Thursday, October 29, 2009

Enjoy pasta without feeling guilty?

I just had a great lunch of leftover pasta with tomato sauce.

The pasta was Barilla Plus spaghetti, which contains such healthy stuff that you would think my family would hate it, but amazingly, it cooks up in only 10 minutes to a perfect al dente and my family likes it.

(I am not paid by Barilla, but if you know someone there please let them know of this win-win opportunity).

Anyway, it contains some ground lentils and flax, giving it more protein, higher quality protein, and omega-3 fats.

If you would like my yummy adaptation of Marcella Hazan’s Tomato Sauce III, just Email me (Endemann@healthyfat.com).

Friday, October 16, 2009

Are your vitamins and supplements contaminated?

When you go to a health food store and buy some vitamins or some other supplement, hoping that it will give you energy or build muscles, the last thing you expect is to be self-administering toxins. But, as described by Dr. Pieter A Cohen of Harvard Medical School in the October 15, 2009 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, supplements may not only contain toxic contaminants that the manufacturers are unaware of, but may contain dangerous drugs that the manufacturers don’t list on the label.

Weight loss products are some of the worst offenders, since they add illegal amphetamines and other drugs that have caused addiction, dehydration, high blood pressure, and suicide. The bottom line: buy supplements from reputable companies.  Don't expect miraculous or overnight results. 

Friday, October 2, 2009

Nuts are good for you. Does this include Brazil nuts?

People are finally realizing that almonds, walnuts, and peanuts are health foods, but still think that Brazil nuts, cashews, and macadamia nuts can’t possibly be good for you. All of these nuts are great in slightly different ways.

Almonds have more protein than the others and plenty of monounsaturated fat, the kind that’s in olive oil. But macadamia nuts, cashews, and Brazil nuts have a lot of monounsaturated fat too. Walnuts are my personal favorite with lots of cholesterol-lowering polyunsaturated fats and omega-3 fats. But Brazil nuts also contain polyunsaturated fats.

Don’t worry about these minor differences- enjoy a variety of nuts and you’ll get all the healthy fats you need, together with minerals, vitamins, protein, and as a bonus, plant sterols that will lower your blood cholesterol.