Asparagus

Okay, okay. I know it's been awhile, but I have been a busy girl. But just because I've been busy, doesn't mean I haven't been trying some new foods. So while I was on blog hiatus, but not food hiatus, I have been experimenting with some more vegetables - shocking, I know. Let me introduce you to asparagus, the starring food of this post. 

Asparagus is another one of those foods that has amazing characteristics. It is low cal, has no cholesterol, and is very low in sodium. But it has nutrients to boot - fiber, vitamins A, C, and K, potassium, iron, folate, and the list goes on and on. Asparagus is also an exceptional source of fiber.

Despite all these great qualities, asparagus has always been one of the scarier vegetables that comes to mind. Sure, I can do lettuce, spinach, even broccoli now, but asparagus is a whole different animal. It's got flowering parts and has these thorny looking parts on it. It just looks weird, which of course, makes it scary. It is ironic though that it's not necessarily the look of it that has always scared me. I think back to the first time I ever lived on the wild side and tried asparagus. It was 2007, and I was in Seattle with my parents and my brother Billy. I know, it is shocking that I never tried asparagus prior to 2007, but my parents never had asparagus around. I was talking with my mom about asparagus, and I was shocked when she said she liked it. I asked her why we never had it growing up, and her answer was simple - it was too expensive. Her excuse was legitimate - asparagus can be somewhat expensive because growing it is not exactly a process conducive to mass production. With five kids to feed, it's no wonder asparagus never made it to our plates as kids. 

So anyway, one night while we were in Seattle, we dined at this amazing seafood restaurant on the wharf, the name of which now escapes me. Regardless, I had this dish, but I can't tell you what kind of seafood I had. What I remember was this sauce and the asparagus - go figure. The asparagus was really good, and mixed with the orange runny sauce, it was to die for. So yes, my first true taste of asparagus was successful. So why didn't I ever try it again after that? The answer is two-pronged: First, the things I was eating weren't usually accompanied with healthy things such as asparagus, and second, I suck at cooking. Back then, the extent of my cooking was cooking microwave style. But since embarking on this new food adventure, I have been experimenting with the stove, our grill, and, yes, pots and pans!

So prior to a couple of weeks ago, I had attempted a few times to make asparagus, with poor results. I would grill them with our chicken or steaks, and they would always come out totally overdone. I attribute this in large part to simply leaving the asparagus on the grill too long, but I just couldn't figure out how to cook it without the stalks coming out soggy. So after talking with some friends, I attempted to cook asparagus a different way. 

But before I talk about the new and improved way of cooking asparagus, I have to take a side trip. The reason for this side trip is to explain that before you can master the art of cooking asparagus, you first have to master the art of buying asparagus. Buying asparagus can be somewhat tricky, in large part because you have to make sure it's not too old (the stalks will look flattened or wrinkled and will feel hollow). You also want to make sure that the tips are tightly closed (not flowering) and the stalks as a general matter appear bright green and firm. Then there's the whole issue of thickness, which is a matter of personal taste. When I bought asparagus the first few times, I was always buying the thicker stalks, which I have since learned I don't really care for. I like thin, bright green and crisp stalks. Unfortunately, the only place I can seem to find the thin variety is at the farmer's market, which is fine, but means I have to make it to one every week to find my asparagus. 

So once I managed to buy a good bunch of asparagus, I embarked on cooking it. Instead of grilling the asparagus on our gas grill, I attempted to cook the stalks in a pan. In a skillet, I heated a tablespoon of olive oil and freshly ground salt and pepper. Once the skillet was hot, I cooked the asparagus until the stalks were hot to the touch - this took maybe five minutes tops. In retrospect, it's no wonder our asparagus was always soggy - we were grilling them in oil for 20+ minutes! So when I sat down to eat my asparagus, I was pleasantly surprised. The stalks were hot, crisp and crunchy, not soggy. The olive oil and salt and pepper were a perfect seasoning for the asparagus - light flavor without disguising the great flavor of the asparagus. Since mastering the art of cooking asparagus, I have incorporated it into my weekly diet. Now that I've managed to bring broccoli and asparagus into my diet, I am no longer limited to getting my daily intake of vegetables from salad. Variety is a great thing, my friends. 

Some fun facts about asparagus:

1. Asparagus has a lot of antioxidants, one of which is rutin. Rutin plays an important role in making blood vessels stronger. Thus, rutin is great if you have varicose veins, high blood pressure, poor circulation, or broken capillaries. 
2. I have since learned that storing asparagus requires a little bit more than throwing it in your vegetable drawer in a plastic bag. You should really store asparagus like you would flowers - upright in a glass with an inch of water. You should also wrap a plastic bag around the tips to keep them moist. You can refrigerate it for up to 4 days. 
3. Ladies, listen up. Asparagus contains Vitamin B6, which is known for its role in converting food into energy. But Vitamin B6 also helps reduce the symptoms of PMS, and the nausea of early pregnancy. Because ingesting too much of the vitamin via supplements can be toxic, you should stick to getting it from eating asparagus. 
4. Asparagus is one of the oldest documented vegetables, and is found in some of the oldest cookbooks. However, no one liked asparagus as much as the Romans. Romans saw asparagus as a sign of elegance and wealth. In fact, Roman emperors loved asparagus so much that they had a fleet of runners who could fetch it at a moment's notice. 

Sources:

1. 101 Healthiest Foods: A quick and easy guide to the fruits, vegetables, carbs and proteins that can save your life, Dr. Joanna McMillan Price and Judy Davie (2009).
2. Martha Stewart's Cooking School: Lessons and Recipes for the Home Cook, Martha Stewart and Sarah Carey (2008).
3. About.com - History of Asparagus
4. Wikipedia - Asparagus

Tomatoes

Most of you know my sheer adoration of Italian cuisine. I love pizza, pasta, and lasagna. So what I am about to say may come as a surprise to you - I don't like tomatoes. But my dislike of tomatoes comes with a caveat. I like tomatoes when they come in the form of sauce, say, on a pizza or something like that, but I just don't do raw tomatoes. I don't put them on my sandwich, my salad, or eat them when they appear on a veggie plate at a party. I'm not really sure why. I have never been a fan of the flavor (watery rubber, pretty tasteless), and I think what made it worse was the fact that tomatoes are always integrated with other foods (I've already mentioned I'm a food segregationist). So seeing as how there are so many things I haven't tried, and given the fact that I do remember at some point trying tomatoes, and not being a fan of them, you probably would have seen the appearance of tomatoes (if at all) in a much later blog entry. But when I started this mission to get out my comfort zone and give scary foods a chance, the tomato was one of the first foods I thought about trying again. And here's why. 

My trip to Italy exposed me to so many things - Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel, the Colosseum, and the David. But what I remember most about Italy was the AMAZING food. Our first night in Italy was a treasure. We found ourselves in one of the many squares in Rome. After venturing down one of the many side streets, we came upon a little restaurant. There was outdoor seating at the restaurant, which gave us a preview of the food they were serving. And let's just say it looked delicious. So having been sold on the appearance of the food, we sat down at one of the tables and proceeded to be served one of the most delicious meals I've ever had, and hands down, the best Italian food I've ever had. 

But what I remember most about this meal was the Italian appetizer that we ordered - Bruschetta. Now I've had bruschetta in America, but it was just nothing compared to this bruschetta. In America, the highlight of bruschetta for had always been the bread. The tomatoes never had much flavor, so it was like eating a watery, rubbery substance with seeds - I hope that doesn't sound appetizing to you because it certainly never was for me. But my first bite into my Italian bruschetta was sheer BLISS. The tomatoes were so sweet and juicy - nothing like the bland tomatoes I get here in America. I couldn't believe how amazing the tomatoes were. I gobbled up the bruschetta like it was crack cocaine, and sat back amazed that I had eaten so many tomatoes. So what did I learn from this experience? Simply put - American tomatoes SUCK. No wonder I never liked them - I had never experienced the pleasure of a true tomato. 

So fast forward a couple years and here we are. I start thinking about the foods I want to try, and I decide that I simply haven't given tomatoes a fair shake. After all, it's not the tomato's fault that grocery stores insist on selling ones that have no flavor. Plus, from my reading, tomatoes have amazing nutrients. How can I not try to make these amazing little vegetables part of my diet? 

I dig out my cookbook for something easy and simple, and I come upon a recipe for caprese salad on crostini. The crostini is easy enough to make - take a baguette, cut it into thin slices, lightly brush olive oil, salt and pepper, and rosemary, and bake the slices until they are golden brown. Once the crostini is done, add one fresh basil leaf, a tomato slice, and fresh mozzarella, and voila - you have an amazing little appetizer that incorporates fresh tomatoes. But when I made my caprese, I didn't get the crappy store bought tomatoes. I bought tomatoes from the farmer's market, and low and behold, the flavor was AMAZING. I was so shocked to find tomatoes that had flavor right in my home town. Plus, the tomatoes mixed with basil and fresh mozzarella was a perfect blend of ingredients! Since eating caprese, I've experimented with cherry tomatoes, which are easy enough to add to a salad. I also incorporate tomatoes in wraps, which combine chicken, spinach, and tomatoes (this feat is also shocking - spinach AND tomatoes mixed together!). I still have a little bit of trepidation with tomatoes because I always have this fear that I am going to get one that isn't good. But like all new things, you just have to keep trying and eventually you won't even remember why you ever had the fear in the first place.

Some fun facts about tomatoes:

1. There are so many amazing characteristics of tomatoes. The first being that the red color comes from an extraordinary amount of the potent antioxidant beta-carotene. I think I've talked about beta-carotene before, but this antioxidant has been linked to reduced cancer risk. Tomatoes also contain chlorogenic acid, which is believed to help detoxify carcinogens and viruses. Plus, tomatoes contain high levels of lutein and zeaxanthin for preventing eye diseases. But perhaps the greatest nutrient found in tomatoes is lycopene, an antioxidant that is found to be even more powerful than vitamin C in the fight against cancer. Interestingly, eating cooked or processed tomatoes isn't all that bad for you - food processing actually increases the presence of lycopene astronomically (compare 42 milligrams in two tablespoons of tomato paste to 3 milligrams in one medium raw tomato). Harvard studies suggest that we should be eating one or two tomato products every day.
2. While it is generally agreed that tomatoes originated in South America, there is much debate over how the vegetable made it to Europe. Many historians believe that Cortez, the Spanish explorer, brought a small yellow tomato (similar in size to a cherry tomato) to Europe after he captured the Aztec City (now Mexico City) in 1521. Others give Christopher Columbus the credit for bringing it back with him to Europe in 1493. The tomato made its first appearance in European literature in 1544, when Pietro Andrea Mattioli dubbed it the pomo d'oro or "golden apple."
3. Thomas Jefferson first experienced tomatoes in Paris and sent some seeds back to America. Today, California and Florida produced the largest crops of tomatoes in America. About 130 million tons of tomatoes were produced across the world in 2008. The biggest producer? China, which accounted for about one quarter of the global output.The U.S. came in third.
4. Apparently finding a good tomato can be as difficult and expensive as finding a purebred puppy. Heirloom tomatoes, which claim to boast more flavor and have a better texture, are considered the best sort of tomatoes one can buy. However, like puppies, there has been a lot of inbreeding of heirloom tomatoes, which have resulted in a loss of healthy genes. There is currently a movement to  bring the heirloom tomato back to the status it had in its glory days. Really, who would have thought growing a good tomato would be that complicated???

Sources:

1. 101 Healthiest Foods: A quick and easy guide to the fruits, vegetables, carbs and proteins that can save your life, Dr. Joanna McMillan Price and Judy Davie (2009).
2. Wikipedia - Tomato
3. Scientific American - How to Grow a Better Tomato: The Case against Heirloom Tomatoes

Stevia

So about two months ago, I needed to change up my workout. I was getting kind of bored, and I felt like I was spending too much time in the gym - something that probably won't be possible once I make the switch from working for a federal judge to working for a law firm. Plus, as much as I love working out, I would be happy if I could keep myself where I am at right now without having to work so hard at it (I know, I know - every human being's holy grail). So I figured a trainer would be a great way to keep my workouts fun and interesting, and a means to understanding what I needed to do to "maintain."

Now my trainer isn't huge on the nutrition side of things - at least he hasn't been so far. During our first session, he looked at my food log (yes, I keep a food log) and really didn't have much to say. He did, however, take issue with my daily intake of diet soda (diet coke and diet sierra mist are my pleasure) and use of splenda in my coffee. My trainer said that he didn't want me to change much - just eat more protein and cut out the use of artificial sweeteners. At first, I resisted, which many of you might already be doing right now as you continue reading this entry. I love diet coke, and I like artificial sweeteners. I use sweet-n-low or splenda in my iced tea and coffee, things I drink almost every day.

When I met with my trainer the next week, one of his first questions was whether I had stopped using artificial sweeteners. And I did the worst thing ever - I lied and told him I quit cold turkey. Lying to my trainer is not something I do. After all, if you lie to your trainer, how can you expect to benefit from his advice? Inevitably, the guilt washed over me. I resolved to make a conscious effort to learn about artificial sweeteners and decide for myself whether it was worth stopping or not. In other words, I wasn't going to blow my trainer off, but I was going to make the decision for myself whether I wanted to continue using artificial sweeteners in my diet.

Artificial sweeteners are a calorie-free way to satisfy your sweet tooth. Thus, it is no surprise that most people dieting substitute artificial sweeteners for real sugar. There are a ton of different artificial sweeteners - Saccharine (aka Sweet N Low), Aspartame (aka NutraSweet and Equal), AspatAcesulfame potassium (aka ACK, Sweet One, and Sunett), Sucralose (aka Splenda), and Neotame. Artificial sweeteners are used in all sorts of things - soda and other beverages, baked goods, ice cream, cookies, gum - they are all over the place.

The safety of artificial sweeteners has become a controversial subject because there have been some studies showing a link between artificial sweeteners and cancer in laboratory animals. FDA-approved studies, however, have not demonstrated clear evidence of an association with cancer in humans. For example, in 2005, a study found increased instances of lymphoma and leukemia in rats that were fed very high doses of aspartame. Because of inconsistencies in the study, however, the FDA did not mess with its approval of aspartame as a safe artificial sweetener. And in 1996, a study linked an increase in the number of people with brain tumors between 1975 and 1992 to the introduction of aspartame in the United States - but the study could not establish a conclusive link. Artificial sweeteners remain FDA approved, and have served as a powerful tool for people attempting to lose weight or people with diabetes. Still, the inconsistencies and inconclusive reports are not reassuring to me, given the relatively short life of artificial sweeteners.

Thus, I decided that I would make up my mind after trying some natural sweeteners. After all, why bother with artificial sweeteners if I'm satisfied with natural sweeteners? My trainer suggested using natural sweeteners such as Blue Agave, honey, or stevia. My first inclination was to try stevia because of the similar consistency to sugar and the artificial sweeteners I enjoy. Blue Agave and honey have a similar consistency - a kind of gold colored liquid.

So what exactly is stevia? Stevia is derived from the leaves of the Latin American herb stevia. The leaves contain a substance that is hundreds of times more potent than sugar, and what makes it so great is that it is the first true natural competitor to artificial sweeteners - it has zero calories, zero carbs, and zero chance of spiking blood sugar levels (which can sometimes happen even with artificial sweeteners). And unlike artificial sweeteners, stevia, as a natural substance, has benefits that go beyond taste and effective sugar replacement. For centuries, tribes from many Latin American countries have used the sweetener in medicinal teas for treating heartburn and other ailments. It is also widely used in Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and Latin American countries. Plus, medical research has shown a great effect in the treatment of obesity and high blood pressure, and it helps enhance glucose tolerance, making it attractive to those with diabetes. However, it appears that these positive medical benefits may occur only in high dosages of stevia (meaning, you have to ingest a lot more stevia than a couple of sweetener packets - e.g. a dietary supplement).

So you might be wondering - if tribes have been using it for centuries and it has been widely used in places like Japan for years, why are we just starting to hear about this little herb? First, there are various ways to process the stevia plant. For a long time, there was a bitter licorice aftertaste that accompanied stevia dietary supplements and sweeteners. Thus, it wasn't all that marketable within the U.S. Second, during the 1960s there were some animal studies that suggested stevia might cause cancerous mutations or reproductive problems. The evidence from these studies was widely criticized due to questionable methodologies and the fact that stevia had a great safety record in places like Japan where it was widely used. In 1991, the US banned imports of stevia, though many contend that this was less about public safety and more about pleasing the artificial sweetener lobby. This theory gained even more legitimacy when in 1994, the FDA approved stevia for use as a dietary supplement but refused to sign off on its use as an additive in foods or drinks. The FDA claimed that they wanted to ensure the safety of stevia as an additive before people started widely consuming it.

Stevia as a food additive or natural sweetener has only come on the market within the past two years. And actually, the FDA still has only approved Rebaudioside A, the least bitter part of the stevia plant, as a food additive. There are two main products you have to choose from - at least at the mainstream grocery store. Truvia is produced by Cargill, in collaboration with Coca-Cola, and was approved in December 2008. PepsiCo with Whole Earth Sweetner Co. produces the other option - PureVia - which was approved by the FDA in early 2009.

My local grocery store had Truvia, so that is what I went with. One downfall is that Truvia (and I am sure PureVia also) is more expensive than artificial sweeteners, but it lasts such a long time, that I can sort of put that issue aside. And I assume that once the stevia sweetener gains momentum in the market, the price will come down. Coca Cola and Pepsi both plan to market sodas and other beverages with the natural sweetener. Another downfall of using stevia as a sweetener (as opposed to the artificial kind) is that if you want to truly quit artificial sweeteners, you're going to have to bring it with you when you eat out because no restaurants (as far as I know) carry it. Finally, I would be remiss if I didn't note that both Truvia and PureVia contain Erythritol, a natural sugar alcohol found in grapes and melons, which add 3 carbs per packet of Truvia and 2 carbs per packet of PureVia.

Now onto the important question: How does it taste? My first true test was my Monday morning cup of coffee. I usually use three packets of Splenda in my coffee, so this time I used three packets of Truvia. And it really wasn't bad. It was a little less sweet, but it was still pretty sweet, and in all likelihood, I could probably add a fourth packet to equal the flavor of Splenda. But after sticking with three packets of Truvia for a few days I don't even think about going back to Splenda.

I would be lying if I said I have completely come off artificial sweeteners. Frankly, it is harder then one might think. But I am proud to say that I have definitely cut back. I also cut out the diet coke and other diet sodas or beverages that use artificial sweeteners. Frankly, there are a lot of other issues with diet soda that go beyond its use of artificial sweeteners (things like dental health come to mind). Plus, I've noticed that without drinking artificially sweetened beverages, I drink a lot more water. And if you're looking for a fast track to healthy living, there aren't much better things to have than water.

Some fun facts about artificial sweeteners and Stevia:

1. Saccharin, the first of many artificial sweeteners to hit the market, was discovered in 1879 by a researcher from Johns Hopkins University when he accidentally spilled a derivative of coal tar on his hand and after tasting it noticed a sweet flavor. 
2. Despite the FDA's relatively recent lift of the stevia ban, it remains banned in every country within the European Union (except France), Singapore and Hong Kong. The European Food Standards Agency is conducting a safety review and is expected to permit the use of stevia in the EU member states in 2010.
3. The leaves of the stevia plant have 30-45 times the sweetness of sucruose (table sugar).
4. The Japanese began using stevia in the 1970s. They use it in many of their food products, including their version of Coca Cola, and the country currently consumes more of the plant than any other country (Stevia comprises 40% of Japan's sweetener market).

Sources:

1. cancer.gov - Artificial Sweeteners
2. webmdcom - Are artificial sweeteners safe?
3. US News & World Report - The Zero-Calories Sweetener Stevia
4. wikipedia - Stevia