Clean Pomegranate Seeds

Pomegranates can be intimidating because they are notoriously messy and the tiny seeds can be difficult to separate from the convoluted center. However, with a few simple tricks you can have a pile of clean pomegranate seeds in about 5 minutes.

First cut off the flowery tip and score the leather-like skin of the pomegranate along the veins where the membrane goes through to the center. Make the slices about 1/4 inch deep. You can cut the pomegranate in half if you like, but this will damage some of the seeds and make an unnecessary mess.

Next, fill a large bowl with cool water and submerge pomegranate. Use fingers to pry open the skin at the incisions and break pomegranate in half as shown. The skin should bend easily where it has been scored, so continue to break open the fruit and gently begin removing the seeds under water with your thumb and fingers.

Submerge Pomegranate

Because the seeds are filled with juice they readily sink to the bottom of the bowl, while the airy, white interior of the pomegranate floats to the top.

Once you have dislodged all the seeds, remove the large chunks of skin and lining with from the water with your hands. If any seeds remain floating, they are likely attached to a floating piece of the pomegranate interior. Separate these pieces.

Removing Pomegranate Seeds

Next, add cold water to the bowl then let the seeds settle to the bottom again. Dump off the top layer of water, being sure not to let any seeds escape from the bowl. Remove as much water as possible and then refill the bowl. With the water now slightly cleared, check the seeds at the bottom for any stuck pieces of the white interior of the pomegranate and remove them.

Continue to rinse and drain the seeds until no more pieces of pomegranate interior float on the water. Finally, dump the clean seeds into a strainer to remove the water. These can be stored in a sealed contain in the refrigerator for 3-5 days.

Pomegranate seeds are a fantastic addition to salads, cereals, rice, couscous and vegetable dishes.

Intact whole grains such as brown rice can lower LDL “bad” cholesterol. They also reduce your risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

Unlike refined carbohydrates which digest rapidly and cause blood sugar spikes, intact whole grains digest slowly and stabilize blood sugar, thereby improving insulin sensitivity and decreasing hunger. For these reasons whole grains also help with weight control.

Intact whole grains (where you can actually see the shape of a grain) are better for you than whole grains that have been processed, such as those in most “whole grain” breads, pastas and cereals.

Six servings of whole grains are recommended per day, though even I cannot eat that much. Try to eat whole grains at each meal and you are on your way to a healthier life.

• Brussels sprouts
• Early Girl tomatoes
• Rainbow chard
• Padrones
• Assorted sweet peppers
• Mediterranean cucumbers
• Eggplant
• Warren pears
• Bosc pears
• Pomegranate (red)
• Baby leeks
• Raspberries
• Coffee

As the leaves transition to the warm colors of autumn, so must our dinner plates turn to reflect the changing seasons. Today’s recipe uses fennel, a crisp, hearty bulb that is at its best during the fall and winter seasons.

Raw fennel is slightly sweet and has a taste similar to anise or black licorice which, honestly, I struggle to enjoy. Cooked fennel, however, is much tamer. When thinly sliced and cooked, the sugars in fennel caramelize and it takes on an almost citrus-like zest that lends it the unique property of being both a vegetable and an herb.

This brightness of flavor makes for an excellent paring with the spicy, delicate leaves of watercress. Cooking fennel and adding it to raw greens creates a satisfying, warm salad for the chilly fall evenings.

My recipe is very simple and inexpensive. For one main course or two side salads you need one medium fennel bulb, one bunch of live watercress, 1/3 cup of walnuts, half a shallot, half a lemon and a few pomegranate seeds. I used the white pomegranate I bought Saturday at the market, but halved grapes would work just as nicely if you do not have or are intimidated by pomegranates.

First dice your shallot and set aside. Also clean your pomegranate (instructions to come) and anything else you want to add. Prepare fennel by removing the base then cutting it in half and removing the triangular core as shown. Place cut sides down on cutting board and cut in half again, lengthwise (parallel to stems). Thinly slice the fennel until the white part of the bulb is entirely cut.

Heat olive oil in a pan on medium heat until it swirls easily. Add shallot and walnut pieces (I break them with my hands). Cook until onion becomes translucent, about 5 minutes. Before the shallot begins to brown, add fennel and stir. Season with sea salt and pepper to taste. Increase heat to medium high and continue cooking, stirring occasionally. When fennel begins to soften (about 5 min), squeeze the juice of half a lemon into the pan (do not skip this step). Fennel is done when it is tender and slightly browned, about 10 minutes.

In the meantime rinse watercress. Cut off all the stems in one slice, as close to the leaves as possible. Place leaves in a large bowl. When fennel is done cooking, add it to watercress and toss with tongs. Dress salad with high-quality olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Add fruit, salt and pepper to taste and toss again. Serve immediately.

One of my favorite variations of this recipe is to add grilled or pan-seared shrimp. Fresh shrimp is best, but even frozen shrimp will do. The most important thing with shrimp is that you clean them well and do not overcook them, because they get tough and lose their delicacy. Remove from heat just as they become opaque (5 min or so, depending on size).

Making the right food choices is easier said than done. It is well known that nutrition knowledge alone is not enough to get people to change their eating habits. Both environment and emotional context also have an impact on what foods we pick.

Now new research shows that because of the unique emotional responses we have to food, better emotional intelligence and confidence contribute to an individual’s ability to make high-quality food selections. In other words, those of you who are good at dealing with your romantic relationships are probably making healthier food choices too.

Does this mean it is time for Love Dub and Thought for Food to unite? Quite possibly.

In two new studies published in the Journal of Consumer Research, scientists from the University of Kentucky asked whether a measure called “emotional calibration” influenced the quality of an individual’s food selections. Emotional calibration describes how closely someone’s self-confidence matches their emotional intelligence. They define emotional intelligence as the ability to “recognize the meanings of emotional patterns that underlie decision making and to reason and solve problems on the basis of these abilities.” Leave it to scientists to figure out how to objectify and measure qualities as ethereal as emotional reasoning.

Based on these measures, the researchers grouped participants into four categories. Over-confident people believe strongly in their ability to make the correct decision but do not have high emotional intelligence. In contrast, under-confident individuals do not believe in their own abilities but have high emotional intelligence. Both these groups are “miscalibrated.”

Emotionally “calibrated” individuals on the other hand present either strong confidence and high emotional intelligence or low confidence and low ability. Thus the term “calibration” refers to the matching between confidence and ability.

In the first study, the scientists asked if levels of emotional calibration could predict food choices. High confidence/high ability individuals reliably made healthier food choices than those of low confidence/low ability. Miscalibrated individuals with low confidence/high ability also performed slightly better than those of low confidence/low ability, while over-confident people made less healthy selections. Importantly, high-performing, well-calibrated individuals performed better than would be predicted based on cognitive ability alone.

In another study, the researchers asked if emotional calibration affects the food choices of highly vulnerable, obese individuals. Specifically they tested if emotional calibration is associated with impulsive eating habits. Their results show that emotional miscalibration significantly predicts impulsive eating behavior and higher caloric intake in obese individuals. Likewise, better calibrated people were less susceptible to impulsive eating cues.

Taken together these studies suggest that we have emotional responses to foods and that our ability to properly process and interpret these signals can impact the quality of our decision making. This adds to our understanding of why nutrition knowledge alone is insufficient for making healthy food selections. It also implies that improper emotional calibration can leave us vulnerable to impulsive behavior when choosing what and when to eat.

It is clear from this research that objective knowledge and ability is still the most important factor in good decision making, but it appears we should not underestimate the role of emotional intelligence. Interestingly, confidence can either help or hinder this process depending on ability. Though knowledgeable people do better with extra confidence, over-confidence cannot compensate for lack of ability.

For the best of both worlds, tune in each week to Thought for Food and Love Dub for expert advice on how to eat and how to love.

This article can also be found at Synapse.

Several weeks ago I held a poll asking which meal people found the most difficult to keep healthy: breakfast, lunch, snack or dinner. The overwhelming response was lunch.

To me this implies that the vast majority of you do not bring your lunch to work, but opt to eat out every day instead. Indeed, it is extremely difficult (and boring) to be healthy if you rely on restaurants for your meals. But if you want to eat healthy you must find a way to bring your lunch, and eating out needs to be the exception rather than the rule.

I have heard several reasons why people choose to eat out for lunch, and would love for you to share your own personal reasons in this week’s poll. But so far, the most common reason I hear is peer pressure. People do not want to be the odd man out at the office. No one wants to be left alone at their desk with a salad, even if the alternative is a Big Mac and trans fat-laden fries. And it isn’t any better to try and choke down a soggy McDonald’s salad while everyone else enjoys their delicious salt and cholesterol.

I completely sympathize with these arguments and at first glance I can see how they seem almost impossible to overcome. But in my experience, it does not have to be this way. Believe it or not, most people agree about what food looks really delicious, and bright, colorful and fresh is always appealing. So as you can imagine, the first step to successfully bringing your lunch to work on a regular basis is to make sure you pack food you actually want to eat. An added bonus is that if you sit down with a meal that looks and smells amazing, it is likely your friends at work will not only respect your decision, but may even be a little jealous. Instead of being the poor sucker on a diet, you will be the new lunch trend-setter!

A couple years ago I started a mini revolution at work. Giant café sandwiches and personal pizzas were the norm in the lunch room. Knowing this was not an option for me, I started dropping by my local market on my way in to work on Monday morning. I would pick up a bag of spinach, a basket of cherry tomatoes, an avocado or two, zucchini or cucumber, red bell pepper, a bag of walnuts, some kind of salad dressing and fruit. This adds maybe 5-10 minutes to my commute (shopping can also be done on weekends). My office kitchen is stocked with plates, forks and knives, but clearly it would not be hard to bring these items in if necessary. A large tupperware is particularly nice to have around because it makes your lunch portable.

Chopping the vegetables and fruit onto a bed of spinach or mixed greens takes about 5 minutes, and within that time I am invariably bombarded with compliments and praise from envious people microwaving their Healthy Choice entrees. Since I started this approach fresh, seasonal salads have become a common sight in our lunch room, and a trend has grown toward healthier, homemade lunches in general. Importantly, this new lunch culture started without an ounce of resentment or exclusion from the former pizza crowd.

One obvious barrier to this method would be if your office lacks a refrigerator. But even then all is not lost. Cut up vegetables are perfectly stable in a tupperware for several hours without refrigeration so long as they are not dressed. I keep bottles of California olive oil (Trader Joe’s) and balsamic vinegar (TJ’s again) at my desk, along with walnuts and salt and pepper grinders.

If you feel the need for a more substantial lunch, brown rice, boiled eggs and smoked salmon are fantastic additions to any salad. Adding fruits like figs, berries, pears or grapes help create a gourmet “wow factor” that elevates your lunch from good to exceptional.

Alternatively, one could make a smaller salad and use it as a supplement to a purchased lunch. For example, one of those giant sandwiches can last you two days if you fill up first with seasonal greens.

I admit that I buy my lunch at least once every week or two, but on those days it is a choice that I make and it is never because healthy eating is too difficult or elusive. If you hope to hit your 60th birthday in full stride, healthy eating must become at least a semi-automatic part of your routine.

Consider that you eat lunch at work 5 days a week. I say that makes for a fantastic opportunity to streamline your healthstyle.

What do you think, does that really sound so bad?

The Mediterranean diet, an eating pattern originally identified in cultures bordering the Mediterranean Sea, is generally associated with better health and quality of life. A new meta-analysis of data from twelve different studies shows that those who most closely follow the Mediterranean diet have decreased risk of cardiovascular mortality, cancer mortality and overall mortality, as well as incidence of Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s neurodegenerative diseases.

Scientists from the University of Florence, in Italy, analyzed the data from over half a million (514,816) participants. In their analysis, scores were assigned based on how strictly individuals followed the Mediterranean eating pattern.

The Mediterranean diet was defined as being high in vegetables, fruits, legumes, grains, fish and moderate red wine, while low in red and processed meats and dairy products.

Based on their analysis, the scientists determined that a closer adherence to the Mediterranean diet reduced the risk of cardiovascular mortality by 9 percent and cancer mortality by 6 percent. Overall mortality was reduced by 9 percent for those who most consistently follow the Mediterranean diet, while the incidence of Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease was lowered 13 percent with greater adherence.

Although it was recognized that the Mediterranean eating pattern is associated with better health, it was not known to what degree better adherence to the diet improves health status. This study adds important new information because until now, dietary analyses have almost always focused on single nutrients or food groups. However, humans eat a vast array of different foods and eating patterns vary tremendously among persons and populations. The present analysis did not rely on individual components of the Mediterranean diet to assess outcome, but instead scored participants based on how many components of the diet were regularly consumed or avoided.

Interestingly, because adherence is a relative measure, this study does not offer insight into what components, if any, contribute the most to health benefits. However, in many ways this is a more helpful measure because it avoids strict dietary prescriptions and only suggests that the more closely the Mediterranean pattern is followed, the more health benefits are seen.

This research was published in the September 11, 2008, issue of the British Medical Journal.

This article can also be found at Synapse.

The Mediterranean diet continues to receive accolades from the scientific community for improving health and lowering risk of disease. But that does not mean you missed out if you chose a trip to Guatemala over Greece this past summer. A recent article in the New York Times explains that Crete, an island in Greece considered to be the birthplace of the Mediterranean diet, has all but abandoned its once exemplary eating habits for a lifestyle more like our own. Now soda, fast food and convenience stores are the norm, and these changes are taking a toll on the health of Crete’s residents.

Traditionally the people of Greece have boasted some of the world’s longest life expectancies. Now the country has the highest prevalence of overweight and obesity in Europe, affecting three-quarters of its population. In Crete, even elementary schools are battling diet-related, chronic conditions such as hypertension, diabetes and high cholesterol. Sadly, life spans are expected to decline dramatically for the coming generation unless something is done to reverse these trends.

According to the article, Greek epidemiologists blame the recent proliferation of large grocery stores and convenience foods for the change in habits. They also credit aggressive advertising campaigns by the food industry that target children. Indeed children seem to be the hardest hit by the shifting culture. The impact this will have on the long-term health of Greece’s youth is still unknown.

While some parents are beginning to take action against these trends, many are still reluctant to acknowledge the problem. Because of Crete’s history of poverty, pre-made convenience foods are considered a luxury they want their children to be able to enjoy. One Crete resident, Argyro Koromylla explains, “You don’t want your child complaining or feeling left out, so you give him what he wants.”

Greece’s current obesity epidemic is representative of a much broader pattern of global health problems associated with the popularization of the Western diet. While fingers have been pointed at different components of our food—fat, cholesterol, carbohydrates—as the primary culprit, the emerging view is that the changing levels of macronutrients are less the problem than the industrial processing of food in general.

Journalist and UC Berkeley professor Michael Pollan argues the case for abandoning refined, processed food for more traditional cuisines in his latest book In Defense of Food. In a chapter titled Escape from the Western Diet, he states, “Instead of worrying about nutrients, we should simply avoid any food that has been processed to an extent that it is more the product of industry than of nature.”

The basis of Pollan’s proposal is that we know humans can thrive under a wide array of traditional diets, ranging from very high fat to very high carbohydrate to very high protein. But invariably, the health of a culture begins to decline upon the introduction of processed foods.

Indeed, Greece’s own cuisine seems to be in danger of losing its traditional roots, and the potential health ramifications are immense. Yet it does appear that Pollan’s argument is not lost on all Crete residents, and an effective intervention may still be possible. As one parent observes, “If we continue like this, we’re going to become like Americans, and no one wants that.”

This article can also be found at Synapse.