Quick Bites Nutrition • Issue 10
Welcome to the 10th Issue of Quick Bites, my New Nutrition Newsletter! Today I will give you a couple tools to make healthier food choices. Let’s dig in! - Trilety
1. Engay: The Innovation of Japan!
2. Nutrition: Don’t Change All At Once
3. Whatcha Eatin'?! Baklava, A Holiday Favorite
1. Engay: The Innovation of Japan!
This is the most inspiring thing I’ve learned about in a while. Our TA, Pao, told me about it during an email exchange about a condition we learned about in our class last week called dysphagia.
Dysphagia is the medical term for “difficulty swallowing,” which especially affects the elderly. Having a hard time swallowing isn’t only scary but it can lead to weight loss, malnutrition, dehydration, or choking.
Well, leave it to Japan to come up with a solution! A thickening agent is added to pureed foods and then they are re-shaped to look like the original food, but easier to swallow!!
Here is a link to a short but entertainingly informative NPR video (less than 4 minutes) about Engay foods.
This invention is life changing. Our elderly, our poor, and our imprisoned are all forgotten populations, so anytime innovation benefits these people, I find it so inspiring.
2. Nutrition: Don’t Change All At Once
Anyone who knows me knows that patience for improvement isn’t one of my virtues, yet when and if you decide to adjust your nutrition, patience will be key.
A smart starting point is to:
1) Change just one thing,
2) Start by adding a nutritious item to your diet, and then after a few weeks
3) Start to eliminate less healthy items from your diet.
So what could you add to your diet over the next couple of weeks?
Add some nutrient dense dairy to your day: add 1/2 cup of low fat cottage cheese to your lunch plate, or 2/3 cup of non-fat plain yogurt to your breakfast bowl
Add magical fiber to your diet - I’m a huge fan of fiber! Beyond fruits and veggies, you can add air popped popcorn, oatmeal, whole grains, beans and legumes, nuts, chia seeds. (We covered fiber a while back, but check out these two articles for a quick recap!
Add variety! Do you pass by the unknown veggies in the produce aisle? Do you believe you don’t like a certain vegetable because you had a bad experience with it as a child? Go ahead and try something new! Next time you are shopping, pick up a guava or papaya, or try jicama or kohlrabi. Honestly, I need to do this as well because more often than not, our shopping list remains the same. Next newsletter, I will be sure to highlight the one or two new veggies or fruit I add to our rotation. Until then, check out this bowl of 100% whole wheat pasta with wine braised collards and fresh chopped tomatoes!
Add some olive oil to your diet! Olive oil is still a fat, so it is high in calories, but it provides health benefits over butter. Instead of a cheesy, buttery pasta, try a pasta dressed only with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and basil. Use olive oil instead of butter when sautéing, or if you’re a butter addict, then try a butter/olive oil split where you halve the amount of butter you use and replace it with the monounsaturated fats found in olive oil.
Lastly, for now, add fruits and veggies wherever you can! There’s always room for some roasted or steamed veggies in your eggs, on your Mac and cheese, on your hamburger or sandwich, or alongside that steak! Choose saturated colors like greens, oranges, yellows, and reds. Fruits can be eaten as snacks, or blended into a smoothie, or baked for a seasonal dessert. When fresh produce arrives in our house, we immediately transfer it to easy to access containers and place in an easy to reach place for quick snacking - Jim’s favorite are the blackberries and mine are the blueberries!
There are myriad ways to add healthy items to your diet, but here are just five for you to try over the next couple of weeks! Let me know if you tried any of these!
3. Whatcha Eatin'? Not Your Basic Butter Baklava
So, thinking back to earlier when I suggested adding olive oil to your diet, or replacing butter with olive oil. . . .well what better way to do that than in a dessert!?!
Today I’m sharing with you the vegan baklava recipe we used at Two Birds Bakery!
Ingredients:
1 cup organic sugar
1 cup agave (or honey if you're not vegan)
1 cup water
2 T lemon juice
1/2 tsp ground cardamom
1 pound blanched almonds - finely chopped or coarsely ground (about 4 cups)
1 to 2 tsps ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp cardamom
1 pound (about 24 sheets) phyllo dough (or vegan filo for vegan version)
1 cup olive oil
Directions:
To make the syrup: Stir the sugar, honey/agave, water, lemon juice, cardamom over low heat until the sugar dissolves, about 5 minutes. Stop stirring, increase the heat to medium and cook until the mixture is slightly syrupy, about 5 minutes (it will register 225 degrees on a candy thermometer.) Let cool and set aside.
To make the filling: Combine all the filling ingredients EXCEPT olive oil.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees or 300 convection. Grease or spray a 12x9 or 13x9 or 15x10 (this is the size we used in the bakery) pan.
Place 8 sheets of phyllo in the prepared pan. Spread with half of the filling. Top with 8 more sheets. Spread with the remaining nut mixture and end with a top layer of 8 sheets. Trim any overhanging edges (or just leave them and bake them cuz they are delicious).
Using a sharp knife, cut 6 equal lengthwise strips through the top layer of pastry. Make diagonal cuts across the strips to form diamond shapes. Drizzle the pastry with 1 cup of olive oil, and let stand for 10 minutes.
Just before baking, lightly sprinkle the top of the pastry with cold water. This keeps the pastry from curling. Bake for 20-30 minutes. Reduce the heat to 300 or 250 for convection, and bake until golden brown, about another 20+ minutes.
Cut through the scored lines. Drizzle the cooled syrup slowly over the hot baklava and let cool for at least 4 hours. Cover and store at room temperature for up to 1 week.
ENJOY! This would be a great healthier alternative to your Holiday treat boxes that you'll be leaving on your loved ones door steps, because we all know it isn't safe to gather right now.
In Two Weeks we'll FINALLY be talking about what was originally planned for this week: Residual Starches, Glycemic Index, and the concept of Nutritional Violence!
Thanks so much for reading, and send in your recipes!
~ Trilety, the Aspiring Nutritionist