Recipeasy

GRILLED PEACHES WITH BALSAMIC AND GRANOLA
Easy, impressive, addictive. Make this with any stone fruit, or even with firm pears. Serves 6.

From Perfect Pantry

"1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup light agave nectar
6 peaches, halved, pits removed
1 Tbsp olive or canola oil
1/2 cup granola (homemade or store bought)

In a small, deep saucepan, heat the vinegar and agave nectar over medium-high heat until it begins to boil. Continue heating, watching carefully, for 10 minutes or until reduced by 3/4 to a thick (but still pourable) syrup.

Meanwhile, scoop out a bit of the insides of the peach to remove any bits of the pit.

Heat a stove-top grill pan over medium heat. When the pan is hot, brush the cut side of each peach half with olive oil, and place cut side down on the grill pan. Do not move the peaches! Cook for 2 minutes or until nice grill marks appear. Remove peaches from the pan and place cut side up on individual serving plates.

When the syrup is reduced to desired consistency, drizzle it over the peaches. Top with a bit of granola, and serve immediately."

*My recommendation is to decrease the granola and serve with a little plain Greek yogurt. The yogurt has very little sugar, tons of creamy taste, and lots of protein. The peaches and yogurt can make a great snack or a healthier dessert.

Agave Nectar - The New Black

Melissa Bosslet, RD, LN, CPT

After our quick review of glycemic index and glycemic load, it is time to talk about the nutritional devil: sugar. Sugar, or glucose, is digested very quickly, causing blood sugars to spike. Sugar draws out the body's nutrients, leaving it in a state of stress. The blood sugar roller coaster leads to mood swings, low energy, brain fog, poor concentration, headaches, and hunger. The best way to control blood sugar swings is reducing the glycemic load or sugar in your diet.

SO what do you eat instead of sugar? Agave nectar! Agave has an extremely low glycemic index of 30, meaning it is converted into sugar slower than potatoes, popcorn, oatmeal, and honey to name a few. If you must sweeten, do so with agave.

Agave nectar, or syrup as it is sometimes called, is made form the sap of the agave plant. Most of our agave comes from Mexico. Agave works very well as an alternative to sugar and artificial sweeteners - it is a natural product. It can be substituted for sugar when baking as well. Use about 1/3 to 1/4 less because agave is naturally sweeter. In other words, 1 cup sugar = 3/4 cup agave nectar. Since it is a syrup, or liquid, it is also a good idea to reduce other liquids in the recipe by 1/4. Agave is a good vegan substitute in place of honey, made from bees, and some sugars, which are often processed using tiny animal bones.

Remember, agave is a good substitute for sugar, but it still is adding calories (20 calories in each teaspoon) and does not have a nutritional benefit. So although agave is healthier, I am not promoting it as healthy.

Glycemic Index

Glycemic index is a quantitative way to measure how sugar affects the body. Foods are rated on how fast they enter the blood stream. They are given a "score" or glycemic index, somewhere between 1 and 100, 100 being the carbohydrates are converted to sugar almost immediately. Glucose is given a score of 100 because it is the body's ideal energy source; all sugars are converted to glucose before they are used for energy. The glycemic index is then converted to a glycemic load based on how many grams of carbohydrates the food contains. The larger the portion or the more concentrated source of carbohydrates their is, the higher the glycemic load.

food	carbohydrates	x	glycemic index	÷	100	=	glycemic load
12 oz. regular cola:	40.5	x	90	÷	100	=	36.4
fresh apple (medium)	21	x	54	÷	100	=	11.3
2 Tbsp. agave nectar	32	x	30	÷	100	=	9.6

When searching for a healthy food, consider the glycemic index or glycemic load. White or processed carbohydrates have higher indexes, and whole grains rank lower so they have less effect on blood sugar levels. Also, when carbohydrates are combined with proteins or fats, their efffect on blood sugar levels is decreased.

Glycemic Index of some commonly eaten foods.

Whole Foods Cooking Demos

Melissa partnered with Whole Foods on Tuesday to offer shoppers a cooking demonstration on Gluten Free Cooking. Wendy and Susan, Whole Food's employees, and Melissa helped customers sample brown rice noodles, amaranth blended noodles, and quinoa. The emphasis was on healthy, whole grain gluten-free alternatives. Often times, gluten free products are made from white rice or a processed corn, leaving the food very processed and devoid in nutrients. They also cooked up a Black Bean Salad and served it over flavored polenta. If you've never cooked with polenta, you are missing out on a tasty, versatile dish. Polenta can be served sliced, baked, or like a porridge and makes a great substitue for noodles. Whole Foods has a ton of gluten free recipes on their website as well as shelves and shelves of gluten free products. Join Melissa Thursday night at 6:30 PM as she tours the Whole Foods on Rockville Pike to learn all about these great products!

Coconut Oil

Are the winter blues really getting to you? Zap the blah with a tropical flavor - one that's packed with health benefits. Coconut has been given a bad rap, but in reality, it has many medicinal qualities.

1. Coconut is a saturated fat making it very solid at room temperature, this property actually makes it a very stable fat. When coconut is heated to very high temperatures, the chemical bonds stay intact, unlike oils with more double bonds, like olive oil. So you can safely cook with coconut oil, add some island flavor, and avoid the oxidized free radicals.

2. The lauric acid in coconut oil is the same component found in breast milk that helps protect the immune system. Lauric acid also helps improve the ratio of total cholesterol to HDL cholesterol, lowering the risk for heart disease.

3. The fats in coconut oil are readily absorbed, promoting metabolic efficiency. The fatty acids in the oil, called medium chain triacylglycerols or MCTs, are shorter and more water soluble than other fats like canola or olive oil. The fats are absorbed right away, processed by the liver, and burned as fuel quickly. Therefore, the MCTs are not stored as fat in the body.

4. Coconut has anti-microbial and anti-fungal properties, helping protect the layers of the gut. The digestive tract is closely related to the immune system, so this is especially helpful during the germy winter months.

Get out of your normal winter routine- add some light coconut milk to a smoothie or to your oatmeal, or some coconut oil to your shrimp or spread on a whole grain cracker. Bon appetite!

Sucra-grose

By Melissa Bosslet, RD, LN

Splenda shares more than a similar chemical backbone with sugar than we thought. They both are not so good for our health. Although sucralose, the chemical name for Splenda, does not effect blood sugar levels when ingested, it does alter gut health, according to a recent study.

According to the January 2008 issue of Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health, Splenda 1) increases the pH level of the gut, making it more acidic, 2) causes a decrease in beneficial microflora in the gut, and 3) changes expression of glycoproteins, which affect absorption of some prescription drugs. Additionally, the rats that experienced a decrease in healthy gut bacteria also had increased body mass. Interestingly enough, those rats were fed the same amount of food.

The "good" bacteria is necessary for nutrient metabolism and absorption, normal immune function, inhibition of pathogens, B and K vitamin synthesis (necessary for energy production, protein and carbohydrate metabolism, and blood clotting), and drug metabolism. In other words, a heatlhy gut microflora is crucial for a healthy functioning body.

Moral of the story is reduce your intake of artificial sweeteners and increase your intake of probiotics. Pure Encapsulations makes a wonderful product, blending 5 different bacterias to keep your gut healthy. EB Nutrition carries Probiotic 5, Lactobacillus acidophilus and Lactobacillus sporogenes, so call today or pick some up.

Give me some calcium!

The National Meeting of the American Chemical Society speculates that we have a sixth sense - calcium. Our tongue has specific receptors for salty, sweet, bitter, sour, and savory, also called unami. Researchers believe that calcium is sensed by the taste buds that pick up unami and sweet.

In the laboratory, animals with an increased need for calcium actually crave the mineral more. Who might need more calcium? Growing children, pregnant or lactating women, anyone at risk for osteoporosis or osteopenia, and anyone with limited intake of dairy all may have a keen sense of taste towards foods with calcium.

Naturally, humans do not like the taste of calcium-rich food because they taste bitter. Protein and fats bind to calcium in milk, making it taste better. But dark leafy greens, broccoli, and spinach lack protein and fat, giving these foods a bitter taste. Application of this knew knowledge will be used to block the calcium receptors to try to make these foods more palatable.

Glaceau's Vitamin-less Water

Ever had the brightly colored liquid Coca-Cola calls Vitamin Water thinking you were doing your body a favor? Hardly. You might as well have picked up that Coca-Cola with the amount of sugar Glaceau's drink carries. Each 20 ounce serving packs in nearly 8 teaspoons of sugar (33 grams), about 75% of what the USDA suggests should be our sugar limitations, and pretty similar to the amount of sugar in a soda (39 grams for a 12 ounce can).

Vitamin Water may harvest a few extra vitamins, but the catch is the sugar. Sugar actually leaches the vitamins out of the body as it is digested, leaving the body in a state of stress. The words that the company's marketing department uses to describe the drink- "defense," "rescue," "energy" - have earned the company large profits, leaving consumers with a false sense of health. Now Coca-Cola is being sued by the Center for Science in the Public Interest for their "multi-v" health claims.

Next time you exercise and reach for your hydration, make it water. Save yourself 100 calories (equivalent to over 10 minutes on the rowing machine!) and give your body what it really needs.