Nibble On This: Superfoods!

Valentine’s Day and American Heart Month make February a month to celebrate sweethearts. What a perfect time to show your loved one how much you care by preparing a meal with heart-healthy superfoods such as omega-3 fatty acids and fresh vegetables. Adding superfoods to your daily diet has the ability to decrease the risk of cancer, improve heart function, and fight infection. Make heart healthy dishes for you and your sweetheart and you will be doing your part for a healthier heart!

Examples of superfoods:

Beans • Blueberries • Broccoli • Oats • Oranges • Pumpkin • Salmon • Soy • Spinach • Tea (green or black) • Tomatoes • Turkey • Walnuts • Yogurt

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Baked Grouper with Chunky Tomato Sauce

Ingredients :

• 3 1/2 cups chopped seeded tomato (about 4 medium)
• 1/4 cup chopped green onions
• 1/4 cup dry white wine
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil
• 1 teaspoon capers
• 1 teaspoon bottled minced garlic
• 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 4 (6-ounce) grouper fillets

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 425°.

Combine first 10 ingredients in a medium bowl.

Heat oil in a large heavy skillet over high heat. Place fish, skin sides up, in pan; cook 2 minutes. Turn fish over; top with tomato mixture. Bring to a boil. Place pan in oven; bake at 425° for 8 minutes or until fish flakes easily when tested with a fork.

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This Nutrition Update is brought to you by Seasons. For a personalized nutrition consultation with Valerie Costanza, call Seasons at 255-3223 and schedule an appointment.

 

Three easy ways to help prevent breast cancer

October is breast cancer awareness month!

Here’s the sad truth about breast cancer treatment. Despite billions of research dollars committed to the cure of breast cancer, the death rates due to malignant breast cancer have not changed. For one-third of women who are diagnosed with malignant breast cancer, the disease will be fatal.

Instead of waiting for breast cancer, how about working to prevent it all together? Treatment is important, but prevention is even more important.  So that’s where we should focus our efforts.  Let’s be proactive about breast cancer and not merely reactive.

Let’s start young.  If a girl starts birth control pills when she is younger than 18, she triples her lifetime risk for breast cancer.  Women who have their first child before 24, decrease their lifetime risk by as much as five times.

Let’s think about nutrition.  Yes, what you eat affects your weight and your risk of breast cancer.  A diet high in trans fatty acids, partially hydrogenated oils, sugar, refined carbohydrates but low in fruits and vegetables provides a favorable environment for cancer growth.  Additionally, high exposure to Xenoestrogens (pesticides and hormones) in non-organic foods can provide a favorable environment for cancer growth.

Let’s talk about “estrogen dominance.” When a woman stops ovulating, the decreased progesterone in her body will promote unregulated breast tissue growth. Decreased progesterone leads to estrogen dominance. It occurs in menopausal women, overweight women, women with the rapidly increasing diagnosis of polycystic ovaries, and all young girls in their first 2-3 years of menstruation.

These are three easy steps women can take to avoid letting their bodies become a favorable environment for breast cancer.

1. Proper nutrition and use of organic foods
2. Elimination of birth control pills except for contraception
3. Correcting estrogen dominance with progesterone

Let’s be proactive, not just reactive.

(Special thanks to MesserWoland for providing copyright permission of the pink ribbon through Wikipedia.)

October is Breast Cancer awareness month

 

We at Seasons want to clear the air of some of the confusion related to breast cancer.

No cancer or disease is more feared by women today. Breast cancer is the number one cause of cancer related deaths among women of the ages 18 to 54. Breast cancer is the number one overall cause of death among women ages 45 to 50. It’s no wonder we fear it.

But here’s what those numbers mean? A women’s lifetime risk of developing breast cancer is 1 in 8. The number of breast cancer cases have increased by more than 40% from 1973 to 1998. Breast cancer deaths account for 15% of all cancer related deaths in women.

“Of course,” you’re saying to yourself, “the many billions of dollars in research mean we have better cures now, right?” Unfortunately the answer is no. Over the last 50 years, the mortality rate of malignant breast cancer is unchanged. One in three women with malignant breast cancer still die.

Much talk and money has been spent on treatment of existing breast cancer. In some ways, these dollars have not provided much return on their promises.

But look again. The research has given tremendous insight into the causes of breast cancer. That’s why so many clinics like Seasons are focusing on those causes. We believe in prevention.

Don’t misunderstand. We need to keep funding the research. Keep racing for the cure! In the meantime, you can do your part to help prevent breast cancer before it ever shows up. At Seasons, we can show you how.

(Special thanks to MesserWoland for providing copyright permission of the pink ribbon through Wikipedia.)