April 2008 Archives

Soy Foods and Cancer Survey Results:

Soy foods and cancer must be a hot topic because I got a lot of response from readers this week. For results from the study, click Here. Thank you to those who participated in the study!

The Facts About Soy and Hormones:

Most of the controversy over soy and cancer has to do with the fact that soy is one of the best sources of Isoflavones, phytochemicals classified as phytoestrogens. A phytoestrogen is a plant chemical with a similar shape to estrogen, therefore allowing it to bind to estrogen receptors in the body.

This binding ability is why many people have heard that soy is bad for breast cancer, especially the type of breast cancer that grows in response to hormones. The truth is that no studies have proven that phytoestrogens cause cancer to grow; so far it is a theory.

The other side of the story is that many people think that a "balance" of hormones in the body is necessary for good health and therefore eating plant hormones can help "balance" and promote good hormones. There is no evidence for this theory other than most studies suggest a plant based diet is important for reducing risk of cancer.

What's the Bottom Line?

When it comes to soy and cancer, there will always be people arguing on both sides of the issue. My take is that most plant foods have been proven beneficial to the body, including soy. Soy has been studied extensively in heart disease and is shown to benefit the heart.

What is most important with soy intake is that you get natural forms of soy as opposed to processed pills and powders. Even for hormone receptor positive breast cancers, the most conservative medical professional would say that 3-4 servings per week is fine (FYI, a serving is 1 cup of soy milk or 1/2 cup soy beans or tofu).

Personally, I'm comfortable recommending up to 2 servings per day for hormone positive breast cancer survivors. The most important thing is to stay away from the soy powders (shakes, soy chips, soy breads, soy bars or soy supplements). The concentration of isoflavones is very high in these products and you're also missing the other beneficial nutrients that come with whole soy.

More questions on this issue? Post a comment and I'll be happy to respond.

Look forward to healthy soy recipes in the next post!
- Julie

Survey on Soy and Cancer

I'd like to know how many of you have heard about soy foods and cancer risk. To assess that, I have created a VERY short 3 question survey: Click Here to take my survey.

Next post I will give you my thoughts on soy and cancer risk as well as healthy survivorship. And I'll let you know what the survey results are.

Mini Meals: When You Don't Have Time

For today's post, we'll focus on some mini meal ideas. Mini meals are meals that you can put together quickly when you're in a hurry or when you're in a "mood". The kind of mood I'm referring to is where you don't feel like cooking, but you do feel like eating!

Often at that point, you don't want to even think about what to eat. Having these mini meal options already in your head or written on paper on the fridge can make a big difference and reduce the stress you're feeling at that time.

Mini Meal Ideas

• Low-fat Yogurt with fruit and granola on top.
• Rice cakes – Spread with natural peanut butter and top with banana slices or raisins.
• Apple slices and celery sticks topped with peanut butter and raisins.
• Dried nuts and raisins mix – For added interest, include a few dark chocolate chips.
  
• Baked tortilla chips and salsa – add canned corn and canned black beans to the salsa.
• Pita bread – Fill with your favorite hummus and fresh veggies.
• Air popped popcorn – eat with canned minestrone soup.
• Whole-grain crackers – Top these with cheese, lean sandwich meat, tuna or peanut butter. Have carrots and an apple on the side. 
• Cottage cheese – Eat it plain or topped with fresh fruit. Or fill a green pepper with it and use it as dip for carrots. Eat the “pepper bowl” when done.
• Bran or banana muffins - Eat with a glass of milk and  vegetable soup.
• Low-fat string cheese – String cheese makes another great portable snack. Eat it alone or mix it up by wrapping some thin sliced ham around it. 
• Edamame  (soybeans)– These are soy beans in their shell. Steam them and top with a bit of salt or lemon juice. You can find these in the frozen vegetables section.
• Fruit and Cheese Kabobs – Alternate chunks of fresh fruit and cheese cubes and thread them on a bamboo skewer.
  
• Cooked Sweet Potato – Just cut it up in chunks and bake in the oven. Add flavor with honey and cinnamon, or salt lightly.  They are delicious warm or cold.
• Lettuce Wraps – Take a large leaf of lettuce and top it with raw veggies, ham or turkey and a little low-fat ranch dressing. Wrap up and serve.

Don't forget to take the survey on Soy Foods and Cancer (Click Here to take my survey). Look for the results to be reported next post!

- Julie

Does it surprise you that 75% of the time our food choices have nothing to do with their nutrient value? It shouldn't! If you've been through cancer and had any side effects that affected your eating, you know that food choices weren't based on nutrients as much as being able to swallow and keep the food down.

And when you're sick, what do people want to do? Bring you food! Because feeding people is closely tied to caring for them, it's not a surprise that we associate food with comfort and love.

Food choices are usually based on the situation you're in, what food is available, how you feel and what you "want" rather than what types of nutrients are in it and what your body needs.

Emotional Eating

Emotional eating is consuming more than normal amounts of food in response to feelings, rather than hunger. It's even worse if you happen to be hungry AND emotional at the same time! Think about when you were sick with cancer or other illness. What foods provided you with comfort in that time?

When it comes to a healthy lifestyle, it's not knowing what is the right choice that makes the difference. What matters is having the skills to MAKE that choice. It's also important to recognize that it's not only overweight people who struggle with this. We ALL have emotional eating habits regardless of our weight status.

Three things to do about emotional eating:

1. Recognize why you are eating. Take some time this week to really think about why you are eating. If you're eating when you're not hungry, then you can be pretty sure there are some emotions involved.   
2. Figure out why you are needing comfort food at that time. If you discover you are eating, but aren't hungry, ask yourself what emotion you are feeding. Why are you looking for comfort? For me it is stress. If I feel overwhelmed with work or other activities, I tend to look for junk/comfort food. However, eating it doesn't make me feel better, it just makes me feel guilty AND stressed!
3. Utilize expert advice. If you find yourself eating for emotional reasons a significant amount of the time, then you know it has become a habit. And it's probably a habit that you'd like to break!

Here are some places that you can get good assistance in dealing with emotional eating:

• Read a book by someone experienced in emotional eating (look for a book written by a health professional such as counselor, social worker, psychologist or dietitian). One example is Intuitive Eating by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch.
  
• Consult a licensed counselor, social worker, psychologist or dietitian in your area who has worked with others on emotional eating.
• Find support from a friend who has successfully worked through emotional eating and has changed their behavior.

Having multiple resources to help guide you can be the best medicine. Until next time, look for comfort in things other than food!

- Julie

Anti Cancer Foods

It is difficult to study a food to see how it affects cancer risk. That is why most studies are done with extracts, pills or powders. However, the biggest benefit you can get when it comes to food and cancer risk is to eat FOOD, as opposed to pills or powders.

Also, remember that there is not one food or diet to cure or prevent cancer.

Cruciferous Vegetables

Cruciferous vegetables are probably the most studied category of vegetables when it comes to cancer. Some of the components of cruciferous vegetables that are being studied to reduce cancer risk are:

• glucosinolates
• crambene
• indole-3-carbinol
• isothiocyanates

All of these are phytochemicals and can work together to help your body fight disease and remain healthy.

You might wonder what cruciferous vegetables are. Thank goodness that you know an oncology dietitian, the expert on food and cancer. Do you ever wonder what would you do without me?

Cruciferous vegetables are in the brassica family of plants and include:

• broccoli
• cauliflower
• kale
• collards
• brussel sprouts
• turnip greens
• bok choy
• cabbage

For ideas on how to cook these, check out my post on cooking vegetables. Or, try this recipe for Asian Broccoli Slaw. I got the recipe from a friend's mom and altered it slightly to use a traditional Asian dressing I learned about from my mother-in-law.

Asian Broccoli Slaw

Salad
12 oz. bag broccoli slaw
1 bunch chopped green onion's
1 cup toasted sliced almonds (toast on a cookie sheet at 350 for 5-7 minutues)
1 cup dry roasted sunflower seeds

Dressing (my disclaimer is that I don't measure, so these are estimates!)
minced garlic (2 cloves or so)
olive oil (1/4 cup)
sesame oil (3T)
soy sauce (1/4 cup)
rice vinegar (1/3 cup)
Alter proportions per taste.

Pour dressing over slaw, mix and enjoy!

- Julie

I've talked in the last two posts about what organic means and how it affects our health. This time I will finally give you the practical information about buying organic foods.

Pesticides

When it comes to consuming pesticides, less is better. The Environmental Working Group (EWG) looked at how many pesticides were on various fruits and vegetables. They discovered that people can lower their pesticide exposure by NINETY percent if they choose to eat the twelve least contaminated foods instead of the twelve most contaminated foods.

If you eat the twelve most contaminated, you would consume fourteen different pesticides. If you eat the twelve least contaminated, you would less than two per day!

Making the Choice

The best way to deal with this issue is to make sure that you are buying the organic version of the twelve most contaminated fruits and vegetables. The EWG named these the "dirty dozen". If you can't afford organic, then be sure to buy mostly from the least contaminated list.

Dirty Dozen

1. Peaches
2. Apples
3. Sweet Bell Peppers
4. Celery
5. Nectarines
6. Strawberries
7. Cherries
8. Lettuce
9. Grapes - Imported
10. Pears
11. Spinach
12. Potatoes

Cleanest 12

1. Onions
2. Avocado
3. Sweet Corn-Frozen
4. Pineapples
5. Mango
6. Sweet Peas-Frozen
7. Asparagus
8. Kiwi
9. Bananas
10. Cabbage
11. Broccoli
12. Eggplant

The EWG considered how people wash and prepare their foods when they did the test. When you wash or rinse your produce, you remove some levels of pesticides but it does not completely eliminate them. If you peel a potato or apple, you can remove more pesticides but you also lose important phytochemicals and nutrients when you do that.

The Bottom Line

Remember to eat plenty of plant foods, wash them well and buy organic when possible. Use this list to guide you at the grocery store. For a very handy pocket edition of the list, check out this website:
http://www.foodnews.org/pdf/EWG_pesticide.pdf

Eat up!

- Julie

Last post I discussed what it means when a food is labeled 'organic'. Today we'll discuss the health benefits of organic foods. Other benefits of organic farming include stewardship of natural and human resources.

Natural resources include land and water. Stewardship of human resources means being socially considerate of the working and living condition of laborers, needs of rural communities and health of consumers.

I find that the organic food often tastes better too!

Health Benefits of Organic Food

Here are some of the health benefits of organic foods:

• foods that are higher in nutrients
• foods with lower pesticide residues
• foods with lower amounts of food additives

There hasn't been any direct studies on humans to show that organic foods can prevent cancer or other diseases. However, having more and higher quality nutrients in your food means that you get more cancer fighting phytochemicals to help your body stay healthy.

You do need to inspect your food closely though. Since organic farming doesn't include as many pesticides, there is more of a chance that you'll run across a bug in your produce!

Local Food

Another important environmental and health choice is choosing to buy local foods. Local foods tend to be higher in nutrients because they are usually picked fresh and sold to you soon after picking.

This is different from the food at the grocery store which may be picked before it's ripe so that it can make the long trip to the distribution center and then on to your grocery store.

If you buy local food at a farmer's market, it is cheaper than buying it at the grocery store. Remember to ask the farmer if they use organic farm practices.

Organic vs. Local: Which to Buy

I rank organic food vs. local food in this order:

   1. Local, organic food
   2. Local, conventional food
   3. Not local organic food
   4. Not local conventional food

I don't always choose my #1 ranked choice, I take the cost difference as well as the particular product in mind. There are certain foods that I tend to buy organic, and certain foods that I don't. Next post I will discuss the "dirty dozen" and the "cleanest 12".

Some say that it costs too much to eat organic foods. Honestly, people spend 5 times more on junk food and fast food than on fruits and vegetables. I don't think it's the organic fruits and vegetables that are busting the budget!

Until next time, visit your local farmer's market!

- Julie

You're at the grocery store and see two of all types of produce. There's either 'conventional' or 'organic'. So you stand there in the store trying to decide if it's worth it to spend the extra money on organic.

Some claim that you should only eat organic food. Others say it doesn't matter. And what does organic really mean anyway?

Today's post will focus on what the organic label means and my next post will discuss whether or not you should spend the extra money on organic foods for their health benefits.

Organic Food Facts

Here are some facts about organic food from the National Organic Program:

• Organic food is produced by farmers who emphasize the use of renewable resources and the conservation of soil and water. 
• Organic meat, poultry, eggs, and dairy products come from animals that are given no antibiotics or growth hormones.
• Organic food is produced without using most conventional pesticides, fertilizers made with synthetic ingredients or sewage sludge, bioengineering, or ionizing radiation. 
• Before a product can be labeled "organic," a Government-approved certifier inspects the farm where the food is grown to make sure the farmer is following all the rules necessary to meet USDA organic standards. 
• Companies that handle or process organic food before it gets to your local supermarket or restaurant must also be certified.
• Products labeled as "100 percent organic" must contain (excluding water and salt) only organically produced ingredients.
• Products labeled "organic" must consist of at least 95 percent organically produced ingredients (excluding water and salt).
• Processed products that contain at least 70 percent organic ingredients can use the phrase "made with organic ingredients".

The US government monitors the organic label. It can be an expensive process for the farmer's to go through in order to be able to make the organic claim. Therefore, many smaller farms that you might find in your area cannot afford to get the official organic claim.

If you shop at farmer's markets or coop where you can talk to the farmer, they can tell you if they use organic farm practices.

In the next post, I will discuss the foods to buy organic and the potential health benefits to organic foods.

Shop aware, and read those labels! 
- Julie