foods" Michael Murry N.D p. 112
WHFoods: Vitamin C
VitaminCfoundation.org/
Web MD Vitamin C

Super Food: Spinach

I eat a lot of Spinach.  Maybe even more than this guy --->.

I must go through 3 bags of it a week. I have spoken with my mother extensively about creating a sustainable spinach garden, I eat it raw or cooked, I eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It is extremely convenient that spinach is so good for you because I’m not sure I would eat less of it if it one day came out that spinach could ruin your life.

Actually, Spinach can ruin your life. Because of the shape of the leaves they tend to hold onto dirt more than other leafy greens. If the dirt they are grown in uses manure infected with Salmonella and you consume even a small amount of that bacteria you can contract said disease you run a serious risk of dying or permanent organ damage. Salmonella is the real deal, and I always clean all my raw food before I eat it, regardless of the pre-wash regiment it has gone through before it gets to my kitchen. So keep that in mind because hopefully after reading the following, you too will be a Spinach Enthusiast.

Spinach is super food for several reasons. For all us dieters out there, spinach is a leafy green, and leafy greens are vital in helping you feel before you overeat. Spinach is loaded with green fiber, and helps you feel full- not only because your stomach is physically full, but, as explained in Dr. Gundry’s Diet Evolution “the faster food moves through your lower bowel [as aided by green fiber], the more anti-hunger hormones in your intestinal cells beam up to your brain, telling you not to eat.” It is for this reason I almost everything I eat on a bed of mixed greens or spinach. It has been noticeably helpful in satiating my hunger in the evenings (when I am prone to eat the most).

For all you athletes out there, Spinach is loaded with protein, and calorie for calorie the protein content of spinach matches steak. I don’t know anyone who can eat 200 calories of spinach, but eating your greens (including broccoli; our next Super Food) is an amazing way to have a low calorie high protein diet. Spinach is also loaded with potassium which aids in performance and is an important electrolyte (more on potassium later).

From The Encyclopedia of Healing Foods “[Spinach] is an excellent source of vitamin K, carotenes, vitamin C and folic acid... [also] magnesium 79, iron, vitamin B2..B6, E, and B1.. [and] has twice as much iron as other greens".

I’m not going to go through the benefits of all of those vitamins now, but vitamin C is helpful for your immune system and the repairing of your cells (vitamin C can even reduce your risk of sunburn). The recommended daily dose is between 500 - 1,000 mg a day. 1 cup of spinach has about 28mg. Folic acid can reduce elements in the body which lead to cardiovascular diseases and Alzheimer’s disease and can reduce the occurrence of certain birth defects if present in large enough numbers in pregnant women.

Enough with the science, Popeye and your mother were right, EAT YOUR GREENS!

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Next time on Popular Excuses, Emotional Eating

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Reading List
Dr. Gundry’s Diet Evolution
Michael Murry The Encyclopedia of Healing Foods