The 200 SuperFoods That Will Save Your Life (39 page)

Bringing It Home

Organic chicken has several benefits over conventionally farmed poultry. It is produced with fewer pesticides, antibiotics, and hormones, and the flesh has more flavor, which is especially nice when you're not eating the skin.

Chicken, whether sold whole or in parts, should feel pliable, but resilient. If you are buying chicken with the skin on, it should be opaque and uniform in color; the meat should be pinkish and slightly translucent. Poultry is one place where you can follow your nose—don't buy a chicken with any kind of bad smell, and don't buy one whose “sell by” date has expired (or will expire before you plan to use the meat).

Frozen chicken should not have visible ice crystals or freezer burn. If there is frozen liquid in the package, the chicken may have been defrosted and refrozen, which can compromise food safety as well as taste.

When buying chicken breasts for recipes, remember that a “whole” chicken breast is both sides of the chicken, normally yielding two servings, so the usual chicken breast portion is really a half-breast. Although removing the skin reduces the fat in your chicken, leaving the skin on while cooking helps hold in moisture and flavor, and removing the skin after cooking still takes away most of the extra fat.

Store chicken in the coldest part of the refrigerator, where it should keep for two to three days. You can store it in the package it came in, but if the package is leaky, rewrap the chicken before storing so that leaking juices don't contaminate the other foods.

To freeze raw chicken pieces, wash the chicken and pat it dry with a paper towel. Store each piece in its own plastic zipper bag, and press out as much air as you can while sealing the zipper. Frozen chicken can keep for as long as a year.

SAFE HANDLING OF POULTRY

Chicken has been associated with a number of food-borne bacteria, and it's important to handle this meat properly to avoid the risk of illness. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the culprits include Salmonella enteritidis, Staphylococcus aureus, Campylobacter jejuni, and Listeria monocytogenes.

Keep the chicken cold until you are ready to cook it, then cook it thoroughly. Chicken is done when it registers an internal temperature of 165°F on a cooking thermometer—and this is really the only sure test. Don't partially cook chicken—for instance, in a microwave—unless you are going to finish cooking it immediately. Warming it up gives any bacteria a chance to start growing, and the only safe remedy is to finish thoroughly cooking the meat.

Because only thorough cooking can kill the bacteria that may be in chicken meat or juices, it's especially important to avoid contaminating other foods, especially those that won't be cooked again after exposure, such as baked goods or fruits and vegetables that will be eaten raw. Use plastic grocery bags when shopping and bringing food home, and keep the chicken in a separate bag from the other food. Store chicken in a sealed, leakproof container to keep juices from coming into contact with other foods in the refrigerator.

When preparing the chicken, wash your hands often. Use a separate cutting board and knife for chicken, and wash them—as well as any areas (counter, plates, pans, etc.) that the chicken may have touched—with hot, soapy water before you move on to preparing other foods. Clean up with disposable paper towels. If you use cloth towels for environmental reasons, always use a clean one, and then wash it in hot water before it's put back into use. Do not serve or store any food in a dish or container that has been used for raw chicken until the dish has been thoroughly washed in hot, soapy water. After you've marinated chicken, if you want to serve the marinade liquid as a sauce, boil it first to make sure any bacteria from the raw chicken are killed.

Cutting boards can be a particular hazard—it's all too easy to cut the chicken up, then move on to the vegetables. The USDA recommends having a separate cutting board that you use only for raw meats. That way, you raise the odds that raw meat juices won't end up on salad vegetables or baked goods. Sanitize work surfaces, cutting boards, and utensils with a mixture of one tablespoon of chlorine bleach to one gallon of clean water.

Remember: Although chicken has the worst reputation, food-borne bacteria can piggyback on any meat, fish, or shellfish—and even on some fruits and vegetables. You should strive to avoid cross-contamination with all of them.

Livit Recipe

See Safe Handling of Poultry on page 211.

1 lemon, halved

½ cup organic orange juice

¼ cup water

¼ teaspoon paprika

¼ teaspoon lemon pepper

¼ teaspoon garlic powder

¼ teaspoon onion powder

3 skinless, boneless chicken breasts (6 breast halves)

½ cup canned mandarin orange segments, drained

• Preheat oven to 325°F.

• Squeeze the juice from ½ lemon into a small bowl; cut the remaining ½ lemon into thin slices and set it aside. Stir the orange juice and water into the lemon juice.

• In a small bowl, combine the paprika, lemon pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder.

• Rinse the chicken breasts and pat them dry with a towel. Put the chicken into a 9” × 13” casserole dish. Pour the juice mixture over the chicken. Sprinkle the spice mixture over the chicken. Lay the oranges and lemon slices on top.

• Bake, uncovered, for 20 minutes. Cover with foil and bake for an additional 25 minutes.

YIELD
6 servings

NUTRITION ANALYSIS PER SERVING
158 calories, 4 g carbohydrate, 26 g protein, 3 g fat, 0.3 g dietary fiber

Although the levels of mercury in fish are a greater hazard to children and pregnant women, mercury can build up in adults as well, and they can be very harmful to human health. In general, larger fish and fish that live longer contain more mercury, because it accumulates in their systems over time from the smaller fish they eat. In 2004, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued an advisory to pregnant and nursing women, women who might become pregnant, and the caretakers of young children on the risks and benefits of eating fish.

The advisory states:

1. Do not eat shark, swordfish, king mackerel, or tilefish, because they contain high levels of mercury.

2. Eat up to 12 ounces (2 average meals) a week of a variety of fish and shellfish that are lower in mercury.

• Five of the most commonly eaten fish that are low in mercury are shrimp, canned light tuna, salmon, pollock, and catfish.

• Another commonly eaten fish, albacore (“white”) tuna, has more mercury than canned light tuna. When choosing your two meals of fish and shell-fish, you may eat up to 6 ounces (one average meal) of albacore tuna per week.

3. Check local advisories about the safety of fish caught by family and friends in local lakes, rivers, and coastal areas. If no advice is available, eat up to 6 ounces (one average meal) per week of fish caught in local waters, but don't consume any other fish during that week.

Follow these same recommendations when feeding fish and shellfish to your young child, but serve smaller portions.

(from
What You Need to Know About Mercury in Fish and Shellfish,
March 2004)

Benefits

Cod have been commercially fished and traded since at least Viking times. They were an important export of the New England colonies from the time Europeans began to settle there, so this Atlantic fish has long played a role in European and Mediterranean diets. Taxes and limitations on the export of cod were among the grievances that sparked the American Revolution.

As a result of its long commercial history, the name “cod” has been applied to a number of fish, most of them white-fleshed and relatively light in taste. The name is now technically applied only to Atlantic cod, Pacific cod, and Greenland cod, related fishes that are in danger of overfishing, in part because their health benefits have long been apparent.

Cod are an excellent source of niacin, phosphorus, selenium, and vitamin B
₁₂
, and they also provide significant magnesium, potassium, thiamine, and vitamin E. A good source of omega-3 fatty acids—three ounces of cooked cod provides 0.1 gram—cod appear to greatly benefit the cardiovascular system, as they are linked to lower blood pressure. Cod liver oil was at one time recommended to provide vitamins A and D. It's now believed that the health benefits of the oil are probably related to the omega-3 fatty acids.

NUTRITIONAL COMPOSITION
Three ounces of Pacific cod cooked by dry heat provides 89 calories, 0 g carbohydrate, 19.5 g protein, 0.7 g fat, 0 g dietary fiber, 40 mg cholesterol, 27 IU vitamin A, 3 mg vitamin C, 2.1 mg niacin, 7 mcg folic acid, 440 mg potassium, 77 mg sodium, 190 mg phosphorus, 8 mg calcium, and 26 mg magnesium.

Bringing It Home

The best way to find good fish is to find a good fish market—one that reliably gets good quality fresh fish. As fish has grown in popularity and air freight has become more commonplace for foodstuffs, fresh fish in good variety has become easier to find in the local supermarket.

It pays to be picky with fish, since it is so perishable. If the fish are whole, check the eyes—a fish that's been out of the water too long will have eyes that look dull and gray. The eyes, and the fish itself, should look shiny and clean; the gills should still be bright red. In general, any dulling of color or shine indicates a fish that's been out of the water too long.

Smell is probably the most important indicator. Fresh ocean fish should smell of the sea, and any type of bad smell is a reason to walk away. But it's not always possible to smell plastic-wrapped fish fillets. If the fillets have skin, the skin should be as shiny and metallic as that on a good whole fish. If there is liquid in the package, it should be clear. If the liquid is beginning to turn white, the fish is beginning to turn, too.

For best results, buy fish within a day or two of when you plan to eat it, and take it straight home. If you have a long trip or will be running errands, consider keeping a cooler of ice in your car to hold the fish.

Livit Recipe

1 can (14.5 ounces) crushed tomatoes

1 teaspoon dried oregano

cup dry white wine

1 lemon, juice only (about 2 tablespoons)

3 ounces fresh baby spinach

1 medium onion, thinly sliced

1 pound cod fillets, cut into 4 pieces

1 small zucchini, thinly sliced

4 ounces crimini mushrooms, thinly sliced

• Preheat oven to 425°F.

• In a small bowl, combine the tomatoes, oregano, wine, and lemon juice.

• Place the spinach on the bottom of an 11” × 7” baking dish, and top it with the onion slices. Lay the cod on the bed of spinach and onions. Distribute the zucchini and mushroom slices over the fish fillets. Add the tomato mixture to the pan. Bake, covered, for 15 to 20 minutes, until the cod flakes easily with a fork.

YIELD
4 servings

NUTRITION ANALYSIS PER SERVING
175 calories, 16.7 g carbohydrate, 24.1 g protein, 1.3 g fat, 2.6 g dietary fiber

Benefits

Edamame are young, green soybeans in their pods, cooked by boiling, which make a great snack—high in fiber and protein, rich in calcium and potassium. Cooking the soybeans increases their available isoflavones, including daidzin, genistin, and genistein. Genistein has been investigated for its role in limiting the size and number of fat cells, possibly acting as an aid to preventing weight gain. Soy isoflavones may also reduce the risk of heart attack.

A cup of soybeans provides more than half of the daily recommended value of protein for the average adult—in less than 300 calories. Soybeans do, however, contain a fair amount of fat—11.6 grams per cup, of which 2.2 grams are saturated fat.

NUTRITIONAL COMPOSITION
One-half cup of boiled green soybeans provides 127 calories, 9.9 g carbohydrate, 11.1 g protein, 5.8 g fat, 3.8 g dietary fiber, 140 IU vitamin A, 15 mg vitamin C, 100 mcg folic acid, 485 mg potassium, 13 mg sodium, 142 mg phosphorus, 131 mg calcium, 2.25 mg iron, and 54 mg magnesium.

Bringing It Home

The fresh soybeans from which edamame is made are green pods found in the produce department. They should be firm and unbruised. Frozen parboiled pods are available year-round. If your supermarket or natural food store does not carry fresh or frozen edamame, try an Asian food market.

Store fresh edamame in the refrigerator, where it will keep for about two days. Frozen edamame will keep for two to three months.

To make the traditional edamame snack, wash fresh edamame pods and cut the ends off. Bring a large pot of water to a boil, add a tablespoon of salt, and toss in the edamame. Boil the pods for three to four minutes, then drain the pods and allow them to cool.