Eat watermelon at room temperature: Watermelon has 40 percent more lycopene
and 13 percent more beta carotene at room temperature than when the melon is ice cold.
Allow potatoes and pasta to cool after cooking: Once cooled, the starch in potatoes, corn,
and pastas crystallizes into resistant starch that is slow burning, so your sugar and insulin
levels do not spike. Foods rich in starch appear to help you burn fat up to 24 hours later.
Use full fat, not nonfat, salad dressing: A bit of healthy fat allows your body to
absorb seven-times more eyesight-saving lutein than with a no or low-fat dressing.
Eat a handful of almonds before a fatty meal: Within 20 minutes of eating almonds, the
antioxidants will block the artery-stiffening effect of saturated and
trans fats.
Buy organic for thin-skinned fruits and vegetables: Over 80 percent of apples, pears,
peaches, potatoes, and berries sampled contain artificial chemical pesticides. Less than
8 percent of avocados, mangos, and pineapples contain them. Onions contain none.
Drink filtered coffee : Two cups of filtered coffee daily can reduce colon cancer by 25
percent diabetes risk by 30 percent, gallstone risk by 40 percent, and liver
cirrhosis risk by 80 percent But espresso and French press can raise your bad
cholesterol by 8 percent.
Visit www.ChefMD.com for free recipes and sign up to receive weekly
recipes.
About the Author
JOHN LA PUMA, M.D., appears regularly on “What’s Cookin’ with ChefMD?” which can be seen on Health Corner, airing on Lifetime. He is the coauthor of the bestselling Cooking the RealAge Way and The RealAge Diet, and contributed recipes to the New York Times bestseller YOU: The Owner’s Manual. The first physician to teach cooking and nutrition in a
U.S. medical school and graduate from the Cooking and Hospitality Institute of Chicago, he has cooked under star chef Rick Bayless in the four-star kitchens of Frontera Grill and Topolobampo.
Dr.
La
Puma is medical director for the Santa Barbara Institute for Medical Nutrition and Healthy Weight and still practices internal medicine, using the ChefMD concept to motivate his patients. Repeatedly named "One of America's Top Physicians" by the Consumers' Research Council, and called a "Secret Weapon" by The Wall Street Journal, Dr. La Puma was honored with the National Association of Medical Communicators 2007 "Award of Excellence". He is based in
Santa Barbara,
California.
