Nutritional Profile Energy value (calories per serving): Low Protein: Moderate Fat: Low Saturated fat: Low Cholesterol: None Carbohydrates: High Fiber: Low Sodium: Moderate to high Major vitamin contribution: Vitamin C Major mineral contribution: Potassium
About the Nutrients in This Food Globe artichokes are prickly plants with partly edible leaves enclosing a tasty “heart.” Their most important nutrients are vitamin C and iron. One medium boiled artichoke has 10.3 g dietary fiber, 8.9 mg vita- min C (12 percent of the R DA for a woman, 10 percent of the R DA for a man), and 0.7 mg iron (4 percent of the R DA for a woman, 9 percent of the R DA for a man). One-half cup artichoke hearts has 7.2 g dietary fiber, 6.2 mg vitamin C (8 percent of the R DA for a woman, 7 percent of the R DA for a man), and 0.5 mg iron (3 percent of the R DA for a woman, 6 percent of the R DA for a man). Raw globe artichokes contain an enzyme that interferes with protein digestion; cooking inactivates the enzyme.
The Most Nutritious Way to Serve This Food Cooked.
Diets That May Restrict or Exclude This Food * * *
Buying This Food Look for: Compact vegetables, heavy for their size. The leaves should be tightly closed, but the color changes with the season—bright green in the spring, olive green or bronze in the winter if they have been exposed to frost. Avoid: Artichokes with yellowed leaves, which indicate the artichoke is aging (the chloro- phyll in its leaves has faded so the yellow carotenes underneath show through).
Storing This Food Do refrigerate fresh globe artichokes in plastic bags. Do refrigerate cooked globe artichokes in a covered container if you plan to hold them longer than a day or two.
Preparing This Food Cut off the stem. Trim the tough outer leaves. Then plunge the artichoke, upside down, into a bowl of cold water to flush out debris. To remove the core, put the artichoke upside down on a cutting board and cut out the center. Slicing into the base of the artichoke rips cell walls and releases polyphenoloxidase, an enzyme that converts phenols in the vegetable to brown compounds that darken the “heart” of the globe. To slow the reaction, paint the cut surface with a solution of lemon juice or vinegar and water.
What Happens When You Cook This Food Chlorophyll, the green plant pigment, is sensitive to acids. When you heat a globe artichoke, the chlorophyll in its green leaves reacts with acids in the artichoke or in the cooking water, forming brown pheophytin. The pheophytin, plus yellow carotenes in the leaves, can turn a cooked artichoke’s leaves bronze. To prevent this reaction, cook the artichoke very quickly so there is no time for the chlorophyll to react with the acid, or cook it in lots of water to dilute the acids, or cook it with the lid off the pot so that the volatile acids can float off into the air.
How Other Kinds of Processing Affect This Food Canning. Globe artichoke hearts packed in brine are higher in sodium than fresh arti- chokes. Artichoke hearts packed in oil are much higher in fat. Freezing. Frozen artichoke hearts are comparable in nutritional value to fresh ones.
Medical Uses and/or Benefits Anti-inflammatory action. In 2006, a report in the Journal of the Pharmaceutical Society of Japan suggested that cynarin might be beneficial in lowering blood levels of cholesterol and that cynaropicrin, a form of cynarin found in artichoke leaves, might act as an anti-inflamma- tory agent, protecting the skin from sun damage, improving liver function, and reducing the effects of stress-related gastritis. Reduced levels of cholesterol. In 2008, researchers at the University of Reading (United King- dom) published a report in the journal Phytomedicine detailing the results of a 150-person study suggesting that an over-the-counter herbal supplement containing extract of globe arti- choke leaf lowers cholesterol in healthy people with moderately raised cholesterol readings. In the study, 75 volunteers were given 1,280 mg of the herbal supplement each day for 12 weeks; a control group got a placebo (a look-alike pill without the herbal supplement). At the end of the trial, those who took the artichoke leaf extract experienced an average 4.2 percent decrease in cholesterol levels, a result the researchers deemed “modest but significant.”
Adverse Effects Associated with This Food Contact dermatitis. Globe artichokes contain essential oils that may cause contact dermati- tis in sensitive people. Alterations in the sense of taste. Globe artichokes contain cynarin, a sweet tasting chemical that dissolves in water (including the saliva in your mouth) to sweeten the flavor of anything you eat next.
Food/Drug Interactions False-positive test for occult blood in the stool. The guaiac slide test for hidden blood in feces relies on alphaguaiaconic acid, a chemical that turns blue in the presence of blood. Arti- chokes contain peroxidase, a natural chemical that also turns alphaguaiaconic acid blue and may produce a positive test in people who do not have blood in the stool.... artichoke, globe
Nutritional Profile Energy value (calories per serving): Low Protein: High Fat: Low Saturated fat: Low Cholesterol: None Carbohydrates: Moderate Fiber: Very high Sodium: Low Major vitamin contribution: Vitamin A, folate, vitamin C Major mineral contribution: Calcium
About the Nutrients in This Food Broccoli is very high-fiber food, an excellent source of vitamin A, the B vitamin folate, and vitamin C. It also has some vitamin E and vitamin K, the blood-clotting vitamin manufactured primarily by bacteria living in our intestinal tract. One cooked, fresh broccoli spear has five grams of dietary fiber, 2,500 IU vitamin A (108 percent of the R DA for a woman, 85 percent of the R DA for a man), 90 mcg folate (23 percent of the R DA), and 130 mg vitamin C (178 percent of the R DA for a woman, 149 percent of the R DA for a man).
The Most Nutritious Way to Serve This Food Raw. Studies at the USDA Agricultural Research Center in Beltsville, Maryland, show that raw broccoli has up to 40 percent more vitamin C than broccoli that has been cooked or frozen.
Diets That May Restrict or Exclude This Food Antiflatulence diet Low-fiber diet
Buying This Food Look for: Broccoli with tightly closed buds. The stalk, leaves, and florets should be fresh, firm, and brightly colored. Broccoli is usually green; some varieties are tinged with purple. Avoid: Broccoli with woody stalk or florets that are open or turning yellow. When the green chlorophyll pigments fade enough to let the yellow carotenoids underneath show through, the buds are about to bloom and the broccoli is past its prime.
Storing This Food Pack broccoli in a plastic bag and store it in the refrigerator or in the vegetable crisper to protect its vitamin C. At 32°F, fresh broccoli can hold onto its vitamin C for as long as two weeks. Keep broccoli out of the light; like heat, light destroys vitamin C.
Preparing This Food First, rinse the broccoli under cool running water to wash off any dirt and debris clinging to the florets. Then put the broccoli, florets down, into a pan of salt water (1 tsp. salt to 1 qt. water) and soak for 15 to 30 minutes to drive out insects hiding in the florets. Then cut off the leaves and trim away woody section of stalks. For fast cooking, divide the broccoli up into small florets and cut the stalk into thin slices.
What Happens When You Cook This Food The broccoli stem contains a lot of cellulose and will stay firm for a long time even through the most vigorous cooking, but the cell walls of the florets are not so strongly fortified and will soften, eventually turning to mush if you cook the broccoli long enough. Like other cruciferous vegetables, broccoli contains mustard oils (isothiocyanates), natural chemicals that break down into a variety of smelly sulfur compounds (including hydrogen sulfide and ammonia) when the broccoli is heated. The reaction is more intense in aluminum pots. The longer you cook broccoli, the more smelly compounds there will be, although broccoli will never be as odorous as cabbage or cauliflower. Keeping a lid on the pot will stop the smelly molecules from floating off into the air but will also accelerate the chemical reaction that turns green broccoli olive-drab. Chlorophyll, the pigment that makes green vegetables green, is sensitive to acids. When you heat broccoli, the chlorophyll in its florets and stalk reacts chemically with acids in the broccoli or in the cooking water to form pheophytin, which is brown. The pheophytin turns cooked broccoli olive-drab or (since broccoli contains some yellow carotenes) bronze. To keep broccoli green, you must reduce the interaction between the chlorophyll and the acids. One way to do this is to cook the broccoli in a large quantity of water, so the acids will be diluted, but this increases the loss of vitamin C.* Another alternative is to leave the lid off the pot so that the hydrogen atoms can float off into the air, but this allows the smelly sulfur compounds to escape, too. The best way is probably to steam the broccoli quickly with very little water, so it holds onto its vitamin C and cooks before there is time for reac- tion between chlorophyll and hydrogen atoms to occur.
How Other Kinds of Processing Affect This Food Freezing. Frozen broccoli usually contains less vitamin C than fresh broccoli. The vitamin is lost when the broccoli is blanched to inactivate catalase and peroxidase, enzymes that would otherwise continue to ripen the broccoli in the freezer. On the other hand, according to researchers at Cornell University, blanching broccoli in a microwave oven—two cups of broccoli in three tablespoons of water for three minutes at 600 –700 watts—nearly doubles the amount of vitamin C retained. In experiments at Cornell, frozen broccoli blanched in a microwave kept 90 percent of its vitamin C, compared to 56 percent for broccoli blanched in a pot of boiling water on top of a stove.
Medical Uses and/or Benefits Protection against some cancers. Naturally occurring chemicals (indoles, isothiocyanates, glucosinolates, dithiolethiones, and phenols) in Brussels sprouts, broccoli, cabbage, cauli- flower, and other cruciferous vegetables appear to reduce the risk of some forms of cancer, perhaps by preventing the formation of carcinogens in your body or by blocking cancer- causing substances from reaching or reacting with sensitive body tissues or by inhibiting the transformation of healthy cells to malignant ones. All cruciferous vegetables contain sulforaphane, a member of a family of chemicals known as isothiocyanates. In experiments with laboratory rats, sulforaphane appears to increase the body’s production of phase-2 enzymes, naturally occurring substances that inacti- vate and help eliminate carcinogens. At the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, 69 percent of the rats injected with a chemical known to cause mammary cancer developed tumors vs. only 26 percent of the rats given the carcinogenic chemical plus sulforaphane. To get a protective amount of sulforaphane from broccoli you would have to eat about two pounds a week. But in 1997, Johns Hopkins researchers discovered that broccoli seeds and three-day-old broccoli sprouts contain a compound converted to sulforaphane when the seed and sprout cells are crushed. Five grams of three-day-old sprouts contain as much sulphoraphane as 150 grams of mature broccoli. * Broccoli will lose large amounts of vitamin C if you cook it in water t hat is cold when you start. As it boils, water releases ox ygen t hat would ot her wise dest roy vitamin C, so you can cut t he vitamin loss dramat ically simply by lett ing t he water boil for 60 seconds before adding t he broccoli. Vision protection. In 2004, the Johns Hopkins researchers updated their findings on sulfora- phane to suggest that it may also protect cells in the eyes from damage due to ultraviolet light, thus reducing the risk of macular degeneration, the most common cause of age-related vision loss. Lower risk of some birth defects. Up to two or every 1,000 babies born in the United States each year may have cleft palate or a neural tube (spinal cord) defect due to their mothers’ not having gotten adequate amounts of folate during pregnancy. The current R DA for folate is 180 mcg for a woman, 200 mcg for a man, but the FDA now recommends 400 mcg for a woman who is or may become pregnant. Taking a folate supplement before becoming pregnant and continuing through the first two months of pregnancy reduces the risk of cleft palate; taking folate through the entire pregnancy reduces the risk of neural tube defects. Broccoli is a good source of folate. One raw broccoli spear has 107 mcg folate, more than 50 percent of the R DA for an adult. Possible lower risk of heart attack. In the spring of 1998, an analysis of data from the records for more than 80,000 women enrolled in the long-running Nurses’ Health Study at Harvard School of Public Health/Brigham and Women’s Hospital, in Boston, demonstrated that a diet providing more than 400 mcg folate and 3 mg vitamin B6 daily, either from food or supple- ments, might reduce a woman’s risk of heart attack by almost 50 percent. Although men were not included in the study, the results were assumed to apply to them as well. However, data from a meta-analysis published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in December 2006 called this theory into question. Researchers at Tulane Univer- sity examined the results of 12 controlled studies in which 16,958 patients with preexisting cardiovascular disease were given either folic acid supplements or placebos (“look-alike” pills with no folic acid) for at least six months. The scientists, who found no reduction in the risk of further heart disease or overall death rates among those taking folic acid, concluded that further studies will be required to ascertain whether taking folic acid supplements reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease. Possible inhibition of the herpes virus. Indoles, another group of chemicals in broccoli, may inhibit the growth of some herpes viruses. In 2003, at the 43rd annual Interscience Confer- ence on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, in Chicago, researchers from Stockholm’s Huddinge University Hospital, the University of Virginia, and Northeastern Ohio University reported that indole-3-carbinol (I3C) in broccoli stops cells, including those of the herpes sim- plex virus, from reproducing. In tests on monkey and human cells, I3C was nearly 100 percent effective in blocking reproduction of the HSV-1 (oral and genital herpes) and HSV-2 (genital herpes), including one strain known to be resistant to the antiviral drug acyclovir (Zovirax).
Adverse Effects Associated with This Food Enlarged thyroid gland. Cruciferous vegetables, including broccoli, contain goitrin, thio- cyanate, and isothiocyanate, chemical compounds that inhibit the formation of thyroid hormones and cause the thyroid to enlarge in an attempt to produce more. These chemicals, known collectively as goitrogens, are not hazardous for healthy people who eat moderate amounts of cruciferous vegetables, but they may pose problems for people who have thyroid problems or are taking thyroid medication. False-positive test for occult blood in the stool. The guaiac slide test for hidden blood in feces relies on alphaguaiaconic acid, a chemical that turns blue in the presence of blood. Broccoli contains peroxidase, a natural chemical that also turns alphaguaiaconic acid blue and may produce a positive test in people who do not actually have blood in the stool.
Food/Drug Interactions Anticoagulants Broccoli is rich in vitamin K, the blood-clotting vitamin produced natu- rally by bacteria in the intestines. Consuming large quantities of this food may reduce the effectiveness of anticoagulants (blood thinners) such as warfarin (Coumadin). One cup of drained, boiled broccoli contains 220 mcg vitamin K, nearly four times the R DA for a healthy adult.... broccoli
Nutritional Profile Energy value (calories per serving): Low Protein: Moderate Fat: Low Saturated fat: Low Cholesterol: None Carbohydrates: High Fiber: Moderate Sodium: Moderate Major vitamin contribution: Vitamin C Major mineral contribution: Potassium
About the Nutrients in This Food Beets are roots, high-carbohydrate foods that provide sugars, starch, and small amounts of dietary fiber, insoluble cellulose in the skin, and soluble pectins in the flesh. Beets are also a good source of the B vitamin folate. One-half cup cooked fresh beets has one gram of dietar y fiber and 68 mcg folate (17 percent of the R DA).
The Most Nutritious Way to Serve This Food Cooked, to dissolve the stiff cell walls and make the nutrients inside available.
Diets That May Restrict or Exclude This Food Anti-kidney-stone diet Low-sodium diet
Buying This Food Look for: Smooth round globes with fresh, crisp green leaves on top. Avoid: Beets with soft spots or blemishes that suggest decay underneath.
Storing This Food Protect the nutrients in beets by storing the vegetables in a cool place, such as the vegetable crisper in your refrigerator. When stored, the beet root converts its starch into sugars; the longer it is stored, the sweeter it becomes. Remove the green tops from beets before storing and store the beet greens like other leaf y vegetables, in plastic bags in the refrigerator to keep them from drying out and losing vitamins (also see gr eens). Use both beets and beet greens within a week.
Preparing This Food Scrub the globes with a vegetable brush under cold running water. You can cook them whole or slice them. Peel before (or after) cooking.
What Happens When You Cook This Food Betacyamin and betaxanthin, the red betalain pigments in beets, are water-soluble. (That’s why borscht is a scarlet soup.) Betacyanins and betaxanthins turn more intensely red when you add acids; think of scarlet sweet-and-sour beets in lemon juice or vinegar with sugar. They turn slightly blue in a basic (alkaline) solution such as baking soda and water. Like carrots, beets have such stiff cell walls that it is hard for the human digestive tract to extract the nutrients inside. Cooking will not soften the cellulose in the beet’s cell walls, but it will dissolve enough hemicellulose so that digestive juices are able to penetrate. Cook- ing also activates flavor molecules in beets, making them taste better.
How Other Kinds of Processing Affect This Food Canning. Beets lose neither their color nor their texture in canning.
Medical Uses and/or Benefits Lower risk of some birth defects. As many as two of every 1,000 babies born in the United States each year may have cleft palate or a neural tube (spinal cord) defect due to their moth- ers’ not having gotten adequate amounts of folate during pregnancy. The R DA for folate is 400 mcg for healthy adult men and women, 600 mcg for pregnant women, and 500 mcg for women who are nursing. Taking folate supplements before becoming pregnant and continu- ing through the first two months of pregnancy reduces the risk of cleft palate; taking folate through the entire pregnancy reduces the risk of neural tube defects. Possible lower risk of heart attack. In the spring of 1998, an analysis of data from the records of more than 80,000 women enrolled in the long-running Nurses’ Health Study at Harvard School of Public Health/Brigham and Women’s Hospital, in Boston, demonstrated that a diet providing more than 400 mcg folate and 3 mg vitamin B6 daily, either from food or supple- ments, might reduce a woman’s risk of heart attack by almost 50 percent. Although men were not included in the study, the results were assumed to apply to them as well. However, data from a meta-analysis published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in December 2006 called this theory into question. Researchers at Tulane Univer- sity examined the results of 12 controlled studies in which 16,958 patients with preexisting cardiovascular diseases were given either folic acid supplements or placebos (“look-alike” pills with no folic acid) for at least six months. The scientists, who found no reduction in the risk of further heart disease or overall death rates among those taking folic acid, concluded that further studies will be required to verif y whether taking folic acid supplements reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease.
Adverse Effects Associated with This Food Pigmented urine and feces. The ability to metabolize betacyanins and be taxanthins is a genetic trait. People with two recessive genes for this trait cannot break down these red pig- ments, which will be excreted, bright red, in urine. Eating beets can also turn feces red, but it will not cause a false-positive result in a test for occult blood in the stool. Nitrosamine formation. Beets, celery, eggplant, lettuce, radishes, spinach, and collard and turnip greens contain nitrates that convert naturally into nitrites in your stomach—where some of the nitrites combine with amines to form nitrosamines, some of which are known carcinogens. This natural chemical reaction presents no known problems for a healthy adult. However, when these vegetables are cooked and left standing for a while at room tempera- ture, microorganisms that convert nitrates to nitrites begin to multiply, and the amount of nitrites in the food rises. The resulting higher-nitrite foods may be dangerous for infants (see spinach).... beets
Habitat: Cultivated all over the country. Commonly occurs in waste grounds, along road side, often becoming gregarious along the irrigation channels of gardens.
English: Hemp, Indian Hemp.Ayurvedic: Vijayaa, Bhangaa, Maadani, Maatulaani, Indraasana, Trailokya-vijayaa, Tribhuvana- vijayaa, Shukranaashana, Ganjaa, Bhangaa. (Bhangaa is consumed orally; Ganjaa and charas are usually smoked.)Unani: Bhang, Charas, Qinnab.Siddha/Tamil: Ganja.Folk: Bhaanga.Action: Hallucinogenic, hypnotic, sedative, analgesic, anti- inflammatory, Hemp derivatives are suggested for treating glaucoma and as an antiemetic in cancer chemotherapy. All variants produce initial excitement followed by depression.
Cannabis yields 421 chemicals of various classes—cannabinoids, canna- bispirans and alkaloids. More than 60 cannabinoids have been isolated, the most important one is delta-9- tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).Toxic constituents are readily absorbed, excreted in urine and feces, stored in lipid tissues, especially CNS, crosses placenta. High doses in animals have damaged developing embryos and resulted in birth defects. (Francis Brinker.)Dosage: Dried leaves, after removing turbity—125-250 mg powder. (API Vol. I.)... cannabis sativaNutritional Profile Energy value (calories per serving): Low Protein: Moderate Fat: Low Saturated fat: Low Cholesterol: None Carbohydrates: High Fiber: High Sodium: Moderate Major vitamin contribution: Vitamin A Major mineral contribution: Potassium
About the Nutrients in This Food Carrots are high-fiber food, roots whose crispness comes from cell walls stiffened with the insoluble dietary fibers cellulose and lignin. Carrots also contain soluble pectins, plus appreciable amounts of sugar (mostly sucrose) and a little starch. They are an extraordinary source of vitamin A derived from deep yellow carotenoids (including beta-carotene). One raw carrot, about seven inches long, has two grams of dietary fiber and 20,250 IU vitamin A (nine times the R DA for a woman, seven times the R DA for a man).
The Most Nutritious Way to Serve This Food Cooked, so that the cellulose- and hemicellulose-stiffened cell walls of the carrot have partially dissolved and the nutrients inside are more readily available.
Diets That May Restrict or Exclude This Food Disaccharide-intolerance diet (for people who are sucrase- and /or invertase-deficient) Low-fiber diet Low-sodium diet (fresh and canned carrots)
Buying This Food Look for: Firm, bright orange yellow carrots with fresh, crisp green tops. Avoid: Wilted or shriveled carrots, pale carrots, or carrots with brown spots on the skin.
Storing This Food Trim off the green tops before you store carrots. The leaf y tops will wilt and rot long before the sturdy root. Keep carrots cool. They will actually gain vitamin A during their first five months in storage. Protected from heat and light, they can hold to their vitamins at least another two and a half months. Store carrots in perforated plastic bags or containers. Circulating air prevents the for- mation of the terpenoids that make the carrots taste bitter. Do not store carrots near apples or other fruits that manufacture ethylene gas as they continue to ripen; this gas encourages the development of terpenoids. Store peeled carrots in ice water in the refrigerator to keep them crisp for as long as 48 hours.
Preparing This Food Scrape the carrots. Ver y young, tender carrots can be cleaned by scrubbing with a veg- etable brush. Soak carrots that are slightly limp in ice water to firm them up. Don’t discard slightly wilted intact carrots; use them in soups or stews where texture doesn’t matter.
What Happens When You Cook This Food Since carotenes do not dissolve in water and are not affected by the normal heat of cooking, carrots stay yellow and retain their vitamin A when you heat them. But cooking will dissolve some of the hemicellulose in the carrot’s stiff cell walls, changing the vegetable’s texture and making it easier for digestive juices to penetrate the cells and reach the nutrients inside.
How Other Kinds of Processing Affect This Food Freezing. The characteristic crunchy texture of fresh carrots depends on the integrity of its cellulose- and hemicellulose-stiffened cell walls. Freezing cooked carrots creates ice crystals that rupture these membranes so that the carrots usually seem mushy when defrosted. If possible, remove the carrots before freezing a soup or stew and add fresh or canned carrots when you defrost the dish.
Medical Uses and/or Benefits A reduced risk of some kinds of cancer. According to the American Cancer Society, carrots and other foods rich in beta-carotene, a deep yellow pigment that your body converts to a form of vitamin A, may lower the risk of cancers of the larynx, esophagus and lungs. There is no such benefit from beta-carotene supplements; indeed, one controversial study actually showed a higher rate of lung cancer among smokers taking the supplement. Protection against vitamin A-deficiency blindness. In the body, the vitamin A from carrots becomes 11-cis retinol, the essential element in rhodopsin, a protein found in the rods (the cells inside your eyes that let you see in dim light). R hodopsin absorbs light, triggering the chain of chemical reactions known as vision. One raw carrot a day provides more than enough vitamin A to maintain vision in a normal healthy adult.
Adverse Effects Associated with This Food Oddly pigmented skin. The carotenoids in carrots are fat-soluble. If you eat large amounts of carrots day after day, these carotenoids will be stored in your fatty tissues, including the fat just under your skin, and eventually your skin will look yellow. If you eat large amounts of carrots and large amounts of tomatoes (which contain the red pigment lycopene), your skin may be tinted orange. This effect has been seen in people who ate two cups of carrots and two tomatoes a day for several months; when the excessive amounts of these vegetables were eliminated from the diet, skin color returned to normal. False-positive test for occult blood in the stool. The active ingredient in the guaiac slide test for hidden blood in feces is alphaguaiaconic acid, a chemical that turns blue in the presence of blood. Carrots contain peroxidase, a natural chemical that also turns alphaguaiaconic acid blue and may produce a positive test in people who do not actually have blood in the stool.... carrots
Nutritional Profile Energy value (calories per serving): Low Protein: High Fat: Low Saturated fat: Low Cholesterol: None Carbohydrates: High Fiber: High Sodium: Low Major vitamin contribution: B vitamins, vitamin C Major mineral contribution: Potassium
About the Nutrients in This Food Cauliflower is an excellent source of vitamin C and a moderately good source of folate, a member of the B vitamin family. One-half cup cooked fresh cauliflower florets (the top of the plant) has one gram dietary fiber, 13.5 mcg folate (3 percent of the R DA), and 35 mg vitamin C (50 percent of the R DA for a woman, 39 percent of the R DA for a man).
The Most Nutritious Way to Serve This Food Raw or lightly steamed to protect the vitamin C. Cooked or frozen cauli-flower may have up to 50 percent less vitamin C than raw cauliflower.
Diets That May Restrict or Exclude This Food Antiflatulence diet Low-fiber diet
Buying This Food Look for: Creamy white heads with tight, compact florets and fresh green leaves. The size of the cauliflower has no bearing on its nutritional value or its taste. Avoid: Cauliflower with brown spots or patches.
Storing This Food Keep cauliflower in a cool, humid place to safeguard its vitamin C content.
Preparing This Food Pull off and discard any green leaves still attached to the cauliflower and slice off the woody stem and core. Then plunge the cauliflower, head down, into a bowl of salted ice water to flush out any insects hiding in the head. To keep the cauliflower crisp when cooked, add a teaspoon of vinegar to the water. You can steam or bake the cauliflower head whole or break it up into florets for faster cooking.
What Happens When You Cook This Food Cauliflower contains mustard oils (isothiocyanates), natural chemicals that give the vegeta- ble its taste but break down into a variety of smelly sulfur compounds (including hydrogen sulfide and ammonia) when the cauliflower is heated. The longer you cook the cauliflower, the better it will taste but the worse it will smell. Adding a slice of bread to the cooking water may lessen the odor; keeping a lid on the pot will stop the smelly molecules from floating off into the air. Cooking cauliflower in an aluminum pot will intensif y its odor and turn its creamy white anthoxanthin pigments yellow; iron pots will turn anthoxanthins blue green or brown. Like red and blue anthocyanin pigments (see beets, black ber r ies, blueber r ies), antho- xanthins hold their color best in acids. To keep cauliflower white, add a tablespoon of lemon juice, lime juice, vinegar, or milk to the cooking water. Steaming or stir-frying cauliflower preserves the vitamin C that would be lost if the vegetable were cooked for a long time or in a lot of water.
How Other Kinds of Processing Affect This Food Freezing. Before it is frozen, cauliflower must be blanched to inactivate catalase and per- oxidase, enzymes that would otherwise continue to ripen and eventually deteriorate the vegetable. According to researchers at Cornell University, cauliflower will lose less vitamin C if it is blanched in very little water (two cups cauliflower in two tbsp. water) in a microwave- safe plastic bag in a microwave oven for four minutes at 600 –700 watts. Leave the bag open an inch at the top so steam can escape and the bag does not explode.
Medical Uses and/or Benefits Protection against certain cancers. Naturally occurring chemicals (indoles, isothiocyanates, glucosinolates, dithiolethiones, and phenols) in cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, cab- bage, and other cruciferous vegetables appear to reduce the risk of some cancers, perhaps by preventing the formation of carcinogens in your body or by blocking cancer-causing substances from reaching or reacting with sensitive body tissues or by inhibiting the trans- formation of healthy cells to malignant ones. All cruciferous vegetables contain sulforaphane, a member of a family of chemicals known as isothiocyanates. In experiments with laboratory rats, sulforaphane appears to increase the body’s production of phase-2 enzymes, naturally occurring substances that inacti- vate and help eliminate carcinogens. At the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, 69 percent of the rats injected with a chemical known to cause mammary cancer developed tumors vs. only 26 percent of the rats given the carcinogenic chemical plus sulforaphane. In 1997, Johns Hopkins researchers discovered that broccoli seeds and three-day-old broccoli sprouts contain a compound converted to sulforaphane when the seed and sprout cells are crushed. Five grams of three-day-old broccoli sprouts contain as much sulforaphane as 150 grams of mature broccoli. The sulforaphane levels in other cruciferous vegetables have not yet been calculated. Vision protection. In 2004, the Johns Hopkins researchers updated their findings on sul- foraphane to suggest that it may also protect cells in the eyes from damage due to UV (ultraviolet) light, thus reducing the risk of macular degeneration, the most common cause of age-related vision loss.
Adverse Effects Associated with This Food Enlarged thyroid gland (goiter). Cruciferous vegetables, including cauliflower, contain goi- trin, thiocyanate, and isothiocyanate. These chemicals, known collectively as goitrogens, inhibit the formation of thyroid hormones and cause the thyroid to enlarge in an attempt to produce more. Goitrogens are not hazardous for healthy people who eat moderate amounts of cruciferous vegetables, but they may pose problems for people who have a thyroid condi- tion or are taking thyroid medication. Intestinal gas. Bacteria that live naturally in the gut degrade the indigestible carbohydrates (food fiber) in cauliflower, producing intestinal gas that some people find distressing.
Food/Drug Interactions Anticoagulants (blood thinners). All cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, brussels sprouts, cab- bages, cauliflower, greens, radishes, and turnips) are high in vitamin K, a nutrient that decreases the anticoagulant effect of medicine such as warfarin (Coumadin). Multiple serv- ings of this vegetable, i.e., several days a week, may interfere with the anticoagulant effect of the drug. False-positive test for occult blood in the stool. The active ingredient in the guaiac slide test for hid- den blood in feces is alphaguaiaconic acid, a chemical that turns blue in the presence of blood. Cauliflower contains peroxidase, a natural chemical that also turns alphaguaiaconic acid blue and may produce a positive test in people who do not actually have blood in the stool.... cauliflower
Nutritional Profile Energy value (calories per serving): Low Protein: Moderate Fat: Low Saturated fat: Low Cholesterol: None Carbohydrates: High Fiber: Low Sodium: Low Major vitamin contribution: Vitamin C Major mineral contribution: Iron, potassium
About the Nutrients in This Food Cucumbers are mostly (96 percent) water. Their dietary fiber is unique in that it can hold up to 30 times its weight in water compared to the fiber in wheat bran, which holds only four to six times its weight in water. But cucumbers have so much water that there is little room for anything else. Two ounces of fresh cucumber slices has less than one gram dietary fiber—and no significant amounts of vitamins or minerals.
The Most Nutritious Way to Serve This Food Raw, fresh-sliced, with the unwaxed skin.
Diets That May Restrict or Exclude This Food Antiflatulence diet Low-fiber diet
Buying This Food Look for: Firm cucumbers with a green, unwaxed skin. In the natural state, the skin of the cucumber is neither shiny nor deep green, characteristics it picks up when the cucumber is waxed to keep it from losing moisture during shipping and storage. The wax is edible, but some people prefer not to eat it, which means missing out on fiber. To get your cucumbers without wax, ask for pickling cucumbers, and note the difference in color and texture. Choose cucumbers with a clean break at the stem end; a torn, uneven stem end means that the cucumber was pulled off the vine before it was ready. Technically, all the cucum- bers we buy are immature; truly ripe cucumbers have very large, hard seeds that make the vegetable unpalatable. Avoid: Cucumbers with yellowing skin; the vegetable is so old that its chlorophyll pigments have faded and the carotenes underneath are showing through. Puff y, soft cucumbers are also past their prime.
Storing This Food Store cucumbers in the refrigerator and use them as soon as possible. The cucumber has no starch to convert to sugar as it ages, so it won’t get sweeter off the vine, but it will get softer as the pectins in its cell wall absorb water. You can make a soft cucumber crisp again by slic- ing it and soaking the slices in salted water. By osmotic action, the unsalted, lower-density water in the cucumber’s cells will flow out across the cell walls out into the higher-density salted water and the cucumber will feel snappier.
Preparing This Food R inse the cucumber under cold, running water. Check to see if the cucumber has been waxed by scraping the skin gently with the tip of your fingernail and then looking for waxy resi- due under the nail. If the skin is waxed, you can peel it off—but not until you are ready to use it, since slicing the cucumber tears its cell walls, releasing an enzyme that oxidizes and destroys vitamin C.
How Other Kinds of Processing Affect This Food Pickling. Cucumbers are not a good source of iron, but pickles may be. If processed in iron vats, the pickles have picked up iron and will give you about 1 mg per pickle. Pickles made in stainless steel vats have no iron, nor do pickles made at home in glass or earthenware.
Adverse Effects Associated with This Food Intestinal gas. Some sensitive people find cucumbers “gassy.” Pickling, marinating, and heating, which inactivate enzymes in the cucumber, may reduce this gassiness for certain people—although others find pickles even more upsetting than fresh cucumbers.
Food/Drug Interactions False-positive test for occult blood in the stool. The active ingredient in the guaiac slide test for hidden blood in feces is alphaguaiaconic acid, a chemical that turns blue in the presence of blood. Alphaguaiaconic acid also turns blue in the presence of peroxidase, a chemical that occurs naturally in cucumbers. Eating cucumbers in the 72 hours before taking the guaiac test may produce a false-positive result in people who not actually have any blood in their stool. Monoamine oxidase (MAO) inhibitors. Monoamine oxidase inhibitors are drugs used to treat depression. They inactivate naturally occurring enzymes in your body that metabolize tyramine, a substance found in many fermented or aged foods. Tyramine constricts blood vessels and increases blood pressure. If you eat a food, such as pickles, containing tyramine while you are taking an M AO inhibitor, you cannot effectively eliminate the tyramine from your body. The result may be a hypertensive crisis.... cucumbers
Health Encyclopedia