Anti-Cancer Spices: Using Marinades for Flavor

By now, you probably have heard about spices providing you with cancer fighting phytochemicals. In a recent post we focused specifically on curry. This time, we're talking about a great way to add in phytochemicals while flavoring your food: marinating!

Many times when people are trying to cook low-fat, healthy protein, they turn to skinless, boneless chicken. After a few meals they comment  "all I eat is chicken, chicken, chicken!"  Not only does marinating with fresh herbs reduce your risk for cancer, it's also good for making your lean meat or vegetables taste good without adding a lot of fat.

You do need to be careful that the marinades you use do not have a lot of sodium in them.

Here are some marinating recipes and tips from Nutrition Action, an excellent health newsletter by the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

Marinating Tips:

• If you eat meat, buy it raw and unseasoned. 
  
• Try marinades with tofu. Simply cut an extra firm block of tofu into one inch cubes. Make the marinade and let the tofu sit in the marinade for several days.  When I do this, I put the tofu on a salad and use the marinade as salad dressing.
• Try a bottle of Mrs. Dash's new marinades or one of the recipes below (created by Nutrition Action's Tamara Goldis). The saltiest of the two adds just 160 milligrams of sodium to each 3-ounce serving of meat, fish, poultry, firm tofu, or vegetables.
• Combine the ingredients in a bowl, put the food down in the liquid, and let sit for 10 minutes or more.  Then roast away.
• Each recipe makes 1 ½ cups of marinade, enough for about two pounds of food.  Never brush used marinade on cooked meat, poultry or fish unless you first heat the liquid until boiling to kill any germs.

Marinade Recipes

Garlic Herb Marinade

• 6 garlic cloves, chopped       
• 1/3 cup chopped fresh thyme
• ¼ cup chopped fresh rosemary
• 2 Tbs. chopped fresh basil
• ¼ cup lemon juice
• ¼ cup red wine vinegar
• ½ cup olive oil
• ½ tsp. black pepper
• ½ tsp. salt

Tamara's Famous Marinade

• ¾ cup balsamic vinegar
• ½ cup olive oil
• 3 Tbs. prepared (bottled) mustard
• 4 garlic cloves, chopped
• ½ tsp. black pepper
• 1 tsp. ground cumin
• 2 tsp. dried minced onion

Using marinades is an easy way to spice up a boring meal, so give them a try and tell me about it!

- Julie